Panorama Volume 2 Issue 3

January 2019

4 Projected on TV: How TV Dramas Influence Career Paths Lauren Nehorai

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A Look into America’s Deadliest Drug Epidemic Sofia Heller and Kaitlin Musante on the cover

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Rebuilding Public Schools Spencer Klink

Volume 2, Issue 3

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Spinning Out of Control: Why Students Can No Longer Predict the College Process Joanna Im

20 A Year in Review: 2018 Best Albums Lucas Gelfond

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Projected on TV: How TV Dramas Influence Career Paths

Spinning out of Control: Why students can no longer predict the college process

By Lauren Nehorai

By Joanna Im

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16 Rebuilding Public Schools

By Spencer Klink

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A Look into America’s Deadliest Drug Epidemic

By Sofia Heller and Kaitlin Musante

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A Year in Review: 2018 Albums

By Lucas Gelfond

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF: SOFIA HELLER KAITLIN MUSANTE SENIOR EDITORS: RYAN ALBERT LUCAS GELFOND SOPHIE HABER JENNY LI

JUNIOR EDITORS: CAITLIN CHUNG KYRA HUDSON MADISON HUGGINS CASEY KIM SPENCER KLINK LAUREN NEHORAI EMMA SHAPIRO LINDSAY WU

ADVISER: JIM BURNS HEAD OF VIDEO PRODUCTION: KERRY NEIL

PANORAMA MAGAZINE is the student magazine of Harvard-Westlake School, and is affiliated with The Chronicle, the student newspaper.

It is published four times per year. Letters to the editor may be submitted to chronicle@hw.com or mailed to 3700 Coldwater Canyon, Studio City, CA 91604.

Letters must be signed and may be edited for space and to conform to Chronicle style and format.

Panorama Magazine is a space for: in-depth stories stories that extend beyond the bounds of our campus human-interest articles powerful design This issue, we’re covering stories ranging from the impact of the current opioid crisis to our nation’s crumbling infrastructure system in public schools. Our goal is to uphold the truth, share narratives that matter and document the spectrum of human experiences. We hope our articles inform you on topics you hadn’t thought about before and make you think about issues in a new light.

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PROJECTED ON TV:

How TV Dramas Influence Career Paths 4

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By Lauren Nehorai As she dissected a fetal pig in her ninth grade biology class, Isabella Huang ‘19 mimicked the surgical movements she had watched on “Grey’s Anatomy” the night before. Holding her scalpel in gloved hands and cutting precise incisions, she imagined herself working alongside Meredith Grey and Cristina Yang in the operating room.

“I felt like I was working at the Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital as I dissected,” Huang said. “It confirmed for me why I love the field so much.”

Huang said that watching medical dramas as a child inspired her to want to go into the medical field.

“Medical TV dramas were fun and really opened my eyes to this fictitious idea of the physician career for me,” Huang said. “Before watching, I never thought about what being a doctor entailed. After, I really started to consider my future.”

Huang is not the only one who has been influenced by career-based TV dramas. According to a study by Indiana University, popular careerbased television shows have a considerable influence on students’ major and career choices.

Isabella Baradaran ’20 said she never considered the possibility of being a doctor, let alone a surgeon, until watching “Grey’s Anatomy.”

“There is something so empowering about it,” Baradaran said. “The more I watch, the more obsessed I get, and I can learn about the inner workings of hospitals and surgical protocols all while being entertained. It almost makes me feel as if I could step into an [operating room] and assist on a surgery.”

The inspiration Baradaran feels while watching “Grey’s Anatomy” is furthered by the complexities of the characters, she said.

“I like how they aren’t portrayed as perfect people,” Baradaran said. “It makes them seem more human, which also makes their accomplish-

ments seem more attainable.”

For Makenzie Munman, 17, medical dramas contributed to her pre-existing love for the field.

“I would not have started “Grey’s Anatomy” if I was not already interested in the medical field,” Munman said. “I think they do a good job of depicting working in the medical field if you take it with a grain of salt because entertainment is always dramatized. I also believe much different hardships are depicted in the shows than the reality of problems people run into.”

For some, however, the depiction of these hardships “Medical TV dramas were can function in the opposite fun and really opened my fashion and shift students away from potential careers. eyes to this fictitious idea Sophia Schwartz ’20 said of the physician career she had always been interested in pursuing a career in for me. Before watching, I medicine, but after watching never thought about what shows like Grey’s Anatomy, being a doctor entailed.” decided against it.

“I saw this whole other -Isabella Huang level of hardship surgeons endure, and I realized that I simply don’t want that as my future,” Schwartz said.

The hardships shown in career-based shows are largely true-to-life, Rutgers Assistant Professor of Communication Bernadette Gailliard said. According to a study by Rutgers University, scripted shows are accurate in their depictions the day-today responsibilities of characters with jobs.

Sam Torbati, an Emergency Room Doctor at Cedar Sinai Medical Center, agreed that many of the hardships of his job are reflected accurately on the screen. While he said he finds that certain details are exaggerated and tedious aspects of the ER process are omitted, medical dramas like “ER”

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depict many of the situations he deals with each day at work.

“Although there are inaccuracies regarding the timeline, I think the show “ER” is most consistent to what we see day-to-day,” Torbati said. “The producers do a good job of accurately portraying the main themes of our jobs and capturing the relationships and bonds we form with our patients, especially human drama cases and their impact.”

This accuracy is partially due to the inclusion of field experts during the writing process and the intensive training of the actors, according to the New York Times. “ER,” for example, was created by doctor Michael Crichton and included an emergency room physician and pediatrician on its writing team.

TV producer and writer Shonda Rhimes, who has created several TV “The producers do a good dramas including Grey’s job of accurately portraying Anatomy and Scandal the main themes of our jobs based off of occupational fields, also works to and capturing the relation- maintain accuracy withships and bonds we form in her shows. According with our patients, especially to Cosmopolitan Magazine, Rhimes is devoted human drama cases and to understanding meditheir impact.” cal terminology and -Sam Torbati, ER doctor finding realistic cases as she writes. Rather than making up stories, she said she looks in medical journals or takes stories from viewers themselves.

Not only is substantial research required for the writing portion of a show, but in Grey’s Anatomy, actors are also put through extensive training, according to the DO. Cast members are instructed on how a medical procedure would actually be performed before filming it in a scene.

The actors’ exposure to medical techniques and terminology brings a level of realism that makes the

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show all the more influential, Alexandra Oster ’21 said.

