Stars winin final

PAGE 6

performsShakespearePAGE 7

Class Week

successful

Homecoming

secondsPAGE 9

thelookoutLansing Community College’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1959

Nov. 29 - Dec. 12, 2010

Volume 52, Issue 7www.lcc.edu/lookout

Silver Bells sparks spirit

Photo by Michael CaterinaFestivities ignite: The 26th annual Silver Bells in the City event in down-town Lansing was capped off by a fireworks display over the Capitol Friday, Nov. 19. See page 12 for additional photos and story.

Dominick MastrangeloAnd The Lookout Staff

Students and staff on the main campus of Lan-sing Community College were evacuated Thursday, Nov. 18 because of a bomb scare that proved false.

No arrests have been made and the investiga-tion will be conducted by LCC Police, according to Ellen Jones, public re-lations director for LCC.

According to Jones, the bomb threat was phoned in to the city of Lansing Police Department at ap-proximately 10:10 a.m. Nov. 18.

Jones said the caller gave a specific time a bomb was going to deto-nate, but did not give a specific campus location.

Many students learned of the evacuation via a message on LCC’s home webpage. The message, posted around noon, said the main campus was being closed at 1 p.m. due to an “undis-closed security threat.”

The message stated that the campus would re-open at 6 p.m.

“There was no immi-nent threat during the time of the evacuation,” Jones said.

See Bomb threat, page 3

Threat diffused

Photo by Nathan WilsonClearing out: LCC Police Officer Matt Miles advises a stu-dent of the bomb threat on LCC’s main campus Nov. 18.

XC teams excel in nationalsZach BellingarSports Editor

It was a sunny Sat-urday in Spartanburg, S.C. for the NJCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s National Cross-Country Cham-pionships.

LCC was represented by 13 runners on Nov. 13, six men and seven women, in a season finale with nearly 40 teams in attendance.

The Stars capped off a great season with great performances.

With a total of 86

points, the women found the podium and a third-place finish.

“I thought we had won,” Coach Chuck Block said. “Eighty-six points usually wins it. Last year, the winning team had 92 points and second was 123, so I was shocked that we came in third. It just happened to be a year with three great teams.”

The women were led by All-American run-ners Jennifer Snelgrove with a ninth-place fin-ish and Ashley Hamil-ton just behind in 12th.

Ellory Green missed the All-American mark by a single second.

For Hamilton, ninth place and All-American status at a national event is a first.

“I never made it to states in high school,” Hamilton said. “So to come here and have a great coach to (help) us make it that far was pret-ty awesome.”

Also representing the Stars were Kaylin Belair, Brooke Simon, Randi Smith and Ashley Steers.

See Nationals, page 6

2 Nov. 29 - Dec. 12, 2010www.lcc.edu/lookout

Nov. 29 - Dec. 12, 2010www.lcc.edu/lookout

NEWS3

IN BRIEFNEWS

Dominick MastrangeloNews Editor

LCC Police and the Lansing Police Depart-ment received a report on Nov. 8 from a female student, whose name was not released by the LCCPD, that she was as-saulted in parking lot L on main campus.

The student suffered minor injuries and was able to walk away from the scene, but this attack raises the question: “Is LCC a safe campus?”

LCC Detective Ser-geant Rodney Bahl said he is confident students are safe.

“These types of inci-dents are isolated,” Bahl said. “Crime rates al-ways go up near the hol-idays — the current eco-nomic situation doesn’t help either.”

Students, faculty and anyone at LCC can re-quest to have a police

escort to their vehicle or any other building on campus at any time by calling public safety at (517) 483-1937.

“Our goal is to make sure everyone feels safe,” Bahl said. “We want people on cam-pus to know they are being protected from the threats that are out there.”

What exactly are those threats? LCC Cadet Sar-ah Beckon commented on the relationship be-tween the general public of downtown Lansing and the LCC commu-nity.

“Most people are re-ally appreciative that we’re here,” Beckon said. “I’m new to the campus, so I love get-ting to walk around and meeting new people,” she said.

There are some issues with the community, however, according to

Bahl. “Parking can create

some tension, but the demeanor is usually pleasant,” he said.

As far as incidents off campus or near off cam-pus grounds, Police and Public Safety at LCC have a procedure for that as well.

“Our officers have full police authority in all of Ingham County,” Bahl said. “We can deal with a situation, wherever it happens,” he said.

According to business student Jeremy Winkle, Public Safety is not to be taken for granted.

“They do a lot for us,” Winkle said. “You never know when you’re go-ing to be in a bad spot and really need them,” he said.

Police and Public Safety is located on LCC’s main campus in the Gannon Building in room 251.

Lee RumlerA&E Editor

LCC biology profes-sor Dr. Chris Marschall led a discussion on the latest research in funda-mental differences be-tween men’s and wom-en’s brains.

At the Nov. 16 Cafe Scientifique at Schuler Books and Music in the Eastwood Towne Cen-ter, Marschall said the differences begin as ear-ly as the womb. A male fetus will be exposed to testosterone, which will set off a chain of reac-tions that changes the male’s brain into a “man brain.”

Although living fe-males also produce some testosterone, a fe-male fetus does not start production until after her birth, Marschall said. The result of de-veloping without testos-terone creates a “woman brain.”

So what are the differ-ences between the “man brain” and the “woman brain”?

