The Tufts Daily - Wednesday, October 21, 2020

THE

VOLUME LXXX, ISSUE 26

INDEPENDENT

STUDENT

N E W S PA P E R

OF

TUFTS

UNIVERSITY

E S T. 1 9 8 0

T HE T UFTS DAILY

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

tuftsdaily.com

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Somerville sees rise in COVID-19 cases, enters red category

by Alicia Zou Staff Writer

The City of Somerville recently entered the “higher risk” zone for COVID-19 cases, with an average of 8.2 new cases per 100,000 people, according to Massachusetts’ COVID-19 Community-Level Data Map. Medford remains in the “moderate risk” category, with an average of 6.7 new cases per 100,000 people, based on the same data.

The state deems cities and towns with over eight daily cases per 100,000 people as higher risk or in the red category and between four and eight daily cases per 100,000 people as moderate risk or in the yellow category.

Tufts’ relatively few cases of COVID-19 have contributed little to the categorization of Somerville and Medford, according to Somerville Mayor

Joe Curtatone, Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn and University Infection Control Health Director Dr. Michael Jordan.

Curtatone addressed how the university’s response to the pandemic, despite initial concerns, has minimized the spread of COVID-19.

“The university listened to those concerns and made changes to the campus plan … the result was an even stronger program that has worked to date … to curtail our community spread,” Curtatone said.

Lungo-Koehn shared how Medford constituents have seen Tufts students following proper precautions and health guidelines.

“Most of the times I hear about Tufts students or if people see Tufts students walking to see RED, page 2

AIDAN CHANG / THE TUFTS DAILY

Davis Square in Somerville, Mass. is pictured on Oct. 15

Career Center adapts career fairs to an online format, maintains student engagement

by Ria Agarwal

Contributing Writer

The Career Center has worked to adopt new strategies of maintaining employer-student engagement, after its career fairs transitioned to an online format.

Though the fairs have had to satisfy new standards surrounding a virtual platform, the Center has continued to see high rates of attendance.

While career fairs normally involve hundreds of employer stands spread across the Gantcher Center, this semester’s virtual

events utilized Handshake’s Virtual Fair tool, which was launched this summer in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In order to participate in the fair, students needed to register for the event and sign up for 10-minute time slots with employers. Students could choose between one-on-one or group employer sessions and could only attend sessions they signed up for, according to Robin Kahan, associate director of engineering career services.

Sue Atkins, the associate director of employer relations,

explained that Tufts usually holds large career fairs in the fall and spring, which host 200 and 160 employers, respectively.

Atkins added that the number of employers at each virtual fair is significantly lower to accommodate the new format. In an effort to provide a similar number of employers to its in-person activities, the Career Center has planned to host more events than usual.

“With this new virtual format, the recommended number of see FAIRS, page 2

SEOHYUN SHIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Tufts Career Center is pictured on Jan. 21, 2017.

ARTS / page 4

The evolution of Taylor Swift’s genre-bending music

FEATURES

Mass. requires flu vaccinations for college students, Tufts urges quick compliance

by Katie Furey and Saya Ameli Hajebi Contributing Writers

Before the coronavirus pandemic became all the talk at Tufts, there was another virus that worried students — the flu. Like every year, the flu is expected to arrive on campus in late fall and winter. However, unlike COVID-19, there is a vaccine for the flu, and for the first time, students are required to receive it.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health released a statement in August requiring all students attending college in Massachusetts to receive the influenza vaccination annually.

In-person students are required to receive the influenza vaccination by Dec. 31, 2020, but Tufts Health Service is asking that students be vaccinated by Nov. 19, 2020.

Students who receive their vaccination from a pharmacy or primary care provider must upload documentation of their immunization to their patient portal, while students who are vaccinated at a Tufts flu vaccine clinic will have their information automatically updated.

SPORTS / back

A MLB season like no other

Those who wish to apply for medical or religious exemption must complete an online form through Health Service.

Michelle Bowdler, executive director of health and wellness at Tufts Health Service, encourages students to get vaccinated as soon as possible and wherever is most convenient.

“We are strongly encouraging anybody who happens to be in Davis Square … to just go to a local pharmacy with your insurance card. The vast majority of insurances cover the flu vaccine as a preventative,” Bowdler said.

Vaccinations through Tufts are available with an appointment between Oct. 20 and Nov. 14. A full schedule of clinic dates and appointment registration links can be found in an Oct. 13 email sent to students.

Mark Woodin, senior lecturer in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, said Tufts is making the flu vaccine easily accessible for students this fall, but he noted that it may not have been a requirement withsee VACCINE, page 3 NEWS

1

FEATURES

3

ARTS & POP CULTURE

4

FUN & GAMES

6

OPINION

7

SPORTS

BACK

2

THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Wednesday, October 21, 2020

THE TUFTS DAILY Alex Viveros Editor in Chief

EDITORIAL Managing Editors Jake Freudberg Associate Editors Jilly Rolnick Alejandra Carrillo Maddie Aitken Jessica Blough Tom Guan Liza Harris Alex Janoff Matt McGovern Sara Renkert Sarah Sandlow Anton Shenk Carolina Espinal Sam Klugherz Alexander Thompson Alicia Zou

