THURSDAY,FEB.7,2002
JAYPLAY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 3D
Don't 'Walk' down this beaten path
The word of today is unoriginal. That's right, kids, say it with me — un-or-i-iginal. Does every one know what it means? Well, the definition of unoriginal is actually the film A Walk to Remember.
I'm sorry that I had to take everyone on a trip back to grade school, but Mandy Moore's first appearance on the silver screen was so elementary that I was left with no other choice. A Walk to Remember offers nothing new to the teen-pop genre; instead, it offers a quick lesson in recycling formulas.
COMMENTARY
Adapted from the Nicholas Sparks' novel, Remember is the story of Jamie Sullivan (Moore), a teen-aged daughter of the town preacher who concerns herself with church and astrology rather than clothes and partying.
And then there is her antithesis Landon Carter (Shane West), the popular trouble maker.
After getting himself in trouble, Landon serves his punishment by taking the lead role in the school play. And who is acting across
Peter Black
pblack@kansan.com
from him? Jamie.
Well, you can see where this one is going the two end up falling for each other, leaving Landon with no other choice but to sacrifice his popularity in the name of love.
Does this story sound familiar yet? It should, because this is a story that continues to be told over and over.
Remember is what you would get if you crossed She's All That and Sweet November. Instead of blazing a new trail, Moore does what pop stars do best — takes us down a worn path.
On top of being completely uninspired,
*Remember* assumes that a pop star and an
opportunity to make you cry is enough to make a good movie. Rather than focusing on crucial plot points like actually showing the scene when Jamie and Landon fall for each other, the makers of this film opt to find scenes for Moore to showcase her singing ability.
Throughout the film are multiple points when the story skips ahead of the viewer leaving audiences piecing together fragments of the plot.
the plot.
Remember is nothing more than a shameless ploy to make a quick buck off a demographic that continues to prove time and time again that it will buy anything in a nice package.
Unlike other "teen films," such as Clueless, Bring It On and American Pie, that ascend out of the pack of unoriginal cliche films to become fresh voices of a generation, Remember does no such rising.
Contact Black at pblack@kansan.com.
Local students to unveil Hughes project
By Meghan Brune Jayplay writer
Tim Rollins of Kids of Survival helps a middle school student memorize a Langston Hughes poem at the Spencer Museum of Art. Rollins and the Kids of Survival students will unveil their collaborative artwork 5:30 to 7:30 pm Saturday, Feb. 9, at the museum.
A group of 24 Lawrence middle school students gathered around a long, narrow table in the University of Kansas' Spencer Museum of Art ready for their first day. But this was not the after-school program they had expected, and they are no longer the young kids who originally entered the museum.
JILLIAN THORPE/KANSAN
"This is not an ordinary middle school, high school or college class. In here we make knowledge, we create it," artist-in-resident Tim Rollins said.
As a component of the International Symposium on the Art, Life and Legacy of Langston Hughes, artist Tim Rollins and the Kids of Survival are creating The Langston Hughes Project, an intense, one-week after-school art program designed for kids with educational and emotional disabilities. This, however, is not the theory under which Rollins leads his classes.
"I don't have any students with disabilities just different abilities," Rollins said.
Lynn Buehler, Kearney, Neb., junior, worked in the museum some of the nights of Rollins' program.
Rolins program:
"I am mostly here to make sure no one gets lost," she said. "But from what I have seen, he really wants the kids to learn."
really want the student to collaborate with the artist and reveal their efforts to the public Saturday. Along with working toward the final goal 24 watercolors painted directly on the text from Langston Hughes' poem Harlem #2-A Dream Deferred, students will be learning about Hughes life and time spent in Lawrence.
"I teach them philosophy, literature and history," Rollins said. "I teach them to love
knowledge and to love life."
Rollins developed KOS in 1982 in the South Bronx and has since worked with kids around the country including Kansas City. His projects include William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Franz Kafka's Amerika. This is the first Langston Hughes project and the first time for the program in Lawrence.
"We have been wanting to do a project with Tim Rollins for a long time," said Kristina Mitchell, education services coordinator at Spencer. She said with the Langston
Hughes symposium, everything fell into place.
The KOS programs, on average, are composed of students who may dislike school, but who have a desire and an aptitude to create art.
"We are artists. We are different," Rollins said. "It is sometimes painful, but we are the outsiders and we see things differently."
Contact Brune at mbrune@kansan.com. This story was edited by Jeremy Clarkson.
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