April 1, 2025
Gravity Falls
When I was seven years old, my parents had an anniversary party at our house. With a bunch of adults invading my home, and nobody around my own age, I decided that my best option was to watch TV. I turned on the Disney Channel and discovered a new cartoon was airing that day. The show was about these twins going to their uncle’s house for the summer in Oregon, with mystery surrounding the small town. I was intrigued, and I wanted to sink my teeth into more content. Little did I know that this show would become a fixation of mine.
Gravity Falls was created by Alex Hirsh and aired from June 15th. 2012, to Feb. 15th. 2016. The show lasted for two seasons, spanning over four years but taking place over an entire summer. Dipper and Mabel Pines (voiced by Jason Ritter and Kristen Schaal) are 12-year-old twins from California who arrive in Gravity Falls for the summer and are thrust into adventure and mystery. As they dive deeper, they encounter everything from lovesick gnomes to vengeful psychics, hoping they can stay alive for the whole summer. While they stay there, we meet a variety of characters such as Grunkle Stan (Alex Hirsh), Soos (also Alex Hirsh), Wendy (Linda Cartalini), and many more.
Looking back on it, I believe the reason I fell in love with the show was the balance of humor and intrigue. I was interested in the ongoing mystery of the town and why all of these strange things were happening, but the show also came off as lighthearted and fun. Even though there were a lot of messed up things happening, I didn’t really realize it because of the tone of the show. It starts to ramp up the tension once the main villain, Bill Cipher (Alex Hirsh), is introduced, but even then, a lot of the episodes are pretty silly.
With all of the crazy plots happening every episode, the characters help bring the heart. My favorite character is a tie between Dipper and Mabel, since they feel like two sides of the same coin. Dipper is the smart, serious one while Mabel is the happy-go-lucky one. I feel like they are both at their best when they are together. Dipper takes things a little less seriously, and Mabel adds her genius and viewpoint that helps a lot. The other thing I really like about them is that they fight like siblings. A lot of their arguments are petty and stupid, but when one of them needs help, the other steps in.
Overall, Gravity Falls is a great watch and has a lot going for it. If you ever get tired of the show, there is plenty of outside material to look through books, like Journal 3 and The Book of Bill, with their own hidden secrets. Even though the show has been off the air for almost ten years, it still feels fresh every time I watch it. I’m currently doing a rewatch with my roommate who has never seen the show, and it brings me back to my house on that hot June day, when I discovered a core part of my childhood.
Gravity Falls is streaming on Hulu, Disney+, and Apple TV.
Released in 2013, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is yet another narrative masterpiece from video game designer Hideo Kojima. The game follows Raiden, whose real name is Jack, also known as “Jack the Ripper.” On this mission, Raiden is tasked with stopping a terrorist organization headed by the private military company World Marshal Inc. from starting a war for financial gain. However, this is not his only goal. It becomes evident that this organization also operates an organ-harvesting group targeting children. This hits Raiden particularly hard, as he was also a victim of war at a young age.
We’ll kick things off (Ha! See what I did there?!) with the Denver Broncos 1960s throwbacks. Originating as a secondhand purchase from a college team as a way to save money, these uniforms consisted of dark brown helmets and bright yellow jerseys with dark copper lettering and numbering. They also wore that same copper color in their pants and added two yellow stripes along the side. Underneath those pants, players donned copper and yellow striped tights. To complete the uniform, they wore a combination of yellow and copper colored cleats. The entire look, when finished, made players appear as if they’d just had buckets of ketchup and mustard dumped on them by angry fans. They were atrocious and looked nothing like the team colors after they were changed from copper and yellow to orange and blue in 1962.
Another ridiculous throwback uniform comes from the 2010-2012 Pittsburgh Steelers. The design was made to look like what was worn in the team’s 1934 season and was meant to celebrate their 80th season in the league. They featured the team’s all–black helmets with a single yellow stripe running from front to back and the Steelers team logo on just one side. However, that’s where the normalcy stops. Below that, they wore a black and yellow striped jersey with each numerical value of their number placed in a solid white box. This was paired with tan pants, black tights underneath, and black-and-yellow striped socks. The completed look was awful, and made every player look like a bumblebee, whether they were on the field or the sidelines. However, the worst part about it is that you can still occasionally see these bumblebee’s taking the field today!
Self-care is always so serious. Even when you’re trying your hardest to be the best version of yourself, many aspects are harsh and rigorous, making it difficult for people to see the fun side of their journey — especially at the beginning of their adventure.
The next society of ancient lovers were the Chinese. The era of the greatest love and romanticism was the Confucian era. During the Confucian era, a concept known as “Ren” came about. It is defined as the sum of all virtues in a person, such as selflessness and self-cultivation. It was very ahead of its time, as it focused on not only improving one’s self constantly but also creating peaceful relationships with
those that your lover knows. One other interesting note about love in Chinese is that the traditional Mandarin character for love, ‘ài’ (top), has the character for “heart” in the center of it (bottom).
Remember Facebook? Of course you do! It’s currently the biggest social media platform for every generation. It’s a great family place where your parents can give you a boatload of fun and fresh memes to share around the Internet. One meme has stood the test of time, and it continues to shine through the heap of the ever-changing landscape.
