Alex Ho

An emotion-filled farce of psychological realism

As the semester winds down and the practice of misery poker grows more frequent, this year’s Senior Company production, “Melancholy Play,” which runs from Thursday, Dec. 3 to Saturday, Dec. 5 at 8 p.m…

Kitchen Table Revisited

Last weekend, Swarthmore was host to not one but five powerhouses in the world of spoken word — Liza Garza, Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, D’lo, Mayda del Valle and Ursula Rucker. The occasion was “Kitchen Table…

Review: 'Preparations for Departure' at Philly Fringe

The Philly Fringe Festival is always an exciting grab bag of experimental theater.

One particular show, “Preparations for Departure,” may be an especially gratifying experience for Swatties, past and…

Bursting the Swarthmore bubble: A guide for first-years

Though you probably won’t tire of your new home for quite a while, it’s not called the “Swarthmore bubble” for nothing. So, when the urge for a change of pace hits, here are a few off-campus attractio…

Editor's Picks

Mr. Swarthmore 2009

In its third year, the annual Mr. Swarthmore pagaent hosted by the Ladies Soirée Society (LaSS) has earned a reputation as a night of hilarious entertainment for students, administrative staff and vis…

Senior art highlights charcoal drawing

Sofia Lopez:

Sofia Lopez ’09 will be bringing a small taste of life on a Texas ranch to Swarthmore this week, when her senior art exhibition opens on Thursday. Calling herself a “transplant” to Swarth…

'Romeo and Juliet' gets killer reinterpretation

The wave of Shakespeare love this semester continues with “Romeo and Juliet,” the Honors Directing Thesis of Jackie Avitabile ’09 and Honors Lighting Design Thesis by Cara Arcuni ’09. But, to enjoy t…

Editor's Picks

Filmgoing in Philly: Week Two

Rudo y Cursi

Playing this past weekend at the Philly Film Festival was the Mexican comedy “Rudo y Cursi” directed by Carlos Cuarón. The film is about two brothers who get caught up in the world of pro…

Filmgoing in Philly: Week One

The two-week Philadelphia Film Festival is currently running until April 6. Which films made the cut for our writers and which didn’t? The Phoenix reviews a selection of the festival’s features, some …

Editor's Flick Picks

Editor's Picks

Digital video doesn't have to mean the end of cinema

Mass media. As inclined towards the superficial as it may be, I still find it a fascinating organism, which, in catering to our most primal need for entertainment, acts like a chemical trace on what i…

Frederick examines a ‘BitterSuite’ cultural legacy

When the lights came on in Upper Tarble this past Fri., Feb. 27 and its packed audience was able to reflect on and discuss the nebulous but affecting performance it had just seen, one of the first que…

Editor's Picks

Editor's Picks

Getting under a 'Second Skin'

To put today’s world of mass entertainment into perspective, here are some numbers: The world’s fastest selling computer game, “Burning Crusade,” an expansion pack to “World of Warcraft” made $98 mill…

'Riot'-ing at Swarthmore

It’s Saturday morning, five days before the world premiere in Philly of his new play “Hearts of Man,” when Adriano Shaplin tells me over the phone, “I didn’t finish the script until yesterday.” The co…

Editor's Picks

Editor's Picks

‘American Boy(s)’ and girls prepare for Estelle

“Take me to New York, I’d like to see L.A.,” sings Estelle (along with everyone else last summer) on her chart-topping and, as of last Sunday, Grammy-winning “American Boy.” Estelle might just have …

Editor's Picks

Editor's Picks

Reflecting reality: Q&A with Jon Raymond ’94

It’s not too often that a movie receiving Oscar buzz is filmed in two weeks with a crew size in the twenties. This year, “Wendy and Lucy” just happens to be one of those anomalies. And it might turn o…

Editor's Picks

Faculty and staff tell stories in the digital age

While digital technologies threaten to further and further isolate our everyday existence, a small gathering on the Swarthmore campus found that these tools could instead be harnessed for the purposes…

'Osiris Grave' Rivas bringing sexy back to the WSRN

You may not know it, but at this moment Swarthmore is home to a budding music mogul, whose taste for glam and flair makes him all but poised to become the pop world’s next best thing. And he’s got a k…

Good Asian Drivers

In his next life, transgendered slam poet Kit Yan wants to be a “baaadass,” while folk musician Melissa Li wants to show-up Mr. Mighty to get the girl. The duo, called the “Good Asian Drivers,” bared …

Broadcast yourself

Hi, my name is Alex, and I am a YouTuber.

