Sunday, April 30, 2017

2017 Billboard Music Award Nominations


Do not forget to tune in The Billboard Music Awards on May 21 at 8PM on ABC. It is an event you will not want to miss. The Billboard Music Awards is an event honouring the accomplishments of music artists throughout the year. The Billboard Awards is a publication and music popularity chart dealing with the music business. These awards have been held annually since 1990.


On April 10, 2017 at 12:00pm, this year's’ nominees were announced. Among the nominees, Drake and The Chainsmokers lead all artists with 22 nominations each. This came to no surprise, as both artists have been dominating the music industry throughout this past year. For Aubrey Graham, also known as Drake, 2016 has been has been the best year of his career. With his hit single “Work” with Rihanna going Number 1, to his albums “Views” and “More Life”, it is fair to say he deserves all the attention he is getting. Just to name a few, Drake is nominated for Top Artist, Top Male Artist and Top Billboard 200 Artist.

It is the same story with the Chainsmokers. In 2016, the Chainsmokers really made a name for themselves. With their huge hits “Don’t Let Me Down”,  to “Closer” to “Something Just Like This”, it was hard to keep them off the charts. To list some of their bigger nominations, they are runner-ups for Top Artist, as well as Top Duo/Group and Top 100 Artist.

Twenty One Pilots follows with the second highest number of nominations, being at 17. Then there's Rihanna with 14 and The Weeknd right behind her with 13. Although, Beyonce cannot be forgotten. The Queen B stands with 8.

There are many categories and artists to be awarded. Amongst the 50 categories, the most talked about by famous music creators are Top Radio Songs Artist, Top Touring Artist and Top Rap Artist.


It is great to be nominated for so many awards, but what does it feel like to win so many? Well, ask Taylor Swift, who has won a record breaking 21 awards. Adele and Usher are right behind her with just 3 less, at 18 awards won each. There is also the great Whitney Houston with 16, and the young and world known Justin Bieber with 15. Those are some amazing accomplishments for some amazing artists.



Sources:


"Billboard Music Award." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Apr. 2017. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.


Staff, Billboard. "Drake, The Chainsmokers Lead Nominees for the 2017 Billboard Music Awards." Billboard. The Billboard, 10 Apr. 2017. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.



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Thursday, April 27, 2017

Fate of the Furious Movie Review


“Fate of the Furious” was so good, it set the new world record for box office hits. They beat the original record of 529 million dollars made by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. The new world record is 532.5 million dollars in its first weekend. The fast and the furious cast consists of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Scott Eastwood, Jason Statham, Ludacris and Tyrese Gibson. The whole movie is about how all of the main characters are on a mission and then Dominic Toretto, the main character,  turns bad and attacks his own friends. The rest of them are trying to figure out why. He was being threatened by Cipher who was played by Charlize Theron. Apparently Cipher needed Dom for something huge.
Overall, I would rate the movie a 9/10. It had a good mix of action and comedy. It also had an excellent plot twist. Everyone including me thought that it was not going to be good because of the death of Paul Walker. Since he died, there has not been a Bryan or a Mia. But anyway during the movie, there is also a very funny scene that would make everyone laugh. The funniest character in the whole movie would be Tyrese’s character who is Roman Pierce. He kept making hilarious jokes about what they were doing and about his good friend Tej who was played by Ludacris. My favourite part would be toward the end of the movie. I would love to explain it to you, but I would be spoiling the movie. I recommend this movie a lot.
B.Z.



Sources:






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Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Top 5 Grossing Movies of All Time

Who doesn’t love a good movie? A great film could make you laugh, cry, or sing along. When a good movie comes along, people love it, and when people love it, it makes a lot of money. Here are the top 5 grossing movies of all time.


