Recounting a summer of pop culture

During the brief summer break, the pop-culture-savvy A&E staff of The Pitt News had plenty of… During the brief summer break, the pop-culture-savvy A&E staff of The Pitt News had plenty of respite to enjoy all mediums of the arts. Here are some of their favorites from the last several months — both new and rediscovered — that might get you to check out something different this year.

Rave On Buddy Holly

This summer has been a great one for music, with new releases from a multitude of artists, including Bon Iver, Beyoncé and Death Cab for Cutie. But so far, my favorite album of the summer has been Rave On Buddy Holly, a compilation of some of Buddy Holly’s greatest songs performed by modern artists.

Although it was recommended to me by a friend, I was a little reluctant to give it a listen because the late musician doesn’t exactly rate high on my iPod’s most-played tracks. But I was pleasantly surprised. What Rave On Buddy Holly does so well is give listeners a wide variety of musicians and interpretations of Holly’s music, with all the artists bringing their own personal styles to the songs while still staying true to Holly’s original.

Two personal favorites are “Dearest” by The Black Keys, who give the melancholy love song its traditional bluesy spin, and “(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care” by Cee Lo Green, who uses his allotted 93 seconds to perform what I consider the most unexpected, yet most endearing song of the entire album. Other artists include She & Him, Florence + the Machine, Paul McCartney, Patti Smith and Lou Reed.

On the whole, the album bridges the gap between traditional Buddy Holly fans and newer listeners, combining at different points the sweet earnestness that marked many of Holly’s songs and the tragedy of his early death.

-Liz Keeney

“Game of Thrones”

One well-written, bloody addition to HBO had viewers wondering every week: Who will die next? The summer saw the premiere of a complex medieval fantasy show called “Game of Thrones,” based on the book series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” by George R.R. Martin.

The first season follows the plot of the first book in the series, which was published in 1996. Writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss managed to capture the complete essence of at least 15 main and minor characters while remaining almost entirely faithful to the book. This is quite a feat, considering the book series has a constantly thickening plot that follows political and economic turmoil in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.

In the beginning of “Game of Thrones,” as a winter approaches that could potentially span an entire lifetime, trouble arises with the murder of the Hand of the King. Leader and father Ned Stark is called upon to protect the king, his old friend. Ned accepts the request and moves his family south, a move that has bloody consequences. All the while, unbeknownst to most of the realm, evil lurks north, where winter never ends.

This show, just like the book, challenges fans to guess. Who will win at the game of thrones, and who will perish beneath his enemy’s sword? And since the writers’ interpretation of the novel has led to a green-lighted second season in addition to 13 Emmy Award nominations, this series has a promising future.

-Larissa Gula

Movies on the hill

My favorite parts of summer are probably watching an excessive number of movies and spending as much time as possible outdoors. So imagine my delight at my discovery of Pittsburgh Citipark’s “Cinema in the Park” program, bringing both of those fantastic summer pastimes together in an event series ideally suited to a college student’s budget — that is to say, free.

Six nights a week, the city puts up movie projectors in parks all over Pittsburgh — including on Oakland’s own Flagstaff Hill in Schenley Park on Sundays and Wednesdays. Bring some friends (required), a blanket (optional) and snacks (recommended), and your evening is set. The schedule is posted online ahead of time, giving you plenty of time to debate if it’s worth even leaving the apartment to see “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” or whether you should plan to stake out picnic-blanket spots three hours ahead for “Inception.”

Selections ranged from classics (the original “Batman”) to recent releases (“Iron Man 2”). They also included a smattering of children’s films for the inner child in us all — or, at any rate, those of us who resisted watching “How to Train Your Dragon” until we got dragged to the park and had to contritely admit that it is, in fact, a heart-meltingly adorable movie.

-Sarah Simkin

“Star Trek”

Growing up, I was always a Star Wars kind of guy. This summer, the collision of Netflix and air-conditioning forced me to reconsider that. All five series of Star Trek — from the days of Captain Kirk in the original to Captain Archer on Enterprise — are available on the Internet streaming service, and they’re something unique amid the countless other cultural treasures available through the box that also lets me play Grand Theft Auto.

The shows are great science fiction, true, but they’re also an extension of the Western, the ship’s tale and the adventure story of old.

