Ampli
THE MUSIC AND FASHION ISSUE
Horace Mann School Summer 2011 A Collaboration of HM’s own FAD & Amplified Magazines
A DAY AT DIANE VON FURSTENBERG
the illustrious GAGA interviews
NANETTE LEPORE TEEN VOGUE’S LEIGH BELZ DUBSTEP HAMLET DREAM TEAM
EDITORS’ NOTE
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elcome to AmpliFAD, the Music and Fashion issue! It’s a first time collaboration between Horace Mann’s music magazine, Amplified, and fashion, art, and design magazine, FAD. Many a fashion magazine will have its “Music Issue,” but this one is unique. These two magazines have combined in order to provide the school with the best representation of two creative forces. We have joined the visual aesthetic of FAD with the text-based culture of Amplified to create a potpourri of talents and passions. On behalf of both FAD and Amplified, as the final issue of the year and of our high school careers, this larger-than-ever, 84 page body of work represents all our efforts put into one document. We left no regrets and no creative outlets unsatisfied for this issue as we pass the torch to the juniors. We want to leave the best impression on Baci, Rachel, Gideon, Stephen, and Seth, the main successors of FAD and Amplified respectively. For this reason, you can find three full shoots (as opposed to the typical one in a usual FAD issue and the typical none in an Amplified issue). FAD normally would feature a smaller beauty shoot, but this time we’ve expanded
each shoot into a full creative experience. You can find the park (Wave Hill in Color Field on page 46), music (student bands in Ready To Rock on page 68), and music in the park (Riverside Park in Teenage Dream on page 62). The articles and features in this issue show the efforts of nearly one hundred and fifty members of the Horace Mann community from performers to creators to writers. They vary from interviews with designers to articles about LCD Soundsystem, HM’s own The Dream Team to Lady Gaga’s style. The shoots alone represent dozens of students and are a proud point of this magazine. The Ready To Rock shoot involved nearly fifty individuals - the text at the start of each shoot shows those involved from models to makeup artists and beyond. We sincerely hope you enjoy the issue and that you can see the collaboration on every page! Email us at fad@horacemann.org and/or gideon_ broshy@horacemann.org if you’d like get involved next fall. AmpliFAD love & until next time,
Zoe Kestan Co- Editor in Chief, FAD MAGAZINE
Alice Taranto Co- Editor in Chief, FAD MAGAZINE
Daphne Taranto Creative Director, FAD MAGAZINE
Gideon Broshy Editor in Chief, AMPLIFIED
Ampli THE MUSIC AND FASHION ISSUE SPONGE & RADAR....................................p.6 Brief Culture Updates +Concert Reviews FASHION...................................................p. 12 Fall Winter 2011 Trend Report RECAPS......................................................p. 16 Events + Concerts Album Reviews OP-EDS......................................................p.20 The Creative Process Explored Fashion vs. Music vs. Art DESIGN + ARCHITECTURE....................p.22 The Sounds of Spaces The Co-Evolution of Architecture and Music FEATURES..................................................p.25 LCD Soundsystem Lady GaGa HM’S Opaque Dubstep Hamlet Hipster Subculture A Day at Diane Von Furstenberg Fashion Passport INTERVIEWS............................................p. 33 Designer Nanette Lepore Teen Vogue’s Leigh Belz Designer Charlotte Taylor HM Alumns Stephanie Chou ‘05 + Maia Bernstein ‘05 Artist Aleathia Brown HM-Grown: The Dream Team Blast from the Past: HM Teachers Reflect PHOTO SHOOTS.......................................p.46 Andrew Catomeris ‘11 Artist’s Statement Color Field @ Wave Hill, Riverdale Teenage Dream @ Riverside Park, NYC Ready To Rock @ HM Front Cover Image: Amplified Managing Editor Alex Ma ‘11 and FAD Staff Member Lauren Cantor ‘13 in their own clothing photographed by ZOE KESTAN ‘11 and Digital Editing by DAPHNE TARANTO ‘11. Back Cover Image: Frances Ikwuazom ‘11 Photographed by RACHEL SCHEINFELD ‘12, Digital Editing by DAPHNE TARANTO ‘11 This page: Rebecca Shaw ‘14 on location at Wave Hill for AmpliFAD’s Color Field photo shoot, p. 46. Photographed and digitally edited by DAPHNE TARANTO ‘11 Opposite photos CW from top: Rebecca Shaw ‘14 at Wave Hill, Photography and Digital Editing DAPHNE TARANTO ‘11; Cover Image (credits above); Frances Ikwuazom ‘11 photographed by ZOE KESTAN ‘11
editorial board fad
alice taranto ‘11 co-editor in chief
zoe kestan ‘11 co-editor in chief
daphne taranto ‘11 creative director
rachel scheinfeld ‘12 co-junior editor
bathsheba weiler ‘12 co-junior editor
noah margulis ‘13 jr. design editor
veronica williamson ‘13 jr. assist. editor
alex ma ‘11 senior editor
pamela mishkin ‘11 production manager
ian singleton ‘11 co-editor-inchief emeritus
david yassky ‘11 co-editor-inchief emeritus
gabe igabon ‘12 editorial assistant
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gideon broshy ‘12 editor in chief
stephen cacouris ‘12 managing editor
production staff Chloe Albanese (‘12) Anna Goldberg (‘12) Julia Pretsfelder (‘14) Michelle Kim (‘14) Gina Yu (‘14) Seth Arar (‘12) Lia Ehrlich (‘12) Anna Caroll (‘13)
staff
ShaKea Alston (‘13) Rachel Buissereth (‘13) Lauren Cantor (‘13) Andrew Catomeris (‘11) Edith Comas (‘14) Magica Darabundit (‘11) Dan Froot (‘12) Emma Garcia (‘13) Sasha Leibolz (‘12) Rachel Ha (‘13) Jessica Heller (‘14) Mihika Kapoor (‘14) Rachel Kline (‘14) Halle Liebman (‘13) Nicole Dalessandro (‘11) Kylie Logan (‘14) Emma Maltby (‘14) Yasmine Nahim (‘14) Ana Siracusano (‘14) Savannah Smith (‘13) Amanda Zhou (‘14)
We would like to thank Ms. Hines, Ms. Bahr, Dr. Kelly, Ms. Rubirosa, Mr. Do, Mr. Logan, Mr. Howard, Mr. Sherry, Ms. Busby, Ms. Cassino, Dr. Delanty, and Dr. Schiller for their continuous support in the creation of FAD!
Hallam Tuck (‘11) Kim Sarnoff (‘12) Asher Baumrin (‘13) Hannah Jun (‘12) Imani Moise (‘12) Esther Ademola (‘12) Rebecca Matteson (‘12)
Alicia Hines + Rebecca Bahr Faculty Advisors
AmpliFAD: BEHIND THE SCENES
APRIL/MAY 2011
PLEASE NOTE: As a policy, FAD never digitally alters photos to fundamentally change a model’sappearance, including body image and color. FAD only removes minor blemishes and adjusts lighting values at the discretion of the editors and the models themselves. Digital editing, including use of Adobe Photoshop, is credited where utilized.
SPONGE/RADAR
we b r o s ab re u t l u c
A combination of Amplified and FAD’s briefs + reviews sections. AmpliFAD staff recommend you check out these quick culture fixes now!
CHECK THIS LIMITED EDITION NAIL POLISHES SELLING OUT
Model: Yasmin Rawlins ‘11; Beauty design by Nicole Dalessandro ‘11; photographed by Anne Schechner ‘11 for FAD Vol. 1 No. 3
With both spring and summer just around the corner, a typical Horace Mann student will think of allergies and finals. However, a member of FAD, such as myself, will ponder over which nail colors are in season. Thankfully, American Apparel has come to the aid of FADinistas, by releasing their coveted limited-edition collection of the ideal colors on April 25th. With only 2000 bottles of each shade, many AA stores sold out of these desirable polishes. The straightforward names such as “Neon Green,” “Neon Yellow,” and “Neon Orange,” are the ideal shades for the fingers that will soon be covered in sand along the beaches. Additionally, the one-coat formula will be helpful when you need to quickly paint and go. Instead of focusing on nail polishes to match your outfit, one will be thinking about what to wear to match these exclusive and bold nails. -Michelle Kim ‘14
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READ UP
JUSTIN BURRIS ‘11 ON THE FRUSTRATIONS OF FASHION It seems we all were barred from entering fashion’s pearly gates. You know the outfit you want to be wearing. You’ve seen the mannequin casually sporting a green and white striped seersucker sport coat over a crisp maize-colored dress shirt and form-flattering khaki shorts. Taking note of object of your sartorial envy, you seek to replicate the outfit, and 400 dollars and one session of retail therapy later(1), you find that the outfit simply doesn’t look as good on you. The shoulders of the jacket may be slightly too wide and the shorts slightly too loose, but there is a more fundamental problem at hand- you exist in an attritional world of dirt, sun-damage, and stains. A garment only becomes our own when it is worn by us. It is not only the fashion house that brands the item, but also we ourselves. For any individual, the process of wearing an article of clothing is predicated by his increasing ownership and its diminishing appeal. Fashion is weathered according to your own fragility. The bagginess of well-worn jeans, the fading on the nape of a t-shirt that’s been exposed to the sun too much, and the crease below the arm of a dress shirt are all evidence of its ownership. Stains, rips, and stretched collars will inevitably materialize no matter how hard you try to leave no trace.(2) But still, the more we make our clothing our own-the more intimately acquainted with it we become, the more experiences we share in common with it (think of the suit you wore to your Bar Mitzvah)- the less appealing it becomes to us. Perhaps this indirect relationship evinces a self-loathing inherent in as all. When our presence and associative memories infects the garment, it becomes an object of disapprobation, a sort of mirror to our sad and mortal humanity.
AmpliFAD
Notes: 1. Though I question the actual effectiveness of retail therapy; if shopping is to a shopaholic as drinking is to an alcoholic, why don’t we call drinking alcohol therapy? 2. This draws an interesting parallel: the international Leave No Trace program strives to minimize the impact of recreational outdoorsmen on nature. Though voluntary hikers, kayakers, alpine skiers and their ilk derive an obvious benefit from experiencing nature at its cleanest, they also involuntarily “use it up” and make it their own through such acts as accidental littering and scaring off animals. Perhaps both nature and clothing are unintentionally consumed and corrupted through our utility of them.
photograph by the sartorialist
summer 2011
GET THIS
GET INVOLVED
COOPER - HEWITT + VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
THE ART WORLD GIVES BACK, AND SO CAN YOU
When you think of Jewelry, companies such as Harry Winston or Tiffany’s may come to mind. However, when it comes to jewelry that is not on luxurious, but holds a historic and influential meaning in society-Van Cleef & Arpels is the brand to turn to. Up until July 4th, 2011, The CooperHewitt, National Design Museum in New York City, will be show casing over 350 pieces from Van Cleef & Arpels. From jewels that adorned style icons such as Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor, to jewelry that represents the changing society around World War II-this exhibition captures the essence of aesthetic beauty. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to see these jewels “Set in Style.”-Rachel Scheinfeld ‘12
Are you an art lover who wants to help Japan? If the answer is yes, and really, who could say no, than this marriage of the two is right up your ally. All over New York the simply named “Love Art & Help Japan” campaign has been popping up in exhibitions. In response to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that victimized Japan, the art world has stepped in with a helping hand. The campaign has placed collection boxes in galleries across the city in an effort to raise disaster relief money for the Japanese Red Cross. So drop by the iconic auction house Christie’s or the lesser-known gallery White Box, just to name a few locations, or any of the other dozen participating galleries to lend your own hand in the action. -Anna Goldberg ‘12
SEE IT VIVIENNE WESTWOOD: ON EXHIBIT AT THE FIT MUSEUM
SEE IT A DOC FILM ABOUT FASHION’S BIGGEST INSIDER A fabulous exhibition of a role that can be easily ignored (street style photographer/ photojournalist) as well as an inside look at the life of a fascinating man. Plus, you’ll snag a super-personal look into the fashion world. Bill Cunningham: New York is a definite must-see. -Daphne Taranto ‘11
NYC’s Fashion Institute of Technology on 40th and 6th Ave has a permanent museum collection of period pieces ranging from the late 1700’s to mid 1900’s. This year from March 8th to April 2nd the museum opened up a fair amount of its small space to display nine years of Vivienne Westwood designs. The exhibition is centered around her style’s transformation from punk to high-end design. The displayed works ranging from unisex outfits, undergarments worn on the outside, to boots with high toes and cut-out heels. Westwood first opened her store in London in 1965 with partner Malcolm McLaren of The Sex Pistols. With the name “Let it Rock” and clothing made using rips and safety pins, it was directed at the Punk audience. The collection that soon followed the store’s opening was “World’s End,”
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this attracted a number of celebrities such as Boy George and the pop band Adam and the Ants. They were featured on MTV in a music video wearing pieces from Westwood’s collection. The video was featured on a small screen in the exhibit. Opposite this screen was a much larger one, showing clips of runway shows from different years. Another popular collection shown at FIT was released in 1985 and was called the “Mini-Crini” (crinoline was the material used to give women’s skirts the huge hoop shape.) Westwood’s dresses in this collection had short skirts that curved outwards. A highlight of the exhibit? The “Statue of Liberty” dress from the fall 1988 “Time Machine” collection. The corset is made from leather dyed and a beautiful silver with pink, while the skirt is made from white silk tulle and silver metallic lame. -Edie Comas ‘14
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ge n o p s ar d a r + ’d cont
SEE IT STREET STYLE PHENOMS PAIR UP
NY fashion week spring 2011 photograph by Alice Taranto ‘11
SEE IT
CHARGE IT
MoMA MUST-SEE
THE PREPPIEST PLACE IN NYC?
Every March contemporary artists from all over the world make The Armory Show in New York their home. Lucky for us New Yorkers, all we have to do is travel down to pier 94 to get in on the action. Our own hometown MOMA is sponsoring the event, and even throwing a party to celebrate. The lavish event will host performers such as Kate Nash and promises to draw some attention to the show. The Armory Show will include a variety of media; everything from Susan Collis’ nail in a wall (actually a nail made of gems and precious metals asking us to look more closely at the things around us), to Ewan Gibbs’ iconic images of NYC. This is definitely an event to satitate your much-too-bored self. -Michelle Kim ‘14
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This May’s collab between fashion megadesigner slash grandfather of prep Tommy Hilfiger and Lisa Birnbach (co-author of 80s phenom The Preppy Handbook and its modern-day revamp, True Prep: It’s a Whole New Old World) is a lesson in this distinctive seersucker-sailorstripes (life)style. I thought I knew prep, going to a prep school like HM and all, but oh, I was wrong. You can’t miss the eye-blaringly Nantucket-style “home” of the fictitious Hilfiger clan, a 4-day “dropin” pop-up shop plopped smack in the middle of MePa (Meatpacking District, natch) whose address is 1985 (Tommy Hilfiger’s founding year). The hilarity and self-mocking nature of the pair-up is tangible. Shop collaboration online, and be sure not to miss the “We Never Carry Cash” credit card case. -Alice Taranto ‘11
AmpliFAD
Tommy Ton is one of the most prominent street style photographers today. He catches the most impeccable details in his photos, these help you appreciate the intricacy of and hard work that designers put into their clothing and accessories. His photos make you appreciate the creativity of the front-row fashionistas and envy practically every person featured on his blog. Probably the most photographed person on his blog, Jak & Jil, is Anna Dello Russo. As creative consultant and editor for Vogue Japan and editor of Italian Vogue, and previously editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia and L’Uomo Vogue, Dello Russo has cultivated a wild style and is famous for ownin g over 4,000 pairs of shoes and wearing outfits exactly as they were seen on the runway. Dello Russo and Ton have formed a friendship from his photographing her. Without Ton, Dello Russo would not be the sensational street style icon she is today. Without Dello Russo, Ton would be missing one of his biggest sources of inspiration. Toronto’s The Bay, is featuring an exhibition about their friendship that showcases his favorite photos of her and is a true sign that fashion and blogging go hand in hand. -Julia Pretsfelder ‘14
AUDIO ARCHITECTURE NOAH MARGULIS ‘13 ON HIS FAVORITE SOUND SPACES 10. Carnegie Hall- New York City 9. The Vienna State Opera 8. Vienna Musikverein 7. Avery Fisher Hall- New York City 6. Hungarian State Opera House- Budapest 5. The Metropolitan Opera- New York City 4. Symphony Hall- Boston 3. Sydney Opera House- Sydney Australia 2. Vienna Konzerthaus 1. Walt Disney Concert Hall- Los Angeles
summer 2011
FAD SPECIAL: ALEXANDER McQUEEN THE HOUSE OF THIS TOP DESIGNER MADE HISTORY MORE THAN ONCE THIS SPRING.
