I am an Apple Music user. Yes, this may be weird as Spotify is so much more popular but I prefer Apple Music so much more. I recently wanted to see how many hours of music I have been listening to as I imagine it has increased during quarantine. I was not surprised by the choices, but here are my top five albums with my top three favorite songs.

1. Fine Line by Harry Styles- best known for songs like “Lights Up” and “Adore You”; top three are “Golden” “Cherry” and “Falling”
2. Lover by Taylor Swift- best known for songs like “You Need to Calm Down” and “ME!”; top three songs are “Cornelia Street” “Cruel Summer” and “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince”
3. Changes by Justin Bieber- best known for songs like “Yummy” and “Intentions”; top three songs are “Come Around Me” “Available” and “Confirmation“
4. WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? by Billie Eilish- best known for songs like “Bad Guy” and “Bury a Friend“; top three songs are “Strange Addiction” “You Should See Me in a Crown” and “All The Good Girls Go to Hell”
5. Romance by Camila Cabello- best known for songs like “Senorita” and “My Oh My”; top three songs are “Used to This” “Should’ve Said It” and “This Love”

For my 2020 Election class final, I had to write a paper comparing a primary season to the 2020 primary season. My instant thought was to write about the 1992 election simply because I remember my professor saying that Bill Clinton did not win early on, which is what happened with presumptive nominee Joe Biden. However, now looking into it while writing this paper, I realized the two elections have a lot more in common than I thought. Will they have similar results, in which the Democratic party will win? Or will Trump win? Who knows, but here are some similarities I found.

1. The Republican nominee is the incumbent- Bush in 1992, Trump in 2020.
2. The Democratic nominee has a history of sexual assaults- although we all know about the famous Monica Lewinsky scandal, back in 1992 it was the Jennifer Flowers scandal for Bill Clinton. For Joe Biden, it is Tara Reade coming back to haunt him.
3. A huge global health problem is occurring- for Bush’s first term, he was dealing (or not dealing) with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. For Trump, he is dealing with the the coronavirus.
4. The candidates in the primary season and election- there are some similar characters in both primaries. Governor Brown resembled Senator Sanders as both were anti-establishment and refused to take campaign contributions from billionaires. Ross Perot is similar in a way to Michael Bloomberg as they are both billionaires who were able to fund their campaign. However, Perot had a lot more success than Bloomberg.
5. No one really likes the candidates- in 1992, polls have showed that they did not want Bush back in office but they also did not completely trust Clinton. In 2020, many people do not like that Joe Biden is the nominee for the Democrats but do not want Trump in office.. Therefore, this is an election of who do you hate less?
6. THE ECONOMY!! Bush’s first term saw an economic recession from late 1990 to 1992, and this was something he could not turn around. For Donald Trump, the economy was going well for him up until the coronavirus. Now, unemployment is even worse than it was during the Great Depression. Polls have indicated since 1972, the economy needs to be stable for a candidate to win. The economy cost Bush the election, so will it cost Trump the election too if a second wave is coming and the economy is shut down?

