Thirteenth floor

I slipped into my mom’s Chevy Cobalt, that she most graciously borrowed me for the evening, and set my shopping bags on the passenger side floor. I fumbled around for the end of the auxiliary cord to plug in my phone. It took me almost two minutes before I actually turned the car on. I like to check my social media apps, text messages, and choose a song to play before heading off to my destination…

A. M Holmes’ May We Be Forgiven and T. Geronimo Johnson’s Welcome to Braggsville both explore themes of gender. May We Be Forgiven was published in New York in 2012. It follows Harry Silver, a middle-aged author, as he navigates his divorce, his brother’s incarceration after murdering his own wife, and his relationship with with his niece and nephew (Nate and Ashley) after he becomes their legal guardian. Welcome to Braggsville was also published in New York, three years later. It follows D’aron…

uncomfortable work clothes and into my usual attire. I exit my apartment building and briskly walk down to the "café", after the day I had I was in need of a drink. As always I enter the flower shop, walk down the stairs, count the brick, knock on the thirteenth brick, door opens up, I enter. As I walk by the gangster I see Leroy already sitting at the bar, I excitedly skip up next to him and say hello. His eyes light up as he turns around to look at me. "Clara, you made it!" He beamed as he…

Sam Kean, a Washington D.C. writer with works in The New York Times Magazine, Mental Floss, Slate, The Believer, Air & Space, Science, and The New Scientist, has created a user-friendly book about how to explain the periodic table and the elements that occupy it by writing the book The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World From the Periodic Table of Elements. He provides an insight into the world of chemistry that relates to his audience, even…

The Cathedral of Santa Maria Annunziata is the most important Catholic place of worship in the city of Otranto. The cathedral, built on the ruins of a village, a Roman domus, and an Early Christian temple, was founded in 1068 by the Norman bishop William. It is a synthesis of different architectural styles including Byzantine, Christian, and Romanesque. It was consecrated on 1 August 1088 during the reign of Pope Urban II from the papal legate Roffredo, archbishop of Benevento. In August 1480,…

his semi-truck every once in a while to check on the mysterious infant, that miraculously came with its own car seat. Frank’s eyes started to water as he started thinking about what had just happened. Then he began to feel guilty, he missed his thirteenth anniversary for this? Frank knew his wife wanted kids, but her own, not some kid who got mixed up within a huge illegal drug deal, she probably couldn’t take care of kids right now either. It was one a.m., he pushed on thinking about the reward…

Since the beginning of the thirteenth century with the creation of lasagna sheets and fermented cheese, humanity has had a craving for macaroni and cheese. More than eight centuries later, macaroni and cheese has become a household item, although now it is referred to using a simplified form: mac and cheese. The United States is very familiar with mac and cheese. Not only has it remained on the top ten list of comfort foods for the past decade, approximately one third of the U. S. population…

Assembled on either side of Waterloo Bridge is London's most vital expressions complex, the Southbank Center. Worked in 1951, this huge solid structure incorporates the Royal Festival Hall (home to instrumental and choral exhibitions), the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room. These settings offer a gigantic collection of music, and in addition an expansive determination of performing expressions including move and emulate, supper club and parody. The complex additionally incorporates the…

In this essay I will investigate the role of healing, music and dance in South Asian Sufism. This is a very relevant subject matter throughout the World as religious groups and tribes utilise the above activities in number of ways. Many religious groups partake in dance and musical activities for enjoyment and improved social life only where as other groups like Sufism do this to affect the human psyche and body. They see this as a way to soothe, incite, excite, distract and even heal one’s self…

Virtual Reality Put on these goggles, go nowhere, and be transported anywhere – Virtual Reality. Virtual reality is an artificial environment that is created with software and presented to the user in such a way that the user suspends belief and accepts it as a real environment. It is all about sensory experience, which includes virtual taste, sight, sound, smell, and touch. The origin of the term "virtual reality" can be traced back to the French playwright, poet, actor, and director Antonin…