THE STANFORD ARTS REVIEW

by CHI LING CHAN 

[A review of the Stanford Shakespeare Co.’s preview on 21 May 2013]

It’s Party at Phi-Psi, Shakespeare-style.

For the next couple nights, the front lawn of Phi Kappa Psi - usually calm and still as a millpond (for real fratboy action, go indoors)- will be turned into a battlefield to a dangerous sport. The game is love. Not the tragic, tear-jerking romeo-and-juliet kind that this company had previously proved so adept in - but the sort that hurtles testosterone-charged teenagers to the ground. No one leaves the field uninjured, nor without hilarious mudslinging. And for the audience, expect an evening clotted with wordplay that will bowl you over.

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by JACK DUANE

The dust has settled, quite literally, on Weekend 1 of Coachella 2013 in Indio, CA. After three days of standing, swaying, and sweating it’s time to break down the hits and misses from this year’s festival. 

Coachella sold out both weekends this year, a testament to the rising popularity of the festival format. The annual Indio tradition stands alongside Chicago’s Lollapalooza and Tennessee’s Bonnaroo as one of the nation’s favorite festivals, and the rise of regional festivals in San Francisco (Outside Lands), New York City (The Governors Ball), and The Gorge Amphitheater in Eastern Washington (Sasquatch) indicates that music fans will continue to encounter live music in bulk.

Before covering the highlights from this year’s Coachella, I’d like to break down the benefits and drawbacks of the festival experience.

Pro - Cost Effective

A ticket to Coachella ($349) or Lollapalooza ($235) can be pricey, even before you factor in a camping pass, transportation, and $7 slices of pizza. That being said, its still cheaper, and easier, than seeing twelve of your favorite bands at twelve different venues.

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by SABRINA BEDFORD

When I first heard the name “Flogging Molly,” I told myself that that band was not something I’d like to hear. Such a violent sounding name (although I recently learned that in Ireland “flogging” can also mean “to sell”) kept me from enjoying some of what later became my favorite songs, with incredible lyrics and tunes to which I could just Schottische all night.

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by DORIA CHARLSON 

Smuin Ballet’s winter program, a mainstay of the San Francisco Bay Area arts scene for almost 20 years, boasts five pieces — three revivals of Smuin’s own choreography, in addition to a piece each by Adam Houghland and Trey McIntyre. Despite the imbalanced program (the second half was much stronger than the first), Smuin’s troupe did not fail to entertain.

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by ROGAN KRIEDT

It’s the Walkmen.

The show opened with Father John Misty, Josh Tillman’s moniker, minutes after we showed up. I was surprised to hear Tillman’s voice creeping into the Fillmore’s first floor men’s restroom, singing ‘I’m Writing a Novel,’ a sarcastic tune about Canadian shamans, West Hollywood, and originality. I was under the impression that Father John Misty would be playing second, after the Walkmen, but as it turns out, the Walkmen are an older, better established, and more well known band.

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by GEORGE PHILIP LEBOURDAIS

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like to a merchant seeking good pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went his way, and sold all that he had, and bought it. - Matthew 13:45

Kaart, kous en kan maken menig arm man. (Card [gambling], stocking [women] and jug [drinking] make many a man poor.) – Dutch Proverb

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by KATIE STRAUB

Why I love Samuel Beckett… and why you should, too.

When I arrived at the box office for the Marin Theatre Company production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, I was the only audience member without hearing aids or a walker.

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by OLLIE KHAKWANI

week 4

rembihnútur

director: Arni & Kinski

The video opens with an almost Buddhist serenity, tension crackling between the gravelly feedback and the sparkling piano melodies. The actors’ eyes are closed, breathing gently, looking meditative in black and white. Jonsi, lead singer and guitarist, draws a cello bow over his guitar, a technique he’s famous for inventing. It creates a full, reverberating sound that drags along the bass like the world’s heaviest, airiest fabric.

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by OLLIE KHAKWANI

week 3

fjögur piano

director: Alma Ha’rel

Let’s begin with a short list of things this film features:

• A room full of framed butterflies
• Cross-dressed interpretive dancers
• Ceramics breaking in slow motion underwater
• Shia LaBeouf’s penis
• Time travel via glowing lollipops and two helpful men dressed like gay pornstars from the 70s whose breath is strong enough to send people cartwheeling down a hallway and out of the building.

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by OLLIE KHAKWANI

week 2

varuo

director: Inga Birgisdóttir

This week things get meta. Here’s a story I constructed about the video Inga Birgisdóttir constructed about Varuo, the second track on Sigur Ros’ album Valtari.

We were told never to venture to the steep cliffs of the fjord. The clans on the other side were hostile to us, and in any case there was no way to travel across it without going at least a day’s walk to the north where the river was shallower but the air more bitterly cold. Every day though, just as sunset was approaching, I would run through the small wood that lined our village and stand at the top of the cliff and wait for Hella.

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