Issue 3

Summer Edition

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EDITORIAL

AVENEWS FEATURES

PROSE

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“VUES”

ARTS AND LETTERS

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POLITICS IN THE SUMMER

SUMMER FILM REVIEW

THREE HAIKUS

EDITORIAL CHANGING OUR MAJOR by Sabrina Sternberg

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once-in-a-lifetime buzz made its way through the Circle in the Square theater as the curtain call for Broadway’s Fun Home came to a close. The date was June 27th, the day after the Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed the right to marry to samesex couples. Just as the cheering died down, it once again erupted as three cast members came out carrying a large rainbow flag. “We owe this night to those who came before us,” exclaimed cast member Beth Malone, as she was soon overpowered by the cheers, screams, and tears of onlooking audience members.

Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) is monu-

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mental in many ways, beyond the fact that it legalizes samesex marriages in all 50 states. The ruling signifies the changing political landscape in America. In response to those who do not approve of the legislation, many have thrown around the phrase “Don’t be on the wrong side of history.” But our country is headed in a new direction, one that clearly strives to create more equality, not just for the LGBTQ+ community, but for all minorities. For those who oppose equality, they are the ones placing themselves on the wrong side of history.

The ruling was foreshadowed by another momentous win. Only nine nights prior,

Fun Home took the top prizes at the 2015 Tony home.

Awards—Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Coming out to her parents was a batBest Leading Actor, and Best Direction. On its tle. At first, Bechdel did not understand her surface, the musical is about a father-daughter re- mother’s anger and frustration, but when her lationship. But, underneath, it captures the strug- mother exclaims, “Your father is gay,” over a gle of LGBTQ+ people in America. phone call, Bechdel’s whole life begins to fall This struggle is exemplified when the main char- into perspective. During their last night toacter, Alison, says, “My dad and I grew gether, her father admits that he “always knew” up in the same Penabout his sexualsylvania town, and ity. A few weeks “...OUR COUNTRY IS HEADED IN A he was gay, and I was later, he steps in NEW DIRECTION, ONE THAT CLEARLY gay, and he killed front of an onSTRIVES TO CREATE MORE EQUALITY, himself, and I becoming truck and NOT JUST FOR THE LGBTQ+ came a lesbian caris suddenly and COMMUNITY, BUT FOR ALL toonist.” Part of the instantly killed.

MINORITIES. FOR THOSE WHO OPPOSE magic and imporWhile Bechdel EQUALITY, THEY ARE THE ONES PLACtance of Fun Home sometimes wonING THEMSELVES ON THE WRONG is the fact that it is a ders if it was her SIDE OF HISTORY.” completely true coming-out that story. ultimately drove

Based on him to suicide, she the critically acclaimed graphic memoir of the recognizes that “his end was my beginning.” same name, Fun Home tells the life story of author, Bechdel states that she was always cartoonist, and activist Alison Bechdel. Bechdel aware of her sexuality, citing her first awakgrew up in a typical small town with her parents ening experience at age five when she saw a and two brothers. The book, and musical, focus on butch delivery woman. The moment is repthe relationship between Bechdel and her father, resented in the crowd-favorite song “Ring of a closeted gay veteran stuck with a family, who Keys.” However, it wasn’t until college that taught English at the local high school, and ran Bechdel embraced her lesbian identity, exa funeral home, or as the kids called it, the fun pressed in the song “Changing My Major.”

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Both songs have been adopted as anthems for the LGBTQ+ youth community, as they communicate many of the feelings and frustrations of finding one’s sexuality. The characters of Small and Middle Alison, played by Tony-nominees Sydney Lucas and Emily Skeggs, respectively, represent Alison over almost two decades of her life. LGBTQ+ youth face no small amount of opposition in their lives, constantly questioning if the choices they’re making fit within societal norms. When Small Alison first sees the butch delivery woman, she is scared, yet intrigued, saying “I thought it was ‘sposed to be wrong/ but you seem okay with being strong.”

Bechdel’s story of acceptance and coming-ofage not only represents the trials of LGBTQ+ teenagers, but also of the future of youth in our country.

We, as Avenues students, are entering

a new beginning. While change is happening day by day, the fate of this new America will ultimately be left in our generation’s hands.

On some levels, it is a terrifying responsibility, knowing that it is up to us to create the world we want to live in. But in many ways, there is much hope. We have the potential as a community to shape a new America. While this responsibility might seem distant, it truly begins today, in the small gestures we make towards one another. We cannot wait to be considered adults by a society that values making a difference. By reaching out to those who are different and making them not feel small, we are taking steps towards a better world. Despite the progress our government is making, we cannot solely depend upon the slow-moving pace of bureaucracies, but rather we must take action to create a better future for ourselves. •

THE LURE OF ALTRUISM

by Jackson Ehrenworth

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he programs treat you like altruistic princes. Clean laundry, meals cooked for you, guides to take you to the safe attractions of “exotic surroundings.” Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with clean laundry, or with guides taking you to waterfalls and villages. But if what you do at that waterfall is take a selfie, when you are supposedly there to make a difference, there might be something a little bit wrong.

This summer, I spent three weeks in Costa Rica, with a well-known teen service and language program. We built roads, we shoveled bukachi (a nasty organic fertilizer that sticks to your shovel like a malodorous glue), we made eco bricks out of discarded water bottles. During our time-off, we studied Spanish,

played with local kids, hiked, and swam. It was gorgeous. And it was hard. If you have ever done one of these programs, you know what it feels like. You emerge from the program leaner, browner, and tougher. You also feel as if you have done something good.

I have doubts about the purity and selflessness of these programs. But as someone who wants to make a difference, and who is responsive to promises of soccer, waterfalls, hard work, and new friends, I was enticed. The particular description that called to me, from the website of Global Leadership Adventures, a kind of prePeace Corps program: “Life-changing summer travel experiences for high school students in Asia, Africa, and Latin America...Through service work, you’ll develop meaningful relation-

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ships with local people, and make a significant spend their summers or school years involved in impact.” ‘service projects.’ They serve food at homeless

The words “make a significant impact,” kitchens, they work on shade-grown-organare the true lure. All of us, teenagers included, ic-UN-approved coffee plantations, they read have an innate deto kids in “schoolssire to transcend the “WHEN AFFLUENT TEENS PAY FOR that-are-not-as-reordinariness of their A BUS TO TAKE THEM TO A RE- source-wealthy” as everyday lives. We SOURCE-POOR SCHOOL, WOULD THE their own. When seek to achieve what SCHOOL HAVE BENEFITED MORE FROM affluent teens pay for Michael Chabon, in THE MONEY USED TO PAY FOR THE a bus to take them The Amazing Adven- BUS? WHEN THEY PAY THOUSANDS to a resource-poor tures of Kavalier and OF DOLLARS TO TRAVEL AROUND THE school, would the Clay, calls caterpillar WORLD TO HELP CEMENT A ROAD, school have benedreams - dreams of WOULD THE VILLAGE HAVE BEEN fited more from the miraculous escape ABLE TO DO MORE IF THEY WERE SIM- money used to pay and transformation. for the bus? When PLY GIVEN THE FUNDS? “ We usually seek this they pay thousands release through stories. Novels, films, television of dollars to travel around the world to help ceseries, they take us out of our mundane lives and ment a road, would the village have been able to into others. These service programs promise the do more if they were simply given the funds? same. We will be the same, only better. Better Yet, the truth is that people do not tend because we leave our luxuries behind, better be- to give money to other people around the world cause we set out to work for others, and better whom they do not know. Last year, I spent three because we do that work while roughing it in the weeks in Nepal. Since the earthquake, the vilrain forest or desert or mountain peaks. There is lage that hosted us is gone; the trail we trekked is a kind of Jack London - Henry David Thoreau devastated. That village of over a hundred souls romanticization of the wild that we seek. has been raising funds through the Internet and

From both economic and moral per- through international organizations since the spectives, there are questions here. Many teens quake. They raised $12,000. Meanwhile, two

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girls from Seattle had been hiking on that same trail. Their families posted a site, hoping to raise the money for their brothers to fly to Nepal to look for them. Within days, people donated over $51,000. People give to something they know - they give to a story. Narrative reaches us.

It is easy to exploit the narrative of these programs so that we feel better about ourselves.

Roger Thurow writes about “well-meaning people,” who think of themselves as inherently different than the poor. Kipling called the urge to improve things in other lands a “white-man’s burden” - an urge to serve without destabilizing existing power conditions. That is the messy underside of this kind of service - the danger of colonizing someone else’s poverty to support your emotional growth.

And yet...what, what if we admit that it is really only our own narrative we seek to elevate, and if we don’t claim to have done any service except to ourselves? That is where there is something beautiful about these programs.

They can change your story. You have a moment to think about your life and your habits.

I came back from working on said coffee plantation with different ethics. I now care more about where the food I eat comes from. I wonder more about who made the shirts I wear

and I want to know before I buy them. I know that I can work for ten hours a day in hot sun, and that lots of kids and adults do that.

Here is the thing though, the program was good for me. I have no idea if it helped the local community, or if the tuition we paid would have helped the community even more. It is my story that has changed.

Roger Thurow writes: “There is more to do than donate money. There is the need for informed people to advocate for policy reform and new practices that work for the world’s poorest, to be aware of the global consequences of self-interested decisions, to roll up sleeves and get to work in the fields.” There is a limit to how informed we can become from the gleaming walls of our classrooms or the well-tended grasses of our playing fields. We have to leave these in whatever way we can, not to help, but to become capable of helping.

The desire to matter is deep-seated in all of us. It is rooted in the urge to have our lives matter — for the world to be a better place because we were in it. It is that urge that we want to nurture, and it is that will that really matters. The belief in an essential goodness in us will be what lasts, even as the roads we build out of recycled bottles are rebuilt time and again by other equally eager, sunburnt teens. •

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TO FORGET WHO YOU ARE

by Kavin Chada

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ulture and Spanish.” That was why I told myself I was going to Ecuador. I wanted to utilize the Avenues Global Journeys immersion trip to Ecuador for a month, to learn culture and Spanish. That was the bread and butter of it. All I thought of the the small details was, “It’ll be an adventure.”

But I had no idea how complex the experience would actually become.

In some ways I kept this attitude of nonchalance all throughout the trip. Like when we stayed in Quito for a couple days. I remember not feeling any longing to be with my family or for them to be with me. All I thought about was the moment. For a long time, I took things as they were because there wasn’t much choice for me.

