Arts & Culture

The Death of the Gilmore Girls

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This article is dedicated to the original Arts journalist, Rory Gilmore — even though she was the Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Daily News. Originally conceived of as a home-delivery DVD service, Netflix’s influence has spanned beyond its refusal to charge customers late fees. Its magical algorithm that generates suggestions based on viewers’ past media preferences, library of unabridged series and truckloads of original content destigmatize acute television obsession. But in other areas — specifically in its attempt at revival programming — the streaming service has not been as successful. Its poor endeavor to resuscitate Arrested Development seven years after it was canceled by Fox left viewers confused as to why they even enjoyed the show in the first place.

Arts & Culture

Dancing with Disease: The Baltimore Waltz at the Schwartz Center

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There’s a man and a woman lying frozen on the floor. Despite looking too old to do so, the man is clutching a stuffed rabbit. I am sitting at one of the six tables lined up on the edge of each side of the stage. The tables, covered in stark white tablecloths, are home to pink napkins, white plates with silver lining and empty wine glasses. Foreboding and original orchestral music by Patrick Braga ’17 is playing in the background, as we wait in near darkness for several minutes unsure of what to expect.

exciting

Not Your Typical Trainwreck

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Had you said anything negative about Edward Cullen around me circa 2008, you would have been slapped. Like many repressed 13-year-old girls, I found Edward to be the perfect embodiment of the male species, a possessive, jealous, sparkling blood-sucker: what more could anyone want? Admittedly the only obstacle separating us was his fictionality. When the realization finally set in that I was obsessed with someone I had never and would never meet, I reached out to my life gurus on Yahoo Answers for guidance. How could my heart rest knowing I would be kept from my soulmate forever because we weren’t on the same page?

Arts & Culture

The Value of Arts

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A palpable — though often unspoken — tension between the humanities and STEM festers on this campus. The humanities’ utility has consistently been questioned — and perhaps with good reason. Why would one ever need to relay the myth of Prometheus or know that Edgar Degas was a French Impressionist painter unless one was competing on Jeopardy! and had the potential to win hundreds of dollars? It is especially difficult to justify the relevancy of the humanities curriculum in times of economic upheaval.

Arts & Culture

GUEST ROOM | It’s Different (Worse) for Girls

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There’s something almost incestuous about the way song titles are reduced, reused and recycled. When Lupe Fiasco sings about a rapper who is coping with his newly acquired fame and The Carpenters sing about a groupie who falls in unrequited love with a musician, and both of these tunes are called “Superstar,” it throws you off kilter. And yet, “Superstar” as a song title is far from the most hackneyed option. The corresponding Wikipedia page lists over 200 songs entitled “Hold On” featuring a sundry of artists, from the Jonas Brothers to Alabama Shakes to The Beekeepers. “Changes,” “Beautiful,” “Breathe” and — of course — “Love” are used just as often.

Arts & Culture

GUEST ROOM | Rape Culture, the Romance Genre and Me Before You

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My sister tells me I’ve turned into a book snob. She claims that my reading list is largely propelled by a hunger for cultural capital, that I don’t enjoy the things I read, that I’m checking off the novels of someone else’s book list: some antiquated, white professor’s book list. And to an extent, she’s right. As an English major, I have not only become trained in applying psychoanalytical and queer theories to the ample texts we chow down in a semester, but I’ve become adept at prioritizing certain genres of texts over others, according to their so-called intellectual merits. The classics: Good.

Adele

An April Fools Awards Show

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“The 58th Grammy Awards are getting ready to start NOW,” Bow Wow exclaimed, a full minute and a half earlier than he was supposed to. After beaming into the camera for a painful 20 seconds afterwards, he started bouncing around from Grammy attendee to Grammy attendee, instructing them not to be camera shy. After which, he incorrectly claimed that the show was starting two more times, “It’s going down! It’s happening! It’s about that time.

Featured in Category

Love For Everyone: Her Story

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The depths of YouTube can be perilous. You may begin by watching “How Star Wars Should Have Ended” videos or clips of Marco Rubio short-circuiting and spouting the same empty phrases in N.H. or a Beyoncé interview on the Oprah show. But one click leads to another and you trip and fall into a compulsive matrix of streamed content you never intended to watch in the first place. That scene of Stefon leads you to Bill Hader’s Saturday Night Live audition, which leads you to every SNL skit ever made, which leads you to cats, which leads you to waffles, which leads you to … cat waffles? (True story.)

Despite the toothless material you may encounter on the site, there are nonetheless some videos of high cultural quality – videos that feature linear narratives over an online miniseries format so they’re more accessible to their viewers.

The Chainsmokers

Spinning Singles: The Chainsmokers, “Don’t Let Me Down”

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So far Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall, the duo that comprises the EDM group The Chainsmokers, are the masters of creating yearly hits. In 2014, it was the group’s song “#Selfie” that garnered them recognition. Last year, “Roses” was warbled on dance floors and blasted in cars everywhere. It was a song that bonded people with diverse musical inclinations all through summer ending, the leaves changing and our waiting for the snow that never came. Perhaps “Don’t Let Me Down” is The Chainsmokers’ triumphant 2016 single.

Arts & Culture

GUEST ROOM | Being an Actor of Color at Cornell

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I’m confused. Why is a decidedly white English man portraying Michael Jackson in a new television movie entitled Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon later this month? Can anyone provide any insight? Maybe this is where you stop reading. Haven’t I been subjected to enough media about #Oscarssowhite, #Cornellsowhite, #WorldSOGODDAMNwhite already?