RED CARPET REVIEW
ROYAL WEDDING
FASHION ON SHOW
KATE AND WILL: HISTORY MADE IN STYLE
THE SAVAGE LEGEND: ALEXANDER MCQUEEN
STYLE ICONS PAIR UP FOR AN EXCITING EXHIBIT
The 2011 Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala opened its doors to elegantly dressed celebrities on May 3rd. Many who attended wore dresses by the honoree, the deceased legendary designer Alexander McQueen, while others chose for other extravagant gowns. Christina Ricci, wearing a gothic styled, striking evening gown. The long sleeved, lacy, and mermaid-like fit sculpted her petite (and highly corseted) frame beautifully. Next, Ginnifer Goodwin stunned us all again, with the daring yet sophisticated slits on her Topshop dress. Her extravagantly detailed statement necklace and bright eye makeup matched this longsleeved, emerald green gown. Overall, her look seemed effortless and she stood out. One trend on the red carpet was nude and neutral dresses, such as Fergie’s and Taylor Swift’s dresses. Fergie’s nude, lacey, intricate tulle Marchesa was a departure from her red carpet usual - this was a much softer look than her usual hyper-urban, silver, dresses. Taylor Swift’s J. Mendel couture gown was an unusual choice, compared to her usual streamlined glamour. Like it is every year, Met Gala’s red carpet was a perfect show space for the art of fashion. -Michelle Kim ‘14 and Julia Pretsfelder ‘14
In case you didn’t hear the royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton was held just weeks ago. It became a fashion hubbub as the whole world watched. The show stealer, as she should be, was Kate Middleton in an understated, but regal Alexander Mcqueen gown. With a long lace sleeves, and plunging V-neck and a full satin skirt, the dress was modest, classy, and gorgeous. She topped it off with halo tiara given to her by the Queen. The dress dismissed any comparisons to Princess Diana’s overly-extravagant fairytale dress in 1981. However, it was given a likeness to Grace Kelly’s lovely gown in 1956. Queen Elizabeth II wore a classic lemon-yellow ensemble. She wore one of many hats in Westminster Abbey that day. Some traditional and wide brimmed, other outrageous making one wonder how they stayed on. Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie wore insane, yet disappointing hats. One resembled a bird, while the other looked like antlers. It was quite the site to see in the Abbey, definitely a royal affair. - Noah Margulis ‘13
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From the moment I stepped into the entrance to “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty,” I was hooked. The exhibit pulls you in like a wave. As I listened in to my audioguide, I learned about Lee McQueen’s life through his personal experiences with friends and family, through his education, and through the moments that defined his career in fashion. He undoubtedly is one of the greatest modern fashion designers, and The Costume Institute fully explores his genius in their most recent exhibition. Equipt with videos, music, and a hologram installation, I saw each and every aspect of McQueen’s career with vivid imagery, but more so, an immense experience. With each room, his mind alters. As the viewer, you travel from his earlier “Romantic Gothic” stage all the way until his final “Romantic Naturalistic” stage. From room to room, his ideas encompass you more and more -- by the time you have seen GaGa’s Bad Romance look in the final room, you;ll be speechless. Walk up the steps, pick up an audio guide, and if anything to see in the next year, make it this show. You won’t regret it. - Zoe Kestan ‘11
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ge n o p s ar d a r + ’d cont
LISTEN IN THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART
edward sharpe + the magnetic zeroes
LISTEN IN EDWARD SHARPE + THE MAGNETIC ZEROES Let me begin by saying that this band has handpicked The Strokes in 2001) in the sumalready earned the respect of music world mer of 2009. The 15-track album was welin the past year; their music was featured comed by relatively warm reviews, receiving in the movie Cyrus, in an episode of Ugly an 8.5/10 by Prefix Magazine and an “Artists Betty, and even in a Super Bowl commercial. to Watch in 2009” recognition by Rolling They’ve also performed on most of the popuStone Magazine. Colored by playful organs, lar late night talk shows. Still, as a big fan, I acoustic guitars and claps, Up From Below want to continue to promote their cause, as proved to be a very joyful album, one to be I think they are an extremely talented, fresh played when driving to the beach in your and underrated group of musicians. Jeep Wrangler. Their most commercially ES&TMZ was successful song, “Home,” tells formed by singa heart-warming tale of two Edward Sharpe and er Alex Ebert, lovers who don’t care where the Magnetic Zeroes has of the cheesy they are, as long as they are over 10 musicians that power-pop together. Embellished by play live with the band, in band Ima Rowhistles and heavy-reverb, a setup that many would bot, and singer Ebert and Castrinos trade find similar to Arcade Fire. Jade Castrinos lines with each other as if they in 2005 out of an were holding a poetic converidea Ebert had sation over folk music. for a book. The story told of a messianic figOne interesting facet of the band is their ure named Edward Sharpe who adventured method of making music videos. They are to Earth to save mankind, but was perpetucurrently committed to creating a 12-part ally enticed and distracted by women. The feature-length musical film containing music that sprung from this tale proved twelve of their tracks from Up From Below. much more successful than Ebert’s unfinThree of the twelve parts have been released ished book. (“Desert Song,” “Kisses Over Babylon,” and ES&TMZ has over 10 musicians that play “40 Day Dream”). Each film contains many live with the band, in a setup that many strange, psychedelic interactions between would find similar to Arcade Fire. There people, as well as the band traveling around are acoustic guitars, pianos, drums, violins, the desert. horns and even accordions. However, EdES&TMZ is definitely a band to watch out ward Sharpe’s music is much more subdued for. A second album is to be released in the and folksy than Arcade Fire, with a hint of coming years, along with other EP’s. If their country music. new music is as good as their old music, they Their first album, entitled Up From Below, should have a long and fruitful career in the was released by Rough Trade Records (who music industry. -David Yassky ‘11
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AmpliFAD
Many indie rock bands these days seem to be trying to spark a rebirth of the 80s and 90s sound, pioneered by groups like Beck and Pavement, through vintage guitar sounds and an old school rock feel. Bands trying to recreate that 90s sound now include indie groups like Yuck and the Joy Formidable, but no one right now can do it better than the Pains of Being Pure At Heart. This New York quintet almost belongs in the 90s as it has created a fusion between the styles of shoegaze and indie rock, very similar to that of My Bloody Valentine in the late 80s and early 90s. Using modern production tactics and effects, the band has escalated their music to a level that 90s bands technically couldn’t reach, however, they still retain a sense of 90’s authenticity, forging together a unique blend of messy reverb guitar, electric organs and crash filled drum beats. In 2009, the band released their selftitled debut album, a collage of catchy, guitar-heavy songs with choruses that could stick in your head for days, sometimes weeks, on end. At a time when most songs were about dancing at clubs and finding everlasting love, this band incorporated a word almost altogether forgotten, pain. This theme of pain was reflected strongly in their music and their quirky image, creating a persona that contradicted and flipped every rule of pop music upside down. Vocalist Kip Berman’s dry yet powerful vocals brought to mind those of Silversun Pickups singer, Brian Aubert. Berman’s slightly feminine voice and his distinct echo effectively captured the sense of desperation and hopelessness that his songs so brilliantly conveyed. While keyboardist Peggy Wang’s harmonizing parts were seldom, they complemented each song beautifully, especially in their closest thing to a hit, “Young Adult Friction.” Although the album went up to number 9 on the Billboard “Heatseekers” chart, POBPAH still weren’t really a household name, even for most diehard indie rock fans.
summer 2011
LISTEN IN TINIE TEMPAH
album, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart really produce a work that can only be described as their own, even though all the musical influences are quite easy to spot, even at first listen. Although Belong hasn’t charted yet in the U.S., keep on the look out for this band as they have the skill and determination to become as big as possible; all they need is the attention they rightfully deserve. - Alessandro van den Brink ‘13
Twenty-two year old Patrick Chukwuehis presence heard in America. Championed meka Okogwu, also known as Tinie Tempah, by an energetic and youthful following, the is the next big thing to come out of the U.K. hooded and styling English hip-hop pheHis debut album, Disc-Overy, has garnered nom has caught the attention of Europe’s much worldwide acclaim, producing three listeners. Tempah evokes an undeniable chart-topping singles in England and two energy from his young crowds; his live perprestigious British awards for Breakthrough formances are unique and his command of Artist and Best Single for “Pass Out.” Comthe audience is surprising. He is known to menting on Disc-Overy, Tempah says “It encourage fans to take pictures of him in speaks across genres and you can use it for ridiculous poses and even convince the eneverything — chilling out at home or danctire audience to crouch on the floor and, in ing in a club.” Tempah’s success indeed unison, jump in the air; the bedlam that enstems from the versatility and energy of his sues is pretty infectious. Tinie wants to take music. From his earliest years in Peckham, that energy and bring it to America: “I want a suburb of South London (projects of Lonto spread that little bit of British sensibility don), Tempah was driven to succeed. After over here.” moving to a middle-class neighborhood, No one in the business can deny that Tempah befriended Tempah’s English acother teens of many TINIE:I want to spread cent is irresistible, and diverse cultures; He that little bit of British sensibil- his rapping abilities are began listening to fully demonstrated on ity over [in America].” music from opposite his breakthrough album ends of the earth. Disc-Overy. Echoing Through it all though, Tinie Tempah has similarities to Cudi’s Man on the Moon and said that his biggest influence is and always Kanye’s 808 Heartbreak, Tinie Tempah has has been Dizzee Rascal, who gave him the the potential to be the next big indie rap star confidence to pursue his own sense of creon the American scene. Sounding like an ativity. He also citing Jay-Z, Eminem, and English Andre 3000, Tempah’s work is topDrake as major instigators of his blossom10 material; Tinie Tempah will soon begin ing music career. his conquest of the American billboards. On Tempah’s career began with his song May 17th, Tempah releases his second, more “Wifey” in 2006, which attracted a quick edgy, album, on which he commented: “I’m Internet following that soon dwindled in trying to break convention, that’s where I’m fervor. During his off time, Okogwu dedigoing with this work. I’ve got more live incated much time to his blog tinietempah. fluences; I’m collaborating with world artcom/milkand2sugars/, which drew a huge ists. It’s going to be amazing.” As Europe following. In addition, everyday inspired, twiddles its thumbs in nervous excitement, Tinie strove to write simple and direct I implore the American audience to check songs. In 2007, Tinie and his manager/ out Tempah; go out and support his cause! cousin, Dumi Oburota, founded the inde- IAN SINGLETON ‘11 pendent label Disturbing London using student loans and proceeds from car sales as an official outlet for Tinie’s music. Tinie was discovered at the 2009 Wireless Festival by scout Jade Richardson who immediately telephoned Parlophone Records president Miles Leonard. Richardson was fascinated that, with only one independent release, Tempah already had a crowd of screaming kids swarming him after the show. In October 2009, Tempah signed with Parlophone Records and served them up his first big hit in February of 2010 with “Pass Out.” Now, Tinie Tempah is tearing through the European music charts and is soon to make
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After 2 years of touring and an EP entitled “Higher Than the Stars,” POBPAH finally released a new LP, Belong, this past March. Unlike most bands, POBPAH decided to keep the sound their fans had to come to fall in love with in their last studio album, but Berman thought that lyrics were one section that needed improvement. As the group’s name suggests, their lyrics have become increasingly focused on more dark and emotionally painful things, a very gothic and The Cure-like aspect that ends up fitting nicely with their music. They prove this on the album’s title track by chanting, “No we just don’t belong,” as the song closes out. This line represents a link to teenage angst, a theme that became quite common during the 80s with British new wave bands such as the previously mentioned The Cure and The Smiths. POBPAH at times seem to recreate that style but with a more edgy and modern take that becomes very pleasant for the listener, regardless of musical taste. With this new
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FASHION ADAM runway Fall ‘11 photo by Alice Taranto ‘11
FALL FASHION WEEK FAD Reports from the Front Lines
BEING AT NYFW Alice Taranto ‘11 tells what it’s like to attend a runway show in one of the world’s fashion capitals
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he chic is in the air. Anyone in fashion - from editors to models to runway producers - is swarming in and around NYFW’s new home, Lincoln Center. I get off the subway, dressed to impress, and walk to this cultural hub, excited that I’ll be attending the Anna Sui runway show. I know Anna Sui is all about rock n’ roll boho glamour and her lineups al-
ways include top models. All the celebrity editors, models, bloggers, and photographers that I have seen in the glossies are sitting front row just 30 feet away. I try to act cool and collected as I shake and quake in my too-high NYFW heels, but the music booms and I can’t resist a squeal of excitement. The show is about to begin! -Alice Taranto ‘11
STYLIN’ ALIVE The 60s and 70s had a major influence on this seasons trends. Rachel Kline ‘14 and Emma Maltby ‘14 chime in on the fashions from these decades that were spotted on rockstars and “hippies.”
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and most well known hippie aggregation was the Woodstock music festival. This three-day music festival took place on Friday August 15th, Saturday August 16th, and Sunday August 17th 1969 in White Lake, New York. Waves of the new and improved Rock’n’roll filled the air performed by iconic artists including Joan Baez,
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Eccentric fashions were all the rage - the fashion of the hippies was anything but simplistic.
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rom Janis Joplin to Jimi Hendrix fashion was displayed in the 1960’s and 1970’s through music. The “hippies” or “flower children” of the 60’s and 70’s constantly flocked to their favorite artists’ concerts where a rock idol’s style would infect mass audiences with the need to dress just like them. Eccentric fashions were all the rage; from the giant afros of Jimi Hendricks and Sly Stone, to tie dye donned by the likes of Joe Cocker and Janis Joplin, and the tatters and beads worn by a young Patti Smith, the fashion of the hippies was anything but simplistic. Hendrix fans used to go crazy for the colorful and exaggerated hats worn by the guitar legend. Some fans were so obsessed with both the hats that they would go as far as to steal them. The many stolen hats were the cause of the various hat changes made during Jimi’s concerts and throughout his tours. Although solo concerts were a sure way of seeing a musician perform, the largest
Sweetwater, The Grateful Dead, Santana, the Who, and Jeff Beck. People flocked from the four corners of the earth to hear this incredible concert that would go down in history as one of the greatest music festivals of all time. The numerous glam rock predecessors that preformed
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were able to show off their own aura and atmospheric performance while the hippie audience was able to do the same. In a time where the center of all media was the Vietnam War, hippies formed rallies and created one of the most commonly known symbols that came out of the 1960’s and 1970’s, the peace sign. This symbol originated from the body movements for nuclear disarmament and later people went as far as drawing down the movements in the shape of a circle with three lines drawn through it. Hippies later branded themselves with this peace design by wearing peace sign necklaces, shirts, pants, sweaters or anything else that a peace sign could be put on. As the peace sign became more popular musicians started to take up the symbol by way of making a “V” with their fingers. Many of these numerous fashions can be seen today and throughout history, worn by either people or musicians.
summer 2011
SEW YOU
PUMPKIN PATCH
Nicole Miller
Mary Katrantzou
TRUE GRIT
Rodarte
DSquared2
Vanessa Bruno
Take on the style of the Wild Wild West in floor-skimming Liberty-print dresses and prairie-style shirts
T by Alexander Wang
Floor-skimming, diaphanous skirts were de rigueur this season for evening and daywear alike.
Rodarte
Altazurra
Miu Miu
Just Cavalli
Celine
A strapless cocktail dress doubles as a casual frock when you take after this season’s long-sleeve-under-sleeveless look
LONG + GAUZY
ADAM
Hermes
COVER-UP
Popping up all over runways this season were lovely orange hues - from pumpkin pie to jack-o-lantern.
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action.” -Goldfinger
Take a cue from your grandma or a crafty creative and try quilted garb in the southwestern style.
Chloe
Miu Miu
Dries Van Noten
Carven
Who said fur is for all over? Rock the fuzzy stuff (faux or no) on your arms only for a fresh take on warm + cozy.
Rodarte
THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS
TREND AROUND THE BEND What will you be wearing this fall? Alice Taranto ‘11 reports from the international Autumn/Winter 2011 Runway Shows
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TREND FEATURE
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length of their outfits and update their wardrobes.”
Fashion trends always end up following a new silhouette. This season, hem lines drop and and waists are accentuated. Via New York Magazine’s The Cut, Harper’s Bazaar Editor Glenda Bailey notes their connection to today’s economy. “I think that’s a sign that the designers are still feeling the recession is around us, and presumably this is a hope that more people will go buying as they want to change the
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photographed by ZOE KESTAN ‘11 digital editing by DAPHNE TARANTO ‘11
RECAPS
EVENTS & CONCERTS HMers catch you up on the hottest happenings of late - from music to fashion to events right at home on HM turf, get your fix on the latest and greatest right here!
With prom arriving soon, FAD decided to collaborate with the Diversity magazine to inspire students on what to wear. Pulling various looks from my closet, as well as Julia Pretsfelder’s (9) and Rebecca Shaw (9), three different themes were created. Listening to songs ranging from the Tron soundtrack to remixes by the Black Eyed Peas, which echoed throughout the Black Box, everyone was dancing and having a fun time during the rainy afternoon. For the classic prom theme, model Carla The (12)wore a cream and studded cap-sleeve dress, as Ross Karetsky (9) wore a black tux with an untied blue bow. The punk-inspired clothes varied from a grey long-sleeved dress paired with a huge leopard coat, worn by Mara Kelly (guest model), to a sweater and maroon t-shirt worn by Jackson Siegel (9) who stylishly had his headphones hang around his neck. Bold makeup, including a magenta smokey eye as well as dark black lips were precisely applied by makeup artists Gina Yu (9), Alexis Burton (9), and Maia Landesberg (9). The shoot went smoothly and the overall message that both FAD and the Diversity magazine wanted to display was that one should go to prom with a unique personality for an exciting end-of-the-year experience. -MICHELLE KIM ‘14
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ation oper ile sm C in NY
On Friday, April 15th, In order to borrow all these clothes Operation Smile held from fashion designers, the committee memits 6th annual Jr. bers had to reach out to various fashion deSmile Collection signers, and while this may have been a fairly Event in New York difficult task, in the end the whole show came City at Espace to together beautifully and truly reflected the raise awareness and hard work of the students. Meanwhile, the funds for the children directly as- backstage mirrored a real fashion show, comsisted by the Operation Smile charity. Op- plete with chaos, quick-changes, yelling, ziperation Smile is a non-profit organization ping, taping in, and running around. After the dedicated to healing runway show ended and children suffering from nerves of some of the girls Students from varicleft lip or cleft palette (and guys) were calmed, ous NYC high schools put deformities in underthe dessert portion of the together a black-tie event privileged countries. night began and everyconsisting of a silent aucOn Friday, the Operaone took their seats once tion, musical performance tion Smile Jr. Commitagain. Ultimately, the tee, made up of various by singer Jeremih, and a fashion show was a fun fashion show. high school students and creative way to recfrom around New York ognize the hard-working City, put together a black-tie event consisting junior committee and celebrate Operation’s of a silent auction, musical performance by Smile’s heartfelt mission and success in the singer Jeremih, and a fashion show, all MC’ed past year. -HALLE LIEBMAN ‘13 by CNN’s Nicole Lapin. In the past, the annual fashion show has featured borrowed to looks from Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Diane more on n r a e l von Furstenberg, Carmen Marc Valvo, DKNY, erati ut p o t u Theory, Rag and Bone, and FAD’s very own, bo check o a xZAD designs! This year, the fashion show ile, tions m a r s e p included looks from Alice + Olivia, Bill Blass, .o www ile.org Rebecca Taylor, and more. Teenage commitm tee members modeled the looks in sky-high heels and strutted down a huge catwalk.
