On September 23rd, Zankel Music Center launched listeners into a captivating cultural experience with The Tuvergan Band; a Mongolian folk group complete with an array of beautifully unique instruments and vocals. The Chicago-based band debuted in 2020 and has since toured countless venues including performing at The Chicago World Music Festival, The Chicago Cultural Center, and of course, our very own music center. Students and faculty were lucky enough to attend the performance free of charge, relax into a wonderful musical experience and gain new insight into music from other cultures. Music plays an integral part in Mongolian culture and the performance was a compelling and unforgettable experience. The folk band’s lead singer Tamir Hargana is also using this week to visit student’s classes, asking music students around campus to indulge in exciting new sounds and engage in conversation with new faces. He gave demonstrations and explanations of the vocal styles and instruments, led throat-singing workshops, and even let the students ask him questions and prompt discussion about the music.
Read moreannual arts quad party celebrates skidmore’s vibrant art scene
Formed five years ago, the Arts Quad Party was initially intended to incentivize students “who had never set foot in the building” to come check out the JKB, and it has since evolved into a social event which helps members of the Skidmore community destress, socialize and get in touch creatively before beginning the academic year.
Read moreBottoms: A Box-Office Hit
This year has seen an uptick in mainstream LGBTQIA+ films. The summer began with a second season of Good Omens, a mythical love story. Next, season two of Netflix’s Heartstopper, based on a series of young adult graphic novels, premiered on August 3rd. Days later, Prime Video released Red, White & Royal Blue based on a book in which the first son of the United States and a young British prince fall in love. All of these pieces of media have one thing in common — they feature men. It’s about time that queer people have a film with queer women, and director Emma Seligman (known for her 2020 film Shiva Baby) delivers with her new comedic film Bottoms. Bottoms is a film that finally focuses on queer women instead of the endless (albeit important) films featuring queer men.
Read moreROOM•MATE Living with Tang Art
Photo Credits: Ana Sherwood ‘22, Morgan Sickles ‘23, Stella Piasecki ‘23, and Matt Grega ‘23 at home with Max Bill’s Geometrical Construction 1, 1970, color lithograph, Tang Teaching Museum Collection, gift of the Roberts Cugno and Logan, Media Gallery.
On September 9, 100 works from the Tang Teaching Museum’s collection were loaned to Skidmore students on a first come, first served basis as part of the Tang’s annual art loan program known as “ROOM•MATE.” It is tradition for many students to camp overnight in front of the Tang in order to get a good spot in line, much like at any Taylor Swift or Harry Styles concert, thus starting a line outside the Tang on Friday afternoon, long before the museum doors opened on Sunday morning. These students carried tents, snacks, blankets, and more to make the wait comfortable and bide their time throughout the night.
Read moreFilm Review : New Frontiers and Old Farces in “Asteroid City”
Until now, Anderson has been a master of reinvention. The director has walked, gracefully, the narrow line between consistent and repetitive. But “Asteroid City” is so self-referencing that it ceases to be captivating or clever, and misses the mark of annoyingly-but-tolerably-cocky. Instead, the film feels altogether redundant.
Read moreA Celebration of Movement and Growth for Dance Seniors
Skidmore College senior dance majors have just come off of an amazing weekend filled with joy, sweat, and tears. The annual Senior Coda class, taught by Associate Chair of the dance department Jason Ohlberg, has come to a head with the final showing for the dancers before their graduation. This celebration included seven pieces in a variety of styles and showed a range of different talents from choreographers, lighting designers, and dancers.
Read moreShadow and Bone Season 2: It Doesn’t Treat the Books as Bible, But It’ll Do
Released on March 16, 2023 on Netflix, Shadow and Bone has eight episodes each ranging from 56 to 64 minutes. It’s been a huge hit so far - the show currently ranks #1 on Netflix’s Top 10 Shows in the U.S. and boasts an 86 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Due to the show’s popularity, showrunner Eric Heisserer “is ready to launch [Six of Crows] as its own story,” according to an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
Read moreSkidmore Group To Perform Sondheim Revue: A Journey Through His Remarkable Career
On Sunday, March 5, Skidmore’s Musical Theater- Opera Workshop will be performing a Stephen Sondheim revue titled You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow. This powerful medley honors the career of the late composer and Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim, showcasing some of his adored classics as well as his more obscure masterpieces.
Read moreThe Banshees of Inisherin: Martin McDonagh’s Mournful Ode to Irish Folklore
Well-established as one of the most exceptional writer-directors in modern cinema, Martin McDonagh tackles daunting existential questions with unmatched grace. McDonagh’s films pair slick comedic wit with a kind of philosophical weight, and one quality never obscures the other; they seem to feed off of one another, only illuminating the absurdity of our existence. These grave yet laughable bits of human experience are as potent as ever in McDonagh’s newest (and most unmistakably Irish) film, The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), which reunites Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson from their unforgettable In Bruges (2008) performance.
