The Beacon

The contemporary music video is an increasingly prevalent art form made popular by television and the internet. The advent of video uploading sites like YouTube have made the music video one of the most important ways in which bands publicize their new music. A music video is usually three or four minutes long, about the [...]

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For those of you who only just passed high school English with the help of No Fear Shakespeare and continue to dread everything Shakespeare, there comes a play designed to blow your mind and reverse everything you believe to be true. Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is currently being played at Classic Stage Company in [...]

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Since Seinfeld first introduced the idea of the ‘Shiksa Appeal,’ Jewish girls everywhere have marveled at the power of the shiksa. But what is it about gentile women that causes them to hold so much power over Jewish men? Enter Avi Roseman, with her eight-step guide to attaining every Jewish girl’s goal: becoming the shiksa [...]

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There are no heroes in Joshua: A Brooklyn Tale. There aren’t any villains, either. The story takes place on too personal a scale for such lofty classifications to be applicable. What there are are people, just regular people, doing the best they can to make a life for themselves and find happiness, nothing grander than [...]

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My idea for this article came about around a month ago, after having a certain conversation with a friend of mine over lunch. Both being music (particularly prog rock) aficionados, we began discussing the idea of Jewish Music in the realm of Judaism.  He then relays a story to me about something that happened at [...]

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I did not intend on writing this article. But sitting on the edge of my seat for the last two hours head-bopping within an inch of my life, I was so completely overcome with Stern pride I could not help myself. In good journalist form, I whipped out my notebook and did not stop madly [...]

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They wander about Yeshiva University’s Wilf campus wearing lurid orange tee shirts, brazenly advertising “Blasny, Blasny,” and selling tickets to Schottenstein Theater, where air conditioning and legroom are matters of wishful thinking. Once the audience has braved the urban beat that pervades Washington Heights, however, the viewer is instantly assaulted by the Deep South, and [...]

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Judging from the editor’s introduction, She Nailed a Stake Through His Head (Dybbuk Press, 2010) is meant to reclaim the Bible from those stuffy old prudes who imagine it as a wholesome work of moral instruction and, in so doing, gloss over the violence and terror of the original stories. The anthology of nine stories [...]

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Charles Dickens, one of literature’s greatest heroes, was recently the subject of a commemorative exhibit at the Morgan Museum, called “Charles Dickens at 200.”  The Morgan Library & Museum claims to have the largest collection of Dickens manuscripts and letters, many of which went on display in this enlightening exhibit on his life and work [...]

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Photo by Julia Siegel Stern College Dramatic Society’s (SCDS) rendition of The Madwoman of Chaillot, directed by Reuven Russell, was an intimidating performance to attend. Between my inability to pronounce “Chaillot” under the best of circumstances and my general bias against a full cast of women playing men’s roles, my expectations were admittedly low. Yeshiva [...]

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Ripley’s. The name evokes strong memories from my childhood, when I used to buy the Ripley’s books from my 3rd-grade-friendly book catalog. I used to read for hours at a time about shrunken heads, two headed cows, werewolf men, and all kinds of things that were unbelievable, leaving our copies of Guinness world records coated [...]

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The following article compares the films The Artist and Singin’ in the Rain. There are a number of spoilers involved in this comparison. After quite a few months of hearing about the brilliance of Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist (2011) and that it will sweep the Oscars this year [Editor's Note: It did], I finally watched [...]

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Beth Bonnstetter, in a recent article in the University of Illinois’ Journal of Film and Video, makes the case that Mel Brooks’ beloved Hollywood romps serve up more than laughter. “If The Producers is ‘just entertainment,’ ” she warns, “and ‘Springtime for Hitler’ is simply meant to be funny, then at best, laughing at the [...]

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Success does not come easily to aspiring writers, and for the four students who gather in an apartment on the Upper West Side for a private workshop in Seminar with a writer-turned-teacher who refuses to treat them with kid gloves, the process is almost defeating. This new Broadway comedy written by Theresa Rebeck and directed by Sam [...]

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Freud’s Last Session, written by Mark St. Germain, explores the conversation that might have passed between founder of psychoanalysis Dr. Sigmund Freud and prolific author C. S. Lewis had they met near the end of Freud’s life. Although it deals seriously with many heavy issues, such as G-d, religion, death, sex, and happiness, the play still [...]

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The Beacon editors were recently made aware of an intriguing new website, halachipedia.org, a site where “halacha meets wiki.” We asked the founders of this site, now much-debated on the Jewish blogosphere, to explain the process behind the decision to make this website.  My brothers and I came up with this idea a few years [...]

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YU has all these silly requirements, but at the end of the day some are rather edifying and cultural. Taking an introductory Music course this semester, I was rather apprehensive because I’m not really such a classical music buff. For part of our final project, we were sent to Lincoln Center and Merkin Concert Hall [...]

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While I am not qualified to review the Stern College Dramatics Society’s production of Bye Bye Birdie (impartiality issues may arise from the fact that I was an actress in it), I can offer my own perspective of what went into creating this fantastic production, which showed at the Schottenstein Cultural Center on December 12, [...]

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The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is just like ballet, only minus the hoity-toity precision, and plus an infusion of humor and emotion in its place. The collection of dances presented in the Theater’s performance changes from day to day, and the eclectic range of dances in the performance on Sunday reflects the wide scope [...]

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If you want to see a traditionally good movie, don’t see Hugo (3D or otherwise), but if you want to remember why you go to the movies, Hugo will remind you in an extraordinary way. The plot was dragged at certain points, but it was completely enthralling at other moments. Overall, this was by no [...]

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I knew it was a mistake to buy Skyrim before the semester was over. Considering my love affair with Bethesda’s Oblivion during the summer, I should have known I would stop doing homework, stop talking to friends, and spend as much time as I could squeeze into my life playing the game. But I made [...]

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Ironically, what started as a rainy and dreary day shaped up into one of my favorite nights in New York City. The Stern Metropolitan Experience sent 25 girls and Professor Schram to see La Boheme at the Metropolitan Opera on Novermber 22 for an evening of culture and entertainment. La Boheme – it is absolutely [...]

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