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Music/Concerts

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

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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.

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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!

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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

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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’

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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

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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.

Music/Concerts

Melanie Martinez ‘PORTALS’ album review

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By: Fletcher Pike

The official album cover for ‘PORTALS’

Melanie Martínez is a popular artist known for her unique and creative sense of style. She most recently released an album titled ‘PORTALS’ last year on March 31st. Melanie’s trilogy of albums, ‘Crybaby’, ‘K12’, and ‘PORTALS’, all follow a tale of her character Crybaby.

Melanie incorporates both story and depth within her songs, which is found throughout her albums. In this new album, ‘PORTALS’, Melanie enters a creative new era and her character Crybaby has been reincarnated into a pink, alien-like creature in a magical forest. This album contains 13 songs in total along with an additional 3 included in the deluxe version of the album.

TRACK 1: DEATH

The first song on this album, “DEATH” represents the reincarnation of the character Crybaby, and her return to the world in a new form. The song starts out with a short interlude that evolves into a catchy rhythm that features a heavy guitar, bass, and drums with interesting lyrics that really follow the theme that the song represents. I think this is a great opening to an album and I rate it a 10/10.

TRACK 2: VOID

“VOID” is the first song that Melanie produced on her own for this album, and the first thing she wrote was the bass line featured in the song. I really enjoyed the vocals, lyrics, and drums that were in this song. I will rate this song a 9.5/10 because I do think it was a little bit repetitive.

TRACK 3: TUNNEL VISION

“TUNNEL VISION” was the very first song that was teased to Melanie Martinez’s fans through the trailer promoting the new album, making it quite popular. It starts off with a brief vocal segment that was included in the trailer followed by a unique beat featuring drums and a high pitched guitar. This is a great song and I rate it a 10/10.

TRACK 4: FAIREE SOIRÉE

The fourth song on her album, and probably the most upbeat, “FAIREE SOIRÉE” is a bright and vibrant song with a joyful melody and rhythm. It has a pop-like beat with a guitar melody over it as well as some great vocals. Recently, on February 9th, a music video was released for this song featuring Melanie and her backup dancers dressed as fairies with amazing choreography and costume design. This is a fantastic song and personally one of my favorites, so I give this song a 10/10.

TRACK 5: LIGHT SHOWER

“LIGHT SHOWER” is actually the very first song that Melanie wrote for this album, where she wrote it as a love song with her guitar. This song is beautifully written and composed and has a bit of a somber and slower tone to it. It features only a guitar along with Melanie’s vocals. I think this song is very beautiful and I rate it a 10/10.

TRACK 6: SPIDER WEB

“SPIDER WEB” starts off with an echoey harp that progresses throughout the entire song that evolves into a catchy beat with some really interesting lyrics that I enjoyed. I really liked Melanie’s vocals in this song. I think that “SPIDER WEB” was a fantastic song and I rate it a 10/10.

TRACK 7: LEECHES

“LEECHES” is a slower and more somber song, with a guitar melody and flowing vocals that I found to be very ambient and nice. I also enjoyed the string instruments that were present in this song. I thought it was a beautiful song and I rate this song a 9/10.

TRACK 8: BATTLE OF THE LARYNX

“BATTLE OF THE LARYNX” starts off with a guitar melody with a bit softer vocals that ascends into a really nice drum beat that I liked listening to. I think this song is a solid 9/10 since it did get repetitive at times but it was overall nice to listen to.

TRACK 9: THE CONTORTIONIST

The 9th track, “THE CONTORTIONIST”, starts off with a quiet string sound with softer vocals from Melanie that I really liked. Throughout the song, there is a snap-like sound representing a bone breaking due to the name and vibe of the song, which I found very creative. “THE CONTORTIONIST” is a really great song and I rate it a 9.5/10

TRACK 10: MOON CYCLE

“MOON CYCLE” starts off with an echoey guitar that ascends into a beat with slight drums and bass. I thought that overall this song was good, but I thought it lacked a bit of depth in contrast to the other songs on the album. I think this song is an 8/10.

TRACK 11: NYMPHOLOGY

“NYMPHOLOGY” is a really great song. It starts off with string instruments and a guitar that shifts into a really catchy beat with amazing lyrics. The lyrics in this song focus on themes of feminism and gender classification. I thought it was a beautiful song and I would rate it a 10/10.

