January 23, 2014

rVOLUME 15, ISSUE 17 JANUARY 23, 2014

recess Springtime for Hoof ‘n’ Horn“Putnam Spelling Bee” opens tonight

Zadie Smith at Blackburn Lit festJan. 30 in Von der Heyden, pg. 3

Full Frame Winter seriesBegins at the Carolina Jan. 23, pg 4

2 | ThursDAY, JAnuArY 23, 2014 recess The Chronicle

What you need to know...

• 6 weeks

• First Summer Session

• 2 semesters worth of Spanish

• Immersion in Durham

• Civic engagement

• Language contact

• Interactive learning

• Culture

• Critical thinking

• Community

Summer2014

Intensive Spanish Summer Institute

Course Includes:- Trips to local Latino establishments- Cooking Class- Interaction with the Hispanic community in Durham through El Centro Hispano- Skype Sessions with Spanish speakers in Mexico...and more!

Additional Information:This course fulfills 2 levels of Spanish in one short 6-week session. It is designed to be an intensive immersion eperience for students who want to gain language skills quickly. The course meets daily during first summer session and can be combined with SP203 in the second summer session to fulfill the Duke language requirement.

Please email:Liliana Paredes ([email protected]) or Rebecca Ewing

([email protected])

Phone: 919-684-8628

Romance StudiesGET TICKETS:DUKEPERFORMANCES.ORG | 919-684-4444

$10 TIXSTUDENTS

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recessss recess r

editor’snote

As my final semester at Duke begins, i find myself turning to music as a means by which to reflect on the past three and a half years. My life has always had a soundtrack, as songs seem to explain what my own words, whether spoken or written, never can. As such, the need to process the end of my time at Duke may very well be the cause of my tremendous over-creation and over-sharing of Spotify playlists over the past months.

in keeping with the theme, i’ll take another editor’s note to share a handful of my current favorite tracks with you all. They aren’t all new songs and are not in a carefully curated order. The only grand truth they manage to reflect is the contradiction in what i want as a second semester senior. Do i want to sit and drink wine with my friends by the fire, reminiscing and hypothesizing about the future, or do i just want to dance the last few months away? i’ve come to the conclusion that the two aren’t mutually exclusive, as you may notice below.

oh, and i promise this isn’t all synth pop.

1. ‘Drive All Night’ by Glen Hansard (feat. Eddie Vedder and Jake Clemons)

This is a gorgeous new cover of the Springsteen original. it is performed by an unexpected combination of artists:

hansard, an irish singer-songwriter; Ve-dder, the Pearl Jam frontman; and Clem-ons, nephew of the late e Street Band saxophonist. Despite this nominally odd group, reserve your skepticism until you’ve heard this soul-achingly beautiful cover. it’s ideal for the cold dead of night when your mind just won’t stop running.

2. ‘What Is Life’ by George HarrisonThis is what i meant when i said that

these tracks aren’t necessarily brand new. ‘What is life’ is a classic feel-good harrison jam. And it’s featured on the soundtrack for “Away We Go,” which is one of the few rom-coms i can actually tolerate. That winning combo has ‘What is life’ on repeat.

3. ‘Comrade’ by Volcano Choiri’ll be bold and posit that if you

like Bon iver, you’re guaranteed to like ‘Comrade.’ This doesn’t feel like a stretch, as Justin Vernon’s voice is key to Volcano Choir’s “repave,” one of my top 20 albums of 2013. There’s more to Volcano Choir than just Vernon’s voice, though, and ‘Comrade’ exemplifies the emotion evoked by the group’s almost otherworldly vocals and instrumentals.

4. ‘Cavalier’ by James Vincent McMor-row

‘Cavalier’ is the single from McMor-row’s new album “Post Tropical.” he drew me in a while back with his cover of Steve Winwood’s ‘higher love,’ and his new album showcases his beautifully sung lyrics with accompanying instru-mentals to enhance the entire experi-ence. (experience really is the only word to describe “Post Tropical.”)

5. ‘Alive’ by Empire of the SunYes, this is a typical MC synth-y choice.

But you know what? empire of the Sun is back in all of their glory, and i will dance. That is all.

6. ‘I Blame Myself’ by Sky Ferreira

Sky Ferreira had me with ‘everything is embarrassing’ in 2012 and hooked me for good with the late 2013 release of her full-length album, “night Time, My Time.” i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again: Ferreira is what 2014’s good pop music should and hopefully will sound like.

