On this week’s episode, the editor-in-chief and deputy editor of the Chronicle discuss the trans film movement, Wicked Week, Arts In The Dark, FAFSA, and Mr. Bones.
Transcript:
0:05: Good morning and welcome to Columbia Chronicle Headlines.
0:08: I’m Will Blakley, the editor-in-chief of the Columbia Chronicle, and I’m Marc Balbarin.
0:11: I’m the deputy editor of the Columbia Chronicle.
0:14: All right, let’s get right into it.
0:16: yeah, I mean, we had a big news week, not in terms of a bunch of big news, but in terms of volume. Yeah, just a bunch of stories, what, like 10, like 11 stories.
0:26: I was counting last night.
0:27: I think it was 12. 12? Or something like that.
0:30: Yeah. God, our reporters are doing so much.
0:33: Yeah, just to flex our
0:34: reporters, real quick, shout out.
0:36: No, truly, they do all the work that we talk about here.
0:39: I deeply appreciate them.
0:41: I appreciate them too. Yeah, and yeah, they put in a lot of good work this week.
0:45: yeah, we had some fun stories this week.
0:47: One in particular I want to highlight by our reporter Guadalupe who did a story on trans filmmakers here in Chicago and the trans film movement, which I have some personal connections with.
0:56: I was in an independent film last semester made by some of the friends of some of the people interviewed here, and yeah, it was just this really fascinating story that highlighted how Chicago is this really bustling, exciting city for independent cinema right now, specifically with this, I believe in the article, they referred to it as the trans weird film movement or something like that.
1:23: I’ve heard it also as the
1:25: trans digital film movement which, because a lot of these films are filmed on like shitty camcorder cameras from like the early 2000s, and yeah, just this really interesting look into that world and like this movement going on and how these films are made, in particular highlighting a local Chicago filmmaker Henry Hanson who had a film on the Criterion Channel last year, which for a film nerd like me that’s awesome and crazy, just, you know, really encouraging to hear as a filmmaker in Chicago.
1:52: And I thought it was a really interesting deep dive into a film culture
1:57: you don’t hear much about.
1:58: It’s kind of been vaguely written about here and there, but I think this is the first coverage I’ve seen of it that really dives deep into talking with these filmmakers and making it specifically about the trans experience rather than just the digital film movement as a whole.
2:09: So, yeah, just great work from Guadalupe this week, seriously. Yeah, no, it was a great story.
2:13: It was a great time editing it.
2:16: You know what else is going on in Chicago?
2:18: No idea.
2:19: Halloween.
2:20: Well, that’s going on in the world, Marc.
2:22: Okay, in the world, whatever.
2:24: Chicago, Halloween, Wicked Week.
2:26: I’m excited.
2:27: Are you excited?
2:28: I am.
2:29: I genuinely love Wicked Week here at Columbia.
2:33: It’s always a highlight every year.
2:35: What’s your costume gonna be?
2:37: I’m doing a couple different costumes actually, for
2:42: a party I’m going to this weekend after this episode’s uploaded, I’m going as Matt Johnson, from Nirvanna the Band the Show, which is a very film bro answer.
2:53: It’s a couples’ costume with a friend, and then for another party, I don’t know if I’m gonna have the money to, but I really want to do Tom Cruise’s Digger.
3:03: Again, very film bro costume.
3:05: I think it’d be fun.
3:07: And then for the office.
3:09: We’re all doing Mario characters.
3:13: One person wanted me to do Toadette to their Toad.
3:16: I kind of want to do Donkey Kong.
3:18: I kind of want to get a monkey costume and just do Donkey Kong. I think you should do Donkey Kong.
3:23: I might.
3:23: We’ll see.
3:24: There’ll be photos.
3:25: What are you, Marc?
3:25: What are you going as? For the Office, I’m gonna be Shy Guy.
3:28: Because it’s really easy.
3:30: It’s just buying a mask and putting my hood up.
3:33: Shy Guys finish last. And then what else? I’m gonna be the Nesquik Bunny from the 2000s.
3:43: That’s awesome actually.
