Arts & Events

    Under the alias “Grouper,” musician and artist Liz Harris has been making eerie and mysterious solo records since 2005. Last Friday saw the release of Grouper’s newest album, Ruins, a tender and sprawling masterpiece dedicated to the past that successfully encapsulates the memories and history of memory and history themselves. As ambient music, Grouper records have always toyed cautiously with varying levels of self-exposure, an approach/retreat cycle often mediated by Harris’ application of reverb. But, over time, Harris has maintained a trend of gradually unveiling the swirling and...

365 Days/365 Plays opened last weekend, and continues this weekend, so be sure to catch this amazing and unique show before it leaves for good! Three students shared their perspectives and experiences with the show, the Puget Sound Theatre Department and theater in general. The basic premise behind 365 is that in 2006, Susan-Lori Parks decided to challenge herself by writing a play every single day for a year. However, this particular performance only features about 30 of the 365, each carefully chosen for their importance and relation to each...

The 10th annual Hispanic Film Festival, put on by the University of Puget Sound’s Hispanic Studies department, showcases five different critically regarded Spanish language films. The festival began on Oct. 22 and will run through November 19th. The films that have already been screened include Con la para quebrada, an award winning documentary about portrayal of women in Spanish cinema, and La Yuma, a Nicaraguan drama film whose subject is an 18 year old girl who wants to be a boxer. The Hispanic Film Festival is open to the public,...

The night Oct. 28 offered students and locals clear skies, cool temperatures and for one lucky audience, a truly unforgettable experience. On the 28th, the doors of Schneebeck Concert Hall opened for the world-renowned music and performance group Cirque Zuma Zuma that delighted those gathered (this reporter included) the whole night through. Cirque Zuma Zuma has traveled all over the world offering sold-out shows across both Europe and Australia and last Tuesday night the University of Puget Sound was lucky enough to welcome the group to the Pacific Northwest. The...

University of Puget Sound’s musically-oriented organization Curtain Call presented its musical theater review on Oct. 30 to an enthusiastic full house. While the month of October no doubt screams Halloween and candy to most people, this semester it screamed “doom and gloom” for the cast of Curtain Call. More specifically, it screamed Doom and Gloom: A Fall Musical Theater Review. Featuring numbers from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Into the Woods, The Addams Family Musical, Little Shop of Horrors, Les Miserables, Assassins, Shrek the Musical, Across the Universe, Next to Normal,...

  This spring saw the release of Cloud Nothings’s latest album, Here and Nowhere Else, a thunderous and catchy tome of militant present-mindedness. This record serves double duty as both a solid collection of tracks as well as an exercise in being not only here but, most importantly, nowhere else. After listening to the album, this latter prospect actually sounds a lot easier, as the “here” that Cloud Nothings provide is so stuffed full of its own furious and unquenchable thirst for living that it really leaves no room for...

  If you haven’t already heard, Tennessee has a new queen, and her name is Katie. At least, that’s what The Apache Relay sings in the title song off their newest album Katie Queen of Tennessee, which debuted April 22 of this year. And that’s only one of the great songs they’ll perform during their upcoming tour. Katie opens with a solo violin, which leads into a fusion of pop, rock, and indie rock elements. It is a layered song that both complements and defies the band’s original folk and...

Happy Halloween! In need of something festive to do tonight or this weekend? Here is a list of various happenings on campus and in or around Tacoma. From movies to plays to zoos, there is plenty to do, and plenty of things to shout at you “boo!” Journey into the Phantom's lair with the original 1925 silent version of the Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney, featured tonight, Oct. 31, with live organ and piano accompaniment by Duane Hubert and Sarah Stone. Find it at 8 p.m. in Kilworth...

The trailers screened before Dear White People at AMC Lakewood made it very clear how important a film like Dear White People is in our current culture. Among the previews shown: two movies starring Kevin Hart and one romance movie starring black leads. The idea that Dear White People would appeal exlcusively to a black audience is presumptuous and incorrect. The target audience for Dear White People is not just black people; the target audience for Dear White People is everyone. Justin Simien’s directorial debut, Dear White People, which tells...

Any cinephile within the greater Tacoma area no doubt regards October as a special time of year for the community. While October can hold different importance for different people, this past month from Oct. 9 to Oct. 16 we saw what has essentially become a staple of the moviegoer community make its triumphant return. This year marked the ninth annual Tacoma Film Festival, and it’s safe to say it was met with the level of acclaim and merit such an event deserves. Over the course of one week, ticket holders...

The School of Music continues their Jacobsen Faculty Recitals this year with a series of unique concerts. There are three more available to experience this year, so be sure to stay tuned (pardon the pun) so you don’t miss out! The Jacobsen Series is a unique opportunity for faculty members to put their best feet forward and demonstrate their enormous talents to the Puget Sound community. The series was established in 1984 in honor of Leonard Jacobsen, former Chair of the Piano Department at Puget Sound. Ticket sales support the...

What is jazz music in 2014? What could it become? While I would shudder at the task of addressing this through writing, Steven Ellison, the heavily experimental and highly esteemed multi-genre music pioneer best known by fans as Flying Lotus or more recently as the elusive rapper-villain Captain Murphy, has crafted a worthy hypothesis in his latest LP, You’re Dead!. We haven’t heard from Flying Lotus in a while; his last record under that alias was 2012’s gorgeous Until the Quiet Comes. In those last two years, the quiet must...