Issue 85.01 September 2, 2019 www.22WestMedia.com
Featuring: An Evening with The Meddlers
Top 5 Reasons to Join Fraternity and Sorority Life at CSULB! 1) Develop Leadership 2) Open doors for Networking 3) Be apart of Philanthropy 4) Join a Lifelong Sisterhood/ Brotherhood 5) Gain Future Career Skills
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Issue 85.01 September 2, 2019 www.22westmedia.com
Letter from the Editor Welcome to the new and improved edition of 22 West Magazine! Notice the glossy cover (ooh) and longer page count (ahh). If you’re new to this campus this may be your first introduction to our publication. For those who don’t know, 22 West Magazine had its beginnings as the “Union Weekly.” It started as an alternative newspaper next to the Daily 49er that put a stronger emphasis on student voices and opinions. Today, we continue to uphold those values as a media outlet for the students, by the students. In this issue you will find our feature piece on “The Meddlers,” a Long Beach-based ska band (Page 10). You’ll also find out about happenings on campus, such as the young artists exhibit held at the Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum (Page 8). And, of course, you’ll be able to identify with the voices of students from diverse backgrounds in the article on Global Perspectives (Page 18). - Tara Contributor Meetings: Thursdays @ 1pm USU 112 Questions: editorinchief@22westmedia.com Article Pitches: pitches@22westmedia.com
Disclaimer and Publication Information: 22 West Magazine is published using ad money and partial funding provided by the Associated Students, Inc. All Editorials are the opinions of their individual authors, not the magazine, ASI nor LBSU. All students are welcome and encouraged to be a part of the staff. All letters to the editor will be considered for publication. However, LBSU students will have precedence. Please include name and major for all submissions. They are subject to editing and will not be returned. Letters may or may not be edited for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and length. 22 West Magazine will publish anonymous letters, articles, editorials, and illustration, but must have your name and information attached for our records. Letters to the editor should be no longer than 500 words. 22 West Magazine assumes no responsibility, nor is it liable, for claims of its advertisers. Grievance procedures are available in the Associated Students business office.
Magazine Staff Tara Thomas, Editor-in-Chief editorinchief@22westmedia.com Joel Vaughn, Managing Editor managingeditor@22westmedia.com Marissa Espiritu, Art Director artdirector@22westmedia.com Bria Manning, Lead Copy Editor Enacio Diaz, Distribution Manager Isabelle Cruz, Culture Editor Sudabeh Sarker, Grunion Editor
Contributors Nathan Cunningham, Contributing Writer Sophia Dao, Contributing Photographer Janet Doan, Contributing Artist Eraj Hussain, Contributing Artist Enacio Refugio, Contributing Artist Mary Usufzy, Contributing Writer
Cover Photo by Brandon Kheang, Executive Producer, Video
Contact Us Phone: (562) 985-4867 Mail: 1212 Bellflower Blvd. Suite 112 Long Beach, CA 90815
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Contents Arts 6
In The Woods A journey through the sights, smells, and taste of the woods.
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The Art Of Discovering Identity Young artists learn about self-expression.
Music 10
Meddlers Interview Walk the bass line with an exclusive from the local band, The Meddlers.
Entertainment 14
“Stories Hurt. Stories Heal.” A horror-flick review of “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.”
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It’s Been A Book Boy Summer Some english majoree commentary on their latest summer reads.
Culture 18
Global Perspectives Get candid with CSULB international students.
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Looking Back On Nearly Ten Years Of College A CSULB student’s personal insight on not having things figured out just yet.
Grunion
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Notice To All Bus-Riding Deadbeats So the TAP fee costs more, get over it.
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The Reverse Centaur Old myths weren’t entirely wrong about the Siberian steppe.
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Visit our office on the first floor of the University Student Union, Room 112
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22 West Media is a student-run multimedia company comprised of three departments: 22 West Radio, 22 West Video, and 22 West Magazine. As part of our volunteer team you will gain hands on training, create proffesional content, and become a member of the 22 West Family! We are open to all majors and experience levels.
