The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, beginning Feb. 2, have officially kicked off with each country parading through the “Bird’s Nest” for the opening ceremony. In addition to the opening ceremony allowing each home country to share its history and culture, it is also a large fashion show, showcasing uniforms that exemplify the culture and pride of each country.
This week we went to Nijiya Sushi in Medford Square, and we had a lot to celebrate: a birthday and a girl both gorgeous and COVID-free.
For about five years, curators Abigail Satinsky and Erina Duganne have worked on the new Tufts University Art Gallery “Art For the Future: Artists Call and Central American Solidarities,” which opened Jan. 20 on the Boston and Medford campuses.
I have always loved that moment when the lights go down in a movie theater. Whether you’re watching a summer blockbuster with friends, laughing and sharing popcorn or absorbing the newest avant-garde French feature straight from Cannes, moviegoing transports you into another place, another life, another mind. I’ve spent my life captivated by the art, from begging my grandma to let me watch Tim Burton’s vampire flick at nine years old to memorizing the "Teen Beach Movie" (2013) soundtrack as a tween to watching "Parasite" (2019) every day for a week straight during quarantine. I am a political science major because of Armando Iannucci, and I don’t know how much of my personality developed naturally and how much I stole from "Megamind" (2010). The art of film and television is beautiful, fascinating and complex, and every time I watch a new favorite movie, it feels like the director is peeling back the layers of my heart.
Content warning: This article discusses drug addiction.
If there is one defining trait of the 2010s, it is good television. The 2010s was an iconic era for teen television dramas. From “Gossip Girl” (2007–2012) to “The Vampire Diaries” (2009–2017), the world was unable to look away from some of the most memorable moments in teen drama to date. Whether you were watching “The Fosters” (2013–2018) and wondering what trouble Callie was going to get herself into that season, or “Glee” (2009–2015) and trying to guess which pop song the New Directions were going to cover, there was never a dull moment in teen television dramas. Although one could argue that any of these shows was the “best” or “greatest,” one show stands out among the rest — "Pretty Little Liars" (2010–2017).
With the rise of globalization and advanced textile capacity, fashion has begun to disseminate at rates reducing the seasonal trend cycle to monthly or even weekly micro-trends. The style forecast of these micro-trends follows a simple cycle: a style is seemingly plastered everywhere on social media by early adopters and, a week later, becomes tacky before ever reaching the mainstream.
Mostly absent from the mainstream,Mitski has rarely resurfaced since the viral success of her previous LP "Be the Cowboy" (2018). However, on her latest Feb. 4 release "Laurel Hell" (2022), Mitski unleashes the darkness with the use of synths, grandiose instrumental builds and razor-thin lyricism. As is evident with the album's lead single"Working for the Knife,"Mitski feels the weight of being yet another cog in the machine of the American workforce. As she realizes the world will move on with or without her, Mitski laments, "I just didn't know it would go without me." Existentialism is in abundance on Mitski's sixth studio album with themes centering on the purpose of being and the challenge of pushing societal boundaries.
In an Instagram post last Thursday, the day before the drop of Saba’s third studio album “Few Good Things” (2022), the Chicago rapper left some instructions and notes for his fans and critics to observe and ponder before the material was released. Perhaps most notably, a request for the media: “I challenge you not to use headlines that you’ve read about the friends that I lost to invent storylines that aren’t there. I am more than my trauma and I offer more than those stories.”
Last semester I made it a habit to write about K-Music which was at least a year old. I originally set out to cover larger K-hits to add to your playlist, but as the semester went on I realized that first, I should start introducing older music that still feels new. Today, however, I will be opening your eyes to a girl group just over two months old.
“Pokémon Legends: Arceus”(2022) is the most distinctive and fulfilling Pokémon game to be released in about a decade. Selling over 6.5 million copies in the first week, the game has been met with positive reception from both fans and critics due to its engaging story and its long overdue revamp in mechanics and structure.
