Slowly, but as surely as ever, the outdoors fade from glorious summer to tired winter. Sleeves that only just covered the shoulders begin to cover elbows, and soon will cover wrists. The occasional evergreen stands in ever-increasing contrast to its surroundings. But instead of monotonic thermal decline, the natural world offers one last burst of vibrancy, a burst that makes autumn the loveliest time of year to live in the Pioneer Valley.
After fighting my way through a horde of armored war-beasts, greedily snatching fallen gold and weapons and narrowly avoiding death, I looked to my clock and realized with surprise that two hours had passed. That sums up my experience with Torchlight 2, an action role-playing game and the sequel to Runic Games’ Torchlight. While you don’t need to have played the original to enjoy this sequel, Torchlight 2 dramatically improves just about every aspect of its predecessor.
Fashion trends are everchanging; they can be hard to stay on top of, and even harder to understand how they started in the first place. A fashion “trend” is a particular look or article of clothing that gains popularity within a large group for a specific amount of time. The roots of a trend can be hard to pinpoint. However, many can be traced back to celebrities and other figures in the public eye. When an admired star (let’s say Princess Kate) is photographed sporting a new look, the item flies off of shelves within days.
Fireworks never flash across the screen, but “The Master” celebrates the genius of acting, screen-writing, set design, directing and almost everything else about cinema with no less fuel and splendor. It is your typical Oscar suspect: an art-house independent film with more than a streak of ambition, an idolized director notable for his uncompromising style, a fierce cast, an intriguing story and as always, something contentious that nests at the tongue of the critics and the public alike. And yes, it is irresistible to an upper-middle class college town.
People who know me well will immediately know what I’m talking about. People who know me sort of well will also probably know what I’m talking about. And people who don’t know me at all still have the chance to catch the reference in the title of this article. I’m talking about Doctor Who, the iconic British science fiction television show that has thrilled, entertained and terrified three generations of fans worldwide for almost 50 years.
This weekend, the Amherst Symphony Orchestra embarks on a seemingly herculean task, a series of 5th symphonies including those of Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler and Shostakovich. These are some of the most well known, loved and studied pieces for any orchestra to tackle, making for an exciting and substantial season. With so much attention given to these works, it is a brave undertaking.
Few contemporary writers have been anointed with as much praise as Junot Díaz. Since 1996, when he first burst onto the literary scene and was immediately exalted as a promising upstart with a distinctive voice, Mr. Díaz has been the darling of the literary mainstream, a recognition that has earned him induction into the pages of The New Yorker and into the Pulitzer Prize board from which he received his very own trophy in 2008.
