Top 5 Summer 2012 Fashion Trends

The summer season is fast-approaching, which means it is officially time to pack away your coats and light cardigans

from the spring to make room for sundresses, shorts, and tank tops galore.  With each new season comes new trends, and the runways this spring were filled with looks sure to be seen everywhere in the coming months.  Florals is a trend which has been popular for the last few spring and summer seasons and it’s back again, only this time designers are being a bit bolder with this consumer favorite pattern.  Last summer was all about loud colors, basically the brighter the better, but this summer is bringing out the soft, pastel shades usually reserved for spring time.  Some other popular trends for this summer include sporty chic wear, pajama inspired wear, checkerboard and tribal patterns, and many more.  Here are the top five trends you should pay attention to when you are planning out your summer wardrobe, and a few ideas to get you started.

1. Crop Tops

 

The shorter the better seems to be the mantra for blouses this summer. Instead of the long, flowing blouses we have seen lining the shelves of retail stores, summer 2012 is significantly reducing the need for fabric.  Designers such as Prada, Miu Miu, and Emilio Pucci lined their runways with crop tops by pairing them with maxi skirts to provide a nice contrast and play with proportions.

2. Florals

Florals have been in high demand for quite a while now, but instead of the sweet, small printed flower patterns which tended to lean towards the lighter side of the color palette, this summer’s flroals are intermixed between other patterns, and printed in bold colors to make the pattern pop.  This trend was utilized by Dries Van Noten, DKNY, and Christopher Kane.

3. Pastels

Mint green, lavender, cotton candy pink, baby blue: these are all colors you should consider adding into your wardrobe.  While the florals are getting brighter, the solid colors are getting softer, and pastels were all the rage on the runways this spring.  Designers such as Chanel, Givenchy, and Louis Vuitton were fans of this color wheel.

4. 1920’s Inspiration

Fashion is cyclical, and historical influences are a common inspiration for designers.  The 1920’s is a notable era for fashion with the heavily-beaded flapper dresses to the cloche hats fitted perfectly atop a Marcel wave. This summer’s fashion is drawing heavily from this decade, and vintage style is ready to make a splash. Designers like Gucci, Ralph Lauren, and Alberta Ferretti all drew from the 1920’s.

5. Glitz and Shine

If you aren’t a fan of the subtle, pastel colors, then this trend may be the one for you.  It’s all about jewel tones, metallics, and shiny fabrics to make your outfit really make a statement.  This trend was utilized by Giorgio Armani, Marc Jacobs, and Prabal Gurung.

 

Monica Maldonado is a journalism and fashion merchandising student at the University of North Texas, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi.  When she’s not running around campus trying to find her next story, you can find her attached to her laptop, feeding her addiction to pop culture and fashion.

 

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Looks for Less: Fashion of Pretty Little Liars

Our favorite liars from Rosewood always have mysteries to solve and relationship troubles on their hands. However, these girls always seem to do it in style. Aria, Emily, Spencer, and Hanna are four very different girls with distinct personalities, and their styles reflect it. So, if you’re  into Aria’s bohemian style with an edge, or Emily’s casual and sensible ensembles, or Spencer’s preppy flair, or Hanna’s bold and bright outfits, here are a few choice items to get you started and you won’t have to break the bank to do it.

Aria Montgomery

 

Emily Fields

Spencer Hastings

Hanna Marin

 

 

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“The Hunger Games” Review

It is March 23, which means the highly anticipated film The Hunger Games is finally in theaters. It is predicted to bank about $100 million in its opening weekend, so is the movie worth all the hype? In a word: yes.

Fans of the books who were worried about the possibility of an unfulfilling adaptation can rest easy.

The Hunger Games takes place in the post-apocalyptic universe of Panem with a prominent divide between the haves and the have-nots. As punishment for the rebellion 74 years ago, a girl and boy between the ages of 12 and 18 from the twelve districts are chosen to participate in a televised fight to the death.

The all-star cast is led by the amazingly talented Jennifer Lawrence who plays Katniss Everdeen. Lawrence can handle the emotional weight of the film while bringing subtlety and nuance to the performance which made the scenes authentic rather than forced. Lawrence is in almost every frame of this movie, and she rises to the occasion to really carry this film.

