Rihanna had suffered some pretty hard times, with the whole Chris Brown beating and all the press taking over her life; and after her latest album, Rated-R, the world saw a new Rihanna.

There are some who don’t appreciate Rihanna’s music, such as senior Lydette Yonas who said, “she tries to be edgy, when she really isn’t. She seems out of place.”

People definitely misinterpreted her anger and emotions for a look to be edgy because she had opened up through the tracks of the album, which ended up changing the tone of her music. She was done with her little teenybopper music and had a much more serious tone. She had transformed into a powerful woman.

“I feel bad for Rihanna, she has been through a lot, but it’s good to see her getting back on stage, it’s been long, “ said senior Banna Gebremichael.

Rihanna has cancelled many of her shows on her Last Girl on Earth lately and of all the one’s she actually did attend, they were far from being sold out. Her fan base has definitely gone downhill.

“Everyone was mind-blown at how amazing she sounded and looked. Everyone was singing and dancing to her performances,” said senior Alyssa Suchar.

When she got out on the stage with her leather, skin-tight dress with lasers blasting off of it, the audience went haywire.

Her dancing was beyond extraordinary and her singing was on point; it even gave everyone chills. She performed with so much passion and emotion.

She performed a mix of her old songs including, SOS, Breakin’ Dishes, Shut Up and Drive, and many more classics. It was as if this was her final concert and she had to give it her all, because the amount of energy she put into this concert was amazing.

Her performance was much like a circus show. There were many lights flashing everywhere, and there were so many interesting dance numbers.

At one point two aerial contortion dancers came out and did a stunning performance. It was unreal that what they did was even possible.

Surely, everyone’s mouth dropped on many occasions from all the special effects and dancing performances Rihanna included in this performance.

This was possibly one of Rihanna’s greatest performances. Without a question, anyone who saw her performance has definitely become a Rihanna fan. With a performance like that, it is kind of hard not to.

She should be applauded for her tremendous performance. Everyone should give her music a listen, and keep an open mind for the change in her style. And if you haven’t seen a concert of hers, you should definitely look for any upcoming ones.

The writer/director behind the new hit movie has filled it with so many layers of complexities that it resembles the convoluted dream worlds the characters spend their time creating.

The plot revolves around the movie’s main character, Cobb, played expertly by Leonardo DiCaprio. The renegade hero is a master at extraction, the art of pervading victims’ dreams to remove their most valuable or debilitating secrets.

Extraction is a delicate and often dangerous process. Cobb and his team must first envision and create dream worlds that relate to their victims and the secrets they keep, a sort of architectural feat that requires many different layers and pitfalls to prevent their target from realizing they are infiltrating his psyche.

The team then has to find a way to connect the victim into the world they have created, which they do by means of specially composed music and potent sleeping pills, and then put themselves into the dream.

The last step is to remove and deliver the information to their employers, who then use it to their advantage.

Sound complicated? The plot becomes even more involved. DiCaprio plays a powerful man, one who realizes the complexities of constructing dreams that seem realistic to the target and understands the many different emotions that rule humans and govern the outcome of the extraction process.

Two things make extraction even more difficult. One is that, according to the rules of dreaming that Nolan sets down, the target and the people that populate their dream, their “projections,” can quickly realize when outsiders have invaded the world. When they do, it becomes nasty.

The second issue in the process stems from Cobb himself. The man has his own inner demons, specifically his late wife Mal (Marion Cotillard), which he is unable to contain. Cobb and Mal loved each other with an almost idealistic intensity, partners both in life and the field of dream manipulation.

After a series of tragic occurrences led to Mal’s death, Cobb lost himself in memories, unable to separate his own past from his work. Mal, who Cotillard plays eerily and beautifully, and Cobb’s other memories are often projected into his target’s dreams, with disastrous results.

In order to fully understand the various rules and guidelines of extraction, it is necessary to see the film. The overarching storyline of the movie is relatively easy to explain.

