Richland Chronicle September 25th, 2018

CHRONICLE Richland

Vol. XLV Issue 6 September 25, 2018

Vocal power Pg. 5

IN THIS ISSUE: • Ted Cruz vs. Beto O’Rourke, Pg. 2 • Excellence in Teaching award, Pg. 3 • Male Achievement Program, Pg. 6 • T-Ducks soccer action, Pg. 7 RichlandStudentMedia.com

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2 LOCAL

September 25, 2018

Photos The Associated Press

Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, left, takes on Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke in a debate on the SMU campus on Sept. 21.

Candidates bob and weave in first debate KAMMONKE OBASE-WOTTA

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Managing Editor

Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Democratic Representative Beto O’Rourke Texas battled over healthcare, immigration and law enforcement in their first debate on Sept. 21.

From the outset, the aspirants went after each other. The language was blunt and fierce with both contestants looking to land a knockout punch.

Immigration was the first topic.

O’Rourke called for a pathway to grant Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and illegal immigrants for citizenship.

Cruz argued against this proposal. His belief was simple: “legal, good; illegal, bad.” Cruz further called out O’Rourke saying, “His focus seems to be on fighting for illegal immigrants and forgetting the millions of Americans - you know, Americans are dreamers also.”

Law enforcement and police brutality was another point of contention.

“If African-Americans represent one third of people shot in America then we have a problem,” O’Rourke said. Cruz argued that the rhetoric O’Rourke espoused was furthering the divide in America. He suggested that O’Rourke recently associated the police with old Southern traditions.

“I think it is offensive to call police officers modern day Jim Crow,” Cruz said.

Cruz pressed O’Rourke on his position on the Second Amendment claiming O’Rourke’s position on gun rights were “radical.”

“Who will defend the Second Amendment?

And I would note that the justices Congressman O’Rourke would insist upon, like Hillary Clinton, are justices that would undermine and effectively write the Second Amendment out of the Constitution. Those are radical views and they’re not views consistent with the overwhelming majority of Texans.”

O’Rourke responded with his support for the Second Amendment but reiterated his desire to see fewer shooting incidents.

“Weapons of war belong on the battle field, not in our schools, churches or life,” O’Rourke said.

Cruz and O’Rourke clashed over NFL players kneeling during the national anthem.

O’Rourke asserted his belief that the protests are the fundamental rights given to American citizens and that “there’s nothing more American “ than being able to protest peacefully.

Cruz said that kneeling during the anthem was disrespectful to veterans. Cruz reiterated his belief that everyone has a right to protest but should do it in way that doesn’t “disrespect the flag.” Cruz insinuated the protest was inciting people to burn the American flag.

O’Rourke dismissed the claim. “No one here, myself included, has suggested that anyone should do that.”

The two candidates have been closer than ever before in polling. Beto O’Rourke is hoping to cause an upset while Ted Cruz is hoping to help maintain the Republican majority in the Senate.

This was the first of three debates. The next two debates are set for Sept. 30 in Houston and Oct. 16 in San Antonio.

September 25, 2018

CAMPUS 3

Christopher Manes brings history to life ISABELLE TCHOUNGANG Staff Writer

Photo courtesy Paul Knudsen/Richland Marketing

Christopher Manes receives his award at the 2018 Richland Convocation on Aug. 23.

He encourages his students to feel the subject.

“To make [the students] realize history is not just a bunch of dead people that they may or may not have connections to, but to get them to realize that, in most cases, they are just two, three to four generations from the time period studied. And most importantly, to construct their own histories,” Manes said.

It’s one thing if students think about U.S. history as something they’ve been told and lectured about. It’s something different when they’re asked to think about their own pasts and look at parallel events.

Manes urges students to follow their own visions and to be more than content with the learning process. He urges students to learn a skill. For Manes, following his passion has helped him land just where he feels he’s supposed to be.

