Issue 4 2021 by The Oberlin Grape

Vol. 69 NO. 4

OBERLIN’S ALTERNATIVE STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Priya Banerjee and Levi Dayan Co-Editors-in-Chief

Saffron Forsberg Arts and Culture Editor

Izzy Halloran Managing Editor

Juli Freedman Bad Habits Editor

Wyatt Camery Features Editor

Eva Sturm-Gross Art Director

Liza MacKeen Shapiro Opinions Editor

Anna Harberger Layout Editor

EST. 1999 December 20, 2021

Fionna Farrell, Teagan Hughes, Nico Moreta, Emma James, Raghav Raj, Anna Holshouser-Belden

Staff Writers

Molly Chapin, Julian Crosetto, Olive Polken

Production Assistants

FRONT COVER by Amelia Connelly BACK COVER by Eva Sturm-Gross

Letter from the Editor Priya Banerjee Editor-in-Chief Hello to all our devoted readers! This is our last issue of the semester, and it sure gave us a lot of hell. Right now I am Rapunzel in her tower wanting to be rescued (regular girl stuck in her bedroom with Covid). Despite my woes…the Grape is here! Be careful out there…it got me and it’s coming for you next! Cheers!

Playing it by Ear: a Year-End A-Cappella Roundup Teagan Hughes Staff Writer A great deal of student organizations have made a comeback this fall after lying dormant last year, welcoming new members and resuming their activities in full force. Among those returning groups are Oberlin’s a cappella groups, which have come back in a big way with a roster of both collaborative and individual concerts this semester. This semester saw concerts from the Acapelicans, the Obertones, Round Midnight, Nothing But Treble, and Pitch Please. With end-of-the-semester concerts having already passed for most groups, a reflection on the past few months is in order: how did the fall semester go for Oberlin’s a cappella scene, and what’s on

the table for 2022? Multiple groups expressed excitement about having returned to in-person rehearsals and performances this fall; while there was one large-scale outdoor concert over the summer semester, all five groups have hit the ground running this fall with more intensive rehearsal and performance schedules since October. “It’s certainly been interesting adjusting back to in-person singing after rehearsing over Zoom for an entire school year, but that transition has ultimately been positive and it’s great to be able to hear each other again,” said Nihal Kodavarti of the Obertones. Oberlin’s a cappella scene has welcomed a number of new members this semester; four groups brought new members aboard. “We’ve brought

Art by Amelia Connelly

some amazing new people onto the team and they’ve been fantastic additions to the group! We’re very lucky to have them,” said Kathryn Beeman of the Acapelicans. Other groups that welcomed new members echoed this sentiment. The altered fall semester schedule presented a number of challenges for all groups in terms of scheduling and learning new pieces. Nothing But Treble had the earliest concert this semester, on Saturday, December 11th. “We had to have it pretty early because of other shows going up, people going abroad in January, and other logistical constraints, which meant we had a full month less time than we usually do to prepare for our show,” said Emily Fiorentino of Nothing But Treble. “But we worked really hard, and I’m so proud of everyone for making it so that we had

WOBC Coverband Showcase 2022 in review Wyatt Camery Features Editor WOBC’s Coverband Showcase is one of the most highly anticipated student-run, student-featured events of the semester. I think I speak for a lot of folks when I say that this semester’s showcase was even more exciting than usual, mainly because it marked the first one back in the ‘Sco in two years. The line ran long like it was Halloween Splitchers and I bet plenty of people couldn’t even get in because of the occupancy cap. Fortunately, this Grape staff member got to see the whole show, so sit back for about 600 words (sheesh!) recapping the event which took place on December 4. The band that kicked it all off was Leve Stacy, a classic cover band spoonerism of Steve Lacy, the indieguitarist/songwriter who is known for his work with The Internet, featuring a hodgepodge of college and conservatory students. What a beautiful union it was! They faithfully laid down Lacy’s grooves and sultry vocals on “Some,” “Ryd,” and “Dark Red.” A great way to heat up the crowd. They were followed by a Talking Heads cover band, which was a welcome surprise (although Boned Wett in the Backparts would’ve been epic, especially considering the artistry featured in their name alone). The frontman did a really solid David Byrne impression, and clearly had fun with it. They even featured a student as the lamp from Stop Making Sense. I respect their choice to play “Girlfriend is Better” over a bigger hit such as “Once in a Lifetime” or “Psycho Killer.” They psychokilled the set which also included “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” and “Burning Down the House.” The Pixies cover band, Dr. Doolittle, brought a whole different kind of energy that had many of my peers moshing violently in the center of the ‘Sco. Again, I appreciated how much fun they had with the music and how hard they rocked out. X Æ A-XII, the Grimes cover band, were definitely winners with their name, and although I’m no Grimes expert they were awesome and had great energy. Jiz Hair, the Liz Phair coverband, who went with a cheeky spoonerism, offered a great tribute to one of Oberlin’s most famous alumni. Phair, who graduated in 1990, was a great choice to cover and I really dug their rendition of “Fuck and Run” from her seminal album Exile in Guyville, released in 1993.

Photos by Natan Oster

The Hiatus Kaiyote, Hiatus Coverotes, stacked with Con students, were super groovy and introduced me to a band I’ve been meaning to listen to for a while, another great perk of the Coverband Showcase. The synthesizer work in particular was outstanding. Similarly, and I’m embarrassed to admit this, considering almost everyone at the ‘Sco was singing along, but the Paramore cover band, Paraless, also got me to actually listen to their music. They also brought a rock ‘n’ roll energy that was super fun to experience from my vantage point, just on the edge of any moshing or scrumming that may have occurred on the dance floor during their set. MDMA, the closing band, which is ever the honor, covered MGMT and although many people had left or were leaving the ‘Sco at this point, and I’ll be honest, my energy was pretty low, I thought they were fantastic.

Coverband Showcase continued The choice to play one of MGMT’s more recent hits, “Me and Michael, over something like “Time to Pretend” was, like the Talking Heads, a bold decision, but one that paid off — at least for me, since I knew the song. Plus, they nailed the synth parts, too. This is such a terrific event — it’s so fun and impressive to see your peers turn into their favorite musicians after dark — and I’m glad the tradition made its way back to its home. Next time, hopefully there won’t be any masks. Even with

masks and no drinks, the thrill carried me through. My only gripe with this year’s Coverband Showcase was the clear nepotism involved in the selection process, but what are we to expect at Oberlin? Most importantly, the Coverband Showcase is such a unifying event, not only because of the various genres represented, but because this event brought 3rd and 4th years to the ‘Sco, a venue that I’ve heard is dominated by 1st and 2nd years, particularly at Splitchers.

By Natan Oster

Room Tour With Annabel Sexton-Daldry ‘25 Skye Jaye Contributor

wanted going into college, and I was very excited to have that blank canvas. I went with a seventies-ish, orange-ish theme and big girly-girl vibes. I like going into a room and there’s just everything on the wall - just absolutely not minimalist. I like it better when a room is cozy, and there’s always something to look at.

What is it like living in a single? Is it isolating, liberating, something else? A: Well it was definitely unexpected. I didn’t ask for a single, it just happened that way. Coming to Oberlin I was very excited to have a roommate. I’m a very social person - I love living with people. At home I’m always living with a very big family, and so I just didn’t know what to do with a single. In the end it’s interesting exploring what it’s like to actually have my own space in a way that I hadn’t ever experienced at home. It was a little disappointing not having a roommate, but as time has passed, I’ve grown thankful for it.

S: Your room reminds me of Julie, the American Girl doll’s room. Do you know what I’m talking about? A: Yes! Literally yes! Our rooms know things about us that almost nobody else does. If these walls could talk about you, what would they say? A: I don’t spend that much time here, and I think that’s what the walls would say. “We don’t see her.” For all the effort and love that I put into making this room a home, I spend so much time with people outside of it. Just because I am alone here. But the experience of having friends over, with sleepovers and movie nights is just so sweet and intimate and lovely. That’s what the walls would see and talk about, just like the love that makes up the energy in here.

