Category Archives: Entertainment

Books/Art

‘All That’s Left to Say’ – book review

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By: Abisola Dosunmu

This book is a murder mystery from the viewpoint of a girl who believes her cousin died not from an overdose, but that someone murdered her.  Hannah is left stunned and reeling when Sophie, her best friend and cousin, dies of an opioid overdose. This book is narrated by Hannah, during the time when it moves the timeline from her junior to senior year. She resolves to find out who sold Sophie the drugs, and the result is a haunting storyline that delves into the complexities of substance abuse.

My personal review of this book without revealing too much was that the main character is a force of nature. She has the drive and the character to try and solve a mystery that everyone says isn’t there, while grieving her best friend. She and all the other side characters developed well over the course of the story. It’s a very realistic story that tells hard truths about substance abuse.

The subject matter, without revealing too much about the book, deals with topics of addiction and grief. A message that emerges throughout the book is how a person can be multi-faceted and more complex than you think. What I loved about the book was the realness of it. The characters had personalities and emotions and were funny and sad and it was all very poignant throughout the book. 

What I disliked about the book were that the timelines weren’t linear, that it was too confusing to sort through, and it distracted from the book. There was a lot of adult content like violence and drug abuse, so it’s not something I’d recommend little kids reading.

But altogether, the book was a fantastic read, and really showed how sometimes you have to step back and realize you’ve done everything you could. I’d give it a four out of five.

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Music/Concerts

‘For All the Dogs’ review

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By: Ricky Perez Cardoza

‘For All The Dogs’ by Drake is his long-awaited 8th studio album announced in July and released after a couple of push backs on October 6th. It’s one of Drake’s longer albums, coming in at 23 songs and 1 hour and 24 minutes of playtime.

The album starts strong with the song “Virginia Beach”. We get the beautiful high-pitched sample from Frank Ocean’s unreleased song “Wiseman”. Drake does what he does best on this song and it’s his vocals/singing that make this song perfect for an intro and sets the tone for most of the album going forward.

“Amen” (feat Teezo Touchdown) is another strong song of the album where we get hard-hitting bass along with piano that makes this song feel classy. This is especially true when Teezo Touchdown starts singing its performance that takes the song up a level. Drake does his rapping but goes a little more lyrical and talks about his connection with god, and has all his bars correlate with praying and things like god.

“Calling For You” (feat. 21 Savage) is a song we all expected in this album. Drake starts with a big switch up in tones from religion to explicit things on a dark synth and hyper hi-hats to go along with the background singing making it one of the best instrumentals from the album. What makes this song 5 minutes long is its unnecessary almost interlude-like section in the middle of the song of just an unknown woman ranting about a broken relationship that transitions to 21 Savage’s feature, that is the highlight of the song, with the same formula for an instrumental like the first part for his section as well.

“Fear Of Heights” is the next song on the album. It starts with a somber song with a laid-back performance from Drake but transitions this low-energy song to a high-energy hype song in just 45 seconds. This is one of Drake’s many attempts at a new style of music and pulls it off with an instrumental that sounds like those of Yeat’s featured later on the album.

“Daylight” is another hype song from Drake but he adapts more of a faster rapping style on this song with hard-hitting bass. It’s a song that most people have heard before. What most people didn’t expect on this song is a feature from his son Adonis freestyling on an old style boom bap beat and going from the topic Drake was rapping about on this song. It’s a little strange having his son on this track.

“First Person Shooter” (feat. J. Cole) Is one of the many Billboard hits on this album. This song has another amazing performance by J. Cole and Drake. They both have great chemistry on this song and it’s a great balance of a song with J. Cole mentioning beef and hinting at his next album in a great lyrical way. Drake brings hype to the song but ultimately gets outshined in this song.

“IDGAF” (feat. Yeat) Is another Billboard hit that starts with these spacey synths with jazz singing and jazz trumpet playing but suddenly switches completely to a different song with one of the best rage beats we’ve heard recently in music. Yeat is made for this song but the same thing can’t be said about Drake who sounds mostly out of place and out of his sound on this song. Yeat carries this song and it sounds more like a Yeat song than a Drake song.

