For the Seminoles, the 2011 season did not live up to the lofty preseason expectations set forth by the media and Coach Jimbo Fisher’s surprisingly successful first season. However, FSU’s primetime victory over storied collegiate powerhouse Notre Dame surely helped sway recruits.  With a roster decked with young talent, FSU already had a limited number of spots on the roster to fill out with the incoming class of recruits.  That allowed Fisher to focus on specific positions being filled, making this class #2 in the nation, trailing only the defending champion Alabama Crimson Tide.

Florida State University Signing Day Pick-Ups:

Defense

The strength of the 2011 football team was clearly the defensive unit. Adding some of the most sought after high school defensive specialists to an already stacked unit, FSU just may earn the best defense in the country this coming season.  All four Signing Day pick-ups are tremendous athletes sure to see playing time come August.

1) Mario Edwards Jr.: Defensive End, Ryan (Denton, TX)

He’s the #1 rated player in the nation and he’s coming to FSU.  Any school in the country would have killed to have him on their team. He’s the son of former FSU great Mario Edwards.

2) Eddie Goldman: Defensive Tackle, Friendship Collegiate Academy (Washington, D.C.)

Both figuratively and literally, Goldman was the biggest pick-up on Signing Day. This kid is a monster, weighing in at 310lbs and standing 6’4”. Goldman is one of the top 10 players in the country and a consensus 5-star recruit that picked the Seminoles over Auburn. With Goldman and last year’s breakout freshman star, Timmy Jernigan, plugging up the middle, opposing offenses are going to be terrified.

3) Ronald Darby: Cornerback, Oxon Hill (MD)

Darby is the second fastest high school football player in the nation. Darby, a high ranking 4-star recruit, was a Notre Dame commit until recently, but he flipped to the Noles on Signing Day. The Domers now have another reason to hate the Noles after that 18-14 Champs Sports Bowl loss in December.

4) Colin Blake: Cornerback, Brandeis (San Antonio, TX)

Blake is a 4-star, tall, athletic corner who flipped from Texas A&M to join the Noles. Jimbo loves this kid and thinks he’s severely underrated.

5) Reggie Northrup: Outside Linebacker, First Coast (Jacksonville, FL)

Ah, the best kind of recruit. Northrup flipped from Miami to the Seminoles on Signing Day. Northrup’s been a Seminole fan his whole life and he finally gets the chance to wear the garnet and gold.

6) Ukeme “Markuss” Eligwe: Linebacker, Stone Mountain (Stone Mountain, GA)

The #2 linebacker in the country, this kid is an athletic freak who should see immediate playing time in the linebacker rotation in 2012.

7) Chris Casher: Defensive End, Faith Academy (Mobile, AL)

While Goldman and Edwards are getting most of the attention, don’t be surprised if Casher becomes the next Brandon Jenkins and a 1^st round draft pick in the NFL. It says a lot about this class when one of the top 5 defensive ends in the country is being overlooked.

8 ) P.J. Williams: Cornerback, Vanguard (Ocala, FL)

Williams is an athletic 4-star corner that could potentially play safety for the Noles.

9) Justin Shanks: Defensive Tackle, Prattville (Prattville, AL)

Another monster of a human being, this 4-star defensive tackle is going to provide great depth to the Seminoles’ already dominant line.

Offense

1) Jamies Winston: Dual-Threat Quarterback, Hueytown (Bessemer, AL)

The #1 ranked quarterback in the country is coming to FSU. Expect him to make some noise as a baseball player as well. He hasn’t signed with the Seminoles yet, but from all reports, he is 100% Nole.

2) Daniel Glauser: Offensive Line, New Mexico Military Institute

The Seminoles’ offensive line was the weak link of last year’s team. Offensive line coach Rick Trickett hopes to remedy that with JUCO signee Daniel Glauser. He plays mean and fast.

3) Menelik Watson: Offensive Line, Saddleback

Another JUCO signee, this kid is massive.  At 6’7” and 320 pounds, expect him to get some serious playing time next year on an immature offensive line.

