The arts
Get your fix of music, movies, art, fashion, and more in these artistic articles
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by Asma Gaba  Daydream Nation (2010) is a film that first made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 starring Kat Dennings, Josh Lucas, and Reece Thompson.
The film follows Caroline Wexler who narrates a year of her life as if it were a story and calls it, “The Year Everything Happened.” Caroline is a seventeen year old girl who has just moved to a small industrial town with her father after her mother fell victim to cancer. Her new high school seems to be filled with burnouts, with almost every kid drugged out of their minds. Plagued with boredom and in an attempt to make her life more interesting, Caroline begins a secret affair with her English teacher, Mr. Anderson. However, things get complicated when Thurston, a boy haunted by his past and is always hidden behind a drugged haze, falls for her. Oh, and there’s a serial killer loose in the city, and the police have yet to catch him.
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by Corey Gray  Spring, directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Scoot Moorhead, starts out like any other indie romance, but it hatches into a wildly complex and shocking one-of-a-kind gondola ride into the unexplored caverns of love, science, and history. This romantic-horror came out in early 2015, and while it received rave reviews, it remained a fairly underground favorite that only few and far between people had seen. The premise may seem a bit strange, which is why a lot of people didn’t check this bad boy out, but it turned out to be one of the most satisfying flicks I’ve seen all year.
by Jessica Yu  If you’ve been on the internet for a while, you may have seen funny screencaps of Friends, a show about 6 young adults living in New York in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Spanning 10 seasons, the sitcom follows the daily struggles, drama, and hilarious moments of these individuals that is both hilarious and heartwarming to watch. Having been nominated for 62 Emmy Awards, Friends is an American classic that must be watched!
by Jessica Yu
by Asma Gaba  To be honest, I despise fruits in my dessert. I don’t understand the appeal of fruit tarts or strawberry cheesecake or even apple pies. Yep, I don’t like apple pie. But for some reason, this recipe for blueberry muffins is my one true love. The cinnamon gives it that sweet and spicy taste that’s absolutely divine- especially with black coffee, if I do say so myself. The recipe is fairly easy, beginning bakers could totally make these muffins with ease. Ingredients:
(Makes about 10 muffins) 1 ½ cups of flour ¾ cups of white sugar ½ tsp of salt ⅓ cup of milk 1 egg ⅓ cup of vegetable oil 2 tsp of baking powder ¾ cups of blueberries 2 tsp of cinnamon Directions:
Note: If you’re not a cinnamon person, the recipe is just as amazing without it! If you’re not a blueberry person, substitute it with whatever you like! Pecans, cranberries, and chocolate chips, for example. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! by Corey Gray
Patrick Donovan is one of the best photographers I’ve had the pleasure of matching with on Tinder. An immediately aesthetically striking fellow a strong jaw and a romantic tumble of rich brown hair with a wild adoration for his pet Chihuahua. Hard not to be drawn in for a closer look at this New York City based artist radiating so much life. One look at his photographic work and you’ll see the same reflected. Deftly manipulated lighting to create the perfect tone of intimacy with the young men whom he uses as the main subjects for most of his work. There’s such an effortless emotion to this Fashion Institute of Technology student’s work. He has a drive and passion that I don’t see too often with younger artists. He’s someone to watch out for, and luckily I was able to ask him a few questions about himself as an artist. I’m always interested in hearing what inspires people’s art because often, younger artists have no idea what, if anything, inspires their work, or what they’re trying to do or say with their art. So, what’s your point of view, Patrick, what inspires your work?
