22 West Magazine - December 2019

Issue 85.04

December 2, 2019 www.22WestMedia.com

Happy Holidays from 22 West!

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Issue 85.04 December 2, 2019 www.22WestMedia.com

Magazine Staff

Letter from an Editor This year I’m thankful that we have another issue done. I’m less thankful that we had less than half a week to put it all together. It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving and my hardworking magazine staff (pictured on our cover) is working diligently to make it happen. After this we will be taking a break to enjoy the holidays, but no worries, we will be back in February!

For me, this winter break feels like a well-needed rest period before the final semester of my undergraduate education. I hope to return in January ready to power through till the end.

Then I can graduate, have a party, travel, get a job, get a new apartment, get a car—big world stuff. But I’m getting ahead of myself. For now I’m going to enjoy the last big break I may get until I retire...

One great way to relax is to cozy up by the fireplace with our super cool holiday issue! Along with our seasonal content like holiday movie reviews or an opinion piece on how Amazon.com has taken over Christmas, you can also find an awe-inspiring piece on rock climbing, an interview with an up-and-coming jazz musician and a short story with a unique viewpoint.

I am personally impressed with the content we have for this issue, so I hope you like it. If you want to contribute, shoot me an email. Even over winter break. I only plan to spend a week or so with family and then use the rest of my break to remember what I used to do when I was a kid and had this much free time. See you next year!

-Tara

Contributor Meetings: Thursdays @ 1pm USU 112 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.

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

Contributors Victoria Geis, Artist Isaac Gordon, Writer Erin Haworth, Writer Isaac Kau, Photographer Brandon Kheang, Photographer Linda Manning, Photographer Nyla Manuel, Writer Jack Nugent, Writer Gerell Wilson, Artist Christian Wiseman, Writer Janna Wolf, Writer

Cover Art by Marissa Espiritu, Art Director

Contact Us Phone: (562) 985-4867 Mail: 1212 Bellflower Blvd. Suite 112 Long Beach, CA 90815

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Contents Entertainment 5

Holiday Movie Hot Takes Films that may or may not make you jolly.

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Growing up with Rainn The night Rainn made it rain — on these cheeks.

Culture 8

Granite Climbing in the footsteps of our forefathers.

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Holiday Stories Tales from 22 West.

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Amazon Takes Over the Holidays Is Jeff Bezos the new Santa Claus?

Music 14

“Jesus is King” Album Review ...but is he though?

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22 West Live Sessions with Paul Smith Uniting musical passions and spiritual life.

Arts 18

Things Better Left Forgotten And other assorted poetry.

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Kris Cring-le Comic by Victoria Cota.

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Contact Lens Getting a new perspective on life.

Grunion 22

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Double the Fun! The ultimate tip for a better holiday.

Entertainment

Holiday Movie Hot Takes Films that may or may not make you jolly.

By Janna Wolf

Things are different during Christmas time: the music, the sweets, the clothes and, of course, the movies. The Christmas movie genre has its own rules: too old, too cheesy, too boring, all that does not exist here. No special effects are needed and no action. In the end, a Christmas movie has to fulfill just one purpose: To give you that Christmas-y feeling. Let’s be honest, we watch most of the movies because of tradition and not because they are worth watching.

That is why we should probably not watch them critically. We did it anyway.

Fairy tale redesigned: In 2018 the producers of “Despicable Me” and “Pets” created a Christmas movie about the Grinch. Their version of the green-haired monster that hates Christmas is far less scary than the one that is played by Jim Carrey. Illumination keeps its style: An eccentric villain, some dopey sidekicks and a bunch of lovable children or, to be correct, who-children.

It makes this movie into a perfect animated Christmas movie – for an adult it might be a little bit predictable. The last Christmas-y touch is provided by the rhymes of the original story, “Yes, the Whos down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot. But the Grinch, in his cave north of Whoville, did not.”

Dealing with an exhausting family during Christmas is an issue that many people can relate to. At least it is something 8-year old Kevin doesn’t have to deal with during the holidays. His family accidentally left him behind while heading to Paris. In return, he had to stop two burglars from robbing the house, which is by far the best part of the movie. Sadly, the story takes its time before reaching this point and before the big fight takes place. You have to endure many scenes where Kevin is screaming or his mother is whining.