4) Christo Kourtzidis: Tight End, Lutheran (Orange, CA)

Following last year’s great tight end pick-up, Nick O’Leary, expect 4-star Christo Kourtzidis to get some serious playing time in 2012.

5) Delmarick “Mario” Pender: Running Back, Island Coast (Cape Coral, FL)

Just watch this kid’s high school tape. Expect him to get immediate playing time as he’s already on campus as an early enrollee. He’ll share snaps with Devonta Freeman and James Wilder Jr. next year. Should be fun to watch this trio do their thing.

6) Marvin Bracy: Wide Receiver, Boone (Orlando, FL)

Tired of hearing about how fast UF’s Demps and Rainey are? Bracy is the fastest kid in the country and he just set the high school record for fastest ever 55m run at a blazing 6.08 seconds. To put this in perspective, this kid could be an Olympic sprinter someday…and he’s playing football. Defenses are already lining up 40 yards down field to make up for the speed disadvantage.

7) Sean Maguire: Quarterback

A solid 3-star quarterback with good size. He’s been severely underrated because of Winston.

Specialists

1) Robert Aguayo: Kicker, South Lake (Groveland, FL)

Dustin “The Man With the Golden Toe” Hopkins’ eventual replacement.  Hopkins will still be on the team for the 2012 season so it looks like Aguayo will take a greyshirt and enroll in 2013.

2) Cason Beatty: Punter, Olympic (Charlotte, NC)

With the departure of under appreciated hero Shawn Powell, Jimbo’s brought in one of the best punters in the country.

Evaluating the best of the rest…

University of Florida

Compared to years past, UF had a mediocre signing day. The staff missed out on a bunch of recruits that many analysts predicted were leaning toward the Gators including Josh Harvey-Clemons (UGA), Tracy Howard (UM), Nelson Agholor (USC), and Darius Hamilton (Rutgers). Unfortunately, long time FSU commit Dante Fowler jumped ship at the last possible moment, shocking the coaching staff, to join the Gators. If it were not for Fowler’s flip, UF would have had an atrocious signing day.

While they had a weak Signing Day, UF has a great incoming class. Their class is headlined by D.J. Humphries (OT), Jonathan Bullard (DE), and Jessaman Dunker (OG). The strength of UF’s class is in their offensive line, but with FSU’s beastly defensive line, fans shouldn’t be too worried.

University of Miami

With the incoming sanctions from the Nevin Shapiro case looming over the university, Miami did it’s best to take in as many recruits as possible before the hammer fell. This class is all about quantity as they took in a whopping 33 kids. Not all of them are good. Al Golden was able to sell these kids on immediate playing time as Miami just lost half their roster to graduation. This team may struggle to make a bowl game next year. Miami had a decent Signing Day, getting a surprise commit from 5-star cornerback Tracy Howard. Other than Howard, their best incoming recruit is Randy “Duke” Johnson, an outstanding running back.

Alabama may have had the best class in the country this year, but considering they are the current national champions, #2 should be something every Seminole fan is proud of.  #2 Is especially good when FSU beat out both Miami and Florida in recruiting. Let those preseason expectations for next year come forth, it’s going to be a good one.

Throughout the course of this week the Republican candidate has been touring the state emphasizing the importance of faith, family and freedom (ranked in this order of importance) as the guiding principles of his campaign.

To the observer, it may seem that Santorum’s battle is an uphill climb. On Monday he was greeted with a glitter bomb by Occupy Tampa protesters, his name has become a trending Google search term and he is currently ranking at 18% in the national poll, putting him in third place under Gingrich and Romney respectively.  Despite this, Santorum was eager to let it be known that he won’t be going anywhere.

The Senator opened his discussion on the importance of being active participants in protecting our own civil rights:

“What comes naturally is people who gain power and want to exercise that power and authority over the people who don’t have any… And unless you have generations of Americans who understand the threat of centralization and collection of power…the threat to you as folks who want to go out and exercise economic liberty, exercise political liberty, exercise moral liberties, religious beliefs—all of those things ultimately will be at stake.”