Staff cartoon Jerry Weiss

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Life can be ironic, especially at a time when people find themselves in a situation they don’t expect. Such was the case for Richland history teacher Christopher Manes, winner of the Excellence in Teaching award for adjunct faculty given at the Richland Convocation on Aug. 23.

As a high school student, Manes, like many current high school and college students, classified history as a boring subject. He never envisioned teaching history. His love of history started when he attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His history instructor was Vaughan Baker.

During the first class, Baker declared, “History is the study of our human experience. But to understand that experience, you have to see it through multiple perspectives and understand it as each individual lives it,” Manes said.

Like beautiful symphonies that delight the ears, that utterance changed Manes’ feelings about the subject. That’s why today Manes is a teacher. Not just a teacher, but an excellent history teacher. In addition to history, he teaches English and creative writing, as well the capstone, a year-long research project high school seniors must complete to graduate.

History is his favorite though.

In Baker’s classes, history became real to Manes. It was no longer just about kings, queens, heroes and other people he studied.

Manes began thinking about his aunts, uncles and great grandparents. This was one of the main things that sparked his love of history and inspired him to teach.

4 ENTERTAINMENT

September 25, 2018

‘The Predator’ kills RICKY MILLER Entertainment Editor

I hate to be cliché, but the science-fiction action hybrid “The Predator” delivers in virtually every department, with thanks to the kinetic in-your-face direction of writer-director Shane Black.

For those who might remember, Black had a small role in director John McTiernan’s 1987’s action opus “Predator.” His part was that of Hawkins, who meets his demise early in the story. He was part of Dutch’s (Arnold Schwarzenegger) team fighting a camouflaged alien in the jungle of a foreign land.

Just like the silly “Alien vs. Predator” entries in 2004 and 2007, death is taken with a grain of salt. Nothing more and nothing less. With Black’s current incarnation, any notion of being taken too seriously is abandoned early on.

Photo courtesy IMDB

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Boyd Holbrook in “The Predator.”

‘The Predator’ edition

In 2010 the studios, and more specifically filmmaker/producer Robert Rodriguez, tried to make a serious movie with director Nimród Antal taking the franchise in a different direction. It didn’t work, so the idea of putting Oscar-winner Adrien Brody in the role of an action hero blew up in the studio’s face. The story took place on a foreign planet, one that existed in another reality altogether, not in modern day America.

Quinn McKenna (Boyd Holbrook), as a returning soldier, is at the center of the story.

He sends himself alien artifacts he found overseas.

McKenna is paired with a busload of misfit soldiers, including Baxley (Thomas Jane), a soldier with a coarse vocabulary who suffers from Tourette syndrome. It is amusing, but highly inappropriate.

Also on the bus are Coyle (Keegan-Michael Key), a close friend of Baxley’s, Nebraska (Trevente Rhodes), Lynch (Alfie Allen) and Nettles (Augusto Aguilera). Along the way, they pick up Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn), who witnessed firsthand what the predator can do. She comments that calling it “The Predator” is a misnomer because it is another entity altogether.

Jacob Tremblay is solid as Rory McKenna, a disabled child who opens up when anything to do with math is involved. His character is constantly bullied at school. When he finally sticks up for himself on a trick-or-treat rendezvous, the encounters with bullies cease.

In a twist of irony, Jake Busey appears as a scientist investigating some predator artifacts. His father, Gary, appeared in “Predator 2” as a scientist named Peter Keyes who meets an untimely demise.

Black is an exceptional director, as well as writer, having dipped his hands in the Marvel Universe with “Iron Man 3” in 2013. He also did a great job with 2016’s “Nice Guys” with the powerhouse teaming of Oscar-winner Russell Crowe and Oscar-nominee Ryan Gosling. The pair shared great on-screen chemistry that looked and felt genuine.

“The Predator” is a must-see on the big screen because the scope of the movie is larger than life. I would recommend seeing it when it goes to the discount houses, because it’s not necessarily worth the $10-plus admission charge.

