The year 2020 was undeniably one of the stranger, if not the strangest, times for cinema across the world. When movie theatres closed last spring, the industry lost a near $10 billion in ticket sales alone. Many of us turned to streaming services for our entertainment, and the film industry shifted with us. As we…
In 1971, Disney opened their newest Walt Disney World resort lodging in Orlando, Florida known as “Disney’s Polynisian Village Resort.” Later, in 2011, Disney opened “Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa” in Kapolei, Hawai’i. In 2014, Pixar released the short film “Lava,” a story about two Hawaiian-coded volcanoes falling in love. Lastly and most recently,…
The image of the Sahara Desert with camels, tents and men in robes playing Fender guitars is a perplexing yet incredibly cool thing to see. When most people think of rock music, rarely do they associate it with African culture. The modern guitar, especially electric, is mostly assumed to Western culture. But for Tuareg people,…
Every theatre student at Hope College remembers being corralled into Theatre 105: Introduction to Theatre Practice during their freshman year. It’s a one-credit course that is recommended to take the first semester of your first year to acclimate yourself to the department and your fellow classmates. The class briefly goes through the different job descriptions…
I don’t think the world around us pays enough attention to music. Music, if executed the “right way” (I use this term lightly) can carry you in a poetic dissertation. It invites you to compose a familiar yet unfamiliar movie in your head or allows you to paintbrush mental memories to external masterpieces. In essence,…
I remember the first time I saw the musical “In the Heights” by Lin-Manuel Miranda. My high school, while I was still a middle schooler, decided to put it on, and my sister was the lead, so obviously I was super thrilled. After watching the show, I was star-struck and inspired; I watched the show…
This past weekend, the Hope College Theatre Department virtually opened “Detroit ‘67.” It is a play that follows two siblings making ends meet with an after-hours joint in their basement during the Detroit riots in 1967. Playwright Dominique Morisseau brilliantly wove together family struggles, racial strife and Motown flair, and Hope students brought the rich…
You can tell a lot about a person by what kinds of movies, music and books they like. However, their opinions and perceptions about a piece of media can tell you so much more. Some movies test existing perspectives and have the ability to reveal things and even change existing ideas and opinions. “500 Days…
On Wednesday, February 17, the up and coming brother band AJR released their newest single “Way Less Sad,” a feature track on their upcoming album “OK Orchestra.” On its first day, the music video received 606,748 views and quickly climbed to well over half a million after the first week. Often, an artist will yield…
The top of the staircase in the DePree Gallery is encompassed in a tranquil quiet. This space lends itself well to curiosity and wonder, allowing any viewer to connect with and attempt to understand the complexity of the artwork being displayed. The current show, the faculty exhibition, brings together work done by Hope art professors,…