“Always free, always all ages, always accessible” was the rallying cry that once again united musicians, artists and hundreds of supporting fans during last Saturday’s JORTSFEST 2017. As a hybrid of a concert, art crawl and gala, the event showcased a wide variety of talents from across the Georgia DIY scene, from singer-songwriters to graphic novelists. Simultaneously, JORTSFEST promoted an atmosphere of unification and complete accessibility.

The festival, now entering its fifth consecutive year, was initially conceived in Tech’s own DIY music venue, Under The Couch, by then-student Maria Sotnikova.

“Back in the summer of 2013, I was enjoying a warm summer day and jokingly remarked to Michael Leon, then Booking Manager of Under the Couch, that we should have a festival in honor of everyone’s favorite summer attire: Jorts,” said Sotnikova. “He took that joke seriously, and here we are five years later.”

Soon after its founding, JORTSFEST quickly rose in popularity, both in general attendance as well as artist participation.

“While the first three JORTSFESTs were all held at Under the Couch,” Sotnikova continued. “For the last two years we have been at The Mammal Gallery due to needing more space than Under the Couch could offer.”

Since its relocation, the festival has found an ideal partner in The Mammal Gallery. The venue, also founded in the summer of 2013, has proven itself a refuge for the type of free artistic expression and communal inclusivity that JORTSFEST aims to heighten with its annual event. The space is tucked beneath south Broad Street’s network of colorful facades and towering murals, which were added during the ELEVATE art festival to revitalize downtown through the facilitation of public art projects.

The Mammal Gallery contains a wheelchair accessible, zero-step entry concert space on the first floor, which includes a staffed bar, gender-neutral restrooms and ample space for the event’s concertgoers as well as its tabled artists.

Doors to the event opened at 4 p.m., and the musical performances were scheduled to begin at 5:40 p.m. In the interim, attendees were encouraged to explore the space, sample the bite-sized snacks prepared by Atlanta-based vegan and vegetarian chef Raw
Mamacita and learn more about the different artists and groups stationed near the entrance.

Several Georgia-based nonprofits, including Georgia ADAPT, Southern Fried Queer Pride and Georgia Artists For Progress, were represented alongside local artists such as Cat Powers, Rayne Garnett and Lawson Thomas Chambers.

The music portion of the festival began with an exciting performance from local singer, songwriter, producer and community activist TAYLOR
ALXNDR. ALXNDR, a cofounder of the queer and trans arts advocacy group Southern Fried Queer Pride, performed a set of electronically backed pop songs from their debut EP “Noise,” which was released on Jul. 27.

Following ALXNDR, Yukons, a DIY rock group from Atlanta, played a set of fuzzy, memorable and occasionally bilingual tracks. Yukons is composed of Danielle Dollar on drums, Hannah Lenkey on bass and José Joaquín Izaguirre on guitar and lead vocals.

Chelsea Shag, the third performer of the night, opted for a more intimate experience. The accomplished singer and guitar player scaled back her typically electric blend of funk, pop, jazz and blues to nothing more than her voice and acoustic guitar. She invited the audience to sing along.

Shag was followed by Lunar Vacation who, despite their relatively young age, have already pioneered the emerging genre of “pool rock” while simultaneously cementing themselves as a staple of the local DIY rock and pop scene.

Athens hip-hop artist and self described “lunatic lady rapper” Lingua Franca gave an outstanding performance as the fifth act in the lineup, accompanied for the show by DJ Reindeer Games and Wesdaruler.

Nana Grizol, the Athens-based indie folk outfit with connections to Elf Power and Neutral Milk Hotel, followed. They showcased several songs from their album “Ursa Minor,” released earlier this year by famed Athens label Orange Twin Records.

Atlanta’s own purveyors of “fun rock,” BABY BABY delivered their usual brand of high energy enjoyment as the night’s penultimate act. LONER, the experimental post rock and jazz group, closed the night out with a set of hauntingly beautiful tracks, many of which can be heard on their most recent project “In The Tides Of Time.”

