Carlos Alcaraz Becomes Youngest Ever to Win Wimbledon
Tatiana Holguin
This past summer twenty-year-old Carlos Alcaraz won his first Wimbledon title, making him the youngest to reach such a feat. Wimbledon is widely considered to be the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world. The tournament takes place on beautiful grass lawns in Southwest London every July. Alcaraz faced Novak Djokovic, often regarded as one of the best men’s singles players and the four-time defending champion of Wimbledon, leaving him to face the challenge of a lifetime. Alcaraz began the match down a set but gained control and took it to five sets, proving why he was ranked No.1 in the world. He shocked the world and showed his determination to become one of the greats and live up to his idol, Rafael Nadal.
Nuggets NBA 2023 Champions
Ismael Zapien
The Denver Nuggets won the 2023 NBA finals bringing Denver its first Larry O’Brian trophy in spectacular fashion. After a sad loss in the Western Conference Finals to the Lakers in 2020. Even after the 4-1 loss, the Infamous “Bubble” season brought forth a sense of winning a championship for the first time very close. The 2021 playoff came with a disappointing 4-0 loss to the suns. Yet again 2022, 4-1 loss to the Golden State Warriors. The chance for a championship was slowly slipping away after 3 very close chances at the title. The 2023 season came around and everything changed, after a amazing season from Jokic, the Nuggets were #1 seed in the playoff picture. 4-1 win over the Timberwolves, 4-2 win over the suns, 4-0 win over the Lakers and finally 4-1 win over the Miami Heat. Denver finally accomplished their dreams of becoming NBA Champions for the first time ever.
Saltburn
Isabel Campbell
‘Saltburn’ is a film unlike any other. Directed by Emerald Fennell, ‘Saltburn’ was released on November 22, 2023 in U.S. theaters. The movie stars Barry Keoghan as Oliver Quick, a young Oxford student who finds himself enamored with his blue-blooded classmate Felix Catton, played by Jacob Elordi. When Felix invites Oliver to stay at his family’s estate for the summer, what ensues will leave the audience on the edge of their seats. ‘Saltburn’ is a cinematic masterpiece, being both a psychological thriller and a dark comedy. The stunning cinematography works to establish the complexity of the story and its charming characters. The world of ‘Saltburn’ is both eccentric and captivating, and you’ll never know what to expect.
Ja Morant’s Return
Bezael Tsehaye
Fans no longer need to eagerly wait for the return of NBA player, Ja Morant, as he has announced his comeback! On May 4, 2023, Ja left the Memphis Grizzlies following his suspension after he was seen flashing a handgun on his Instagram Live inside a Denver nightclub. He faced an 8-game suspension after this incident but yet again flashed another one, a couple of months following which led to an even longer delay. A few days ago Ja made a formal announcement on Twitter, stating that he would be making a return on Dec 19 with the hope of learning from his mistakes.
NBA In Season Tournament
Abesera Melaku
For those who aren’t caught up with the NBA, this season marks a historical milestone for the NBA and the Lakers. The NBA wants the players in the league to play harder and be more entertaining so they came up with a method to do so and they called it the NBA In Season Tournament. It is basically a playoff style bracket that goes on in the middle of the season and just like the actual Championship, the victor will get the trophy and the team who so happened to win it for the first time was the Lakers. Personally, seeing the Lakers win the first one felt very fitting and even as a Bucks fan, it was nice to see that the Lakers legacy still lives on till this day through players like Lebron, Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves.
Persona 3: Reload Announcement
Isaih Cornejo
Persona 3: Reload is an upcoming remake to the original Persona 3 released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2, developed by P-studio and published by Atlus. The persona series consists of role-playing games, all being spinoffs to the Shin Megami Tensei series. This specific game tackles themes of depression, overcoming dread, accepting death, and making choices. Persona 3: Reload was announced back in June of 2023, with a complete graphics makeover and bunches of new content, making it more modern and stylish. Although it is being released in February of 2024, many Persona fans, including myself, are eagerly awaiting for the new game with anxious anticipation and excitement.
Unforgettable Performance
Angel Langifisi
Rihanna came to serve at the superbowl this year. This was a good game played by the Eagles and the Chiefs in this year’s super bowl. With everyone hyped for the game, others were hyped to see Riahnna’s half-time performance. Nobody knew what to expect from her performance except they knew Rihanna had a special surprise to show us during her show. She had let her fans know through her social media, saying she had a gift to show us during her half-time performance so everyone made sure to stay tuned for her show. During her show she made an appearance on stage showing her belly! Everyone was excited to see her baby belly because everyone was making theories on what surprise Rihanna would show them. Her and her dancers’ performance was marvelous, their outfits and coordinations were amazing. WIth an amazing performance from Rihanna and her dancers plus Rihanna’s baby surprise, just made this whole experience good.
