Faye Moledina  

Contributing Writer

On July 30, 2021 at exactly 12 a.m., I laid down on my cousin’s couch in darkness watching her projector light up the ceiling with a swirling galaxy of colors as we listened to the “Happier Than Ever” album for the first time, both of us lying in silence listening to Billie Eilish tell her story. 

Through this album, we see the sheer growth of Billie as an artist and a person. Billie said in her 2021 Vevo interview that she wanted this album to be open for people to find their own meaning in each song and know that, “their own interpretation is the right interpretation.” Although Billie wants us to each have our own interpretation, one main theme she carries through this album is her growth as a person. One aspect of that self improvement is disregarding the opinions of other people. 

In her previous album, “When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go,” the tone of her voice is lower, darker and grim. It is iconic. Her sound is very distinct. She speaks to people through her music. Her voice is soft and raspy, giving listeners a sense of comfort and familiarity. You hear her raw voice clearly through her songs as if she is talking to you. Although some of the mellow and blurred tones carry through into the new album in songs such as “Everybody Dies,” “Overheated,” “Halley’s Comet” and the beginning of “Happier Than Ever,” one of her goals in creating this album was to make it feel like a complete collection of songs but not the same song over and over. To achieve this, she incorporated a wider variety of sounds, including bossa nova, rock, voice layering and choir. 

One of my favorite parts of the album is the seamless transition between the two songs “Not My Responsibility” and “Overheated.” “Overheated” begins with the same end melody of  “Not My Responsibility. ” These two songs move seamlessly into each other, not only in the melody but also in the lyrics. She goes from talking about people’s opinions in “Not My Responsibility”’ to being “Overheated” by the media and bombardment she faces in public. In “Not My Responsibility,” Billie recites a dialogue with a beat in the background moving from ear to ear as you listen. In both songs, she comments on her every move being constantly watched and being judged for her actions, opinions and body. Billie also mentions the controversy over her clothing while interrogating why her choice of dress unreasonably matters so much to others. Moreover, Billie questions and challenges people’s perceptions and opinions of her. She portrays this through questioning, asking what people want from her and if she should change herself for the approval of others. The overarching theme of these two songs is to not care about the opinions of outsiders. This is especially important for Billie, who is a public figure constantly being watched as people try to find her flaws. But, as Billie says  “It’s so weird that we care so much until we don’t.” 

Morgan Hunter

Contributing Writer   

Come for the music, stay for President Bolton blowing bubbles. This was the consensus among students in attendance at Springfest this past weekend, put on by the Wooster Activities Crew (WAC). It was truly a night to remember — one you did not want to miss. If you did miss it, however, here’s everything you need to know about the evening. 

         Activities kicked off around 5 p.m. and there was something for just about everyone! Many people found their competitive spirit and enjoyed the fun, partaking in the inflatable obstacle courses available on the academic quad. Aubrey Davis ’25 summed up the experience shared by many: “My arms are shaking but I feel accomplished.” For those less inclined to battling it out in the hamster balls, there were plenty of snacks and refreshments, all courtesy of WAC. 

         At 7 p.m., the real party started! Spotting Sarah, a student band, opened first with a well-received set of both covers and original music. The crowd loved every minute of it, even encouraging an encore. “We only recently formed up as a band so being able to play on this scale for the campus before multiple of our members graduate was an absolute blast,” explains Karabella Hernandez ’22, the lead singer of Spotting Sarah.  “Playing music with friends has honestly been the highlight of this school year for me,” Colin Schrein ’25 added. “The other artists were amazing as well. I was honored to be able to open for Kenzo Cregan and Wallice.”

         In a last-minute replacement, the second performance was an acoustic set by Kenzo Cregan. While it was not what many expected, all were enthusiastic. The performers even stuck around and had a blast socializing with the students. “I thought it was very funny that we were wearing the same outfit. [Cregan] acknowledged it and we had a good laugh about it,” shared Shane Byrne ’23. Many enjoyed the duo’s folksy, original songs and how their personality set the stage for the long-anticipated headliner: Wallice! Wallice came all the way from Los Angeles to perform and everyone couldn’t get enough. She sang all of her most popular songs and even a few from her new EP that is being released this Friday. Students enjoyed her relatable lyrics and her personality on and off the stage. 

