Category: reviews
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The happenings of Homecoming
As a sophomore, I was reluctant to attend this year’s homecoming dance as I didn’t have the excuse of being a freshman, nor the experience of an upper classman. After watching a variety of…
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James Spader revives career with The Blacklist
James Spader made a bold comeback with The Blacklist, the show USA Today is calling the fall’s number one new drama. This is Spader’s first hit since Boston Legal, which ended over five years…
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“So You Think You Can Dance” tour amazes Jester
On Tuesday, October 22, the top ten dancers from the competition show So You Think You Can Dance performed live in Durham at DPAC. The tickets, while slightly expensive at $60.00, were well worth…
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Gravity movie review
The movie Gravity premiered on Oct. 4 and has dominated the box office since. It stayed on top for the three weeks is has been in theaters above the premieres of Carrie, Escape Plan…
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CATS mystifies Memorial
From October 8-13, Memorial Auditorium hosted CATS for the kickoff of the 2013-2014 Broadway Series South season. My mother and I scored tickets for the musical on October 10. I had never seen the…
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The League review
The League embarked on its fifth season with the start of this year’s NFL regular season, and it’s looking great. The League follows a fictional eight-man fantasy football league through relatively insane antics, usually…
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Bieber makes a mature comeback to music
Justin Bieber, one of society’s more controversial pop stars, has had it rough this year. With all of the negative headlines and criticism in constant rotation, many of us believed that 2013 would be…
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My experience with the Blind Boys
It’s no secret that I’m a serious boy band fanatic. With the exception of The Wanted and One Direction, I will listen to any boy band from anywhere. However, the Blind Boys of Alabama…
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Pearl Jam Preview
Pearl Jam is releasing their tenth studio album, Lightning Bolt, on October 15. The album is already available for pre-sale via iTunes. The band has created hype through Instagram, in true millennial style. It has…
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The Crucible Review
The North Raleigh Arts and Creative Theater Recently put on the show The Crucible. The play’s cast consisted of teenagers and showed from Sept. 13-29. The Crucible, written in 1953, is about the Salem…
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Lilly’s pizza review
Lilly’s Pizza, located at 1813 Glenwood Avenue, is the epitome of a downtown ‘hole in the wall’ restaurant. Immediately when I walked in,brightly colored and eye-catching ornaments drew me to the back of the…
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Disney Channel’s I Didn’t Do It shouldn’t be done
Finally, after beating it with a stick, milking it dry and draining the life out of small children, Disney Channel has called it quits on Good Luck Charlie. A spokesperson for the network confirmed…
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The Wolf of Wall Street is expected to impress
2013 is a big year for the movie industry. With highly anticipated films like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Thor: The Dark World coming out later this year, there is excitement among moviegoers…
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The Cowfish is crazy good
“And so was the ‘tail’ of the cow and the fish From two separate places they had but one wish To bring to the world in a way, so delish An unusual place to…
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IMBA festival
Overalls and hay. Toothless hicks and whiny vocals. Simple country music for simple, country folk. All things that may come to one’s mind when presented with the idea of Bluegrass. This past week, however,…
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iOS7 is actually genius
“With iOS 7, every detail warranted the same rigor toward design. Like refining the typography down to the pixel. Redrawing every icon around a new grid system. Sticking to a precise color palette. And…
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Held Captive by Prisoners
How far would you go to protect your child? The single question that echoes throughout the entire two and a half hours of Prisoners. Friday, Sept. 20, the movie-going audience of America welcomed a…
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All the way from EXO Planet
So far, 2013 has proved to be a great year for Korean pop music. G-Dragon’s “Coup D’etat” has just broken Billboard’s top 200 international albums and KCON 2013 was a huge success. But one…
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Swift Paints the Town Red
Last Friday, September 13, the PNC Arena was immersed in Red. Returning for the third time in six years to Raleigh, Taylor Swift proved that heartbreak is a lifetime affair. Opening with “State of…
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Slow dancing with John Mayer
“I’m headed out west with my headphones on, boarded a flight with a song in the back of my soul, and no one knows” — The first words crooning out of John Mayer, the…
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K-Pop star G-Dragon hits the stage with Missy Elliott
G-Dragon and Missy Elliott took the stage at KCON 2013 in one of the most talked-about K-Pop collaborations to date. They debuted their song “Niliria” live in front of thousands of fans. Unfortunately for…
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Drake’s new album is ready to crush billboard charts
“Started a label, the album is comin’ September, just wait on it.” That’s right, Drake’s third album is coming out this month. The album will feature a number of artists: Jay-Z, Sampho, Big Sean,…
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Orange is the New Black is outstanding
Orange is the New Black is a dramatic comedy series on Netflix following the prison life of Piper Chapman, a woman arrested for a ten-year-old drug charge. Piper’s story is a compelling, honest and…
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ABC Family adds an exciting new Twist to its lineup
What is it about mysteries that excite the teenage mind? With the sudden onslaught of murder mystery dramas in the past few years, ABC Family’s Twisted adds an exciting new spin to an otherwise…
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Elevate Your Burger at Elevation Burger
Elevation Burger is sweeping the nation. Starting in 2005, Hans and April Hess have opened 47 stores across the nation; on Saturday August 17th, they opened their most recent store in Brier Creek, which…
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Raleigh joins “No Shoes Nation”
