The city of Baltimore is no stranger to stories of violence and corruption. In the spring of 2015, Baltimore made national news headlines when Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died from injuries sustained in policy custody.
LSD’s inaugural and eponymous album finally dropped on Friday, April 12 after the group pushed it back from the original release date of Nov. 8. Because of this I was expecting awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping new beats and a bountiful well of new music to listen to until the summer’s inevitable slew of bouncy pop starts coming at us. While the new stuff we got off the album was great, five out of the album’s nine songs were previously released as singles, and the final track is a remix; I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed.
To some extent all romantic comedies are the same. You might think that that’s a bad thing, but I’d argue in the genre’s defense. Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with following a good formula. That being said, if you don’t like rom-coms, The Perfect Date isn’t for you. If you don’t like high school rom-coms, then you probably shouldn’t even bother reading this review. But if, like myself, you’re the type of person who’s seen To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before multiple times and would watch it again right now, then you also need to stop reading this review because you have to go watch The Perfect Date immediately.
Standing in the crowd of the Fillmore Silver Spring on Friday night, I was immediately taken back to my childhood, one of the hallmarks of which was listening to music in our family SUV. Whether we were going shopping for groceries or picking up new threads at the local Marshalls, my parents would always play music in the car. The selection was usually pretty eclectic — it included everything from Mendelssohn’s E minor violin concerto and random excerpts from Bach’s solo cello suites to Dream Theater’s Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory and excessive replays of The Pussycat Dolls’ “Don’t Cha.”
The return of the spring season always seems to bring with it two things: better moods and better music. In this past week, Vampire Weekend, Khalid and Kevin Abstract have all released much anticipated albums (not to mention Anderson .Paak, but he gets his own article).
I went into Shazam! with pretty high hopes. It had been very well reviewed, and I’d heard some really good things. Zachary Levi is a great actor who looked perfect for the role of the main character, kid-turned-adult-superhero Billy Batson, and the trailers were exciting and hilarious. Things all looked positive, and I was genuinely eager to see it opening night. So, with all that being said, I want to be very clear — Shazam! was not a good movie. I enjoyed it, and I’m glad I saw it, but it was not a quality film.
Nipsey Hussle was murdered a week ago. He was standing outside his clothing store, The Marathon Clothing, on Slauson Avenue, the street he grew up on in Los Angeles. He got into a confrontation with a man trying to enter the store. The man left, got a gun, came back and shot Nipsey.
By now you have probably seen the viral Planet Earth clip of a courtship dance where a bird of paradise distorts itself into a dabbing, blue, smiley face as a way of asking for its mate’s consent.
The latest iteration of Pet Sematary opened last Friday, April 5 based on Stephen King’s original novel of the same name released in 1983.
A large part of The Twilight Zone’s cult appeal stems from its inherently strange qualities, not only in its plot, but also in its status as an emblem of a different time and a different intellectual atmosphere in American history. The show itself, with its stilted acting, filtered sound and dramatic score, often does feel like it came from another dimension, an aspect that only increases its lurid appeal.
Humanities students at Hopkins are used to not getting the same opportunities as their STEM counterparts. Friendly fire proved just as fatal, however, when faculty members in the Writing Seminars started closing the door on students attempting to enter the overstuffed Tudor and Stuart Room in Gilman Hall on Tuesday, April 2. The Writing Sems department selected Gilman 388 (as opposed to the usual Mudd 26) for its intimacy, but it’s truly a shame that more students weren’t able to attend the reading of Margolies Visiting Writer Ilya Kaminsky.
The Barnstormers finished their opening weekend of their 100th anniversary spring musical, Cabaret, in Swirnow Theater. Directed by Max Hunter, the artistic director of The Bridge Production Group, and produced by senior Julia Zimmerman, the show centers around a Berlin cabaret called the Kit Kat Klub and the lives of those involved in it.
Red Emma’s hosted a multimedia presentation of the latest issue of World War 3 Illustrated, a left-wing political comic magazine, on Friday, March 29. This issue, “Now is the Time of Monsters,” focuses on the rise of capitalism and fascism. And though the theme may be broad, each featured artist hones in on one specific evil in the world, from Mark Zuckerberg to forced evictions in Detroit.
Ask Baltimore musician Cris Jacobs if he has a favorite song from his most recent album, Color Where You Are, and he’s unable to give a direct answer. “I can’t really say that I do,” he said. “Different songs have different emotional levels and different purposes.”
Throat Culture, the only sketch comedy troupe on campus, performed their 24-hour glow show in Arellano Theater on Saturday night, offering audience members not only humor and talent, but also free candy and glow sticks.
It’s sometimes hard to feel successful at Hopkins, or for that matter, to feel that you will ever be successful. Assignments come and go, and you complete them with varying degrees of competency and effort invested in each. You’re supposed to be learning, but often you feel like you’re treading water. Even if you do learn something, and can recognize and feel fulfilled by that fact, where does that leave you?
Compared to ensembles like the full symphony orchestra and string quartet, the wind ensemble seems to be a less written-for group. Exceptions may include instances in which programs present notable pieces like Holst’s “First Suite” and “Second Suite” or Samuel Barber’s much-loved “Commando March,” but for all their merits, performances of these works remain infrequent.
For the life of me, I cannot figure out why Disney decided to add Dumbo to its list of live-action adaptations. It’s easy to understand why they remade Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast; the films are so deeply ingrained in our cultural childhood that it is difficult to imagine a world in which the remakes weren’t successful. Dumbo, on the other hand, is nowhere near as popular a character, and his story seems like it wouldn’t translate very well to a more realistic film.
Concerts where the artist has to ask the audience to calm down are rare, to say the least. For me, Earl Sweatshirt’s concert on his tour Thebe Kgositsile presents: Fire it Up! A Tour Starring Earl Sweatshirt & Friends at Baltimore Soundstage on Thursday, March 28 was the first of its kind. Even though the mosh trampled me in one of its earliest waves and probably scarred me for life (no, I’m definitely not mad at all), the rhythmic energy that night was nothing short of primal — a wonder to witness.
The Metropolitan Opera is New York elites’ best kept secret. With its still lingering 19th century grandeur and 60-foot high ceilings, it can almost feel like a farce. But within the performance itself, there are quiet moments of intimacy too.