“I can definitely see that the actors have at least some degree of medical knowledge,” Oster said. “It is apparent through their confidence with the terminology and comfort with the tools. It adds another level of skill to acting and doesn’t make their job look easy, but it makes it significantly more interesting to watch.”

In contrast to Oster and Torbati, Max Valdez ’20 said while he understands that drama needs to be added for entertainment purposes, he ultimately finds medical dramas to be highly unrealistic due to the addition of these dramatic plot lines.

“I get that what goes on day-to-day at your average hospital wouldn’t gain nearly as many viewers or as much revenue at Grey-Sloan Memorial, but most of what goes on is just too crazy,” Valdez said. “They have operated on extremely bizarre cases, from a man with tree hands to a patient who swallowed baby-doll heads, all while having secret affairs with one another and meeting estranged family members. Also, the abrupt death of a main character is something I constantly anticipate, which is not true to life.”

Civil Lawyer Haley Kondon said she agrees with the notion that TV dramas are usually inaccurate.

“I generally don’t think that [lawyers] are accurately portrayed in any of the shows I watched in my 20 years of my career,” Kondon said. “It doesn’t always drive me crazy, but there are some shows that I just can’t watch, like the Good Wife. I found that to be very intolerable, mainly because each case was neatly wrapped up in every episode. It is just not true to life and it bugs me a lot.”

Kondon also said that when shows such as “Scandal” and “Law and Order” leave out the mundane aspects of the process, they undermine the level of diligence lawyers need.

“They don’t show all the work that goes into it,”

Kondon said. “It can take years of preparation to even get a court date in civil cases. They have lawyers testify for their clients, when in really life we really just ask questions. They also rarely include critical components to the process, such as motions and depositions.”

However, despite their typical inaccuracies, Kondon said that watching a TV show about lawyers did influence her career path.

“I watched a show called ‘LA Law’ in the 80’s, and it did make me want to go to law school,” Kondon said. “ It looked glamorous, fun, intellectual and interesting. But being a lawyer is not actually like ‘LA Law.’” While the glamour of these highly regarded jobs tends to appeal the most to students, Mariella Breidsprecher ’21 said she admires the grunt work and endurance in the telenovela “Jane the Virgin.”

“I like the show because Jane fails over and over again as a writer until she succeeds,” Briedspreacher said. “Seeing how rewarding and therapeutic the writing process can be really sparked my interest in journalism, and although the show does stretch certain aspects, I feel like they did a good job of accurately portraying the struggles of a writer.”

Kylie Azizzaeh ’21 said she no longer views TV as just entertainment; her nightly shows have become a way to gain insight on the nature of certain careers.

“I like TV shows that inspire me and show the intensity in certain careers I would otherwise overlook,” Azizzaeh said. “TV has definitely provided some clarity when it comes to my career choice, and it has made me recognize the appeal of some and find others I would never consider.

It’s influencing my future.”

Photo Illustrations by Lauren Nehorai and Spencer Klink

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The current opioid crisis has killed nearly 30,000 drug users and affected the lives of thousands more, including a former addict, a mom fighting to prevent others from suffering the same fate as her daughter and a doctor working to keep opioids out of medical practices.

Photo Illustrations by Sofia Heller and Kaitlin Musante

A Look into America’s Deadliest Drug Epidemic 8

PANORAMA MAGAZINE

By Sofia Heller and Kaitlin Musante

W

edged between dirt-stained walls and a metal bench just wide enough to fit his body, Alan Wins struggled to orient himself.

The cracking paint on the ceiling swirled above him as his eyes crossed and stomach flipped. He vomited, a series of loud, heaving retches that filled the otherwise empty cell.

It wasn’t Wins’ first time in jail. He had been behind bars a number of times before for driving under the influence and public intoxication and was familiar with a “drunk tank”––the crowded bodies, drunken ramblings and overwhelming stench of alcohol.

This time, however, he was alone.

Swallowed by the isolation that encircled him, Wins said he sunk under the fear that he would no longer be able to deny the consequences of his opioid addiction.

“Whenever you’re separated, it means something bad happened,” Wins said. “At that moment, when I woke up and I was coherent, I remembered sort of where I started, and I thought, ‘Oh no, I might have actually done something really bad this time.’ When that fear became reality, I knew that this wasn’t going to end well.”

Opioids, which Wins was first exposed to through codeine cough syrup as a child, are a class of drugs that includes heroin, fentanyl and pain relievers. While they have been pre-

scribed since the 1800s, their nonmedical use has skyrocketed over the past six years, with 11.5 million nonmedical users in 2016 alone, according to the National Institute of Health. The current opioid crisis has claimed the lives of nearly 30,000 drug users, making it the deadliest drug epidemic in American history, according to the New York Times.

Teetering on the edge of being added to the body count, Wins sat haunted in his jail cell.

When the police officers retrieved the then-19-year-old later that morning, they informed him that he had been arrested for public intoxication and thrown into the “drunk tank,” only to be removed after repeatedly bashing his head against the wall.

“You’re a mess, and you’re only 19,” Wins remembers the police saying. “You’re not supposed to be drinking. What are you doing with your life?”

He didn’t have an answer.

The only thing he knew at that moment was that this time, he wasn’t going to use his one phone call to ask his dad to pick him up, he said. Instead, he walked the 10 miles home along the main road, sweating in the dry summer sun, and for the second time that day, found himself alone. Accompanied by nothing other than his anxieties, he finally pulled himself out of his denial. “[As] an addict, you think everything is

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okay,” Wins said. “You’ll ride that ego and listen to that inner voice that you’ll hear in your head repeatedly saying, ‘This is fine. Everything is how it’s supposed to be. It’s their fault. This isn’t your fault.’

I heard this voice a lot for a lot of years. I blamed a lot of stuff on society or my parents or whoever. At a certain point, when the silence is there and you’re walking in that kind of position, there’s no one to blame but yourself. Because no one was there but you, and no one got you into that mess but you.”

It was then when Wins finally decided to get clean. He threw his drug paraphernalia away, his faith in himself growing with each item he tossed.

He was going to do to it this time, he said.

However, 18 hours later, back with the same crowd under thick clouds of smoke, the pills around him took control once again, consuming his thoughts until nothing remained but his desire to escape the world, he said.