Grade: B-

“Predator” (1987) — This one holds up surprisingly well with director John McTiernan at the helm. It marked a major career shift for Arnold Schwarzenegger.

B+

Anna Kendrick, left, photographs Blake Lively in “A Simple Favor.”

Photo courtesy IMDB

‘A Simple Favor?’ Better watch what you ask for RICKY MILLER Entertainment Editor

The characters in “A Simple Favor” are likable and intriguing. That’s one reason this film works.

Anna Kendrick is Stephanie Smothers, a mommy blogger who befriends fellow mother Emily Nelson Smothers (Blake Lively) and gets wrapped up in a whodunit of sorts. The intrigue almost occurs at the beginning when the favor of picking up Nelson’s son from day care turns into a giant spectacle.

“A Simple Favor” comes from director Paul Feig, who handled directing chores in the 2015 reboot of “Ghostbusters” as well as “Spy” with Melissa McCarthy. All of that is in the past, since what he has created here contains one of the better plot twists of recent memory.

The most recent thing I can compare “A Simple Favor” to is writer-director Shane Black’s “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” (2005) in which some good old mystery is concocted with some murder and death. Lead Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer shared some great on-screen rapport.

Forget recent entries like filmmaker David Fincher’s 2014’s “Gone Girl” or anything

“Predator 2” (1990) — This is silly nonsense.

Danny Glover takes on the aliens from another world in a Los Angeles of the near future. Stupid, but it’s amusing to watch.

The film includes an appearance by the late Bill Paxton, who was always watchable.

C+

“AVP: Alien vs. Predator” (2004) — This one is worth watching just to see Sanaa Lathan (“Out of Time”) team up with a predator for the sake of sheer survival.

C

Brian De Palma has tackled recently because Feig, working from a novel by Darcy Bell and writer Jessica Shazer, does a great job of making “A Simple Favor” as all get out.

What is also amusing is the politics of signing up for volunteer activities at the school.

Stephanie sometimes gets into trouble for too much volunteering. The other parents at the school look at her with glances of “what now?”

As the spouse, Henry Golding of “Crazy Rich Asians” is intriguing as Sean Townsend, a teacher who gets mixed up in the lies orchestrated by his wife Emily and Stephanie. He looks and appears baffled by the shenanigans that are thrown into his lap.

“A Simple Favor” takes more left turns than a twisted pretzel. The viewer almost gets settled in when Feig chooses another direction and takes viewers down another road.

The storyline threads and tales are in abundance here, always veering from one change and shift in story angle to another. The one thing Emily does not like is having her picture taken in any capacity. When Stephanie snaps a picture, Emily tells her to delete it. She complies, not questioning her, but does it for the sake of their friendship.

“A Simple Favor” leaves viewers with a satisfied palate and smiles galore.

Grade: A-

“Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem” (2007) — This is more nonsense in which one of the characters the audience actually likes dies about 20 minutes in.

C-

“Predators” (2010) — This one sounds intriguing, but having Oscarwinner Adrien Brody as a tough-as-nails soldier made me chuckle. It was cool seeing Topher Grace as a serial killer and Alice Braga as the smart one handling weapons.

—Ricky Miller

C

September 25, 2018 ENTERTAINMENT 5

Vocalese, standards, swing and all that jazz Staff Writer Two premier ensembles of a dozen jazz vocalists along with their accompanists from the University of North Texas returned to Richland’s Fannin Hall for a second year as guest artists for the noontime recital Sept. 18.

Leading off with three numbers was the very hip group known as Avenue C, imaginatively named after the street in Denton where the UNT music building is located. The musicians, nattily clad in various combinations of black and crimson, were only casually directed

by Professor Marion Powers who drifted on one occasion out into the audience to observe her protégées in action.