Logo Images Courtesy of IMBD.com

A breathtaking castle, horse riding through a winter wonderland and a royal ball on Christmas Eve, this movie really challenges the statement that Christmas movies can’t be too cheesy. Some may say that this it is the charm of the movie. The whole story, the characters and even the dialogues are so predictable that watching it gives you a comforting feeling. Others will name those exact attributes to explain why this movie is not worth watching. It is a modern fairytale and it is one hundred percent Christmas.

And isn’t love what Christmas is all about?

Why not exaggerate a little? The movie was released three years ago and has the potential to become a new tradition.

Probably 80% of the people watching this movie weren’t born when it was first released. Because it is so old, it has a strange screen format, the sound rattles annoyingly and there are some odd “special effects” such as two glittering stars talking to each other – but at least they’re in color. The movie tells the story of George Bailey in a very slow and detailed way. You have to excuse several things while watching this movie, but if you can deal with it you get a touching and atmospheric Christmas movie – traditional or not.

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Entertainment

Growing Up with Rainn The night Rainn made it rain — on these cheeks.

By Joel Vaughn Art by Marissa Espiritu I didn’t feel starstruck when I met Rainn Wilson.

I thought that I would, given how I’m part of the first generation who grew up watching Dwight, Michael, Jim and Pam’s lives broadcast on TV, but I’m just not taken aback like I thought I would be.

On Tuesday November 19, Beach Pride Events hosted An Evening with Rainn Wilson, featuring Dwight from “The Office,” and Shabnam Mogharabi, co-founder of SoulPancake, at the Carpenter Center. The event itself mainly centered around Rainn and Shabnam quipping back and forth with one another while promoting SoulPancake, a joy-driven video production company you may know from their Kid President video. If you want to read more about SoulPancake and the event itself just check out our greenroom Q&A or any of Daily 49er and Dig Magazine’s coverage of it. I’m not going to pretend to approach this with any amount of journalistic pseudo-objectivity; I can’t ignore my own personal connection to the event and the impact that Rainn, from afar, had on my youth.

In one of their points on positive psychology, kind of SoulPancake’s whole bag, Rainn and Shabnam focused

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on how vulnerability is freeing yet painful. I guess that’s what I’m doing in this article — not giving quotes, an inverted pyramid or laying out the event beat by beat, but just being vulnerable.

I was fixated on two strong, contrasting memories when I walked into the Carpenter Center. The first was of me, around the age of 12, huddled around a desktop with a bunch of fellow youth group kids binging season four of “The Office.” And the other was of me, around the age of 22, huddled around a flatscreen with a bunch of fellow psychiatric patients watching a SoulPancake short on gratitude.

All my skepticism and ireful reluctance towards purposeful positivity flooded into me once Rainn and Shabnam stepped onto that stage and started to talk about joy. I’m not a curmudgeon, I swear, but I’ve always felt somewhat alienated by joyous people. I even felt somewhat called out when Rainn stopped to pantomime a caricature of an unhappy person at the start of the event. I know. It’s all a performance, just a bit of affectedness to draw

in a 300-some-odd-person crowd, but I recognized myself as that unhappy person; I felt seen in all the wrong ways.

I’m not a joyful person, which shouldn’t be that much of a shocker if you’ve read any of my more creative work over the last four years; one of my former editors even described my written voice as dripping with cynicism. But, just because I’m a sad guy, doesn’t mean I need to be a sad guy.

What began to draw me in was when Shabnam brought up a study on happiness and gratitude, specifically on levels of happiness being linked to helping others and being thankful. It took me back again to that youth group and that psychiatric hospital. It brought me back to working with the homeless in San Francisco and, ardently struggling to think of things I’m grateful for, it won me over a little.

But it wasn’t until the Q&A section that Rainn had pulled me in. One of my fellow audience members, quoting an episode of “The Office,” asked if depression was just a fancy word for feeling bummed out. Rainn’s response wasn’t anything extraordinary or particularly insightful, just that depression can be a genuine mental illness and that nearly everyone experiences some amount of depression in their life. I felt something then. Maybe it wasn’t what he said but that feeling of being seen again. Maybe it was feeling like the man on stage is talking to me even though he’s not even aware I’m there. Or maybe it was that I just saw through Rainn’s stage performance to something genuine, a small moment of vulnerability.

