The Smiths (1984 sire publicity photo) by: Paul Cox; Distributed by Sire Records
“I Know It’s Over” by The Smiths released in 1986 as part of The ‘Queen Is Dead’album stands as one of The Smiths most heart wrenching and melancholic songs. With lyrics written by Morrissey and composed by Johnny Marr the song provides the listener with a candid exploration into the feelings of romantic rejection, personal worth, and the longing desire for human connection.
“I Know It’s Over” is a song about the pain of dealing with unreciprocated love. Lines like “Love is natural and real/But not for such as you and I,” reflect an emotional torment of being unable to experience the love that is given. Morrissey wallows in the sadness and hopelessness of loving someone who won’t reciprocate, with the song repeatedly going back to the line “I know it’s over, still I cling” showing that he knows deep down the truth but just can’t leave yet.
The song’s message reaches beyond just a romantic failure but goes into the feelings of broader existential loneliness. Morrissey’s lyrics convey a sense of isolation, reflecting on feelings of being disconnected with others. Lines like “it’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate, it takes guts to be gentle and kind” portray the struggle of maintaining kindness in a cruel world that at times is so cruel.
Additionally, it shows the dark feelings of feeling so unloved you’re willing to do anything just to feel something, like expressing thoughts of suicide with the line “the sea wants to take me/The knife wants to slit me/Do you think you can help me?” The line ending with a question further provides more evidence of unreturned love.
“I Know It’s Over” is more than just a break up song, it’s an exploration of human vulnerability, loneliness and the desire to connect with others. Morrissey’s deep and raw lyrics and Johnny Marr’s guitar world make a powerful piece that resonates with listeners on many different levels and can be interpreted in many ways.
Warning: This game will contain extreme gore, discomfort, breaking bones, bodies moving in unnatural ways, disturbing noises, and a variety of horror elements. This is a horror game being created for mature audiences.
Some may know about the ‘Little Nightmares’ franchise, but what if I told you that the same company was planning to make an even more terrifying, gory, unsettling, horrifying game?
This game I’m talking about is called ‘Re:animal’. Not much is known about this game as it just began its pre-alpha phase in August, but everyone who knows about it is absolutely psyched. ‘Re:animal’ takes the scary factors of ‘Little Nightmares’ and enhances them ten fold. ‘Little Nightmares’ was targeted to teens, so gore and terrifying stuff like that wasn’t really allowed, but ‘Re:animal’ is targeted to more mature audiences who are able to take that kind of horror.
In ‘Re:animal’ you play as a little girl— or a little boy! This game is co-op! You can be scared out of your mind with a friend, how thoughtful of them.
The story we know so far about the game is that you reside in an orphanage with all of your friends, but the orphanage— and overall world it seems like, is populated by monstrous animals. Animals like pigs with their guts hanging out, sheep with unnaturally long necks and legs like a spider, even possibly humanoids with animals for heads! Your goal seems to be to escape this dreadful area with all of your friends and make it out alive.
As I said before, this game isn’t holding back, unlike ‘Little Nightmares’. If you’re looking for a gory and disturbing game to look forward to, then ‘Re:animal’ is the game you’re looking for!
This game has not gotten any more news besides what I have said in this article, including the release date. Like I said, this game is still in its pre-alpha phase, so it will be a long while before it’s released to the public officially!
Soon, you’ll find it on the PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S.
During the wintertime, it is very common to have a craving for hot chocolate. But sometimes, you look in the cupboard and you don’t have any packets. Even so, many store bought hot chocolate mixes have loads of sugar in such a small drink. So, to prepare for the colder months, we tried a naturally sweetened hot chocolate recipe that’s much healthier. The whole recipe is listed below if you want to make it yourself, and here’s the link to it: https://www.recipestonourish.com/nourishing-honey-sweetened-hot-chocolate/
Review:
Taste
This was a really good recipe, the flavor of the hot chocolate was very close to perfect. It was definitely very chocolatey and creamy because this recipe uses milk instead of water, like some store bought hot chocolate.
As for the sweetness, it had a perfect amount and was not overwhelming. The honey in it is a very good sweetening option, because you can add as much as you would like to get the taste you prefer. We added a little bit more than the recipe because we wanted it a little sweeter. Another good thing about using honey is that it doesn’t add any unwanted honey flavor, it just blends into everything else because the chocolate overpowers it.
