Freedom Forum Newsletter February 8th, 2021

Weekly Newsletter

February 8,16, 2021 November 2020

The History of St. Valentines Looking at how Valentine’s Day started Zaphaneya Rivera, Journalism Student Valentine’s Day is a day when people share their love for one another. Most people send one another cards, flowers or chocolates. When they were younger, students shared all types of treats. Some even brought in cards. That is something that they were delighted to do.

Although the real question should be, how did this holiday originate?

During the third century AD, Emperor Claudius II had considered that his men were becoming weak. He believed that men were not joining his military leagues due to matrimony. He had thought the attachments to their wives and families were too strong, so he banned marriage.

A famous priest, Saint Valentine, disagreed with the Emperor. Valentine did not like this, so he broke the rules and secretly arranged marriages.

When Emperor Claudius found out, Valentine was sadly sentenced to death on February 14. St. Valentine fell in love with his jailer's daughter during his time in jail. Before he passed away, he had sent her a love letter, where it was signed "from your Valentine" at the bottom.

Ancient Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia from February 13 to 15. Lupercalia is an ancient Roman celebration for purification upon their city.

Pope Gelasius I declared February 14 to be Valentine's Day after Saint Valentine in 496 AD. The year 496 was said to be the

first Valentine's Day ever.

Years later, people all around the world brightened this day.

For example, in the 15th century, Frenchman turned Valentine greetings to paper.

Three centuries later, couples would decorate these papers to make cards. Most valentine cards were slid under doors or tied to a doorknob.

Well, what about gifts? Why give flowers, and chocolates?

The gifts that people tend to give can be described as a romantic symbol. For example, flowers symbolize love, marriage, and passion.

Chocolate is similar but different. It does not only signify love, but it is also assumed to uncover one's

heart. The history of this annual celebration of love is anything but boring!

Valentines Day Gift Source: Pixabay

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February 8, 16, 2021 November 2020

The Forum Weekly Newsletter

Olivia Rodrigo Releases Another Hit The heartbreak song of the month Alexis Swoyer, Social Media Editor Over the last week, our old Bizzardvark and High School Musical The Musical The Series star Olivia Rodrigo came out with probably the biggest breakup song from over the past year. The song Driver's License came out on January 8, 2021, it has only been out for 5 days and has already hit the top of the streaming charts everywhere.

The music video has already hit over 11 million views and counting.

The song has reached the hearts of teenage girls everywhere, last year around this time another one of Rodrigo’s songs called “All I

Want” from her Disney + series, was released and was getting almost the same amount of attention from her fans. But this song was different this year, it hit harder and started off 2021 with a banger.

The song has blown up all over tik tok and has started a couple new trends using the song. The love for the song hasn’t gone down since it came out, it is still being posted everywhere and everyone is talking about it.

There is a rumor going around that there is a love triangle between Olivia, Joshua Bassett, and Sabrina

Carpenter.

Olivia and Joshua were co-stars and each other's love interests in the Disney+ show, High School Musical The Musical The Series. There were skeptics about if they were in a relationship outside the show. But then the fans of the show's heart broke when we found out that nothing was going on between them because Bassett had said he would wait for her until she turns 18 and they can be together, which we got hinted at when she put on the cover, the date of her 18th birthday.

Very romantic right? Wrong.

Bassett had then been seen with Carpenter and

Movie Music Makes Large Impact The importance that music has in making a good scene AJ Minnich, Editor-in-Chief help to emphasise the In any visual storytelling medium such as TV, movies, or video games the composition of a scene requires a delicate balance of many different aspects including sound design, performances, cinematography, and art/set design.

But possibly one of the most overlooked aspects of crafting a scene is the music. Now that is not to say people do not care about music quite the opposite in fact because in movies like “Star Wars” or “Lord of the Rings” the soundtrack is one of the most memorable parts of a movie.

What makes it overlooked is

how many don’t understand just how pivotal music is to a scene.

For example in the “Empire Strikes Back” the music and sometimes lack thereof really helps to emphasize just how desperate the characters are and that they are in a losing fight but in Rise of Skywalker’s battle between Rey and Kylo it feels hollow because it has no music at all. It feels like some kind of editing error but in reality they put absolutely no music in what was supposed to be one of the most intense and emotional scenes in the film.

Strong music will always

emotions in the scene it’s placed in. furthermore the best music will still elicit the emotions of the scene even when listening to it completely removed from the scene it is in.

For example most people still feel the same emotions as Luke Skywalker when listening to “The Force Theme” which plays when he looks at the twin suns.

In essence music acts as an emotional guide for what the director wants the audience to feel. It also makes scenes more memorable and can also completely change the

Screenshot from Drivers License Music Video Source: Alexis Swoyer they seemed to be a little bit closer than just friends. This hurt the hearts of teens who shipped Bassett and Rodrigo from the show. Seeing Bassett and Carpenter started the rumors of Rodrigo’s new song being about the love triangle that was created. Another piece of information that we learned about this song was that Bassett was actually the one to teach Rodrigo how to drive.

context of a scene.

For example scenes like Arthur Morgan’s final ride in Red Dead Redemption II would not be as memorable and impactful without the beautiful music to accompany it. In terms of changing the context of a scene, a prime example would be Ross from Friends because after removing the laugh track and adding ominous music Ross comes off as a creepy sociopath.

In the words of John Williams “There’s a very basic human, non-verbal aspect to our need to make music and use it as part of our human expression. It doesn’t have to do with body movements, it doesn’t have to do with articulation of a language, but with something spiritual.”