Volume 15 Issue 2
Sienna Otero
warm fuzzy feels

Do you listen to girl in red?

warm fuzzy feels
Volume 10 Issue 1
A. C.
Mood Music: Walking to Class

For many of us, getting through Reed without a good pair of headphones or earbuds would be impossible. So here’s a playlist that will possibly help you deal whatever Reed is throwing your way. The main theme for this week’s playlist is change and uncertainty. Whether you’re a first-year or a senior, the first few weeks of school will always leave you with an unsettling mix of feelings. Personally, the weirdest part of the start of a semester is the time I spend walking to and from class. I always end up missing some old faces and having to adjust to some new ones. I made this playlist because to me it feels like the right mixture of sad yet sweet, anxious yet hopeful.

Mood Music: Walking to Class
Volume 9 Issue 1
Alex Morgan
It humbles my heart, for you are everywhere.

In a previous Cultural Column on famous movie monsters last semester, I mentioned the upcoming movie The Shape of Water’s potential to tell a story of radical empathy. Having now seen the film, I can say with certainty that the film delivers on that potential—The Shape of Water is a beautiful tale told with passion, and a massive accomplishment for director del Toro.

It humbles my heart, for you are everywhere.
Volume 8 Issue 5
Grail Editor
Not Your Abuela's Tostones Recipe

Fried plantains, a.k.a. “tostones” in Puerto Rico and Cuba, are eaten in many Latin American countries, especially in the Caribbean. I’ve decided to share my abuela’s version of the popular dish, adding a little Puerto Rican flair to the Grail in the process. Although tostones are generally served as a side dish, I’ve added a recipe for a dip so that, if you so choose, you can serve the tostones as a snack.

Plátanos fritos se comen en muchísimas partes de Latinoamérica, especialmente en el Caribe. He decidido compartir la receta de mi abuela de este platillo popular, dándole un toque puertorriqueño a the Grail en el proceso. Aunque los tostones generalmente se sirven como acompañamiento para otro plato, he incluido un mojo por si quieres servirlos como un tentempié.

Not Your Abuela's Tostones Recipe
Volume 8 Issue 5
Misha Lerner
Lessons for the Left 100 Years After

Only around three-hundred men stormed the Winter Palace in 1917. The process was slow, with red guards climbing onto ledges and struggling to break windows to gain entrance to the seat of the Provisional Government. But it was with this occupation that the world was forever changed.

Volume 4 Issue 2

McConnaisance etc.

McConnaisance etc.

Much has been written about the McConaissance, so much so that Google Docs doesn’t even mark the word McConaissance as a typo, once I figured out how to spell the damned thing. Now that the idea of affixing the descriptor “prestige” to the phrase “actor Matthew McConaughey, star of Sahara, Failure to Launch, and Fool’s Gold” is old hat, it has reached the time for the cultural consciousness to move on and bring a different performer to the spotlight. And that actor is one of our all-time greats, Lily Tomlin. Now, I know this comparison doesn’t quite work; McConaughey went from rom-com dreck to mumbly, apocalyptic greatness, Tomlin has been consistently great throughout her entire career. Also, Tomlinaissance doesn’t quite have the same ring (and Google Docs insists it isn’t a word.) But for some reason, Tomlin doesn’t quite have the resonance amongst the younger generations that she should have. After seeing the new film Grandma, now playing at the Hollywood Theatre, I think that may change. In the film, Tomlin plays a semi-retired and penniless Californian lesbian poet-academic, basically the spirit animal/future self of many a Reed student. Over the course of the movie, she assists her granddaughter scrape together the money she needs for an abortion. Many reviews are positively assessing Grandma as being a progressive step forward following last year’s Obvious Child in terms of abortion plots; the idea of abortion is thoroughly normalized throughout the film, and the narrative never second-guesses the character’s intention to follow through with the procedure. The abortion is really a backdrop for Tomlin to work her magic, though. She wields tremendous emotional power in every scene, mixing mirth, sadness, and disgust into singular facial expressions. There’s one episode in the middle of the movie that features Tomlin squaring off with Sam Elliott, and it is definitely up there with the best scenes of the year. Hopefully films like this, will lead a new generation of viewers (shall we call them… the TOMLINELLIALS?) to delve into her deep back catalog of hits, especially 9 to 5, the workplace comedy/proto-third wave feminist tract featuring her alongside Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton. 9 to 5 has firmly integrated itself into the lexicon of my partner and I, so much so that we have decided who would be each character (I think I would be the Dolly, but she insists I’m the Jane. Whatever, she’s definitely the Lily.) Rumor has it a 9 to 5 reunion might be coming soon, fingers crossed.