“Star Wars” has returned. After years of waiting, one of the most highly awaited movies of all time has finally arrived and successfully manages to recapture the magic of George Lucas’ original trilogy. Under the direction of J.J. Abrams, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” beckons the world to return to a galaxy far, far, away….
Stuart McKenzie ’16 presented his music composition thesis, “The Making of a Hat,” last Saturday night in Buckley Recital Hall. The recital consisted of five different pieces, performed by singers and a string quartet. Watching McKenzie’s hard work come to life was a true joy, and it reminded me of the wide-ranging talents present on this campus. The arts and living team interviewed McKenzie to learn more about his experience of executing a music composition thesis.
Q: What was your inspiration behind “The Making of a Hat?”
Many strange beings lurk in the fictional town of Night Vale: hooded figures who maintain a forbidden dog park, helicopters painted with birds of prey that steal children and an omniscient glowing cloud that serves as president of school council. Yet the most confusing and paradoxical product of the biweekly podcast “Welcome to Night Vale” may be Night Vale writers Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor’s new novel of the same title.
Upon entering the Powerhouse last Wednesday, you could immediately feel the excitement permeating the room where the fall 2015 Dance and Step at Amherst College performance was held.
Amazon Studio’s TV series, “The Man in the High Castle,” opens with quintessential images of American symbols of pride: the beautiful skyline of New York City, the Golden Gate Bridge and a statue of an eagle, poised to fly. You can almost hear such symbols saying “God Bless Our Homeland,” yet these images quickly become warped. Over the New York skyline quivers the projection of a swastika. A radiant red sun with rays spreading down, overtakes the Golden Gate Bridge to evoke Japanese imperial imposition in America.
Disclaimer: I was never a Belieber. True, I reluctantly attended two Justin Bieber concerts in seventh grade, back when Bieber was on the brink of superstardom. These are the concessions you make when your childhood best friend is high with “Bieber fever” and drags you to his free live shows in Los Angeles. Within the walls of the iconic Hollywood Palladium, sanitized to accommodate throngs of pre-pubescent girls and their unwilling parents (and best friends), I witnessed Justin Bieber’s cherubic face and vanilla choreography.
Video games as a medium have always kept narrative design in their periphery. This is no surprise, given that they were first designed to function as a virtual playground. Game developers have, for the most of the medium’s history, been understandably too busy programming to concentrate on writing. Giving Mario a believable motivation for breaking blocks and collecting coins was a secondary concern as his jump mechanics were polished over the years.
