The sun has come to serve many purposes in our lives. It is a source of light and power, a symbol of joy and clarity. It heals us of our ailments, both physical and mental. After a year of isolation and another year of finding our way out of it, we need — and even deserve — that joy more than ever, and there’s no better time to get it than in the summer. My memories of past summer vacations are filled with drive-in movies, family reunions, stiff muscles from water skiing and listening to “yacht rock radio” on every car ride. The writers of this B-Side have shared their own summer experiences, the good and the not-so-good, and how the art they associate with these memories has stayed with them. These pieces are both fun and formative — everything a summer vacation should be. In the same way that the sun gives us life and energy, the art and media we consume help us discover who we are and make us shine.
Daily Arts Writer Hannah Carapellotti can be reached at hmcarp@umich.edu.
The concert, the sun and the holy spirit of Lorde’s ‘Solar Power’ by Daily Arts Writer Serena Irani
I still have faint memories of my first concert. They’re fragmented flashes of feelings more than anything: singing along to Bon Jovi while stuck in traffic on the way there, excitement and adrenaline running through my 5-year-old veins in anticipation of Aly & AJ as the opening act, purchasing the overpriced concert book I’d end up spending hours poring over religiously and wearing my bright pink Hannah Montana T-shirt that would get shrunk in the dryer a week later. Miley Cyrus’s actual set was pretty much a blur, a null and void blind spot in my memory, but the feelings surrounding it have never quite faded.
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Four summer circumstances and the media I used to survive them by Daily Arts Writer Erin Evans
Summer comes with some inevitabilities. Change, for one. Going home to your parents, in my case. Either embracing the days when the outdoors turns into a pressure cooker or developing a hatred of the sun that may have made me think you were cool in high school. I have come to love this season, but it still brought certain unfortunate situations, and getting through them (and summer generally) with joy and grace depended partly on the media I chose to set my mood and the tone of my summer to. These are four recommendations — vices, if you will — and what they have meant to me in the past few months. Perhaps they can be useful to you too. If not, reading about someone else’s slight misfortune is usually enjoyable.
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This is a repeat after me song by Daily Arts Writer Mallory Edgell
When I was 8, my parents sent me to Girl Scout camp for the first time. The camp was in middle-of-nowhere western New York. The drive felt endless to an 8-year-old, trapped in a cramped car while your mom played Phil Collins and Elton John CDs. But when the scene in the front window changed from never-ending trees to a wooden camp sign and hordes of girls heading in, my focus shifted. Maybe this drive was leading me to somewhere new and important. I don’t know what my parents expected me to find in my camp experience, but I’m sure none of us were planning on me finding a place I never wanted to leave.
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Seven songs that hit different in the summer by Daily Arts Writer Joshua Medintz
Summer rocks. It’s the season of street fairs, park hangs, beach days, sausage from a street cart, dope tokes and sunburns. And it’s the season of music that hits different. This is a playlist for those days when you’re chilling in that park, toking that dope, slurping that sausage. This is a playlist that will hit different this summer.
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Baked Buzzed Bored: ‘Super Mario Sunshine’ by Daily Arts Writers
The writers of The Michigan Daily do it all. On top of being college students with full course loads, they roll up their sleeves to consume media and write. For the entertainment of our loyal readership, The Daily has revitalized and revamped “Baked Buzzed Bored.” For the sake of journalism, three or more writers sacrifice their health and 3+ hours of their life to watch a TV show or film (or, in this case, play a video game) while either high (“baked”), drunk (“buzzed”) or sober (“bored”). This article was lightly edited to maintain the authenticity of the piece.
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