S: It’s interesting, because you have a single but whenever I come to Keep, your room is definitely a place where people congregate. A: My way of dealing with not having a roommate is just having all of my friends come over all of the time. I love just making a space that a lot of people can share with me. On move in day, we’re all given these extremely blank canvases. What was your process of turning the room into your own? A: I had ideas about what kind of room I

By Ila Astin

What about your room are you the most thankful for? A: My bed. I pushed the two twin beds in my room together, to make this mega bed and it’s sooo nice. It’s great because

A-capella Roundup continued almost a full length set!” Pitch Please also overcame scheduling challenges; “I’m really proud of how we’ve adapted and grown collectively despite folks being on campus at different times and the obstacles that are present when you’re juggling so many schedules at once,” said Sadie Owens of Pitch Please. Burnout also posed difficulties these past few months. “Some of our challenges have included rehearsal attendance and morale, as we’ve all been feeling pretty burnt out this semester,” Riley Davis of Round Midnight noted. New musical directions may be in the works for some members of Oberlin’s a cappella community. The Acapelicans and the Obertones both noted that this semester has brought with it a slew of new arrangements, prompting them to broaden their horizons in terms of style and song selection. “This semester has been good in terms of branching out in our styles of music--typically we end up with a lot of slow songs that are gorgeous, but aren’t super exciting,” said Beeman. “We’ve tried really hard to balance it out a lot more this semester and do a little bit of everything!” Kodavarti echoed this sentiment: “We’re working with almost an entirely brand new slate of arrangements, which is really exciting, especially given that a lot of it is a bit different from what we usually lean towards.” These new arrangements and new styles, of course, exist alongside old staples and arrangements from 2019 or 2020 that fell by the wayside over the past

three semesters. Several a cappella groups were active remotely over the past three semesters, but this remote activity was strictly on an individual basis. This semester has marked a return to the considerable level of collaboration between Oberlin’s a cappella groups in planning and hosting events. The groups collaborated to plan both Study Break, the traditional mid-midterms a cappella concert, and the Parents’ Weekend Concert, another cooperative annual event. No group can be quite certain of what the spring semester holds for them--other than more concerts, of course, and another collaborative Study Break. There are, however, some exciting things on the horizon. “We’re currently in the process of releasing an album featuring 11 tracks that we recorded and got professionally mixed last year!” Kodavarti said of the Obertones. “At this point, the album is mostly being finalized logistically, and we’re hoping to release it within the next month or two. We’re really excited to put our music out there on more streaming platforms and hopefully use it as an opportunity to connect with other acapella groups as well.” The ‘Tones are also planning a return to their annual tradition of going on a Spring Break Tour; the East Coast is in the cards for 2022. There is another annual tradi-

tion making a comeback next semester for all five groups: commencement concerts. “We haven’t done all of the graduation concert rituals since our freshman year (!) and I’m excited to do them again, even if it does mean that I’m graduating!” said Fiorentino. Nothing But Treble is also looking forward to easier scheduling next semester: “It’s just been so hard to get everyone in the same place and on the same page, and I can’t wait to (hopefully!) have a basically normal schedule of events.” Round Midnight did not hold auditions in October, and they’re looking forward to inducting some new members next February, as well as learning some new pieces. “If our budget is approved, we might also be able to do some recordings or go on a musiclearning retreat!” said Davis. Owens communicated Pitch Please’s excitement over building their identity and looking towards the future in 2022. “We are building a great core group of underclassmen who are already proving to be such incredible leaders and musicians,” said Owens, “and we’re looking forward to continue to take on more difficult arrangements and grow as musicians and as friends!” The Acapelicans are looking forward to learning some new arrangements next semester, as well as more regularly-scheduled performances, both

individual and collaborative. Oh, and one more thing: “We’re still on the lookout for a beatboxer!” noted Beeman. Nothing But Treble held their fall semester concert on December 11th. Pitch Please held their fall concert on December 17th, Round Midnight on December 18th, and the Acapelicans on December 19th, all at Fairchild Chapel. The Obertones will hold their fall semester concert on January 15th, 2022, at 7 p.m., also at Fairchild Chapel.

By Jack Lichtenstein

Room Tour continued I didn’t have to loft it, and so it can sit low to the ground for people to sit on when they come over. Also it can fit so many people for sleepovers. Definitely, very very thankful for the bed. Show me something from home, and something from Oberlin. What do these two things say about how Oberlin has changed you? A: This is a photo of me and my friends from back home dancing in a circle. I keep it next to my bed. It’s really lovely to have this in my room, being so far away from them in Ohio. It reminds me of my chosen family. And this is a drawing one of my friends from Oberlin did for me that I hung up on my wall. So at the same time that I’m being reminded of my family of friends back home, I’m also being reminded of the family of friends I’m making here which is so nice. Think fast - someone has come into your room to kidnap you. What would you use as a weapon, and where would you hide? A: Weapon? One of the lamps. Hide? Under the bed, or in one of the closets. Note: Sima wants to add to the tour that she knocks on Annabel’s door at least once a day to see what’s going on. By Sam Mymen

10 Stand-Out Working Visual Artists of 2021 Saffron Forsberg Arts and Culture Editor Before the prevailing self-indulgent year-end listicle, I’ll let you in on something: as a painter myself, who’s been at it since childhood and thus accordingly obsessed with other painters, this is a biased list. How can it not be? But, in curating this collection of alive and active working visual artists, I did strive to compose it exclusively of artists I found “underloved”–smaller, sometimes self-taught, and far from the brightest conceptual depths of the MOMA. This is both because I find it a worthy task, and also because these are the ones I tend to prefer. So, this is not a list of those artists who created, of everything that came out of the visual art world this year, the most cutting-edge nor perhaps most culturally impactful works, but instead, a list of those that stood out to me in their debuts, sketchbooks, and studio experiments…and who I hope will stand out to others in 2022. Keith Jackson Keith Jackson is a self-taught figurative painter who, though active since the early ‘80s, had his debut exhibition just this year, courtesy of his son, fellow artist Alex Jackson. Born in rural South Missouri, and currently based out of Kenosha, WI, Keith Jackson’s work depicts scenes from his childhood in unabashed color and theatrical perspective. His paintings are vivid depictions of ‘70s working-class, Black, rural America: honeyed wood paneling, Transformers on a boxy TV, Big Wheels, overalls, a riled-up German Shepard crouching before stretches of farmland. Jackson’s are paintings that show his own artistic hand with a rich honesty that strays from sanitized notions of contemporary art. His debut has changed what it means to occupy space as a contemporary painter. IG @keithjacksonpainter Lilith Smith I promise you’ve never seen work like Georgia-based artist Lilith Smith’s. Her paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, and masks–I’m out of breath–are musical and kaleidoscopic. In her worlds, atmospheres sway and sing as harps, fiddles, cellos, and dancers’ legs leap across fields of ink and acrylic. Light stretches. Colors bleat. Her compositions center her figures who, though belonging deeply to their own worlds, hold the ruddy, deeply human expressions of your strangest family members. And though I’ve been following Smith’s work for years, she’s not strayed from her status as a hugely prolific artist with an eye all her own. In fact, her artistic approach has only grown more brilliant in 2021. IG @theringinghouse Melissa Joseph Melissa Joseph is an Indian-American, feminist textile

artist originally from rural Pennsylvania. I became first acquainted with her work through her 2020 debut solo show, Née, a collection of stunning, impressionist felted wool pieces based on images from her family archives. I’d never seen anything quite like them: colorful, melting products of memory, experimentation, and artistic intuition. Her figures are intimately human, yet obscured by her impressionist feltwork. And such textile processes have continued into 2021, her portfolio a spread of beautifully rendered pieces–both figurative and abstract–on family, memory, womanhood, and diaspora. She’s certainly an artist to watch for in 2022. IG @melissajoseph_art Mas Guerrero Mas Guerrero is a surrealist digital collage artist based in Los Angeles. In an interview with Blue Wash, they describe childhood memories of KidPix experimentation and an obsession with TV commercials; “30 seconds of a heavily stylized, idealized world of commodity fetishization and sensory bombardment. I feel that all plays into my work as an adult.” These influences are immediately apparent in their postmodern dreamscapes, where pop culture references blip in and out of focus, and scenes sit nearly figureless except for the occasional thrusting limb or looming creature. Guerrero’s compositions are at once mundanely recognizable, and jarringly liminal. 2021’s “Protagonist Syndrome (Porky’s Revenge),” features a digital landscape that is as mundane as a basement hallway or gloomy arcade–childhood sports trophies, shag carpeting, retail surveillance mirrors–yet, at once, as feverishly strange as a bad dream. Figures are faceless, floating ominously in dark corners. Guerrero’s works are the early internet nightmares of the twenty-something

