‘CHARLIE’: Puth produces perfectly fine pop on imperfect third album

Share: Released on Oct. 7, “CHARLIE” shows 30-year-old Charlie Puth in the depths of romantic melodramas as he yearns, mourns, and details his past relationships with pop and rock influences spanning the 80s to now. Coming off of the heat of a 2018 Grammy-nominated album, Puth’s self-titled 2022 project continues the artistic exhibition of his divided attentions as an overtly intellectual,  perfectionist producer and a desperate-to-be-liked, but never-in-love singer-songwriter.  The first track, “That’s Hilarious”, starts off the album with a rebuttal to a pitiful and …

Check your dipstick! and other advice from PCC’s Auto department

Share: Students gather at every corner in the sizable garage of the automotive department at PCC. Cars are raised up on various lifts while each hub gathers to inspect the bowels like doctors primed to operate on their massive metal patients. Solid rear axles sit on table tops for students to master and inspect. Both students and instructors flood in to detail the mechanics behind our cars’ longevity. Jake Younger, a junior at PCC, had an interest in cars since he was a small boy. …

‘Don’t Worry Darling’ fails to serve suspense to its viewers

Share: While watching ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ there were a lot of questions. In fact, there are only questions. The unnecessarily long movie takes place in an experimental neighborhood designed to impersonate a perfect and safe community. Main characters Alice and Jack Chamber, played by Florence Pugh and Harry Styles respectively, live an ongoing honeymoon life with no kids and friends who act similarly.  What seemed like a tired version of the Disney Plus series, Wanda Vision, takes a turn into becoming a semi-thriller when Alice …

Finally, coffee is back on campus thanks to Cafe de Leche

Share: Tucked away by the E building and the library, Cafe de Leche invites lancers to try out its large assortment of drinks and pastries. Opened by Matthew and Anya Schodorf, Cafe de Leche has three other locations in the LA area, one in Highland park, another in Altadena, and its most recent directly on PCC’s campus. The couple were inspired to open a location at PCC because of Matthew’s history with the school. “My whole family speaks spanish so I took some classes here …

PCC’s screen report: What apps are we using?

Share: On a busy Wednesday afternoon students fill PCCs Piazza, a dining hall made to look like an Italian city square. Some students are socializing and eating, but most are working at their computers with earphones in and a notepad to the side. The rest are relaxing with nothing to do but gaze at their phones, but what exactly are they gazing at? PCC students are using social media to fill in the empty moments in their days, spending one to five hours of screen …

Slammed PCC students struggle to find the fun in reading

Share: Required reading dredges up dark thoughts of stress-induced headaches, avoidable all-nighters, and hard-earned grades for PCC students, but leisure reading is something different entirely.  Extracurricular reading is an aspiration, a fantasy in which homework, jobs, and every other thing that fills up Google Calendars doesn’t exist, in which anticipated books don’t have to be things that will be finished when “someday” comes, and yet some students are still trying to make it a reality. One of these students is Bridget Perez, a third-year child …

‘Sanctuary’ not guaranteed for those living in America’s margins in ‘Sanctuary City’

Share: Pasadena Playhouse’s ‘Sanctuary City’ unflinchingly examines the devastation wrought by unkept promises.  In 2001, in Newark, New Jersey a high school girl, known only to the audience as G bangs desperately on the window of her best friend, B, begging to be let in. Something happened at home, something that’s happened a hundred times before and is going to happen a hundred times again. But, in spite of the late hour, his Mother sleeping in the other room, B lets G in where she …

‘Tune out all the noise’: PCC students set study habits to music

Share: During an end-of-summer afternoon, the sun reflects off the shiny Center for the Arts building as PCC Freshman Alex Peña sits on the grass in front. While enjoying their lunch, they tell the story about their finicky process of finding peace through Rock and K-Pop music while studying for their Public Health Science degree. “Well, I have ADHD, so if I’m not listening to music, I’m listening to everything else,” says Peña. “So when I listen to music, it just helps me tune out …

PCC students rely on their devices for better or worse

Share: Laying in bed at 10 pm listening to the latest, greatest hits before drifting into slumber is a novel treat that many of us take for granted. In a day and age where humankind is afforded such luxuries at the tip of a finger, one can almost forget that it was not so long ago when such instant gratification was nearly nonexistent. During the course of the last 20 years or perhaps more exclusively the last decade, an entire new platform of electronics has …

The Courier’s guide to eating in PCC’s food wasteland

Share: At Pasadena City College there are many different ways students can stay focused on their classes while eating a delicious snack or meal. When trying to balance school, work, and life, maintaining healthy eating habits can become difficult. Finding time before class to pack a lunch is not always an option for students. Thankfully, PCC provides different resources for students to satisfy their hunger on campus and off campus with the help of local businesses.  “My friends and I like to eat at Teddy’s …