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The Dartmouth
June 25, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth
Arts
Arts

Babyface jams, entertains in 'Unplugged' album

By Micheal A. Posey | January 5, 1998

Music Television's Unplugged series has been as much a hallmark of an artist's talent as his or her latest musical release. It sifts the musically challenged like the embarrassingly simple Spice Girls and Milli Vanilli from the musically talented like Eric Clapton and R&B chanteur Maxwell, artists who have gained accolades because of the calibre of their Unplugged performances. An MTV Unplugged appearance can be a factor in silencing those critics who question the vocal gymnastics often heard on recorded tracks of their favorite artist or create new fans for would-be performers. What stands between listeners and the artists is the music -- not the glitz and glamour of today's modern musical wizardry like samples and synthesizers. The Unplugged stage also gives listener the experience of hearing their favorite artists live with their music uncut.

Arts

Jay-Z represents with latest release, 'In My Lifetime, Vol. I': R&B superstar quartet Blackstreet, ubiquitious rapper Puff Daddy, collaborate with artist on debut album

By Latia S. Curry | November 26, 1997

For the last two years Brooklynite Jay-Z, also know as Jigga, has stepped into the forefront by placing his hypnotically soothing hip-hop inflection over high-bass tracks. Jay-Z stands out as the chief act on Roc-A-Fella Records, which is made clear by the great success he has already achieved due to his outstanding debut album "Reasonable Doubt." This young rapper realized an abrupt arrival onto the rap scene with largely popular songs like "Dead Presidents II" and "Friend or Foe" as well as triumphant collaborations with the queen of hip-hop soul Mary J.

Arts

Senior Fellow Cirulnick '98 on road to screenwriting success

By Joe Manera | November 25, 1997

The past half year has been a wild ride for Matthew I. Cirulnick '98, a transfer student and Brooklyn native. The 21-year-old aspiring screenwriter and Senior Fellow has spent much of the year devoting himself to internally visualizing and physically writing the script for the semi-autobiographical "Johnny Green," an intense story of an eight-year-old boy named Matt and his relationship with his mother's younger cousin Johnny Guarino. Cirulnick's screenplay examines the complicated bond between Matt and Johnny, two souls who feel out of place in their neighborhood and eventually become best friends. Johnny is a 22-year-old drug addict and graffiti artist, yet his charm renders him likable to just about everyone that meets him, and he becomes somewhat of a surrogate father to the impressionable Matt. The relationship between Matt and Johnny is loosely based on Cirulnick's own relationship with his older cousin. "He was very talented, but he was very much a victim of his own addictions to drugs.

Arts

'The Ice Storm' captures 1970s suburban lust at its worst

By Matt Frucci | November 24, 1997

"The Ice Storm" is about a 1970s suburban family, but it is not "The Brady Bunch." It is about what we all know was prevalent between takes on the set of "The Brady Bunch:" partner swapping, sexual experimentation and giant bongs. "The Ice Storm" is a deeply haunting portrait of an American family lost in an era of misguided hedonism and shallow relationships, coming to the disheartening conclusion that free love comes with a price. It is 1973 in New Canaan, Connecticut and its middle class residents are struggling to find their place in the sexual revolution.

Arts

Tour weary Live ignites audience

By Arvid R. Nelson | November 24, 1997

Live played to a full house of mixed undergraduates and non-Dartmouth affiliated concert-goers in Leede Arena last Saturday night. Although the four piece band from Pennsylvania put on a good show, Saturday night's performance was their last engagement on their Secret Samhadi tour, and the band was obviously exhausted. Still, Live looked very pleased to be playing at Dartmouth, and were warmly received by the crowd. The band was preceded by Reef, a run-of-the mill English group emblematic of Britain's inability to produce traditional drums/bass/guitar bands of any merit.

Arts

For Ugbabe '98, music is his passion: Senior Fellow, Ugbabe hopes to pursue musical composition studies

By Maura Henninger | November 20, 1997

Onche Ugbabe '98 doesn't like to "put things in boxes." When asked what kind of music his senior fellowship centers around, his response is a little chuckle and shake of his head. In his native country, Nigeria, he says, people don't categorize music -- or anything -- as strictly as Americans. For Ugbabe, coming to the United States to attend Dartmouth, this was one of the most difficult things to adjust to.

Arts

Book explores male view from a bar stool

By Ben Mandelker | November 17, 1997

It seems like the politically correct movement has spawned a backlash of sorts, or at least with Ralph and Reggie, the two authors of the book "Macho Meditation." The book is an account of the thoughts and ideas of these two bar-dwellers as they reflect on certain notable quotables day after day. The two reminisce on when a guy could be a guy and not some new age softy.

Arts

Spiceworld: 'Say You Won't Be There': 'Spiceworld' follows the premiere of group's self-titled debut album

By Joe Manera | November 13, 1997

When you eat spicy food, the saying goes, expect it to repeat itself on you. That said, those ten million listeners that ignored this bit of wisdom and gobbled down the Spice Girl's debut album earlier this year can be blamed for the explosion of flatulence that hit record stores last week. That's right. The Spice Girls already have a new album, "Spiceworld," and predictably, too much of a bad thing is still a bad thing. In what is surely one of the seven signs of the apocalypse, the Spice Girls have become global superstars this year, and the self-proclaimed gurus of "girl power" have been flooding the market with Spice stuff. Two albums in one year, Spice dolls, a Pepsi commercial, and a movie on the way, there is absolutely no way of avoiding these five hyperactive English pop tarts. With their trashy look, slickly-produced pop songs, dubious musical pedigree and obnoxious public personas, it is no wonder that rock critics despise them. They embody a highly commercial cheesiness not evident in popular music celebrities since the heydays of M.C.

Arts

Murder, lust and revenge make 'The White Devil' sizzle

By Shialing Kwa | November 12, 1997

Massive metallic double doors dominate the stage. The combination of metal with stone already suggests the modern/classic duality of "The White Devil." When two men and a woman clad in tight black leather and wild eye makeup burst on stage and begin to pour forth 17th century language, this duality is confirmed.

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