5. Titanic
The movie Titanic is a classic in the Romance genre. It tells the story of 2 lovers (Jack Dawson and Rose Dewitt Bukater) who travel on the world’s largest ship ever made, the Titanic. This movie is well known for the very sad ending. Many well known and praised actors are starring in this movie, such as Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater, and Billy Zane as Caledon Hockley. This movie gathered a whopping $1.1 Billion in sales.
4. E.T
E.T is a family favourite movie. This is the story of an alien landing on earth who becomes friends with a boy named Elliot. Elliot and E.T go on many different funny adventures, such as trick or treating on Halloween, or walking around town with E.T dressed as a girl. E.T has some sad moments too, in one scene, E.T is almost dead from the hypothermia, after falling into a little stream after halloween, who is then saved by Elliot, which allows E.T to reunite with his extraterrestrial family. The movie E.T earned $1.182 Billion for this amazing movie.
3. The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music is an older musical film from the late 60s. This movie won a total of 5 Oscar awards. This tells the story of a girl name Maria who keeps failing at becoming a nun. She then receives a job offer, to watch 7 kids, which she accepts. During her time with the children, many funny moments and joyful musical pieces are performed, and loved by most. This movie received $1.187 Billion from this masterpiece.
2. Star Wars
Star wars is a sci-fi movie. It tells the adventures of different Jedis and also their enemies, the Sith. With many plot twists and crazy scenery, this was truly a fan favourite, and even still to this day. The studio that created the original star wars saga 30 years ago, are still trying to add on to this story by creating new story lines and characters, with the same objective. Star wars gathered around $1.5 Billion.
1. Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind is an older movie, that was created in 1939. This Romance film is about a girl surviving the Civil War, on a plantation. It also focuses on the love of Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. This movie does have some use of slavery, because of the Plantations in that time period. In all it is an amazing movie that earned $1.7 Billion.

Sources:



Use of Google to find Movie Cast for each film

Pictures:

http://www.impawards.com/1997/posters/titanic_ver2.jpg

http://img.moviepostershop.com/gone-with-the-wind-movie-poster-1939-1010192906.jpg



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Saturday, April 22, 2017

Kevin Spacey To Host The Tony Awards



kevin-spacey-indiewire.jpgKevin Spacey, an American actor who has won two Academy Awards, will be the host of this year’s annual Tony Awards. Many know Spacey for playing the iniquitous President of the United States on Netflix’s original series “House of Cards,” however, this successful actor had quite an interesting start.  
Spacey, who is currently 57 years old, won his first Tony Award for performing in “Lost In Yonkers” in 1991. However, Spacey was first put on the map for his performance in Bryan Singer’s classic drama film The Usual Suspects, in which he played the main antagonist, Verbal Kint. This role also landed him his first Oscar: Best Actor in a Supporting Role. This role was the one that really skyrocketed his career. Only four years later, Spacey appeared in his next big film, the Best Picture-winning American Beauty, which also won Spacey an Oscar for Best Actor.
It might surprise some to learn that Spacey is also a singer, and a very good one at that, having appeared in six Broadway productions. With the string of Academy Awards under his belt, plus his ability to sing and make a crowd his own, are very good reasons for why Spacey would be a great fit to host the 71st Tony Awards.
The award show will air on June 11th, at 8:00 PM, live from Radio City Music Hall.
This year, they seemed to have followed the same tradition that they did during last year’s Tony Awards, as the host was James Corden. What sticks out most as a similarity between these two hosts is that they both never pursued a career in singing or music for the most part, yet they both have the ability and comedic intelligence to make the show a success.
This year, the ceremony will only take into consideration shows that have opened any time during April 29th, 2016, and April 27th, 2017. The long-awaited nominations will be coming out on May 2nd.
Recently, Spacey sat down with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, and had this to say about the whole situation: “I love the theatre, I’m a theatre rat so for me it’s incredibly exciting,”
All that can be said so far is that Spacey is visibly excited to be hosting the prestigious event, we’re all excited to see him host, and all we can do is hope that the show goes smoothly.

