Era-defining quality
Ever since I started reviewing for The Tech, I’ve found myself liking new game releases less and less. And this change has made me wonder: does reviewing a game as you play it lessen the experience? Or am I growing into a person who doesn’t like video games? Or is it neither, and today’s games are just not as exciting and fun as games of old were? I stayed up at night, searching for my gamer soul, hoping that Far Cry 3 was indeed boring and I wasn’t evolving into some ghastly sort of — shudder — non-gamer.
Health from the inside
It’s a Saturday evening, and you’re hungry. You ate brunch at 10 a.m. and haven’t had a bite to eat since then. It’s been a long, busy week, and between classes during the day and psets at night, you’ve been grabbing a quick burger and fries or plate of pasta most nights for dinner. You need to take a break and recharge — so why not grab some friends and get dinner at Life Alive, a restaurant with a relaxing atmosphere and a revitalizing menu?
Tattooed stunt-riders and corrupt cops
Epic beyond need, melodramatic, and full of obvious references, to the point where it becomes somewhat patronizing, The Place Beyond the Pines is nonetheless full of beautiful scenes (and actors).
Adapt to survive
Typically when I write a video game review, my focus is on answering the question, “Should you buy this, and if so, for how much?” This framework works fairly well for video games, but not as well for books or movies or music or the Mona Lisa. Some things you don’t review so much as you critique. You can judge a work’s creative merit, but trying to translate that merit into dollars and cents is futile.
Sleeping Beauty sparkles
Boston Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty opened the Friday before spring break. The three-hour show is set in a sparkly pink fairytale world, where people dance to communicate, and everyone is merry except the evil fairy Carabosse. The company does an extraordinary job with Marius Petipa’s 120-year old classical ballet. The dancing, costumes, and scenery were superb.
The return of Justin Timberlake
Expectations and comebacks are inseparable companions. When a star as famous as Justin Timberlake takes a temporary break from making music, coming back to the scene is never a piece of cake — the media wants to know the reason behind the hiatus and the fans expect fresh and promising music.
Satisfy your urge to travel
For those of you whose wanderlust is currently constrained by the demands of the academic calendar, Joël Tettamanti: Compass Points is not to be missed. After all, this newest exhibition at the MIT Museum — and the first solo exhibition in the United States for Switzerland-based Tettamanti — is all about travel. Compass Points includes more than 70 works by Tettamanti, shot in locations ranging from the built-up city of Seoul to more isolated communities in Greenland.
“Operation Epsilon” — Ten scientists, one stage
It’s the close of World War II. The British and Americans have imprisoned Germany’s top ten nuclear scientists in a lavish English estate, Farm Hall. Every room in the house, from the piano room to the parlor, is bugged. The Allies listen to the scientists’ conversations to determine how close Nazi Germany is to building an atomic bomb.
A story of loyalty, honor and deception
The MIT Shakespeare Ensemble’s production of “Julius Caesar” premiered last Friday, with over twenty-five MIT students contributing to the show as either cast or crew. The story is about the conspiracy against Julius Caesar, and his assassination in 44 BC. Although it is a historical play, “Julius Caesar” does not focus significantly on the facts and logistics of the conspiracy, but instead illuminates the psychological basis and internal struggles of the characters in the play.
Seeking freedom from reality
This is not the movie you expect it to be. You will see a more-than-adequate amount of scantily clad coeds and parties where someone ends up with a raw chicken on their head, but you will also experience discomfort at the sheer strangeness of the film and the message it thrusts in your face by constant voiceover repetition. The plot is simple enough: four girls rob a diner to afford a spring break trip, and people die (insert meme).
Songs to welcome the spring
We might not want to admit it, but there is certainly a gender bias when it comes to music tastes. It is quite rare to hear someone label music as “too manly”, but it is not so uncommon to hear it called “too girly” in one way or another. For example, the singer might be too showy, the video’s choreography might be too bombastic, the song might be too cheesy, or it might just have “too much pop” to handle.
Olympus: Disappointing to its genre
With spring break around the corner, many of you may be wondering whether there are any good movies to catch. Featured prominently in recent advertisements is Olympus Has Fallen, so you may be tempted to give it a try.
History of a fascination
Be it pre-WWI and flapper gowns in Downton Abbey, or the green halter dress that Keira Knightley donned in Atonement, costume drama (post-Victorian costume drama, in particular) continually draws us in. Last month, Jacqueline Durran won the Oscar for Best Costume for her work in Anna Karenina — a strikingly modern production not just because Keira Knightley practically drips vintage-style Chanel jewelry, but also because the story, set in the late 19th century, was purposefully presented with a good measure of 1950s couture tailoring. What is it about 20th century fashion that fascinates us so much?
Oz the Meh
Oz The Great and Powerful is a prequel to Victor Fleming’s 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland as Dorothy. In keeping with this, Oz The Great and Powerful begins in gray scale and transitions to color, and the plot involves the Wizard making a medley of new friends. Like the musical Wicked, the film imagines the origins of an important but secondary character, in this case the Wizard of Oz. This version of events, too, explains how the Wicked Witch of the West became so wicked, and sets the scene for L. Frank Baum’s story in the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
CAFÉ REVIEW: Like a cozy corner in Europe
If Atomic Bean Café is equivalent to hipsterland, going to Tatte is an escape to relaxed yuppiedom. With its rickety little wooden chairs and the warm light of its collage of light fixtures, it feels distinctly European.
A tale of two SimCities
When I was 10 years old, my favorite game in the world was SimCity 2000. I was fanatical about it — I spent whole weekends planning out city blocks on sheets of graphing paper and testing them to see which was the most efficient. I spent so many hours on the simulation that it’s possible it sowed the seeds of my political leanings.
Glimpse of the divine
Boston Ballet’s spring season began last week with All Kylián, a compilation of three pieces by the prestigious Czech choreographer Jirí Kylián.
Refreshing to the ears
Starting precisely together, the basses and cellos began the concert with vibrant depth in their tones. Immediately after, the soloist Vadim Repin began his violin entrance with his eyes closed and a serene face.