A&E

Poetry Showcase and Finals

May 30, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Lauren Nicolella

Staff Writer

On Thursday, May 25th, the SLA Poetry Club finally hosted their annual Poetry Showcase.

The original slam, scheduled for February, got postponed multiple times due to weather and half days.

The problem with the planned showcase earlier in the year was the lack of poems the club had prepared, and a lack of a steady amount of people. Now, there are a lot of pieces ready and more to come, in preparation for the PYPM slam league finals.

Some of these poems were performed for the first time at the showcase for future slams, others had already been performed at competitions. Sophomore Kimberly Gucciardi-Kriegh was able to give information about some of the pieces.

“We are going to be competing in the PYPM finals, and all of the poems we’re going to be putting up for finals, are also going to be in the showcase. We get to test out these poems on a real audience and see what they react to and what they like.”

With the news of there being a newly planned poetry showcase, it excited those who did not get the chance to go last year or in February. One of those students was Sophomore Miguel Rivera. He explained how this one is at a more convenient time of the year, and how excited he is to see his friends perform.

“I really like poems, and my best friend Kimberly is going to be there, so I have to support her. I went last year and it was interesting.”

The hosts of this year’s event were sophomores Afi Koffi, Jowon Dorbor, and Nzinga Bey, along with Kyianna Thomas as the DJ. Afi and Jowon themselves opened up the show with their “Finesse Poem,” explaining the works of Snapchat and capturing the perfect selfie to send to your streaks.

There were multiple poems performed by students of all grades, speaking on topics like politics to using cats and mice as metaphors. Mr. Kay himself closed the event by performing a heart-wrenching short piece about his trip to Cambodia.

The money that was raised at the showcase will go towards a trip that the Poetry Club will take together.

After a rocky start to the season, the SLA poetry club has improved as a whole since February, and the showcase has the team ready for their appearance in the finals.

The final competition takes place on Friday, June 2nd at Gershman Y on Broad Street.

Movie Review: Look Thou Eyes Into the Void

May 9, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Fatu Castillo

Staff Writer

I’ll be honest and say that if you have epilepsy or a weak stomach, you can save yourself some time and just click on a different review, because this one ain’t for you.

Not only will you most likely have seizure from the flashing effects but you’ll also unload the contents of your stomach watching Hellish, grotesque monsters roam around the screen. Turn away now, I’m not about to be responsible for you doing either of those things because you just had to watch the movie I reviewed.

I ain’t having that on my conscious.

I’m normally not a fan of horror movies, I’ve admitted numerous times before, go read I Admit It, I’m A Weenie if you don’t believe me. Say what you will but I take pride in my cowardly nature because I know it would keep me alive in a horror movie.

No sir, the token minority character, that would be me, won’t die this time.

Now all of this should give you reason enough to believe me when I type that this movie had my attention, and kept it, from the first scene. It goes to say something if I, a known coward, will sit through

The movie starts off intense, I saw a women get gunned down as a man runs away, assumedly to his death, as his friend gets drenched with gasoline and set on fire by two obviously compassionate individuals. Then the screens pans over to that handsome man, pictured above, and I was left wondering what the heck was happening.

It didn’t get any better as the movie went on either.

It kept me on my toes the entire run, I was never sure how things would throw down. It was amazing!

That seemingly important deputy that I thought would lead everyone to safety? Dead. Those two men who gunned down and torched a women? Victims. The hospital that everyone is stuck in? A portal to another dimension.

And that’s not even half the stuff that threw me through a loop, that’s just the stuff I could say without spoiling anything.

I definitely recommend watching this if your stomach and brain can take it, you may not like the acting but you won’t be able to stop yourself from watching. The entire time, you’re eyes will be glued, your brain wondering what the heck will happen next?

Earphone Review

May 9, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Saamir Baker

Staff Writer

Introduction

Symphonized is a company that prides themselves on creating products that primarily use wood as the base for creating their music products from speakers, to earbuds, and earphones. Today we will be focusing on a product they have made that is a little over a year old named Symphonized NRG 3.0 Earbuds. From an initial look at the product, they appear to be very rustic which is a definite positive. The earphones and cable also appear to feel very stable compared to other earbuds that sometimes feel very flimsy to the touch.

In Ear Sound

For the price of $25.49, you get sound that I have yet to hear from other earphones at this price point. From the low bass to the trebles of songs these earbuds capture it all and with the projection of the wooden base that makes up the earphones the sound is amplified more than I’ve ever heard with earphones at this price point. The only con with these earphones is the louder you play the music after a few months of usage bass can become distorted at times which takes away from the experience of listening. However this happens rarely.

Overall

If you’re still reading this review and are undecided then my final bid to you is BUY THESE EARPHONES. At this budget priceline you are buying earphones that blows competition out of the market but in design and sound. I have almost nothing but good things to say about these.

Song Review: “Origo”

May 9, 2017 by lpahomov 1 Comment

Maddi Etxebeste

Staff Writer

What is the “Eurovision Song Contest”?

Yearly, a big international music contest is held in Europe, called the Eurovision Song Contest. It is the longest-running annual international TV song competition, held since 1956. It is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world. Each participating country has to submit an original song to be performed on live television and then each country votes giving a certain amount of points to decide who is the winner. Since 1981, the winner country hosts the next year’s contest. This year it is hosted in Kiev, Ukraine, after Jamala’s victory with her emotional song “1994”, which caused controversy in Europe due to its political content.