“I wanted to run,” Wins said. “I wanted to run, and I didn’t want to feel anything anymore. I didn’t want to face any realities, and I didn’t want to be in the skin that I was living in. I didn’t want to be the person I was. I wanted to be outside and forget where or how I felt. Then, within an hour of doing that and getting the freedom, the guilt and shame started coming back. And then, I tried numbing out again.”

The cyclical nature of addiction, which plagued Wins for years, is all too common for opioid users, anesthesiologist David Samuels said. 91 percent of opioid addicts will experience a relapse, according to the National Institute of Health.

Samuels, who has removed opioids from his practice and encourages other doctors to do the same, explained that even one dose of opioids can alter a user’s brain and start the cycle of addiction.

“The opioids work in a manner where your receptors are changed so that you need more of the drug to the same effect,” Samuels said. “If you continue to take the medicine, you become dependent, which means if you stop taking the medicine, you

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go through withdrawal. Withdrawal with opioids is a very severe, painful process, where people end up just taking another opioid to avoid the withdrawal. Then, there’s abuse and, then, addiction, where your primary motivation is to get your next dose. You’ll start destroying relationships, stealing money, missing work, missing school because all you care about is your next dose. Every single moment of your life when you’re addicted, you’re just focused on your next dose and how you’re going to get it.”

Pamela Butler relapsed multiple times in her thirteen-year struggle to overcome her addiction.

While she first starting taking prescribed Lortab and Roxycodone to ease her pain after crushing her cheek bone, hips, pelvic bone and tailbone in a car accident, her dependence on the narcotics quickly grew. Within months, Butler was taking upwards of 14 pills a day, instead of the recommended five.

Butler said her doctors and specialists fed her addiction, readily prescribing opiates after breezing through questions about pain levels and ignoring her bloodshot eyes, shaking hands and increased irritability.

“The doctors never seemed too concerned,” Butler said. “In the beginning, they never even told me I could get addicted. I would just go in every month, they would talk to me, give me a prescription and send me on my way. They even never tried to take me off.”

This mentality that Butler witnessed is a result of shifting cultural and societal ideals around pain, Stanford University Medical Director of Addiction and professor Anna Lembke said.

“As a society, we have a much lower threshold for experiencing pain, and there’s this idea that any kind of pain can lead to trauma and psychic scars—pain begets pain,” Lembke said. “Because of this shift in thinking, doctors now feel that pain is something that patients should never have to suffer in any form and that it’s their job as the compassionate physician to do anything within their

“I DIDN’T WANT TO FEEL

ANY THING ANYMORE.” “I wanted to run. I wanted to run, and I didn’t want to feel anything anymore. I didn’t want to face any realities, and I didn’t want to be in the skin that I was living in. I didn’t want to be the person I was. I wanted to be outside and forget where or how I felt. Then, within an hour of doing that and getting the freedom, the guilt and shame started coming back. And then, I tried numbing out again.”

— Alan Wins, former opioid addict PANORAMA MAGAZINE

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power to eliminate this pain. They are taught that in failing to do that, they are essentially torturing the patient.”

While Lembke does agree that doctors should aim to relieve their patients’ pain, she said that opioids are not the solution. The notion that opioids are an effective treatment for minor and chronic pain is a marketing trap set up by pharmaceutical companies, Lembke said. Rather than diminishing the pain, a condition called opioidinduced hyperalgesia changes addicts’ threshold for experiencing pain until even the slightest stimulus can become agonizing.

“Big [pharmaceutical companies] took advantage of structural changes in medicine and convinced doctors that prescribing opioids long term and for minor pain was both safe and medicinebased, with minimal risk of addiction,” Lembke said. “This idea is completely false, and it has had many very real effects.”

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For Butler, the consequences of her addiction soon overtook her life. Her days were spent holed up in her bedroom, high off the cheapest pills she could find, and at night, she’d slip into the darkness to buy more.

“I was stuck in a vicious, never-ending cycle,” Butler said. “I would take them, and I would feel good. Then, the money would run out, and I wouldn’t have them anymore, and I would be sick. I couldn’t even get out of bed because I just felt so awful physically and mentally. It felt like it was something that I was never going to get over.

It was just the way it was, and I was gonna be like that until I died or it killed me.”

As Butler’s addiction spiraled further out of her control, its repercussions expanded too. She stopped taking her kids to school, stopped getting out of bed in the mornings to say goodbye. Her marriage ended, and as her husband left, she filled his void with a new boyfriend. Months later, as she lay swallowed by the darkness in a drug-induced trance, he molested her six-year-old daughter.

Eventually, Butler decided she was going to commit to getting clean. She left Jacksonville, Florida for Miami, turning her back on the streets she lurked at night, where her pills were just a phone call away.

“I had just gotten tired of living like that, and I finally decided I had had enough,” Butler said. “I gathered up the courage at last and got it in my head that I didn’t need to be taking these pills to be happy.”

But courage alone wasn’t strong enough to fight her addiction, she said. The withdrawals soon hit hard. The diarrhea, sleepless nights, stomach cramps, sweating and shaking left her in constant

torment. “[Withdrawing] feels like your body has been hit by a truck,” Butler said. “It’s like your skin is crawling. Somebody even just touching you just a little bit feels like your skin is being ripped off.”

Butler’s isolation in Miami allowed her to prevail over the pain, and she has now been clean for the past six years, she said.

For Wins, however, a community was crucial to his recovery, which he found at a treatment center in Costa Rica.

“As someone who will find any loophole or any shortcut or any corner to cut, I needed something that was very rigid,” Wins said. “I needed something that gave me an idea of how to live because I wasn’t taught that I deserved better. Rehab broke this cycle long enough to where I wasn’t trying to justify what I was doing, and I wasn’t trying to use because it made me feel better.”

Although a rehabilitation center was finally how Wins got clean, they have fallen under fire for their high cost and low success rates in recent years. A 28 day stay in a treatment center can cost upwards of $30,000, according to the Washington Post, and it is nearly impossible to ensure long-term rehabilitation in such a short amount of time, researcher and Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry John Kelley said. He said it takes eight years and four to five attempts at treatment for the average opioid addict to achieve one year of remission.

Wins said he sought treatment in Costa Rica partially due to the rising costs within the United States.

“Somebody who has been on the street, addicted to heroin, is not going to be able to go to rehab

if it’s going to cost 30k, and they’re going to need insurance,” Wins said. “The odds of that happening, of them having a spare 30k, is insanity. Prices need to change, or the government needs to pay.”

