Reviews
What to look for:
Movies:
– Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, and more
Release Date: December 15
– La La Land
Staring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone
Release Date: December 16
– Collateral Beauty
Staring Will Smith
Release Date: December 16
Music:
– J. Cole
4 Your Eyez Only album
Release Date: December 9
– Neil Young
Peace Trail album
Release Date: December 9
– Kid Cudi
Passion, Pain, and Demon Slayin’ album.
Release Date: December 16
-Mac Miller
Performing at the Ritz Raleigh
December 17
– Lil Uzi Vert
Performing at the Ritz Raleigh
December 19
Shows:
– Fuller House
Season two coming out on Netflix
Release Date: December 9
Clothing:
– Yeezy
Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 V2 “Black/White”
Release Date: December 17
The Good:
POSITALIA – –
(Restaurant)
Positalia, a new addition to the Brier Creek Commons, has the option of ordering from a preset menu or building their own dish — customers have the opportunity to dine in or order take out. Their menu style is as authentic as a fast casual restaurant can be.
Positalia offers pastas, paninis, sandwiches and salads. Customers begin at one side of a prep line and move down while choosing which ingredients they’d like. After the desired ingredients are compiled, customers are greeted by a new employee who will place a piece of Italian bread near their dish, offer a drink, and cash them out. Although it is similar to other fast casual restaurants in the Raleigh area, it does differ in variety of options.
Positalia provides 5 different sauces, 4 different meats, and 1 noodle type. For sandwiches, panini’s and salads, Positalia offers a larger variety of vegetables to choose from.
The meal portions are fairly large which makes the high prices accaptable in comparison to other fast casual restaurants. The layout of the restaurant is very modern and family styled.
Overall, Positalia had a casual atmosphere and impressive food.
COMPARE TO: MOES
AWAKEN, MY LOVE —
(Album)
Childish Gambino released a new album December 2, 2016 titled Awaken, My Love. The new album marks a drastically different direction for the artist– moving away from his rap profile to a more music producer, funk and soul profile.
The album had been predicted to showcase Gambino’s musical ability in ways we have never seen. Featuring songs like “California” which embodies a beachy tone with reggae hints and “Stand Tall” where Gambino features his vocals and soul instrumentals, Gambino didn’t disappoint, giving his fans an album that provides a soulful and meaningful soundtrack.
Gambino has delivered a new meaning to the word funk, developing an album that integrates his modern knowledge of the rap world and his gospel roots. The new album has pleased many of Gambino’s fans and is continuing to gain respect in a variety of music genres.
Awaken, My Love is available now. COMPARE TO: GOSPEL FUNK
HOUSEPARTY —
(App)
Houseparty is a new app created by Alexander Herzick that allows you to talk to up to 8 people at a time. Like the name suggests, you can have a “party” and video chat with several of your friends without leaving the comfort of your home.
When you open the app, you’re greeted by the front facing camera. To see your friends, you either swipe down or tap on the circle at the top of the screen. Adding friends is simple: just tap on the three lines at the top left hand corner. What if your friends aren’t on Houseparty? Just invite them to join by tapping the icon on the top right hand corner. Samsung users can even continue to talk while on other apps.
Houseparty isn’t perfect, however.
The app is pretty confusing to navigate at first. There is no way to have everybody join a room at the same time; two people need to start a chat and then more people can join. In addition, the camera and microphone quality isn’t always great. Sometimes the sound becomes laggy and cuts people off. It’s also very easy to accidentally leave the “room”.
But overall, the app is a great addition to the app store. It would be helpful for an impromptu study session, a meeting, or just to hang out.
COMPARE TO: FACETIME
BLUE & LONESOME —
(Album)
The Rolling Stones’ new album, Blue & Lonesome, is one of the bluesiest and most invigorating cover albums in recent years. In 1962, three Englishmen obsessed with the American blues met at a jazz club in London. These men — Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones — created “The Rollin’ Stones”, one of the greatest blues/rock bands to come out of England. Blue & Lonesome is certainly a tribute to the band’s origin, as well as their roots in music.
Each song on the album has a very “New -Orleans-dive-bar-cover-band” feel to it, and it should because all of the songs on the album are covers. With this being the band’s first album in over a decade and no original content on the album, releasing an album solely composed of covers is certainly a gutsy move. On the other hand, the tight, quick and punching guitar solos alongside the toe-tapping melodies and the roaring — dare I say it — harmonica solos make each song unique to The Stones and sound like original masterpieces.
