KOSEMATOGLU | Recommendations of the Week

Are you tired of reading about the French Revolution for the 18th time since high school for your classes? Or perhaps you are in a Spotify slump, where all your songs seem a little overplayed? I want to provide a few recommendations that may give you some hope and happiness after the rough couple of weeks we’ve had.

CHARI | On “Coraline”, Self-Reflection and Our Favorite Childhood Media 

I got my first tattoo last year. It is a small button, only slightly larger than a quarter. When consulting with the artist, I specified that I wanted a button with four holes in it, like in Coraline. “Oh, you also want one of that movie?” He gestured over to a heavily tattooed man sitting in the front of the shop. “Jake, show her your leg.” Jake (I think his name was Jake, I honestly don’t remember) pulled up his left pant leg to reveal a full color portrait of Coraline’s titular protagonist, complete with blue hair and the top of her yellow raincoat.

PONTIN | Is Less Really More?

For me, scrolling through Netflix typically follows something of a pattern. I’ll spend about 20 minutes looking for something new to catch my eye, then make a last ditch effort to understand why people enjoy Gilmore Girls, quickly turn it off and then enter the uncharted waters of the documentaries section. 

PONTIN | Here We Come A-Caroling

Holiday music seems like the perfect place to start; Christmas caroling is a tradition that has been largely foregone in the name of mass-produced, chart-topping radio hits. These days, finding anything other than an Amazon package at your doorstep is typically an unwelcome sight — salespeople seeking to rope you into a knife-selling pyramid scheme, religious zealots looking to share their views on salvation or flyers from a local political representative urging their stance on the education budget. 

PONTIN | Goodnight Moon

What could be more peaceful and more innocent than the process of wishing goodnight to the very fixture of nighttime itself, without whom our night sky would remain stuck in a perpetual state of new moon?