Art

SDSU bands Bach in action

By Owen Pratt

STAFF WRITER

On Friday, March 4, friends, family and music lovers alike gathered into the Smith Recital Hall to enjoy a night of beautiful music, resulting from months of diligent practicing and coordinated rehearsals.

After a break from performing, the SDSU Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble have returned with a new concert, striking a chord with audiences.

The Symphonic Band started the night with a piece called “Africa: Ceremony, Song, and Ritual.” Conducted by graduate student Thomas Finch, the piece was filled with a loud, brassy sound along with a rhythmic percussion section, and soothing woodwinds. The musicians used a wide dynamic contrast, showing off their musical capabilities. The performance was met with a powerful cheer from the crowd.

When the piece concluded, the Director of Bands, Dr. Shannon Kitelinger, entered the stage. Kitelinger thanked the audience for coming, boasting the impressive work his students put in this semester, given the twoweek switch to virtual learning. He then conducted the next two pieces: “Hymn to the Dawn” and “The Hounds of Spring.”

“Hymn to the Dawn” took a different musical approach, with more simple rhythms accompanied with beautiful woodwind and brass solos throughout. The ending had the whole ensemble singing a note in unison. Primarily, the percussion took a backseat while the wind instruments had the spotlight.

“The Hounds of Spring” circled back thematically, with the winds going back and forth between loud and technical to slow and lyrical. For the most part, the tempo stayed at a moderate pace (or moderato for musicians). The woodwinds played some impressive musical licks as well. The piece ended with a loud applause from the audience, with people whispering their praises.

After a 10-minute intermission, the Wind Ensemble took the stage and performed their repertoire.

Beginning with “Ride,” the piece kept a rapid tempo with rhythmically intense music. Their loud dynamics filled the room with an intense energy, keeping the audience on their toes. The percussion played a prominent role, keeping the tempo at bay. Its ending had the winds playing a loud note with clashing cymbals fit the music’s theme.

Next was “My Jesus, Oh What Anguish,” written by the famous Johann Sebastian Bach. This piece pumped the brakes quite a bit, offering a slow, beautiful sound with delicate rhythms. This music gave the woodwinds ample time to shine. Its subtle ending earned praise from the audience yet again.

The last piece performed was “Sonoran Desert Holiday.” Described by Kitelinger as a western movie throwback, this song did not disappoint. The tempo had a large variation, switching from very fast to incredibly slow. It felt very natural, rather than forced and abrupt. The goosebump-inducing chords kept the audience listening, with the ending getting the loudest applause of the night.

Anand Larson, who performed with the Symphonic Band on baritone saxophone, says he enjoys the process of refining the pieces into a finished product.

“I enjoy the satisfaction of seeing the whole process come together from just sight-reading the piece, and seeing the bare bones of people struggling with everything to then the final concert and seeing everything fit together properly and sounding amazing,” Larson said.

Saxophonist Savannah Frost, a first year studying music education, felt the groups delivered a good performance.

“I feel like we did really well,” Frost said. “I didn’t really mess up, so that was great…we all listened to each other, we were all in sync and performed well.”

To find upcoming performances, go to the SDSU School of Music and Dance website for more information.

Photo by Owen Pratt The SDSU Wind Ensemble performs a mix of musical works, including the rhythmically intense “Ride” as well as Bach’s “My Jesus, Oh What Anguish,” a softly stunning piece.

Alumni succeeds as business owner and singer

By niamh mOOre

STAFF WRITER

Ayesha Kosaka, also known as the ai.ko, is a former San Diego State student currently taking her creative journey to the next level. She is a singer-songwriter, the owner of a production company and a graduate student at UCLA.

Kosaka graduated from SDSU in 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. She majored in interdisciplinary studies, which consisted of film production, marketing and event management, and minored in creative writing.

While still a student at SDSU, Kosaka and two of her friends started Plugged Productions. It began as an organization with a solid clientele while still in college, but they decided to make the company official after graduating.

