There are countless ways for a first-year Tufts student to get involved with on-campus theater. The student theater umbrella organization, Pen, Paint, & Pretzels, encompases everything from children's theater to musicals to miming. Perhaps the most freshman-friendly and fun production sponsored by the group is the annual first-year show.
As the newest installment of the James Bond series is hitting theatres this Friday, the Daily took some time to reflect upon the 30-odd years of Bond we've already enjoyed. We decided the best part of nearly every movie (besides the ridiculous sexual innuendos) was the random and unnecessary gadgets that James always has handy. Strangely, James always seems to have every form of protection known to man except one… 10. Wetsuit With Rubber Duckie: In "Goldfinger" (1964), Bond goes all rub-a-dub-dub and uses a rubber duck atop his wetsuit for camouflage. Though this move is a little "Sesame Street," 007 gets extra points for being comical and stealthy. 9. Crocodile: Bond used this motorboat disguised as a crocodile in 1983's "Octopussy" in order to get to Octopussy's island without being noticed. It's pretty obvious that a metal crocodile like you might find at a putt-putt course would trick any kind of evil mastermind. 8. Yo-Yo Saw: This gadget is a rotating saw blade attached to string so that it can be wielded similarly to a yo-yo. You wouldn't want to "walk the dog" with that toy — unless you're cool with being toe less. If you're looking for a fun and easy way to horribly mangle a small child, though, you're in luck... 7. Cello and Case: An alternate use for the equipment of cello-playing music majors has finally been found. In "The Living Daylights" (1987), Bond employs the case as a sled. It would also be great for storing dead bodies and other cello-shaped objects — like cellos, or really big violins. 6. Exploding Cake: What better way to congratulate someone than with a flambé surprise? The villainous Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd snuck one of these into Bond's hotel room in the end of "Diamonds are Forever" (1971), and instead of just shooting Bond, they patiently waited for the cake to explode. Though it didn't fulfill its original purpose, the exploding cake was pretty effective in doing away with the bad guys. 5. Magnetic Watch: Now, why would this come in handy? The answer wasn't so clear at first, until a villain in "Live and Let Die" (1973) finally had a clear shot at Bond for like the first time ever, only to find the bullet deflected by the watch's magnetic field. So what if "Mythbusters" "proved" that no size magnet could alter the path of a bullet in any way? Q's technology is obviously superior. 4. Bagpipe: Though it was never actually used, this bagpipe seen lying in Q's lab in "The World is Not Enough" (1999) featured a built-in flamethrower and machine gun. Think about the possibilities! Bond could kill someone, burn the remains and hold a funeral service, all in mere seconds! 3. Ski Pole/Gun: Finally, a truly practical gadget! In addition to its use in "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977), this object could finally bring the biathalon into the 21st century. Why carry a bulky rifle on your back when you can carry two with even less effort? If only they could make it into a phone too... 2. Dentonite Toothpaste: This one wins from the sheer force of its clever title. Even better, Bond used a pack of cigarettes as a detonator in "License to Kill" (1989). Subliminal advertising, anyone? 1. James Bond's personal ‘Gadget': When things get heated, Bond can always rely on his favorite tool to give him the rigid resolve to get out of a hard situation. Oh, James…
Hellogoodbye and Ace Enders and a Million Different People came to Tufts on Monday to play the annual Fall Rock Show sponsored by Concert Board and WMFO. The concert took place in a transformed Dewick-MacPhie: with tables stacked to the side and a stage constructed with all the lights and speakers a band could need. Ace Enders began the show by playing a cover of "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve. The crowd went wild as The lights changed between shades of red and blue and Enders went flying all around the stage. Most of the songs played by Enders are featured on the band's new EP "The Secret Wars" (2008), which is currently being offered for free online.
"Rock and roll saved my life as a teenager, and it's still saving my life today!" crowed Patterson Hood, singer of Drive-By Truckers, to a rambunctious crowd at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Boston this past Sunday night. In a move congruent with this Southern rock band's sincerity, Hood took a moment mid-song to address the crowd, testifying with unabashed openness about a troubled past and how music kept him going through difficult times as a young man.
