December 15, 2010 Volume XCIX, Issue 5 Toy drive brings Bautista back to childhood Spanish teacher and La Sociedad adviser Claudia Bautista knows what it’s like to not have toys during the holidays. To give back, Bautista and the La Socie- dad club are holding their annual toy drive to provide elementary school kids in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District with holiday toys. “I suppose it had some- thing to do with my own his- tory. I was raised Catholic and I’m originally from El Salvador, and we were very Eloise Graham Staff Writer poor. We didn’t have toys for the holidays,” Bautista said. “It’s all about random acts of kindness; not caring that you’re putting a little bit of your money in it and hoping that some day those kids will do it for someone else.” Bautista usually ends up sponsoring around 10 kids by herself. When she was younger, she was a re- cipient of a random act of kindness similar to the spir- it of the toy drive. “When I was in high school I lived on my own with my three sisters. One Spanish Teacher Claudia Bautista and the La Sociedad club give back by holding a toy drive for local elementary school kids. SHOWSTOPPERS: Junior Henry Boyd and senior Tiana Randall-Quant perform during the Dec. 10 perfor- mance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Photo by Reva Santo Classroom is vandalized, teachers left to clean up hension. When you understand more, you can speak more,” Language Department Chair José Lopez. Samo had two language labs, each of which included forty enclosed stations equipped with a set of headphones. In each lab was a control consul where teachers could speak to and listen in on individual stu- dents to monitor their progress. Instructors could also connect students together in pairs or larger groups to develop con- versational skills. A supervisor scheduled appointments and www.thesamohi.com see Campus Life, page 3 DAFT PUNK’S LEGACY: We review their soundtrack to the movie “Tron: Legacy” Quotes scrawled on bright pieces of construction paper cover Mary Beth Rear- don’s classroom in the Sci- ence Building. Every year, her graduating students write a phrase that they identify with; it is a piece of them that will stay at the school when they leave. However, the area sur- rounding the clock is a white wall. The papers that once covered that area have been taken down following an inci- dent of vandalism. According to Reardon, who was on maternity leave at the time, long-term substi- tute Pam Latham walked into her classroom on the morning of Nov. 29 to find a group of the aforementioned papers vandalized with permanent marker. The students report- edly climbed onto the counter and drew on the papers. “It is really sad that peo- ple are doing these sorts of things; people are coming in here and standing on the coun- ters and writing things when a lot of the stuff in this room are things from my house,” Reardon said. “To be honest, it feels very violating.” Later that same week, Reardon’s class was doing a lab that required coffee fil- ters. She opened a drawer and found the filters damp and stained. Thinking it was due to excess water, she removed them, only to see something brown in the corner. “I wasn’t sure what it was, it looked like a dead animal or feces; I freaked out. Olivia Legan Staff Writer One of my students took care of it and it ends up that it was feces. We assume it happened the night that the papers were vandalized. But that is taking vandalism to a whole other level,” Reardon said. “There is a difference between some- thing that written on a white- board and … this. This is a health hazard. It is just so dis- gusting and wrong.” Reardon’s first period students were the first to see the vandalism, along with Latham. “Seeing the graffiti was really unsettling,” senior Conrad McKinnon, who is in Reardon’s first period class, said. “Ms. Latham was con- cerned because she didn’t know if they were targeting her, the classroom, or if it was random.” I-House Principal Renée Semik believes that Samo stu- dents have the power to stop vandalism. “I always say that the students decide how safe this campus is,” Semik said. “When the students decide that enough is enough, what is acceptable and what is not will change.” According to Reardon, there have been emails circu- lating among the faculty about the vandalism. Incidents such as this raise questions of teach- er responsibility in regard to vandalism. “If teachers see some- thing, we want to wipe it clean, but it is not in a teacher’s job description,” Reardon said. Language labs may once again see the light of day. Language department teachers are attempting to ob- tain funding for the restoration of aged language labs, which were last used in the 1990s to better listening skills and pro- nunciation among all foreign language students. “[Language labs] im- proved speaking abilities, but I think the thing they did the most is improve listening compre- Chelsea Brandwein Staff Writer Once a staple at Samo, the language labs, rooms where foreign language students could work on their oral and listening skills, may soon return. Lopez’s language labs could make a comeback (continued on pg. 2) PAGE 4 PAGE 1 1 PAGE 5 Campus Life.................3 Opinion................... 4 A&E ........................ 5 Special Report..............6 Feature ................... 8 Sports...................... 10 INSIDE THE SAMOHI KEEP THE BEAT An inside look at the lives of those in Drumline. After a science class is vandalized, teachers question their responsibility in regard to the cleanup. coordinated materials. Lopez estimates that the numbers were among $120-140 thousand. Since the closing of lan- guage labs in the early nineties, language department teachers have noticed a decay in listen- ing abilities. “The listening skills have declined over the years, includ- ing that of native speakers,” Lopez said. “Fortunately we have a department that excels in teaching these skills of listening and speaking, but language labs would definitely help everyone develop these skills towards flu- ency.” Just recently, Samo Princi- pal Dr. Hugo Pedroza contrib- uted two boxes of new head- phones, which would be used in the language labs if they were to undergo restoration and be re- opened for student use. Additionally, Lopez has sought funding from local busi- nesses and the Rotary Club. As of now, these local establish- ments are suffering due to the recent economic decline and are not currently making dona- tions. However, Lopez remains hopeful. “This community has al- ways been very supportive of education, so I believe we will find funding from businesses within and from the school dis- trict.” Lopez said. Think Globally, Write Locally [email protected]Feature, page 8 year on Thanksgiving, out of nowhere, these three la- dies appeared at our front door. We had no idea how they got there and they brought a turkey and a bag filled with groceries. It was the most unbelievable thing because we weren’t even going to celebrate Thanks- giving that year. I still have no idea where they came from, and when we asked they said don’t worry about it.” According to Bautista, some schools accept the gifts from La Sociedad and Photo by Nicholas Zarchen PRESENT PACKER: Mariana Magaña wraps and packs presents donated during the toy drive. (continued on pg. 2)
Transcript
December 15, 2010 Volume XCIX, Issue 5
Toy drive brings Bautista back to childhood
Spanish teacher and La Sociedad adviser Claudia Bautista knows what it’s like to not have toys during the holidays. To give back, Bautista and the La Socie-dad club are holding their annual toy drive to provide elementary school kids in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District with holiday toys.
“I suppose it had some-thing to do with my own his-tory. I was raised Catholic and I’m originally from El Salvador, and we were very
Eloise GrahamStaff Writer
poor. We didn’t have toys for the holidays,” Bautista said. “It’s all about random acts of kindness; not caring that you’re putting a little bit of your money in it and hoping that some day those kids will do it for someone else.”
Bautista usually ends up sponsoring around 10 kids by herself. When she was younger, she was a re-cipient of a random act of kindness similar to the spir-it of the toy drive.
“When I was in high school I lived on my own with my three sisters. One
Spanish Teacher Claudia Bautista and the La Sociedad club give back by holding a toy drive for local elementary school kids.
SHOWSTOPPERS: Junior Henry Boyd and senior Tiana Randall-Quant perform during the Dec. 10 perfor-mance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Photo by Reva Santo
Classroom is vandalized, teachers left to clean up
hension. When you understand more, you can speak more,” Language Department Chair José Lopez.
Samo had two language labs, each of which included forty enclosed stations equipped with a set of headphones. In each lab was a control consul where teachers could speak to and listen in on individual stu-dents to monitor their progress. Instructors could also connect students together in pairs or larger groups to develop con-versational skills. A supervisor scheduled appointments and
www.thesamohi.com
see Campus Life, page 3
DAFT PUNK’S LEGACY:We review their soundtrack to the movie “Tron: Legacy”
Quotes scrawled on bright pieces of construction paper cover Mary Beth Rear-don’s classroom in the Sci-ence Building. Every year, her graduating students write a phrase that they identify with; it is a piece of them that will stay at the school when they leave. However, the area sur-rounding the clock is a white wall. The papers that once covered that area have been taken down following an inci-dent of vandalism.
According to Reardon, who was on maternity leave at the time, long-term substi-tute Pam Latham walked into her classroom on the morning of Nov. 29 to find a group of the aforementioned papers vandalized with permanent marker. The students report-edly climbed onto the counter and drew on the papers.
“It is really sad that peo-ple are doing these sorts of things; people are coming in here and standing on the coun-ters and writing things when a lot of the stuff in this room are things from my house,” Reardon said. “To be honest, it feels very violating.”
Later that same week, Reardon’s class was doing a lab that required coffee fil-ters. She opened a drawer and found the filters damp and stained. Thinking it was due to excess water, she removed them, only to see something brown in the corner.
“I wasn’t sure what it was, it looked like a dead animal or feces; I freaked out.
Olivia LeganStaff Writer One of my students took care
of it and it ends up that it was feces. We assume it happened the night that the papers were vandalized. But that is taking vandalism to a whole other level,” Reardon said. “There is a difference between some-thing that written on a white-board and … this. This is a health hazard. It is just so dis-gusting and wrong.”
Reardon’s first period students were the first to see the vandalism, along with Latham.