Primarily, the number of connections between the hemispheres. Ac-cording to the professor, women’s brains have a larger corpus callosum and anterior commis-sure, both structures that connect the hemi-spheres of the brain.

Marschall explained that men’s smaller con-

nective structures give them a greater brain asymmetry in most thought processes, meaning they tend to use one side of their brain where women tend to use both.

What does this mean, practically?

Men and women think on completely different levels.

According to Mark Gungor’s YouTube video “Men’s Brain Women’s Brain,” shown during the presenta-tion, a man’s brain is comprised of a bunch of little boxes.

Within each box is all of the information about any subject the man knows, and when a man thinks, he carefully pulls out his knowledge box, looks into said box, and carefully replaces the box, being painstak-ingly careful not to let the box touch any other box.

On the other hand, according to Gungor, women’s brains are kind of like a big ball of wire.

All of the information a woman knows is stored on this one massive, interconnected wire, and any time a women thinks about anything, she thinks about every other single thought and memory that has ever been associated with that thought.

Interestingly enough, neither of these methods have any substantial ad-vantages over the other, explained Marschall. But that doesn’t mean the differences are not important.

Different thought pro-cesses require different learning strategies and create different ideas; in fact, if these differences have any important con-sequence, it is that men and women need each other to grow and pros-per.

Police and Public Safety ensure campus security

Opposites attract:

Bomb threatContinued from page 1

Sexes debate discrepencies: Dr. Chris Marschall speaks about the anatomical differences between the male and female brains at Cafe Scientifique Nov. 16 at Schuler Books and Music.

Photo by Lee Rumler

Students were puz-zled by the nature of the evacuation procedure.

“I have no idea what’s going on, but I don’t have a good feeling about it,” said Matt Fitzsimons, a student who was on his way to class when informed of the evacuation order.

Around 12:20 p.m., students exited the cam-pus in mass through the corridor between Dart Auditorium and the Student Personnel Ser-vices building.

“I never knew so many people went to school here,” said Casey Ryan-Hannum, a business student who was in the process of departing.

Between noon and 1 p.m., LCC police went from building to build-ing telling everyone to leave campus. By 1 p.m., all LCC parking lots had been barricad-ed and everyone still on campus was ushered away by police.

Shortly after 1 p.m., canine units from Mich-igan State University began entering various LCC buildings to con-duct searches. LCC po-lice officers assisted the MSU police.

A staff member from The Lookout observed officers and a bomb-sniffing dog entering

the University Center at about 1:15 p.m. The unit left the building about 15 minutes later (See exclusive Lookout vid-eo at http://www.flickr.c o m / p h o t o s / l c c _ l o o k -out/5190358538/).

Many students who were waiting for bus-es or other rides took shelter from the chilly temperatures in the Gibson’s Books & Beans Cafe on the corner of Capitol Avenue and Shiawassee Street. Gib-son’s, not owned by LCC, was not included in the evacuation.

“We’re ready to fol-low any orders any po-lice officials give us,” said Dave Poquette, a manager at Gibson’s. “Until then it’s business as usual over here.”

Canine units contin-ued to search the cam-pus for several hours.

At 4:57 p.m., Campus Communication issued an email saying police were still on the scene, and the campus would remain closed for the rest of the evening.

At 6:15 p.m., Campus Communication sent an “all-clear” email. It stated, in part: “The LCC Police Depart-ment and the Michigan State Police have is-sued an all-clear after successfully complet-ing a thorough search of the college’s main downtown campus fol-lowing a bomb threat earlier today. ... Classes will resume as sched-uled on Friday.”

Jones said the sweep of the campus was thor-ough.

“No bomb was found at any time,” she said. “Our investigation was complete.”

LCC along with the Employee Wellness Committee have adopted three families in need this holiday season. Cards are available for any-one to take from giving trees located in the LS Divisional Office (A&S 110) and the lobby of the Administrative Building. Each item is listed on the card with the following info: desired item, gender, age, and clothing size. The wrapped item must have the original card attached to it. Please return the wrapped item with the card to the Computer Lab TLC 100.

LCC will be holding a Red Cross blood drive in the HHS building on Monday, Nov. 29 from 11 a.m.to 4:45 p.m. in room 203. Walk-ins are wel-come, but if a student would like to schedule an appointment, they are encouraged to visit redcrossblood.org and enter sponsor code LCC.

Potter Park Zoo will host its annual Wonderland of Lights event from Nov. 26 to Dec. 26. Thousands of lights will illuminate the zoo during seasonal activities including crafts, cookie dec-orating, story telling and presenta-tion of holiday music. Wonderland of Lights will be open from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. Admis-sion is $4 for adults and $3 for senior citizens and children.

LCC gives to families in need

Deadlines for spring semester

Campus to host blood drive

Zoo to host Wonderland of Lights

Gender differences are discussed

Evacuation: LCC Police direct traffic out of the Gannon Building parking ramp due to a bomb threat Nov. 18.

Photo by Michael Caterina

Financial aid applications for spring se-mester are due Dec. 1. Students must ap-ply for admission by Jan. 7. Students must be registered for all classes by Jan. 12. The spring semester will begin on Jan. 15.

Nathan WilsonStaff Writer

Parents Achieving Success Together (PAST) is a new supportive group at LCC designed to benefit students who are raising children or living on their own.

In addition to advising stu-dents, club President Lane Eberely said PAST guides stu-dents in the right direction for information.

