Category Archives: Entertainment

Suicideboys: ‘Stop Staring at the Shadows’

Stop Staring at the Shadows was a Valentine’s Day release album from the New Orleans duo Suicideboys (often written as $uicideboy$) which consists of Ruby da Cherry and Scrim. This is their second album, but they have released many mixtapes and EPs. They have a EP saga which so far has 20 parts. Although this is only their second album, it is their 45th released project. The album was officially announced on December 19th, 2019 and had two singles.

The album has 12 tracks, and honestly that was not enough for me because I loved this album. It’s energetic, it’s loud, and the production is phenomenal. The album opens with “All Dogs Go To Heaven” which has a beat that sounds like it’s sampling a video game, and every track after keeps up with its excitement. No track feels out of place, and every part of it works. Each track feels unique while also fitting in very well with the rest of the album.

The album got pretty good reviews, and their fans were pretty satisfied with the release. Suicideboys are known for controversy and darker lyrics with a nightmarish feel, and this album definitely delivers. “MEGA ZEPH,” which the track title is based off of a rundown roller coaster in Six Flags New Orleans, feels like horror and then ends with screaming lyrics about the devil and drugs into the mic.

It’s an album that goes hard, and isn’t afraid to do what it wants to do. I would recommend this album if you like energetic, darker, music. I think it’s safe to say this is a step in the right direction for Suicideboys, and I can’t wait to see what they come out with next.

‘To All the Boys P.S. I Still Love You’ review

In April 2014 To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before was published by Jenny Han who followed with two more books: P.S. I Still Love You (2015)and Always and Forever, Lara Jean (2017).

After watching P.S. I Still Love You I was disappointed. I was expecting a big feud between Peter Skavinsky and John Ambrose, but Ambrose wasn’t even in the movie much. They had times where they met and talked but it was mostly still about Peter and Lara.

I would give this movie three out of five stars as there where parts of the movie that lacked emotion and were just slow paced. Also the characters were still brand new even though we were in the second movie. I also thought that Peter was portrayed as a bad boyfriend the whole movie and they put a halo on John making him seem like he was the good guy, and for them to just get back together doesn’t make sense.

Nova Miller

Image taken from: https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8547885/nova-miller-do-it-to-myself-video

At only 18 years old, Nova Miller has already debuted a new single and a wonderfully made music video. 

She was born in July of the year 2001, in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a very talented singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. She has her very own blog and newsletter. She went on tour in 2019 to Los Angeles, California and Sweden. At only thirteen years old she was thought to be the next big thing in pop. 

Her personal theme and the vibe in the music video is very retro fancy. I love the general feel of the song and the video. I’d like to point out the mixture of retro and pop that really makes her song unique. The song is called “Do It To Myself” and it’s about toxic relationships. The lyrics describe a flaw that she has in a relationship.

The contrast and significant amounts of wardrobe changes really brings the story together. I really love the ‘70s and ‘80s trend she has. The song is easy to relate to; it’s about being insecure in relationships and avoiding opening up so you don’t get hurt.

I feel that the lyrics are a bit standard in today’s music industry and you can’t find the unique part in the lyrics. The song itself, without considering the lyrics, is very catchy and fun to listen to. 

I love her description of the song and her music because it really makes you lean in. She says “‘Do It To Myself’ is not what you think it is. At first it’s a guitar-driven retro bop but it’s really about the worst form of going crazy, driving yourself crazy! My favorite part of the song is the ‘California Dreaming’ reference like the layered vintage vocals that take you all the way to summer and back.’”

Her vocal range is remarkable, she effortlessly sings deep and slow notes, whilst being able to hit a perfect whistle note. She demonstrates her singing abilities on many social media accounts such as TikTok and Instagram. She also includes a few tips and tricks to help with your singing which I think is nice. 

She has her new single and she says there’s more on the way.

‘Iron Blooded Orphans’

The Netflix show, Iron Blooded Orphans, also known as Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans, is a story set around 300 years after something called the Calamity War. The Calamity War refers to a great conflict between the Earth and Outer Spheres that lead to the establishment of the Post Disaster Timeline. 

The war put Mobile Suits in high demand, and the mass fighting caused a lot of destruction. Mobile Suits are humanoid combat vehicles, typically employing two arms to deploy weapons, two legs for propulsion, and a head that acts as a main camera. Generally, a mobile suit is approximately 60 feet in height, with the cockpit located in the Mobile Suit’s torso.

In the story humanity has terraformed Mars. The Mars colony is still under an Earth-based rule and is effectively an economic slave state that now wants its independence. This creates child soldiers that make up the ranks of a civilian security company called Chryse Guard Security. This force is tasked with escorting a Martian noblewoman called Kudelia Aina Bernstein to Earth to go against Mars being under earth’s rule. The Earth military force of Gjallarhorn has plans to stop this escort to earth so that Mars can stay under Earth’s rule. 