“Seeing the graffiti was really unsettling,” senior Conrad McKinnon, who is in Reardon’s first period class, said. “Ms. Latham was con-cerned because she didn’t know if they were targeting her, the classroom, or if it was random.”
I-House Principal Renée Semik believes that Samo stu-dents have the power to stop vandalism.
“I always say that the students decide how safe this campus is,” Semik said. “When the students decide that enough is enough, what is acceptable and what is not will change.”
According to Reardon, there have been emails circu-lating among the faculty about the vandalism. Incidents such as this raise questions of teach-er responsibility in regard to vandalism.
“If teachers see some-thing, we want to wipe it clean, but it is not in a teacher’s job description,” Reardon said.
Language labs may once again see the light of day.
Language department teachers are attempting to ob-tain funding for the restoration of aged language labs, which were last used in the 1990s to better listening skills and pro-nunciation among all foreign language students.
“[Language labs] im-proved speaking abilities, but I think the thing they did the most is improve listening compre-
Chelsea BrandweinStaff Writer
Once a staple at Samo, the language labs, rooms where foreign language students could work on their oral and listening skills, may soon return.
Lopez’s language labs could make a comeback (continued on pg. 2)
KEEP THE BEATAn inside look at the lives of those in Drumline.
After a science class is vandalized, teachers question their responsibility in regard to the cleanup.
coordinated materials.Lopez estimates that the
numbers were among $120-140 thousand.
Since the closing of lan-guage labs in the early nineties, language department teachers have noticed a decay in listen-ing abilities.
“The listening skills have declined over the years, includ-ing that of native speakers,” Lopez said. “Fortunately we have a department that excels in teaching these skills of listening and speaking, but language labs would definitely help everyone develop these skills towards flu-ency.”
Just recently, Samo Princi-pal Dr. Hugo Pedroza contrib-uted two boxes of new head-
phones, which would be used in the language labs if they were to undergo restoration and be re-opened for student use.
Additionally, Lopez has sought funding from local busi-nesses and the Rotary Club. As of now, these local establish-ments are suffering due to the recent economic decline and are not currently making dona-tions. However, Lopez remains hopeful.
“This community has al-ways been very supportive of education, so I believe we will find funding from businesses within and from the school dis-trict.” Lopez said.
year on Thanksgiving, out of nowhere, these three la-dies appeared at our front door. We had no idea how they got there and they brought a turkey and a bag filled with groceries. It was the most unbelievable thing because we weren’t even going to celebrate Thanks-
giving that year. I still have no idea where they came from, and when we asked they said don’t worry about it.”
According to Bautista, some schools accept the gifts from La Sociedad and
Photo by Nicholas ZarchenPRESENT PACKER: Mariana Magaña wraps and packs presents donated during the toy drive.
(continued on pg. 2)
News Page2Dec. 15, 2010
rigan, Bergeron brought his experience and knowledge to Jazz Band.
“[These mentors] lead by example,” Corrigan said. “How can you be a good musician without seeing what a great musician is? They show what can be done and motivate the students.”
Wayne Bergeron, men-tor to artists such as Chris-tina Aguilera and Beyonce, worked with the Samo Jazz Band on Monday. Bergeron is a jazz, studio/lead trumpet player with a Grammy-Nom-inated album for Best Large Jazz Ensemble. He is also a National Artist for the Yama-ha Corporation of America.
through the Science Quad, they were given the oppor-tunity to explore these tents and listen to club members explain specific issues in more detail.
“We’re really proud of what we’ve done,” HRW president senior Esme Levy said. “We worked hard and the impact is visible.”
A mock refugee camp, created by the Human Rights Watch Student Task Force (HRW) on campus, dominat-ed the Science Quad during lunch on Dec. 7. The camp, made up of multiple tents festooned with informational materials, was set up to raise awareness for Darfur, as well as issues such as LGBT bul-lying, child trafficking and lack of education in schools.
“Most teachers are more than happy to take care of it, but it is more complicated than that.”
School custodian Felipe Cueva knows how difficult graffiti can be to clean up.
“For the graffiti, there is only one chemical that really
works to clean up. We try Ajax and other ones but the only one that works is the re-ally strong stuff. It is danger-ous; sooner or later, you get lung problems from inhaling it. [The custodians] have to clean up graffiti everyday,” he said.
According to Semik, the increase in graffiti at Samo
Vandalism makes teachers question responsibilitythis year is partially the re-sult of budget cuts, which have left the school with one less security guard to keep watch, and one less custodian to clean it up.
“It’s irritating to know that this is how we spend our time,” Semik said. “I would rather spend it talking about how we can better your
learning experience or help you get into colleges instead of checking up on vandalism and how much it is going to cost us. Because unfortunate-ly, we are the ones that have to pay for it.”
Bautista gives back with La Sociedad’s toy drive
the parents and families give the gifts themselves; in other cases, members of La Sociedad give the gifts directly to the children. In the past, Will Rogers, Edison and McKinley el-ementary schools have had La Sociedad distribute the gifts to the children.
Before La Sociedad distributes the gifts, teach-ers and other faculty of the school will talk to the kids receiving the presents.
“[The schools] usually tell them that they’re going to get a special toy because they’ve been good kids. The kids from La Sociedad hand them the toys. Some of the kids don’t know that we get their wish list and they get so surprised. It’s touching, you want to cry every time. It’s really emotionally rewarding,” Bautista said.
a really gratifying feel-ing,” junior La Sociedad president Paola Perdomo said, “You see them walk in with a very puzzled face, and they have no idea what’s going to happen.”
Although La Socie-dad’s toy drive is made available to all schools in the district, they do not end up sponsoring every-one.
“We sponsor the schools that have the lia-sons reply back to us. Will Rogers, Edison and Grant are the quickest to respond, but John Muir and McKinley also [reply]. The economy being as bad as it is, the need has defi-nitely gotten more,” Bau-tista said.
Due to the economic crisis, the complications have come up with the toy drive.
“Last year with the
donations that we got from teachers I bought gift cards to supermarkets and stores like Target. This year, though, I have had to use that money to buy gifts,” Bautista said.
According to Bautista, she revels in giving back.
“My birthday is Dec. 15, and it turns out every year that I’m either wrap-ping presents or I’m de-livering presents on my
birthday. It is the great-est gift to myself every year; I don’t know how to explain it. There are no words to give to someone that doesn’t have anything or has less than you. You just hope that when they grow up, this is something that they will do for other people,” Bautista said.
SAMO GAMERS: Students compete in a friendly game of Halo in the library on Dec. 10,
Photo by Nicholas Zarchen
(continued from pg. 1)
PLAYING SANTA: Junior Daisy Perez wraps one of the presents donated during the toy drive.
The Samo theater pro-gram’s haunting rendition of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” successfully bridges the gap between reality and fantasy, creating a bewitching quasi-re-ality. Throngs of eager audience members flooded the hallways, and others showed up only to be turned away from a rap-idly sold-out theater. Although some latecomers slunk away disappointed, some last minute scheduling enabled some to en-ter the Humanities Center and become immersed in the play’s rich literature.
Twisting vines and trans-lucent canopies hid the stage,
creating curtain-like partitions and transforming the theater into a magical forest, with leafy branches and a mulch-covered floor. These swamp-like surroundings stood in stark contrast with the elegant, Elizabethan costumes, creat-ing a tangible sense of the difference between dream and reality. The wild sets dis-played the powers of the fair-ies, whose magic and mishaps shape the plot of the play.
What begins as a simple love story between Hermia and Lysander quickly becomes a sprawling, tangled mess of lust and jealousy as Helena and Demetrius are introduced. Demetrius’ unrequited love
for Hermia is only matched by Helena’s insatiable passion for Demetrius, who spurns her ev-ery advance.
The lover’s cycle of jeal-ousy and affection felt achingly real, and surprisingly reminis-cent of high school today. When Helena’s refusal to believe De-metrius’ and Lysander’s love for her, and she waxes nostalgic on how close she and Hermia used to be, her reflection on friend-ship torn apart by romance is a familiar tale for the high school audience. The sequences of the lovers together resemble the fearlessly loving couples found about Samo, and Hermia’s re-fusal to follow her father’s wish to marry Demetrius places her centuries-old character with the hundreds of rebellious teens who argue with their parents today.
Oberon and Titania’s quarrels and waves of affec-tion are also fixtures in society today, as their love-hate rela-tionship is typical of a dys- [email protected]
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
functional family.The high school students’
ability to transcend their nor-mal dialect of casual slang language and easily speak the extended metaphors and com-plex personification that is Shakespeare’s trademark was nothing short of remarkable. Their acting abilities easily showed the underlying emo-tions and allowed the audi-ence to easily understand and enjoy the play. Several audi-ence members remarked on how this production marked it was the first time they under-stood “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” — high praise indeed.
Shakespeare’s timeless words gracefully carried along the audience in a wave of hu-mor, love, jealousy and nostal-gia until the end was at hand. As hollow flute music played out above the audience, the final lines were said as char-acters departed, no more sub-stantial than a dream.
Samo theater’s fall production of Shake-speare’s beloved comedy, “A Midsum-mer Night’s Dream,” was a success, fill-ing the Humanities Center theater with laughter and the smell of mulch.