I recognized myself as that unhappy person; I felt seen in all the wrong ways.

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Culture

Granite Climbing in the footsteps of our forefathers.

Story and Photos by Jack Nugent As I look back at the time I’ve spent gawking at the towering granite formations in Yosemite Valley, I realize that I had never considered the cosmic connection they could provide—not just to nature, my physical and mental limits, my own spirituality, nor to the friends I’ve made among them—but to another time, to the people that pioneered the exploration of those monolithic cliffs and set the stage for my own growth, so many years later.

This year was a big one for my climbing partner and I as we finally began ticking ascents of the Yosemite walls that we had dreamt about doing since we started climbing on plastic holds in a Costa Mesa gym. After climbing the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome in July—a climb that takes pride of place, towering above the Valley, the first Grade VI rock climb in the world and originally climbed by the great Royal Robbins et. al in June of 1957 in one ground-up push—we decided that it was time for us to attempt a big-wall style ascent of our next historical objective: The Nose of El Capitan, one of the largest continuous rock faces in the world.

Thought to be an impossible feat, even after Robbin’s ascent of Half Dome, Warren Harding eventually climbed The Nose in 1958.

Wildly enough, El Cap still remains the primary arena for forward momentum in the sport. With figures like Alex Honnold, who climbed the Freerider without a rope, and Tommy Caldwell, who spent 10 years mapping and climbing The Dawn Wall, the hardest big wall route in the world, the rock climbing world is still pushing the limits of human physical and mental endurance. This held true to such an extent that, within 15 minutes of our returning to the van after our four day push to the top, both Tommy and Alex walked off the trail next to us, just having finished another new route at the same time we had climbed The Nose.

We exchanged hellos as equals, and I felt the same inspiration that must have guided them to execute their

Rock climbing is the only sport where a person has the opportunity to walk directly in the footsteps of their heroes.

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own goals, and I felt, however momentarily, the spirit of my heroes as my own.

Rock climbing is the only sport where a person has the opportunity to walk directly in the footsteps of their heroes—literally jam their hands in the exact same cracks, smear the tips of their climbing shoes to the exact same crystals of granite and even clip the exact same rusty gear that was hammered into the rock by them over 60 years ago. Upon this realization, our journey as climbers transcended the realm of the athletic, the adventurous, the spiritual and became a handson jaunt through the history of our forefathers. Although these pioneers couldn’t ever have known the gift they were giving us when

they looked up at those endless walls and, instead of being shocked into anxious awe, decided that it looked possible to top out, I will thank them from the deepest depths of my soul for the memories and experiences it has offered me. As I sink back into the ebb and flow of my normal life after that inexplicable experience, I can rest easy at night knowing that no matter how unbearable the real world gets, no one can take away the granite that calls my name every moment of every day, waiting to be climbed by one more person, waiting to offer its fleeting liberation from the dread of tomorrow—waiting to ruthlessly humble one more curious young mind.

...no matter how unbearable the real world gets, no one can take away the granite that calls my name every moment of every day.

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Culture

Holiday Stories Tales from your favorite on campus media company.

Curated by Joel Vaughn I love Christmas music, an awesome subgenre of music that I play all year.

The wacky stuff at the far end of the spectrum, that’s the best kind! But there’s one song that pushes the boundaries too far and brings holiday cheer to a dark commercial pit from which it may never return. Tommy Tutone’s 80s hit “867-5309/Jenny” was reworked by none other than Tutone himself into the absolute dumpster fire of a song, “867-5309/Santa.” The first seven seconds are bearable, with sleigh bells layered over the familiar guitar riff. It goes sour when Tommy then yells “Ho-Ho!” to bring the beat in. I can’t tell you the formula for a holiday hit, but it’s certainly not take a mildly popular 80s track, steal the lyrics from “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” to go on top and release that single. Please listen to The Beach Boys’ “Little Saint Nick” instead.

- Isaac Gordon No one liked my uncle, especially my dad. One Christmas, we made the mistake of leaving them in a room together. Sitting with my aunties watching the little kids play, we’re distracted by a commotion down the hall. Everyone runs for the disaster brewing in the other room with a toddler in hand.