In order to prevent the epidemic from escalating even further, doctors must work to build infrastructure inside of the medical field to treat addiction, Lembke said. This system would be most effective as a multi-modal approach, which she said includes both FDA-approved medication and psycho-social intervention.

Solving the crisis, however, will require more than “[Withdrawing] feels like your just reforming treatment centers, Lembke said. body has been hit by a truck.

Bev Kelley-Miller, who It’s like your skin is crawling. has been a forceful voice in ending the epidemic since Somebody even just touching her daughter Megan died of you just a little bit feels like a heroin overdose in 2015, your skin being ripped off.” said she believes reform must start in the prison sys— Pamela Butler tem.

Kelley-Miller experienced the prison system’s problematic approach to addiction firsthand after a judge denied Megan’s request for in-patient treatment during her nine-month stint in jail, leading her to relapse upon release. That relapse soon led to Megan’s death by overdose––a fate that many other former inmates met, as well, according to the New York Times. A recent study in North Carolina found that former inmates were 40 times more likely to die of an opioid overdose in the first two weeks after being released from prison than someone in the general population.

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This is your brain on drugs.

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This issue stems back to the court’s systematic lack of understanding on the nature of addiction, Kelley-Miller said.

“The court system doesn’t hold a medical degree, but they determine whether you get medication or treatment,” Kelley-Miller said. “It’s not conducive, and it results in a lot of people’s lives being taken by this drug. They don’t understand that relapse is a human condition. It does not just have to do with addiction.”

The solution in the prison system lies within both educating lawyers and judges and making the counties, rather than the state, responsible for the cost of incarceration to eliminate any consideration of the budget, Kelley-Miller said.

In order to prevent the opioid crisis itself from expanding further and claiming even more lives, Kelley-Miller said that teenagers need to be informed.

“While my daughter thought she was having fun, she never signed up to be addicted,” Kelley-Miller said. “But, she crossed a line and got hooked at a young age. It’s that peer pressure, the desire for sense of belonging, and the frame of reference that ‘everybody does it, so it’s OK’ that makes schools so dangerous. We really have to take a hard look there and teach our kids at an early age how bad [opioids] are so they don’t fall into those traps.”

In pursuit of that goal, Kelley-Miller travels around Wisconsin, where she resides, sharing her daughter’s story with high school students.

She displays pictures of her daughter––a blonde 22-year-old, smiling broadly––beside her death certificate so that the students are able to see the concrete reality of an otherwise abstract crisis, she said.

“I try to make it personal because people always think, ‘Oh, that can’t happen to me. I know what I’m doing. That just happens to other people,’” Kelley-Miller said. “But when I go into those classrooms, you can hear the silence in the room

because now they’re making that connection. If it could happen to my daughter, it can happen to anyone.”

While Kelley-Miller said she believes her work benefits the high school students, she is eager to speak to middle school students in order to prevent an even greater number of kids from using.

At Harvard-Westlake, students at the Middle School are educated about types of drugs and their dangers through a series of lessons from the organization Freedom from Chemical Dependency (FCD). In addition to teaching hard facts, the officers from FCD share their personal struggles with addiction, mimicking a method like KelleyMiller’s.

“I think that hearing from someone with direct experience with addiction made a much larger impact,” Harvard-Westlake student Francis Ross said. “They were able to tell us from firsthand experience what addiction is like, what things it does to your body, like how it can make you feel sick or feel no strong emotions, and what long term effects it can have, such as its effects on your memory. They made sure to introduce these ideas to us in a forceful yet effective way, and I feel it was really helpful in deterring me further from harmful substance use.”

Wins is all too familiar with the long-term effects that FCD teaches and said he believes the short-term high comes nowhere close to justifying them.

“There’s a moment in your emotional state where you have to ask yourself if these feelings that you get, the few moments where you feel good, are worth it,” Wins said. “I can promise you and anyone who reads this that those moments are not worth it. They are not worth the pain, the suffering, the longevity. It was fun to be that rebel and be outside of that circle. But, [ultimately], there’s always the end. There’s always the end of how it felt like to know that you’ve thrown every opportunity that you’ve had away.”

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Opinion

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By Spencer Klink

Sewage, insects and mold are not items one would expect to find in a typical public school, but for many students under the American public education system this is an unfortunate reality.

A 2016 study conducted by the 21st Century School Fund, the U.S. Green Building Council and the National Council on School Facilities determined that funding for public schools is currently falling short by $46 billion.

Some of these problems are relatively small, such as leaky roofs or broken bathroom

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appliances. However, several other issues pose large threats to students, including lack of air conditioning which enables viral conditions to spread, asbestos in roof installments that could lead to cancer and lead pipes that contaminate drinking water.

These classrooms are certainly not suitable learning environments. In fact, they are the exact opposite. The Lawrence Berkeley National Lab determined that schools with poor ventilation rates, which are becoming more widespread as buildings fail to

modernize, directly result in an increase in respiratory illnesses among students as well as an inability to stay alert and effectively complete assignments.

To make matters worse, these infrastructure problems are not distributed evenly. According to the National Education Association, there is no designated funding at the federal level for public education, so schools end up falling back on local funding.

Because of this, impoverished communities are often the sites of schools with poor conditions.

Photo Illustrations by Spencer Klink

Schools in lower-income districts are therefore forced to face instability and make difficult choices. A school can either restore broken facilities at the cost of dipping salaries and other important issues, or leave the facilities in poor condition without putting teachers at risk. Overall, public schools are caught in lose-lose situations.

When this problem of wealth inequality is considered, the impact of poor learning environments is even more devastating because impoverished students don’t have a solid educational base that they can use to find a job, preventing social mobility and resulting in the continuation of poverty.

Underinvestment also has an intricate connection to the schoolto-prison pipeline, which refers to the tendency of disadvantaged students to be imprisoned. Lack of funds in certain schools means that low-income schools lack the resources that enable them to escape criminal behavior and are structurally excluded from successful lives. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, an overwhelming amount of victims of this system are African-American students or disabled students. In the case where students avoid juvenile detention, risks of suspension or expulsion remain, which again is a problem that disproportionately affects the lived experiences of black students.

Although this chronic underfunding is not a new problem, the scale it has reached is a recent development. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that there is a nationwide trend of decreasing constant pay, or income based on the cost of living, for teachers. For example teachers in West Virginia, who went on strike in March of 2018, earn nine percent less on average

than West Virginian teachers in 2000.

