TrailMix Spring 2019

Deep Dive

Political Cartoons

Learn about the beauty of horror in media with Jonah

By Lang Quail

Student Artwork

A Guide to CAS

An explanation for the curious Anharad's class has been working tenth grade and others written in the Mac Lab with digital editing

by Zach

THE TRUTH ABOUT MUSIC Written by Geoffrey Gee

The Secret of 2:1 Consider this C major scale, which you may have seen before. It is the notation of a series of pitches that we use in order to create melodies in music.

Have you ever wondered why there are only seven letters in our musical alphabet? Why not eight or nine? How about 26? Why were the first and last note in the scale given the same letter? Yes, we call it an “octave,” because there are eight notes, but what’s so special about an octave? Is it arbitrary? Is it just an invention by some great thinker?

Now consider the rhythm of the popular Queen song “We Will Rock You.” What’s special about that Stomp-Stomp-Clap pattern that makes it so powerful and easy for everyone to do? Is it just another great invention

by Brian May? Is it random?

Truth about music: No way!

The fact is, both these cases—the difference in frequency from the first C to the next C, and the rate of the stomps versus the claps in the song rhythm—express the simplest ratio in music, the 2:1 ratio. Our term “octave” is really about the 2:1 ratio.

So why is the 2:1 ratio so great that we organize our whole music system around it?

To answer that question, let’s consider two examples; one from rhythm in music, and one from pitch in music.

Clap a steady pulse with your hands and notice the sound of your hands coming together. While your doing that, watch your body motion, and notice your hands are moving at twice that rate. That is because between each clap your hands must also open. So in this way, the doubling of the rhythm is already present when you make the fundamental rhythm.

The same truth goes for faster vibrations, say in the hundreds of cycles per second. If you strike the piano key at middle C, its stretched strings start vibrating on their whole length, producing a fundamental pitch of 262 Hz.

But because of the nature of resonance and the physical properties of stretched strings, the middle C strings are also vibrating at exactly half their length, producing a “partial” pitch of exactly twice the fundamental frequency, or 524 Hz.

So the fact is, when you play the next C above middle C on the piano, you get a fundamental pitch that matches one of the pitches that Middle C produced.

This is the basis of harmony: One note connects perfectly with another note an octave higher, because the frequencies of the second note were already sounding with the first note! It all starts with that simple ratio, 2:1.

By Lang Quail

Political Cartoon

By Lang Quail

- WRITTEN WORK Poems and other written work by the student body

You See

by Gretchen Hammell You see the world like nobody else Not through eyes of gold and greed Not through eyes of diamonds and rainbows; where the bright side appears larger when something has really gone wrong Not through the eyes of someone who's grieving with the world tinted black You see the world like nobody else Not one view or angle of life alone, but through little bits of all of them Your happiness never makes u forget and u don't let sadness and grief pull you down into a pit of despair Deep enough that one must really try and want in order to get out You share your eyes with no one and no one shares their eyes with you.

Student Artwork

Student Artwork

The Girl with the Pearl Earring is Kathryn Smith’s take on Vermeer’s famous Portrait.

American Gothic by Grant Wood Cartoon strip is by Myra Aldonondo

has Harlow Quail’s little brother, Jasper superimposed.

The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci was manipulated into a self portrait by Iulia Dumitrescu.

Michael Cohen's Testimony and its Implications for Trump's Presidency

By Noel Schlangeter

These claims of threats have some merit, as Trump has stated on twitter

The recent news of Michael Cohen’s

that Cohen is simply, “Lying to reduce

subpoena and his pledge to further testify

his jail time.”

before the House Oversight and Senate

However, at this time Cohen has

Intelligence Committees has filled our

postponed three appearances in front of

news cycles. With this news it has become

Congress. He finally testified in front of

hard to further ignore the question looming

the House Oversight Committee on

over the heads of many Americans; the

February 27th, but his prior lack of

question of the President’s integrity, past

commitment has spurred a reaction in

and present.

