Marie Antoinette is a movie directed by Sofia Coppola that was released in 2006. It is a film based on the story of the historical figure, Marie Antoinette, who is played by Kirsten Dunst. It is not completely historically accurate, however, and focuses more on the emotional aspect of her story. 

The first thing that anyone would notice about this movie is the beautiful visuals. It is very easy to tell that there was a lot of work put into this movie to create an ethereal and pretty atmosphere. Not only is the setting beautiful, but the costumes are also amazing. The outfits, hair, and makeup are all very historically accurate, and match the aesthetic of the movie perfectly. 

Marie Antoinette focuses on the journey of 17-year-old Marie as she leaves Austria to become the French queen. The main theme of the movie is the cost of privilege. Throughout the movie, Marie faces hardships, despite the fact that she is rich and royal. She is forced into difficult and upsetting situations and has to get through them. 

One interesting aspect of the movie is the mix of things from the time Marie Antoinette was alive and the time that the movie was released. Most things about the movie represent the 1700’s, including the setting, costumes, and most other things. However, the soundtrack is all modern music. I thought that this was very interesting. There are also other modern things in the movie, for example, at one point Marie was wearing a pair of Converse shoes. 

The soundtrack to Marie Antionette was really good, and I thought it was nice how the music kind of contrasted with the aesthetic. There was music from bands like The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees, which are not bands most people would associate with the rococo aesthetic. 

There are very mixed reviews of this movie. This is most likely because a lot of people feel that the movie focused too much on the visuals, and not enough on the true historical accuracy. The movie is not meant to be historically accurate, however. 

I really enjoyed Marie Antoinette. I think any age range would like this movie, and I definitely recommend it.

Father’s Day is June 16th. If you don’t have any ideas for what to give someone on this day yet, you’re in the right place. It's important to show your appreciation to the man who gave you the most guidance and love; this may be your dad, stepdad, godfather, or just a man who's continuously been there to provide comfort and guidance. It can be hard to find the perfect gift, so here are some ideas: 

1. Homemade card: Homemade gifts always mean so much. It’s so easy to get caught up in materialistic wants, but homemade gifts never fail to show endless love and appreciation. Receiving a card means more than just what the words say; knowing that the maker took the time to be considerate and creative is always heartwarming. 

2. Personalized watch: If the person you’re shopping for is big on jewelry, a personalized watch can be an exciting gift. A personalized watch with a special message engraved or maybe even a picture on the face can be sentimental. There are a lot of customizable goodies on Etsy to help with this, and supporting a small business instead of a large company can add to how meaningful this gift is. This will serve as a reminder of good times and memories every time he checks the time. 

3. Custom photo book: Having a custom book filled with pictures of special memories is an amazing gift. Flipping through it and seeing how your relationship has grown, all the amazing times spent together can make you realize just how grateful you are for one another. You can get these from Target, Walmart, and almost anywhere that has home essential/improvement objects. This special keepsake will be treasured for years to come. 

4. Grilling/cooking accessories: If the person you are shopping for is big on cooking or grilling this can be a game changer. Having nice quality cooking accessories can make the process even more enjoyable and exciting. It’s something thoughtful and very practical.  

5. Tech gadgets: Whether it’s a new smartphone, wireless headphones, or a new high-tech gadget, if your dad or father figure is into technology, he’d appreciate and enjoy this idea. The price would definitely be something to consider, but if your dad enjoys innovative tech gadgets it might be worth the price. 

6. A fun experience: Planning a day full of fun activities might be the route to take.  Consider buying movie tickets, concert tickets, or maybe tickets to a sporting event instead of an object. Creating new amazing memories over something you can bond over. Quality time is a gift. 

7. DIY home improvement tools: If your dad is currently working on a home improvement project, helping out by buying tools or different things could mean a lot. Maybe he’s building a home gym--buying weights or other equipment could be motivation to finish the job. 

8. Subscription box: You might not be able to think of anything in particular your dad enjoys doing, or maybe he has everything to pursue his hobbies. Opting for buying a monthly subscription box would be a gift every month of the year. This might be a monthly shaving kit, gourmet coffee, or something else he’s interested in. Take a look at the different varieties and maybe you’ll find the perfect gift. You can do this by doing a simple google search on Google and find the perfect one. Once you’ve done this you can go to their website and subscribe from there. 

