The nominees in the main acting categories of the 2016 Academy Awards are entirely white. For the second year in a row, the lack of diversity at the Oscars led to big names boycotting the ceremony and the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite trending online. Read more...
Photo: UCLA professor Darnell Hunt compiles the “Hollywood Diversity Report” every year to track the change over time of minority representation in Hollywood productions. (Efren Piñon/Daily Bruin)
It seems as if every song flooding radio airwaves and streaming services has an air horn intro and a DJ name drop. Though the act was once synonymous with hip-hop mixtapes, the prevalence of DJ shoutouts seems to grow with each new album release. Read more...
Photo: DJ Khaled marks his song with “We The Best!” (Flowzyt/YouTube)
The sights and sounds of Whitney Bedford’s studio disappear. With her first brush strokes, the UCLA alumna is transported into the world of her artwork, where she said paint and her inner emotions intertwine and manifest themselves as one on a blank canvas. Read more...
Photo: The art of UCLA alumna Whitney Bedford featured in exhibitions in cities like Paris, Berlin, Prague and Milan. She currently teaches an art class called “Drawing the Subject” at the University of California, San Diego. (Courtesy of Evan Bedford)
Hip Hop Explosion would have been a medley of incomprehensible noise without Isaiah Rashad. Students bounded up the steep, low-lit staircase leading to Ackerman Grand Ballroom, chatting about how excited they were to hear hip-hop performers Rashad and Casey Veggies at the Cultural Affairs Commission’s Hip Hop Explosion concert event Thursday. Read more...
Photo: Rapper Isaiah Rashad transformed the Hip Hop Explosion stage into a melodic, neo-soul space where the audience grooved along to soft beats. (Daniel Alcazar/Daily Bruin senior staff)
Each week, Daily Bruin A&E will explore the instruments of the World Musical Instrument Collection and their performers that all contribute to the musical landscape of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Read more...
Photo: UCLA ethnomusicology graduate student Ryan Vig plays the Levantine buzuq, a long-necked fretted lute and folk instrument, with roots in Arab communities across Lebanon and Syria. (Laura Uzes/Daily Bruin)
Raymond Mai’s foray into rap was motivated by a pretty girl sitting next to him in class. Determined to catch her attention, Mai scribbled in his notebook a love poem, which he rapped to her during break. Read more...
Photo: UCLA alumnus Raymond Mai, known as MACKmai on stage, released his first mixtape “Second to None (220)” Saturday on SoundCloud. Mai, who grew up in a black- and Latino-dominated community area in southeast San Diego, became aware of other Asian-American students at UCLA. He realized the hardships his immigrant parents went through and decided to preserve their legacy through his mixtape. (Shelby Scoggins/Daily Bruin)
The party food landscape has become increasingly homogeneous, with its ubiquitous bag of Doritos rather than homemade fudge or stuffed mushrooms. Columnist Erin Nyren would like to bring back the house parties of yore, in which everyone cooked or baked something to share. Read more...
Photo: Crostini are simple and inexpensive to make, yet fancy enough to serve at an Academy Awards viewing party. The appetizers use roasted grapes, a baguette, toasted pecans, blue cheese and balsamic vinegar. (Mackenzie Possee/Daily Bruin)