7. ‘Dancing Out’ by French Horn Re-bellion (feat. Jody Watley and Young Em-pires)

French horn rebellion define them-selves as “two brothers who enjoy pho-toshopping French horns onto things they shouldn’t be photoshopped on.” Jody Watley has reemerged with vocals on this song years after her time with ‘80s group Shalamar (of soundtracks for “Footloose” and “Beverly hills Cop”) and subsequent solo career. The result of this collaboration is a danceable song that flies in the face of those who have criticized the group’s work: “The trum-pets, they said, were too loud…We’re the right kids with the wrong sound.” i don’t hear anything wrong with the sound of ‘Dancing out.’

8. ‘Tous Les Mêmes’ by Stromaei’ve been listening to the entirety of

Stromae’s latest album on repeat, and this track is my current favorite. it’s French electronic/dance music accom-panied by amazing norm-defying music videos. Good luck listening to ‘Tous les Mêmes’ without getting addicted.

9. ‘Repatriated’ by Handsome FursThis one is a few years old, but i’ll

close with it because ‘repatriated’ chal-lenges the status quo in one of the catch-iest rejections of inevitability that i’ve ever heard. “i’ve seen the future and it’s coming in low / i’ve seen the future, i will never be repatriated.”

--MC Bousquette

Lauren Feilich [editor]..................................................................................ldoc, drake

Eliza Strong [managing].................................................................................vanilla ice

MC Bousquette [music]...............................................................................stevie nicks

Megan Rise [fi lm]................................................................................................ke$ha

Kathy Zhou [art]...................................................................................................yoncé

Eliza Bray [photo].................................................................................li’l smash mouth

Prashanth Kamalakanthan [online].............................................dayjob.bandcamp.com

The Chronicle recess ThursDAY, JAnuArY 23, 2014 | 3

No German? No Problem.

Go Berlin Info at: studyabroad.duke.edu OR german.duke.edu

Application Deadline for Summer Session is Friday, February 7

Archive hosts Zadie Smith for Blackburn literary festby Kathy Zhou

The ChroniCle

in their ongoing efforts to introduce a diverse range of perspectives to the Duke community, The Archive will feature nov-elist, essayist and short story writer, Zadie Smith, as part of the 2014 Blackburn liter-ary Festival. The event, which includes a reading, signing and Q&A, will be Jan. 30 in the Von der heyden Pavilion.

The Archive is the undergraduate liter-ary magazine and the oldest publication at Duke. As part of its mission to make litera-ture more accessible to students, the pub-lication annually presents the Blackburn literary Festival, which was established by Professor William Blackburn in 1959. Since then, The Archive has hosted a leg-acy of great authors on Duke’s campus, varying from Margaret Atwood to Toni Morrison to playwright Suzan-lori Parks, who spoke at the Duke Coffeehouse last spring.

“The goal of the magazine is to pro-mote and publish creative writing by un-dergraduate students,” Allison Shen, se-nior and co-editor of The Archive, said.

in choosing the keynote speaker, the co-editors took renown, relevance and di-versity into account. Given that the Duke Summer reading Program has had a his-tory of traditionally overrepresented iden-tities—white, male authors—The Archive aimed to invite writers who would repre-sent more diverse perspectives and intro-duce new forms of literature to the Duke community.

“[Smith] is one of the most famous contemporary novelists…it’s a good rea-son to choose anybody,” Shen said. “What she’s writing is really important and ambi-

tious. The style she writes in is innovative. She was a good candidate to have not only in terms of star power but also as a writer who has something different to say.”

Aarthi Vadde, assistant professor of english and international comparative studies, is researching Smith to inform a chapter on her new book which discusses the contemporary novel and its relation-ship to themes of globalization.

“Zadie Smith has been a really forma-tive writer for thinking about those things since she wrote ‘White Teeth’ and became known as a writer who is able to represent, cleverly, themes in multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism,” Vadde said.

Beyond these professional encounters with Smith’s work, Vadde enjoys the writing on a personal level. She lauds Smith’s ver-satile style, which traverses both as a nov-elist and a literary critic, and also Smith’s ability to constantly experiment and push boundaries. Smith’s work has indeed been influenced by her upbringing, her gender and her race. her topics largely center around or reflect upon issues of class and upward mobility, such that Smith’s work, Vadde explained, is capable of extending “beyond aesthetic complexity to identity.”

“Zadie Smith is probably one of the most interesting contemporary writers be-cause she’s both extending the formal in-novations and experimentations we associ-ate with the novel in her work, and she’s also writing about the genre from a criti-cal standpoint,” Vadde said. “She’s really mastered the ability to write in different idioms and styles and to reactivate what are considered classic traditions of the novel…it’s hard to say that she has one co-herent style because you get the sense that

she’s really trying to push herself to adopt new narrative techniques with each work.”

Smith will be available after her reading to answer questions and give a book sign-ing. notably, the writer has been extremely open about her writing process and career trajectory. She is in the distinctive posi-tion of not only offering valuable insight, but insight that is both approachable and more immediately relatable than that of many of her contemporaries. Smith her-self wrote her first novel, “White Teeth,” at 22—strikingly close in age to students that will be in her audience.

To hear Smith give a reading of her own work will offer another aspect to the audi-ence’s experience of the writing. Vadde explained that there is an inherent advan-

tage to attending a reading: as opposed to reading alone, which is often a quiet and internal experience, the audience has the opportunity to hear the author’s inflec-tions, the voicing of her own style and the voicing of her characters.

“hearing the author’s voice might ac-tually make the story new again, to hear nuances that you didn’t hear when read-ing yourself,” Vadde said. “Just like with poetry, it can become an entirely new form when placed into the context of a perfor-mance.”

The Archive’s 2014 Blackburn Literary Fes-tival will be held Thursday, Jan. 30, at 7 p.m. in the Von der Heyden Pavilion. Entry is free. Food and drinks will be provided. For more in-formation, visit The Archive’s website.

Special to the chronicle


Hoof ‘n’ Horn presents The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling BeeAn interactive show with an endearing storyline premieres at Sheafer

Full Frame’s annual winter series begins at the Carolina

by Katie FerneliusThe ChroniCle

A 200 dollar saving bond and bragging rights are the stakes in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” hoof ‘n’ horn’s latest musical production. The show follows the competition of the spelling bee, as well as details on each of the spell-ers’ lives. The show begins Jan. 23 and runs through Feb. 2 in the Sheafer lab Theater in the Bryan Center.

“What makes this show special is the opportunity for improvisation and ad lib,” Andrew Jacobs, sophomore director of this winter’s production, said. “Taylor [Walls] and Austin [ruiz], who play our two adult characters, get to come up with fun facts for each speller that are ripe with little jokes and Duke references that should make the audience laugh.”

it is Jacobs’s first time directing, but he has been a part of four hoof ’n’ horn pro-ductions previously. hoof ‘n’ horn typically organizes three musical productions each year—for fall, winter and spring—and this year, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is sandwiched between “The Drowsy Chaperone” and “Parade.” The show was chosen for its endearing message and smaller cast, which includes Putnam County’s top realtor, a vice principal with a knack for odd sentences, a comfort counsel-or on parole and six quirky kids from vari-ous backgrounds.

“Working on Putnam has honestly been one of my favorite theater experiences since i started performing six years ago,” Taylor Walls, junior and actress for rona in the show, said. “With only nine of us in the cast,

we all became fast friends, making for a fun-filled and collaborative rehearsal process.”

The six spellers include olive ostrovsky (Corinne Wallace), a sweet girl whose moth-er is pulling an “eat, Pray, love” in india; William Barfee (Max Duncan), a nerdy boy with a magic foot; logainne Schwartzand-Grubenierre (Sophia Santore), a smart girl with overbearing gay fathers; Marcy Park

(Katie Beachem), a ceaseless winner from the all-girls school, our lady of intermit-tent Sorrows; leaf Coneybear (James ham-ilton), a quirky child of hippies who makes his own clothes; and Chip Tolentino (Kirby Wilson), a boy scout who has just begun to hit puberty.

For the spelling bee, the stage is deco-rated like a standard gymnasium, complete

with the familiar bleachers, a basketball hoop and a “Putnam Valley lady Piranhas Synchronized Swimming” championship poster.

one of the unique components of the show is that audience members are invited up on stage to compete alongside the char-acters in the spelling bee. The audience members also have to spell words, ranging

by Anna KoelschThe ChroniCle

industry buzz is certainly not lacking among the three films in the Winter Series.

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is not for another 70 or so days—and yes, we’re counting. Fortunately, we do not have to wait until April for documentary, as Full Frame’s annual Winter Series begins Thursday.

