Tag Archives: Will Feinstein

Wes Students & Alums #TakeThePledge in Clickhole Video

Screen Shot 2015-02-12 at 5.08.42 PM

Have you seen the latest viral video that’s sweeping the world? It’s even better than that one of the girl who is afraid of pickles, and certainly does more good for humanity.

I’m talking about the latest Clickhole video, called “Take the Pledge”. And it just so happens to feature a bunch of Wesleyan students and alumni, including Neo Sora ’14 as a pledge-taker from Japan named Taku.

This strong Wes presence is thanks to Will Feinstein ’13 who works for Clickhole and reached out to friends from Wesleyan, like Eric Lopez ’15 to help put the video together. Try to spot all the Wes folks, starting about 1 minute in.

And of course, remember to #TakeThePledge.

Adrien And William Reunite For “Let’s Do Us” Music Video

Days since last Will Feinstein ’13 incident: 12. Seriously, this guy just graduated and he still hasn’t given up on trying to dominate the Wesleyan music scene— Wesleying has its own tag specifically for him. That stuff’s reserved for big shots only. And this Adrien DeFontaine ’13 guy ain’t no slouch, either: You last saw him playing as part of the band Tonsil Hockey in their debut video, directed by – you guessed it – Will Feinstein.

But arguably their most popular musical collaboration – one which landed them onto the NECN Morning Show – was with each other. After all the success of last year’s clever party anthem “Ain’t Tryna Say Goodnight,” Adrien feat. William has reunited for another Senior Week pop song, “Let’s Do Us.” It has everything: People taking swigs of orange juice right from the bottle, a chorus of people going “Aayyy,” Will Feinstein without a shirt, #captions, and that thing where people sing directly to a camera.

Tonsil Hockey Drops Debut Video, Fails To Make It Onto Morning Show

Maybe you thought local funnyman and “College of Moving Image” expert Will Feinstein ’13 would finally give up on combining aural and visual stimuli to generate “lighthearted,” “viral” “content” after achieving his lifelong goal of becoming a WesCeleb. You thought wrong.

Nearly a year to the date after debuting viral sensation “Ain’t Tryna Say Goodnight,” Feinstein has directed the music video debut for Tonsil Hockey, a pop-punk band Jason Katzenstein ’13Adrien DeFontaine ’13, and Zak Malik ’14 formed presumably after they got tired of playing Blink-182 songs to bleeding naked men. Please note that none of the aforementioned characters have had their work “viral” “content” promoted on this blog in any form previously.

Ain’t Tryna Say Good Morning: Wesleyan on NECN

Twenty-four-hour cable news network NECN, owned by NBCUniversal, used a song by “Adrien feat. William” as part of today’s Morning Show soundtrack. The song is, of course, “Ain’t Tryna Say Good Night,” written by Henry Molofsky ’13, Danny Sullivan ’13 and Will Feinstein ’13 and performed by Feinstein and Adrien DeFontaine ’13. This #MOLOdiesel production was released last spring, and apparently found its way to the Morning Show team, who, according to Feinstein, featured excerpts of the song before and after commercial breaks this morning.

To see the clip, visit NECN’s page, which claims, “This band is from Middleton, CT.” (According to Rolling Stone, that’s the same hometown as MGMT.) Watch ATSGN in all its glory below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVD_DnEEBLk]

Music and Public Life Class Produces Video Supporting “Equal Access To Higher Education”

Remember when Antonin Scalia Ross Gormley ’13 asked you to send in pictures and videos that communicated your perspective of the Wesleyan campus? If you sent any in, you just might see them below.  The following video was produced as a final project for the class Music Movements in a Capitalist Democracy, which you might know as Music and Public Life, or perhaps the class Dar Williams ’89 teaches when she’s not busy tearing up Wesleyan Thinks Big. Edit: Actually it’s for Music and Public Life, which is its own course and was taught by Mark Slobin. Sorry for the error.

Marissa Schnitman ’14 explains the video’s motivations:

For their final project, Wesleyan’s Music and Public Life class has produced a video to express their support of equal access to higher education. In response to the confusion, controversy, and divisiveness surrounding the shift in need blind policy on campus and in the media, the class created this video to remind alumni to preserve a commitment to support the Wesleyan community unconditionally. The video encourages us to set aside politics and perspectives about University decisions. This is about helping the Wesleyan community move forward. This is about our shared dedication to equal access to higher education. Help keep Wesleyan accessible to everyone. Help “Keep Wesleyan Weird.”

