Mount Hood

Review: “Beautiful Trauma”

Zoë Strickland | Managing Editor

Alecia Moore, more commonly known as P!nk, released her new album on Oct. 13. “Beautiful Trauma” is the artist’s first record in five years.

In true P!nk fashion, “Beautiful Trauma” is a tête-à-tête between upbeat pop songs and serious ballads. Her lyrics are deep and personal; like you’re sitting down with Moore and having the world’s most exciting conversation.

The first four tracks are a 16 minute romp, including “Revenge,” which features Eminem. “Revenge” is repetitive in the best way, and has lyrics with a feel reminiscent of Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” infused with a bit up rap and pop.

The bops transform into a two-song slow jam with “But We Lost It” and “Barbies.” Both tracks represent the softer, more honest side of P!nk. They’re a representation of my favorite strain of P!nk’s music — stripped down vocals paired with a singular instrument. Moore’s voice was made for slow ballads, her soulful cantor and impactful lyrics weight every line.

The bulk of the album contains fun tracks that make you want to belt out every lyric. The songs are sell-able and make perfect singles, while still bringing the lyrical depth that’s hidden under the surface of P!nk’s songs.

The album ends opposite of how it begins, completing the story of the album. The rocky relationship found in the lyrics of the titular track comes full-circle with “You Get My Love,” a slow tune in which P!nk turns the anger displayed in the first song into acceptance and openness.  

In recent years, P!nk’s discography has been caught up with the same general sound. She’s been circulating around heavy beats with an essence of EDM and a touch of one-instrument ballads for her past three albums. “Beautiful Trauma” wasn’t anything new to P!nk’s repertoire.

 

Contact the author at journalmanaging@wou.edu

Review: “How to Murder Your Life”

Alexandra Martin | Entertainment Editor

Life is just too hard. Well, it can be. As we attempt to trudge through all that is “existence” in modern society, what with our social envy, serial relationships, crippling college debt and picturesque meals littering Instagram. All the while waiting to be buried or burned by yet more debt, steep mortgages and praying that somehow we can say, “I lived a good life” at the end of it all before we take a dirt nap or we fade into some vaporous eternity.

For some, we disguise the everlasting embers of pain and anger, feelings that we can’t choose, with hard exteriors and “resting b—- face.” Maybe taking any hard-earned cash and blowing it all on a barely-there ensemble to exemplify just how barely-there our mind is during the hours of lectures wondering, “what good is this information?” Others, we turn to intoxicants, spending endless hours at cheap apartment parties with underage peers or local karaoke nights at surrounding businesses coveting the bitter water of death and lusting for the misty moment when it floods us from head-to-toe.

“How to Murder Your Life” is 350-plus vainglorious pages of raw, dizzying dazzle written by a petulant privileged American girl, Cat Marnell. This literature, if you can even call it that, is a memoir peppered with such a blatant lack of self-pity that a person almost finds themselves sympathizing with the writer. Almost.

Marnell memorializes her existence beginning with the shining and always memorable teen years. She writes about her academic life attending a posh private school and how her father, a budding psychiatrist, gave her that first bottle of ADHD medication beginning the long descent down the deepest of drug-addled rabbit holes.

A tourist of her own life, Marnell finds herself with a bottomless dependence on any and all flavors of second hand pick me ups, detailing accounts of abusive relationships and recollections of nights spent in New York City smoking crack at a rooftop party. She describes the demented thrills of the uppers and the ghastly downs that follow a thrill seeker.

This memoir is a stimulating account of an “existence” that is all too familiar for many readers. “How to Murder Your Life” is just as riveting as it is frustrating.

 

Contact the author at journalentertainment@wou.edu

Review: “Blade Runner 2049”

Alexandra Martin | Entertainment Editor

It is the year 2049; do you know where Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford are? Gosling, otherwise known as “K,” is spending his time working for the LAPD as a “blade runner.” Gosling’s main purpose is to hunt his own kind, other bioengineered humans, and “retire,” which is a nice way of killing, his rogue brethren. Harrison Ford plays a straight-shooting egotist and former blade runner by the name of Rick Deckard.  

Ford was also featured in the predecessor to this year’s “Blade Runner 2049,” the 1982 film “Blade Runner.”

If you’ve never seen the original, which I hadn’t until recently, this year’s adaptation is bound to leave something to be desired if you go in blind. Typically, I don’t put too much concern into understanding the plot or what I may be missing when a movie is based on a book or is a remake, or maybe a sequel that has taken 20 years to come to fruition. This time, I am earnestly grateful that I heeded the recommendation of my significant other to give it a go and educate myself prior to attending the movie.

