The Student had the opportunity to talk to Naima Moore ’18, the editor in chief of the new campus music publication, AC Beat.
Far before I settled on coming to Amherst, I have been a loyal aficionado of David O. Russell films. Certainly his early niche works are worth watching, but I, like most of the mainstream world, am partial to his more recent Academy-recognized films. “The Fighter” left me feeling raw, and I stayed up all night with the image of an underweight, crack cocaine-addicted Christian Bale emblazoned in my mind. “Silver Linings Playbook” nailed the concept of endearing family dysfunction. Also, I think what he does with mental illness is brilliant.
It is 1952 and young Eilis Lacey (Saiorse Ronan) is tired of her small Irish hometown. Her sole income comes from her part-time job as a shop worker under the insufferable Mrs. Kelly, and dating prospects are limited. Life, as she imagines it, exists elsewhere for her, so with a heavy heart Ellis abandons her mother and sister and everything she has ever known for the mystical faraway land of Brooklyn, New York.
By sheer chance, my sister, my mother and I stumbled into the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton last Sunday night for a concert by the Becca Stevens Band. A quick Google search informed me that the “Becca Stevens band expands and blurs the boundaries of folk, jazz and pop while engaging the listener through keen poetic observation, rich musical language and beguiling singing.” Plus, admission was only 15 dollars at the door, so we reasoned that it was the “Pioneer Valley” thing to do and decided to give it a shot.
For many of us, childhood is a time of innocent detachment from the woes of adult life. For children, anything is possible; the world feels like a magical place even on the dullest days.