Director Danny Boyle's strong suit seems to be versatility. After jumping onto the scene with his cult-drug-classic "Trainspotting" (1996), Boyle has tackled the adventure thriller in "The Beach" (2000), the sci-fi horror genre in "28 Days Later" (2002) and even the children's movie, "Millions" (2004). But now Boyle has ventured off into uncharted territory: India.
It has been a busy four years in the life of Bloc Party, the indie rock/pop band that has steadily spread their fun-loving British sound across the globe. On Oct. 27, the band released its third album, "Intimacy," showing a fundamental shift in the group's sound and style of music. Change has always permeated their new releases, though, and fans can rest assured that Bloc Party is still awesome. Some fresh songs off of "Intimacy" will soon be heard being awkwardly sung from behind shower doors and unintelligibly screamed at the next dance party.
The art of a society says almost as much about it as its history does. Works produced by a culture reflect the society's trends and are often times a direct reaction to some of its most important historical events.
Comedy in our post-Sept. 11 world has an increased fascination with the man-child, who is physically adult, but mentally a young male. The man-child never wants to grow up and deal with the real world. In writer/director David Wain's new comedy, "Role Models," Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott, two actors not unfamiliar with playing this Peter Pan-esque archetype, do nothing to help the man-child grow up but they take him to a new level.
I love the Internet; I really do. It's given humanity so many great things -- most of them pornographic in nature -- but, more importantly, it has given us all new reasons to never leave the house and interact with other living beings. As my dad has always said, "There's all kinds of great things on that there 'interwebs.'"
On the surface, the debut album from self-proclaimed lover of pop, Lady GaGa, seems like it wouldn't be of much interest to a college-aged crowd, but surprisingly it's seeing heavy rotation in nearly all demographics. Moreover, it's been heralded as the future of pop music, or conversely, according to All Music Guide, "anti-pop," whatever that may be.
Grant Beighley | Pants Optional Twitter this I love the Internet; I really do. It's given humanity so many great things -- most of them pornographic in nature -- but, more importantly, it has given us all new reasons to never leave the house and interact with other living beings. As my Dad has always said, "There's all kinds of great things on that there 'interwebs'." In addition to porn, the Internet has brought with it many not-so-pleasant things, namely the dawning of the age of self-importance. It started in the middle-school years with things such as Xanga.com and LiveJournal.com, and, before too long, impressionable youngsters had thrown themselves whole-heartedly into blog-rings and blogspot.com. Now, I can understand why having a day-to-day blog is fun and interesting, and I'm guilty of having read a few of them in my day, but unless you're someone famous and REALLY important (like Pete Wentz or John Mayer, both of whom keep blogs) and your thoughts actually matter, I just can't see the use in putting your thoughts up on the 'interbox' for others to read. After a while, blogs began to become something different: something dark, evil and more than a little bit concerning. A few of my friends who kept blogs began blogging about their everyday tasks instead of the thoughts that were precipitated by these daily drudgeries. For example, instead of saying, "while waiting in line at the Grocery Store, I considered why it is exactly humans feel the need to regard food as such an important part of life," he or she would simply say, "I waited in line at the Grocery Store today. Then I bought underwear. Then I ate a hot dog. It was mediocre. I am unhappy." Needless to say, when Twitter came around, I was less than pleased. For those who have no idea what this service is, Twitter is a micro-blog (a blog less than 140 characters) that can be updated from cell phones or computers. Essentially, Twitter is made up of usernames sending their daily activities out to the depths of the 'interblogs' for others with far too much free time to read. The sociological concerns behind the Twitter phenomenon are what actually concern me. Twitter seems to suggest that if you're alone and thinking without anyone else hearing your thoughts or seeing your actions, you don't exist. Since when have humans needed to be so connected to others, even strangers who they know very little about (user circles get very weird…) that they must report what they're having for dinner or update their mood status every twenty minutes? Here's a novel idea: Live your life as you want to and stop thinking that other people need to justify your actions or feelings to make them legitimate. I can certainly understand the need to keep friends and family up to date on your life, but if these people mean so much to you, pick up the phone (or Skype, it's FREE) and tell them about it in a more personal manner. If you feel lonely or bored without your Twitter account constantly bleeping and blooping to update you on what others are doing, go out and join a club, sit in a coffee shop and look at cute girls/guys, just do whatever it is you like to do to be proactive about meeting new people. REAL people. Reading about someone else's life in no way makes your life any more interesting. There is nothing stopping you, dear reader, from leading a life similar to those of Pete Wentz, John Mayer, or (god forbid) Paris Hilton, so stop reading about their lives and go make the most of your own.
