Halloween: the holiday that involves sugar binges and discovering ways to scare yourself and others. It is also one of those rare holidays that’s meaning changes with age. Much like Valentine’s Day, where we went from trading cartoon valentines to our kindergarten classmates to offering roses and chocolates to our college sweethearts, the spooky festivities [...]

The calendar not only forecasts the changing of the seasons but also our annual culture patterns. With summer blockbusters and barbecues long gone but the winter still a ways away from sweeping everyone up in the holiday spirit, it’s a special time indeed. Nights are cooling, leaves are changing (although perhaps not in Los Angeles) [...]

Every now and then, an inspirational quote comes along and knocks your socks right off. Trying to find some inspiration and guidance in my life, I googled “quotes about love” and this Dr. Seuss gem popped up: “You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” [...]

Last year I reviewed Breaking Dawn — Part 1 for the Daily Trojan, and I took a lot of flak for it. Twi-hards can be pretty vicious when they’re hiding behind an anonymous comment system. I won’t deny that my words were harsh, but I have — embarrassingly enough — read all the books and [...]

With November slowly approaching, the presidential election has sent the general public into a flurry of frenzied energy and constant debate. From Facebook statuses to Twitter updates, the entire country is spilling their thoughts onto the world wide web for all to see. And with every election, the political climate changes and citizens find a [...]

Social media dominates almost every element of communication for our generation. It is even acceptable to use some names as verbs in colloquial speech: “Instagram that view, bro,” or “Nice to meet you, Facebook me later!” are phrases often overheard on a college campus. The presence of social media is nothing new but, if used [...]

It can be hard to agree on what constitutes a “seminal work.” Not many pieces of media are influential enough to leave a noticeable and lasting impact on our culture, and of course the ones that do usually had influences of their own. But few singular releases have done more to affect a genre than [...]

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most children don’t feel comfortable talking to their parents about sex. Sure, there are those lucky few who have a liberal relationship with their cool, hip parents. But most of the time you either keep details about your sex life to yourself or only [...]

One of my really good friends insists that I go see Paranormal Activity 4 with him. We’ve seen the first three together, so he’s calling it a tradition. I hate our tradition. I’m horrible in horror films: I get really jumpy, I scream and I yell. I’m that girl who can’t keep her sh-t together. [...]

Artist Mark Rothko might have wanted to leave the themes of his works up to interpretation, but the artist left little room for ambiguity in what he saw as the right and wrong places to display his art. Back in 1958, Rothko received a commission for The Four Seasons, a restaurant that was opening inside [...]