In light of the successful fifth JORTSFEST festival, the future of the event appears promising. Sotnikova and the JORTSFEST team have impressive plans for expanding the event.

“This year we ran a Kickstarter campaign to pay for JORTSFEST 2017 production costs, paying performers and paying fees associated with incorporating as a 501c3 nonprofit,” Sotnikova said. “By becoming a 501c3 nonprofit, we hope to work with institutional powers, like local governments to foster intentional inclusivity in music and art communities, and we look forward to applying for grants to fund this mission.”

For those who missed the festival this year but wish to stay informed until next summer’s event, they can learn more on the JORTSFEST Facebook page.

If you have been anywhere near West Campus, the new West Village, standing tall amongst the residence halls, has surely caught your eye. The three-story construction, which opened in August, houses a variety of amenities for students, faculty and staff. Seen as a mini-Clough, it is home to five new Georgia Tech dining options, as well as two restaurants found nationally.

On the first floor, a modernly-designed Panera Bread is alluring in its ability to invite visitors in for a meal. Unlike most commercial restaurants on campus, this location allows those who are dining to use their MyPanera card, and redeem offers, as they would be able to do at any off-campus Panera Bread location.

The seemingly Pinterest-inspired stairs lead up to the second floor, where the main Tech dining is housed. A wide range of food selection is presented, with everything from food made on the grill, upscale Italian pizza and pasta and locally-grown poultry and produce, to breakfast treats, vegan, peanut free options and eclectic Middle Eastern and Asian cuisine.

Students readily have access to Starbucks on the third floor. Joaquin Ramas, a first-year
Biochemistry major, notes, “It’s convenient that I don’t have to go to the middle of campus just to grab some coffee.”

While some study rooms are available on the first floor, the majority of them are situated on the top floor. These spaces are similar to the renowned breakout rooms scattered across Clough, but are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Although there is no rooftop garden, perhaps some of the most notable features have been the breathtaking views of Midtown from the outdoor balconies and the calming atmosphere set by the water fountains in the green space below.

“It’s a wonderful place to study and spend time with friends, and the views from the top floors are incredible,” said Sai Nakirikanti, a second-year Neuroscience
major.

While many visitors have been ecstatic about the addition, returning students and West Campus residents have mixed opinions.

Many Yellow Jackets have expressed concern over shutting down Woody’s to create West
Village. Woody’s, formally known as Woodruff Dining, previously served as the only buffet-style dining hall on west campus, similar to Brittain and North Avenue on east campus.

For first-years, the concept of Woody’s is highly unfamiliar, yet many wish that they could have an unlimited meal plan, or that there was a restaurant within West Village that served only breakfast.

Nicole Kajzer, a first-year said, “There’s breakfast? Oh, I just didn’t want to wait in line for thirty minutes.”

Students have consistently complained about the treacherous wait times for their food, especially during prime hours.

Kajzer added, “West Village needs to serve more fruit.” In contrast, another freshman, Sunny Wang, approves of the restaurant known as Farmhouse.

With a change in freshman meal plans, students have expressed frustration over not being granted unlimited swipes, which limits how much food they can enjoy at West Village.

A meal swipe at West Village only covers meals up to $9.00 in value, and for many, the portions are extremely small.

Nisha Detchprohm, second-year ME, said, “Closing Woody’s makes it more expensive for students.” Many have found West Village to be pricey for a meal plan option, especially those who do not have one. As an alternative, those living in apartments are eating significantly less healthy food, since they do not always have time to make a grocery run or cook their own meals, and spending $8.00 to $9.00 on a meal everyday is not very feasible.

For the most first-years at least, West Village seems to be a unique asset to West Campus. Those who spent second dinners at Woody’s on an unlimited meal plan during the past year may feel that the replacement could have been better. Regardless, there is a universal consensus that the tech-savvy construction is optimal for hitting the books and relaxing at the end of the day. West Village, welcome to Tech.