Breathing new life into an old mystery, "Sherlock Holmes: Baker Street Adventures" offers a glimpse into the twisted mind of the well-known detective. Adapted by senior Matthew Diamante, who also directs the show, from the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the narrative hinges on the interactions between characters rather than the detective's ability to solve puzzles.
Breathing new life into an old mystery, "Sherlock Holmes: Baker Street Adventures" offers a glimpse into the twisted mind of the well-known detective. Adapted by senior Matthew Diamante, who also directs the show, from the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the narrative hinges on interactions between characters rather than the detective's ability to solve puzzles.
There is no doubt that critics and audiences alike were nervous about "Soul Men" in light of the passing of two of its stars. Would it do justice to the legacy of Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes, or would it ultimately tarnish their reputations? Judging by the trailers, it looked conventional, lowbrow and just plain bad. It may indeed be conventional and a tad lowbrow, but thanks to a breezy tone and sincere, hilarious performances by Mac and Samuel L. Jackson, "Soul Men" is one of the better comedies this fall.
For fans of the New York City based groove quartet U-Melt, seeing is believing. Anyone who has witnessed the sheer spontaneity and energy poured into a U-Melt performance knows that each musical experience is always surprising and never like the last. Luckily for Boston residents (and Tufts students), the band is on its way to Beantown tonight for a live show at Bill's Bar, near Fenway Park, as part of their 12-state tour taking them from the East Coast to the Rockies and back again.
"The Madwoman of Chaillot," directed by Associate Drama Professor Downing Cless, will continue its run this weekend after last week's successful opening. Tickets are $7 with a Tufts ID and are still available for the remaining performances tonight and tomorrow night at 8 p.m. in the Balch Arena Theater.
A first listen of Amber Rubarth's EP, "Unfinished Art" (2006), will immediately hook practically any listener. Her sound is fresh and quirky, filled with honest, image-driven lyrics. The melodies showcase folky guitar string sounds and her husky yet high-pitched voice. Rubarth's newest, equally impressive project is The Paper Raincoat, which its MySpace.com page describes as "an imaginative collaboration between Brooklyn songwriters Amber Rubarth and Alex Wong." Those who enjoy Rubarth's solo work will be thrilled with The Paper Raincoat. At 8 p.m. on Saturday, The Paper Raincoat will be one of the acts playing at Club Passim's "Next Generation Celebration," conveniently located at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square. Passim Folk Music and Cultural Center, located in Harvard Square, is celebrating its 50th anniversary as an independent music venue by showcasing a range of up-and-coming acoustic talents, including The Paper Raincoat. Saturday's performance sees the duo alongside acts such as Laura Cortese, Kris Delmhorst and Girlyman. "We had decided that we wanted to be a band before we knew what that was going to be," explained Wong. "We knew that we liked working together and decided to take time off to do some writing." That time certainly helped their music develop, as these songwriters came up with truly innovative material. The Paper Raincoat is unique in that its album makes a conscious effort to portray one original story, a story about a woman named Grace. "We had a friend who was taking a comedy improv class at the time," Wong explained. "She kept coming home and telling us about these weird exercises they would do in class. We decided to try one for our writing to see what would happen." Grace's story emerged from the exercise. The concept band's narrative follows Grace as she reaches her 50th birthday and begins to reevaluate her life. While cleaning out the house of her late father, she stumbles upon the designs for one of his inventions: a paper raincoat. This particular item reminds her of how she, in seeing her father's failure as an inventor, decided to give up on her childhood plan of becoming a writer. What follows is a reflection on her choices and the possibilities of her life had she held onto her original hopes and dreams. "We would like all of the songs we write to relate to the story and kind of paint this picture little by little of this world, and at the same time, add some of our personal resonance to her own experience," Wong said. "It should be a larger story [to which] everything could be connected." Rubarth agreed, saying "We don't have this whole story written out already. It doesn't have an end. The back-story keeps developing. We want the songs to be able to sit alone, but for people to also hear the songs as an album, as one whole." Wong and Rubarth hope that listeners will see the complete picture in their songs. "It's very visual music," Rubarth said. "It's not stuff where people are going to wear all black — it's about color and excitement." The songs do suggest a certain whimsical exuberance that a listener can connect with something colorful. "There's a creative energy in the melodies that goes back to this idea of the story, of this fantastic image that is a paper raincoat," Rubarth said. The group's self-titled EP consists of piano-driven melodies, lots of sporadic percussion, and both Wong and Rubarth's strong, clear voices. The duo will also be experimenting with some new songs, making Saturday's performance a unique opportunity to catch a glimpse at an up-and-coming group with a bright future.
