Thursday, April 19, 2007

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Looking for love in all the wrong places

“My Name is Wallace,” an independent movie filmed in Murfreesboro and winner of numerous awards at film festivals worldwide, will be screened at 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, and at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 26, at the Nashville Film Festival. “Wallace” tells the story of an odd, lonely socially challenged man who looks for love through a phone sex advertisement following the death of his mother. This funny, poignant film was written and directed by Dr. Bob Pondillo, an associate professor of electronic media communication at MTSU. Many members of the crew are MTSU students or alumni. “Wallace” has been entered in more than 270 film festivals, and it has been accepted by 38 of them.

To order tickets for the showing of “My Name is Wallace” at the Regal Green Hills Stadium 16 Theater, 3815 Green Hills Village Drive in Nashville, go to http://www.nashvillefilmfestival.org. For more information about “My Name is Wallace,” go to http://mynameiswallace.com.

The Keillor connection

Recent MTSU graduates Rich and Andy Karg have been selected from 500 entries to perform Saturday, April 21, on National Public Radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” The Nashville duo will compete against five finalists from around the country in the “People In (their) Twenties Talent Show.” The live broadcast will air locally on WPLN-FM (90.3) from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The studio audience and listeners at home can vote during the show with host Garrison Keillor announcing the winner at the end of the broadcast. At-home listeners can vote online at http://www.prairiehome.org. Dr. Tom Hutchison, recording industry, submitted The Karg Boys to the contest. Hutchison describes their music as “a retro sound reminiscent of the Everly Brothers.

Contact Hutchison at 615-898-5695.
thutchis@mtsu.edu

Black and white and shades of gray

Bruno Marcotulli and Brian Sparks, the fathers of the families in the 2006 FX television channel reality series "Black.White," will speak about their experience at 7 p.m. Monday, April 23, in Tucker Theatre. In the series, two American families--one black and one white--lived together under the same roof in Los Angeles. Makeup was applied to each participant to make white participants appear black and vice versa. Their observations about how they were treated in society as members of another race made for provocative and compelling viewing. "Black.White," which has been rescheduled from an earlier date, is free and open to the public. This event is sponsored by the Black History Month Committee, the Student Government Association, and the National Panhellenic Council.

Contact the Student Government Association at 615-904-8231.

TR EXTRA

SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT--Your musically talented youngster could produce his or her own CD before he graduates high school. Ryan York, a 21-year-old MTSU student and teacher of guitar, bass and drums lessons, continues his recording workshops for kids ages 12-17. For a fee of $125 per student, the kids will be introduced to cassette four-track recording, digital eight-track, computer recording, and electronic music. All proceeds will help pay for the equipment. The next workshop classes are slated for May 10 through June 17 on Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons in the John Bragg Mass Communication Building at MTSU. Registration for these classes is in progress and will continue through April 30. The recording workshops are sponsored by the Youth Culture and Arts Center, a function of Youth Empowerment Through Arts and Humanities (YEAH!), a nonprofit Murfreesboro-based organization. For more information about the workshops, contact York at bororecording@gmail.com. To learn more about the Youth Culture and Arts Center, go to http://www.youthculturecenter.org.

“DIVERSE TALES FOR DIVERSE TOTS”--The Diversity Subcommittee of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women is requesting donations of children’s books about any aspect of diversity now through April 27. The books could be old or new and for any age group. Gift certificates from your favorite bookstore also are welcome. These donations will be presented to MTSU’s Project HELP Program to help build up its new Dede Rucker Memorial Library collection. You can drop off your donations at several on-campus locations, including the Sociology and Anthropology mailroom (Room 335 in the Todd Building), the Upper Division English office (Room 323 in Peck Hall), the June Anderson Women’s Center (Room 206 of the James Union Building), and the Study Abroad office (Room 103A of Peck Hall. For more information, contact Dr. Ida Fadzillah at 615-904-8275 or ifadzill@mtsu.edu.

GET INTO THE SWIM OF THINGS--The works of Kenda North are on display through April 19 in a photography exhibit titled “Urban Pools” at MTSU’s Baldwin Photographic Gallery. This exhibit is comprised of color Iris prints ranging in sizes up to 33” x 47”. The images were photographed underwater with a Nikonos 35mm camera. The original color negatives have been scanned and worked through Photoshop. The gallery will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on Saturdays from 12 noon to 4 p.m. Exhibitions and lectures are free and open to the public. This exhibit is co-sponsored by the National Women’s History Month Committee. Contact Tom Jimison at 615-898-2085 or tjimison@mtsu.edu.