The series, which began in 2010 with showings at the American Tobacco Cam-pus, will include screenings of three docu-mentaries from the 2013 festival. it kicks off tonight, Jan. 23, in Fletcher hall at the Carolina Theatre with a showing of “Cutie and the Boxer,” which is an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature.

The series will continue Jan. 30 with a screening of “The Crash reel” and will conclude Feb. 6 with “Which Way is The Front line From here? The life and Time of Tim hetherington.”

“Cutie and the Boxer,” directed by Zachary heinzerling, tells the story of the 40-year marriage between boxing painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife noriko.

“The Crash reel,” directed by lucy Walker, tracks snowboarder Kevin Pearce through his athletic rivalry with Shaun White and through a career-ending crash that caused a traumatic brain injury.

“Which Way is The Front line From here? The life and Time of Tim hether-

ington,” directed by Sebastian Junger, is a portrait of hetherington, a photojournalist and filmmaker who was killed by shrapnel in libya in 2011. hetherington and Junger co-directed the 2010 documentary “re-strepo,” which was nominated for the 2011 Academy Award for best documentary fea-ture.

Although the three films all focus on in-dividuals, the series was not planned with a unifying theme.

“There’s not a theme in terms of subject matter or style of film, but it’s important to me that the films are strong, and often the films are ones that have a lot of industry buzz but not as much exposure,” said Sadie Tillery, Full Frame’s director of program-ming.

industry buzz is certainly not lacking among the three films in the Winter Series. The directors of “Cutie and the Boxer” and “The Crash reel,” Zachary heinzerling and lucy Walker respectively, were both nominated for outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentaries by the Di-rectors Guild of America. heinzerling also won the 2013 Sundance Film Festival Best Director Award for “Cutie and the Box-er,” as well as the Charles e. Guggenheim emerging Artist Award during the 2013 Full Frame festival.

Additionally, the three films were all

See full frame, page 8

emma loewe/ the chronicle



Hoof ‘n’ Horn presents The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Duke Performances hosts local band with puppetry

from “Mexican” to “gremial.” The spell-ers in the cast experience similar pressure. one speller’s fate hangs on their ability to spell “chinchilla,” while another speller suf-fers from an unfortunate display of sexual arousal on stage in “The 25th Annual Put-nam County Spelling Bee.” The show earns

its laughs, but with noted observations of each character, the show also manages to be touching and even poignant at times.

“The show might seem childish on the surface, but its meaning and lessons are rel-evant for the Duke community,” said Jacobs. “We can’t always be the best at everything

and winning should not always be the end goal. it can be a nice reminder in case we lose sight of this during the semester.”

“i hope that Duke audiences will leave this show with a tummy ache from laughing too much,” said Walls, “And the acceptance that winning isn’t always what’s most impor-

tant.”“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”

opens Jan. 23 and runs through Feb. 2 in the Sheafer Lab Theater in the Bryan Center. Tickets are $10 for the general public and $8 for students, available on-line or at the box office. For more information, visit the Hoof ‘n’ Horn website at www.hoofnhorn.org.

by Sid GopinathThe ChroniCle

This weekend, Duke Performances will present “love’s infrastucture,” a show that combines local indie pop music, intense puppet work and dynamic live video feeds to create an innovative and unique experience.

“love’s infrastructure” is a collaboration between Torry Bend, a member of the the-ater studies faculty at Duke, and Durham-based Bombadil. Bend, in addition to being a faculty member at Duke, is a widely ac-claimed puppeteer. her original pieces have been praised by major publications for their depth and beauty.

“i think that many people in town are re-ally blown away by the fullness of her vision,” said Aaron Greenwald, Director of Duke Per-formances. “i felt like there was potentially a conversation to be had between the music that Bombadil had made and Torry. We’ve sought ways to engage artists based locally in projects that are larger or more involved.”

Greenwald, though responsible for put-ting the two parties in contact and conceiv-ing of the idea, allowed the two groups to have free reign in deciding how they would proceed with the project. When asked to de-scribe the performance in a sentence, Gre-enwald laughed and eventually settled on “Bombadil and Tory Bend make an indie band puppet opera.”

