Gary Abbott will receive the Order of Merit at his induction in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on June 4.

“Dreamscapes,” a popular immersive art experience, reopened its doors in a bigger location this February. Still located in The Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City, this new location expands and improves upon the unique charm of the original installation.

Every inch of “Dreamscapes” is covered with interactive art which prompts the patron to feel and explore. The exhibit was intricately and carefully put together by over 100 Utah artists working with completely reclaimed material. Each item seen has been carefully and lovingly placed to create an experience that truly feels like a dream world.

I frequented the original “Dreamscapes” location often. I referenced it as a must-see when family and friends were in Salt Lake. I’m happy to say that their new location surpasses the original and remains one of my favorite Salt Lake attractions.

Stepping into “Dreamscapes” is stepping into another world — a bright, ethereal world where troubles and worries melt away. The gallery’s purpose is to make one feel like they are dreaming with their eyes open and it succeeds wonderfully. Twisting and turning, “Dreamscapes” weaves a surreal and subconscious labyrinth that is incredibly fun to be lost in. From elfish scenes of green to rich ocean blues, each rounded corner evokes a new emotion and drives us deeper into the dream.

A Hidden Narrative

One thing I felt the new location adds is a linear narrative, which creates a feeling of purpose. While the original location was an impressive compilation of art, there were not necessarily any elements tying the rooms together. In the new “Dreamscapes,” we follow a story of a man searching for his lover, who has become lost in a world of dreams.

Each room contains a hidden moon that accompanies hidden text or audio. Immediately upon entry, my eyes would quickly dart around in search of the moon. A simple, yet beautiful story of love, loss and acceptance was told from room to room. Although this story was subtle, it added an immersive element that allowed for the love put into this exhibit to shine through.

Leave Your Mark

Another one of my favorite parts of “Dreamscapes” was its desire for each person who walks through its doors to leave their mark on the exhibit. One of the largest sections of the gallery is called “The Roots Network,” complete with winged frogs and owls prompting us to wonder “who are you?”

The Roots Network has thousands of messages from past dream-dwellers. Hanging from streamers, branches, and mouths of dragons, tiny messages written on recycled cardboard fill the area. Some confess love or admiration, others hold phone numbers and beg you to call, but my favorites were positive affirmations reminding me to relax and breathe.

Pens and a piece of cardboard can easily be found by any visitor who wishes to leave a note. My wonderful wife took up a pen and poetically gave the advice “Don’t hold your farts on a date. If they can’t handle it, they can’t handle you.” We placed this note in a spot we would always remember, and I hope many are impacted by its words.

Whether you’re on a first or fiftieth date, looking for somewhere to go with your family and friends, or just looking to round out your Instagram, “Dreamscapes” is the place to be. Tickets can be purchased on their website at a discount for University of Utah students. So, grab your UCard and escape into a world of dreams.

luke.jackson@dailyutahchronicle.com

@__lukejackson

The post Dream With Your Eyes Open at New ‘Dreamscapes’ Location appeared first on The Daily Utah Chronicle.

On the last day of AAPI Heritage Month, we will highlight a man who is a famous poet, a lawyer, and a human rights activist. His name is Cecil Rajendra.

Gallery|3 Photos

After over a year of restrictions on restaurants, owners on the East Side have been hungry to return to full indoor dining experiences. Now that Rhode Island has officially reopened as of May 21, they are doing just that.

The state’s reopening means that there are no longer any restrictions on indoor dining, with masking and physical distancing requirements left up to the discretion of business owners.

Despite facing financial hardship due to lockdowns and limited dining capacity, restaurant owners are hopeful that both profits and community engagement will return to pre-pandemic levels as more residents get vaccinated and go out to eat.

Chinatown on Thayer is currently undergoing an expansion so that the location can accommodate more in-person dining, after which it will begin to invite patrons to eat indoors for the first time since the start of the pandemic, Mike Boutros, owner of Chinatown and Mike’s Calzones, wrote in a message to The Herald. He is optimistic that business will ramp up as more local residents get vaccinated. 