“7969 Santa” is the next song that switches up the vibe from rage to Drake rapping about relationships on a more cloudy instrumental with not as much bass as he typically has on his songs. He also does his usual emotional singing which he always incorporates into his songs. At the end of the song, we have another appearance by Teezo Touchdown where he gives us even more great vocals for the ending of this song and just pure pianos. Snoop Dogg also makes an appearance giving the theme of “dogs”.

“Slime You Out” (feat. SZA) by Drake is the single released before the album’s release and it’s a song that had mixed opinions when it first came out mostly because of its focus on R&B and not what most people expected. It has a great SZA performance where she has great emotion behind her singing.

“Bahamas’ Promises” is a return to the old style from Drake incorporated with dog barking that we also hear throughout the album. It’s a classic from Drake that reminds people of a more modern version of the song “Take Care”. It talks about mixed emotions about a failed relationship and is all done on a great flowing piano beat.

“Tried Our Best” is again another return to an old style for Drake and gives off the vibe of a song from his album ‘Views’. It’s a melodic song from Drake that overall is good but one of the more forgettable songs from the album.

“Screw The World – Interlude” brings back the boom-bap sound we heard from Drake at the end of the song “Daylight”. It’s an interlude that doesn’t do much for a transition but more as a break from the R&B and gives us an old-style boom-bap sound.

“Drew A Picasso’s” is like the other songs just as “Bahamas Promises” and “Tried Our Best” just done more emotionally and overall more boring, whereas Drake brings us more memorable lines in this song. After hearing more or less the same song 3 times in a row it gets more boring and is another example of longer albums having songs like this that feel like they are there just for bloating.

“Members Only” (feat. PARTYNEXTDOOR) is another song people forget about in this album. The song is another R&B song from Drake with a feature from PARTYNEXTDOOR that doesn’t save the singing from Drake and the lyrics are some of the worst on this album.

“What Would Pluto Do” saves this mediocre middle part of this album and references Pluto or AKA Future that should’ve had a spot on this song, that just fits his style, and it’s something Drake still performs great on. It’s a shame we couldn’t get a single Future feature on this album given the duo have made great songs together.

“All The Parties” (feat. Chief Keef) is one of the more disappointing songs on the album. Mostly because it’s R&B again but now with an out-of-place feature from Chief Keef which would be the best opportunity to make a great hype song, especially when the last 8 songs have all been singing and R&B.

“8 A.M. in Charlotte” is a continuation of Drake’s city songs and stands out for its great production from Conductor Williams and was also a song released before the album came out. The song features the best rapping performance on the whole album; the piano and mentions of Drake’s past beefs and current ones is a perfect mix to make Drake go all out on his rapping from a rap-dry second half of the album.

“BBL Love” is a forgettable interlude serving no purpose and is one of the most embarrassing interludes/songs from Drake. Easily, the worst song on the album.

“Gently” (feat. Bad Bunny) has most people confused in the first half where Drake does possibly one of the worst Spanish sections on a song where he says almost cringe-worthy stuff. Gladly, the song switches up quickly to a Spanish form of song called “Dembow” where Drake delivers his part with some of the best flow on a Spanish beat, something people didn’t expect at all. Bad Bunny does his thing on this song and is a great addition because he almost talks like the American version of Drake.

“Rich Baby Daddy” (feat. Sexyy Red & SZA) is one of the best R&B songs on this album mostly because of its fast tempo instrumental but is made worse by the Sexy Red feature that isn’t known for appropriate songs or lyrics. The song is ultimately saved by SZA who shines on a song like this and hopefully makes more songs like this. It’s also unnecessarily long with an almost interlude end part from Drake on this song.

“Another Late Night” (feat. Lil Yachty) gives us the expected collaboration from the 2 best friends and is a good song where you can hear Lil Yachty’s influence on the song. Both of them do well on this song. It’s one the most vibey songs on the album.

