Clarinetist and percussion group combine at Hop
Grammy Award-winning musician Richard Stoltzman teams up with the Stomp-like performers of Nexus
Grammy Award-winning musician Richard Stoltzman teams up with the Stomp-like performers of Nexus
The Hopkins Center audience got what they paid for Saturday night with Byron's eclectric mix of swing and jazz
Not evan an iceberg could stop this beautifully realized film which recreates history like few other movies
The first ever Festival D'artmouth will be held this Saturday, where the talents of the premier comedy, dance, drama and musical groups will be displayed, as well as the works by the studio art majors of the College. Never before has so many of the campus' talent groups been brought together in such unique venue. The festival is to be held in the Top of the Hop and Alumni Hall, with various entertainment groups performing in both Halls simultaneously.
Is it good planning or merely coincidence that Don Byron's concert of early swing music fits nicely with this year's Winter Carnival theme harkening back to the "Roaring Twenties?" In either case it seems to make more sense than rain in January. Don Byron is a virtuoso clarinetist and talented composer with open ears, an open mind and a unique conception of music.
Riding a steady surge of popularity generated by last year's American tour, Rage Against the Machine's recently released, self titled video of recent live performances brings 70 minutes of their hard-edged, politically-charged rock to the television set. Packaged as a video and compact disc combination, the product features footage of international concerts since 1994, capturing the raw power of their music visible in the vast and turbulent audiences. Whether the crowds understand the weighty messages singer Zach De La Rocha screams into the microphone is not important.
Bucking a trend of the past few years
Of all the motion pictures released in the last 100 years, those about war tend to be among the most powerful, popular and longest remembered.
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.
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.
Could a book containing stories written by successful Native American college graduates about their life struggles be any more politically correct? This question, although debatable, is not important.
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.
Comedian Chris Rock's debut literary effort, "Rock This!," is a provocative, controversial and hilarious collection of the author's opinions on topics ranging from the black experience in America to keeping a marriage. Rock (his real surname) has a lot to say and he's not shy about it.
Imagine learning your A-B-Cs all over again. That is essentially the challenge students in Jody Diamond's Javanese gamelan class face, musically speaking.
"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.
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.
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.
"If it's easy to explain, it's not worth doing," says Richard Foreman, the writer, director, set, costume and sound designer of "Pearls for Pigs." The play is about theater itself.