This problem will likely only worsen as time goes on. Sylvia Allegretto, an economist at University of California, Berkeley, said that even unionization among teachers, while able to mitigate the problem, is overall incapable of preventing salaries from continuing on the downward trend.

The structure of the public education system is undoubtedly guided by neoliberalism, or the latest shift within capitalist economies in which maximized privatization is viewed as necessary to achieve liberal ideals of freedom or progress. Neoliberalism has had a particularly devastating effect on the public education system, with competition and productivity in capitalist markets being the sole indicators of success.

The lack of investment within public education is also a necessary part of neoliberalism, as it demonstrates that government-sanctioned programs are being undercut to empower the private sector. At the same time, the shift toward privatization casts blame on individuals rather than the broader structures that cause these problems. For example, the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind policy that sought to reform lower-income schools, although seemingly guided by sound intentions, was ineffective because it asserted that individual schools were at fault while ignoring the flawed basis of the American public education system.

This is not only an injustice, but an attack on democratic ideals, enabling elites to maintain their grip on American politics as lower classes are continually stripped of necessities like education. To make matters worse, President Donal Trump and U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have made

numerous attempts to cut funds for federal education and will likely to continue to do so in order to “drain the swamp.”

Although isolating the flaws in public education is easy, developing a solution is far more complicated. However, there are a number of steps that must be taken on the path to developing a more egalitarian public education system.

First, it is necessary for teachers to continue building up a resistance to chronic underfunding.

Activism among teachers has already begun. In March, teachers in South Carolina carried out protests and strikes to demonstrate their opposition to the current form of public education within the United States.

It is important for these movements to maintain a stable end-goal that serves as a guiding foundation for its resistance. This is what sets apart valuable activism from activism that falls short of what it seeks to do.

If the activism sparked by teachers against underfunding for schools was guided by feasible political demands, their strikes and protests would be able to operate very effectively. One example of a demand could be for progressive tax programs to obtain funds for school infrastructure.

Until these demands are made, it is important to consider the faces of chronic underfunding as a reminder of who needs the help.

Think of the students in Baltimore, Maryland and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who had to sit through lessons in unheated classrooms in the winter.

Think of the schools in Detroit, MI that don’t have the resources to provide enough desks and chairs for all of its students. It is necessary to continue to fight for their well-being.

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Photo Illustration by Caitlin Chung and Kaitlin Musante

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nte

SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL: Why students can no longer predict the college process

By Joanna Im On paper, Ronald* had it all – impressive test scores, a high unweighted grade point average, stellar recommendation papers and more. That didn’t seem to matter, however, when he saw the word ‘deferral’ glaring back at him on his Yale admissions portal.

“It was a bit frustrating,” Ronald said. “I still am totally fine with my application and I think it was really good, but it was disappointing not to get an acceptance despite being qualified.”

According to a study conducted by Youth Truth, 55 percent of students feel unprepared for the college application process, regardless of GPA and extracurriculars. This is unsurprising given that many seemingly qualified applications are rejected from their ideal college, Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting Shirag Shemmassian said.

Shemmassian attributes the uncertainty to statistical probability, he said.

“There is a reality of the number’s game,” Shemmassian said. “If there are so many students applying to schools each year, statistically speaking, not everyone can get in. Competition has risen in terms of college admissions in the past few years,

so there are many people who seem qualified on paper to get in, but don’t.”

Although he had strengths in terms of GPA and test scores, Ronald said he believes that he was deferred due to the competitive applicant pool.

“There were about 19 people in the [Yale] pool, which is a ton,” Ronald said. “I really like my application and I think it was really good, but, fundamentally, they can take only so many kids from one school, especially when they have to take certain ‘hooked’ students.”

“Hooked” students hold advantages that make them more attractive to particular colleges, Upper School Dean Chris Jones said. Common hooks include alumni connections, contributions to development on the college campus, sports recruitment, connections with someone on the admissions board and religious, socioeconomic or geographic diversity .

Gender diversity within specific schools can also be valuable as a “hook” – for example, males usually have a less competitive pool when applying to liberal arts colleges, Jones said.

“After traditional hooks like legacy and devel-

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opment, it starts to truly depend on the institution,” Jones said. “For example, men applying to liberal arts colleges have less competition and because of that have a higher acceptance rate. In the past, women studying STEM fields were rare, and competition was lower, but that’s been out there long enough and there are lots of women now going into those fields, so it’s less of a hook than it used to be.”

While the influence of hooks varies between institutions, they often have a large impact, Jones said. According to a 2004 study conducted by three Princeton University students, being a legacy at Princeton is the equivalent of having an SAT score that is 140 points higher.

Jordan* was ‘hooked’ to three different schools due to his participation in an academic activity that could result in recruitment. After applying to all three, he was accepted into two and deferred from one, he said.

“Without a doubt, the time and eff “Without a doubt, the ort I spent working for my hook activity far exceeded the time and eftime and effort I spent fort I spend on schoolwork,” Jordan working for my hook ac- said. “I applied early to a very selecschool and was told very early tivity far exceeded the tive on that the hook I had didn’t have time and effort I spend on as much weight as others’ hooks. I was most likely deferred because my schoolwork.” grades and course load didn’t reflect what they wanted to see. But for some -Jordan* people, like big donors, legacies, and sports players, they make a huge difference.”

Hooks can be frustrating to students like Ronald who are put at a disadvantage because they lack them, he said.

“From what I can tell, all the students who got into the school that I applied to were either hooked or going for music,” Ronald said. “I might still get in during the regular process, and I totally understand that, but it’s certainly frustrating that no matter how qualified an applicant is, there are others who are simply slotted at a higher position.”

However, while common hooks, such as being a legacy, help, they may not be the determining factor in admissions, Shemmassian said.

“So many schools can fill their entire pool with legacies, meaning that they have far more legacy appli-

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cants than they have seats,” Shemmassian said. “But at the end of the day, if there are two students who have similar qualities and one is legacy, the student with legacy will get in over the other.”

Jones also said even with a strong hook, there is no way to completely predict a college acceptance.

“Often when people refer to ‘ideal colleges,’ they’re talking about very selective colleges that have an applicant pool that all have those higher scores,” Jones said. “There’s something I call a human slash – it’s a human decision, not a scientific process. It may come down to how an admissions officer is feeling on a certain day, what that person thinks is the most important thing in applications and there’s no way to standardize that in a truly measurable way.”