“Hey! Watch your language. There’s children present!”

“You know what, Jeff? Fuck. You.” - Marissa Espiritu

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In my small town in Germany we’ve got this funny little tradition. The evening before Christmas Eve, crowds of people move from house to house doing something called Christmas tree praise. The rules of the game are simple. First visit your neighbor and praise his Christmas tree. Second, drink a shot with your neighbor, preferably from his homemade schnapps. Third, move together to the next house in the street. Steps one to three can be repeated as often as you like, but the game might end abruptly if you mention that a tree is crooked or looks bare. (Even if it’s true.) People may ask what’s the meaning of this tradition and the truth is that nobody really knows. They just keep doing it year after year to show off their trees, to get some free liquor or maybe just to get together during Christmas time.

- Janna Wolf

Do you remember the whole thing about ending up on Santa’s naughty list and getting coal in your stocking for Christmas?

My parents took that to heart one year. This specific year both my brother and I were exceptionally naughty, but I don’t remember what we did specifically.

However, when we woke up on Christmas morning and went into the living room, we found our stockings filled with dried-up bamboo sticks and wood chips.

Naturally, we started crying. After a few minutes, my parents said they called Santa and made arrangements to return the “bad kid” gifts in favor of our real gifts: some clothes, toys and a brand new bike.

I’m so glad this was all before the era of YouTube, because there is video evidence of this year. Maybe at some point, I’ll get that digitized. Who knows, it may go viral.

-Christian Wiseman

Yup, that picture is me. You’re probably wondering how I got there.

It all began when my mom forced the halo on my unhallowed 5-year-old head. I would be playing the role of the angel in the Nativity scene for a family play.

I figured sheepishness would be the best strategy to get out of this situation but when I acted uncharacteristically so, I got a stern “You’re doing this for grandma!” to shoot me down.

I joined my cousins outside and, though I had a calculated plan to get out of it, I lost my shit. Maybe it was seeing my forlorn-looking cousin dressed as a present or the chorus of “Ay muy bonita!” to cheer my sorry ass up, but the panic attack happened and it triggered others. The present, baby Jesus, one of the wise men and the sheep joined me in tears, snot and screaming unison, thus putting an end to all future embarrassing childrelated performances.

-Bria Manning

Photo by Linda Manning

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Culture

Amazon Takes Over the Holidays Is Jeff Bezos the new Santa Claus?

Story and Art by Tara Thomas Amazon, what started out as a simple online bookstore has morphed into so much more in it’s relatively short 25-year history. Now with free delivery for Prime members, one-day shipping and a stock of every product you could ever desire, it’s no surprise that Amazon has taken over the holiday season. The process is convenient, efficient and affordable. But is that really what the season is all about? Over the years Amazon has undeniably made an impact on our holiday, but it’s hard to say whether it’s for better or worse.

Christmas lists that were once hastily scrawled on notebook paper have become carefully curated Amazon wish lists created months in advance for friends and family to “add to the cart.”

Hunting through closets for hidden gifts becomes hacking into your parents accounts to see what they’ve ordered. Santa’s elf on the shelf is now Jeff Bezos listening into any Alexa device — except now it doesn’t matter how naughty or nice you are, so long as you buy something.

Ripping open festive wrapping paper and shoddy Scotch tape has changed to untying the ribbon on generic, velvety blue bags with a typed-out note that reads “From Santa.” Or, when deliveries come in a little later than expected, the ritual involves carving through khaki-colored packing tape with a kitchen knife to get

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to the bubble-wrapped prize inside. It’s possible that all these changes are just a consequence of growing up and losing the magic of the season, but Amazon has made more changes than just inside the home.

Another major theme of the season is family. A few years ago, my mother rented a car and six of us road tripped to Arizona, stopping

by Yosemite, Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam. It was obviously freezing, especially around the Grand Canyon. However, braving the elements with my family became a sort of bonding experience.

But now Amazon might infiltrate that space too. According to the L.A. Times, in November of this year the Trump administration announced plans to update National Parks with “expanded Wi-Fi service, food trucks and even Amazon deliveries at tourist camp sites.” Imagine my outdoor enthusiast mother’s dismay when she discovered that Amazon Prime trucks could infiltrate one of her favorite places to get away.

