AIRIANNA ROMAN campus editor airianna.roman@my.tccd.edu
I know NW is still under construction, so it’ll be moved eventually.”
She also said there isn’t enough space on the first floor of NW05, so she prefers to study on the first floor.
“It isn’t as open as it used to be,” said Phil Jensen, a NW librarian. “But we should be getting into the new building soon.”
In Bond Report 49 for the 2019 Bond Capital Improvements Program, which includes the current NW campus redevelopment, the “outer skin” for the NW02 and NW03 buildings were completed by July, and total finish is expected no later than Jan.16, 2026.
“Following the completion of the main renovation areas, construction will continue to restore swing space areas to their original purpose,” the report said.
While it described the buildings still needing interior renovation, including electricity and design, it focused on getting classes integrated into the new spaces by Spring 2026.
“Although the original plan included demolishing the portable buildings, a decision was made to retain them in order to support the ongoing needs of the high school programs,” the report said.
Parker said some students may have been affected by the book collection getting smaller, but they’re still able to order books from other campuses.
She explained that the library team is waiting for space in the coming months.
Memory of Katrina tragedy remains
ricane Katrina left on his life.
Shelton was in Louisiana leading up to the tragedy and had to help his family evacuate the state before it was too late.
CONNECT
Jensen said it has taken HOPE SMITH campus editor hope.smith393@tccd.edu
See Library Page 2
NW Campus library space, located in NW05 building shows blocked off shelving.
NE government instructor Derrick Shelton, a New Orleans native, still lives with the impact Hur-
“Honestly, I’m still experiencing Katrina even though it’s been
20 years,” he said. “I still hurt. I still feel the pain. We lost everything.”
Shelton was part of a five-person panel spanning from instructors to counselors during an anniversary event on NE Campus Sept. 9, dis-
cussing the events that unfolded after the initial hit of the hurricane changed the trajectory of Louisiana’s landscape. “The storm exposed deep vulnerabilities in disaster prepared -
See Hurricane, Page 2
Webinar offers tips on successful financing
HOPE SMITH campus editor hope.smith393@tccd.edu
The first step to financial independence is mindset, said Cathy Trinh, a business instructor for Connect Campus.
Trinh migrated to the U.S. from Vietnam with $300 in her pocket and was able to transform her circumstances into success by becoming a millionaire.
In her online webinar Sept. 9, she offered advice to the TCC community and participants on how to grow their own income and achieve financial freedom, no matter the stage a person may be in.
“I want you to know that financial freedom isn’t about profession,” she said in the webinar. “It’s about progress. And if I can build a life from [my] beginnings, you can build your life too.”
Changing a mindset to being more open to financial opportunities means expanding on what a person values in life.
She recommend writing down personal goals and creating vision boards that reflect what you want in life.
“I work with people — either a student who barely has anything or even multi-millionaire — and
Residency helps
an easel and some paint. You actually have to use heating devices to maintain your wax at temperature.”
it’s amazing to see how the negative mindset really, really affects people,” she said.
Her second piece of advice is to implement the 50/30/20 budgeting rule, a financial strategy coined by Elizabeth Warren in her book “All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan.”
The rule explains that 50% of your income should go into personal needs like food, housing and transportation. 30% should be dedicated to “wants,” like entertainment and takeout, while the other 20%
of each art piece with him.
SE Campus hosted an artist talk Sept. 11 showcasing adjunct instructor Matthew Jones’ wax art.
In January, Jones took a residency at the Ruth Smith Gallery in England for two weeks. His intent in choosing the specific gallery was to study the nearby Dartmoor National Park. Jones specializes in encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting. He uses it for most of his art pieces, including all of the ones in the SE exhibit, which is open until Sept. 25.
“It was really intense because I mean encaustic takes a fair bit of equipment in order to do,” Jones said. “It’s not like you just go with
Students were provided with information and stories from Jones’ residency allowing them to discover potential opportunities through art.
The event was hosted by gallery coordinator Penelope Bisbee with the goal of helping students appreciate art in a school setting.
The encaustic style interested many viewers and listeners that attended, she said.
“I thought he created some very beautiful encaustic paintings and used art as a result of his recent artist residency,” Bisbee said.
Most of the work in the exhibit was done during Jones’ residency in England.