The three men and nine women ducked and bobbed their way through “The Birds and the Bees” by Inara George and Greg Kursten as arranged by UNT’s usual vocal jazz leader, Jennifer Barnes. “Infant Eyes” by Wayne Shorter was arranged by Kerry Marsh and “Bli Blip” by Duke Ellington and Sid Kuller, as arranged by Darmon Meader, was also performed.

Interspersed between spirited solos by Corbin Bullard and Jessica Fuller were some

Staff Photo Muyideen Ogunbunmi

The vocal jazz ensenble, Avenue C performs a concert in Fannin Hall on Sept. 18.

As the microphone was passed along the row of shining faces, it became very apparent that a common thread was an early and enthusiastic exposure to music and a growing

appreciation for the expressive capabilities of jazz. A final round of ringing applause echoed the audience’s hearty agreement.

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PETE SHANNON

agile riffs by bassist Dylan Castilleja and guitarist Dallas Dillard.

The second troupe, known simply as The Jazz Singers, received top billing. These outstanding singers were as attractively bedecked as the others but this time in black and deep blue.

Their repertoire included five pieces that featured almost every one of the five males and seven females as soloists at various times.

Perhaps indicative of the overall vocal jazz genre, which includes both traditional and modern themes, were the titles of their songs: “Airegin,” “Here’s to Life,” “Moanin,” “My Ideal” and “Estrogenia.”

The last song, which contained several interesting syncopated rhythms, was composed by the group’s temporary director, Professor Anna Jalkeus. In addition to the always happy and smiling finger-snapping presentations by the vocalists, their accompaniment, especially by guitarist Joel White and bassist Byron Crenshaw, was spectacular.

When the music ended, Jalkeus gave a short pitch for UNT to any students at Richland interested in vocal jazz as a specialty career.

After fielding several astute audience questions, she asked all the performers to take a moment to describe their backgrounds and how they happened to become jazz artists.

6 CAMPUS

September 25, 2018

MAP plots path for students’ success CHRONICLE Richland

STUDENT MEDIA LEADERS

KAELYN BRADLEY

Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Copy Editor Entertainment Editor Layout Editor Photo Editor

Staff Writer

The road to success is in a direction not easily found sometimes. The Male Achievement Program (MAP) at Richland College may just be the way for some students to find it. The organization has about 70 members with a goal of boosting membership to 100, according to MAP coordinator Gabe Randle.

The Richland website describes MAP as “a higher education-based student development association that seeks to increase retention and college completion rates of male/minority students.”

Randle said, “This organization originally started out as a grant. When the grant ran out the school itself said this program still needs to be in existence, and so the school turned it into an actual program. This program has been in existence for about five or six years.”

The program offers mentors, discussion groups, workshops, character development and study groups.

Edward Sesay, a second year member of MAP, wasn’t always sure that he wanted to join. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop him from becoming a part of an organization that would later have a great impact on his life.

“I came to realize that this is a good organization for me. It helped me to strive for

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ON THE COVER Cara Walton performs with the UNT Jazz Singers at Fannin Hall Sept. 18

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Members of the Male Achievement Program at a recent meeting.

excellence and also to do a good job in my classes, thanks to Gabe,” Sesay said.

Sesay said Randle has done so much for him. He is determined not to let Randle down.

“The program really does work if you let it work for you. It’s a great resource. The program is a one-stop shop for anything and

Staff Photo Chloie Lewis

everything you may need to be successful.

Whatever you need we will provide it for you,” Randle said.

“We are kind of chameleons with this program. Every student that joins gets in for a different reason, but whatever that reason is, it’s our job to make sure we fulfill it,” Randle continued.

Any registered student can participate, including Richland Collegiate High School students. MAP meets every Tuesday from 2 to 3 p.m. in Sabine Hall, S117. Students can join at any time.

For more information, contact Randle at 972-238-6292 or e-mail: RLCMAP@dcccd. edu. Students can also stop by the Lakeside Resource Center in El Paso Hall, Room E082.