9. Water bottle: If the person you are shopping for is in need of a new water bottle, this could be a good opportunity to get a nice one for him. You could get creative and find a way to personalize it, maybe designing a custom sticker to put on the bottle would be a really special touch. 

10. Summer essentials: If he loves practical gifts, you could buy new shorts, swimming trunks, or a basket of sunscreen and other summertime essentials, especially since summer is right around the corner. Sometimes understanding basic necessities is enough to show your love for someone. 

I hope this helped!

In the first 30 seconds of Beyonce’s COWBOY CARTER, she defines the album and its purpose. “Nothin’ really ends,” she sings in rich three-part harmony with herself, “for things to stay the same, they have to change again. Hello, my old friend.”

The “old friend” she sings about may refer to the listener-- or to the music itself. 

Beyonce was born to two Southern parents, a fact she references numerous times throughout her discography. “My daddy Alabama, momma Louisiana,” she says in Formation, the lead single from her 2016 album Lemonade. She lived in Houston, Texas until she was 21, and as such was immersed in Southern culture during her formative years. A major component of that culture is country music, and many country stars have been inspired by Texas-- including Jimmie Rodgers, “the father of country music” and one of the first inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame, who named one of his most famous songs after the state when he established a home there in the mid-1920s.

Beyonce has always had a firm attachment to her hometown. She was involved with relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina in the 2010s, alongside her family and childhood friend and former Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland, and has shouted out her Texan upbringing in several awards speeches and songs-- including Daddy Lessons, which opens with a repetition of “Texas, Texas, Texas.” However, her music and image have always remained distinctly aligned with pop and R&B ideals, featuring stars like Andre 3000, Sean Paul, Nicki Minaj, Frank Ocean, the Weeknd, and, most frequently, her husband and collaborator Jay-Z.

In 2022, Beyonce announced the release of RENAISSANCE, a ballroom-inspired album that leaned into house and techno sounds. However, a few hours before its release, she posted a message to her website confirming that RENAISSANCE was the first of a three-act project, and acknowledging “...all of the pioneers who originate culture… all of the fallen angels whose contributions have gone unnoticed for too long.” Ballroom, RENAISSANCE’s central genre, evolved as a subculture of the Black and Latino LGBTQ communities. 

That fact, and Beyonce’s personal acknowledgement of cultural pioneers, led fans to speculate that each of RENAISSANCE’s three acts would experiment with a different genre. So, when the country-inspired 16 CARRIAGES and TEXAS HOLD ‘EM dropped in February, it became clear that Beyonce was trying her practiced hand at country music, a culture wherein Black artists have been historically forced to the sidelines-- even though they originated the sound. In an Instagram post announcing the release of COWBOY CARTER, Beyonce appeared to reference an event during which she faced some of the criticism that’s been lobbied at Black artists in country music. At the 2016 Country Music Association awards, she performed Daddy Lessons with iconic country trio The Chicks. Although their performance was musically well done, all four artists faced right-wing backlash for it-- and Beyonce took the brunt of the racist vitriol being spewed all over the Internet.

“This album has been five years in the making,” she recalled in the album’s announcement. “It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed… and it was very clear that I wasn’t.”

With that experience in mind, it’s no surprise that she made conscious decisions about her collaborators on the album. COWBOY CARTER’s second track, a cover of the Beatles’ Blackbird, features four up-and-coming Black women country artists: Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tierra Kennedy, and Reyna Roberts. That song, which follows the operatic opener American Requiem, introduces the themes of the album. It uplifts young Black artists, while simultaneously honoring musical history with an iconic Beatles song. Blackbird was written by Paul McCartney for the White Album to memorialize the lives and journeys of the Black women who served the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

It’s important to note that Blackbird, while an important piece of music history, is not a country song. That is Beyonce’s intent; in her announcement of COWBOY CARTER, she said firmly, “This ain’t a country album. This is a ‘Beyonce’ album,” and she held true to that statement. Although some of the songs off COWBOY CARTER sound distinctly country (such as TEXAS HOLD ‘EM, II MOST WANTED, and LEVII’S JEANS), there are several songs that are more aligned with different genres-- such as SPAGHETTII and BODYGUARD, which are rap- and pop-inspired.