Sure, fast shipping is a great benefit to the internet age consumer, but we also need to consider the people holding up the brunt of this system: low-wage workers. A new holiday commercial for Amazon shows people making their way home for the holidays with

a little sing-along of “Everybody Hunting through closets for Needs Somebody to Love” by the hidden gifts becomes hacking Blues Brothers. The feel-good video into your parents accounts to features a variety of individuals of different ages, races, abilities and see what they’ve ordered. sexualities taking advantage of to fulfill your every desire Amazon services, highlighting how Amazon has or sell you products become a household name for an extremely related to something diverse target market. The delivery driver you mentioned once in makes her stops, hand delivering the packages conversation. Amazon with a smile — as if the actual process doesn’t then uses that knowledge to make involve throwing the boxes on the doorstep and billions in advertising money. The booking it back to the truck to keep up with company has even released a the busiest shopping time of the season. Last “curated” holiday gift guide where minute holiday shoppers are very appreciative the qualifications are how much money that Amazon has the capacity to support their companies will pay for a spot. With the innocent habits of procrastination but I can only imagine intention of making shopping easier and more the reaction they’ll give the delivery driver the customized for the consumer, Amazon is able to day after Christmas. control the bulk of buying behavior of parents By the end of the commercial, the sun has during the holiday season. gone down and the Amazon driver makes it But parents are not the only offenders in this home to greet her family for what is presumably one-stop-shop mentality. Looking back at my Christmas night. This scene probably elicited Amazon history, I can mark the occasion of my first more sadness for me than anything and I doubt purchase in 2008. Unsurprisingly, it was a book. I’ve that’s what the advertisers were intending. Trying made various purchases since then, but the first to make the long-hour, low-wage workers into year I Christmas shopped on Amazon was in 2013. “heroes” without giving them the benefits they Since then, I have continued to use it as a crutch deserve is a cheap trick that companies leverage because crowded malls during the holiday season to reduce employee backlash. Last summer, an give me acute anxiety. The dilemma is, despite the article in Time Magazine described what it’s aforementioned negativity about Amazon taking really like to work in the Amazon warehouses. over the world, it’s happening because Amazon The author, Emily Guendelsberger, recalled the has a clear competitive advantage. physical and mental stress that arose when I could ask people to hand make gifts or “every single thing [she] did was monitored and support local business this holiday season, but I timed.” There was a reason for the strikes during really don’t think that’s going to fix the situation.

Amazon’s coveted “Prime Day” last year, and the Simply asking people to reject Amazon no longer reality is that people don’t like to be held to the seems like a supportable argument because the standards of robots. reality is that Amazon is winning in this capitalist Speaking of robots, another one of Amazon’s game when it comes to customer satisfaction. The inventions has become a cause for security concerns. only remaining options are for the government to “He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when break Amazon’s monopoly or for other companies you’re awake” really hits home when it comes to step up to create the same quality services — to Amazon’s Alexa. Using search data and voice but with humanitarian practices. recordings, Amazon can now personalize it’s website

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Music

“Jesus is King” Album Review Kanye West shouts to the heavens in new album.

By Joel Vaughn Hello, I didn’t see you there. My name is Joel Vaughn.

Like all good armchair critics, my bonafides include sometimes sitting through a full album, paying $15 a month for my own Spotify family plan and close reading lyrics since I don’t actually know anything about music.

Today, we’re looking at three tracks from Mr. Kanye West’s ninth studio album, “Jesus is King,” a fraught recent release with an extra tumultuous lead up. From scraping the original Yandhi album to an unsavory appearance on TMZ to a troubling Oval Office rant, the skinny is that West has deservedly been the subject of public ire.

To cover our asses from libel though, our judgments of West’s art aren’t necessarily judgments of West himself. Rather, we’re assessing the shared cultural idea of West and how said idea is trying, and in many ways failing, to redefine itself in Christendom with “Jesus is King.”

It plays with the tropes of a confessional without going beyond an admittance of sin.

“Follow God” “Follow God” baptizes us into the forlorn refrain of “Father, I stretch / Stretch my Hands for you” pulled straight from the gospelinfused highs on “Life of Pablo.”

Suffice to say, the track is a minute-and-30-second high point in a fairly middling album, but, cutting through the beat to the verse, we find West molding his identity like clumpy Play-Doh by “screamin’” and proclaiming that “it ain’t Christ-like.”