Around the last minute of “NYMPHOLOGY”, there is a brief interlude that Melanie has confirmed to be named “Amulet”. This interlude might be short, but it is very catchy and I really liked listening to it. It has a beat that is reminiscent of “FAERIE SOIRÉE”, and interesting lyrics. I loved both “NYMPHOLOGY” and “Amulet” and I rate both a 10/10.

TRACK 12: EVIL

“EVIL” features a darker tone in contrast to the other songs on this album. It has a low heavy guitar melody that is very similar to the melody found in “BATTLE OF THE LARYNX” that really adds to the tone of the song. I enjoyed the rhythm and the instruments used in this song and I rate “EVIL” a 10/10.

TRACK 13: WOMB

The final track for this album, “WOMB” is a mainly guitar composed song that I found to be very nice. I thought it sounded upbeat with the guitar melody. At the main chorus, it switches into a segment with a heavy guitar and drums. Overall, it is a pretty good finish to an album, and I rate it a 10/10.

DELUXE TRACK 1: POWDER

“POWDER” is the first song included in the deluxe version of ‘PORTALS’. It features a more echoey tone with Melanie’s vocals having some sort of pitched down vocal effect, which I didn’t care for that much. It has a pop style beat with a low guitar under it. I thought that this song was pretty okay, so I rate it a 8/10.

DELUXE TRACK 2: PLUTO

“PLUTO” starts off with a waltz-like flute melody with a really nice drum beat over it. I loved the vocals and melody in this song and the lyrics were pretty good, with brass instruments included in some sections in the song. I rate this song a 10/10.

DELUXE TRACK 3: MILK OF THE SIREN

The final deluxe track for this album is titled “MILK OF THE SIREN” and features a slower tempo compared to most other tracks on this album. This song starts off with Melanie’s vocals that evolves into a slow waltz-like beat with solemn drums. At some parts it shifts into a heavy drum part with an interesting chorus. I think this is a pretty good song overall, but I thought that it was a bit repetitive to listen to. I will rate this song a 8/10.

Overall, ‘PORTALS’ is a wonderful and creative album that is a fantastic start to Melanie’s new era. It is clear that much thought and creativity has gone into the creation of this album. I am anticipating any further albums Melanie might release in the near future, which might be a while since Melanie’s albums usually have a 4-5 year gap between them. This was a great album, which leads me to rate it a 9.5/10.

Music/Concerts

‘Minor’ review:

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By: Sophia Elmstrom

‘Minor’ by Gracie Abrams is her first ever EP and her debut music. Gracie Abrams is a fairly new artist who got her start by a school project which she never thought would lead to anything.

Gracie Abrams is a folk pop singer and her range of musical talent is truly incredible. Once you start listening to Gracie you will not be able to stop. The first time I found her was when I first listened to ‘Minor’. The first song I ever listened to was “I Miss You I’m Sorry”. This song and this whole EP truly changed the way I viewed music and how I saw Gracie Abrams as an artist.

The EP ‘Minor’ contains 7 songs in total and their names are: “Friend”, ”21”, “Under/Over”, “tehe”, “I miss you, i’m sorry”, “Long sleeves”, and “Minor”. ‘Minor’ is a breakup album with all these songs being about heartbreak in your teenage years. My ranking of these songs is:

  1. Friend: 10/10
  2. Minor: 9.5/10
  3. I Miss you, im sorry: 8/10
  4. 21: 10/10
  5. Long Sleeves: 6/10
  6. Under/Over: 5/10
  7. tehe: 7/10

The reason my favorite song on ‘Minor’ is “Friend” is because the lyrics and music are beautiful. The lyrics show what it is like to go through a breakup and have your ex still want to be your friend. You know you cannot do this because it won’t work like that and she knows just because her ex is okay doesn’t mean she is.

I believe that this is a song many teens can relate to and I think it is an amazingly crafted song. “Friend” is 2:57 long and my favorite lyrics are “I’m sure you’re doin’ fine but I don’t wanna hear it”. I really like this lyric because it shows that she knows her ex is okay after the breakup but she really does not want to hear about it.

Another song that I believe to be crafted beautifully is “21”. This is a song about moving on and having to accept that your ex will have a life without you. “21’s” lyrics are strong and have many meanings behind them. Gracie Abrams herself said in an interview that she took many of these lyrics directly from her journal.

