Meow Wolf’s third location is in Denver, and you should find time to visit.
By Rachel Webster
Opening the third location in the country on September 17, 2021, Meow Wolf is a unique art excursion for everyone. After booking tickets in advance, you arrive at the oddly shaped 90,000 square-foot building located smack-dab in the middle of highway ramps.
Senior, Ewan Gregory, who visited Meow Wolf on opening week, said about his experience: “This exhibit is really unique from its other locations in Santa Fe and Las Vegas. I imagine the strange location wedged between the highway intersection will be a considered a Denver landmark in the years to come.”
Outside, you go through security–which takes a max of ten minutes–and through the doors of art. For only three dollars, you can add on to your experience and buy a card, which takes you through the storyline of the artistry. Once you are ready, you go up an elevator and into an alien dimension. You can see rooms upon rooms full of artistry that must’ve taken years to develop. If you purchased the card, you can stop at devices that give you gems that you collect throughout your experience.
“The exhibit itself is sensory overload. With three completely different environments and hundreds of different art mediums and styles, it will take more than one visit to wrap my head around all that was there,” Gregory (12) states. “One second you’re looking at dioramas in repurposed speakers, the next you’re looking at a full forest full of psychedelic creatures and incredible lights and colors.”
One of the worlds inside Meow Wolf Denver.
You can spend any amount of time you want within the excursion up until they close for the day. Colorado residents only have to pay $35 in order to experience nothing like you’ve ever seen before. Already going once, Gregory comments, “I would definitely recommend checking it out. There’s only three locations in the world, and Denver is lucky enough to be one of them.”
You can stop your excursion anytime and return back to our world. When you’re in our world, you can get food and drinks and return to your excursion anytime. Many people consider this to be an immersive and transformative experience. “It ‘s a great place to appreciate local art and get lost in strange new worlds,” Gregory adds.
If you are interested in exploring this unique art excursion, their hours are 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. from Sunday through Thursday, and 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. You can visit their website at https://meowwolf.com/visit/denver for more information and to reserve your tickets.
Every day, colleges around the nation flood household mailboxes with letters, pamphlets, booklets, and posters. Each college claims to have the most beautiful community, the most helpful professors, and the most friendly students. AM I WRONG? NO! Do you want to hear the cold, hard truth? Colleges are dirty, rotten liars, and they want your money. Your 2.5 GPA probably doesn’t warrant that letter from Harvard, but they’ll send it anyway. Chances are, you will not get accepted, so what do you do with the leftover mail?
Tinder? I Hardly Know Her!
Boy Scout? No need. Learn to start a fire. When you are in the forest and in need of a flame, the wood and tinder may be too damp to use as a firestarter. College mail is easily accessible and extremely dry. Let’s burn it!
Piñata Time
As a high schooler, it’s not unusual to have anger issues. The tedious process of filling out college applications is difficult for even the best of us. Begin with a fun crafty activity. Using paper and a simple water-flour mixture you can create a statue in literally any shape–and I mean any shape. The options are endless. Then, using a baseball bat, or something of that variety, you can destroy said statue. This provides quick relief and comes highly recommended by every therapist ever–trust us, we asked! To be clear, it is very good for the soul.
Practice Your Origami Skills
There are many different cranes, rings, and other origami crafts you can create with your newfound paper supply. Try making a paper crown for the queen that you are. You will feel invigorated. Life will become better. Cool paper.
Make some epic paper airplanes
Let your imagination take flight with this super fun craft. Nothing relieves stress like having a little fun. And even better than that, you can include the whole family. Have fun together and bond with them before you tragically leave for college. The colorful, thick paper will look far better than typical white paper once it’s all shaped up. It may be too heavy to fly properly, but it will bring everyone together and provide much needed stress relief.
Compost material
Plain and simple, college mail has led to the deforestation of at least a million trees–trust us, we asked. It’s high time we give back to mother nature. Good for the environment. Feed the ground? Yes! She is so hungry. With this fun new activity you will rid the world of climate change. Climate change no more. No more. It’s done, you did it. You did so good. Such a good job.
College? More like Collage!
Collages are fun keepsakes where you can store your favorite memories. Collages can be very colorful, much unlike the dull mail they send you. With the unfathomable mass of colleges that attempt to reach you, it can be difficult to remember each one. This is easily cured by a collage. You can think about college all the time. Flip through your collage before you go to bed—we know students simply cannot get enough. Moms are sentimental. They will want to remember this time forever. The collage of all the colleges that pretend to want you will make your mother feel proud. Maybe it will help her forget how much she is paying for you to get an education.