“Away From Home” is another song that doesn’t stand out much from the album. Easily one of the most boring songs on the album and very regretful. This song doesn’t give anything at all. No good lyrics. No good instrumental. And not the best rapping performance by Drake. It’s a song most people will forget about.

“Polar Opposites” is the final song in this 23-song-long album and it’s not even a good outro for the album. He should’ve done what he does most of the time and it’s the end of his signature hype we saw on “Honestly Nevermind” & “Her Loss”. This R&B song gets boring after listening to the same style of music for 6 songs in a row.

“For All The Dogs” by Drake is one of his best projects if it kept the style or direction of Drake trying new sounds. He does this in the first half of the album and he does it well. If the album had been just the first half with a couple editions of other songs from the second half it could’ve been easily one of his best new projects in his discography.

The second half of pure R&B music is something that people were complaining about back when he released his album ‘Certified Lover Boy’. It was an album most people found boring and we see the same thing in the second half of this album.

This album brings an end to new music from Drake for a while now and it is safe to say he didn’t disappoint on the album at all and it could’ve been one of his best if he just made the album shorter. This is something we see too much of and is only ever done well by very few artists.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Transformers Rise of the Beasts’ movie review

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By: Joey Briseno & Cade Sullivan

‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ (ROTB) is an action-stuffed adventure that revamps the Transformer’s movie franchise with a 90’s setting and all-new factions: the Maximals and the Terrorcons.

The story follows two brand-new human characters, Noah Diaz and Elena Wallace, who are pulled into an extraterrestrial struggle for a device called the Transwarp Key, or just the Key. The Key has the power to create space-time portals, making it a valuable device. Optimus Prime and his fellow Transformers (Bumblebee, Mirage, Arcee and Wheeljack) want the Key in order to return to Cybertron, while the antagonist Scourge wants the Key to bring his master, the planet-eating Unicron, to earth.

ROTB is on the shorter side in terms of normal action flicks at around 2 hours, but it moves at a good pace and doesn’t take much time to explain things. This is both good and bad; at times it feels as if the script was written by someone who just wants to get to the action, and at times it feels engaging to have a movie that is so light on exposition.

The movie attempts to include a family dynamic between Noah, his mother and his brother, but this falls flat as there simply isn’t enough time to help you get fully invested. His brother has a sickness, but it isn’t revealed what it is or how it’s affecting him. Noah’s brother radios into him during the final battle for some motivation, but otherwise he isn’t important to the plot.

Visually speaking, ROTB looks very clean for the most part while not really separating itself from the previous movies of the franchise in terms of CGI. The movie is very colorful, with specific elements like Optimus Prime’s red and blue coloring and the lush green of the Peru jungle being particular standouts.

Fights are explosive and frequent, and the action here is some of the best you’ll find in movies from 2023. While it isn’t necessarily creative, the action is captivating and does a good job of making it feel more realistic with Noah and Elena having to evade enemies.

One negative aspect here is that the backgrounds of these sets feel very empty. For example, there is a scene where Mirage visits Noah outside of his friend’s apartment. Not a single person notices the Autobot as he talks to Noah, making no attempts to whisper. However, this is more of a nitpick than anything as it isn’t majorly distracting.

Characters here are either a big focus or mostly ignored. Optimus Prime returns to the big screen, although he is a much colder and distrusting Optimus than we’re used to. Noah and Elena have a lot of screen time and plenty of development: Noah is down-to-earth and funny while Elena is reserved but proves herself to be very smart.

Bumblebee doesn’t have a lot to do in this movie; besides his return in the final fight, he is mostly sidelined for a new Autobot: Mirage. Mirage is voiced by comedian Pete Davidson and is a standout of the movie with his carefree personality and swagger.

Arcee and Wheeljack are impressive in fight scenes but aren’t given much to do; however, the biggest miss of this movie has to be the Maximals. Advertised heavily in the trailers, they are given nothing to do and are only there to help in the final fight.

Their leader, Optimus Primal, has an interesting backstory that isn’t expanded upon past the opening scene and, while he has a cool design, doesn’t offer a lot to the story besides revealing the location of his half of the Key. Overall, very disappointing for these promising characters to be built up by marketing and fall flat in the actual product.

