Critic’s Pick – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Wed, 07 Jun 2023 22:15:45 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Critic’s Pick – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Re:SET day 1: Off to a bang with LCD, Idles, Jamie xx and more https://stanforddaily.com/2023/06/06/reset-day-1-off-to-a-bang-with-lcd-idles-jamie-xx-and-more/ https://stanforddaily.com/2023/06/06/reset-day-1-off-to-a-bang-with-lcd-idles-jamie-xx-and-more/#respond Tue, 06 Jun 2023 07:27:57 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1229822 On Friday, Frost Amphitheater hosted punk band LCD Soundsystem among other artists for the Re:SET music festival. The event was a beautiful night which prioritized both the artists performing and the dedicated fans listening, writes Brandon Rupp.

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On Friday, legendary dance-punk band LCD Soundsystem came to Stanford for the very first day of the inaugural concert series Re:SET alongside Big Freedia, Idles and Jamie xx. Leaving Frost Amphitheater clutching my press pass in one hand and a concert setlist in the other, I realized that day would go down as an especially fantastic moment for music fans all around the Bay Area.

With the band displaying its knack for blood-pumping instrumentation (and frontman James Murphy’s brilliant songwriting), I can confidently say this was one of the best concerts I have ever attended.

Re:SET is a brand new outdoor concert series by AEG Presents which sees established artists performing in the same venues across the country (from Stanford to New Orleans to Queens) for the next few weekends. It’s quite an innovative model: essentially, LCD Soundsystem, Steve Lacy and boygenius are moving together from region to region triangularly performing throughout the month of June. The same day that LCD played Stanford, Lacy was in Los Angeles and boygenius in San Diego.

According to AEG Presents senior vice president Rich Holtzman, the Re:SET shows were specifically designed as “smaller, curated bills with one stage [and] space in between the bands to hang with friends.” To me, these are all welcome changes to the stale and overblown nature of most festival lineups — already a good sign.

This new blueprint for the modern music festival isn’t without fault. Here’s a strange aspect of Re:SET: performances began at 4:00 p.m. I ended up missing the first act, Big Freedia — the Queen of Bounce — even after rushing over from afternoon classes. Considering the hectic life of Stanford students and other concertgoers, it’s no wonder that Frost was still sparse when I got there.

I entered the pit as British punk band Idles performed the first song of its set, the (fittingly) colossal “Colossus.” Featuring snarling vocals from the energetic Joe Talbot and a driving rhythm section, the track was as intense as it was impassioned. Talbot’s face would often turn beet red, with thick veins protruding from his face as he screamed diatribes. Like the fantastic parent album for “Colossus” (“Joy As An Act of Resistance”), Idles’ performance was centered around vulnerability and sincerity.

The band isn’t afraid to wear their politics on their sleeve (as is the case with plenty of punk groups). Talbot prefaced the catchy punk shout-along “Danny Nedelko” by talking about his unequivocal support for immigrants around the world. His message made sense in the context of the song’s simple-yet-effective chorus lyrics: “He’s made of bones / He’s made of blood / He’s made of flesh / He’s made of love / He’s made of you / He’s made of me / Unity! / Fear leads to panic / Panic leads to pain / Pain leads to anger / Anger leads to hate.”

The close-up shot of a singer in a red dress. He sings passionately and points to the audience, who all have their hands up in the air.
Featuring snarling vocals and a driving rhythm section, British punk band IDLES’ performance was as intense as it was impassioned. (Photo: ANANYA NAVALE/The Stanford Daily)

Overall, Idles set my expectations incredibly high for the rest of the concert: this was the biggest barn burner I had ever seen at Frost, turning the audience into a group of punk rockers for an hour.

By the time Jamie xx came on stage, I had made my way to the railing, placing myself in the front middle of the first row. A massive disco ball descended from the middle of the stage as Jamie, a member of the English indie pop band The xx, came on stage in a modest black t-shirt and striped pants. If I hadn’t recognized his face and shaggy hair, he could’ve easily been mistaken for a roadie. 

As soon as he got behind his gear, his artistry was unmistakable: Jamie effortlessly cycled through dozens of grooves, a handful of electronic genres and probably thousands of sounds. He quickly established his rich, varied sound palette with an opening collection of tracks that flowed into each other. Electronic genres like future garage, chipmunk soul and U.K. bass were all present in his set, sparking bouts of euphoric dance among the bouncy crowd. Everyone around me looked to be in a stupor induced by music (and, let’s be honest, drugs).

An artist played on a large keyboard. In the background is a large silver disco ball.
Jamie xx played behind a massive disco ball in modest attire. (Photo: ANANYA NAVALE/The Stanford Daily)

As the sun went down, it was finally time for the main event: the quintessentially New York band LCD Soundsystem. They began performing at 8:15 p.m., starting with the classic “Get Innocuous” from the album “Sound of Silver.” The rhythm section’s relentless groove and Murphy’s Bowie-esque vocal performance made for a perfect introduction to the unmatched magic of the group’s sound. 

I can’t imagine how much all of their equipment must have cost. Analog synthesizers, the instruments of the four-piece rock band, assorted percussion (including a fun vibraslap and bongos) and amplifiers cluttered every corner of the stage. In fact, the amount of equipment around the band forced the musicians to scrunch together in the middle of the stage, surrounded by walls of amplifiers and storage trunks.

LCD played a varied setlist that would please general concertgoers and hardcore fans (like me) just the same. It was nice to see them bring out the underappreciated “Home” and “You Wanted A Hit” from their masterpiece album “This is Happening.” At the same time, I loved hearing their recent single “New Body Rhumba” (from Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise” movie) and the classic “Daft Punk is Playing in My House” — though it was not hard to notice that the former is a skilled rewrite of the latter.

However, it was the closing three songs that sealed the deal for me. “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down,” “Dance Yrself Clean” and “All My Friends” were simply the best live performances I had seen all year. The Broadway melodrama of “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” was especially effective; the band turned one of their most cathartic pieces into a transcendent concert experience, complete with synchronized flashing lights and furious cymbal crashes. 

The neurotic “Dance Yrself Clean” is perhaps the band’s signature song, featuring their greatest drop. In fact, each time the drop’s piercing drum fill and bouncy synth cut through the mix, the crowd went absolutely wild. The performance of this track also served as a showcase of the band’s maximalist visual presentation. There were massive flashes of blue and red light each time the chorus hit, and, due to the band’s physical closeness on stage, it felt like a party.

James Murphy is seen singing with a microphone on stage at Frost Amphitheater.
James Murphy is the energetic frontman of legendary band LCD Soundsystem. (Photo: BRANDON RUPP/The Stanford Daily)

But “All My Friends” is the peak of both their discography and the first day of Re:SET. The song features a beautiful looped piano line indebted, strangely enough, to contemporary classical à la Phillip Glass — but the underlying dance groove is relentless. 

The lyrics are utterly poetic. In recounting a nostalgic party, lead singer Murphy says, “And so it starts / You switch the engine on / We set controls for the heart of the sun / One of the ways that we show our age,” throwing in a Pink Floyd reference on top of a perfect description of the bittersweet naïvety of adolescence. Suffice it to say that, as an accumulation of nearly seven hours of performance, “All My Friends” effortlessly stuck the landing. 

Re:SET may be a new event, but I certainly hope this isn’t its only festival season. It was a beautiful night that prioritized both the artists performing and the dedicated fans listening. When James Murphy crooned “And to tell the truth / Oh, this could be the last time / So here we go” at the end of “All My Friends,” a sense of artistic immediacy became palpable in the crowd. Everyone couldn’t help but feel it.

Editor’s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.

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TheatreWorks’ “Little Shop” highlights new horrors of gentrification in San Francisco’s Chinatown https://stanforddaily.com/2022/12/06/theatreworks-little-shop-highlights-new-horrors-of-gentrification-in-san-franciscos-chinatown/ https://stanforddaily.com/2022/12/06/theatreworks-little-shop-highlights-new-horrors-of-gentrification-in-san-franciscos-chinatown/#respond Wed, 07 Dec 2022 05:52:02 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1215846 TheaterWorks Silicon Valley's production of "Little Shop of Horrors" adapted the musical to a contemporary context of San Francisco's Chinatown, inspiring new reflections on race and gentrification.

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When looking for a musical to enjoy during the holiday season, a dark, doo-wop-styled comedy based on a man-eating plant might not be the first thing that comes to mind. But TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s performance of “Little Shop of Horrors,” set in San Francisco’s Chinatown, is a must-watch that leaves one pondering societal issues, reflections especially pertinent during this supposed time of joy.

The show started with a doo-wop trio (Naima Akakham, Alia Hodge and Lucca Troutman) in sequined dresses and matching vibrant heels, serving as the show’s Greek chorus and introducing the audience to the setting. The story follows meek florist Seymour (Phil Wong) who works in an unsuccessful flower shop run by Mr. Mushnik (Lawrence-Michael C. Arias). Wanting to save coworker Audrey (Sumi Yu) from her sadist boyfriend Orin (Nick Nakashima), Seymour cultivates a human-eating plant, creatively named Audrey II (voiced by Katrina Lauren McGraw and manipulated by Brandon Leland), he must decide what he will risk for fame and fortune.

The novelty of this performance was the resetting of the location, which was changed from New York’s Skid Row to San Francisco’s Chinatown. Although the script and lyrics remained identical to the original, the leading actors were all Asian-American while the singing trio were all Black. The focus of the show shifted correspondingly from a poor white area in the 1960s to a modern day Chinatown plagued with gentrification, whose residents fought to maintain its cultural identity.

The production quality of “Little Shop” was top-notch from the start. The set was incredibly detailed and mobile: a rotating turntable set of the flower shop showcased both the interior and exterior of the store. Behind it, the facade of a Chinatown building with shirts and roasted ducks dangling from windows immersed the audience in the cultural and geographical setting. The props too, were exceptional: the show used puppets designed by Matthew McAvene Creations to represent Audrey II, a plant that moved in life-like ways. The colorful, contemporary costumes were designed by Fukimo Bielefeldt. Bielefeldt got her start in costume design when taking a class at Stanford, where her husband was teaching.

The audience was warned before the show of potential lighting difficulties, but aside from a few moments where mics cut out, everything ran smoothly.

Aside from the casting and set, small changes in blocking and props accentuated the culture. In the opening scene, Mushnik sat behind a large newspaper and nibbled from a Chinese food takeout container. The same dance number includes a broomstick variation of tinikling, a Filipino style of dance in which performers jump over wooden poles.

With elements such as the absurdity of a talking plant, a sadist’s dream career as a dentist and ridiculous members of the press, “Little Shop’s” humor is known for being overly theatrical. TheaterWorks’ show had spectacular deliveries of the music and dances despite the plot being odd and not incredibly deep. The screenplay itself is not incredibly compelling: the love story between Seymour and Audrey isn’t convincing, and the tragedies aren’t heart-wrenching. Still, the show was fun, wacky, energetic and amusing. It made the subtle question about the changing identity of Chinatown feel accessible to a diverse audience.

If you’re looking for a performance that explores Asian-American cultural identity with elements of the supernatural, “Little Shop of Horrors” could be the perfect show for you this holiday season.

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s “Little Shop of Horrors” will be playing at Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto from November 30th through December 24.

Editor’s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.

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Spooky reads for Halloween in quarantine https://stanforddaily.com/2020/10/29/spooky-reads-for-halloween-in-quarantine/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/10/29/spooky-reads-for-halloween-in-quarantine/#respond Fri, 30 Oct 2020 06:23:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1174332 In October, the year is waning. Time plays tricks on us in October: the daylight lessening, the nights “endless.” It is the month of hauntings too — of extended twilights and sudden changes in the wind. It marks the beginning of the period in which we recount the year that has passed us by. It is the time to remember.

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“The Sea” by John Banville — Recommended by Lily Nilipour

In October, the year is waning. Time plays tricks on us in October: the daylight lessening, the nights “endless.” It is the month of hauntings too — of extended twilights and sudden changes in the wind. It marks the beginning of the period in which we recount the year that has passed us by. It is the time to remember. 

John Banville’s “The Sea” takes place in October. Max, an older man whose wife has just passed away from cancer, decides to rent a room in a seaside house — the site of one particularly formative summer from his childhood. Through the novel, Max recounts the memories of that summer as he tries to gather himself back to life after recent tragedy. But rather than being a novel of reckoning with one’s past, “The Sea” only dredges up the ghosts of old selves, and does so in a manner so strong that these ghosts begin to take on new lives, overshadowing the reality of the now. The past fully possesses the present; Max disintegrates, losing any remaining sense of self; time cackles; the waves move in and out, unceasingly.

“Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” by Patrick Süskind — Recommended by Ellie Wong 

Meet Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an orphan growing up in Paris during the 1700s. Equipped with an extraordinary sense of smell, he can identify practically every smell in the city — until he comes across a girl just going into puberty. He’s enamored and wants no one else to smell it, so he strangles her. 

This literary fantasy novel follows Grenouille as he learns the art of perfume making while also committing a succession of murders to preserve the scents of young girls. Süskind’s descriptions of their deaths are more than grotesque, but the ability of smell to persuade humanity is an even more horrifying concept. 

Grenouille’s complete mastery of scents allows him to create odors of power, desire and innocence. In doing so, he can change the minds of hundreds of people without them knowing how or why he has affected them. “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” is one of those books that will leave you unsettled for days after, wondering if (or when) technology will reach that level of power. 

“The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” by Stephen King — Recommended by Valerie Trapp

I read this book when I was eight. I am too young to read it now. My grandparents have very few books at their house, and so I read this book. It’s about a little girl who takes a bathroom break on a hike with her family and gets lost in the woods. All she has is a Walkman that she uses to listen to a baseball game in which her favorite player — Tom Gordon — is playing. I don’t know what’s scarier about this book: the amount of baseball references I don’t understand, or the fact that she gets super dehydrated and loses her mind. At the end, she comes face-to-face with an actual, non-hallucinatory bear, which is also not fun. This book made me too scared to pee during hikes for four years.

“Blood is Another Word for Hunger” by Rivers Solomon — Recommended by Emma Wang

In “Blood is Another Word for Hunger,” Rivers Solomon explores the supernatural manifestations of motherhood, redemption and what it takes to be truly free. The story starts with the murder of a slave-owning family by their slave girl, Sully, an act that is powerful enough to disturb the balance between the etherworld and our own. From this disturbance comes Ziza, a teenage spirit from the etherworld who is literally reborn through Sully’s body. 

The word “hunger” implies necessity, prompting us to reconsider the murder as a physical manifestation of Sully’s search for peace in addition to being an act of vengeance. However, even after her owners are gone, Sully’s insatiable hunger seems to only increase with the number of etherworld spirits that she births. In the last moments of the story, as Sully is being soothed by Ziza, she wonders, “How many moments like this would it take for her raucous, angry soul to be soothed? How many songs? Were there enough in the world?”

“Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler – Recommended by Shana Hadi

Drawing on the human instinctive revulsion to crawling centipedes and wriggling grubs, Butler deftly creates another planet where humans and the many-legged Tlic uneasily coexist, exploring the politics of sex and social oppression through this chilling short story. The human colonizers, heavily outnumbered, “voluntarily” live in Preserves in exchange for one child per family who will incubate the Tlic’s offspring in their body. The protagonist Gan, a human male groomed from birth to host his family friend T’Gatoi’s eggs, accidentally witnesses an incubation gone horribly wrong: “I saw red worms crawling over redder human flesh.”

As much as Butler expressively depicts the body horror of worms emerging from human skin, her seamless interweaving of description, worldbuilding and theme emphasizes the horror inherent in losing control. Wracked with fear and helplessness, Gan reluctantly assists in a surgical intervention while questioning the dynamics of his and T’Gatoi’s supposedly loving relationship, which is unavoidably characterized by the way most Tlics covet humans for their flesh, not their sentience. Caught between impossible choices lest he and his human colony risk complete annihilation, Gan must decide whether to sacrifice his autonomy, his morality, his sister or his own life.

“Bog Girl” by Karen Russell — Recommended by Cindy Xin

In Karen Russell’s short story “Bog Girl,” 15-year-old Cillian Eddowis finds the preserved 2000-year-old body of a teenage girl in a bog while turf-cutting. He immediately falls in love with her, despite their age gap and her lifeless state. What is surprising, however, is not that he can love someone who is basically dead — after all, she is beautiful, quiet and can be whoever he decides she is — but how little it seems to matter. In an absurd yet strangely inevitable twist, Bog Girl’s being dead does not stop the pair from going through almost all the archetypal features of first love — obsession, jealousy and parental disapproval — except for heartbreak and disillusionment, which do not arrive until Cillian discovers that Bog Girl is not as dead or blank as he would have hoped. Humorous yet insightful, Russell’s story illuminates the pitfalls of idealization and the blindness of young love. Contemplating how one could love the dead or unresponsive, “The Bog Girl” is a penetrating commentary on the manic pixie dream girl trope and the lure of objectification.  

“The Semplica Girl Diaries” by George Saunders — Recommended by Carly Taylor

If you’re not ready to commit to a full novel this Halloween season, curl up by the fire with this short story and experience the concentrated horrors, both real and speculative, of late-stage capitalism. “The Semplica Girl Diaries” is written in the choppy, frenetic style of stories relayed over text, but rather than the flattening out emotion, Saunders’s narrator seizes the desperation at the heart of middle-class life with his disjointed syntax.

The reveal of this story is everything, so I’ll avoid telling you what Semplica Girls are, but I will tell you why it’s so terrifying. It illustrates how capitalism manipulates us into thinking that we can become one of the rich, all while keeping us one disaster away from destitution. It depicts a family caught in a materialist hellscape, where the divide between what they are made to want and what they are given to live with can never be bridged — and still, they will plunge themselves into ruin trying. This is a story of how the stunted modern attention span allows us to easily accept the most morally bankrupt of realities, and how seamlessly we trade in our childhood dreams of grandeur for a life of mere survival.

Contact Reads Desk Editor Carly Taylor at carly505 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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The Daily’s Halloween movie picks https://stanforddaily.com/2020/10/29/the-dailys-halloween-movie-picks-2/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/10/29/the-dailys-halloween-movie-picks-2/#respond Fri, 30 Oct 2020 03:06:24 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1174320 This is the movie that cemented rage zombies into our cultural lexicon, pivoting away from slow-shambling creeps and instead leaning into a fast-paced terror the whole way through. It’s a master of the spook that you can see a long time coming — and yet are still shocked by. “28 Days” merely uses the creepiness of its zombies as a backdrop as it delves into the horrors of our own humanity, lending us a long-lasting feeling of deep uneasiness.

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In preparation for Halloween, The Daily’s Screen Beat writers have compiled a list of their favorite Halloween films. Fun, scary or otherwise, there’s something for everyone.

“28 Days Later” (2002)

The Daily's Halloween movie picks
(Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures)

“28 Days Later” is certainly stiff competition for best zombie flick out there and it never fails in forcing me to turn on the lights. Our protagonist (played by Cillian Murphy) awakens from a coma after 28 days, only to find that the world outside his hospital room has fallen into disarray. The culprit? A strange virus that turns the infected into mindless, wrathful beasts. The usual motley crew of survivors attempts to find sanctuary at a military base, only to encounter a threat that’s on par with the infected outside. 

This is the movie that cemented rage zombies into our cultural lexicon, pivoting away from slow-shambling creeps and instead leaning into a fast-paced terror the whole way through. It’s a master of the spook that you can see a long time coming — and yet are still shocked by. “28 Days” merely uses the creepiness of its zombies as a backdrop as it delves into the horrors of our own humanity, lending us a long-lasting feeling of deep uneasiness. 

“28 Days Later” is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Hannah Blum, Screen Desk Editor (hannahbl ‘at’ stanford.edu)

“It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” (1966)

The Daily's Halloween movie picks
(Photo: United Feature Syndicate)

During my childhood, I watched “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” every Halloween. The television special centers around Charlie Brown and characters from the “Peanuts” comics as they prepare for and spend their Halloween night. Linus, one of the characters, is the focus of this episode. He creates a Santa Claus-like figure for Halloween, naming it the Great Pumpkin, and convinces Sally (Charlie Brown’s sister) to sit all night with him at a pumpkin patch to wait for the figure’s appearance. It’s a classic that I still adore; it takes the art of animation seriously while also being funny, family-friendly and memorable. 

The trick-or-treating scene, where everyone but Charlie Brown gets candy and all he receives are rocks, makes me laugh every year. I also enjoy Snoopy’s imagination when he becomes the World War I pilot, The Flying Ace. The scene really captures the joy of a costume and the rush you, as a kid, felt when you got to pretend to be someone else for a night. From the humor, to the dialogue, to the little Halloween party, and to Snoopy’s appearance at the pumpkin patch, this special is a light-hearted must for the season. 

“It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” is available for streaming on Apple TV. 

Kyla Figueroa, Contributing Writer (kylafig5 ‘at’ stanford.edu)

“Over the Garden Wall” (2014)

The Daily's Halloween movie picks
(Photo: Warner Bros. Television Studios)

“Over the Garden Wall,” Cartoon Network’s first miniseries, is the perfect Halloween watch for those craving something spooky but not bloodcurdling. Its theme song alone, at once achingly wistful and joyously soulful, conjures up an autumnal mood. The Emmy-winning series follows brothers Wirt and Greg, who find themselves lost in a strange forest called the Unknown. As they try to find their way home, they meet a lonely woodsman, a charismatic talking bluebird and… sentient pumpkins?

Creator Patrick McHale (“Adventure Time”) takes a seemingly simple premise and crafts a poignant tale of good and evil, innocence and disillusionment, hope and hopelessness. Divided into 10 episodes of 11 minutes each, “Over the Garden Wall” can be consumed in one feature-length sitting or over the course of several study breaks. Either way, the journey will be replete with beautiful animation, wonderfully imaginative characters and satisfying storytelling.

“Over the Garden Wall” is available for streaming on HBO Max and Hulu.

Jared Klegar, Contributing Writer (jkklegar ‘at’ stanford.edu)

“Us” (2019)

The Daily's Halloween movie picks
(Photo: Universal Pictures)

Jordan Peele returns from his debut film, “Get Out,” with his sophomore film, “Us,” the blood-curdling story of a beach vacation turned nightmare. When Adelaide Wilson (played by Lupita Nyong’o) takes her family to her childhood beach home for a vacation, things quickly take a turn for the worst as her past traumas return to haunt her. This time, her memories become reality when a masked group of murderers attack her and her family. The Wilsons fight for their lives, only to discover that the attackers are actually their doppelgängers attempting to “untether” themselves from the Wilsons.

Once again, Peele masterfully combines complex material about the human experience with pure horror. “Us” will leave you paralyzed and unsure of what’s next, as the worst dangers hide in plain sight. It leaves you contemplating the duality of American society, while shaking you to the core. On top of that, the film boasts superb writing and Nyong’o delivers an unforgettably chilling performance.

“Us” is available for streaming on HBO Max.

Zora Hudson, Contributing Writer (zorah ‘at’ stanford.edu)

“The Visit” (2015)

The Daily's Halloween movie picks
(Photo: Universal Pictures)

While the prospect of watching an M. Night Shyamalan movie is typically scary enough, “The Visit” is genuinely terrifying. The film follows teenagers Becca and Tyler on a five-day stay to their grandparents’ house. Captured as Becca’s documentary — “found footage” style — the movie builds creepiness expertly. As hours and days pass at the house, Becca and Tyler realize, through observing their hosts’ peculiar behaviors, that something is seriously wrong.

The horror genre definitely seems to be Shyamalan’s calling (see “The Sixth Sense,” “Split”). Though most horror films rely on some degree of supernatural skullduggery, be that the paranormal, the inhuman or the undead, “The Visit” asks you to suspend no disbelief. The fear generated by the film stems from the notion that its events could happen to anyone. “The Visit” also features the single best twist I have yet seen in a horror movie; Shyamalan once again leans into his strong suit. So although it’s a bit rough around the edges, if you’re looking for a good scare or an irrational fear of old people, check out “The Visit.”

“The Visit” is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Peyton Lee, Contributing Writer (peytonl7 ‘at’ stanford.edu)

“The Shining” (1980)

The Daily's Halloween movie picks
(Photo: Warner Bros.)

Come on. What else even comes close

Full disclaimer that I love, love, love the horror genre and that I genuinely believe in exploring smaller movies from all around the world (for example, few countries do horror better than South Korea). That being said, “The Shining” is the grandfather of them all, from the iconic images that so many of us have burned into our brains to the performances that kept me up at night the first time I saw it. 

Kubrick’s adaptation of the beloved Stephen King novel follows the now-infamous Torrance family as they stay at the Overlook Hotel, taking care of the summer resort during its seasonal shutdown for a chilly Colorado winter. What follows is a turn for the supernatural, and while I’ll spare the details for readers who haven’t gotten around to it, expect an excellent and bloody ride to the movie’s end. 

The imagery, the performances, and the direction (though a note must be made about Kubrick’s abhorrent treatment of actress Shelley Duvall) tie it all together to make a horror masterpiece. Hunt this movie down — and prepare to be creeped out. 

“The Shining” is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Jonathan Arnold, Contributing Writer (jarnold ‘at’ stanford.edu)

Contact the Screen Desk Editor at hannahbl ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Black FLI Stanford sophomores weigh in on ‘What’s Big’ in new podcast https://stanforddaily.com/2020/08/19/black-fli-stanford-sophomores-weigh-in-on-whats-big-in-new-podcast/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/08/19/black-fli-stanford-sophomores-weigh-in-on-whats-big-in-new-podcast/#respond Thu, 20 Aug 2020 02:40:23 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1171242 From the moment they hit record, the lively personalities of the 2020 podcast “What’s Big, Sweetie?” break down everything from COVID-19 and quarantine activities to their experiences at Stanford as young Black FLI (first-generation and/or low income) women — the topics often appear boundless.

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From the moment they hit record, the lively personalities of the 2020 podcast “What’s Big, Sweetie?” break down everything from COVID-19 and quarantine activities to their experiences at Stanford as young Black FLI (first-generation and/or low income) women — the topics often appear boundless. Take, for instance, episode two, where you can tune into Linda Denson ’23 and Tyah-Amoy Roberts ’23 discussing “Dat Rona,” TikTok fame and Stanford’s purse: “Regarding our podcast name, if you’re wondering ‘What’s Big?,’ it’s Stanford’s endowment,” Roberts joked. “Precisely,” Denson added.

Coated in a layer of light mockery and straightforward analysis, all eight episodes of the podcast are uniquely entertaining and informative on FLI experiences, popular culture and, well, what’s deemed “Big.” Hitting it off as Ujamaa House residents their freshman year, the duo’s affinity for cracking jokes alongside some coaxing from friends inspired collaboration on a new level. 

“We were always together, which is why everybody would always ask us to do a podcast. If you’d see me, you’d see Linda, and if you’d see Linda, you saw Tyah, and we were always making jokes,” Roberts told The Daily.

Though they only recorded one episode in person prior to campus evacuations and remote instruction, the co-hosts were quick to rekindle their efforts from afar, launching the pilot in mid-March. Each over-the-phone recording session in this period has helped bridge their physical gap — Denson is a New Orleans native, and Roberts, originally from Florida, lives in the Bahamas. 

“The day I got back home, I was so bored, and I was missing everything, so I was like, ‘I guess I’ll just drop [the first episode], and then I’ll force Tyah to talk to me,’” Denson admitted. “She’s right — I don’t like being on the phone. So she was like, ‘This is how I’m gonna make her talk,’” Roberts laughed.  

This sense of humor holds both a cold and witty dynamic that pervades each discussion: In episode three, as the co-hosts consider Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s health status and the prospect of Trump filling Supreme Court seats with Republicans if he were to be reelected, Roberts jests, saying, “It’s vote Blue [in November] or get your tubes tied, at this point.” 

Riding on infectious jokes like this, the “What’s Big, Sweetie?” following has grown notably with time. Not only has the pair’s audience flooded them with verbal encouragement, but some listeners have bolstered their work monetarily. After receiving Venmo payments following the release of their two initial episodes, the duo’s podcast morphed into both an outlet for honest comedy and minor cash flow. “I thought it was great; I wasn’t expecting people to actually listen to [us] because I always feel like we’re talking into a void. So I was like, ‘Oh my gosh … maybe I should think more about what I say since people are actually listening now,’” Roberts said. “But I was really excited to get Venmo requests because that’s always nice as a FLI student. I was [also] excited to hear that people were interested in what two FLI Black women had to say, especially since it was very clear very early on that we were not holding our tongues about anything in particular.” 

Unrestricted language is what makes “What’s Big, Sweetie?” a standout, and it comes organically to both Roberts and Denson with the support of those surrounding them. “There are people in place, whether that be like upperclassmen, people that I see as mentors or professors that I could name, who just would not have it if Stanford [had] backlash about our podcast, and so it’s things like that motivate me to keep saying exactly what it is that I mean,” Roberts reflected. “There obviously are going to be people who don’t like what we say, and my parents warn me all the time of that, [but] I simply am not listening. I know that I’ve gotten this far in life, and I got to Stanford, by not holding my tongue. This is just the space that I occupy, and I’m going to keep doing that regardless.”

The duo’s unfiltered voices also propelled the podcast’s primary surge after they recorded a reaction to a racist incident within Stanford’s faculty in late April. The subject of this episode, a guest lecturer addressing a virtual comparative studies in race and ethnicity (CSRE) class, casually said the N-word while quoting famed hip hop group N.W.A. After pinpointing a tweet describing the affair, the pair weighed in, peppering their remarks with a sharp humor. “We have the class recording because it’s corona; the Zoom lectures are recorded.” Denson said. “We have receipts,” Roberts tossed in. “You’re on camera, babe. Smile!” Denson added. 

These quips augment and often define the podcast, but each episode holds its fair share of serious discussion as well. Touching on a breadth of topics, from Black liberation and politics to misogynoir and colorism, Denson and Roberts bear blunt honesty in their comments, regardless of who may be listening. Off the bat in their pilot, Denson recalls joking that “What’s Big, Sweetie?” is a “Black woman’s podcast,” but its audience has greatly expanded from there. 

“We have one listener somewhere out in Germany who just watches and listens to every podcast, so shout out to that listener, because we’re international because of them and them only,” Roberts smirked. “But in general, yeah, we’ve expanded: At first, I think it was just Black women who were listening to us, but we’ve been having a lot of talks generally in the Stanford Black community about listening to women and being more receptive to arguments that are going to make you uncomfortable, so I think a lot of different people have been tuning in because of those conversations. It seems like many are coming to our podcast with the intention to learn, and I think that that is a very beautiful thing — I hope that we’re teaching them something.”

Though those engaging with the podcast may identify with various genders and races, neither Roberts nor Denson feel a need to acclimate their words, for such candid discourse “offers the most opportunity for learning,” according to Roberts. 

“In general, it is ineffective to tailor Blackness to a different audience. I just have to give you my experience, and you learn from it or you don’t,” she said. “This podcast is just me genuinely talking to Linda, Black woman to Black woman, because that is the most effective way — one, for Black women to feel validated and to know that people are thinking the same thing that they’re thinking. And two, that is the most authentic way to hear a genuine opinion — I can’t tailor it to make a man feel better. I can’t tailor it to make a white woman feel better. I can’t tailor it to make a non-Black person of color feel better because that’s not the truth: The truth is what I’m giving to you raw as a first-generation, low-income Black woman.”

To Denson, this unique lens afforded by the pair makes the podcast both amusing and didactic, but can also help listeners recognize their distinct life experiences. “To me, it was always about hoping that people understand that the things that may come up to them [in] an Instagram story … are the [realities] of a lot of Black women. This is the state of our lives, to exist under a society that is so evasively engaged in misogynoir… So if people can hear something new or realize that this is real and have this issue feminized, that’s all I would want. I think that’s [already] happened because some of our most loyal supporters are non-Black people and men, and those people are genuinely here for the ride, and are here to be educated.”  

Though the podcast’s accessible nature is convenient for sequestered listeners affected by ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, uncertainty looms over when Roberts and Denson may record in person again. Regardless, the two have new intentions as the fall quarter rolls in: “The plan is for ‘What’s Big, Sweetie?’ to become a digital media production collective, which is a fancy way to say there’s going to be multiple personalities across multiple series across multiple platforms all under the ‘What’s Big, Sweetie?’ name,” Denson said. 

The duo is already carving out this new path — the growing collective reportedly has 10 members now — and both Denson and Roberts hope “What’s Big, Sweetie?” will “share some resources, skills and an audience with other Black women so that we can all make authentic content,” according to Denson.

“At the heart of what we’re doing is showcasing Black women and how we feel authentically and how we walk in the world,” she remarked.

“What’s Big, Sweetie?” can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor and several other podcast platforms.

Contact Nicole Johnson at nicole.djohnson ‘at’ comcast.net.

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‘The stone is rolling’: screenwriting Stanford alumnae talk industry shifts in Arts webinar https://stanforddaily.com/2020/08/11/the-stone-is-rolling-screenwriting-stanford-alumnae-talk-industry-shifts-in-arts-webinar/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/08/11/the-stone-is-rolling-screenwriting-stanford-alumnae-talk-industry-shifts-in-arts-webinar/#respond Wed, 12 Aug 2020 06:09:47 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1171059 The Aug. 3 “Arts Alumni: Live from their Living Room” webinar presented by Stanford Arts and moderated by Lauren Clark ’20 showcased the honest –– and oftentimes downright hilarious –– voices of the female screenwriters behind “Hidden Figures” (2016) and the live-action “Mulan” (2020), Allison Schroeder ’01, Elizabeth Martin ’00 and Lauren Hynek.

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A day in the life of a Los Angeles film production assistant is a far cry from the glamor of the Dolby Theatre carpet. Shuffling through paperwork, running between scenes and carrying styrofoam coffee cups across scalding Hollywood lots are just some examples of the redundant ‘grunt work’ expected of the position — most wouldn’t expect a recent Stanford graduate who dreams of becoming a screenwriter to sink their teeth into such a lowly job. But this is where many great screenwriters begin their career in the movie industry. To most outsiders, Hollywood appears a place that generates numerous “overnight success” legends. Only those who are in the industry can tell you that the real magic is hard work. 

The Aug. 3 “Arts Alumni: Live from their Living Room” webinar presented by Stanford Arts and moderated by Lauren Clark ’20 showcased the honest –– and oftentimes downright hilarious –– voices of the female screenwriters behind “Hidden Figures” (2016) and the live-action “Mulan” (2020), Allison Schroeder ’01, Elizabeth Martin ’00 and Lauren Hynek. Musing about their paths to success, their undergraduate experiences and the newfound course their industry is taking, the friends’ chemistry exuded through the lively hour on Zoom. 

The secret to survival in the film industry is surprisingly straightforward –– to dream big while tackling initial ‘grunt work’ with gusto. Longtime duo Martin and Hynek, Stanford and Brown University alumnae, respectively, had ostensibly bright futures in film ahead of them after graduation. The “Mulan” (2020) screenwriters had pursued drama and psychology majors in college, but despite their prestigious degrees, Los Angeles quickly humbled them. Taking a day job as a background actor to break into the industry, Martin recalled being treated “like cattle” at times on sets. The Stanford alumna went on to reflect on the invaluable lessons in moviemaking and the intricacies therein she gained from such modest circumstances.