And just when you thought that this column couldn’t fall any lower into the depths of low culture, (“Bring it On”? Seriously?) I am devoting my last column en…

Senior Company does psycho-drama love story

Moments before falling out of consciousness, a gasping woman can barely utter the words “Here is peace, another realm, a life without body, without country, without history, without suffering.” The ro…

Bond better than ever

I was about to begin this review by saying “James Bond is one of those cultural absurdities.” But no, I correct myself: James Bond is the cultural absurdity. How is it that for nearly half a century w…

Literary mags do serious and silly

Last week, an op-ed contributor complained about the trying times for the humanities scene here at Swarthmore. We in the Living and Arts section, dedicated to the light-hearted and aesthetically pleas…

M&M Cup round two: casino games in ML

On Friday night, the likes of Cindi Lauper and other ‘80s greats could be heard booming from speakers in the Mary Lyon breakfast room. The banner formerly announcing "Ms. Gwendolyn Swabbe’s Dinner The…

'Escaping life' through surrealist theater

Amid the scores of ghosts, ghouls, witches, famous dead people and puns personified, another creature found itself on the Swarthmore campus last Saturday: the puppet. These were by no means the same k…

Urban unconventional

You hate cities. You lament the lack of trees in Swarthmore. Your Nalgene gives you comfort at night. You have a collection of sneakers and hiking boots to rival your roommate’s collection of pumps. Y…

'Last Five Years' comes to Frear

Jason Robert Brown is apparently a god within musical junkie circles. Dan Perelstein ‘09, a first-order musical junkie, often said: "before I leave Swarthmore, I’m going to musical direct a Jason Robe…

Alumnus returns with his first feature film

How does a Swarthmore graduate with a liberal arts, decidedly non-vocational education make a splash in the world of media? It’s a question that professor Patricia White was intent on answering as she…

Film Society screens re-released gem 'Killer of Sheep'

For the past year, various film webzines and blogs seem to have been all abuzz about the theatrical and DVD release of “Killer of Sheep”, a film that was made in 1977 for just $10,000 over a series of…

First NOLArize Benefit Concert a success

On Saturday, Nov. 17, the usual obscure indie fare at Olde Club was refreshingly absent to make way for an excellent showcasing of some serious Swarthmore talent in the NOLArize Benefit Concert that r…

'Journey' sheds new light on war

From “Deer Hunter” to “Apocalypse Now” to “Good Morning, Vietnam,” American cinema certainly doesn’t starve for depictions of the Vietnam War. Rarely, however, has film looked at the war through the e…

The arts in first person

Art reflects life, as the saying goes. This week, the two will become all the more intertwined during the Sixth Annual First Person Festival of Memoir and Documentary Art, running in Philadelphia from…

Op-art

Director uses media activism to help an 'Untouched' community

“How come you are making a film on us?” a Dalit woman asks. It is a natural question, but one that speaks volumes to how obvious, yet unacknowledged the problem of Untouchability remains in today’s In…

A play to die for

The past Sunday, I was stunned in no less than three ways: 1. discovering that things do happen in the Borough of Swarthmore, 2. having a gun pointed at me, 3. finding that as dark a revisionism of Am…

A beautiful day in the Gayborhood

This past Sunday, Philly’s Outfest took place in Philadelphia’s friendly gayborhood in Center City just four blocks south of City Hall. Streets were sectioned off for the massive crowds to wander thro…

Explore Philly's parkway of art museums

There may be a lot of cases where Philadelphia pales in comparison to other cities, but for the museum lover in you, Philly makes it all too easy. The Rodin Museum, the Free Library of Philadelphia, t…

Foreign film screenings offer a variety of perspectives

With choices in our movie theaters stateside as bleak as they are these days, it’s a great time to be a Swarthmore student. This semester, several language departments are holding film series open to …

Filmmaker Lynn Sachs to visit Swarthmore

Looking to kick back and relax at the pictures this weekend? How does an “experimental documentary” sound to you? No? Well, what about a “film essay?” As potentially unappealing as these options may s…

Philly Fringe Festival showcases experimental theater

On the SEPTA to Philly on a Friday night, you can always find a small crowd with enough spare change to embark on this brave voyage beyond the Swarthmore bubble. Some Swatties are hunting for Korean f…

'Bacchai' drama tackles debauchery, Dionysian worship and death

“I was crying last night because of the rehearsal process,” Randall Johnston ’09 said. “I think about sex all 24 hours a day — sex and the hunt,” Katie Chamblee ’07 exclaimed.