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Sources:


Paulson, Michael. "Kevin Spacey Is to Host the Tony Awards." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Apr. 2017. Web. 19 Apr. 2017. (Click Here For Link)
Fierberg, Ruthie. "Kevin Spacey Talks Preparing to Host the 2017 Tony Awards." Playbill. PLAYBILL INC., 19 Apr. 2017. Web. 19 Apr. 2017. (Click Here For Link)

"Kevin Spacey." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2017. (Click Here For Link)

World, Broadway. "Kevin Spacey Theatre Credits." BroadwayWorld. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2017.
(Click Here For Link)

Blistein, Jon. "Kevin Spacey to Host 2017 Tony Awards." Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, 18 Apr. 2017. Web. 20 Apr. 2017. (Click Here For Link)
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Arkansas Executes First Person Since 2005

On Thursday April 20 2017, the state of Arkansas executed their first inmate in 12 years after a long lasting legal battle that questioned aspects of the use of the death penalty in the United States. The inmate who was executed was 51 year old Ledell Lee who was pronounced dead at 11:56 p.m. Lee was convicted and sentenced to death for beating a woman to death with a tire iron in 1993, the relatives of the victim were at the Cummins Unit and told media Lee deserved to die for a crime that ripped their lives apart. According to the Arkansas Department of Corrections, Lee had no last words.
Although spending over two decades in prison, Lee stood by his innocence. He had filed numerous motions in various courts that had delayed the execution process. Lee was also seeking DNA tests that his lawyers claimed could prove his innocence. In the end, Lee received injections of three drugs: midazolam, to render him unconscious; vecuronium bromide, to halt his breathing; and potassium chloride, to stop his heart.
Lee is one of eight men the state originally wanted to execute over the course of 11 days before the supply of one of the drugs in its three-part lethal injection protocol expires at the end of the month. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announced last month that the state would begin executing inmates who had exhausted state-level appeals. So far, courts have stopped four of the executions that were to take place.
The state's plan prompted an unprecedented flurry of legal filings that argued the process should be halted, with attorneys for the eight men attempting to block the executions, including using the argument that Midazolam, the drug used to make inmates unconscious before two more drugs paralyze and kill them, does not effectively prevent a painful death.

C.C
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Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Online Fight Between YouTubers 'The Gabbie Show' and 'Ricegum'





On Tuesday, March 28th, There was a party thrown for a famous YouTuber Alex Wassabi. The fight was between Ricegum and The Gabbie Show who are both YouTubers. The fight is described as really aggressive on Ricegum’s  part. This is how it started. Gabbie was snapchatting because she did not know anyone at the party. The only one she knew was Ricegum. To get comfortable, she decided to be playful and fool around with Ricegum. As she was snapping and  posting all these little videos, Ricegum did not want her to post any of it. She ignored him and posted it anyway. There was one snap that might have made him mad, and it was about his “ghostwriter”. A ghostwriter is when someone writes for someone else but the other guy takes the credit. According to Ricegum, his friend, Diss God, writes with him to make the diss tracks that he does. Ricegum got a little bit upset and threw Gabbie’s phone. What probably triggered him was the mention of his ghostwriter and how she thinks that he cannot write music on his own. Then Gabbie goes to the balcony of the house and started to show bruises and scratches that Ricegum supposedly did. Everyone later finds out that the scratches and bruises were already there before the party. This is That was Ricegum’s side of the story, now it is Gabbie’s turn.
The Gabbie Show does YouTube but got famous by doing Vines. At the party when the fight happened, Gabbie claimed that Ricegum Pinned her down, twisted her arm, and then threw her phone. Only one of those claims are true and that would be the smashing of her phone. Ricegum felt bad and then tells Keemstar and Scarce, who are both YouTubers, that he paid over 2000$ for the phone. But In a YouTube video posted by The Gabbie Show showing that Ricegum told Gabbie that he sent to much money and wanted 1000$ back. So essentially, Ricegum lied to Scarce and Keemstar in the interview. But who was right? Obviously Ricegum was right and because she supposedly ruined his reputation, He made a fire diss track about her.


B.Z.