Taylor Swift is one of the biggest global superstars to exist, and despite her increasing popularity, she has always managed to have a special and personalized connection with her fans. Since the Fearless tour, she has held meet and greets both before the concert and after the concert, and has not charged a single penny for meeting fans. Post show meet and greet has had multiple names over the years, such as “T-Party” during the Fearless and Speak Now tours, “Club Red” during the Red tour, “Loft 89” during the 1989 tour, and “rep Room” during the reputation tour. For post show meet and greets, Taylor’s mother Andrea and her management look in the crowd for around twenty-thirty five fans during the show who stand out by either being overly enthusiastic or by wearing over the top costumes. After the show, the fans are brought backstage into a room where they can take pictures in the polaroid booths, eat pizza, and hang out with other fans before eventually meeting Taylor. Pre-show meet and greets used to be fans who either had media connections or were radio contest winners, but over the years has evolved to include fans hand-picked from social media by Taylor herself or her team. Because she is one of the few celebrities who does free meet and greets and has fans be picked out of the crowd, many fans will spend hours and hours making signs and costumes and then sharing it all over social media in hopes that someone from Taylor’s team will notice them and thus they will be picked to meet Taylor. As Taylor’s fan base grew bigger and bigger over her career the more her popularity increased, there began to be issues with which particular fans got to meet her. Before the 1989 tour, fans were allowed to meet Taylor as many times as they could, meaning that the fans who went to multiple shows and were always dressed up had the opportunity to meet their idol once or twice during the tour. This resulted in many fans complaining how the same fans got to meet Taylor over and over again which diminished the chance of new fans having the opportunity to meet her just once. As a result, a rule was created during the 1989 tour where if you had met Taylor before, even if it was years ago, you were not allowed to meet her again. However, this rule is controversial because of its inconsistency. For example, a fan from New Jersey named Alex who had met Taylor five years ago on the Red tour was called the day before the reputation Stadium tour hit New Jersey saying that she would be meeting her idol again the next day. However, five minutes later, she received another phone call back from Taylor’s management saying that there was confusion and that she would not be meeting Taylor the next day. However, the week earlier, during the reputation tour’s stop in Washington DC, a fan who had met her only two months before during open night was allowed to meet her again as well as another set of fans who had met her on the streets while camping out for SNL only seven months earlier. Another incident that was greatly criticized was when her management invited a fan who they thought had never met Taylor to a pre-show meet and greet, and once they discovered she had already met Taylor before, they pulled her out of the meet and greet line saying they had given her spot to another fan and that she had to leave. Thus, it is unclear to fans how long time needs to pass for the opportunity to meet their idol once more, or if that opportunity will come at all again. As a result of this drama with pre-show meet and greets, they were abolished for fans right before the Nashville tour date and are now restricted only to media outlets. 

 Another inconsistency found in the rule that you can only meet Taylor Swift once is the issue of when to split groups up, which is mainly found to be a problem for after show meet and greets. The best example for this scenario actually happened to my best friends and I during the first night of the reputation tour’s stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I attended the show with my two best friends, Taylor nicknamed “Baby Tay” and Makayla- both Baby Tay and I have met Taylor already but Makayla has not (Makayla has since met Taylor- she met her in Nashville last summer). The week prior, the two of them attended the show in Columbus, Ohio and during the show, they ran into Andrea Swift, Taylor’s mother, and in their conversation with her, they talked about how much Taylor means to them. Andrea then proceeded to tell my friends to find her at her next show, indicating to them that there was a chance the both of them could meet Taylor together in Philadelphia. Towards the end of the show in Philadelphia, we found Taylor’s mother but instead of Baby Tay and Makayla being handed passes for rep Room, they were denied because Baby Tay had already met Taylor and they did not want to split groups up. Mrs. Swift said that if she were to allow Baby Tay to meet Taylor again, she would be crucified on Twitter and it would make the management look bad. All three of us pleaded with her mother and her management to let Makayla finally meet Taylor but they said persistent on not splitting up groups and instead they were given exclusive floor tickets to second show in Philadelphia as a consolation. However, after going on Twitter after the show, we read tweets that another group that had some friends who had met Taylor and others who had not were split up, thus making my friends wonder what they did wrong not to be considered an exception. 

Although I completely understand that the rule allows for fans who have never met Taylor to finally be given the chance to meet her again, the lack of consistency is frustrating. The rule should either be completely enforced and no exceptions should be made or should be completely abolished. This inconsistency makes fans wonder why they are not worthy of meeting their idol again and wonder what they have done wrong in the eyes of her management to be denied. For example, at the album release party back in November, a majority of the fans in the room had met her before, some whom had met her just three weeks prior at one of the secret sessions. Yet, for the secret sessions some fans were denied as plus ones because they had already met her previously. No exceptions should be made- if a fan who has met Taylor three years earlier is allowed to meet her again because Taylor personally requested him or her, then every fan who is contacted by her management or found in the crowd who has already met her should be allowed again as well. Watching my friends get denied was the most heartbreaking thing I have seen and ruined a night that up until that moment was full of fun. There is no other celebrity that I know of who has a one rule limit to how many times you can meet someone, and this rule conducted by her management makes dehumanizes Taylor. She is a person, not a trophy, and there should be no limit to how many times you are able to meet a person. At the beginning of tour, during her “Long Live” speech, she would always mention how she loved meeting fans whom she had met years prior again and seeing how much their lives have changed and how she has remained a part of that consistency. If Taylor loves meeting fans multiple times and she is the boss, then why should her management have such a rule to deny and break dedicated fans’ hearts? This I have been a fan of Taylor since I was ten years old, and it took me nine years to finally meet her, and it is devastating knowing that I will never be able to hug her or thank her for everything ever again because of this rule. A better solution to the problem of meeting Taylor would be a one meeting per album cycle, but then again, knowing her management’s inconsistency, there would be exceptions to the rule and would be unfair to every other fan wondering why they were not considered to be worthy enough of bending the rules.