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Arts
In the Woods A journey through the sights, smells and tastes of the woods. By Mary Usufzy Illustration by Enacio Refugio
In the woods, time stands still. Time, a fickle creature that eludes all senses and robs us of life’s cherished moments, possesses no power here. Watches and clocks are nowhere in sight, their incessant and tedious ticking never to be heard. In the woods, the sights are a gift to behold. The emerald grass cradles my body as I inhale the damp aroma that it fills the surroundings with. A beetle, its shell as brown as the richest coffee, traverses to the peak of a single towering blade of grass. Losing its balance for a moment, it readjusts itself and remains victorious at last, delighting in its fruitful success. Like the beetle, I readjust myself into a standing position and observe my surroundings, slowly trudging through the flood of autumn leaves. In the woods, sounds strike a chord of surprise and shock with every resonating beat. A woodpecker with red feathers like the setting sun taps out a crescendo in its pursuit for juicy insects. Chipmunks scamper about, their soft chittering serving as a soundtrack as they look hither and thither for sustenance. Gusting through the trees, a light breeze scatters the leaves and jumps into the chorus. A songbird bursts into a tune, its melody overshadowing the breeze’s peaceful tune. In the woods, smells range from heavenly scents to repulsive stenches. Flowers late in bloom exude their sweet nectar, emitting an aroma that fills the nostrils with glorious delight. Various species of herbs and spices, whose names I do not know, offer up their perfumes for taste. But a squirrel, whose stomach must have been full to the brim, has laid a small mound of festering brown mess. I hold my breath every time I pass by it, because even a sliver of the stench makes me nauseous. In the woods, nothing comes off as artificial or fake. Everything is open and honest with one another. A bumblebee with stripes of gold and black settles on a
In the woods, the sights are a gift to behold.
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flower, pollinating it feverishly as it continues on with its duty. A hummingbird desperately quests to drain the nectar of another bloom while its companion competes with equal fervour. In the woods, tastes are abundant. The cold air gusts through, bringing a smell of berries from bushes far above that will soon decay with falling of the leaves. My stomach grumbles in response and I’m craving blueberry pies. Succulent berries in syrup, dressed in a thick golden crust and crowned with a dollop of cold whipped cream... “Mary, you coming?” My aunt’s telling me to get a move on and continue on with our hike. I sit up and look up to the sky, patches of cerulean struggling to display themselves through the dominating autumn forestry. “Yeah, hold on,” I call out in response. At a small oak tree with flaxen leaves, I pat its rough trunk and it replies with a shower of leaves, spilling over my head and onto the ground. I pick one up and observe the strange transformation from a brittle material to a mess of dust. It falls to the ground and joins its companions to begin their mournful decaying. Soon, the rest will follow suit. Then, a carpet of white snow will spread across here. Slowly but surely, time will always reign here after all. In the woods.
In the woods, nothing comes off as artificial or fake.
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Arts
The Art of Discovering Identity Young artists learn about self-expression through mediums of two-and-three dimensional art. By Nathan Cunningham When the word “summer” is brought up in a conversation, people think of the beach, the sun, laughing, playing, jumping and having fun. All of these aspects were captured, one way or another, in our Young Artists’ Camp provided by the Art Teaching Credential Program at CSULB this summer. The Young Artists’ Camp was founded through the Art Teaching Credential Program at CSULB to provide a wonderful creative and educational experience so that young students can express themselves through the arts. The program provides two and three dimensional instructions, such as painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking and more. According to the website, it is comparable to a fine arts class within the secondary school education level. Also, the program doubles as a studies in art education course, providing a teaching experience for both students and instructors alike. The overall theme of the camp reflects a social justice aspect determined by that year’s instructors. This year’s students explored identity through self-reflection and comparison to society at large. We took a deeper dive into self-expression and ended the summer with a student art show at the School of Art Student Galleries on campus. I was blessed to teach these students over this summer as one of the 3D instructors. I can honestly say they taught me as much as I taught them. Elizabeth Kneisley, one of the 2D instructors of the CSULB Young Artists’ Camp, expressed the in-depth experience that students were able to obtain. She reveals how the camp was a special opportunity for the students to be exposed to this type of social justice at such a young age. Students were encouraged to explore their creative identities while also being involved within their surrounding communities. “As a teacher, I learned so much about the individualities of my students; the art camp allowed them to open up and share their passions, interests and cultures,”
“I truly saw growth and transformation in each student throughout the course of the art camp.”
