Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby in “The Great Gatsby.”
Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros. Studios

Baz Luhrmann’s new film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s acclaimed classic, The Great Gatsby, is exactly what the title implies: great. Gatsby follows Nick Carraway (Toby Maguire) as he recounts the tale of his first summer on Long Island Sound. The mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby lives next-door, and hosts lavish parties almost every night in the hopes that his lost love, Daisy, who lives across the sound, might wander in one night.

Luhrmann’s directorial vision takes every single aspect of the novel and turns it into a decadent vision of the nineteen twenties, just as Fitzgerald intended. From the overly vibrant waters that separate the forlorn lovers to the synchronized movements of the hired help, Gatsby’s world is akin to a crystalline Neverland where the bottles of booze are bottomless and every curtain is made of the finest lace. The art direction perfectly highlights the materialism of the American dream, from the mysterious mist that surrounds the green light of Gatsby’s hopes and desires to the simple sheen of the yellow car the film includes as an homage to the 1974 Robert Redford version; every aspect of the film conveys the boozy haze that Carraway describes.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s fantastic portrayal of Jay Gatsby is possibly the most noteworthy aspect of the film apart from its magnificent art direction. DiCaprio’s Gatsby is both incredibly shallow and heartbreakingly idealistic in a way that endears him to the soul of every member of the audience. His likability, however, becomes deeply troubling when one realizes the materialistic vision of his dream to create a decadent world of things for Daisy to exist in. Both DiCaprio and Mulligan’s portrayal of their characters conveys the inability of Gatsby and Daisy to understand or to properly convey the feelings that they possess for one another.

Luhrmann makes interesting choices in molding the characters of Nick and Gatsby. While the film underscores the unreliability of Nick as a narrator by making the audience of his reverie a psychologist. The film also makes the shady source of Gatsby’s mysterious fortune much more prominent than it is in the novel, raising some interesting questions. If Nick has gone through a break down, how much of this story is actually believable? Is this a defense of Gatsby’s character altered by his friend, or the true story of Gatsby’s tragedy? Does the source of Gatsby’s fortune corrupt the dream world that he has created for his long lost love?

While the film creates an amazing artistic vision of the drunken debauchery of the 1920’s and the materialistic aspect of the American dream, Luhrmann draws from a more modern pool for the soundtrack. During the magnificent party scenes at Gatsby’s house, Luhrmann uses music from rap artists such as Jay Z to draw an interesting parallel between the party culture of the roaring 20’s and the party scene of today’s rap culture.

While The Great Gatsby will undoubtedly disappoint those who wanted Luhrmann to stay completely true to the text, those who were looking for a decadent, overly extravagant Gatsby with interesting changes made to highlight the broken vision of the American dream that exists today will consider the film a classic for years to come.

On May 12, 2012, Boston University students completing a semester in New Zealand were involved in a tragic car accident. They had been traveling at the end of a semester abroad.

College of Engineering junior Austin Brashears, School of Management junior Daniela Lekhno and College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Roch Jauberty lost their lives, and five others were injured.

The tragedy rattled the BU community. One year later, those lost live on in our memories and in our actions. The recovery process has been long and difficult, but people have come together with resilience and love.

This video is dedicated to all those affected and to those who lost their lives, a memory we will never forget.

The center, which will open in the fall 2013 semester as part of the College of Engineering, will serve as an educational tool related to engineering and manufacturing, said BU spokesman Colin Riley.

“The College of Engineering and [ENG] Dean [Kenneth] Lutchen have received an $18 million in-kind gift in software from PTC,” Riley said. “That software is the latest and greatest in manufacturing.”

The donation is the largest ENG has ever received, Lutchen said.

“It really validates the exciting ways in which we’re going to try to educate the engineers of the future of the United States and the world and continue to innovate technologies and products,” he said.

Riley said the EPIC will be located at 750 Commonwealth Ave. in the former Guitar Center space.

