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This article contains opinion. HALEY BROWN Lead Culture Writer H.Brown@iup.edu @ThePennIUP
The start of a new month brings countless possibilities as far as discovering new movies, TV shows and docu-series that mesmerize us like never before.
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Now that we have all this extra time on our hands, here are some of the best new releases to stream in May on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Disney+.
NETFLIX
“Back to the Future Part I” and “Part II” (May 1)
They promise all the fun they offered when they were first released in 1985 and 1989, respectfully. The California teenager known as Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) befriends a quirky scientist and partakes in one of his experiments, throwing Marty back in time to the ‘50s. He encounters a younger version of his parents and makes it his mission to ensure they fall in love, all while trying to save Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd).
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (May 1)
This unique film shows viewers the strange existence of Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), who is “born” as an elderly man in a New Orleans nursing home and ages backwards. His relationship with Daisy (Cate Blanchett) is what keeps him going throughout his strange journey through life as she grows up and he grows down.
HULU
“Friday the 13th Part III” and “The Final Chapter” (May 1)
The “Friday the 13th” movies are a series of slasher flicks that follow Jason Voorhees, a boy who drowned at Camp Crystal Lake decades prior to the movies. The lake is rumored to be cursed and is the setting for a series of mass murders, for which Jason is either the killer or the
April showers brings May flowers, but April also brings new additions to favorite streaming services, including “The Princess Bride” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
motivation of the killers.
The third film centers around a teenage girl and her friends at a house on Crystal Lake where Jason has taken refuge. It also marks the first film in which Jason’s signature hockey masks makes an appearance.
In “Friday the 13th Part IV,” which picks up right after Part III ends, Voorhees is brought to a morgue where he spontaneously comes back to life and escapes, returning to Crystal Lake to continue his killing spree.
“The Conjuring” (May 1)
In “The Conjuring,” paranormal investigators Bill and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson), are called to the house of the Perron Family. The family of seven have just moved into a home where a supernatural entity has made itself evident. The threatening nature of the paranormal events escalate, and it becomes dangerous for them to remain in the house. They call on the services of the Warrens’ to help them understand and possibly eradicate the entities from the home.
“The Green Mile” (May 1)
Based on Stephen King’s book of the same name, “The Green Mile” is a fantasy crime drama starring Tom Hanks. Hanks plays death row corrections officer Paul Edgecomb, who witnesses supernatural events surrounding one of the inmates, John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan).
AMAZON PRIME
follows Theodore Decker (Ansel Elgort) whose life is changed after his mother’s death due to a terrorist bombing at a museum. After the event, he is convinced to steal a famous painting called “The Goldfinch” from the museum. The movie follows Theodore as he travels through life and questions everything.
“Rocketman” (May 22)
The 2019 film showcases the life of Reginald Dwight, better known as Elton John, one of the most iconic singer-songwriters in history. The musical history includes some of his beloved songs, his teaming up with singer-songwriter Bernie Taupin, his breakthrough with music in the ‘70’s and his transformation from a timid piano player to the international pop superstar we know today.
DISNEY+
“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” (May 1)
The fourth installment in Disney’s popular franchise focuses on the wily Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), who runs into a past love, Angelica (Penelope Cruz). Angelica coerces him into accompanying her on a journey to the fountain of youth on a zombie-crewed ship under the command of the notorious Captain Blackbeard (Ian McShane).
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” (May 4)
The third installment of the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy is the final episode of the nine-part “Skywalker Saga.” It follows Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) as they lead the Resistance’s final stand against Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).