Secretary Lindsey Edmis-ton explained the club will also provide a social aspect and help students connect on campus and form friendships.

“The biggest problem we’re trying to tackle here is being a parent and going to school,” Eberely said. “We’re going to be there to help kids in school and let them know they’re not the only person going through this.”

Club Adviser Christopher Manning, who has been teaching in the Language Skills Department at LCC for eight years, said PAST is discussing the possibility of community advisers as guest speakers.

According to Eberely, vol-unteer opportunities for serv-ing free meals will be avail-able every Monday from 4 to 6 p.m.

“It’s going to be a great en-vironment for a parent so they don’t feel alone,” Eberely

said. “That’s ultimately what this group is about, so they don’t feel alone and they feel like they’re a part of LCC.”

Edmiston emphasized the importance of offering sup-port through PAST. She ex-plained she has been attend-ing LCC off and on for the past five years while raising her daughter.

“I wondered if I had that kind of group and all those resources if it would have made a difference. For me, it’s (about) helping others achieve what I’ve been trying to achieve,” Edmiston said.

Manning researched stu-dent retention rates over the past summer and said he was surprised to learn that the av-erage college student was at LCC for five years.

“We want them (students) to finish because so many of them are our best students,”

Manning said. I know what education does for people. It enriches your life so much more than about anything else you can do.

“When students start their education and they realize this, but they can’t finish be-cause they have all these ob-ligations and they don’t have support, that to me is just a huge tragedy. That, to me, is such a waste of so much great talent.

“We want to help LCC achieve the goals that it set forth,” Manning continued. “I’m excited about this group because we’re going to ac-complish something that we always talk about.”

Meetings take place every Friday at 9 a.m. in the Kennedy Café, second floor A&S Build-

ing. For more information, visit http://groups.to/P_A_S_T/.

Nov. 29 - Dec. 12, 2010www.lcc.edu/lookout

FEATURES4

The requirement for submitting work to The Washington Square Review includes being an LCC student for the summer, fall and spring semesters.

Students can obtain an application form for submitting written work through Dennis Hinrichsen, an aca-demic adviser who has taught creative writ-

ing and lyric writing at LCC.

He explained that students can submit up to five poems, five songs and two stories. The maximum word count for creative non-fiction is 2,000 words.

“They see their work transcend the class-room and find this oth-er audience, and that’s a really interesting

Magazine celebrates student literature

PAST group benefits student-parents

he Washington Square Review, a student literary magazine, has been in circulation since

the early 1970s. The range of ma-terial published in the magazine includes poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and song lyrics.

T

wake-up call for writ-ers,” Hinrichsen said.

According to Hin-richsen, the deadline

for submitting work is May 1. He also ex-plained that student volunteers help the ed-iting process and pro-duction of The Wash-ington Square Review. They meet over the summer during edito-rial meetings and se-lect material for the next issue.

The Washington Square Review is pub-lished once a year, and the most recent issue was released on Nov. 4. Each issue costs $5.

Hinrichsen said The Washington Square Re-view benefits emerg-ing authors because it gives them writing experience at a local level.

“They learn some-thing about acceptance hopefully, (or) they

learn something about rejection,” he said.

The Washington Square Review celebrat-ed its publication this year by showcasing student material to an audience on Nov. 4 at TLC room 127.

Selected students re-ceived an opportunity to present their work to listeners.

The work presented included poems, sto-ries and singing ac-companied by guitar.

“We had a really wonderful mix of stu-dent voices that was really a lot of fun,” Hinrichsen said.

For more information about the Washington

Square Review, contact Dennis Hinrichsen at hinricd@email.lcc.edu.

Nathan WilsonStaff Writer

Strummin’ songs: Kathy Motyka sings her song “Pieces of Angels” at the Washington Square Review publication party Nov. 4 in TLC 127.

Photo by Lauren Ross

James Tennant Jr. Tales of a Busboy

Photo by Nathan WilsonPresent PAST members: The new staff of PAST includes (l. to r.) Ad-viser Christopher Manning, President Lane Eberely, Secretary Lindsey Edmiston and Treasurer Nicole Dancer (Vice President Jessica Barrett is not pictured).

LCC donates to Greater Lansing Food Bank

Giving back: Leadership Academy students, American Institute of Architecture students and LCC’s Student Dem-ocrat members present a check to the Greater Lansing Food Bank Nov. 23. The groups donated $1,025 and 2,320 pounds of food that was collected by the students at LCC.

Photo by Michael Caterina

Nov. 29 - Dec. 12, 2010www.lcc.edu/lookout

SPORTS5

Nov. 29 - Dec. 12, 2010www.lcc.edu/lookout

SPORTS6

Stars victorious in Homecoming gamesPhoto illustration by Michael Caterina

Photo by Michael Caterina

Star spirit: Guests to LCC’s Nov 20 Homecoming game watch as the men pull ahead to defeat Mott Community College 70-69.

The top five Stars also earned “United States” All-American hon-ors, an award given to the top 25 finishers after international runners are subtracted.

Going into the race ranked fifth in the nation, it was only fitting that the men left with a fifth-place finish.

They were led by freshman Jake Hord, who finished 19th overall and beat his 8k regional time by 32 seconds.

“It was a good experience,” Hord said of his first national meet at this level. “No regrets.”

Sophomore Eric Spitz finished 26th overall with a 25:58 in the 8k event. He said his experience has helped him to run smart this post-season.

