November 20, 2024 - Arts & Life Guide

The University of Maryland’s Independent Student Newspaper

THE DIAMONDBACK

Arts & Life Guide 2024

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Table of contents

CONTENTS 3 entertainment access guide

6 cultoure magazine

4 Review compilation

7 Stamp gallery

5 shakespeare revamp Founded 1910, independent since 1971.

APURVA MAHAJAN

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AN exhibit in Stamp Student Union’s Gallery on Sept. 20, 2024. (Tolu Talabi/The Diamondback)

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FRONT COVER PHOTO BY: Taneen Momeni

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entertainment access guide

How UMD students can find entertainment for free or reduced prices with just a click

By Cameron Lee I Diversions reporter

Frustrated by rising prices of streaming service subscriptions? This guide is for you.

Prices are rising everywhere — at the grocery store, at the doctor and at the gas station. The streaming services where we keep our favorite movies, shows, songs and podcasts are no exception. Netflix faced its last price hike in 2022 and is expected to raise prices again in 2025, while Spotify just increased the price of its Premium for United States customers in July.

These profit-boosting measures affect binge watchers and playlist shufflers everywhere, including students at the University of Maryland. Thankfully, many of your favorite movies, shows and albums can be found for free or discounted prices with just a few clicks.

Here’s how:

TV and movie streaming Many streaming services are free for anyone, regardless of student status. The surprisingly diverse content offered on Tubi makes it the best of the bunch, featuring fan favorite movies such as Knives Out, Coraline and Licorice Pizza, and binge worthy shows including Hell’s Kitchen, Gossip Girl, Columbo, and Death Note with no subscription required.

Tubi even has a live TV option, with sports, news and many classic shows. I found Tubi to be particularly helpful in October during my spooky movie marathon — many hard-to-find cult classics are streaming there for no cost.

Another free service is Pluto TV,which also has a live TV option. Plex and Xumo are also worth checking out. Through the university’s library system, you also have free access to Kanopy, which offers a vast assortment of A24 films, documentaries and indie classics.

Students can use their enrollment status at this university to score student discounts on many big names streaming services. With a student discount, Hulu with ads is $1.99 a month, Amazon Prime, which includes other benefits such free two-day shipping on Amazon orders, is $7.49 a month after a six-month free trial and Paramount+ Essential is $5.99 a month.

Xfinity on Campus is the university’s free cable service offered to on-campus students, and allows students to access Max for free.

music streaming The free option for music listening is YouTube Music, can only be used with an internet or cellular connection. Using your student status at this university gives access to the student plan of YouTube Music Premium, which allows offline streaming and unlimited playing for $5.49 a month after a one-month free trial.

The major music services, Apple Music and Spotify Premium, also offer student plans, both at $5.99 a month after a one-month free trial. The Spotify Premium student plan includes Hulu with ads, while Apple Music includes access to Apple TV+.

The Amazon Prime student plan, priced at $7.49 a month after a six month free trial, features Amazon Music for no additional cost. Songs added to the All-Access Playlist can be played with just a click, online or offline and no skip limits. Amazon Music Unlimited, an upgrade from Amazon Music that allows ad-free listening, is $9.99 a month for Prime members after a one-month free trial.

e-book access Project Gutenberg is the oldest digital library on the internet and provides access to 70,000 free e-books, mostly classics like Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice and Moby Dick that are in the public domain.

If you are a Kindle user and have a library card, you can use the service Libby to borrow e-books or audiobooks and read them on your device or in the Libby app.

Review compilation

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What The Diamondback thinks of the season’s biggest music, movies and shows “Charli xcx’s Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat achieves everything a remix album should and more, excelling as a followup to the artist’s monumental dance record. [...] The companion album succeeds by not only deconstructing the album’s original hits, but juxtaposing xcx’s club landscape to a seemingly opposing genre to create a new meaning to the track altogether.”