Executive News Editor Deputy News Editor News Editors

Assistant News Editors

Ryan Shaffer Executive Features Editor Sid Anand Features Editors Amelia Becker Jillian Collins Claire Fraise Evelyn McClure Kayla Butera Assistant Features Editor Megan Szostak Executive Arts Editor Devina Bhalla Arts Editors Ryan Eggers Steph Hoechst Tuna Margalit Chris Panella Yas Salon Elizabeth Sander Colette Smith Rebecca Tang Geoff Tobia Drew Weisberg Assistant Arts Editor Liz Shelbred Priya Padhye Paloma Delgado Amulya Mutnuri Mike Wilkinson Caroline Wolinsky Abhilasha Bhasin Eliza Dickson Sara Kessel Milli Lu Emily Nadler Grace Prendergast Faye Thijssen Sam Wilner Julia Baroni Carys Kong Annabel Nied Valeria Velasquez Juju Zweifach

Executive Opinion Editor Senior Editorialists

FAIRS

Editorial Cartoonists

Austin Clementi Executive Investigative Editor Arlo Moore-Bloom Executive Audio Editor Anne Marie Burke Executive Photo Editors Nicole Garay Aidan Chang Staff Photographers Patrick Milewski Menqi Irina Wang Austen Money Executive Video Editor

PRODUCTION Kevin Zhang Production Director Rachel Hsin Executive Layout Editors Yanqing Huang Laura Mogannam Campbell Devlin Layout Editors Miriam Shamash Tys Sweeney Executive Graphics Editor Sam Farbman Graphic Designers Freya Gupta Helen He Kristina Marchand Calisa Sana Ethan Schreiber

Michelle Li Tiffany Namkoong

Executive Copy Editors Deputy Copy Editors

Copy Editors Assistant Copy Editors

Executive Social Media Editors

BUSINESS Robert Kaplan Business Director Devina Bhalla Account Managers Coley Goren Sharan Bhansali Business Managers Norice Lu Evelyn McClure Patrick Milewski Luke Allocco Outreach Coordinators Sam Russo

Contact Us P.O. Box 53018, Medford, MA 02155 daily@tuftsdaily.com thetuftsdaily tuftsdaily tuftsdaily

continued from page 1 classes or within our community, it’s always a positive comment,” she said. “I appreciate the effort that the students are putting in so that they can continue to be on campus and continue to keep our community and the Tufts community safe.”

Jordan advised the Tufts community to be especially mindful of COVID-19 safety practices due to the growing number of cases in neighboring areas.

“We must increase our vigilance and always maintain physical distancing and hand hygiene and always ensure that we are wearing our masks and encouraging our friends, roommates and housemates to be doing the same,” he wrote in an email to the Daily.

Currently, there are no plans to make changes to campus policies following Somerville’s red

categorization, although Jordan noted that the university has prepared response plans in the case of increased coronavirus incidences.

Curtatone indicated that Somerville’s location has contributed to the growing number of COVID-19 cases, and that the city decided to delay the Phase 3 Step 2 openings, which would have allowed for higher gathering numbers for various activities.

“We are still a neighbor to every community in this metropolitan area, and the virus doesn’t know any borders … we sit in one of the most densely populated regions in the country where people ride the same transit system. Our frontline and essential workers on those same systems and our borders are very integrated with one another,” Curtatone said.

Curtatone anticipates that Somerville’s categoriza-

tion may shift as a result of Massachusetts’ approach in addressing COVID-19.

“I expect to come out of the red and kick back in and back and forth and that’s also a consequence of really the lack of plan of the Commonwealth and not thinking of this regionally rather city by city and town by town and you can’t have 351 varying approaches to our responses to the pandemic,” Curtatone said.

Although Medford is in the yellow category, Lungo-Koehn mentioned the steady increase in cases over the past few weeks.

“We’ve been in the yellow for [the] last three to four weeks, which is good that we’re not in the red, but we are inching our way closer to red. Two weeks ago, we were average about 4, 4.5 per day. Last week, we were at about a 5.5 and this week, we are up to 6.7 cases per day,” Lungo-Koehn said.

Lungo-Koehn attributes Medford’s growing COVID-19 rates to the city’s distribution of community members and the lower precautionary measures.

“Medford is thickly settled in some parts. We have a lot of essential workers that live in Medford. We have a lot of families and multi-generational homes.

We have three to four nursing homes,” Lungo-Koehn said.

To address the city’s high case rates, Curtatone assured that Somerville will continue to follow and analyze data from the community.

“As a city, we’ve been more diligent, analytical, deliberate and methodical than other cities and towns as we heavily relied on data and expertise to guide our decision-making,” Curtatone said. “As cases increase or if there’s a spike, our task is to determine [the] origin of those cases.”

Students create schedules to connect with employers, network

Editorialists

Sruthi Kocherlakota Executive Sports Editor Tim Chiang Sports Editors Matt Goguen Jeremy Goldstein Aiden Herrod Pranav Jain Ananda Kao Delaney Tantillo Arpan Barua Assistant Sports Editors Jacob Dreyer Henry Gorelik Ethan Ling Arnav Sacheti Alex Sharp Eric Spencer

Ethan Steinberg Colton Wolk Brendan Hartnett Julian Perry Mariel Priven Kate Seklir Abigail Zielinski Mykhaylo Chumak Justin Yu Aedan Brown Elizabeth Kenneally Makenna Law

Somerville, Medford mayors commend Tufts students for following COVID-19 regulations RED

Rebecca Barker Hannah Harris

tuftsdaily.com

Please rec ycle this newspaper!

continued from page 1 employers per fair is 50, which is why we’re hosting four smaller fairs each semester to bring us close to our pre-COVID targets,” Atkins wrote in an email to the Daily.