Read moreFilm Review: "The Menu" Bites Off More Than It Can Chew
The Menu, directed by Mark Mylod, is poised to be a cinematic feast. Its narrative is ambitious, its cast is impressive, and its cinematography is simultaneously delicate and striking. Ultimately, however, the film tides viewers over more than it fills them up. Though gripping and provocative, a few too many questions remain unanswered when the credits roll.
Read moreWednesday: Netflix’s New Show Gives Viewers a Thrill
Wednesday follows teenage Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) who has recently been expelled from her high school for playing a lethal prank on her classmates. Believing she would feel more at home in a school for Outcasts, her parents enroll her at Nevermore Academy. During her time there, she must figure out how to navigate her growing psychic ability, solve a series of murders, and reveal a secret that her parents have been concealing from her for years.
Read moreBlame It On The Planets: What’s The Word on Mercury Retrograde?
The phrase “Mercury Retrograde” is frequently tossed around in pop culture–such as on TikTok and other social media platforms– but what does it mean and why do tarot-reading-yerba-mate-crystal-girls start freaking out every time it happens?
Read more“The Internet is F***** Up”: A Conversation with Skidmore Alumna Grace Kuhlenschmidt
Earlier in November, I sat down with Grace Kuhlenschmidt, a 2017 graduate of Skidmore with a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology and one of the TikTok creators at the front of this phenomenon. Kuhlenschmidt, who is currently living in Brooklyn, New York, has accrued 338,000 followers on TikTok and nearly 170,000 on Twitter.
Read moreMidnights: Swiftly Taking Over the World
Midnights tells "the stories of 13 sleepless nights" that occurred throughout Swift's life. The album was released at midnight on October 21. Midnights gracefully speaks on themes of love, loss, anxiety and self-image, taking the listener through nights of insomnia-fueled anxieties that keep Swift awake. These themes are evident on tracks such as “Labyrinth” where Swift sings, “It only feels this raw right now / Lost in the labyrinth of my mind” and “Anti-Hero,” with the line, “I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror.”
Read moreSilent Sky Review
Dim lights rise in the Black Box Theater, furnished with two wooden platforms, an upright piano, and a short, circular stage painted with a map of the night sky. The audience surrounds the thrust stage on three sides. A woman in Edwardian clothing with an old-fashioned hearing aid around her neck enters the stage and stands on the star chart, gazing upwards.
Read morePhantom of the Opera Coming Off-Broadway
In the past three years, theater fans have noticed a rapid depletion of Broadway musicals. Dear Evan Hansen, Beetlejuice, Come From Away, and now, the longest running show in Broadway’s history, Phantom of the Opera. What exactly is going on that is causing so many seemingly loved shows to shut their doors?
Read moreDisney Plus’s New Releases: What to Watch This Fall
It’s fall, which means it’s time to bundle up in your sweater, drink some warm apple cider and put a movie on while the wind swirls leaves outside your window. But what to watch? Not to worry - these new releases are the perfect way to enhance your lazy fall day.
Read moreInside Skidmore’s Black Box Double Feature: An Interview with Tatsu Rivera and Gemma Siegler
Earlier this semester, Skidmore’s Theater Department presented a unique double-feature of two student shows: The Chaparral written and directed by Tatsu Rivera (‘22), as well as Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel’s And Baby Makes Seven directed by Gemma Siegler (‘22). The shows were performed in Skidmore’s Blackbox theater, which is a small, versatile performance space that can be easily transformed into different sets. After attending the shows on the opening night, March 4th, 2022, I had the privilege of interviewing both Rivera and Siegler to gain insight into the creative processes behind the productions.
Read moreFilm Review: "The Batman" Is In the Eye of the Beholder
At the center of any superhero story is the tension between good and evil. The latest Batman film, inexplicably qualified as The Batman, strategically blurs those concepts, guiding audiences to consider the possibility that our hero and his enemy may not be so different after all. The Batman itself is about sight — what one can or cannot see, what one chooses to see or not see. Viewing the film follows a similar line of logic: either you choose to overlook its flaws, or they are glaringly obvious.
Read moreAn Interview with Erica Smith on Ujima’s Annual Fashion Show: Infiltrate
On April 16th, 2022, the Skidmore Club Ujima hosted its annual fashion show titled Infiltrate, which paid homage to the ballroom scene—a social and cultural movement spearheaded by queer brown and Black individuals. In alignment with Ujima’s mission to “bring awareness of African, African-American, and Caribbean cultures to Skidmore campus,” the show featured student models walking in three different “scenes” to celebrate the breadth and diversity of Black culture.
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