Coming off a loss against the Boston College Eagles and an action-packed win over the Presbyterian Blue Hose in 10 innings, Tech headed up north to Pennsylvania to square off against the University of Pittsburgh Panthers in hopes of claiming an Atlantic Coastal Conference (ACC) win.

The Jackets looked to continue their success in their first of three games against the Pitt Panthers on April 5 at the Charles L. Cost Field. Tech started the game off strong, scoring five runs before the Panthers could score one. Pitt would attempt to catch up with runs in both the fourth and fifth innings, but Tech would only solidify the lead with senior catcher Matthew Ellis securing an runs-batted-in (RBI) walk in the ninth inning. This was one of three RBIs for Ellis in the game, with the other two runs coming from a two-run home run scored earlier in the game. 

Junior pitcher Aeden Finateri also had an impressive performance. Having pitched 5.2 innings, he struck out four players, only allowing for three runs in the time he was at the mound. Finateri has been one of the most reliable arms in Tech’s rotation, as evidenced by him having the second lowest earned-run average (ERA) among the team’s starting pitchers. The following day, the Jackets faced off against Pitt again hoping to continue their winning streak; however, the game did not play out as they may have hoped. 

Tech took the lead with a run in the first inning after an RBI walk from Ellis. However, the Panthers were quick to catch up, tying the game 1-1 by the end of the second inning. The game was closely contested from that point forward with the third and fourth inning seeing no runs scored on either side. In the fifth inning, Pitt reclaimed the lead with another run, but by the end of the sixth inning, Tech had tied once more thanks to a RBI walk from freshman infielder Carson Kerce. 

Even with an impressive defensive performance by senior leftfielder Trey Yunger and sophomore outfielder Parker Brosius in the field, the Panthers were able to score a final run in the ninth inning to secure the walk off win, after another two scoreless innings for both sides. With one loss and one win to their name in the series against Pitt, the Jackets had a lot riding on the final game in the series on April 7. The Jackets started strong, going into the third inning 3-0.

 Ellis scored the first run for Tech, and the game, in the first inning. Senior first baseman John Giesler padded the score further with a home run in the second inning, and Yunger furthered the lead with another RBI walk. The Panthers tried to catch up but freshman pitcher Tate McKee was at a career best, and in five innings, he notched nine strikeouts. The Panthers eventually succeeded in getting one run with McKee at the mound, putting the game at 3-1 going into the sixth inning.

The sixth inning saw no runs on either side, but the seventh inning saw explosive performances from Tech. Within the inning, freshman third baseman Ryan Jaros secured an RBI walk and both Ellis and Yunger scored home runs with Ellis hitting an impressive 484-foot home run. In an impressive play on Pitt’s part, the team mirrored Tech with three points in the next inning, but Tech still managed to get a run — keeping the score still predominantly in Tech’s favor with 7-4.

Going into the final inning, neither team scored — cementing a Tech victory in not only the game, but the series. Coming off an impressive series of games against both Pitt and Presbyterian, Tech will face Georgia Southern at Mac Nease Baseball Park on Wednesday, April 10 at 4 p.m. before welcoming an ACC opponent with a three-game series against Virginia Tech at home 

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In less than two hours, “Love Lies Bleeding” manages to tell a love story, a family drama and a crime thriller, while also losing the entirety of all three plots in the last 10 minutes of its runtime.

The story opens like almost every queer horror or A24 film does: in a small town with odd lore that no one seems willing to acknowledge but looms heavily over the community. Lou, who is played by the ever-dynamic Kristen Stewart, is a shy gym manager who spends her time dealing steroids and managing equipment. The audience is quickly introduced to the tedium of her life; she’s cleaning out filthy bathrooms, dodging the ever persistent come-ons from her friend and helping her sister while avoiding what seems to be a very illegal past with her father.

However, as is par for the course, everything changes when a new girl comes into town. Jackie (Katy O’Brian, “The Mandalorian”) explodes onto the screen and into Lou’s life, and immediately both girls hit it off. Within their first day of meeting, the girls have moved in together and Lou is supplying Jackie with steroids — the hallmarks of any good, fulfilling relationship.

