The Advocate, Issue 20 - Mar. 17, 2017

the

advocate

Volume 51 Issue 20

March 17, 2017

Independent Student Voice of MHCC

Congress raises genetic screening threat PAGE 2

Get the low-down on MHCC cosmetology department PAGE 5

MHCC’s new softball coach PAGE 8

Police chief sells community engagement Student’s ‘Fantasy’ music gets premiere

2016 FIRST PLACE

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General excellence Oregon Newspaper Publisher Association

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OPINION

March 17, 2017

Editorial

House votes on getting into your genes

W

hile most of the country has been sternly eyeing the proposed revisions to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), another bill now before Congress that could cause much more public outrage has flown under the radar.

HR 1313, or the “Preserving Employee Wellness Programs Act,” was proposed by U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. What this bill has been advertised to do is clean up ambiguity in current laws and wording regarding the health and wellness discounts and penalties employers can offer employees.

Currently, when you get hired, your boss can charge you more for your work-based healthcare insurance if you smoke or if you are overweight, for instance, or a ton of other things.

HR 1313 is an addendum to the laws that allow those penalties, and says if you don’t agree to let your boss genetically screen you, he can penalize you or charge more for your healthcare premiums.

This bill is being debated by the House Education and the Workforce, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means committees, all three of which are major panels for the House and help to determine national policy regularly.

If this bill passes, huge groups of Americans are going to be required to consent to genetic testing, with the potential to be marked and tracked by the U.S. government (and/or someone else) in case they

need your genetics in the future.

Not to mention, the reason for the screening to begin with is for the insurance companies to find out your predisposition to diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Huntington’s disease, MS, cystic fibrosis or myriad other illnesses that could potentially change how you live your life.

Also, this can be a Pandora’s box: Once that testing is out there, it can’t be undone.

A lot of people don’t want to know they have “increased likelihood” for one of these diseases, and not only don’t want to be told, for example, that they are more than likely going to lose their memory as they age, due to Alzheimer’s, but also are basically told if they do not go through this testing to get this awful news, they are going to be penalized for it.

We believe it should never be a requirement for someone to give up such information about themselves.

It doesn’t get any more personal than your genetic makeup. That is literally who you are, and for the government to push you to put that on display to anyone, regardless of

the reason – in this case, a steep insurance discount – is ridiculous.

It’s possible that the only reason this bill is being put to vote is because the government could never pass a bill that says that everyone needs to be genetically screened, because that would be a huge infringement on people’s rights. If the government instead gathers the information under the guise of “healthcare,” those laws and guidelines are already in place.

There are lots of reasons that people can and should give out personal information, but this seems like just a blatant violation of individuals’ rights to privacy.

Also, this can be a Pandora’s box: Once that testing is out there, it can’t be undone. So let’s think about what this could mean in a little hypothetical story: Bill gets a job and his boss says “Bill, if you don’t get screened, it’s going to cost you an extra $50 a paycheck, so that’s an extra hundred bucks a month.”

Not wanting to pay extra money for healthcare, Bill goes to the

doctor’s office and gets genetically tested. The doctors tell him there is a good chance he will get cystic fibrosis -a debilitating and very expensive illness to treat – at some point in his life. (Keep in that currently, Obamacare would keep pre-existing c o n d i t i o n s from effecting his healthcare, and Trump says he doesn’t intend to change that.

However, Trump changing his mind on healthcare would not be a first, and what’s to say some administration/Congress down the road doesn’t change the preclusion clause.) And now here’s Bill, pre-diagnosed with an ultimately deadly illness, and no insurance to help him get treatment because he was

pressured and basically forced to get genetic testing done years before.

Not the least, here, to mention the hulking elephant in the room on this issue: How likely is it that if thousands and thousands of workers are basically forced to put their genetics on file, that the government is not going to have access to it?

Under an administration that condones waterboarding and torture under the guise of national security, it’s not a far leap to fear there would be agencies that would access genetic information to track people, or even to profile potential lawbreakers and dissidents.

As George Orwell wrote, “If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.”

Though we are in the year 2017, it feels like we are marching ever forward toward 1984.

Do you have an opinion on this topic or another?

Send us your opinion and thoughts to: Advocatt@mhcc. edu.

For more information, view the requirements in the gray box below.

the advocate Editor-in-Chief Gloria Saepharn

Assistant Sports Editor Logan Hertner

Ad Managers Joseph Frantz

Associate Editor, Arts & Entertainment Editor Matana McIntire

Graphic Design Team Prisma Flores Seneca Maxwell

Advisers Howard Buck Dan Ernst

Photo Editor Open Position

Staff Writers Greg Leonov Brody Mathews Maddy Sanstrum Glenn Dyer Maegan Willhite Erik Walters Ryan Moore Monique Mallari Noah Guillen

Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor Megan Phelps News Editor Kyle Venooker

Assistant Photo Editor Davyn Owen

Opinion Editor Donovan Sargent

Photo Team Alex Crull Fadi Shahin Jessica Mitchell

Sports Editor Jamie George

Video Editor Open Position

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Contact us!

