On Dec. 10, senior Veronica Stewart-Frommer returned to a city and people she calls her home. As the lead singer for Melt and a current Tufts student, Stewart-Frommer and her six bandmates performed past Friday at Brighton Music Hall, a venue packed to see the group on their last leg of their first headlining tour ever.
Content warning: This article discusses human trafficking.
Winter is not just coming, winter is here — well, in its own fluctuating, New England, under global warming and pre-solstice sort of way. The roads are salted, the wind tunnels are biting and my corduroy Uniqlo jacket is decreasing in utility, no matter how many long sleeves I layer underneath.
Mindy Kaling seemingly holds a monopoly on the quirky youthful comedy. With the smash success of “Never Have I Ever” (2020–), Kaling reemerged onto the comedy scene and found new footing. Now she follows up with “The Sex Lives of College Girls” (2021–), an intricate but laugh-inducing tale of four roommates and their exploits. Though maintaining a similar style and tone, “The Sex Lives of College Girls” brings a more nuanced and socially prudent emphasis to Kaling’s comedy. The series is best when it does just that: use light comedy to comment on the broader traumas and fallbacks of the college experience.
10. "Still Over It" (Summer Walker)
I just read an article in GQ in which Lil Uzi Vert talked about his newest alter ego, “AstroCat.” I know Uzi has adopted several egos in the past, and I thought it would be interesting to do a quick enumeration of some of my favorite celebrity alternate personalities.
Content warning: This article discusses abortion and trauma, and mentions sexual harassment.
A story inside a story. Think “The Princess Bride” (1987) or when a rambling friend gets lost in the details of a night recap.
Arguably no one in modern history will be as admired for the amount of creativity and innovation in their art as Virgil Abloh. Illinois-born fashion designer, artistic director, producer and DJ, Virgil Abloh was known and very well respected across all avenues of art. Sadly, Abloh passed away on Sunday, Nov. 28 at the age of 41, losing a hard-fought battle against a rare form of cancer known as cardiac angiosarcoma. He kept the diagnosis private, so his sudden passing came as a shock to many hearing the news of his death.
Tufts University Art Galleries’ exhibition titled “Staying with the Trouble” (2021) inspires its audience to imagine a collaborative and decolonized societal narrative through works of joy, compassion, teamwork and intersectionalityby artists Judy Chicago, Young Joon Kwak, MPA, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Ellen Lesperance, Joiri Minaya, Cauleen Smith, Faith Wilding, Paula Wilson and Carmen Winant with Carol Osmer Newhouse. Coordinated by guest curator Kate McNamara, the exhibit recently ended on Dec. 5, though its timely pieces and message are certainly worth exploring here if you did not get to see it in person.
Christina Tung created the brand SVNR to sell ethically-made pieces of jewelry that each have their own unique stories. Before founding SVNR in 2018 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Tung worked at her PR showroom, House Of. Tung is described as having an “eclectic, globally-influenced style,” which carries through to each handmade jewelry piece and their wide variety of materials.
After multiple delays, complaints and a lengthy legal battle involving its organization’s deceptive name, on Oct. 6, event company Fever finally opened the doors to its newest exhibition. “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” iscurrently on show at Boston’s Strand Theater.
On Nov. 29, rising alternative indie band Winnetka Bowling League performed at Boston’s Brighton Music Hall in an intimate but lively combination of bouncy melodies, cardboard cutouts and deadbeat dad jokes.
Over the pasteight columns, I’ve pondered many memorable shows, exploring what works and what doesn’t, which characters are interesting and which aren’t and why I — or you — should even care. Reflecting back, I’ve identified key criteria for evaluating what makes a show both subjectively and objectively ‘good,’ in no particular order:
The School of the Museum of Fine Arts is more racially diverse than the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering, but white students still make up the plurality of those enrolled. The Artists of Color Union (ACU) at the SMFA seeks to center the experiences of artists of color at the SMFA and at Tufts, and provides a space for artists to connect with and support one another.
Tufts has no shortage of quirky acronyms for quirky student groups, between TUSC (Tufts University Social Collective), SUCC (Stand-up Comedy Collective), TDC (Tufts Dance Collective), TMC (Tufts Mountain Club) and many more. What better name, then, for Tufts’ only street percussion group than BEATs (Bangin’ Everything At Tufts).
In the Aidekman Arts Center, the Tufts University Art Galleries present art with poignant stories, carefully curated by members of the Tufts community. Each exhibit showcases the current passions that the art world at Tufts wishes to share with a greater audience.
While I typically use this space to write about Korean songs and artists that I think everyone should be listening to, today’s column will center Tufts' very own K-pop dance association cover group, while recognizing the community it has built.
Sean Baker, king of the beautifully mundane, returns to the silver screen following his hit "The Florida Project" (2017) with "Red Rocket" (2021), a raunchy, fun, balls-to-the-wall joyride on a one-speed bike. It tells the tale of porn star Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) as he returns to his old hometown and reunites with his ex and her mom following a stint of hard times (or, as Variety more aptly puts it, limp times.) As he tries to look for work, an effort thwarted by his narcissistic tendencies, he meets 17-year-old Raylee “Strawberry,” and he falls head-over-heels on a mission to use her as a way to get back to his life of acclaim. The film becomes an odd sort of character study which examines an unlikeable narcissist who, while obnoxious and off-putting, begs you (over and over) to love him.
Rest peacefully, Virgil Abloh. I was never his greatest fan, but I certainly could not ignore the impact he had on both hip hop and fashion. Founding Off-White (originally called “PYREX VISION”) and eventually joining Louis Vuitton as its men's artistic director, Abloh was a pure creative — he was an artist as much as a designer. In fact, Abloh designed over a dozen album covers in his career. He was someone whose talents were not confined to one genre. No matter what medium, Abloh was always for the culture.
