By Annabel Simmons

Music is an essential element to human life — influencing our emotions, fostering connections and enhancing everyday experiences. Walking around the University of Arkansas campus, you will see an abundance of students wearing various listening devices, immersed in their own musical worlds. But how exactly does music play a role in student life, especially in the face of college complexities? 

University students, in particular, significantly rely on music. The medium has become a necessity for most U of A students — weaving its way into various aspects of daily routines. From getting through the day to winding down at night, music seems to be innately nestled into the mundane, ordinary activities of life. 

Camille Wright, a sophomore at the U of A studying biology, noted she listens to music throughout the entirety of her day. For her, having the continuous background noise makes the day more enjoyable. 

“I listen to it when studying, driving, working out, walking from class to class, cleaning and even showering,” Wright said. Using music to simply accompany everyday experiences is a common trend for most students.

One of the most common times students use music is during studying and completing coursework. For many, music is considered to be an integral piece to their study routine, enhancing one’s ability to complete coursework and increasing academic performance. However, reasons for use when studying vary among students. Music may be used as mere background noise. 

“Background noise kind of drowns out the stray thoughts in my head, so I can focus better,” Wright explained. 

The preferred genre for completing academic work differs depending on who is listening. For some students, listening to lyrical music tends to be distracting in times of needed focus. Because of this, Wright said she typically listens to instrumental guitar or slow classical playlists, which is a popular option for many students. 

When using music as a stimulus for creativity and motivation, others prefer listening to their favorite artists and more upbeat playlists during coursework. Several students claimed that streaming a playlist full of their most cherished songs has the capacity to raise their mood, better motivating them to complete strenuous assignments. The right song can help shift perception, making difficult tasks feel more manageable.

However, music can bring a dichotomous effect to productivity. Belle Chapal, a sophomore at the U of A, emphasizes how music often serves as a source of inspiration, increasing her creativity and productivity. She also notes that good music can sometimes be distracting. 

“I think it’s such an influential medium,” Chapal said. “I’ll sit down to study, and the right song can inspire me to get through a paper in half an hour, but the wrong album can distract me.” The inconsistent influence that music can have is hindering at times; however, credit is still due for its creative impact.

“Listening to music might redirect my energy, but I think a lot of my energy comes from listening to music as well,” Chapal said. Balancing music as a tool for efficiency versus enjoyment is key to optimizing its benefits.

Beyond academics, music is very involved in most students’ social lives. It serves as a means of connection, fostering friendships and creating lasting memories. “I think music definitely brings people together and creates a sense of community around campus,” Chapal said. “I met one of my best friends at a local concert freshman year, and we’ve had so many memories together since. When me and my friends want a weekend away, we always plan it around concerts and festivals.”

Chapal works as the station manager at KXUA, the student-run radio station at the U of A. Through KXUA, Chapal is constantly introduced to new artists and genres by her peers, she said. “Talking to other students about music can introduce you to new songs, but I think more importantly it can bring you closer together,” Chapal said. Recently, she has been enjoying artists such as FKA Twigs, Jane Remover and Caroline Polachek. “The first few months of spring semester always seem pretty bleak, so I’m looking for something rich, energetic and fun,” she said. “It’s an art pop spring.”

Isabella Galloway, a sophomore studying chemical engineering, also recognizes how music fosters community. She played the clarinet throughout middle and high school but had to give it up in college due to the demands of her coursework. Despite this, music remains a staple in her life. “I don’t go a day without listening to at least a few hours of music,” she said. Attending local concerts has allowed her to form meaningful connections, similar to Chapal’s experiences. “I’ve made so many great friends going to local shows and concerts,” she said. One of her favorite places to watch shows with local artists is Vinos in Little Rock. “I just love the community there,”Galloway said. 

Music also plays a huge role in nightlife culture, providing a break from academic stress. Many students use music to set the tone for nights out. Kaitlynn Miller, a sophomore studying psychology, emphasizes how music helps create a positive atmosphere before going out with friends. “It really helps us all feel more connected and confident,” she said. Sharing admiration for many of the same artists, it’s easy for them to enjoy music with one another, she said. 

Stress is inevitable for students. Academic expectations can be overwhelming and hard to navigate. However, music is a notable outlet for these pressures, providing a boost of serotonin and catharsis when needed. It is a significant tool for aiding overall well-being and mental health. “Music is like a form of therapy for me,” Miller said. “I turn to it in so many different situations because it helps me better myself.” She notes it as something she uses to relieve anxiety and stress because of its ability to take negative thoughts off of her mind. 

Whether one is listening to study, socialize or relieve stress, music remains a vital part of student life, enhancing the college experience in countless ways. As students navigate the highs and lows of university life, music will undoubtedly remain a powerful force in guiding them through their journey. 

The post The Soundtrack of Success: The Role of Music in Student Life appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Ella Karoline Hendricks

Up-close, raw and personal, told by the only one who knew the real Eve Babitz, the book “Didion and Babitz” offers a look into the relationship between the larger-than-life authors of Los Angeles in the ’60s: Joan Didion and Eve Babitz. Following the course of their lives as they navigate the tumultuous ’60s and how the women gained their respective reputations as the voice of the 1960s. The book, written by Lili Anolik, also serves as an extension of sorts to Anolik’s previous biography of Eve Babitz, entitled “Hollywood’s Eve.”

Running in overlapping circles, Didion and Babitz shared a relationship that has not been discussed in detail before — with Didion acting as a friend, editor and mentor during Babitz’s writing career. Didion’s letter of approval and urge for publication resulted in Babitz’s first work “The Sheik” to be published in Rolling Stone magazine, which set her on a path toward becoming the accredited Eve Babitz we know today. 

Yet, this working relationship was short lived, with Babitz swearing off Didion as an editor — although the pretenses of friendship, and antagonism, remained for the rest of their lives. Anolik characterizes Didion and Babitz as foils — one in the same yet opposites, often clashing. 

“Didion and Babitz” is captivating; Anolik does an incredible job of drawing you straight into LA in the ’60s, right in the middle of the sex, drugs and conflict of the era. 

Beginning with Babitz, as Anolik states “Eve… is the key that unlocks the very good and very important Joan,” the author dives into her story beginning in high school — the moment, as she puts, when “a person becomes aware — socially aware, sexually aware, self-aware.”

Chronicling the lives of Babitz and Didion, while focusing more closely on Babitz, Anolik takes us through both the lives of the authors, coming to full form when the pair met in 1967 at a Didion-Dunne dinner party. Babitz was free, unattached and critical towards Mrs. “Dunn” (Babitz’s nickname for Didion in the early years of their friendship). Didion was married to John Greggory Dunne, a fellow writer. In each other, Didion and Dunne found a built-in editor, and famously, they did not edit outsiders’ work.

Except, Didion made an exception for Eve Babitz. 

Grounded in letters (sent and unsent) from Babitz found posthumously, the book extensively covers both women, the ins and outs of their lives, with Anolik leading the way through the messy and complicated. Rich with sex, pop culture and wit, it is wonderfully detailed and fully fleshed out, telling a compelling story from start to finish. 

Anolik’s voice is inexplicably linked in every aspect of the book, from her views on Didion to Babitz to everyone they interacted with. Anolik’s work shows a bias toward Babitz and a need for self-insertion not often found in this genre. Anolik states multiple times that she is on Babitz’s side, which cannot be faulted as she knew Babitz personally, as opposed to Didion, whom she only saw through the lens of Babitz and Didion’s public perception. 

Anolik’s voice lives on every page as she takes the role of Babitz, almost fictionalizing lives. It’s as if Anolik got wrapped up in the Hollywood glamour of the scene and can’t help but further push a Babitz-like narrative — blending truth and narrative. Anolik frames Babitz as a quintessential Californian — muse, artist, author, draped in excess, while Didion is an outsider in utter control: cunning, cold and calculated. 

