Love in the modern world
Enter Gloria, brilliantly performed by Paulina García, a joyful charmer who sings along to sappy tunes while driving, a divorced woman on her second wind, adapting to the awkward stage in life when her children start having children of their own and at an age when couples seldom remain married.
Panic! at the hip rolls
Opening for Panic! at the Disco is a daunting task. Fans trickled into the venue after braving the biting Boston chill while waiting in a line that, quite literally, wrapped around the block. It’s hard to please an overly excited, impatient group of people who are here for the main act and would likely be content to skip your performance entirely.
Affordable, delicious, and all-you-can-eat
For many, IAP is a time to learn the invaluable life skill of cooking. But IAP is also a great time to explore the restaurants that Cambridge has to offer, especially those near campus. A brief walk down Massachusetts Avenue yields Shalimar of India, a mid-size restaurant in Central Square.
That inappropriate, mildly amusing moment
What do you get when you make a rom-com about three good-looking twenty-something guys in New York City? Lots of raunchy jokes and romantic clichés.
BEST OF 2013: The Tech’s top 10 music albums
With their characteristic defiance and refusal to be defined by anyone but themselves, English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys showcases their willingness to take risks and experiment — and it pays off. Their haunting and gritty fifth album features more manipulation and new instruments than their previous albums, and blends together a compelling combination of musical styles, from punk, funk, and rock to R&B, soul, and hip hop. The terse, poetic, and fervent lyrics by lead vocalist Alex Turner relate of late nights filled with frustration, desire, and loneliness. Add these in and it makes a listen you’ll want to repeat.
ARTS IN REVIEW
2013 has been an exciting year for arts both on and off campus. As always, there have been plenty of performances and exhibitions at MIT, running the gamut of creative endeavours from Senegalese drumming, to experimental theater, to ballroom dancing. In addition, for the first time, there has been a push to promote entrepreneurship in the arts at MIT, with a new category in the 100K competition for art/design-related ventures and a hackathon event.
BEST OF 2013: The Tech’s top 10 movies
Based on Solomon Northrup’s autobiography of the same name, 12 Years a Slave follows Northrup (Chiwetel Ejiofer) as he is kidnapped and sold into slavery. While Northrup is eventually freed, the plight of fellow slave Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o) shows the terrifying, incessant horror inflicted by slavery.
MIT’s vibrant arts community
“MIT has arts?” I can’t count how many times I’ve heard that question! But it’s only from people who don’t go to MIT. MIT has a vibrant arts community, especially in dance, theatre, and music. This year was no exception. Every week in 2013, there were at least half a dozen arts events on campus, from student performances to an arts-focused hackathon.
The Forest of Eoren, a student-written production
“It’s like a Charlie’s Angels pose with stuffed animals”, says the director. “Remember, you’re the spokesdryad.”
Creative, delicious, and meatless
I am not a vegetarian by any means. I always go for a beef patty over a veggie patty, or a chicken Caesar salad over a regular Caesar salad. Back at home, I honestly don’t think I’ve ever stepped foot into a vegetarian restaurant. But, so I’ve been told, college is “the time to try new things,” and so I’ve started to venture into the world of meatless restaurants.
D*Face’s new monograph
When I told people I was writing a book review on a street artist’s monograph, nearly everyone asked me “Is it Bansky?” “No,” I replied, “it’s about this artist called D*Face who is like Banksy, but different.” The promotional material for the book talks about Shepard Fairey and Banksy, name-dropping to give credibility to this apparently lesser-known urban artist. The foreword is by Shepard Fairey and the “B” word is mentioned a few times, but this book is entirely about D*Face — his life and work — and that’s what makes it unique.
Too predictable, too cheesy
Jack Ryan, a dashing blue-eyed young man eager to serve his country suffers a terrible — and grossly depicted — helicopter accident. While recovering, he falls in love with his nurse, future fiancée Cathy (Keira Knightley). But we all know that. Jack Ryan is a character created by Tom Clancy, previously played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck, though this time the story is not based on a Clancy novel.
Inspirational, humorous, and touching
The Ottawa International Animation Festival is the largest of its kind in North America, bringing the talent, incredible dedication and patience of many crazy creative minds since the mid 70s.
Of aliens and orgasms
Fans of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC) rejoice — the long awaited, crowd-funded webcomic series has finally launched! Starpocalypse, the first of three series, is a space opera set in the far future where the last liberal arts professor and his brother, a physics professor, have outlived their usefulness to a society where everyone can achieve instant orgasms through existing technology. In a desperate attempt to find some purpose for philosophy, they encounter a being in outer space who claims that she is the long-lost god who created humanity. But she’s entirely mad and takes them hostage. They can either refuse to take her to Earth and die a painful, head exploding death or rely on their academic prowess to convince her to spare humanity and humanity to worship her. After all, any sufficiently advanced alien is indistinguishable from god.
A Tale of Two Betas
Given that Magic: The Gathering has been around for two decades, I have to imagine virtually everybody reading this paper has at least a passing familiarity with the popular trading card game. At a minimum, we’ve all seen one of its millions of players playing it, and those of us who actually got into the game could come up with a dozen ways to describe it. Maybe “complex,” or “deep,” or “competitive.” Personally, I’d summarize it in three words: “Expensive as hell.”
James Ashby on Starpocalypse
James Ashby founded SMBC Theater with Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comics writer Zach Weinersmith in 2009, and they have just released Starpocalypse, the first of three planned web series.
Science fiction war memoir in a surveillance state
Joe Haldeman’s latest book Work Done For Hire is a riveting near future science fiction story of the dangers of living in a surveillance state. Former sniper Jack Daley was drafted to fight in the continuing war abroad and has been coping with the trauma for nine years since returning home wounded. He has found some solace from his memories in writing, but no commercial success, and so he readily agrees to write the novelization of a horror movie that’s in the works. It may be just work done for hire, but Hollywood’s money will spend.
Ear candy
Inside Llewyn Davis focuses on the life of a young folk singer in Greenwich Village during 1961. But the titular Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is extremely unlikable. He is a homeless travelling musician, dependent on his successful friends who allow him to sleep on their couches. Yet he believes it is his right to lecture them on selling out. At times he’s so cruel that I couldn’t help feeling repulsed by his narcissism and neediness.
Southern comfort food
How many squares around MIT can you name? Kendall, Central, and Harvard probably come to mind. You may even be familiar with Tech Square. But one square that I only recently discovered is Inman Square. Located north of Central Square, the neighborhood is a bit out of the way but boasts a wide selection of culturally diverse restaurants. I decided to check it out and went to dine at Tupelo, which offers southern comfort food.
Too emotionally cold-blooded for a mammalian audience
Walking With Dinosaurs draws on what is currently known in paleontology to tell a coming-of-age story about a young Pachyrhinosaurus named Patchi (Justin Long), who tries to win over his crush, Juniper (Tiya Sircar), while being bullied by his brother, Scowler (Skyler Stone). The directors, Barry Cook, who is best known as an effects animator with Disney, and Neil Nightingale, who was the executive producer of several nature documentaries, teamed up to create a fictional extension of the acclaimed BBC miniseries of the same title. The 3D computer animated dinosaurs roam a beautiful live background filmed in Alaska and New Zealand while they face predators, fires and teenage drama.