Cobb is hired by a powerful energy executive (Saito, played by Ken Watanabe) not to steal an idea or secret, but to plant one. Saito hopes to encourage the son of a rival energy corporation’s CEO to dismantle his father’s empire, preventing the company from achieving a world-wide monopoly on power. In return, he promises to help Cobb return to his family in the U.S, where he has been accused of killing his wife.

Despite the difficulty and danger of the process (called inception), Cobb agrees, and gathers together a talented team, including Arthur, his extraction associate (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a roguish forger and master of deception named Eames (Tom Hardy), Yusef, a brilliant chemist (Dileep Rao), and a young and ingenious architecture student named Ariadne (played by Ellen Page).

The film progresses at a breakneck pace, and includes some really wonderful examples of artistic allusion. It is no wonder that Ariadne, the architect responsible for constructing the complex, maze-like dream necessary for inception, is named after the mythical Greek woman who helped Theseus navigate through the labyrinth containing the devious Minotaur.

The most pleasurable aspect of Inception, however, is that it is a hard-to-find novelty amongst the bountiful products of Hollywood: a movie that requires the viewer to think while watching it. The main point that Nolan tries to convey in his work is that it is difficult to separate reality from fantasy, what with the distinct and totally unique viewpoints that cloud humans’ perception of the world they populate.

Just as the characters in the film use their own personal experience to navigate and influence the dream they have created, trying to successfully implant an idea, the movie’s various layers call on the audience to draw from what they have seen and interpret and shape their own view of its ultimate meaning.

Inception is not a film for the lazy movie-goer; following the plot line requires some thought, and the audience leaves the theater without a full understanding of the events which just took place.

It deserves attendance, however, not just because of the quality of the acting or the bewitching special effects, but because Nolan has achieved a work that will cause viewers to reflect on the nature of reality and the true meaning of the film long after it drops from the box office queue.

Overall Grade: A

After seeing that tickets go on sale the next day, you discuss going with your parents and then comes the dreaded question: “How much money will the tickets be?”

Living in the midst of a recession where the majority of today’s American families are just barely getting by financially with the nation’s unemployment rate at a high of 9.7% as of just June 6, 2010, going to a concert can seem undoable.

Even with pre-sales that usually start about a week before tickets actually go on sale to the general public, vendors for other ticket sites can be notorious for snatching up tickets and selling them for much more than they originally cost on the sites where they were originally sold.

“I think it’s unfair that you can’t really get a good enough seat for a fair amount of money because vendors are reselling tickets for higher prices,” said sophomore Ashley Garcia.

One major cause of what can determine a ticket price can be the demand for the artist’s concert and how many people are willing to go and see it.

According to Billboard.com, some top demand artists include Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and John Mayer, who all attract many AHS students to their concert venue doors.

Even Swift herself has stated in a press release at the beginning of her tour in 2009 that she has affordable ticket prices awaiting fans for her concert: “I want to be sure that everyone has the opportunity to come see my show, so we have affordable tickets available for every date we do this year.”

But looking on a ticket website such as TicketMaster.com, would today’s middle class family really spend $99 for a ticket resold on a site such as StubHub that was originally supposed to be $25 for the highest seat in the venue? Some students agree that they would.

“If I wanted to see an artist who I really love and it was for a birthday or Christmas gift then I would want to go, even if I was far away because it would still be worth it,” said freshman Skye Lindberg.

Some sites can even be deceiving when they say that tickets sold in a pre-sale go for around $60 for a close, high demand seat, but are really even more expensive—$99 for the farthest away seat—when you actually access the pre-sale.

That price can even rise higher when about a week goes by and the general public finally has access to buying tickets as well.

So does the deception really allow for what can be very expensive ticket prices?

“I think ticket prices are high, but anything to make money right now people will do, and if you can get away with it then why not keep the prices high?” said freshman Jordan Martinez.

Others, however, like freshman Christina Uglietta, believe that concert prices are not too much to be able to afford in today’s world.

