Auburn Riverside High School
Arts & Entertainment
9
Zoolights add sparkle to Christmas spirit Karlee Johnson STAFF REPORTER Every year around the holiday season, tons of people like to go and see what the Christmas lights look like. There are a bundle of places where you are able to see them. Whether they’re around your neighborhood or in a place you pay to get in to, their are a host of places to see the wonderful Christmas lights displays. The place I went to was Zoolights. Zoolights is at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma. Overall, the whole experience is more for the little kids who go with their families. I was open to going, because I have only heard good things about others who went in the past years. The cost to get in the park area wasn’t expensive at all: it was only $9 at the gate, and you can go and buy tickets at a store such as Fred Meyer, where there are a little bit cheaper. The cost at the front gate also included many extra attractions in addition to Zoolights. These included watching Santa swim with the sharks and many other activities that are largely geared toward younger patrons. The park hours are 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m., which is an ample time frame for taking in the lights. It honestly wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting to go and see a bunch of animals along with the Christmas lights
that they had up. Although the lights they did have up were very bright and wonderful, I was more disappointed in the fact that there weren’t that many animals I was able to see. Besides that, it was fun. They were also offering rides on camels and they had their famous carousel open for all ages in the park. I would recommend it if you were going with your family or a group. I have really young cousins and they absolutely loved it. I didn’t like the fact that it was extremely cold, so one thing to remember is to dress warmly because not everything is inside. Zoolights was really fun. It is open until Jan. 5 and is closed on only Dec. 24, and open on Christmas Day at 6:00 p.m. The park itself is asking for donations for Christmas lights. They don’t want the thousands of lights that end up at the landfill every year to go to waste. You are able to drop off the lights in bins that are set up throughtout the park, or in the main entrance of the park.
PHOTO BY KARLEE JOHNSON
The Zoolights Christmas light show is presented at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It is open in the evenings from 6:00 to 9:00, and will remain open until Jan. 5. It will be closed on Christmas Eve, but open on Christmas Day.
Fantastic Allegiant completes Divergent triology Deck The Hall Ball Sara Koenig GUEST REPORTER With the long-awaited Allegiant, Veronica Roth concludes her thrilling trilogy she began with Divergent, which was first published in 2011. In case you’ve been living under a rock, Roth’s action/adventure/romance/sci-fi/dystopian/satire/postapocalyptic saga follows the story of Beatrice, or Tris Prior, who is a divergent, or a person who has all the traits that her society celebrates: peacefulness, intelligence, honesty, selflessness, and bravery, while most people only have one of those traits and are divided on that basis. I really loved this book! The characters are impeccable, and feel and act like real people put through the situations they must handle. I especially digged the character Caleb, Tris’ brother, because of his complicated relationship and mysterious motives that change unpredictably as the novel unfolds. For a teen romance, Allegiant has a lot of teen romance that is very good and convincing. The love between Tris and Tobias is very well told. I also loved the supsense of the novel, as the author’s writing style really puts you in the shoes of the characters and right into the action. Peril permeates and punctuates each page
of this pulse-pounding, prescient, partially perplexingly complex piece of prose. This book is a definite-page turner. Of course, you can’t talk about how great the final book in a series is without mentioning the previous entries. I would venture to call Roth’s trilogy one of the fin-
est around for the young adult audience both in this decade and in general. It eschews the awful dreck of the supernatural romance that’s been peddled to popular acclaim in recent years, and instead exploits the dystopian teen romance market that has become very popular of late. This book specifically retains the melancholy atmosphere created in the first two novels, especially towards the end, and makes it both satisfying and unnerving as our protagonists triumph and fail in equal measure. Some people compare this trilogy to the Hunger Games, but I never thought that that trilogy was as thrilling as this trilogy, largely due to there being a lot more surprising plot twists and more investing characters. You especially pull for Tris and her friends and loved ones as you reach the novel’s end. You really hope they’ll be okay. Allegiant also works as a dystopian novel, and I should know because I love dystopian fiction. Dystopian novels are books about nightmarish, strict societies, like the Hunger Games or the classic Among the Hidden books by Margaret Peterson Haddix. The world Roth creates is suitably oppressive and haunting, which helps you empathize with the characters even more. Allegiant is a masterful, heartbreaking, and potent tale of friendship, love, betrayal and hope that will enthrall all those who submit to its power.
Eric Walker GUEST REPORTER
Deck the Hall Ball 2013 was awesome! A lot of good bands showed up to Key Arena, including the Arctic Monkeys, Churches, Foals, Lorde, Alt-J, the Head and the Heart, Phoenix, and Vampire Weekend. The stadium was filled with people, and the sound in there was great. The bands who really killed it were the Arctic Monkeys and Phoenix because they knew how to put on a great show. The Head and the Heart were good as well, and had a lot of power in their songs. Another great performance on the electric side was Alt-J, whose unique sound was a definite hit. Vampire Weekend’s always-original and always-slightly-off style meant that not all of their songs translated perfectly to the large venue, but those that did absolutely killed. By far, I think that Phoenix was the best performance in the concert. In the beginning they had technical difficulties, so they had to improvise one of their songs with just singing and a guitar (which was a severe, but successful departure for the electro-alternative band). They came through after that, delivering the songs and style audiences have come to expect from them in grand fashion. All in all, the concert was a great experience and I would recommend going to Deck the Hall Ball 2014!