The main antagonist of this movie is known simply as Scourge, with the secondary antagonist being Unicron. Scourge is a very menacing adversary, as it is revealed that he was given immense power by Unicron. Scourge launches an attack on the Autobots at the museum containing the Key, and he beats Optimus handily in their fight. It takes an appearance from the maximal Airazor to stop Scourge and his Terrorcons from eliminating the Autobots. Scourge is eventually defeated by Optimus Prime in the final battle, but not before cementing himself as a top-tier villain.

Overall, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is a great popcorn action movie that left us wanting more. We found the character development in this movie to overall be lackluster: for example, Scourge is given no backstory; he’s just evil and serves Unicron for an unexplained purpose. The Maximals were underutilized and the family dynamic was established but not extended upon. That being said, the entertainment value of this movie helped us turn our brain off more and not pay so much attention to the negatives. We would recommend checking this movie out, especially if you are a Transformers fan. We would give it 4/5 stars.

‘Transformers: ROTB’ is streaming now on Paramount Plus.

Tech/Games

The rise of smartphones

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By: Manuel Avalos Mateos

A small device in your pocket that can do almost anything and everything you want it to. A smartphone.

A quick Google search will let you know that the first smartphone was released in 1992 by a company that goes by the name of IBM. It was called the Simon Personal Communicator and was the first to feature a touch screen.

The modern smartphone as we know it today can come in many different sizes and phones are one of the most powerful portable devices today. There are nearly 7 billion smartphone users in the world, a major change from just over 1 billion (estimated) in 2010.

According to FourWeekMBA, Apple and Samsung are amongst the top smartphone brands and are the most popular picks in the United States. In 2021 Samsung generated $244 billion in revenue and Apple at $365 billion.

Over the years, smartphones have become cheaper and therefore more available to those of lower income. Around 95% of adults 18-49 own a smartphone and 61% for those over 65.

Smartphones have become an essential part of our daily lives. Smartphones have changed the way we live and the way we connect with the world around us. Phones have evolved quickly and have made big advancements over the years.

The 2 main mobile operating systems are iOS and Android. As prices for phones became much more accessible, phones became more obtainable and reached more new users. The ability to reach into your pocket and easily send an email, a text, play games, watch movies, read books, listen to music, interact with other via social media, and make online purchases on websites like Amazon is simply a masterpiece.

Looking into the future of phones seems assured for continued innovation. New technologies like augmented reality, and AI are expected to change the next phase of development of the smartphone.

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Music/Concerts

The ‘D.O.A Tape’ album review

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By: Judah Gregory

The ‘D.O.A Tape’ was released November 5, 2021 and was created by rapper Kay Flock. This is his first full album released but he has had other singles, freestyles, and eps across the internet. This album gained attention from the song “Is Ya Ready” from his high energy aggressive rapping and the famous TikTok dances that he created. He was one of the best Bronx drill rappers that was coming up in my opinion. This is the track list of songs on the album, what they’re about, and my review of them.

Track 1: Is Ya Ready
Now the reason this track would gain so much attention is because of the lyrics being said in the song, because of the disses in it to his blood cousin who is another New York rapper named Dthang GZ. Now this song is overall aggressive and a loud song with the music video that has all of the kids jumping around screaming and dancing making it a high energy track that has an infectious flow to it.

Track 2: Being Honest
This track is a tone down from the first track with still a nice sounding beat and still great rapping by Kay. In this track, he raps mainly about women and also moving about New York City the right way and not getting lined up by women basically getting set up.

Track 3: Brotherly Love
This track is my favorite of the album and features one of Kay Flocks cousins Dougie B and their close friend B Love. This song is an aggressive track switching in and out of them rapping. Then, at the end of the song, when they go a switch back to back is one of my favorite parts of the song. The person who stole this song for me though is B Love with him rapping about a chain he snatched from another clique.

