Culture
Culture
‘Gone Girl’ is thrilling, unconventional
This article was originally printed on 10-9-14. “The primal questions of a marriage: what are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other? What will we do?” These opening lines of David Fincher’s newest film, “Gone Girl,” present the central question of the film: can we ever truly know another, […]
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Short Term 12
It’s rare to find a film like “Short Term 12.” It’s a movie that is marvelously small in scope, and has no grand ambitions or self-created pretentiousness. Left in their place is a truly moving story that wears its heart on its sleeve. This story, one of messed-up people trying to help and understand each […]
Culture
Aphex Twin return in style, form with Syro
In the middle of August, a chartreuse blimp appeared over London bearing the Aphex Twin logo. A few days later, Aphex Twin’s official Twitter account posted a link only accessible through Tor, which revealed the track listing and the title, “Syro,” a nonsense word made up by Richard D. James’s son. James, of course, is […]
Culture
PUSH Physical Theatre: dancing to demonstrate unity
Although I appreciate the multiple forms of art, I have not attended many dance shows in the past. My prior dance experience, consisting of tap lessons at three years old and ballet at eight, hadn’t given me very memorable impressions of dance as an art form. However, my experience as an audience member of PUSH […]
Culture
Vic Mensa and Asher Roth storm Douglass
“Bowl cuts was the craze / I was crazy,” spat Asher Roth in Douglass Dining Hall on Friday, Sep. 27. The lyric adequately sums up the MC’s current stage in his career: Roth, best known for his 2009 suburban-bubblegum-rap single “I Love College,” wants you to know he’s playing the rap game for real this […]
Culture
TOOP’s ‘Earnest’ brings timeless humor to Fringe
The First Niagra Fringe Festival was, once again, a huge success. It brought hundreds of performers to venues all over downtown Rochester and presented shows to thousands of audience members over the course of two weeks. “The Importance of Being Earnest”, presented by The Opposite of People (TOOP) theatre group fit right in with the […]
Culture
Stratford Festival offers weekend of theater, escape
A hearty dose of Shakespeare is a suitable cure for any malady –especially for underlying stress from your steadily accumulating assignments. I had the privilege of attending the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario with a mixture of undergrads, grad students, and faculty members from the UR English Department. Although most of the festival selections were […]
Culture
RPO strikes universal chord with season opener
The highly anticipated 92nd season of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) got underway last Thursday, Sept. 18 and Saturday, Sept. 20 when new music director and Rochester native Ward Stare took the stage. Along with master violinist Midori, Stare led the orchestra in two performances of a dynamic program featuring Berlioz, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky. “Music […]
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John Frusciante – Shadows Collide With People
"And you can function as someone besides who you are," John Frusciante sings on his 2004 solo album, "Shadows Collide With People." Lyrics like this are what make "Shadows" so brilliant. Frusciante subtly shifts conventional binaries and clichés and delivers them with such quiet confidence that his unconventional views almost pass you by. Unlike many […]
Culture
‘Guardians’: big laughs, little change
It’s hard to put into words exactly what kind of moviegoing experience “Guardians of the Galaxy” is. The movie is undoubtedly exuberant, full of incredible amounts of joy and fun. It can also be surprisingly resonant, filled with more emotion than you would expect from it, or from any other Marvel property for that matter. […]