Columns

Columns

Soundtrack to the end of the world: If I can’t have good times and bad times in the summer in the city

By Jessica Blough and Tuna Margalit | April 23

I write this on an abnormal day — white builds up in the corners of windows that should be refracting April yellow-red-orange glow —  but I know these days of light and sunroof-down drives with Spotify are near. My weather app says so. The return of the sun will clear the sinuses of snow, as summer hovers on the horizon. Play these songs as you learn to live again. 

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Columns

Anthro Talks: Petro-masculinity

By Keira Myles | April 23

As clean and renewable energy systems pose threats to the fossil fuel capitalist order promised by 1950s America, Proud Boys and other petro-masculine populations feel a sense of powerlessness and have no choice but to perpetuate the authoritarian system of fossil fuel burning to cling to their identities. Petro-masculinity thus presents itself in global fossil rule, or governing that relies on immense fossil fuel consumption materially, through motor culture, and psycho-politically, through social identities like intense red meat consumption.

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Columns

Democracy in The Daily: Russia against the West

By Brendan Hartnett | April 22

Russia’s behavior is nothing new. For the past two decades, Putin has worked to consolidate power by crushing the opposition. Currently, Russian opposition leader Navalny’s health is deteriorating in prison and his doctor stated that he “could die at any moment.” Through state-sponsored terror, Putin and his allies have attacked dissidents and worked to silence a free press. 

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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.

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Columns

In the Paint: Defending the NBA play-in tournament

By Jenny Lu | April 22

I'm not sure where I stand on the play-in tournament's use during this unconventional season, but I think the format is a step in the right direction. The NBA has long been criticized for how predictable it is. There are superstar players and overloaded teams, making the playoffs rather cut and dry. Critics compare the professional league to college basketball and March Madness, citing college-level play as more exciting due to there being more upsets.

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Columns

Tales from the T: Streetcars, an addendum

By Kevin Zhang | April 22

Boston’s streetcars have a fascinating history and legacy that deserve a look in their own right. As congestion and climate change worsens, it may soon be time to ditch our polluting cars and buses, and give streetcars another chance.

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Columns

Comfort Cartoons: Futuristic and teenaged 'Batman Beyond'

By Christopher Panella | April 21

“Batman Beyond” (1999–2001) is a futuristic take on the Dark Knight and another installment in the DC Animated Universe. It’s mainly set in 2039, with Bruce Wayne now an old man, retired from crime-fighting. His rogues' gallery is all but finished, with most villains retired or deceased. This makes way for a new Batman in Neo-Gotham: Terry McGinnis, a teenager. Mentored by Bruce and wearing a fancy Batsuit, Terry is just what the futuristic megalopolis needs.

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Columns

The Strike Zone: 'The Torture Letters' and police brutality

By Eli Striker | April 21

The documentary crafted narrative-based accounts of suffering instead of displaying explicit content, compelling viewers to listen to and center its subjects. “The Torture Letters” makes persuasive ethical claims on its audience because its first-person narration and focus on children’s experiences allow viewers to empathize with victims of police brutality. 

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Columns

Coffee Talk: Revival Cafe

By Casey Cummings | April 21

Finding a time to coerce my friends into eating breakfast with me is already tough, but what makes it even harder is finding a place that has gluten-free and vegetarian options! Generally, my gluten-free friend is left settling for a yogurt parfait — or just a coffee — when we go out for breakfast. Luckily, we realized that Revival Cafe + Kitchen, that small cafe with a mural that we always pass as we drive through Davis Square, has a menu full of fun breakfast sandwiches, gluten-free options and coffee.

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Columns

Building Blocks: Linguistics in education

By Elizabeth Buehl | April 20

In order to bolster full support and ensure the highest levels of success, contributions must be made to the students’ personal and academic lives. Informing and educating immigrant families will help foster a sense of confidence in students and could help cultivate feelings of belonging. In addition, rather than forcing cultural assimilation in schools through a lack of diverse thought and perspectives presented in the classroom, educators and curricula writers must work to ensure that there are an array of learning opportunities available for students of all backgrounds.

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Columns

A Fantastic Voyage: 'Three'

By Drew Weisberg | April 20

We have now arrived at the reason I began this column. "Three” (2011) is, for my money, the best-executed arc in Jonathan Hickman’s "Fantastic Four" epic, as it makes each of its three plot threads into tremendous personal dramas with huge stakes. 

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Columns

The Fast Break: Injuries to consider for the playoffs

By Aiden Herrod | April 16

Like it or not, injuries play a major role in the power balance of the NBA. The super teams of the league know this well. The Lakers and Nets have kept their superstars off the court more often than on it, nursing their injuries to ensure full health by the playoffs. In this COVID-compressed season, injuries have been even more impactful than usual as players take on more games with less rest, a combo that can often lead to devastating outcomes. With that in mind, I’ve highlighted a few of the most impactful recent injury situations to watch as we gear up for the NBA playoffs.

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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.

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Columns

Democracy in The Daily: Democracy and oppression

By Brendan Hartnett | April 15

Democracy doesn’t mean oppression is gone. Democracy isn’t justice. Democracies still experience many of the same systemic issues as authoritarian states; in fact, most are built on it. Few, if any, democracies were founded in an equitable fashion. Few are truly equitable today.

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Columns

Tales from the T: The cooler Green Line

By Kevin Zhang | April 15

The Mattapan trolley, known to its friends as the M Line and to its mother as the Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line, is quite the quirky (insert sparkle emoji) little line. Shuttling between Ashmont and Mattapan, it’s part of the Red Line, but runs streetcars (trolleys) instead of subway trains. And these aren’t the Green Line’s modern streetcars, but PCC streetcars, a revolutionary 1930s-era model whose innovative, reliable engineering made it a mainstay on streetcar lines across the globe. 

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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.

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Columns

3-Point Play: Play-in viability, injury updates and new Timberwolves ownership

By Matt Chen | April 15

As we enter the final month of the NBA’s regular season, the fourth through 10th seeds of the Eastern Conference remain in flux while the league’s elites have established themselves as the teams to beat in this year’s playoffs. However, injuries to key contributors on contenders threaten playoff and championship hopes for many teams, the new play-in tournament has fallen under scrutiny and one team is soon to be under new ownership.

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Columns

Coffee Talk: Dewick MacPhie Dining Center

By Casey Cummings | April 14

In wake of the pandemic, Dewick has undergone some changes. Some of the things I miss the most include the cereal section, the toast and panini bar, the soft serve machine and of course, Sundae Sundays. However, some changes that the dining hall has implemented have been pretty fun. Here are some of my favorite things from Dewick.

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Columns

Long Shot: JJ Redick and ThreeFourTwo Productions

By Samuel Charlton | April 14

Over the past four years or so of running his podcast and interviewing people from NBA stars to presidential candidates, Redick fell in love with podcasting as a creative medium but felt that his endeavors were always somewhat lacking from the business end. He began to realize during the early months of 2020 that he didn’t own the most valuable assets of his show, the concept and the intellectual property behind the show.

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Cartoon

Comfort Cartoons: Secretive and supernatural 'Gravity Falls'

By Christopher Panella | April 14

The detailed storytelling and funny characters of “Gravity Falls” are perfect for audience investment, and the show’s been graced with a dedicated fan base whose members have studied the episodes’ countless clues and teasers. My earliest experience as a fan of “Gravity Falls” came when watching the episode “Summerween.”

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