Category: Reviews

  • Must Reads of The Year

    The arrival of fall brings with it the need fir a good read. To help the indesisive bookworm, I have two book  suggestions that you can choose from that you might want to check out.

    First up in recommendations is Rupi Kaur’s The Sun and Her Flowers, a book filled with short poems dealing with the after effects of a breakup, the reflecting of being in one, and the redemption of one’s self. Rupi Kaur is well known for her first debut book Milk and Honey which was released in November 4th, 2014. If you loved her first book then you’ll surely enjoy her second. It’s an easy read of about 242 pages and filled with a variation of short and long poems along with some drawings spreaded here and there in the book. The book is split into 5 sections entitled; the wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming, which helps Kaur tie her experiences with metaphors of flowers. About almost anyone can relate with her universal messages.

    If self reflection isn’t your cup of tea, try Amber Smith’s New York Times Bestseller The Way I Used To Be. In recent news there’s been one topic that has been talked about the most and that seems to be an ongoing issue even into today, sexual assault. This realistic fiction novel tells the story of a young girl dealing with a traumatic experience that happened just before her first year of high school. While the book is 384 pages long and split into 4 sections, each being her freshman, sophomore, junior and senior year, it documents the changes of how she copes with this experience she’s kept to herself. If you’re someone who’s into the dark realities of society,  this might be the one for you.

  • Netflix Nails Coming of Age Story

    By now everyone has at least heard something about “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”, a Netflix Original teen romantic comedy.  Almost every girl is gushing over this movie, some even saying it’sbetter than “The Kissing Booth”, another Netflix Original. Its release date was August 17 and I encountered the trailer a few days before it was released and saved it to My List on Netflix to watch.

    I’ll admit the first few minutes in were abit boring, but as I continued to watch more of it, it grew interesting. The main character Lara Jean is the middle child of 3 siblings and attending high school. She fantasizes about love in the books she reads, but doesn’t indulge in taking the risk of being in an actual relationship. She keeps love letters addressed to the 5 boys she has known in her lifetime, but doesn’t plan on them ever reading the letters. The recipients are crushes she had growing. She is weel aware they’ll only just be crushes and nothing else. When the letters are suddenly released she has to deal with the consequences.

    One of the recipients confronts Lara about the letter and later uses the situation to convince her of being in a fake relationship with him in result of them trying to get back with his ex-girlfriend.

    The movie it had its moments where it pulled my heartstrings or made me feel overwhelmed with emotions. The way the movie ended things it left me satisfied, while also hinted at there being a sequel which hopefully will be released in the near future. I consider this movie to be a 7/10 and a great coming of age story, if you’re someone looking for a cheesy but sweet popcorn romance.

  • Run From The Nun

    The Nun finally hit theatres on Friday, September 7, 2018. Many people have been waiting for this movie since the nun herself first appeared in the Conjuring 2, leaving everyone who watched it with questions about who she was, why she was in the movie, and how was she connected to the rest of the Conjuring franchise. The film started off by telling the viewers what they were about to see is based off of true events that actually took place in Romania in the 1950s. Throughout the movie bits and pieces of how the nun came to be were shared along with the history of the land of the real-life church. The movie does a good job of showing her timeline, however, it leaves you with questions. In the last scene two demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren, from both Conjuring movies appear on the screen and you finally get to connect this movie with all the others, but will leave you with even more questions. Overall, the movie is not up to par with  most superior horror films, relying soley on tension building and a few jump scares here and there, but nothing an average horror fan can’t handle.

  • Stop What You Are Doing and WATCH Castle Rock

    Castle Rock is a show that takes place within the Stephen King multiverse. It was promoted frequently on both tv commercials and youtube ads. So. many. Youtube ads. And yet somehow almost nobody I know has seen or heard of it. The show is based off the universe of King novels, but contains original characters. This makes it great for both the super Stephen King fans and the casual viewer. The main universes that occupy this first season is Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, and The Shining. Based on the later episodes I’m guessing season 2 will be more The Dark Tower.