Jackie and Lou’s relationship is the focal point of the story. The characters’ drastically different personalities and desires serve to make their relationship ever-changing and taut with tension. Lou is resigned to staying in her small town, taking care of her sister, while Jackie is constantly dreaming of bigger, better things — namely a bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas. The accelerated pace of the relationship and the power they hold over each other, Lou with her ability to cut off Jackie from drugs and Jackie with her actual physical power over Lou, seem ready to explode.

Their relationship also serves as an interesting analysis of how abuse can look in queer relationships. Throughout the movie, Lou’s sister and her husband have a progressively more abusive relationship — starting with hints that maybe he’s just an angry person to Lou’s sister nearly dying because of the
brunt of the abuse. Lou constantly laments how her sister can continue to stay in what she considers a cut-and-dry, right-or-wrong situation. However, when she finds herself in a similar position with Jackie, she is quick to make excuses and take Jackie back.

Their love is codependent, bloody and desperate. They are unable to let each other go, even if it’s in their best interest, and this is the driving force of the movie. Jackie and Lou constantly make progressively more dangerous and fatal mistakes in their quest to make the other happy, leaving a wake of destruction along the way.

With the amount of dead bodies the two produced, a certain amount of suspension of disbelief is necessary. Did the cops really not find any fingerprints on any of the murder weapons? Did no one see them murder a person in broad daylight? Did the FBI not see the body quite literally stashed behind a couch?

The movie never sells itself as a realistic film. With its fantastical shots and outrageous plot, the movie falls closer to a pulpy, erotic thriller than a film that takes itself seriously. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, and “Love Lies Bleeding” is in good company with other films like “Bottoms” in the genre. 

However, in the last 10 minutes of the film, it suddenly feels like it’s a different movie. There’s a difference between bending reality and breaking it, and that’s exactly what the movie does. Ideas that the audience had of what was real or nightmare suddenly become questionable as the film takes a sharp turn into magical realism with no indication that this was where it was going.

Some may find the ending a charming addition, a fitting climax of the absurdity and gore in the movie, but for others, it will be a disappointing ending of what could’ve been an almost perfect movie.

Regardless of which camp you fall into, the rest of the movie is worth the watch. Even if the plot seems to lose itself, Stewart and O’Brian’s acting, the intense soundtrack and the creative filming is enough to more than make up for that ending.

The post ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ nearly sticks the landing appeared first on Technique.

The end of the semester is rapidly approaching, and it is easy to get lost in the chaos of these last weeks. With finals to be taken, moving out arrangements to be made and last minute experiences to be had, it can be hard to find time for yourself and easy to find yourself burnt out. Here are some tips and tricks on how to avoid running yourself dry while making the most of your time left.

Prioritize

When you’re faced with what seems like a million tasks and an impossibly short amount of time to complete them, it is important to prioritize what you need to get done. This is especially important at a school like Tech, where students are constantly bombarded with countless opportunities. If you’re graduating, you may choose to dedicate more time to searching for jobs instead of focusing on other aspects of your life such as extracurriculars. On the other hand, if you are a first-year student looking to put down roots, it may be important for you to prioritize being involved on campus.

What you prioritize is heavily influenced by your own values, so make sure you know what you want — separate from outside opinions. When you distinguish between what is important to you versus things you may just be doing for the sake of doing, you will find that you may have far fewer things on your to-do list than you previously thought.

Plan

Planning out your tasks and setting times for them is often half the battle. When you have what feels like an infinite amount of things to do, scheduling out when you are going to do it can help remind you that there are, in fact, enough hours in the day to finish all the work you have.

How you actually organize tasks can vary greatly and depends on what you find the easiest. For some people, using a physical planner or calendar can be helpful for actualizing; for others, software like Google Calendar or Notion provide a more dynamic and high-tech option. Whatever you choose, as long as it helps you visualize what you have to do and when, it works.

Perspective

It can be easy to feel like everything is life or death, especially when you are taking exams that are literally called “finals.” However, it is important to put things into perspective. A bad grade on your final will not be the end of your life and neither will the job interview you messed up on. Without perspective, it is easy to put so much pressure on every task you have to do. As you approach the finish line, every task may feel decisive; things like turning in a homework assignment, can feel like the difference between success and failure.

While a little pressure can be a good motivator, too much can harm you. You are not defined by the results you produce in the last few weeks of the semester, but rather as a sum of all you have done. Take time to step away from your work, and remember that life will go on regardless.