But what really makes this recipe stand out is the vanilla extract. It added such a good taste and a depth to the flavor of the hot chocolate. Comparing it to Swiss Miss hot chocolate, it has so much more flavor instead of just being overly sweet where you can barely taste the chocolate. It has the most pleasant flavor and you just want to keep drinking it until it’s gone. Our rating for the taste is 9.7/10.
Ease of making
This recipe definitely took more effort to make than a packet of store bought hot chocolate, but it was worth it and the taste makes up for the work you put into it. This recipe has real ingredients that you mix together instead of a premade version that is mass produced and isn’t very good quality. For a homemade recipe, it is so high quality and you wouldn’t even be able to notice that it’s sweetened with honey, and it is pretty easy to make, only taking 5-7 minutes. Our rating for the process of making it is 7/10.
Overall
Overall, this was a really good recipe. It tasted really good, it didn’t take very long, and it’s not unhealthy like store bought hot chocolate. We would recommend this recipe to use all winter and share with your friends and family.
Recipe
Ingredients:
3 cups organic or grass-fed whole milk
3 tablespoon cacao powder or cocoa powder (this is the fair-trade cocoa we use)
2 tablespoon mild, light colored raw honey (we use this honey)
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions:
Add all of the ingredients to a medium-size saucepan, starting with the milk first, then add the cacao powder or cocoa powder, honey and vanilla extract.
Next, gently heat the hot chocolate mixture over low heat for about 5-7 minutes or until desired temperature. Make sure to vigorously whisk the mixture from time to time to combine all of the ingredients. (we find that this works the best once the honey has melted).
As soon as the hot chocolate is warmed, it’s ready to serve immediately. Enjoy it as is or top with homemade whipped cream or marshmallows!
Source: Screenshot from Ruby’s IPhone, Gilmore Girls opening credits
The 2000s TV show ‘Gilmore Girls’, created by Amy Sherman-Palladio, is a comedic drama set in the fictional Connecticut town Stars Hollow that is centered around the relationship between single mother Lorelei Gilmore and her teenage daughter Rory Gilmore.
Season one of Gilmore Girls introduces many important characters such as Lorelei and Rory. This mother-daughter duo sets the stage for this show as they have a quirky and loving relationship bringing together themes of family, relationships, and friendship. Lorelei, who is played by Lauren Graham, is the hard working single mother of Rory. Throughout the season Lorelei navigates the hardships of single motherhood, relationships, and the tough expectations of her wealthy parents. Rory, played by Alexis Bledel, is an intelligent and ambitious 16-year-old girl with dreams of going to Harvard. During season one we follow Rory’s journey after being accepted into the prestigious school, Chilton Academy.
Stars Hollow is the perfect setting for Gilmore Girls. With its eccentric but charming characters, the small New England town is full of personality and factors into the show’s comforting feel. Stars Hollow includes a variety of businesses and shops from Luke’s Diner to Ms. Patty’s dance studio. Residents of Stars Hollow are a big part of what makes the town so perfect. Luke Danes (Scott Patterson), the owner of Luke’s Diner, is a grumpy but lovable character we see often throughout the show. His diner is the town’s hangout spot and Lorelai and Rory’s favorite place to eat and relax. There is also the towns dance instructor, Ms. Patty (Liz Torres) who loves to gossip and involve herself in town events. Lorelai’s workplace, The Independence Inn, introduces us to her best friend Sookie St. James (Melissa McCarthy) who is a talented chef and an important character to the show. The many more amusing characters in this community help add a comedic relief to more serious aspects of Lorelai and Rory’s hectic lives.
The complex relationship between Lorelai, Rory, and Lorelai’s parents Emily (Kelly Bishop) and Richard Gilmore (Edward Herrmann) creates an important narrative throughout the show. After Lorelai seeks help from her parents to pay for Rory’s tuition she is, in return, forced to have dinner with her parents and Rory every week. Tension between Lorelai and her parents is common throughout the season from their wildly different lifestyles and lack of understanding of each other. Emily and Richard show what life was like for Lorelai before she became pregnant with Rory and left home to take care of her on her own. Lorelai’s difficult relationship with her parents is shown in conflict and are some of the most important moments throughout the season.