E-mail: advocatt@mhcc.edu Phone: 503-491-7250 Website: advocate-online.net Twitter: @MHCCAdvocate Facebook: facebook.com/TheAdvocateOnline Instagram: @MHCCAdvocate #MHCCAdvocate Mt. Hood Community College 26000 SE Stark Street Gresham, Oregon 97030

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Opinions expressed in columns, letters to the editor or advertisements are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Advocate or MHCC.

NEWS

advocate-online.net

MHCC board chairwoman to leave her post Kyle Venooker the advocate

Susie Jones, member of MHCC District board of education for four years and its chairwoman for the last two, will step aside this spring.

But her service on behalf of education may not be finished.

Jones has filed to run for office in the May 17 election, but not at Mt. Hood: She has moved out of the Zone 1 territory in Mt. Hood’s large service district, and so is ineligible for re-election.

Instead, she is seeking a seat on the Multnomah Education Service District (MESD), which helps coordinate operations of K-12 public school districts across Multnomah County. She will run for the Position 1, Zone 5 seat against Abigail Howatt.

Jones noted the similarities between Mt. Hood, and the MESD.

T h e MESD “has a very large budget just like this c o l l e g e does, so that function will be the same.,” she said.

Susie Jones, MHCC Among other board member things, the representing Zone 1.

MESD offers numerous services, including “health care services, support for Special Education, (and) they coordinate outdoor school,” she said. The agency helps school districts pool their resources to improve their efficiency or get “things that they couldn’t normally afford on their own,” she said.

Jones, a former Jazz Band instructor at Mt. Hood and longtime East County resident, discussed her

time on the MHCC District board.

Her time with the board oversaw a significant reshuffling of the college’s organization and governing structure. “I had a lot of good insight into what the college was all about, and I felt that that experience would benefit the board,” she said. “I felt the board needed someone from the inside at that time (2013)” when she ran for office, she said.

Upon winning, learning the duties of the board director’s position was no cakewalk, she said.

“It took a while for me to learn all of the operations and functions of the college...it was a learning experience. Though I did know a lot about the college to begin with, there was still more I needed to learn,” she said. “It was really two years before I realized big-picture what things needed to happen at the college.”

Asked what she felt the board’s biggest accomplishments in her time

The importance of dreams From 1951 to 1955, renowned journalist Edward R. Murrow hosted “This I Believe,” a daily radio show where individuals read brief essays about their personal philosophies, values, and core beliefs that shaped their daily actions. In 2005, National Public Radio resurrected the essay series and again invited Americans of all ages and perspectives to write brief essays about their core beliefs. This year, the Advocate also invites anyone in the MHCC community to contribute the same.

Gardner Hartung

MHCC Integrated Media student Once, I had a dream. Not the kind of dream that inspires an entire nation to unite, like Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream, but the kind where there were raccoons blocking my friend’s porch, so I was unable to enter her house.

In the dream, I was able to contact my friend so she could scare off the raccoons and I could come inside. When this dream became a reality three weeks later, it got me thinking about the power of dreams, not just for their ability to predict the future, but for their power to help us understand our subconscious.

I believe we need to pay more attention to our dreams, even the boring, stale ones about raccoons, or the ones where we’re just sitting in class or at work or having a normal

day. Odds are, there is something in that dream that was there in your mind for a reason. One useful thing I’ve started doing is writing my dreams down, to remember them.

It’s helped me realize who and what are the important factors in my life, and has helped me identify what is causing me stress and anxiety.

If I dream about a certain person or place, it probably means I’m spending too much time stressing about that thing.

I quote a passage from my dream journal from Nov. 15: “Sto mano nella mano con uno dei miei migliori amici, perche io sono segretamente innamorato di lei.”

(Oh yeah, it’s probably important to mention that I translate my most personal or intimate dreams into Italian, just for added privacy. And if you know Italian, then you now know a very deep secret of mine,

congratulations.)

Dreams like this one make me view things differently. And frankly, since I’ve had this epiphany, I’ve changed the way that I go about things so I can attempt to resolve the problem presented to me in my dream. Dreams often provide a first chance to try out a situation that could occur in real life. They can be good practice for a job interview, a presentation, or asking someone on a date – and if I’m really stressing about one of these things, I tend to dream about it, and when the worstcase scenario happens in a dream, I often let myself feel relieved that it probably won’t happen in real life.

I feel that many of us don’t really take our dreams into consideration when making life choices, but we should. Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, kept a dream journal and a piano beside his bed.

It’s how many of Queen’s great songs were written, including “Bohemian Rhapsody.” So. you never know, a boring dream about raccoons could be translated into one of the greatest music hits of the century. It could also just help someone realize what’s really going on in their brain, and possibly help them sort things out.

I know many people say “follow your dreams,” but I believe that we should just listen to them, instead.

were, Jones said, “Well, we haven’t achieved them yet.

“One of them is the bond,” (MHCC’s proposed general obligation bond, also on the May ballot), she said. “The bond is extremely important for the success of this college; it’s critically important.

