The Hanslick Girls

February 10, 2020

AUDIO TOUR: The Hanslick Girls Review The Thorne Miniature Rooms

On February 16, 2015, the Hanslick Girls debut in their very first review, of Vertigo Productions’ The Alligators, at Northwestern. Now, to celebrate their five-year anniversary, they’re leaving the page and traveling out into the real world!

Below you will find a recorded audio tour of the Thorne Miniature Rooms, a permanent exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. To hear the review, you can download the audio file below, and listen to the tour in real time as you walk through the gallery. The recorded voices of Gwen, Eleanor, and Dania will lead you through a sampling of twelve rooms, discussing it as they would any other work of art.

For best results, press play on the audio tour just as you begin walking down the staircase, or taking the elevator, to the basement level.

Cast:

Kelsey McGrath as Gwen

Destiny Strothers as Eleanor

Janette Angelini as Dania

Recorded November 6, 2019, at Mystery Street Recording Studio in Chicago, IL, Geramie Cauley serving as Sound Engineer and Editor.

Guitar interludes are edited from the album Elements by Aitua, used in accordance with Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 licensing.

This recording was made independently and without the participation of the Art Institute of Chicago, SAIC, or any other subsidiary.

LINK TO THE AUDIO TOUR

(If Google Docs gives you a pop-up about being unable to scan for viruses, that’s due to the size of the file. I promise, The Hanslick Girls is a malware-free site)

Enjoy the Thorne Miniature Rooms! And thanks for five years of the Hanslick Girls!

Image Source: The Art Institute of Chicago

January 27, 2020

Those Who Stray: Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings The Blues”

One of the most enduring images during the film’s opening credits had been Sita, rendered in the film’s simplified flash animation, massaging the feet of her husband, Rama. In the final shot of the film, the image returned, but the roles had been reversed. As Rama massaged his wife’s feet, Sita offered a knowing wink to camera, and the film cut to credits: Directed by Nina Paley.

“That’s it?” asked Eleanor, sitting up straighter as the credits rolled by, accompanied by sitar punk. “That’s the entire movie?”

January 13, 2020

Forward, March: Rey Terciero & Bre Indigo’s “Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy”

It had been two weeks since their discussion of Louisa May Alcott’s seminal novel, Little Women, had ended with Gwen’s surprise reveal of its graphic novel adaptation. The modern retelling –– Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, by Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo –– was published in 2019, to mark the 150th anniversary of the novel. As the cover made clear, the story had been updated to a modern New York setting, with an interracial March family and an expanded supporting cast.

“Most of the plot points match, at least to start out,” Gwen had explained. “You have the major scenes –– the opening at Christmas, Meg going to Vanity Fair, and so on. The second half is where the adaptation loosens.”

December 30, 2019

Nature/Nurture: Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women”

“It’s been so long since I first read it,” sighed Eleanor, looking down at her Christmas sweater.

“This was absolutely my favorite book, growing up,” glowed Gwen, gripping her dog-eared copy tighter.

“I read it once, in secondary school, but barely remembered what happened,” Dania admitted, with a little pout. “It’s a lot better than I thought.”