“The purpose of it is to encompass the entire cycle of manufacturing, from concept through creation … where people who have interest in engineering will actually get to see how the whole process works, not just their segment of it,” he said.

PTC donated two types of software, Lutchen said. The first allows students to create a virtual three-dimensional design of potential products, while the second allows students to manage the development and eventual manufacturing and marketing of the product.

The software will help students become more prepared for the workplace by exposing them to different components of the manufacturing process as well as to innovative technology, Riley said.

“With these software programs, the key is that students will be working using tools that are in the workplace,” he said. “So they will be making a seamless transition from the college experience into the workplace.”

Lutchen said the center will be important to providing students with a thorough understanding of technologies that are used to create products.

“The center will have a very major impact on the holistic way that engineering students at BU understand technologies, from the computer-aided design of a potential product to prototyping that kind of design to eventually creating it in a way that can be deployed for profit in large numbers,” he said.

The center reflects ENG officials’ goal to have engineering students of different disciplines working together, Lutchen said.

“Almost all kinds of projects are at the intersections of many kinds of technologies in engineering,” he said. “So, we’re going to try and create courses in which engineers of different disciplines get to work with engineers of other disciplines and understand how to create a product that has integrated technologies.”

Batting in the leadoff position, Mask hit a conference-best .399 and also led the league in hits (59) and on-base percentage (.464) and was second in stolen bases with 37. She scored a total of 30 runs, third-best in the conference, and also batted .464 in conference matchups.

Additionally, Mask, who was named America East Player of the Week on April 15 and 29, was named to the All-Conference First Team and All-Academic Team with a 3.35 GPA.

Junior shortstop Brittany Clendenny started every game at shortstop in 2013 for the Terriers and earned her second All-America East First Team nod. This season, she batted .260 and was tied for the team lead team in doubles.

Junior third baseman Megan Volpano was named to the Second Team for the third straight year. Volpano, who batted .284, finished second on the team with a total of 24 runs scored and had 19 RBIs, including three home runs.

Freshman pitcher Lauren Hynes, after a 3-3 record and 2.21 ERA with 25 strikeouts in conference play, was named to the All-Rookie Team.

Senior second baseman Emily Roesch was also placed on the All-Academic Team with a 3.85 GPA.

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper at her record release show at TT the Bear’s in February.
SYDNEY MOYER/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Sydney Moyer: So you’ve been playing the local scene in Boston as well as Portland and Brooklyn for a while now- was that a conscious decision to build up a local base before going after a record deal?

Aly Spaltro: It wasn’t a conscious decision…I obviously feel really at home playing in New England, and it was important to me to nurture my relationship with each city by playing a lot, but I also haven’t had a car for a couple of years so it’s convenient because I can get to a lot of places that I play conveniently from New York. I was actually on a bus when you called me to New York from playing Boston last night…so I’ve found over the years that it’s been a really wonderful thing that I’ve been playing so consistently in certain cities, and I have truly wonderful fanbases there now.

SM: I heard you used to play at the old hootenannies in Allston- is that true?

AS: No, actually, I’ve never done that…some of my Boston friends who went to college there did them or ran them or something, but I’ve never been to one.

SM: Oh, gotcha. So, you moved to New York, and I feel like I have to ask the Boston vs. New York question…what went into your decision to set up shop down there?

AS: I got really comfortable playing in the Boston scene, but I knew in my gut that I needed a little more of a challenge in New York…which is what I wanted. Also, I had some really dear friends in Boston, but just coincidentally, some of my best friends from growing up all over the place ended up in New York, so I had a really solid support system already, and it just made sense. I felt that Boston was too close to home, and like I said, my car broke down, which went into the decision. I was kind of about to move to Boston, and then my car broke, and I thought then I might be better-equipped for New York, because then I could play a different venue every night if I want to, without a vehicle, and not overplay.

SM: Yeah, the T in Boston is a little more difficult than the subway, I guess.

