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  • "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" trailer is here.

    By Willa Young

    Let me preface the following by ensuring my sanity. I am not crazy; I just take The Hunger Games book series very seriously. I’ll attempt to keep the spoilers to a minimum.

    The Hunger Games trilogy will release its second installment November 22, 2013 with Catching Fire. Live at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards tonight, April 14, Liam Hemsworth, the film’s co-star, presented an exclusive debut of the sequel’s first trailer.

    First of all, the wait time for the trailer was just ridiculous. They had this snazzy, minimalist website for just the trailer, boasting the exclusive premiere at 8 pm. They had a countdown and intense pictures. I got a little excited. So most of the tween world was sitting on the edge of their seats, nail biting in their polka dotted PJs while the clock ticked by marking the premiere. When it finally hit zero, no video was to be found. Not after 10 minutes, not after 30, not after 2 hours. Absolutely nothing. Naturally, I was pacing and smoking from the ears.

    When the trailer finally came, it gave me a lot to think about.

    Well, at least it wasn’t too full of spoilers. The trailer was awesome not because it made me jump up and down screaming in anticipation, although I am abnormally excited. They did an interesting job hinting at the book’s climatic plot twist, but not outwardly saying it. For the book fans, like myself, it also answers a question that many pondered and debated: Were any of the “Quarter Quells” random, or were they hand selected for the current state of the nation?

    The trailer seems to be following the book pretty closely, though the scenes they featured seemed fairly more dramatic than in the book, especially in Katniss’s reactions. She’s screaming like a banshee the entire time. Come on Katnip, we know that’s not you.

    The witty repartee between President Snow, played by Donald Sutherland, and Plutarch Heavensbee, played by the simply fabulous Phillip Seymour Hoffman, was the best part by far. The casual corruption was just so perfect. We hate that we love them.

    Book lovers don’t need to fear for this film, I believe. This sequel looks like it may do what debatably only Toy Story has done before: have a sequel that is better than the first movie. We can only hope that the odds are ever in our favor!

  • "Smart Gun" technology may never be good enough

    By Stuart Railey

    In the latest Bond film, "Skyfall," movie-goers may have been shocked by the unusual absence of cutting-edge technology. Armed with a seemingly normal handgun and a distress beacon, Daniel Craig was forced to rely more on his cunning than Q’s latest gadgets.

    The reality, however, is that Bond’s seemingly normal gun is patently state-of-the-art. The sidearm holstered by Britain’s infamous secret agent employs technology that helps instantly recognize its wielder to determine if it should fire. Since the grip of the gun is mapped to Bond’s palm print, only he is capable of using it. At the New Jersey Institute of Technology, this kind of equipment is not confined to the realm of spy fiction.

    For the last 13 years, engineers have been undergoing research and development to make this safety feature more marketable to consumers. Gun manufacturers have even come up with their own security measures, which include wristwatches and rings that activate a firearm.

    But even while the most outspoken proponents of this technology claim it will prevent accidental gun-related deaths and minimize risk in violent situations, American gun-owners may not be too keen on changing the status quo. If, for example, people become too reliant on this safety feature they may be encouraged to keep their guns loaded at all times. Should the sensor happen to fail in any situation, the results could be fatal.

    Will this kind of technology make enough of an impact to bring down gun violence in the United States? Since American is a country founded on the premise of free will, the answer is most likely "not at all." Without any kind of legislation to back up or require these safety features, the most likely outcome for "Smart Gun" technology would be dust collecting on shelves. Even if the sensors were more highly tested and reliable, it is a dubious proposition to suggest that everyone will agree on what increases or decreases a gunowner's safety. 

  • A search for the perfect breakfast taco

    By Laura Wright

    A while back, I pitched the idea of writing a piece on cooking classic dishes from much-loved Austin restaurants to my editor (my usual excuse to gorge myself in the name of work). In the process of writing that piece, I took a trip to Guadalupe's own Torchy's Tacos. I hadn't eaten at Torchy's since I moved out of the dorms nearly two years ago, but I went there because students love it, visitors to the city know it by name and tacos are easy to make and fun to eat.

