All posts by HPSH Plaid Line

Music/Concerts

Extremity in music: What makes something sound heavy?

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By: Charlie Boone

In 1965, 17-year-old Tony Iommi was working at a sheet metal factory when a large press dismembered the tips of two of his fingers, leaving him unable to play guitar without homemade plastic prosthetics and lower gauge, detuned strings to suppress the pain. These accommodations gave his playing a deep, metallic strength that ended up inadvertently changing music and culture forever when he formed what is widely considered the first metal band, Black Sabbath, in 1968.

This innovation that focused on darker themes, lower tunings, and fuzzy distortion presented a new challenge for young musicians, pushing the boundaries of music and honing in on extremes to create visceral new sounds. Heaviness, extremity, brutality, are all subjective terms, representing different things to each listener, but I’ve narrowed it down to three factors: Speed, subject matter, and dynamics.

In terms of speed, the obvious logical conclusion is grindcore. Popularized in the 90s and derived from both the death metal and hardcore scenes respectively, grindcore’s sole focus is speed and aggression in short bursts. In fact, the shortest song ever recorded is actually a grindcore song called “You Suffer” by one of the staple bands in the original British scene, Napalm Death. Grindcore is inherently rough around the edges and typically features more raw, unpolished production. For some people, this adds to the aggression and brutality of the sound while others prefer a more tight and refined style of extreme noise terror in that of technical death metal. As implied in the name, the focus here is pure technicality and skill, so, still blisteringly fast but not typically as raw or pissed-off.

What is often sacrificed for speed in technical death metal is dynamics. If an entire four-minute track is all at the same face-melting tempo, it gets tiring to listen to and the visceral feeling of the speed wears off. To put it simply, if everything is fast, nothing is; and the same thing goes for volume. Juxtaposition of soft and hard sounds increases the sense of dynamics and makes the heavy parts of the song hit that much harder.

A subgenre that better understands this juxtaposition while staying mind-bendingly heavy is brutal death metal. First achieved by Suffocation with their 1991 album, ‘Effigy of the Forgotten’, brutal death metal combines raw production reminiscent of grindcore, with the technicality and speed of death metal, and an added element of groove and bounce.

There are also bands that take speed to the exact opposite extreme and play as slow as humanly possible. Early sludge metal bands like Grief and Melvins played with this idea, but no sound truly embodies the feeling of being crushed by a gigantic boulder like funeral doom metal. The slow, hypnotic melodies of this style were directly inspired by funeral dirges, adding another layer of heaviness through the exploration of themes like grief, depression, and solitude. In a style saturated with gore and demons, extra weight is carried when the horrors being described are true. Good examples of this style are Bell Witch, Ahab, and Mournful Congregation.

Further listening: If you are interested in looking further into the world of extreme music, here are four modern records that I think embody each of the factors of heaviness mentioned earlier.

Nails – ‘You Will Never Be One of Us’ (2016)

Ridiculously brutal grindcore that makes use of the iconic HM2 chainsaw guitar sound present in classic Swedish death metal.

Whitechapel – ‘The Valley’ (2019)

Emotionally dense and progressive deathcore, overall fantastic and dynamic record. The only record on the list to feature clean vocals as well as growls/screams.

Cerebral Incubation – ‘Gonorrhea Nodule Mastication’; (2012)

Quintessential slam/brutal death. A solid midpoint between raw and polished production with the classic high-tuned pingy snare and guttural vocals.

Archspire – ‘Bleed the Future’ (2021)

Some of the most extreme and balanced technical death metal out there. Every member of this band is inhumanly talented; insanely polished and tight performances.

Travel/Food

Sakana vs. Yumi

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By: Rose Ramadan & Thea Berg

In this article, we will be comparing two different sushi restaurants that we visited last Saturday. The first sushi restaurant, which was Sakana sushi, was loved and appreciated way more by us. Although, we both did appreciate Yumi sushi, we have both decided it was not the best, and we will not visit there again.

