#Opinions, #Climate Action, #Music, #UAF The Sun Star #Opinions, #Climate Action, #Music, #UAF The Sun Star

The Risan Project Tour: Todd Johnson Brings Environmental Advocacy to Fairbanks

In a recent KSUA chat with The Sun Star, Todd Johnson, the lead singer of Salem and a documentary filmmaker, shared excitement about bringing his unique mix of music, film, and environmental activism to Fairbanks for a special show at UAF on Wednesday, April 9. A storyteller with a mission, through his work, he uses his platform to bring awareness about the issues that mean the most to him. His latest project, The Risan Project Tour, combines film, music, and a compelling message about climate action.

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#Opinions, #Theatre, #For Colored Girls... The Sun Star #Opinions, #Theatre, #For Colored Girls... The Sun Star

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When a Rainbow Is Enuf - Review

From February 27 to March 2nd, the Interior Independent Theatre, hosted by The Basement, put on the renowned play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When a Rainbow Is Enuf. The play is a Black theatre piece written by Ntozake Shange, an African American playwright and poet, in 1975. Consisting of twenty to twenty-two poems, For Colored Girls… consists of poetic monologues, choreography with music, and symbolic moments. This is known as a choreopoem. This play became a book by Shange and then a movie re-written, produced, and directed by Tyler Perry in 2010. 

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Just Like You Wanted It - Album Review

With his third album, Just Like You Wanted It, released on February 14, 2025, Casey Smith Project is hitting his stride. The album results from more than a year’s worth of demos, jam sessions, and meticulous attention to the track masters (for a lengthy sit-down with Casey Smith about the album and his tour in Iceland last year, read my two-part interview).

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#Opinions, #Film, #Daft Punk, #Interstella5555 The Sun Star #Opinions, #Film, #Daft Punk, #Interstella5555 The Sun Star

Interstella5555 - Film Review

Daft Punk stopped making music in February of 2021, approximately twenty-eight years after their landmark debut album, Homework (1997). However, their sophomore effort, Discovery (2001), sent them straight into the stratosphere. Appropriately so for a now iconic release, the visual album of Discovery titled Interstella5555: The 5story of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (2003) was released in a select number of theaters nationwide for one night only.

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#Opinions, #Movies, #Mean Girls, #Reviews The Sun Star #Opinions, #Movies, #Mean Girls, #Reviews The Sun Star

Mean Girls (2024) Was Refreshing in Some Ways but Mostly Worse Than the Original

I wasn’t going to watch the new Mean Girls movie at first. I knew it was a remake of the recent Broadway musical, which wasn’t entirely engrossing. I’d heard about Angourie Rice’s flat singing and awkward camera angles. Honestly, I just don’t watch a lot of movies in theaters in general. But then I saw this TikTok by Glenn DeVar and knew I had to check it out myself.

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#Opinions, #Music, #DancingFaraZ The Sun Star #Opinions, #Music, #DancingFaraZ The Sun Star

Meet DancingFaraZ! 

We have the privilege of hosting the fantastic Seattle based DJ, Faraz Zarghami, otherwise known as DancingFaraZ. He’ll be performing at this year’s Starvation Gulch, which will be held on September 23rd, starting at 10pm in the Nenana parking lot on campus. Read on to learn a bit more about Faraz, his larger than life personality, and his work as a DJ.

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#Opinions, #Movies The Sun Star #Opinions, #Movies The Sun Star

Scream VI - Film Review

Scream VI has no business being as entertaining as it is.

The second sequel from Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, known to their fans and the world as the filmmaking collective Radio Silence, came to mainstream success and acclaim with 2019’s Ready or Not, a quietly subversive and fun black comedy horror film that established many of Scream VI’s strengths, which, unfortunately, also highlight the growing weaknesses of the popular slasher film franchise after Wes Craven’s death in 2015.

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#Opinions, #Art The Sun Star #Opinions, #Art The Sun Star

Certified Copy, Certainly

When I return to the Museo del Prado this summer and gaze once more at Francisco Goya’s The Third of May 1808, I will think of Walter Benjamin. His seminal essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility,” is as frustrating as it is a necessary document in the study of all text: art, film, or literature. Benjamin’s thesis pivots on three questions: how artistic production is affected by machinery and industry, what this technology does to the authenticity of a work of art, and from where art in an industrial, machine-led world derives its value.

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#Opinions, #Music, #Gorillaz The Sun Star #Opinions, #Music, #Gorillaz The Sun Star

Cracker Island: Catching Up on the Music and Lives of the Gorillaz

The latest Gorillaz album came out on February 24th after months of high anticipation from fans. Cracker Island is their eighth studio album, its production began in 2021 after the Gorillaz Netflix movie was scrapped. They collaborated with an impressive list of artists for this album including Stevie Nicks, Bad Bunny, Tame Impala, and more. 

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