The British Invasion hit America by storm in the '60s, and even in the 21st century Vanessa Kirby is yet another byproduct of that cultural revolution. Kirby, who found her fame initially on the stage, is experiencing a recent career boom in the worlds of film and television. You likely know Kirby from her performance as Princess Margaret in the hit Netflix show “The Crown” (2016–). 2020 brought a double feature for Kirby, with artistic masterpieces “The World to Come” (2020) and “Pieces of a Woman” (2020) premiering, the latter of which garnered her an Academy Award nomination. Kirby hits the scene yet again with her leading performance in “Italian Studies” (2021). A savant of acting, Kirby exemplifies just what it means to give a powerful performance.
This is a column about soup: what it tastes like, what it does to you. What it makes you dream and think about. The kind of soup you’ll tell your children about at the dinner table. For our sake and yours, we hope it's also a column about good soup. Unfortunately, not all soups are good, just like life or our Tinder dates. Well, usually most Tinder dates are bad. Whatever.
On the cold, wet night of Feb. 4, the Boston Museum of Science hosted “The Beyoncé Experience” in the Charles Hayden Planetarium. According to the museum’s website, the show “redefines nightlife in Boston” and “engages audiences in a sensory journey full of innovation, artistry, and imagination.”
The Boston leg of Kacey Musgraves' "star-crossed: unveiled" tour went off without a hitch as soon as Musgraves took center-stage at TD Garden on Jan. 27.With Muna and King Princess as opening acts, the bar was set high for Musgraves. Muna's opening set included well-known hits such as "Stayaway" (2019) and "Silk Chiffon" (2021). Katie Gavin, the lead singer of the act, performed phenomenally, often vocally outdoing the studio version of tracks. Soon to follow was King Princess. Equally captivating, King Princess also performed their greatest hits including "Talia" (2018) and "1950" (2018) as well as unreleased tracks from their upcoming album, such as "For My Friends" and "Let Us Die."
Netflix has taken some pretty big swings and invested in a pretty wide variety of genres and subcultures. Still, the streaming service recently released content in a fairly new and ultimately consequential dimension: self-satire.Last week brought the release of “The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window” (2022), a television series farce commenting on trends in modern film. The show mocks the deeply oversaturated market for psychological thrillers surrounding white women in the suburbs who drink wine and solve crimes. The genre attempts to subvert convention: How could such twisted, heinous crimes happen in such pristine, wealthy suburbs? Though the show may be entirely too long and often disengaging, its existence in and of itself asks the broader question of origin: How did this happen? A market has to be so deeply full, so noticeably overplayed, that a big corporation like Netflix is able to mock its own role within it. In discussing more deeply the market play-by-play of this genre, one may more deeply understand the process of filmmaking and the economic feedback loops fueling it.
As a celebration of Lunar New Year,Italian luxury fashion house Bottega Veneta covered part of the Great Wall of China in a digital installation of their brand name and the Mandarin New Year's greeting, “新春快乐.”The brand paired their signature green with the lucky color of the new year: a tiger orange. Along with this art installment, the brand has pledged a donation to the maintenance and reconstruction of the segment of the wall titled the “First Pass Under Heaven.”
The new ABC mockumentary-comedy show, "Abbott Elementary" (2021–), has been shooting to the top of everyone’s watchlist this winter and making waves in on-screen representation. The show follows a group of educators at Abbott Elementary, an underfunded public school in Philadelphia based on the realities of the American public educational system. The show is shot in the same style as the American "The Office" (2005–2013), with the educators being the center of an in-universe docuseries following their careers and lives.
It is a rare sight to see a young artist brought to tears on stage and say, “this is one of the greatest nights of my life,” and to truly believe her. Samiasold out the Paradise Rock Club in Boston on Jan. 25. The musical lovechild of Phoebe Bridgers and Taylor Swift (with a hint of Mazzy Star), Samia’s unusual and charming performance proves her promise as a new talent.
It’s the end of Oscars season, meaning it’s time to predict which pretentious movies from 2021 that few people watched will win the coveted awards. The official nominations are scheduled to be announced on Feb. 8, but here’s a list of what to look for in the big five categories: picture, director, screenplay, actor and actress.