         Events like this don’t happen without months of preparation. Whether it be the tireless planning down to the wire by the dedicated members of WAC or the overtime hours put in by the generous volunteers, putting on the first in-person Springfest in three years was no easy task. “It’s fun, usually not that annoying, but sometimes things don’t go how we plan. That’s whenever we start improvising,” explained Preston Melchior-Fisher ’24, Vice President of Membership and Finance for WAC, when interviewed at the conclusion of the event. Executing an event of this size is hard, but can always be made easier with more volunteers. One volunteer, Robert Stark ’23, discussed his fulfilling experience working alongside WAC members. “This is one of the most fun nights every year, a fantastic tradition. It’s so great of WAC to put this all on and provide all the fun and exciting activities. Volunteering was a chill experience, but we always need more hands on deck.” 

         All in all, the results are in: Springfest is back and it was a resounding success! We all owe WAC a big thank you for making yet another weekend memorable beyond compare. After all, no one put it better than Alexa Carlozzi ’23: “I got to boogie, and that’s a good night for me!”

Haley Huett

A&E Editor

The College of Wooster’s Department of Theatre and Dance annual Spring Dance Concert concluded on Saturday, April 23. With the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company as a special guest, the show ran for three days at Wooster’s Freedlander Theatre. 

Directed by Emily Baird, a Professor of Theatre and Dance at the College, the concert featured 10 shows choreographed by students and one performance choreographed by Baird herself. Ranging from whimsical, to energetic, to intense and hard-hitting, the dancers participated in a number of dance styles covering various themes. Modern, contemporary and classical Chinese dance were used to convey topics of intersectional feminism, party culture, dance and disability, or the joy of reconnection. According to Baird, “[t]hough each dance looks and sounds different, each one is an exploration of the human experience.”

The dance concert highlighted the hard work of nine student choreographers: Gracie Shreve ’23, Nicole (Nikki) Preucil ’22, Morgan Carson ’23, Dantong Bi (Bee) ’23, Iván Mreïs Akiri ’22, Kate Yordy ’22, Sarah Brunot ’22, Katie Spence ’23 and Liv Mourning ’22. Their dances celebrated community and identity, commented on struggles with mental health, critiqued the pitfalls of party culture or portrayed historical events.  

Each performance was a beautiful, sensory experience. The use of lighting, costumes and music created a distinct mood for every performance and enhanced the audience’s participation in the acts. A swathe of light across the back of the stage glowed softly for more light-hearted pieces, such “III – The Empress,” choreographed by Shreve, but turned dark or flashed for heavier, more intense pieces, like “The Destructive Party Fouls,” choreographed by Carson, or “gone.” choreographed by Spence. “It was the best dance concert I’ve seen in my time at Wooster,” said Mariam Zghuladze ’22, a member of the audience, “all of the performances were so well done!”

From the audience, it was clear that enormous amounts of work went into the finished product, which included a piece presented in partial fulfillment of the senior Independent Study process. Choreographed by Mourning, the piece related experiences with injury with experiences in the dance world. A compelling and visually interesting piece, Mourning’s dancers captured the severity and stringency of the dance world, and how difficult it can be to keep up. Mourning’s study incorporated preventative physical therapy exercises as a method of diminishing the chance of injury for dancers during practice.  

While the show has closed, students should keep an eye out for more performances by the College’s Theatre and Dance Department in the coming semesters. While you’re waiting, make sure to congratulate the choreographers and performers for all their hard work — they’ve earned it!

Colin Tobin

Chief Copy Editor

The current state of filmmaking can look desolate when you find what’s playing at your local theater; endless sequels, prequels and wannabe franchises always seem to occupy the screens at theaters and on streaming platforms. The past few weeks have broken this cycle with several great, original stories. Here are two that I particularly enjoyed and would like to highlight.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” was directed by filmmaking duo, Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, and follows Evelyn, an unsuspecting small business owner trying to finish her taxes, who discovers that she may be the key to saving the universe from an interdimensional threat. By far, the thing I loved most about this wild, sensory overload of a movie were the performances of Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. Both actors showed that you don’t necessarily need to fit a certain mold to be an action star, displaying their versatility in some insanely well-choreographed hand-to-hand fight sequences. It was wonderful to see the screen-presence of Quan, who appears in his first big role since Short Round in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and Data in “The Goonies.”  

