I should have never dated my ex freshman year. There were so many red flags that I just ignored.

6 years ago at a party on Brandywine. I was jumping on a couch. You were glaring at me when I asked if you would join. I miss you everyday.

Buildings where you, a student with enough patience and resolve, can smoke a J: Academic, Curtis, Lebow, Main, Macalister, Nesbitt, Randell

One night freshman year, I knew a kid who got really wasted and left his suite covered in his own poop. I see him around campus now all the time and can’t make eye contact.

I would go to war for Lena Fine

I go on dates just to get free dinner.

When is the right time to tell your best friend you love them?

I don’t feel bad for dumping my ex.

I thought an Amber Alert was my BeReal notif the other day. Shameful.

The balls on Lancaster Walk suck

Fix gym equipment?? Nah… balls

I left Drexel my freshman year but I had a huge crush on my RA

I am addicted to hotdogs. This isn’t a joke, I’m actually really scared. 

I sneak into Hans once a week. 

I’m having the hottest girl summer ever; I am running through men like Tomb Raider.

Someone who sits in front of me in class smells so horrendous but they are so beautiful.

I touched Ecco2k’s hands.

I see my ex everywhere and honestly he fell off.

I can’t stop stealing eyeliner from CVS.

I find it insufferable when Prod majors speak. 

I don’t know what hyperpop is but I feel like it’s too late to ask.

I “illegally” lived in UCross for four months and snuck in and out via moving cart.

One night I forgot to lock the door of my dorm in Race, and I think someone drunkenly thought it was their room and came in. They took a shower and left a bunch of trash and a pair of shoes (my roommates were all asleep when this happened). Who were you? I’m sorry you never got your shoes back.

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On Friday, Feb. 28, Soccer Mommy emerged from her nearly two-year musical hiatus and blessed us with the dulcet tones of her latest album, “Color Theory.” The ten-track album offers the perfect dose of an early 2000s pop daydream. The chord progressions are nostalgic, yet have an air of new beginnings. “Color Theory” is a melodic expression of personal reckoning; it’s a sonic insight into the inner-workings of her incredibly human struggles. The album is incredibly sad, yet immaculately beautiful. Soccer Mommy allows us to feel our own feelings as she takes us through hers. She humanizes the emotions we tend to avoid thinking about, recognizing their importance and their value without wallowing.

The album starts with “bloodstream,” a head-first dive into the pure emotion and honesty that the album encapsulates. With lyrics in the chorus like “there’s someone talking in my forehead that says I’ll never be enough,” Soccer Mommy refuses to shy away from her emotional truth. “Bloodstream” transitions to “circle the drain,” the second single to be released from the album. “Circle the drain” is perhaps the most attainable of the album. The line “I’m trying to seem strong for my love, for my family and friends but I’m so tired of faking” catches the listener off guard, echoing a common feeling that is rarely admitted. Sonically, the track is the most reminiscent of the resolution of an early 2000’s coming-of-age movie; it’s transporting.

The next track, “royal screw up,” is an angsty self-reflection, almost glorifying the mistakes we’re bound to make. The song starts with Soccer Mommy taking a breath, allowing herself to delve into the song. Following that is “crawling in my skin,” one of the more instrumentally intricate tracks. The track itself doesn’t lend itself to any new lyrical discoveries, however, its sentiments remain valuable. The album reaches its climax with “yellow is the color of her eyes,” the seven-minute epic. The track details the hardships Soccer Mommy faces with being apart from her mother as she falls ill. The track is all-enveloping, and it’s a truly consuming experience.

As the album begins its descent, “up the walls” describes the feeling of someone knowing you only as a version of yourself that was perhaps better before. It focuses on the dependence we feel from the people who’ve known us at our best, therefore understanding that anything short of that is perhaps — and hopefully — only an in-between. The next track, “lucy” was the first single to be released, setting the tone for the energy of the album as a whole. The premise of “lucy” is like a game, with a refrain in the chorus reading, “Oh, Lucy, please, quit taunting me.” While melodically the track doesn’t differ from the rest of the album, there’s a new level of playfulness that’s quite refreshing.

The penultimate track, “stain,” outlines the strife that comes from the feeling of being tied to someone and the pressure of feeling the same when you’re really growing apart. It’s one of the few tracks on the album that is not negative in the self-reflective respect. The last track, “gray light,” perfectly ties up the deeply sad and vulnerable energy of the album as a whole. Soccer Mommy again references her sick mother, this time expressing more of her feelings instead of summarizing the events at hand. “Gray light” is an anthem of feeling hopeless in the throes of family suffering.

“Color Theory“ is a sonic exploration of what it means to be sad and what it feels like to be vulnerable. There is melodic experimentation aplenty, perfectly mirroring the exploration of self that is put on display for us. The sadness is, at moments, unbearable in “Color Theory,” but incredibly important all the same.