The supporting cast delivered great performances as well. Josh Hutcherson brought the charm and likeability essential to Peeta Mellark. Elizabeth Banks gave a light-hearted humor to the film as the eccentric Effie Trinket. Woody Harrelson captured the wit of mentor Haymitch Abernathy, and was able to give glimpses into Abernathy’s haunted past.

Gary Ross had a major challenge ahead of him, not only to please the dedicated fan-base, but to highlight the brutality of the games while keeping it at a PG-13 rating. Ross utilized the shaky cam technique to illustrate the fatalities, and at times it became a bit confusing to distinguish who was fighting who, but it was effective overall. The creative choices Ross took, such as the fading in and out of sound, added the intensity needed to tell this story.

Ross collaborated with author Suzanne Collins on the screenplay, so for the most part the content remained faithful to the source material. If this film was lacking in one area it would be really establishing the connection between characters. Some of the emotion and character building from the book was sacrificed due to pacing and runtime, which lessened the impact of some scenes.

Overall, The Hunger Games is a faithful adaptation, and telling film for the society we live in. Preparation is already under way for the next installment, Catching Fire, and it is probably safe to say this franchise is poised to continue strong.

 

Monica Maldonado is a journalism and fashion merchandising student at the University of North Texas, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi.  When she’s not running around campus trying to find her next story, you can find her attached to her laptop, feeding her addiction to pop culture and fashion.

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PLL Recap: It’s “A” Day

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. If you haven’t seen the spring finale of Pretty Little Liars, and you don’t want to be spoiled about A’s identity, you should stop reading now.

It was A Day today folks, which means the girls tormentor was “unmAsked”.  PLL fans are already split on whether or not they were satisfied with the big reveal.

The episode begins one week after Garret’s arrest for Alison’s murder. Melissa walks in while the girls are watching the news report, exuding her special brand of creepiness.  She tells the girls she and Garret both know how Jenna really went blind, which leaves them to wonder if she knows about the “Jenna thing.”

A package arrives to Spencer’s house with four invitations to Rosewood Junior Society’s Masquerade Ball, complete with a message from A: “Be there when they clock strikes midnight.”  A wants their phone back, but the girls decide they aren’t giving anything back until they figure out who A is.

The foursome heads over to Ezra’s recently vacated apartment to search through Alison’s bag once more for clues.  Spencer finds a pen from a place called Dougherty’s Landing, which turns out be a small air strip located on highway 30. They figure out the air strip is near Lost Woods Resort, the motel on the ripped postcard found in the bag.

The girls head out to Lost Woods in perfect horror movie weather and check into room one, the room Alison checked into the morning she went missing, and it turns out Alison stayed at Lost Woods twice.  While Spencer and Aria are scouring through the motel’s office for the registration book, Emily receives a call from Maya and goes outside to get better reception, leaving Hanna alone in the room to take a shower after her ungraceful fall in the mud. While the other three girls are out, someone sneaks into the room.  Their shadow is clear through the shower curtain, but a phone rings scaring the obscure figure off.

With the masquerade ball coming up, when the girls aren’t figuring out how to catch A, they are dealing with their romantic entanglements.  Spencer goes to see Toby to ask for forgiveness, but once again he gives her the cold shoulder.  After a teary Spencer leaves, Toby receives a call from Dr. Sullivan, whom the girls still believe is dead.  Hanna believes Caleb won’t be able to accompany her to the dance, but he shows up at the ball to surprise Hanna thanks to a helpful Mona.  Ezra surprises Aria as well, and tells her it was too hard to stay away (Ezra really isn’t doing himself any favors at this point).  Maya doesn’t show up for Emily, but Paige does offering Emily her friendship.

Mona tells Spencer she saw Alison in Brook Haven a week before she went missing. Supposedly, she caught Alison spying on someone, but Mona couldn’t get a good look as to who it was. Spencer figures out, in the way only Spencer can, room two at the Lost Woods Resort hasn’t been rented out since before Alison went missing, so that must mean A is staying in the room.