While ‘Gilmore Girls’ is mostly about family, the theme of love and romance also plays a big role. During season one we follow the love story between Rory and her first boyfriend, Dean Forester (Jared Padalecki). Early in the season the two meet at Stars Hollow High School shortly after Dean transfers there from Chicago. The two quickly start dating after Dean finds interest in Rory and they begin to get to know each other. The brief yet serious relationship between Lorelai and Max Medina (Scott Cohen) begins when Lorelai meets the Chilton teacher at a parent teacher meeting not long after Rory begins school there. The relationship between the two starts off slow as Lorelai is hesitant due to Max being her daughter’s teacher but quickly becomes serious throughout the season.
Rory’s acceptance into Chilton Academy created many new difficulties. The elite school is a big difference to the public school she attended with her best friend, Lane Kim (Keiko Ageno) who is a recurring character throughout the series, and is known for her love for rock music and her struggles with her strict mother. Chilton being a great way for Rory to be accepted into Harvard, is an academic challenge in Rory’s life bringing her piles of school work and introduces her intense classmate Paris Geller (Liza Weil) who quickly becomes a rival to Rory as she sees her as a student who wants to take her spot as top student in her class.
‘Gilmore Girls’ season one sets off the series to a great start introducing loveable and relatable characters, as well as offering a great atmosphere for a show that will be loved by many for years to come.
There are around 1300 programming languages in existence today but there are only a few that are most commonly used. I’m going to take you through the base languages of coding (HTML/CSS) and the most popular coding language (JavaScript) to give you a better understanding of something few stop to learn about.
HTML/CSS
HTML or HyperText Markup Language, is a markup language that’s used to give structure and meaning to web content and is the standard markup language for creating web pages. HTML consists of a series of elements that tell the browser, or a web page, how to display content. For example, defining paragraphs, headings, data tables, embedding images and videos into the web page.
Example of HTML:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Page Title</title>
Etc. etc.
CSS or Cascading Style Sheets, is a language of style rules that describe how HTML elements are going to be displayed on the web page or other media. Stated simply, CSS is a coding language used to style a Web page. CSS can also be used to control the layout of multiple web pages at once which saves the coder a lot of work. For example, CSS is used for setting background colors and fonts, and laying out content in multiple columns.
Example of CSS:
body {
background-color: lightblue;
}
h1 {
color: white;
text-align: center;
}
Etc. etc.
JavaScript
JavaScript is an easy programming language to learn, the most popular and the most used in the world. JavaScript is a scripting language that allows you to give web pages interactive elements and implement complex features such as dynamically updating content, control multimedia, animate images, timely content updates, interactive maps, pop-up menus, clickable buttons, and a lot more. JavaScript uses a combination of basic HTML and CSS to make the web page function.
JavaScript isn’t only good at making web pages but it’s also a great tool to start game development. Because Javascript is easy to learn and understand and can be used just about anywhere, it’s a great way to start game development of smaller games. JavaScript is not only used by beginners, but intermediates and also advanced coders, making it a great starter language for coding and programming.
Out of all 1300 coding languages, these three are the simplest and most basic programming languages to learn. There are plenty of better coding languages for specific things such as C++ being a much better option for developing an open world game than JavaScript because C++ was built exactly for that sort of thing. But if you’re looking to get into coding then I can wholeheartedly recommend JavaScript to you.
‘It Ends with Us’ came out on August 9, 2024. This movie was based on the 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover, and the film was directed by Justin Baldoni. The film stars Jason Baldoni, Blake Lively, Jenny Slate, and Hasan Minhaj. The movie received mixed reviews, but it was a box office success, grossing 346.4 million worldwide against a production budget of 25 million. We wanted to give our thoughts on this movie, and compare it to the reviews of others.
Here’s a quick rundown of the movie. Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) moves to Boston to pursue her dream of opening her own business after the passing of her father. In Boston, she meets neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, and they start to fall in love. As their relationship develops, Ryle starts to remind Lily of her parents’ relationship and the abusive tendencies of her father. Lily is at a dinner with Ryle, when she discovers that her high school sweetheart, Atlas, is the owner of the restaurant. Old feelings for Atlas begin to bubble up again, and Lily is stuck with an impossible choice to choose between Atlas and Ryle. Ryle hears about Atlas, and becomes enraged and jealous. He takes out his anger on Lily in forms of domesticated abuse. Lily reveals to Ryle about her father’s abuse to her mother and Lily escapes Ryle, and seeks out Atlas for help. She discovers she is pregnant, and moves out and lives with Atlas for a little. Lily asks for a divorce from Ryle, and he agrees after she asks Ryle how their daughter would react if she was abused by her partner. Lily hopes she has ended the cycle of abuse in her family, telling her daughter “It ends with Us”.