Misha D’Andrea, a recruiting coordinator at the Career Center, said it was critical to ensure students knew how to navigate the online fair.

To prepare students, the Center hosted two live workshops that were then uploaded to its YouTube channel for later viewing, according to D’Andrea. She explained that the Center provided articles via the weekly Career eNews newsletter, and several days of Virtual Fair Chat office hours.

A total of 500 students attended the Engineering and

Technology Fairs, which resulted in 2,218 individual and group sessions across two days, according to D’Andrea. The General Career Fair attracted 320 students, and the number of employer-student interactions amounted to 1,596.

Students appreciated the ability to create schedules for themselves, so they could connect with employers at specific dates and times, according to Kahan.

“Students said that the 10-minute allotted time was more personal (i.e., no one standing in line behind you) and also a longer amount of time than typically possible at a traditional fair,” Kahan wrote in an email to the Daily. “Students who preferred not to speak one-on-one with company representatives appreciated the group sessions and the

ability to learn about organizations alongside their peers.”

For employers alike, the new format allowed them to speak in depth about their organizations by utilizing various virtual tools, according to Jonathan Sanford, assistant director of employer relations.

“One key advantage of the virtual career fairs is that companies can talk to a larger group of students and tailor their pitches for the Tufts audience with more in-depth complementary content, e.g., presentation slides and web demos,” Sanford wrote in an email to the Daily.

Although there are no more career fairs this month, the Career Center’s Interim Executive Director Donna Esposito said the Center offers many additional ways students can discover,

contact or interview with future employers.

“Part of what our career advisors do on a regular basis is help students understand the hiring timelines for the organizations and positions that interest them,” Esposito wrote in an email to the Daily. “Some career fields, like engineering, tech, finance, and consulting, recruit earlier in the fall, while others, like education, nonprofits, communications & media, might not be looking until later in the winter or spring.

This year, the Career Center also plans to hold industry-specific fairs targeted towards the following interests: Creative Careers, Communications and Media, Engineering and Tech, Health and Life Sciences and Social Impact and Civic Engagement.

tuftsdaily.com

Features

With past flu vaccination rates below target, health officials say to vaccinate early

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Owen Bonk Since You Last Saw Me

Idle worship

B

VACCINE

continued from page 1 out pressure from the Massachusetts Legislature.

“I’m not sure what Tufts would have done as an individual institution but the main reason Tufts (and all other schools) is requiring influenza vaccination this year is because the State of Massachusetts has mandated that all students (including preschoolers) from K-12 and all college students must be vaccinated against influenza this year,” Woodin said.

Taisuke Sato, a sophomore and a member of the Tufts for Health Equity club, talked about the implications of the Massachusetts flu vaccine mandate on marginalized communities.

“Though Tufts can mandate all students to get vaccinated and provide the resources to achieve this goal, not every Massachusetts community is as fortunate as a college campus,” Sato said.

As a member of Tufts for Health Equity, Sato has been confronting inequality in health care for some time. He notes that people of color, low-income communities and recent immigrants are finding it more difficult to get vaccinated.

“In order to prevent an outbreak, over 70% of the community must be vaccinated,” Sato said.

Last year, people ages 18–49 as well as minority communities were vaccinated at lower rates than the national average, and the U.S. vaccination rate overall was at 51.8% — well below the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s goal of 70%. Public health officials are concerned because many of the families experiencing difficulty accessing the influenza vaccine are the same families working front-line jobs, putting them at a higher risk of exposure to both COVID-19 and the seasonal flu.

3

NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts Health Service is pictured on Sept. 24.

“While everyone waits for a vaccine to protect against COVID-19, the best people can do is to arm our immune system with the tools to fight Influenza to avoid a superinfection,” Woodin said.

Woodin said exposure to both influenza and COVID-19 could lead to serious complications since both viruses impact the respiratory system. ”The influenza vaccine does not help protect against getting it but since both influenza and COVID-19 primarily attack the lungs, a situation where a person has influenza and then gets COVID-19 is one that we obviously want to avoid,” Woodin said.

Given this potential for the spread of both illnesses, health officials are especially worried about misinformation regarding the flu vaccine this year.

A study conducted in 2014 revealed that a lack of information and misperceptions about the flu vaccine result in fewer vaccinations in low-income

VIA TUFTS UNIVERSITY

Locations and hours for receiving a flu vaccination are pictured.

communities, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity. Health officials say it is important to spread accurate information regarding the flu vaccine to counteract misinformation.

Marie Caggiano, medical director of Health Service, reiterated that the influenza vaccination is safe despite any misinformation saying otherwise.

“The flu vaccine that we have is well-tested and is very safe … There are a lot of myths out there, and if anyone has specific concerns … I would just encourage them to be in touch with a clinician or a nurse at Health Service and discuss those concerns,” Caggiano said.

In terms of Tufts itself, ensuring that as many community members as possible are vaccinated for influenza is especially important this year to avoid not only dual infection, but also confusion between COVID-19 and flu symptoms.