“Sometimes, the directors would chat with us and tell us what they were doing and what was happening, and certainly the camera people and props people were happy to talk about what they were doing and why … It was really useful,” Martin said. 

Schroeder, the quick-witted mind behind “Hidden Figures,” followed a more unconventional route to screenwriting after studying economics and a self-designed film individual narrative major at Stanford. Finding herself lost after 9/11 and amidst a transforming economy, Schroeder “got the guts” to quit her job as a financial analyst and pursue her passion as a screenwriter. After finishing her graduate degree at the University of Southern California Film School, she spent six months attempting to secure a production assistant job for “Pineapple Express” (2008), or what she lightheartedly dubbed “[that] stoner movie.”

When she caught a break with “Hidden Figures,” her mathematical side wasn’t the only advantage she bore. “I [already] had a certain amount of knowledge from working at NASA — my grandmother and grandfather had been engineers [there] — so I’d grown up around it to a certain extent,” Schroeder said. This edge didn’t keep her from being starstruck, however. “It’s amazing when you go onto set, and you see Octavia Spencer and Taraji Henson and Janelle Monet, and then you ask for a photograph, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, of course — you’re the writer, you’re being silly,’ and you’re like ‘Okay!’” 

Getting there took time, though, and Schroeder looked back to her 25 year-old self running in the heat to get coffee with pride. “You have to be willing to do the grunt work,” she said. “Going and getting people coffee, being an assistant, being around people and learning from people and being willing to sort of start at entry level … don’t be above that, because that’s part of [the process]. There’s no linear path [or] one way to do this … everyone’s story of how they ‘made it’ is so wacky and weird normally that you just have to go for it.”

“Overnight success is like, 10-15 years into the process,” Martin chimed in. A defining highlight amid this process for Martin and Hynek came when they heard veteran Hollywood composer Alan Menken would score their newest animated film,“Spellbound.” Chuckling, Martin reminisced about her reaction to the news: “I full-on wept into my computer when he played his medley of greatest hits the first time. You know, I’m 6 feet away, trying to hide my face [behind the screen].” 

Climbing the ladder to these moments also heavily necessitates networking, she emphasized, and establishing long-term relationships is its keystone. As with most things in the industry, making connections is a lengthy process, but can reap worthy rewards: “You’ll sometimes think, ‘I’m treading water, and I’m not making a difference,’ but … like five years later, somehow that contact you made will materialize into a job,” Schroeder added. 

This physical networking has come to a screeching halt due to COVID-19, but virtual platforms still hold value and have actually lightened the load for some. To Martin, who often found herself weaving through the labyrinth of LA traffic to meet contacts prior to the pandemic, being restricted to a computer screen has somewhat eased communication. Interrupted on-set experiences and collaboration are just one factor of the multifaceted change sweeping the industry, though. 

As advocates for gender equality in Hollywood, the three screenwriters are witnessing an increasingly equitable wave hitting screenwriting and movie production, but it’s taken time to build momentum. In such a capital return-oriented industry, “the main driver [of change] is not the goodness of people’s hearts — it’s economics,” Martin said. “The money is not in the stories about straight, white, middle-aged men [right now]; it’s in diverse experiences.” As inclusive projects currently have better investment returns, Martin is optimistic about the industry’s trajectory. “It’s only going to continue, and that’s wonderful. People are using their wallets to say what they want to see in the world,” said Martin. 

While it is vital to recognize the diversity of what is displayed on screen, it is crucial that those behind the scenes spring from manifold backgrounds as well. “It’s taking a little extra time — people are realizing more quickly that diversity on the screen gets them money, and they’re catching up to the fact that we need to be more inclusive in who is telling those stories as well,” Hynek revealed. “But I think there’s at least a willingness there — it is still slow to see it actually come to fruition, but there’s at least an awareness, which is the bare minimum.” 

Although domestic filmmaking is turning a new page with increasingly diverse characters and contributors, overseas audiences are less willing to flip the script. “The one caveat to this [progress] is [that] almost all indie production is pre-financed by foreign pre-sales, and a lot of the world does not have as good an appreciation of inclusivity as the U.S.,” Martin said. Though financial incentives to cultivate inclusivity are almost commonplace among American studios now, such diverse films do not always fare well in international theaters. Jokingly interjecting, Hynek voiced that “even in the U.S., the bar’s not high, folks. [But] the bar’s a lot lower [in] other places.”

Regardless, “the stone is rolling,” Martin remarked. 

Providing a lively lens into the woman’s experience behind the scenes, Schroeder, Martin and Hynek’s webinar thoughtfully moderated by Clark was a testament to the patience, perseverance and palpable ardor needed for the ever-evolving American movie industry. 

Contact Annie Li at ALi21 ‘at’ thehill.org and Nicole Johnson at nicole.djohnson ‘at’ comcast.net.

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Stanford alum Michael Tubbs’ Stockton is on the rise in HBO documentary https://stanforddaily.com/2020/08/03/stanford-alum-michael-tubbs-stockton-is-on-the-rise-in-hbo-documentary/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/08/03/stanford-alum-michael-tubbs-stockton-is-on-the-rise-in-hbo-documentary/#respond Mon, 03 Aug 2020 20:36:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1170763 “Stockton On My Mind,” directed by Emmy winner Marc Levin, premiered on Tuesday, July 28. The HBO documentary follows America's youngest mayor of a major city on his journey — both political and intensely personal — to implement change in the city of Stockton and to revitalize and heal its youth.

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Stockton, CA’s first Black mayor and Stanford graduate Michael Tubbs (BA ’12 Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE)) is one of the many roses that grow from Stockton concrete. As a native of Stockton, specifically South Stockton, it felt surreal to see my own home featured on national TV last week. “Stockton On My Mind,” directed by Emmy winner Marc Levin, premiered on Tuesday, July 28. The HBO documentary follows America’s youngest mayor of a major city on his journey — both political and intensely personal — to implement change in the city of Stockton and to revitalize and heal its youth.

Earlier this year, Stockton was ranked one of the worst places for child opportunity based on a study from Brandeis University. Many Stockton youth are first-generation students, and we are healing from the intergenerational anxiety our ancestors have combatted our whole lives. Many children of Stockton are sons and daughters of immigrants and farmworkers. There’s a reason why Tubbs in this documentary has so much hope for the youth: he knows from firsthand experience that the future of Stockton is within us.

Levin’s documentary showcases Michael Tubbs’ story as a son born in Stockton to a teen mother and incarcerated father.  Even though Tubbs grew up in a low income, single-parent household in Southeast Stockton, he did not let these barriers come in the way of his education. He is a passionate writer, and has even gotten his work published at The San Francisco Chronicle. Tubbs attended Hamilton Middle School, graduated Franklin High School with an IB (International Baccalaureate) Diploma and went to Stanford on a need-based scholarship, eventually running for city council his senior year.  The film features Tubbs’ main projects to help the people of Stockton, recalling the Reinvent Stockton Foundation including programs such as Advance Peace, Stockton Scholars and his testing of Universal Basic Income

“Be the change you wish to see in the world,” Tubbs quoted Mahatma Gandhi to middle school students at Marshall Elementary School in South Stockton, CA in a college readiness workshop. Stockton Scholars was launched by Tubbs in January 2018 alongside Stockton Unified District board member Lange Luntao to push for a college culture in Stockton. Encouraging students to pursue higher education, they offer workshops and teach seminars to high school students about the college application process, financial aid and mental health awareness. The program also offers scholarships to seniors that will be attending 2 and 4-year universities in the area. Advance Peace is another program that advocates for reducing gun violence with mentorships, workshops and community service. 

Stories from people all over Eastside’s Wilson Way to Southside’s Eighth Street are shown giving their experiences as Stocktonians. Raymond Aguilar, Senior Youth Organizer at Fathers and Families of San Joaquin and mentor at Advance Peace, has been system impacted since the age of six, being in and out of jail cells and foster homes. Southside Stockton Edison High School alums Rogelio “Junior” Vivero, Joy Almendarez, Isaiah Evans and Kendra Banks feature prominently as members of the inaugural Class of 2019 Stockton Scholars. Junior is a first-generation student-photographer attending San Joaquin Delta College who became one of the first ambassadors of the program. Joy is a teen mother, determined to attend college while raising her son, defying all odds. Isaiah Evans and Kendra Banks are both exceptional student-athletes, with the latter attending Shaw University. 

Stanford alum Michael Tubbs’ Stockton is on the rise in HBO documentaryStanford alum Michael Tubbs’ Stockton is on the rise in HBO documentary

Downtown Stockton was prominently featured in the documentary. Images courtesy of Rogelio “Junior” Vivero.

“Stockton On My Mind” gives viewers the idea that this city really teaches people that there is always light after times of darkness. We see this in scenes featuring the Southside’s Skidrow, where homelessness and gang violence are high. The cinematography adopts the same vibrant colors and shading as Skidrow for neighborhoods with colorful pools and beautiful, petite red-colored homes. The film is symbolic, where most of the geographical locations are shot in birds-eye view high up above the ground to masterfully show its viewers how Stockton as a whole is ‘coming up’ in terms of change. 

With Mayor Tubbs also being a millennial, the use of social media in his political agenda has always been a major part of his community outreach. That dozens of Stocktonians were live-tweeting their reactions to the HBO documentary on Tuesday night is case-in-point. 

Jeselle De Leon, a junior at Bear Creek High School in North Stockton, tweeted while watching the documentary this Tuesday, “It gave me a little more info as to what Tubbs is really doing…He’s seen the struggle of growing up in Stockton and now he’s really trying to fix it…trying to get kids to be more passionate about school, going to college, and hopefully returning back to Stockton to pay it forward[.]”

Many of Stockton’s injustices have always been systemic and intergenerational, and Edison High School junior Aleksandur Chanachai has never failed to realize that. He notes that this documentary showcases to the world what is occurring in Stockton, and is proud despite the “homelessness rates rising and violence…[he is] seeing people blossom in something better.” 

“#StocktonOnMyMind has me so emotional,” said Christine, a South Stockton Conway native, who has recently graduated from San Francisco State University and is now working as a Business Manager in Sacramento, CA.


Stanford alum Michael Tubbs’ Stockton is on the rise in HBO documentaryStanford alum Michael Tubbs’ Stockton is on the rise in HBO documentary

Left: Live-instagram story reaction by Dr. Janay M. Garrett, University of Pennsylvania. Right: Live-tweet reaction by Christine(@christinectrl) after the release of the documentary.

This documentary features multiple segments of Twitter replies on Major Tubbs’ timeline along with DMs from Recall Effort supporters and retweets from 209 Times, a social media geared-news outlet based in Central Valley’s San Joaquin County (particularly Stockton). 209 Times, run by Motecuzoma P. Sanchez — candidate for the 2014 Stockton City Council and 2020 Mayor— along with members of the Recall Effort, have been known to be very critical of Mayor Tubbs and select city council members

Watching the story of “Soul Vikes” coming from the high school I play volleyball for, elementary schools where my longtime friends and I went and the sidewalks I spent my entire childhood on, stirred up strong feelings of admiration. Levin’s documentary has enabled me to watch the process of gradual change that has taken years to unfold within an hour and a half. It comes from everyday Stocktonians like Joy Almendarez and her son, who teach us to be strong for others who look up to us; Junior Vivero, who reminds us to see rather than capture the beauty in the struggle and Mayor Tubbs, who inspire us to pursue our ancestors’ wildest dreams and give back to the community. 

Stanford alum Michael Tubbs’ Stockton is on the rise in HBO documentary

“209 photographers will tell you I know a spot and will take you to Downtown Stockton, because there’s nowhere else to go.” Photo and caption courtesy of Kenneth Caslib.

Stockton On My Mind” is available on demand on HBO Max/Now. 

Contact Karlaine Francisco at itskarlaine ‘at’ gmail.com.

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‘Devised at Dink’: Producer Chloe Chow ’23 on revamping Gaieties 2020 to open-air sketch comedy https://stanforddaily.com/2020/07/17/devised-at-dink-producer-chloe-chow-23-on-revamping-gaieties-2020-to-open-air-sketch-comedy/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/07/17/devised-at-dink-producer-chloe-chow-23-on-revamping-gaieties-2020-to-open-air-sketch-comedy/#respond Fri, 17 Jul 2020 19:24:09 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1170225 The Daily met with this year’s producer Chloe Chow ’23 over Zoom to discuss the future of Gaieties 2020, and behind-the-scenes details on the original script, Chow’s experience as a Producer during the pandemic and on uncharted territory for this year’s Gaieties company.

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The debut of the “Re-Approaching Stanford” Newsletter in student inboxes this summer produced a clarion call for beloved Stanford fall-quarter traditions to either adapt or face cancellation. One such tradition is Gaieties, an original completely student-written, composed and performed musical produced by Ram’s Head Theatrical Society. In the past, it has been an outlet to poke fun at how absurd life can get on the Stanford campus and showcase the ridiculousness of Stanford students while rallying the student body against their rival, Berkeley, as they prepare to face off in their yearly football game, the “Big Game.” With origins that date back to 1911, Gaieties has evolved into a large-scale musical with a singular, cohesive storyline that follows a group of freshmen who must work together to defeat their rival’s mascot, the Cal Berkeley Bear. However, as a result of ongoing circumstances due to the coronavirus pandemic, the production team of Gaieties 2020 has been forced to revise their initial plans of going through with a traditional form of Gaieties. Instead, as announced in an email sent to the Ram’s Head company last Friday July 10, Gaieties 2020 is looking to return to the original format of the show as a series of individual, sketch-style acts without a set theme tying them together. 

The Daily met with this year’s producer Chloe Chow ’23 over Zoom to discuss the future of Gaieties 2020, and behind-the-scenes details on the original script, Chow’s experience as a Producer during the pandemic and on uncharted territory for this year’s Gaieties company. 

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity and length. 

The Stanford Daily (TSD): Why did you want to join Gaieties 2020? 

Chloe Chow (CC): This past fall, I had the fortune to be one of the freshmen heroes of Gaieties 2019 and perform on stage. I think that, because with Gaieties we audition people the very first week of school, this really is your community from the second that you step on campus and you want to be involved in the theater scene. For me, I auditioned kind of by mistake, and I didn’t know what I was getting into. But I think that if I didn’t have Gaieties, I wouldn’t have felt like I found my place at Stanford because Gaieties very much inducts this new group of theater freshmen into the theater scene. Stanford isn’t very well known for theater, but I just fell in love with the whole community aspect. I love socializing and I’m somewhat extroverted, so I wanted to be able to create that new community aspect in Gaieties 2020, and that’s why I applied for producer. I also wanted to be involved in Gaieties 2020 because I think that obviously 2020, before the pandemic hit, was going to be a pretty momentous year.

Gaieties has, in the past, embodied a lot of racism and really bad meaning within it and being a person of color and a minority within this theater scene and America in general, I wanted to make sure voices on campus were being heard. And I think that doesn’t just come from being a cast member. It comes from the very start, from hiring your writers to shaping what the script is going to be about because Gaieties is completely student-written and composed. So hiring a diverse, creative production team and casting diverse people really needs to come from the back door where you can ensure that you have a handle on everything that’s going on. Not necessarily like a dictatorship, but just enough to be aware that things are flowing in the right direction. 

TSD: What was your role on staff in this production, and when were you hired? 

CC: I was hired back in late February, so it’s been about five months. As the producer, I’m the very first person hired on to the process. I am in charge of hiring our head writers, who write the script, and our composer and lyricist, who write and compose the music. From there, I help the head writers hire writers to create the writing team. I am the messenger, the liaison between the writing team and our Ram’s Head Board of Directors. I also helped assemble our Creative Advisory Board (CAB), which is a separate group of students from the writing team who make sure that no jokes are too offensive, that the script is coherent and makes sense. I deliver the script to the Board of Directors, to CAB and am also in charge of hiring a bunch of the production staff like our production manager, our director, our stage manager, choreographer, vocal director, just like everybody. And then from there, what my job this summer was supposed to be was budgeting, for planning just the money aspect around Gaieties and setting up a rehearsal schedule. So that’s generally what the producer does. Then later, I’d work on marketing, but that hasn’t come yet, obviously. So yeah, that’s generally what the producer does. It’s kind of a lot of tasks, but so far, it hasn’t been too many tasks because of COVID.

TSD: How much work did you accomplish for your position before it was decided that the show in its intended form should be postponed for next year? 

CC: Yeah, intended is the keyword here. Coming out of March, when we were all sent home, I still had the mindset of like, “Oh, we’re going to have Gaieties maintain this musical for; we don’t know what September is going to look like, what November when Gaieties performance is going to look like. So we should just keep on working towards the end goal of putting on a regular musical assuming that everything is possible.” And then the [Stanford] email [on June 3 from President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Persis Drell] came saying that they’re only going to have two classes [on-campus] per quarter. So that starts changing stuff a bit. And then the email that completely changed things up was when they said that only freshmen and sophomores are gonna be on campus in the fall and summer and then all the upperclassmen are going to be on campus during the winter and spring. But up until [last week on Tuesday, July 7] when I sent an update to [the Rams Head company], the work that had been done was that we had hired quite a bit of the design and production staff, and we had gotten a final draft of the script. So we do have a finalized story that’s going to be performed [next year for] Gaieties 2021. It just hasn’t gone through like the final touches but that was where we were on the timeline, assuming that we were going to be putting on a regular musical. 

TSD: How did the pandemic and Stanford’s virtual spring quarter impact your work-life balance on this show? 

We got sent home the week before winter quarter ended, so the script hadn’t been written yet. We had just hired our writers, and I did all my interviews with the writers and the Creative Advisory Board in person. But then we got sent home, and my work-life balance was skewed a lot. I was working a lot on Gaieties during the virtual spring quarter because I was interviewing and creating applications, reviewing applications for the production team and the design team. And that’s what I was doing during the majority of spring quarter as well as editing the script. It wasn’t terrible, because I would have been doing a lot of that stuff on my computer anyway, but doing zoom interviews was very time-consuming. Again, there’s nothing you can do since it had to be done, and I enjoyed getting to know people over Zoom. So it wasn’t really a setback.

TSD: How have the Black Lives Matter protests in response to police brutality and anti-blackness impact your production process? 

CC: That’s hard to say because I can’t speak for any one of our team members because I think that we all experienced the Black Lives Matter movement and the whole anti-cop protest very differently. I told my head writers that it was okay to put a pause on the scriptwriting for the two or three weeks that the Black Lives Matter movement was really taking flight back in late May. I think that in order to fully engage in your art, you need to be cleansed of other stresses in your life, and in order to be cleansed of other stresses in your life, it’s okay to say no to doing art for a moment. Social justice right now definitely takes greater priority than putting on Gaieties. In comparison to this whole national movement, Gaieties is nothing, and I’d much rather have my team members either be out there protesting or signing petitions, raising money to donate, taking care of their own mental health and emotional health instead of stressing over meeting a deadline. I think that moving the script next year was honestly probably a better choice [than] rushing it and getting it done by our initial deadline [National Tax Day, June 15] because I don’t want our writers to feel stressed in any capacity. We did consider integrating the Black Lives Matter movement messages into our script but because it’s not being performed this year, we want to make sure the script stays relevant to whatever is happening next year. The script hasn’t really reflected any of the recent events that have been going on because it has been put on pause.

TSD: How did Stanford’s Re-Approaching communications impact the production process? 

CC: I have to admit I was very, very, very stressed for the entire four months that we were kept in the dark. It was really stressful because of all the responses that I thought Stanford could send out to their students planning for fall quarter, them saying, “Oh, we’re gonna have half capacity” was the last thing I expected. It’s really hard to plan a show when half the people that you’re expecting to be in the show just aren’t there and you also didn’t know who was going to be there. 

I sent out an email to the entire company saying “Hey, I’m going to host a town hall because I think that so many people have worked on this that it is unfair for me as a single person to make a decision.” We had about 20 people from our Gaieties company out of, I think, 40 people attend [a town hall], and we had a really good conversation around options for Gaieties. One of them being we could do Gaieties completely on Zoom. We could do a regular musical, but film it, and then we could put it on at Frost Amphitheater and have a movie under the stars and allow people to social distance. Another option we had is to do Gaieties as a movie where, rather than do it in a theater, we film using the campus as our backdrop. Another option that we had was to just not do Gaieties at all and save the script for next year. So then I sent out the Google form with all the options, people voted, and the most popular option was to do a musical-style Gaieties and record it and put it on as a movie. But after they said that only freshmen and sophomores are going to be on campus [during the Autumn quarter], and obviously COVID cases are rising in California, SoCal especially, and Florida, Alabama, etc., we figured that social distancing protocols probably won’t allow us to put on a regular musical in the Memorial Auditorium. 

I then met with my production team, which is Rebecca Cohen ’21, our production manager, Liam Smith ’23, our stage manager, and Justine Sombilon ’22, our amazing, amazing director. And we talked about all the options on the Google form: A movie would just take up too much time, the social distancing wouldn’t allow for a regular musical and Zoom Gaieties wouldn’t be feasible for the script that we had at the moment. We decided to move the script to next year in order to honor the writers and the original intent of the script and where they want to be performed. [For this year] we decided to return to the original form of Gaieties as a bunch of little, one-acts or sketches people performed that didn’t necessarily have to be interlinked, but would still maintain the whole “We’re going to make fun of Berkeley and we’re going to make fun of Stanford and we’re going to induct all these freshmen into the theater scene. We’d let the people that we cast devise their own Gaieties and then perform it in an open airspace, but it would still maintain the whole community aspect.

TSD: What will the ‘devised Gaieties 2020’ look like? 

CC: Devised theater is where a bunch of people get together and make up their own cooperative story and their own songs. They share it with each other and they help each other edit and refine it, and put it on as their own group project instead of having someone hand [a script, music, and choreography] to them. I really hope that we get a lot of people auditioning because my hope is to have one to three cohorts of students (freshmen and sophomores) each devising their own 25 to 30-minute piece about their experience thus far, if it’s a lot of sophomores, or what they expected Stanford to be or whether they feel like they’re missing out. I feel like one topic that’s going to be very popular is “Who knows what spring quarter feels like?” because none of us have experienced spring quarter or “Screw Greek life, who needs Greek life on Stanford’s campus?” because I think that freshmen and sophomores have a very different idea of what Stanford is than the current juniors and seniors. 

You know where Dinkelspiel is? It’s right across the Student Union. There’s this big cement stage that’s outdoors. I’m hoping to put it on there so people can social distance in the audience but still have a good old time. Logistics are still yet to be figured out. But that’s the vision so far and is what was in the email that I sent out [to the company of Ram’s Head last Friday]. 

What aspects of Gaieties will stay the same, and what will look different? 

I think in terms of what’s going to be the same is community. Community building. We’re still going to try to be a family, to maintain the whole culture of “Gaieties babies, we love you, freshmen.” It’s really hard to say what else can be the same because I think that the fact that we have no script going into Gaieties means that everything is going to be different. What’s going to be vastly different is the fact that there’s no thorough storyline throughout the entire hour to hour-and-a-half production because I’m hoping each cohort is going to have different stories that they’re telling. No one person is going to be “the” freshman hero as I’m hoping that we’ll have multiple freshmen heroes existing in each cohort. Music-wise, there’s going to be music mentorship from our composer Katie Pieschala ‘23. She’s going to be guiding them in how to write songs, what makes for a good Gaieties song and how to integrate story into your lyrics. My choreographer is going to just guide them on general movements since I think that Gaieties choreography has never been too fancy. Like, literally if they just flossed the entire 30 minutes, that could be choreography. If they do fortnite dances, that could be choreography, it’s really up to them. It’s just that we have staff members to help guide their visions, in case [they] need some pushing one way or another. What else could be different? I don’t know how we’re gonna make money because if it’s an outdoor space, you could just walk in and out, and you don’t really need to buy a ticket. I’m hoping people will buy tickets, and I’m still figuring that out.

TSD: Is there a schedule you have already set in place? 

CC: There is a tentative schedule in place. 

TSD: Will juniors and seniors and any other students choosing not to live on campus this fall be able to get involved? If so, how? (virtually, off-campus meetings?)

My plan is to have them offer some sort of one-on-one mentorship to people on campus. They get to help with script advising and editing. If I can find a way to get a projector in Dinkelspiel, I would love to have people off-campus pre-record something, and we can integrate that into our devised pieces.

TSD: What information (if anything) can you disclose about the plot, characters or themes of Gaieties 2021 at this time? 

CC: I don’t know how much I should disclose, but I’ll hint that it incorporates something that the freshmen had in their unique experience of not having Admit Weekend.

TSD: To what extent will Gaieties 2021 be incorporated into the ‘devised Gaieties 2020’? 

None. 

TSD: How does the original Gaieties 2020 script, now Gaieties 2021 script, respond to previous Gaieties? 

CC: We tried to take a more multimedia approach in comparison to previous Gaieties. But we also tried to make it break away from the typical “There’s a freshman that doesn’t feel like they belong at Stanford, but then they find a group of friends, and they have to go and save the day from Berkeley. And then at the end, everybody’s happy and everybody’s at Stanford and ‘oh my god, we love Stanford.’” We tried to take a little more realistic stance and have characters come from not only diverse racial backgrounds but also socioeconomic, family circumstances, taking in[to] account other family members rather than just the admits themselves. We also tried to find other things to poke fun at in our script besides Greek life. I’m very in love with Gaieties 2021; I really wish we could have put it on this year. I think that the story is, I wouldn’t say it’s unique beyond comparison, but it’s definitely not what Gaieties 2019 was about. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen [Gaieties 2020’s] evolution. Probably if people see it, they’ll be like “It was just Gaieties 2019 again,” but I feel like there’s a lot more nuance to this. I think that it potentially, also depending on casting, can speak out to a lot more communities than past Gaieties have.

TSD: You might have the opportunity to work on it next year, right? 

CC: I would love to produce Gaieties 2021, but depending on COVID circumstances, and this is a very personal thing, I really want to travel abroad. Stanford in New York is in the fall, which means I wouldn’t be on campus, which means I can’t produce it, and I don’t know if the Rams Head will let me produce two Gaieties in a row. That would be amazing; I love, love the process. But in like a really bad comparison, I feel like I kind of gave my child up for adoption. To have seen the script since its birth, and I had planned on guiding its vision until its “death,” but I’m going to have to hand it off to somebody who I know I can trust because I’ll be the one hiring them. But to see it take a probably very different form than what we initially intended it to look like, it’s going to be exciting; it’s also going to be sad, but mostly heartening. 

TSD: Any last thoughts? 

Even though we’ve had the unfortunate situation of being stuck in a pandemic, I am really happy with the way that Gaieties is moving forward because, like I said before, “Oh Gaieties 2020, what a cool year, what a cool number for a year, like, it sounds like it’s supposed to be momentous, you know? And it is momentous because I think that we found a Gaieties that is adaptable, accessible and still fun. It still preserves the core nature of Gaieties and the fact that we want to welcome any and all freshmen into the theater scene and show that Stanford can be fun, because I think that Stanford is very nerdy. And also just building communities, which is something that I really, really value because community is what made me feel like I have a chance at belonging at Stanford without dealing with imposter or duck syndrome, and I want to be able to pass it on, no matter the shape or the form of Gaieties. And I know that a lot of freshmen that I’ve talked to already are very excited just being in Gaieties. Granted, this isn’t the Gaieties that they’re expecting, but I still want to deliver. 

But I think that we are making history. In a good way — I hope so, in a bad way, I hope not. But what can you do? You can’t control your circumstances, and I think we’re making the best of it.

Contact Vivian Jiang at jiang.vivian2 ‘at’ gmail.com. 

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Artist Spotlight: Jason Dunford ’09 on creating music for the pandemic and racial justice https://stanforddaily.com/2020/06/22/artist-spotlight-jason-dunford-09-on-creating-music-for-the-pandemic-and-racial-justice/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/06/22/artist-spotlight-jason-dunford-09-on-creating-music-for-the-pandemic-and-racial-justice/#respond Mon, 22 Jun 2020 23:00:24 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1169626 Jason Dunford B.A. ’09 M.S. ’12 M.B.A. ’18 knows exactly how an unpredictable path can lead to the discovery of new interests that can shape a life. He grew up in Kenya, eventually representing Kenya as a swimmer in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.

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Life is unpredictable. Everyone knows that all too well now, the feeling of the world standing still for the pandemic while many raise their voices for racial justice. Although nobody knows what will happen next, the unknown future can be used towards our advantage, opening up more opportunities for exploration. 

Jason Dunford B.A. ’09 M.S. ’12 M.B.A. ’18 knows exactly how an unpredictable path can lead to the discovery of new interests that can shape a life. He grew up in Kenya, eventually representing Kenya as a swimmer in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. Later, he joined the BBC reporting for Africa, founded several companies including Safi Analytics and Baila Entertainment, and started his own talk show J-TALK Live. From student, to swimmer, to entrepreneur, to journalist, Dunford continued exploring all that the world has to offer. 

Today, in his most unpredictable turn, Dunford calls himself a musician. “My experiences on the Farm helped me confront my fear of failure, which has enabled my career to take directions that would never have been possible had I always followed a ‘safer path,’” Dunford told The Daily. At Stanford, he studied Swahili language and literature under Professor Sangai Mohochi, allowing him to express himself in his music in more profound ways than if he was limited to one language.

“I would argue it is one of the most beautiful languages in the world, but of course, I am biased,” he said. 

Dunford’s stage name is Samaki Mkuu, a Swahili reference to his time spent in the water as a swimmer. His musical journey started when he met Romantico, a pioneering Mexican reggaeton rapper who melds African and Latin music not only through style, but by meshing Spanish and Swahili in his songs. Dunford and Romantico now perform together as a rap duo, gaining acclaim for their ability to seamlessly combine English, Spanish, and Swahili through music.     

As the founder of Baila Entertainment, Dunford produces most of his own music videos and songs. Although he could have chosen to work under other production companies, Dunford says that it became increasingly important to retain editorial control of any work in which he is involved because it is difficult to create content when beliefs and values misalign.

“I am able to move faster by driving my own productions through my production house,” Dunford explained, although he still collaborates with other companies including Rukuz Productions, Culture Hub Recordings and 64HipHop to produce his songs and music videos. His collaborations extend to artists, as he often features or is featured in the songs of well-known Kenyan artists like Jua Cali, Sanaipei Tande, and the band Jabali Afrika.

Dunford’s latest album “Unified: Un Ultimo Ulimwengu” was released just a few months ago through his production company and is available on Spotify and other music streaming services. The album includes some upbeat songs, some gentler and grooving. Each uniquely melds reggaeton and genge styles, acoustic drum sets paired with mellow traditional African drums, jazzy Latin brass lines interspersed with electric guitar. 

The first title “Bila Baba” celebrates the role of the father in a child’s life. Featuring Jabali Afrika, this song invokes a nostalgia for childhood and captures the pain of having an absent father through the echoing of pained Swahili words like “uko wapi” (where are you?). Alongside the feeling of pain, however, the loving feeling of having a father present is emphasized through the repeating of “kukumbatia” (to hug) throughout the chorus.

The second song, “Limitations,” continues the use of open, breathy harmonies heard in the first song, but this time the voices emanate joy and encouragement. The beginning features a gentle groove, like strolling down a bustling street on a sunny tropical island. The confident, yet laid back saxophone solo at the start of the song makes way for joyful voices singing in open fourths, creating a light and upbeat sound. Later in the song, the call to “rise up” and attain “victory” complement the optimism found throughout the song.

The next song is energetic from the first beat. Titled “Maisha,” this song features Yawezekana Strong whose words, along with rapping by Samaki Mkuu, express the hard work that must be accumulated to achieve one’s goals.

“Freedom” is the longest track in the album, and it sends the message that everyone deserves love, peace, and freedom. Dunford noted that his musical collaborators are multiracial and international, and as a result, political themes arise in the music they make together. Dunford explained that his song “Freedom” is about “the way movements for freedom in each of our home countries have created more just and equitable societies, but reminds us that we still have much more work to do.” He pointed towards the amazing global support surrounding Black Lives Matter in the present moment as an example of the movement towards freedom that he encourages in this song. “Our struggles for freedom are so interconnected — and when we fight for each other and stand in solidarity with each other’s struggles for freedom, there’s no stopping us,” Dunford concluded.  

“Cease Fire” denounces violence and war, asking for a stop to abuse, rape, fighting, killing and suffering. The sharp intakes of air in the last few measures of the song create a sobbing quality that amplifies the immediacy of the message to cease fire and bring about peace. This song has a message with which many people around the world can relate, especially those who have experienced oppression or physical violence. Considering the racial injustice and violence still seen today, especially in recent times, this song may strike a chord with audiences.

The issues brought up in the next song, “Covid-19,” are also largely on people’s minds today. Many current realities are reflected in the song, like how we are faced with an “invisible enemy.” It speaks to the troubled minds of many people today, including doctors, scientists and everyday people. The song ends with a saxophone playing on the third, never fully resolving to the root of the chord, just like how we still do not know when and how the COVID-19 pandemic will end. Dunford released this song for the UNESCO-supported #DontGoViral campaign, which, in partnership with the Innovation for Policy Foundation (i4Policy), seeks to stop the “spread of disinformation and misinformation” about COVID-19 in Africa. In accordance with the goals of this campaign, Dunford released his song under a Creative Commons License, meaning anyone is free to use it. He appreciates i4Policy and UNESCO for encouraging artists to openly license their content, and he hopes that this content will help in “amplifying the message around social distancing and mask wearing, as well as spreading education about the seriousness of the virus and the devastating effects [COVID-19] had already caused.”

Next on the album is “Africa,” which, as the title suggests, celebrates the experience of being in Africa and the contributions of Africa to the world. The song starts with a tune from a kalimba-like instrument, which creates a sound like rubber balls bouncing off of musical notes. This animated, happy intro sets up the mood for the rest of the song. The upbeat and cheerful rhythm is perfect for dancing and smiling, which reflects the culture and communal nature of African music. This song includes another African musician, Achieng Guyo, who provides a higher pitched voice that helps the song more fully represent the voices and timbres of African songs. 

“Ni Wewe” and “Sunshine Queen” express love for loved ones — especially women — in our lives for their beauty, contributions, and presence. Next are “Tingisha Nywele” and “Kale Kale Bunge,” two songs that make getting up and moving to the beat irresistible. The repeated Swahili lyrics mixed with the semi-English and Spanish rap sections give the song a very danceable rhythm and fully highlight the musicians’ natural ability to seamlessly switch between languages. “Kale Kale Bunge” in particular acknowledges each of the artists and their identities in turn. Near the end of the song, the artists experiment with new sounds that contribute to the undulating rhythm.

The last song on the album is a remix of the traditional Kenyan song “Aoko,” effectively melding traditional African music styles with modern rap. This ending demonstrates that there is an immense amount of potential in melding different styles, cultures, and languages in songs, connecting audiences and musicians alike. Our world can seem divided in so many ways, but Dunford’s album gives hope that beauty and reconciliation can emerge when we bring our experiences together and listen to one another’s stories.