Students and staff listened to Jones talk about his art and residency experience as well as take a tour
Bisbee said that when students listen to the artist talk carefully, they usually have questions for the artist at the end.
“And so that always indicates to me, they were listening, and they were interested enough to really pay attention,” she said.
The event attracted some SE staff including faculty, student employees and art department personnel.
Arts and Humanities coordinator Becky Smith said the art department set up the artist talk with the intention of promoting student engagement and inspiration.
“What I enjoy about the artist talks and reception is because it gives the chance to explain and express his or her perceptions into first why it was created, his inspiration into creating it and then how it
goes to personal life savings.
“When you know where your money is going, you are in control,” Trinh said.
She also recommended utilizing technology to your advantage and finding ways to track finances using online resources.
John Peninger, an accounting instructor at Connect, was also among the viewers at the webinar. He agreed that trustworthy apps are a great way to track finances. He personally recommended the app Rocket Money.
Another piece of advice Trinh gave was paying off debt through the snowball or avalanche method.
The snowball method means paying off the smallest debt that has collected and working up to the largest. The avalanche method is the opposite, targetting the largest debt. Trinh warned that doing these methods means keeping consistent every time.
“Never make a late payment, always the minimum payment,” she said. “And then after you have addressed that you want to keep your credit use less than 30% of your limit.”
Finally, she explained that focusing on your future and ensuring a retirement plan is being worked towards will make the difference when the time comes.
Trinh explained that while traditional retirement accounts offered by companies and the IRA’s work, that is not the only kind to exist out there. She mentioned real estate being one example of non-traditional retirement.
“I’m sharing all of this just so that you understand where I used to be, all the horrible mistakes I made,” she said. “I’m here to tell you that even if you make mistakes, you can still come out ahead.”
Muirheic said.
Diego Santos/The Collegian
Diego Santos/The Collegian
NE government instructor Derrick Shelton, a native of New Orleans, shares his impactful story regarding his family’s survival.
Artist Mathew Jones (to the right) talks about the process for his wax artwork inspired by Darthmore National Park.
Airianna Roman/The Collegian
Illustration by Izzy Webb/The Collegian
(continued from page 1)
awhile to get used to the temporary room, but they have made the best they could out of the situation.
“It’s a good crew of people that we have,” he said. “We made it a comfortable space for us, but we look forward to bigger spaces.”
Even with construction going on, some students are aware of where the library is located.
Gabby Bryant, a first-semester college student, said it was easy for her to find the library when she and her mom toured the school.
“I noticed when we first walked in here,” she said.
Jensen said there used to be a lot of students coming to the library before construction, but he is glad some students are still coming to the library, even though it’s in a small room.
“I’m impressed by the students, because that’s a hard situation,” he said. “People are really making the best of it.”
DISTRICT CRIME LOG
Sept.10
SE: An unattended vehicle was hit and resulted in damages of less than $200.
Sept. 11
NE: A report was made of a student walking into the library with a knife.
Sept. 12
South: Property of theft was that was valued less than $750 at the high school on the South campus.
Veterans clean out gardens
Community comes together to restore campus plant beds
Phi Theta Kappa members receive statewide honors
FRED NGUYEN managing editor
Eleven students from several campuses were inducted into a statewide team recognizing outstanding community college students along.
Shelsy Arevalo is one of two TR students inducted to the 2025 All-Texas Academic Team. She did not expect to make the team and said she was happy to be recognized for all the work she had been putting into her education.
“It was a very nice moment for me to be like, ‘Oh, your efforts are paying off little by little,’” Arevalo said.
She and Samy Assi, who are also both Phi Theta Kappa members, were celebrated
Hurricane
for their honors at a ceremony held at the University of Texas at San Antonio on April 25.
Since 2009, the All-Texas Academic Team Medallion Ceremony has been held to honor community college students across Texas. The ceremony is the result of a partnership between The University of Texas System and the Texas Association of Community Colleges, with the ceremony itself being held through PTK.
Jerrica Jordan, an adviser for the TR chapter of PTK, said it was a big deal for Assi and Arevalo to earn their place on the team because they were competing with the thousands of students across Texas.
“That means that their academics were amazing, that people found their service opportunities amazing, that they really were impressed with their character from their personal statements,” Jordan said.
