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21 2011
blue moon celebrates release with Tallest Man on Earth by KATE ROBINETTE Staff Reporter
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hitman’s annual literary arts magazine, blue moon, teams up with KWCW for its release party on Friday, April 22, bringing in folk artist The Tallest Man on Earth to play for the event. blue moon, in its 24th year
under that name, is an award-winning annual literary magazine. “Each spring we have a release party … This year I approached Matt [Bachmann, General Manager of KWCW] early on in the year to see if [KWCW] w o u l d be in-
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terested in co-sponsoring the event with us so we could get a good band and have a joint party,” said senior Lara Mehling, editor of blue moon. They then brainstormed artists to bring in, and approached The Tallest Man on Earth to play for the release. “It worked out well, of the bands we considered, Tallest Man is one of the favorites on campus; people are really excited about him coming,” said Bachmann. “He’s also going to be a great artist for this event particularly because his music can be both really sort of melodious and low-key and can be also really kind of energetic and fun,” Mehling said. Taking place in Reid basement, The Mumlers will open at 9 p.m. and Tallest Man will begin at 10 p.m. As of April 14, the Facebook page for the event has 317 confirmed attendees, but Mehling and Bachmann chose the smallish coffeehouse because it seemed more appropriate for this event, for these artists particularly. “Part of the advantage of putting it in the coffeehouse is that it’s more feasible than a big dance floor and more appropriate in keeping the focus on blue moon’s release,” said Bachmann.
Though the crowd size is a concern, since all-campus and coffeehouse events are more difficult to regulate, Bachmann and Mehling have prepared for the crowd. “I’m not too worried about it,” said Bachmann, “It could be a problem, but it’s almost a good thing … The thing I was most worried about is the speakers not being loud enough, but we’re getting bigger speakers.” Bachmann and Mehling also cite greater publicity as part of the reason for the substantial interest and excitement that students are showing. “People talk more about [Tallest Man] than they [have for previous artists that have come to campus]. He’s just the boss,” said Bachmann. “We put out the word early enough or something, people are getting really excited, the rumors have been spreading.” blue moon and KWCW hope students take advantage of the release party in celebrating the confluence of literature, art and music that blue moon and this event hope to represent. “We do publish a magazine for every student, although they’ll be available afterward and we’ll be tabling them in Reid. I just hope a lot of people come out to get their magazines and cake and to see Tallest Man,” said Mehling.
SPOTLIGHT ON ART
Student conductor brings 1876 to life by TANEEKA HANSEN Staff Reporter
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n Tuesday, April 26 the music department will host the final performance of the Divertimento Chamber Orchestra with senior conductor Jackson Maberry before he heads off to Cambridge University for a masters in choral conducting. Maberry is a senior music major who began conducting the Divertimento ensemble first semester of his junior year. One of the pieces which will be performed is his thesis, an 1876 overture by Elfrida Andree, which Maberry is turning into a modern performance edition score. The other pieces include a choral requiem by Whitman composer Emily Allen and two violin concertos. “This is my first semester doing [work with soloists],” said Maberry of the concertos. “It’s a unique challenge to do a concerto, or part of a concerto, because all of a sudden you don’t have sole interpretive authority, you’re sharing interpretive authority with the soloist.” Josh Melander, the first-year violin soloist in for the ensemble’s performance of Beethoven’s
violin concerto in D major, also noted the difficulty of joining soloist with orchestra. “Usually in putting together a soloist and an orchestra, most of the rehearsal time is spent … making sure that the soloist and the orchestra are on the same page,” said Melander. “And, so far I think Jackson has done a great job accommodating all of the things that I’ve decided to do with it.” It is not a simple piece to interpret. “The notes are ... not technically difficult, but the more that I worked on it the more I realized that there are just so many possibilities in how to execute the pieces and what kind of musical picture I want to paint with it,” said Maberry. Senior vocalist McKenna Milici, who will also perform at the concert, has worked with Maberry several times during his conducting career. “Jackson started out just learning it, and really turned into quite a competent conductor. It’s really cool to get to see his journey as an artist,” said Milici. For Maberry, that learning process is a large part of what has made working with
Divertimento so fulfilling. “With each passing [Divertimento] concert that I have done, I have seen, both in the ensemble and in myself, mostly in myself, great improvement,” said Maberry. “The orchestra’s always been fantastic, but I don’t think I would have ever learned as much about conducting if it weren’t for working with these players.” While a choral conducting major he will pursue is a departure from his primarily orchestral repertoire, Millici has great faith in his abilities. “We’re all just super thrilled for him,” said Milici. “He’s got the perfect combination of good conducting technique and sheer charisma; that is pretty much the two things you need to be a conductor.” Wherever he goes from here, it is safe to say that Maberry will take his time with Divertimento with him. “The entire experience of working with this orchestra has just been one big best moment of my life,” said Maberry. “Every second of it is magical.” The concert will take place on Tuesday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m. in Chism Hall.