Even though finals season is often universally regarded as the worst time in a college student’s life, it is a great opportunity to work on dealing with stress, both internal and external. However these next few weeks go, be proud of all you have accomplished and all you have done to even reach this point. Finish strong, Jackets!

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Sydney Sweeney is known for her roles in shows and films such as “Euphoria,” “Anyone but You” and “The Voyeurs” where she plays characters who are hot and in love. In a recent interview with Who What Wear, the actor herself said that “Was I proud of all of them [or] super excited about all the characters? No. Did I wish I could make changes and be more a part of the process and be more assertive? Yes. But I was in no position to be able to do so.”

However, “Immaculate” could not be any more different. In a movie that Sweeney produced and edited the script for, the audience gets to see Sweeney have autonomy for what feels like the first time, and what she does with it is truly fascinating. 

“Immaculate” sets itself up as a typical nun horror movie. The main character Cecilia, played by Sweeney, arrives at a nunnery in rural Italy with nothing but a commitment to taking her vows and a poor understanding of Italian. On her first day, she is enamored with the antiquated interior of the convent, and she quickly settles into the menial, laborious tasks that make up day-to-day life as a nun. 

However, the movie takes a complete and swift turn into a far more insidious plot when Cecilia ends up ill, and, to her surprise, she is pregnant. Even more surprising, it seems there was no father — a Biblical miracle. 

This is when it feels like the true horror movie begins. Moments that had started to build a sense of unease quickly bleed to scenes of gore and violence that point to a darker underbelly of the convent. Cecilia begins to see that the obedience she and the other nuns offered so freely may be motivated by
something far less pleasant. 

“Immaculate” plays to its strengths here by using more archaic forms of violence to evoke a more visceral reaction from the audience. Whether it be burying someone alive or cutting their tongue out, the movie maintains a medieval energy within the halls of the convent. The timelessness that once lent the convent a rustic charm quickly changes into an insidious trap where no person can leave.

As Cecilia realizes the horrors of the convent, its people and her inability to escape them, the audience sees the rapid descent of a devoted and idyllic Cecilia into a prisoner of both the convent and her own heavily pregnant body. 

Cecilia’s relationship with her body is a central theme of the movie. When it is pronounced that she is the carrier of the miracle, the convent rejoices, all except Cecilia. Against her will, she has been made responsible for carrying what the nuns believe is their savior and is consequently treated like a religious figure who should be worshipped and never work. Being held apart from her peers has an obvious impact on Cecilia, who comes into the movie looking for a family and a stronger relationship with God.

When later it is revealed that the miracle may not be as divine as previously expected, Cecilia’s struggle for autonomy becomes a more familiar one between her and authority figures in the convent. Against her will, she is continuously beaten into submission by the Father of the convent, and she is repeatedly reminded that her body is not hers, but the institution’s.

Without giving away too much, the movie brings the audience to the climax of this tension in the closing scenes of the movie. Here, the audience sees Cecilia give birth to what sounds like a very inhuman creature, and she is faced with the choice of what to do with it. With some clever camera work, the audience never sees the baby — only Cecilia starting down at it, trying to make a choice. 

The intersection of the discussion between autonomy and pregnancy allows the film to explore concepts such as abortion while never explicitly mentioning it. Along with the setting being a Christian convent, it was a shocking choice for Sweeney, a relatively new producer. However, it’s refreshing to see her not shy away from these topics for fear of backlash.

As someone whose career has been predicated largely by typecasting and a need to pander to what audiences want, Sweeney seemed to finally free herself from these stifling expectations in “Immaculate.” 

Both her and her character seem to be on their journey for autonomy together in the film; while the audience rooted for Cecilia to make it out alive and well, there was also an undercurrent of rooting for Sweeney to finally tell a story she wants to, the way she wants to.

The post ‘Immaculate’ gives Sydney Sweeney control appeared first on Technique.

With the release of “Dune: Part Two,” science fiction has seen a massive resurgence into the public sphere. Book stores have sold out of copies of “Dune,” and social media has taken to commonly making jokes about the Shai-Hulud and Muad’Dib terms that were entirely foreign to most of the population
a few years ago.

