James Madison University - Bluestone Schoolmaam Yearbook (Harrisonburg, VA)

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spnngconvocationconcert :v v ; ' -iJ Ever wonder about all the hard work that goes into a concert? Junior Jenn Steinhardt was no stranger to setting up a concert stage. Anyone who likes puzzles and teamwork would love putting up the stage, said Steinhardt, director of 80 One Records, the university ' s student- run record label. Steinhardt helped to set up the Convocation Center for the Girl Talk and Three 6 Mafia Concert. The pieces aren ' t light at all, but we usually have two people holding one square on either side, two to four people with a stand, and then one person on the bottom to guide you, said Steinhardt. The process requires a lot of collaboration. Steinhardt said that while lifting up the individual pieces of the stage might seem like the hardest part, the hardest thing to do was move the stage squares up and down the sets of stairs. Once the group is on a roll with each group of people sliding squares into place or taking them off, everything runs smoothly. Those stairs, however, are a beast. The entire process wasn ' t all work for UPB. My favorite part about making the stage is seeing what comes of all these tiny squares together, and seeing a concert play out on something you built, said Steinhardt. Although I worked the Boys Like Girls concert as well, seeing Girl Talk dance and jump around the stage [I helped build] was just amazing. : Dancing skills prominently displayed, Girl Talk lets loose with students on stage. Filled with sporadic bursts of energy, Gillis provided a unique concert experience for many students. With hands waving in the air, students dance to Play Your Part. This song is on Girl Talk ' s 4th album, Feed the Animals. photo ' , ' nataliewall lebluestone 1

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c xc I learned a lot as a fighter because of it and I ' m just going to go back to the drawing boards and come back stronger next time, said Brar. Brar worked with the Jiu-jitsu Club on campus to improve his groundwork, planning to bulk up for his next fight in late August (see Brar ' s Update ). As long as he learns something from this fight, it can be seen as a success, said Brar ' s training partner and friend, senior Shea Kelly. He knew it was going to be a tough fight and came away knowing that he gave it 100 percent in training and during the fight. He had nothing to lose. With his arms encircling Corey Wamsley ' s neck, sophomore Herman Brar attempts a guillotine choke to restrict his opponent ' s breathing. Even when fighters were bloody and exhausted, the officials would not stop the tight until a fighter tapped out, was knocked out or was unable to defend himself. photo Znataliewall M ' O TE His face was split open, he could not see straight and he only had a two minutes to go in the third round. Sophomore Herman Brar was just seconds away from his goal. On Aug. 29, Brar became the Brawley Fights 155-pound lightweight champion at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds. The fight consisted of three five- minute rounds, ending halfway through the third round. This belt means more than anything to me and when I finally won, it took me a second to realize what had just happened, said Brar. Brar ' s trainers pushed him in the gym and taught him how to counter his opponent, 20-year-old Corey Wamsley. I knew he was tough and I knew he could take a hit from the videos I watched on him, said Brar. Training for the title proved to be different than training for any other fight, an average day consisting of an hour of technique drills and an hour of intense cardio training, ending with hard sparring. Everything all of a sudden became a lot more serious, said Brar. My trainers began throwing me in five-minute rounds for sparring against a fresh opponent every time to build my stamina and to break me mentally so that I would be more than ready for any situation I encountered in the cage, said Brar. The most important part of training was making sure each day involved something different so Brar ' s muscles never got used to the same motions. Although the physical aspect of training for this fight was different, Brar said he mentally prepared for this fight like any other fight. Alone time and soothing music helped Brar get in the zone. You want to be very calm going into a fight so you can think instead of reacting on instincts, said Brar. Freshman Tyler Peacock attended the fight and claimed Brar ' s was the best fight of the night. [Brar ' s] opponent picked it up in the last few rounds and made it a much tougher fight for Brar, said Peacock. The back and forth momentum was what made it so enjoyable for me, Three minutes and six seconds into the third round, Brar mounted Wamsley and dropped several punches and elbows for the TKO, or technical knockout, and the title. Brar suffered a fractured orbital, the seven small bones surrounding the eye socket, in the second round and had surgery to replace it with titanium a few weeks after the fight. Aft er the referee stopped the fight I just rolled over and laid my hands over my face because it was so surreal that I had won the lightweight championship, said Brar. It was the greatest feeling ever. amandacaskey writer ■ SF (Th- features 21

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ii STUDENTS ROCKED OUT TO A MIXED-GENRE CONCERT caitlinharrison writer tudents crowded the floor, greeting one another and trying to claim some standing room in the Convocation Center while waiting for Three 6 Mafia to take the stage. The rap group was slightly delayed; their plane had landed late and the airport was two hours away, making the group absent for sound check. The students waiting on the floor were still eager for the concert to begin. Three 6 Mafia made it to the stage around 8:30 p.m., and began with some of their more popular songs like Fly, Doe Boy Fresh, and Chop Me Up, which they usually sang with Justin Timberlake. Despite missing their sound check. Three 6 Mafia still performed without any problems. Group members got personal with the audience, getting them involved in the show by asking where the parties were and if everyone was having a good time. One student was actually wearing a Three 6 Mafia shirt, and the group tried to get him up on stage. Although concert security wouldn ' t allow it, the group was glad to have a loyal fan in the audience. After Three 6 Mafia finished their set, there was a 30-minute break to set up for Girl Talk and for students to get food. More people started to enter the Convocation Center for the headlining group, filling the reserved seats and crowding the floor. The Girl Talk concert was out of control! said sophomore Laura Hayden, a longtime Girl Talk fan who went to the concert with a group of friends. A group of us met up before the concert to get pumped and had a jam session to some Girl Talk favorites. Girl Talk, also known as DJ Gregg Michael Gillis, was known for his mash-ups of favorite classic and popular songs. He mixed older songs like Shout, by The Temptations; Thunderstruck, by ACDC; and Time After Time, by Cyndi Lauper; and blended other, more current songs by Kanye West and Beyonce. He also played fan favorites from his newest album Feed the Animals. The atmosphere became more like a big dance party than a concert, especially on the floor where students had more room to dance. One group of lucky students was able to get on stage during the Girl Talk portion of the concert. UPB had decided beforehand that they would allow students this privilege. We all got our special tickets from Sarah Sunde, the UPB coordinator at the time, and she gave us some safety rules and a few other things we needed to know, and then we waited by the stage for the signal to run up and begin dancing, said junior Tyler Conta. After Girl Talk exited the stage, the dancing students were able to take pictures with him and ask for autographs. It was honestly one of the highlights of my JMU career, said Conta. I owe it all to UPB and just being in the right place at the right time. Clapping his hands, DJ Gregg Michael Gillis engages the crowd. Better known as Girl Talk, Gillis studied biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, during the beginning of his musical career, photo robertboag