Category Archives: Entertainment

Entertainment, Getting To Know/History

Remembering ‘Ghost Singer’ Marni Nixon

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By: Ella Tabor

One of the most-loved soprano voices of the 1950s and 60s, Marni Nixon, spent most of her career unnoticed and underpaid.

In 1930, Margaret Nixon McEathron was born in Southern California. From a young age she had a passion for singing. As a child, she sang in professional choirs.

In her late teens, Nixon began training to be a classical soprano.
Around this time, she was employed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) as a messenger. Soon, they took notice of Nixon’s stirring singing talents, (Nixon possessed a perfect pitch and a four-octave range) and they hired her as a ‘ghost’. A ‘ghost’ was someone that did the singing in a movie, for the actress on screen.

Nixon received sub-par pay for her talents though she is a big part in why many blockbuster movies are such successes. For example, in 1956, Deborah Kerr was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Anna in the film ‘The King and I’. The soundtrack sold thousands of copies but Nixon was only paid $420 for her singing; her name was left out of the credits.

Nixon’s first project was dubbing the singing voice of actor Margaret O’Brien, in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s, ‘The Secret Garden’, in 1949. Later, 1953, Nixon would sing the high notes in the song “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend”, in the movie ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’, that Marilyn Monroe couldn’t reach.

She was threatened into silence by Twentieth Century Fox. In an interview with ABC News in 2007 she said, “You always had to sign a contract that nothing would be released…They said, If anybody ever knows…we’ll see to it that you don’t work in town again.”

Nixon stayed silent; it was actually due to Deborah Kerr that she was ever brought to light. Kerr dropped Nixon’s name in an interview with The Mirror in 1956, the year she won the Oscar for ‘The King and I’.

By the 1960’s, Nixon’s voice was finally recognized. The movie ‘My Fair Lady’ came around, and Nixon’s voice was employed again. She said about Audrey Hepburn (leading actress in the film), “She was very smart and could say, ‘I know this is not good enough…’”

Other actresses were not as happy about Nixon’s dubbing. She was brought on to sing for Natalie Wood in ‘West Side Story’, originally to fill in a few high notes. In the end though, most of Wood’s original voice was thrown out. She even took a few of her lines. Nixon said, “I don’t think Natalie Wood’s ego could take that.”

During the success of ‘West Side Story’, Nixon realized how vital her singing was. By 1965, Nixon stepped into the light completely. She appeared in ‘The Sound of Music’ (1965) and voiced a character in the 1998 movie ‘Mulan’.

Additionally, Nixon went on to teach singing at the California Institute of Arts, and published her autobiography, ‘I Could Have Sung All Night’.

She passed away from breast cancer at the age of 86 in 2016.

Marni Nixon serves as an example of Hollywood corruption, but she is more than that. She is also a woman with an amazing voice, a woman who fought for herself, and someone who was pushed aside for too long.

Music/Concerts

How music can affect your mood

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By: Christina Cyrus

Listening to music enhances your mood, it can help you concentrate, meditate, relax, etc. Listening to music is something everyone does whether it’s sad, happy, uplifting, or energetic, everyone listens to music. Although listening to music can affect your mood, that might be a surprise to some people but researchers at the University of Missouri found that listening to music can help an individual succeed to be happier, especially when the genre is happy.

During the first study by Ferguson (UofM), participants successfully improved their mood due to the boost of happiness they got from listening to music.

Music can also affect your mental health, it releases mood enhancing chemicals in the brain that can be considered a “natural antidepressant”, it causes our brain to produce chemicals like dopamine and serotonin which evokes feelings of joy.

Also, when talking about music clinically you’re talking about music therapy. Music can help your psychological cognitive or communication needs to help better your mental health.

Music can give strength to cope with problems, which you may have noticed. It can help you cope in a healthy way without harming your mental state.

Another thing is that music could cause aggression. Sometimes music can have a negative impact on people’s mental health. For example, hard rock and heavy metal may all lead to aggression, but with the aggression comes with releasing negative emotion. In other words, listening to this type of music can help you get some adrenaline released, which is good if done productively.

Overall, I feel like listening to music can help me focus sometimes because it helps me focus and keeps me focused for a long period of time. It does sometimes cause me to get distracted, which leads me to get off track, but overall, I think listening to music can honestly help you get more work done especially if you have no distractions.

