Opinion | Column

Column

The Journey: Imposter syndrome

By Elizabeth Buehl | October 4

Today was my first day back in in-person classes. After grabbing a mid-morning iced coffee at The Sink, I sat down in a big, comfortable blue armchair in the Mayer Campus Center. As I bent back the pages of Edith Wharton’s “The Age of Innocence” (1920), I was transported to 19th-century New York City. Despite my fascination with her commentary on the complex inner workings of the city’s upper echelon, I couldn’t help but notice a tour group out of the corner of my eye. The spirited guide took a big step up onto a bench, and I had a moment of realization: I really am a Tufts student.

---

Column

The Strike Zone: Music and identity in Israel and Palestine

By Eli Striker | September 30

During the formation of Israel, aspects of two distinct cultural groups — European Ashkenazi Jewish people and Arabic Mizrahi Jewish people — were fused to form a shared national identity within the supposed Jewish homeland. However, Israeli society remains hierarchical; many Ashkenazi Jewish Israeli individuals have long suppressed both Mizrahi Jewish individuals and Palestinians, who claim indigeneity over much of Israel but have long been confined to the margins of Israeli society by the government.

---

Column

A Better Consensus: The importance of civic education

By Jacob Fridman | September 29

Everyone has suggestions for how national politics should be run, but with my background in independent journalism, civic education and opinion and interview podcasting, I have the experience of explaining complex topics, starting conversations, and promoting new ideas. This is “A Better Consensus.”

---

Column

The Journey: An introduction

By Elizabeth Buehl | September 28

In a world with hurricanes of Herculean force, pandemics that have jolted the globe and politics arguably more divisive than ever before, we as global citizens are forced to tackle life in our own unique way. Along each of our individual journeys we are accompanied by vastly different sets of environmental factors creating a society that lights up each of our senses, with no two people absorbing sights, sounds and smells in exactly the same way. When facing the respective adversities that life sends us, it is quite simple to get lost in the big picture, stuck in the clouds. Yet, what if we were to take just a moment to get lost in the minutia, immersed in the details that create the diversity that colors our landscape’s vibrant hues?

---

Column

On Demand: An ode to 'Halt and Catch Fire' and the glory of new beginning

By Raga Chilakamarri | September 28

Wishing my life was a TV show has the same energy as romanticizing trips to Costco and pretending The Sink baristas are the archetypal “popular kids.” Although I don’t need it, I just want an excuse to battle through song ("Glee," (2009–15)) and speak in an Irish accent ("Derry Girls," (2018–)) and drink coffee for lunch ("Gilmore Girls," (2000–07)). Instead, this column is my chance to ramble, uninterrupted, about TV shows I love and to imagine myself as the Athena to Ryan Murphy’s Zeus (i.e. a screenwriter’s brainchild).

---

Column

Beyond the Underneath: Starting from an empty dance floor

By Ramona Meng Xi | May 7

A DJ once told me that mixing techno or house during a set is easier than mixing pop or hip-hop songs due to the similarity in beats and repetition, as well as the anti-teleological nature and layering characteristics of house and techno tracks. The difficult part is how to perfectly master the grand rhythm of buildups and drops in order to keep the audience hooked to the evolving repetitions. If the whole night of music is graphed in terms of its excitement, then it should look like a flow of slowly ascending waves.

---

---

Column

Soundtrack to the end of the world: A world post-pandemic, Part 2

By Christopher Panella, Jessica Blough, Stephanie Hoechst and Tuna Margalit | May 5

For this last column, I asked my friends to share a bit of what they’re looking forward to as a post-pandemic world starts to come into focus. They sent me songs of rumination, rest and, most of all, celebration. This is part 2; part 1 is available at tuftsdaily.com.

---

Column

Hot Take: ‘Barry’ is the new ‘Breaking Bad’

By Derin Savasan | April 26

It’s equally hilarious, terrifying and heartbreaking, which is a rare (and difficult) combo to achieve. And considering the fact that it’s about a hit man, it has some of the wildest cold opens that I’ve ever seen on TV. These cold opens do not only set the tone for how each episode will play out, but also point out the ridiculous nature of it all — that we’re essentially rooting for a hired killer to succeed, find love and be happy. The concept is ridiculous, but when it takes place in a world that's as ridiculous to the characters as it is to us, you find yourself in the unique position of relating to a hit man.

---

Column

Beyond the Underneath: Vinyl survival, Part 2

By Ramona Meng Xi | April 22

What I like about vinyl stores is that I need to be prepared to handle the disappointment of failing to find the record I want, but at the same time, I never know what I will discover by sheer chance. The burst of joy after flipping through arrays of vinyl and all of a sudden spotting a favorite album or a non-mainstream artist can light up my day.