“Tory contacted me towards the end of

See bombadil, page 8

emma loewe/ the chronicle

emma loewe/ the chronicleemma loewe/ the chronicle



Spanish 311 (SP204 & SP303) (2 Credits)

Food Production and Consumption in North Carolina and Peru: A Comparative Approach

Summer Session 1What you need to know:

Application deadline:February 7, 2014

Equivalent to courses SP204 and SP303

Ideal for studentsfrom SP203

Active use and studyof Spanish

Cultural Studies

Impact of Globalization

Food production and consumption

Environmental andlabor issues

Culinary arts

Trips to farms, markets, and restaurants

Collaborativeand individual

research projects

If you would like to take SP311 this summer, please send an email by January 31st to:

Melissa Simmermeyer ([email protected]) or William J. Vilalba ([email protected])

Additional Information:

Trips to NC farms, markets, and Peruvian restaurants, a cooking class, and a capstone research project and presentation on food production and consumption.

This course includes:

Students must have completed SP203 at Duke or have the equivalent level of Spanish and complete an interview to ensure appropriate placement. This course is the equivalent of Spanish 204 and 303 combined in one 6-week session (2 credits). It is an intensive language and culture course for intermediate students who want to progress to the advanced level. The course meets daily during Summer Session 1 and fulfills the Duke language requirement.

Summer Session I

What you need to know:

Application deadline:

February 7, 2014

Equivalent to courses SP204 and SP303

Ideal for students from SP203

Active use and study of Spanish

Cultural studies

Impact of globalization

Food production and consumption

Environmental and labor issues

Culinary arts

Trips to farms, markets, and restaurants

Collaborative and individual research

projects

If you would like to take SP311 this summer, please send an email by January 31st to:

Trips to NC farms, markets, and Peruvian restaurants, a cooking class, and a capstone research project and presentation on food production and consumption.

Additional information: The course includes: Students must have completed SP203 at Duke or have the equivalent level of Spanish and complete an interview to ensure appropriate placement. This course is the equivalent of Spanish 204 and 303 combined in one 6-‐week session (2 credits). It is an intensive language and culture course for intermediate students who want to progress to the advanced level. The course meets daily during Summer Session I and fulfills the Duke language requirement.

Spanish 311 (SP204 & SP303) (2 credits) Food Production and Consumption in North Carolina and Peru: A Comparative Approach

Melissa Simmermeyer ([email protected]) or William J. Villalba ([email protected])

Additional information:

OPERATION: Stores Administration PUBLICATION: ChronicleHEADLINE: DevilSpeak DATES: TBACOLOR: CMYK

ASK US YOUR QUESTIONS. GIVE US YOUR OPINIONS.

Connect with Duke University Stores!Give us your feedback on any of our operations via our online question/comment page, DevilSpeak.Just visit www.dukestores.duke.edu and click on the DevilSpeak link.

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Young the GiantMind Over MatterFueled By Ramen

by Eliza StrongThe ChroniCle

‘it’s About Time,’ the first single off Young the Giant’s long-awaited sophomore album, cheekily admits to the frustrating three-year-long wait since their self-titled debut (2010). ‘it’s About Time’ is surprisingly close to hard rock for Young the Giant and loses the key qualities that made their first album so mem-orable, like simple, uplifting melodies and the focus on lead singer Sameer Gadhia’s extraordinary pipes. The song is overworked, muddled and lacks Young the Giant’s spirited soul.

When the rest of the album dropped Jan. 20, fans could breathe a sigh of relief that the single is not representative of the album’s overall sound. While this foray into experi-mentation beyond their signature sound is refreshing, it reminds the listener of the band’s true strengths, which shine in ‘Crys-tallized.’ The album’s fourth track is at once catchy and heart wrenching, echoing the hits ‘Cough Syrup’ and ‘My Body’ from their first album and evoking impressive emotion.

“Mind over Matter” is the happy medi-um between sophomore development and the best qualities of the self-titled, layering strings with Jacob Tilley’s unobtrusive guitar

by Aymeric VincentiThe ChroniCle

“War is war and hell is hell, and of the two, war is a lot worse…There are no innocent bystanders in hell, but war is chock full of them: little kids, cripples, old ladies.” Despite being a comedy series, “M*A*S*h” had moments of startling in-sight; this is one of them, and walking out of “lone Survivor,” i fi nd it very diffi cult to disagree with that point.

Peter Berg’s newest project—based off Marcus lutrell’s memoir on failed 2005 operation red Wings in Afghanistan—is a lean combat fi lm, offering no sympathy for the squeamish and no respite from the horrors witnessed by Marcus (played by Mark Wahlberg). Some have been quick to call the fi lm “graphic,” and i could not disagree more. For example, “Zero Dark Thirty” is graphic. The director Kathryn Bigelow purposefully makes scenes tense and uncomfortable for the audience, try-ing to pull on every nerve possible and stir those watching. Berg’s approach can be better described as uncompromising. he doesn’t try to create any unneeded emotions or build drama that isn’t being presented by the story itself, and the result

FILMLone SurvivorEmmett/Furia FilmsDirected By Peter Berg

is a rawboned movie putting on the full display the horrors of war and honoring the soldiers portrayed.

