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Monday, September 37, aoio | The Red a Black
RACE Tbugh decision led to real rewards
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which then spurred
DeKroon on to ask her to
do just that.
Sykes’ response was
almost automatic.
“In that moment, I knew I
had to do it,” she said.
“From the moment she
asked me it was one of
those, 'Oh my Ood my life
Just changed’ moments.”
Sykes still spent time
weighing the pros and
cons of her choice before
making it.
“It was a really hard
decision to make," she
said. “But at the same
time it was really easy ....
It’s one of those things
where you get presented
with an opportunity and it
can go dne way or the
other.’’
Also important was an
internship that she would
have to give up if she
chose to compete, as well
as the fact that she
wouldn’t be allowed to tell
anyone about her being in
the competition during
the summer.
"This was not an easy
decision,” Sykes said. “It
was a gamble.”
Ultimately, what helped
make up her mind wasn’t
something she could easi
ly put into words.
“I’ve never felt so sure
of something in my whole
life,” she said.
From there began a
nearly semester-long peri
od of application and
preparation involving
paperwork, video-making
and strength-conditioning.
“We did anything you
can imagine,” Sykes said,
adding that she tried to
watch as many of the pre-
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Coomar or CBS
A University student Jenna Sykes struggled
with her decision to Join “The Amazing Race,”
but said she hasn’t regretted her choice.
vious seasons of the show
as she could.
There were notes taken
on what to pack and how
those who had succeeded
before on “The Amazing
Race” did so.
But not once through
out did Sykes and
DeKroon meet.
The pair continued to
correspond via letters, as
they had for two years,
but the lack of face-to
face time made formulat
ing strategy difficult.
“It took us a long time
to get a sort of strategy
together,” Sykes said. “It
took us a lot longer than
the other teams.”
They did discover some
things: DeKroon, for
instance, is the stronger
swimmer; Sykes is more
comfortable with animals.
When the cameras
started rolling, there was
still more to leam.
“From the starting line,
they said ‘go’ and we still
had a lot to figure out,”
Sykes said.
Oddly, “The Amazing
Race” was the perfect
place for the two of them
to connect and was, in
fact, one of the reasons
Sykes chose to participate.
Time spent under
duress with her birth
mother was also time
spent where each of them
was, according to Sykes,
more open.
“We wanted to do this
to get to know each other
on a real level,” she said.
Their dynamic had
always been an easy one,
however, with a relation
ship that’s far more friend
ly than parental.
“With me and Andie,
there’s never been an awk
ward moment.” she said.
Prepared or not, when
filming began, Sykes was
still taken by surprise.
“You think on ‘The
Amazing Race' it’s so hard
and that’s all you think,”
she said. “It is so much
harder than anyone can
Imagine.”
During production on
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the first episode alpne, her
obstacles ranged from
going 48 hours without
sleep, buying food on a
tight budget, handling the
physical strain and man
aging the anxiety that
comes with knowing
you’ve got a l-in-11 shot
at $1 million.
“All of these things
made the experience so,
so much harder than I
expected,” Sykes said.
What was the payoff?
The season premiered
Sunday, leaving Sykes and
DeKroon’s status as vic
tors unknown.
But the cash is just a
part of it.
“I met some people
that I’m Just so happy to
have met,” Sykes said.
“I’ve made some really
great contacts.”
The opportunity to
spend time around and
observe the goings-on of
the cameramen and other
technicians proved profes
sionally satisfying.
“That’s one of the rea
sons I wanted to do the
race was because it fit so
well with my major,” she
said.
Still uncertain of her
career after graduation,
Sykes thinks some part of
her experiences during
filming may prove useful.
“I’m hoping it’ll pay off
in the long run,” she said.
Regardless of what
happens down the road,
though, the impact “The
Amazing Race” has had is
already quite clear.
“The race was such a
great experience for me,”
Sykes said, “and hands
down it may be the cool
est thing I’ve ever done.
COMING SOON
Poor Mark Zuckerberg.
At 26, he’s already the world’s youngest billionaire;
and now, too. the center of David Fincher’s tricky, dis
orlentlngly cool “The Social Network," a film that builds
out, like it’s subject Facebook, in concentric circles, all
with sharp edges that prickle and sheen.
It’d be dismissive to call the shades of sodden gray
that Zuckerberg (Jesse Risen berg) is painted in
demeaning, leering, or condescending; but it’s difficult
to find much that flatters him. But who needs flattery?
The movie begins as Fincher, ever the craftsmen,
swoops his camera here and there setting the scene:
Harvard, 2003 Zuckerberg a Jittery shrug of a savant.
Enter one good Internet idea which leads him to
some trouble. Then, later, enter the Winklevoss twins
(Armie Hammer, pulling double-duty), who have a pret
ty good idea of their own which leads, as these things
do, to the greatest idea thus far.
Add Zuckerberg’s best friend Eduardo Saverin (a dis
armingly dark-eyed Andrew Garfield), who comes
aboard with the money and a pinch of skepticism, and
thus begins The Facebook.
Except, of course, not really. Following the site’s
launch and success came a host of legal troubles and a
bit of backstabbing. The
logistics, of course, of the
what, when and how are
clear enough the why, not
so much.
Building on Ben
Mezrlch’s book about
Facebook's founding, titled
“The Accidental
Billionaires," screenwriter
Aaron Sorkin tries to adapt
portions of the book, but
with clarity and, better, per
spective not in the original.
The film’s college kids,
who have fallen out of
Soridn’s head, off of the
page and onto the screen
may volley back-and-forth
like they’re fresh from “The
West Wing,” but they don’t
Just quip they snap.
Fincher, never the warmest of hearts, doesn’t at first
keep step; his plum pictorial style can’t find equal in any
emotional or interpretative through-line.
So in its first hour, the film, while vibrantly verbose,
remains at arm’s length. Then the skittish remoteness
become increasingly less a part of the film than the film.
Zuckerberg isn’t Just a wallflower the kid’s a wound
of upwardly-mobile insecurity with feelers like passive
aggressive razors.
The inability to really grasp the worth and depth of
immediate connection is his failing; the decision to dis
miss it is his mistake.
And his downfall? Age-old: not realizing what he has
until it sues him for S6OO million.
Working classically, “The Social Network” lures its
antihero further into self-satisfaction, and farther from
his friend (and toward, of all people, Justin Timberlake’s
Sean Parket; in a small part that pops).
There are eventually a few reckonings, some back
room bickering, and one cathartic blowout, but no neat
finish. This is not a film for neat finales.
“The Social Network," eloquently slit-eyed in its self
awareness, gets at their distress and deceit with sneaky
authority, perceptive of the many ways in which people
fail each other. Still, its characters spin, reaching for one
another while reflecting each other’s negative qualities.
They’re quick-witted enough to savor —but sharp
enough to draw blood.
Adam Carlson
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