The Bluffer - Red Bluff, CA
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/453478
Very addicting, yet frustrating! Page 5 January 23, 2015 Arts and Entertainment Sophia Cumpton Staff Writer Julissa Villalobos Staff Writer Hailie Willey Staff Writer 'Shade spotter' app Baltimore band, '3PM' executes pop-punk This band is energetic with edgy music. I only wish it would have ended earlier. It gives a glimmer of hope, but simply disappoints. New Found Glory helped them create their own music. Stark, Montgomery, and Millman's friendship and close bond helps the band stay tight-knit and true to their punk style. 3PM's music and personality is fun, inspiring, energetic, and edgy. 3PM's first album, 'Change of Plans', came out in 2013. At the same time, the band also came out with hit single 'Perfect for Me'. The album includes the songs 'Born To Lose,' 'Your Best Mistake,' 'You Can Only Find Her in the Safari Zone,' 'At Least I Tried,' 'Can't Explain These Feelings,' and 'Double Meanings,' which are my personal favorites. 'Won't Go Home,' 'And So The Story Goes,' 'Something To Live By,' 'Better,' 'You Won't Change Me,' 'Summer Brings You Back To Me,' and 'Start Over.' are the other songs on this album, which are also pretty good. Their second, and latest, album is called 'Slow me Down'. This album has the songs 'Something New,' 'Missed Call,' 'Moving Day,' and 'Slow Me Down.' Those songs from this album are definitely their best yet. Their other songs from 'Slow me Down' including 'Lazer Tag,' 'This is Right,' 'My Soul on Fire,' 'All Caught Up,' and 'Who We Are' are not my favorite, but I would still listen to them. My favorite album is 'Slow me Down', but every piece of music these boys make is just amazing. I would highly recommend listening to them if you like any sort of punk music. Staff Writer Nichole Valdez Shade Spotter is one of the most frustrating games I have ever played. It is simple, yet challenging at the same time. You have thirty seconds in or- der to tap as many of the differ- ent shaded squares as you can. Also, the higher the levels, the more complex it gets. The colors start to blend in and the squares keep get- ting smaller. After about ten or twelve levels, you basically have to guess which square is the shaded one. Sometimes I even wondered if there really was a shaded square. Every square always looked the same. You can choose easy, medium, and hard levels. They start off with four squares and the shaded square is incred- ibly obvious. The more lev- els you pass the more squares appear and the color changes with every level. On the easy levels, it seems extremely easy until about level twenty, then it seems as though everything is the same. On the medium levels, the shaded square becomes even harder to find, and instead of thirty seconds, you only get fifteen. On the hard levels, the shapes change with every lev- el and the shapes all look the same color. Shade Spotter is incredibly frustrating. It is infuriating up to the point that it makes you want to throw your phone at a wall. This game is like Flap- py Birds only with colored squares. The problem is that this game makes you addicted so you can't stop playing it. This game really tests your eye sight, and at the same time, makes you feel incredibly stupid. What makes the game even more challenging is that the shaded square is never in the same spot each time you play. There is not a pattern to it. The squares show up ran- domly, sometimes in the same spot and other times on the other side of the screen. I recommend this game for anyone who loves a challenge. But, if you get angry easily and throw things, then Shade Spot- ter is not the game for you. It is great if you want to waste time or if you need something to do. It challenges you brain and you eyes. It is an intense, addictive game that is great for everyone – unless they are colorblind. Pop-punk: a music genre, a clothing style, a lifestyle. I am not very "punk"; however, my music style is. A recent band I was introduced to, 3PM, instantly made me want to dance, sing, and just let loose. That is what music is supposed to do to you, right? This band reminds me of many other pop-punk bands I listen to, including All Time Low, Bowling for Soup, Blink 182, and Green Day. To me, 3PM's latest album 'Slow Me Down' is an instant hit. You can feel the energy and you can tell how much fun the musicians are having making this album. The band has three members: Brennan Stark is the vocalist and bassist, Scott Montgomery plays guitar, and Brandon Millman is on drums. The Baltimore band formed in the summer of 2012 and their love of pop punk bands such as Green Day, Blink 182, and 'Taken 3': is an overplayed film about a man who can't keep track of his family. Recently I sat through this film so you don't have to, and I personally think that the Taken series is repetitive and this time the title is inaccurate--no one gets taken. Let's recap on the first two movies. In Taken 1, Bryan Mills' (Liam Neeson) daughter gets kidnapped. In 'Taken 2', Bryan's ex wife gets taken. Without trying to give away any spoilers to people that haven't seen the next film, 'Taken 3' goes like this: Bryan and his ex wife start getting feelings for each other, but his ex wife is still married to Stuart St. John. Stuart owes a large amount of money to an ex-KGB Spetsnaz and Afghan War veteran operative named Oleg Malankov who was the probable motive for the murder of someone close to Bryan. The murder is planted on Bryan, he tries to find the actual murderer as the cops chase him. He ends up suspecting Stuart has something to do with the murder, so he goes to his house and abducts him. Stuart tells Bryan that Oleg Malankov was responsible for the murder Bryan finds himself on the way to kill Oleg. As he's on the verge of dying, he tells Bryan that they got manipulated by the same man--Stuart. All of a sudden, Bryan gets a call from his daughter, Kim, because she realizes that he's the bad guy. Stuart takes Kim (Maggie Grace) to his private jet and he plans to take off with her. Bryan quickly speeds to where they are and crashes his car into the front jet leg to stop Stuart. Finally the cops take him away. So what I got from this movie is that Stuart wanted Bryan, his wife, Kim, and Oleg dead so that he could keep the money. The tagline promises "It ends here" but it keeps the door open for more. What next? 'Taken 4'? I did not like this movie. I thought it was boring and overplayed. "It ends here" is good advice. To make things clear, nobody actually gets taken in 'Taken 3', until the very end. It was on that condition that the movie's leading star Liam Neeson requested before he agreed to return for his third and hopefully final film in the 'Taken' series. That was perfectly fine with me; after all, how many times can a bad guy kidnap one of Neeson's family members before it gets excruciatingly boring and you begin to wonder if this movie was really worth the money you spent for the ticket. This time around it was Neeson who was the hunted after being framed for a crime he didn't commit. The film progresses into a slightly enjoyable thriller, until it comes to the action scenes. You can't see anything. When there's hand to hand combat, the moves and hits are usually lost and you can barely tell who's hitting who, where and how. A freeway car chase is consisted of close ups and frantic edits that seem sloppy and shaky. During the chase, Neeson also causes at least twenty cars to get crushed, which means he killed innocent people, but he still gets off scott free. There's also a race between a Porsche driven by Neeson, and a private plane that ends in a collision, taking out the plane's front wheel, which everyone miraculously survives. While I love Neeson and the first Taken movie, this film just repeats what we all know Neeson does best...killing people. By now the character he built up in the first movie kind of seems like a joke. The plot didn't have much depth, it was very predictable and the characters were hollow. I guess deep down there was a glimmer of hope that this film would be a total knock-out, but unfortunately it wasn't. If you liked the first and second movie, you'd probably like this one too. It's a treat for Neeson fans and those who like to see cops getting outsmarted. 'Taken 3' plot becomes repetitive enough for two reviews Photo credit to : http://www.3pm-music.com/photos flawlessly and continues to produce hits causes frustration Photo credit to: http://www.fatmovieguy.com/wp-content/ Brennan Stark (vocalist and bassit), Scott Montgomery (guiatar player), and Brandon Millman (drummer), pose for a picture to promote new album. Liam Neeson is back for the third time around in his new movie 'Taken 3'.