”The Discovery,” the second feature film by Charlie McDowell opens with a suicide, which, in the world of the film, is not uncommon. Since the scientifically proven discovery of an afterlife, hundreds of thousands of people have killed themselves to effectively “start over.” Robert Redford plays Thomas Harbor, the scientist who discovered this afterlife, but…
“Ghost in the Shell,” adapted from the anime film of the same title, which was adapted from a manga of the same title, was the recipient of a fair amount of backlash before it was released. Early criticism mainly centered around the casting of Scarlett Johansen, a white woman, for the Japanese character Motoko Kusanagi….
The Ryan Center and University of Rhode Island Student Entertainment Committee are bringing Grammy-winning, hip-hop artist Lil Wayne to Rhode Island as part of his 2017 college tour this Sunday, April 9. Having sold millions of albums worldwide, Lil Wayne has earned himself a total of four Grammy awards. He released his first album when…
The University of Rhode Island’s music department will be hosting the “Piano Extravaganza! 2017” On April 1 and April 4. The event will feature piano performances by student and faculty pianists at URI and young honors students. “The idea of a festival was formed when our second Steinway concert grand piano arrived on campus,” said…
At the intersection of film, music, technology and mass media, there is South by Southwest (SXSW)–a week-long festival of arts and culture in Austin, Texas. Austin is a great hub for it, being a city known for its cultural aspects. As someone who dedicates his life to ingesting every piece of media imaginable, there was…
You may have heard the phrase “a golden age of television” used when talking about the abundance of programs on air, but I prefer to use the term “silver age.” In the past decade we’ve seen a vast number of superheroes leap from their pulp-fiction pages to the big and small screens. Most of these…
Reboot culture is something that has completely permeated the film scene. Once you hear the average person complaining that there’s no originality in Hollywood, you know that it has become completely obvious. However, that doesn’t mean that all remakes (or reboots, or sideways sequels, or whatever term applies best) are bad films. “Mad Max: Fury…
For many students classes are hard enough to handle on their own. Taylor Allen, a senior orchestral saxophone performance major, masterfully handles the requirements of school while maintaining work with a landscaping business and, of course, performing. Allen’s degree is in classical music, but he specializes in alto saxophone and plays soprano, baritone and tenor…
Douglas J Wood, an alumni from the University of Rhode Island, recently released his book “Presidential Conclusions,” the last in a trilogy of political fiction following the second woman president, Samantha Harrison. “Presidential Conclusions” feels like it could be “ripped from today’s headlines” and is full of “imagined conversations with real politicians.” Wood described the…
The Wheeler School and the University of Rhode Island will be hosting the “URI Guitar Festival” consisting of discussions, classes and performances from international artists. The festival will be held at the Wheeler school in Providence on Saturday, April 1, and the events on Sunday, April 2 will be held in the Fine Arts Center…