Congress, specifically the Senate Intelligence Committee. This committee

As it stands currently, Michael Cohen has

is also receiving a testimony from

little freedom remaining, as he reports to

Cohen. Senate Intelligence Committee

prison on March 6th of this year to serve

Chairman Richard Burr has recently

the sentence given to him last December.

stated,“I can assure you that any

This sentence was given due to Cohen’s

goodwill that might have existed in the

admittance of his, according to CNN,

committee with Michael Cohen is now

“arranging payments during the 2016

gone,”

election to silence women who claimed affairs with Trump.”

Burr’s input proves that Michael Cohen must promise future punctuality towards

With Trump’s former lawyer’s freedom

both the House and Senate Committees

soon to be removed, it is understandable

in any chance of reducing his sentence.

we see a connection between Cohen’s potential desire to reduce his

This information explains why we saw

sentencing and his subsequent voluntary

Cohen testify in front of the House

testimony in front of the Oversight

Oversight Committee within February,

Committee. However, just before Cohen

as he is running out of time as a free

was scheduled to testify, he abruptly

citizen. It seems that Cohen will

postponed his House testimony, stating that

continue his testimony behind closed

his family was under threat by both Trump

doors as according to Fox News, this

and his current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

“appearance has been postponed to February 28th.”

However, Burr has stated that, “I would

This is amplified when it is considered

prefer to get him before he goes to prison,

that Cohen claims that Trump directed

but you know, the way he's positioning

him to have RedFinch Solutions LLC

himself, not coming (to) the committee, we

rig the polls.

may help him go to prison," meaning that the Senate Intelligence Committee is

However, while this claim does

willing to still receive a testimony from

substantiate the idea of President

Cohen even after he does not have his

Trump’s behavior being corrupt during

freedom.

and leading up to the election, this appears to be the tip of the iceberg. For

Now with this being said, and the current

example, Cohen also stated in his

status of Cohen’s testimony known, the

February 27th testimony that he has

actual information held by Cohen should be

threatened people on behalf of Trump

taken into account. According to CNN,

about 500 times in the last decade.

House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff “says he wants Cohen to

Also during the House Oversight

testify behind closed doors so he can be

Committee testimony, Cohen stated that

asked questions about the Russia

Trump was in charge of his relations

investigation.”

with Moscow knowingly throughout his campaign, and lied about it. According

In January, Cohen claimed he paid the head

to Cohen, Trump lied about his

of a company to rig online polls in 2015, as

relationship with Russia "Because he

Cohen stated, toward "the direction of and

never expected to win (the election)."

for the sole benefit of (Trump)" According

Michael Cohen also related this to

to CNN, , Cohen clarified this statement by

Trump's real estate project in Moscow.

revealing that “John Gauger, the owner of RedFinch Solutions LLC, used algorithms

It is clear that Michael Cohen is a

to rig the polls.”, which reveals the

valuable asset to both the House

company and its head in question.

Oversight Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, and that his use

Not only is this claim by Cohen interesting

as an informant may outlast his time as

to both the general public and the

a free citizen. One can hope that not

committees hearing his testimony, but it

only will Cohen’s testimonies provide

does definitely relate to the question of the

needed answers for not only those in

President’s integrity, especially in terms of

power, but the general public, who have

the 2016 election.

the right to know the legitimacy and integrity of their President.

With this being said, it is still crucial to note that many of Cohen’s claims are still unproven, and therefore it would be unjust to wait until the full story is told to make conclusions about the President and the state of our country.

While this process continues, I believe that it must be realized that this look into the President's dealings cannot be viewed as a partisan issue. If a mindset of partisanship remains over the investigations into our President, it will be drastically more difficult for a conclusion to be reached.

There must be a conclusion in order for the public to be fully aware of the President's justification for being in office, something that is crucial to know in a free society.

