Culture
CT Recommends
CT Recommends: Bladee – ‘Gluee”
“GLUEE,” the debut mixtape from Bladee, a member of the Swedish rap/electronic music collective Gravity Boys, is a tough pill to swallow. The mixtape’s opening track, “deletee,” is a 3-minute long iced-out autotune casserole where Bladee moans, “Gucci lenses on my eyes / Bank account match my clothing size.” Much of “GLUEE” is moaning–that's the […]
Culture
Eastman pays tribute to Mendelssohn
“So, are you into organ music?” This might seem like an odd question to ask, since in today’s popular music realm, the organ is very rarely heard. It used to be featured in a select group of 70s bands, such as “The Doors,” but, as of late, it has been replaced by electronic synthesizers. This […]
Culture
“I’ll be your Pilot Today”
This weekly column will review the pilot episodes of television shows, both successful and cancelled. In this inaugural column of “I’ll Be Your Pilot Today,” I will review the pilot for “Fresh Off the Boat,” the ABC comedy about the ups and downs of an Asian- American family in Orlando, FL in 1995. “Fresh Off […]
Culture
BSU Step Show features high school talent, UR dancers
Black Student Union (BSU) hosted their 12th Annual Step Show on Saturday, Feb. 7, drawing performers and spectators from across the greater Rochester area. The show, which was themed “You Can't Step With Us,” featured step teams from area high schools and several performances from UR. The show consisted of three parts. The opening performance […]
Culture
Oscar Series: “Boyhood”
We learned in high school what a bildungsroman is–it’s an genre that demonstrates the coming-of-age of the main character of a novel. It’s when the protagonist matures enough to combine the delicacies of his or her childhood innocence and the grounded reality as they reach the age of maturation. It’s a term mainly applied to […]
CT Recommends
CT Recommends: “The Comeback”
Nearly a decade after leaving the air, HBO’s “The Comeback” shocked audiences with a comeback of its own when the network announced that it would be returning for a second season. The show is presented as raw footage from former sitcom star Valerie Chrish’s (Lisa Kudrow, best known for playing Phoebe on “Friends”) reality show. […]
Culture
Jon Stewart: the voice of a generation
On Tuesday, Feb. 10, a comedian employed by one of the largest media corporations in the world announced his retirement, and America collectively mourned. This employee was Jon Stewart, who, during his tenure on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” which aired on Comedy Central (a Viacom property), ridiculed the absurdities of politics and the […]
Culture
2015 Grammys fuse the past and present
The 2015 Grammy Awards highlighted a paradigm shift in modern music–as it moves forward, it takes more from the past. Case in point, Kanye West–he performed not one but two songs he co-wrote with Paul McCartney. Or, look at Sam Smith, who swept the floor with awards for a song whose chorus Tom Petty owns […]
Culture
Eastwood’s ‘American Sniper’ propagandizes true-life story
Most biographical war films don’t outwardly identify as “action movies” because the pairing of the two genres sounds inherently unethical. Real-world combat involves real lives, after all, and to suggest that they be terminated in the service of an adrenaline rush is to appear callous, if not downright inhumane. “American Sniper,” Clint Eastwood’s recent biopic on […]
Culture
Katy Perry: rise of a bubblegum princess
“Super Bowl are you ready to ROAR!” shouted Katy Perry as she stood atop a gargantuan mechanical lion at the 49th annual Super Bowl. Glowing in a glitter-flame dress and whipping a golden rope, the pop superstar emanated command, intrigue and a little bit of whimsy. From her opening number, “Roar,” Perry's performance elevated pop […]