Columnists - The Daily Cardinal

COLUMNS

Fire and dragons permeate ‘Game of Thrones’ fifth season opener

By Jake Smasal | Apr. 15, 2015

We’re back, baby. Last Sunday night, the great television experiment known to us mere mortals as “Game of Thrones” continued its meteoric ascent into our hearts and minds. Viewers have all been waiting for it, and when the first four episodes leaked online yesterday, thousands of our weaker brethren downloaded it. It’s easily the biggest thing to happen on television this year. As such, it is only fitting that I use the space provided to sing its praises (as well as make some make some minor complaints). Warning—spoilers from Sunday’s episode, and some mild book-reader nit-picking follows.

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Rap Genius threatens the art of music

By Abbie Ruckdashel | Apr. 15, 2015

This week I have a question for you guys: Have you ever noticed the number of people with headphones in on your way to class? I am one of those people, and I always find myself wondering what other people are listening to and why they are listening to it. After much consideration and wondering I think I’ve come to a conclusion: People listen to the songs they do based on how it makes them feel and what it means to them.

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Finding originality in franchised repeats

By Alex Lovendahl and Jon Spike | Apr. 14, 2015

The sensation that everything has been done is common and overwhelming in art. Games currently are experiencing a massive and overwhelming version of this issue; with a lack of successful non-sequel games on our brick-and-mortar marketplaces, we find ourselves lauding iterative improvements, such as the blue-shell-stopping horn in “Mario Kart 8” or the Sky-Hook in “BioShock Infinite.” This is neither an abnormal nor a bad thing; artistic evolution comes slowly and less focus on innovation allows for expression and execution to come to the fore. It’s also a generalization ignoring those games with drastically new gameplay styles like the independent games “Sportsfriends” or “Mini Metro.”

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How music festivals evolved over time

By Jake Witz | Apr. 13, 2015

In the beginning there were artists. Single-celled organisms that produced art on a small scale. Some artists would group together to form bands that were able to make more complex music at the same rate. A bunch of artists got the bright idea to see what happened when they all clumped together and performed art all in one place. This petri dish became known as the music festival. 8,500 individuals attended at the Monterey Pop Festival way back in 1967.

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Season not diminished by championship game loss

By Jim Dayton | Apr. 12, 2015

I didn’t think I would come to accept the Badgers’ title game loss to Duke as quickly as I did. It’s only been a week now, but Wisconsin’s defeat to one of the most hated teams in college basketball seems like a distant memory.

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Finding happiness in the little frustrations of golf

By Jim Dayton | Apr. 8, 2015

I’ve always thought of The Masters as the unofficial start to golf season. The “tradition unlike any other” is full of slightly overweight, middle-aged white guys competing in the sport’s most prestigious tournament, with an ugly green jacket awarded to the victor. Doesn’t that get you pumped?

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Clement should be a great starting RB, but his backup is a mystery

By Jake Powers | Apr. 8, 2015

Ketchup has its mustard, Han Solo has his Chewbacca and, more relevantly, John Clay had his Montee Ball and James White.

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Hip-hop cover songs need something special to stand out

By Jake Witz | Apr. 7, 2015

Last week, Mos Def released a series of videos via FACT Magazine of him covering various MF Doom songs. With each successive video, a hooded figure revealed more and more of his face until the final video, when he finally unmasks himself as the Grammy-nominated emcee. The mask imagery is a clear homage to MF Doom’s iconic mask that few have seen him without. More of a tribute than a proper cover, Mos Def rapped several of MF Doom’s songs, using the same lyrics and the original beats.

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Sports lit explores the lessons behind competition

By Maham Hasan | Apr. 5, 2015

I’m not a sports fan. I never have been and I probably never will be. Not for lack of trying though because I tried for half of my life to either excel at some sport or really fall in love with one. I couldn’t do either and never do I feel that loss more as when I witness the love and devotion for a sport by thousands, if not millions of people during sporting events.

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NIT excitement proves shorter shot clock helps college basketball

By Steven Wishau - The Daily Cardinal and Jack Baer | Mar. 26, 2015

The amount of time it takes to read this sentence out loud could save college basketball.

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NBA playoffs crowns a more deserving champ than March Madness

By Grey Satterfield | Mar. 25, 2015

March Madness is in full swing, but I’m not talking about the NCAA tournament, I’m talking about the race for the NBA playoffs.