“The other (accomplishment) that looks like it’s going to happen is a restructuring of the board policy manual, and moving to a Carver policy governance system,” she said.

That change – shifting board policy responsibility to subcommittees allowed to more fully examine complex issues or problems – has not yet been approved by the board, but it seems to have gained the support of board members, she said.

“It looks like it’s going to happen.

With a new governing system we would be moving toward outcomebased policies where we actually

define the success of the institution and therefore set the direction of the college,” Jones said.

(A more full description of Carver’s policy governance model may be found at http://www. policygovernance.com/model.htm.)

Meantime, two candidates have filed to run for Jones’s board position at Mt. Hood.

They are Diane McKeel, a recently retired member of the Multnomah County Commission, and Jack Kondrasuk, a consultant whose credentials include assistant to the president duties at the University of Portland and director of that school’s academic internship program.

Staff Writer Greg Leonov also contributed reporting for this story.

The Advocate is looking for an advertising manager. Fill in spaces like these with various types of advertising, and earn a percentage for ads sold. Additional compensation may be available.

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NEWS

March 17, 2017

Gresham’s Police Department builds trust Chief Robin Sells focuses on breaking down social stigmas

Greg Leonov the advocate

Gresham’s top cop said she believes every personal encounter with police should have a positive impact on the lives of those involved – but admits that doesn’t always happen, for a variety of reasons.

Gresham Police Chief Robin Sells spent the lunch hour on Tuesday at MHCC to discuss her department and its community involvement, and the serious challenges it faces.

Speaking in the Town & Gown Room, Sells said the GPD finds ways to be innovative. Officers make time to meet with community members, often one-on-one, in order to build trust. With Gresham’s rapidly changing demographics, the department also looks to mirror the community, within its own ranks, to better serve the public.

Limited resources Too often, time and money are too short, however.

At about 110,000 residents, Gresham is the fourth-largest city in the state. There are a minimum of seven officers on duty at any given time, Sells said, but that’s not nearly enough, and each is stretched too thin.

“We are the second lowest percapita-to-officer ratio in the state of Oregon,” she said. “As it stands now, our officers just go call to call to call and they don’t have time to do their proactive, self-initiated activity, because they’re constantly just responding to calls.”

Sells said she is currently understaffed by about seven officers. Upcoming retirements will complicate her efforts, she said. “(I) try and get that word out, that we’re looking for diversity – I need more people that speak Spanish,” she said. “We look to the community and try and say, ‘Bring us your diversity, we want you,’ and we’re doing the best we can.”

Implementing more innovative police services is one challenge.

Mirroring fast-changing community demographics is also difficult.

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Among 130 current officers (when Gresham is at full staffing), only six are female and only 12 speak Spanish, according to Sells. One reason is there is only one police academy for the entire state of Oregon.

“I’m competing with Portland and (county) Sheriffs and everybody else just to get those spots, and sometimes there’s not enough spots for our people,” she said.

Sells said her department is about more than just law enforcement.

“We really are police services, and that deals with everything from mental health issues to homeless issues, being out on the Springwater Trail, trying to keep you safe – those are nontraditional law enforcement functions.”

Sells said the department is innovative, including its Neighborhood Enforcement Team (NET) that spends time on larger issues.

“This team is able to take time out of their day and actually solve a problem, as opposed to just always answering calls for service,” she said.

It is able to spend days or weeks on projects. Currently, the NET is working on “zombie homes,” working with city ordinances to put vacant, foreclosed homes on the sales market so they don’t attract criminal activity.

“We as an agency really went outside the box and tried to do something a little bit different,” she said about the NET. Sells’s officers are wrestling with controversial immigration laws, she said. She acknowledged the lack of clarity on what laws actually say and how they will be implemented.

“Every month we’re sitting down with the Latino community and talking about what our role is with this new (federal) government,” she said. “I have to tell you that your local law enforcement is not ICE, and we are not immigration, we do not enforce immigration laws to the extent that the state of Oregon has a law that prohibits us from doing that.”

To build trust with the Latino

community, officers attend meetings with the Latino Network, a youth support organization, and talk to attendees. “Those are the people that need to hear this to the point that they’re so used to us coming to their meetings,” said Sells. “They have come to trust us.

“We’re building that bond and that’s the message I keep telling them: Don’t be afraid (of us) because you will become a victim more often if you don’t stand up” when there’s been a crime, she said.

“You will not get arrested because you’ve reported something.”

Becoming an officer Sells shared with the MHCC audience the story of how she started in law enforcement.

When she was 17, she witnessed a little girl’s bike getting stolen in front of a store. Sells followed the thief in her Datsun station wagon until he jumped off the bike and she picked it up. She saw the thief getting into a truck, so she wrote down the license plate number.

When Sells returned to the store with the bike, the officer on duty was impressed that she recovered it and that she got the suspect’s information. “I practically wrote the report for him and he just kept going on and on that I was a hero,” she said.

Her origin story is used as a basis to drill the fact that, in law enforcement, “every contact is a chance to make a difference,” she said. “I tell the officers all the time – I think they get tired of me telling them this.”

