Photo of planetarium image by Sabrina Kuhlmann As a kid, I had always loved going to planetariums. I was fascinated with the idea of space. I even wanted to be an astronaut, until I found out how much training and scientific knowledge it took to become one. When I found out that MHCC’s Planetarium was reopening – after a four-year, pandemic-driven closure – I was thrilled. I wanted to go immediately. And let me say, I was not disappointed. The Planetarium Sky Theater located

Battle Grounds Gaming Café is a brand-new haven for gamers and coffee enthusiasts that has just opened its doors on Northeast Sandy Boulevard in the Hollywood District of Portland. The café’s Grand Launch event was postponed by winter’s icy grasp last month but with the ice melted one may now choose to make the quest to discover what it has to offer. Namely, plenty of affordable fun at just $5 per patron, for the day – which is refreshing when it’s so in the norm to expect to

Photos by Ken Perez With the ice storms behind us and with winter ending next month, many people will be looking for activities to get them out of their homes. Just one such option is geocaching, an outdoor treasure hunting game where you set out to find a “geocache” – a cache being a hidden item or collection of items – based on given geographic coordinates. A geocache is a container that has a logbook to sign, and sometimes has other items inside. The size of the container

Mt. Hood Community College’s Theatre Department is gearing up for its annual winter musical – a lively and vibrant show sure to leave a lasting impression. This year the chosen play is “Be More Chill” adapted by Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz, based on the original novel by Ned Vizzini. From its use of modern technology to its relatable humor, it promises not to disappoint. Several cast members have shared their excitement about the upcoming show, which opens on Feb. 23. Isaac Walk

Image from Toho Co. Ltd. Godzilla Minus One was the best film I have seen since Mad Max: Fury Road was released in theaters all the way back in 2015, and this was truly an experience I will not soon forget. Not only is Godzilla Minus One a superb monster film, one of the best Godzilla films, it is also an emotionally riveting story of post-war recovery, comradery, and the internal battle of loss and grief. Our film’s main character, Ensign Koichi Shikishima, battles a war not

Photo courtesy of Syfy Network Last year I started watching “The Ark,” a TV show that was releasing one episode a week on the SyFy cable channel, which immediately throws the viewer into suspense as the crew of The Ark spaceship are abruptly woken up from cryo-sleep to find their craft falling apart. The crew must get their ship repaired to survive a journey to a potentially habitable planet they were never supposed to be awake for. Our protagonists discover that their ship’s

Everyone loves an excuse to talk about their favorite new TV shows and celebrities, but not everyone wants to sit through three hours of interviews and surface-level comedy sets that drag on just a little too long – so I’m here to give you the rundown on who won what at the 2023 Emmys event aired on Jan. 15. Images sourced from IMDb The most popular and decorated television show this year was HBOs “The Bear.” The show and its cast members absolutely dominated the Comedy genre

Image sourced from web As we all know, the late autumn/early winter season has arrived. It’s getting darker super-early now, it’s colder… It’s now the time where we just stay inside, right? Nope! Not at all! Just because it’s cold and wet doesn’t mean you need to stay inside your humble abode all the time. A lot of us struggle with seasonal depression, including me. I know how hard it is to have the motivation to do anything, especially when it is getting dark this early in t

Personally, December is the time of year where I like to spend a lot of time alone and reflect on the year prior. There’s nothing quite as cozy as nestling under a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate, sitting by the gas-powered fireplace, and staring out at the gray sky while I contemplate what I did this year, what I didn’t do, and what I want to do in the future. Too much of a good thing is never a good thing, though. And it is important that I don’t let myself become so i

The Theatre Department production team at Mt. Hood Community College this year has put on some of the most spectacular shows I have ever seen on stage. It was great a couple months ago to speak with Zach Hartley, MHCC theater instructor and the play’s artistic director. When he explained the story of “A Thousand Cranes” to me, I was immediately sold. It follows the story of a girl named Sadako Sasaki and her family living in Hiroshima, Japan 10 years after the atomic bombing

