Category Archives: Entertainment

Clubs and Activities, Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Beauty and the Beast’: Highland Theatre’s spring musical

Leave a comment

By: Erin Moore

This weekend, Highland Park’s theatre department will be performing the stage adaptation of the Disney classic, ‘Beauty and the Beast’. 

These performances include tonight at 7PM, tomorrow at 2PM, and tomorrow at 7PM. Yesterday, the cast and crew opened at 7PM and had a morning performance which was attended by students from two nearby elementary schools and students who had classes during that time with either Nancy Michael or Melissa Warhol, both of whom have been heavily involved throughout the process of this show.

Tickets can be purchased at the door, and payments of cash, card, or check are accepted. The prices are $5 for students and seniors, $10 for adults, though students of Nancy Michael get in without charge.

This production has been in the works since the Winter One Acts ended in late January, and has taken up over a quarter of the school year. The musical is the biggest production of the year as it includes dancing, singing, and the music of the pit orchestra on top of the typical theatre elements in a play.

‘Beauty and the Beast’, in particular, is a difficult show due to the costumes, props, and sets necessary to make the magic of the plot come to life. While this show has taken a great deal of effort from every part of the tech crew and each member of the cast, it has become a wonderful production, and the audience is what makes the process worth it and what allows for future productions to continue, so please attend! 

Following the musical, auditions for the spring play, ‘Love/Sick’, will occur on April 22nd and 23rd, and performances will take place on May 9-11 at the typical times (7PM each night and 2PM on Saturday).

For more information on how to get involved in theatre, contact a friend who is already involved, contact Nancy Michael, find audition posters prior to a show, or look at the @hptheatrearts Instagram page!

Music/Concerts

‘Heaven Knows’ by Pinkpantheress album review

Leave a comment

By: Fletcher Pike

The official album cover for “Heaven Knows”

Pinkpantheress is a popular artist known for her mixtape from 2021 ‘to hell with it’ including hit songs “Pain” and “Break it off”. Many of her songs feature echoey and soft vocals topped with fast breakbeats and low instrumental undertones. Recently, in 2023, she came out with her debut studio album titled ‘Heaven knows’. This album was released on November 10th, with several collaborations from many different artists and includes a total of 13 songs.

Track 1: “Another Life” ft. Rema

The first song on this album starts off with a scaling church organ with the sounds of rain. This turns into a catchy breakbeat with a faint piano underneath it with nice vocals, with segments with an electric guitar. Nigerian rapper Rema is featured in this song with echoey vocals. Overall, this was a really nice opening to an album, and I found the sound of the church organ to be really unique. I rate this song a 10/10.

Track 2: “True Romance”

This song opens with the shuttering of a camera, which evolves into a guitar melody and clapped beats with a unique warped guitar underneath it. I really liked Pinkpantheress’s vocals in this song and I rate this song a 9.5/10 because I did think that it got a bit repetitive at times, but it was still good overall.

Track 3: “Mosquito”

The single “Mosquito” is an upbeat song with a joyful guitar sound and a nice beat over it. I think this is one of my favorite songs from this album because I loved the melody and the instruments used in this song. I will give this song a 10/10.

Track 4: “The aisle”

“The aisle” starts off with a pulsating beat and an echoey synth sound under it. I loved the dynamics of the instruments and sounds in this song which leads me to give this song a 9/10.

Track 5: “Nice to meet you” ft. Central Cee

This song opens up with a high pitched synth sound that continues throughout the song. I liked Pinkpantheress’s vocals but personally I wasn’t a fan of Central Cee’s vocals. I thought that this song was okay overall, so I rate it a 7/10.

Track 6: “Bury me” ft. Kelela

“Bury me” starts with a growing pad sound with a choppy vocal sample with bird sounds. A low bass melody is introduced that is continued throughout the song that I really enjoyed. I loved the vocals in this song from both Pinkpantheress and Kelela. I will rate this song a 10/10.

Track 7: “Internet baby (Interlude)”

“Internet baby (Interlude)” begins with a sharp beat with an electric guitar and a theremin sound. It turns into a beat with a nice electric piano over a sharp drum beat. I’m not sure it was much of an interlude because of the length of the song, but overall I liked this song and I rate it a 9/10.

Track 8: “Ophelia”

“Ophelia” begins with a beautiful harp sound that continues throughout the song; it has a traditional rock beat over it and really great vocals. I found the harp instrument to be a nice addition to this song and adds to the vibe of the song. I rate this song a 10/10 and it is one of my personal favorites from this album.

Track 9: “Feel complete”

“Feel complete” starts off with a high pitched piano sound with a classic drum beat over it. This song also features stringed instruments and a bright guitar sound. I thought that the melody flowed well. I liked this song and I rate it a 9/10.

Track 10: “Blue”

“Blue” starts off with a glitchy synth sound with some nice drums over it. I liked the main chorus of the song since I found it to be very catchy. I loved this song and I rate it a 10/10.

