March 20, 2014

rVOLUME 15, ISSUE 24 MARCH 20, 2014

recess

All of the AboveAll-women production opens this weekend

The Grand Budapest HotelRecess reviews new Wes Anderson, page 6

Grounded at Manbites DogDuke alums present company’s latest production, page 3

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

2 | thursDAY, MArch 20, 2014 recess the chronicle

Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Hot Rhythm (detail), 1961. Oil on canvas, 40 x 48.375 inches (101.6 x 122.9 cm). Collection of Mara Motley, MD, and Valerie Gerrard Browne. Image courtesy of the Chicago History Museum. © Valerie Gerrard Browne.

This exhibition is made possible by the Terra Foundation for American Art; the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor; and the Henry Luce Foundation. Major support is provided by the Wyeth Foundation for American

Art; Drs. Victor and Lenore Behar; the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources; and Deborah DeMott. This project is made possible in part by funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide

nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this bookmark do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

On view through May 11, 2014

nasher.duke.edu/motley

Jazz Age ModernistArchibald Motley

Master colorist and radical interpreter of urban culture

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why I got grounded...

Lauren Feilich [editor]......................................................................... love money party

Eliza Strong [managing]..................................................................................... square

MC Bousquette [music]............................................................... midday skinnydipping

Megan Rise [film].................................................................................... slipped on ice

Kathy Zhou [arts]..................................................................................................... ;-)

Prashanth Kamalakanthan [online]............................................................ naughty boi

Eliza Bray [photo].................................................................................. all of the above

rrecess editors

ss recess reditor’s

note

In case you haven’t noticed by now, mak-ing playlists is my thing. Since the inception of my Spotify Premium subscription, construct-ing playlists has been my joy, my therapy, my processing and my relief. Now, as I rapidly ap-proach the end of my Duke career, these play-lists are becoming my closure. I don’t mean this as an “I never want to graduate” type of statement. Instead, I feel a bittersweet mix of fearing the time when my closest friends may be states or continents away and accepting that I have reached the immovable conclusion of my time here. So, for my final editor’s note, I present to you one last playlist.

I know that, if I choose to use only my own words to communicate how I feel right now and what I wish to share with you, I would fall far short of my intent. Instead, I’ll use my own amateurish art of curating music to convey what I would like to say with significantly more beauty.

1. ‘Promesses’ by Dimmi feat. B. LacosteThis track from French DJ Dimmi samples

President Obama’s speech from the 2012 election night while combining an absolutely killer saxophone and steady dance beat. “I be-lieve we can keep the promise of our found-ing, the idea that if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love.” While this is an idealistic dream that lies far from fruition, President Obama’s

words still reflect the vision that so many in the United States hold for our future. No matter our party affiliation, these words should ring true. Oh, and who doesn’t need something inspiring to dance to?

2. ‘Stay Alive’ by Jose Gonzalez“There’s a rhythm in rush these days/

Leaves you empty with nothing but dreams/In a world gone shallow/In a world gone lean.” We’ve grown up in tumultuous times, from 9/11 to war to recession. And on Wednesday, a New York Times front-page headline iden-tified the emergence of another Cold War. Yet, ‘Stay Alive’ drags me out of my cynicism quietly but firmly, reminding that “There is a truth and it’s on our side/Dawn is coming open your eyes/Look into the sun as the new days rise.”

3. ‘The Wind’ by Cat StevenThis short one’s for all of us staring into

the horizon, toes curled over the edge of the cliff, asking ourselves whether we can actually fly once we make the leap. The simplicity of “I listen to the wind/To the wind of my soul/Where I’ll end up, well I think/Only God re-ally knows” captures our transience and envel-ops us in Cat Stevens’s calm voice and finger-picking.

4. ‘No Surrender’ by Bruce SpringsteenIf I didn’t include some Bruce, I would be

lying to the world about who I am. And really, what could be more fitting for a graduating senior than charging into the world with, “No retreat, and baby, no surrender.” (Though I don’t really think it rings true of Duke that “We learned more from a three minute re-cord, baby/Than we ever learned in school.”)

