16 ARTS & CULTURE Acoustic Night at Arts Dace Beebdeitataaciat TYLER CLARKE PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Around 70 people showed up on Nov- ember 2nd for what was proclaimed as “The most awesomest lineup this fall!” Tt started with Ed Brooks, the MC introducing the first act; Rob Dunlop and Eva Prkachin. Their set included several slow-tempo acoustic songs, with additional instruments, including a tambourine, cymbal, drums, drum- sticks, a recorder, and a xylophone being used sporadically throughout. Dunlop, despite expressing worry because of the unfamiliarity of the setup, and not hav- ing Big Old Eyes with him, didn't seem at all worried onstage. Prkachin, also not with her usual band, The Dazzlebrights, didn't seem misplaced at all. These two seem to fit together well, musically, The highlight of their set was their duet, with the chorus “I had you right where I wanted you.’ The minimalist song “Across the Yard,’ which had only Dunlop's voice, a cymbal, a drum, and the drumsticks, was equally impressive in its uniqueness. Josh Laurin followed Dunlop and Prkachin with his set of “folkie pop in- fluenced by beatnik poets.’ He donned only his guitar, and a harmonica. His “cute love songs,’ as one fan put it, were highly pop-influenced with some, _of the lyrics seemingly inspired by B.A. Johnston. Particularly his last song, which was an odd love song about a Michdel J fox got Parkinson's | BSease {fom DANIEL YULE COLUMNIST Overcompensating by Jeffrey Row- land is an odd little comic. Its tagline is we GET \T “TALLAQASSCE Pf ME food mane BY BIG ComPANni€és 15 Poisonous STOCK PHOTOS Left to right; Robert Dunlop, Eva Prkachin, Jeremy Stewart. 3 of the 7 artists who preformed on November 2nd at Artspace. strange girl that smells of rotting onions, The “cute love song” side of Laurin adds in the line“and the stupid thing is that I really like her” — Laurin set seemed to impress the audience, It impressed me, at least. His voice was more subtle than it was while recording at least one of these songs that he preformed, but was strong none the less. Rob Mclellan, a poet, followed Laurin with a few minutes of joking around, accompanied by a few of his: original poems. They can be described as ab- stract thoughts formulating feelings that paint a muddy picture. It was a nice and reflective break between acts. Jeremy Stewart, with his The Lines We Drew cohort Erin Arding followed the brief intermission that followed Mclellan's poetry, Stewart-esque pre- tentiousness aside, it was an excellent and unique set, with Arding donning an accordion that shed started playing just two months ago. Her rookie card wasn't visible as she played alongside Stewart's guitar work and vocals. Their song “about school and blood,’ as Stewart put it, was morbidly beauti- ful, and likely the highlight of their set, which consisted of songs from through- out Stewart's musical career. One song } i aS Bccordin’ “A 100% real journal comic about things that actually happen.’ OC's original purpose was simply as a sort of blog for Rowland while he worked on his main comic, Wigu. But since that time, Overcompensating's popularity has shot through the roof and Rowland has shift- ed his focus from Wigu to Overcompen- sating. And no wonder, Overcompen- sating is one of the most original, quirky works of comic art around. Overcompensating is supposedly based on teal events — it's powered by Google's blogger—but things happen in Hey Tallanassee | iusnat’s 4hat vatrunt | I Youle ways | Waulin’ Gfound i | sas beeen bag? elt secnnically he classified as previously being heavy — metal-esque was made beautifully un- heavy metal by his guitar work, and Arding’s subtle background accordion playing. Richard Krueger took the stage last, and immediately started with speedy, loud hard-rock-esque acoustic guitar work, that seemed to make sure that everyone was still awake for his set, jolt- ing everyone to attention after sitting through the slower paced folk songs that preceded him. Although Krueger kept re-starting songs, and commenting that he should have rehearsed, in all honesty he was likely the only one that thought this way. Aside from a few lines forgotten, no mis- takes were obvious, and if not for him pointing them out, no one would have noticed, He closed his set with a speed-punk song called“Slower,’ that he played slow- et. “No joke,’ he said, “it’s really called ‘Slower:” Overall, this Artspace show, drafted by Laurin, and put together by himself and several others, was quite impressive, and showcased a good chunk of the Prince George music scene. The $5 dollar ad- mission was well worth the 3 hours of solid music, and poetry. OVER THE EDGE NEWSPAPER. CAMERON ORR AND KRISTY DA COSTA NEWS EDITOR AND STAFF WRITER What the Girlfriend Says A movie about a