However, with the massive surge in viewership, it feels like science fiction is once again being relegated to its shiny exterior, without looking at the rusted internal parts the story is really trying to highlight. For example, the internet has been abuzz with praise for Frank Herbert’s intricate world building, cutting dialogue and complex characters; less spoken about are the questions of the ecological concerns and politics that Herbert, who was at one point a speechwriter for politicians, is trying to bring our attention to. In the prelude to “Dune Messiah,” Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert’s son, talked about how the story had been received very poorly in the science fiction community because “readers wanted stories about heroes accomplishing great feats … not stories of protagonists with ‘clay feet.’” However, Brian further explained that this was the story his father wanted to tell — not a story of heroes, but a story of how power corrupts, governments lie and societies fall at the hands of those we put on a pedestal — a sentiment that was lost on many who didn’t believe it fit stereotypical notions of science fiction. 

I believe a large part of the reduction of science fiction to just stories of heroes in mystical words is caused by what science fiction we choose to put on the pedestal of the public eye. Oftentimes, these are the same tried-and-true novels by the same tried-and-true white authors, and I believe that the uniformity of the field is a large part of why the genre has been reduced to just fantastical stories for nerdy fans.

I subscribed to a similar perspective until my junior year of high school when I had to take a class on the genre. I was ready for another year of aliens or flying cars, but I was pleasantly surprised when we started the semester with “Kindred” by Octavia Butler.

“Kindred” tells the story of Dana, a Black woman in modern-day America, who is randomly transported back to the antebellum South at seemingly random moments. The first time she is called back, she saves Rufus, the son of the plantation owner, and after this, she is continuously called back to the past by an unknown force. Each time she is called back, her stays grow longer and more dangerous as Dana is forced to reckon with the horrors of a time period she had only heard about in history books or family stories. The time traveling trope is a common one that is usually explored through wacky hijinks; Butler’s “Kindred” takes a completely different approach to it. She explores how the more explicit, physical forms of racism follow Dana into the future, and how the actions of past generations  still live on today. This is not Butler’s first foray into science fiction; she has also been critically acclaimed for her book “The Parable of the Sower,” a book about the dangers of climate change. Butler uniquely leverages her experience as a Black woman with fantastical mechanisms to force readers to face topics they would rather shy away from. While our next book in the class was incredibly different, it still left a profound impact on my understanding of the genre. “The Canticle of Leibowitz” by Walter Miller Jr. follows a Catholic monastery in the desert for thousands of years as civilization tries to rebuild in the aftermath of a nuclear war. The synopsis might sound deeply generic, but this book was one of the most harrowing accounts of war I had ever read (and I took a war literature class). The book flashes through generations of the global powers building and destroying themselves while decimating its own populations, asking tough questions such as whether  assisted euthanasia is acceptable when the act of living is considered painful because of irradiation from the aforementioned nuclear war.

Even though I read both of these books almost four years ago, I still think about them and the rusty interiors of our own world that they forced me to stare at. I believe “Dune” has the potential to do something similar if we are able to look past its sandworms and thopters and see that tyrannies and waterless, burning planets may not be as dystopian as we think.

The post Why science fiction matters appeared first on Technique.

“A little treat” is an oft-heard term. Completing a difficult task? Get yourself a little treat. Having a bad day? Acquisition of little treats must be immediate. No reason whatsoever? You guessed it — little treat. A good day? You guessed it — another little treat.

While it started off as an internet fad, a joke even, for many, the little treat has become a fact of life. In a progressively more distressing world, the chance to take a break, as little as it may be, is invaluable. It can be the difference between success and failure, or happiness and sadness in life. 

To most people, a little treat is a small monetary splurge for an item or food that you don’t really need, but you would enjoy. It could look like buying a slightly overpriced coffee while out on errands or buying yourself something you have wanted for awhile, but don’t need. 

The defining factor of the little treat is that it is something that you don’t need; it just makes you feel better.

From a more negative lens, a little treat just seems like an excuse to not exercise self-control and waste money. However, it is the very irresponsibility it represents that makes it such a rich experience. 

In a progressively punishing and fast-paced world, it is hard to pinpoint the last time you did something that you would enjoy in the moment, just for the sake of your own happiness. 

The very nature of a capitalist society creates a world where we are told to work constantly. We are cogs in a system that could run without us, but without which we could not run. Without little treats and other little sources of pleasure, we would have no break from the drone of working life.

This is true especially since with  such a vast marketplace, every purchase becomes a complex series of decisions and a task on its own. 

Even something as simple as purchasing a plain white t-shirt suddenly brings with it a multitude of choices: which brand is the best, how long will it last, does this match my closet, etc. Everything becomes complicated and can be highly stress-inducing. 