“Blade Runner 2049,” was a quality film. Aside from the stellar acting and incredible cinematography, the story in and of itself was impeccably told. It is deeply philosophical and retains just enough of the original “Blade Runner” to weave the two movies together with ease, allowing the viewer to be able to experience the movie, not just watch it.

 

Contact the author at journalentertainment@wou.edu

Something for everyone this fall

Alexandra Martin | Entertainment Editor

Fall in the Pacific Northwest usually means one thing to the community: long, cold, rainy days spent inside. An exorbitant amount of time can pass simply daydreaming of dead fall leaves crunching underfoot, sipping on hot apple cider and reminiscing of those days that seem like yesterday that were devoted to complaining about the sweaty, smoky and unforgiving summer season.

Well, fall is here; the autumnal breeze rips through campus like a hot knife through butter, but that doesn’t mean we have to give up on outdoor activities. Airlie Hills Harvest Festival is in full swing until the end of October, and while the list of goings-on isn’t endless, at least it’s something other than binge-watching Netflix and moping.

First thing’s first: the corn maze. If you were lucky enough to grow up in an area that had a corn maze during the fall, then you know what I’m talking about. Why is wandering around a bunch of corn and getting lost so enjoyable? Is it the riddles scattered along the way, dropping hints of which direction to go? Maybe it’s the glow-sticks? I’m not sure. There is no science to answer that question. Trust me, I googled it. But one thing I do know without having to turn to the internet for answers: the Airlie Hills corn maze is awesome.

Next, the pumpkin patch. With over 30 different varieties of pumpkins, this is the place to find the perfect gourd to carve up and shove a tea light candle inside, in the name of Halloween. Maybe pumpkin carving isn’t your thing — that’s okay. There are little hay bales, miniature pumpkins, ornamental corn and mums to add a little pizzazz to your dorm room.

Still not turned on by the corn maze or décor? Well, there are indoor slides, a full menu of food and beverage items, pedal-karts and farm animals; this place actually has something for everyone.

Airlie Hills Harvest Festival is open Thursday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. until the end of October. After that, it’s back indoors until summer.

 

Contact the author at journalentertainment@wou.edu

BloodyVox Floods Rice Auditorium

Alexandra Martin | Entertainment Editor
Photo by Nick Brooks | Freelance Photographer

Nearly every seat in Rice Auditorium was filled this past Friday for the second show in the Smith Fine Arts Series 41st season, — BodyVox: BloodyVox, an imaginative and talented dance ensemble portraying the portentous lore that stems from people’s darkest fears and surrounds the month of October.

BodyVox is a dance company from Portland, Oregon, known for its dramatic imagery built through dance with a bit of a slapstick, theatrical twist. After being founded in 1997, BodyVox has attained an impressive number of accolades for performances in nine award winning films, three operas and 30 original shows, among many other achievements.

For the opening of the show at Rice, a singular gentleman emerged from the drawn velvety curtains in what appeared to be the get-up of a detective from a ‘40’s movie: trench coat, fedora, brief case — you get the idea. After some bizarre tight-lipped gesticulation toward the audience, he whipped a microphone and a cell out of his pocket and, using an application similar to Mouth Mover, began to present the night’s entertainment. He coaxed out a couple laughs from the audience by switching to an iPad as opposed to his phone and after a couple minutes, disappeared behind the curtain.

Each following entertainment piece alternated between the 11 performers present at Rice Auditorium while employing an array of props for each dance to drive home the theme “BloodyVox.” In the dance, “Dormez Vous,” which means “you sleep” in French, a bed was utilized to give the illusion of people sleeping and creatures of the night spilling out from underneath the bed. Piece by piece, the performances were aided by costumes and miscellaneous objects on the stage in addition to the choreography and music, maintaining the same nebulous feel throughout the show.

While there was not exactly blood in “BloodyVox,” when paired with a fog machine, flashing lights, ominous music and put near pitch black lighting over the audience, the evening’s entertainment casted a hematic shadow in the best way possible.

BodyVox wrapped up the first portion of the Smith Fine Art Series fall season. The entertainment will resume Jan. 12 with Celtic Journey: Sounds and Soundtracks, featuring Western’s own Dirk Freymuth.

