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...and the Grammy Goes to... BY BRITANI BEASLEY ___________________________________________ On Sunday, January 6th of 2014, musicians of many different backgrounds and genres arrived to a night of dancing, speeches and fashion for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. Hosted by the talented LL Cool J, this was a night that the stars and the fans will remember! After Beyoncé and Jay Z opened the night with a performance of her hot song, “Drunk In Love,” Katy Perry entertained with a shady performance of “Dark Horse.” Pink majestically flew through the air and showed her emotional and physical strength during her dual performance of her popular song “Try,” and her duet with Nate Ruess of “Give Me a Reason,”. These were not the only chart-toppers making news at the 2014 Grammy Awards; Chicago also s...

The Best of Sundance Film Festival 2014: Whiplash Scores Top Honors BY CHRISTYNA PHILLIPS ____________________________________________________ The Sundance Film Festival is best known as the land of Filmmakers & Celebrities, Mountain Chic Fashion and Glamorous Festivities. The festival is a calling card for those hoping to break into the film world. Social Entrepreneurs flocked to Park City, Utah where 119 feature films were chosen from 4,057 submissions which included tons of short films. This year, Whiplash completely dominated and took home both the "Grand Jury Prize" and "Audience Award for Dramatic Feature." Damien Chazelle's debut feature, about a tense relationship between a teacher and student at a New York music school, scored big at this year's fest. J.K. Simmons stars as...

Frozen: A Movie Review BY KIMBERLY BENNETT _________________________________________ In Ancient Greek, there are four different words to describe feelings of love: agape, eros, philia and storge. Most spiritual books and films, such as Facing the Giants, Courageous and Janette Oke’s Love Comes Softly series, focus on agape love, where God’s love is unconditional and selfless towards all humankind. Many romantic works, like the Harlequin books, E. L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey and James Cameron’s Titanic, center on eros—where the attraction between two lovers is mostly physical or sexual. Sherlock Holmes is a great example of philia—a bromantic love through friendship between its main characters, Sherlock and Watson. However, Disney’s newest movie, Frozen—directed by Chris Buck and Jen...

Beauty & the Beast ~ TV Series Review BY KIMBERLY BENNETT _________________________________________ Before Oct. 11, 2012, I had never come across a television show worth obsessing over. If you ask me, I would admit to watching anime, Boy Meets World, Cold Case, Numbers, 24, Ghost Whisperer, The Vampire Diaries, The Secret Circle, etc., but not one of these shows can compare to the die-hard love I feel for the CW’s sophomore series, Beauty & the Beast. CW’s Beauty & the Beast (BATB) is a modern remake of Ron Koslow’s 1987 three-season series. Before I started watching the series in 2012, I had never even heard of its forerunner starring Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton. In fact, I thought the re-make would be more closely related to Disney’s Beauty & the Beast, but I was mist...

TV Review: How I Met Your Mother BY BRITANI BEASLEY __________________________________________ In September 2005, the voice of character Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) was introduced talking to his two kids in the year 2030 about how he met their mother. Throughout the seasons, Ted has been telling these stories towards the ultimate build-up of who exactly the mother is. Nine seasons later, on the 200th episode, we have finally discovered that the mother does, indeed, get introduced to the series, and she explains what she has been up to for the past eight years. Whether you relate to Ted, Marshall (Jason Segal), Lilly (Alyson Hannigan), Robin (Cobie Smulders) or Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), this show has left you with a ton of laughs and some tears as it entered its final season. The finale is...

Vol. 92, Iss. 1 Editors Kimberly Bennett Interim Editor-in-Chief / Interim Web Designer Natalie Van Booven Assistant Editor Chris Streetman  Assistant Editor Mindy Allen Assistant Editor In This Issue Allison Barrows Kimberly Bennett Natalie Van Booven Megan Doty Katie Herath Emily Lucia Chris Streetman The McKendree Review is a student-run organization of McKendree University. The mission of The McKendree Review is to give students the opportunity to learn the news process and publish articles pertaining to their opinions and ideas. The staff does not agree with all statements and opinions, which rightfully belong to their writers. The McKendree Review Office can be found in Eisenmeyar 208 on the McKendree Campus, at 701 College Rd., Lebanon, IL, 62254. Staff can be reached by email at...

The Storm of November 17th, 2013 Written by: Kimberly Bennett Many of you know about the storms that swept across the Midwest last Sunday. The damage of the storm was extensive, impacting 8 states of the Midwestern region: Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. Weather.com has provided a detailed report of the storm's damage, state by state. Please take time to acknowledge the extent of the storm: http://www.weather.com/news/weather-severe/severe-outbreak-aftermath-updates-20131117 While several families in St. Clair County lost their power for many hours last Sunday, unfortunately three students of McKendree University lost their homes amongst the damage. President Dennis sent out an email a day or so after the storm regarding several opportunit...

The Syrian Diaspora: Political Palliative No More Written by: Natalie Van Booven (As of Sept. 30th) How long can a month last—not in a chronological sense, but in an emotional sense? If the ado coming from Washington over how to handle Syria is any indication, then a month can seem like a cross between an eon and an eternity. Ever since pictures and reports of victims of gas attacks (mostly children) started to appear in late August, Pres. Obama and his team of functionaries have worked nonstop to thwart any further episodes of chemical warfare in Syria. The fighting in Syria and the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq differ most in how Washington handles the ensuing challenges and dilemmas. Obama has been wary of the military’s power ever since he allowed generals and civilian policymakers ...

The Last Codebreaker: the Life of Mavis Batey Written by Allison Barrows Multiple major news sites such as The Daily Beast, BBC News and The Washington Post announced that on November 17th, Mavis Batey, age 92, had died. Batey was a woman who had witnessed the world’s turn towards hell during World War II and had survived the cold, destructive, assertions of two superpowers. She had witnessed the world heal and hurt itself through multiple cycles of war. Batey, who took up a job as a garden historian after the war, was later revealed to be one of the top code breakers where she worked alongside some of the smartest minds during WWII. source: Telegraph CompanyBatey’s work contributed to breaking the Enigma Machine and was mostly based in Bletchley Park, Britain’s secret cryptography instit...