This book is begging you to pick — Didion or Babitz, one to root for, one to critique. In doing so, it unconsciously negates the talents and impact of two writers who were so often pitted against each other (even if it was themselves doing the pitting). 

Despite this, the book takes a deviation at the end from this ruthless struggle between the two in order to tell the reader that, in fact, Didion and Babitz are one and the same, two sides of the same coin, soulmates even. 

In Chapter 26, A Friend from Hollywood, Anolik wrote, “Eve is Joan’s ideal self,” in reference to Babitz’s life — chaotic and vital, romantic and real. Then Anolik switches the statement: “If Eve is Joan’s ideal self, then Joan is Eve’s practical self.” Didion represents the things Babitz could not maintain — regiment, control and order. 

They mirror one another in all aspects — their differences showing the ways the other has failed or succeeded. But despite it all, they are connected in one link — being alone. 

In her closing statements, Anolik wrote, “I mean alone always, alone fundamentally. At their cores, these women were solitary, private, implacable … Brides of Art. No man truly touched either. And each was the closest the other had to a secret twin or sharer.” 

While I agree with the statement, and Anolik gives convincing evidence to the fact, it is not necessarily a reasonable conclusion to draw from the case she builds in the bulk of the book. Instead, the majority of the book seems an attempt to revisualize Didion from her maternal, otherworldly public view to cold and calculating, while framing Babitz as vivid and complicated as life itself. 

Anolik’s voice is integral to the story itself, with inserts of her own life and reflections on her interviews. Yet, this creates a unique outlook on the lives of these icons, with a personal and modern voice blending it all together seamlessly.

Anolik successfully creates a portrait of two high-profile writers and artists whose work we revere, yet whose lives we have never truly known. If you are interested in learning more about the life and career of Eve Babitz and how Joan Didion was irrevocably a part of that life, I would highly recommend “Didion and Babitz.”

The post Unveiling “Didion and Babitz:” A Personal Look into America’s Favorite ‘60s Authors  appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Annabel Simmons

“Death and the Maiden,” a timeless motif that intertwines morality and desire, capturing the fleeting essence of life and the seductive pull of death. Robert Eggers’ 2024 remake of “Nosferatu” revisits this classic theme, delving into its haunting symbolism and exploring the dark, seductive forces at play. 

Originally directed by F.W. Murnau, “Nosferatu” was released in 1922 as a silent film in Germany. It emerged as an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel, “Dracula,” but underwent numerous changes to avoid a copyright lawsuit. Unsuccessful in this pursuit, Stoker’s estate still filed a lawsuit, and all copies of “Nosferatu” were ordered to be destroyed. Just as the film was almost completely lost, a singular print copy made its way to the United States where it gained popularity. By the 1960s, “Nosferatu” had cemented itself as a horror classic. When “Dracula” entered the public domain worldwide, the film was finally able to be shown without restriction.

Eggers, “Nosferatu’s” latest director, is renowned for his work in historical horror, with acclaimed films like “The Witch” (2015) and “The Lighthouse” (2019). These films were distributed by A24 Films LLC, an independent company known for spotlighting emerging filmmakers and unique cinematic works. Throughout his career, Eggers has worked towards bringing his interpretation of one of cinema’s most iconic horror films to life, declaring “Nosferatu” as his dream project. Following the success of “The Witch,” bolstered by A24’s support, Eggers gained the recognition needed to bring his long-awaited “Nosferatu” remake to life. 

“Nosferatu” (2024) roughly follows the same plot as Murnau’s original silent film. The film opens as a vague, ominous, portentous voice calls out to the young protagonist, Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp). As she prays to the voice for companionship, she violently collapses to the ground and convulses in agony, encapsulating a state of hysteria — immense with both pleasure and pain. It is revealed that Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), a lustful vampire, is the voice to her prayers; the destined end to Orlok and Ellen’s fateful, psychic connection transpires throughout the entirety of the film. 

Years later, in 1838, Ellen lives in Wisborg, Germany, with her husband, Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult). Newly-wed and hoping to secure an official position at his firm, Thomas takes on a six-week journey to an isolated, crumbling castle within the Carpathian Alps in Transylvania to sell a home to an ambiguous Count Orlok. Unaware that this arrangement is part of a pact between Orlok and his employer Herr Knock (Simon McBurney), Thomas takes off for his fleet dubiously.  

From the start, the film is a mesmerizing masterpiece of stunning visuals and raw, visceral horror. The camera work brings forth a deep sense of romantic darkness, with striking cinematography that can be described as disturbing, erotic, fluid and haunting. 

Just before Thomas departs, Ellen confides in him about her nightmare where she envisions herself marrying death, which serves as a significant foreshadowing of the fate between her and Orlok. Upon his first night in Orlok’s castle, Thomas is forced to sign indecipherable documents, unknowingly signing away his rights to Ellen. Soon, Thomas falls prey to Orlok’s insatiable thirst for blood and is imprisoned in the castle. 

Amidst Orlok’s feeding on Thomas, there are many scenes where the bodies of Ellen and Orlok flicker between one another, further blurring the lines between their destinies and emphasizing their connection.

Awakening from his confinement, Thomas explores the castle and stumbles upon Orlok sleeping in his coffin. He realizes that this monstrous figure is the very creature from Ellen’s dream. Seizing a pickaxe, Thomas tries to kill Orlok but lacks the power to overcome Orlok’s vicious retaliation. 

Anticipation daunts the film, withholding Orlok’s full reveal until almost 50 minutes in. Upon his reveal, Skarsgård’s ability to completely manifest the character of Orlok is immensely impressive.  Orlok — a grotesque towering, rotting, corpse-like figure with lanky, clawed hands — steers clear from the realm of the romantic vampire trope. The decrepit Orlok is the embodiment of an evil, deathly predator — meant to evoke discomfort in viewers.

I found Orlok’s repulsive and sinister nature juxtaposed with Ellen’s pure, angelic form to conjure significant meaning in the film. Themes of desire and shame become evident and unravel until its very end.  

Left in the care of her husband’s friend, Friedrich Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), in Wisborg, Ellen becomes haunted by sleepwalking episodes and an overwhelming fear that something terrible has happened to Thomas. Dr. Wilhelm Sievers (Ralph Ineson) initially diagnoses Ellen’s condition as an imbalance in her blood, but her state worsens, and Sievers turns to his mentor, Albun Eberhart Von Franz (Willem Dafoe), for help. 

Eggers’ touch of historical realism is evident in his portrayal of the misogynic medical practices that daunted the 19th century. For “treatment,” Ellen is drugged, restrained and told to “keep her corset on.” 

Finally fleeing from Orlok, Thomas escapes through a window and leaps into a river. However, seething after Ellen, Orlok follows closely behind and boards a ship headed to Wisborg. His arrival brings destruction and disease to the town, inducing great death and despair. 

Before this point, the film felt very slow, but it picks up when Ellen and Orlok finally meet face to face in one of her dreams. Their confrontation reveals the conflict at the root of the film — the shadowy, eternal creature as Ellen’s repressed desires. The true quarrel takes place internally within Ellen. 

Ellen denies Orlok’s affirmations when he speaks of her as his “fated affliction,” stating that her passion has been bound to him. He is the result of Ellen’s shame, and “taken as her melancholy,” Orlok has come back to consummate their pact from the opening scene of the film. 

With plague still ravaging Wisborg, Ellen realizes that the only way to save the town is to give herself to Orlok. As a final sacrifice, Ellen lets Orlok feed on her, preventing him from sensing the first rays of dawn, which ultimately annihilate him. In her final moments, Ellen is content; her own willingness to submit to her desires allowed for her seeming redemption. Orlok’s death as a result of the morning light is metaphoric, as light is also often equated with purity. Upon Orlok’s collapse, Ellen succumbs to her wounds, and Thomas is left to grieve his cherished wife, whose obliging sacrifice broke the curse of Nosferatu.