“I took a different approach to the race this year,” Spitz said. “Last year, I didn’t perform as well as I wanted at all. I tensed up and psyched my-self out. This year, the whole week beforehand, I was completely calm, saying to myself, ‘It’s just another race.’”

Gareth Gose came in 34th to qual-ify the three of them for “United States” All-American honors.

Austin Alcala, Ryan Konen and Michael Lahner contributed strong individual efforts in a respectable fifth-place finish for the men.

Unfortunately for the Stars, soph-omore captain Kevin Barry battled a stress fracture and was unable to lend his usual speed and leadership.

“Given the situation, we still ran a great race even though we didn’t have one of our top guys,” Spitz said of the team’s overall performance.

For freshmen like Snelgrove, Hamilton, Hord and Alcala, this season’s success was only a taste of what can be expected next season.

For sophomores Spitz, Green and Belair, this was the last cross-coun-try competition as Stars. However, with men’s and women’s track and field approaching, perhaps these athletes will again showcase their talents in Stars uniforms, giving the LCC faithful something to look for-ward to.

Nationals Continued from page 1

Erik StiemStaff Writer

Homecoming is the game every team wants to win for their school. Atten-dance is larger than usual, and pride amplifies the de-sire to win.

On Nov. 17, the LCC women’s basketball team showed its desire to win with a victory over Kirt-land CC on Homecoming night, 60-53.

The Lady Stars got off to a slow start, down 7-0 four minutes into the game.

“They started out pas-sive, nervous,” Coach Er-vin Brunson said. “And it wasn’t where I thought they should be, the level they needed to be at.”

However, after the slow start, the Lady Stars did not disappoint. They made shots and closed out the first half with a 14-2 run to take a five-point lead into halftime that would not be relinquished.

Brunson said progress came as “they started fig-uring out some things and started playing the style of basketball that (I) expected them to play, and then

(they) made that run.” The women hustled, got

open, and the shots started falling.

Jennifer Wilson led the team with 21 points and hit many clutch shots down the stretch of the second half to keep the Lady Stars on top.

“I just hit a shot,” Wil-son said. “When I make shots it gets me going, and I caught fire.”

Her 8-11 shooting per-formance from the field certainly showcased that.

LCC has outrebounded each of its foes through the first three games, a big part of the success attributed to forward Tornisha Jones.

Her 16 points and eight re-bounds contributed greatly to the Lady Stars’ win. Ac-cording to Jones, her suc-cess in the rebounding game comes from working hard to “keep boxing out and get to the open spot.”

LCC defeated Mott CC on Nov. 20, 79-60, with four players grabbing eight or more rebounds. Denay Kelly leads the team with 12 offensive and 21 defen-sive caroms on the season, second in the MCCAA at 11 per game.

Results from LCC’s game on Nov. 23 against the Indi-ana Institute of Technology will be posted in the next issue of The Lookout.

Women continue winning

Photo by Michael Caterina

Drive: Freshman Kristian Hines drives to the basket dur-ing the Lady Stars’ 60-53 victory over Kirtland CC Nov. 17.

Zach Bellingar Sports Editor

When the LCC men’s basketball team entered the season pre-ranked 22nd in the nation, hopes of a suc-cessful season ran high.

When the Stars defeated then ninth-ranked Henry Ford, the team planted a seed of belief in themselves and their fans.

Now, the men are 4-0 on the season, and the wins continue to impress.

The Homecoming match against the Kirtland Firebirds on Nov. 17 was no exception.

A fast-paced first half included a Mike Martin no-look pass to Willie Brown for two with just over nine minutes left to set the Stars up for a 43-23 lead at the half.

“I thought we played really well in the first half,” LCC Head Coach Mike Ingram said, “and for some reason just couldn’t get some things done the second half.”

Kirtland proceeded to outscore the Stars 34-31 in the second half; an effort that proved too little too late. The Stars won 74-57.

Nine players put points on the board, four of them in double digits. Mike Mar-tin led the team with 18 points and six rebounds, Willie Brown had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Jor-dan Davis made his pres-ence known with 13 points off the bench.

Winning a Homecoming game is always sweet, but beating No. 2 Mott is even sweeter.

With 12 seconds left, Martin hit the go-ahead layup and Troy Aubrey made two free throws to seal the deal and give LCC the win over Mott CC, 70-69, on Nov. 20.

“They are a lot better team up close than watch-ing them from the stands,” Ingram said.

Davis led the team with 18 points and six blocks.

“He was a guy that

started for us last year,” Ingram said. “He’s a weapon for us off the bench.

“He’s a guy that we can put in at three positions and if we start him, he can only play one position. I thought he would play well Saturday because he played well on Wednes-day and he was great on Saturday.”

Martin added 13 points, seven rebounds and two blocks and Vino Ashley finished with 12 points and two steals.

“It was a hard fought game,” Ingram said. “We didn’t have a lead until the end. I think we were down by four with four minutes to go and I said to the guys, ‘Let’s see if we can win the last four minutes,’ and we won the game.”

Over the weekend of Nov. 26-27, LCC stayed home to compete in the “Stars” Thanksgiving Classic. Results will be posted in the next issue of The Lookout.

Top shot: Sophomore Jordan Davis goes up for a layup during the Stars’ 70-69 victory over Mott CC Nov. 20. Davis was the top scorer in the upset with 18 points and six blocks.