Rip Them Up & Throw The Pieces
Teenagers feel sad–a lot. We need help expressing our emotions and sometimes slam poetry just isn’t enough. Try ripping up your college mail and throwing it up into the air. Direct your anger towards colleges and show them just how much you hate them. The little pieces of paper will make fun little confetti. Celebrate your graduation by throwing around the mail from colleges that you will not be attending.
Read them?
Haha, just kidding. That would be weird–no one reads them. All of the mailers are exactly the same. If you are looking to be put to sleep, they can make a great bedtime story.
We hope you found this helpful. If you didn’t, please read it again and change your mind. We love you and the Earth does too!
Kacey Musgraves grasped the attention of the public when her 2018 album, Golden Hour launched into success, winning album of the year at the Grammys. In her long-awaited follow up, Kacey, dancing the line between pop and country, dives deeper into what is more often the reality of love: heartbreak. Literally, “setting the scene,” as Musgraves explains herself, Kacey chose to release “star-crossed” and “justified” as singles, preparing her listeners for a new era of her near-decade long career. Following the timeline of her marriage and recent divorce, Kacey begins the album with songs like “good wife,” and “cherry blossom,” which detail her budding romance and desires to be successful in her marriage. She then moves into feelings of marital frustration, anger, sadness, and then finally moving on, in the Spanish-influenced finale, “gracias a la vida,” originally written by Violeta Parra, a Chilean composer.
Musgraves shows incredible growth from her naive look on love in Golden Hour with star-crossed, where her rose-colored glasses are removed. She opens up, revealing more about her personal life than she has in any album before, and it certainly pays off in her phenomenal lyricism. With lyrics like, “two lovers ripped right at the seams, they woke up from the perfect dream,” and “I won’t cry when the cold wind blows, gonna let it shine,” she takes listeners through an emotional journey that covers everything from growing up to dating after divorce. The album features a girl-power anthem called “breadwinner,” and then presents a stark contrast on the song “camera roll,” which details looking back on positive times of a relationship through photos, when you know the positive memories you associate with those photos aren’t what was reality.
Breaking hearts, she pens, ”What a trip, the way you can flip, through all the good parts of it, I shouldn’t have done it.” She connects her past album, Golden Hour, to the present, with lyrics like, “There’s one, where we look so in love, before we lost all the sun, and I made you take it.” She frequently refers to her past album, as, “the sun,” on par with its title. Kacey also created a short movie based on her lyrics and story, to truly immerse the audience in the narrative she is telling. Her ability to captivate an audience, given the stark contrast between Golden Hour and star-crossed, exemplifies her incredible lyrical talents, as well as her undeniable vocal talent. Whether you are experiencing heartbreak or not, star-crossed is the perfect album to bring the feeling to life.
Do adults in society put too much pressure on teenagers?
By Rachel Webster
We grow up with people constantly reminding us that we will be adults before we know it. The age of adulthood is eighteen. At fifteen years old, eighteen seems a long ways away. So, we shouldn’t have to worry about the problems of adults, right? Wrong! Even though adulthood seems so far away, we are expected to have adult responsibilities. Most of us feel as if we have the weight of the world on our shoulders. Some feel burdened with too many adult responsibilities despite only being teenagers. In a recent Instagram survey, only 12% of the Legend student body who responded indicated no stress about high school. 88% of the students at Legend are stressed in some way. Are we under too much pressure?
The high school years are the best years of our lives, according to many adults: going to dances, joining extracurricular activities or clubs, and playing sports. For many of us, however, that tale is starting to become a fantasy. As students approach the last day of eighth grade, we are excited to become high schoolers. We are excited to attend the assemblies, have our own lockers, enjoy those Friday night lights, and dance the night away during homecoming and prom. By the time the first day of high school comes, we are all expecting the best. Jonathan Bagwell (09), says that his first impression of high school is that there is “not too much workload with some classes, but a couple definitely do have a heavier workload.” Overall, though, he adds, “I’m not stressed in high school right now. I’d say a time I was really stressed was in my old school–American Academy.” However, by the end of first semester in high school, dealing with test after test and final exams, some feel we are at our worst. The further into high school you get, the more stressed students become. Is it too much added pressure?