In Quito we had classes everyday at 8:00 am sharp. They were relaxed in the begining; we got placed into our levels and got a tour of the offices. Then we started very long traditional Spanish classes, the whiteboard and multicolored markers-type classes that Avenues kids are not at all used to. But they turned out to be excellent. I was surprised at how much the teacher could enable us to record in our minds by writing down the odd word, and how much

I was able to take control of my own learning.

I never noticed this before but I was really well equipped to start learning in a different way; I can see how constructive a year Avenues must have been for me.

Coming into the classes without giving a thought as to how they should be done and how I could make everything better, enabled me to really enjoy them and learn a lot. I saw the same things with my cultural learning. Instead of thinking about how the culture could or should be changed, I focused on how I could enjoy it. I think this way of thinking is very foreign to U.S. citizens; our government is based on the laws of free speech, speaking out, and changing things, so naturally we always do; yet after a lot of the time in the U.S. we lose our natural ability to enjoy the good of what still exists.

On the second to last day in Quito we switched up our routine, joining all the classes together for one cultural preparation class about the things that were deemed important by our supervisors. This is what I remember:

• Don’t say “hola” to people unless you would call them “tú”

• Say, buenas dias, tardes, or noches depending on the time

• Siga nomás is a common Ecuadorian phrase for continue despite what it sounds like

• Body language is different

This is the result of going with the flow.

The most important thing I actually learned was from another teacher (who reviewed all that great stuff later on in the day). She told us “I CAN SEE HOW CONSTRUCTIVE A YEAR AVENUES MUST HAVE BEEN FOR ME. COMING INTO THE CLASSES WITHOUT A GIVING A THOUGHT AS TO HOW THEY SHOULD BE DONE AND HOW I COULD MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER, ENABLED ME TO REALLY ENJOY THEM AND LEARN A LOT.” that we should ask a lot of questions because the host families have been prepared for the homestay too and won’t be offended. That was the most beneficial advice because, to quote my Ecuadorian journal, “That culture stuff that we talked about, I think they’re way past that.”

So the homestay turned out to be perfect. All of those cultural things weren’t sacred to them. They weren’t offended when I referred

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to my mother as a thing, or when I referred to my friend as an animal; they just told me the meaning of what I had said or done. I went into this thinking that I would find out that their way of life was less appealing, or less valid than life in New York City. What I learned about Mindo is that I could actually live there. I miss it now.

I remember talking with my classmates in Ecuador about how we don’t know how much we need something until it’s gone. Now I feel that way about my host family.

Something I always hear about when someone comes back from a homestay is that there was some unexpected display of kindness.

But why is it unexpected? I can tell you why it was unexpected with a brief anecdote from the day we left our small town of Mindo:

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The group was meeting at a tourism center around the corner, about to leave, and my father is about to walk me there. He knows that first I have to give a gift to a supervisor on the trip. I stand outside his house nervously, not really sure what to do. I am pretty sure my father said to ring this big cowbell, but that’s ridiculous, and in a new culture when something seems ridiculous I only proceed with caution; so as I did awkwardly many times before, I take one step into the house and questioningly yelp, “Buenos días.” Luckily, a young German man appears from around the corner. I start saying,

“Estoy buscando a Klever,” as his gaze drifts away from me, but once he hears Klever it bounces back and he yells, “¿Klever?”

Klever comes out of a door to my back left, buttoning up the last buttons to his dress shirt, and I walk over by the fireplace. Klever leans over onto the mantelpiece - on which lay countless pieces of handmade art - smiles widely and relaxedly, and greets me with what we had been taught was the forbidden word, “Hola.” Although I could say something more grammatically complex like, “Estoy saliendo hoy y solo he venido para darle unos regalitos,” (the English equivalent of “I am leaving today and have just come to give you (formal) some small gifts”) all I can think to say is, “Tengo regalos,” (the equivalent of: I have gifts) and I open my Indian coasters. I tell him that they are more for his work with the town rather than his work with me because we didn’t talk much. The next thing he does is take a beautiful painting of a Golden Headed Quetzal (as my host father would tell me) done by himself on shiny lacquered oak off of the mantelpiece; and hands it to me saying, “Cambio,” (or trade). I held it in my hand for a second then made a couple motions to him with it as I mumbled, but he only smiled as I slowly walked out continuously asserting my thanks, “Gracias…gracias,” while I remained entranced by the gift.

That is unexpected kindness. But it’s so unexpected every time because our culture plac-

es such a high emphasis on efficiency instead of kindness. There is a certain balance, but it’s nowhere near what we find in other places. The balance in New York for me is this: my friends will walk at maximum two blocks with me to my subway station if they are planning to go somewhere else. But the balance in Ecuador is different: my host brother would walk anywhere up to a mile with me even with his own alternative plans.

“OUR CULTURE PLACES SUCH A HIGH EMPHASIS ON EFFICIENCY INSTEAD OF KINDNESS. THERE IS A CERTAIN BALANCE, BUT IT’S NOWHERE NEAR WHAT WE FIND IN OTHER PLACES.”

That leads me to the frustration I can feel with inaction in New York. In New York I would be mad if I walked a mile just to keep someone’s company, but walking with my host brother in Ecuador there wasn’t much I could do but keep walking. There’s something about being in New York by yourself, and having all the choices in the world as to what you could do—it’s so much worse than just sitting with a family of five you just met and playing bingo.

It’s suffocating freedom.

Another unexpected thing I experienced was complete immersion, as described

here in one of my blog posts:

“Vann and I went to watch a Spanish presentation on the reforestation of Mindo with 1500 new hectacres of trees being planted; and no, I’m not going to say I was completely immersed in the language and I learned a ton right then and there—the speaker talked in low mumbling tones about too many statistics to recall anything but the aforementioned plan (to which there were actually three prongs to). However, I will say though that afterwards, I finally realized why my host family would really say that this specific announcement was “important.”

Three brand new motorcycles sat on the stage during the speech, and Vann and I pondered upon their place. An extranjero (foreigner) I saw in the park named the event free food when I asked about it. We stood in line for a long time holding numbers to receive food that we could undoubtedly buy in the thousands ourselves.

Right then and there is the immersion.

When you are so inside the culture that you lose who you actually are and don’t even think about shocking your host family with the knowledge that you could buy their and their neighbor’s house and still have enough to give a sizable donation to a charity that doles out free food by the dozen to people willing to learn about their own communities’ reforestation efforts. To forget who you are can liberate you.”

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But I found there was more to learn It’s so simple, but whenever I spontaneabout than culture and Spanish. If not anything ously come over to someone’s house in the city else, this trip was a great bonding experience I hear, “Why are you here?” In Ecuador it was with my peers. I think we bond with people concretely understood between the students and really strongly when we just sit down and try the host families that we needed to spend time to experience the day or even just get through together to have fun and that we were just with it, instead of always worrying about what has each other. In Ecuador, would show up at Vann’s been scheduled to happen next or even trying house and immediately start talking about my to do things in the meantime. Kids these days day or complaining about the teachers, and now have trouble with that I miss that so much. I “TO FORGET WHO YOU ARE when they’re so busy. I would always wonder CAN LIBERATE YOU” think my generation is when I was there, why missing out on the old are we all together all school methods of fun before the internet; ex- the time? Until I realized that it was just plain periencing the fun in the unknown; like taking old friendship. It was a given that we would altwo sticks, going outside and trying to light a ways stay together, and it’s not magic how that fire or something. happened—it’s just human interaction. •

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“The Silly Season” POLITICS IN THE SUMMER by Oliver Gruber

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here is nearly a year left until Americans go to the polls to elect a president, and the hectic circus that is the race for the presidency is in full force. Next year’s election is distinct in that it will be the first time in history that Avenues students get to participate in our democracy by voting. Bearing this privilege and responsibility, Avenues students are eager to see where the candidates stand on issues. That said, the summer is a difficult time to get a real sense of what’s to come. After all, the summer political cycle is dubbed, “the silly season,” as the media pushes frivolous stories to keep vacationing viewers engaged.

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In probably one of the biggest one hit wonders of the “silly season,” a new CNN poll shows that Donald Trump is leading in the crowded GOP field. The real estate mogul’s magic is in the publicity he gets from his outrageous and entertaining comments, like “When Mexico sends its people... they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

Trump is a master of entertainment. In giving out fellow Republican candidate Lindsey Graham’s phone number in a speech to constantly calling other candidates losers, Trump is exciting to watch and provides the media with endless engaging content. “I like him because he’s an entertainer,” says Nick Nowicki (‘16), “I think that Trump is good for politics because he speaks without a filter, which more politicians need to do.” Trump also provides a distraction for other Republican hopefuls like Bush, Walker, Rubio, and Cruz. With Trump in the “NEXT YEAR’S ELECTION IS DISTINCT IN THAT IT WILL BE THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY THAT AVENUES STUDENTS GET TO PARTICIPATE IN OUR DEMOCRACY BY VOTING.”

spotlight, these candidates can avoid gaffes and America that thinks Sanders wields the hammer negative attention. A few years ago, Trump of truth. However, he is too old and too liberal had advocated for higher taxes, government to beat Hillary and get the nomination” healthcare, and he was pro-choice. Now that he What do Trump and Sanders have in is running as a Republican, he claims to have common? They may not become president, but “evolved” on these issues. Trump’s candidacy is in examining their successes we can make obserdirected at improving the Trump brand, and his vations about our political system. Lucas Ward unelectability will eventually come to light. (‘16) says “One of the reasons for Trump and

The amount of money going into the Sanders’ growing popularity is the fact that they election this season is unhealthy for a democ- can think and speak for themselves, as opposed racy, and it will forever change the way we elect to their positions being controlled by huge poour president. This litical donors on both “THE AMOUNT OF MONEY GOING summer it has been resides: in Sanders’ case ported that Jeb Bush’s INTO THE ELECTION THIS SEASON because he doesn’t SuperPac, “Right to IS UNHEALTHY FOR A DEMOCRACY, want the money, in Rise,” has raised over AND IT WILL FOREVER CHANGE THE Trump’s case because WAY WE ELECT OUR PRESIDENT.” 114 million in just the he doesn’t need the first half of the year. money.”

