Tag: arts ink

2019 Oscars

Jordan Brown Leave a comment

The beginning of the year is known in Hollywood as the award season.  Where is seems like every week there is a new award show on TV. The most popular being the Emmys, Tony’s, Grammy’s, and the Oscars.  Each of these four popular award shows are based on a different category of entertainment: Television, Broadway, Music, and Movies. There is more than one award show for each category, these are just the most popular and seen as the most prestigious.

The Oscars seems to be the biggest award show out of the four, with movie stars coming from all over just to be at movies biggest night.  The Oscars gives awards for a large variety of categories from movie scores, to costumes, to the more common categories like best actress and actor.  Most people only seem to know about the “bigger” categories because those are the only ones broadcasted on television. Most of the other awards are done beforehand and are not shown.

The Oscars also has awards for different types of films.  There is the biggest award of the night, “Best Feature”, and there are also best animated film, best short, and best documentary just to name some examples.  

Generally the public has not seen the majority of the films nominated for Oscars, but it seems that this has changed a little in recent years.  For example “Black Panther” and “A Star is Born” are both nominated for best picture. “Black Panther” was one of the most successful movies of 2018.  Most people still have not seen the best documentaries or the best shorts nominations. However, the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor is playing all of the Oscar nominated best shorts and best documentaries.  This can give people a chance to go and see them before the Oscars, and it gives the opportunity to see something that most people would not have the chance to see otherwise.

Hamilton in Michigan

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The hit Broadway musical “Hamilton” is finally coming to Michigan after being on Broadway since 2016.  The show will be playing in three different theaters across the state throughout the 2019-2020 season.

The Broadway show “Hamilton” seemed to become a new classic from the moment it started in April 2016.  The writer, star, and producer Lin Manuel Miranda shot to stardom because of this show. He played Hamilton during its first run on Broadway and will occasionally come back and play him again for special performances.  An example of this is during Hamilton’s Puerto Rican show to raise money for people in Puerto Rico who are still affected by the hurricane.

The show seemed to be so popular that was even hard for celebrities to get tickets.  There seemed to be constant stream of pictures of different celebrities watching Hamilton each night.  It may not be surprising then to find out that tickets were about $500 a person to go see the show. Luckily the tickets for the three shows in Michigan are a little more manageable.

Hamilton’s first stop after Broadway was Chicago, where tickets were still expensive and hard to get your hands on.  I was lucky enough to go to a performance and see Hamilton in Chicago. They stayed in Chicago for several months before getting ready to tour elsewhere.  Hamilton’s show in Puerto Rico was the start of their tour that will be all over the United States for the 2019-2020 season.

One cast member on this touring company is University of Michigan alumni, Simon Longnight.  He graduated from the University of Michigan in 2018, and is playing Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson on the tour.

The Broadway hit musical “Hamilton” is coming to Detroit, Grand Rapids, and the Wharton Center within the next year.  Tickets for the Detroit showings have already gone on sale!

America’s Got Talent

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The tv show Americas Got Talent (AGT) is a popular summer show that the whole family can enjoy.  It has been running for 12 seasons and has gone through many changes in judges, sponsors, and now hosts, but one thing that has remained constant throughout the show is that singers dominate the competition, particularly child singers.

With an abundance of singing shows like The Voice, The X-Factor, and American Idol one would think that someone aspiring to be a singer would audition for one of those shows.  But a very large amount singers audition for AGT. Singers dominate that competition on the talent show to the point that it almost certain that there will be at least one if not two singers in the final three.  Singers have won the show over half of the time. In the past several seasons, child singers have begun to dominate the field. Child singers have won the past two seasons of the show. This has become a trend in the past several seasons but the very first winner of AGT on season 1 was an 11 year old singer named Bianca Ryan.  These children are very talented but they get a lot of their votes on their “cute factor” instead of only their talent. There voices may also change and they can’t grow into an amazing career, which is the goal of the show.

All of the singers present and competing on the show leave less room for the unique and variety acts that AGT was created to discover.  Perhaps there should be some limit on the number of singers that can be let through to the finals, because it’s not that these singers don’t have talent, there are just many other options for them to show their talent.  Where other acts don’t have that platform, like magicians and dog trainers. For true off the wall and unique acts AGT is the only place to show off their gift, and season after season they are overshadowed by the singers who come on the show.

Indoor Home Garden

Jordan Brown 7 Comments

Winter in the midwest is the time for everyone to stay inside and wait until April before venturing outside, it’s too cold to go outside and play.  In the southern hemisphere winter is the time for people to be outside and enjoy the nice weather. Over winter break I was lucky enough to take a 10 day trip to Ecuador and learn all about food sustainability.  The winter season for them is when they start to plant their crops so that they will grow nice and large for picking season in the late summer.