WESU Makes Video, DJs for mtvU

Hai guyz, yet another Wesleyan musician has made it! This time, a group of scrappy WESU volunteers proves that they’ll be tastemakers of the future by introducing mtvU’s countdown of music videos, both on their Tumblr and on “a 24-hour television channel that is available on more than 750 college and university campuses across the United States” (check it out in a TV if you can find one!?).  Perhaps recognizing how accomplished the Wesleyan community has been in the way of music lately, mtvU allowed the creators to (mostly) go crazy over the course of a single afternoon, turning such prosaic things like nail-clipping and sticking your head under your friend’s shirt into cinematic gold. Unfortunately, corporate censorship prevailed.

Here’s a full “artist statement” via former WESU technical director Dan Nass ’13:

mtvU invited WESU to do a college radio countdown, where we put together a playlist of ten music videos along with a clip introducing the station to viewers. WESU’s board of directors brought in the almost terrifyingly ubiquitous Will Feinstein ’13 to work on the script, and he and I co-directed the video. We shot it in a single afternoon, thanks to the talent and cooperation of WESU’s awesome student volunteers and our program manager Rick, along with some DIY ingenuity (a couple of the shots are lit with iPhones!) We wanted to represent WESU’s independent spirit with a suitably offbeat clip, and we must have done a good job because the folks at mtvU cut a couple of our favorite shots—the original video featured a kidnapping and a book-burning. The video and playlist are airing four times a day for the next week on mtvU. Check it out if you have a television! mtvU’s tumblr is also featuring five online music videos selected by the board, including campus favorites Adrien feat. William.

“Blunt After Blunt After Blunt”: A Kitty Pryde/Danny Brown Postmortem

I was gonna quote Danny Brown lyrics here, but actually, nah.

What do you get when you combine a 30-year-old cartoon-voiced hype rapper from Detroit, a 19-year-old suburban Daytona Beach high-schooler-turned-rap-princess, and about 300 overheated, excitable, Tumblr-wave-savvy Wes students? Sweat, mostly. And eccentric, buzzy hip hop, delivered in a room largely lacking in oxygen.

As promised, Danny Brown and Kitty Pryde rolled through Eclectic for one of their first ever shows together, raising Eclectic’s capacity and temperature far above the norm. (Tickets sold out in two Usdan lunches.) Kitty rhymed for about 20 minutes, updating her sleepy bedroom raps for a more riotous live setting and yelling at students to get off the stage. Her tribute to Justin Bieber, “Justin Bieber,” drew a solid cheer, and she seems to have passed the “Is She Actually a Suburban Teenager” litmus test. Danny Brown performed a much more substantial set, drawing largely from 2011’s XXX as he stalked the stage, rhyming wildly through his chipped tooth and pulling off articles of clothing. “Blunt After Blunt” and “Adderall Admiral” even inspired some attempted singalongs, though I haven’t heard anyone approximate his cartoonish delivery. (Special guest Tony Pajamas seemed to enjoy himself as well, declaring it an “epic night.”)

Senior Thesis Film Seeks Talent

Sofia Warren ’13 wants me to do the dishes, but also this:

You remember high school. Why not relive it?

We’re looking for two leads, one male and one female, as well as multiple supporting roles. Come ready to do a reading, and maybe tell us a story. We want to get to know you.

Direct your questions and concerns to  srwarren(at)wesleyan(dot)edu

Birthright Open House

Sarah Cassel ’13 wants to show you the holy land:

Want to learn about Israel firsthand for free? Register for the Birthright trip for Wesleyan students to go to Israel this winter break! There is an informational open house this Sunday night at 8 pm in the Bayit. So if you’re interested at all in the trip, come learn more about this wonderful opportunity and hear from Wes students about their experiences with the program! Registration link is provided here.

Date: Sunday, September 9 (the information session, not the trip to Israel)
Time: 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Place: The Bayit

Spring Fling Committee Application Infumashunz

Is it too late to post photos from Spring Fling 2012? Whatever. They’re after the jump.

Wanna help plan Spring Fling, book artists, and have unadulterated access to the most top-secret listserv this side of Romney’s tax return task force? You’re interested in Spring Fling Committee (the artist formally known as Social Committee), not Concert Committee. Co-chairs Trill Feinstein ’13 and Dylan Bostick ’13, whose new EP received a coveted 8.3 rating from A-Batte this morning, have the details on applying:

Spring Fling Committee will host a drop-in meeting in Usdan 108 from 12:15-1:15 pm this Friday. Come meet the current chairmen to ask questions, discuss any suggestions, or just to say hey! You can also pick up a physical application for committee. We will accept four new members. Application below:

Please submit to dbostick(at)wesleyan(dot)edu no later than 5 PM on Friday September 14th, 2012.

 1) Why do you want to be on Spring Fling Committee?

2) What have you enjoyed about past Spring Flings? What would you change? If you have not been to a Spring Fling here, say not applicable.