OGX wows in annual showcase

View fullsize

Orignal Xpressions dance crew performed its second annual spring showcase on Sunday April 23 in Wadsworth Auditorium. The performance was filled with vigor and life, as it celebrated dance across five different decades. (Annalee Bainnson/Assoc. Photo Editor)

Geneseo’s Original Xpressions dance crew delivered an exuberant and inspiring performance on Sunday April 23 for their second annual spring showcase, “Dancing Through Time.”

OGX officially became a recognized club by the college in spring 2015, a year after being founded by six friends who performed together during a benefit concert. Their members and reputation have both grown exponentially since then. With an aim for diversity, OGX covers a broad range of styles, including hip-hop, Latin and Afro-funk, to name a few. 

“Dancing Through Time” consisted of several dance numbers, each with a unique style and story that corresponded with five different decades of music and dance styles. 

The showcase, however, was not limited to just OGX members. The dance club invited several other groups to join their performance, including Geneseo Shakti, Latino Student Association, G-STEPPAS, Geneseo Bhangra and Rochester Institute of Technology’s Velocity. Each group contributed to OGX’s value of diversity through dance, as they shared their own unique interests and cultures. 

It’s safe to say that there was never a dull moment during OGX’s showcase; even the intermission had the audience bobbing in their seats to Bruno Mars’ hit “24k Magic,” as a charming video showing the history of the club played in the background. From their humble beginning to the current powerhouse group that they are today, OGX showed how much fun they have with each other doing what they love—dancing.

Jam-packed with energy and power, OGX’s showcase kept the excitement moving. Whether it was their creative and funny Taken-inspired dance story or the sarcastic banter between the two masters of ceremony, the showcase went above and beyond in deliverance. 

The audience also wasn’t entirely just a spectator. At one point, the master of ceremonies invited a member of the audience to come on stage to demonstrate and to teach them the technique of stepping. 

OGX was also nice enough to provide a Snapchat geo-filter, helping audience members become the envy of all their friends for attending such an awesome performance. The inspiring energy and humor didn’t have to stop at the showcase, either. OGX provided their Snapchat information, telling the audience to add them so that they never have to miss any of the team’s notorious practice shenanigans.

While the showcase was full of intensity, the ending was bittersweet for the OGX dancers. Though they put on a thrilling performance, it was sad to have their last show with their graduating seniors. Many of the dancers graduating at the end of the semester are also some of the founders. 

The president of the crew senior Christina Alli ended the night by giving a heartfelt speech that highlighted the ways in which the club and its members had an impact on her college career and on her heart.

OGX is a team of friends who all share a passionate love for expression through dance. Whether you enjoy dancing or music, look out for next year’s showcase—it certainly is a must-see performance and should be added on every Geneseo student’s college bucket list.

Indie artist tackles issues of mental illness

Singer-songwriter Aimee Mann has been a force on the music scene since her initial debut in 1982 with the band ’Til Tuesday, and the release of her first solo album, Whatever, in 1993. Mann has just recently released her ninth studio album, Mental Illness, ending a five-year hiatus from the industry.

In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Mann states that Mental Illness is “the saddest, slowest, most acoustic” album she has written to date. Over the years, Mann has garnered a reputation for releasing, almost exclusively, depressing songs. In the interview, Mann commented about her reputation and how it affected her songwriting process for Mental Illness. 

“If [my fans] thought that my songs were very down-tempo, very depressing, very sad and very acoustic, I thought I’d just give myself permission to write the saddest, slowest, most acoustic, if-they’re-all-waltzes-so-be-it record I could,” Mann said, according to The Los Angeles Times.

The style of Mental Illness is certainly more raw, intimate and unplugged compared to Mann’s signature rock roots. Here, she channels similar vibes to those present in the soundtrack to the Oscar nominated movie Magnolia, for which she received the nomination for best original song. 

None of Mann’s previous work, however, matches Mental Illness—at least in terms of melancholia. Throughout the album, Mann delves into concepts of depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses through the means of characters dealing with a variety of situations varying from heartache to daily life. 

The idea of mental illness continues to be an extremely controversial concept, as its credibility is constantly questioned by society. Many people even deny its existence altogether. 

Mann takes this controversy on by taking common situations that everyone goes through and comparing them to the struggles of mental illness, illustrating just how unbearable the latter can be. The album achieves Mann’s goal of being her most “depressing” work to date, exceeding all previous albums for miles. Mental Illness captures the essence of human struggle with such perfection and beauty.

The album’s introductory song is also its first single, “Goose Snow Cone.” This track deals with the concept of loneliness and feeling homesick—concepts that can resonate with almost anyone. Mann croons about that pit of loneliness that persists, even when in the presence of friends, as well as feelings of insecurity when outside one’s own home. 