Masking will remain mandatory at the restaurant, he said, even after Rhode Island lifted its mask mandate in accordance with updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Most of my staff has been fully vaccinated and at this point I am happy to say I am not as worried about their health as before,” Boutros wrote. “However, that does not mean I am not worried at all as there are still cases and we all need to be cautious.”

Boutrous’ cautiousness is one shared by other business owners as well, some of whom are still hesitant about resuming full in-person operations.

John Paul Murton, co-owner of The Shop on Wickenden, said he would not allow indoor dining until a higher percentage of the Rhode Island population is vaccinated. The Shop has not had indoor seating since March 2020, but he is hopeful that it will soon resume its pre-pandemic operations, as his staff have all gotten vaccinated and the state’s COVID-19 cases continue to decline. 

In the early months of the pandemic, The Shop encountered some financial struggles, but soon adjusted, Murton said. Overall The Shop has been able to weather the pandemic without indoor service, he said.

The pandemic also helped the cafe to streamline its serving process and expand its online ordering capabilities. Customers now order outdoors at a window counter, and staff prepare food and beverages inside. Staff members have tried to maintain friendly interactions with customers despite the limited contact, he added.

The pandemic “has fundamentally changed the business that we are, but we’ve made efforts to still make connections at the door whenever possible,” Murton said. “The business itself is really intact.”

Ten One Tea House opened in July 2020 amid turnover on Thayer Street due to the pandemic. Owner Jason Yu said that the store has begun allowing a limited number of patrons to enjoy their tea inside the shop now that the state has lifted dining restrictions. 

“We’ve opened it up,” Yu said. “During the pandemic, business was not as good, but we’re still surviving.”

While most of Ten One Tea House’s products and drinks are easy to take out, rising prices for ingredients reduced its profit margins. Not only have herbs used in its tea become more costly to import, but there has also been a boba shortage in the United States that has directly impacted Ten One Tea House.

Yu explained that some offerings on the menu, such as Ten One’s grapefruit tea, require ingredients that have become so much more expensive during the pandemic that the products are no longer profitable. Still, the store has kept the drinks on their menu —- charging enough to break even, but no longer making a profit.

Yu said that despite some struggles, he hopes business will improve with first-year students being on campus for the summer and the easing of the pandemic.

All three restaurant owners who spoke to The Herald are excited to return to normal interactions with customers and the broader community. The Shop’s Murton emphasized the importance of fostering trust and respect with fellow residents, and said that restaurants can be a place to create those relationships.

“The thing that became very clear very quickly because of the pandemic was how much (community) actually does mean, both to individuals but also to the business and the business’ bottom line,” Murton said. “We’re looking forward to actually being in that space with people again.”

Chasing your music dream

One day, I let my curiosity get the better of me. I posted on my Instagram story for the first time in who knows how long. I created a poll: “Did you ever want to become a musician?” The results that stared back at me 24 hours later were both surprising and not at all surprising at the same time. Seventy-seven percent of my followers, at some point in their lives, aspired to be a singer, instrumentalist or songwriter. Note the past tense.

But when did we all stop dreaming of a career in music? At our young adult age, we’re no longer bright-eyed youngins with endless time and boundless energy. Some of us are knee-deep in science courses, while others pursue something in the field relating to obscure literature. Some are simply working around the clock to make rent. Where can music fit in? Is it carved into our fate that we’ll never be musicians? And are we OK with that?

Most of us can agree: Music is liberating and soul-soothing. But how many of us grab ahold of every opportunity to achieve this dream? 

I’ve always been in awe of the individuals who choose action over inaction when it comes to manifesting their dreams. But I especially admire those who don’t stop at visualizing success — instead, they go one step at a time and build from the ground up. I’ve always thought that these people were few and far between, that only a chosen few of us were meant to make something of ourselves.

