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With less than a month left in their regular season, the Tritons held tight against Cal State San Bernardino and Brown University on April 4. And the No. 17 UCSD women’s water-polo team could not have picked a better juncture of the season to hit their stride.

Senior utility Stephanie Heinrich scored five goals and sophomore two-meter Kirsten Bates added two more, earning the team its sixth consecutive victory: a 11-7 win over No. 20 Brown University. Heinrich had also put in the go-ahead goal earlier in the day against San Bernardino, helping the Tritons to a 6-3 victory.

Heinrich scored four goals in the first four minutes of the game, and Brown was never able to recover.

“Stephanie Heinrich set the tone immediately as the senior team captain,” head coach Brad Kreutzkamp said. “Four goals on four shots to start the game let everyone know that she meant business — and that attitude carries over to the rest of the team.”

UCSD led by as many as six goals in the third period, but Brown netted three straight goals in the fourth to cut the Triton lead to 10-7 with six minutes remaining. However, the Triton defenders would not allow anything past them for the rest of the game, and Bates added her second goal with 36 seconds remaining as the Tritons held on for the win.

Seniors Sarah Glick and Lauren Presant led Brown with two goals apeice.

The Bears’ defeat leaves them at 18-7 overall for the season.

Against San Bernardino, the Tritons fell behind 3-2 after the first period, but scored the final four goals of the match to seal the win.

“Our theory all year long has been that any team can beat anybody on any day,” Kreutzkamp said. “That game was an example of how we can end on the wrong end of that. But, thankfully, our defense kept us in the game until our offense woke up in the fourth quarter.”

The Tritons were unable to score for nearly 20 minutes before junior utility TC Coles scored her first goal at UCSD to tie the game with 1:20 remaining in the third period. Heinrich then scored with 6:58 remaining, and Bates and junior attacker Hanalei Crowell added late insurance goals to finish off San Bernardino.

Redshirt freshman Misty Vu scored two goals for the Coyotes, who dropped to 13-16 on the season.

The Tritons have a busy weekend ahead of them in Northern California. The team will play Cal State East Bay on April 9, then compete in the Santa Clara Invitational on April 10 and April 11.

Readers can contact Liam Rose at [email protected].

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SOFTBALL — UCSD launched into a four-game series against Cal State Dominguez Hills from April 2 to April 3, playing the best ball they’ve played all season — and possibly in program history.

The Tritons got April off to a good start, fresh out of an equally successful March that saw the team win 15 of their 18 games and rocket to third place in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.

Moreover, the team’s 23-11 March record marked the best start to a season in the program’s short history at the Division-II level. The Tritons achieved a 29-13 finish in 2000 during their final season competing in Division-III.

“We showed what were capable of, and what we expect to be doing,” senior captain Nicole Saari said. “We finally started hitting toward the end of the year. The end of the lineup started getting it together.”

Despite their superior NCAA regional ranking, however, the No. 4 Tritons were only able to manage a series split against the No. 10 ranked Toros — sharing the spoils in both Friday’s and Saturday’s doubleheaders.

On Friday, the Tritons picked up right where they left off last month, pummeling the Toros 7-0 behind a career performance from sophomore right-handed pitcher Camille Gaito.

Gaito was stingy on the mound for her 12th win of the season, striking out a personal best of nine Toro hitters. She allowed only two hits and walked none.

Gaito received ample run support from a fiery Triton lineup that poured in seven runs from 10 hits. Freshman infielder Katie Belanger launched a three-run shot to left field in the fifth inning to seal the UCSD win, and finished the game two-for-three at the plate with four runs-batted-in and one run scored.

In their second game, however, sloppy Triton defense allowed the Toros to mount a lopsided lead. The opposition capitalized on five Triton errors for a 9-1 victory to even the series.

Saturday’s play followed a similar pattern. In game three of the series, UCSD earned a hard-fought 4-2 victory over Dominguez Hills before losing 10-1 in the series finale.

In Saturday’s first game, Gaito was again dominant, throwing a complete game six-hitter and allowing only two earned runs while striking out two. The performance improved her personal season record to 13-6.

For the second straight day, Belanger provided the big hits for the Triton offense. Her three-run homerun in the fifth inning broke a 1-1 tie, giving th team a 4-1 lead it would not relinquish.

