Feminist faux pas at Paris Fashion Week

The Chanel fashion house ended its Sept. 30 Paris Fashion Week show with a staged feminist protest. On the set of the Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées, models and other fashion royalty marched alongside Chanel head designer and creative director Karl Lagerfeld. The question remains, however: was this actually a sincere feminist proclamation or just a fashion house jumping on this new coming-of-age, social media-fueled, feminist revolution bandwagon that seems to have taken over the Internet?

Whatever the case, this is certainly not the right time for Chanel to joke about feminism on the runway, especially considering the fashion industry’s long history of celebrating an image of an “ideal woman” that is both limiting and harmful.

The faux protest itself seemed anything but genuine. Top runway walkers such as Cara Delevingne and Gisele Bündchen led the “protest” in style holding signs that read “Ladies First,” and “History is Her Story.”

The organizers, whomever they may be, seemed to have paid incredible attention to detail for the set—a sun-bleached Parisian street, splotched with motor oil and puddles. The act itself, however, is so theatrical it hurts.

This realism of environment juxtaposed with the seemingly inauthentic protest actually adds insult to injury for feminists everywhere. We could shrug it off as just a shoddy job, but we know that Lagerfeld knows better.

What Chanel showcased on its runway did not reflect the message of the faux-feminist protest at all. The medium of the clothing itself expressed what might excuse the act from being anti-feminist altogether. Menswear dominated the runway with a lot of tweed, a material that was once favored by British middle-class men for its durability and affordability. The designs also included pantsuits and pinstripes, as well as loose-fitting and flat-heeled fashions.

This subtle play on gender can be read as an attempt to turn the fashion industry around in a time in which we are all aware of the negative effects the industry has had on female empowerment. Despite the tasteless execution of this so-called protest, maybe this attempt will––at the very least––raise awareness about a perennial problem in women’s fashion.u

Historical drama reveals cultural identity crisis

The Identical is 107 minutes of a complex storyline that pulls in an impressive bounty of both universal and cultural themes, yet delivers no substantial exploration of any of them. Played by Blake Rayne, protagonist Ryan Wade is given up as an infant to a preacher––played by Ray Liotta––and his infertile wife during the Great Depression in an act of both hard necessity and spiritual selflessness.

Wade’s identical twin Drexel Hemsley––also played by Rayne––grows up to be a famous rock artist in the genre’s infancy. His fame casts an unrelenting shadow over Wade’s own musical career as a Drexel Hemsley impersonator while neither character is aware that they have a brother. Wade’s adoptive father disapproves of his musicianship.

The conflicts in the film are fickle and uncertain. From the start, Wade struggles with love, greed, racist law enforcement, black culture and problems within the growing rock n’ roll culture. Thrown into this overwhelming mix are familial conflicts, spiritual tradition and introspection––all in the first 30 minutes.

With the same reckless haste in which they are introduced, these concepts pointlessly end as mere scattershot surrounding a relatively boring conflict: Wade failing to find his way in an industry already conquered by his lost twin.

Wade also struggles with the predictable conflict of getting his dream girl Jenny, played by Erin Cottrell. Like every other woman in the film, Jenny is an utterly static and flat character whose agency obediently lies in Wade’s hands.

Jenny is the cause for director Dustin Marcellino’s failure of the Bechdel test. To pass this “test,” a film must have at least two female characters––each of who must speak to each other at least once––and it must be about something other than a man. The only moment when the film comes close to passing is one line shared between Reece Wade and Helen Hemsley concerning Wade as an infant.

Seth Green’s character Dino reads like an aborted attempt by Marcellino to put comic relief into an early draft. Dino’s one or two out-of-place jokes considered, no audience would notice if he were cut even though the apparition of Green’s weasel face does at times pass for comedy.

The acting offers little redemption for the film. Rayne’s performance as a rock star is not believable as either Wade or Hemsley. As a typecast actor, Liotta’s performance is predictable at worst and par at best. Ashley Judd, Erin Cottrell and Amanda Crew prove that they are excellent at crying, smiling and dying.

The Identical is presented as a PG family film, which for some might allow it some slack in terms of cinematic quality. Essentially, it just has to keep people less bored for an hour and thirty minutes. Perhaps Marcellino thought a movie about music would accomplish this easily enough. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.

Greece, New York band draws inspiration from chaos

A clear product in the image of both their members and fan base, The Results are exactly that: the results of people, life experiences and art. Longtime friends guitarist Ben Toland and lead vocalist Bryan Flanagan met in the attic of Toland’s tenant house in Rochester’s South Wedge to make music in 2009. At first it was casual—there was no formal band and no talk of shows—until Toland’s housemate Jenni Pruner volunteered to play drums.