Contact Jocelyn Chen at jocelyn8 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Artist Spotlight: Eve La Puma ’20, actor-musician https://stanforddaily.com/2020/06/13/artist-spotlight-eve-la-puma-20-actor-musician/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/06/13/artist-spotlight-eve-la-puma-20-actor-musician/#respond Sun, 14 Jun 2020 02:28:30 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1169420 Eve La Puma '20 majored in TAPS with a minor in music (bassoon performance) and is a highly valued member of the Stanford Arts community. She celebrates her graduation this weekend with the class of 2020 and will be dearly missed.

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To round out a quarter of canceled show reviews and artist spotlights in Arts & Life, I wanted to speak with an extraordinary individual who I’ve technically known about since I walked into Dinkelspiel Auditorium four years ago. Julia “Eve” La Puma ’20 is a multi-talented musician, singer, actress and theater-maker who — though wholly unbeknownst at the time — I saw perform under the baton of Anna Wittstruck at the 2016 Stanford Symphony Orchestra (SSO) Halloween Concert. That concert with its macabre decor and costumed musicians is a quite fitting venue to overlap with someone I would get to know quite well from assistant music-directing Rams Head’s 2019 spring show “The Addams Family” and this year’s Gaieties. With the onset of COVID-19 in March, the musician-actor had to radically-rethink her intended capstone project, which blossomed into a heartwarming suite of her Stanford musical experiences this spring. 

Artist Spotlight: Eve La Puma '20, actor-musician
The promotional graphic for Eve’s joint Senior Recital through the Music Department and TAPS Capstone Project (Photo courtesy of Eve La Puma)

At the end of Week 7 spring quarter, more than 130 people signed onto a Youtube livestream to watch Eve perform her joint bassoon senior recital and Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS) capstone project. Her selected repertoire ranged from Vivaldi, Gliére and Mozart chamber pieces to Stephen Sondheim, Alan Menken and Andrew Lippa musical theater numbers and even an original composition, the delightfully meta-theatrical “Bassoon Song.” La Puma made her senior recital a “family affair,” in the literal sense that her family members performed with her and helped stage and record the recital, but also in the figurative sense in that her Stanford family came en masse to support her. During her time at Stanford, La Puma collaborated with a variety of student-artists in TAPS, ITALIC, Rams Head, [wit], SloCo and the music department, which was well-represented by the chat window buzzing with music and theater commentary for the duration of her livestream. 

The opening remarks of her bassoon instructor, Rufus Olivier, set the nostalgic-yet-celebratory tone of the event: “Eve is such a positive person, talented in not only the bassoon but also dancing and acting. During our lessons I would always ask her, ‘How would you sing that? Act that passage out,’ to look for the drama in the music. I wish I could say Eve grew so much as a musician these past four years but she was already mature beyond her age and just ripened.” 

Both Olivier and her voice teacher Kathryne Jennings, prior to “act two” of the concert reflected on how it was such a delight to work with La Puma because of her warmth, strong work-ethic and enthusiasm for performing with, mentoring and creating welcoming spaces for others. I could not help but think back to last spring when I went into the MemAud pit for “The Addams Family” opening night and found paper mache black roses on every music stand wishing every member of the 15-piece band plus the cast and staff “an unhappy opening.” La Puma during her time at Stanford cultivated the warm and fierce agape, a term which Ancient Greeks used to describe the kind of familial, friendly love that binds communities — whether hereditary or chosen  —  together. As a TAPS major and music minor, La Puma also very much embodies the Ancient Greek notion of mousike, which unlike the English term “music” encompasses instrumental music, vocal song and dance. Though La Puma’s virtual recital was incredibly noteworthy in itself, I followed up with her afterward over Zoom to discuss her artistic journey within and without Stanford.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. 

The Stanford Daily (TSD): When did you first start music lessons? Is it something you’ve done for all your life? Why music and theater? Why pursue these things at Stanford? 

Eve La Puma (ELP): Music has always been part of my life. My mom is a composer for musical theater, so, ever since I was a baby, she’d take me along to her rehearsals. She would bring a full backpack of coloring books for me, and I often would play with my sisters in the aisles of the theater. One day I saw a harpist play at church and thought “that instrument looks really cool” but knew it was good to learn piano first so I could then transition over. I started taking piano lessons in first grade and never ended up going over to the harp. In fourth grade, my mom encouraged me to choose an instrument for the school music program that a lot of other people wouldn’t want to play, so I picked the oboe. My school wasn’t going to let me play the oboe, however, because they thought it too advanced particularly since the teachers in the program only were trained in flute, clarinet [and] sax, not double reeds. But I ended up taking oboe lessons the entire summer and joined the class as an oboist. And in seventh grade, I wanted to join the most advanced ensemble at my middle school, but they already had two oboes going into eighth grade. The orchestra conductor was like, “Well if you want to play with us, you’ll have to switch to an instrument we don’t already have.” 

My mom was the one who suggested the bassoon because she had played it a little bit in high school and for one show in college and thought it might be really cool for me to pick it up. I went to high school at Orange County High School for the Arts (OCSA) and studied the bassoon through the instrumental music program, where it eventually became my primary instrument. [In high school], I definitely knew I wanted to pursue the Humanities and the Arts in some way. In my Stanford application I put that I was interested in majoring in English, theater or music. English kind of dropped off the grid, but I needed a little time to take a break from the intense instrumental music education I had in high school. So I ended up focusing on theater and declared a theater major by the end of freshman year, though I continued playing in orchestra and joined the wind quartet.

I then pursued a certificate of music in bassoon performance until this year when they [Stanford] changed the music minor. I found out I already had a music minor under their new rules, so I ended up declaring a music minor, which is nice because now it will be a more official thing. The certificate of music is an audition-based program, and you have to do a recital by the end of senior year. One of the pros of the certificate of music is that it forces you to put in the effort of doing a recital which you might not find the time for otherwise but I wanted to do one regardless. The music minor is great in getting tons of new students involved with the music department. I have so many friends who realized they accidentally have a music minor or just need one more class, which is fantastic, because it shows how many are engaging with the arts even if it’s not their main degree at Stanford. 

TSD: How would you say doing ITALIC your freshman year impacted your sense of what you wanted to do with the performing arts at Stanford? 

ELP: ITALIC is one of those programs that I understood how much of an impact it had on me after I left it. For my entire life I had been funneled through music and theater practice, so I didn’t have a lot of experience with visual art, photography or other art forms. ITALIC was really great because it exposed me to those and gave me a framework for having a conversation about them. One of the things I really appreciated about that program is that it brings together people who have spent significant time in those art practices as well as people who just have an appreciation for them and don’t necessarily make that art themselves because I think bridging the gap between consumers of the art and creators of the art led to some really interesting conversations during that year. Tons of ITALIC people are still friends, and we have a group that has been getting together to play Toontown during quarantine. I loved ITALIC because of the conversations we had and it just made it so easy to go out and engage with the things we were talking about in the real world. I took so much of it for granted, how they would arrange transportation to take us to the opera and pay for it. And now I’m realizing, “Wow, that is incredible that we got to be a part of it.” I highly recommend it. 

TSD: What did you originally plan on doing for your TAPS capstone project and how did the pandemic change that? 

ELP: Yeah, my TAPS capstone had kind of a wild journey. I had originally planned on doing “Fun Home” at the beginning of this year with a couple of other friends and do sort of a joint-capstone like “Next to Normal.” We had everyone we needed, TAPS was like, “This is great!” but then we were denied rights to the show. So then we were like, “Okay, let’s find something else.” We briefly considered “Spelling Bee” and then wanted to do “Heathers” in winter quarter. We got midway through fall quarter and my voice teacher noted that “You haven’t started casting and you don’t have a lot of the positions filled.” The show would have gone up Week 7 this year but because of Gaieties, Brenna [McCulloch ’20] and I wouldn’t be able to get involved until Week 1 winter quarter, which we realized would be insane. Brenna and I signed on to do “Midsummer’s Nights Dream, and we got cast as Helena and Hermia, which was gonna be super fun but then COVID hit, and the show had to be canceled. Brenna made Gaieties her capstone retroactively and I did the recital since voice and bassoon was already what I was going to be working anyway. I view myself as an actor-musician so it felt right to me to have my capstone be something where I got to showcase both of those skills. 

TSD: Do you want to reflect briefly on the music and theater productions you did at Stanford? 

ELP: Yeah, let me just look at my resume just to make sure I have all of them. Here we go! Freshman fall I started off with “The Merchant of Venice” with [wit], a gender-conscious theater company which sadly was crowded about by the sheer amount of theater that happens on campus. But for the first couple years at Stanford they were the ones who I felt the most community with. So I played Antonio in the “Merchant of Venice.” I have a lot of love for that production. We tried to do some really interesting things with a story that is very problematic and hard to tell. I met some of my best friends on that show. And then I was in a TAPS Department show “Disillusion,” which started as a staged reading written by Clay Slang ’18 but ended up becoming a full production in Prosser. I was in the “Wild Party ensemble that spring in my first Rams Head production. The next fall I did “Hamlet” with [wit], and I got to play Polonius, one of my favorite roles at Stanford. 

I actually auditioned for “Chicago” with Rams Head and hadn’t gotten cast so I was in this little rut where I was like, “Can I even do musical theater?” You know, having a little crisis. A week after Chicago auditions, however, I auditioned for TAPS’ “Next to Normal” and the only role that was left open was Dr. Fine and Dr. Madden. I thought “they are not going to cast me because it is traditionally a male role” but after I auditioned the director said, “Great, let’s make it a female role!” And since I’m a contralto, we didn’t have to change the key signature for any of the songs. I did “Dr. Voynich and her children” with [wit] that spring where I played a character named Hannah. I did “A Little Night Music” through the music department and co-produced “Stop Kiss” with [wit] winter quarter and “Addams Family” spring quarter. I actually had not planned on auditioning for “Addams Family” until mid-way through fall quarter because I was like, “You know I didn’t get into “Chicago,” I think I’ll devote all my energy to [wit] this year,” but my friends encouraged me to audition and I was like, “You know why not? It would be fun to do another musical,” and I’m so glad that I did. I also stage-managed the stand-up comedy show “Lighten Up” for my TAPS stage management project at the end of junior year, which was really fun. Music-wise I played with the Stanford Wind Quartet for 2 ½ years — from the end of freshman year through this fall — and was in SSO my freshman year. 

TSD: When did you start planning your capstone in the form that it took as a Youtube livestream? 

ELP: I first started talking about doing a senior recital with Kathryne and Rufus last year as I always knew  I would love to do a half-bassoon, half-voice recital. I have taken bassoon every single quarter since starting at Stanford and voice every quarter since sophomore year. When we knew that we weren’t going to be coming back and that it wouldn’t be possible to do it in person, I had already been working on this [recital] and getting excited about it for so long. But I knew I could call on my family to “Please accompany me!” and they would leap up and help me so there was never a question of whether I would do the recital. As time went on, my family just kept practicing together and we were like, “What if we had Cece play the cello?” What if we had mom play the harpsichord? And the electric piano? Why not?” We’re a very “yes and…” family which made it really exciting. I toyed with the idea of making it live but I got really nervous about WiFi being a problem. And after watching the Worker’s Benefit Cabaret, I realized I really liked how they did the premiere. It was pre-recorded but you’re watching it with people so you keep the communal sense of being in this musical space together. I texted Kaitlyn [Khayat ’21] and Vincent [Nicandro ’20] so many questions — “How do you set this up? How does Youtube work?” — and they were extremely helpful.

TSD: How did you choose your musical theater songs? Had you performed any of those classical pieces before or did you intentionally try to learn any new repertoire for the recital? 

ELP: It was a mix. For “Just Around the Corner,” I thought it would be fun to do a throwback to that show because that was my favorite performing experience as an actor on this campus. There were a couple songs on the program that I had worked on early on with Kathryne in lessons: “Pretty Funny” and “You Can Always Count on Me.” “Pretty Funny” I had a lot of trouble with the first time I performed it. I get really nervous about using both my mix and my head-voice because I’m just so comfortable in the lower, chesty part of my voice. So I wanted to do it again after three years of voice lessons to see how it felt different and easier to do now. And it definitely did, which was very gratifying. “Poor Unfortunate Souls” and “Losing My Mind” I had been working on this year in voice lessons and I felt really great about them and thought it would be fun to throw them into the mix. 

TSD: What’s the story behind your original composition “The Bassoon Song”?  

ELP: I had worked on Goldrich and Heisler’s “Alto’s Lament” in voice lessons before, a hilarious song about how this girl wants to sing the melody-line but always got cast in alto roles. In the middle of the song there’s this breakout moment where she sings a bunch of famous musical theater songs but just the alto line. So it’s like, [Eve breaks out in song]: “the hills are alive with the song of music!” and it’s just so funny. My mom and I got inspired by that and I was like, “What if I did something like that with the bassoon?” I originally planned on making fun of the bassoon the whole time but people make fun of the bassoon all the time. Let’s make fun of the bassoon a little bit but also make it a positive thing, express “look how great the bassoon is!” and “here’s some melodies that you might recognize [such as Peter and the Wolf, Rite of Spring and Fantasia].” I sent lyrics to my mom by the end of fall quarter, three stanzas of complete lyrics plus a bunch of random notes and bassoon jokes about “the spit” or “the stand-up comics.” My mom is a really great composer because she takes the ideas and words the lyricist puts in front of her and crafts them to fit the music she is thinking of and I led her to take the lead. We have discussed doing a nicer recording in the recording studio. I could fix that high D that didn’t want to speak when I debuted the song at my recital. 

TSD: How would you say your bassoon studies inform your theater and dance practice? 

ELP: Strong musical training is helpful with dance just because I can use the rhythm of this is where the down beat, the music is. Music sticks in my brain really easily, better than anything else, so I would associate the dance move with the music that plays with it to help with memorization. I’ve taken a couple dance classes at Stanford, some social dance, which has been really fun because I never worked on that before. Partner dance is challenging in a whole different way. I took “Social Dance” last winter quarter which was also when we were learning the majority of “Addams” so it was the same thing — I was learning how to be a better partner in class and using that to practice with Rio [Padilla-Smith ’19] on the side. I think the times [my music brain] got me in trouble was when in social dance classes I was like, “This is the down beat! This is when we do the move.” But some partners don’t have the musical background so the music is there but they are not really keeping in time with it. It was a great experience to learn how to let go [and] say, “Okay I am doing the follow-position, I’m going to follow you.” It was actually much more fun to let go of that metronomic part of my mind and lean into the moves together in our own time. 

TSD: How did rehearsing for your recital in quarantine give your music new meaning? Did you consider audience reception of your particular song choices? 

ELP: Definitely for “Just Around the Corner.” I talked to Kathryne, asking “is this too morbid?” but we decided that people would associate it with a role I played and I put in a little disclaimer before the song that “I wanted to do this song because I have really fond memories of performing it last spring.”  “Just Around the Corner” was also weird to do at my recital because I was so used to doing it with a full orchestra and ensemble. I felt more pressure to fill in some of the silences that would normally be filled by other stuff. There is the inherent joy of “I’m performing with my mom and I know this song super well which I know so well” though and  I was really happy to call back on the muscle memory to perform with just piano and make it its own thing. One song that ended up resonating with me in a really interesting way that I didn’t expect was “Losing My Mind” because of some of the lyrics. I started thinking about Stanford and having the end of my Stanford experience be off-campus and separate from this entity. Even if it’s not another person, it’s like “I think about you/the coffee cup/I think about you.” That’s how I go through my days: Whatever I’m doing, I’m thinking about Stanford in the back of my head. That helped me approach the song but made performing it a lot more emotional versus other songs that were just lots of fun to perform. 

TSD: To what extent do you think your audience was different than if you had a traditional senior recital back on campus? 

ELP: One nice thing about recording ahead of time was that we were able to have the comments section up while we were watching the video. It made me so happy to see what people were saying on the side, the jokes like, “Don’t applaud between movements.” It helped with that community feel and it was so lovely to see what people were saying. A lot of my Stanford musical theater friends were there as well as a lot of family members who live in Mexico and they sent me a message the day after, “We watched your recital, it was really great.” Many of them would’ve never seen it otherwise because it would be a lot for them to travel up to Northern California. The Zoom reception gradually dwindled down to just my family members and teachers talking, the people who have seen me grow up and encouraged me to pursue music plus my professors who have gotten to be such a significant part of my life. In some ways, it had a larger audience and a larger audience of people really important to me and I think that’s definitely a positive thing to come out of having to do it online. 

TSD: What is your favorite role that you played in a Stanford show?

ELP: Morticia. It’s fun to be a character that’s adored by all the other characters and feel graceful. I think also that the rehearsal staff on that show was just so good. It was fun to be in rehearsal and to stay after rehearsal with other cast members just working “cause we didn’t want to go home.” I love musicals because they challenge me — I get a lot of stage fright about singing — so I felt like it was a real moment of growth for me to do that role and also such a delight to get to play it. The most challenging number was “Secrets” because it goes up into this really high belt and I couldn’t figure out how to place that for a while, which was something I worked on with Camilla Hayashi ’19. “Tango [de Amor]” was a close second cause I never tangoed before and there were a lot of new skills I had to pick up — and in those [stiletto] shoes. One show I had been walking around and I was like, “Kaitlyn, these feel super wobbly, I’m really worried about doing the tango tonight.” She came backstage during Intermission and filed down the ends of my shoes. It was great. Rio, Kaitlyn, everyone was there, being like “alright Eve, you and your shoes will get through the Tango.” 

TSD: Given your strong vocal and orchestral background, did you ever music-direct any shows at Stanford? Who is your favorite music or vocal director you worked with on a show and why? 

ELP: I actually applied for music director or vocal director for Gaieties this year because I was worried about having my evenings full during the week as a Donner RA [resident assistant]. I knew that my skills and experience served me better as a vocal director, however, and I was delighted that was what I ended up doing. I was surprised how much I enjoyed being a teacher to the point where I can see myself crafting an artistic career where vocal directing is very much a part of that. The hardest song to rehearse was “Be Okay” because there were so many harmony parts. Trenton Chang ’20 and Liam Fay ’22 wrote some great harmonies in that show, but training my ear to hear eight different lines and who was off-key was really difficult. My favorite song was “Sandstone Walls” because it was just gorgeous and I loved working with the leads and getting into the nitty-gritty of placement and vowel shape — stuff you don’t  have time for in larger groups. My experience in conducting is mostly through the 9 p.m. Catholic mass, and we occasionally have musicians. So I have conducted both musicians and singers at the same time but certainly not to the level of a full orchestra. One of my absolute favorite music directors that I worked with was Chris Yoon ’19 for SLoCo’s “Phantom of the Opera.” He’s so intentional about the music and knows exactly what he wants and is good at drawing that out of his musicians in a way that is both time-efficient and very kind. 

TSD: What are your next steps you hope to take with making music and theater beyond Stanford? 

ELP: It’s kind of a terrifying time for going into an arts field. I had been planning to just start auditioning for things once I had left school and I had a summer internship working for a theater company in New York but they ended up having to cancel that. It was very sad. Right now, the plan is still to go into the arts. For now, the next year or so I’m gonna have to be doing some internship somewhere probably in a not-arts related field. I want to use the extra time to pick up some other instruments that might be more useful for doubling in pit orchestras. I want to learn some flute, clarinet, saxophone so I can play some more reed books. Musical theater reed books are written for people that play saxophone, bassoon, bass clarinet and stuff like that but right now I only have oboe and bassoon and they usually don’t put those two together in the orchestration. Yeah, I don’t really know what the future will hold but my hope is to someday go to grad school for musical theater and get more specific training in the field. It’s sort of wide open, which is both exhilarating and terrifying. 

Contact Natalie Francis at natfran ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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The Off the Farm ‘Benefit Cabaret’: Finding permanence in a time (and art form) of transience https://stanforddaily.com/2020/05/25/the-off-the-farm-benefit-cabaret-finding-permanence-in-a-time-and-art-form-of-transience/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/05/25/the-off-the-farm-benefit-cabaret-finding-permanence-in-a-time-and-art-form-of-transience/#respond Tue, 26 May 2020 03:30:43 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1168414 The Off the Farm Benefit Cabaret was live-streamed at 7 p.m. PT on Friday, May 8. The event simultaneously showcased the talents of many Stanford performers and fundraised for the Stanford Students for Worker's Rights Fund.

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Backstage before a high school theater opening night: Kristin, a first soprano, paces through the hallway, doing lip trills that straddle the fine line between impressive and obnoxious. Alissa and Rian, featured dancers, stretch out their arms and legs while awkward, 14-year-old boys sitting at the other end of the green room pretend not to notice. The secrets of last night’s final dress rehearsal fiasco travel through the gossip mill, reaching everybody from Zach, the varsity football quarterback who also happens to play the male lead in tonight’s show, to me, a sophomore singing one line in the opening number that is much, much, much too high for her.  

The atmosphere is loud, chaotic, hectic. 

Five minutes before the stage manager calls places, the cast piles into the green room, water polo players squished next to theater fanatics, cheerleaders, marching band members and AP Honors kids. Just a sea of excited, nervous teenagers, impossible to tell who is who anymore. A calmness fills the room. Mr. Johnson, my director, speaks.  

“The best thing about theater is that it is fleeting. You will never get to do this same thing, with this same group of people, ever again. So enjoy it. Enjoy tonight.” 

I’ve been thinking about this pre-show speech a lot, lately. The built-in brevity of theater, the consequences of loving something with a predetermined deadline. The idea of art that is fleeting in its nature, but permanent in its beauty and impact. 

After working on six theater productions on Stanford’s campus with two different student organizations and the TAPS department, having Ram’s Head Theatrical Society’s spring production of “Pippin” canceled due to COVID-19, and feeling isolated in quarantine, I felt the transience of community and theater just as strongly as I did in high school. Except now, along with an appreciation of theater’s beautiful impermanence, there is a small tinge of sadness for what never got to be. Not just for the cancellation of “Pippin,” but for the countless other spring student art projects that also never came to fruition. 

Arriving home to Southern California, I felt lost and scared of what the future might bring, or, perhaps more accurately in this day and age, what it might take away. 

Then came news of auditions for the Benefit Cabaret. 

The Benefit Cabaret was a YouTube livestream of various campus performers on Friday, May 8, with all proceeds benefiting the Students for Workers’ Rights (SWR) organization, a cause helping subcontracted Stanford workers during this economically challenging time of COVID-19. 

In an interview with Kaitlyn Khayat ’21, a lead organizer for the project, she said that the idea for a virtual cabaret sprang forth when her initial plan to host a 24-Hour Musical through Ram’s Head Theatrical Society this coming spring quarter fell through. After seeking the support and feedback of other theater students, Khayat recounted that she quickly formed a little task force consisting of Vincent Nicandro ’20, Grace Davis ’22, Lizzie Avila ’23 and herself. 

“We each tackled different areas of the project,” Khayat said. “I worked really heavily with recruiting people to be a part of it. And then the marketing aspect, Vincent was all about the graphic design and the video editing. Lizzie was our contact with SWR, she helped get the videos from them. And then Grace worked on organizing the program as a whole and kind of giving it a sense of structure, creating a good flow for it.”

Khayat, a current board member of Ram’s Head Theatrical Society and incoming Executive Producer for the 2020-21 season, said that the most meaningful experience she had while working on the project was “watching my phone as all the Venmo payments came in … It was like a little treat every time my phone buzzed. During the cabaret and, even now, I’m still getting emails of people wanting their donations to be matched … It was great. The little high from seeing all the donations is probably my favorite part, because, for me, it’s like a marker that it was successful and people were seeing it and cared enough to donate.”

When asked about the transition from planning on-campus theater productions to a virtual cabaret, Khayat laughed as she admitted that the virtual cabaret may have been easier to plan than in-person performances. 

“There’s a certain excitement about live theater. Is it gonna work? Are we gonna be able to get this done? That’s where the excitement comes from, for me,” Khayat said. “There’s so many ways it could go wrong, but yet, somehow, it all goes right … We had the video done several days in advance. I was still nervous, wanting it all to go well and for people to show up, but I don’t think there was the same thrill of live theater that I get when I do shows in person.” 

Although it was true that the Benefit Cabaret missed the palpable buzz from an excited audience or the rapturous applause after a solo, Kaitlyn and I agreed that the best part of theater, the community that it can build, was present as the video streamed that Friday night. 

“One thing that made me personally really happy was to get to see everyone again. As cheesy as it sounds, one of the main reasons I do theater is for the people … That’s one of my biggest draws to the art,” Khayat said. “And, in that way, the Benefit Cabaret was kind of a self-serving way of getting to see people, and watch them perform and be amazing, and use my ability to organize – in a very literal sense, email-sending, list-making – to make that happen and hopefully bring that sense of connection to other people watching.” 

I felt it was best to sing a piece from “Pippin,” so I chose “I Guess I’ll Miss the Man,” a song Catherine, the character I was cast to play, sings as Pippin leaves her and her son behind in search of greener pastures and the most “perfect finale.” The song ends as quietly as it begins, building up to a belty flourish in the bridge and a sudden crashing down in the last verse. It was the one song that I felt I never captured quite right, emotionally. In rehearsal, our director, Grace Wallis ’20, likened it to speaking a eulogy at a close friend’s funeral: sad, of course, but ultimately celebratory and thankful for your time together. As the rehearsal process went on, I kept telling myself that I would eventually find the emotional depth to perform the song correctly, but, sadly, my time ran out and I never quite got there. Even after filming that last take of the song that eventually made it into the Benefit Cabaret, I wondered if even that was close enough to the gravity of loss and gratitude I was supposed to convey. 

Filming my video for the cabaret was easy enough. It involved a clumsy structure of an ironing board, two boxes and a beat, hardcover version of “Leaves of Grass” to hold up my phone to film, a few test shots to get the right lighting and a perfect first take where I forgot to press the record button. Fairly low-effort and low-excitement. 

Still, as I watched my computer screen fill with the faces of so many people I loved and admired on May 8, I felt the similar feeling of excitement, pride and anticipation that I chased all throughout high school, and my first five quarters of performing at Stanford. 

I watched one of my first friends at Stanford, “Gaieties 2018” freshman hero, JRo dorm buddy and now-fellow TriDelt Lizzie Dowdle ’22 sing “Times Are Hard For Dreamers” from “Amelie,” her voice light and concise to begin, until releasing traces of an effortless vibrato in the chorus as she transitioned into a strong mix. I noticed, also, that her hair had grown longer, and wondered how long it will be until the next time I see her. 

When Vincent Nicandro’s face popped up on my screen, for just a brief moment I was reminded of my first-ever performance at Stanford, a staged reading of Julia Cho’s “The Language Archive” with the Asian American Theater Project my freshman fall. As musically gifted as he is with graphic design, Vincent’s rendition of “Out There” from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” highlighted his deep, chilly baritone and the solemnity of his acting choices reminded me of his great ability for empathy, both onstage and off. 

And finally, the Benefit Cabaret reminded me that there are still people, both in the theater community and the whole student population, that I have yet to meet. Levi Lian ’21 put on perhaps my favorite performance of the entire night, a one-man version of the charming duet “It Only Takes A Taste” from “Waitress,” singing both the female and male verses back to himself as he sits on a park bench. His tenor is clear and adorably demure, perfect for the premise of the flirty tune.

My fingers flew across my keyboard throughout the entire streaming, sending virtual love and praise to friends, some of them thousands of miles away. 

You will never get to do this same thing, with this same group of people, ever again.”

We, as college students, artists and human beings, are living in unprecedented times, wrought with fear, uncertainty and far too many questions with not nearly enough answers. We are living through a major moment in history, even if it feels like it is characterized by the mundane routine of being stuck at home, day in and day out. 

So enjoy it. Enjoy tonight.”

If I’m being honest, I still feel just as lost and scared as I did when I arrived home almost three months ago. If I’ve learned anything while in quarantine, it’s that nothing is for certain. I’m working to not take the beautiful things in my life for granted: Late mornings on my porch with my parents as my mom waters her roses, a random text from Lizzie about a crazy dream of hers I was featured in and theater. I’m learning to embrace the fleeting nature of this art form that I love so much, and celebrating the moments it chooses to remind me of its longstanding power.  

When speaking on the $11,826 raised for SWR, Khayat remembered feeling proud and surprised.

“If we even raised $1000, I would be really happy. And the fact that we exceeded that … Woah. That’s crazy,” Khayat said.

I agree, Kaitlyn. For a performance that streamed online for only 48 hours, $11,826 feels pretty permanent. 

Contact Justine Sombilon at jsombilo ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Voices of Canceled Stanford Shows: Producing a concert at the end of the world https://stanforddaily.com/2020/05/08/voices-of-canceled-stanford-shows-producing-a-concert-at-the-end-of-the-world/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/05/08/voices-of-canceled-stanford-shows-producing-a-concert-at-the-end-of-the-world/#respond Fri, 08 May 2020 07:39:21 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1167505 At the time, I had no idea that it would be the last concert I would be able to attend for the foreseeable future, or that I would become so nostalgic for that act of gathering in a large group of friends and strangers.

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On the evening of March 4 in the middle of Week 9, around 100 students gathered at Kairos for an event I had been planning all winter quarter. ‘Indie Nights: An Evening with The Grinns’ was the first show I was able to produce through Stanford Concert Network (SCN). At the time, I had no idea that it would be the last concert I would be able to attend for the foreseeable future, or that I would become so nostalgic for that act of gathering in a large group of friends and strangers. Despite my planning months in advance, the show almost fell apart in the few days leading up to it, between the University’s COVID-19 response and last-minute set changes — a producer’s worst logistical nightmare. Looking back on the experience, I know that the night only was a success thanks to all the help offered by my hardworking, passionate peers in SCN.

Deceptively smooth sailing

SCN has given me the opportunity to create the kind of invigorating, intensely personal music experiences I have always relished as a concert-goer. Before I could even stand up and dance, my parents took me to concerts in a stroller. From small outdoor Bluegrass shows viewed from lawn chairs during hot Georgia summers, to local indie bands playing in grimy bars in Cincinnati, live music has always been in the air I breathe.

At Admit Weekend, I discovered SCN — an entire organization dedicated to organizing, promoting and attending concerts on campus. They had brought an impressive roster of acts to campus across a variety of genres, from Fetty Wap and Post Malone to MGMT and Glass Animals. I decided right then that this group would be a priority for me.

After a year of being mentored by the club’s directors and producers and getting as involved as I could be as a first-year member, I was lucky enough to be elected a producer for the 2019-20 school year. This meant that I was allotted my own slice of the club’s budget and free rein to organize one to two on-campus shows throughout the school year. Of course, all this was to be done under the watchful and necessary guidance of the club’s directors and seasoned producers, for I personally knew almost nothing about all the steps involved in making these things happen.

After going through producer training and researching local indie bands in fall quarter, I reached out to my top two artists over winter break — The Grinns, an indie surf rock five-piece band from Orange County, and High Sunn, a bedroom pop group from San Mateo, led by prolific young songwriter Justin Cheromiah. Both bands agreed to play my show, so I was able to book an exciting double-headliner. My friend and favorite student musician Jacob Eisenach ’22 agreed to open the show with his band eisenach, which I knew would draw a crowd of his student friends and fans, even on a Wednesday night in Week 9.

Many long email chains later, I had the venue reserved and the acts officially booked, and it was only the end of January. It felt like the hardest part was done. February consisted of making sure I would have all the people I needed the day of the show, for things like lighting, tech, hospitality and photography. As the date of the show approached two weeks out, I tapped into the social media influence of SCN members to market the event to the general student body. Enough of my friends assured me they would come that I slowly gained confidence that there would be a crowd, and the show wouldn’t flop.

A week before the show, everything was in place — or so I thought. I knew that various unexpected problems would arise in planning any show, but with the coronavirus pandemic on the horizon, this show ended up throwing me more curveballs than I ever imagined possible.

A series of crises averted

Monday, March 2, two days before the show

As I was checking my morning email, I received a message from Justin of High Sunn, informing me that he sadly would not be able to make his set due to a pressing family emergency. I was very dismayed that I wouldn’t be able to have such a talented and young Bay Area artist at my show, who I had really been looking forward to seeing live, but family absolutely comes first. I could bring High Sunn to campus hopefully at a later date. It seemed like dumb luck at this point that I had booked two headliners, when most shows of this size only have one. The Grinns with eisenach opening would still make a great set, and I did not have to scramble to replace a headliner in two days or cancel the show. Sad news, but not crisis-inducing.

Tuesday, March 3, the day before the show

I received the first of what would become a continuous stream of stress-inducing emails from the University concerning COVID-19, which we are all too familiar with now. It announced that all gatherings of 150 or more people on campus were banned, effective the next day, March 4. The day of my show! This put me in a panic — I wracked my brain for the official capacity of Kairos we had stated in the contract, which I believe was 150 people exactly. Would the show be canceled? Even if it happened, would anyone come now in light of this news?

Later that evening at our club meeting, the directors informed me they had gotten official approval from the administration for my show at Kairos to go on, though they had to make the sad announcement that Loveapalooza with Jean Deaux that Saturday was canceled. Crisis averted, barely.

Wednesday, March 4, the day of the show

The directors told me to clear my schedule, as I would need to be on call all day for anything that might come up. I thought this was surely an exaggeration. It was not.

I woke up to a text from my student opener Eisenach, telling me that he had come down with an illness and likely would not be well enough to perform his set by the evening. 

This was crushing news — Eisenach’s live sets are always an absolute blast, and I knew many people were planning on attending the show to see him specifically. If Murphy’s Law needed more proof, here it was. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for a day of frantic, relentless texts and phone calls. 

Fortunately, SCN as a club is very well connected to the student musicians on campus. The directors pulled some strings, and before 2 p.m., we had not one but two acts accept our offer to perform a short opening set for The Grinns — Marco Zocco ’21 from student rock band Margin of Error, and Mike Mulshine, a grad student solo artist. 

I was relieved that we would still have legitimate student openers for the show, but I already felt like the show had changed so much from what I had envisioned that it hardly felt like my own anymore. Only one out of three bands that I thought would play just days ago would be there now.

This was only the beginning of many obstacles we faced in pulling the event together that day, from endless technical difficulties to scheduling conflicts with students working the show, and it is truly only through the resourcefulness and tenacity of my fellow students in SCN that we were able to get things in order, so that the artists could play their sets and the crowd could have a great time.

I was overcome by a strange realization as we were scrambling to put everything together in the last couple hours before the show: All of these people who I was “in charge of” each knew way more about what was going on than I did. As the leader, really my whole job was to make sure everyone showed up and to know who to direct each question and concern to. When it came to managing any specific aspect of the show, like tech or hospitality, I was just learning on the fly, and I had to fully trust the people I had on those jobs. But standing as I was with a birds-eye view, it was amazing to see how everyone came through and made each piece of the show function.

Bella Cooper ’20, one of SCN’s fearless leaders and a director for two years now, despite her busy schedule the week of my show, gave me perhaps the most crucial advice of the whole night, advice that I kept running through my head over and over the day of, when it felt like everything was going wrong. She told me that things will go wrong, and that there will be unexpected problems day-of. Yet ultimately, no matter what, someone is going to get up on stage and play music, and people are going to show up and have a good time listening. And of course, she was right.

