Melissa Kacar

"Missing Out". the lead single from Maya Hawke 's 2024 album Chaos Angel, is a sharp and self-aware reflection on her experience visiting a college town as an outsider. She grapples with the feeling that she may be missing out on an important coming-of-age chapter of life despite consciously choosing to take a different path.  Her songwriting is deeply specific and diaristic, not necessarily focused on being too relatable for the listener. Maya doesn't shy away being honest about her privileged, unconventional life and experiences growing up. "But I was born with my foot in thе door and my mind in the gutter and my guts on the floor", she sings.  Despite that, parts of this song are definitely very representative of the universal experience in your 20's and having disorienting feelings of imposter syndrome in a new environment. Lyrically it is self-depricating and funny as she sort of spirals within her own mind about this night. "Didn't think I...

MAITREYA CORSO feels like Maya Hawke 's most fully realized piece of storytelling yet - a record that is built on the beautiful, intentional writing that allows her talents to shine the brightest. The album's title comes from a persona that Maya created, who she said is a "...magical misfit, whose sheer inability to adapt to the surrounding world allows her to create a world of her own, and to explore the positive and negative power of the ego." Much of the album is rooted in the notion of questioning whether inner happiness and fulfillment is ever something to be fully achieved, or rather a never‑ending goal to persist and reach toward through the different seasons of life. The title itself reflects the duality at the heart of the project; Maitreya is drawn from Buddhist tradition and Corso is derived from the last name of Beat poet Gregory Corso. Together, they frame the album as something deeply personal and artful. It is often existential and easily her strongest...

"Carla's Song" by Harry Styles Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally  is here and it is such an incredible return to one of the defining artists of our time. One undeniable career highlight for Harry is the album's final track, "Carla's Song" . It's hard to even put into words how special this song is. It feels like a celebration of the music that shapes us and the people who enter our lives and change the way we listen, share, and connect. There's something so moving about the way he captures that exchange; how you show someone the songs you love, and they show you theirs, and suddenly your world is bigger because of it. It also feels like a beautiful reflection of the relationship between artist and listener, and the way he understands what his music represents to so many people right now in the moment, and also the ways in which this art will outlive all of us. As a closing track, it's powerful, emotional, and unlike anything I've hear...

Greetings from the Upside Down! My first visit to Netflix House Philadelphia was such a fun experience! This is a new attraction at the King of Prussia Mall, located just outside of the city. It opened last year and I have been looking forward to getting a chance to finally visit, but was waiting for them to inevitably have a Stranger Things installation here - and alongside the tenth anniversary of the first season premiering, the time has finally come!  Netflix House is free to enter, but the different attractions are all individually ticketed and paid, timed experiences. Even just stopping in to see the lobby and gift shop is a great time, especially with all of the photo ops throughout the space. Netflix House is in what used to be one of the old department stores that closed a few years ago at the mall and they completely transformed it into a really unique spot. They really nailed all of the theming and design - the way they incorporate their biggest original shows and films...