The themes for the James Bond movies have held incredible cultural significance since the iconic first film. There is an immense weight put on the theme to perfectly encapsulate not only the energy of Bond as a character, but to also foreshadow the direction of the upcoming film. This being said, there is always heated debate as to who deserves to bring the current trials and triumphs of Bond to life. Historically, the themes and the artists that create them have been incredibly well-matched, from Shirley Bassey’s “Diamonds are Forever” to Adele’s “Skyfall.” This year, however, the theme fell short.

It’s no secret that Billie Eilish’s recent and aggressive claim to fame was bound to land her a spot among icons. Eilish, though incredibly talented, wasn’t quite ready for something as magnanimous as a Bond theme. The theme, “No Time to Die,” radiated Bond energy but in a way that was far too subdued to truly capture the essence of the character and the world in which he lives. The lyrics were also incredibly elementary, and the rhymes seemed very basic and predictable. There’s often beauty in simplicity, particularly lyrically, however, those in “No Time to Die” proved to diminish the intensity of 007.

The song reaches a climax just before the end, with Eilish finally belting and using her voice to its fullest potential. That is the only point in the song that leaves the audience begging for more, her voice powerfully beckoning all the emotion and intensity she seems to be holding back throughout the rest of the song. To be able to create such a moment during the last seconds is an incredible feat, yet it should have been done throughout the entire song.

“No Time to Die” felt very predictable, which is the last thing wanted from a Bond theme. There were elements of the song that  felt like a carbon copy of those that had come before. There was nothing about it that really propelled the Bond franchise or Eilish forward. At best, “No Time to Die” was lackluster and pleading for more.

Fork, a restaurant in Old City noted for its modern American cuisine, offers delicious food but is unfortunately accompanied by an incredibly stressful eating environment. The food itself is nothing short of fantastic. The brunch menu features classic American dishes with a modern twist. The flavors are rich and diverse, evidence of the many locally sourced ingredients. While everything about the food was simply magic, the energy in the restaurant itself was tense and aggravating.

One of the novelties of Fork is its open-kitchen concept. The chef is on display, reciting orders to the team as they prepare each meal respectively. Conceptually, this should be incredibly exciting and a fascinating glimpse at what really goes on in the kitchen. However, there hung in the air a sense of apprehension that was more anxiety-inducing than pleasant. The staff as a result — while incredibly prepared and on top of their game — seemed almost nervous.

There was just something about watching the stress in the kitchen (and the way the staff was arranged as a result) that evoked a certain tension, almost like waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The open kitchen shed light on just how stressful the restaurant business is, which is precisely why it should not be put on display for customers to view.

To watch the kitchen was a remarkable feat, but it felt as though we, as the restaurant-goers, were seeing a bit too much. There is a drama and a tension that goes into making beautiful food, and that should be organically manifested in the safety of a closed kitchen. A kitchen should not be viewed like a museum exhibit, and it should not be a novelty used almost in performance.

A kitchen should carry an element of trust between itself and the customer; it is not necessarily to add a level of showmanship to the experience. The food and its preparation should be a performance in its own right, without the crutch of using the restaurant as its stage.

“Little Women,” directed by Greta Gerwig, offers a dynamic and empowering modern adaptation of life for the March sisters. “Little Women” has historically allowed audiences to identify themselves with each of the March sisters: Jo, Meg, Amy or Beth. As each sister has developed into some sort of feminist archetype, Gerwig’s adaptation is increasingly important as it modernizes the sisters and allows a new era of feminism to be represented.

The beauty in the March sisters is that they each carry their own weight, setting them apart from each other but in a way that doesn’t allow them to be compared. While Gerwig’s adaptation is not inclusive in every sense of the word — the cast is predominantly white — but for the history and context of the story, it speaks volumes of how women have always and continue to operate.

The March sisters encapsulate modern female energy because their successes and shortcomings are not defined by the men in their lives, but more by how they drive their own ambitions independently. There’s almost an attitude about the little women that they can’t be bothered, that their goals alone are too important to let anything distract from them.

While there’s undeniable independence about each of the sisters, there’s an honesty in the way they view love that is often difficult to articulate.

As Jo, the most headstrong of the bunch, grapples with defining her life by her career and her strengths, she confesses to her mother that she is incredibly lonely. The scene is powerful in many ways and holds a gravity about the way we perceive modern relationships. Especially in film and television, romantic love is seen as a necessity, as the “endgame.” Though Jo is not lonely by the end of the film, her romantic love was not the triumph of her life, promoting a positive message for the modern woman. As a character, Jo’s importance lies in that she views her career with an unwavering drive and independence, yet she longs for love with the same passion.

The idea of women “wanting to have it all” is incredibly outdated, and “Little Women” offers that women need to have it all. It encapsulates that we should never be inclined to choose between success and a career, but that both should just be a part of the way women navigate the human experience.

In an age where the world of entertainment is at our fingertips, it’s become incredibly easy to use our devices to tune out the world.