The film ends with a scene of Orlok’s skeleton laid upon Ellen’s limp, lifeless body — lilacs laid atop them both. Once again, there is beautiful dichotomy in the symbolism behind the flowers — youth, innocence and purity — next to the image of death, with blood filling every crevice around them. 

There is much to be said of the deep symbolism in the film, specifically of what Orlok and Ellen represent. Although there is a mutual yearning between the two, Orlok seemingly represents Ellen’s repressed sexual desires; yet, there are conflicting notions of whether this is liberating or demonizing. Ellen’s desire for Orlok surrounds her with shame, guilt, and self-hatred — byproducts of the social norms of the 19th century. Female sexual appetite was considered monstrous during this period, which is encapsulated through Orlok’s character. 

Set during an incredibly conservative time period, this is continuously seen through the characters of Anna (Emma Corrin) and Friedrich Harding. Friedrich, perceiving Ellen as a threat to his idealized, patriarchal family, frequently dismisses Ellen and strips of her autonomy. Anna, confined to the roles of wife and mother, adhering to the rigid gender norms of the 19th century, stands in stark contrast to Ellen’s character. Ultimately, Ellen is vilified and ostracized. 

While Ellen ultimately weaponizes her sexuality against Orlok, she is still forced to submit to him and utilize her own death to redeem society. It is ambiguous whether this is a portrayal of her desires as powerful or destructive. The 2024 film can certainly be considered a critique of puritanical societies and the repression of women. Although first released in 1922, many themes in “Nosferatu” remain strikingly relevant today, raising questions about the contemporary corruption of power and the harsh societal expectations that continue to engulf the world. 

The post A Marriage to Death: Review of “Nosferatu”    appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Ella Karoline Hendricks

In the same vein as Hulu’s “Fresh” and A24’s “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies” comes a brand new horror movie centering around love in the 21st century. Modern, witty and unnerving, “Companion” centers around Iris and her partner and his friends on a secluded weekend cabin trip, where chaos ensues.

Warner Bros promises a new kind of love story. Sophie Thatcher stars as Iris in this hot new thriller alongside Jack Quaid as her partner, Josh. Jam-packed with lying, murder, and robbery, questions of computer sentience emerge as the weekend progresses in this action packed movie, layered with dark comedy and unbeatable aesthetics. 

Iris is thoroughly and unquestionably in love with Josh. When she joins Josh on a weekend getaway to visit some of his friends, she is put into an uncomfortable situation when Josh’s friend, Kat (Megan Suri), instantly has a strong dislike toward her. They are joined by Eli (Harvey Guillén) and Patrick (Lukas Gage) at Kat’s boyfriend’s house. The tensions rise when Sergey (Rupert Friend), Kat’s boyfriend, comes on to Iris. 

Written and directed by Drew Hancock, who has previously written for TV series such as “Suburgatory” and “My Dead Ex,” Hancock displays an unwavering knowledge of how to balance elements of comedy and suspense to create a movie unsettlingly reflective of its time. This is Hancock’s directorial debut. 

Spoilers ahead. This movie and review contain references to violence, gore, suicide, sexual content, implied sexual assault and explicit language. 

If you like unsettling and thought-provoking movies laden with vintage aesthetics, this movie is for you. The movie is aesthetically very beautiful, taking place in a modern, woodsy cabin. The juxtaposition between the modern cabin and naturalistic setting is continued through Iris. Iris presents a contradiction to the modernity of the movie, with her character being dressed in sweet, vintage clothing in soft colors, compared to the other’s casual clothing. The soundtrack also has a vintage aesthetic, once again contradicting the violence and gore on screen.

When Sergey comes on to Iris and tries to sexually assault her, Iris stabs him, inciting the action of the movie. This is the moment when it is revealed to the audience that Iris is a robot and not a human. It is revealed that Iris is a companion, an AI-based girlfriend. Jack Quaid’s character, Josh, is able to control every aspect of Iris, from her looks to voice pitch to countenance to her intelligence level. This revelation sparks Iris into action, where she attempts to run away, creating a cat-and-mouse style chase that lasts the whole movie. 

The idea of this movie is not entirely unique– questions of AI and computer sentience abound in modern day media. However, using the form of a sci-fi thriller to make this commentary works surprisingly well. This movie is engaging, funny, and shocking, while still making the audience evaluate their relationship with technology and reflect on how these factors specifically impact women and gender. 

Kat and Iris are shown as foils within the story. Kat hates what Iris represents and almost pities her, as her only role is to serve Josh. The existence of Iris and other AI companions invalidates the existence of Kat and other real women, as it renders them unnecessary. It creates a really interesting commentary on what the implications of AI partners are and why people would want them in place of a person. It brings to light the harm of the objectification of women and showcases how some men would rather have an object than opposed to a full-fleshed romantic partner. 

With Iris gaining sentience and personhood, it also brings into question the morality of AI. If we are constantly pushing to a place where AI reaches the level of personhood and self-realization, what are the ethics of treating them as objects? That is what the movie attempts to explore through Iris and the other “companion,” Patrick. 

Patrick is Eli’s companion, and is revealed to be AI after the initial conflict of the movie. However, as the movie progresses, we learn that Patrick previously figured out he was AI yet continued to be with Eli as he loves him. This was supposed to be a sweet moment — perhaps the “new kind of love story” Warner Bros promises. However, it fell flat for me. Even though it is expressed that Eli truly loves Patrick, it does not negate the fact that Eli bought him, is in control of every aspect of his life and control’s how much Patrick “loves him.” It still felt odd to me by the end of the movie.

All of the human characters are killed by the end, reflective of their karma for their actions in killing Sergey through Iris. The plan was for Josh to turn off Iris’ safety mechanisms so she could act in self-defense toward Sergey and kill him. Josh agreed to “share” Iris with Sergey, resulting in her stabbing him. It is here we see Iris has a full range of thoughts, feelings and intelligence. When she returns to the house, visibly distressed and covered in blood, Josh turns her off. 

Josh turns Iris back on to explain the situation before shutting her down permanently. The plan centered around Iris killing Sergey so he and Kat could rob him and blame Iris’ actions as a horrific malfunction. Of course, Josh does not succeed in shutting her off and thus begins the violence-filled chase to get her back and complete the plan. Throughout the movie, Josh repeatedly underestimates Iris, ultimately leading to his demise. 

The movie ends with a really interesting scene that encapsulates the point of the movie. Iris is freed from all her safeguards, the control ipad disabled, and it is just a confrontation between Josh and Iris. Josh launches into a monologue where he is still able to physically overpower Iris with no technological intervention. It is only when he thinks he has the upper hand and is about to kill her that she is able to outsmart him and kill him. 

This scene and the movie as a whole creates a commentary about men who parade as “nice guys” that reveal themselves to be violent misogynists. It also highlights the fact that this type of man in the first place would be the ones to buy a “sex robot” as they already view women as objects. It is not a far jump to think that they would go to these lengths and use human women in the same way. 

In the same spirit as “Promising Young Woman” and “Fresh,” I’d put this movie in the category of a “Good for Her” movie. All in all, I thought it was an entertaining, feminist movie with a strong female heroine. Is it revolutionary? No. But it still accomplishes its goal of making people reconsider how we view women and technology.

The post Love in the Modern Age: A “Companion” Movie Review appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Annabel Simmons

Records, books, cassettes, DVDs, CDs, sculptures, magazines, photographs, paintings — what is the enduring appeal of these tactile items? Throughout human history, physical media has been used to honor loved ones, tell stories of ancient civilizations, demonstrate political turmoil and  capture collective emotional psyches across epochs — giving us a glimpse into the minds and souls of those from the past. 