AS: Yeah, well it’s just not as conducive to playing to new crowds every week, if you wanted to. New York has so so many venues and opportunities, and that’s why I felt it was more conducive to where I was at.

SM: Makes sense. So, whenever I plug your record to my friends, they always ask about the name- I heard it came to you in a dream?

AS: Yeah, that’s true. I was 18, and I had just started writing songs, and I had enough to put on a little compilation CD, and I was really inspired at that time, so I was having trouble sleeping because I was constantly sort of writing lyrics in my head. So I would sort of train myself to write the lyrics down in my sleep, sort of roll over and do it in the middle of the night in a notebook. And Lady Lamb the Beekeeper was written in the notebook when I woke up, and I really had no recollection of where that came from or writing it or what the dream I was having was or anything like that. But to me, she’s like this fictional woman character. And it happened right at the time that I had these recordings that I wanted to share with my small town, without them being able to trace the music back to me by my name, so it just felt like, in the moment, the right thing to  put on as an anonymous, sort of mysterious moniker, and it stuck.

SM: The record’s lyrical content is so visceral and so full of these elaborate metaphors- from where did you draw your songwriting inspiration?

AS: I mostly just get it from personal experience. One of my hobbies in high school and as a kid was writing, and writing poetry, so it was just a very natural format for me to start to express myself, and the music came later. I really just started teaching myself how to play instruments as a vehicle for the lyrics. They’re most just rooted in really visual metaphor that I get inspired by in the moment…I really don’t know how to describe where it comes from, but definitely a lot of personal experience, and then some little twists I put on it, you know, to make it more poetic, of course [laughs].

SM: What does the creative process look like for you? How did you sit down and write these songs and how did you flesh them out in the studio?

AS: Yeah, I mean, for nearly five years, I recorded everything myself at home, and you know I’ve really only written songs when the feeling struck me in that moment, which is why they’re all pretty intense and emotional, because I only write them when I feel really really compelled to, they just come instantly in that moment, and then it’s out…it’s a song. And so, because of that, almost all the recordings I’ve made, in fact, all of the recordings I’ve ever made myself, were written and recorded and finished in under a day. I never went back to something and like worked on it the next day, I always just started it and finished it in one sitting. And so, the recording in the studio was entirely different because I spent nearly an entire year with 12 songs, so it was really challenging to open my mind up in a different way, to hear them differently and arrange them for the first time, just to make them bigger. And you know, it was a lot of slaving and a lot of challenge and frustration and breakthroughs and excitement…it was a really amazing experience but entirely different from anything I had experienced before musically.

SM: You built up a local following around your reputation as a distinctive solo performer- have you been playing with a full band after the record’s release? How does it differ? Which do you like more?

AS: Not completely. I had a full band for my release shows, which was mostly comprised of my openers, and then a couple friends, but they’re not my band, they’re just friends. I actually don’t have my own band, so I’ve just been playing solo past the release shows. Fortunately, my openers who play keys and drums, are my openers for my May tour that I’ll have, and I’m bringing my friend to play bass, so it’s gonna be half full band, like it was for the release shows, luckily for me. I’m going to Europe twices soon, and those will both be solo tours. So I don’t have my own band yet because it’s not the right time, but I have enjoyed playing with a full band, it’s more true to what the record sounds like, although I do still enjoy playing by myself.

SM: I’ve read several articles comparing you to St. Vincent, the sort of eclectic guitar arrangements and electric vibe- how do you feel about that comparison?

AS: I think it’s a fine comparison, I like her, I’m flattered by it. I think it’s a very easy comparison to make because, you know, we’re two girls that play electric guitar maybe a little rougher or more distorted than some girls do. But I feel like musically, lyrically, we’re complete opposites. I mean I do understand the comparison, and this is not me in any way bashing that, I’m flattered by it. But I think that if you just take the songs structurally, we are exact opposites. Whereas I’m very open and emotional and vulnerable lyrically, I feel that she’s the polar opposite of that. She’s very closed and mysterious, and you actually end up walking away from that record knowing less about her than you did before…it’s a very different approach. But she’s a fantastic guitarist, so for anyone to mention her by my name is really, really flattering.

