On July 18, Riverside introduced its newest addition to its already long list of nearby boba shops. Krak Boba opened up at 3907 Chicago Ave Suite B, Riverside, CA also known as where Roasting Waters used to be. Being a boba connoisseur myself, I was ecstatic to see what this new boba place offered, so I waited for the perfect time to review the drinks offered at Krak Boba to see just how addicting they are, if at all. 

I went on Friday, Oct. 16 with two friends. As soon as I opened the door and walked into Krak Boba for the first time, it seemed like I was transported to a different place. The inside was very well lit and aesthetically pleasing. The walls were covered in color coordinated art work with the boba shop’s signature logo and colors. There was even a wall with a sitting bench which would have made for a perfect photo opportunity if not for COVID-19. There were also tables that were now closed off with cute décor. 

After taking in the beauty of the boba shop it was time to order. Their menu consisted of an extensive list of possibilities. Their signature drinks looked aesthetically pleasing and delicious. After a bit of debate, my friends and I settled on three drinks and the Krak Bread, which was listed on their munch menu. The three drinks we got were a Brown Sugar Milk Tea with boba and almond milk for a whopping $6.05, a Tropical Paradise for $5.45 and Sun Bright with lychee for $5.15. The least expensive item ordered was their Krak Bread for $3.99. The total came out to $20.64, which is probably the most I have ever paid at a boba shop. I hoped that the drinks would save me from feeling bad about the price. 

Due to COVID-19, my friends and I all took the drinks back home and poured our drinks into small cups to be able to taste them. We began by tasting the Brown Sugar Milk tea, the most expensive drink we had bought. We each tasted the drinks and all gave each other a look. After a few minutes of silence, my friend stated, “It tastes how brown sugar smells,” and he was exactly right. The drink was overly sweet — all you could taste was the sweetness. I could not even taste the boba pearls because it was way too sugary. The only reason our friend, Jacob, finished his drink was because he pointed his straw at the very top and drank it like that. With that method, he was able to avoid the sweetness yet was essentially just drinking almond milk. On a scale of 1 through 10, he gave it a 3 and advised people not to try it, yet he appreciated the fact that Krak Boba offered milk substitutes for their drinks. 

The second drink we each tried was Tropical Paradise, a ginger ale drink with assorted fruits and it tasted exactly like that. It was an interesting and unique take on a “boba drink” with the carbonated ginger ale. The assorted fruits included were real orange slices and strawberries. It is a drink that I did not like, mainly because I do not like carbonated drinks, but my two friends really liked it. On a scale of 1 through 10, my roommate gave it a 6. 

The last drink we tried was my Sun Bright. When I saw it on the menu, it made me excited to try. Sun Bright is a honey green tea with passion fruit, lemon and orange. The first sip I took left me disillusioned. All I tasted was the lemon and orange and could only find small traces of passionfruit at the very bottom via the seeds left in the drink. It was decent for a green tea yet left me wanting more. Since I had added lychee to my drink, it tasted a little bit better, but not by much. On a scale of 1 through 10, I gave it a 5. I personally did not enjoy this drink and found it to be underwhelming, which seems to be the case for most of the drinks I had tried. 

After being left confused and a little sad, we finally reached for the Krak Bread, a garlic cream cheese bread, and probably the least expensive item on their menu not counting toppings. It looked so beautiful and smelled so good. Being a garlic fan myself I found myself drooling over this Krak Bread and for the first time I had the slightest bit of hope that I would finally enjoy something off their menu. After my first bite I was proven wrong. Despite it smelling savory it was overwhelmingly sweet. I knew that it had cream cheese in the description and expected a sweet and savory treat but was dissatisfied that it was just sweet. There was the slightest hint of garlic in the bite I had but everything else was just sweet. 