Men upset No. 2 Mott

Nov. 29 - Dec. 12, 2010www.lcc.edu/lookout

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT7

Lee RumlerA&E Editor

LCC’s third semes-ter Shakespeare Studio class will be presenting A Midsummer Night’s Dream, written by Wil-liam Shakespeare and directed by Mary Job.

The performance will be in the Black Box The-atre, Gannon Building room 168, on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 10 and 11 at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, Dec. 12 at 2 p.m.

For anyone unfamiliar with Shakespeare’s plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is kind of like “a group of young lovers that thinks they’re Romeo and Juliet but is more like Monty Python,” according to director Job.

Job explained the play has four interwoven, slightly complicated plots.

Basically, one woman is in love with her best friend’s fiance who is in love with his wife-to-be who is not in love with him but with an-other man whom she tries to escape into the forest with alone but is followed by just about everyone else, includ-ing some mischievous love-making fairies and a half-donkey man-crea-ture.

Don’t worry, it’s not supposed to make much sense – according to job, it is supposed to be fun-ny, sexy, weird and mys-terious. Job explained, “Shakespeare did weird and mysterious very well.”

The play was original-ly set in Shakespeare’s version of Athens, Greece, “which means it has nothing to do with (the real) Athens. It had mostly to do with Re-

naissance England,” Job said.

Instead of setting the play in an apocry-phal version of ancient Greece, Job decided to move the setting into the 1960s.

“It seems to me, in the play, there’s this real ten-sion between the young woman who’s rebelling and the father who’s saying, ‘No, no, no. You marry who I want you to marry.’ And that kind of traditional mores ver-sus a youthful rebellion seems to me to be per-fect for 1960,” Job ex-

plained.Although the setting

may be different, the language was left ma-jorly untouched.

“All the language is still there,” Job said. “We (did) edit it a bit to get it to approximately a two-hour running time, but other than that, all of the language is Will’s.”

The price is set to draw college students in by the flocks.

“It’s free,” Job prom-ised. “We just usually pass the bucket around for contributions, but that’s it.”

Studio does ShakespeareArts & EntertainmentIN BRIEF

Campus Concerts

Theatrical preparation: A Midsummer Night’s Dream director Mary Job blocks out a scene with her cast. The group will perform Friday and Saturday, Dec. 10 and 11 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 12 at 2 p.m.

Photo by Michael Caterina

The Experimental Music Ensemble will perform new, 21st Century com-positions and arrangements at their semester-end concert on Thursday, Dec. 2 at 7:30 p.m. at the MICA Gal-lery located at 1210 Turner St., Old Town Lansing. This concert is free of charge.

LCC Concert Choir directed by Meredith Bowen is teaming up with Sistrum (Lansing’s Women’s Cho-rus) and the Greater Lansing Gay Men’s Chorus, Friday and Saturday, Dec. 3 and 4, for a program entitled I Believe …

The show will be narrated by Channel 6 news anchor Evan Pin-sonnault and begins at 8 p.m. both nights in Dart Auditorium.

Tickets can be purchased at the door 45 minutes prior to the event. The cost is $10 for regular admis-sion and $5 for students, seniors, LCC Alumni, faculty and staff.

LCC’s Percussion Ensemble, di-rected by Beth Lewis, will feature a wide variety of different percussion instruments such as vibraphones and xylophones, and a Guitar En-semble, directed by Christopher Rollins featuring classical, folk and rock music will perform a free con-cert in Dart Auditorium.

The concert is set for Sunday, Dec. 5 at 3 p.m.

LCC Faculty Jazz Quartet will fea-ture Dennis Therrian on piano, Jon Gewirtz playing the saxophone, Ed Fedewa on base and Mike Daniels as the percussionist.

The performance will be filled with original music by the quartet Sunday, Dec. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Dart Audito-rium. Admission is free.

LanSwingers, a vocal pop and jazz ensemble will perform a vari-ety of contemporary and classic jazz arrangements and compositions in a free concert Thursday, Dec. 9 in Dart Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.

LCC Jazz Band directed by Jon Gewirtz, like many of LCC’s ensem-bles, is made up of a strong mix of LCC students and community mem-bers. The ensemble will perform pieces by Duke Ellington, Frank Pappereli and many others, in a free concert at Dart Auditorium at 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10.

For more information visit http://www.lcc.edu/hpa/events/ or contact Melissa Kaplan at kaplanm@lcc.edu or by phone at 517-483-1488.

Music ensemble experiments

LCC Concert Choir teams up

LCC ensembles get creative

Faculty members get musical

Pop and jazz performance

LCC Jazz Band plays classics

WLNZ is presenting Lansing band Mystic Shake in a farewell concert at the Sir Pizza Grand Café on East Grand River in Old Town. After 20 years, the band is perform-ing for the last time Sunday, Dec. 5 from 3 to 7 p.m.

Mannheim Steamroller will per-form its Christmas music at the Wharton Center at 8 p.m. Dec. 11. Tickets range from $55 to $42.40. The concert is celebrating the group’s 25th anniversary.

This semester’s Contemporary Real-ism Studio Theatre class is putting on the A.R. Gurney play The Dining Room, directed by Paige Dunckel. The free show will be on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 17 and 18 at 8 p.m. in the Black Box Theatre, Gannon Building room 168.