However, in the series finale, the Toro offense rebounded from their Gaito beatdown to tag two Triton pitchers — senior Christine Zankich and sophomore Tess Granath — for nine runs in the first three innings, coming out with a 10-1 victory.

The Tritons, still in third place after the series split, now sit at 25-13 overall and 15-9 in conference, with three league series remaining. They return to action on the road against Humboldt State on March 9.

“We can’t take them lightly,” Saari said. “We know every team in our conference is capable of winning any given game, so we need to come out strong — play like we did in the first games of our last series.”

Readers can contact Vishal Natarajan at [email protected].

TRACK AND FIELD — Right in the thick of season play, the Tritons got the a perfect chance to test their depth and flexibility: a small, friendly invite close to home.

UCSD track and field competed in the second annual Mangrum Invitational on April 3, turning in some impressive results at the non-scoring meet, which was held at Cal State San Marcos. No team scores were kept, allowing the Tritons to train in events that were not necessarily their best.

The meet was a welcome reprieve after the team’s outstanding performance at the high profile Cal/Nevada Championships the week before.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to rest people or move them around as we need to,” said women’s coach Darcy Ahner. “It allows us to qualify more people in the relay events, and it can give people a chance to try more events as well.”

Several nearby universities showed up to the meet — including the University of Southern California and UC Irvine — but none of the Tritons’ conference opponents participated. This gave UCSD a chance to experiment a little and fine tune for bigger meets later in the season.

On the women’s side, junior Kelly Fogarty blew by the competition in the 100-meter dash to clock a time of 11.90 seconds. The school-record holder also anchored the Tritons’ winning 4x100-meter relay team.

“Kelly has had so much fire this year, and its been really fun to watch,” Ahner said.

Senior Linda Rainwater won three events, recording the top marks in the shot put, javelin throw and high jump. A former All-American in the heptathlon, Rainwater will look to build on her success in the field events at the Mt. Sac heptathlon in Azusa on April 14.

The men’s team was lead by Fred Cook: The senior shot putter hit 52’ 2” to win the event and record a provisional NCAA Division-II championships qualifier. Senior Daniel Anderson turned in a similarly magnificent performance, breaking four minutes in his first attempt at 1500 meters with a time of 3:54.40. He earned second place in the event, only a week after he broke a 17-year-old school record in the 800-meter race. Anderson recorded a time of 1:51.12 seconds in the preliminaries of the Cal/Nevada Championships, and bested Mark Yuen’s 1993 record by 0.14 seconds.

“That meant a lot to me,” Anderson said. “I’ve been dealing with injuries and I haven’t really had a strong healthy season in a while, so I’ve been waiting to break that record for a long time.”

Head Coach Tony Salerno emphasized the significance of Anderson’s performance.

“The record is a big one,” Salerno said. “We’re really happy to see him show that kind of talent.”

Anderson’s time is among the top in Division-II this year, and he said he hopes he can push through to first place at the conference and national championships.

“My ultimate goal is to win nationals,” he said. “I haven’t taken a conference title yet, and that’s something I’d really like to do.”

The Cal/Nevada meet was an overall success for the Tritons: The women placed sixth and the men 10th, against some of the top programs on the West Coast. UCSD had the top Division-II squad for both men and women.

Most of the team will head to the highly competitive Pomona-Pitzer Invitational on April 10, although some runners will head to the UCLA Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational on the same day.

Readers can contact Liam Rose at [email protected].

March 22: I introduced myself to a circle of hardcore rockers from bands with names like Vivid Sekt and Bog People by telling one of the bassists he looked like “the chillest Norse god of war ever.”

He looked over with a constipated grin. I consider hauling scrawny white ass all the way back to Mira Mesa.

“I think you just made his life,” said another member of the circle.

The day before, a ukulele player declared herself to be ambigender, and the show ended as the whole audience sat around a harp, cross-legged like it was story time.

A few months before that, I termed Tera Melos’ music “space-thrash,” and guitar god Nick Reinhart nodded in agreement, pedo ’stache and all.

Welcome to the Che Cafe, the schizo home of whatever you want — as long as it’s not normal.

I show up half an hour after doors. It’s still a wait until the show starts, as the openers are in a constant game of chicken with the audience to see who can show up last — but there’s room on the back-room couch to perch and kill some change. Even though I’ll always be an omnivore, the Che’s vegan kitchen can give the blonde guitarist in fishnets and spiked leather some competition: $1 soy ice cream sandwiches at the shows, and real sugar root beer for the same price.

