The Heights
B2
Coming to terms with the end
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Scene and Heard
BY: Carolina del Busto
Brennan Carley How do we really know when something has come to an end? There are the natural ends to things that have run their course, like “Gangnam Style,” whose surprisingly vivacious run on the Billboard charts has outlived nearly every expectation. Do you think any expert could have predicted that a K-pop star named PSY would infiltrate the American market with his self-effacing rap smash sung almost entirely in Korean? Alas, the sidestepping song has finally peaked in popularity following countless radio plays, Halloween costumes, and memes galore. In terms of pop culture, there are the manipulators high up who command our airwaves, deciding exactly what the American public will consume in the months to come. Song play and TV shows and movies are dictated, coaxed to life by bigwigs with monetary goals in mind, then quietly snuffed by the same men and women who devote themselves to starting and ending what we as a country take in every single day. Why else did Madonna’s “Give Me All Your Luvin’” get an overly aggressive number of spins in the first 24 hours of its release and then all but disappear from the radio days later? It’s less a natural end and more controlled, but an end we should all expect to know and understand after years of exposure to the process.There are, of course, those things that we know to have a short lifespan at their very incarnation. We go into movies like Remember Me knowing that the experience will be mercifully contained to a few hours, though the memories will live on in infamy. We listen to an album by Taylor Swift knowing that we’ll one day outgrow it, return to it, and outgrow it again. Concerts come and go, acts like Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Phantogram, and M.I.A. rolling into venues across the town and playing their short sets for audiences who remember them only through pictures on Facebook and Instagram, tweets, and reviews written for a college newspaper that would change a life. There are the memories of fleeting events that defined a life at their occurrences. Meals at my Beantown staples like the Regal Beagle, BBQ joint Sweet Cheeks near Fenway, Bon Chon over in Allston, Zaftig’s brunches on hazy Sunday mornings: all short, yes, but each one worth every penny. A two-day excursion to Maine, two years in a row, will always be coated with gold whenever I look back on them—full of hugging, nonstop dancing, swimming, soccer, and pancakes. Day trips to Cape Cod, weekends in New York City, summer nights overlooking the Hudson River, drinks at Mary Ann’s, all of it with other editors—they each went by infinitely faster than I would have ever imagined, and I would do anything to get each one back. Then there are those things that live on forever. A fellow editor recently suggested that at our spring alumni event we hire a DJ to play hits from our childhood that have stuck with us, songs like “Macarena” and “Mambo No. 5.” There are the timeless pop culture couples, in the deepest corners of our entertainmentobsessed hearts, that still yearn for each other even outside of the confines of their venues. Pam and Jim, Coach and Mrs. Coach, Jay-Z and Beyonce—they’re the stories and couples we invest our hopes and dreams in, knowing that they’ll pay off with timeless grace and reality. I firmly believe that every memory I made, every person I befriended, each Late Night mozzarella stick, 30-second Sexual White Chocolate dance party, slap of the printer, Team Tears powwows, Monday night Scene meetings paired with the usual Wednesday and Sunday evening production nights, will remain with me for the rest of my life. The things I learned from my time on The Heights— first as a wide-eyed sophomore staff writer, then as associate arts editor with two of the most inspiring people I’ve had the pleasure to know, and finally capped off with my victory lap as arts editor alongside two of my best friends—are the things that never come to an end, no matter the circumstances at hand. Readers, friends, family, please know how grateful I am to have both written this column and participated in this incredible newspaper for the past three years. Although this is my last column as editor, I hope to keep the things you have taught me for years to come. How do we really know when something has come to an end? Sometimes, it just doesn’t.
Brennan Carley is the Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.
1. SUN SETS ON ‘TWILIGHT’
2. MADONNA’S FANNY
Madonna is at it again! It seems that the material girl just can’t keep her clothes on lately—but this time, it’s for a good cause. During her Monday night concert in New York City, she told the crowd that she will show her naked derriere in order to “raise some cash” for Hurricane Sandy victims. Before her concert, Madonna visited Rockaways in Queens to lend her support to the victims of Sandy.
On Monday, the black carpet of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 premiere in Los Angeles, Calif. was streamed live on the web. The night was not only monumental because it was the premiere of the last film in the saga, but also because stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson made their first public appearance together since their infamous breakup and cheating scandal. Onlookers reported that Stewart was being affectionate with Pattinson in the few moments they were together. Could this mean all is forgiven, or was it just good publicity?
4. ‘NASHVILLE’ GOES BIG Premiering mid-October for the fall television season, Nashville was well received by critics and viewers alike. Now, ABC has announced that it too likes the show well enough to pick it up for a full season. The show has been given the back-nine order from the studio, bringing the total number of episodes for its first season up to about 17. Nashville stars Connie Britton (American Horror Story) and Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) as country-singing rivals in Nashville, Tenn.
