Category Archives: Entertainment

Music/Concerts

Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift

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By: Abisola Dosunmu

On Tuesday, November 15, the Eras Tour tickets went on sale through Ticketmaster and the demand has skyrocketed since the first day. Over 2 million tickets were sold, and over 3.5 million people registered as Verified Fans. Because of that, the Ticketmaster website was flooded with traffic, and users experienced constant crashes, technical difficulties, and having to wait hours on the site, just for a chance to get a ticket. There were also a lot of bot attacks and fans who didn’t have invite codes on the website. 

“I attempted to get presale by signing up for ‘verified fan,’ but I got waitlisted, and they cancelled general sale, so I was unable to get tickets. However, there are also many people who did get the presale code, but still didn’t get tickets, which I think is really unfortunate. I think it’s weird that so many codes were sent out that tickets were sold out before some people with presale could get tickets, because that shouldn’t have been possible. Obviously Ticketmaster is at fault and not Taylor and her team, though,” Erin Moore, “Swiftie”, stated.

Eventually, Ticketmaster had to cancel their public sale of tickets, due to the complaints and other external difficulties. They issued an apology that Friday night, apologizing to Taylor Swift and the fans that had a less than enjoyable experience buying tickets on their site. They offered more information on what happened. 

So what caused it? 

Well, I went to the link they added in their tweet explaining what happened—and the gist is Taylor Swift is so awesome she caused her own problem. The demand for her tickets was so high she broke records. And in turn, their website. Never before had a verified fan ticket sale attracted so much attention and traffic. Over 2 million tickets were sold on Ticketmaster for Taylor Swift—in a single day. That’s the most tickets sold for an artist ever. 

Also, Ticketmaster made users log in to get the tickets and enter a code to complete the purchase of tickets, just to limit the amount of bots that were on their site. Because of that, huge amounts of traffic from verified fans, unverified fans, and bots, hit the site, which meant Ticketmaster had to slow down queues to keep them from crashing. As a result, many fans ended up not getting their tickets.

As annoying as it is to have to wait long periods of time to end up not getting what you’re waiting for anyways, it’s impossible for everyone to have gotten their tickets to the show. The people (and bots) on Ticketmaster hoping to get tickets would have led Taylor to perform over two hundred stadium shows—She’d be performing every single night for the next 2.5 years. That’s impossible. So, playing the devil’s advocate here, from what I’ve learned, even though Ticketmaster could have done something to make the process of buying tickets easier, something like this was bound to happen anyway, given how popular Taylor Swift is.

Taylor responded to this in her Instagram story, and it’s pretty long, so I’ll just include a picture of it here.

So what happens now? 

As of Sunday, December 4th, some Swiftie lawyers (called Vigilante Legal—a reference to one of Taylor’s songs, named “vigilante sh*t”) have banded together to file suit against Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster is also promised further scrutiny from the government. I am unsure what further consequences will befall Ticketmaster and what effects will come from all of this, but there are a lot of people now paying attention to the ticket selling giant, and I doubt Ticketmaster will be allowed to mess up like this again. 

For more information, please visit:

Tech/Games

‘Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’

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By: Manny Ochoa-Reeve

Game Freak has just recently come out with a new Pokémon game called ‘Scarlet and Violet’. This game is packed with a lot of new features and content.

If you don’t know what Pokémon is, it’s a video game franchise where you can catch creatures called Pokémon, and train them to be stronger, and level them up to have stronger stages of themselves called evolutions. There are over 1000 Pokémon to catch spread out in 9 different generations. Generations just tell you around what time these Pokémon came out.

One of the biggest new things in the new game is the new Pokémon. Generation 9 has just released 107 new Pokémon in the game. These generation 9 Pokémon are very well designed because they are simple but still have lots of detail.

Not only are there new Pokémon but Pokémon from old generations are getting new stages in their evolution. These Pokémon are Primeape, Dunsparce, Bisharp, and Girafarig. I would tell you about the new evolutions and Pokémon but I wouldn’t want to spoil them.

Something Game Freak has done with all of their games is they come out with two versions of the game. Both versions are the same game but the only difference is the exclusive Pokémon you can catch and the exclusive legendary you can catch. In the new game, you can choose between the versions Scarlet or Violet.

Violet is based on futuristic Pokémon and you will be able to catch more futurist Pokémon along with a really strong electric legendary Pokémon.

In Pokémon Scarlet, you get Pokémon from the past, so this game has more ancient Pokémon with a really strong fighting type Pokémon.

In my opinion it doesn’t really matter about the version exclusives because you can buy all of the Pokémon from trading online.

The story in this game is really good because of how much there is to do. In the story you attend a school where they give you a “treasure hunt” which means you go out and explore, and if you choose to you can complete 3 main story paths.

One of the biggest parts of the storyline is to defeat different gym trainers which are very powerful Pokémon trainers and once you defeat them you can become champion of the island.