These concerns of an all-too powerful government became the overarching narrative of Santorum’s discussion as seen here:

And here.

There is a certain irony that is inherent in political agendas. In this case, Santorum’s claims can lead to some confusion about what his exact message is.

“I think that it’s good that he wants to concentrate more on what we need to concentrate on –to not concentrate on spending big money, but getting our money back,” said Brendan, a Junior Music Performance major. “The only thing I didn’t totally agree with was the fact that it seemed like he put a really big emphasis on religion, on Christianity. I wasn’t sure what he was saying about that. I want America to be a place where everyone has a choice to do whatever religious thing they want, as long as it doesn’t involve any religious sacrifices.”

The paradox is particularly apparent here, considering the Senator’s stance on same-sex marriage and abortion, among various other social issues.

Reactions to Santorum’s lecture were varied.

“I think he’s a principled man and I think he really does believe in what he says,” said Lawrence Dunn, a Senior Mathematics major. “It’s just that I think that what he believes is wrong. Basically, it’s ironic for him to talk about liberty and the Founding Fathers and then in the same sentence, talk about the fact that he doesn’t believe in gay marriage. He doesn’t believe that women have the right to an abortion. He doesn’t believe in legalizing drugs, despite all of the drug violence that’s going on that’s a direct result of the United States drug war. What he is trying to do is sell his principles and his rhetoric rather than actually fix things. I don’t think he wants to talk about real issues.”

To this criticism, the Senator is unapologetically straightforward.

“People say well, ‘What’s your position on the economy?’ ‘What’s your position on deficits?’ ‘What’s your position on all of these issues?’ I could go down and give you a laundry list of all of those things. But I think the most important thing for you to understand is how I look. It’s not what I believe, it’s why I believe. You want to understand how I’m going to approach every problem, now you understand…”

Not everyone was critical of Santorum’s application of principle to politics.

“[Santorum] always does a great job of relating his view points on social issues to his overall stances on everything and how that guides his beliefs in decision-making,” said John Clark, a sophomore Business Major. “Instead of ‘I believe in less spending’ or ‘I believe in a strong national defense,’ he really explains why he believes this. It’s something that you don’t see with a lot of candidates on the right or left.”

Still, Santorum may have a long way moving up in the polls and getting the support of Florida voters.

“He put a big emphasis on what he thinks we all should do,” said Brendan. “I admire that. It seems like he has a good moral compass. But, sometimes I think that leading by example, through things that are admirable to do, is more powerful than telling people what they should do.”

Florida’s primary is next Tuesday, January 31^st.

These are some of the highlights of West’s lecture accompanied by a song or artist that he referenced in his speech.

1. “Deep education is in some ways terrifying.”

West began his lecture reflecting importance of stimulating Paideia, or the ancient Greek notion of deep education. He notes that we have to be vulnerable enough to examine ourselves critically, and that we might not always like what we find. String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135, Beethoven’s last complete Opus, lends a piercingly eerie quality well-suited for self-reflection.

2. “The condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak.”

The structure of West’s lecture followed a chronology of a history of human injustice in the U.S. As we acknowledge wrongdoing in the past, we are awakened to the fact that everyone is suffering in some way or another. With that, here’s BB King’s “How Blue Can You Get?” to soothe the soul.

3. “What does it mean to be human?”

West promotes the pursuit of spiritual fortitude and determination. We should live to critique the world around us through the lens of deep empathy, compassion, and critical social dialogue. He referenced John Coltrane’s “Love Supreme.”

4. “What does it mean to find your voice?”

West prompts us to stand up against conformity and to challenges those around us to do the right thing. Need a little encouragement? Look no further than Sly and the Family Stone’s “Stand!”

5. “Wander in the dark and emerge in betterment.”

Carole King’s feel good vibes, especially in “I Feel the Earth Move,” are inescapable. Like West, they remind us that the best is yet to come.

6. “Justice is what love looks like in public.”

And the last of West’s words of wisdom? Have the courage to love. There’s little better representation than Aretha Franklin’s “Respect.”