3. SEAN PENN, ACTION STAR
5. VICTORIA’S SECRET BLUNDER
Sean Penn is your modern day method actor. He can play almost any role, and he has. Now, he can (almost) add action star to his resume. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Penn is currently in negotiations with Silver Pictures to star in an action movie called Prone Gunman. The film will be based on a novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette, and the story will “center on an international operative … betrayed by the organization he works for and must go on the run.” Sounds very similar to the Jason Bourne stories, but with a French twist.
Victoria’s Secret has made headlines before about their lingerie being viewed as insensitive or insulting to minority groups. While filming their annual fashion show, model Karlie Kloss walked down the runway in a Native American headdress and matching animal print lingerie. Among the backlash from Native American groups and bloggers, one wrote that it was particularly offensive to put a war bonnet on a white female, because they are worn by men. Victoria’s Secret and Kloss have both issued apologies, and the outfit will be edited out of the Dec. 4 broadcast.
wiley’s follies
@mattgoldich (matt goldich, Comedian)
photo courtesy of google images
Despite it’s lack of artistic merit, PSY’s import hit dance single “Gangnam Style” reigns supreme in a lackluster year for music.
A look back at this year’s processed musical productions John Wiley To the freshman on Newton campus, the weekend is a disease, symptoms including, but certainly not limited to, existential nausea, social fatigue, and a chronic, hopeless wandering about the Mods. Granted, during the week he enjoys full inclusion in collegiate life, but come Friday night, he’s inflicted with leprosy—cast out of the society that once nurtured and embraced him. There is hope, however. For he knows that his redeemer lives, and in his flesh he shall taste Late Night, in all its exorbitance and grease, at the end of an otherwise unsubstantial evening. In the year 2012, the music connoisseur suffers a similar ethical dilemma. All too often I find myself subjected to the tyranny of Carly Rae Jepsen and Ke$ha, but it’s important to note, just as is the case with Late Night, the over-processed goods these artists are churning are a necessary evil when no better options are offered. Few moments are more sorry than my Friday night mozzarella stick vigils at Corcoran Commons, but as I baptize the deep-fried death sticks in marinara sauce, I note it as a brief moment of fulfillment, perhaps even salvation. While I have no plans to spend the entirety of my college life in communion with the godless church of Late Night, there’s a certain magic to it all. It brings the downtrodden
together, and when better alternatives do arise, Late Night is still there when I need it. Under this same logic, I find nothing reprehensible about the presence of the imported “Gangnam Style” in my iTunes library. It is important, though, for us to never allow South Korean pop star PSY to replace the more musically upright artists at our disposal. The year of 2012 has simply been a dismal year for music—even Kanye West disappointed us with Cruel Summer, while many of the Adeles and Bon Ivers of the industry simply haven’t come out with anything. Likewise, Late Night does not tackle all the major food groups, nor should it be regarded as the best party on campus. Please, remain faithful to the three major meals. Contrary to common belief, Late Night is not a dinner substitute. But hey, if the fish don’t seem to be biting your line and the Mods are cruel to you, why not dive into a F’real milkshake (even if it is only questionably milk-based)? Moving past 2012, I pray that the music industry recovers from its injuries to the point where it no longer needs a trash music crutch to support itself. However enjoyable the Gangnam Style “invisible horse dance” can be at parties, I always find myself waking up the next morning recognizing that it is by no means an appropriate anthem for our generation. Pop music seems to be caught up in just as much uncertainty as the economy, and it has no idea what to
do with itself. The wondrous crop of rollicking musical anomalies, devoid of technical merit, has flourished in an especially dry year in music. Let us hope artists recognize that it never should become a staple crop. There has never been an instance when, the day after a hardy Late Night meal, I wake up thinking, “Wow, that was a great decision.” Indeed, deepfried delicacy is synonymous with regret. The next day, for me there always is a penance of a sort, whether it be a visit to the Plex or a 10-mile run. As Alfred so eloquently posed in Batman Begins, “Why do we fall, sir? So we might learn to pick ourselves up.” Such is the nature of man—that is to say, only through something bad can we fall upon a greater good. As for that pesky world of music, I should hope Kanye West is out there somehow, somewhere, weeping as he watches Cruel Summer continually thrust downward in the charts by One Direction’s Take Me Home and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Pt. 2 Soundtrack. Moving forward, I hope he finds friends, like Justin Vernon and Jay-Z, pulls them from their respective homes, and rushes them into the studio, beginning the long process of musical dialysis that the year 2013 needs to be. But as for the next month and a half, I guiltily declare, oppa gangnam style.
John Wiley is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.
“texas wants to secede from the u.s. so rick perry can legally buy massive amounts of back pills there without a pRescription” @mikedruckler (mike druckler, comedian)
“facebook should have a button called ‘wanted to like, but also didn’t want to reward you for acting like the first person to have a baby’” @bjnovak (bj novak, Actor, ‘the office’)
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