A&E

Spring is here, summer is quickly approaching, and soon we'll all be baking in the sun. With everything so pleasant outside, these months beg for activity, activity that might be down a bit thanks to how easy it is these days to wrap yourself up in your little corner of the world. There are always things to do outside but sometimes it doesn't seem worth it. But you're an adventurous one, aren't you? I can tell from the look in your eyes. Oh, and you like music, do you? Well, then you should be in luck.

One look at director Joe Wright's ("Atonement") latest film and you think you have it figured out. What it looks like from trailers and clips is your average awards-bait film; a disabled savant whose inner talent is brought out by his friendship with a saner person. For the most part, this assumption is correct, but a surprising lack of a few major conventions of the feel-good Oscar flick, and the strength of the two lead actors makes what could have been another sappy paint-by-numbers experience into something actually worth seeing.

Rather than turning left to go to the Loan Reserves Desk or making a right to the couches and study cubicles, students should take 20 steps straight ahead.

On Friday night, the Greek community held its 30th annual Songfest philanthropy event in the Bren Events Center. This year, the event raised over $30,000 for the Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer program, burying Songfest's goal of $25,000. Each fraternity and sorority at UC Irvine paired up in fall quarter and for the entire year rigorously rehearsed 12 minutes from a play of their choosing. The end result is three hours of singing, dancing and choreography. Past Songfests have included segments from plays such as "Wicked" and "All Shook Up."

With the Newport Beach Film Festival just around the corner starting this Thursday, the New University brings you an inside look into some of the upcoming films at this year's festival.

ASUCI kicked off its annual Wayzgoose Medieval Faire in Aldrich Park at 10 a.m. on Saturday. In collaboration with Celebrate UCI, Wayzgoose is an opportunity for incoming freshmen to get a taste of the many extracurricular activities the campus has to offer. The park remained packed throughout the day, which couldn't have been better for a festival as there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

Fans of the first "Crank" movie will not be disappointed with "Crank: High Voltage" in the least. They might actually pose the question: "Is this movie the second part to ‘Crank'?" In so many words: Yes, it is. "Crank: High Voltage" is full of the same qualities that made "Crank" popular. In fact, the film actually picks up at the exact second that the first film ended.

It's hard enough for a band to evolve from a sound when it's associated with a specific scene, but what's worse is when your band's sound isn't just a product of a scene, but a product of a band that came before you. Any person that is cognizant of '90s music can hear the Smashing Pumpkins in the Silversun Pickups. From the raspy, angsty delivery of frontman Brian Aubert to the subtle, complimentary boy/girl vocals and the extremely familiar tone of the guitars, you can't help the urge to listen to the Smashing Pumpkins' classic record "Siamese Dream" before finishing a song by Silversun Pickups.

Digital distribution has been detrimental to media like films and music that rely on DVDs and album releases to generate extra income for the studios. However, the opposite is true for video games in that avoiding brick-and-mortar retail outlets actually cuts costs for developers. A new trend is emerging in the gaming industry toward titles produced exclusively for digital distribution.

An orchestra tuning its instruments before a musical is like the blossoming of roses; resilient. It starts out dull and closed off to its spectators, but with harmony guiding its movements, its different parts move outward and expand. It twists, dives and curls around in what at first does not appear able to create beauty. But in the end, it always does, fine-tuning its most appealing features in a cluster of rhythmic motion, finally settling into a state of calm. The difference between the blossoming of an orchestra and that of a rose is what comes next.

A woman comes up to a group of men and asks a simple question: "So do you guys like jokes?" Not realizing where she is about to take them, they say yes. Innocently, she asks them, "What do you call the extra skin around a vagina?" She responds, "A woman!" The smiling faces are quickly transformed into awkward grimaces and blank stares. This video installation by Elizabeth Watkins is just one of the works of art in the "Provocations" exhibit, the annual undergraduate art exhibition juried by Sarah C. Bancroft, curator of the Orange County Museum of Art.

On the surface, an amateur rugby player, an aspiring college student and a hitman may not have a lot in common. One could blow a game play, one may blow his chance to get into college and the last might just blow your head off. Yet these different roles represent the diverse spectrum of protagonists whose stories were told at the fourth edition of the Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF).