caitlin troutman – The Hilltop Monitor

“Get Out” had me by the opening credits

Caitlin Troutman — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 16:00:43 +0000

By now most of you have probably heard about Jordan Peele’s horror debut “Get Out.” You’ve probably heard that it is funny, bone-chilling, subversive and incredibly clever. I am here to tell you that it lives up to the hype. From the opening scene, which features a violent kidnapping, to the minute the credits rolled, I was totally captivated by this movie. It was truly one of the best theater experiences I’ve had in years.

For those who don’t know, “Get Out” follows a young black American, Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), as he goes to his girlfriend’s (Allison Williams) parents’ country house for the first time. Once there, things quickly escalate from the expected awkwardness of meeting your significant other’s family for the first time to moments of dread to terrifying events that made this moviegoer rock back and forth in her seat. It’s like if the classic “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” was a psychological thriller.

While the movie is scary, it’s not scary in the blood-and-gore way upon which so many in the genre capitalize. Instead, ideas that are just realistic enough—think hypnosis, brain surgery and a secret dungeon—are what deliver true fright. The movie plays on the very real, primal fear all humans have of others being in control of their own bodies. Additionally, like a truly great horror movie, little things, like a teacup, a bowl of Froot Loops and the search engine Bing, become sinister. At the same time, the movie delivers the clever lines and laughs I would expect from one-half of “Key and Peele.”

In addition to “Get Out” just being a great freaking movie, the film has also made waves for its cerebral, biting political message. It is, after all, about the way black people are treated in contemporary American society. It takes aim not at the outright racists, but at the “woke” liberals, the ones who emphasize how important it is to experience other cultures and who would vote for Obama a third time if they could.

What’s terrifying in the movie isn’t that you don’t see the villain coming but that the protagonist has been conditioned to ignore the warning signs around him. One scene in particular that depicts this is the much-talked-about dinner party scene. White people walk up to Chris and make cringeworthy but expected remarks: “You must be a great athlete.” “Black skin is considered more attractive now.” “You play golf? I know Tiger.” “Is the sex better?” Chris laughs uncomfortably, but accepts these remarks as if he hears them all the time and, as a black man, he likely does.

Chris is paranoid about all the weirdness going on, but can’t voice it because he has been told his entire life that he is being sensitive or crying wolf at racism. As the movie progresses, Peele slowly piles on these awkward encounters into horror movie moments. These microaggressions, these tiny remarks that white people make to remind a black person that he is different from them.

Additionally, the film created great characters. Allison Williams’s Rose is chilling as the wide-eyed, passive girlfriend. She is the character that I, as a white viewer, related to. She talks back to a cop who is guilty of racial-profiling and rolls her eyes at her parents’ uncomfortable, tone-deaf remarks but is still complacent in their racism. As Chris becomes more desperate, she stands to the side. Her character shows that being an ally isn’t enough, that that’s just another way to trap somebody.

I’m white, and no matter how much I try to sympathize, I can never totally understand what it’s like to be a black person who deals with different forms of racism. I can, though, appreciate a funny, scary, well-made movie that portrays the most terrifying parts of this experience. By all accounts, “Get Out” is this movie.

Cover photo courtesy of “The Los Angeles Times.”

Artist Feature: Curtis Chapin

Caitlin Troutman — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 14:00:42 +0000

A lot of kids dream of being in a band, but most go only as far as singing into a hairbrush. Curtis Chapin, a senior music theory and religion and culture major, is one of the exceptions. Chapin has devoted both his free time and much of his time at William Jewell College to making and performing music.

“I developed a love for music before I was aware of it,” said Chapin. “I was constantly spinning CDs, obsessing over the melodies and imagining that I was a wailing with a guitar in my hands. As I got older, my true passion for music emerged in front of me.”

The son of two artists, Chapin originally thought that he would follow the path of many of his family members into visual art. However, his love of music drew him to the guitar.

“At age 10, I saved up my money and bought a guitar so that I could convince my friends to start a pop-punk band with me. In my estimations, we would be touring by the sixth grade.”

Photo courtesy of Rebekah Partridge Photography

While preteen Chapin did not end up starting a rock band and selling out venues, he did continue his avid devotion to music and guitar.

“By ninth grade I was playing electric guitar in a metal band, playing embarrassing yet formative local shows,” said Chapin. “I moved from band to band throughout high school playing ‘metal,’ contemporary worship music and heavy post-punk concoctions.”

While his free time was spent playing guitar in these different bands, Chapin found himself drawn to other types of music in the setting of his high school.