Growing up, I always liked the blues, but I was never really interested in it. This album made me love every lyric, note, and riff of the blues rock genre. Blue & Lonesome shows that after fifty years of playing and producing music, The Rolling Stones are still the kings of classic rock.
COMPARE TO: WARPAINT BY THE BLACK CROWES
The Bad
BELIEVE —
(Movie)
In a small town, the same business has funded the annual Christmas festival for years, but suddenly the business closed because of financial problems. This means the festival cannot occur, hundreds of townspeople are out of a job, and everyone blames the business owner.
The owner, Matthew Peyton, is attacked one night on the way home by a outraged former-employee. Peyton is saved by a little boy, named Clarence, and is nursed back to health from Clarence and his mother. Matthew and Clarence form a friendship that teaches one another about the importance of hope and giving to to others.
This was just another average production because it was like any other cliche Christmas movie, it follows the same generic storyline. The actors were just so-so, and the storyline was very predictable and uninteresting. Although, because it was a Christmas movie, it made viewers happy and excited for the holidays.
COMPARE TO: HALLMARK MOVIE
INCARNATE —
(Movie)
The story follows the work of scientist Dr. Seth Ember, who is trying to find and kill the demon who caused the deaths of his wife and son. He attempts to locate her by going into the minds of his possessed patients. After years of searching, he finally finds her when he is asked to “exorcise” an eleven year-old boy named Cameron.
The idea behind the story is interesting: a man seeking to avenge his family by trying to find the demon who killed them. However, the way the movie handled that story was bland at best.
The acting on the part of Aaron Eckhart (who plays Dr. Ember) and David Mazouz (who plays Cameron) was respectable. They both handled their parts well and managed to portray their situation as intense as it needed to be. The viewer could really feel Dr. Ember’s pain because Eckhart played the role so well, and Mazouz managed to cover the stark difference between possessed Cameron and non-possessed Cameron perfectly.
However, the movie was dragged down by a lackluster supporting cast whose acting was unremarkable. The supporting characters were just bland and unmemorable. They all seemed to have the same personality of “oh no this is really bad, I sure hope Dr. Ember can fix this.”
The characters had no depth to them, to the point that for this review I had to look up the names of several of the main supporting cast members because I had forgotten them.
Overall, the movie was another bland horror movie that had promise, but was reduced to being just average by poor acting on the part of the supporting cast.
COMPARE TO: THE EXORSIST
BAPE —
(Clothing)
The Bathing Ape clothing company, also known as Bape, is a Japanese streetwear brand that has gradually gained popularity in the U.S. With 19 stores located in Japan, Bape can also be purchased through the company’s website– bape.com.
The Bathing Ape partners with a variety of other brands, popular media characters, and famous artists. The company designs hoodies, T-shirts, jackets, pants, shoes and more— being most recognizable for their “SHARK HOODIE” and “APE HEAD” characters. Originating in one of the leading fashion centers of the world, The Bathing Ape is not an inexpensive brand. The price of a Bape product can range anywhere from $23 socks to a sweatshirt just shy of $2000.
Bape is a clothing company for those who are devout fashionistas willing to drop three hundred dollars on a crew neck sweatshirt. As for students in high school, the brand is more of a desire than actually obtainable.
COMPARE TO: Surpreme
2016 VS FASHION SHOW–
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show appears annually on international television. This year, more models walked down the Paris runway than any other year. Famous veterans such as, Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner walked the runway, along with some newcomers. The Victoria’s Secret Angels were expected to clear the fashion runway with stellar walks and in-style looks.
The show felt like any other fashion show: In fact, it seem rushed and unimportant. Unlike past years, when the models were pieces of walking art representing specific themes and cultures, this year they had many styles that didn’t follow a theme or order.
The show also included performances by The Weeknd, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. The performers sung a variety of songs that didn’t really fit with the style or look of the models. The Weeknd and Bella Hadid, new VS angel, had just recently broken up and their encounter while on stage was rather tense and awkward for the rest of the audience. Lady Gaga actually seemed to steal the show. On her own, Gaga walked center stage, wearing 10-inch heels, where she unleashed her own set of white, feathery wings. Overall the show wasn’t a cohesive performance.
COMPARE TO: PARIS FASHION WEEK
Editorials
America’s future: two perspectives
Editorials represent a consensus among a newspaper’s (or magazine’s) group of editors. Before writing an editorial, the editors discuss relevant topics and form a group opinion. From there, one editor, overseen by the group of editors, writes the editorial to communicate the editorial board’s opinion.
