All posts by Stohion Staff

2025-2026, Entertainment, Reviews

Lillias Movie Memoirs: ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ Sunshine

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Lillias Cummings / Copy Editor

     If you had the choice to erase someone and every memory you ever had with this person, do you think you would take the chance to? After watching the movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” the answer became crystal clear to me.

      The movie follows Joel and Clementine, played by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet respectively, in their troubled relationship and Clementine’s choice to erase Joel from her memory after their very intense breakup. After Joel finds this out, he decides to undergo the same procedure to erase Clementine from his memory. He comes to regret the decision midway through the procedure as he attempts to grasp on to any memory he has of Clementine.

     There is so much to unpack in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” This movie changed the entire way I thought about my memories and how they connect to me as a person. I genuinely had to sit with myself and just think about some of my worst memories and what I would do if I could erase them.

     Even if our memories are bad, does that mean we should erase them? Or are those memories another part of your story that make you who you are? 

     I believe memories are what set you apart from the person standing next to you. All those experiences you have, whether they are good or bad, make up who you are as a person. Without them, you have nothing to make you different, or an individual in any way: Everything about us comes back to our memories and experiences. 

     The thought and care that went into the filming of this movie is absolutely insane. It plays out in such a non-linear and almost messy way, almost like how we recall our own memories.

     When we recall our memories, they are most of the time not going to be flawless and often will have parts left out or are overly emphasized. The director, Michel Gondry, recreates how we process our own memories so well it’s almost unsettling. 

     Specifically, I think of the scene where Joel is chasing after Clementine. He gets out of his car to go get her, and as he attempts to walk in her direction, he sees the exact car he just got out of but not in the place he parked it. He turns around to see Clementine walking in the opposite direction. As he runs after her again, he ends up right in front of his car yet again, like the memory just keeps flipping–similar to our own memories, which can be flipped completely from the original experience.

     Not only is the display of memories so elaborately done, but the little things you can pick up about the characters and the way they live just by their exterior is so well done. 

     When you watch the movie, you notice the constant changing of Clementine’s hair–she says she loves to change it and can never stick to one color. As the movie progresses and you see more of her personality, you realize the changing of her hair directly correlates to her impulsive nature and her need to never be tied down to one thing. 

     The same goes for Joel: When the people come to his house to do the procedure to remove Clementine from his memory, they make little comments about how it’s so “plain and uninspired,” in his apartment. Similar to his personality, which is the complete opposite of Clementine, he’s very reserved and just kind of a plain guy. This is just one of the many small but significant details that Gondry puts into the film, and that I love.

     But that’s not even close to the end of it. The casting for the movie is beyond perfect. When I think of Jim Carrey I always think of him in his silly roles like “The Grinch” and “Dumb and Dumber,” but to me this is easily his best role. Taking on such a serious role, as someone who mostly does silly things, I can only imagine is very hard, but he makes it look so easy. He did it so well that I cried twice simply because of him and Kate Winslet’s incredible acting. Winslet plays her role as an impulsive and unstable person so well that there were many times that her character made me so angry, but simultaneously sorry for her.

     The end of the movie is just the cherry on top of the really sad ice cream. It wasn’t a bad ending, but it also wasn’t a happy ending. To me, the ending felt hopeful yet somewhat somber. There was hope for their relationship, but I was left also knowing it would fail (again). 

     “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is a must watch if you are a movie analyzer and like to look deeper than what’s on the surface. Overall, I could talk endlessly about how intricate and incredibly done this movie was created. (9.8/10)

Community, Front/Home

A gift to the community: Stows very own art lady brings joy to drivers passing by

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By: Trevor Ing/ Editor In Chief

Stow legend, known to the community as the “Art Lady,” sits on Graham Road in her wheelchair nearly everyday showing drawings with a smile on her face. 

     For the past six years, the Stow community or people who happen to be driving on Graham Road after the Fishcreek intersection, see Forty-seven-year-old Shauna Pope, who sits at the base of the Adult Living Facility holding up pictures of art.

Shauna Pope sits at the base of the driveway to the Adult Living Facility on Graham Road.

     Pope grew up on the north side of Akron, moving high schools frequently from North, to central, to Wadsworth. Her high school career was filled with positivity and activity, but her life changed on a random day in 1998. 

     “I was walking down the bridge, and I got hit by a vehicle in the back of the head. I fell 150 feet off the bridge, and the cells in my head got severed,” Pope said.

     Pope was a nurse’s assistant for Valley Vue Hospital and was simply walking home, when all of a sudden this accident caused her to enter a coma for 13 days. After she woke up, Pope began seeing visions, many of which would eventually come true.

     “I saw visions in my head, and I saw where I live right now, and it’s weird because I knew I was going to live here,” Pope said. 

     Pope continues to have these visions even today, and instead of just thinking about them, she now puts them on paper.

     “I see cars going by and these beautiful beautiful visions, and I just said, ‘Well, you know what? Let me copy these visions I see on paper and let me draw these people,’” Pope said.

     Funny enough, these people the Pope drew, eventually started to appear in front of her. As if she was seeing the future, almost everyday people who looked very similar to the person she drew that day would come up to her.

