It’s that time of the year. You’re either counting down until The Day arrives, you’re dreading it or you have complicated feelings. Valentine’s Day is not for the weak of heart. Whether you’re spending this Valentine’s with a significant other, platonic or familial relations, or by yourself, the Arts section has the latest installment of To Watch and Watch For, guaranteed to hold media picks that will either enhance your experience with someone else or at least distract you from a double-edged holiday. If you’re lost for where to begin, here are my personal favorites:
Barbie meets Frankenstein in the new Wuthering Heights movie’s take on the classic Emily Brontë novel of the same name, now brought to life with actors Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. The love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw is not so straightforward and easy. Directed by Emerald Fennell, she and Brontë remind us that those issues regarding love are tales as old as time, creating a conversation across centuries on the big screen, which you surely won’t want to miss.
Traversal is a book that asks many questions. What is life? What is death? What makes a body a person? What makes a planet a world? To answer these questions, it invokes voices from the past to lay stake in the future: Mary Shelley, Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass and more. Blending storytelling with reality, author Maria Popova is expected to deliver a read you can’t forget.
Is it too soon to recommend Wuthering Heights again? This time, it’s the album by Charli XCX, which backs the movie of the same name. It seems as if Charli XCX has been holding the microphone for her generation since she began making music in the 2000s — now, the 1800s is just another century she can add to her resume.
Sometimes, I wish I could fast forward and receive the answer to the looming question: What’s going on with my love life? This Tuesday, Feb. 10 that wish may come true — not just for me, but for you, too. The Special Collections is generously lending its staff mediums to provide free tarot readings, providing you insights about your love. When a glimpse into the future presents itself, who are we to decline?
If you somehow find yourself with an abundance of time on your hands at this school — or if you’re looking to procrastinate — then below is the full list of our recommendations for this week:
To watch...
- Wuthering Heights, directed by Emerald Fennell — Feb. 13
- Cold Storage, directed by Jonny Campbell — Feb. 13
- Crime 101, directed by Bart Layton — Feb. 13
- Sweetness, directed by Emma Higgins — Feb. 13
- Blades of the Guardians, directed by Yuen Woo-Ping — Feb. 17
To read...
- Hannibal Lecter: A Life, written by Brian Raftery — Feb. 10
- Marked by Time: How Social Change Has Transformed Crime and the Life Trajectories of Young Americans, written by Robert J. Sampson — Feb. 10
- With the Heart of a Ghost: Stories, written by Lim Sunwoo, translated by Chi-Young Kim — Feb. 10
- On Morrison, written by Namwali Serpell — Feb. 17
- Traversal, written by Maria Popova — Feb. 17
To listen...
- Wuthering Heights, by Charli XCX — Feb. 13
- Cerulean, by Danny L Harle — Feb. 13
- COLD 2 THE TOUCH, by Angel Du$t — Feb. 13
- Love Is Not Enough, by Converge — Feb. 13
- To Whom This May Concern, by Jill Scott — Feb. 13
Live events...
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Love in the Time of Tarot — Feb. 10, 6–8 p.m. at Special Collections, M-Level, Brody Learning Commons
- This event is free.
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“Stained Glass” Workshop at the Interfaith Center — Feb. 11, 5–7 p.m. at the Bunting-Meyerhoff Interfaith Center
- This event is free with registration.
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In the Stacks: Facets of Love with Mandy Brown — Feb. 12, 6:30–7:30 p.m. at George Peabody Library
- This event is free with registration.
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Peabody Symphony Orchestra — Feb. 12, 7:30–9:30 p.m. at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
- This event is free with reservation.