“I fell in love, unexpectedly, with choral singing,” he said. “In spite of my lack of vocal training I became obsessed with singing in high school choirs. I think my lack of training helped me approach classical music in a more childlike way. I was caught up in the feeling of creating music that was bigger than the individual.”

Visit www.williamjewellphoto.com for additional images.

This love and fascination continued to his college career. Throughout his years at Jewell, Chapin has been in several choirs, jazz band, and he describes himself as a “choir-kid through-and-through.” He also studies music composition and classical singing.

Outside of school, Chapin plays guitar and backing vocals to the band No Place. The band has toured and played in a variety of venues, including bars, churches, metal venues and outdoor festivals. Chapin says the sound appeals to “post-rock-sympathizing metal heads” and that “the rawness of the vocals falls in line with punk sensibilities.” Chapin has been a member of the band since before he graduated from high school.

“This group of guys clicked with me on a musical and spiritual level,” said Chapin. “Before I knew it, we were playing consistent shows, recording demos and doing small DIY tours.”

Although it is not specifically a Christian band, the members of “No Place” are all practicing Christians. Chapin states that the expression of their theology in their art and lyrics is organic and unavoidable. Moreover, Chapin says the band does not seek direct evangelism.

A photo of No Place from the band’s Facebook page.

“We see our ‘ministry’ on par with a craftsman who builds cabinets for the greater glory of God,” said Chapin. “The craftsman doesn’t need to carve Bible verses into the side of each cabinet or hide gospel tracts in between the shelves to get the point across.”

After leaving Jewell, Chapin plans to make music a constant part of his post-grad life.

“I want my twenties to be a time where I can nurture myself as a whole musician who can be easily transplanted between disciplines and projects,” said Chapin. “I plan on teaching guitar and voice, joining a professional choir and composing consistently after I graduate. The Jewell music department has definitely prepared me for that.”

Chapin admits that the idea of making music a full time career is a daunting one.

“Sometimes I struggle to take myself seriously when I say that life after Jewell means crawling into a van with my grungy comrades for the foreseeable future. That’s not exactly what anyone would want to see on the bio of a Jewell Faculty Award nominee.”

Photo by Kyle Rivas

STEM students expand learning opportunities at conferences

Caitlin Troutman — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 20:31:44 +0000

When students think of science class, most probably don’t get too excited. However, the science departments at William Jewell College offer several opportunities for science students outside of equations and lab reports. Recently, several Jewell students in the science departments attended national conferences where they had opportunities to network and present research.

Chemistry and biochemistry students attended the Midwest Regional American Chemical Society (ACS) conference in Manhattan, Kan. during the last weekend of October. Seniors Madison Willenborg, a biochemistry and ACT-In major, Larissa Dougherty, biochemistry and ACT-In major, Ashleigh Milne, chemistry major, Camille Love, chemistry major and Trevor Nicks, biochemistry and ACT-In majors; juniors Jesse Lundervold, chemistry and studio art major, Denver Strong, physics and math major, and Seki Anderson, biochemistry and ACT-In major, all attended the event.

The ACS Meeting is for both undergraduate and graduate students interested in chemistry research. The conference consisted of poster sessions focused on chemistry education, networking events, learning about different businesses and PhD programs, and learning about different research opportunities.

“I enjoyed hearing about chemistry outside of the classroom,” said Anderson. “It’s a different way of learning, and it reminds me that I learn chemistry more than just for a good grade.”

The students in the physics department also attended a conference recently. Society of Physics Students (SPS) attended the 2016 Quadrennial Physics Congress (PhysCon) in San Francisco.

Junior physics and mathematics major Macy Tush, senior physics major Daniella Marin, sophomore history of ideas and physics major Megan Anderson, junior physics and mathematics major Denver Strong, and freshman physics, economics and math major Jacob Dice attended the event, along with Dr. Baker, who was honored with the SPC national advisor of the year award.

“It’s also a huge educational resource,” said Tush. “You can get ideas for your SPS chapter, how to make it better, get ideas for research, you can meet other physics students. For us it was really valuable because we have such a small physics department, it was nice to get out and meet people in other physics departments and see how other schools do things. They also bring in a bunch of big-name speakers to give lectures, then they do a bunch of workshops. If there’s something you’re really interested in in the physics realm, odds are you’re going to find a lecture or workshop about it that weekend.”

Among the lecturers were Nobel Prize winners and other big names in the physics world.

“It was cool just to hear them talk because they’re so much smarter than I am or will ever be,” said Tush. “And so just getting to sit and listen to them I really liked.”

Tush also said that she enjoyed the opportunity to meet physics students from other schools.

