Sports Recreation
Sports
What's wrong with Robinson Cano?
By The Front | May 21On December 16, 2013, Robinson Cano agreed to a monster contract with the Seattle Mariners. It was a 10-year, $240 million contract that included a no-trade clause.
Sports
Students test electric bicycles at Western
By The Front | May 21Dozens of curious students and faculty crowded around the Wade King Student Recreation Center for a chance to try out one of three electric bicycles demoed by Spark Mobility, a green transportation startup with hopes to install an e-bike share system at Western.
Sports
Transition Bikes sponsors mountain bike trail building
By The Front | May 21On any given day in the mountains of Whatcom County, mountain bikers can be found speeding down hills, pedaling along trails and enjoying the Pacific Northwest for all that it offers.
Sports
Vikings rowing look to future after missing nationals
By The Front | May 21For the first time in 13 years, the Western women’s rowing team have not been selected to compete in the NCAA Division II National Rowing Championship.
Sports
Vikings lacrosse makes deepest playoff run in team history
By The Front | May 19The Western men’s lacrosse team made its deepest run in team history by making it to the Final Four before losing, one game away from the championship.
Sports
Vikings' strong effort not enough in 2015
By The Front | May 19For the Western women’s softball team, the 2015 season was one of the best in the last few years. But after a crushing defeat to Montana State University Billings in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship, junior first baseman Jordan Walley is already dreaming of next season and another shot at the title.
Sports
New kickball league at Maritime Heritage Park
By The Front | May 18The inaugural game of downtown Bellingham’s urban kickball league was filled with music and 1980s costumes at Maritime Heritage Park on Thursday, May 14.
Sports
Slam defeats Western alumni in Back2Bellingham exhibition
By The Front | May 18As part of Western’s annual Back2Bellingham celebration, a thrilling basketball game was on display for fans yearning for action on Sam Carver Gymnasium’s hardwood.
Arts & Music
Night in with Netflix: "Boy"
By The Front | May 17“Boy,” an independent film from New Zealand, tells the story of a young Maori boy, Alamein nicknamed Boy, who lives on the East Coast of New Zealand. Boy has one true idol in his life: Michael Jackson. He lives with his grandmother with his cousins and younger brother Rocky as his mother passed away and his father is in jail. Everything was normal for Boy until his father came back into his life after being in jail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESD3mlgpSwM The film does a great job at showing what Maori life is like in rural New Zealand. The mixture of Maori music and comical reenactments keep the film whimsical. It plays on the imagination of an adolescent growing up and the process of trying to impress an absent father. One example is when Boy sees his father dancing while drunk at a party and Boy imagines him dressed up as Michael Jackson. Another example is how his younger brother Rocky thinks he has super powers. The film ingeniously depicts this by showing animated drawings of what he is thinking. During one scene, Rocky has a school bus pass him as kids yell at him from the windows. Rocky puts out his hand and imagines the bus exploding. The plot of the movie wasn’t as driven as I’d hope it to be. The story seemed to introduce plot lines but doesn’t take them anywhere. A large part of the film was the father and his gang members trying to dig up some “buried treasure” in a nearby pasture. Boy joins to help and spend more time with his father. The point of the hidden cash seemed to end abruptly and didn’t really explain what the father was going to use it for. At the end of the film, I didn’t really get a sense of resolution. It leaves the viewer with their own interpretation of how Boy’s, Rocky’s and their father’s stories would play out. I usually don’t like that sort of ending, especially so soon after a fight between Boy and his father. One thing that I thought did a really good job was the character development of Boy. I really felt like reliving boyhood and trying to naively follow someone. One thing I didn’t like so much about the characters was at the beginning of the film, it introduced his whole family and then didn’t have them in the film very much. They always seemed to just sit around judging Boy for what he was doing. Another thing Taika Waititi, the director, did really well was incorporating Maori culture into the film. It was in subtle ways, like mentioning his grandmother was away at a Tangi, or a funeral. Overall, the film introduced a unique look at boyhood through the eyes of a young Maori boy. It seemed realistic in showing a boy’s aspirations and imagination along with being disappointed in the person you thought was a good role model. Rating: 7/10