Clarification: In the Sept. 4 issue of the Chronicle, the Harvest of Empire experiential assigment should have been referenced as the work of the multiple-member team, Equity Richland.

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SPORTS 7

September 25, 2018

T-Ducks bounce back vs. Mountain View

UPCOMING EVENTS All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise indicated.

Sept. 25 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. i

Experiential learning activity “A Dreamer’s Reality” Cafeteria stage 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

i

Dr. Jerry Wallace Music Scholarship recital Fannin Performance Hall

Sept. 25-26 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. i Staff Photos Mirco Daniel Mbega Ndoumou

East Circle Drive outside the East Breezeway

Rafael Dominguez shields the ball away from a Mountain college defender on Sept. 19.

Dallas Cowboys Big Win, Bigger Expecations THOMAS CABRERA

Staff Writer

The Dallas Cowboys are preparing for game three at press time, coming off a victory in game two that saved their season from a 0-2 start.

That’s something that has never happened in the Jason Garrett era as a head coach. The boys got the victory and had a great start with the third play of the game being a 64-yard touchdown bomb from Dak Prescott to Tavon Austin. The receiver taunted the defensive backs as he crossed the goal line untouched.

The Cowboys defense held its ground just

as it did the previous week and, after saying “challenge excepted,” knew the team would respond. According to The Associated Press, Prescott responded, “We wanted to go out there and show you guys.”

Running back Ezekiel Elliot had his work cut out for him as he out rushed Saquon Barkley in their highly anticipated showcase against each other, the first time since their college days at Ohio State and Penn State to becoming draft picks to help the Cowboys’ struggling offense. Prescott picked up some of the slack with his own impressive performance, outrushing Barkley as well with a career best 45 yards on the ground and 160 in the air against the struggling Giants defense.

Photo Courtesy Associated Press

Running back Ezekiel Elliott is grabbed by New York Giants cornerback Curtis Riley Sept. 16.

Cowboys rookie kicker Brent Maher got two field goals out of the way due to the defense being disruptive. They had to settle for field goals down the road. That could be the reason they miss the playoffs. Even with the defense stepping up like they did against the Giants, by spreading the wealth of six sacks among different players, which hasn’t happened since 1997. That frustrated Eli Manning who never looked comfortable on offense. The Cowboys were just two sacks shy of tying Eli’s record for most sacks. The Cowboys beat the Giants 20-13.

If the defense is going to carry this team, which is most likely to happen, their offense is going to have to produce more than just field goals and stay healthy as Sean Lee exited late in the second half with a sore hamstring, Garret mentioned Lee could have returned and should be ready to go for next week’s game.

Owner Jerry Jones told The Associated Press, “I don’t want to use the word ‘dominate’ just because I let you use that.” He went on to say “The main thing is we’ve got is depth and we’ve got speed and we’ve got the rotation and we’ve got some skill back there in that secondary and in that line backing spot relative to pass coverage.”

After some basic play calling against Carolina, offensive coordinator Scott Lineman was criticized so the Cowboys went with some non-conventional plays early in the game that payed off and led to a field goal.

When this high-powered offense is rolling, nobody can stop them. When they distribute the ball between Prescott and Elliott, that is where they are the most dangerous.

It remains to be seen whether they can reach their pinnacle and make it to the playoffs when the game really counts.

Sept. 26

11 a.m. to 2 p.m. i

SGA presents: An election awareness event El Paso Lounge 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

i

Latin Karaoke Hispanic Heritage Month Cafeteria stage

Sept. 27 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. i

Free financial planning seminar Sabine Hall, Room S118 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

i

FreshCheck Day Interactive booths, free food and prizes El Paso Student Lounge

Every Wednesday i

12:15 p.m. Wellness Wednesday El Paso Hall, E081

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Sergio Gonzalez on Sept. 18 against Mountain View. Richland won 4:0.

Carter Blood Care bus

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September 25, 2018

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