THEATER REVIEW Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby
Based on the 1891 Frank Wedekind play of the same name, <i>Spring Awakening</i> is a modern musical focusing on age-old issues. It confronts sex, love, and everything in between through a musical score that is much more akin to radio rock songs than the classic music characteristic of shows like <i>Les Miserables</i>.
BOOK REVIEW Make Yourself Useful
What is the good life? More to the point, what is an attainable good life given our current cultural and economic circumstances? How do we develop and practice what is best in ourselves despite the forces arrayed against us?
INTERVIEW Mens et Manus
<i>Matthew B. Crawford runs a motorcycle repair shop. He is also a writer and enjoyed a multi-year affair with academia in political philosophy. In his new book </i>Shop Class as Soulcraft<i>, he considers his experiences as white-collar minion vs. self-employed manual tradesman. Crawford argues that for many, the second may be both more economically rewarding and fundamentally satisfying.</i>
CONCERT REVIEW MIT Symphony Orchestra Performs with MIT Chamber Chorus
Maybe it’s glib to say, but I have a hypothesis that the volume knob has led to the destruction of classical music. The fast-forward and the rewind button too, but the volume knob more than anything else: Music can be painfully loud or imperceptibly soft, but modulating volumes for the sake of homogeneity of the listenable somehow disrupts the ultimate message. Extremity in music makes a very important point, even if it’s uncomfortable to listen to.
RESTAURANT REVIEW The French-Cambodian Culinary Wedding
Though there were no elephants to be found at the Elephant Walk in Boston, my date Eric and I were pleasantly surprised to find a place that serves up elegant Cambodian cuisine as well as original French dishes. The extensive menu is a bit overwhelming at first, but it is well organized into Cambodian, French, and even Vegetarian and Gluten-Free (a rare find in the Boston area). Chef and owner Nadsa De Monteiro, originally from Cambodia, delivers traditional meals but has also created her own inspired recipes that still preserve the flavor of Cambodia.
Elephant Walk Soup Recipe
<b>Chilled Avocado Citrus Soup from Nadsa de Monteiro’s The Elephant Walk</b>
ALBUM REVIEW Kutiman 1, Girl Talk 0
Girl Talk had it all wrong. Why mash up the familiar when there’s a whole internet of tubes to sample. Every beat, every riff, every note. Somewhere on the tubes, it’s there, waiting. Want a reggae guitar riff in A-minor? Want siren sounds, bass grooves, or perhaps some suburban freestyling? Just search.
MOVIE REVIEW A Real-Life Comic Book
T<i>he Spirit</i> is a moving comic book — every shot is a tiny masterpiece, full of details and subtleties that would make any graphic novel a drool-worthy piece of art. And that is <i>The Spirit</i>’s greatest flaw: Frank Miller put so much life onto the screen that it would take multiple viewings — of the movie, the commentary, and the special features — to digest it all. Not only is the average audience member unaccustomed to applying so much scrutiny to a film, but film as a medium cannot handle such overflow of detail — the picture you see is constantly moving, and you just don’t have the time to pore over every corner of every picture.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★★ ½ Tokyo Sonata
Looking for a feel-good, happy-go-lucky movie? You won’t find it in <i>Tokyo Sonata</i>, director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest film. But for what it lacks in fairy tale happy-ever-afters, <i>Sonata</i> more than makes up for it in its dark, subtle humor and highly perceptive look at the underground culture of unemployment in Japan and its impact on one seemingly typical family.
CONCERT REVIEW The Dork-Punk Renaissance
The 50s had housewives and modular homes. The 60s had race riots and pot. The 70s had prog rock and wide ties. The 80s had punk and cocaine. The 90s had hip-hop.
The ‘Next Big Thing’ at Spring Weekend
Man, don’t you wish you could have been at South by Southwest (SXSW) last month? While you were sitting in class, the Next Big Things were stamping out names for themselves, playing free shows in backyards at all hours of the day. Yeah, SXSW, the focal point of the entire music industry, is a pretty friggin’ sweet deal for any music fan.
