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Rant and Rave: Dream Team

Rating: 4.0 “There will never be another team like it. There can’t be.” – Magic Johnson When you ask basketball fans what “heaven” for them is, none would say it’s a cloudy community with St. Peter at the gates.  Instead, they would either give you their favorite team winning the championship, or the fan’s “dream team”,…

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Rant and Rave: The Diviners by Libba Bray

Rating: 4.0 Bestselling author of The Gemma Doyle trilogy, Going Bovine, Beauty Queens, and many other short stories, Libba Bray comes back to the table better than ever with her latest fictional piece. No matter what timespan you are in or what generation you are born to, all human heartbeats sound the same, and emotions…

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Struggles in the house of light

As the nights grow longer and the chilly wind blows by us now and then, one can immediately tell what is going on. The sparkling lights that go with the jolly tunes. The colorful garlands hanging around loosely, and the news program announcing the countdown of days – nobody can deny Christmas is coming, although…

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Celebration Day by Led Zeppelin

On December 10 2007, Led Zeppelin, undoubtedly one of the most influential bands of all time, reunited for the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert. Ertegun, who died months before (incidentally due to injuries sustained at a Rolling Stones concert) was the founder of Atlantic Records, the label which housed the band when it dominated the 1970s…

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iDos! by Green Day

Rating 3.0 As it is very evident from the title of the album, this is the second of the three albums Green Day released this year, with the release of the album Tre! originally set for release on January 2013, although officially launched earlier on Dec 11, 2012. The release of Dos! was somehow short…

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Rant and Rave: Cloud Atlas

Rating 3.5 “If you, dear reader, can extend your patience for just a moment, you will find there is a method to this tale of madness,” writes Cavendish prophetically at the beginning of the movie. He narrates the line as if asking the audience, ‘please give us time to weave this yarn’, a tangled knot…

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The perks of being holes in the walls

For this month, The Menagerie presents you holes. Not just holes, but those holes that hide a little something shiny and valuable in them. Holes in the walls are just that – taken for granted, passed by, skipped over, despite the hidden gems that lay in wait for the enterprising few who would appreciate them…

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Something new in the everyday: The common things’ Hall of Fame

Money may not buy us happiness, but that does not mean it grows on trees either. Nearly everything in life depends on how we opt to allocate our resources – which groceries to buy, where to go to college, how to afford a house, et cetera. Colored bills and copper coins must be doled out wisely…

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Short Feature: Of Apocalypses and Fantasies

On December 21, 2012, a while ago, we woke for the last time. The sky will be shadowed with gray clouds tinged a blood-red on a day the sun will not rise. A large celestial body, be it a comet or planet Nibiru, will come hurtling down as we watch helplessly. Conquest, War, Famine, and…

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Rant and Rave: ‘Margosatubig—The Story of Salagunting’

Rating 2.5 Pre-colonial Philippines comes back to life in Ramon L. Muzones’ epic tale Margosatubig: The Story of Salagunting. Margosatubig provides readers with a Philippines long forgotten in the humdrum of the modern age, a Philippines distant, almost alien. In this Philippines, the ancient Moros of Mindanao are put on the center stage, and a…