insomniac. IG @midi-wizard Emily Gillbanks Emily Gillbanks is a figurative oil painter based out of Suffolk, UK. Gillbanks, like the ever-lauded Jenna Gribbon, is revising what it means to be a figurative oil portrait painter. Her works are fascinatingly honest in their contemporality, where an atmosphere of constant technological connection and self-consciousness undermine the frank humanity of her portraiture. Her work often features images of herself in skewed, selfie-like poses, while others depict “ordinary” people in lush detail. In her most recent large-scale work, 2021’s “Us Working Things,”--perhaps one of my favorite paintings of the year–a crew of female custodial staff occupy the frame with beautiful and distinctive humanity. It’s a radically working-class, and fascinatingly contemporary depiction of true “modern women”--those who often belong to the service workforce–in a culture where they are usually neglected. Gillbanks’ conscious meditations on honest humanity are truly exciting. IG @emmmalem Yazaki Haruhiko I’ll be immediately up-front; I know very little about the artist Yazaki Haruhiko. Like many lesser-known, non-Western artists, finding information other than that which fills a scant Instagram bio can be difficult. What I do know, however, is that I fell in love with Haruhiko’s art in 2021. I suppose that is one of many things one can (positively) attribute to social media: how else would I have seen the brilliant hand of Yazaki Haruhiko? Their art dips between hazy, yet heartily evocative portraiture, and fantastically detailed, mechanical compositions. What can be found of Haruhiko’s work online is sure to

2021 Artists continued

transfix. IG @donimura Jane Sugar Like that of Haruhiko, the work of painter and illustrator Jane Sugar is little-known and perhaps a bit mysterious. She’s been in the game for quite a few years, but information on her as an artist is confined mainly to an Instagram presence, a small cult Tumblr blog. Still, Sugar’s work is some of the most original of its time. From surrealist figurative ink drawings, to abstracted oils, her scope is wide, whimsical, and experimental. IG @jane_e_sugar Kareem-Anthony Ferreira Kareem-Anthony Ferreira is a Trinidadian-Canadian figurative artist specializing in mixed-media Black portraiture. His collaged paintings are brilliantly colored and rendered, using familial flash photos as his main source materials. They’re intimate explorations of memory and one’s understanding of cultural roots–authentic and false alike. Ferreira writes: “The experiences and narratives that manifest in each work are the result of combining several vernacular photographs into a compositional arrangement.” Indeed, his 2021 collection of acrylic works–currently on display in Brussels–are bold and honest; little children stare into the viewer while their mothers laugh over their shoulders. The works are earnest yet sarcastic, candid yet fantastical. 2022 can only see more of Ferreira’s brilliant artistic hand, and for that I’m excited. IG @kareemanthony.artist Mychaelyn Michalec If you attend Oberlin, you should know about Dayton, OH-based fiber artist and painter Mychaelyn Michalec. An Ohio State alum, Michalec has been active in the art scene for over twenty years, and has shown her work both domestically and internationally. I was first taken by Michalec’s work when I saw her large-scale tufted yarn textile pieces–rugs that are hung like tapestries. Her textile works are mostly contemporary domestic scenes, intimate and stylized, with blunt, lyrical titles like “I don’t think life has any meaning but to be with you,” and “So that ended that and it was a big misunderstanding all around.” Michalec creates work that captures what it’s like to be alive and kicking right now, on a level that is simultaneously startlingly personal (think 2021’s “Texas is the reason”) and cathartically general (consider the sardonic IPhone screenshots and tufted emojis of “God needed a driver, Jesus take the wheel,” also from this year.) Indeed, Michalec is not afraid of humor in fine art…the sort that enlivens the serious. Her’s is a refreshing voice. IG @mymychaelyn Hannah Hatley Young Ohio-born, Baltimore-based artist Hannah Hatley is one of the most original voices in illustration right now. Her social media presence is an open sketchbook; a parade of blobby ink scenes that move like nothing I’ve seen in years. Hatley draws silent narratives, those that need no words, along with expressive paintings frothing with her unique hand. Her approach to detail is fluid yet intensely careful, calling to mind master cross-hatchers like Edward Gorey. If you’re in search of graphic art satiation, Hartley is surely your new obsession. IG @hanohouse

REVIVING THE “EVER-EVOLVING” STUDIO B Anna Holshouser-Belden Staff Writer If there’s one student organization that reaches every nook and cranny of Oberlin’s campus culture, it’s WOBC, Oberlin College and Community Radio, broadcasted from Wilder Hall every day of the week during the college’s semesters. With its over 150 shows and it’s just over 70 years in operation, I would be shocked to stumble upon a student or alum who’s never listened to the beloved station. WOBC is an integral piece of Oberlin’s campus culture, a part of its life force, made evident by its survival during the last year and a half of pandemic living. Whether you’ve had a show in the past, sat in

with friends or subbed, or even are a frequent visitor of Wilder’s third floor hallway, you’re probably aware of the location of the studio from which years of countless radio shows have been produced. With its exceedingly colorful door and bulletin board filled with posters from the ‘Sco and promotions for various campus organizations and events, it’s pretty easy to spot. For the purposes of this article, let’s call what’s behind that door “Studio A.” What’s harder to catch is that there is a second studio right around the corner, a smaller studio accessible by key to only 4 fourth-year students: “Studio B.” “Studio B,” alternatively known as Live From Studio B, is Oberlin’s only in-studio live performance radio broadcast series. It

was formed in 2013 by Charles Glanders (class of 2014), a TIMARA major active in Oberlin’s DIY and punk scenes, who wanted to create a space where the college and community could put on live acts and broadcast them, inspired by programs like KEXP, AudioTree, and NPR’s Tiny Desk. Before the pandemic, Studio B would writer Nell Beck wrote a piece entitled “The EverEvolving Studio B.” This title is indicative of Studio B’s evolution thus far, having come an impressively long way from its original position in Oberlin’s community. After Charles Glanders and some others from Oberlin’s DIY scene transformed the space known today as Studio B from a Wilder room used for one-off recording sessions and a radio drama show

Boys Makeover! Liza Mackeen-Shapiro Opinions Editor

Priya Banerjee Editor-in-Chief

NATAN: Milo, what do you think is Priya’s ideal outfit for you, and what is Liza’s ideal outfit for you?

who would you say is your biggest fashion inspiration, celebrity wise and biggest fashion inspiration on campus.

MILO: I don’t know, they dress wild differently. They both dress really well. They’ve both got super distinct things that they’re doing. I think Priya I might be a bit more aligned with, but I think lowkey if it were just going to class for a day I would want Liza to just go crazy and dress me up like some sort of character, like kooky formal Alice in Wonderland. Priya I would let dress me for a week, but Liza I would let dress me for the day I go to the Met Gala.

NATAN: I think it’s Rowan Gould-Bayba for both answers. He’s a celebrity to me. I want that quoted in the Grape. He was wearing a kind of light blue jacketovershirt yesterday and it was very very Beatles. It looked like he was from the Sgt. Pepper’s album or something. It was crazy. MILO: Natan, when do you think you’ll start dressing more gender neutral in the way that you dress, and what is the piece that you think will start that for you?

FASHIONISTA ASSISTANT: Ok Natan, NATAN: I would say that I try to not feel Welcome back to Makeovers Forever with in-house Grape fashionistas Priya and Liza! This week we really had our work cut out for us. Presented to us on a silver platter were three boy-toys in desperate need of a new look: Milo, Renzo, and Natan, of freshman year fame. Liza and Priya came into this project attempting to reframe the narrative that’s been trailing this trio of troublemakers for years (we know what you’re thinking — don’t worry, no shaving was involved!) Turning boys into men is a bit like turning water into wine; apparently it happened once but we don’t really believe that it’s possible. Either way…we were pretty successful in transforming these three guys. Keep reading to find out how! We had our Fashionista Assistant Audrey talk to the boys individually while we began investigating their wardrobes. Here’s what the boys had to say… FASHIONISTA ASSISTANT: Renzo, how would you describe your current style? RENZO: My style is very uniform, so, you know, I don’t have many clothes. It’s a lot of blacks and blues: jeans, Carhartt pants, sweaters, and black T-shirts. I guess I could probably use a bit of color and pattern in my style to mix it up a little bit, but I’m pretty content with where I’m at. FASHIONISTA ASSISTANT: What is the best possible outcome of this makeover for you Renzo? RENZO: The best outcome is Priya and Liza dress me up in something absolutely beautiful and I think of my style in a whole different way.