Track 11: “Feelings”

“Feelings starts off with a glitchy telephone-like sound which turns into a nice beat with an airy synth pad with some drums and nice vocals. I thought that this song was pretty good and I liked the sounds that were used in the song. I will give this song a 9/10.

Track 12: “Capable of love”

This song starts off with a guitar and some glitchy vocals behind Pinkpantheress’s voice. It also includes a nice drum beat over the guitar and vocals. I thought that this song was okay, and I rate it an 8/10.

Track 13: “Boys a liar pt. 2” ft. Ice Spice

The final song on this album is one of Pinkpantheress’s most popular songs, with a collaboration with the rapper Ice Spice. This song is a continuation of one of her songs from her mixtape ‘to hell with it’, with new verses and vocals from Ice Spice. This song has gained interest and popularity all throughout social media, but mostly on TikTok. I’ll give this song a 10/10.

Overall, this album was a fantastic creation and a great debut to Pinkpantheress’s music career. I’m a big fan of the creative instruments and sounds that Pinkpantheress incorporates into her music. I am hoping to see more albums from Pinkpantheress in the future and to listen to her creative music. I will rate this album a 9/10.

Books/Art

‘Everything, Everything’ book review

Leave a comment

By: Sophia Elmstrom

*Warning: This article contains spoilers

‘Everything,Everything’ is a book by Nicola Yoon about a young girl who has a special condition which causes her to not be able to go outside.

Madeline is an 18-year-old girl who has not experienced a normal life since she was 1 year old. Everything in her room is white except a few of her clothes. She can only read books if they have been heavily sanitized before entering her house. Her front door is air sealed which means nothing can get inside.

Madeline has done the same thing every day for all of her life, but suddenly one day a new family moves in next door. She starts to observe the teenage boy who moves in, the boy then brings a bundt cake to her house. Madeline’s mom is not able to accept this cake because of her allergies and Madeline is heartbroken. As the days go on Madeline keeps observing this boy and they eventually start emailing each other.

Not a minute goes by where the two aren’t talking with each other. Madeline’s nurse Rosa is home alone with Madeline one day and agrees to let Oliver come into the house. This could be so dangerous for Madeline and could potentially kill her. Madeline and Oliver keep hanging out disregarding how dangerous it could be. Madeline’s mother finds out about the nurse doing this and fires Rosa.

One night Madeline hears screaming coming from outside her window and she looks outside. She sees Olly and his mom getting abused by his dad, so she runs outside. Madeline gets sick of living her life like this so she gets a credit card and purchases two plane tickets to Hawaii. Her and Olly run away from home and fly to Hawaii alone.

Once she is there she starts having heart palpitations and she feels like she cannot breathe so the ambulance comes to pick her up. Madeleine’s mom rushes to Hawaii and yells at her. Shortly after, Madeline realizes that she doesn’t think her condition is real and that her mom has been lying her whole life. She backs up this information with doctors and sure enough, it is true. Her mom wanted to protect her all this time because Madeleine’s father and brother died in a car crash when she was a baby.

This is my favorite book I have ever read. Every time I read it I find a new part that I am obsessed with. I think the author made this book seem very realistic and brought it to life. I rate this book a 10/10 and I recommend it for anyone of any age.

Advice/How To, Tech/Games

HOW TO MAKE CAMOUFLAGE PATTERNS USING ‘PHOTOPEA’

Leave a comment

By: Hoaseng Thao

Ever wanted to make a camouflage pattern but don’t know how? Well this article is for you, because this article will go through the process of how to make different camouflage patterns using the free editing website, ‘Photopea’.

Before we get into the tutorial, I must explain what is needed for a camouflage pattern to work as a functional camouflage pattern; here are the two rules I’ve made to explain this:

  1. The pattern must be created for a specific (or varieties of) environment, i.e. Woodland, Desert, Tropical, or Arctic environments.
  2. Colors cannot be too bright or too saturated, military camouflage patterns are designed to deceive the eye, not entice them.

STARTING OFF WITH THE CLOUDS

STEP 1

Go to https://www.photopea.com/ and start off with a new project, usually I prefer using 2000 pixels for both height and width however you can change this if you want.

STEP 2

Go to your layers tab, which should be on the right side, and click on the sticky note symbol on the bottom to create a new layer. There should already be a layer when you start the project, named “Background”, and we’ll be using that layer for the background color of the camouflage by using the paint bucket too by pressing “g”.

STEP 3

Select your new layer and go to the “Filters” tab at the top. There go to the “Render” tab and click the “Clouds”. Repeat this process again but instead of clicking “Clouds” you click on “Difference Clouds” twice.

IMPORTANT NOTE

This is the part where I’ll split this tutorial into three sections on how to create different types of camouflage patterns. The first section will go over how to make what I call, traditional camouflage patterns, which consists of round and blobby shapes.