Overall, I did not enjoy my experience at Krak Boba. Their drinks are on the pricier side and is a reason why I will not be coming back. If you have a sweet tooth however this might be the spot for you. Or if you would like a milk tea with milk substitutes to avoid uncomfortable experiences in the bathroom this is the place to go. The Krak Bread was probably the best thing I had tasted from Krak Boba and I did not like it much. For the price I do not find it worth it as I could get cheaper and better boba at different locations.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Is Krak Boba as addicting as it claims to be? appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Kotyuk’s ECONOMY REVIEW

SUPER TUESDAY TRANSITION

Fear of the Corona Virus in the United States shot to the ceiling sending the market reeling and opening the trap door in the market. This added extreme volatility and massive swings in the market. All domestic indices fell into correction territory. A correction, as I have shared before to you all, is a drop of more than 10%. If you remember this has been a long time coming and we were way overdue for it.

COVID-19, the Corona Virus, breached across the globe and into our comfort zone area. There are now two different strains. 93,000 people worldwide are infected and deaths are at 3,100. The President has weighed in and government funds are being deployed to strengthen the firewall against any outbreak in the United States.

It seems imminent that this is going to heavily impact the global economy as China’s factories shuttered. With this coming at the U.S. economy the Federal Reserve cut Fed Rates by a half a percent in a proactive way to bolster the economy. More cuts maybe on their way. There is uncertainty now on how the earnings outlook will be for corporations and this raises the risk of a recession.

I suggest that based on your portfolio and discipline that you start nibbling at your buy list and adding to your positions. Remember, the lower you buy them more risk you take out of them and the more upside you have. In addition, if you have any defensive positions against the market, I would urge you to reduce or eliminate those positions. The same goes for any fixed income positions you took to park your cash. Bonds should be up in value due to the Fed’s dropping rates. Take the profits. Lastly, if you have losers a down market is no-brainer to sell these and rotate them into a growth position. I would recommend to take your base positions in the broad indices such as the S&P500, the Dow Industrials, and the NASDAQ. You will have diversity and performance similar to the market. Use this Super Tuesday to transition your portfolio.

Lastly, my friends it’s time for me take a break from my weekly writings. I have enjoyed discussing my thoughts and it was during an exciting time of lows and highs and lows again in the market. Hopefully you have some new tools in your toolbox. I am a candidate for State Assembly to represent a good portion of the San Jacinto and need to dedicate my time to this and winning. I look forward to representing you all in Sacramento.

If you have questions on a particular company or investment and would like our feedback, contact us at my email below. Our team will research and respond to you with our recommendation and opinion.

Andrew F. Kotyuk, CIMA* is CEO and Principal of Alpha Wealth Management LLC. For questions or investment topics please email me afkotyuk@alpha-wealth.com.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

Search: Super Tuesday Transition

The post SUPER TUESDAY TRANSITION appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Kotyuk’s ECONOMY REVIEW

Real numbers being released in China started a risk of attitude in the market. Following this news broke that South Korea had new cases which has now jumped to 1,146 cases and 11 deaths. A U.S. soldier stationed in South Korea has tested positive. Also, Iran reported infections which are the highest death toll outside of China. In Europe, several countries have announced their first Coronavirus cases, with all appearing to be linked to the growing outbreak in Italy. Austria, Croatia Switzerland said the cases involved people who had been to Italy, as did Algeria and Africa. The first positive virus test has been recorded in Latin American, a Brazilian who just returned from Italy. Italy now has 300 cases and 11 deaths. This news crashed Wall Streets’ bull market party.

Monday and Tuesday, the market fell nearly 7% in total with the S&P500 lost an estimated $1.737 trillion value in two days. Riskier assets are being fled amid intense fears over a possible global slowdown over the deadly Coronavirus. The two-day loss was the largest since August of 2015. This also saw the 10-year Treasury note fell to a record low of 1.32%. Health officials at the Center for Disease Control stated it was “likely” to continue to spread throughout the United States and the American public should “prepare for the expectation that is going to be bad.”