Both restaurants are located in the Highland area of Saint Paul. Sakana is on the corner of Cleveland and Pinehurst, and Yumi is on Selby and Arundel St. Yumi sushi is not the only one, it has multiple locations with one also in Edina. Sakana is more local and it does not have other locations. There are other competing sushi restaurants in Saint Paul, but Yumi and Sakana are the main and more popular ones.

The restaurants give off very different vibes. Yumi sushi has more of a sports bar vibe. It’s a bigger space with many TVs and open seats around a big bar in the middle. It’s very dark there as well. It seems less like you would get sushi and more like you would get burgers or bar food.

At Sakana the vibe is a lot calmer and it’s much brighter. There are many windows and natural lighting along with less seating around a bar and more seats at tables and booths. Sakana has a much smaller space, but it fits the vibe of getting sushi more than Yumi does.

At both places the waiters are very nice and welcoming, the environment created by the workers is great, and we have not had a rude experience.

At Yumi sushi, we ordered the honeymoon sushi roll. In this roll is spicy tuna, shrimp tempura, snow crab, avocado, cucumber, wrapped in soy paper, and topped with honeymoon sauce. We really liked the way it tasted, but we felt the bites were almost too big for our mouth. They were completely packed and each roll seemed to have a different amount of meat and vegetables. We wouldn’t order it again based on the price, it was not ideal and not what we were expecting. However, we really enjoyed the spicy taste and the honeymoon sauce was to die for.

At Sakana sushi, where we have been a lot, we ordered two different orders. First, we ordered a simple California roll. They are always tasty and one of our favorite types of sushi. However, we feel as though it didn’t have enough sushi on the plate for our liking. This is fine, though, for it was still cheap enough for us to enjoy.

We also ordered Thai lettuce wraps. These included wok seared Thai basil, diced chicken and vegetables, with hoisin sauce. They are an absolute go-to order for us. They taste delicious and you can add as much or as little of the vegetables into the lettuce wraps as you want. We would also like to say it is a fairly healthy meal.

In the end, we would rate Sakana 9.2/10 on sushi restaurants. They have good prices, good flavors, good environment, and a good location for us to go to.

We would rate Yumi Sushi 6.7/10. The vibe wasn’t something loved by us; it was too bar-ish and we didn’t feel comfortable there. They were also very expensive which was a big turn off for us. Their flavors were great, but their portions were too much and each bite was different. We would recommend this restaurant to an older audience.

Yet, Sakana will always be our favorite and we will recommend it to anyone who is looking for a quick sushi stop any day.

Fashion/Make-Up

Upcoming trends in 2023

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By: Lauren Kottke & Ella Sutherland

Each year there are new fashion, beauty and lifestyle trends. Last year some popular trends were low rise jeans, baggy clothes, platform shoes and many more. And every year the trends change. What are the top predicted trends for 2023? Let’s find out!

A trend that has been popular the past few years is 2000s and vintage clothing. This style trend is mostly fueled by Gen Z. We saw the low rise jeans, short vintage crop tops, 2000s sunglasses and much more. And this trend isn’t expected to stop, but expected to grow even more. It’s predicted that this year we’re gonna see mesh or sheer tops, leather skirts, leather jackets and funky print tops. The 2000s style can be cute, but sometimes can be tacky. So, we think you just have to do it the right way.

Another trend that is predicted in 2023 is ballet pumps. They have already made a comeback and have been a hit. You can wear them to the office or to run errands. They’re a great option if you want a more elegant pair of shoes but want to be comfortable.

An unexpected fashion trend that is predicted to come back is the skinny jean. The past couple of years, the trend that has taken over is baggy and oversized clothing. That included jeans. People stopped wearing skinny jeans and instead started wearing baggy jeans. But it looks like we’re gonna see a comeback with them. Some people have started to steer away from the excessively baggy jeans and gone back to a more fitted jean.