Bill S.978, or the Commercial Felony Streaming Act, was proposed by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chris Coons (D-DE) and John Cornyn (R-TX) on May 12, 2011, and was met with sensationalized media coverage that relied heavily on the question “Could Justin Bieber be sent to jail by S.978?” This is primarily due to Bieber’s early reliance on posting covers of songs on his YouTube channel, which eventually allowed him to rise to the level of fame that he has acquired today. However, S.978 is not necessarily bent on prosecuting YouTube users.

Under the current Copyright Act, streaming is classified as a performance of copyrighted material. The unauthorized streaming of copyrighted materials, such as posting a video utilizing copyrighted music on YouTube, under the Copyright Act, is a misdemeanor.

“[The Commercial Felony Streaming Act] ratchets up the streaming penalty so that it matches, basically, the penalty for distributing or reproducing,” said Jake Linford, Assistant Professor in the FSU College of Law. “[Streaming is] a performance. The copyright owner has an exclusive right to that. If I infringe the performance right, currently, the copyright owner could sue me and seek civil damages, or there could be criminal action, but the criminal action is just a misdemeanor, it’s like a parking ticket, it’s not a lot of damages, not a lot of jail time. And they’re trying to ratchet that up.”

Despite the bill’s proposed increase in the penalty for this copyright infringement, there are several conditions that must be met before someone could be prosecuted. The first, and fairly easy condition to be met is that there must be at least 10 streaming incidents over a 180-day period.

Next, for a penalty to be incurred, the video would have to result in commercial value. The amount of money that the copyright holder would license the material for would have to be more than $5000. Additionally, the amount of money made by the copyright infringer must be at least $2500.

YouTube does pay users that manage to produce highly popular videos, however, the amount that a YouTube user makes on a particular video that infringes on copyright would have to exceed $2500 for them to be prosecuted for streaming.

According to Linford, the bill targets people who are engaged in things like pirating television shows or movies.

“They’re going to be going after people who are copying whole episodes of Game of Thrones and putting it online so that people don’t have to pay HBO whatever you would normally have to pay HBO to stream the thing through authorized channels. That’s the kind of stuff, where you’re cutting into HBO’s market, where there’s probably more than $2500 on the line. Those are the kind of folks that you imagine the government going after,” said Linford.

Despite the fact that the intent of the legislation is to target people that are cutting into copyright holders’ profitability in the marketplace, there is the possibility that this legislation could affect musicians posting cover songs on YouTube.

“I play in a cover band and we play a lot of cover songs, and that’s the way that we build a lot of rapport with the audience is to play songs that they know,” said Peter Lebhar, a Family and Child Sciences major at FSU. “I know a lot of musicians who try to get people to look at their own stuff by playing a cover and that gets a lot of hits and then they go check out the artist’s original material.  So that could hurt a lot of artists.”

Another bill regarding internet-related legislation is SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R.3261), which was proposed on October 26, 2011 by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), as well as 12 other sponsors.

Currently, the government has the ability to take down websites providing illegal access to copyrighted material as long as the websites are based in the United States. However, foreign websites are not subjected to US law. SOPA would allow for the government to obstruct the sites’ availability to Americans by disallowing search engines to list their URLs in search results, blocking internet service providers like Comcast from providing access to them, and preventing companies like PayPal from doing business with them. If the foreign websites want to react to these measures, they are then subjecting themselves to the US court system, thereby subjecting them to US copyright law.

The reaction to this bill on the Internet has been quite extensive. There is a large grassroots movement online that is joined by big companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Intel. They believe that the bill allows for too much governmental interference with regard to the Internet.

A Political Science major at FSU, who wishes to remain anonymous to avoid prosecution for her usage of foreign websites providing access to copyright infringing material, believes that the legislation will be ineffective.

“Sometimes, streaming sites are the only way to watch shows. If there is a legal alternative, such as Hulu, I will use it, but sometimes networks block certain shows and illegal streaming is the only way to watch,” said the anonymous student. “If they block Americans from funding these sites, they’re not blocking them from watching them. Certainly some sites will be forced to close, but people from other countries will finance the sites. Honestly, the networks and studios should be happy we even bother watching their shows or movies. Not only are we consumers, but we are their best advertising, and if I can’t watch the show, I won’t be able to convince anyone else to.”

