Category Archives: Entertainment

Movies/TV/Theaters

The Oscars

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By: Biftu Osman and Hannah Gliedman

The Oscars, also referred to as the Academy Awards, are notable awards awarded to people in the film industry who have achieved artistic and technical excellence. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences presents it every year.

The event was formed in 1927, but the award ceremonies began in 1929, and winners of each category have received a gold-plated statuette known as an Oscar. This year marked the 95th anniversary of the Academy Awards.

On Sunday, March 12th, it was televised nationally from the Dolby Theater at the Ovation Hollywood.

Aside from the awards, the night of the Oscars is one many look at as one of the biggest nights in Hollywood, and this year was no different. The fashion and red carpet started the evening with excitement. Rihanna came in a black leather, pleated Alaïa dress while also being pregnant. Malala Yousafzai arrived in a silver rhinestone Ralph Lauren dress. Cara Delevinge came dressed in a beautiful, red, long dress with a rose on her shoulder, she was dressed by Elie Saab.

Along with some of the best dressed, there were also some stars dubbed the worst dressed at the Oscars. These people include Halle Berry in Tamara Ralph, Eva Longoria in Zuhair Murad, and as much as we hate to say it, Florence Pugh in Valentino.

Even without being named on a worst or best dressed list, many celebrities attended the Oscars. With or without nominations, some of these actors included: Andrew Garfield, Michael B. Jordan, Emily Blunt, Cate Blanchett, Kate Hudson, Ana de Armas, Nicole Kidman, Mindy Kaling, and many more.

Host, Jimmy Kimmel, started out the evening with a bang. He crash landed on stage with a parachute.

There are 23 possible categories films could win an Oscar for. Categories called “big five” are the five most recognizable categories, they include: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay.

‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’, is a horror/sci-fi film that came out in March of 2022. The movie, along with its directors and lead actress, won 7 Academy Awards.

The movie won the Best Picture award out of the 10 films nominated, as well as the majority of the other Oscars.

Against four other nominees, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert received the best director award, Michelle Yeoh won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as the lead character in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’, and the movie received the award for Best Original Screenplay.

Brenden Fraser won the award for Best Actor in a Lead Role, as his character Charlie, in the movie ‘The Whale’.

Outside of the main “best five” categories, we personally believe the following categories are equally as significant to the Oscars; Best Animated Feature Film, Best Documentary, Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing.

  • Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘Pinocchio’ won Best Animated Film over four other nominees.
  • ‘Nalvany’ won the Oscar for Best Documentary, beating out four other nominees.
  • ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
  • The Academy Award for Best Visual Effects went to ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’.
  • Finally, ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ received the Best Film Editing Oscar.

There were a couple firsts during the Oscars this year.

The award for best original song went to “Naatu Naatu” from the movie ‘RRR’, which marked the first time an Indian song won this category. The song also beat out Rihanna for the song “Lift Me Up” from the movie ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’.

When Michelle Yeoh won the award for best actress, for her performance in ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’, she became the first Asian actor to win in the best actor category.

There were also many interesting and exciting moments throughout the night besides the awards. Many artists came to sing, these people include Lady Gaga singing “Hold My Hand” from the movie ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and Rihanna sang “Lift Me Up’”

There were also moments of remembrance throughout the night. Lenny Kravitz performed “Calling All Angels” from his 2004 album in the memorial tribute. John Travolta came out to honor his late co-star Olivia Newton-John. This year’s tribute also honored Vangelis, Jean-Luc Godard, James Caan, Ray Liotta, Angelo Badalamenti, Burt Bacharach, Angela Lansbury, Robbie Coltrane, Tom Whitlock, Mary Alice, and Douglas Kirkland, among others.

Overall, the Oscars were a very exciting and memorable night that honored and emphasized many different actors.

Music/Concerts

Album review: Gorillaz’s ‘Cracker Island’

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By: Bijou Kruszka

On February 24, 2023, Gorillaz released their newest album, ‘Cracker Island’. For those unfamiliar, Gorillaz is a virtual band created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. The fictional cartoon members are lead singer 2-D, bassist Murdoc Niccals,
drummer Russell Hobbs, and guitarist Noodle. They are known
for their genre-breaking music and iconic animated videos. Now,
with the release of ‘Cracker Island’, they’re back in the spotlight.