Since former drummer Pruner had never played drums before, her ability was questioned at first. According to the band, she had received a bone transplant in her foot and the deceased donor had been a professional percussionist. “All of a sudden she could drum,” guitarist Spencer Curtice said. “She was compelled.”

The Results had found its style in a blues-meets-punk sound that at first might vaguely remind you of early White Stripes (except larger), of early Strokes (except louder), or of Jet (except not as awful).

Sometimes pinned as garage rock, The Results’ brand of rock and roll is quite the opposite. It breaks conventions in unassuming, sincerely artistic ways. The newest member MC DMack, who raps on their songs both old and new, exemplifies this. This free-spirit mentality yields music that is respectful of the tried-and-true nature of rock tradition, but that is also smartly non-committal. This delightful paradigm appeals to an increasingly rabid fan base.

“We definitely created some new sounds that none of us had heard before,” Curtice said. “That’s what we were always about; being as original as possible while still rocking out as hard as we can.”

The band became notorious for bringing large, recklessly hyperactive turnouts from Rochester’s counter-culture into venues. A Results show isn’t just a performance; it’s a contemporary Dionysian celebration, often ending in intimate shoulder-to-shoulder stage rushes.

“The shows are a lot of fun,” DMack said. “We like the music but it’s just as much about the party.” The band has even had a performance been shut down by city police at one of their shows in Rochester’s East End. “They had to come and shut down the awesome rock and roll, sweat, love and madness in the basement because it was just a sea of awesome,” Toland said. “That night was out of control.”

The recording of their self-titled debut album released in April through Nasty Records was a relatively smooth effort. The band worked with producer Nate Davenport, now of Harmonious Recording Solutions.

“[Davenport] made it easy,” Curtice said. “He was kind of the magic man who was working with our disorganization.” Oddly, while the album is for sale on The Results’ Bandcamp website, they do not press their album with much effort. They said they want to remaster the tracks, an endeavor still in progress.

The Results has faced the loss of their drummer and bass-player as members. According to DMack, they are on hiatus now but the band is looking to replace the positions, hoping it will be business as usual. Their music can be found on theresultsroc.bandcamp.com.

Spotlight on: Ally Salerno

An afficionado for expression and communication, sophomore Ally Salerno has found her element in Musical Theatre Club. After being turned down in a fall 2012 audition, Salerno bounced back and became an MTC New Kid in spring 2013. She’s remained an active member ever since.

Salerno attributes MTC to her growth as a performer and student at Geneseo.

From learning the ropes of MTC’s intensive choreography and musical numbers to becoming a confident director and leader within the organization, Salerno has already directed two MTC numbers and starred in multiple performances.

“Performing really is a great outlet to break out of your shell and not hold back and be adventurous to explore what you can do,” Salerno said.

After learning about an audition for a local Rochester television sitcom, Salerno decided to take a chance beyond the stage and behind the camera. “It was kind of last minute, but I thought, ‘Why the hell not,’” she said.

A callback later, Salerno learned the show was interested in using her as an extra in the near future.

“It was just a really cool experience to be out there. I love stage, but I’m really interested in television, especially with the internship,” Salerno said.

Far from being only a hobby, Salerno draws meaningful connections from theatre to her major in the journalism and media track in communication. She’s played an energetic and funny Mrs. Mayor in this semester’s main stage production of “Seussical,” a great contribution apparent in her communication skills.

With success in communication and performance already in sight, Salerno has also acquired an internship with NBC in New York City this summer, focusing on the behind the scenes aspects of television. It’s no question that MTC played a key role in developing confidence that got her this far.

With all these experiences secured, Salerno looks to combine all of them in the future.

“A goal I have at one point in my life is to be a part of some sort of media outlet that’s hopeful for young girls to look up to, promoting positive body image,” Salerno said. “I know myself and I know who I am. You have to remember to love yourself and love what you do.”

Album Review: Here and Nowhere Else

With their overdrive set to 11, their watery chorus effects and bloody-throat Kurt Cobain-influenced vocals, Cloud Nothings raise the question: Have we had enough of indie rock yet? Even if we have, Cloud Nothings has a reputation for freshness, originally invested in their 2012 release Attack on Memory. This was an important album because it employed the often-overlooked concept of sonic journeying, an experiment in sounds both hard rocking and softly scenic, yielding a larger and more interesting span of territory.