    All the characters are created for the show and each one has something supernatural going on with them. Our main character is Henry Deaver, a boy who goes missing for 11 days, experiences a traumatic event, and forgets about it right away. When he returns and is mute, his father suddenly dies. The city of Castle Rock puts all the blame on Henry and label him as  a murderer. Almost 30 years later,  Henry returns as a Lawyer to help a client who has been held captive in Shawshank against his will and without having committed any crime. ‘The Kid’ (Bill Skarsgård) is thought to have some kind of telepathic power. Molly Strand, Henry’s childhood best friend, who definitely has the shinning, is another main charater. Henry’s mother (Sissy Spacek) is suffering from Dementia and has the purest heart in Castle Rock. The only character you might recognize from King’s novels is Jackie Torrence, niece of Jack Torrance. Jackie is minor character, but a relatable one. She is obsessed with the town’s history of gruesome murders and often spectates rather than advance the plot. The show contains amazing performances and easy-to-love characters.

    What happened to all those Stephen King superfans that swore they were lived off of horror? I guess they only showed up because Pennywise became suddenly attractive and left when the hype did. (no wait, that was me, that was my fanfiction) Why is nobody watching this show? It is so good, I can not even put it into words. It has everything, thriller, mystery, murder, flashbacks, 90’s, hot people, old people! Each episode leaves you with so many questions. All episodes are now streaming. I haveyet to watch the last episode and wow I have no idea what is going on. American Horror Story is running out of ideas and Evan Peters is engaged and is therefore no longer it, we need to move on. This is the horror anthology series we all deserve, and people should definitely start tuning in.

  • Play It Again, Poly

      Poly High’s Piano Recital took place during April 24, 25, and the 26. Students played pieces recognizable to all audiences like Dreaming of You. They also played classic romantic pieces such as Valse Romantique, performed by Megan Heng. The song was originally written in 1890 as a solo piece by French composer, Claude Debussy. Melissa Martinez played Renesmee’s Lullaby, which was originally written by Carter Burwell for the score of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part II.

     

        Junior Anahi Vega played Mia and Sebastian’s Theme from “La La Land”. After playing the piano for nearly 3 years, Vega is able to pick up and memorize music quickly, “It took me about a month to memorize this piece. I still messed up, but it was okay.”

     

        Although memorizing sheet music is a skill Vega posses, but after all her performances, Vega still at times, lets her nerves get the better of her. “I actually hit the note I was messing up on, but I need to work on my stage fright. I look at the audience sometimes and just stop.”

    This program in a way told a story, “It started kind of sad, then went to a weird place, but it ended on a happy note.”

     

        Junior, Maya Cheav, began playing piano 9 years ago when her mother brought home a old piano from work one day. She considers music as a pastime and not her career path. She doesn’t think much about the memorization of music, although she agrees it is key when learning the piano,  “ With sheet music, it depends on the song, anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.” Cheav recently started playing Jazz and now can tell the similarities between the two styles and embrace their differences. “I’m in Jazz as well so I know how to work with the whole team instead of just solo. Classical music is about sheet music, Jazz is more about expressing yourself, both are nice in different ways.”

  • Den of Thieves!

    Den of Thieves!

    An L.A crime saga which follows the intersecting and often personally connected lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff’s Dept. and the state’s most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank of downtown Los Angeles. Many known faces star in the movie, such as Gerald Butler, 50 Cent, O’Shea Jackson Jr., and many more. While watching the movie, one may not know what to expect, but if you like an action packed movie, you’ll be into this.

    In fact, Long Beach Poly High School was mentioned a couple times throughout the movie. Represent!  Yup, it’s true, they talk a little on our outstanding football team. The movie is centered around the Los Angeles County. Although Hawthorne, Long Beach, San Pedro, and Compton were all mentioned in the movie.

    So far, it made 58.3 million USD in the box office. In the NY Times review, they stated that “With almost compulsive detail, ‘Den of Thieves’ rattles off title cards identifying places and major characters, some of whose names sound like Los Angeles suburbs. The would-be regional authenticity is marred by obviously off-location work. It’s no surprise when the ubiquitous Georgia peach logo surfaces in the credits.” On Rotten Tomatoes, this film recieved 39% so watch at your own risk. The ending will have you surprised and in awe.

  • Putting Talent to the Test!

    The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee came to Poly’s auditorium the weekend of February 9-11. This comedic musical follows a middle school spelling bee and the lives of the young competitors. There were two casts for a number of roles, and both were amazing and brought their own unique interpretation to the characters.

    The spelling bee is run by Rona Lisa Peretti (Emma Waters and Marisa Imbroane), the third annual spelling bee winner, and Vice Principal Douglas Panch (Carlos Necochea) who provided hilarious example sentences for each contestant’s word. There to comfort the spellers and escort them off stage was Mitch Mahoney (Jeremy Padrones, Choir student teacher) who was serving his community service and delivered a soulful and astounding performance of “Prayer of the Comfort Counselor”.