5. ‘Young and Able’ by Current SwellThis was one of my spring break ocean-

side staples due to its incredibly relaxed vibe and peaceful lyrics. There’s a particular line that stands out to me amidst the melodic vo-cals and soothing acoustic strumming: “Your home is where you make it/You make it where you live.” The knowledge that we can create

another home beyond Duke is comforting, es-pecially in tandem with the rest of the song’s message about finding someone to love who will be the foundation of that sense of home.

6. ‘Wait’ by M83“No time, no time, no time.” I have had far

too little time with so many of those to whom I have grown so close. My heavy heart stems from the deep gratitude it holds. To my Duke friends both here and gone: whether you knew me for all four years, through my rough-est and most ungrateful iterations, or whether you have known me for half a year, loving and motivating me to transform my character and live in vulnerable honesty, thank you. You have become a family to me unlike any I could imagine. I am who I am because of you. I hope you all know that I am here for you now and in the years to come, even as we find ourselves in opposite corners of the Earth.

7. ‘Beth/Rest’ by Bon IverThis ‘80s-inspired track concludes one of

my favorite albums, Bon Iver’s self-titled effort. It is one of the best albums to listen to on vi-nyl, achieving a strikingly eerie and beautiful depth that electronic formatting can’t seem to emulate. ‘Beth/Rest’ reaches me the way it does because it describes a relationship in all of its ups and downs, a sensation well-known to those who have maintained a close relation-ship of any kind over these four years.

8. ‘The Parting Glass’ by Wailin’ JennysI will end with a centuries-old song which

my ancestors in Scotland almost certainly knew—if not sang—to wish close friends goodbye. I recommend The Wailin’ Jennys’ gorgeous rendition, but warn that tears may accompany. In my mind, I listen and picture a group of friends (who were probably just as re-liant on plaid then as I am now) reminiscing, laughing, forgiving and basking in the too-rap-idly disappearing glow of intimate friendship. But that’s just me; let it mean to you whatever you need it to be.

-MC Bousquette

the chronicle recess thursDAY, MArch 20, 2014 | 3

One-woman award-winning play opens tonight at Manbitesby Stephanie Wu

ThE ChRONICLE

Technology and its ensuing impersonaliza-tion of our lives is making waves onto the stage at Manbites Dog Theater.

“Grounded,” a one-woman show by play-wright George Brant, will open tonight in the downtown Durham theater space. The production is brought to life by actor Mad-eleine Lambert (T’08) and director Talya Klein (T’02), both Duke graduates who sub-sequently attended Brown University/Trinity Repertory MFA program.

While Brant’s previous plays never saw the national spotlight, “Grounded” has erupted globally as a phenomenon in theater. After winning the 2012 Smith Prize, which honors new plays on American politics and receiving a Fringe First Award at the 2013 Edinburgh Fes-tival Fringe, “Grounded” has elevated Brant’s prominence as a playwright to new heights.

Audiences everywhere have been held cap-tive by the play, a monologue about the life of an F-16 pilot whose unexpected pregnancy re-sults in her reassignment to controlling drone strikes.

“What’s really captivating about [‘Ground-ed’] is that it looks at modern technology in relationship to war. Throughout the play, the audience understands the psychological rami-fications and repercussions of drone warfare and the effect it has on [the pilot],” Lambert said.

While technology may seem to have cre-ated an increasingly impersonal war—marked by the notion that the push of a button can decimate targets millions of miles removed—“Grounded” turns this idea on its head. It’s often easy for audience members to simply sit back and observe the show rather than personally invest in the narrative. But in not specifying the race or name of the pilot, Brant

doesn’t allow for such disengagement; he forces every audience member into the pilot’s shoes.

“What’s most amazing about her is that she doesn’t have to be a woman. George is allow-ing this woman to be every character…and that a woman’s voice can legitimately be the voice of every drone pilot…is revolutionary,” Klein said.

“We always look for excuses to say, ‘That’s not me, that could never be me, her choices

are not my choices,’” Klein continued.But at the end of the day, the play compels

audiences to identify with the pilot. In Lam-bert’s words, “You’re on a ride with her. You’re on a journey with her.”

While “Grounded” is a political play, it lacks a political agenda and motives. Instead, it raises a great deal of questions on technol-ogy, warfare and morality, brought to the fore by a character that is extremely ingrained in the military system.