The big night

Our soundcheck ran late, and we had awkward pauses for technical difficulties, but once the music really got going, none of that seemed to matter to anybody. Marco Zocco was the first one on stage: jeans, a black T-shirt, shaggy hair and an acoustic guitar. I was hearing his music for the first time like everyone else there, and to my relief, he was a powerful stage presence and an absolute crowd pleaser with a rich, crooning voice. Mike Mulshine followed, a charismatic one-man show who rapped deftly over jazzy piano beats that filled the room with wholesome vibes. These two new opening acts brought their own unique sounds to the table, all while energizing the crowd in anticipation of The Grinns’ set.

All the while, friends and strangers were trickling into Kairos. Some were there because I coerced them to be, some were there as fans of The Grinn’s or the opening acts, and some were there just there to enjoy the last Wine & Cheese Night of the quarter. But as I continually scanned the crowd of smiling faces, a strange magical feeling filled my heart, that mix of joy approaching overstimulation you feel when you bring your friends from different social circles all together in one place. All the stress and all the hours we had put into this show were instantly worth it when I got to see all these people having a good time together, and to feel like I had a small part in infusing their lives with those little moments of joy that we all live on.

When The Grinns finally took the stage and we got the tech adjusted to their impressive five-piece setup, the crowd went crazy. When you bring a real professional band to play a college house party, people aren’t expecting it. The Grinns’ massive sound commanded the crowd’s attention and the compulsive dancing began, only to increase its fervor with each song. 

The Grinns played an amazing set of hits from their two albums “Golden Hour” (2018) and “Let the Daze Go” (2019). I was delighted to find that they are a group that shines at their best live — songs which were enjoyable as recordings became sublime when their sound filled the Kairos common room. The Grinns’ interspersed their originals with familiar covers adored by the crowd such as the Beatles’ “White Album”’s fun and folky “Rocky Racoon,” indie band staple “Valerie,” The Kink’s head-banger “All Day and All of the Night,” and a crowd-demanded encore of Frank Ocean’s “Sweet Life.” Lead singer Joey Kolk’s uniquely powerful voice was a highlight of the original songs and impeccably executed covers alike. I was dancing as hard as anyone in the room when they played their irresistibly danceable single “Why Do You Lie,” which was the song that first made me fall in love with them.

Even after The Grinns had finished and were packing away their equipment, people lingered in the space, taking in the vibes, chatting up the band members. I was practically glowing as I bounced around the room between each of my friends who had come in throughout the show, thanking them for their presence. As the room emptied out, I had no idea that I wouldn’t see most of those people again until next school year, if ever. I had no idea that this night had barely slipped through the cracks of a global crisis which would isolate us all for at least many months to come.

Life in a world without concerts

Even though so many adjustments had to be made from my original plan, and even though it was far from a technically perfect evening, I was truly thrilled with all the sets that were played and with all the people who came through, to unknowingly celebrate the transition from what now feels like one era of our lives to an entirely different one.

The following week, classes were moved fully online to finish out winter quarter, and the SCN directors announced that all of our events, not just for the rest of winter, but for the entire spring quarter as well, were canceled. As any Stanford student would know, spring is widely considered the most fun time to be on campus, partially because of the warm weather, and partially because for some reason, the warm weather makes people realize they should maybe not take 22 units and instead enjoy their lives a little. Accordingly, spring is always the best quarter for concerts, and SCN already had 10 events in the works. This included the 2020 Frost Music Festival, this year with headliners Mac DeMarco and The Marias. As one of the club’s vocal indie fans, it was especially heart-breaking not to see this amazing show pan out. The world had changed so much and so rapidly in one week, for me and for all students, that this news didn’t surprise me at all, nor did the announcement another week later that spring quarter would be entirely online for the duration of the quarter.

Going to a concert today sounds like a fantasy, the complete antithesis to everything we are supposed to be doing to protect ourselves from COVID-19 today. When I think back to shows I’ve been to at crowded music festivals or huge venues, these are events where thousands of people not only crowd together, but the typical rules of personal space tend to fully disintegrate. In the impossibly dense crowds you find in the pit, it’s entirely normal to be pressed up against people you’ve never met, to have their sweat and their breath in your face. It’s this very strange closeness, this pure collectivity which is hard to come by in daily life, but which many people find so nourishing to the spirit.

For those of us who love going to concerts, it’s hard having lost that part of our lives in this moment, but for the people who make their living organizing and promoting these events, as well as the musicians who perform them, the situation is genuinely dire, and they need our support. Many small artists are posting their personal Venmos and Patreon accounts to their social media during this time, and donating to these is certainly the most effective way to make sure your money goes directly to the musicians you love and not to large companies. Click here or here for articles that list lots of other ways you can support musicians and music-industry workers through this pandemic. 

Whenever it is safe for us all to gather close together again and let our bodies be moved by sounds, I know we will do it with more joy and more gratitude than we ever have. And whenever we are back on campus, you can be certain that SCN will be throwing its most exciting events ever, for all of us to reconnect with each other and with the music that binds us.

When the time comes, I hope I’ll see you all in the pit.

Acknowledgements: I want to thank Bella Cooper for always answering my endless questions, knowing what to do, and providing so many words of encouragement and inspiration; Dante Zakhidov for training me in producing, for always making me stay on top of things, and for being there the day of my show to help me navigate the challenges; Cooper Reed and Ricky Young for working through an extremely difficult tech set up; Federico Reyes for helping me quickly find a replacement opener; Mira Guleri for taking care of hospitality; Matt Simon for creating an amazing professional light set-up; Chloe Peterson-Nafziger and Maya Shetty for taking beautiful photos; and everyone in SCN for being amazing friends that put in so much work to foster the live music scene on our campus and to create so many meaningful experiences for its students. I cannot wait to be back on campus with you guys soon.

Contact Carly Taylor at carly505 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Voices of Canceled Stanford Shows: Sarah Mergen ’19 on adapting Shakespeare and directing ‘HAL’ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/05/01/voices-of-canceled-stanford-shows-sarah-mergen-19-on-adapting-shakespeare-and-directing-hal/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/05/01/voices-of-canceled-stanford-shows-sarah-mergen-19-on-adapting-shakespeare-and-directing-hal/#respond Fri, 01 May 2020 07:05:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1167119 Sarah Mergen ‘19 is/was the director and playwright of TheaterLab’s “HAL" (2020). Adapted from Shakespeare’s “Henry IV Parts One & Two,” the futuristic multimedia show would have graced campus last Thursday through Saturday with the misadventures of the timeless rogue Falstaff and his royal mentee Hal.

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Sarah Mergen ’19 is/was the director and playwright of TheaterLab’s “HAL” (2020). Adapted from Shakespeare’s “Henry IV Parts One & Two,” the futuristic multimedia show would have graced campus last Thursday through Saturday with the misadventures of the timeless rogue Falstaff and his royal mentee Hal. Like many Stanford performing-arts groups, Mergen and her company of 10-something actors and a dozen or so staff canceled their show in March due to rapid shifts in University COVID-19 policies. Given the buzz around Mergen’s highly creative, modern take on the “Henry IV” history plays, I spoke with her over Zoom about the creation and truncated production process for “HAL.” 

For Mergen, the works of William Shakespeare have profoundly shaped who she is today as a theater-maker and storyteller. Mergen grew up in a rural community where arts education was not readily available — for the first 10 years of her life, she had minimal exposure to theater. In middle school, however, when she got involved with a summer production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” through Murphys Creek Theater’s Mirror Project, Mergen was hooked. 

“Theater gave me a sense of community I never had before,” Mergen said. “I picked up on the Shakespearean language and memorization really quickly. I did ‘the theater thing’ subsequently for three summers.”

The Mirror Project staged separate “kids” and “professional” shows, and during her third summer, Mergen was fatefully asked to step in for the adult cast as Prospero in the professional production of “The Tempest.” 

Mergen said the incredible experience of playing Prospero cemented her love for acting and desire to seriously pursue theater in college: “I wanted to study acting at Stanford. Upon arriving here, though, I realized I didn’t quite have what it took. My true strengths lie in the storytelling and directorial aspects of theater, in taking a story that is already there and figuring out what works or not, as well as their relevance to today.” 

Mergen told The Daily she is interested in working with Shakespeare in ways that normally are not done.

“Sometimes Shakespeare is a little too removed from what exists today,” she said, adding, “Uncopyrighted material gives [theater-makers] a wonderful opportunity to play with larger archetypal narratives that already exist.” 

As an undergrad, Mergen directed Theater Lab’s “Go Ask Alice” (2016) and the Stanford Shakespeare Company’s (StanShakes) 2018 production of “Pericles.” The former production was a stage adaptation of Beatrice Sparks’s bestseller of the same name, which reimagined the book’s contents as a three-hour monologue split between nine actresses. StanShakes’s “Pericles,” in contrast, marked Mergen’s directorial debut both with a full-length play and Shakespeare. Similar to her experience playing Prospero as a teenager, the thrill of directing a Shakespeare show performed for a sold-out audience all three nights of its run made Mergen want to direct another show immediately after. Mergen made only a few narrative tweaks and revisions to Pericles and knew she wanted to “take Shakespeare much farther,” which she certainly would have accomplished with “HAL.”

Mergen told The Daily how her desire to work with Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” plays through “HAL” stemmed from her experience watching the Canadian Stratford Festival’s “Breath of Kings: Rebellion & Redemption” (2016). The production merged Shakespeare’s history plays “Richard II,” “Henry IV Parts One and Two” and “Henry V” into a four-hour show, split in two halves. Mergen notes how the show was not only “one of the best shows I’ve ever seen in my whole life,” but, more importantly, introduced her to Falstaff and his unique dynamic with the young crown prince Henry V, or Hal.

Shakespeare’s Falstaff is the archetypal rogue who flouts society’s expectations. As one of the Bard’s best-written characters, Falstaff offers the audience a sort of wish fulfillment with the caveat that, as the rogue, he must always be punished in the end. Mergen’s “HAL” takes as its jumping-off point the inevitability of Hal rejecting Falstaff as their mentor figure to accept their kingship. Mergen told The Daily how she felt particularly drawn to the Hal-Falstaff relationship because, for her, it raises questions of what it means to “realize one’s potential” relevant to the lives of Stanford students expected to “go out and do amazing things and be successful.” Through “HAL,” Mergen wanted to challenge whether Hal’s choice to reject Falstaff in the end is actually a good one, and if there is fulfillment outside of our modern capitalist society’s definition of potential. 

When The Daily asked Mergen to give an elevator pitch for her play, she described “HAL” as being set in the near future and centered around the two separate worlds of the Bolingbroke mega-corporation “ruled” by Henry IV and Falstaff’s underground club. Mergen initially wanted her show to be set specifically in the Berlin techno-nightclub scene, but during her year-long adaptation process decided to make it more general. A “really big” part of her directorial vision was using an alleyway stage set-up with video screens on two sides. 

“I wanted to push notions of how Shakespeare can be performed,” Mergen said. “People make a lot of assumptions about what Shakespeare can look and feel like. So I wanted my production to have an SF MOMA art-room aesthetic.”

When asked why she wanted to incorporate film into the aesthetic of her show, Mergen explained that she wanted to give her actors something to take away from the show, noting “undergraduate opportunities to participate in filmed shows are rare.” Mergen also remarked that certain elements of her directorial vision could not be realized without film. Almost all the 15th-century England battle scenes were cut because Mergen reimagined the war as a corporate scandal between Julianna Yonis 21’s Hotspur and Henry’s companies involving leaked news of corrupt management and failure to pay workers. By having the theater space exclusively populated by actors, with sets and props exchanged for urban backdrops and newsreels projected onto video screens, Mergen could focus attention on the character relationships developing onstage. 

Building character is emblematic of Mergen’s artistic process as both the director and self-proclaimed “script adaptor” of “HAL.” Mergen cites Orson Welles’s “Chimes At Midnight” (1965) movie adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” — in which Welles performs extensive character work with Falstaff — as one of her primary inspirations for her project. Mergen first developed her show concept last March in conjunction with Gracie Goheen ’20 and last April and May pitched it to Stanford Honors in the Arts and Theater Lab, respectively. When “HAL” was approved by Theater Lab, Mergen spent all summer working on the story through a creative process involving listening to music and re-reading her script multiple times to get a feel for all possible story arcs, for what scenes she wanted to keep in the show. During fall quarter, she generated various narrative outlines with post-it notes, revising the script in earnest from December through the start of cast and staff solicitation Weeks 4 and 5 of winter quarter. 

The most notable deviations from Shakespeare’s canonical “Henry IV” in Mergen’s “HAL” are not just the gender-swaps — Hal, Henry IV and Hotspur are all gendered female — but also the added complication of a romantic relationship between Hal (Paloma Aisenberg ’22) and Falstaff (David Mazouz ’23). While minimal romantic intrigue in original renditions of “Henry IV” may be reason enough to introduce new relationships, Mergen wanted to develop a Hal-Falstaff pairing for far more nuanced reasons that tie into her production’s core questions around personal potential. The Daily learned that Mergen wanted “HAL” to explore why “the rogue” is always a man, and how as a result, women historically have been able to “access the rogue” only through pursuing a romantic relationship with them — instead of obtaining that life for themselves. Mergen referred to Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swan in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise as a pop-culture example of this dynamic. While Hal’s consorting with the club-owning DJ Falstaff creates narrative tension with her conventionally successful business tycoon mom Henry IV, Hal is humbled when mom is diagnosed with cancer and publicly denounces Falstaff in the play’s finale — this time at a big corporate meeting surrounded by business executives. 

“The production ends on that note — of Hal realizing she cannot have the fulfilling life she imagined with Falstaff, and choosing instead to take on the responsibility of managing her family’s company,” Mergen explained. “The final scene had a big musical montage of what happens to Hal trying to prove to the world that she can take on the Bolingbroke company and all its responsibilities as a 25-year-old. Unfortunately, Hal does not find herself happy in the corporate business world.” 

Mergen elaborated on how “HAL” as an adaptation of a historically political theater responds to our current cultural and political moment: “The rapid momentum that our society has and by which it tells us what we need to do to be happy and successful is all within a capitalist framework. ‘HAL’ is a challenge to ‘the productivity cult’ that tells us that we have to be this one thing and the repercussions this mentality has on the mental health of young adults like Stanford students and their quality of life after Stanford. Political performance pieces should engage with politics in the place and time where things are going up. ‘HAL’ is immediately relevant to the struggles Stanford students face with realizing their potential.” 

Mergen also reflected on how she explored “a lot” with her character work with Evie Johnson ’21’s Henry IV billionaire CEO.

“Henry is sold the narrative that if she succeeds in a capitalist framework, she is empowered,” Mergen said. “But behind the optics of being a powerful feminist icon she is completely miserable. … In ‘HAL’ there was a scene in which Henry destroys a copy of Sheryl Sandberg’s book ‘Lean In,’ and I think this breakdown scene would have made a huge impact on the audience.”

Mergen’s jovial demeanor sobered when The Daily asked her to share how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the “HAL” company and describe her thoughts on the abbreviated production.

“We had a cast of 10 or so people,” she said. “Though auditions went really well, the tech hiring process did not go super smoothly. We struggled to find a sound designer and our costume designer dropped midway, but our production manager, Kerstin Heinrich ’20, covered many of the technical jobs. But as of Week Seven, we had two major videographers involved and ‘everything was pat.’ The rehearsal room is where things work best, where I have the most confidence and experience. My assistant director, Parth Garg ’23, was logging upwards of 25 hours because blocking is surprisingly difficult, and it was my first time mentoring, but also because he took on assistant producer responsibilities.” 

Mergen took a breath: “Everything was going fine — until it wasn’t. I first heard rumors about the 150-person ban in my directing and production management class. We had this one actress who was also in [Rams Head Theatrical Society’s] ‘Pippin,’ so when they cancelled rehearsals around Week 8, I was excited to suddenly have her free. We were all joking around — ‘oh, the show is going to get canceled’ — and boom, spring quarter is online. At that point, Stanford did not specify when students could come back. It’s such a bummer because if they have given us more time or a better notice of what was to come, ‘HAL’ could have gotten a full film recording. As it is, we have nothing we can salvage from the show.” 

When asked how she has coped during quarantine in light of “HAL” being canceled, Mergen looked incredibly disheartened yet persisted in her reflections: “It took me at least two weeks to process. I wasn’t in touch with my emotions, and there was this one day where I just started crying. There is technically this arts grant that I could apply for, but now I do not want to try anything because I am scared it could be ripped away again.” Mergen paused, sighing, “No one tells you how to grieve a rehearsal process.” 

*****

Despite the devastating emotional and artistic impact of the pandemic on “HAL” and so many other Stanford student-artists, April has showered this year with innovative art projects and initiatives. Stanford students have taken to social media to create wholesome new content and give heartwarming Zoom performances. Through sharing the stories of students involved with shows never performed on stage, the ongoing Arts & Life Daily series “Voices of Cancelled Stanford Shows” hopes to celebrate and bring to light art and communities otherwise perceived as lost to COVID-19. If you or someone you know has a story on the pandemic and performing-arts that you want to see represented in The Daily, please fill out this form

Contact Natalie Francis at natfran ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Artist Spotlight: Yannie Tan ’23 on being an experimental musician, Youtube creator https://stanforddaily.com/2020/04/27/artist-spotlight-yannie-tan-23-on-being-an-experimental-musician-youtube-creator/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/04/27/artist-spotlight-yannie-tan-23-on-being-an-experimental-musician-youtube-creator/#respond Mon, 27 Apr 2020 07:41:50 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1166862 With more than 180,000 subscribers and 31 million total views on her YouTube channel, Tan makes videos of piano performances, original compositions, music lessons and comedy skits beloved by fans all around the world.

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Yannie Tan ’23 is a multi-dimensional artist and YouTuber. She is a recipient of a coveted YouTube Silver Creator Award for channels with at least 100,000 subscribers. With nearly 180,000 subscribers and more than 31 million total views on her YouTube channel, Tan makes videos of piano performances, original compositions, music lessons and comedy skits beloved by fans around the world. I recently interviewed her over everyone’s favorite video call app, Zoom, about her classical pianist roots, lifelong love for composing classical and electronic music and insights on managing an influential YouTube channel. 

This transcript has been lightly edited. 

The Stanford Daily (TSD): Let’s talk about your first YouTube video. What’s the story behind that “Tom and Jerry”-inspired performance of the “Hungarian Rhapsody”?

Yannie Tan (YT): It was kind of a miracle. Actually, my YouTube channel started off a long time ago. I made it in seventh grade and I just started off posting piano performances to show my progress on classical music. Then in junior year [of high school], I started intertwining my interests in visual art, animation, and piano together. “Tom and Jerry” was one of my favorite childhood cartoon shows and I was like, “Why not combine classical music with Tom and Jerry music?” because “Tom and Jerry” uses a lot of classical music and no one really pays attention to the music. They just watch the video and find it funny, but they don’t realize that music plays a very important part in making the show funny. 

The performance was in June. When I went back to school the next year, I just told my friend that I posted the video, out of pure boredom. I was like, “Yo, share this with your friends.” But the next time my friends watched the video, they said, “Whoa, you’re famous.” It was very sudden. My friends never really thought of me as a famous person, so it was such a funny dynamic at school. And the views just started exponentially growing. It started from around 1000 views. And then 7000, then 10,000. That was the first time I’ve ever gotten to 10,000. Then it grew to the six digits and then we were like, wow, this is really exponential. Then my subscribers started adding up too, and from that video on I was able to get the YouTube Silver Play Button for 100,000 subscribers. It’s stashed somewhere else – I didn’t want to bring it to college. I am really thankful for this incredible experience. I feel like just understanding that my music can be appreciated by a larger audience other than those from my community is very, very interesting.

TSD: When you realized that a lot of strangers all around the world are watching your videos, how did that change your approach towards your channel? Did it influence your thoughts about what kind of content you want to make?

YT: Contrary to what YouTubers usually do, I didn’t really want to do what the audience wanted me to produce. So if they wanted more “Tom and Jerry” videos, I was reluctant because I wanted to expand my horizons and find other audiences who might also be interested. 

I did look at the comments and a lot of them said, “Make more of these videos.” I made three or four “Tom and Jerry” videos, and I think that was good enough for a period of time. But I thought that if I wanted to expand my creativity, I would have to move on. And if I had a loyal fan base, then I’m pretty sure they would like whatever I make. But I also wanted to just test out different types of videos to see what reactions I would get. 

But there are some comments that I’ve actually taken into account. Some of them are like, “Oh, teach me how to play piano.” I made a series to show people how to learn and understand classical music, which I think is also one of my main goals from at least a couple years ago.

TSD: So what inspired your more recent videos that are related to teaching and composing, whether it be classical or lo-fi like non-classical original music? What inspired you to move away from the performance videos?

YT: I guess after 14 years of playing classical piano, I was slightly tired. I just wanted to take a pivot and test out new things, especially in a college environment. There’s so many new things that you can learn, and that inspired me to try composing and doing things that were considered unconventional for me, and to try to apply my techniques and skills from my foundation of classical music into different genres.

TSD: I listened to “Droplet” and “Wink.” How did you learn how to compose electronically, and what are you hoping to do with non-classical, original music?

YT: It’s interesting to say this because a lot of people don’t believe me, but I think I was more of a composer than a classical musician, even from the beginning. I remember that when I was very young, I’d just go to a piano store and make my own music and play my own compositions. But I feel like I never took that seriously. And I regret that because I feel like I was always a composer from the beginning. But I definitely want to touch base with that skill and try to use whatever I have in my mind, or like whatever skills I have, like on LogicPro and GarageBand. I use those programs to test out what I can do. I know how to use those softwares because I played around with them as a little kid. So, now that I’m older, it’s like second nature to me. 

This quarter I’m also taking a film scoring class, where you write music for certain films. That’s a potential interest that I might want to do as a serious hobby. Listening to other genres like lo-fi and a lot of Kpop recently made me realize that I enjoy creating music outside the realm of classical music.   

TSD: Do you want to talk a little more about that film scoring class? 

YT: It is a recorded lecture series by our professor, John Wineglass. He is an Emmy Award winner for a TV show series. It’s really interesting to have the opportunity to work alongside such an esteemed film scorer. He’s teaching us a lot about how music can be a narrative for a story. I’ve learned so much about how to intertwine music into storytelling for visual productions, which is essentially what I wanted to do on my YouTube channel. It’s been a fun experience.

TSD: So I guess that’s really going back to where it all started. Your interest in “Tom and Jerry,” and the role that the music plays in making that cartoon so fun to watch. 

YT: Yeah, exactly. I guess it’s all film scoring on a certain level. 

TSD:  So with COVID-19 I’m sure your daily schedule changed, so maybe you have more free time. How would you say that COVID-19 has affected your creative projects or your YouTube channel?

YT: Before COVID-19, I was working on a couple of collaborations on campus. But unfortunately, they didn’t happen. I had to take a major turn on my goals for my channel. So I started to make comedy skits like Zoomba University. I think that also reaches out to a totally different audience. I just found the right occasion of using Zoom as a theme, which is what everyone has been using, so it’s directed at a wider audience. But I did make the music behind that skit, so I am still trying to combine my interests in music and in video production together. 

I created “Wink” and “Zoomba University” during quarantine times. When school started, I didn’t have any more time. But yeah, but before then I had two solid weeks to just work on my music and art. It was fascinating to see on Instagram that people were focusing on their drawing and painting skills, and it was so cool to see how everyone was so much more involved in the arts when they were back home and they had free time. So that showed me, at the end of the day, if we were to do one thing that made us happy, it’d be art.

TSD: You already talked a little bit about the YouTube creator community. What is it like to be a YouTube partner and to be in a community of creators?

YT: So actually, I found one of my friends on NowThis on Snapchat. His name is Sebastian Kulwanowski, and he’s from Belgium. I reached out to him, and he said, “Sure, let’s make a collaboration.” And that worked out. It was my first collaboration online, and I learned a lot about how to combine videos together. I’ve also been able to go to the YouTube New York Space, which is like essentially a studio for YouTubers. Sometimes you can see YouTubers trying to make their videos there.

TSD: So you’re really getting that insider’s look. 

YT: Yeah, it’s pretty fun. I wish I could go back. I’ve only been there once. 

TSD: Cool. So what are some short-term goals and long-term goals that you have as a musician, an artist and a YouTuber?

YT: I’m going to make an album on Soundcloud and hopefully Spotify, too. I’ll be trying to put my music on different platforms. It could be any genre – honestly, I don’t really have a pattern. 

I’ve been talking to a couple of my YouTuber friends, and we chat often about how we always want to have a purpose of having a channel. We always boil down to the point that the channel is more for enjoyment than anything. So regardless of how many millions of views we have for a video or how viral we go, we still do it just for the sole purpose of enjoyment.

As an artist, I just want to keep trying unconventional things. That’s always been my core value as an artist. I’ll definitely branch out to different types of mediums to see what I can possibly do in the future.

Contact Nadia Jo at nejo ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Del Sol Quartet, Francisco Fullana enliven Bay Area with ‘socially distanced’ music https://stanforddaily.com/2020/03/23/del-sol-quartet-francisco-fullana-enliven-bay-area-with-socially-distanced-music/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/03/23/del-sol-quartet-francisco-fullana-enliven-bay-area-with-socially-distanced-music/#respond Mon, 23 Mar 2020 08:22:58 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1165609 This piece marks the inaugural installment of a new Arts & Life column “Voices of Cancelled Stanford Shows" (VoCSS). With an acronym that calls to mind the Latin "vox" or voice and the style sheet language CSS, this column is a designated space for students, faculty and members of the greater Stanford community to speak to how the performing arts and the coronavirus pandemic have — and continue to — intersect in their lives.

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that an artist quarantined during the coronavirus pandemic must be in want of a live audience. The outbreak of “shelter-in-place” orders in the Bay Area on Tuesday, as well as the entire state of California later last week, has rendered even the most informal of studio concerts impossible. Thousands of musicians worry about their financial prospects after the widespread cancellation of concerts months out from now. In this time of artistic upheaval, Yo-Yo Ma, Broadway actress Laura Benanti and others have taken social media by the storm with their calls for sharing musical performance as a way of processing and connecting with others. Riding the virtual tide of “Songs of Comfort,” Bay Area musicians from the Del Sol String Quartet and the concert violinist Francisco Fullana spread hope through “socially distanced” performances over the weekend. 

The Del Sol String Quartet is a San Francisco-based group that for 27+ years has sought to share “living” music or the sounds and stories of composers from around the world whether Ben Johnston’s just intonation or Gabriela Lena Frank’s South American-infused classical repertoire. The artistic director and violist Charlton Lee and cellist Kathryn Bates live-streamed from a home in San Francisco on Saturday at 7 p.m., acknowledging upfront that their impromptu viola-cello concert was wildly different from the four-hour Pacific Pythagorean Music Festival slated for that night. Though the time lag of the Facebook livestream made for somewhat-amusing slowdowns of the musicians’ skilled motions, Lee and Bates delivered high-quality music for their 30-something virtual audience. 

“We’re just so happy that we can share at least a little something with you — not quite what we originally planned with a whole big festival, now just the two of us,” Lee remarked to catch up the audience members just then joining the livestream.

In a nod to March being International Women’s month, the duo performed two viola-cello pieces by female composers. Bates and Lee started their 20-minute virtual concert with Anne Clyne’s “October Rose,” which features two lilting string melodies interwoven in a B-Flat major tonality. Other than Bates’ upper body being obstructed by her music stand and technical glitches freezing up Lee every few seconds, the viewer could fancy they were in an intimate chamber concert in a English cottage-style living room. Lee and Bates then set down their instruments for a few minutes to reflect on the current state of musicianship and ensemble performance in the time of the coronavirus. 

“Glad we can play for a few of you here — very brutal time for everyone I know but particularly for the community of performing artists getting utterly hammered, for people in the freelance world who just lost everything,” Lee reflected, crouching down in front of the camera. 

Bates then dovetailed on the profound sentiment of loss and frustration in the artistic community with being unable to perform with and for others. Bates acknowledged, however, that people should only do what they “can and are able” to help others: “Ways you can support artists include donating tickets you have already bought and supporting various non-profits supporting musicians. Everyone is hurting and we [musicians] are trying to figure out how to still even exist at the other end of all this.” 

The following performance of the percussive, agile “Zapatos de Chincha” by their longtime acquaintance Gabriela Lena Frank brought much-needed levity to the somber occasions of shelter-in-place. The quartet had commissioned the piece two years prior as a “birthday present” for their 25th Anniversary festival, and Bates prefaced the particular song choice as simply because “We all need a little groove in our lives right now.” And while the piece was pared down to just viola and cello due to shelter in place, one could feel the vibrance and dynamism of Frank’s composition. The piece featured a variety of pizzicato textures on Bates’ cello and shifting rhythmic cadences on the viola fitting for music inspired by the light-footed movement of Afro-Peruvian music, tap dance and the cajon (a wooden box percussion instrument). 

After a brief 30 minutes, Bates and Lee signed off to almost 50 viewers with an invitation to create and share art, no matter how rudimentary or advanced it is.

“This is a beautiful time to find new ways to express ourselves,” Bates mused and then more jokingly said: “Also, if we ever get a break from this [shelter-in-place order], maybe we’ll convince the other two members of our quartet to shelter and make music with us!” 

Less than 24 hours before Del Sol aired, Palo Alto-based concert violinist Francisco Fullana embraced this same acute need for live performance through somewhat-different means. He sent out a Facebook message on Friday afternoon to his University Terrace neighbors, inviting everyone at 4:30 p.m. to come to the central lawn by the community center to “listen or watch, whether through open windows or sitting on the lawn while following the 6-feet guidelines from other families.” He then brought out a violin (though sadly not his Stradivarius dubbed “Miss Mary”) to perform a selection of light, resonant classical violin solo repertoire. 

Fullana chose the upbeat Bach E-Major Partita because “it feels like the sun is shining when I play it!” along with Kreisler’s Recitativo and Scherzo and Albeniz’s Asturias. Fullana has publicly shared on Facebook before that Albeniz’s Asturias captures his childhood memories of the sunshine, fields and family homes in Spain, making his choice to share the piece with his Palo Alto neighbors in the present time extremely touching. Professor Alice Ting of the Stanford Biology Department shares that she and her partner Fullana have been overwhelmed by the warm community reception to his performance, with some neighbors emailing their thanks just for him having the idea of holding a concert. 

“As a concert violinist, performing for a live audience [whether a recital, concerto or chamber music on stage] is at the heart of my life. The coronavirus pandemic has stopped all that, and though I have been practicing at home and sharing some performances through social media, it’s not quite the same,” Fullana wrote in an email, echoing the sentiment of Lee and Bates in their livestream. “Live music has magical soothing effects on people. It allows them to reflect and take a break from the anxiety around us, from the confined lives that we are all living at the moment. That is why I decided to send out the email to the University Terrace community.” 

Similar to Lee and Bates advocating for compassionate musicianship through their thoughtful livestream, Fullana strongly believes that his violin can bring some peace and a moment of self-reflection to families around the Stanford community and the Peninsula. At least for the community of University Terrace within Palo Alto, Fullana has certainly proven that “People can enjoy some Bach or Paginini in the only setting that live music is possible at the moment: outdoors and 6 feet or more apart!” While he speaks in jest, Fullana like Del Sol hopes to build on their initial forays into “socially distanced” strings performance — whether in the open air or livestream — to persist in musical performance that makes visible the vulnerability of artists and uplifts the greater community amidst the cultural turbulence of the pandemic. 
***

This piece marks the inaugural installment of a new Arts & Life column “Voices of Cancelled Stanford Shows” (VoCSS). With an acronym that calls to mind the Latin “vox” or voice and the style sheet language CSS, this column is a designated space for students, faculty and members of the greater Stanford community to speak to how the performing arts and the coronavirus pandemic have — and continue to — intersect in their lives. Updated weekly on Monday mornings through the digital edition of The Daily, the column may encompass the stories of everyone from classical musicians and artistic directors to theater-makers and independent artists at all experience levels — amateur, collegiate and professional. As shown by this “prelude” piece, the Stanford connection can be tangential in acknowledgment of the call for “distant socializing” while members of our community are currently dispersed throughout the world. 

If this piece resonated with you at all, please take 1-2 minutes to fill out or forward widely this form, where you can recommend yourself, your performing group or others in the broader Stanford community you want to see featured in an upcoming installment of VoCSS. 

Contact Natalie Francis at natfran ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #10-1 https://stanforddaily.com/2020/03/18/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-2010s-10-1/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/03/18/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-2010s-10-1/#respond Wed, 18 Mar 2020 11:05:09 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1165466 See which albums Nick Sligh ranked #10-1 of the top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the decade.

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To read more about the background of the list and my thoughts on making it, check out the introduction to my rankings. Without further ado, here are #10-1 of my top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s list.

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #10-1

10. A Tribe Called Quest: “We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service” (2016)

After an 18-year hiatus as a group, A Tribe Called Quest returned triumphantly to the center stage of rap. Nearly two decades after its previous album, the legendary rap group came back to send its goodbyes to rap. The ending was one of the most poetic results imaginable. Following the unfortunate death of member Phife Dawg, the other three members (Q-Tip, Jarobi White and Ali Shaheed Muhammad) finished the album and sent off their final work as a group. Beautiful production, timeless lyricism and the significance of the moment allowed A Tribe Called Quest to finish its rap journey in glorious fashion and bid its poetic farewell.

Favorite Songs: “Enough!!,” “Solid Wall of Sound,” “Movin Backwards,” “Black Spasmodic”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #10-1

9. Isaiah Rashad: “Cilvia Demo” (2014)

Isaiah Rashad, a product of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was able to achieve a beautiful combination of the best things of the old and new in rap music on his first full-length release with the TDE label. Isaiah Rashad quickly mastered the art of drawing on the nostalgia of old-school hip-hop while infusing his music with his own sound and special southern twist. “Cilvia Demo” exudes soul in every moment, and Rashad’s smooth deliveries and heartfelt writing create a project that feels deeply-personal and warm. Rashad’s struggles are so bluntly and emotionally presented that the deeply vulnerable messages of the album immediately endear the young rapper to the listener. Sweet, soulful and personal, Rashad delivers an inspiring compilation with rare intimacy.

Favorite Songs: “Heavenly Father,” “West Savannah,” “Tranquility,” “Hereditary,” “R.I.P Kevin Miller,” “Brad Jordan”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #10-1

8. Jay-Z: “4:44” (2017)

“4:44” is one of the most mature and inspiring albums ever created in rap. Jay Z’s 13th studio album shows a truly graceful aging. With his skills as sharp as ever, Hov gives by far his most open and vulnerable work. From his rhymes to his business investments, this album far eclipses the wisdom of any previous album work even for a rapper who has always been wise. The great ones are able to adapt to the times while still retaining what makes them special, and “4:44” is proof that Jay-Z not only has the ability to adapt, but to thrive and to still be one of the best rappers in the world, regardless of the current state of rap music. Jay-Z has a legitimate case for being the greatest rapper of all time, and his work on “4:44” serves as some of the most valuable evidence for this claim.

