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The Student Entertainment Events blog has moved! We are launching a new website where our blog will be integrated with the rest of the site. Check out our fresh new site at see.umd.edu!

Counting down to Art Attack XXX

Kiera Zittelman
Concerts Director
seeconcerts@umd.edu

On April 30, 2010, I was a freshman working my first Art Attack in Byrd Stadium. That was the year SEE booked Weezer and Ben Folds. I was in my first semester in Student Entertainment Events as incoming Cinema Director, and I had barely learned the other SEE Directors’ names before I found myself in Byrd the day before the show laying plywood down on the field and watching as we (very slowly) folded a stage out of an 18-wheeler parked in the middle of the stadium. It felt great to be a part of such a cool institution at UMD – maybe not so great when we were still taking down the stage like zombies at 3 a.m. the next morning, but still pretty cool. Three years and a Nelly and a B.o.B show later, we’re at Art Attack XXX (that’s in reference to the number thirty, not anything dirty; get your minds out of the gutter). The SEE team and I are very excited to cap off a year of great entertainment with another tally in the Art Attack tradition: a day of carnival-style events on McKeldin Mall and the concert at sundown in Byrd. Over the next ten days, follow us on Facebook and Twitter as we count down the last ten Art Attack events leading up to our announcement of this year’s line-up. And of course, join us on May 3 for what’s sure to be a fantastic show!

It’s Eric Time!

Kiera Zitelman
Concerts Director
seeconcerts@umd.edu

It’s concert week here at Student Entertainment Events! We are excited to welcome Eric Hutchinson and Dale and the ZDubs to Ritchie Coliseum this Thursday for our Winter Concert. Hundreds of UMD students have already bought their tickets at www.umdtickets.com, but if you haven’t, there’s still time!

I first heard Eric Hutchinson when I was in high school at Montgomery Blair in nearby Silver Spring, MD.  (Fun fact: Eric is also a Blair graduate and a Takoma Park native.) His self-released album, Sounds Like This, came out in 2007. I had heard about him through friends who were proud to see a fellow Marylander release his own fun, catchy pop/rock album. Soon after that, gossip blogger Perez Hilton got a hold of Eric and felt the same way. A few mentions from Perez helped send Sounds Like This to #5 on the iTunes Store and #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Perez wasn't the only Eric convert – Warner Bros. Records picked up Sounds Like This for a major label release in May 2008.

Since then, Eric has been selling out venues in the DC area (including a few visits to the 9:30 Club) and around the country.  He has also been working on covers and new original songs. He has toured with G. Love & Special Sauce, OneRepublic, O.A.R., Guster, and the Lumineers and been compared to Jason Mraz, Stevie Wonder, and the Beatles. Last April, he released Moving Up Living Down and went on an acoustic album tour in the fall. This Thursday, he’ll hit Ritchie with a full band and a special opening acoustic set from DC reggae-rockers Dale and the ZDubs. We hope to SEE you there!

P.S.

You can check out some of Eric's videos here:

Rock and Roll: http://bit.ly/XWyaQY

The Basement: http://bit.ly/WiwvZD

Watching You Watch Him: http://bit.ly/WEID6q

Behind the Scenes

Bryan Friia
Cinema Director
seecinema@umd.edu

My name is Bryan Friia, and my position in SEE is the Cinema Director.  In this role, I am responsible for coming up with ideas for movies to screen on campus.  The majority of the time, these events take the form of Free Monthly Movies that are normally films that have just finished up in theaters or are just coming out for home release.  Due to the popularity of these titles, we try and always screen them on multiple days so that we can accommodate everyone’s busy schedules.

In addition to these regular movie screenings, we also try and provide other events throughout the semester.  In the past we have helped coordinate outdoor movies on the mall, advanced screenings of films before they are in theaters, and marathons of popular movie sagas.  We have shown popular titles like Flight and Pitch Perfect before they were in theaters, and we have also had Harry Potter and Batman movie marathons following the conclusion of each series.  This semester we are starting things off with an Oscar Series. This will consist of three films that are in the running for Academy Awards.  The movies will be screened each week leading up to the awards ceremony.  The idea is to give students the opportunity to see movies that they may have missed or would like to see again  free of charge in Hoff Theater.

We had initially planned on showing Argo, The Master, and Lincoln for this event.  As you may have seen, however, Lincoln has been replaced by Moonrise Kingdom.  Due to the fact that we book these movies before they are available on DVD, we are still dependent on the requests of the movie’s production company.  In this case, Lincoln is being held in theaters longer than it was initially planned.  Therefore, it will not be available for us to screen as previously scheduled.  We will no be showing Argo on Feb. 6th, The Master on Feb. 13th, and Moonrise Kingdom on Feb. 20th.  All movies will be shown at 7pm in the Hoff Theater.

We are still very excited about this event and all of our SEE events that are coming up in the spring semester.  If you are interested in staying in the loop on all of our events please check out our website at http://www.see.umd.edu/.  Additionally, if you have any cinema related questions, feel free to email me at seecinema@umd.edu.