The fourth trend we’re going to see is denim maxi skirts. This is a trend personally, we’re not too fond of. Denim skirts used to be very popular but recently haven’t been as popular. We like short denim skirts but we don’t like long skirts as much.

Another denim trend that’s predicted is denim on denim. We’ve seen more and more matching denim sets.

Headbands are also expected to make a comeback. We’ve seen celebrities like Bella Hadid and Matilda Djerf wearing them. We’re not gonna be seeing the skinny plastic headbands that are uncomfortable, but the fabric ones. We’ll start to see thicker headbands. Personally, we like this trend. We think it’s a cute way to add accessories to your outfit. And it’s practical!

The next predicted trend for 2023 is ruffles. It’s predicted that we’re going to see shirts and dresses with ruffles or rosettes. It’s a great way to make the top or dress more exciting and interesting. We think they will be very popular this summer.

A trend that we think will make a comeback is tube tops. We’ve already seen this trend before, but we think this time it is going to be different. Before we saw straight cut tube tops, and they were cloth. But we think the new tube tops we’re going to see are going to have a sweetheart neckline and will be made out of different materials.

The new tube tops are going to be crocheted tops. Over the past few months, crochet tops have become more popular. So, with summer coming soon, we think crocheted tube tops are going to be very popular. We think these tops are very cute and we will definitely be wearing them!

Trends are like a wave, they go up and down. They’re in and then they’re out. We think some of these fashion trends are really good, but others not so much. But it’s all about what you want to wear! That’s what makes fashion so great. You can wear whatever you want and shouldn’t be judged!

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Travel/Food

New York City food review

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By: Audrey Smith

On Presidents’ Day weekend, I visited my sister at Fordham University in the Bronx. We went to Manhattan many times and tried many different types of food. Some good and some bad. Here’s some of the highlights and lowlights of the meals we had.

First we got Neapolitan style pizza. If you have ever had Punch Pizza or Tonos here in the Twin Cities, it’s almost the same idea, however this pizza was even better.

The crust wasn’t tough at all, and it almost melted in your mouth. The cheese was full of flavor and didn’t disappoint.

I got the margarita pizza and my sister got the Alfredo pizza. I would say that although the margarita pizza was an 8/10. It had a nice crust, red sauce, mozzarella chunks, basil, and whatever other seasonings were included. I did love this pizza and would purchase it again in the city, however there wasn’t enough cheese.

The Alfredo pizza was a 10/10…or even higher. It was the best pizza I have ever had. It wasn’t a classic pizza with red sauce, it had an Alfredo based sauce with cheese, truffle oil, and more. I liked that this had a
cool spin on the original idea of pizza. I would rate this place a 9.5/10.

Next we tried kimchi at a fast casual Korean restaurant called Rice Kitchen. I had never tried kimchi prior to this trip, so it was my first time ever having it.

The price at the restaurant was very reasonable, which was nice. This kimchi included beef filling, egg, seaweed, rice, pickled radish, carrot, and cucumber. It also had a really good sauce that came along with it.

We got Kimbap along with it, the beef was really good but chicken was a downer. I would rate the kimchi a 9/10 for the flavor and reasonable price. I would rate the Kimbap a 7/10 between the beef and the chicken. I would go there again and I recommend it. Overall 8/10.

The last place I’m reviewing is Cava. This is a chain restaurant that’s in big cities, but they don’t have any near the Midwest. Think of Chipotle but Mediterranean…and better.

The kid’s meals were just a main course but smaller, although they were pretty big. We both got a kid’s meal. The price was reasonable for the meal and it was really good.

They had a pita full of lamb and fried pita on the side. You can get many other things at the restaurant but what I got was amazing. I would rate it a 10/10.

Books/Art

Review of ‘The Wandering Inn’

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By: Tasha Cudinski

‘The Wandering Inn’ is a web novel written by an author by the alias Pirateaba. ‘The Wandering Inn’ is about a young woman named Erin Solstice who gets stranded in another world. Erin is a young woman from Earth, she lives with her family and is getting ready to go to college. She is pretty happy, she spends time with her friends, and she plays chess which she is very talented at. One day, without warning, she finds herself in another world.

In this world, humans are just one of many sentient level species, and technology is still at the level of medieval times. This world also has: magic, monsters, classes, and Skills. Erin ends up stumbling upon a run down and abandoned inn, where she decides to stay.

The inn slowly gains popularity, as well as a reputation for insanity as there is almost always some kind of drama happening at the inn at all times. In most Isekai genre stories (stories in which a protagonist from earth ends up in another world) the main character ends up being some ultra powerful guy who can just punch all of his problems in the face, but Erin never ends up being a super powerful wizard, or a strong warrior, instead she becomes powerful via soft power.

Erin’s power is that she is a kind, and helping person who absolutely refuses to stray from her morals. Because of this, Erin meets goblins and necromancers and Antinium, all of whom are considered to be monsters. Most people see them as being incapable of anything but violence and have no qualms about treating them as the monsters they are perceived to be. Erin looks at them and decides to treat them like they are people, and because of this she ends up befriending all of those who have been scorned and hunted.

Over the course of the book, Erin amasses an army of friends, all of whom are willing to fight for Erin if she needs them to. While Erin’s story is the main focus of the book, it is not the only one, as she was not the only human from earth who ended up stranded in this other world.

As the story progresses, we meet more and more earthers and eventually they start meeting each other. While Erin managed to survive and make friends, many others were not so lucky and ended up dying before they could even figure out that they were in another world.

Overall, ‘The Wandering Inn’ is a fantasy genre story with slice of life and action as its secondary themes. Pirateaba is currently writing book nine. The books are well written and the story is engaging with almost no dull moments.

The main drawback of the book is its length. If you are looking for a book to read in a week, and be done with, then this book is not for you. The book has over 11 million words and counting.

‘The Wandering Inn’ is well written and well paced, with believable characters and world building, so if you are looking for something to occupy your time for a while, then ‘The Wandering Inn’ is a good choice for you!

‘The Wandering Inn’ can be read for free at its official website: thewanderinginn.com.

Editorials/Student Voice, National

Amazons underperformance on its drone program

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By: Joseph Nelson

It’s been almost ten years since Jeff Bezos announced Amazon’s drone delivery program, but we still haven’t seen any sign of commercial delivery to homes. In fact, Amazon has only made 10 successful deliveries between the two states of Texas and California. Now, why is that number so low and where are our drones?

Now, Amazon isn’t trying to at all hide their underperformance as Amazon spokesperson Maria Boschetti doesn’t deny any of the numbers brought to her in an email from The Verge. But those numbers aren’t completely Amazon’s fault as there is a bigger factor in play than just Amazon, it’s also the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) stating to Amazon that the pilots cannot fly over roads without a pilot or a third party present. That means that the unmanned drones need to be supervised if the drone were to go over any type of road which brings a bigger challenge to the future of drone delivery.

But, this all seems odd right? I mean, we are again almost ten years from the first announcement of the program and now we are still trying to cross the street? The very future of air delivery is being held up by the laws of the roads.

It feels as though the battle between the FAA and Amazon is going at a snail’s pace. In fact, Amazon just last November, got the green light to fly its drones outside of sparsely populated areas. The drones couldn’t fly within one-hundred feet of buildings, and the requirement of drone pilots being required to have a piloting license to fly a plane, just so they can fly a drone, has completely hindered Amazon’s pilot count. Which hurts a lot when you need more than six pilots to fly just one drone.

But these training wheels the FAA put on Amazon might not be completely a bad thing, as of February 1st, there have been five drone crashes on Amazon testing sites. One of these crashes caused a twenty-five acre forest fire on the site.

But Amazon isn’t backing down from the fight whatsoever, they are pushing the FAA every day to get their drones up in the sky and deliver packages to your doorstep. As of the start of February, the FAA had approved more flight areas in Texas and California.

