Hoptoberfest concert plagued by technical issues, but very fun while it lasted

Hoptoberfest — what all of us freshmen have heard was a relaxing, fun-filled way to welcome autumn, get free T-shirts and meet new people — looked a little different this year. Instead of the usual in-person experience, we had a week of virtual events to look forward to, culminating in the annual Hoptoberfest concert on Friday.

COVID-19 gives a new perspective to Dante's Inferno

Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy is undeniably a timeless classic. Its grand adventure through the nine gates of hell sparks readers with life and interest. It seems like an out-of-place work for a description of our chaotic times, but I believe it is a lot more relatable to us than we might think in the most unlikely of ways. So what can readers take from this classic besides grand allusions to the past? 

Charm City Kings explores the city of Baltimore, adolescence and dirt biking

Last week, HBO released the movie Charm City Kings, directed by Angel Manuel Soto, on their streaming service HBO Max. Based on the 2013 documentary 12 O’Clock Boys, the film deals with the experiences of young teenager Mouse (played by Jahi Di’Allo Winston) growing up around the dirt bike riding scene in Baltimore. Playing along the lines of a classic coming-of-age story, it follows how he deals with the loneliness, romance and familial clashes but with the nuance that comes with being an impoverished Black kid negotiating adulthood in one of the most segregated cities in America.

The Boys season two succeeds despite its faults

Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys doesn’t translate well to written text. The show, based on the graphic novel, relies heavily on spectacle. There are consciously obscene amounts of gore and nudity as a direct satire of the romanticized way that many modern superhero movies and shows portray violence, and the show doesn’t hesitate to use sex and blood to grab your attention. 

Film festival celebrates the city and people of Baltimore

Last weekend, Creative Alliance held its fourth Made in Baltimore Short Film Festival, a showcase of 11 outstanding movies that were made by, for or about Baltimoreans and the city they live in. The event, held online and hosted by drag queen Betty O’Hellno, was a great way of reminding us that there is more to watch than just Netflix, even if we’re stuck at home. 

BMA reopens with new COVID-19 guidelines

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) has finally reopened. After long months of inactivity and being shut down due to COVID-19, a phased opening began on Sept. 16, which allowed for nearly every exhibit to be fully reopened by the end of that month. That’s right, the BMA is officially back. 

A24 documentary Boys State accurately reflects my camp experience

Boys State, a week-long summer camp hosted in every American state by the American Legion, is a mock government with upwards of 1,000 17-year-old high school boys. At first glance Boys State looks like a mob of conservative white boys, which might make you think that the camp is nothing more than a failed attempt to organize adolescent chaos. But I can assure you — as a former participant myself — that it is something much more. 

Millie Bobby Brown outsmarts and outshines Sherlock Holmes in Netflix film

It’s 1884. Enola Holmes lives happily with her eccentric mother, far from society and its norms for women, but on the morning of her 16th birthday, she discovers that her mother is gone. The disappearance of her mother reunites Enola with her older brothers, Sherlock (yes, the detective) and Mycroft, who have both been long absent from her life. They barely recognize her.  

Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland paves its way to the Oscars

The teaser trailer for Nomadland opens with its protagonist, Fern (Frances McDormand), walking languidly through a trailer park. The camera follows her, and we see diverse assortments of people gathered together in front of varying vehicular living set-ups. These are the nomads of our modern world. Fern continues on her path as it fades to black, and though we’re left wondering where she’s going, her slow stride could not be mistaken for aimlessness. She is going somewhere that only she knows, and effectively, the mood of the film has been set.

This year's tribute concert to Billie Holiday moves online

The Billie Holiday Project for Liberation Arts (BHPLA) and Hopkins at Home hosted “Baltimore's Billie Holiday: A Musical Tribute to Lady Day” on Saturday, Sept. 19. The online concert honored the Baltimore native legendary jazz vocalist Billie Holiday. Though BHPLA hosted its inaugural tribute concert in West Baltimore’s Lafayette Square last year, this year’s concert was adapted to an online format as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Severance by Ling Ma parallels our pandemic and our economic system

Shen Fever is a fatal respiratory illness that disrupts the nervous system of its victims. Spread through fungal spores, the disease infects a person’s brain and effectively turns them into harmless, slowly-decaying zombies. But don’t worry — it’s not real.

Mulan remake misrepresents original Chinese story

After rounds of delays due to the pandemic, the grand release of the live-action movie Mulan had gained a lot of hype and excitement. However, this only made it extra disappointing when I finally watched it. After its release in Chinese cinema on Sept. 11, the rating dropped sharply to 4.9/10 on Douban within two days.  

Hopkins dance groups make it work digitally

Bloomberg School of Public Health becomes Instagram famous

The Bloomberg School of Public Health has been attracting major national attention since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic hit the United States. According to Bloomberg’s Audience Development team, the Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center got hundreds of millions of views daily at its peak and is still cited daily as the main source of COVID-19 data for media outlets, schools and other institutions. Experts from the school have been featured in media coverage and consulted by people across the globe in these truly unsettling times. 

BBC adapts a modern Indian classic, with mixed results

Over the summer, like most people trying to deal with the anxiety-inducing, consistently weird times we’ve been going through, I succumbed to rewatching my favorite comfort shows ad nauseam. However, one new show managed to pull me out of binge-watching and return to the good old days of watching something new on a one-episode-per-week basis as it came out — the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) adaptation of A Suitable Boy. 

Love, Victor speaks to a rocky reality

Providing a renovation of the queer teen love story Love, Simon from 2018, the newly released TV series Love, Victor takes place in the same setting of Creekwood High School, with new characters and a different story. Victor Salazar, the protagonist of the new show, is a Puerto Rican with a “beautiful cinnamon complexion” from Texas who, despite financial shortcomings, has moved with his family to the more affluent school district of Creekwood High. 

Jay Chou’s "Mojito" suggests that sometimes, it’s okay to be happy

International pop star Jay Chou dropped his newest single, “Mojito,” on June 12. Released alongside a vibrant music video in which he wanders through Cuban streets with his band, it was a much-anticipated release for ardent fans of Chou, whose last album Jay Chou’s Bedtime Stories came out in 2016. He has only released four singles since, including “Mojito.” 

Hit hard by pandemic, the cinema industry may change forever

While the obvious public health, social and economic consequences of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic are well known, this period may also change, perhaps permanently, the way we see movies. During Lunar New Year 2019, the Chinese box office totaled $360 million in the first weekend alone. But this year, as over 70,000 theaters closed and major movies were postponed, that same box office grossed only $2 million over the holiday weekend, even though it was previously expected to generate $1 billion globally.

Exploring Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Intense percussion, frank and breathy lyrics, dog barks. Wispy lyrics spoken into silence with no soundtrack to support them. Hoarse growls full of energy and instruments that fall into hysteria, then pick up a new beat and begin once again. This is how Fiona Apple clangs into view on her fifth album Fetch the Bolt Cutters, a powerhouse of intricate rhythm, rising anger and joy.