As archaeologists unearth new artifacts every year, from ancient to modern times, the evolution of media becomes evident. With innovations in technology, physical media has gradually declined in relevance. The digital age has revolutionized how we view art, read books, watch films and listen to music. This can all be done from a singular device, anywhere, at any time of day. For many, the convenience that comes with digital media is enticing.

So, why is it still of value to engage with physical media when digital options offer greater practicality? 

In many ways, tangibility offers more to the human experience than digital media has the capacity to. Physical media allows us to connect with history, culture, information and people — to experience joy in ways distinct from its tactility. 

Throughout Northwest Arkansas, physical media has produced eminent connections within its community. Wade Ogle founded Block Street Records a little over a decade ago in downtown Fayetteville, and four years later, he opened a second store in Bentonville. Those who enter Block Street are met with welcoming faces and lively walls, adorned with new and vintage vinyl, CDs, and more. 

“A good record shop is a home to all ages, all tastes, all cultures, while sharing a communal love of music and records,” Ogle said.

Ogle said he believes that physical media holds a unique value that digital streaming services cannot replicate. “Not only actual monetary value but the value of ownership. The buyer/collector is actively engaging with the artists they love,” he explained. He highlights vinyl records as a more immersive way to experience music. “Something you’ve deliberately searched out, purchased and taken the time to absorb will always have more value to you.” 

Beyond the music itself, vinyl records also offer a visual and artistic experience through their packaging. Collectors can thoughtfully display their favorite albums, using them to express personal style and identity. 

“The 12″x12″ art in the packaging and physically engaging via playing the actual record — it all makes for a great experience,” Ogle said.

Daniel Jordan, along with his wife, Leah, owns Pearl’s Books, an independent bookstore nestled near the square in Fayetteville. Both previously working as academic advisors at the University of Arkansas, opening a bookstore had always been a distant, seemingly unattainable, dream of theirs. However, the pandemic offered them a change in mindset, and Pearl’s was opened in the fall of 2021. 

Physical media offers distinctive benefits to artists. With the purchase of physical media, a larger portion of the sales price, compared to digital purchases, goes directly to the artist. Tangible works also cultivate a greater connection between the artist and their creations.

At Pearl’s, the hosting of frequent book launches and signings for local authors and those on tour do just this. “The launching of a book is a really fun thing because for a lot of, especially local, author’s it’s a big deal to have a physical copy of something that they created,” Jordan said. “It’s one thing to put a book into a word processor and put it online, but I think holding it, seeing the cover, and seeing your name in print really means something to authors. It’s a celebration for the author and their accomplishments.” 

When designing physical copies of books, there’s also more room for artists to display their creative expression, which can’t be seen in many digital formats. Pearl’s is stocked with many editions of the same books, each copy distinct in its artistic design. “A lot of publishers are coming out with special editions of books with sprayed edges, where the edges of the book are painted or printed differently, and for collectors, that’s pretty cool to be able to have…it’s nice. It feels good,” Jordan said.

For many, the fraying of physical media gives it unique charm. An old book — its once-sturdy leather cover now cracked and worn, its spine loosened with time, its pages yellowed and filled with faint scribbles from past readers — tells a story beyond the one printed inside. 

“There’s something special about holding a physical book,” Jordan said. “People tell us that all the time — folks that come into the store. Having the physical object is so different than having an e-reader. Being able to make notes and being able to see the history of a book and how it has traveled through many different hands really adds value to the experience.” The weathering of an old book reveals how it has influenced the lives of many, and there truly is an unparalleled feeling in experiencing a book’s history through its worn pages.

“It’s the way people have been reading for hundreds of years, and that’s an interesting thing too,” Jordan said. “If you are reading a classic book that people have read for centuries, it’s nice to be able to read it in the same kind of way.”

Through digital media, the capacity to record information has increased significantly — high-resolution images and hundreds of books can be stored on simple disks. It is easy to ignore the fragility that comes with technology when so much of our lives depend upon it. A great deal is sacrificed for the dubious benefits of convenient, digital formats; one such sacrifice is certainty surrounding its longevity. Digital media can be removed with the push of a button, leaving users without access to their favorite content. Technical compatibility and having the appropriate software also factor into the accessibility and endurance of digital media.

Jordan notes Amazon Kindle e-books as a primary example of this. “One of the things that Amazon does with their Kindle books is encrypt them so that they can only be read on Kindle readers, and you can’t transfer them to another e-reader or any other apps,” Jordan explained. “If you have the physical book, you can read it anywhere. If for some reason you lose access to your Amazon account, the physical book is still gonna be with you.”

It is significant to note that all media is susceptible to change. This is sometimes beneficial, such as the enhancement of a film’s quality. However, there have also been many political efforts to rewrite history — physically and digitally. Preserving the original mediums of physical prints is extremely valuable, as this sustains authenticity during tumultuous periods.

“The physical book is not gonna change once you have it,” Jordan said. “You know, once you own it, you could change it — you could mark it up. If  you’re buying digitally, you have to trust that the publisher isn’t gonna alter it. A tangible book that you own isn’t gonna get lost in a data breach or anything like that. Obviously, there’s risks with fire, or flood, or spilling your coffee on it. But even those little touches — a coffee stain on a book — is cool.” Beyond these uncontrollable factors, the only way to strip people of physical media is to locate it and physically confiscate it.

Many avoid physical media due to its higher cost, but there are plenty of ways to counter this. Dickson Street Bookshop, which opened in Fayetteville in 1978, offers an extensive selection of used and out of print books — all at affordable prices. Buying physical media second hand is a great sustainable and budget-friendly option for consumers. Local libraries and thrift stores also offer this advantage.

One of Dickson Street Bookshop’s employees, Kaitlin Leathers, is a doctoral student at the University of Arkansas, majoring in English with a focus on medieval literature and languages. Leathers often sees the joy that physical media brings to customers. “At the bookstore, we have a number of regulars who come in a few times a week to see what’s new on the shelves,” Leathers said. “When we get new customers, who have never experienced the magic of the bookshop, it’s really a joy to see their faces light up — they really don’t expect the shop to be as large as it is.”. 

A truly extraordinary place, Dickson Street Bookshop is often compared to Dr. Who’s TARDIS or the wardrobe in Narnia. For book lovers, it’s a dream come true.

As a medievalist, Leathers frequently handles physical media when studying manuscripts, art and so on. She notes electronic formats as valid ways to consume media but sees the distinct sensation that comes with physical media. “Physical media provides unique sensory experiences,” Leathers said. “When you read a physical book, you’re engaged by turning pages and rewarded by the sight of how much you’ve read — the placement of a bookmark marking your progress.”

Customers of Dickson Street Bookshop also often admire the distinct scent that each individual book offers; through blends of woody, sweet, almond-like aromas, feelings of nostalgia and comfort are evoked. 

“With art, you may experience versions of a painting or sculpture in pictures online, but being present in a museum or in front of an ancient monument, facing the work of art at full size and in an atmosphere of reverence is an entirely different experience,” Leathers said. “You might marvel at brush strokes in person, but textures are often lost in digital photos. So, generally, a lot of the sensory experience of physical media is lost in digitized versions.”

Like others, Leathers also maintains that physical ownership of art or books can offer a sense of security and prestige. “To own an original work of art is not quite the same as owning a replication or a digital copy in terms of prestige,” Leathers said. “Owning a first edition of a beloved book — like J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit — would be a symbol of a person’s devotion to that author or title. To have those books or records or other forms of media physically in your home — perhaps on display — shows that you are invested and that you love that particular form of media or that particular artist, and it is a formative part of your life.” 

Although the digitization of media has provided fundamental innovation, its transience is apparent. Engagement with tangible mediums — in music, film, literature — enriches one’s experience with the media; it adds an extra layer of enjoyment that the digital world lacks. We must aim to pull physical media from its demise, and in doing so, we will support local businesses and cultivate new communities.

The post The Demise of Physical Media: Why it Matters appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Ella Karoline Hendricks 

A BookTok sensation, the long-awaited third book in the Empyrean Series is finally here! “Onyx Storm” by Rebecca Yarros is the third installment in the worldwide sensation, the “Fourth Wing” series. Come into the fantastical world of dragons, romance and rebellion. 

A high-fantasy romance, “Fourth Wing” follows Cadet Violet Sorrenghail as she navigates survival at Basgiath Military Academy, where every student must choose a quadrant to enter. Trained as a scribe throughout her youth, Violet’s general mother forces her to enter the Rider’s quadrant where she faces danger at every turn, both from her courses and her classmates. Add in dragons, a dark and mysterious leading man, and a budding rebellion, and you’ve got a fast-paced, high-stakes “romantasy” you can’t miss. 

The books are fast-paced, with lots of action scenes and plot movement. Yet, it is the romance aspect that has fans coming back again and again, with fans calling the male love interest their ‘book boyfriend.’ Nearly as popular as the series itself is the leading man, with people online fan-casting different actors and creating fan-art of the couples. 

The book series is catching the world by storm, becoming an overnight bestseller with serious fans across numerous geographical locations, including Northwest Arkansas. Bookstores, both independently owned and chain locations, hosted midnight release parties and fan-based parties for the highly anticipated release.  

Ella Claborn, a senior at the University of Arkansas, attended one of these release parties Monday, Jan. 21 at Underbrush Books located in Rogers. Claborn attended with several of her sorority sisters and fellow fantasy-book lovers. 

Claborn won one of the stores’ giveaways and received a bookplate signed by Yarros, the author of “Onyx Storm.”

“They were giving two away — one to the winner of the costume contest and one to the winner of a random drawing of the preorders,” Claborn said. “It was so fun!”

Pearl’s Books, located in the Fayetteville square, also had a sold-out release party, while other stores had anticipated readers lining up in the early dredges of the morning. 

Finley McClure, a sophomore creative writing major, woke up early Jan. 22 to get in line to get her copy. McClure and a friend got to Target at 6 a.m. for the exclusive Target edition of “Onyx Storm.” The target edition had bonus content, such as sprayed edges, full-color artwork and an updated map. 

“There were about 20 people there at 6 a.m.,” McClure said. “Then at 8 when the store opened, there were at least 60 people in line. The manager came out and told us the books were at the front, so no one got hurt trying to run and get a copy.” 

Even in record-breaking cold weather and emergency freeze warnings, fans still waited outside in frigid temperatures to get their copy. So what has everyone so excited about this book?

“I think a lot of it has to do with Rebecca Yarros’ writing,” McClure states. “It could be any other fantasy book with the plot, but her writing really sets it apart from others like it.” 

Even readers who do not typically read this genre have agreed there is something mesmerizing about Yarros’ series. 

“I usually am not the biggest fan of BookTok books or romantasy in general,” Nora Cowen, a sophomore English major, said. “But I actually really enjoy “Fourth Wing.” There’s just something about it that I find really fun and genuinely enjoyable.” 

Cowen usually sticks to literary fiction or classics, but finds the change of pace within the Empyrean Series a welcome reprieve. It is as though you are stepping into another world and leaving behind your own for the duration of the story, which can be a really wonderful and eye-opening experience. 

People online agree. Romantasy has become a popular genre over the last several years, being promoted through BookTok and online forums. Other popular romantasy titles include the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series by Sarah J. Maas, the “Powerless” series by Lauren Roberts, the “From Blood and Ash” series by Jennifer L. Armentrout, and more!

Tiktoker FairyJocey has publicly voiced her love for the Empyrean Series before and has been posting about the release across her social media platforms. Jocey gained popularity through her posts on Tiktok, theorizing on series, recommending books and posting about “book boyfriends.”

Jocey posted a comedic TikTok on Jan. 12 with text overlaying stating, “9 days till Onyx Storm!! (9 days until I know peace or eternal suffering).” She posted another TikTok in her bedroom to a somber piano song with the text: ‘“I’m so excited to read Onyx Storm!’ same but it’s because I haven’t had a peaceful night of sleep since I read the end of Iron Flame.”

Jocey has since posted several TikToks theorizing about the series and what will happen to the main characters. Her videos gain hundreds of thousands of views and likes, with fans commenting and showing their support for the series. 

Fans from all over the world are banding together in excitement to celebrate the next installment of their favorite series. The community of fantasy readers and lovers is strong in Northwest Arkansas. Next time you see a popular book being released, make sure to check by local bookstores to see if they are having a release party for a great opportunity to bond with community members. 

You can find “Onyx Storm” by Rebecca Yarros at retailers such as Pearl’s, Underbrush Books, Barnes and Noble, Target, Walmart, Half-Price Books, and more! Or stop by your local public library to grab a copy!

The post Book Boyfriends, Dragons and Romantasy Galore! New ‘Onyx Storm’ Book Release appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Edward McKinnon

Carrie Jenkins’ music therapy studio is a small cube hidden inside your run-of-the-mill beige suburban strip mall. In the corner, where she sits talking about her profession and what she might do with a client throughout a therapy session, she is framed by a keyboard to her left and a television monitor to her right. Across the room, there is another keyboard. Right beside it, there is a beautiful ocean-blue guitar next to a bookcase featuring music literature, her college diploma and her certificate from the Certification Board for Music Therapists.

An otherwise tight space feels much fuller and more vibrant thanks to the bright green colored walls, collection of musical instruments, and of course, Jenkins herself. In this space, she works mostly with children with various developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Down syndrome. She also travels to schools to hold group sessions as well as senior care facilities where she can work with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. During a session, she has clients work on tasks that usually involve her or them playing songs.

Typical sessions unfold similar to other types of therapy, but Jenkins incorporates musical elements to help clients. With many clients, she has them sing greeting and departure songs to signal the beginning and end of a session. From there, she must learn to improvise and adapt to any client’s need. Sometimes, clients will develop new lyrics for familiar songs to express their feelings. She has a guitar, keyboard and ukulele handy that she can use to perform songs. If a patient already has baseline musical skills, she will incorporate their skills into the session. For example, with her long-time client Daniel LeBlanc she used all of these elements in their meetings, enabling him to play the trumpet or write lyrics depending on the situation.

“They’re learning musical aspects,” Jenkins said, “but it’s not focused solely on musical properties. It’s figuring out how to read, how to focus, how to finish a task before moving to the next one.”

Jenkins has run Music Therapy of Northwest Arkansas under the Cardinal Care Center in Farmington since 2012. During more than 10 years on the job, music therapy globally has grown significantly in popularity, especially during COVID-19. ASD diagnoses have tripled in children ages 8 or younger in the last 20 years, with the CDC reporting 1 in 54 children in the age range diagnosed in 2016. Music therapy has proven very effective in helping children with ASD, among other similar groups, and is only becoming more popular.

Jenkins has experienced this demand to the point where she has to waitlist some prospective clients or groups. While national interest in music therapy continues to grow, she remains the only practicing music therapist in Northwest Arkansas. Statewide, she is only in contact with one other music therapist, Andrew Ghrayeb, who works at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock. Even if she is on an island of sorts, Jenkins takes solace in the fact that her work makes a noticeable difference. It is her dream job, she said. She has always loved music, lived around the medical field her whole life and has a natural inclination to help others. Music therapy is the perfect outlet.

Jenkins grew up in Farmington, attending high school down the road from her office at the Cardinal Care Center. Her dad is a retired pharmacist who loves music and initially wanted to be a music major, and her mother is a nurse. As a kid, she took piano lessons and taught herself guitar. This created an ideal development environment for an aspiring music therapist, but Jenkins did not always know she would do this kind of work. In her own words, it was all a fluke.

