It portrays the family relations and financial troubles of an Iranian family through the experiences of two of their children. Ali, the 9-year old brother, loses his sister Zahra’s sole pair of sneakers on his way back home from getting them repaired. Upon being pursued by the very anxious Zahra, eager to wear her newly mended shoes once again, he tearily tells her they are lost and begs her to keep this from their parents.

The two are highly sensitive to their family’s financial situation and agree to work out a solution between themselves by temporarily sharing the one pair of sneakers they still had left (Ali’s). They know that their parents could not afford to replace Zahra’s pair, so Ali goes out in search of them. The rest of the film is a gripping and absolutely charming narrative of their interaction with each other, and the ups and downs in their lives as woven into the story of their shoes.

Related posts:

1. Amid the violent of Iranian Revolution, hope prevails in the film Persepolis
2. Mount Holyoke students showcase talent in Five College Film and Video Festival
3. Film makes bullying a reel issue

Held hostage by the generational shift that is reshaping music in the image of the digital age, Academy elders have been hard pressed to acknowledge the artistry of alternative and electronic music. Alas, this concession has gone little further than inviting rock’s geeky cousins to the (pre-)party.

Undoubtedly, this year’s production had suggested a new pedigree, with the pathbreaking Skrillex nominated in five categories (of which he went on to win three) and the promise of a tribute to electronic dance music (EDM). Indeed, the show paid tribute to EDM, deeming it so obscure as to require the comforting support of “mainstream” artists.

When David Guetta took the stage with Lil’ Wayne and Chris Brown, followed by The Foo Fighters and Deadmau5, the result was a jarring clash of genres, redeemed only by Deadmau5’s soul-shaking rendition of “Raise Your Weapon;” a breathless beast of a song that speaks to the power and rare beauty of the music of man and machine. The solo performance served as a rebuke of the Academy’s hostility, a sentiment given shape just moments before by Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighterswho sneered, “The human element of music is what’s important…it’s not about what goes on in a computer.”

At the root of The Grammy’s defiant resistance to change, lies a debilitating need to categorize and ultimately, define music. It’s an impossibly limiting ideal. As musicians and audiences alike transverse the boundaries between genres, authenticity ceases to have meaning. But, a casual glance at the winners table is proof enough of the Academy’s unwillingness to play by the (new) rules. Rock has become a battlefield where the old guard duel with their bastard offspring for legitimacy; the obsolete ramblings of The Foo Fighters sweeping the scattered field, one shudders to find Rock reduced to a mere caricature of its’ former self. And with all due deference to Bon Iver, who’s achingly bare folk rock has won him trophies for Best Alternative Album and Best New Artist, the former honor should lie with Foster the People’s giddily experimental “Torches,” while the latter, by rights, belongs to Skrillex. Heir to a rich, if undervalued dubstep tradition, Skrillex emerged from the underground to pierce the heart of the culture in one fell swoop.

Looking back upon the ceremony, one cannot claim more than a modicum of surprise- the disappointment is entirely harder to swallow. Indeed, in the words of the late, great Gil Scott-Heron, the revolution will not be televised.

Related posts:

1. The MH News’ road map for awards season
2. The MHN makes our 2009 Grammy predictions
3. Elections stir controversy on campus

What does this mean? Besides all of the fantastic liberal arts benefits, the abundance of stunning short haircuts and women’s activism, it translates that our dorms probably house about twice as many pairs of shoes as a coed college of the same size.

What can we say? We’re well dressed, and proud of it.

However, being the intelligent Mount Holyoke students (Mohos) we are, it’s our job to be savvy – and a lot of current shopping trends are subtle. With a little reading, we can become wise wizards of retail.

Many Mohos come from countries that haven’t fully developed online shopping – this, combined with the fact that South Hadley isn’t exactly an urban epicenter, has led to hours spent lolling around in dorms; looking at cute skirts from Forever21 and American Apparel. Then, add in “shopping momentum” – the phenomenon that once a shopper buys one item, there’s an “increasing likelihood” that she’ll continue purchasing whatever catches her eye, and a lot of packages coming through Auxiliary Services.

