A touch of Wuxia
In A Touch of Sin, writer-director Jia Zhang-ke and cinematographer Nelson Yu Lik-Wai depict the violence and moral confusion of a new, materialist China. Divided into four main sections, the film presents stories from four different provinces across the mainland.
Science fiction writer and MIT professor Joe Haldeman on his newest book
Joe Haldeman is a well-known science fiction author and adjunct professor in CMS/writing at MIT. He recently spoke with The Tech about his latest novel, Work Done For Hire.
José Mateo’s Nutcracker
With the grand production of Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker embracing the winter season in Boston, many ballet goers might be unaware of another production that happened in the secluded Sanctuary Theatre, located at Harvard Square. While the José Mateo Ballet may be somewhat less familiar than the Boston Ballet Company, this ballet company has been putting out shows for decades. This winter, they returned with their 26th annual production of The Nutcracker — a small-scale and intimate show that delivers the best of the Christmas magic.
Art via recycling
Nearly every month since 2011 MIT has hosted a “Choose-to-Reuse” event in the Stata Center lobby, sponsored by the Department of Facilities, Sustainability@MIT, and Green. During the event, community members donate and trade unwanted items. The overarching goal is to promote a culture of recycling and reducing waste. This year they are giving the program an arts-spin by collaborating with sculptural artist Kyle Haines. Haines will repurpose items from Choose-to-Reuse, as well other items found at MIT, into MIT-themed sculptures. His final pieces will be displayed on campus during Earth Week this coming April. He will begin collecting goods at the next Choose-to-Reuse event this Friday. He caught up with The Tech to explain his motives behind the project and how art can relate to the MIT community.
15 minutes of top-notch pop
Karen Marie Ørsted, also known simply as Mø, might not be the most familiar name in the music industry yet, but the 25-year old Dane is far from operating in the corners of obscure and alternative scenes. Just within one year, she has released several singles, contributed her vocals to Avicii’s song “Dear Boy” and delivered her debut EP Bikini Daze. Like many of her contemporary Scandinavian singer-songwriters, she seems to be faithfully following their long-lasting tradition by doing what Scandinavia is famous for — making fantastic pop music.
‘A wonderful holiday tradition’
Boyko Dossev, a native of Bulgaria, is a corps de ballet member of the Boston Ballet and has been dancing with the company since 2006. He took time out of their busy Nutcracker schedule to chat with The Tech about the show and the life of a ballet dancer.
Under-hyped excellence in Cambridge
Great restaurants can sometimes become too popular for their own good. As positive publicity for a restaurant grows, tables become harder to reserve and expectations can become so lofty that your meal could never reach them.
Arts Events DEC. 06 – DEC. 12
CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE: A previous version of this calendar misstated the time for the Chamber Music Society recital on Monday, Dec. 9. It is at 5 p.m., not 5:30 p.m.
Footloose hits the stage at Berklee
Some films are met with lukewarm welcomes when they hit the screen, only to go on to serve as snapshots of the eras in which they were made. I’ve always considered Footloose (1984) to be one of these ugly ducklings that are met with initial flurries of derision, yet mellow with time and nostalgia into appreciable works. For it in particular, this transformation has largely been possible because of its uniqueness as a film — not because of the acting or directing, but rather because of the music. The plot tells the tale of a dance-happy teenage boy from Chicago by the name of Ren McCormack, who moves to a small, much less excitable town where dancing and rock and roll have been banned under the orders of local minister Rev. Shaw Moore, who is still traumatized by the long past death of his son and three others in an alcohol and party-related car accident. After some clashes with the town’s rather puritanical adults and falling in love with the preacher’s rebellious daughter, Ren manages to convince the minister to allow for prom to be held, albeit outside of town limits. Cue dancing, and credits roll to music from the 1980s.
Hollywood remake still delivers
Delivery Man follows a forty-year-old serial screw-up and truck driver for his family’s butcher store who finds himself the defendant in a class-action lawsuit brought on by 142 of his children.
Perfectly on point
Boston Opera House was glowing with holiday spirit as attendees eagerly squeezed into the ornate, lavish venue for a sold-out opening night of Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker. The Nutcracker is an extravagant, breath-taking production featuring eye-popping set changes, immaculately designed costumes, and energetic, striking choreography that takes the audience on an enchanting journey. Throughout the ballet, audiences alternated between erupting in laughter and breaking out in thunderous applause.
Boy band drops bubblegum pop status
I was unsure of what to expect when my headphones began streaming the first notes of One Direction’s third studio album, Midnight Memories. Although I haven’t been keeping up with the band since their days on the UK televised performing competition known as the X Factor, I’ve been listening to their music for a long enough time to be able to distinguish each member by voice, and I went to their Take Me Home Tour concert in Seattle this summer.