“I was working at an MRI clinic as a file clerk, and the guy that would come in and service our MRI machine to make sure it was working properly found out I was helping with music at my church … And he was like, ‘You know, I think you have the personality — you should look at music therapy.’”

Ironically, Jenkins nearly shrugged off the idea of music therapy as a calling with the same confusion a skeptic might direct toward her today. However, she was interested enough to research the topic, and she discovered that Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, offered a music therapy program. After visiting and talking to professors, she realized this profession was her ideal landing place.

After earning her bachelor’s degree, she partook in a six-month internship at the STAR Center in Jackson, Tennessee, and then decided to pursue her master’s degree. 

Shortly after Jenkins completed her master’s program at Drury, Cardinal Care Center opened. Sherri Gansz, the owner, wanted to offer a variety of services to address mental health, and Jenkins’ expertise fit that goal, making her a mainstay at Cardinal Care. 

“Due to the specialized therapy Carrie offers, we are known in the area for her talents,” Gansz said. “Her population is specific. None of us have the experience or training.”

Before even getting settled with Cardinal Care, Emily LeBlanc, the mother of Jenkins’ would-be-first individual client, contacted her. She found out about Jenkins online after searching out possible music therapy options in the region for her late-teenage son, Daniel, but did not realize Jenkins was still completing her degree. After Jenkins graduated and settled in Farmington, Emily reached out again. She had taken her son to other talk therapists before discovering Jenkins, but it was not as effective as music therapy.

“Singing about it was what he needed to do to fully express what he was feeling,” Emily said while sitting beside her son on a Zoom call.

Growing up with autism, Emily said her son Daniel was unhappy in public school and in search of an outlet to express his feelings constructively. “It was sad,” he said.

“It was sad,” Emily said, echoing her son’s sentiment. “(His struggle in school) was actually pretty normal for someone with autism. Having somebody else working on it was very helpful. Carrie would have him sing about different emotions. There were songs for greeting and for leaving, and in between, she would have different goals, such as keeping rhythm with her to help him link up to another person.” 

Much of what they worked on during therapy sessions emphasized mirror neurons, which are linked to brain activity in social interactions and expressing empathy. People with autism have mirror neurons and do feel empathy but cannot tell what others are feeling at a specific moment as easily.

Emily said Carrie was having him work on his mirror neurons musically by trying to match beats and play music. One task he worked on was playing Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor,” one of his favorite pieces.

After nearly 12 years of practicing professionally, Jenkins has refined her craft by learning to go with the flow during sessions. Music therapy is a versatile service that can mean a lot of different things depending on who the patient is and what the practitioner’s musical background is. For a client, such as Daniel, who is working on expressing their feelings, using music to elicit an emotional response is a point of emphasis. For other patients with disabilities whose primary struggle is staying on task, performing music is common regardless of their skill level.

“With music therapy, I’m focusing more on if they can play with one finger at a time,” Jenkins said. “Can they focus long enough to complete an entire song? Can they be able to match letters on a page to letters on the keys that I have to see if we have cognitive and visual tracking?”

She demonstrates this by showing the special keyboard she uses with clients. It is set up to play “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and features various settings that force a user’s level of involvement to increase incrementally. With the basic setting, a client can tap any key on the keyboard and it will produce the correct note for the song. Next, a client must press the correct key, which is illuminated, in order to continue performing the song, and so on.

“That’s not only working on focus and staying on task until it is done,” Jenkins said, “but it is being able to follow directions, follow the light, move from one key to the next. And then we progress to this little book, which has the letters. So, they are learning to read and track from keys up to the book. So, that’s just a basic progression of something we would do for keyboard skills.”

When working with older groups such as dementia clients, the objectives and tactics change.

 “It’s not necessarily looking for growth in what we’re doing,” Jenkins said. “It’s more about maintaining what they have and maintaining their quality of life for as long as possible. So, with my dementia client groups, I’ll see them for an hour for each group, and it’s either once a month or twice a month depending on availability and the budget of the facility.”

Carrie said with older patients, memory recall exercises are highly useful. Around Valentine’s Day, she plays older love songs with older groups, which can serve as a jumping-off point for members to talk about their loved ones and other special figures in their lives.

She also plays games such as “Name that Tune” with these groups.

 “I’ll play a song but won’t sing the words, and we’ll see if they are able to recite any of the words back to me and tell me the name of it,” Jenkins said. “And like nine times out of 10, they’re very much able to. There are some songs where they are able to tell me what the song is in three notes, which is just phenomenal considering I can come in and someone could forget my name and have to ask what my name is 18 times. But I sing the first three or four notes of ‘You Are My Sunshine’ and they’ll sing the entire song to me.”

Though Jenkins said she gained a lot of confidence in herself during her practicum, she has had to swim in uncomfortable waters to build out the toolbox necessary to succeed as a music therapist. As a student, she expected the job to be more structured, but in reality, it commands more of a read-and-react approach. As someone who can be introverted, Jenkins has had to become more of an extrovert to build out a public presence and let people know about the services she offers — especially given she is the only practicing music therapist in the area. Within the therapy sessions, she has learned to become more resourceful.

In the present, Carrie Jenkins is happy about where she is in her career. Her career progression has coincided with the increasing popularity of music therapy worldwide. But even if she has found her footing, there are many obstacles she still has to overcome to be successful in her work, such as the stigma that surrounds it.

When people hear the term “music therapy,” they may fail to grasp its legitimacy immediately. Perhaps most people did not realize that close to 100 colleges across the United States offer undergraduate music therapy programs. Jenkins said people have cynically asked her if the job simply entails turning on an iPod, making people listen to music and telling them to be happy.

There are also barriers specific to Arkansas that she said she would like to see addressed in the future. Notably, the state has no colleges and universities that offer music therapy degrees. Arkansas currently does not offer licensure for music therapy, meaning she cannot accept insurance as a form of payment, and most clients are required to pay out of pocket for her services, unlike other therapy options. Eighteen states have licensure as of 2024, with many states establishing it within the past five years. Licensure would further legitimize her practice and perhaps could lead to more practitioners operating in the state. Jenkins played a role in establishing a task force for getting licensure in the state in 2018, but the pandemic brought much of the progress to a halt.

Through her colleagues at Cardinal Care Center as well as recommendations from facilities where she has hosted group sessions, Jenkins has built out an extensive network of contacts that enables her to always have a strong client base. But because there are no other practicing music therapists in Northwest Arkansas, she is frequently stretched thin, she said. Aside from therapy, she also offers music lessons and is a worship leader at her church. She hopes to get more help in some shape or form. “I would love to be a multi-person music therapy clinic and be able to contract out to other music therapists and say, ‘Go out, do this, be awesome!’” she said.

Although she has difficulties being a one-woman music therapy operation in a time of growing demand, Jenkins never sounds upset with the state of things. If anything, she embraces the challenges. “I’ve always had a drive to help people,” Jenkins said. She recognizes the demand for her services and wants to help as many people as possible. She wants to dedicate her spare time to putting her musical skills to use while helping at church or giving music lessons.

For the LeBlanc family, Jenkins’ positive demeanor has rubbed off in a multitude of ways. Beyond expressing feelings, Daniel and Emily reflect on the strong sense of joy the sessions have provided over the years. Daniel saw Jenkins for music therapy for a decade before relocating to Jamestown, New York, with his family. When they discuss their relationship with her, almost every answer is present tense, as Jenkins has remained in touch with the family. Daniel regularly sends her some of his best illustrations of dragons through the mail. With plans to take animation classes at the local community college in a work preparation program and dreams of one day running a film and animation studio, he said he is in part inspired by the time he spent with Jenkins and the skills he developed.