Ten years after the release of its predecessor, "Fallout 3" brings players back to the post-apocalyptic wasteland for more tales of deceit and heroics. Published by Bethesda Softworks, the game is an ambitious attempt to imagine a living, breathing Washington, D.C. after a nuclear war. Fortunately, the game's setting delivers the freedom of choice without sacrificing the quality of execution. Like the previous "Fallout" games, "Fallout 3" puts the player in the body of a vault-dweller. Born and raised in an underground shelter, he is a newcomer to the harsh reality of the nuclear wasteland and is forced to make do with whatever resources he can find. Upon leaving his vault, the vault-dweller is greeted with a dystopian vision of human nature gone awry. Nuclear war has laid bare man's basest tendencies, and he must struggle to survive in the most hostile of environments. Whether he does so by forming an alliance with the greedy crime lords or by running errands to gain the trust of small-time merchants is entirely up to the player. The game's various crossroads affect how the story progresses. Early in the game, the character discovers a town of people who worship an active atomic bomb as a religious idol. One can choose to disarm the bomb in exchange for a shack in the humble town or to detonate the device in exchange for more a more luxurious apartment owned by a xenophobic aristocrat. "Fallout 3's" primary quest consists of the search for the vault-dweller's father and is driven by well-executed in-game cinematic segments. The plot loses some credibility after the sixth helpful bystander explains that the character's father "just passed through here." Even at its most repetitive points, however, the conversations are some of the best examples of dialogue writing found in video games today. Taking up most of the game-play time are various sidequests which challenge the player to help cure a friend of an addiction to one of the game's numerous narcotics or to use irradiated sugar cereal to develop a stronger brand of the same drugs. While the dark humor and morose realism of "Fallout 3's" dialogue distinguish this game from its many competitors, the combat system is equally appealing. Eschewing the turn-based systems of the previous "Fallout" games, "Fallout 3" uses the same first-person active combat system of Bethesda's "Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" (2006), from which the game's engine is derived. Fans of first-person shooting games, such as the "Call of Duty" or "Halo" series, will find most of the combat familiar. "Fallout's" RPG heritage is apparent with the stop-time targeting system. At any point in combat, the player can choose to enter into a turn-based combat mode, selecting which body part belonging to which enemy he or she wants to attack. Because it is only advantageous to one side of the combat, this targeting system can become a crutch. If first-person shooting skills are not enough to get out of a tight situation, one can simply stop time and fire four bursts at the head of the nearest enemy without fear of retaliation. The combat system is also heavily biased toward conventional gunplay. Although "Fallout 3" includes melee weapons, grenades, mines and other interesting combat choices, most encounters are clearly designed to be approached with either a pistol or machine gun. Melee weapons are difficult to aim, they cannot target specific parts of the enemy's body, they do less damage than most guns, and they are useless against enemies in elevated perches. Fans of the previous "Fallout" games may find other features missing as well, although each has been traded for a new one. Characters with particularly low intelligence scores are no longer given unique dialogue options, but every line of speech is beautifully voice-acted. The targeting system no longer includes the eyes or crotch, but the slow-motion effects animate the explosions of irradiated limbs. The band of well-armed children is completely invincible, but players can still sell the gullible ones into slavery. These faults are minimal, excusable and predictable. A game as darkly comic as "Fallout" could not be brought into the mainstream without some reservations. Fortunately, its mass-market development has created one of the most compelling and technically complex games available today.
