Mount Hood

Central High School showcases “Mamma Mia!” in its west coast debut

Chrys Weedon | Entertainment Editor

“We are actually the third high school in the country to do (“Mamma Mia”),” said Central High School’s production director Jeff Witt, “the other two are east of Texas, so we’re the west coast high school premier.”

In May of 2018, Jeff Witt — the vocal and music director at Central High School — teamed up with co-director Wendy Boyack to make their vision a reality. The theater program was originally planning on showcasing an entirely different musical, “Tuck Everlasting,” until they were notified that the rights to the musical had been restricted. That same day, Witt was made aware that “Mamma Mia!” was available.

Witt sent in the school’s royalty application — which cost $3,000 — and received the good news that Central High would be putting on the first production of “Mamma Mia” on the west coast.

“(The students) would not stop screaming,” Witt chuckled as he recalled the moment he revealed the decision to his students.

Rehearsals started in mid-August of this year.

“We’re here every Saturday, sometimes Sunday, putting that set together,” Witt said as he pointed to the looming 24-foot revolve nestled on stage left. The theater department was able to acquire the same walls used in Broadway Rose’s production of “Mamma Mia” in Portland; the walls sit atop the revolving base and forms three separate scenes that can be changed via the attached motor. The program spent an additional $8,000 on new microphones for the show.

“(‘Mamma Mia!’) fits the kids that I have. I always look for a show that fits the kids that I have, and when that happens they have a good time doing it,” director Witt commented.

The leading actors, Lillian Boyack as Sophie; Monique Eschette as Donna; and Seth Dickson as Sam Carmichael, definitely commanded the crowd’s attention. Each showed promising vocal skill and stage presence.

The secondary and tertiary characters also gave lighthearted, confident performances and cultivated an easy-going, fun-loving environment. The excitement of the whole cast throughout the show was palpable from the audience.

The production included disco choreography that is symbolic of ABBA’s career. There were a surprising amount of tender, teary-eyed moments along with the more frequent laughable ones.

There were a couple snafu’s and off-key moments, but considering that this show is a high school production, the performance was entertaining and proved to be a crowd-pleaser.

Future shows will be held November 1-3. Tickets are sold at the door or online on Central High’s website.

 

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton

Three true crime podcasts to stream

Chrys Weedon | Entertainment Editor

“Criminal”

Launched in 2014, “Criminal” is an award-winning podcast that takes a holistic look at crime and how it intersects with sociology and history. The host, Phoebe Judge, has a journalistic style that always cultivates a profoundly human element in each episode. Judge’s voice is soothing, and her questions honest and vulnerable, carrying the listener safely through each story no matter how strange.

Where to listen: This podcast can be listened to anywhere podcasts are found, including thisiscriminal.com. There are original illustrations for every episode of “Criminal,” which can also be found on their website.

Photo courtesy of thisiscriminal.com

 

“True Crime Garage”

Co-hosts Nic and the Captain cover both solved and unsolved true crime cases on their podcast, launched in 2015. These two men conduct impressively in-depth research, and educate their listeners about every version of events and possible theory surrounding each crime they discuss. The tone of the show is more informal and comical, but the pair of hosts still remain respectful of the cases and their seriousness.

Where to listen: A complete anthology of episodes can be found of the Stitcher radio app. A select number of episodes are available for free on the website truecrimegarage.com and are available for purchase on iTunes.

Photo courtesy of truecrimegarage.com

 

“My Favorite Murder”

Similar to “True Crime Garage,” this podcast is self-described on their website as a “true crime comedy.” The newest of the three podcasts, “My Favorite Murder” was launched in early 2016 by Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff. The show is full of the host’s dry, blunt sense of humor and exhibits a number of female-centered stories. The co-hosts also include information about their personal lives, which balances out the heaviness of the true crime material and may be why they’ve made such a connection with their loyal fanbase.

Where to listen: This podcast can be found on iTunes, Stitcher radio, and Player FM.

Photo courtesy of myfavoritemurder.com

 

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu

The Western Howl staff pick their favorite Halloween-themed movies

Compiled by: The Western Howl staff

Chrys — “The VVitch” (2015). My favorite scary movie has to be “The VVitch.” I remember going to see it in theaters when it came out in 2016. This movie mastered the art of atmospheric horror. I can’t sit through this movie without squirming in my chair, and comfort is an impossibility. The film still remains spooky without excessive use of jump scares, which I really appreciate. The cinematographer Jarin Blaschke and director Robert Eggers have created a visual environment that is dark, anxious, and horrifying. Anya Taylor-Joy is truly at her best and her performance really enhances it to all it’s uncomfortable, horrible glory. I would strongly recommend this film.

