{"id":76513,"date":"2020-08-23T21:15:09","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T02:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fordhamram.com\/?p=76513"},"modified":"2020-08-23T21:17:29","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T02:17:29","slug":"last-season-on-the-fordham-ram-culture-section","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fordhamram.com\/76513\/culture\/last-season-on-the-fordham-ram-culture-section\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Season on The Fordham Ram: Culture Section"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even though last semester was sliced in half by the pandemic, we kept covering what was happening in the world throughout the spring. Here\u2019s a collection of highlights, including an interview with a rapper, album and movie reviews, quarantine diaries and Fordham-related features.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A steady stream of solid tunes dropped last semester. In January, Alexandra Lange reviewed psychedelic rock act Tame Impala\u2019s new album \u201cThe Slow Rush,\u201d which was one of the most anticipated albums of the year. Amazingly, it lived up to the hype. Lange particularly loved frontman Kevin Parker\u2019s instrumentation and sound, which she called \u201cobsessively considered.\u201d She also noted how Tame Impala managed to weave a panoply of genres and styles into a seamless whole.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe beauty and essence of Tame Impala\u2019s genius are at their peak on \u2018The Slow Rush,\u2019 thanks to Parker\u2019s self-contemplation,\u201d Lange wrote. \u201cEven as he filters through his most private demons, upbeat psych-synths and ethereal vocals take listeners on a transcendent trip.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Indie darling Fiona Apple\u2019s \u201cFetch the Bolt Cutters\u201d was similarly exciting. The album came at just the right time during the early days of the quarantine to uplift its worried, isolated listeners. In an album review for the Ram, Spencer Quinn zeroed-in on a small selection of songs: \u201cI Want You to Love Me,\u201d \u201cShameika,\u201d \u201cLadies,\u201d \u201cCosmonauts\u201d and the title track. Quinn especially liked the themes Apple sang about over the course of the LP and the way Apple blended her \u201csignature anger and grit\u201d with softer, more soothing moments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Fiona Apple, you couldn\u2019t have come at a better time,\u201d Quinn wrote. <\/span>\u201c\u2018Fetch The Bolt Cutters\u2019 is years in the making and features 13 tracks that address bullying, abuse and love in a more personal manner than Apple has ever done before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Also beloved was Pop Smoke\u2019s \u201cMeet The Woo 2,\u201d which was at first triumphant and then tragic after the 20-year-old Brooklyn drill rapper was shot and killed soon after the album arrived. Sam Hadelman wrote both an album review and an obituary. \u201c<\/span>This is a horrible recurring aspect of hip-hop music, and specifically drill music,\u201d Hadelman wrote. \u201cI had hoped it would not plague the Brooklyn drill scene, yet it took its biggest star.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The death was particularly awful for several reasons: Petty police targeting had already hindered Pop Smoke\u2019s career. The NYPD restricted him from performing at King\u2019s Theater in Brooklyn three days before he died. It was also heartbreaking because he was by far the most charismatic rising rapper, and one of few with a genuinely inventive, intoxicating sound. Many saw the immense potential in his music and his ability to link people together \u2014 both bringing New Yorkers together, and bridging the gap between America and the United Kingdom. His trademark sound, drill, is massively popular in England, and he was working with a cluster of UK producers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHis ability to create a sound that was so indistinguishably Brooklyn yet represented fan bases on different continents, is something that is so rare to hip-hop, and a skill Pop Smoke honed better than any modern rapper,\u201d wrote Hadelman. <\/span>\u201cWe may have lost the king, but the kingdom he created still remains to honor the memory of its fallen leader.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the pandemic shuttering theaters and indefinitely delaying film releases, the start of the year had some rewarding flicks. Katie Schulte reviewed<\/span> C\u00e9line Sciamma\u2019s<\/span> gorgeous \u201cPortrait of a Lady on Fire,\u201d which had already been released to some countries in 2019 and had won the Best Screenplay award at Cannes. The story centers on the secret affair of two women, Marianne and <\/span>H\u00e9lo\u00efse<\/span>, who meet when Marianne is commissioned to paint a portrait of H\u00e9lo\u00efse.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Portrait of A Lady on Fire\u2019 is a quiet yet captivating story of star-crossed lovers in 18th century France,\u201d Schulte wrote. \u201cThis independent film lives up to the divinely aesthetic camera shots and poetic storyline typical of its genre.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After school broke, we began to accept \u201cclassic\u201d movie reviews, which included anything exceptional (but not ubiquitous, like \u201cThe Godfather\u201d) that had come out over ten years ago. Among the films reviewed were Wes Anderson\u2019s \u201cRushmore,\u201d William Wyler\u2019s \u201cRoman Holiday\u201d and Sergio Leone\u2019s \u201cA Fistful of Dollars.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even after the live movie experience was consigned to the past, television shows continued to release on schedule through the spring. For the first two weeks of quarantine, it seemed like the only thing people wanted to talk about was \u201cTiger King,\u201d Netflix\u2019s new limited docuseries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ava Erickson came through with an ambivalent take, lauding it for being entertaining and emotionally gratifying, and criticizing how it failed to condemn the industry behind owning and exploiting exotic animals severely.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have become so fascinated as a society by the people in the documentary that we have managed to disregard the horrors that these animals have to live with,\u201d Erickson wrote. \u201cThere was a message there that was missed by the director. They had the opportunity first to captivate the audience and then expose this brutal industry, but instead they focused solely on creating entertainment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Apart from movies, television shows and albums, we published a bunch of fun features, like \u201cThe Guide to Fordham Slang,\u201d a necessary read for any freshmen unsure of the difference between the neighborhood\u2019s many bodegas. Another brilliant article was Sam Hadelman\u2019s exclusive interview with 20-year-old rapper Mavi, who\u2019s at the forefront of the New York lo-fi rap scene alongside artists like MIKE and Earl Sweatshirt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We also published Quarantine Diaries: short blog-like essays, usually first-person, about how the pandemic has affected a writer or their family. People wrote about all sorts of things, from the euphoric release of being able to leave home and venture out to buy bagels once a week to one writer\u2019s family\u2019s struggles living in Italy, where the virus had raged in the beginning. We plan to continue posting diaries throughout the fall.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even though last semester was sliced in half by the pandemic, we kept covering what was happening in the world throughout the spring. Here\u2019s a collection of highlights, including an interview with a rapper, album and movie reviews, quarantine diaries and Fordham-related features.\u00a0\u00a0 A steady stream of solid tunes dropped last semester. In January, Alexandra…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6056,6,10,7590,16],"tags":[782],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76513"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76516,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76513\/revisions\/76516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}