Assi started taking classes at TCC in the
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equality, prompting national reflection and reform,” NE history instructor Sara Reed said. “The Gulf Coast and particularly New Orleans would be forever changed.”
Like any seasoned Louisiana resident, Shelton was used to storms coming and going. He explained that a gut feeling told him Katrina was going to be like none other, and he followed it.
“As the storm passed, we started watching the news and then realized the levee had broke,” he said. “No one ever imagined that the levees would have failed, and that’s when that hit me. I couldn’t go home.”
Grant Griffin, a NE mathematics instructor, broke down the science behind the Louisiana levee systems during the panel.
Levees, as he explained it, were meant to protect the land from rising waters.
A combination stemming from New Orleans already sitting in poor soil sinking into a “bowl” shape, disorganized and incon-
sistent engineering in levee structure as well as inexperienced city board members meant failed flood prevention.
“Portions of the city are above sea level. The outside edges have been built up, and so it creates that bowl effect that we mentioned,” he said. “The problem there is, once water gets in, it’s extremely difficult to get it out.”
This pointed to one of the reasons Louisiana suffered as much as it had during the storm, but history instructor Adam Guerrero warned that plenty of misconceptions about the issues stemming from Katrina created a longstanding stigma.
Guerrero recalled reading the first news reports spreading information about looters, snipers and a general sense of lawlessness.
“When you listen to authority figures who were actually on the grounds – Gen. [Russel] Honore, for instance, who is the leading general in charge of the rescue mission – that didn’t happen,” he said.
summer of 2023. Since then, he has been on the dean’s list twice and participated in many competitions like the Jim Bolen Math Competition. Assi now studies computer science at TCU using the Transfer Chancellor Scholarship he earned that covers all his tuition fees.
Assi said PTK is a great opportunity for students and that the honor society gave him motivation to not only excel in academics but to also get involved in his community.
“PTK definitely brought me some good,” he said. “It gave me the stepping stone, if I can say that, for me to actually get to that next step of my life.”
Arevalo is preparing to transfer to a fouryear school to major in aerospace engineering and said PTK has brought her many connections and opportunities to explore what college life has to offer besides academics.
“It was more about getting to learn more about people, finding connections and feeling more a part of that community, which was really nice and honestly great,” she said. “In a way, PTK was like finding my people.”
What outsiders saw as malicious breakins and advantageous theft, Guerrero said was more likely due to people trying to survive while aid was being delayed.
“I mean, I almost leave it to any individual,” he said. “What would you do? Would you starve to death or die of dehydration, or would you go get the necessary materials?”
Part of understanding how residents were affected by the events of Katrina meant knowing how specific communities were hurt. Angela Shindoll, a psychology instructor, shared the trauma effects on Louisiana residents.
Shindoll had family who were also affected by Katrina and recalls what the experience was like coming to them to help when the state was reopened for access in October.
“There’s just piles and piles and piles of piles of trash,” she said. “The smells are just unbelievable because you think about water
that sits there, it hasn’t been pumped out yet.” Classic PTSD symptoms like severe anxiety, depression and fear lasted long afterward, Shindoll explained, and shed light on the fact that specific communities like the upper Ninth Ward in New Orleans faced even more trials than other areas.
“Many minority populations, specifically those that were living in the high poverty areas in the Ninth Ward faced a lot already systemic barriers, and so they received even more delayed aid,” she said.
Shelton explained that evacuating with his family changed a lot about the direction of his family’s life, but he knew that coming to Texas meant he had no option but to succeed.
“My story is a story of resilience and luck and assistance from a lot of caring people in Texas,” he said. “The sudden moved to Texas had a dramatic impact on my identity, and I had to take care of my family, period.”
Fred Nguyen/The Collegian
Christine Duke, an administrative assistant for the South Campus Veterans Resource Center, helps South student Michael Jennings combine forces to pull out a stubborn plant on April 25.
Darren Green, the president of the South Campus of the Student Veterans Association, uses a shovel to dig rout roots from a garden bed.
Duke and Jennings wear gloves to clean up the plant beds located by SMTH on South Campus. The Veterans Resource Center plan to use some of the plant beds to grow food and donate the harvest to the Tarrant Area Food Bank.