Favorite Songs: “Smile,” “4:44,” “The Story of O.J.,” “Caught Their Eyes,” “Legacy,” “Moonlight,” “Marcy Me”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #10-1

7. Chance The Rapper: “Acid Rap” (2013)

No single mixtape defines the Soundcloud Era of rap quite like “Acid Rap.” The Windy City’s Chance The Rapper displays a youthful energy and creativity that makes this mixtape a clear contender as one of the greatest rap mixtapes of all time. Production, from start to finish, never falters. Neither does Chance’s delivery, which is infused with pure joy and passion that makes it impossible for the listener not to smile. The entire project feels like a giant potion that can only be created with youth, a vivid imagination and dopamine. “Acid Rap” was a defining moment in rap, with every second of the mixtape being a refreshing burst of joy and excitement back into the heart of hip-hop music.

Favorite Songs: “Cocoa Butter Kisses,” “Favorite Song,” “Smoke Again,” “Lost,” “Juice,” “Good Ass Intro,” “Pusha Man,” “Everybody’s Something,” “Chain Smoker”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #10-1

6. Vince Staples: “Summertime ‘06” (2015) 

The 20-track and 2-disc “Summertime ‘06” was a masterful display of authentic storytelling. The talented rapper from Long Beach, California, delivered some of his most focused work, with every track seeming to fit perfectly in its place and fit its own piece in the puzzle that is the coming of age of Vince Staples. Struggling with trauma, paranoia and growth, Vince approaches some of life’s most complex issues with a precision and simplicity that is rare. With production largely handled by the legendary No I.D., the beats are aligned terrifically with Vince’s deliveries and tones throughout the album. Although it may seem like one big discomforting horror story to some, Vince is simply telling his authentic and often cynical story “Like It Is,” and doing it at the highest level in rap.

Favorite Songs: “Jump Off The Roof,” “Lift Me Up,” “Norf Norf,” “Summertime,” “Señorita,” “3230,” “Like It Is,” “Lemme Know”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #10-1

5. Kanye West: “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (2010)

The culmination of an artistic genius who does not play to the rules of the mainstream, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” is one of the most creative and influential works in modern music. Kanye West’s greatness is undeniable, and so is that of maybe his greatest work. Kanye shows his ability to curate an elite listening experience that does so many different things artistically and at such a high quality. From production to vision to delivery, it is simply one extravagant masterpiece of hip-hop.

Favorite Songs: “Devil In A New Dress,” “Runaway,” “Monster,” “So Appalled,” “POWER,” “Gorgeous,” “Blame Game” 

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #10-1

4. Kendrick Lamar: “good kid, m.A.A.d city” (2012)

“If I told you that a flower bloomed in a dark room, would you trust it?”. Kendrick Lamar’s lines in “Poetic Justice” summarize the central theme of this album: the exploration of how a good kid could emerge from Compton, California, or to quote Tupac Shakur, how the “rose grew from the concrete.” Kendrick’s jump to the mainstream never once sacrificed lyrical content, as even the songs destined for commercial success contain meaningful lyrical content. Many people’s introduction to Kendrick, “good kid, m.A.A.d city” was clear proof that Kendrick didn’t just have great potential, but that he had arrived with a true modern classic.

Favorite Songs: “Poetic Justice,” “Sing About Me, I’m Dying Of Thirst,” “Money Trees,” “m.A.A.d city,” “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe,” “The Recipe”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #10-1

3. Lupe Fiasco: “Tetsuo & Youth” (2015)

An album lyrically-dense enough to warrant its own article (or even multiple articles for that matter), Lupe’s fifth studio album was a passionate return to elite artistry following the release of arguably his two worst projects. Lupe has always been phenomenal lyrically, which has never been his problem. However, “Tetsuo & Youth” contains genius production selection and concepts that are thought-provoking accompanied by music that is even incredibly enjoyable and easy to appreciate without deep analysis. Every aspect of Lupe’s album creation comes together in unison, resulting in one of the best modern rap albums.

Favorite Songs: “Mural,” “Prisoner 1 & 2,” “Dots & Lines,” “Blur My Hands,” “They.Resurrect.Over.New.,” “Body Of Work”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #10-1

2. Saba: “CARE FOR ME” (2018)

Saba proved to be a talented rapper and producer very early in his career. However, most people didn’t expect the 24-year-old rapper from Chicago to create an album that would be in contention for best rap album of the decade. “CARE FOR ME” is simply the collection of a group of 10 amazing tracks, with no real weaknesses. Headlined by what is one of the greatest anecdotal rap songs ever created, “PROM / KING,” the album reflects Saba’s courageous and beautiful battle with his grief and struggles. The entire album is deeply personal and establishes Saba as a real personality in rap to be fond of. Saba’s jazzy, personal and minimalist adventure scrapes back the layers that have enveloped mainstream rap and reminds the hip-hop industry what beautiful music is.

Favorite Songs: “PROM / KING,” “LIFE,” “GREY,” “BUSY / SIRENS,” “HEAVEN ALL AROUND ME”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #10-1

1. Kendrick Lamar: “To Pimp A Butterfly” (2015)

The greatness of “To Pimp A Butterfly” has been previously highlighted, with it being one of the most acclaimed albums of all time, regardless of genre. King Kendrick thrust himself into the conversation of the best rapper of all time with his 2015 magnum opus. There are not many albums you can look at and say that the aim was to make the world a better place. Even fewer can be said to have actually accomplished that aim. Undoubtedly, Kendrick Lamar became the creator of one of these few works. The all-time lyrical content of “To Pimp A Butterfly” makes it feel like much more than a rap album, and more of a piece of art that defines an era of music and a way of thinking and coming to terms with the world. 

Favorite Songs: “u,” “How Much A Dollar Cost,” “Alright,” “Momma,” “The Blacker The Berry,” “i,” “Hood Politics”

After every segment of my Top 100 rankings, I created a Spotify playlist with my favorite songs from the albums that are in each section. Just go to my Spotify Profile (@nicholassligh) where I posted the playlists in descending order of rank. Go to this link to view this week’s playlist for albums 10-1! I hope that my list gives credit to deserving artists and helps people that enjoy hip-hop/rap (and even those less familiar with the genre) to find new music that connects with them and that they simply enjoy.

Thank you to everybody who has followed along with these rankings! It has been an awesome journey sharing some of my favorite music with everybody that has read along in The Stanford Daily this quarter. I hope that this list has inspired people to discover or further explore many of the great albums that I found to be some of the best works of the past decade.

Contact Nick Sligh at nick1019 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Palm Drive Records’ Music @ Mars gives indie musicians the mic https://stanforddaily.com/2020/03/06/palm-drive-records-music-mars-gives-indie-musicians-the-mic/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/03/06/palm-drive-records-music-mars-gives-indie-musicians-the-mic/#respond Fri, 06 Mar 2020 11:19:41 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1165048 Biking through the chilly March night on my way to Music @ Mars, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. It was my second time covering a Music @ Mars showcase for The Daily, and when I entered the lounge and saw the warm fairy lights, instruments and enthusiastic crowd— […]

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Biking through the chilly March night on my way to Music @ Mars, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. It was my second time covering a Music @ Mars showcase for The Daily, and when I entered the lounge and saw the warm fairy lights, instruments and enthusiastic crowd— people huddled together closely, reclining on bean bags, spilling onto the floor, squeezed into couches beside their friends— it was a pleasantly familiar sight. I sat crisscrossed on the floor with my notebook on my lap. An electric keyboard stood in front of the crowd, forecasting the performances to come, with two large speakers standing on each side. I noted on the wall in the middle of the makeshift “stage” hung a curious abstract painting of a rocket taking off, the exhaust from the engines painted as bubbles of color. 

“It feels warm,” said audience member Alex Romero ’21 as he got more comfortable on his bean bag. “I mean, this feels like what a Week 9 event should be. I can sit down and soak in the vibes.”

It was the same pleasant, lively atmosphere I had known when I went fall quarter. This time, however, the indie artist showcase was officially hosted under the auspices of the new Volunteer Student Organization (VSO) Palm Drive Records. The music VSO, co-founded by Elizabeth Gray ’20, Izzy Angus ’20, Federico Reyes Gomez ’21 and Cooper Reed ’21, has produced a series of recording workshops this quarter advertised by posters plastered around campus, featuring their black-and-white palm tree and record disc. With the mission of celebrating and bringing visibility to the hidden work artists are doing on-campus, the indie showcase hosted by co-founder Elizabeth Gray plays perfectly into what the music VSO hopes to achieve on campus. 

When asked how the latest Music @ Mars event relates to her work with Palm Drive Records, Elizabeth reflected on how indie student musicians may not always feel as though they have the right space or audience to perform their work: “I think because there is somewhat of an implicit and internalized pressure on student-artists to perform covers, it can be difficult for these artists to feel like an audience wants to hear originals. I often feel as if I have to sneak originals into a set of mostly covers because I think the audience just wants to sing along with what they know, and I’m afraid of losing momentum. We hope that Music @ Mars provides a space for artists to feel empowered to perform their own work, since our audience is comprised of people who come because they want to be hearing originals.” 

The latest Music @ Mars certainly delivered in giving space to student-artists to perform their music, featuring everything from classic rock, blues/Americana, surf-and electronic music to sampled Youtube beats, French and Stanford lingo. The night began with Charlie Kogen ’23, who began with his original song, “The Only One I’ll Take It For Is You.” Kogen’s voice, sound, and even his stage presence — playing the electric piano demurely while looking occasionally into the audience —  immediately hit with a classical air. Kogen and his music seemed straight out of an upscale New York City restaurant in the 1950s — think Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Billy Joel; man and his piano singing forlorn love-songs in an echoing room. His lyrics, while melancholy, carried an uncanny patience and buoyancy to them, singing about a kind of love that’s flawed and unreciprocated, but fated and enduring. The gentle but pained words reminded me of Johnny Rivers when he welcomed his “baby” back to the “The Poor Side of Town.” Between songs, Kogen talked about his musical inspirations — some of his songs were inspired by lived experiences and others by imagined ones. Yet his song “The Right Mistakes” was written about wanting to combine his actual life with the ones he lives through his music. Though it was his first time performing many of his songs, Kogen wowed the audience with his unique sound, clear voice and remarkable songwriting ability, and definitely inspired more than a few new fans.

Aditeya Shukla ’22, better known by his stage name “Adi,” brought out a guitar for his set, performing acoustic versions of his songs which had originally been composed electronically. The transition to acoustic, however, was seamless, with Adi’s voice being perfectly suited to the mood— soft, deeply emotive, haunting. His singer-songwriter and Americana sound told stories of wavering emotions and wary feelings of affection. “No Stories” deftly captures the disillusionment and disappointment of an ending summer — cooler weather approaching, things unsaid, opportunities unseized, freedom receding once again. After the song, Adi announced to the crowd that they’d no longer have to hear “a guy up here singing sad songs,” and promised to satisfy those who came to the showcase to get “turnt.” After that, Adi flipped the mood in an instant, bringing out a trap beat and rapping to a song inspired by the “OY/YO” sculpture recently erected in front of the Cantor Arts Center. The song was hilarious, poking fun at icons of Stanford culture, such as 5-Sure and Marc Tessier Lavigne, and was filled with so many sharp and clever lines that I couldn’t write them down fast enough. The crowd’s favorite by far, however, was, “You see a stop sign, all I see is go.” Though the song hasn’t been added to Adi’s Spotify yet, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who needs a good laugh with some cleverly worded jabs at the Stanford experience.

Mariam El-Mansouri ’22 then entered the stage with William Kingsfield ’20 on electric guitar. Mariam began by dazzling the crowd by singing a cover of the French song “Rein de Rien,” with William dishing out smooth, bluesy chords alongside her. Mariam has a strong, lovely voice with a tone vaguely reminiscent of Amy Winehouse, or maybe a bit of Alicia Keys. The second song she performed was self-composed and untitled, and conveyed the feelings created by many of the poignant dilemmas that arise from love in the modern world. Mariam’s vivid lyrics communicated the feeling of blooming love, uncertainty and insecurity, the dread of being unsure of one’s relationship status (which is, unfortunately, very relatable … tsk tsk). My favorite line from the song was when Mariam described “playing with your hair with my fingertips.” Between her surprising French intro, William’s guitar skills, and Mariam’s vocal talent, the performance was simply unforgettable.

Parker Day (Cameron Woods ’20) began his set by telling the audience about his unique, creative process: writing raps based on Youtube beats that call to him. While humble by nature, Parker Day is a talented lyricist with an invigorating stage presence. Before his song “Stay Golden,” Parker Day bantered with the audience about experiences with high-school exes, and then dove into a song that transitioned from longing for a missed relationship into a compelling verse about the loneliness of the Stanford campus and fears of “not making it.” Parker Day’s observations really stuck with me and validated my experiences, and, judging from the nods in the audience, I wasn’t the only one. The song “Vacation” was fittingly composed off a sample of “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by the Beach Boys, and was inspired by his trip to France. Equal parts carefree and cheeky, the chorus was so catchy and moving that Parker had the entire audience singing along unprovoked, as if they weren’t hearing the song for the first time. Parker Day showcased a great flow, uplifting energy and deeply moving, skillfully worded lyrics. The show wouldn’t have been the same without him. 

The final performer was Cat Davis ’21, who performed songs she had written for classes here at Stanford. From her first song “Nice Try,” Cat Davis’s clean vocal dexterity was already apparent. Cat has an excellent range, able to go from deep notes to falsetto seemingly effortlessly within the span of a single chorus. According to Davis, people have referred to “Nice Try” as “savage.” After listening to the lyrics, this description is understandable — the song is a bold call-out to an insincere suitor and their tactics. Beyond lyrics, both of Cat Davis’s songs featured jazzy, experimental sounds; “Don’t Worry Baby,” in particular, contained modulated backing vocals that imbued the song with a beautiful, slightly ghostly air. 

Sitting on the bean bag (I eventually upgraded from the floor to a bean bag) in the Mars common room, and watching all of the performers, I couldn’t help but have the feeling that I was watching artists who would someday be “the next big thing.” The talent was overwhelming. It feels like the kind of thing you’re going to tell your kids — you saw them first, you saw them before they “made it.” So many different sounds, personalities, feelings and art styles were represented. Thanks to the remarkable originality and creativity of student-artists, Music @ Mars has consistently delivered completely new and enticing material for its audience, who gather during the stress and bustle of Week 9 to simply enjoy music together. And now officially produced by Palm Drive Records, alongside various music-recording workshops, Music @ Mars with its consistent good vibes has become an anchor in the ocean of musical opportunities for student-musicians on-campus.

Natalie Francis contributed reporting.

Contact Megan Faircloth at meganfaircloth ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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New music director Salonen brings ‘Silicon Valley’ ingenuity to SF Symphony https://stanforddaily.com/2020/03/03/new-music-director-salonen-brings-silicon-valley-ingenuity-to-sf-symphony/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/03/03/new-music-director-salonen-brings-silicon-valley-ingenuity-to-sf-symphony/#respond Wed, 04 Mar 2020 00:52:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1164907 Skimming the superlatives Esa-Pekka Salonen has earned from critics and collaborators, it would be easy to mistake the San Francisco Symphony music director designate for a Silicon Valley tech visionary. “Disrupter,” The New York Times declared when he landed his post. “Technological innovator,” the SF Symphony’s own press release boasts. When I first read his […]

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Skimming the superlatives Esa-Pekka Salonen has earned from critics and collaborators, it would be easy to mistake the San Francisco Symphony music director designate for a Silicon Valley tech visionary. “Disrupter,” The New York Times declared when he landed his post. “Technological innovator,” the SF Symphony’s own press release boasts. When I first read his New Yorker profile and participated in the buzz around his appointment, I was reminded of the long-since-gone wonderment I felt in middle school watching Steve Jobs unveil the newest products at Worldwide Developer Conferences. These days, tech conglomerates, corporatized diversity initiatives and languishing nouveau riche Bay Area aristocrats prompt overripe cynicism and mental fatigue. Salonen might just have the right touch to turn things around.

For the past two weekends, in previews of what is to come to the SF Symphony beginning in the 2020-21 season, Salonen has delivered all that critics have anticipated and then some. 

In the first weekend (Feb. 20-22), soprano soloist Julia Bullock sang Benjamin Britten’s “Les Illuminations,” a song cycle composed to excerpts from poetry written under the same title as symbolist Arthur Rimbaud’s poetry collection. These songs turn around one key line: “I alone have the key to this savage parade,” repeated three times through the roughly 20-minute performance. The orchestral song cycle turns out to be an extraordinarily evocative format for the allegorical urban scenes described by Rimbaud (and personally translated from French by Bullock). The fitful tensions of the man in the crowd, and of the passions and calm that are inspired, were wondrously brought out as Bullock responded to the similarly dynamic instrumental soundscape. 

One of eight artists-in-residence handpicked by Salonen, Bullock is curating an April Soundbox (Davies Symphony Hall’s experimental live music venue) program eclectically mixing Nina Simone, Bach and Poulenc. Both Salonen and Bullock’s careers have vibrantly engaged the important question of what classical music is absorbing — and can be willing to absorb — under its auspices. The first weekend’s program demonstrated that boundary-defying thinking sacrifices nothing of the smart programming of more canonical classical composers like Henry Purcell, Benjamin Britten and Maurice Ravel. If anything, an openness to challenging existing notions of classical music can and should be productive for hearing traditionally heralded composers in a new light. Opening with the bold and loud Steven Stucky arrangement of Purcell’s “Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary,” the concert announced its own import and gravity before flitting into the dreamy world of vignettes and ephemeralities. It produced a commanding effect.

This past weekend, Salonen and violinist Leila Josefowicz showcased the conductor’s own violin concerto. Once the subject of a stunningly sexy iPad Air ad, it was sandwiched between Beethoven’s “King Stephen Overture” and Nielsen’s “Symphony No. 5.” Beginning with a lengthy but vigorous solo, it engaged the conductor, a glockenspiel, harp, celesta and vibraphone in an energizing conversation with each other leading into the rest of the piece. Particularly unexpected was a long, virtuosic rock drumming sequence, though the rhythmic and instrumental detour produced a surprisingly minimalistic, enticing payoff.

Salonen’s violin concerto encouraged an attunement to the presence and absence of sound and noise. Spatial silences in regions of the orchestra permitted the audience to place the sounds of the orchestra. By programming Salonen’s violin concerto alongside Nielsen’s “Symphony No. 5,” the resonances between Salonen’s use of the drum set and Nielsen’s intense intercourse between the snare drum and the rest of the orchestra surfaced. Musical presence and absence was broached again by the intentional (dis)placements of the snare drum, which traveled from its place amidst the percussion instruments at the back of the orchestra, to the balcony seating stage left, to somewhere out of sight off stage.

I hope I am not projecting when I say that the Bay Area is desperate for convincing ways to bridge the old and the new as we come to terms with the reality that moving fast and breaking things is a troubled mantra. With Salonen at the helm, who knows? Maybe the Symphony, of all institutions, has a bid at stepping into that role. 

Contact Jasmine Liu at jliu98 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Dynamic duo Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi combine folk music, racial justice in concert https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/11/dynamic-duo-rhiannon-giddens-and-francesco-turrisi-combine-folk-music-racial-justice-in-concert/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/11/dynamic-duo-rhiannon-giddens-and-francesco-turrisi-combine-folk-music-racial-justice-in-concert/#respond Wed, 12 Feb 2020 07:34:53 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1163849 The tambourine has the power to expose racial injustice and enact radical social change. Or so Italian percussionist Francesco Turrisi and critically-acclaimed folk artist Rhiannon Giddens argued before a packed crowd of more than 300 people at the Bechtel Conference Center this past Thursday. The two artist-activists came to Stanford under the auspices of the […]

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The tambourine has the power to expose racial injustice and enact radical social change. Or so Italian percussionist Francesco Turrisi and critically-acclaimed folk artist Rhiannon Giddens argued before a packed crowd of more than 300 people at the Bechtel Conference Center this past Thursday. The two artist-activists came to Stanford under the auspices of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) as speakers for the 15th Annual Anne and Loren Kieve Distinguished Lecture. To echo the words of Comparative Literature Professor David Palumbo-Liu, Francesco and Rhiannon are simply the perfect candidates for a lecture series showcasing the works of prominent figures in social justice, humanities and the arts. Though Giddens and Turrisi are incredibly accomplished musicians in their own right, their combined ethnomusicology and performance backgrounds give an incisive yet hopeful account of the hidden racial dimensions of folk music. 

Quintessential American folk song “This Land Is Your Land”, discussed by CCSRE Faculty Director Jennifer Brody and Palumbo-Liu in their opening remarks, served as a touchstone for the featured lecture. Penned by Woody Guthrie and covered by Pete Seeger, among many other folk artists, the 1944 song has gone through many iterations, including one rendition that had a stanza recognizing stolen indigenous land. Brody discussed how many folk music aficionados do not know about Elizabeth Cotton, one of the greatest Black folk guitarists of the 20th century who worked as a maid in the Seeger household and was mentored by composer Ruth Crawford Seeger. Palumbo-Liu then treated the European reception musical and dance form of arabesque as a case study for the intersection of Judeo-Christian and Arabic culture that persisted despite the Spanish Inquisition. Combined, the arabesque dance style and Elizabeth Cotton’s works challenge notions of whose identities are represented within conventional narratives of the European and American musical landscapes. When the microphone was handed over to Giddens, she mentioned the gospel line “when the world is on fire” cut from “This Land Is Your Land” as a way of introducing the thematic tension between hidden Black history and marketed ‘whiteness’ of folk music. 

Turrisi and Giddens began the featured lecture by performing a 19th-century Black folk tune featuring banjo with tambourine accompaniment, surprisingly fresh and modern in its acoustics. Still holding his tambourine upright in his left hand, Turrisi mused how a 19th century print of a British janissary band sparked his tambourine research that eventually led to his musical collaboration with Giddens. The janissary band originated in the Ottoman Empire as a formidable musical ensemble and military band that accompanied the Ottoman army onto the battlefield from the 16th century on. The print Turrisi had stumbled upon caught his eye because of the presence of three African American percussionists including a tambourine player who held the instrument in the same upright manner he learned in Italy. Turrisi gave a whirlwind overview of the tambourine’s chronology dating back to the 5000 BCE Egypt frame drum and subsequent spread of playing traditions through Ireland (bodhrán), Sicily (tarantella), Spain (taranta), the Caribbean and the American South. The tambourine is generally associated with flamenco, bacchanalia, the pseudo-scientific tarantella folk dance and gypsy music. The 19th century, however, saw musicologists codify twenty-plus tambourine techniques into a wildly-popular treatise.

“There is way more to playing a tambourine than just slapping it on your knee or shaking it,” Turrisi noted, demonstrating the three movements of the left hand required by a stroke and how to create a resonant whir on the face of the drum. 

The tambourine research of Turrisi intersects with the work of Giddens on the banjo via a third folk instrument: the fiddle. The practice of Black tambourine performance within the European take on janissary bands grew out of a broader tradition of Black folk entertainment. James Frazer, the 19th-century Scottish-African American tambourine player of the royal British janissary band fame, hailed from North Carolina, not far from where Giddens grew up in Greensboro. 

“Before electricity, dance constituted the primary form of entertainment in America,” Giddens stated, before adding that Black servants and slaves constituted the majority of fiddlers, percussionists and other band members at 19th-century white social functions such as square dances. Playing the fiddle was lucrative social capital that allowed some runaway slaves freedom, and banjo performance evolved alongside it in the ‘folk’ dance scene. Around the time Europeans appropriated the janissary band, highly-problematic minstrel bands arose in the mid-19th-century America. Through a series of 1920s commercial vaudeville prints and headshots exhibiting blackface, Giddens emphasized that Mississippi showboats and the recording industry promoted minstrelsy as late as the 1970s. She then revealed a ‘gray-scale’ timeline she had curated which charted popular recognition of Black versus white folk music performance where the 1920s marked the erasure of Black folk music in favor of white derivatives. 

Giddens drew upon her own background in the fiddle and banjo to similarly trace the banjo from rural African American communities in the South to contemporary largely-white folk music performance. She provided a genealogical tree that showed the gradual cultural divergence of the banjo away from African-Americans starting with minstrelsy and continuing with the Black / hillbilly and urban (think vaudeville, George Gershwin) / mountain delineations. Giddens reminisced that she formed her first-ever band, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, in order to bring back the sounds and melodies of ‘Black’ and ‘mountain’ subcultures underrepresented in contemporary folk. While critical of white appropriation and erasure of Black banjo performance, Giddens acknowledged, however, that the folk of Pete Seeger and Mumford & Sons is not necessarily problematic in how it treats the sounds and genre of folk music. She pointed out that the 1920s recording industry pursued far more questionable decisions in its marketing of ‘ethnic’ music albums that saw folk music portrayed purely as a white — and not a multicultural or Black — musical practice. 

Turrisi and Giddens used the recording of ethnic music albums to clarify that neither abides by race as a social construct and that assuming white cultural hegemony overlooks the historical marginalization of peoples such as the Sicilian and Irish. They then briefly remarked on how their recent album collaboration “there is no Other” (2019) brings together Black folk with Francesco’s multicultural tambourine performance to underscore the rich interplay of disparate folk traditions spanning multiple continents and centuries. The dynamic duo closed out their lecture by performing their take on the classic folk song “Buffalo Gals.” With Giddens on vocals and fiddle and Turrisi on tambourine, their performance reclaimed a minstrel song with the voices and acoustics of traditional Black folk music. 

The following Q&A session, moderated by CCSRE Executive Director Daniel Murray, offered an insightful coda to the featured lecture, with audience questions about how white people can be respectful in folk performance and incorporating ethnomusicology into history textbooks as a gateway for primary school social justice education. When asked specifically about her views on the Lil Nas X “Old Town Road” Grammy, Giddens stated that Black people have always been part of the country music scene and that she was not at all surprised at the Billboard controversy, which reflected the same cultural trends discussed in the lecture. As to whether white people should perform folk music, Giddens reiterated that folk music has evolved to represent a much larger American cultural milieu and that it is only problematic to perform “in the Black style” versus in one’s own way.

By claiming that “there is no Other” in regards to notions of race and musical ownership, Giddens and Turrisi have produced music that “chips away at the concrete” of racialized industry claims to music genres including but not limited to jazz, bluegrass, gospel and folk. The artist-activists do not forego humor even amidst dissecting the painful histories of cultural erasure and political injustice, laughing that “the banjo is simply a tambourine with a stick on it.” Giddens and Turrisi have now joined the hallowed ranks of Bryan Stevenson, Maxine Hong Kingston and Dolores Huerta as much-needed voices that will continue to reverberate on campus the intimate relationship between social justice, the humanities and arts. 

A previous version of this article misnamed CCSRE, as well as the staff positions of featured faculty. The Daily regrets this error.

Contact Natalie Francis at natfran ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Predictions for the 2020 Grammys experience https://stanforddaily.com/2020/01/24/predictions-for-the-2020-grammys-experience/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/01/24/predictions-for-the-2020-grammys-experience/#respond Fri, 24 Jan 2020 08:27:58 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1162802 The biggest night in music — the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards — will be held on Sunday, January 26th, when popular musicians perform hits and take home prizes for musical achievements. Awarded by the Recording Academy, the Grammys have a reputation for recognizing mainstream and commercially successful music, and a lot of industry politics dictate […]

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The biggest night in music — the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards — will be held on Sunday, January 26th, when popular musicians perform hits and take home prizes for musical achievements. Awarded by the Recording Academy, the Grammys have a reputation for recognizing mainstream and commercially successful music, and a lot of industry politics dictate the decisions as well. For that reason, the artists who will win and artists who should win are not always the same, and “dark horses” can unexpectedly snag wins as well. Here is an assessment of all three types of artists for the major categories, including the “big four”: Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best New Artist. You can tune in at 5 p.m. PST on CBS — watch the ceremony on cable, online at CBS.com, or Hulu. 

1. Record Of The Year

Who will win: “Truth Hurts” — Lizzo

Who should win: “Bad Guy” — Billie Eilish

Wild card: “7 Rings” — Ariana Grande

It’s hard to imagine that Lizzo won’t win anything in the four major categories. Given the songwriting disputes over “Truth Hurts,” however, it would be more appropriate to recognize everyone who worked on this song (including producers and engineers) through Record of the Year. But the sleek, stripped-down beat and nonchalant attitude of “Bad Guy” capture the spirit of 2019 and the rise of alternative pop sounds. “Old Town Road,” while genre-bending and viral, is too short, and the production is incredibly generic and unimpressive. “7 Rings” might have lost its impact because of its early release, but it has a refreshing production. With its twist on “My Favorite Things” from the classic film “The Sound of Music” (1965) and its trap-inspired cadences, it would be a nice choice for this prize. 

2. Album Of The Year

Who will win: “Norman F*cking Rockwell” —  Lana Del Rey; or, “When we all fall asleep, where do we go?” — Billie Eilish

Who should win: “Norman F*cking Rockwell” — Lana Del Rey

Wild cards: “Father of the Bride” — Vampire Weekend; or, “I,I” — Bon Iver

“Album of the Year” has consistently gone to questionable winners, sometimes not even the commercial or critical favorite. In the past, the Recording Academy has favored pop and rock albums and noticeably passed over hip-hop projects. That preference may work out for the soft rock “Norman F*cking Rockwell,” though it had a more modest commercial performance than other nominees. Lana Del Rey’s best album to date deserves the nod here, and it would be nice to award her decade-long artistic evolution. Billie can win in categories for single tracks; she doesn’t need to win this category, but with both commercial success and positive critic reviews, she can take home the most coveted prize. Ultimately, the Grammy voters might award other major artists like Bon Iver or Vampire Weekend for their strong albums.

3. Song Of The Year

Who will win: “Bad Guy” — Billie Eilish

Who should win: “Norman F*cking Rockwell” — Lana Del Rey

Wild card: “Lover” — Taylor Swift

“Song of the Year” is a songwriting award, and the strange thing about this year’s nominees is that no one song jumps out as a strong contender. Legal disputes over credits on “Truth Hurts” decreased Lizzo’s chances of winning this category. “Bad Guy,” while a viral hit, has strange, suggestive and eyebrow-raising lyrics; we’ll see if the Recording Academy notices. “Norman F*cking Rockwell” is far from Lana Del Rey’s best-written album, but it’s still the best out of all the nominees, with impressive lines like “Self-loathing poet, resident Laurel Canyon know-it-all.” “Lover” might get mixed up with other romantic ballads like “Someone You Loved” or “Hard Place,” but it only has one writer — the Academy might award Taylor Swift for that achievement. 

4. Best New Artist

Who will win: Billie Eilish; or, Lizzo

Who should win: Billie Eilish

Wild cards: Maggie Rogers; or, Rosalia

Everyone seems to agree that this category is a toss-up between Billie Eilish and Lizzo. Both of these artists have die-hard fans and garnered nominations in the four major categories, with Billie setting a record as the youngest artist ever nominated for all four at the age of seventeen. Lizzo’s musical career, however, began much earlier than Billie’s. Lizzo released her first studio album in 2013, making Billie the true “new” artist. She has been a viral force of nature since her breakout single “Ocean Eyes” back in 2016, so she deserves this prize for reshaping the mainstream pop sound. Maggie Rogers and Rosalia, with their smaller but fervent fan bases, can similarly take the prize. Less-mainstream artists have won before: in 2018, Alessia Cara bested Khalid, Lil Uzi Vert, SZA and Julia Michaels. 

5. Best Pop Vocal Album

Who will win: “thank u, next” — Ariana Grande

Who should win: “thank u, next” — Ariana Grande

Wild card: “Lover” — Taylor Swift

Not only did “thank u, next” produce some of the biggest hits and memes of 2019, it shows refreshing innovation from Ariana tinged with hip-hop influence. Her production is more sophisticated, and her vocal performance oozes with more personality on top of her impressive vocal skills. Since Billie Eilish is likely to sweep some of the major categories, giving Best Pop Vocal Album to Ariana would be nice. Although, the Recording Academy notably passed over Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” last year for Ariana Grande instead, and they might flip it around this year. 

6. Best Music Video

Who will win: “Cellophane” — FKA twigs

Who should win: “Cellophane” — FKA twigs

Wild card: “Old Town Road” — Lil Nas X

If the Grammy voters have the tiniest appreciation for art — art that shocks, transforms, provokes — the winner jumps out as FKA twigs. This music video is a landmark achievement in the 2010s with breathtaking choreography, imaginative cinematography, video effects, and editing. Reclaiming pole dancing as an art rather than a strictly sexual performance, FKA twigs turns her body into a vessel for her deepest pains, fears and desires. She does not have mainstream fame to her advantage, but as the most unique female artist in the music industry right now, she and her crew deserve to win for this video. But the Grammys are not always good at recognizing the best art, and they might choose to award Lil Nas X instead for the humorous and anachronistic music video for “Old Town Road.” 

Contact Nadia Jo at nejo ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Taking notes from a trio of Stanford music majors https://stanforddaily.com/2019/12/05/taking-notes-from-a-trio-of-stanford-music-majors/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/12/05/taking-notes-from-a-trio-of-stanford-music-majors/#respond Fri, 06 Dec 2019 06:58:32 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1161389 At Stanford, the rarity of music majors is so acute that they’ve become almost mythical. Indeed, only around ten music degrees are conferred every year out of 7000 undergraduates, so it’s hard not to express intense curiosity and delight on the precious occasion that you meet a music major in person.

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At Stanford, the rarity of music majors is so acute that they’ve become almost mythical. Indeed, only around 10 music degrees are conferred every year out of 7,000 undergraduates, so it’s hard not to express intense curiosity and delight on the precious occasion that you meet a music major in person.

To learn more about the perspectives of music majors, The Daily talked with three music majors about personal obstacles, future plans, stigmas and words of advice. Sonja Johnson-Yu 18 is a second-year computer science coterm who studied both computer science and music with a concentration in conducting as an undergrad. Nnamdi ‘Papa’ Odita-Honnah 20 is a senior studying flute performance, playing in a variety of ensembles including as a featured soloist with the Stanford Symphony Orchestra. Joss Saltzman 20 is a senior studying composition and has composed classical music for solo flute, electronic music, musical theater (most notably Gaieties 2017) and film music.

In conversation, the trio of music majors candidly revealed that the path of a music major is, as we’d expect, unpredictable and self-critical. But there is just something special, sometimes unidentifiable, in their music-making experiences that keeps them going:

The Stanford Daily (TSD): Would you ever talk someone out of becoming a music major? 

Sonja Johnson-Yu (SJ): You need to want to be a music major. But in order to enjoy being a music major, you need a certain depth of experience with music. People can learn, but, just the way that the department is set up, you want to spend time doing enough private study to make significant improvements and display those, and I think it’s important to have some sort of musical background coming into the music major for that reason. I’d say if you’re someone who didn’t have a musical background but was willing to make music their life at Stanford, I’m a believer that if you put in the work, you could succeed. 