This got me thinking about planting in the midwest in the winter.  It is too cold to go outside and enjoy gardening, but it is the perfect time to start a small indoor garden of your own.  Some very good indoor plants that are hard to kill are string of pearls, succulents, and prayer plant. Succulents are already very popular and famous for not needing much attention, but these other plants are also easy to keep alive and they will add some color to your room/house.

Other plants are nice to have in your home because they have a purpose.  Some purify the air, some can calm you down. The Peace Lily and Snake plant are great for purifying the air, and they  only need minimum light to keep alive, which is great for winter months when there isn’t much sunlight. Other plants like aloe and lavender are great to have to calm down and help you sleep.

The last type of plants that are great to have indoors all year round are edible plants.  Some herbs that are easy to grow, and can be useful very often are basil, thyme, and parsley.  These plants are easy to grow, and will be very useful when cooking. Another good plant to grow is mint, but that is a little harder to grow inside.

While winter is a time to stay inside, it doesn’t have to be the time to stop gardening.  These are just some of the easiest indoor plants to grow, but there are almost unlimited options to start growing an indoor home garden.

The Christmas Rom Com

Jordan Brown 1 Comment

During the holiday season it seems like the only things on television are Christmas related.  Every other channel is running a Christmas movie marathon with all of the classics like Elf, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and Home Alone.  There are so many Christmas movies that there are genres within the genre of Christmas movie. One of the most popular genre is Christmas rom coms.

Christmas rom coms are very similar to normal rom coms.  With a plot consisting of two people meeting, waiting a while to get together, a big twist and they break up, and then a big gesture at the end so they end up together.  But Christmas rom coms have their own set of tropes that are different from other rom coms throughout the year. An example of this is that in order for them to be together they both have to be really into Christmas, and if one of them is not they will learn to love it by the end of the movie.  Snowstorms keeping someone in a small town in another classic trope that makes the two main characters stay together and then fall in love.

Some classic Christmas rom coms are “Love Actually”, “The Holiday”, and “Four Christmases”.  All of these movies are constantly playing on TV. The most popular of the three is “Love Actually”.  The movie is different from other rom coms because it follows more than one couple throughout the movie, it has 4 different story lines instead of just one.  But each storyline still follows that same general arc as a typical Christmas rom com.

Netflix has been making more rom coms in the past year, and this includes Christmas rom coms.  The most popular Netflix rom com is called “The Christmas Prince” and it follows one of the typical rom com stories of a normal girl falling in love with a man who turns out to be a prince.  “The Christmas Prince” was such a big hit on Netflix that they have now made a sequel this year. Other Christmas rom coms on Netflix are “The Princess Switch” starring Vanessa Hudgens, and “Christmas Inheritance”.  These are only movies that are made by Netflix, you can also watch other Christmas rom coms on Netflix as well.

Christmas rom coms is a feel good movie genre that is meant to put people in the holiday spirit.  Everyone in all of the movies are extremely kind and they always give to others, something that not everyone does in the real world.

Adult Onesies

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Last week was Thanksgiving break, which means that most students have brought their winter wardrobe back to school with them.  They replaced all of their tank tops with sweaters. A big part of a winter wardrobe is layers of warm clothing, and the past few years have created a new trend; adult onesies.

Onesies are most popular for babies, and then for pajamas for young children.  They are nice because it is just one piece of clothing that is nice and warm. Recently a trend has risen for adult onesies, and not pajamas but for costumes and to wear to events.  Adult onesies are great because you can layer clothes under them depending on how cold it it outside and it doesn’t ruin the outfit because onesies are meant to be big.

Different styles of onesies are popular.  Animal onesies are the most popular. Most are unisex and you can now buy at Walmart or Kohls.  Some of the most popular adult animal onesies are giraffes, penguins, and pandas. Another big trend is characters.  Instead of buying a several piece costume to look like a character, you can just buy a onesie that already has the characters costume printed on it.  Onesies also do not require a mask no matter what character you are being because the hood is your mask. An example of this would be Darth Vader or the Power Rangers.  Another style of onesies is professions. You can be an astronaut or a nurse as a onesie instead of as a costume. This style is less popular than the others, I think it is because it is easy enough, and more realistic, to find clothes of the actual profession than to wear pajamas that resemble them.

With fun costume onesies rising in popularity, normal adult pajama onesies have also increased in popularity.  Now at big and popular stores like Victoria’s Secret or L.L.Bean, or even the Mden have pajama onesies that people can buy.

My friend and I took advantage of all of the benefits from wearing onesies and we were the yellow and blue Power Rangers to the last Michigan home football game.  It was perfect because we could layer under the onesies with warm clothing that did not have to be Michigan related and we were still supporting the team!