Without this concept, bands like Cloud Nothings turn out generic post-punk, but we call it indie because it is played by guys in vests and fake glasses to set them apart from the macho attitude that was once expected in rock music.

Now, on their senior album Here and Nowhere Else released April 1 through Carpark Records, Cloud Nothings hone their unique sonic journey and push it to experiment with paradox. Guitarist/vocalist Dylan Baldi’s noisy strumming and tremolo are explosively percussion-driven and yet movingly melodic. The album’s lyrics are both emotive and upbeat, resulting in a work that is honest, personal and yet wholly disinterested.

Here and Nowhere Else opens with “Now Hear In.” This is the closest this album gets to being normal and straightforward. The riffs are simple throughout, the vocals are clean and the drums are moving – a normalcy only slightly undercut by the emotionally distant proclamation, “I can feel your pain / And I feel alright about it” in the song’s chorus.

“Quieter Today” displays the breadth of the sounds the band is capable of producing, beginning with a melodic strum evocative of pop punk. As the listener is getting used to this, it dissolves into noisy atonal tremolo picking and unintelligibly slurred vocals. In spite of this, the drums and bass keep the song in order, consistent with the album’s levelheaded negativity.

“Psychic Trauma” continues that theme, showing us a negativity that is episodic, and like with a person, some episodes are worse than others. The song begins on a depressive balladic note, as Baldi reflects, “Tried to stop it, tried to feel something / But nothing happens, I stayed the same.” This time, the music does lose complete control, dissolving by the last minute to an all-instrumental tremolo with a rhythmic center too rapid to discern.

The band’s lo-fi punk roots begin to show on “Just See Fear” and stay throughout “Giving Into Seeing” and “No Thoughts,” but they show in a matured form. It’s punk but controlled by adaptive and champion drummer Jayson Gerycz and lead by Baldi’s calloused vocal cords and guitar work that is at any and all times subject to breaking tone and rhythm to hold a single-note tremolo for multiple measures.

The pinnacle of the album is “Pattern Walks,” which begins somewhat muted; it is an awkward melody sung through seemingly clenched teeth, followed by the bass and a basic drumbeat. The chorus of the song is heavier, but the epic feature of the song comes after the third chorus repetition in the form of a bridge so vast it takes up half of the seven-minute track. All instruments lose themselves in the cosmic destination that the album’s sonic journey has brought them; this includes the vocals, which only repeat, “I thought” until the close of the song.

“I’m Not Part of Me” ends the album on an introspective note that returns to the more normal sound and structure of “Now Hear In.” The album culminates with the same negativity that exists throughout but accepts it with full control, equanimity and even choice.

Spotlight On: Gregg Hartvigsen

Professor of biology Gregg Hartvigsen’s work at Geneseo involves much more than teaching upper-level science courses. A musician in his spare time, Hartvigsen serves as faculty adviser for Guitar Club.

Hartvigsen started Guitar Club with one of his students five years ago. The idea for the club arose when his student noticed that Hartvigsen had a guitar in his office, and the two began chatting about music.

According to Hartvigsen, it’s a very laid-back organization, with people coming and going week to week, although members do get opportunities to play venues around campus.

Hartvigsen played saxophone and clarinet in high school and picked up guitar his senior year.

“I was kind of working toward a career in [classical] music, and then I discovered that I like singing and playing guitar much more,” Hartvigsen said. “I declined an opportunity to go to a school of music. Instead, I went to college and played at bars and ran a coffeehouse in college and stuff like that.”

His career in music went as far as being offered a year-long job as a performer at a large and well-frequented bar in Denver, Colo. Having dropped out of college, Harvigsen declined the position so he could return to school.

Despite his long history as a musician, Hartvigsen said that playing in public is terrifying, and his latest performances have been limited to open mic gigs around Main Street. He also played a half-hour set at Sprucestock this year.

“For me personally, guitar is more of a musical accompaniment to singing,” Hartvigsen said. “For my main focus, I just really like singing. The stuff I do ranges from George Benson upbeat stuff down to Simon & Garfunkel sort of stuff – finger picking and strumming.”

According to Hartvigsen, it’s difficult for artists to say if any of their own performances went well, even when people clap at the end of a song. The most bizarre gig he’s played was at a sale at a women’s clothing store in Mystic, Conn. during a snowstorm.

