May 4 - 10, 2022 EDITOR: Ryan Hardison • arts@thedailyaztec.com
Arts & Culture
The Daily Aztec
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BeReal showcases facetune-free photos to friends in real time
Review: ‘Hardy Boys’ let loose in season two
By Isabella Dallas
By Nicholas Neikon Ebadat
STAFF WRITER
“Life is not a highlight reel of someone’s best moments. Life is whatever I’m doing at 5:47 p.m. on Sunday.” With social media’s recent attempts to reject highly curated, essentially perfect, posts with “casual photo dumping,” the pressure to engage in something casual on Instagram now comes with an additional secret level of performance. Everything has become about capturing and romanticizing the effortless aesthetic of everyday life; it’s a filtered, unfiltered lifestyle. BeReal, however, is a newer social media app developed in France by Alexis Barreyat in 2020 that contradicts everything Instagram and other similar platforms require. All BeReal users receive a daily notification sent at a random time where they are given two minutes to take a photo of themselves and their surroundings. The time limit paired with the unexpected timing of the notification forces users to be real (literally). There’s no time to find the perfect pose or background, you simply have two minutes to capture a snapshot of your life with both the front and back cameras of your phone. It’s thrillingly mundane. The photos are supposed to be a realistic representation of your everyday activities which makes it remarkably authentic. There’s really little romanticizing with BeReal. The description on the app store writes: “BeReal is life, Real life, and this life is without filters. BeReal is your chance to show your friends who you really are, for once. BeReal can be addictive. BeReal
Photo by Isabella Davis
Friends are able to show real unedited versions of themselves to friends. No facetuning allowed!
might piss you off. BeReal won’t make you famous, if you want to become an influencer you can stay on TikTok and Instagram.” There are no filters, no likes, or followers on BeReal. After requesting friends, users are welcomed by a feed filled with casual uploads, comments and “RealMoji” reaction pictures below everyones posts. Users also have to upload first in order to see their friends’ uploads, which makes lurking impossible and provides another enticing incentive to ‘be real.’ While you can retake a picture, the app does tell your friends how many retakes it took (finding this out was embarrassing, so you’re welcome for the warning). If you miss a BeReal there are no penalties, but in order to see real
you must be real. It will, however, disclose how late you were, and in case you were wondering, yes, you can be 27 hours late. BeReal is now quickly taking over college campuses across the United States, and San Diego State is no exception. Why does it appeal to so many different people? Freshman marketing major Claire MacDonald, talks about her experience with the app and how it has transformed her idea of social media’s potential. “I first downloaded BeReal in midFebruary, after one of my friends texted me the invite. For the first month, I probably had no more than four friends on the app. Slowly, everyone I knew at SDSU started to join and now it feels just as popular as any other platform,” MacDonald said. “It’s fun because I only really have my super close friends on it so there’s no pressure. I get to take a quick peek into my friends’ day to day lives without it being this big deal. As someone who has struggled with the influx of social media pressure, this is such a great way to stay connected with my real friends. It’s freeing.” It’s refreshing to be real. This app accepts people for their “worst case scenario,” and what can be better than that? With nothing to lose and only real connections to gain, BeReal is definitely worth the download, and MacDonald thinks it’s an accurate representation of life, with boring and exciting moments equally on display. “Life is not a highlight reel of someone’s best moments. Life is whatever I’m doing at 5:47 p.m. on Sunday,” MacDonald said. “Sure, sometimes you get lucky and you’re at the beach or with a group of friends. Other times you’re not so lucky, but it is what it is. It’s real.”
Vada Vada rock the Music Box By Gwenyth Hoebing STAFF WRITER
Photo by Gwenyth Hoebing
Wyatt Shears is apart of the iconic duo The Garrden. On April 24 Shears’ performed at the Magic Box in San Diego creating an ecentric environment for the crowd.
On Sunday, April 24, Enjoy performed at Music Box San Diego for the second to last show of his brief New York/Southern California tour, playing an unforgettable set for San Diego locals and Vada Vada enthusiasts. Doors opened at 7 p.m. as fans flooded the front of the pit to secure a good view of the show. A niche group of the experimental music obsessed might find themselves in the ‘Vada Vada’ rabbithole at some point. Vada Vada is closely associated with a collective of artists showcasing unique experimental sound. Most well known in Vada Vada is the iconic twin duo The Garden, consisting of bassist
and vocalist Wyatt Shears and drummer Fletcher Shears who come together to form an eccentric electronic punk sound. They coined the term Vada Vada to represent “total freedom of expression without boundaries or guidelines of any sort,” as they mention on their website. Both members of the duo have side projects of their own. Wyatt Shears makes his own music as Enjoy and Fletcher Shears’ showcases his sound through his project Puzzle. Both are known for their oddly distinctive styles, experimenting with different electronic elements and sound effects. The Garden has previous ties with San Diego State, dating back to 2018 when SDSU’s Aztec Music Group interviewed the duo before the pair picked up traction amongst a broader group. The Mainliners, an up and coming Los Angeles based band, opened the show by playing some hearty punk rock tunes, whirling the crowd to form energetic moshes. Mace, a Vada Vada fan who attended the concert, estimates to have been to around 25 shows in total. “I liked The Mainliners set, they’re definitely one of the best openers the twins have had for a Vada Vada show in awhile,” Mace said. The second opener, Tommy Midnight, slowed it down with a unique and ambient set. His soft vocals leaned towards passionate spoken poetry at times, and occasional guitar and keyboard synths created a still atmosphere, allowing fans a moment to catch their breath between the two high energy performances.
Between sets, the crowd surged to the stage anticipating Shears’ appearance. Those looking for a tamer concert experience gathered on the second and third floor of the Music Box venue, wanting a good view without the hassle of fighting for a good spot in the pit. At around 9:30 p.m, Enjoy finally took the stage, opening with his song “Genetic Tree,” from his most recent album “Sessions with a Nasty Old Tree.” SEE ONLINE
STAFF WRITER
The popular long running mystery book series, “The Hardy Boys,” has a Hulu exclusive television series that just released its second season. The show takes a step further into the fictional elements of the first season to muddy up what makes the show special: its young characters putting clues together to do the right thing when no one else will. As the brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, played by Rohan Cambell and Alexander Elliot, have become a little more adjusted to living with their aunt in a new town, a local boy’s disappearance prompts the boys and their friends to dive into another case. The first season set the show’s expectations to be faithful to the books in tone, while simultaneously diverging from some of the details of the books to make a necessary switch to today’s standards of storytelling. For example, the books detail a stayat-home mother who is only slightly concerned for her children and world-class detective husband as they are constantly getting into trouble. The show solves this concern in a way that makes sense and moves the story forward. In addition, the show makes creative choices that feel related to the audience it was made for. Joe Hardy is made much younger in the show as he is 12 years old rather than the book’s 17-year-old version of the character. Frank is made 16 instead of the book’s 18-year-old version. The time period of the show is also set forward from the books to the ‘90s; a time with no smartphones, flatscreens or social media. An overarching story in the first season centers around a MacGuffin the Hardy boys need to keep out of the wrong hands. Conveniently for the writers, this brings all the trouble you could imagine showing up at their doorstep. The item also introduces mystical elements to the show that albeit gives a reason for why two children and their friends are the most competent people in an entire town, but cheaply creates solutions to the pair’s most pressing questions. Something that the show does extremely well, however, is the characterization of the core characters and dynamic between the detective group. Despite Joe being so young, he’s the type of kid to be wise beyond his years and has trouble interacting with others his age. SEE ONLINE
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