Arts
What's up this weekend
By Nika Korchok | April 15Looking to make your weekend artsy? Check out these events!
Arts
Theater
Richard III: new man, new play
By Josh Podolsky | April 15Few playwrights have had their works adapted so extremely, variously and frequently as William Shakespeare has. It is far less common, however, for the interpretation of one of his characters to deviate from the norm. Yet, with the discovery, exhumation and reinterment of the titular character of “Richard ...
Arts
Young Fathers spark conversation with complex, narrative lyrics
By Nika Korchok | April 15The band Young Fathers challenges the restraints of genre definition. On its latest album, “White Men Are Black Men Too,” released April 6, the Edinburgh-based trio switches from blues to funk to soul to R&B to hip-hop to trip-hop to rap to rock so quickly that the multidimensionality should be dizzying. The combination is, in fact, intoxicating. To categorize Young Fathers into one musical genre is to not give their work the full sweeping arc of praise that it merits. To allocate their lyrics into the specifications of either realms of political or personal, is to deny their full scope. The lyrics take personal tales and magnify them, at times making uncomfortably personal tales into digestible, danceable tracks. The combination should not be a shock. The band’s label, Big Dada recordings, reps artists known for their propensities to blur the lines between danceability and narrative, most notably Run the Jewels. But while RTJ’s stunning self-titled LP "Run the Jewels 2," released October 2014 last year, addressed race with an unyielding hard-hitting powerhouse collection of tracks, Young Fathers takes a subtler swipe at handling the conversation. Lyrics are hidden under trumpet solos, hiding in plain sight on songs that rattle on with a danceable pop undercurrent of potential Top 40 popularity.
Arts
Game of Thrones leak puts fans in awkward position
By Jennifer Straitz | April 15This past weekend, “Game of Thrones” (2011 - present) enthusiasts were thrown a curveball: The first four episodes of the fifth season of the wildly popular HBO show were leaked online. Fans were subsequently forced to answer the question -- to watch or not to watch the leaked episodes? The moral ...
Arts
Lara LoBrutto fine tunes her singing, writing with her own vernacular
By Josh Podolsky | April 15“Perhaps, we’ll see,” said Lara LoBrutto in an interview with the Daily when asked if she planned on publishing any of her writing in the near future. The sophomore international relations major and Chinese minor is a prodigious writer. In high school, LoBrutto kept up a film review blog and, ...
Arts
Top 10 ways to celebrate the passing of the Winter of Despair
By Jessica Mow | April 15In today’s Top 10, you lucky readers get a double whammy. Not only do you get to find out the best thing to do when the warm weather starts back up, you also get a glimpse into the mind of a delirious writer. At 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday, I decided to jot down the things I felt were the most important ...
Arts
ArtBridge brings local art to Roosters barbershop
By Abigail Lord | April 14The first thing one notices upon walking into Roosters barbershop on 518 Tremont Street is the smell; this place smells like your grandfather. The combination of the green walls, black ceiling, wooden furniture and the overwhelming scent of after-shave all contribute to the atmosphere of an old-school ...
Columns
Representations of Nothingness
By Emily Gruzdowich | April 14Not only do we seek to order our lives, but also we seek to order our interpretation of art. Living in an age of innovation, we seek immediate gratification through technology. We, the public, are currently enraptured with the marvels of modern technology and modernization. However, while we are products ...
Arts
'Outlander' returns with strong acting, compelling storyline
By Merilla Michael | April 14“Outlander” (2014-present) returned from its winter hiatus better than ever, supported by a talented cast and strong plotlines. The Starz show, now in the second half of its first season, is based on the “Outlander” book series (1991-present) by Diana Gabaldon. The series tells the story of English World War II nurse Claire Randall (played on the show by Caitriona Balfe), who is on vacation in Scotland with her husband, Frank (Tobias Menzies), shortly after the end of the war. While on this trip, Claire takes a solo visit to a tourist site that is historically known for being associated with witchcraft and magic. She finds herself transported to Scotland in 1743 with no idea how to return home. Tensions between Scotland and England are high at that time in history, so Claire needs to carefully maneuver her relationships with those around her, especially since witchcraft is still punishable by death. In the first half of the series' premiere season last fall, Claire developed a romance with a Scottish soldier, Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), and the first half of season one ended with their marriage.