How does this work? Researchers at Stanford, Yale, and Duke University discovered that shopping is a two-step process. First, someone decides whether or not to buy the first item (pros and cons). However, after the shopper makes the choice to buy, they spend less time and energy reviewing future purchases on the same shopping trip.

First purchase = Big Credit Card Bill+ All the Other Stuff That Looked Cool + Headache

Other obstacles? Cookies, the non-edible kind, and new-fangled price tags. Browser cookies and account data allow online retailers to track how many times your view an item, so they can raise the price on items you really want. Similarly, the electronic price tags you see in grocery stores and Walmarts aren’t just for efficiency – when store traffic increases, like in the 6:00 p.m. rush, prices rise. Lesson: delete cookies, and beware of when you shop.

Looking for more ways to rule the bank? It turns out that you spend more when you buy using things that don’t look or feel like money (cough cough, those plastic credit cards that feel nothing like our cotton-linen greenbacks). The technical explanation for this is “decoupling of the purchase from the pain of payment.” The really interesting part is that the average Jane, will pay for things you deem “fun” with credit cards, while paying for necessities and the mundane with cash.

When I went home for Thanksgiving, I bought the alluring but way too expensive airport foods with my debit card, but paid the shuttle fare back to campus in cash. The mysterious and dastardly world of marketing tells us that this is because when we buy with our shiny plastic, we evaluate the benefits of what we’re buying, whereas when we pay cash, we look at the costs.

So, my fellow Mohos, beware of the vendors in Blanchard – unless you really need to buy a Chef Jeff cookie.

Interested in more? Here’s some the research that didn’t fit into my post:

Black Friday isn’t Such a Big Deal

Cellphone Signals Track Where You Shop

Related posts:

1. Cookies on Campus
2. Students Engage On the State of the Union
3. Read between the lines: Stuff Mount Holyoke People Like

This vacation, I found myself predominantly tuned to TLC. When you’ve spent the past three months studying, it’s nice to give your brain a breather with mindless TV. Aside from the numerous profiles of obscenely large families, TLC offers countless bridal shows that allow at-home viewers to take a backseat role in the wedding process of everyday gals.

Say Yes to the Dress is the most popular bridal show on TLC and for a good reason. This show is addicting! The original setting of Kleinfeld Bridal in Manhattan has expanded the enterprise to include Bridals by Lori in Atlanta, Georgia, unoriginally dubbed Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta. Both shows include “Big Bliss” versions, putting to rest any fears that the plus-sized sweetie can’t find her perfect dress. And if all these variations still leave you wanting more, Bridals by Lori has included a Bridesmaids edition. Although all shows offer their fair share of drama, Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids somehow has even more than her sister counterparts.

As a way to keep up with her east coast bridal salon rivals, Renée Strauss, a west coast bridal shop, has jumped into the bridal pool of TLC television. The show Brides of Beverly Hills does not, however, seem to stack up to the SYTTD series. Strauss boasts celebrity clients, however, the episodes I watched have no such clientele, unless you count a random fitness model, which I don’t. BBH lacks the emotional connection you feel towards the brides on SYTTD. I don’t know whether it is the stylists in Beverly Hills or the numerous scenes of Strauss serving champagne to almost all of her clients, but BBH is the show I fell asleep to this vacation. The brides on the show may be in love, but I wasn’t.

Despite the addition of one disappointing new bridal show, the new series Four Weddings does not follow the newbie trend set by BBH. FW follows four different brides as they say their nuptials. Each bride attends the others weddings and votes which is the best, the winner walking away with a dream honeymoon vacation. FW breaks the dress-shopping mold TLC seemed to have formed. It is entertaining, spending a perfect amount of time profiling each wedding and allowing you to gaze on the glamorous and the ridiculous. I mean it’s not everyday you get to witness a wedding at a zoo (surprisingly it turned out very well!).

So, are all of these bridal shows encouraging us young bachelorettes to get hitched? At this point in time, not at all. For now it’s just nice to look at a bunch of pretty dresses and fun parties.