3:44: Yeah, I’m gonna get the little bunny ears and everything.
3:46: I’m going to carry around some choccy milk.
3:49: Never say choccy milk again, please.
3:50: You’re choccy milk.
3:51: You’re 20 years old.
3:53: Yeah, exactly.
3:53: I’m 20 years old.
3:55: Is 21 the cutoff for choccy milk?
3:58: No, anyone could drink choccy milk.
4:00: No, it’s not drinking it.
4:01: It’s saying choccy milk.
4:02: It’s chocolate milk. Choccy milk.
4:05: I’m going to be 20 years old.
4:06: I’m going to carry a bottle of Nesquik chocolate milk.
4:06: This is one of our senior reporters, guys.
4:10: This is our deputy editor of the Chronicle. And you complain I don’t have whimsy in my heart.
4:14: You know what?
4:14: You’re right.
4:14: You know, all right, you know what, Marc? You can have whimsy for choccy milk.
4:18: Exactly, exactly.
4:19: But please, besides your stupid use of words, what events are we seeing for Wicked Week, like what have we covered?
4:26: What’s coming up?
4:27: One event I’m really excited for is on Tuesday.
4:30: It’s gonna be the SGA Karaoke Club collab.
4:34: Oh, okay. Yeah, just costume karaoke.
4:37: It’s gonna be a fun night, you know.
4:38: We’ve talked about it before, how much we both love karaoke.
4:42: I did it earlier this week.
4:44: It was a good time. And I’m jealous, but we’ll go. We’ll go to that, right, Will?
4:48: What day is it?
4:48: Tuesday.
4:50: What time?
4:51: Tuesday night. Maybe, actually yeah I probably could swing that actually. Yippee. Yippee, oh my god, friendship guys. Enjoy whimsy on the podcast today. So much whimsy today.
5:00: Yeah, and then what else? What happened this last week for Wicked Week?
5:03: I know there’s a couple things we covered.
5:06: There was the, oh, we had our Arts in the Dark preview.
5:10: Yeah, Arts in the Dark.
5:11: Yes. By the time this is uploaded, we’ll have already covered it.
5:15: Yes.
5:16: Oh my God, yes, yeah, Arts in the Dark, yeah, it would have been this last weekend.
5:20: I mean, I covered it last year.
5:21: I had a great time, and they’re doing some really interesting stuff this year.
5:25: They’re doing a haunted house, right? Yeah.
5:27: Oh, that’s rad.
5:28: And this year for the actual Arts in the Dark parade, we have 150 student participants set to help out with the parade.
5:37: They all have their masks and everything they designed in the class in their Carnival Arts Chicago Stories class.
5:44: Yes.
5:46: They said their masks are prairie inspired because the city is not just the buildings, it’s also everything around it and everything around it is also kind of like that prairie flatland style.
5:57: And so they’re kind of inspired by these to build their animal masks.
6:01: Yeah, I remember last year they had animal masks as well, and I mean they were all really cool, but there was one in particular that had these really long like paper mache antlers.
6:08: It was crazy.
6:09: It’s really cool stuff.
6:10: Yeah, then right after the parade, there’s gonna be a free Columbia afterparty as well.
6:15: You have to register for that, but it’s going on till 11, I think. 11 p.m., yeah. 11 p.m., yeah, were you at that afterparty last year?
6:24: Yeah, I mean, like I didn’t like participate a ton because I was writing, but yeah, generally it’s like they have a dance floor on the 5th floor.
6:32: They have some clubs there.
6:33: They have some DJs, student DJs, I think they had an art thing last year, like a painting thing.
6:38: Yeah, I think that’s making a return actually, a little art showdown.
6:41: Hell yeah. Yeah, no, that was really cool.
6:42: There’s some neat little pieces that came out of that, and, oh my God, I remember I got this one interview with this guy who was in like a Halloween Superman costume.
6:50: And he was just so excited about the dance floor.
6:52: Like he kept just going to me, I wanna move.
6:54: I wanna move.
6:54: I’m like, hell yeah, dude. So yeah, it’s always a lot of fun.
6:59: Very excited this year.