Illustration by: Shauna Pope

     “[One time] I drew a man with purple hair with a pink, green and yellow striped shirt, and the same man walked up to me. He said, ‘This is a nice picture, but how do you know me?’ I looked at him, and I was like, ‘Whoa, what? This looks just like him,’” Pope said. “I was like, ‘Woah, I didn’t know I was drawing you.’”

     This gift Pope was given is something she believes to be truly special, and she gives God credit for her ability, believing in the philosophy: “God gave me a gift, so I’m gonna use it.”

     “God gives you certain things that help you,” Pope said. “Don’t ignore what God gives you in life.”

     Putting her faith in Christianity, Pope lives to uphold one main part of her religion from the Bible: “Love thy neighbor.” Pope upholds this value in the best way she knows how–“just smile.”

     However this was not always the case. Throughout the past six years of showing off her artwork, Pope learned just how powerful a smile really is.

     “Maybe somebody else is going through a bad time or you’re going through a bad time, too. If you smile, it’s not going to go away, but just seeing you smile, you’re going to brighten up their day,” Pope said.

     Along with staying positive, Pope believes people are so caught up in the future that they start to forget about the present. She mentions how she will see people walking around that look like “zombies” because they are so stressed thinking about life. Pope believes this epidemic is starting to make the world a less positive place.

Illustration by: Shauna Pope

     “Everybody’s going through trouble. Everyone’s going through stress. The whole world’s not happy. The whole world’s down,” Pope said. “I just wish that people would work together. If people would just work together on things it would just make [the world] a better place.”

     In Pope’s perfect vision, she sees the world as one big amusement park where what you look like, what you wear or how you act does not matter at all. A place where everyone joins together to help each other, and where everyone “is their own president.”

     In her park, the color of someone’s skin or race they are does not matter. 

     “Who gives a whoot what color you are. I mean, just be happy with what you are and what you’re given. Life is a gift, so use it,” Pope said.

     Pope wishes for the day the world can become more together and positive as a whole. The one thing she wishes everyone would do is just simply “smile.”

     “Just smile,” Pope said. “Forget about yesterday. Forget about next year. Live for now, not in the past, not in the future but for now.”

Feature, Front/Home

Professional wrestling creates art through stories

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By: Copper Gregg /Copy Editer

 The music industry is an ever changing landscape, fueled by constant technological advancements and means of production. Despite this continuous change, one particular method of releasing music has remained the standard: albums. 

     Years ago, the album model of releasing music just made sense. With music being exclusively physical, albums allowed listeners to purchase one vinyl, compact disc or cassette, giving them access to a good number of songs by their artist of choice.

     It also allowed artists to release a number of songs at once. Releasing one song at a time would likely not go well as people would have to buy a physical copy of each individual song. 

     Now living in a world where music is easily accessible at any time online, it is no longer “necessary” for artists to put out full albums. Musicians in the past have released singles; however, releasing an individual song has never been easier with streaming services.

     This begs the question; why are albums still so important today? 

Photo by: Copper Gregg

     Albums allow an artist to go far beyond the creativity of simply releasing individual songs. There’s so much more that goes into an album than a single which lets an artist truly make a large and meaningful work of art.

     The physical aspect of albums is also up for question as many artists to this day still release physical copies of their records. This once again allows for an immense amount of creativity from an artist.

     With modern production methods, the possibilities for unique vinyl records in particular feel nearly endless. Many artists have, and continue to do unique things to the actual disks, like different colors, printed images and patterns, zoetrope effects or different shaped vinyl altogether. The band Glass Animals, for example, released a decagon shaped pressing of  their album “ILYSFM.”

     The other reason why the physical aspect of albums is so special is the simple process of actually listening to it. By using physical media, you add an additional tactile element to the listening experience. With vinyl, there’s something almost ritualistic about putting the record on the turntable, cleaning it and placing the needle in the grooves that makes the listening experience so much more enjoyable.

     Album covers are also a massively important aspect of what makes them so special. The album cover itself can tell a story, and iconic album covers, such as Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon,” or Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors,” often transcend the album itself and become culturally significant independently of the actual songs.

     One specific type of album is the pinnacle of why albums are so important and relevant to this day: concept albums.

    A concept album is when the album as a whole tells a greater story or shared theme, which allows for artists to tell a much larger and more complex story than is possible in one song. 

Photo by: Copper Gregg

     Glass Animals’ “How to Be a Human Being,” on its own is a great album that has many catchy and well-made tracks. What makes this record so special is the theming that connects all of the songs. Every song is a story that the band was told while on tour, and each song corresponds to a character displayed on the cover of the album. 

     The album would function completely fine without this added layer of story, but its addition is what makes this album have the emotion and nuance that it has. 

     Other concept albums tell one continuous story that typically follows one or multiple characters. 

     An example of this is My Chemical Romance’s “The Black Parade,” which tells the story of a man dying of cancer, reflecting on his life. 

     There is no one size fits all formula for concept albums, and it’s partially because of this fact that concept albums remain so unique and important. Each one tells its own unique story that is different from all the others. 

     The artistry and creativity facilitated by the idea of albums is justification enough for keeping them around. For musicians who care about their craft and want to express themselves and their artistic strength as much as possible, the album still reigns supreme as the way to do so.