Spencer and Mona get their hands on the key, and stumble upon “A’s lair” filled with pictures of the girls and filing cabinets loaded with information.  Mona finds a sketch of a Black Swan costume, and she tells Spencer she’ll text Hanna to let her know to be on the lookout.  A girl does show up to the dance dressed as the Black Swan, but we aren’t let into her identity.  All we know at this point is both Jenna and Lucas know whoever it is.

Mona goes out to the car to get gum right after Spencer finds a spearmint wrapper being used as a bookmark in Alison’s diary. So, if you haven’t figured it out by now, Mona is A.  She knocks Spencer out, and when Spencer comes to she finds herself locked in a car with a slightly deranged Mona speeding through the highway. Aria calls Spencer at the right time, and the girls are treated to the sight of Mona decked out in an all black ensemble talking about how she’s been the one tormenting the girls since Alison’s death.  At first Spencer thinks Mona hates them for not standing up to Alison all those times she picked on Mona, but it has nothing to do with Alison at all.  Mona blames Spencer, Aria, and Emily for taking Hanna away from her.

Mona heads to Lookout Point, and the girls show up just in time to save Spencer from getting thrown down a cliff. Dr. Sullivan shows up on the crime scene, and when they arrive to the police station she informs the foursome Mona has a personality disorder as well as a high intelligence which made for a bad combination.  Toby was the one who contacted Dr. Sullivan, and him being cold with Spencer was just an act, so Spoby is officially back on for the time being.  Although, one does have to ask how Toby knew Dr. Sullivan was alive after every one believed she was dead.

The girls are walking back to Emily’s house where they are greeted with the sight of ambulances and police cars at the St Germain’s house. A body was found in or near the  house which the police believe belongs to Maya. Shay Mitchell deserves kudos for her crying scene tonight.

The episode ends with someone in a red coat visiting Mona in the mental hospital.  Mona tells them, “I did everything you asked.”  I think it’s safe to conclude Mona isn’t A, but rather one of A’s accomplices, so A wasn’t really revealed tonight.

What did you think about the Mona reveal? Do you think the body is Maya’s? What do you think happens now?  Sound off in the comments section and tune in this summer for an all new season of Pretty Little Liars.

 

Monica Maldonado is a journalism and fashion merchandising student at the University of North Texas, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi.  When she’s not running around campus trying to find her next story, you can find her attached to her laptop, feeding her addiction to pop culture and fashion.

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What to Wear for a Job Interview

Various components factor into a successful job interview from your resume, to your communication skills, your qualifications, the impression you make, and believe it or not your outfit.  While the deciding factor isn’t your ensemble, plenty of hiring managers will tell you appearance does matter. You don’t want to show up over-dressed and appear to be trying t0o hard, but you definitely don’t want to show up in jeans and flip flops.  Do some research on the environment of the business you’re interviewing with.  If you are up for a job at a corporate office then you want to wear tailored pieces such as slacks, but if you’re interviewing at a magazine then chances are the dress code won’t be strict, so you can show your personality in your choice of outfit while still looking professional.  Here are a few outfit ideas to help you land your dream job.

1. Sleek and Sensible

This sleek shift dress is perfect for an office interview, and if you want to put a fashionable spin on it wear fun heels in a subdued, dark color.

2. Just a Pop of Color

You can’t go wrong with a dressy top and pencil skirt. It’s casual yet presentable, and to add a bit of personality pair it with pumps in a bright color.

3. Chic and Casual

If you’re interviewing for a job where the environment is laid-back than this outfit should do the trick. Play with a combination of colors when deciding on a blazer and skinny jeans, and keep the tank and shoes in the neutral color family to make the main pieces pop.

4. Not Your Usual Pair of Slacks

The wide leg silhouette on trousers is in style right now, so these high-waist, wide leg slacks fit right in.  Keep your blouse fitted to the body and simple to draw emphasis to your pants. Pair it with low pumps, and you’re ready to make a professional yet stylish impression.

 

Monica Maldonado is a journalism and fashion merchandising student at the University of North Texas, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi.  When she’s not running around campus trying to find her next story, you can find her attached to her laptop, feeding her addiction to pop culture and fashion.