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rsity dive hoot s prep HM at
summer 2011
RECAPS C U L T U R E . C A T C H . U P Clockwise, from left: The Strokes on stage; HM students at the Diversity Prep Magazine photo shoot at Horace Mann; The Strokes at MSG; Julian Casablancas of The Strokes; Crystal Castles perform; The Strokes; the Diversity Prep shoot; the Operation Smile event 2011.
tal crys s le cast
Alice Glass seems to promise a crazy show, and she gave one that was fathoms beyond crazy. With a near two and a half hour wait my friends and I managed to be standing all the in the front. Destructo didn’t add too much to the evening, playing simple beats that kept leading up to nothing. Teengirl Fantasy had better luck with the crowd as the duo brought more complexity and a more interesting performance as the two had opposite moods, one seemed to be falling asleep, while the other seemed to have more energy then possible. The crowd was growing tired and restless and finally at 11:30 Alice Glass came walking on like a zombie. The whole crowd was excited not just for Crystal Castles but also for a show that would draw them in more. Crystal Castles delivered with insane amounts of what seemed like non-stop strobbing, bass that shook the whole building, and bright LEDs that seemed to light up the whole place. Not even half-way through the second song it
was already to much for some of the crowd. Security had to start lifting people out over the front (I counted at least 23), and started handing out free water, and anyone that’s been to a concert knows that anything is rarely free. As Ethan played the music Alice performed with her broken ankle, collapsing on multiple occasions, and crowd surfing. After a double encore they walked off (Alice crawled) for the last time. It was either the crowd or my brain had finally given up because all sound seemed to fade into one simple sound of a jet was taking off next to me. Crystal Castles delivered such a strong performance it made me wonder if there could be any noise louder, or any lights flash quicker and brighter, and made it very obvious of why Terminal 5 called it Hard Weekend. -ANDREW FABRY ‘14
ch out eck cas c tles rystal ’ up to c cry ur dat oming sta e s lcas @ tles .co m
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the es strok
T h e Strokes’ April Fool’s D a y s h o w proved that they are coming back strong from their five-year hiatus. At first, Madison Square Garden seemed as if it would not suit The Strokes very well. The large arena doesn’t deliver as personal a feeling as they are used to providing. The opening act, Devendrah Banhart and his backing band, The Grogs, began the night with a lackluster performance. The stadium was still almost empty when he came on, seemingly drunk, and leaving even more so. He picked up his act along the way and gave hope that if MSG weren’t such a big and empty venue, things would have gone better. After their half-hour performance a mysterious group of old men walked on stage. Who was it? None other than Elvis Costello! April Fools! He graced the mostly young crowd with about ten minutes of their music, and
left, leaving not much to say. After some unsuccessful seatstealing, my friend and I returned to our seats as The Strokes started playing. They jumped right in with enough energy that it seemed that MSG might have been their home all along. They played their best songs from all of their albums, ranging from “Ask Me Anything” to “Last Nite” and “Under the Cover of Darkness”. They played “Taken For a Fool” with Elvis Costello and, during a few of their songs, they had a glimmering disco ball that gave an amazing visual experience. When Julian tried to enter the stands, he didn’t get very far as he was surrounded by raging fans that didn’t even let him back on stage until security made them. They played every song with grace and energy, and Julian’s colorful shoes matched his colorful commentary, only making the already fun evening more enjoyable. The Strokes at MSG was an incredible show, documenting their ten years of revolutionary rock music. -ANDREW FABRY ‘14
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RECAPS
GOOD LISTENER
HMers tune into three of the year’s hottest new albums, finding good, bad, and everything in between
ALBUM ALERT Angles- The Strokes
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002 was a great time to be a Stroke. It had been almost a full year since the release of Is This It?, and riding a rare wave of hype and critical acclaim, they had toured around the world, leaving a wave of memorable performances in their wake. In New York, they played a double billing with The White Stripes - the other band heralded as one of the “saviors” of rock and roll - at Radio City in August. So where are both bands now? The White Stripes recently got out of the game, to “preserve what is beautiful and special about the band,” as their retirement note states on their website. On the other hand, The Strokes, after a four year hiatus (where they seemed constantly on the verge of disbanding), are back. The problem with Angles is that it feels fractured. In a change of pace for the band, Julian Casablancas (who wrote the entirety of both critically acclaimed albums Is This It? and Room on Fire) reportedly stayed out of
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the studio for most of the recording process, leaving the other four members free to develop their own ideas. Angles sounds like a collage of random ideas – the airy reverb and staccato of a guitar on “Two Kinds of Happiness” sound like a flat U2, whereas the almost synth-exclusive “Games” sounds like a discarded track from Phrazes for the Young, Casabalancas’ solo project. On “Metabolism”, it sounds like the band listened to former hit “Juicebox” one too many times. There are hints of brilliance in Angles, though. First single “Under Cover of Darkness” feels like 2001-era Strokes, galloping along with the same jaunt that fueled classics like “Last Nite”. “Taken for a Fool”, with its synth-like guitar, sounds like it would be at home on Room on Fire. Some newer attempts work well, too. “Gratisfaction” is an odd, 21stcentury-Thin-Lizzy number that’s brought to life by Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr.’s guitar interplay. “Life Is Simple in the Moonlight”, with its glittering synths and guitars driven by a steady Fabrizio Moretti backbeat, sounds like a step the band should have taken a long time ago. What made The Strokes great ten years ago is still there – it’s simply unfocused, spread thin over too many angles. ~ALEX MA ‘11
To hear more from The Strokes, check out their site! www.thestrokes.com
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King Of Limbs- Radiohead
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eginning with a tangled backwards piano loop, Radiohead’s 8th studio album, King Of Limbs was released in CD form on March 28th 2011. This is the group’s first album release since that of In Rainbows in 2007. With only 8 tracks, this is Radiohead’s shortest album at 37 minutes. The group’s undying ability to portray the darker side of music is shown in this album, but is done through different sounds than in their past work. They take certain stylistic themes that they used before (interpretative lyrics, using electronic instruments, themes of darkness and eeriness) and elevate them to a higher level on this album. The lyrics in all of the songs are meant to be interpreted in various ways by the listener. It would be difficult to assign any one meaning to the individual songs, but there are definitely recurring themes of darkness, freedom from pain, water, and having something taken away. This style of lyric-writing would be easier to appreciate if the lyrics were easier to understand. In the
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ALBUM ALERT cont’d. your heart,” while Gerard Smith’s jovial bass lines fill out this life-affirming tune. However, the more laidback, carefree part of Nine Types of Light can be most characterized by Adebimpe’s six-minute, mid-album centerpiece, “Killer Crane.” The song is one of the more beautiful pieces that TVOTR has written in its career; the sound is warm and filled with the more sweet sounds of cellos and rustic banjos as opposed to their previous uses of bold brass sections. As Malone writes, “Sunshine, I saw you through the hanging vine, a memory of what was mine, fading away,” a reflection of the simple love the band is trying to convey without being weighed V on the Radio brings a new type of album down by melodrama, pain, and politics is deminto circulation with Nine Types of Light, onstrated. Yet, the gem on the album is defidelivering a positive and patient recording. Fol- nitely “Will Do.” An interesting combination of lowing a one-year hiatus (after recording consis- minor and major chords, the song is honest and tently for six years), TV on the Radio moved out poppy, yet still abstract. For more traditional of their basement to sunny Los Angeles, where TVOTR listeners, “No Future Shock,” sounds the band members clearly saw the light. Their like it could have been on Dear Science. The sound, still full of its spacey, alien-like feel, its fiery song is composed of an apocalyptic-like jazzy form, and unmistakable tension and re- distortion over a tongue-twisting chant-speaklease, is a bit more comfortable and homey on ing Malone, tuneless until the chorus of horns this recording, as if burst into a ringing methe members of the lodic sonic boom. “Repband aren’t trying as etition,” an exhilarating hard. The playful and The playful and energetic display of the combienergetic vibe of the nation of Adibempe album comes from vibe of the album comes from where and Malone’s vocals, where it was record- it was recorded; the dudes in the and “Cannonball ed; the dudes in the band spent their time with seamless Blues,” a far-out spacband spent their time ey blues, are punchier playing ping-pong, recording sessions in between living in nature as well. The drinking, and cook- as a group. album closes sucing with seamless cessfully with “Caffeinrecording sessions ated Consciousness,” in between living which is a definite arena-rattler. Nine Types as a group. From the dark themes of previous of Light is another piece of art and just as efalbums fraught with political undertones and fective without as much complexity and noise. words of violence, Nine Types of Light is a light~IAN SINGLETON ‘11 er, impassioned album about the simple happiness of love. The music, as well, is less layered and filled with static and noise; the boys employ a more streamlined and simple sound on these cuts. While Nine Types of Light is not as foreign and as starkly different from other contemporary music as TVOTR’s previous three albums; the sound that radiates from these songs is clearly recognizable as that of TVOTR due to the unmistakable voices of Adebimpe and counterpoint, Kyp Malone. However, while the first half of this album is a more subdued, comedown to Dear Science, its second half tries to reach that manic swagger of its predecessor. The album kicks off with the opener “Second Song” – a blends of an altcountry melody with a cosmic funk chorus. The art rockers sing out: “Every lover on a mission, shift your known position.” On “Keep Your Heart,” Malone tenderly sings: “With the world all falling apart, I’m gonna keep
Nine Types of Light- TV On the Radio
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recordings, the vocals are quite good, but do not leave the possibility for the listener to understand the lyrics. The only song that could be considered to have a definite “meaning” is “Feral”, which portrays antisemitism and the holocaust. Any Radiohead fan should take some time to interpret the lyrics of this album, because they cover a wide variety of themes and ideas. Everyone can take away something different. In the beginning of the album there is a rather convoluted array of electronic instruments, funky drum beats, ominous vocals, and an occasional guitar or bass line. The flow of the album moves to simpler versions of that arrangement in songs like “Lotus Flower” and “Codex”. By the end of the album, the sound is serenely reminiscent of forests and nighttime. This is fitting because the title is a possible reference towards a 1000 year old oak in Savernake Forest in Wiltshire. Darkness is not new to Radiohead’s music, but it has never been portrayed so eerily as it has in this album. Stanley Donwood’s album art for King Of Limbs illustrates this eerie quality perfectly with the image of ghosts in a forest. King Of Limbs has received mostly positive reviews from critics. Though listeners may not prefer its electronic style, the music itself is as powerful as their older material. Listen to this album and develop your own interpretation on their lyrics and unique musical styles. ~ASHER BAUMRIN ‘13
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OPINIONS & EDITORIALS
The Creative Process
FAD and Amplified writers come together to figure out just what creativity entails.
SONGWRITING
STORYWRITING
BY REBECCA MATTESON ‘12
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riting a song is how complex the song is. similar to painting a If I were to use the picture or making a example of blindly playing dress. Different instruments, notes on the piano to get an textures, and ideas are used in idea for my song, at first the a song the way a painter might notes I play will sound exactly use different kinds of paint or like what they are: random a dressmaker different kinds notes someone played on a of fabric. Another similarity piano with his eyes closed. between the three artistic However, after listening to processes is that there is no these sounds for a few minutes single way I can to write find the music, notes, This experimentation can paint a intervals, be quite literally closing painting, a n d my eyes and putting my or create sounds hands down on a random a dress. t h a t spot on my piano. I always stand out start with to me an idea I and then believe sounds good. I tend to use them as the basis of the write music in stages; hardly beginning of my new song. ever will I come up with a The next stage is to add complete piece that I am to, refine, and eventually finish satisfied with right away. The the song. At this point I while first stage is to come up with play the song I have written an idea. Most times to get the many times and make small idea for a song I experiment. changes to the melody or the This experimentation can be way a certain chord is played. playing random chords or With each change I try to make phrases on my guitar to quite the song more interesting literally closing my eyes and and unique. Sometimes the putting my hands down on changes I make to a song lead a random spot on my piano. to an entirely different song, The second stage (and the one and sometimes an idea from that takes the most time) is the first song will lead to an the development of this idea. idea for different song, which The amount of time it takes makes the songwriting process to develop a musical idea into quite exciting. a song will vary depending on
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he easiest way for me to write the world in which they live. The is if I’m able to think of the action comes out of what the charcharacters very early on. If I acters seem likely to do or think. approach my characters from the After I’ve created some scenes, I standpoint of what I need for them tend to get more and more of an to accomplish, it is much more idea of the piece as a whole. That’s difficult for me to back-track and when I start coming up with the flesh out their personalities than it in-between scenes to give a story would be for me to come up with shape or complete the emotional what they should do after I already significance of the work. understand them. The last part of the pro The concept for a piece cess is (surprise!) actually writing can come it all down. before charThis is either acters, but the most ex Someone once only if it isn’t citing or the told me that an idea already rimost arduous isn’t an idea until you’ve diculously step, dependwritten it down someplanned out. ing on the day A central I’m working or where. concept is the scene I’m one of the working on. easiest things Despite this to come up with for me, but also unevenness, the actual writing is one of the most frustrating. The the most important part. Once it’s “concept” can be a wide range of on a page, it’s outside of you, and things. It can be a conceit, or a gim- you can look at it from all kinds of mick that I have to try and follow angles. I tend to write out notes for (for example, giving each character myself on what, specifically, needs a set of verbal ticks). It can also be to be changed. a message or a “world”, as in the This, of course, isn’t the only way tone or the kind of emotional envi- to write something. Like lots of ronment the characters find them- things, there isn’t really a right way selves in (is it whimsical? Busy? to do it. The only wrong way is to Bleak?) never start. The “plot” per se usually comes after these steps. When working on plot, I spend afternoons dreaming and brainstorming unconnected scenes that fit the characters’ personalities and
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BY SAM TORRES ‘12
summer 2011
OPINIONS & EDITORIALS
Meeting of the Minds Where do fashion, music, and art hit a crossroads? Kim Sarnoff ‘12 sounds off
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Marc Jacobs runway Spring 07
he might laugh. This painting may be highly prized in the art world for its vision: it dares the viewer to project his own thoughts onto the canvas. Joe probably won’t buy this, and will walk away skeptical. For Joe, it doesn’t matter
The real problem is that art is interactive. A piece of art has no power on a person unless that person gives it power.
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hile I know as much about fashion as Marc Jacobs did as a newborn, I do have an inner Spidy sense that some things look bad. But, unlike big boy Marc, I have not developed any kind of affinity for fashion. When designers have their super secret meeting each season to decide that chartreuse will be the in color, I don’t know why. The trends of the seasons seem arbitrary to me. I understand music and visual arts much better. I do photography. I listen to songs. My mother no longer picks out my clothes, and I have the physical capability to put on my own shirt, but fashion isn’t the same. Art forms live independently of me and of you. It doesn’t matter if I like a certain song or don’t purchase an outfit. Songs are still produced, and sewers still sew. But why do things speak to me while others don’t? Truthfully, I don’t know. I’m going to try to figure it out. “Music is my hot hot sex.” The band CSS sang-spoke these words in 2007, and for many people, they couldn’t ring more true. Lyrics are expressive. Music stays with you like a sticker. Maybe you like unicorn stickers or maybe you have no rhythm at all and drop your sticker each time you try to put it on. But some kids don’t like stickers. It’s not that they’re bad at putting stickers on, music just has no real effect on them. This is where the smart little boy raises his hand in the movies and says, “But music is art and humans respond to other humans and art expresses human emotion and so by transitive property music should mean something to everyone.” Unlike that little boy, many people casually listen to the radio and don’t really care what they hear. I can’t walk out naked, so I put something on. I wouldn’t say there’s a devalorizing of music in our society. The real problem is that art is interactive. A piece of art has no power on a person unless that person gives it power. When Joe goes to the MOMA and sees a highly prized painting that is a blank canvas,
that this piece of art is valued because it doesn’t make him feel something when he looks at it. Joe will become another casual viewer who glances at the painting and walks away, one who doesn’t interact with what he’s seeing.
horace mann school
People don’t spend their lives being moved to tears by music because they are doing other stuff. It doesn’t matter if music is art or not. What matters is that life is outside of your headphones. Art is a pastime, and it won’t work for you if you don’t have time. I am not saying you should stop, drop everything and roll over to your computer to analyze the chords of a song, but time is an important in making art work. So, I guess I’ve discovered my problem with fashion. I don’t think walking through Bergdorf‘s slower would give me the fashion bug. Watching more runway shows won’t make me swoon for expensive gowns or move me to design one. Why do I laugh at high fashion? Clearly, fashion makes some people really happy; they express themselves through clothes. I don’t deny that fashion is art. I believe it is. But I have to get dressed every morning, I deal with fashion all the time and that’s enough. I don’t not explore high fashion because I’m tired by picking my outfits in the morning, but there is a sense that high fashion is extraneous and requires incredible effort. I’m not saying it is or does, but there is a problem of accessibility. There isn’t always room for art, so you have to pick. Why didn’t I choose to focus on fashion? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t because of a traumatic experience with a sewing machine in my youth. Music and fashion both express some thought of the creator. I don’t see the innards of John Galliano’s brain (not that I want to) when I see his designs. But I would be stupid and thick not to realize that some part of his heart is in everything he designs. I may not care, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. When it comes to people’s likes and dislikes, there is a bit of randomness. Some little thing drives you in one direction rather than another. Maybe one day, I’ll be like big boy Marc, and I’ll get it. Maybe one day, you’ll get it, too.
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DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE
Acoustics & Architecture: The Sound of Spaces Noah Margulis ‘13, FAD’s Junior Design Editor, weighs in on the noise behind the brick.
