Before multiple attempts at a last-minute cram session, students can check out an interactive village and meet some of their favorite bands behind Fogler Library as a part of the mtvU Campus Invasion Tour that will make its final stop of the year on May 5.

“It’s great. Maine Day is fun, but it’s still about working, whether you are studying or doing community service,” said Vice President of Student Entertainment Derek Mitchell. “MtvU is about having a good time and taking a few hours off from studying to hear some great music, and enjoy your last weekend at UMaine before summer.”

Normally, on the last day of classes not too much goes on, but when Mitchell was able to book the tour to come to Orono, he figured that having the event would be a good way to end the semester.

Performing at the event will be bands Motion City Soundtrack, Straylight Run and Hellogoodbye.

Hellogoodbye may be best known to viewers who religiously watch MTV. Along with winning MTV2′s “Circuit Breakout,” the Huntington Beach band was also featured on “The Real World: Austin.” Besides appearing on the tour, the quartet will also be playing at the Vans Warped Tour over the summer.

After Hellogoodbye performs, Straylight Run will follow. The band was formed in 2003, once members Shaun Cooper and John Nolan left Taking Back Sunday. Since that time, Cooper and Nolan have combined with Nolan’s sister Michelle, and Will Noon to form the group whose self-titled, debut album was on the Billboard Top 100.

“As someone who goes to concerts a lot, I am a little torn about whether or not this show will be received well by everyone,” said WMEB Program Director Mary Holt. “Younger students will be all excited that some well-known bands are actually coming all the way up here, and older students will pretend that they think it is super lame because they are ‘too cool for school.’”

“Like it or not, this is a great opportunity and it is very cool that this is going down.”

The last band that is scheduled to perform is headliner Motion City Soundtrack.

In 2004, the band also toured with Blink-182. During the tour Mark Hoppus, the bassist for the SoCal group said that he was interested in working with them. Hoppus, who recently left Blink-182 to work on other projects, produced the band’s second album, “Commit This To Memory.”

Some of the names that have performed on the tour in previous years have been Hoobastank, Moby, Muse and Wyclef Jean.

Concertgoers can also look forward the interactive village that will have activities including DJ Scratch Academy, music video challenges, a bungee run and a gaming lounge. The mtvU network will have cameras on-hand to interview students and capture the local college scene. For those who do end up on camera, they can tell their friends as the network is on the campus television network.

The village will also serve a meet-and-great of the bands. Besides talking up summer plans, tour attendees can also check out the various tents and booths that will be setup by Nintendo and Old Spice who, along with a few other companies, co-sponsor the nationwide tour. Although the concert will start later in the day, the village will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Tickets for the event were available as of April 20, and can be obtained at the information booth in Memorial Union. Students need only to show their Maine Card for a free ticket.

Besides getting tickets in person, students were able to get them on Friday night via the umainetix.com Web site. The Web site will allow about 1,000 tickets to be available to the public for $10 plus services charges. Non-students must be over 18 and they are required to bring a valid ID to the show.

This will be the second spring concert that Student Government has orchestrated this semester.

Wednesday the brothers of Pi Kappa Alpha will release 50 green bikes to the UMaine community.

For those not familiar with the program, Pi Kappa Alpha refurbishes old bikes and paints them green. They are free for students to use, but the agreement is that they stay on campus and are left where other people can find them.

In the past, a few bikes have been released at a time, but the bikes are destroyed or disappear within days. It’s too bad that an irresponsible few are depriving their fellow students of this service.

Anyone lucky enough to have stumbled upon a green bike in front of their dorm building or outside a class knows what a lifesaver the bikes can be, especially when the next class is only minutes away.

If you manage to find one of these rare gems, be mindful of the next person to use it. Let’s see them last us at least through finals.

Student groups bring national issue to Maine

This afternoon, participants will demonstrate on the mall in support of the “Great American Boycott 2006,” a nationwide immigration strike.

Three University of Maine student groups, Latin American Student Organization, Central American Service Association, and the Social Equality Living and Learning Community in Hancock Hall are responsible for organizing the rally on our campus. Being involved in such a large-scale national event puts our university in a positive light.

Immigration is a complicated and often divisive issue. While many students cannot agree on how the government should act, engaging in dialogue is important. Immigration legislation affects a lot of people in Maine, from international students on our campus to migrant workers throughout the state.

Student groups should be applauded for bringing this large national issue to our campus, which will hopefully encourage more discussion about immigration legislation on both sides of the issue and the best way our government should act.