Photo by Reva SantoDEVIL’S SNARE: “Midsummer” assigns elemental qualities to each of the faries. Here, Rebecca Birkstock portrays a vine.
Photo by Henry BoydNIP/TUCK: Professional production designer Shannon Kennedy trims straw ribbons in Matilda Mead’s hair while Ayinde Ross looks on.
Photo by Reva SantoPhoto by Reva SantoABRACADABRA: The infamous trickster Puck (Raven Bennett), casts a spell on the lovers as they sleep in the forest on the outskirts of Athens.
INCEPTION: Matthew Pender and Henry Boyd re-enact the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in the comic “play within a play.”
The Samohi is a biweekly newspaper by, for and about Santa Monica High students. Our goal is to empower the student body through information. We do not represent the views of the administration or staff. We do not endorse advertisements placed in our paper. Letters to the editor should be sent to [email protected]. All ad requsts should be directed to ads@
We’re young, we’re ac-tive, we’re aware — not re-ally. We live in a relatively sheltered environment. Los Angeles is the city of fame, fortune, and self-preserva-tion. As long as we’ve got our coffee in one hand and college pamphlets in the oth-er, life seems perfect.
Granted, it might be. We might all go off and live fabulous, enviable lives. But chances are, at some point we’ll have to break out of the bubble that is liberal, safe Santa Monica and start fac-ing the realities of the outside world.
One of these realities is natural disasters. The last natural disaster to hit Santa Monica was the Northridge Earthquake in 1994; most of us were one, maybe two years old at the most.
And was it traumatic? Not really.
But for people living in Haiti during the earthquake in January, or in Chile dur-ing the earthquake in Febru-ary, or in Pakistan during the flood in July, or in Israel dur-ing the recent fire crisis, help from wealthy communities such as our own is vital.
In Israel, the Carmel Mountains caught fire on Dec. 2. The fire destroyed four to five million trees, 8,000 acres, leaving almost 20,000 homeless and taking an estimated 42 lives in the process. Firefighters worked night and day to put out the fire; however, despite their efforts, the flames fed on the dry brush of the mountains overlooking Haifa, raging on for four more days. Israel even called in international aid, personnel and equip-ment which the U.S., Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Russia, Bul-garia, Britain, Spain, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Romania and other countries quickly pro-vided.
Finally, Dec. 6, rain
poured down on Israel after nine long, dry months, ex-tinguishing most of the fire. This Hanukkah miracle pro-vided welcome relief for the fire fighters working over-time to combat the flames.
Besides from being the greatest natural disaster in Israel’s history, the Carmel Mountain fires alerted the world to Israel’s immense vulnerability.
“This fire revealed sheer helplessness on Israel’s part, in its internal arena, to face a natural disaster that could occur at any time — whether as a result of arson by an un-stable person or the explo-sion of a missile or rocket like those fired from Gaza,” Mustafa al-Sawaf of the Pal-estinian Daily Palestine, as-sociated with Hamas, wrote.
He went on to express his joy that “the defeat of Is-rael is possible and simple.”
Now Israel faces a heightened crisis of survival. This fire has demonstrated their immense weaknesses,
especially if Islamic terror-ists were to fire missiles into the dry regions of Israel.
“If the firefighting ser-vices don’t receive resourc-es, [in the future] the dam-age and civilian suffering will be greater,” Lieutenant-Colonel Shavit Zalmi, who commands firefighters in the north, said.
The Carmel Mountains used to be one of Israel’s hiking trails, a peaceful quiet atmosphere where Israelis could reconnect with nature. The shock of recent events is unnatural. There was never any hustle or bustle in Car-mel — all was quiet as befit-ting an oasis in a desert. Now the Carmel Mountains stand barren and desolate, a testi-mony to the battle between life and death that Israel wages every day.
We as healthy, active, able Americans need to lend our support to countries like Israel who would otherwise stand helpless without us.
Donate to the Jewish Federation wildfire fund at http://www.jewishla.org/israelwildfires or by calling 323.761.8413, or by mail to The Jewish Federation - Israel Wildfire Relief Fund, 6505 Wilshire Boulevard, Ste. 1000, Los Angeles, CA 90048.
A donation to the Jewish National Fund to arm the firefighters with the protective gear and equipment they need at www.jnf.org/fifdonate.
To replenish trees in Israel’s forests, donate $10 by texting JNF to 20222 from your cell phone.
To give through American Zionist Organization, visit http://www.azm.org/fire-relief
our own lives, but as young adults we need to be more aware of the misfortunes of those around us. Think about it — if we lost our homes in a fire and had no place to go, we’d want someone to care about us, too.
In honor of the 18 na-tions that came to Israel’s aid, Israel planted 18 sapling trees in the destroyed re-gions. Deputy Foreign Min-
ister Danny Ayalon told the hundreds of foreign firefight-ers Dec. 8 that “this was the most devastating fire in the history of Israel, and your help shows the strength of the human spirit. These trees represent the roots all of you have now in Israel.”
What happens to a college admission deferred?
Does it dry up on a desk,Like a rasin in the sun?
Or feed on our suppressed hope ––
Only to release none?
A college admission deferred, a dream detoured: a poem
Mya McCannOpinion Editor
Layout Consultant:AmyClark
Fires in northern Israel prompt international reflection
Although pirating digital media may slightly reduce the already bloated profit margins of Universal, Sony and War-ner, the proliferation of illegal media spreads art to those who cannot afford or are unwilling to pay $2 for a song or $12 for a movie, and forces artists to offer more bang for the buck.
I’m willing to admit that I have bypassed the ticket/song cost more than a few times. To be honest, I am lazy. Download-ing a movie from the comfort of my couch is so much easier. If I weren’t able to download mov-ies myself, I would never take the time to walk to Blockbuster to rent them. Instead, I would have ended up watching Pris-oner of Azkaban on ABC Fam-ily, yet again.
Artists make movies or music because they’re in-spired and have a passion — not to make money. Bono’s primary intention was not to be the richest Irish humanitar-ian of all time. Jimi Hendrix did not pick up a guitar and think about the potential mil-lions of dollars he could have. Steven Spielberg began using a video camera because he
saw a potential to create mag-nificent movies that would en-tertain the people.
Through free digital shar-ing, Spielberg’s dream comes true. He is able to reach out to even more people. Perhaps his $1.6 billion income over the last decade did not reflect what he rightfully “deserved.” Maybe he should have made a few more million. Instead, since his movies have become more widely available, his audience has grown by a few hundred million. This is surely more valuable to Spielberg. Can one man really spend all that money, anyway?
Furthermore, the advent of piracy forces industries to evolve. James Cameron filmed Avatar in 3-D to provide audi-ences with an experience. The full $18 price tag did not go to waste. Every amp of sound and every pixel of color was optimized, and I was more than happy to see it again and again in theaters. Cameron knew how to outsmart the pirates: he provided the au-dience with something truly magnificent which could only be delivered in theaters.
Similarly, we see the effect of piracy when the bands we love make an effort to tour more often.
The music industry no longer re-volves around selling music; it re-volves around becoming popular and going on tour. Bands have to produce a more appealing “prod-uct” (a tour) to convince people to pay money. In the end, the con-sumer wins.
Admittedly, independent movies are hurt by pirating. Because they are on small budgets, they cannot afford to make epics — so while these movies are generally better than the mainstream, a laptop can supplant a theater. How-ever, it is very difficult to find independent movies, except for the rare occasions when they are leaked from an inter-nal source.
Technology has made the world more accessible. Why should art be exempt? Techno-logical revolutions force art-ists to be ahead of the curve. Most see pirates as thieves for stealing from artists. Instead, pirates should be praised for forcing artists to offer more for the money and create a more cultured society. We are not taking away from an industry — just forcing it to evolve for the better.
Piracy is the mother of invention
Ways to Help:
As we progress further into the holiday season, many seniors are receiving unwelcome gifts: deferrals of admission from the colleges to which they applied early. “Deferral” is not a rejection, but rather a suspension of the application. The college holds off on making their decision until spring, leaving the student to wal-low even longer in the emotional turmoil of waiting.
Does it stink like an uneaten treat?
Or leave us disheartened,like bitter deceit?
Maybe it just hurts,like a stubbed toe.
Or does it explode?
A&E Page 5Dec. 15, 2010
Aliza AbarbanelStaff Writer
All the Grid’s a stage —for robots
Key tracks on
Generally, waffles are as-sociated with sleepy Sunday breakfasts, sausages and orange juice. However, new restaurant Bru’s Wiffle (2408 Wilshire Blvd.) is challenging the waffle stereotype head-on with its eclec-tic menu of gourmet waffle fare. Specialty favorites include the classic “dessert Belgian-style waffle,” pizza waffles, chicken curry waffles, and even meatball marinara-stuffed waffles. These gourmet takes on menu classics all point to one conclusion: this isn’t your average eatery.
Bru’s Wiffle has mastered the art of balancing quirkiness with class; from decor to menu, everything walks the fine line between intriguing and going too far. The atmosphere is light and fun, and everything from the miniature bottles of ketchup and mustard to the massive jar of Nutella perched above the coun-ter creates a delightfully eccentric mood.