“It’s obviously a year where if someone gets a fever or presents with a cough there is concern that those symptoms are also associated with coronavirus, and the more we can protect ourselves from all of these respiratory viruses, the better off we’re going to be,” Caggiano said.

Caggiano explained that the flu, like COVID-19, is an unpleasant and potentially serious sickness.

“Flu can be a severe illness. Every year, there are thousands of people in the United States who die from the flu, so any year is really a good time for people to protect themselves with vaccination,” Caggiano said.

To protect themselves from both the flu and COVID-19, Tufts community members are encouraged to continue following all proper COVID-19 safety protocols, as well as engage in healthy lifestyles, according to Marianne Coscia, nurse manager at Health Service.

“Keeping your immunity up, getting rest, eating right and exercising, all those things are going to help you fight off any kind of virus,” Coscia said.

Bowdler added that the key difference between flu prevention and COVID-19 prevention is that a flu immunization is widely available while a COVID-19 vaccine is not.

“We do have a [flu] vaccine, which in some years is not 100% effective, but even when people get the flu, it seems like they have a less serious course of illness,” Bowdler said. “We’re lucky to have it, and we want people to take advantage of it.”

ack in March, when people were saying that quarantine would be a month-long shutin, I probably wasn’t alone in thinking it would feel like an extended spring break. It was supposed to be a time during which productivity was forgone. I watched TV, listened to music and took long walks. I stayed up to date on outbreaks and guidelines and tried not to acknowledge the whiplash I felt after my abrupt removal from a busy college lifestyle. Online school seemed manageable, but I felt a mounting sense of dread in anticipation of the long hours outside of class that I would have to fill.

Enter Charli XCX, critically acclaimed artist and producer. Less than a month into quarantine, she held an exclusive Zoom event to announce the start of production on her fourth studio album, “how i’m feeling now” (2020).

“I’m going to keep the process very open … it will be very much what I can do myself,” she said in the first installment of a series of video diaries she started on YouTube. She called it a collaborative album, requesting that fans send in artwork, beats and lyrics. If the project didn’t seem daunting enough already, she claimed it would be produced in the short span of six weeks.

Celebrity culture, or “standom” as people call it these days, has always fascinated me. In this new world, artists aren’t mere mortals; they’re gods that people idealize and pay tribute to. Stars like Charli are within closer reach than they’ve ever been thanks to online platforms like Twitter and, in this case, Zoom.

They entertain us, and they give us something to talk about when the pandemic feels heavy. They’re cultural icons.

I’ve tried to stay away from the obsessive, overprotective parts of this modern worship, but it felt exciting to have a front row seat to the creation of Charli’s new album. The way she spoke about the necessity of the project and the motivating force of creativity resonated with me.

The announcement inspired me to pursue my own creative endeavors. I began to see our collective predicament as an opportunity. I started writing regularly: journal entries, personal essays, short stories and even a few poems. This was something I had done sporadically throughout my life, but I didn’t seriously commit to it until April.

I created a Google Drive folder; I rediscovered the joy that followed writing a skillful piece of dialogue or an elegant turn of phrase. As projections became gloomier and gloomier, I sat on the floor of my candle-lit living room and wrote pages of messy catharsis.

Oddly enough, accessing the loneliest, most frightened parts of my brain conjured up the works I’m most proud of to date. Writing may not be everyone’s outlet, but I can’t imagine surviving this year without it. I owe an immense debt of gratitude to Charli, the woman on the other side of the screen, who made me think: “If she can make an album, what can I do?”

Owen Bonk is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Owen can be reached at owen.bonk@tufts.edu

4

Arts & POP ARTS Pop CULTURE Culture

tuftsdaily.com

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Taylor Swift: ‘The Last Great American Dynasty’

VIA TAYLOR SWIFT

A promotional photo for “folklore” (2020) is pictured.

by Sam Levine

Contributing Writer

When I was growing up, Taylor Swift was always around, but never in the foreground. I knew every word of “Love Story” before I knew the song’s name, and definitely before I called myself a fan.

I eventually joined the onslaught of bona fide fans. Armed with over a decade’s worth of hindsight, it is clear to me what has made her so consistently compelling for so long, and it really all ties back to her ability to connect with listeners.

Millions of listeners worldwide all somehow feel heard by this musical titan. One hundred and fourty million Instagram followers should keep a person from coming off as approachable, but her music effectively neutralizes her fame — and then some. What remains for serious fans is just a person making music, and her music is honest and emotional.

Through her music, she opens up to her listeners in very universal ways about very accessible things, and this allows her fans to feel a real connection.

She also has gone through a handful of metamorphoses in music and persona. My music taste has evolved since Taylor Swift entered my library — as I’m sure is true for many of her other fans — so why shouldn’t hers evolve as well? Her willingness to stare back at the spotlight and put out music that genuinely reflects her own variety of interests humanizes her. She’ll fall on her face sometimes, but real people do that, too. Stardom never stopped her from making raw, authentic music, and this makes her compelling.

Swifts’s first album, “Taylor Swift,” came out in 2006, and it put her on the map. She was one of the first artists to sign with Big Machine Records, and they made each other into absolute forces of the country industry. I think it is one of Swift’s weakest albums; a lot of the songwriting feels pretty unrefined, in a way that makes the delivery somewhat messy. While I hear the execution as sloppy coming from the total powerhouse that Swift becomes, it not only is defensible for a 16-year-old’s debut album, but a couple of frayed edges in her debut album are endearing. This album turned her into America’s sweetheart and it was largely because she was bursting at the seams with potential.

