Not your typical indie band, Beirut mixes heady blends of lush, brass melodies with electronic and acoustic sensibilities. Drawing from Balkan-inspired folk and postmodern pop, their sound has yet to be replicated by anyone in the indie scene.
The Split This Rock Poetry Festival took place for the fifth time over the weekend from Thursday, April 14 to Sunday, April 17 in Washington, D.C. The festival, which has been held at the nation’s capital every other year since 2008, centers around poetry of provocation and witness.
Last Thursday, emo pop-punk band Citizen played at the Ottobar in one of the last stops on their six-week tour. They were supported by a bevy of similar bands, including Sorority Noise, Turnover and Milk Teeth.
As part of the annual Spring Fair concert, The Chainsmokers performed along with Marian Hill and Shwayze. The outdoor concert was held on the Hopkins campus at the practice field on Friday, April 15. 2,500 tickets were sold for the event.
Artists used to drop albums the same way every time: They would announce a new album in the works, promote it and release it on a set date. Yet, since album releases at their essence are all about marketing and lining up as many people as possible to buy the album, artists and their labels have been getting more and more creative in terms of how they present and release new work.
In light of ongoing attacks on cultural landmarks and artifacts in the Middle East, the Program in Museums and Society, with support from the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum and the department of Near Eastern Studies, presented a lecture titled “Disaster and Response: The Conservator’s Role in Saving Global Heritage” on Tuesday. Throughout the event, they stressed that conservation of a society’s culture is a matter of human rights.
Last Sunday, Son Lux headlined a show at the Ottobar. Son Lux is a genre-bending American musician whose work might be described as experimental electronic, pop or just “indie.” Ryan Lott, the man behind the act, has released four albums, including Bones, We Are Rising and Lanterns, as well as two EPs under Son Lux.
Hopkins hosted “The Power of Words,” an event featuring spoken word artists, poets and activists, on April 8 in Hodson Hall. Many of the 12 performers were from the Baltimore community, and others were Hopkins students.
Netflix unveiled a brand new season of the Canadian mockumentary show Trailer Park Boys on March 28. The show, which is now in its 10th season, debuted on the Showcase network in 2001 and came to a close in 2007 at the end of the seventh season. The series was then revived in 2014, and Netflix started streaming it the same year. The show’s three leading actors, John Paul Tremblay, Robb Wells and Mike Smith along with their production company, Swearnet Pictures, were responsible for the reboot.
Indie experimental noise band Yo La Tengo played two sets at the Baltimore Soundstage last Tuesday. The performance was billed as “An Evening with Yo La Tengo” and promised both an intimate set of the band’s quieter songs and the frantic, kinetic sounds for which they have come to be known.
Unnaturally Happy: The Language of the Bumblebees premiered at Arellano Theater last Friday night at 8 p.m. The drama, which focuses on the delicate intricacies of relationships and mental illness, was directed, produced and written by senior Tatiana Nya Ford. It featured performances by Ford, junior Saraniya Tharmarajah, senior Utkarsh Rajawat and senior Matt Moores.
From April 1 to 10, the Barnstormer’s production of Legally Blonde the Musical takes over the Swirnow Theater at the Mattin Center. Fans of the movie, musical aficionados and fun seekers alike can all revel in this upbeat and stylistic retelling of the popular film.
With the numerous foreign language literature departments and the impressive English and Writing Seminars departments, it’s a well-known fact that Hopkins students enjoy literature. It’s a lesser known fact that many of these same Hopkins students are also fantastic bakers and artists as well.
Light City Baltimore bathed the city in lights last week with its inaugural combination of music, lights and innovation that brought together many of the city’s neighborhoods. Perhaps the most interesting thing about it was that the event spread throughout the city, with many attractions in different neighborhoods.
Conversations With the Carrolls, a living history performance held this weekend at Homewood Museum, brought to life the people who both enjoyed and supported life in the Homewood house during the early 19th century. Conversations was produced by Helena Arose and Sarah Braver, directed by Saraniya Tharmarajah and featured a screenplay by Julia Phoon. Utkarsh Rajawat, Tatiana Ford, John Del Toro, Garlyn Colas and Saraniya Tharmarajah all acted in the show.
After premiering on IFC last year, Documentary Now!, a seven-episode parody of documentary filmmaking, has come to Netflix. The series, created by Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Rhys Thomas — all past or current cast members of Saturday Night Live — presents six different “documentaries,” each approximately 20 minutes long, which are introduced by a refined Helen Mirren. Each episode portrays a different style of documentary, and each is unnerving and comical in its own way.
On Saturday, the Johns Hopkins Film Society screened a selection of student-made short films as part of the annual Johns Hopkins Film Festival. Its Baltimore Student Filmmaker Program featured a collection of films directed by local aspiring filmmakers. The contributors were largely college students with the notable exception of high school student Ruby Miller, who attends the Park School of Baltimore. This section is a new addition to the festival, now in its 22nd year.
Marilynne Robinson, an award-winning American author, held a reading as a part of the President’s Reading Series: Literature of Social Import this past Thursday. This event was held in the large lecture hall of Hodson and included a reception and book signing after.