“I think people with any sort of political interest will come to the play and find them-selves shaken up by it,” Klein said. But at its heart, “Grounded” simply focuses on the pilot and the honesty of her story, which Klein de-scribed as “refreshing” and “very real.”

“The play is political, it’s personal, it’s scary, it’s moving and it’s…surprisingly funny. She’s got moxie, she’s got guts and she’s also a

See manbites, page 8



All of the Above showcases diversity of women’s experiences for 11th yearby Katie Fernelius

ThE ChRONICLE

“Where is your voice in the dialogue surrounding sexuality, academics, joy, effortless perfection, friendship, race, family, privilege, hardship and whatever else impacts your life? Where is your voice to describe the complex humanity behind the female Duke student, staff or faculty member?”

This Friday through Sunday, All of the Above will ask this question of Duke audiences in its 11th annual production. All of the Above, an all-female-written, -acted and -directed show, stemmed from the 2003 Women’s Initiative steered by past president Nan Keohane. Of the many projects born out of the initiative, All of the Above was specifically created to showcase the variety of women’s ex-periences on campus and to provide a platform for women’s stories.

The production brings together wom-en through many different creative ca-pacities in order to create a forum for their stories. Duke women write and submit the monologues anonymously, which are then read and selected by the production team. Other women can au-dition to perform these monologues as part of the annual spring production.

“We tried really hard this year to have a much more diverse selection of pieces and pieces that could speak to differ-ent people on campus,” said junior Cesi Bosch, former actor and current assis-tant director.

She further stated that the produc-tion has been criticized in the past for portraying a narrow set of women’s ex-periences, especially that of white, het-erosexual women.

“In the past, a lot of our monologues have revolved around women’s relation-ships with men. That’s not who we are as Duke women—of course, men are an aspect of our lives, but definitely not the only one in my experiences!” said

senior Anna Koelsch, past actor and cur-rent director of the production. “Yes, we think about sex and men, but we also think about academics, and our fami-lies, and our identities, and race, and so-cioeconomic status and any interaction between all of these things! I want this production to challenge the monolithic idea of Duke women.”

The production team is mindful in their process of monologue selection to choose diverse and well-written mono-logues, as well as to retain the anonym-ity of the original writer. Furthermore, the entire production team engages in conversations about creative and ethical decisions regarding authentic represen-tation of identities and experiences.

“We talk a lot about the sensitivity of the stories we are telling. These are not monologues that we can cut and paste at will. This is someone’s story that they shared and made themselves vulnerable in sharing,” Koelsch said. “We ultimately try to make sure that the entire produc-tion team and the cast members are comfortable with how each monologue is being performed.”

Bosch also spoke about the mindful-ness that went into the creative process.

“The policy is that you do not per-form a piece that was written by someone you know,” Bosch said. “The stories are so important and the words are a tem-plate for the actors. A lot of the mean-ing comes from how the actor chooses to interpret and translate those words into their performance.”

All of the Above is often compared to Me Too Monologues due to their similar formats and the fact that both concern questions of identity on Duke’s campus.

“People call it the female or the femi-nist Me Too Monologues,” Bosch said. “I think anything labeled as feminist tends to be stigmatized, so there’s this tendency to neglect this production and not give it a fair chance.”

SHANEN GANAPATHEE/ THE CHRONICLE





All of the Above showcases diversity of women’s experiences for 11th year

Both productions are strong shows that are notable in sparking campus dialogue, but to label All of the Above as the “female” Me Too Monologues ob-scures the fact that it precludes Me Too by six years. Although All of the Above provides a platform for women specifi-cally, the production also emphasizes that these stories are meaningful for all identities; as such, individuals of all identities are welcome to attend the show.

“I think that some men are deterred

by the idea of a production all about women—that idea can be kind of scary,” Koelsch said. “But, almost every man who has ever gone to All of the Above and has talked to me about it has said how meaningful it was for them and how it raised perspectives and questions that they have never thought about or heard about before. We sometimes think it is more useful for men to attend the show, because while a lot of women will be exposed to a diversity of experience, we hope that they probably are already

thinking about these things.”“Women’s issues are not just women’s

issues. They are gender issues,” Bosch said. “Both men and women have to face these issues, even if it is from a different perspective.”