The second section will go over how to make what’s called “Digital Camouflage” which uses more pixelated shapes than rounded blobby shapes, and examples of digital camouflage patterns are the Canadian CADPAT, the American UCP, and the Estonian ESTDCU.

The third and final section will go over how to make Flecktarn like camouflage patterns. For those who don’t know, Flecktarn is the camouflage pattern used by the German military and is distinct for using spots scattered across the pattern.

TRADITIONAL CAMOUFLAGE

STEP 1

Select the layer that has the clouds filter and go back to the filters tab then to the “Blur” tab. There you will select the “Gaussian Blur”. When clicked you’ll be greeted with a window asking how intense you want the blur to be, with the more blur resulting in a more rounded and blobby shape while less blur will result in a more erratic blob.

STEP 2

Now with the selected layer, you go to “Image”, “Adjustments”, and finally “Threshold”. Upon clicking “Threshold”, you can choose how intense the threshold would have on the layer, with the higher the intensity leading to less blobs and vice versa.

So, in this example 160 is more intense than 121

STEP 3

Selecting the layer you now go to “Select” then click on “Color Range”, where you’ll see a window pop up with the options to select specific colors or areas that are bright or dark, but depending on what you want for your pattern, you can select any of the options.

STEP 4

After selecting the color, you can now press the delete (or if you don’t have a delete button, you can go to the “Edit” then click on “Clear”) to  remove the selected area. With this, you can now change the color using gradient map or adding a new layer and pressing alt click to enable clipping mask, which would allow you to paint over the layer.

STEP 5

Now repeat the previous steps, which should try to be in different sizes and should try to disrupt the other layers. Here are a few examples of camos that I’ve created while following the steps above.

DIGITAL CAMOUFLAGE

STEP 1

Select the layer, go to “Filter”, “Pixelate”, and then “Pointillize”. I usually use 25px when using pointillize but you can change this depending on what you want. From here, you press “alt+ctrl+T” to free transform the layer, then you can hold “shift” and drag the bottom of the layer till it snaps to the middle of the image.

STEP 2

Duplicate the layer with “ctrl+J”, then move it to the bottom before merging with the original layer by selecting both layers and do “ctrl+E” to merge layers. Now you can do “Gaussian Blur” and go to “Filter”, “Pixelate”, and “Mosaic”. From here you can change the size of the pixels to your liking.

STEP 3

Now use the “Threshold Edit” to change how many white or black pixels would appear on the screen which you can delete by using the color range selection, and finally you can copy steps 4 and 5 from the traditional camouflage pattern section to create a digital camouflage pattern.

FLECKTARN CAMOUFLAGE

STEP 1

Select the layer, go to “Filter”, “Pixelate”, and then “Pointillize” and from here you can choose the size of the spots seen on Flecktarn camouflage patterns and its many variants. Now go apply “Gaussian Blur” to the layer, and I recommend that you keep the “Gaussian Blur” below 12px to avoid merging all the spots together.

STEP 2

Now repeat step 1 and color in the layers, and you now get yourself a Flecktarn style camouflage pattern.

CONCLUSION

There are many other ways to create different types of camouflage patterns but these three are the most common found throughout the world, and I hope that this tutorial helps you when it comes to designing your own camouflage patterns.

Here is a link to the website if you haven’t clicked on it before: https://www.photopea.com/

Movies/TV/Theaters

My top 10 favorite Pokémon, with reasons

Leave a comment

By: Julia Yang

These will be based on the anime and not the game since I’ve never played, but you saw the title, let’s just get into it.

Number 10, Pancham

When I say Pancham, I’m talking about Serena’s Pancham from ‘Pokémon XY(Z)’.
I love his personality. He’s sassy, stubborn, bossy, and reserverved. Well, now that I’ve said it like that, he doesn’t seem like the best Pokémon— but I swear he’s an angel.

Pancham’s glasses, his moves, his charm, there’s nothing to not like about this Pokémon if you ask me.

He may be last on this list, but that’s only because I like the 9 others on this list more than him, not because he’s my least favorite of all time.

Number 9, Plusle and Minun

These Pokémon are old but gold. They’re just little Pichu’s with more color and cheer. They’re adorable cheerleaders to support you along the way. You can’t have one without having the other, isn’t that cute?

In the anime, there’s an episode where a trainer is sick and his Plusle and Minun are just on his hospital bed trying to cheer him up by doing their little cheer routine.

This is so impossibly heartbreaking, I love them.

Number 8, Popplio

Popplio is just an outstandingly skilled and talented Pokémon. They’re the destined entertainers of their world, not to mention how charming they are.

Lana’s Popplio from ‘Pokémon Sun and Moon’ is just so fun and bubbly to watch. Popplio usually have a fun, silly, and cheerful personality which makes everyone love them.

The power to create basically indestructible bubbles is also an awesome power to have, like, who thought of that?

