Entertainment

The Bridge Interview with Michelle Branch

By Anthony Greff
Reporter

When you take a look at the next generation of women in rock, you may find Michelle Branch. She has 4 mainstream radio hits, including her latest duet with guitar legend Carlos Santana, the viewer’s choice award from MTV’s video music awards and a spot on the latest Sheryl Crow tour.

Bridge: What was your environment like growing up?
Michelle: I had an extremely normal childhood, I didn’t grow up in a van in Alaska or anything like that. I went to school and I had a brother and a sister and that was about it. I was really just a normal kid.

B: What was your urge to get into music?
M: When I was about three or four years old, I started listening to my parents record collection. I was always like ‘play the Beatles, play the Beatles,’ and that’s when I started singing. As I’ve gotten older I listened to more and more of my parent’s albums, they had 60’s 70’s rock, also singer-songwriter type stuff. When I was 8, I talked my parents into letting me take voice lessons at a university. After that, I started playing guitar. I actually got into entertaining when there was this ad for entertainers for a summer festival. My dad helped me make a demo tape and I played from then on.

B: How did your first album come about?
M: I was probably playing about two or three shows a week and living in Sedona, Arizona which gets about 4 million tourist a year. I met Jeff Radhand, when he was on vacation in Sedona, and he became my manager. I went to him one day and told him that I wanted to make a record that I could sell at my shows and use as a demo, so then we went in and recorded an acoustic type record. That cd came out in June 1999.

B: What is your inspiration?
M: I was fourteen or fifteen when I wrote material for “The Spirit Room” cd. Therefore, I just basically wrote about anything. I would make up scenarios in my head and write love songs, since they are so common in music and movies. A lot of my new songs will have a different twist, since I’m four years older and have learned so much. I can actually say where I was and how I was feeling when I wrote it.

B: You are working on a new album correct?
M: The new album should come out in March. I’m very excited about it.

B: How would you describe your music?
M: It’s pop rock but it’s also folk. I think if they her me acoustically they would get a whole new feel from my music.

B: What keeps you going?
M: The hour a day that I’m on stage [and] I get to do something other nineteen year olds don’t get to do, which is see the world.

B: Anything you want to say to your potential fans?
M: I’m 19 and a lot of people think little pop singer, please don’t dismiss me cause my age and when my new album comes out, please give it a listen you may like it.

B: Anything you want to say to your true fans?
M: Thanks for giving me the chance to do what I love. If there wasn’t anyone listening I wouldn’t be here.

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The Bridge has two Michelle Branch
fan packs to give away!

Each pack includes
a personally autographed photo of
Michelle
and a copy of
“The Spirit Room.”

Send an e-mail to The Bridge
at [email protected] and tell us why you deserve to win.

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Ghostly Encounters at LC

By Stephanie Orr,
Copy Editor

Many people believe that the LC campus is haunted. Students, faculty and visitors have been experiencing strange phenomena since the inception of LC. Commonly, strange activities are attributed to a woman that was head of the campus when it was the Monticello Female Seminary, Harriet Newell Haskell.
Harriet is said to have been a popular woman who adored this campus, and her students. After her death, people on campus reported mysterious activity, and soon the general consensus was that Harriet had remained at her beloved school.
The most common reports concern the elevators on campus, mainly the elevator located near the bookstore. A student that works on campus and wished to remain anonymous says that oftentimes, when she is working at night, the elevators will arrive on a floor empty but with floor buttons pushed. Other times the elevator will stop at every floor for no apparent reason.
This student also reports that before electronic locks were placed on the door to her office it would open on it’s own accord. The student would close the door, but when she returned to her seat the door would open again. After a while she says she stopped closing the door, so a few minutes after opening the door would suddenly slam. “She does it for attention,” claims the student, “to let me know she’s there.”
According to this student, however, Harriet isn’t the only ghost on campus. She says that there are three or four total, including one man who likes to gaze in the windows of the second floor walkway between Fobes Hall and Caldwell Hall at night. “Isn’t that a scary thing,” she says in reference to glimpsing him in the window.
The student also believes that the ghosts are constantly roaming the whole campus, though she believes they prefer to stay in the main buildings. She says they make her feel safe. “They’ve never harmed anyone,” she states, “it’s not really creepy, it’s kinda fun! This is part of [Harriet’s] life; this is where she wants to be.”

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I wanna be Cooler than me

Chris Ayala,
Entertainment Editor
Opinion

I’m not at all what is considered to be the ideal man. Instead of being tall, dark and handsome, I am short, pale and Mexican. What a curse to be Hispanic and not reap the benefits of being a tanned and toned heartbreaker. Something along the lines of Enrique Iglesias would suit me just fine. Or to a lesser degree, Mario Lopez (TV’s “Slater” from “Saved by the Bell”). Instead, I am nothing but a Speedy Gonzales—without the tan or the cool accent.
I think my real problem lies in the fact that I’ve never quite been able to muster up the courage to actually speak to a member of the opposite sex. Because of this, I have always idolized these macho meathead types from the world of film and television. They don’t care if they get rejected because they have that special something that I lack: confidence.
Take Johnny Bravo, for instance. He knows he looks good and says so. <“Man, I’m pretty!”> He knows just what to say to a lady. <”Hey there mama. Y’know if you got your nose done, you’d be an ‘8’?”> Johnny never allows himself to be discouraged. Rejection after rejection, he just keeps on trying.
Now, some were better than others at getting girls. Take Arthur Fonzarelli from TV’s “Happy Days.” This guy couldn’t keep the babes off of him. With one swift thump to the jukebox, he got the party started and his choice of dance partners. He merely sapped his fingers and the girls would just flock to him. Fonzie was the king of cool. He always wore a leather jacket rode a motorcycle, and spoke with a tough, Brooklyn accent.
As far as accents go, however, there is none cooler than that of Agent 007. Bond. James Bond. The top agent of British Intelligence, James Bond was quite possibly the greatest playboy of all time. This guy had it all: looks, class, sophistication, charm, aptitude and enough gadgets to make Comp USA look like an Amish community. Most admirable of all, though, was his uncanny ability to get women in bed with him. He has a ten minute conversation with a beautiful woman, and BAM there they are making love gravy.
So friends, what have we learned here today? We learned that if you objectify women and act like a total man-beast and have an arsenal of high-powered technologically advanced weaponry at your disposal, you can have the lady of your choosing. Oh, yeah, confidence helps too.

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