Here in the Arts Section, we hope everyone has had a restful Fall Break (or at least just got in a good nap or two). Now that we’re coming into the second half of the semester, I think everybody is feeling a bit overwhelmed. So why not take a moment to escape from it all with a new movie or book release, or get away from campus for a bit and spend a night out with some friends?
Rap artist Rick Ross and pop rock band COIN performed in this year’s Hoptoberfest concert on Oct. 14. To be honest, ahead of this concert, I had never heard of either Rick Ross or COIN. Their most well-known tracks, “Talk Too Much” by COIN and “Hustlin’” by Rick Ross, were vaguely familiar to me, but not to the extent that I could sing along or shout the lyrics at a concert. However, I figured that a free concert was a free concert, so I went.
On the third day of Hoptoberfest, the Hopkins Student Organization for Programming (HOP) puts on a “Show Day,“ featuring student groups such as Korean Pop Motion (KPM) and the JHU Yong Han Lion Dance Troupe.
Juggling classes and exams in college while also maintaining a social life and good mental health can be challenging (I’m honestly exhausted thinking and writing about it). Because of this, JHU ¡Baila!, the University’s only Latin dance team, really stands out for how it embraces the importance of this balance. They offer a welcoming space for Hopkins students to feel connected to each other, their Latin roots and the world of Latin dance.
Can you feel that? The leaves are turning orange, the air is getting a bit chilly and Kevin Feige is knocking on your door letting you know there is another Marvel Studios release. Time to blow the dust off my Disney+ account to watch Loki's season two premiere.
This weeks picks include singer-songwriter Sampha’s new album Lahai; internet personality Ziwe’s literary debut with Black Friend: Essays; Flashback, directed by Jed Shepherd and Everyman Theatre’s first performance of The Chinese Lady.
Drake continues to follow his own formula with his newest album For All the Dogs, which was released this past Friday, Oct. 6. Lacking creativity and cohesion, Drake once again fails to deliver a true classic album.
DBH is a theater company that produces “cultural expressions of African descent into play, skits, monologues, poetry recitals and dance presentations.” Unique to itself, DBH is the only theater company on campus whose main focus is on representing Black identity and communicating their experience through art.
There’s something special about the excitement of a theater minutes before the lights go down. People are flipping through the programs or chatting with their friends, and theater group members are doing their last checks and preparations before showtime. You can never know for sure exactly what kind of show you’re going to be in for.
In a cinema landscape where almost every horror film is a metaphor, it becomes slightly disappointing when a film doesn’t execute its messages well, or when it fails to land on any message at all. Regardless of its muddy themes, Bishal Dutta’s feature film directorial debut, It Lives Inside, puts a twist on the possession horror film archetype by following an Indian-American teenage girl’s experience with an evil spirit from Hindu mythology.
This week's picks include The Fall of the House of Usher, a new horror series based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, and the Peabody Dance Family Weekend performance at Joe Byrd Hall.
“The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people,” Mitski said in an interview with Dead Oceans. “I wish I could leave behind all the love I have, after I die, so that I can shine all this goodness, all this good love that I’ve created onto other people.”
This week's picks include Javelin, the tenth studio album by Sufjan Stevens, fantasy thriller novel Beholder by Ryan La Sala, The Exorcist: Believer and the International Poe Festival at the Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum.
On Sept. 23 the Peabody Symphony Orchestra (PSO) held its first concert of the academic year. Though held with free admission at the Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall, I had the pleasure of being able to watch it online through a live broadcast. Included in the program were the following pieces: “Pulse” by Brian Nabors, “Totenfeier” by Gustav Mahler and “Symphony No. 2” by Louise Farrenc. The pieces were all conducted by Joseph Young.
The first episode of American Horror Story’s new season, Delicate, focuses on the stresses of being a woman in modern society, paired with creepy visions of stalkers and arachnids.
What makes us fall in love? In Past Lives, the quietly stunning debut from Korean-Canadian filmmaker Celine Song, the response is a deceptive one. There is in-yun, a Korean concept of fate intimating that thousands of years of past life interactions bring two people together. But there are also the childhood memories shared, the books coincidentally read and the glances that linger too long. Are these so different? Or are they precisely the same?
Bottoms, directed by Emma Seligman, is the most memorable comedy I’ve seen all year. On top of being genuinely funny, it subverts the usual stereotypes of queer media about teenagers. There’s no coming-out subplot present anywhere, but the film is still full of unapologetically lesbian characters and gay jokes that had the entire theater laughing.
This week's picks include the documentary Invisible Beauty, a new Percy Jackson and the Olympians novel and the debut of a new exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
If there’s one thing that Hopkins has no shortage of, it’s fantastic a cappella groups. But with so many groups on campus, it can be difficult to really highlight the unique strengths and interests of each one. This week I was able to sit down with senior Matt Rodgers, the president of Ketzev at JHU, to find out what makes Ketzev and a cappella at Hopkins so special.
Out of the 38 Netflix Original releases so far this month, nine of which are movies, the new Netflix romantic comedy Love At First Sight sits at the top of the pedestal as No. 1 in the top 10 movies in the U.S. The new addition to Netflix’s repertoire is an adaptation of the novel The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight, written by Jennifer E. Smith.