Track 4: PSA

Now this song would literally be a PSA as this song would get played over New York news in the Bronx for the drill epidemic that they were having. This song would literally spread across the Bronx fast as retaliation from the people dissed in the song would come quickly. But as for the musical side he would rap great and this song would be a hit on the charts.

Track 5: Opp Spotter

“Opp Spotter” is a song about spotting opps. Now, this song features B Love again and has 2 beat changes halfway through the song which kinda through it off for me. But with B Love, I think being the best rapper out of the trio, they have I think carried this song for me with his flow and the verses he delivered.

Track 6: Speed Racing

The 6th track, the song “Speed Racing” talks about Kay spinning on opps in fast cars. This is a fast track with Kay Flock rapping the fastest I’ve heard from him. It also talks about how he would speed race through other rival territories and cause trouble.

Track 7: Tcardi

The final track of the album is “Tcardi.” This would be completely produced by Kay and would feature Dougie B, Justo B, and Lil Skrap who is eight in real life. Now this song would just be everything with him pairing up with his cousin so they have a natural flow. Lil Skrap, who is an eight year old drill rapper, which is crazy to me, actually did great switching on and off with Kay. Hearing him talk about pulling up on opps on playgrounds was funny in the song for me.

Overall, I’d give this album a 9/10. I like it a lot and I hope to see more music from him as he’s locked up for a little bit right now but will get out in 2024.

Tech/Games

‘Hades’ review

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By: Persephone Pond

‘Hades’ is a Greek mythology based roguelike indie game that has won nine awards since its initial release. Early access was available in 2018, and the game first officially released on Steam in 2020, followed by a multitude of consoles including PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. In this article, I’ll be highlighting the best parts of the game and explaining why ‘Hades’ is worth the money.

In this game, you follow the story of the protagonist, Zagreus, the god of blood and the son of the King of the Underworld (the Land of the Dead), Hades. Zagreus has been kept in the House of Hades all his life, and at the beginning of the game, you learn there are more secrets about your family than you thought. You’ve never been exposed to the surface or any of your extended family, and as your suspicions grow, you finally rebel.

Your goal is to fight your way up each tier of the Underworld, finally allowing you to reach the surface and find your mother. There are four total tiers, or levels, to clear before you get to the surface. To give a quick overview, each tier consists of many small chambers with enemies, so to progress through chambers, you must fight and kill all enemies in any given chamber. At the end of each tier is a different boss, each a different figure in Greek mythology.

First is Tartarus. Tartarus is the deepest part of the Underworld, where beings of pure evil are sent after death. The boss fight in this area is Megaera the Fury, who is one of the three fury sisters in Greek mythology. The Furies each are in charge of punishing a different group of morally gray people, and Megaera, being the first of the Furies, is in charge of punishing adulterers, oathbreakers, and thieves. As Tartarus is the first of the tiers, Megarea is the easiest boss to defeat.

The second tier of the Underworld is Asphodel. This is the area where common folk get sent after death. It’s a lava flooded wasteland where the boss is a bone hydra, a dragon-like creature with hundreds of heads.

The third tier is Elysium, a utopia compared to the other parts of the Underworld, as this tier is where the heroes and champions go after they die. The enemies get significantly more difficult at this tier, and the boss fight in this level consists of two bosses: Theseus and Asterius. Asterius the Minotaur was brought to fight alongside Theseus, his successor, for the sake of not letting Zagreus escape the Underworld.

The final tier before the surface is the Temple of Styx, an area acting as a checkpoint between the Underworld and the surface. This level doesn’t have a traditional boss, instead you must go through small chambers until you find a treat for your dog Cerberus who’s blocking the exit.

Making it through every level will lead you to find yourself at the surface, facing your father, Hades. This final boss consists of two waves of battle, and is a significant challenge compared to other levels.

‘Hades’ is a game designed for failure. Collectible items that can be used to buy upgrades, weapons and more are spread throughout each tier, and when you die, these are the only items you retain as you respawn in the House of Hades. The whole purpose of this is that every time you die, you get stronger and can get further each time. Getting to the surface is a long process as it’s impossible to do at your beginning level, but the satisfaction when you finally do is worth all the deaths you’ve been through.