Television used to be something that was on a week-to-week, season-to-season basis. Audiences would huddle excitedly around a communal screen and be exposed to incremental bouts of story. There was an opportunity to digest the content as a group, to deepen connections based on opinions of characters, experiencing a cliffhanger, or the various twists and turns of an episodic plotline. Before various streaming services began to offer every show imaginable on an app, there was an inherent sense of community in television.

There still exists one exception: reality TV — more specifically, “The Bachelor.”

While of course there is still an audience bond in television, there’s an undeniable charm that holds up with “The Bachelor.” The show is an absurdist collection of characters looking for love on live television, yet it holds all the elements that are necessary to create a consistent community within an audience.

“The Bachelor” harbors a treasure trove of experiences people can’t help but want to share. The optimistic view of watching people genuinely fall in love and achieve human connection is one that is accompanied by an inherent sense of togetherness. Conversely, the drama, fights and intrigue are suddenly so much more unhinged when in a room of people screaming maniacally at the screen.

“The Bachelor” is also one of the few shows that continues to receive consistent media coverage. This makes for a sense of urgency; if one episode is missed, the drama will immediately be picked apart and spoiled, so live viewing is pertinent.

The timing of the show on its own is something that evokes a need for support. To devote two hours every single week to watch non-stop drama is a huge commitment. However, this commitment is made easier when in a community. It becomes a shared experience as opposed to watching a screen in solitude.

A feeling of belonging accompanies the devotion of watching “The Bachelor.” It is something that, even if you’re alone, you know you’ll always be watching the same thing as millions of other people in that exact moment. The community runs so deep as to be a self-proclaimed “Bachelor Nation.”

There simply is something different about watching “The Bachelor.” It’s an experience built upon an artificially fabricated sense of reality and fueled by cliffhangers. Being that it isn’t always readily available in bulk, there’s more incentive to actually keep up. Binge-culture can imply an element of solitude. While there still is community with shows available for streaming, it’s a more quiet and detached kind. “The Bachelor” offers a timeless experience of live viewing, sparking conversation and connections around episodic melodramas.

As the cold January sun rose on 2019, apparently so did covens everywhere. Originally scapegoated and used as a vessel for all that is evil, witches were not too hot in the history books. However, witches have begun to take on more positive connotations. Instead of being referred to in the context of evil, witches are now accompanied by an image of sheer, unadulterated power. No longer is an accusation of being a witch a means of oppression, but rather a term of admiration. Finally, women are being embraced in all their “witchiness”, no longer called witches as a means for being forced onto the fringes of society. Now, in 2019, witches have again taken their place in history, this time amongst idols like Beyonce and Maggie Rogers.

Throughout history, the witch has been seen as an archetype for a very specific kind of power. While not all eras have been ready to fully accept this power, the self-proclaimed authority that comes with certain witch-like behavior has become something that people strive for. It makes sense that a manifestation of such levels of power and dominance has crept back into the clutches of pop culture. Exemplified throughout film, television and music, witches are officially having a moment again and honestly, it’s liberating.

A rising infatuation with witches can be directly seen in the popularity of fantasy and sci-fi based shows coming out everywhere. The recent emergence of the “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” reboot, Netflix’s “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” lends itself in a similar fashion. The show uses witchcraft as a direct translation for social power and control. It paints a picture of being able to control the world around you, but not in a particularly maniacal or manipulative way.

Especially with music of the 2010s, witch culture has made itself increasingly apparent. Some of the biggest femme musical figures have cited numerous witch references throughout their careers. When rumors began swirling around Beyonce in September of 2018 of alleged attempts at witchcraft, it was almost passed off as normal. The artist’s former drummer, Kimberly Thompson, filed a restraining order claiming that Beyonce practiced extreme witchcraft, even going so far as to say Beyonce murdered Thompson’s cat.

When the allegations surfaced, it felt as though no one questioned or thought about the sheer absurdity of serious incidents of witchcraft in the 21st century. Instead, just the simple fact that it was Beyonce made it somehow believable. This shouldn’t necessarily come as much of a shock, seeing as the level of Beyonce’s power and influence does make the idea that she could be an ethereal being, dare I say, sensical.

Scoping beyond pop culture icons using witchcraft with nearly malicious intent, the symbolism of witches is also being used in a more positive and empowering light. Maggie Rogers, a popular folk-pop artist, has coined herself as a “witchy feminist rock star.” For her recent “Heard it in a Past Life” tour, nearly all of her merch included allusions and homages to witchcraft. She looked to the timeless symbol of a witch to convey a sense of empowerment that is nothing short of magical.

With witches becoming symbols of feminism and liberation, pop culture once again lends itself to promote positive and healthy ideals and female power. With various icons manifesting their authority in the arts through witch-centric references and art direction, we are once again witnessing the worship of boldness. The rise of witch culture offers an opportunity for unabashed ferocity and dominance. It beckons to simply ask for a seat at the table, but to instead plop yourself in a chair that is rightfully yours. No longer will witches be burned at the stake; instead, they shall be worshipped on stage by crowds in adoration. Viva la witch!