Monthly Archives: December 2017

Movies/TV/Theaters

Agra Culture restaurant review

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By Natalie Braga, Piper Gallivan, Alivia Arredondo

Agra Culture is a new restaurant in Highland Park (721 Cleveland Avenue) that offers healthy and delicious food for everyone. Our experience there was positive, comfortable, and filling!

This restaurant has a very fresh and exciting feel to it. The colors were all either white or black, giving it a clean and vibrant look. The whole front wall was windows which allowed lots of natural lighting. The whole experience is a perfect mix of fast food and fine dining. It is an order at the counter system, so when you walk in you are immediately greeted by friendly employees ready to take your order. You can take as much time as needed because there are menus to take near the door. After ordering, they give you a table number and about 10 to 15 minutes later a waiter will bring your food. There is a wide variety of options for seating: you can choose between 2 types of booths, tables, and where to sit. If you want to feel even closer to nature, you can sit near a wall of leafy green vines. This restaurant has a very “LA lifestyle” vibe, which adds a fun, new, and unique addition to Highland Village.

The customer service was also very pleasing. When you walk in the door and start to order your food, the workers there all seem to be happy and seem like they genuinely want to be there. They greet you with a smile as they welcome you to the restaurant and politely ask for your order. This really helps the cozy, and nice, feeling of the restaurant. When you are ordering, the workers there are very patient with you, and also, if you’re not sure what to get, they will gladly give you suggestions on what they think is good. Once you get your food and are seated, they will come up once or twice during the meal to make sure everything is going well, or if they see you are done with something they will politely take the empty plate away.

Take a look at the menu and it is clear that this restaurant focuses on healthy and nutritious ingredients to create delicious dishes. One major positive with the menu is the inclusiveness for all diets with the use of helpful icons informing customers if a dish is vegan, gluten free, etc. Though the prices may be slightly higher than your average restaurant nearby, the quality and freshness is clear when you get your plate. They offer breakfast options all day, alongside their usual salads, sandwiches, and trademark Agra Bowls.  Between the  three of us, we ordered three separate dishes, one smoothie, and pita bread and hummus. Each was unique and tasty in their own way, and here are our reviews.

The Chicken Harissa sandwich was quite a delight. The avocado really helped balance out the flavor of the red onion and the chicken. The chicken itself was a well proportioned, perfectly done chicken breast that was grilled (having the chicken crispy was also an option), and it had just the perfect amount of flavor.

Then came the smoothie which was very refreshing. The flavor of the fruit was very noticeable and it went well with the smoothie being cold. There was a variety of choices for smoothies and we highly recommend trying one.

Pita bread and hummus was our side dish and we thought it was really tasty. However, the portion of hummus to pita bread was a little off. It was still really good though. The bold flavor of the hummus was very well complimented with the bread, and it was a great kickoff to the meal.

The Mediterranean Bowl is from the breakfast selection and would be perfect for breakfast, lunch, or brunch! It was filled with scrambled eggs, spinach, tomatoes, and olives. You have the choice of adding quinoa, brown rice, or whole wheat toast on the side. I added a pinch of salt after my first few bites to enhance the flavors a bit more. The portion size seemed pretty small at first, just because we are used to huge American portion sizes, but it was actually very filling. The taste was very good and left me feeling very refreshed and healthy.

Lastly, the Stir Fry Bowl seemed to be a perfect balance of rice, vegetables, and protein, and was also dairy free, which was something we were looking for. It came with cilantro brown rice, organic peppers, onion, Thai sauce, and chicken (which could also be swapped for tofu). When it arrived, it looked wonderful with many different colors, textures, and flavors on the plate. Though it looked a little small at first, it also was very filling and satisfying by the end.

Overall, Agra Culture is a fun new restaurant for those who want tasty food that won’t make you feel guilty afterwards. We give it 4.5 out of 5, and recommend trying it out!

News, World

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are officially engaged

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Clarence House (office of Prince Charles) announced the engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Monday, November 27. The announcement shocked the world greatly, and after the announcement, the two made a brief appearance in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace. Harry told the reporters that he knew Meghan Markle was “the one from the first time they met.” The prince declined to tell the story of the proposal, but when he was asked if it was romantic or not, he answered “Of course it was.” Meghan Markle said she was very happy and flashed the engagement ring to the reporters.

According to Kensington Palace, Harry designed the engagement ring with a gold band, a large diamond from Botswana, and two smaller diamonds from a collection of Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. Botswana is a significant place for Prince Harry and Meghan because they had spent time together there in the past year and a half. Cleave and Company, Court Jewellers, and Medallists were some of the companies that made the ring.

The couple plans to marry in spring 2018, and live at Nottingham Cottage, at Kensington Palace, where Prince Harry currently lives. Meghan Markle will be the first American to marry a British Royal since the marriage of Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII. Harry’s grandparents are delighted and wishes the couple every happiness.

