Arts & Events

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,...

  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...

  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...

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...

Every few years, audiences are tricked into thinking a David Fincher movie is good. While some of them are indeed good, his latest, Gone Girl, a film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling airport read of the same name, is not. With the film’s 87% on Rotten Tomatoes indicating “universal acclaim,” David Fincher has critics and moviegoers alike raving about a movie that is exactly like all of his others, but contains none of the redeeming qualities of his previous two films The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon...

This past Wednesday night, those passing by the piano lounge were treated to more than the idle sounds of a half dozen conversations and the aroma of warm coffee from Diversions. Those passersby were treated to song, poetry and more, as the first Open Mic Night of the semester made its debut to an impressive turnout, thanks in no small part to the sterling efforts of the English Department. Having started out a number of years back and reappearing in some incarnation or another, Open Mic Night was brought back...

This year marks the Town Crier Speaks Festival’s 13th annual run. The Town Crier Speaks Festival is a production of Barebones Collective, the student theater group on campus. Town Crier Speaks consists of six different one-act plays, all of which are acted, written and directed by students. Town Crier Speaks, an entirely student-run production, gives many students who aren’t normally involved in theater a chance to perform. “Over the year has given a lot of opportunities to new writers, new directors, new actors, to feel a part of the campus...