It is clear that investors are clearly expecting more bad news and rather than wait for it to come, they are selling now to keep the powder dry. Signs were evident that electronics and the auto industries that the slowdown is already happening, which will be a drag on growth. Investors have raced into bonds for safety. Early this year, I discussed SARS and this same pattern possibly happening. The market should reverse once news breaks that the virus has been contained. For now, though, it appears to have turned into a Pandemic. The next resistance level is around 3,000 for the S&P500. Once it breaks through that, the next level is 2850.

Hopefully, you are prepared and have taken my warnings to rebalance and take profits, followed by parking some of it in bonds, other safe havens or negatively correlated positions. Keep to your game plan here and don’t get emotional. Rotate your dry power and profits back into key positions at the prices you have identified. Those prices should be sale prices and it may be too early to do so right now. That’s okay. Wait. Let the market come to you.

As you may or may not know, after a long party, a hangover takes time to go away and it usually gets worse before it gets better. I always enjoy being the one without a hangover and having a productive day while the suffering is going on.

If you have questions on a particular company or investment and would like our feedback, contact us at my email below. Our team will research and respond to you with our recommendation and opinion.

Andrew F. Kotyuk, CIMA* is CEO and Principal of Alpha Wealth Management LLC. For questions or investment topics please email me afkotyuk@alpha-wealth.com.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

Search: Market has Corona Hangover

The post MARKET HAS CORONA HANGOVER appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Tigers Remain On Top

Week 8 is in the books and the season is beginning to wind down. San Jacinto High School (SJHS) Dominated Hemet High in the Battle of the Bell last week, which resulted in some off-field nastiness (see our story a too-physical coach elsewhere in this edition), but what else happened around the League?

Beaumont traveled down to Hemet to play the Tahquitz Titans. Beaumont scored 55 points in the game and Tahquitz only posted 7. Beaumont’s starting quarterback Edward Mcculloch posted up 172 passing yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for one touchdown. Beaumont’s pair of running backs, Sadiq Randolph and Jonathan Solis ran for 131 yards and 4 touchdowns against Tahquitz. This was a great game for Beaumont who improves to 7-1 on the season and 2-1 against league opponents. Their only loss came from San Jacinto in week 6 of the season. 

Citrus Hill also made the trip to Hemet, but they went to West Valley and took on the Mustangs. On paper, Citrus Hill should have put on a beating, but West Valley (WV) came out and made this game a dog fight. WV’s defense held together and shut down Citrus Hill offense: WV limited their offense to only 14 points, which is impressive considering Citrus has averaged over 30 points a game this season. West Valley showed that when they come together and play as a team they have what it takes to play with the big dogs. Unfortunately their offense struggled to gain any momentum and they couldn’t get on the scoreboard until the third quarter. West Valley also lost one of their key playmakers, Rueben Rivera to an injury, which didn’t help their offense. 

At the end of this week, there’s no new shift in the standings. San Jacinto is still on top with a 6-2 record and is 3-0 against league opponents. Citrus Hill and Beaumont are tied for second/third place with 7-1 overall records and 2-1 in league play. Hemet and Tahquitz are tied for fourth/fifth place both have a 4-4 record but are only 1-2 in league. Finally West Valley is at the bottom of the pack with a 2-6 overall record and are currently 0-3 in league.

This was a great week for Mountain Pass League teams and the competition was stiff, as all the teams are eyeing a position in the playoffs.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

Search: Mountain Pass League

The post Mountain Pass League Football, Week 8 Review appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Contrary to popular belief, the modern era is not the best for comic book films. In the past films, based on comic book characters, could be made with deviations and innovations which would be welcomed by the public. Today fans are more adamant about accuracy and staying true to the source material. This phenomenon has made innovation difficult for filmmakers. Nevertheless, Todd Phillips seems to have come out on top with his latest film Joker.

Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix, was screened at the Venice Film Festival where it received a lot of praise for its storyline as well as performances. The film has been anticipated ever since its first trailer was released but going by the reactions it seems that the film goes beyond expectations. Some reviews stated that Phoenix’s performance had ushered in a new era for the character.

The Joker’s personality was first defined on the big screen by Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson. Staying true to his roots, the character went a massive change with Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the character in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Now it seems that Joaquin Phoenix has created a new benchmark with his portrayal. The exciting thing about his role is that it goes with a different origin story than the comics or the previous Joker portrayals. The character’s origin story has always been that he fell into a vat of acid during a robbery, which resulted in his face, hair, and lips getting discolored as well as the person going insane.

Phoenix, on the other hand, has an entirely new iteration of the character going into depression living in a cynical society driving him crazy. Following this, he puts on makeup to look like a clown. It seems that the execution of the concept has impressed audiences. They also claimed that Phoenix’s Joker is possibly “one of DC’s most frightening villains on the big screen.”

Setting his portrayal apart from the previous ones is something Phoenix had kept in mind when he first started working on the film. Talking about this at a press conference, he stated, “The attraction to make this film was that we were going to approach it in our way. I didn’t want a psychiatrist to be able to identify his personality type.”

Referring to Ledger’s Joker, director Todd Phillips talked about how different Phoenix’s version is, saying, “He does not want the world to burn. His goal is genuinely to make people laugh and bring joy to the world, and he made a few bad decisions along the way.” He added that one of the film’s major focus was to show the lack of empathy that is being noticed throughout the world.

It seems Phoenix and Phillips with the rest of their crew have delivered a story and performance that is unforgettable. The film will be releasing tomorrow; Don’t miss it!

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

Search: Joker First Reviews

The post Joker First Reviews: Joaquin Phoenix’s Act Hailed As ‘One of the Greatest, Darkest Villains’ appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Abominable may feel boilerplate: Plucky loner finds an unexpected friend, a wild journey ensues with the help of a motley crew, and it ends with a buffet of lessons about the power of friendship, family, and self-respect. Also included: one incredibly cute magical yeti, all the better to incite both warm and squishy sentiments and encourage the inevitable purchase of a wide range of branded merchandise.

However, director Jill Culton adds unique touches to the formula including frequently stunning animation and goofy diversions of all stripe, along with at least two worrying soundtrack choices (kids like Coldplay?). The winning, warm nature of this China-set family film can’t be denied, and for all its predictable elements, “Abominable” is still well worth the trip.

Resourceful teen Yi (Chloe Bennett) is deep in the “denial and isolation” stage of her grief over her beloved father’s recent death. Instead of turning to the rest of her family for comfort — including her understanding mother (Michelle Wong) and her brassy grandmother (Tsai Chin) — Yi distracts herself by toiling at a series of odd jobs. Old friend Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor) is too busy trying to be Insta-famous to help, and his annoying but well-meaning little cousin Peng (Albert Tsai) isn’t entirely equipped to help a hurting pal.

And then there’s Everest (Joseph Izzo), a fluffy, bright-eyed, snaggle-toothed young yeti who has recently been captured by the nutty former explorer Burnish (Eddie Izzard, being very Eddie Izzard) and the tricky zoologist Dr. Zara (the great Sarah Paulson, indication enough that the character will have unexpected layers) and brought to Shanghai. “Abominable” opens from Everest’s perspective, as the young creature breaks out from his scary holding facility and hits the city, afraid and wounded and utterly alone.

Culton and her talented animating team strike a compelling balance here, capturing Everest’s fear and confusion without getting dark enough to terrify younger viewers. And seeing things from Everest’s frame instantly endears him to the audience. The sequence also introduces the yeti’s powers, which involve prodigious humming (conveniently, Yi is a musician) and vaguely amount to, “Well, he can do anything.”