They’re not preachy about the veganism, though. Despite horror stories I’ve heard of non-vegan bands trying to book a show and hitting a brick wall (and despite the Animal Liberation Front ’zines and posters declaring “DESTROY ALL JUDGE — DESTROY ALL POLITICIAN”), the Che never gets preachy, even when one of the volunteers brings a bag of Cheetos to the weekly meeting.

It’s hippie heaven, punk paradise, and vegan nirvana — and it’s open to anyone.

It’s just that no one thinks to go there.

OK, that’s a purposely melodramatic statement — the turnout is jumpier than 1938 Poland, but the Che has enough big nights so that core volunteer Gregory Prout is confident that it’ll be financially stable next year, despite the theft of ten grand in sound equipment last summer.

For most UCSD students, though, that melodrama might as well be true. Ask what they think of the Che, and you’ll get responses like that of grad student Yana Morgulis.

“It looks interesting,” Morgulis said. “I’d go there if something was happening, but I thought it was boarded up.”

For reference, the Che was closed for two months because of insurance snafus back in Winter Quarter 2009.

You’d think the Che’s volunteers never thought of posting flyers in the Muir College quad. But there is, in fact, outreach going on — just on a small scale. Marshall College senior and core volunteer Alice Nash will be tabling at Admit Day next Saturday, trying to get some pre-frosh blood back into the Che.

There’s even some who choose to reach out to the Che. Jerry Chai, Revelle College sophomore and member of the Deejays and Vinylphiles Club, is hoping to organize a dance party at the Che and said the collective’s volunteers have been open to the idea. The DVC draws about 25 times the Che’s capacity to Let’s Bounce every year, and if the sold-out success of the Non-Sexist Dances is any indication, the Che should probably expect the fire marshal to drop by.

With any luck, some UCSD students will make a habit of doing the same.

Since its release into theaters last Friday, Steve Pink’s “Hot Tub Time Machine” has received mixed reviews. But whether it be wittily stupid or stupidly witty, what better way to look at a film than through the eyes of the actors. On February 15, 2010, two of the film’s stars — Craig Robinson (Darryl from “The Office”) and Clark Duke (Dale from “Greek”) — went behind the scenes with the Guardian. Get ready for heavy drinking, menage a troi-ing and barrelling from mountaintops.

The Guardian: What was it like shooting “Hot Tub Time Machine”?

Clark Duke: It was fun, but cold — as you would expect with snow.

Craig Robinson: Yeah, during the three months we were in Vancouver, it was just us and the Australians. The resort looked just like the hotel in “The Shining.” He even broke all the shit in his room!

CD: Hey, we’re in this little bitty town and then someone just kicks your door open while you’re asleep. … I’m not going to lie to you guys, I’ve been drinking a lot.

G: If you could go back in time, would you change things?

CR: Change? You know, I wouldn’t change a thing. Actually, there is one girl I wouldn’t have stopped to talk to …

G: How did you look 20 years ago?

CD: My head was the same size. I almost killed my mother at birth. Ha!

CR: I had that haircut — It was real high. I majored in music. I was a super freshman, all goofy and stupid.

G: Were you guys skiers prior to filming?

CR: They said, “We need you to ski for the movie.” And I said, “I’m black.”

CD: All the other guys knew how, but not us.

CR: The boots are freaking tight! I kept saying, “No, this is too tight!” My toes were all scrunched. By the third day, I made it down the mountain. It would have made great extra footage! I snow-plowed down the mountain, but I made it down.

G: What was your favorite part to film?

CR: There’s a scene where I’m in the hot tub with a young lady — I think about it daily. Jessica Paray is her name. It was very professional — I only got hard three times. Ha!

CD: That was also my favorite part. I was under the water!

G: Was it fun on set?

CD: Oh, yeah, there was a lot of cracking up. There was a lot of “Guys, we have to get to Act Three!”

CR: Look out for “Hot Tub Time Machine 2: Cincinnati.” We ain’t going to screen that one — we’re just going to let it out. Ha!

G: Were there any practical jokes played on set?

CD: There were a lot of impractical jokes.

CR: Yeah, not really practical. They kept improving — one would start and everyone would join in. My door got kicked in!

G: What was it like filming scenes with nudity?

