Katniss Everdeen was my idol when I was about 12 years old. It got to a weird point where I would wear my hair in a single braid off to the side just like she did. Thankfully I grew out of that phase, but the inner child in me came back when I saw “A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.”
Music is an entity that we meet throughout our lives. We cannot physically touch or communicate with it, but it is the biggest phenomenon that touches our souls in unexplainable ways. We rely on music to get us through sad, happy, rough and exciting times.
As 2023 comes to an end, it is time to reflect on the notable music that the year has brought us. This year has produced some of my favorite albums, one of them being Chappell Roan’s debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.”
SPOILER ALERT: I give you permission to ignore this article if you have not watched the finale of “The Golden Bachelor.” But it aired five days ago; go watch! Gerry Turner is good television. It is as simple as that. The man dubbed “The Golden Bachelor” has charmed 21 eligible women and millions of viewers, including me, over the past nine weeks.
Sophia Chovanes is a so-called “super” senior art education major at Shippensburg University. She currently has work displayed in the Brindle and Kauffman galleries in the Huber Art Center on campus.
Since 2014, The Game Awards has been an annual ceremony for the videogame industry and its fans to celebrate the games that were released that year. Since the year is ending, that means The Game Awards is soon to be here, and to prepare gamers for it, the nominees were announced Nov. 13. Here are my thoughts on the Game of The Year (GOTY) nominees.
A lot of my favorite songs took me a couple listens to fully love, and that is definitely the case with Megan Thee Stallion’s latest single “Cobra.” Like her other song “Anxiety,” her lyrics talk exclusively of her mental health struggles over the years. I had a hard time getting into the lyrics on first listen, but after a couple plays, I think their meaning is beyond the surface level.
I was not surprised whenever I saw that “The Marvels” had a 62% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) has been a superhero that I have loved for a while now, so I was excited to see another film with her in it. I was skeptical into how the dynamic between Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel or Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) would be.
The Bored Teachers Comedy tour came to Shippensburg on Thursday, Nov. 9, in the Luhrs Performing Arts Center. With a rotating cast of teacher-comedians, the tour declares itself to be “the #1 teacher entertainment platform in the world.”
Brit Floyd, a Pink Floyd tribute band, came to Luhrs Performing Arts Center on Nov. 5. Brit Floyd celebrated the 50-year anniversary of Pink Floyd’s most iconic album, “The Dark Side of the Moon.” Brit Floyd, led by vocalist, guitarist and musical director Damien Darlington, played some of the UK-based band’s hits from the ‘70s for nearly three hours.
The Scholastic 144 Art Exhibit opened Saturday, Nov. 7 at 1 p.m. in the Kauffman Gallery at Shippensburg University. The exhibition features 35 entries from high school juniors and seniors from select counties in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
I will be the first to admit that I am a secret-lover of funk music. Something about the 70s soulful sounds just make for the perfect vibe. With that being said, I will be the first to admit that Tower of Power was not a band that ever came across my radar. Even before their performance on Friday, I checked with a resident music lover (my mother) who had never heard of the ensemble group before. So, I went into this performance completely blind.
As I watched television as a kid, I never really saw African American representation.This made me feel as if I had no inspiration or even a cartoon with my skin color to look up to when I was a kid. When I started seeing characters like Tiana, Jasmine or Doc McStuffins on Disney, it made me feel special and I wanted to be just like them. Also, it relieved me in a way as I got older because of finally seeing diversity. As I find myself in the movie “Hidden Figures,” I found this important to me because of embracing myself as a proud black woman, being proud to show my intelligence through education and inspiring me to never hide my strengths because of the judgment around me.
Every theater kid has an origin story – a moment where they realized their true passion for the arts. For many, this realization came from the musical “Wicked,” which just celebrated its 20th anniversary on Broadway. Ozians from the show’s past came together for the performance at Gershwin Theatre on Oct. 30, exactly 20 years after its initial performance.
My first time ever seeing “The Nutcracker” was actually the performance by the State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine at the Luhrs Performing Art Center in Nov. 2022. I initially went for the sake of getting photos, but found myself enraptured by the magic of the dancing and music. I’m always impressed when stories can be told only through the visuals and body movement rather than spoken dialogue. Needless to say, I was thrilled to see this troupe would be returning once again and they haven’t skipped a beat.
Boygenius released their second EP, “the rest,” on Oct. 13, which is a continuation of their full-length debut album “the record” released in March.
Shippensburg was transported to a galaxy far, far away thanks to one man. Luhrs Performing Arts Center welcomed Charlie Ross, the writer and performer of “One Man Star Wars Trilogy,” on Oct. 26.
When searching for new synth music to play on my radio show one night, I happened across something thrilling: The Crüxshadows had released not one, but two new singles.
If you are a reader who also exists on TikTok, then the chances are you have heard of Colleen Hoover. Hoover initially started her writing career as a self-publishing author, publishing her first novel titled “Slammed” in 2012. She however gained worldwide attention, including mine, especially on the social media platform, TikTok, from her novel “It Ends With Us” published in 2016.
