REVIEW
MOVIE REVIEW // 'I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS'
> Hollywood hits, indie flicks and everything in between.
I Love You Phillip Morris is a love story – a pretty unusual one — that seems to rely too heavily on the main couple's homosexuality. In a lot of ways, the filmmakers give up on trying to make a new, extremely engaging film because the two main characters are gay — and isn't that new enough on its own?
The film centers around Steven Russell (Jim Carrey), a real-life conman who escapes from prison several times, much to the chagrin of Texas state officials. In prison he meets his future lover Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor), a gentle man who Russell bunks with before being transported to another prison across the state. Russell vows that he will get out of prison soon and help Morris get released early so they will never again be apart. However, unknown to Morris, Russell's days of scheming and conning aren't over – and it's only a matter of time before he's caught again. The film is based on an account of the real-life conman and his lover.
The film does succeed through casting. Carrey gives one of the best performances of 2010 as the instinctively tricky and truly devoted Steven Russell, and McGregor charms the audience as the sweet object of Russell's
affection. As stated, the film does rest a lot on the homosexuality of the lead couple. A lot of scenes would be tired, cliché and snore-inducing in a heterosexual romantic comedy, but the filmmakers feel like they can get away with it. However, it is refreshing to see a real, live gay couple represented in film, and to see how unapolietic and even celebratory Russell is about his homosexuality. His many prison escapes are fun to watch, but the love scenes tend to fall flat, much like a boring love poem with all of the "she's" and "hers" changed to "he's" and "his."
✨✨✨ // CHANCE CARMICHAEL
MUSIC REVIEW // SOFT CIRCLE - 'SHORE OBSESSED' (POST PRESENT MEDIUM)
> KJHK's guide to sonic consumption
Hisham Bharoocha, who made a name for himself while playing with insane noise rockers Lightning Bolt and the equally abrasive electronic act Black Dice, is on his own with his second LP under the pseudonym Soft Circle. Much like his first album, Full Bloom, Bharoocha deviates greatly from the sounds of his former bands with Shore Obsessed and strikes out into a new territory that consists heavily of danceable beats, actual lyrics to sing along to and melodies that aren't washed out by nonstop drumming and other background noise. Bharoocha takes his sound one step farther with this project, which eliminates a lot of the droning noise that his first album relied on,and replaces it with a powerful dose of funk.
This album has plenty of highlights. Bharoocha seems to free himself from his past and unleashes an album full of tenderness, good times and the sense that a brighter day is at our doorstep. Album opener, "First Time," which reverberates and echoes brightly, starts the record off with a bang but leaves the listener with enough energy to still enjoy the rest of the
album. "First Time" establishes this sing-along record. Bharoocha's lyrics are not all that complicated, "hey love, hey lover/ hey lover hold my hand now," but are sung with such emotion that they will suck you into the song. Another stand out is "Treading Water," with its sultry boy/girl duet and extremely funky synth lines. Bharoocha has the ability to create something catchy without resorting to typical pop or club beats. Other stand out tracks include the bass heavy "Light Bright," the creepy headbanger "Reaper," and the song closest to Bharoocha's roots. "Bonzer."
// ZACK MARSH
汉帝四年
library expansion approved
The expansion will include the construction of a new parking lot and the addition of 100 public computers.
You Bakery, on Jan. 28. The owners said they hoped to fulfill students' and residents' desires for late night sweets after a late night on the town, while staying up to study or while staying in with friends. They said their goal was to have the cookies at their customers' doorsteps as fast as Jimmy John's does.
A VISIONARY,
A BUSINESSMAN AND
A BAKER
McCallough is the businessman.
"I ordered their cookies last Thursday with my friends and I have never had a better chocolate chip cookie," said Shannon Spurlock, a junior from Burlingame, Calif. "All of the cookies they serve are great. I would know because I ordered one of every kind to be sure I ate
she makes what the owners can "the best cookies ever."
"I decided to go ahead and make the recipes myself just because it would be better for our ingredients and our storage purposes," Olsen said. "This doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense unless you know exactly what is in our cookies, which is a secret."
Rafferty is the visionary. He came up with the idea for the bakery after seeing something similar succeed while he was at school in Colorado. He said he thought one in Lawrence could make money, too.
While Lucky You Bakery has not been open long enough to determine how much it makes on an average night, business has tripled since opening weekend, said McCollough. So far, the owners have handed out a few flyers and have mainly relied on word of mouth, Facebook and Twitter to generate business.
Aaron Harris/KANSAN
they had received, they said they were especially excited about what they had learned.
Rafferty, McCallough and Olsen said they put a lot of time and effort into making the company run smoothly.
"It has been a cool lesson of interdependence to see how we all click together," McCollough said.
As for where they are headed, none of them really know. With brownies to join their menu soon, Rafferty hopes for expansion. He said some day they may even like to have a store front.
The cookies cost $6 for six or $12 for 13. Lucky You Bakery is open for delivery Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. and Friday and Saturday from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Customers can order online at luckyyoubakery.com or by calling (789) 865-1466.
"We want it to grow," Rafferty said. "We want to continue perfecting what we do, but we don't know how large the market is. It's going to be a journey."
— Edited by Helen Mubarak
**Above:** Bailey Olsen, a senior from Overland Park, measures ingredients for a cookie mix. Olsen, Jack Rafferty, a senior from Shawnee, and Will McCullough, a 2008 alumus, opened Lucky You Bakery, a cookie delivery service, two weeks ago.
**Top:** Bailey Olsen, a senior from Overland Park, Will McCullough, a 2008 KU alum, and Rafferty, a senior from Shawnee, own a local cookie delivery business called Lucky You
The Suarez sisters work to uncover bones from an unknown dinosaur species found at a dig site in Utah. The twin sisters named this species Geminiraptor suarezarum.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
DINOSAUR
Species named after graduates
BY LISA ANDERSEN landersen@kansan.com
In 2004, twin KU graduates Celina and Marina Suarez discovered a new dinosaur species; now the species is officially named after them: geminiraptor suarezarun.
The 29-year-old geochem-
Antonio
ists from San made the discovery while doing research at a separate site in Utah. The two began following a layer of rock that strayed from the site. Marina wandered into a gully
paleontologists. The dinosaur was identified as a troodontid, a small two-legged carnivore
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where they saw bones sticking out from the rock.
After spotting limb and toe bones, the sisters came back the next morning with a group of
"I remember my sister saying 'Wow! Jackpot!' Celina said. "We were pretty excited and knew we had found a significant site."
GOVERNMENT
School of Social Welfare faces cuts
BY CLAYTON ASHLEY cashley@kansan.com
The Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center in Lawrence is facing a state funding cut for the fifth year in a row, creating a potentially negative effect on the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare.
Dave Johnson, CEO of Bert Nash, was candid about his plans for the potential $372,000 cut.
"This particular cut we're going to fight as hard as we can," he said.
Gov. Sam Brownback's proposed 2011 budget calls for $15 million in
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