“Blank Space,” Taylor Swift’s new single and accompanying music video, which debuted on Nov. 10, and has already garnered over 15 million views on YouTube, indicates a clear departure from the artist's classic “good girl” persona. “You look like my next mistake,” she sings. Yup, Taylor ...
Ryan Hemsworth's latest release is entitled "Alone for the First Time.” Yet on this album he's certainly not alone, and it's definitely not his first release. Hemsworth has hand-picked independent artists, chosen through his Secret Songs record club -- a community of like-minded ...
With its release of “Big Hero 6,” an adaptation of the little-known Marvel comic by the same name, Disney has officially jumped on the superhero bandwagon. Though one might think people have had their fill of origin stories and are just about sick of watching troupes of fighting heroes in wacky ...
In this day and age, pop culture is distributed to the masses through an overwhelming digital network. Through YouTube videos, Instagram posts, Twitter updates and even Tumblr interactions (see Taylor Swift’s foray into that insular world), artists, companies and celebrities are able to communicate ...
Netflix, Amazon and Hulu are today's go-to sources for unconventional, original media available for online streaming, but AOL On's series, "city.ballet." is a great reminder that these three sites don't have a monopoly on compelling internet television.
For a film about space, "Interstellar’s" long first act has a very earthly setting: an arid, generically midwestern, desert-like farm. Upon entering the film, viewers find themselves in a near-future reality where an unnamed blight has destroyed most crops, and in which humanity has retreated to a mostly agrarian society. Here, former astronaut Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a disgruntled but responsible farmer whose daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy, Jessica Chastain) ages considerably between Cooper's space missions. Cooper's family stumbles upon hints of a secret NASA mission to travel through a wormhole to discover potentially habitable alien planets. Cooper’s former mentor, Professor Brand (Michael Caine), enlists him on the mission along with Brand's own daughter (Anne Hathaway). From there "Interstellar" -- which was released on Nov. 5 -- launches into a wild adventure across worlds and time.
Amy Poehler’s new book, “Yes Please,” is refreshingly honest, raw, hilarious and even inspirational. Hitting shelves on Oct. 28,“Yes Please” is not a traditional memoir, but rather a hodge-podge collection of personal essays, stories about her career and the people with whom she has worked and snippets of life advice. While the pages are sleek and shiny, stuffed with photographs from Poehler's own life, the messages she gives the reader are genuine and down-to-earth. In “Yes Please” Poehler reminds both fans and critics that she’s just a middle-class Boston -- OK, technically Newton -- girl who worked very hard for many years and used her strengths to succeed. In doing so, the book attempts to convince readers that Poehler is just an ordinary woman. But while her humanity and her struggles are highlighted, the pithy and creative ways with which Poehler talks about adversity are nothing short of extraordinary.
Hello literature lovers! It’s been a long week at the tail end of a long month, and I’m sure everyone is still rattling from the aftershocks of midterms. The only things getting me through it all are numerous -- yet massive -- cups of coffee and the books I’ve been reading to balance the madness. ...
A steady stream of art history aficionados, young and old, filed into Barnum 104 last night. They didn't come to watch Ricky Jay, long considered one of the world’s greatest sleight of hand artists perform magic tricks, but to enjoy his personal collection of pamphlets and prints depicting P.T. ...
If you haven’t heard of Alejandro Ghersi (aka Arca) yet, you’ve probably heard of some work with which he has been involved. He helped produce four of the darkest “Yeezus” (2013) tracks with Kanye West, worked as a producer on FKA Twigs' “EP2” (2013) and is slated to co-produce Bjork’s ...
In an era when expressing disapproval of anything -- from a piece in the New York Times, to a “Best Dressed at the VMA’s” list to a friend’s Facebook status -- is as swift and as disconnected as clicking a button and running one’s fingers over a QWERTY keyboard, it is clear that the modern ...
This past Halloween, J.K. Rowling -- the author of the beloved "Harry Potter" series -- released six short stories about the "Harry Potter" universe, adding more detail to her titular character's fantasy world. Released through the Pottermore website, Rowling added yet another ...
Of the many '90s-influenced, noise-rock bands to enter the local music scene, Speedy Ortiz has perhaps garnered the most praise in recent months. With two fuzzed-out guitars, thunderous drum beats and caustic lyrics courtesy of frontwoman and self-described “third grade poet” Sadie Dupuis, ...
Looking to make your weekend artsy? Check out these events!Tufts/NEC Dual Degree Concert: Come hear students in the Tufts/NEC dual degree program perform classical, jazz and original compositions. (Saturday at 8 p.m. in Distler Performance Hall. Admission is free.)Jayme Stome’s Lomax Project: Join ...
Sophomore Ben Averill started playing trumpet in the fifth grade and hasn’t stopped since. A music minor with experience in Jazz Orchestra and Wind Ensemble, and a member of Tufts’ homegrown band, Shark Saddle, Averill has made music a central focus of his time at Tufts. On top of all of that he ...
It begins with an advisory: “This video contains explicit language.” At first, it seems likeT-Pain on NPR’s Tiny Desk should be funny. It sounds like a blast. Then he appears, and it's not the T-Pain fans are used to -- the one who wrote a song about falling deeply in love with an exotic ...
In 2010, Chaz Bundick, known to many as the indie-pop, chillwave, nu-disco (or almost any other genre out there) artist Toro Y Moi, began releasing music under a second moniker: Les Sins.Under this new name, Bundick has produced more dance-worthy music, characterized by strong bass. The three EPs released ...
Covering any work of rock genius is a pretty huge feat to take on, especially when that work is the Beatles' “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967) -- an album hailed for its influence in the music industry and the psychedelic era, the soundtrack to the "summer of love." You ...
Warner Bros. Studios, the owners of DC Entertainment and Marvel Studios, has had a very eventful month, releasing their planned superhero movie lineup through 2020. With an abundance of new information, one must sift through the news to analyze what's coming up next for fans of superhero film.Here ...
The premise of The CW’s new show, “Jane the Virgin,” sounds more like a daytime soap opera than a popular network’s newest dramedy. Jane Villanueva (Gina Rodriguez) finds herself accidentally artificially inseminated ... that's when all hell breaks loose.Due to her mother’s teenage pregnancy ...