Number 7, Grookey

Grookey is basically literally just a monkey with a stick and it’s perfect, I couldn’t ask for anything more from this Pokémon. All Grookey does is just hit things with their stick, and cause trouble. A pretty good Pokémon if I do say so myself.

Number 6, Sobble

Most people either don’t like Sobble or they hate them, but I love Sobble. Sobble are just silly little Pokémon who want to go home all the time, who want to do no harm. They cry and cry, waiting for someone to make them happy again.

The thought of an extremely overpowered move to cry and force others in the area to cry is just a funny thing since Sobble are the scaredy-cats of Pokémon; so emotional, timid, nervous, and all of that with zero confidence.

Number 5, Diance

Diance is just such a stunning Pokémon, and her abilities are incredible. Imagine being able to make diamonds. Isn’t that insane? No wonder why people were trying to track her down. Diance is such a sweetheart in the movie, she just wants to make everyone happy whilst trying to keep herself safe.

Another thing, have you seen her mega evolution form? It’s extremely ethereal.

Number 4, Mew

I’m not sure why, but I’ve always taken a liking to Mew ever since I found out Mew was a Pokémon. Mew is just an overpowered baby if you really think about it— like Jack Jack from ‘The Incredibles’ movie. If you don’t know for some reason and are reading this article, Mew’s power is to become any Pokémon of its liking. Mew has every single Pokémon DNA in its body, allowing it to become the Pokémon and do/use whatever the Pokémon does.

This counts for legendaries and mythicals too. Now you get the scale of its power, right? Insane.

All of this power given to this playful and unintentionally dangerous Pokémon— and don’t even get me started on its passive abilities. This Pokémon is such a danger, I love it.

Number 3, Chespin

I want to make this very clear. When the name ‘Chespin’ comes out of my mouth, I’m only talking about Clemont’s Chespin, I couldn’t care less about any other Chespin.

Clemont’s Chespin is like Grookey, but 10x better.

He’s effortlessly funny, he’s sarcastic, he’s relatable, he causes trouble, and he’s expressive. We have all of this information about him, but he can’t even say anything other than his name. That’s how expressive he is. I’ve loved him since day one.

The best Pokémon personality to ever exist.

Number 2, Zeraora

Zeraora’s backstory is what gets me— its purpose for wanting to live is what gets me.

Zeraora— in the movie ‘The Power of Us’— is the guardian of the surrounding forest. Swearing to protect the nature and wild Pokémon inhabiting it due to humans/trainers burning it down in the past.

As long as Zeraora had lived, that forest would never be touched by mankind.

Zeraora is a Legendary Pokémon, making it extremely rare and difficult to catch. Throughout the movie, we see Zeraora getting hurt as a result of Pokémon hunters wanting to catch the all-powerful Pokémon of the forest. They never catch Zeraora of course, but they always get close.
Anyways, Zeraora is a fantastic Pokémon with a fantastic story, I’d highly recommend watching ‘The Power of Us’.

Number 1, Hoopa

Words cannot describe how much this Pokémon means to me. I believe Hoopa was in the first Pokémon movie I had watched, so it holds a very special place in my heart.

Hoopa is an extremely playful Pokémon with a curse of having its larger and more powerful form have an evil presence in it. Hoopa shows throughout the movie, it doesn’t want to hurt trainers and Pokémon, all it wants to do is impress everyone and have fun.

Hoopa has the ability to make portals with it’s hoops, isn’t that fun? I’d enjoy having Hoopa around anytime. Hoopa could turn big after the curse is gone, and we’d have a jolly time together.

Hoopa just seems like an extremely fun and exciting Pokémon to be around, and I think we all need a Hoopa in our life.

I believe fun and troubling Pokémon are the best, but I think we both have figured that out by now.

I hope you enjoyed reading my ranking with reasons.

Movies/TV/Theaters

MOVIES COMING OUT IN APRIL

Leave a comment

BY: Hermekay Dehaney

As we step into April, there are a bunch of movies to look forward to. This includes a wide range of different genres that you can watch at the movie theater and at home on streaming apps. 

Start marking your calendars because in this article I will tell you all the movies to anticipate coming in April. 

  1. ‘The First Omen’ (April 5)

Horror/Mystery/Thriller – 2 hours 

‘The First Omen’ is released in theaters, and is a prequel to the classic horror film ‘The Omen’, released in 1976. It’s the sixth film in ‘The Omen’ franchise. 

The movie stars Nell Tiger Free who plays Margaret, Tawfeek Barho who plays Father Gabriel, Sônia Brags who plays Sister Silva , Ralph Ineson who plays Father Brennan, and Bill Nighy who plays Cardinal Lawrence. 

The storyline follows an American woman who is sent to Rome to work in a church who soon discovers a terrifying encounter with some sort of darkness that makes her question her faith, and leads her to uncover a sinister conspiracy aiming to unleash evil. 