Not only does this surpass all other Republican Its hard to believe that some of our presand Democratic candidates, but never before idential candidates grew up in the same country. has so much money been raised so far from the With candidates on the far left like Sanders, election. The amount of money spent on the pushing for a 15 dollar minimum wage, and on 2016 election is on pace to far exceed the six the far right like Cruz, who recently said that billion that was spent in the 2012 election cycle. states should ignore the supreme court’s ruling

Democratic presidential candidate and on gay marriage, this election makes clear that a self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders thinks, real cultural divide in America persists. This di“people should be a little bit careful underes- vide may control what’s to come in this election. timating me.” Speaking with passion, Sanders Despite what may seem silly and somedraws and inspires thousands to his rallies. Jus- what indicative of a political system that doesn’t tin Levine (‘18) says “I believe there is a sect of work, there have been examples that prove the

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summer is far from a silly season:

On June 26th, the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples had the right to marry on a federal level. This landmark case made gay marriage legal in all 50 states, and it also reminded us the power the Supreme Court has in our society. The constitution will forever be the same but how we interpret and understand the constitution changes based on the evolving beliefs of the time. This case has showed us that there is a slow but moving force for equality ingrained in our society.

After nearly two years of negotiations, Iran and the P5+1 (US, UK, France, China, Russia, plus Germany) have agreed on a longterm nuclear deal. The deal would lift the crippling economic sanctions placed on Iran in return for what the White House says are “tough,

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new requirements that will keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” President Obama claims that the deal will block all of Iran’s pathways to the bomb. However, pushback has occurred across party lines, as many Americans fear that releasing sanctions on a perceived enemy would be a dangerous mistake. Congress would need a two thirds majority to override Obama’s veto, which means this deal will most likely be a keystone of Obama’s foreign policy legacy.

While the summer is a breeding ground for silly stories, Avenues students and the American public at-large have learned much about our politics and political system this season. As the summer comes to a close, we’d be wise to keep our eyes on how these issues take shape as we move towards the 2016 Presidential election. •

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NOURISHING THE HUNGRY

by Ryan Ng

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n a rural corner of Iowa, a young girl lives with her grandmother, who, despite relying on a food pantry and soup kitchen, runs out of food by month’s end. In a neighboring county, a mother must send her three-year-old son to preschool without breakfast; for lunch, she must rummage through the freezer to feed him the last of the month’s food pantry subsidies, while getting her own meal off the crumbs of her kids’ plates afterward. In a suburb of Houston, Texas, three adults provide for a household of 15; they each earn $125 in food stamps per month, but it’s not enough, as their freezer is nearly empty and consists mainly of frozen takeout food. In the South Bronx, an immigrant mother of nine regularly goes to a food pantry to get a supply of food that will last her family just three days, after which she will need to rely on food donations from generous neighbors.

These are America’s faces of hunger, and they are real stories chronicled in a recent article by Natinoal Geographic. While hunger is very often associated with penniless poor souls living in squalid conditions, and while hunger is comparatively more common among minorities, many of America’s hungry today are middle-class, white, and residents of suburban

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or rural areas. According to DoSomething.org, in 2014, one out of six people in the U.S. was “food insecure”—deprived of a constant source of food. One out of six people might not seem like much, but that amounts to 48 million people that don’t know when their next meal will be. Among children, the rate is even higher, as one out of every five children faces the threat of food insecurity. Such is the rate of hunger in the U.S. that one out of seven people is on food stamps, and one out of every two people on food stamps is a child. The U.S.’s hunger rate is among the worst among developed countries.

Although traditionally poor parts of Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brooklyn may have the most food-insecure people overall, the largest proportion of the hungry live in rural areas of South Dakota, Kentucky, and Mississippi. Hunger is a crisis that needs to be alleviated.

The hungry must often rely on food banks and pantries, food stamps, and cheap ninetynine-cent fast food for sustenance, and “WHILE HUNGER IS VERY OFTEN ASSOCIATED WITH PENNILESS POOR SOULS LIVING IN SQUALID CONDITIONS ... MANY OF AMERICA’S HUNGRY TODAY ARE MIDDLE-CLASS, WHITE, AND RESIDENTS OF SUBURBAN OR RURAL AREAS.”

while they may not resort to eating food from the garbage, they do go without vital meals or order cheap junk food to cut costs. As a result, they ultimately become either emaciated and undernourished or obese and malnourished. In either case, this makes them less fit to learn, to do their job, and even to survive.

In low-income municipalities, food aid, such as the federal food-stamp Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and food pantries, are invaluable resources to the hungry. For the large number of starving American kids, school breakfast and lunch programs help feed them for free or reduced prices during the school day. Food pantries, which receive food via regional food banks, also keep people from starving, even though much of the food from food pantries are prepackaged dry meals.

I have personally seen the impact that food aid could have on the food-insecure. At St. Clement’s Food Pantry in Hell’s Kitchen, where I have done volunteer work, hundreds of needy food recipients come to the pantry each and every week, and the people there are always appreciative. In my grandparents’ neighborhood, Chinatown, I’ve also seen people use their food stamps on a wide range of healthy foods, such as fish, fruits, and vegetables. In our city, though, the number of people who face food insecurity is very high; about 1.4 million people,

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or more than the population of the Bronx, suffer away. Supermarkets selling healthy foods, like from hunger. Food pantries and soup kitchens Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, and farmer’s have received increased demand because of the markets, selling fresh produce, are common in reduction of average SNAP benefits in recent well-off areas. However, they are seldom to be years, yet the number of pantry workers overall found in food deserts, which are mainly located has largely stayed the same. in the country’s poorest or most rural areas. It Unfortunatewould be a long shot “IT’S NOT ACCEPTABLE THAT GOOD ly, for people subsidto get one of these suFOOD IS NOT BEING FED TO PEOPLE ing on food aid, nupermarkets to open in WHO NEED IT” tritious food is hard to a poor neighborhood find. In such or a lightly-populated area, but since poverty cases, many must resort to eating junk food or correlates with hunger somewhat, getting these fast food that ultimately causes them to become supermarkets to donate unsold produce to food obese and develop diseases like diabetes and banks might be an option. heart disease. In addition, there are many “food Whatever the circumstances, there are deserts”, places without any nearby sources of 48 million starving Americans, including 1.4 healthy food, scattered around the country. million in New York City alone. However, One Food deserts are not only located in places like easy way to lessen this hunger crisis would be to the south Bronx and Harlem, but also in mid- donate any foods and drinks that you haven’t dle-class, rural municipalities across the coun- used, but are not expired yet. Another way try. One United States Department of Agricul- would be to actually give hungry people access ture federal program helps solve this problem by to food. Whether it is in the form of delivering distributing a monthly supply of nutritious food heathy, fresh food to the doors of the needy, or to needy families, but even with this aid for the volunteering at a food pantry or soup kitchen, needy, 85% of Americans, whether food-inse- you can make a change just by giving out food cure or not, do not eat enough healthy foods. to people. Although the hunger emergency in

It’s not acceptable that good food is not the U.S. won’t disappear overnight, you can being fed to people who need it, while 40% of make an impact on the lives of food-insecure food eaten by Americans is ultimately thrown individuals just by doing those things. •

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AVENEWS FEATURES Behind the Magic

by Sabrina Sternberg

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veryone has an opinion on Disney World. Whether they love it, hate it, or couldn’t care less about it, it is a topic we all know something about. Some might mention how Disney is fake, and may even point out that the birds that sing in the trees are just recordings. However, wheter or not what you see is real, what may be more magical than the product customers receive is the work and passion that goes into everything you see when you enter a Disney park.

Over the past three years, I have had the privilege to perform in Disney World for two weeks a summer. Not only do I get to perform on the Waterside Stage in Downtown Disney, I

also get to participate in workshops with professional performers, go backstage at their shows, and meet the casts of countless Disney musicals. Each performer I have met loves his or her job at Disney and all the opportunities that come along with it. Disney performers have to undergo horrific circumstances, performing in both boiling and freezing weather, completely changing their choreography if someone gets sick, or learning to deal with hilarious technical difficulties. However, it is their undying passion that makes Disney magical.

In 2013, my friends and I met Tiffany, a soprano for the Voices of Liberty. She had previously been a professional singer, but after she

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had kids and settled down close to Orlando, she day. When we asked Tiffany how she continues auditioned for the Voices of Liberty, an acapella to have fun doing the same show, she said it was group that performs six shows a day, four to five simple. All she did was honestly perform for the days a week in the American Pavilion of Epcot, audience that was there. While the songs she’s so she could continue to sing. That was 15 years singing and the performers by her side very ago— meaning Tiffany has done approximately rarely change, she is always performing for a 22,500 performancnew audience. Each “SOME MIGHT SAY THAT LEARNING es with Voices of audience, she said, ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS BEHIND THE Liberty, not countdeserves to have the SCENES AT DISNEY WORLD TAKES ing special holiday same fun and fresh AWAY FROM THE EXERPEIENCE. BUT events and concerts. show as the last.

I SAY IT ONLY ADDS TO THE MAGIC.” This was shocking; This same most actors struggle motto is incredibly to make six months important for the of performances fresh and fun. However, Tif- dancers at Dream Along with Mickey, perfany had flawlessly been making her singing formed in front of Cinderella’s Castle in Magfresh every week for 15 years. This is partly due ic Kingdom. Unlike the Voice of Liberty, this to the Voices of Liberty’s rotating songs: The cast of dancers performs six shows outside every group has over one hundred songs in their rep- day, seven days a week. During the spring and ertoire, thus, the show’s set list changes every- fall, the dancers love to perform outside in the

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nice Florida weather. However, when it comes to winter and summer, it’s a little different.

These performers have danced in below freezing and in near scorching weather. When we talked to them after one of their performances, it was over 100 degrees. It has been hard for me to perform in 90 degree heat in a shaded outside stage in Downtown Disney, so I could not even imagine what it was like to perform in 105 degree weather in such an open space, with hundreds of onlookers watching. Each dancer said the same thing: they push through for the audience. Cast member Bridget says it isn’t hard to spot six year-olds dancing with them in the audience, and no matter how hot or cold it is, it is completely worth it to know she has inspired someone.

Perhaps one of the most magical people in all of Disney World is Jeff Girault, who currently works with Disney Performing Arts and

has provided constant mentorship to hundreds of teens across the globe. When Jeff originally came to Disney, he played Goofy in a spacethemed parade in Magic Kingdom. However, his enthusiasm got him promoted year after year, featuring him in bigger and bigger roles.

