The Tufts women's track and field team won the New England Div. III Indoor Championship on Saturday for the second time in its 24?year history, and for the first time since 2008.
Goosebump-inducing is a succinct way to describe Saturday night's performance at Symphony Hall with soloist Radu Lupu and conductor Christoph von Dohn??nyi. On the program was Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K.488 and Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 in E-flat, "Romantic." In addition to numerous other achievements, Lupu has taken first place in both the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition. Indeed, his esteem is well deserved. One of the last times the Boston Symphony played a concerto this well was Yo-Yo Ma's performance of the Dvorak Cello Concerto under the baton of Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena. The Mozart Piano Concerto is modestly scored for one flute, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and strings. Even without the usual firepower of trumpets and timpani, Mozart managed to craft a piece of incredible charm and harmonic breadth. In no way is this a technical challenge for the performers as the brilliance of the Mozart Piano Concerto is found in its finesse rather than in its virtuosity. The first movement is a typical sonata-form movement. Here, Lupu demonstrated a clear understanding of all aspects of the piece. In flawless time, he awaited cues from the flute, clarinets, and bassoons. It is all too common to hear the giant Steinway drown out the flute. On Saturday night, however, this was not the case. Lupu's masterful control allowed for well-balanced counterpoint and dialogue. This concord contributed to a first movement that was colorful and filled with character. The most spine-chilling movement was the lyrical and introspective second movement. Program writer for the Boston Symphony Michael Steinberg likens the pianist in the unusually dark second movement to an opera singer. Lupu opened with a soft and isolated passage before the orchestra came in in sonorous tutti. The wonderful dissonances in this movement were just as poignant as they were beautiful. The lack of dialogue between pianist and orchestra in this movement put Lupu under the spotlight to carry the weight of the piece. The lack of written dynamics in this movement, dragged it on for quite a long time. Nevertheless, Lupu gave a nuanced but captivating interpretation using penetrating texture. If the second movement gave the illusion of time standing still, the third revived the audience with life and cheer once more. In conventional rondo form, the third movement brought back the liveliness of the first as well as the freedom of the second. The addictive and leaping main theme delighted the audience repeatedly, as its return was wholly welcome. Emphasized by the absence of timpani and trumpets, Saturday's performance of Mozart Piano Concerto showcased the unity of a chamber performance with the strength of an orchestra. Though Lupu was certainly the star of the night, Dohn??nyi deserves a great deal of credit as well. His clear style of conducting and handling of tempo kept the piece crisp and refreshing. Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 was one of the more bombastic and heavy pieces. Contrary to what Bruckner may have been thinking, simply playing loudly and softly is not cohesive to composing. Usually when composers reintroduce themes in later movements, it gives a sense of cohesiveness throughout the work. In this case, the monotonous themes that reappeared throughout the entire piece offered little contrast. That said, the Boston Symphony played a dull and repetitive piece to the best that it could have been played. It was here that Dohn??nyi was able to showcase his control over the orchestra. He was able to summon the full Boston Symphony dynamism for the Bruckner. Unfortunately, it just was not a good piece to showcase much other than that. Regardless, Saturday night was worth braving the snow just for the Mozart. Lupu's skill can hardly be overstated.
P ersonal computer maker Dell announced a few weeks ago that founder and CEO, Michael Dell, would take the company private in a leveraged buyout. Though any deal of this nature usually catches the market by surprise, this one is a sign of the times.