Recently, I ran into three lovely individuals who changed my mind, changed my thinking that unless we major in music (or audition for American Idol), we lay our 3-year-old mic-holding, rock star-pretending selves aside. These three — Kelsey Ferrell, Joanne Magano and Spenser Judd — led me to believe that those who chase after it can catch it. Their journeys, and more importantly, their drive, is extremely motivating to me. After talking with them, I think the key takeaway is persistence. They dream a dream that never dies. Yes, they’re still dreaming now.

I met TikTok sensation Ferrell, 22, before her lauded internet fame. Back then, she was a political science student in a journalism class, sitting across from me in a very stuffy classroom in Barrows Hall. 

Ferrell might have been a loud voice in group projects, but in music she was Feral (her stage name). She told me that she really liked the concept of being wild and untamed — the idea of Feral, to her, implied being unaffected by society or acting as a counter to society. And maybe that’s why she’s where she is today. Sometimes you just have to fight that inclination to be someone who once dreamt, in order to become someone who is still dreaming. And I think this has to do with fearlessness, certainly. 

I met Magano, 22, in Hearst Field Annex, on the first day of our Harry Potter DeCal. You really wouldn’t know when you meet her that she’s a Doja Cat fan.

Layla (Magano’s stage name) taught me, in our short conversation, to always be working on what you love in your spare time, and to not be afraid to seek out professional training. She told me that she started writing songs early on, probably around high school, as an outlet to express herself. Then later, she started taking songwriting and singing more seriously and tried to put herself out there.

Magano also offered me some sage advice: Don’t be afraid of the numbers. There are so many talented artists out there, and it’s so hard, especially today, to get your name out there and to be seen. At the end of the day, as long as you’re passionate about what you’re doing, and you really love writing songs and creating, don’t worry about how you’re perceived.

And finally, Judd, 23, who has an “addiction to diction,” does Instacart by day — making quick forays into nearby grocery stores — before diving into hours on end of video editing and mixing by night, all for his music collective: Clear Vision Collective. I met him by chance in Berkeley one fateful weekend. Judd is fueled by his passion for music and storytelling, and he doesn’t stop to worry about how his ideas will be perceived before creating them.

It’s worth remembering that Ferrell, Magano and Judd are all ordinary people. They are ordinary students with ordinary jobs living in the same world as us. Yet they’ve all decided to pursue their musical dreams, despite the odds stacked against them. They’ve all decided to be extraordinary.

For most of us, our musical dreams tend to somehow slip through the cracks, our fingers too thin, too weak or too slippery to catch them. But it’s much easier to make excuses than to start executing plans, and that knowledge, I know, will bug me until I too start chasing my dreams.

“Off the Beat” columns are written by Daily Cal staff members separate from the semester’s regular opinion columnists. Contact the opinion desk at opinion@dailycal.org or follow us on Twitter @dailycalopinion.

The Daily Californian

Continuing with tradition after cancellations last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Salt Lake City will celebrate Pride Week beginning Tuesday, June 1. The week-long festivities will be unlike any before, as restrictions due to the pandemic have forced the Utah Pride Center to come up with creative ways to celebrate Queer history and community. The main events of the week are the Pride Story Garden, the Rainbow March and Rally, the Pride Month Proclamations and Flag Raising and the Pride Interfaith Service. 

A Colorful History

Pride celebrations in Utah began in the 1970s just years after the Stonewall Riots in New York City inspired worldwide demonstrations in support of the LGBTQ+ community. Celebrations in the decades since have taken many forms and have commemorated important milestones in the fight for equality. Pride has spread from Salt Lake City to include marches, rallies and festivals all across the state. 

Salt Lake City has long been labeled one of the “queerest cities” in America. Though it is indisputably among the more progressive areas in the state, many residents are hesitant to accept this title. Our city’s unique religious heritage and conservative political overtones have heavily impacted life for LGBTQ+ people here.

Additionally, Pride in Salt Lake, along with celebrations across the world have received backlash for their over-commercialization and censorship of Queer culture. Amid all this, residents of Salt Lake and people around the globe continue to gather in protest and celebration, however imperfectly, and find community and healing.

This Week’s Events

The emphasis of the Pride celebrations this year seems to be on history and healing. Events throughout the week have been curated to draw attention to issues facing the LGBTQ+ population in Salt Lake as well as celebrate its history. 