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Books/Art

‘Angela’s Ashes’

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By: Julia Swee

Warning *Spoilers*

‘Angela’s Ashes’ by Frank McCourt is a historical memoir about a poor and troubled, Irish Catholic family in the middle of the Great Depression. The main character is based on Frank McCourt’s life, as he grew up in multiple different homes and came across many different circumstances along the way. Frank’s family consisted of his mom Angela McCourt, his dad Malachy McCourt, his little brothers, and one sister. The first brother Frank had was Malachy Junior, and then came Michael, Oliver and Eugene, and then Alphie.

As the story begins, Frank is a young child, and does not yet know the horrors of real life until he experiences his little sister Margaret’s death. She dies as just a little baby, and this absolutely crushes his parents. His dad is a raging alcoholic, and is rarely ever there for the family, never providing for them, and leaving them with no money as he spends it all on his drink. 

As Frank recounts his life in Ireland, he mentions different historical events and incorporates traditional Irish folklore into his stories. Frank mentions his favorite childhood story, “Cuchulain”, and develops a deep connection with the folklore character.

As Frank and family grieve over the loss of their sister Margaret, the depression hits them hard, as they struggle to find a steady place to stay. As they settle in the same place that Angela’s mother lives, they are struck with more unlucky circumstances as Frank’s little twin brothers, Oliver and Eugene, pass away from famine. This only sends the family into deeper depression, as they now have three missing children. 

As Frank begins his schooling, he feels the pressure and impact of the strict Irish Catholic culture. Frank is forced to succumb to the ways of the religion and its extreme values. A part of the religion values the act of confession to a priest, which plays a big part in the book as Frank relies on confessions to relieve his guilt for many things.

Although there are good priests who listen to Frank and his issues, throughout the novel Frank comes to notice how uptight and selective the church is of their people. When the church comes to play in Frank’s education, he feels as if he’s being controlled, which leads him to distrust his higher ups in both the church and school. 

As Frank grows with age, he uncovers secrets of his family, the church, and the world around him. He loses his innocence as he tries to figure out the right ways to go about life, leading him to eventually go off on his own.

He pockets money from his job selling magazines to save for a trip to America, where he believes he will find his passion in life. Frank uses many different anecdotes throughout his story to calm the truth of how truly horrific his childhood was.

In the end, Angela’s Ashes gives the reader a detailed and inspirational true story about a young boy navigating the scary world that Limerick, Ireland was at the time of the Great Depression. As the story comes to a close, with Frank finally finding his people in the great country of America, the reader is left with closure for Frank, and hope for a future of success. 

Tech/Games

Twitch Vs YouTube gaming

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By: Reed Morris

What are the Streaming Wars

Ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the on demand entertainment industry has been booming. With people spending more and more time at home, they have been starting to look for more ways to keep themselves busy and engaged with the outside world. We saw explosive growth in the TV and movie streaming industry, the gaming industry, and the live streaming industry. While I’ve already covered some big news in gaming and tv/movie entertainment, it’s high time we address the competitive and extremely valuable world of live streaming. 

Over the past few years, there has been a huge race to see who will hold the crown as the best live streaming service. The first platform that really had live streaming figured out is a platform called Twitch. It allowed streamers to create their own live broadcast for viewers to watch and interact with. For a while, Twitch was a purely entertainment based platform, but over time the company implemented ways for streamers to monetize their work. This allowed them to put more time and effort into their content and for some of the more successful streamers, it allowed them to pursue this as a full time job. Because of the platform’s massive success, it was snatched up by Amazon in 2014, for just short of $1 Billion in cash. 

In recent years however, other major companies have noticed the growth and success of live streaming. They’ve seen this growth and have decided to throw their hats into the ring. While many companies entered, not many were successful. 

The Competition

Facebook entered the competition in 2020 with the famously bad launch of ‘Facebook Gaming’. After a rocky start, Facebook had an understandably hard time pulling in audiences from other platforms and has essentially not grown at all since its initial launch. While the company’s viewership numbers are high, they are extremely inflated as they count any interaction with live streams and viewership is somewhat forced across their platforms. 

Another competitor that crashed and burned even harder than Facebook was Microsoft’s ‘Mixer’. The company started around the same time as Facebook Gaming, and had many similar problems in regards to growth and viewership. Mixer famously sought out big names in streaming such as streamer Tyler ‘NInja’ Blevins. The world famous Fortnite streamer was signed to Mixer for upwards of $30 million in return for an exclusive 3 year contract. After his switch to Mixer, Blevins’ viewership dropped and Mixer made almost no money off of the 30 million dollar deal. Before the 3 year contract concluded, Microsoft completely shutdown any operations related to the Mixer platform. 