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Pretty Little Liars Recap: Getting Warmer

Next week is the spring finale of Pretty Little Liars, which is most commonly known as the A gets revealed episode, and this week’s episode, “If These Dolls Could Talk,” did an excellent job of building anticipation and setting the stage.

The episode begins with Spencer having a dream about Alison looking through the bag full of her possessions. Alison tells Spencer she’s “getting warmer” to finding out who A is, so she should keep looking. Spencer wakes up slightly disoriented and not entirely positive her vision of Alison was a dream after she sees the door to her house was open in the morning.

At school, the girls are looking over the newspapers Alison’s possessions were wrapped in, and they discover Alison and A were posting ads in the paper resulting in a specified meeting place at the doll hospital the girls stumbled upon two episodes ago. While looking over the papers, Jenna comes up to apologize to the girls for basically hating them. Her surgery to regain her eye sight didn’t end up working so she’s trying to let go of the anger she’s been holding on to for years.  Later, the audience finds out the surgery actually did work, but Jenna is keeping it a secret for now.  Before she leaves, Jenna tells the liars, “I’m not the person you need to fear.”

The girls head down to the doll hospital to ask questions about the voodoo doll Alison had in her box. The elderly woman who owns the shop tells the girls the voodoo doll was never sold, but they find a bigger help in a young boy named Seth with an intuitive gift and impeccable memory. Seth tells the girls he remembers a girl with dark hair coming into the shop the summer Alison was killed asking about who the voodoo doll was sold too. He told Alison to stop asking questions because a couple with dark hair was out to hurt her. Seth also tells the girls what happened to Alison was horrible, and it must have been awful having to breathe in all that dirt.  The specifics of what happened to Alison were never released, so the girls believe Seth truly has a gift, except for Hanna who is hell-bent on Melissa being A.  Hanna’s suspicions are raised when Spencer tells the other girls her parents believed Melissa could have had something to do with Alison’s murder, and she also lets them in on the truth about Jason’s paternity.

Spencer tells Melissa about the video they found of her, Garret, Jenna, and Ian in Alison’s bedroom, and Spencer tells her she wants to give it to the police.  Melissa warns Spencer against the idea, and tells her there are videos of the girls which make them look bad so she should think twice before turning it in to the cops.

Mona receives a text message from A telling her to break up Caleb and Hanna. So, Hanna devises a plan to catch Melissa in the act.  Mona and Caleb agree, albeit begrudgingly, to follow Melissa and have her see them making out “behind Hanna’s back.” Sure enough Melissa sees them, and Hanna gets a text message from A telling her about what her best friend and boyfriend are doing, which succeeds in heightening Hanna’s suspicions.

Aria is still involved in major relationship and family drama. After Ezra turned down the position in New Orleans, he tells Aria he’s been receiving a chilly reception at Hollis.  Aria tells him things will calm down, but then she finds a boarding school application on Ella’s desk which makes her think differently.  Aria threatens Ella and tells her if she sends Aria away she could call Hollis and tell the dean about her father’s transgressions with a student.  The boarding school idea is scrapped, but Ella is still plenty ashamed of Aria’s threat against her father, and doesn’t waste time in telling her so.  After all the back and forth, Ezra gets fired from his position at Hollis, and decides he needs to move out of Rosewood and figure out what he’s going to do.

Emily, Spencer, and Hanna head over to the doll hospital once more to speak with Seth and show him the video to see if he would be able to identify who the couple threatening Alison was. When they get there they don’t find Seth, instead they are greeted with the eerie voice of a porcelain doll buried in dirt saying, “Follow me and end up like me.”

The episode ends with Jenna giving Toby the missing page of Alison’s autopsy report claiming she had no idea what it was and Garret gave it to her for safe keeping.  Toby turns it into the police and Garret gets arrested for the murder of Alison right after he and Melissa were boasting about putting a good scare into Spencer.

Was there any doubt the shop keeper and Seth were in cahoots with A? Do you think Aria went overboard with the threats against Byron? What do you think Jenna’s motives are for keeping the success of her surgery a secret? Are you closer to figuring out who A is?