Photo provided by Wyatt Camery

NATAN: Milo, if you could design the outfits of everyone attending your funeral, what would those outfits be? MILO: Definitely a wild smorgasbord of outfits. I would want crazy colors, and definitely no all-black. I want my people wearing crazy things that they’re not supposed to be wearing at all. Someone’s gotta show up in these [points to teddy bear slippers]. I want Natan to be in a really tight Givenchy see-through shirt with a Renaissance painting on it. Definitely pierced nipples showing. I want a star of David diamond necklace on him, and definitely the Margiela shoes that he owns but won’t wear for anyone. FASHIONISTAS: Milo, what is the best outcome of this makeover for you? MILO: I’m a little bored right now. Freshman year, sophomore year….everyday was a challenge. I had people to impress. Right now, no ones got nothing on me. I could use a little bit of a little spark. I could use something a little uncomfortable. I used to go to class and I’m looking around seeing what everyone’s reactions are. Now, I walk in and I’m comfortable, I’m cozy, I feel good, but I’m not having hesitations. If you’re not hesitating, are you making good choices?

Photos provided by Priya Banerjee and Liza Mackeen-Shapiro

Eternals...Lifeless or Sentimental Work of MCU? Ana Nguyen Contibutor At the Apollo, I purchased tickets for Eternals with little anticipation, after having seen so many negative reviews online. But after watching it, I do not think it is as bad as what people are complaining about. The movie tells the story of a group of ten immortals created by Celestial Arishem, sent to Earth with a mission to protect the planet from the Deviants. However, when the Earth has reached maximum population size, the Eternals are divided into two groups: they must either aid Celestial Tiamut’s emergence, which is equivalent to a human apocalypse, or try to save humanity from that destruction. Half of the movie is dedicated to exploring the Eternals’ family relationships, the rest explores Eternals’ fights against the Deviants from 5000 B.C until the present date. Eternals is undoubtedly a new and different movie compared to other Marvel movies. Director Chloé Zhao offers a fresh perspective into the MCU.Her previous works, notably The Rider and Nomadland, shed light on people’s connections, showing the humanity of intimacy and vulnerability. Combining an MCU storyline with Chloé Zhao’s artistic style seems like a two-sword blade; it allows the audience to either dive deeper into the characters that are considered “gods,”or show simply too much sentimentality for a hero movie. The prevailing mixed reviews are predictable: while Richard Brody from The New Yorker labels Eter-

nals “Chloé Zhao’s Lifeless Marvel movie,” Shirley Li from The Atlantic shows great respect for the movie, calling it “The Most Poetic Marvel Film Yet.” Introducing ten immortals without confusing the audience is a challenging task for the Marvel team, but I can still sense Chloé Zhao’s special touch throughout the movie:very subtle and contemplative, though at times perhaps unnecessary. A great thing about Eternals is the mem-

ber cast diversity: Gemma Chan—my biggest girl crush from Crazy Rich Asians—as Sersi, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Salma Hayek as Ajak, and Don Lee as Gilgamesh. Marvel’s attempts at inclusivity are shown even further in deaf and LGBTQ+ representations; namely Makkari as one of Eternals superheroes and the relationship between Phastos and his husband. As Marvel films typically have an expansive cast of characters, I feel the movie may warrant

a series in which each character may fully develop. The film’s quick pace did not allow for a full fleshing-out of characterization that, say, a series could. I would say, in these ways, Eternals is a little different from the normal Hero’s Journey Marvel film,, so if you want to watch, come to the cinema with an open mind...even if you just want to see Harry Styles in the postcredit scene :)

Boys Makeover continued like I’m constrained by a masculine identity in terms of the way that I dress, but I do obviously fall into that a fair amount. I don’t know. Because in my head it doesn’t matter at all, the line doesn’t matter. I don’t know! Who Knows! And with that, Priya and Liza commenced the makeover. Starting with Renzo, the Fashionistas biggest priority was breaking him free of his uniform ways: no more navy and no more minimalism. We took him in the complete opposite direction of his usual look, drawing pieces from Milo’s closet to fill in the gaps of his own. Pinstripe train conductor-esque pants paired with a bona fide sailor’s shirt, a red bandana tied around the neck, and Natan’s Tabis to boot.

For Natan, we wanted to push him in the direction of his style icons, but it turned out a bit more Elton John than Sgt. Pepper. Again pulling from Milo’s wardrobe, we dressed Natan in a white, sheer button-up shirt tucked into some epic navy swim trunks. For shoes we had him squeeze into Milo’s cool sneakers. For accessories: big and round sunglasses, a chunky beaded shark tooth necklace, and a bottle of poppers. This guy’s ready to hit the beach! Last but not least, Milo. This guy gave us some trouble. We couldn’t think of a single that this guy hasn’t worn! And so we thought to ourselves, what is more

revolutionary than returning to tradition. Nothing will surprise the masses more than seeing the unexpected. That’s why we chose a plaid shirt button all the way to the tippy top tucked into some classic blue jeans. For shoes? Just some regular old boots. For accessories? A baseball cap worn the right way around and a copy of My Year of Rest and Relaxation. We think that this look will definitely cause some heads to turn next time Milo walks into class! We think this makeover was a huge success! Do you, or someone you know, need a new look? Apply to be featured via the Google form in the Instagram bio of the Grape (@theoberlingrape)!

My Favorite Albums of the Year Levi Dayan Editor-in-Chief In the past few years, and especially the past couple, opening any year-end retrospective with “[insert thing here] kept us going through yet another tumultuous year” has become as universal of a cliche as opening an essay with “since the beginning of time.” It doesn’t make sense that I seemingly read the obligatory “things are, in fact, not all fine” disclaimer attached to every year end list only one time of the year, as it feels like it’s become yet another thing sucked into the all-consuming blob that is the minutiae of post-pandemic life. But in the process of making this list I kept thinking of people who seem to genuinely believe that music “isn’t as good as it used to be”—a line of thinking that one would expect to be exclusive to boomers but is shockingly prevalent amongst younger, more connected people—must lead the most miserable lives imaginable. There’s certainly a degree to which even broad generalizations about “the state of music” are fair, as I definitely believe that Spotify has granted some of the most boring, middle of the road musicians an unwarranted degree of attention. But amazing music still comes out every day, because of course it fucking does. You may have to know where to find it—the algorithm certainly isn’t it—but it’s there, because as long as people continue to improvise and adapt with the constantly shifting specter of change, brilliant, creative art will come out of it. Keith Rowe - Absence Vijay Iyer / Linda May Han Oh / Tyshawn Sorey - Uneasy Kuzu - The Glass Delusion Lea Bertucci - A Visible Length of Light Floating Points / The London Symphony Orchestra / Pharoah Sanders - Promises Eiko Ishibashi - For McCoy James Brandon Lewis Red Lily Quartet - Jesup Wagon Roscoe Mitchell / Mike Reed - The Ritual and the Dance Fred Frith / Ikue Mori - A Mountain Doesn’t Know It’s Tall Ustad Saami - east Pakistan sky Bill Orcutt / Chris Corsano - Made Out of Sound Natural Information Society - descension (out of our constrictions) Lisa Cameron / Sandy Ewen - See Creatures Too Judith Hamann - Hinterhof Will Guthrie / James Rushford - Real Real World L’Rain - Fatigue Fire! - Defeat Jim O’Rourke / Eiko Ishibashi - Live in Hokutoshi Toshimaru Nakamura - Culvert (No-Input Mixing Board 10) Anne Guthrie - Gyropedie Rodrigo Amado This is Our Language Quartet - Let the Free Be Men Ahmed - nights on saturn (communication) Beatriz Ferreyra / Natasha Barrett - Souvenirs Cachés / Innermost Julius Eastman - Femenine (performed by Wind Up) Cristián Alvear / Cyril Bondi - Sigh (carried away) [comp. d’incise] / grado de potencia #2 [comp. Santiago Astaburuaga] George Lewis - The Recombinant Trilogy (performed by Claire Chase, Seth Parker Woods & Dana Jessen) Artifacts - ….and then there’s this Aaron Dilloway / Lucrecia Dalt - Lucy & Aaron Makaya McCraven - Deciphering the Message Toshimaru Nakamura / Tetuzi Akiyama - Idiomatic Expressionism William Parker - Mayan Space Station Ken Ikeda / Rie Nakajima - Signal and Signaless Strictly Missionary - Heisse Scheisse Wadada Leo Smith, Douglas Ewart & Mike Reed - Sun Beans of Shimmering Light Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble - Now Susan Alcorn / Leila Bourdreuil / Ingrid Laubrock - Bird Meets Wire Ben Lamar Gay - Open Arms to Open Us Senyawa - Alkisah