As a whole, the album is decent. On a first listen, all the songs seem to blend together, with a very similar lo-fi hip-hop sound with a slightly dance-y twist to every song. However, they make it work. As the saying goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and the chill, pleasant sound of the album is far from ‘broke.’ The songs are far from bad and some are even highlights of the Gorillaz discography. But when considering their past albums like ‘Plastic Beach’ and ‘Demon Days’, ‘Cracker Island’ fades in comparison.

Released a few months previously as a single, “Cracker Island” is the title track and first song of the album. Listening to the album as a whole, this one certainly stands out. While most of the songs in the album could be described as lo-fi hip hop with lyrics, “Cracker Island” is heavily contrasting with its electronic dance sound. The song is impossible not to dance to, and the bizarre lyrics and Thundercat’s vocal contributions to the song elevate what would have been a relatively basic dance track.

The other singles released pre-album range in quality. “New Gold” featuring artists Tame Impala and Bootie Brown, is a fantastic track. Combining dreamy, almost ethereal vocals with cleverly rapped rhymes and a fabulous rhythm, this track stands out from the rest of the album. “Silent Running” features excellent vocals from both Albarn and Adeleye Omotayo, and the beat is uniquely fun. However, both “Baby Queen” and “Skinny Ape” are relatively forgettable. Sure, they’re pleasant, but they feel much too slow, and don’t do anything super original. They seem to serve as filler tracks, which makes it bizarre that they were released as singles.

This album also heavily relies on featured guests. As mentioned before, Tame Impala, Bootie Brown, Adeleye Omotayo and Thundercat all added interesting elements to their tracks. However, this is not always the case. The song “Oil” features Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks, and that’s the only interesting thing that could be said about it. Nicks’s vocals are good, as usual, but don’t do anything special to the track. Neither the instrumentation or the lyrics are particularly interesting either. Singer Beck can be found on the final track of the album “Possession Island,” but his musical stylings are too similar to Albarn’s to make him a noticeable appearance. Alternatively, Bad Bunny’s appearance is incredibly significant on “Tormenta,” with his Spanish lyrics elevating the bossa nova-style track, and adding a level of uniqueness to the song not found in the other tracks.

There are only two songs not released as singles, or featuring another artist, “Tarantula” and “The Tired Influencer.” Both are unremarkable, and when first listening to them, I wanted them to be over much sooner than they were. “The Tired Influencer” was particularly mediocre. While the music was standardly pleasant, the lyrical commentary on social media was, as the title would suggest, tired.

‘Cracker Island’ continues the Gorillaz trademark of animated music videos. However, they’ve transferred their style from 2 dimensional cartoons to 3 dimensional models. While it is an interesting artistic choice, it feels less authentic than the 2-D. After all, the lead singer is named 2-D, so to move to 3-D feels odd. The music videos are also significantly harder to follow. While the story was somewhat ambiguous in albums past, it was relatively followable. Meanwhile, ‘Cracker Island’ is heavily centered on lore and plot, which is hard to convey in a music video.

Overall, ‘Cracker Island’ is good but not great. The songs are okay without being spectacular, and the stand-out tracks are only unique due to their featured guest artists. The music videos leave a lot to be desired. In comparison to Gorillaz’s past albums, ‘Cracker Island’ is simply average: pleasant but unmemorable.

Travel/Food

‘Gelatina De Mosaico’ recipe

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By: Pablo Contreras

I have seen this gelatin in every Mexican store I go to and I have always wanted to know how to make it, but I never knew the name of it until I searched for common Mexican desserts. And when I saw a video on how to make this, I decided to try this out, and it was definitely an interesting experience for me.

This recipe is not mine, I followed the recipe on YouTube by The Cake Fairy By Lina.

Now, before you start to make this I must warn you that it is a somewhat complicated recipe to make; you have to have a lot of patience and have to make sure the gelatin fully cools down before continuing to put everything together.

While making this, I must admit that I had a total of two failures, this was mostly because I was impatient and wanted to get this done as soon as possible.

Just make sure that the flavored gelatin is fully cooled down.

(Just a tip, make your flavored gelatin 2 days before so that it’s fully cooled down. I did this and it came out better.)

Now, let’s get into the recipe:

Gelatina de Mosaico

Here are your ingredients:

Ingredients:

  1. Knox unflavored gelatin
  2. Milk
  3. A can of condensed milk
  4. A can of evaporated milk
  5. Strawberry flavored gelatin
  6. Lime flavored gelatin
  7. Orange flavored gelatin

Just to let you all know, I did only make two different flavored gelatin instead of three. Three different flavors are more traditional, but I didn’t have other flavors other than orange and strawberry.