Sound off in the comments section, and tune in next Monday for the finale of Pretty Little Liars.

 

Monica Maldonado is a journalism and fashion merchandising student at the University of North Texas, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi.  When she’s not running around campus trying to find her next story, you can find her attached to her laptop, feeding her addiction to pop culture and fashion.

Pretty Little Liars Recap: Fly Me Away

The clues are starting to fall into place, and the girls are getting closer to discovering A’s identity.

Last week’s episode ended with a boy calling Aria Vivian after he saw her wearing the red coat. The boy, Duncan Albert, was a close friend of Vivian’s, so the girls get his number because they think he’ll have answers for them, and boy does he. Throughout the episode Aria interacts with Duncan trying to get information from him. After their first talk, Duncan is visibly upset over Alison’s murder, so the two agree to meet again. He takes Aria to an air field where he used to take Alison, and many secrets are revealed during the short flight. Duncan flew Alison from South Carolina to an air strip outside Philadelphia the day she went missing, which means Alison was most likely in Rosewood about six or seven hours before the girls saw her.

Aria may be getting some good news soon because Ezra decided to turn down the associate dean’s position in New Orleans much to Byron’s dismay. It is important to mention a conversation Ezra and Ella had early on in the episode. Ella asks Ezra if there is anyone he knows who would use his relationship with Aria to hurt him, and he responds by saying, “There might have been, but not anymore.”

Toby was back in this episode, and Spencer received a less than friendly greeting from him, which isn’t surprising considering he still believes Spencer cheated on him with Wren.  Spencer might not have cheated on Toby, but it hasn’t stopped her from growing closer to Wren each week.  Toby and Jenna seem to be closer than ever after Jenna undergoes eye surgery attempting to get her sight back, but there may be more to their rekindled bond. After Hanna warns Toby to not let Jenna back in his life, he seems to have an ulterior motive for doing so.  However, it did seem odd the brother and sister duo were talking to the Rosewood fire department about the night Jenna lost her sight.

Other than the relationship drama, Spencer has her hands full with looking through a bag filled with some of Alison’s possessions. Jason gives the girls the bag which was supposedly dropped off by Maya on his back porch, and he advises them to do whatever they want with it. Of course the girls start looking for clues, but they come up empty handed, and return it to Jason by leaving it on his porch.  However, Hanna discovers the newspaper all the trinkets were wrapped in came from late-August 2009, just a few weeks before Alison went missing. So, Maya wasn’t the one who wrapped the stuff up, Alison did so herself. Out of all the objects in the bag, a musical jewelry box seems to be of importance.

The girls decide they need to search the bag again, so Hanna goes back to Jason’s house to retrieve it.  She grabs the bag, hears a noise, and then stuff gets really insane.  An unconscious Jenna falls against the back door, and Hanna notices the bottom floor of the house is on fire.  Hanna pulls Jenna out, and just as she gets her on the grass and out of harm’s way, there is an explosion inside.

Apparently Jenna received a text message from Jason telling her he needed to talk to her. She went over to the DiLaurentis house, someone opened the door, and she couldn’t remember what happened after.  However, Jason says he never sent the message and he was halfway to Scranton when the cops called about the fire.  Toby tells Jenna it was Hanna who pulled her out of the burning house, and Jenna awkwardly thanks her.

After seeing all the concerned parents at the hospital, Emily, who received a message from Maya telling her she was safe but to not tell her mom, calls the Ms. St. Germaine and tells her Maya got in touch with her

The episode ends with the girls rummaging through the bag again, and this time they find half a post card from an unknown location. They come to the conclusion that Alison was supposed to meet someone in Rosewood the day she went missing, so the girls are determined to find out who because chances are it’s A.

Who was the one who sent Jenna to the DiLaurentis house? Is there a deeper meaning to Ezra’s response to Ella? What importance does the musical jewelry box have to all this?

Sound off in the comments section, and tune in next Monday for an all new episode of Pretty Little Liars.

 

Monica Maldonado is a journalism and fashion merchandising student at the University of North Texas, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi.  When she’s not running around campus trying to find her next story, you can find her attached to her laptop, feeding her addiction to pop culture and fashion.