The capability of early Taylor got tapped into with “Fearless” (2008) and was fully realized in “Speak Now” (2010). Both albums are heavily influenced by country and bluegrass, and those songs frequented the charts.

But even back then there were tastes of other genres; “Breathe” was co-written and co-recorded by singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat, and tapped more into the California folk/singer-songwriter tradition; “You’re Not Sorry” is a piano pop-rock ballad; “Better Than Revenge” sounds almost like a Paramore song; and “Enchanted” and “Innocent” are both five-minute rock ballads. Swift’s chart-topping songs rooted her firmly in the country industry, but for anybody diving deeper into her body of work than the radio allowed (though her hits were still very strong), it was clear she had her hands in a lot of musical pies.

As soon as she built herself a home within the country Billboard charts, she decided to pack up and move again. “Red” was released in 2012, which was the year of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” and the year before Capital Cities’ “Safe and Sound.” The early 2010s in pop music were defined by heavy doses of EDM as artists like Zedd and Calvin Harris, and songs like Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” (2010) started to climb the charts. Some of it was even bleeding into country music; Florida Georgia Line is known for tossing elements of pop and hip-hop into otherwise traditional country music, as can be heard in its breakout hit “Cruise” (2012).

“Red” includes loud and charismatic hits such as “22”, “I Knew You Were Trouble” and “We Are Never Getting Back Together”.

Swift worked a lot with Max Martin, who produced Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” (1999), Ariana Grande’s “Into You” (2016) and upward of 30 other hits. This was a conscious attempt by Swift to essentially emulate pop in the hopes of being able to slide into the scene. These songs all have driving drum lines and catchy choruses, and they’re very melody-driven as opposed to lyric-driven. And this is the pop music mantra: Effective pop melodies are supposed to be catchy and infectious, and nobody does that better than Swift.

But having multiple sides to her artistry isn’t destructive and certainly not disingenuous for Swift; she just wants to have her cake and eat it, too. She wants stadiums and light shows when she wants them, and she wants

acoustic guitars and lighters as well, and she can clearly knock both out of the park. It takes a lot of insight to recognize, as an artist, that she can be more than her primary ‘sound’ or ‘mood’ for her listeners, and it takes a lot of confidence to act on that.

She took less time to get settled in pop than she did with country.

In 2013 she released “Sweeter Than Fiction” for the movie “One Chance,” which marked her first official collaboration with producer Jack Antonoff, known from the bands fun. and Bleachers.

In terms of sonic emulation of the pop genre, “Sweeter Than Fiction” blows “Red” out of the water. In an interview, Antonoff stated that the sound the two would ultimately concoct was inspired by Yazoo’s “Only You” (1982). “Sweeter Than Fiction” draws heavily from this branch of 1980s pop; there are synthesizers, vintage drum machines and a key change in every chorus. Antonoff has spent his whole career around this sound palette, but it was new to Swift.

This song was never expected to appear on an album and never has; it was never meant to be indicative of any type of musical shift and wouldn’t have been, if not for the album that followed it.

“1989” (2014) proved that “Sweeter Than Fiction” was not a fluke and instead a mark of things to come. The 1980s pop sound is the crux of this album, as it is for “Reputation” (2017) and “Lover” (2019), all three of which were produced by Antonoff.

Just when Swift was getting cozy in another genre, she turned her perceived musical

wheelhouse on its head again.

In the midst of quarantine, she released “folklore” (2020) with no promo and no pre-release singles. Like actual folklore, the music just fell into existence, and based on how the album sounds, it is likely that was the experience for Swift as well.

The songs of “folklore” feel very stream of consciousness-esque and are much less pop-oriented than what we are used to hearing from her. It really sounds like it spilled from her brain directly onto Spotify; the album seems to capture the raw, untethered creativity of a songwriting virtuoso trapped at home just like the rest of the world. A lot of the album revolves around an upright piano, and on “Exile” (co-written and co-recorded with the iconic folk group Bon Iver) the creaks and bumps from Swift’s own piano can be clearly heard.

Not only is the background noise not refined in this album, it becomes part of the experience. The wall between the music in Swift’s mind and the music that comes out of her is now razor-thin. “folklore” is so exciting because it seems to mark some kind of arrival. That isn’t to say she’ll never visit other genres again — I hope she does — but there used to be a franticness to her reinvention and to her work, and in its place “folklore” has only tranquility and peace.

With 10 Grammys and eight studio albums, she has absolutely nothing to prove, and she knows it. She appears to finally be totally comfortable in her own skin, wherever that takes her musically.

A&P

Wednesday, October 21, 2020 | Arts & Pop Culture | THE TUFTS DAILY

‘Ratched’ artfully tempers 2020 chaos

Julian Levy Keep the Cameras Rolling

by Lark Escobar

A new moviegoing experience

Contributing Writer

Netflix began airing a new thriller series, “Ratched,” this September. The series creates a dramatic backstory for Nurse Ratched of the film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) which features Jack Nicholson, and is based on the 1962 novel of the same name. “Ratched” is set just after World War II in 1947, about 15 years before “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Nurse Mildred Ratched’s (Sarah Paulson) narrative is that she was a war nurse on the front lines, with bonafide expertise in managing patient care. She strategically seeks employment by forcing the state’s mental hospital to hire her and in doing so, she ends up displacing the head nurse. Workplace power struggles between Head Nurse Bucket and Nurse Ratched are evidenced in patient treatment, as their tensions are misdirected into abuses and furthered by petty acts of revenge.

