The James Logan Courier

By Yari Nieves-Rivera, Courier Book Editor

Being one of the many Hunger Games fans that has waited for an eternity to see the movie, it seemed fitting for me to go to the midnight premiere. On a Thursday night, I sat outside for four hours and waited for this movie, one of the most hyped up movies in the world. I sat in the theater and waited with anticipation, hoping that my dearest hopes would be portrayed in the movie. I didn’t know what to expect, but now I know what I should have.

I can only say that the sacrifice that fans like myself and others made to watch this film was worth it.

Only a week since it has come out, and it has broken records, and has even surpassed the record set by the Twilight films for opening weekends. Old fans and new fans alike waited with high anxiety, for the film that was mentioned on almost every channel, and was hyped beyond belief.

By Rae Atabay, Courier Staff Writer

Many people know the story of The Lorax by Dr. Suss: a young boy goes outside of town to talk to an elder, called the Once-ler, about what once existed, trees, and how the Lorax went away.

The movie version has the young boy, called Ted (Zac Efron), and gave a reason for why he went to the Once-ler in the first place. Ted and his family, containing his disco loving mother (Jenny Slate) and a very superstitious grandmother (Betty White), live in Sneedville where air is sold in plastic containers and everything in the town is plastic. The one selling air is the greedy Mr. O’Hare (Rob Riggle). Ted has a huge crush on the girl next door, Audrey (Taylor Swift), who is a nature lover and has never seen a real Truffula Tree and only dreams to see one. Ted makes it his mission to obtain a tree, along with Audrey's heart, which takes him outside of town to the Once-ler (Ed Helms).

By Lauren Mascarenhas, Courier Managing Editor

Fresh off the success of his American Idol win, Scotty McCreery has broken onto the country music scene, earning himself a nomination for this year’s Acadamy of Country Music New Artist of the Year award.

Last May, McCreery became the youngest male American Idol winner in the show’s history. He won particular recognition for his deep baritone voice that seemed developed far beyond his years. Clear as Day, his debut album, went platinum in just three months and stayed at number one on Billboard’s Top Country Albums list for six weeks.

Following his debut single, “I Love You this Big,” McCreery’s new single “The Trouble with Girls” has become his second consecutive gold single.

By Amanda St. Amand
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MCT)

Before I read "Wild," I had never heard of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Now I want to hike it, just like Cheryl Strayed did and writes about in her compelling, warts-and-all book recounting her adventure in the mid-1990s. As Strayed writes, despite her outdoorsy upbringing in a house that lacked indoor plumbing or running water in rural Minnesota, she was ill-prepared for the 1,000-mile-plus journey from the California desert to the forests of Oregon.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

It has always taken a special kind of person to truly appreciate the "Yakuza" series, which re-engineers flaws into points of endearment like few (if any) other series can.

"Yakuza: Dead Souls" takes that bizarre two-way affection into a whole new arena, but it never loses itself in doing so. An existing confluence of brawling and storytelling goes slightly nuts with the addition of zombies, firearms and more sustained action than has typically been present in these games, but everything that those earlier games comprised — including the weirdly wonderful tug-o-war between archaic and charming — remains intact.

_____

By Christine Cortes, Courier Staff Writer

If you are not familiar with the term "K-pop", it stands for Korean pop music. How is this relevant to the lives of Americans? While there is an obvious language barrier, for most of the songs are in full Korean, the cookie-cutter music is creating a craze all over the world.

The songs themselves are not that great, simple melodies that are addicting and lyrics that seem to be copied from a thirteen year old girl's diary. The random English inserted into the choruses of the songs tend to make no sense, and there is no depth in the meanings. It is as if one just took the most effortless, but appealing recipes for music and gave it to the South Koreans. There are few Korean celebrities with amazing voices, with just an average singing voice. So what is making it so big?

By Yari Nieves-Rivera, Courier Book Editor

Juliet by Anne Fortier is a very twisted turn on the romantic tale of Romeo and Juliet. Set in modern times, Julie and her sister, Janice, have never been on good terms. When the woman who raised them (their great-aunt), dies of unforeseen circumstances, she leaves Janice all of the estate and she leaves Julie nothing but a passport with her ‘real name’ on it, a bank deposit key, and a story about a great treasure meant for her. These things would lead her to Italy, (where her mother once lived) and would unravel not only the truth about her past, but about what truly happened to her mother and what was meant for her and her sister to find out.