The first of these events will be the flag raising and proclamations that will take place on Tuesday, June 1 and will be hosted by the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office.

The interfaith service which will be held virtually on Wednesday, June 2, marks the Utah Pride Center’s efforts to unite those in attendance under the banners of religion and identity and has been celebrated the many years since Pride celebrations and rallies began in Utah. 

The Pride Story Garden will open on Thursday, June 3 and will be held in place of what would normally be the Pride festival. The Story Garden is a focus of this year’s Pride festivities and will feature a maze of exhibits by local artists showcasing queer history art and culture. This event will last through the week and end on Monday, June 7. 

The Rainbow March and Rally, Utah’s longest-standing Pride Week tradition, will take place on Sunday, June 6 and will be free to the public. It will be a march in support of LGBTQ+ communities and participants are encouraged to bring signs and walk with the group from the Utah State Capitol building down to Liberty Park.

Pride in a Pandemic

This year’s Pride celebration organizers are serious about COVID-19 precautions and encouraging all participants to socially distance and wear masks when possible. Food, drinks, live performers and other vendors will not be present at the event and organizers hope that Pride can be celebrated in normal fashion next year. 

Pride Week is sure to be fun, healing and reflective after a difficult year and with collaboration from so many local artists and organizers, it will definitely be a celebration we won’t forget. 

For more information on the events of the week, visit the Utah Pride Center’s website.

p.gardner@dailyutahchronicle.com

@paigegardner102

The post The Utah Pride Center Presents 2021 Pride Week Events appeared first on The Daily Utah Chronicle.

17 student-athletes from both UH track and field men’s and women’s teams punch their tickets to the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships. | Courtesy of UH Athletics

Just weeks after the American Athletic Conference Championships, both Houston’s men’s and women’s track and field teams put up a strong showing at the NCAA West Preliminary Round in College Sation, with nine men and eight women punching their tickets to the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships in 13 different events.

While the UH track and field program has historically been known for producing elite sprinters — and that was still the case in 2021 — the Cougars put together one of their best performances in the field events to kick off the NCAA West Prelims.

The first of the Cougars to punch their ticket to Eugene, Oregon, where the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships will be held was junior Benjamin Okafor by leaping a personal best 7.23 meters in the men’s long jump. 

In the women’s long jump, graduate student Samiyah Samuels secured her spot in Eugene with a personal best jump of 6.55 meters.

Graduate student Antonio Ruiz and sophomore Christyan Sampy made history, becoming the first  UH duo to qualify for the national championships in the men’s pole vault since 2014.

Graduate student Mikaila Martin was the final Cougar advance in the field events with a 61.77 meters toss in the women’s hammer throw.

Freshman phenom Shaun Maswanganyi led the way for the men’s team, punching his ticket in the 100-meters with a wind-legal 10.04 and 200-meters after clocking in at a time of 20.19.

Like Maswanganyi, senior Travis Collins qualified in 100-meters (10.27) and 200-meters (20.58).

Juniors Jordan Booker and Christian Hamberlin also secured spots at the national championships in the 200-meters.

The nation’s No. 1 4X100 relay team of Booker, Collins, Hamberlin and Maswanganyi won its heat with a time of 30.02 to advance.

On the woman’s side, grad student Brianne Bethel shined, advancing in the 100-meter (11.27) and 200-meter (22.78).

Freshman Camille Rutherford will join Bethel in Euguene to compete in the 100-meter, running an 11.37 to secure her spot.

The women’s 4×100 relay team consisting of Rutherford, Bethel, junior Cecilia Tamayo-Garza and grad student Tristan Evelyn clocked in at 43.21 to move on.

Freshman Zarie Dumas, junior Aliyah Taylor, Bethel and Tamayo-Garza closed out the West Region Preliminary meet for UH, running a 3:33.62, which marked the third-fastest time in program history.