COWBOY CARTER also features more collaborators than we traditionally see from Beyonce. Alongside Adell, Spencer, Kennedy, and Roberts, musical artists such as Miley Cyrus, Shaboozey, Willie Nelson, and fellow Texan Post Malone appear on the album. One of the most significant guest appearances is that of Linda Martell, who speaks on THE LINDA MARTELL SHOW and is credited alongside Shaboozey on SPAGHETTII. Martell is best known as the first commercially successful Black female country artist, as well as the first Black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Country music titan Dolly Parton also plays an important role throughout the album, featuring on two songs (DOLLY P and TYRANT). Beyonce paid tribute to her by covering the iconic Parton ballad Jolene, although she updated the lyrics to turn it into a challenge rather than a plea.

As Beyonce evolves as an artist, so too do her musical offerings. Ranking beside Lemonade and RENAISSANCE in many critics’ lists (including my own), COWBOY CARTER features the unique sound, high-brow collaborations, and incredible visuals that have become synonymous with Beyonce’s name. It’s because of that unique sound that distilling COWBOY CARTER down to “Beyonce’s country album” does it a disservice. It’s more an homage to her history and upbringing than anything-- and that history happens to include the Western Americana imagery that is a fundamental part of Texan culture. By writing songs that address motherhood (PROTECTOR), family (DAUGHTER), romantic love (II MOST WANTED), and self love (ROSE), referencing the artists and ideas that came before her (OH LOUISIANA, JOLENE, BLACKBIRD), and incorporating styles and genres that have previously been off-limits to her (the Caro Mio Ben interlude on DAUGHTER), Beyonce has created an hour-long testament to herself, her culture, and the life she’s created. 

The nature of COWBOY CARTER and the cyclical nature of Beyonce’s discography leaves the listener wondering what genre RENAISSANCE’s third act could possibly explore-- and whether it may be Beyonce’s final swan song before musical retirement.

Billie Eilish is a 22-year- old singer-songwriter born in Los Angeles. Billie first became recognized when her first single, "Ocean Eyes" (written and produced by elder brother Finneas O’Connell) was released at the age of 13. She has made a huge impact on the music industry in a short amount of time, selling 2.5 million albums at the end of 2023. 

Billie's parents are Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell, who are both actors and are their children’s biggest fans. Maggie and Patrick home-schooled both of their children. At the age of eight, Billie became a dancer, practicing for at least 12 hours a week until she had an injury in her hip. Soon her dancing career came to an end, and that is when she began to primarily focus on music. She spent a lot of her time practicing with her brother "We had a rule growing up that was kind of a household respected thing, no matter what time it was, no matter how old we were, if we were creating, writing music, playing piano, playing guitar, any instrument at all, we could stay up as long as we were doing that," Billie explained to Lindsay Cronn during an interview.      

She had plenty of time to practice, even at a young age she was learning how to play ukulele and piano with her father’s help, she also participated in choir. Her brother Finneas O’Connell whose career also majors in music, had a huge influence on Billie Eilish. Many of her songs were co-written and produced by O’Connell; “When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go?”, “Bury A Friend” and more popular hits like “Everything I Wanted”, “Happier Than Ever” and “What Was I Made For?”

Songs that Eilish writes are very emotional and personal and many people relate to her just through music. A freshman at Brown, Nico Greenwell, says, “I will forever be a fan of hers, she doesn’t only make good music but she’s also a good person and cares for other people. Her music shows her real struggles that a lot of people including myself relate with”.

 Eilish writes songs based on her experiences. Eilish's music has such an impact on our generation. “I have been listening to her since 2018 and she truly is like no other artist. I love listening to her, her music really speaks to me and I connect to it. It feels like a one-on-one conversation with her,” Sarina Doe expressed. “Yeah, her music is mood-lifting. If I’m sad, I need to be productive, cleaning, anything really, I turn her music on. It calms my brain and gets me focused. It pulls me in,” Greenwell added.

Eilish has recently changed all of her profile pictures on her social media platforms to  plain blue to intrigue her fans with her new album called “HIT ME HARD AND SOFT" which is coming out May 17th, 2024. She also added all of her followers to her Instagram "Close Friends" while she posted teasers of the new album. She does not plan to release anything before the release date since she is very proud of this album and wants to give it to her fans all at once.