The aim of the production, then, is to create a platform for anyone to better understand the diversity in the experi-ences of Duke women.

“Overwhelmingly, the narrative that a lot of people hear about the ‘Duke wom-an’ is very singular and one that does not

apply to everybody,” Koelsch said. “We portray that Duke women can be ‘all of the above’—we can suffer from mental illness, we can hook-up, be virgins, be attracted to someone of any gender. We want to provide a space for women to tell their story, whatever that is.”

All of the Above runs March 21 through March 23 in East Duke 209. Friday and Saturday evenings the show will run at 7 p.m. and Sunday evening the show will run at both 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Admission is free.

CHELSEA PIERONI/THE CHRONICLE

SHANEN GANAPATHEE/ THE CHRONICLE SHANEN GANAPATHEE/ THE CHRONICLE


www.studentaffairs.duke.edu/career

Wendy Marantz Levine ‘95

Wednesday, March 265:00 - 6:30 pmHudson Hall 207

Founder, Beauty Bus Foundation

Careers in Entrepreneurship, Law, Marketing & Nonprofits

EXPERTIN RESIDENCE PROGRAMThe Fannie Mitchell

Individual Advising SessionsThursday, Mar. 27

10 am - 2 pm, Career CenterRegister: duke.experience.com

The Expert in Residence Program features accomplished professionals to share specialized

knowledge and provide career advice to students.

by Kathy ZhouThE ChRONICLE

“The Grand Budapest hotel” is a delight. As in most Wes Anderson films, the deliberate, storybook cin-ematography—each moment of the film could stand alone as a still—are a joy to experience. This film stood out in particular from Anderson’s other films, boasting a flair for gran-diose storytelling with likable charac-ters amid the director’s same polar-izing nostalgia.

The film is a narrative within a narrative, starting with a teenager reading a book titled “The Grand Bu-dapest hotel.” The book, authored by The Author, is a memoir and takes us back to 1932, when the young writer (Jude Law) stays at the solitary, glitzy hotel in the now-nonexistent Republic of Zubrowka. he meets the lonely hotel owner, Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham), who emotion-ally recounts his time as a lobby boy back when the hotel thrived under the illustrious, poetry-reciting con-cierge, Monsieur Gustave, brilliantly played by Ralph Fiennes. Despite the

FILMThe Grand Budapest HotelScott Rudin ProductionsDirected By Wes Anderson

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLErecently immigrated Zero’s “zero ex-perience, zero education and zero family,” M. Gustave takes him on as a protégé when Zero explains, “Who wouldn’t want to be a lobby boy at the Grand Budapest hotel? It’s an in-stitution.”

Caught in the rise of fascism and bequeathed with a priceless painting titled “Boy with Apple,” M. Gustave finds himself thrown into a high-security prison and Zero must break him out. Mixed into the great escape are many pastel-colored pastries, lib-erally applied cologne, a brass-knuck-led assassin (Willem Dafoe), the So-ciety of the Crossed Keys and, above all, exceptional manners and service.

Once again, we meet a variety of characters, all memorable in physi-cal appearance and silly quirks. Most importantly, the primary characters only grow more endearing. Ander-son’s stories often feel circular and his characters tend to grow annoy-ing, usually due to a staunch refus-al to change their ways or minds: I started rolling my eyes in “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Moonrise Kingdom” was a bit too twee and kitschy and I wanted just a bit more self-awareness from “Rushmore.” here, we are en-deared to M. Gustave as he charms his way out of most situations and we appreciate Zero’s penciled-in mous-tache and deadpan devotion to M. Gustave and the hotel.

Typical of most Wes Anderson films, “The Grand Budapest hotel” doesn’t appeal so much to our emo-tions as it does to our senses of child-like fascination and wonder. Ander-son relays a story, harking to what The Author says about writing books: when you’re a writer, the stories—

the characters—will come to you. here is a story with three chapters, each distinguished by a different aspect ratio, about Anderson’s most meticulously crafted and in-ventive world, which involves an old-fashioned handmade model of the Grand Budapest.

