Arts

Arts

'The Way We Live Now' furthers modernist dialogue, honors master architect

By Nolan Jimbo | February 16

The experience of viewing “The Way We Live Now: Modernist Ideologies at Work” at Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts begins prior to entering the exhibition galleries. Sited within the 1963 modernist structure designed by architectural luminary Le Corbusier, the exhibition commences with the experience of viewing the building itself. Composed of concrete and glass (material hallmarks of early 20th-century modern architecture), the Carpenter Center embodies several of Le Corbusier’s modernist design tenets: the blurred divide between interior and exterior space, the open-plan layout made possible by concrete piers and the use of brises-soleils to create filtered, soft daylight conducive to the creative work occurring in the building’s art and design studios.

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Arts

Drake’s new mixtape paves way to throne of hip hop

By Nika Korchok | February 16

On Feb. 12, Drake released a 17-song mixtape on iTunes and announced it via Twitter with the amount of publicity and fanfare that preceded Beyonce’s eponymous 2014 release -- namely, none. “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late,” begins with “Legend” and concludes with “6PM In New York." ...

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Arts

The Witch of Coös

By Daniel Bottino | February 16

All is not as it seems behind the innocent façade presented by two citizens of Coös County. Sinister forces and dark secrets wait for their opportunity to burst forth. Coös County encompasses a vast expanse of sparsely inhabited mountainous terrain in the northernmost portion of New Hampshire, ...

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Arts

Farcical Mark Twain redux 'Is He Dead?' hits Balch Arena

By Jennifer Straitz | February 12

For many actors, the Wednesday evening dress rehearsal of Tufts University Drama Department's “Is He Dead?” (first performed using the adapted David Ives version in 2007) could have spelled disaster. Plagued by hours of lost practice time in the weeks leading up to the performance,stage manager ...

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Video

Ukranian dancer Sergei Polunin offers new interpretation of Hozier's 'Take Me To Church'

By Nitesh Gupta | February 12

Though Hozier’s “Take Me To Church” did not win a Grammy last Sunday, it did manage to attract the attention of photographer and director David LaChapelle, who recently directed a new music video for it. The video features a long, passionate dance from Ukrainian ballet dancer Sergei Polunin and choreography ...

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Arts

'Sonic Arboretum' blends music, artistry

By Anjali Nair | February 12

If you’re wandering through the West Gallery of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), you may find yourself drawn to the tranquil string strokes and whistles of the “Sonic Arboretum.” Nestled in a far corner of the gallery, the dual-medium exhibition explores the interaction between sound and ...

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Columns

SWUGS and kisses

By Nikki Blank | February 12

How does a SWUG celebrate Valentine's Day?

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Arts

Nijiya serves deliciously affordable, all-you-can-eat sushi

By Dana Guth | February 12

Fresh, cheap, all-you-can-eat sushi right around the corner from Tufts might seem like a mere pipe dream to hungry Jumbos. But at Nijiya Sushi in Medford Square, the fantasy is all too real. There’s no catch -- no lines, no buffet, no imitation rolls skimping on all the best ingredients. There’s ...

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Arts

Gabe Rothman fearlessly expands musical repertoire with collaborations, cross-genre experimentation

By Jennifer Straitz | February 12

R&B, chamber music, jazz, klezmer, hip-hop, you name it, Gabe Rothman has likely played it. A senior majoring in biopsychology and minoring in music, Rothman joined the Tufts music scene his first fall on campus and hasn't stopped playing. Taking stock of his musical endeavors throughout his time on the Hill, Rothman reflected in an email interview on the support he has received throughout his time in college, favorite music-making memories and what he is hoping to leave Medford with before graduation this upcoming May.

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Arts

Ray Johnson collaborative project honors artist's memory

By Josh Podolsky | February 11

Recently, the Daily Arts section received an email requesting that we give a page of our production over to the silhouette that is now printed in conjunction with this article. The instructions were to “please add to and return to Ray Johnson” -- the artist ostensibly behind the work -- silhouettes with whatever modifications our readers made to their individual copies. We liked the idea readily enough as it allowed us the opportunity to be part of the art as well as to comment on it. The next step was to do some preliminary research and reach out to the artist for a comment.

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Columns

Futuristic Forms: Klimt and Kokoschka

By Emily Gruzdowich | February 11

Since I took my last column to look back at the Goya exhibition, this week I chose the Klimt and Kokoschka works that are currently on view at the MFA.Diverging from the darkness which characterizes Goya’s work, a permeation of light defines Klimt’s manner of creation. Klimt creates a fantasy world ...

