Staff Picks: Preparation for an endless summer

Natural Bridges State Beach remains a popular beach on Monday, Dec. 30, 2019. The beach, located in northern Santa Cruz, is well populated year-round. Photo credit: Evan Reinhardt

By Dominic D'Amico

Summer is many things. It’s trips to the beach, summer blockbusters, global sporting events, backyard barbecues and more. Even in the face of a global pandemic, this summer has more to look forward to than usual and here are some choice picks.

Witness this! — Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics

The Sky above the Great Wave off the Coast of Kanagawa by Hirohiko Araki | One of eight official posters for the 2020 Paralympic Games. Image courtesy of The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Summer Olympics only come around every four years, but they feature the greatest athletes in the world competing in events ranging from swimming and sprints to judo and gymnastics. Athletes from all over the world will journey to Tokyo to compete for medals, honor and glory in 47 different sports. This year however, a California-born sport will make its Olympic debut. For the first time ever, skateboarding will be part of the Olympics with separate competitions for men and women in both park skating and street skating, for a total of four events. So, for anyone looking to support America’s athletes, see some of the best competitors in the world or just see a home-grown sport go global, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics are a must-see summer event. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics will run from July 24 through August 9.

Play in this! — Summer Games Done Quick

When it comes to sporting events, esports events included, the general focus tends to be on the competition between teams and athletes to be the best, with the winners earning trophies and monetary prizes. Games Done Quick on the other hand, brings together some of the best gamers in the world in order to raise money for charity. At its AGDQ event last winter, Games Done Quick raised over $3.1 million in donations for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, while its 2019 Summer Games Done Quick raised over $3 million for Doctors Without Borders. The best thing about Games Done Quick is that it doesn’t focus on competition, instead it sets up a showcase of speedrunners, gamers who try to beat a game as fast as possible. Backed by a couch full of color commentators, these speedrunners show off strategies, odd exploits and unique speedruns. The less competitive feeling and the charitable cause makes Games Done Quick events wonderful to watch, and SGDQ 2020 will surely be no different. SGDQ 2020 will run from June 21 through June 28, with all the runs and interviews broadcast live on Twitch. More info can be found at Games Done Quick’s website.

Watch this! — “Tenet” (2020)

The newest film from director Christopher Nolan, “Tenet” looks like a wild ride of a film. Outside of the trailer for the film there isn’t much information on it. The trailer for “Tenet” appears to follow a secret agent played by John David Washington as he tries to prevent some sort of catastrophic event. Moreover, much like Nolan’s previous film “Inception” played with the nature of reality, “Tenet” appears to play around with time. Certain segments of the trailer appear to have characters acting normally while time appears to flow in reverse around them.

In the end, despite the shortage of information, Nolan is responsible for stellar films like “The Prestige,” “The Dark Knight” and “Dunkirk,” so “Tenet” seems like a surefire gripping summer blockbuster.