All the complex machines they use something called the Alaya-Vijnana System, which is a cybernetic interface across the spine that directly connects the machine to the pilot. The children use the cybernetic interface, or the Alaya-Vijnana System, to create an army of child soldiers that are remarkably adept at handling complex machinery but are a cheap and expendable workforce from a business standpoint. The Alaya-Vijnana System process is a dangerous one to make and almost any adult would not survive the process if they tried to have it done. The group of child soldiers is called Tekkadan.

So, the Gundam series Iron-Blooded Orphans is without a doubt among the best the Gundam franchise has to offer, especially when it comes to the alternate series in the franchise. This is aimed at older audiences since it has a brutal, and very gritty story. I would recommend this to people who like a good story, like seeing big battles with mobile suits and Gundams, and like great character development. 

‘Super Smash Bros Ultimate’

Super Smash Bros Ultimate Review 

Super Smash Bros Ultimate is a fighting game, for the Nintendo Switch, based around popular and well known characters across Nintendo and other games.

Now, today, the game is even more popular than before with more characters added to it. At the start, it only had eight playable characters, but now has 72 playable characters and is still growing. Super Smash Bros Ultimate is the 5th title of the Smash series. 

The main game mode “Fight” is what most people play online where it is multiplayer with other people that also play Super Smash Bros Ultimate. In “Fight” game mode it can involve up to eight players, or computer programmed players (CP’s), to fight each other.

The fighters in Smash Bros Ultimate need to be balanced for competitive players and causal players. Nintendo has learned over time to make these fighters balanced so they won’t be unfair. Most characters are hard to master and takes time to learn how to play them effectively. This is very crucial for the game’s success.

For more information, please visit: www.denofgeek.com/us/games/super-smash-bros/241515/super-smash-bros-nintendo-history

‘Simcity Build It’™️

I’d like to talk about an app that has taught me, and other kids, about the world we live in and how our society works in real life. The app is called Simcity Build It.

In this app, you can start on a blank land. With each level you increase your population. To do that, you have to build their homes. To do that, you also have to collect the materials for building the homes.

When you get to a certain level you have to provide safety (police, fire people, etc.) and health care. If you don’t have the money to build the fire stations, police stations, water pumping stations, sewage disposals and government buildings your population will go down, and people will abandon their homes.

This game has taught me and many others how cities work. 

Many of my friends play this game as well. I asked them questions so I could see how much they have invested in this game, and how much they have learned from this game. I also asked them about how their cities are doing.

The first person I interviewed was my good friend Ella Ramirez. When I asked how much time she had invested she said, “Two hours a day.” She also mentioned how she has been on the app for 5 months in total.

I also asked her things she has learned about the game and she said, “When not enough is provided for the people they get upset and leave.” She also added, “The bigger the city the more the pollution, and the quality of the city goes down.”

A more personal question I asked was “How was your city doing?” and she said “It’s doing really well. I’m really happy with the way it is functioning. I’m also really happy with the design it is in at the moment. It is formatted into different sections of areas of more calmness and more business giving the Sims different options based on the building they are living in. They are also arranged based on the height, the taller and fancier buildings are in the more busy area while the smaller and more tranquil buildings are in the calmer area.”

That concludes my interview with Ella Ramirez.

Screenshot of Olivia’s Sim City

I also asked my teacher Mrs. Kallestad, about the game and what she thinks about students using the game.

When I asked her about her opinions, it seemed like she was very curious about it. She was curious about how the cities work and also seemed to be very interested in the people behind the game and how they managed their cities.

She was also very interested about the names of people’s cities, as some are not appropriate for kids.

Another topic that Mrs. Kallestad was sort of heated up on was the fact that a big city was equal to a successful city, another player and I were telling her that that was the whole point.

That concludes my interview with Mrs. Kallestad. 

Overall, most people seem to be interested in the game but have very different opinions because Mrs. Kallestad doesn’t seem to like the game very much. This is probably because it distracts her students, but Ella, as a player, sees the game in a different perspective in an educational point of view.

Lil Wayne: ‘Funeral’

Lil Wayne’s album Funeral came out January 31st after it was first announced in 2016. If you flip the cover upside down it cleverly also spells Lil Wayne. The album is a continuation of his 2010 album Rebirth. Funeral is Lil Wayne’s fifth album to go number one on the charts. It has many featured artists including names such as Adam Levine, 2 Chainz, and XXXTentacion.

“I Do It” was the only single released from the album. Funeral has 24 tracks and the album as a whole takes an hour and sixteen minutes to listen through. Plus, with ten features it’s no wonder why the album feels bloated.

I personally had a hard time getting through the middle slog because the songs didn’t offer much for me to grab onto. I was writing my passing thoughts on the songs while I was listening and, while the first few tracks I had a good amount of notes for, I really couldn’t find anything memorable in most of the songs after.

The album does have a tribute to the late Kobe Bryant ,who died in a helicopter crash just five days before the release of Funeral. In the song, Lil Wayne and Jay Rock rap about achieving king status in the game just like Kobe with basketball. It ends with 24 seconds of silence. 

