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Pedaling across America, for charity
By Talon Bronson in PORTLAND, Oregon, U.S.A.—
In Western Missouri, a few days out from Kansas, the
weather took a turn for the worse.
The pressure dropped in the area, the first sign of the beginning of a tornado,
formed by the movement of a cloud close to the ground, rapidly rising, creating
a mini vacuum beneath it.
A cloud has to be of just the right size to become a tornado, of course. If the
cloud is too big, it will not precipitate uniformly, and so not rise uniformly,
but rather, in sections. On the other hand, a cloud that is too small will not
produce enough precipitation to create the pressure underneath needed for the
formation.
On that day, it was Tom Foley Jr., Trey Meyer, and James Groeneveld’s luck that
the clouds were just right.
The three university students had a range of luck last summer, when they spent
nearly two months pedaling coast-to-coast across America to raise money to buy
bicycles for Zambian children.
Foley, from Connecticut, and Groeneveld, of Brisbane, Australia, attend Harvard
University, and Meyer, of New Orleans, is a Williams College student. They left
Yorktown, Virginia’s Atlantic coast on June 22, and by mid-August, their wheels
were wet with the saltwater of the Pacific in Astoria, Oregon.
But on this July day near Ellington, Mo., they rode along, on nearly 20-year-old
bikes fixed up for their cross country trip. They were aware of the change in
the weather, but too far out in the country for anyone to tell them of the
imminent tornado.
It was when they peddled past a house beside the road that they got their real warning.
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Read Samantha Perez's
stunning
journal of hope and survival
during America's worst natural
disaster. |
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- REVIEW-
Facebook movie status: great
By Talon Bronson in PORTLAND, Oregon, U.S.A.
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Stepping into the theater to see The Social Network, I found myself
wondering if I was going to look at Facebook differently afterwards.
I looked at MySpace differently after reading a bio of its creators and I was
expecting something of the same effect from the movie.
Though I doubted anything in the movie could make me stop using Facebook –
because, as a character in the film says, ‘it’s extremely addictive’ – I did
wonder if it would make me wary the way the back story of MySpace had.
It turned out, though, that The Social Network doesn’t really tell too
much about Facebook, because it’s a character movie. Read whole story
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- REVIEW-
Under Cleopatra's spell at
Hartford Stage
By Kiernan Majerus-Collins and Celeste Kurz in HARTFORD,
Connecticut, U.S.A.
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Antony & Cleopatra, now playing at Hartford Stage, is a
show filled with drama and top-notch acting.
Kate
Mulgrew was tremendously convincing as Cleopatra, the demanding, scheming,
self-centered Egyptian queen.
As
originally penned by playwright William Shakespeare, the part of Cleopatra
required Mulgrew to have an amazing ability to probe the mind of the privileged
elite of the ancient world. Despite being surrounded by luxury far exceeding
that of the common person, she still felt plagued by the ill fortune brought on
by her own poor choices.
John
Douglas Thompson’s adept portrayal of Antony delivered the character’s vast
emotional fluctuations. He effectively switched between deep depression and near
maniacal happiness in a matter of seconds. The scene in which Antony kills
himself best showed his acting capability; such emotional range is not often
seen.
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