Superfl uous suspense and melodrama end with the opening credits. The fi rst sequence uses real, unscripted training footage to show just how wild these men are, and despite their rigorous prepara-tion, everyone in the theater knows that only one man is walking away from this operation alive. once the fi lm formally begins, we are introduced to the soldiers’ concerns, the boyish humor that keeps them smiling between operations and their beloved wives at home. There are no mushy scenes or heavy-handed depictions of star-crossed lovers separated by war. So when Danny Dietz (emile hirsch) is be-ing executed, and he reaches for a sheet of swatches his wife sent him so he could be involved in redecorating his home, the entire theater is left breathless. You know those swatches are his everything, his en-tire reason for fi ghting and killing, and you feel it.

The fi lm isn’t about lowbrow entertain-ment using military combat as an engine for action, but neither is it trying to make a political statement. Berg stays with what feels right, weaving a story about survival and the realities of warfare, ultimately cre-ating one of the most memorable combat-based war fi lms in recent history. Conse-quently, the images and the script are hard to forget. For instance, a few minutes before his execution, Dietz is babbling, “Momma never told me—momma never told me they’d be so fast,” as he stares at the bloody nubs that used to be his pinky and ring fi ngers. Michael Murphy and Matt Axelson (Taylor Kitsch and Ben Fos-ter, respectively) also have some amazing moments that in a lesser fi lm would come off as corny and try-hard but instead man-

MUSIC

and Payam Doostzadeh’s ringing bass. ‘Ana-gram’ and ‘Daydreamer’ round out the first half of the album with a balance between raw musicianship and electronic beats. Drum-mer Francois Comtois maintains bright and energetic rhythms throughout both, and at points, he feels like the true backbone of the album.

There is a clear, intentional break in pace and complexity around the seventh track, ‘Firelight.’ This gives “Mind over Matter” a curious sense of Side A/Side B structure. ev-erything slows down, leaving the first half’s anthemic tone and punching beats behind in favor of gentler melodies and pensive lyrics. The ensuing tracks have a much more seri-ous feel, and tell more cohesive stories than is typical of the band. ‘Camera’ in particular reaches a gorgeous depth of lyricism and im-agery, backed by fitting (if unusual) slow or-gan chords and violin-plucking.

‘in My home’ edges back towards Side A, pulling out classic sophomore album themes like being on the road and achieving success after years of hard work. “We are not lost, we’re just searching/we are always searching for home,” croons Gadhia longingly, if pre-dictably.

‘eros’ and ‘Teachers,’ just as similarly posi-tioned tracks from the first album, take time to grow on the listener but carry the same expres-sive power. ‘Waves’ is nothing short of a joy to listen to, packed with surprising melodic turns and bouncing rhythm, as well as one of Young the Giant’s best tricks—leaving Gadhia’s voice to trail off unaccompanied, beautiful, until diving back into the full band. ‘Paralysis’ con-cludes the album perfectly, combining all of these elements with excellent mixing.

“Mind over Matter” challenges fans with big creative changes since the self-titled. Young the Giant shows maturity and devel-opment while maintaining the best aspects of their sound with which you initially fell in love.See loNe SurViVor, page 8

Special to the chronicleSpecial to the chronicle


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2-Pack CrewsColors: Royal and CharcoalAvailable Sizes: S - 2XFabric Content: 50% cotton, 50% polyester

Limited sizes and quantities available.Advertised price does not include tax.Offer cannot be combined with any other discount or promotion.Offer valid Wednesday, January 22 throughSunday, January 26, 2014, or while supplies last.

Available in the following locations:

The University Store Upper Level, Bryan Center

Medical Center Bookstore Lower Level, Duke Clinics

Our Website www.shopdukestores.duke.edu$30

Compared to $2795 each

by Drew HaskinsThe ChroniCle

in the past year, critics heralded a recent renais-sance of innovation in r&B and soul music and have championed artists that defy conventions of the genre. however, “Give the People What They Want,” the new album from Brooklyn-based band Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, asserts that tradi-tionalism still has its place in r&B and soul. The record draws upon influences like Phil Spector and classic Motown to create a pleasing throwback to the 1960s.