“My art has always been the people in my photographs. I've always felt this responsibility to document and remember the people that decide to donate memories to me, and it's using my gift to remember them in this photographic light. My work over the past couple years has been heavily inspired by my relationships, the men I've slept with and my friends. It's this ongoing documentation and survey of the people I meet. I have this one series I'm working on that I've lovingly dubbed "Sad Boys Club". It started as an homage to David Armstrong after he died recently and has continued on into a life of its own as a portrait series that focuses on remembering the boys of New York in a post millennium era.” Stephen King wrote in a preface to one of his short stories about a proverb his mother used to say: “Milk always takes the flavor of what it sits next to in the icebox.” King expands on this adage “I don’t know if that’s true about milk, but it’s certainly true when it comes to stylistic development of young writers. When I was a young man, I wrote like H. P. Lovecraft when I was reading Lovecraft[…]” Do you feel that this is also applicable to photographic style, and specifically your own? “Oh for sure! When I first started really coming into my own, I wanted to be the next Mapplethorpe, but lately I just want to be me. I'm aware of my influences (i.e. Robert Mapplethorpe, David Armstrong, Mark Morrisroe, Larry Clark) but I've used them as reference and then allowed myself to grow and evolve from that. They're all incredible artists and I learned so much, but I've got my own voice and my own stories to tell, and the boys in my work deserve to have an original plot line. The greats before me have made this possible and I'm just excited to live in a world where I can look up to all of them.” Your work is very cohesive thanks to pervasive use of young men as the main subject. Do you see yourself sticking to the same subject matter for the foreseeable future? “The majority of my projects lately are long term things. Thanks to the Internet, I've been able to reach out to so many boys and let Sad Boys Club really grow into this pseudo cult online. I can't say for certain that I won't have a giant artistic revolution in the future, but for now my work is about the boys. We learn from each other and it's been amazing to create this body of work and form a community. So, yeah. For now.” Finally, what advice would you give to an artist whose art lacks focus and point of view? “Stop trying to impress someone with your work. Do what makes your heart beat faster. Photographs and sex are almost synonymous to me, you know? It's gotta get the blood pumpin’, and it's got to matter. Piss some people off with what you make. I had a professor once tell me that if you're making art that your parents like, stop making that. I get censored daily on Instagram and I get constant messages from concerned viewers about the "vulgarities" in my work. Let them fuel you until you've built and constructed something you really care about. Write about what makes you feel and then go photograph that.” You can check out more of Patrick’s work on his Instagram @patrickdonovanstudios! by Tori Moore  If you listen to rap and hip-hop, whether that of the Biggie Smalls and Tupac era, early-late 2000s rap from Kanye, Drake, and Nicki, or the faces of the new era of rap from Kodak Black, Lil Uzi, and Lil Yatchy, you know that women are referred to as b*tches and h*es, whether it's being used in positive or negative context. However, what about benevolent sexism? This kind of sexism - when just reading its name - may seem like it is not as harmful as outright sexism. However, the "harmlessness" of it makes it nearly as bad or worse than outright sexism. But why? What is Benevolent Sexism?
I'm going to preface my entire argument with a clear explanation for anyone who does not know. It's okay if you don't know what it is, because I didn't know about it until a year ago. I recognized that it was a thing, I just never had a name for it. So, most of us know that benevolent means well-meaning and harmless. And sexism is, of course, the stereotyping or discrimination against men or women as a group. Now you're probably thinking, "how can sexism be harmless?" Well of course it can't. However, sometimes sexism is carried out in a way that is completely unintended; a way in which that person believes they are actually saying something positive and enlightening, when really it is demeaning, stereotypical, or discriminatory. It is often carried out when complimenting one type of women while bashing another type. An example could be this: a guy notices that his girlfriend does not wear make-up and compliments her by saying "I'm so glad you don't wear make-up like all those other girls. You're not like one of them." Both the girl and her boyfriend may be thinking that this is an innocent compliment. However, what about the other group of girls? This automatically creates negative connotation around the group of make-up wearing girls, whether intended or not, by saying that it is a good thing that she is not like the rest. This also creates yet another divide among women. Benevolent sexism is also carried out by women and it is not excluded to hurting only women. When women say things like how they are "not like other girls," because they are "one of the guys," they are painting femininity in a negative light. Benevolent sexism against men, for example, could be when women say that their man is "not like other" men because he is a genuinely good person. She means to compliment her man, and patronize men who are not good to women, however, she is implying that it is the norm for men to be bad people/boyfriends. It is also harmful because she is rewarding her boyfriend for doing the bare minimum of being a good person. by Jessica Yu  Starring Emma Roberts and Dave Franco, Nerve tells the
story of a shy and introverted girl, Vee (Emma Roberts), and her quest to prove herself as daring by joining an online game called nerve. The game consists of various dares that are taken by players in order to win money. The person that takes the highest amount of dares wins the entire competition. While playing Nerve, Vee meets Ian (Dave Franco), and they begin to perform dares together. Vee and Ian climb the scoreboard, and suddenly see themselves in the top 10. The dares become more and more dangerous, and Vee finds herself trapped in a high-stakes game that could end her life. by Corey Gray  Just as a foreword, I am a major advocate for trying to
make clothing less gendered, and I want for nothing more than for ‘womenswear’ and ‘menswear’ to be just ‘clothing’, but it isn’t. I urge and try to set an example for people that clothing and appearance shouldn’t have anything to do with your gender and societal expectations, but I of all people know how terrifying it is to try and break free of that gendered box. I remember when I was younger, I would see gender nonconforming people and think to myself, “If only that could be me.” It took years, but I can finally say that I would make my younger-self proud. I know it’s daunting, but if you’ve been aching to take a step out of the dysphoria inducing clothing of your past, here are some gentle and safe ways you can do it that will give you the confidence over time to become a you that you’re proud of. by Asma Gaba  Finding Audrey is about fourteen year old Audrey who suffers
from severe anxiety. She was incessantly bullied at school- the source of her anxiety- and as a result, never leaves her house unless it’s to see her therapist, Dr. Sarah. She meets her brother’s friend, Linus, who loves video games and is interested in Audrey and her eccentricities. Slowly, she builds a friendship with him that may benefit her and her family as well. |
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