Contact the author at cweedon16@wou.edu

Caity — “Halloween” (1978). This movie will never not be my favorite horror flick. It set the precedent for what a slasher film would be, and ushered in a decade of holiday-centered horror films that tried to imitate what this classic did. No matter how many times I watch it, the haunting — but simple — score, matched with the heart-racing scenes, are enough to make this the most memorable scary movie I’ve seen yet. Introducing Jamie Lee Curtis, as director John Carpenter’s nod to Curtis’s mother Janet Leigh, star of “Psycho,” the film helped create the scream queen of slasher flicks. While this movie is a horror masterpiece, the sequels don’t even come close to the original, so I’d recommend only watching the first installment.

Contact the author at chealy16@wou.edu

Bailey — “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993). This Disney flick is an innovative story that serves two genres: Christmas movies and Halloween movies. Now a cult classic, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” combines the creative mind of Tim Burton with the musical stylings of Danny Elfman to create a movie that the whole family can enjoy. In fact, there’s even a ride at Disneyland that is made-over with a “ The Nightmare Before Christmas” theme every year. And this year, the lovably misguided Jack Skellington, “Pumpkin King” of Halloween Town, is getting re-released on Blu-ray as a celebration of the film’s 25th anniversary. This funny and frightening tale made over 75 million dollars in the box office, and I would strongly recommend it to anyone.

Contact the author at bthompson15@wou.edu

Kyle — “Hocus Pocus” (1993). During one night of Halloween, three villainous witches made their way back from the dead to bring us the Disney film, “Hocus Pocus.” This cult classic became my favorite Halloween-theme movie when I was a child. It includes the right amount of comedy, horror and music. No matter how many times I watch it, I can never get enough of the Sanderson sisters. It’s as if they put a spell on me. Although meant for children, the director was able to sneak jokes that only adults can understand, so I would strongly recommend this movie to anyone.

Contact the author at kmorden17@wou.edu

Rachel — “Sleepy Hollow”, starring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton, is my favorite Halloween movie. It is based on the legend of the Headless Horseman. It’s a gothic supernatural horror film, although I didn’t find it too scary. It’s about Ichabod Crane, a police constable, who is sent to solve the mystery behind the murders taking place in the town Sleepy Hollow. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes dark themed movies, without a lot of scares.

Contact the author at rhetzel18@wou.edu

Ashlynn — “Corpse Bride” (2005). “The Corpse Bride” is another classic Tim Burton animation that is perfect for Halloween. It’s not a scary movie, but it does have the right amount of creepiness to celebrate this spine-tingling holiday. This lighthearted movie is perfect for anyone who is like me and loves a good laugh and a happy ending. It is a sweet story of a soon to be groom who gets the jitters. He unknowingly proposes to a corpse and has to figure out how to reverse what he has done. It’s a spoopy film that I always watch on Halloween and highly recommend to others.

Contact the author at anorton17@wou.edu

Becca — “Hush” (2016). What I liked about this movie is that it doesn’t fall into the usual scary movie tropes of having main characters who make terrible decisions that have you yelling at your screen. The main character in this movie is a young Deaf woman who is being stalked in her house by a killer. Unlike many other horror movies, in this one she actually makes smart, methodical decisions and the movie is full of constant suspense. The ending was also unexpected for me. While I usually find myself leaning towards supernatural when watching horror movies, this one stuck out to me.

Contact the author at rmeyers17@mail.wou.edu

 

Cora — “Halloweentown” (1998). Witches and goblins and skelies, oh my! No Dylan, we’re not in Cleveland, we’re taking the bus to St. Helens, Oregon, a.k.a. “Halloweentown.” Watch as future head of the Cromwell line, “I’m 13…I’m practically a grown-up” Marnie, stumbles through finishing a spell her not-so-responsible grandmother started (before literally walking into a trap) to reverse the evil magic seeping its way into the heart of Halloweentown. Don’t worry about Marnie being the most inept witch ever, her seven-year-old sister Sophie saves the day; and like a true hero gets none of the credit, leaving community health major senior Keith Mathew to cry “what about Sophie?!” With a dash of 90s radical slang, spoopy Halloween hijinks and a wholesome the “true power is love” moral, “Halloweentown” (and its three sequels) should appear in everyone’s Halloween movie marathon.