Nnamdi ‘Papa’ Odita-Honnah (NO): No, I definitely wouldn’t. I love talking to people who are interested in being a music major. If I ever hear even a slight inkling of maybe thinking about it, I would encourage them to just look into it. You could either be just a music major or you could concentrate in something, which is what most people do. There’s composition, performance, history, theory, science and technology. Every major has its ups and downs — that’s just being a college student — but I love being a music major. It’s great learning new information about something that I already love.

Joss Saltzman (JS): There are practical reasons. Music isn’t designed to prepare you for careers outside of being a performer, composer or a teacher or researcher of music. If someone doesn’t have a certain degree of background by the time they get here, I wouldn’t recommend it. It would just be incredibly challenging. I’d be surprised if someone came to Stanford to major in music without having an extensive musical background. The other case would be if someone doesn’t have at least a general idea of what they want to do with their career with a music major. For instance, if someone’s been playing French horn since they were young but they don’t want to be a French horn player and they don’t want to be a French horn teacher, I would probably ask them, what do you expect to do after majoring in music if not those?

TSD: When you feel like you’ve lost motivation, who or what do you turn to?


SJ: I definitely hit a rut with my voice at the end of my junior year at Stanford, and I actually ended up developing a lot of stage-fright after I had my vocal crisis. I kept trying, but I realized I couldn’t do it on my own. That’s where I think my voice teacher, Greg [Wait], has been huge in helping me find the will to go on in my vocal study, even when things looked bleak. In general, though, if I feel burned out about anything, I usually try to go for a run and get some sleep. That usually helps.

NO: I realize now that if I ever go days without playing my instrument, my days will get steadily worse and worse, and even when good things are happening, I’ll just think, “Wait, what is going on? Why do I feel so down?” And I’ll realize that it’s because I haven’t practiced recently. Regardless of if I were to major in something else and go do whatever, if I didn’t continuously have music in my life, I would just be unhappy. It’s less of a motivation thing and more of a survival thing.

JS: I’m motivated by seeing my friends succeed, and not just in quantifiable measures — like the awards they get or their career prospects — but seeing people achieve the kind of goals that they set out for themselves creatively or academically is the one thing that keeps me going. In the same vein, I feel like my successes can be motivational to my peers. Especially as a senior in the music department, I feel like, if I can be successful in a career in music, then that would give a kind of validation for people to pursue music here. 

TSD: Do you think there’s a stigma in studying music?


SJ: Maybe a little bit when I told my parents I’d just get a CS minor and be a music major. The thing is that it just looks better on your resume to have double-majored, regardless of how competent you might be; people are just reading your resume. The only other stigma would be, perhaps, the perception that it is comparatively less rigorous than other academic programs here at Stanford. Is that true? I don’t know, because I’m obviously partially biased. I started studying computer science in my sophomore year. I’d never seen a line of code before that, so of course, I found CS to be hard, whereas I’ve been studying music since I was five. But, regardless of my CS background, when I’m in the music department, I’m a music student. The standards are just as high.

NO: From what I’ve heard from people who are friends with non-humanities majors, I think there’s some sort of condescension towards humanities or arts majors. I would assume it’s because they’re trying to analyze the arts and humanities industries the same way they analyze their industries. They won’t necessarily see their terms of success in our industry, so they end up attributing less value to it. If that’s the way they think, then I can understand that, even though I think it’s the wrong way to think about things. But all my friends happen to be in the humanities or arts, so we’re very supportive of each other. I know I’m very supportive of other music majors and other humanities majors, and honestly, any other major just because I know everything’s so difficult.

JS: There is a certain expectation of being able to attain a certain lifestyle after Stanford, specifically in terms of how much money you make. But, people are people, and the stigma isn’t very aggressive. They’re more so like, “Good luck with that,” rather than actively putting you down. Personally, I don’t feel very bothered by that, but there is something that I do feel more bothered by, which is the second kind of stigma, that you’re just majoring in music. And the fact that a lot of people are double majors in music contributes to the idea that music is not as rigorous as a STEM major. But, you know, it’s like comparing apples and oranges.

TSD: As ambassadors of the music department at Stanford, what would you want the rest of campus to know?


SJ: One of the things that makes me really happy is that people are making great use of a lot of the classes that the music department offers. These classes are intended to give you some exposure and some experience with music without priming you in the same way that might prepare someone who wants to study music for their life. But, the music department could do a lot of wonderful things and serve more students with greater funding, particularly in terms of hiring more personnel to teach students. More money to hire more personnel will help us to serve and support student musicians better. That’s my diplomatic way of phrasing it.

NO: If you’re even slightly interested in the music department, I would encourage people to look into the new music minor that just came out this year. It’s a lot more flexible. I know some seniors who were not minoring in music until this year and are able to do so very easily. If you’re not interested in majoring or minoring, but you’re an instrumentalist or vocalist, I would definitely look into the different ensembles we have on campus because they’re great communities. They’re not as exclusive as they may seem.

JS: 90% of our events are free. Please, please, come support your friends. There are student recitals, different department ensembles, music-oriented VSO’s, and sometimes professional musicians come to Bing. Just go to some of those things if you have the time. You’ll never be in a place where there’s so much music going on in one place again. You might not get exposure to the vibrant musical culture on campus if you’re not directly a part of it. It’s there for you if you want to experience it.

TSD: If you could choose one piece of music that would make anyone fall in love with what you do, what would it be?

SJ: Brahms Intermezzo in A. There are multiple intermezzi in A, but it’s the one, [she sings the theme of Brahms’ Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118, No. 2.]. It’s really good.

NO: [Prelude to the] Afternoon of a Faun by Claude Debussy. It opens with a beautiful flute solo and flute excerpts that most people ask for on auditions. Sometimes I listen to that piece and want to burst into tears; it’s such a gorgeous piece.

JS: Whatever your favorite movie is, go listen to the soundtrack. That’s the kind of classical music that I’d like to be involved in, even if the stuff I write doesn’t always sound like that.

Sonja will hold a vocal recital on Friday, Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m. at Campbell Recital Hall. Her senior conducting recital will be on Saturday, May 16, 8 p.m. at Memorial Church. Currently, Sonja is confirming her undergraduate degrees and pursuing a coterm in CS.

Papa will perform in their senior recital for solo flute on Saturday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m., Campbell Recital Hall. Currently, they are applying to graduate school for music.

Joss will premiere a work for string quartet in the winter quarter, details to-be-announced. His senior recital will also be held at the end of winter quarter. Currently, he is considering coterming at CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics).

Contact Timothy Dai at timdai ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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IQFF, part 1: The breathtakingly intimate ‘And Then We Danced’ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/10/17/iqff-part-1-opening-night-with-levan-akins-breathtakingly-intimate-and-then-we-danced/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/10/17/iqff-part-1-opening-night-with-levan-akins-breathtakingly-intimate-and-then-we-danced/#respond Thu, 17 Oct 2019 19:00:58 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1166106 This article is the first in a series of three articles on the 30th Hamburg International Queer Film Festival (Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hamburg), taking place from October 15, 2019, to October 20, 2019. The festival is Germany’s oldest and largest queer film festival. Premiering in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes 2019, Levan Akin’s Swedish-Georgian drama […]

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This article is the first in a series of three articles on the 30th Hamburg International Queer Film Festival (Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hamburg), taking place from October 15, 2019, to October 20, 2019. The festival is Germany’s oldest and largest queer film festival.

Premiering in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes 2019, Levan Akin’s Swedish-Georgian drama “And Then We Danced” is a one-of-a-kind queer coming of age film. Subtly sensual, it channels a certain youthful energy that moves it away from “Call Me By Your Name” by diving into the unrelenting, culturally and emotionally charged landscape of Georgian dance.

Admittedly, it may not have the narrative cleanliness of “CMBYN,” but it more than makes up for it with its complex and rewarding character depictions. Merab (Levan Gelbakhiani), a brilliant dancer at the National Georgian Ensemble begins to grow envious of the new dancer in the group: the effortlessly talented, self-righteous Irakli (Bachi Valishvili). Naturally, Merab sees Irakli’s kindness and dance advice as sycophantic, which it may start as, but quickly turns into a back-and-forth sexual tension-filled face-off as they try to one-up each other in a game of dominance — for each other.

Gelbakhiani brings a joyous, youthful, floaty quality to his performance that evokes the no-holds-barred thrill of a first love through his gracefulness and ferocity alike. (He’s got that Chalamet boyish charm, complete with nearly the same hair, but Georgian dance? Timothée Chalamet could never!) He’s beautifully unrestrained, trying and failing to hide his hidden smiles and sneak looks at Irakli. And at the same time, he’s emotive and free, even with the perils of being caught, with the dangers and stakes of being outed decidedly higher within the context of this film than many others.

In a lovely foreshadowing, Merab and Irakli are paired together for a dance, and immediately, the tension is palpable. They’re clearly incredible together, their energy and perceived hatred for each other fueling the dance — but, of course, what Merab thinks is rage is a certain kind of passion.

Merab is in a loose relationship with Mary, (Ana Javakishvili) his close friend, but he’s clearly only half-heartedly into it. Mary catches on, but it’s her resulting reactions to Merab’s sexual interests that truly makes her one of the most beloved characters of the film. Irakli’s “got a girl” in his hometown, so naturally he can’t engage with other women — but Merab isn’t off limits. However, Irakli is perhaps too careless for the hopeless romantic Merab as the latter begins to explore his sexuality — going to a gay club while intoxicated, gently encouraged by gender-binary-breaking sex workers he meets (who were actual sex workers recruited by the director after he met them).

Aside from stunning and engaging dance sequences, the performance element of the film allows for freedom of expression beyond the spoken word. In a beautiful, emotional scene, Merab dances freely for Irakli, unbound by societal or cultural expectations for what masculine dance is supposed to look or feel like.

In some ways, it’s ”Black Swan” but with actual dancers, allowing for the camera to travel everywhere, unrestricted. The camera traces over bodies and more bodies, but it’s the camera’s reluctance to leave these bodies that’s perhaps the most striking. We’re always in a close-up, torso up or closer, whether it be faces, arms, or feet. The camera can’t take its eyes off of Merab and Irakli, itself becoming an instrument of intimacy — we can feel every twitch, see every blink, hear every breath.

Furthermore, “And Then We Danced” does away with tired tropes of performance while depicting the deeply engrained constraints of patriarchy. For the Georgian dance ensemble leadership, dancing is tradition, and dancing is proudly masculine. But Merab is told that he’s too heavy on his feet and is demanded to be lighter and more in control. At another point, he’s told that the style changed about 50 years ago to the more “masculine” style it is today, and that he must be stiffer and stronger. Like with his sexuality, Merab is unable to live up to every impossible expectation.

Perhaps the film doesn’t wrap up its storylines as cleanly as it could, but boy, the end scene will have you clapping. Screw the patriarchy. Screw gendered society. This might be a crude description of an otherwise straightforward and effective scene, but Akin knows how to go out with a bang; it’s the payoff of the film’s slow and steady construction of dance as cinematic language. “And Then We Danced” is also a great example of why sitting through the credits often reveals important information about the film. The choreographer is listed as anonymous, which Akin himself has discussed is because revealing the choreographer’s involvement in the film — which itself has been boycotted due to its queer content — might lead to discrimination and harassment. 

Ultimately where “And Then We Danced” really succeeds is how it portrays adolescent queer allyship in a beautiful, honest light. The emotional impact of acceptance and support from key characters (won’t spoil!) in Merab’s case is absolutely overwhelming. It instills a certain kind of hope that even when hate, distrust, and taught and learned, there’s something deeper that pulls at you — where love and truth do trump any lingering doubt that what society tells you is correct is, in fact, correct.

“And Then We Danced” will have a limited American theatrical release in early 2020.

Contact Olivia Popp at oliviapopp ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Music + X: Politics https://stanforddaily.com/2019/09/24/music-x-politics/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/09/24/music-x-politics/#respond Tue, 24 Sep 2019 07:00:47 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1157530 From the earliest symphonies to operas made in the past decade, politics has been present in classical music — not only as a subject of composer’s interest, but as a force that shapes the music deemed worthy. Today, we consider two works of music: one by a Russian composer under the microscope of the 1920s Soviet Union, the other by an American composer given considerably more leeway to comment on American international politics of the 1970s.

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For the next nine weeks, each Monday we will publish a themed article as part of the Music + X series, designed to introduce you to classical music that applies to aspects of everyday life — politics, humor, horror, and the like. This week’s playlist, featuring all of the music discussed below and more, can be found here

When you think of the sound of politics, what comes to mind? 

The shouts and cries of a political rally? The steady clatter of thousands of feet marching in the streets? A single voice of hope, or a generation of grumbling? Beyonce’s “Homecoming” tour, Hamilton, Bob Dylan’s peaceful crooning in a time of war, or maybe Chance the Rapper?

What about Dmitri Shostakovich, or a Baritone Richard Nixon? 

While the mainstream music of politics is often held in the hands of present-day singer-songwriters, classical music has had a long and intensive relationship with power and politics. From the earliest symphonies to operas made in the past decade, politics has been present in classical music — not only as a subject of composer’s interest, but as a force that shapes the music deemed worthy. Today, we consider two works of music: one by a Russian composer under the microscope of the 1920s Soviet Union, the other by an American composer given considerably more leeway to comment on American international politics of the 1970s. 

Dmitri Shostakovich: “Symphony No. 2”

In the early years of the Soviet Union, the state was kept under the tight totalitarian rule of Joseph Stalin. 1920s Soviet government established a series of committees designed to promote government propaganda. Music-based state committees promoted music that encouraged the “general activation of… human energy with the aim of utilizing it for the needs of the Soviet Construction” — namely, they were to compel artists into producing pro-Soviet celebratory compositions. These committees exerted significant influence on Russian composers and musicians, including the young Dimitri Shostakovich. 

In the mid-1920s, the Soviet Union prepared to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution, which catalyzed the Russian Civil War and the founding of the Soviet Union. The Propaganda Department of the State Music Publishing House commissioned Shostakovich to compose a symphonic work that encapsulated the revolutionary spirit of October. They further demanded that he include in his composition a poem by Alexander Bezymensky, titled “To October,” celebrating Lenin’s heroic role in the Revolution. 

Such demands made Shostakovich’s “Second Symphony” a headache to compose. The piece is only twenty minutes long, and it features no clear melody. In place of thematic cohesion, Shostakovich employs musical sound effects to create a symphony of texture, and texture alone. The first two movements are a cacophony of unrelenting noise, with the low strings grumbling harmonic tones and wind instruments contributing short melodies above the bass line. 

Only in the third movement does a political message emerge. The chorus enters, chanting the words of Bezymensky’s poem, after the foreboding blare of war horns. Shostakovich clearly struggled with this movement: the triumphant orchestration clashes unexpectedly with the quieter beginning movements of the piece, and the poem’s wording fits awkwardly into the third movement’s stilted orchestration. 

Yet, the political message rings true in the poem’s wording and in the mere existence of the symphony. The choir sings, “Oh, Lenin! You forged freedom through suffering / You forged freedom from our toil-hardened hands… Struggle! You led us to the final battle. / Struggle! You gave us the victory of Labour. / And this victory over oppression and darkness / None can ever take away from us!” 

Though Shostakovich’s later symphonies tackle with many similar historical themes, they are more musically conventional, reflecting how the Soviet government constrained cultural mediums into a carefully-curated political image. Along with many of his other pre-1940s compositions, the symphony came under Stalin’s fire, leaving Shostakovich in financially and politically dangerous waters. His later symphonies became more traditionally palatable to appease Stalin’s propagandistic demands, and reflect the transition of Shostakovich’s music from individualistically experimental into dutifully conventional. 

“Symphony No. 2” is Shostakovich at his most blatantly political and experimentally unleashed. Though his later works are musically intriguing and politically significant in their own right, his second symphony represents the lack of musical restraint that Shostakovich was inspired by in his earlier years, before denunciation forced him into musical submission. The sound of music itself, as these symphonies demonstrate, is transformed by the desires of politics. 

John Adams: “Nixon in China”

Nixon’s 1972 visit to China is often forgotten, eclipsed by the following year’s Watergate scandal. But the seven-day visit was the culmination of warming US-China relations after 25 years without contact, and historians recognize it as an immensely important accomplishment by the Nixon administration. 

Even so, a diplomatic visit is a strange topic for an opera, having no fantastical plots, magic rings, or love triangles. Composer John Adams, who saw Nixon at the time as merely the butt of late-night jokes, had to be convinced by director Peter Sellars to write the opera. In the hands of Adams, Peter Sellars and librettist Alice Goodman, “Nixon in China,” beyond dramatizing the events of Nixon’s visit, is a vivid study of the aspirations and anxieties of its central characters. 

Nixon, in his first aria “News,” flows from a keen sensitivity to appearances to a penchant for inspiring grandiosity to a quiet anxiety about the state of the world — traits grounded in study of the historical Nixon. Mao Zedong, as Timothy A. Johnson writes, transforms over the course of the opera “from a physically decrepit elderly man, whose mind is still sharp but whose body show signs of deterioration, to a physically vibrant and active leader who literally breaks forth from his image and takes command of the stage” (in the stage direction, Mao comes out from behind a portrait of himself). 

The striking banquet scene “Cheers” ends the first act in a manner exuberant and grandiose. Between exclamations from the president, the first lady, and the premier, the company erupts in repeated cries of “cheers!” that resolve to powerful major chords but do so in a seemingly chaotic fashion. Adams’ comfort in minimalist as well as classical paradigms combines with his subtle grasp of harmony to convey a dinner infused with both the celebratory spirit and the tension underlying the meeting of the two countries. 

The final scenes of the play are enveloped in contemplation and worry. Zhou Enlai, the Chinese Premier who, more than even Mao himself, is the face of China in this opera, closes the opera with the poignant aria “I am old and cannot sleep forever.” His final words hang in the air as a string trio fades uneasily into silence: “outside this room the chill of grace lies heavy on the morning grass.” 

It’s hard to imagine Shostakovich being given free rein to write an opera about Lenin in the vein of the one Adams wrote about Nixon. Adams’ work is about politics, and its writing was doubtless shaped by late-1980s perceptions of Nixon and China. But it enjoys a remove from politics, a freedom to look back upon events with more distance than Shostakovich’s symphonies ever could. Where “Nixon in China” is about politics, Shostakovich’s “Second Symphony” is part of politics. 

Watch Nixon in China at the Met Opera on Demand, available for students through Stanford Libraries

Recommended Listening: 

Contact Adrian Liu at adliu ‘at’ stanford.edu and Elizabeth Lindqwister at liz ‘at’ stanforddaily.com.

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‘Parasite’ will have you buzzing to the #Bonghive https://stanforddaily.com/2019/09/17/parasite-will-have-you-buzzing-to-the-bonghive/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/09/17/parasite-will-have-you-buzzing-to-the-bonghive/#respond Tue, 17 Sep 2019 09:42:47 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1158690 You need to see “Parasite” in theaters. Flinch as much as you’d like, but do not look away.

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You need to see “Parasite” in theaters. Flinch as much as you’d like, but do not look away.

Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” picked up the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes and recently opened in one theater in New York — and every single showing was quickly sold out. I was lucky enough to see Bong Joon-ho’s tour de force with English subtitles while in Taiwan over the summer, and I’m still thinking about it. (And for my friends out there who are also hesitant about films labeled horror or dark thriller, let it be known that “Parasite” has horror elements, but its characteristics remain in the realm of thriller, splashed with non-gratuitous violence. It’s heart-pounding in the best way and won’t give you nightmares.)

Bong doles out twist after twist in a way that you’ll never want to see a film with a traditional three-act structure ever again. But beyond riveting thrills, “Parasite” pulls out all the stops and will take you through the broadest range of emotions of 2019. Bong packs in quick-witted humor shoved amidst pure terror so that by the end, you won’t know what hit you — nay, slapped you — multiple times. It’s easy to deduce the film’s core (and possibly superficial) ethical question merely from a one-sentence logline of the film you can find on Google: is the rich or the poor family the parasite?

Yet it’s so much more than that, and the struggle is not so clear-cut. Class conflict is more than whispers behind closed doors and passive-aggressive smiles in a beautifully-windowed mansion — it turns into a literal all-out war. “Parasite” is plenty more than just a black and white depiction of class with money at the forefront. Without spoiling the film, let’s just say no side is better off when it’s all over.

“Parasite” is outrageous and ridiculously extreme — even the colors are unreal. The grass is too green, the walls are too gray and the sky is too blue. But that’s what makes “Parasite” the best roller coaster ride you’ll be on in a theater.

'Parasite' will have you buzzing to the #Bonghive
Director Bong Joon-ho’s newest movie is as thrilling as it is nontraditional. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

In single-camera comedy form, the first half of “Parasite” serves up infinite deadpan jokes (watch for the daughter’s half-sung “jingle” that she recites before she rings the doorbell — I’m still laughing) and crisply cut humor that could have easily taken a turn into traditional dark comedy territory.

If the film ended there, I would’ve thought it was simply a comedy — the film cleans up its tracks so well that you won’t know where it’s headed until it’s too late. Then suddenly, the second half of the film swiftly diverges into a swirling pot of visuallydriven horror, ironic revelations and emotionally-driven brutal violence.

The brilliant cast brings a set of half wealthy and pristine, half scrappy and clever characters to life while also still looking amazing — seriously, everyone in this film looks fantastic — thanks to a combination of clean lighting, sharp costume design and actors whose faces perfectly fit their characters. Even when toilet water spews over half the people in the film, you just can’t take your eyes off of them. Each character also has unique quirks that reappear at the most crucial of moments, both for humor and for narrative purposes. Bong precariously balances props as both plot devices and character motifs, messing with your head so that whatever move is made, it always works.

So when “Parasite” comes to a theater near you (or, say, within a two to three hour driving distance), pick up your stuff and go. This film will shake you in the best of ways. Jump on Twitter and join the #Bonghive. Root for it at the Oscars when it goes up for the International Feature Film Award (formerly Best Foreign Language Film). 

Run, don’t walk, to see “Parasite.” It’s the start of the anti three-act structure revolution we need in cinema.

Contact Olivia Popp at oliviapopp ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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A ‘Beautiful’ look at the life of Carole King https://stanforddaily.com/2019/06/03/a-beautiful-look-at-the-life-of-carole-king/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/06/03/a-beautiful-look-at-the-life-of-carole-king/#respond Tue, 04 Jun 2019 00:00:52 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1155792 “Beautiful– The Carole King Musical” has joyously returned to the SHN Golden Gate Theatre for a limited two week engagement. Its stellar touring cast effectively propagates a unique dialogue with San Franciscan audiences and emphasizes “Beautiful’s” tonal complexity and engaging narrative. The Tony and Grammy-winning musical centers on the life and career of singer/songwriter Carole […]

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“Beautiful– The Carole King Musical” has joyously returned to the SHN Golden Gate Theatre for a limited two week engagement. Its stellar touring cast effectively propagates a unique dialogue with San Franciscan audiences and emphasizes “Beautiful’s” tonal complexity and engaging narrative.

The Tony and Grammy-winning musical centers on the life and career of singer/songwriter Carole King as she evolves from a 16-year-old pavement pounder to a Carnegie Hall headliner. A large majority of the story interrogates the turmoil in King’s personal life. This focus ultimately deepens the impact of King’s personal growth and professional metamorphosis. The musical is defined by toe-tapping hits including, “I Feel The Earth Move,” “A Natural Woman” and “So Far Away,” which the piano conductor and most audience members boogie to throughout the production. It’s nearly impossible not to.

Most of the show’s book and structure is successful due to the individual performances of many key cast members. A clear standout is Sarah Bockel, who plays Carole King herself. Bockel embodies the role with natural nuance and warmth. She impressively evolves both emotionally and vocally throughout the show and handles both comedic and dramatic acting beats with grace and honesty. An additional standout actor is Jacob Heimer, who portrays Barry Mann, one of King’s friendly songwriting rivals. Heimer often provides lovable comedic relief, offsetting Dylan Wallach’s unlikeable Gerry, and he especially stuns with a forceful rendition of “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” in the second act.

Since many audience members remember King’s initial rise to fame first hand, the theater transforms into a space of cultural celebration and experience sharing. Beginning with Carole King’s opening monologue, King seems to subliminally invite observers to relive their own memories as the show unfolds. And boy, does it work. When I attended the performance, many enjoyed basking in nostalgia while collectively riding the tide of second-wave feminism “Beautiful”’s narrative centralizes. Never have I heard so much vocal participation from an audience predominantly comprised of middle-aged or elderly folks, who cheered for King when she decided to sing her own songs or verbally balked at her husband’s infidelity.

At times, the musical’s scenes become a bit tiresome. This is partially due to some drag in line delivery, but mostly because many scenes are similarly set in King’s office or focused on her difficulties while songwriting. But any problems that may result from this structure are resolved through the implementation of performance breaks, or moments in which the audience is briefly pulled out of the narrative to fully appreciate a famous song as a stand-alone piece of art. In these moments, I can imagine many audience members layer their own experiences onto the songs and reflect on their own memories that may be connected to the music, particularly because these moments are only loosely connected to “Beautiful”‘s primary narrative. Though songs are usually most successful when serving as plot-furthering devices, jukebox musicals have the unique opportunity to lean into productively non-narrative musical moments. This production should serve as the gold standard.  

Some excellent musical breaks include “Some Kind of Wonderful” and “On Broadway” sung by performers portraying The Drifters, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” sung by performers portraying The Shirelles, and “The Locomotion” featuring a performer portraying Little Eva. During these songs, various highlighted ensemble members sing with precision and exuberance in reverence to each of the respective songwriters. Each ensemble soloist belts absurdly high and harnesses massive vocal control while mimicking the sounds of other famous musicians. I also appreciate how the casting team chose actors with differing body types to fill the ensemble and cast as a whole, displaying a refreshingly natural representation of body image onstage.

Another aspect of the production that successfully capitalizes on the audience’s pre-established knowledge of King’s era is its comedy. In a few show-stealing moments, The Drifters and other periphery cameo characters exaggerate classic music styles and dances in a way that subtly wink at the audience. Though these performance moments likely wouldn’t have been viewed as comedic in the 50’s or 60’s, the suggestive flick of a hand or oh-so-precise sidestep expertly conveys feelings of solidarity with audiences and acknowledges the goofiness of some outdated performance moments when placed in a contemporary context. The show also interestingly enhances its comedic components through uses of dramatic irony. Many times King’s mother, her producer or King herself easily win laughs after conveying lack of faith in tunes that the audience knows become hits, and the delivery of these moments is superb and wholly satisfying.

Outside of instances in which the narrative uses the audience’s basic understanding of King’s career to enhance storytelling elements, the show is also largely informative. The show’s illumination of specific well known songs tactfully educate audiences who may not have been aware of King’s involvement in so many musical hits before her rise as an independent music personality. Coming away from the show with these discoveries is perhaps one of the most resonant aspects of this performance experience.

Overall, I am happily surprised by “Beautiful”’s depth. The show superbly honors King, is shockingly hilarious and effectively leans into darker subject matter. The main actors hone the historical figures they’re playing and encourage audiences to join their feminist leanings. I left the theater humming King’s iconic tunes feeling happy, proud and moved. You will too.

“Beautiful– The Carole King Musical” runs through June 9 at the SHN Golden Gate Theatre. Tickets can be purchased at shnsf.com.

Contact Chloe Wintersteen at chloe20 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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SCOr picks up ‘Good Vibrations’ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/31/scor-picks-up-good-vibrations/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/31/scor-picks-up-good-vibrations/#respond Fri, 31 May 2019 08:00:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1155718 Last Friday night, under the soft lights of Toyon’s lounge, Stanford Collaborative Orchestra (SCOr) swept the audience away on a musical adventure. Layers of strings, woodwinds and incredible pianists carried the listeners through a dizzyingly gorgeous set and reminded me of just how many amazing musicians Stanford has. SCOr’s spring concert, “Good Vibrations,” featured a […]

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Last Friday night, under the soft lights of Toyon’s lounge, Stanford Collaborative Orchestra (SCOr) swept the audience away on a musical adventure. Layers of strings, woodwinds and incredible pianists carried the listeners through a dizzyingly gorgeous set and reminded me of just how many amazing musicians Stanford has. SCOr’s spring concert, “Good Vibrations,” featured a set of five pieces from various composers and eras, and each was performed with passion and skill.

SCOr was created in 2015, with the mission statement of becoming  “Stanford’s first student-run, conductorless symphonic ensemble.” SCOr prides itself in being an orchestra “of the students, by the students and for the students.” I had no reservations about this model prior to attending the concert, yet I was still overwhelmed by the amount of talent in the room. The 30 piece group contained violins, violas, cellos and basses, as well as flutes, clarinets, oboes, bassoons, french horns, trumpets, trombones, percussion and pianos. To create such unity of sound from a group with no conductor is a truly impressive feat, and SCOr impressed me time and time again with their skill.

The night opened with Beethoven’s “Overture to Egmont,” the overture to a collection of incidental music for Goethe’s play of the same name. From the opening chords, I was excited to hear what would come next, and SCOr kept me gripped throughout the entire performance. I did not know what to expect from a conductorless orchestra, but hearing the sharp entrances and exits, the stunning crescendos and the articulated silences, I found myself wholly impressed by the ensemble’s skill. In this show, the overture excited me not for a play, but for what was to come next from the group.

Next, a smaller group of musicians came on to perform Poulenc’s “Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet.” The group is the new Stanford Collaborative Quintet, also known as the Stanford Wind Kwyn-tet. I felt that the conductorless approach really shone in the smaller group. The quintet contained a piano, as well as a traditional wind quintet of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn. I was treated to a group of musicians who clearly knew how to listen to one another, and the blending of the instruments was beautifully and masterfully done.

Next, the strings of SCOr returned to play Dvorak’s “String Serenade.” I was again impressed by the dynamic contrast that the ensemble managed to create without a conductor. Generally, an orchestra watches the conductor’s gestures to receive instructions on things like dynamics and expressive techniques, but in SCOr’s case, there was no one up front telling them what to do. To achieve this, it was clear that the musicians really heard each other, and I never felt that one player was overpowering the group in any way. The democratic approach SCOr takes likely plays into this quite a bit—all the musicians seemed genuinely excited to be playing, and it showed in their performance.

After a brief intermission, the full orchestra returned to perform Shostakovich’s “Piano Concerto No. 2.” The piece has been one of my favorites for years, and my expectations were high. Needless to say, they were met, if not exceeded by SCOr’s performance. The concerto was originally written for Shostakovich’s son upon his graduation from the Moscow Conservatory, and contains technically difficult passages and soaring melodies. They featured three different pianists on each of the three movements, allowing me to be impressed by more than one of the amazing pianists we have at Stanford. The pianists, Lena Han (‘22), Kevin Su (‘21) and Taide Ding (‘17) all demonstrated both technical talent and emotional interpretive talent. From the first movement, I was impressed by Han, as well as SCOr’s ability to support them. In the piece, the piano plays more as part of the ensemble at times, and sometimes it shines on its own. The orchestra understood this and played to feature the piano however it best fit the piece. In the second movement, Su brought out the emotion that makes the piece so powerful, and the orchestra again supported them to the perfect degree. By the third movement, I was impressed a third time by the soloist, Ding, as well as SCOr’s ability to adapt and support each soloist to their strengths. For a piece that is so special to me, I was so glad SCOr was able to do it such justice.

The concert closed with an original composition by Jeffery Chang titled “Rhapsody on a Meme.” In his own words, the piece is described as “not intend[ing] to convey any sort of profound sentiment, nor is it meant to exist as high art. It is a meme.” For any young composer, writing a piece that handles so many parts is an impressive accomplishment, and the talent of both the group and the composer again was showcased.

The most special thing I took away from the show was a reminder—a reminder of how much talent there is at Stanford, and how often we forget to celebrate it. Had I not attended this concert, I never would have seen so many talented performers working in their element, spreading so much joy through their music. I encourage anyone who can to attend a SCOr concert and appreciate the amazing musicians who play together there.

Contact Caroline Baker at cehbaker ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘You know BTS?’ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/24/btss-big-break/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/24/btss-big-break/#respond Fri, 24 May 2019 11:30:57 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1155423 How international pop superstars BTS paved the way and changed the game What does it take to be the biggest boyband in the world? Evidently, it takes seven charismatic men, striking visuals, high production values, multi-genre tracks adorned with percussive raps and sparkling verses almost entirely in Korean, polished and perfected dance moves in perfect sync […]

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How international pop superstars BTS paved the way and changed the game

What does it take to be the biggest boyband in the world? Evidently, it takes seven charismatic men, striking visuals, high production values, multi-genre tracks adorned with percussive raps and sparkling verses almost entirely in Korean, polished and perfected dance moves in perfect sync and millions of adoring fans. You see them on Time-100’s Most Influential People of 2019 List, in front of the United Nations speaking as UNICEF ambassadors, at #1 on the Billboard 200 three separate times in 11 months and at the center of massive, rumbling, glowing stadiums.

방탄소년단 (romanized: bangtan sonyeondan), or BTS, is a seven-piece pop group from South Korea, composed of members RM (Kim Namjoon), Jin (Kim Seokjin), SUGA (Min Yoongi), j-hope (Jung Hoseok), Jimin (Park Jimin), V (Kim Taehyung) and Jungkook (Jeon Jungkook).

They cannot be just another boyband. Not some passing trend nor inexplicable phenomenon. Outgrowing the constraints of any label— boyband, K-pop, idol, celebrity— BTS signify a cultural moment that transcends even music: one that centers love, community, vulnerability and humility.

Since their conception, BTS have championed the voices of youth, writing music that makes social commentary on suffocating education systems, political and social injustices and mental health. BTS debuted in 2013 under BigHit Entertainment, a small entertainment company founded by Bang Si-Hyuk. Bang set out to subvert the pristine Korean “idol” (K-pop artist, in Korea) image and put together a group that had the industrial power of an idol group while simultaneously embodying the company’s slogan, “Music for Healing.” BigHit condemned harmful “slave contracts” and the abusive work environment that K-pop is notorious for, ensuring the members of their personal agency and prioritizing their passion for music and development as artists. In an unforgiving, highly competitive market, Bang and BTS had a long and tumultuous road ahead.

Debuting with an explosive bad boy concept, not only did they inherit the financial struggles of a small company, but they also trespassed upon the clean-cut idol image. With their debut EP, 2 Cool 4 Skool, the rebellious, fire-eyed, teenage hip-hop group BTS, or 방탄소년단, translating to Bulletproof School Boys, committed themselves to representing and protecting the raw, resilient and powerful youth of Korea— not your average idol.  

In a music industry as saturated as South Korea’s, idols must meet the golden standard of performance. Their choreographic precision, charismatic stage presence and unwavering vocals are the products of hours and hours of rehearsals, every day, often in addition to packed schedules. They record, rehearse and perform nonstop— hardly ever resting— releasing new music, promoting and touring every single year in order to compete.