“She’s awesome!” Daniel said, excitedly. “She plays guitar just like I play trumpet.”

Emily interjected to ask her son a question. “Does she encourage you?”

“Yes.”

Emily described Jenkins as cheerful and happy in her sessions. Daniel, offering clarification, said he has fond memories of Jenkins because she understands him.

Jenkins is a helper. Music is her tool. When asked what helps her, she said she finds herself returning to acoustic covers of pop songs to chill out and lo-fi covers when she has to focus and get stuff done.

“It is so very therapeutic,” Jenkins said. “In a personal setting, I am listening to music all the time, 24/7. It gets me up in the morning, it gets me to and from in the car. If I’m having a bad day, I know what kind of music I’m listening to in order to get me out of a funk. If I need to stay in that funk and live in it, I know what music I want to listen to.”

She goes as far as to characterize therapy sessions as helpful for herself.

“There are times where I’ll be headed to an assisted living facility, and I’ll be like, ‘Man, I’m so tired. I don’t feel it today. I don’t want to do this, but I know I have to do this.’ Then, by the end of the session, I’m in a better mood than some of the clients are because being able to engage them and be part of that moment with them is just so rewarding and so wholesome, and it just helps me as much as it does them.”

Jenkins’ trajectory with respect to music therapy is not that different to clients such as Daniel. Though she comes in expecting to help each person she works with, music therapy and working with individuals have helped her just as much.

Although Jenkins did not specifically mention how she keeps a positive disposition when confronted with various obstacles outside her control in a session, it helps when the work doubles as her own therapy.

The post Got Problems? Let’s Sing About Them appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Ella Karoline Hendricks 

Trigger Warning: This book review mentions suicide, drug addiction, and death. 

America has had an infatuation with the Presley family since Elvis hit the music scene in the 1950s, quickly becoming a worldwide sensation. Known as the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley and his music became a household name, an obsession with him and his family never dimming since.  

Published posthumously, Lisa Marie Presley’s memoir offers a unique look into the life of Elvis’ only daughter. The memoir blends transcripts of Lisa Marie’s voice and outlook on her life with sections of her daughter Riley Keough talking about their relationship. In chapters, the voices of Presley and Keough are sectioned and differentiated with fonts.

“From Here to the Great Unknown” was released Oct. 8 and instantly became a New York Times bestseller. The memoir explores themes of motherhood, grief and the circular nature of family dynamics through the lens of America’s princess. 

Born to Elvis and Pricilla Presley, Lisa Marie grew up in the spotlight living at Graceland, the famous Presley home located in Memphis, Tennessee. The memoir begins with an introduction by Keough, where she explains that her mother had been planning on telling her story before her death, and Keough felt it was her duty to see it through. 

The book details early aspects of Lisa Marie’s life, from her childhood at Graceland to the traumatic loss of her father. To many, Elvis was a larger-than-life icon, yet Lisa Marie got to see her father in all of his humanity, with his triumphs and struggles. The language in which she talks about Elvis is similar to how her mother, Priscilla discusses him in her memoir, “Elvis and Me.” Both describe him as a god-like figure, with an enigmatic presence over any room or situation. It speaks to the presence of her father in her life, even after his untimely death. 

“He was a god to me. A chosen human being.” said Lisa Marie on page 5 of “From Here to the Great Unknown.”

Elvis tragically died of complications from drug use and addiction, which impacted the lives of those around him greatly, especially his young daughter. Lisa Marie talks about his funeral and her following tumultuous teenage years, filled with a complicated relationship with her mom, drug use and religion. 

The first five chapters of the book are written heavily in Lisa Marie’s voice, with few interjections from her daughter, offering more insight into her life and how these events affected her. As the book progresses, Keough’s voice becomes more powerful as she reflects on her mother’s life from an adult perspective. 

The book follows Lisa Marie’s life chronologically, discussing her marriages, relationships and children as well as her music career. While on paper everything looked great, she struggled with insecurities and attachment; she seemed to carry a sadness with her that permeated her life. Her daughter wrote she thinks she never really got over her father’s passing, the death of Elvis really impacting the remainder of her life. 

This idea of familial loss speaks to the memoir’s overarching themes of repetitive family dynamics; it is shown throughout the book that Lisa Marie’s relationship with her father mirrored the relationship Elvis had with his mom, Gladys, and how her relationship with her son, Benjamin, mirrored theirs as well.

Keough wrote on Page 159, “Just as Elvis had with his mother, and my mom had with Elvis, my brother and my mother had a kind of ‘I can’t live without you’ relationship. They shared a very deep soul bond.”

Motherhood was deeply important to Lisa Marie, not only with her son but with  her three daughters as well. 

“I was married at twenty, a mother at twenty-one, similar to my own mother,” Lisa Marie said on Page 120. “ I fell in love with being a mom. I realized I had been called to care for something else.” 

“From Here to the Great Unknown”  also shows how Lisa Marie’s life echoed her mom’s, especially as a teenager in her first relationship to an older man. Priscilla was 14 when she first started dating Elvis, and similarly, Lisa Marie got involved with an older man when she was underage. 

“But it was also history repeating itself,” Lisa Marie said on page 91. “My mom was fourteen when she met my dad. I was replaying her life in a weird way.”

This family cycle continued in other aspects of Lisa Marie’s life as she grew up, as she ultimately struggled with addiction as her father did. She began relying on drug use later in life, reflecting on how it can happen to anyone at any time. Keough wrote about how this was a hard time in both of their lives and how hard it was to watch her mother struggle. It only seemed to isolate Lisa Marie more, despite the family’s best efforts to stay close. She ultimately chose to go to rehab and get better.

The final part of the book reflects on Keough’s younger brother Benjamin’s death. Benjamin died by suicide in July 2020, and the memoir greatly discusses how his death affected the family. This section is mainly written by Keough and discusses how deeply his death affected Lisa Marie and herself. Keough emphasized the close relationship her mom and Benjamin had and how deeply the grief set in. 

“When Ben died, I thought it would be a matter of hours until my mother relapsed. But she surprised me and remained completely sober to honor him” Keough wrote, page 248.

Lisa Marie Presley died on Jan. 12, 2023, leaving behind her three daughters. The memoir was completed by Keough as a final goodbye to her mother and a way to make sure her story is heard. It is narrated in a way only a loved one can, with love and affection and loss haunting each word. Heartfelt and raw, “From Here to the Great Unknown” is a lovely tribute to a life well lived from the view of those who matter most: family.

The post Motherhood, Grief and The Circular Nature of Life: A Review of “From Here to the Great Unknown” by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough appeared first on Hill Magazine.

By Ashton York

You may know Mason Ramsey as the 11-year-old “Walmart yodeling kid” meme that became popular in 2018. His rendition of “Lovesick Blues” by Hank Williams in the middle of the superstore was what initially threw Ramsey’s name into the public eye, and his passion for what he calls “gentleman’s country” has only continued to grow since the video went viral.

On Oct. 27 at 8 p.m., Ramsey will continue his “Falls Into Place Tour” at George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville. The show follows the release of his first full-length album, “I’ll See You In My Dreams,” which came out Sept. 13.

“Me and my band guys, we’re super excited to be back out on the road, singing the new songs that are on the album,” Ramsey said. “We’ve had some really good shows so far, and we’re, overall, super happy and excited where we’re at.”

Ramsey said fans can expect to see a lot of his older songs at the show, along with some from the new album. He said he and the band bring a strong energy to the stage, and no one will be expecting what happens at the show.

“Even though there have been little clips of me on the internet so far,” Ramsey said, “you have to actually go see it to experience it for yourself.”

While on tour, Ramsey spends his time creating new songs between shows. He said he uses his various locations as inspiration to write about new sights and experiences. 

After he writes the lyrics of a song, Ramsey then brings it to his producer to add music to the track and kick off the official songwriting process.

