Something new, something blue
I grew up surrounded by blue and white dishes — Spode Blue Italian, Churchill Blue Willow, Chinese rice pattern teacups. They are comforting objects, objects of beauty, but not things that I often think about.
Evoking the Arab Spring through music
The MIT Wind Ensemble (MITWE) scored a coup last Friday when PBS aired the television world premiere of MIT-produced documentary Awakening: Evoking the Arab Spring Through Music. The documentary featured MITWE’s performance of Awakening, composed by MIT alumnus Jamsheid Sharifi ’83. The piece is intended to encourage listeners to contemplate the movement that swept Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and other Arab countries. MITWE director Dr. Frederick Harris commissioned the piece from Sharifi, a renowned New York-based composer, who felt personally connected to the Arab Spring because of his Middle Eastern heritage.
Exclusive Feature: Fandom at MIT
It’s difficult to separate the concept of nerdiness from MIT. The Coop sells stickers that say Nerd Pride, our mascot is the beaver (nature’s engineer), and Conan O’Brien pokes fun at MIT’s nerdiness on his Twitter. But is the Institute truly a nerdy place? The Tech surveyed the undergraduate population of MIT to settle this question. 1402 students — 31 percent of the undergraduate body — responded.
Time to pretend
30 percent of MIT students who responded to The Tech’s survey (427 people) have dressed up as a character from Harry Potter, Firefly, Star Trek, Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings. While many of this number are very likely casual fans who threw on a Gryffindor scarf to see the premiere of The Deathly Hallows, hidden within this statistic is a number of devoted MIT students who take costumes to the next level — cosplayers.
Iron Man Costume
One of the interesting costumes we came across was an Iron Man suit created by Brian Chan ’02, an instructor at the MIT hobby shop. “I like Iron Man because it has a good story of a self-made super hero,” he said, “Also, in the series, Tony Stark is an MIT Alum, so I think it would be a shame if none of the best Iron Man costumes came out of MIT.”
Fandom in student groups
Fandoms come in all shapes and sizes, and MIT has a smattering of several groups dedicated to different aspects of pop culture. The Tech sat with a few groups on campus to examine where fandoms fit in at the Institute. Not all groups we wished to interview were available for comment.
Fandoms, the Internet, and Harry Potter
Flourish M. Klink, a lecturer in MIT’s Comparative Media Studies (CMS) program, has built a life around fandoms. After running her own Harry Potter fansite and being on staff at Fanfiction.net, at age 13, Klink co-founded the Harry Potter fanfiction website FictionAlley with nine others. FictionAlley was “incorporated as an educational non-profit with the mission of helping people learn to write through fanfiction,” said Klink, and it was one of the first fanfiction forums on the Internet that made writing improvement a site-wide mission.
Tastes at MIT By Kali Xu Campus Life Editor
If you could meet one fictional character, who would it be?
Editor's Note
It’s difficult to separate the concept of nerdiness from MIT. The Coop sells stickers that say Nerd Pride, our mascot is the beaver (nature’s engineer), and Conan O’Brien pokes fun at MIT’s nerdiness on his Twitter.
Extended Klink Interview
The Tech: Could you tell us a little bit [about] how you first got involved in fandom?
Parties, cars, and careless people
Let’s start with the pros. When I first saw trailers last year, I was offended by the choice of music. Yet, to my surprise, the music’s unexpectedness blends well with director Baz Luhrmann’s fantastical take on the story. In the elaborate party scenes, the hip-hop music by Jay-Z matches the craze, while also giving it a dimension of modernity. In another scene, a jazzy rendition of Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” undoubtedly entertained the younger audience members. The best parts of the soundtrack, however, are the mash-ups of old and new. Motifs from Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” are used a few times in the film, and once it is blended with Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind.” The soundtrack strategically pulls in the younger audience while tying in the classics for more seasoned moviegoers.
Omne trium perfectum
Every time I go to the Boston Opera House I am blown away. Last week, which saw the premier of Chroma, was no different. The audience was treated to three very different but complementary ballet performances: Serenade, Chroma, and Symphony in C.
Little Boots finds her own musical niche
In the last ten years, the UK music scene has been producing new female singer-songwriters like an exponential growth function let loose. After the great success of Ireland-native Róisín Murphy’s trip hop and dance-pop solo career in the UK, followed by Amy Winehouse’s planetary breakout and her revival of contemporary soul and jazz music, there have been few major waves of incoming sound — and look-alike female musicians. Adele and Duffy were the first ones to take and pass on Winehouse’s torch, by writing and producing similarly soulful and bluesy songs. By the end of the 2000s, a new wave of more-pop-oriented female artists brought VV Brown, Jessie J, Florence Welch (of Florence + The Machine), and Marina Diamandis (of Marina and the Diamonds). In the meantime, Róisín Murphy-inspired artists, such as Elly Jackson (of La Roux) and Ellie Goulding, diversified the music scene by popularizing electro-pop music.
Science-inspired art
CAST’S Spring Sound Series brought to us alumna Julia C. Ogrydziak ’96, a multi-everything artist. Ogrydziak exploited all the goodness MIT had to offer her, and in return, she has made the most out of what MIT gave her. While pursuing a double degree in Physics and Music, she UROPed for a couple of years in the then-called Hyperinstruments Group at the Media Lab, which focused on multi-media and performance. After that, she pursued her interest in design by getting a degree at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Phew.
A snazzy exosuit, a power couple, and a lot of battles
Some people have questioned whether their favorite Avenger is Iron Man or Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man 3 seeks to unite the disparate personalities that are the cocky billionaire Tony Stark and the selfless armored hero Iron Man. It explores this theme through two hours of over-the-top action scenes and genuinely funny humor. As great as the special effects and jokes are, they leave little room for a cohesive or moving narrative. Still, I was having so much fun I barely noticed.
Coming of age by the Mississippi River
Mud is a reminder of how movies have the potential to be more than just entertainment. With a setting that is foreign to most, director Jeff Nichols tells the typical loss of innocence story through a new lens. By making Ellis (Tye Sheridan) the observer who eventually enters the world he observes, the audience is able to make the transition with him and live his adventure.
The bee and the chimp in you and me
Have you ever felt like other people must be crazy — or at least be hypocrites — to hold certain views that you consider profoundly immoral? Some people defend the Iraq War to this day, while others opposed it from day one. Some people want to ban abortion, while others want to ban guns. “What is wrong with these people? What are they thinking?” you may ask in despair.