Sports Year in Review:
Sports Editor: Elliot Hicks – E.Hicks@iup.edu Lead Sports Writer: Jeff Hart – J.R.Hart2@iup.edu
(Keith Boyer/IUP Communications)
(Matt Durisko/For IUP Sports Information)
(IUP Sports Information)
May 6, 2020 23 TOP LEFT: With senior quarterback Quinton Maxwell leading the way, the IUP football team enjoyed one of the best offensive seasons in program history in 2019, went 10-2 and returned to the NCAA Division II playoffs for the fourth time in the past five seasons on the strength of its aerial attack. IUP set single-season school records for passing yards (3,622), passing yards per game (301.8), passing touchdowns (41) as well as 50-point games (six). TOP RIGHT: Sophomore sprinter Dre Carr won his first PSAC title in the 60-meter dash on March 1. He set the school record in the same event on Jan. 25 with a time of 6.71 seconds. LEFT: Freshman Joanna Stralka went 14-1 in singles play during IUP tennis’ fall season and won the PSAC singles title on Oct. 7, becoming just the second IUP player ever to do so and the first since 2004. ABOVE: The men’s golf team won its 29th PSAC team title on Oct. 20 and freshman Shaun Fedor, third from left, claimed the individual title. No other PSAC school has more than 14 conference titles in men’s golf. Meanwhile, IUP has won 14 titles in 24 seasons since 1997. Fedor became IUP’s 16th PSAC individual champion since 1993. More on Page 24. (Ryan Rebholz/IUP Sports Information)
Sports May 6, 2020 24 Year in Review: Chronicling the Crimson Hawks’ successes during the shortened 2019-20 season
(Autumn Dorsey/The Penn)
TOP LEFT: For the second straight season, the IUP men’s basketball team won the PSAC tournament title on March 8. The Crimson Hawks also won the PSAC Western Division title for the fifth straight year and earned the right to host the Atlantic Region tournament as the top seed in the region. They never got that chance as the NCAA canceled the remainder of the season. IUP finished the year 28-2. Senior Malik Miller was named the PSAC West Athlete of the Year on March 5. TOP RIGHT: Junior Sam Lenze qualified for the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships on Nov. 23 for the second straight season. Prior to the NCAA meet, he placed 29th at the PSAC Championships and sixth at the Atlantic Region Championships, earning All-PSAC and All-Atlantic Region accolades for the second time. RIGHT: Senior Lexi Griggs and the IUP women’s basketball team were 28-3 entering the NCAA tournament, and like the men’s team, earned the right to host the Atlantic Region tournament. The Crimson Hawks won the PSAC West Division for the third straight year and had a school-record 19-game winning streak in the regular season. Griggs was named the PSAC West Defensive Athlete of the Year on March 5. ABOVE: Sophomores Paige Mikesell, left, and Rachel Johnson were named to the Division II All-America team on April 8 after both qualified for the NCAA Championships. Mikesell qualified in four individual events, while Johnson qualified in two. At the PSAC Championships on Feb. 19-22, Mikesell was named the meet’s Most Outstanding Swimmer after winning four PSAC titles – three individual, one relay – and breaking two meet records. She entered the NCAA meet seeded sixth or better in three of her four events, including second in the 200 butterfly. (IUP Sports Information) (IUP Sports Information)
O P E N F O R T A K E - O U T A N D D E L I V E R Y V I A D O O R D A S H O N L Y !
IUP senior lineman taken in CFL Draft
From IUP Sports Information
Former IUP offensive lineman Matt Guevremont was selected by the BC Lions in the fifth round of the 2020 Canadian Football League Draft on April 30.
Guevremont was the 40th overall selection, including the ninth offensive lineman and the second player from a NCAA Division II school. He was the Lions’ fourth overall choice.
A native of Pickering, Ontario, Canada, Guevremont started all 12 games at right tackle for the Crimson Hawks in 2019. He provided experience along a line that helped IUP post some of the best offensive numbers in the country.
The Hawks ranked sixth in Division II with 44.2 points per game and 14th in total offense at 476.7 yards per contest.
The offensive line’s ability to protect quarterback Quinton Maxwell in the pocket was a key reason why IUP’s aerial attack had a record-setting season in 2019.
The Crimson Hawks set multiple single-season passing records, including yards (3,622), passing yards per game (301.8), passing touchdowns (41) as well as 50-point games (six).
IUP also gained more than 2,000 rushing yards, averaging 174.1 per game, and 32 rushing touchdowns.
Prior to his lone season with the Crimson Hawks, Guevremont spent 2018 at Division II Malone University in Ohio, where he earned second-team Great Midwest Athletic Conference honors while playing every snap at right tackle.
He also spent two seasons at Chabot Community College, where he was named Region I All-California as a sophomore in 2017.
Guevremont becomes IUP’s first professionally drafted player since Akwasi Owusu-Ansah was picked by the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL Draft.
MATT GUEVREMONT
(Keith Boyer/IUP Communications) Matt Guevremont, middle, who started all 12 games at right tackle for the Crimson Hawks in 2019, was selected in the CFL Draft last week.
YOU + A CCAC CLASS = SAVINGS UP TO $2,200
Due to unrest in Baltimore in 2015, the
Chicago White Sox and Baltimore
Orioles played an official MLB game in front of an empty Camden
Yards. This scene is likely to be common when the 2020 MLB season begins.
(Carolyn
Cole/L.A. Times/TNS)
It’s happened before ... ... but sports without fans are a rare sight
Plenty of unknowns remain about the return of live professional sporting events, but one thing is certain: Fans will not be in attendance for the foreseeable future.