I would love to know how my sister Sarah operates. I just find it so fascinating how she can either do so much on so little energy or do so little with so much sleep. Although we have always shared a room, I have not really been home the past four years to notice how odd her schedule is. I have always been working in the summer, so I truly paid no attention. However, now in quarantine, I truly do wonder how she functions.

Sarah got into Webkinz, TikTok, and Animal Crossing during this time, and has spent countless of hours on it. Before quarantine, her usual schedule on the weekends was going to bed anywhere from 1-3 am and waking up at around 10 am to 1 pm. She takes a lot of medication to help with her depression and anxiety, therefore she gets tired easily. However, now that schedule has changed. She still wakes up at around 1 pm, but then takes a nap usually after eating lunch. One night, I went to bed around 2 and woke up around 5 am to use the bathroom. I still heard the clicking noises of her playing Animal Crossing, and told her to sleep soon. She said yes. However, when I got up the next few hours, I still saw her up playing the damn game. She never went to sleep. And when she woke up several hours later, she went straight back to the game. This has happened multiple times, especially in the beginning as she drank 3-4 Redbulls in one day. She will stay up until my dad gets up to go fishing, wake up, play for an hour and eat, then fall back asleep for another two hours, and play the damn game again until god knows when.

I truly would just like to know what is so special about Animal Crossing, and how she is able to operate without her eyes or wrists getting tired. I really think psychologists should do a study on her once quarantine is over about how addictive Animal Crossing is/how people’s schedules changed in quarantine. She may be odd, but she’s my oddball.

Because of the coronavirus, life has changed dramatically. A friend of mine pointed out that the last normal day we had was on Friday, March 13. Friday the 13th out of all days! This was the last day I hugged my friends, the last time I was able to go outside with a face mask on, and the last time I was able to have a sit down meal at a restaurant. Now that we have been staying home the mask two months, I truly have had time to reflect on life. Here’s a list of 5 things I did not take advantage of that I now wish I did in the spring semester.

1. Spending more time around campus. Because I had my laptop and liked doing work on my bed, I often did work in my room. I liked laying down, which I could not do in Donnelly or the library. Now that this is how I do schoolwork mainly, I wish I would have spent more time in the computer labs. Yes I would have been uncomfortable, but I miss doing work in different places other than in my bedroom.
2. Going to a Broadway play my last semester. One of the best things Marist has given me is the ability to see Broadway shows for $25 for a ticket and round trip transportation. I have seen countless of plays through Marist. My final semester I was had already seen all the plays that had been offered, and decided not to go. Now, who knows when Broadway will come back. And who knows what plays will be coming back. I wish I had seen one of the plays they had offered. Yes I had seen it before and yes they were not my favorite, but I miss the Broadway experience so much.
3. Exploring the Hudson Valley. Now that my time at Marist is up, I realized how much I did not see. I wish I would have seen the drive through movies in Hyde Park. I wish I would have explored New Paltz more. I wish I would have paid the $20 to see the FDR house instead of being too cheap and exploring the grounds only. I’m very fortunate where I live 90 minutes away, but it will not be the same as if I were a Marist student.
4. Going out the last Thursday night at Mahoney’s. I was in definitely in denial that we would not be returning. I had spent most of the week crying about leaving Marist, so I was too sad to go out. Instead, my housemates and I just spent the night talking about what was to come next for us. I now wish I had gone out the night instead of moping around, as who knows when I can go to a bar with my friends, dancing and singing with all my friends.
5. Appreciating Marist more. I knew my time at Marist was coming to a close, but I kept thinking I had more time. I wish I would have made the most of the eight weeks I had spent there. I know every person who has graduated tells underclassmen to appreciate every moment you have there, but now, those words mean more than ever. And I wish I had listened more closely.