After a year’s hiatus, Kenny Chesney returned to Raleigh on Thursday, May 23, for his “No Shoes Nation” tour. Having never seen him live before, my expectations were low, but were quickly blown away…
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App of the Month: Vine
Unfortunately, the App of the Month is a social networking app: Vine. Another social networking app. At this point it’s getting hard to keep up with all of them. Vine is an app that…
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Artsplosure Review
Every year since 1980, downtown Raleigh has hosted the Artsplosure Festival. Artsplosure, which was May 17 through 19 this year, fills Moore Square, City Plaza and the surrounding streets with food trucks, booths selling…
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Inside the Box, Outside the Lines impresses
The Mainstage Theatrics class always finds a way to end their performing season with a bang and a laugh. This year, the class took on the challenge of performing Inside the box, Outside the…
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Music to my ears: The Weeknd
Abel Tesfaye, known by his stage name The Weeknd, is a Canadian singer and record producer. Originally, in 2010, Tesfaye uploaded songs to YouTube under the name ‘The Weeknd’, and no one knew his…
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Review of 42
42 tells the true tale of ex-Major League Baseball (MLB) player Jackie Robinson, the first African American in the MLB. Jackie Robinson, a pioneer for African Americans a decade before the Civil Rights Movement,…
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Mad Men Season 6 provides interesting storylines
I don’t watch a lot of live TV. So, when I enjoy a show enough to make the time to watch it live, it really means something. One of the shows that I make…
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Modern Vampires Proves third time’s the charm
Vampire Weekend’s third album is unlike their previous two, but it’s fantastic. Modern Vampires of the City is a more mature album made by four guys who are no longer just out of Columbia.…
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Covington’s last concert
On May 3 Diane Covington led her last chorus concert at Leesville Road High School. This year’s spring concert served as a goodbye for not only Covington, but the current seniors in chorus. All…
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Google Glass review
After completing my original article pertaining to Google’s latest product, I started to think about how a technology of this sort would impact me, an 18-year-old female about to enter the world of college.…
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Iron Man 3: Theatre gold
A year since his last appearance in The Avengers, Tony Stark returns to the third installment of the Iron Man series. Iron Man 3 is the best movie of the series by far. I…
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Music to my ears: Drake
Actor. Singer. Recording artist. Rapper. Songwriter. Aubrey Drake Graham, who goes by the name “Drake”, is an incredibly versatile artist. He was born in Toronto, Ontario and first gained fame from his appearance on…
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Hairspray earns 5 out of 5 stars
Wow. Just wow. That was my first response upon seeing the Leesville High production of Hairspray. The musical has something for everyone; singing, dancing, comedic wit and even a bit of history. Set in…
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Viewers dive into Splash
As my avid fans will attest, and as I will shamelessly admit, I have a slight obsession with reality television competitions. The Voice, The Sing-Off, The Apprentice, Duets, American Idol, The Taste, Dancing With…
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Veronica Mars is out of this world
Veronica Mars is a show about the intelligent and defiant 17-year-old investigator, Veronica Mars. Beginning the show as a fiercely independent social reject; Veronica seeks justice for the murder of her best friend, Lilly…
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Justice for Justice
The conversion of teen clothing store Limited Too into Justice happened about four years ago. Tween Brands, the company owning Limited Too and Justice, most likely initiated the change in response to the economic…
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Identity Thief steals the show
Imagine somebody stole your identity. You now both share a name, date of birth, social security number, and bank account. This is what happened to Sandy Patterson, an average hard-working businessman, when Diana, an…
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PDQ raises the bar for fast-food
New to Raleigh this winter, on the outside, PDQ looks like a typical fast-food restaurant. The drive-through looks standard, and the building’s facade looks normal. What, then, makes PDQ stand out? PDQ, which officially…
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Reluctant to try Travinia twice
Upon walking through the rustic threshold of Travinia, the warm atmosphere was unmistakable. Combined accents of leather, wood and stone produced the feeling of a Northern Californian vineyard. The ambiance was incredible, thanks to…
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Safe Haven Sparks flames
The latest movie adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks book had been released in movie theaters on Valentine’s day. Safe Haven centers around families, relationships and dark mysteries. After so long, it seems writers of…
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Beautiful Creatures casts a spell on movie viewers
Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros. Entertainment released Beautiful Creatures to movie theaters on Valentine’s day. Beautiful Creatures is based of the book series by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia. As the lights fade,…
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Music to my ears–Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars (born Peter Gene Hernandez) is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. Mars was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii by a family of musicians. He began recording music at a young age,…
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Tamagotchi is better than ever
If you are a true ‘90s kid, you know what a Tamagotchi is. The small, egg shaped toy was a necessity to any cool kid’s repertoire. But now the teenagers with the hearts of…
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A case for John Irving
Salinger, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald and Hemingway are all readily recognized and praised as great American authors. There’s one name — though not necessarily in the same league as the others — that doesn’t often fall…
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Safe Haven disappoints
The twisted, dark romantic novel Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks is a stark contrast against the cheesy movie adaptation. As an avid Nicholas Sparks reader, I was sorely disappointed with the movie Safe Haven…