Related posts:

1. The bells are ringing: your guide to the royal wedding
2. Finding ‘Bliss’ in the midst of life’s tumult, unhappiness
3. Abbey Chapel now open to public for weddings

Photo courtesy of Erick Serna and The Killing Floor

Erick Serna and the Killing Floor is a funky blues band from western Massachusetts. The band is a cross between Serna, the former guitarist and vocalist of The Dear Hunter, and musicians Cliff Sarcona and Sammy Dent. “The Killing floor” portion of their name is said to come from a Howlin’ Wolf song called “Killing Floor;” that was later reproduced by Jimi Hendrix, who inspired Erick.

They have a versatile, raw sound that sends you on a power trip with each song. Their debut album The Grip was recorded in Josh Rehault’s (of the band Mercies) barn, which is no surprise, as you can hear the clarity and the sound of each instrument resonating.

With songs varying from funky blues to good ol’ fashioned rock and roll,  that make you move like in “The Grip,” to melodic “Jet Blue Blues;” this band has got something for everyone. I’m also a huge fan of “It’s been a long time comin’. ” It starts out with a lot of power and build-up, but halfway mellows out to focus on the bands wide variety of sound capabilities. Additionally each of the songs promotes a continuity of the sound so even though there is an extended bridge, they find a way to bring the sound back to where it started. Their lyrics are real, approachable and can relate to anyone and everyone. For example, ”It’s been a long time comin’ ” discusses how inevitable a confrontation can be and Erick sings in response “I see right through you, ain’t gonna happen today.”

Erick Serna and The Killing Floor has an authentic, genuine and passionate type of music, one that is definitely for  good time tunes- check them out!

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2. Web Exclusive: Margaret Cho to Debut New Album in Boston
3. V8s’ Victorious album launched

On the other hand…

Anna Faris hosted SNL this Saturday, and I wasn’t particularly impressed. Her monologue was mediocre and none of the sketches really stood out to me. I enjoyed the Lifetime movies but even that sketch came off as if she was trying too hard. Another note-worthy sketch of the evening was the imitated GOP debate simply because I cannot get enough of the ridiculousness that is these Republican candidates.

Finally, Drake was the special guest that performed. I am not a big fan of his music, but I think he’s definitley developed as an artist. I heard only glimpses of his new song and there seems to be more electronica included. Nicki Minaj also stopped by to join Drake in singing “Make me Proud”. But now every time I see her, I can only think of this girl.

Related posts:

1. Turning a critical eye on the concept sketch
2. What is the United States in for in 2012?
3. F-bomb said on SNL

New shows:

New Girl: You saw her in 500 days of Summer and love her band, “She and Him”. Yes, Zooey Deschanel is back in a new medium, a sitcom. Zooey plays emotionally unstable “Jess” who finds her pretentious boyfriend cheating on her and moves out into a loft surrounded by four guys. She’s cute and quirky (she tends to sing to herself, a lot) but also socially awkward (with her hilarious  Lord of the Rings references.)  All while learning how easy it is to find a new group of friends that can support you in any way. “It’s Jess!”

Whitney: Whiney Cummings stars as herself in this hilarious new sitcom where she displays how comfortable one can be in a long lasting relationship. Her rugged boyfriend, Alex, challenges her, as he often knows her far better than she knows herself. With Whitney and Alex both having their own trio of friends, there is always some sort of plot going on between the two groups. Brutally honest, blunt, and beyond hilarious, a perfect way to take the edge off!

2 Broke Girls: Kat Dennings is another actress testing the sitcom genre this fall. In 2 Broke Girls she plays a Brooklyn diner waitress along with Caroline Channing, whose character recently just went bankrupt. Kat who plays sarcastic Max, is experienced in this lifestyle and has to spend all her time teaching the spoiled “blonde giraffe,” Caroline, that this is just how things have to be. Occupy Brooklyn perhaps?

Quality running shows:

Parks and Recreation: This is still probably one of my favorite shows currently on air. Leslie Knope is my hero.

Community: Though with its plot hitting a plateau, Community is still filled with hilarious jokes and references. Easy to get hooked on and you don’t have to be consistent with it!