“I realize that all concerts are not as cheap, but I don’t think the prices are outrageous. You don’t have to go to them all the time but if you save up you can treat yourself to one really great concert,” Uglietta said. “After all, concerts aren’t a need, they’re a want.”

With her new song and music video “Can’t Be Tamed” she is catching the attention of her fans and the headlines. With a more sexy and dirty approach than her old music, Cyrus’ new style is being compared to that of Britney Spears and Lady Gaga. Her lyrics are suggestive and paint the new her as a partier and a seductive, untouchable teen.

In the “Can’t Be Tamed” music video, Cyrus is dressed as a scantily clad extinct bird. She is contained inside a giant birdcage, dancing provocatively and looking seductively at the camera. She is dressed in a tight, black leotard that hugs her every curve showing off nearly all of her skin.

“I can get a bit crazy…’cuz I’m hot like that,” she sings while skimpily dancing on the poles of her birdcage. Later she grinds on her male dancers and sings, “I go through guys like money flyin’ out the hands.”

Cyrus tells eonline.com, “The video isn’t about being sexy or about who can wear less clothes. I don’t want to be in a cage. I want to be free and do what I love.”

Another video of Cyrus is taking over headlines as well. The video is of the star giving the The Last Song producer Adam Shankman, 44, a lap dance at a wrap up party for the movie. Her father Billy Ray Cyrus responded to criticism of the video saying that lap dances and grinding are normal things that girls her age do.

“I think she is growing up and the only reason people care so much is because she’s famous. I’m her age and I don’t think it’s too old for her at all! I love her new image,” said junior Paige Clark.

While this new transformation came too quickly and is too risqué for some, others are loving Cyrus’ new look and are applauding her for breaking away from her good girl image.

“I say bravo. Everyone grows up. Who cares about what people think, she wants to be true to herself and if that’s what she wants to do then more power to her. I think it’s hot,” said junior Banna Gebremichael.

Iron Man 2’s plot is multifaceted at best and schizophrenic at worst. To be fair, there is a lot to cover between Tony Stark’s complex personal life, his controversial public life, not to mention finding time to develop a new villain. And then S.H.I.E.L.D fits in somewhere as well. The movie tries to cover a lot and mostly succeeds, but it will likely take more than one viewing to sort out the various sub-plots and their details.

The movie opens with Tony Stark, brilliantly played by Robert Downey Jr., showing up both Justin Hammer and the US Senate with his proclamation that he has “privatized world peace.” The government is worried about the safety of having such technology in civilian hands. Tony dismisses such concerns with videos of other attempts around the world all failing miserably, and proudly contends everyone else is 20 years away from the technology.

What he doesn’t account for is Ivan Vanko, the highly interesting villain of the movie. He is the son of a Russian nuclear physicist who, we later learn, worked with Tony’s father on the Manhattan project. He is embittered against the Stark family after Howard Stark gets Ivan’s father deported from the country and sent to Russia. Ivan blames the family for their time spent in the gulags there, and vows revenge.

Despite the apparent successes, not all is well in the world of Tony Stark. His relationship with Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes is at an all-time low due to Stark’s irresponsible and usually inebriated use of the Iron Man suite while Rhodes is trying to keep the government off of Stark’s back.

Throughout all of this Tony is struggling with the arc reactor device he’s built to power the electromagnetic over his heart (for those who haven’t seen the first movie, an attack left him with lethal barbs near his heart, only prevented by an electromagnet on his chest). The device is powered by polonium, a highly radioactive substance that is slowly poisoning him.

His search for a replacement to the polonium core is a major theme in the movie, that ties into and is eventually resolved by his struggle to deal with the relationship between him and his dead father. While never close, he discovers that his father actually cared for him, and in doing so finds that Howard discovered a new element that would serve as a replacement core for the polonium.

Ivan Vanko, essentially a cross between whiplash and crimson dynamo, vowed revenge on the Stark family. Revenge takes the form of a modified version of the Iron Man suite featuring two large electrical whips that tend to slice through just about everything. His backstory is coherent and believable, and the time spent in the gulags does a good job explaining how he can take on professionally trained bodyguards with his bare hands.