    Nico Fife and Max Noble played the role of Leaf Coneybear, a homeschooled boy who came in third in his spelling bee and only got to compete because the other two people could not. When he spells his words he is in a trance that somehow allows him to get the word right, in spite of showing no previous signs of exceptional intelligence which is shown in his song, “I’m Not That Smart”.

    The Characer’s, Logianne Schwartzand Grubenierre (Adrianna Luna and Mika Dyo) was the youngest and most politically aware competitor with an adorable lisp who has two gay dads (Dane Camacho and Josiah Hon who provided a hilarious performance). She sings a song about her motivation for winning the bee in “Woe is Me.”

    Chip Tolentino (Vincent Zamora) won the previous spelling bee and went to Nationals. He was eliminated early in this bee due to a hilariously unfortunate situation caused by Leaf’s sister Marigold. He goes on to deliver a song of lament chock full of comedy while selling concessions during the snack break called “My Unfortunate Distraction.”

    Marcy Park (Gabriella Kaiser and Toni Bravo) is a typical overachiever who attends Catholic school. She gave an amazing performance full of dancing and incredible vocals called “I speak Six Languages” where she goes into detail about all of her abilities.

    Olive Ostrovsky (Amanda Angeles and Mara Stanford) and William Barfee (Andy Martinez) were the final two spellers with Barfee taking the trophy. Olive has a mom who is in India (Marisa Imbroane and Jovanni Pham) and a workaholic father (Dane Camacho) and sings a heart tugging song called “The I Love You Song” which takes place in her head.

    According to Linda Bon, Poly’s drama teacher, a Musical Theatre West scout came to the show and said Poly’s performing arts department is on par with the other performing art schools in the area.

    One unique thing about this show is that audience volunteers have the opportunity to be picked as spellers in the show. One of the funniest volunteers was Albert Shaheen, a chemistry teacher at Poly.

    All of the characters were easy to get attached to causing the audience to be sad when a speller was eliminated. Between the top notch acting, singing, dancing and nonstop comedy, Poly’s first musical was an overall success and they hope to have more in the following years.

  • 60th Annual Grammy Recap!

    60th Annual Grammy Recap!

    To those who produce music, it is a dream to be nominated for a Grammy. 2017 consisted of amazing new music from artists such as Lana Del Rey, Childish Gambino, Lorde and many more. On January 28th, the 60th Annual Grammys were held at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. The show wrestled with a range of social and political topics including immigration, racial injustice, and the #MeToo movement by many influencers of our time.

    Many remarkable moments happened throughout the show. Kendrick Lamar opened the show with U2 with his song “XXX,” as he raps about poverty and revenge. A #MeToo moment was brought into the spotlight by Kesha and many fellow female artists that attended that night standing behind her in this overwhelming, powerful, emotional movement. For those who aren’t aware, the #MeToo movement brings widespread awareness and prevalence to sexual assault and harassment in the workplace. The women in white performed “Praying,” a ballad off of her first studio album, “Rainbow.” Performances from Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Rihanna, SZA, and Sam Smith took the stage by storm, with hit singles released last year.

    The nominations this year among the musicians, rappers were going head to head in each of the category. For Bruno Mars, it was the highlight of his career thus far. An upbeat master of singalong bops, which also makes you want to groove with the move. Mr. Mars won all six of the awards he was nominated for, including the top prizes of: album, record, and song of the year. The provocative and critically admired rapper from Compton, CA, Kendrick Lamar, was the next most awarded artist whose five wins included awards from the rap categories. For those who didn’t go home with a Grammy in hand, it was an honor to be nominated, which clearly indicates how worthy and impactful their music was and still is in many lives.

  • Poly’s Got Jazz!

    On November 2, 2017, Long Beach Poly’s Jazz program performed their annual fall concert at Hughes middle school.

    The night began with a performance from a Jazz C. Junior, Maya Cheav played the piano for Jazz C. “The concert was great. You wouldn’t believe the amount of talent at this school,” said Cheav. Jazz C performed four songs: “Second Line,” “Avalon,” “Sugar Train,” and “Tenor Madness.”

    Next in line was Jazz B, performing “Cheesecake,” “Butterfat,” “Teach Me Tonight,” and “Smackdown.”

    “We performed four songs, all pretty different. Two swing, one funk, and one ballad,” said senior Blake Leigh, who played the piano for Jazz B. “I think that the band’s hard work really showed in our performance.”