 

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Pretty Little Liars Recap: Papa Don’t Preach

It’s time for the annual “Father/Daughter Dance,” and like any significant event in Rosewood, the occasion brings out the drama in the girls lives. It was a less than pleasant evening for Aria and Spencer, one of whom is dealing with a controlling father, and the other a lying one. Hanna’s father couldn’t make it because of business, so he claimed, and Emily is the only one who had a heart-warming interaction with her dad, only to find out he would be going back to Afghanistan for six months.

After finding out her father couldn’t make it, Hanna reluctantly agrees to go with Ashley to the dance; however, things begin to sour when Hanna finds out her mom is in cahoots with Detective Wilden to find out who sent the police report which could lead to the destruction of many lives. Ashley is desperate for answers, but Hanna refuses to offer any. The two argue throughout the majority of the episode, and after Ashley demands Hanna’s phone, Hanna “I’ll throw this pen drive in the blender to keep you from getting your hands on it” Marin, throws her phone in the sink to keep her mother from getting a hold of it, and storms out. Hanna tells the girls and Mona her mother is looking for answers, so they devise a plan to keep Ashley off the trail. Aria tells Ashley she sent the “photoshopped” police report because Hanna is shoplifting again, and she wanted to set her straight. Not surprisingly, Ashley doesn’t buy the lie, and tells Ella they need to get the police involved in the search for A to protect their daughters.

Emily reunites with her dad in this episode, after not seeing him for a few months. Her father immediately notices something is wrong, and Emily tells him about her argument with Maya, and how Maya is presumed to be a runaway. The two go to the bus station in search of answers, and a talk with an attendant working the night Maya ran away leads to a startling discovery.  Apparently, Maya bought a ticket to San Francisco, but about an hour after she bought the ticket the worker saw her talking to someone in a dark-colored car, and a minute later both were gone, but the attendant didn’t see who was in the car or where they went. This new information means Maya is no longer a runaway but a “missing girl” as the Rosewood Observer’s headline reads.  It’s an eerie call back to Alison’s missing girl headline in the pilot.

Spencer and Melissa finally get to have their overdue talk this week, and it leaves Spencer feeling uneasy, as most things seem to.  Melissa has been confiding in Garret ever since Ian’s death, and now she’s worried she may have divulged too much. Melissa had been sending Alison texts threatening her and warning her to stay away from Ian, and this is the reason the number Jonah found for the girls traced back to the law firm Melissa interned for the year Alison disappeared. The girls still believe Melissa is either A or is involved in A’s plan, but Spencer doesn’t think so.

Melissa isn’t the only family member Spencer is having trouble with. Peter is desperately trying to make up with Spencer following the bombshell of Jason’s paternity. Spencer seems willing to give him a chance, but that doesn’t stop Spencer’s “Nancy Drew” tendencies. She sneaks into Peter’s office, and finds a check stub written out to cash in the amount of $15,000, which was written around the time Alison disappeared. When Spencer let’s Peter in on her little discovery, the two go back and search his office where they find his gun is missing. Melissa may have something to do with the missing gun, since she saw Spencer in their dad’s office snooping around, and she was the only one home at the time it presumably went missing, although she claimed she fell asleep in the barn.  Spencer also discovers a folder filled with pictures of Alison, so Peter tells her he hired a private investigator to look into her disappearance, and this is the person his $15,000 went to. He hired the PI because he believed Melissa might have had something to do with the disappearance due to the threats she was sending Ali’s way.

Aria is still reeling from Ezra’s decision to accept the job in New Orleans, so her relationship with Byron is as icy as ever. Byron is trying to recreate the days of when Aria was his “little girl,” and Aria tries to make him realize she’s not a little girl anymore. Mike ends up being a voice of reason for Byron, telling him he should ask Aria why she felt she had to keep her relationship with Ezra a secret. It looks like Mike’s breaking and entering days are over.

After all the father-daughter drama was played out, Aria received a call from Jonah informing her he traced another number sending texts to Alison’s phone. The girls find themselves in a town called Brook Haven where they stumble upon an unusual shop named “Vail’s Doll Hospital” adorned with mutilated dolls hanging in the window display.