“Not a single person came in. They were just empty except the women’s clothes,” Hartvigsen said. “Which was nice; the clothes were beautiful … [but] they didn’t have people in them. The downside is sometimes you just have to play to empty rooms.”u

Doty Open House welcomes faculty musicians

Doty Recital Hall was host to a triumphant faculty gala concert on Sunday March 2, presented by the department of music. It showcased the meeting of talent with an optimal musical environment for the Doty Hall Open House. The old style of Doty’s exterior sets viewers up for surprise when they enter the building to an entirely contemporary interior, pragmatic in material and design. Far from the flowery baroque style that many auditoriums adhere to, the visage of the concert hall itself is of plain bright woods, exposed steel latticework and white paint.

President Emeritus Christopher Dahl began with a speech that lauded the value of restoring an old building as opposed to building a new one.

The concert began with adjunct faculty in music Glennda Dove-Pellito and professor and Chair of the Department of Music Jonathan Gonder’s rendition of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Flute Sonata No. 6 in E major, BWV 1035. This upbeat flute and piano duo started the concert in high spirit, with a quintessential “classical” feel that set the stage – so to speak – for what was to come.

Associate professor of music Amy Stanley followed with Johannes Brahms’ Rhapsody in B minor, Op. 79 No. 1, a jarring piano piece that undercut the pleasantries  in the opening performance.

Robert Schumann’s “Fantasy Pieces, Op. 73,” performed by lecturer of music James Kirkwood on cello and Gonder on piano, was a tonally dark but delightful piano and cello duo, which demands a cellist with a capacity for speed.

The Geneseo Wind Quintet performed Gustav Holst’s Wind Quintet in A-flat major, Op.14, providing some variety as the first piece with no piano component. As such, it is a piece that focuses notably more on melody than rhythm.

Akira Yuyama’s Divertimento for Marimba and Alto Saxophone is a unique piece featuring a marimba and alto saxophone duo, filled by adjunct professors of music Jim Tiller and professor emeritus of saxophone at Eastman School of Music Ramon Ricker, respectfully. I would not know if pieces such as this are business as usual for marimba players, but even Tiller’s indubitable mastery of the instrument could not make it look easy.

The moment I noticed a dulcimer, accordion and banjo on the stage, I knew that adjunct professor of English Glenn McClure and lecturer of music James Kimball’s “Stars for Liesbeth, Contra Set No. 1” would be my favorite. The song is composed of four medleys in the contra dance style and featured 12 members of the Geneseo String Band with Kimball on the fiddle and McClure on the dulcimer.

After all the stimulus of big-band folk music, a quieter, meditative section from Federico Mompou’s “Canço i Dansa No.6 in E-flat minor” by vocal coach Alan Case came as a welcome break.

Adjunct professor of music Ernest Lascell performed Paul Harvey’s “Three Etudes on Themes of Gershwin” on clarinet. This piece had a rapid, fluttering feel throughout, with Lascell’s face cartoonishly turning red at certain points of the high-metabolic piece.

Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34 brought the focus of the night back to the more prevalent idea of classical music, performed by Gonder on piano and the Trement Quartet.

David Gibson’s “French Press” and Larry Willis’ “To Wisdom, The Prize” were the two final songs of the night, ending a concert of classical music in the key of jazz to remind us all, lest we forget, that jazz musicians will always be cooler than everyone else. This band was composed of Gibson on the trombone, Tiller on the drum set, adjunct professor of music Mark Collins on trumpet and senior Christopher Pike on the upright bass.

Alumnus returns with Yale chamber orchestra

Alumnus Louis Lohraseb ‘13 returned to Geneseo to play piano with a chamber orchestra at the Doty Recital Hall on Saturday Feb. 22, sponsored by Geneseo’s department of music and the Office of the President. Lohraseb was an assistant conductor for the Geneseo Symphony Orchestra, and is now studying in a graduate program at the Yale School of Music.

The chamber orchestra was composed of Lohraseb’s peers from Yale. Members included pianist Lohraseb, cellist Yan Levionnois, violist Isabella Mensz and violinist Mélanie Clapiès. The concert’s program was composed of three songs: two by Johannes Brahms and one by Ludwig van Beethoven.

The orchestra began with Brahms’ Sonata for Viola in F minor, Op. 120, no. 1. This made for a slow beginning, as the piece features a quieter piano and viola duet. The thick and warm timbre of the viola made the piece’s slow and centered melody very beautiful.

As the violin and piano often stole the show, Sonata for Viola added a good variety to this concert, and Lohraseb and Mensz played it masterfully.

