Although it meant waiting in a two-hour lineup, the annual Bath and Body Works Candle Day weekend sale was one I simply couldn’t miss.  Just in time for Christmas, Candle Day was the perfect one-stop gift shop for friends and fam.  Intentionally selecting candles for my loved ones with fragrances that reminded me of them, added that personal touch I aim for when gifting, and with the modest price point of $10.95 per luxurious 3-wick candle, you know I had to add to my collection.  Today’s blog will be a scent diary through my top five favourite candles from the […]

Something that most of us are dealing with during this time is a mental health toll. It’s really difficult to feel happy, motivated, and optimistic while having such a similar routine for so long and not having much of a choice about where you spend your time. It’s especially difficult when it feels like there is no end or halt in sight. But, this doesn’t mean that all hope should be lost! There are many little things that can be done in order to keep up with your mental health. It’s so important to do so because your mental state […]

We are officially one month into 2021. And as we were entering the new year, I wanted to reflect on some of the positive things to have come out of the past year with the COVID-19 pandemic changing our everyday lives. It has certainly been an adventure to watch the way the world has changed over the course of the virus. From work to school to our social lives, I’m not sure there’s a single person who has been completely unaffected by the new climate of our society. In my last blog post I talked about some of the films […]

Last month, I was happy to get the chance to chat with directing duo Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas. Lewis and Thomas are both Sheridan film graduates who operate out of Toronto. Their latest thriller, White Lie, has been praised nationwide. Their meta comedy Spice It Up, a favourite of mine, is set and filmed at Ryerson too! White Lie is available to stream in Canada on Crave and Hoopla, as well as on-demand. Find out how to watch their other features on the Lisa Pictures website (Lewis and Thomas’ production company). Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas busy on set […]

Image credit: @goodgoodgood / Unsplash The first month of 2021 has come and gone. Looking back at the end of 2020, the promise of a new year seemed exciting, motivating, and an overall fresh start. Putting one of our hardest years behind us that we’ve had to face was relieving.  But after these four “fresh” weeks that we’ve just experienced, it’s sad to say that nothing feels very different. Except that the days seem to be getting colder, the sun seems to shine a little less, and we’re deep into zoom university once again.  The negative headlines and news stories […]

The Mummy (1999) is a great film, the other films are great as well (yes even the third one). I’m not afraid to admit that they’re some of my favourite films. I can probably do a one woman show, just reenacting all three films. I love me some Brendan Fraser; a fun fact once I saw him at Eaton Centre many years ago. I love the terrible cgi mess of Dwayne ‘The Rock” Johnson as the Scorpion King. I love the ridiculous, campy feel of this Indiana Jones knockoff. I have watched the entire series each year since I was […]

As a music lover, I constantly get song recommendations from friends that I tend to add to my playlist and forget about until days later! So, I decided to make a playlist curated by my Instagram followers song recommendations and to my surprise, the playlist was 4 minutes under 2 hours long! With all these songs, I listened to the full playlist and definitely found myself gravitating towards certain songs mainly in my fave genres of R&B, Indie-Pop/Rock and K-Pop. Image Credit: @brenessaroach Spotify #1 Hope In H*** by Black Pistol Fire Image Credit: Instagram @brenessaroach This first song was […]

Image Credit: Mollie Sivarim (Unsplash) 2020 will be known as the year we all stayed home. It was the year we learned how to stress-bake bread, fold all our cardboard boxes from our Amazon deliveries, and generally lose our collective minds inside. It was also the year where we probably watched the most TV. With theatres closed and film dates pushed back, the world turned to the TV screen (or for students, the laptop screen) to escape. So, to pay tribute, let’s review some of the best TV shows of 2020! The Best Newcomer 2020 introduced a delightful spread of […]

Cover image – @FreeStocks via UnSplash It’s the start of a new semester and if you’re like me, that means you need to readjust your sleeping schedule to work with all your early classes – you need to become a morning person! I hate being tired during my lectures, which tends to happen when I wake up ten minutes before they start and log into zoom.  To prevent that early morning fatigue, here are 5 tips that I use, to help make getting up a little bit easier: 1. Don’t Hit Snooze I know, it’s tempting. Would an extra five minutes […]

There are two types of winter-breakers; the ones who use the time off responsibly by catching up on much needed rest, and the ones who, like me, completely ruin their sleep schedule by spending all night on Instagram, TikTok, Netflix, phone calls or whatever their release of choice is.  Oh look, 4:37am already??? Where’d the time go?  Despite what category you fall into, the brewing of a new semester means new priorities; as such, authentic rest should also be prioritized as a means of carrying out this semester with optimal focus and confidence.  I was always someone who struggled with […]

Image Credit, Top-left clockwise: Variety, Variety, WonderlandMagazine, RogerEbert 2020 was a year full of new challenges, many of which most of us probably never expected to be facing. COVID-19 has changed the way our day to day society functions, from masks to online schooling. The climate of the workforce has also changed alongside society, most industries have been forced to adapt to this new normal. With the film industry as no exception. Most movie and television productions were forced to shut down until it was safe to reopen. And while it may seem like the pandemic paused the film industry, […]

In 2021, I sought to bring new topics to SpiritLive. Thus, I’m happy to begin a series on Toronto filmmakers in the industry today. To begin, I was extremely lucky to chat with Evan Morgan.  Mr. Morgan, a York University film graduate who has lived in Toronto his whole life, wrote and directed one of my favourite films of 2020, The Kid Detective. He also co-wrote, edited and produced The Dirties, another all-time favourite of mine.  As of January, The Kid Detective is available for rent in Canada, along with The Dirties. *Minor Spoiler Warning for Below (please watch the […]

The situation we are all in is really tough for many different reasons. We have been limited in so many ways due to the pandemic. However, consistently staying motivated, focused, and enthusiastic while remotely attending classes has taken a toll on all of us… and most of us are looking for a way out of that funk. One of the most important things to make sure to do is write down all of your due dates somewhere you will not forget to look. I personally like writing my dates on monthly calendars and using an agenda to draw my focus […]

Wong Kar Wai. A director who is a pivotal figure in filmmaking and Hong Kong Cinema. He’s known for beautiful bold cinematography, mixed in with thematic atmospheric music in a non-linear narrative. He’s one of the most influential directors domestically and internationally in the golden age of New Wave cinema in Hong Kong. Now you’re probably wondering Wong Kar Wai am I talking about him? (get the pun?) As a big fan I have been waiting for him to make a new film just as I have been waiting for David Fincher to make a new film. Then my dreams […]

Endlessly scrolling on TikTok for hours resulted in my head being a radio where I just had a bunch of songs stuck in my head on rotation. Personally, there are a lot of songs that were too cringey or too much for me on TikTok but there are a few songs that blew up on TikTok that I have found myself to be listening to regularly and outside of TikTok. The first song that I absolutely love even if it has been overplayed is… #1 Mariposa by Peach Tree Rascals Image Credit: Spotify You cannot listen to this song and […]