There are so many other aspects of the game that really pushes it above and beyond. The representation in this game is some of the best I’ve seen in popular video games, and it’s most likely due to the fact that Supergiant games, the developers of ‘Hades’, is a smaller company and has more freedom than bigger developers do.

Despite the game being made up of Greek characters, there is good racial representation, as they don’t keep to the trend of entirely white characters. Along with that, there are many LGBTQ+ inclusive themes that I was pleasantly surprised to see.

The main character, Zagreus, is canonically bisexual, and there are two love interests you can pursue in the game, one male and one female. And not only can you date both separately, but the game includes a cutscene where all three of you get together, giving the game polyamorus representation, which is very overlooked in the media.

Along with the main character being queer, a few side quests include helping reunite characters, and many of these quests also include much queer representation. In addition to sexuality, there is also a character who is purely referred to with gender neutral terms, and is canonically non-binary, adding another perspective of queer identity to the game.

Along with the characters holding wonderful representation, the designs and artwork in the game are beyond. The characters are interpreted in such a creative way, and the art itself for any given character is beautiful. The backgrounds and landscape are also beautiful, and the creators clearly put a lot of thought and effort into making the world immersive through their artwork.

This game is incredibly complex, and nothing from the core plot to the gameplay is simple. This really allows you to choose your own path, build relationships with characters, and figure out the mysteries independently. I cannot recommend ‘Hades’ enough, overall I’d rate it easily a 10/10 game.

Movies/TV/Theaters

“ADVENTURE TIME: TOGETHER AGAIN” review

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By: Cade Sullivan & Joey Briseno

*Warning: This review contains spoilers

“Adventure Time: Together Again” is an episode from the television series ‘Adventure Time: Distant Lands’ on the streaming service Max, and it is a 40 minute whirlwind that gives the titular characters a satisfying conclusion. This episode is a rollercoaster as we follow Finn on his journey to be reunited with his best friend Jake in the afterlife.

The main driving point of this episode, which is Finn’s struggle to find his best friend again, feels very human and very real, as it is extremely hard to lose someone close to you. This helps the story, giving it sentimental value and something for the audience to root for. We were so invested that we found Jake’s initial reaction to seeing Finn again very disappointing, as he didn’t seem to care at the moment that Finn had come all that way for him.

Another interesting element here was the main villain, New Death, and his relationship with his father Death. While it isn’t a major focus of the plot, we are given an insight through a flashback. Death tries to teach his son a lesson, but his son is indifferent and disrespectful. This soon grows into anger that we can assume has been building up for a long time, and New Death strikes down his father and becomes the new Lord of the Dead, suffering the consequences for his inpatience and temper.

“Adventure Time: Together Again” is an impressive achievement of modern animation, and it’s crazy to think how far the show has come since its first season in terms of looks. Colors are either bright and vibrant or gloomy and sad depending on the environment. The multiple “dead worlds”, which is the term of worlds in the afterlife, are especially impressive, with each having their own look, feel, and unique sounds. Sound design is up to par, and it’s noticeable from the beginning that this is not a low-budget Saturday cartoon.

The main character here is definitely Finn, as Jake becomes more of a supporting character throughout the runtime. Finn’s friendship with Jake is the driving force behind all of his actions, as he traverses through countless dead worlds looking for his buddy. Jake is his normal self once he leaves the zen state of the 50th dead world, and is his trustworthy self as the two rebel against New Death. Other than those two, no characters are very important to the story besides New Death’s servant Mr. Fox, who strikes down his ruler to become the new Lord of the Dead.

The antagonist, New Death, is a conflicted character whose backstory paints the picture for his personality: a petulant child. New Death hasn’t matured from his backstory and continues to rule the dead worlds with an iron fist. He also poses a threat to Finn and Jake, as until they receive the Kiss of Life from Life itself, they are unable to hurt their foe. New Death is never a likable character, as he has no redeeming qualities to speak of, and his demise at the hands of Mr. Fox serves as the total end of his character.