“Scratchy whispers stain the opening track of Tyler, The Creator’s Chromakopia. The album title is chanted throughout the first minute, layered over a beat stomping with intensity and the unmistakable grainy edge of Tyler’s voice. [...] The raw emotion, disguised by his confident voice, is confusing and beautiful.”

— Jade Tran on Chromakopia (Assets via Spotify)

— Cameron Lee on Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat (Assets via Spotify) “Schaeffer’s deft scripts allow for a constant interplay of comedy with horror-infused drama, the perfect seasonal concoction. [...] Locke, Hahn, Plaza and the rest authentically blend LGBTQ+ identities into Marvel’s greatest televised achievement yet. Agatha All Along is a triumph for the studio, both a long-awaited landmark and a step in the right direction for Marvel television.”

— Adam Hudacek on Agatha All Along (Screenshot

via YouTube)

“Grotesquerie’s mundane Midwestern-gothic aesthetic successfully lulls the viewer into a sense of simultaneous familiarity and unease. [...] Nash’s delicate performance breathes a unique life into the detective archetype by showcasing a woman struggling for her husband’s support while grappling with the revelation of his infidelity.”

— Sofia Appolonio on Grotesquerie (Screenshot via YouTube) “Wolfs quickly loses its way after a strong start, opting to rely on the interplay between two of the most famous middle-aged men on the planet, rather than sticking to a cohesive plot. It is a tired playbook that entertains, but does not offer much else. [...] The film misses out on a major opportunity to place Pitt and Clooney’s chemistry alongside interesting subtext.”

— Matt Kauffman on Wolfs (Screenshot via YouTube)

“The characters have no substance, or at least none that feels justly explored.

Emotional moments come sandwiched between quickwitted jokes and slapstick comedy, so the audience lacks time to understand the characters’ dimensions. These small breaks in the plot appear inauthentic and cliché, a sort of overdone ‘tortured artist’ trope.”

— Maxine Poe-Jensen on Saturday Night Live (Screenshot via YouTube)

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Shakespeare Revamp

UMD club performs revamped Shakespearean scenes

By Maxine Poe-Jensen I Diversions reporter

AIt wasn’t a typical Sunday night in the Jimenez Room. The actors of the Maryland Shakespeare Players weren’t in their usual costumes, their props were minimal and there wasn’t an Elizabethan ruff in sight.

The club presented their Shakespearean revue in Stamp Student Union, featuring a variety of scenes from multiple productions, from the serious Julius Caesar to the farcical The Merry Wives of Windsor. Each scene offered quick glimpses into more elaborate plays, resulting in a kind of Shakespearean smorgasbord with something for everyone.

Sophomore marketing and supply chain management major Katie Gough delivered a stunning performance of Lady Macbeth — capturing the character’s desperation, frustration and ambition.

“The themes [of Shakespeare] are immemorial.

I think anything that has to do with betrayal, love, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows … It feels almost ‘high school,’” club member

Maryland Shakespeare PlayerS members perform a mythical interpretation of Romeo and Juliet in the Clarice Smith Performing Art Center’s Cafritz Theater on April 16, 2023. (Fiona Roy/The Diamond-

back)

James Paquette, a junior Philosophy, politics, and economics major, said.

The revue showcased a cool, laid-back version of The Bard’s works. Each bite-sized scene was easily digestible and the audience let out a sigh of relief when the show started.

But the brevity of the skits presented challenges for the actors. Paquette said that the revue demanded a quick turn-around for the performance.

“We started rehearsal maybe two and a half, three weeks ago … and memorizing the text is always the hardest part,” Paquette said.

In addition to the vignettes, the performance included Shakespeare Jeopardy, which quizzed audience members on Shakespeare trivia, and a Mad Libs skit where audience members shouted out words to be substituted into a dramatic scene.

Silmarien Grinath, a student director for the Maryland Shakespeare Players, tackled the language barrier of Shakespearean English head-on.