The other part of the story is going to different hideouts to defeat bully’s across the island. This part of the story doesn’t really make sense to me and to me wasn’t really necessary.

My favorite path of the story is you go to defeat Boss Pokémon to find different plants so you can power up your Pokémon. This brings a lot of interesting fights.

This Pokémon is different from others because it’s open world. This game is really good because you can really do whatever you want. You can train your Pokémon, fight everyone, defeat the boss Pokémon, catch more Pokémon, and beat the bully’s. There’s also a bunch of towns you can visit to complete side quests.

Another part of this game is the different regions that have different Pokémon, for example, the mountain where you can find ice Pokémon or on the ocean you can find water Pokémon. There’s a lot of different areas and things to explore but the only way to find them is to explore it yourself.

In my opinion, this Pokémon game is definitely, probably, the best of the series. All of the things you can do in this game really makes it so you won’t get bored. The only bad thing I can think about from this game is the frame rate which can make the game slow at some points but it really isn’t that big of a deal. I recently beat the game and I can say that this game was a 10/10.

Books/Art

‘I am not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter’: First impressions, review

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By: Alexa Ramirez

*Warning: Contains spoilers

Book by: Erika L. Sanchez

I first started reading ‘I am not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter’ with a hope that I would relate on the unique experience that is growing up a Mexican girl. This book allowed me, and many other readers, a chance to explore a perspective they could either relate to or learn from (or both!).

This book explores many topics, some being: poverty, sexism, and classism. The main character is a 15-year-old high school girl named Julia Reyes who lives in an apartment in Chicago with her parents. They are both poor immigrants from Mexico who had two daughters, but early on in the story you learn that their oldest, Olga, had just recently gotten hit by a semi and died. She was the parent’s idea of a perfect daughter; she didn’t go out often, she focused on school, she helped around the house cooking and cleaning, and abided by their rules.

Julia, however, was the opposite. She wanted to go out to the city and she smoked and drank and partied, she had no idea how to cook and broke most house rules they had. But Julia was extremely smart; she had skipped a grade and read and wrote constantly.

When Olga died, she and Julia weren’t that close, but it tore apart their family. Their parents were devastated, and Julia was in complete shock. They fought all the time because her parents started comparing the two girls which hurt Julia, but she never wanted to be home anymore and was over analyzing the death of her sister, which hurt her parents.

Now Julia was going to have to figure out how to continue to learn about her sister’s death without her parents approval, since they found it disrespectful to pry in her things, but Julia felt that for her own closure, she needed to know about Olga’s life before she died, which was turning out to be more unpredictable than she had expected.

Although she faces difficulties with criticism and judgement from her mom on various aspects of her life, Julia remains a fiery and expressive person. When teachers gave her a hard time, she defended herself and on one occasion even left the classroom because her teacher was picking on her. When she was going to the university Olga had attended before her death, in search of answers to her questions about Olga’s mystery life, she got in a big argument with, and wasn’t afraid to tell off, the woman at the desk who wouldn’t give her Olga’s records even after she knew who she was and why she needed them. It shaped up to be an explosive encounter but Julia never backed down.

This aspect of her character was one I cherished and was inspired by. It was my main takeaway from this story because she goes through so much in every way imaginable; her family’s money struggles have put her through hunger and denied her many opportunities, she has a troubled relationship with both parents (and for a lot of the story with her best friend Lorena), and faces many little struggles with her school and in the area of Chicago where she lives. Plus, on top of all of this, is grieving the loss of her sister.

Despite this, she never looses the fire she has that allows her to stand up for herself throughout the story. In situations where she needs to advocate for herself with her mom, her best friend, boys and men in her life, her voice saves her and is really all she can depend on. The strength she had to continue advocating for herself, despite all of the people shrugging her off and silencing her, gave me hope for the times I’m feeling ignored or weak and inspired me to continue to encourage myself and those around me despite what I’m going through.

Another aspect of this story that was important was the amount of cultural and generational trauma that was embedded into the plot and into the characters. It was obvious that Julia had some issues with the way her family saw the world and was constantly criticizing her sister for having conformed to many dated norms that were enforced by her parents, like staying home and cooking and cleaning because she was a girl in the family, without a problem. This was something that had obviously been taught to her parents and had been the norms in their societies for a long time, which is why that was the standard for their children, too. Applying this to the plot of the story was something that made all the difference, since it left another layer to analyze and learn about from the perspective of someone going through it firsthand.

Those clever applications of the real world struggles of a young girl character, and its unique plot really raised the bar and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I rate it a 4/5 because though it was good, I would’ve liked the plot to move faster but would recommend it and am glad to have read it.