This was the moment that some people anticipated for nearly four decades, while others had only heard of it a few weeks before.  Some students thought of it simply as the first day of classes, while for other people Tuesday was their first day of classes. On Monday, Aug. 21st 2017, Tech was in the path for 97 percent of totality of the solar eclipse, which meant at the peak of the eclipse, the moon was covering 97 percent of the sun.

Tech students reacted to this natural phenomenon in a multitude of ways. Some stayed on campus to watch and others left to witness 100 percent totality. Astronomy buffs and plain science-lovers alike flocked to the path of totality where many such locations could be accessed at just a two-hour drive away from Atlanta.

The president of the Tech Astronomy Club, Darian Bender, fourth-year PHYS, organized an extensive club carpool event for approximately 70 people, including students who were not organization members. Bender is one of the people who knew about the eclipse far in advance. She, alongside the efforts of the other officers of Astronomy Club, arranged an overnight camping trip to Tennessee the night before the eclipse.

“The Astronomy Club tried to conduct outreach events starting at the end of the 2016-17 school year,” she said. “We knew that the eclipse was the first day of classes in Fall 2017, so we had to start planning the event early so that we can get people on campus and on the road the day before classes started.”

Bender had to deal with many complications in planning the club’s trip to see totality. She had to find rides for dozens of people, calculate costs, organize reimbursement and find a suitable campsite that could hold up to 80 people, as well as finding a way to acquire enough solar eclipse glasses and camping gear. There were also participants who dropped out and others who joined the trip at the  last minute.

Bender was motivated by excitement and her love for astronomy. “I knew it was a special event, that few people have the chance to see throughout their entire lifetimes. I was lucky that [the campsite] was only a short three-to-four-hour drive away from totality! … At that time, the corona is visible to the naked eye. It looks absolutely stunning. The experience at 97 percent just isn’t the same.”

The environment that everyone at the Astronomy Club experienced during their eclipse viewing was a stark contrast to the situation back at Georgia Tech. While the people on the overnight trip slept under a shooting-star filled designated dark sky, students who stayed on campus spent the night preparing for their first day of classes.

Gen Tanno, second year AE, was one such student. He only got to see the eclipse because his professor paused class for thirty minutes to allow the students to go outside to the Instructional Center Lawn. The Georgia Tech College of Sciences and some faculty from different departments prepared the university for the upcoming natural phenomena by setting up a filtered telescope and an eclipse livestream from the observatory and allocating eclipse-viewing glasses around campus.

Tanno recalls waiting in line for these glasses but giving up because the lines were too long. Luckily, the aerospace department also gave out glasses. He was impressed but says, “I wish it was 100 percent [totality], and there were clouds so it wasn’t good half the time.”

Many students expressed more negative sentiments concerning the viewing from Tech. There was a large collective opinion that the eclipse was over-hyped. Tanno explains this is probably because a lot of people simply jumped on the bandwagon and were not informed about what the experience would actually entail.

Bender has met more people who were awestruck by the eclipse.

“I think the only people who were unimpressed by the eclipse were those who didn’t get to see totality. I don’t know how you can see the total eclipse and not be impressed. However, some might have been disappointed if it was cloudy in their area. Additionally, I’m sure some were disappointed that totality did not last longer. Two and a half minutes felt much shorter at the time. I’d love it if it lasted thirty minutes or so. Oh well — I’ll just have to go see another eclipse!”

The next eclipse will occur in April 2024 and some students, like Bender, are already thinking of the logistics to view it.

Currently made up of 30 members, but representing at least 22 countries, Georgia
Tech International Ambassadors (GTIA) is a diverse student organization that began as a recruitment team set up by Undergraduate Admissions with the purpose of promoting international student admission.

Karvin Dassanayake, fourth year CMPE, current president of GTIA, was a member while the club was just a recruitment team.

“Some of my friends told me they [GTIA] gave a lot of free stuff so I wanted to see what it was about, and if I don’t like it at least I’ll get all of the free stuff,” said Dassanayake.

For him, the opportunity to have a creative outlet while studying engineering is what enticed him to get more involved in the organization. Dassanayake joined the marketing committee, eventually became the head of the committee and then president of the club.

