A performance of beautiful, lesser known indie games scores

On Sunday, March 10, the Video Game Orchestra Club presented its concert “Explore Beyond” in the ARC Ballroom. Consisting of thirteen songs that come from mostly independent video games, the ensemble proved their musical prowess by conducting an impressive performance that was filled with with soul-moving songs and an obvious air of comradery between the team of musicians.

What started as a nine member string ensemble in 2017 has grown to a 40 member group two years later. It has also become an official UC Davis club and welcome all music and video game lovers. According to the program handed out at the beginning of the concert, their goal is to “showcase the many endless unique worlds [one] can find in video games.”

The orchestra executed their goal quite well as their songs moved from joyous to melancholy to upbeat to downright hilarious. The ensemble’s performance was hosted in a room with a theater-sized screen, which projected certain scenes from each video game they covered.

As 6 p.m. dawned, the orchestra took their positions with their instruments, all clad in their black club shirt and aligned themselves in sections of strings, winds and percussion. They began their set with a song from the game “Capoka,” which truly set the mood for the night; a game that focuses on a free-roaming bird flying across a totalitarian landscape, the music was uplifting and brought a level of excitement to the audience as they watched scenes of this unbound blue jay taking flight above the concert of students.

Each song lasted anywhere from three minutes to upwards of ten minutes; most of the drawn out songs featured soloists showing off their talent attained over the years in the span of a few minutes. Directly after the opening song, the mood shifted as the concert went from upbeat to downhearted with a song from the (not-so-indie) “The Last of Us,” which featured Austin Kyran as the solo cello. One but needs to look into the gloomy, apocalyptic storyline of this game to understand the depth of musical talent that Kyran brought to the performance of this song titled “All Gone (No Escape).”

From there, a series of other merry performances would have raised the audience to their feet for a dance had there not been a climate of formality tying them to their chairs. The orchestra covered songs from “To the Moon,” which featured Savita Pereira on piano and vocals; “Journey,” which featured Kyan on cello, Diane Le on piano and Lauren Ting on flute; “Undertale,” which featured Justin Satnick on clarinet, Justin Tavassolikhah on alto saxophone, Brandon Cao on trumpet, Ziad Asadi on piano and Ryan Jung on guitar and “Hollow Knight,” which featured the string orchestra, Satnick and Julie Meyers on french horn, Shannon Kipling and Christopher Rivas on clarinet and Ting and Sharon Giat on flute.

Just before the 10-minute intermission, an obvious fan favorite was the “Super Smash Bros Medley” from the Super Smash Bros Series which featured Satnick and Tavassolikhah on center-stage in a brotherly fashion performing the medley’s entirety. Satnick bounced back-and-forth between french horn and trumpet while Tavassolikhah took on saxophone and clarinet. A far from simple composition, the Justins made it look easy as they performed the piece with such groove it had many audience members holding up camera phones to record the spectacle. They ended on a firm high-five that was echoed by a round of applause.

The intermission consisted of friendly, video game based conversations and a massively popular raffle consisting of two prizes: a Cuphead video game figurine and the privilege to choose what song the orchestra would master and perform in the next concert. The raffle winner from their last concert met their chosen song from the video game “Xenoblade Chronicles” in the second act. This raffle takes place every year, and although I dumped 20 dollars into the pot in hopes to pick a song from “Halo 2,” but my luck was no match to that of another audience member.

The second half of the concert went as smoothly as the first, featuring songs from “Ori and the Blind Forest,” which featured Jason Mak on piano; “The Beholder,” which featured Oscar Santamaria on bassoon and Jung on guitar; “A Hat in Time;” “Cuphead,” which featured Gabriel Patterson, Abigail Cohen and Aliya Hunter on samba percussions, Charles Cook on trumpet and Mak on piano and more “Hollow Knight,” with Chung on piano.

At the end of the concert, the crowd was ecstatic and laden with applause and loud cheers — for video game and music lovers alike, the night was a success. It’s safe to say that this diverse crowd of musical gamers are in good hands with the Video Game Orchestra.

The Video Game Orchestra plans to host a concert every quarter in order to bring joy to the community through their music. The environment they cultivate and the music they produce is one of a kind, as well as the sideshows they host — such as the raffle I will be doubling up on for their next performance.

To any and all who are interested in joining their community, they meet in Room 105 in the Music Building every Friday from 6 to 8 p.m.. More information can be found on their website as well as on all social media platforms.

Written By: Clay Allen Rogers — arts@theaggie.org

The Arts Desk reviews

Last week, the Arts Desk saw “Cold War” at the Varsity Theater. The 2018 Polish black-and-white drama follows Wiktor and Zula, two artists who fall deeply in love. Their love story is set against the background of the Cold War and the Communist propaganda machine. Directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, the film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director and Best Cinematography at the 91st Academy Awards.