Of course, everyone and their mother has an opinion when it comes to selection weekend. I am basing mine not necessarily on a team’s ability to draft the best available player, but their proficiency in filling holes on the depth chart, with the best available players.

It’s only fitting that I start with the worst team in the league last season, the Houston Texans. Now, I am aware that they passed on Reggie Bush, but really they didn’t downgrade that much. Mario Williams is a big-time player and is going to make a huge impact for the Texans.

Unlike what Michael Irvin was preaching all Saturday afternoon, defense does win championships. And at 6-7 and 294 lbs., the ex-North Carolina State defensive end gives the Texans a playmaker on the defensive side of the ball, something they frankly have never had. I predict that by this time next year, Texans fans won’t even remember the name Reggie Bush.

The second-round choice of the Texans was DeMeco Ryans from Alabama. The outside linebacker, along with Williams, will greatly improve a defense that ranked dead last in the AFC and second to last in the NFL.

The two third round selections by Houston arguably could be the smartest picks of any team in this draft. Offensive tackle’s Charles Spencer and Eric Winston out of Pittsburgh and Miami, respectively, will allow David Carr to finally get a good night’s sleep. Carr has been sacked a total of 206 times over the last five years, the most of any other quarterback in the NFL. The sight of two big, physical offensive linemen will no doubt put a smile on Carr’s face.

Of course, now, the homer pick. The Patriots did another outstanding job on draft day. We’re usually talking about all these no-names from nowhere, that the Pats pick up in the sixth and seventh rounds, who then end up making a huge impact half-way through their rookie season. Also, if anyone else noticed, the Pats did not take a defensive player in the first three rounds!

But the offensive players they did get are going to flourish in the Patriots system. At No. 21, the Pats selected Laurence Maroney from Minnesota. The explosive running back is going to be a colossal addition to the Pats backfield.

Maroney can run over you if you get in his way, and he’ll run by you for the big one if called upon.

For their second round pick, the Pats moved up into the Packers position to draft Chad Jackson, wide receiver from Florida. Jackson was arguably the top wide receiver in the entire draft and the Patriots got extremely lucky that he dropped to the second round.

The Patriots and Texans both had a successful opening day of the draft. The Texans resisted the temptation to take the best player, instead opting to make their team better, and I applaud them for that. And the Patriots were, well, the Patriots.

With that said, many people will be turned off from seeing the film because of the subject matter and thinking it may be too soon for a movie based on the events of Sept. 11. The film handles its subject matter responsibly, however, and does not disrespect the lives lost in the tragic event. Rather, it pays tribute to them and does not do so in an exploitative manner.

The film is intense. This comes from Greengrass’ attention to realism. He creates a documentary-like look for the film, and also cast the movie with relative unknowns. He even cast certain people, like Ben Sliney, as themselves. The film has also been shot in a real-time manner.

At the beginning of the film, Greengrass grabs the audience’s attention with a portrayal of the chaos on the ground that takes place as these planes were hijacked in the air. Information starts coming at a frantic pace, and the viewer is hit with all this much in the same way they were hit with it during the actual event.

The film is brutal and at times difficult for a contemporary audience to watch. Knowing what happened, and what is about to happen to the people boarding the plane, a sense of dread hits you but not until the last twenty minutes of the film. The first half deals so much with what is happening on the ground that the actual flight is almost put entirely into the back of your mind. When the terrorists wake up and go to the airport, when the passengers are talking on their cell phones to family members far away before boarding the plane, even once they have boarded the plane and it gets hijacked, you never really get that sense of terror because it is mixed with scenes in the control rooms. Once the plane is successfully hijacked though, and plans form to take out the terrorists, a sense of inevitable horror forms.

Though the film is brutal, it is not violent or exploitative. It is tough to watch at times, but it is also important because of that. Greengrass shows respect for those lost in this terrible event, and this film should be on everyone’s to-watch list.

Mine went to bed in sixth grade when I realized that I didn’t have Eddie Matthew’s arm and Jim Lovell’s brain. It just wasn’t in the books. In the end, these dreams are the easiest to say farewell to.

The ones that remain the most difficult to dismiss are those that are still attainable long after the days of field trips and recess. We all have them.

It just so happens that four years ago, I admitted mine. I still wanted to be a jockey. Could you blame me? I stand a daunting 5-3 and weigh a thunderous 122 pounds. Heck, I was bred like a fine thoroughbred. I can hear the NBC profile now: “Cross-bred between a four-foot Italian woman and a five-foot Englishman, the miniscule Connecticut jockey comes from a long line of short people destined for racing glory.” Like my other dreams, somewhere along the long line it just didn’t pan out. Instead, I was stuck with trips to Saratoga, NY as a fan. Not bad. But certainly not the same ride atop Lemon Drop that I had envisioned.