This could be why BTS is so off-putting to some Western consumers. Chocked up to “just another K-pop group,” they must seem too pristine and industrious. Unfamiliar, foreign and intimidating. When Americans call BTS’s success “manufactured,” I try to explain the Korean music industry— a machine that demands this level of production. Yet, nothing about BTS’s success is manufactured. They were kids, 13 to 20 years old, when they left home, moved schools and committed themselves to BTS: a small nobody group from a small company.

BTS gained traction because of how they excelled within their constraints of the industry, while still challenging it. Without the privileges of a large company, they grinded their way up, from “nothing to something,” consistently cranking out immaculate performances and high quality albums, whilst, above all, championing their artistry and their deeper social values throughout.

Unlike many other idol groups, the members participate in the songwriting, production and/or composition of every single track. Writing autobiographically about loss, depression and insecurity in their more reflective tracks as well as determination and self-love in their electrifying, empowering stadium anthems— they imbue their own narrative into their songs. This kind of critical engagement with the highs and lows of personal development is rare in an industry that notoriously restricts the individuality of idols and propagates idealized pictures of what joy, masculinity, femininity, beauty and love should look like. BTS wields genre and conceptual shifts as artistic tools to illustrate their growth from teenagers to adults. Every member has a musicality and narrative that shines through their respective performances. The complicated personal narrative and self-fashioning afforded to each member— as they live, work and grow so closely to one another under such strenuous schedules and public scrutiny— crafted seven highly unique, thoughtful, complex and admirably dutiful artists.

In addition to exhibiting vulnerability in their art, the boys, as many fans comfortably call them, established an unprecedented rapport of playful authenticity, openness and familiarity with their fans. Through an active social media presence on Twitter, vlogs, casual livestreams, and fan-meetings, BTS regularly interact with their fans, known as ARMY, giving them peeks to their daily schedules, their personalities, their struggles, as well as the personal frustrations and joys of working and living with one another as they grow up together.

BTS consistently humanize themselves and their fans through this rapport. The group recognizes the comfort a fan could find in them: hope in their lyrics, joy in their live performance, life-lessons in their candid personal reflections. In return, they find similar comfort in ARMY, since, for the past six years, they are who believed in them and advocated for them when everyone else counted them out. This openly communicated reciprocity of duty and gratitude between BTS and ARMY lies at the heart of the group’s success, alongside BTS’s indomitable work ethic, skill as musicians and dedication to one another as friends.

Fans want the world to see, hear and understand BTS in the same way that they do. Tens of millions of fans— of all ages, genders, and nationalities— all believe in BTS, their message, their skill and their integrity as individuals. BTS resonate with fans in their song lyrics, journal entries, interviews, speeches and winding thoughts they share as they speak to us on a livestream over their quiet midnight hotel dinner, coming down from the high of a sold-out show to an audience of 80,000.

Fan translators work for free to share and distribute content in their respective languages. Fans organize philanthropic projects in the name of members, in the same way that the members organize their own in the name of ARMY. Friends are connected, on and offline, within a massive community, brought together by the cultural superpower that is BTS. In return, the boys continuously promise to work harder— to write, record, rehearse, tour, perform— to reciprocate the love and energy poured into them. It’s a viciously benevolent cycle.

In mid-April, BTS kicked-off on their sixth conceptual era, Map of the Soul. They are in the midst of their Speak Yourself Stadium World Tour, which references their #LoveMyself UNICEF campaign. Through this campaign, BTS advocate the practice of self-love through acknowledging multiplicity— “to love myself for who I was, who I am and who I hope to become,” as RM said before the United Nations General Assembly in 2018. Loving yourself is accepting and learning from mistakes. Loving yourself is accepting both your capacity and potential.

As BTS meet hundreds of thousands of fans throughout the summer, in explosive open-air stadiums glittering with light and love, they will continue to prove that love, music and humanity will always transcend any language. BTS will continue to speak themselves and sing their message as long as anyone is willing to listen.

Contact Izzy Angus at iangus ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Monstress’ melds the marvelous and melancholic https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/24/monstress-melds-the-marvelous-and-melancholic/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/24/monstress-melds-the-marvelous-and-melancholic/#respond Fri, 24 May 2019 10:30:30 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1155347 Lysley Tenorio’s debut short story collection, “Monstress,” astonishes with its brilliance and profound insight into the human experience. Tenorio also places emphasis on truthfully depicting the complications of American and Filipino identities, and the struggle to unite them with a hyphen. Through his melodic prose, Tenorio — also a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford — […]

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Lysley Tenorio’s debut short story collection, “Monstress,” astonishes with its brilliance and profound insight into the human experience. Tenorio also places emphasis on truthfully depicting the complications of American and Filipino identities, and the struggle to unite them with a hyphen. Through his melodic prose, Tenorio — also a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford — portrays the intricate psychologies of characters on the outskirts of society, creating stories that hold intense emotive weight in their thematic exploration and ultimate unravelling of what “identity” even means.

These eight stories are accessible and poignantly moving, with narratives that emerge out of the traditional borders of representation in fiction. Many of Tenorio’s characters — all Filipino American — struggle with loyalties to their families and themselves, the Philippines and the United States, and to tradition and modernity, a constant tug of war that informs the collection as a whole. In each work, Tenorio skillfully delves into the subjectivity of their experiences, nudging readers to sympathize with — and perhaps even find humor in — the chaotic mental and physical realities of quirky characters who are often alienated “outsiders looking in.”

But as approachable as these stories are in terms of language and readerly insight into the characters’ shifting central desires, Tenorio never shows a didactic, morally ‘right’ answer. Tenorio places his characters in unquantifiable moral gray spaces, oxymoronically expanding upon their worlds through his careful shaping of absence, which adds further significance to what remains. He subtly interweaves details that contextualize and ground the characters in their sociohistorical settings, amplifying the tension and emotive power of his characters who struggle to root themselves in new soil.

And the stories in order, from the table of contents:

“Monstress”: In the first and titular short story, amateur actress Reva Gogo — best known for monstrous roles like “The Squid Mother” and “Bat-Winged Pygmy Queen” — and her B-movie director and lover Checkers leave the Philippines for the United States to work with a Hollywood director, hoping he will jumpstart their careers. However, Reva contends with her own burgeoning ambitions and her lover’s growing homesickness that fuels his hurtful taunts of her acting, which ultimately leads her to leave Checkers and permanently stay, even though this decision later brings her sorrow.

“The Brothers”: Perhaps the most evocative short story in the collection, Edmond and his conservative Catholic mother bury his transgender sister Erica, even though their mother refuses to acknowledge Erica’s gender transition. Meanwhile, Edmond attempts to reconcile his understanding of the sister he never really knew with the help of Raquel, Erica’s former drag sister. Even on the level of the title, “Brothers” signifies Edmond internal inability to recognize his sister Erica’s new gender identity, with Edmond grappling with his physical complicity with helping their mother bind Erica’s breasts. Portrayed without authorial judgment, Tenorio viscerally highlights the mother’s grief that emphasizes her imperfect humanity, even as Edmond grudgingly aids, and later flees in horror at, his mother’s actions which drive him to tearfully confide in Raquel.

“Felix Starro”: The titular character, a third-generation inheritor of the name, assists his grandfather in the “family business” of faith healing, which involves a certain amount of fraud with chicken livers and fake blood. While he meditates on competing impulses between his family legacy and his search for individuality, eventually he must decide: return to the Philippines with his remaining family, or hide away in the United States with a new name and career. However, either choice will force him to leave part of his identity behind, and he must decide which aspect of himself he can live without.

“The View from Culion”: This piece depicts a young woman who bonds with and dreams of love with another American in a leper colony, far removed from the Philippines and her home in the United States. With conversations unveiled only through the comfort of the shadows, they find temporary consolation in each other, which manifests in her art. Nevertheless, perhaps driven by a desire to see her friend home, she sorrowfully works to instigate his removal by whatever means necessary, made especially heartbreaking by her inability to leave the colony herself.

“Superassassin”: A schoolboy seeks power to protect himself from his bullies and shield his mother from the perceived threat of her lovers, writing a report on his cherished “Green Lantern” comics which strengthens his courage. However, though he starts with the best of intentions, he ultimately spirals into a similar trajectory as his favorite hero, resorting to violence with disastrous results. Even as his narrative voice retains a childlike innocence, as he describes his mother’s alcoholism and his own exploits, his inability to distinguish fiction from reality soon reflects his troubled and slowly evaporating sanity.

“Help”: The narrator’s uncle recruits his cousins and him in an airport skirmish to defend the honor of Imelda Marcos, then First Lady of the Philippines, after the Beatles purportedly insult her. Spiced with Tenorio’s characteristic humor, the narrator wrestles with his fanboy desire for the Beatles’ autographs and his hesitant allegiance to his uncle’s orders, while subconsciously reflecting upon the global reach of Western culture which had ensnared his mother, who never returns to her family again.

“Save the I-Hotel”: Centering on the iconic International Hotel (I-Hotel), an originally low-income residency that housed Filipino and Chinese immigrants in Manilatown, San Francisco, an elderly man named Fortunado reflects on his unspoken romantic love and shared life with his male neighbor and best friend who lives down the hall, both on the cusp of eviction. Fortunado nostalgically recalls tender moments from their past that slowly build to his one-sided romantic realization, interspersed with vignettes in the present showing his continued care for his dementia-stricken partner, demonstrating the longevity of love in its many forms.

“L’amour, CA”: Retrospectively told through the eyes of a third-grader and recent immigrant to Lemoore, California, the protagonist narrates his initial excitement at moving to a military base with his family, and their struggles to assimilate into American society. This last story ends in uncertainty in the midst of a family crisis, yet is cloaked with the youthful brilliance of hope and the protagonist’s desire to make this new land his home. With the title’s play on words between the fanciful “l’amour” and the more downtrodden Lemoore, the inherent disillusionment and continued perseverance also makes this story a fitting end to the collection.

And considering the homonyms of “monstress” and “monstrous,” even Tenorio’s title suggests the clash of Filipino and Western worldviews from the level of phonetic pronunciation, reflecting how the expression of language colors how we view the lives led by this rich cast of characters. In these stories, every word matters, with intricacy upon intricacy of detail finally coalescing into stories that illuminate the Filipino American experience, the complexities of crafting an identity and the universal human yearning to belong.

Ultimately, this outstanding collection demonstrates Tenorio’s mastery over the short story form, signalling the debut of an unforgettable new voice in the literary landscape.

Contact Shana Hadi at shanaeh ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Booksmart’ gets an A+ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/23/booksmart-gets-an-a/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/23/booksmart-gets-an-a/#respond Thu, 23 May 2019 08:00:42 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1155360 Ambitious, smart, funny, outspoken, overbearing, snide, controlling and endearing are just some of the adjectives that define Molly, the main character of “Booksmart.” In the first few minutes of the film, it’s tempting to try to box her into one of the character tropes we’ve seen time and time again in high school movies: she’s […]

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Ambitious, smart, funny, outspoken, overbearing, snide, controlling and endearing are just some of the adjectives that define Molly, the main character of “Booksmart.” In the first few minutes of the film, it’s tempting to try to box her into one of the character tropes we’ve seen time and time again in high school movies: she’s going to Yale, so she must be the nerd. No wait — she’s the bossy girl. No wait — she’s the mean girl. Then you realize, hopefully before she encourages her queer best friend to consider scissoring, that she doesn’t fit into any box. No one in “Booksmart” does. The film, amidst its excessively funny jokes and enviously creative scenes, successfully captures the complexity, sexuality and lovability of teenage girls in a way that no other film quite has.

Molly’s best friend is Amy, who is the complete opposite of her: quiet, introverted and queer. What they do have in common is that they’re smartest people at their school — or so they believe. For four years, they studied hard in order to earn spots at Ivy League colleges, and Molly carries her admittance to Yale as a badge of superiority. Her world comes crashing down, however, when she finds out that her partying peers are also headed to elite colleges. Aiming to make up for all the fun they sacrificed, Molly and Amy decide to attend the biggest party the night before graduation. It doesn’t turn out to be that easy.

Playing best friends, Beanie Feldstein (Molly) and Kaitlyn Dever (Amy) take a wonderful script and bring it to life with some of best chemistry I’ve seen on screen recently. “Booksmart” is equally about the beauty and power of female friendships as it is about high school. Together, Molly and Amy are raunchy and unstoppable. I can’t express how thoroughly enjoying it is to watch two smart, accomplished girls support each other. At one point in the movie, the two separately put on similar sequined dresses, stare at each other, and then proceed to take turns firing humorous compliments — not argue over who should be the one to change outfits. It’s refreshing and empowering to watch two girls embody proud feminists (they use “Malala” as a code word) and build each other up.

I love how queerness is an important part of Amy’s character, but that’s a non-issue in her close, intimate friendship with Molly. “Booksmart” treats queer relationships as completely normal and acceptable. The film’s R rating further allows it to positively explore the sexuality of its college-bound characters. Whereas “Pretty in Pink” didn’t venture much further than a kiss, in the last two years alone we’ve seen “Blockers,” “Lady Bird” and “Eighth Grade” push the envelope in portraying female sexuality on screen. Like these movies, “Booksmart” further breaks down the taboo surrounding teenage girls and sex. Hilarious jokes about masturbation, porn and first times ensue — because smart, ambitious girls who have planned every detail of their futures can enjoy crushes and butterflies too.

Some movies invest so much charm in a character or two that they seem to run out of it for the supporting cast. Or the films assume, incorrectly, that audiences can only be won over by so many characters before they become overwhelmed. “Booksmart” proves this isn’t true. The film’s team of female writers — Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins and Katie Silberman — pack in an impressive amount of fascinating and memorable supporting characters. Each one is so delightfully quirky I didn’t mind when the film took small detours from the main story to offer quick, hilarious glimpses into their lives. Molly and Amy radiate strength, humor and endearment in every scene they’re in, but the supporting characters equally shine. All have an element of mystery around them: Jared, played by Skyler Gisondo, is a sweet, try-hard rich kid, and his father supposedly hired a prostitute for him. Billie Lourd steals scenes playing zany party girl Gigi. There’s also an adult character who was banned from Jamba Juice, a hot girl who provides “roadside assistance,” and so much more. They make the world richer, and I walked out of the theater wishing I could meet the dozen or so characters in real life.

Admittedly, it’s easy and helpful to refer to characters with snappy epithets like “hot girl” and “rich kid.” “The Breakfast Club” structured high school so that it feels natural to group people into categories. But “Booksmart” is refreshing in that it leans into the stereotypes and then slowly deconstructs them. There is more than one smart girl, mean girl and hot person (frequently overlapping), and by virtue of having multiples of one type of character, their individual uniquenesses are highlighted. This adds to the alluring power of the characters and makes each one unpredictable.

As much as “Booksmart” subverts character tropes, however, it still has some of the typical high school movie beats. Sometimes it reminded me of other films — the dirty duo in “Superbad,” the party scene in “Eighth Grade” and the awakenings in “Lady Bird” came to mind. But “Booksmart” creatively interprets familiar tropes to make them feel innovative — for example, the characters accidentally ingest drugs. I won’t get into too much detail, but a scene involving Barbie dolls was particularly jaw-dropping.

“Booksmart” is Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut, but you wouldn’t know it from watching it. Scenes, when they’re not designed to make you laugh, are crafted to pulsate with anticipation and empathy. In high school, every mistake feels like the end of the world, and Wilde beautifully reflects this in her film. Scenes of Molly walking through a hallway and Amy swimming in a pool are artfully drawn out to make you feel how passionate and emotional these moments are to them. The soundtrack, with everything from mellow classics to pumping electronic music, perfectly supplements the visuals and adds to the upbeat intensity of the film.

I’m tempted to advise that you to let go of any expectations before seeing this delightful, crazy-in-a-good-way film. But I think holding onto them even harder will make “Booksmart” and all of its subversions an even more enjoyable, feminist and unpredictable ride.

Contact Grace Zhou at gkzhou ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Kali Uchis and Jorja Smith rejuvenate Frost https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/20/kali-uchis-and-jorja-smith-rejuvenate-frost/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/20/kali-uchis-and-jorja-smith-rejuvenate-frost/#respond Mon, 20 May 2019 07:30:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1155153 Holding a music festival is, in general, a bad idea. The logistics on either end are hellish— you’re handling the specific needs of four or more performers and their accompanying entourages and stage sets, or wrangling thousands of people in various stages of coherence and intoxication as they loiter for hours waiting for headlining acts […]

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Holding a music festival is, in general, a bad idea. The logistics on either end are hellish— you’re handling the specific needs of four or more performers and their accompanying entourages and stage sets, or wrangling thousands of people in various stages of coherence and intoxication as they loiter for hours waiting for headlining acts or in bathroom lines. Organizing a festival is a fate I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.

Holding a music festival in the rain sounds even worse, for reasons that should be fairly obvious (have you ever thought about the process of ordering 4,000 ponchos?). Despite all of this, though, Stanford Concert Network (SCN) pulled off the implausible on Saturday night, and orchestrated a magnificent return to the Frost Amphitheater in the seventh annual Frost Music Festival, headlined by R&B singers Jorja Smith and Kali Uchis.

The evening started out inauspiciously, though not for lack of valiant effort by SCN or the student openers. Through a combination of rain and the natural lateness of the Stanford student, the amphitheater was slightly less than half full for the student openers. But those attendees who did make it out in time to catch Mammoth and VII’s sets, the two lesser-known acts made a strong first impression.

Mammoth was perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening— the five-piece group, which plays southern-tinged blues rock, has not yet released any music on traditional platforms like Soundcloud or Spotify, and have mostly stuck to small shows on the Stanford party circuit. Yet their music, which mixes original compositions and classic rock covers, is compelling in its good-naturedness. It’s the kind of music that feels impossible to actively dislike, even though Mammoth’s songs sometimes feel like charming rough drafts rather than full compositions.

At their best, though, Mammoth revealed a vast potential for joy and fun. That was the case with their closing one-two punch of original “An Old Story,” an Allman Brothers-influenced barnburner, and a surprisingly lively cover of Beatles obscurity “Rocky Raccoon” that swung on a charming interplay between lead singer Jack Seigenthaler ’19, keyboardist Trent Peltz ’18 and a walking bass line provided by Ben Josie ’19.

VII, the other student opener, was more accustomed to the large stages of Stanford music festivals, and performed with an ease and confidence that spoke to that fact. If you haven’t seen Gabriel Townsell ’20 and his crew (drummer Johnny Weger ’18 and DJ Noah Anderson ’20, also known as “Big White”) perform at the past two Blackfests or at a score of other gigs across Stanford over the past few years, you’ve been missing out on the most thrilling live show on campus.

By now, the formula is clear: Townsell (who The Daily profiled in April) raps and sings with control and intensity through a set of original tracks, occasionally stopping to shout out his hometown of Chicago and banter. Townsell’s skills are as evident on the big stage at Frost as they are at Kairos or Haus Mitt, and his performance Saturday was perhaps his best yet.

After the student openers, and a DJ set from Los Angeles-based DJ Mia Carucci, who kept energy high with a keen eye for out-there transitions (going from punk rapper Rico Nasty into synth pop artist Grimes into Reggaeton singer Ozuna was my personal highlight) and a choice distribution of teddy bears into the crowd, the rain lifted, and, almost as if blessed by the weather gods, Jorja Smith was there.

And to the early evening crowd, she was heavenly. The British singer’s 2018 debut album “Lost & Found” received praise from critics for its “gentle vocals” and “downtempo, backbeat-laced grooves,” but in a live setting she turned up the intensity of her performance by several degrees. That intensity was noticeable both in her vocals, which filled the open air of the amphitheater whether Smith was singing or rapping, and in her band. Performing with a four-piece accompaniment, Smith allowed her songs to sprawl out into jazzy works of luxury, expanding beyond the trip-hop sketches they stand as on record. In her performance she staked out a claim as a true live performer, enlivening her sleepy studio tracks into something altogether more fun. At times it seemed she was purposefully playing with the audience’s expectations of her as a “chill,” loungey R&B artist by starting songs slow and letting them climax into furious jams. On penultimate track “Blue Lights,” her debut single, the atmosphere seemed to follow suit, with rain crashing down again as police car-like lights shone and Smith’s own performance peaked.

If Smith’s set was focused on allowing her jazzy artistry to shine through, her co-headliner instead made her case as a full-on show woman. Kali Uchis’ set was shock and awe from the first beat, as the Colombian-American singer appeared center stage on a rotating, multi-tiered platform, all surrounded by smoke and a band playing proggy, portentous funk. Throughout her set, Uchis played up her charm and bravado — lounging over her stage decorations, making use of a prop chair, and drinking from a champagne bottle that she opened onto the front rows of the venue. The difference in performance styles between the two was clear, and so was the audience response. Someone threw a bouquet of flowers on-stage for Jorja; someone threw their bra to Kali.

Yet even as Uchis moved around stage, her vocals did not flag one bit, still carrying a range that matched Smith’s. As she performed, she seemed overjoyed to be there — at one point, early in her set, she remarked that she “did not know Stanford fucked with” her to the extent that the enraptured amphitheater, now full, clearly did. And her set showed that joy, working in both tracks from her 2018 debut album “Isolation” but also her earlier projects and a few covers, including a left-field take on Radiohead’s “Creep.”

The night’s high point, though, came in the two artists’ shared encore. Starting with a medley of tracks, including two Destiny’s Child covers, the two tore up the stage with aplomb. Together, Uchis and Smith complement each other perfectly, with a chemistry that explained their co-headlining tour as not just an exercise in music industry synergy but a true artistic partnership. They finished the night with “Tyrant,” their collaboration off of Kali’s album, and as they traded verses over that unstoppable groove, I could only think that the rechristening of the newly renovated Frost Amphitheater couldn’t have been done more gloriously.

Contact Jacob Kuppermann at jkupperm ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Knock Down the House’ is a must-watch in the current political climate https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/17/knock-down-the-house-is-a-must-watch-in-the-current-political-climate/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/17/knock-down-the-house-is-a-must-watch-in-the-current-political-climate/#respond Fri, 17 May 2019 07:30:21 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1155048 To those disillusioned after the 2016 presidential election, “Knock Down the House”, a documentary featuring four women — including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — who ran for public office in 2018, offers a message of hope through the stories of women who fight to improve their broken communities. Directed by Rachel Lears, “Knock Down the House”, released […]

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To those disillusioned after the 2016 presidential election, “Knock Down the House”, a documentary featuring four women — including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — who ran for public office in 2018, offers a message of hope through the stories of women who fight to improve their broken communities. Directed by Rachel Lears, “Knock Down the House”, released May 1 on Netflix, tells the story of these women who ran ambitious underdog political campaigns in the 2018 midterm elections against prominent Democratic candidates.

Among the people recruited by the Brand New Congress, a political action committee created by former supporters of Bernie Sanders’s campaign, were four bold, working-class women: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Paula Jean Swearengin, Amy Vilela, and Cori Bush. The documentary traces each of their journeys. We see Ocasio-Cortez’s struggles of her family to make ends meet in the Bronx to her growth into a charismatic public servant fighting against Joe Crowley, an incumbent of New York’s 14th Congressional District since 1999. We watch Cori Bush, a registered nurse and pastor motivated by the injustice she experiences in her hometown of St. Louis during the Ferguson shootings, wage a fearless campaign for Missouri’s 1st Congressional District.

Meanwhile in Nevada, we are introduced to former businesswoman Amy Vilela, who sells her house and goes into debt to run for her state’s 4th Congressional District. Motivated by the death of her daughter, who passed away due to lack of health insurance, Vilela turns to public service in part to fight for health as a human right. In West Virginia, we find a state dominated by coal mining industries as we follow Paula Jean Swearengin, a coal miner’s daughter, fighting for a healthier community in an election against U.S. Senate incumbent Senator Joe Manchin.  Unlike many political old-timers primarily concerned with electoral victory, the documentary portrays these women as everyday Americans fighting for real change they hope to see.

The documentary provides an insider’s glimpse into grassroots political campaign making. We see Ocasio-Cortez’s team building a powerful graphic design posters that capture her revolutionary spirit and Latina heritage. We are immersed in the so-called “war room” for insurgent campaigns, witnessing the late-night hours, door-to-door canvassing and tears of joy and sadness. A group called the “Whiteheads”, named for their mass of white hairs, help Ocasio-Cortez figure out how to submit a list of voter’s signatures to the New York office so that she can avoid court proceedings.

It also documents the unique challenges that women face when running political office. Ocasio-Cortez opens the documentary putting on makeup and discussing the challenge that women face each day of how to present themselves to the world. Paula Jean also openly struggles with the advice that people have given her to “act like a bitch” and “show no emotion” as a female political candidate. While canvassing for votes in public, Ocasio-Cortez notes, “One of my problems is that when I’m trying to be kind to someone, I feel my voice go up two octaves.” To succeed, the documentary argues, women must unite in the face of challenges; by building each other up, each of us become stronger.

What is striking is the director’s openness to showing women showing emotion on the screen. When Vilela loses the election, we hear her raw, pained cries of sorrow, with the camera panning on her hunched figure in her living room. We see tears streaming down Ocasio-Cortez’s face when she explains she’s most scared of letting people down and again in front of the National Mall in D.C. when she recalls her father’s last words to her: “Make me proud.” The documentary says: It’s okay to cry, it’s human, and it’s powerful.

“Knock Down the House” shows us that these women, and hundreds of other Democrats, have started a movement, one that is just beginning. While many of their campaigns did not succeed, the documentary argues that the energy from this movement is not lost. We will fight for our rights and for a better America, although such change will take time. As Ocasio-Cortez tells Vilela after she loses her election, “For one of us to make it, a hundred of us have to try.”

“Knock Down the House” is available on Netflix.


Contact Annie Chang at annette.chang@stanford.edu.

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‘The Women’ is about far more than femininity https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/13/the-women-is-about-far-more-than-femininity/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/13/the-women-is-about-far-more-than-femininity/#respond Mon, 13 May 2019 08:00:30 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1154728 When “The Women” was released in 1939, MGM’s publicists went to town. They stressed the novelty of the movie. It boasted an all-female cast. As the publicists noted, the production team went to great lengths to ensure there was no male onscreen. Even the dogs in the film were certifiably female. Despite the preponderance of […]

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When “The Women” was released in 1939, MGM’s publicists went to town. They stressed the novelty of the movie. It boasted an all-female cast. As the publicists noted, the production team went to great lengths to ensure there was no male onscreen. Even the dogs in the film were certifiably female. Despite the preponderance of women onscreen, however, “The Women” probably could not be considered a feminist film classic. The publicists may have made bizarre claims about casting, but the tagline that they used was perceptive— “‘The Women’ is all about men!” 

Although they are absent, men play an outsized role in the movie. Amazingly, this all-female film does not pass the Bechdel test, a diagnostic used to determine whether a story is sexist. While the movie certainly has women who talk to each other, they cannot stop talking about their husbands. Mary (Norma Shearer) is happily married to Stephen, but then he runs off with an avaricious perfume saleswoman (Joan Crawford). Her friends Sylvia (Rosalind Russell) and Peggy (Joan Fontaine) are also saddled with less-than-satisfactory spouses. They spend scenes describing their partners’ shortcomings. Yet, their remarks are so colorful that it seems reductive to call this film regressive. While “The Women” may not offer a particularly profound commentary on relationships between the sexes, it does display Hollywood craftsmanship at its highest level.

A few minutes into “The Women,” it becomes clear that the film was never intended to be a realist examination of obstacles women face. All of the characters in the film are immensely wealthy. They have maids to cook and clean, so they can spend their days at spas or in each other’s salons. Still, the actual elite do not converse in such catty language. The dialogue in the film glitters with wit. A few examples culled from the film— “I wouldn’t trust my husband on Alcatraz, the mouse,” “Can you believe that? He almost stood me up for his wife,” “There’s a name for you ladies, but it isn’t used in high society.”

Lines like these were the work of the playwright Clare Boothe Luce and the screenwriter Anita Loos. Although their subject was the shallow lives of socialites, both were highly unconventional women. Luce was a leading figure in Republican politics. In 1943, a few years after “The Women” was released, Luce would be elected to the House of Representatives. She would later serve as the U.S. ambassador to Italy and Brazil.

While Loos never left show business, she also had a distinguished career. When the pioneering filmmaker D.W. Griffith hired her as a scriptwriter in 1912, she became one of the first women to play a major role in the movies. She wrote 105 scripts for Griffith in four years. As Griffith’s influence waned and the sound film emerged, Loos continued working at a prodigious pace. Not only did she write screenplays for mogul Irving Thalberg at MGM, but she also found time to author a classic American novel— “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” which would later be adapted into a hit Broadway musical and an iconic film starring Marilyn Monroe.

Luce and Loos’ dialogue is a testament to their talents, but perhaps their pithy lines have larger implications. The women talk about their marital predicaments with Luce and Loos’ sharp acumen, so they never become vacuous. Even as they adhere to traditional gender roles, the characters in the film remain idiosyncratic individuals.

The actresses’ performances also serve to make these women much more than stereotypes. Much of the writing on this film focuses on the feuds between divas. Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell and Joan Crawford were all determined to steal the picture. For me, Crawford has the juiciest role and gives the most memorable performance. She plays the gold digger who has married into this well-to-do milieu. Although Crawford is dressed in the choicest mink, her slouched posture and her hard-edged voice remind us of her character’s impoverished upbringing. Shearer, however, is almost as incredible. While she starts the movie as the paragon of womanhood and domesticity, by the end of the film, she has become as sly and manipulative as her compatriots. If Shearer remains restrained, Russell’s performance is so energetic and exaggerated that it borders on camp or slapstick comedy. Although they are all playing wives and mothers, their diverse personas suggest that there is not simply one model of femininity.

George Cukor was chosen to direct “The Women” because MGM executives thought he could make these varied performances cohere into a unified film. He was known as a “woman’s director.” The term was halfway between a compliment and a slur. Many of Hollywood’s leading ladies genuinely enjoyed working with him, but the label also pointed to his gay identity. The excellence of the actresses onscreen speaks to his skill in directing performances, but the film also contains some subtle indications of homosexuality. One of the women is an unmarried writer who dresses in a man’s suit. In a later scene, Rosalind Russell soaps down Joan Crawford’s back in the bathtub. Beyond these hints of lesbianism, it isn’t difficult to see “The Women” as actually a coterie of drag queens, all obsessed with their love lives and all trying to one-up each other. The film quickly attracted a gay following. As the critic Christopher Harrity writes, for gay men of a certain generation, “if you heard a man quoting the film, you knew you were among friends.” 

For viewers like Harrity, “The Women” was more than a cliched exploration of femininity. Then again, even viewers who are not queer can appreciate the work of Luce, Loos, the actresses and Cukor. Ultimately, perhaps “The Women” is not about men at all, but about the skill of men and women who made it.

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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A delightful storytelling evening with Madeline Miller https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/13/a-delightful-storytelling-evening-with-madeline-miller/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/13/a-delightful-storytelling-evening-with-madeline-miller/#respond Mon, 13 May 2019 07:30:45 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1154726 When you think of a mythology book reading on a Tuesday night at Stanford during midterms week, you would be forgiven for imagining that event as a small and geriatric affair — one with criminally low attendance and death-of-the-humanities gravity. The storytelling event put on by the Stanford Storytelling Project on May 7 featured bestselling […]

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When you think of a mythology book reading on a Tuesday night at Stanford during midterms week, you would be forgiven for imagining that event as a small and geriatric affair — one with criminally low attendance and death-of-the-humanities gravity.

The storytelling event put on by the Stanford Storytelling Project on May 7 featured bestselling author Madeline Miller and professional storyteller Martin Shaw. It was a sold-out affair jam packed with families with Percy-Jackson-age children, cultured Palo Alto people and a very healthy contingent of students. I got the sense that attendance might have been mandatory for PWR, but that didn’t change things: Cemex felt full and alive.

Jonah Willinghanz, the director of the Stanford Storytelling Project, opened up the night with an awkward introduction of the night’s speakers. He was clearly in awe of them, and for good reason.

Madeline Miller is the bestselling author of two books based on Greek mythology. “Circe” is a first-person narrative of the life the witch of Aiaia who so famously turned men into pigs. “Song of Achilles, her debut novel, is an imagining of the romance of Achilles and Patroclus that the Greeks saw in the Iliad. She spent ten years on her debut novel and not much less on its successful follow-up, reflecting a certain Odysseus-level craftsmanship. That conscientiousness has won her legions of fans across the world, including for example my beloved mythology teacher.

Martin Shaw, the other speaker of the evening, is a professional storyteller currently teaching a course at Stanford. He looks as a professional storyteller ought to look — sort of like if Jesus let himself go a bit then got really into Buddhism and hats. He possesses a tremendous charisma and thespian power, and in the style of a true bard or scope he accompanies his stories with rhythmic drumming.

Shaw opened the night with the story of Hermes inventing the lute and spinning tales to avoid trouble for stealing Apollo’s cattle. Madeline Miller followed that up with a reading of “Circe” explaining what it means to be turned into a pig. They then discussed their stories before jumping into the next progression of the sequence, introducing more and more new stories and analysis.

The night was about the Odyssey, but really it was about storytelling. Madeline Miller was delightfully scholarly in her discussions of little curiosities like the Greek word for speaking like a human. When she grappled with the Odyssey’s contradictions and incomplete parts, you knew that her points were well-earned and justified. Martin Shaw tended more to the Joseph Campbell side of the equation, speculating about human nature and “bone memory,” which was delicious, wonderful and just what the doctor ordered.

Overall I came away with aa very positive impression of not just the evening’s speakers but also the Stanford Storytelling Project. As a prospective history major, my faith in the humanities was restored and I became convinced that the demand for good stories and and timeless wisdom is as strong now as it has always ever been.

Contact Cooper Veit at cveit ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Old Town Road’ considers the politics of country music https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/06/old-town-road-considers-the-politics-of-country-music/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/06/old-town-road-considers-the-politics-of-country-music/#respond Mon, 06 May 2019 07:30:45 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1154246 A few weeks ago, I went to an Earl Sweatshirt concert with a couple of friends at The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. After enduring one opener who was too drunk to rap on beat, I was looking forward to finally seeing Earl. But, to my dismay, the next silhouette that slowly came into focus […]

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A few weeks ago, I went to an Earl Sweatshirt concert with a couple of friends at The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. After enduring one opener who was too drunk to rap on beat, I was looking forward to finally seeing Earl. But, to my dismay, the next silhouette that slowly came into focus in the dark and smoky room had no hoodie or dreads. She was short, slender, wearing a pink cowboy hat and boots, and brandishing a water gun.

Some combination of willing forgetfulness and intoxication have erased this artist’s name from my memory, but what I do remember is how deeply confused I was throughout her performance. Her music was some experimental conglomeration of traditional Japanese music, ska and hip hop. But if you’d seen her performance with the sound off you would have mistaken the Regency that night for the Country Music Awards. Her box braids were pigtailed and at one point she did a quasi-do-si-do. I’d never seen anything like it.

But just a few days later, in a procrastination-fueled YouTube binge, I stumbled upon a similarly country-inspired hip hop artist: Lil Nas X. If you’ve been even remotely plugged into the Internet or social media in the past few months, you’ve probably heard at least one of these phrases:

“I’m gonna take my horse to the old town road.”