Here is the trailer for ‘The First Omen’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmN1Op8ygno

  1. ‘Monkey Man‘ (April 5)

Action/Thriller – 2h 1m 

‘Monkey Man; is being released by Universal Pictures. The movie is directed by Dev Patel who also stars in the lead role along with Sharlto Copley who plays Tiger, Pitobash who plays Alphonso, Adithi Kalkunte who plays Neela, and Sobhita Dhulipala who plays Sita. 

The movie follows an anonymous young man who goes on a journey to take revenge on the corrupt leaders who are responsible for his mother, Neela’s, death. 

Latest trailer for ‘Monkey Man’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqa3YTtwvaU

  1. ‘Civil War‘ (April 12)

Action/Sci-fi – 1h 49m

‘Civil War’ is set to be released by A24. The movie stars Kirsten Dunst who plays photographer Lee, Wagner Moura who plays a reporter Joel, Cailee Spaeny who plays Jessie , Stephen McKinley Henderson who plays Sammy, and Nick Offerman who plays the President. 

The movie plot is about a group of reporters that travel around the United States trying to reach Washington D.C. before it turns into a dystopian dictatorship. 

‘Civil War’ trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA4wVhs3HC0

  1. ‘Abigail’ (April 19)

Horror/Thriller 

‘Abigail’ is based on the 1936 film ‘Dracula’s Daughter’. This movie features  Angus Clouds, and this was his final acting role before his passing last July. 

This movie focuses on a group of kidnappers who kidnap Abigail, played by Alisha Weir, who is the daughter of a very powerful underworld figure for ransom. They quickly realized that this girl is not an ordinary girl but is a vampire who starts to hunt people down. 

This movie will be released in theaters by Universal Pictures. 

Trailer for ‘Abigail’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PsP8MFH8p0

  1. ‘Challengers’ (April 26) 

Sport/Romance – 2h 11m

‘Challengers’ is a movie directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes. The movie stars Zendaya who plays Tashi Donaldson, Mike Faust who plays Art Donaldson, and Josh O’Connor who plays Patrick Zweig. 

The premise of the movie is that after Art Donaldson experiences a series of losses, his Grand Slam champion wife, Tashi, enrolls him in a challenger event where he will compete against her ex lover. 

The movie will premiere in theaters. 

Trailer for ‘Challengers’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VobTTbg-te0

I hope this article gives you a little more insight to these upcoming movies, and something to look forward to in the month of April. 

Music/Concerts

REVIEW: Exploring the concept and depth of Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’

Leave a comment

By: Charlie St. Dennis

This year, we celebrate the 8th anniversary of ‘Lemonade’, Beyoncé’s concept album released after news broke of her husband and longtime partner, Jay-Z, cheating on her. The album explores all of the emotions she went through, and how she dealt with the circumstance. As Beyonce braces to release a new album this month, I wanted to take this opportunity to explore one of my favorite pieces of work by her, one track at a time. Here is my review of ‘Lemonade’, in formation.

—

1. Pray You Catch Me – 8/10

The opening track of the album, “Pray You Catch Me” serves as a beautifully soft and gentle opening to the song. A piano-backed ballad, it finds Beyonce learning about her husband’s infidelity. The line “pray you catch me…” is a plea by Beyonce for her husband to find her snooping and to realize she knows what he’s been doing. I love this piece, and think that there’s a lot more to it than just piano and vocals.

2. Hold Up – 10/10

This song is one of my favorite songs of all time. With a beautiful instrumental, a loose sample of Andy Williams’ “Can’t Get Used To Loving You,” the song also touches on the societal standard that women who have been wronged by their partners are supposed to behave. We see this in the video, which begins with a spoken word piece with Beyonce in denial, but then once that’s done, she walks down a city street with a baseball bat, hitting every object in sight. Beyonce challenges these standards with the lyrics “What’s worse: being jealous or crazy? Or like being walked all over lately, walked all over lately?” She ends up deciding, “I’d rather be crazy!”

3. Don’t Hurt Yourself (feat. Jack White) – 7/10

Beyonce uses “Don’t Hurt Yourself” to dabble into Rock & Roll, and she succeeds. While Rock is not necessarily my thing, I have immense respect and admiration for her for stepping outside of her bubble. This also features the first guest on the album, rocker Jack White, who carries a verse in the later half of the song. Lyrically, this song is a plea for Jay-Z to recognize that he is married to one of the prettiest, most successful women in the world, and that he needs to show her more respect. The song has been likened to the late 60’s plea by Aretha Franklin, “Respect”.

4. Sorry – 8.5/10

This is definitely Beyonce’s most unapologetic song on the album. It is also the song that makes it most clear that it is about Jay-Z. She references “Big Homie,” which is the nickname Jay-Z gave himself on their duet, “Crazy In Love”. It uses some techno-R&B and dancehall influences, which I really enjoy. She also closes the song with the lyric, “you better call Becky with the good hair,” which I feel is a fun way to introduce Jay-Z’s infamous mistress.