Everest is soon hiding on the roof of Yi’s apartment building, where she also happens to spend most of her scant daydreaming time. Bound by their mutual affection for music, and with Burnish and Zara hot on Everest’s tail (clearly willing to take the young yeti back alive or dead), Yi makes a decision: Everest must get back to his home (Mount Everest, of course). Soon enough, she heads off to the peak with Peng and Jin, because this sort of story requires a mixed bag of good guys, and they trek across every inch of China in lush detail.

Told in vivid colors and a great respect for the awe-inspiring power of big, floating things (lights and flowers and even a lovely interpretation of music itself), the timeline mechanics and real-world implications of their map-spanning adventure fade away in the face of such a charming story. Culton’s script slips in plenty of laughs, from the introduction of another one of Burnish’s prized captures to good-natured jabs at the military team dispatched by Dr. Zara. The film’s many action sequences are zippy and well-constructed, and the best one even offers a nod or two to the classic imagery of King Kong.

Colton hits every beat required, including heartening evolutions for all the human stars and a slew of sweet lessons that should resonate with even the youngest audience members. The journey through some of China’s signature regions (from the Huangshan mountain range to the Gobi Desert and more), offering the chance for still more lovely animation and plenty of respect for the country as a location. The journey may be predictable, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth taking.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

Search: Abominable: an adorable fairy tale

The post Abominable: an adorable fairy tale about a girl and her magic yeti appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

It feels like we’ve been spoiled by space. Ever since Gravity seemingly changed the game, science-fiction has had to work harder than ever to impress us. It’s almost like the genre’s already peaked. Picking up the space-gauntlet, director James Gray quixotically heralded Ad Astra as being “the most realistic depiction of space ever”. And fair dos, this film is beautiful: from the glistening cinematography to artfully celestial framing to the seamless visual effects (some shots use actual photos of the moon’s surface), it all looks real.

What sets it apart from recent gravity-defying films, however, is the setting. This is a future that feels recognisably familiar and deeply plausible, a world in which space travel has become commercialised, normalised, and blighted by the same overpriced pillows as the budget airline. The wonder of space has been replaced by the mundanities and conflicts of Earth; the moon is a gaudy tourist trap and disputed territory, not unlike an episode of Futurama. Throughout, we’re drip-fed morsels of information about the new inter-planetary infrastructure and each new revelation is a delicious bit of speculative world-building, ‘sci-future-fact’ rather than sci-fi.

It’s a setting that also causes our nominal hero, Roy (Pitt), some serious melancholy. Outwardly, Roy is cold and uncaring, his pulse never skipping a beat, his focus always on the mission. But his pessimistic voiceover laments the deterioration of the space era and hints at some familial yearning for his estranged father, who may be behind the catastrophic electrical surges that are suddenly plaguing Earth. Truly, you don’t know abandonment issues until your dad is floating beyond Neptune.

Roy’s narration sometimes sounds like a maudlin teenage diary (“I’ve let so many people down,” he whines at one point), but he’s a fascinatingly flawed hero, as incapable of emotions as he is a capable astronaut. His odyssey through the inconceivable vastness of the solar system has something of Willard sailing up the river in Apocalypse Now: confronted by loneliness in an unforgiving environment, the indifference of death stalking at every corner.

For such an ambitious film, it’s remarkably meditative; set across billions of miles, it is always only interested in Roy’s interior life, the camera trained in heavy close-up on his tired-looking face. (Spare a thought for poor Liv Tyler, playing Roy’s wife, who is often not even in focus, making her similar role in Armageddon look positively generous.)

But despite a dip in pace towards the end, it’s also a fantastically well-staged adventure. There’s a (literally) head-spinning opening sequence at the ‘International Space Antenna’, an encounter with an unexpected space-primate, and a moon-buggy chase which offers a thrilling preview of what ‘Fast & Furious In Space’ might look like. It has fun, even if its leading man doesn’t.

