Deflection has become patriarchy’s favorite tool; it’s a nefarious weapon designed to slight an event, to eclipse another sensationalized act. It’s potent enough to create a funhouse effect where realities are stretched and blurred, while primary reactions and initial outrage are emphasized, boldened. It’s also a tool regularly used and recently legitimized by the Trump administration. The tools themselves...
There’s no denying that Kelly Clarkson’s name alone evokes a sense of nostalgia. She became the first winner of hit TV show “American Idol” before creating the iconic break-up song, “Since You’ve Been Gone.” Clarkson has effectively left her footprint on the landscape of pop music and culture. However, being in the music scene for as long as she...
Ty Dolla $ign is a singer, first and foremost, who is more than capable of dropping some bars on a track. What makes him such a pleasure to listen to is his strength in melody. Even when he’s rapping, he’s still singing. “There is not one time where I say a word without melody,” he once stated in an...
E3 2014 was — per usual for the video game industry’s largest trade event — a hodgepodge of phoney, often cringe-inducing, pandering and gimmickry in between the announcement of a few eyebrow-raising AAA titles. Unsurprisingly, “Bloodborne,” “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End” and the then-unnamed “Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” were met with intrigue and intensive coverage, though...
Up-and-coming musician Swsh is a self-proclaimed “Big bitch in lipstick and a midriff” who is making her way out of Los Angeles. This fearless singer, rapper and producer does it all with confidence, and, more importantly, originality. She effortlessly defies the status quo in her music and on-stage presence by unapologetically being her bald, bodacious self. After all, most...
This article contains spoilers for “Stranger Things” season one.
Nostalgia is a poor man’s way of romanticizing the past for cheap emotional resonance; in film, television, music, it’s pandering, bypassing a link with an audience by instead asking only for them to recall the past. That was almost the problem with “Stranger Things,” but, while the Netflix series was a...
Discussing current trends in hip-hop inevitably comes around to highlighting the importance of Future and Young Thug, the Atlantan rap titans whose postverbal eccentricities elevated their auto-tuned slurs from the exception to the norm. As featured artists, their names are good indicators of songs with intoxicating, if sometimes oblique, flows (Ty Dolla $ign’s “Blase” or Drake’s “Sacrifices”), ad-libs a...
Though there is a dearth of Shinobi Ghost’s smooth-sounding blend of neo-soul and alternative R&B on the internet, they’re an active group and driving force in the Inland Empire’s burgeoning independent music scene. The band of six is composed of lead singer Marlena Martinez, bassist Anthony Singh, keyboardist Jonah Huang, drummer Michael Barrera, Bijan Tabrizi on guitar and on...
To enter into Guillermo Gomez-Pena’s theater is to come to terms with the irrationality of the world. For the last 30 years, the Mexican artist has committed himself to stitching absurdities and contradictions together whether they be past or future, indigenous or contemporary, citizen or illegal, white or color, straight or queer, logical or sensible.
“La Nostalgia,” a photo portraiture...
The horror film has long been a powerful medium of social commentary and criticism, but it also is burdened by a history of exploiting the female body. It’s refreshing to see films that not only refuse to objectify women for the male gaze, but also feature women as leads who function as characters, not caricatures. Whether they’re the victims...