5. 6 Inch (feat. The Weeknd) – 6/10

“6 Inch” samples Isaac Hayes’ rendition of “Walk On By” and is a power anthem of being hardworking, while also talking about Beyoncé’s own vulnerability. The feature from The Weeknd is great, but unfortunately, I feel this song is a bit forgettable.

6. Daddy Lessons – 9/10

I *love* “Daddy Lessons”. It’s Beyonce’s first attempt at country, and boy was it successful. I love the story this song tells, and the classic Country sounds like banjo in the background. Truly a beautiful song.

7. Love Drought – 8.5

I really enjoy “Love Drought”. Lyrically well thought out, and incorporates not-frequently-heard instrumental sounds. My favorite lyric is “10 times out of 9 I know you’re lyin, but 9 times out of 10 I know you’re trying so I’m trying to be fair,” because I really think it well sums up the difficulties she is having while trying to justify her husband’s infidelity.

8. Sandcastles – 10/10

This song was quite the emotional rollercoaster, but I’m here for all of it. She begins the song discussing the “sandcastles” she built with her husband that have since washed away. She struggles with moving on, and doesn’t know why it’s so difficult for her. By the time we get to the second part of the song, she slowly has a change of heart and realizes that she is gonna try to work things out with Jay-Z.

9. Forward (feat. James Blake) – 6/10

By far the most forgettable song on the album. Sorry, not sorry! Does this mean it’s bad? No, it’s just nothing that stands out. The song is almost entirely James Blake, who has a nice, soulful voice, but we aren’t listening for him! We want Bey! I do genuinely like the song, just wish it had more Beyonce.

10. Freedom (feat. Kendrick Lamar) – 10/10

I’d say this is one of the best off the album, for both its message and its melody. The song details the struggles that black women in our country must overcome, and the mindset they need to have. It features families of victims of police brutality, who have been forced into the movement, and have to fight regardless of whether they like it or not. It also features young black figures like Zendaya, Winnie Harlow, and Quvenzhané Wallis. And of course, Kendrick Lamar has a feature, which is beautiful. The song became a protest anthem, and has been used at Black Lives Matter rallies.

11. All Night – 10/10

Two of the best on the album, back to back! The song is essentially about forgiveness, and how Beyonce has resorted to making up with her husband and moving on. It’s a really great song, and I also applaud her for her decision here, because that must’ve been hard, and it is probably not the decision I would personally go with.

12. Formation – 10/10

Oh my goodness! So many levels to this one. While not about her husband’s infidelity, this is an ode to Beyonce’s identity and the culture she was surrounded by, notably her mother’s background in Louisiana. The entirety of the video was filmed in New Orleans. The song begins with a sample of Bounce musicians Messy Mya and Big Freedia exclaiming “What happened after New Orleans?” This is said as Beyonce stands on a police car sinking into flooded waters in the Third Ward, which is supposed to symbolize how police and the government didn’t support the predominantly black city, and how the city had to stay on top by sustaining themselves. The song has been studied at universities, used at protests and marches across the world, and captured the attention of conservative commentators who called it “Anti-American.” I won’t speak to that, but I will stay that I Stand With Formation!

—

You might not know it, but you will go through a “Lemonade” moment in your life. There will be a “Pray You Catch Me” moment where you long for someone to see what you’re going through. There will be a “Don’t Hurt Yourself” moment where you discover your worth and you realize that you didn’t deserve what happened. There will be a “Love Drought” moment where you get in touch with your emotions, and a “Sandcastles” moment where you make a decision of how to go forward. And of course, there will be an “All Night” moment where you move on and you thrive. These moments have happened, are happening, or will happen, and you can resort to this album for guidance.

While my calculations have my average review being 8.5/10, I would give this album a 9/10. It is Beyoncé’s first conceptual piece, and I think that it was a brilliant way to touch on different aspects of her identity: her cultural identity, marital identity, and familial identity. She remains #1 in my book.

I hope you enjoyed this review, and I implore you to check out the album and accompanying visuals. Let me know your thoughts!

Movies/TV/Theaters

Oscars summary

Leave a comment

By: Daniel Kendle

The Oscars is a ceremony hosted by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences, with this year’s annual ceremony hosted on March 10, 2024. As usual, the awards were directed towards movies and the people surrounding them, making for 23 different categories. Today I’ll be looking at every win in alphabetical order, what I may have wanted instead, and some statistics about the winners overall. Let’s begin!