The Return of a Master
Sometimes I wish I could write prose like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote music. Maybe that’s a difficult lesson to learn in itself: Mozart’s music isn’t boring; it’s elegant. It’s the sheer simplicity that can be maddening, and Mozart isn’t an exception — the harmonic ease and clarity of melodic lines in Mozart’s music often seem bland or generic, and that, in itself, seems to be the sticking point: it’s not everyone who can write music so cleanly. After one listens to the music repeatedly, it somehow loses its blandness and realizes its — well — elegance.
CONCERT REVIEW MIT Chamber Chorus Prepares for Harbison’s Seventieth
There’s no getting around Tomás Luis de Victoria’s setting of <i>O magnum mysterium</i> text for me, if it isn’t for Francis Poulenc’s setting of the same text. But maybe that’s an asset when it comes to listening to Harbison.
PREFROSH EXCLUSIVE Attention Prefrosh: Arts at MIT
Whether you’re completely new to MIT or a self-proclaimed lifer, there are always plenty of ways to get involved with the arts at MIT, or in the surrounding community. Here’s a brief guide to what kinds of arts opportunities are available at MIT. If you’re hoping to get off campus for a bit and explore arts in the city, there’s even more out there to satisfy your craving. This article isn’t intended to list every group at MIT nor every concert hall in Boston, but rather to give a small sampling of what you could enjoy here. Exploring on your own is always an encouraged avenue for finding out about art at MIT and in the city!
MOVIE REVIEW ★★ ½ / 4 Conspiracies Abound in ‘State of Play’
S<i>tate of Play</i>, based on a BBC miniseries by the same name, begins with a chase: a frantic dash across busy streets and crowded stores. The person being pursued, a street criminal, finds what seems to be a safe location behind trash cans, only to be shot in the head by an unmasked assailant, an eerie individual the viewer sees at various points in the film. The next scene depicts the murder of a young woman whose death is implied by a scream as she is pushed in front of a subway train. Seemingly unrelated, the two murders set into motion a mystery thriller interweaving journalism, politics, and personal affairs. Despite this fast-paced opening, the film slows to a meandering walk as the plot develops in various locales around Washington, D.C., with twists and turns that eventually confuse the moviegoer.
CONCERT REVIEW Great Scots at The Paradise
Glasvegas, Scotland’s hottest rock group, is on their first U.S. tour to promote their eponymous debut album. After visits to David Letterman and SXSW, they finally arrived at Boston’s venerable Paradise Rock Club on Tuesday night. Joining them in the sold out show was Ida Maria, a promising and kinetic Swedish singer.
Next Act
Don’t forget to check out Next Act’s performance of Sweet Charity, based on a book written by Neil Simon. The music was composed by Cy Coleman and lyrics written by Dorothy Fields. Performances are scheduled for today and tomorrow at 8 p.m. at Next House. The best part: admission is free! This year’s production is directed by Matt Cohen ’10.
RESTAURANT REVIEW Across the Atlantic in Under Fifteen Minutes
The Cambridge restaurant scene is blessed by the presence of a vibrant Portuguese community clustered around Inman Square and South Somerville, about a half hour stroll from MIT’s campus. The flavors of Portugal are splendidly rich with many dishes showcasing the nation’s top quality seafood and meats in hearty sauces crafted from fine olive oil, garlic, and a variety of earthy spices and herbs.
CONCERT REVIEW Through the Ages
One could learn a lot performing with the <i>Oriana Consort</i>. Certainly, one could learn a lot attending one of their concerts. Conductor Walter Chapin’s copious program notes exuded the author’s obvious excitement for both music and ensemble, and his interest was well transmitted — reading Chapin’s notes provided the distinct impression of attending a music history course; an engrossing excursion through the past with bits of history being performed.
CONCERT REVIEW Wild, Deep, and Danceable
Sharam Tayebi of Iranian-American Grammy award-winning DJ and dance music production duo Deep Dish got Bostonian clubgoers to make some wild moves on the dance floor at his <i>Get Wild</i> tour and CD release party at nightclub Rumor last Thursday.