Note: This article was last updated on 2/28/19

DEEP DIVE CORNER Explorations into the weird and dark side of just about everything.

THE BEAUTY OF HORROR IN MEDIA HOW AND WHY JUNJI ITO’S WORK IS TERRIFYING

By Jonah-Mae Neri

Before we get into specifics, it would be useful to define what we mean by ‘horror.’ Or to put it in another way, what we don’t mean. And what we don’t mean is jumpscares. Pulling back for a second, let’s talk about the nature of art.

Art, as I see it, is something created by one person with the express purpose of eliciting emotion in someone else. So good horror creates feelings of fear, tension, dread, etc.

There’s really two reasons as to why I would want to leave jumpscares out of this discussion. One, jumpscares are more of a physiological reaction rather than an emotional one. It’s the reaction of your body trying to defend yourself from perceived danger - not an emotional response. So one could not truly define jumpscares as a valid form of horror. It invokes the same sense of danger that one would receive when they are about to be punched. So is that true horror? Well, no, it isn’t.

So what is true horror? What evokes the suspense and anxiety that you feel when experiencing such terror?

And most of all, how do creators outside of the movie and media department create that sense of horror for people reading their work?

Movies generally rely on editing, music cues, the performance of actors, visual effects and a whole parade of cinematic tools to convey the fear and terror into the audience’s minds.

However, in prose, all an author really has to work with is her words and the reader’s imagination; both of which are very powerful tools. Although one could not directly control readers' imaginations or how they interpret the work they are viewing, the way that many talented creators arrange their artwork and/or words can activate parts in the readers’ psyches that one may not of thought possible.

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO BREATHING Even as a person reads silently, they tend to breathe along to what they’re reading, as if they were reading it out loud. It’s impossible for one to turn off different parts of our brain, so when something causes us to start breathing different, it can begin to invoke different emotions.

A prime example of such would be when one starts hyperventilating,.

Many have reported feelings of suffocation and numbness. Similarly, when one feels anxious one tends to hold the breath and breathe more slowly.

Luckily for most horror creators, it is those processes that can also work in reverse that work as tools for horror. If one can successfully force that state of breathing (in a smaller and less physically traumatic version of that state), in your readers, you’ll bring on that requisite psychological response.

Some of his most notable works include several classics: Tomie, a series chronicling an immortal girl who drives her love stricken admirers to madness; Umuzaki, a three-volume series about a town obsessed with spirals; and Gyo, a two-volume story where fish are controlled by a strain of sentient bacteria called “the death stench."

EVOKING SUSPENSE AND ANXIETY Fragments of Horror, Junji Ito

When building suspense, evoking a sense of impending doom or the pure terrifying fear of the unknown, the best creators can cause the reader to hold their breath. They stop you from taking a breathe for just a little bit longer than usual, because they lead you into a state of anticipation.

A prime example of someone who has mastered this form of art and tool in horror is Junji Ito, a Japanese horror manga artist.

Ito's work can be both beautiful and intensely frightening. His illustrations don't seem do concern themselves with being aesthetically pleasing in a traditional sense - and they don't have to. Nothing about the way Ito draws or creates stories is for the sake of making it easy for the reader. Every word and every pen stroke has the clear intent of making the reader as uneasy as physically possible. Even his regular illustrations of humans has an eerie quality to them; and something as simple as a house cat can become eerie and bizarre when illustrated by Ito. This, if anything, shows how easily he has a grasp on creating eerie visuals.

It's through this that we can see one of Ito's core philosophies.

It's rare that any kind of pre-established horror takes place in any of his horror -think vampires or werewolves. Rather, Ito's illustrations focus on the disorientation of the natural world. Or, as he himself puts it, taking something normal and looking at it backwards.

And this goes a long way into making Ito's work feel even more alien and frightening. It completely removes us from what we see as our "horror comfort zones."

Everyone knows how to deal with zombies or vampires, but a convoluted mess of human appendages and faces attached to a tape worm like body? No thank you.