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Photos by Sophia Dao - Young Artists’ Camp, Program Coordinator
Kneisley said. “I truly saw growth and transformation in each student throughout the course of the art camp.” One example of the students’ work shown in the art gallery was the “Clay Creations of Symbolic Self” inspired by mentor artist Bruce M. Sherman. The multileveled sculptures made from rolling slabs needed to show at least four symbols using the slip and score method in their artwork. Students were encouraged to take time to self-reflect through the help of worksheets and activities the instructors created. Yanitzi Arroyo, the lead 3D instructor for the “Clay Creations” project, expressed her feelings of gratitude for working with the students. The instructor’s goal was to allow the students to express what they feel identifies themselves and express it through symbols. No two pieces are alike. “The Symbolic Self piece represented each student’s unique qualities that made up their own identity,” Arroyo said. “What we really wanted the students to learn from this experience was that their identity to someone else’s will never be the same and that is perfectly fine. Diversity should always be wholeheartedly accepted and it always begins with oneself.”
No two pieces are alike.
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Music
Make it Meddlers 22 West kicks off the first of its “Live Sessions” series with an interview of local ska band.
By Tara Thomas A week before the start of the semester, The Meddlers ...you’ll be hit with came into our office to talk about their musical a unique brassy inspirations, their writing process and what it means to be a “Meddler.” rhythm that sounds If you listen to their songs you’ll be hit with a unique just as fun to play as brassy rhythm that sounds just as fun to play as it is to it is to listen to. listen to. The occasional change of tempo makes each song a journey in itself. You’ll especially enjoy the jazzy saxophone solos showcasing both musical skill and soulful freedom. This diverse group of bandmates has a wide range of personalities, ages and musical backgrounds. Alex Sundstrom, one of two “Alexs” in this group, is the lead guitarist. He started playing music at four years old and has a strong interest in audio engineering. In high school, Sundstrom joined up with Jonathan Eastly, bass guitarist, to form a band. Eastly also started his music career early; due to the influence of his musically-inclined parents, it was only natural. Another member, Eddie Cervantes, started playing the trumpet in junior high, then formed his own mariachi group with friends before eventually ending up with The Meddlers. The drummer, David Govea, grew up playing music in his church before he started playing ska. The newest member of the group, tenor saxophonist Alex Rodriguez, started playing in the fourth grade and continues to study jazz and classical music today. Lastly, Din Fernandez on the baritone saxophone has had seven-to-eight years of jazz experience and admits that the transition to ska is difficult but well worth it. The band has been together for about five years and is preparing to launch their new EP in the coming months. While recording, they had “As far as the creative the chance to work with John Avila, former bass for Oingo Boingo and producer for several process, he kind of tore player legendary 80s bands. our songs to pieces.” “As far as the creative process goes, he kind of tore our songs to pieces,” Sundstorm said. Even so, the band seems very happy with the results and is just waiting for the right moment to drop their new songs. When talking about the difficult writing process, Cervantes noted the importance of making sure everyone’s opinions are heard to end up with “a song that each one of us wants to listen to and play.”
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@The Meddlers
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Music Alex Sundstrom - Guitar/Singer Q: What is your musical inspiration? A: It’s a song called “Rapt Inyou” by Lowen & Navarro. That was my first favorite song, the first song that made me think, “I kind of want to do this.” Q: What does “The Meddlers” mean to you? A: When the band first started, a lot of the songs and lyrics were sort of politically charged and I personally feel like the name “Meddlers” is a reference to silent influencers and big money. Q: What have you been listening to lately? A: One of my things is that I really like to listen to a lot of folk music from around the world. There’s a style of Iranian classical music called “dastgah” that I’ve been interested in. It’s kind of fun to explore.
Johnathan Eastly - Bass Guitar Q: What is your musical inspiration? A: I suppose the formative song for me would be “Knights of Cydonia” by Muse. I heard that on the radio and my jaw was to the floor the whole time. And then like that era of K-Rock like Sublime and a bunch of other quirky, alternative, forward-thinking, “screw the man” kind of music [...] and the local scene around Long Beach has always been very inspirational.