Eventually, Jeff wanted to leave Disney and retire. However, after just a few months off the job, he wanted back in. Jeff is now a coordinator, event planner, and mentor for the Disney Performing Arts program, which invites hundreds of youth groups from around the world to perform in the Disney parks. If it weren’t for Jeff, my friends and I never would have received the opportunity to meet all the Disney performers previously mentioned.

Some might say that learning about what happens behind the scenes at Disney World takes away the experiences. But I say it only adds to the magic. •

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ROBOTICS AT AVENUES

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obotics, as an industry, is becoming increasingly important to society, particularly in the fields of engineering and computer science. Responding to the pace of the modern world, schools across the nation are bringing robotics into their classrooms. Avenues, as a new school of thought, is taking steps towards this revolution in STEM education.

Avenues has positively embraced the technological era, providing all students with Apple products to challenge and reinvent traditional ways of learning. These tools have been given to students to develop learning in a multitude of ways, like using digital annotation tools for smoother and more thoughtful note-taking experiences and granting access to Adobe Suite to enable students to design creative projects.

by Zac Bilmen

Unique implementation of technology in the classroom has begun to incorporate the fields of robotics here at Avenues. Incoming seniors, Harrison Silver and Ellis Wells dedicated their Mastery project to experimentation with drone technology. Their work with aerial vehicles last year, included programing their computers to serve as remote controls for their drones.

In Mastery, each student has a budget of $50. Students have the freedom to do what they want with that money as long as they have a certain goal in mind and purpose behind their experimentations. The freedom to openly experiment is a perfect environment for any developer in the field to address the questions surrounding his or her goals.

This same support is not only existent in Mastery, but in Avenues’s new robotics classes.

Avenues has supported student involvement in the field of robotics with courses and classroom environments such as the iLab. Robotics class is a wonderful introduction to robotics in general, and pushes students to think beyond introductory principles of the field. With the Avenues budget, students can buy different robotic parts to experiment with (lcd screens, photoresistors,

and more) allowing them to answer more and the developing field of Robotics, one of which is more complex questions. the technology itself and the other is a world of

An initial question that may come ethical issues. To advance Avenues’s influence to mind for a prospective developer is, “What in this new field, we need to not only develop am I going to build?” Most great ideas spawn the technologies, but also become well-versed from facing current problems, and the world on the morality of machines. What role should is filled with problems, robots play in our large and small. An exworld? How will hu“TO ADVANCE AVENUES’S ample of a problem on INFLUENCE ON THIS NEW FIELD, WE manity manage the the Avenues campus, is NEED TO NOT ONLY DEVELOP THE machine? trash in the 9th Floor TECHNOLOGIES, BUT ALSO BECOME The basis beStudio. Students and WELL-VERSED ON THE MORALITY hind robotics is to teachers have found it replace human funcOF MACHINES” is a problem to find all tions in manual lathis trash, especially in bor. While there are hard to reach places. A solution to this may lie benefits to not needing human power for manuin robotics. One can design a robot that rolls al labor, those employed by labor based jobs are around, sort of like the Roomba vacuum clean- put at tremendous risk. This range over which er, and mark where all the trash is. This is a jobs could be replaced is so vast that there are a small problem that is very annoying to students great deal of moral issues surrounding the future and teachers alike, but can be solved with this of robotics. new technology and be designed with the tools One of the more popular ethical debates at Avenues. concerning robotics is around both commercial

As developers, students should not only and military drones. Commercial drones are think about the products they can create in the considered as great tools for video recording field, they should also seek to improve the in- and scouting terrain, but can also be used for dustry of robotics itself. There are two sides of the more nefarious illegal surveillance and other

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hazards. One of the more hazardous situations with drones was one that caught the eye of Air Traffic Control. A drone was hovering at airplane cruising level and could be seen by a pilot.

This could be potentially very hazardous, especially if there are collisions. The ethical question here is whether developers should lessen the effects of their products and risk potential innovation, or continue to progress the science and application of robotics and expect humanity to adapt.

“THE ETHICAL CONCERNS SURROUNDING THE FUTURE OF ROBOTICS AND HUMANITY SHOULD BE HEAVILY DISCUSSED IN CLASSROOMS”

The ethical concerns surrounding the future of robotics and humanity, should be heavily discussed in classrooms. Students at Avenues can not only learn about the field of robotics as it is, but progress the field and its

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applications. Developing the field of robotics through discussing what Avenues students want the future world to look like, will not only evolve our opinions about the subject, but also refine how developers in these discussions will design their creations. The ethical elements of robotics are the inner workings of the innovations that are being created outside of our communities and by Avenues students.

Robotics is a field ready to be explored, and as students we can be at the forefront of these technologies. With the resources afforded to us at Avenues, as well as the range of courses, encouraged exploration time, and our dedicated teachers, we can not only talk about the future of robotics, but be a part of it. With small innovations such as the trash detector, students can begin to create bigger and better innovations for bigger problems, all stemming from everyday life.

There is a greater future for robotics at Avenues, and all we have to do is grasp it. •

The Uproar Over Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights

by Ryan Ng

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n July 2015, lawyers were trying to prove that one of the world’s most famous songs, “Happy Birthday,” was in the public domain. The lawyers told the New York Times that “smoking-gun evidence” pointed to signs of the popular birthday song having been devoid of copyright as early as 1922. However, the current copyright holder, music-producer company Warner/Chappell, argued that it has a legal claim to the song’s rights until 2030. The company earns about two million dollars annually by charging fees for for-profit use of the song.

Since 1893, when sisters Patty Smith Hill and Mildred Hill composed the song for kindergarten students, there has been an ongoing copyright dispute over the use of “Happy Birthday” for profit, with innumerable movies and musicals having been sued over the years for not paying the copyright holder the fee to use the song. The musical As Thousands Cheer was famously sued in 1934 for plagiarism after the tune was used in a birthday party scene. In 1980, Birch Tree Group, the copyright holder back then, considered suing Congress after a presidential adviser sang the tune to President Ronald Reagan. In the 2015 lawsuit, filmmaker Jennifer Nelson sued Warner/Chappell because she was charged $1,500 for the use of the song in a film of hers, appropriately titled “Happy Birthday.”

This is a very well publicized example of trademark and copyright protection. Trademarks and copyrights are popping up everywhere nowadays, to prevent people from stealing ideas

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by claiming exclusive privileges to them. They can be placed on thoughts, objects, media, and even words and phrases in a certain context.

These are taken very seriously—many lawsuits have been filed simply because someone did not pay the copyright holder for the rights to an idea or a design—and can come with serious legal and financial repercussions. However, there are many different types of trademarks and copyrights, including patents, and they can often be controversial.

Copyrights: A Synopsis

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Copyright is most apparent on media such as books, songs, magazines, movies, plays, pictures, etc. These are all examples of copyright on intellectual property. Since 1791, the U.S. Congress has had the right to create and enforce copyright and patent laws. While there is insufficient up-to-date data for the number of copyright claims filed, but according to a 2003 government report, “During fiscal 2003, the Copyright Office received 607,492 claims to copyright covering more than a million works.

Of these, it registered 534,122 claims.”

Copyright on these types of media is important because these are creative works.

If one is the author of the works, they can, in most cases, apply for copyright with the U.S.

Copyright Office to control all rights to their creative work. Rights include making or distributing copies of the work, publicly performing or displaying the work, and making “derivative works”, and if the work is copyrighted, no one else other than the work’s creator could use the work without the creator’s permission, under a “fair use” rationale. In the U.S. today, copyright on any of these media made after 1978 will last until 70 years after the work’s creator dies, and if the author is anonymous, the copyright will last until between 95 and 120 years from the original publication date.

However, not all creative works are eligible for copyright protection. For example, ideas, discoveries, commonplace properties (such as rulers), procedures, lists of ingredients and contents, fonts, and simple geometrical shapes cannot be copyrighted. Certain other things, such as company names, slogans, and genes, also cannot be copyrighted, but can be trademarked or patented. Works by the U.S. government cannot be copyrighted at all, as they are in the public domain under federal law.

Plagiarism: A Serious Offense

At Avenues and at schools across the U.S., teachers are advising students to not plagiarize. The full definition of plagiarism is, ac-

cording to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, “the act of using another person’s words or ideas without giving credit to that person.” Unattributed copying carries very grave consequences. In addition to getting one expelled from school, plagiarism is a misdemeanor in the U.S., and fines for plagiarism can range from $100 to $50,000. Plagiarism.org states that plagiarism can also be treated as a felony, because “if a plagiarist copies and earns more than $2,500 from copyrighted material, he or she may face up to $250,000 in fines and up to ten years in jail.” In other words, stealing copyrighted material is a crime, just as stealing money is a crime.

Even so, plagiarism is very common. In 2011, out of 1,055 college presidents who participated in a survey, 55% of them reported increased incidences of plagiarism over the years; in a 2002–2005 survey of 71,000 undergraduates and graduate students, at least 38% of undergraduates and 25% of graduate students conceded that they copied text without attribution. In a 2010 survey of 43,000 high school students, a third of them admitted to having plagiarized; in another survey of 24,000 high school students, the rate was higher, as 58% of them had plagiarized.

Plagiarism can be quite widespread in specific schools, as can be seen in the Stuyvesant High School plagiarism scandal in 2012, in

which the school’s magazine found that 80% of students plagiarized. Generally, though, plagiarism does a lot of harm without really helping.

Even though students and professionals alike sometimes plagiarize to avoid taking time and energy to write original text or even to paraphrase, the consequences, if one is caught plagiarizing, are very negative. In addition to being potentially criminal in nature, plagiarism can also ruin one’s grades, reputation, and career, as well as create legal problems and get one expelled from school.

Trademarks: Controversial Brands

A trademark is an object or service, such as a sign, design, slogan, logo, or product, to distinguish objects and services from a specific brand, owner, or entity. Trademarking is usually used to prevent others from selling products of the same name, or using the name. For instance, since the manufacturer Bullyland has the trademark for the production of Smurf figurines, that means that no one else can create figurines and market them as “Smurfs”, unless they get a license to sell “Smurf”-branded figurines.

