Tag: review

Reviewing Music

jushutch Leave a comment

I often write about new albums and songs, giving my subjective thoughts and opinions on the production, content, and presentation. When I write about a certain album, it’s because I have strong feelings about it that I can’t help but share, whether they’re extremely negative or positive. The result is a volatile review system, where it seems like I either love something or hate it, and more often than not it seems like I love everything, since I usually write best about the songs and albums that I love. I find myself overthinking this often, especially when I’m writing; I start to question whether or not the review is objective, and what makes a valuable review for the average reader. In examining these questions about music reviewing, I find myself turning to YouTube’s self-proclaimed “internet’s busiest music nerd” Anthony Fantano, who is notable for his frequent album reviews on his channel theneedledrop.

I only started watching Fantano’s reviews a few years ago, and hesitantly at first; I didn’t believe that music could truly be judged, since it is inherently subjective, and I often disagreed with his reviews of my favorite albums. However, there was something fascinating about his approach to reviewing, specifically the vast amount of musical knowledge and terminology he used when examining albums. He is able to fill a ten minute video entirely with thoughtful musical opinions, grounded in absolute reasoning. He certainly has biases (easily seen by genres he prefers), and always reminds his viewers that he is just sharing his opinion, but he always approaches new music and genres with an open mind. I still disagree with some of his final ratings (especially the 3/10 he gave Mac Miller’s Swimming), but I find it hard to argue with him; nothing he says is factually wrong, and at the end of the day it just comes down to a different taste in music. For example, he says that Mac Miller’s singing is off-key and mediocre, with a weak presentation, but I hear the same thing and find it intimate and endearing. It just comes down to a subjective interpretation of objective musical facts, and I find that relationship so fascinating in reviewing music.

After thinking about what makes Anthony Fantano such a fair and interesting critic, I narrowed down great music reviews to two important things: understanding and discussing music objectively, and being passionate about the review. With only objective facts you have a boring and generic review, and with nothing but passion you have an intellectually shallow review that offers no value to the reader’s understanding of the music. With these two thoughts in mind, I look forward to writing more music reviews in the future; thankfully there is no shortage of new and interesting music.

Have You Seen This New Sculpture?

themichiganarchitect 2 Comments

 

Has anyone seen this beautiful stain-glassed sculpture that was just recently put up by the Central Campus Transit Center??
As an architect, I am very intrigued by this structure. I have so many questions to ask about it!! But I guess that is the fun in creating and experiencing art in general… I’ll write my questions and attempt to give my own answer, so feel free to comment your thoughts, and ask more questions if you have any!! Also, give my instagram (@connecticuto8) a follow if you want to see more interesting views of our Michigan Campus!

Question #1: What’s with the shape?
Answer: Perhaps providing an interesting framed circular view (as depicted on the right), but not wanting to just use a basic circular frame for that view.

Question #2: Why all the colors?
Answer: Maybe a fun sort of way to symbolize the beauty of the ethnic diversity (like the diverse choice in colors in this sculpture) on our campus? And maybe experiment with lighting, in terms of how the different colored glass interacts with the sunlight to affect our perception of the framed view (shown on the right).

Question #3: Why glass, instead of other building materials?
Answer: If this project’s mission was to experiment with lighting, then this glassy material would definitely allow for that sort of interaction, since there would be light reflecting off of the metal framework of the sculpture, and glass would allow for the sunlight being absorbed by the glass to be refracted, thereby affecting the change in tints of the colors we perceive on the glass.

Question #4: Why this specific location?
Answer: Maybe administration finally found that grassy island across from the chemistry building as boring, so they decided to install this piecework there to add more character to central campus, after all, central campus is like the livelihood of Michigan’s campus, and it is in an almost introductory location (for anyone who just got off the bus from North Campus and was just now seeing Central Campus for the first time), so it would put a pleasant view to facilitate pleasant experiences on our campus.

Nikky Finney: Living in the Folds of Poetry

Erika Bell Leave a comment

Sitting down for my first poetry reading, I was overcome with nerves. Shifting in my seat, switching my legs back and forth, I began to realize that I wasn’t completely sure of what kind of audience member I was supposed to be at a poetry reading. At basketball games, I’m the obnoxious, overtly analytic member, and at plays I become the characters, I’m lost in the story, I sincerely don’t know who I am. So going into my first live poetry reading at the UMMA of Nikky Finney’s work, I was a little apprehensive of how I was going to react. What if she would look out into the audience and see my face mixed with unexpected, unrecognizable emotion, and I could ruin everything for her!

Luckily, what occurs in my mind is an overdramatized, yet very entertaining conglomeration of thoughts. As Finney was given an introduction gratifying her creative, opinionated, and humbled personality, I began to warm up to the reading. This was a real person who just happened to have written some incredible award-winning works, no big deal. Nonetheless, Finney began her readings, conversationally opening up about her moments of intrigue, and feelings of repression and progression, that brought her to relinquish her thoughts into words.

Most of her writing was so experiential. An interaction with a woman looking her in the eye telling her that “she writes like she’s never been hit before”, an affectionate love for her Uncle Freddie’s astrological beliefs, the connection to the mother and baby penguins after a viewing of March of the Penguins at the cinema, all became experiences transformed into poems about two women understanding each other’s journeys, developing an appreciation for the sheer luck of life, being the nurture that feeds nutrients to someone you care for.

By this point I was floating from my chair, no longer was I flipping rigidly from side-to-side, I was hanging on to every word Finney was saying hoping to absorb who she is as a writer and a poet, so I could revitalize who I was in return.

The poems read by Nikky Finney were complex, historical in their own right, and thought-provoking. I recommend picking up one of her collections this upcoming break and really look to take in the feelings brought on by each one, you might even float away like I did.