Wealthy families in Renaissance Italy often celebrated marriages with grand processions, including the parading of cassoni, marriage chests that were commissioned to be painted for the occasion. The parades, which led from the bride's house to her new home, were later criticized for their opulence and even banned in Florence in the 1460s. The painted cassoni, however, remained a lasting tradition and testament to the lavish marches, often decorated with scenes of parades, journeys and movement. Now, 15 cassone panels are on display in "Triumph of Marriage," a special exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The Gardner is a house museum, famous for its founder's eccentric display of valuable furniture, artworks and tapestries, left relatively unchanged since the early 1900s in the vibrant setting of a 15th-century Venetian palace. The guest curator of the show is Cristelle Baskins, an associate professor and chair of the art and art history department at Tufts, and this marks her first opportunity to curate an exhibition. The idea came out of a casual question asked by Alan Chong, curator of the collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, as to whether she would be interested in doing a show. That was six years ago, and it wasn't until 2005 that the collaboration between Baskins and Chong began to take shape. When planning an exhibition at a museum, the lead-up to the actual opening tends to be extensive, involving drawing up a loan list, designing the space and getting rights to images for the catalogue — which, in this case, is a full book. Baskins has worked on cassoni, an uncommon subject in Renaissance scholarship, for 25 years. In an interview with the Daily, she called the exhibition a "dream come true," considering the objects' obscurity in the realm of art history. "I could never have anticipated that cassoni would be of interest to the general public," she said. "When I worked on them as a graduate student, I was being discouraged left and right. I kept meeting people in Italy and New York, and they'd say, ‘Why in the world are you working on cassoni? You'll never get a job, you'll never be a success.'" Baskins' work on cassoni has been a bit of a fairy tale itself, as her successes seem to come every 10 years: She wrote her dissertation in 1988, published her first book on cassoni, "Cassone Painting, Humanism and Gender in Early Modern Italy," in 1998, and finally opened this exhibition in 2008. Baskins' success is remarkable, considering furniture paintings are not popular or well-known forms of Renaissance art. "People were really cautioning me that to succeed in the Renaissance, you had to pick a well-known established canonical master, and if I didn't do that I was just going to suffer the consequences," she said. "Well, I'm glad to report that I've done okay." The "Triumph of Marriage" show at the Gardner has unexpectedly found itself to be one in a line of similar exhibitions happening around the world. In 2006-2007, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London did an exhibition called "At Home in Renaissance Italy" which featured everything domestic from clothing and jewelry to furniture painting, including cassoni. This year, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art arranged "Beauty and Duty: The Art and Business of Renaissance Marriage;" later this month, the Metropolitan Museum in New York will open "Art and Love in Renaissance Italy," which will include about 10 cassone paintings; and next February "Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence: The Courtauld Wedding Chests," will open at the Courtauld Gallery in London. As Baskins put it, "The floodgates have opened." This surge of cassone exhibits implies a recent interest in moving away from the lofty objects made by Renaissance "geniuses" — all religious and political masterpieces. In these shows, the Renaissance gets domesticated, and museum visitors get pulled into the bedrooms and living rooms of ordinary Renaissance citizens. The Gardner show seeks to unify the panels according to their moralizing subject matter, revealing many standards and values related to marriage in 15th-century Italy. The title, "Triumph of Marriage," was inspired by a cassone from the Isabella Stewart Gardner collection, painted around 1450 by Francesco Pesellino, which depicts the "Triumphs of Petrarch," featuring images of love, chastity, death, fame, time and eternity. This particular piece reveals a larger theme in cassone paintings that the curators could work with: triumph. "The logic of the show is that there are some allegorical