What’s more, the police officer telling her she was a hero influenced her decision to become a cop. “I would never have considered law enforcement as a career,” she said.

“He changed the course of my life.”

She would begin her police career as a records clerk, then as a dispatcher. “Although it’s a really good job you don’t get the closure you do as an officer,” she said. “You have people call in all the time and they complain – nobody ever calls you to tell you that it’s something

Photo by Kyle Venooker

“I do have (a) responsibility to be empathetic to that person and try and make them feel important and see what we could do to change it.”

-Robin Sells

Gresham Police Chief

good that’s happened.”

She entered a police academy when a former boyfriend told her she wasn’t cut out for the work.

Not only did she graduate, but she was hired and spent 29 years with the Buena Park police in Southern California, working her way up to the rank of captain. She retired in 2014.

Her life changed again when her former colleague, Craig Junginger, then-police chief for Gresham, invited her to come join the force as deputy chief.

“I fell in love with the Gresham Police Department,” Sells said.

When Junginger decided to retire, “the city asked me to stay on as interim, until a new chief could be chosen.” But many officers urged her to apply for the permanent job, and she beat out dozens of other candidates and was named chief last November, she said.

She’s happy she changed her mind, “and I am truly honored to have that position,” she said.

Building community trust Sells said there is a lot of mistrust it comes to police.

“I can remember when I was a younger officer going into a courtroom to testify, there was no doubt that the jury and the judge were going to believe my testimony because I was a police officer. And nowadays, officers are secondguessed on a regular basis.”

Changing those negative attitudes towards police was something Sells decided to tackle in Gresham. Her department is involved in numerous community engagement activities.

Those include “monthly listening sessions,” where people of various ethnic backgrounds who attend may come to talk to the police one-on-one.

“It gives the public the opportunity to talk to a police officer and be able to have those hard conversations,” such as racial inequality, which is a significant factor,” she said. People who are not Caucasian “tend to be charged more than a white person in our court system, and our court systems have the tendency to have the fines be higher and the disparity is not right,” she said.

Changing the fact that courts charge people with different ethnic backgrounds more is difficult because she is not in control of the court system, Sells added. “I do have (a) responsibility to be empathetic to that person and try and make them feel important and see what we could do to change it,” she said.

Sells is on the executive board for a local public safety coordinating council and is involved with other disparities, she said.

“With somebody who has got a drug problem, maybe the right place for them is not jail. Maybe the right place is getting up some services so that they could get rid of their addiction and then I don’t have to put them in jail,” she said.

The problem with providing services to addicts and others in such situations is, again, funding. “Just like every other public agency, we’re scrambling for funds,” Sells said.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

advocate-online.net

Art as an avenue of ‘irreverent’ expression A look at the NCECA exhibit in the Visual Arts Gallery Megan Phelps the advocate

The Visual Arts Gallery’s current exhibit is titled “Mixed Feelings: The Irreverent Object.”

If you’re like me, who didn’t know what the word irreverent meant, I’ll give you the definition: “showing a lack of respect for people or things that are generally taken seriously.”

I’m somewhat confused now that I saw a jar with Justin Bieber’s face plastered on it at the gallery. Is he a person who is generally taken seriously? Should we take Justin Bieber seriously? Maybe I don’t get the message.

All questioning aside, I was impressed with the work being shown. Almost all of the pieces are sculptural in nature, aside from two photographs in the exhibit of barbed wire. Each artist has showcased his or her own niche of personal aesthetic and style. There are intriguing and unique qualities between each section of work.

The pieces created by artist Shalene Valenzuela include the visual element of common household items

such as rolling pins, a blender, and an iron. Several of the pieces had elements reminiscent of pop art with vibrant colors and visuals of beautiful 1950s women.

Other pieces that caught my attention were created by Dustin Yager, who seems to draw inspiration from current pop culture. His section had multiple cultural icons I recognized, from Bieber to care bears.

One complaint I do have is that the two pieces, titled “Untitled (We Need a Black Pope and She Better be a Woman)” and “Untitled (Mark My Words),” being showcased with mirrors behind them is that they are difficult to look at as a whole; I was twisting my head to try and read the inscribed words at the back of the vases. I couldn’t really read the text through the mirror because it was reflected as a flipped image. It’s possible the artist intended for it to be shown this way, but I would prefer to be able to see these two pieces away from the wall to appreciate them in their entirety.

Lauren Mayer’s work has an interesting composition of media, with a multitude of objects to create

what looks like architectural pieces similar to a brick wall or wood flooring. I recommend you take a closer look at these pieces to pick apart just what these sculptures are composed of. I’d say it takes talent to successfully mesh all of these objects into a composed work.

Other artists whose work is featured in the Gallery include Stephanie DeArmond, Ron Geibel, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Lauren Sandler, and Leslie Macklin.

This display at Mt. Hood is linked to the 51st Annual Convention of NCECA, the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts – this year’s theme is “Future Flux” – being held at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland March 22-25.

More art will be exhibited in locations across the Portland area.

