Halftime Leisure

The Voice’s takes on all things media and culture.

Halftime Leisure

In Defense of TikTok

I am home for the summer for the first time since high school and it is weird. My family moved from Arizona to Illinois three weeks before I started at... Read more

By September 20, 2019

Halftime Leisure

The Weekly List: We’re THRIVING!

It’s a Friday, 7:37 AM, and you frantically wake up realizing that you turned off your 7 AM alarm in your sleep and that you have about fifteen minutes to... Read more

By September 17, 2019

Halftime Leisure

D23 and the Dark Side of Disney’s Cultural Dominance

On the weekend of August 23, thousands of Disney fans and reporters flocked to Anaheim, California for D23, Disney’s biannual exposition of all the things it plans to do in... Read more

By September 16, 2019

Halftime Leisure

Every Vampire Weekend Song Ever, Ranked

Ever since the release of Father of the Bride (2019), it seems like Vampire Weekend is all anyone can talk about. Personally, I had only heard “A-Punk” prior to their... Read more

By September 13, 2019

Halftime Leisure

Cooking with Glass in Blown Away

Cooking competitions like Chopped, Cupcake Wars, and Iron Chef (2002) have been relatively popular for many years. However, the cult-like following that emerged after The Great British Bake Off’s arrival... Read more

By September 13, 2019

Halftime Leisure

Trailer Takes: The Irishman, Joker, and Rambo: Last Blood

The Irishman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_2RjQwQGV0 Inès: The first thing that strikes me about this trailer is the list of names: Martin Scorsese, Robert de Niro, Al Pacino, and Anna Paquin. There are... Read more

By , and September 12, 2019

Halftime Leisure

Billie Eilish Tackles Climate Change in “all the good girls go to hell” Music Video

This past Wednesday, Billie Eilish dropped her most recent music video for “all the good girls go to hell”, a song from her 2019 album When We All Fall Asleep,... Read more

By September 12, 2019

Halftime Leisure

Have We Seen the End of the Cardi B v. Nicki Minaj Beef?

Burr vs. Hamilton. Stalin vs. Trotsky. Cardi vs. Nicki. The battle between two legendary New York rappers has seen its latest—and perhaps final—twist.  To the shock of her fans and... Read more

By September 11, 2019

Halftime Leisure

The Weekly List: Explore the Cosmos

Some good jams from around the world, a sampling by me.  1. “Drôle de Question” by Roméo Elvis With a name like that, Belgian artist Roméo Elvis couldn’t be anything... Read more

By September 10, 2019

Halftime Leisure

Summer Time : Dead & Company

Summer Time is a collection of stories about Voice staffers’ experiences over summer break. I yawned at the start of “Help On The Way” as Dead & Company kicked off... Read more

By September 9, 2019

Halftime Leisure

Summer Time: Tangents

Summer Time is a collection of stories about Voice staffers’ experiences over summer break. There’s nothing on the planet more consistent than my high school groups’ ability to talk about... Read more

By September 8, 2019

Halftime Leisure

Freshly Baked Takes On The Great British Baking Show

Alas, it is that time again. No not apple picking season or the winter holiday, it is Great British Baking Show season. This season does not fail to bring all... Read more

By September 8, 2019

Halftime Leisure

Cooking Up Predictions for the Great British Baking Show

In a season premiere that began with a truly absurd sequence featuring the judges and hosts dressed as characters from the Wizard of Oz (1939) (including Paul Hollywood aptly costumed... Read more

By September 6, 2019

Halftime Leisure

Billie Eilish and Teenhood

Olivia Gatwood’s “When I Say That We Are All Teen Girls” is one of my most favorite poems of all time. If you do not know me, you might not... Read more

By September 5, 2019

Halftime Leisure

The Weekly List: Songs From the Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Movie of All Time: Almost Famous

I was going to write about the greatest songs from great scenes in movies. However, there are lots of movies circulating about in existence…like more than I can count. Given... Read more

By September 4, 2019

Halftime Leisure

Trailer Takes: Cats

Cats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtSd844cI7U Katie: Hi, God. It’s me, Katie. I have a few questions, but I guess my first one is what in the fresh hell is this? Some of the... Read more

By , and September 1, 2019

Halftime Leisure

Summer Time : A Journey Into the Mountains

Summer Time is a collection of stories about Voice staffers’ experiences over summer break. I woke up from my lazy Saturday afternoon snooze to see my four best friends splayed... Read more

By August 31, 2019

Halftime Leisure

“Old Town Road” Signals a Shift in the Music Industry

The music industry has a new reason to worry, and it’s all because of a certain country-rap meme song. Lil Nas X, a 19-year-old singer-songwriter who was virtually unknown a... Read more

By August 15, 2019

Halftime Leisure

Has CGI Gone Too Far?

When I saw that a new trailer for It: Chapter Two (2019) had been posted online yesterday, it took me a long time to build up the courage to watch... Read more

By July 27, 2019

Halftime Leisure

The Meme Files: “Me Explaining” and Abstract Familiarity

Many of the internet memes of recent memory both gain traction and really take off because they are derived from familiar pop culture visuals.  “Powerful Shaggy” is based upon a... Read more

By July 3, 2019