Beethoven’s Piano Trio in G major, Op. 1, no. 2 was my favorite portion of the concert despite the fact that the viola had not part in it. The Piano Trio is a delightful trading of melodic lead between the violin and piano held together by the cello and has a moody restraint and release dynamic pattern that was awe-inspiring to see performed. Lohraseb’s piano talent was evident in Beethoven’s trio.

Brahms’ Piano Quartet no. 2 in A minor, Op. 26 seemed to be the most complex piece of the evening. From the perspective of someone with no study in bowed instruments, the different parts appeared to share only a tempo and key signature, with utter and yet delectable chaos in every other sense.

After watching the chamber orchestra play these pieces to apparent technical perfection, it felt as though I could pick up a bowed instrument and recreate the same sounds. The cliché may be true: To convey that illusion of ease to an audience is a measure of mastery.

The fact that the concert was a chamber orchestra, as opposed to a symphony or philharmonic, allowed for a display of each musician’s skill and technicality. With only one of each instrument, all played a lead part and had full control of their tonal range.

Red Kettle prevails at Mac’s Place Battle of the Bands

The Battle of the Bands, hosted on Feb. 7 by Mac’s Place, filled the College Union Ballroom to its ceiling with the sound of guitars, singing and the familiar flair of rock music. Seven bands participated in Friday’s event, each granted a 15-minute set in competition for an audience majority vote to win a prize of $500. Each audience member turned in a ballot at the end of the show, and local funk band Red Kettle was selected as the winning group.

The night began with Red Inc., a four-piece progressive rock group with a demeanor that hinted at an indifference toward the audience’s satisfaction; it was all music, no showboating. This cost the band approachability, but its music was a purely sonic experience. It shifted through tidal waves of melody – low to high to low – masterfully, giving sound with the force of a sledgehammer and the precision of tweezers. The band’s music demanded the entirety of the members’ focus, and the result was utter sophistication.

I had wondered if Overly Sexual American Girls would deviate from the evocations of their namesake, but found that they were unlike Barenaked Ladies in that regard. Two acoustic guitarists constituted the group’s vocals and at least the last quarter of their title. Both seemed positioned in self-aware awkwardness behind their assertive namesake, which was entertaining if somewhat motley.

The Subconscious, a traditional rock three-piece led by a guitar-playing singer, also performed, playing in traditional hard and alternative rock styles and covering Nirvana, as per rock tradition. If you like the classics, you were dancing up front with a dozen others who agreed. If you didn’t, you were bored – even when the group broke out with a Smash Mouth song.

OK Artichoke, a three-piece play on grassroots protest music, criticized the Vietnam War and South African apartheid with an acoustic guitar and tambourine. The members’ confidence and their hauntingly beautiful voices on a cover of Sufjan Stevens’ “Casimir Pulaski Day” allowed the music to blend with hijinks.

The American Accent was OK Artichoke’s exact opposite: not a performative joke, but a joke of a performance. An audience member exclaimed that they were 13 again after the band’s cover of Blink-182’s “All the Small Things.” Being 13 was awful enough the first time, but at least the second time would only last 15 minutes. To give credit where it is due, seemingly half the audience was dancing.

With the jazz outfit Red Kettle on the roster, the audience was in for a treat from the beginning. The baritone saxophone, blended within a seasoned and tidy hollow-body guitar, bass and percussion trio, was fated to stir us into a groove. For 15 minutes the music was perfect, and every seat was empty.

I may have set my bar too high by the time pop-punk outfit Thundercloud Kid began. Consider, though, that pop punk was joined at the hip with alternative culture a decade ago. Alternative culture later moved on from pop punk with all the swiftness of the mainstream culture it opposes. Now, pop punk is nostalgic at most.

