Mutual catfishing: LARPing my Valentine’s date


By
 in ,
I broke up with someone a couple weeks ago. He had just come off of two years of wild shenanigans and was ready to be serious with someone. I was coming off the first meaningful relationship I’d had in years, and all I wanted was wild shenanigans. We talked for a while after I told him […]

Mood music: Tracking your Valentine’s Day

MALORIE MCCALL

By
 in ,
Valentine’s Day is rapidly approaching, which means last-minute jewelry, chocolate and flower sales are most likely through the roof. Passive aggressive comments by boyfriends and girlfriends alike are being tossed across phone lines, and single people are sending “who needs a relationship when you have a …” Snapchats up the wazoo. Whether you’re nursing a […]

The realities of love in the Middle East


By
 in ,
It’s that time of the year when couples are sickeningly cute and single people are just plain sick from eating a pint of ice cream alone while watching cheesy rom-coms. Glittery hearts and teddy bears are everywhere. Whether you’ll be going on a romantic date with your significant other or you’ll be attending KXSC’s “I’m […]

Fatal attraction: Everyone I date is Quentin Tarantino


By
 in ,
I went to a movie with a friend a couple weeks ago and saw a fantastically attractive couple making out in a row ahead of us. They both had tumbling waves of shiny chestnut hair that formed a single, luscious sheet as they kissed without concern for their myriad onlookers. They even looked like they smelled […]

Post-traumatic Strauss disorder: realizing when to move on


By
 in ,
Last Thursday evening, approaching midnight, I was pacing back and forth in my apartment. I was listening to a 1971 recording of Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier played by the Wiener Philharmoniker, conducted by Leonard Bernstein and starring Christa Ludwig and Gwyneth Jones. This recording, a jewel that I found very recently at a secondhand shop […]

Valentine’s Day movies perpetuate negative stereotypes

Minnie Schedeen

By
 in ,
Valentine’s Day weekend is no doubt a movie weekend — whether single or with someone, you’re bound to land somewhere (theater or couch) for a couple hours of escape. For studios and production companies, the Valentine’s Day movie slate is an important one. “The date movie” is a concept we’re all familiar with, which, on […]

Genre bending: finding inspiration within a combination

MALORIE MCCALL

By
 in ,
The song “Lost in the Supermarket” rolls into “Guns of Brixton” until “Koka Kola” pours from the speakers and lands on “The Card Cheat.” Rock ‘n’ roll had proved itself a major player for a couple decades when The Clash rolled in and switched it up. From somber, standard rock hits to funked up grooves, […]

No one likes being called a bad anything — except feminists

Noorhan Maamoon

By
 in ,
No one wants to be called a bad anything, let alone a bad feminist. It’s easy to straddle the moral high horse when reading or writing about feminism. Denouncing others’ actions for the sake of women’s rights comes quickly to most females, considering the injustices we go through — from the pain of high heels […]

Bate and switch: better to atone late than never


By
 in ,
Pretty much since puberty onward, I have thought of myself as bisexual. In eighth grade, I remember tentatively telling my best friend that I thought I had a crush on the girl who sat next to me in band. I would stare at her all the time — she was gorgeous — and that was […]

What a frozen little heart: The false hopes of opera


By
 in ,
A few days ago, I was scrolling through my Spotify in an attempt to find a suitable accompaniment for my morning run. During this strenuous search for the perfect soundtrack, I stumbled upon an old favorite of mine: a rare, bootleg 1966 recording of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème, starring Franco Corelli and Renata Tebaldi. Smiling, […]