Studio B continued into a professional recording and video studio, most of the content produced for the next two to three years was solely punk and DIY bands made up of entirely cisgendered white men producing the same genre and quality of sound. Not that this was necessarily a bad sound, but it didn’t really allow Studio B to stand out from the crowd. In around 2015, there was a pivot in leadership, brought about by the leadership of Becca Winer and the admittance of non-men to Studio B’s staff. Taking a look at Studio B’s youtube channel or website, which double as video archives for the organization and its progress, there is a distinctive shift in sound and style around this point, with less of a punk aesthetic using warmer lighting and a diversity in both sound and performers. In the ExCo, students are shown a comparison of “before” and “after,” to emphasize Studio B’s focus on amplifying a variety of sounds and performers. Though Glanders and those who set the scene for Studio B with an emphasis on DIY and punk are credited with pushing for the program to exist and creating a foundation for a creative musical production space at Oberlin, a step towards accessibility and variety was needed. Today, Studio B produces artists of every genre from soft pop to neo-soul to jazz, spoken word, TIMARA, folk, stand-up com-

Aaron Dilloway and Stephan Haluska Bring Deep Listening and Free Form Freakout to the Birenbaum (cont. in Opinions) Levi Dayan Editor-in-Chief This past Saturday saw Aaron Dilloway and Stephan Haluska join for a performance at the Birenbaum, Dilloway’s first true live performance since the pandemic. Dilloway, who has previously been the subject of a profile for The Grape, is an improviser and composer whose music is made from manipulated tapes. Originating from Michigan, Dilloway was a member of the legendary noise group Wolf Eyes, and started the independent cassette-centered record label Hanson, which has released music from Noise stalwarts such as Kevin Drumm, Hair Police and Smegma. An Oberlin resident since 2007, Dilloway runs Hanson Records and has become a central figure in Oberlin’s experimental music scene; this semester he began teaching in the conservatory’s TIMARA department.

Stephan Haluska is a Cleveland-based harpist and visiting professor in the conservatory. As a student in the legendary, now-defunct Mills College, he studied with l creative musicians Zeena Parkins, Roscoe Mitchell, and Fred Frith. The show began with Haluska performing a piece entitled “Music for Prepared Harp and Audio Transducers.” The sounds created on these instruments came from the continuous application of various objects to the strings of a modified harp, paired with the ensuing feedback from Haluska’s electronics.The strings of Haluska’s harp, however, were never plucked in the sense that a more traditional harp would. Haluska’s instrument, of course, calls to mind the prepared piano made famous by John Cage, but whereas the sounds of the piano could seemingly be greatly altered and expanded by simply placing objects on top of the strings, the modified harp seems to demand a

complete level of precision and delicacy in the application of these objects . In spite of the potential for volatility in this setup, Haluska’s objects–which included bells, chimes, and aluminum foil–never once disrupted the resonance and flow of sound coming from the harp. The resulting piece was deeply hypnotic, encouraging and rewarding deep and immersive listening from the audience. The second set of the show was an improvisation from Dilloway on tapes and percussion. Dilloway’s music is often characterized by a slow, creeping stew of sounds that eventually loop into a sort of distorted monster of its initial form. The performance began with Dilloway generating a creaking sound from his Photo provided by Wyatt Camery rocking chair, manipulating it in a way that made it feel as though ooze was flowing through the walls. At a certain point, Dilloway began banging a drum, and the sound hit in a way that, for me, called to

mind the dub drumscapes of King Tubby and the like. This soon gave way to an eruption of rumbling noise and screeching walls of sound that shook the room, before Dilloway yanked his tape out of the player and snapped the entire audience back into consciousness. Oddly enough, Dilloway’s tape loops call to mind Albert Ayler’s themes, which though relatively simple,blared out at such a resonant capacity that they etched themselves into the listener. In contrast to the harsh, dissonant, but also simultaneously lush and spiritual collective improvisations of Ayler’s music, Dilloway’s music is ugly and unsettling.Yet the way in which it revels in the glory of its sheer ugliness is weirdly inspiring. Watching Dilloway’s improvisation build in the way it did was a truly beautiful thing. The performance concluded with Dilloway and Haluska joining together for a duo improvisation. In contrast to

Studio B continued edy and even classical. The organization has clearly covered a substantial amount of ground in terms of musical diversity, though the 2018 article covering Studio B brings up a lack of racial diversity within the staff. With almost three years between then and now, it appears that some progress has been made on this front, though the staff is considerably smaller post-pandemic and made up entirely of graduating seniors. The staff clearly values diversity, which is evident in their emphasis on giving non-cis-men a platform for exploring the field of music and video production, a field they are drastically underrepresented in. Since 2018, the first year with no men on the staff, non-men have made up the majority of the staff. In its time, Studio B has brought some pretty well-known names to Oberlin and to WOBC, such as Girlpool, Frankie Cosmos, Yaeji, Whitney, and Current Joys. Though bringing in bigger names adds to the appeal and the publicity of the studio and makes it easier to draw in touring artists, especially during the pandemic, when reviving Studio B to where it was pre-pandemic and getting artists to perform without pay after a year and a half out of a job makes this considerably difficult, Studio B’s primary function is to amplify smaller bands by providing them with a professionally created product that can help lead to further success. With a physical record of a performance, artists can get discovered, book tours, record albums, and gain visibility much more easily. Studio B was originally created to actualize a collective musical and artistic experience for people in the college and the community, for people starting out in performing or music production to further expand their skills through hands-on experience. The organization works through a multi-media approach to create a visual and musical experience that diversifies radio programming, and is an extremely unique space which is hard for many to access outside of the liberal-arts college bubble. Studio B has led to positive careers for many who have participated in its programming on the production side, in addition to helping to launch publicity for bands and artists. Charles Glanders, credited in Nell Beck’s 2018 article as the founder of Studio B, has gone on since his graduation to be a sound engineer for touring bands and several films, a front of house engineer in venues in Chicago, and a member of the band Whitney. Becca Winer, executive producer from 2015 to 2018 and the subject of the 2018 interview has worked in video production for AudioTree, and now works as a writers’ assistant at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, according to her website, which still heavily features Studio B as an important accomplishment two and a half years after her graduation. Unfortunately, with the sudden transition into pandemic life, Studio B had to pause programming due to a lack of touring bands and access to the studio itself. WOBC began doing remote radio shows during the 2020-2021 school year, and though Studio B has had remote sessions in the past, this didn’t really catch on with all the restrictions set up and was hard with the live component of the show. Aside from a recording of the Coverband Showcase that has yet to be published online, there is not much content Studio B was able to produce until the post-vaccination era that began in the summer semester. To accommodate artists’ needs and bring in more opportunities for producing content, Studio B has moved from holding sessions solely on Sundays at 2:00 pm when the live broadcast happens to whenever artists can make it, even mid-schoolweek. There is still a radio show broadcast from Studio B every Sunday at the usual time, though sessions happen more sporadically. Studio B also wants to push the college for funding to pay artists, which feels like a necessary budgeting change after artists having to live without pay for so long due to the pandemic. Just as unfortunately, the pandemic has cut off the chain of information passed down through the generations of Oberlin students on Studio B’s function. With three semesters passing without any new members added to the staff, the path that Studio B will take after this year’s staff graduate is a mystery. Reviving the program seems to lie in the hands of whoever inherits it, and upholding an image and values that are “ever-evolving” is no simple task. Being more well-known and appreciated as a fairly new organization within the student body is an important aspect of Studio B’s survival, and is what will keep it going as a community performance and production space. The vital importance of the arts is more evident than ever now, and upholding a legacy of one of our more unique spaces here at Oberlin will allow us to thrive. A new generation of performers in our community should have the ability to showcase their creativity and gain the opportunity to make art.