    Jazz A2 was second to last to perform. Drummer, junior Marcelo Murillo played for Jazz A and commented, “I felt as though from the beginning of our first rehearsal of the tunes, we struggled as a group. Then overtime, through practicing as a group and on our own, we developed the songs and shaped the music in a way that sounded amazing. On the whole, the concert sounded great.”

    Jazz A2 performed the songs: “Hey That’s Nacho Cheese”, “Body and Soul”, and “I’ll Be Seeing You”.

    Jazz A closed out the event with more spectacular performances.  Senior Kyle Van Lant played the saxophone for Jazz A. “We played New Mambo, Count Bubba, Duck Ankles, Helen’s Heart, and the Trolley song, which Jacob Wolff arranged. I had a ton of fun; we really pulled through at the performance, as did all the other groups,” said Van Lant.

  • A “Broad” Understanding of Art

    Founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, Los Angeles is home to the renowned art museum named The Broad. The iconic museum features exhibits from all corners of the Earth. The most current being Yayoi Kusama’s infinity mirrors. A few very lucky Poly students and teachers have been able to visit this collection. The Broad is known for over 2,000 pieces of contemporary and postwar art pieces. Since opening in September 2015, The Broad has welcomed more than 1.6 million visitors.

    Poly’s only Art History teacher, Christine Tram, said The Broad is one of her favorite places to go in her free time.

    Christine Tram
    The photo above features one of Kusama’s Infinity Rooms titled Dot Obsession. This work was inspired by the Kusama’s visual transformation from Love to Polka Dots.

    The Broad museum is also home to one of today’s most famous contemporary artists: Jeff Koons. He is most well known for his Balloon Dog piece and his Rabbit artwork which is now on display at the Los Angeles museum.

    At  this particular museum, contemporary and pop art styles are extremely popular. Many are familiar with  the artist Barbara Krueger who addresses media and politics in their native tongue: tabloid, sensational, authoritative, and direct.

    The Broad is worth spending a day in LA with your closest art-loving pals.

  • Dancers En Pointe!

    Dancers En Pointe!

    Courtesy of Ashley Lopez

    On November 16, the Long Beach Poly dance program had their annual winter show. This year’s recital included various levels of performers such as PE 10, Dance 7-8 tech, and the Dance Team. Poly’s first hip-hop dance team, H2M, was also featured in the show and gave a great performance.

    According to dance instructor, Cynthia Negrete, the show was comprised of  “everything, all forms of dance.” The range of performance for the young girls ranged from lyrical and contemporary dances all the way to character dances and even to hip-hop and Bollywood.

    Senior Megan Villaverde stated that this show was different for her: “I was able to immerse myself in a different range of styles.”

    Villaverde was “really glad to work with new choreographers and their dances for the show.” After taking a long break from the spotlight, Villaverde was ecstatic to return to the stage with her fellow teammates and peers.

    Another Long Beach Poly senior, Adrianna Luna, is in her fourth year with the dance program. Luna said that she was “most excited to be the first event performing in Poly’s new auditorium.” Luna, who was featured in a jazz and contemporary piece, couldn’t wait to show “how hard we’ve been working on the final presentation.”

    Long Beach Poly’s new auditorium has been a long time coming– and the performing arts students were more than happy to jump back into the theater lifestyle.

    The hard work paid off in the end. All of the dancers experienced the rush of adrenaline when they were on the stage as well as off. An audience member, senior Natalie Hun, said, “I really liked the different styles of the show… I had a fun time cheering everyone on!”

  • ComplexCon Clambake*!

    Complexcon arrived to the downtown Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center during the weekend of November 4 and 5. Complexcon is a curated festival celebrating urban art and street wear.

    “I loved my time at Complexcon,” said Visalrich Sopha, a JUSTICE junior. “I enjoyed seeing everyone’s style and culture displayed in one concentrated area. I enjoyed seeing some of the artists that performed such as Smokepurpp, A$AP Ferg, and Ski Mask the Slump God.”

    Some famous influencers who showed up were Pharrell Williams, Takashi Murakami, Adrienne Ho, Pusha T, André 3000, and so many others. Although this event contained many stars, it was mostly packed with festival goers.

    “It was very crowded. People were yelling and eating and drinking. I had to wait at least 4 to 5 hours each line,” said Sopha. Many artists had meet and greets such as Takashi Murakami, who signed his art and personally greeted his fans. Despite the craze and masses of people, Complexcon was a great way for fans to get in touch with the contemporary influencers of street culture.