The song is 3:06 long and my favorite lyric is “When the night is over, don’t call me up I’m already under”. The reason I really like that lyric is because it is referencing her other song on the EP “Under/Over”.

Overall, I really like this album and it led me to love Gracie Abrams and all of her music. I rate this album a 10/10 because of the lyrics and meaning behind songs.

Movies/TV/Theaters

Basically, this is ‘Wakfu’ Season 1

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By: Julia Yang

*Note: This article will contain potential spoilers for the show

When I say ‘Wakfu’, I’m referring to the anime-influenced French animated show— not the game.

Before we start, I’d like to say that I’m not the best at explaining things.
So, the story in short, ‘Wakfu’ is all about a special boy named Yugo. Yugo travels through different realms, saving the universe and his race alongside his friends.

The End.
Now, let’s actually start.

The show begins with Yugo, the boy I mentioned earlier, who first shows up as a baby with a newborn tofu— tofu is a species of bird, small, round, yellow, and harmless. Yugo is an orphan given to his new found father by a dragon named Grougaloragran in his human form. Grougaloragran tells Yugo’s new found father, Alibert, about Yugo’s past and origin through the tofu, Az.

Yugo, Az, and Alibert grow up together enough to the point where Yugo looks like he’s 12 years old. From this point on, this is where Yugo’s adventure begins.

An Iop— a race with ginger hair and not the best intelligence— named Dally, or Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove, barges into the restaurant that Yugo and Alibert are working in. This Iop is being possessed by his sentient demon sword called a shushu. Dally isn’t strong enough to fight back the possession, so he’s basically just destroying the place without meaning to. Ruel, Alibert’s old friend, explains to Yugo that he needs to take the demon’s eye out of Dally’s forehead to get rid of the possession. Yugo uses his powers and newfound knowledge to take down the possessed Dally, to which the demon resorts back into his sword form.

Yugo’s current powers— as of this episode, allows him to use blue portals to travel to nearby places. Yugo, Ruel, and Dally become friends.

Whilst this is happening, the village breaks out into an unusual disease where if anyone is touched by a black, gooey, strange creature, they’ll be turned into moss. Yugo, Ruel, and Dally leave the village to find the cure to this odd virus.

They run into two girls named Amalia and Evangeline.
Amalia is a sadida. Sadida have the ability to talk to, grow, feel, and bend plants. Evangeline is a craw. Craw’s have the ability to create magical arrows for a bow.

Amalia is traveling with Eva (Evangeline) to find out what’s wrong with the forest since sadida have very good senses for the world.

Of course, they all travel to the source of the disease.
Skipping the adventure so I don’t waste your time, they cure it and everyone who got turned to moss turns back to their normal selves.

They all go back to Yugo’s village where they get ambushed by a xelor named Nox. Xelor’s are time wizards— they look like humanoid robot people. Nox stops time and says he came to get information about Grougaloragran from Yugo.

Yugo, being an infant when he “knew” Grougaloragran, has no clue what Nox is talking about. Nox pulls a special feather off of Az that tells Yugo a message to find his true family. Nox threatens to hurt Yugo if he doesn’t tell what he heard, which sets Alibert off and Alibert breaks through the time stop and harms Nox. Nox, before anything worse had happened, teleports away, resuming present time.

Yugo and his friends leave the village in search for his true family.

Their search ends up with an island in the middle of nowhere where Yugo meets his strange brother. Yugo’s brother is a dragon.
The dragon’s name is Adamai. Adamai explains that dragons and eliatropes— the race Yugo is, are born from dofus’— dragon eggs.

Yugo and Adamai are born from the same dofus, meaning Adamai and Yugo are brothers.

Adamai explains how both Yugo and himself need to find a thing called an eliacube. The eliacube is basically a cube of an extremely large and powerful amount of wakfu originating from the eliatropes.

Long story short, Nox has the eliacube in order to go back 20 years and see his dead family. Yugo and friends need to obtain it from him because in the wrong hands, the eliacube can, and will, be very dangerous.

Nox invades the sadida kingdom to obtain wakfu from their Tree of Life and gain more wakfu for the eliacube. The Tree of Life quite literally holds all the lives of the sadida in it. If that tree dies, so does a whole race. Stakes are incredibly high.