Fred Nguyen/The Collegian
TR students Samy Asi and Shelsy Arevalo receive their All-Texas Academic Team awards.
Airianna Roman/The Collegian NW Campus library has had to adapt for the past two years.
The NW Clay Club used to be a space only for students taking ceramic courses, but last semester they decided to change that. Now any student can join in on the creative process. The club meets every Thursday
NW Clay Club NW Clay Club
from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at NW13 1323. The club offers an open studio for students of all levels to come by and get their hands dirty with clay and create whatever their heart desires.
Benji Ramos, a longtime member, said the club has helped him grow as an artist.
“We do collaborate and tend to mesh ideas a lot, and that’s what I love about the Clay Club,” he said.
We do collaborate and tend to mesh ideas a lot, and that’s what I love about the Clay Club.
Benji Ramos Clay Club member
To have an at-home studio, it would cost around $6,000 between a kiln, a pottery wheel, clay and paint. The Clay Club gives students the opportunity to use this type of equipment for free.
Club President Thea Patterson’s main goal is to get students involved with clay and potentially get them enrolled into a ceramics course.
“It’s very, very expensive to outfit
a studio at home, and most people are not going to want to do that, but if we open this up to somebody who is taking the class before ... they can come in here and play with the clay,” she said.
CAMPUS VOICES
Clyde Ajiz
Muskan Rashid
Krystal Trejo
Izzie Webb/The Collegian
Ryleigh Roper/The Collegian Clay Club members take advantage of the pottery
Ryleigh Roper/The Collegian The club offers access to equipment such as a large outdoor kiln.
Public transit in Texas could be safer if voters step
Driving in Texas is a daily inconvenience, especially in DFW where a 20-mile drive can take over an hour.
With over 8 million people scattered across 9,000 square miles, the area is about the same size as New Hampshire with eight times its population.
As this area continues to boom, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for people to get to their destinations safely.
In 2024, one reportable crash occurred in Texas every 57 seconds, and the number of motor vehicle deaths equated to one person being killed every two hours, according to Texas’ Department of Transportation.
In Tarrant County alone, there were 28,000 crashes and 189 fatalities in 2024, meaning there were about 76 crashes a day with a death every two.
Texas is currently working on multiple toll projects, according to TxDOT. A majority of these are public-private partnerships, where private companies invest in building and operating these roadways in exchange for the right to collect toll payments.
The reason Texas is focused so heavily on these projects is because of the significant population influx demanding new transportation infrastructure our traditional public funds can’t build in a timely manner.
Toll prices are set by many different factors, cost more during congested traffic and charge driv -
ers almost every mile. While signing up for a TollTag offers discounted prices, the maximum fee can be upward of $3 during traffic. Our state considers 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. to be high-traffic hours. Dallas area workers commute on average 24 miles round trip everyday, according to an EducatedDriver. org.
This means a TollTag cost can be almost $70 for someone to get to
places on time.
While the goal is to get rid of the toll price after the private company’s investment is paid off, most public-private tolls started in 2019 projected this could take 25 years after the road’s completion, and they’re still under construction even though we’re using them.
It seems tolls are the focus while Texas ranks 16th in the country for having the poorest road conditions,
according to a Sept. 4 Construction Coverage report.
Most of DFW’s roads are pothole-ridden and unsafe for vehicles.
In April, Fort Worth’s Transportation and Public Works Department reported to NBC5 it had already fixed 13,000 potholes this year, spending roughly $35 per square yard.
Texas spends about 66% of tax dollars to fund the roads they drive on, according to a 2022 Tax Founda-
tion report.
Even though most of those dollars fund fixing the roads, commuters still expect traffic, wrecks and delays daily.
While the option to choose public transportation is available, commuters claim it’s unreliable and unsafe. Nearly 81% of DFW residents don’t use it at all, according to a Clever Real Estate study. Arlington is known as one of the largest cities in the country without a mass public transit system, and there have been proposals to change this, but it’s been voted down every time.
Since the last time public transit was shut down by voters in 2017, the city implemented a ride-share program due to an increase in demand. However, its commuters claim it’s just as unreliable as other options in the DFW area.