Plugged Productions is a Black-owned “female artivist” production company that strives to give Black women and marginalized women of color a voice through film.

“We really want to drive a conversation and have a deeper understanding of each other,” Kosaka said. “And just having the right representation that we don’t always feel like we see in mainstream media.”

Another goal of Plugged Productions is to create a healing space for women of color.

“We are actively conscious of what kind of material we want

Photo courtesy of Ayesha Kosaka Kosaka is one of three friends leading Plugged Productions, a production company focusing on empowering women of color.

to represent,” Kosaka said. “And also allow people the space to heal and just create freely and just really push those boundaries.”

Aside from the production company, Kosaka recently dropped her first single, “Circles,” with another artist, Isinome; together they are called Isinome & the ai.ko. They are collaborating on an EP set to release in May called “The Healing Project.” This project, much like Plugged Productions, is focused on healing and pushing to create a healing space.

The single Kosaka recently released, “Circles,” is about getting through tough times.

“It’s about overcoming the pain that you’ve had in the past, but you know, sometimes you have those pitfalls and just understanding the roller coasters,” Kosaka said.

Besides her EP and production company, Kosaka also has big plans for the future.

“I am the type of person that is interested in so many different things, my end goal is to just really make an impact with any type of art that I do and just making sure that the story behind it is intentional and coming from my heart,” Kosaka said. “So. I hope that you know, whether it’s me making music, I also do poetry and have been in the process of writing an anthology of filming.”

As well as creating art through various mediums, Kosaka is also a graduate student at UCLA pursuing her master’s degree in African American studies. Her thesis research focuses on the political and social impacts of film and music.

“I’m using my time at UCLA as an opportunity to just collect as much from their database and just learn about the history that dives deeper beyond what they tell you,” Kosaka said. “And that’s just been a challenge, just really grasping all of that because it is hard truths that you don’t really hear. That is, you know, that’s not often talked about.”

Kosaka grew up in Los Angeles in the neighborhood of Crenshaw. Since moving back to the city, she has been able to reconnect with many of the people she grew up with - leading to artistic collaborations and building a community.

“I think looking back and like seeing the community that I have built over the past few years growing up out here and seeing them come back together. It’s just been really special.” Kosaka said. “And yeah, just a joy ride. It’s been really nice being back home.”

Kosaka’s art portrays her commitment to both healing and activism, her end goal is making the world a better place.

“I hope that at the end of the day, people will take it and just want to leave being a better person and just being more compassionate and empathetic towards people because this world is crazy,” Kosaka said. “And I sometimes go crazy trying to feel like I’m saving the world, but I know that there’s a lot of people around me that want that same vision. Manifesting that and really seeing it come to life is my end goal.”

Photo courtesy of Ayesha Kosaka The nature-infused cover art for Kosaka and Isinome’s recent single “Circles.” EDITOR IN CHIEF Catlan Nguyen

MANAGING EDITOR Trinity Bland

NEWS EDITOR Katelynn Robinson

OPINION EDITOR Aaliyah Alexander

MUNDO AZTECA EDITOR Noé Sandoval

ASST. MUNDO AZTECA EDITOR Karina Bazarte

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Ryan Hardison

ASST. ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Cristina Lombardo

SPORTS EDITOR Jason Freund

ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Andrew Finley

ENGAGEMENT EDITOR Sara Rott

PHOTO EDITOR Noelani Sapla

MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Mackenzie Stafford

ASST. MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Jayne Yutig

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Emily Forschen

STAFF WRITERS Eugènie Budnik Morgan Prickett Jayden Hanzy Samantha Muscio Niamh Moore Owen Pratt

SENIOR STAFF WRITERS Jenna Meyer

CONTRIBUTORS Maitland Klingberg Roxanna Boren

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Brian Arnold

GRAPHIC DESIGN SPECIALIST Luis Valenzuela

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Arzu Ozkal chosen as new director of Arts Alive SDSU

‘The Cuphead Show’ is pure cartoon lunacy, for better and for worse

By Samantha muSciO

STAFF WRITER San Diego State’s interim director and associate professor of graphic design, Arzu Ozkal, will succeed Eric Smigel as director of Arts Alive SDSU beginning on July 1. Ozkal is an internationally known creative practitioner and graphic designer whose research centers on collaboration and design’s capacity to search for forms of creative developments.