Yugo and Adamai manage to stop Nox and get the eliacube in safe hands— their hands.

This is basically the end of season 1 of ‘Wakfu’. I won’t be saying anymore as some may wish to watch this later and I don’t want to spoil anything further.

I’d personally rate this season a 7/10. Although I may not like this season as much as the other seasons, it’s still a good watch.

The original dub of the show is in French, but I watched the first 3 seasons in English. The English dub is of lower quality than the French, so that’s most-likely why I dislike the first season. If you’re watching it in English too, I promise it gets better in later seasons.

Again, this is a very bad representation of what actually happens in the show, so feel free to add ‘Wakfu’ to your list of things to watch.

Overall, I find the show super good, and I’d highly recommend giving it a chance.

‘Wakfu’ can be found on ‘Netflix’ as an original series.

Music/Concerts

Explaining “Taylor’s Version” and why it is important

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By: Sophia Elmstrom

‘Fearless Taylor’s Version’ (first re-recorded album)

“Taylor’s Version” is a term that is used widely among people around the world. It is a term that you yourself have for sure heard at some point.

You might be asking yourself what it is, well here is the short answer: re-recorded albums. Taylor’s Version is when Taylor Swift re-records her albums that she has had released for a while and calls them Taylor’s Version.

This all started in 2019 when her producer, Scooter Braun, and the label he worked with sold all of Taylor’s music without her permission. Taylor had decided to fight back and gain all her music back, she re-recorded it and re-released it with the name of ‘Taylor’s Version’. Once Scooter sold all of her music that meant that all the income would come to him and the label instead of Taylor herself. Although Taylor surely does not need the money it is an ethical thing to do by streaming Taylor’s Version and showing support for her.

There were six albums that she would need to re-recorded once she made this decision; ‘Debut’, ‘Fearless’, ‘Speak Now’, ‘Red’, ‘1989’, and ‘Reputation’. Taylor first got the idea to record these when Kelly Clarkson, a talk show host and fellow pop star, suggested it. So far, Taylor has re-recorded 4 of the 6 albums and still has to release ‘Reputation’ and ‘Debut’.

Many Swifties have their own speculations about when these albums are coming out; they call them easter eggs. These Swifities will watch music videos, lyric videos, award shows, and concerts for clues about upcoming albums and songs. During the 2024 Grammys it was speculated that Taylor would announce ‘Reputation Taylor’s Version’ while she was winning the award. Instead the Swifties got something they never would have expected, a brand new album. This album is called ‘The Tortured Poets Department’.

Although every single one of these albums were a huge success and broke records, the one that broke the most records was ‘1989 Taylor’s Version’. ‘1989’ is an album many people grew up with and were very excited about, this caused it to break many impressive records such as the most single day streams ever for an album.

Included in the recordings of these albums there are some songs Taylor likes to call “vault tracks”. Vault tracks are songs that never made it on the original album; she has about 5 vault songs for each re-recording.

My favorite re-recording so far has been ‘Speak Now’, it is the most different to the original. Many Swifties think that is bad but I love that she was embracing her new voice and trying new things out. I also think that the vault songs for ‘Speak Now’ are the best: “Timeless”, “Electric Touch”, “When Emma Falls in Love”, “Castles Crumbling”, “Foolish One”, and “I Can See You”.

In my opinion, Taylor did a great job at claiming back her music and getting many people to support her.

Tech/Games

JOYSTiCK empirical non-review – Everything being added in the Minecraft 1.21 update

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By: Daniel Kendle

Every year, the game ‘Minecraft’ implements a series of new features into the game as part of a themed update. While we don’t have the name for the newest update, update 1.21, we do have a good amount of features already-showcased in snapshots for the game, where players can test and report feedback on the new additions. Today we’ll be looking at the features that have been announced so far.

The first item of interest is a new block, called the Crafter. It’s a variant of the Crafting Table, a legacy feature that lets players craft items, placing materials in a 3-3 grid. It’s arguably the most useful block in the game, and the crafter promises to be an interesting alternative. The Crafter lets you automatically craft things, having items be input into the machine by means of hand or pipeline.