Ito's lack of reliance on what's come before really makes him reach to find horror in places we might not otherwise have considered. Ito finds horror, not in dark castles or in spooky forests, but instead in our everyday lives.

HOW DIFFERENT MEDIAS TACKLE HORROR Short stories, as I see it, have a lot of advantages in horror narrative. For one, because of their brief length, there is no need to over explain their concept, which in most cases is for the better. I myself have never seen a horror story told that becomes more effective after the ghost or threat was explained. The reason for that's simple: explaining why a sinister entity is the way it is, lets us understand it's logic. And in doing so, allows us to deal with it.

Resident Evil 2 (2019), image via Gear Nuke

This destroys the mystique and true fear of dealing with something we don't understand. This is prominent in various forms of media, Movies are especially guilty of this. One thing that can really take a viewer out of watching a horror movie is the rudimentary explanation used to understand the supernatural force in the movie. It takes away a key factor in horror and the one fear that is inherent in all of us = terror of the unknown. We also see this in video games, a form of horror that makes great use of its media.

Video games present the horror genre with a lot of unique opportunities, the primary one being the player's own input. So no longer is horror something that needs to be preserved, but instead something that the player needs to actively participate in. We can't watch the victim anymore, we are the victim. Player input serves the distinct function of keeping players from getting bored. While this seems obvious, it is something that really only video games can do. Take the first 'Resident Evil' for example, or better yet, it's excellent remake. While the games have changed in recent times, early 'Resident Evil' was intensely focused on isolation, exploration and dread. It is a solitary, eight hour adventure through a creepy mansion, only

briefly punctuated by the appearance of other characters.

Now, imagine that in any other format; it would be near impossible and unwatchable. Keeping the audience's attention would mean that multiple characters must be on screen so dialogue can occur. That's where video games come into play; video games don't have that type of restriction. In video games, you can be alone and it's still engaging. And this in turn, allows game designers to explore the feelings that come with being isolated somewhere unfamiliar and dangerous.

The Shining (1980), image via Chillidog Movies

Horror is a genre that comes with its many strengths and each form of media provides a new way to utilize tools of horror in a way that makes horror as beautiful as it is. The versatile nature of the art allows for incredible use of the genre. Future use of the media will be something to look out for as a new generation of creators comes forward to continue the legacy of what we consider true horror. From comics to movies to video games, horror is a genre that's inherently universal.

Meninists and Incels

the draft was eventually removed, it garnered a large amount of support from both parties.

Many MRA groups depict feminism as a movement

By Isa Blankenbaker designed to perpetuate the Meninism, a movement built on the belief systemic oppression of men. that men, not women, are the ones facing Since one of the main pillars oppression, has garnered little attention of evidence they offer for from the mainstream media . However, it this system of oppression is is a belief largely built on the same the draft’s sex specific dangerous attitudes that are pervasive in requirements, it would the infamous Incel (involuntarily stand to reason feminists celebate) community. Men’s Rights would decry any attempt at Activists have a long list of reasons as to women being forced to why they believe men are more oppressed register for the draft as well. than women. The main points are: men When this bill was brought are drafted into military service and to the floor though, many women are not, men often face worse feminists openly supported outcomes during divorce, and men are it. frequently falsely accused of rape. These In fact a recent article from points are at best distorted versions of the feminist institution, truth, and at worst, intentionally National Organization for deceptive.

Women (NOW) advocated The first point that men are drafted into for the end to a sex specific military service and women are not is draft. In 1981, when the sex technically true. However, in the context discriminatory nature of the of arguing that men are being oppressed draft was first challenged, the statement is misleading. Female NOW filed a briefing with exclusion from the draft came about due the Supreme Court that to the perception of the different roles stated “...harmful men and women “should” play in a repercussions result from society. In 2016 a bill that required women the exclusion of women to register for the draft at 18-26 was put ‘from the compulsory before the Senate. Though the language in involvement in the the bill requiring women to register for community’s survival’

that is perceived as ‘entitling people to lead it and to derive from it the full rights and privileges of citizenship.’”