Local elections in Texas are infamous for having significantly low turnout. In May, only 8% of registered voters in Tarrant County cast a ballot in their local election. These elections directly affect what projects are funded and the amount of tax dollars used. If people
Today, you can find most of the community attending a concert at their local stadium when a popular artist is in town.
With almost every person that attends a concert owning a cellphone, this is putting a painful strain on present-day concert culture.
Prior to the 2010s, concerts were a place where attendees could dance and sing without a cellphone being shoved in front of their face.
At a recent concert by The Weeknd, I noticed that instead of being in the moment and watching the show that the artist puts on, the audience prefers to record on their phone and just watch the artist through the recording.
I watched as people in front of me stood still until a popular song known from social media played.
Influencers and pop media stars can’t be held to the same standards as politicians when it comes to social justice issues.
It must also be said that it is important that people with platforms reject injustice. There is power in popularity, and that power can be used to make a stance clear. In most cases, that is beneficial to a cause.
What isn’t beneficial is expecting a star to get the facts right the first time.
Pushing these people to spread information online when they are not equipped to handle the delivery or research necessary only creates a flood of misinformation.
It also gives some of these same people more power, and garner attention from it that serves them in a selfish way.
I’ve seen online how current events will sneak their way into comment sections of people most known for comedy or general media entertainment. The internet hive mind has a funny way of all having the same idea on who to pick on.
While it is an impractical ex-
When the popular songs were sung,
I could see all over the stadium as flashlights from peoples’ phones lit up from recording themselves. As I am guilty of recording a few seconds of a couple of songs, I find it excessive to let your photo gallery experience more of the concert than you.
pectation, I understand the feeling is involuntary. Online access spreads information like wildfire, and algorithms are made to hand feed you content from the palms of your favorite online celebrity. Because of that, I know the desire to want someone’s favorite to be right, or revolutionary might override the skills we learned in grade school to use research discretion. At the end of the day, however, it’s not their responsibility. People must be pickier in their online consumption.
It’s important to discuss the topic of influencers and celebrities
I wish my peers could learn to organically experience the concert and create real memories rather than let their cellphone do the job for them and end up giving their cellphone more attention than the artist playing.
Concerts are supposed to be for groups of people who find meaning in being in the moment. It amazes me that we can spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on concert tickets and still do what we already do daily on our cellphones.
Why are we paying for an experience when we can just find a video of it anyway?
With the rise in popularity of recording or taking pictures of yourself at a concert as some sort of “proof” of being there, this makes me think that some people attend-
using their platform to understand how they got their platform.
Context, like any researcher would want to know, will tell you if the person spreading online information has words of value to share.
I don’t entirely know if a TikTok star has the right to call authority on an international conflict that has no relation to the nation in question or the people.
I know it sounds harsh, but I would rather someone who has a stronger connection to the conflict make a statement because I can trust them as a source.
Ad Verecund – the authority figure argument – can tilt in the direction of fallacy or strong support, especially in this situation where being a celebrity with a platform simply isn’t enough.
Plenty of wrong people have had large platforms in history, even current day.
In the worst cases, I’ve seen celebrity careers take nose-dives for feeling the pressure and trying their hand at social justice commentary.
Most often, however, its virtue
ing concerts only buy tickets to show off on social media. It has become a trend on social media for people to make a video of themselves lip syncing to a popular song and post it for attention. This trend has spread from taking place in the privacy of people’s homes to the most public outing possible, concerts. We are seeing that to prevent their content from being leaked to the public, some artists such as comedians, actors and musicians have gone as far as making each person in attendance lock up their cellphones before walking into the venue. People that have done this include Dave Chappelle, Alicia Keys and Bruno Mars.
People are losing sight of the importance of concerts. With the
signaling. The practice is almost gross, seeing how a serious issue can be taken and torn between internet users to see who the better voice is and who will be the stronger advocate.
People often forget that with real social issues come actual, irreversible consequences. The affected are not soothed because an actor or singer says its bad, only actions make the difference.
That’s why this odd, almost cultural flip on influencers and politicians has taken a weird angle.
I see more about holding influencers and celebrities accountable for their lack of action or misuse of information than I see actual politicians and those in government feeling the effects of it. Even weirder, I see more of a response from those same influencers than politicians to the public.