Breaking Bad: I can’t believe I just discovered this show this past summer but I have been completely…addicted. Though the season finale just aired last Sunday, this is your time to catch up before new episodes air in a few months!

Shows that are just falling behind:

The Office: I suppose it was a matter of time before The Office would start receding in popularity. Perhaps it’s the lack of Steve Carell or because there hasn’t been anything “new” so far!

Glee: I want to like the new season so much but I just can’t seem to! The plot has stayed the same, power dynamics likewise, and it’s just the same thing over and over again. Is Rachel back with Finn? Quinn’s gone crazy again? I don’t know, it might be time to put this on a shelf!

As you can see, there’s lot of ways you can be enjoying your cold, rainy autumn days (come on, it’s New England!) while being entertained! Stay tuned!

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1. Con Zooey Deschanel
2. “Suicide School?”
3. College fosters partnership with Holyoke’s Peck school

Hush. The piano is about to sing.

The piano stands on the stage, alone, singular, grand majesty in black. On the ground, a few feet before it a microphone is propped, ready to receive the voice now in repose. The site of this introductory silence is McCulloch Auditorium housed by Pratt Music Hall. It’s another Sunday concert at Mount Holyoke, this time by a guest performer by the name of Victor Rosenbaum.

Hush, the silence seems to say as senior citizens and music students filter in, the piano is about to sing. The program gives a run-down of the evening’s visitation: Mozart and Schubert, Schumann and Chopin. For it is a visitation, a present suddenly awakening the past, reading the past as it were in notes of music rather than words of literature, the usual circumstance for an English major such as FS.

Victor Rosenbaum coaxing pure music from the piano.

Victor Rosenbaum appears and as he places fingers to the keys, the piano begins to sing. The notes of Mozart’s Rondo in A Minor trickle into the silence, his fingers exerting a gentle pressure on the piano, his fingers coaxing and rousing the piano from its magisterial silence into this lilting joy- this give and take like a hand out of nowhere curling around your elbow and guiding you out of your lost self to safety.

This is the reason why you come, week after week without fail.

Before you, a young girl places a saucer of milk on the ground in the foyer of her house. She is nervous, looking back and forth, before rummaging into the pocket of her skirt for the cookie she saved during dinner. She does not think of Santa Claus, he of the hohoho and red and white and once a year visit. Instead, her mind trails off to her grandmother whispering of brownies, shy brownies, blessing a house with their helpful presence, wishing only for a little milk in response.

The young girl thinks, “Yet a little milk is too little,” so she saves her cookie from herself to make a good impression on the brownie. It’s a sugar cookie, fragrant with butter and a dash of cinnamon.

The next morning, both the cookie and milk are gone. The young girl is delighted. For an instant, she runs to and fro the length of the foyer, her thoughts skittering about even faster, a zig-zag joy of having found a friend.

This goes on until the young girl is a young woman, making her debut into society. On the night of her debut, the young girl now a young woman hesitates, hand against the threshold, suddenly lost. She feels a pressure against her elbow, which prompts her hand to fall and her foot to step forward. When she turns away from the light and all the faces turning towards her, she sees a small shadow duck behind an ornamental vase in the foyer and she thinks, “Oh.”

It is the happy ‘Oh’ of a friend remembered and seen again.

Your vision clears and Mr. Rosenbaum steps forward amidst the audience’s clapping and bows. You join in the clapping, the clap of your palms signalling remembrance and joy, the little tale of “The Brownie and the Young Girl.”

In contrast to this early piece of pure delight, the next piece rings out, a battle in its first movement of Allegro. Thus, Schubert comes riding out, piano sailing before him as his weapon and ally in musical arms against the assail of the enemy.

You smile, because of course this is Schubert – the he of immense drama and conflict, and then reconciliation and resolution. (You know nothing as to his life, but his music prompts this description from you.) The battle that characterized the beginning of Schubert’s Piano Sonata in C Minor begins to fade, no longer dominating, but softened, measured, a nostalgic meditation in the second movement of Adagio. The veteran of battle sits and reminisces, his life in all its intensity, its chaos, its joy, its sadness, its drama passes before him.