End-of-Semester Review Emma Kang Staff Writer For me, this semester has gone by both devastatingly slow and blissfully quickly. Either way, I feel like I don’t remember a lot that happened. Do you feel the same? For starters, this semester started out in the beginning of October, which made things disorienting from the beginning. It felt like a whirlwind of reuniting with people and barely meeting new people before it was already Halloween. While my friends at other schools were in the midst of midterms, we had barely begun to tackle real material in my classes. Then, there was that graduation in the middle of October! That was kind of fun but also a little bit sad. What else…I think there were some pretty good concerts this fall, and I wouldn’t say that about every semester. (Shout out to everyone who was booking for the Sco and the Cat :) There was CoCo ClairClair, Squirrel Flower, Slow Pulp, Barrie, Kari Faux, and RXK Nephew, just to name a few. Not bad! To be honest, I feel like I’ve been so sucked into my own routine that I haven’t noticed a lot that’s been going on on campus. It’s rare when a school sanctioned event pulls a good turn out. I think Oberlin has a consistent history of students not really showing up to things. I’m not positive why this is, but there’s a lot of social moving parts. Sad as it is, it can be hard to break your routine of class, co-op, Feve, and friend’s room to get up and go to something new. There are a lot of cool, fun, and interesting events on campus and I think about how I’m not going to enough of them. I’ve found that events can be disappointing because of low turnout of students. It makes for terrible morale. Maybe it’s too much to ask in the midst of (or “post”) covid, but I wish there was more excitement and attendance around campus events. It might make my last semesters here more memorable.

Rage Against the Digital Jukebox Levi Dayan Editor-in-Chief

cians who often depend on record sales to make a livelihood. Finally, as if to add insult to injury, musicians As was the case with pretty had to witness the corporation that much everyone and everything, 2021 made billions off of their stolen wages did not go too smoothly for musicians. take over their social media feeds at While vaccines have created more opthe beginning of December as part of portunities for live shows, things are the annual phenomenon known as still too uncertain for touring to fully “Spotify Wrapped.” resume as it once did. Many musiAs Spotify Wrapped once cians have still been doing live shows, again assumed a stranglehold over out of will or more often than not out Instagram stories and memes, a twitof necessity, but that has left musiter thread from Jewel Ham, a former cians vulnerable to COVID, on top Spotify intern, resurfaced. The thread of the usual pressures of touring. To detailed how Ham developed the idea make matters worse, supply chain disfor the now-ubiquitous iteration of ruption has brought the vinyl industry Spotify Wrapped (which has been to a halt. The vinyl manufacturing around since 2016, but not in the stylthat has been able to move forward ized Instagram story-tailored version has been almost entirely taken up by that it is now synonymous with) as an mega pop stars and novelty picture intern in 2019, showing screenshots discs, leaving no room for the musiof her designs and ideas to make the Art by Eva Sturm-Gross

year-end data more scrollable and adaptable to social media. Spotify representatives have denied taking this idea from Ham, but knowing what we know about how much Spotify pays its artists, this would fit in with Spotify’s business model as well as having Phoebe Bridgers as top artist fits with a self identified depressed bisexual. At this point, everyone knows that Spotify doesn’t pay jack shit to the artists whose labor they depend on to make a profit. Countless musicians, from struggling independent artists to established names such as Prince and Taylor Swift, have pointed out this fact — as have I, on several occasions and in multiple articles for this very paper. But as evil as it is that a corporation such as Spotify can make billions almost entirely off of the exploited labor of musicians, this

Rage Against the Jukebox continued has been crystal clear from the beginning, and none of it has affected Spotify’s bottom line. What less people are aware of are the intricacies of how Spotify makes its money and how it exploits working musicians — which it astonishingly does in even more creative ways than simply not paying artists — and the potential for Spotify to turn into another Facebook; both of these dynamics directly tie into the Wrapped campaign. For this article, I spoke with Joel Jerome, a musician, engineer, and organizer with the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (or UMAW). UMAW originated early in the pandemic with the intent of expanding unemployment benefits for musicians and music workers, and has since grown exponentially. The union, which has nearly twenty thousand followers on Instagram, has coordinated an Instruments Into Prisons drive along with Die Jim Crow Records, provides resources for reading and understanding contracts on their website, and, as venues begin to open up, now has a list of demands for COVID-19 safety from venues. The most visible campaign they’ve led, however, is a campaign against Spotify that starts with that most basic fact: Spotify doesn’t pay their artists. The

campaign is meant to push Spotify to pay artists a penny per stream, which seems like an absolutely miniscule amount but is actually three times what Spotify currently pays. “It’s meant to start the conversation [around streaming inequality] because there’s too much money going around that’s not going to the creators,” Jerome told me. “There’s billions being made with what consumers are paying now - and the billions are not going to the people making the music, who are the backbone of the industry.” The penny per stream campaign has gotten the most attention of anything the group has done by a wide margin. Earlier this year, UMAW led a day of action, consisting of protests at 31 Spotify offices around the world, that received solidarity from Noname. More recently, representatives of UMAW sat down for a discussion with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who has been criticizing Spotify even as Spotify Wrapped takes over social media. But the fact that Spotify’s payments per stream round to zero is just the tip of the iceberg. Not only does Spotify not pay artists, but as I alluded to earlier, they’ve found creative ways to make life even more difficult for working musicians, which often takes forms that seem com-

pletely insignificant but, in reality, make a huge difference for musicians. This is perhaps best understood by comparing Spotify to other streaming platforms. Bandcamp has a single button on artists page that allows listeners to subscribe to the artist’s email list and be told directly about upcoming releases and events. This is an extremely simple tool that makes a tremendous difference for artists, but Spotify has no such feature because subscribing to a mailing list - and encouraging basically any relationship with artists outside of passively scrolling through their discography on Spotify - would entail spending time off the app. However, it isn’t just platforms like Bandcamp, which makes a point of going above and beyond to center the concerns of music workers themselves, that show that Spotify doesn’t have to be the way it is, and makes an active choice to fuck over musicians as much as possible every step of the way. Believe it or not, Tidal — the streaming service acquired by Jay Z in 2015 that was briefly a national punchline before quickly becoming memory-holed —- still exists, and while the platform is by no means perfect (it’s still more expensive than other streaming platforms and pays musicians $0.01 per

stream) it provides a much better model than Spotify in very subtle ways. For one, Tidal, like Bandcamp, hires music journalists, who are often among the first to be fired when corporate entities buy up struggling local papers. But something that even I didn’t know about until recently is that, if you were to stream a song on Spotify, that precious $0.004 wouldn’t even go to the artists themselves. Rather than utilizing a fan-centered royalty system, as Tidal does, in which the profit made from one individual’s subscrip-

2022 Grammys: An End to Secrecy, the Start to Novelty? Fionna Farrell Staff Writer Like most popular awards shows, the Grammys have endured their fair share of corruption allegations over the years, an accumulation which seemed to come to a head last year following a now-notorious Weeknd snub. Although his critically acclaimed album After Hours held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart for more than three weeks, along with his hit single “Blinding Lights,” the Canadian singer received approximately zero nominations. Months after the snub, the Weeknd, along with a slew of other celebrities, took to Twitter to express their utter dismay at the nominations process. Halsey called it “elusive,” and Zayn Malik demanded a prompt end to secret nomination committees. Such committees would consist of 15-30 industry experts whose names would remain undisclosed

to the public. Under the reign of these committees, rigging appeared inevitable; transparency, nonexistent. Now, a year later, the Grammys have fortunately instituted an end to these secret committees. However, this change has not been a necessarily swift or victimless one. Former chief executive of the Recording Academy, Deborah Doogan, was one of the first to raise claims that committee members often pushed for artists whom they shared personal relationships with. She was almost immediately fired after raising these allegations. If change is happening, it’s not like the industry is embracing it with open arms — God forbid, insinuating it. For the public, the curious question remains: how will these changes affect the Grammys itself, and thus, the trajectory of popular music at large? A cynic might say that maybe the first thing has nothing to do with the second; that the Grammys don’t represent the musi-

cal will of the people at all, and never have. Indeed, it’s certainly hard to argue that they haven’t in the past, at their peak of elusiveness. But what about this year, when the nominating process has changed? Is anything different? Do our nominees baffle us, surprise us, rejuvenate us in some profound way? Perhaps we can start with the fact that, this year, there don’t appear to be any bewildering Weeknd-level snubs, at least at the nominations stage. But this is not to say that some nominations don’t appear to come a bit out of left field. Maybe for similar reasons to those that caused last year’s uproar. Then, we bemoaned the all-around neglect of a bestselling, universally appraised album. Now, technically gifted but commercially overlooked artists seem to be having their time in the limelight. Late Showbandleader Jon Batiste has received eleven nominations. His album “We Are” only peaked at No. 86 on the Billboard

