events
By A&L Staff

Enjoy live music from two local groups, all-you-can-eat tasty treats from local bakeries and restaurants and help raise awareness about an important global issue-all at the same time. The Juarez Activism Group is sponsoring the second annual Chocolate for a Cause Benefit. All proceeds from the event will go towards the Group's second annual delegation to Ciudad Juarez in Mexico and to other local and national awareness-raising and relief campaigns. (Wed., 6 p.m., Alumni House. Tickets $7 with student ID at Valentine.)

Don't miss a glamorous reception fit for the stars-complete with music and fancy hors d'oeuvres!-to be followed immediately by a screening of "Casablanca." While it's not required that you dress up for the event, you should anyway because this will be one of the few times when you can pretend to be Humphrey Bogart and no one will laugh at you ... much. (Fri., 7:15 p.m., A-Level, Frost Library. No admission charge. E-mail ekpark@amherst.edu to RSVP.)

Show off your charitable as well as your fashionable side this Friday, when the Amherst Tsunami Relief Campaign puts on Runway, a fashion show with an after party. The event will feature hot clothing styles, professional lighting equipment, smooth beats by an NYC DJ and a 21+ cash bar. All proceeds from this event will go to the World Health Organization. (Fri., 10 p.m., Alumni Gym. Tickets $7 in advance. E-mail tsunamirelief@amherst.edu for more information.)

You've never experienced classical music like this before! The latest installment of the Music at Amherst Series features a program by Red Priest entitled "Pirates of the Baroque," which features stolen masterpieces and long-lost works of the Baroque era performed with "swashbuckling virtuosity." Britain's Classic CD Magazine described their first CD as "like crossing a Wigmore Hall recital with a Guinness-soaked folk session in an Irish bar." (Sat., 8 p.m., Arms Music Center, Buckley Recital Hall. Tickets $5 for students. Call 542-2195.)

Editors' DVD Pick of the Week

Hilary Swank may be this year's Best Actress, but she had won once before in 1999 for her portrayal of Brandon Teena in "Boys Don't Cry." The film is based on true events-Teena was a young transgendered man who fell victim to a hate crime in 1993. As Teena, Swank completely charms the audience as well as the other characters onscreen. But the performance I was most impressed by was that of Peter Sarsgaard and Brendan Sexton as John Lotter and Thomas Nissen, Teena's friends-turned-murderers. The film leaves us with no doubt that their crime is an utterly abominable one, nor does it make them out to be inhuman monsters. Ultimately, the fact that we are never able to completely distance ourselves from them make the film that much more disturbing. "Boys" is an intense and important film that is guaranteed to make you cry-and think.

Issue 19, Submitted 2005-03-01 20:33:56