Movies/TV/Theaters

6 seasons and a movie: The ‘Community’ movie

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By: Kaylen Fuentes

‘Community’ was released in September of 2011 and aired its 6th and last season in March of 2015. ‘Community’ is a sitcom about a bunch of college students of all different ages and backgrounds. The students all develop a study group for their Spanish class where they all become very close. The show follows their everyday lives in their community college study group. 

In season 2, episode 20, titled “Paradigms of Human Memory” characters Abed and Jeff talk about the show ‘The Cape’ they go on to argue about whether or not the show will get big. Abed goes on to say that the TV show will be a huge success and go on to have “6 seasons and a movie.”

Over the years, fans constantly referred back to this, wanting more to do with the ‘Community’ characters and it wasn’t found to be a coincidence because ‘Community’ ended after its 6th season. For years there had been speculations and fans rooting for the unspoken promise of a movie alongside the 6 seasons. But. September of 2022, it was made official, the ‘Community’ movie was confirmed. 

On September 30th, 2022, Joel McHale tweeted about the return of the ‘Community’ family, along with many of his other cast members including: Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi and more.

However, many were left wondering if all the original ‘Community’ characters would be returning such as, Chevy Chase, Donald Glover and Yvette Nicole Brown, because they weren’t on the returning cast list. 

Chevy Chase was written off in season 5 due to problems behind the scenes, with the writer for the show, Dan Harmon, and other cast members like Donald Glover. But, in an interview at comic con with ‘Variety’ Harmon said, “I don’t even know if it’s legal for him to come back, that may be out of my hands. There may be something I sign for with an insurance company.”

It was also speculated that though Donald Glover was tagged he will not be a part of the movie because he is focusing on other projects such as writing a movie trilogy and being increasingly busy with his show ‘Atlanta’. However, Harmon addressed these rumors at the Business Managers Breakfast at Variety. Harmon said, “I think that Donald is coming, based on word of the mouth, but it’s just the deal isn’t official or wasn’t official. It would be difficult to really commit to doing this thing without Donald. So I believe he is coming back.”

Harmon also implies in this interview things about other names missing from the list such as Yvette Nicole Brown. He says, “I think if there’s names missing from the list, their deals are agreed upon enough that it’s okay to say they are on the list, and anybody that’s not on a list, it’s just not the case YET. So there is nothing official about anybody being out.”

There aren’t many specific details so far about the release of the ‘Community’ movie: when it will take place, who will be in it for sure, will there be guest stars or even what it will be about.

As for when the movie will be released, the timeframe has been vague. In an interview with ‘Variety’, Dan Harmon says, “It’s a matter of when. It still doesn’t mean there’s going to be a movie tomorrow. It means there is definitely going to be one.”

My guess is we can expect it around 2024. As far as the concept and story of the movie goes, I am hopeful the writers and directors are able to recapture the same humor and concept as the 6 seasons of the show. The movie is expected to be released on Peacock and is now in production.

You can watch the 6 seasons of ‘Community’ on Netflix now, but in the near future will be able to watch the ‘Community’ movie on Peacock.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Wendell & Wild’

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By: Stephanie Caballero Benitez

In this article I will be reviewing and summarizing ‘Wendell & Wild’ from Netflix.

*Warning: This review contains spoilers. 

Short summary:

‘Wendell & Wild’ begins by giving the watchers a little background about the main character throughout the movie, Kat. We start with a memory of Kats’s father and mother at a brewery, which later on we are informed used to be Kats fathers brewery.

Leaving the brewery, the family gets caught in a storm, making roads dangerous. Kat suddenly screams as the apple she had bitten had worms in it. The scream causes her father to take his attention off the road and onto Kat. The father loses control of the car, which makes the car fall off the road/bridge they are driving on and into the water.

This is what leaves Kat as an orphan later on, and also into the criminal justice system where she is treated unfairly.

Kat is sent to a girls school to better herself and her opportunities of getting out of the system. Kat dislikes the idea of the school and finds out the only reason she is there is because the school was offered money if they accepted her.

Kat begins having nightmares about her parents. The demons Wendell and Wild are also introduced through her visions/dreams. The demons believe that Kat is a hell maiden who will be able to summon them into the world. In exchange for Kat summoning them they offer to bring back her parents from the dead. Kat agrees and makes a deal with them but to summon them she needs ‘bears-a-bub’, a plushie owned by Sister Helley. She steals the bear and makes the deal and sister Helley finds out about the plushie and the hell maiden mark.

Later on in the movie, we find out that Sister Helley is also a hell maiden which is why she was warning Kat.

Once the demons are summoned into the world they begin making deals with mostly everyone to be able to gain control/power. They make deals with Father James and Irmgard and Lane, the owners of most buildings in the town. The deal was for them to bring people from the dead so that Irmgrad and Lane will win votes in a council so that they are able to do whatever they want with the town.