Foodies, rejoice. Toppings for various waffles include dried cranberries, sugary hunks of coconut and the delightful am-brosia that is Nutella, while the house specialty beverages in-clude freshly made watermelon, strawberry and ginger lemon-ade. Sweet and homemade,
The need for perfection is one that has often fueled men and women past their breaking points. Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” graphically epitomizes the emotional and physical morph into what we as humans often seek, yet cannot handle.
The sport of ballet, although beautiful as a finished product, is in fact an incredibly grueling process. Point! Arabesque! Pirou-ette! Ask anyone who’s been to a ballet class — it ain’t as girly as it sounds.
Aranofsky directs Natalie Portman in the role of her ca-reer: Nina Sayers, a young ballet prodigy who has quite clearly given up her life to dance in one of New York’s most prestigious dance companies. Her brilliantly promiscuous choreographer (played with exquisite creepiness by Vincent Cassel) casts Nina as the Swan Queen in Swan Lake — the ballet role of a life-time. The key to making the Swan Queen “work” is the transformation she makes from the lithe and innocent white swan to the sinister, yet passionate black swan. Nina has excellent technique and the vir-ginal, kind spirit is no stretch for her — but it’s the lack of flare in her eyes that Nina can’t pull off. Nina begins to undergo immense
THE GAME HAS CHANGED: Daft Punk are expanding their musical style; the “Tron: Legacy” soundtrack is the duo’s first film score.Image courtesy of tronsoundtrack.com
Joe ColajezziSpecial Report Editor
Daft Punk released this as the first official, full-length song on a trailer cut to the track’s pumping, four-on-the-floor beat. Plenty of heavy modulation and digital blips.
There shouldn’t be any doubt in anyone’s mind that a Daft Punk record is long over-due. The duo — French robots Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo — last emerged from their Paris studio with the stripped-down-electro, viciously ad-dicting “Human After All” in 2005. The world begged for more, and the two took to their pyramid and produced the Grammy Award-winning “Alive 2007” while on a 48-date world tour.
But then they vanished, receding from the public eye without a trace to leave the music industry, without a single remix or collaboration with the Daft Punk stamp. The world again begged for more, but the lords of electronic mu-sic did not answer.
Or so we thought. The world’s favorite robots hadn’t been chilling in the south of France or on Mars … far from it, actually. For right before the final leg of the “Alive 2006/2007” tour, KCRW mu-sic director Jason Bentley and freshman film director Joseph Kosinski tapped Daft Punk for potential involvement in musically contributing to the remake of a 1982 Disney sci-fi cult hit.
“[Daft Punk] are very meticulous; they don’t do any-thing without thinking about it,” Kosinski said in an inter-view/soundtrack preview con-ducted by Bentley last month.
“They wanted to make sure that this was something they could commit themselves to, creatively and completely.”
After a year of courtship with the studio and two years of production in the U.K., the soundtrack to the upcoming “Tron: Legacy” was released last week.
And they didn’t disap-point. For a group that is at the center of the canon of electronic music, Daft Punk are not only living up to their reputation, but also breaking out of the “dance” label and establishing themselves as me-dia-hopping maestros who are as comfortable and successful with a symphony orchestra as they are with a synthesizer.
Tracks like “Solar Sailer” and “Falling” illustrate Daft Punk’s raw musical power and genius through their seamless integration of hardcore electro elements and traditional or-chestral themes.
“[We all] knew we want-ed to create a classic film score that blended electronic and orchestral music in a way that hadn’t been done before,” Ko-sinski said. “It was a pretty amazing process.”
What really sets this apart from the majority of other scores is the fact that the film was largely edited to fit the music. Most soundtracks are primarily supplemental affairs that add color to what’s hap-pening onscreen, but after lis-tening to tracks like the explo-sive, glitched-out “The Game Has Changed” or the unset-tling and powerful “C.LU.,”
Max TamahoriA&E Editor
Daft Punk return as orchestral
pressure as her choreographer be-gins to favor the style of dancing Lily (played by Mila Kunis) pos-sesses. Lily, clearly Nina’s polar opposite, is an incredibly sexual being who more or less challeng-es Nina’s future in their company.
From there, Nina’s sense of reality starts to stray — and Aranofsky flawlessly depicts the psychological disparity of Nina as her sheltered existence starts to morph into self-destruction.
Like most of Aranofsky’s films (“The Wrestler,” “Requiem for a Dream”) we’re presented with a very likable character
the lemonade is just the thing to wash down waffle-centric dishes.
Be sure to order the waffle sliders — these bite-sized burg-ers on mini-waffle buns are fla-vorful and savory, and the new taste of a waffle bun instead of the typical hamburger bun adds a bonus layer of flavor. They come a bit pricey, at $8 for a plate of three, but their savory layers of flavor are well worth the price.
For dessert, the simple joy of a plain waffle topped with powdered sugar, chopped al-monds or chocolate chips is enough to satisfy even the most extreme sweet tooth. At $5, it’s the perfect price to share it with a friend.
I had heard rumors of baked goods also being served, but the display cases are suspiciously empty. One can only attribute this to the restaurant being very new, and still in the process of fine-tuning, a fact that can easily be overlooked due to the quality of food.
In the unlikely event that non-waffle lovers should stumble into Bru’s Wiffle, the chocolate mousse and variety of salads should placate them. However, it is the waffles you should come for; they push the the boundaries of countless cu-linary classics.
A dark, haunting dance of perfectionBru’s Wiffle: waffles reloaded
one gets the sense that the mu-sic is as critical to the cinemat-ic experience as the images.
“When you’re going to be so married to a musical piece there are certain rhyth-mic beats or cycles that you can’t fight,” Kosinski said in his interview with Bentley. “There are scenes where really the picture is cut to the music … those tracks would come in and they’d inspire you to add more energy to the cut or take the edit in a slightly different direction.”
“Tron: Legacy” doesn’t hit theaters until this Friday, Dec. 17, so all we can do is hope that the film lives up to its soundtrack.
But now, “Tron” aside, the big question: will Daft
Punk tour? Can they con-struct a performance with a film score as the base? If any-one can, it’s Bangalter and de Homem-Christo; they’re bad-ass sonic architects who can make a catchy mash-up out of anything in their repertoire. Imagine classic Daft Punk hooks mixed with punchy brass lines, their signature ar-peggiated synth lines working in tandem with spiccato or-chestral strings — it can work.
And it’s worth noting for potential Coachella revelers that … well, we’ll see when April rolls around.
DARK: Portman in “Black Swan.”Image courtesy of imdb.com
that we want to empathize with. Aranofsky places these characters in incredibly grim real-life strug-gles that remind us how the world often operates.
Although in this context, I prefer the term “psychological mind f–” (well, let’s just say thrill-er), the visuals displayed in this film are a horror-lover’s dream. The physical transformation of an over-worked ballet dancer is gross enough, but the horrific aes-thetic transformation Nina under-goes is one of the most haunting displays in cinema I’ve seen since … actually, a previous Aronofsky
film.Black Swan succeeds be-
cause it triumphs in every aspect possible: tense, gripping direc-tion, poignant acting craft and one of the most technically perfect sound, cinematography and film editing jobs I’ve seen in years; however, because of its subject matter. I don’t see it as a huge Oscar contender come Febru-ary. Fret not, Darren Aranofsky’s “Black Swan” won’t be forgotten as one of the most effective psy-chological thrillers of all time.
Probably the most beauti-ful of them all. A steady elec-tronic bass provides the perfect foundation for the following en-trances of majestic and yearning orchestral parts.
Bangalter and de Homem-Christo are making a cameo ap-pearance in the film as “DJ Pro-grams” during a nightclub scene. This slower club track features a down-tempo backbeat and a simple analog bassline.
This track cuts right to the chase with a ruthlessly grainy kick pattern, then adds a scream-ing crescendo of white noise behind a rhythmic string line and sustained brass chords. Epic.
This one’s a complete depar-ture from anything one would ex-pect to hear from Daft Punk. Slow, string-heavy and slightly cheesy.
Adagio for TRON
Solar SailerFalling
Derezzed End of Line
“Tron: Legacy” hits the-aters this Friday, Dec. 17. It will be available in 3-D and standard projection formats.
Image courtesy of tronsoundtrack.com
maestros for “Tron: Legacy”
Cheating is wrong. There is no question about it. We have always been taught that cheating doesn’t pay, that cheaters get caught and that cheaters are failures at life. Unfortunately, I’m not so sure about that last part anymore.
In movies, high-school cheaters are usually por-trayed as grungy, lazy low-lifes with little ambition who need to cop a couple good answers from Ivy League Ivan in order to make it out of the 10th grade. But re-cently, it isn’t the lazy, apathetic, failing student who cheats. In fact, according to gradebook.org, a whopping 80 percent of high-achieving high-school students ad-mit to cheating. While disappointing, it’s not all that surprising. Students today — especially at Samo — deal with constant testing, overloaded schedules, mul-tiple AP classes, cutthroat sports and aggressively com-petitive extracurricular activities, all in the interest of getting into college. Under this kind of intense pressure, many are tempted to take the easy way out. Why not copy someone else’s homework, have your older broth-er write your paper or write the answers to the chem test on your palm?