Kinetic Gallery exhibit explores animal behavior through color

Rich in color, detail and innovation, Christie Lau’s technique invokes life and nature into her visual art pieces. Her work is featured in the Kinetic Gallery exhibit “Secret Rhythm,” which opened on Jan. 31.“Secret Rhythm” is an exhibit of several series of Lau’s paintings and prints, all sharing a common theme of what Lau refers to as “trends” in biology and evolution. These trends refer to all the particular traits and habits animals have developed in order to sustain life. “It all goes toward the same rhythm,” Lau said. “Evolution has a general trend, and that is to have life. We all do things in specific ways. But it’s all for the same reason.” The formal elements of Lau’s style come together most clearly in her “Deception” series. Inspired by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake,” the “Deception” paintings depict organisms that thrive by tricking the rest of the natural world. To exemplify this concept, her painting “Odette III” includes a bee orchid, a flower that generates artificial pollinator pheromones to attract pollinators, in the foreground. Lau also explores secondary sex characteristics in her series “Sexy Males,” featuring the extravagant painting “Mane Robe.” This painting features a male lion’s face with a mane of blue, using variation in shade from bright to almost black to provide texture. Interspersed throughout the mane are streaks of gold, calling attention to the aesthetic qualities of the lion’s sex and making viewers aware of their fascination with it. Lau’s print series “Doe” shows the female side of secondary sex characteristics in a more fantastical than scientific way. In this series, female deer are depicted on wood blocks with human hands growing from their heads, signifying a purpose that goes beyond competition, in contrast to antlers. Lau’s works employ copious layers of color that give her subjects a unique complexity. Quintessential to her coloring style, her piece “Odette II” employs a middle-to-dark selection of reds, yellows, blues and purples to create a shadow on the highly textured body of a white swan. “I like to focus on details,” Lau said. “I took a traditional painting class, and we worked with raw pigments so I got to see the pigments as they are … I became really interested in collecting obscure pigments, and pigments that are different.” Lau is from Toronto and went to college at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa. According to Lau, Carnegie Mellon’s arts programs do not teach technique as much as they promote innovation, and it was at this university that she learned to experiment with art styles, especially with color. “Secret Rhythm” will be on display in the Kinetic Gallery until Feb. 28.

Spotlight On: Director of Galleries Cynthia Hawkins juggles arts programming, creativity

Between curating art shows at Geneseo’s three major campus art spaces, handling gallery budgets and maintaining Geneseo’s art collection, Director of Galleries Cynthia Hawkins has become an expert when it comes to on-campus art programming. Hawkins is responsible for filling the Lockhart, Lederer and Bridge Galleries with thought-provoking exhibits each semester. She said the goal of Geneseo’s art collection is to ensure that those works have meaning in an academically curricular setting. As a curator, finding this meaning often involves investigative research and experimentation.

Hawkins has found recent success in attributing value to Geneseo’s collections. The college’s Wescott Collection is an incomplete late 19th-century collection that was very obscure, until she stumbled upon more of the works at the historical society in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

Similarly, Hawkins couldn’t locate information on a mysterious collection of folios full of prints of Roman architecture. The only evidence to their history was an Italian text accompanying the collection. She initiated an effort by professors in the department of languages and literatures to translate the texts, and they are currently uncovering the collection’s entire history.

“Now you have a whole new attitude toward it, a whole different historicism belongs to these little etchings, from which you can get a really interesting story,” Hawkins said. “You have to spend time with these objects in order for them to speak to you.”

Of the several exhibitions put on this semester, Hawkins said that “Customs” is the one that stands out most to students, crediting its community involvement as something that makes it delightful to people.

Hawkins began art directing when she was an adjunct professor at SUNY Rockland Community College, where she would host exhibitions in the college’s library. Hawkins joined Geneseo seven years ago while she was working on her master’s degree thesis in museum professions at Seton Hall University.

Hawkins is currently working on her Ph.D. in American studies at the University at Buffalo, with a focus on the history of the museum and how it intersects with citizenship, race and identity. According to Hawkins, the Western conception of the museum came from the French Revolution as a way to redistribute art from the royalty to the people.

“Some people don’t want to even talk about the museum in terms of its educative roots,” Hawkins said. “In Egypt, the pharaohs had little rooms with collections of objects that were used to teach the pharaoh and the children about themselves, their culture and their environment … I don’t think that should be brushed off.”

Hawkins also has an artistic career of her own. She originally went to school to study painting at Queens College and received her Master of Fine Arts degree from Maryland Institute College of Art’s Mount Royal School of Painting.

Hawkins employs color field abstraction techniques, which are bright and often focus on patterned geometric shapes within. Her frequent illustration of arrows creates a sense of motion, giving her work a branded appearance.

Buffalo-based Head North performs unplugged pop-punk show

Guitarist and singer Brent Martone performed a solo acoustic set in the name of his band Head North, for an Activities Commission Mac’s Place-sponsored show at the KnightSpot on Saturday Nov. 16. Head North is a Buffalo-native pop punk band that recently released its debut album Arrows Acoustic, and has a small tour planned that spans several states. While the band’s lead vocalist and bassist recently departed, Head North continues to create an interesting, rugged sound.