The NCAA Outdoor Championships will take place from June 9-12.

sports@thedailycougar.com

—
“UH track and field sends 17 athletes to NCAA Outdoor Championships” was originally posted on The Cougar

Emory’s women’s tennis team poses with the NCAA Division III National Championship trophy after winning the tournament. This is the Eagles’ eighth title since 1996. (Courtesy of Emory Athletics)

On May 26, both Emory’s women’s and men’s tennis teams won the 2021 NCAA Division III National Championship in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The women’s team swept the reigning champion Wesleyan University (Conn.) with a score of 5-0 in the finals to bring home their eighth national title. The men’s team beat Case Western Reserve University (Ohio) 5-2 in the championship to capture their sixth NCAA victory.

The women’s team played for the championship first with senior Ysabel Gonzalez-Rico and junior Jessica Fatemi each achieving singles victories in straight sets. In doubles play, Emory quickly dominated their opponents. Gonzalez-Rico and senior Katie Chang won 8-1, while freshman Ana Cristina Perez and junior Lauren Yoon earned an 8-4 victory. Junior Christina Watson and senior Stephanie Taylor also won, only dropping two sets en route to victory. 

The 2021 women’s tennis team joins the 1996, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2014 and 2016 Emory teams to bring national titles in women’s tennis back to Atlanta. 

Women’s tennis finished the season with an overall record of 10-3. While the record is impressive enough, winning the title while managing COVID-19 makes the moment even sweeter, said head coach Amy Bryant. 

“Coaching particularly this group of girls, through the pandemic, has been probably one of my most rewarding experiences yet,” Bryant said. Although the pandemic brought many challenges, she added, “I really think that we became stronger competitors because of the pandemic and having to endure everything. I don’t think we would have had the same performance had we not been through the past 16 months.”

Freshmen Sam Falcon and Ana Cristina Perez both had their first collegiate athletic experiences during a year unlike any other. 

“Winning a national championship as a freshman feels so special,” said Falcon and Cristina Perez in a joint statement. “We feel grateful for the opportunity to play on this team with such talented, caring, and hardworking individuals who have made us feel so welcomed since the beginning of the season.”

In the women’s singles tournament, Watson finished as the national runner-up at the NCAA Division III National Championship. Watson lost the national title match 6-2, 6-3 to Erica Ekstrand of Williams College (Mass.) 

Watson also fell short in the NCAA Division III doubles national championship match with Taylor as her partner. However, the duo fell short to Gonzalez-Rico and Chang, another Emory doubles team. Gonzalez-Rico and Chang beat their teammates 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 to finish the season undefeated with a 16-0 record and secure the national title.

The Eagles’ women’s team brings back to campus a team national championship, doubles national championship and runner-up performances in both the singles and doubles tournaments. 

The 2021 NCAA Division III Women’s Tennis Doubles Champions have been crowned!

Congratulations, Emory! It’s been an amazing week for the Eagles!

Women’s Team Champions
Women’s Doubles Champions pic.twitter.com/tgwQEsZgGJ

— ITA (@ITA_Tennis) May 31, 2021

As for the men’s championship, Emory won their sixth NCAA title by a score of 5-2 over the Case Western Reserve Spartans. 

In doubles play, the No.1 doubles team of senior Hayden Cassone and junior Antonio Mora won 8-2 against Spartan seniors Neil Mabee and Jonathan Powell. The No. 2 duo of junior Andrew Esses and senior Will Wanner won 8-4 in their final match, finishing the season with an undefeated 6-0 doubles record. 

Over in the singles competition, Esses won at the No. 3 spot 6-3, 6-0 while Wanner carried over the Eagles’ momentum as he gave the team a 4-2 lead when he won 6-0, 6-4. Freshman Nolan Shah won the pivotal point in his match to earn the 6-3, 6-4 victory as the Eagles went on to earn the 2021 Division III NCAA Championship. 

Head coach John Browning emphasized the importance of team culture in their success. 

“You can have the most talented team in the country, but, if your culture is toxic or not right, it’s difficult to be successful,” Browning said. “We have built a culture that teaches our players to be unselfish and to place the team’s needs above anything else.”