If you are going to use three flavors, just copy the steps again.

Now, first let’s make your flavored gelatin before anything else:

Flavored gelatin:

  1. Boil 1 and 1/2 cups of water, and once boiled then add the gelatin powder and wait for it to boil again. Then, turn off the stove and set aside to let the gelatin cool
  2. Once cooled down, get your molds to put in the gelatin; every gelatin flavor should be in separate containers
  3. Now, put the gelatin in the fridge for about 4 hours/wait until it’s in its gelatin texture

(4 hours is the recommended time for gelatin to fully cool down, but you can follow my tip and have done this two days before, and just do this now, and wait two days later)

Now, here are the steps on how to prepare the Unflavored Gelatin:

Knox unflavored gelatin:

  1. In a cup, pour 1/2 cup of water then add in four little packets of the unflavored gelatin and mix
  2. Now, set it aside for 10 minutes
  3. Now, in a pot, pour in 2 cups of milk, a can of condensed milk, a can of evaporated milk, and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
  4. Put it on the stove on low heat and stir
  5. Once the 10 minutes are up, grab the unflavored gelatin and put it in the microwave for 15 seconds
  6. Once the unflavored gelatin is slightly liquidy, add it to the pot and stir
  7. Stir the pot until it’s hot but not boiling (we don’t want it to boil)
  8. Once it’s hot, turn off the stove and set the pot aside

While waiting for the unflavored gelatin to cool, here’s how to prep your flavored gelatin:

  1. Take out your flavored gelatins from the fridge and use a knife to cut them into squares
  2. Once you cut them into squares, take them out of your mold with a spoon
  3. Take the squared gelatin out slowly and carefully
  4. In your bigger mold, where you’re going to put everything, use butter spray (only spray a little), then add in your squared jelly and put it in the fridge, so they remain cold while waiting for the unflavored gelatin in the pot to cool down
  5. Once the unflavored gelatin has cooled down, take out the bigger mold with the squared gelatin and add in the unflavored gelatin (make sure to cover the entire mold)
  6. Now, put it in the fridge, and let it cool down for a minimum of 8 hours, or until it’s fully in its gelatin texture/when everything is stuck together

I waited for about 16 hours because I wanted to make sure everything turned out ok, and it did, but you can do either 8 hours or 16; you just need to wait till the gelatin is fully all together.

Here are some pictures of the finished product:

This was truly a fun and patient waiting experience but in the end, it was delicious.

To learn more, go to the link at the bottom, but beware that the video is in Spanish.

The Cake Fairy By Lina- Como Preparar Gelatina De Mosaico-

Travel/Food

How-to make chocolate muffins from scratch

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By: Hannah Gliedman

One of the best snacks to have on a snowy or rainy day is soft, delicious chocolate muffins. Not only are they delicious and healthy but a way to keep busy on a day stuck inside. With a bake time of only 30 minutes, and easy to get ingredients, these muffins are sure to be the best part of your day. This recipe consists of a chocolate muffin recipe and a chocolate frosting recipe.

What you need

  • big bowl
  • mixer
  • wisk
  • muffin/cupcake tray
  • non stick cooking spray

Ingredients

  • 1 1⁄2 cups of sugar
  • 1 cup of avocado
  • 1 cup of milk
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1⁄2 tsp of balsamic vinegar
  • 2 cups of flour
  • 1⁄2 cup of cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1⁄2 tsp salt

Frosting

  • 1 pack (8 ounces) of cream cheese
  • 1⁄2 cup confectioners sugar
  • 2 tbs vanilla extract
  • 1⁄8 tsp salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a 12 cup muffin tin with wax paper or spray with non stick cooking spray.
  2. Into a large bowl, mix the avocado, sugar, milk, vanilla, and vinegar. After mixed throughout, either by hand or with an electric mixer, add eggs in one at a time until thoroughly incorporated.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
  4. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Pour half of the dry ingredients and mix well, add the remaining half.
  5. Mix well and separate into muffin tins using either a spoon, pouring, or an ice cream scooper works very well.
  6. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops of the muffins are lightly browned.
  7. Cool for about 5 minutes, or until completely cool to frost
  8. For the frosting, beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and salt together until completely smooth
  9. Spread the frosting over the cooled cupcakes

Serve and enjoy.

Note: Recipe adapted from Jessica Seinfeld’s ‘Deceptivly Delicous’

Travel/Food

Best tropical places to visit in 2023

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By: Calla Fragrassi & Mackenzie Malek

With spring break coming up everyone needs a break from Minnesota’s hard and cold winters. Here are the 10 best tropical places to visit in 2023.