The Subconscious was the first opener for the show, a hard rock three-piece band with a focus on electric guitar riffing and loud rhythm-centered vocals. The band’s most memorable lyrics employed accessible cliches, such as “crazy bitch.”

The four-piece progressive rock band Red Inc. was the second opener and by a long shot the strongest act. The band played long songs composed of riffs in a variety of time signatures that taxed the capability of each member. The sound was refined, maximized and powerful.

Head North featured Martone bravely singing and playing unplugged versions of the band’s songs on an acoustic guitar.

Martone’s voice resides in a powerful middle ground of grit and melody and marks an improvement from the previous singer’s cleaner vocals featured on the studio album. It is evident that his unique voice creates a branded sound for Head North.

Martone’s extroverted mannerisms with his audience had a simultaneously performative and natural quality. He wasn’t afraid to ask everyone to gather around him to pose for photographs while he covered part of a Journey song, blending some fun in with an already easily digestible show.

Although it is obvious that the point of the Head North show was that only one member would be playing, the solo instrumentation severely weakened the performance.

In one sense, it was refreshing to see artists doing something new in a genre as exhausted as pop punk. Punk styles tend to rely on a drumbeat and the presence of high-gain electric and bass guitars while employing timbre and dynamic because they consciously and purposefully lack technique. Missing these sounds, Head North’s instrumental power was weak.

The unplugged nature of the show might have been stronger and bolder than a full set’s worth of elementary chord strumming had the band considered employing a wider variety of techniques.

Head North’s show revealed a lot of Martone’s talent and creative drive. His extroversion, his wild-but-harmless persona and the versatility of Head North’s simple songs embody the spirit of pop punk.

Head North showed only one potential flaw, but it is a big one: If pop punk is not the only genre that matters, then the band is extinguishing its own greatness in its marriage to it.

Behind the Scenes: Student playwright pens successful script

Junior Jennie Conway hardly expected that a play she wrote last spring would be performed on stage at Geneseo, let alone that she would direct it. Finding out that Veg S.O.U.P. wanted to make her creation a full-fledged production led Conway to extensively revise her original work. Conway’s play is about a detective and fiction writer Emma Fields who shares the stage with Lizzie Gordon, a protagonist from her own book. Gordon, as an alter ego, helps Fields sort out many of her real-life problems. The play becomes a murder mystery when Fields discovers she is tracing her father’s murder.

Conway originally wrote “Case Reopened” as a nine-page submission to the English department’s spring 2013 Creative Writing Contest. She had written a number of screenplays for a class at the time, but most of her theater experience was in stage crew. Remarkably, this was her first attempt at playwriting, but she won the contest.

Conway cited crime dramas as one of her primary influences.

“I started to get into procedural cop shows, which I had never gotten into before,” Conway said. “I started to get into ‘Castle’… and that was a little bit of an influence on me, with wanting to write a crime/mystery story.”

After “Case Reopened” won the English department contest, Veg S.O.U.P. invited Conway, and a group of other select writers, to submit her work to be considered for production.

Conway set out on a dramatic revision process to prepare the play for the Veg S.O.U.P. committee, which involved lengthening the script from nine pages to 64. Conway said the revisions occurred in two very broad jumps completed over surprisingly short periods of time.

“The first jump, I got it to 40-something [pages], and that took me a week,” Conway said. “The revision to add on the other 20 pages took me about a week also.”

The revised dialogue features a lot of dramatic intensity, but it also makes use of dry and sarcastic humor presented in jabs and banter between characters that give the script a realistic and relatable quality. Conway said some of the process of adding intensity to either the dramatic or comedic moments involved feedback and interpretation from her actors.

“Some of the things weren’t even intentional but came out in rehearsal with my actors and the way that they were saying lines or the way that they paused or moved,” Conway said.

Being a director of her own play has given Conway a unique perspective on how difficult certain aspects of her script are to stage, as the staging features some unique scenarios.

Most of the script in present time is limited to Fields and Gordon, but it often flashes back in time and shows a young Fields and her family. The script also involves a number of phone calls, which are actually staged so that viewers can see both callers. Conway said these scenes were particularly difficult to stage.

“Case Reopened” will run at 7:30 p.m. from Nov. 21 to Nov. 23 in the Robert Sinclair Black Box Theatre. Tickets are $5.

Musical Theatre Club revisits classic 90s gameshow with "Legends of the Hidden Tempo"

Musical Theatre Club revives a popular ‘90s kids game show for its fall review, “Legends of the Hidden Tempo” in hopes of stirring nostalgia throughout campus and to uncover the legend of the Alice Austin Theatre. For those unfamiliar with MTC, the group “takes a bunch of songs from different musicals and fits them into the show,” in most cases changing the lyrics, according to MTC President senior Erin Girard.