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roducing an effective and beautiful sound doesn’t solely rely on the singer or the musician, but the space in which they perform. The science of noise control within buildings is called architectural acoustics. It is important to all aspects of music and noise in an interior space. The first application of architectural acoustics was in the first opera houses and concert halls in the 18th and 19th centuries, but it has become necessary in far more places than just those. Nowadays clubs, recording studios, music practice rooms and all theaters utilize architectural acoustics to provide the clearest and most effective sound. The science behind it all includes controlling a room’s surfaces based on their sound absorbing and reflecting properties. Flat surfaces lead reflect sound waves almost instantly creating a
muddy sound, curved and textured walls reflect and absorb sound waves creating a clearer sound. Heavy cloth is also used to balance out sound because it absorbs sound waves. It is usually strategically placed at the back of theater so sound waves don’t reflect back into the theater. Most of the world’s theaters are old and standard, republican and columnic, but some architects have created wonderful, modern, and unique buildings that also serve their purpose In old theaters, all the curved trim and extravagant decoration helped the acoustics. Today, modern theaters have large curved surfaces are used to create a better sound, and have a modern style. Think of Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall or the Sydney Opera House, they are perfect examples beautiful modern design the creates excellent acoustics.
New in The Big Apple Noah Margulis ‘13 gives a round-up of NYC’s latest and greatest architectural additions.
A good auditorium will accomplish effective projection of the sound to back of the space. This can be achieved with a high, reflective ceiling that carries the sound waves equally throughout the space. Take The Metropolitan Opera house for example, it is a modern space, where sound can be heard throughout, there’s a perfect balance of high and low sounds, and every sound is clear and intimate. The acoustics are so good in the space, that no one is miked. The six-story-high, slightly dome ceiling, and the five balconies are all curving. Not only does this produce the fantastic sound, but also it’s a magnificent mid-century modern building, as are all the theaters at Lincoln Center. If it’s a building’s job to host music, the structure itself must reflect this by creating good acoustics.
8 Spruce St. by Frank Gehry
Opening just a few months ago, Frank Gehry’s building is a fantastic addition to the New York skyline. 8 Spruce Street stands at 76 stories high, the second tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere. The tower is clad in contoured stainless steel and seems to undulate, almost like wind or water. Gehry uses the building as a reaction and objection to the standard corporate office buildings that occupy the other lots of the financial district, where the building is located. However the building aims to blend into the scenery, rather than standing out on the skyline. If viewed from the Brooklyn waterfront, the building is mesmerizing to any viewer. Frank Gehry’s newest building combines industrial materials and organic shapes in perfect harmony.
The High Line
HM students (CW from top left) Carla Thé ‘11, Baci Weiler ‘12, Lauren Cantor ‘13 ,and Clara Pomi ‘13 on the High Line for FAD Vol. 2 No. 1.
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The High Line is a public park built on top of a defunct elevated railroad track in the Meat Packing District. After opening in 2009, it has become a trendy and urban hotspot. In mid-May the second section of the park will open. The first segment combined urban landscaping from the existing structure of the rail with shrubs, a few trees, and wild flowers. However, the second section will become more of a garden with a lawn, more trees, and even a separate path that takes you above the trees. This path will offer a lovely view of the park, the district and the city. This summer, take a stroll through the perfect partnership between urban-life and nature at the High Line.
summer 2011
DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE
The Co-Evolution of Music and Architecture
Ben Deutsch ‘12 explores the chicken-egg relationship between sounds and the buildings they’re played in.
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umans have created music, in all of ballads designed to fill sports arenas and float No. But the increasing demand of music by the its ways, shapes and forms, as a form amongst thousands of screaming fans, or The ever-hungry consumer calls for such bastardof expression as early as the first orga- Buzzcocks, Clash, Sex Pistols and other punk izations of the music’s intentions. Just as punk nized civilizations if not before. In particular, bands’ abrasive confrontational sounds of high rock may seem out of place in an orchestral live music—considering that recorded mu- tempo power, crafted to fill the small pubs they concert hall, so might Bach or Schumann in sic has only been around for a brief period of played at and for their excited, drunken fans. a night club. But more and more, these obvitime— has such extensive, diverse and farAs the diversity in style of music increases ous mistakes have become more and more freflung roots. This is to say that live music can exponentially, so do the diversity in “venue” quent. On the other hand, who is really to say be found almost anywhere. And wherever options for the music to be played in. There where music should and shouldn’t be played? live music is performed, the performer has are very specific types of music now being But when the music is obviously out of place, made a conscious choice as to surroundings made, designed and tailored for certain spaces. there is something off about the experience all and location (or has been forced to cope with Techno artists a la Swedish House Mafia and around is off, and some of the musical intega pre-determined one). Either way, setting Avicii create their music for raging in clubs to rity is lost. As previously mentioned, the artists can hardly approve of such is an integral part of live music awkward musical choices taken and has a blatant and undeniable impact on the sound of the Venues have an obvious impact on musical at liberty by average people music, the music itself and the composition—or the other way around. Medieval reli- who have little to nothing to do with the music itself. This can vibe or feeling the music gives gious music resonates perfectly with the high ceilings be taken as a metaphor for the off. By tracing nearly any piece of cathedrals ... and the Sex Pistols’ punk was crafted bend in integrity of product toof music to its original setwards the consumer. As the confor small, sweaty pubs. ting, one can learn more about sumer cannot ever be satiated, the composition of the music the businessman of our generaitself, as well as observe how tion looks for opportunities in music has morphed to continuously balance the surrounding architec- floor-shaking bass and light reverb-y mesmer- which money can be made. The integrity of ture that has changed as dramatically if not izing chord repetitions. Hardcore rap artists or the product takes, and has been taking, more more so since music was first performed. even new-on-the-scene “violent” art-rappers and more, a backseat to the financial possiAs pointed out by David Byrne of the Talk- Odd Future are designed for surround sound bilities available in the product’s popularity… Another interesting question consists ing Heads during his TED talk, “How Architec- speakers or car stereo systems. “Frat rappers” ture Helped Music Evolve,” venues have an like Wiz Khalifa make their light flowing music of trying to predict where architecture will obvious impact on musical composition—or to perfectly suit the background of a slightly go, but more importantly, how it will afthe other way around. Medieval religious mu- too competitive pre-game match of beer pong. fect the music that will have to evolve to fit sic has long, harmonious notes that resonate There is also the issue of the perversion into its capricious surroundings. What will perfectly with the high ceilings of the cathe- of venue: many types of music are mangled, be the next venue of force that replaces the drals of the Middle Ages. Mozart could afford forced, and squeezed into venues that on occa- stadium or the nightclub? And how will muto use more “frill” and detailed ornamentation sion are not of preference but in others would sic morph to best suit that surrounding?
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because his music was mainly played in small halls. Conversely, the bombastic operas of Wagner were designed for much larger halls, through which bold and powerful strokes could resonate through to the people in the worst seats. There is no shortage of parallels that can be drawn: U2’s perfectly crafted rock
appear to be completely out of the question. It does not make any sense really to hear AC/DC coming out of a ringing cell-phone. The artist (if not for the obvious fiscal benefits of such possibilities) would probably be outraged at the perversion of their music. It just doesn’t fit there. Gangsta rap in a sports arena? What?
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Want to check out some sweet acoustics near you? Pop by the St. John the Divine Cathedral on 110th St. & Amsterdam Ave. AmpliFAD 23
FEATURE
Come with me LCD
Stephen Cacouris (‘12) reports on the evolution of “one of the greatest bands of the decade.”
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ing the DJs who were copying what he was doing by condescendingly talking about all of the important moments in rock history that he had been a part of; “I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids, I played it in CBGB, everyone thought it was crazy.” When the raw presentation of Murphy’s first LCD song became popular, he responded not by releasing records, but by continuing
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LCD Soundsystem (the album) showed Murphy’s varied musical past combined with a confident front man who pushed the limits of genres
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en years, three studio albums, a live record, a 45-minute electronic piece, and LCD Soundsystem left the musical world, presumably for good. Yet what they brought to music was more than just James Murphy’s extensive knowledge of how to put together electronic albums with a strong concern for his musical heroes, such as Bowie, the Talking Heads, and Joy Division; rather, what the musical world will truly miss is the contrast between these dance oriented musical types and his heartfelt vocals that turn dance music into songs that feel as genuine as anything released over the last decade. Murphy, originally from Princeton, New Jersey, has described himself as “a lifetime failure,” in accord with his life before LCD Soundsystem. His love of music lead him to decline a job as the first staff writer for a new NBC television show known as The Seinfeld Chronicles; as Murphy struggled to find his musical voice as a drummer in a number of bands in the 1990s, Seinfeld became an unbelievable success. Yet towards the end of the decade, Murphy began to become a successful and iconic DJ in New York, and gathered an ample amount of money with Tim Goldsworthy of UNKLE to begin DFA Records with the help of producers such as Steve Albini. After over a year of running the label, Murphy began to work on his own songs; these were put under the moniker of LCD Soundsystem. LCD Soundsystem, rather than releasing a record, became Murphy’s way of releasing songs without necessarily planning on putting them on an album. These began with “Losing My Edge,” Murphy’s tongue-in-cheek way of address-
to release singles; there were a total of seven singles released before their self-titled first album in 2005. LCD Soundsystem (the album) showed Murphy’s varied musical past combined with a confident front man who pushed the limits of genres; a perfect example of this is “Movement,” a song written in response to the rebirth of garage rock in the early 2000s. While bands like MC5 and The Strokes were becoming extremely popular, their fans and movement didn’t really bring
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much new to the table, at least according to Murphy. The song begins with a stomping drum part with a repetitive synth part laid over it, while Murphy deadpans lines about “the culture without the culture of all of the culture,” and the fan favorite line “it’s like a fat guy in a t-shirt doing all the singing,” (possibly referring to himself) but absolutely explodes when the guitars and cymbals enter halfway through. “Movement” functions as a dig at the concept of headbanging of garage rock not only with its pounding intro, but when it takes off and beats the movement by rocking harder than the Vines could ever dream of while still mocking the kind of music they created. Two years later, LCD Soundsystem reconvened following touring for their first album (now with permanent members Pat Mahoney and Nancy Whang) and began to work on their second album, Sound of Silver. The album starts off with “Get Innocuous,” where a simple drum loop gets layered and layered by synthesizers, laser-like sounds, a pounding bass, and a live drum part that enter the song one at a time, a template that gets used often on the album. Murphy also calls upon his icons, such as David Byrne, for his hazy and layered vocal takes; Nancy Whang’s poignant vocals near the end call up thoughts of Kim Deal’s bouncy voice off of Black Francis in the Pixies. The album feels emotionally based around two songs its middle, “Someone Great” and “All My Friends”. “Someone Great” is based off of an earlier work by Mur-
summer 2011
FEATURE
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Murphy, through his early material, became an unofficial spokesperson for the New York scene in music over the last decade
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phy, 45:33, which was written for Nike as a workout piece. While Murphy had claimed in earlier interviews that he didn’t write “personal music,” his views had clearly changed by the time he wrote this song. A heartfelt vocal part is doubled by a glockenspiel, and they glide lightly above a drum loop and synthesizer, and the song portrays a morose view of change and death. “All My Friends” takes a similar theme (aging) and is easily one of the greatest songs of the decade and the centerpiece of the album. Opening similarly to “Get Innocuous,” the song begins with a piano loop of a single chord, and repeats throughout the entire seven-minute song, while a bass, lead guitar and lead guitar play a repetitive two-chord pattern. Murphy’s lyrics reflect a generic youth, complete with basements and parties, and its beauty lies not in how great it all was, but how much he realizes it meant to him. While the song contains lyrics about how he “wouldn’t trade one stupid decision for another five years of life,” it feels based around his abundance of nervous energy with regard to loneliness; after all, it grows to its loudest with Murphy bellowing out, “If I could see all my friends tonight,” repeated as the rest of the band churns out their parts with similar intensity. The drums on “All My Friends”, played by Pat Mahoney, are probably the greatest contribution to the album by anyone other than Murphy. Beginning with a simple sixteenth note pattern, they gain a little intensity with every crescendo, and by the time the song peaks, the drums are exploding and mirroring the frantic sentiment of the song
that exudes thoughts of Joy Division and New Order. We also see a more intimate side of LCD on “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down,” where a somber Murphy slyly disses the city that his life revolves around; the song ended up closing out LCD’s last show at Madison Square Garden, which functioned as the band’s farewell from the music world. Although it could be argued that Murphy’s songwriting improved (which it definitely did), the biggest takeaway from Sound of Silver was Murphy’s willingness to be brutally emotionally honest with himself, and how although his vocals often sound somewhat desolate, the magical production quality and sound of the band makes the album an overall uplifting piece. Following Sound of Silver’s tour, rumors of LCD Soundsystem’s departure from the music world were abundant; Murphy went as far as saying that the next LCD album would be the last, and there is a real sense of closure on This Is Happening, released in May of 2010. The opening track, “Dance Yrself Clean,” has
a deceptive three minute long introduction with Murphy sing-speaking bizarre lines such as “talking like a jerk, except you are an actual jerk and living proof that sometimes friends are mean.” However, the song explodes in a manner similar to “Movement,” but here, instead of Murphy’s mocking of rock for rock’s sake, he’s only concerned with making the best album he can. The biggest takeaway when listening to This is Happening from “Dance Yrself Clean” is that Murphy really exudes confidence; the song feels like it couldn’t have been crafted as boldly if it had appeared on either of the two earlier LCD albums. Much like Sound of Silver’s structure, the album is based around two songs that serve as its emotional crux. The
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latter of these two is “I Can Change,” a song that resonates as one of Murphy’s most intimate recordings. While early LCD songs strove to avoid this type of content, Murphy directly deals with his relationship with his wife in a very upfront manner. The bouncing keyboard riff that is repeated on every chorus brings this song together and accentuate the quietness of the verses. However, “All I Want,” the fourth song on the album, upscales the rest of This is Happening. and serves as one of the high points on the band’s stellar catalog. Through a guitar riff that calls to mind “Heroes” by David Bowie, and a keyboard part that manages to sound spontaneous for its entire contribution to the song, Murphy sings about the pain of leaving his life to tour. This is best seen in the line towards the end of the nearly seven minute long song, where he sings about how he would “wake with a start, and the dog and the girl are gone,” with a bitter snarl in his voice. The song ends with Murphy’s collapse into the repetition of the line “Take me home!,” a theme that runs through the album. The last song on their final album, “Home,” is a Talking Heads inspired piece complete with the complex percussion (in this case, woodblocks) that helped make many of their songs so special. The song rises to new heights after every verse, and like much of their best material, soars right through the end, when Murphy says, “so good night,” and the band finishes off the song with no vocals. The biggest takeaway from This is Happening in terms of Murphy’s progress is how Murphy, despite his newfound success and uncanny ability to produce albums, is the longing that still lies in his voice; one can assume that his unhappiness with the way his life was set up directly led to the ending of LCD Soundsystem. LCD will be missed in the music world for their concern for so many different influences from the past fifty years and how they parlayed that into creating fascinating albums, but also for what they represented in the “alternative” world. Murphy, through his early material, became an unofficial spokesperson for the New York scene in music over the last decade. While Murphy will live on, and hopefully continue to produce wonderful albums on his label, his statements through his music of what was possible in the age of house music while still taking much of his work from groups like Joy Division and the Talking Heads will not soon be replicated.
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FEATURE
OH MY GAGA! The music world’s iconic sensation Lady Gaga takes fashion beyond--way beyond-conventional limits. AmpliFAD takes a look at her music & style.
the fashion<<<
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ady Gaga is known for her iconic persona, cinematic music videos, amazing live performances and concerts, and of course, her infamous attire. No one will ever forget the meat dress, giant egg, or Kermit dress. Her stage presence and popularity rival the pop stars of a previous generation like Cyndi Lauper or Madonna. Lady Gaga doesn’t wear clothes; she wears art. She goes beyond the t-shirt and jeans look even on casual occasions; this is what makes her fashion choices so interesting. Gaga is avant-garde and unusual, attracting the attention of everyone from her fans, affectionately known as little monsters, to the older generation, which is generally more confused than inspired by her fashion choices. This past fall she was spotted at the Thierry Mugler show in France, walking in the show and debuting her new song Government Hooker. Later she purchased the entire collection. Gaga constantly pushes the limit with her style choices. Regard-
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less of your opinion on her clothing, it will always be talked about. Her red carpet looks are always intriguing. This past February she debuted at the Grammy’s in a giant egg where she incubated until her performance of her new single, Born This Way. Insane? Yes. Lady Gaga’s meat dress from the MTV Music Video awards was named #1 on the Time Magazine list of biggest fashion statements of the year. Lady Gaga even entered into a partnership with Armani to wear his clothes. The black bondage style costumes from the Alejandro video along with the orbital Grammy dress from 2010 were both designed by him. Gaga’s Haus of Gaga is the creative team behind her look, handling her clothes, hair, makeup, and everything else related to her appearance. Gaga has said that this group is more than just a creative team--they are another support system. Gaga’s style only adds to her creative persona and talent.
- SHAKEA ALSTON ‘13
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summer 2011
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n YouTube, Lady Gaga is the 16th most subscribed musician and the 79th most subscribed of all time. Why? Because of her spectacular music videos, of course. Lady Gaga’s videos are known for being beautiful, bizarre, creative, impressive, confusing, epic, and long (her longest video, Telephone, is 9 minutes 32 seconds long, while the song itself is only 3:41.) What makes these videos all these things? A good mixture of Gaga: her creativity, wackiness, allout personality, wild fashion sense, and fantastic choreography. It also probably helps to have seven extremely catchy songs that reached the top 10 on US charts. Here’s a closer look at some of Lady Gaga’s videos and what exactly makes them some of the best of all time. Lady Gaga’s first video, Just Dance, is, in her own words, “performance art about being drunk at a party.” The video is essentially a house party, with Lady Gaga really getting it started.