“Give the People What They Want,” originally scheduled for release in August, was delayed until 2014 due to front-woman Jones’s cancer diagno-sis (now in remission). Jones sounds wonderful as ever and deserves to be mentioned in conver-sation with the all-time greats. on tracks like the sensual ‘Slow Down, love,’ her versatile voice is reminiscent of both Dionne Warwick’s tenderness and Aretha Franklin’s power.

her backing band, The Dap-Kings, is equally ex-cellent. The production and composition on each track is impeccable—every song seems calibrated to perfectly combine Jones’s formidable vocals and her band’s funky instrumentals. on the album’s highlight, ‘retreat!,’ crashing horns, a slinky bass line and strident backing vocals create the perfect surrounding for Jones’s tale of an independent woman. ‘retreat!,’ the opening song, functions as a great and catchy introduction to the group’s es-sential style that they hone to near-greatness over the ensuing nine songs. other tracks, like ‘now i See’ and ‘Get Up and Get out,’ draw upon latin and country music to shake up the soul formula a little.

The album’s main problem is its lack of lyrical themes. The large majority of the songs deal with a woman scorned, which unintentionally makes some songs—particularly the ones in the mid-tem-po-heavy middle portion—seem incredibly similar to one another. A more conceptually diverse al-bum could have been great; as a result, ‘Give the People What They Want’ is merely good.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-KingsColor ForceDirected By Francis Lawrence

by Duncan DodsonThe ChroniCle

it’s no surprise that “August: osage County” was on everyone’s oscar predic-tions lists since the fi lm stems from the

FILMAugust: Osage CountyJean Doumanian ProductionsDirected By John Wells

Pulitzer Prize- and multiple Tony Award-winning play of the same name by Tony letts. But even with a host of nominations and wins for “August: osage County” and its all-star cast (Meryl Streep, Julia roberts and Benedict Cumberbatch, to name a few) the fi lm falls slightly short of its equal-ly critically-acclaimed opponents.

Both the strengths and weaknesses of the fi lm result from the translation of stage to screen. The stage production lim-its the space in which the characters in-teract, imitating the same claustrophobia that the reluctantly reconverging Weston family experiences. The fi lm mimics this with static shots of the dark house and fre-quent close-ups during uncomfortable or precarious interactions. in addition, the fi lm incorporates panoramas of the fl at, sometimes barren landscape of northern oklahoma. The fi lm complements isola-tion with that claustrophobia, and when

these shots are interspersed between cli-matic moments of the fi lm and combined with melancholy music, they become an incredibly artful replacement for the cur-tain falling between each act.

Unfortunately, it is this vivid specifi city of setting that also hinders the fi lm. Wells makes a choice to trade universality of an amorphous place for the ability to project motifs with symbolic imagery. But it is not an equal trade. The specifi c highlighting of oklahoma via dialogue and landscape brings in a uniqueness to the story and its cast. it positions the characters in an unfa-miliar (to most) environment. This place-ment of already unlikeable characters in an unrelatable environment makes it even more diffi cult to empathize and harder to notice commonalities expressed by the themes of familial responsibility and defi -nition.

The other fault of the fi lm is its attempt

to keep the integrity of the story of a three and a half hour play within an acceptable movie length. While the cinematography does an interesting and compelling job of refl ecting the story’s roots as a play, it condenses instead of selectively remov-ing some plot. Attempts to maintain the original intent of the play result in rushed stories that deserve more fl eshing out (like the reactions and repercussions of a sexual assault) and the glossing over of complex growth and deterioration of the family.

however, in most aspects, Wells has done a superb job of translating believable albeit unlikeable characters from stage to screen. The actors, especially Meryl Streep and Julia roberts, do a phenomenal job portraying the darkly comedic and tragic sides of the Weston family. This is even

See oSaGe CouNTY, page 8

MUSIC




more impressive since the characters are outside the ac-tors’ conventional and expected roles, yet they deliver an interesting portrayal of a deteriorating family. one of the most well-acted and surprising scenes is the opening, in which Streep enters as an elderly, drug-addicted can-cer patient spiraling out of control and exhibiting need for severe help. Streep, whose fame stems from playing strong independent women, acts the frail dependent quite well.

overall, even with the faults of translation from stage to screen, the movie is an outstandingly real and emo-tionally draining illustration of what defi nes the relation-ship and obligation between family members.