“I have personally taken so much joy from seeing the organization grow so quickly, as well as seeing the members in it grow as well.”

Karaoke was the driving force behind making the Georgia Tech International Ambassadors transition to a full-fledged student organization. At present GTIA has two purposes; one is to promote international student admission and the other is to create a supportive environment for international students.  Changing into a club meant members could also focus on the enrolled student body. While the organization was just a recruitment team, they had a karaoke night that served recruitment purposes. The club ambassadors wanted to hold more of these karaoke nights and other on campus events, but they couldn’t do so since recruitment teams are more focused on prospective students.

International students make up approximately 8-10% of the student body. Dassanayake, an international student of Sri Lankan descent was used to having diverse classmates because of attending an international school in Vietnam. He remembers how few international students he met during his FASET. “It was hard to find common ground because a lot of local students would connect over things like Sonic or In-N-Out … students at FASET connected over those commonalities.”

Undergraduate admissions wanted the members to spend more time on outreach, but they found that they enjoyed the on campus events set up for the students, such as the Karaoke Night. Now the club hosts multiple karaoke nights held at Under the Couch in the student center.

Other events that the club has expanded into doing, since becoming a student organization in 2015, include the annual Night Market and the Career Forum. The career forum addresses difficulties that international students specifically face when applying for jobs and internships. Because US companies must sponsor any person not holding U.S. citizenship, international students are often held to a higher standard when applying for work.

The Night Market is GTIA’s biggest and newest event. The first run of the event occurred in Fall 2016 and attracted 400 attendees. When the club reached 300 in ticket sales they had already exceeded their expectations, but due to some last-minute savvy marketing, there was a large spike in ticket sales in the days prior to the event that pushed their numbers even further.

The Night Market hosted twelve different cultural student organizations and the performances were not only from student organizations but also from a local Atlanta rapper. The whole event was as if Tech Walkway was transformed into fairgrounds. The only hiccup during the evening was due to the sheer mass of attendees. Karthiv admits “We had a little food crisis.”

Overall, despite being a completely novel event for the club, the Night Market was a huge success. Its success is representative of the organization as it grows into a more established student organization. GTIA is currently accepting applications until September 22.

In building its Olympic pool and aquatic center, Georgia Tech has surpassed all expectations. Its lanes are wide and long. They allow for multiple swimmers to circle-swim. Its lifeguards, kind; showers, hot; lockers, numerous.

In fact, the only place Georgia Tech falls down, skins its knees and whimpers is in its provision of a scant two changing benches per locker room. There are precisely two in the men’s room and two in the women’s. This latter I know not through firsthand encounter, nor through peephole, for I’d be jailed, but through verbal confirmation of a trusted female confidant.

The benches: each bench measures approximately 14’’ by 48’’, sufficient space for two seated swimmer-sized buttocks, which spares room for one set of swim gear (hastily folded wet towel, speedo, goggles — still wet; dry socks). Humans, especially pool-wet ones, are mightily skeptical of sitting beside someone they don’t know. It’s said that cooties, or worse, mumps, spreads through proximity. So, in fact, each bench holds one proud individual.

That the individual is proud is fact. Here we have a sportsperson-specimen who has won, over all other athletes, their space on the bench. I have oft entered the room to change from my suit back into street clothing to find a circle of swimmers surrounding two, or sometimes three, fellows sparring for the coveted bench. Once, the loser was made to use the water-clearing centrifuge as their seat. Another time, I witnessed a skinny swimmer sprawled out flat on the bench with two other people sitting atop. One fellow was putting on his socks and the other, idling. I doubt they knew they were sitting on anyone. How, I wonder, does this injustice persist?

At first, I was suspicious that Georgia Tech’s security team observes the changing-room bench tussles through closed-circuit video. That’s what I’d do. I’d bake some popcorn, add a pinch of butter, a very slight amount of salt (for flavor, you know), a little paprika, and then bet for beers over who would win the seat tussle. I’d root for the skinny guy, the underdog or the older professor. How high would this betting go? My bet: to the top. There could be a departmental pool pool. “Sink or swim,” it’s entitled. Indeed, in this rough world, who will?