>>>the music videos I’ll admit, when I first saw this video nearly two years ago I thought it was bizarre – I couldn’t quite understand what the point was, and thought it a bit grotesque. Revisiting it now, though, I see the art in it – the very beginning of the Gaga we know today. The costumes may not be as excellent, the choreography not as exciting and organized, and the epic quality to her videos not present yet –but if you look carefully, you can see a spark of what is to come. Her next video, Poker Face, begins to show more of the current Lady Gaga. You can see the dawn of the unique, bizarre outfits that she is known for in this video with pieces like the blue leotard (if you can even call it that) and the two black outfits that look at least 50% plastic. The dancing is more cohesive, and only gets better in future videos. Other hints of future themes present in this video: animals and square glasses. Skip a few videos, and you get to what I would consider her peak – Bad Romance. A bit strange, I know, but magnificent too. Her dance is almost as catchy as the song itself (I can’t hear the song without imagining the dance).
The clothing ensembles become even more magnificent and extravagant as Lady Gaga manages to dance, let alone walk, in 10 inch Alexander McQueen shoes. Also, the large, square glasses and various animals return. As clearly displayed in the video, mother monster has arrived and her monsters have been hatched. Gaga went on to create elaborate stories within her next two videos, Telephone and Alejandro. Again featured are the costumes, the dance, and the overall Gaga-ness. And although the reception for her most recent video - Born This Way (which involves a weird birthing scene that has many cringing) - seems to be more “ew” than “ah”, one thing cannot be denied – it has been watched and noticed. That’s what makes her videos so special; they are extremely unique and eyecatching, and most of the time beautiful and spectacular. Her videos have drastically changed the definition and confinements of music videos in a way that hasn’t been done since Michael Jackson, and that’s what makes them so remarkable.
- SAVANNAH SMITH ‘13
>>>gaga + mcqueen
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flair for the unusual could describe both Lee Alexander McQueen and Lady Gaga. The eccentric personality and music of Lady Gaga and innovative and outrageous designs from McQueen made the two a perfect pair. Both their forms of art and expression are out of the ordinary and fabulously different. Lady Gaga acted as the unofficial muse for the designer. Gaga has been seen wearing many of McQueen’s innovative designs. In her music video for “Bad Romance” Gaga sports two pairs of McQueen’s shoes, a pair of sparkly 10-inch armadillo heels and a pair of adorned platform stilettos. Gaga has also been known to wear his crazy looks on the red carpet. At the 2010 MTV video music awards, she was dressed in a McQueen gown, complete with an over-the-top headpiece. At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Gaga wore an outrageous McQueen number featuring red lace and a red lace headpiece in the shape of a crown that covered
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her entire face. The designer and musician used each other as influences. McQueen used Lady Gaga as an influence when he premiered the song “Bad Romance” during his spring 2010 runway show. After McQueen’s tragic suicide in February of last year, Gaga took on a vow of silence. In a later article in Harper’s Bazaar, Gaga discussed her latest single, “Born This Way” and its relation to McQueen. She says, “I think he planned the whole thing: Right after he died, I wrote ‘Born This Way.’ I think he’s up in heaven with fashion strings in his hands, marionetting away, planning this whole thing.” When the record label moved the release date of the single to the anniversary of McQueen’s death, Gaga was convinced that he had something to do with this single. Coincidence? Whatever you choose to believe, it is clear that McQueen and Gaga shared an unusual but special bond.
- JESSICA HELLER ‘14
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FEATURE
Dubstep Hamlet and the Quarterly Arts Soiree Gideon Broshy ‘12 and Natasha Stolovitzky-Brunner ‘12 went to the Quarterly Arts Soiree at Webster Hall, which celebrates a diverse array of visual art and performances and creates a community rife with collaboration and creativity. The QAS’ main feature this spring was an experimental Shakespeare production called Dubstep Hamlet, co-produced with Stay on Stage. Dubstep Hamlet incorporated dubstep music during scene changes--it was surreal, weird, and exciting.
We spoke to JENNY MUSHKIN, the Co-Creator of the QAS and DILLON PORTER, the Director of Dubstep Hamlet
having a solo show at Webster Hall at the same time.
Jenny Mushkin, Co-Creator of QAS
What was your idea behind the informality of the event, which makes it very different from a “white-cube” art gallery or a classical music hall? What kind of experiences have you had where you left like going to an art gallery was stuffy or not welcoming? It’s a relaxed environment, so everyone can enjoy it. It’s egalitarian. I didn’t have the exact feeling that Gerard had of feeling uncomfortable in museums or formal galleries; for me, the issue was the arts being segmented. You go to a ballet show and it’s only ballet, you go to a fashion show and it’s only fashion, and most of the time, the genres don’t mix. I’ve always liked the idea of having everything come together, everyone celebrating each other, and having people that work in different mediums celebrating each other’s art. My husband works in film, and he’s always going to film premieres—but it’s
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photo by GIDEON BROSHY ‘12
I love that you’ve extended that all-encompassing effect to such detail. You have dancers dancing by themselves in the stairwell, or in the main lobby… Oh, I think they were just practicing…
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I don’t teach classes on Shakespeare. I’m not qualified to do that. What I am qualified to do is throw a party.
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How was the QAS founded? I am a neighbor of Webster Hall, and I would go to a lot of their shows, and they were very generous—giving us comp tickets in exchange for us not calling the cops with noise complaints. After about a year of knowing Gerard [McNamee, general manager of Webster Hall] in a casual way, he mentioned that he wanted to throw an art party, and I thought that was magnificent. I went to school for art history, and to grad school for art business, and I was working at exhibitions in Chelsea. Together we developed a mission statement for Gerard’s “art party”— we really wanted to cover all the walls with art, saturate the event with art. One of Gerard’s main goals was to make sure it wasn’t stuffy.
always the same people. You’re only breeding the same ideas if you’re around the same people. For the QAS, do you try to find something unifying about the art and performances you present, or do you strive to create a potpourri? It’s more of a potpourri. I’ve curated shows with themes and more centralized ideas, but this is more of a mix—the art is not telling the same story. It’s not a narrative; it’s a beautiful jumble. It’s like everyone is
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Well I think the atmosphere you’re creating, with the potpourri idea…it’s seemingly disorderly …well, I don’t think I’m the only person that has thought those dancers were actually performing. [Ed note: this is me trying to save myself from my embarrassing misconception.] That’s exactly what we’re going for, the feeling of organized chaos. [Humoring me. Your mission is to bring together different art mediums, and to make artists think in different ways by putting them around other artists. In my high school, there isn’t much of an interdisciplinary attitude in the arts. In a high school environment, how can one make that happen? Each department can be crossed over, bringing people together. It works better in college, but it’s definitely a possibility in high school. Form a club. Bring the arts together in a magazine! You’re doing exactly what I did in high school—I formed a “Cinema del Arts” club to expose people to independent and foreign film… I grew up in southern California, where people just watched blockbusters. Do it yourself, because the teachers aren’t going to do it for you.
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FEATURE
Dillon Porter, Director of Dubstep Hamlet Ed. note: Dillon and I talked for a long time, and I asked a bunch of formal interview questions, but I thought this, which evolved into an exchange between Dillon and a fashion designer who had a fashion show on the main floor of Webster Hall after Dubstep Hamlet, was more illustrative of what the QAS is all about—spontaneous collaboration and artistic exchange. Dillon: Shakespeare makes you work. You have to strain to figure out what the hell he’s talking about… it’s a muscle that everyone should flex. And I would like people to flex it in an environment they feel comfortable in, or they feel like is a fun environment – it’s not a scholastic environment. I don’t teach classes on Shakespeare. I’m not qualified to do that. What I am qualified to do is throw a party. And what I like to do is use language. I love being impeccable with words, and I think Shakespeare…is… one of the most… are we in your way here? Girl: This is all our stuff. Dillon: Ok cool, we didn’t futz with it. Girl: Ok, we’ll just be packing it up. Dillon: Wow, there’s a lot of pink there. Girl: Yeah, there is a lot of pink. Dillon: What are you guys called? Girl: We just did a fashion show downstairs. This is Candy Rock Couture. Dillon: And what, in a nutshell…? Gideon’s writing an article about this thing. Oh damn, here she is! Candy: Did you see my fashion show?! Dillon: I missed it, I didn’t know it was right after my show. Candy: Oh my goodness! Dillon: I’m sorry, I thought Andrew Nemr was still tap dancing. I know this girl… did we meet at the last QAS? Candy: What are you writing about? Me: I’m just writing about the QAS in general, for my music magazine and my friends’ fashion magazine. Candy: Oh, cool! I’m Candy Rock Couture, sort of like rock style… so it works out. D: What got you started? C: I knew I wanted to do something in the arts, so I went to school for photography, nah, graphic design, nah… when I discovered fashion I knew I belonged! D: You should design for my next show. Romeo and Juliet. C: I’ve never done costume before though. D: Well, I’ve never done couture… C: But I have more of a rockish style… D: Great, let’s make it a Kanye R&J. Or Chromeo and Juliet. The way I like to collaborate, it’s not like this is what I need, go make this, it’s like what do you have and what do I have? How does your art affect
the direction that my storytelling goes? If Romeo is in pink leather pants, that changes everything a little, and that’s great, it’s workable change. As long as it’s a strong, bold choice, I’m for it. Create a reaction. ___________ Later... Me: So, I watched an idea being hatched. Dillon: Yeah, ideas are hatched all the time, it’s New York City, get used to it. I like to use serendipity for sure… just why not. It solves so many problems. Me: I have some questions… Dillon: Oh yeah, lets do questions. Have you started recording yet?
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photos by GIDEON BROSHY ‘12
AmpliFAD 29
HM SPOTLIGHT
and Alessandro van den Brink, and through many rehearsals, and about just as many good meals, the band became what it now is. So, you may ask, what kind of music does Opaque play? That’s a hard question. Opaque’s genre is tough to decide, based on the fact that we don’t want to be placed in a single genre. Some of us hate popular music. Some of us secretly listen to it. Some of us sing popular music in talent shows, but secretly despise it. To figure out our style, one must first find our inspirations. We can sum it up in two letters. JB. Thankfully, those two letters do not stand for Justin Bieber (for most of us at least). Jeff Buckley, Jeff Beck,
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Asher and Andrew also write lyrics for their respective songs. Asher is known to pour his heart into his songs, and rather un-discreetly tell the world his love stories.
AmpliFAD hears from the student band
Opaque consists of Asher Baumrin ‘13, Andrew Levin ‘14, and Alexander Van Den Brink ‘14. We asked them to speak about their name, their music, and how they are not inspired by Justin Bieber.
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he name Opaque was chosen from a list er, feel the same way about Opaque. We want of potential names for the band. Among Opaque to mean something beyond its dicthe other names tionary definition. We were “Urban Street want Opaque to repreFlood” and “That Asher has often said sent our music, in all of Band with Four Guys.” its vibrancy and glory. Though it seems arbi- that he wants to liberate the One may ask, trarily chosen, it has current generation from the “how was Opaque come to mean some- popular music. While this started?” Opaque was thing more to all of started with a dream. sounds remotely like musical Then three other us. Whenever one of us hears the word communism, it describes Ash- guys joined the band. Opaque, our sixth er’s music style. He tries stuff. Opaque was started senses tingle. The word by Cole Davis and Opaque has a someAsher Baumrin. They what demure denotation- had always dreamt of being in a band toUnable to be seen through, but the connota- gether and though they went to different tion is far more meaningful to us. Perhaps our schools at the time, they made it work. They objective as a band is to make you, the listen- recruited Niall Chithelen, Andrew Levin,
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AmpliFAD
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>>>OPAQUE
John Bonham. Likely, it would be a very bad idea to combine those musicians’ styles and music, but in our case, it might just be crazy enough to work. It’s actually not that crazy. But still. So, reassured that we are not inspired by Justin Bieber, we return to the idea of genre. Asher has often said that he wants to liberate the current generation from the popular music. While this sounds remotely like musical communism, it describes Asher’s music style. He tries stuff. Asher likes to experiment (and he also likes to use unconventional methods in his songs). He writes songs with dissonant progressions, has a piano piece consisting of his exploration of the dream world, and also is experimenting with the limits of human hair. Andrew goes for a more traditional, fusion approach. He combines blues and classic rock in one entity, resulting in many a jam session with his stellar ability to Wah-Wah solo over anything. Asher and Andrew also write lyrics for their respective songs. Asher is known to pour his heart into his songs, and rather undiscreetly tell the world his love stories. (Not to mention his plans to abolish the internet!) Andrew’s love life, being less dramatic, is not as much the focus of his songs. Andrew writes about feelings- redemption, empathy, and compassion all of which are hidden under the sounds of Andrew’s innumerable guitar solos. “What about those other people in the band?” you may ask. The rhythym section, consisting of
summer 2011
Cole Davis, Alessandro van den Brink and Niall with the Indie and Alternative scene and he Chithelen, is what keeps the band rock steady. knows how to take the stage. Niall drums and Cole doesn’t even go here, and he still manages plays the congas. He is known for turning the to be likely the most musically talented mem- group onto funk music and the world of Herbie ber of the band. Hancock. He is a Cole, a Jazz and skilled jazz drumClassical bassist Opaque’s EP will soon be re- mer and beatboxbrings sophisticater. He also knows ed basslines in un- leased for sale by the members of the a million ways to expected moments band. It is yet to be titled, but there distract the band in our songs. Ales- is advocacy for the title Bropaque. during rehearsal. sandro plays piano So we hope that and keyboards like you, the reader the man that he is. (and hopefully lisHe is currently working towards bringing his tener), now understand Opaque. Opaque is vocal skills to the forefront of the group as our a beautiful all man (and Niall) band, whose third singer. His fiddling around during re- music is yet to rock any place other than the hearsal led to a jam session that has become SBP assemblies, College Homecomings, and a potential funky-fresh song. Ale is remem- an opener for a Slovenian all-girls punk group. bered as the musicians that keeps in touch Opaque’s EP will soon be released for sale by
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the members of the band. It is yet to be titled, but there is advocacy for the title Bropaque. Perhaps now Opaque has more meaning for you too, or perhaps you have only read parts of this article and have no idea what we’re talking about (hopefully the former). Enjoy the music, and always, always remember that we love you (you too mom).
to hear more from OPAQUE, check out their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages Opaque/16003976400923
HM SPOTLIGHT >> ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: MIHIKA KAPOOR ‘13 Art is part of my personal- which I carry with me everywhere. I have ity. Through it I can create new things and pages and pages of just designs I have cresometimes ated with those pens. escape from Other than art, I really reality. It is an enjoy dancing. While dancWhile dancing I feel the opportunity to same sense of exhilaration with ing I feel the same sense of express myself the expressive body movements exhilaration with the exwith splashes pressive body movements of red, blue as I do with the stroke of a brush as I do with the stroke and yellow on or pen in art. of a brush or pen in art. I canvas. I have have learned a form of Inbeen drawing dian classical dance, called for as long as I can remember, even if it was Kathak, for seven years, but I also take just sticks figures at age four. I take class- dance inside of school and I am also peres at the National Academy of Art, where forming in the dance show. Another hobby I work with a live model each week. I love that I have is writing poetry. It provides an working with a model, so I can train my eye escape from the confines of grammar and to draw what I see, rather than what I know. punctuation and gives wings to my imagiI also enjoy drawing still life. I mainly use nation allowing me to express my deepest smooth charcoal, or water colors in my piec- feelings. Similar to art, when I write poes. Waters colors are free flowing, and so etry, I paint pictures, but these are inside my motions are more fluid and instinctual. my head. Through art, dance and poetry I With charcoal, I focus a lot on the shadows find a release from the mundane, an escape and lighting of a figure. In addition, I love to from anything I may not like and instead a doodle. I have a set of twenty fine-tip pens, sense of bliss.