The episode ends with Aria putting on the red coat belonging to Alison, or rather Vivian Darkbloom, and an unknown young man approaches her calling her Vivian.

There are only two more episodes until A’s identity is revealed, so start kicking your theories into over drive. Director Norman Buckley recently tweeted the biggest clue to A’s identity is in the season one episode, “Salt Meets Wound.” You can bet PLL fans went crazy with the news, and it looks as though Ezra is moving up the suspect list.

Do you think Melissa is the one who swiped the gun? What connection could the young man have to Vivian? Are Ashley and Ella in serious danger since they are relentless in their search for answers?

Sound off in the comments section, and tune in next Monday to an all new episode of Pretty Little Liars.

 

Monica Maldonado is a journalism and fashion merchandising student at the University of North Texas, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi.  When she’s not running around campus trying to find her next story, you can find her attached to her laptop, feeding her addiction to pop culture and fashion.

CL Predicts: Academy Awards 2012

The biggest award show awarding the best in movies for 2011 is fast approaching, and with it comes the inevitable guessing game of who will take home the top honors.  The Artist proved to be a dark horse this awards season picking up the Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Picture. The lead actor and actress races are in a dead heat with both George Clooney and Jean Dujarding earning three awards, and Meryl Streep is only one win ahead of Viola Davis.  However, the Academy Awards are notorious for mixing it up, so who knows what surprises we will see. These are College Lifestyles’ predictions for the 2012 Academy Awards.

1. Best Picture- The Help

The Help has received it’s fair share of awards in the acting area, and picked up the SAG award for Best Picture. This movie not only showed off the stellar acting chops of Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, but it connected with the emotional side of us as well.

2. Actor in a Leading Role- George Clooney

George Clooney starred in The Descendants, a story about a father trying to reconnect with his two daughters after their mother dies in a boat accident. Clooney has received the Golden Globe and Critic’s Choice award for his performance, and he seems poised for another win.

3. Actress in a Leading Role- Viola Davis

Viola Davis made quite the splash this awards season for her performance in The Help. She has tough competition in the form of one Meryl Streep, but Davis has been gaining steam in the past couple of weeks.  This should be one of the night’s most interesting categories.

4. Actor in a Supporting Role- Christopher Plummer

Christopher Plummer captivated audiences playing Hal Fields, an elderly, homosexual man diagnosed with terminal cancer, in 2010′s Beginners. Plummer has swept his category this season, so there isn’t much strategy for this choice.

5. Actress in a Supporting Role- Octavia Spencer

Octavia Spencer has four awards to her name for her role in The Help. After playing small parts in a variety of films, Spencer made her name known this year, and has the accolades to prove it.

Tune in February 26 to see who takes home the top honors, and sound off in the comment section to let us know your picks for the big show.

 

Monica Maldonado is a journalism and fashion merchandising student at the University of North Texas, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi.  When she’s not running around campus trying to find her next story, you can find her attached to her laptop, feeding her addiction to pop culture and fashion.

Pretty Little Liars Recap: A Little Thing Called Blackmail

In this week’s episode, “CTRL: A,” Spencer struggles to come to terms with the bombshell known as Jason’s paternity, Caleb goes from swimming in hot water to boiling water, and the truth behind Holden’s nasty bruise is revealed.

Last week Spencer learned she has a half-brother in one Jason DiLaurentis, and she is avoiding her family at all costs by bunking with Aria. Spencer does want to talk to Jason though to find out what else he knows, and a trip to his office leads Spencer to see the peculiar scene of Jason talking to Maya by a fruit stand.  Anyone want to venture a guess on how those two know each other?  Jason tells Spencer he came across another one of Alison’s secret boxes, only this one didn’t contain a porcelain doll.  Instead, he found letters from Peter Hastings to Alison and Jason’s mother in the box, as well as three envelopes stuffed with cash totaling $15,000.  This leads Jason to conclude Alison knew the truth about Peter and her mother, so she blackmailed the Hastings patriarch.  Spencer ends up going home to confront her father, and he tells her he never gave Alison money for anything.  She believes him, but Jason doesn’t, and Spencer calls him out on wanting Peter to have been the one giving Alison money so he can stay angry with him.