Justin Hammer, a competitor to Stark’s in the business of building weapons breaks Ivan out of jail to build him Iron Man suits. Justin is one of the most obnoxious people I have ever seen, meaning the actor and scriptwriters did their job perfectly. He has as much ego as Tony but without either his humor or genius to excuse it.

Taken as a whole, the plot makes a great case for why super heroes should keep their identities secret, while clearly showing why Tony Stark’s ego would never let that happen. The way Tony’s personal life and deep character flaws inevitably intersect with the role he’s taken on as America’s protector cause endless problems for both him and his friend Rhodey.

As with all of these movies, it needs to be viewed with a substantial suspension of disbelief because, while plausible sounding scientific explanations are always provided for why the characters can do super human things, we all know its not actually true. Tony building a particle collider in his basement was a bit too extravagant. The level of precision required to operate those things isn’t even vaguely possible for one man to achieve in his basement. I suppose I ought to give them credit for at least realizing that you need a particle collider to make new elements. Overall impression: Great movie, can’t wait for the inevitable sequel.

Released on April 26, the video was said to have been taken down off of YouTube’s site almost immediately after its debut. YouTube said that the video breached rules that “prohibit content like pornography or gratuitous violence.” A spokesperson for YouTube also commented that the video “has been flagged by the community and identified by our policy enforcement team as content that, while not violating our community guidelines, is not suitable for users under age 18.”

“YouTube did the right thing by pulling the video. It’s highly offensive and even though it serves a message it should not be on a site that any range of ages can watch,” said senior Sammy Qabazard.

The video begins with two middle aged people naked and having sex, when all the sudden a group of officers kick in their door and start beating the man violently. The video then goes to the officers rounding up red-headed men and throwing them onto a bus where they will be taken to an internment camp. Once they get to the camp they are forced to run through a mine field and things get very graphic and very bloody.

“I think it was meant to represent a war on people based on their physical appearance which is the only real difference between people fighting in warfare. It was definitely too much. The scenes were way too graphic for a music video,” said Qabazard.

Although M.I.A. intended to have meaning behind the video, many people found themselves confused, lost, disgusted or offended

“I would say M.I.A. went way too far with this. The fact that they re-created the holocaust with red-haired people seemed almost sick. The video was a bad idea and it was too graphic and too disturbing. The violence seemed way too much for a song and overall it was scary,” said junior Julia Uglietta.

Though most people found the video highly offensive, some praised the video for having a deeper message, and one that very obviously got the point across that many people ignore genocide when it happens.

“I like the video a lot. I think it had a deeper meaning than what people interpreted it as. I did not think it went too far at all. To get attention these days you need something crazy like that,” said junior Matt Chiappane.

Whether M.I.A. hit her mark with her video or not is yet to be determined. She has not yet released a statement or made any comments about “Born Free.” So until then, audiences are left to either gasp in horror or praise her video.

Following his break up with Spears in 2002, Timberlake continued his solo career after his boy band, *N Sync, broke up. However, he kept his personal life tightly guarded, staying out of the headlines. To this day, Timberlake’s romantic life is the object of speculation, although few facts are known.

In contrast, Spears was plastered in the news for years. With singles like “I’m a Slave 4 U” and “Toxic,” Spears strove to shed her good-girl persona. She followed this pattern with the on-stage kiss she shared with Madonna on the 2003 MTV Awards. In a span of two years, Spears had two marriages, an annulment and a divorce, all of which were quite public. While her life may seem like an anomaly, she is only one amongst a host of other child stars who also faced challenges transitioning to a serious career as an adult.

Starring in commercials before she was a year old, Drew Barrymore was no stranger to the press. After her famous role as Gertie in the film E.T. at age seven, Barrymore’s fame skyrocketed. Her mother began to take her to clubs and she was involved with drugs and alcohol by the age of nine. After time in rehab at 13, Barrymore turned her life around and built up her current sweetheart image. Not all stars, however, have had as successful recoveries as Barrymore’s.

