Clare Fitzgerald

The BBC announced Wednesday that it will not be renewing Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson's contract after it expires at the end of the month. This comes after an investigation into a verbal and physical assault that took place between Clarkson and BBC producer Oisin Tymon.

Summer Bones is the latest full-length from Ohio-based pop-punk quintet, Hit The Lights. The band's first release through label Pure Noise Records, whom they signed with early last year, Summer Bones presents some of the best pop-punk I've heard in awhile and demonstrates why Hit The Lights are considered a scene staple.

"I just want our music to do what bands like Jimmy Eat World and Death Cab For Cutie did for me," explains Lion in The Mane bassist Zach Falkow. "Music can elicit pretty much any emotion you can think of, and I personally find solace in that. If someone ever comes up to me and says, 'listening to you guys gives me comfort,' I'll know we're going something right."

It looks like 2015 is shaping up to be a big year for Tempe, Arizona rock band, The Maine. The five-piece are set to release their fifth album, American Candy, this coming March and have already premiered the record's lead single, the catchy "English Girls". The band have a busy year ahead of them and I was recently able to discuss all the upcoming excitement with guitarist Jared Monaco.

“We set out on an adventure to write this record. We took time off [from] our jobs to hike and camp the Appalachian Trail and [followed] up our adventures there in a log cabin in Chattanooga, TN, where we converted the entire living room into a writing studio,” says Kids vocalist and bassist Joshua Diaz about the band’s upcoming debut album, Rich Coast. “We played old spaghetti westerns and kung fu movies on silent – films we watched as a kid – as we documented musically the feelings of the adventures we just had, paired with lyrics inspired over the last few years of our lives.”

I keep having a battle with my mind. My rational side keeps telling me that I’ve made the right choice by choosing recovery, but my irrational one keeps telling me I made a mistake and I’m not actually sick – that all these people are making it up. But really, why would I have been sent to an inpatient program if I wasn’t sick? Yes, that’s right, I’m officially living in the hospital. I was originally put on another floor because my heart rate was dangerously low and I was severely dehydrated. I spent a month up there with an IV in my arm. They tried to feed me, but let’s be honest, I barely ate. I’d wait until the nurse left and then throw the food out, careful to hide it under other garbage.

Writer’s Note: Last week, I had the idea of writing a few diary entries from the point of view of someone with anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder characterized by the restriction of food. As someone who is currently recovering from anorexia, I have seen and heard pretty much all the stereotypes placed upon someone with it, and feel these entries might open some eyes and show readers the reality of the disorder. It’s a two-part series, with each part focusing on a different journey: the first part on the disorder’s development and part two on one's recovery from it.

“Oh, it’s just my OCD acting up”. “I didn’t eat so I could be pretty”. “I’m just a little ADHD”. If you’ve heard one of these statements, then you’ve experienced the ever growing romanticisation of mental illness. Incidences in which mental illness is used as the butt of a joke or to describe a quirk are on the rise and it looks like this trend isn’t going away. Mental illness is being downplayed and the view that it’s a cute personality trait instead of a debilitating disorder is hurting those who genuinely suffer from one.

How familiar is this cycle: You see a new diet advertised. Thinking you could lose a few pounds, you decide to start it, excited about how you’ll look in a few months time. Four to five months later, you’ve reached your goal - you’re excited and you love your “new” body. Fast forward another four to five months, and you’ve gained back all the weight, and then some.