There’s so much competition to get into college, it isn’t fair no matter what you do. So, is cheating justi-fied?
No! It’s simply not fair. Cheating is an injustice to everyone else. But if smart kids are cheating, then are cheaters winners or losers? Cheaters are losers, even if they look like winners. Authenticity and self-knowl-edge help you reach your full potential. That’s what we should be striving towards anyway. Besides, cheating isn’t always going to work out, not for you or even Ivy League Ivan. So go on— spread the knowledge, read your book and write your essay, but don’t take credit for this one.
Quiz: What Type of Procrastinator are You?
Do you have dif-ficulty completing projects because you can never meet the high standards you set for yourself?
Do you worry so much about “what if’s” that you are too anxious to start a project?
Do you think a lot about things you want to accomplish, but rarely get them off the ground?
Do you go out to parties, hang out with friends and do other pleasurable activities instead of doing work?
This type of procrasti-nator is good at recognizing the work that needs to be done, but they have prob-lems with making deci-sions, which puts pressure on them so that the work is started and completed at the last minute. This decision-making problem usually stems from per-fectionism. The decisional procrastinator likes to view all the possible solutions or likelihoods for the project at hand before making a decision, wanting to make the right decision instead of making a decision. This re-sults in a lot of wasted time in which the procrastinator accomplishes very little.
Tip: Focus on what’s achievable, not the ideal. Let yourself mess up here or there and focus on what you feel is the most impor-tant. Nobody is perfect!
This type of procrasti-nator is unsure about their ability to complete the work. They are afraid of starting the work so they continually put it off. Of-ten they wait until the last minute until the pressure builds up and they just do it.
Tip: Make a list of what needs to be done and break it up into small-er portions. Homework is not a do-or-die scenario. A little at a time goes a long way.
The Decisional Procrastinator Type
The Fearful Procrastinator Type
The escapist procrasti-nator is a dreamer, and has a tendency to only see the big picture in the near or far off future. They forget about the steps or the work that needs to be done to ac-complish their dreams of success.
Tip: Develop the habit of thinking in more detail, not just “I want to be suc-cessful,” but “What do I need to do to be success-ful.” Create realistic goals for yourself and put a time frame on them!
The Escapist Procrastinator Type
The relaxed procrastina-tor does not take work serious-ly and puts it off until the final minutes of his deadline. They have a tendency to indulge in other pleasurable activities in-stead of doing their work.
Tip: Having fun is some-thing that is so often neglected in the craziness that is high school. But being able to bal-ance work and fun is essential.Be on the lookout for any self-con or cop-out by which we deny the need to work right now, and start to think more rationally — you don’t have to go to every party, and don’t avoid work!
Unfortunately, this type of procrastinator often needs a trigger even to help them realize that something needs to change. All these tips are merely platitudes, unless you realize that sometimes, no matter how frustrating it is, you just have to do it.
The RelaxedProcrastinator Type
13-24 year-olds spend an av-erage of 16.7 hours a week on Facebook. Samo’s school week is about 35 hours long.
Who really benefits from cheating?Chloe DirectorStaff Writer
e as students are introduced to the concept of homework as early as six years old. Unless you’re a student at SMASH or an artsy, liberal private school where homework is not assigned, homework serves as one of the pillars of education. Homework is meant to instill habits of responsibility and accomplishment, but after years of adjusting to the ever-increasing homework load (10 minutes a day added per grade, according to the National PTA and the National Education Association) we find ways to defy such a system by doing our homework in class or copying it from a friend. What our school system and community of educators don’t realize is that homework is completely necessary only if it is used to enhance the understanding of the concept. Endless
hours of busy work, assigned out of habit rather than necessity, are ineffective. Just as we choose to embrace learning, we must choose to embrace homework. To benefit, we must do it out of a desire to enhance our understanding of the material, instead of a desire for a quick stamp or a measly five points we cheated to get.
W
Quiz by Rebecca Asoulin, Staff Writer
Statistics according to msnbc.msn.com. Procrastination information according to stopprocrastinating.net
HomeworkA Special Report
“[Homework] can go either way. Some teachers will give you busy work while oth-ers give things relating to the subject that you will actually learn from.”
-Ivan Rios-Fetchko, Sophomore
“Homework is a way of rein-forcing the learning, but some-times it doesn’t help at all. [When] kids don’t understand the work, homework helps them to create the questions they need to ask in class.”
-Jason Oyakawa, Freshman
At this very moment, I am sitting in my fifth period statistics class. Mr. Tipper is giving a lecture on confi-dence intervals. I am ignoring this lecture.
I’m not ignoring it because I don’t respect Mr. Tipper, or because I don’t care about accurate polling, or because I’m an all-around delinquent kid who has no desire to bet-ter myself through the study of mathematics. I’m not ig-noring it because I want to fight the man, rebel against the public education system, or waste taxpayer dollars. I’m ignoring it because, 12 minutes ago, I remembered that I had promised Joe Colajezzi that I would write an article for the Special Report on homework. I promised I would have it by the end of school — today. Which is in 1 hour and 22 minutes. So I had to choose: pay attention in statis-tics, or write this article.
Buddhists say we should strive to achieve a state of “mindfulness” — to be mentally and spiritually present in every moment of our lives. Wherever we are, we should focus on being there, rather than allowing our minds to wander to the past and future, or concerning ourselves with the things we could or should be doing.
This is a beautiful ideal, one I find myself contemplat-ing every time I pull out my notebook in second period to study for a third period quiz, or crouch outside my gov-
ernment class finishing a worksheet I hadn’t realized was assigned. I’m thinking about it now, while I ignore Mr. Tipper and write this article, knowing that tonight I will have to struggle to teach myself this lesson at home.
Life is hectic, and it’s easy to let little (or big) things slip through the cracks. At some time or another, we’re bound to forget something — a homework assignment, a promise to a friend, an errand we needed to run. For-getfulness isn’t a cardinal sin, and doing a homework as-signment in class isn’t the worst thing in the world. But we have to realize what we’re giving up when we choose to fulfill one commitment at the expense of another. Ev-ery time we do homework in class, we’re moving further away from mindfulness. We pull ourselves in far too many directions at once, and can’t dedicate ourselves fully to anything.
Maybe it’s worth it to lose a few points on that sixth period quiz, if it means you have the chance to really ben-efit from that fifth period lecture. Maybe what we lose as a result of forgetfulness is less important than what we gain through active participation.
I’ll leave you to chew on that. Now, I need to learn about confidence intervals.
Students feel that 31% of homework at Samo is busy work.
Seniors are 2x more likely than Freshmen and Sophomores to cheat on homework and 7x more likely to cheat than Juniors.
Samo students cheat on homework 13% of the time and cheat on tests and quizzes 6.5% of the time.
On average, each Samo teacher has caught 2 students cheating on tests/quizzes and
5 students cheating on homework this semester.
Seniors are 50% more likely to cheat on tests and quizzes than freshmen and sophomores and 16% more likely to cheat on tests than juniors.
Students who Have Not Cheated on Homework
Students who Have Cheated on Home-work (81%)
Students who Haven’t Cheated on a Test (52%)
Students who Have Cheated on a Test (48%)
Compiled by Alice Kors and Aliza Abarbanel, staff writers
Surveys designed and conducted by Samohi Survey Club
“I do believe that homework is important, it is necessary, but when we have one hundred and fifty students we can’t be check-ing everyone’s homework.Students have to be responsible.
-José Lopez, Spanish teacher
Weighing in: Students and teachers give their input
“It’s busy work and it consumes a lot more of my life. It’s harder and you can’t leave anything behind. You can’t pro-crastinate.”
-Palmo Farber, Sophomore
Feature Page 8Dec. 15, 2010
Entering the Drumline room is like entering a secret club. Drummers sprawl across the floor, finding space between Congo drums and practice pads. They sit in circles complaining about difficult pieces of mu-sic and throw out phrases like
“six triplet” and “pit” in a lively stream of chatter. Everyone has to work to be heard above the constant noise; kids bang on the walls, on their chests or on practice pads that are sometimes being used by three musicians at once. There is a tangible feeling of camaraderie and shared pas-sion for music.
“What sets us apart is the fact that the drums we play are so different from all the other instruments in the band — visu-ally and audibly,” senior percus-sion captain Jack Cramer said. “We also have a lot of extra re-hearsals away from the band be-cause it takes a lot of specialized training and practice for any drumline to play cleanly. We’re part of the band but we’re also sort of our own separate entity, as we often perform on our own without the band.”
Drumline has no late start; they come to school at 7:12 on
Sam Borghese makes quite the first impression. As he walks out of his Fresh-man Seminar class, Borghese quickly and nonchalantly does a front handspring in the hallway. Once he returns to a vertical position, he grins and says hello.
The freshman used to simply consider himself a class clown, but now he’s getting serious about being funny. Borghese started per-forming at Open Mic Night at The Sandwich Spot on Ocean Park two months ago.
“When I was a little kid, I would always be making jokes. I started being a come-dian in sixth grade and people would tell me that I was funny, but then I just started doing stand-up,” Borghese said.