The Supreme Court upheld the sex discrimination ban on the grounds that since, at the time, women were not allowed to serve in combat roles, the 14th Amendment did not apply to the draft.

The current applicability of the Court’s decision is a little unclear though. The decision was predicated on women not serving in combat and as the article goes on to point out, “on Jan. 23, 2013...Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta...rescinded the ban on women serving in ground combat units.” With this development many feminist organizations have once again begun pushing for the ban on drafting women to be lifted.

The second tenet of MRAs is parental rights, and bad divorce settlements.

Men’s Rights Activists assert that women more commonly get custody of their children, and often come out with more money, and parental rights than their ex-husbands. For this reason MRAs believe women are inclined to marry men with this in mind, then leave them, and reap the rewards of a divorce settlement.

The men’s advocacy site Return of the Kings details this idea in their article “5 Reasons You Should Never Date a Single Mom.”

Image taken from the Facebook page of "An Advocate for Men"

The article claims that men should steer away from single moms because they are likely lying, manipulative, and out to steal men’s money. The list includes reasons such as “Their bodies are inferior to women who are not mothers” and “They are finical dead-ends”. At one point the article goes so far as to claim “A woman with a child who really thinks she just wants a boyfriend is bad enough, but single mothers are greatly—if not entirely—motivated by the admitted financial security that a new partner provides.”

Single mothers are not as the article would suggest immoral women out to steal men’s money.

Many are single parents because they have left behind an abusive relationship.

Yet more are single parents because the relationships they were in simply didn’t work out, and others are single parents because while they want children, they do not currently, or perhaps ever, want a romantic partner. None of these are moral failings of some kind, and the whole of single mothers should not be judged as manipulative.

The article “Should You Stay in an Unhappy Marriage for the Sake of your Kids?” written by Terry Gaspard, a clinical social worker, delves into this idea. Gaspard writes that “(d)ivorce experts agree that a parent who has a reduced ability to cope with the stressors of life due to an abusive, extremely unhappy or high-conflict marriage, is not well-suited to be a competent parent.” Becoming a single mother is not a selfish act.

The claim that women make out better in a divorce is also false. An article from the Guardian claims “...Divorce makes men - and particularly fathers - significantly richer. When a father separates from the mother of his children, according to new research, his available income increases by around one third. Women, in contrast, suffer severe financial penalties. Regardless of whether she has children, the average woman's income falls by more than a fifth and remains low for many years.”

Women in the United States are in fact more likely to get custody of their children likely due to societal perceptions about gender roles.

However, MRAs stand against the dismantlementof gender roles and toxic masculinity.

Toxic masculinity is the result of a system that believes men and women can only possess certain traits, and that the masculine traits are worth more. It places expectations on both men and women, characterizing men as inherently aggressive and domineering, and women as inherently sensitive and nurturing.

This view of the world makes women appear to be inherently better caretakers, perhaps leading to cases of child custody where women are favored.

In an article from“The Spectator Australia,” which was posted to the website Men’s Rights Agency, the author Warwick Marsh argues against the dismantlement of toxic masculinity, using the rescue of the twelve boys from a cave in Thailand as the basis for his argument. According to him “The men who rescued these boys had one thing in common, they were all possessors of a thing called ‘toxic masculinity’.” There was no feminist backlash to the rescue though, because Feminism is not against positive traits such bravery,