Eddie Cervantes - Trumpet Q: What is your musical inspiration? A: The Specials, Madness, the classics. In the ska-core world, there was a rock band where you could play the horn and not be so “marching band.” So we can be rockstars! Q: What does “The Meddlers” mean to you? A: A ‘meddler’ is just somebody who gets involved in things they’re not supposed to; it’s creative freedom! Q: What have you been listening to lately? A: The new The Specials CD that came out was pretty sweet. For a band that stopped playing together, they came back and popped out that album and they still retain what they are.
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David Govea - Drums Q: What is your musical inspiration? A: One big influence as a kid was Metallica. If someone can perform in front of everybody and all these people want to hear you, that’s something magical. Q: What have you been listening to lately? A: Meshuggah, I’ve kind of been listening to them for about two weeks straight.
Alex Rodriguez - Tenor Saxophone Q: What is your musical inspiration? A: Lisa Simpson, she plays the baritone sax. She played Gerry Rafferty, and that’s a sexy sax. Q: What have you been listening to lately? A: Old stuff that I’ve been hooked on. Otis Redding, I’ve been going through his old discography. I like to music hunt and find how it’s made, find samples and research the history.
Din Fernandez - Baritone Saxophone Q: What’s your musical inspiration? A: Charles Mingus, he’s a jazz musician and he’s incorporated a lot of saxophone into his music. Q: What does “The Meddlers” mean to you? A: When you take a listen to our songs we take these weird turns sometimes, we don’t stick on a groove. We’re constantly meddling with the process of writing […] always thinking about how we can make it better. Q: What have you been listening to lately? A: I’ve just really been into Tame Impala, I just love how they layer synths and keep this really cool groove going on.
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Entertainment
“Stories hurt. Stories heal” The nightmares we had as kids — now on the big screen. By Bria Manning The horror film “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” is a revival of Alvin Schwartz’s harrowing stories but with a not so traumatizing twist by director André Øvredal. Growing up, the illustrations by Stephen Gammell in the “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” series were more unsettling Illustration from “The Red Spot” from the third “Scary Stories” to me than the stories collection. Source: Harper & Row/Stephen Gammell themselves, and the same can more or less be said for the movie. It cleverly integrates the monsters and creatures from Schwartz’s stories to strengthen the horror aspects of the movie and, just as the very distinct and creepy illustrations from the book stood with me as a kid, the movie achieves the highest levels of unsettling creepiness when bringing these illustrations to life. “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” is set in the small town of Mill Valley, Pennsylvania during Halloween of I sat in seat D13 1968. Three friends who can be affectionately described expecting the as nerdy and dorky—Stella (Zoe Colletti), Augie (Gabriel movie to depict one Rush), and Chuck (Austin Zajur)—befriend a young drifter of Schwartz’s scary evading the war draft named Ramon (Michael Garza). stories on steroids. Together, the group explores the old haunted house of the Bellows family, where the disowned Sarah Bellows was held captive and hidden from the public eye by her own family. Here, the kids discover Bellows’ old book of scary stories she used to read to children from the other side of the wall, in the confinements of her home-based prison. In a moment of curiosity inspired by her passion for horror writing, Stella takes the book home with her, thus triggering all the
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Growing up, the illustrations by Stephen Gammell in the “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” series were more unsettling to me than the stories themselves, and the same can be said for the movie.
creepy and weird shit. I walked into this movie completely blind—I hadn’t seen the trailers, had no idea what the plot was about. Image from the 2019 movie “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.” I sat in seat D13 expecting Source: CBS Films/André Øvredal the movie to depict one of Schwartz’s scary stories on steroids. So I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the movie utilized the stories themselves to advance the plot rather than being solely about them. Various characters are assigned a story which Sarah Bellows writes from beyond the grave, and each story comes from one of Schwartz’s beloved books. The movie both opens and closes with the statements “Stories hurt. Stories heal” which proves to be the thematic force which, though it differs greatly from that of Schwartz’s books, still works to connect the two. Both the movie and the books revolve around the concept of storytelling, the importance of it and, as Schwartz put it in his author’s note in his first book, “Most scary stories are, of course, meant to be told. They are more scary that way. But how you tell them is important.” Øvredal, Dan and Kevin Hageman, the movie’s respective director and screenplay writers, weave the stories that we read growing up into their own tapestry to further the vivid themes that Schwartz held in high regard to in his books. In this sense, the directors and screenplay writers hold true to Schwartz’s statement about storytelling being less about the actual story and more about how a story is presented to an audience.