The MHCC artists’ reception for this lovely show will be hosted in the Gallery from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 22.

The last day to view the show will be Thursday, March 30. I highly recommend going in and checking out these well-crafted pieces of art.

Photos by Megan Phelps

TOP: Dustin Yager’s pieces dispayed with mirrors mentioned in the story.

BOTTOM LEFT: Shalene Valenzuela’s creations; “___” in the foreground.

BOTTOM RIGHT: A series titled “Making Women” by Jennifer Ling Datchuk.

Salon quality execution for an affordable price

Advocate editor explores hair and makeup on campus Matana McIntire the advocate

This February, I tried Mt. Hood’s cosmetology department service for the first time.

Armed with a 10 percent student discount and a photo in my phone of my dream hair that I’d been carrying around for nearly a year, I walked into the office to make an appointment. I wanted to go from my (at the time) current hair – choppy, at-home bleached ombre with a hot pink, semi-permanent deposit over it all, which had faded to a dull and brassy, pink-orange, hot mess – to the photo on my phone: a deep, ashy brown that faded into frosty platinum tips.

When I explained my hair history to the woman scheduling me in, she told me it might be less of a color and more of a color correction.

She booked me for two separate

appointments: color to be done in one, three-hour block one day; the cut-and-style (plus a makeup application for photo-shoot funsies) to be exactly a week later.

Photo by Prisma Flores

Given we were only doing one color application – bleach with a

Volume 20 developer – my color appointment on the first day could be considered to have taken too long. It ended up running long by an hour, making me miss a weekly meeting.

However, this is the nature of hair, as you never know how it is going to react to the dye, so it didn’t bother me. What I noticed, though, and something you should note, is the fact that this is a learning environment for your student-stylist (duh) and time will be added to your appointment during their consultation with their instructor and (this is a big one) when they do a test strip of the dye on your hair before starting.

Now, if you’re like me and have DIY-ed your hair at home, this “test-dye-on-small-section-of-hair-

before-applying-to-whole-head” rule is easy to ignore (and often is).

Looking back, while I sat a long time in the chair, adding an easy 45 minutes to my appointment, I now appreciate the thoroughness of the test strip.

In the end, I walked out of the salon and was complimented about three times by strangers on my new dye job. While it came out more of a honey-soft, rose-gold (see photo for reference) and I still want to go lighter yet, I love this color and the reception it received.

On my second appointment, I worked with the coolest, sweetest stylist, Wesley Cady.

Cady was not the same stylist who worked on me during the first appointment, but I appreciated her company just as much. Together, we worked out that I wanted a “lob” – or a long bob – and I wanted some layers to give my usually heavy and flat hair

more body. She was quick and skilled as she went through and chopped about three inches from my length.

Listening to her converse with her instructors throughout the process, I caught on to her competency. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to be in this learning environment: As your stylist discusses your hair with their instructor, you get a superb sense of transparency and an insight into what that person is thinking. You also learn more about hair, if you ever go back to DIY-ing at home.

Cady ended up finishing my lob wonderfully and giving me the bounciest curl, with made me feel glamorous all day.

In the end, my color ended up costing me $42, and my cut and makeup application, only around $12. Which, compared to the $100$200 cost at a professional salon, I would take any day.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

March 17, 2017

More like ‘beauty killed the brain cells’...

Remake ‘Kong: Skull Island,’ though decent, is due to be forgotten Noah Guillen the advocate

3.5 out of 5 stars

Cool monsters, fun cast, engaging action: There’s not a whole lot more one could ask for, from ”Kong: Skull Island.”

Director Jordan Vogt-Robert’s contribution to the developing “Monsterverse” isn’t going to sweep any award shows, nor is it necessarily going to wow any audience with groundbreaking visuals. However, what Kong will do is provide simplistic (possibly dumb) fun without any apologies.

The film is confident. Contrary to other studio-commissioned blockbusters, Kong has unique aspects that showcase VogtRobert’s style. Liberties were taken.

The movie is definitively stylized, with some clever cinematography and gripping visuals. Though the film suffers from excessive CGI (as a film on an imaginary island with giant imaginary monsters will), it is careful to be self-aware and never take itself too seriously. This

Web Photo

A copy of one of the film’s promotional posters, showing the intensity of the film’s setting.

is good, as no one should be taking this movie too seriously.

Among the awesome-fest fun of guns and monsters are some cringe-worthy moments – including one with a gas mask and samurai sword. Kong tries to find fun in every moment, which requires some stretching. Not all the jokes land, nor accommodate the circumstances. It’s as if VogtRoberts never wanted to elicit too much of any one emotion at a time.

The result is a semi-distant

cast. Though the fun dialogue attempts to engage the audience, in the group of scientists and soldiers, there are simply too many characters to keep track of, and too little time to try. The quick break from one scene to the next, in the interest of keeping up with the relentless pace of the film, keeps the audience from becoming very invested in any one protagonist.

Moments that should be shocking, aren’t. Characters that should elicit sympathy, don’t.

So, what’s left to carry the audience through the two-hour film? Gnarly, awesome, creaturecrushing, monster-mashing mayhem.