Funeral was given mixed reviews. Some critics felt it was too long and unoriginal while others thought it was decent, but certainly not the best. It’s something that fans of Lil Wayne will enjoy, but not an album that will catch your attention if you’re not already familiar with him. 

It seems like the album doesn’t really know what it’s doing. It throws everything out there, but only a few songs are strong enough to stick. It’s a good album, just not cohesive enough, and it offers very little.

Would I recommend this album? Well, yes, if you’re a Lil Wayne fan or big into rap, but if you’re just looking for something to casually bop to or an intro to Wayne’s music then this album probably isn’t the direction to go. It certainly doesn’t live up to his older classics.

The impact Kpop has on the American music industry

Recently the Kpop Industry has made a rise to fame in the western music industry.

Image taken from: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmxrich.co%2Fthe-best-kpop-boy-group-2019%2F&psig=AOvVaw3i1JCllmCIW8r3laZhjAk4&ust=1581183554272000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA0QjhxqFwoTCPD0ufT9v-cCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAT

The popularity of Kpop has gone up tremendously since 2018. Since then, many groups have teamed up with American music record companies to expand their audience.

For example BTS, a well known Kpop group, has broken many world wide records on many platforms. On Youtube they have constantly broken records for the most views in 24 hours, their music video (MV) for “Boy With Luv” got 74.6 million views in 24 hours beating Blackpink’s, a fellow Kpop group’s, “Kill This Love” MV. The biggest accomplishment so far is BTS being the first Korean group to perform at the Grammys.

Being a Kpop fan is different than being an American music fan. In the Kpop industry you have different versions of Kpop albums. The album includes photo cards, which are pictures of each member of the group. Also, the album includes a photo book, which is just a bunch of pictures from a photo shoot, a poster, and a CD for the album.

Another thing that the Kpop industry does is have light sticks at their concerts so the artists can interact with their fans. Unlike many American boy and girl artists, they sing and dance during concerts with full choreography for each song.

Ever since Kpop has become a popular genre to listen to many artists have “borrowed” many ideas from the Kpop industry. For example, Taylor Swift has four versions of her new album lover and it includes different photos of her.

Additionally, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran have given their fans flashlight attachments to go on their phone cameras so they can interact with fans during a concert.

Recently, the Jonas Brothers have made a comeback with their song “Sucker.” On Twitter they posted saying that “DNA,” a BTS song, inspired the music video for “Sucker.”

Animation software review

RPG Maker MV is a game making software that allows you to make a game from a template that has already been set down for you. Inside the software there is some more software for making animations. These animations can range from attacking, healing, and cut-scenes, or maybe blending it all together.

This app features scaling which makes it so you can make animations larger or smaller even if you have already completed the animation set.

Overall, this is a great start for animation for games. I would use it for many other things mainly because I haven’t had a chance to experience that part, and I don’t know what other easier softwares are out there.

‘Link’s Awakening’

Link’s Awakening, is yet another remake of a Zelda game, since Nintendo isn’t in the business of producing anything original. Originally released on the Game Boy, sometime in the 90’s, it was one of the first Zelda games ever, meaning that it is in turn, one of the most influential.

The remake of this game came out last year, and I got it for Christmas. The Legend of Zelda franchise is my favorite game franchise of all time, so I was excited to play this for the first time. But, I can firmly say that after playing it for just a few hours, this is a forgettable entry in the Zelda series.

Link’s Awakening should be a fun game, and for the most part it is, but it never really captivated me like other Zelda titles have. For starters, it’s a lot more linear, up to the point where once you leave every dungeon a talking owl just tells you where the next one is. It’s still up to you to find out where they are and how to get there, and that’s my main problem with this game.

There is absolutely no sense of direction. After every dungeon, it’s implied that you need to go back to areas you couldn’t before with whatever item you got, but the map is so big, it’s hard to figure out where you are supposed to go. Also, there’s a bunch of forced side quests in between that make you travel across the map several times over for no real reason. This gets confusing very quickly, and even though it takes the mystery out of it, I would just look up a guide.

One thing this game has going for it is its looks. It has a toy style of artwork that makes everyone in the game look like, well, a toy. The top down perspective of the game makes you feel like you are in a plastic diorama moving characters around.

The game plays well enough, like most top down Zelda games. The sword swinging animation is satisfying enough, and once you get Roc’s feather, which lets you jump and battle in 3D, the combat really shines. But like most things in the game, it has an underlying flaw. 

To use almost any item in the game that is not the sword or the dash boots, you have to select it to one of two item spots. This was understandable in the original game, because the Gameboy had a lot less buttons than the Switch does, but now that we have so many buttons, why should we be limited to using two items at a time? I wasted a lot of time switching items in the menu because of this.

So yeah, those are my thoughts on Link’s Awakening. Did I like it? Yeah, it was fun enough, but I have a hard time recommending it to anyone who is not a diehard Zelda fan or a 12-year-old. I mean that seriously, my little brother loved this game. It was one of the only Switch games he’s ever beaten before me.

My final rating for this game is 7/10.