Searching for good music can be hard, especially as a student. Though it’s easier now more than ever with Spotify’s curated playlist culture, it can still be difficult. We’re busy, calendar filled to the brim with deadlines. Spending our time searching for music and figuring out whether we like it or not is not exactly the best use of time. Sometimes we’re not sure if this one song in a playlist will actually lead to anything good. Thankfully, I’ve done the work for you today! I’ve compiled a list of popular albums from the past couple of years or so […]
Continue readingAuthor Archive: Jocelyn Au-Yeung
Letterboxd – Your New Hub For Discussing Film
Image Credit: Letterboxd One thing I really miss about pre-pandemic life is going to the movies. The anticipation, the delicious but insanely expensive popcorn, and the pre-show trivia games and trailers are all highlights of the theatre experience. I’m a person who also loves to theory-craft with friends after a movie, and that might be the part I miss most about going out to my local Cineplex. Thankfully, that social aspect hasn’t totally been lost because of a perfect little place online that scratches that itch of roasting your favourite movies with friends – Letterboxd. Letterboxd is a social network […]
Continue readingTwitch, Roleplaying, and the Future of Interactive Storytelling
Dungeons and Dragons, and roleplaying on a larger level, is starting to make waves. It’s always been known for its unfortunate reputation as this incredibly nerdy, awkward thing that people do in their basements, never seeing the light of day. But as times change and as it skyrockets in popularity, it’s slowly becoming the new frontier for storytelling today. Also it’s just really fun. For the uninitiated, Dungeons and Dragons (or D&D) is a tabletop, roleplaying game where players act as characters they’ve created. They are then thrust into a story constructed by a game master (GM), who guides them […]
Continue readingThe Best of 2020 in Television
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 […]
Continue readingTaskmaster – Your New Favourite and Ridiculous Game Show
Left to right: Taskmaster Greg Davies, Alex Horne (Image credit: Avalon) About a year ago while drowning in the pressures of school, I fell down a very deep hole of watching British comedy panel shows on YouTube. Yes, that is a hyper-specific genre to get into, but believe me when I say there is plenty to appreciate about it. British humour is generally witty and clever, snappy, and sarcastic — it’s a bit like watching old grandmothers bickering at each other, and how can you not love that? The thing is, Canadian and American humour traditionally tend to lean more […]
Continue readingThe Most Hopeful Album of 2020 – A Review of Fleet Foxes’ Shore
(Image Credit: ANTI- Records) Shore, the fourth studio-album by Fleet Foxes, is about coming back to land after being chin-deep in heavy water. The first gentle guitar strums that you hear when you press play is the relief in being able to see solid ground and breathe again. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that. And the first thing you hear when listening to this album is really what I think this whole album is about. To Robin Pecknold, singer-songwriter and frontman of the band, Shore is meant to be a “life-preserver in this ocean of bad news.” In […]
Continue reading5 Feel-Good Movies To Escape Into During Quarantine
5 Feel-Good Movies To Escape Into During Quarantine The time we live in is a wild and confusing one. There is so much worry in the world, and rightfully so. It’s not easy for us to be thrown into an entirely new schedule and trapped in the same place for days at a time when trying to combat the pandemic around us. So in an effort to find something normal in all of this chaos, I’ve compiled a list of movies that I always have on hand to escape into, and I hope it does the same for all of […]
Continue readingLooking at Andy Shauf’s Toronto-Based Album, The Neon Skyline
I’ve been following Andy Shauf for quite some time now and I’m always fascinated and surprised by how much I’m sucked into the worlds he creates. Starting with his previous albums The Party and The Bearer of Bad News, I was captured not only by his music, but by the characters he makes that inhabit some very real places and perspectives. A Canadian coming from small-town Saskatchewan and now living in Toronto, Andy always writes his songs from the places he has lived and people he has known. And with his new album, The Neon Skyline, things are no different. […]
Continue readingThe Beauty and Pain of Growing Up – A Review of Little Women (2019)
Credit: IMDb When first announced, Little Women (2019) was something I wondered if we even needed. Written by Louisa May Alcott in 1868, the story of four sisters living in Massachusetts and trying to make their way in the world struck a chord with people of the past as well as today. Already a cultural phenomenon and American classic, the story has been told and retold through countless adaptations. The latest film adaptation was in 1994 and I personally was a huge fan of it. It starred Winona Ryder who, in my mind, played the role of Jo March perfectly. […]
Continue readingLook At Me Now – A Review of Pang by Caroline Polachek
Caroline Polachek has been in the industry for a while. Forming in 2005, her former band, Chairlift, found success through their blend of art pop, glittering synths, and indie sentiments. With the band breaking up in 2017, Polachek is now continuing with that same blend, but on her own terms. With the release of Pang, Polachek continues to show her fantastic musicianship and artistic vision. A much moodier release than her previous work in Chairlift, she sings about love and the first feelings that come with it, jealousy, and doubt. With the soaring and airy “Hit Me Where It Hurts,” […]
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