In Changes, Justin Bieber shows that he’s grown

When Justin Bieber dropped the song “Yummy” as his lead single from his fifth studio album, Changes, there was much dispute between me and my friends. 

MSE offers students a “blind date with a book”

While some students spent Valentine’s Day this past week with their significant other, others spent it alone or with friends. This year, the Milton S. Eisenhower Library (MSE) provided a fourth option: spending V-Day with a book. Not just any book, though: a book you were set up with blindly by someone else who you’ve probably never met.

Author explores legacy of BB King at Red Emma’s

On Feb. 13, artist and author Diane Williams presented a talk at Red Emma’s Bookstore on the life and legacy of BB King, one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. As a wide-ranging retrospective, it dealt not only with the life and music of BB King, but also with the history of blues itself, from its conception to its current space in the music world. 

Artist Spotlight: senior Grace Ren, a proponent of messy art

Grace Ren is a senior majoring in Public Health and minoring in Visual Arts. With a rather conspicuous Instagram handle, @graceren.art, it is quite impossible to dissociate Ren from her amalgamation of creative mediums, which she calls a “multimedia brain barf” in her single-line biography. 

Witness Theater presents new plays centered on the dynamics of office life

 Witness Theater presented its annual Intersession Showcase at the Swirnow Theater this weekend. The show featured four new student-written plays all tied together by the theme of office life. Junior Dominique Dickey was the executive producer, and sophomore Aparajita Kashyap was the stage manager for the show. 

Upcoming events in arts

The guilty pleasure in watching The Bachelor

It’s been just over a month since I’ve started following Peter Weber on the season 24 premiere of The Bachelor. There are two parts of that sentence that truly freak me out. First: that The Bachelor has had 24 seasons. Huge accomplishment for ABC, Instagram handles and the few couples that continued their love off-screen. Big loss for America, which treats this like a reigning cultural phenomenon.

Barnstormers bring a Chekhov classic to Hopkins

Over the weekend, the Barnstormers presented their intersession show, Uncle Vanya. The play was a humorous, yet melancholic exploration of death, family, societal expectations and personal ennui. 

Miss Americana dives into Taylor Swift’s inner life

Miss Americana, the documentary directed by Lana Wilson that debuted on Netflix after a run at Sundance, is less of a walk through Taylor Swift’s life, and more of a patchworked exploration of the star’s psyche from her point of view — and only hers. 

Gallery 1448 presents talks on nudity in art

Gallery 1448 on East Baltimore Street presented its storytelling event “Speaking of Art — Au Naturale” on Sunday, Feb. 9. In the span of an hour and a half, Baltimore artists gathered in this intimate gallery to share stories on the theme of the “Au Naturale.” 

Peabody Symphony plays Bartók and Shostakovich

Having always been dragged to classical music performances by my parents when I was young, my lingering impression of the music was that it was boring and too long. My attempts as a musician fell short as well; I used to play the piano, cello and guitar, but I haven’t touched any of those instruments in years. 

Duo Ingolfsson-Stoupel offers an intimate night of chamber music

Taking place in the Peabody Institute’s beautiful Griswold Hall, Judith Ingolfsson and Vladimir Stoupel, two artists in residence, performed a reinvigorating and challenging joint chamber program on Saturday evening. Named “Duo Ingolfsson-Stoupel,” their powerful collaboration allowed their perfect take on the works of Dubois, Ysaÿe and Franck to touch the hearts of the audience that night. 

New Brooklyn Nine-Nine season starts off strong

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (B99) has returned. For those who don’t know, B99 is arguably one of the funniest shows on television. I would watch it over The Office or anything else, really, and I’ve felt that way since I first sat down to watch the pilot episode at home with my mom way back in 2013. 

"Back to School" Playlist

Shakira and Jennifer Lopez claimed the spotlight at the Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is a prominent feature of American culture. Every year, millions of people tune in to watch the highly-anticipated big game in the company of their friends and family.  This year was no exception: Variety estimated that around 102 million people tuned in to the 2020 Super Bowl. However, what is striking about the Super Bowl as an event is that there are so many other aspects to it besides the actual football game that draw in viewers. One of these is the halftime show. 

My first time at the Red Room’s improvisation sessions

On Sunday night the Red Room hosted its monthly Volunteers’ Collective, where people from the community can bring their own instruments and engage in improvisation sessions with other musicians. 

The Good Place ends on a satisfying but flawed note

For the past four years or so, I’ve been a big fan of NBC’s The Good Place.  When I first sat down to watch the pilot with my mother in our den at home, I couldn’t help but feel like I was viewing something truly special. 

Dua Lipa’s new single and music video fall flat

You’ve probably heard of Dua Lipa, whether you’ve danced to her music or glossed over her name on Spotify’s top pop songs list. An English singer, Lipa has not only become a pop sensation at home but has also broken into American charts in recent years. 

DisneyPlus releases new Pixar animation series

For years, Disney’s animated shorts have always come to the rescue on free nights when I had nothing much to do. Unfortunately there are only so many times that I can rewatch Disney’s collection of animated shorts on Netflix and still tear up to The Little Match Girl or have my heart ache during Paperman (although I still do).