You first open up the interface of the block and click on any of the 9 gridded squares to let input items not go into the slots. Then, you connect a line of Hoppers (an equivalent of pipes) and send items through them. Just give the crafter a pulse of energy and you’ll have items flying out of its output slot. It’s a fairly-complex system, but one that’s a lot easier to use in game than how I write it here.

The Crafter will be great for automatic farms, since in the past you could only harvest raw materials like pumpkins from a pumpkin farm, eggs from a chicken farm, and sugar from a sugarcane farm. But with the new block, you can combine the 3 into a single Crafter to dispense pumpkin pies, which can speed up the process of manually-crafting. This is just an example of how the block will impact farms in ‘Minecraft,’ and I’m excited to use it in the future.

The next feature is actually a new animal, or “mob,” as the game officially calls creatures in the game. The Armadillo is a passive creature that spawns in the variants of Savannahs and Badlands, and brings with it a new type of armor, not for you, but for your pet wolves or dogs.

Armadillos are very skittish, and will curl up into a ball if you sprint near it, or if hostile mobs are around. They can still be hurt in this state, so it’s not the most effective defense. However, if you use a brush on the animal or just wait for a time, they’ll drop scutes. 6 of these scutes can be combined into Wolf Armor, which gives your pets some extra defense. This is great for adventurers, and I overall really enjoy the Armadillos and the new items they bring.

On the cosmetic front, we now have some cool new decorative blocks. The Tuff block can now be made into bricks, stairs, slabs and chiseled variants of the porous rock, donning a cloudy-gray texture throughout its family. The chiseled pair of blocks especially are interesting, as Tuff is the first stone to have 2 different chiseled variants, which is fun for building.

The family of Copper blocks have been upgraded too. Prior to update 1.21, Copper blocks consisted of stair, slab, and cut variants, as well as Lighting Rods. Now we have some new types such as Copper Grates, a transparent-ish block that looks like a factory catwalk, or copper trapdoors and doors. Alongside Chiseled Tuff is Chiseled Copper, though I think that the latter is far less interesting of a design.

For the last Copper block added, we have another technical feature like the Crafter: the Copper Bulb. The bulb will light up when a Redstone pulse (the ‘Minecraft’ equivalent of electricity) is received. Interestingly, the bulb doesn’t need a constant source of power to remain lit, just a single pulse. This means the block is effectively a T Flip-Flop, a term in the game’s community for a type of Redstone circuit. As someone who’s not super well-versed on Redstone technology, I’m not too keen on what it does, but after some later nerfs from future snapshots the Copper Bulb isn’t as viable as it once was, so there’s something. But to conclude this portion, I think that the new Tuff and Copper blocks are cool, but nothing super exciting.

The largest part of the update so far – and what the bulk of this overview will be about – are the Trial Chambers, a new underground structure being added to the game. They’re sprawling dungeons that are one of the few structures in ‘Minecraft’ that have a replayability factor to them.

When entering a Trial Chamber, the first thing you’ll see are all of the new Copper and Tuff blocks, as the structure’s made of the families. You’ll also eventually find the new Trial Spawner block – one that spawns hostile mobs for you to fight, and a reward from its lid once they’ve been slain. They appear all throughout the chambers, in the corridors and the chambers themselves.

The chambers have spawners, but also some traps, these can range from trapping snow littering the floor of one to buttons on the walls letting arrows or water spew out. These can be hazardous to your pursuit of loot, and help make the Trial Chambers a difficult challenge. The replay factor comes in how the spawners will respawn another set of mobs around 30 minutes after their previous spawning, letting you get infinite loot and infinite battles. The spawners also scale to how many players are around it, letting however many players join the fight to get equal fighting time.

In addition to rewards from the Trial Spawners and various chests, barrels and pots around the chambers, the coolest source of loot to find is from the Vault, a block similar to the spawners in appearance. From the previous 4 sources of loot, you can occasionally find/receive a Trial Key, which can be used to unlock a Vault, giving you even better rewards than you would otherwise. A player can only unlock a Vault block once, which I do hope they change. It would be cool to have an infinite source of loot, with the only caveat being that you’d have to fight for another Trial Key.