Capturing a temporary home
I sat down with Nora Vrublevska in the Wiesner Art Gallery, walls lined with her black and white prints, to discuss the inception of her exhibit entitled Cambridge at Night. Vrublevska, a native Latvian, has been interested in photography for most of her life. When she was younger, she saved her lunch money to buy 35mm film and develop photos, but she says, “I didn’t really know what I was doing; I was photographing at that time but I didn’t get really serious until I came here.”
SURPRISED BY FIG JAM :
Although the restaurant name may not sound very appetizing, The Salty Pig is a great option if you are in the mood for charcuterie. To get to The Salty Pig, you can walk through the Prudential Center and cut through Copley Place. Once you exit the mall, the restaurant will be right there.
Forgotten but not forgiven
Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney began filming a documentary about Lance Armstrong’s comeback at the 2009 Tour de France, four years after his last win in 2005. But after the infamous 2013 interview with Oprah, Gibney realized that Armstrong had just been using his documentary to bolster his already crumbling story. Gibney was ultimately able to weave the damning footage of his previous interviews into a story of betrayal to deliver a play-by-play of one of the farthest falls from grace in the history of sports.
Through the eyes of Death and a child
You know you are in for an interesting movie when it is narrated by Death himself. Death first sees our main character Liesel on a train, when he comes to take the soul of her sick and dying younger brother. He is intrigued by her for some reason he cannot place, and follows her life story as it progresses.
This movie’s on fire
Catching Fire — the sequel to the 2012 film The Hunger Games, based on the second book in Suzanne Collins’s Mockingjay trilogy — is simply amazing.
Arts Events NOV. 22 – NOV. 28
Arts Events NOV. 22 – NOV. 28 Friday (9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Landing Studio presents 99 Marginal: 9 Strategies for Landing Industry in the City. Open through Sunday — 7-408 (9:15 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.) Architecture/Computation/Media Lab Symposium Day 2: Futures Past - Design and the Machine. Open to the public — E14, 6th Floor (12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.) “Conservative Internationalism: Armed Diplomacy under Jefferson, Polk, Truman, and Reagan” Book talk and discussion with Henry R. Nau and Steve Van Evera — E40-496, Lucian Pye Conference Room (1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.) MIT Water Club presents Sea Level Rise on Coastal Urban Design — 66-168 (4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Fossil Free MIT presents Chasing Ice: Free Film Screening + Ice Cream — 35-225 (5:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.) LSC presents Despicable Me 2 — 26-100 (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) MIT Guest Artist Series presents: the Jupiter Quartet in the first concert of complete Beethoven String Quartet Cycle performances at MIT — Kresge Auditorium (8:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.) The Musical Theatre Guild Presents Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein — W20-202 (8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.) Mocha Moves Dance Squad hosts dance competition Ring the Alarm 2013 — W20 Saturday (10:00 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.) Architecture/Computation/Media Lab Symposium Day 3: Futures Past - Design and the Machine. Open to the public — E14-6th Floor (5:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.) LSC presents Despicable Me 2 — 26-100 (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble directed by Frederick Harris, Jr. — Kresge Auditorium (8:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.) The Musical Theatre Guild Presents Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein — W20-202 Sunday (4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) MIT Gospel Choir Fall Concert — 6-120 (8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.) MIT Folk Dance Club presents International Folk Dancing — W20-491 Monday (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) ACT Lecture: Tarek Elhaik: The Incurable-Image — E15-001 (7:30 p.m.) It’s Alive: A series of staged play readings featuring students, professional actors, and faculty directed by Anna Kohler — Killian Hall Tuesday (5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) Architecture/HTC Lecture: Ruben Gallo, “Radioscapes: Acoustic Modernities” — 7-429 Send your arts events to arts@tech.mit.edu.
Pasta outpost of the Barbara Lynch food empire
If you’re interested in fine dining in Boston, Barbara Lynch is a name that is probably worth learning. Ever since founding No. 9 Park fifteen years ago, her influence in the Boston restaurant scene has grown, along with the number of restaurants in her culinary empire. The “Barbara Lynch Gruppo” now boasts six restaurants (No. 9 Park, Menton, B&G Oysters, The Butcher Shop, Sportello, and Stir), a bar (Drink), and a catering company (9 at Home). Each offers its own focus, and a couple even have prices that make them semi-accessible to college students. Despite their differences, they all share critical acclaim.
Turning 30 days to live into seven years
An unrecognizable Mathew McConaughey stars as Texas cowboy and rodeo hustler Ron Woodroof, whose carefree life is forever changed when he is told he is HIV-positive and has 30 days to live.