I would be a hypocrite, however, if I did not bring up how even journalists are guilty of this too.
We have more codes of conduct to adhere to, but a lot of us are
new trends, concerts are now seen as a social media playground. Concerts were designed with the intent of allowing people to experience their favorite musicians’ art in person while providing fans with an unforgettable experience they can carry with them for the rest of their lives. Concerts were once looked at as a privilege and rare opportunity but are now seen as an average outing that can easily be watched from a social media video.
I believe the world will only begin to enjoy concerts again if people can learn to experience them without their cellphone.
If society can circle back to treating concerts with the respect they used to have, then maybe concerts can gain their initial meaning back.
sorely opinionated. It’s easy for any journalist to feel they are steering in the right direction while drifting into inaccuracy.
It is even our own responsibility to always be aware of the power media gives us, and we need to always strive for accuracy.
It is a privilege to have a platform, not a right. It is the public’s right, however, to have fair and accurate information presented to them.
The fact of the matter is, unless the celebrity has a background or experience in research, or the issue at hand, pushing them to say something online could absolutely create a tragedy in the wake. Remember, the power of the platform could sway the issue at hand either direction.
We need to start expecting these things from those who have actual lawmaking ability. If we flooded the socials of lawmakers closer to our communities, we could start asking questions to the people who need to be reminded of accountability the most.
Ten years after debuting on stage, “Hamilton” proves its importance to society now more than ever.
After the initial digital release in 2020 on Disney+, the hit musical has finally found its way to the big screen, allowing audiences to see the highly acclaimed show larger than ever before.
Since 2018, when my U.S. history teacher showed my class the musical in hopes it would help us pass the STAAR test, I’ve seen the musical over 50 times. The messaging buried underneath fast lyrics and groovy beats still gives me goosebumps every single time I watch it.
The musical follows the life of Alexander Hamilton, the founding father who fought in the American Revolutionary War and became the first secretary of treasury establishing the foundations of the American financial system. Super interesting stuff, right?
While the biography of Hamilton may not sound all that intriguing, the lessons learned from his experiences are where the true importance of this musical lie.
One message “Hamilton” highlights is the importance of immigrants in the founding of America. The line “Immigrants, we get the
job done,” from the song “Yorktown” highlights how both Marquis de Lafayette and Hamilton were immigrants and made moves in the revolution shifting America toward victory.
Legacy, what is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.
Lin-Manuel Miranda Composer and lyricist of ‘Hamilton’
This line hits harder today in a country where articles are coming out daily of the latest ICE raid that has torn families apart to deport “illegal” immigrants, even though immigrants have been a crucial part of American history since the beginning.
The second to last song of the musical, “The World Was Wide Enough,” is about the duel that kills Hamilton. His friend and his enemy, Aaron Burr, was the one to pull the trigger.
At the end of the song, Burr reflects on the damage he caused by killing Hamilton in saying, “I should’ve known the world was wide enough for both Hamilton and me.”
This holds weight in many more ways than one. From world leaders wanting to have the final say to pop stars wanting to be the top of the charts and both bringing down others to do so.
The most relevant connection to this message is the war in Palestine and how Israel has been forcefully taking Palestinian land for years, killing thousands in the process.
Fighting over this land and space in the world, as Burr fought for his pride and titles, can be avoided if people came to the conclusion that the world really is wide enough for everyone to exist.
In 2009, the creator of the hit musical, Lin-Manuel Miranda, performed a snippet of what would be the opening song to the show in front of President Barack Obama at a White House poetry jam.
Everyone in the crowd laughed, but Miranda was dead serious when he said he was working on a concept album about Hamilton and how he embodied hip-hop. By the time he was done performing an iteration of the opening song of the musical, everyone bopped their heads and even cheered him on with a standing ovation. This reaction to the musical has only gotten bigger.
The Tony, Emmy, Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical has since become a household name across the world.
Another highlight of the musical is the
cast. U.S. history is famously full of white men so one wouldn’t expect a musical about one of the founding fathers would be cast with primarily minorities. Besides a few ensemble cast members, the only white actor plays King George III, which speaks for itself. To have an all-inclusive cast for this musical is a reflection of the true beauty of America, diversity.