Also, I was originally going to list the nominees individually as well, but due to time and them making the article skyrocket in size, I had to dial it down to just listing winners. Here they are:

  • Cillian Murphy won for Best Actor in ‘Oppenheimer,’ and I think it was well-deserved. I would’ve also liked it if Colman Domingo won, but this was a pretty obvious pick that made sense.
  • Robert Downey Jr. won Best Supporting Actor, also for ‘Oppenheimer.’ This was also a deserved win, though I was also partial to Robert De Niro. Still, a good victory.
  • Arguably the most controversial win of the night was Emma Stone for Best Actress in ‘Poor Things.’ A lot of people really wanted Lily Gladstone to win for her role in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ as did I after watching the film. However, I think both actresses did well in each of their roles; Emma Stone may have been my 2nd choice for the award, but she still did a great job in her respective film. I don’t really like getting up-in-arms over this subject, as I find it weird to be so heated over real people; it’s a bit cruel.
  • Finally last for the Acting category, Da’Vine Joy Randolph won Best Supporting Actress for her role in ‘The Holdovers.’ This was another easy pick, but again, a deserving choice.

Now that we’ve talked about the 4 actor awards, we can finally get into the bulk of the winners.

  • ‘The Boy and the Heron’ won for Best Animated Feature, which was my favorite out of the nominees. I was sure that the ‘Spiderman’ movie from June was going to win, but I’m glad it didn’t. My 2nd choice for the win was ‘Robot Dreams,’ actually.
  • ‘Oppenheimer’ won for cinematography, which was alright. I preferred ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’s’ staging, but this was alright.
  • ‘Poor Things’ got Costume Design, which is pretty cool. I don’t have a dramatic opinion on this category compared to others, so this was just a nice win.
  • Best Director went to Christopher Nolan, also for ‘Oppenheimer.’ I’m happy with this; he hasn’t won the award yet despite multiple past nominations, so this was cool to see. My runner-up was Jonathan Glazer for ‘The Zone of Interest,’ however.
  • Documentary Feature Film was given to ‘20 Days in Mariupol.’ I haven’t seen it, but I’m sure it was deserved.
  • To follow that up, ‘The Last Repair Shop’ won for Documentary Short Film. I also haven’t seen this, and my 2nd choice was ‘Nai Nai and Wai Po,’ which I watched prior to the ceremony.
  • Film Editing went to ‘Oppenheimer,’ which was alright. Similar to Cinematography, I preferred ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’s’ editing, but it’s whatever.
  • ‘The Zone of Interest’ won the award for International Feature Film. It’s a bit annoying how obvious it was; it’s the only nominee to be up for Best Picture; of course it was going to win. That’s nothing against it, but just a stray thought.
  • Makeup and Hairstyling is another category I don’t care too much about. The award went to ‘Poor Things’ which was deserved.
  • ‘Oppenheimer’ won the award for Original Score, which was a great choice. A bit of an easy pick, but if there’s one category ‘Oppenheimer’ should’ve won over any other, it’s this one.
  • ‘What Was I Made For?’ By Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell got Original Song, which was a fine choice. I liked ‘I’m Just Ken’ and ‘Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)’ more, but this was an obvious win.
  • ‘Poor Things’ won for Production Design, which was a good win. ‘Barbie’ had my vote, but this was alright.
  • I haven’t seen any films in the Animated Shorts category, so I can’t say much on that front. The winner was ‘War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko.’
  • ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’ got the pick for Live Action Short Film, which was awesome. This is Wes Anderson’s first win at the Oscars, which was great. It was my pick for the award and I was so happy to see it win.
  • Another awesome win was ‘The Zone of Interest’ getting the award for Best Sound. I love ‘Oppenheimer,’ and I was so sure it was winning this category, so seeing a surprise victory for a lesser-known film was cool. My 2nd choice was ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.’
  • The last of this trio for awesome wins was ‘Godzilla Minus One’ for Visual Effects. This was the franchise’s first nomination at the Oscars, so it was nice to see them win, too.
  • For the 2 screenplay awards, ‘American Fiction’ won the award for Adapted Screenplay, and ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ for Original Screenplay. Both deserving picks, especially for the latter.

Finally, ‘Oppenheimer’ won Best Picture, cementing it the biggest winner of the night, with 7 wins. ‘Poor Things’ came next with 4 awards, and ‘The Zone of Interest’ in 3rd place with 2. Some widely-acclaimed films went home with no awards, including ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ ‘Maestro,’ ‘Past Lives,’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,’ ‘Napoleon’ and ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.’

The ceremony had a lot of good picks overall, and was fun to watch.

Movies/TV/Theaters

My thoughts on the live action ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’

Leave a comment

By: Julia Yang

I had just recently watched season 1 of the new live action ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ (ATLA), and I have some things to say about it.

Some things were odd, and some things were really good. For reference, I had already watched the original ATLA a long time ago, and it’s outstanding. When I heard that it was going to get a live action, I was ecstatic; it was one of the most exciting things I was waiting for. When I watched the live action, I was a little dissatisfied with some changes they made, but at the same time, it was a fun experience. I’m here to tell you my thoughts.

One of the larger things I’m confused about is why they decided to make all of the past avatars extremely hard on Aang about having friends, especially Aang’s best childhood friend Bumi.