For each issue of The Mycenaean, our editors feature two or three editorials, usually pertaining to a topic’s effect on students, school and community. While discussing editorial ideas for the December Issue of The Mycenaean, the eight editors could not come to a consensus regarding the outcome of the presidential election.
To please all editors, the board has decided to write two editorials. The first editorial will illustrate the country’s future, living in “Trump World.” The second will further convey what a Trump presidency looks like, in a more positive light.
A Man Unfit to be President
The news of Donald Trump’s victory over Secretary of State Clinton shocked the nation and left many Americans trying to figure out what went wrong.
The result of the election has caused an unprecedented amount of backlash. Many people are expressing the sentiment that while Trump has been elected, his racism, misogyny and xenophobia does not represent the general population. This view is driven further by the fact that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by a margin of over two million votes.
A Trump presidency has many implications. During his campaign, Trump made a wide range of vague claims and promises. He told supporters that he would “drain the swamp”, implying that he would remove the corrupt officials and Wall Street insiders currently in Washington. However, of his new appointments and nominees, most have been working in Washington for years. His Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, worked as the head of the RNC. His other appointments, like Steven Mnuchin, the next potential Treasury Secretary, have serious ties to Wall Street.
The few people that Trump has appointed outside of Washington are worrisome. One of his earliest, and most notable decisions was hiring Steve Bannon to be his chief strategist. Bannon is the president of Breitbart News, a leading outlet for white supremacy and the “alt-right.” Bannon also worked at Goldman Sachs, the investment company, meaning not only is he racist and sexist, he’s also close to Wall Street.
His other appointments have few qualifications for the positions they might fill and seem random. Trump nominated Ben Carson, a surgeon, to be the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and chose Myron Ebell, a climate change denier, to lead his EPA transition team.
Trump also promised to build a wall on the border of the United States and Mexico and make Mexico pay for it. This claim is one of Trump’s more outrageous promises purely because of how costly and impractical it is. Building a giant wall would costs billions of dollars, and Mexico has already announced that it will not be paying for it.
The wall and “draining the swamp” have been the most prominent of Trump’s claims and promises, but they are not the only ones of importance. His transition team has discussed creating a registry for Muslim immigrants, he has tweeted about revoking the citizenship of people who burn the flag, and he has continued to tweet lies about widespread voter fraud. These claims imply a complete violation of the Constitution and American’s rights as well as emphasizing how grossly unqualified Trump is for the office of the president.
A Man We Need to Respect
The 2016 presidential election is over, and Trump’s administration has quickly mobilized to begin the transition into office. His success in the election and newly appointed administration has been one of controversy, but even if you didn’t support him or still don’t now, Trump’s presidency is one that needs to be respected. He was voted into office because he represents the people’s values — Trump will “drain the swamp” and disrupt the regular status quo of Washington politics.
Trump’s popularity began to skyrocket for one key reason: he can create change. For the first time since 2006, the Republican party holds both houses of Congress and the presidency. The federal government will overcome the usual gridlock in Congress, allowing them to pass legislation with ease. Far too often, a new president stepping into office, without a unified Congress, is hit with the realization that many bills will never make it through. Before the next election of the House and Senate in two years, Trump must set forth in making a change before the Democrats have the opportunity to have a majority in Congress.
The growth of the Trump movement began with an inexperienced background. Some may think that this is foolish and that every politician must be trained before entering the White House. But this unprecedented move from citizen to president reflects the era we are in. The people are tired of the corruption in Washington and the secret deals made within it, tired of the trained speeches that are made to make people feel or think a certain way. Trump’s cabinet, secretaries and directors represent these values. Appointments like Steve Bannon, chief strategist, prove to the point that Trump will “drain the swamp”.
Trump’s extensive experience in the business world will translate directly to job creation. His campaign trail into Michigan and Wisconsin was thought to be a waste by leading political analysts (in the election of 2008 and 2012 both states voted Democrat). His promise to bring back jobs to the region stuck with voters, and for the first time since 1984 — the election of Ronald Reagan’s second term — both Michigan and Wisconsin went Republican.
Regardless of the “Not My President” protests, Trump will still be the 45 president of the United States of America. And whether you like it or not, U.S. citizens must come to terms with it and support our country and next president. The election of a candidate you did not support does not encourage a loss of nationalism or the desecration of the flag but rather should increase your civic duty. We must come together as a nation, respect our president and believe that this will be a great next four years.
