Opinion: Watching Steven Spielberg’s films during quarantine offers a reminder of fiction’s ability to build imagination and wonder
Pedro Barragan, Arts Reporter
April 8, 2020
If these last few weeks of quarantine have taught us anything, it’s that we require art now more than ever. Plenty of us are searching for what show to binge next, which classic novel to take off the bookshelf, or delving deeper into the relaxing world of Animal Crossing. For me, when the U...
UI School of Music and West Music partner to deliver pianos to students
Roxanna Barbulescu, Arts Reporter
April 9, 2020
On Monday afternoon, a crew of movers from West Music in Coralville delivered the final set of electronic keyboards designated to go to UI students practicing piano from home. The project, set into motion by West Music and the UI School of Music, delivered the instruments to students without pianos at...
Life through a new lens
Megan Conroy, Arts Reporter
April 7, 2020
Tuesday was the first day I left my house in two weeks. Stepping outdoors felt like entering another universe after being too paralyzingly anxious to even go for a walk. However, I brought my camera with me. I was the calmest I had felt in weeks when photographing my neighborhood, and the flowers that ...
Hawkeyes studying arts struggle to adapt to distance learning
Addie Bushnell, Arts Reporter
April 6, 2020
Avery Nabholz recently ended a vocal lesson early after the sound on her computer cut out. She had reached a pitch and dynamic that was too much for the audio system to compute. It was one of the challenges the University of Iowa junior, who majors in vocal performance and music education, has f...
New ways to spice up your old playlists
Ashley Dawson, Arts Reporter
April 6, 2020
Music is recyclable, meaning listeners can hear the same song time and time again before tiring of it. However, throughout this quarantine period, music streaming apps are spiking in usage, and listeners are bound to grow weary of their overplayed songs and playlists. Fortunately for all music strea...
Quarantine time homemade cooking challenge
Samantha Murray, Arts Reporter
April 6, 2020
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there is less of a selection of food at grocery stores at any given time. When I went to my local Walmart a few weeks ago, I was met with aisle after aisle of nearly-emptied shelves. My local Walmart is located in Corydon, Indiana, and has closed down all sections excep...
The Garden subverts genre, embraces the weird with new album Kiss My Super Bowl Ring
Abigail Wetteroff, Arts Reporter
April 6, 2020
Wyatt and Fletcher Shears, the twin brothers comprising musical group The Garden, have never conformed to music industry norms. More often than not, traditional pop music formulas are disregarded or upheaved by them, but this type of avant-garde and alienating music does not care if it is audience frien...
Student Spotlight: UI playwright turns to livestreaming their writing process online amid COVID-19 outbreak
Josie Fischels, Arts Editor
April 5, 2020
Should one find Cameron Speta streaming on Twitch, they might be surprised to find that the UI senior and playwright isn’t always playing Overwatch as the category title suggests — they’re typing on a Word document. According to Speta, the technique helps them to hold themselves accountable to wr...
Riverside Theater’s ’30 Days of Shakespeare’ video series brings theatre to social media
Pedro Barragan, Arts Reporter
April 5, 2020
While local theaters are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Riverside Theater has brought about an initiative to bring theater back to Iowa City in a new way with their 30 Days of Shakespeare video series, which began April 1 and will be posted every day throughout the month. Producing Artis...
Binge Break: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is singing the song in our heads and hearts
Kayli Reese, Managing Editor
April 5, 2020
I’ve been planning to write a column about one of my favorite shows of all time — the comedy musical Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which ran on the CW from 2015-2019 — for a while, as it’s a show I truly believe more people need to see. I didn’t expect one of the songwriters from the show to die fr...
New Mission Creek dates and Refocus Film Festival to share September weekend
Josie Fischels and Madison Lotenschtein
April 4, 2020
Downtown Iowa City will once again be bursting with artistic life this fall with the rescheduled 2020 Mission Creek Festival and FilmScene’s newly launched Refocus Film Festival. Both events will share the same weekend in September, according to a joint press release by John Schickedanz, the...
UI alum releases memoir about AIDS exploring life, love amid crisis
Addie Bushnell, Arts Reporter
April 2, 2020
As the AIDS crisis rose to devastating heights during the early 1990s, the entire country lived in a state of perpetual fear. Amidst the panic, Provincetown, Massachusetts provided an escape for many members of the LGBTQ community, including University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum Paul Lisic...