Who’s left?

The two platform’s that still stand are Twitch and YouTube Gaming. The war between the two platforms has been growing exponentially over the past year or two and is finally reaching its peak. The reason that Twitch is able to keep up and compete with a gargantuan company like YouTube (owned by Google) is because of the culture and community it has built around its service. There is close to a decade’s worth of culture and history that Twitch has that YouTube can’t mirror. The loyalty that Twitch has garnered from its users is almost unmatched on any other platform in the world. While Twitch has the community, YouTube has the money, and in recent months, have really been flexing their financial muscles. 

The money

Unsurprisingly, the most important aspect of the streaming industry to the platforms, is the cash flow. There are many ways on both YouTube and Twitch that users can subscribe to, or spend money on, the platforms to support their favorite streamers. While this is a great aspect of the space, the platforms that the streamers use usually take a good amount of the money spent. The most common and most important type of monetary splitting between platform and streamer is the ‘sub-split’. The percentage of every subscription cost that goes to the streamer vs the platform. 

Twitch has been having a hard time keeping up with YouTube’s growing popularity, and so they have needed to find a better way to make money. As Amazon owns Twitch, there is a lot of wiggle room for Twitch to not make that much money, but at this point, it is just bleeding cash. The methods that Twitch has announced they are going to use to keep itself in business has caused a lot of controversy and backlash from the community surrounding the platform. While there were a lot of small changes that were detailed in their release, the most noticeable change is the extreme decrease in the sub-split for the creators. 

For streamers contractually signed to the platform, they would usually be seeing something close to a 50% or 75% percent profit split, meaning that Twitch would only take in 50-25% of the revenue that any given signed streamer would receive. While this is still a lot of money that Twitch is taking out, streamers would still make a lot of money, enough for them to continue to use streaming as a full time job. The big change that Twitch has announced is that they are reducing sub-splits to somewhere around 20-45 percent. This is an extreme and terrifying change for many content creators. 

Final Points

The biggest thing here is the money. Streamers need to make their money somehow, and Twitch just might not be the place for that anymore. With YouTube keeping sub-splits in the 50-75% range, and signing on huge community names such as Ludwig Ahgren, Sykkuno, and Valkyrae, YouTube seems to be slowly coming out on top. 

While the war has a lot more time left in it and neither side is giving up any time soon, this extremely valuable and influential conflict between obscenely large corporations doesn’t show any signs of stopping. 

Editorials/Student Voice, Travel/Food

What are GMOs and how do they affect us?

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By: Haroon Yonis

GMO is an acronym for “genetically modified organisms”, a term exclusively meant for foods that have been modified in some way, shape, or form genetically. GMOs were first introduced to the public in 1994, when a tomato was genetically modified so that it would become ripe quicker than its natural counterpart. Seeing this as a cost efficient way to “save” foods and crops, and as a result increase their profits, many companies began using GMOs.

Today, GMOs are used in practically every packaged food, whether it be cereal, fruits, or vegetables, GMOs are now so widespread that it is almost impossible to avoid the term on your favorite food/drink.

The main purpose of GMOs is that it makes it easier to deal with pesky things that would usually destroy an individual’s crops, such as the environment, insects/animals, and much more. You can liken GMOs to pesticides or herbicides, except much more effective on a larger scale. It is undeniable that GMOs have widened the farming industry and completely changed the way many grow their crops. 

But what do GMOs mean for the consumer, the individual actually consuming this product?

There is  an abundance of health related issues typically associated with GMOs, and this shouldn’t be surprising considering you’re modifying the crop from its original, natural state. Firstly, a chemical that is commonly found in GMOs, “glycophosphate ”, has been linked to a plethora of cancers, like prostrate, and other diseases. 

But, we must realize that GMOs are a relatively new thing in the food industry, and as the FDA continues to improve health regulations surrounding it, hopefully the chemicals used in these GMOs will no longer be harmful to the human body. Even WebMD states that the American Medical Association has stated that there have been no reports of GMOs negatively affecting the body.

Ultimately, it’s your choice whether or not you decide to consume GMOs, and as we continue to discover more about GMOs , keep in mind that even cigarettes were considered healthy at one point.

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Movies/TV/Theaters

‘(500) Days of Summer’ movie review

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By: Eva Olson

‘(500) Days of Summer’ is a romance/comedy movie starring Zoe Deschanel as Summer and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom Hansen. This movie follows the story of Tom and his relationship with Summer over 500 days.