Nonetheless, May is my month.

And this year, like every other, has me dreaming of what could’ve been and a chance to watch the first Triple Crown won in more than 25 years. Whether it be Brother Derek, Lawyer Ron or Barbaro, this year’s Triple Crown which begins Saturday with the Kentucky Derby, has plenty of reasons for you to tune in.

The biggest of which has to be the phenomenal story of Brother Derek. The Derby favorite, Brother Derek has already breezed through the Santa Anita Derby and is the frontrunner for Churchill Downs.

Trainer Dan Hendricks is the real story, though. Two years ago, he was in a motocross crash that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Now more than two years later, he still runs his stable of 23 thoroughbreds from a six-wheel, motorized all-terrain chair. The reason for his quick recovery?

Well, according to Hendricks, it has been the help of his three sons and the powerful bay 3-year-old colt. Hendricks calls Brother Derek an inspiration. Making the story even more poignant is jockey Alex Solis, who suffered a broken back 16 days after Hendricks’ injury and missed seven months of riding. If these men and their horses wear a blanket of roses on Saturday after beating one of the deepest fields in history, it will be a story even the coldest of humans will love. And one wannabe jockeys like myself will savor for a lifetime.

When Jane Forrester-Winne received e-mails from her close friend and fellow UMaine student Balkaran Samaroo, who was stationed in Iraq at the time, she counted her blessings. But when Sammy sent her this JPEG, she was especially touched.

“I realized, metaphysically, this picture is suggesting that he would live,” Forrester-Winne said. “I saw this JPEG and took hope.”

While Samaroo, whom she affectionately calls “Sammy,” was deployed as a member of the Army National Guard, both his parents died from health complications within a month of each other. Back home, Sammy’s friends waited anxiously and fearfully for his safe return from the Iraq war.

“I tried to put myself in [Sammy's] shoes, and it’s the kind of place where you walk in the room and you are facing hell,” Forrester-Winne described. “Then I started thinking about the incredible parameters surrounding this whole situation, and I thought that we could make some art out of this.”

Forrester-Winne, herself a graduate student in systems’ theory, then began the journey to compile the JPEG and e-mails she received from Sammy while he was in Iraq. The collection grew and developed into “The Sammy Project (Iraq Your Heart).” Tonight at 7:30 p.m. she will display the work, tagged as a new media and art exhibit, in the Bangor Room of Memorial Union.

Forrester-Winne feels that the strength of the piece is that it is a “very real personal experience and not just an academic exercise,” and expressed that she hoped the piece will contribute to the dialogue about the war.

“This can be an issue that is somewhat polarizing,” she said. “I want people to learn about it an exhibit that is nurturing and hopeful.”

“The Sammy Project” is no less a new media piece as well, as the technology that connected these images across the globe from places that are not yet equipped in modern development is a large part of the developing capacity of the Internet that informs us on a global level, Forrester-Winne said.

“The technology we have now for communication – new media art, programming computers to work with satellite data, the evolutions of the Internet – are all a very new part of human life on the planet,” she said. “Two generations ago this technology was in the hands of very few.”

The exhibition will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Bangor Room, and the first 50 people who come to the event will receive a complimentary compilation CD. DJ V L Rhoda will be spinning audio and video as a part of the exhibit, and a short oral presentation and discussion will begin at 8:15 p.m.

And Sammy? He returned from Iraq safely and is now pursuing his Ph.D. in civil engineering here at the University of Maine.

Combine that with the notion that your team just lost the game and although life is still good, there is one person on the team who is more distraught about the loss than anyone else. You may call that person crazy, but for the University of Maine softball team, they know her as Brittany Cheney.

“When you have your teammates doing their jobs, and you don’t do yours, it’s not fair to them,” Cheney said in response to her error leading to UMaine’s 1-0 loss against Binghamton.

Besides a situation on Sunday that left her wondering what she did wrong, its another situation she has been in that is grabbing her attention – a guest America East championship.

In a sense, it was the error that was ironic. The ball went underneath her glove and ended up in left field. The same left field that has a banner detailing the years that UMaine has won America East.

That’s not to say that the error cost UMaine the game, but it certainly didn’t help.

Kristin Johnson, who coaches the infield, says that Cheney is “enough of a competitor, I do not have to challenge her with that.”