horace mann school
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AmpliFAD 31
FEATURE
INDIE CRED
Gideon Broshy (‘12) reports on why being so different suddenly became so mainstream
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ou’re reading a magazine whose name is an acronym for fashion, design and art, merged with another magazine written by kids in skinny jeans? That’s so hipster. Just kidding, a name like AmpliFAD is totally kitschy. Look around—someone is wearing thick glasses with black frames. Hipsterrrrr. To teenagers, hipsterdom is associated with “artsiness” and tight jeans. Some more hipster clichés, many from hipster parody books and blogs like Look at this F***ing Hipster, A Field Guide to the Urban Hipster, and hipsterrunoff.com: courier bags, a “hipper than thou” attitude, drug use, tattoos, white v-neck shirts, shoes that look like Converse but aren’t Converse, veganism, buy fresh buy local, dirty hair, piercings, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, indie music, “pedophile” mustaches, tube socks, and Polaroids. What hipsterdom really is: a white, middle-class “subculture” that is less an underground cultural movement and more a confused cultural expression defined by its obsession with intellectual and social superiority. This is the “hipper than thou” paradox—hipsters reject conformity and consumerism while conforming to their own hipster culture. They feed off the mainstream and become the mainstream. They don’t really get it—or they do, but they’re not telling us. Because of hipster culture, there’s an endless vortex of he-said-she-said exchanges to be had, justified by warped definitions of “irony” and “cool”—some people could use those definitions to call me a hipster for writing about hipsters. It’s all pretty stupid. The term “hipster” originated in the ‘30s and ‘40s, to describe members of the burgeoning American jazz scene, and the white youths that wanted to be a part of it. Hipsters in the ‘50s were members of the Beat generation—an anti-McCarthyist movement epitomized by writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. In Mark Greif’s words, from his book “What Was the Hipster? A Sociological Investigation,” and from New York magazine: “The hipster…in his essence had been about superior knowledge—what Broyard called ‘a priorism.’ He insisted that hipsterism was developed from a sense that minorities in America were subject to decisions made about their lives by conspiracies of power they could
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never possibly know. The hip reaction was to insist, purely symbolically, on forms of knowledge that they possessed before anyone else.” Contemporary hipsters are usually artists—of some form—at night, waiters during the day. The contemporary hipster—who claims superior knowledge, claims superiority over mainstream, capitalist culture—poses some complications. Hipster clothes and hipster music are part of the cultural mainstream; the former fills shelves at Urban Outfitters, the latter at Barnes and Noble. Basically, it’s all a lie. That’s their problem. My struggle, from a music writers’ perspective, is that hipster culture—which associates itself with “indie” music—has produced some really good artists. It’s fun to romanticize indie rock culture, to compare the Williamsburg lofts and basements of today to Kerouac and On the Road or to the jazz clubs of the 30’s, and sometimes that’s okay; a lot of the music is experimental and innovative. Animal Collective may be revolutionary. Greif, in the New Yorker article, disagrees: “One could say, exaggerating only slightly, that the hipster moment did not produce artists, but tattoo artists…it did not produce photographers, but snapshot and party photographers…it did not yield a great literature, but it made good use of fonts.” What Greif touches on is the central problem of hipsterdom: the leeches. The “hipper than thou” attitude makes for a culture populated by a few interesting artists, and lots of hip followers that respond to trends and fashions, dictated by an invisible authority on hipness. The question arises: is “artsiness” bad if it means ugly moustaches and grimy hair? The short answer is no. The long answer is also no. This culture celebrates and fosters artistic creativity, and that’s a good thing. Perhaps hipsterdom is a compromise, for the good art that seems to come out of it. There are lots of interesting questions here— why do middle class youth seek to distance themselves from the middle class, what is appealing about the appearance of rebelliousness to hipsters, what is appealing about the avant-garde to hipsters, where can you find experimental music that has resisted the hipster infection, is experimental music innately inaccessible to a nonhip audience or to the mainstream. If only I
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had the space and the time. There are more significant cultural and social reverberations that result from the hipster attitude—the “hipper than thou” sentiment, the fake rebelliousness, the appearance of nonconformity by a group of followers. Greif argues that youth hostility to the establishment—the American government, capitalism—has been continuous since 1945, after World War II. The obvious examples are from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s: the 1968 Columbia riots, or the 1971 Kent State riots; student revolts in France and Czechoslovakia in 1968 were variations on a similar theme. Hipsterdom is a part of that trend, but also a response to the more explosive ‘60s—white middle-class youths just need something to fight about. To Greif, hipsterdom is a muddled cultural expression that fuses together a bunch of anti-establishment sentiments—anti-capitalism, anti-Iraq war, environmentalism—without actually latching on to any real cause for any real reason. It is rebelliousness for the sake of rebelliousness, or for the sake of trendiness. It is cultural infantilism. Cultural infantilism is exactly what it sounds like—it’s the idea that people cannot make their own choices, and follow trends dogmatically. Even scarier is political infantilism—if American citizens can’t make their own political decisions, democracy disintegrates. This problem seems to be associated with hipsterdom, and cultural follower-ishness and leechiness may be especially relevant in that case, but it’s a universal threat. A culture with so much information flux threatens to cause cultural and political infantilization in kids and teenagers. Sometimes I fear that, when reading a blog like Gawker, I surrender my own opinions to those of some sort of trendy liberal blog culture, which dictates what I think. This article has consisted mostly of my disorganized ramblings, as I struggle to justify my editorial position by getting my articles in only three weeks late. Somewhere though, hidden in the depths of this haphazard text, there is a message: don’t be a leech. The best thing you can do is be culturally, socially, and politically mature and independent. It’s what sets you free.
summer 2011
INTERVIEW
Nanette Lepore
Daphne Taranto (‘11) and Baci Weiler (‘12) chat with the womenswear designer about art, music, fashion week, and saving the Garment Center
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ow did your high school style affect who you are today? I always dressed a little different from everyone else, so I learned to put up with a little ridicule and to still take chances. In high school, if they don’t get you, they sort of put you down, so I went through high school without a lot of backing for my style. And now I still think, Ha, eat your heart out, you girls who made fun of my clothes!
over, but that doesn’t happen often.
When you transitioned from high school to college, did you already have a cemented interest in fashion and design? It actually happened along the way. When I went into college I was studying Spanish & social work, but I switched out halfway through and went into fashion because I realized I had this other vision of myself. Even though I thought that was the profession I’d love to have been in, I knew that I wasn’t going to last so I switched over to fashion merchandising and from there I went into design.
What is your involvement with the activist organization Save the Garment Center? We try to raise awareness of the fact that if we don’t keep this industry alive here it’ll become really difficult for young talent to get started. What the garment center enables people to do here in New York is to start with a little tiny design office and then go back and forth with factories that will take work from small designers, and they can go into stores on their own and sell their line because a lot of stores have open store days.
That definitely got you prepped for the NY scene. Could you give fad a 5-track playlist you would listen to right now? Well, I just got my own iPod for the first time, and it was loaded by my sister and daughter, so I feel like I’m going to goof when it comes to what I love. But we like the Cardigans—the lovely song from Romeo and Juliet, I think it’s called Love Me. I do love Amy Winehouse, Love Fool; and a couple of real oldies, like the Leon Russell song. And then like really current dance music, stuff I would never dance to. We were doing the bar mitzvah route with my daughter [Violet] this year, so we’ve been dancing to all the top 20 songs.
Do you have any advice for an aspiring designer? How should they get their footing after high school? Learning to sew is really valuable. It helps the puzzle fit together. And if you can take summer courses or intern at FIT, the High School of Fashion Design, or wherever you can afford, for draping, pattern-making, or anything that lets you learn the hands-on process, that’s also valuable. For me what helped was learning the nuts and bolts of making a garment.
So does Violet inspire your music taste? Definitely—I pay attention to what she listens to, otherwise I’d be stuck with what I listened to in high school. I am trying to get out of the mold, but beyond the top 40 I don’t get super creative.
How much of your job is actually designing the clothes versus managing it as a business? I don’t do the business management part— my husband does—and I have a CEO. It’s a very collaborative process but in the end if I don’t have my personal stamp on everything it doesn’t feel right to me.
From TOP, Looks from the Nanette Lepore Fall 2011 show (digital collage by Daphne Taranto). Inset, the designer herself.
If we were to step into the Nanette Lepore offices, what kind of music would we hear? You would just hear the clatter of sewing machines; you rarely hear music going. A lot of my girls will sneakily play their iPods while sketching-- I have a No iPod rule in my design room because everyone needs to be paying attention. Although one girl was listening to reggae!
One last question—as a New Yorker, which would you prefer, bus or subway? Well, cab over subway, but definitely subway.
Does the type of music played during the runway show ever influence the collection? The music comes in after the clothing gets started. Sometimes if I get hooked on a song early, I’ll make everyone listen to it over and
horace mann school
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FEATURE
Eye Society Alice Taranto ‘11, bespectacled since the 1st grade, reports on how you too, glasses girl, can wear makeup with your specs
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e’ve all seen it before: the bespectayour eyes, take heed: Chen says, “I love the cled dork of any age who gets pushed look of a bold, bright red lip (think Marc by around and eventually has his or her Marc Jacobs or Jill Stuart!) with glasses.” glasses crushed. Just think of Superman (in Muelle says, “If you’re wearing thinner wire Clark Kent form), Quinn Pensky from Zoey frames, or frameless glasses, give your cheeks 101, or Harry Potter and the notoriously definition with a nice subtle blush. Go for a taped bridge of his glasses. I’ve had my fair bronze or a rose color, and tap your brush a share of sight-related hardships (I was called couple times before you apply it to your face... a four-eyes on the playground once), but deYou just want a little color to highlight, not spite this elementary school setback I have clown makeup!” As for celebrities who strike over time learned to be proud to rock the the balance right, Muelle finds Anne Hathaglasses look. It can be hard to wear glasses, way’s recent bespectacled look a go-to. Raves especially as a girl – I know a few of Muelle, “I love the purple shadow my girlfriends who are in a someshe has lining her lower lashes, It’s absolutely a myth that girls with what humorous state of denial and what a fun pop of color!” Don’t take just see everything “fuzzy.” In countthese words lightly, as Muelle has glasses can’t wear eye makeup. less movies or TV shows (take Ugly been in frames since high school: -Eva Chen, Beauty Betty, for example) a female charac“I used to use glasses as an excuse ter is realized to be a bombshell once not to put makeup on (more time to Director of Teen Vogue she de-glasses. And don’t forget the sleep!) but I realized that instead of moderately outmoded phrase, “Lasses with hiding behind them, you can really make your glasses get no passes” or the fact that new U.S. features pop and the frames just accent your Military recruits receive standard-issue BCG’s features instead of blocking them.” (Birth Control Glasses) upon entering service. If you’re looking for a cute pair of frames Think you’ve heard enough? Add to this the yourself, I highly recommend the aforemenfact that many ladies (myself included) think tioned SEE Eyewear or WarbyParker.com, that wearing makeup under glasses is a nothe glasses company that advertises its $95 no, or otherwise majorly difficult to pull off. prescription glasses. How do they keep it so But I know there are a lot of makeup products cheap? With absolutely no brick-and-mortar out there, and equally as many females with presence, this trendy company has an online frames – so what’s the deal? I am surely misstry-on system (upload your pic) so there’s no ing out on something. store necessary! I did a little investigation: I contacted That makes sense from an aesthetic perTeen Vogue’s Beauty Director EVA CHEN spective (eyesight pun intended), but what (whom FAD has a little history with – check about health- and safety-wise? Next stop out http://bit.ly/EvaCheninFAD), who says, on my journey of discovery was MICHAEL “It’s absolutely a myth that girls with glasses FERRI, O.D., an optometrist at the Larchcan’t wear eye makeup.” Chen says girls just mont-Mamaroneck Eye Care Group in New have to choose their specs “strategically” York, who said that the best way to clean your and watch the frames-to-makeup ratio (you glasses of makeup or debris and avoid damagdon’t want to overwhelm your face). I also ing the lenses is by washing them with “some emailed KATE MUELLE, Marketing Aswarm soapy water, a rinse, and then a dry pasistant at SEE Eyewear, a super-hip glasses per towel, wiping in one single direction.” To company with stores in NYC and CT, who prevent dirtying your lenses with flaky masproudly states, “If you want to wear makeup cara or eyeshadow (and thus hindering your and glasses, then girl wear makeup and glasseyesight) at all, Muelle recommends liquid From TOP, an image from Warby Parker, the innovaes! Don’t shy away from makeup when you’re eyeliner (“Once it dries, it’s on there!”) and tive new online glasses shop; Christy Turlington in a wearing glasses! On the contrary, you can reChen tells me, “It’s all about primer! I’m a Chanel eyewear advertisement from 2007; A recent Tom Ford eyewear ad; the author herself in her SEE ally play it up.” If you’re not down to make up fan of Urban Decay’s Primer.[Find it >>
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Eyewear frames.
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summer 2011
FEATURE
School of Rock
Emma Garcia ‘13 catches up with Steph Chou ‘05 and Maia Bernstein ‘05, HM alums breaking it big in the music world
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t a school like Horace Mann, where academics take priority, it seems as though most other topics are neglected. However, if we dig a bit deeper into the HM community, we can find that there are the sporty people, the techy people, the artsy people, and much more. Upon looking past our studies, we find our passions and what we may really wish to pursue in life. While not all of us recognize our hobbies as such, Stephanie Chou and Maia Bernstein have. Maia and Steph are similar in that they are both composers and both feature Chinese influences in their music. Stephanie Chou, who graduated from HM in ’05, actually is Chinese. As of now, she only sings already existing Chinese lyrics with a jazz accompaniment that she creates. While Steph acknowledges her Chinese heritage in this way, it is by no means the driving force in her music. She says that she’s still looking for her sound, which is currently jazz, drawing inspiration from all aspects of her life. Steph first started her musical career when she learned to play classical piano and only became exposed to and interested in jazz when she came to Horace Mann. At our school she became passionate about playing the sax, and began to compose her own pieces after graduation. Naturally, Steph’s own musical history influences her music, but she says that she often gains inspiration from her teachers’. Steph says that through analyzing her teachers’ musical and life experiences she develops her own musical concepts. On the flipside, Maia Bernstein’s music
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Eye Society
From TOP, Maia Bernstein performs; Steph Chou with her saxophone; the album cover of Maia Bernstein’s La Loupe.
at http://bit.ly/UrbanDecayPrimer.] It helps eye shadow and liner last
through long school days.” Glad it’s settled – glasses and makeup can be friends. Now, what if I wanted to ditch the specs and try my hand at contact lenses, could I still wear makeup? As for removing eye makeup, all’s safe in terms of common removers, but the “most likely irritants are perfume and emollients (oils) that can gunk up the contact lenses.” Dr. Ferri says there are indeed some “’eye approved’ eye cleaners” and that his wife (always a trusty source) uses Lancôme Bi-Facil Eye Makeup Remover (http://bit.ly/
horace mann school
seems primarily driven by Chinese culture. Maia began to study Chinese in college and found that composing in Chinese was much easier because each character could be interpreted differently and held more meaning than a phrase in English. Coincidentally, Maia’s roommate was also a musician taking Chinese in college. So the two started a band, La Loupe, and found collaboratively found their sound. La Loupe was so drawn to Chinese culture that its two members moved to Beijing to partake in the political, underground musical movement that is taking place. Although La Loupe is inspired by Chinese culture, it does not follow any Chinese traditions. Instead, its Indie-political feel is very modern, and represents a more progress and young generation of music and thought. Despite the demands of their passion, Maia and Stephanie have been able succeed in their studies as well. Stephanie has attended Columbia as a math major and Maia as a East Asian culture major at Oberlin college. However, in order to maintain their academic and musical careers, they’ve had to sacrifice basically all extracurricular and overcome some personal bulwarks such as achieving familial support. In interviewing them, Maia and Steph seemed content with their decisions in that respect. So, while we may not be able to have it all, we can certainly obtain what we want the most. And perhaps dedicating more time to what you consider hobbies may help you find what will really make you happy in life, just like Maia Bernstein and Stephanie Chou.
SafeRemover). Dr. Ferri above all recommends AllAboutVision.com for basic Q’s and A’s, that you remove contacts if there seems to be an issue (especially if you recently switched makeup brands or chemicals), making standard annual exam appointments with your eye doctor (whether you wear glasses/contacts or not), and taking a break from/discontinuing an activity if it is frustrating your vision. Additionally, Dr. Ferri says, “Early detection and prevention are always important. Other than that, a healthy diet, exercise, and vitamins are all key aspects to general and eye health.” Sounds clear to me!
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INTERVIEW
Artist Aleathia Brown
Play Me Something That Sounds Like Green Imani Moise (‘12) and Esther Ademola (‘12) catch up with painter Aleathia Brown.
workshops. An active member of the Harlem Arts Alliance Ms. Brown conducts art presentations during the organizations monthly meetings to over 200 members in attendance, featuring her art along with the works of fellow visual artist members. Contracted by the Harlem Arts Alliance Aleathia coordinated “Kwanzaa Spirit 2006 & 2007” at The American Museum of Natural History. Can you define live art? For me the live art is me translating sound into color, movement and texture. I’ll be painting on stage while a musician and poet perform so it’s the live experience of each art form in cross pollination with each other. It’s live because it’s happening but it’s alive because of the energy that the different artists inspire from the work being produced. My version of it is a way of educating people in an entertaining way what the process of doing art is. It just happens organically. What’s the expe-
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rience going to look like? If sound were color what would it look like? If movement were lines what would it look like? Instead of going to a gallery and selling a work finished and framed and the glamour of that, you actually get to see what producing a piece of art becomes. How did you become an artist? It wasn’t ever something I became. I came here knowing that, since the age of 3. The family upstairs when I was growing up was full of very talented artists and musicians. The oldest brothers went to visual and performing
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I think that there is a connection with all art forms. Dance, spoken word, music, and visual art are all connected.
cause they don’t recognize the discipline it takes. So I figured this was my of educating as well as engaging people in a way so that they become connection and sensitive to the experience. Are there certain mediums that are easier for you to translate into visual art? Spoken word. Spoken word is like a verbal painting to me. The words have a certain significant power visually so it just enhances what I’m doing. I’d say I’ve had moments where I’m listening to music that doesn’t have a spoken word and it took me a moment to get into that a little bit more.
arts school and they introduced it to me as an option. It just blossomed from there. In high school I figured “Oh, I could do this as a career”
Do you think there is a connection between music and art? Oh Most Definitely! I think that there is a connection with all art forms. Dance, spoken word, music, and visual art are all connected. If you take the same idea, let’s say pain, you can translate any of those mediums into that because it talks about human endurance. In the past, everyone was trying to specialize in one or the other and separate from the fact that a lot of times a true artist never produces in just one medium.
How did you get started with live art? The first time was after 9/11. I was watching all the humanitarian acts that were going on in there world and asked myself “How can I help?”, “What’s my purpose?” Since art is my vehicle, live art was my way of introducing the audience to the act of making art as well as witnessing the production from a blank page to the finished product. Often collectors are a a small group of people who choose to educate themselves about art and the importance of it, but the masses of people don’t appreciate it be-
Now that you teach, have your students influenced your art in anyway? Is there anything that you’ve learned from them? Absolutely! If you are effective as a teacher. you get as much out of what your students are doing and learning as they do because the work that they’re doing is organic too. There things you cant anticipate they’re going to wind up creating and it has an impact. I’ve had painting that I’ve created as a spin off of something some students did and around me, and I just took it to another level with my voice.
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rtist Aleathia Brown native of both Harlem and the Bronx graduated Fiorello LaGuardia High School of Music & Art for Fine Art and earned her BFA at the School of Visual Arts for Advertising and Art Education with a minor in Graphic Design. She now teaches and mentors aspiring artists. Outside the classroom, Brown creates her art organically, without having rehearsed, in front of an audience. She calls this process “Live Art.” During these shows she is usually accompanied by a poet and musicians. Some times she even encourages audience participation. Ester and I had the pleasure of meeting up with her in a Starbucks after one of her
summer 2011
FEATURE
Open Pandora’s Box
Music and the listening industry have been forever changed by internet radio. David Yassky ‘11 sounds it out of songs, the boys of the Music Genome Project were able to put their technology into practice. They teamed up with Jon Kraft to create Pandora Media, whose flagship product is Pandora Radio or, simply to us, Pandora. Pandora is an online automated music recommendation service and player, which utilizes the Music Genome Project’s mathematical design to do its job. Simply, a user goes onto the site (Pandora.com), or any of its other platforms (such as iPad and BlackBerry) and types in an artist, song or
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As one of the most successful technology startup companies that have sprouted in the past decade, Pandora has truly altered the music landscape for the better.