Like most things in the world right now, the coronavirus has abrupted everyday life. The entertainment world has come to a halt, as television and movie productions have stopped, tours are postponed, and news reporters are now reporting live from home. To provide some joy and content, Coldplay musician Chris Martin created a Together At Home concert series with Global Citizen. Musicians have taken to Instagram live to sing some of their hit songs from their homes and raise awareness about the coronavirus.

One of the biggest Together At Home livestream that Global Citizen has done featured singers Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, who are currently quarantining together at Cabello’s Miami residence. Their livestream was quite entertaining and at one point reached 250,000 viewers, the most amount of views for that week’s at home concert series. The duo first opened up the series with a cover of Ed Sheeran’s “Kiss Me” which they had covered back in 2015 when they were younger and not a couple. The performance was very cute, especially when they messed up, and reminded me of how good that song is. They also sang Mendes’s song “Lost in Japan” and Cabello’s “Havana” adding their own twist to it as they are normally not a duet. Throughout the 25 minute concert, the two talked about how to properly wash your hands, Harry Potter, and Mendes’s now very long/messy hair (however, that will be around as long as Cabello likes it). Although it was nice to hear them talk, I do wish they had spent less time talking so we could have had another song or two. They ended their concert with their hit song “Senorita” with lots of smirks and subtle eye glances, which is not surprising to anyone who has seen their music video or performances of the song.

Overall, I really enjoyed their concert. It was nice to see Mendes and Cabello at home, relaxed and messing up and singing. My only criticisms of their performance was that one more song could have been sung if they talked less, possibly their first duet “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” My other criticism is that it made me very jealous of Cabello, as she is in Miami quarantining in a big house with a pool and Shawn Mendes, who only has eyes for her. Go ahead and check it out!

As the world fights the coronavirus, the world has been very dark. Although we are flattening the curve and more people are being discharged from the hospital, the uncertainty of everything is still scary. The media is constantly bombarding us with news about the coronavirus that is usually negative. This is what inspired actor John Krasinski to start a YouTube series entitled “Some Good News” that highlights only good news during the pandemic.

So far, the series has three episodes that really have uplifted spirits with the postivity being spread. Krasinski shows clips of healthcare workers doing dances and singing songs, teachers going above and beyond to find new ways to teach their students, and unique ways of how loved ones are seeing one another despite being in quarantine. The series has also featured famous guests including Steve Carrell, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Boston Red Sox, and his wife Emily Blunt (although I wish she were to be included in it more). My favorite episode has been the one I attached here, as it features Miranda and the Hamilton cast. Krasinski and Blunt decide to surprise a nine year old girl who was supposed to see Hamilton for her birthday in Manhattan but ended up not being able to go to the show because of the virus. They surprise her not only with a trip and tickets to the play for later, but with a surprise peformance from Miranda and the whole cast of her favorite song “Alexander Hamilton.” Her reaction is priceless, and the whole thing brought tears to my eyes.

Although other celebrities and late night hosts are also doing telecasts from home to keep us entertained, I think Krasinski outdoes everyone. I 100% recommend that if you need some postivity during all this darkness, that you watch Krasinski’s “Some Good News.” New episodes are released on the YouTube page every Sunday night until this quarantine is over.

At the start of the fall semester, all that came out of my best friend Analisa’s mouth was “Missy, you have to download TikTok.” TikTok is a video sharing social media platform where you can create videos such as dances and comedy bits. I knew this was a big trend, but I thought it was a waste of time and energy and always told her no. More and more of my favorite artists began to join the platform as time went on. I still stuck to my ground of not downloading it, until quarantine hit.

