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(02/09/18 1:14pm)
Walking down 2nd Street in Old City, you’d almost miss it. The paint on the metal doorframe is chipping, the back side of a window air conditioner juts out of the façade, and the yellow brick building above is dirtied with age. The dim of midday shadows the interior, and apart from a stained–glass panel spelling “Books & Art” and a small neon sign inviting passersby in, there is no sign of activity. Surrounded by well–kept art galleries and posh furniture stores, Jules Goldman Books & Antiques is a façade that many ignore.
(02/07/18 7:49am)
One could say Kygo has managed to avoid a musical step backwards in his latest album, Kids In Love, but that’s exactly the issue—he hasn’t moved anywhere at all. When he first began releasing tracks publicly in 2014, Kygo’s melodic, tropical, and atmospheric remixes on Soundcloud of popular tracks took many by storm. His remixes of “High For This” by Ellie Goulding, “Sexual Healing” by Marvin Gaye, and “I See Fire” by Ed Sheeran had racked up 12 million, 30 million, and 60 million plays on Soundcloud, respectively.
(02/08/18 5:19am)
When the NSA agent behind my webcam and I curl up for a night in, Marvel TV is usually on the menu. Maybe not first on the menu—I’m not a philistine—but presently there all the same. The (ahem, superior) comic giant’s foray into live–action, prime–time television has been lauded and condemned with equal fervor since the 2013 launch of their earliest show, Marvel’s Agents of Shield on ABC. On one hand the franchise celebrates weirdos, perhaps a few degrees more attractive and cooler than you and me, but essentially just like us. On the other hand, given Marvel’s inescapable grip on cinematic superhero narratives, maybe viewers have stopped critically engaging and have simply come to accept their cape–seized fates. Luckily so far Marvel’s four–year TV run, following its even longer animated series runs, has not yet fully saturated its market. There will always be space for stories, many including ensemble casts, who spotlight their characters’ inherent variety and difference. With this weighted bag in mind, let’s rank Marvel’s ‘new–to–TV’ endeavors of 2017.
(02/07/18 7:50am)
To quote a tweet I saw the other day: “Every time I remember that Lil Pump is a 17–year–old who got rich and famous for saying ‘Gucci gang’ for three minutes, I have to remind myself that life is a meaningless simulation in order to calm down.” Yes, that last part might be a little dark and hyperbolic, but the point remains the same.
(01/25/18 6:05am)
In the wake of the cascade of sexual assault allegations that have come to light against Harvey Weinstein in late 2017, the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, an organization dedicated to the empowerment of female farmworkers in the United States, wrote a letter of solidarity to the women who exposed the pattern of violence perpetrated by the film producer and repeated assailant. Spearheaded by prominent women in Hollywood such as Shonda Rhimes and Anne Hathaway, "Time’s Up"—a proclamation against sexual abuse and means of legal defense funding to help survivors of assault hold abusers accountable—was announced in an open letter to the public in The New York Times on January 1.
(01/25/18 2:00pm)
The painfully obvious has now become at long last official.
(01/22/18 8:06pm)
“All Mine,” an electronic pop ballad, written by Penn’s very own Karis Stephen (C '18), will leave you dreaming of sandy beaches and sweeping vistas. Over Sense’s tropical beats, Stephen’s sultry vocals will charm you with the promise of love so easy and so effortless that time seems to stand still. Together, Karis and her counterpart Blue Bookhard (C '17) form a poppy R&B duo called Eleven. “All Mine,” which features French electronic group Sense, is Eleven’s third single.
(02/10/18 10:17pm)
Rex Orange County is more than a smooth R&B voice featured on Tyler, the Creator’s Flower Boy. Although this album may have been the first place many listeners came across his velvety British voice, the 19–year–old had actually released a couple albums before that. Hailing from Haslemere, England, Rex’s real name is Alex O’Connor, but he picked up the moniker from a high school teacher who nicknamed him “the OC.” He’s kind of like Ed Sheeran before Ed Sheeran started making radio pop, in that when he sings it sounds like he’s speaking directly to you. His voice is so genuine that it feels as if you’re hearing a story or the internal musings of one of your good friends.
(01/20/18 9:18pm)
Bent Button is Penn’s only student filmmaking club.
(01/20/18 5:05am)
When I wiped out my entire Twitter feed to exterminate my fangirl past before I could follow any Penn people, of course, no one noticed. But on August 18, 2017, when country–turned–pop juggernaut Taylor Swift wiped everything from all of her social media, it was as if the entire internet was turned on its head. This was the single biggest publicity stunt Taylor did to promote her sixth studio album Reputation. Such is the power of Taylor Swift.
(01/23/18 1:40pm)
Attention Instagram models and their twice catfished supporters: corsets are back in a big way.
