Meticulously curated by The Daily’s Arts and Life Editors, here are our selections for the top five things to watch, see and listen to this week in Palo Alto.
1. “Cold Stares”
The music video for “Cold Stares,” by LA producer Nosaj Thing, was released on Wednesday. The song, which dropped last year, features a harmonious hook from The O’My’s and an emotional verse from Chance the Rapper. But the video doesn’t feature any of these performers, instead capturing an eerie choreographed exploration of psychosis. Lines between real and perceived are blurred by sporadic glitches in the matrix, as the dancers — two patients in a hospital ward — flicker in and out of reality. All of this footage is captured by a swarm of drones which occasionally fly into each other’s sights, leaving the impression of a omnipresent surveillance that haunts the patients.
2. “The Flash”
With the second season of “The Flash” now airing on the CW, it’s the perfect time to get caught up on the program’s excellent first run, available in full on Netflix starting this week. Starring Grant Gustin of “Glee” fame, “The Flash” is one of few comic book adaptations that’s simply not afraid to embrace the totality of the medium from which it heralds. In fostering a fidelity to the fantasticality and optimism of the original comic strips, “The Flash” distinguishes itself amid a field of crowded competitors, proving sleek, sexy and just the right amount of sentimental. Blood is rarely shed here (this is no “Daredevil”) and the series’ writers care little about scientific accuracy, but the result remains refreshing. Realism be damned, this is the human imagination untethered.
3. “The Walk”
“The Walk” is a film you must see to believe. Rendered in IMAX 3D, Robert Zemeckis’ celebratory tale of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit is a marvel of technological derring-do, a cinematic wonder that easily earns its place among the decade’s aesthetic masterworks. Though perhaps a shade simplistic in its execution (you do not want to get me started on Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s accent), “The Walk” pulses with electricity and passion, re-establishing and re-affirming the potential of an endangered medium. Television may be finding its groove, but films like “The Walk” remind us why the cinema has so elegantly and so wonderfully withstood the ravishes of time.
4. “Knock Knock”
“Knock Knock,” the latest collaboration between underground rappers MED, Blu and the legendary producer Madlib, is a single from their upcoming EP, “Bad Neighbors,” and features longtime Madlib collaborator and scary-metal-death-mask wearer MF Doom. Madlib’s production is actually pretty sparse, as the song he samples, Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell’s “I’ll Be With You,” does most of the heavy lifting. But to me, that’s just a testament to the producer’s masterful taste and restraint. Meanwhile, the three rappers — MED, Blu and Doom — each deliver solid verses, with the stand out coming from the more established Doom, whose lines read like a series of texts that describe him breaking into a friend’s house and drinking all of the beers in the fridge.
5. “You”
Makoto Taniguchi’s “You” exhibition, currently being displayed at the Nanzuka Gallery in Shibuya, is a testament to Taniguchi’s whimsical, cartoon-influenced style. In particular, Taniguchi’s works are inspired by the portrayal of Japanese girls as characters in anime. “You” explores the theme of duality through its use of mirrors and acrylic sheets. In his pieces, the outer layer of acrylic paint is abstract and seemingly unintelligible, but the reflection of the paint in the mirror yields a clear image of a stylized girl. The charm and ephemerality of Taniguchi’s work make “You” an exhibit worth seeing – or at the very least, searching up on Google.
Contact the Arts and Life Editors at arts ‘at’ stanforddaily.com.