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.
A spoonful of saccharine
It should come as no surprise that a movie with the Walt Disney Company imprimatur shows their founder as a kindly fellow, who insists that he only wants to make a film adaptation of Mary Poppins to fulfill a promise he made to his daughters when they were children.
An adventure worth watching
Tolkien fans have been eagerly awaiting the release part two of The Hobbit, and that day has finally come. The Desolation of Smaug was as exciting, funny, and adventurous as to be expected from a Tolkien universe brought to life by Peter Jackson. The main cast from the first movie returns so this movie is as full of great actors as before. Of course the scenery is breathtaking, featuring incredible spans of mountains and forests — just as magical as Tolkien describes in his series.
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.