Loyola Greyhound

Last Thursday evening, the reception for Mary Beth Akre's "Centering" exhibit was held in the Julio Art Gallery. Akre, who is an associate professor of fine arts here at Loyola, created a number of oil paintings and a stone labyrinth for the exhibit. Most of the pieces were created during her spring semester sabbatical, when she had some time off from being "a teacher, artist and mom" and was allowed to focus on her artwork.

The Shins have been having quite a year. Since the release of their second album, Chutes Too Narrow, in the fall of last year, the band has received a worthy amount of attention -- much of it because of their relationship with soundtracks for major motion pictures.

The Ottobar -- where Christmas lights haphazardly adorn the rafters, paste-up posters of past shows line the dirty black walls and every breath takes in a lungful of smoke, stale booze and the rank stench of BO. Support "pillars" (that is, padded I-beams) block a good portion of the "stage," a laughable 20 foot by 10 foot platform with barely enough room for mics, amps, speakers and a drum kit, let alone the performers.

What ever happened to Chucky the bachelor? The Chucky that would scream "Here's Johnny!" and then summarily chop up a nice little family with his 8-inch blade. Somewhere along the five-movie saga of the Child's Play series, Chucky has sold out his playboy ways and started up a family of his own.

Tony Hawk's Underground 2 is more of hop for the series than a giant leap. Following and expanding (slightly) on the THUG formula, a new story mode has been added in addition to the usual "rack up some points" goal fest. The new story mode, advertised as a "world destruction tour," is, in context, a bunch of punk skater kids blowing their shots at professional careers by traveling the world and trashing every city they come to.

ST. PAUL, Minn.-- Recently, pharmacist John Hoeschen felt a cold coming on. He wasn't surprised, since his four kids were feeling under the weather. He immediately started drinking extra fluids and taking echinacea. Four days later, he was symptom-free: no coughing, no congestion.