NASCAR announced that its premier Cup Series season will restart without fans in less than two weeks, on May 17. The PGA Tour will restart June 11 with no fans for at least its first four events. They’ll follow in the footsteps of the WWE, which has held events, including Wrestlemania, without fans for two months.
The timeline is slower for major team sports leagues. They must account for more people – players, coaching staffs, officials, etc. – essential to the operation. Widespread testing for the coronavirus is considered a prerequisite. JORGE CASTILLO Los Angeles Times TNS
Major League Baseball suspended operations during spring training March 12, but officials are confident they can hold some form of a regular season. NBA officials remain hopeful the league can salvage its regular season and playoffs.
The NHL ruled out playing at neutral sites and the latest plan is to hold playoff games in NHL venues in four “hub” cities to minimize travel. It is considering playing into October and delaying the start of the 2020-21 season.
MLS will reopen training facilities for players next week and is tentatively scheduled to resume its season June 8. The WNBA is contemplating quarantining teams and playing in one neutral location. The NFL has time to wait it out.
None of the leagues are expected to have fans at games to start – and possibly into 2021.
It will be uncharted territory,
for the most part. Only MLB and the PGA Tour have held events without fans. The American Hockey League, the NHL’s top minor league, has also staged games without fans.
They were similar in their strangeness. Here’s a look at those few examples, and a peek into what temporarily will be our new normal.
MLB baseball (2015)
The only MLB game played without fans happened five years ago last week. The Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox played at an empty Camden Yards after unrest surfaced in response to Baltimore resident Freddie Gray’s death while in police custody.
Riots forced MLB to cancel the first two games of the series. The finale was moved from night to the afternoon to comply with the city’s curfew. The decision was made to not allow fans entry.
The Orioles won, 8-2. Music and the public address announcer echoed. Players pretended to sign autographs. A ball girl did her job, protecting the empty seats behind her.
After the game, Orioles first baseman Chris Davis, who hit a three-run home run in the first inning, compared the atmosphere to a spring training intrasquad game.
“When you’re rounding the base and the only cheers were from outside the stadium, it’s a weird feeling,” Davis told reporters.
PGA Tour Golf (2012, 2016)
The PGA Tour has held two full rounds without fans present: the third round of the 2012 AT&T National in Maryland and the final round of the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego. In both instances, fans weren’t allowed after inclement
weather caused damage and toppled trees.
The third round of the AT&T National was played after a windstorm ripped through the area the night before. The storm left more than 400,000 people and the course without power. The round began after a six-hour delay with the temperature nearing triple digits and debris on the course. Fans were allowed for the final round the next day and watched Tiger Woods win.
AHL hockey (2018)
Weather caused a more recent example in hockey. On Jan. 17, 2018, the American Hockey League’s Charlotte Checkers hosted the Bridgeport Sound Tigers at Bojangles’ Coliseum.
The arena was empty after 6 inches of ice and snow fell in the Charlotte, N.C., area and the Checkers discouraged fans from attending. The Checkers, won 4-3.
(Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images/TNS) TOP: Choi Jung a starting pitcher for SK Wyverns in the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), started in the league’s opening game between SK Wyverns and Hanwha Eagles on Tuesday. The game was played at the empty SK Happy Dream Ballpark in Incheon, South Korea. The 2020 KBO season started after being delayed from the original March 28 opening day due to the COVID-19 outbreak. BOTTOM: Chung Eun-won takes a hack during one of his at-bats for the Hanwha Eagles.
KBO to the Rescue Korean baseball catching on with sports-starved U.S. fans
VICTORIA KIM Los Angeles Times TNS
Former U.S. major league player Kim Hyun-soo sent the ball cracking over the left-field fence, marking the first home run of the long-awaited season of South Korea’s beloved baseball league.
But instead of basking in thunderous applause and hollers from adoring fans, Kim loped across home plate to a smattering of claps from a few dozen reporters and league employees. After scoring two runs for his Seoul-based LG Twins, Kim approached a teammate who waited with his arms up, but caught himself at the last second, narrowly avoiding a high-five – banned by the league as a coronavirus precaution. He bumped elbows with another teammate. Most of the stadium’s 25,553 seats – a tough get in a normal year for a game between the Twins and archrival Doosan Bears – were empty.