Liz Jacobson

I didn’t realize the impact of this movie’s emotionally profound and thoughtful story on me until I started crying at the rolling credits. The score, which featured Chopin’s “Fantaisie-Impromptu,” Dwa serduszka” and an Ella Fitzgerald tune, perfectly complemented the beautiful cinematography.

Josh Madrid

The love between Zula and Wiktor is like two rivers flowing side by side, meeting each other at times, and eventually spilling out into the same deep ocean. The suffering and indulgence of these two lovers is a spectacular must-see.

Clay Allen Rogers

I was able to Shazam the whole movie, resulting in my new favorite Russian folk music playlist on Spotify. Besides the tear-jerking score and soundtrack, the more I contemplate the intricate scenes of this black-and-white masterpiece, the more I find myself wondering why this film didn’t win every award there is to win at the Cannes Film Festival.

Caroline Rutten

I’m going to see this movie again this weekend. The camera shots are too beautiful, the on-camera chemistry is too convincing and there is so much depth to the plot that one viewing won’t suffice.

Written By: The Arts Desk — arts@theaggie.org

Application process has potential for unclear expectations

The UC Davis English department offers undergraduates in the major a creative writing emphasis by way of acceptance to and completion of three upper division creative writing classes. Some students, however, have expressed concern regarding the perceived ambiguity in the application process to these upper division classes.

The creative writing emphasis allows students to produce material in three writing genres: poetry, fiction and nonfiction, denoted as P, F and NF respectively.

“English 5F, 5P and 5NF are the gateway classes in creative writing; these are the first classes you take,” said Associate Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing Katie Peterson. “If you want to take more classes, you apply to get into 100F, 100P, and 100NF. They are all workshop classes. The way they are taught is you go and you write things and then you bring them back to the classroom community. You get feedback and you learn to be a better writer through seminar based discussion. You learn what good writing is and what your writing is.”

Each class has space for roughly 17 students, and there is on average one section of 100F, 100P and 100NF offered every quarter. There will be two 100F sections this upcoming quarter, however.  Students apply for a place in the class through an application that requires writing samples. The professor teaching that quarter’s class decides which students from the application pool will be accepted into their class. Students who are denied are not offered direct feedback or justification as to why they were not accepted.

“I’m interested in screenwriting and media writing, and I think creative writing could cover these areas more than being just a communications or journalism major,” said fourth-year English major Kenny Menjivar. “The application process itself isn’t that difficult, but I haven’t gotten into fiction all year, and I’m still trying to get the emphasis with that. My [English 5F TA] was telling me different professors have their own tastes … I went to one of the major advisors last quarter and they told me it’s all up to the professor. I was a little mad at first, but I figure at one point I’ll get in.”

According to Peterson, the quality of the student’s work is the underlying factor to determining a student’s acceptance to the course.

“Every professor reads the applications and makes the decision on their own,” Peterson said. “The professor chooses the best writers, so the criteria [for acceptance] is the best writing. They chose the writing that is the most alive and dynamic. I can’t speak for everybody, but I know when I am faced with the applications for 100P, I choose the best poems. I know there is a popular view that nobody agrees what the best is, but I think if you chose a life in the arts you don’t think that’s true. There can be agreement what the best is. I choose students who are interested in poetic form in some capacity, whether it is the form of slam poetry or the sonnet. I choose students who think poetry is more than putting feelings down on a piece of paper. I choose students who are memorable. I often find myself choosing students who are interested in things other than themselves.”

A quote by poet Elizabeth Bishop summarizes good writing in multiple forms to Peterson.

“There are three things she looks for in good writing: accuracy, spontaneity, mystery,” Peterson said. “For me that covers it. I’m looking for things that show the writer knows what they are doing, I’m looking for things that surprise me and I’m looking for things where I walk away and there is quality of continual thinking.”

While fourth-year English major George Liao was initially denied to the emphasis, he was accepted upon reapplying. To him, focusing on growing as a writer was the cause of his eventual acceptance into the emphasis courses, rather than attempting to write in accordance to a style the professor of the class might want.

“[The emphasis] is really excellent, I’ve grown a lot since I’ve been here,” Liao said. “The classes are small and it’s concentrated. You get to work with other writers and see yourself grow and them grow as well. Writing is an expression of self. The more you adhere to yourself, find truth and instill it in your writing, it shows and the better writer you become.”

Writing for the purpose of adhering to a specific professor’s style goes against the writing itself, according to Peterson. A trust in oneself as a writer is fundamental to the creative writing program and is supported by the variation within the application process.

“What [you should think] is what is my best piece of work, rather than trying to guess what the professor will think is your best piece of work,” Peterson said. “The minute you start doing that is when you start becoming truly ambitious as a writer because you’re thinking about your own judgement. That is your best resource when revising a piece of work, as opposed to thinking ‘what does this person want from me.’”