This lyrical motif pictures a son chastised by both a spiritual and literal father for not being “Christ-like.” This can be read as West reaching for a handhold of selfawareness yet not possessing the lyrical and critical grip strength to grasp it. In this instance, West is fixated on the act and mournfulness of his scream with nothing beyond a thin paternal context.

It plays with the tropes of a confessional without going beyond an admittance of sin.

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“Closed on Sunday” Yes, we’re talking about the Chick Fil-A track. “Closed on Sunday” opens with guitar plucking and a low choir hum as West fellates the Fil-A’s closed on Sunday policy.

Like many cringey born-agains, West sings the praise of a brand’s religiosity; apparently corporations can be devout too. But this ain’t amateur hour. We at 22 West know a metaphor when we see one, so who is West’s “number one with the lemonade?”

Returning to themes explored more wholesomely in “Violent Crimes” on “Ye,” West spends the chorus shifting his brand to not just a fatherly subject but that of a Christly patriarch protecting the family from vipers, indoctrination and Jezebels. You know, just like Chick Fil-A. “Violent Crimes” established Kanye as a concerned and self-critical father—cute new dad stuff.

“Closed on Sunday” has us catching up with that now short-fused papa eight years later as he’s stuck in the Chick Fil-A drive through, yelling at his kids in the back of the minivan on their way to Sunday school.

“Hands On” “Hands On” opens with a rich, tinny, lo-fi refrain calling for the raising and laying of hands, calling for prayer. It’s truly a wonder that some of West’s worse lines can’t quite bring the lavish, soulfully palpable mood set by this track’s sample and instrumentals.

In the verse, West tells God and the Devil about the shift in his brand by “going on strike” from the sins and iniquities of his past. It’s a hokey line but not one that’s unsalvageable, however, the sentiment falls victim to the supernova pull of West’s ego dodging context and reason for that turn.

The lines: “What have you been hearin’ from the Christians? / They’ll be the first one to judge me / Make it seem like nobody love me,” lays bare the faults in West’s current identity crisis. Even in coming to Christ, West is the center of his own universe, scorned by the lack of acceptance of religious boomers who lost their culture way back in the last Bush administration.

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Music

Paul Smith Uniting musical passions and spiritual life.

Interview and Photos by Isaac Kau and Brandon Kheang

Paul Smith is a composer and guitarist from Fresno, CA who attends CSULB as a double major in jazz guitar studies and music composition. His songwriting is influenced by Sacred Harp Hymnal as well as the traditions of American folk music. He is accompanied by Zack Caplinger and Arend Jessurun.

Q: Can you describe your sound as a musician?

A: It’s so hard to describe it, [...] I think adjectives maybe like meditative and peaceful. Folky. I take a lot of inspiration from just the American folk music tradition and the sacred heart hymnal, which are both [...] American music forms and a lot of acoustic instruments.

Q: What music do you like to listen to?

A: I have like three artists that I really love to listen to right now. Sam Amidon, Norah Jones and a duo of Julian Lodge and Chris Eldridge. Oh, actually four—The Milk Carton Kids. Those four have just been kind of the soundtrack to my commute and my life lately.

Q: And you like to transcribe those artists’ songs?

A: Yeah, totally, especially with Nora Jones, I like to take her songs, and make arrangements of them for solo guitar. I have a dream of creating a book of her whole first album, arranged for solo guitar.

Q: How do you know Zack and Arend?

A: I know Arend through a connection of a Christian fellowship that I’m a part of. I met him through InterVarsity and he was at Cal State Long Beach before I was, but then we kind of [...] started hanging out. And then I met Zach through mutual friends that play jazz together and through the jazz scene in Long Beach and LA. Also, I didn’t even know this about him at first [but] his childhood and his youth in music was also kind of influenced and steeped in bluegrass. So when I found that out, we just started connecting.

Q: What are your hobbies outside of music?

A: I love to hike and I love to camp. It’s been hard to do that in the past three years and I feel like it’s been a huge part of me that’s missing. It almost feels like in the rare chances that I get to go up in the mountains [...] that’s an incredibly rejuvenating thing for the deepest part of me. It’s almost more than a hobby. It’s a spiritual, soulful, nurturing thing.