    Given all that, why were Torchys' tacos so terrible? I ordered two of the restaurant's most popular tacos, the green chile pork and the fried avocado, and the innards of both tacos mushed into a baby food-esque mess that only an infant could love. And an infant could eat them, too: They only had spice once you poured the  provided sauce on them. Maybe my standards are too high. 

    I grew up in San Antonio, arguably the taco capital of the United States, eating the best tacos in America two or three times a week.

    Sure, like Torchy's tacos, the tacos I grew up with were made with sweat and grease and actively shun any vegetable that wasn't shredded lettuce or a component of  salsa or guacamole. But the breakfast tacos of my youth were as simple as their ingredients, and when you bit into them, you could taste the grease of the potatoes and the spice of the chorizo and the silky textures of the egg. All that get's lost in Torchy's over-zealous taco combos. 


    Maybe I'm wrong here. The friend who joined me for the meal had Torchy's Dirty Sanchez and Trailer Park tacos and claimed both were spectacular. Though from where I was sitting, they seemed like a sloppy mess (and not the finger-licking good kind either.) 


    Still, I'm attempting to recreate some of Torchy's tacos on my own, not because they're spectacular but because I think it would be pretty damn easy to do a better job myself.
     

  • Breaking: Stephen Enniss appointed head of Ransom Center

    By Kelsey McKinney

    According to a recent press release from the University of Texas' Office of the Provost, the new director of the Ransom Center has been chosen. 

    Stephen Enniss, the head libraran of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., will be joining the Ransom Center in the fall to serve as the successor to Director Thomas Staley. 

    Dr. Enniss received his Bachelor of Arts in English from Davidson College in 1982, a master’s degree in librarianship from Emory in 1983 and a doctorate in English from the University of Georgia in 1996. 

    "The Ransom Center is among the finest research libraries in the country with unparalleled holdings and a storied past,” Enniss said in the press release. "I am honored to join my new colleagues there in helping to extend further its important and ongoing cultural work.”

    Enniss will begin at the Ransom Center on Aug. 1, and take over full responsibility upon director Staley's retirement on Aug. 31. 

    Related Headlines

    Questions for the future director of the Harry Ransom Center

    Thomas Staley, director of Harry Ransom Center, to retire

  • SNL in review: Melissa McCarthy

    By Elizabeth Williams

    Are you freaking kidding me, "Saturday Night Live"?

    Last night, Melissa McCarthy (Mike & Molly, Bridesmaids, Identity Thief) hosted for the second time. And for the second time, SNL typecast McCarthy and made almost every sketch about her weight.

    I understand that, in the writing of every episode, the guest host for the week has a fair amount of say in the sketches and the way they’re written. But I really don’t understand why McCarthy gets put in the same Nancy Reagan wig with the same Coca Cola-bottle glasses wearing the same pastel sweatsuit, making the same jokes that revolve around her being awkward, unattractive, unfeminine and food-obsessed. There were two whole skits revolving around food. She sang an ode to ham and asked for a loan to be a professional pizza eater. The first time she hosted the show, she played a lady with a perm and a Spock sweatshirt who guzzled ranch dressing. Are you freaking kidding me?

    McCarthy is a hilarious and beautiful actress but I feel like her go-to kooky lady character is so exhausted. It’s as if because she doesn’t fit the typical Hollywood body type she isn’t allowed to play a glamorous, or even normal, woman. Instead she is casted in masculine and sexually unattractive roles.

    I am getting the impression that Hollywood believes women can’t be attractive and genuinely funny at the same time, that women are only funny if something about them is physically amiss.

    This whole episode was just … ugh.

    But hey, Drunk Uncle and drunk Peter Dinklage were actually quite funny.

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