Once they win, they begin to destroy the town. Kat sees the mess that this deal has created and reaches out to Sister Helley who offers to help. By summoning the demons, Kat also creates an entrance for the father of the demons to be able to come to earth. Their father is summoned and makes peace with the demons and agrees to leave them alone in return for Sister Helley to give him back all his children that she had captured.

The demons offer to help Kat make everything go back to normal. They fight off Imgrad and Lane and prevent them from going any further with their plans. Imgrad and Lane end up arrested and all the people who had come back from the dead begin to die again.

Kat gets peace with talking to her parents one last time and also gains the power of being able to see into the future.

Overall, I would give this movie a 8/10 because the movie is very well done and it seems like the entire production worked hard on this as it is a stop motion movie that took longer to produce than other movies (7 years). I also really enjoyed how the movie was not rushed at all. 

Movies/TV/Theaters

The upcoming television show ‘Lockwood and Co.’

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By: Jocelyn Knorr

‘Lockwood and Co.,’ a middle-grade children’s book series by the author Jonathan Stroud, is getting a Netflix adaptation. The source material has defied description repeatedly; I have pitched it in the past as “teenagers with swords and an unhealthy lack of respect for the supernatural,” and “Percy Jackson’s goth cousin from across the pond.”

Much more poignant than the middle-grade tag suggests, the series speaks to a past in which the dead—capable of killing with nothing but a touch—have come back to haunt the living. Curfews are enforced across Britain as the ghosts are most dangerous at nightfall, and ghost-hunting agencies have sprung up, desperate to capitalize upon the need for forces to fight the paranormal scourge.

The worst part, to me, is that only children can see them; ergo, thousands have been conscripted into the agencies as a sort of slapdash army, and sent out each night to fight back the dark while the adults sleep safely behind iron-reinforced thresholds. This has all been going on for fifty years when we meet our main character, by the name of Lucy Carlyle.

Lucy is an experienced agent, with a sharp Talent (which is essentially the ability to see and hear ghosts) and seven years of professional experience under her belt. She’s in London, searching for a job after being let go from her previous agency position, when she meets the titular Anthony Lockwood. He—and his friend George—run a tiny independent agency, completely free of adult interference. It is here where most of the series unfolds before us. For spoiler’s sake, I will allow the rest of the plot to remain in obscurity.

The live-action adaptation is coming out near the end of January; it is being directed by Joe Cornish, who also directed ‘Attack the Block’ and ‘The Kid Who Would Be King’. For those who have been scarred by book adaptations in the past—the ‘Percy Jackson’ movies come to mind—have no fear! Jonathan Stroud himself has a consultant role on the show, described in this interview. He’s cautiously optimistic about it—he has described the script as “brilliant,” and was looking forward to visiting the set at the time of the interview.

The 8-episode series is now in post production; ‘Bridgerton’ actress Ruby Stokes has been cast as Lucy Carlyle and Cameron Chapman as Anthony Lockwood. Ali Hadji-Heshemati rounds out the trio as George Karim. Not much else is known at this time, except for a specific release date—the 27th of January, 2023.

I would recommend this show to anyone who enjoys paranormal fiction or suspense stories, as well as fans of the Percy Jackson books. If they stick closely to the source material—and, judging from the official teaser, they will—it promises to have just as much heart, spunk, and action.

Music/Concerts

Washington, D.C. — Capital of the country and hardcore music

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By: Ann McMullen

The nation’s capital is, understandably, most well known for politics. However, the District of Columbia also birthed multiple genres of music. In fact, if you’re into any subgenres of punk, your favorite bands probably wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the thriving early hardcore scene in D.C.

Although the first punk rock band is generally considered to be Death, who emerged from Detroit in the early 1970s, a major punk explosion took place in D.C. in the late 70s to mid 80s.

Here are some D.C. hardcore punk bands and the impact they’ve had, in chronological order of when they were active.

Bad Brains were pioneers of the scene, forming back in 1977. Being one of first punk bands in the D.C. area, their shows were often seen as “too intense” by the public eye, resulting in many local clubs banning them from playing. This caused the band to relocate to New York, where they released their first studio album — with the hit track given the straightforward title of “Banned in D.C.” The band has played a number of reunion shows over the past couple decades, and frontman H.R. has released a good amount of solo reggae music as well. Bad Brains further established that punk is by no means an exclusively white genre, kicked off hardcore scenes in both Washington and New York, and could easily be considered the face of the D.C. scene.

Minor Threat was arguably the most well known and iconic band in the scene. If you wouldn’t consider Bad Brains the face of D.C. Hardcore… you’d probably give that title to Minor Threat. This early 80s band was fronted by Ian MacKaye, previously the bassist of the short lived Teen Idles. MacKaye created his own label, Dischord Records, which would eventually own almost every band in the city, but Minor Threat was one of the first bands signed to it. While a lot of their songs consisted of the typical anger towards society, they also coined the term “straight edge” by a song of the same title — used to describe a lifestyle free of drugs, alcohol, and anything of the sort. This was truly groundbreaking, as most other rock adjacent bands prior to them were all about “sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.” The straight edge culture created by Minor Threat remained very prominent in future music in D.C., and created a movement that spread to musicians and fans all over the world.

