The Neon Demon, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, is not a film with an agenda that is set to please the masses. It is a film where the director knew his vision and wanted to put it screen. He embodied his directorial style to create a story that only he could tell. He purposefully did this regardless of the anticipated reactions it would get from audiences.
Every semester, Monmouth’s student run record label, Blue Hawk Records, creates and records a compilation album featuring various artists on campus. The Applied Music Industry class runs the whole production by making and producing this album. This process has many steps, starting by holding auditions in Lauren K. Woods theatre to releasing and promoting the album. This semester the class is working on their ninth compilation album, 9 Lives, which will be released Dec. 7, with a show of the album held in the Rebecca Stafford Student Center. The album features six artists from varying genres. This week, I met up with the two female singer/song writers on the album to talk about their tracks and experiences as up-and-coming musicians.
Less than year ago, Troye Sivan announced he was going on tour once again and even though I had already previously seen him live, I purchased tickets without a second thought. Sivan didn’t disappoint.
While the American Broadcasting Company, also known as ABC, prides itself on being one of the most diverse networks, it’s slew of comedy series seems to lean into the ‘trying too hard’ category rather than groundbreaking. Shonda Rhimes, a popular ABC series director, crafted TGIT (Thank God It’s Thursday), a lineup of strong, natural shows. There is nothing forced about it, nothing about the diverse characters seems planted or unlikely, but feels genuine and is done with ease. The characters on shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away With Murder, and Scandal are one of a kind and effortlessly portray characters that come from every walk of life.
Monmouth University’s Theatre Department completed a sold-out run of Duncan Shiek and Steven Sater’s Spring Awakening. The show was the first sold-out departmental show.
Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart aren’t two names I’d instantly link. Snoop, whose birth name is Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr., is a famous rapper who has been in the music industry for decades. Martha Stewart is a well-known cook, television personality, and businesswoman. So, where is the connection?
A new production of William Finn and James Lapine’s Falsettos opened on Broadway on Oct. 27. The Lincoln Center Theatre production opened at the Walter Kerr Theatre and was directed by Lapine, the original director and co-book-writer. Finn also co-wrote the book and composed the mostly sung-through score.
The 24-year-old, Brooklyn native started self-producing her music back in 2014, writing her own lyrics, creating her own beats, and receiving help from friends to mix the track. In 2014 she released “BROOKLYN (Chiraq Freestyle)” featuring Rell & La Danger (RedLyfe) via her Sound Cloud profile. In 2015, she began to earn a following within the New York music world and also gained a presence on social media when she released her mixtape Sleep Walkin. The mixtape features 10 tracks with upbeat raps such as the highly emotional track, “Through The Day,” which is a personal track which talks about the murder of her older brother; his murder took place in September of 2009. This past May, she released her debut single “OOOUUU.” Since its release, “OOOUUU” has rocketed from a Brooklyn street anthem to number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 list.
Kenneth Womack, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, is set to release his new book, The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four, on Nov. 30. The book is an updated version of the original, which was published as two volumes in 2014.
Every semester, Monmouth’s student-run record label, Blue Hawk Records, creates and records a compilation album featuring various artists on campus. The Applied Music Industry class creates and produces this album; this includes holding auditions in Lauren K. Woods theatre to releasing and promoting the album.