The Daily Collegian Athlete turns to acting in one-man show By Hannah Rishel COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER A former professional football player will visit State College tonight, but not in Beaver Stadium. Former Houston Oiler Bo Eason will perform his one-man show “Runt of the Litter” at 7:30 tonight in Schwab Auditorium. Tickets are $l7 for University Park students, $3O for adults and $24 for children 18 and younger. They are available at Eisenhower Auditorium, Penn State Downtown Theatre Center, HUB- Robeson Center Information Desk and the Bryce Jordan Center. The play is based on an event Eason almost experienced when he was playing professional foot ball. His character sits in the lock er room, preparing to play a foot Female commentator to visit By Ashley Smalls FOR THE COLLEGIAN Award-winning sports televi sion commentator Leah Secondo will answer questions and talk to students at a free public session Wednesday in the Foster Auditorium at Patemo Library. Secondo has covered sports during the past 26 years for the Big Ten Network, CBS College Sports, Fox Sports Net, ESPNU, Major League Secondo Baseball and the National Hockey League. She is also known for her work with the Women's National Basketball Association as a radio color analyst for the Connecticut Sun, according to the WNBA's website. The public session will be a chance for students to ask questions and receive answers from an experienced sports jour nalist, said Steve Sampsell, direc tor of college relations for the College of Communications. ‘Anytime students get a chance to complement what they do in the class with fa professional], it’s valuable,” he said. Secondo will also cover the Lady Lions’ basketball game Wednesday night against Army. Google opens Internet book store By Michael Liedtke ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN FRANCISCO Google Inc. is making the leap from digi tal librarian to merchant in a chal lenge to Amazon.com Inc. and its Kindle electronic reader. The long-awaited Internet book store, which opened Monday in the U.S., draws upon a portion of the 15 million printed books that Google has scanned into its com puters during the past six years. About 4,000 publishers, includ ing CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster Inc., Random House Inc. and Pearson PLC's Penguin Group, are also allowing Google to carry many of their recently released books in the new store. Those publishing deals will ensure that most of the current best sellers are among the 3 mil lion e-books initially available in Final&^i are yoSgi Hill VPs|f| ®'® ® iCdllplli -mi; 105 ® ® 146® ® 1 : - Study smarter with Nittany Notes, and jF Be a NITTANY NOTETAKER in the SPRING earning MONEY doing what you already do. Sign Up TOOAY! Be on your way to an ‘A'! - \ Nittany 234 E. College Ave. foe Open Mon-Thur 10-8, Sat 12-4, Sun 4-8 nittanynotes.com 238-06231 ball g j against his brother. When he was playing for the Houston Oilers in the ’Bos, Eason was scheduled to play a game against his brother who played for the New England Patriots. The game was called off because of a strike, but the idea “haunted” Eason, inspiring him to write the play after he retired. John Mark Rafacz, editorial manager for the Center for the Performing Arts, said the play is good for the football-crazy envi ronment of Penn State, and Eason’s personal story adds to the enjoyment of the show. “It’s always interesting when anyone has a mid-career change,” he said. Eason said he feels a similar sensation performing on stage as when he played football. He asks himself the same ques tion backstage that he used to ask “She thought it would be a good idea that since she would be there already [for the game], she could hold a public session for students, too,” Sampsell said. Secondo graduated from Southern Connecticut State University and became Connecticut’s first female sports caster when she joined WTNH-TV according to a Penn State press release. “Leah is a professional. She likes to take care of business in a professional way,” College of Communications Facility Manager Karen Bryan said. “She's never not prepared. She takes pride in what she does.” Some students said they weren't surprised that an experi enced sports journalist is speak ing at Penn State but they were intrigued that the veteran reporter is a woman. “We always have experts in sports come to Penn State,” Courtney Harris (freshman-engi neering) said. “This time it’s a woman. That’s something to be more ecstatic about. It’s not only men who understand sports.” Bryan said she can’t imagine how difficult breaking into sports must've been for Secondo as a woman in a predominantly male industry.. “It's never easy for a woman in most of the things we do. But if you're determined you can make Google’s store, said Amanda Edmonds, who oversaw the com pany’s partnerships. Millions more out-of-print titles will appear in Google’s store, called eßooks, if the company can gain federal court approval of a pro posed class-action settlement with U S. publishers and authors. The $125 million settlement has been under review for more than two years. It faces stiff opposition from rivals, consumer watchdogs, academic experts, literary agents and even foreign governments, which worry that Google would get too much power to control prices in the still-nascent market for electronic books. Amazon.com, which started its business as a seller of books over the Internet, is among the competitors trying to squelch the settlement. The U.S. Justice Department has advised the it On i * **-*•4? I **-/ Akl’S & ENTERTAINMENT “You get that opportunity in almost anything you do except in sports or professional theater,” he said. “I like that part about it, because it’s so rare in life. No mat ter what happens you’ve got to go forward.” Eason said both activities take the same amount of work, espe cially because he’s the only actor on stage. “You’ve got to be bigger than life,” he said. “You can never relax because you can’t hand the energy off to someone else. My energy is going back and forth between me and the audience.” What Sports commentator Leah Secondo will answer questions at a public session When: Wednesday, Dec. 8 at 12:30 p.m. Where: Foster Auditorium in Paterno Library Details: The event is free and open to the public it, and Secondo proves that,” Bryan said. Secondo played basketball, field hockey, ice hockey and soft