What horro…

'Fools' delivers both the insane and inane

Swarthmore theater often delves into those tough, uncomfortable questions about human nature that we’d prefer to shy away from. Its characters are often riddled with existential conflict, like: How ca…

'Arcadia' brings mix of emotions outdoors

“Et in Arcadia ego”, or “Here I am in Arcadia.” The much-referenced Latin phrase refers to a feeling of having experienced the pleasures of life on Earth even in the face of death. Audience members wi…

Belc's 'Fishbowl' poignant

“There is no such thing as empathy,” a friend of Anna Belc ‘07 once told her. This idea would eventually fuel the penning of “The Fishbowl,” Belc’s honors thesis play. “The Fishbowl,” a claustrophobic…

'Mangos with Chili' cabaret show marks beginning of APIA month

Marking the end of Sager and the beginning of Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage month, “Mangos with Chili,” a cabaret of queer/trans people of color, made the first stop of its first-ever tour …

Lost in the 'Labyrinth'

“Pan’s Labyrinth” is a tour de force in marketing. It has all of its bases covered. What? It was directed by Guillermo del Toro? That comic book enthusiast, who did “Blade II” and “Hellboy”? Dude, I l…

'Zodiac' a mystery

With “Zodiac,” the world’s first understated serial killer movie, David Fincher has thrown a wrench into auteur theory. I’m talking about David Fincher, one of the great recent suppliers of cinematic …

SHC survey asks students for straight talk on sex

You’ve seen their faces on the walls of nearly every building on campus. You know them by name. They are always available to answer your questions about sex. Problem is, you aren’t asking. So, they’ve…

Finger pianos and 'Fables of Faubus'

“Good evening, all you Slimies, you Swarthmore students” was the quirky, but welcome greeting that Stanley Cowell gave to his audience last Saturday in the Lang Concert Hall. The special performance b…

Literary magazines shed light on cultural issues

Given the polished, stylish issues we see on display in McCabe, it would seem like the literary magazine has a rather assured, established role in Swarthmore. In fact, the existence and relevancy of l…

Johnson exhibit at List explores the surreal

Sue Johnson’s art exhibit “Cabinet of Wonders: Marvelous Transformations and Other Accidental Images,” on display in the List Gallery in the Lang Performing Arts Center, inhabits the strange interface…

'Miami Vice' and 'Inland Empire' break out of modern ruts

Recently, I have found myself obsessed with publications of really bitchy film criticism. Journals like “Slant Magazine,” which calls “Babel” “Amores Perros 3: World Police,” and “Reverse Shot,” which…

Under the radar: picks at Philly's film fest

Like most things in the city of brotherly love, the Philadelphia Film Festival — running until April 15 — doesn’t seem to have anywhere near the same clout that the Toronto International Film Festival…

Miao tells the 'Truth' about exiled Chinese journalist

80-year-old Liu Binyan lounges about in his nondescript house in bland East Windsor, New Jersey. He picks up the New York Times, takes out scissors and begins cutting, explaining that making newspaper…

Gao Xinjian's play 'The Other Shore' opens

What is “The Other Shore” about? After spending an afternoon with the cast and crew of this spring’s Theater Department Production Ensemble, I can’t say I’m entirely sure. The play first struck me as …

The death of cinema?

For anyone who has taken Intro to Film, the name Laura Mulvey may induce either an intellectual orgasm or a gag reflex to profundities of film theory. While I always wrestle with how to study film in …

Sinologists at Swat

As China, after a century of political misdirection, finally begins to emerge as a full-fledged superpower, and the forthcoming Beijing Olympics promises to give the Middle Kingdom the most worldwide …

A night of Arabic music

The Middle Eastern Culture Week came to a sonorous close this past Saturday with “Music and Memory: Legacy in the New World,” a concert of classical and modern Arabic music performed by UCLA profe…

Critics surf the Web

In the controversy surrounding the College Republicans’ “Coming Out” posters, (I promise, I won’t be beating a dead horse) one unexpected target of attack was the Internet forum, where much of the dis…

Middle Eastern Culture Week

When Neda Daneshvar ‘10 and Christine Ernst ’10 met each other at the 2006 Tri-Co Summer Institute, they were surprised to find that they were the only two self-identified Middle Easterners there. Whe…

When hip hop goes pop

Kanye West’s acceptance speech at the 2008 Grammys may have been about as shrill a public staging as any of his past diva antics: his message about crossing genres was pretty stale, considering that t…

Money funnies

Darn, just one column in, and already I have to retract something I said. It turns out that the box office in mainland China is far from dead, and in fact has been steadily growing over the past five …

Playful 'Marvels of Things' delights at List Gallery

If asked to describe his latest series of sculptures entitled “Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing,” studio art pofessor Brian Meunier may just proudly tell you that he…

Discussing Islam in America

In the reality TV series “30 Days,” Morgan Spurlock strolls along the streets of a small American town and stops random people for a quick game of word association. Spurlock offers the word “terrorist…