When it came to the Capitol Steps’ Saturday night performance at the State Theatre, I didn’t entirely know what to expect. I would consider myself a fan of both musical and political comedy, yet I had never heard of the group, despite the fact they’ve been performing since 1981. So, for the uninitiated, I did my best to summarize the group's act.
Imagine America as a summer camp. Government officials are the camp counselors. The Capitol Steps are the kids that put on the skits to lampoon said counselors. That description doesn’t necessarily do their show justice – it’s not comparable to the insipid J.C. Penney gag – but there are distinct stylistic parallels.
Is your interest piqued? Find out my other thoughts on The Capitol Steps after the jump.
THON is less than 19 days away.
We're gearing up at Onward State to make sure you have access to the best THON coverage anywhere. Traditionally (meaning last time we did this), THON weekend means our site becomes THONward State (follow us on Twitter). Since Mitch worked so hard on our redesign, we thought you all could help give him a break. So here's the contest.
Task:
We'd like you to create our new THONward State logo!
Rules:
The logo must be 567px by 82px. There must be a 5px border around the main image that is solid color so that we can make sure it fits our background. That solid color will dictate our background color.
You must submit your design to [email protected].
The deadline is 11:59pm February 14th.
Prize:
The editors and staff will choose the winning logo and that logo will become our logo for the weekend of THON! Pretty cool eh? Our THON production manager Stefan will donate $25 in the winner's name. And, as an added bonus we'll even take a screenshot of the site and have Davis autograph it for you (I know! I can't believe it either!)
Here are our logo files in one PSD along with guidelines so you can align your design properly. [download]
Good luck!
Dear SPA,
Thank you for bringing good music to the HUB for once. After Pitbull, I was a little bit skeptical about the music taste you had. Selling out Motion City Soundtrack in a couple of hours helped your status tremendously.
Tonight was phenomenal. Set Your Goals really psyched up the crowd. The range the vocalists had was surprising, but enjoyable. At one point in time, however, I thought a girl had come on stage to sing. I was wrong. It was one of the male vocalists. He really tricked me! They also told you that you were in their top five favorite shows! Congrats, guys! We can crowd surf and circle pit better (but not the best) than other places. Put that on your resume!
Now, I was skeptical when I listened to My Dinosaur Life (Motion City Soundtrack's latest album) for the first time. Something just wasn't right. It was a little bit after that that I heard they were coming to Penn State. I said to myself, "I shall investigate." I was very worried that maybe Justin had blown out his vocals. He, in fact, did not. I suppose I just dislike most of the new album. However, they did play "@!#?@!," which happens to be the one song I dig on My Dinosaur Life. Also, when they played "Let's Get Fucked Up and Die" I peed myself a little bit.
Oh, SPA, how I adore you when you bring good musicians into my life. Thank you so much.
I hope all is well, and everyone had as much fun as I did at the show.
Sincerely yours,
Melanie
Jeff Dunham and his posse of puppets brought the house down on Friday night at the Bryce Jordan Center with their Identity Crisis Tour. Deftly mixing classic jokes with new material, Dunham had the crowd roaring throughout the entire show. His cast of puppets created a wide variety of jokes ranging from redneck jokes, to a bit about Angelina Jolie's breasts, to Asian jokes.
Featuring an almost certainly unscripted section with Dunham's opening act Guitar Guy, the show slowed down a bit, but Dunham was able to incorporate that into later parts of his show, with great success. Dunham stated during his encore, after discovering that the audience knew all of the punchlines to his jokes with Bubba J., that the show was "one of the weirder shows we've ever done." Weird in a good way.
Dunham's style has been criticized for being too politically incorrect, but still had the BJC filled and the crowd in hysterics. Dunham appears to enjoy performing here and the BJC seems to like having him. So I wouldn't be surprised if he makes another appearance here in the upcoming years. My recommendation: If he comes back, go see it, you won't be disappointed.
Check out pictures after the break.
If this goes down, would you go? I hear she's rumored to be a big deal.
Hey readers! Are you creative? Are you talented with a camera? Do you want an opportunity to win $500?! Then do I have just the thing for you!!!!
The Rock Ethics Institute is holding a competition open to ALL (yes that includes you too, grad student) Penn State students at ANY Penn State campus who are or have been enrolled full-time in the 2009/2010 academic year. The competition itself, you ask? Why, it is to create a short film about ethics. The Rock Ethics Institute attempts to promote ethical awareness across the University (in public and professional sectors) through teaching, research and outreach. More information can be found here.
Find out more about the contest after the jump.