So, as to answer the question on where are our drones? Well, they are being held up by air laws but I still believe that we should see them in the coming years.

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Travel/Food

Best rides at Disney World

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By: Sophie Johnson

Expedition Everest was one of the rides that I re-rode multiple times when I was in Disney World in December of 2021. This is one of the fastest roller coasters in the park. While on this coaster, you speed over mountains and through caves where BigFoot is lurking in the darkness.

This ride has some unexpected aspects to it as well, including when it appears to be a dead end with a broken coaster track. You creep up to the edge and then zoom backwards in the opposite direction.

I also loved this ride so much because it was night when I rode it, and right as we were rolling over the mountain, the firework show started and it was a very memorable moment.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is a short but very gripping ride in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This ride is based on the film series ‘The Twilight Zone’. It includes many surprising sharp turns and extreme drops. The Tower of Terror has windows that open to the outside and when you are suddenly dropped, you can see flashes through the windows of the whole Disney park. I love the anticipation of this ride and it was definitely worth the long wait in line.

Space Mountain is a thrilling indoor roller coaster in the dark. The theme of this roller coaster is outer space. While waiting in line for this ride, you walk through a dimly lit passage that mimics the inside of a spaceship. You can look out and see different stars and planets in the distance.

Once you get to the actual roller coaster, there are small, two person carts that zoom down a winding and spiraling track in the dark. The part of this ride that makes it one of my favorites is that you get very immersed in the experience. It is also exciting and scary because you can’t tell when the track will drop down really far or take a sharp turn.

Getting To Know/History

CONPLAN 8888, a military plan for a zombie outbreak

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By: Hoaseng Thao

What is CONPLAN 8888 and why does the military have a plan for zombies? Although it may seem like a joke created by some junior officer, the unbelievable and fictitious threats, such as zombies, are actually a great learning tool that helps get soldiers engaged while training.

Students at Joint Combined Warfighting School (also referred as JCWS) who attended the lessons about CONPLAN 8888 actually enjoyed the impossible scenario in which zombies were involved. Planners who attended the lesson noted that, “Because the plan was so ridiculous, our students not only enjoyed the lessons; they actually were able to explore the basic concepts of plan and order development (fact, assumptions, specified and implied tasks, references etc) very effectively.”

The US military’s plan for zombies is to protect humanity, including people who are from countries that are considered adversaries to the US, from zombie life forms. There are two types of operations that the US military will conduct to handle such a harmful threat to humanity, these include Defensive operations aimed at monitoring zombies and indicating what type of zombie they are facing, and Offensive operations which are aimed at using military forces to eradicate zombie threats.

What types of zombies are the US military facing while conducting CONPLAN 8888? What you are going to read are the types of zombies the US military has identified and are using for CONPLAN 8888, this is not a joke.

● Pathogenic Zombies (PZ)

○ Your traditional zombie outbreak scenario involving a virus or some other form of contagion.

● Radiation Zombies (RZ)

○ Zombies who are infected by extreme exposure to radiation.

● Evil Magic Zombies (EMZ)

○ Zombies caused by occult experimentations which is referred to as “evil magic”

● Space Zombies (SZ)

○ Zombies that originate beyond the stars as an extra-terrestrial toxin.

● Weaponized Zombies (WZ)

○ Zombies that are created via bioengineering for the use of being a weapon or chemical weapon.

● Symbiant-Induced Zombies (SIZ)

○ Zombies that are caused by a symbiant life form that uses a host to take over their body, the life form does not outright kill their host but keeps them alive, but they will not be able to be saved.

● Vegetarian Zombies (VZ)

○ Similar to the popular video game ‘Plant Vs. Zombies’, Vegetarian Zombies pose no real physical threat to humanity as they only feast on plants, but they do pose a threat to vegetation and deforestation. They are also noted to say “grains” instead of “brains”.

● Chicken Zombies (CZ)

○ Based on a real incident in which chickens came back alive. Chicken Zombies pose no actual threat to humanity.

