The rollout for Chromakopia — a series of dystopian, auteurist videos set to abrasive musical snippets — felt like deceptive advertising...There is a disconnect between the album’s industrially-tinged, barren aesthetic framing and its actual lyrical themes. On first listen, I found myself questioning: Why the mask, the military-inspired imagery and the shipping containers?
For their Fall 2024 show, Hopkins’ longest-standing theater company, The Barnstormers, performed one of Shakespeare’s most performed plays, the romantic comedy Twelfth Night. I made sure to attend their first performance on Oct. 24, which had a sparse crowd — likely due to it being on a Thursday — but an energetic atmosphere.
In an interview with The News-Letter, Judah Akers, lead singer of indie folk band Judah & the Lion, says that they make music, “for people… to point people to hope.” Their newest album, The Process, is a journey through the five stages of grief.
On Oct. 13 from 2—4 p.m., four faculty filmmakers from the Film and Media Studies department screened their work... The event highlighted the presenters’ labors of love, with a program that featured the following works: unravelling by Susan Leslie Mann and John Bright Mann, Manger by Jimmy Joe Roche, Turf Valley by Adam Rodgers and Tom Ventimiglia, and I’m Not Your Monster by Karen Yasinsky.
“It’s like standing in a power station on acid,” said Richard D. James, better known as Aphex Twin, of his landmark album Selected Ambient Works Volume II. Thirty years later, its beautiful yet unsettling dreamlike soundscapes remain as captivating as ever, and earlier this month the album returned with an expanded anniversary edition.
Whether your Halloweekend just passed, or for some reason you’re celebrating in November (weird choice), there are plenty of new releases and events which will soothe your soul — perhaps enough to reinhabit your body.
Lizzy McAlpine’s most recent release, Older (and Wiser) won me over before I even listened to it. I cannot emphasize how much I love a good — or bad — pun, and deluxe albums with witty titles are my guilty pleasures (see: guts (spilled) by Olivia Rodrigo and Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale by Tyler, the Creator).
Poet Megan Pinto held an event at local cafe Bird in Hand to present her debut poetry collection, Saints of Little Faith on Sunday, Oct. 6. Alongside Pinto, Samuel Cheney, Jimin Seo and Jess Yuan presented their work. After the attendees had settled into their seats inside of the atmospheric bookstore, the poets were introduced and the event began.
The Hopkins Symphony Orchestra (HSO) delivered an expert performance on the evening of Oct. 5 in the Shriver Hall auditorium. The orchestra opened with William Grant Still’s Serenade before shifting to Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major and ending with Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, or From the New World.
Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo, the Sept. 24 addition to her oeuvre, is a novel chronicling the tumultuous relationship between the Dublin-based 22-year-old competitive chess player Ivan Koubek and his 32-year-old barrister brother Peter after the death of their father. Or, more suitably, Intermezzo is a novel chronicling the men’s relationship with women. What could have been a novel interrogating a variety of worthy themes — the function of grief and trauma in love, the explosive or inopportune nature of fate or the destructiveness of family — is instead a novel that reads like a pubescent teenage boy preoccupied with sex.
You know that moment when a podcast becomes more than just a weekly listen? When it transforms into a cultural phenomenon, sparking debate, drama and endless TikTok commentary? Yeah, that’s what Cancelled , a podcast hosted by Tana Mongeau and Brooke Schofield, has done — taking the world of pop culture, scandals and the art of calling out influencers to a whole new level.
The Peabody Symphony Orchestra (PSO) held its first concert of the 2024–2025 season on Thursday, Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall at the Peabody Institute.
“I was always a nerd,” said Jordan Jackson — a Baltimore-based comic artist, writer and faculty for animation at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) — during my First-Year Seminar: Writing with Pictures: An Introduction to Writing Picture Books and Graphic Novels. On Monday, Sept. 30, my class was honored to have Jackson join our class to discuss his journey as an artist and his creative process.
South Korean author Han Kang won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday, Oct. 10 "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” She is the first Asian woman to win this award.
Softshell (2024), an arthouse dramedy by writer-director Jinho Myung, follows two siblings as they navigate early adulthood. It premiered on Oct. 6, 2024 at the New/Next Film Festival, presented by Baltimore Public Media.
Whether it’s the bittersweet realizations of "I See It Now" or the gentle resolve of "In A Smile," Bollinger’s melodies feel like quiet moments of self-discovery. As the days grow shorter and colder, this album invites listeners to pause, look inward and embrace change, making it the perfect companion for those crisp, contemplative fall days.
In all, Day6 has had a remarkable, unconventional career in K-pop, partly due to their strength to put out timeless music — whether it be a title track or a b-side. If you haven’t already, give Day6 a try.
This week’s picks from the Arts & Entertainment section include a few horror movies, a memoir by Al Pacino, an arts walk in Hampden and a new album from Jordana. Please enjoy our media picks for the upcoming week.
There’s a 0.01286% chance — about one in 7,776 — that you’ll roll the combination referenced in the title of indie band Bright Eyes’ 11th LP, Five Dice, All Threes. It’s a perfect yet improbable roll in the game of Threes, an apt framing device for an album about living on in the face of overwhelming bleakness, while salvaging whatever optimism remains along the way.
Being embarrassingly earnest is not a guarantee for success, and Megalopolis is the perfect example of a passion project that misses the mark. If every movie is a miracle, Megalopolis is less of a second coming and more of a moment of lucidness before succumbing to death.
