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HIGHLIGHTS CULTURE APRIL 10, 2014
Courtesey of MILES MCFLY
Miles Mcfly, Dave Dillinger, Joseph Perez and Bridge sit together in front of a ‘fingersxcrossed’ neon sign wearing their brand.
Audrey James-Anenih staff writer Audrey Park staff writer Beverly alumni Miles Mcfly, Dave Dillinger, Joseph Perez and Bridge Perez, along with Maria Rubin, founded FingersxCrossed (FXC), a “collective of talented individual that came together to form a lifestyle brand.” Although four of the founders graduated from Beverly, they didn’t know each other until after graduation. McFly graduated in 2005, Dillinger in 2008, Bridge in 2009 and Joseph Perez in 2011. “Each one of us has a specific
talent and passion that benefits the next person,” McFly said. “The site actually started out as a blog with just pictures on it, but we have since transformed it into a site full of editorials.” Maria Rubin, who McFly describes as the “mother of the group,” manages Bridge’s music career and is the “mastermind” behind the site. “The second Maria [Rubin] came up with it, I instantly said that I knew how to make [a website] and with help from Bridge, David and Joseph we designed what you see today,” Mcfly said.
The website was initially created as a platform for all of the respective members to release whatever projects they were each working on. “If Bridge is going to release a song, we have the exclusive site to find it on,” Mcfly said. “If Dave Dillinger is working on something in fashion, we have the exclusive drop on it. Our list of friends goes on forever, so we have so much exclusive content to release.” Mcfly believes that all of the members have their own individual style, therefore readers can “tell who wrote what without
even seeing the author’s name.” “Dave is always on some next level stuff with his posts. I don’t even know how he finds some of his content. Bridge is pretty short and sweet with his posts. He’s always finding some new music to vibe to or some model from out of obscurity,” Mcfly said. “Joseph will always find the newest car that’s faster than the last one or some mansion that he plans on living in one day. I’m kind of all over the place with my posts. I try to update it as much as possible so the viewer always has something new to see.” A majority of Mcfly’s posts is influenced by his hometown of Los Angeles. “LA has a big influence on what I post. I definitely don’t limit my search to LA but if I do see something from LA then I always show love,” McFly said. “Nothing makes me more proud than to see people from the city I love doing well, especially if it’s somebody I know or grew up with. I would say that I post a lot of west coast influenced music on the site that maybe some sites on the east coast wouldn’t post. And I love palm trees, anything with a palm tree in it I’ll post.” The beauty of the website, according to Mcfly, is that the “target audience is so broad.” “We post and promote all types of things. Music, art and fashion can be faceless as well as ageless,”
McFly said. “There really isn’t any one group of people that we are trying to reach. I know I have some of my friends’ little siblings as well as parents checking the site everyday for updates. Senior Zoe Tran was impressed by both the content and design of the website. “It covers a lot interesting and relevant things,” Tran said. “It’s really organized and nice to look at. It’s cool.” The members of FXC are currently working on designing their own brand of clothing and accessories. “We hope to have a pop-up shop this summer in Los Angeles and we plan on launching our online store when the merchandise is ready,” McFly said. “We also have a cool opportunity in the works right now with a big brand so fingers crossed that works out.” McFly hopes that FXC will someday become a worldwide brand. “We want the collective to collaborate with some of our favorite brands and artists,” McFly said. “We want to launch a clothing line as well as a production company for music videos, short films, artists, musicians and photographers. It would be great if FXC became a million view per day platform for people to promote themselves.” Students can view the website at fingersxcrossed.com.
As seen on beverlyhighlights.com
ASB hosts annual blood drive, students turned away
A staff member takes senior Allison Klemes’s pulse as she gets prepared to donate blood.
Juliette Deutsch staff writer ASB teamed up with UCLA for its annual blood drive on April 1. However, due to an unexpected illness among staff members, students were turned away from donating blood. “Basically what happened is the
UCLA blood drive told us that six staff members came down with an illness and were unable to come down,” sophomore Justin Friedman said. “We’ve just been spacing out when we accept people. We had to close down a couple of times so that we could get caught up.” ASB members, according to Fried-
JULIETTE DEUTSCH
A staff member checks senior Evan Rennie’s blood pressure while he listens to his iPod.
man, worked to their best ability and used all the available staff. “Of course there was nothing we could do to prevent it,” Friedman said. “Next year we just have to make sure to have back up and try to confirm more with UCLA to have people fill in.” Every year, ASB sets out to collect
190 units of blood. However, due to the unexpected shortage of staff, it was unable to fulfill its goal. “Our class goal is to have 300 sign ups to fulfill the 190 units of blood goal. Due to the short staff we had to turn students away which hurt our goal of getting 190 units of blood,” sophomore Isaac Spector said.
“This year we had 298 sign ups plus walkins, but because of the whole dilemma with understaffing there were many people we had to turn away because we didn’t have space for them,” Spector said. UCLA staff members were not available to comment due to the hospital’s privacy policy.