Almost no Americans watch this contest, although hundreds of millions of people around the globe live for it (including me!)

This year, there is one song that is standing out and impressing Europe: “Origo”, sung by Joci Pápai. This will be the song representing Hungary. Joci Pápai is a Romani-Hungarian singer, rapper, songwriter and guitarist. A popular English term for Romani people is “gipsy”.

This song stands out by having ethnic sounds and dances, and its peculiar chorus. He tackles some tough topics as ethnic discrimination and prejudices. Pápai sings it in Hungarian and he describes his song as a “message of hope and strength” to all the Romani minorities in the world, who, in some countries, may feel mistreated. He also explains how he found his strength in God and he describes himself as a “believer, dreamer, father, fighter, singer, and Samurai”.

The song also tells the story of a Romani man, him, falling in love with a White European woman, and how belonging to the ethnicity he belongs to was a problem that kept them apart from each other, as he says in the song: “Hogy meghódítsd a szívem ismerned kell lelkemet” which means something like “To conquer my heart you must know my soul.”

I wanted to do a review about this song because ethnic minorities in many countries suffer from not being treated the same way as natives, and because SLA has people from different cultures within the community, and if they never feel bad because of their origins this song shows how a man is having the same troubles. Maybe you can get to feel, or at least see how he suffered with the tone of his voice.

The first time I heard this song, along with the others presented this year, I was really surprised and I didn’t really know what I just heard. First of all, I don’t understand Hungarian, but I’m pleased that he decided to sing in his national language because most of the other songs are nowadays sung in English to “make it more international”. The song could be described by people as “weird”, because it is obvious that it is not a song that is going to be played in the radio stations worldwide and that it will not please most of the people if they listen to it for the first or second time.

The live performance add a lot to the song. Pápai appears with a woman who dances with a Romani style and with movements similar to “flamenco” dances in Spain. In the official video this woman also appears dancing and there are also shots of someone’s hand touching his heart. Even if the staging is not extraordinary it complements the song, the singer, and the dancer.

Something that can also surprise the audience is how “ethnic” the song sounds and suddenly hearing how Pápai starts to rap, and is combining two styles that are completely different.

“this song is a blend of styles: electronic beats, Hungarian popular music and gipsy style.” Once, in an interview, he was asked why did he add the part of the rap in the song, and he answered “In the Eurovision Song Contest songs can only last three minutes as a maximum, and rap is the best way I can say all the things I want to say and fast enough to tell you all of them”.

Even if this song has a meaning that has to do politics, being politics a topic that the contest wants to keep apart from the festival and focus on the music, the song is receiving a good acceptance within the “Eurofan” (Eurovision Song Contest fan) community. In the betting odds provided by www.eurovisionworld.com, one of the most known Eurovision websites, he is placed 14th out of 42 countries, which is a very good placement and means that he is seen as an absolute qualifier for the finals.

I wish him and his team the best, because Hungary is not a country that has always sent good songs, but this one is making the difference and may have a good result. Though, in the semifinals of this year most of the songs are balanced and some good entries will fail to qualify just for a few points, so no one knows what could happen. In any case, he deserves qualifying to the finals and finishing in the top 15.

He will compete in the second semifinal which will take place on Thursday, May 11th. The grand final is on Saturday, May 13th.

Official Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LflrKXL022U

National Final Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2stjsoO0NfM

Movie Review: Fate of the Furious

May 9, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Deja Harrison

Staff Writer

The Fast and the Furious is an action series that is centered around insanely fast and illegal car races, heist and family. The recurring theme in the films are family is everything and they focus heavily on loyalty and trust. The films have been a huge success since the original in 2001.

After the sudden death of main character Paul Walker who played Brian O’Connor in the Fast and Furious series in 2013 many fans speculated about the release and quality of the recent 8th film. Walker played a huge role in all of the movies so the controversy that surrounded movie was very understandable. I decided to take a look at the movie and see if it still lived up to the previous films.

In the Fate of the Furious, or Fast 8 as most would call it, the themes are still very apparent. Dominic played by actor Vin diesel is forced to go against his family/crew by a mysterious female cyber terrorist named Cipher.

She is using his highly trained skills to wreak havoc across the world, her ultimate goal is to have power over all in the world. Dominic’s team consisting of his wife Netty(Michelle Rodriguez), Luke(Dwayne Johnson), Roman(Tyrese), Tej (Ludacris), and Megan(Nathalie Emmanuel) have been assigned to track and put a stop to him and Cipher’s attacks. The team does not know that Cipher is forcing Dominic to go against them, they simply assume that he is going rouge. I don’t want to give too much away but what Cipher is holding over Dominic’s head is huge and is a major game changer for the series.

In all I believe all the doubts on the movies story and overall rank were for nothing. Paul Walker’s death was very tragic and it made it hard for fans to see the films because they couldn’t envision the crew without him. The crew in my opinion did an amazing job honoring him and they kept his name alive in a way that I won’t reveal because it will be a major spoiler. This movie is definitely a must see if you enjoy laughs, family and some nice kick butt action. I recommend it to all.