Lifestyle

New York Fashion Week

By Christina Shenouda

The beginning of February brought a plethora of events that brought people together. The Super Bowl and the Oscars were not the only attractions that captivated attention this month. The New York 2020 fashion week took place from February 3rd to February 12th. The fashion designers, the popular ones and the not so popular ones, all brought astonishing designs and ideas to their audiences.

One of the more unique, yet exquisite brands in the Fashion show this year is Rodarte. Sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy launched this company in 2005 and named it after their mother's maiden name. In the Fall/Winter 2020 collection, their models strutted down the runway with confidence and elegance. With 51 different designs, these models charmed the audience and showed off the creative minds that are Kate and Laura Mulleavy.

The designers and models were not the only things that surprised and intrigued the audience, the well known Bill Nye the Science Guy rocked the runway at New York Fashion Week. Bill Nye, dressed in a blue floral suit, danced down the runway to Juice, by Lizzo, as part of the Blue Jacket Fashion Show, an event held to benefit the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

To end the night, we have fashion designer, Marc Jacobs, showing off his collection for the season uniquely and fascinatingly. To start the show, dancer and choreographer Karole Armitage found the spotlight with her brief yet thrilling performance. The models and dancers continued to show their skills and abilities throughout the show. To end the show, these amazing and talented people gathered in a line to allow everyone to witness the beauty and originality that Marc Jacobs has brought to the runway.

From all of the dancing and designs in this year's Fall New York Fashion Week, one thing is for sure, and that is in fact that all of the Fall collections presented were all equally brilliant and beautiful. Be sure to watch out for your favorite creators in the seasons to come!

Posted on 03/15/2020

Super Bowl LIV (54th)

By Josephine Dellatte

On February 2nd, 2020, the Kansas City Chiefs led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and the San Francisco 49ers led by quarterback Jimmy Garopppolo met in Miami for Super Bowl 54. It marked 50 years since the Chiefs won their first Lombardi trophy and 25 years since the 49ers won their 5th Super Bowl title. A win for either team would have been a great feat but with Mahomes having a comeback in both playoff games, this Super Bowl was no different. Both teams went back and forth in the first half, leaving the game tied at 10 heading into halftime. Headlined by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, the Super Bowl halftime show was energizing and electric. The San Francisco 49ers dominated the third quarter, leading 20 - 10. With Mahomes throwing two interceptions that quarter as well, Niner’s fans thought they had the Super Bowl win in the palm of their hands, which was short-lived. With nine minutes remaining in the game, the Chiefs went on to score multiple touchdowns in their next three plays. However, the play that would change the course of the game was one called by Mahomes himself, resulting in a 44 - yard completion to Tyreek Hill. By this point of the game, both the Chiefs offense and defense were rallied. A close call touchdown that was upheld by a booth review made the score 24 - 20, giving Kansas City their third touchdown of the quarter with under three minutes remaining. In response, San Francisco quickly drove to the Chiefs 49 - yard line but after three incomplete passes and a sack, the drive resulted in a turnover with about a minute and a half left. With the game practically secured as a Chiefs win already, Damian Williams scored a 38-yard touchdown to increase Kansas City's lead to 31 - 20. With 1:12 left, Garroppolo threw an interception on the 49ers, allowing the Chiefs to run out the clock and secure their first Super Bowl victory in 50 years. Patrick Mahomes, also named Super Bowl MVP, broke and set multiple records in his first Super Bowl appearance. He’s made the Chiefs a force to be reckoned with in the AFC, marking the beginning of a dynasty. On the other hand, this loss for Niners fans stings. However, this was Garoppolo’s first full season coming off a season-ending torn ACL injury in 2018. He led San Francisco to a 13 - 3 record, bringing them all the way to the most important game: The Super Bowl. The 49ers front four are also a force to be reckoned with, leaving fans hopeful that they will be back again. Super Bowl LIV was definitely one for the books, to say the least.