7:00: Yeah.
7:00: In addition to that, we also have the Dark Market making its annual return.
7:04: Yes, Dark Market, oh my God, Lilly, right?
7:08: Lilly Sundsbak, who has helped out on the Chronicle before. Yeah, she’s made the main display case, the main featured image.
7:15: It’s a character going to
7:18: a mysterious building surrounded by like ghosts and pumpkins, very like spooky.
7:26: But no, this year’s theme is, it’s still like spooky.
7:29: It’s still like Halloween-ish, but it’s more colorful.
7:31: It’s more playful than traditional, like, you know, haunting and gore.
7:35: It’s “we put a spell on you,” or. Yeah, that’s the theme for the entire Wicked Week.
7:41: Okay, got you.
7:41: I put a spell on you, right, right.
7:44: Oh, yeah, I saw in the film building they have this
7:47: video that repeats where they did an Obsession inspired video promo for it. No, no, no, no.
8:01: Marc, I’m gonna Obsession you.
8:03: No, please don’t.
8:05: Let me break my… No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I can’t break it.
8:09: Oh. I’ve already used it. Okay. On the whimsy for this podcast.
8:15: I wish that Marc would have consistent whimsy and joy in his heart.
8:22: Yeah, but there’s 60 submissions, about 50 student artists at the Dark Market this year.
8:27: So overall it’s a great opportunity for the students to, you know, make their work for an actual audience and actually get paid for their work.
8:36: It’s great.
8:36: Yeah, no, it’s a wonderful opportunity and there’s always some really neat art there.
8:40: I, like I said, I covered it last year and yeah, there was some really neat little pieces of like torsos and gore and such.
8:49: So if you’re into that or if you’re into cute little spooky stuff, I recommend checking it out and supporting your fellow student artists.
8:54: You know what’s something scary that’s happened?
8:58: Mr. Bones, our skeleton.
9:00: Oh yeah, Mr. Bones. He’s been stolen.
9:03: He’s been stolen. He disappeared.
9:03: He’s gone and you can help us find him. This is a promotion for a scavenger hunt we are doing on campus and on social media.
9:14: Yeah, you gotta practice being a little investigative journalist and hunting through our, I don’t even know what the clues are.
9:20: I’m just scared for Mr. Bones.
9:22: I’m so worried.
9:23: Mr. Bones really helped me through a hard time.
9:27: Mr. Bones has lent me a lot of cash, and I need him.
9:31: I need him back.
9:32: I’m $2000 in the dirt that he has for me.
9:37: So please help us find Mr. Bones.
9:38: There’s a reward if you help find him.
9:41: Yes, yeah, stuff. Cool stuff. Cool stuff.
9:46: Anyways, you know what else is scary that just happened?
9:50: What?
9:51: Some changes to the FAFSA. That’s really scary. I know, isn’t it?
9:57: Yeah, no, I mean, nothing crazy.
9:58: This is kind of our only hard news story this week.
10:02: It’s a pretty like arts and culture week which is kind of fun, but the changes to the FAFSA really are just some new questions about like homelessness, college plans, career plans and some like high school graduation stuff, and then there’s some new ways to invite parents to provide financial info.
10:19: That’s really it, nothing crazy, but it still will have an impact on students.
10:24: We, you know, tried to get a comment from Lalande, but he said that it’s too early to tell if it’s gonna have any effects.
10:31: So, we’ll see where it goes.
10:32: We’ll see where it goes.
10:33: We’ll make sure to keep track of it.
10:35: Exactly, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think that’s pretty much all we have. That’s pretty much all we have this week.
10:39: Wonderful.
10:39: Once again, please help us find Mr. Bones.
10:41: Please help us find Mr. Bones, please.
10:44: He’s like a father and a son to me.
10:47: I don’t wanna know how that works, but that’s it for this week’s episode of Chronicle Headlines.
10:52: Once again, I’m Marc Balbarin, the deputy editor of the Columbia Chronicle, and I’m Will Blakley, the editor-in-chief of the Columbia Chronicle, and we will see you next time.
Copy Edited by Isaac Russo