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Entertainment
It’s Been a Book Boy Summer Summer readings on psychedelic peril, the limitations of freedom and drunken, billion dollar heirs. By Joel Vaughn Well, summer is drawing to a close and so too is my extra reading time. To me, summer is characterized by what seems like an abundance of time till it starts passing. My aspirations started with getting more than 600 hundred pages into “Infinite Jest,” attempting to annotate Hegel’s “Phenomenology of Spirit,” getting around to “Notes from Underground,” and other English majoree goals. Instead, I wasted seemingly unlimited time on old favorites and newer works.
Book Cover: (Random House/Ralph Steadman)
“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” There’s no way I’m the first one to recommend Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” It’s a trope for everyone from critics of americana, would-be journalist, and narcotics enthusiast to have some amount of admiration for Thompson’s take on the American dream. In case you’ve been out of the loop though, “Fear and Loathing” is a dubiously autobiographical account of Thompson’s (alias Raul Duke, doctor of journalism) and his sidekick/lawyer Dr. Gonzo’s, search for the American dream in ether-drenched road trips, acid fried casinos and Las Vegas hotel bars pulsing under adrenochrome. While Fear and Loathing has some semblance
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of a plot, it basically consists of a looselyassembled series of events starting with the trek from LA to Las Vegas, our two protagonists flaying about the strip in psychotropic paranoia and ending with amyls to come down and bear a flight out of Vegas. Of course, it’s impossible to discuss “Fear and Loathing” without touching on it’s 1971 setting and the escalating war on drugs. One image that sticks for me is near the beginning as Raul and Dr. Gonzo speed past a billboard listing the minimum sentencing for marijuana possession being 20 years and life for intent to sale in Nevada. It’s a striking contrast to our present where only a dozen states fully criminalize weed, our president sings the praises of a ketamine-derived drug (esketamine) and psilocybin mushrooms being decriminalized in Oakland and Denver. But we have to ask whether our attitudes towards narcotics have changed since the Thompson’s hazily documented ‘71 or simply shifted and been co-opted by the center of power.
It may come across as passe to write on how class consciousness impacts writers and their fiction, but I’m on a roll so here’s Kurt Vonnegut’s indictment of the one percent. Vonnegut’s “God Bless You Mr. Rosewater” follows the antics of Elliot Rosewater as he attempts to rid himself of the fortune connected to his family name. Elliot, who grew a conscious through volunteer fire fighting and throwing away cash, is shackled with guilt after abandoning the conquest of leveraging his wealth to make more of it to support a declining Indiana town. Though Elliot is the protagonist, his lack of agency allows the secondary characters to step into the foreground and question who has the right to Elliot’s wealth. There’s Elliot’s father, a conservative congressman seeking to reform Elliot to produce an heir to the fortune. Norman Mushari, an upstart lawyer seeking to declare Eliot insane, rob him of the fortune, and establish a lost member of the Rosewater family as the rightful heir. And finally there’s that Indiana township who claimed Elliot as their own after he created a sort of social safety net for the town. That’s pretty much the extent of the plot, Elliot goes from having his fortune to not. What keeps the whole thing afloat are Vonnegut’s punchy prose and layered storytelling around how generational wealth concentrates and then stagnates. Elliot also has a certain boozer’s charisma that makes him endearing despite how undeserving the narrative point of view reveals him to be. Overall, it’s a highlight in Vonnegut’s canon and deserves to be considered alongside “Breakfast of Champions” and “Slaughterhouse Five.”