This movie was very interesting because it would go back and forth between different days of their relationship out of order. One minute of the movie could be a day after they broke up, then the next it could be pre-break up. This really kept me on my toes throughout the whole movie and made it extremely intriguing.

I enjoyed how the film wasn’t a typical romance/comedy movie and it had a kind of sad feel to it. It was cool to watch Tom’s journey in getting over Summer and realizing that some people aren’t meant to be.

I loved the soundtrack of this movie. I really liked how they met in the elevator because Summer was playing The Smiths. I also found the scene where Tom was dancing to “You Make My Dreams” by Daryl Hall & John Oates amusing, especially when the cameo of Harrison Ford as Han Solo showed up in the car window.

The characters were all very complex and layered. I could relate to almost every character through their personalities or their actions. I liked how each character had their flaws and wasn’t perfect; this made them feel more real.

I thought the costumes were all well done. They all fit the characters and suited their personalities very well. I really enjoyed the setting too, and the fact that it was in Los Angeles was interesting.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. It was well done and I found the storyline very intriguing. I would give it a 5/5 star rating. You can watch this on Amazon Prime Video.

Tech/Games

Elon Musk’s quarrels with Big Tech

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By: Liibaan Yusuf

Early, April 2022, Elon Musk, tech mogul and pop culture superstar made a bold claim: he wanted to buy Twitter. But before we go into that you have to understand a few things.

Twitter is a public company, and public companies are different from the traditional idea of a brand or company. Instead of the original creator, or a mom and pop type business, public companies are owned by shareholders, each shareholder owning a certain percentage of the company, making it impossible for one person to own. Typically, the largest shareholders, usually those above 5%, come together as a board and are let in on company secrets adding their two cents in.

Musk attempted to purchase Twitter, becoming the largest shareholder, by buying everyone else’s shares. It would cost him approximately 44 billion dollars putting each individual share at 55 dollars. Musk, a name commonly associated with billionaires, planned to purchase Twitter through a quick fire sell off of Tesla stock, as he is the biggest shareholder in his own company, Tesla. He sold 9.2 million shares equaling about 8.2 billion US dollars. A large sale of stock leads to a depreciation of the market, and $TSLA fell 12% the following day.

After almost a month of deliberation, Twitter had accepted Musk’s offer on the 25th of April. Musk has been very vocal about taking Twitter off the public market. After Musk’s generous offer, about 1.5 times Twitters’ actual market cap, investors and finance analysts say Musk isn’t looking to make money on Twitter. As an established businessman and billionaire, it seems as if Musk is doing this for fun? As of, Wednesday, May 18th, there has been many moments of speculation of whether the deal will be called off or if it will go through.

Travel/Food

Is organic actually healthier?

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By: Ashley Harris

Organic. Organic is defined by many as the healthiest option in the grocery store, but is it really as healthy as it may seem?

To start things off, you might be wondering what exactly organic is? Well, organic is when either produce, or certain ingredients, are farmed and produced without the use of unnecessary chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or any artificial chemicals.

Of course, when you read this, you might think “Huh, organic does seem healthier.” However, that isn’t always the case.

Organic is only supplemental in certain foods such as spinach, green peas, apples, peaches, and many more. The general rule is that if a fruit or vegetable has a thick layer of skin protecting it (such as avocados, bananas, and oranges) there is no need to spend the extra buck for organic.

However, vegetables such as leafy green are the most prone to absorb these toxic chemicals and get into your digestive tract. That is why leafy greens are especially important to buy organic.

This leads to my next point: Why is organic so much more expensive than conventional produce? On average, organic foods tend to cost over 50% more than their non-organic competitors. The reason for this is that farmers tend to have to use physical, mechanical, and biological controls instead of pesticides to assure a good harvest.

There are two main points to consider when deciding whether or not to buy organic. 1. Are you doing it for your health? Or 2. Are you doing it for the environment?

First, I will be addressing #1. If you indeed seek out organic options opposed to conventional produce simply for your health, then I’m afraid I have some bad news for you. According to research done by UCDavis health, organic foods and non-organic foods contain the exact same amount of nutrients and macros.

On the other hand, if you are motivated for the reason of #2 then I would absolutely reach for organic foods. According to Harvard, “Organic foods are clearly healthier for the planet, because they support an agricultural system that avoids synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and promotes a more biodiverse ecosystem, with attention to the health of waterways, soil, air, wildlife, farm workers, and the climate.”