The film’s premise revolves around the ability of characters to inhibit the bodies of themselves in an alternate reality where they made different choices and developed different skills. Daniels’ abstract sense of humor is on full display as characters are tasked with doing outlandish things in order to connect with the alternate versions of themselves and gain these unique skills. There’s no way a movie like this should work, but it somehow manages to make a grounded, emotional landing, despite the absurdity. With multiverse stories being all the rage in Marvel and DC’s slates of movies, it’s cool to see a movie made with a fraction of the budget that does it better than all of them. I’ve never had a better time watching a movie that’s core message surrounds the optimism in nihilism.

“The Northman” is a Viking revenge-thriller directed by Robert Eggers which stars Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy and Ethan Hawke. Skarsgård plays a warrior prince who vows to avenge his father after he is murdered by his own brother. Eggers is one of the most uncompromising directors working today when it comes to his dedication to the period in which his films take place. The dialogue in his films, “The Northman” included, is, at times, incomprehensible as they adhere to centuries-old vocabulary. I honestly don’t remember a single character’s name, but I do remember every 100% committed performance (and strong Scandinavian accent) from the cast, in particular Nicole Kidman and Willem Dafoe.

Where Eggers’ “The Lighthouse” was a dark, trippy retelling of the myth of Prometheus, “The Northman” is more akin to a dark, trippy retelling of Hamlet, filled with absurd, animalistic displays of masculinity, weird family dynamics and other things that could have been solved if therapy was around in the 10th century. With an expanded budget, Eggers brings a much grander scale to battle scenes, which feature several, marvelous tracking shots that last a few minutes each. I wasn’t fully on-board with everything, but the last 30 minutes are what make this movie great. The director has said that the final version of the film suffered from studio interference, so I’d like to see just how weird the original cut was. While this definitely won’t be for everyone and is on track to lose money, I admire the bold choices made in the process.

It’s rare that movies like these (and others out now) are given the spotlight, and even rarer for it to happen all at the same time. In the short time before summer blockbuster season, it’s nice to get a break and see the focus shift to unique stories.

Colin Tobin

Chief Copy Editor

“The Batman” directed by Matt Reaves finally hit theaters. It stars Robert Pattinson as the seventh live-action incarnation of the Caped Crusader alongside Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell and Andy Serkis. The story follows Bruce Wayne as he faces off against The Riddler, who, through a series of puzzles, begins to uncover Gotham’s corruption. With a runtime of nearly three hours, it is one of the longest comic book movies ever made.

The film doesn’t waste time with another drawn-out origin story and places the audience directly into Bruce Wayne’s second year as the masked vigilante, where he isn’t concerned with his billionaire persona and has allowed the idea of “The Batman” to consume him, becoming a reclusive outcast. Pattinson’s unstable, relentless, emo-boy performance is unlike anything we’ve seen before with the character, and if you’re still holding “Twilight” against him, you’re simply living in the past! Frankly, it’s about time these movies stopped pretending that a guy who dresses up like a bat and beats people up at night is mentally stable. While being in costume for nearly the entire movie, he’s able to balance subtle emotions, sometimes from his eyes alone, while also portraying the character’s anger and brutality. Pattinson and his absurd jawline were born to don the cape and cowl. Paul Dano further solidifies himself as the go-to guy in Hollywood to play creepy little weirdos with his portrayal of the Zodiac-esque Riddler. To quote one of my favorite tweets of all time: “He ain’t even in costume and look like someone that tell hella riddles for no reason.” From Colin Farrell’s New Jersey accent and unrecognizable appearance to Zoë Kravitz’s never-ending charisma, this is one of the best comic book movie casts ever assembled.

Greig Fraser’s darkly lit cinematography completes the grimy and crime-ridden aura of Gotham, fully embracing noir and horror elements while Michael Giacchino’s haunting score does a beautiful job of setting the tone from the first scene. With a detective-like voiceover and the best onscreen introduction for Batman in just the first fifteen minutes, Reeves shows a complete understanding of how cool this character can be. Battinson’s presence can be felt even when he’s not there, when criminals look down dark alleyways, expecting to see this embodiment of fear walk out of the shadows. Reeves and the stunt team deliver one of the best car chases in recent memory, using mostly practical effects, which features incredible sound design for the Batmobile that shook every seat in the theater. By the end, Reeves shows a mastery of the character through an arc perfectly realized in the closing monologue.