“I really like the networking, getting to meet people from other departments because our experiences are so different,” said Tush. “I got to meet one girl specifically who goes to a small liberal arts school in New York and she’s a physics undergrad, but her physics program is like 70 percent women, so I got to have some really cool conversations with her that I wouldn’t have had if not for this conference.”

Anderson also enjoyed meeting a range of students at the chemistry conference.

“Talking to the students during the poster sessions was beneficial networking because many of the undergraduates spent their summer at and REU [Research Experience for Undergraduates funded by the National Science Foundation],” said Anderson. “REUs are particularly competitive programs, so the more networking, the better.”

Jewell students also presented at these poster sessions, including seniors Larissa Dougherty, Camille Love, and Ashleigh Milne. Love was also recognized as one of the top presenters in her category.

Both students said that their respective conferences had both graduate students and professors present so that students could look at graduate programs across the nation. Tush also said that there were discussions and opportunities for students who didn’t want to pursue graduate school.

“A lot of people assume that if you get a physics undergrad, you have to go on to grad school,” said Tush. “There are other options, and that’s something I think our department does really well, telling you, ‘no you can a physics undergrad and go to law school, or you can get a physics undergrad and be an engineer, you can be premed, you can do all these things with physics undergrad. They had a session there about that and we [Jewell students] were all sitting like, ‘we know this stuff’ but people around us were amazed that they didn’t have to go to grad school for physics. It’s really nice to know that our department cares enough to share these options with us rather than just tell us the easy answer which is ‘just go to grad school, you’ll be fine’. They’ve gone out of their way to inform us of all our options.”

For students who wish to go to conferences in the future, both Anderson and Tush encourage communicating with the cabinets of honor societies and with the departments. Tush also mentioned that a student doesn’t have to be a physics major in order to be involved with the physics department. She encourages other students to get involved with physics events.

“Every Thursday at 2:15 p.m. we have physics minute,” said Tush. “We talk about physics for one minute, then eat ice cream for 15 minutes. We put a timer on, so you can literally only talk about physics for 1 minute.”

Overall, science students seem to enjoy and benefit from the conference experience.

“Getting to go on these conferences shows you that physics is more than just the classroom setting,” said Tush, “It’s more than the homework problems you do, it’s actually changing the world and finding these problems and finding solutions to these problems, which gets lost a lot in our academic environment I think. We get bogged down with thirty homework problems and I forget that I’m actually learning something that is a really valuable tool and resource.”

“Ouija”: not as bad as you’d expect

Caitlin Troutman — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 13:00:20 +0000

After the first “Ouija” movie, I didn’t really expect for there to be a second film. That trope-fest received abysmal reviews, but it must have done well at the box office, because we now have “Ouija: Origin of Evil.” I will say that the sequel surpassed the first in quality, but it still feels wholly unnecessary. Remember when Rihanna was in “Battleship” and everyone was like, “why did they make a movie about a board game?” This is like that, except the sequel.

“Origin of Evil” follows a mother, Alice, and her two daughters, Doris and Lina, who operate a fake séance business out of their home. To bolster business, Alice buys a Ouija board and soon discovers that the board can be used to summon real spirits. Alice gets a little too excited about business, and when Doris uses the board alone one day, hijinks ensue. And by hijinks I mean the evil ghost of a holocaust survivor.

Then things get a little complicated. Horror cliches accumulate and puddle. It felt like an entire season of American Horror Story stuffed into 90 minutes: we’ve got your mental hospital, your creepy kids laughing, your priest promising an exorcism, your secret dungeon, your haunted house.

The movie provides a lot of exposition, yet never really explains the evil spirits or the possession in a way that is satisfactory. It kind of seems like the writers knew there was a plot hole, and said “let’s just stick some Nazis in there.”

The writers did make an attempt to build an emotional connection with the audience. However, this connection consisted of nothing except mentioning “my husband’s tragic death” or the fact that “Doris has trouble making friends” every few minutes. I was getting pretty bored during the first half of the movie, and was focusing more on the 60’s style wardrobes and the too-earnest acting than the plot. The movie could have been about 30 minutes shorter and packed the same punch, both emotionally and in terms of scares.

All of this being said, “Ouija” really isn’t that bad for a franchise based on a premise that is essentially nothing. I was surprised by how much I liked it. Over-the-top? Yes. Derivative? Absolutely. But bad? I don’t think so. But still, maybe it’s good to enter with low expectations. Some horror movies stick with me; I think about them for weeks afterward and am afraid to leave my bed at night. “Ouija” is not one of those movies. It’s more of a passing scare. There are some great jump scares, spooky music and creepy effects, but no lasting psychological terror, no nightmares to report. 2 out of 5 stars.

Photo courtesy of Screen Rant.