Interestingly, the platform that legislators are trying to inhibit, the Internet, is the very same platform allowing dissenters to make their voices heard. Stay tuned for further coverage of these issues online and in our print publication.

The Suwannee Music Park has over 500 acres of lush trees, a spring-fed lake and nature reserve. It offers camping, swimming, hiking, fishing, canoeing, disc golf, RV hook-ups, golf cart rentals, shower and bath houses, mini-golf and even a honey-bee exhibit and the world’s largest bat house. This ideal location allows thousands of attendees to camp in tent-families under the Spanish Moss draped branches, roast marshmallows on a flickering campfire, stroll dreamily around a gleaming lake, and hear their favorite live beats at the amphitheater stage planted right in the midst of a forest sanctuary.

“Suwannee Music Park is full of good vibes and BCMF just amplifies those vibes to the masses,” said Will Tucker, a multi-fest attendee, of his experience at the venue. “It’s just in time for the weather to be comfortable and the people treat you like you’re family.”

Bear Creek has become increasingly popular not only because of its great venue, but because of its consistent ability to bring an insurmountable crop of tunage to it’s fans. This year almost 100 artists are performing, even some with multiple sets. Electronic pioneers Big Gigantic, funky jam band Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, sex-rock sounds of Catfish Alliance, up-and-coming DJ SirCharles, Rubbelbucket’s upbeat instrumentals, and the soothing, sweet sounds of Zach Deputy are just a handful of the talent bursting at Bear Creek’s seams. Another 2011 addition is the Silent Disco Tent and Music Hall which will hold the late-night shows rocking all the way until nearly 5am. 1000 pairs of headphones will be distributed to all the musical insomniacs so they will not disturb the camping neighbors

It’s the overwhelming appreciation for art and music that keeps BCMF alive. People come from all over the country to take part in this giant family whose intentions are all the same: fascinating live artwork, undeniable music, tongue-dribbling food, and some of the friendliest, craziest, most eccentric people you’ll ever meet.

“I’ve been to Bear Creek for the past three years and the lineup never disappoints,” said Grace Norbeg, a dedicated Bear Creek fan. “It’s a well-organized weekend of feel-good music populated by positive people who are all there just to dance and have fun. Zach Deputy is my favorite artist that’s been there pretty much every year. He’s amazing because he uses a “looper” to record beats and melodies with a variety of different instruments to make an entire song all by himself on stage.”

In the spirit of Halloween and 11/11/11 Bear Creek is hosting themed costume parties for the very first time! “Warm and Fuzzy” is the theme for Friday night, encouraging attire such as spirits hoods, scarves, fur jackets, ear muffs, fuzzy boots, long johns, hats and the like. To honor the soldiers as well as the funky, Saturday night’s theme is appropriately named “Funk Soldiers Gone Wild.” At this party you will most likely see lots of glow sticks, tie-dye, bell-bottoms, fringe, knee-high disco boots, peace signs, flowers and psychedelic sunglasses.

With all the avid followers and additional perks and play, this year’s Bear Creek is bound to be biggest and the best. This success is largely due to BCMF’s dedicated staff.

“We have a very experienced staff that’s been working together, for some people, more than five years,” said Paul Levine, an integral founder of the festival. “Everybody loves the show and loves each other. I think the way that we treat the public and our guests and the artists– you can just feel it in the experience! Everybody is VIP here.”

Enthusiastic leaders like Levine and the emphasis on great music makes this festival far more special than the rest.

“Bear Creek is well known for being a musician’s festival,” Levine said. “It’s a place where musicians come and feel very comfortable. They get to spend a lot of time with their friends and family because a lot of the bands are there for a couple days too. It’s a very relaxed family environment where the performers are as much a part of the crowd as the fans are! And because of thatrelaxed environment it translates into more interesting music and a more creative and less stressful environment where everybody gets to enjoy!”

