Well, it’s still September and that means good movies are hard to find. Flightplan, starring Jodie Foster, continues that trend as she stars in another thriller that doesn’t deliver. Some of her previous films, including Panic Room and Contact, follow the same trend of great ideas that fall short of expectations, which is exactly what happens in Flightplan. When Kyle (Foster) finds out her husband is dead, she and her daughter must come to terms with the ordeal as they fly back to America from Berlin to bury him. When the daughter mysteriously vanishes during the flight, Kyle must go looking for her. The crew members and the airline marshal (Peter Sarsgaard) both assist in searching for Kyle’s daughter, but end up making matters worse by telling her she is crazy and that her daughter never boarded the plane. Kyle continues her panic as she goes on a wild search for her daughter’s whereabouts. The movie does make you wonder what happened to the girl and how she disappeared. Once you find out the truth, it really doesn’t make sense. The performance by Foster is fair, but too reminiscent of her other thriller, Panic Room. I also thought Sarsgaard (Skeleton Key) gave a good performance in the beginning of the film, but fell short towards the end. His character is also not explained enough. The supporting cast, including Sean Bean (Goldeneye), was not awful, but seemed to overact a bit. Besides the acting, the movie’s strongest trait was its premise, but even that falls short. The passengers and crew all say they haven’t seen Kyle’s daughter anywhere, which makes no sense because someone would have had to see this. Also, the movie

contains many poor attempts at mind tricks, such as trying to convince the audience that Arabs on the plane were responsible. This is a pretty insulting stereotype that makes no sense in the movie. The ending is laughable with poor and unrealistic visual effects that make you cringe. All in all, Flightplan is not worth the 10 bucks it costs to see. If you like Foster, then maybe give it a try. The film has a bumpy takeoff and crashes very hard in the end.

Adam Swider, bass player for piano-rock collective Socratic, was forced to make a life-altering decision in the fall of 2003: stay in school or follow his dreams. Swider, then a Rider University freshman, chose to sign with Drive-Thru Records. “I definitely miss school, and I spent a lot of time questioning whether or not I should just go back, but once things started really happening, it really started making sense that I made the right deci-sion,” Swider said. “Now, with this tour that we’re on, there’s actually kids coming and singing songs that we wrote. It makes it just 100 percent worth it.” Swider is still interested in his educa-tion (he makes a conscious effort to read and watch the Discovery Channel, he said), but currently, he’s more engrossed in the day-to-day affairs of a touring rock band. Today, Socratic is in Austin, Texas preparing for the first date of a primarily East-Coast tour with fellow musicians The Rocket Summer, Adam Richman and This Day and Age. This comes on the heels of

a smaller tour with bands Houston Calls and Amber Pacific, which the band mem-bers couldn’t be happier about. “The [last tour] was damn good because I thought it was going to be one of those shaky tours where some shows are good and some are just really lame,” said Duane Okun, Socratic’s lead singer. “But there wasn’t really one show where there wasn’t at least 100 kids.” The band will make its way to the area on Thursday, Oct. 13, for a show at The North Star Bar in Philadelphia. They will also perform at The Knitting Factory in New York on Tuesday, Oct. 18. Those who get a chance to check out Socratic’s live show can expect a “chill” vibe, Okun said. “We’re not going to come out and be like, ‘What’s up, you mother f-----s!’” he said. “We just play good songs and we keep getting better every time we play.” Despite this generally relaxing atmo-sphere, Swider said audiences should also prepare themselves for a little bit of rock ’n’ roll. “Kids can expect us to rock out,” he said. “We’re not just going to stand

there.” Socratic has signed on for these tours in an effort to promote their debut full-length album for Drive-Thru, Lunch For the Sky, which was released on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005. The disc—a straight-for-ward rock record heavily influenced by the punk scene and featuring the piano as a major instrument—has been in the works for quite some time, according to Swider. “We spent a good year-and-a-half writing it, working it and fine-tuning it, and, finally, we had a chance to record it,” he said. “It’s so gratifying to finally have it out. It makes touring so much more worth it because we’re pushing something.” While both Okun and Swider said that multiple songs on the album were particularly close to their hearts, each had a clear favorite. “I’m a big fan of ‘B to E,’” Okun said. “[The album] kind of gets a little downing at the end and ‘B to E,’ [the second-to-last song], is more of an uplifting kind of song.” Swider, however, preferred “Tear a Gash,” a song that really affords him a chance to show off as a bass player.

“I get to go off for that song,” he said. Swider’s bass-playing skill is certainly undeniable, but so is his continuing devo-tion to Rider. He was interested to know how the new residence building turned out and even asked about the status of his favorite dish in the Bronc Diner. So, while his decision to leave the University may

have been the best one he ever made, he is still a Bronc at heart. “We always think we’re not doing that well, but to see crowds really react to our performances and to get a good response makes us feel better about performing and that drives us to keep doing better and better,” Swider said. “We’re the luckiest band in the world.”

Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile never com-pleted high school, but was thrilled at the chance to perform for college students on Tuesday, Sept. 27. She opened for Howie Day in the Bart Leudeke Center Cavalla Room and received a warm response from students. “I am ecstatic to be playing to a college crowd because everybody’s so much younger and less jaded and totally open minded to new music and new things,” she said. “I am excited.” But Carlile is no stranger to the stage. At the fresh age of 24, the artist has already spent time on the road with many well-respected musicians, including Tori Amos and Dave Matthews Band. “I played to like 6,000 people [while opening for Tori Amos] and it was amazing,” she said. “As far as I could see there were so many people. It felt like I was outside because the ceiling was so high.” Hailing from Washington state, where she was born and raised, Carlile admitted that she had never heard of Rider before now. “I barely even remember what my high school was called,” she laughed. While on tour and far from home, Carlile relaxes by popping in an Elton John album. Still, she misses home, she said. “I miss my animals the most,” said Carlile. “My animals, my family and food. I love to cook and it’s like one Taco Bell after another out on the road.” According to Carlile, she wrote her first song when she was only 4-years-old and her second, a slightly more serious one, between the ages of 10 and 11. “It was just like a cowboy song,” she said. Her song-writing style has always steered away from lyrics about love and breaking up, which she said sound “redundant” to her. “A lot of the songs I write are about things that kind of keep you up at night, that you’re puzzled

about or confused about—things that aren’t quite right,” she said. “I tend to write about the down side of things so that I don’t focus on them in my daily life.”

In recent years, she has become well known after releasing a self-titled album and an unplugged, acoustic album, in addition to contributing a song to the The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

soundtrack. However, Carlile’s career actually began decades ago. She has been performing music since she was a little girl but she admitted, after all these years, she still finds it difficult to define her genre

of music. “I could tell you what it’s not,” she said. “I don’t think it’s country. I don’t think it’s folk. I definitely think it falls under a way more generic category like rock, especially if you saw us live as a band; I mean, we’re a rock band. I’d say it’s like an acoustic rock ’n’ roll thing.” Rock or not, Carlile said she still has never completely broken away from the music she pre-ferred in her younger years—country. “It’s the only thing I thought existed then,” she said. “I have this country twang that I can’t get out of my voice.” Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and The Judds are among her musical influences, Carlile said. “Just a whole bunch of really old country stuff,” she laughed. Her most recent record, Brandi Carlile, was recorded in her log cabin in Seattle, as well as her home in Maple Valley, Wash., because of the peace-ful atmosphere. “It was vibey as hell,” she said. “During the day it was hard to concentrate because there was so much more to do. You wanted to go out and throw a stick with the dog or kick a soccer ball around or go hiking or catch frogs or whatever people do. But as soon as the sun went down and, you know, we started lighting candles and stuff the atmosphere got really good.” Having recording tools in the middle of her living room for four weeks “disrupted” her life, she admitted, but it was well worth it. “You know, I couldn’t live in the recording studio so I loved it,” she said. As far as the future goes, Carlile is looking for-ward to releasing a third album, which she said will feature “a little more electric guitar.” “There will still be little acoustic things,” she said. “But it will have more of the big giant songs.”

6 7Friday, September 30, 2005

Brandi Carlile shines bright on stage and off

Photo by Al Viciedo

Brandi Carlile, an up-and-coming singer-songwriter, performs at this year’s SEC Fall Concert., held Tuesday, Sept. 27, in the BLC Cavalla Room. The Wash-ington state resident has previously shared the stage with the likes Tori Amos and Dave Matthews Band. Carlile, who was recently signed to Columbia Records, released her self-titled major-label debut album on July 12.

By Lacey Korevec

Socratic drives to success with supreme musical methodBy Bill Greenwood

Photo by Stewart Isbell

Socratic is (from left) drummer Tom Scratton, bassist Adam Swider, guitarist/vocalist Kevin Bryan, pianist Vincent D’Amico and lead singer/guitarist Duane Okun.

Day ruins night

Photos by Al Viciedo

Howie Day headlined the SEC Fall Concert this past Tuesday, Sept. 27. Day pre-sented himself as intoxicated and took on a negative attitude throughout the concert’s duration, drawing angry reactions from those in attendance.

A clearly intoxicated Howie Day took the Cavalla Room stage on Tuesday, Sept. 27, to the initial cheering of many Rider students. Day started the show with a lesser-known track from his hit album, Stop All the World Now, and began berating the crowd by commenting that “New Jersey people are always so loud.” For the third song of the night, Day started to sample some of his more eccentric beats on the fly to the dismay of many fans. Some of his sampling

techniques included the incessant repeat-ing of the word “vodka” coupled with his hitting of the guitar to produce a bass-like sound. By this time, many concert-goers had begun to boo him and several jeering fans started yelling phrases like “Howie you suck!” “Get off the stage!” and “You’re so drunk!” Day ended the night by apologiz-ing to his fans and thanking them for coming. He then played his smash single “Collide.” Unfortunately, the fans ended up singing more of the song than he did, leaving many viewers disappointed.

‘Flightplan’ film crashes and burnsBy John Schulter

Photo copyright Touchstone Pictures

Flightplan flew into theaters on Friday, Sept. 23. The movie stars old favorites, such as Jodi Foster and Peter Sarsgaard.

By Al Viciedo

093005p6-7.indd 1 9/29/05 10:07:44 PM