Being the class clown can get one in trouble some-times. Borghese chose to do a persuasive speech on pro-nudism for his English class. When he finished, he pulled off his button up pants, reveal-ing only bright blue spandex shorts on the bottom.
“Mrs. Faas said that I had to wear some sort of clothing, or it would be indecent expo-
sure,” he said. “I walked down the Tech building hallways af-ter class, still in the spandex. All my friends were like ‘Sam, what are you doing? You’re naked.’ I got a B -. Oh well, at least it’s on YouTube.”
Borghese wishes to at-tend film school, and wants to have some part in show busi-ness, though not necessarily in front of the camera. Borghese would love to be a director or writer for comedies.
“Sam has always been a really cool guy. One of the reasons we’re friends is that he makes me laugh literally all the time,” freshman Ben Gel-fer said. “His talent is telling jokes; his stand-up is great, he gets the whole crowd roaring.”
When I ask him to tell me a joke, he whips out his iPhone and opens a note. On the digital yellow lined paper, he scrolls down what appears to be pages and pages of jokes. He searches for a “good” one, explaining that in his stand-up, he has been trying out awk-ward “Office”-style humor.
“While I am so forgetful with names and faces, I have a few favorite introductions. My best one is when we introduce ourselves and then there will be an awkward moment and then I hug you, whispering
‘handshakes are for strangers.’ Made a lot of new friends that way,” he said, laughing.
And of course, Sam plans to end with a joke.
When asked where he sees himself in 10 years, he answers, “... dead ...” with a completely straight face. He then smiles and says, “No, but really, I am going to own my own country and get assassi-nated ... all before I turn 25.”
Sam Borghese: getting serious about funny business
A joke from the “fourteen-year-old dynamo”:But um … I think my grandma’s on drugs. I was in the car with her and we’re crossing a four-way intersection. So the light changes red so my grandmother stops … in the middle of the intersection. When I told her I was going to use it in my stand-up she said, “You should have been there the time I did a U-turn on the freeway!” So yeah … pretty hard drugs.
STATUS CYMBAL: Druml ine expresses i t s p r ide w i th th is hand-made s ign d isp layed ou ts ide o f the band room ( le f t ) . Druml ine ( r igh t ) runs th rough the i r se t a f te r schoo l on the basketba l l cour ts .
Photos by Nicholas Zarchen
Wednesdays to enable maxi-mum practice time. Drumline — along with the rest of the marching band — also has some Saturday practices that can go on for hours, in addition to com-petitions that typically take up the entire day and go well into the night. However, these long hours of practices have led to an incredibly unified group of mu-sicians and friends.
“It’s worth the extra time, because the extra time we put in results in extra closeness,” junior cymbal player Caitlin Brady said. “We are so much more closely knit because we’re a smaller group.”
This intense group dynam-ic provides a feeling of familiy that is only slightly intimidating to newcomers.
“When I first joined, I felt really shy, I didn’t say any-thing,” freshman bass drummer Ben Canales said, as a chorus of fellow drummers chiming in interrupted him, “Yeah, you said nothing!” “Now,” he said with a wry grin, “I’m really loud and I talk to everybody.”
Canales joined Drumline as a freshman bass drum player, and as time progressed, he be-came more and more involved in the experience. Now that the fall season is almost over, he’s looking toward the future.
“Right now, I play bass drum, but I’m auditioning to play tenor drum for indoor Drumline next week. Hopefully,
I’ll have the chance to switch,” Canales said.
If his audition goes as planned, he’ll be leaving the bass drums behind to play a new instrument, and achieve a new position in drumline. With the current numbers of five cymbal players, four snare drummers, two tenor drummers and five bass drummers, there are many seniors who will be leaving new spots behind.
He breaks into discussion on this topic, animatedly gestur-ing with a drumstick for empha-sis; however, the room quickly empties out once practice be-gins. The cymbal players slip on biking gloves, a precaution against “really nasty calluses,” and gaps are filled in their for-mation until everybody is in their place.
This sequence of move-ment and noise is routine, just one rehearsal in the long lineup of Drumline practices.
At Samo, Drumline plays the tricky role of being a group within a larger group. As a smaller section of marching band, they perform as a smaller ensemble at games and have ex-tra practices.
It’s quiet out on the basket-ball courts, and the wind whips around the group of students, holding their positions in an or-derly line. Their static stances are broken by flurries of move-ment, casually spinning drum-sticks or tapping out syncopated
DRUMROLL PLEASE: Snare drummers Hanyu Chwe, Jack Cramer and Emory Mugalian lay out a beat during an after-school sectional.
Photo by Nicholas Zarchen
Drumline, a medley of cymbals, snare drums and bass drums, is a family within a family. Percussionists spend over 20 hours a week together, perfecting their rhythmic movements.
beats on jean-clad legs. Then, an explosion of movement and sound.
Tentative beats are quickly replaced by vibrating booms, each note sharp and sure. What begins as a quiet drumming on a snare drum escalates as tenor drums, cymbals and bass drums join in. Before long, the entire Drumline is playing.
Everything moves like a well-oiled machine. The cym-bals are rubbed together, pushed outward and swept in close to muffle sound. The tenor drum-mers focus, their arms moving like octopi dancing across the drums. Drumsticks are shuffled and slid down the snare drums as the bass drums steadily keep the rhythm. Arms move out, darting like a snake strike as the set progresses until the end is al-most at hand.
Steady beating progresses into flashy choreography, the snare drummers saluting the au-dience with their drumsticks in the last few measures. Tension and tempo builds into a final, massive note, and then every drummer throws out their arms from their body, thrusting their shoulders in a final gesture. Their stance challenges their currently invisible opponents, daring them to do their best as the sounds of the drums bounce off the gym walls and echo into the night.
The beating heart of Samo’s marching band
Feature Page 9Dec. 15, 2010
Jason Battung: exercising mind and body
As a substitute teacher, Jason “JB” Battung takes teaching and makes it his own creation. During a lec-ture, he’ll sit cross-legged on a desk and tell of the Ameri-can Revolution leisurely, say-ing the Americans were “just a bunch of dudes who wanted their rights.”
After school, Battung can be found coaching foot-ball against the pink sky of the setting sun. On the field, Bat-tung is the same, bringing his calm, understanding method of teaching to the fast-paced sport of football, always ap-proaching his players with a smile.
“He’s just a great coach in general,” sopho-more Wellington Vicioso said. “He pushes you to do your best, but he does so in a way that makes you want to do your best.”
B a t t u n g grew up in Eastlake, Ohio. The suburb, lying near Lake Erie, was filled with other children, providing ample players for games of baseball or football in the street. An active child, Battung kept busy, playing tag or swimming in his neighbor’s pool.
As Battung grew up, his parents, especially his father, imposed their values of hard work in him. From as early as fourth grade, Battung began working, helping his father on construction sites during the summer and running a daily paper route. He was required to pay $10 monthly rent to his father; that money went into an envelope that would even-tually go into his college fund.
“It was challenging growing up with him,” Bat-tung said. “Early on he was showing me how things work, instilling a sense of work eth-ic.”
Throughout high school, Battung performed well both
in academics and athletics. He maintained a 4.2 weighted GPA and was a starter on his school’s varsity basketball team as a freshman.
However, the real athletic attention came from starting the first game of the season as a varsity football quarterback his sophomore year. Battung led his team to become the best in its region for three sea-sons. With his name in the lo-cal newspapers almost weekly, Battung’s father wouldn’t per-mit him to read the papers dur-ing the season from his junior year on; he feared the attention would go to his son’s head.
“I’m really glad it worked like that because it was an awesome lesson,” Bat-
tung said. “Just as quickly as they’ll praise you, they’ll chop you right down.”
For college, Battung at-tended the Wharton School at the University of Penn-sylvania, majoring in busi-ness. The summer after his freshmen year, he decided to take a month in Spain to study abroad. Battung lived with an old couple in a noisy, run-down apartment com-plex without air conditioning. There he experienced severe isolation because of the lan-guage and cultural barrier.
“I had only my mind to keep me company,” Battung said.
Back in Pennsylvania, football had begun to fall off of his list of priorities because of his broadened perspective of the world that he took from his Spanish experience. How-ever, he decided to keep play-ing for his parents. He said he knew they supported either decision, but playing football
made them proud. His senior year at Penn, the team won the Ivy League Championships, beating Cornell in the champi-onship game.
After college, Battung began working with Rustic Pathways, a company that helps groups of kids travel internationally. Besides mov-ing around in the U.S., he temporarily lived in Costa Rica, Fiji, India and Thai-land. It was around this time that he submerged himself in the culture and philosophy of Southeast Asia.
“I was observing little things I enjoyed about the cul-ture, layout and people of a given city,” he said.
In fact, one of his most memorable experiences took place in Thailand’s Udorn Sunshine Garden. The garden is home to a famous Thai bota-
nist whose work with natural an-ti-malaria medi-cines, orchids and dancing plants is world-renowned.
“They take cancer and AIDS patients there, so they can witness the power of the mind,” Battung
said.While traveling with a
group of musicians, he de-cided to investigate this. At the garden, scientists had been selectively breeding plants so they would more readily react to human stimulus. The mu-sicians began to play, testing this theory. According to Bat-tung, the plants began to move slightly. The next test they performed required everyone to focus on a single plant and attempt to move it, just by fo-cusing their minds.