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ate 1999: Will Glaser and Tim Westergren thought it might be a novel idea to map out the music landscape as if it were an ecosystem. They wanted to compile all of the music they could and connect each song by similarity, creating some sort of musical family tree. What came out of this unorthodox scheme was the Music Genome Project, an intricately designed mathematical algorithm that systematizes large amounts of music by generating a “genetic makeup” for each song (similar to what the Human Genome Project does for the human race). Although the math may be complex, the concept isn’t. When Music Genome Project obtains a song, one or more of their musical technicians analyzes the song by assigning a numerical value (1 to 5) to hundreds of different key attributes, essentially creating a DNA model for that song. The number of attributes depends on the genre of the given song; rock songs are only described by 150 attributes while classical music can be described by as many as 500. When enough songs are analyzed, a mathematical distance formula can figure out how similar songs are to each other. So, while Drake and Lil’ Wayne may have songs with similar genomes, Bach’s genomes will greatly differ mathematically from both of theirs. So, what came next was the easy part. By mapping out hundreds of thousands
composer. Pandora then spits out a personalized radio station, only playing music that is similar to the initially inputted entity, as decided by the Music Genome Project. One can also tell the system if he or she likes or dislikes a song that has come on, further personalizes the interface. Thus, all of the music that is played by the station is music that you prefer to listen to. This is why Pandora even states, “It’s a new kind of radio—stations that play only music you like.” But, not
horace mann school
only does it play music that you are already familiar with; at many times, an unheard of band will pop out of the system, broadening one’s listening repertoire. I remember when I first started using Pandora years ago, I entered “The Strokes” into the system and all of a sudden, some band that I never heard of called Phoenix started playing. I’ve been listening to them ever since. At the moment, Pandora has analyzed over 800,000 different songs, which all now have a mathematical representation in Pandora’s database. One very respectable characteristic of Pandora is their dedication to artist rights and licenses. They are committed to compensating every artist who has music in their system every single time that song is played, paying royalties to ASCAP, SoundExchange and other artist rights organizations. Pandora even will give the user the option to buy a song that has just played at various online music retailers. As one of the most successful technology startup companies that have sprouted in the past decade, Pandora has really altered the music landscape for the better. It has provided the music listener with a simple and rewarding listening interface, while not forgetting that the artist must make a living at the same time.
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FEATURE HMers get the inside scoop on your favorite teachers’ music and fashion taste from “way back when.”
Blast From the Past:
Teachers in Their Teens
Mr. Berenson: Eclectic Historian
>>>>> interview by Gina Yu (‘14)
Gina: Okay, so what’s your favorite song? Mr. Berenson: * shrugs * I don’t have a favorite song. G: Okay… do you have a favorite artist? B: No, I don’t really have a favorite artist. (pause) I have artists that I like a great deal. G: For example? B: Give me a second, I’m thinking of something. Can I have a top 20? I’ll name some I really like. Recently I’m into Luna, they’re good. Les Savy Fav, TV on the Radio is great.
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I like classical music. Pop to me is meaningless.
Then some classics like the Rolling Stones… G: Like David Bowie? B: Yeah he’s good. You know, I like Iggy Pop and 70s music.
G: How would you describe your music taste? B: (without missing a beat) Eclectic. G: Do you have a favorite genre? B: I mean, Indie is so broad, but that’s most of the stuff I listen to. I like quality music. G: Pop or classical? B: I like classical music. Pop to me is meaningless. Is it just... popular music? It’s ten thousand kinds of music. I like classical. I’ve been trying to learn more about it. G: How would you say your music taste has
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Mr. Bauld: Musical Man of Letters
Mr. Somma: Quirky Mathematician
>>>>>>>>>>>> interviews by Julia Pretsfelder (‘14)
Julia: When did you start playing the piano? Why? Mr. Bauld: I first touched a piano in the spring of my senior year of college. I’d gotten very interested in jazz and certain classic composers (Bach, mostly) and felt drawn to the piano, the fact that all the notes were laid out in order right in front of you; I didn’t get the logic of string instruments (though the piano is actually a stringed instrument) or all those hidden notes on wind instruments. I taught myself, with every possible bad habit. J: How do you think music and fashion are connected? B: I don’t know about fashion and music. There are fashions in music, passing styles, etc. I don’t know if fashion, by definition, can aim at anything enduring, though there is an elaborate craft and and a vast marketing machine behind it, as there is behind much music aiming at popularity. And certainly there have been influential and creative people in fashion, like Coco Chanel etc. Fashion is often a way to make a personal statement, more often for the designer than the wearer/ consumer, though there is room for that, too--people who, equivalent to a performer in music, find their way to a personal style without composing or making their own stuff. Maybe you could say each year’s new look is like an improvisation, something ephemeral, played in the moment like music before recording was widespread. J: Almost every day you wear cool ties, do you get them from many different places? Do you have any favorites? B: Whatever one I have on today is my favorite. I have gotten them from all over,
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Julia: When did you start having your students share their music at the beginning of class? Mr. Somma: My first year of teaching at HM in 1981. J: Where did you get the idea? S: As soon as I arrived at HM I realized that students here are so much more articulate (than at my last school) about who they are. And so I in turn wanted to reveal more about me than I had. An English teacher was playing recorded music in his classroom when I arrived here. I saw that HM would be a place that would allow me to communicate my two passions: math through music. I soon saw the importance of allowing students to be a part of that expression—that music would allow the learning environment that I would oversee be one where we could be closer to who we really are. J: What are some of your favorite artists? S: One favorite artist is Cat Stevens. His lyrics move me more than anyone. Cat Stevens songs make me feel life’s pain, present characters whose journeys burst through that barrier of pain and land in a state of nirvana—journeys that feel well earned. J: What do you think is the main correlation between music and fashion? S: Fashion is the creation of fashion-makers--we the audience, become drawn in to the creation of the fashion-makers-music is one of the products that fashion-makers deliver. It is important to know that music is always a product of fashion. When it doesn’t feel like a product of fashion then it most likely is taking on fashionable anti-fashion. J: Do you play an instrument? Have you
>> summer 2011
FEATURE
We Know You Want Their Chicken: An Inside Look at the Dream Team interview by Stephen Cacouris (‘12)
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hen I ventured onto Clark Field, I didn’t really know what to expect. Who was the Dream Team? Was it true that Kanye West named his label, GOOD Music, after the sonic prowess of the two Horace Mann seniors? Could they really win the senior game of Assassin in three and a half minutes? Was it true that the Dream Team’s members couldn’t be separated by more than thirty feet without dooming all of mankind? I had to meet them outdoors, because rumors abound of buildings burning when the Dream Team has been their presence. Yet I was still terrified as I stammered to ask them about their past, present, and future. SC: Take a seat. Dream Team: No. We’ll take two seats. SC: Whats your favorite thing about being the Dream Team, other than the musical side of your project? DT: The girls, of course. and I think you have it wrong. Being a part of the dream team isn’t just about being in the dream team, it’s about
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Blast from the Past - cont’d.
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grown or changed as you’ve progressed in life? B: Hm, well in the last few years I’ve listened to more classical music, I never appreciated that as a youngster. Yeah I’ve learned about some new bands. The problem is, is that there’s too much music out there; it’s impossible to keep
starting a revolution. And being that revolution. If we can put in one person the never ending insignia of truth that we as members of the revolution create, we will have done our job. SC: What do you think about the way the media views most of the rap world? Do you fit that mold? DT: People view rappers as negative because they always talk about gettin’ money, but we’re not about that. We’re about changing peoples views. Put it this way. Imagine a dove in a field in a sandstorm. You’re seeing art. SC: So is the Dream Team the dove? DT: No. It’s the world. SC: How similar are your views on music? DT: (in unison) Let’s put it this way. The Dream Team is one person. SC: Where is your music headed? DT: Our music is headed to a level no one can understand. They’ll get it ten years from now. We recommend only eating sharks for months at a time to elevate the minds of others, but until they listen, they’ll just have to wait SC: What do you think of upcoming underground rappers who are gaining fame, such as
Odd Future Wolfgang Kill Them All? DT: Who is that? Does he sound like Muffin Man? What’s one plus two? Does the sky scream at night? SC: I wouldn’t know. Who are some of your favorite Horace Mann musicians and inspirations? DT: The Dream Team, and number two would most likely be the Dream Team. This’ll continue all the way till 100, where it’s Muffin Man and Tiny Tim. SC: If the Dream Team were to be represented by an animal, what animal would you choose? DT: It would be a tiger that’s been lit on fire that is eating a phoenix. SC: Why? DT: No, let me ask you something. Why is the Dream Team self-proclaimed the greatest rappers alive? SC: Because no one else can really understand their message. DT: (tearing up) I couldn’t have said it better myself.
up unless you devote yourself to it. You know I’m very curious about the evolution of music. There’s some great classic rock, I like jazz but I know very little about it. Music in the 60s and then the 70s, then the 1980s is like a musical wasteland. Well you get all the interesting punk things. Then in the 90s, it’s all this great rock. Indie and alternative stuff.
dors on Mott Street or Sixth Avenue: yard sales, flea markets, and more, and, as my wife will tell you, I never throw anything away.
Bauld down the years, among them chotchke ven-
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ever played an instrument? S: No. On two different occasions I spent more than a year learning the guitar. Both times I got bored--I learned the hard way that I didn’t want to make music—I just wanted to sing along and slap my thighs to it.
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INTERVIEW
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Leigh Belz of Teen Vogue
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Alice Taranto ‘11 catches up with the Sr. Features Editor and Music Blogger of this fresh teen mag on what it’s like to rock at work
Assisted by Rachel Ha ‘13 Can you describe an average workday, if you have one? What are some of the “perks” of your job? How would your job change if you were not based in NYC? My job is different every day, but I’ll spend an hour reading newspapers and checking out news and entertainment web sites to be on top of everything. Getting to go to music festivals is definitely an exciting part of the job and living in New York City helps in terms of seeing new artists because they generally all come through town a few times a year.
monthly music reviews at ELLE and then was promoted to the Associate Editor level where I got to write, edit and assign music content. After that, it just seemed to be part of my beat.
What is your favorite part of your job, if you can name one? It’s always cool to meet a musician you’ve been listening to nonstop or to meet young women who are heading up unbelievable charity initiatives or have gotten through tough situations. Connecting with interesting and inspiring people and sharing their stories are the best parts of my job.
What’s your most favorite live concert you’ve ever attended? Who are some of the most interesting/coolest people you’ve talked to? I got to dress up as a panda and dance onstage with the Flaming Lips in 2006 in Las Vegas. That was maybe my most surreal concert experience. I’ve been lucky enough to talk to Michael Stipe (twice!), Adele, Florence Welch, MIA, Ke$ha, Karen O, Ellie Goulding, La Roux, Ben Harper, and last summer I interviewed Justin Bieber for our cover story.
Could you give FAD a 5-track playlist of songs you would listen to right now? 1. The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade — The Joy Formidable 2. Frisky — Tinie Tempah 3. Helena Beat -- Foster the People 4. Lippy Kids — Elbow 5. Love More — Sharon Van Etten
What is one band/musical artist you see rising on the horizon? I’m working on a column on the band Foster the People that play dreamy synth pop. I’m also writing about The Vaccines, a London group that plays tight two-minute garage rock songs, and I also caught the British rapper Tinie Tempah. How did you get into this field? Were you always into music? I’ve always been a fangirl. In high school and college, I used to write all the lyrics to my favorite songs in blank books and had posters plastered on my walls. After I got my first job at ELLE magazine, I’d go to as many shows as I could each week and started pitching music pieces. After that, I was co-writing the
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Please tell FAD a bit about how you think fashion and music relate ... where is that crossroad? I think fashion and music are both really powerful means of expression. My favorite moment of fashion/music crossover is during runway shows; the speakers are full blast, the models are doing their thing and there’s just so much energy. Fashion shows are the best 15-minute concerts around.
From Top: An iPod with Belz’ recommended palylist; Leigh Belz herself; Tween entertainers Willow Smith and Justin Bieber in Teen Vogue.
AmpliFAD
Rock or electronic? TOUGH CALL! I love both genres, but I’ll always be a rock girl. I’m a huge sucker for British rock.
summer 2011
INTERVIEW
Charlotte Taylor Fashion Designer Alice Taranto ‘11 catches up with the designer you’re about to adore Assisted by Rachel Ha ‘13 You simply exploded into the fashion world – after graduating from Central Saint Martins only in 2008, you stacked up an impressive resume (including working at Frost French, Marcus Constable, and Luella). How did these various places influence you? Marcus Constable taught me how to design properly. At Frost French, I learnt a lot more about pattern cutting and the runnings of a small business. Luella was much bigger, and I was involved more in creative marketing there and surrounded by the PR, Buying, Production and Merchandising teams. Luella had really strong brand principles, and this definitely influenced me as well. It gave me the confidence having worked there to go out on my own. Your inspiration ranges from Hungarian Gypsy culture to vintage robots to rust – where does your inspiration come from and how do you converge it all into a collection? It comes from everything. I have a collection of mini robots, there is a copper sculpture in my local hairdressers that I love, I went to Budapest after fashion week in September. Everything goes onto mood boards and I literally sit and stare at them and design and then start playing with fabric on the stand. Why grannies and penguins? I am surrounded by the elderly on the Isle of Wight where I live, and I have always been fascinated by age. Penguins have always been my brother’s favourite animal and mine. It’s everything about them…the way the walk and look and also the colours are amazing (if you look close enough). What was it like showing at London Fashion Week? Please explain to
great, really lovely. How has it been starting a business in the midst of a recession? Shops are less willing to take risks on new designers as we are a massive risk, so sales are tough but you have to be thick skinned and get on with it. I think it essential to remain true to yourself though in tough times and not sell short or change your ethos for a specific shop. Don’t do something you don’t essentially like as people will see through it straight away. How have you used technology, including your extensive and personal blog with backstage-type details, to further your career and label? The blog has been great in getting peoples interest started from day one. It got people talking, so it has been great. It adds another dimension to the label and it lets people in on what drives me and inspires me…hopefully people can relate to it and grow with the brand.
From top: Two images from the Charlotte Taylor Fall 2011 collection; The designer herself with a creation.
FAD a little bit about Vauxhall Fashion Scout and how you are a part of the young designer program Ones To Watch. In my first season AW10, I applied to VFS to exhibit with them at LFW. The next season I applied for “Ones to Watch” and got in. They select 4 designers to represent VFS as their new faces of fashion. You do a fashion show, and your collection goes into the exhibition again for the remaining time at fashion week. The whole time was a bit of a blur really, but the exposure was amazing and Vauxhall are
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Who is the Charlotte Taylor girl? The Charlotte Taylor girl is primarily an energized, experimental free spirit. Someone who dances to the rhythm of their own beat and does not follow the crowd. Someone who does not take themselves too seriously. What kind of music do you listen to? Or does it vary by mood? I am into classical at the moment, but I love bands like the XX. Adele, of course. Oasis is my all time favorite, and I love cheesy dance songs too. I am not a music buff at all. A song I would listen to right now? Let There Be Love by Oasis. And finally, our signature silly question, tea or crumpets? That is a stupid question…I’d have both.
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SPECIAL REPORT
FASHION PASSPORT FAD far and wide HM students report on international fashion from their season’s travels. Check out what they have to stay about the style scene abroad.
ah Savann
Smith
Welcome to London, England. London is one of fashion’s many homes - with designers such as Alexander McQueen and John Galliano who are known for their lavish designs. London is also one of the many houses of the music industry, giving us artists from various movements that made their way across the pond. Here’s a brief fashion/music tour of the city. In the West End of London, we find an area called Soho, which is one of the city’s entertainment districts, and has a quaint, modern Lower East Side feel to it. Music has made its impact on the area, and vinyl stores carrying both new and old records are spread in the streets. The music scene in Soho can be traced all the way back to the 1940s, when Soho was a leader of the UK’s jazz scene.
a Zhou
Amand
Italy is well known for making an impact in the world of fashion. For winter clothing, a new, incredibly popular fashion are neon colored puffy jackets. These stand out within a crowd. From a 3rd person’s view, these jackets seem comfy and very warm. The various colors of green, orange, pink, red, etc. make a more friendly appearance. For summer clothing, the most worn type of shirts are simple tank tops with large font or with many texts, usually with English words such as “I Love You”. The most 42 popular summer jackets seen on Italian
London Just south of Hyde Park is Knightsbridge, which is packed with stores filled with luxury goods. These can be compared to stores like Bloomingdales and Bergdorf’s, carrying nearly all of the prominent high-class designer’s fashions. These stores also have a floor for music and movies, filled with rows of (mostly) British CDs and movies. And last we have Central London, and while this area does not have a specific style, it is the home of most of London’s great sights. Additionally, London Fashion Week is held here twice a year. London is a huge city, and there are far too many music and fashion sights to list. Other notable fashion and music places are Carnaby Street, Oxford Street. With that, as the British say, “Cheerio!”
Italy streets are racerback striped jackets, which are chic and cute, giving a slight cover while accessorizing the shirt. The most popular shoes are not boots or cute sandals, like probably expected. They are sneakers, neoncolored or white/black abstractly patterned. Either way, these sneakers are a new thing, including sneakers that are high-heels. Italy is again bringing new looks for America and other countries to experiment with and love like we always have.