My better sense tells me otherwise. There is no pool pool. Nonetheless, this unpleasantness does not belong at Georgia Tech. Therefore, if the administration wishes to reduce hypothetical illegal gambling, assuage those psychologically challenged to sit adjacent to someone whom they don’t know and increase the general comfort of the changing rooms, I strongly recommend the addition of several more benches. Two additional benches per room would suffice, though there’s room for four. And, if my plea doesn’t work, perhaps we’ll organize a sit-in!

We’re back. And as if my calendar wasn’t enough of a reminder, the amount of news we’ve had over the past few weeks is a pretty good reminder.

Tech inks a deal with Adidas. Football season is just around the corner. Mercedes-Benz Stadium is open for business. Dedrick Mills has been dismissed from the team (much more on that next week).

And yet there is so much left to discover. What will the first rendition of Tech’s new uniforms look like? How will the Jackets replace Mills and the incredible production he brought to the offense last season? Can Josh Pastner and Tech basketball build off the success of last season or was the NIT finals appearance a fluke?

This is my fourth semester as the Technique’s sports editor and fifth as a member of the organization. I’ve seen Lance Austin make the impossible happen against Florida State, I’ve seen Ben Lammers elevate for game-changing blocks and I’ve seen our baseball team develop significant talent.

I’m ready to see more.

In July, Nicholas Stoller and Francesca Delbanco released their new Netflix comedy series “Friends from College.” The show stars Keegan-Michael Key (“Key and Peele”) Cobie Smulders (“How I Met Your Mother”), Annie Parisse (“Law & Order”), Nat Faxon (“Ben and Kate”), Fred Savage (“The Wonder Years”) and Jae Suh Park (“The Big Short”) as the titular group of ageing friends.

While the production is ostensibly a comedy, it follows the group of friends on a journey that features as much tragedy and heartbreak as gags and laughs.

Though the show partially follows the typical plot structure of a sitcom, putting characters into situations so awkward that the audience can only laugh, the show also deviates from traditional short comedy themes and subjects. In some scenes, the series feels like a drama without the suspense, a black comedy without the absurdity or a sitcom without the
lightheartedness.

The series is as hard to judge as it is to categorize. The pilot has plentiful funny jokes and touching moments, but they are matched with slow sections and events that feel overly colorful, if not downright unrealistic.

It quickly becomes obvious that Stoller and Delbanco have succeeded in toeing the line between funny and serious and between comedy and drama. One would be hard pressed to find another television show which balances the two forms more evenly.

In some episodes, however, it feels as though Stoller and Delbanco are simply too strongly attached to balancing comedy with tragedy. In the second episode of the series, “Connecticut House,” Lisa (Cobie Smulders) begins working at a Wall Street firm as a corporate lawyer.

The transition from her background in nonprofit law to a more soulless workplace is a deep, earthshaking crisis for her. While the comedic portrayal of the other employees as atavistic frat-boy animals keeps the series from getting too serious, the sexual jokes and childish gags detract from what could have been a more thought provoking and cathartic moment for the viewer.

The series might be better off if seriousness was allowed to prevail in these moments, rather than relying on over the top “Wolf of Wall Street” style scenes to keep things balanced. Despite this flaw, the balance that Stoller and Delbanco maintain pays off big time in key moments.

In the closing scene of the season finale, Sam’s (Annie Parisse) new car rolls into her pool during her extravagant fortieth birthday party. For a moment, the entire group of friends is devastated, but immediately they resume making jokes at each other’s expense.

As the characters reveal disastrous secret after disastrous secret to each other, they keep each other laughing despite the serious emotional distress and deep damage of their lives.

In the background, fireworks go off and the party’s caterers bring out Sam’s birthday cake. The creators crafted this scene masterfully to demonstrate the real value of old friends: they do not necessarily make one’s life better, but they allow one to laugh in the face of personal tragedies.

In the final scene, the balance between tragedy and comedy, no matter how absurd it may be, works perfectly. Here, the balance serves to develop the themes of the show, whereas in other scenes, it seems to exist simply because the creators want it to.