triumphs like Pesellino's Petrarchan triumphs, there are some ancient historical triumphs like all of the Etruscan and Roman triumphant generals, and there are a couple of scenes of contemporary 15th-century triumphs," Baskins explained. Viewers used to seeing canonical Renaissance works must look at cassone paintings with open minds, as they are crammed with detailed narratives and dynamic action that moves along the panel like a linear story. Processional imagery evokes a sense of nostalgia for the spectacle of marriage parades. The eye follows finely costumed figures as they march horizontally across imaginary landscapes, full of mountains and cliffs, towers and distant cities. Baskins often relates cassoni to the "slow food" movement. "Cassoni really demand slowing it all down," she said. "You have to really take your time and piece it out. It seems that they were also really good for their intended context, which would have been a bedroom, so it's something that you're going to see every day, and you don't get tired of them because every time you look, you see something new." She imagines these chests would have been made for a young bride, who would have been attracted first by their storybook charm. The paintings would then remain relevant, however, the familiar tales and images becoming referents throughout the stages of her life. With only 15 panels included and only 15 visitors allowed in the gallery at once, the exhibition facilitates this deep viewing experience, fostering close, gradual readings of the works. Despite the authentic viewing experience, these works are certainly taken out of context in the gallery — originally intended as decorations for furniture, they now hang at eye level on stark walls, defined as paintings, and if a visitor neglected to read the wall text, the mistake of approaching them as wall panels would be unavoidable. The only hint to their larger context of wooden chests is a simple rectangular cube in the center of the room, on which three panels from the same chest are mounted in their original placement. "They didn't want to build a fake cassone in the middle of the room," Baskins explained. "It's almost impossible to borrow a complete cassone. They really got chopped up in the 19th century and sold to dealers, so it's not as though we didn't try to get one." The wall text does instruct visitors to continue upstairs in the museum to see the Gardner's permanent display, which includes intact cassoni in a more context-driven setting. The cassoni's subjects extend into literary contexts, and quotes from Petrarch, Camillus and Apulieus are painted on the walls. One in particular jumps out at viewers: "Even the most excellent painters exercised themselves in such labors, without being ashamed, as many would be today, to paint and gild such chests." The quotation comes from Giorgio Vasari, who in 1550 wrote "Lives of the Artists," a seminal text for biographies of great Italian artists. His quotation about cassoni seems to imply that furniture-painting was a shameful practice, but one must remember that he was writing about a time when decorative arts and fine arts were not distinct practices. Baskins explained, "He's trying to make the case to the Duke of Florence that artists are similar to poets, that they shouldn't have to belong to the guild; that they shouldn't be treated as artisans anymore, they should be treated as special individuals." Along with the exhibition, a fully illustrated catalogue, which Baskins considers the equivalent of a scholarly article, presents new information about cassoni and their uses. Overall, Baskins considers the exhibition a success, and said that the Gardner has reported high attendance numbers. "It's very gratifying that people are going," she said. "It's tremendous fun for me to be there in the gallery being inconspicuous. I see people looking together and they're pointing things out to each other, and I think that's the way it would have been in the 15th century, so I love the re-creation of the viewing experience." Educational programming connected with the show, featuring Baskins, occurs at least twice a week, and this weekend the Gardner will host a scholarly symposium for the exhibition which is free for students and will address the theme of triumph and issues brought up by the show. "The Triumph of Marriage: A Symposium on Renaissance Cassoni," chaired by Baskins, will include keynote lectures on Friday, beginning at 6:30 p.m., and a symposium followed by a reception on Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, visit the Gardner Museum's Web site, www.GardnerMuseum.org.