Rites of Spring isn’t a name as well known as Minor Threat or Bad Brains, but they had just as big of an influence. The band put out a single album in 1985, and later released a six song demo tape under Dischord. Despite the small amount of content they put out, the legacy of Rites of Spring is absolutely incredible. The insane number of bands they went on to inspire is all thanks to the label that was placed upon them due to their intense, personal lyrics and emotionally intense live shows: emotional hardcore. This would be shortened to emocore, and then simply emo. The emo label would go on to be used on some of the most well known bands of future decades, and, similar to straight edge, create a worldwide subculture.

The Hated were technically from Annapolis, MD, but are still considered a part of the D.C. scene due to their close proximity. Their work is often overlooked considering they were first active at the same time as the iconic Rites of Spring, but The Hated are believed by a good group of people to be the true beginners of emocore. They are having a reunion show in Los Angeles next spring, which is something relatively uncommon among bands of this scene, and era, and will hopefully bring more attention to this truly underrated band.

Moss Icon emerged from the same Annapolis scene as The Hated in late 1986, but had somewhat of a different approach. Their songs almost have a spoken word aspect to them, and the lyrics can be read as stories or poems — which makes sense, as vocalist Jon Vance is rumored to be a descendant of Edgar Allen Poe. Lyrics aside, the most prominent sounds in Moss Icon’s music are the intricate basslines. Their longest term bassist was Monica DiGialleonardo, and having a female in a band like this was pretty groundbreaking, at the time. Although they may not objectively be the best band to come out of the capital, Moss Icon is easily my favorite.

Embrace was short lived, but highly influential nonetheless. Like Minor Threat, Embrace was fronted by Ian MacKaye. They only released one self titled album in 1987, but also contributed greatly to the emocore phenomenon as their live shows were just as intense as those of Rites of Spring. In fact, Thrasher Magazine referred to Embrace as the creators of emocore in a 1987 issue, and MacKaye (and most other musicians at the time) were… not fond of the label. Embrace tends to be overlooked because of MacKaye’s more well known bands like Minor Threat, but they are my personal favorite project of his.

Fire Party was a racially diverse, all female band. Unfortunately, they were significantly lesser known than their male counterparts, but released a great couple of albums and played a number of live shows in D.C. and far beyond. Although members of the group have since moved onto other endeavors like writing and art, they remain very open about their experiences in music. Fire Party was successful despite being faced with various challenges as women in the scene, and established that the genre was a safe space for people of any gender.

Scream peaked around the same time as Fire Party, and actually toured Europe with them. Although their music was just as important as that of every other band in the scene, what really stood out about Scream was a certain member of their lineup. Later into their career, the band hosted auditions for a drummer – who would end up to be none other than Dave Grohl of future Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame. Grohl credits Scream, the Dischord label, and the D.C. scene as a whole, as his starting point in the music industry. Essentially, without Scream, one of the greatest music icons of this generation would not be who or where he is today.

Fugazi is considered a supergroup, with a highly accomplished lineup including Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and Embrace and Guy Picciotto of Rites of Spring. Forming in the late 80s, Fugazi released their debut album in 1989, and carried hardcore music into the 90s and beyond, while also adding more experimental aspects into their later work. They remain one of the most well known bands from this scene, and their 1988 single “Waiting Room” helped to make hardcore more mainstream.

As you can see, the D.C. hardcore punk scene most definitely peaked in the 80s, but the same type of music is still being made there today. Dischord continues to sign new bands, and a few groups that have been around since the initial explosion still make music to this day.

Although the musical history of the city is greatly overshadowed by politics, there are still places of musical importance available to visit. Smash Records, in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, has existed since the peak of the D.C. hardcore explosion, and is still open to this day, making it a fun place to pick up authentic memorabilia. Museum exhibits related to local music also come and go, and the city is still home to great, iconic small music venues.

There’s really something for everybody in D.C. hardcore, even if you’re not a fan of the style of music. For those interested in the history of music, I greatly recommend a visit to the capital, or simply looking further into the musical significance of this location.

For more information on this era of music, please see:

Tech/Games

JOYSTiCK Ep. 4: Minecraft Story Mode – A fate much, MUCH worse than death

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By: Daniel Kendle

Uh oh.

Greetings, and welcome back again to JOYSTiCK, the HPSH serial that enjoys reviewing and exploring video games. Today we’re taking a shot at our 4th game on the docket, eternal pain and suffering ‘Minecraft Story Mode,’ which I’m not even going to try to hide my disgust of.

