April 29, 2016
ENTERTAINMENT
Blueprint
5
Rihanna ‘works’ the stage at the United Center in Chicago By Autumn McSwain, Staff Reporter The room goes dark and thousands of fans begin to scream as Rihanna’s hit song “Stay” begins to play. Unexpectedly, Rihanna appears in the middle of the crowd and proceeds to walk over gracefully to a small stage while the crowd roars and reaches out to touch her. Almost every fan pulls out their phone and lights up the building while Rihanna continues to passionately sing “Stay”. As the song comes to an end, Rihanna yells “Chicago,” and the crowd goes insane. Rihanna’s Chicago show on April 15 was the fastest sell out show on her “Anti World Tour, “mostly based on Rihanna’s eighth album “Anti”, which in my opinion is one of Rihanna’s greatest works of art. The Barbados native singer was able to not only mesh different genres into this album but also incorporate sounds from different time periods in popular music. The album sold 238,000 copies in the first week, and also topping the Billboard 200 as No. 1 the week of Feb. 20, 2016. Upon entering the United Center, you could hear the booming music from Rihanna’s concert opener, Travis Scott. He was singing his most commonly known song “Antidote,” which of course had the crowd wild. “Are you ready for Rihanna to turn this show up?” Travis said. The crowd yelled and you could feel the intense anticipation ev-
she moved from a small mini stage onto a hanging platform that allowed her to walk back and forth and see her fans from a bird’s eye view. While on the swinging platform, Rihanna got the crowd pumped by explaining how excited she was to be in Chicago. “I’ve been waiting for Chicago,” Rihanna said. In total Rihanna made three wardrobe changes throughout the night and after her second change she came out wearing an all black jumpsuit with fringe on it to accentuate every dance move she Rihanna’s Anit world tour is based on her “Anti” album. did. Towards the Photo by Autumn McSwain middle of the show eryone had for Rihanna to finally hit the stage. After Rihanna performed Travis left the stage, the crowd the highly anticipated song of had to wait about 45 minutes for the night, “Work”. The high anRihanna to actually begin the ticipation was mostly due to the show, which was a long delay but speculations of an appearance from her grand entrance was definitely Drake, who’s a feature on the song. worth the wait. Without having Drake be a special Once Rihanna finished her grand guest, the crowd was still able to entrance by performing “Stay”, enjoy the hit song “Work”, which “Love The Way You Lie”, and “Woo” has been No. 1 on the Billboard Hot
100 for eight consecutive weeks. She incorporated various visuals and dancers that were very appealing to the eye, and ultimately topped off her performance. She added vogue dancers, bone-breaking contortionists and her own dance flare from her Barbados roots. The visuals on the big screen allowed you to see every little detail going on from the stage. During the performance of “ Desperado” and “Same Ol’ Mistakes” Rihanna even added in beautiful art effects that made the stage look more colorful and alive. Rihanna ended off her show with the hit song “Kiss It Better”, which left the entire crowd on their feet. Nearing the last few minutes of the show she said “Thank you Chicago! If there’s any city I could come to you guys are definitely in the top three,”. I could feel myself getting sad that the show was coming to an end because it truly was astounding and left me wanting her to sing even more. With this being the second Rihanna concert I’ve gotten the chance to attend, I’ve now named her as my favorite singer, because of the exceptional job she did with the “Anti” album and “Anti World Tour”. She will forever live in history as a musical icon and she truly exceeded every expectation I had for the tour. Contact Autumn at amcs2141@csd99.org
Virtual reality glasses revolutionize the gaming world By Gabrielle Bartkeviciute, Entertainment Editor The distorted reality created with virtual reality glasses has proven to be a success by shining light on the advancements in entertainment technology in the present and the possible future. The Knox Next VR Viewer created by Google and distributed by Knox Labs costs $27 and brings a new use to cardboard. The outside look of the glasses seems bulky and not very futuristic at all, considering they are made out of cardboard, but it is what is on the inside that counts. The apps are Android and iPhone compatible and are mostly free, so no extra purchases are necessary. The game I played was called Sisters: A Virtual Reality Ghost Story. This is a horror game which has mild animation effects, but was frightening enough for an entertaining four minutes. Once the app downloaded onto my phone and opened, the hardest part of using the glasses was placing the phone correctly so that it would aline with the lenses in the virtual reality glasses. It took a few tries, but it was worth it because the images were so clear and realistic.
The game started, and it felt like close interaction. Although I was I was in a different world because I frightened most of the time, taking was able to look all around me unthe glasses off during the game der my own control by turning my didn’t seem right because I became head to look at the ceiling, ground sucked into a different world. and behind me. The 360 degree The idea of the game was thought view I had, made it feel as though I through very well, but the execuwas in a different world. tion could have been a little better As the game started, the sound because the dolls and ghosts were effects really helped in providing very choppy when moving and the fear factor by guiding me where cartoon-like. Their facial features to look. looked like something a child would When I heard the door creak draw, but the idea of having movopen, there was a doll that aping objects projected in a 3D space peared on the carpet, and then I made up for it. This is underheard noises coming from the back of the room, so I turned around to see a ghostly person walking towards the couch I was sitting on. In the next instance, I heard heavy breathing. I turned around, and the lady was right in front of me. At that point, I jumped with A possible side effect of virtual reality glasses is extreme nausea. fright because I was not expecting such an upPhoto by Gabrielle Bartkeviciute
standable because this technology is fairly new and involves a lot of detail in order for the player to see 360-degrees around them, not just straight ahead. After the game, I felt dizzy and my eyes hurt from having to adjust back to the real world, which then led to a headache. Even though advanced technology has its perks, it did have a setback relating to health issues this time. The feelings of nausea did prevent me from playing more games that day, but the idea behind creating a virtual word for humans to participate in is exciting. There are more light-hearted games, like riding roller coasters or watching a concert that have become more advanced by enhancing physical features and sound quality through the use of shading and more realistic colors. This brings the video game to life. The world of virtual reality is nothing like ours, but is one that has become an entertainment success with the addition of virtual reality glasses.
Contact Gabrielle at gbar1713@csd99.org