Arts & Culture

SOLAR FLARE | Sad Girl Autumn

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With the beginning of fall around the corner, that means it is time for sad girl autumn. Now many of you may not be sad girls, but the vibes are still immaculate. Whether you are lamenting a summer fling turned sour, a bad prelim score, or just need a dramatic walk around Beebe, these are the songs for you. Fair warning, there is a lot of Taylor Swift… but how could there not be? Taylor Swift: “Cardigan”

As you pull out your cardigans for the first time this autumn, listen to the painful nostalgia of fall romance. 

“When you are young they assume you know nothing…”

Billie Eilish: “Wildflower” 

Even though this is the end of the season for wildflowers, this song is perfect for reminiscing on what could have been.

Arts & Culture

Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts Tour Comes to New York

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It’s hard to find big-time concerts in Upstate New York, so when I noticed that pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo’s arrival to New York City was perfectly timed to line up with Cornell’s spring break, I jumped at the chance to get tickets. I have been a fan of Rodrigo since her Disney Channel days, and attended her first tour in 2022, so I was ecstatic to have the opportunity to see her again.  

Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour celebrates the release of her second studio album, Guts. The album, which was released in September 2023, contains 12 eclectic tracks.  Some are slow heartbreak tunes like much of her first album, Sour, while others are more upbeat with a punk-rock like sound to them.  Rodrigo’s fan base has definitely expanded since her first tour, with most audience members dressing in her signature look of a short skirt, leather jacket and knee-high boots. Before Rodrigo came on, the show was opened by The Breeders, a 1990s alternative rock group fronted by Kim Deal. To me, the band seemed like an interesting choice, as most of the concert attendees were teenagers or young adults born long after the band’s peak.

Arts & Culture

Olivia Rodrigo Is Not “The Next Taylor Swift”

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Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo often make headlines, but now more than ever, the two of them seem to be a major topic of conversation. Taylor Swift’s burgeoning relationship with Travis Kelce has been talked about non-stop in the media, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is already reaching record-breaking ticket sales and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is set to be released at the end of this month. Olivia Rodrigo has largely been talked about in regards to the release of her sophomore album, GUTS, and the announcement of the accompanying world tour.

Arts & Culture

Album Review: Olivia Rodrigo Wears Her GUTS on Her Sleeve

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The first thing to notice about this album is that Rodrigo sounds really great. Her voice is strong and always enjoyable, even when she screams. More than that, Rodrigo is an actress, and she really commits to her songs’ theatrical elements by yelling, stomping and emoting. An album with so many shouting elements would not be pleasant to listen to with a lesser performance. Rodrigo’s singing also varies among GUTS’s ballads and helps differentiate them in style and tone. 

Arts & Culture

Travelog: In Search of Deeper Meaning (or Olivia Rodrigo in Dublin) 

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Dublin is filled with 21+ clubs. 

I say this not just to pettily express my annoyance at deliberately studying in a country with an 18+ drinking age only to discover that clubs enforce a higher standard. In fact, I’m as interested as I am miffed: Why are they doing this? Culture shock for me has come in the form of that question and its relative unanswerability. After all, I don’t know why the drinking age in the U.S. is 21 exactly, nor do I know why we drive on the right side of the street, don’t need to hail buses, play a different brand of football than either Gaelic Football or Rugby or refuse to install air conditioning in brand new boiling brick buildings. Many of those would take a Google search or more, but the little differences pile on faster than I can or care to research… Hence, culture shock. 

Wanting to integrate into my host country’s culture means trying to attain a sense of what culture means.