Harry also sought Markle’s parents and had received their blessings already. Her parent’s statement said, “We are incredibly happy for Meghan and Harry. Our daughter had always been a kind and loving person. To see her union with Harry, who shares the same qualities, is a source of great joy for us as parents. We wish them a lifetime of happiness and are very excited for their future together.”

Prince William had just finished attending a charity event in Finland when he was asked about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement. He replied with “Wishing them all the happiness in this very exciting time. Very excited and delighted for them both.” Then he added, “For me personally, I hope it means he stays out of my fridge, and stop him scrounging over my food like he’s done over these past few years, I’m pretty excited.” He also confirmed that Prince Harry and Markle are absolutely in love and wishes them all the happiness and success in the wedding preparations.

Music/Concerts

BTS at the AMAS

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BTS was announced to perform at the AMAS on November 3rd, (the AMAS were on November 19th) and the fans were excited about it. People that are fans of BTS were absolutely freaking out about the fact that BTS is the first K-Pop group performing at the American Music Awards, which is a really big deal considering they would be making a mark in the history of performances, making the awards more inclusive with different music types. BTS was one of the last acts going on, and they actually put them on to perform towards the end, because they were expecting a lot of people watching the AMAS just to see their performance.

The whole time during the AMAS the cameras kept going to BTS to get their reactions to the other performers; showing them on screen a lot. Many celebrities were very excited to see BTS perform, and they posted about how they met BTS and how they are now fans of them. People were really supportive of BTS and were hyping them up often, which made them feel really included, considering they had to travel to America and only one of the members speaks fluent English.

The performances at the AMAS were pretty good, but in my opinion BTS was really well done. They sang their newest hit “DNA,” and danced the choreography that they did in their music video. The audience, I could tell, was blown away by the fact that they danced and sang at the same time, because most of the other performers just stood around and sang, or sat down. The fan chants were actually so loud that they had to mute them out on the TV while BTS performed. I can tell people really liked it, especially Ansel Elgort, he was talking about them a lot. The camera went to him while BTS was singing and he was holding his phone up recording them with a really big smile on his face and now all the fans are relating to him.

World

The Senate Republican tax bill

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This week, senators on Capitol Hill debated passing the controversial new Senate Republican tax bill, known officially as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or colloquially as the Trump Tax Cuts. According to the official website of the United States Congress, the bill “amends the Internal Revenue Code to reduce tax rates and modify policies, credits, and deductions for individuals and businesses.” The Internal Revenue Code encompasses all domestic tax laws. Put simply, the goal of this bill is to reduce taxes for American individuals and businesses; a controversial goal indeed. The bill already passed a procedural vote on Wednesday, Nov 29, 52-48 and is expected to pass, finally, Friday, Dec 1, according to CNN Politics. In light of this information, it is important that we look at the details of the tax bill, which will undoubtedly affect millions of Americans.

The Senate tax bill differs from the House tax bill, which already passed on November 16, according to PolitiFact. The primary measures of the Senate bill are to lower individual and couple tax rates for the middle class, reduce corporate income tax from 35% to 20%, and to only tax income earned within US borders (PolitiFact). The idea is that these measures will create new jobs and businesses or, in the words of Donald Trump, perhaps the bill’s greatest champion, “Our focus is on helping the folks who work in the mail rooms and the machine shops of America, the plumbers, the carpenters, the cops, the teachers, the truck drivers… the people that like me best.” (St. Charles, Missouri, 11/29/17). The tax bill will also close certain tax loopholes that allow the rich to evade paying, including one highlighted by Donald Trump, in the same speech, that makes corporations pay less the more they reward their CEO’s with excessive bonuses, according to the Huffington Post.

These things may sound good, and certainly many Americans and 52% of the Senate think they are, but others argue they are not. According to Vox, the tax bill creates at least 5 big problems; it will create $1.5 in national debt over the first decade, it limits the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) which could create a “health insurance crisis,” it creates new loopholes for tax evasion despite closing others, it is designed to be more expensive or less effective than promised overtime, and most importantly, “According to the Tax Policy Center, by 2027 more than 75 percent of the tax cuts’ benefits will accrue to the top 5 percent of the income distribution, with more than 60 percent of the total gains going to the top 1 percent.” The tax bill, which has been promoted by President Trump, and other Senate Republicans, as a boon to the blue-collar worker and small business owner, may only benefit the very richest in our society.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 49% of Americans that were aware of the bill opposed it, 29% supported it, and 22% said they did not know. These results, which show an increase in the percent in opposition from 41% on October 24, are shocking after witnessing the unanimous, explosive cheering, and applause at President Trump’s Wednesday speech, and begs the perennial question, “Do lawmakers really have the people’s or even their own constituency’s concerns in mind?”

As of the writing of this article, Republican senators are still scrambling to rewrite the bill before an imminent vote, according to Politico. All we can do now is wait.