Before we know it, we are walking into school on the first day of our junior year. Many worry about the SATs, our futures, and our grades. Ella Overby (11) says, “Right now, yeah I’m stressed. I’m sure everyone is. With school work, the after school show, and relationship and friendship issues, it gets overwhelming.” On top of the many things going on in our lives, many are asked several times about what they want to do career-wise in the future. “Unless someone has a concrete plan for their future, I definitely think everyone is [stressed]. I hear most kids say what college they want to go to, what major they want to study, and what they want to be when they grow up. And I’m here trying to figure out my next day’s outfit… My mind changes every month on what I want to be, and I’m really clueless,” says Overby. For most of us, the answer to the continuous questions about our future is “I’m not sure yet.” At such a young age, we are expected to know what we want to do for the rest of our lives. For the people that do know their career path, good for them. And, for the rest of us, a lot of people are in the same boat. It’s like a big question floating above us, everywhere we go, trying to figure out what we want to pursue for our careers. Is it too much pressure?
As we worry about our future career, we are still stuck in the mindset that high school determines everything for us. We are told that if we don’t get good grades and participate in extracurricular activities, we won’t get into a good college, we won’t have a good career, and we won’t succeed at life. We juggle preparing for the SAT, after school jobs, and maintaining a good GPA. We go to our extracurricular activities and come home to stacks upon stacks of homework. We are also expected to have a perfect mental health and life, dealing with no personal issues. But we aren’t perfect. We deal with broken friendships, family issues, and our own personal struggles, which leads to us staying up until one or two a.m. Just for us to go to sleep, wake up, and redo the whole day again. Is it too much pressure?
Many of us can’t help but wonder how much sleep we are missing, how many tests we are failing, and everything else we are missing out on in life just because we have so much homework that keeps us up so late. Is it the teachers’ fault? According to Overby, a teacher’s goal “is to effectively teach their class and assign work so then you can perform well in the class. Your performance is their paycheck, too.” As a freshman, Bagwell, when asked if he thinks teachers understand the amount of things going on in our lives, said: “I feel like they do sometimes. But definitely not all the time. Because they go to work and go home; they don’t have sports, extracurricular [activities], and homework.” Though many teachers oversee extracurricular activities, coach sports, and have grading and lesson planning outside of school, many students misunderstand or minimize the difficulties and pressures our teachers face, too. When asked if teachers think high school students have too much pressure on them, Mrs. Kane says it depends on their lives. “Some students have excellent support systems at home, in their social lives, and here at school; others do not have these support systems.” She adds, “Ultimately, what each person chooses to add to their plate of responsibilities is exactly that: a choice. We can choose to lighten our load. We can choose to seek out better systems of support and coping. In making these healthier choices, we choose to worry less.” Do students feel like they are able to and know how to lighten the load or is it just too much pressure?
I didn’t write this article to point out the negative things about our lives, I wrote this article to inform the adults in our society of the stress they don’t seem to see in the younger generation around them. I want teachers to acknowledge what lies on our plates right now. I want teachers to support students and realize their stress levels are high. I want parents to realize that they should help their kids out by offering a little more patience and support. I want other adults to realize that our society puts too much pressure on kids at too young an age. I want colleges to understand that we can’t do it all.
We need to realize that everyone is going through some sort of stress, so we should all practice having more patience. Treat everyone with respect and keep in mind what they are going through. Instead of expecting us to just know how to deal with stress, we need to be taught healthy coping mechanisms. We need to be taught how to take things off our plates. We need to understand how to develop support systems for handling stress; otherwise, it will always be too much pressure.
Trash islands are a problem commonly looked over by the government and companies. Most people don’t even know they exist. With six in total, the biggest one stands at 600,000 square miles and growing. It sits between the coast of Hawaii and California, growing bigger everyday.
It will take millions of years to dissolve on its own. Nearly 3 times the size of Texas and over 30 feet deep in some parts, it’s polluting the ocean, causing some serious issues.
Recently the concerns regarding the bleaching of coral reefs worldwide have come to light. Although proposed solutions like wearing less damaging sunscreen and avoiding touching the coral, the trash islands play a huge part in the pollution of oceans. To put this into perspective, half the Great Barrier Reef is dead due to bleaching, according to National Geographic. Bleaching occurs when coral gets too warm, gets surrounded by chemicals, or is cut down. Coral is very sensitive, so chemicals in the water from plastic waste make the coral sick.