“I saw a picture on Instagram of a cat I know named Goose. Her fluffy white face was looking up at the camera in a very plaintive way, like a little snowball, and I started singing a little song about her that turned into a song about loneliness,” Mann said about writing “Goose Snow Cone.” 

“I intended to change the lyrics [of “Goose Snow Cone”], but could never find a phrase to replace the one I started with,” she added. 

This perfectly demonstrates the authentic and intimate quality to Mental Illness.

The powerful imagery and emotion continues in the track “Philly Sinks.” Mann uses this song as the epitome of her album’s concept, giving her listeners an even more stripped down, bare and personal song. 

In “Philly Sinks,” Mann focuses on thoughts of suicide and how easily one can slip down such a path, birthing the actual potential to commit the act and how suicide affects those left behind. Additionally, Mann comments on the death of innocence in our society, alluding to Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, as she possibly sees this loss as a cause for increased suicide rates.

Mann promised to produce an album that would exceed her previous works, which were already believed to be rather gloomy. She has certainly established herself as a dominant presence in the indie music scene, especially when it comes to sorrowful pieces.

There’s no doubt that with Mental Illness, Mann has delivered. No track on this album will leave you with dry eyes.

4/5

YouTube’s restricted mode discriminates against LGBTQ+ community

YouTube is no stranger to controversy; their recent introduction of a new feature to their video streaming website has certainly made waves. Their new “restricted mode” is geared specifically toward parents wishing to filter out inappropriate content, but who still want to allow their children to enjoy the videos that the website offers. While the feature is still relatively new, it’s obvious that there are still many kinks that YouTube must work out. 

The largest issue concerning the restricted mode is its insensitivity to the LGBTQ+ community. The new feature appears to target and block many LGBTQ+ related videos, regardless of how innocent they may be. In fact, oftentimes the videos being blocked have no reason for being deemed inappropriate—except for the fact that the people in the videos identify as LGBTQ+. Clearly, this is sexual discrimination and it is not appropriate. 

YouTube—which is owned by Google—is not actually the entity in charge of deeming what videos are inappropriate; rather, the feature forms its own judgment through what content users flag. 

Considering the abundance of homophobia still present worldwide, it’s not especially surprising that there is a considerable amount of people who would want to flag content created by members of the LGBTQ+ community. This, however, is evidence that YouTube does need to take initiative to ensure that new features transition seamlessly, instead of fully relying on a poorly formulated code.

Since YouTube has put its faith wholeheartedly in their viewers, they are now facing the repercussions of extreme backlash from the LGBTQ+ community and heterosexual allies. Many popular YouTube content creators, such as Tyler Oakley, Chelsea Kei and Gigi Gorgeous have spoken out against this issue, urging the company to adjust the feature immediately. While the feature may have been created with good intentions, it does not seem to be doing its job at all.

Even if parents want to shield their children forever from the oh-so-cruel reality that not everyone in the world is like them, YouTube already has a policy that doesn’t allow children to use the website. Once a user turns 13, YouTube welcomes young viewers to use their website with an underage account, which comes with its own restrictions that cannot be disabled. Restricted mode, however, can easily be disabled by anyone using the website. 

The restrictions for underage accounts are taken very seriously by YouTube, which makes the new feature extremely redundant—unless, of course, parents are going against YouTube’s policy and allowing their young children to use the video platform. By the age of 13, viewers will have hopefully experienced enough of the real world to realize that the LGBTQ+ community is a reality and can formulate their own opinions of their peers. Even if their opinion is negative or heavily influenced by their parents, they are aware of the concept and should make their own decisions regarding it.

While restricted mode does manage to block its fair share of inappropriate content for young viewers, inappropriate content hidden by the restricted mode (particularly music videos) is still out there to be found through loopholes. For example, if there were multiple videos released by other YouTube accounts, they could get around the mode. Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” is a perfect example. As such, if parents cannot trust their children to use YouTube, perhaps they should just block the website all together, or monitor their viewing themselves.

Despite the recent progress made concerning acceptance of sexual orientation, there remains a large population of individuals who criticize and fear members of the LGBTQ+ community. Regardless, children are being exposed to the LGBTQ+ individuals through personal experiences and other media platforms. Parents cannot prevent this exposure, even if they do use the new restricted mode. 

The world is slowly progressing, and it’s time that companies like YouTube start pushing for equality and proper representation. Thankfully, YouTube is already answering the cries and protests of their viewing community, officially stating that they are currently working to fix the problems with the faulty restricted mode.