Additional Festival Information:

This year’s BCMF memorabilia poster was created by Stanley Mouse, a psychedelic artist of the ‘60s best known for his Grateful Dead album work. A limited number of artist signed posters will be available for purchase. Bring 5 canned goods or non-perishable food items to the WET volunteer tent for the annual Suwannee Valley Food Bank Drive and receive a commemorative poster free! Check out bearcreekmusicfestival.com for more details on posters, schedules, tickets and the line-up.

Tickets are available online at bearcreekmusicfestival.com for $165 general admission and $350 for VIP (kids 12 and under are free). In commemoration of the Veteran’s holiday all active and retired military can upgrade their 3-day pass to a 4-day pass completely free of charge.

With unemployment yet again set squarely above 9% and 14 million Americans still out of work, President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress last Thursday served as a blunt reminder of the dire condition of America’s flailing economy. Obama seeks to fulfill the unanswered promises of TARP with a new recovery initiative carrying a price tag of nearly a half trillion dollars. Among the parts of his plan that he failed to elaborate on, Obama mentioned yet again the need to raise taxes on the wealthy and close tax incentives to corporations. In a joking tone, Obama observed that some in Congress had made a promise to never raise taxes.  Although the pledge signed by many in Congress to Americans for Tax Reform most certainly promised to not raise taxes, it was a pledge to citizens concerned with the growth of government spending and an unsustainable addiction to debt. Obama’s glib reference to this pledge is one of many reasons that his divisive jobs speech imbued his newest initiative with the political rancor necessary to all but guarantee its failure in congress.

The moment that Obama decided to schedule his speech one day earlier, at the same time as a significant Republican primary debate, he cast a shadow of politics over what should have been a unifying message for all Americans.  Upon House Speaker John Boehner’s refusal to host the speech at a time when many Americans would be forced to choose between watching a debate between presidential candidates and the president’s speech, President Obama backed down and rescheduled.  Despite his embarrassment over the scheduling snafu, Obama proceeded to play partisan politics by presenting a plan that would be “paid-for” by the same bipartisan super committee that the president and congress established to confront government spending.  Rather than allow the super committee to draw up its own plans and make a real dent in this nation’s debt crisis, Obama decided to pass the buck of his plan over to them. He also discussed reforming entitlements to help pay for the plan, again taking away the authority of the bipartisan super committee on an item committee members expected to confront in a bipartisan fashion. Obama used the word “taxes” 23 times, and urged Congress to “pass” his jobs bill 20 times, yet did not use the word “bipartisan” even once.  You do the math.

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Last week, after a small scheduling conflict that several pundits laughably attempted to portray as political, Pres. Obama stood before a joint session of Congress to lay out his new plan dubbed the American Jobs Act. Keeping to his current strategy of giving the opposition nearly everything they want (while hoping that they might stray from their own strategy of only uncrossing their arms to give him the finger) nearly 55% of the $447 billion cost of the plan is in tax cuts.

The cuts include two payroll taxes aimed at working Americans and small businesses (who employ a majority of jobs in the country). The employee tax cuts count for $175 billion of the plan, offering around $1,500 to families taking in $50,000 annually. The other $70 billion is for small businesses covering a 50% cut on the first $5 million in payroll taxes as well as a credit for hiring veterans. The rest of the plan includes money for many construction projects throughout the country as well as the renewal of extended unemployment benefits and aid to state governments in an effort to help them avoid laying off the people who police our streets, put out our fires, and teach our children how to read (useless fat-pensioned freeloaders that they are).

As the President repeated several times in his speech, the proposals in this plan have been supported by Republicans and Democrats alike. There is also $10 billion in the plan to create an infrastructure bank which will allow the creation of several more construction jobs over the next few years, an idea first proposed by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). Based on this pre-existing solidarity, as well as the immediate need to address the 9.1% unemployment our country is facing, the President urged Congress twenty times to pass this legislation. Already a number of ideologically divided think tanks are lobbing their roses and rat carcasses on the bill with economists on one side saying it will work well and economists on the other saying it absolutely will not; now’s a time when we have to ask ourselves just how theoretical the study of economics actually is.