The real challenge for Cheney is the next time she has to look at that championship banner. The last time UMaine won the conference title was in 2004 when she was a sophomore. A sophomore year that was good, but nothing like the one Maine is having right now.

This year, the Black Bears are 33-16 and are having the best season in program history.

With that said, it’s the attitude that Cheney takes to the game that makes her revered by her teammates

“At the beginning we had a lot of similar qualities and I think on the field that helps because I look up to her a lot,” said her double-play partner Ashley Waters. “I have watched her do everything and I have kind of learned from her and I went from idolizing and looking up to her to us just clicking.”

And that is at the end of the game.

Not on a Friday afternoon before a game has been played, but after a game where nobody is blaming Cheney for the loss.

Usually when someone becomes a goat, teammates try to distance themselves. But with this group, they are there for one another and with Cheney it shows.

In most cases, every athlete on every team hears the old cliche of there is no “I” in “team.”

That may be true but in Cheney’s case, there is a “ME.” Not as in herself, but “ME” as in the state of Maine. After all she is a Massachusetts girl, she could have stayed home and gone to Boston College but she came here because it was a team that really cared about its players.

Now, one of its players is caring about bringing another title back to Orono.

Who knows, the next time Cheney turns around to look at that banner, the error may not be on her mind, but something else – “2006 America East Champions.”

“I came because I’m a Franco-American, and I love poetry,” said English major Danielle LaLiberte.

Both Hocquard and Valery read their work in French. Professors Steve Evans and Jennifer Moxley read the translations. The experience for those who could not understand French was, at times, frustrating because they knew they were missing something good. The Francophones would laugh or nod in appreciation at the comments or poems, while the Anglophones had to wait for the translation to find out what they had missed. In his introduction, Evans suggested that we “listen for the musicality of the words,” if we were unable to understand them. It was a good suggestion, as both Hocquard and Valery words were phonically pleasing.

“It made me want to learn French,” said audience member Matt Cameron after the reading.

Juliette Valery read first from the book “Le Bolide Immobile au Centre de L’Ecran (The Race Car in the Center of the Screen).” Her friend, the visual artist Jean Baptist Audit, sent her a series of photos of his work. She, in turn, wrote epistle-poems to him in response to his work. Valery read eight of these letters, each with a specific number in the series. Some were not translated into English. Moxley read Cole Swanson’s English translation of the others.

The eleventh letter made reference to baseball, which was surprising in a French poem, because it is an American sport. Letter 12 compared a hole in the artwork to the discovery of the blind spot in human vision. Clever adjectives like “Moby Dickian” were also used in the letter.

Emmanuel Hocquard read from his book “Theory of Tables” first. Evans read Michael Palmer’s English translation. Next, Hocquard read from “A Test of Solitude: Sonnets.” Moxley read the English translation, which was done by Rosemarie Waldrop. The sonnets were experimental in form and structure. Many referenced Viviane. When asked who Viviane is, Hocquard said, “Viviane is Viviane,” and shrugged his shoulders. This was also a direct quote from sonnet 15 in the poems. Jennifer Moxley explained that Viviane was the woman who worked at the bakery near Hocquard.

After the reading, audience members asked questions and, with the mutual translation effort of Moxley, Evans and audience members whose French comprehension was strong, Hocquard and Valery answered questions. When asked what the experience of reading for an English-speaking audience was like, Hocquard said it was the same. Since he reads poetry, which is a language of its own, no one understands it at first, so all audience members, French-speaking or others, have the same experience.

In addition to their work as writers, Hocquard and Valery translate the poetry of modern and contemporary poets into French. They founded and co-direct “Un Bureau sur l’Atlantique” which is “devoted to the free exchange between the most exciting currents in North American and French poetry through translation and event programming.” Such translation work is not often done so immediately and their efforts have brought to France the poetry of past New Writing Series guests like Bernadette Mayer, Peter Gizzi and Carla Harryman, and UMaine English professor Ben Friedlander, among many others.

Hocquard said he began translation work of American poetry in the ’70s because he was tired of French poetry and the scene in France. “The same questions that were being raised in France about poetry and what it actually is were also being raised in America at the same time. The preoccupations were unique to France and the U.S. The answers from individual poets varied.”

“It was fresh air,” he said of reading the American poets.

Bennis, a native of Pownal, will graduate this semester with a degree in secondary education. She stopped by for the final 13 Questions installment of the spring semester.

WC: Which of your teammates has the nicest hairstyle and what makes it so nice?

