Pop Culture

The long-awaited weekend has finally arrived. This Sunday, at 8:30 EST, is the 89th Annual Academy Awards, more commonly known as the Oscars. This is the oh-so-exciting time when actors, directors, screenwriters, and basically everyone in the movie business get recognized (or snubbed) for their hard work. I am one of the hopeful few who aspires to work in the entertainment industry someday, so the Oscars is something that I always look forward to.

I would like to preface this piece by stressing how little authority I have in determining what movies are worth watching and what movies are absolute garbage. I’m a 20-year-old white woman with limited life experience who hasn’t quite learned the difference between credit and debit. Apparently, society has anointed Quentin Tarantino one of the best filmmakers of our generation, and frankly I am appalled by this decision. Where was I for this vote? I have seen maybe two or three of his movies, including Pulp Fiction, and I can easily say they were all TRASH.

Ah, it’s that time of year again, folks. When students all across Grounds from a myriad of different majors and years congregate at the libraries to frantically finish their ten-page essay for Media Studies or problem set for Computer Science (… at least I think that’s what they do in CS classes) or review ten chapters of biology he/she was not in class to synthesize. I took to Alderman to observe some of our wonderful, studious students. In classic finals fashion, the line for Greenberry’s was out the door, and it took us three and a half years to find a table to work at. 

Happy finals season! The beautiful time of year when the people who haven’t visited a library all semester (me) are suddenly there every night this week (me) and are getting dirty looks from the people who were there all semester and now have to fight for space (not me). 

This October, a new kind of clubhouse opened on New York’s East 20th Street. The space offers up a cafe and comfortable workspaces; a meticulously curated library;

Story By: Madeline Baker

Two years after standing in front of a bold background that proudly proclaimed the word FEMINIST, Beyoncé yet again used her platform at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) as an opportunity to make a statement. When she arrived on the red carpet with the “Mothers of the Movement” (that is, Lezley McSpadden, Gwen Carr, Wanda Johnson and Sybrina Fulton, mothers of black people who have been killed at the hands of law enforcement or vigilante justice), it was clear that she “did not come to play.”     

Women in Bikinis. Not exactly the first thing one thinks of when talking about the empowerment of women through sports. It was, however, the inspiration behind artist Angela Lorenz’s exhibit Victorious Secret-Noticing Elite Sports for Women, 300 A.D. Lorenz’s collection commemorates the 40th anniversary of the passing of Title IX, a historic piece of legislation that prohibited discrimination based on gender in sports and education. Inspired by an Ancient Roman mosaic originally understood to portray Ancient Roman women dressed in bikinis and holding instruments, Lorenz’s depiction reveals the true context of the piece: an athletic competition celebrating the strength and athletic vigor of Ancient Roman women.

The theme of this year’s Academy Awards was unofficially #OscarsSoWhite.