Orange Is The New Black

Orange Is The New Black

OITNB is a Netflix series that features a fictional storyline about women in prison. The show might be one of the realest and most compelling shows on tv right now. I like the show because it doesn't sugarcoat anything and is informative, sad, and funny at the same time. It's a good show with great messages to it's audience. Season 5 comes out this month and it sees great. The show did their full research on women's prisons and how they usually work; not very well. The show has won a lot of awards and almost always gets their prison facts right. The characters go through so much and I would recommend this series to anyone who is able to watch something that could be intense but amazing. I don't watch a lot of tv anymore but this is a show I can't stop re-watching.

The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone was a show produced by Rod Sterling from 1959-64. It's a very old show but it was actually amazing, considering it's time. The show was shot in black and white for five whole seasons. It introduced a lot of people to the ideas of science fiction. The show also made to talk about a lot of topics that held a lot of stigma and were commonly steered away from in that time. These were topics such as politics, racism, war, and society. It played for of the idea of another dimension where something is changed and causes something supernatural. In many episodes a lot of characters would experience an "ah-ha" moment when realizing something supernatural or weird was happening. There is no distinct way to define the show but it was extremely different and almost a little revolutionary for its time. The one really iconic episode was probably Eye Of The Beholder which was about a woman who was in hospital getting surgery to "look normal" in society's eye and it didn't work leaving her looking different (like a normal person in the viewer's eyes). But everyone else has swollen lips and huge nostrils and many features we as the audience would typically find unattractive. The episode is trying to show how everyone in society is judged based on their outward appearance. The show was mazing and though it's old it really out does a lot of today's media.

Dodie Clark

Dodie

Dodie or (doddleoddle/doddlevloggle on youtube) is a music artist (and of course youtuber) who discusses mental health, relationships, and self confidence in her music and videos. She has written a lot of her own songs and has an EP out right now. She has an amazing voice and lives in London and has shared her life on the internet for over 3 (maybe 4 or 5?) years. Her lyrics are beautiful and she has a unique style and amazing ability to play guitar, ukulele, and piano very well. My favorite song of hers are probably When, 6/10, and One For The Road. She also has a really kind of silly sounding song that's pretty shortcut really catchy called I Have a Hole in My Tooth and My Dentist is Shut.

Gorillaz

Gorillaz

The virtual band made in the UK by Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn.  Jamie does the artwork for the band and contributes the their story and sound. Damon is the one behind the music, mainly writing it and being the character 2D's voice in the band. The band was made mainly to show how they thought in the 90's-early 2000's MTV's music videos and the music industry as a whole had become boring and filled with bad repetitive pop music. The band was created as a virtual band instead of with real people to stop from people liking music only because they idolize the artist/band and actually like the music for the music. The band has a deep backstory behind the virtual characters that is really fascinating to look into. They broke up in 2012 over creative differences between Jamie and Damon but have come back together and recently released an album. They've had a lot of hits over the years, Clint Eastwood, Feed Good Inc., Rock The House, etc. But my favorites are probably, Andromeda, On Melancholy Hill, Re-Hash, and El Mañana. I don't think you can categorize their sound, they don't really fit any genre, maybe electronic hip-hop rock. They have a dedicated fan base but it's hard to really get into some of the music if you don't know a lot about it. I love the band and would really recommend them.

The White Stripes

The White Stripes

The White Stripes were an amazing indie punk-rock group who were formed by Jack and Meg White in 1997. The group broke up in 2011 for unknown reasons, mainly related to stress and lack of enthusiasm. Jack and Meg were married a year before they formed the band and divorced in 2000 but still made albums together. The band had a short lifetime compared to many others but made some of the best songs of the early 2000's. Jack White has gone on to still make music with other bands such as The Dead Weather, which my mom likes and had his own solo projects.

Oh Wonder

Oh Wonder

Oh Wonder is an alternative duo who began with their first album in September of 2015, releasing one track at a time. They recently, only a week ago, released a new song called Ultralife and released another, Lifetimes, this week. Hopefuly this is a new album starting up. I really loved the first album and can't wait to hear more. Their sound is very distinct and unique. The duo consists of Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West. The two are not dating but connect on a musical level and produce wonderful music. in an interview they said their newest song Lifetimes is actually about global warming, it sounds on the surface like a loce song but its deeper than that. 

13 Reasons Why

13 Reasons Why

13 Reasons Why was an amazing and emotional book that now has been turned into a series on Netflix. The show/book centers around the topic of suicide and shows a lot of very controversial issues that normally wouldn't be shown in mainstream television. The plot of the book is that a high school girl named Hannah killed herself and left behind tapes. She left behind 13 cassette tapes for 12 people (two of the tapes were about the same person) who were, in her mind, causes to her suicide. The story starts with Clay Jensen, a shy boy who could be seen as Hannah's main love interest. The tapes are secrets between the group of 12 people and one other person who, if any word gets out about the tapes or if they stop listening or passing them on, will pass out a public copy. The story is extremely sad and beautiful. There are only 13 episodes, one for each tape. There may be a season 2 soon, as people are speculating. I think it was better as a tv show than a movie, though it left people wanting more. The show changed some names and added some stories and elongated the time it took Clay to listen tot the tapes so they could add in more storylines. Though I thought it matched my vision of the book pretty much exactly. I would definitely recommend this show/book.