McCaulay Culkin, made famous by the Home Alone series, has had his share of fame misfortune. After his run as an adorable child star, Culkin disappeared from the spotlight with plenty of money to his name. He was back in the public eye in 2004 when he was arrested for possession of 17.3 grams of marijuana. “I’m surprised because I thought of him as an innocent little child when I saw his movies,” junior Alay Tedla said. Recently, he became a focus of attention at Michael Jackson’s death, as he is godfather to Jackson’s two eldest children. However, not all male child stars have met the same fate.

Leonardo DiCaprio has been acting in various small films and television commercials since age five. He hit his break, however, starring opposite Robert De Niro in This Boy’s Life in 1993. Since then, he has been in various successful films such as Titanic, Gangs of New York and many others, all while staying free from controversy. Much like Timberlake, DiCaprio has also maintained a very private personal life. To this day, DiCaprio is still one of Hollywood’s leading men.

One of the most infamous fallen child stars is the star of Parent Trap, Lindsay Lohan. “Lindsay Lohan is messed up because she was put into Hollywood too young and a kid can’t grow up normally like that,” junior Paige Clark said. After the innocent years of Freaky Friday and even Mean Girls, Lohan began to get caught up in the nightlife of New York. She was then seen in a slew of wild tabloid pictures looking scarily skinny. In 2007, Lohan was arrested multiple times for driving under the influence, one of which she was in possession of cocaine. Lohan and others prove that, like all else in life, fame and fortune should only be taken in moderation.

“I was there for Never Shout Never and got really exited when he came on stage,” said sophomore Nisreen Al-Suqi. Al-Suqi says she enjoyed the show and that “[She’s] never been to the 9:30 Club before.” For anyone who hasn’t attended a show at the 9:30 Club, it’s a great venue. The location isn’t exactly safe, but the diversity of the shows draw in musicians of every genre.

“My friend called me at like one in the morning that day and asked if I wanted to go because she had an extra ticket … I’m so glad I went, it was so good!” said senior Gwen Kennedy. Kennedy was most excited to see Michigan’s pop-rock boy band Every Avenue perform. She also got the chance to meet the lead singer and front man of Every Avenue, Dave Strauchman.

As for the concert itself, it was all around awesome. But the night in its entirety seemed really short because each band’s set-list only consisted of about five songs, excluding Never Shout Never’s set. Never Shout Never’s stage time was delayed but was completely worth the wait. Christofer Drew played some songs off his newly released album This Is Love, and included some older songs too.

The entire AP Tour was primarily hosted by Alternative Press Magazine and was offering subscriptions at the show. All of the bands were fun and energetic and I would highly recommend seeing any or all of the bands the next time they tour the Northern Virginia area.

Many 3-D movies are exceptionally popular, such as James Cameron’s Avatar (one of the highest grossing films of all time) and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. However, not everyone seems to prefer 3-D over regular movies.

“I don’t really like 3-D movies because its [the theatres] always filled, so I have to sit in the front which gives me headaches”, says Senior David Tao. “I think it’s a good idea, but it’s too expensive”.

While 3-D movies are praised as a ‘revolution’ in modern cinema, there are many who consider them to be just an eyesore, or unnecessary.

“I don’t really like that sometimes the 3-D effects are stupid and they are just there” remarks Sophomore Jak Scrivener.

“[When I watch a 3-D movie] I get headaches, and I get sick; as in, my stomach hurts”, says Sophomore Rachel Qualley.

3-D movies, while being a interesting new way for teenagers to view their favorite movies, are risky because they hit many teenagers where it hurts most; their wallets.
“I think the prices are a little ridiculous. Movies are already so expensive per view, and 3-D adds another 5 dollars to it”, said Qualley.

Maybe somewhere in the future there will exist vastly superior three-dimensional movies with minimal bonus cost and special effects that don’t burn the eyes of its viewers, but until then, 3-D movies provide a fun alternative to mainstream 2-D movies.