At first, Julie is unsure of what to do with this new information. With encouragement from the housekeeper and father-like figure, Umberto, Julie decides to follow her Aunt’s last wishes and go to Italy.

By Lorraine Ali
Los Angeles Times (MCT)

A yearning for home, wherever that may be, is one of many themes that the late New York Times journalist Anthony Shadid so deftly touches on in "House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East."

Shadid, a Lebanese-American born and raised in Oklahoma City, takes leave from his job as a Middle East war reporter in 2007 to rebuild the abandoned and war-ravaged home of his great grandfather in the small Lebanese town of Marjayoun.

But even before he takes on the project, Shadid's idea of the Middle East as an ancestral home, a place that yields answers to personal and family questions, is challenged by what he finds during his years covering bloody conflicts in Israel (where he was shot in the shoulder by an Israeli sniper while reporting from the West Bank for the Boston Globe), Libya (where he was taken prisoner last year and beaten with three other journalists by Moammar Gadhafi's forces), and Iraq. Syria was Shadid's last assignment, and it was there he lost his life at 43 in February, apparently from an asthma attack.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

"MLB The Show" has been the undisputed king of baseball sims for at least five years running, and even though the 2012 edition's additions rank on the weak side, this remains the case.
For the second straight year, a new pitching mechanic leads off the roster of changes. But in contrast to last year's excellent Pure Analog system, the Pulse Pitching method relies too much on a gimmicky (and counterproductively touchy) timing mechanic that doesn't really replicate the sensation of making a perfect pitch. With practice, it can be mastered, but "MLB12's" other delivery methods — Pure Analog, Meter and Classic — are more fun. Fortunately, all remain available to use and tweak as needed via an extensive options screen.

"MLB12's" flashiest new feature — Diamond Dynasty, available only in the PS3 version — attempts to replicate the success of EA Sports' Ultimate Team modes, in which you assemble teams of players from virtual packs of cards you buy with in-game (or, of course, real) money. But while the seeds of compulsion are there if you're willing to look for them, Diamond Dynasty clearly is a rookie effort — all over the place in terms of confusing interfaces, and spotty with how it facilitates team management and rewards.

By Mark Godoy, Courier Staff Writer

Backyard Boiler opened last week. It is located in Union Landing right by Starbucks and Lucky's. The restaurant is based on seafood and a quick alcoholic beverage for those that are 21 and up. I decided to go to Backyard Boiler because many people were talking about the restaurant and how it is based on a primarily seafood cuisine, which is something that most restaurants in the area don't offer. The owner decided to change the restaurant from it's previous focus, Tuttimelon Yogurt, because Union City did not have a seafood based restaurant.

The seafood menu includes crab, crawfish, shrimp, and clams seasoned with mainly Cajun flavors. Another flavor you could get at Backyard Boiler is Garlic Butter. With great sides like Cajun fries and wings to go along with it.

By Jack Bragg, Courier Editor-in-Chief

The All American Rejects have become a staple of the pop rock genre in recent years. Their latest album Kids in the Street is the be released in the next few weeks and the Courier was able to garner an exclusive look into two songs on the upcoming album.

The first song, “Someday’s Gone” is a surprisingly heavy track, giving lots of emphasis on the distorted guitars and sometimes screamed lyrics. The song, while heavy, still carries a lot of the pop undertones that have become synonymous with the band’s music.

By Yari Nieves-Rivera, Courier Book Editor

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is the second book in the critically acclaimed Hunger Games trilogy. Very much like the first novel, it follows Katniss’s struggles to get over the events of the first book and her trying to cope through the mess that has followed her to District Twelve.

It begins soon after the 74th Hunger Games, with Katniss still hunting illegally in the woods. Even though she clearly states that she has not only gained honor to her family, but has provided them the life that she had always wanted for her family--specifically for Prim. Still, this doesn’t help Katniss deal with the fact that she had to end so many lives. To add to the stress, President Snow is displeased with Katniss. It not only does makes the situation worse off for Katniss, but it gives her more to fear and the feeling of being weaker.

By Molly Eichel
Philadelphia Daily News (MCT)

PHILADELPHIA — Professor Matthew Delmont set out to write about how the '50s dance show "American Bandstand" was an integrated bastion of pop culture, where Philadelphia's black and white teens mixed and mingled on television even though the rest of the country was bitterly divided by race.