As far as spoilers go, the studio has released an off-putting deleted scene featuring a new iteration of the Joker, played by Barry Keoghan. I would’ve liked to see them introduce a villain we’ve never seen on screen before, but I’m confident in what they have planned based off the grotesque makeup design and casting of Keoghan, who plays one of the most disturbing characters I’ve ever seen in “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.” As long as they keep pushing the envelope with horror-inspired interpretations of villains, I’m there for it.

What separates this film from other superhero blockbusters is that it is a product of original ideas, creative freedom and very little studio interference; it’s something studios should take notes from. As one of the few people who finds “The Dark Knight” to be a bit overrated, I have to say I enjoyed this more. “The Batman” is not only one of the best comic book movies ever made, but one of my favorite action-thrillers of the past few years, and it’s the type of blockbuster that makes me excited to go to the movies.

Jonathan Logan

Editor-In-Chief

If you have seen “Euphoria,” Fezco, played by Angus Cloud, needs no introduction. He is a fan favorite and I would not blame someone if they transferred schools and switched their major to film studies just to do a dissertation on this legend of a character. Words fail to really capture the weird limbo “Fez,” as he is widely known, is in and the way he seems to float between worlds. In one scene, he might be trying to survive a routine encounter with his “guys,” while in the next he is engaging in deep conversations with Lexi. A quick disclaimer: I am the farthest thing from Fez in every way possible and I was skeptical of watching “Euphoria” for a while, however, I watched it for the first time over spring break and I love this show, and Fez is just downright awesome. Here are my subjective top 7 Fezco moments from both seasons of “Euphoria.”

**This article won’t make any sense unless you have watched “Euphoria.”

1)  “You want some Pepto Bismol or somethin’?” This line is priceless in every way possible. The way Rue storms into his house and runs straight for the bathroom is hilarious. Of course, we later find out it was her way of distracting him before making a beeline for Grandma’s dresser. Still, this scene illustrates how Fez does not assume the worst in people, but genuinely opened his door for a friend in need with no strings attached.

2)  “YO! You recorded that shit?” Everything about this whole scene is golden. Cal Jacobs exposing himself to Fez without realizing he was not even involved in some imagined extortion plot was not just amazing, but also really put the whole tangled mess of the ordeal into perspective. Here, we have a successful businessman telling a drug dealer how bad he screwed up.

3)  “That’s not a kid. That’s my business partner.” This line first came up when we got Fez’s Grandma’s backstory. She took him under her wing when he was still pretty young and included him in all of her shady deals and the family business. Fez later used this line in reference to Ashtray, who could probably get an entire article to himself.

4)  “Hell the f*** no!” Rue gets some pretty big (and bad) ideas in the second season when she’s really going through one of her worst phases. She pitches a business idea to Fez wherein she proposes that she act as a middle-man to sell drugs to kids at East Highland. His reaction is exactly what we were all thinking, but his delivery makes it gold.

5)  “She came in yesterday lookin’ all Sailor Moon and shit.” This line comes about during our first look at an interaction between Rue and Fez in the first season. What puts it on my list is the fact that this turned out to be incredibly perceptive of Fez who “isn’t always revolving in the same direction as planet Earth.” Rue’s narration of this interaction was hilarious and set the tone of the entire first episode.

6)  “I just wanna tell you that talking to you was one of the best parts of my whole year.” This is the real Fez. Forget the drugs and the mostly deadpan mask he puts on every day, this scene was beautiful and, at first, I did not like the idea of Fez + Lexi, but I would’ve given my left thumb to see him make it to her play in the end.

7)  “I love you. I hate you. You da best. It’s all the same.” Rue and Fez catch up at a party where Rue apologizes for a previous manic episode where she came unhinged and said some pretty regretful things to Fez when he refused to sell to her. Being the most emotionally mature character in the show, Fez accepted her apology and told Rue she has to stop letting drugs be the answer to her problems. A real moment of friendship.

All in all Fezco is brilliant. I’m no movie critic, but I know how a character makes me feel, and I was rooting so hard for him by the end of the second season. I enjoy reminiscing on how I felt about him from the moment he first appeared on screen to the moment the cameras zoomed in on Lexi’s unopened letter as he was carried away. I have never done such a hard one-eighty on my thoughts and general animosity toward a show, but Fezco helped me unlock a perceptiveness you can only experience if you watch all the way through.