The movie also has a series of flashbacks where we go back in time to when Lily was in high school. One day, Lily is looking out her window and sees a boy her age coming out of the abandoned house next door. As she is walking to her bus she sees him at the stop as well. This sparks Lily to leave supplies at the door of this house in hope of helping this man out. Lily and this boy start talking to each other and Lily finds out his name is Atlas. These two end up falling in love with each other when suddenly Atlas moves away and they don’t continue to talk.
This movie received a 6.5/10 from IMDB and a 57% from Rotten Tomatoes. We believe that this ranking is just a little too low; we think this movie deserves an 8/10. Many reviews agree with the rating of 6.5/10, they believe that the story is very flat and not interesting. Many disagree with what we believed about how it is similar to the book, they said that it missed many book details.
As individuals who have read this book, we believe that movie did a very good job at portraying these characters and the story. Although there are controversies with this movie we believe that the movie was very good and interesting. The way that they portrayed Ryles’ character was very similar and the casting was very good in our opinion.
Overall, we believe that this movie deserves a 7/10 because although it wasn’t a perfect movie it was a very good book adaptation.
‘Plan A’ by Lil Tecca is one of the best albums this year and here is why. ‘Plan A’ shows a more experimental Lil Tecca who uses different tones in his voice to make songs sound vocally different. The album has 18 songs and is 44 minutes long, so the album is not long but has a lot to offer.
‘Plan A’ doesn’t just have the same sounding songs like other albums. This album dives deeper into different sounds to attract the audience more. It also makes the songs more of a fun listen too. The album also has songs that are more chill, and others that hype you up more.
Personally, the song that sticks out the most and is my favorite is “HOMEBODY”. This is one of my favorite songs because of the way Tecca makes his voice go up and down. There is also a catchy chorus that is fun to not just listen to but dance to as well. This song is also not a long one to listen to, and it has the listener wanting to listen to it again.
Compared to other albums of the same genre, this album isn’t completely serious and it’s more fun. At the same time, it has that seriousness in it that the other albums do too. The effect that this has on the listener, is that they can understand the lyrics better but still groove to the beat. This makes it a replayable album.
A song that makes the album pop with its lyrics is “120”. In this song Lil Tecca is talking about how with his success now he has a lot. He sings about being able to own expensive things like a 120k necklace. This song also has a groovy beat that just makes the lyrics pop more.
Overall, ‘Plan A’ shows many different sounds and makes it a very fun and interesting listen. It really dives into all the techniques Lil Tecca has under his sleeve, and draws the listeners to the album. This makes it one of the best albums this year. Having all these sounds mixed together makes this album a really enjoyable one.
‘Heartstopper’ is a Netflix original series based on the Webcomic written by Alice Oseman. Directed by Andy Newbery, season 3 of this show released all 8 episodes on Thursday, October 3rd, and received overwhelmingly positive reviews. This article is a quick, spoiler free review from the perspective of a long time fan.
Seasons 1 and 2 focused largely on building foundations of relationships between characters and expanding on the experiences of coming out as queer, while season 3 dives deeper into mental health issues that teens deal with and the experiences of moving further into a relationship. From the perspective of a queer teen who has been through much of the same things these characters in the show have, the writing deals with these heavier themes incredibly well.
Good representation of the lived experience of queer people is not an easy thing to find, luckily more and more writers have been incorporating these sorts of themes into media nowadays. In contrast, representation of mental health issues, especially eating disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder, are still largely stigmatized in today’s society. Charlie Spring, the protagonist of ‘Heartstopper’, deals with these issues in season 3, which changes the atmosphere of the show from lighthearted to kind of depressing. Although these heavy themes make the season more sad, it’s so important to spread awareness, especially in today’s society where these problems are not uncommon, they’re just repressed.
Charlie and Nick, the protagonists of the show, deal with the stress of mental illness, while side characters still get enough attention to grow an attachment to them. Season 3 also brings up more controversy about binary transgender teens, non-binary gender exploration, and asexuality, which weren’t elaborated much on the past 2 seasons.