Then he discovered his entire premise was dead-wrong.

In the resulting book, "The Nicest Kids in Town," this assistant professor of American studies at Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., details how "American Bandstand" kept African-American teens off the show, despite host Dick Clark's later claims to the contrary.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

Bioware wants everyone to enjoy "Mass Effect 3," which is why it's instituted options that allow players to enjoy it purely as a third-person shooter (with all role-playing upgrades and moral crises handled automatically) or a role-playing game (in which you still must fight, but against a considerably more generous difficulty curve).

But if you've been with the "Mass Effect" trilogy from the beginning and have no desire to play its closing chapter in a compromised state, let there be no confusion: Everyone is invited to play, but "ME3" was very much still made for you.

By Yari Nieves-Rivera, Courier Book Editor

As one of the most controversial books of this generation, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbolsky tackles many of the challenges of today’s society. The book is written in forms of letters to an unknown recipient, from a boy named Charlie.

After his friend’s suicide, Charlie becomes mentally unstable and his councilor suggests that to get on the path for recovery, Charlie should write letters about his life. So, he does. The book begins as he enters his freshman year of high school. There, he makes two unlikely friends: two seniors named Sam and Patrick. Sam, who he has a crush on, helps him to realize many of the things that have affected his mental stability. Patrick, one of his best friends. Openly gay, he holds a secret relationship with the high school’s football star, which is tabooed by normal society.

Charlie, overcome by the emotions he keeps to himself, has mental breakdowns when he reaches a point where he can’t show his emotions anymore. He could fit in anywhere, because he doesn’t care to fit in anywhere. His friends like him because of this. What Charlie is trying to do, is survive through high school and life as a whole. The struggles of being a teenager and fighting against peer pressure often work against him, but overall, he enjoys the company of the friends he has. He is blatantly honest, a good friend to a lot of people. We get to see that through his letters, and we get to see him grow as a person and slowly overcome his problems.

By Tish Wells
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

An excellent collection of short stories culled from the 19th-century popular press, "The Dead Witness" by Michael Sims shines a light on long-forgotten "mystery" writers such as Wilkie Collins, Alexandre Dumas Sr., Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. These authors, better known for their other writings, and others, created a fiction genre that continues to be overwhelming popular.

"In the long view of history, detectives are a recent phenomenon. Crime is not," Sims says.
He introduces his history of detective fiction starting with two biblical stories from the Book of Daniel then skipping through time to 1740s France and Voltaire. Finally, in 1841, you reach a familiar name: Edgar Allan Poe and his classic story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."
"The Dead Witness" starts with "The Secret Cell" from 1837, a tale of an inheritance, a missing daughter and a laundress. Sims points out that that was the year Victoria became queen and therefore a good starting point for this collection.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

The Vita's most prominent launch game likely will also be its most polarizing. For the most part, "Uncharted: Golden Abyss" plays like an "Uncharted" game, mixing lots of climbing and platforming with third-person, cover-based shootouts against legions of enemies armed to the teeth. In between, though, "Abyss" eschews the blockbuster set pieces of recent "Uncharted" games in favor of intelligence gathering — treasure hunts, charcoal rubbings, photography, examining and cleaning artifacts, a puzzle here and there — that utilizes the Vita's other control inputs. On one hand, it feels like a textbook case of a big-ticket launch game using every piece of a new system by any means necessary. But "Abyss" doesn't cram the stuff down players' throats. A few of these instances lie on the storyline's main road, but most are optional endeavors for those who enjoy the leisurely challenge of finding obscure pathways and gathering all the back story clues.

By Jack Bragg, Courier Editor-in-Chief

Band of Skulls, a British band from Southampton, have come back for their sophomore album,
following the smash hit of their debut, Baby Darling Dollface Honey. Their new album, Sweet Sour, features all of the same sounds and styles that made their first album such a success. However, the new album does feel somewhat top-heavy as the great songs at the beginning don’t match up with the weaker songs near the ending.

The band features a very unique male/female vocalist dynamic that is seen in only a few bands today. Singers Emma Richardson and Russell Marsden pull off their wonderfully interwoven voices spectacularly on the new album, and drummer Matt Hayward is as solid as ever.