As you listen, you begin to hear an echo, the beginning of certain measures prompting an echoing answer from your memory of music. There are no names to match these echoes, only a sense of expectation, a hum from your mind to end such a beginning. How odd, you think. You put off the thought until the end of the song, because the third movement has crept up, a short Menuetto: Allegro in which you feel joy bubbling from your throat. Instinctively, your hands clasp, coming to rest against your heart.

This is Schubert remembering joy, you think. There is playfulness here, an Aha! and Hahaha! moment, because it is good to be alive, to have lived then to never live at all. Thus, the fourth movement Allegro ends in triumph, a confirmation of all that one can have in just living.

During the intermission, you scan the program and its extra slip of paper detailing the circumstances of each piece. Your instincts are proven right.

Rosenbaum comments that the piece is the, “First of three great sonatas that Schubert composed at a furious pace in September of 1828, while ill and just two months before his death at the age of 31″ and follows the death of his, “Compositional hero, Beethoven, who had died the previous year, Schubert here unabashedly borrows not only the key of Beethoven’s most dramatic works, but also the theme and harmonic progression of one of them (the 32 Variations in C minor).”

Yet, the piece is clearly Schubert’s. Rosenbaum ends his commentary on the piece with, “But with that material and inspiration, Schubert rises to a new level of compositional mastery in his own unique voice.”

The next piece is also the penultimate piece, Schumann’s Scenes of Childhood or Kinderscenen, Opus 15. Because this is Schumann, within a few minutes, your heart has risen up your throat and in counterpoint, your interwoven fingers have risen up to cover your mouth, open and curving into a grin. The first few pieces of his themed work Kinderscenen sound like laughter, the heady moments of childhood when giddy happiness overwhelmed all of one’s senses. Life itself was an adventure.

And yet, that childhood has gone and passed you by with nary a second look, while you strain your neck to find it, while you stand and look at the sky on a moonlit night and count the stars, wishing for one to fall so that you might make a wish.

You linger and in your lingering, remember so that as you grow old, you also grow young, memories visited and revisited till they grow anew. You can only try, you tell yourself, what is the harm in that? Till the end, you try.

The finale is Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantasie, Opus 61. It sounds like a waltz, the mystique of the dance as captured by a piano and its pianist moving in concerted motion with one another. In counterpoint to Rosenbaum’s moving fingers, his lips move as if he sings along with the piano, or rather he sings and the piano is his voice in action. Suddenly, the elegance and mystery of the Polonaise-Fantasie brings not to mind the waltz, but a boy for whom the letters of the alphabet, the strictures of grammar, and the nay-say of society mean nothing.

“He never cries, he never speaks,” the boy’s mother says, fretting to her husband. They look at their son, sitting by the window, mouth opening and closing as birds trill and tease, spring is here, on the tree outside.

“A quiet boy, neither ill-mannered nor lazy, but he seems unable to learn or comprehend the importance of letters and words,” writes his third-grade teacher. This is a version of the same comment written by all the boy’s teachers.

Only the music teacher at his school writes otherwise. She sends the boy home with reams of music sheets every day. He returns the next morning with the reams of music sheet filled. When she plays the notes, she transcribes the music into scribbled words of feeling. She sends her own personal notes on the music notes home to the boy.

“Listen to him,” she writes, “He speaks music.”

The boy’s parents are overjoyed. They enroll him in music classes. Gradually, they save up enough money to enroll him in a special school devoted to music.

At his first recital after the encore, his teacher rushes forward and shakes their hand. He is all smiles, he sees their son’s future. The boy’s parents listen attentively, but what catches their attention is not their son’s teacher, but the off-hand call of one of his classmates.

“Oy, oy!”

The boy turns.

“Good concert,” his classmates says, pumping the boy’s hand up and down. “We all knew you’d do it. You’re the boy, y’know. The boy who speaks piano.”

That’s all the boy’s parents need, this confirmation of who their boy is and how he is to know the world around him. This is their boy (although one day he will not longer be a boy): the boy who speaks piano.