It should be noted King Kong himself looks magnificent, and the creature design for the “Skull Crawlers” (Kong’s nemeses) is creative and terrifying. What’s more, both have simplicity in their favor. Unlike other movies that overdevelop a design to the point of being an unrecognizable

CGI mass, the many monsters of Kong are subtle. This choice amplifies the adrenaline during every brawl. Instead of taking the time to distinguish what exactly is transpiring in every shot of action (*cough cough* “Transformers” *cough* “Godzilla” *cough*), most of the action takes place in broad daylight. There’s no mistaking that butts are, in fact, being kicked. Even the scenes between the humans and monsters are inventive and fun, with some surprisingly violent and unique deaths.

Ultimately, Skull Island is just raw, relentless excitement. Almost a short throwback to the simplicity of early 2000s action adventures, the film showcases nothing new, nor is it the psychological thinkpiece that would incite controversy and self-reflection. Rather, Kong is a film for moviegoers who’d rather give their brain the night off, sit back, and feast their eyes on the iconic beast beating things with trees and chains. Kong only makes one promise, and it delivers on that promise, aggressively and without apology.

Wind Ensemble plays student composition Mitchell’s ‘Fantasy in D’ inspired by beauty in the world Monique Mallari the advocate

Mt. Hood’s Wind Ensemble and Chamber Strings Orchestra performed March 8 in the College Theatre under fourth-year director Grant Linsell.

The performance began with three-piece suite, “First Suite in E Flat for Military Band” by Gustav Holst, then progressed through “Fugue in F Major” by J.S. Bach; “Sonata in F” by Johann Christoph LEFT: Max Mitchell standing next to the large bass that he played during the “Fantasy in D” performance.

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Pezel; “Chorale for Band” by Frank Erickson; “Fantasy in D (Premiere)” by Max Mitchell; and “Galop” by Gary P. Gilroy.

Linsell informed the audience of some of the difficulties raising the intensity of the ensembles, based on the shifting (student) population, term-to-term.

“I think it’s a real testament that the amount of work that the students put in at the beginning of every term,” says Linsell. “Instead of having year to get stuff together, we have 10 weeks.”

Considering that two weeks were subtracted from this term, due to January’s ice and snow, it’s

amazing how well the ensemble performed. Its play was an indicator the students had put

Mitchell credits his father for influencing his interest in music at a young age. much time and effort into the performance.

With every group of students,

there’s always that one performer who stands out. Mt. Hood’s Max Mitchell composed “Fantasy in D” inspired by his views on what is beauty in the world, “just finding beautiful things in everyday life.”

He said he began work on his piece the beginning of Fall Term after the orchestra was working on student-composed pieces. Given the limited instrumentation on hand, he decided to compose the piece primarily for a string quartet.

Mitchell credits his father for influencing his interest in music at a young age, leading him to composing video game tunes.

SPORTS

advocate-online.net

Saints struggle to bring in runs against Everett Logan Hertner the advocate

The Mt. Hood baseball team had a tough weekend against Everett Community College, falling to them in four straight games, all played at Sandy High School.

In the Saturday doubleheader, the Saints were walloped in the first game, 12-4, and lost the second game, 11-5. On Sunday, Mt. Hood lost both games by a 5-2 score.

With those four straight losses, the Saints are now 3-5 on the season, with South Region play yet to begin.

Despite the losses, leadoff batter and third baseman Jace McKinney was a bright spot, going 4-for-5 with three RBIs in the first game on Saturday, then going 3-for-5 and scoring two runs in the second game.

In the first game Mt. Hood trailed throughout, after giving up seven runs in the second inning. In the second game it was a tight battle through six innings, all tied up at 3-3. But in the final three innings, the Saints allowed eight runs.

Pitcher Ian Turner was the

losing Mt. Hood pitcher giving up six earned runs and eight hits in three-and-a-third innings of work.

Cody Curfman pitched three innings, allowing only one earned run Saturday against Everett Community College.

In all Saturday, the Saints pitching staff allowed 31 hits and a total of 21 runs. In comparison Mt.

Hood batters produced 22 hits and nine total runs.

Sunday was a slightly different story. The first game, the Saints pitching staff showed improvement, allowing only seven hits and five runs. They also had seven strikeouts.

Crazy enough, those stats were almost identical to what Everett had on the mound. The big difference was, the Trojans made their hits count, and drove in runs.

Mt. Hood starting pitcher Ryne Lopez was solid, pitching six innings and allowing just one earned run. Relief pitcher Hunter Bruno was the losing pitcher after entering in the seventh inning and allowing three runs in the eighth and the ninth inning, combined.

The second go-round, Mt. Hood actually had 11 base hits to Everett’s 10. That stat didn’t seem to matter, as Mt. Hood was still stuck in a hole. All they needed was timely hits while they had runners on; the opportunity was there, multiple times. But the Saints just couldn’t cash in.

The losing pitcher was starting pitcher Connor Stevenson, who

No home for Tony Romo?