“The language barrier can be tricky,” Grinath

said. “We try not to move too fast. We use body language to show what’s happening in the characters’ minds.”

The club is a tight-knit group complete with pre-show rituals and inside jokes. Even though plays like Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Much Ado About Nothing were written centuries ago, the club members lovingly revive them with each show that they produce.

The company is known for putting unique spins on classic plays. Last semester, they performed Julius Caesar but added a pirate aspect to the production, setting it in the Caribbean instead of the original ancient Rome. Their upcoming production, The Tempest, is set on a rocky Irish coast instead of the traditional tropical island.

Grinath, who will direct The Tempest, said she’s been putting in grueling hours of rehearsal, but the community keeps them going.

“It’s really kind of like a second home at this point,” Grinath said.

Cultoure Magazine

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Cultoure Magazine’s first showcase highlights local musicians

By Cameron Lee I Diversions reporter As clips of Tyler, the Creator and Kendrick Lamar adhering to the denim dress code of the event — Ervin attendees danced to the music as the bright neon — musical icons from their respective hip-hop en- described his music as “the soundtrack to growing lights flashed across the room, while artists scheduled claves — flashed on the projector screen, local artists out of adolescence.” He said he decided to perform next to perform mingled among the crowd. took the stage to loud applause, eager to perform at the event to get more exposure and be surrounded The first to take the stage was local artist Girly!, their latest songs. by other musicians. who performed three songs, encouraging the crowd to Cultoure Magazine, a student-led publication at “They have a really good community of artists,” join in. Next was Mr Clover, whose set was marked by the University of Maryland that focuses on pushing Ervin said. “There’s a lot of creatives around who, like impassioned, rapid-fire delivery and featured “On My the boundaries of modern fashion, held Way,” which was put out on Monday, its first concert, Cultoure Unplugged, at and an unreleased song.

Stamp Student Union on Oct. 12.

R&B singer Matt Ochay took the The welcoming atmosphere, coupled stage with five-piece band Fontana, with the appreciation and respect shown whose rhythmic backing paired well between performing artists, made it clear with Ochay’s soulful vocals. The collaboration and community engagement closing song broke down into jazz are key for the organization — something fusion accompanied by otherworldly its creators have been striving for from guitar solos. the beginning.

Another R&B singer, Chemx, per“The main purpose of the magazine formed buttery smooth vocals with is to really highlight the intersection of Fontana. Malik Da Prince, one of art, music, fashion, culture,” said junior the rappers who took the stage next, mathematics major Gabrielle Felix, the showed off humorous, well-writpublication’s president and founder. ten lyrics, while Damn Risky conThe magazine’s first event last spring, a cluded the night with a high-energy take on New York Fashion Week, was more performance. style oriented, while Cultoure Unplugged The showcase’s emcee, Leen marked a new beginning for the publicaOsman, a junior criminology and tion as it expanded into other artforms, criminal justice major and event Felix said. organizer at Cultoure Magazine, A BAND PLAYS the Cultoure Unplugged event at Stamp Student Union on Oct. 12, 2024. (Cameron Lee/The Diamondback) The night began with a DJ set by Prince enjoyed how the night unfolded, esGeorge’s County producer Chaseonaux, pecially after several obstacles and who provided sounds and production for many artists me, just want to show what they can do to as many only two weeks of planning time. who performed. Junior technology and information people as possible.”

“On the last week, four of our artists dropped, but design major Jayden Ervin, who performed as Mr The party-like atmosphere was hard to ignore as I clutched up and contacted some artists,” Osman Clover, was one of the headliners.

Chaseonaux spun tracks, mixing in erratic percus- said. “To me, it was a success.”