UTOPIA
Syrus Sweetwine-Trask
2023 brought us some great albums, yet the personal favorite of many people would have to go to UTOPIA By Travis Scott. UTOPIA features 19 songs, which also bring us to several different artists that Travis would collaborate with. The top artists that Travis had worked with to create such an amazing album were Teezo Touchdown on MODERN JAM, Drake on MELTDOWN, Playboi Carti with FE!N, 21 Savage on TOPIA TWINS, The Weekend and Swae Lee for CIRCUS MAXIMUS, Dave Chappelle on PARASAIL, Young Thug on SKITZO, Kid Cudi on LOOOVE, Bad Bunny featuring on K-POP, SZA and Future on TELEKINESIS, and even Beyonce on the song DELRESTO.
The experience of going to a Travis Scott concert is definitely worth the while and worth the price. The feeling Travis is able to provide is not only an emotional or mental feeling, but the loud volume even provides a physical feeling of the music, the way it should be heard. Full volume speakers, you can’t even hear your own thoughts. Despite the distance you are from the stage, you still feel the same energy of the people right next to the stage. The creativity of Travis Scott is also worth the view. It is always something new to look at during his concerts, especially the UTOPIA tour stage. The stage features multiple faces, all having their own unique styles. They were given a rocky-texture, and are one of the “faces” of the entire UTOPIA album. The stage does not only focus on one side of the area, as it is a long strip across the entire floor, leaving just enough room for those who decide to rage on the floor. The elevation of the stage also provides a better view of Travis himself. Along with the faces, Travis Scott uses the different hills and rising sections of the stage to give each area of the arena and its audience a crazy energetic feeling. The flames and bright lights of the performance also really make the aspects of the album come alive. Whether it’s the lyrics, the flow, or overall tone of the song, the bright lights and color brings it even more together than it already is.
Why the Barbie Movie Was So Important
Aiyana Fragoso
The Barbie movie is a masterpiece in my eyes. The film racked up just over 1.4 billion dollars and became the highest grossing movie of 2023. Why is that? Being a young woman in America means slowly realizing just how easy it is to be criticized for every little action you make. It’s also so easy to allow something as silly as a man, a dirty look, a little jealousy, to tear apart a relationship between women. The Barbie movie is one of those films that help us as a population of women find our commonalities and empathy within each other. For those that have seen Barbie, it essentially concludes to a message of, “Just because we grew up and had to toughen up, doesn’t mean we’re not allowed the childish, feminine joys of being a woman.”. It allowed multiple generations of women to remember girlhood, and together plant roots into the idea that; we’re all just girls. Just little girls that had to grow up fast. There’s so much beauty in an entire community of the world’s women coming together in something as simple as a childhood toy.
The movie was pretty funny, too. 11/10.
Writers Strike
Zoe Middleton
On May 2nd, the Writer’s Guild of America, the union representing screenwriters in Hollywood, went on strike. Their demands included AI protection, increased employment duration and amount of writers on the team, and increased minimum pay (along with residuals from streaming, which was previously zero). For 148 days, members of the Guild picketed and protested for fair contracts. In solidarity, SAG-AFTRA, the union for screen actors, went on strike on June 14th, with similar conditions to the WGA. Finally, on September 27, the writers finally reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) with a new contract. This strike was one of the longest in WGA history, but the fight was worth it as very positive results came out of it.
What is with all the buzz surrounding the new Beyonce Documentary Film
Jeanae Ellis
Award Winning Singer/Songwriter Beyonce Knowless-Carter at the beginning of December came out with a documentary film following her world tour called RENAISSANCE: A FILM BY BEYONCE in support of her latest studio album RENAISSANCE..
The grammy Winning and critically acclaimed album first made its debut July of 2022 by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records as Beyonce’s seventh studio album and the first of a trilogy project.This album is Beyonce seventh consecutive album to reach #1 on US Billboards top 100 with songs “BREAK MY SOUL” and “CUFF IT” also reaching #1 number on the charts. The album earned four grammys including best dance/electronic album for “Renaissance,” best dance/electronic recording for “Break My Soul,” best traditional R&B performance for “Plastic Off the Sofa,” and best R&B song for “Cuff It.”. It also earned Beyonce the most grammys wins.
The Renaissance World Tour was announced February 1 2023 and was said to take place mostly throughout the rest of 2023. The tour started May 1 2023 in Stockholm, Sweden and ended October 1 2023 in Kansas City, Missouri. The set was three hours long, six acts and included songs within the album and others from all throughout her discography. Special effects, video visuals and robotic sculptures filled the stage as Beyonce’s and her array of backup dancers performed the whole set. The concert broke records as well with it being the highest grossing tour by a black artist and second highest grossing tour by a female artist.
RENAISSANCE: A FILM BY BEYONCE was released December 1 2023 which reflects the creative inspiration and execution of the tour and album.
