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There is something about the sound of French composer Yann Tiersen (of Amélie fame)’s music, a strange, poignant quality. The tracks are largely instrumental, but only minimally so; piano and accordion and violin often layer over other unconventional instruments. Sound is sparse but constant, running, circling ever around and around. It is lively, fluid, lilting, this music.

Timeless at its core, the best of Tiersen’s music seems to revel in individual moments rather than transcending time altogether. Freeze frame. Click, whirr. A handful of Polaroids. Sun-faded corners. Worn wooden floorboards, a cobbled street, the café under striped awning. Whirp. A worn leather-bound book, indolent summers on a green riverbank somewhere.

Perhaps it is more accurate, when making such observations, to specify that we in the end really are examining Tiersen’s scoring of Amélie (2001, full title Le Fabuleau Destin D’Amélie). Its sound draws largely upon Eastern European folk and classical roots, but is not defined by its inspiration. Evocative of quiet idyll, of philosophical reflections on life, the music is at once quaint and familiar, old and new.

My family often spends New Years Day recovering from the previous night’s activities while watching an endless array of movies. Though for the past years I have had the honor of choosing the cinematic lineup, this year I was overruled by my relatives. Instead of watching a film of substance that forced the audience to “think,” my family wanted to “escape reality” for a bit and watch a fairly mindless set of action and “comedic” movies. Thus, I was not only forced to watch a bad Bollywood version of Scary Movie, but I also had to endure almost two hours of George Clooney aimlessly running around in The American instead of watching Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. However, after finally seeing the movie last week, it seems as if the Black Swan might have actually been a perfect compliment to the plotless films I watched over break.

The Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, and Vincent Cassel, is your basic ballet narrative with a little bit of psychodrama added into the mix. Part Center Stage, Sixth Sense, and Mommie Dearest the film details the rise and fall of Portman’s character, ballerina Nina Sayers. Though Sayers wins the lead role in a production of Swan Lake, she seems to become increasingly conflicted and embattled regarding her own identity and reality. Ultimately, through her efforts to find herself, Portman’s character is often in conflict with her foe, Kunis’ Lilly, or her mentor (played by Cassel).

While I found the visual aspects of the film to be extremely compelling (ex. the GORGEOUS costumes by Rodarte and the exquisite dance sequences), the plot itself is not entirely unique. The movie basically boils down to the following stereotypical narrative: A ballerina strives for perfection and this obsession with perfection is his/her downfall. While the occasional bloody/gruesome scenes help to divert the audience’s attention away from this fundamental storyline (especially the one scene in which Winona Ryder seems to stab her face with a nail filer!), the ending is ultimately predictable and unsatisfying. I left the movie theater not only confused as to why this movie was so heralded in the first place, but also happy that my parents weren’t there to witness my cinematic upset. But, then again maybe I just didn’t get it. Let me know what you think in the comments section below 🙂

The more splendid and satisfying a brief stint from academia is, the more jarring it is to be return to collegiate reality and all its invigorating tensions. With the crunch of salt under heels, and a mere 19 days past the winter solstice, it’s no surprise that there is hardly a cheer or levity in our gaits as we make the spitefully cold walk to our classroom doors. The novelty of the newly marked year will soon be spent, and what left but this expanse of dry air and the bite of the steely nights? For some like myself, January has become the designated month to celebrate the all too well-known cultural sentiment entitled “postmodern ennui”, fed by what the DSM-IV calls seasonal affective disorder. While some turn to light-therapy, and others to feel-good, witty and inspirational films and others yet to the veritable bacchanal of Friday evenings, I have, of late, found myself craving for BBC documentaries presented by British particle physicist, Brian Cox (of course). As the lengthy adage goes: a dose of physics mends a day in which nothing seems to have come to adequate fruition.

In Professor Cox’s show, The Wonders of the Solar System, the unfamiliarities of the physical world are rendered majestic and absurdly grand in its explicability. In fact, I would argue it is done so well that suddenly the evening air regains some of its color again:

In the gusto after viewing the five available episodes of WotSS, I swiftly made my way to the nearest bookstore and purchased Brian Cox’s book, Why does e=mc2?, and on a spread of summer lawn refreshed and extended what I had known on general relativity. Although six months have passed, the one passage that I can think of, most appropriate in the season at hand, describes the staggering beauty of science. If nothing else, Cox makes the most passionate and most accessible arguments for his field.

The scientist’s job is to strip away the complexity we see around us and to uncover this underlying simplicity. When the process works out, and the simplicity and unity of the world are revealed, we experience the Ionian Enchantment. Imagine for a moment cradling a snowflake in the palm of your hand. It is an elegant and beautiful structure, possessed of a jagged crystalline symmetry. No two snowflakes are alike, and at first sight this chaotic state of affairs seems to defy a simple explanation. Science has taught us that the apparent complexity of snowflakes hides an exquisite underlying simplicity; each is a configuration of billions of molecules of water, H2O. There is nothing more to a snowflake than that, and yet an overwhelming complex structure and form emerges when those H2O molecules get together in the atmosphere of our planet on a cold winter’s night.