So ends the concert and so ends this trailing review of it. There’s nothing more powerful than the immediacy of a live performance, when all you have is yourself, a seat, and the air swelling with music. You the listener become awash in the atmosphere of music. There’s a tremor beneath you as your chair vibrates a little from the sound ringing through the auditorium.

Why might this be of interest to an English major, you ask? (Especially as told by the food-obsessed FS?) It is of interest to anyone living, but for this particular English major, a live performance becomes a live inspiration of story-telling as can be evidenced by FS’ accounts i.e. verbal interpretations of music above.

Upcoming performances are:

Friday, October 21 at Chapin Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Family and Friends Jazz Concert by Big Band, Vocal Jazz and Chamber Jazz

Saturday, October 22 at Abbey Chapel at 4:00 p.m. Family and Friends Choral/Orchestral Concert by the Mount Holyoke Glee Club, Chorale, Chamber Singers and Orchestra.

Sunday, October 23, 2011 at McCulloch Auditorium at 4:00 p.m. Warbeke Memorial Concert by the Kavafian-Schub-Shilfrin Trio, members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

For more information, visit the Mount Holyoke Music Department.

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The House of Blues is conveniently located what seems to me as the middle of Boston (as this was only the 3rd time I’d been there) and it was full of undergraduates and other adults in their 20′s. The show started with opening act Teengirl Fantasy. Having never heard of them, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Happily surprised, I found myself shaking my head along with the beat and dancing in a trance. It was quite hypnotic, as it was the beat that took control over the sound rather than the lyrics (not many pieces have words). Their performance lasted about an hour and I could only find one fault: they didn’t advertise their name! Of course it took me a few days to google them but alas now I find myself listening to them whenever I need that electro-trance relaxing vibe.

Finally when Crystal Castles was supposed to perform, it was announced that Alice Glass had broken her ankle and that it would be cancelled. Naturally Alice Glass said “fuck no” and the show went on. With what I believe to be their best hits playing one after the other the concert was one big party. No lighting was given to the stage other than the bright, multi-colored strobe lights placed on-stage. Alice still moved around the stage and, not surprisingly, still jumped into the crowd of people in front of her multiple times. Instead of water, like other artists, Alice relieved her thirst with hard liquor, again as anticipated.  Their popular hits played one after the other, these consisted of songs like: “Black Panther”, “Baptism”, “Violent Dreams”, “Crimewave” and “Vanished”. They just kept coming. One thing that I wished was different about this performance is it’s length. With a 50-minute repertoire, it was nothing short of fascinating, but I was for some reason under the impression that it would be a bit longer.

Regardless, for a $25 concert I feel that it was a bargain and that it was really worth that time and commuting money!

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2. It’s “business time” for the Conchords
3. Erick Serna and The Killing Floor: Review of album “The Grip”

Mubarak has at this present time stepped down and the power is left to the regime, which is 80% of Egypt’s current people. Though people feel that they are liberated that they are free, it will be a difficult process to achieve the same of democracy that we as many Americans know it to be.

I wanted to mention just how important the media is in today’s society. With Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other forms of social media being at the tip of our fingers (literally, I know you all press “f” every time you open your browser) we have access to so many outlets that we often take for granted. I think the Internet is an amazing creation and I’m on it all the time. From updating a status, tweeting, blogging to reading the news, we are all able to know what is going on at any given time at any place, granted that the country we are communicating with is reflecting its information on the Internet. Many of the protesters in Egypt used Facebook to organize their protests (as said during their interviews with BBC and CNN), as they were able to publish the location, times and purpose of their meetings and group gatherings. With the government shutting down the Internet in the early days of the protests, it clearly exemplified how they felt the Internet was a threat.

I think it’s great when people are actually using these outlets to do something beneficial. There’s always this topic of whether social media are simply just a means of complaining (especially amongst the younger age groups) but here is an example of just how important it can be.  More importantly, those in Egypt were able to communicate with users outside of their country and much of the revolution was displayed globally. Even here in South Hadley the word traveled and students were able to protest with Egyptians.

Related posts:

1. It’s just a revolution. Period.
2. Public participation increases power of social media
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