…..

So, I really, REALLY like ‘Minecraft.’ Like, to an abnormal amount. And it being the prince of gaming giants in the industry, of course it would eventually get a spin-off.

As of writing this, there have been 4 ‘Minecraft’ games made besides the original. ‘Minecraft Dungeons’ is an isometric dungeon crawler based on ‘Diablo,’ ‘Minecraft EARTH’ was – I say “was,” as it’s been permanently shut down due to COVID-19 – an AR game similar to that of ‘Pokémon Go’ and ‘Pikmin Bloom,’ where you built stuff in the real world using resources obtained from resource deposits (similar to that of the base game), and then… There was ‘Minecraft Story Mode,’ which similar to the rest of Telltale’s games – the company that teamed up with Mojang, the creators of Minecraft – followed a “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure” format. There were actually 2 games, being season 1 and season 2. Each had the same characters, but different stories. For this review we’ll be looking at season 1 only.

So, to preface this review, this’ll be mostly about the story of ‘Minecraft Story Mode,’ as the game doesn’t have much to offer, gameplay-wise. It’s mostly focused on telling a narrative rather than actually having you move around and do stuff on your own merit, like most games. So, for this review, I’ll be discussing the story first, then eventually the music. If you’re looking for a review of a game with the player actually “playing” instead of just clicking through multiple-choice questions, then this isn’t the review for you.

So, ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ is a bad game, it’s not like I’ve tried to hide it in the title and introduction alone. But, why is it like this? Well, the answer is pretty interesting, actually.

PART ONE: STORY *Warning, Spoilers*

Settle down everyone, this might take a while.

For context, I don’t actually own a physical copy of ‘Minecraft Story Mode.’ However, the first game has actually been archived on Netflix, of all places, categorized in their “Netflix Interactive” group, a group made up of playable movies. This is because Telltale eventually shut down, and these 2 games were removed from production lines forever. Thank goodness Netflix was able to swoop in and save this insanely-bad experience.

But now, the game’s story. Keep in mind, ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ comes in an episodic format, having 4 episodes for the main game and 4 additional episodes after completing the first half. I’ll be covering the first half for this review.

We open on a bit of background The Order of the Stone, a group of legendary heroes that once defeated the Ender Dragon, a powerful creature that lived in a place known as The End. Afterwards, they disappeared into legends, where they have since split apart and gone their separate ways.

After this we open on our playable character, Jessie, as him (or her, you can choose their gender) and his friends prepare to head off to take part in a building competition in order to win tickets to Endercon, a festival that they’ve always wanted to take part of.

After a rival group causes a commotion at their 1st-place winning build, Jessie’s pet pig runs off into the forest. After saving him they’re ambushed by monsters – or “mobs,” as they’re normally called – being saved by another friend, Petra. The three go off to Endercon and meet up with Jesse’s friends in order to exchange a Wither Skeleton skull for some cash.

The stranger that they’re to trade the skull with ends up cheating them, taking the skull and leaving some dirty lapis in return. Jessie, Petra, the pig and the friends all chase after him. They reach the main convention hall and head down to a basement library, where they find the stranger’s been working on some sort of demonic summoning practice, constructing a statue in order to resurrect the Wither Storm, a monster capable of destroying entire cities with ease.

The group runs to warn the public, stumbling into a Q&A with Gabriel, one of the members of The Order of the Stone. They try to tell him of the plans, but Jessie is interrupted by the stranger, now known to be Ivor, another past member of the order. He uses the Wither Skull with 2 others and a machine known as a Command Block to summon the Wither Storm, though it’s revealed to only be a ploy to scare the crowd, as Ivor has the potion to subdue the beast. The problem is that one of Jesse’s friends, Axel, took the potion for himself, replacing it with one that turns out to be useless on the creature. It quickly starts destroying the town, and Jessie, his friends, his pig, and one of the members of the rival gang have to enter a portal to escape.

Now in a place known as the Nether, they travel across a minecart highway in order to travel away from the destruction back home, and reach another portal to get back to the normal world and end up far away from Endercon.

After finding The Order of the Stone’s past bunker, they split up to find 2 more members of the order. This is one of the game’s BIG player-made choices, allowing for Jessie to either find one or the other, which takes a large chunk of the next episode to do.

You go to find either Magnus or Ellegard, both being pyrotechnics and “Redstone” engineers, respectively (In the normal ‘Minecraft,’ Redstone is a kind of circuit-like ore. I wont cover it here, but I wanted to give context for the confusion). After some hassle getting them to come back, Jessie, a friend who came with them depending on the order number chosen, and the order member all leave after the Wither Storm reaches them again.

Upon getting back to the bunker, they find out that the friend Jessie didn’t go with got the other member, so now the group technically only have one more member to find: Soren, the group’s expert builder. He’s located in The End, a dimension surrounded by an endless void. After getting him, the gang has to make their way back to their normal world once again.