Moreover, this nonlinear academic path is part of true instruction in the arts.

“It is much easier to know what instruction in the sciences looks like,” Peterson said. “The tradition of the instruction of arts in this country is a rich tradition, but it’s much less deeply respected and much less understood. And being an artist of any kind, you have to be the best judge of your own work. It is a really self-governing thing to do to want to be an artist. There is no rubric or set of criteria that is going to tell you what good writing is […] I think we’re less used to being comfortable saying one piece of writing is better than another than we are saying one set of coordinates in a problem set is more accurate in one problem set than another.”

Nonetheless, students can feel stress in the simplicity and inherent ambiguity of what is expected from them in the application as well as the number of students who apply. Moreover, these factors add stress to academic planning.

“I’m supposed to graduate, but if I don’t get into fiction I might have to take it in the fall,” Menjivar said. “But I don’t want to wait and see what the professor is going to say, so I might just play it safe and apply to nonfiction or poetry. But you do also get priority for a class as a senior so maybe I will get in with priority. But a lot of people are applying to fiction and there are only 15 people in the class, so I might take the easy way out. I think it’s random, it all depends on what the professor wants”

Moreover, according to Menjivar, students are notified a “week or two before the quarter starts” whether they are accepted or denied from the class which can complicate a schedule.

“I probably won’t find out until spring break if I get into my class for Spring Quarter,” Menjivar said.

According to Liao, the underlying issue that causes complications in student planning is the unequal ratio of student demand for creative writing classes and the supply of classes offered.

“I think perhaps if they opened up more 100 [series] classes that would be good,” Liao said. “Hopefully they will look into that to allow more capacity to bring students into these classes. Other majors are also impacted, and other students on campus also have to find other ways around it.”

The English department has taken steps to address student concerns about the creative writing emphasis.

“I had a meeting last quarter, and I’m going to have one next fall, with students before the application process to talk about the application,” Peterson said. “One of the things I did during the meeting was talk to them about how to select their best pieces of work and how to revise them.”

Peterson suggested seeking one-on-one attention with a professor or taking other creative writing classes can help improve a student’s work in order to better re-apply for an emphasis course.

“I think you can seek out that thing with the professor or take English 5 again,” Peterson said. “Fiction is the genre of our day, it is what everyone wants to write. But as long as you’re writing you’re probably improving. English 5 is there every quarter. Poetry classes often have less students who want to get into them, and you can learn a lot about writing a story through a poetry class. Non-fiction, too.”

Written By: Caroline Rutten — arts@theaggie.org

The Arts Desk’s weekly picks for television, movies, novels and music

Television: “Lovecraft Country”

In an upcoming HBO series, executive producers Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams will try to take back the Lovecraftian trope by turning it on its head. The series will follow Atticus Black, his friend Letitia and his Uncle George on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search for Atticus’s missing father, resulting in a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the horrific monsters from H.P. Lovecraft’s most notable works. Based on the dark horror fantasy novel by Matt Ruff, the series is set to release late 2019.

Movie: “MidSommar”

Remember the movie “Hereditary” *tongue cluck* written and directed by the brilliant Ari Aster? On Aug. 9, he is set to release his follow-up horror film that is said to be more brutal than his first. As it goes, the film follows a wife and husband on vacation in a Swedish village hosting a festival that only takes place once every 90 years — filled with flowery Pagan crucifixes and a little too much bleached blonde hair for comfort, Aster is surely setting us up for another ritual that will inevitably result in the summoning of some hellish deity. Coming from A24 studios, my hopes remain high for this summer release.

Novel: “Riot. Strike. Riot.”

Award-winning poet and UC Davis’s own Joshua Clover offers a new understanding of the riot as a form of insurrection. Clover highlights the history of the riot as the central form of protest in the 17th and 18th centuries, then speaks to its supplanting in the 19th century with the strike, only to return in full effect in the 1970s, forever changed in coordination with race and class. This book creates new ways for its readers to acknowledge the embarrassments of present history, thus providing petrol for all antagonists in their struggle toward a revolutionary horizon and a means to break through the oppressive simulation of utilitarianism.

Album: “The Sky’s Gone Out”

Bauhaus, considered to be pioneers of goth music, released this album back in 1982, and it was an absolute hit — it still is. The dark and ominous tones of the ensemble hold a melody with the Bowie-esque vocals of Peter Murphy, the lead singer, resulting in my undying love for this collection of works. In 2005, Bauhaus took the stage at the Coachella Music Festival and performed a number of these hits while Murphy conducted the whole of his performance suspended upside-down from a crane, as an homage to Carl Laemmle’s “Dracula,” who inspired their hit song “Bela Legosi’s Dead.” And though they have been broken up since, their music is still worth a listen today.

Written by: Clay Allen Rogers — arts@theaggie.org