“Adventure Time: Together Again” is a satisfying conclusion to the stories of Finn and Jake, if a little too long. While the plot and dynamics are interesting, the pacing was a little slow and caused the episode to feel longer than it should have. However, that doesn’t take away from the strong emotional core and beautiful animation. If you follow ‘Adventure Time’ or are just a fan of the series, we would recommend watching this spirited conclusion of Finn and Jake’s character arcs. 4.5/5

Travel/Food

Crepe recipe and review

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By: Sophie Johnson & Addison Strack

Photo by Eileen lamb on Pexels.com

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 large eggs
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ cup water
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Recipe:

  1. Whisk the flour and eggs.
  2. Gradually add the milk and water.
  3. Scoop the batter onto a hot griddle, make sure it is a thin layer.
  4. Cook until lightly browned on the bottom.
  5. Flip and continue cooking until done on both sides.

Toppings:

  • fruit (blueberries, strawberries, banana, apple), chocolate chips, Nutella, peanut butter, whipped cream, caramel

Review:

These crepes were so simple to make, yet so good. The recipe was fairly easy, with minimal ingredients that you probably already have in your house. There also aren’t a lot of steps to follow, so there’s less chance of making mistakes. We have a couple different topping recommendations, but you can add almost anything you want to these crepes. The crepe itself doesn’t have an overpowering flavor, and it isn’t sweet like a pancake, so you aren’t limited to only sweet toppings.

Our favorite topping combination we tried was Nutella and strawberries. This is a very common topping that is put on crepes, so of course we had to try it. After trying it, we understand why it is so popular. The crepe is on the more savory side, so it helps to balance out the sweetness of the Nutella.

Another combination of toppings that we tried was peanut butter, banana, and chocolate chips. The combination was really good, but we ran into a small problem. We found that since the crepes were on the thinner side, it made it difficult to have multiple toppings. If we added too many toppings, it caused the crepe to tear and break, making it more messy to eat. If you don’t mind the mess though, we definitely recommend this combination. To help to avoid the mess, next time we agreed we would try adding chocolate sauce instead of chocolate chips. This would make it so that you still have the chocolate flavor, but less ingredients for the crepe to hold.

We also tried the combination of apples and caramel since it is fall. This combination was okay. It was good, but we both agreed there were a couple of things that could have helped to improve it. The texture of the apples were more crunchy, and we again ran into the problem of the crepes tearing. Next time we agreed that we would cook down the apples so the texture paired better with the texture of the crepe, and there would hopefully be less tears and breaks. We used a caramel sauce which worked well with the crepe texture and flavor. We also think that it would taste even better if we added some cinnamon to add more flavor to this combination.

One final combination we tried that was very simple was blueberries and whipped cream. This combination was good, and we don’t have any improvement ideas. The whipped cream was really good on the crepes, and we agreed you could have added whipped cream to almost any of the combinations and it would be really good.

While we were making our crepes, we found that it was difficult to make the crepes thin enough without them tearing when we flipped or removed them from the pan. To avoid this, we tested some different oils in the pan to see which one helped with this problem. Butter worked the best in this situation because we were able to make the crepes thin without them tearing. When you are adding butter to your pan, make sure that it covers the entire pan when it’s melted down, and this will greatly improve this problem.

This recipe was great, and we would recommend it to anyone who wants to try crepes. Next time we want to try this recipe with savory toppings. We think that it would be interesting to try to use the crepes as a substitute for a tortilla and make burritos with the crepe.

Overall we would rate this recipe a four out of five, and we would definitely make it again.

Link to recipe:

Movies/TV/Theaters

Movie review on ‘Grave of the Fireflies’

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By: Cleo Newton        

*Warning: This review contains spoilers

‘Grave of the Fireflies’ is a studio Ghibli movie about two siblings trying to survive through World War Two in Japan. At the beginning of the movie, a sickly boy is sitting hunched over against a column; a couple scenes later, he dies. The movie then shows what events happened that led up to this point in the movie.