Despite the impossibility of a zombie outbreak occurring, the US military has stated that this is just a “training exercise” that is used for planners and students to understand how to conduct joint operations with other units and countries. So, if there ever will be a zombie outbreak in the near future, the US military has plan to counter zombies.

If you are a conspiracy theorist, or the average Joe, who wants to learn more information on CONPLAN 8888, please visit the link below.

Thank You.

Editorials/Student Voice, Tech/Games

AI-Generated art: What it is and why it’s harmful

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By: Bijou Kruszka

Artificial intelligence: a concept that was previously confined to the realm of science fiction. Now, with the rise of programs like ChatGPT, it’s more of a reality than ever before. But what does it have to do with art, and the future of artists everywhere? A lot more than you’d think.

AI art generators are websites that, as their
name would suggest, generate art from simple prompts.
It has the user input a word or short phrase. Then, using
specific algorithms, it analyzes thousands of images and takes elements from each, creating a new “original” image. This process typically lasts about 5 minutes. From broad concepts to ultra-specific characters, AI art can tackle it all. While typically better at abstract landscapes than portraits, some of these outputs are shockingly good. Now, this technology is becoming more readily available.

While AI art generators have technically been in existence for years, they have really risen in popularity recently. With social media trends using AI art generator websites like Wombo Dream and Craiyon, AI-generated art is something that is now much more in the public consciousness. According to Google Trends, interest in the phrase “ai art” significantly spiked in December. Before, it was relatively obscure. Now, it seems everyone has tried these websites themselves. However, its newfound popularity has also created a lot of controversies.

While there is something to be celebrated in this progression of technology, there is also something to be worried about. When artificial intelligence can create art in a range of styles in a very short amount of time, where does that leave humans?

Why pay a human a large sum of money for something that takes hours of hard work when you could just type what you want into a generator online and have it produced 5 minutes later? The human artists were also the ones to create the art that is being analyzed by these robots, but they are given no credit in the final product, nor are they compensated for their art being used. They are stealing from artists, jumbling their pieces together, and trying to claim that it is original.

While the technology has its flaws, often not being able to produce a normal-looking hand or face, it still is dangerous for human artists, especially when these programs improve further. These generators are stealing content and endangering the jobs of all human artists, and will continue to do as it improves its algorithmic skills.

To combat the rising popularity of AI art generators, many artists online have risen. The #NoToAI tag is full of human artists discussing these issues and boycotting the generators, asking others to do the same. By protesting these websites, there is a possibility for change.

So, if you need art and are considering using artificial intelligence, reconsider and commission a human instead.

Travel/Food

Best places to visit in Minnesota

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By: Jessica Garcia Saligan

A place that would be great to visit is the black sand beach. The black sand beach is in Silver Bay, MN. It’s an awesome place to go if you want to go and take a road trip with your friends or family and explore.

You can also swim there and a fun fact about the black sand beach is that it’s not connected with Lake Superior. So, on how it’s not connected, the black sand beach is a lot warmer than Lake Superior.

This second place will blow your mind. Lutsen Mountains is a ski area, but there are other activities you could do. It’s a fun place to go with your friends and family if you would like to enjoy a great view. Some things you could do there during the winter is: skiing, snowboarding. snowshoeing, snowmobiling, and a lot more.

And in the summer, you could go hiking, mountain biking, or paddlesports.

The one thing that they are most known for is the summit express they have; you get to go through all of the mountains and you will get an amazing view.

Third place, is if you would like to have a get away with your friends or a significant other during the winter and summer; go to Grand View Lodge. Grand View Lodge is a hotel, but not like any other hotels. Grand View Lodge has so many activities to do during the summer and winter time; they have 5 hot tubs, ice skating rinks, and there’s over 70+ spa services.

One thing that most people go for, is for a dinner inside a heated snow globe. I think in the snow globe you can fit up to 4 people. It has fairy lights all around, and the best part is that it’s heated and it’s also separated from any other snow globe.