SM: Yeah I get what you mean, your arrangements definitely feel more intuitive, which isn’t better or worse, it’s just what it is. Anyway, you’ve been touring a little bit since the release of the new record- what are some of your favorite records to listen to on the road?

AS: On the road, I’m really into different stuff than I’m into otherwise. On the road, I really like to listen to old early 90s stuff. I’m actually really into just doing like a Pandora radio for something awesome like early No Doubt or like Third Eye Blind or something and just singing along really loudly to all those radio hits that I remember from being a kid. And also like early Madonna and David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper, The Cranberries…just like really fun singalongs that everyone in the car recognizes but hasn’t heard for years, it’s really fun.

SM: So what about when you’re home, what are you into right now?

AS: Lately, let me think…what was I listening to on the bus? Today I was listening to this band I really love called Active Child. I listened to this new guy from Canada named Mac DeMarco, he has an awesome record, I listened to Sam Amidon, I listened to PJ Harvey…what else? New Pornographers, a little bit of Neko Case…it was a long bus ride, so that’s just an example of today.

SM: Yeah, that’s a long bus ride, you get a lot of time to listen to a good chunk of music there.

AS: Absolutely!

SM: So I have one last question for you- what was your favorite show you’ve ever played and why?

AS: Uh, probably…there have been several, but the one that comes to mind is, not this past summer but the one before, I opened for Beirut at the State Theatre in Portland, Maine. The theatre had been previously closed for a few years, but I saw my first concert there when I was 14 and I had moved to Maine, I saw Wilco there, and so it was a really important venue to me in high school because I saw a lot of shows there. And then I went on this mini-tour with Beirut, who I had been a fan of since I was like 15, and so I just had this really remarkable scene of being on this stage and thinking about my 15 year-old self and thinking how I would have never in a million years expected that that’s what I’d be doing. I just looked out and saw all these people I knew and my family and friends, and a ton of people I’d never seen, and a ton of fans of Beirut that maybe didn’t know me from my town, and it was just a really surreal and humbling experience.

Lady Lamb the Beekeeper will be playing Brighton Music Hall on Thursday, May 9.

The Terriers (21-26-1, 8-9 America East) were riding a three game winning heading into Storrs, Conn., to take on UConn (26-27) Thursday. The Huskies were a familiar opponent for the Terriers, as the two clashed at the BU Softball Field earlier in the year, a game in which the Huskies edged the Terriers by a score of 11-8.

In the Thursday matchup, the Terriers sent freshman pitcher Lauren Hynes to the circle. Hynes, who has vastly improved since the start of the season, went seven innings, allowing four runs on seven hits and struck out two in another solid effort.

Although Hynes was strong in the circle, she needed offensive support, which BU gave to her very early in the contest. In the first inning, senior second baseman Emily Roesch doubled to left field, which brought in junior third baseman Megan Volpano, giving the Terriers an early 1-0 lead.

The score remained that way until the fourth when the UConn offense finally started to click. After a sacrifice fly and an RBI single by second baseman Brittany Duclos, the Huskies took a 2-1 advantage heading to the fifth.

Despite falling behind, BU came right back in the top half of the fifth and tied up the game. Hynes helped her own cause, and drove in the tying run on an RBI groundout.

With things still all knotted up at two, the Terrier offense exploded for three runs in the sixth frame, taking a 5-2 advantage. Junior first baseman Chelsea Kehr had the highlight of the inning with her two-run home run. Sophomore left fielder Emily Felbaum added another run with an RBI double to center field.

The fifth run proved huge, as the Huskies battled back in the bottom half of the frame. Duclos came through with another RBI single and freshman Valerie Sadowl added an RBI single of her own to cut the Terrier lead to one.