The beauty of a little treat is that there is none of this forethought. You walk into a coffee shop and a store, and you point at what you want just because you want it right then and there. In that moment, you are able to convert free-will to actions — to act on desires. 

It is not like the pressure of taking on a hobby, where you have to choose one, find items for it, spend money on supplies and invest time.

The little treat is the simple reprieve. After a long day of work, you buy a little tub of ice cream from the local ice cream parlor. Maybe it means sitting in a cafe and reading an exciting book or scrolling through social media. 

However, like the name may suggest, it must be little. Buying expensive things outside of your budget or racking up a lot of small buys destroys the point of it. If we lived our life solely to satiate our desires in the moment, it would be immensely difficult to build a future. However, in the same way, if we live our life forever building the future, we may find ourselves never truly getting to enjoy it. 

The sweet treat allows us to live in the moment. It is representative of the “escape.” It gives us the unique feeling of freedom, something we are robbed of by the very nature of society and our pursuits within it. Those of us who belittle the sweet treat think of it as a childish practice. 

“Why waste time going and buying something that you don’t need and that won’t change the amount of stress you have?” they might ask. 

In truth, the little treat does not change anything. It does not alleviate stress or lessen the amount of work you have at work — in fact, it may even be a means of procrastination or avoiding important work. However, it allows a brief fantasy for sweet treat-pursuers. 

There is no work. There is no stress. There is no boss breathing over your shoulder. There is no frustrating coworker. There is no doctor’s appointment you’ve been avoiding making. There is no exam coming up. It is just you and the sweet treat. A little source of light in the dark world surrounding us all constantly. 

What constitutes a little treat? An overpriced coffee from a local coffee shop, a croissant or any other pastry, a snack at the local grocery store or gas station, a bag of chips, a chocolate bar, a soda or fountain drink, ice cream (sorbet counts too!), boba, a book you’ve been eyeing, a fifty-coin pack (for mobile game-players), the admission fee for a cat cafe and much, much more! What does not constitute a sweet treat? A new car, a new laptop, doing office work at said cafe, doing homework after buying a coffee, a whole restaurant meal (go for it, but it is not a little treat), working from home instead of going in person, going on a road trip and other activities or purchases that simply do not count.

The post The importance of a little treat in everyday life appeared first on Technique.

Editor’s note: This review contains spoilers for “Miller’s Girl.”

The trailer for “Miller’s Girl” promised something new: a reimagination of Hollywood’s favorite story of an older man and a younger girl finding love against the prejudiced and antiquated notions of a society that just doesn’t understand.

However, the movie not only failed to offer anything new to the genre, it served to reinforce harmful ideas that women use victimization as a tool to pull down men from positions of power.

“Miller’s Girl” follows the coming-of-age of Cairo Sweet (Jenna Ortega, “Scream”) as she takes a class with washed-up author turned high school teacher Jonathan Miller (Martin Freeman, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”).

In their first meeting, it is already established that Sweet is not like other girls: she has a mind. When her bubbly, girly friend Winnie Black (Gideon Adlon, “Blockers”) comes in to take Sweet out with her, she serves as a perfect foil — showing the audience that it is only natural that Miller would have an interest in someone as serious and different as Sweet.

With Sweet and Black out of the classroom, Miller starts to rifle through Sweet’s stuff. Looking through her books, he picks out a book she’s reading by Henry Miller, an author that is consistently referenced back to for his pornographic material throughout the movie. Without even being in the room, Sweet suddenly is seen as a sexual being. Miller seals the deal on this invasion by then rifling through Sweet’s journal and declaring that she truly has a talent. From here, submitted works turn into after-school meetings discussing her future and the raw talent Miller just has to shape with his own two hands.

Now, this is where the movie desperately tries to reframe the narrative and falls achingly short. Sweet is concurrently in the process of applying to colleges, including Yale, where she has to write an essay about her greatest accomplishment. Reflecting on her life, she finds that valedictorian just doesn’t seem to cut it — she needs something better. Sweet decides that making Miller fall in love with her, since Black points out he is so clearly already infatuated, will be her triumph.

This is a defining moment in the film. It flips the victim narrative on its head; it lets Sweet be the aggressor, lets her be the seducer for her own gain. She is not just prey for an older man looking for vulnerability and innocence; she is the predator. However, as quickly as the movie introduces this concept, it dismisses it.