The 14-year-old brother, Seita, is responsible for taking care of his little sister, Setsuko. During the first air raid, Seita was seen quickly burying supplies like food in their family’s backyard. He tells his mom that he would meet her at the safe house with his little sister in a bit. The mom leaves and in a couple minutes, the bombing starts.

After the bombing, everybody in the town was called to meet at the elementary school to get food, medical attention, or any other help they can provide. There, Seita and a friend line up to get food. Seita leaves his little sister with the friend to go see his mom after hearing she was injured in the bombing. His mom was in terrible condition; she has really bad burns covering her entire body.

After seeing her like this, Seita doesn’t want Sesuko to see her until she gets better, so he lies to her and says that she’s in a hospital and that they can see her when she gets better. Seita and Setsuko go to stay at their aunt’s house which is nearby. Their house, and many other buildings, were destroyed during the first bombing.

There, they eat and sleep. Seita works to get food and plays with his sister in his free time. He also writes to his dad who is a soldier fighting in the war. Their aunt may be providing them with food and shelter but she isn’t very caring. She gets annoyed when Setsuko cries; she tells Seita that he isn’t working hard.

Later, Seita and Setsuko decide to move out, and they find a sheltered place by a lake to live. They brought things like a mini stove, bedding and some food with them. They have fun the first couple of days but they soon run into another problem; they’re starting to run out of food.

During the air raids, Seita goes and steals things from people’s houses after they leave so that he can trade them for food. Even though he has things to trade, people won’t trade with him. Seita struggles to find food for him and his sister as they don’t have any money and no one is willing to trade with them.

Later, Seita finds out that Setsuko is sick and brings her to the doctor. The doctor just says that she needs to eat more food. Seita resorts to stealing food from other people’s gardens. The owner of the garden eventually finds out and turns him in to the police after beating him up. Luckily, the police let him go since he’s still a kid.

Eventually, Seita does manage to buy some food after extracting money from his parent’s bank account. While he was at the bank, he overheard people talking about how Japan lost the war. He’s really upset because this means that now both of his parents are dead. He buys more food but Setsuko has already been starving and dies later that night. The next morning, he gets some coal so that he can cremate his sister. After he finishes cremating her, he puts some of her ashes in a tin and leaves. The movie ends with Seita walking down the hill leaving the shelter and everything else behind.

I got a copy of this movie from the library, but you can also watch it on AppleTV. Overall, I would give this 4.5/5.

Books/Art

Book review on ‘One of Us Is Lying’ by Karen M. McManus

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By: Chloe Rocha

This book is about five students who enter detention one day, but only four manage to survive the ordeal.

‘One of Us Is Lying’ tells the captivating tale of Bronwyn, Addy, Nate, and Cooper, who all become prime suspects in the murder of Simon Kelleher. Each of these high school students have their own secrets that they don’t want revealed. They are desperate to protect themselves and their secrets. Knowing that, you can’t help but wonder how far each of them are willing to go to ensure their secrets remain hidden from the public eye and ruin their reputation.

I enjoyed this book because it delves deep into the personalities and thoughts of each suspect. The whole story isn’t told from just one point of view, but four. By doing this it keeps the reader guessing what really happened until the very end.

‘One of Us Is Lying’ takes on dark themes, such as murder and depression, catering to a teenage audience. Unlike other authors who struggle to develop complex plots for younger readers, Karen M. McManus writes with an enjoyable voice that effectively establishes her story, targeting young adults perfectly.

Overall, This book is a surprising and engaging read that is difficult to put down. I particularly appreciated the in-depth exploration of each character’s perspective, ensuring that the audience remains fully engaged in the story-telling. If you’re looking for a compelling and grounded mystery to unravel. I highly recommend checking out ‘One of Us Is Lying’.

If you read this book and you enjoy it, there is a series by Karen M. McManus. The next books follow a lot of the same characters, but they follow different stories. The books in order go: ‘One of Us Is Lying’, ‘One of Us Is Next’, and finally ‘One of Us is Back’. I personally have yet to read the rest of the books, however i did start ‘One of Us Is Next’ but never finished it.