Brandeis University's Community Newspaper — Waltham, Mass.
Students of Brandeis University, I have heard the Good Word, I have seen the Sign, I have experienced the Ecstasy, and I want to share it with you. It has a name: The Funk. “What is this ‘funk,’” you ask, “and how can I find it?” To this I answer you, if you go looking […]
The ease with which the Dirty Projectors perform feats of pure musical acrobatics belies the fact that they might just be the hardest working indie band around today. Between front man Dave Longstreth’s demands for marathon rehearsals and an exhausting touring schedule, the group has managed to work its way to the top of critical […]
“Why does autism have to be a shutting down of everything? Why can’t it be an opening to adventure?” Those lines, uttered by Rupert Isaacson during the beginning of the new documentary, “The Horse Boy,” act as the film’s core premise. This film was screened Tuesday evening in Olin-Sang to an audience of about 30 […]
Some writers say that the difference between a comedy and a tragedy is that the former begins with a bummed out protagonist and ends with a happy one while the latter starts with a happy protagonist and ends with a bummed out (or dead) one. So how do we classify the new Coen brothers movie, […]
As I walked out of Slosberg last Saturday night, one distinct impression surfaced my mind: “Damn, Brandeis can dance.” For those of you who weren’t showing off your salsa skills that evening, you missed out on Obbini Tumbao, a wildly envigorating Afro-Cuban jazz ensemble. This concert was part of the World Music Series in conjunction […]
The lights go down and actor Richard McFadyen GRAD appears behind a sliding glass door mowing a lawn. It’s a disconcerting moment, because the typical American cliché of the suburban dad cutting the grass with his shorts and knee length socks gets inverted; this time we’re on the inside looking out on a world that […]
It’s always risky business going to see a band that hasn’t released a hit single since before you were born. Yet when I heard that the Psychedelic Furs and Happy Mondays were playing at the House of Blues, I wasn’t bothered in the least by their vintage status. After all, both groups are much less […]
Most audiences notice when a concert hall has extraordinary acoustics. A church is likely to garner criticism from its congregants if sound doesn’t carry to the back pews. But commuting to work in New York City with iPod in tow made me realize that sonic resonance in this era goes beyond such hallowed places of […]
Peace is a very Brandeisian ideal. Founded in the aftermath of and partially in response to the atrocities of World War II, the university had peacemaking on its mind from the outset. Over sixty years later, the university carries that torch proudly, through such organizations as the Student Peace Alliance (which two years ago hosted […]
I felt like I had just infiltrated a secret meeting when I stepped into the Rapaporte Treasure Hall Monday evening. It seemed that everyone there was part of the world of professional Judaism or graduate-level Jewish education. Attending “Memory and Y’irah: On Reclaiming a Sense of Awe in Skeptical Times,” a lecture by Charles Bronfman, […]