Book Cover: Dell Publishing/ Gene Greif
Book Cover: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux/Charlotte Strick
“God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater”
“Freedom”
“Freedom” follows a family of upper class suburbanites, the Berglunds, as they tear themselves apart through infidelity, ennui, angst, defrauding the US military, getting in bed with coal companies and the limitations of freedom. For as much guff as I’m about to give Jonathan Franzen, I have to admit that he can write an engrossing novel, even if I might hate it. The first chapter being narrated from a gossipy third person point of view of the Berglund’s neighbors, a stunning series of autobiographical chapters as bookends, a magnificent monologue on the absurdity of celebrity opinion, and an extramarital indiscretion complicated by passing a swallowed wedding ring (yes, you read that right) all leave me wishing the novel’s focus wasn’t so myopic. Perhaps I’m criticizing Franzen for a feat he wasn’t seeking to accomplish, but the lack of material relatability outside of a few passages leaves me somewhat bitter. The titular freedom portrayed by Franzen is really only held by a twentyfirst century American bourgeoisie, and the novel seems to at best pay centrist lip services to the ills of a post 9/11 United States and at worst brushes off the impact of the 2008 financial crisis. But don’t let me dissuade you from picking up “Freedom.” It’s an exceptionally complex, emotionally impactful, and life-affirming read—just don’t be surprised if all its fantastic character drama and plotting feels empty by the end.
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Culture
Global Perspectives
Getting candid with international students. Story and Photos by Sudabeh Sarker In the wake of the 2016 presidential elections, international applicants to American universities declined after nearly a decade of robust growth. Acording to the San Francisco Chronicle, applicants from Mexico dropped by 30 percent and 10 percent in predominantly Muslim countries. However, from the voices of two graduates and two more from CSULB American Language Institute, it is apparent that, while discrimination was a concern, their desire to broaden horizons at The Beach goes beyond politics. *The following profiles have been condensed, for full profiles, visit 22westmedia.com*
Jay: When 27-year-old Jaeho Won left South Korea, he was hoping to leave his old life behind as a mechanical engineer and start fresh by studying his true passion, business. A self-described “street smart” person, Won had no trouble making friends from various cultures. However, while he admired the sociability of many of the Americans he met, however, he found their connections superficial. Despite his efforts to make new friends, he admits to feeling emotional and lonely. “Sometimes at night after a party, I get sad,” said Won. “I wonder if my friends like me.” Nevertheless, there are many aspects of American culture that Won admires in particular, the strong sense of individuality and respect towards others. In fact, Won’s ultimate desire is to become a permanent resident and open a business in Korea Town. But first, he wants to assimilate fully into American culture. “I’m a very ambitious person,” Won said. “I wanna be a native English speaker, even in the way I think.” Adrian:
Au-Yeung is a Public Relations and Marketing major at Hong Kong Baptist University. He tells most people that he came to the U.S. to perfect his English, but, really, he wanted to follow the footsteps of his idol, California-born movie star, Daniel Wu. “It may sound superficial, but I want to experience the same living situation as my hero,” said Au-Yeung. “I like his acting, of course, but he is also very handsome and he has a good personality.” When he first came to the United States, Au-Yeung was worried about being an outsider. After all, he was the only student from Hong Kong in his English program. A natural optimist, however, Au-Yeung welcomed the idea of being forced outside his comfort zone. Despite having only four weeks in Long Beach, Au-Yeung feels that he made the most of every second. Au-Yeung has no trouble chatting up strangers, and he feels like he made plenty of life-long connections during his time here. He takes comfort in the fact that he has friends that will be waiting for him during his inevitable return.