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Q: In terms of those hobbies, how do you feel like those feed into your compositions?

A: I think a big thing for me is being outside reminds me of, at least in my beliefs, the creation around me that God created [...] And just in the stillness and quietude that’s in the mountains that can’t really compare to what’s in the city that I’m normally in [...] is in a way as parallel to what my music feels like to me.

Q: So you just had a composition recital. Can you tell us more about that?

A: I had my senior composition recital and I had to gather performers—which are basically just my friends, which is so fun—to put together ensembles to perform the music that I wrote. And it was really weird ‘cause I’m so used to performing, but this time I sat in the audience and just listened to my music and it was pretty surreal and kind of a difficult thing ‘cause it felt like I had to let go of complete control. But overall it was a really nice sense of closure on that part of my life.

Q: What has your journey to becoming a musician looked like?

A: I remember the first time I ever picked up a guitar was at a camping trip [...] my friend just brought one [...] and he taught me the first song that almost every guitarist learns, “Smoke on the Water.”

And I remember I was like, “Wow, I can do this.” But then I tried to learn other things on my own [...] [and it was too hard. I put it away for awhile, but then I came back to it. It just felt like a very natural expression to me.

Q: How do you want your journey to look from now into the future?

A: I’d love to just tour with my own music. I also really want to tour with any artists that would love to take me on. As I did both of my degrees, I realized that a huge part of my heart for music is in performing. So I just really hope to keep performing a lot.

“I realized that a huge part of my heart for music is in performing.”

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Arts

Things Better Left Forgotten An other assorted poetry.

By Erin Haworth

Things Better Left Forgotten Love left when you dared to breach your heart for any walking paycheck.

Touch turned, biting, hoping for a body broken by time, your crevices show fragility striped bare against the static. “Regret must run in your family�

Kris Cring-le

By Victoria Cota

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Geyser of the Heart broken brakes breed broken bones when mountain roads oscillate between pine and sky with little care for us. me myself and I converge on the scittering wreck of bodies who dared meddle with asphalt and steel. red, the cotton of my palm pressures back the geyser of her heart reaching out towards the inevitable.

Observe this moment - how it convulses -

Contact Lens Getting a new perspective on life.

Story by Nyla Manuel Art by Gerell Wilson

It’s dark and I’ve been floating in a liquid that’s not water. I’m sealed tight in a small circular container next to my brother, Right. I can’t see him at the moment but I know he’s there. I know this because the container, which we’ve decided to call our home, comes in two’s. If one of us were to fall down the sink or split in half, then our job would be done. But I had a good feeling that wouldn’t happen because I had read our client’s file. You see, before my brother and I are delivered to assist, we are given a file to see what the heck the customer who purchased us is all about.

Our client’s name is Nia Washington. She’s 13 years old, about 5 feet, 6 inches tall, brown curly hair and has a slim frame. Nia is an only child, loves to read and is the top student in her class. Impressive to say the least, I know she’ll take care of us.

At about 6 a.m., our home is picked up and placed on a low, hard surface. Immediately after, I felt the roof of my room being unscrewed as she struggled to open it. Moments later, I saw the light. That light was soon covered by Nia as she looked at me. She wore our co-worker, or competition, Glasses. Why Glasses are our competition is another story for another time, but let’s just say Glasses thinks she knows everything because she’s old-fashioned and have been around longer than us contacts, but who cares? I’ve always told her we have

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Arts

Contact Lens

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the same purpose but Glasses doesn’t like to see eye to eye with anyone.

Anyway, Nia removed Glasses and folded her down right next to me. Glasses whispered, “Congratulations, I couldn’t make her happy but maybe you and Right will.” Before I responded, Nia dipped her bright pink nail inside and scooped me out. She filled my tummy with a liquid that’s not water. Nia fidgeted around trying to balance me on her index finger. After the fifth attempt, she then placed me softly onto a big white ball with a dark brown dot in the middle of it. She did the same for Right.

Nia was new to us and we were new to her, but Right and I were trained. For example, I was able to see what’s going on in our client’s world through the flashing lights that went off every four seconds when those furry things flapped together. I can also withstand getting wrinkled when I’m dry and tired. Not to mention, I’m able to bear the pain when a long piece of string invades my space until it’s removed. But Nia, on the other hand, took a while to get adjusted because she poked me around until she felt comfortable.