Many students preparing for the process like Philip Moon ’20 said they fear that their efforts to accommodate for college requirements are useless due to this uncertainty.

“As a junior who is getting ready for applying to colleges next year, I’m always somewhat confused about whether I’m prepared or not, especially since there’s no clear way that we as students know what each specific college is looking for in terms of extracurriculars or personal essays,” Moon said.

As an athlete, Moon also said that the admission process is particularly different based on the activities that students do.

“I play baseball, so I know that some people on the team get into college through recruitment, rather than the traditional application process,” Moon said.

“This can also apply to musicians and artists who submit portfolios and other activities – everyone’s application process is unique and specific to their own lifestyle.”

Moon said that while he was raised on the notion that there is a ‘perfect student’ to colleges, his belief in this ideal is declining due to the unpredictability of college admissions.

“I think that my family, friends and I generally think that colleges believe that colleges can see someone as a perfect student,” Moon said. “But the process is, in some ways, so arbitrary that meeting these standards may not even matter.”

After watching her older brother go through the college process, Tali Tufeld ’20 said she came to the same conclusion as Moon — the idea of the ‘perfect

student’ is dying out.

“As much as we want to say there is a model student with perfect scores, I definitely think that there are always strengths and weaknesses about each student,” Tufeld said. “Everyone is different, and [admissions are] more about the holistic view. Now that my brother is in college, my parents are also aware of being realistic of colleges I’m looking at.”

For some professionals, however, this ideal still thrives. Texas State University professor Scott Ham said that an ideal college application exists, but simply changes between universities based on their particular needs and interests.

“The notion of a ‘perfect student for college admissions’ is not a myth, but the definition of what that “perfect student” is will differ at each institution and in each applicant pool,” Ham said. “The admission process changes in terms of what is needed at the same institution in the next application pool, so at times, it looks like the “perfect” student is passed over.”

Ham said the most fundamental aspect of a successful college application is academic strength, particularly in core subjects.

“Admissions officers are charged with making sure the foundational skills in the areas of English, Math, Social Studies, Science and Foreign Language are present, and that students have performed at a level that indicates an ability to succeed at the college level,” Ham said. “While grades in these core subjects are the best predictor of academic success, other factors like class rank, standardized test scores, essays, activities or work experience and recommendations can help to inform admissions officers and committees of a student’s fit with a specific institution.”

College counselor Patti Demhoff also said that extracurricular activities are crucial for college applications.

“All colleges, in varying levels, look at the rigor of high school curriculum, the grades students received in their classes and standardized test scores first if available,” Demhoff said. “That is the first level, but after that, colleges look to the students’ characteristics, what they do with their time and their engagement with intellectual pursuits outside and inside of the classroom.

Initiative, leadership and intellectual curiosity are all traits that they generally look for in students.”

When students have similar levels of academic rigor, Ham said that essay applications can make a student

stand out from others.

“The essay is the one place in an application process where the admissions officers/committee get to hear from the student in their own words,” Ham said. “Students can demonstrate what is important to them and gives them an opportunity to differentiate themselves on a personal level. This is not to say that pressure should be put on students to write the “perfect” essay, but rather to be honest and genuine in their response.”

While Ham said there is no way to completely predict and ensure acceptance into a certain college, students should try to find the college for them and enjoy the process rather than getting wrapped up in the ideals of perfection.

“The bottom line in all of this is that the college search and application process is, without question, full of uncertainty and anxiety, but it also an opportunity for students to explore who they are and who they want to become,” Ham said. “Students should take this process seriously, but also take the time to enjoy the discovery that is inherent in the process.” *Names have been changed

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2018 ALBUMS

By Lucas Gelfond

I don’t profess to be an expert on music or to have listened to everything released this year (and have only heard some of the albums below a few times through). That said, any claim that “no good music is being released today,” at least in this writer’s opinion, is patently false. Numerous 2018 releases were compelling, innovative, original and fun. I’ve ranked the albums below roughly, and as time goes on, I wouldn’t be shocked if some were to dramatically rise or fall, in

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particular those I don’t feel I’ve spent enough time with.

This said, here are some of my favorite albums of the year.

1. “Some Rap Songs” by Earl Sweatshirt

“Them expectations raising because daddy was a poet, right?” Sweatshirt asks in “Burgundy” off of his debut album “Doris” (2012). Sweatshirt is the son of Keorapetse Kgositsile, who was South Africa’s National Poet Laureate, and Cheryl Harris, a civics professor at the University of

California, Los Angeles. Expectations are certainly high.

In many ways, it seems that Sweatshirt hopes to shed these expectations on “Some Rap Songs.” Sweatshirt’s face on the cover is blurry, seemingly taken haphazardly on a mobile phone. Promotion consisted mostly of releasing two (of, initially, my least favorite) tracks before the album’s release and posting a few oddly titled YouTube snippets.

A title like “Some Rap Songs” forces the listener to expect something thrown together,

Photo Illustrations by Kyra Hudson

shedding expectations, Sweatshirt manages to exceed them.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “Shattered Dreams,” “Cold Summers,” “The Bends,” “Azucar,” “Riot!”

2. “Die Lit” by Playboi Carti

disconnected and lazy.

In freeing himself from expectations, Sweatshirt triumphs. In his 24 minutes, Sweatshirt immerses the listener in his world, one of depression, troublesome relationships with his parents, loneliness, Trump and substance abuse, utilizing loops and choppy tracks that flow into one another. In turn, “Some Rap Songs” feels endless and like a world of its own. Sweatshirt is engaging, and each track feels deliberately and correctly placed; “Some Rap Songs” is not merely a compilation of a few hip hop tracks as its title suggests.

Rather, Sweatshirt has managed to create a charming, sticky and replayable album with the same unique production (see: “Solace”) and technical skill that brought listeners to him in the first place; by

In an article titled “Playboi Carti’s ‘Die Lit’ Is Great, You’re Just Old,” Vice writer Alphonse Pierre noted HipHopDX’s infamous headline which called Carti’s debut a “glorified beat tape with ad-libs.” This is to say, if you hate Playboi Carti, you’re in great company.

Many bemoan the emergence of “mumble rap,” a shift away from the lyricism of old school, conscious hip hop and toward using the voice as an instrument, embracing repetition and simplicity. Playboi Carti *is* mumble rap, and he couldn’t care less whether you like it or not.

