It is hard to think of a more iconic Met Gala than 2018’s “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” So, let’s get into it, starting with Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Breaker of Chains and the Mother of Dragons, also known as actress Emilia Clarke.
Taylor Swift is a mastermind; she said it herself. The effortless sonic transitions from country to pop to alternative records cement the songstress as an unwavering force in the music industry. A country legend who ushered in a new era of crossover country-pop. A pop titan who invigorated the 2010s mainstream scene. An unlikely, but welcomed, alternative experimenter who comforted the masses with quarantine albums to cling to. The groundwork was laid, and it was only a matter of time before Swift returned with her latest effort. With her milestone 10th studio album “Midnights” (2022), Swift returns to her most successful battleground: pop music.
Hidden in Louisiana’s bayous resides a serial killer whose shifting MO (modus operandi) has stumped investigators. Dr. Wren Muller, the local forensic pathologist, provides her own insights as the mystery unravels. As it becomes clear that Dr. Muller’s path has crossed the Bayou Butcher previously, time begins to run out, and she joins the detectives on the case in a race against the butcher before more people can be sadistically murdered.
Content warning: This column discusses suicide.
Over the course of a career that has spanned nearly 25 years, Tegan and Sara have been through a lot, and their latest album “Crybaby” (2022) shows it. The Canadian indie pop duo released their first album, “Under Feet Like Ours” (1999), when they were a mere 18 years old. Since then, they’ve put out another nine albums, most recently “Crybaby” on Oct. 21. Over those decades, they’ve evolved from an Alanis Morissette-esque angsty pop-rock sound — “If It Was You” (2002) and “So Jealous” (2004) — to a more mature, poppish tone with “Heartthrob” (2013) and “Love You to Death” (2016). Their musical journey has been analogous with their journey of growing up out of high school adolescence and into adulthood, and now, having just celebrated their 42nd birthdays last month, they’re showing the most mature versions of themselves yet on “Crybaby.”
You guys, there’s drama. Not naming names, but one member of our duo tried to poison Cole. It wasn’t Ellie, we swear.
On July 22, 2022, a five-member girl group called NewJeans debuted under All Doors One Room, a HYBE label. It quickly cemented itself as a competing group in the world of K-pop with its unique debut style and ear-catching music, breaking several records such as having the best-selling girl group debut album on the Hanteo charts.The girls have also been nominated for a few Mnet Asian Music Awards, including Best New Female Artist and Artist of the Year.
Meghan Trainor announced her latest album, “Takin’ It Back” (2022), in June with social media posts featuring the album’s bold, neon cover. The full album was released on Oct. 21, and in typical Meghan Trainor fashion, this album combines catchy lyrics, pop beats and recurring themes of self-love.
My first introduction to “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” (2017) was a 15-second TikTok book review. I then saw the cover of the novel, depicting Evelyn Hugo adorned in pearls and a dark green satin dress draped over her body, on every social media platform that I had downloaded on my phone. Despite the far-reaching publicity of this book and every one of my friends who also read this masterpiece telling me that I simply must have known, it was not until the moment Evelyn kissed Celia St. James that I realized this story was about queer romance.
The theater world was recently rocked by the news that Broadway’s longest running show, “The Phantom of the Opera” (1986), is closing in February 2023, 35 years after it opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre. An iconic fixture of Broadway since 1988, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom” is struggling to sell enough tickets to offset its weekly costs. It’s the latest and most high-profile show to announce its closure during the pandemic as audiences have been slow to return to theaters.
Last week the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s program consisted entirely of Mahler’s “Symphony No. 6” (1906), a monumental work that literally ends with three massive hammer hits, which, for Mahler, were meant to represent three blows of fate. For newcomers to classical music, no, a hammer is not normally an instrument, but in Mahler’s world of course it is. And we’re not talking about a tiny hammer that might hit a chime. We’re talking about a hammer that could break a door down crashing into a wooden block the size of a table. And whoever said classical music was boring?!?!
“Hay un ruido que no logro, que nunca he logrado identificar: un ruido que no es humano o es más que humano.” (“There is a noise that I cannot, that I have never been able to identify: a noise that is neither human nor more than human.”)
“They say you play this venue twice in your life: once on the way up and once on the way down. Well, it’s good to be back,” Declan McKenna quipped at the start of his set at The Sinclair on Oct. 11. The joke was clear to the audience as McKenna’s career has only been on the rise, and this show made it obvious why.
Tess Sharpe’s “Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did)” (2023) is a poignant and expertly-plotted young adult contemporary romance novel releasing next year from publisher Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
Good morning, Your Honor. We’re now calling the case of Lester v. Reese. Today we’ll be having a hearing on the matter of chowder; are both parties present and ready to proceed?
Let’s talk about CocaNButter.
Inspired by Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on ‘Camp,’” the 2019 Met Gala theme was “Camp: Notes on Fashion,” with a dress code of “studied triviality.” The night was defined by eccentric, extravagant clothes featuring bold, bright colors and often highlighted by sparkling jewels or fabrics. Definitely one of the most memorable Met Galas of recent years, “Camp: Notes on Fashion” was a fabulous night of striking outfits.
There has been considerable buzz around “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” (2022) on Netflix, created by Ryan Murphy, who is known for his creepy and stylistic anthologies like “American Horror Story” (2011–) and “American Crime Story” (2016–) as well as the less chilling but equally unconventional hit show “Glee” (2009–2015). Dahmer stars Evan Peters, a usual suspect in Murphy’s shows, appearing frequently as main characters in seasons of “American Horror Story.”
Many of us would say that nothing necessarily good came out of the ‘70s. Yet it was the peak of the gay liberation movement and the cultural changes that took place following the 1969 Stonewall Riots prevailed nationwide. This period — though dominated by homophobia, violence and death — was the conception of queer pop culture. Although transformative, the new cultural emergence during this decade remained primarily underground. It remained frowned upon to embrace queerness and queer expression, so how did “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975) teach entire generations to celebrate queer culture and drag history?
In my column, I’ve talked about the importance of performing non-canonical classical works and including modern and contemporary voices. While I stand by that position, I also acknowledge my bias towards non-diatonic modernist tonalities. After all, my favorite composers to listen to are John Adams and Gustav Mahler, not Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. And while I’ve argued for orchestras to move beyond the meritocracy, I want to also stress that this should not be achieved with destruction. There is beauty that must be preserved within the canon. It would be a disservice to let Mozart fall into obscurity in the interest of progressive sounds, which I was made acutely aware of at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Oct. 14 Casual Friday performance.
