Mount Hood

Editor’s picks

community-colornbc-com

By: Ashton Newton
Entertainment Editor

Editor’s Recommendations:
“Community” is a show about a study group at a community college who go through all kinds of trials and tribulations. It’s absolutely hilarious. Anyone associated with a college campus relate to a lot that goes on in the show. The characters deal with difficult classes, love, friendship and the occasional school-wide paintball battle. “Community” was created by Dan Harmon, who also created “Rick and Morty.” There are six seasons now streaming on Hulu and for years fans have been petitioning for a movie to be made.

Editor’s Disparagement:
Movie trailers that give away major plot details infuriate me to no end. There are some things in movies that should be kept a surprise. The best example of this is in the trailers for “Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice”. Doomsday’s reveal would’ve been so cool if they hadn’t tacked it onto the end of the trailer. The trailer for “Suicide Squad” does the same thing by showing almost every major Joker appearance. If I had better self control, I’d boycott watching the trailers altogether. The best movie trailers are the short ones that simply give a feel for the movie, rather than giving all the details of it away.

Bob Dylan awarded Nobel Prize in literature

By: Kinsey Bushart
Freelancer

This year Bob Dylan became the first American to win a Nobel Prize since novelist Toni Morrison back in 1993. Dylan is also the first ever songwriter to be awarded the Nobel Prizebob-dylan-2-bwcnn in literature in the 112 years since the award was created, and the newest person awarded with the honor of being the top most inspirational and developed literary creators.

Bob Dylan began his singing, songwriting, writing and art career in 1959 at the age of 18. In the 75-year-old’s long career, he has gathered the admiration of millions of people around the world with his poetic and inspirational lyrics. In his time as a revered icon, Dylan gathered quite the following, especially in the 1960s when some of his most influential as well as controversial songs were released. At that time he was considered an unofficial spokesman on the issues in America and he also addressed said issues in his lyrics and movements.

Dylan was touring while the broadcast of his Nobel Prize was announced but since the Nobel Committee decided to award the Nobel Prize in literature to Bob Dylan, they have not been able to contact the artist except through his manager. Since they have yet to receive a confirmation of acceptance from Dylan, the committee has given up attempting to award the icon this prestigious honor. The ceremony will go on as planned, even if Dylan is not there to accept it.

Contact the author at kbushart16@wou.edu

It’s morphin’ time

power-rangers-colorimdb

By: Alyssa James
Freelancer

The throwback of all throwbacks is coming your way. A new Power Rangers movie is coming out within the next year. The original “Power Rangers” premiered in 1993 and has been around ever since then. It will be a whole new ball game when it comes to the new movie, directed by Dean Israelite. This new adaptation of “Power Rangers” will be starring Naomi Scott, Becky G., Elizabeth Banks, Bryan Cranston and more. The movie will follow a group of high school students who each have unique superpowers. When an alien threat comes into their lives they realize that they are the only ones who can help. They have to learn to control their powers in order to save the world. It is set to premiere in theaters on March 24, 2017. If you grew up watching “Power Rangers” this is definitely a movie you won’t want to miss.

Not only is there a new movie coming out but there is the possibility of a new Power Rangers TV show focusing on the Green Ranger. Since the Green Ranger appears to be absent from the movie it seems more like there is an actual possibility of this series than not. In an interview with comicbook.com, the actor of the original Green Ranger, Jason David Frank, says that there is a good chance that this spin-off will happen and that there has already been talks with creator Haim Saban about it. While the Green Ranger show is not confirmed, there’s still plenty of Power Rangers content on its way next year.

Contact the author at ajames16@wou.edu

Editor’s picks

By: Ashton Newton
Entertainment Editor

Editor’s Recommendations
“Westworld” is currently halfway through its first season on HBO and it’s fantastic. The premise is that there’s a park populated by android hosts, where guests can pay to do whatever they want, such as hunt for treasure and go on adventures, but the androids start acting up and everything gets crazy from there. The park is wild-west themed so the show has an awesome balance between western and science fiction action.

Also, in the western genre, “Red Dead Redemption 2” was just announced for a fall 2017 release. The first “Red Dead”, made by Rockstar Games, holds up as one of the most immersive western games of all time. I recommend checking it out.

Editor’s Disparagement
PlayStation Now is an amazing concept. PlayStation Now has a massive library of streamable games that you can pick and play on the PlayStation 4 without any download at all. Sounds great, but in reality PlayStation Now makes playing those games extremely not enjoyable. Unless you have the world’s best Internet connection, the stream is constantly interrupted and slow. The monthly subscription is also way too high; $20 a month might be good if the service worked. Overall, PlayStation Now is an awesome concept that is terribly executed.

“Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration Edition”

By: Blayde Biacan
Freelancer

The original tomb raider turned 20 years old last week, and since then has gained a huge fan following. With the 20th anniversary, “Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration” was released on Oct.11. The new edition includes many new features, such as virtual reality and multiplayer.

The game also has a new downloadable expansion called “Blood Ties”. This addition to the story explains Lara Croft’s family bonds and doesn’t add many new details to the story, but rather, enforces some content that was lightly mentioned throughout the plot of the game. The playthrough of this is more story-based so there isn’t much action, but there is a lot of time to connect the dots. This is also playable for anyone with a virtual reality device through free hand control or a move-click system as a form of movement. However, it looks smooth enough without the system and can cause motion sickness.

Another feature of the game which is unlockable after completing the Blood Ties story is a similar playthrough except with the addition of zombies and a more eerie environment to play in. When playing, it’s difficult to really know the direction from where a zombie might appear. The dark environment is no help to this, as it has a small field of view with mixed audio signals in a cramped space with multiple pathways for zombies to approach.

I like the new multiplayer mode, although it’s not competitive. It has a survival component with another player and both players need to rely on each other for food and supplies as well as exploring booby trapped maps that are randomly generated each playthrough.

I would recommend this game to anyone that has played the previous “Rise of the Tomb Raider” and who wants to experience something new with an additional challenge and highly recommend it for people that have not. This is a game that has lasted 20 years in an ever-changing gaming community. Truly a game that deserves the title “old but gold”.

Contact the author at bbiacan16@wou.edu

“Miss Peregrine’s”: from paper to picture

By: Kinsey Bushart
Freelancer

First I must confess that I only recently read “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” and I had only read it because I am a firm believer in reading the book before seeing the movie. Ransom Riggs’ book is whimsical, funny and more than a little bit creepy.

One character, a boy named Enoch, is so “peculiar” he has the ability to bring inanimate objects to life with the heart of something already dead. If child necromancers, bird-women and evil monsters who resemble Slender Man are something you’re interested in, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” is the book for you. Plus, the plethora of sarcastic one-liners and humorous characterization makes it so any fan of fantasy can connect with characters as well as enjoy the suspenseful or light-hearted situations those characters find themselves in.

The movie adaptation itself has trouble keeping to the already written guidelines from the published original. Most movie adaptations from books have a way of wandering off from the original storyline to either simplify the story and thus shorten it, or attempt to make it more interesting. This can be off-putting to some, including myself.

“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” is the same in that regard; with major character changes concerning special abilities and even physical appearances, plus the deletion of entire characters depending on their overall importance to the storyline. These changes effect the movie enough to bother some stickler book fans about ruining the entire thing.

Now this movie does better than other book adaptations, especially compared to films like the Percy Jackson series or “Eragon”, so it’s not really something to be too upset about, unless you’re easily bothered by such things. While not a terrible movie overall (I enjoyed it immensely) the movie adaptation of “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” doesn’t do the greatest job matching perfectly with its book, not that it was really expected to.

Contact the author at kbushart16@wou.edu

The Rolling Stones roll back to their roots

By: Kevan Maloney
Freelancer

The golden oldies are returning to the modern era. To some this means relatively little, but to others this means the world. This return is being heralded by The Rolling Stones, who plan on releasing their new album on Dec. 2. The album, entitled “Blue and Lonesome”, is set to be an homage to their beginnings in the music industry, back when they were a blues band in the late ‘60s and Printearly ‘70s.

The release of this is simply amazing considering the fact that most mainstream news of The Rolling Stones is nearly non-existent, with their last album being released in 2005. It’s also surprising that they are actually still quite active, going on tour every few years. Along with the release of the album, The Rolling Stones are planning a European tour.

“Blue and Lonesome” is going to feature 12 tracks which are written by other artists, reimagined by The Rolling Stones. Many of these songs will be ones that they started off playing when they were still up and coming.

This has the potential to bring millennials back to the classic era of rock. There are so many artists that haven’t been followed in decades who are easily as fantastic as artists today. An important result that could come of this is the album’s ability to potentially bridge a generational gap. From personal experience, I know that the music I prefer to listen to, and what my parents listen to, are vastly different.

“Blue and Lonesome” will be the latest edition to The Rolling Stones musical archive that has been around since 1962, over half a century of musical creations.