The depth with which the show explores its core themes makes it truly a joy to watch. The show’s titular focus on friends explores how they can both inadvertently ruin one’s life and make one’s life bearable at the same time.

Beyond this central theme, however, the creators used both the broad plot of the show and subtle symbols and images to highlight other points. The entire season deals with infidelity and emotional frustration through the lens of several affairs within the group. Additionally, Stoller and Delbanco dealt with aging, disappointment and nostalgia throughout the first season.

In a compelling scene, Sam’s husband (Greg Germann) unwittingly compares the man with whom she is having an affair to a bear roaming loose in their house, an analogy which quietly demonstrates the destructive effect friends can have.

Ultimately, the show has one asset that any series needs to be truly successful: its characters are relatable. The ease of developing bonds with the characters allows the viewer to become hooked on the series quickly. The first season of “Friends from College” is worth watching, and if Stoller and Delbanco can reign in their desire for balance, they may produce a show that is both popular and worthy of its following.

On Oct. 21, 2015, many a nostalgic fan pondered the differences between reality and the present as portrayed in “Back to the Future: Part II.” Most of the nifty gadgets never did appear, and a few even seemed dated. This movie merely presented a decidedly peaceful future with several technological advances.

In contrast, many other works of fiction show a version of the future that it would be odd, if not expressly concerning, to look forward to. As with Hill Valley’s hoverboards and flying cars, humanity and the planet has eked by many a fictitiously predicted cataclysm and well into 2017.

Civilization has refused to collapse in any of the wide array of ideas presented. Los Angeles has not become a crime-infested anarchist island disavowed by the United States, and a potential cure for cancer never wiped out most of humanity, changing some into vampire-like creatures along the way. Surely, the Earth must be due for an alien invasion.

In Sandlot’s “Earth Defense Force 2017,” this hostile encounter does occur. Aliens, who have aptly been named Ravagers, begin attacking the Earth, quickly wiping out several major cities. Fortunately, humanity as a whole, and Japan in particular, happened to be ready for just such a contingency, so the recently formed Earth Defense Force, or EDF, springs into action.

Originally released for Xbox 360 in 2006 (and in English a year later), “Earth Defense Force 2017” was re-released for the PlayStation Vita. Although the third in the Earth Defense Force series, this game was the first to be released in North America. The first two games have since been given the alternate titles “Monster Attack” and “Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space.”

“Earth Defense Force 2017” has a straightforward plot: aliens invade while humans defend and retaliate. This simple premise allowed for the creators to focus on other aspects of game making, which is evident in the expansive and realistic level design.

Players are dropped into Tokyo as well as other areas of Japan, and each mission showcases the environs in painstaking detail. If players decide to simply ignore the enemy and wander around, they can climb stairs and examine the texture of the roof several floors above or walk determinedly in a straight line and be hard pressed to find the level’s end.

While the area might look and feel like a real Japanese city, the enemies are lacking in textures. The enemies start out as giant ants then grow to include giant spiders, mechs, dino-mechs, gunships and several others. However, the enemies have more texture compared to the item and health drops. Their sprites would be perfectly at home in the original “Doom.” Once a player is trapped under a horde of angry ants, lassoed by countless spider webs and looking down the yard-wide barrel of a giant laser cannon, these jarringly pixilated health drops are thankfully easy to spot. Perhaps the game’s artists knew what they were doing.

The controls are simplistic yet sufficient; however, this might not hold true for those well-versed in third-person shooter games. Despite having several free buttons remaining, there is notably no way to reload before firing all of the bullets. When compared to “Gears of War,” an iconic third-person shooter released just a month before the original release of “Earth Defense Force 2017” in 2006, EDF falls flat in its chosen genre.

The game, however, is far from beyond redemption. It seems as though the game’s designers tried to come up with the most epic battle they could imagine and then made that their game.