Trademarking is oftentimes also used on phrases and logos. Our school, for example, has trademarked its name and logos, so no other school can brand itself as “Avenues: The World

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School” or use the Avenues logos without permission from Avenues. The trademark can also be for a single intended use. In one case of this type of trademarking, Apple Computers registered a trademark for the word “Apple” regarding technology, and as a result, no other company can brand computers, phones, TVs, etc. as “Apple” products. However, since Apple Computers holds a limited copyright, someone can brand the fruit as an “apple” without any repercussions—not that anyone can trademark the fruit anyway, because the use is very generic.

While trademark holders try to avoid trademark infringement in any way they can, entities sometimes attempt to trademark common expressions and phrases. In other cases, trademarks themselves could become commonly used. Trademark owners sometimes try to avoid this by not making their trademark very well known. However, other trademarks, such as “Jell-O”, “aspirin”, or “Vaseline” might become generalized anyway.

There have been many well-publicized cases of trademark infringement over the years.

This happens sometimes because far too many trademarks are generic. In a 2014 case in which a generic trademark was defended, the moving and storage company PODS won a lawsuit against competitor U-Haul over the usage of

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the word “pods” to refer to storage spaces. The word “pods” had been trademarked by PODS, but U-Haul had been using the word “pods” as a brand to boost its own sales. Some lawsuits have also occurred over the use of trademarked patterns, which may also be argued to be generic. For example, fashion brand Gucci unsuccessfully sued its rival Guess over the latter’s use of “G” patterns similar to ones that the former had trademarked; in this case, a French court had invalidated Gucci’s trademark on the patterns. Yet others have occurred over vague, generic wordings. On one occasion in 2014, for instance, clothing accessory company Under Armour sued competing company Nike for the use of the trademarked slogan “I Will”, but Nike denied trademark infringement.

Trademarks apply to more specific items than copyrights do. Great care should be taken to avoid trademark infringement, which, in some cases, is akin to plagiarism. Whether intended or not, trademark infringement can often have serious repercussions.

Patents

Patents for products are like copyrights for media, in that the patent holder can also restrict the distribution of the patented product.

The U.S. patent system for products designs and ideas is very similar to copyright for media, and basically grants the patent holder exclusive privileges to the design and/or function of the patented product. This is used to prevent product infringement, which can, in almost all cases, be more profitable and widespread than copyright infringement. Another use for a patent is to allow the patent holder to hold a monopoly on a particular product and its corresponding usage.

Patents cannot apply to everything, however; only working products can be patented, so if the product is in a test phase and it is not verified to work, then someone can steal the patent for the product. However, the blueprints and drawings for the patents are not themselves copyrighted; according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, “the text and drawings of a patent are typically not subject to copyright restrictions” unless the patent holder specifically applies for copyright protection for the patent application.

Not all patents need to be of the allrights-reserved type. There are also open patents, which allow greater latitude in regards to the usage of designs and programs. They are not open source (which is public domain), nor are they “all rights reserved” (where other people must ask the patent holder for explicit

permission to use their ideas). However, patents, whether open or restricted, work like copyrights, and almost always require the creator’s permission to reuse or reproduce.

A Summary

Copyrights, trademarks, and patents all have something in common: they are used to prevent the theft of original creations. They are very serious matters, with billions of dollars’ worth in lawsuits filed every year over the infringement and plagiarism of intellectual property. Many of these protections of original creations are also controversial, and we hear about controversy surrounding such protections seemingly each week. However, and most importantly, they are vital to the protection of intellectual properties. Without these protections, people would be able to take others’ hard work without attribution and re-use it without the knowledge of the original creator.

For the people or entities who are illicitly copying works, the consequences could often be as harsh as for regular theft. Still, though the circumstances and validity of intellectual protections will always be complex, there are always methods to share these works with the public. •

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SUMMER FILM REVIEWS

Urban Hopes

by Matthew Thaxton

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ope considered an instant classic of the Y generation, uniquely touches on social justice issues while detailing modern urban life and the stereotypes that come along with it.

The movie opens in the home of the protagonist Malcolm, living with his single mother in the city of Englewood, California.

Malcolm struggles to shake off his “hood” reality. Living in a place rampant with gang activity, he has grown up without a father, but he has defied all expectations with his 4.0 grade point average and dreams of getting into the prestigious Ivy League school, Harvard University. Along

with his two friends, Malcolm struggles to survive a hopeless and abusive school overflowing with gangs and bullies. The trio is picked on for dressing in a 90’s styled wardrobe and making punk music.

Ultimately, the three get mixed up with the wrong crowd and find themselves pulled into a dangerous and life-threatening adventure. After discovering illegal drugs and weapons hidden in Malcolm’s bag, the three enter a downhill spiral as they dodge gangbangers attempting to re-claim the bag.

Throughout the story we see many harsh examples of the inner-city traps that ensnare so many young people in the criminal justice systems. Dope is a story of one boy’s dream and how it motivates him to use his intellect to break through such barriers. Instead of becoming part of a gang and getting trapped in the school-toprison pipeline, Malcom masterminds a plan to get himself and his friends out of danger. He is dedicated to reaching his goals and ensureing a successful future for himself. Ultimately, Dope is a film proving that anyone can find themselves, even those whose future looks lost. •

A New Era of Joy

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Two Perspectives on Inside Out by Sabrina Sternberg

ver the past 20 years, Pixar has proven itself important in the lives of children and adults alike. When Toy Story first came out in 1995, audiences were overwhelmed by the entertaining and complex characters. For many, the experience marked a memorable moment in their lives. With many other classics, such as Monster’s Inc. and Finding Nemo, Pixar has continued to reach the hearts of global audiences. In the last seven years, they have hit a dry spell, with disappointments like Cars 2 and their first female-lead movie Brave. However, Pixar’s metaphysical new masterpiece Inside Out has set a standard for a new era of animation.

Inside Out focuses on the life of eleven year-old Riley Anderson (Kaitlyn Dias)— or, more specifically, the voices in her head. Lead

by Joy (Amy Poehler), Riley’s emotions, personified as characters, including the hilarious Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), and Anger (Lewis Black), tackle everyday life in Minnesota. However, when Riley’s family has to move to San Francisco, everything is turned upside down. In a fight on the first day of school, Joy and Sadness get

sucked out of headquarters, where the emotions live, and plopped into the middle of Riley’s long-term memory. And so begin their trials, as Riley cannot be happy without Joy in headquarters. On the way back, they visit several parts of Riley’s mind, including the imagination and the

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Animation in Inside Out

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by Christina Kopecka

ixar’s animation in its latest film Inside Out, utilizes revolutionary techniques in virtual cinematography. Two forms of animation are used to create the worlds of Riley’s reality. Pixar worked with Dolby Cinema and used Dolby Vision Imagining Technology to bring Riley’s emotions and mind to life. Dolby Vision allowed the colors present in scenes depicting Riley’s mind to appear sharper and clearer. The characters that play Riley’s emotions are much brighter than the characters in her real world. In fact, they each radiate a color that glows of an ebullient quality. Overall, when the film’s frame switches from Riley’s physical world to the world in her mind, the palate of colors expands dramatically, brightness is largely enhanced, and contrast increases allowing fine details in depth and shadows. This form of animation truly brought Riley’s mind to life. However, to animate Riley’s real world experience, Pixar used the standard form of animation that you would see in any other film. Pixar’s success in illuminating and giving form to the energies of emotions created a motion picture that truly captivates the senses of its viewers. But in livening the world of Riley’s mind, Inside Out presented the real world as a dull contrast to the metaphysical. The brightness of the scenes created with Dolby vision took away from the animation in the real world Riley lives in. Because the film consistently switched back and forth from Riley’s head to the real world, the standard animation appeared dull and lifeless. While watching the film, I found myself wishing I had the ability to fast-forward to the moments in Riley’s head when everything was sharp and clear. Aligned with its efforts to actualize the abstract qualities of emotions through it’s plot, Inside Out successfully differentiates the worlds of Riley’s mind and reality through its unique animations. subconscious, and team up with Riley’s old imaginary friend, the hilarious and heart-breaking Bing-Bong (Richard Kind). The other emotions are shocked and left helpless, allowing Riley to slip into a deep depression. It is only when Joy realizes, at her darkest moment, that it is because of Sadness that people have helped Riley.

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Riley cannot feel joy without first experiencing Sadness.

This is a landmark film, not only for Pixar, but for all of children’s animation. Of Pixar’s fifteen film cannon, its only film to have a female protagonist was box-office disappointment Brave. Inside Out doesn’t have one female

protagonist; it has three. It is the first Pixar film to never have less than two female characters on screen at all times. Also, what is noticeably missing is the all to standard and expected romantic plot line. The film depicts Riley as a well-rounded young woman, neither enforcing gender stereotypes nor tearing them down. For example, one of the pillars of Riley’s personality is her love of hockey. However, it is also made clear that she loves princesses and unicorns, interests that are generally associated with girls.

This demonstrates to viewers that a girl can love something considered masculine, such as sports, and still identify as very feminine. Every female character is deep and well-developed, a trait that is hard to find in many Hollywood films.

The film also does a remarkable job of explaining emotions and emotional states. The idiosyncrasies of each emotion are hilarious and relatable: Disgust’s fear of broccoli, Anger’s love of road rage, and Fear’s hatred of Riley’s new house.

However, the movie also educates the public on the complexity of emotional states.

For example, Joy hates to let anyone touch the controls of Riley’s mind, constantly forcing Riley to be happy. But by the end of the film, Joy realizes that sadness is not something one can ignore; one needs a healthy mix of all emotions.

This message is most directly demonstrated in

the first memory of mixed emotions that Riley makes, which allows her to create a more developed personality at the end of the film. Inside Out also shows the more beneficial aspects to emotions that are often negatively thought of.

For example, depression is often associated with sadness, however it is the absence of Sadness that makes Riley depressed.

With only Fear, Anger, and Disgust controlling her, Riley is constantly in a state of nervousness and hatred, until the controls freeze over and she can’t feel anything. It is only Sadness who is able to unfreeze the controls, proving that by letting oneself feel sad, one can free the pain and exhaustion buried inside.

The impact Inside Out will have on the future of cinema is immeasurable. It made 91 million in its opening weekend, the biggest ever for an original Pixar film. It is also proof that a female-lead film can stand alone and succeed.