This is a well-rounded film set in the dazzle of the quintessential

Wes Anderson universe and caught somewhere between an elegant frenzy and a dark whimsy. The story is not lost in the impeccable scene composition. The vibrantly manicured styles captivate us visu-ally, but we’re kept on the edge of our seats by an orchestrated caper (high-speed chases, a gunfight, a very elaborate prison break), clev-er dialogue delivered by an excel-lent ensemble cast and outrageous situations. More prominent than in Anderson’s other films, though, is a lonesome melancholy, as both M. Gustave and Zero watch their worlds fade. This is Anderson at his most sophisticated and charm-ing as he spins another magical tale.

“Who wouldn’t want to be a lobby boy at the Grand Budapest Hotel? It’s an institution.”

by Kathy ZhouThE ChRONICLE

The place where I watched hayao Miyazaki’s swan song, “The Wind Rises,” was perfect. It was a Monday night show-ing in a theater fitted with dark gold cur-tains and velvet chairs, an audience of about a dozen regulars and an excited introduction by one of the theater’s em-ployees. The whole place had a sort of anachronistic charm, eliciting a muted, dusty sense of nostalgia and earnestness.

That’s precisely where we find the bittersweet “The Wind Rises.” It’s dif-ferent from Miyazaki’s other critically-acclaimed films. The style is the same, with watercolor clouds, strikingly de-tailed facial expressions and painstak-ingly hand-drawn animations. Individual scenes and dialogue still move at a real-life pace, and the story is still carried not only by the characters that we meet, but also by the pulsing sensation of some-thing more. But there are no spirits or demons, no curses or spells. We don’t get much of an ending or a moral to this fable, which was loosely based on Tatsuo hori’s 1937 story. Rather, we get a real-life glimpse into some affecting truth as

FILMThe Wind risesStudio GhibliDirected By Hayao Miyazaki



Duke University Chapel

Organ Recitals 2014

Robert ParkinsSunday, March 23, 20145:00 p.m.

Robert Parkins is the University Organist and a Professor of the Practice of Music at Duke. His recordings have appeared on the Calcante, Gothic, Musical Heritage Society, and Naxos labels, and his performances described as “fresh and spontaneous, transforming the music from museum artifacts to living works of beauty” (The Diapason). This season’s program, “Magnificat,” will include music by early Iberian and French composers, plus works of Bach and Rheinberger on the Brombaugh and Flentrop organs. He will be assisted by Kristen Blackman, cantor, and members of the Duke Vespers

Ensemble, directed by Brian Schmidt.

OPERATION: University Store PUBLICATION: ChronicleHEADLINE: Ring Days DATES: 03/18/14COLOR: Black

Jostens Ring DaysDistinctive. Classic. Lasting.

Tuesday, March 18 - Thursday, March 2010am - 4pm

The University Store, Bryan Center, West Campus

Sponsored by Duke University Stores®

and overarching theme of the film by poet Paul Valéry: Le vent se lève!...Il faut tenter de vivre! or, The wind is rising. We must attempt to live.

This is a tale of longing and hope with commentary inextricably tied to Miyazaki himself. Several threads weave throughout: the horrors and morals of battle, Japan’s place in his-tory and the world, the pain of need-ing to create. Jiro has to balance his duty to his work and to those he loves. he struggles as he dreams of bird-like planes flying through lush skies, so different from those that will almost certainly crash and burn as relics of war’s destruction. Miyazaki dazzles us, but even more, he grips us with characters who are painfully relat-able, a soundtrack that simultaneous-ly soars and deeply saddens, a bitter truth. I can’t help but be reminded of another excerpt from the same Valéry poem:

In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished—a word that for them has no sense—but abandoned; and this abandonment, whether to the flames or to the public (and which is the result of weariness or an obligation to deliver) is a kind of an accident to them, like the breaking off of a reflection, which fatigue, irritation, or something similar has made worthless.