Of course, in order to take out the wide variety of enemies, the player is constantly collecting various firearms. “Earth Defense Force 2017” decided to opt for a more realistic representation of guns than most games have. Anything shot in the game – friend, foe, tree or building – will be damaged. This realistic design feature allows the player to feel guilt for accidentally murdering his entire squad or destroying most of the city.

Ultimately, only victory matters: with barely any health left himself, heroically slaying the last alien creature provides emotional payoff for the player. The journey to victory is more satisfying in the game’s well-executed co-op mode. In this mode, a player is capable of killing her friend, who is sitting right next to her, when one of the many identical soldiers wanders haphazardly in front of a well-aimed shot at a jumping spider.

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the game is the random dialogue heard in the background. While most dialogue is innocuous reloading announcements or enemy warnings, all is performed by dedicated voice actors who took it upon themselves to overact everything to giggle-worthy effect.

In nearly every single one of the game’s 53 missions, a soldier will despairingly shout “The Captain is dead!” This repetition raises the question of why the captains are so terribly inept and if they truly need to be on the battlefield. The other soldiers, whom the captains were presumably leading, seem to proceed effortlessly without the aid of their lifeless leader.

EDF itself seems to have come to this conclusion and adjusted accordingly since in subsequent games, those with the rank of captain are no longer foot-soldiers on the front line. Despite this change, many other soldiers are still willing and able to battle the Ravagers and structural stability.

In 2011, “Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon” continued the fight, introducing several new enemies and updated graphics along the way. Strangely, these updates seem to have only been for the enemy graphics: the EDF soldiers look quite similar, and the environment was an unquestionable leap in the wrong direction. Fields of untextured gray never being particularly favored by video game enthusiasts.

Unfortunately, this newer edition of the game tried too hard to be a serious third-person shooter, and its voice acting was not as so over-the-top as the previous iteration. Despite this sobering choice, the game was not entirely without humor: occasionally, upon starting a mission, a soldier would immediately proclaim that he was out of ammo. The game still provided entertainment alongside innumerable chances for collateral damage.

In 2014, “Earth Defense Force 2025” was released in the US to generally contented consumers, and plans for a fifth installment in the series were announced at last year’s Tokyo Game Show. The game is titled Chikyû Bōeigun 5 or Earth Defense Force 5.

A$AP Ferg dropped his “Still Striving” project this week as part of a release campaign by the entire A$AP Mob called AWGEST (a portmanteau of AWGE and August) and brought an army of features to support it. Seemingly dropping a new song every other week, Ferg has not been absent by any means in the last year, and it does not look like that will change. With his latest effort, the Trap Lord sticks to his tried and true method.

From the onset, it was difficult to categorize “Still Striving.” While it was called an album, its 48 minute length and lack of cohesion make it feel more like a mixtape. Of course, in the modern era, this classification does not really matter to the large majority of fans. No one is buying the physical album, so the difference to them is simply semantics.

Whether it is an EP or a “playlist,” at the end of the day, it is still a collection of songs. Indeed, that is the weakness of “Still Striving”: it is a bunch of songs with hard hitting production that features a bunch of famous rappers rather than any sort of statement or view into the world of the artist.

The A$AP Mob has always had to deal with the perception that all they care about is style, and that depth does not factor into their music. Anyone who listens to the first half of “Still Striving” would be justified in thinking so. While the first track “Trap And A Dream” cleverly features the king of intros himself, Meek Mill, the rest of the tracks feel
incredibly shallow.

The first half of “Still Striving” simply feels bland for the most part. Forgettable beats and banal lyrics make 20 minutes feel like an hour. To make matters worse, Ferg enlisted Famous Dex, an alleged documented domestic abuser, for “Coach Cartier,” leaving a sour taste in the mouth of anyone who has seen the disturbing footage of Dex allegedly beating his girlfriend just last year.

Considering that the A$AP Mob’s “Wrong” video from just a month ago showcased Rocky wearing a shirt saying “We Should All Be Feminists” on it, Ferg’s ability to look the other way takes this to a new level of disrespectful. Even Killa Cam could not save the first seven songs.

