In October of 2018, Sam Frye, a Virginia Tech junior majoring in marketing, decided, as a sophomore, to make his own comedy club on campus called The Comedy Conglomerate. After auditioning for Improv at Virginia Tech, a comedy acting group on campus, Frye and his friends did not get accepted…
There are few things as oddly satisfying as seeing old tropes being used effectively. We all know that there’s nothing new under the sun, and that originality is just a word for things that we forget have already been done before, but if something is cliched, it’s cliched. The secret to good…
Ever since he began his career more than 50 years ago, Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young has been a mercurial force in popular music. He is constantly engaged in the spirit of reinvention, teaching an old dog new tricks and surprising everyone with his creative whimsy. For better or for …
Bob Dylan has led an accomplished life: renowned singer/songwriter, cultural icon, shaper of many childhoods and comings of ages. With his latest release, now 58 years after his first studio album and eight years after his last original album, Bob Dylan maintains his consistent style and wri…
The familiar notes of Glen Miller’s iconic “In The Mood,” drift out of the speakers of my computer, and for a brief moment, I think to myself that this is going to be just another mediocre story about the golden age of the movie-making industry. However, what we’re given instead is an intoxi…
Say what you’d like about the music industry, when it does choose to celebrate its weirdos, it holds nothing back. Fiona Apple is a singer-songwriter who has been something of a critical darling for many years, netting a hefty armload of Grammy nominations over her career, a grand total of s…
The Strokes are one of those bands that frequently appears in search results for “best rock bands” and other similar queries, and yet their presence on the modern rock scene often goes unremarked upon for one reason or another. The band’s 2001 debut album “Is This It” is frequently namecheck…
Disney Pixar movies have a reputation for tugging at the heartstrings, and the legendary studio’s tried-and-true formula seems to keep hitting the mark again and again. There’s no exception when it comes to “Onward,” Pixar’s latest venture into the world of magical realism exploring the bond…
In October of 2018, Sam Frye, a Virginia Tech junior majoring in marketing, decided, as a sophomore, to make his own comedy club on campus called The Comedy Conglomerate. After auditioning for Improv at Virginia Tech, a comedy acting group on campus, Frye and his friends did not get accepted…
James Taylor can easily be counted among America’s greatest living singer-songwriters. With his unmistakable voice, blending a homespun approachableness with precise attention to timbre and inflection, Taylor has continually proved his vocal and writing chops over the course of a career span…
It’s evening in a glorious palace on the Bosporus Strait. The stars are out, and the night is lit not just by them, but also by a sea of torches and campfires that surround the city of Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. This realm was brought into the world by Constanti…
The Academy Awards, more colloquially known as the Oscars, are soon to be upon us, and they bring with them the imminent failure of countless New Year’s resolutions. How many times have you promised yourself that this is the year you’ll watch every single movie nominated for Best Picture? Od…
Anyone who has known me for at least five minutes knows that I love Taylor Swift –– like a lot. I know her favorite and lucky number is 13, the real version of “All Too Well” is over 10 minutes long and the exact night she met her current beau, Joe Alwyn. I’ve grown up with Swift so I know h…
As far as art in popular culture goes, the animated short film tends to fly under the radar. The first Pixar short was made in 1984, and the Disney Pixar films that come to theaters are often prefaced by animated shorts.
One of the more legitimate criticisms of modern pop music revolves around its seemingly endless romanticizing of bad decisions and personal pain. Sometimes this plays out with a reasonable degree of self-awareness, such as in Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space,” where she knows all too well that th…
As “1917” marks its wide release this weekend to history buffs and film lovers alike, director Sam Mendes takes us all into the hellish, largely unspoken world of World War I France.
If you haven’t seen the second season of “You” or even the first, stop reading now as there are spoilers ahead. The second season of the hit Netflix series “You” premiered Dec. 26 with a total of 10 new episodes. Starring “Gossip Girl” fan favorite Penn Badgley as main protagonist Joe Goldbe…
Apple TV Plus released “The Morning Show” on Nov. 1. The 10-episode series starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell ended its first season Dec. 20. It’s the one where Aniston and Witherspoon reunite to star as co-anchors on a popular New York City-based morning news show…
And so the journey continues . . . The second season of the hit Netflix show, “The End of the F***ing World,” premiered Nov. 5. The start of the new season brings new and interesting characters to the story, like insane, revenge-seeker Bonnie, played by Naomi Ackie, and motel owner Gus, play…
Now that the holiday season has arrived, Hokies will soon be making their way along the highways and backroads in order to arrive at Thanksgiving dinner. In the spirit of ensuring that such a sojourn is not bereft of entertainment value or stimulation, here are a number of audiobook suggesti…
We live in an age where digital distribution has put increased pressure on artists to embrace the album as an art form in its own right. While recalling those days when chart success was less important than raw album sales, different artists are adapting the long-play album in different ways…
