Mason's Blog

"Barbie" | Warner Bros. Media Without a shadow of a doubt the “kenergy” this summer is off the charts, in no small part due to the release of Greta Gerwig's “Barbie” movie. Mattel’s first foray into film, it has quickly become the one of the largest successes of 2023. It stands as a hilarious and satirical journey into the pink soaked world of Barbie. The film centers around the titular Barbie (Margot Robbie) traveling to the real world after gaining irrepressible thoughts of death, flat feet, and cellulite. On this adventure to the real world she is unexpectedly joined by the lovelorn Ken (Ryan Gosling). Arriving at Venice Beach in Los Angeles Barbie discovers the world is not as perfect as she was expecting and for Ken it’s better than he could have imagined. While in the real world Ken learns about the patriarchy and decides to take it back to Barbie Land. Upon Barbie's return to Barbie Land she discovers that the Kens have taken over and that she, along with a wom...

Driving through the flat grass-covered fields of middle America was nothing less than boring. We might see a house if we got lucky and maybe a billboard every 50 miles.  We found ourselves in Kentucky and once we reached our destination, the boredom we faced all seemed worth it. We found ourselves upon a natural wonder of the United States – Mammoth Cave National Park! The longest cave system in the world was ready to be explored and we did what everyone does when they arrive, schedule a tour of the caves. We decided to do the shortest tour because this was simply a stop on our way to somewhere else. Even though this pretext of a couple hour long stop set expectations it quickly became one of the most interesting parts of the trip. Right outside the visitor center stood our tour guide along with eight other people. The guide explained some rules for the tour and we disembarked. The guide had warned us, “it will be humid and hot down there”, but we didn’t pay any mind to that becaus...

"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse". Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Animation Swinging into theaters on June 2, “ Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse ” is the hotly anticipated sequel to the 2018 smash hit film “Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse.” This film stands as part one of the finale of the “Spider-verse” series. Many laud “Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse” as one of, if not, the best animated movies ever created for its animation, themes, and story and how do you beat that — by being its sequel. The story picks up about a year after the events of “Into the Spider-verse” with Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) and Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) separated into their own spider-verses. The movie opens with Gwen fighting the classic Spider-Man villain The Vulture and meeting Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) and Jessica Drew (Issa Rae).  It then jumps forward four months and into a new universe, now following Miles trying to defeat a new villain, The Spot (Jason Schwartzman). The...

OhVee opening for BIGBABYGUCCI at Madame Lous. Photo taken by Rico Suavè Jr. From LBCC student to a star in the making, Oliver Vatcoskay also known as OhVee is steadily rising in the musical world. Recently he’s had guest performances with the popular rappers Yung Bans and F1lthy who each have more than half a million listeners.  He also recently opened for the popular artist BIGBABYGUCCI at Madame Lous in Seattle, Washington. As always, creating connections with popular artists is a must in the music industry and OhVee is steadily building that ladder into the stars. Born in Las Vegas, he moved to the Albany area in 2013 with his love of music already brewing. His goals have flourished with the support of his family and friends throughout the years.  When he was young he mixed pre-existing songs and now he mixes his own original music, sometimes with popular artists. Originally listening to rock music like Metallica and Santana he gradually shifted to rap where he would end...

A bathroom door stands open and out steps a man in all black. He looks solemn, sad, and even bored as he walks through the door and across the room. The camera follows him to reveal a man lying in a bed, shot in the head.  The mystery man unscrews a silencer from his pistol and tucks it away into his jacket pocket. He walks away from the bed only to look back one more time, nonchalantly checking his watch, seeming indifferent to the man he has just killed.  This is Barry Berkman. Barry Season 1 Poster Now in its final season, HBO’s “Barry” is a critically acclaimed television show written, directed, and produced by Bill Hader. During its final season “Barry” averages 2.6 million viewers every Sunday. It has had similar viewership for the previous three seasons as well. I binged the first three seasons rather quickly and it is now one of my favorite shows because of its mixing of genres and interesting characters. Starring Hader, the “Saturday Night Live” star, and acting legen...

A week and a half into my family's cross-country road trip we found ourselves surrounded by empty fields of grass in the center of South Dakota.  All of us sat quietly in our 32-foot RV barreling down the highway. My dad driving forward staring at the seemingly endless road, mom fiddling with her phone, and me in the back gazing into the flat grass-covered distance. My family had gone on road trips every two years or so and South Dakota was a through point in our journey to St. Louis. We had just left Badlands National Park and entered the great expanse of emptiness of the Midwest. Breaking the silence, mom looked up and announced the reason she had been tapping on her phone for the last eternity. There was a shortcut that would cut down the drive by an hour. We all excitedly accepted this proposal. Maybe it would be a change in scenery. Maybe it would lead to a new adventure. Maybe it would turn out to be a time-consuming and somewhat hilarious misadventure. As we turned onto the ...