Contact the author at kmaloney15@wou.edu

Get in the spirit

By: Alyssa James
Freelancer

We’re in the midst of October and Halloween is right around the corner! Nothing is more exciting than participating in Halloween rocky-horror-colorimdb-comevents to celebrate the season. Whether it’s just stopping at a pumpkin patch to get doughnuts and cider, or going through a haunted house, there is an event for every type of person! This year there are a few events that are definitely worthy of checking out.

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is being shown at the Majestic Theater in Corvallis on Oct. 21 and 22. If you’re into a fun interactive experience, this is the event for you. There are two showings per day: one at 6 p.m. and another at 11 p.m. Tickets cost $15 and can be purchased online at www.majestic.org.

Another event on Oct. 22 is the annual Zombie Walk that is taking place in Salem. It begins at 6 p.m. on the State Capitol Building steps and ends at 9 p.m. at Taproot. This is a free event. People dress up like zombies and go creeping around the town with their fellow zombies.

The Grand Theater in Salem is putting on a movie night Oct. 30. They will be showing “Hocus Pocus,” a movie in which two kids explore an abandoned house and accidently release three witches, the Sanderson sisters. This is a classic Halloween movie starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy and Bette Midler. It is being shown at 2 p.m. and costs $5 for admission. This event is all ages and sales are at the door only.

If you’re up for it, Halloweentown in St. Helens has many events going on. On Oct. 22 they are having a Bonfire and Bones Goth Extravaganza with DJs Owen and Aurora. This dance has other activities you can participate in such as a costume contest, haunted house and door prizes. It is $10 and all ages. Tickets are available online. Going to St. Helens to see the town all decorated for Halloween with the giant pumpkin is a sight to see. Check online to see what other events are happening there this year.

With midterms right around the corner, these are all great ways to go out, give your mind a break and relax a little. Happy Halloween!

Contact the author at ajames16@mail.wou.edu

Editor’s Picks

By: Ashton Newton
Entertainment Editor

Editor’s recommendations:
“The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” will be five years old in November and it still holds up as one of the best video games I’ve ever played. Few games make you feel like there is a living world around you but “Skyrim” does it perfectly. The storytelling is so rich that little actions make big impacts, making players feel like their playing matters to the world around them. A remastered version of “Skyrim” releases on Oct. 28 on Playstation 4 and Xbox One, I highly recommend it.

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” holds up as one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Starring and directed by Ben Stiller, it’s just the most feel-good movie of adventure that I’ve ever seen. “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” makes me feel a sense of adventure that movies rarely make me feel. Plus, the soundtrack is fantastic. If you’re looking for a movie to watch, you won’t be disappointed.

Editor’s Disparagement:
I’ve always really liked Bon Iver’s music, but I just can’t get into their new album “22, a million”. There are a few good songs on there such as “29 #Strafford APTS” and “715 – CRΣΣKS”, but for the most part, the album is filled with a lot of strange noises and unnecessary electronic music that makes it difficult to listen to. Listen to Bon Iver, just not their newest album.

Becoming a YouTube Hero

youtube-logo-coloryoutube-com

By: Blayde Biacan
Freelancer

Do you want to become a hero? A YouTube hero, that is. The YouTube hero program is something YouTube has come up with to encourage users to make it a better place and to make the entertainment process unhindered. When I say encourage, I mean there will even be rewards to encourage users to be a part of the YouTube hero program.

The actions that help users earn points towards rewards for these incentives also help to improve YouTube overall. At times when you click the “closed captioning” button, it doesn’t align with what is said in the video. You are now able to edit the subtitles in videos and doing so will earn you a point towards rewards. If you’re watching a video and hear excess swearing, which takes away from a video, giving it a flag warns YouTube that the video may violating YouTube’s new guidelines which were recently set on Sept. 1. If you wish to reap the most points, answering questions on the YouTube help forum will not only help you, but help others with their inquires as well. However, answering inquiries will only get you points if you have the best answer.

These everyday actions can help get you into the YouTube hero community, get closer to the YouTube staff, allow you to to get special sneak previews and even test new products that come out before release.

If you’re interested in becoming a YouTube hero, all you need to do is search “YouTube heroes” on Google and click on the top link to sign up. All you need to provide is an email to sign up and you’re on your way to being a hero. Like any hero, “with great power, comes great responsibility.” YouTube asks for these actions to be used appropriately in order to make it a better place.

Contact the author at bbiacan16@wou.edu

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