Warning: Do not watch 'Once Upon a Time' with kids. Kids believe that Snow White has short hair and that Belle is in love with the beast. Red Riding Hood was supposed to be an innocent child. This show is going to tell them otherwise. 'Once Upon A Time' is merely another attempt to add interesting twists to stories that most people have been exposed to since childhood. In an episode that recaps everything that took place in the first season, the evil queen casts a spell across the land, causing every fairytale character to forget who they were. These characters all live in the "real world", or Storybrooke. When the spell is eventually broken, Prince Charming takes the lead and attempts to defeat the evil queen. What else would one expect a Prince to do? Despite the number of times characters are made to act in the name of love, this show is in fact a dark fantasy. The evil queen, Regina, pulls out the heart of her lover with her bare hands as he begs her to free him from his misery. Both Aurora and Snow White's grandson, Henry, get physically burnt as they meet in a dreamlike room engulfed in flames. This show puts familiar characters in unfamiliar situations, which is perhaps why it is so much more intriguing than most fantasy shows. This careful balance of old and new allows viewers to feel engaged while they keep in mind that these are still fairytale characters. Surprisingly, it is not the acting of the main characters that leaves viewers with the deepest impression. Ginnifer Goodwin , who plays Snow White, Jennifer Morrison, who plays the lead, Emma Swan, and finally Lana Parrilla, who plays the evil sorceress queen Regina, are average at best. Josh Dallas (Prince Charming) and Jared Gilmore (Henry) fail to impress, though it is certainly difficult to criticize a likeable young actor such as Gilmore. Especially since Prince Charming as a character is barely explored in the original storybooks, the responsibility of making the character stand out lies on Dallas' shoulders. Perhaps due to the nature of the character, however, he is generally unable to wow his viewers. Truly stunning, however, is Sebastian Stan's portrayal of the Mad Hatter. His intense eyes, which transition rapidly through states of anger, frustration and determination, make his key scenes quite memorable. Another outstanding actor, Robert Carlyle, handles the role of Rumpelstiltskin with impeccable taste and class. Portraying a character who is cold and manipulative, yet affectionate toward the one girl he loves, Carlyle does not overdo any of these emotions and successfully gains viewers' resentment and pity at the appropriate times. Jorge Garcia's short appearance as the friendly giant living on the top of a beanstalk gave his fans a reason to smile. It is always nice to see a familiar face in television, especially when that person is known for comic relief as Hugo "Hurley" Reyes in the hit series "Lost (2004-2010)." It is difficult not to compare this show with the "Harry Potter" (1997-2007) and "Lord of the Rings" (1954-1955) series, as they are two of the most prominent fantasy series in history. Both of them have sets that could wow worldwide audiences easily. Knowing that this thought lingers at the back of all fantasy fans' minds, "Once Upon A Time" should have done a much better job with its sets and shooting locations. The "Lord of the Rings" filmmakers made New Zealand proud by using the country as a memorable backdrop. Unfortunately, "Once Upon a Time" pales in comparison. The show is intense and quite entertaining - it grasps viewers in a way that will probably make them binge-watch the entire first season. Watch it for Robert Carlyle's amazing performance as the gruesome Rumpelstiltskin, if nothing else.
The Tufts men's track and field team came off two meets at home and took third place in the Div. III New England Championships held at the University of Southern Maine. Matching their performance from last year, the Jumbos amassed four individual victories across various events and fell just short of surpassing the host team Bates Bobcats for second place.
It was a weekend of upsets at this year's women's swimming and diving NESCAC Championships, from a historic win for Amherst to a last minute push from Tufts to snag third place. The Jumbos went into the meet with hopes of placing in the middle of the 11?competitor pack but pulled off a surprising third?place finish.
With the season nearing its end, the women's squash team traveled to Yale over the weekend to participate in the Women's College Squash Association National Team Championships.
It's no secret that Tennessee Williams is one of the most talented playwrights of all time, and "The Glass Menagerie" (1944) is among his best works. But is among his best works. But to take a masterpiece and give it new life takes great innovation and talent - and that's just what director John Tiffany did this past Wednesday in the American Repertory Theater's showing at the Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge. "The Glass Menagerie" is the story of a mother, brother and sister struggling to make ends meet after being abandoned by their father, a telephone operator who "fell in love with long distance." Son and narrator Tom (Zachary Quinto), takes after his father's dreams of escape and resents the pressure of supporting his mother and sister. Mother Amanda (Cherry Jones) is obsessed with finding a "gentleman caller" for her daughter, Laura (Celia Keenan-Bolger), who suffers from a limp and has immense social anxiety. The majority of the play builds up to the final scene, where the Gentleman Caller, played by Brian J. Smith, comes over for dinner. The fundamental theme of the piece is escapism. Amanda escapes through telling stories of the glory days of her youth before her husband swept her off her feet. Tom escapes through drinking and watching movies and Laura escapes through daydreams and obsessively maintaining her glass figurine collection. Amanda believes that her daughter will finally be happy once she finds a husband, and she works effortlessly to achieve this goal in ways that make the audience both laugh and cringe. Jones plays her overbearing, multifaceted character carefully by portraying her as a wickedly delusional yet hopelessly loving parent. Surprisingly, the weakest performance was by the most recognizable member of the cast, Quinto as Tom. Identifiable by his roles on "Heroes" and "24," Quinto seems more suited for television where his ability to show vocal and facial emotion is clear. Unfortunately, he didn't have the same success on stage, and was ineffective in using his entire body to show emotion. The stage, with its dream-like set, was the most intriguing aspect of the play. The stage was set as the family's apartment, with the floor made up of three hexagonal wooden slabs to represent different rooms. An area to the far right of the stage was the fire escape and exit to the home where characters went out by descending into the floor. Upstage, the fire escape continued upward, made of segments growing smaller with height. Downstage center on a small table remained a glass unicorn, Laura's favorite piece, lit by a narrow beam of light. The three rooms hung suspended above a pool of water, and throughout the production characters would look into the water at their reflections. The set successfully made an emotional use of height by alluding to the dark water's depths and the rather heavenly destination of the fire escape. There were consistent references to a missing father throughout the piece, implying that his loss was a driving cause for action. Physically, the characters would gesture to the place where his portrait hung, and emotionally, they looked for another man, the Gentleman Caller, to fill his void. Simple props like a couch, table and chairs echoed the loneliness of the family with a missing father and successfully made the characters appear stuck in their situation. Keenan-Bolger demonstrated strong character development as Laura, with her shy and endearing portrayal of a girl in love with her glass collection and playing music records. One of the most powerful moments of the play occurs when Smith tries to help her gain confidence and kisses her. This action, despite its good intentions, shatters Laura's innocence, an event echoed by the breaking of her favorite glass unicorn while the two are dancing. The play's ending leaves the audience with uncertainty about the future. This production's strongest elements were the creative set, Jones' ability to portray a distraught mother's conflicting personality traits and Keenan-Bolger's dynamic performance as Laura. As a whole, the play is moving and provides a unique demonstration of an already incredible script.