Sources:

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Tuesday, April 18, 2017

All About Drake




Drake is a 30 year old rapper from Toronto, Canada.  Before he became known as a musician, Drake gained recognition as an actor on a television series known as Degrassi. Drake played a character called “Jimmy Brooks.” This character was seen as a basketball all-star and had a wealthy background, but was one of the more humble characters. In season 3, he was shot in his leg, which left him crippled from the waist down.
Even though at the time he was known as an actor, Drake had always been into music. In 2007 following his mixtape, he released ‘Comeback Season’ and ‘So Far Gone’. This song is what really made Drake a star, and helped him become an important voice in hip-hop. The album/mixtape starts off with him saying “I’m trying to do it all tonight’’ as if he's trying to make the full thing in one night. We doubt that he could've done that, but there's no actual evidence saying he didn’t. In june of 2009, Drake sang for rapper Lil Wayne’s ‘Young Money Entertainment.’ Drake went on to release album ‘Thank Me Later’ which eventually went platinum. ‘Thank me later’ featured many popular artists such as Alicia Keys, Nicki Minaj and even Jay Z. In 2011, he released ‘Take Care’ arguably his best album to date, and my personal favourite. In this album, he once again had the help of many well known artists, featuring Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar and a few others. This album really got Drake to where he is today and formed him into the musician we all love so very much. The album had both sides of Drake being the soft, loving Drake which we see very clearly in the song ‘Marvin’s Room’ and tough, rap Drake which is clearly shown in song ‘Headlines’. In 2013, he released ‘Nothing Was The Same’ also one of his most well known albums and one of my personal favourites. In this album, Drake proves to people that he is able to really rap. In 2015, Drake was in his prime and he released two albums: ‘If You're Reading This It’s too Late’ and ‘What A Time To Be Alive’. After the long, 2 year wait it was only right for him to drop two albums. Album ‘If You're Reading This It's too late’ was very light on features which showed us all that Drake doesn't really need features to perform. The rapper's album ‘What a Time To Be Alive’ was in collaboration with fellow rapper, Future.
Although Drake is clearly present in the album and it is technically his album, this is more of a Future show. We do see a lot of shots that Drake takes at rapper Meek Mill during this album though. In 2016, Drake releases the album ‘Views’ which wasn't really heavy on features either but there were a few. For the first couple weeks, people weren't very pleased with this album and were saying it was not very well made compared to his past albums. It took a week or two for people to adapt and let the album sink in, until everyone finally loved it. Finally, Drake's most recent album ‘More Life’ was the album that was amazing, and blew up pretty quickly. The only problem Drake faced on this album was possibly copying the beat and rhythm of an artist known as Xxxtentacion. Aside from that, it was a unanimous decision that it was all around a great album. I can't wait to see what Drake has in store for us for the future.
Sources:  
  1. "Jimmy Brooks." Degrassi Wiki. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.
  2. McMahon, Kevin, Adam Kivel, Alejandra Ramirez, Dan Weiss, Pat Levy and Sheldon Pearce, Philip Cosores, Philip Cosores and Collin Brennan, Alex Young, Eddie Fu, Wren Graves, Michael Madden, and Michelle Geslani. "Album Review: Drake – More Life." Consequence of Sound. N.p., 21 Mar. 2017. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.
     3. Scarano, Ross. "Ranking Drake's Albums From Best to Worst." Complex CA. Complex CA, 20


Pictures:

 http://thefader res.cloudinary.com/images/w_1440,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best/F100_DRAKE_peckmezian_02_yvz7pw/drake-views-from-the-6-cover-story-interview.jpg
https://images.genius.com/df91da4c0c20709e276c25f1bb6ff87f.640x640x1.jpg

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Wednesday, April 12, 2017

The 2017 NHL Playoffs

The 2017 National Hockey League playoffs start on April 12th where sixteen teams fight to battle for the Stanley Cup. Last year the Chicago Blackhawks took home the cup for the third time in seven years but who will take it home to their city this year?
The Washington Capitals have won the presidents trophy for the second year in a row. Last year the Capitals got eliminated in the second round to the Pittsburgh Penguins. This year they may have an even better team than last year with the addition to Shattenkirk at the trade deadline. They are the favourite to win the cup even though people have doubted them for their past experience in the playoffs. They will be facing Toronto in the first round who have a team full of rookies hoping to upset the capitals.

