by Haleigh Ker | Oct 1, 2015 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider, Opinion
Whether you are interested in chrysanthemums, Polka dancing or the Day of the Dead — Nashville has a place for it all. A wide variety of festivals are happening in the Greater Nashville area in the month of October. Below is a list of prime, well-known locations in Nashville that offer affordable festivals and events. Cheekwood is known for it’s beautiful gardens and art showcasing. This year, Cheekwood Harvest is showing off all the colors of Autumn with it’s gorgeous chrysanthemums collection, cute scarecrows and a pumpkin patch that kids and kids-at-heart can buy and carve. Cheekwood Harvest will continue through Nov. 1. Along with the Harvest, Cheekwood is also hosting a “El Dia De Los Muertos” (“The Day of the Dead”) event on Oct. 24. It will provide authentic Latin American food, vendors showcasing their crafts, lively music, Aztec dancing and art activities that you can take part of, such as molding your own clay skull. All are worth the $14 entry ticket. The Hermitage always has annual fall events that are a Nashville favorite. Fall Fest at the Hermitage is huge craft fair with food, refreshments and activities abound. You’ll see anything from jewelry to leatherwork. There’s also a community art project that uses recyclables to represent vegetables and flowers of a garden. If you miss out on the Fall Fest, the Hermitage has another event on Oct. 24: Hauntings at the Hermitage. There’s a ghost tour at the mansion, along with great storytelling and hayrides. Every year since 1980, Nashville’s Germantown has hosted Oktoberfest. There is Polka-dancing, tasty German food to snack on, along with a marathon...
by Lana Sydenstricker | Sep 30, 2015 | News Slider, Opinion
Wondering what impact students and Lipscomb’s SALT (Serving and Learning Together) program are having on the Nashville community? I interviewed Bruce Krapf, operations manager of Thriftsmart, to see how his organization is impacted. Tell me more about Thriftsmart and how it impacts the community. Thriftsmart is a nonprofit thrift store that sells clothes and other household items. “One hundred percent of our profits benefit four locally based charities that are making an impact here and internationally. These are New Hope Academy, The Belize Project, African Leadership and Mercy Community Healthcare. We’ve given close to $500,000 total to our charities so far. We also host two programs in our Nashville store that help the refugee and immigrant community – namely sewing training through Sew for Hope and free ESL classes. Our GiveSmart program provides ThriftSmart gift cards to community organizations that help us collect donations, and through that, we’ve given over $200,000 in gift cards to local schools, churches and nonprofits to help them serve others in need.” What impact has the SALT department had on Thriftsmart? “Most notably are Dr. Capps’s training and development classes that have actually held class at our stores and produced training materials we could use in operations. Also, Professor Smith in the business communications area engaged her students to develop a crises management manual for Thriftsmart. The range of engagement is from the one-time volunteer student to the semester class that builds sustainable models and gives students real-world experiences. I think this describes both our relationship and the impact of SALT on Thriftsmart and I just want to add that Lipscomb students are among the best volunteers...
by Erin Turner | Aug 12, 2015 | News Slider, Opinion
You may notice our website looks a little different today… This past spring marked Lumination Network’s fifth birthday. While celebrating Lumination’s past, we were also very excited for future projects — which included this completely new website. This is Lumination’s third website design. I hope you’ll take a tour of the new site and find it much easier to navigate. One thing that has remained the same is the way stories are featured on the homepage. The top five most recent stories will always appear on our homepage. From the homepage you can also easily view stories from heavily-populated categories such as A&E, Sports and Photo Galleries. This allows you easy access to stories and photos of events around campus in which you may be featured! You can also find additional categories, our TV and Radio pages and a search bar at the top right corner. And, of course, we’re not done yet… nor plan to finish in the near future. As the field of journalism is constantly evolving, it is our hope to remain in close parameters with other online news sources. With the new website, Lumination Network will continue to provide daily updates in news, sports, arts and entertainment and academics. This work could not have been done without web designer, Jeff Loper. We would like to give special thanks to Jeff and his team for making this redesign possible. We would also like to thank Daniel Johnson, our web developer here at Lumination, for his work over the summer in helping craft this new and improved site. I remain grateful for the opportunity to work closely with these two and...
