Hello! Welcome to the Arts Section of The Brandeis Hoot! My name is Jonah, and I’ll be your arts editor for this coming year. I’m a senior studying English and film. Criticism, especially film criticism is a real passion of mine. I just finished a summer internship at “Film Comment Magazine”—one of the few earthly publications that can give The Hoot a run for its money. I got my start writing about movies and pop culture for The Hoot when I was a freshman. The newspaper—and then-arts editors Emma Khan ’17 and Katie Decker-Jacoby ’19—is really responsible for nurturing my interest and eventual love of writing criticism. Thanks, Hoot! 

The plan is to pay it forward. I want this arts section to be a place where Brandeis students can write about pretty much whatever they want. Got some burning thoughts about “Love Island?” I’ll run your article. Think Chance the Rapper’s latest album is actually good? Well, I disagree, but I’d be happy to publish your take! Obviously, there are limits, but if you care about a relevant piece of pop culture or a Brandeis arts-related development, I want your words! It’s as simple as that.

Next, I want to address the future. I am happy to attend an institution where the students hold each other accountable and to a high standard. That’s one of the things I love about Brandeis. That being said, I can nearly guarantee that at some point doing this job, I will make a mistake. Or print something that people don’t agree with. It has happened to many an arts editor before me, and it would be arrogant to assume that under my leadership, this section will dodge controversy entirely.

All I ask is that you understand that I am doing my best (the same, I think, can be said for the rest of the staff here at The Hoot). I am not a professional nor have I ever edited a publication before. So when these mistakes happen, all I can say is that I will work as hard as possible to find solutions.

I also want to explain this column right here. I’m calling it “Koslofsky’s Corner,”—it’s a little spot where I’ll be sharing my overflowing thoughts on a weekly basis. I watch too many movies (about five per week), and I don’t have time to write full, formal reviews of all of them, so I might talk about them here! Or maybe there’s a comic book I recently devoured that I just need to write about or a streaming show or a video game that I want to recommend.

I might share some spoiler-filled thoughts that wouldn’t fit into a traditional review or respond to some “breaking” entertainment news. Criticism is a weird art form, and it’s got a lot of potential outside of arguments recommending or not recommending something, a pool of potential I’m just starting to dip my toes into. In other words, I promise it won’t be weekly, endless pontifications on Frank Ocean.

Finally, I’d like to take a second to shout-out how great of a section we’ve assembled in just the first week. We’ve got the debut of Maryam Chishti ’20 and her thoughts on the latest season of “The Bachelorette” and returning music critic Chris DeMena ’20 on British visionary/recluse Jai Paul. There’s also blockbuster connoisseur Joshua Lannon ’22 on the IMAX experience and Hoot mainstays Emma Lichtenstein ’22 on the current state of Taylor Swift and Sabrina Chow ’21 on the Rose Art Museum. So read on, dear reader, and on for the rest of a great year!