You really should know what taro is, if you don't already. Taro is essentially an improved version of the potato - it's starchy, easy to cook and easy to grow. For some reason, though, it has only just begun to expand beyond Africa and Asia and into North American grocery stores. From Indian curries, to Hawaiian poi, to African fufu, taro seriously gets around. Considering its high content of vitamins A and C and the fact that it has three times as much fiber as potatoes, it shouldn't really be surprising. Because taro is just so darn versatile, I decided to cook it two different ways: in a savory dish, and in a sweet dish. The savory dish was so easy to make that it should probably be considered cheating, but bear with me. While I was perusing the vast selection of Ranch 99 (noticing a trend?), I picked up a sort of taro cake made of taro and rice flour. It was a greyish-pink color and really didn't look particularly appetizing, but it was cheap and sounded easy to make, so I went for it. I cut it into slices that I prepared two different ways - frying and steaming - and offered it to my family. I was the only one who wasn't completely put off by the gelatinous mush of the steamed taro cake, but everyone loved the fried taro cake. The taro turned a lovely golden brown color when I cooked it in sesame oil, and it didn't even need to be seasoned. I kid you not - just about anything tastes better fried. I started at ground zero for the sweet taro dish that I prepared a few weeks later, which made things considerably more exciting. I (stupidly) took it upon myself to buy the largest taro root in Ranch 99, mostly because it looked like a hilariously engorged ginger root. Of course, I found the giant root somewhat intimidating by the time I brought it home, so it hung out on my kitchen counter for a couple weeks before I could come up with something to do with it. During this time, the seven-pound root showed exactly zero signs of aging and simply sat there, taunting me until I decided on a recipe for coconut milk-based taro tapioca pudding. Due to its high concentration of calcium oxalate - a crystalline toxin that can cause organ damage and even death - taro should never be consumed raw. Maybe this knowledge made me expect the worst, but the taro seemed poisonous from the moment I started slicing it for the pudding. It smelled simultaneously sweet and acrid - a strange, pungent combination that was hardly appealing. I became increasingly fearful that I would inadvertently poison myself, and began to contemplate what a horribly embarrassing cause of death undercooked taro would be. Nevertheless, once I started to cook it in the coconut milk, the taro's fragrance quickly mellowed out to a floral starchiness. Once both the tapioca pearls and taro had finished cooking, the pudding was essentially done. I was unimpressed. The pudding was a purplish, putty brown color, and though the tapioca pearls looked nice enough, the chunks of taro seemed like a hasty last-minute addition. They settled dully on the bottom the glass pudding bowl, blobby and misshapen. Still, the pudding was pretty tasty. It was minimally sweet and just rich enough to be comforting, and it did thicken up over the next day or so - though it remained decidedly bland. Taro was just as easy to make as I expected, and I would make it again without hesitation, though I'd like to adjust the pudding recipe a little bit. Join me next week for crickets!
A few hours after the Super Bowl, my mom called me and said she wanted to talk about ... the Super Bowl. This was quite odd - we're not a sports family. My dad used to change the channel to football when my friends walked by the living room, only to switch it right back to a History Channel special on the Founding Fathers as soon as my friends were out of sight. That was his version of being a cool dad. Anyway, rather than talking about the game itself, my mother only wanted to talk about Beyonc?©. Queen Beyonc?©. My mother said she can only describe Beyonc?©'s performance in one word: "fierce." This is funny if you know her because she's not really a cool mom who says fierce, she's more like a kind and smiley mom who loves poems, L.L. Bean and astronomy.
