Album
‘April Showers’ by Liz Mathiesen
Usher in the springtime this March with an up-and-coming composer’s rendition of nostalgic, calm instrumentation accompanied by the sounds of stormy weather. In the seven-track album, BGSU Musical Arts Major, Liz Mathiesen plays gentle piano through what sounds to be an even gentler rain. Flowing from the introductory track “A Storm Approaches (Intro),” through “The Clouds. They Weep,” and into the final “Epilogue: A Place Above the Cloud,” Mathiesen writes as much wordless poetry into each song as she does her meaningful titling. If for studying through a tough exam, or for a simple reflective walk through the blossoming campus, “April Showers” offers peace in this time of turbulence.
Search and Stream Liz Mathiesen as an artist on Apple Music, Spotify, or Amazon Music.
Movie
‘Promising Young Woman’
In an hour and 53 minutes like no other, director Emerald Fennell forces feminists and non-feminists alike to emphathize into the heartfelt struggle of one woman avenging her dear friend, after she had committed suicide to escape the pain being brutally assaulted. When legal justice fails, protagonist Cassie Mulligan takes on a role as a great equalizer to bring male victimizers to their knees, frequenting clubs, bars and parties as a vulnerable target that attracts her predatory targets. Each time it seems that the male target is guilty of violent disrespect, Cassie administers appropriate punishment, dedicating everyone to her now silenced Nina.
Television
‘Abbott Elementary’
Despite having the odds of dilapidated inner-city schooling stacked against them, a band of dedicated school teachers in “Abbot Elementary” get through the day with a satirical backbone. A rich variety of character personality, style, and questionable moral compass punctuates the mockumentary in a style similar to “The Office,” though perhaps more realistically to capture the pains that genuine educators face, matching individual talent against standardized schooling. Additionally, those who grew up watching YouTube Channel Buzzfeed will appreciate former content creator, Quinta Brunson, as the show’s main star and one of several executive producers. The writer, producer and actor has worked on several comedies enlightening the plights of people and women of color in various inequitable walks of life.
Book
‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ by Betty Smith
Though confined to the now aged living circumstances of the early 1900’s, Betty Smith’s semi-autobiographical novel is a timelessly deep look into a young girl’s coming of age. Readers looking for an escape from modernity that sinks them into startlingly relatable iterations of love, puberty, abuse, infidelity and core morality. Smith paints the world of young Francie Nolan with gorgeous prose and vivid imagery as if you can see the impoverished streets of Brooklyn, New York the trash on the streets, feel the delicate nerves of a first kiss, and crave the sunshine streaming onto Francie’s beloved tree sapling, struggling to emerge from cracks in the dusty layer of street concrete. Per a choicely metaphorical title, Smith aims to illustrate a girl’s youth precisely like the sprout; perennial, necessary and courageous.