  1. Santorini

Santorini is one of the many Greek islands and one of the most famous islands in the world. Santorini is known for its beautiful views and hosts one of the few active volcanoes in Europe. Many people have theories that Santorini is the home to the lost city of Atlantis. The island is also known for its beaches and is made up of two different inhabited islands and multiple smaller surrounding islands.

  1. The Azores

Just off the coast of Portugal are the nine islands of Azores. Azores is one of the Europes safest destinations. There are many activities to do in the Azores including hiking, diving, bike tours, canyoning, bird watching, surfing and much more. The Azores’ islands are very sustainable because they preserve resources and opportunities for tourists to be eco friendly.

  1. Bali

Bali is a small island within the country of Indonesia. The country is known for its beautiful mountains and volcanoes, and is known for being a “surfer’s paradise”. The surrounding coast is filled with coral reefs and is perfect for family vacations. On the very famous Kuta beach you can find many hotels, restaurants, and shops along with many different water sports for anyone to enjoy!

  1. Galápagos Islands

The nineteen Islands are located in the Pacific Ocean. These islands are known for their unique wildlife such as sea turtles, sei whales, marine iguanas, and much more. Some activities you can do on these islands are snorkeling, which is a highlight for many tourists, sea kayaking, surfing, horseback riding, etc. If you are interested in relaxation don’t even worry, there are beaches perfect for disconnecting.

  1. Hawaii

Located in the central Pacific Ocean, known for its beautiful beaches, are the five main islands of Hawaii: Kaua’i, O’ahu, Moloka’i, Lana’i, Maui. Some of the most common things to do in Hawaii are visiting the Pearl Harbor museum, if you’re into history, or if you are into hiking, visit Diamond Head which is the most recognized landmark in Hawaii.

  1. Aruba

Aruba is a country south of the Caribbean Sea. This country is most known for its white sand beaches and bright blue ocean water. Some things to do are the butterfly farm, basically you are walking through a tropical rainforest surrounded by butterflies. Eagle Beach is a very popular beach to visit because of the white sand and turquoise water.

  1. Bora Bora

Bora Bora is one of the 118 islands of Tahiti. What makes it special is the scenery and culture. Like many other places on this list, Bora Bora is known for the vibrant blue water and white sandy beaches. The top sites are Matira Beach, Bora Bora romantic tour, the Tohora Bora Bora snorkeling lagoon tours, and whale watching.

  1. Maldives

Maldives the smallest country in Asia, located in the southwest of Sri Lanka and India. This beautiful place is most known for its amazing culture and interesting landmarks. Maldives is also famous for water sports like scuba diving, surfing, and water skiing. Maldives may be costly, but is one of those places where you only have to be there a few days to get the most out of your vacation.

  1. Dalmatian Islands

The Dalmatian Islands are a strip of 79 different islands along the Adriatic Sea. The three most famous and largest of the islands are Brač, Pag, and Hvar. The islands are all surrounded by beautiful high limestone cliffs, each with their own unique beaches and sights. This is the perfect destination for unforgettable beach trips, with one of a kind landscapes, and scenic views.

  1. The Isle of Skye

*Note, this one is not tropical, but still worth the visit.

The Isle of Skye, also called Cloud Island, is popular for its medieval castles and beautiful mountains, cliffs, and history that brings in tourists from all over the world. The island is rich with fascinating culture, scenery, and wildlife. Past visitors commonly say the land looks almost “untouched by the modern world”. If you’re looking for an exciting vacation with plenty of greenery and vibrant culture, The Isle of Skye is the place to be.

All 10 of these beautiful tropical places have something different to offer, along with great tranquility. While traveling to a tropical island can be spendy, and planning can seem like a lot of work, everyone deserves a break from the real world. Booking that trip can open many new doors and adventures that lead to many amazing experiences.

Music/Concerts

Extremity in music: What makes something sound heavy?

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By: Charlie Boone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whitechapel – ‘The Valley’ (2019)

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

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

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

Archspire – ‘Bleed the Future’ (2021)

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

Travel/Food

Sakana vs. Yumi

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By: Rose Ramadan & Thea Berg

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Travel/Food

New York City food review

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By: Audrey Smith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Books/Art

Review of ‘The Wandering Inn’

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By: Tasha Cudinski

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Travel/Food

Best rides at Disney World

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By: Sophie Johnson

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

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

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

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

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

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