Overall, these characters have a way of pulling on anyone and everyone’s heartstrings, and season 3 of this show is so powerful. I highly recommend sticking with ‘Heartstopper’, or starting from the beginning.
The city that Batman resides and fights crime in was first given the name Gotham in the 1940 comic ‘Batman #4’. In real life, Gotham has been used as slang for New York City. Originally, the term Gotham comes from ‘The Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gottam’, a 16th century fictional English town. The residents of Gottam were incredibly stupid, and a potential translation of Gottam is “Goat town” as goats are associated with stupidity. Gotham became an insult for New Yorkers, and more modernly “Gotham” is more connected to New York’s nightlife or the darker side of the city.
Unlike Metropolis, who’s major threats are from space, Gotham is filled with street-level crime. Even without the Arkham supervillains, the city has several issues like political corruption and the Gotham City Police Department’s higher members being involved in drug trafficking and being bribed by crime groups.
Not only has Gotham’s economy been controlled by numerous crime families for generations, we see in the 468th issue of ‘Batman’ Vol. 1, (1991), that by the 1990s Triads had managed to take a billion dollars out of Gotham annually. There’s gangs, mafia groups, and also there’s the Yakuza operating in Gotham, too. Gotham has always been cursed to suck since the city was apparently built on top of where an ancient evil dude was sealed and imprisoned. He later names himself Doctor Gotham.
The mayors are often either incompetent or also corrupt, and since its origin, Gotham has been structured so that those taking part in gang wars, drug smuggling, organized crime, etc. don’t have any real reason to fear the law or authority. That was until Batman.
After Batman’s rise as a vigilante, he quickly became something trigger-happy criminals on the streets learned to be afraid of. Because of this, political figures in Gotham were more interested in using the law enforcement for finding and bringing the Batman down due to him taking the city’s issues in his own hands and becoming pretty much the only effective direct role for taking criminals out. The reasoning presented is that Batman is a criminal himself and a threat, but as we know the police force and government take part and aid crime themselves. Batman is a threat to them too.
One good thing about Gotham is that the dark and eery vibe is great for Halloween.
‘Barbie: Fairytopia’ is a movie about a fairy girl named Elina that’s from a place called The Magic Meadow. She would often be made fun of by other fairies due to her not having wings. But one day there was a rumor that an evil fairy, Laverna, from a “myth”, kidnapped Topaz, a powerful and guardian fairy from The Magic Meadow.
The next day, there was a green gas that prevented fairies from being able to fly and made them weak in The Magic Meadow, which was slowly creeping up to different places in Fairytopia. Elina and her friends Bibble and Dandelion want to find the answer to the disappearance of Topaz, but unfortunately, Dandelion can’t keep going through with the mission due to the gas affecting her. As Elina and her little friend Bibble go through the mission to find Topaz, they eventually uncover information that no other fairies would know, and only guardian fairies do know, and make new friends along the way.
Review:
The movie ‘Barbie: Fairytopia’ is a good movie and has a good plot, but in my opinion I think the movie was rushed a little bit, like there could be things added between scenes.
The characters’ hair seems really “blocky”, the colors of the settings and characters also seem dull and not as detailed, especially the place Spooky Woods. Some of the creatures in the movie look like bugs because their eyes are really wide open.
Overall, the music in the movie was pleasant and more “classical”, which was only used about 3 times in the movie. There wasn’t really singing parts, which can make the movie not entertaining to others, but I wish there had been more.
In my opinion, I rate this 7/10.
I recommend this movie to younger kids like the age 4-7 years old, but anyone can watch this movie for nostalgic feelings or just for fun. ‘Barbie: Fairytopia’ can be watched on Amazon Prime Video (rent: $3.59 Buy: $14.69), Google Play Movie (Rent: $3.99 Buy: $14.69), Fandango at Home (Rent: $3.99 Buy: $14.99), YouTube (Rent: $3.99), and Apple TV (Rent: $3.99).
Also, the movie ‘Barbie: Fairytopia’ is in a collection with three other movies like, ‘Barbie: Fairytopia – Mermaidia’, ‘Magic of the Rainbow’, and ‘Mariposa and the Butterfly Fairy Friends’.
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