4B • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY.APRIL 4.2002
HEARD ON THE HILL What's your favorite thing to do when the weather gets nice?
"Play frisbee golf."
Caleb Chatfield Belleville senior
"I like to go hiking out at Clinton Lake."
Kelly Graf
Wichita senior
"Sit-ups on Daisy Hill."
Kevin McCabe St. Louis junior
"I don't look forward to doing anything, "
Jon Gutierrez Topeka junior
— Compiled by Louise Stauffer
'Rookie' pitches solid entertainment
Dennis Quaid returns to the bigscreen, this time in the heartwarming movie The Rookie. Even more touching than the message it sends is the fact that this script actually happened.
The story revolves around Jimmy Morris, the son of a military brat who settled in a small Texas town after several childhood moves. Baseball had always been in his blood, but he was forced to hang up the cleats following arm injuries suffered while in the minor leagues.
Years later, he's married with three children, and has a job teaching science and coaching a struggling high school baseball team. During a practice, Morris unleashes a fastball he didn't know he had in him, and his catcher sees the pro ranks as a possi
Ryan Wood rwood@kansan.com
bility. Morris, though, doesn't believe it.
After making a deal with his team to garner victories out of them, Morris has to hold up his end of the bargain after an unexpected district championship is won. He loads up his children and drives two hours to a professional tryout, and his blessed left arm gives him the opportunity of a lifetime — later than anyone could
The Rookie
Movie rating: 3 out of 4 stars
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Rachel Griffiths, Brian Cox
Rating: G
imagine.
Quaid is no stranger to sports movies. He had a role in Any Given Sunday, and in this flick, does a wonderful job of playing the part of a man juggling his responsibilities and his dreams.
It's rated "G," which might scare off the college student craving vulgar language and strong sexual content. But despite the rating, the movie is targeted at all audiences, not just children. The bottom line is, director John Lee Hancock made a box office
hit, and had no need to resort to any adult themes to do so.
The reason this movie is a winner, though, is that it doesn't follow the typical game-winning-homer-to-win-it-all paradigm that came with past baseball movies like The Natural and Major League. It doesn't have to. The true story of Morris, who pitched for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1999 and 2000, was a good enough script.
Obviously, the truth was stretched somewhat — for example, the radar gun blinking from "76" to "96" — but the exaggerations were rare and never ill-advised, and didn't take away from the motivating plot and sensational acting that was perfectly executed.
Contact Wood at rwood@kansan.com.
Love of Filthy Jim isn't a knee-jerk reaction
The first night of spring break 2001, a friend and I decided to wander down the street to an unidentified basement party.
An hour later, I was in a cyclone of elbows and shoul-
which neither I nor my bladder would be forgetting soon.
Whether for long-time fans of these Lawrence sleaze-rockers' live shows, or those with aversion to internal injuries, the Filthy Jim
churning to the he a d banging, discordant sounds of a haggard looking four-piece band per-
Andy Gassaway agassaway@kansan.com
experi-
ience is
n o w
available in
take-
h o me
form.
Whiskey and Porn, the band's
forming under a pair of bare bulbs. As the frenzy reached its crescendo, this moment of beer and white noise was punctuated by an anonymous knee to my crotch.
All 12 tracks come and go with the urgency of a sucker punch, seething with the piss and vinegar of the Stooges, the depraved grit of the Melvins and just a touch of Môlley Crüe's sing-a-long scum.
The next morning, braced against my bathroom wall, I bid a pained farewell to a stream of urine and blood. My introduction to the seamy sounds of Filthy Jim is one
After being offered a free analog recording opportunity by a co-worker of guitarist Seth Cole during his job with Lawrence Taxi, Filthy Jim stopped in Brooklyn, N.Y., while on tour to record at Reverse Engineering.
debut album, is best enjoyed "at a loud volume, drunk." says bassist Troy Richardson.
Circumstantial listening activities aside, Whiskey and Porn is a brutal, 26-minute homage to all the bad things that feel so great about fast, scuzzy rock n' roll.
"It's good to have sex to," adds guitarist Steve Hammond.
"They record more jazz there, but it was pretty good because it made it more ambient and raw, which is what we wanted," Cole said.
While in search of proper
As Hammond pokes drummer Paul Brooks' head with a tape measure, declaring the longest of his dreadlocks to be an astonishing 17 inches long. Filthy Jim's devotion to the details, both in recording and other aspects, is fully revealed.
distribution for the album, the band found interest from both the Aces and Eights and Owned and Operated labels, which wanted the band to record the album at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colo.
Filthy Jim, however, tired of sitting on their previous studio work, was intent on having the original recordings released.
Finally, the band was able to reach an agreement with Tour Horse Records in Dallas, which agreed to release the album as-is.
As soon as Filthy Jim finds another vehicle to replace its recently broken-down van, the band hopes to go on another national tour and bring its sound to the farthest reaches of the United States.
"Whoever wants to rock, we'll take 'em," Hammond said.
Whiskey and Porn will be available at Love Garden Sounds, 926 1/2 Massachusetts St., and through the band's Web site, www.filthyjim.com.