(01/19/18 5:34pm)
Crazy Ex Girlfriend is airing its third season on The CW right now, and if you’re not watching it, you should be. This irreverent musical comedy show follows Rebecca (Rachel Bloom), a stressed and stunted Ivy League alumna who turns down a promotion at her high–powered New York City law firm in order to quit her job, move across the country, and pursue her boyfriend from a summer camp decades ago. If you’re not familiar with the show and that sounds like a crazy premise—it is. But Crazy Ex Girlfriend (CXG) is one of the best shows currently airing on television. It’s a quirky but brilliant take on love and finding happiness with a lot of lessons to teach anyone; but Penn students might find it has a special relevance to our lives, specifically.
(01/19/18 5:27pm)
You know that feeling when you wake up, check your phone, see it’s 15 degrees and snowing, and immediately decide to stay inside all day? This is a playlist for that. Hopefully it captures the pseudo–sadness that comes with the freezing weather while ultimately filling you with a romantic warmth. Ideally, you’ll listen to this while looking out your window and gazing at some snow–covered trees, letting the tenderness of these songs spread throughout your insides.
(01/24/18 2:00pm)
There’s no way Ian “Kevin Abstract” Simpson could’ve imagined that a simple 2010 post in the KanyeToThe online forum (Mr. West’s most notable fan site) would eventually result in a meteoric rise to fame. Not a chance. At the time, Abstract asked if any of his fellow users wanted to form a hip–hop band, and soon enough, AliveSinceForever was created with Ameer Vann, Dom McLennon, and Rodney Tenor.
(01/22/18 7:42pm)
If you like NAO or Jorja Smith, make way for the next great R&B artist from England: Mahalia Burkmar, better known by her stage name Mahalia. The Birmingham–based artist is just 19, but she has shown repeated glimpses of brilliance in her small discography.
(01/25/18 6:34am)
The '80s were a colorful time, to say the least. But among the neon polyester and crunchy, kinky bouffants, there was one trend that held a more serious message than “girls just wanna have fun.” Velcroed into all those chartreuse, Tommy Hilfiger sweaters and jaunty, prep blazers were shoulder pads—a bold artistic statement. But these straight–edged shoulder enhancers are making a comeback, and there is a bigger reason than just wanting a sharp, tailored look against the flowery, subtleness of spring.
(01/17/18 7:20pm)
On January 7th, the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards were held, honoring those who contributed to American cinema in categories such as Best Motion Picture—Drama or Best Supporting Actress—Comedy or Musical. From its praise of movies like Greta Gerwig’s Ladybird to James Franco’s The Disaster Artist, The Golden Globes, much like other celebrations of mainstream cinema, tend to prioritize films with wholly fictional narratives. While the Academy Awards may have a category for Best Documentary Feature today, the Golden Globe Awards discontinued its recognition of the work of documentary filmmakers after a mere four years in the early 1970s.
(01/17/18 3:25am)
Around the holiday season every year, several movies that have yet to make it on Blu–Ray hit the internet, bearing titles like “2017.DVDScr.XVID.AC3.HQ.Hive-CM8.” You may be wondering: where the fuck are these files coming from? Glad you asked.
(01/17/18 11:03pm)
Outside the realm of sampling, the Isley Brothers are an extremely popular R&B and soul group even to this day, despite their mid–20th century beginnings. They have hits like “It’s Your Thing,” “Shout,” and “That Lady, Pts. 1 & 2.” While “Shout” would later be remade by artists such as Marvin Gaye and the Beatles, one of their lesser known (but equally impactful) influences in music has been The Isley Brothers’ sampled tracks, particularly in hip–hop. From their hit “That Lady, Pts. 1 & 2” which peaked at no. 6 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1976 to “Between the Sheets” and “Footsteps in the Dark, Pts. 1 & 2”, the Isley Brothers' samples might not be as widespread as other hip–hop influencers such as James Brown, but their samples have packed a stronger punch in recent hip–hop than most. Many think of James Brown as one of the godfathers of hip–hop, and this is indisputable given the sampling of Brown’s 1970 hit “Funky Drummer” by artists like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Public Enemy, Jay–Z, Mos Def, LL Cool J, and Raekwon or his 1974 record “Funky President (People It’s Bad)" by Kanye West, Childish Gambino, Rick Ross, Pusha T, Naughty by Nature, Ghostface Killah, and N.W.A.
(01/17/18 3:26am)
Web series are cult–y. I know this because whenever I try to explain their otherworldly appeal to the average, wholesome member of society, I end up sounding like Saturday Night Live’s Stefon Meyers—king of the obscure—or the upperclassman gate–keeper to your favorite on–campus club. Without the blockbuster marketing budgets of prime time television or feature film, most digital series’ popularity is gleaned through extreme googling and tight–lipped word of mouth. That’s at least how I stumbled upon an episode of Anime Crimes Division, a web series from the minds of Crunchy Roll and Rocket Jump that double–fists on the ‘cult–y’ by mixing the digital series world with the most pervasive set pieces of anime subculture, and the hilarious, crime–fighting appeal of Brooklyn Nine Nine. Like sleeping through the oven timer on steaming twitter beef, or endeavoring to describe a meme to your mom, web series tend to belong to that section of internet culture whose value is depleted by untimely explanation. But for the noobs among us, here's an intro to an unbeatable web series.