Sweet’s plans for seduction — the dark energy the thriller so proudly displays in its trailer — dissipates under the eyes of Miller. Suddenly, she is fawning over him, going to poetry readings she knows he frequents to try to stage clandestine meetings and then waxes love-sick about it in her diary. Miller, for his part, does nothing to stop her. 

He encourages her, smokes with her and, in a damning moment, takes action on his desires. None of this is under Sweet’s direction. What starts as an empowering moment where she takes advantage of an older man’s predatory behavior quickly falls through to her being just a girl who needs validation.

At the climax of the film, where the tensions between Sweet and Miller come to a head, a fight breaks out in front of the very desk where it all began. Even as the movie physically places Sweet on higher ground (standing on a teacher’s pedestal) over Miller, her arguments all sound childish; she sounds like the hysterical girl, and Miller is the ever-reasonable adult.

When in a rage, Sweet reports Miller to the school administration, the moment is not treated as a reclamation of the narrative by Sweet. Instead, she is painted, once again, as hysterical and rageful, lashing out and hurting Miller because she cannot deal with the fact that he cannot be with her. 

The issue is escalated to the school board, and the situation is framed to seem like Sweet’s fantasies of Miller have led him to lose everything: his job, his best friend and his wife. However, Sweet never tells a single lie when she is shown reporting Miller. She is clear and level-headed; yes, she did see Mr.Miller outside of school, and yes, they were physical.

The scene outside the school board’s office where Sweet and Miller see each other for the first time in months should be redemptive, but it is cheapened. Miller is seen crumpled on the steps outside of what may very well be the death sentence of his career, and Sweet looks upon him, pretending to cry but then smiling down on him as if she were the executioner all along.

“Miller’s Girl” promised a story of reversal, allowing a Lolita-esque character to be out for blood for once rather than being bled dry. Instead, the story just tells us that young girls fall in love, and then cry wolf — hurting innocent men along the way. 

In a post #MeToo America, which has seen an increased rise in the sentiment of men having to “protect” themselves from false allegations while sexual violence against women continues to be a problem, is this really the story that Hollywood should be telling?

The post “Miller’s Girl” is disappointing post #MeToo appeared first on Technique.

On Thursday, Feb. 15, there were almost no open seats in sight as the audience waited for “Romantic Masters VIII: Ein deutsches Requiem” to begin. Presented by the Institute’s School of Music, the performance saw the GT Symphony Orchestra, Chorale, Treble Choir and Chamber Choir performing together at the Ferst Center for the Arts.

The concert began promptly at 7:30 p.m. with an opening performance of “Ram Tori Maya”, composed by Reena Esmail. With the GT Symphony Orchestra playing the backing music, Aditya Hingoo and Dhruv Pargai delivered a soulful and moving performance of the song. Even though it was introduced in the digital concert program, many viewers had still expected a direct launch into “Ein deutshces Requiem.“ However, the opening performance set the stage perfectly for the main act to come.

After Hinggo and Pargai left the stage, Chaowen Ting, the conductor of the GT Symphony Orchestra, stepped down from the conductor’s podium and took the time to say a few words — both about the opening performance and the one about to begin. 

She spoke about how both pieces were tributes to those who live after the dead have left and the beauty there is in that. Ting highlighted how even though “Ram Tori Maya” and “Ein deutshces Requiem” may have come from very different places geographically (India and Germany, respectively), they both have the same underlying spirit of being a tribute to life in the present. She commented on how beautiful it is that such concepts can transcend geographical borders and appear in the same medium.

The night’s surprises had just begun as Ting introduced two soloists to the stage: Amanda Sheriff, a soprano who is currently a Glynn Studio Artist at the Atlanta Opera, and Calvin Griffin, a Bass-Baritone who will be returning to the Metropolitan Opera for the 2023-2024 season. Both soloists were clad in concert formal, mirroring the sea of concert black from the students behind them, and took a seat at the front and center of the stage.

With this final order of business settled, Ting took to the conductor’s podium to begin “Ein deutsches Requiem,” or translated to “A German Requiem.”  The piece consisted of seven movements, which together lasted slightly more than a hour. The first movement began with the orchestra starting the instrumental track as the choirs sang the first line of the piece, which translated to “Blessed are they that carry sorrow, for they shall grow consoled.”