Image from Escapefrom19.com Adapting something like horror into different mediums (media) can be very tricky – especially if the platform is an online collaborative-writing project. The SCP Wiki is a collaborative-writing project focused on writing articles using themes of science fiction and horror. The SCP Wiki is a collection of articles made by a fictional secret organization known as the SCP Foundation, which discovers, contains, and studies anomalous items and beings. T

Part of the cast from “Seedfolks” (Photo by Ken Perez) Last month (Nov. 17-18), the MHCC Theatre Department put on an inspiring production of “Seedfolks,” a one-act play based off the book written by Paul Fleischman. The story follows a diverse group of people working towards a common goal: building a community garden. The choice of the play was inspired on the future of Mt Hood’s own on-campus community garden. And the production was both beautiful and inspiring as it handle

Photo by Ayla Beck The geese are flying south again! These past few weeks, you’ve probably seen (or at least heard) that most of our gaggles have turned into skeins – a “gaggle” is a group of geese on the ground while a “skein” is a group of geese in the air. Our feathered friends may be coming here from as far as Alaska, and others are heading down south to California. In the spring, most all will return north to their birthplace, where they will raise their own young. Th

Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude and tasty food, but that does not mean you have to overspend. With a bit of smart planning, you can create a delightful holiday spread without breaking the bank. So, roll up your sleeves, head to the kitchen, and create a feast that is both scrumptious and affordable. Here are a few recipes that will make your Thanksgiving both delicious and cost-effective. Good taste doesn’t need to come at a high price! Herb-infused Roast Turkey Go for a

Image sourced from web If you’ve been online since summer you’ve probably seen the frenzy that the “Barbie” movie has whipped up and the conversation it has opened up around performative feminism in media. The biggest critique I have personally seen against “Barbie” being a feminist movie is that people view it as a soulless, two-hour long commercial made exclusively for the purpose of selling more Mattel products, rather than as a piece of media meant to provoke thought and

Thunderous, double-time drumming that shakes the floor beneath my feet like a ship caught in a storm at sea; deep bass that resonates in my chest like an extra heartbeat; guitar solos that ricochet off the walls around me; and guttural vocals that depict the intensity of the human emotional spectrum: Those are just a few things that come to mind when I reminisce on the metal concerts I’ve been to. Deathcore is one of those sub-genres in rock music that’s certainly an acquired

Let’s say it is a Friday night, and you want to see a movie with a few friends. So, you pull out your phone and look up what is playing at local theaters, only to be hit with “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Hocus Pocus,” and “Paw Patrol.” There is nothing wrong with these particular movies – but they aren’t your style, or are definitely not new. I mean, why go to the theater to see something that you can just stream at home? The ability to stream movies has impacted our wo

Images sourced from web On Aug. 8, 2014, video-game developer Scott Cawthon released a very interesting game by the name of “Five Nights at Freddy’s.” It was a horror game, one Cawthon didn’t know would be as popular as it would soon become. Within months, FNAF became an extremely popular game that creators all over the world began to share themselves as they played. With the terrifying jump scares that could come at any second, it filled its players with adrenaline and terro

Ever since I read “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “Annabel Lee” in seventh grade, I have been obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe’s poems and stories. I don’t know exactly why, but I have been obsessed with all things dark, macabre, and terrifying since a young age. And, ever since I watched Mike Flanagan’s feature film, “Hush,” and his first Netflix horror mini-series, “The Haunting of Hill House,” I’ve kept a close watch for more of his work. I’ve watched every mini-series he’s release

Nine years ago, two young, broken men created a pact together: They would begin pursuing a musical career, and if it failed, they would both commit suicide. And thus, the New Orleans underground rap duo “$uicideboy$” was born. The duo, Scott Anthony Arceneaux Jr., known professionally as $crim, and Aristos Norman Petrou, known by the stage name Ruby da Cherry, have since grown from their humble beginnings to international notoriety. $crim and Ruby have faced heaps of criticis