In addition, the pollution is also killing sea life when trash is mistaken for food. Animals can’t digest plastic, often it gets stuck in the animal’s system, or the animal physically gets trapped in an area of plastic. Even when fish do survive after eating plastic and we can end up eating that plastic, if the fish is caught and sold.
According to the 2012 U.S National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimate, it would cost the United States at least $122 million. They estimated it would take $489 million just to hire enough boats to clean the Pacific garbage patch. It’s clear the government won’t pay for it, therefore leading to no one addressing the problem.
All in all, this problem is becoming irreversible. We need to find a way to fix this problem before it reaches the point where we can’t.
It’s finally March which means it is one month closer to summer and festival season. In anticipation, many artists are releasing new content to perform live. Here are some of the best and biggest picks from this past week.
Kicking off the list is the surprise release of Eternal Atake, Lil Uzi Vert’s long awaited album. The tape is full of Uzi’s signature autotune and techno-heavy production. The album consists of 18 songs with only one feature: “Urgency” featuring Syd, The Internet band member. The standout track is “P2,” acting as a sequel Uzi’s smash hit “XO Tour Llif3.”
Next is Chilombo by Jhené Aiko, the other highly-anticipatedalbum of the week. Aiko has been building up the release of Chilombo since 2019 with the release of “Triggered (Freestyle).” The album does not disappoint with Aiko’s soulful vocals perfectly syncing with Chilombo’s minimalistic acoustic production. The standout track is “B.S.” featuring H.E.R. with the two R&B singers giving one of the best R&B duets of the year.
Finally, arrives Megan Thee Stallion’s latest mixtape, Suga. The tape had been the topic of discussion for many due to Megan’s label, 1501, attempting to block Megan from releasing any new music. This was in result to Megan trying to renegotiate her contract. Thankfully after Megan sued her label, a judge ruled in favor of Megan, allowing her to release Suga. The mixtape once again shows her rapping ability is unmatched. The standout track is “Captain Hook,” featuring numerous flows and her signature bragadocious lyrics.
Be sure to also check out Katy Perry’s new single “Never Worn White,” the remix to Brockhampton hit “SUGAR” featuring Dua Lipa, and Demi Lovato’s latest single “I Love Me.”
Whether you are boo’d up or single this Valentine’s Day, here is some new music to make Valentine’s more enjoyable.
The most anticipated album of the week comes from pop megastar Justin Bieber with his album Changes. The album is full of features from the likes of Travis Scott, Post Malone, and Kehlani. It also contains the already popular singles, “Yummy” and “Intentions” featuring Quavo. The standout track is, surprisingly, a remix–“Yummy [Remix]” featuring Summer Walker. While the original song, “Yummy,” got backlash for being bland, Summer Walker gives it a rebranding with her soulful vocals.
The Australian indie band Tame Impala also returns to the music scene with The Slow Rush. This is their first album in five years after the release of their critically acclaimed Currents. OnThe Slow Rush, the band continues their signature funky and trippy sound, making the listener feel as if they are floating through space. The standout track is “Breathe Deeper,” a six-minute-long track, constantly shifting to create new melodies.
Finally, Billie Eilish continues her dominance over pop music with her new song, “No Time To Die.” “No Time To Die” is actually the theme song for the upcoming eponymous James Bond movie, No Time To Die. With her whispery vocals, she is able to create the suspenseful tone of a Bond movie. It will definitely be interesting to see if the movie lives up to the song.
When enrolling for classes you need to not only consider what will be beneficial to your learning, but what will look good on a transcript. Colleges are more likely to be impressed by a student willing to push themselves in advanced classes. You will get a more in-depth understanding of the subject matter and be able to boost your GPA.
Scholarships
Because AP classes demonstrate academic rigor and can result in a higher GPA, they can give you an opportunity to qualify for grants and scholarships. If you score above a 3 on the end of year exam, many colleges and universities will accept the test as college credit. This allows you a head start on that area and getting a few credits out of the way. However, if the AP class pertains to your major, beware. Many schools recommend you do not skip classes dealing with your area of study lest you forget material, fall behind, or lack significant knowledge necessary for the higher level classes.
Preparedness
Taking a more in-depth class, especially one relating to your potential career, will help you in the transition to college. You will be at an advantage by already having a background in the information. It will certainly make the transition easier and allow you time to gain stable footing in your new college life.