The penguins will be going up against the Columbus Blue Jackets who were on a seventeen game win streak during the middle of the season. The penguins will have to play without their star defenseman Kris Letang who is out with season ending neck injury.

The Canadians are facing the Rangers where Montreal has home ice advantage and the winner will play the winner of Ottawa and Boston in the second round.

The defending champs, Blackhawks are playing Nashville in the first round as they won their division and who ever wins that will play the winner of MInnesota and St. Louis which may be the most anticipated first round matchup.
Anaheim who won the Pacific division will play Calgary with a hope to get past the first round after being eliminated in the first round last year. The winner of this matchup will play the winner of Edmonton and San Jose. The Oilers return to the playoffs for the first time in a decade thanks to their captain McDavid and hope to defeat the sharks who went to the Stanley Cup finals last year.
The Kings who have won two cups of the last seven did not make the playoffs even after a great season from Jeff Carter, Bishop and Quick. The Red wings also did not make the playoffs which ends their 24th straight playoff appearance streak. Tampa Bay did not make the playoffs by a couple points as they missed Stamkos for most of the season which did not help.

After a year where no Canadian hockey teams made the playoffs. This year there will be five out of the seven Canadian teams in the playoffs. All except the Canucks and Jets. One of these five teams hope to bring the cup to Canada for the first time since 1993 when the canadians brought it home.
Who will take the cup home this year? Let us know in the comments below!

Sources:

"Stanley Cup Playoffs | Hockey Bracket." NHL.com. N.p., n.d. Web.

"List of Stanley Cup Champions." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Apr. 2017. Web.

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Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Top 5 Most Evil People In History

Welcome back to Top 5! In this week’s article, we will be counting down the Top 5 scariest people in history. For this list, we have chosen people who have actually walked the Earth, and not people who are solely fictional. Enjoy!

5. Count Dracula (Vlad the Impaler)
 Count Dracula also known as Vlad the Impaler, would have to be our pick for the 5th scariest person to ever walk the Earth. Vlad thought of a way to always win in any battle, and truth be told, his means were brutal. He would place fear amongst people by impaling his enemies and he would create what he would call "Forests of Impaled Bodies". He would go insane in battles, killing and torturing anyone who stood in his way. His love for impaling and for creating fear makes him one of the most scary people in the history of the world.

4. Albert Fish
 Albert Fish was nicknamed The Boogey Man for the terrible crimes he committed. The Boogey Man was a child molestor. He would help people who were mentally disabled and then eat, yes that’s right, eat them. He claimed that children are “more juicy and tender.” He would write a letter back to the parents of those he raped, which were, obviously, very insane and disturbing. He ended up getting and then was by killed the electric chair.

3. Gilles Des Rais
 Gilles Des Rais was Joan of Arc's best friend. Gilles Des Rais was a noble knight, who later,  went on to rape and torture children. It was said that he formed “pacts” with the Devil which led him to his weird obsession. He would lure children to his residence and then dress them up very nicely. Afterwards,  he would get them drunk from wine, and follow up by torturing and then raping the dead bodies later.

2. Jack the Ripper
 Jack the ripper was a famous murderer on the streets of London in the late 1800s. He would target prostitutes during late nights, in the poor parts of London. He committed many crimes, while remaining undetected. People gave him the nickname “Ripper” because of a letter he once sent to the authorities, under that name. People believe that he specialized in the medical field because the incisions he would make were very accurate and were done with a lot of precision.

1. Adolf Hitler
 Adolf hitler was a politician that was the leader of the Nazis. Adolf Hitler was born in Austria, on April 20, 1889, but later mpved to Germany in 1913. Hitler's aggressiveness and racism is the number 1 cause of World War 2. During World War 2, Hitler's Nazis were responsible for the killing of over 6 million Jews and over 11 million people in total. Because Hitler had pretty much no reason except for racism to kill all these people, he is truly the most evil person to have ever lived.
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Pictures: 

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