The second movement started with a similar sentiment; the choir sang a haunting line, which translates to, “For all flesh, it is as grass, and all the glory of mankind as the grass’s flowers.” This movement was significantly longer, but the moment of silence at its end was captivating. The end of each movement was poignant; the abrupt shift from the symphony of music to just the sound of turning pages served as a divider between movements and a time for the audience to reflect before the performers launched
into another emotional act.

Both the soloists, Sheriff and Griffin, performed separate solos with the accompaniment of the orchestra. The performances were breathtaking, and it was amazing to hear the strength in their individual voices as opposed to the power of almost 100 voices singing together. Each was beautiful in its own way, but something was especially hauntingly beautiful about hearing so many voices singing about the value of grief together. 

The choirs had an impressive unity, almost sounding like a singular voice. This was especially impressive considering that Chorale, Treble and Chamber are three different choirs that usually meet and rehearse separately. 

This idea of grief as a gift rather than a burden was carried throughout the entire performance. In some parts, the orchestra brought the choirs through the movements — matching the ebbing and flowing of the voices. In others, the choirs took the backseat as the audience was invited to fully immerse themselves in just the instrumental parts of the composition. 

This seamless give-and-take between the orchestra and the choirs was a testament to the time and effort each student had put into the concert. Orchestrating a concert that involves almost non-stop playing and singing for an hour is no easy feat. Students spent countless hours outside of their own organization rehearsals practicing together to do Brahms’ composition justice, and they most definitely did.

Tech is not a school that is particularly known for its arts programs, especially its music programs. It was inspiring to see so many students on the stage and so many supporters in the audience, united by a singular thing: their passion for music. 

To learn about other concerts happening within the School of Music in Spring 2024, go to music.gatech.edu to view the concert schedule and other exhibits currently being hosted by the School of Music.

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“There’s a bug like an angel stuck to the bottom” begins Mitski’s seventh studio album, “The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We,” perfectly encapsulating the energy of the album. 

Throughout “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We,” Mitski brings the heavenly into the world of the mundane; she proves that in today’s America, one void of true will and defined by increasingly barren life, the small moments of feeling — both the painful and beautiful — are creational. They sew a patchwork of tenderness that dulls the edges of the sharp, apathetic bitterness Mitski fears has coated our lives.

The constant struggle between making a place in this inhospitable world, this inhospitable country and this inhospitable body or choosing to become another lifeless part of the background is the central conflict of the album.

In “The Deal,” Mitski sings of a walk at night where she begs to have her soul taken, proclaiming, “I can’t bear to keep it / I’d give it just to give.” At the end of the song, her soul appears to her in the form of a bird and tells her, “Your pain is eased, but you’ll never be free for / Now I’m taken, the night has me,” reminding her that choosing to forfeit the heavy weight of her soul is also to forfeit the lightness of creating meaning.

“The Frost” tells another story of grief and how forgetting lost loved ones is a disservice to ourselves; love that is lost is still love that existed for a moment in the unlikely and inhospitable. Mitski sings of packing up boxes of memories to collect dust in the attic, but as she watches “the frost, it looks / Like dust settled on the world,” she remembers. 

She feels that, in burying a memory, she has left herself in a world alone and that in packing away the cutting edges of her loss, she has also abandoned an integral part of herself, and all that remains “is just witness-less me.”

However, Mitski does not allow the wound to fester. In “Star,” she crafts lost love in a new light as one that she has allowed to persevere — even in space. She sings that while “the love’s gone / we just see it shining.” This song, more than any other on the album, speaks to Mitski’s core message.

Every love, tenderness, pain or simple feeling is what makes this land livable and this life bearable. In the coldness of space, it is Mitski’s memories nestled into that abyss that bring light and warmth to a dejected existence.

 With this touch of humanity, Mitski emphasizes that it is not even the act of loving that makes this world habitable, but rather the moments and joys we carry from it.

In an interview, Mitski said that, “the best thing I ever did in life was to love people,” and “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We” stands as a shining testament to that. Since the beginning of her career, Mitski has enchanted audiences with love stories of what she has endured, what she dreams of and what she will never forget.

To make this life one worth living — to make this a place capable of life — love is the first and only step in an uphill battle. Mitski leaves us with the reminder that love is not singular and does not exist only within a vacuum. Through it all, the human condition, we are the only ones who make this land hospitable.