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‘Community’ comes back with Yahoo but slightly underwhelms

By Jake Smasal | Mar. 24, 2015

Seemingly every year that it’s been on the air, “Community” has been moved, cancelled or resurrected. In fact, it’s happened so often that we “Community” fans have even created a hashtag (#sixseasonsandamoive) to express our exasperation with the show’s fluctuating status, the latest example its resurrection at the hands of Yahoo Screen, which prompted thousands to young Americans to ask whether or not Yahoo was still a thing.

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‘Leviathan’ has reputation as novelistic movie

By Austin Wellens | Mar. 24, 2015

It seems super easy to compare the latest Russian cinematic masterpiece, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Leviathan,” to the great literary works of Fyodor Dostoevsky or Leo Tolstoy; just look at the number of reviews that described the film as being “novelistic.” And to be fair, the comparison (especially to Dostoevsky) isn’t entirely ungrounded. The film shares its breathtaking scope (and runtime), band of fully realized and psychologically complex characters, questions of suicide/existence and overt, proud references to the Bible with the likes of “The Brothers Karamazov” and “The Idiot.” Plus the film’s wordless, eye-opening passages rank with the most awe-inspiring moments of prose in any language.

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Revelry attracts all crowds with lineup

By Jake Witz and Katie Panosh | Mar. 24, 2015

Alright. It’s here. Every year Revelry Music and Arts Festival becomes bigger and bigger. This year there’s expected to be around 10,000 students mobbing the streets of Langdon to watch the festival, and the new lineup is sure to make those projected numbers become reality. So enough squabbling, let’s dive right into this lineup and see just how big this year’s Revelry is going to be.

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Top five Twitter pages to follow for arts enjoyment

By Abbie Ruckdashel | Mar. 24, 2015

This week I’ve decided to count down my top five favorite artsy Twitter accounts that if you aren’t already following you should.Twitter is my favorite social media site. That said, it was hard for me to keep it to five. I could write a dissertation on what things I like on Twitter. I also struggled because a lot of the accounts I follow on Twitter are funny to me because as a female the tweets are relatable. However I want my column to be readable and useful to both genders and everyone in between. These accounts I picked are mostly funny, but some are inspirational or just generally useful to brighten up your day and diversify your timeline.

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'The Last Man on Earth' represents the best in new television

By Jake Smasal and Lindsey Ramon | Mar. 20, 2015

Will Forte’s new sitcom, “The Last Man on Earth,” focuses on the new, post-apocalyptic life of Phil Miller, the last living man on Earth, as he attempts to survive and thrive in his new surroundings. It’s also one of the best new shows on television this spring. Will Forte is a comedic mastermind, and unhinging him to do all of the things we would do if we were trapped in the world alone is solid gold. However, it’s not just Forte that makes the show great; everything from setting to script conspires and aspires to make “The Last Man on Earth” worthy of praise.

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Chris Borland retiring for the right reasons, and that should worry the NFL

By Lorin Cox | Mar. 18, 2015

Brian Urlacher, Patrick Willis and Ray Lewis. When you think of the great middle linebackers of our era, those three come to mind. They were game-changing players who are headed to the hall of fame.

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New season of 'House of Cards' is a dud

By Jake Smasal | Mar. 11, 2015

Like most everything else, television is all about relationships. From “The Sopranos” to “Community,” all great shows use personal relationships as a fulcrum to lift up the rest of the plot around them. However, when shows (especially dramas) forgot about the world outside of a marriage or a friendship, when things turn inward just a little bit too much, your show starts to suck.

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"Selma" highlights intersection of cinema and historical accuracy

By Austin Wellens | Mar. 10, 2015

We have a problem regarding how we understand history in movies. Our criterion seems to be “objectivity at any cost,” so that any liberty being taken with the actual, concrete “event” disqualifies it from laying claim to being based on actuality. This misunderstands both film and history—two things that I care a lot about—because it acts like either/both of them are anything other than narratives that are designed to impart certain ideas. In the same way history books don’t read as dry lists of objectively presented facts, films that use history as material do not need to strictly adhere to some pseudo-omniscient objectivity of what “really happened” that distances us from the past, and acts like it isn’t part of a complicated, ongoing story.

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Kanye brings grime music to center stage

By Jake Witz | Mar. 9, 2015

It’s still the part of March where Midwesterners mistake 40 degrees for sandal weather, and already 2015 has proven itself to be a massive year for hip-hop. There have been huge releases from rap giants like Drake and Kendrick, plus many promising drops from up-and-comers like Action Bronson and Vic Mensa. But the most recent hip-hop development that has me over the moon is Kanye West single-handedly bringing grime music into the mainstream spotlight.