Posted on 03/15/2020

On Writer’s Block

By Josephine Lau

Perhaps an author’s mind is bursting with ideas for a new book but can’t seem to put their ideas down on paper. Maybe not a single idea has come to their mind at all. These experiences are relatable to everyone, authors and students alike. There are methods of attempting to overcome writer’s block, and they don’t always work for everyone. In fact, no method has ever worked for me.

When I first started writing, I thought nothing of my work and believed that the public would deem them unworthy of their time. The ideas and plotlines that I had in my mind were all shielded by an identity I created on some online platform that lived in the shadows of more popular platforms. Needless to say, I felt as if I was an outcast and would forever remain an outcast on that platform. Crippling loneliness, however, did not get the best of my abilities, and I pushed myself to write more than more. It paid off and the results shone through five months later. The feeling of success was strangely unfamiliar to me. Maybe it was because I had never experienced success in this field? As time passed, I published another work similar to the first one and gained more popularity within the community. I didn’t understand why at the time, and I still don’t understand to this day. But the comments I received were mostly praises. Only a handful of the lot were comments of constructive criticism, which I found to be quite helpful.

By the time a year had come and gone, I found I had built a bit of an empire of a fanbase. For someone who had only started one year since, I thought I had made a bit of a name for myself. I had a set of main projects that I worked on from time to time, and a set of side projects that would be written on mere whims. I even had the courage to revamp an entire story in only five weeks, a chapter per day. I was met with overwhelming praise when I published the revamped version.

It soon hit me that the revamped version was the last thing I ever did that I truly loved working on. The works after my revamped story deteriorated in quality. The waterfall of metaphors and other examples of literary elements stopped pouring into my mind. The way I placed my hands onto the keyboard became uncomfortable, even though I had used the same position every single time I had worked on a project. When I peeked into my older works for some sort of inspiration, nothing came to mind. The quantity of ideas that came into my mind each day dropped like stocks in the NYSE, and the worst part was that they never came back.

I decided to take a break for a week. The week became a month. That month became four months. The feeling of burnout was not one that I was familiar with, and certainly one that I wished to never encounter. I suggested to myself that I had become lazy, and decided to type up whatever popped into my mind. When I plopped my hands onto the keyboard, I felt my mind blank out. Perhaps I had not gotten used to the lack of ideas. At the time, I wish my hands moved for me and I didn’t have to think about what I was typing.

But I typed nothing. I deemed it writer’s block, and it was a condition that I was used to, but not to this extremity. I was always able to bounce back from a drought in a few hours – sometimes even in a day, in special cases – but this case was entirely foreign to me. To some people, this would be nothing to worry about. It would only be a minor inconvenience in their eyes. For me, however, it was losing a part of myself that was ingrained into my mind since my first success. I based my outlook on life and solidified my morals with my writing, so losing my ability to write made for an experience that I wish never happened. I wanted to immerse myself into literature, hoping that I would gain back some of my abilities if I had some sort of inspiration. That was not the case. When I finally laid my eyes on the beige pages of the book that brought me inspiration when I truly required it, I could not imagine a single event of the book in my mind. I felt as if my imagination was, for the first time in a very long time, gone. There was no trace but the hollow shell that embodied the mist of inspiration and imagination.

For months, that shell remained hollow. I stayed away from any book, fearing that I would suddenly feel disgust towards reading if I had to lay my eyes on another inked word in Times New Roman.

Even now, I feel that I may never regain those abilities. My skill set vanished permanently and no matter what I tried to bring everything back, I knew that it would never happen. I have been told that I have not been trying hard enough this whole time, but it is unfortunate to say that I have been trying too hard. My efforts may have led to my eventual downfall.

Everything I have written is buried under the soil of time and will forever stay there. I believe that had I not tried so hard, I would still be able to call myself “decently talented”. Maybe it is best that I lay my efforts and past to rest. As for what I’ve learned in this experience, it would be the lesson that writing should never be forced, but will come to everyone naturally, whether it be in the form of a short essay or the next bestselling novel.

Posted 02/02/2020