With a walk, the Huskies had the bases loaded and a golden opportunity to tie or take the lead in the game, but Hynes induced a groundout from right fielder Maddy Schiappa to end the threat.

Hynes retired the side in order in the seventh, giving the Terriers the victory, which was their fourth in a row.

With this four-game win streak in hand, the Terriers next took on America East foe Stony Brook (31-22, 10-8 America East) in their final series of the season.

The first game of the three-game set was a classic pitchers’ duel between Hynes and Allison Cukrov.

The two kept the game scoreless until the fifth inning, when BU finally jumped on the board. Felbaum came through with a double to left, scoring junior shortstop Brittany Clendenny.

With the way Hynes was pitching, it appeared that could be enough. She went six innings and only allowed three hits.

However in the, the Seawolves took the lead, scoring two on a single by right fielder Bria Green.

The two runs gave Cukrov enough support, as she shut down the Terriers in the final frame.

BU sent senior pitcher Erin Schuppert in the second game of the day to attempt a win in the circle. Schuppert struggled from the outset, and allowed 10 hits and four runs in her 5.1 innings of work.

The Seawolves scored three runs in the first two innings, and took an early command of the game.

However, in the third inning, the Terriers got to ace pitcher Christine Lucido and knotted up the score. With Volpano’s RBI double and junior catcher Amy Ekart’s two-run shot, the Terrier comeback was in full force.

The Terriers added another run in the next frame on a home run by freshman right fielder Haley King, and BU took its first lead of the game.

However, for the second time, the Terriers could not hold the lead and blew another chance to win in the sixth. Pinch hitter Melissa Phelan came off the bench for Stony Brook and delivered a two-run homer, good enough for the lead and the win, as the Terriers lost their second game of the day 5-4.

The final day of the three-game set did not fare much better for the Terriers, as the team dropped the final game of the season by a score of 8-0.

Hynes got the start for BU again and kept the game scoreless into the third inning. However, this scoreless game quickly turned into a blowout, as Stony Brook slugged out seven runs in the third inning off of the freshman pitcher.

The Seawolves added another run in the fourth, giving them an 8-0 lead. The Terriers came to bat in the fifth, and promptly went down 1-2-3, ending their season in mercy rule fashion. The loss not only ended the season, but it was BU’s last ever game as a member of the America East Conference.

Lead singer Elena Tonra of Daughter at the Sinclair Saturday night.
SYDNEY MOYER/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Daughter began as the solo project of lead singer Elena Tonra and later grew to include guitarist Igor Haefeli and drummer Remi Aguilella. After garnering critical acclaim in the London indie scene, Daughter signed to UK label 4AD and released their debut LP, If You Leave, earlier this spring.

The album calls to mind Cat Power’s Moon Pix or The xx in its hushed reverence and wispy verses on heartbreak and loss — but (at least for me), a little too much so. Don’t get me wrong, Daughter is a solid band; they write beautiful, instrumentally minimalist but emotionally saturated songs, but their sound didn’t stand out enough to hold my attention. In fact, throughout most of the show, I wished I were seeing The xx or Cat Power again, not their lesser photocopy.

But I guess I’m a tough audience. Typically, I don’t enjoy seeing quiet folk or indie acts whose songs taxi down the runway but never quite make it to liftoff, much as those same songs tend to make up my various sad playlists on iTunes. Music like Daughter is music for reflection, for quiet contemplation, for your headphones when you’re walking home at night and it starts to snow. It’s hard to capture that same intimacy and that emotion in a live setting, because songs like that rest so personally upon us. It almost feels wrong to stand in a room full of people while watching acts like Daughter — albeit a dead silent and unmoving room full of people — because it feels too public, too exposed, too out-of-place for a Saturday night outing.

So will I listen to more Daughter? Probably. I’d like to see where they go from here, and I really enjoyed their cover mashup of Bon Iver’s “Perth” and Hot Chip’s “Ready for the Floor.” But do I have the desire to ever see them live again? Definitely not. They have headphone potential, but when it comes down to it and you’re left with just the aftermath of your emotions when you leave the venue, they’re no Cat Power, and I can’t say they ever will be.