So, if you are reaching out for organic foods simply for your health, don’t waste your money. However, if you are seeking out organic foods for the environment, then 100% keep seeking them out.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘A Madea Homecoming’

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By: Samera Adam

‘A Madea Homecoming’ is a 2022 comedy film produced by Tyler Perry, who also plays the role of the main character.

The movie starts off with a barbecue that takes place in Atlanta Georgia. Mr. Brown is in charge on the grill where he is seen putting a lot of gasoline in. After being warned, he then accidentally sets himself on fire.

While the majority of the backyard was on fire, everybody else was too busy preparing for Tim’s graduation.

Madea, the main character, is done putting up with the family drama and nonsense and now speaks up. She will not let the family members ruin her great grandson’s grad party. 

Tim is on his way to Madea’s house where he and his friend Davi have a big announcement to make.

As the movie goes on more and more family members start showing up.

Laura and Silvia eventually come. Laura is Tim’s mother, while Silvia is the friend/lawyer of Laura’s divorce.

Tim wants his father to be at his graduation party. Laura then puts her feelings aside for her son even though Richard, Tim’s father, left her with no money. The whole family thinks that he should not be invited.

Later that night, Agnes tries to surprise her nephew, Davi, at Madea’s house. Agnes is the aunt who took Davi in after both of his parents had passed away.

When arriving at Madea’s house, Cara, Laura’s sister, is there to open the door. Agnes then does a “Wakanda forever” gesture and gets the door slammed in her face.

After Cara comes back to give her a second try, Agnes walks into the house uninvited. 

Agnes then makes a joke about Madea’s size. Madea then grabs her by her scarf, lifts her up and starts threatening her. When she notices everyone is silently staring at her, Agnes says “Why do you all look like you have your knickers in a bunch?”

Everybody is silently thinking “knickers” referred to the N-word with the hard “er” at the end, but later she explained it meant underwear.

Later on, Laura and Agnes are washing dishes. Agnes reveals that Davi is retiring to Ireland to take over the family’s farm. 

Madea’s family thinks that that’s a waste of his talent. He just finished law school and is in debt but instead he wants to fly across the world and not use his degree. 

Though this movie was supposed to be a comedy, it wasn’t that funny. I would give it a solid 3 out of 5. You can watch it on Netflix.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘Dr. Strange 2’ movie review

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By: Carla Tizcareno

Image taken from: https://www.marvel.com/movies/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness

The new Doctor Strange movie was underwhelming to say the least. I am a major Marvel fan and I was extremely disappointed. It was long and the plot didn’t seem to have any sort of direction. If you’re really looking for a Doctor Strange movie, this one doesn’t give it justice. If anything, it was more about Wanda and the multiverse.

To start off, the techniques they used to film seemed pretty dated. It reminded me of a lame horror movie from the 90’s. Which makes sense because when you look at the director, Sam Raimi’s, list of movies he directed, they are mostly boring horror movies from (guess when) the 90’s.

I personally find it weird that the 1st Spider Man movies were actually good because Raimi’s list of movies is not impressive. Movies like the 1985 film ‘Crimewave’, and 1992 ‘Army of Darkness’, are some of the examples of the movies that he directed. You can tell that it was him from the unnecessary perspective flips, quick camera changes during fight scenes, editing skills, and the lack of attention to detail.

Marvel movies are known for their production and well thought out scenes. There is one scene at the beginning of the movie where you see the same man run away from a monster 4 times, all from different angles. During the fight scenes there is so much movement and the camera cuts in and out so many times that I got dizzy just looking at it.

Comparing fight scenes from this movie to any other Marvel movie is so depressing. The editing quality totally ruins the potential in every scene. The quality of the edits can easily be ranked on the same level as the 2003 ‘Hulk’ film. The jokes are weak and not timed well. There isn’t enough build up to the moment to make it a good joke that adds a decent amount of comedic relief whilst also going back to the original situation naturally.

If I’m being totally honest, the acting was weak and boring. Xochitl Gomez, the girl who played America Chavez, in my opinion, was not the right actress for the role. She went from playing Dawn, from the Netflix original television series, ‘The Babysitters Club’, to a Marvel movie. Her acting in ‘The Babysitters Club’ wasn’t even good, so it didn’t surprise me when I realized her acting in this movie was the same way. Her Spanish was botched and her general acting skills were like watching a middle school play. Her character was supposed to be Puerto Rican but apparently the Marvel movies directors don’t seem to care about the accuracy from the comics.

After watching the movie my first thought was “They’re pranking us. This has to be a joke,” and I still believe that. 4/10. You can see this movie in theaters.