The day I downloaded TikTok was probably one of the happiest days of Analisa’s life. I now completely understand why the app is so addicting, and why Analisa would spend hours on the app. A month into quarantine and a month having the app, I really want to be TikTok famous. When more drama between Taylor Swift and Kim Karashian-West broke, my first instinct was to make a TikTok reacting to it. I know think of certain songs, such as Doja Cat’s “Say So” as TikTok songs and instantly want to do the dance. It also does not help that you can follow hashtags, therefore my page is full of videos about Harry Styles, Grey’s Anatomy, and college related videos. It does not help that also so many of my favorite celebrities, such as Joe Jonas and Justin Bieber, are making videos as they are also bored. My friends and I are constantly sending videos to one another, therefore TikTok is now my second most used app followed before Twitter. I wish I could tell you my favorite TikTok video but it honestly is impossible as I keep finding more and more.

If you are bored in quarantine and are skeptical about TikTok, I highly recommend you download it as you will spend countless hours laughing and being entertained.

The movie I chose to watch was A Star is Born, starring Janet Gaynor and Frederic March. I chose to watch this film as I had seen the 2018 adaptation of it with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, and wanted to compare. Because the first movie was created in 1937, I knew there were going to be some differences, so I was eager to watch. Maybe it’s because I love Gaga and Cooper, or quite simply because it was filmed in the 1930’s, but I found this version to be less appealing. However, I did like how this version displayed the difficulty of making it in Hollywood in comparison to the 2018 version. In this version, Esther applied for extra work as an actress and then saw how busy the phone lines were of other hopefuls trying to break into the industry. Allie in the 2018 version seemed to have a case of good luck, as a famous musician wound up at the same bar she was performing at and immediately having eyes for her. Although she did work hard for everything she got, her rise to fame seemed to be a bit more immediate as she sang on stage with him and then gained instant attraction. Esther also had a family who was unsupportive of her dream, whereas in Allie’s case, her father was supportive even though she did have to support herself financially.

Yesterday, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced that he would be suspending his 2020 presidential campaign. At the beginning of primary/caucus season, Sanders was an early favorite. He won New Hampshire and Nevada, and had narrowly lost to Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the Iowa caucus. However, things took a drastic turn for Sanders once former Vice President Joe Biden gained momentum after the South Carolina primary. Biden was the big winner on Super Tuesday and led Sanders by over one hundred delegates after the big contest. Biden’s campaign only continued to flourish after Super Tuesday, leaving Sanders further and further behind. Sanders said that although the decision was difficult to make, he said it was needed as the path to victory was impossible because of the big delegate lead Biden had.

I am not surprised by Sanders’s announcement as the path to victory ended after Biden was the big winner on Super Tuesday. I was personally hoping he would stay in the race up until the end, but because of how expensive it is to run a campaign and the ongoing health crisis, this is the best decision for this team. I am saddened that many of my friends and I will not have the opportunity to vote for him in the primary. He was our ideal candidate out of the two Democratic candidates and because of how much support he had, we thought we could vote for Sanders in our primary, then vote for Biden in the general election. Unforunately, that is not the case anymore, and now we must pledge our support to Biden.

Now that the election is between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, to say I am terrified for the outcome is an understatement. At the start of the election, the nominees for the Democratic party were very diverse and looked promising. You had women, POC, and a member of the LGBTQIA community in the crowded yet diverse field. Unforunately, now the race is between two, old white men who both have a history of sexual assaults. Many people will vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is simply because they want Trump out of office. However, for some die-hard Bernie bros, that is not the case. Many are refusing to vote for a candidate from the establishment and especially someone who has been accused of sexual assaults. This refusal is giving me flashbacks to the 2016 election between Clinton and Trump, where many saw it as a race between two evils and many Sanders supporters refused to vote for Clinton. This is frustrating, as the Democratic party needs to be united instead of divided if they do not want to endure another four years of Trump. 2016 showed that unity is needed for this election. Biden is not the ideal candidate for most, but there will never be a perfect candidate. He can make himself look more promising by picking a great female running partner, but even then his history of sexual assaults and other scandals may come back to haunt him and hurt his chances.

The 2020 election has always had a lot of twist and turns. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, it will be especially interesting to see what is to come of this race. I am terrified of what is to come of the 2020 presidential election, but am praying that people will come to their senses and not have history repeat itself.