In the cartoon when Aang and Bumi meet up after 100 years, Bumi is dangerous, fun, and playful. In the live action, he’s just dangerous, cocky, and apathetic. I heavily disliked this change— because Bumi was a fun-loving soul and was changed to having Aang choose between killing him or himself.

Back to the past avatar reincarnations: they’re so mean and hard on Aang. I get the past avatars were working alone and that’s all they know to do, but that’s not at all what happened in the cartoon. In fact, if I remember correctly, Aang didn’t even meet all of the past avatars.

I don’t know, I just find it weird how Bumi and all of the avatars are basically saying “Abandon your friends, or allow the world to be destroyed.”

One thing I love is the fact that they casted actual children/teenagers that aligned with the cartoon characters’ ages. This is something that people tend to complain about when they’re talking about their issues with the live action ATLA, but I find it super fitting. Visually and verbally seeing that Aang’s actor was actually 12 when they were filming is a really nice touch.

Another maybe smaller thing I didn’t really like, is that the Face Stealer (Koh) doesn’t steal peoples’ faces when they show emotion.
That’s a really weird change?? That’s like Koh’s whole schtick. When he sees you make an emotion, he takes your face, otherwise he can’t (emotions is what allows him to take a face).

Alternatively, in the live action, he makes you hallucinate then takes you for later? What does he do with them? Why doesn’t he just take their faces now? Does he have a cooldown or something? Is he picky?

One of the things I loved the most about the live action was Zuko’s actor: Dallas Liu. Throughout the live action ATLA, Dallas was one of the few people that really delivered lines. He showed body language, he said lines with much emotion, and his acting overall was really good. Another reason why I like him is because of the sass he puts into his character.

Some people may deny this, but Zuko was a real baby in the first season of the original ATLA: yelling at Uncle Iroh about the avatar, constantly talking about his honor, always in a bad mood, wanting to chase the avatar no matter the circumstances— it’s pretty crazy, and Dallas delivers it flawlessly.

I’m not trying to put down any of the other actors, but you can’t deny that Dallas stands out.

I believe the live action ATLA will be one of the most grand adaptations of an animated series, but as of right now, there is progress to be made. I’m okay with the current season as they were most likely figuring out how they want to plan out the plot, so I don’t find that there’s anything truly wrong with the live action.

With my personal experience with the live action and original show, I’d rate the live action a solid 8/10. Obviously, you won’t feel the same about the live action ATLA as I do; to me, there are slight imperfections, but most can be ignored.

I highly recommend watching both versions for the full experience, and because they’re both incredible in their own ways.

You can watch both on Netflix.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Bob Marley: One Love’ review

Leave a comment

By: Hermekay Dehaney

‘Bob Marley: One Love’ is a biopic film released on February 14 that tells the life and legacy of the iconic Jamaican reggae musician, Bob Marley. The movie aims to show us more about his journey, impact, and his legacy on the world.

Bob Marley is played by the British Actor, Kingsley Ben-Adir who is known for  playing Malcolm X in ‘One Night in Miami.’ There have been lots of discussions online of people being skeptical as to why they chose a British actor instead of a Jamaican actor. I was also skeptical as well because the Jamaican accent is complex to non-native speakers.

However, it’s important to note that actors are trained professionals who have the time, and the ability to practice different accents so that they can immerse themselves into who they’re playing. Kingsley has also said that he had a language team of 7-8 people on set at all times, he also had friends and family of Bob Marley who were able to help him. That much commitment to a role is very noteworthy, and I think he did a decent job portraying the accent.

A unique feature I love about this movie is that it tells the story of Bob Marley through three years of his life from 1976 to 1978 instead of the typical birth-to-death type movies that a lot of other biopics like to portray. During those 3 years, we saw an important part of Bob Marley’s life, from when he got shot in 1976 to the time he spent recording his album.

The movie does show a little bit of random flashbacks of Bob Marley from the past which I didn’t like as much because it felt a little bit unnecessary in my opinion.

During the movie, we saw a brief appearance of Cindy Breakspeare played by Umi Myers, the Canadian-Jamaican beauty queen who Bob Marley had an affair with. They didn’t give it a storyline, the only time we see her was when Bob Marley was in London calling his wife Rita Marley, played by Lashanda Lynch, where we got a little close-up glimpse of her.

They made it seem like it was some sort of little thing which is shocking because their “relationship” lasted from 1976 to his death in 1981; they even have a son together, Damian Marley. I understand that the movie’s primary focus was to show his music, and his message of peace and love, but if you’re going to add that, make it an actual storyline where people who might have not known about that point in his life have a little context to understand.

His family was also a big part of making this movie, so they were probably trying to protect his legacy by not adding too much information on his personal life. I felt that might’ve limited the movie from reaching its full potential.

One thing they did get right was the music, and the impact it had on Jamaica and around the world. I do think this movie is a perfect homage to Bob Marley music wise, but for the other things? Not so much.

I would give this movie a 6/10. You can see it in theaters.