LCC Radio hosts Mystic Shake’s final concert

Mannheim Steamroller comes to Wharton

LCC studio performsThe Dining Room

LCC’s third semester Shakespeare Studio class will be presenting A Mid-summer Night’s Dream, written by Wil-liam Shakespeare and directed by Mary Job. The performance will be in the Black Box Theatre, Gannon Build-ing room 168, on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 10 and 11 at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, Dec. 12 at 2 p.m. Admission is free.

Presenting A Midsummer Night’s Dream

King Crossword

Puzzle solution can be found at www.lcc.edu./lookoutThis week’s puzzle is sponsored by:

A&E8 Nov. 29 - Dec 12, 2010www.lcc.edu/lookout

Nathan WilsonStaff Writer

Extreme metal band Cradle of Filth has reared its hideous head from the pits of Suf-folk, England to in-voke its ninth album “Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa.” The concept album explores Lilith, the first wife of the Bib-lical Adam, according to Jewish mythology.

For the average listen-er unaccustomed to vo-calist Dani Filth’s voice, which ranges from shrill screaming to a guttural, demonic growl, the al-bum will assault the listener like severe head trauma.

Admittedly, it will prove difficult for most listeners to discern the lyrics without a refer-ence.

Opener “Cult of Ve-nus Aversa” sounds too disorganized and lack-

ing a distinct melody to draw the listener in. “One Foul Step from the Abyss” is swept away by a shredding guitar as it plunges into the eye of a musical maelstrom.

Eight minutes and seven seconds later, “The Persecution Song” is quietly ushered in by a lamenting piano be-fore soaring into a dark serenade.

Cradle of Filth’s dis-tinct poetry seems most prominent in “Deceiv-ing Eyes”: “And with his driven lust exploding / her lashes brushed his cheeks / They flickered

with life, her limbs en-folding / purring, lick-ing wicked teeth.”

“Lilith Immaculate” defines the essence of Cradle of Filth: ex-tremely fast and loud guitar riffs, unrelenting percussion, sinister or-chestras, female vocals and Filth’s otherworldly voice.

“Harlot on a Pedes-tal” must be performed during concerts for its sumptuous melody aflame with deranged spasms of orchestra.

Lucy Atkins pro-vides seductive vocals on “Forgive Me, Father (I Have Sinned),” and guitarist Paul Allender contributes an amazing solo.

This may be the most melody-oriented, “radio friendly” song on the album — but due to the nature of the lyrics, Cra-dle of Filth will never be emitted over the radio.

Lee RumlerA&E Editor

I’m going to do you a favor and ruin this movie for you.

Although Jigsaw of-ficially died in the fourth movie, his accomplice, Hoffman, is still torturing innocents. Hoffman slow-ly kills off every person in-volved in the Jigsaw inves-tigation, including Gibson and Jill, crushing all hopes of justice.

In the end, three people in pig masks kill Hoffman (because he killed Jigsaw’s wife), their leader the first Jigsaw survivor, Dr. Gor-don.

Apparently Jigsaw con-vinced him that cutting off his leg made him “reborn,” a fact that convinced him to become Jigsaw’s slave and do things like surgically in-sert keys into people’s eyes.

There, you read it, now don’t watch the movie.

Let me just say now that

I don’t normally hate on horror flicks, but when I first heard about the movie Saw, I almost punched the guy who told me about it in the mouth.

“You actually enjoyed watching these people maim and mutilate them-selves? Really? Just tortur-ing them? Trying to test their ‘will to survive’? Do you realize how sick you sound?”

Six years, six movies, two video games, one TV show and one comic book series later, I found myself sitting in a theater watch-ing my first Saw movie, Saw 3D, and I have to tell you right now, it was noth-ing like I expected.

It was so much worse.The movie isn’t scary;

it’s just sick. In fact, it is so sick that I’m not going to talk about what makes it sick, because it’ll make me sick.

Honestly, I don’t even have a problem with the

people who made Saw 3D. By their logic, they should slowly torture each other to death for produc-ing the carnography they have (although in reality they should just be put in an asylum). But no, I don’t have a problem with them. They’re just mentally ill.

I have a problem with the sick freaks who sup-port them.

Stop watching the Saw movies. Stop lying about how “great” they are. Grow an ounce of de-cency.

From England with love Seeing through sadism

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org

Photo courtesy of metalwarez.com

Nov. 29 - Dec. 12, 2010www.lcc.edu/lookout

FEATURES9

Sarah SandersEditor in Chief

With LCC’s Homecom-ing Week (Nov. 15-21) now over, results of student par-ticipation are in, exceeding planner’s expectations.

“I think going to a week of Homecoming was a good idea. We were able to reach more students that way,” Manager of Alumni Relations Andrew Lathrop said.

The Alumni Association took on the responsibil-ity of planning Homecom-ing’s events this year.

“The T-shirts that we had available were gone in three days,” Lathrop said. “We had a thousand of those, so that was quicker than I expected.”

Attendance at all events was up from last year.

“The pep-rally tailgate was better attended this year, (and) the Kennedy Cafeteria was packed,” Lathrop said.

Increased awareness contributed to its success.

“Overall, I think that we had a really big buzz. Within the administration and the employees, a lot of people were more aware of what was going on.”

Students show support for Homecoming Week

Photos by Michael CaterinaBands and bags: Guests to the American Marketing As-sociation (AMA) Battle of the Bands (above) rock out at The Loft Nov. 18. Shoppers exit the VIP check-in station (below) at the AMA Shop like a Star event at Eastwood Towne Center Nov. 21.