that are viewed as traditionally assaults which are never reported masculine in American culture. Nor is it or prosecuted far outweighs the against masculinity as a whole. Both of number of men convicted of rape these are dangerous because of fake accusations.” mischaracterizations. What Feminism Statistics from the National Sexual does stand against is the dangerous and Violence Research Center violent attitudes that can be created by correspond with this claim. The a society that favors positive masculine center asserts “The prevalence of traits over positive feminine traits, and false reporting is low — between demands that people possess only 2% and 10%.” The center also masculine or feminine traits as claims that “(r)ape is the most corresponds to their gender, and sex. under-reported crime; 63% of MRAs also argue that men are at risk of sexual assaults are not reported to being falsely accused of rape. The BBC police.” The risk of false accusation reported that “official figures [data is much lower than the the risk of a from the British Justice Department] woman being sexually assaulted suggest the number of rapes and sexual (around 1 in 5). At college age the risk of false accusation is much lower than the risk of sexual assault for both men and women. The center claims “20% - 25% of college women and 15% of college men are victims of forced sex during their time in college.” Given this, it would make more sense for MRAs to support efforts to achieve justice for victims of sexual assault.

However, they stand firmly against movements that support that aim.

Janet Bloomfield, author of a meninist blog, states in the article “A Simple Solution to Stop #MeToo liars, “The person who will lie about sexual assault is probably… a woman.” Again only around 2% of rape accusations are false, and a greater number of sexual remain unreported.

Image taken from the Facebook page of "An Advocate for Men"

Bloomfield also promotes toxic gender roles stating “A woman without children may be a human being, but she is not a woman. The full realization of a woman’s potential is only realized when she has given birth.” She also claims that battle is what defines a man. In her article “To Protect Abortion, Women Must Give Up the Right to Vote,” Bloomfield goes so far as to suggest that adherence to these gender roles is what guarantees the right to vote,“When the United States of America was founded, it was clear that men would be required to continue to offer their lives to protect liberty... Women were not required to armor up... because women had other uses to the state, and in 1920, when women won the right to suffrage, those uses were still in effect.” Bloomfield goes on to suggest that since men are still drafted, “If women want to retain the right to abort the future citizens of the United States, they will have to surrender the right to vote, which is predicated on the mandatory production of those citizens.”

Rights of citizenship are not predicated on a person’s adherence to a certain set of prescribed gender roles. Women should not owe society children anymore than men do, and men should not owe society military service any more than women do.Men’s Rights Activism promotes the idea that men are

and the dismantlement of gender roles. It suggests that women are responsible for this, and it claims the only solution is to move backwards. This is the tie between Incel and MRA philosophy, the idea that men are oppressed because they are denied the sexual and romantic relationships with women which they are “owed”.

Women do not owe men sexual or romantic relationships, and their refusal to participate in one or both of those is not oppression. Rather the characterization of it as oppression, only serves to strengthen already existing systems of sexism and misogyny.

The image above depicts the force-feeding suffragettes often endured during hunger strikes in prison

A guide to CAS What is CAS?

By Zachary Lee

Overview

IB is a program that Long Trail offer that is designed

Hope Soucy organized a blood drive at LTS for

to challenge upcoming high school juniors

her project. Experiences are also wide-ranging.

throughout their last two years of high school. If a

For each CAS experience, students will write a

student chooses to enroll in the Diploma programme,

reflection on the various ways that it has impacted

they will participate in CAS, which includes the

them, or any insight that has been gained as a

three strands Creativity, Action and Service. CAS

result. For the CAS project, IB Diploma

provides a way to balance the heavy academic load

candidates will document it and make a final

of the Diploma with outside activities and reflection

presentation to the school after it has been

in a way that is unique to and guided by each student.

completed.

Specific Demands

If you have any questions about CAS, feel free to ask Mary Beth and/or Kim Murphy!

As part of the CAS element of the Diploma, students participate in various experiences and complete a larger project of their own choosing. Ideally, these should arise organically from activities that Diploma candidates are already participating in or from an interest that they wish to explore, guaranteeing the authenticity of their CAS participation. For example, Noah Patry, a current IB Diploma candidate and frisbee enthusiast, decided to organize an ultimate frisbee tournament at Long Trail as a fundraiser for his CAS project.

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