In eschewing typical song structure or complexity, Carti manages to put together the most fun 57 minutes of the year. Carti embraces humor, repetition and nonsense, as long as it doesn’t interfere with his ability to go insane over production, mostly from Pi’erre Bourne. “P*ssy man I smoke that organic / Fendi down I’m smoking organic” Carti raps on “FlatBed Freestyle.” Who needs sophistication when you can have fun?

FAVORITE TRACKS: “Long Time - Intro,” “R.I.P,” “Fell in Luv,” “FlatBed Freestyle,” “R.I.P Fredo”

3. “Now Only” by Mount Eerie

A year ago, I didn’t know who Phil Elverum was and certainly

didn’t know his wife, Genvieve Castree. Yet hers was one of 2017’s most powerful losses for me and one chronicled by Elverum’s “A Crow Looked At Me” (2017) as “Mount Eerie.”

Where “A Crow Looked At Me” was nearly musicless, “Now Only” gains instrumentation but loses little of Elverum’s painful and minimal storytelling. “I sing to you / I sing to you, Genvieve / I sing to you/ You don’t exist / I sing to you though,” Elverum sings at the opening of the album. While Elverum has traded his shock for a dull grief, the personal impact and pain of Castree’s death is as heartbreaking as ever.

“Now Only” is ostensibly about the daily challenges of grief for Elverum. “And is it / my job now to hold whatever’s left of you for all time? / And to reenact you for our daughters life?” Elverum asks.

In addition to loss, “Now Only” centers on fatherhood, love, childhood, hopelessness, loss of control, memory and art.

Elverum is in deep pain, but he’s made it into remarkably compelling art. There’s something beautiful about that.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “Tintin in Tibet,” “Distortion”

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5. “Safe in the Hands of Love” by Yves Tumor

4. “Veteran” by Jpegmafia

Jpegmafia doesn’t care what you think. Take 2015’s “Communist Slow Jams:” Jpegmafia raps about white hipsters, gentrification and takes shots at several celebrities who will never hear his voice. Jpegmafia is energetic, young, angry, political and unafraid to offend.

“Veteran” presents us with the same Jpegmafia (born Barrington Hendricks); this time, tightened, catchier and poppier; “Veteran” is perhaps his strongest work to date.

Jpegmafia’s production breaks barriers, sampling anything from Ol Dirty Bastard (of Wu-Tang Clan fame)’s throat noises to the sound of paper clips on his desk.

Jpegmafia is perhaps the fastest growing artist in hip-hop right now, now co-signed by heavyweights like Wilco, Denzel Curry and the Avalanches.

His music is fresh, lively and unapologetic, and “Veteran” certainly has some of the year’s most fiery and catchy tracks.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “1539 Calvert St,” “Real N***,” “Thug Tears,” “Baby I’m Bleeding,” I Cannot F**king Wait Until Morrissey Dies,” “Whole Foods”

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“Safe in the Hands of Love” is dark, menacing, cavernous and scary. This album is experimental in every meaning of the word; sounds jump out at you and most tracks have a 3D quality, a sonic depth, to them.

Songs like “Hope in Suffering” are deliberately terrifying, adding a large, monster-like presence to the album.

This album is unique, and that is perhaps its best quality. “Safe in the Hands of Love” offers an array of sounds that will put you off balance, scare you and immerse you; it’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard.

Yet, this otherworldly quality is balanced by songs like “Noid,” with a path outside of this dark world. “They call it a sickness / PTSD, depression / Safe in the hands of love / that’s where I feel the pressure from,” Tumor sings on “Noid.” Perhaps we are safe in the hands of love.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “Faith in Nothing Except in Salvation,” “Economy of Freedom,” “Noid,” “Licking an Orchid”

we all grew up with him. I’ve been listening to Mac Miller since I found “Best Day Ever” (2011) in sixth grade, and while I haven’t been following him obsessively, I’ve loved the music of his I have heard.

That said, I was unusually excited for “Swimming.” The singles from the project were some of the jazziest I’d heard from Miller, something I’ve always thought he excelled at. It’s release was unsurprising: the project is, in fact, catchily and compellingly written, uniquely produced and pleasing to the ear.

6. “Swimming” by Mac Miller Many publications and online users had the similar words in the wake of Mac Miller’s death; it hurt so much, because

“Swimming” should be an album of triumph: “I was drowning, but now I’m swimming,” Miller sings on the first track.

After breaking up with longtime girlfriend Ariana Grande, Miller was convicted of a DUI and fans across the internet worried about his safety and well-being. Authorities pronounced Miller dead of a drug overdose on Sept. 7, 2018.

Perhaps the water got too deep.

“Swimming” sheds light on substance abuse, breakups and addiction. “I’ll do anything to get out of my head,” Miller gloomily sings. Hopefully, we can all stay afloat in Miller’s absence.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “Come Back to Earth,” “Hurt Feelings,” “Ladders,” “Small Worlds,” “So It Goes”

7. “KIDS SEE GHOSTS” by Kids See Ghosts

“KIDS SEE GHOSTS” was the third of Kanye West’s “Wyoming Session” albums, a five album run of back-to-back Westproduced releases. “KIDS SEE GHOSTS” is a collaboration between himself and longtime collaborator Kid Cudi. Ye (the second album of the sessions, and only West solo album) initially left me disappointed— its minimal production was a retort to the elaborate and lush

sounds I’d come to love West for. “KIDS SEE GHOSTS” was an affirmation that West still has it.

The album is elaborate, layered and varied. The biggest takeaway from “KIDS SEE GHOSTS” is the precision of this album; each drum hit, synth lead or vocal note feels perfectly placed. Whenever my ear wants to hear something next, it is there; this album is deeply satisfying. West and Cudi have unbeatable chemistry and continue it with some of the most memorable and well-placed guest features of the year; Pusha T’s sharp opening verse, Louis Prima’s catchy hook on “4th Dimension,” Ty Dolla $ign’s euphoric harmonization on “Ghost Town Pt. 2” and Yasiin Bey’s chorus on “KIDS SEE GHOSTS” all are some of the album’s highlights.

This album’s unique and fresh production, combining psychedelic and rock elements with West’s traditional hip-hop make it a stand out for the year.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “Feel the Love,” “4th Dimension,” “Freeee (Ghost Town Pt.

from West’s five weeks producing five albums in Wyoming. Ye was released in a night emceed

by Chris Rock (the night before my Precalculus final, unfortunately), with West’s friends, family and closest associates gathered around a massive bonfire. Even from a livestream, it’s impossible to ignore the youthful happiness, triumphant spirit and camaraderie in the air. How could the atmosphere not be electric?