“It’s like you have the starting pieces of the puzzle, you just need to put the other pieces together,” he said. “It’s not hard as long as you don’t overthink.”

Many of the tracks on “I’ll See You In My Dreams” are slow and romantic, as Ramsey takes heavy inspiration from artists such as Elvis, Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash.

Ramsey credits Hank Williams for the primary influence on his music, and he said he will not forget how Williams’ song is what got him started. Ramsey said he aspires to create the same simple yet beautiful genre of country.

Aside from other artists, there were several different people who inspired songs on the new album, including Ramsey’s family members and a few different girls he has known over the past few years.

“Family is a big part of why I’m where I’m at today,” Ramsey said. “I wanted to write a song about my uncle, and just to my overall family, because over time, family changes whether they move on and go somewhere else or they pass away. ‘Family Pictures’ kind of talks about that.”

Ramsey said his current favorite tracks from the album are “All The Way To Memphis” and “Blue Over You” because they are about specific people in his life. He described the sound of his music as American country soul.

In preparation for the rest of the tour, Ramsey’s traveling band has to learn the new songs since he used a separate band in the recording studio. His team plans everything ahead of the tour, booking hotels when needed and scheduling soundchecks. Most of the time, Ramsey and his entire crew use a tour bus as opposed to hotels, and they have done that for the “Falls Into Place Tour.”

“It’s been a pretty wild ride since the whole tour’s kicked up and everything,” Ramsey said. “I’m kind of just waiting to see what happens next.”

Ramsey said his dream and life goal is to travel the world and have stadium tours. He said he hopes to become one of the largest country artists and use that platform to help other artists have their work noticed.

Ramsey experienced the other side of such platform when Lana Del Rey welcomed him onto the stage at Fenway Park to sing a duet of “Blue Over You.” It was the first time he was able to perform one of his own songs on such a large stage, as the capacity of the venue is around 38,000 people.

Singing on the big stage was one step closer to Ramsey fulfilling his dream of becoming a popular country singer, one he has had since he was 3 years old. Now, as a 17-year-old, Ramsey said he feels it has always been his passion in life. He was always determined to be a performer, even if that meant doing small local shows in his hometown.

“I was just always happy singing and making other people happy,” he said. “Anything can happen at any time. You just have to be motivated and inspired to do what you do, and I want people to see that. I want people to believe in themselves as I believed in myself.”

Ramsey said no matter what new and exciting adventures showed up in his life after his Walmart video went viral, he feels as though he has remained the same person he has always been. He never expected to appear on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” or at the Grand Ole Opry, and his mindset remained the same throughout. He still wanted to bring people joy through music.

“I was just (at that Walmart) the other day before I started my tour,” Ramsey said. “I went back, and it’s still the same as it was.”

Ramsey said he has never visited Northwest Arkansas, but he is excited to check out the area during the fall. Fall tours are his favorite because they come along with pumpkin spice foods and sweater weather.

“I’m just so grateful that I got to have my first album put out, and we’re super excited to be on this tour and with Halle Kearns opening for me,” Ramsey said. “We’ve got a lot of great things planned.”

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By Ella Karoline Hendricks

Translation is often overlooked as a literary medium. Without the work of translators, beautiful stories and verses that immerse us in another culture – or time would be lost to us forever. Stories are thus able to transcend the bounds of language and instead become available to different areas of the world, creating a melting pot of ideals and elevating the commonalities between us all. 

Dr. Geoff Brock, who has been teaching at the University of Arkansas since 2006, has been a writer and translator long before.

“A translation inscribes a particular reading of a text from one language into another language – it is reading and writing at the same time,” Brock said. “That’s what drew me to it and what keeps me at it.”

Brock primarily teaches courses for master’s students in the poetry track and the translation track, such as poetry workshops, translation workshops, and reading-intensive craft or literature courses.This Master of Fine Arts degree is unique as it is a four-year program and has a track in literary translation as well as poetry and fiction tracks. “It’s the latter element – the translation track, and the ability for me to teach both poetry and translation courses – that drew me to Arkansas,” Brock states.

One such student in the translation track is Colleen Noland; she is pursuing her master’s in creative writing and translation. Noland was drawn to translation from her love of Spanish; she began learning Spanish in public schools as it was mandatory in my school district. It was her first exposure to Spanish and she hasn’t stopped learning the language yet. 

While translators work with many languages, the one language that connects them is English.  

“We focus on English,” Brock said. “Of course, we think about and ask questions about whatever languages the students in the class happen to be working from that semester (Spanish! French! Arabic! Bengali! Tagalog!), but the one language we have in common, and the one all of the students are translating into is English, so each translator focuses on making an English text that embodies whatever elements – meaning, style, tone, form, etc. – they find most salient in their original texts.”

Noland works with mainly contemporary works and authors; she chooses a translation project based on what she herself would like to read and is able to connect with through deep, close reading so that she can see “the meaning running under the page.”

Noland is currently working on translating a collection of short stories in Madrid about romantic relationships. When translating, she said she believes “the words themselves are not as important; it’s the emotions they are trying to convey or leave the reader with. I think if you translate a word literally exactly every time from one language to the target language, you are going to get a text that is way different and conveys way different emotions because we just have cultural associations and baggage with different words. Being creative with how you translate emotions is something I think about a lot.”

Students in the master’s program typically take six to nine hours a semester and teach two undergraduate classes, mainly in the English department. One of Noland’s favorite classes she took was on 12th-century Celtic literature and translation. She says the course was challenging yet rewarding as it worked with authors who are no longer living, so the authors true intentions cannot be known. It allows for more interpretation as you don’t necessarily know the full meaning of the piece. 

When examining texts from long ago, how do we as a reader choose which translation to go off of? Professor Nicole Clowney teaches classical studies in both the undergraduate program and law program here at the U of A. 

“I have always loved the humanities,” Clowney said. “Now more than ever, they can teach us so much, particularly about what humans have in common across cultures and time periods and how other cultures have contended with the big human questions we all ask ourselves.”

Clowney is currently teaching third-semester Latin, a class based on reading Gaius Petronius’ “Satyricon.” Students read and translate directly from the Latin text, as well as reading a translation to better understand and appreciate the story as a whole. Clowney chose the translation of the “Satyricon” by Sarah Ruden. 

She said she believes that while there is nothing like reading the text in its original language, she tends to gravitate towards works that are true to the original spirit the original was written rather than exact words. 

Brock has similar sentiments surrounding whether translations should focus on strict adherence to the text or solely on the essence of the story. 

“Your binary – strictness versus essence – is a version of the old ‘letter versus spirit’ duality, and for me a translation is always a dance between the two,” Brock said. “In general, you can’t be slavishly strict to literal meaning without losing some of the spirit, and you can’t capture the spirit without a nuanced sense of the literal meaning. No literary text – think of the complex pleasures of an Emily Dickinson poem – can be reduced to the literal meaning of its words.”

The question remains: is translation, in essence, adaptation? 

Noland said she believes that every translation is an adaptation and that there is no such thing as a perfect translation. 

“No, of course, the translation will not be a perfect carrying of that text into a new language,” Noland states. “With any translation there’s going to be loss, there’s going to be additions, in order to try and bring it authentically. Does a perfect translation exist? No. Do we do it anyway because it would be sad if we only had literature isolated to one language. We do it anyway.”

So why do we keep returning to stories, both ancient and modern, that span cultural differences and norms? 

“These were civilizations honestly contending with questions all humans ask: Why are we here? What do we owe each other? What is justice? What is beauty?” Clowney said. “There’s never an expiration date on discussions on those questions because there are never really any answers.”

Translation, at its core, reminds us of our similarities across cultures, time periods and geography. Reading these works remind us of our humanity and how integral our connection to others truly is.

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