Within the chambers are 2 new hostile mobs, which will round out the features introduced in the update so far. The first is called the Bogged, a variant of the normal Skeleton. It can spawn from Trial Spawners and in swamps and mangrove swamps, and has a murky, rotting texture that looks really cool, honestly. They shoot poison-tipped arrows instead of normal ones, and drop them in addition to damaged bows, normal arrows and bones. To compensate, they’re weaker in health and have a slower cooldown between shots.

The more unique mob is called the Breeze. They’re exclusive to the Trial Chambers, also being summoned from their spawners. They’re similar to the Blaze, another hostile mob, and both are manifestations of their respective elements: fire for the Blaze, and wind (or air) for the Breeze. It’s essentially a head floating on top of 3 rods, surrounded by swirling wind. It shoots a projectile called a Wind Charge at players, and can leap and dash around to evade hits. The charge doesn’t hurt the player unless it hits them, but if it misses close enough to the player they’ll be launched, allowing them to be hurt by fall damage. The charges can also activate buttons, levers, doors and trapdoors, letting the traps in the chambers be all-the-more effective in hindering you.

When slain, the Breeze can drop a handful of Wind Charges, which function similar to how the Breeze itself uses them. You can even throw them to the ground mid-jump and propel yourself further into the air, which is really fun.

Overall, the Trial Chambers, Trial Spawners and Vaults, and the Breeze and Bogged are my favorite additions to the update so far. More will be revealed in the future, but for now that’s all the features revealed right now. The update is scheduled to release in mid-2024, and I’m very excited.

Music/Concerts

What to expect regarding Beyoncé’s new music, straight from the hive

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By: Charlie St. Dennis

Picture it. Super Bowl Sunday, 2024. 123 million viewers are tuned in, and right after halftime, an ad for Verizon appears. The concept of the ad was for Beyonce to do stuff and see if she could “break the internet.” She was alongside actor Gary Hale who, after repeatedly telling Beyonce she didn’t break the internet, was instructed to “drop the new music.”

Along with my fellow BeyHive members, I was very excited to open Instagram to find that she did, indeed, drop new music, which was part of a trilogy (this part being “act ii”). What many were surprised to find out was that the two singles she dropped, TEXAS HOLD ‘EM and 16 CARRIAGES, were… country?

Yep, Beyonce released country music. To many this came as a surprise, but not to me. She just completed her ‘Renaissance World Tour’, which was heavily influenced by black queer musicians in three genres they originated: bounce, house, and disco. It only makes sense that she would follow suit with another genre originated by black musicians: country!

Considering that Beyonce has been my most listened artist for years, and I can confidently say I know all of her songs, it’s safe to say that I absorb a lot of speculations regarding what her next steps will be, and here are some of the most likely theories!

  1. “act iii” will be Rock & Roll This is one of my favorite theories because it stems from Beyoncé’s British Vogue photo shoot from 2021, just months before the announcement of ‘Renaissance’. She shot with 3 different themes, one being disco (potentially ‘Renaissance’), one being at a rodeo (potentially “act ii”), and one being on a motorcycle with a Joan Jett-esque haircut (potentially “act iii”, and potentially Rock & Roll!)
  2. What is the title of “act ii?” Many Beyonce fans believe that the title of “act ii” will be ‘Rodeo’, considering she announced the album just days before the start of the Houston Rodeo, which is where she was born. This would also, obviously, apply to the country theme. While many fans agree that this is the likely name, some have other ideas. Other name ideas include ‘Enlightenment’ or ‘Reflection’, in the spirit of learning new genres and reflecting on their history. Another prominent one is ‘Redemption’, which many people see as a way of Beyonce announcing she’s reclaiming these genres that were once originated by people of color.

3. Guest Artists! One of the writers of “Texas Hold ‘Em”, producer Killah B, was asked if there would be any guest artists on the new album, including perhaps another music industry icon Taylor Swift, and his response was “Let’s just say, she’s (Beyoncé) on the approach of shocking the world. I’ll let your imagination decide what that means”.

Another theory about guest artists is Lady Gaga. 15 years ago, Gaga and Beyonce released the music video for their hit joint single, “Telephone,” which ends with the two stars driving on an old country road with a banner saying “To Be Continued.” Many believe that they will, finally after all these years, come together to make a new song, after the promo video for the album featured a car driving on a beaten country road.

Stay tuned for “act ii” on streaming on March 29th! We got “Texas Hold ‘Em” to number one, let’s get the whole album!