Just like director Pete Doctor’s other Pixar film Up did in 2009, Inside Out is set to launch a new era of animated films, both in its animated technological advancements and incredible and complex storyline.

With Disney’s Zootopia and Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur coming soon, we can most likely expect a new generation of films that will redefine animation because of the artistic and social risks taken by Inside Out. •

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A Pulse Pounding Flick

by Ryan Ng

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hat happens when superheroes unwittingly create their own enemy who tries to destroy the world?

Superhero movies are typically thought of as thrillers rife with villains, conspiracy, and brilliant (though often violent) fight scenes, which usually leave viewers feeling more than on edge for the better part of the movie. The 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron gives one possible outcome for such a scenario. It originates when some famous Marvel superheroes, who collaborate on a team called the Avengers, find artificial intelligence in a scepter that they retrieve. But in the process of transferring it into a computer,

they inadvertently rewake the powerful villain Ultron, who goes on a rampage to try to eliminate humans.

Any movie with lengthy fighting scenes is likely to attract viewers, and Avengers: Age of Ultron is no exception. Toward the second half of the movie, the superheroes must engage in protracted battles with Ultron twice: first on a Seoul subway train, then in Eastern Europe. In fact, a third of the film consists of such fighting scenes. Since the Avengers comic book series is directed toward children as well as teenagers and adults, some may worry that the film series is too violent. However, the fighting does not matter as much as the action, the unexpected revelations, and the humor that are neatly packed into the film; all contributing to its success. Still, this movie creates a complicated story and sets unusual circumstances, which makes viewers want to side with the protagonists.

Much of the movie’s appeal is in its complex storyline. To someone who has not seen the Avengers movies, it may seem that the contortions in the plot are detracting from the film’s focusing on the protagonists’ overall ob-

jective. Whereas many superhero movies simply consist of the heroes trying to seek and defeat villains, Avengers: Age of Ultron has an unexpected twist in the story line in which two of the Avengers must fight each other. This can be seen when Iron Man has to disarm Hulk with a “Hulk-smasher” in order to stop a hypnotized and flailing Hulk from going on a rampage around the city. This conflict occurs because of a misunderstanding between the Avengers and one of the twins that they rescued, but it is still a head-spinner that leaves the viewer both dazed at first and intrigued afterward. Another complex, and unexpected, disclosure is when the Avengers find that Iron Man’s security system, J.A.R.V.I.S., was forced into the Internet after Ultron’s rampage, and transfer J.A.R.V.I.S.’s mind into a new superhero named Vision. The creation of a new superhero is surprising at this point, but it helps the Avengers. As shown in these and other events, most viewers will appreciate the intricacy of the plot because it adds some drama to the story.

Humorous moments also appear in multiple places in the movie, but they vary.

Some of the humor is directed toward kids, while other instances may only be understood mainly by adults. Humor appears not only in jokes made between the Avengers, but also in the actions that the superheroes take.

Younger moviegoers may find humor in some action scenes, such as when Hulk’s head bounces between the ground and the ridiculously huge fist of Iron Man’s Hulkbuster during the fight between Hulk and Iron Man. The humorous scenes are placed there mainly for kids, who are among the target audiences in the movie.

For adults, the Avengers make some jokes and allusions throughout the movie, but such examples are few and far between. There is some light humor, however, that both kids and adults will find funny. For instance, there is a scene when Iron Man’s security system, J.A.R.V.I.S., finds a fake wall, and when Iron Man investigates it, he says, “Please be a secret door… Yay!” upon discovering that there was actually a secret door. In general, while Avengers: Age of Ultron is intended to be an action movie, viewers will invariably find themselves cracking up.

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First-time viewers will also be left wondering about the three new superheroes—the twins and Vision—who help defeat Ultron and who were previously not part of the Avengers.

The movie actually features crossovers with two other Marvel superheroes from a different series, and one will most likely be pleasantly surprised when you learn that the twins were actually the children of one of the X-Men. Although they are wary of the Avengers at first, they are in fact vital to the Avengers’ quest to vanquish Ultron.

There are some disadvantages to this movie, which can all be overlooked. For one thing, there is almost no romance aspect in Avengers: Age of Ultron, because most of the scenes are either about fighting, formulating plans, or socializing. However, since this is a movie that mainly targets superhero fans, romance is not really present. The movie mostly features men,

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with ten main male characters compared to only two main female characters, so any moviegoers looking for a love scene will be disappointed. In addition, there is almost no seriousness whatsoever in the movie, except when the Avengers are fighting or plotting to fight. If you want to see the movie, you are absolutely required to have a sense of humor.

Overall, however, this is a pretty exciting movie. Although Avengers: Age of Ultron lacks romance and overall seriousness, it more than makes up for its shortfalls in its humor, complexity, suspense, and liveliness. It is no wonder that this is a high-grossing, popular movie; having accumulated $1.3 billion since its release, it is the sixth-highest-grossing movie ever. I highly recommend seeing it if you want to see an exciting movie that will leave you wondering and on edge at the same time. •

prose With Sincere Regret

by Jackson Ehrenworth

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n the gentle warmth of early spring, before anyone realized that what was happening here was the near end of something much bigger, a tall girl stumbled to a row of desks, trying to fit herself into the small space. She was gasping and crying. Blood flecked her face, sprayed from the bodies of her friends and classmates. A silver ring pierced her brow, and the metal glistened in the cool light of the library. It also called attention to her. Though she was no more than seventeen, she carried the knowledge of her dying friends in her heart, a terrible pain that stopped her breathing.

Without speaking, for that would have called attention to her, the girl tried to make herself smaller.

Her brown, frantic eyes were desperate. Please, they seemed to cry, don’t. Please don’t. In a shooting, the victims speak with silent pleas.

Beyond the girl, on the edge of her vision, was a warren of desks and computers. Behind them, a boy with a shotgun was removing his trench coat.

Eric Harris, co-authoring the massacre, stalked toward the brown-eyed girl. He paused though, as if distracted, and gently called out, “Peek-a-boo.” A second was all he spared for the golden haired teen hiding under the desk. That was all it took to pull her out and shoot her in the head, killing her instantly. The shotgun kicked back, breaking his nose, spraying his blood to mix with that of the dying girl. When he was at the brown-eyed girl, asking her if she wanted to die, how was a teen to answer that? What should she have said to the boy with the shotgun, who had killed seven of her classmates, four before her eyes?

It was a scene that was, at the time, incomprehensible to the modern mind.

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School shootings are death by violence, taking away the rights of the victims to live. These deaths are not the result of accidents, or natural disasters. They occur because people live in the hollows of hate. They occur because people can, with ease, gather bullets, and shotgun shells, and assault pistols, and automatic weapons. In the modern world, the death of children is by-and-large preventable. When it occurs, it represents our society’s collective failure.

Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were given weapons by friends and family. They lived in a gun town. They could buy their ammunition virtually anywhere – at gun shows, at discount stores, at family super-stores. They brought it with them into Columbine High School.

It was thirteen years later that the young first-grade teacher heard shots in the hallway outside her classroom. She was a substitute. She was just a child herself during Columbine, but the event echoed in her memory. And she did not hesitate, as she hovered behind her first graders protectively trying to fit them all into the small classroom bathroom. She was not, not nearly, quick enough. He killed them all. The young substitute, and the fifteen first graders. And then he gathered up his automatic assault rifle, and went to look for more.

Since Columbine there have been 31 school shootings, including Newtown, CT, where 18 first and second graders were shot and killed. In Unthinkable, Amanda Ripley talks about what to do when disaster strikes – the stages of denial, decision-making, and action. She looks at the Virginia Tech shootings, and shows how important it can be to try to break out of a stage of paralysis and take action. According to Ripley, it is the first fifteen seconds or so that might decide your fate.

But there’s no action to take when you’re a teenager hiding under a desk from a shotgun or a second grader facing an assault rifle.

Something has to change in this country. This should not be a political debate. It is not okay for anyone to be allowed to buy, trade, give, and carry assault rifles and automatic weapons.

In Bowling for Columbine, the father of fifteen year-old Daniel Mauser, who was shot to death on that day at Columbine High School said, “The time has come to come to understand that a Tech 9

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Semi-Automatic, 30 bullet weapon like that that killed my son, is not used to kill deer.”

In that same film, Charlton Heston, President of the National Rifle Association, just after Columbine, made a speech when the mayor of Denver asked him not to come to that city. The mayor had said, “We don’t want you.” In response, Heston shouted, rifle in one hand, in front a throng of cheering supporters, “As Americans we are free to travel wherever we want in our broad land.”

Not the kids who were shot. They’re not free to travel anywhere, ever again. Even the kids who survived that day are not free. Greg Barnes, a sixteen year old who watched his friends get shot around him in the library at Columbine, committed suicide one year later, on the first anniversary of the massacre.

Some argue that more people having guns might have protected these murdered children.

People did have guns. There were armed security guards at Columbine and Virginia Tech. Others argue that hunters need guns. Fine, get a hunting license and a shotgun. That’s what you use to hunt animals. These killers brought weapons that are designed not for hunting – but for the sole purpose of killing other human being.

Here’s how many kids someone with an assault weapon can kill in a few minutes: 12 kids at Columbine; 20 first graders at Sandy Hook; 30 students at Virginia Tech; 47 kids at Utoya Island Summer Camp. And for those who didn’t die in these shootings there are the missing limbs, the subsequent blindness, and of course the wheelchairs. Kids now learn how to ‘play dead,’ ‘go on lockdown,’ ‘avoid lines of sight’ and ‘rush a shooter,’ all so that someone can carry an assault rifle.

It is not enough to sincerely regret these deaths. They have to mean something in the decisions we make going forward, decisions in which we protect children’s lives over the paranoia, entertainment, or even legitimate beliefs in personal defense, that currently allow assault weapons to be purchased and turned against first graders, teenagers, and college students.

We cannot continue to value some people’s desires to carry weapons meant for war, over the lives of children.

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To Trap a Tourist

by Kavin Chada

To trap a man with television advertisements and 2 for 1 deals shouted from the rooftops is sad. No one wants to see anyone work that hard for their livelihood. But maybe that’s the way they do what they must. However, to catch a tourist is a sin.