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Arts

Alex Giannascoli elevates songwriting with minimalism and raw energy

By Nika Korchok | February 11

His music sounds like someone took Elliot Smith and Washed Out tracks and smushed them underfoot using a mustard-yellow hand-me-down pair of Oxford shoes to give them character, and then ironed them out, kissed them with some bootleg Bob Dylan record and stuck them out the window to dry in some placeless, American suburban wasteland. These songs are pure middle-America lo-fi underground electronica mixed with moody, introspective acoustic folk-rock, blended with '90s grunge punk rock. They are understated, swept under the rug and half-crying in self-pity disguised as boredom. Raw like picked blisters, they are exquisite pieces of muffled lyrical genius. Alex Giannascoli -- lead singer and guitarist for his eponymous band Alex G -- is undeniably at the forefront of great American songwriting and it will only be a matter of time before this wunderkind takes the music world by storm.

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Arts

Alex G, Palehound shine while Teen Suicide lacks focus at Cuisine En Locale performance

By Nika Korchok | February 11

Alex Giannascoli, lead singer and guitarist for his eponymous band Alex G, is unassuming and friendly in a flannel and knit beanie on stage; his stage presence is open yet subdued. Occasionally pausing to grit his teeth or bite his lip in concentration, he wears a perpetual expression of deep-focus veering towards boredom. Slicing through his relaxed cool kid demeanor, he throws out lines to the audience like candy, and then throws out candy as well, passing around a giant bar of some caramel-filled chocolate like everyone is a member of the family. Boredom may be the initial impression he gives off by his complete and total comfort on the stage, but it is entirely the wrong word to describe an artist as genuine and warm as Mr. Giannascoli, who invites audience members up on stage to dance as though the stage is just some piece of a basement that everyone is hanging out in together.

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Arts

Bluefin offers surprisingly good sushi in unassuming location

By Josh Podolsky | February 11

Bluefin is yet another Japanese delight nestled away in the unassuming mall space just off of Porter Square. Unlike its perpetually busy neighbor, Sapporo Ramen, Bluefin provides a decidedly calm and spacious environment. Around 7:30 p.m. on a Saturday evening, there were enough tables to give a party ...

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Arts

'Captain Boycott' vies for social activism with subtle brilliance

By lukaspapenfusscline | February 9

The actors of the Bread and Puppet Theater normally burst into the playing space, sprinting around in all-white, flying flags high above their heads as the band blasts horns and bangs on drums. The ensemble is politically active, frenetic and high energy; as a company, it has been making puppets, devising ...

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Arts

Ne-Yo's 'Non-Fiction' tells lackluster story

By Josh Morris | February 9

Ne-Yo’s sixth studio album, "Non-Fiction (Deluxe)" (2015) hit the shelves recently, making it the artist’s first new album in three years. Listeners were expecting to it to be a hit, especially after such a long period of silence from Ne-Yo. Unfortunately, the artist did not live up to expectations.

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Columns

To make a long story short...

By Helen Schmidt | February 8

Short stories fall in a gray area between full-length novels and poetry, not quite long enough to consume a printed book all on its own in most cases, but not short enough to be limited to a few pages of text. It is easy to write pages and pages of words to convey an idea or message, but it takes masterful writers to compress their stories in such a way that they can be told in only a few dozen pages. The way short stories are written is tricky, as the author has to utilize carefully constructed sentences to imply storylines and details that aren’t explicitly written.

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Arts

New art collective Smaller Fortress offers diverse space to exhibit talent

By Grace Segers | February 8

The Tower Gallery in Tisch Library is currently featuring a new type of exhibit: one with pieces donated by students unaffiliated with an official art class or organization. The works currently featured in the gallery outside of the Tower Café are pieces by artists from Tufts’ new art collective, Smaller Fortress. This creative organization was conceived by Emma Turner, a senior majoring in English with minors in Studio Art and Film Studies, and implemented during the fall 2014 semester.

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Arts

'Project Almanac' fails to deliver original story

By Merilla Michael | February 5

"Project Almanac" (2015) is director Dean Israelite's first attempt at a full-length movie. In the film, David Raskin (Jonny Weston), a brilliant high school student, has just been accepted to MIT. His father, an inventor, died when he was seven, leaving his family in a delicate financial ...

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Arts

Madeleine Onstwedder turns passion for art history into community engagement

By Jennifer Straitz | February 5

One would be hard-pressed to talk about art history with first-year Madeleine Onstwedder and walk away without absorbing some of her boundless enthusiasm for the subject. A dual degree student with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University, the native Londoner positively beams when talking about the subject she loves. Now, working on a variety of projects, she wants to share that enthusiasm with others.

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