Contact the author at cmcclain17@mail.wou.edu

Paul — “Scared Shrekless” (2010). Our favorite childhood meme team is back at it again competing to see who can stay in Lord Farquaad’s old castle the longest by telling spooky stories. This short contains three sections that are told as separate stories. Gingy, our lovely little sentient gingerbread man, tells us about how his tumultuous love life led to him getting eaten by a zombie lover. Our friend Boots then tells us about his worst fear which is too intense to mention in such a short review. Finally, Shrek tells us about his experience with Pinocchio’s demonic possession and the mild psychosis that came along with it. Overall, if you need some fun short goofs with your favorite childhood characters you’ll really enjoy this show.

Contact the author at pfdavis14@wou.edu

 

Photo courtesy of Paul F. Davis

A Cappella club discusses plans for this year

Chrys Weedon | Entertainment Editor

“Last year was our…first time integrating and so now we’re starting out this year strong,” said A Cappella club President Violet Trammel. At the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year, Western’s two A cappella groups — Suspended and 15 Miles West — integrated and became one coed group. Since then, they have been focusing on performing more events, and gaining more visibility through community outreach.

“What’s cool about this year, opposed to last year, we’re actually doing a fall concert,” said Vice President Cole Aldred, “we didn’t last year because it was kind of a hard transition to get the new cohesive group in motion.”

Last year, The West of Us was part of the ICCA competition: the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. The event took up a lot of time, which resulted in the club being MIA for most of the year.

“Sometimes people are like ‘we have an acapella group?’” said Trammel when asked why she wanted to focus on getting more visibility on campus.

The A Cappella club is completely student-led. Most of the songs performed by the club are arranged by its members. There are 16 members total, which helps the group achieve things they weren’t able to when there were two separate clubs.

“Overall, in terms of musicality and things that we’re able to achieve, integrating has been the best for us. We can make so much more and we can do so much more with our songs having a larger group,” remarked Trammel.

Both the President and the Vice President agree that their favorite part of being involved in A Cappella is the friendships they’ve formed during their time in the club.

“The friendships you make in A Capella are super lasting and they’ve been the closest people to me,” commented Trammel.

The West of Us holds auditions for performance roles every fall term: “We’re looking for people that wanna have fun, that are musically inclined, and that want to have a good time on stage,” said Trammel.

The club’s next performance is their fall concert on Nov. 12 (location and time TBD).

 

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Paul F. Davis

Review: “Halloween”

Caity Healy | Editor-in-Chief

As Sheriff Brackett put it in the 1978 film by the same name, “It’s Halloween — everyone’s entitled to one good scare.” With the 2018 “Halloween” release on Oct. 19, audiences everywhere got just that, as they were invited into the next generation of horror.

As an avid “Halloween” fan, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with this sequel. Choosing to ignore “Halloween 2” through “Halloween: Resurrection,” this installment simply took place 40 years after the infamous 1978 Halloween night — a decision that ultimately paid off, as, in my opinion, it has been the best installment in the series thus far, aside from the original.

Three generations of “final-women,” two new scream queens and the same knife-wielding villain took the screen for a slasher filled with more gore, and a far higher body count, than its predecessor.

While the film is generally enjoyable, especially for someone looking for a fun, slasher flick, it did have its flaws.

The character development felt drastic to me. Laurie Strode, the heroine, had one of the most obvious changes. A scared, 17 year old in the original film, morphed into a revenge-seeking, ultra-protective grandmother in the sequel was a significant change.

However, the character development that I mostly struggled with was Michael Myers. In the original film, his kills were methodical. He stalked, watching from afar and moved in a slow, menacing way. In this new installment, he moved more quickly and killed anyone that crossed his path. My guess is that it had to do with pent up aggression from being locked up for four decades.

His character also felt more human. For a good portion of the movie, he was unmasked. It made him feel more real, and in my opinion that took away from the inherent evilness that inhabits him.

The plot involved a lot of unnecessary detail that didn’t really add anything to the storyline. It almost felt as if they were trying to include as many nods to the previous installments as they could, and in doing so, added extra fluff.

That being said, I was actually a huge fan of the small references to the original series. The gas station from “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers,” the woman with hair curlers from “Halloween 2,” and even short lines from the original were enough to make me smile when watching this film.

Overall, the film was enjoyable. However, it wasn’t very scary. Most of the scares are seen in the trailer, so I’d recommend seeing it without watching the trailer first.

I found the film to be entertaining, and it’s one that’s sure to please any generation of “Halloween” fans.

 

Overall Rating: I recommend this film.

 

Contact the author at howleditor@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of universalpictures.com

Lacy M. Johnson writes a new book of essays about hot-button topics

Chrys Weedon | Entertainment Editor

“You probably want him dead, strangers tell me.” This quote contains the main theme of the first essay in Lacy M. Johnson’s “The Reckonings.” In an essay by the same name, Johnson analyzes a culture that glorifies and searches for revenge— American culture. She has faced this culture directly many times, especially when she started telling her story. In her 20s, Johnson was kidnapped by her then-boyfriend who attempted to kill her. But she doesn’t want revenge.

“‘I don’t want him dead. I want him to admit all the things he did, to my face, in public, and then to spend the rest of his life in service to other people’s joy,’” writes Johnson. Johnson calls this a reckoning; she writes that wishing suffering on people who hurt us only compounds sorrow and injustice instead of cancelling it out.

This book contains 12 essays that cover topics from sexual assault, to environmental activism to racism. Johnson’s book is covertly a discussion of philosophy and ethics, with memoir stirred in.

“We human beings are not born with prejudices. Always they are made for us by someone who wants something,” commented Johnson in the essay “Goliath.”

Each essay is itself a new beginning, and covers a topic that is as serious and worth contemplation as the others.

“Silence is pathological. Apathy is pathological,” Johnson says in her chapter about white supremacy: “On Whiteness.” In this essay and in many others, Johnson dives into the idea that anyone who considers themselves innocent is out of touch with the world and the systems of privilege that exist within it.

The themes discussed in this book are very relevant and would be considered by the general population as hot-button issues. Johnson’s handle on these topics and her poetic style leave her sentiments with the audience long after this book is read.

 

Overall Rating: I would strongly recommend this book.

 

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of simonandchuster.com

Campus art feature: “Iberian Venus” sculpture by Manuel Izquierdo

Chrys Weedon | Entertainment Editor

Located in a back corner of the Grove, surrounded by beauty bark and concrete, is Manuel Izquierdo’s sculpture “Iberian Venus.” The marble sand once covering its exterior is mostly eroded away, leaving smooth white patches in its curves and crevices. Moss and crumbling concrete remain.

Installed in September 1975, “Iberian Venus” was commissioned, according to library archives, by Western’s student body. Funding was provided by what was then called the Associated Students of OCE, which would be equivalent to ASWOU now. The sculpture was supposed to include a reflection pool at its base, but upon observation, it doesn’t appear to have one.

Manuel Izquierdo arrived in Portland, Oregon in the 1940s. Izquierdo was born in Madrid, Spain and travelled to Oregon as a refugee from a war-torn Europe. In his career, Izquierdo created 27 corporate and public commissioned pieces and has participated in 25 solo exhibitions. Izquierdo died from illness on July 17, 2009.

The library archive article titled “Outdoor Sculptures on Campus” reports some controversy among Western’s students upon installation of the statue. It was argued by some students that the final sculpture did not resemble the original proposal approved by the committee.

Paula Booth, assistant art professor and director of the Cannon Gallery of Art in Campbell hall spent most of her interview brushing leaves, cobwebs and moss off the sculpture to the best of her ability, but there’s only so much one can do if they’re not trained in refurbishing art.

“It kind of breaks my heart, to be honest. I feel like it’s so neglected, and it’s by one of Oregon’s most prominent sculptors,” commented Booth.

In a secluded corner and blocked on three sides by a grassy slope, this sculpture doesn’t stand out, especially now that its white marble sand coating has been reduced to nothing. It can’t be easily seen from the surrounding sidewalks or roadways.

“Especially when you have art outdoors, you need to have it properly cleaned periodically, you need to have it fixed periodically,” Booth remarked after examining the sculpture’s deteriorating state. “It’s completely not how the artist intended it to be.”

 

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton

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