M

y family was in our fatherland, India. Not just the land of one generation past, but two; the land of my father’s father, the origin of the spice of color in our skin. India brought us so close together, and we always knew we are meant to be there. My father is from Ireland, but he’s brown. My brother and I have inherited a little bit of that. Our mother is from Italy and is white. Race can be such a complicated thing, but when you have parents from Ireland and Italy yet still have brown skin — India is the key to so much reason.

We loved being there, but we knew most of the country was unsafe for us. That was always apparent. And from the original caution we took in coming, by planning almost every second out safely, fear built up fast. Right off the plane, there were people offering to move our baggage for fractions of dollars, women selling all types of food, and children running around shoving newspapers in car windows. Really it didn’t matter how dangerous these things could have been; we would still freak out when we heard a knock at the car door. So we knew very well we couldn’t drive through the streets ourselves.

My mother described our hotel as our oasis; but I didn’t think of it that way. It’s just that I would always take a big breath upon leaving the streets of Delhi and walking into the bright airconditioned hotel lobby. Safety is supposed to be that one thing that comes first; that one thing that surpasses morals in importance. So did it matter that we were treated as the most important cargo in all of Delhi because we had a little extra money? That people felt they had to respect us because of our white mother? Should we be enforcing that? That’s not what we think about when we go to India now, and by the aforementioned safety rule, can never be.

But one day in our hotel, the thought must have crossed my dad’s mind. Why am I, a man who thirty years ago would be running around the streets, now treated like a prince? And that thought must have broke his heart; after it had been continuously cut by the men and women

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wandering the streets each day searching for a path to survival; the men and women who could’ve so easily been seen as his equals years before when he visited with his family from Ireland? So he thought the family needed to walk out of the big hotel gates to go to the Central Cottage Industries Emporium, run by the ministry of textiles of India.

When we got downstairs, passing the metal detectors and security guards at the main entrance of the hotel, there was a Sikh running the hotel taxi stand to our left. “Are you going out?” he asked me and my dad in a British English accent. My dad said something in Hindi then turned his head onward. Then, addressing the whole family he asked, “Are you sure you don’t want a driver?”

My dad said yes, thank you, in English, and then turned to me. As the man at the stand turned his gaze away from us, my dad motioned towards the man and in a soft voice he said, “You see, that man is a Sikh.” I looked back at him with my eyebrows raised. He said soothingly, “Now there are five rules to being a Sikh,” and he continued, “As you can see, they cannot cut their hair and they must wear a turban, that’s the first. Inside the turban they also must have a comb, which I think represents keeping a good appearance; that’s the second. The third is wearing this one metal bracelet all the time, but I’m not sure why; and actually, the fourth is wearing underwear, all the time. Isn’t that interesting?”

“Even in the shower?” I asked.

“I think so,” he responded. Then he continued to the fifth, “The last is always carrying a knife that is given to you when you’re young, but nowadays it is usually fake, I think it symbolizes protection.” With that he grabbed my hand and took me outside the gates of the hotel.

Out on the street he hailed a rickshaw, a small three wheeled vehicle painted green and yellow. When we all got in, my dad asked in Hindi if we can go to the National Emporium (the Cottage Emporium), the driver responded with an emphatic nod then took off. My dad noticed the driver’s last name was Singh, then he nudged me lightly. “Now this man is also a Sikh; do you know how I know?” he asked.

“Because of the turban,” I responded. He slowly shook his head and says no then explained, “It’s because his last name is Singh. All Sikhs have the last name Singh. We can call them all Mr.

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Singh, isn’t that amazing?”

“Do you think he has all of his stuff with him right now?” I asked. Then as the car slowed to a halt and we got out, he said, “Let’s see!” and audaciously asked if the driver has a comb. I was a little scared because my dad always went a bit over the top in trying to show me how to be assertive, but when the man smiled and brought out his stout wooden comb I was pleased.

The driver walked us all the way into the shopping area. My parents said it isn’t as big as they expected, but it seemed to have thousands of rugs piled up on top of each other. As the driver walked out my parents began looking around and discussing prices. After a while my brother and I drifted away from them in boredom. A man with a turban came up to us, who I thought was a Sikh, and asked if we want to go upstairs. My brother told him affirmatively that we want to stay with our parents. He took that with a smile and started showing us many goods. He showed us bowls that he said were made of real paper maché, and cloths that were made of real lamb’s wool.

Then we came over to a statue that he said is one-hundred percent marble, and depicting the god Ganesh. He handed me the statue and explained like my dad, “The god Ganesh, as you can see, looks like an elephant. He removes obstacles from our way and that is why we worship him…” I didn’t care about what he was talking about, nor where my parents were; I just held tightly onto the intricately carved statue because I liked the way the mellow light-brown complemented the golden highlights on it. My parents came along a moment later and pondered the high price for only a second before buying it. I held it, wrapped in its many layers of newspaper, for about five minutes, until we suddenly had to leave.

My parents walked ahead of us, steadily leading us out of the compound. Their faces looked very determined. When my dad saw the Sikh in the rickshaw he started spurting Hindi phrases that tumbled over each other rapidly, and soon we got in the car and were driven to the hotel. Nobody held anything in their hands except for me, who had my grand statue of Ganesh. When we finally stopped we all got out and walked towards the hotel. When I looked back at the sikh in the rickshaw his face was filled with shame. When I saw the sikh at the taxi stand by the entrance of the hotel, he smiled, then held the door open for us almost out of pity.

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One day later my family was at dinner. My father knows some friends who live in India, and was talking to them passionately about that Cottage Emporium. He said there was a Sikh rickshaw driver who had taken us to the wrong emporium that had overpriced goods. The friends scoffed and shook their heads, but still laughed after and said, “That’s India!” The Sikh was a liar I thought. My father said he was probably paid off by the fake emporium. But he had so many symbols of righteousness and love; he had Ganesh watching over him. How could he possibly do that? How could anything outside the gates of our built up hotel be authentic? What if the country of my ancestry, my fatherland, contains only a culture of lies? We came outside of those hotel gates, outside of our homes in New York City, to get in touch with the outer world; to love it; and in turn to love ourselves as a part of it. But misguided to that shop we felt farther away from any home than we had before.

It isn’t the tourist trap that matters on its own. It’s all the build up it causes. A person can no longer seek to understand because their trial at understanding has been taken advantage of.

Going to another place is that trial at understanding, and no one can fully understand and move on from the culture of being trapped, because the very thing that they are trying to understand is an attack on understanding. Moving into an age of more international communication we have a responsibility to represent our cultures fairly and seek for people to understand them. The concept of mirrors and windows, where with a mirror you look to yourself and with a window you look to the rest of the world, only works when both objects or concepts are intact and unadulterated. Unless you see your own culture and others in a fair light, all that understanding will fall apart. But, it seems, the desire for understanding still survives through broken windows and mirrors; and it may.

Unless the very process of you looking inward and outward is broken, your eyes are shut, and you become blind.

To trap a tourist is not to take away their ability to explore another culture, it only injures that; to trap a tourist is to gradually rob a person’s heart to ever seek and explore.

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ARTS & LETTERS Book Review: The Ables

by Sabrina Sternberg

W

hen CinemaSins creator and narrator Jeremy Scott announced he was writing a book, there was much excitement amongst the Youtube community.

Widely known for his jokes and movie reviews on his Youtube channel, writing a book reflecting this humor seemed like a logical next step.

Many have been excited about disabled kids being featured as lead characters, an occurrence often too rare in literature. However, while the story and characters are initially intriguing, The Ables, by Jeremy Scott, is commendably bad.

The Ables centers on 12-year-old Phillip Sallinger, a normal kid from New York City who also happens to be blind. His family suddenly picks up and moves to a small town named Freepoint, whose actual location is not made specific. Phillip at first doesn’t understand the move, but when his father takes him to a cornfield to explain their new life, things become clear: Phillip is a superhero. That’s correct, Phillip is a superhero. So are his parents, his brother, and nearly everyone in the superhe-

ro town Freepoint. At this point, only five pages into the book, it becomes clear that the story is going to be full of clichés and stereotypical YA plot lines.

Nearly every twist to come in the book is predictable, obvious, and most annoyingly, stolen from another book. For example, in Phillip’s first year at the school, the school board decides to reintroduce a large game called the

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SuperSim, in which different teams of heroes compete in challenges to win a trophy and eternal glory. While the author may have been unaware of the directness of this reference, there is no way the reader cannot be transported back to reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’s Triwizard Tournament. Additionally, the foreshadowing is painstakingly obvious. In the first chapter, there are specific details about Phillip’s family that seem so utterly irrelevant that they have no choice but to be relevant, which, of “ONE MIGHT WONDER, “HOW DID SUCH A BAD BOOK GET PUBLISHED?” course, they end up being.

The problem that is so frustrating about The Ables is that the premise itself is interesting.

When I first viewed the announcement video, it seemed to me to be The Outsiders + disabilities, something I was very interested in reading.

However, the manifestation of Scott’s intent did not come together in a satisfactory way. For example, the idea of reading a book narrated by

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a blind person seemed like a challenge for both writer and reader. However, one of Phillip’s telepathic friends can send people images in their minds, almost like a live video feed. Thus, it is only for the first fourth of the book that Phillip is actually without sight. The idea of giving Phillip sight through some unexplained medium seems like a cop out.

One might wonder, “How did such a bad book get published?” It’s simple, really: Jeremy Scott’s Youtube channel, CinemaSins, has over 4.5 million subscribers, and thousands more fans across the globe. In other words, the revenue for the book is guaranteed. 2014 and 15 have seen the release of dozens of books by Youtubers in what is being called the Youtuber book boom, including Grace’s Guide by Grace Helbig, Joey Graceffa’s In Real Life, and A Work In Progress by Connor Franta. Hundreds of authors each day are rejected by publishers, frustratingly rewriting their work. So, is it seems a bit suspect that Youtubers can so easily get book deals.

It is unfair to say that all books by You-

tubers are bad. For example, Shane Dawson’s I Hate Myselfie received excellent reviews, especially in contrast to other Youtuber books: “The book is a haven for difference in a sea of more of the same with Youtuber books.” (The Guardian). However, for the most part, these books receive negative reviews. Most notably is the controversy around Zoë Sugg’s Girl Online.

