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Mike Polizze’s Long Lost Solace Find is utterly without pretension. There are no heady concepts and few complex metaphors: Polizze simply quietly reflects on things that have happened to him and things that he wants to do. It’s confessional in that way; Polizze says exactly what he feels without obscuring it behind unwieldy rhetoric.
COVID–19 has contextualized a society enduring what feels like a hopeless new era— one of a pandemic, an economic crisis, and civil unrest. For some, it has also opened a time for tremendous and much–needed introspection. The aftermath and cataclysmic effects of this virus have forced people to reexamine and reassess our world—its industries, systems, norms—and the way we have been living.
Evan Thomas (W ’20) has been soloing for decades. As a kindergartener, he was already stealing school stages singing “God Bless America." Throughout high school, unsatisfied by the absence of an a cappella group, he created his own and started doing arrangements. It’s no surprise that he has been Dischord A Cappella’s co-music director for years, even soloing Sam Smith’s “Fire On Fire” in quarantine isolation for the group’s Zoom concert last May.
Taylor Swift, for once, has thrown a curveball. Announced just 24 hours before its release, completely disregarding the lengthy release campaigns of her seven previous albums, folklore is a strange little gem in Taylor's long and illustrious career. Created remotely with Aaron Dessner and longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff, folklore sees Swift diving headfirst into folk pop and soft rock. Although an unexpected turn from a global superstar who perfected her craft in synth pop, it's not completely without precedent.
Going into my fourth month of lockdown, I felt like I didn’t have much to look forward to. That is, until I realized that July 23rd, One Direction’s ten–year anniversary, was coming up.
In decades past, signing with a record label literally meant having a company produce and distribute a musician’s records. The nature of music production and dissemination made musical fame a club that was difficult, if not nearly impossible, to break into. According to Statista, the "Big 3" music companies, Universal, Sony, and Warner Music, “exert control over nearly every aspect of the music industry by serving as music distributors, owning record labels, and coordinating artists’ performance rights.” Today, however, shifts in music consumption and production seem to be tempering the stronghold that the “Big 3” have over the musical world.
Quarantine has certainly sprouted a lot of trends. Whipped coffee and Tiger King feel like relics of the past, replaced by tie–dye sweatsuits and the Netflix show Unsolved Mysteries. One quarantine trend, however, might just stick around long after COVID–19 is relegated to the diseases–of–the–past archive: pet adoption.
Justin Horn (C ‘20) was standing in the back of the room at Joe Biden's campaign headquarters in Philadelphia, suspense gripping him, as he watched the Vice President’s team receive some race–altering news. Philadelphia’s long winter was melting away on the early spring night, the office packed shoulder to shoulder with enthusiastic Biden staffers, eyes glued to the news. Beto O’Rourke just endorsed Joe Biden, as did Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar, shortly after dropping out of the race for President. The once twenty–eight candidate Democratic primary field was narrowing down to just one, and Justin was watching it happen in real-time.
“This will pass over soon. We’ll be able to hang out like normal by July, and we’ll definitely come back to school in the fall.”
When the spring semester took an unexpected turn, student groups were left to figure out how to finish the semester remotely. This posed an interesting challenge for groups such as the Pennchants, a performing arts group that was in the middle of planning their spring show when everyone was sent back home.
Very little compares to the enthralling experience of attending a concert. The feeling of singing along to your favorite songs until you lose your voice, looking towards the stage and realizing that your idol is, in fact, a real human being, is indescribable. But what truly creates the buzzing atmosphere is the crowd, a huge group of strangers who unite for a couple of hours of pure happiness, dancing along to what will likely be an unforgettable night.
The Chicks, composed of lead singer Natalie Maines and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, were cancelled. Emphasis on the word "were": before the term became ubiquitous in social media vernacular, the trio faced backlash in 2003 for Maine's critical remarks of President Bush eight days before the U.S. entered the Iraqi War. Her simple expression that she was "ashamed" Bush was also from Texas at a London show sparked outrage among country fans. Radio stations arranged for protests burning the band's CDs, and their discography was banned from airplay itself. The women were called traitors and "Saddam's Angels." In response to the controversy, The Chicks released 2006's Taking the Long Way, with the bitterly defiant hit "Not Ready to Make Nice." Taylor Swift, a recent collaborator and clear successor of the the Chicks, has said that she was told not to be like them.
Given their meteoric rise in popularity, the duo 100 gecs has often been described by music critics as ‘abrasive’ and ‘genre–crushing.’ But, at the heart of things, all 100 gecs want to do is chug a Monster Energy, make music they want to mosh to, and have fun.
Today, snapping a quick picture is easier than ever. Camera rolls are filled with thousands of photos, many of which are completely insignificant (hello photos of powerpoint slides that will never be seen again). Pictures no longer hold the sentimental value they used to hold, nor represent people’s special moments— Paintru is here to change that.
The pandemic brought about difficult changes for everyone. At worst, it led to death and major economic complications. At best, it led to being stuck at home for months, with no clear end in sight. As students were forced to evacuate campus and go home, they had to reinvent their daily routines, letting go of their usually packed schedules.
He had written that paper. In his own words, of course. No cheating involved. He was a diligent worker and a smart kid who never even needed to cheat. Why would he? He had made it to Penn on his own, after all. Nevertheless, as the young, doe-eyed Penn freshman, Rick Krajewski (E ‘13), stood in front of his professor, he was being accused of plagiarism. To make matters worse, Rick knew he was being singled out as a Black man. The professor just assumed Rick couldn’t have written a paper that good.
“The most important part of writing, and really life, you said, is revision.”
The phrase “we live in unprecedented times” has become both a cliche and an understatement to describe the COVID–19 pandemic. There have been more than 2.5 million cases in the U.S., and communities of color are particularly vulnerable: Black, Native, and Latinx Americans are at much greater risk to contract and die from the virus relative to their populations. But for Natalie Shibley, instructor for Penn Summer I course HIST 560: Race, Gender, and Medicine in U.S. History, the disproportionate impact of the virus on people of color is far from unexpected.
Arca's KiCk i is simultaneously the beginning, end, and continuation of multiple eras. The Venezuelan producer Alejandra Ghersi's past four albums, which mostly took the form of abstract electronica, with the notable exception of 2017's self–titled effort, lapsed toward an insular, isolated loneliness. Her prior works were more centered around her own personal growth rather than mass appeal; the music twisted and turned away from easily recognizable meaning and value. On KiCk i, appearing (for the first time) in a full–body shot on one of her album covers, Arca makes a gleefully genre–defying, compelling case for herself as the mutant popstar of 2020.
As protests supporting the Black Lives Matter movement began to gain traction a couple of weeks ago, business owners grew anxious about the repercussions that civil unrest could have on their properties. In response to this, many owners boarded up their storefronts in an attempt to prevent any sort of destruction.
Solutions by The State News