Arts
Pep Rally: Prepping for the Big Day
By Audrey Adu-Appiah
Braving the misty drizzle, Phillips Academy students, faculty and alumni flocked to Phelps Stadium for the annual Andover/Exeter pep rally this past Friday. Amid the cheers of psyched seniors, the pep rally began with a performance by Andover’s Drumline, opening announcements made by Mr. Efinger and scenes of our Blue Key Heads antagonizing Exeter’s “Red Bandits.” The Blue Key Heads would continue to bring smiles to the countless faces in the crowd during a series of skits counting down the “Top Five Reasons to Go to Exeter.” Among these reasons was: the “active” social life—illustrated by Thor Shannon ’09 as an Exie telling riveting tales such as: “One time when I was six, I played in the sandbox, and there was a rock.”
However, it wasn’t entirely up to the Blue Key Heads to entertain—the six varsity teams that performed skits did more than enough to hold the...
Movie Review: Synecdoche, N.Y.
By Wolfgang Siewert
In Charlie Kaufman’s latest self-directed film, Synecdoche, N.Y., he strives to drive the exploration of introspection to an entirely new level. Kaufman’s success is credited just as much to what he writes about as to how he writes: his typical character is a dysfunctional, sexual, confused artist on the verge of a psychotic break. Another hallmark of the Kaufman movie is the picture-within-picture, perception-questioning trip-factor. If this is a film that indulges Kaufman’s artistic tendency to chase its own tail, it is the one that ends up devouring itself. Needless to say, the movie doesn’t make perfect sense. If you aren’t ready to be hosed down in existential paranoia, this probably isn’t the movie for you.
Things start off pretty ordinarily: the successful but chronically despondent theater director Caden Cotard (played by Phillip Semour Hoffman), who lives alienated from his artist wife, is enduring the deterioration of his...
Look of the Week: Sadie Daniela Pimentel ’11
By Jen Gerald
Sadie Hawkins is an event that switches up the everyday norm; it’s one of the few occasions where girls must gather up the courage to ask guys to a dance. Although this semi-formal is slightly non-traditional, one thing remains consistent: you and your Sadie date need to look incredible. For this article, the spotlight is on Daniela Pimentel ’11. She and her Sadie date, Kyle Leahy ’10, made a cute pair because their looks balanced each others. Leahy, who wore the foolproof ensemble of khakis, a navy blazer and tie, looked more subdued than Pimentel, who wore a bold, paisley-print strapless dress in an assortment of blues, purples, pinks and reds. Yet somehow, Pimentel managed to be striking without calling too much attention to herself, a task that’s quite hard to pull off. In her everyday style, Pimentel pulls the same tricks as well. Her clothing never...
If You Like: Jazz, Piano rock, the Midwest Listen to This: Hidden Deep in the Green
By Sarah Onorato
Minus Six, a four-person group from Moline, Illinois, is a musical enigma which combines elements of jazz, pop, piano rock and even hints of Broadway sound into its songs. This guitar-less rock band uses piano, saxophone, bass and drums to create a unique and unparalleled sound in their album “Hidden Deep in the Green.”
I was lucky that my first exposure to this group was live in Illinois this past summer. Minus Six’s strange and refreshing sound, paired with their catchy melodies and lyrics, immediately grabbed my attention. At first, the absence of a guitar threw me off but as I continued to listen, each song became increasingly appealing to me. While a true appreciation for Minus Six is certainly an acquired taste, their album is still worth a listen. The album starts on an upbeat note with “Lost At Sea.” This track starts with a bass playing,...
Who Are We? Phillips Academy in 2008
By Arts
Despite the controversy following Kip Fulbeck’s address to Phillips Academy, he has left something of a mark on the walls of the Gelb Gallery in GW. “What Are We? Phillips Academy 2008-2009” is a collection of photos of members of the Phillips Academy community, along with a response to the question, “What are you?”
Demetrius Lalanne ’11 said “I think [the exhibit] was a great way for the community to come together by taking an idea from Kip Fulbeck that was kind of controversial… It allowed artists and non-artists to express ourselves.”
Responses to the question “What are you?” warranted a variety of answers. Faculty, staff students and children responded with drawings, foreign languages, blank pages, a simple “X” across the page, charts, one or two-word responses, poems, paragraphs, compilations of phrases and references to popular culture (“I am smart. S-M-R-T”).