ball and later coached college softball sports experience that helps her reporting, Bryan said. “I’ve worked with Leah on the field hockey games here in the past,” she said. “She definitely has the knowledge. I imagine being an athlete herself has helped her to know what she’s talking about.” The free session should help students fully understand the working world and help them become more prepared for life after graduation even if sports journalism isn’t their chosen career, Sampsell said. “I think Leah just wants to share her knowledge about where she is in her life and where she came from,’’Bryan said. judge overseeing the case that the settlement probably would violate antitrust and copyright laws. Books bought from Google’s store can be read on any machine with a Web browser. There are also free applications that can be installed on Apple Inc.’s iPad and iPhone, as well as other devices powered by Google’s own mobile operating system, Android. But Google’s eßooks can’t be loaded on to the Kindle. Electronic books are expected to generate nearly $1 billion in U.S. sales this year and climb to $1.7 billion by 2012 as more people buy electronic readers and com puter tablets such as the iPad, according to Fbrrester Research. The research group expects a total of 15 million e-readers and tablets to have been sold in the U.S. by the end of the year. (KviLStmOA duxot (nj CHaikA Schlow Center Region Library Community Room Thursday, De. u . 7p in Elk Creek Cafe, Millbeim Dec 12,4 p.n». Spring Creek Presbyterian Church, Lemont Itkl.iv, Dec 17.7 pm while he was waiting to run out of the tunnel: “Why did I put myself in this position?” But despite the nerves, Eason said he loves both activities because there’s no do-overs in either of them. Anytime someone in the audi- If you go the 1 IrH annual one-man prrtorraan< c !•' Dr. Tony Lentz “You’ve got to be bigger than life. You can never relax because you can’t hand the energy off to someone else. My energy is going back and forth between me and the audience.” ence isn’t paying attention, Eason said he knows because they aren’t handing the energy back to him. In these moments, he said, he gives it more to gain their interest. Steve Travis, a member of No Refund Theater and the Penn State Thespians, said doing a one man show would challenge an actor because they couldn’t play off what their actors are doing something he said is a “motiva tion.” “A famous saying goes that 'act ing is reacting,' and I believe that," George Bums Associated Press Author Jonathan Franzen is interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey selected Franzen's book ''Freedom" as her 64th book club selection, despite Franzen calling her past choices "schmaltzy" years ago. Oprah moves ahead, hosts author Franzen By Caryn Rousseau ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO Oprah Winfrey and author Jonathan Franzen have put their rocky past behind them. Franzen appeared on Monday's “The Oprah Winfrey Show," embracing his host after she chose his bestselling novel “Freedom" for her popular book club. Winfrey did not have Franzen on her show nine years ago, when his previous novel “The Corrections" was a book club selection, because he called some of her choices “schmaltzv." Winfrey said Monday she didn't have Franzen on her show then because she didn't want him to feel ‘’uncomfortable.” Franzen, 51. who is widely regarded as one of his genera tion's leading fiction writers, was branded as a snob for the com ment even though he apologized quickly and repeatedly. “I spoke in very long sen tences, and then little pieces of those sentences sounded bad, and your feelings were probably, understandably, hurt," Franzen told Winfrev on Monday. He also told her he considers himself a "Midwest egalitarian" and not a snob. "My idea of the book I want to write, the book I want to read, is one that everybody can find a way to connect to.” Franzen said. “That's really what I've devoted my whole career to.” The pair discussed Franzen's writing process, how he started writing "Freedom" and his visit with President Barack Obama. \ \ \ r s HURRY' J Y'C //if ■> (■ (•//(■//< •// Limited Time Offer: ' 9 m \ I 1 FREE 18K White j f F 1 I f Gold Plated " jf M J Bracelet/Anklet for Jr M ¥ every order over $3O! p Jp M m jttbs. .5* Enter Offer Code: 1 £ ¥ / M %lf FREE ISKIQP 1 J \ " at Checkout. \ \ \ ted Coral St > kWVQ) r,'**<** www.elliescollection.com Gift Certificates available for purchase! Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010 I 7 Bo Eason former professional football player Travis, Class of 2010, said. “As an actor a lot of what I do is just feed ing off the other people on stage.” Eason said he likes performing the show to college students because they’re starting to create their own “20-year plan,” but usu ally forget about the dreams they had as children. “I hope they think ‘I can actual ly go back, rediscover that dream and make it come true because this guy did it,' " Eason said. To e-mail reporter: hmrso27@psu.edu "Bottomline is. I'm happy to have you," Winfrey said. "I'm happy to be here," Franzen replied. Winfrey said in September that she read "Freedom" after Franzen sent her a copy during the summer along with a note. She said she considered it a "tour de force" after the first chapter and called it a "masterpiece." Released in late August, "Freedom" was virtually canon ized by critics before publication and has topped best seller lists. Franzen was the subject of a Time Magazine cover story, titled "Great American Novelist." Also Monday. Winfrey announced her 65th book club selection would be a combination of two Charles Dickens classics. "A Tale of Two Cities" and "Great Expectations." The two novels have been issued in a single bound Penguin paperback edition of about 800 pages with a list price of $2O. The electronic version, also from Penguin, sells for $7.99. Because the copyright has long expired on the 19th-century nov els. they are available through a variety of publishers and retail ers. ‘ Great Expectations" can be downloaded for free on Amazon.corn's Kindle reader. "A Tale of Two Cities" costs 99 cents on Barnes & Noble's e-book device, the Nook. The novels also can be downloaded for free through the new Google book store. The AP reported the picks Sunday after purchasing a copy of the new volume, which has Winfrey's logo on the cover.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers