701 Center for Contemporary Art

Tabitha Hartgrove walks down Whaley Street heading towards Olympia Avenue; her destination is 701 Whaley Street, the Center for Contemporary Art. It is a calm, cool Tuesday evening, Tabitha and a friend plan to attend the World Symphonic Jazz Orchestra Concert being held there; she is going out of a requirement for a class. She knows her destination is 701 Whaley Street but she has never been there before, so she is looking for any indication of that address. She expects that the place will “have a more “contemporary” feel and look than what you would expect a traditional Art Center or Concert Hall to be like” Ms. Hartgrove explains. Tabitha explains “that she felt a little awkward walking down Whaley Street in the dark, not fully knowing where she was going, she would have been uncomfortable if she would have been walking alone.” As Tabitha walks down Whaley Street she finally comes to an intersection, and her friend believes the place to be the building right across the street, and Tabitha explains “We looked across the street and the building had in white 701 on the side of the building, so we assumed this was the building but the first thing we saw was a dark area through large glass windows that looked like an abandoned warehouse in some ways.” Finally, she was shown how to get upstairs, where the concert was to be held and where the Center’s Art Gallery was too, Tabitha explains “After going upstairs my perceptions of the place changed, I liked the upstairs; it had a “contemporary” theme to it.”

            701 CCA, as it is called by members and volunteers, is a non-profit organization in the Columbia Area that opened in October 2008. Two years after the opening and many students I have spoken too never heard of the place. As Wim Roefs, the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Executive Director, explains “CCA is primarily a visual arts center, but we do offer other forms of the arts; performing arts [such as music and dance] and literary arts [writing and poetry]; all to help create a better understanding of contemporary art. We have concerts similar to the Jazz Symphony, we have art like the current wood art exhibit, and at times we have writers or poets come in and read works.” The Center has also been working to get with a local dance company to put on a performance at the center, but it’s hard to give a dance company the appropriate amount of space need to rehearse for a dance recital, and the space the 701 CCA is in is a rented space so they only have a limited amount of space to work with themselves. The room where the Jazz Concert was held, the one the Tabitha attended, is actually a space they have not rented but the owner of the property allows them to use that space for such events. The biggest shock about all of the space issues is that, according to Mr. Roefs, 701 Center for Contemporary Art is the largest space in the state of South Carolina that shows contemporary art all year round. 701CCA also has quite a few interactions with the University of South Carolina too. The concert that Ms. Hartgrove attended was a symphony where most of the performers were students at the university in the School of Music, also several faculty members are volunteers, and a little while back CCA had an artist in resident that was a Dutch photographer who also went in to several of the universities photography classes to offer advice and the sort. Mr. Roefs also adds that “701 has added to Columbia something that was missing, sure there is the Art Museum and the like in Columbia but there wasn’t anywhere that solely focused on contemporary art, and creating an understanding of that type of art. The center has added a place so that people who enjoy art can come from a decent distance away for a weekend trip in Columbia; spend time at the Columbia Museum of Art, spend time at 701 Center for Contemporary Art, and other types of features in the area, they eat at local restaurants, and it’s a boost for the local economy.”

            Tabitha explains of that Tuesday evening “The second floor was beautiful, it was just a small room, and all the performers dressed in predominantly black attire. It was a good concert.” After the concert the Center had the art gallery open which is currently featuring an exhibition of wood-based art by Mike Lavine, Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. Ms. Hartgrove explains it as “Her taste in art is different than theirs”, but that can be expected because most people aren’t really accustomed to contemporary art. Ms. Hartgrove says “It was a fun night and I would go there again for another concert or a different art exhibit.” Tabitha discovered a new place out of a course requirement, a place that she just may enjoy and go back to when it isn’t for a grade.

            To learn more about 701 Center for Contemporary Art visit the website, www.701cca.org, or take a visit to the gallery yourself and check out their current exhibit. 

 Below is a video of the Wood-based Art Exhibit; courtesy of 701 CCA, and the artist Mike Lavine for the art and video:

 

“The Dark Knight Rises” Speculation Follow Up

Another Story for Between the Panels: http://btpcast.com/

At the end of October, I did a little speculation for the latest Batman movie, “The Dark Night Rises.” Well the ideas that I had developed were based off of some news surfacing around the announcement of the planned and aforementioned title. As a quick recap: I speculated Tom Hardy to play Max Court, Joseph Gordon-Levitt or Johnny Depp to play Hugo Strange and Marion Cotillard to play Catwoman. Well as it seems I may be wrong about Cotillard playing Catwoman, as there have been another set of names surrounding the film, but it seems I may have been right with the call of Catwoman as its been announced that the actresses being looked at are in contention for either a love interest or female villain. Finally, there are more reports out that have speculation of Tom Hardy to play Hugo Strange, and as stated over on Batman News, their source stating this thought has been very reliable. So it turns out that I may have been right with this character as well, but again wrong with the actor choice. As we all know, speculation is a tricky game. Keep coming back to the site as we will keep you updated as much as we can on “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Source: Batman News

2011 SDCC Registration to Reopen Nov 22

Another Story I wrote for Between the Panels: http://btpcast.com/

Last week as the badges for  San Diego Comic-Con 2011 were about to go on sale, the website crashed. This caused them to create and install a backup plan, which is that the badges will now go on sale at 6AM (PST) on November 22. Comic-Con is selling single day badges and four-day badges (four-day badges with preview night were sold out during the 2010 event). Prices for the badges range from $20 to $105, and will most likely sell out quickly; so get yours fast if you plan to go. Visit Comic-Con.org for more information and tickets.

Source: Slash Film

Marvel Preparing a War Machine Spin-Off?

Another Story I wrote for Between the Panels: http://btpcast.com/

With Marvel preparing for the release of Thor and Captain America in 2011 and The Avengers in 2012, there are rumors that other spin-off movies may occur once these projects are finished. We’ve heard past rumors of a Black Widow movie but Marvel Studios is also rumored to be preparing a War Machine movie. The hero will appear in the Avengers and possibly in Iron Man 3 which is slated for 2013. Don Cheadle played War Machine in Iron Man 2 and will play the role in the Avengers. Reports suggest the pitch has already been made and now we just have to wait to hear what the studio reply is.

What do you guys think of a possible War Machine spin-off or any others?

Source: Total Film

Serving the Students

If you have ever had a meal on a college campus, that you paid for straight out of pocket then you know it can be a little pricey at times, especially for a college student. Well, at the University of South Carolina the prices seem pretty drastic to some students, and can be seen pretty clearly to those that don’t have a meal plan. For students who spend a lot of time on campus without a meal plan, it can be quite costly and depending on the meal plan that others have, it can still be costly.

The hard part about it all is the fact that Sodexo, the food service provider on campus, is still a business and therefore still has to generate a profit. They create their prices based upon the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures changes through time in the price level of consumer goods and services purchased by households. The biggest problem with this right now is that the contract they are working off of expires in 2017, and is a 15 year contract. Almost ten years old at this point, think how differently things have been since 2002. Although the prices get to change along with the CPI; it’s hard to believe that a contract written in 2002, would be very fair for both businesses and consumers during such rough time.

To look at some of the business aspects of a meal plan, it is similar to locking in a price for a period of time, the two most common similar practices of this are: those who lock in oil prices for winter months ahead of time, by signing that they will purchase at least a certain amount of gallons at a set price, and the other example is renting a living residence, by signing a lease a person locks in their rent for the time of the lease. This has one main advantage and disadvantage right from the start for each the consumer and business entity; if prices or rent goes up the consumer has already locked in their lower price [advantage for the consumer; disadvantage for the business] but if prices decrease the consumer has already locked in for a higher rate [disadvantage to the consumer; advantage to the business].

“The idea of a meal plan on a college campus was originated from the idea of all you can eat cafeterias, you would use a meal however they were originally used [now days students swipe their student ID’s and it is done electronically] and enter the lunch area and eat as much as you wanted” explains Michael Gwiazdowski, Operations Director for Sodxo on the USC campus. However, now days there are mainly one-stop meals, like Burger King or Chick-fil-A, so there had to be individual prices assigned to meals, and meal values. These prices that get assigned are what cause a lot of the problems and frustrations among the student body.

A lunch, being paid by using a meal credit, can get rung up as say $5.00, but another student paying with cash, debit, or their Carolina Cash (a form of debit system only usable on the USC campus) has to have those items rung up separately and pays about $9.80. Now, as you can see the advantage goes to the student who has a meal plan and paid for the whole semester upfront. But is a meal plan really worth it?

According to Jason Carroll, a senior at South Carolina (who has a meal plan), “Not this semester, you don’t get as much food [as previous semesters] and there isn’t really that much of a verity.” Also, for other students who don’t use all of their meals in a given week they feel as if they are losing money, Hannah Baker, a freshman at USC, says “I only use my meals during the week, on weekends I eat off-campus, eating out or at my boyfriend’s [he lives at an off campus apartment]”. At USC like other colleges and universities, freshmen (those that live on campus) are required to have meal plans. Baker shares similar thoughts with Carroll as well that there isn’t enough variations, saying “There is not that much variation in food choices in the cafeterias.” For these students they have their meal plans paid for up front, and use them at their discretion (within the uses that meal plan policies allow) and it’s common for students with larger number of meals to lose some from not using them all.

Other students who don’t have a meal plan feel like they are at a disadvantage, as Cameron Widerman, a junior at SC [does not have a meal plan], puts it “ The prices are not at all fair, they charge almost twice as much for a meal [being paid for without a meal credit]; it’s better to go off campus for cheaper, better quality food”. However, the point to a meal plan is to give those with it an advantage, and therefore with a blunt and rational conclusion, put those without one at a disadvantage. To make prices “fair” in the minds of those without meal plans would “Make it unfair to those with meal plan, and diminish the advantage and idea of a plan that is paid for in advance; the only two logical business decisions that would help those without a meal plan would be to make meal plans more expensive and to make meal portions smaller” Gwiazdowski says.

Though to many students the prices of food on a college campus seems unfair and expensive, it really isn’t that much more expensive than places off campus; with all the factors that build the differing prices we can see that prices are about as fair as possible to all the affected parties. The prices at an off campus Burger King are similar if not the same as the prices at the BK on South Carolina’s campus. As a student myself, I think we will always feel at a disadvantage to a system that seems to favors others in one way or another. In a final note from Gwiazdowski, “Outside of being a business and running a service, Sodexo does have a goal of taking care of people”. Altogether it seems as if they run a pretty good service and business on campus, and take care of the students nutritional needs; students just need to take the proper steps in taking advantage of the services provided.