The formula Gene Roddenberry came up with almost 50 years ago shows remarkable flexibility in terms of the stories it can tell. Roddenberry’s depiction of the future is both terrifying and beautiful, from Jean-Luc Picard’s poetic heart sustaining itself in space’s silent vacuum to Seven of Nine’s awkward reintegration into humanity after being assimilated by the cybernetic Borg as a child. It might be gray and dark, but it’s inherently human — even if it’s Vulcan, Ferengi or space blob. And oh heavens is it addictive.

Don’t tell George Lucas, but I think I might have just bought a poster of Worf.

-Patrick Wagner

Staycation

With both a full-time job and a lack of disposable funds, I decided to forgo extravagent trips and make the most of sticking around Pittsburgh this summer. Staycationing — a term people like dusting off during recessions — became one of my favorite things to do.

The dollar movie theater in West Mifflin gave me the opportunity to decide movies were mediocre in the comfort of air conditioning and in front of the big screen — for a tenth of the usual price. “Thor,” for example, might have gotten solid reviews, but just about the only thing I enjoyed were the lead actor’s knee-weakening good looks — a dollar well spent, but I wouldn’t have been able to say the same for 10.

Thumbing through a collection of both my friends’ and my own old CDs also gave me plenty of entertainment. Remember the lyrical genius of LFOs “Summer Girls” — “When you take a sip you buzz like a hornet / Billy Shakespeare wrote a whole bunch of sonnets”? Ridiculous and well-worn-but-forgotten jams can be a free way to get some variety into your playlist and spark the sharing of embarrassing adolescent anecdotes.

Finally, to keep costs down, I cooked with friends rather than going to restaurants. Instead of blowing everything on pizza, we got crafty. Armed with Paula Deen’s recipes — God bless that woman — and a strong desire to try quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah), friends and I whipped up some adventurous dishes and greatly improved our cooking repertoire.

So next time you’re low on funds and long on time, give staycationing a try and enjoy the splendors that Pittsburgh and your own place can offer.

-Natalie Bell

Closure

For the past several years, my personal mission statement has been to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden and then become a museum curator. Well, looks like I might have to make some adjustments.

When the news came that President Barack Obama was going to speak about a pressing “national security issue” late on a Sunday night, I felt it could only be one of two things. Either: 1) Osama bin Laden was killed or captured, or 2) an asteroid was on a collision course with Earth and we were all doomed, provided a scrappy bunch of oil-rigger roughnecks from the Gulf of Mexico couldn’t manage to blow that sucker up.

Thankfully, the former held true, and the twentysomething’s generational boogie-man had been stricken forever from the record.

For the last decade, while I watched our government hunt bin Laden in the Hindu Kush and the unnavigable border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, I could also walk into a movie theater once a year and watch teenage wizards fight what was ostensibly a losing battle against their own boogie-man, only to triumph in the final installment.

So this past summer was one of closure for many of us. On May 1, I sat on the couch as all the 24-hour news networks blasted the headlines about the death of bin Laden.

On July 17, I watched Harry kill Lord Voldemort. It was over. Like most things in life I found it to be somewhat anticlimactic, yet still comforting. For years I had freely forked over countless dollars to Warner Bros. and the Harry Potter franchise, and this summer it all ended. But unlike the movies, things in real life don’t just end with the final credits and young twentysomethings awkwardly portraying 35-year-old versions of themselves.

Our reality carries on. And we move on.

-Dan Law

Bonnaroo

Being in the middle of rural Tennessee in June doesn’t exactly conjure up images of throngs of music aficionados, renowned artists and an unforgettable weekend of the arts.

But Bonnaroo Music Festival accomplished just that for the 10th consecutive year in Manchester, Tenn., by bringing an array of genres, artistic mediums and people together on a massive campground governed by only on rule: freedom of expression.

Heat and dust — the only two sources of complaints — were no match for the diversity of acts, small or large, that united attendees in the enjoyment of bluegrass, jam band, hip-hop and electronic music, as well as improv shows, freelance films, sustainable snacks and retail.

Featuring prominent artists such as Arcade Fire and Eminem along with up-and-coming acts — evident in the energetic performances of Childish Gambino and Best Coast — multiple stages and timeslots allowed crowds to expand their musical palate while still enjoying their favorite acts.

Some festivalgoers easily transitioned into the night sets of DJs, enjoying the annual tradition of the Silent Disco by quietly raging through personal headphones, while others chose to call it a night and prepare for a rejuvenating session of early morning yoga.

As the final swirls of dust left the feet of the stragglers, Centeroo — the hub of the action for the previous four days — stood defiant and ready to take on another year, and another, and another…

-Jon Shakesprere