Juliana Reider ’10 was also pleased to see the...
A/E Student Spotlight Andrew Townson ’10
By Interviewed By Colleen Flanagan
Explain your outfit.
The gorilla hat was the only thing I planned. I got it at either Marshalls or Joker’s Wild last year; I don’t remember. I love that hat, probably my favorite part of the outfit. I only wish it wasn’t five years old, and I wish it fit my head.
What makes a PA student want to dress up for A/E? I think kids dress up for A/E because we LOVE Andover, and we want other people to know how much we love it. Why do we love it? Part of it’s just ingrained. As a new Lower, seeing the midnight march and Orientation, it’s hard not to learn to love Andover. As time goes on, though, I realize other incredible things about this place... and it’s even harder not to love it.
Do you think doing so encourages either the crowd or the teams to perform better?
Definitely....
Palimpsest Ensemble: Professional Improvisation
By Steve Kim
What may have been the most unusual and interesting musical performance at PA this year had a total audience of three students.
While most Phillips Academy students were busy dressing up, buying flowers and picking up their dates for this year’s Sadie Hawkins Dance, I found myself in the Timken Room of Graves Hall, awaiting the performance of the Palimpsest Ensemble. I do not regret showing up one bit.
Junko Simons, the ensemble’s cellist and an educator at Phillips Academy, explained why the night was unusual. Ara Sarkissian, the ensemble’s pianist and composer of one of the pieces, made the night a real event. “Sarkissian is a brilliant composer. It’s really fun to have a composer around, because you are able to talk to them about their piece, and they can share with you their ideas. You can’t really do that with a composer who died two hundred years...
The Odd Couple: A Look Ahead
By Sky Yoo
The cast of Fall Term’s Theatre 520 is ready to blow away your expectations with their upcoming performances of “The Odd Couple.” Theatre lovers of Phillips Academy—the moment that you have waited for has finally come.
Written by the hit playwright Neil Simon, The Odd Couple is a humorous story about two mismatched roommates: Oscar Madison (played by Alex Gottfried ’09) and Felix Ungar (Thor Shannon ’09). It is one of the most successful and best-loved Broadway plays in the history of theatre, and it will absolutely seize your attention.
Oscar is a sloppy, slovenly sportswriter who has recently gone through a divorce. Most of his time is spent on the poker table with his friends Murray, Roy, Speed and Vinnie (played by Khalil Flemming ’12, Andrew Schlager ’12, Mide Babatunde ’09 and Patrick Brady ’11, respectively). One day Oscar’s old friend Felix Ungar, an extremely fastidious news-writer and...
Faces of the International Festival
By Steve Kim
Phillips Academy students who gathered in the Kemper Auditorium last Saturday night for this year’s International Festival were unaware of the frustration and complications in store. This year’s festival exemplified the consequences of performing a hastily prepared show. Although the annual I-Fest, renowned mostly for its talent show, had many strong acts, others were plagued with technical difficulties.
Still, the night started powerfully. Jinzi Zhang ’11 blew away the audience with her intense Kung Fu. With a feverish Chinese song in the background, Zhang swung her two blades as if battling against an invisible enemy. She jumped, slashed and kicked like Uma Thurman fighting the crazy Yakuza single-handedly in “Kill Bill.” Ryan Hong ’10, Michael Yoon ’10 and Hyungtae Kim ’09 performed intense Korean rapping. The audience screamed, not due to frustration, but due to excitement and the performers’ energy.
“Ryan and Mike beasted the whole thing. ‘Fan’ was...
Club Spotlight In The Mix
By Nathalie Sun
Hablas Espanol? Parlez-vous Francais? Right now, In The Mix, Andover’s tri-annual multicultural magazine, is asking these questions. This winter term, In The Mix will produce a special language edition of their magazine, comprised of a number of articles written in different languages from members of the Phillips Academy community.
Every term, In The Mix prints articles on varied cultural concerns from within the PA community and outside the Andover Bubble. The article prompts center around diversity—predominantly ethnic diversity along with many other topics.
Elizabeth Patino ’09 originally proposed the idea for this unique language issue. So far, she has spearheaded the process of conceiving the magazine and has stepped into the role of Editor in Chief. Originally, the intention of the new publication was to make language the focal point of clubs such as Alianza Latina.
She said, “At first this idea was for Alianza Latina. I thought it would...