CD: There were one too many dudes involved. Cordry’s ass — man, every time he’s nude on camera, he’s flexing, sometimes making a T. But they put flesh-colored socks over your penis.

CR: They didn’t have any to fit me …

G: Did you guys know each other before?

CD: We met at the table reading. I met Cusack at a dinner before the movie.

CR: Congratulations!

G: There were quite a few smart lines — did you ad-lib any of them?

CR: Chevy Chase got to do whatever he wanted, because he’s Chevy Chase.

CD: The script changes a lot, and eventually we just say, “Fuck the pages!”

CR: Steve Pink is one of the best directors I’ve worked with. We’ll be like, “What if we did this?” And he’s like, “Yeah!” And it’s like, “BAM! It’s in the trailer!”

G: So, Craig, you sing all the time on “The Office,” and your character in this film does as well. Is music your first love?

CR: Music is my first love. I grew up playing in church and at recitals. My band Nasty Delicious plays in the movie, too.

G: Did you have any problems while filming?

CD: Being outside when it’s that cold is rough.

CR: Yeah, I had my first sinus infection.

CD: I had to go to the chiropractor after falling down the mountain.

CR: In the last scene, we had to be in the hot tub for two days, and I was really hungover.

CD: We talk a lot about the guys who aren’t here. … You’re probably thinking, are you guys screwing with us?

CR: That’s what she said.

G: So what’s next for you guys in your careers?

CD: I’ve got this new movie called “Kick Ass” that’s coming out, plus a film called “1,000 Words” with Eddie Murphy.

CR: I’ve got “Shrek 4,” “Father of Invention” with Kevin Spacey, and I’m doing more of “The Office” and touring with my band.

G: Why should people see this movie?

CD: It’s … funny?

Clash of the Titans” is a cheesy-as-hell remake of a 1981 film that treats Greek mythology as fact, revels in low-grade graphics and stars Trey MacDougal from “Sex and the City.” In a nutshell: The revamping involves minor storyline tweaking, dramatically improved effects and Sam Worthington — otherwise known as this year’s Matt Damon, if Matt Damon didn’t know how to act.

To make things worse, the first 15 minutes of the film are comprised of foreshadow overkill. Without a booming intro or scrolling text to set the scene, we find ourselves wondering why these stupid 3-D glasses are resting on our noses at all.

Fortunately, the next hour provides a significant degree of relief. Who knows what director Louis Leterrier (“The Incredible Hulk”) started smoking, but the story of Perseus — the unwilling demigod who must prevent his uncle Hades from destroying the human race and conquering the world — is surprisingly captivating. It sounds like the plot to a half-baked children’s movie, but “Titans” is actually quite enthralling, and not in the horrific train-wreck way you might expect.

How it remains appealing until the end credits is the great mystery. After all, it’s a “Lord of the Rings” quest set in the location of “Troy,” with a villain who looks like Voldemort’s twin and Liam Neeson as Zeus. But for some reason, all those contrary elements come together to make a piecemeal film that reflects the better qualities in its inspirations.

Look out for one hilarious “Avatar” parallel after another, as Perseus rides Pegasus in a scene that raises the question of why Worthington is so good at mounting winged fictional creatures. But there’s just enough myth in “Titans” to create its own unique story with a touch of campy action, which is all we need to sit back and enjoy.

That’s not to say the film is without fault. Sticklers for Greek mythology will find discrepancies in the myths; for example, the character Io claims a god made her immortal as a punishment, when she should have turned into a cow. However, it’s not hard to see why Gemma Arterton would have had problems emoting from the CGI form of a talking quadruped, so that one can be overlooked for the sake of the story.

Of course, the major blockbuster contains more than its share of cheese, as lines like “Release the Kraken!” and “Tame your storm!” are delivered in the utmost seriousness — making for the best mindless fun since the crotch shot in “LOTR.”

The film’s only serious flaw is that it’s not worthy of 3-D. There are no overly exciting graphics (nor any obnoxious ones, for that matter). But if you’ve got itch for ancient Greece, this one’s pure gold; just take my advice and save yourself the $3 extra — who wants to be a four-eyed loser for no good reason?

The birth of Revellution — Revelle’s first-ever music festival — has been decidedly under the radar. So under the radar, in fact, that most people don’t know it exists. Add a rapidly approaching April 1 concert date, and one begins to speculate that Revellution may just be a grand, misguided hoax. However, with a lineup finally released, there is now a bit more evidence that this thing might actually be happening. Headliners Story of the Year and Terrible Things will take the stage on Thursday to prove that maybe — just maybe — Revelle can rage with the best of them.