Her contributions to Arts Alive SDSU began when she joined the program in the fall of 2014. Arts Alive SDSU aims to raise the visibility of art in the university’s curriculum by promoting innovative collaborations, creative research and encouraging exploratory conversations among students and faculty. Ozkal has facilitated projects within the program that gives the artistic community on campus an opportunity to integrate art within their education.

Once director, her responsibilities will include raising awareness of the arts programs at SDSU and administrating collaborations among the campus community in all disciplines from arts to sciences.

“To be honest, from the beginning I always thought of Arts Alive as a more underground entity in a very established academic system,” Ozkal said. “I love the experimental and collaborative spirit that is willing to support nontraditional programming and pedagogy.”

One project she organized for Arts Alive SDSU was the Phage Infused Evening of Music, Poetry and Art Exhibition which recognized the 100th anniversary of the discovery of phage. She curated the art exhibition and encouraged students from various backgrounds in bioscience, creative writing, music and design to collectively work together to create art.

Ozkal is also involved in other on campus organizations such as Weber Honors College and ZIP Idea Lab; however, her qualifications for the position as director go beyond her involvement with SDSU.

Ozkal’s path as a graphic designer began when she was 13 years old living in her hometown of Ankara, Turkey. Her older sister was panicking to finish a design project for school on time, so she gave Ozkal Pantone markers, which were scarce and expensive for their time, and left her to finish coloring the project.

“I was paralyzed for a minute,” Ozkal said. “I still remember vividly the moment I opened one [Pantone marker] and hesitantly started coloring… carefully. I finished the whole thing and I thought I did a phenomenal job. That day I decided to pursue design mainly because I thought it was all about coloring stuff.”

She attended Bilkent University in Turkey where she earned a bachelor’s in fine arts degree for graphic design in 1998. She then moved to America in 2003 where she attended the University of Buffalo in New York and received her master’s degree in fine arts.

Ozkal went on to participate in and establish various research projects such as Silk Road Songbook, which she cofounded alongside Millie Chen. This longterm art project focuses on the Silk Road: an ancient Eurasian trade route between Istanbul, West and Central Asia and Xi’an. Ozkal and Chen travel to countries along the Silk Road to collaborate with local artists and musicians to create original work that reflects their cultural identities. Silk Road Songbook gives the people of that landscape an outlet to voice their social concerns through art and song. According to their website, this project aims to answer the question: “Where there is limited freedom of expression, how can creative resiliency thrive?”

“Typically, if the work solves other people’s problems or communicates their ideas, it is considered design; if it is self expression, it is considered art,” Ozkal said. “I think I operate in between. My research focuses on that in-between state and how artists and designers borrow methods and tools from each other.”

Another project Ozkal has established that focuses on feminist issues is Home Affairs, a collective of artists from photographers to digital videographers who work together with art institutions on projects that communicate social issues impacting women. She founded Home Affairs with international artist and writer, Nanette Yannuzzi, who has known Ozkal for over 10 years.

“Once she [Ozkal] has an idea or project in mind, she will work endlessly to manifest it,” Yannuzzi said. “She is kind, inclusive and has a wonderfully wry sense of humor. She thinks, breathes and lives in the world of design and sees its connections to a plethora of practices in art and in life.

Ozkal’s work, which includes limitededition publications and video installations, is in collections across the country such as in Thomas J. Watson Library, The Met and School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has also been shown internationally in venues such as Gallery Wallywoods in Berlin, Germany, Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece and Galeria Zero in Barcelona, Spain. To Ozkal, sharing her work and hearing feedback from audiences of different cultures and backgrounds is an honor.