BASEBALL RETURNED to South Korea under drizzly and overcast skies Tuesday, a rare professional sporting league to resume games while much of the world remains under lockdown with no end in sight to the COVID-19 pandemic. The five-game opening day showed South Korea testing the waters for a cautious return to normalcy on a day the country reported just three new cases of the coronavirus, a sign that the virus’ community spread has largely been halted.
With ESPN reaching an eleventh-hour deal to broadcast Korea Baseball Organization games, a host of U.S. fans starved for live sports were turning to the Korean league, with its distinct culture and avid fandom. Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League, which started up April 11, has also gained a following among Americans watching online.
“Major League Baseball teams (in the U.S.) are more corporate, a little more sterile, not as passionate. The KBO feels like a college football game,” said Dan Kurtz, a longtime fan behind the site MyKBO.net. Kurtz said he was being inundated with messages from sports-deprived Americans in the lead-up to the season. “The KBO is going to fill that void, and that’s awesome.” The 144-game season, original
ly set to begin in late March, was pushed back a few times before getting underway with a number of precautions. A 44-page manual distributed to the league’s 10 teams outlined detailed protocols – including bans on high-fives and spitting, and the minimizing of player contact with the general public. All games will initially be conducted without spectators; the league has said it will consider phasing in a limited of number of fans at a later date.
ON THE FIELD in Seoul’s Jamsil Baseball Stadium on Tuesday, umpires and base coaches wore masks and gloves. The mascot for the home-team Twins – twin robot boys named Lucky and Star – also wore masks, as did the team’s cheerleaders and a drum squad that did its best to make up for the absence of fans. When they fell silent, an uncanny hush blanketed the stadium, interrupted only by the whiz of nearby traffic and the satisfying thwack of hits.
The quiet was especially odd in a stadium typically filled with songs and chants customized to each hitter and situation and boisterously belted out by fervent fans throughout the game.
“Without them, it’s a totally different animal,” said Twins pitcher Tyler Wilson, formerly of the Baltimore Orioles, who has been playing in South Korea since 2018. “Their energy and their passion and how into it they are, from the first pitch to the end, is what makes the games so special.”
Wilson, who didn’t play in Tuesday’s opening game, said that, during this year’s preseason games, it was so quiet he could hear the broadcasters’ commentary, conversations in the field and in the dugout, and even the sound of his own spikes going into the dirt.
PRECAUTIONS BEGAN long before opening day. Former Angels catcher Hank Conger, starting his first season as a battery coach with the Busan-based Lotte Giants, said players had been dining with plexiglass barriers between them in the lunchroom and wearing masks on the bus. Former teammates in the U.S. were eyeing the situation in Korea enviously, he said.
“For us to finally start is surreal,” he said. “Everybody sees my Instagram and sees us getting ready for the season, and they’re saying, ‘I can’t believe you guys are playing.’“
At the Giants’ game against the KT Wiz in Suwon – the teams are named after corporate sponsors rather than home cities – in lieu of a first pitch, a young fan encased in a clear plastic bubble shaped like a baseball walked from the mound to the home plate. In Incheon, where the Hanhwa Eagles played the SK Wyverns, banners with photos of fans in masks filled the bleachers to give the impression of crowds.
Kim Tae-hyoung, the manager of the defending champions, the Doosan Bears, told reporters he wasn’t quite sure how the coronavirus-related measures and delays would affect his team, but at the end of the day, he just wanted to win.
“This is a first for me too,” he said.
A reporter asked if he had remarks for viewers from the U.S. watching KBO games for the first time.
“Do I have to say that in English?” he said, to laughs. “Give us a lot of love please.”
OUTSIDE THE closed stadium gates, 25-year-old Kim Gwang-ho was among a handful of fans who showed up wearing team hats and jerseys. The longtime Twins fan watched the game on his cellphone while listening to what sounds he could make out over the stadium walls, and he was hoping for a selfie with a player after the game.
“I hope this corona situation ends so everyone can come and cheer them on, in time for fall baseball,” he said. “I hope they win the Korean series this year.”
After pulling ahead with Kim Hyun-soo’s early home run, the Twins beat the Bears, 8-2. By the end of the nearly three-hour game, gray skies had given way to a picture-perfect sunny day.
Kurtz of MyKBO.net, who is a Bears fan, said all of Korean baseball and its fans scored a win Tuesday with the international attention being paid to a league normally overshadowed by U.S. Major League Baseball. He said he hoped the country’s overlooked sports would receive some of the acclaim its music and movies had been getting of late.
“Prior to today, it was very niche ... . ‘Parasite’ won,” he said, referring to the South Korean Oscar-winning film, “so KBO, let’s do this next.”