Story of the Year

Perhaps best known for their 2004 breakthrough hit “Until the Day I Die,” Story of the Year is determined to tear out your eardrums come Thursday. Along with openers Quietdrive, the unabashedly screamo five-piece demonstrates the festival organizers’ apparent goal to create UCSD’s very own mini Warped Tour. Story of the Year’s raucous lyrics and heavy breakdowns call for more fist-pumping than dancing, but that’s not to say the band strays from melody. As their explosive choruses surely prove, the guys have always had an ear for pop. Expect boisterous sing-alongs and pushy crowds at the this installment of the band’s notoriously energetic live performance record. They will most likely spotlight tracks from their February release The Constant — another loud, angry disc in the band’s nearly one-note repertoire.

Terrible Things

Terrible Things is a hodgepodge crew of Warped Tour veterans featuring Fred Mascherino (ex-Taking Back Sunday, The Color Fred), Andy Jackson (Hot Rod Circuit), Steve Lucarelli (ex-Once Nothing) and Josh Eppard (ex-Coheed And Cambria). The group doesn’t stray too far from the decidedly pop-punk and/or sounds produced by their previous bands, but don’t pee yourself waiting eagerly for any Taking Back Sunday wails or Coheed and Cambria prog solos; no, these guys keep it simple. It’s all catchy choruses, three-chord guitar and deeply emotional vocals that make you tear up a little bit when things get deep. The band manages to sound like a combination of the Foo Fighters prototypical modern rock and the traditional emo of Sunny Day Real Estate. With an unexpected spring release date for their debut LP, look forward to the band throwing down some new head-bobbers at the show.

Scorpions

Sting in the Tail

Sony BMG

After 26 years of ripping off panties with “Rock You Like A Hurricane,” Sting in the Tail is the last album for German melody-metalists Scorpions. Sting follows their familiar two-step formula of sexed-up, guitar-driven anthems followed by melancholy power ballads, but this mediocre release won’t earn them an encore.

Opener “Raised on Rock” reduces the band to a 4/4 beat-machine trying for garage-rock brashness, and vocalist Klaus Meine’s trips over himself trying for vocal complexity. Despite attempts at resurrecting bad-boy glory nostalgia, the band never transcends Bon Jovi wanna-sleaze. As for the power ballads, well, there’s only so much you can do with lyrics strung together via madlib.

Then the frantic pace of “Rock Zone” hits like a tsunami, with a chorus that catches the playing-for-beer rawness that the Scorps have been chasing. Follow that with the distant synths of power ballad “Lorelei,” and it’s a one-two punch. Even if the switch from guitar verse to stirring chorus is predictable, Meine’s smooth tenor sets the track soaring.

It’s only a flash flood of quality, though. The rest of Sting is crammed with trying-too-hard lyrics written to fit predictable rhyme schemes. After years of hitting with hurricane force, the Scorpions appear to have fizzled into a bunch of hot air.

She & Him

Volume Two

Merge Records

Zooey Deschanel’s dodged the Hollywood archetype of good-actress, terrible-singer once again, with the help and hipster street-cred of folkster M. Ward after the duo mastered effortless pop on 2008’s Volume One.

She & Him’s follow-up, Volume Two, is a continuation of the charming, ‘60s-inspired sound the duo perfected on their debut, which proves to be a blessing and a curse. The breezy tunes of this collaboration are unabashedly fun, but on repeat they’re a lot less charming.

Deschanel is mostly to blame, as Ward seems content in the shadows, tinkering in the album’s background. In the spotlight, Deschanel’s quaint voice doesn’t have the emotional range to create moving music; even her saddest songs are sunny.

The excessive sentimentality and cutesy melodies, idealizing the lifestyles of Californian youth, make for perpetually-adolescent pop. When Zooey has the blues, it’s teenage blues, and you just can’t take high school heartbreak all that seriously. It’s all good fun, but both musicians are certainly past the puberty-ridden stages of young love.

That’s not to say the album doesn’t offer the perfect soundtrack to a California summer. M. Ward’s country-tinged guitar and Deschanel’s saccharine croon prove to be an endearing, albeit tired combination. Nonetheless, the album still exudes the expected twinkly charm.