Ye is almost inarguably focused on mental health, but it’s spin is positive. “I hate being bipolar, it’s awesome” the front reads. West is a champion-ebullient and giddy--on Ye. West doesn’t seem to feel like he needs to impress anyone, or break any boundaries. Instead, he is comfortable being himself and finding his passion and

2),” “Reborn,” “Cudi Montage”

8. “Ye” by Kanye West Ye was the second album born

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mojo in his music again. Ye gives us West in full-form, swaggered out and controversial as ever, the most “Kanye” he’s ever been; West and Ye are inextricable.

West seems ecstatic to get the chance to do so.

Even as a simple album, Ye is inseparable from its Wyoming video stream. Ye shows us a happy, raw, simple West. It’s a tale of triumph and happiness.

This may not be his magnum opus, but it’s damn enjoyable nonetheless.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “No Mistakes,” “Ghost Town,” “Violent Crimes”

9. “CARE FOR ME” by Saba

“CARE FOR ME” is a much more focused project than Saba’s

2016 “Bucket List Project.” Saba’s cousin Walter passed away after being stabbed to death in Chicago. “Care for Me” is a plea, a command: “help me through this loss.”

“Everything is grey,” Saba gloomily raps on “GREY.” Saba combines skillful lyricism, strong and cohesive production and great features on “CARE FOR ME.” Perhaps most compelling however is his vivid descriptions of his relationship with his cousin, profiled extensively on “PROM/KING,” including a haunting description of discovering Walter’s death. “PROM/ KING” is perhaps the most gripping track of the year.

“CARE FOR ME” is a heartbreaking tale of grief. I love it.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “BUSY/SIRENS,” “GREY,” “PROM/ KING,” “HEAVEN ALL AROUND ME”

upbeat tracks and does not disappoint on “Oxnard;” Paak’s signature swagger, playfulness and energy are all on full display.

Like his previous efforts, “Oxnard” combines unique grooves and blends elements of R&B and rap, both of which Paak seems quite comfortable with.

“Oxnard” seems like Paak’s shot at the mainstream. The album is propelled by features from heavyweights like J. Cole,

10. “Oxnard” by Anderson .Paak

Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Q. Tip. Paak absolutely deserves the popularity, and while “Oxnard” doesn’t have the x-factor that “Malibu” did for me, it’s a blast of an album that serves to further his sound and make a shot at the mainstream. What southern California city is next?

FAVORITE TRACKS: “Headlow,” “Tints,” “6 Summers,” “Cheers”

After being noticed by Dr. Dre, Paak has enjoyed a rapid ascent.

Paak is from southern California and had released two albums beforehand celebrating it: “Malibu” (2016) and “Venice” (2014). On his third studio album as Anderson .Paak, he chose Oxnard, his hometown. This feels fitting.

Paak has earned reputation for consistent output of fun, beachy,

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Honorable Mentions:

I liked all of these enough that I felt I needed to include them, but not enough to surpass records above, or I didn’t listen to them enough to feel I could write substantively about them.

“Lush” by Snail Mail

“Lush” finds Snail Mail perfectly capturing teenage angst, against gloomy but incredibly catchy songs. While this album certainly falls off on the back side, it also contains some of my favorite tracks this year.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “Pristine,” “Speaking Terms,” “Heat Wave,” “Full Control”

“2012-2017” by Against All Logic

exceedingly danceable. Purp can rap, and along with some great guest features (including two Wu-Tang Clan member verses), puts together an energetic project that’s an absolute blast.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “24K Gold/Sanctified,” “Godbody - Pt. 2,” “Hallelujah,” “Elastic, Aw Sh*t”

“Be the Cowboy” by Mitski

“Be The Cowboy” is compelling; Mitski is a brilliant storyteller and has a gorgeous voice. The album is both poppy and tender, losing none of Mitski’s signature sound.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “Why Didn’t You Stop Me,” “Nobody,” “Washing Machine Heart”

“Collapse” by Aphex Twin

Loops, loops and more loops. Here’s a fun, smooth, groovy and unique album that is a blast to listen to. Definitely worth checking out.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “I Never Dream,” “Some Kind of Game,” “Cityfade,” “Now U Got Me Hooked”

Twin is king of the bleeps. The “Collapse” EP is reminiscent of his other works, equally as interesting and engaging. The EP feels like a world of its own, just as claustrophobic as we’re used to from Twin.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “T69 collapse”

“TA13OO” by Denzel Curry

“Endless” by Frank Ocean

Who thought the dude who made the song from the water bottle flip videos (“Ultimate,” for reference) could make something as artful as this? TA13OO is cohesive, energetic, fun, varied, lyrically sophisticated and the most mature I’ve heard from Denzel Curry.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “TABOO,” “BLACK BALLOONS,” “CASH MANIAC,” “SUMO,” “SWITCH IT UP,” “PERCS”

“Endless” was released at the same time as Ocean’s opus “Blonde” in 2016 but was only released track by track this year. Endless is captivating like all of Ocean’s work, but its production is more drum-centric and is sonically distinct from his other albums “Channel ORANGE” and “Blonde.”

FAVORITE TRACKS: “At Your Best (You Are Love),” “U-N-I-T-Y,” “A Certain Way,” “Wither,” “Sideways,” “Mitsubishi Sony”

“FM!” by Vince Staples

“Astroworld” by Travis Scott

“FM” is Vince Staples signature, bangerbased sound in the form of a simulated radio show. Vince brings the same charisma, humor, bass-heavy production and catchy rhymes to a really fun project.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “Feels Like Summer,” “Don’t Get Chipped,” “Run the Bands,” “FUN!,” “No Bleedin”

“QUARTERTHING” by Joey Purp

“QUARTERTHING” is characteristically Joey Purp: energetic, treble-heavy and

Scott, once a prodigy of West, has taken on his own West-like role. “Who put this sh*t together I’m the glue,” Travis asks on “SICKO MODE.” “Astroworld” is an ode to the defunct Houston theme park, and in saluting his city, he’s finally come into his own. “Astroworld” is a spectacle, combining the biggest names for guest features and production from the biggest names in hiphop.

FAVORITE TRACKS: “STARGAZING,” “STOP TRYING TO BE GOD”

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