If you’ve ever felt sad or lonely, wished you could just be anyone but yourself, and been so down in the dumps that you didn't know what to do next, then Bo Burnham has the perfect remedy for you: kill yourself. Via an up-tempo piano ballad in his most recent Netflix special Make Happy (2016), Burnham wistfully, yet ruthlessly, indicts both the pop music stars who commodify … [Read more...] about Stand Up or Kill Yourself: The Moral Balancing Act of Suicide-Related Comedy -Michael Savio
Creative
New Millennium Business: The Music Streaming Generation
In 2003, Apple largely changed the music industry with its introduction of iTunes, a digital marketplace for music. By this point technology was shifting to become smaller and handheld, and the world was simultaneously beginning to combine phones with music listening devices. iTunes was revolutionary in terms of both content and accessibility for users, and was generally … [Read more...] about New Millennium Business: The Music Streaming Generation
I Want to Break Free: Confinement and Liberation in Plath’s Colossus Poems
In Sylvia Plath’s The Colossus and Other Poems, one of the most prevalent motifs is the speaker’s feeling of confinement or suffocation. The majority of poems in this collection depict the speaker resigning and accepting their state of imprisonment. Many scholars, such as Maher A. Mahdi, find that Plath’s poetry reflects “a suppressed state that inspires a fervent … [Read more...] about I Want to Break Free: Confinement and Liberation in Plath’s Colossus Poems
It’s Not Over Until the Fat Lady Speaks: Formant Variation in Operatic Singing and Speech
Some, but still very little, study has been done in the way of examining the differences between singing and speech. What can be distinguished very clearly by the ear becomes more problematic when examined by spectrogram. When examining trained classical singers, a few clear differences arise, such as the presence of the so-called “singer’s formant” and … [Read more...] about It’s Not Over Until the Fat Lady Speaks: Formant Variation in Operatic Singing and Speech
The Keeper of Half Missing Men
Nate Gualtieri is a writer and filmmaker originally from Boston, Massachusetts. His television pilot script, Badwater, recently placed in the Second Round at the Austin Film Festival. In his spare time, he enjoys backpacking, long-distance running, and baking. It is morning again, a quiet one, and I slip … [Read more...] about The Keeper of Half Missing Men