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screened at the festival in 2013 and all three came from the oscar shortlist. The series was not crafted to spark a particular dialogue but instead aims to serve as a show-case of well-done documentary.

The winter series is only one feature of Full Frame’s year-round programming. Tillery emphasized the impor-tance of Full Frame events held beyond the actual festival.

“Year-round programming is a great way to give films more exposure and invites a broader audience,” Tillery said.

in order to make the documentaries as accessible as possible to audiences, all three Winter Series films will be screened free of charge. This helps Full Frame reach out to new audiences, Tillery said, adding that they hope people will consider attending the festival as a result.

even though the three films are available to view at home, Tillery said she thinks there is something special about the experience of going to a theater.

“Seeing a film on a big screen is a bit different than watching it on netflix,” Tillery said.

Cutie and the Boxer will be screened at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 23 in Fletcher Hall at the Carolina Theatre. Doors open at 7:00 p.m., and the screening is free.

FULL FRAME from page 4

last summer about doing this project,” explained Jon haas, video designer for the show. According to haas, Bend envi-sioned a way to innovatively combine puppets and live film in her performance. Thus, the concept for “love’s infrastruc-ture” was realized.

The show features two portable cameras that capture various environments, which are then projected and moved around on two monitors that the audience can see. A puppet will then be acting in front of the background monitor, and that will also be filmed. haas sees theater and live video as the most appropriate medium for this type of story.

“i think it’s the difference between seeing a play and see-ing a film. in a film, you have a lot more control over the way you want to shape and tell that story, but you have no control over the people who are watching and reacting to it. With the-ater and live performance, the performance itself can react and adjust to what the audience gives it,” he said.

The live aspect of this performance also appeals to trio Bombadil. The band’s Daniel Michalak emphasized that the

plot is easier to understand when seen.“[Bend] took a character of ours, Angeline,” Michalak ex-

plained. “She’s this lady who works at a tollbooth...Kind of quiet and shy, but artsy and weird. She works in this tollbooth and she meets this guy who comes to her tollbooth every day.”

Just as this project is a departure for Bombadil, it is also a change of pace for Bend.

“My work in the past has been very small scale so a lot of the puppetry has been quite tiny,” Bend said. “if we integrat-ed video into [the show], it was a way to continue to work in small scale but also show it to a lot of people.”

The relationship between music, video, and stories is built into the very core of the show.

“in a way, it was sort of a no-brainer. As you are creating visuals for music, the assumption is always music video,” Bend said. By playing with this medium and working in Bend’s story and puppetry, “love’s infrastructure” became the live, indie pop puppet opera that it is now.

This show is part of a larger push by Duke Performances to continue to integrate town and gown by bringing collabo-rations and commissioned pieces to the community.

“[Durham has] become a great place for artists and young-er people,” Michalak said. By utilizing this nurturing commu-nity, the cast and crew behind “love’s infrastructure” hope to draw community members from both Duke and Durham.

“i think it is part of our identity as an organization that we can conceive of commissions and help to produce new work. That’s one of the four or five things that i think are most important and help differentiate Duke Performances from other folks in town and our peers in the university world,” said Greenwald.

haas and Bend believe there is a good possibility for a fu-ture tour. “i think it definitely could happen. it would take a bit more work to hone it down to something that is manage-able for a tour,” said haas. Bend seems hopeful as well. “i’m not throwing anything away, i’ll say that. That’s the only thing that’s been decided.”

“Love’s Infrastructure” will be playing at the PSI Theatre at Dur-ham Arts Council from Friday, Jan. 24 through Sunday, Jan. 26. Tickets are selling fast, with three of four already sold out. For more information, visit http://dukeperformances.duke.edu.

BOMBADIL from page 5

age to carry weight and strike the right chord.i had the good fortune of seeing the fi lm in D.C. with

a room full of servicemen and women. There was no whooping, no proud fi sts thrust in the air. They watched with the same stoicism that Marcus utilizes when fac-ing terrifying and unfathomable obstacles in order to survive. The only visible reaction came after the shock-ing ending—that will surprise any who haven’t read the memoir already—when the photographs of the 18 men who lost their lives were presented. The audience stood and clapped, otherwise silent with neither pride nor shame, only that same stoic resolve to remember the fallen and to honor their brothers.

LONE SURVIVOR from page 6

OSAGE COUNTY from page 7

Check out next week’s issue for an interview with Mutual Benefi t who will perform at Local 506 on Feb. 4.

January 23, 2014

Documents

Transcript of January 23, 2014