JAM is hit and miss as performance, festival

Traveling in packs, students wandered past the FFC on their way to the Ralph S. O’Connor center, filtered past the security and entered JAM, the Johns Hopkins Annual Music Festival. There was a steady stream of roving students from 5 p.m. onwards. They were greeted by a gymnasium floor covered by a tarp with a raised platform and a big, curtained backstage.

Films of 2016 lack plot and variety

Movies are a living, breathing, moving art, but they’re also a business. Not only that but movies require tens to hundreds to thousands of people working on a single project. As a result, movies can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to produce. In light of that, for the majority of the year, when you look up what movies are playing, you sigh and search for when the next Avengers movie is coming out.

Show binds Walters Museum and Morgan State

Art and Music Bring Us Together was a concert at the Walters Art Museum focused on the sensory experience of art and music. The performers were Daniel Colin Xavier Rich, a baritone, and Samuel Springer, who played piano. The goal of the evening was to emphasize the broader connections between music and art. The concert was held in the sculpture garden at the museum. Visitors were encouraged to imagine walking through the galleries and listening to this music, as William and Henry Walters the museuem founders, and their guests might have done decades ago.

Witness showcases a mix of laughter, tears

Witness Theater, a Hopkins theater group that produces student-written plays, held its fall showcase last Friday through Sunday in Swirnow Theater. The showcase, produced by junior Renee Scavone, showed off five plays, entirely acted, directed and produced by Hopkins students. Each play was a smooth blend of creative bite and emotional energy, touching on topics both serious and light-hearted.

Zeds Dead opens Northern Lights tour in Baltimore

Canadian electronic duo, Zeds Dead, opened their lastest world tour (with shows in Canada and Europe) at Rams Head Live! this past Thursday. The duo brought Getter and Mija collaborator Ghastly with them as an opener.

The Exorcist holds up even while intoxicated

The Dandy Warhols crash and burn

When I found out I’d won tickets to see The Dandy Warhols at Rams Head Live! on Sept. 27, I was excited for the show. I mean, what could be better than free concert tickets? Plus, as an avid fan of Veronica Mars (watch it on Netflix if you haven’t already), I went through a period of several months when their song “We Used to Be Friends,” the show’s theme, was stuck in my head.

Hopkins Film Society highlights French cinema

“It’s supposed to be important,” said the upperclassman who mentioned Pierrot le Fou, the Hopkins Film Society’s choice for a movie screening in Shriver Hall on Saturday, Oct. 1.

Book festival offers students a literary retreat

“Don’t get stuck in the Hopkins bubble!” This is a phrase Hopkins students have heard over and over, one that is drilled into many heads during orientation. “That’s not going to happen to me,” most proclaim to themselves internally. Fast forward three weeks and sometimes new students don’t travel farther than the Starbucks on St. Paul Street.

Love and Darkness showcases Portman’s skill

A Tale of Love and Darkness is the directorial debut of Academy Award-winning actress Natalie Portman, who is a triple threat as the film’s star, director and screenwriter. The film is based on the early life of Amos Oz, a prominent modern Israeli novelist. The film depicts his life as a young boy living in Jerusalem with his mother and father during the founding years of the State of Israel. Portman was born in Israel and returned there for the setting of this film, which has a screenplay almost entirely in Hebrew.

Murray-loving critic takes on St. Vincent

JAM Preview Playlist

1. “Cash Machine” by D.R.A.M.

The News-Letter’s fall television round-up

Four shows that are worth watching while procrastination this school year.

Mndsgn lovingly crafts funky LP Body Wash

Future beat producer Mndsgn’s new album Body Wash, released Sept. 16, is a funk-fueled flood of ethereal strings, plinking synths and groovy drumming.

Christopher Ricks talks Poems of T.S. Eliot

Acclaimed literary critic Sir Christopher Ricks visited Hopkins to deliver the annual Turnbull Lecture on Tuesday entitled “T.S. Eliot and Matters of Principle,” regarding the importance of principle in both literature and life.

Embody pulls together voices of local artists

WTMD, the radio station associated with Towson University, held Embody, a curated session focused on showcasing the unique vocal talents of multiple acts last Tuesday. The session completely stripped away every instrument besides the performers’ voices. The event was hosted as well as curated by local beatboxer and Tuvan throat-singer Shodekeh.

High hopes for the HOP’s new music festival

The HOP will put on its annual music festival, entitled JAM, for the first time on Saturday. The inaugural festival will feature Robert DeLong, Party Favor and D.R.A.M. as openers, and iLoveMakonnen will headline. These diverse performers will take the stage in the Rec Center as a central part of the larger Young Alumni Weekend festivities.

Snowden provides alternative to media narrative

Released last Friday, Snowden, Oliver Stone’s thrilling biopic of the controversial man who leaked thousands of classified government documents to global journalists, is a well-made film with a globally poignant message that is well worth the price of admission.

A short preview of the acts performing at JAM

This year during Young Alumni Weekend, the Hopkins Organization for Programming (HOP) announced JAM, better known as the Johns Hopkins Annual Music Festival.