Besides the catchy tunes and stunning choreography, the thing that makes “Hamilton” so successful is just how timeless it is. With themes like legacy, family and honesty, “Hamilton” can be relatable and impactful to a wide range of audiences.
Miranda wrote the lyrics “Legacy, what is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.” In this case, Miranda has gotten to see the seeds of his garden grow with the impact “Hamilton” has on audiences across the globe. Being released in theaters is a major win for fans and new viewers alike. To see the show live on stage can cost viewers hundreds of dollars so to watch this global phenomenon for a fraction of the cost is another way “Hamilton” is making an impact and leading the way for other theater productions to follow.
Conjuring’ franchise ends on scary note
AIRIANNA ROMAN campus editor airianna.roman@my.tccd.edu
The Conjuring Universe came out with its last movie of its franchise “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” and the paranormal film gave both scary and the feeling of unity.
The movie is the ninth and final installment of “The Conjuring” franchise. Michael Chaves directed the movie, which was filmed in England last fall.
The film was great, particularly with its camera work and acting.
Some of the film’s best cinematography is in the middle of the movie, where the camera moves up in a twisting manner while rain is pouring down and lightning is striking everywhere.
The acting was strong as well. Patrick Wilson, playing Ed Warren, and Vera Farmiga, playing Lorraine Warren, have been the franchise’s starring characters since “The Conjuring” began its filming journey.
The actors show the raw emotion during the demonic scenery, the physical toll it took on their bodies to fight the demon and the undeniable chemistry between the two actors.
It begins with Ed and his pregnant wife, Lorraine, working on their first investigation in 1964 with a cursed mirror in a curio shop. A young lady started the scene crying to the Warrens about how once she and her family got the mirror, her father heard voices that drove him to kill himself.
She then explains how she started hearing them too after her father died.
The glass mirror is important because mirrors are known in the paranormal world as portals for demon entities to travel through.
When Lorraine touches the glass mirror, it cracks. The spirit she senses inside the mirror leads her to give birth prematurely, causing it to die at the hospital.
At the hospital, Lorraine sees a demonic presence hovering over the doctors trying to bring her baby, Judy, back to life. Unfortunately, they fail, which leads to Lorraine praying over her baby, begging God to revive
Judy. He listens and their baby girl starts to breathe.
This is where the beginning leads to the end.
Growing up, Judy starts to develop the same ability as her mother. Lorraine tells Judy to shut these monsters out and to say the nursery rhyme, “Lucy Locket lost her pocket, Katy Fisher found it, not a penny was there in it. Only ribbon round it.”
The mirror finds its way back into the Warrens’ lives waiting for the return of Judy. It haunts the Smurl family of eight, possessing them of throwing up ounces of blood and glass, getting thrown down the stairs, choking and seeing the entities themselves.
The Warrens eventually find out that an entity is after their family.
People who have watched “The Conjuring” movies have said that this is by far the
least scary film of the franchise. My own father, who is a big movie fanatic, said it was good at the start but some of the scenes he thought were unnecessary. For example, he thought some of the scenes that showed the connections between Judy, her boyfriend and family added nothing to the movie. He thought the movie could have had more jump scares.
Even though my father loves “The Conjuring” movies and thought this was the weakest film in the franchise, I thought it was a great mixture of being scary but also having that soft spot for family.
The relationship with everybody involved leads to the main reason why this becomes the last case the Warrens investigate. This case involves the future of their family and whether they survive this demonic presence.
When the movie first came out, a ton of videos showed priests standing outside the theater praying over some individuals. That initially scared me and left me wanting to back out of watching the movie. But I’m glad I saw it because I genuinely enjoyed it. The movie portrayed the Warrens as a tight-knit family, and how Judy, Ed and Lorraine all fought against the demon together using their special abilities given to them. This was the part I enjoyed the most. In a weird way, the particular scene of them fighting the demon together reminded me of me and my family. We are all close and are there for one another and will protect each other no matter the cost.
Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros.
Judy Warren, played by Mia Tomlinson, looks into dressing room mirrors while and sees the demon haunting her family.
Photo Courtesy of EPK.TV
Renée Elise Goldsberry, who plays Angelica Schuyler in “Hamilton,” raises a glass in the song “Satisfied” to her newly-wed sister Eliza Hamilton, played by Phillipa Soo.