house that eats | children, small pets and police officers; can anything be more entertaining that that? Yes, there are probably sev- eral things that are more entertaining. None-the less, Monster House is still a pretty good movie. Even though this film is animated it is one of those movies that attracts audi- ences of all ages. The cartoon charac- ters entertain the young while the witty adult comments captivate the attention of older crowds. There are plenty of adult jokes incorporated here and there that luckily fly right past the heads of younger viewers. ‘The storyline involves three children: DJJ., Chowder, and Jenny, These kids are drawn together after they-each -wit-. ness the monster house in all of its ter- ror. They attempt to tell two skeptical police officers about the house but with- NOVEMBER 8, 2006 whats: coming to then when the femme decides to eat them, After that, the kids are on their own. They are forced to at- tack the house and its evil owner Mr. Nebbercracker alone. I recommend this movie for children and adults alike, Adult audiences won't get much of a scare out of it but they will get a few laughs. I give Monster House four small children out of five. Simple, inoffensive and sometimes funny is just three of the ways Id de- scribe the movie. Monster House is a What the Boyfriend Says movie with some great charm and cap- tures the child spirit perfectly, yet I'm hesitant to consider the movie a Hal- loween must see, Kristy got the gist of the movie (or should I say geist’?) down ‘in her review. A young boy lives across the street from a house that eats humans and other pests. There are some twists in the plot and sometimes I was even wondering what the truth of the haunting was. The thing about the movie is, however, you are always aware the film is a car- toon. It’s a matter of je ne sais quoi, but this movie was more directly a child's movie than it was a family movie. Yet im saying that it is a good child’s movie, and. for those with children you should not fear having to endure it. You will get some laughs out of it. Monster House doesn't push the lim- its and exceed expectations, but it will keep you entertained for its duration. I give it 3 traumatic childhood mem- ories out of 5. k, The police end 1 up getting s JIM So HiGH T CAwt Tet iF | “tas 1S ACTOALY HAPPENING - te 2004-2006 J ROWLAND i JEFFIANIGU.COM 1 OVERCOMPENSATING.COM the comic that make one doubt the ver- acity of that claim. According to Over- compensating, Rowland. caught Osama bin two weeks ago, then turned him in to the US government. Sometime last year, Rowland went to hell to resurrect his cat Joanna. It’s not that these things are impossible to have happen, it’s just fairly unlikely. So, as long as authors claiming that their work is non-fiction while it is clearly made up doesn't fill you with rage, reading Overcompensating is something you should do. Overcompensatings drawings are rather different, just like everything else in the comic. The characters and cer- tain foreground elements are drawn in Rowland's simple, clear style. The back- ground however is usually a picture of some kind, with the foreground Photo- shopped onto it, It sounds hackneyed and terrible, but it’s really quite clever, and can add a lot to the comic. If Row- land wants to set his comic in New York, instead of trying to draw the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty, he simply puts a picture of them in the background, allowing us to immediately see where he is. In addition to easily set- ting the scene, the photographs give us an increased sense of realism, regardless of how real the actual story is. In keeping with his reality themed comic, many of the characters he has are based on real people, generally webcom- ic artists. Diesel Sweeties creator Rich Stevens appears as “the Poopmonster” and John Allison of Scary Go Round is referred to as “The Englishman.” Al- though many of these minor characters are real people, the other people who work around his webcomic shop are not known to have real world counterparts. Weedmaster P. and Baby are solely the figments of Rowland's fevered imagina- tion, although a recent addition to his workforce, one Tallahassee Econolodge is based off Paris Hilton (compare their names, for example). Rowland is an ardent patriot, al- though he despises almost every aspect of George W. Bushs presidency. He is anti-war, pro-civil rights, and posted on April 20th of this year that he was so mad about the way the USA is be- ing run [he] want(s] to set [him]self on fire” after showing a comic of him beat- ing up a bald eagle. His comic is often political, always satirical, and generally enjoyable, even if you dont agree with his politics. If you enjoy a daily dose of clever anger and satire, Overcompensat- ing is for you.