This was a book review for the Arts Criticism class on Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
Reviewing Fitzgerald and Hemingway: Cries from the Lost Generation
With characters that lead lives seemingly more listless than another’s, both Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby showcase a generation that feels lost amongst themselves after the toils of World War I have given their psyche and overall outlook on the world the once-over-twice. We find a collection of personas who have reached the peak of their youths and are tirelessly enjoying clinging on to the tail end of those dreams for as long as they can. Hemingway’s leading man, Jake Barnes, battles with a form of apathy for his surrounding, which renders him a listless wanderer in his own life, and the undeniable emotion of human nature, one which makes him cry himself to sleep sometimes. Meanwhile, Fitzgerald’s main character, Nick Carraway, finds himself perhaps uncomfortably displaced amongst the recklessness of this post-war generation lost amongst themselves and is haphazardly thrown into the thick of it. Where we may question whether either character consciously accepts their fate or not, we most definitely find a force of resistance may trump one over the other’s.
Both Hemingway and Fitzgerald found themselves in common company throughout their careers. Taking part of a movement in Paris that housed a certain “Lost Generation,” a group of writers began to really find themselves. This period marked a coming of age for many notable writers we revere today who, well into their lives already sequestered into their specific niches, realized a revamping of style and personal outlook was due during this time. Bumping elbows with the likes of Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and T.S. Eliot, the influences of their mantras and schools of thought show up as themes that run deep with both The Sun Also Rises as well as with The Great Gatsby. Both characters reflect on a new peak in their lives that lead to a cathartic understanding and simultaneous shock at the way society has since developed after the war.
I was so thrilled to be able to offer my input on this year’s Coachella to the newspaper. Unfortunately, covering Coachella didn’t give any of us backstage passes or super-awesome-access wristbands but it was a really great spread and very well organized. There were a couple of us who covered the festival and so they split the covered between a couple parts. I was given the first part and the introduction.
For this assignment we took on the issue of race and how it effected the way the populous accepted or rejected the musician. It’s the whole thing about how Elvis sounded like an African American singer but was as white as they came. Unfortunately it was a time in our history where people were encouraged to practice prejudice and so with Elvis, it was okay to enjoy the sultry, earthy and soulful voice mostly associated with African American singers because Elvis was a white man. In our assignment we were to take that thought and expand on it with the song “Ain’t That A Shame” and its subsequent cover. 
I had the chance to see the documentary Punk Rock Eats Its Own: A Film About Face to Face at the Arclight in Hollywood, stay for the Q&A and review the film. 
This was the most delightful movie I had seen in a while. I was able to attend a private screening in Los Angeles and immediately pre-ordered it on DVD when I came home. The review was so fun to write because the whole project was so brilliant.
I took a Literary Journalism seminar called Arts Criticism where we basically honed our skills in writing about various forms of art. I was excited about this class because with the New U, I was essentially doing just that. There’s a difference, however, and by the end of this class I had not only honed my skill in arts criticism but it gave me a new way of approaching the writing I did for the New U.
I did a preview on what the 
This is, by far, one of my absolute favorites. I was able to totally professionally finagle my way into interviewing The Gossip after a show they did at the Troubadour in LA. I coordinated with their tour manager, their publicist and record label to get a hold of them and that rush from succeeding in doing all that was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. They’re one of my absolute favorite bands and this was one of my favorite interview experiences next to interviewing Exene Cervenka. 
UCI has a very awesome and very official improv comedy troupe called 
Album reviews are fun to do, especially when it’s a band you like. I have lover Idlewild for a really long time and part of the fun in doing album reviews for relatively unknown bands is that you get to have them published in a venue where a large group of people (who are usually more interested in the mainstream) are exposed to really good music! 
Vagrant Journalism 