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Looking back on nearly ten years of college I can’t say if I’m excited or dreading it all being over. By Joel Vaughn
Illustration by Eraj Hussain
Dropping out previewed
Well, this is when things start to wrap up. The the roadblocks that stood finish line is over the horizon, that bachelor’s degree seems like a reality, and I can tie a neat in my way when I got the little bow on nearly 10 years of college. ball rolling on college. Though 26 isn’t a notably late age to finish a bachelor’s—at least that’s what I keep reminding my guilty, uber senioritis laden conscious—I can’t help but feel weathered by nearly a decade of papers, campus involvement and too many changed majors. All of this was and is complicated by hiccups with housing, mental health and general uncertainty as to what I actually wanted from college. That’s not to say that my academic career was without direction or purpose. I can point to a through-line of pursuing some sort of creative work as a silver lining to follow as I stumbled through a hazy cloud of collegiate pursuits in art, journalism and creative writing. Ten years ago, I was a junior in high school, dreaming of enrollment in some private arts college that I was already preparing for with intro-level drawing and composition classes at the local community college. It’s too bad that I ended up dropping out of high school. I wasn’t a bad student. I consistently pulled Bs, took a handful of AP classes and although I wouldn’t have gotten into that private art program, a high school diploma and immediate acceptance to state college were likely had I stayed. Dropping out previewed the roadblocks that stood in my way when I got the ball rolling on college. I could blame it on bad mental health and family issues, but I’ll be addressing that minimally for the sake of the reader’s and my sanity. Rather, the less ethereal reason for my long road to graduation was an inability to take care of myself when I was thrust into doing so. My career as an art student was met with skepticism and disapproval from my father. To be fair, I never really bothered to clue him into what I wanted out of college, but the awkward drive home from declaring my major still plays in my head. It was the standard spiel: look for a stable career path, think about what you want to do with your future and if you can accomplish it, but
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Culture the demand that I leave his house at eighteen years old was a nice little cherry on the lecture. Dad’s threat of eviction was just as empty as all the times he made it before then, but this signaled a turn in our relationship. Though I didn’t think of myself as an adult then, at seventeen years old, it signaled that adulthood was coming and that others, my father in particular, already saw me through the cold lens of apathy that adults are treated with. But I’ll give the devil his due and admit that my father was probably anxious about my future in a similar fashion to how I am now. Community college was primarily a means to stay out of the house. I consumed myself with a full schedule of intro-level art and general education classes for the sake of working towards an undefined end goal. I’m uncertain if that aimlessness was a product of youth or just that inability to care for myself being a shitty student artist didn’t help with sticking to my major. I still retained a 3.0 GPA I found that my hands throughout that year and a half in the art program, were more suited for but it wasn’t without an awareness that most of clicking a keyboard than those Bs and As were more out of sympathy than stroking a canvas. demonstration of skill. This was communicated by professors in any way from suggesting other avenues for my creativity to ripping work I just produced from the wall because it was improperly matted. But the one that stuck was a drawing and composition professor who pushed me to start writing little essays to go along with my so-so watercolor portraits. And with that, I found that my hands were more suited for clicking a keyboard than stroking a canvas. I started pursuing writing with more earnest, knocked out my English GEs, landed an arts editor position on the campus paper within the year, and ended up writing an obituary for that drawing professor who encouraged me to pursue writing. Penning that obituary was a surreal exercise in eating other’s grief to synthesize it into a written send-off. The art professor was older, had already retired, and lived a full life as far as I could tell by talking to his students and colleagues. I feel haunted by this period in my college career. Maybe it’s just guilt for using the dead and mourning as a writing exercise or solipsistic self-loathing over someone I looked up to passing, but what is certain is that this marked a shift in what I was doing in college. Regardless of what that obituary was, a legitimate exercise in mourning or just a cheap exploit to get some news writer credit, from ages 20 to 23 I made writing, editing, and laying out articles for that campus newspaper my life. I took to it and took to it quickly with my rise from arts to news editor, from news to managing editor, and from managing to eventually editor-in-chief. My dad, who unsurprisingly hadn’t put my ass out on the street, developed pride in what I’d accomplished. I even worked through the reemergence of mental health problems that plagued me through highschool. But still, I wouldn’t say that I could take care of myself. By the time my father asked me to meet him for dinner at Denny’s he’d already been spending weeks out of the house and when he was there he stayed mostly stowed away in