by Rebekah Stogner | Jun 20, 2015 | Arts and Entertainment, Opinion
I knew from the instant I saw the trailer that this movie was either going to be excellent or terrible. When I got to the theater to see it, I had to wait almost an hour for a showing that wasn’t sold out since it was a rainy Friday afternoon on opening day. Luckily, it was well, well worth it. Currently holding a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and climbing to the top of the box office as of writing this, Inside Out is proof that Pixar’s original movies are unbeatable in animation, story and just about everything else. This whimsical story follows the emotions Fear, Joy, Sadness, Anger, and Disgust in the head of 11-year-old Riley during a life changing move to San Fransisco with her family. When her personality begins to drastically change as a result, it’s up to the emotions to work together and bring everything back to a perfect balance. This movie is absolutely flawless. The human designs are amazing to look at, a long way even from Up, the studio’s last original film. The designs of the emotions are adorable and perfect. Each of the sections of Riley’s head, including imagination, dreams, long term memory and more are all colorful and delightful to look at. The way the movie explains how the mind works is simple enough for children, yet made so much sense to me as an adult. I think this movie caters even more to adults than children, with the stunning originality and hilarious voice acting, especially by Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith and Lewis Black as Joy, Sadness and Anger respectively. There’s...
by Rebekah Stogner | Jun 7, 2015 | Arts and Entertainment, Opinion
I can be spontaneous sometimes. I got off work at 9 p.m. on a Friday night and saw a friend of mine Tweet, “Someone go see Insidious 3 with me.” I responded, “Okay,” jokingly of course, only to have him reply that he was serious and wanted to go see the movie in an hour at the last showtime of the night. At that point, I really couldn’t say no, so here we are. Sitting at a 61% Rotten Tomatoes rating (though I believe it deserves higher), and in the top three at the box office as of writing this, Insidious: Chapter 3 is actually a prequel to the two films before it. It follows a young girl named Quinn Brenner, whose mother passed away from cancer, as she seeks the help of saga psychic Elise Rainier, who has recently given up use of her other-worldly power due to an entity that haunted her. As Elise tries to contact Quinn’s mother, she accidentally summons a horrifying demon, named “The Man Who Can’t Breathe,” who begins to attach himself to Quinn and wreak havoc. I have a love-hate relationship with horror films, usually. I enjoy the thrills and haunting atmospheres (as well as the screaming audience members in the showings with me), but usually not the acting or much of the setup. Here, I thought the setup and performances were very interesting. Newcomer Stefanie Scott did a great job steering away from the horror movie teenage girl cliches, and Lin Shaye delivers a strong performance as Elise. Much of the second and third acts of the movie focus on her backstory and abilities,...
by Rebekah Stogner | May 30, 2015 | Arts and Entertainment, Opinion
I remember three years ago when a former voice coach gave me two free passes to see some movie called Pitch Perfect. I passed, thinking that it looked incredibly stupid and would probably bomb at the theaters. Oh, how far we have come. Currently the reigning movie at the box office with 66% on Rotten Tomatoes, Pitch Perfect 2 is the second big blockbuster of the summer that girls everywhere (and probably a few boys) are flocking to see. Even though the movie’s been out for over two weeks, a large group of high school girls and even two grandmothers piled into the matinee I saw. As a fan of the original movie (and a capella singing in general), I was really hyped to see this. I adore Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld and was excited to hear more amazing mashups of popular songs through beat-boxing and harmonies. My main problem with this movie is the amount of rehashing of the plot and the jokes. In 2012, we saw the Barden Bellas struggle to redeem their boring routine with the help of newcomer Beca and go on to win the national title. Here, we see them struggle to redeem the world-renowned status of their group after a mishap at a national performance with the help of newcomer Emily as they try to win the world title. Fat Amy and creepy Lily’s one-liners have the same formula as before, even though Wilson improvises most of her lines, and the jokes relating to racial and sexual minorities still play to the lowest common denominator of their stereotypes. Sequels are supposed to...
