Who doesn’t get that high when the passion someone has for what you’re doing flows into you? Especially when they are just beginning their journey to reach their aspirations. It is hard not to wish them the best of luck. That is the kind of excitement that rubs off when speaking with musician and entrepreneur Ravahn Duval (aka DUVV). This promising hip-hop artist and founder the online music magazine, Turntable Mag, is what most people strive to be: easy going, funny and always with a positive outlook on life.
Friday night, the Friedmann room of Keefe Campus Center took a trip to the eighties. The room’s furniture, although still modern, consisted of comfy arm chairs, high-backed stools, patterned blue-and-white pillows dotting the dance floor and small round tables with chairs surrounding the main wooden floor, was decorated to aid in the viewing of one of the most iconic movies of all time — “The Breakfast Club.”
I’ve never seen a film quite like “Gravity”. It’s a thrill ride to end all thrill rides, never letting up in subjecting its characters to situations from bad to worse during its 90-minute running length. “Gravity” is, for those who want a no-frills blockbuster, nerve-wracking in a way that few films are. This is a true edge-of-your-seat motion picture. In fact, it’s much more than that.
As I sit in a dark green lawn chair overlooking the beauty of memorial hill, it’s hard to ignore the thoughts of doubt that creep into my mind. Have I taken advantage of this amazing place in which I live? Am I going to have any regrets? The uniqueness of the Pioneer Valley is one of the main reasons I chose to attend Amherst.
The fourth annual Massachusetts Dance Festival, held over the past weekend at UMass, is one of the rare events in the region that make you forget the remoteness of Amherst from fine arts hubs such as Boston and New York. Indeed, the eleven dance companies that put on a fast-paced, eclectic two-night gala concert last Friday and Saturday reminded us that Massachusetts, despite having a reputation for producing but not keeping top-notch dancers, still has a vibrant dance scene that more people ought to learn about and appreciate.
Sept. 20 was supposed to be the day after which nothing would ever be the same again — the official release date of Drake’s anticipated third-studio album, entitled none other than “Nothing Was the Same.” Call it hubris, call it a misinterpretation on my part, but the album does implicitly establish for Drake a high set of standards to meet; for the most part, he not only meets, but surpasses, those expectations. While I wouldn’t call the album a triumph or genius (or any other praise I feel compelled to save for Kendrick or Kanye), it is highly enjoyable from start to finish.
Every day, Mercedes Morgan ’16 proves that style lives on the Amherst College campus. Morgan’s personal wardrobe serves as an inspiration to many and she is the creator of a fashion blog — clothcampus.tumblr.com — where she writes abut her sense of style and showcases the fashion choices of Amherst students. When I first met Mercedes, she came off as put-together, relaxed, no-nonsense kind of girl. She told me she had seen my outfit in class and that she wanted to put it on her blog. I laughed nervously until she told me not to worry — I could choose whichever picture and angle I wanted.