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the office/bedroom he converted for himself from the laundry room. My parents’ marriage, as far as I knew, had been on the rocks stretching back into my early teens and it should be noted that I don’t hold any animosity towards either of them for doing what needed to be done even if it should’ve been done sooner. His explanation of the divorce started anxiously and turned to jovial relief as I assured him I was okay with the whole situation. What seemed to be acceptance on my part was really an expression of being too exhausted by a full load of classes and an editor-inchiefmanship to care. Yeah, I think I’m an ingrate prick too. By then, I had worked my way up to editor-in-chief for the paper and was taking a full load of classes so I could transfer in the fall of 2017. The end of my parents’ marriage hurt, but I hadn’t had time to bother with processing it. Why would I, when the last person who pushed me to be practical with my pursuits in college was a much smaller presence in my life. I quit my editor-in-chief position that next semester. Officially, I wanted to focus on getting the last few transfers out the way, but in reality, journalism was dead to me since covering my little corner of the community college news world became stale and the pressure was crushing. I was finally able to put my writing to a few uses that I actually cared about. I wrote a short film script, I posted more I still retained a 3.0 writing on my Facebook and Medium pages, and I did some advocacy work with a campus club. GPA throughout I gave myself the best semester and summer I think I that year and a half possibly could have, then I transferred to CSULB, had to in the art program, become more dependent on my father, and the shambling but it wasn’t without corpse of journalism had its second coming. an awareness that The 2017/2018 semesters were one of the worst periods most of those Bs and in my life. I finally transferred, a feat a little more than six years in the making, and I couldn’t have been more As were more out miserable. I could try to catalog a narrative for why but of sympathy than those wounds are too fresh, and I have plenty of time demonstration of skill. to lose sleep over it. What I will say is that I crashed and burned anyone in the vicinity and was left sorrier than the Hindenburg’s pilot. I’m back though, still dabbling in journalism and wondering if I should even stick with what I’ve spent approximately the last six years pursuing in college. Outside of low pressure freelance work, I’ve avoided news writing and steered towards more narrative drive writing instead. But I’ll never turn my back on writing or publishing opportunities. I don’t know whether that’s because they’re my only skills or if it’s too late to develop a passion for anything else. I can’t tell if I’m wasting my time yet, but I’ve considered pushing off even applying for graduation to stay at CSULB part-time and apply to grad school, but I can’t be sure if that will be as fulfilling or just more crushing than the last nearly 10 years of college.
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Notice to all bus-riding deadbeats “A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure,” - Margret Thatcher. In the weeks after CSULB announced an 800% increase in TAP card fees, students have been calling our offices here at Parking and Transportation Services non-stop to voice their concerns. In the wake of complaints calling this minor price hike a “devastating financial burden” and “crippling” to their monthly budget, the department has decided to put an end to this incessant whining once and for all, so we’ll explain why such a price hike was necessary. The TAP program, which cost over $1 million dollars per year to run, generates zero revenue for the university. Those who complain about rising TAP fees are ignorant of the realities of running a business university. What’s the point of doing something if you can’t make money off of it? Every leech who freeloads off the university to take public transit is taking away thousands of dollars in parking permit revenue away from this struggling institution. Within the past year alone, the CSU system generated over $1.5 billion dollars in surplus revenue, and CSULB itself made $12 million dollars last year from parking alone. The uncultured peasants who attend this university may ask, “How can such a thriving institution seriously label themselves as ‘struggling?’” However, why would the university squander a million dollars of precious wealth on a valuable student service when it can spend $12 million dollars on beautifying the school? Why subsidize bus fare if students are being forced to feast their eyes on outdated architecture and tacky exposed brick? How can the university support our dear leader Jane Close Conoley without courting
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wealthy students? No self-respecting patrician would dare step foot on a campus that lacks the sophistication and class of well-kept gardens and modern, see-through buildings. If anything, the university is doing its most important students a favor by keeping all the poor, bus-taking degenerates out of this campus. However, students have voiced other concerns that go beyond money. Many have even gone as far as to accuse the university of going back on their commitment to sustainability. But has anyone ever considered the fact that a bus is really just a big car? It releases more emissions per mile than a midsize vehicle. Students who are actually concerned about the environment can just go buy themselves a Tesla. The extra revenue from the increased TAP fees can help subsidize more parking structures to house these vehicles. The staff at Parking and Transportation Services hope that, by 2030, parking structures outnumber classrooms 10:1. Therefore, to all the plebian bus-dwellers who dare criticize the university’s decision to increase TAP fees: you can walk to school. Warm regards, Parking, Parking, and more Parking Services.
Reverse Centaur A historical record By Janet Doan The reverse centaur is an endangered species roaming in the grassy plains of northern Eurasia. Its diet consists of grass, carrots, and the occasional Cheeto puff. Considered less dangerous due to its weaker hind kick, it can still be a formidable opponent when wielding sharp objects in its hands. Their unwieldy hind legs slow the animals considerably and make galloping difficult. No one has been able to witness their mating behavior. Disclaimer: The Grunion is a work of satire. It in no way reflects the views of 22 West Magazine or Associated Students, Inc. blah blah legal shit...
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