CONS:
Challenging Coursework
If you struggle in school, AP classes may not be the best choice. They require a significant amount of commitment — both in and out of school hours. Projects, tests, and lessons found in normal classes are mirrored in AP courses to a more advanced degree. Be prepared to dedicate hours to studying and homework for each course.
Challenging Areas
For example if you do not enjoy chemistry, it is for the best that you do not enroll in AP Chemistry. The subject matter may be more difficult or less interesting, hurting your performance in the class. Just because an AP class looks impressive does not mean that colleges will rank an C in one over an A in a regular course.
Rubric Grading
The final exam is based on a rubric. This may be appealing to some, but for others, not so much. It can be difficult to showcase your ability while maintaining the guidelines set. Furthermore, the questions on the exam are randomized but can lean heavily toward one area of the subject. Even if you are solid on the rest of them test, if the test is centered around your weakest unit, it can deter your score.
Many great new releases from new artists came out this week, adding to a great new year of music! Here are just some of the releases that you must listen to.
Three years after his last album, R&B singer Brent Faiyaz is finally back with his latest album F*** The World. He continues with the same format of his first album, Sonder Son, maintaining no features. However with F*** The World,it is apparent that he is more experimental. Faiyaz incorporates more samples and crisper vocals signifying his constant growth and maturity. The standout track is “Clouded,” which has Faiyaz singing alongside a gospel-like sample, making the listener feel amongst the clouds.
Another outstanding R&B project from a new artist arrived with Raveena’s latest EP, Moonstone. While the project only consists of four songs, each song is a great addition to the singer’s catalogue, leaving the listener eager for more. Raveena adopts a new sound on Moonstone: a mix of her signature acoustic sound and transcending, spacelike production to truly manifest what Moonstone is. The standout track is “Starflower,” a light song with entrancing guitar melodies, reminding you of a teenage coming-of-age movie.
Finally, the iconic punk band Green Day returns to the music scene with their latest album Father Of All…. They bring the same energy and style that they brought fifteen years during their prime promising no trap beats or new producers. The standout track is the title track, “Father Of All…,” starting the album out on a very high note.
Disney is turning into a monopoly, decreasing the standard of entertainment and discouraging independent artists from entering the industry.
By Lauren Penington
Disney’s control over the entertainment industry is growing daily. Here are the most important of Disney’s current assets.
Companies:
ABC
ESPN (Stake)
Touchstone Pictures
Marvel
Lucasfilm
A&E (Split equity with Hearst Corporation)
The History Channel (Split equity with Hearst Corporation)
Lifetime (Split equity with Hearst Corporation)
Pixar
Hollywood Records
Vice Media (Stake)
Core Publishing
Fox
Brands:
The Star Wars Franchise
The Muppets Franchise
The Marvel Cinematic Universe
Disney Princesses/Princes
The Chronicles of Narnia Franchise
The Pirates of the Caribbean Franchise
Pixar Films
The Winnie the Pooh Franchise
The Indiana Jones Franchise
Grey’s Anatomy (and other popular ABC shows)
In the midst of the popular brands that dominate the market, you’d be hard pressed to find ones not associated with Disney. Although, Disney creates a variety of content, their actions continue to narrow the industry as they acquire more companies. Even if Disney is not a monopoly at the moment, it is quickly approaching.
What does this mean for the industry? A monopoly gives Disney control over many aspects of the industry as being the main supplier. This monopoly allows Disney to supply a line of inferior products that people will still buy into.
For instance, the latest string of live-action movies. Although they have changed a few things, the live-action movies are essentially the same as the originals. Normally, such obvious rip-offs would not succeed in Hollywood, but Disney’s standing has brought it clout.
Additionally, this ties in with another downside of monopolies: they lose the desire to innovate. Although Disney is still creating some new content at this point, we have already seen evidence of lost innovation in the previous examples of live action recreations.
Due to the fact that Disney owns such a wide variety of companies and brands, they rake in a large profit. This increases their funds exponentially allowing them to take more companies under their wings, such as their recent takeover of 20th Century Fox. This increases the issue of monopoly, upsetting the balance of the economy by growing Disney’s share of the economy.
As much as we enjoy Disney, we have to come to terms with the situation at hand. The entertainment industry will lose more variety and creativity. It will become a pit of repeated movies and plots, offering nothing original.