This is a film that at once con-fronts our unstoppable corruption of beauty and follows the long, desper-ate efforts of those who try to restore, or to rediscover, that beauty. Yet—and maybe he just couldn’t bring himself to do otherwise—Miyazaki still gives us some hope to clutch onto at the end, a feeling that, maybe, Jiro will finally get to create the planes he’d always dreamed of.

by Megan RiseThE ChRONICLE

In “Mr. Peabody and Sherman,” Mr. Pea-body (Ty Burrell) is a genius dog, a college graduate with a penchant for bad puns. Sher-man (Max Charles) is a boy, adopted by Mr. Peabody and raised to appreciate knowledge. They wear matching glasses. Only one of them wears a bow tie (hint: it’s the dog). My parents grew up watching Mr. Peabody and Sherman, the subjects of a series of shorts called “Pea-body’s Improbable history” from “Rocky and his Friends” and “The Bullwinkle Show.” My mom is such a fan of the original show that our dog is named Mr. Peabody. I’m sure if I had come second, I would have been named Sherman, just for consistency.

Mr. Peabody and Sherman have stayed much the same in terms of their personalities, but their originally perplexing personal rela-tionship is fleshed out in more detail in the film. Mr. Peabody, a know-it-all who refused to conform to society’s standards of how a dog should act, was never adopted. Because of his past, he decides to adopt a boy and save him from that fate. The crux of the film (and the television show) is that Mr. Peabody designed a “wayback machine” that allows him to wit-ness important moments in history. The plot is kicked into gear when Sherman uses the way-back machine to prove a point to his brainy nemesis from school, Penny (Ariel Winter), against Mr. Peabody’s orders. The three then travel through time on an adventure to fix the past and the future.

Mr. Peabody’s vanity and self-confidence are intended to amuse, and Burrell pulls off

the role impeccably. Not only does the dog think he is superior to the members of his own species, but he is also certain he’s better than all humans as well. “how hard could raising a child be?” he asks the judge who grants him ap-proval, as a dog, to adopt. his plentiful puns—a throwback to the 1960s program—are intend-ed to be silly jokes to himself that no one will understand, but they become painfully obvious in the over-the-top way he delivers them, if not to Sherman then to the audience. he wants everyone to know just how intelligent he is, and he never fails to share his knowledge. The character walks the line between grating and endearing with near perfection.

however, one detriment to the film is its length. While not a long movie at 82 minutes, the change in format from a series of cartoons under 15 minutes to a feature-length film is strained. The film changes venues frequently using the wayback machine like a series of epi-sodes loosely strung together. If the film had a stronger central theme or lesson, it might have worked, but the characters just seem to shift aimlessly from historical period to historical pe-riod, leaving a mess in their wake. I would have much rather seen a new batch of shorts featur-ing the beloved characters.

The new animated film tries to revamp the wry, witty show to fit a more modern style. In doing so, the animation added another di-mension (ha), breaking away from the easily doodle-able original character depictions to a now-familiar style reminiscent of “The Incred-ibles.” There’s nothing spectacular or revolu-tionary about the animation, but it’s not bad. The story feels forced into being “aww”-worthy and the places and times they travel to are uninspired. In reinventing a classic, the new “Mr. Peabody and Sherman” takes away some of what made the series so original. Instead of a “history of the World: Part I” or “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” for kids, the movie is just another average animated film that pan-ders to parents’ nostalgia.

FILMMr. Peabody and shermanDreamworksDirected By Rob Minkoff

we meet Jiro horikoshi, a good soul who wears circle-framed glasses, dreams of designing beautiful airplanes as a child and becomes an esteemed aeronautical engineer in the time of World War II.

The surreal or fantastical parts of the film are reserved for Jiro’s dreams, where his hero, the Italian engineer Caproni, guides him. We watch as Jiro grows up to help reinvent Mitsubishi’s warplanes; Japan is decades behind at this time, stuck with wood and canvas aircraft, a stark contrast to Germany’s enormous, all-metal bombers. Jiro im-merses himself in his work, hoping to one day, after the war, design a beautiful plane to carry people.

The film is long and rich. There’s a young Jiro with his sister, squinting up at the stars from their rooftop. We see Jiro through friendship, travel, failure and romance. Throughout, we, like Jiro, are reminded of something more. Japan is in turmoil, struggling through an earth-quake, a war, a failing economy. A Ger-man man who Jiro meets at a summer re-sort whispers his criticisms of hitler and then abruptly flees arrest. More than once, characters remark on the war and Japan’s part in it, always coming to the same eerie, haunting conclusion: “Japan will burn.” And finally is the epigraph

Several threads weave throughout: the horrors and morals of battle, Ja-pan’s place in history and the world, the pain of needing to create.