At what point will it become too much? I've written about it before, but the problem persists and grows stronger.
The following is from a roundtable interview with Alice Englert and Alden Ehrenreich, stars of the new film "Beautiful Creatures," that the Tufts Daily attended and participated in.
The Tufts Democrats recently announced its endorsement of Congressman Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who is running in a special election for the Massachusetts Senate seat of former Senator John Kerry, the new Secretary of State.
The following is from a roundtable interview with Alice Englert and Alden Ehrenreich, stars of the new film "Beautiful Creatures," that the Tufts Daily attended and participated in. Question: What attracted you guys to the roles [of Lena and Ethan]? Alden Ehrenreich: Just from the first few pages I knew I wanted to do the movie cause you just know, like when you meet somebody and have immediate chemistry with them. It was like that for me. Alice Englert: For me it was interesting since I've always been attracted to fantasy as a child ... it's just kind of fun, and I really liked Lena. I liked that she wasn't just an angsty teenager. And I just thought that [writer and director] Richard LaGravenese had written such a charming, witty story. I was really, really charmed by it, and for something so supernatural it had a lot of humanity, which is very important. Ehrenreich: They say the best musicals are sung, because words aren't enough and the songs are an expression of what they're going through emotionally, and that's what I feel about this script. Q: What's your favorite scene from the movie? Englert: Probably the snow scene, because it's got my song in it. But it was a lot of fun to shoot cause it's all one big shot, so we got to spend all day in this beautiful tree line. Ehrenreich: Yeah, I like that scene too, cause it's the most regular two?people talking, acting scene in the movie. It was also the first romantic scene that we did. Q: What's it like acting with animated elements? Was someone acting it out or were you just imagining? Englert: Well, when we were there it was just me imagining it and reacting because we had a green screen and Emma [Thompson] offstage would [make a noise], then somebody would yell "cut." And later on they'd put me on a two?meter?high bicycle seat, which was the most uncomfortable, most unglamorous special effect device that I could have imagined - I thought I was going to have this great harness and be cool, but I just had to sit on that. Q: Were you guys afraid that you might be compared to "Twilight"? Englert: Oh but we are. We can't be afraid of it. Of course they said it would be "the next 'Twilight.'" Ehrenreich: But it could also be the next "Midnight Cowboys." We didn't want to do a rip?off of another film. It's the same genre, it's the same demographic, but they're different. Englert: I mean, "Twilight" was phenomenal because it opened up a genre that is kind of new as being a huge Hollywood thing. Ehrenreich: But what about Harry Potter? Nobody talks about Harry Potter any more. Englert: That's true. I do play a witch, but there's not that same romance. Ehrenreich: But there's that girl in Harry Potter. Not Hermione Granger. Not Ginny. Englert: Cho Chang? Ehrenreich: Oh, yeah. Lena's the next Cho Chang. It's more like Ron and Cho Chang. Englert: No, Ron doesn't go out with Cho Chang. Ehrenreich: Well I don't know then. I read the first four books. I should finish them. Q: You guys talk about literature a lot in this movie and are always seen reading books. Do you think it's going to make reading sexy? Englert: I found literature very sexy when I was younger because nobody would go out with me, so... Ehrenreich: I think it's going to be really funny - the Bukowski thing - if young girls start reading Charles Bukowski. I mean during filming I had to make sure I wasn't on a page with "f??k" written in all capital letters. Englert: I mean, Bukowski is the crudest poet ever. So Lena is basically reading about his trips to the prostitute and vomiting in a sombrero. So imagine if that was the one you were reading. Ehrenreich: Yeah, exactly. But that whole set of books in my bedroom set was incredible, I don't think you can get a sense of it in the movie.
I have to begin this column by thanking Macklemore for praising the pants out of thrift shops. While his outfit in the "Thrift Shop" video makes it more satire than anything else, I somehow feel very proud of him for writing a song that I can sing to as I shop in the thrift shop.
To date, I've named and claimed over 15 majors over the last four years. Now take a breath, and smile??you are officially more decisive than I am. For about a week, I was a biology major, and then political science for upwards of a month. Somewhere between being a child development major and an International Literary and Visual Studies student, I was in engineering psychology, but I'd rather not talk about that part of my past. We will call those the "bad weeks."
