I fell in love with the music of indie pop duo Tennis in high school, back when my older brother’s cool girlfriend was their biggest (and it felt like only) fan. Their albums earned regular spots in my CD rotation and YouTube history — I loved that every song created an atmosphere, told a story and was infinitely listenable.
Released Jan. 17, “Dolittle,” a heartwarming adventure film, was the perfect way to unwind after a jam-packed first week of classes. The film boasts a star-studded cast, including Emma Thompson, Rami Malek, Octavia Spencer, Kumail Nanjiani, Ralph Fiennes, Selena Gomez, Tom Holland and John Cena. These actors lend their voices to a wide array of animals. Though human characters are fewer in number, big-name actors Robert Downey Jr., Antonio Banderas and Michael Sheen take on these roles.
Cheerleading has long been sideline entertainment, but now has finally attained its hard-earned spotlight with “Cheer,” a six-episode Netflix documentary series. The episodes follow the Navarro College cheerleading team through a period lovingly called “Daytona Season,” referring to the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) Collegiate Cheer Championship in Daytona, Florida. Along the way, the series chronicles the life stories of the athletes.
Along with Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, Starz, ESPN and plenty of other streaming services, Apple has introduced its own five-dollar-a-month streaming service, Apple TV Plus. One of the shows Apple has pushed is “Dickinson,” an anachronistic telling of Emily Dickinson’s life in the years shortly after she left Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.
At 8 p.m. on a Saturday night in Holyoke, a crowd anxiously awaited the performance of (Sandy) Alex G. Alexander Giannascoli, known by fans as (Sandy) Alex G, performed at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke, Massachusetts on Nov. 16 as part of his tour for his new album, “House of Sugar.” Accompanying (Sandy) Alex G on this leg of his tour were the bands Tomberlin and Indigo De Souza.
Every few years, a genre-bender comes along, breaking some of those conventions but maintaining the essential ethos of that genre. “Parasite,” Bong Joon-ho’s haunting depiction of class struggle in South Korea, doesn’t fit into either category — the film neither conforms to nor breaks free of genre convention. Instead, Joon-ho’s latest thriller is indubitably a masterful genre-melding exercise, gaining the audience’s trust and comfort only to shatter the carefully constructed world later on.
On the mornings of Tuesday, Nov. 12 and Thursday, Nov. 14, students stopped in awe between classes to admire some unusual events. Scattered around campus, students in the course “Body and Space” were engaged in two and a half hour-long performances. Seemingly unaware of the students gathered around them, they remained fixated in their art.
“Today is National First-Generation Day,” Dannye Carpenter ’21 said, standing outside a First Generation and Low-Income Partnership exhibition on Nov. 8. The exhibition, titled “Collective Dream: The Fearless First and Low Income Experience Through Art,” featured a projection of over 100 images submitted by FLIP members.