The project recovers with “Plain Jane,” the single released in June. Ferg starts to sound like himself again, and from this track onwards “Still Striving” continues to improve. The best moment of the album comes in a shared verse from Ferg and the leader of the Mob, A$AP Rocky, on “Mattress REMIX.”

Even someone completely uninformed of the two would be able to tell how good of friends they are, as they both drip with that patented effortlessness that embodies their crew. Their collaboration is almost enough to make one forget that Famous Dex and Rich the Kid follow right afterwards in the same track.

The obvious hit of the album is the “East Coast” remix. With seemingly infinite internal rhymes, the song, which was released a few days before the album, will stand the test of time as a rap classic. Reminiscent of the “Work” remix, the song makes it clear that the Hood Pope has a knack for inspiring the best in some of the most revered rappers.

Although the tape started weak, how much Ferg has inserted himself into the different branches of hip hop remains impressive. Few people will try to combat with Busta Rhymes or Cam’Ron a couple of minutes after a Lil Yachty verse.

As much as the features are varied, the most unexpected moments come from the last two tracks, which do not feature a rapper. “Nandos” sounds like it belongs on Metroid Prime (the single greatest videogame soundtrack, for the unacquainted), and when Ferg hops on this beat he proves his place within the ranks of the “weirdos” of hip hop: Andre 3000, Danny Brown and the like. Similar to “Nandos,” “Tango” offers a braggadocious but personal viewpoint for a strong finish after a shaky start.

Though not the strongest work by A$AP Ferg, when a talent who has a unique style puts out even slightly under par work, it still provides something for everyone’s “favorites” playlist on
Spotify. Hopefully future releases will contain more of the anthem-making typical of Ferg and some more of the vulnerable sound featured on this mixtape.

Most every student at Tech has gone through FASET, either extremely recently, or long ago. The two-day program, whose name stands for “Familiarization and Adaptation to the Surroundings and Environs of Tech”, continues to serve as a good number of students’ first impressions of their college experience.

“Throughout the day, students are exposed to various aspects of campus life, starting from campus safety all the way to meal plans,” said Bryn Thornburgh, a member of FASET Cabinet. “Also with org fair, it gives them an opportunity to find the organizations on campus that are interesting to them.”

According to Assistant Dean Cynthia Jennings, incoming students, whether they be freshmen or transfers, are allowed a great introduction to many of Tech’s resources through FASET. With the event being so central to acquainting new students with Tech, it is certainly worth finding out exactly how the participants felt about their time spent at the program.

New freshmen weighed in on their recent FASET experiences, commenting on various aspects of the program that they did and did not particularly enjoy.

“FASET counselors were SO amazing and very helpful with answering any questions,” said Colleen Wong, a first-year BMED.

Candidates for FASET leaders are reportedly narrowed down and eventually selected based on their passion for connecting with the new students as well as guests with Tech in addition to their general affinity for the larger school community, according
to Jennings.

“Every summer I am amazed at the spirit and dedication FASET leaders have towards welcoming new students and their guests to campus,” Jennings said.

For Wong, FASET was helpful and enjoyable. She even felt that the lectures were “informational and necessary.”

Robert Glover, a first-year CHEM, enjoyed the honest and real-feeling answers from FASET student leaders. However, he also felt that the event itself dragged on a little too long.

Others felt that the smaller-group portions of the program were the most beneficial to incoming students.

“ … it was very helpful when we split into majors and learned more about them,” said Tejas Manem, a first-year BA.

However, Manem did not particularly enjoy the way that registration was handled.

“It would have been helpful to know more about specific classes when signing up for them, like when and where they would be,” Manem said. “I found signing up for classes to be chaotic and overwhelming.”

Gregory Varghese did really not have quite the best experience either.

“I was uncomfortable,” Varghese said. “They made Tech seem so depressing.” He did report falling in love with Tech later on, however.

In response to questions about this type of reaction from prospective students during their time at FASET, Jennings admitted that the experience can be both exciting and overwhelming. But she also added that the FASET leaders have been trained in recognizing discomfort and feelings of uneasiness.

Regardless, it is likely the FASET experience will continue
to evolve.