The main story ends with Jessie and Co. all defeating the Wither Storm through a series of inventions that let Jessie access the monster’s core, slaying it in the process. Unfortunately, his pet pig dies too, which is used as a sad moment in the plot. The past order is shown to be frauds and are either forgiven or not, and the new order becomes the guardians of their town, or something. The. End.

Wow.

So as I’ve said… this is a really, REALLY flat story, tonal-wise. It’s obviously meant for a smaller age demographic, seeing as Minecraft is a kid-friendly experience.

I’d say that my main issues with ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ is that it feels like it wants to more like an adult-focused adventure with mild swears and somewhat-dark themes, like death (in a “bad” way) and basically the genocide of hundreds of citizens, though its writing is so stupid that it feels like satire at times.

Characters in the game are just annoying, there’s not many I find decently likable. Pretty much everyone is either rude to our heroes or ARE the heroes, who are 10 times worse! The Order of the Stone has most of the 5 members be dismissive, weirdly paranoid or just a very mean character in general. When going off to find 2 of the members, Ellegard and Magnus, their characters are seen exclusively as these petulant whiners that only care about themselves and couldn’t give less of a thought towards the people they lead.

Looking at the actual story itself, it’s… fine? Like, I’ve seen worse, though I’d say that ‘Minecraft Story Mode’s’ biggest detriment is that, as I said, it feels like it wants to be both a kid friendly romp through a fictional ‘Minecraft’ world, and also a semi-dark take on the ideals of evil, not trusting those around you, etc.

The main message of the game is to not trust those around you. However, the moral doesn’t come off as many other kid-friendly media do, because whilst something like ‘Arthur’ or ‘Curious George’ can teach viewers that blindly believing in someone or something can be hazardous without proper reasoning, ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ says that trusting ANYONE is dangerous. Though unfolding events the plot has pretty much any character, unimportant or not, be these hostile, arrogant folk. It’s almost disturbing how there’s practically no one in the game that’s a genuinely nice person; it feels depressing. The characters save the world from an extra-dimensional deity, and what changes? Nothing. People still act callus to you and your friends, as if all you’ve done is prolong the drought, metaphorically speaking.

Going back to the characters, I do like a couple. I stated in the story that Lucas, a member of the gang, comes with you, and he’s actually decently-written. His arc is of how he’s arguably the nicest towards Jessie’s group, and breaking away from his toxic peers. Then again, this is an exception, not the rule. Or dare I say, THE exception. Outside of this, there aren’t many other characters that have somewhat-compelling motivations and arcs.

If I could change anything, it’d be ‘Minecraft Story Mode’s’ message. Having this sort of paranoid theme of trust and “stranger danger” is convoluted at best and dumb at worst. Instead, I feel like a message of “trusting others through conflicting ideals and thought complexes” would be a solid choice. Considering the source material is a multiplayer game where you’re able to literally make anything, a theme of adapting to another person’s different morals and beliefs could work well in what is basically a more story-focused version of ‘Minecraft.’

PART TWO: MUSIC
So, you’d expect that for such a bad game, the music would be too, right? Fortunately, no.

When I went into this review, I was only gonna talk about the story, and maybe the creepy animations too. However, I decided to write about the music because – and you might not want to hear this – ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ has amazing tracks.

The albums for both season 1 and 2 were made by Antimo & Welles, otherwise known as Skyler Barto and Andrew Arcadi. Looking at their YouTube channel, the soundtrack for ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ is arguably the most popular of their works.

If asked to describe the feelings the playlist gives me, I’d say “atmospheric.” This isn’t some kind of Lo-Fi soundtrack where it has these relaxing, calming beats. Instead, the game has a somber, almost eerie list of songs, though seeing as this game has an annoyingly creepy undertone throughout its duration, at least it knows it’s weird. Some of my favorite songs include the following.

  • “Ivor’s Theme” is my personal favorite. If anyone had to ask me the perfect mix of a horror theme and Lo-Fi track, this would be one of them.
  • “Wither Storm Theme” has a very fitting sense of dread and anger, seeing as the monster it’s named after destroys part of a city whilst this plays. I like it, as it feels very epic in scale.
  • “The Finishing Blow” is from one of ’Minecraft Story Mode’s’ various DLC episodes. I have not played any of them, so I don’t actually know what this song correlates to. I do know that it’s very good, however.
  • “Mob Grinder” slaps, and there really isn’t anything else to say about it.
  • “Boomtown Suite” feels like it belongs in a completely different game than this, akin to ‘Borderlands’ or ‘Splatoon.’ Nifty!
  • And finally, “Ivor Fight” isn’t as good as its companion, but definitely rivals it.

PART THREE: CONCLUSION

So, that’s that. The skeleton in the closet that’s been bugging me since September has been freed, and ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ has been reviewed.