Much like how the sharp corners of the crisp nurse’s caps create uncomfortable and unnecessary points in characters’ physical profiles, the thriller pointedly suggests that there is something cold and dangerous in most of the female characters in the story: abusive adoptive mothers, false friends, heartless nurses and vindictive supervisors –– women are vilified in every iteration. The unjust portrayals of the female psyche fall short of being insightful or interesting, but are an unsurprising parallel to the one-dimensional view society has historically afforded women.

Even so, Nurse Ratched has the classic traits of a common hero: She has grit, focus, resilience, courage and talents that help her overcome perceived and real barriers to her success. In true hero fashion, her ego leads to mistakes, but it is unclear if they will be her undoing. She is obsessed with her mission of sparing her murderous brother Edmund’s life, and is desperate to prove her worth along the way. She is a hero we love to hate, however. She fails to deal with her own trauma, which clumsily ruptures in her sexual misadventures with men, romantic experiments with love interest Gwendolyn Briggs (Cynthia Nixon) and eventually in her steely attack on a murder witness against her brother.

Even when rising action in the story slows, viewers’ attention is arrested by stunning visuals –– use of color, space and texture –– a satisfying sensory experi-

5

2

VIA IMDB

A promotional poster for “Ratched” (2020) is pictured. ence that propels the story along. The use of institutional surgical green uniforms and gray-green hospital interiors gives viewers the feeling that something systemic is inherently sickly. Vibrant greens show up in the clothes of characters, signaling envy, greed and evil. Rich red lipstick, jarring red blood and luxe red wallpaper are reminders of guilt, rage and power that create the perfect element of visual tension.

Generally, backstories are supposed to both create context and provide the missing narrative for the development of a character. Although the series explores many potential explanations for Nurse Ratched’s cruelty in “One Flew Over the

Cuckoo’s Nest,” including childhood sexual exploitation, violence, being orphaned, being manipulated, being underestimated and marginalized and being sexually disenfranchised, there is no definitive moment that vindicates her. Perhaps more insight will be forthcoming, as there is expected to be a second season to continue the character arc.

The series is average in terms of suspenseful story telling, but worth watching.

Nurse Ratched’s skill of imposing order on disorder, be it of the mind or in society, gives the audience a certain added break from the chaotic landscape of COVID-19 –– and overall the series provides an artful relief from 2020 realities.

019 was such a good year for movies.

And I know, almost every year people say it was a landmark year for movies, but I swear, in 2019, it really was the truth. “Marriage Story,” “The Irishman,” “1917,” “The Lighthouse,” “Uncut Gems,” “Midsommar,” “Knives Out,” “Avengers: Endgame” and the first foreign-language film ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, “Parasite”: Almost every type of film-lover had something to be excited about. This makes it all the more disappointing that 2020 has been almost completely barren. Delays of one or two months evolved into over a year for some films, and who knows if even these releases will come true. The more interesting result has been the slew of movies released on streaming services or for direct purchase on-demand.

Amazon Prime Video has been calling them “In-Theater Rentals” since even before movies were getting limited theatrical releases, and many other distribution platforms have been doing the same.

Which begs the question, do they deserve to call these releases that? I understand that they’re attempting to portray these movies as would-be theater releases, but if so, shouldn’t they do more to enhance the experience? There’s something intangible about the act of going to the theater that putting in your credit card information and clicking “complete purchase” doesn’t quite replicate. There is so much that they could do to reimagine the rituals of going to the theater for a socially distant age.

When one goes to see a movie, they might be surrounded by over a hundred people. There’s an energy that comes with that shared experience. Hearing their laughter, their excitement or any other emotion on the spectrum is fundamental to getting the most out of your trip to the theater.

What if, on the bottom corner of the screen, there were a virtual movie theater in which you could choose a seat, and send reactions in the form of icons or short phrases. For the sake of keeping it civil, there would be moderators in every “room.” These online platforms could partner with theaters like AMC or Regal to help run this program.

At the same time, they could train existing staff from their theaters as moderators. This would help keep the theaters afloat until they are able to fully reopen and provide at least some of their workers with pay at the same time.

This plan would also remedy one of the main issues with at-home releases: They are simply not as much of an event. If someone can watch the movie any time they want and take breaks for whatever period they desire, it gives the consumer more freedom, but also takes away some of the fun of seeing something in the theater. There is an anticipation in watching it at a certain time, and knowing that you’ll be along for the ride with everyone else for the next two hours.

As an added bonus, they can send a box of candy of the customer’s choosing if “tickets” are ordered in advance.

I really do miss going to the theater, if that can’t already be gleaned from this column. This is but a desperate attempt to bring back some of the magic that has been missing from my life and from many others’ for the last few months. It would require a significant investment into the infrastructure of these technologies, but with the uncertainty of how long COVID-19 will suppress the global box office, it might be a worthwhile one.