Contact the author at journalentertainment@wou.edu

 

Catch and Release: Album Reviews

Discovering newly released music before the masses are aware of it used to be a pastime for some. Knowing all the lyrics, mastering the air guitar and making sure that everyone around knows who found it first were all very important parts of being the coolest. Here a few albums that have been released recently. They aren’t for everyone, but at least it’s something other than listening to the same songs you jammed out to in high school.

“Half Light” by Rostam, a former group member of Vampire Weekend, is an album that’s almost perfect for studying or sleeping. Having listened to Vampire Weekend in high school, I find that there are all the elements of Rostam’s previous group, but there’s a finesse to “Half Light” that sets it apart. Perhaps it was taking a page out of Bon Iver’s book for the cinematography of his music video or the minimalism that, ironically, makes you want to go buy the album. It’s his solo debut and, while it reflects his previous group, it is anything but typical.

Open Mike Eagle recently released “Brick Body Day Kids Still Dream.” After listening to the first few songs, I felt like I had listened to the same song on repeat. Each tone story made me feel the same feelings, see the same images. In an attempt to interpret this album, I noticed that it mainly focuses on the past, but also dreams of the future — an all too common theme. Some of the songs are so erratic that it actually made me physically frustrated. But maybe there is a level of musicality that I have yet to unearth in myself.

After listening to music for hours on end, trying to write this article, I stumbled across the album “I Tell a Fly” by Benjamin Clementine. Just as I was hoping and praying for something different, or an eye-opening album to listen to, I got this. Though it wasn’t exactly what I was searching for, it’s just fine. If you can imagine Death Grips and Timber Timbre having a little music-baby on a rebellious streak, it would be Benjamin Clementine. Similar to past albums, each song carries a similar weight with it and, after having seen Clementine on an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, I was more than a little disappointed. “I Tell a Fly” is jazzy, avant garde, electronic and modern. Frankly, it’s all over the place.

Finally, “Wonderful, Wonderful” by the one and only, The Killers. Perhaps my review of this album is a bit biased, being that I think The Killers are pretty amazing. Imbibing a bit and singing loudly and off-key to “Mr. Brightside” still sounds like a good time to me. This album — however high my hopes were — was not so much of a letdown, as it was a surprise. After disappearing off the scene, The Killers haven’t really lost their touch. “Wonderful, Wonderful” retains the same light and delicate instrumentals that were on previous albums, but with darker emotions. Sure, it is no “Hot Fuss,” but it’s better than a kick in the pants.

 

Contact the author at journalentertainment@wou.edu

Salem Cinema introduces alternative film experience

Alexandra Martin | Entertainment Editor

Going to the movies, a popular pastime since the Nickelodeon debuted in the early 20th century, is not only about the movies themselves but the whole experience. For most, attending a movie as a child was the first glimpse we received into the adult world. However, with the rise of Netflix, Hulu, on-demand and the increasing popularity of Redbox, along with the untimely demise of Blockbuster, watching a movie seems to have lost some of the magic that it once had.

Instead of going on a first date to the local theater and drowning the butterflies in your stomach with too-buttery popcorn and Coca-Cola products, people would rather save the $20 and “Netflix and chill.” But one theater is sticking it to the man and retaining the roots that remind us of our first experience watching a movie on the big screen.

Those familiar, dimly-lit, slanted walkways, dancing soda and candy previews and the intimate seating arrangements still remain intact at Salem Cinema, a three-screen theater located on Broadway Street.

It’s more than just a place to make a person nostalgic for youth and to see an overpriced cinema remake of a movie that came out thirty years ago.

As part of the Manhattan Short Film Festival, Salem Cinema screens movies from Sydney, Moscow, Kathmandu and Vienna providing a most unique experience for any Friday night out.

Furthermore, the Salem Cinema is beyond being merely a business out to make a profit. The cinema also participates in a program called “Reel Change,” which allows non-profit organizations to borrow the reels that the theater screens to raise money for causes in the Salem area. Some such causes are: The Straub Environmental Learning Center, Salem Audubon Society and Marion-Polk food share.

The Salem Cinema, also known as High Street Cinema, opened in 1982 and is the only locally owned and operated theater in the greater Salem area. It strays from the straight and narrow, bringing cinema’s alternative side to life: showing independent, art and foreign films such as Wind River, Viceroy’s House and Deconstructing The Beatles: SGT. Pepper, to name a few of the far-fetched titles now playing. It is an ideal place to get a taste of the past while enjoying the leisure of attending a silver screen feature film.

 

Contact the author at journalentertainment@wou.edu

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