Photos by Courtney BakerGames and plays: The LCC women’s basketball team (above) introduces themselves at the Homecoming pep-rally Nov. 17. Steve Simonson (below) voices the role of Sam dur-ing WLNZ’s live radio play It’s a Wonderful Life at Dart Auditorium Nov. 19.

It’s almost my birth-day!! On Friday, Dec. 10, I will turn 22.

This is the least excit-ing birthday of my life. Ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper, I have always looked for-ward to the next Dec. 10 with anticipation for what the age jump has in store.

I remember being 15 years old and count-ing the minutes until I could get behind the wheel of my mother’s car and drive all of my friends to Blimpie for their $3.50 lunch special for Everett students.

Age 17 brought me the joy of seeing rated R movies without drag-ging my older sister along to buy tickets for my friends and me.

Turning 18 had the most perks of any birth-day before it. I could buy a lottery ticket, go to an Indian casino, get an operator’s license, sign up for the draft, banish parental consent for anything, vote and buy tobacco products.

Funny story about the tobacco products: I went to buy a pack of cigars at midnight on Dec. 10, 2006, and I wasn’t even carded. Talk about lame.

After 18 the excite-ment continued for 19. The best part about the last year of being a teenager is you only have to drive about an hour and a half to our neighbor to the north to drink alcohol legal-ly.

Canada’s legal drink-ing age is 19, and back

in my day you only needed a birth certifi-cate to cross the bor-der. So as soon as all my friends were 19, we hopped in the whip and drove through the tunnel to the wonder-ful city of Windsor, to drink all their beer, aye!

Being 20 was the lon-gest year of my life. I thought of Dec. 10, 2009 every day I was 20, which made it even worse.

Turning 21 had its ups and downs. I was the only one of my friends to be 21, so we had to go to a lame bar that let 18-plus in so I could get my first drink at midnight.

Did you know that Dec. 10 happens to fall right in finals week? After about two drinks everyone was ready to go because they had to study. Pretty whack.

Being 21 is pretty great though, I can’t complain.

I can’t think of any-thing cool happening for being 22. I guess the only thing I have left to look forward too is renting a car at 25 with no underage fee when joining the AARP at 55.

Happy birthday to me!

Nov. 29 - Dec. 12, 2010www.lcc.edu/lookout

OPINION10

Gonna party like it’s my birthday!

Kaitlin Lutz Michael Caterina Dominick Mastrangelo

Nathan Wilson

Lee Rumler

Zach Bellingar Kelly Lehtonen Larry Hook

wilso162@mail.lcc.edu bellingz@mail.lcc.edu lehtonk@mail.lcc.edu hookl@lcc.edu

lutzk3@mail.lcc.edu cater2@mail.lcc.edu mastrand@mail.lcc.edu rumlel@mail.lcc.eduAssociate Editor Photo Editor News Editor A&E Editor

Staff Writer Sports Editor Advertising Manager Adviser

the lookout

Sarah SandersEditor in Chief

sande43@mail.lcc.edu

— Fully Flippin’ It —

When wishing some-one to do well in a per-formance, specifically a theater performance, the most common say-ing is, “Break a leg!”

We have come to understand this term to mean, “Do great,” but how do we get that connotation from “Break a leg”?

This would actually be an actor’s worst nightmare during a performance (beside forgetting a line, of course).

Turns out the phrase has nothing to do with breaking your leg, physically. Who woul-

da thunk?There are many the-

ories out there as to how this phrase came about, but no one seems to be certain which one is true.

I am going to go with the Shakespear-ean theory on this

one. During the time of

King James I, actors received tips from the audience. When they went out to give their final bow, the audi-ence would throw money on stage if they gave a good perfor-mance.

If not, they would sometimes throw rot-ten vegetables, which would be my guess as to why people joke about throwing toma-toes at bad acts.

In the case an actor would receive money, they would bow down or take a knee to pick

up their tips, there-fore breaking their leg line.

So when someone says, “break a leg,” they are wishing someone to do well, in order to receive tips from the audience.

And now the tradi-tion of throwing mon-ey on stage to mark a good performance has evolved into giving flowers.

So the next time you go to the theater and you see an actor re-ceiving flowers, you can remember that it all started with, “Break a leg!”

— The Collected Klutz —

Why do you want me to ‘break a leg?’

Holy crap, this is earth and there are hu-manes here.

This may seem a bit obvious to you; howev-er, I heard from some-one (who was far less important to me than the message they com-municated), that 25 percent of the human population lives with-out a conscience.

Ever since that graced my ear holes, the faces of the humanes ap-peared elusive in my life. At the same time, such an increased sense of awareness has brought some tools as I have now been able to discern the “haves” from the “have-nots” in matters of what I like to call conscienceness.

I, of course, at first questioned this statis-tic, and to this day I will never know if it is true.

However, I can find evidence among indi-viduals with whom I have had contact with-in my 20 years of life that there is definitely something moral miss-ing with some.

Discussing the evi-dence does not involve the inclusion of true so-ciopathic serial killers, although they certainly fall within the percen-tile of discussion.

For example, a quar-ter of the population isn’t Ted Bundy, whose very name sends chills

of irritation down the backs of at least most of us. However, there are freaks out there and no matter what we do, they won’t disappear.