The Terriers (6-10, 2-4 America East) got off to a hot start in the game, scoring four goals in 10 minutes against the Blue Devils (12-5), but ultimately a 28-minute scoreless drought doomed BU.

Neither team got on the board for the first six minutes of play, until senior attack Danielle Etrasco found the back of the net to give BU a 1-0 lead. Duke responded just 22 seconds later with a goal of its own to tie the game.

Over the next three minutes of play, BU went on a three-goal run, with scores from junior midfielder Sydney Godett, senior midfielder Kristen Mogavero and freshman midfielder Jill Horka to give the Terriers a 4-1 lead with 20 minutes remaining in the first half.

For the rest of the first frame, the Blue Devils held the Terriers off the scoreboard and went on an eight-goal run to give Duke a 8-4 lead going into halftime.

In the second half, Duke continued its dominance, adding another three goals over the first seven minutes to build a commanding 11-4 lead.

However, BU finally got back on the board with 22 minutes left in the half, thanks to a goal from freshman midfielder Sofia Robins. Duke answered back with two goals of its own, but Etrasco then scored her second goal of the game to make it a 13-6 game with 17 minutes remaining.

Duke went on another three-goal run to make it 16-6 before Robins scored off a free-position shot to cut the deficit down to nine. Duke once again answered back with two goals to give the Blue Devils an 18-7 lead.

The Terriers scored two goals in the final minute of play, but ultimately fell to the Blue Devils by a score of 18-9.

Robins led the Terriers with a hat trick, while Etrasco, in the final game of her storied BU career, netted two goals and recorded an assist. She finished the year with 59 goals and 20 assists for 79 points in just 16 games.

Junior goalkeeper Christina Sheridan played in all but two minutes in the game and finished with six saves. Senior goalkeeper Kim Elsworth played the other two minutes and recorded one save.

While it may have been a disappointing final season in the America East for the Terriers, they have a lot to look forward to next season, as they will move on the Patriot League next season and take on new opponents such as Bucknell University, College of the Holy Cross and Lehigh University.

The three-alarm fire at 87 Linden St. killed College of Arts and Sciences senior Binland Lee and injured of nine Allston residents and six firefighters. Two of those injured were identified as BU students.

“It [the fire] started in an old staircase that wasn’t used anymore,” said Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald. “It was a wide open space that those going from the first floor to the second floor to get to the second floor will pass.”

Additionally, city inspectors cited the residence’s landlord, Anna Belokurova, for an unsafe structure, for failing to secure change of occupancy from a two-family home to a home of 19 lodgers and for failing to secure a long form permit to extend the home’s living space to the basement, according to several violation reports.

The cause of the fire was determined from a variety of evidence, including interviews with those close by, MacDonald said.

“Fire investigators based that determination on interviews with people that live in the building,” he said. “They base it on physical evidence from the fire, they based it on burn patterns — basically the way the fire burns. That tells a lot about the way the fire started.”

While the investigation of the cause of the fire has ended, the investigation of Lee’s death is still underway, he said.

“Right now, it’s up to the [Suffolk County] District Attorney to see if this fatal fire warrants any criminal charges and get that resolved,” MacDonald said.

Suffolk County DA spokesman Jake Wark said the DA’s office has assigned a prosecutor to work with the City of Boston and Boston Police Department detectives to determine whether criminal charges are appropriate.

“In Massachusetts, the statutory authority for overseeing a death investigation in the event of a sudden, unattended or suspicious death is given to the District Attorney’s office,” he said. “… That investigation, unlike the cause and origin investigation, is still ongoing.”

Wark said the investigation is ongoing and no specific timeframe is set.

“We’ll follow the evidence and apply the law,” he said. “That’s how we reach all of our charging decisions.”