Review: Mitski Tackles Heavy-Hitting Worries in ‘Be The Cowboy’
Indie rocker Mitski’s newest release, ‘Be The Cowboy,’ features her typical scope of tender ballads and easygoing pop tracks. But if her last album, ‘Puberty 2,’ spoke to a prevailing sense of youth and emotional immaturity, ‘Cowboy’ discusses the post-puberty time, a time of aging, anxiety, and feeling much, much older.
Tracks like ‘Two Slow Dancers’ and ‘Old Friend’ include repeated references to age, both actual and perceived age, and the nostalgic appeal of thinking back to school dances and the relative simplicity of middle-school romance.
‘Me and My Husband’ looks forward to an idyllic future, one that just sounds a little too good to be true, making the listener question the traditional ideas about what a relationship, and specifically a marriage, can and should be.
On the whole, ‘Be The Cowboy’ strives to overcome the anxieties of adult life, often straying from the popular musical subject matter of love and relationships. These are the songs of a woman who wants desperately to know what she wants, which may as well be a summary of the millenial generation.
The album doesn’t exactly break new ground, but it does cement Mitski as an important voice within the music industry as she brings diversity not just in terms of background but also in terms of the psychology behind her songwriting.
Esports Shooting Raises Concerns for the Future of Competitive Gaming
The recent mass shooting at a ‘Madden 19’ esports competition at a Jacksonville, Florida bar left three people dead and eleven more wounded.
The most glaring issue in the wake of the shooting is the general lack of security for the event. Organizers apparently assumed strict security measures were not required for the small event.
Now, the entire esports industry is reviewing its methods and how to better protect competitors and huge numbers of fans. Ticket sales for esports in 2017 came in at an estimated $184 million, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
These public events have become increasingly popular among gamers and non-gamers, drawing large crowds to watch competitive playing of well-known games, with ‘Fortnite’ being among the most popular.
The attention that these events draw also represents an increased potential threat level. Upcoming esports events with major corporate sponsors including the ESL One New York esports competition set for September have been forced to reassess their security plans.