Afterward, she looked in the mirror and saw that everything was clear.

Our day together began. We went from the bathroom to the living room, living room to the car, car to the outside of a building where a whole bunch of young people were.

I mean there were so many of them that ran through the halls, threw balls, slammed lockers and stared at us.

Everyone stared at us. They stared at Nia. She kept walking though, all the way into a classroom where she sat down in her seat.

Middle row, brown desk, a history book and on top lay two Jeff Kiney novels. In front of her sat a boy who slowly looked back at her more than once. He was amazed, although I’m not quite sure what about. I mean, Nia was a smart girl and all but there had to be something different that he noticed.

Something that suggested those wide-eyed, slight smiles everyone gave us.

Nia and the boy whispered and wrote notes to each other all throughout class, but she liked it. I could tell because one moment I’d face the direction of the board behind the teacher then back down at the desk, back up at the boy then back down at the desk, again and again. Her cheeks rose higher and it pushed me upward.

Glasses had known Right and I would make Nia happy and we did.

Thirty days have passed since we’ve been with Nia and I’ve only seen Glasses in sight at night. Surprisingly, she doesn’t seem too mad that Right and I have taken the day shift while she sleeps in her case. Nia’s been going from home to school, school to the library, library to piano class, piano class to the movies with the boy, movies with the boy to shopping with her new friends; she grew a lot. But Right and I can never get too attached because we only help people see their way through.

Did I forget to mention? As a contact, I can never get too comfortable since I don’t last that long and neither does Right. After being used for a while, both of us get discarded and a new set of siblings come in to continue the job. Sad right?

Well, that’s the life of a contact lens.

By the way, my name is Left.

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Double the Fun! The ultimate tip for a better holiday season.

Story by Ay-Ay Ron

Art by E.R. Conte

Divorce. It’s a concept that we think has become a plague on good Christian marriages in America. But I’m here to offer a different perspective. Divorce should be seen as not only a good thing, but a preferable outcome for children all over the country. Why, you may ask? Because who needs a stable home when you can have two Christmases. Or Hanukkahes. Or Kwanzaaes. We don’t discriminate. The point being that if you celebrate a winter holiday that involves the giving of presents, you better hope that your parents break it off as soon as possible.

Instead of one, wholesome holiday with your parents being happily married and surrounded by supportive family, you can have two, slightly worse holidays instead. Double the presents, double the fun right! It doesn’t matter that your father no longer has a sense of what you’re interested in since he’s too busy sucking down one beer after another because your face reminds him of the life that crumbled before his eyes. Don’t worry about that! At least you’ll still get gift cards to a store that carries something you might like. Even though your mom might seem to be more interested in her new boyfriend than you, that doesn’t matter because he’ll buy you some ‘fun socks’ in a shallow attempt to connect.

Presents aren’t the only thing you’ll be swimming in, because now you’ll get a chance to decorate two tiny one bedroom apartments instead of that boring two-story house one block from your best friend. Who cares that you now only have a single drawer to keep your stuff at your mom’s place because, guess what! She buys you a whole-ass tiny Christmas tree from the front of some random grocery store. Or was it her boyfriend? It doesn’t matter because it’s all for you! To sit on that dresser with your drawer, of course.

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Let’s not forget all the holiday parties you get to attend too. You’ll meet so many new people when you get to go to your mom’s boyfriend’s brother’s friend’s party.

There’ll be so many people, you won’t know what to do with yourself. And definitely not, because no one expected a kid to be invited but because your mom doesn’t have the money to pay for a sitter tonight so you just sit on the couch alone, with a tiny dog in a holiday sweater, nursing a single can of coke. Besides, at your dad’s parties you’ll be able to see all your family friends, but don’t let their biting comments and whispered sympathies bother you, they’re just jealous that they don’t have two holiday celebrations like you!

So as we head into this holiday season, look around and ask yourself if your holiday could stand to be a bit more interesting. If the answer if yes, start planting the seeds of dissent between your happily married parents now and simply wait for the impending court proceedings, lawyer meetings and CPS visits to commence. In no time, you’ll be on your way to having the best holiday season of your life!

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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