AmpliFAD
summer 2011
SPECIAL REPORT Emma
Garcia
I’d never really considered Fashion as segregated by nationality, at least conscientiously that is. However, after comparing different brands, the divide between the designs produced in different countries became evident to me in their general style. To point out the most common trends, British fashion represents two extremes: sometimes it’s very quirky and wild or it’s classic and reserved. Italian fashion is all about sex appeal. And French fashion is very chic and glamorous. So where does American clothing stand in the mix? To answer this question, I simply took a walk around the city. What my mini trip revealed was that Americans dress (to different degrees) casually (presumably in American brands) on a daily basis. The general theme seemed to be nike or some other brand of sneakers, 7 or levi’s jeans,
and basic knits. This combination was varied slightly to be preppy with a cardigan, or punk with a leather jacket, etc. but for the most part remained prettyconsistent across the board. Dressing casually has been a trend for as far back as I can remember, but it is not a new one. It was actually popularized around the 1960s with the invention of jeans. However, it was first introduced as early as a two centuries ago as a statement of having climbed the social ladder when the rich began to dress as the working class did. Without delving into America’s longest lasting fad too deeply, I think it remains in our culture simply because we’re now so accustomed to it and because it is just generally more comfortable. But I guess the only one who can really answer that question would be you: why do you dress casually so often?
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Looking for new style, Horace Mann fashionistas? Look to France, which hosts some alien views of dressing from the American teenager. There are the typical French girls: tight bottoms and loose tops, maybe with a cashmere scarf. Then there are those who dress similar to Americans who wear jeans and a t-shirt, and a leather or jean jacket on top. Accessory wise, small earrings, big rings and big necklaces are very French and seem to be a must have for girls living in Paris. Put on a classy trench coat and ballet flats thus completes the “French” outfit. Another major aspect of girls’ clothing I noticed was fur. Fur coats, fur scarves, fur lined boots, all worn without a twinge of guilt. Yet, what I found the most surprising
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was the fashion of the male students. Bright, neon colored skinny jeans, and hair that is gelled, spiky, or the “Justin Bieber” style. There were even the spike lain black trench jackets, colorful silk scarves, and simple brown loafers. Like the girls, there were some who dressed “American” although their James Dean leather jackets did not really go with what we’d think as “American”. In the end, I think their whole fashion ideals came down to the shoulder bag that guys wear over one shoulder, while walking in a very ‘cool’ manner. American style or classic French, these kids seemed to feel very free to express themselves through their clothes, and made the school a bit of a fashion show.
Kapoor
Fashion is ever-changing and ever-advancing in India. Trends go in and out of style and something new is always hitting the stores. Eye-catching intricate designs have been the hallmark of India’s fashion industry. Recently, lace and netting have been working their way into the industry. Sarees are a long piece of fabric, about nine yards long, that women drape around their waist and then toss over their shoulder over a blouse. Sarees are made of cotton and silk traditionally with prints or gold thread embroidery. Lenghas are long skirts worn with a fitted blouse and a dupatta (a sort of scarf.) Sarees and lenghas are both generally reserved for more formal occasions, such as weddings and parties, rather than everyday use.
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India
Salwar kamizes can be slightly less formal, and are long shirts that flow to just above the knee. Salwar kamizes and kurtees seem to be changing quicker than most garments; nowadays many are made in an anarkali style, so that the shirt is rather fitted at the top and then flared out. Also, thanks to Indian fashion, it has become common to see a long shirt made of chiffon or cotton with bright prints of paisleys on them when you walk into an American store. Fashion trends in India are ever evolving but the myriad of patterns and colors remain vibrant as ever. India’s fabrics, fashion styles and trends now have a global footprint. Now top designers from world flock India to capture its fashion and use an element of it in their styles. AmpliFAD
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FEATURE
A Day at DVF
HMers Daphne Taranto ‘11 and Zoe Kestan ‘11 spent an afternoon at the headquarters and studio of top designer Diane von Furstenberg. Read on for a backstage look at their adventure!
the pattern making to the head office’s conceptual development to the storefront downstairs, the process can be seen from moodboard to garment all in one building. We got a behind-the-seams look at the process of creating a label’s clothing selection. NEIL GILKS, DVF’s Internship Coordinator gives us the scoop on the typical day at the headquarters. ANNA SHAHEEN, DVF’s Ready-ToWear Head Designer shows us around the uptown office in the Garment District where the sample-making occurs.
Neil Gilks ip nsh Inter inator rd Coo
How did you get into a career in fashion? What is your job at Diane Von Furstenberg?
I trained in design at Central Saint Martin’s. There, I received two Master’s Degrees, one in menswear and one in womenswear. After I graduated, I began to work for CSM (at age 22) as a teacher and I was there for about eight years. I got a good mix of fashion and education. Part of my job here at DVF, as Intern-
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ship Coordinator, is to find the talent. Starting with interns, I find students who get to learn about the proper side of the industry. I also do a bunch of special projects, which can be anything from textile work to Diane’s charities. My work can be really varied, I’m never really pigeon-holed. Most of the time I’m working with colleges and universities. Diane believes a lot in education – I’m the outreach, I give talks, critiques, etc.
what they can do with it.
There are clearly a lot of people involved in the design process and in the company as a whole; do you find that there is a big community aspect to DVF? This sounds super corny, but it’s really like a happy family here. I think you’d be quite surprised, because we do so many prints, This sounds super so many clothes, but the Design-wise, how corny, but it’s really size of the design teams does DVF work? are tiny. In prints we Well, we have like a big happy family have 3 people, we have a new Creative Director, here about 4 people working Ivan. He’s worked at in bags, and knitwear Chloe, Gucci, and he’s has only two. But since come here within the everyone knows how to last year. He’s definitely breathed some fresh do it and what to do, we’re really like a wellair into the collection – it’s got a cleaner, oiled machine. It is a big happy family, but European feel and has a great sense of di- the family is quite small! rection. One thing to definitely note: Diane is still very involved in the company, she is Especially with prints being so big still key.You’ll find as companies grow, the in the company, how much fine art name on the company begins to distance it- (drawing, painting) plays into the deself from the creative processes happening. sign? She has an apartment on top of the building Well, here you’ll actually find that here, so she pops by a bunch. about 7% of your year is actually design. The Obviously we’re a very print-based majority is then follow up with the sample aesthetic, so the prints design team starts us process, following up with the factories, etc. off. They’ll do a lot of work by hand, and then Then when our marketing team goes in to work that into the computer. We then move sell the collection, and that’s a major task to onto embellishment and fabric manipula- undertake. So the design part is finite, and tion. After all of that, we pass it all on to our that’s why you’ve got to have the right people atelier, where they pick up the fabric and see who understand the DVF look and feel.
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magine an all-in-one building that holds INow a fashion label from start to finish. - enter the DVF headquarters. From
summer 2011
FEATURE MUSIC ADVICE FROM THE PROS
When choosing music for our shows we ask questions such as, “What kind of mood does it evoke?” or “How does it play into the mood of the collection?”
I was definitely always interested in sewing and clothing when I was younger. I went to do my Undergraduate Degree at The University of Michigan, and when I was there, I started my own line on campus. I then applied to Parsons the New School here, and came over in 2003. From there, I had an internship at Calvin Collection. My boss at Calvin recommended me to a small designer, who I went on to work with for about eight years. After that I found myself here at DVF! Have you ever studied the business side of fashion, or just mostly design? At Parsons I only studied design. Back at Michigan, I majored in Political Science and History, so no business there either! However, I did, at one point, do an independent study with the Michigan Business School on branding. Have you ever found that marketing and business play into your role as a designer?
Yes and no. Since we are very contemporary, we want to work at a high level of design but we also have to cater to our customer. Do you find that your aesthetic has shifted as a designer as you have moved between different companies? Interesting question. Everyplace has its own vibe and aesthetic, but it’s also super
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Everyplace has its own vibe and aesthetic, but it’s also super important to stay true to your own aesthetic and to find ways to inject that back into the clothes you might design under someone else’s feel.
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Anna n ha Shee d Hea er gn Desi RTW
How did you get into fashion?
We always have a lot of easy listening music playing, and that definitely keeps us at an efficient and creative atmosphere. On the presentation side, music during shows is always super important. When choosing music for our shows we ask questions such as, “What kind of mood does it evoke?” or “How does it play into the mood of the collection?” We always kind of stay a step off the literal translation of the collection, so we keep things interesting and energetic.
to see more from Diane von Furstenberg, check out the DVF store downtown in the Meatpacking District
important to stay true to your own aesthetic and to find ways to inject that back into the clothes you might design under someone else’s feel.
With AmpliFAD, we’re looking at how music interacts with fashion- how they blend together, and how they collide. We hear there’s music playing in the office- how much does it affect the design atmosphere?
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WHAT’S IN THE ISSUE
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Carven Color Field - 48 Ready Carven to Rock - 66
Rodarte
Dries Van Noten- 60 Teenage Dream
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Rodartestatement - 46 Artist’s
Look forward to the fashion photo shoots in this music and fashion collaboration!
summer 2011
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photo by ZOE KESTAN ‘11 horace mann by school digital editing DAPHNE TARANTO ‘11
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ANDREW CATOMERIS (‘11) ON HIS WORK IN PHOTOGRAPHY I fell in love with photography when my grandfather gave me an old Pentax camera when I was 10. His sentences are punctuated with “glass”, “aperture”, and “saturation”. The idea was appealing to become proficient in the photographic lingo and to show others how I frame the world. I love to use film, however, the medium is incredibly temperamental, prone to
damage from temperature, use, and dust. For the past two years I have focused around portraiture, attempting to craft light to fit the complexities of the face. I usually work with high contrast, choosing high filters or altering a digital image in postproduction. I hope to continue to refine my skills and would love to do photojournalism abroad in the next few years.
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summer 2011
color field Dress to impress for prom in spring pastels and casual floor length hemlines. The Wave Hill Gardens (only five minutes from school!) provide a perfect backdrop. Shot on location at Wave Hill New York Public Garden and Cultural Center in the Bronx. Shoot cocoordinators Daphne Taranto ‘11 and Noah Margulis ‘13. Models: Rebecca Shaw ‘14, Rachel Ha ‘13, Dan Froot ‘12, Emma Garcia ‘13. Shoot Assistants: Alice Taranto ‘11 and Baci Weiler ‘13. Photographed by Daphne Taranto ‘11, Julia Pretsfelder ‘14, Gina Yu ‘14, and Veronica Williamson ‘13. Digital editing by Daphne Taranto. Model Rebecca Shaw ‘14 wears a dress made by Noah Margulis ‘13. Shoes stylists’ own. This dress was featured in the 2011 spring dance concert. Photograph by Daphne Taranto ‘11.
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summer 2011
tree of life Rachel Ha ‘13 wears a hat customized by Daphne Taranto. Dress courtesy of Antonia Antonova ‘11. Shoes and scarf (worn as belt) stylists’ own. Photograph by Gina Yu. OPPOSITE: Model Dan wears all his own clothes; Rebecca wears dress made by Noah Margulis. Belt, gloves, shoes, and bracelet stylists’ own. Photograph by Daphne Taranto ‘11.
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summer 2011
hat attack FAD Vol. 2 No. 2 cover girl Rachel Ha ‘13 and Emma Garcia ‘13 sit atop a Wave Hill ivy-covered wall in their appropriately springy attire. On Rachel: Dress courtesy of Antonia Antonova ‘11, hat, and scarf (worn as belt), stylist’s own. On Emma: Dress made and silkscreened by Gina Yu ‘13 and Daphne Taranto ‘11, belt by Alice Taranto ‘11, hat and sunglasses stylist’s own. Photograph by Daphne Taranto ‘11.
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summer 2011
pose pretty A hat is both practical and safe - a sunburn is never in style! Keep your skin protected and your look stylish with a hip hat. The 70s are big this spring, so the floppier, the better! Model Rebecca ‘14 wears dress by Noah Margulis ‘13, hat stylists’ own. Photograph by Daphne Taranto ‘11.
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summer 2011
splendor in the grass This page, Rachel Ha ‘13 wears a hat styled by Daphne Taranto ‘11. Photograph by Daphne Taranto ‘11. Opposite, Rachel wears dress and belt made by Alice Taranto ‘11. Shoes and headband stylists’ own. Photograph by Gina Yu ‘14.
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summer 2011
100-Watt Smile Dan ‘12 wears all his own clothes; Rebecca ‘14 wears dress made by Noah Margulis ‘13; gloves, bracelet earrings, sylists’ own. Photograph by Daphne Taranto ‘11.
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dream Eight HM students headed over to Manhattan’s Riverside Park to frolic in some of the season’s fresh looks.
Photographed by ZOE KESTAN (‘11) and OLIVIA CHIGAS (‘12) Models: (from left to right) MARIA OCAMPO (‘11), LAUREN CANTOR (‘13), ALEX MA (‘11), SAMANTHA KREISLER (‘11), ANDREW CATOMERIS (‘11), FRANCES IKWUAZOM (‘11), JILLIAN EISENBERG (‘13), AND ZOE ARBEL (‘13) Students were styled out of their own wardrobes by the help of FAD STAFF.
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for you, l’d write a symphony Alex Ma (‘11) and Lauren Cantor (‘13) wear models’ and stylists’ own clothing. Makeup and hair by Zoe Kestan (‘11), Daphne Taranto (‘11), and Olivia Chigas (‘12). Photo by ZOE KESTAN (‘11) 64 AmpliFAD
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brown eyed girl
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Andrew Catomeris (‘11) and Maria Ocampo (‘11) wear models’ and stylists’ own clothing. Makeup and hair by Zoe Kestan (‘11) and Olivia Chigas (‘12). Photo by OLIVIA CHIGAS (‘12). AmpliFAD 65
wouldn’t it be nice? Sami Kreisler (‘11) and Andrew Catomeris (‘11) wear models’ and stylists’ own clothing. Makeup and hair by Zoe Kestan (‘11) and Olivia Chigas (‘12). Photo by ZOE KESTAN (‘11).
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hey, soul sister Jillian Eisenberg (‘13) wears models’ and stylists’ own clothing. Makeup and hair by Zoe Kestan (‘11) and Olivia Chigas (‘12). Photo by ZOE KESTAN (‘11).
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READY TO ROCK
Get rid of your stage fright and bring down the house with amped up clothes and killer makeup! These student musicians gathered to showcase their jams and styles. Shoot Coordinator Daphne Taranto ‘11. Student bands or musicians: Alex Beer ‘11, Hallam Tuck ‘11, Gideon Broshy ‘12, Alex Ma ‘11; Sammy T and The Thumpasorus Peoples featuring Jacob Salzman ‘11, Felix Pimentel ‘11, Sam Torres ‘12, Sara Nishimura ‘11, Antonio Irizarry ‘11, Asher Baumrin ‘13; Tucker Caploe ‘11; Rocker Chics featuring Johanna Holo’14, Emma Maltby ‘14, and out of school friend ‘14; Opaque featuring Asher Baumrin ‘13 and Andrew Levin ‘13. FAD Crew on site: Daphne Taranto, Baci Weiler ‘12, Rachel Scheinfeld ‘12, Noah Margulis ‘13, Veronica Williamson ‘13, Anna Carol ‘13. Nicole Dalessandro ‘11 and Rachel Buissereth ‘12 on makeup. Assistants Olivia Dunn ‘14, Julia Pretsfelder ‘14, Nathalie Imamura ‘12, Lia Ehrlich ‘12, Magica Darabundi ‘11, Antonia Antonova ‘11. Middle school assistants: Claire Hayes ‘15, Molly Minter ‘15, Nicole Fortune ‘15, Sophie Imamura ‘15. Photographers: Sasha Leibholz ‘13, Chloe Albanese ‘11, Veronica Williamson ‘13, Emma Maltby ‘13, Jacob Salzman ‘11, Daphne Taranto, Rachel Scheinfeld, Gina Yu ‘14, Julia Pretsfelder ‘14. Additional Models: Carla The ‘11, Frances Ikwuazom ‘11, Emma Garcia ‘13, Rebecca Shaw ‘14. Thank you to Mr. Bomwell for help with the drumset, to Pete Montesino for help with the Microphones, to Mr. Do for his lighting kit, to the HMTC for use of the black box, to Anna Carol ‘13 for food organization. A HUGE thank you to our advisor Mrs. Hines for staying after school hours to supervise the shoot! Photographed on location in the HM black box theater. Digital editing by Daphne Taranto and Gina Yu.
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“Show your inner rockstar with stage-ready looks that match your style.”
RAISE YOUR VOICE
Previous Spread: Sara Nishimura photographed by DAPHNE TARANTO ‘11. Left: Singer Tucker Caploe ‘11, photographed by RACHEL SCHEINFELD ‘12. Right: Rocker Chics photographed by Daphne Taranto ‘11. Photographed by DAPHNE TARANTO ‘11.
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JAMMIN’
Left: Members of the band Opaque: Andrew Levin ‘13 and Asher Baumrin ‘13. Right: Fieldston musician Alex Beer ‘11. Both photographed by DAPHNE TARANTO ‘11
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“Don’t be afraid to try something new.”
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FROCK OUT
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New Rochelle High School band Robin Hood photographed by RACHEL SCHEINFELD AmpliFADâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;12
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GET FUNKY
Bandmembers of Sammy T and the Thumpasourous Peoples: Antonio Irizarry ‘12, Jacob Salzman ‘11, Sam Torres ‘12, Felix Pimentel ‘11, Asher Baumrin ‘13, and Sara Nishimura ‘11. Photographed by DAPHNE TARANTO ‘11
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GET SAXY
Jacob Salzman ‘11 and Sam Torres ‘12. Photographed by DAPHNE TARANTO ‘11
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ROCK AND ROLL Alex Beer, Sara Nishimura, Gideon Broshy, and Hallam Tuck photographed by DAPHNE TARANTO â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;11.
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A L CH E M Y & INQUIRY PHILIP TA AFFE F R E D TOMASELLI TERRY WINTERS April 3–June 19 Garden Admission: Students $2 FREE Tue & Sat Mornings Fred Tomaselli, Dahlia, 2011 Courtesy James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai | Photo: Erma Estwick Support for exhibitions is provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc., Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State’s 62 counties. Target Free Days
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AmpliFAD • Horace AmpliFAD Mann School • Riverdale, NY • http://www.issuu.com/fadmag summer 2011