Take Five: weeks of 9/30 and 10/7

Featured Image Citation: “The Kentucky Center For Performing Arts” by Nicolas Henderson on Flickr. Image is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic. Use of this photo does not indicate photographer endorsement of this article.

EP Presnell
October 11, 2018

While coming back from a break can suck, life doesn’t have to be so dire. Over the course of these past two weeks, many things have come out in the world of entertainment. From an animated Spider-Man movie to the release of a new Twenty-One Pilots album, there’s a lot to check out.

1) Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

It seems like recently we’ve been given a lot of Spider-Man movies, from Andrew Garfield to Tom Holland and the recent release of Venom, it’s everywhere and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down. Instead of a live action movie though, there’s a new animated spin on the friendly neighborhood superhero in the upcoming movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

This movie, while having Peter Parker in it, will focus on another web-slinger, Miles Morales. Morales is a normal high school student with spider-like abilities, but things go crazy when he is introduced to the Spider-Verse and discovers there can be more than one Spider-Man. The second trailer, which goes more in-depth as to what the movie will be about and who will star in the movie, dropped this past week. The movie will release in theaters on Dec. 14.

2) Saturday Night Live

It’s time to rejoice because Saturday Night Live (SNL) is finally back! SNL is currently on its 44th season and are already two episodes in, starting with the first episode being hosted by Adam Driver with musical guest Kanye West, and the second being hosted by Awkwafina with musical guest Travis Scott.

Both episodes have recapped on the Kavanaugh case with the first episode starting with a cold opening version of Brett Kavanaugh’s testimony and the second being a CNN report after Kavanaugh was approved.

If you aren’t familiar with SNL, the show’s cast and writers are liberal and the content of the show reflects that quite well. The show always has a host and musical guest, sometimes they are one in the same like when Donald Glover hosted after the release of Solo last season. SNL comes on every Saturday night at 11:30 p.m. on NBC. This Saturday, Seth Meyers will host with musical guest Paul Simon

3) What If It’s Us

Becky Albertalli, the author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (the book behind Love, Simon) has teamed up with Adam Silvera, author of They Both Die at the End, to create another young adult fiction novel.

What If It’s Us, as described by Albertalli herself, is a love letter to the Broadway show Dear Evan Hansen and deals with themes of romance, life in New York, and plays with the idea of fate in the universe. The plot will follow Arthur and Ben, two young adults who are trying to navigate life but then meet in New York. After meeting then separating, they find themselves questioning a lot about life, love, and if we’re really that far off from a Broadway musical.

Anonymous Content has already bought the rights for a film adaptation due to the large buzz around the book. It is anticipated to be one of the biggest books this fall and comes out on Oct. 9. The book will be available anywhere books are sold, and you can click here to buy the book from Amazon.

4) Trench – Twenty One Pilots

In the summer of 2016, Stressed Out and Ride were huge hits on the radio and two years later, you can still occasionally hear them. If you like Twenty One Pilots and want to hear more from them, new music from the duo has released, with their fifth studio album release, Trench.

The album covers a wide range of topics, from suicide to Tyler Joseph’s grandfather passing away, the haunting lyrics yet upbeat rhythms will leave you anywhere from confused, contemplating and everything in between.

“The songs in Trench remind me of their first album, Twenty One Pilots, because of the backing vocals and the messages,” said Gefen Yussman (10, J+C) “One thing I love about Twenty One Pilots and is how they have happy melodies combined with sad messages. In the song Legend, Tyler Joseph, the lead singer, talks about his grandfather that passed away when he was writing the album, but he made the beat sound so happy. In their last album, Blurryface, one lyrics says ‘this one’s a contradiction because of how happy it sounds, but the lyrics are so down.’”

Favorite Song: While I have listened to the album multiple times now, I have to say that my favorite song is track seven, Neon Gravestones. The song is about how society views suicide and how we treat it after a celebrity has taken their own life. I love it because Tyler Joseph, the band’s front man, has dealt with anxiety and depression, as seen through previous albums, but he acknowledges the problem of society glorifying it. The song is soft with the opening piano and haunting chorus that follows throughout. You can click below to listen to this song in particular, or you can listen to the whole album on any streaming service, or buy it wherever music is sold.

5) Aladdin

Make way for Prince Ali! As the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts starts its PNC Broadway in Louisville 2018-19 season, Aladdin is the first musical to take the stage. The show will run from Oct. 10 through the 21.

The musical is an adaptation of Disney’s 1992 movie of the same name, following Aladdin, a young street rat, as he takes possession of a lamp that holds a genie granting him three wishes. The show includes all the music from the movie as well as three songs by Howard Ashman written for the movie but not used and four new songs written by Alan Menken and Chad Beguelin. You can click here to buy tickets, which start at $3.

Featured Image Citation: “The Kentucky Center For Performing Arts” by Nicolas Henderson on Flickr is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic. No changes were made to the image. Use of this photo does not indicate photographer endorsement of this article.