“After a while, nothing happened,” he said. “But then we noticed all the other plants around it began to move like crazy.”
Inspired by his experi-ences and the positive impact it has had on his life, Bat-tung has zeroed in on yoga and Eastern philosophy as his main focus to help students be-cause of the positive impact it has made on his life.
deep into my yoga practice, using those tools that yoga was teaching me to deal with things when they didn’t go just how I wanted or expected,” Battung said.
He believes that yoga should become a course in every school so that all stu-dents can reap its benefits. This inspiration stems from the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh.
“In one of his books I read that we don’t teach chil-dren how to love, to lose, to really live. Learning how to read and write isn’t easy, but they still do it,” Battung said. “When I read that about eight years ago, it really struck me.”
Battung considers yoga a better alternative to physical education for some students.
“By high school, kids have a pretty good idea on whether they want to play sports, whether or not they are ‘athletic,’” Battung said.
To him, America’s cur-rent form of physical educa-tion is outdated because the students are being taught something that they aren’t in-terested in and that they will not use.
“Badminton teaches great hand-eye coordination, but you’re going to use it prob-ably twice in your life, if that,” Battung said.
He appreciates that Samo has a yoga program because he uses it a foundation for incu-bating his ideas.
“The beautiful thing about Santa Monica High School is that they currently have yoga as a P.E. elective,” Battung said. “I’m hopeful that the school understands that this can be a breeding ground for something that I re-ally want to pioneer across the country.”
Santa Monica in gen-
eral is also ideal for new yoga practices.
“It’s a culture that under-stands the importance of it. The conditions are best here,” Battung said.
As for himself, Battung hopes to become a full-time yoga instructor at Samo.
“I want to have something that’s so solid, that it meets the current P.E. standards and also reevaluates them,” Battung said. “I live here. I work here. I breathe here ... I want to teach here.”
High school students are especially great targets for yoga because of their open mindedness.
“The approach I take is slightly different because I think high school students are more capable of taking in the philosophical aspects,” Bat-tung said. “At the high school level, there’s been enough life experience so when I talk about suffering and happiness, they get it.”
Battung’s students really “get it” when it comes to the practice of yoga.
“JB has great energy. He is very positive and inspiring,” sophomore Josh Picker said. “He has encouraged me to re-ally get into yoga and let my chi flow.”
BAM! TO THE RESCUE: Jason Battung is now subbing full-time for Michael Felix’s U.S. history classes. Photo by Nicholas Zarchen
“In one of his books I read that we don’t teach children how to love, to lose, to really live. Learning how to read and write isn’t easy, but they still do it. When I read that about eight years ago, it really struck me.”
- Jason Battung said of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh’s philosophy
Aside from coaching football and substi-tute teaching, Jason Battung uses Eastern yoga philosophies to help students.
Sports Page12Dec. 15, 2010
Team bonding brings success on the fieldOn Sundays, the mem-
bers of Samo’s girls’ soccer team can be found noshing and talking over bagels at Bagel Nosh after a strenuous workout on the stairs.
“Everyone bonds over food and working out, basi-cally the two things we love: food and soccer,” Kaishma Narayan, junior and varsity defender, said.
Even though the team is only in its pre-season, their bonding has already created an obvious fluidity among the players.
This year they are par-ticularly dedicated to making the season the best it can be.
“This year’s team has about 12 seniors and in their last year of Samo soccer they want nothing more than to do well. Such energy and focus can be seen in every player on the team,” captain Kristen Vasquez said.
Their record currently stands at a 1-0 win against North Torrance, a 1-1 tie against Notre Dame, and two losses, the last a close 2-1 game against Marymount. Despite their loss-es they are positive about their chances for CIF this year and are slowly but surely putting all their individual talents together.
“This year there’s a lot more connection off the field, and so it’s easier to play on the field,” Narayan said.
A major part of the unity of this year’s varsity team can rightly be attributed to coach and Spanish teacher Jimmy Chapman.
“Chapman is a great coach; you feel like he cares, like we are his team. He puts so much effort into our team, more than most coaches do,”
junior and defender Claire Saiza said.
Chapman goes above and beyond the duties of a coach. He diligently and painstak-ingly watches the tapes of all their games, and texts his players about what they can improve on, what pitfalls to avoid and what they did well.
His reach extends even beyond varsity. According to junior varsity player Eden Carriedo and several other players, both Chapman and his assistant coach Angel Vasquez help junior varsity players and both of the new freshman and junior varsity coaches. Chapman texts not just varsity but all of the girls in the soccer program about upcoming games and events. The unity created by both of these coaches is truly incred-ible and it is a thrill to watch all of this years’ soccer teams play.
As the Lady Vikings got together in a huddle at half-time of their last game, they played around and laughed, their intensity and joy infectious.
The freshman soccer team and their friends and families broke into cheers as the players ran to their posi-tions. Throughout the game one could not help but cheer excitedly, groan sympatheti-cally or unabashedly tell the referee exactly what they thought about that last call. With the energy and ability of this year’s team, this season is pure potential.
Rebecca AsoulinStaff Writer
As children, we all have role models. But not often is there a child who not only wishes to emulate her hero, but actually has the ability to do so.
“When I was eight or nine, people would always tell me that I would be the next Mia Hamm,” senior Julia Glanz said.
Glanz has been playing for the Samo girls’ varsity soc-cer team since her freshman year and is one of its strongest forwards. Her ability is clear to anyone who watches her play the sport she loves; so the frequent comparisons to Hamm (who has scored more goals than any player, male or female, in the history of pro-fessional soccer) come as no surprise.
What did come as a surprise to Glanz was when the coach of her club team, Slammers, announced that Mia Hamm was going to help coach the team.
“When he told us, I mean you can ask anyone, I was cry-ing,” Glanz said.
Starting earlier this year, Hamm has been coaching Glanz and her teammates ev-ery other Tuesday. The team’s improvement has been incred-ible and Glanz is working harder than ever as she runs through the drills set up by her childhood hero, amazed that she is really here.
Glanz has been an essen-tial member on girls’ varsity since freshman year, when her team made it to the semi-finals of CIF. Glanz was instrumen-tal in getting her team there. In
the final minutes of their sec-ond-round CIF game, Glanz scored the game winning goal, breaking the 2-2 tie. Unfortu-nately, Samo has not made it this far in CIF since Glanz’s freshman year, but she and her teammates are optimistic about this year.
“Our team has been bonding a lot more this year. We have a lot of seniors. This is the last time we get to play and we want to make the most of it,” Glanz said.
Glanz is dedicated to her team and and inspires her teammates through her play-ing.
“Julia stepped it up this year — she has become a great team player and she takes the initiative. When she is playing the field she commands the ball; her presence really orga-nizes us,” junior and varsity defender Claire Saiza said.
Glanz will be attend-ing the University of Arizona next fall on a full scholarship because of her superb soccer skills.
Past college, she has no definite plans to pursue soc-cer, but is simply letting things play out as they will and see-ing where the sport leads her. There is no doubt, however, that wherever she ends up she will always have soccer in her life.
“I have been playing soccer basically since I could run,” Glanz said.
For Glanz it has always been soccer. And maybe one day there will be a little girl who will play with such skill that her family will watch her, smile and say, “You’re going to be the next Julia Glanz.”
Athlete of the issue: Julia GlanzRebecca AsoulinStaff Writer
Profiling Samo’s offenseLiz LyonsCurrent senior and mid-fielder.Lyons is an intense player who refuses to stop for anything, even injury. At Friday’s game against Marymount, Lyons collided with another player and fell down on the field in obvious pain. Despite her pain, after the half she came back in as strong as ever. Commit-ted to Fresno State on a full soccer scholarship.Teammates say: “She does not stop fighting. If we are losing some people put their heads down, but if you look at Liz, her head will never be down. She will keep fighting; even if she is injured she still comes back in the game. She runs ev-erywhere doing not only her job, but filling in the empty spaces on the field.”
Cheyenne De Los ReyesOnly freshman on varsity for the 2010-11 season.Teammates say: “[De Los Reyes] has been handling
Kristen VasquezFreshman on Samo’s var-sity soccer team ‘07-’08, current senior, forward and captain.Teammates say: “Kristen has so much experience, she always says the right things to uplift our team. She is just the positive kind of girl and player that every-one can get along with and work with.”“[Vasquez] tells people to relax, and take it easy. She helps people ease through and play together in uni-son.”
being on the team really well. At first she was shy, but once we started team bonding she really opened up and is just a fantastic player. She is really tall and quick and is always able to get balls near the goal and slide them in.”Memorable play: “She was just going with the ball and she bulldozes through three players...I mean, she just plows through everyone.”
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: Coach Jimmy Chapman carries senior Liz Lyons off the field after she collided with another player in Samo’s Dec. 9 game against Marymount. Lyons returned to the game for the second half, but couldn’t save the team from a 2-1 loss.
“HAMM”ING IT UP: Soccer superstar Mia Hamm coaches Julia Glanz’s (above) club team, Slammers.