Arts
Al Dente Ristorante serves large portions at good prices
By Jennifer Straitz | April 14The North End, while a classic location for those looking to attend a street festival or go on a date, can be intimidating with its seemingly endless options for Italian food. From “Panza” to “Mare” to “Tresca,” it’s easy to see how the names of the restaurants in Boston’s famous ...
Columns
'Love and a question'
By Daniel Bottino | April 13For citizens of our busy and increasingly urbanized 21st century world, the bucolic and rural imagery of Robert Frost’s poetry may sometimes seem dated and irrelevant to the issues of our “modern” era. Yet I would argue that the poetry of Frost remains timeless, just as relevant today as it was ...
Arts
Rihanna pushes her boundaries on new single
By Josh Morris | April 13Forget about Yeezy season, its RiRi season. And it's about time. After releasing new albums almost annually from 2004-2012, Rihanna took a hiatus. Now, Robyn Rihanna Fenty, known by her stage name Rihanna, is doling out singles to prep for the release of her next album, set to drop this year. Unnamed ...
Music
Boston Symphony Orchestra takes listeners on exciting journey
By Joseph Sax | April 13Last weekend’s program at the Boston Symphony used music to tell a powerful story of art, politics and fear.The concert opened with an excerpt from the Shostakovich opera "LadyMacbeth of the Mtsensk District." Several years after its opening in 1934, Joseph Stalin saw the piece and was ...
Arts
'Wolf Hall' succeeds in balancing intricate dialogue, plot
By John J. Gallagher | April 13“Wolf Hall” (2015), the BBC's six part television adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Booker prize-winning novels “Wolf Hall”(2009) and “Bringing up the Bodies”(2012), premiered as part of PBS's Masterpiece series on April 5. “Wolf Hall” follows Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance), ...
Arts
'Game of Thrones' Recap: 'The Wars to Come' sets stage for dramatic new season
By Grace Segers | April 12“Game of Thrones” (2011-present) fans, the wait is finally over. Season 5 returned on April 12 with the episode “The Wars to Come.” It was a dark hour, but the show covered a lot of ground. To recap, the Daily Arts section is bringing you the best and the worst of the premiere. Warning: For ...
Columns
Beautifully written, shadowed edges
By Helen Schmidt | April 10I love books that are written so beautifully it's like they're straight out of a fantasy. Even mediocre story lines can be made enjoyable when the writing effortlessly flows from page to page. It is special to find books that engage readers with their characters through meticulously constructed ...
Arts
Felipe's stirs up competition for other Mexican grills with savory meals, great prices
By Anjali Nair | April 9There are two dominant schools of burrito lovers at Tufts: those who prefer the smaller, more traditional style of Anna's burritos and those who prefer the fresh, hefty wraps of Chipotle. Though both these chains put up a fair fight, venture a little further from Davis Square and you’ll find ...
Arts
All Time Low fine-tunes sounds, returns to rescue pop-punk enthusiasts
By Nika Korchok | April 9In the glory days of pop-punk, Hot Topic-clad, angst-ridden teens would bob their heads to Blink-182, layer on too many rings of black eyeliner and complain about their parents. Now, those teens are in college with no music to satiate their desire to stir up their rebellious days and make them feel like they should sneak out and cause trouble. With Fall Out Boy going mainstream and the days of Cute is What We Aim For and Jimmy Eat World long behind us, it may seem that a modern punk princess has nothing to listen to that combines both the self-aware snarky social commentary of punk, the infectious dance hooks of pop and the power chordage and wailing vocals of emo.
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