SB: I would go with Kristie Hawkins, because she’s very particular about her hair. She loves the ribbons. If it is raining, she will have braids. If it’s not raining, she will straighten her hair. I think since she puts so much effort into it, it is funny. You have to compliment her because she puts so much time into it.

WC: There is nothing wrong with wanting to look your best. You guys are having a real good season. This is more of a traditional sports question. What has been the key to your success as a team this year?

SB: Definitely scoring runs. We’ve always been pretty good at defense, kept ourselves in games, but the difference is definitely scoring runs.

WC: What has been the key to your own individual success?

SB: I think the key is definitely scoring runs. I’ve had great run support, good defense behind me, and my catchers have always been really awesome.

WC: What would you be doing right now if you weren’t playing softball?

SB: I would probably be working with children in some way. I would probably be at a different university, doing something completely different. My mom runs a daycare, so I have always enjoyed kids. I would probably be doing something with that.

WC: Let’s do a quick rundown of your favorites. What’s your favorite book or the last one you read?

SB: I like John Grisham. I like a lot of his books, the whole Law and Order-type thing. I like the mystery and the success.

WC: What’s your favorite CD or band?

SB: I’ve been listening to a lot of Jack Johnson lately on my iPod, really low-key music.

WC: Favorite movie?

SB: I would have to say “Rudy,” because it’s a classic and it always pumps me up.

WC: Favorite TV show?

SB: “Lost.” I love “Lost,” because of the same reasons. It has suspense and is exciting.

WC: Who is the toughest girl on the softball team and what makes her so strong?

SB: Toughest? I have a lot of teammates. I would go with Brittany [Cheney], our shortstop. She’s the feistiest, the most aggressive, most intense. I would definitely want her on my side.

WC: What’s the most embarrassing CD you own?

SB: Can I go with a song, maybe?

WC: Yeah, you can do that. I would go with the Hilary Duff song on my iPod. It’s a good song, that one that’s the theme song from Laguna Beach.

SB: I have some Jessica Simpson stuff.

WC: Why’s that so embarrassing? What’s wrong with Jessica Simpson?

SB: She’s a little poppy. I usually don’t like a lot of pop music.

WC: Yeah, but it serves a purpose. Do you have any superstitions or pre-game rituals?

SB: I have many. I am very superstitious. I always eat two packets of oatmeal before a game. I always have to have a cup of coffee before a game. I warm up the same way. I stretch the same way.

WC: Do you ever put one sock on before the other?

SB: Sometimes. If it gets to be late in the season, I try to do whatever I can to help the team. I always have a half-full glass of water. It’s kind of weird, I know. In between innings, I always have my coat on and then I take it off before I go out.

WC: Is there an origin or a purpose to the oatmeal or the water or something like that?

SB: With the oatmeal, I just feel like it stays with me the longest because it’s oatmeal. It’s one of the most nutritious breakfast foods. With the water, I just found that it was like a habit almost. I would come in from an inning, grab some water, fill it back up, and put it on the cooler. It’s just been habitual since then.

WC: Nick Lachey is supposedly dating that girl, Kristin, from “Laguna Beach.” Is that an upgrade or a downgrade over Jessica Simpson? Sorry, that’s a really stupid question.

SB: I would have to say downgrade, because of the wealth that Jessica Simpson has and also because of her popularity. I know that age doesn’t necessarily go with maturity, but she is older. They had a good thing going.

WC: I agree. I really miss “Newlyweds.” That was a good show. I am going to admit it, but I don’t know much about softball. Who is the best player in the world right now and what makes her so good?

SB: Kat Osterman [a left-handed pitcher from the University of Texas,]. Two of my assistant coaches play professional [softball] and they said that she is by far the best pitcher in the world right now. I would have to say her by what they said. We saw the Olympic team play a couple of years ago and she was awesome.

WC: Yeah, she’s very intimidating.

SB: She’s very tall and her ball moves a lot too. She’s got everything going for her.

WC: I wouldn’t be able to hit her pitches. What is your best pitch?

SB: My dropball.

WC: Can you throw a screwball?

SB: I do throw a screwball. It’s not my go-to pitch.

WC: What is your out-pitch?

SB: Curve.

WC: Let’s end up with the random literature question. Is it better to be part of Oprah’s Book Club or does it ruin artistic integrity?

SB: I personally like Oprah’s Book Club. I have even read some of them. So I would have to say that it is better to be part of Oprah’s Book Club. I think it brings fame. Anything Oprah says, people do. It can’t hurt.