Many critics were surprised that the book, one of the few fiction books written by Youtubers, was actually decent. However, it was eventually revealed that a ghostwriter named Siobhan Curham did most of the actual writing. Sugg released a statement saying that “the story and the characters” were her own, but when asked if she had written any sentences in the book, a spokesperson said, on her behalf, “We are not getting into the nitty gritty of that.” Amongst the sea of books being sold everyday by Youtubers, there is one thing that separates the good from the bad: identity. Both Shane Dawson’s I Hate Myselfie and Grace Helbig’s Grace’s Guide have been praised for reflecting the humor and honesty that made them famous in the first place, while

many of the worse books stray too far from the author’s identity.

“IT IS COMMENDABLE THAT SCOTT TRIED TO STEP OUT OF HIS COMFORT ZONE, BUT IT IS IRONIC THAT HIS BOOK IS FILLED WITH THE TROPS AND CLICHES HE IS SO FAMOUS FOR MAKING FUN OF”

While Jeremy Scott took some honorable risks with The Ables, including writing a fictional book and focusing on disabled characters, the book strays too far from what made him famous in the first place: snarky humor.

The Ables can be described in many ways, but funny is not one of them. The story lacks all the personality and cleverness that can be found in one 5 minute video on the CinemaSins channel.

It is commendable that Scott tried to step out of his comfort zone, but it is ironic that his book is filled with the tropes and clichés he is so famous for making fun of. Where is “Everything Wrong with The Ables”? •

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Event Review: Sneaker Con Summer 2015

by Matthew Thaxton

S

neaker culture and popularity has grown more and more over the years, ever since the Nike/Michael Jordan basketball sneaker endorsement in 1984. Today, sneaker culture is booming, careers are being made from the lifestyle, as well as people flipping sneakers on the secondary market and selling them for hundreds of dollars above retail. The culture has grown into a very strong community where people of the lifestyle can recognize each other, show off against each other, as well as respect each other for the sneakers that they have. The market values of shoes in the sneaker world range from hundreds to thousands of dollars, which fuels the desire to trade and sell them.

This has lead to informal swap meets and eventually to major sneaker shows, the most popular

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of which is known as Sneaker Con.

Sneaker Con is a convention that started only recently in 2009. It has grown into an event attended by a great number of sneaker enthusiasts in many cities including Atlanta, NYC, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, and many more. The main space of the convention, known as “The Event Hanger,� in the North Javits Center in NYC, is filled with music controlled by a DJ, traveling through speakers that have been driven into an unrepairable distortion. Sneaker Con features giveaways, promotes businesses, meet and greets, celebrity signings, and other sneaker related activities as part of the event. It is filled with tens of thousands of people, making it impossible to see from one side of the convention hall to the other. In the hall

there is a section that is called “The Trading less than a year?” Well, it’s simply because they Pit”, where all of the people who didn’t reserve all love sneakers. Sneaker Con shows just how tables buy, sell and trade sneakers in a scene many people, no matter how different, can all that looks similar to the stock market (with- come together, sharing the same love of sneakout the computers). The rest of the building is ers. There were people with canes, people with filled with vendors at tables, selling sneakers and crutches, people in wheelchairs, and people who sneaker related products. The number of people had physical and mental disabilities. in the pit is so overwhelming that it is difficult Everyone at Sneaker Con respected to move. Luckily, the air conditioner was on full each other just for what they were wearing on blast cooling the overheating people coming their feet, no one cared who had the sneaker, from outside. Over the course of the day, as the only about the sneaker itself. Everyone there amount of people in the could have a conversabuilding eventually died “SNEAKER CON SHOWS HOW THE tion with anyone just down, it became easier SUCCESS OF A NEWLY EMERGING because of their muCULTURE CAN GROW WITH GREAT tual interest in sneakto walk through.

Among the DIVERSITY AND CREATE A FRIENDLY ers. So many different COMMUNITY.” ocean of bodies filling people had equal reup the center, there were many different kinds of people, from ages 10 to 80, parents and children, grandparents, black, white, asian; all kinds of different people congregating to buy, sell and trade sneakers. This may make one wonder, “What are grandparents doing at a sneaker convention?”

Or, “Why are kids around 10 years old spending hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars on sneakers if they are going to outgrow them in

spect for what outsiders might consider a silly hobby, or even a waste of money, but Sneaker Con shows how the success of a newly emerging culture can grow with great diversity and create a friendly community.

Sneaker Con is the place to be for any sneaker enthusiast interested in making good deals, meeting new people, sharing the same interests, expanding their knowledge, and sharing camaraderie. •

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The Restoration of English Magic Critical Review: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

I

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n reality, magic is a myth, but television is not reality. A new show, Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell, pushes the boundaries of what is possible. The show is based on a widely acclaimed and award-winning book of the same title. The beginning of both the book and show remains the same, an introduction to Mr. Norrell. Mr. Norrell is an uptight magician with the goal of restoring magic to Britain under his terms. These terms are merely to inflate his ego and affirm that he has the power over all magic.

Jonathon Strange is also a magician with a looser personality that implores him to explore the farthest reaches that magic will take him. This does not go well with Mr. Norrell.

Despite many differences in opinion, both magicians ultimately want the same thing, to restore magic to Britain. To do so, they need the support of the people and the assistance of the British Parliament. However, conflict with

by Zac Bilmen

one another continually inhibits what they can accomplish with the British government. Ironically, years before around the time of the English Civil War, two philosophers, John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, both polar opposites in political thought, were in dispute over the political situation in England. Ultimately, there are many parallels between the conflict of Strange and Norrell and Locke and Hobbes.

Thomas Hobbes believed that all power must be given to a single entity to ensure order.

Since then, similar notions have been refered to as Hobbesian. Mr. Norrell exemplifies his Hobbesian nature through his requests to form a magical court, a court would give him absolute power over all magical decisions and further enforce his restrictions upon the use of magic.

At the point of his request, he had already established himself in British Parliament, but to reach this, he could not have done it alone. He employed the help of various people to assist his rise in terms of popularity and praise, or so he believed. Word of Mr. Norrell reached all the corners of Britain, and the fame that he acquired attracted a horde of leeches to cling onto him as he acquired more power. Due Mr. Norrell’s controlling nature, he is essentialy an unlikeable character. Furthermore, he listens and takes

the advice of his leech-like advisors consistently, despite their obvious attempts to take advantage of him. This adds the even more unlikeable quality of naiveté to Mr. Norrell. This results in Mr. Norrell pushing away from his counterpart, Jonathon Strange in his Lockian tendencies.

John Locke emphasized in many of his written works that the ‘state of nature’ is that all humans are in fact equal and so therefore, the existence of a supreme leader is not congruous with nature. Jonathon Strange is the more likeable character in this duo. His desire has always been to please his wife and at one point, he even abandoned magic to be with her. Strange’s nature to go beyond the practicality of Norrell’s magic is congruous with Lockian belief to let humanity be free to take care of itself, as nature commands it, and break walls of order. When Jonathon Strange’s wife died, he desired even more than ever to break Norrell’s magic boundaries. This desire led him to madness.

Despite being complete opposites, Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell did not hate each other at first. Jonathon Strange casts a spell to find his worst enemy, and even before he met him, it was Mr. Norrell. This fate that was set before them was not an uncontrollable occurrence. When they met in person, Mr. Norrell

was still developing his methodology of magic and Jonathon Strange was an eager pupil. Both Mr. Norrell and Jonathon followed their beliefs so far to which they could see no common ground. A similar inability to find common ground has plagued people and governments for most of history. Hobbessian and Lockean ideals have rarely found a common ground to create sustainable and fair government. The samegoes for Strange and Norrell. They diverged paths and travelled so far away from each other (in terms of opinion) that they could not make amends with one other.

This parallel between the TV show and Lockian and Hobbesian thought yields a unique sociological outlook. In modern American society, people of different political beliefs can discuss their ideas with one another. Though there are many who are too radical to listen to opposing views, the majority are in fact those who can share. If Mr. Norrell and Jonathon Strange set aside their differences and discussed how the practice of magic should proceed, there would not be a need for the whole drama that the show is filled with. History has shown what this disagreement can lead to, and the show is a lesson in the willingness to consider the opposing viewpoints of others. •

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Three Haikus

by Matthew Thaxton

Mirroring the sky Yellow dresses frolic, free The boats drift along

Fireworks shoot up Red, white, and blue fill the sky Burgers and red cups

Beading bullets, and Limp bodies burning on sand Shot with rays of sun

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Lucid Dream

by Zac Bilmen I feel my bed below me.

A mix of soft fabric and comfort Sensation surrounds me I begin to feel I am rising, rising above what I know.

I panic, I panic and I wait for a ceiling, but I know there is none.

I rise up, above my comfort.

As much as I want my bed below me, there is excitement in infinity What I want does not matter, because I will keep on rising.

And me, a dot in the distance now, a landmark that I can barely see.

Upward is all I can go, with the blur of life all around me.

I reminisce and remember the bed But that is all that it is, a memory, A memory that will define me

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Cycles of Fire The Summer Light After the flame that spews deep yellows, and reds off all around me, and into the night sky, that stroked my transparent skin and brought out the color of my blood and bones, that through my hot lips I would breath elusive full air in wisps and expand my breathing chest, after I felt everything coursing through me with arms wide open For the feeling, that’s all gone now After the mountain of the unfurling story, after the many rising actions, the climax dispenses itself upon the resolution, the ending inevitably comes What now?

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Well, nothing is warmer than the first spark And nothing comes faster than the first burst of speed

by Kavin Chada

Like nothing will ever be the first again And everything is low to the first high Life flattens like a valley as we can only hope to dig up the bubbling geysers of the past, we fall down flat ground It’s just so bright in this room, so yellow outside, and me, it’s sickening, sickening to me, And I cry, I cry for no reason, no reason at all, for there is no dark or light, no sad or happy; no rush, but the depression in my body, where feeling used to live So we pour and pour our ingredients of past pain and fright, and love and light into to our dying mush, And try to set a fire, but I’m tired of trying to light this fire with burnt coals A used love with no excitement A love that only lingers in our

reminiscing Now I feel as if the past has nothing but its absence that has brought my flame to flicker out Now start something, please I want to dance in the light, I a blossoming romance, not a stretching pulling caressing of time, but a staccato night of crime Take me to a place where all fires flare bright, and we’ll call out to the moon our fight, for an everlasting light The mountain that builds on a path to the stars, and never rounds down, to the sickening perfection, of a droning summer day, then someday we could light this eternal fire and put an end to my room’s dull white To which I now Tire