The money might just come in handy now because the girls have to come up with $2,000.  Last week, the girls set up a

meeting with the mystery person behind the phone number in Ali’s coat.  So they go to the meeting, but only Aria does the face to face talking, and turns out Alison, or Vivian, was doing business with a guy named Jonah who worked for a cellular phone company.  Alison agreed to pay him $2,000 in exchange for information about an unknown number who kept texting her.  Jonah got the information but Alison never paid the money, and now he’s willing to sell Aria the information for the same price or higher.  As of now Spencer might be close to getting her hands on the money after she tells Jason Alison could have been blackmailing someone else, so she could get the $2,000 to pay for information on a person she was afraid of.

Aria has another meeting in this episode; only this one is with Holden.  After calling off their arrangement last week, Aria relents after Holden tells her he needs to get himself to a martial arts tournament because it’s a qualifying match.  Apparently, while Aria goes off to her rendezvous with Ezra, Holden’s been sparring in a gym somewhere.  Holden’s parents don’t approve so that’s why he remains so secretive about it.  Aria plans to meet up with Ezra to talk about his offered position as an associate dean at the New Orleans extension of Holis, but those plans may be ruined by a less than trusting Byron and an even more conniving A.  A leaves a note on Byron’s car listing the address of the restaurant Aria and Ezra are planning to meet up at.  However, Aria ends up cancelling her date with Ezra thanks to some information regarding Holden’s health.  Ella tells Aria Holden’s parents have been worried about him because he has a heart condition called abdominal aortic aneurysm.  Of course after hearing the news Aria sticks around to watch Holden fight to make sure he doesn’t get seriously hurt.  Would Ezria fans be furious with me if I said I really like the dynamic between Aria and Holden?

The most intense story line of the week may have been Caleb’s run in with the police.  Garret shows up at Rosewood High’s swim meet with a court order to have Caleb’s laptop taken away because apparently someone was hacking into school records and the trail led back to Caleb’s computer.  Hanna tells Caleb he needs to erase anything incriminating off his laptop, but when he tries to hack in from another computer he gets blocked.  Hanna has her trouble with Rosewood’s finest as well after the lead detective on Alison’s murder case, Detective Wilden, finds a security cam picture of Spencer, Emily, and Hanna outside the morgue.  Just as a refresher, pages of Alison’s autopsy report went missing, so the picture makes the girls look even guiltier.  Caleb ends up going down to the police station because he won’t get his laptop back unless he cooperates, but right before he’s taken in for interrogation he tells Hanna he needs her help.  While Caleb is getting grilled in an interrogation room, Hanna wracks her brain to remember the password to Caleb’s computer so she can erase the school records A planted on his laptop.  Of course like any great suspense scene, Hanna comes through at the last minute, and the files get deleted right before Detective Wilden’s and most importantly Garret’s eyes.

Emily had her share of problems this episode, but of the relationship kind.  After a distraught Maya tells Emily her parents found an old joint in one of Maya’s boxes, Emily swears she will do whatever it takes to prevent Maya from going back to True North.  That’s all well and good until Emily catches Maya lighting a not so old joint on Hanna’s porch.  Maya decides in order to make sure she doesn’t go back to True North she has to run away to San Francisco, and she asks Emily to go with her.  Emily refuses, but at the end of the episode she calls Maya to beg her to reconsider.

What did you think of Holden’s revelation?  Is it what you expected?  Caleb is out of the woods for now, but A won’t stop until he’s out of their way.  What do you think A will attempt next? Is it good that the girls are letting more people into what is going on with A, or do you think it’s a mistake since everyone they let in ends up getting hurt?

Sound off in the comment section, and tune in next Monday for an all new episode of Pretty Little Liars.

 

Monica Maldonado is a journalism and fashion merchandising student at the University of North Texas, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi.  When she’s not running around campus trying to find her next story, you can find her attached to her laptop, feeding her addiction to pop culture and fashion.

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