“I’m gonna ride til I can’t no more.”

“I’ve got the horses in the back.”

All three of those are lyrics in Lil Nas X’s Billboard chart-topping hit “Old Town Road,” the remix of which features country legend (and father of Hannah Montana) Billy Ray Cyrus. Having only heard those three phrases sprinkled in Instagram captions and ironic Tik Tok memes, I’d never thought to look up the song or artist that was behind it all. You probably haven’t either, so here’s what I found.

Lil Nas X is a Georgia native who initially became famous for running a popular Nicki Minaj fan account on Twitter. “Old Town Road” is his big break and the Tik Toks and memes that stem from it are part of the “Yeehaw Challenge,” one of those strange, seemingly random themes that catches on on video platforms and makes the song it features extremely popular and perpetually stuck in your head. Think “Black Beatles” from the “Mannequin Challenge” or the “In My Feelings Challenge.”

“Old Town Road” is not unique for its method of gaining popularity, but it is unique for the deep reckoning it produced within the broader music community. In March, Billboard removed the song from its Hot Country chart, prompting backlash and accusations of racism. After all, “Old Town Road” is certainly a country song, even if the person performing it doesn’t quite look the part. According to a Rolling Stone article, Billboard’s argument for the removal of the song is that, while “Old Town Road” does make use of many popular country song motifs, “it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.”

To me, that whole debacle isn’t the most interesting part of this story, though. What’s more interesting is that hip hop culture and black artists are beginning to make use of and capitalize off of traditionally white, Southern imagery and themes. This kind of musical cross-pollination isn’t unheard of. Genre-bending and mixing of diverse influences is what makes music interesting, after all. And the country-hip-hop mix does also go the other way. There are a handful of popular songs — dubbed “hick-hop” — that feature tattooed, muscle-tee-wearing white guys rapping over banjo and acoustic guitar beats.

One of the most popular songs of this genre, “City Bitch” by Mini Thin, is essentially a diss track for liberal women who live in cities. The music video features white women, clad in Confederate flag bikinis, wading around it what looks like a shallow, dirty creek. Mini Thin himself employs a style of rap that reminds me of Pitbull (minus the Spanish) mixed with what it might sound like if Blake Shelton smoked crack. In the music video he wears a range of outfits (all without sleeves) and displays a tattoo that reads “Malice” in the style of Tupac’s “Thug Life.” The video was uploaded in January of 2015; this trend of rap mixed with country is far from new.

What is new, however, is black guys in cowboy boots and hats. And the Internet seems to love it. Multiple celebrities who run the gamut from Mark Ruffalo to a member of pop-country band Florida Georgia Line have posted about it online. The audio for the remix with Billy Ray Cyrus has over 90 million views on YouTube and the music video has a third of that. Beyond these obvious markers of popularity, “Old Town Road” is somewhat ubiquitous on the Internet at large. It pops up everywhere, regardless of the setting. I’ve seen and liked multiple Instagram posts that lament the lack of “horses in the back” of the picture. It’s everywhere.

This is fascinating, because, historically speaking, the American South and black hip-hop culture haven’t always had a rosy relationship. Sure, you’ve got the twang-y “Come Get Her” by Rae Sremmurd which features cowboy hats and a teacup pig wearing a bandana in its music video. There’s also Lil Tracy’s “like a farmer” which is probably the closest thing to “Old Town Road” for its usage of country imagery, a rooster sample, and “yeehaw.” None of these, however, have had the same positive reception or direct connection to country music. It really does seem like, with “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X is — whether intentionally or not — claiming country culture for the hip hop world.

Most music and media news sources chalk up the success of “Old Town Road” to its creator’s Internet savviness. I think that’s definitely part of the equation, but to investigate the ins and outs of viral culture is not my goal. Rather, I think there’s a deeper, slightly more (ugh) political message here. Country music and hip hop music can co-exist; they can even mingle and mix. There are the Mini Thin’s of the world who essentially appropriate hip-hop culture to further arch-conservative Southern philosophy (read: Confederate flags, direct Obama shout-out). But there’s also Lil Nas X who presents a more utopian version of this relationship.

Lil Nas X’s lyrics are, for the most part, innocent. His twang is authentic enough for Cyrus to want to hop on the track. His fans are growing. And his use of country music’s unmistakable imagery is catching on. Take the Earl Sweatshirt opener I mentioned. Arguably, Earl fans and country fans do not overlap. Earl fans mosh and wear oversized Dickies and undersized beanies. Country fans might spend most of the concert sitting down with “Wrangler on [their] [booties]” (as Lil Nas X says of his own). Prior to looking into this connection between country and hip hop, the only thing I was convinced both fan bases shared was a love for beer.

I do not aim to make some larger point about race in America here. I’m still not convinced that the Billboard’s reason for taking “Old Town Road” off its country chart wasn’t race-related (and neither is a lot of the Internet). I also have yet to see another OTR-esque hit song — maybe this one’s just a unicorn.

What I do know is that, as an Earl Sweatshirt fan and quasi-hip hop purist,  “Old Town Road” isn’t that bad. And whether or not the fact that I, and millions of other teens, think that speaks to something greater about race and American culture has to be left up to time. For now, though, “I’m gonna take my horse to the old town road.”

Contact Zora Ilunga-Reed at zora814 ‘at’ stanford.edu

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Activism crosses borders in ‘Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly’ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/29/activism-crosses-borders-in-ai-weiwei-yours-truly/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/29/activism-crosses-borders-in-ai-weiwei-yours-truly/#respond Mon, 29 Apr 2019 08:00:03 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1153790 No film review should begin with gray cynicism about the value of art. That is, however, the concern that “Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly” appeared to invite on paper. A documentary on the design and inspiration behind an eclectic San Francisco art exhibition didn’t appear to carry much potential for social and political weight, even if […]

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No film review should begin with gray cynicism about the value of art. That is, however, the concern that “Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly” appeared to invite on paper. A documentary on the design and inspiration behind an eclectic San Francisco art exhibition didn’t appear to carry much potential for social and political weight, even if the installation in question themed itself around political freedom. Films about art exhibits are usually just victory laps for their producers, after all — to try and charge one with the severity of China’s famed artist-turned-activist and the plight of prisoners of conscience seemed hopelessly idealistic, to say the least. What role could a few sculptures, some postcards and a mosaic of Lego bricks really play in the grand scales of worldwide political activism?

Maybe I was simply jaded from the long lines and pomp of the SF Film Festival. In any case, “Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly” answered my concerns with aplomb. In ‘Yours Truly,’ Ai and first-time director Cheryl Haines tell an ambitious narrative that combines the chilling details of Ai’s persecution in China, the conception of his acclaimed 2014 installation on Alcatraz Island and its poignant impression on activists across the globe. They just about pull it off thanks to their heart and sincerity, and offer a thoughtful reminder of the global, interconnected stories of political and social struggle, and the powerful ways art can impact it.

Weighty issues are at the heart of “Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly” — from the 176 prisoners of conscience around the world that Ai’s exhibition sought to depict, to the political repression in China that punctuated Ai Weiwei’s own career, as well as pointed reminders of incarcerated activists and whistle-blowers in the United States. “Yours Truly” does well to connect them within the narrative of Ai’s 2014 exhibition, “@Large,” displayed on Alcatraz Island and curated by Haines. Ai and Haines display a genuine attentiveness to the political dimensions of their exhibition. Reflections on Ai’s activism in China and Alcatraz’s own history of political controversy punctuate the obligatory beats explaining the design and conception of the exhibit. Refreshingly thoughtful, also, is the global dimension of Haines’ narrative, which leaps freely from Communist China to Native American history to reflections on the Arab Spring in Cairo.

In cutaways, Haines brings an affecting depth to the details of the project — Ai relates a ceramic sculpture of a floral bouquet in an Alcatraz toilet to his father’s menial punishment as a poet in the aftermath of China’s Hundred Flowers Movement in the ’50s. The logistical challenges of the exhibition — co-ordinated from Beijing by Ai, who was never able to see it in San Francisco — are given poignance when they’re linked to the spells of house arrest Ai was placed under by Chinese authorities. Haines leverages her insight as “@Large”’s curator well, and juggles the film’s various narratives mostly successfully. The more abrupt tonal transitions (perhaps to be expected, considering the subject matter) are compensated for by a few well-placed beats of levity.

And just as well, for ‘Yours Truly’ ultimately seeks to be an uplifting film. Haines’ story culminates in a reflection on the centerpiece of “@Large,” where visitors were invited to write postcards to be sent to the prisoners of conscience depicted in the exhibition. For a brief moment, it seems as if Ai and Haines’ idealism has finally outpaced them. Surely, as interviewed visitors speak generically of sending well wishes to activists they’ve never heard of halfway across the world, these cards seem to be nothing more than ineffectual souvenirs of a transient art exhibit. But Haines allays any doubts in a montage of interviews and biographies from the letters’ recipients — earnest testimonies from the likes of Chelsea Manning and ex-CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou reveal the heartening impact that receiving “@Large”’s letters had for them, and how vital those expressions of concern and support were in the isolation of prison. In a particularly moving segment, Haines visits Egyptian activist Ahmed Maher, recently freed and reunited with his family, and presents him with a replica of his Lego portrait to assemble with his children.

It’s an inspiring affirmation of the role art, and the individual, can play in supporting the causes of political and social campaigners around the world. A little idealistic and self-congratulatory? Perhaps, but Ai and Haines more than earn such praise in their thoughtful rendering of the personal stories of struggle and oppression that motivated “@Large”’s outreach. As indie docs and thrillers vie for attention across San Francisco’s theaters this month, “Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly” ultimately puts forward a global story with very real stakes — a story that we, even as spectators, can participate in through our attention and concern.

Contact Daniel Wu at dwu21 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Old Town Road’ and the cowboy myth https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/29/old-town-road-and-the-cowboy-myth/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/29/old-town-road-and-the-cowboy-myth/#respond Mon, 29 Apr 2019 07:30:36 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1153807 For the past month, the biggest song in America has been about cowboys. If you’ve managed to avoid “Old Town Road,” the unlikely viral hit by rapper/country singer/Twitter personality Lil Nas X, here’s the quick summary — it clocks in at slightly less than two minutes (making it the shortest number one hit in a […]

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For the past month, the biggest song in America has been about cowboys. If you’ve managed to avoid “Old Town Road,” the unlikely viral hit by rapper/country singer/Twitter personality Lil Nas X, here’s the quick summary — it clocks in at slightly less than two minutes (making it the shortest number one hit in a half-century), samples a Nine Inch Nails song from 2008, initially became popular through a meme that began on Gen Z video-sharing site TikTok, has a music video that is entirely composed of footage from the video game “Red Dead Redemption 2” and has a remix that features Billy Ray Cyrus, who last had a top 10 hit in 1992.

“Old Town Road” represents an oddity on the Billboard charts. It’s a debut single from a completely new artist— Lil Nas X released his first songs in 2018, the same year that “Old Town Road” was initially released— in an era where most hits come from artists who are known commodities like Ariana Grande or Drake or at least from the stables of major labels. In his sudden rise to prominence, Lil Nas X, born Montero Lamar Hill, resembles most closely a figure like Cardi B, who also parlayed social media fame into a number-one single and then into a position as one of the biggest rappers/pop stars in the world. But even Cardi had a few mixtapes under her belt and a stint on “Love & Hip-Hop,” as well as the approval of established names in the rap world like Migos. Lil Nas X had a song and two minutes of footage from a video game about cowboys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ho88VXJTBg

The popularity of “Old Town Road” can partially be explained by the memes around it— mostly featuring white teenagers drinking “Yeehaw Juice” and being transformed into cowboys— and partially due to the fact that it is absolutely a banger. Producer Youngkio perfectly transforms the Nine Inch Nails sample from a burnt-out husk of industrial ambient music to a beat that is at once Atlanta circa 2018 and Deadwood, South Dakota circa 1873.

Over that beat, Lil Nas X works his magic, staying fully in character as an old western outlaw with a black Gucci cowboy hat who’ll “ride ‘til he can’t no more.” It is extremely strange and extremely committed to being about being a cowboy. From the song’s first lines— a triumphantly yelled “Yeah” and an epochal declaration that Lil Nas X has “got horses in the back” — there is no ambiguity to the purpose of “Old Town Road.”

In fact, that connection to the Wild West may play some role in the success of “Old Town Road.” in claiming the mantle of the cowboy, “Old Town Road” enters a long and illustrious American cultural tradition, one that stretches back from contemporary rappers in Atlanta, industrial musicians in Ohio, and game developers in San Diego all the way to circus performers and historians in late nineteenth century America.

Wherever you look in the American media landscape, it’s clear that the Wild West is having a moment. In film, Antoine Fuqua’s 2016 remake of “The Magnificent Seven” and Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight,” as well as contemporary set takes on the western genre like Taylor Sheridan’s “Hell or High Water,” represent a renewed interest in a genre that peaked in popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. In television, HBO’s remake of “Westworld” is not only a western in itself but a deft commentary on our cultural fascination with the Wild West. In gaming, the “Red Dead” series has sold over 30 million copies across its two most recent games, with 2018’s “Red Dead Redemption 2” making $725 million in its first 3 days.

Even in the world of pop music, where invocations of the old west have typically come from country and its subgenres, the cowboy has shown up in unexpected places. There’s “Old Town Road,” of course, but over the past year, works by artists like Mitski and Solange have also used the mythology of the cowboy to great effect. The former’s “Be The Cowboy” used the solitude of the west and, in Mitski’s words, the “arrogance” of the cowboy archetype to reflect on love and loneliness. Solange’s “When I Get Home,” and its accompanying visual album, taps into a greater tradition of Black cowboys, as well as the singer’s roots in Houston, Texas.

All three of these musical works, whether small and large, have sparked debate within the musical world about who gets to claim the legacy of the cowboy. Mitski’s reading frames her use of the imagery as subversive, a reclamation of an archetype associated with whiteness, while Solange treats it as a fait accompli— all the cowboys she knows are Black already. Lil Nas X mostly just seems to think cowboys are fun— although the reaction of the Billboard charts, which refused to place “Old Town Road” on the main country chart, reflects the dominant conception of country & western music as a mostly White province.

These debates raise questions about the mythos of the cowboy in the American mind, as well as the history of the American West in actuality. To help unravel these debates, I sat down earlier this month to talk to Professor Richard White of Stanford’s History department. Professor White is the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History and a 1995 recipient of the Macarthur Fellowship, and is widely known for his work on building a new history of the American West.

Central to his idea of the American West is a demystification of the cowboy. When I brought up the popularity of recent works about the cowboy to White, he quickly told me that the pop culture west “has nothing to do with the reality of Western settlement.” Historically, White said, the cowboy was just another “wage laborer” in a corporate old west, a job filled by poor young men of all races who quickly injured themselves into early retirements.

Despite these unheroic beginnings, the cowboy has become a core figure in American culture in the decades since the end of the Old West. According to White, this transformation can be traced back to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows, which began in the 1880s. In Buffalo Bill’s travelling shows, White finds the roots of the mythic west— brave cowboys as the vanguard of a civilized settlement of the wild. These ingredients— the wild and the civilized, with the cowboy somewhere in between— are constant throughout the history of the cowboy in American culture.

But the meanings of each part of that equation are constantly in flux from generation to generation. To White, the enduring power of the cowboy comes from how it “can mean pretty much anything that you want it to mean.” Cowboys have been lawmen, outlaws and antiheroes, not quite part of society but bound to it in some way. In some works, Native Americans are faceless villains, in others the heroes themselves. And that flux also means, according to White, that the Western is the shared heritage of all Americans. There were Black and brown cowboys, yes, but even without that historical backing there would still be a mythos to draw on. In fact, White sees the continued popularity and new uses of the western as more about the current moment than anything else: to him, it’s clear that westerns, from the classic westerns of cinema to “Old Town Road” are “always about the present, never about the past.”

Contact Jacob Kuppermann at jkupperm ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘The Addams Family’ is crazy, kooky and compelling https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/26/the-addams-family-is-crazy-kooky-and-compelling/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/26/the-addams-family-is-crazy-kooky-and-compelling/#respond Fri, 26 Apr 2019 07:30:50 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1153636 “The Addams Family,” which was performed by Ram’s Head over the last two weekends, adds an intriguing dark-humor twist to the traditional family struggles we all experience through theatre; additionally, despite having such a gloomy ambiance in their setting, the family dynamics showed more affection and support than is often present in theatre pieces like […]

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“The Addams Family,” which was performed by Ram’s Head over the last two weekends, adds an intriguing dark-humor twist to the traditional family struggles we all experience through theatre; additionally, despite having such a gloomy ambiance in their setting, the family dynamics showed more affection and support than is often present in theatre pieces like “Hamlet” or “School of Rock.” The affection made apparent by the Addams’ family cast is greater than that of most students neglecting to call their parents weekly. The macabre jokes keep one simultaneously shocked and entertained with their fine-tuned inappropriateness.

In this appearance of the famous Addams family, they are clashed onstage with a nice, white-picket-fence-loving family from Ohio (that one state with Cleveland in it). Family relation crises and geopolitical one-liners ensue. There’s love, lies, violence torture, even and lunar, supersonic space travel. In the end, all the cynicism boils down to nice family values to take home. There’s also a taste of all-black fashion via the main Addams, followed by a trip up history lane with the multi-era costumes proudly worn by the ironically lively, undead ancestors. The cast is a strong one, described as a “tightly-knit community of great actors” by Caroline Hintzman, a member of the ensemble. This, as previously mentioned, was evident through the affection displayed on scene.

As a good old young adult cynic, I scanned the stage for half-hearted hugs or breaks from character as the cast acted like a family. They didn’t falter for a second. The close camaraderie mentioned by Hintzman is evident in watching the Addams, Beinekes and the ensemble. And one must recognize the cast again, as their many powerful voices that fill the auditorium. To further describe the experience, the vocal parts of this piece were sprinkled with humor and a touch or darkness, but this didn’t overshadow the singers’ talent in the least. The pitch and power behind some of the leads’ lyrics genuinely had me surprised as I sat in the back wondering why I never took up voice lessons. At one point during a sustained note in a solo of the first act, in the spirit of research, I decided to hold my breath as long as the actor did. Much like what happened when I tried that in “Finding Nemo”, I almost died.

Additionally, Ram’s Head’s website reminds viewers that they made a “concerted effort” to make sure the cast was diverse, resulting in 50 percent of the named leads and the ensemble being people of color. This statistic doesn’t quite hold in the audience’s memory, however. The Addams principal family members and the Beineke family (the other half of the main characters) can’t claim to have as much cast diversity as the named leads AND the ensemble. The ensemble group did seem to be much more diverse at least from the audience’s point of view. Nevertheless, recognition is due, as this play is traditionally pulled off by a notably racially homogenous cast and some diversity was doubtlessly present in Stanford’s production. If the ethnoracial distribution of the cast was the same as that of the university, and that of the university was the same as that of the country, now that would be an incredible and honorable play. It is still an entertaining play, though and we are on our way to a better world from the looks of it.

Accompanying the show was the orchestra, coming together to provide mixtures of jazz, Latin and rock music. Lots of practice, talent and moving of heavy instruments was involved in perfecting the mixed-style musical numbers, the sound effects and the overall emotion steaming from underside the stage in the pit. Natalie Francis, the assistant music director, was proud to work along such musicians, and she emphasized the hard work that went into making the final product, especially the measures thereof with switching funny time signatures. And indeed, the music was spotless. Having listened to the soundtrack beforehand, the experience at Memorial Auditorium was immersing. It was a delight to see the Addams cast sing, dance and trash talk certain topics comically relatable to all of us non-Addams.

The ticket sure was a better investment than that $20 burger at you-know-where. To all who were looking for a way to destress from the extensive amount of work normally associated with spring quarter, Ram’s Head Theatrical Society sure brought quite a jewel to campus.

Contact David J. Florez R. at sirdavid ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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SVSA Culture Night celebrates customs and creates community https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/25/svsa-culture-night-celebrates-customs-and-creates-community/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/25/svsa-culture-night-celebrates-customs-and-creates-community/#respond Thu, 25 Apr 2019 07:30:36 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1153543 On Saturday, April 6th in Dinkelspiel Auditorium, the Stanford Vietnamese Student Association (SVSA) put on Culture Night, an annual event that celebrates and showcases Vietnamese culture. When I arrived, I was greeted by enthusiastic SVSA members who handed me a program and invited me into the auditorium. The stage was cast in colorful mood lighting, […]

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On Saturday, April 6th in Dinkelspiel Auditorium, the Stanford Vietnamese Student Association (SVSA) put on Culture Night, an annual event that celebrates and showcases Vietnamese culture. When I arrived, I was greeted by enthusiastic SVSA members who handed me a program and invited me into the auditorium. The stage was cast in colorful mood lighting, and Vietnamese pop music played loudly, its beats mingling with the buzzing excitement of the gathering crowd to create an atmosphere of eager anticipation.

This year’s theme was “Để Lại Để Giữ Gìn,” which is loosely translated as “leave something behind in order to preserve it.” This theme plays a large part in the student-written play that the event revolved around. The main character, Kim Tran (Kimberly Tran, ‘22), returns home after graduating from business school to support her mother, grandmother and the failing family restaurant after the death of her grandfather. As she grapples with the seemingly imminent doom of the treasured restaurant and her doubts about her own future, she encounters old friends Winston (Jimmy Le, ‘22) and Erica (Emily Cang, ‘20). Her interactions with her family and friends, especially Erica, heighten the guilt she feels about the sacrifices they made to get her to business school, and the pressure she feels to be successful because of those sacrifices.

Ultimately, she realizes that in order to preserve the restaurant, she must renovate it — and in doing so, leave a part of it behind. In the end, everything works out: Kim saves the restaurant, mends her relationship with Erica and learns to let go of the guilt and pressure that had so heavily weighed her down. I could empathize with Kim’s agonizing struggle trying to balance differing opinions about what she should do with her future, but mostly, watching the play made me miss my own family, and I felt grateful for all of the support and unconditional love that they have given me.

Between the scenes of the play were various performances, which included Vietnamese dancing, singing and fashion that elegantly blended traditional and modern styles. The first performance was a “Modern Fan Dance,” featuring dancers wielding red and purple silk fans with small frills that billowed like betta fish tails as they sailed through the air. The next performance — a traditional dance — was performed in áo dài (Vietnamese national garment) with nón lá (conical hats) and paper umbrellas as props. Sometime in between the performances, a trio, which included a singer, beatboxer, and guitarist, performed a song in Vietnamese. There was also a fashion show during which models dressed in áo dài walked gracefully across the stage to an upbeat EDM remix of Vietnamese pop music, each pausing center stage to strike a pose that evoked cheers and applause from the crowd. The áo dài were colorful, flowing dresses that swayed to and fro with each purposeful stride. The last performance was a couples’ dance that, according to the event’s program, “represent[s] our characters’ enduring love for each other, as well as their ongoing relationship with their hometowns.” The choreography included playful moves and warm embraces, and told a story that felt like it was pulled right out of a romantic comedy.

SVSA Culture Night was a great way of bringing people together to celebrate Vietnamese culture, and this communal bonding was most embodied by the events immediately after the show, when audience members and performers got to mingle while enjoying Vietnamese food. Just a few moments after I had gotten out of my seat, a kind-looking woman offered me a bánh da lợn, a layered jello-like mung bean dessert. She was the mother of one of the performers (Angela Chau, ‘22) and had made two trays of desserts for the event. I took one — which was delicious — and wandered out of the venue to check out the rest of the food. After jostling with the crowd for a few minutes, I managed to take a pork bánh mì (Vietnamese baguette sandwich) from the spread and soon found myself in a conversation with a couple of people I had never talked to before. But talking with them then was easy, and the energy and sense of community that filled the room made me feel so inspired and at home.

I was moved by the beauty and richness of my culture. I was moved by the desire of others to learn more about a culture that was not theirs. And I was moved by how these different communities coming together represented a shared aspiration of keeping cultures alive by sharing them with others — contributing to a more enriched, understanding society in the process. SVSA Culture night is an event that builds bridges between generations and communities, and I hope it continues to preserve and inspire for many years to come.


Contact Dax Duong at daxduong ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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‘Guava Island’ is the new musical model https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/24/guava-island-is-the-new-musical-model/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/24/guava-island-is-the-new-musical-model/#respond Wed, 24 Apr 2019 16:00:42 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1153427 Spoilers for “Guava Island” below. Since its release at midnight last Saturday, I have watched Donald Glover’s feature short “Guava Island” at least seven times — one time for each day since then — and have come to the conclusion, through both my relative expertise on the film and my rabid fandom for Childish Gambino, […]

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Spoilers for “Guava Island” below.

Since its release at midnight last Saturday, I have watched Donald Glover’s feature short “Guava Island” at least seven times — one time for each day since then — and have come to the conclusion, through both my relative expertise on the film and my rabid fandom for Childish Gambino, that Glover has created another masterpiece.

The movie, which Glover wrote, produced and acted in, is yet another highlight in the artist’s multi-talented career and beautifully complements some of his latest musical releases as rapper and musician Childish Gambino. Yet Glover is no newcomer to the screen; he has previously appeared in box-office hits such as “Spider Man: Homecoming” and “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” as well as writing and producing shows like “30 Rock” and “Atlanta.”

As a musician, Gambino has produced three studio albums, three extended plays and seven mixtapes, of which “Because the Internet,” his breakout album in 2013, and “Awaken, My Love!” (which won a 2018 Grammy for the song “Redbone”) are the most popular.

More recently, Gambino won four Grammys at the latest award ceremony, taking home three for the critically acclaimed single “This is America.” Sometime this year, Glover plans to release his last album before retiring the name Childish Gambino to focus on writing and producing, ventures which he has already begun to pursue more in “Guava Island.”

Officially produced as a Childish Gambino film and premiered live at Coachella last weekend, the hour-long flick obscures the presumably thick line between movie and uber-extended music video by telling a story through and with his four latest singles, released over the course of the last 12 months: “This is America,” “Summertime Magic,” “Feels like Summer” and “Saturday.”

The Amazon Prime original features Glover himself, Rihanna and Letitia Wright, best known for her portrayal of Shuri in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s “Black Panther.” It’s a cast perfectly suited for capturing the intended summer island vibes through smiling, dancing and shimmying.

“Guava Island” takes place on the island of Guava, as we learn through the initial narration of Kofi (Rihanna). The island is controlled by the Red family, who exploit the land for its coveted cerulean silk, transforming what once was a paradisiacal wonderland into an industrial outpost.

Kofi then introduces her easygoing lover, Deni (Glover), who splits time between jobs as a musician for Red radio and as a worker at the Red cargo shipping docks. More than anything, Deni wants to bring joy to the islanders and he resolves to do so by hosting a festival for the locals as a celebration of Guava and its people.

The story seems simple enough, but like anything Glover produces, whether in his music or on “Atlanta,” there is much more to this feel-good tropical portrait than appears on the surface. Beyond the performances of Gambino’s toe-tapping summer hits are powerful messages about materialism, autocracy and death. Plus, the songs themselves, some of which have modified lyrics, elaborate on the artist’s underlying messages.

The first indication that Glover and director Hiro Murai intend to dig at something deeper occurs roughly 15 minutes into the movie. Deni arrives at the docks and is confronted by a coworker fantasizing about America, to which Deni responds, “America is a concept. Anywhere where, in order to get rich, you have to make someone else richer, is America.”

The line provides a completely new context to Gambino’s hit single, “This is America,” into which Deni transitions. He critiques capitalism and how the people of Guava are essentially slaves under the whip of a big corporation. Through Deni, Glover adds a new, but equally relevant and powerful, message to a song that already won three Grammys.

Gambino’s remaining three singles all land perfectly, albeit each achieving a different end. “Summertime Magic” is the simplest of the bunch and captures its title exactly as Deni and Kofi dance together on the beach. Later, Deni plays “Feels Like Summer” over the radio, a particularly salient choice considering the song’s underlying message about global warming and the role Red Cargo likely plays in pollution.

The significance of the latter is easy to miss as the song can at first come off as simply a chill summer track playing on the radio. In fact, Glover may be trying to convey how global warming is widely broadcast, as the song is on the radio station, but people largely ignore its severity.

Deni closes with “Saturday”, an unreleased Childish Gambino track performed when he hosted Saturday Night Live last May, at the festival he has thrown for the whole island to give the people reprieve from their hard labor. He sings “Can’t take a break/Money is tight,” and, “Oh, my aching bones, they just keep killing me/Can’t afford to let them spend my dime,” returning to the theme of low-class workers being treated like servants.

When the song comes to an end, a henchman sent by Red tries to take Deni’s life and eventually shoots and kills him after a short chase. And of course, his death has meaning outside of its mere occurrence. Gambino has often played with themes of death, notably in his screenplay to his second official album, “Because the Internet.” (Gambino says in the last song on the album, “Life: The Biggest Troll,” “Funny the day you born that’s really your death sentence,” speaking to the inevitably of death.)

In Deni’s case, he took the risk of singing at the festival despite Red’s threats to him. He had a dream to make the island happy and he figured that if he did die, it would be on his own terms. Deni also ends up achieving his goal of getting the islanders a day off of work. They all gather in the streets to celebrate his life the next day.

With “Guava Island,” Glover has created the modern musical, a story told through music but breaking free from the sound of showtunes and generating a project that is simultaneously entertaining and socially relevant.

And it doesn’t stop there. Some fans speculate that Gambino’s upcoming album, which will be his last and mark his retirement from music, at least under this name, continues or retells the story of Guava Island. Of the four songs from the unreleased album Gambino has played on tour and at Coachella, all four appear to fit somewhere in the scheme of Guava. In particular, his song “Human Sacrifice” opens with, “Two shots and a body,” an apparent reference to Deni’s death at the end of the film.

Regardless of what Glover has in store for us, “Guava Island” is thoroughly enjoyable and yet another example of Glover living up to the title “Jack of all trades, master of all.”

I’m ready for the next album, Donald. And maybe throw in a pair of those shoes while you’re at it.



Contact Andrew Tan at tandrew ‘at’ stanford.edu. 

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In ‘Shame,’ Ingmar Bergman examines evil in ordinary people https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/22/in-shame-ingmar-bergman-examines-evil-in-ordinary-people/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/22/in-shame-ingmar-bergman-examines-evil-in-ordinary-people/#respond Mon, 22 Apr 2019 07:30:19 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1153183 When Ingmar Bergman’s “Shame” premiered in 1968, the critic Renata Adler was quick to offer an interpretation. Reviewing the film in The New York Times, she asserted that “the shame of the title is God’s.” Indeed, throughout his career, Bergman elucidated existential questions of faith and fate.  Adler’s analysis, however, misses what is for me the […]

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When Ingmar Bergman’s “Shame” premiered in 1968, the critic Renata Adler was quick to offer an interpretation. Reviewing the film in The New York Times, she asserted that “the shame of the title is God’s.” Indeed, throughout his career, Bergman elucidated existential questions of faith and fate.  Adler’s analysis, however, misses what is for me the most disquieting element of the film. Perhaps God feels disgrace somewhere off-camera, but on camera no deity exists. Bergman unabashedly explores the foibles of mortals. Throughout the film, he reveals that people who seem ordinary can commit the most shameful acts of all.

“Shame” is set in an unidentified country and concentrates on a married couple, Eva and Jan Rosenberg. Since a war has broken out on the mainland, they have moved to a small island. Jan and Eva do not seem predisposed to become politically active. Although Bergman cast the accomplished actors Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann in the parts, the characters seem to be completely ordinary. They argue over inane affairs—Eva forces Jan to get up early to take the produce to market, and Jan does not find Eva’s work in the field satisfactory. They have quotidian aspirations—they want to start a family before they’re too old to have children. In one aspect, Jan and Eva are unique. They are artists. Before they were forced to flee the mainland, they played in a prestigious orchestra. Jan still treasures his cello and hopes to be able to perform again in peacetime. For both of them, music is pure and transcendent, representative of their uncomplicated lives before the conflict. In a certain sense, they adhere to the painter James McNeill Whistler’s doctrine of art— “art should be independent of all claptrap—should stand alone…and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism and the like.” 

When the war arrives, however, “claptrap” consumes everything, even music. Jan’s cello is ruined when a stray bullet hits it. He will never perform again. Most of their dreams die more slowly. Surrounded by wreckage, Eva quietly and mournfully states, “I guess we’ll never have children.” The atrocities of war force Eva and Jan to change, but they never adopt an ideology. Instead, their main aim becomes survival. To achieve that end, they have to become as cruel as their oppressors. In the penultimate scene of the film, they discover a soldier hiding in their greenhouse. He has deserted the army, and he is looking for a place to sleep. In a frenzy, Jan drives him out with his gun. Eva pleads with Jan to show some mercy, but he is desperate to take the soldier’s boots and extract some intel from him about a refugee boat. If von Sydow and Ullmann seemed underutilized in earlier scenes, here, Bergman’s casting is richly rewarding. The fight that Jan and Eva have over the soldier is reminiscent of their earlier squabbles, but now, life and death hang in the balance. 

 Others around Jan and Eva are even more callous. Revolutionaries destroy their home and their livelihood, laying the entire island to waste. Eva comes across a young child that they have run down in the road, and Jan finds a parachutist that has been left to die in a tree. After an armistice is declared, Jan and Eva try to negotiate with the new leaders of the government. They discover that they are not young punks looking to upset the system, but wizened politicians. On the surface, they seem perfectly decent. The people who authorized atrocities present a veneer of kindness that masks the coldness of their souls. 

Bergman made “Shame” in 1968, when inhumanity seemed ubiquitous. The film was released in September. By that time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy had already been assassinated. Soviet troops had already crushed pro-liberalization protestors in Prague. Riots had occurred outside of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. A few days after the film was released, student activists in Mexico City would be slaughtered by government troops. Throughout the year, the war in Vietnam continued to escalate.  Other filmmakers had more pointed rejoinders to the events of 1968. The director Haskell Wexler captured the violence at the Democratic convention firsthand, and the French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard threatened to quit making movies altogether. 

Yet, “Shame” is perhaps a more powerful statement, because Bergman’s analysis of wartime atrocities is not constricted by its era. Strangely, while watching the film, I was reminded of some 1915 photographs showing the lynching of Leo Frank. Frank was a Jew who lived in Georgia, and he was the manager of a factory where a young girl was murdered. With no evidence whatsoever, anti-Semites in the town quickly decided that he was the culprit. Although the governor urged caution, some were unwilling to wait for justice. A mob abducted him from the county jail so that they could lynch him. The photographs capture the moments after Frank died. He is hung from a tree, his head bent toward heaven. The killers gather around him, their faces visible. Some even stand on tiptoes to be present in the photograph. They all seem like common people, but they are proud of their crime.

The person who took the image is anonymous, and perhaps he was a part of the mob. Still, his photograph is valuable, because it shows that terror in the Jim Crow South was not just carried out by vigilante groups of hooded men. How can this unthreatening group have done something so horrific? “Shame” ponders this paradox. Ultimately, Bergman cogently considered the nature of both God and man.

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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