Friday, April 22, 2016

Step Up Movies: A New-found Obsession

I don't know if I've mentioned it on here, but I really love to dance. It's a passion of mine and brings me immense joy. The Step Up movie series showcases a whole crap ton of dancing. These movies follow different groups of dancers who know each other one way of the other. The premise of each movie is that the group decides that they want to form a crew and compete at some competition. The crew works really hard at a combination (dance) and rehearses a whole ton. Then, at some part the crew faces some sort of difficult challenge that sets them back and won't let them compete. But after hard work they somehow find a way to compete. At the competition they kick the other teams butts (would've used a stronger word but some readers might now appreciate that)  and win the competition.
But lets skip through the boring parts. Easily, the best part of the movies are the dance numbers aka when they are dancing. Not only can the actors act, but they are also really good dancers, of course. To me there is nothing better than watching a good dancer do what they do best. Plus, it totally helps that many of the dancers/actors are extremely good looking. But the worst part about this new Step Up movie obsession is that they aren't even new. Step Up came out in 2006, Step Up 2: The Streets came out in 2008, Step Up 3D came out in 2010, Step Up Revolution (MY FAVORITE) came out in 2012, and finally Step Up: All In came out in 2014, already two years old.
So basically what I'm trying to say here is, I am a totally obsessed when it comes to dance movies. As a matter of fact, Step Up Revolution is the movie that inspired me to get back into dancing, after my eight year "break." In all actuality, I quit dancing because I hated it so much- not dancing as a whole, just Ballet and putting makeup on for the recitals. That was very off topic. Anyways, as a conclusion I'd like to say that my Step Up movie obsession is what I would like to think of as a reflection of my love for dance.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Are Newspapers Going Out Of Style?

How do you learn about the news nowadays? Do you sit in front of a TV and watch it? Do you go on one of your many apps and find it? Do you go on the internet and find it? Notice how I never once mentioned getting news from a newspaper. They may deliver it to your doorstep every day, courtesy of your local newspaper and broadcasting network, but hardly anyone under 20 reads the newspaper.
Our generation has grown up in a digital age. For as long as we have been alive, there have been phones, televisions, the internet, etc. While normal print books and novels may never go out of style, newspaper readers and sales have plummeted within the last few years. This is due to the fact nowadays you don't actually need to go and purchase a paper copy of the newspaper, when you can just go to your phone, google any news network, and look at what is happening on the news, right there on your screen.
The main reason that newspaper sales are declining isn't that the older generations have quit buying them, because they haven't, it's because the younger generations are carrying on those same traditions. Like many other things, I think that newspapers and reporters are going to have to adapt to the younger generations and put their stories online, so that journalism doesn't die out like the newspaper eventually will.