Diverse artistic mediums on display at thesis exhibit Increase in studio art majors and thesis projects linked to recent faculty expansion from ART THESES,
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The exhibition also serves to include the public in the art process, serving as many students’ first experience with professional displays of their art. “Ideally, the senior thesis exhibition is a means of opening a dialogue with the rest of the campus, a way to shake off the insularity,” said contributing senior studio art major Noah Greene. In addition, students receive the benefit of advice from an experienced professional throughout the process of putting together their piece for the exhibition. Bonnie LaingMalcolmson, the curator for the Portland Art Museum, is this year’s resident expert and guest lecturer at the opening. “[Working with a professional] is always a re-
Senior Teresa Hughes’ installation hangs in the Sheehan Gallery. Hughes is one of 17 art majors with projects on display at the Studio Art Thesis Exhibition. PHOTO BY BOWMAN
ally valuable and rewarding experience,” said Kiefel. The event will begin with the lecture at 5:30 p.m. in the Sheehan Gallery and will move to the Fouts Critique Space at 7:30
p.m. to allow the students, family members and other members of the community in attendance to view the rest of the theses. The works will be on display from April 22 to May 21.
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PIO PICKS Each Thursday, The Pioneer highlights several events happening on campus or in Walla Walla during the weekend. Here are this week’s picks: Dabbles in Bloom Concert WEB presents a music extravaganza featuring Dabbles in Bloom alongside Whitman’s Slam Poetry Team Almighty Ink and The Turkish Royals. As part of their summer West Coast tour fundraiser, Dabbles in Bloom will accept donations at the concert. Thursday, April 21, 9 p.m. Reid Ballroom. Whitman Orchestra & Chamber Singers Spring Concert The music department presents the spring concert for the Whitman Orchestra and Chamber Singers. The Orchestra will perform Prokofiev’s “Classical” symphony and Finzi’s “Eclogue,” and Chamber Singers will perform, among other pieces, Melissa Dunphy’s “What Do You Think I Fought For at Omaha Beach?” This song’s text derives from the 2009 testimony of WWII veteran Philip Spooner, who spoke out in support of marriage equality. Saturday, April 23, 7:30 p.m. Chism Recital Hall. A Night in Argentina Mecca, La Casa and ASWC invite students interested in learning about and celebrating Argentina to swing by La Casa for tango lessons, dulce de lechebased alfajores and more. Thursday, April 21, 7 p.m. 412 Boyer.
ILLUSTRATION BY JOHNSON
Board game-based movies reveal business side of art by WILLIAM WITWER Staff Reporter
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emember that staple of childhood, the Magic 8-Ball whence all decisions flowed? Well, they’re making a movie. Not a documentary -- (What the hell would that entail?) -- but a full-blown movie, rumored to come out summer 2012. I think the only valid response to this troubling news is, “Wait. What?” That’s right folks, “Magic 8-Ball” could be the family movie event of 2012. (This must be the end of the world those pesky Mayans accidentally prophesied by not finishing their calendar.) Speaking of movies adapted from board games, also on the way is the Monopoly movie, as well as Battleship and a Ouija Board movie in development. What about last summer, when Chrisopher Nolan’s brainchild “Inception” dominated box offices enough to become the secondhighest grossing movie of all time? Doesn’t that mean audiences are hungry for new content? Shouldn’t studios try to follow a new path, one devoid of board game adaptations or 5th sequels? Actually, no. “I think that there’s two ways to evaluate films — you can evaluate them as art or you can evaluate them as product,” said Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Film Studies Robert Sickels. “Every once in a while those two things align, but most of the people involved in the business of marketing movies and paying for movies (which is different than making movies!) could care less whether a film is art or not. Nobody who’s responsible for financing ‘Transformers’ or ‘Transformers 2’ cares that it was one of the worst-reviewed movies in the history of Hollywood.” Indeed they do not. Both movies were highly lucrative, not just in terms of the movies themselves, but also in terms of merchandising. Transformers was originally born from merchandise itself; before the movies was the popular television show, which in turn was adapted from a line of toys. Studio executives must be extremely conservative with their money, because the cost of making movies and promoting them has risen to the point that, to green-light a movie, they need a built-in audience. For the same reason, studios love sequels, because if the audience liked
the first one, they’ll almost certainly come back for the second one. “There’s no reason to believe that audiences want to see original material,” said Sickels. “I guess on the one hand you could argue that audiences are hungry for movies and see what they’re allowed to see, what gets made. That said, the box office is riddled with the casualties of excellent films that got some kind of distribution but that nobody went to see.” As much as that depresses me (“Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” are two such recent casualties, though both are actually adaptations of written work), it is difficult to argue with the logic of the film studios. If you desperately need a movie to make a profit, taking a chance on new, nonpre-sold content is a big stretch. In the end, what it comes down to is that movies designed only to entertain succeed because they do not aspire to be more than they are. A GQ article entitled “The Day The Movies Died” argues that, “for the studios, a good new idea has become just too scary a road to travel. ‘Inception’, they will tell you, is an exceptional movie. And movies that need to be exceptional to succeed are bad business. ‘The scab you’re picking at is called execution,’ says legendary producer Scott Rudin (‘The Social Network’, ‘True Grit’). ‘Studios are hardwired not to bet on execution, and the terrible thing is, they’re right. Because in terms of execution, most movies disappoint.’” Now, I don’t know if I would go that far, since even mediocre movies can be a blast to watch. But in terms of profitability, adaptations of board-games, for example, will always be made over “Inception” or “Source Code” (a good, new, original thriller that I reviewed last week). This speaks to the difficulty of crafting narrative and of the art of filmmaking; but if a movie is already pre-sold to the point that an audience is all but guaranteed, it does not matter if said movie disappoints on the level of art. So stop complaining about Hollywood’s perennial sequelitis and lack of original material — it is an incredibly smart business move, and not one that’s likely to change. And hey, “Magic 8-Ball” could be good — and I might see it even if it is not. Suck on that, hipsters.