Julian Levy is a first-year who has not yet decalred a major. Julian can be reached at julian.levy@tufts.edu

6

THE TUFTS DAILY | Fun & Games | Wednesday, October 21, 2020

F& G

tuftsdaily.com LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY

Rebecca: “Wait Ethan I have a question, what are my responsibilities as a mom?”

Fun & Games

SUDOKU

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

Libra (Sept. 23–Oct. 22) Make repairs and do household chores.

Home improvements made today have lasting benefit. Share love and connection with family. Enjoy domestic arts and comforts.

SEARCHING FOR HEADLINES...

Difficulty Level: Back-to-back morning midterms on 3 hours of sleep

Monday’s Solution

Monday’s Solution

CROSSWORD

tuftsdaily.com

Opinion

7 Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Caroline DePalma Philosophy In Focus

A case for court packing

S

AT FIRST I WAS EMBARRASSED. ME, A CAT, LIVING WITH A SINGLE GUY. BUT WHEN I WATCH HIM PICK SOMETHING UP WITH HIS HANDS AND EAT IT, I CAN’T HELP BUT LOVE HIM. — MARU adopted 01-10-10

ay you’re faced with making a choice between two alternatives, but both are immoral in their own right. Is it possible to make an objective calculation of which one causes the least total damage? Is it moral to do so?

Thomas Nagel wrote “War and Massacre” (1972) with this idea in mind, though it’s currently relevant to a different issue than his title invokes. Of the plethora of major issues in this nation’s headlines right now, one of the most important is the Republican rush to fill the current Supreme Court vacancy.

In response to this threat, there is discussion of increasing the number of justices on the bench once the confirmation process is controlled by Democratic lawmakers, a strategy known as court packing. This strategy is notably less than desirable. If every unsatisfied congressional majority resorted to it, the court would have dozens of justices after a few election cycles. After a certain point, adding more people into deliberations might hinder the process of reaching timely, legitimate agreements.

Court packing is clearly not an ideal solution to this problem. But considering that Congress has the ability to protect the interests of millions by doing so, I think that it is equally, if not more, immoral to avoid court packing should the need arise.

We don’t live in a vacuum. The Supreme Court holds the power to both improve and disrupt many aspects of our lives. If it is the common belief that the court will not protect or prioritize these things, as seems likely if the current nominee is confirmed, all methods of intervention should be considered, including court packing.

This puts us between Nagel’s hypothetical rock and a hard place. The complexity of the situation and the lack of a clear, morally sound solution leads us to consider immoral ones.

The realization that none of our choices are entirely “right” is somewhat disturbing, though Nagel says it shouldn’t be. It only feels uncomfortable because we are accustomed to being able to achieve what we “ought” to do, while in this case “ought to” is not synonymous with “can.”

In situations similar to this one, the default reaction tends to be to do nothing.

It is easier to ignore guilt, especially for an institution like Congress, when the guilt is caused by inaction and not a conscious step toward change.

This is one case, though, in which we cannot afford to do nothing. Not taking action to protect our nation’s most vulnerable would be much harder to remedy in the long term than doing some damage control after court packing.

Nagel says that “We have always known that the world is a bad place. It appears that it may be an evil place as well.” This definitely feels true when such high stakes force us to choose between multiple flawed options.

But if one option makes the world less evil in the long run, it’s not such a bad decision after all.

Caroline DePalma is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Caroline can be reached at caroline.depalma@tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community.

The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.

EDITORIALS Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily.

OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions.

ADVERTISING All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor in Chief, Executive Board and Business Director.

Sports

8 Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Jenny Lu In the Paint

The Bubble has always counted

tuftsdaily.com

Fall Classic 2020: The culmination of a historic MLB season

T

he NBA Finals came to a bittersweet end this past Sunday. In Game 6 against the Miami Heat, the Los Angeles Lakers emerged victorious with a dominating 106–93 final score. In the surreal final moments of the night, we saw Dwight Howard make a rare 3-pointer, an already shirtless J.R. Smith run onto the court after the buzzer and confetti fall in front of virtual fans on the walls. Through the trials of the Bubble, LeBron won his fourth championship with his third team as well as the Finals MVP only for thousands of basketball fans on Twitter to say that the 2020 NBA season came with an asterisk. But the Bubble has always counted.

When the NBA resumed its season after a four-month hiatus, the world was still in the middle of a pandemic. Everyone’s 2020 has been disrupted and the lives of basketball players are no exception. They had their very own stressors, including leaving their family for months, worrying about the possible contraction of COVID-19 and working out a way to respond to the Black Lives Matter movement from inside the Bubble.

Although traveling from city to city to play under the pressure of a crowded stadium is a patented challenge for teams during the playoffs, the Bubble came with its own obstacles. Being tested daily and playing in almost a lab-like arena was new to every player. While the Bubble allowed many young players to play with less pressure, having no live fans wasn’t necessarily an advantage for all. Specifically for teams like the Lakers who are known to draw their energy from their loyal fans, adjusting to the bubble was a difficult transition. In the last few regular-season games, LeBron averaged 25.3 points per game — which is still great — but his performance on the court was noticeably worse than what we’re used to.

Addressing his on-court woes, “I miss the hell out of my family,” LeBron said. “So, it’s a huge challenge.”

The shooting of Jacob Blake and other recent attacks on the Black community also significantly affected the league.

