Celebrating Lunar New Year in Toronto! Posted on February 17, 2022 Photo by May Shi In the diverse city of Toronto, Lunar New Year is celebrated amongst many communities. This day happened to land perfectly on February 1st as many celebrate the Year of the Tiger! Since this calendar follows the moon cycle, the next 15 days are a time of feasting and honouring deities and ancestors. Many different cultures celebrated and continue to celebrate the new year in multiple ways. If you are in Toronto and are celebrating the Year of the Tiger, here are a few things you […]

My Favorite Taylor Swift Songs (and why) Posted on February 15, 2022 I think we all know that Taylor Swift has had an enormous impact on the music industry and forever will. With over 200 songs, 9 original albums plus re-records, 10 Grammys and countless more awards, it’s evident that she has successfully made her career in the industry. I was a huge fan of hers growing up: I went to the “Red” tour Toronto show in 2013, had all of the CDs, and she was my go artist on my iPod touch. It’s safe to say when she began […]

5 Shows on Netflix That Are Actually Worth Watching Posted on February 11, 2022 If you’re like me, you’ve likely spent hours scrolling through Netflix for a new show to watch. Personally, I find it quite difficult to navigate the site and find shows that are actually worth watching. There are so many films and TV shows on there that I usually get overwhelmed with the options and can’t pick out the good ones from the bad ones. Despite this, I’ve managed to find some shows that I really enjoy. Here are 5 of my favourite shows on Netflix that […]

Polaroid Needs To Step Up Their Game Posted on February 10, 2022 Polaroid OneStep+ and images, photo from Happy Media Throughout the pandemic, the one hobby that I’ve gained a huge passion for is film photography. While my first experience with the medium was in 2017 when I was gifted a Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 for Christmas, I never really continued to pursue it after I finished the packs of film it came with. I instantly got back into photography in my senior year of high school when I took the photography course my school offered, and have it to […]

The CoHo “Curse” Posted on February 9, 2022 This one’s for all the Book Tok readers out there. Over the past year I have been swimming in book recommendations, with screenshots of book covers cluttering my camera roll and titles written in random notes. But a couple of months ago I decided to try one of the ones that I had been seeing the most on my For You page, It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover. The pink cover I had seen over and over again being recommended by hundreds of book tok readers was seared into my brain. […]

Mikyla Grant-Mentis: The Next Big Name in Toronto Sports Posted on February 8, 2022 On October 23, 1993, Joe Carter hit a walk-off home run in game six of the World Series, to clinch the Blue Jays second straight title. This is possibly the greatest moment in Toronto professional sports history, if not Canada as a whole. The clip of the home run with Tom Cheek’s iconic “touch em all Joe” line is played all the time on sports programs and for years it was “the” Blue Jays moment. But until recently, there was always this weird feeling I had […]

English Readings That Changed My Life Posted on February 5, 2022 If you’re in university like me, chances are you’ve had to do some readings for class. Actually, chances are you’ve had to do a lot of readings for class, most of which you probably forgot about shortly after completing them.  I’m minoring in English, which means that I’ve had to get through a pretty large reading list during my degree. I definitely struggled to get into (or even really get through) some of those readings, and they have faded from my memory. But there are also certain readings that […]

The Journey of Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Record-Breaking Success Posted on February 4, 2022 Image Credit: Sony Do you know that feeling of being with a group of people that share a passion for the same thing? Whether it’s at a concert or in a classroom, you know that everyone is drawn there because they truly love it. You feel a sense of community一almost unification一and there’s an innocent joy to being a part of it. At least that’s how I’d describe the feeling when I watched Spider-Man: No Way Home in theatres this past December. Before I begin, don’t worry, […]

I Switched to The StoryGraph and You Should Too! Posted on February 3, 2022 If you’re like me, you too are someone who loves tracking down the media you consume, whether it be books, music, movies, and more. It’s a great way to look back at the past content that you have engaged with, recall any memories associated with it, and also connect with other people who share similar interests.  For the longest time, Goodreads had always been the number one, go-to website for avid readers. It’s a simple interface that allows users to track, rate, and review books that […]

Animated Movies that Aren’t Disney Posted on February 2, 2022 I love animation, in fact it’s probably one of my favourite forms of storytelling as the possibilities are limitless. That being said it can often feel like your only option to find good animated content is Disney. I mean they constantly sweep award shows with all the wins in animation categories and there’s rarely any buzz for an animation not created by them, and honestly it’s really frustrating. Sure there’s the odd animation that makes it through the cracks like, Into the Spiderverse, or, Fantastic Mr. Fox, but these are […]

My First Time Celebrating Christmas! Posted on February 1, 2022 I know it’s February but it’s never too late to talk about Christmas. And it IS important to talk about Christmas because I just had my first official Christmas during the winter break! I say “official” because I’m from Hong Kong and although we do hang Christmas lights, have Christmas dinner and exchange gifts sometimes, we don’t follow closely with the western tradition. In other words, we celebrate this festive season in the Eastern way. I remember when I was little, we would have spaghetti, chicken wings and spring rolls […]

Podcasts You NEED to Listen To Posted on January 31, 2022 Everyone knows that podcasts are becoming more and more popular every day. But, with thousands of different options, how can you know which you should listen to? Here are my top five podcasts that I’ve been loving recently and are worth giving a listen to.  1. “Anything Goes” – Emma Chamberlain Image Credit: open.spotify.com This one goes without saying. With Emma having over ten million Youtube subscribers, people want to hear more from her. Her comforting personality and young adult relatableness has given her an insanely successful platform at […]

Playing Where’s Waldo with the new Andrew Garfield film, Tick, Tick … BOOM! Posted on January 27, 2022 Tick, Tick … BOOM! Lin-Manuel Miranda, has done it again. As a playwright and actor, Miranda’s work in Hamilton was wildly successful and well-loved. But it’s not only the stage he has a knack for, because now that he has moved to the big screen in his directorial debut, he once again has blown people away. As I watched this film for the first time, I was immediately drawn to Andrew Garfield’s singing voice and stage presence. But the thing I loved […]

A Guide to Viral TikTok Books: Which Books are Worth Reading? Posted on January 26, 2022 While mindlessly scrolling through my for-you page, I stumbled upon a side of TikTok called BookTok. As the name suggests, BookTok is devoted to everything and anything related to books – reviews, recommendations, hauls, etc. Certain books even went viral on TikTok and lead to popular book chains such as Indigo creating “Trending on TikTok” sections in their stores and online. Like many others, I became intrigued and wondered if these books were really as good as people were making them out to be. […]

Give Solar Power Another Chance! Posted on January 25, 2022 From The Diamondback, Lorde in her music video for her single “Solar Power” In June of 2021, Lorde released the anticipated lead single “Solar Power” off of her album of the same name, which would later fully release in August. The title track was recognized as a huge jump from her previous work on Pure Heroine and Melodrama, being sonically similar to pop music of the early 2000s. The internet was quick to poke fun at Lorde’s newfound sound, comparing it to the likes of music heard on television commercials […]