Browning was grateful for everyone who played a part in making sure the season would happen during the pandemic. 

“Thanks to our administration, Sewanee, and the NCAA, their courage and support helped us to be able to allow our four seniors to finish their careers on the court,” he said. “There are no words that can properly articulate the gratitude I have for all that made this possible.” 

Sophomore Daniel Sanz discussed how special it was to win the NCAA title the same day as the Emory women’s team. Sanz also described how much the championship win meant to him and his teammates. 

“It’s extremely special because of the seniors that we’re losing after this year,” Sanz said. “We’re losing four really impactful players and leaders on our team, and they’re just really special guys that contributed so much to the team in their own ways. We just really wanted to go out there and do it for them.” 

The 2021 team joins the 2003, 2006, 2012, 2017 and 2019 Emory men’s tennis teams to win national titles. It is the third time in school history (2003, 2006 and 2021) that both programs won the national championship in the same season. Emory Athletics now totals 29 overall national championships.

Emory’s 2021 men’s tennis team poses with the NCAA Division III National Championship trophy after winning the tournament. This is the team’s third national title in four years. (Courtesy of Emory Athletics)

The post Women’s and Men’s Tennis Teams Bring Home NCAA Division III Tennis Championship Trophies appeared first on The Emory Wheel.

‘A Quiet Place Part II’ is stressful sequel worth seeing in theaters

Armaan Mumtaz/Senior Staff

Grade: 3.5/5.0

After being postponed for more than a year from its original March 2020 premiere date, “A Quiet Place Part II” is poised to be the most successful theatrical release since the onset of COVID-19, already boasting pandemic-record box office totals for its opening weekend. The film is a fitting pick for the exhibitor industry’s savior; like its predecessor, the taut, fast-paced “A Quiet Place Part II” benefits greatly from a theatrical viewing experience in its efforts to build suspense (something writer and director John Krasinski smartly emphasized in press interviews). And though the sequel occasionally falls short of its lofty narrative ambitions, the strength of “A Quiet Place Part II” lies in its ability to serve up slickly produced thrills that perfectly suit the big screen.

After a brief detour to the day the film’s sound-sensitive alien antagonists arrived — a fun opening stinger as well as a blatant but acceptable excuse for a Krasinski cameo — the story picks up immediately after the conclusion of “A Quiet Place.” The remaining members of the Abbott family, still reeling from the loss of husband and father Lee (Krasinski), leave their farmhouse and venture into the menacing world beyond. On their journey, they meet Emmett (Cillian Murphy), a former friend transformed by grief and cynicism. They take refuge with him before Regan (Millicent Simmonds), followed by Emmett, takes off in search of other survivors in order to share the monster-killing power of her hearing aid. The remaining story alternates between this quest and Evelyn’s (Emily Blunt) efforts to protect her remaining children from the nasty creatures listening in on their every move.

“A Quiet Place Part II” tells a self-consciously more expansive story than that of the first film; while “A Quiet Place” confined its action mainly to the Abbotts’ home, “A Quiet Place Part II” employs its B-movie gimmick across a number of Americana settings, including factories, train cars, bridges and marinas. For the most part, these locales give rise to the same style of confident, cleanly staged scares that earned “A Quiet Place” its nerve-wracking bona fides. Tracking shots of characters slowly moving across ghostly landscapes, the strategic fading in-and-out of ambient noise and some clever visual cues that pay off in later scenes are key devices through which Krasinski generates tension. The dual-pronged story, too, plays out over a refreshingly brisk runtime and allows the film to build suspense through a few sequences that frenetically cut between parallel predicaments (though Krasinski’s reliance on this tool occasionally becomes obvious).

The strain of the narrative’s larger scope becomes apparent, however, as the film struggles to juggle its storylines; silly peripheral elements are unceremoniously incorporated into the film’s worldbuilding, and “A Quiet Place” is definitely not immune to the horror genre’s penchant for characters making inexplicably stupid decisions for no reason. The script’s split focus also means that Blunt, who stunned in the first film’s anxiety-inducing birth sequence, gets less screen time than she deserves for her comparably great work here.