Logan Hertner the advocate

If releasing the all-time franchise leader in passing yards and touchdowns for the Dallas Cowboys is considered a good idea... then I think Tom Brady should be traded from New England.

Now you are giving Tony Romo a chance to sign with a new team, and probably dominate, if he can stay healthy. Releasing Romo gives the league and NFL fans that sense of knowing the faith that Dallas owner Jerry Jones has in starting quarterback Dak Prescott, who replaced the veteran this season.

By sending off Romo, the Cowboys will save $14 million against the salary cap this year. That gives them more opportunities to improve their defense, which ranked

11th in the league last year.

The Cowboys are talking with veteran quarterback Josh McCown, who would replace Romo as the backup quarterback if he signs with the team. Which I don’t understand: Why you would get rid of your franchise-leading quarterback for another team to use and enjoy, then sign a guy like McCown who has done nothing to show that he is an elite or even a decent quarterback when given the starting role?

McCown has had the starting role on five different teams, and has started in eight seasons. None of which were impressive in any sort of way. It also doesn’t seem pleasing, with the fact he is 37 years old and isn’t getting any younger.

It makes absolutely no sense to me, when you could have Romo who actually has started and produced good numbers. It’s just unfortunate that this was for a Dallas team that couldn’t ever win a big game when it mattered. All I’m saying is that if Prescott gets injured and you have to look to your backup, I would much rather have Romo than McCown who I would have a hard time trusting, let’s say, in a playoff game. Or to win a game

to get into the playoffs.

The other big question is, where is Romo going to end up? Who even wants an injury riddled quarterback who has suffered a broken right pinky finger, broken left collarbone (three times – once in 2010 and twice in 2015), as well as a ruptured disk in his back, which later got worse and turned into compressed fracture in his vertebra three seasons later.

Now with Romo healthy (for the moment) and available, teams who have already shown interest in him are the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos. They’re two teams that have top-tier defenses and the supportive run game. I see the Broncos as a better fit, because of the weapons on the roster.

Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders would give him two players at wide receiver who are more than capable of being a dangerous threat, while producing the numbers that Denver needs.

Yes, I understand the concern about the offensive line in Denver, but we are still in early March. I’m sure General Manager John Elway has plenty of little tricks up his sleeve this offseason to give Romo some security in the passing game.

Photos by Jessica Mitchell

Mt. Hood scored just 13 runs to Everett’s 33 in last weekend’s doubleheaders.

allowed just one earned run in six innings of work, while he struck out eight. Shortstop Jared Bentley went 2-for-3 with one RBI. Bentley had two of the Saints’ five hits. He also showed off his speed on the basepaths as he added two stolen bases. It wasn’t quite enough to spark the Saints, as they faced a very good guy on the bump.

Everett starting pitcher Ryan

Sandifer went seven innings and only allowed three hits, one earned run and notched an impressive nine strikeouts.

Now hoping to bounce back, the Saints travel to Triton Field to play Everett today. They will stay at Triton Field all weekend, while playing Edmonds Community College on Saturday and Pierce College on Sunday.

If you missed it...

USC topped Providence Wednesday night, 75-71 to advance to the (full) Round of 64 in March Madness. The win came as sort of revenge for the Trojans, as they fell in a heartbreaking loss to Providence in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament.

Southern Cal will face off against SMU today.

The Washington Huskies fired head coach Lorenzo Romar Thursday after 15th seasons. There’s no denying Romar’s likability, but after this year’s 9-22 season and a sixth straight year of not reaching the NCAA Tournament, Washington’s leadership felt it was time to part ways.

Chicago Bulls shooting guard Dwyane Wade is out for the rest of the season with an elbow fracture. Wade got injured in the second half of the Bulls’ 98-91 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday. The injury was announced Thursday morning after an MRI revealed the damage. It’s a tough loss for the Bulls as they sit one game back for the eighth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

-Jamie George

Chicago Bulls shooting guard Dwyane Wade

Web photo

PA G E 7

SPORTS

March 17, 2017

Profile

Hendrickson brings new perspective to Saints Brody Mathews the advocate

The Mt. Hood softball team has a new coach this year: Brittany Hendrickson.

She’s replacing the highly respected Meadow McWhorter, who had coached the Saints since 2002 and captured five championships in the last eight seasons, including in 2016, her final year. McWhorter recorded three 40-win seasons, including a program best of 43-7 in 2007, before taking the head coach job at Portland State University.

You might imagine taking over a team as recently dominant as Mt. Hood would be a bit unnerving, but Hendrickson doesn’t see it that way.

“I don’t feel intimidated about it, I just see it as a great opportunity,” the first-year coach said. “I feel like she has set this program up for so much success, and ‘Yeah, don’t mess it up,’ but I feel good.

“It’s an amazing opportunity because I just get to continue that success,” she said.

Hendrickson takes over a team with eight sophomores, and knew it could be a difficult transition for them, having a new leader. But she didn’t expect it to be as bumpy of a start as it has been.

“There were definitely some curve-balls thrown… It hasn’t been the easiest year ever, or even the year that I thought coming in,” she said. “But I think that through the adversity it has been a learning experience for (not just) myself, but the girls, too.”