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If you have any questions about discrimination or harassment based upon your sex, it is important that you get help.

Undergraduate students can contact: The Office of Student Conduct (919-684-6938) or Duke Police (919-684-2444).

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Lost in a DreamThe War on DrugsSecretly Canadian

by Drew Haskins ThE ChRONICLE

It is impossible to talk about The War on Drugs’ third album “Lost in the Dream” without highlight-ing ‘Red Eyes.’ Simply put, the first single is one of the best songs from the past decade. Over the course of five minutes, lead singer Adam Granduciel paints a picture of the exhaustion he feels from being in a rela-tionship with a woman who seems incapable of settling into adult life. Lyrically, ‘Red Eyes’ is a welcome change of pace from The War on Drugs’ former stunted-adult musings. It’s refreshingly mature for the band, yet the whole song is elevated to true greatness by the mag-nificent orchestration behind Granduciel’s words. The stunningly gorgeous song combines lush strings with complex guitar work and urgent drums to create music that is the aural equivalent of soaring. Rock is full of songs that equate grandiosity with emotion without ac-tually providing substance. The War on Drugs perfects this ratio.

The War on Drugs have hit upon a rather innovative sound for the new record. “Lost in the Dream” traffics in ‘80s rock filtered through a jam band perspective. Eight of the album’s 10 tracks surpass the five-minute mark, and nearly all except ‘Red Eyes’ sound like a collaboration between Bruce Springsteen and Phish. It’s a weird but mostly pleasant juxtaposition of killer riffs and experimental sections that traverse themes of alienation and Americana. The War on Drugs have a very keen pop sensibility that’s evident in all of their songs; at least two minutes in all of the tracks have parts that will be stuck in your head for days.

What makes “Lost in the Dream” merely good in-stead of great is the album’s construction. It’s a weird criticism, but for a band that traffics in atmospherics and emotion like The War on Drugs, the album feels lopsided and aimless at times. After the excellent one-two punch of ‘Under the Pressure’ and ‘Red Eyes,’ the album settles into a hazy groove for the remaining eight tracks. At times, this isn’t an issue, as many of the hooks (and Granduciel’s knack for imbuing the lyrics with a sense of drama) are enough to give each song merit. There’s nothing wrong with a long song done right—as long as there is substance. Too much of “Lost in the Dream” is unnecessary experimental noodling that makes the longer tracks disjointed. The album also suffers for putting ‘Red Eyes’ as its second song. As the clear emotional climax of “Lost in the Dream,” one cannot listen to the rest of the album without feeling like it peaked too soon. This disjointedness prevents the album from living up to the masterpiece of ‘Red Eyes.’

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mother. That’s a big part of the play too, how she plays the role of the pilot and how she plays the role of a mother and a wife,” Lambert said.

To bring such a complex play to life is no small feat. Both Lambert and Klein are well-seasoned in all aspects of theater, having previously acted and directed, respec-tively, at both Manbites Dog and Duke.

“Duke is such a renaissance study of theatre. When I was at Duke, I directed, I acted, I produced, and that…has made me a complete artist,” Lambert said.

While Duke and Manbites are not officially affiliated, Jeff Storer, Duke faculty and director at Manbites, has encouraged student participation in the theater com-pany’s productions.

“Jeff really pushes cutting-edge plays that really ask questions, plays that make you uncomfortable, plays that push boundaries, and that’s such a great gift to the Dur-ham and Duke community. I love that Duke is involved with Manbites,” Lambert said.

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MANBITES from page 3 Klein added, “ManBites Dog is a rare gem. It’s a magic space.”

This magical space is precisely where audience mem-bers can enter into the world of the pilot in “Grounded,” whose story will be told by nothing more than a “folding chair, a Pepsi bottle and Madeleine,” as Klein put it.

“Grounded” will be on show at Manbites Dog Theater begin-ning Thurs., March 20 through Sat., April 5. For showtimes, ticketing and more information, visit the theater’s website.



March 20, 2014

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