It’s Simmonds who’s given the film’s most compelling material, conveying Regan’s desire to ensure her father’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain. The “Quiet Place” films are not-so-subtly about familial love and responsibility — Krasinski has described them as letters to his kids — and that thematic backbone comes through most organically in Simmonds’ scenes, which serve as an emotional allegory for parents allowing their children to leave home and grow into adulthood. Elsewhere, the film communicates its obsession with nuclear family units with a more contrived pathos (Emmett spends a bunch of time gruffly staring at pictures of his deceased children, while consummate mother Evelyn cradles her newborn), but these moments sufficiently ensure that the audience invests in these characters’ fates during the movie’s propulsive set pieces.

For fans of the first installment, that will be more than enough. “A Quiet Place Part II” doesn’t mess with the elements that made the prior film work, resulting in a project that’s as engaging as it is schlocky. And after more than a year of watching new releases at home, that’s still something worth shouting about.

Contact Grace Orriss at gorriss@dailycal.org. Tweet her at @graceorriss.

The Daily Californian

After several years of silence and side projects, goth, punk, emo legends AFI have returned to the music scene with their 11th studio album, “Bodies.” The album, due June 11, features 11 tracks, seven of which have been pre-released since January to promote the album.

Historically, AFI’s sound from album to album has varied enough in style and feel that it’s nearly impossible to compare their records. Despite these differences, however, every AFI song still has that unique thing that makes it unmistakably theirs. And based off of this new record’s pre-released tracks, “Bodies” is a perfect example of this.

Each of the songs stand entirely apart from others in the AFI catalog while still being able to fit in the spaces of other albums. The cadence and beat of the drums in “Twisted Tongues” remind me of 2006’s “Decemberunderground” and the vocals of “Escape From Los Angeles” could slide right into 2000’s “The Art of Drowning.”

The dulcet tones and ambient instrumentals paired with the vocal chorus in “Tied to a Tree” could easily fit within the tracklist of 2003’s “Sing the Sorrow” and the melodies and bass-driven beat of “Begging For Trouble” would slide perfectly into 2009’s “Crash Love.” However these songs might jockey into the spaces of the previous albums in the band’s expansive discography, they each possess musical elements that make them feel cohesive with one another yet unique from AFI’s past endeavors. 

The Bodies Experience

To promote the release of the “Bodies” album, AFI has curated a virtual gallery called “The Bodies Experience.” The gallery’s landing page invites fans to explore the “ongoing special exhibits, where participation is both encouraged and rewarded,” and urges guests to “remain vigilant for hidden gems, which will provide a deeper look into the world of ‘Bodies,’ leading up to its release.”

The website allows users to click and drag to navigate the virtual space and has many interactive elements including The Bodies Feed that provides updates about the gallery and album as well as quotes from the band about the project and their creative process. There’s also The Bodies Studio that invites fans to create a remix of the pre-released song “Dulcería” for a chance to win prizes and a store featuring exclusive “Bodies” merchandise including prayer candles, a duffle bag and oracle cards. An art gallery is also included with TikTok feeds, featuring fan creations and a collection of fan artwork inspired by the songs from the album.

The “lobby” of the gallery includes sculptures that, when clicked, display the AFI Instagram feed, a Spotify playlist and official music videos and “visualizers” for “Begging For Trouble,” “Twisted Tongues,” “Escape From Los Angeles” and “Looking Tragic.”

This interactive experience is such a unique way to promote an album and to interact with fans. AFI has always attempted to create community and engagement with and among their fans dating back to the creation of their Despair Faction fan club and message board community that originated in 2002. This new interactive experience taps directly into that sense of support and belonging while also being open and inclusive for casual fans and those outside of the fan club community. 

“Bodies” and The Bodies Experience confirm, once again, why AFI’s unique musical talent and creative minds are such a poignant and important part of the goth, punk and emo scenes. 

Pre-order “Bodies” via Rise Records now.

h.graham@dailyutahchronicle.com

@_HeatherGraham_

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