Dressed head to toe in a denim shirt and jeans — sion arrangements and smooth transitions. Some

Cultoure Magazine copies are laid out on a bench at the Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Building on April 12, 2024. (Tolu Talabi/The Diamondback)

President and Co-Vice President of Cultoure Magazine read their magazine at the Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Building on April 12, 2024. (Tolu Talabi/The Diamondback)

A Performer for En’rage models at the Cultoure Magazine debut poses for a picture on April 12, 2024. (Tolu Talabi/The Diamondback)

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Stamp Gallery

‘We Live in the Sky’

Stamp Gallery exhibit finds meaning in movement

By Joe Wicke I Diversions reporter The Stamp Gallery’s latest exhibit, “We Live in the Sky: Home, Displacement, Identity,” was unveiled Oct. 16 and incorporates themes surrounding moving and belonging into multimedia artwork.

The exhibit is an eclectic blend of the works of Mami Takahashi and Tori Ellison — a former guest lecturer at this university in two-dimensional design fundamentals.

In combining traditional mediums like painting with video, audio and poetry, Takahashi and Ellison visualized their experiences of moving away from home.

Both nationally recognized artists, Ellison largely specializes in sculpting, dress design and theatrics, while Takahashi’s large-scale works utilize photography, performance and street art.

In Ellison’s centerpiece, “Sky Writing” — which she collaborated on with fine arts graduate student Varvara Tokareva — six paper panels drape from the ceiling. They display illustrations of swifts — a species of birds — as well as writing excerpts from Tokareva, anonymous students and community members and poet Pablo Neruda.

“My home is the only place where I can be myself,” one panel said in Japanese. “It’s irreplaceable, where I can return to feel like I’m whole, not just a part of

myself.”

Ellison said that she chose the swift due to its ever-moving lifestyle, as the species spends almost its entire life in the sky. She paralleled this to the moving she’s done in her own life.

Takahashi integrates her experiences as an immigrant from Tokyo into her work, blending traditional Japanese art methods with contemporary methods.

The “Title Will Be Here” series, for example, transcribes modernized haikus onto oxidized silver leaf — a traditional Japanese art style.

“It’s kind of like negotiation for my ethnicity, where tradition is strong but we are living contemporary,” Takahashi said.

Another piece, titled “Audio Journal,” is a sound collage that uses interviews from immigrant families in College Park and Austin, Texas about their new lives in the United States. Takahashi said she drew inspiration for the piece from the barrier many immigrants face due to their strong accents.

Viewers are encouraged to stand in the middle of a circle on the floor, where cluttered voices will become more intimate.

The exhibit also features two looping videos of Takahashi walling herself off from the audience. She writes a stream of consciousness across the screen in

“Writing Myself” and constricts herself in a weave of black yarn in “Cage Mentality.”

Takahashi said that people would often stare at her when she spoke in public due to her strong accent,

“

I hope that it has some essential meaning for them that’s personal.

That’s when I feel like I’ve really connected with my work.

”

which inspired the two videos. “[It’s] a metaphor for creating my cage,” she said.

“I can’t go out, but also people cannot come to me.”

Ellison touched on identity further in her pieces “Shell” and “Burnt Dress.” Both designed dresses, she wanted them to act as surrogates to the viewers’ bodies to reflect how people present themselves.

“Burnt Dress” represents her disillusion with this perception, showcasing charred remains with the outline of a dress.

Gregory Austin, a junior geographical sciences major, was immediately drawn in by the darkness of the piece, appreciating the blend of charcoal and acrylic.

Dress designs are a larger motif in her body of work. Her previous work, “Self-Evident,” explores the family tree of Sally Hemmings, a woman who was enslaved and sexually abused by former president Thomas Jefferson. The piece confronts identity and self-expression intersected with themes of freedom.

Ellison said that she wants viewers of “We Live in the Sky” to draw connections to their own life experiences.

“I hope that it has some essential meaning for them that’s personal,” she said. “That’s when I feel like I’ve really connected with my work.”

Art hangs on STAMP Student Union Gallery’s wall for the “We Live in the Sky: Home, Displacement, Identity” exhibit on Oct. 16, 2024. (Joe Wicke/The Diamondback)

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