I began to recount all the people I know that lie, cheat and steal –three things that are tell-tale signs of the un-conscience

That number sur-prised me. As we all know, no one is per-fect and few are able to even give the appear-ance of perfection for a long period of time.

Nonetheless, I did find several individu-als who have infiltrated even my close group of friends who fall victim to these remorseless crimes.

An important way to judge a person’s level of conscienceness is to discern how many of their poor moral choic-

es they have felt regret over.

Furthermore, for those who do feel re-morse, what catalyz-es these feelings into planning a change of action, if it does at all?

Examine your own lives, see what per-centile you fit within. Where do your friends fall?

Things could make more sense or less, but perhaps that’s not the point. People with mor-al compasses that steer them away from irritat-ing behavior like lying or littering are sick of being around the rest of you that do not.

It only makes sense that a moral compass must be cleaned and readjusted every once in a while. Don’t worry, they just need a little personal attention to get back on track.

Examine your life: eyes open— Everyone should read George Orwell —

Nov. 29 - Dec. 12, 2010www.lcc.edu/lookout

OpiniOn11

Policies: All letters should be 200 words or less and signed with a name, address (e-mail or otherwise) and phone number. The Lookout reserves the right to edit letters for grammar, spelling, length and clarity.

Mail: 1000 – The Lookout Lansing Community College P.O. box 40010 Lansing, MI 489401-7210 E-mail: sande43@mail.lcc.edu Fax: (517) 483-1290

The Lookout is the independent, biweekly student newspaper of Lansing Community College. All opinion/editorial articles are the sole opinion of the writer and may not reflect the views of the staff, students, faculty and college as a whole. Opinion/editorial articles may or may not be located exclusively on editorial pages and may appear on news, sports and arts & entertainment pages.

- The Lookout staff

Write a Letter to theEditor

In our own words | Staff Editorial

It’s all around us. Going green is “in.” Everyone is talking about it. Our parents, our teachers, the President of the United States — everyone.

We are constantly re-minded of how valuable the environment is and how we should not abuse

it, especially on campus. Let’s face it, our cam-

pus is beautiful. Just be-cause we are a downtown campus doesn’t mean we have to be dirty. LCC has tons of recycling bins all over campus, in almost every classroom.

Perhaps LCC’s costly

parking rates are an at-tempt to discourage us from driving to school, all in thinking of the envi-ronment, of course.

LCC recently received an award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information for

being one of the first col-leges to incorporate al-ternative energy into its curriculum by offering an associate’s degree in alter-native energy engineer-ing.

LCC is also going pa-perless in the distribu-tion of paychecks, anoth-

er push toward a greener campus community.

The times are changing, and so are we as a cam-pus. We must stay current and remember why such initiatives are being taken.

The call to action is to go green, and the goal is to stay green.

Stars shoot to lower carbon footprint of campus

GREAT TWO-BEDROOMAPARTMENT HOMESAvailable in December or January starting at only $680 including HEAT, water and laundry. Please call 517-372-2000.

PLACE YOURCLASSIFIED AD HEREAdvertising in The Lookout’s classified section is inexpensive and effective. Cost is just $8.50 for 20 words or less. Additional words are 50 cents. Call 483-1295 to place your ad.

PINBALLMACHINEGame Plan 1979 “Sharpshooter” solid state game. Old western theme. Very fast and fun. Four players. $525. Call 517-589-5273 and leave a message.

1982 TOPPSBASEBALL CARDSComplete set of 792 cards, all in mint condition. Cal Ripken rookie card and many Hall-of-Famers including Nolan Ryan, Johnny Bench, Carl Yazstremski and Rickey Henderson. $100 firm. Call 517-483-1291 daytime.

Classified Advertising

LAST LOOK12 Nov. 29 - Dec. 12, 2010www.lcc.edu/lookout

Michael CaterinaPhoto Editor

Lansing kicked off the holiday season with a bang Nov. 19.

The 26th annual Sil-ver Bells in the City lit up downtown with an elec-

tric light parade, a fire-works display and other events scattered through-out the city.

Silver Bells in the City drew over 150,000 guests in 2009, according to the event’s website. This year seemed equally success-

ful, with thousands flood-ing the downtown area, including many first-time visitors.

“This is the first year I have come out to Silver Bells,” LCC business ad-ministration student Nick-olas Ward said. “I enjoyed

the parade. It was really festive and it had a great display of Lansing area shops and businesses.”

The light parade looped around six blocks down-town, making its way past the Capitol and the thou-sands of guests in atten-

dance. Parade participants dec-

orated floats with lights and holiday-themed orna-ments.

The end of the parade led guests to the official lighting of the state tree in front of the Capitol build-

ing. That was followed by the fireworks display sponsored by Lake Trust Credit Union.

For more information on Silver Bells in the City and

how to participate next year, visit www.silver-

bellsinthecity.org.

Lansing lights up with electric parade

Photos by Michael Caterina

Chopper: Hunt’s Hog Shop’s motorcycle float makes its way around the electric light parade route during Silver Bells in the City Nov. 19.

Fluorescent floats: CATA’s CATApiller (above) swerves down the road past guests. At right, Lansing Parks and Recreation group’s family and friends surround Frosty the Snowman as the float makes its way through the parade. Below right, Preuss Pets’ volunteers dance in grass skirts on the island-themed float. LCC President Brent Knight (lower left) waves to guests dur-ing the electric light parade portion of the 26th annual Silver Bells in the City Nov. 19.