Through all this, it manages to ponder the existential questions facing humanity, and brings it back to the humanity we need to face. That, above the realistic depictions of space, is probably its real achievement.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

Search: Ad Astra Review

The post Ad Astra Review appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

After starring roles for Freddie Mercury (“Bohemian Rhapsody”), Elton John (“Rocketman”) and the Beatles (“Yesterday”), it’s Bruce Springsteen’s turn to join the mixtape that the movies have lately become.

But Gurinder Chadha’s “Blinded by the Light” isn’t about the Boss’ life or how he recorded his hits. It’s about hearing him — and not in Asbury Park but far away in the British industrial town of Luton, where the British-Pakistani 16-year-old Javed (newcomer Viveik Kalra) finds in Springsteen’s working-class anthems the sound of his soul. When Javed, beleaguered by his overbearing father (Kulvinder Ghir) and feeling hopeless in Margaret Thatcher’s 1987 Britain, presses play on his Walkman one lonely night, he’s almost instantly transformed by “Dancing in the Dark.”

The thrill of being turned on to music has long been dangerous territory for filmmakers. It’s precariously easy to sound cheesy when it comes to rhapsodizing about music. There was great joy in Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs in “Almost Famous” craving for the raw power of the Velvet Underground: “Gimme some ‘White Light/White Heat!’” But more common are cringe-worthy scenes like Natalie Portman playing the Shins for Zach Braff and telling him they will “change your life” in “Garden State.”

“Blinded by the Light” doesn’t so much circumvent those risks; it barrels right through them. Instead of trying for coolness, “Blinded by the Light” is guilelessly geeky, virtually exploding in earnestness. Chadha, who helmed “Bend it Like Beckham,” gives “Blinded by the Light” a similarly unabashedly feel-good uplift that, even if you don’t bow down before Springsteen, is hard to resist. It has a hungry heart.

Based on Sarfraz Manzoor’s memoir about growing up a Springsteen die-hard, “Blinded by the Light” has the frame of what would normally be a song-and-dance musical or a broader comedy. It has elements of both, but it’s primarily a coming-of-age tale and a heartfelt family drama. Javed is a sensitive kid who writes poetry and keeps a diary but has little hope of realizing his dreams — kissing a girl, getting out of Luton — while his father plans his career and, perhaps, his wife, too.

They’re eking out a middle class life when Javed’s father is laid off from the local auto factory — another casualty of Thatcher’s economic policies. The cultural life around Javed doesn’t offer much more in the way of salvation. His pal Matt (Dean-Charles Chapman) insists “synths are the future.” And his ’80s high school is divided by questionable musical taste: “Wham boys” and “Bananarama girls.” Luton, too, isn’t very welcoming of outsiders like Javed’s family; neo-Nazi thugs bully the town’s Pakistani immigrants.

“You will always be Pakistani,” Javed’s dad says. “You will never be British.”

Javed isn’t sure what he wants to be until he’s struck by the lightning bolt of Springsteen, thanks to his Sikh classmate Roops (Aaron Phagura) who shares a few cassette tapes with the serious instruction to “guard these with your life.” Soon thereafter, Javed finds ecstasy on his Walkman and before long he’s dressing in cut-off plaid shirts and quoting Bruce in every interaction. The gospel of Springsteen has an emboldening effect on Javed. He begins to find his own voice, helped along by an inspiring writing teacher (Hayley Atwell), a supportive girlfriend (Nell Williams) and even Matt’s musically simpatico father (a fun Rob Brydon).

“Blinded by the Light” isn’t a new tune, but it’s sung with an infectious passion and it captures something sincere about the globe-spanning, life-changing influence of great pop music. With headphones and the right music, anyone can become born to run.

“Blinded by the Light,” a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for thematic material and language including some ethnic slurs. Running time: 117 minutes. Three stars out of four.

___

MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

___

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

Search: Blinded by the Light

The post Review: In ‘Blinded by the Light,’ growing up with the Boss appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.