---

Column

Soundtrack to the End of the World: The best storytellers in hip-hop

By Jessica Blough and Alex Viveros | April 16

When Jess asked me to write for this column this week, I realized something that I hadn’t before; a large number of my friends, even those I’ve been tight with for a lot of my college life, don’t know what my music taste is. The truth is, I usually keep my favorite songs private because I think they’re best appreciated in moments alone. I like to reserve my music for late-night walks back home from the Daily office, or long nighttime drives in California.

---

Column

A Fantastic Voyage: 'The Future Foundation'

By Drew Weisberg | April 15

The story opens with Reed Richards speaking at a “TED Talk” analog at “Singularity 2010,” which seems to be going well until Reed seems to go off-script. He begins to berate his fellow scientists, proclaiming, “You fear tomorrow.” As such, Reed decides to form the eponymous “Future Foundation”: a collection of young and brilliant minds from around the Marvel universe to solve the problems of the "tomorrow" that his colleagues supposedly fear.

---

Column

Beyond the Underneath: Vinyl survival, Part 1

By Ramona Meng Xi | April 8

Despite a vinyl revival in recent years, classic vinyl records are still deemed obsolete in the mainstream, as modern technologies and the digital world sift them out. But they are still there, lining up quietly and unyieldingly, in boxes organized by genre, protected and loved by a small population of firm supporters. 

---

Column

A Fantastic Voyage: ‘Fantastic Four’ #575–578 or 'The City Saga'

By Drew Weisberg | April 6

"The City Saga" really is a breath of fresh air for a superhero comic, allowing for moments of calm reflection and study. The climate feels less like our heroes are spoiling for a fight; rather they’re acting as anthropologists attempting to understand a unique pocket of their strange and wondrous world.

---

Column

Hot Take: 'Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood' should've won Best Picture

By Derin Savasan | April 5

This is where "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" comes in. Was it the most critically acclaimed film of the year? No. A lot of people liked the film, but not as much as other nominees. But like I said, universal likeability doesn’t matter here because, at the end of the day, it’s Hollywood people who get to pick the winner — not average Joes. Considering that the title of this movie has “Hollywood” in it, I was pretty confident that it would take home the Oscar.

---

Column

Hot Take: Seth Cohen was the true protagonist of ‘The O.C.’

By Derin Savasan | March 31

I revisited the show during my one-day spring break (thanks, Tufts!) by binging all four seasons of it on Hulu. Needless to say, I have a few questions, the biggest of which is: Who was the true protagonist of the show? And after many years of beating around the bush, I’ve come to decide that it’s Seth Cohen — contrary to popular belief. 

---

Column

Beyond the Underneath: Some thoughts on being a video jockey

By Ramona Meng Xi | March 25

VJs are visual artists who create and improvise videos for performances and live music events. My VJ project was abandoned, but I started to pay more attention to visuals during music events. Some of them were sublime in terms of design, composition, meaning and even beat-matching; some of them raised questions in my head. 

---

Column

Tuff Talks: Food

By Jenny Lu | March 22

Dear J: I know the dining hall workers work very hard but I just can’t bring myself to enjoy the food at Tufts. What can I do? Tufts has to cater to thousands of students, so sometimes that just means that the food has to be simple and inoffensive. I don’t know what year you’re in, but as I’ll be a sophomore next year, I am looking forward to cooking more if I’m able to score an apartment-style dorm with a kitchen.

---

Column

Soundtrack to the end of the world: Psychedelic pseudonyms

By Jessica Blough and Kristina Marchand | March 19

When asked about my music taste, whether during an awkward first date or during pre-orientation duck, duck, goose, my answer was always the same — “Anything but country, really.” But through the haze of the last year (carrying my clothes in trash bags and dozens of pies out of Latin Way), I found my music taste through much trial and error, not understanding what I liked, and chasing the goosebumps. So now, when asked what music I like listening to, I answer, “weird … psychedelic … funky.” I like my music to not sound normal, to put you on edge as much as it soothes you.  

---

Column

Beyond the Underneath: A world in the bomb shelter

By Ramona Meng Xi | March 18

The place is also much bigger than I imagined. It's not just a single room but almost a maze. The hallway connects several rooms together. From roaming in and out of rooms, looking at the style of the arches and the bricks on the wall, I was drawn to its structure. It's like a part of a bigger picture.

---

Column

Hot Take: ‘Saturday Night Live’ isn’t funny anymore

By Derin Savasan | March 15

I’m not going to talk more about the golden age of SNL. I wasn’t born until 2002, so it’s not my area of knowledge. What I can do is talk about SNL's "silver age," led by people like Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Rachel Dratch, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

---