“Arzu is an artist, educator and intellectual with a strong international presence and brings that into whatever she is doing,” Yannuzzi said. “This alone is a wonderful quality to have in a director, especially at an institution like SDSU.”

Before becoming director, Ozkal will speak with the campus community to assess the strengths and weaknesses of Arts Alive SDSU and create a plan that will further the success of the program. In the meantime, she plans to continue to encourage collaborations between artists on campus and raise awareness of art’s role in communication and initiating change.

By JaSOn Freund

SPORTS EDITOR Many animated shows in the past few years have relied on intricate storytelling and deep yet flawed characters when presenting themselves on the small screen.

Episodes in such shows follow a tight narrative construct while pushing the boundaries to tell sometimes philosophical tales and lessons for the delight of the audience.

Then, there is Netlifx’s “The Cuphead Show,” created by brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauser, which does… none of that.

The show, based on Studio MDHR’s hit 2017 indie game “Cuphead,” presents itself as a love letter to animations of decades past such as Merrie Melodies and Fleisher Studios while telling simple stories spread out through a dozen 15-minute episodes.

The story follows the titular Cuphead and his twin brother Mugman as they get into various hijinks. Cuphead is an optimistic daredevil that usually gets himself into trouble more often than not while Mugman is the more level-headed of the two, usually bailing his gullible brother out of trouble.

The trouble begins when Cuphead, who is bored of doing the chores assigned to him, drags Mugman to the carnival for a much “deserved” break. Unbeknownst to the boys, the carnival is actually the “carnevil,” a soul-gathering scam run by the Devil himself.

After losing a game of skeeball, Cuphead nearly loses his soul until Mugman makes the last minute save, grabbing his ghostly spirit and shoving it back into his body (cartoon logic, don’t question it).

This is all in the first episode, by the way.

What comes in the following episodes range from a rampaging baby bottle to vegetables with thick New York accents to an invisible sweater that can electrocute the Devil through the power of brotherly love.

The show plays to its strengths when it is wacky and wild, but this is also one of its greatest flaws.

There is no real “narrative” amongst the course of the first season. The “you owe the Devil your soul” plot is dropped in the next three episodes, but will get picked up at random just for it to be immediately forgotten about again.

These episodes are not perfect by any means. The writing is nothing special, the jokes — while creative and witty — don’t always hit their mark and Cuphead’s strong New York accent can get grating, especially when he is a heavy focus of the plot.

Also, while the visual style replicated the video game well and the sound design fits the cartoony vibes, there is just no real substance. Even the characters — while matching the video game personas — can be chalked up to being “Cuphead is a gullible yet happy moron” and “Mugman is an easily frightened wimp.”

But… it’s “The Cuphead Show.” It’s not meant to be taken seriously. Just saying the name out loud is like uttering a pun.

“The Cuphead Show” is at its best when it fully embraces being a cartoon. The brothers will casually pop their heads off and put them back on again, lasso the moon while dressed as roosters and react accordingly when their caretaker Elder Kettle becomes the usual victim of their (literally) explosive antics.

It’s a Saturday morning cartoon filled with slapstick humor, colorful animation and goofy characters who get annoyed when the Tim Curry-esque Devil pops in for a visit.

Yes, there aren’t any real stakes or drama or character arcs but that’s because it doesn’t need those things. It is an animated video game adaptation through and through with Easter eggs aplenty.

“The Cuphead Show” is exactly what it presents itself to be: a pure cartoon. And when it is viewed in that scope, it turns out to be a pretty good one. Photo courtesy of Arts Alive SDSU Arzu Ozkal has organized several projects for Arts Alive SDSU and hopes to take the program to new heights.

Screenshot courtesy of Netflix The Netflix promotional poster for “The Cuphead Show,” based on Studio MDHR’s succesful indie game “Cuphead,” features The Devil, who plays a prominent role in the series’ shenanigans.