By Piper Morrison

2021 Grammy’s continued 200, dropping off the next week. This is by no means to say that Batiste is undeserving of his appraisal. He is an extremely versatile, talented player who is widely respected across jazz circles. Sadly, though, that might just be the point — the reason for why his nominated record “Freedom” has a meager 5 million spins on Spotify (Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License”, by comparison, just surpassed one billion). The Grammys have created — or, at the very least, contributed to -– a world in which both Jon Batiste and the Weeknd are overshadowed. Despite their differences, both musically and commercially, they are united by their immense sums of talent (whether the public recognizes it or not). And yet, one is ostracized from the ceremony from a total lack of recognition; the other, from a surplus of it — for, to the degree that nominations are still meaningful, the Grammys is not a show that revolves around artists like Batiste. If it did, that might be good for music, terrible for ratings. Some of the other nominations this year include ABBA, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, Doja Cat, Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, and, naturally, Taylor Swift. Such nominations, for a couple of these artists, represents their long game finally having paid off. Justin Bieber, who is frequently overlooked by the Recording Academy, received eight nominations this year. And it only took fifty or so years for the international sensation ABBA to receive a single nomination. Tony Bennett, on the other hand, has accrued 19 Grammys over the years. But it’s good to see that he’s still alive and kicking, especially, if alarmingly, when it’s beside Lady Gaga. Besides these longtimers, it’s inevitable that young people took the forefront this year. Particularly, Lil Nas X with five nominations, and Olivia Rodrigo with seven. In the case of the latter, we might play the world’s smallest violin for Taylor Swift, who was removed from Rodrigo’s Album of the Year nomination due to a crediting error (along with St. Vincent and Jack Antonoff). This means that Swift only received one nomination this year, for her ninth studio effort Evermore. Nomination-wise, it seems that Kanye has upstaged her, although the two will, once again, be going head to head in the Album of the Year category — one which Donda found itself dropped into at the last minute. When we look at this list of nominations, It’s difficult to say whether the Grammys have changed in any meaningful or valuable way this time around. Perhaps the elusive secret committees have gone away, but this does not mean that the Grammys stage antics are anywhere near expiring — and this list of artists seems to prove that. Even the “surprises” make the word feel like a bit of a stretch. We see old patterns still coming to light; young personae occupying center stage, the dying flame of old rivalries being sparked once again, and a categorical imbalance between those who deserve attention and don’t get it, and those who get attention and don’t entirely deserve it. So long as the Grammys exist, will they ever really be fair? And Is that something we want to see? Over 11,000 voters determined this year’s nominees. With such a large number, corruption is no longer confined to the interpersonal; it becomes a lot harder to pinpoint, a lot harder to label as corruption. The elusive is no longer necessarily what’s kept secret; it might just be what’s in front of us all.

Dilloway, Haluska continued his sparse, meditative opening piece, Haluska’s harp playing in this improvised setting was much freer. Haluska used every tool at his disposal to generate sounds from his harp, including strumming the strings with bowls and, at points,even rubbing the soundboard. Having never fully delved into experimental music prior to the pandemic, this was my first time seeing Dilloway perform in a live setting, as all of my previous exposure to his music came from recordings such as 2017’s Modern Jester. At the risk of beating the free jazz comparisons to death, this duo improvisation made me think of Cecil Taylor’s group recordings. This is not in the sense that they sound similar, but more in the excitement

By Piper Morrison

that they generate in their cacophonous combination of sounds. It’s always been wild for me to listen to players such as Jimmy Lyons and Andrew Cyrille play with a freewheeling powerhouse such as Taylor and not get overrun by his relentless barrage of piano percussion–let alone have perfect interplay with him. There was a similar thrill in seeing Haluska’s interplay with the revved-up garbage disposal clatter of Dilloway’s tape manipulations. Overall, this was one of the best performances I’ve seen in my nearly four years at Oberlin, and I hope it’s just the first of many more similar performances to come this year, as the college has been dreadfully lacking in experimental live music these past few semesters.

YOUR BLACKBOARD WRAPPED i s h e re . . .

Your aura this Your most common feedback: year was This year, you received piss yellow illegible class-wide emails from professors. Some highlights include and red, like the spaghetti Wh o a , nelly! sauce you 103 spilled Your top vibes for this year were literally ALL “Fallen and could not get up” depressed and spil ed spaghetti over your “I’m from New York” “Wasn’t the Tuesday vibes” sauce on your keyboard “Got the bends” keyboard Yo u

submitted

413

“Not the assignment” “See me” “Why did you do it like this” *just a link to the WikiHow page for “How to Do Long Division”* “Fine”

assignments

this

year!

“disregard the asgmet”

“Please speak to the WGSS HOOT in order to FFRC in the AMMA before PPSD, due M. Very important!”

“meat –sent from iPhone”

Yo u r v a r i o u s g r u n t s o f discontent, frustration, and sadness fit into genres this year!

“q,” “re: q” and “re: re: q”

“can someone please petsit my parakeet Andre this weekend i am going to MICHIGAN”

Michael Toris: Same Interview, the Fourth Year Fionna Farell Staff Writer At the ripe age of fifteen, “they” all knew that Billie Eilish was going to be a huge star. We have that vision, too, but for this 28 year-old piece of shit called Michael Toris. I met Michael at a dog therapy institute a few years ago (his pomeranians were going through a bout of depression and my pug was having prolific humping issues). Michael seemed really interesting, so I naturally asked him if he’d like to be interviewed for four years in a row, like Finneas’s sister. “Candace?” he asked me, and I said yes, because sometimes you have to lie to get what you want. Boy do I regret it.

2021: Pretty pathetic. Not on that grindset, you know. But you know, no rain, no flowers. No rain, no grossly overpriced, bedazzled dog sweaters that say “filthy animal”, right? What do you wish you could’ve accomplished this year? 2018: I could’ve showered more. 2019: I could’ve had my mom follow me on instagram for the whole year. 2020: I could’ve gotten a lot more pandemic bitches. And gotten a new pomeranian, one not liable to be all depressed and shit. Also not giving my late grandma COVID. 2021: I really wish I could’ve collaborated with some

White House dogs, like made them subversive sweaters or something to remind politicians what they owe to the people. Like Cara Delivigne’s “Peg the Patriarchy” suit but for dogs. Pug the patriarchy? Too ribald? Follow @michaeltorishurts on Instagram to see if he’s up for year five. Also-–big news-–his hair is brown now (his naturally blond hair reminded him too much of the “toxic energy” of his dead poms). Who knows what this man will do next! (Really. Someone please take over for me. You can have my pug. His name is Pickles, and he’s gotten over his condition.)

Q: What is your name? 2018: Michael Toris. How much are you paying me? 2019: Michael Toris. 2020: Mike Lee Toris. 2021: This is getting out of hand. I am Michael Toris, and I’m doing this shit til I’m 90. Q: What is the date? 2018: October third, 2018. 2019: October third, 2019. 2020: It’s October third, 2020. 2021: It’s the third day of the tenth month of the twenty-twenty-oneth year after something happened to Jesus. (Note: Interviews were conducted on May 8th of each year, Michael just really likes Clueless) Q: How many Instagram followers do you have? 2018: Approximately 98 or so, but that’s only because my account is on private. I keep the circle tight. 2019: 93. This might be kind of weird to ask, but I’m not ugly, right? 2020: 98. Feeling great. 2021: Idk (Michael says the physical letters “i””d””k”), 20k or so? I do customized dog sweaters now. We’re called BH Snuggles, after my late pomeranians, Butch and Hunter. Q: Who is the most famous person who follows you? 2018: My mom. 2019: My stepsister. Mom unfollowed me. 2020: My mom. 2021: Nicholaus Braun from Succession. I made a sweater for his “dog.” Just saying, it was a big sweater… Describe yourself in 2020: 2018: Um, two years older? 2019: One year older. 2020: Butch and Hunter passed last week. They haunt me in my sleep, nipping at my little piggies, ghostshitting and pissing everywhere. Sorry, what was the question?

