Entertainment

WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – Monmouth University’s Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the opening of a new gallery exhibit, a retrospective of one of the most respected sculptors of the 20^th century, Michael Malpass (1946 – 1991), taking place in the Pollak Gallery from March 8 through June 30. The opening reception will be held on Friday, April 1 from 6 – 8 p.m. and will include a premiere screening of a new documentary Michael Malpass – A Great Circle created by Monmouth University Communication students under the direction of Erin Fleming, director of Production Services.

Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) works at the fictional Capitol Pictures in early 1950s Hollywood as an enforcer of sorts (think Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It or In the Loop). His job keeps him from his family, forces him to deal with petty press problems and leaves him to fix the scandalous personal lives of the actors and directors working under him. Indirectly, it causes him to smoke a lot too, at the moral expense of lying to his wife.

For a ceremony that traditionally glorifies vanity and glamour, this year’s Oscars telecast took a drastic turn toward the political. Hosted by Chris Rock on Sunday, Feb. 28, the 88^th Academy Awards covered everything from racism to gender roles with some shocking category upsets in between.

Q. When did you realize you wanted to work in television?

The biggest news in the music community the past month has been “Yeezus” himself, and his very anticipated seventh album. The Life of Pablo was released Feb. 14 on Kanye’s own record label “GOOD (Getting Out Our Dreams) Music, Inc.,” which has also released albums by other hip-hop and R&B artists like Common, John Legend, and Pusha T.

In a parallel manner to the way Season One opened up, Better Call Saul returned Monday night and began again with a flash forward of Saul Goodman as Gene, the manager of a Cinnabon in Omaha. Portrayed in black and white, we follow him through mundane cleaning tasks as “Funny How Time Slips Away” by Billy Walker echoes in the background. Gene closes the shop and heads out with the garbage, but somehow manages to get locked in the dumpster room. Rather than opening the emergency door and setting off the alarm and police, Gene waits in the room for hours until someone lets him out, passing the time by carving a note amidst all the other graffiti smeared on the walls—“S.G was here.”

With the superhero realm currently being so powerful and profitable, it would be completely understandable if writers and producers didn’t want to stray from the current safe formula. The only problem with this theory is that comic book enthusiasts like myself might get bored with seeing the typical, run-of-the-mill adaption starring capes, villains and prolonged action.

Sometimes it seems like all the good games are right around the corner, but often upon release they turn out more hype than anything else. Last semester, I ran a feature on video game preorders, within which I gave advice on which games to preorder. I advised caution towards Star Wars: Battlefront, and recommended both No Man’s Sky and Fallout 4. Since that time Fallout 4 and Star Wars: Battlefront have been released, and their reception has been mostly in line with what I predicted. In this feature, I plan to describe several upcoming, noteworthy games that I have played pre-release.

Blue Hawk Records is Monmouth University’s student run record label. Every semester, the Applied Music Industry class taught by Professor Joseph Rapolla, head of the music department, holds auditions and scouts artists, records and produces a compilation album and hosts a live show at the end of the semester in the Rebecca Stafford Student Center. This semester will be the record label’s eighth compilation album. After the success of Shades of Blue last semester, the label’s seventh compilation album, the student officers at Blue Hawk Records are excited to see what this class has in store for the album this semester.

Twenty One Pilots, with Tyler Joseph as the lead singer and Joshua Dun on the drums, has gone from a duo that strictly played small venues with a general admission audience to a band that everybody has heard of. After their release of Blurryface in May 2015, the duo gained a wildly vast mainstream presence that is only continuing to grow. “Stressed Out” and “Tear in my Heart” are songs that most people at least recognize or are just completely obsessed with. You can find Twenty One Pilots anywhere from Tumblr, to Spotify, to iTunes, to headlining tours, all the way to various events where they guest perform. Just a few weeks ago, they played at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado. The band is clearly doing something very right.