Another argument against the 2020 championship is that the Lakers did not have to face “difficult” foes such as the Los Angeles Clippers or the Milwaukee Bucks. The Milwaukee Bucks were on a downwards streak before the hiatus began.

Although Antetokounmpo performed well, averaging 26.7 points per game, 13.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists in the playoffs, he had no help on the court, and it was clear that Miami was the better team. As for the Clippers, the same could be said for Kawhi Leonard and company. Paul George and the rest of the bench were the reason why their team was knocked out, not the Bubble. Saying that LeBron had an easy road to the championship is not only disrespectful to the Lakers but also to their opponents like the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat.

All in all, the unique nature of this basketball season did not diminish the meaning of the 2020 NBA championship ring and only added to the legacy of LeBron James and the Lakers team.

Jenny Lu is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. Jenny can be reached at jenny.lu634410@tufts.edu

COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Cody Bellinger of the Los Angeles Dodgers is pictured in 2019.

by Jack Adgate

Contributing Writer

Although possibly the most overused phrase in the past six months, this season of Major League Baseball has been unprecedented. After the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the start of the regular season, teams returned to action in late July to compete in a 60-game slate before an expanded postseason format. The 2020 postseason brought eight teams each from the American League (AL) and National League (NL) to battle in a bracket format similar to the NBA. The action thus far has been unpredictable: Losing record teams have given high-ranking clubs first-round scares, a team that lost over 100 games in 2019 won their Wild Card series, and we have seen an infinite supply of 100 mile-per-hour fastballs. Despite the shortened season and abnormal postseason format, October has proven that baseball continues to become more exciting with each passing year.

With the defeat of the Atlanta Braces by the Los Angeles Dodgers defeating Sunday night, the World Series began with Game 1 on Oct. 20. The Tampa Bay Rays, the top seed in the American League and AL pennant winner, are competing against the Dodgers after the Rays’ victory in an up-and-down series with the Houston Astros. After the Rays jumped out to a commanding 3–0 series lead in the ALCS, the reigning AL champion Astros stormed back to force Game 7. Clutch hitting and a lights-out performance from Charlie Morton on the mound led the Rays to a 4–2 win, narrowly avoiding making a type of history that no club wants to make — the 2004 New York Yankees are still the only MLB team to blow a 3–0 series lead. On the National League side of the bracket, the Dodgers survived a back-and-forth

seven-game battle to claim the NLCS crown. A reliable bullpen and a clutch seventh inning homer by reigning NL MVP Cody Bellinger led Los Angeles to a decisive 4–3 victory to complete the series comeback after falling early to a 3–1 deficit. The Dodgers entered the postseason boasting the best record in the league, and they continue to flex their muscles each series.

With Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell atop the rotation, Tampa Bay has been propelled by its strong pitching.

Offensively, rookie outfielder Randy Arozarena terrorized pitchers in the American League playoffs, blasting an incredible seven home runs. Arozarena sits one base hit behind Derek Jeter for the record for most hits in a single postseason by a rookie. Despite the strong performances the Rays have seen out of their rotation and offense, their bullpen has been the anchor to their run to the World Series; it seems as if Tampa Bay is breeding flamethrowers on a farm. Arm after arm has entered this postseason for the Rays lighting up the radar gun and stifling opposing offenses. Hitters have struggled to compete with Tampa Bay right-handers Diego Castillo and Pete Fairbanks. The bullpen tandem has been nearly untouchable this postseason, with fastballs reaching 100 miles per hour and knee-buckling off-speed pitches coming out of the bullpen late in games. Such timely hitting and reliable relief pitching have been the formula for success for many playoff teams in the past, and the Rays have clearly mastered it so far.

On the other side of the ball, the Dodgers are seeking to avenge their recent postseason woes with losses in the 2017 and 2018 World Series and a 2019 NLDS exit to the eventual champion Washington Nationals. With one of the highest payrolls in the MLB,

Los Angeles boasts a fearsome lineup featuring former AL MVP Mookie Betts and the reigning NL MVP Cody Bellinger. A perennial World Series contender in the past decade, the Dodgers have top-to-bottom strength in their lineup with added depth off of the bench. A key factor in their 2020 postseason run has been shortstop Corey Seager’s hot bat, which helped power them over a dangerous Atlanta Braves team in the NLCS. A budding star in Walker Buehler leads the pitching staff, accompanied by veteran presence and former Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw. An inexperienced but talented bullpen has shown flashes of greatness, but also some inconsistency throughout October. A team reliant on power offense like Los Angeles must score in abundance to win games, and it has done exactly that to this point.

This year’s Fall Classic features the top seeds in their respective leagues, which predicts an exciting, actionpacked matchup. The power pitching of the Rays facing the stacked lineup of the Dodgers has left baseball fans bewildered as to who might come out on top. Los Angeles will need to jump on Tampa Bay’s pitching early and often, and stick to outslugging their opponents. If the Rays’ bullpen continues to put up zeros on the scoreboard, however, Dodger bats may be in for a long and uneventful series.

On paper, the Dodgers have a clearcut advantage over the Rays. With a star-studded roster and the legacy of success held by the Dodger franchise, the team appears unstoppable. The Rays, on the other hand, are a low-payroll team that just joined the league in 1997. Regardless, the performances of both teams to this point have proven that money only goes so far in the quest for a title. In October, teams have to win when it matters most.