No, it’s not a good game. No, my opinion hasn’t changed. And no, this review isn’t nearly as much as I could talk about it. Honestly, I could write an essay on this game and its tonal problems, story struggles, and beautiful soundtrack. A part 2 could happen, though I’d have to somehow buy the 2nd season off of Craigslist, seeing as the 2 games are no longer in print.

And finally, I can definitively say that ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ is a 3/10 game. The music entirely keeps this above a 1 or 2, which isn’t a good look. And seeing as I’m one of, like, 10 people who’s given an in-depth look at this game, I feel I need to warn the public of this menace to society. We need to stop this game from infecting the brains of children across the globe! But how? How could we destroy all the copies of ‘Minecraft Story Mode’ in existence? Hmm…

Well, shoot, now this fiendish game shall go on to take over the world with its hazardous mediocrity. And I will NOT let the game do this; it must be stopped.

Hmm. Oh, that’s it!

Everyone who has a copy of ‘Minecraft Story Mode, listen up. Go out and PURCHASE A NUCLEAR MISSILE AND UNLEASH IT UPON THE HORRID CREATURE THAT IS ‘MINECRAFT STORY MO-!’

…..

And that’s all for this episode of JOYSTiCK. It was a little shorter than usual, though this is more akin to a special rather than a full-length story. (That also explains the ‘explosive’ ending). Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Books/Art

The new Botticelli and Renaissance exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art:

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By: Mia David

On October 16th, 2022, the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) opened a new art museum called the Boticelli and Renaissance Florence: Masterworks from the Uffizi.

The Mia is fortunate to be the only stop for this exhibit and to feature artworks that have never left Italy until now. The display contains remarkable paintings, sculptures, and prints portraying biblical stories and Greek and Roman characters. This exhibit is the largest Botticelli and Renaissance exhibit in the US ever.

The main attractions in the exhibit are the works done by Sandro Botticelli from the late 1400s and early 1500s. He is known for how he changed the perspective on myths and legends in Italy at the time. His popularity allowed him to paint three frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.

This exhibit is the first time Mia has worked with the Uffizi gallery. The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, occupies a building built between 1560 and 1580. It is well known for its famous sculptures and paintings from throughout history.

This exhibition was curated to reflect the different art forms from this time period. There are statues, plaques, multiple paintings in different shapes and sizes, and even a chest with images portrayed on the outside.

Walking into the exhibit, you are immediately met with Boticelli’s famous painting ‘Pallas and the Centaur, which is one of the main attractions of this exhibit. It is a tempera painting on canvas that spans 207 x 148 cm.

This exhibit also contains sketches or drawings of people and portraits that line the walls. There are pieces based on Greek mythology, like a statue of a centaur and a relief sculpture of three Greek women. To complement these Greek pieces, many biblical stories are reflected in the art. There is a long panel of paintings representing the telling of the virgin Mary and a sculpture of Saint John the Baptist.

This exhibit will be open until January 8th, 2023. Tickets can be purchased online for $20 or free for anyone 17 and under.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Juno’ review

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By: Emilia Moberg

*Warning: Spoilers and mentions of abortion*

‘Juno’ is a 2007 film directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. It centers around 16-year-old Juno, played by Elliot Page, as she navigates being pregnant and adoption, on top of normal teen experiences and struggles. 

The film begins with Juno taking multiple pregnancy tests, which all come back positive. She decides to get an abortion. However, before entering the abortion clinic, Juno runs into her classmate, Su-Chin, who is protesting against abortion outside the building. The girls discuss a school assignment, and just before Juno enters the clinic, Su-Chin tells her that “her baby probably has fingernails!” Once inside, all Juno can focus on is the other patient’s fingernails. This deters her from getting the abortion and she decides to put the baby up for adoption. 

 I find this scene really important to understanding the meaning behind the film. Many critics have tried to claim the film as “anti-abortion” because of this scene, however writer Diablo Cody has firmly stated that she is pro-choice and that anti-abortion was not the message she was trying to convey through her writing. I agree with this and believe that Cody was trying to illustrate the juxtaposition of naivety and confidence that comes with young age. Juno did not choose to go through with the pregnancy because she thought abortion was morally wrong. It’s more plausible that she was unnerved by the thought of a baby having fingernails, as a 16-year-old might logically be. Juno felt empowered to get the abortion initially, but changed her mind over a small detail that may or may not be true. The movie does an excellent job of creating scenes that feel stylized, yet realistic to the teen experience, and bring the watcher into the Juno’s life. 

Despite critics, the majority of reactions to the film were overwhelmingly positive. It received an Oscar for Best Writing of an Original Screenplay, as well as 89 other film awards and 100 nominations. ‘Juno’ timelessly captures the essence of being a teenager and the complexities that come with it.