Even so, the Saints are on familiar turf: They are off to an 8-3 start as they approach the start of play within the NWAC South Region.

Hendrickson understood though that to bring the team together she’d need to build relationships with her players. It was one of her biggest goals, she said. So the Saints entered the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure road run in downtown Portland, together as a team. It made for great bonding between the players and coaches before even hitting the field.

The new coach found more ways

to strengthen the team chemistry.

“We’ve had some longer practices, to get used to what I was running and kind of my different philosophies, and then (teach) what we are doing strategically,” she explained.

Hendrickson, who was a star player at PSU in 2011-15, served as an assistant coach at Concordia University in Irvine, California, last year. The Mt. Hood job is her first head coaching position.

Those very same sophomores are now being used to help Hendrickson, in her transition.

“We are right down the middle (split between freshman and sophomores),” she said. It’s a good thing, “both because of the girls from last year who know how to win from that championship team, and then the freshmen who just came in” who are talented and have responded to the sophomores’ lead, she said.

Another concern about Hendrickson taking over the

Saints team was her age, considering she’s not much older than her players, but she has found a way to use her age to her benefit.

“I feel like that’s an advantage, as far as I can connect to them.... They know that I know what they’re going through,” she said. The players also helped to build a relationship, she said. “I feel like I was able to get to know the girls pretty well; they’re a pretty open bunch, so that helped.”

She found that once she got the girls doing sprints, they knew she was in full control, she said.

Hendrickson has a clear passion for the game, which she hopes to pass onto her players.

“It’s a game that translates to life very well, as far as all the times that you’re gonna fail in life, but being able to bounce back,” she said. “College softball should be something that is fun,” she said, noting her players can “learn a

lot” about fighting through setbacks in adult life and finding the fun there, too.

The Saints kick off South Region play on Tuesday when they play two games at Clark College in Vancouver.

Hendrickson plans to continue the Saints’ success, she said: “(It’s) kind of an expectation (to win) here, so I want to make sure that the culture and expectation is carried on.”

Head coach Brittany Hendrickson First year with Mt. Hood Photo by Davyn Owen

Mt. Hood men’s exciting season concludes

Team falls in the second round to Lower Columbia

Jamie George the advocate

The Saints men’s basketball winning streak finally came to an end, and with that, their 2016-17 season, as well.

After Mt. Hood’s exciting 74-71 victory on March 9 over Shoreline, they fell to the Lower Columbia Red Devils, 85-78, on March 10, and were eliminated from the NWAC championship tournament opening rounds, played in Everett, Washington.

After their win over Shoreline (No. 1 seed from the NWAC North), it almost felt the Saints (No. 4 seed from the South) were destined to do something special. They had taken six straight games, and had all the momentum on their side.

Against the Red Devils, Mt. Hood came out strong, even leading the game at halftime. But the second half was a much different story as the game slipped out of the Saints’ hands, with Lower PA G E 8

Photo by Davyn Owen

Mt. Hood ended the regular season 16-12 overall, and 9-7 in NWAC South play. The team finished fifth in the NWAC in average steals with 9.89 per game.

Columbia outscoring them, 49-40, after the half.

Despite the disappointing loss, Saints followers shouldn’t forget how much this team accomplished this year.

For one, they made the playoffs, no small feat, and they did so by winning five straight games to just

sneak in with the fourth and final South division spot. This was a team that came in with huge goals, but heading into the last few weeks appeared as if it wouldn’t even reach the NWACs. The Saints didn’t give up, and instead, they came together and found a way to make it.

Forward Luke Anderson that’s what made this season so special.

“The best moment (was) proving people wrong and making it to the tournament when people would have never expected it,” he said.

Once in, the Saints won their first playoff game and had it not been for a poor second half, may have won a second. Now, that’s what makes summarizing this team’s season so hard – just how talented it was. This team had the talent to win it all, but fell short.

Shooting guard Elijah Fuller agrees. “It was a great season, but sad we came up short because we knew we could win the ’ship,” Fuller said.

Fuller averaged 12 points per game and shot 42 percent from behind the three-point arc, while Anderson scored 13 and grabbed about eight rebounds per game.

Forward Cody Thompson led the team in scoring with 17 points per game, and averaged more than five rebounds. Point guard John Tibbs was the Saints’ assist man, averaging

a team-high 4.29 on the season.

The point is, this team was solid, all-around, and exciting to watch. To see the season come to an end in a game they could have won was rough. Anderson put it perfectly when he said, “There’s a lot of highs and lows with sports and we had to experience both of these in such a short time. One minute you’re on top of the world; the next your entire season is over, so it’s tough.

“I think the season as a whole was a success,” he added. “It doesn’t feel that way right now, though, because we know we should be back in Everett (this) weekend fighting (in the Final Four round) for a championship.”

The Saints have more than just wins and losses to take away from this season, however.

“Biggest takeaway, was the bond as brothers leaving the court,” Fuller said of his teammates. “They will be my brothers for the rest of my life.”