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Movie Review: The Longest Ride

Photo Source: EW
Photo Source: EW

Recognizing that I’m a Nicholas Sparks fan, I was excited to receive passes to an advance screening of The Longest Ride, which is based on his novel. The movie’s luscious rural North Carolina setting looks nothing like Toronto, so it was nice to escape and be swept away by the romantic script.

Sophia (Britt Robertson) is a college senior eager to finish school and start building a career in New York’s art scene. When her sorority sisters drags her to a rodeo, she meets Luke (Scott Eastwood) and starts dating the bull rider. Meanwhile, their love story is intertwined with another, which dates back to the 1940s.

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Concert Review: Maroon 5

Hot On The Street - Maroon 5 Toronto - IMG_8486

 

When I heard Maroon 5 was coming to Toronto, I decided to splurge and purchase the Animals package. This included a commemorative ticket, VIP badge, hat and messenger bag. The best part wasn’t the merchandise, but rather my view of Adam Levine from my seat in the ninth row on the floor. His tattoos were within plain sight and I relished the possibility that he was so close, we could make eye contact. We didn’t, but that’s ok.

 

Following a performance by Rozzi Crane, MAGIC! kicked off the night and celebrated their Juno award win. I’m partial to anyone wearing red pants and MAGIC! took that one step further in bold red pantsuits. Snaps for killer fashion! In fact, they seemed to put more effort into their attire than Adam, who wore a black and white graphic t-shirt and black pants.

 

Adam started his set with Animals, and then it wasn’t long until their was a rare interruption: microphone failure. The band has been touring for over ten years and that’s never happened before. What’s a concert without a working microphone? Well, after Adam threw the mic out of frustration, he thought it hit a fan, so he welcomed her onstage, held her hand and hugged her, then gave her an even better seat closer to the stage for the rest of the show. Lucky girl.

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HOTS Goes To The 2015 Juno Awards

Hot On The Street - Shawn Mendes - 2015 Juno Awards - IMG_8427

Last night, I attended my first televised awards show: the 2015 Juno Awards! It was a lot of fun to watch live and an easy way to see multiple performers in one night. It has always been on my bucket list to see the Junos, so now I can cross that off my list.

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Movie Review: Fed Up

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Make room for another documentary about the obesity epidemic. In Fed Up, narrator Katie Couric walks viewers through history to explain why so many Americans are overweight.

In addition to featuring numerous interviews with professors, politicians and doctors, Fed Up chronicles the lifestyles of a few students. The students provide testimonials in between clips of them at home, school and doctor appointments.

In 1977, when a government report was released encouraging the food industry to manufacture food with less fat, food manufacturers responded by decreasing calories and increasing sugar. I like one doctor’s approach to explaining how consuming sugar affects our metabolism. “You can eat a bowl of Corn Flakes with no added sugar or you can eat a bowl of sugar with added Corn Flakes,” he says. “They might taste different, but below the neck, they’re metabolically the same.”

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Movie Review: Still Alice

Still Alice tells the story of a talented Columbia professor who’s married with three kids and diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Alice (Julianne Moore) plays Words with Friends regularly, but can’t remember the right words to say during lectures.

Her supervisor refuses to pretend that everything’s normal when students start writing less than favourable reviews of her classes. In a performance review, Alice feels obliged to confess that she has a medical condition. Despite urging her supervisor to let her continue teaching, she must give up her teaching gig long before she anticipated retiring.

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