With a majority of money spent being tax breaks which would add more to the deficit (that thing that became the biggest issue in Washington when the opportunity arose to make it so) his own base might be reluctant to support it, or, for that matter, pass it. But along with the tax cuts and the President’s proposal to add the $447 billion to the $1 trillion of spending cuts the new Super Committee is supposed to find by late December, finding enough votes on the other side of the aisle might be possible. The reason this should, as the President repeatedly urged, be passed by both parties immediately is that small businesses and working families have been hit almost as hard as the $14 million unemployed in this country, and encouraging them both to consume and hire new employees can turn around the current devastating direction both the middle class and the economy as a whole. It is cutting the right kind of taxes.

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The film opens in medias res with the titular heroine (played by the often remarkable Mia Wasikowska) throwing herself into the cold, wet, wilderness of the English countryside and landing on the front door of St. John (played by Jamie Bell). After the delirious girl is taken in and cared for, we flashback to the beginning of Brontë’s novel, moving through Jane’s situation as the unwanted ward of her wealthy aunt, as well a brief sequence of her education at the Lowood School. These flashbacks pepper the present action of the film as Jane becomes acclimated into the small parish St. John (pronounced ‘Syn-Gyn’) runs as the minister.

We learn that Jane left Lowood for the gothic Thornfield to work as a governess to Adele, the illegitimate child of the byronically charming Mr. Rochester (Michael Fassbender). Intrigue and romance ensue.

As this is largely a love story, the chemistry of the two lead actors, Wasikowska and Fassbender, determines a great deal of the movie’s success. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much there. Both actors found their individual characters with enough confidence to exist on the screen, but the attraction between the two was understated at best. The film lacks the romantic magic of the novel, probably because Director Cary Fukunaga tries to give us the more realistic Jane Eyre.

Outdoor sequences are shot with hand cams that bounce behind Jane as she walks down garden paths and picks flowers with Rochester. The interior scenes look almost like a different movie as Fukunaga takes full advantage of what a film set offers. He lights and places his objects meticulously with a dense array of muted colors that make every frame look like a Vermeer painting.

The film is paced well, coming in at two-hour runtime (pretty standard for a Victorian adaption) but leaves a few some elements of the plot only half-explained so that anyone not familiar with the novel might have some questions at the end. All-in-all, what is supposed to work in this film works, but not too memorably or, for that matter, impressively. If you like Brontë or think it might help you chat up coeds at The Warehouse, you might want to see it; and if not, there’s still the new Pirates, and it’s still in 3D!

Curried Split Pea Soup

(serves 4 hungry-ass people or 6 regular-ass people)

1 tbsp. oil (I used olive oil)

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ tbsp. ginger, minced

2 tbsp. curry powder

1 tsp. cumin

Black pepper to taste (freshly ground is best)

Heavy pinch salt

6 cups veggie broth*

1 pound dried split peas, sorted and rinsed

1 pound potatoes (I like red ones), scrubbed or peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

½ pound carrots, peeled and cut into ½ inch chunks

Optional for serving: sour cream, plain yogurt, sriracha , chopped cilantro

*If your broth is very salty or strong, you might want to do half water and half broth.

Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until it becomes translucent. Add the garlic and ginger, and cook the mixture until it is fragrant but not browning.  Sprinkle in the spices and toast for about a minute, then stir in the broth and the split peas. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer – stirring once in a while – until the peas begin to lose their shape (this should take roughly an hour).

Once the peas begin to break down, add in the potatoes and carrots. Continue simmering, covered, for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the veggies are as tender as you’d like them. At this point, if the soup is too thick, you could stir in a little water to thin it out a bit. On the other hand, if you want something really thick, you could puree some of the soup in the blender and then stir it back in. Taste for seasonings, and you’re good to go. I topped my soup with a little sour cream (plain yogurt would have a similar effect), which was amazing, but it would also be great with sriracha or chopped cilantro stirred in, or any combo of them.