The colorful piano playing of sophomore Louis Marzella and seniors Benjamin Bergstrom and Philip Romano provide musical input for the performance, along with Bergstrom on synthesizer and junior Dan Mueller on percussion.

Although previous shows have been known to be “family friendly,” this show is noticeably “more edgy and geared toward us college students,” secretary junior Valerie Marchesi said. To say the least, the musical numbers are not all PG-rated.

Marchesi added that the group is extremely proud of the cohesiveness of the show’s individual elements like theme, lyrical adaptations and dance numbers.

“I’m excited because this is the best job we’ve done bringing everything together,” she said.

MTC decided to revive the often-discussed “Legends of the Hidden Tempo” theme last semester when members gathered to discuss the fall semester’s show.

This semester boasts a prominent storyline in comparison to previous performances, according to Girard. The audience can look forward to fun and hilarious references to treasured ‘90s memories throughout the show.

The performance continues MTC’s traditional inter-song transitions like familiar sound bites and short skits in between chair-rattling numbers.

“Legends of the Hidden Tempo” incorporates a game show-style presentation by bringing audience members on stage in a certain skit to compete in humorous and engaging games.

The winner of this contest can expect a lifetime supply of “Hairpoo,” an imaginary MTC-endorsed product that has a musical number all its own.

The musical numbers are filled with incredible choreography and beautiful voices, exploring the lives of college students, making the audience laugh and testing MTC’s creative ability to connect with the audience.

MTC: Legends of the Hidden Tempo shows at 8 p.m., with free tickets available outside the Alice Austin Theatre at 6:15 p.m. the day of each show. The performances run Thursday Nov. 14 to Saturday Nov. 16.

Giordano Dance Chicago explores boundaries of jazz

After the billowing red curtains parted in Wadsworth Auditorium on Saturday Nov. 9, Giordano Dance Chicago swept the stage, impressing the audience with a captivating and dynamic performance. Giordano Dance Chicago is an American jazz dance company stationed in downtown Chicago. The company is known for its high-impact and high-energy artistry throughout the world, redefining the boundaries of jazz. Limelight & Accents brought Giordano Dance Chicago to campus as a part of its 2013-2014 Performing Arts Series.

The company began the night with “Alegría,” choreographed by Kiesha Lalama in 2011. This piece included the entire company, bursting through space wearing red costumes that highlighted everyone’s perfected movements.

For its second piece, the company returned for a smaller group number titled “Commonthread,” choreographed by Autumn Eckman in 2009. This dance took a different stylistic turn from the first piece, exemplifying a more contemporary feel.

The entire company returned for the third piece of the first act, performing in a 2013 piece by Roni Koresh called “Exit 4.” Unlike the other pieces in the show, this dance was separated into four different sections. Each section seamlessly transitioned into the next section, with all the parts making one whole.

The dance involved a mysterious but intriguing narrative interwoven into music and movements. The dancers chanted and screamed, speaking to ideas of conformity and contemporary romance.

After intermission, the lights dimmed and the audience hushed once more, as the entire company returned to the stage for a 2009 piece titled “Give and Take,” choreographed by Brock Clawson. This piece focused on partner work, showing the reliance and trust built among the dancers. The dancers wore dynamic yet classic gray and red costumes. This piece showcased the strength and power of the dancers.

Sticking with the partner theme but breaking away stylistically, the fifth piece of the evening showcased two dancers in a 2011 piece called “Alloy,” another by Eckman. This dance seemed to be a favorite of the night, with thunderous applause and comments throughout the auditorium. The two dancers exhibited their brilliant lines and skill while performing to classical music by Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Their chemistry and unique partner choreography, including some extremely difficult and visually powerful holds, was enthralling.

For the final piece of the night, the entire company joined together one last time for a fun dance piece with a Hispanic flair, choreographed by Liz Imperio in 2009, titled “La Belleza de Cuba” or “The Beauty of Cuba.” The choreography combined traditional music and dance movements of Cuba with modern-day jazz. The company dressed in bright blue hues with the females in flowing dresses and the males in bowler hats.

One dancer dropped his hat partway through the piece but wowed the audience when he expertly picked his hat up with the tip of his foot, causing the mishap to simply look like a part of the choreography.

Giordano Dance Company amazed the crowd of both students and community members and received a lengthy standing ovation.