This is The Oberlin Grape’s fourth installment of Ask Dr. Gags, an advice column from our resident sexologist Dr. Gagatha McCreampie. If you have a question about sex, intimacy, dating, or pubic lice, feel free ot reach out to Dr. Gags through emailing thegrape@oberlin.edu

Dear Doctor Gags, I just started seeing this hot lesbian who really wants me to commit but the problem is I’m about to go home and I kind of want to kiss my high school boyfriend Mitch who was the quarterback on the football team. Should I Uhaul it with this lesbo or go back to football dick? Love, Happy U-Haulidays

Dear Happy U-Haulidays, I have some pretty shocking news. I too was a lesbian. Oh and don’t get me wrong I loved the lifestyle. Her name was Queen, as in Queen Latifah. She bought me gifts, cooked me wonderful dinners, and read me poetry in the park. And the sex was Kisses, Dr. Gags

Actual Best Albums of 2021 Juli Freedman Bad Habits Editor A few pages ago you may have read “blah blah blah I’m Levi and I listen to moon jazz and normcore blah blah blah.” Well, I’m Juli and I listen to things people actually like. Music that makes hot people lose their goddamn mind. Panties to the floor type shit. So here a list of the actual best albums of the year:

1. Boys Chewing Their Stupid Little Food 2. Songs About Night Terrors Vol. 4 3. A Star is Born Soundtrack 4. Root Canal ASMR 5. What Was That Thump? Did I Hit Somebody? I’m Going To Just Keep Driving 6. Dawn of Chromatica 7. Click Clacking Away On Creative Piece That You Will Never Finish 8. Ugly Weeping Baby on Airplane 9. All The Things She Said All The Things She Said Runnin Thru My Head Runnin Thru My Head 10. Biting Nails Through A Mask 11. Ambient House Show

Noises While You Are Trying To Avoid 20 Different People 12. Fingering Dry Meat While Bored And Not Even Horny 13. Teacher Does Standup As A Hobby But It’s Really Their Passion 14. A Star is Born Soundtrack Again 15. Gnawing on Some Glass 16. Mom Calling To Talk About Death In The Family Then Hangs Up 17. to hell with it - PinkPantheress 18. I’m Thinking About Being Celibate (Arca Remix) 19. Every Single Weezer Album. All of Them. 20. Fart That Could Pass For A Queef 21. Guy Who Makes Wife Kiss Dice For Good Luck 22. Asking Mom To Leave During Doctor Appointment But Then Missing Her Embarrassing New Shoes Squeak 23. Christian Rock Songs From That Uber Ride That We’re Actually Kinda Good Okay Now That Was Definitely A Fart 19

8 Bone-Dry Tips for Managing your Eczema in Winter Teagan Hughes Staff Writer It’s winter, and we all know what that means! That’s right: your hands are about to get all scaly like a dehydrated gecko. My fellow eczema enjoyers will know how hard this season can be for us: biting back the pain that comes with washing your hands, trying and failing to keep yourself protected from this crisp winter weather, clinging to your last bit of hope that maybe this brand of lotion will be the one that actually works. To mitigate the winter’s damage, here’s some tips:

1. Cut your fucking hands off. No hands, no eczema! This quick, painless solution is easy and effective. 2. Dunk them in scalding hot water every day. Eczema makes your skin dry, right? So the easiest way to fix eczema is to make your skin wet instead! Hot water will seep into the skin better and fix your eczema from the inside out. This quick fix will have no adverse effects whatsoever. You can trust me. 3. Get slimy. Slather that Eucerin on your hands every ten minutes to the point where you leave a little trail of slug slime on all of your friends whenever you touch them. They’ll love it. 4. Ask nicely. Eczema’s not heartless, you know. 5. Shed your skin like a cicada. You can also yell all the time like a cicada if you want, but that won’t help as much. I wouldn’t recommend the burying-yourself-inthe-dirt part, but that’s just me. 6. Wear fingerless gloves. Gloves are a great way to protect your dry skin from this punishing weather. The fingerless part is just so that you look cool. You’re gonna look so cool, trust me. No, trust me. I promise you can trust me. 7. Just itch it. It’s like they say: temporary relief is just as good as, if not better than, long-term management. 8. Get really into the Footloose (1984) soundtrack. This one won’t help with your eczema at all, but the Footloose soundtrack is so good that it’ll make you forget all about it. There you have it! Eight quick, easy, and painless ways to mitigate the effects of this nippy weather on your dry skin. For very innocuous reasons, I will now state that I cannot be held legally responsible for the outcomes of any of these eczema management methods. Happy eczema-ing!

Things Demi Lovato did this year that I am obsessed with and will think about for the next 50 years. Juli Freedman Bad Habits Editor

1. Got really into aliens extraterrestrials a. Said they would date one 2. Created their own vibrator 3. Tried to cancel a frozen yogurt shop 4. They/Them’d then got a mullet 5. “I’m too gay to marry a man right now” 6. Stopped smoking weed 7. Youtube Docuseries 8. “I dont care if you got a wAP’

How to Suffer Publicly Juli Freedman Bad Habits Editor Now you may look at me and think “wow this girl looks like she doesn’t suffer” or “I bet she suffers sooo privately.” But no you got the wrong girl and you better not judge her by her cover like you would a book you know they say. I suffer. I suffer a lot. I stub a toe. And I. The secret to suffering is to do it so publicly that people will start to think you are being funny and they will pay attention to you. Because as they have been known to say, suffering is a team sport. So in order to win the most points, you may have to go some great lengths. Sit in a kiddie pool of your own tears. And the real kicker with this is the smaller the kiddie pool is the more it makes you look like an adult. A miserable pathetic adult in a little kiddie pool, with some floaties. Go to a climate change demonstration. The trick is that you think about what worthless worry is causing you pain but then you say “Oh damn it’s just so fucked up the sun is gonna kill all those polar bears.” Some would say it’s too perfect. Get a tattoo. On the topic of how to cover up tears of suffering with tears of pain, get a permanent piece of “artwork” on your

really weird body! You can cry cry cry while the needle hits your flesh and then when it’s all over you can have the tattoo be a reminder of this particular era of suffering before you move onto a new era. Ask to be bullied. Do bad things. Be a total douche. Be just blatantly unethical. And when someone asks you to stop, which yes is called bullying, you can have a total public suffering moment. They will think you are suffering from shame, but you know that while this new attitude can change, there are deep evils within you that will never go away. Tell literally everyone. Your besties, your cousins, your mailman, your ex-boyfriend’s mom that you are really attached to in a not weird way, your poetry class, your person that is causing you suffering, your little village pickpocketer that’s just so cute, your famous monuments across the 50 states, literally anyone. (Anyone but a professional— Ew!) But just know that they all think you’re a burden and super fucking annoying and they will talk shit about you behind your back. And then go home and sit still on the bed like the toys from toy story and have no thoughts because that’s what I do in private. Art by Eva Sturm-Gross

comic corner

Art by Chloe Lesser

ACROSS 1. Goes around and around and around your waist 8. Bin Laden 9. They perform a room inspection once per semester 10. Paparazzi channel 11. Sang Harvest Moon 13. You open one of these every Wednesday night at the Feve 14. When you’re about to admit some truths in the chat 15. John Lennon’s

middle name 16. Guy who said ‘Make it work designers!’ 17. Sometimes there thirty in a month and other times there’s thirty-one 19. Garten 20. No gluten, no peanuts, no eggs, no soy, no purple stuff, no dairy 21. A guiding principle 23. Beginning of a snarky response

DOWN 4. A warm, alcoholic beverage with Whiskey, lemon, and cinnamon 5. Chinese dynasty from 206 BCE–220 CE

6. The first version 7. Cigarette brand 12. The whole thing 18. Expressing your disapproval over text 22. What you say when you get hurt