And with that, and then so suddenly, some things have been turned aright in the world. Professor Brian Cox, may just be my very own light-therapy lamp.

Sue majors in Neuroscience & English and tends to lurk in bookstores.

Art is recognized for its many benefits to society– culturally, politically, educationally.  Yet, little is discussed about art’s potential for healing, or for its potential to be used in the process of healing.  More and more, people and institutions are coming to realize that art holds powers that are more related to more than just aesthetics and the freedom of expression: it also holds the gift of healing, as well.

Art is also a great healer because of the interaction that results from the creation and viewing process.  The individual is able to talk through the art and the viewer is able to receive that communication and interpret it in their own manner.  Art also provides an avenue for encouragement; others are able to see the kind of creativity each individual holds and the artist feels a sense of pride in creating something that they did not see themselves as being capable enough to even imagine.

Often times, physical and mental health patients who are undergoing intensive treatment or suffering from depression are encouraged to use art as a means to explore their pain and their fears, and consequently learn about what they consider to be happiness and joy. In this way, art is seen as a means of facing one’s fears and tackling one’s obstacles that they may not be able to understand on a purely intellectual or verbal level.

One of the best and encouraging examples I’ve found of art as therapy is the series “Mamika” series by photographer Sacha Goldberger.  Seeing her grandmother, Frederika, depressed and lonely, Sacha decided to ask her to pose as the main personage in a photo shoot that portrayed the elderly woman as a superhero.  Frederika instantly lit up all throughout the shoot and once finished, Sacha created a Myspace page for her.  With thousands of friends who leave her encouraging messages, Frederika has found an outlet to reach out to a community outside of her normal circle and to end her sense of loneliness.  With more photo shoots and more photos, Frederika and Sacha have found a common activity that unites them and also serves each her own purposes: one to live her life as a photographer, and the other to live her life as a grandmother worthy of recognition.

Art does have the capacity to heal.  Like all things, it may be in the smallest of ways and the most imperceptible, but art truly possesses the power to make a difference in people’s lives.  The deeply intimate process of both creation and viewing make it an intrinsically interactive experience that touches the lives of everyone involved.

Welcome back to a new semester. Just four months stand between us and summer, and hopefully that time will be full of learning, creativity, and growth for all of us. To help jump-start the creative part, I would like to propose a small project to anyone interested.

When I walk around campus, it seems like most of the people I pass have put up barriers against the outside world – walking around with headphones constantly in or a phone glued to their ear. I am frequently guilty of these same practices myself, and the result is that I pay much less attention to my surroundings. Everyday sights blur into a single image that never seems to change, even though it must be different in some way every day. Therefore, the project I am suggesting is an observation log. Force yourself to actively search and engage your environment to find those small and strange details that can provide inspiration in your life and which remain completely hidden to a passive observer. Maybe you’ll hear a snippet of conversation you find interesting, recognize a pattern you never realized existed before, read a strange fact, or something else you consider worth remembering.

I found my old Observation Log today and some of my favorite entries include:

1)  “I don’t need boyfriends or girlfriends; I’ve got squirrelfriends!”

2)  Every human spent about 30 minutes as a single cell.

3)  “I don’t want to be buried in a cactus!”

“I think you mean casket.”

4)  According to some sources, the paper sticking out of the top of a Hershey’s Kiss is called a niggly-wiggly.

5)  I saw a girl step on worm.  She then did a little hop, looked down, and apologized to it.

A couple of my observations have stuck around in my memory, but I had completely forgotten several of them, and it was fun to reread them. I ended up using some of my entries for creative writing projects last year, while others remain simply as oddities I’ve collected and are still waiting to be used. When I did this project before, the goal was to write down at least three things a day. The great thing about having an observation log is the next time you’re stuck in an uninspired state, you’ll have a file of interesting notes, thoughts, and extemporanea to feed your mind and promote your creativity.

Good luck this semester!

The recent 2010 movie, The Fighter, is not one to be passed up.  Nominated for six Golden Globes and nine nominations is not false advertising; this movie is that good.  Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg), is kid brother to Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) the once acclaimed boxer turned coke addict.

Mickey, following in his brother’s boxing footprints takes the ring with Dicky as his primary coach claiming, “Dicky has taught me everything I know.” Only after a fight that leaves Micky badly bruised does he begin to consider changing management.  This is not an easy task because his mother, Alice Ward (Melissa Leo) is his current manager.

Based on a true story, the actor’s characters are based off of real people in life, and this realism makes the audience feel at ease and comfortable interacting with these characters on screen.  This parallelism between the viewer and the characters allows the audience to be emotionally vulnerable with the characters.  Humor, suspense, love, hatred, betrayal and suspense are all conveyed to the viewer through this parallelism.

The acting is powerful because it feels so real and connected to the actual characters themselves.  Each character is respected in his or her own right, therefore a movie with many protagonists instead of one.  The honesty felt within each character is what makes The Fighter a must see.