Photo by Sam Boloorchi
HEAD TO HEAD: Sophomore defensive midfielder Rachel Paris bodies up against a Marymount player to get her head on the ball.
Sports Page10Dec. 15, 2010
It’s 7:00 a.m. and the metronome is ticking. March-ing band is practicing. The wrestling team is running laps around them. You can hear the splash of water polo swimming their own laps. According to its participants, marching band is extremely laborious, intensive and complex — not unlike a varsity sport.
Most see the marching band’s performances at halftime at the football games as part of the final pageantry of football — an end in themselves. But to the members of the march-ing band, these performances are merely a practice for the real
competitions that happen on Saturdays. According to band director Michael Corrigan, the Samohi marching band com-peted in five competitions this year, winning none. Corrigan credits their poor record with the band’s enrollment in more diffi-cult competitions this year.
In these competitions, which last all day, a panel of band experts judges the band on musical and visual appeal and general effect. The music and vi-suals are judged according to the high standards of professionals but the general effect depends on how entertaining the audi-ence finds the show.
Corrigan explains that precision is key in these perfor-mances especially. Because the
band plays outside, in unstruc-tured and sound absorbent areas, its sound disappears if the mem-bers do not do exactly the same thing at exactly the same time.
Because of the way differ-ent instruments’ sounds travel, different band members have to play at different times. The band members at the back of the band have to play ahead of the beat, the band members in the center of the band play with the beat and the band members in the front of the band have to play ahead of the beat.
“Imagine having your coach decide when you were allowed to breathe whenever you ran … on top of having to play an in-strument and do choreographed moves at the same time,” sopho-
Eloise GrahamStaff Writer
DISTRIBUTOR: Junior Kane Kennedy hooks an inbound pass around Sheldon’s defense during the lost match.Photo by Lianna Cohen
Select Samo football players recieve Ocean League honors
Eleven Samo football players seized spots on the All-Ocean League first and second teams. The first team was mo-nopolized by six players as sec-ond team had five.
Both seniors, guard Austin Ehrlich and receiver Kris Co-mas (with 20 touchdowns this season) took spots on the first team offense. The only Samo junior on the offense was run-ning back Kori Garcia. Samo’s offensive line was more present in the second team offense. Se-nior linemen Evan Parra-Ray-goza and Joel Ramos held spots with sophomore Rhys Gervais,
the quarterback.“It feels great,” Collins
said. “It gives me good expecta-tions for next year.”
Junior outside linebacker Chris Collins was priviledged with a spot on first team defense along with senior middle line-backer Justyn Coker and senior defensive back Brandon Taylor.
“To get two out of our three linebackers in the Ocean League — it’s great for our de-fense,” Coker said.
Second team’s defense was comprised of senior nose tackle Terrance Sadler and ju-nior corner back Dylan Muscat.
Chase WohrleStaff Writer
Three years ago, Samo’s boys’ soccer team finished their season with a record superior to every other team in their division. They bested every competitor from the top of California to the bottom, and finished ranking first in the nation. They began their season with seven returning start-ers and finished with 29 victories, no losses and a single tie.
This year’s team has the po-tential for a repeat.
“This year we have around seven returning starters,” said senior Nick Herrera, one of the varsity players to represent Samo during this soccer season. “The majority of us have been play-ing together since we were little kids.”
The current varsity squad has been waiting patiently for this season — the last the major-ity of them will play for Samo — to showcase their talent and potential. Just five games into the season, the boys have already managed to soundly defeat four of the teams that they have played against, and have tied just once.
The scores speak for them-selves. On Nov. 23, Samo beat out Beverly, winning 2-0. Their next game, played against Bishop Montgomery, ended with Samo winning 5-0. Two days after that they played Lynwood again, fin-ishing 4-2. North Torrance, a team rated above the Samo squad, was defeated 3-1.
Their sole tie was against Palisades. The ’08 team sustained their only tie in the beginning of the season, so such a result is not entirely indicative of what is yet to come. Nevertheless, the team has taken the tie as a wake-up call.
“When we tied Palisades it really had an effect on our team,” Herrera said. “It felt worse than a loss in a way. It was a reality check that we can’t relax no mat-ter what this season.”
However, it is not just the players that are pushing for suc-cess on the field. The boys are led by three coaches: Andy Rock, Se-rafin Rodriguez and José Lopez, who founded the Samo soccer program in ’71. Their leadership, along with that of the senior cap-tains Trevor Kovacs and Daniel Hulbert, makes this season one to keep a close eye on.
drum major and senior Scott Operman is the keystone of the band.
“The drum major and the drums are constantly trying to keep the pulse steady. Without them, [the band] can very eas-ily split and tear and they don’t know it because they can’t hear the other band on the other side of the field,” Corrigan said.
Marching band is not for the faint of heart; it requires skill, finesse and dedication. Band members recognize the chal-lenges they face, and embrace them with pride — a pride that transcends wins and losses.
Marching band steps up competition
Once again winter is upon us, and that means boys’ basketball is hitting the floor and beginning its season. Last year the Vikings were Ocean League champions and fought their way to the CIF championship, where they lost to Lezuinger. With the departure of 10 se-niors, the Vikings have had to rebuild and start the year with fresh new faces.
The Vikings have started off this season with a respect-able 3-3 record. A week ago, the Vikings finished fifth in the Pacific Hills tournament. They will also be competing in first boys’ basketball tournament hosted at Samo.
Recently they lost to a highly talented Sheldon Sac-ramento team. The Vikings played sluggish in the first half but were able to rally back in the second half. Af-ter being down by 28 points they quickly trimmed the lead down to 14. Unfortu-nately it still wasn’t enough as they lost 60-78. There’s no question this year that the Vikings have been playing elite teams across the state, but senior captain Holden Foshag says they are up to the challenge.
“We are a young and fairly inexperienced team,” Foshag said. “We have the talent and all the tools to make this season successful. It’s a long season and it will
be full of ups and downs. Our team knows we need play hard every game and leave it all on the court. As long as we don’t let the wins get to our heads and the losses to our hearts, we will go far.”
This year the Vikings work as a fast and athletic team, but lack the necessary size and strength to compete with the top teams. The Vi-kings have some lethal shooters and a pack of guards who know how to handle the offense.
One player in particular who has been making a lot of noise is sophomore Jordan Mathews, who recently moved to Santa Monica from Riv-erside. Matthews joined the team at the beginning of the summer. He is currently the
76th rated player in his grade on ESPNU college basketball recruits and 16th ranked in his position. Jordan averages the most points per game of any-one on the team. Standing at 6 feet 2 inches and 175 pounds, Matthews is the quickest player on the floor and has amazing jumping abilities; he can dunk whenever he wants. Scouts believe that he can be a promising combo-guard in a Division I college. There is no surprise why Matthews has so much talent — his dad, Phil Mathews, is currently an assis-tant coach for the UCLA men’s basketball team.
There is no doubt that the Vikings have a lot to do to measure up to last year’s team. They have the potential
to repeat as Ocean League champions, but it will be a tough struggle to get back to the CIF championship. The players and coaches know that there is a lot of pressure and they won’t settle for anything less then success. Assistant coach Shaun Higgins notices the hard work the team puts into practice and understands that it is going to take more than hard work for them to be successful.
“Our guys work hard every day,” Higgins said. “There are times where we have mental breakdowns and mess up, but that’s all part of the game. I’m looking for-ward to see how we do in our upcoming games.”
Starved for victory, Samo wrestlers feed off middle school programs
All Omar Solorza wants to do is go eat ice cream, but he has to wrestle.
Before every tourna-ment, Solorza has to cut 11 pounds to make his 112 pound weight class, and of all the things wrestling has made him sacrifice, he misses food the most. Sol-orza is not alone in his lack of food — he estimates a 10 pound average weight loss per wrestler per tournament — but he is unique in that he one of the few juniors this year who has not been wres-tling since eighth grade.
This year’s varsity team is comprised mainly of kids recruited from the newly im-plemented John Adams and Lincoln feeder programs, where eighth graders can jump-start their wrestling ca-reers. Over half of the team has been wrestling together since then, resulting in a team that has one more year of experience than any previ-ous Samo team.
“For the juniors, this is where the last three years of work will pay off. It’s the equivalent of their senior year,” Wesley Evans, one of two seniors on varsity, said.
The team works so much as a unit that there is no de-
finitive leader. In the past, se-niors have assumed the role of captain, and played the mentor to the younger team members. While the gen-eral consensus seems to pin junior Enrico Cascio as the leader, the lack of a clearly defined captain has taken its toll on the team.
“There is no clear lead-ership, no one wants to stand up for the captain’s position” junior Gianni Forster said, “[Without] the senior lead-ership, it has been harder to practice, harder to focus, and harder to compete.”
However, what the co-hesive unit loses in individ-ual performance, it has made
Neil ThomasOnlne Editor
HOW DOES THE MAT TASTE?: Junior Tanner Miller attempts to turn his opponent.Photo by Neil Thomas
up in team success. Last weekend, at the Warrior Invi-tational in West Torrance, the team placed second overall, with many of the wrestlers nabbing silvers and a few nabbing golds.
Last weekend’s suc-cess took its toll on the team, though, injuring four of their regular, lighter weight, var-sity wrestlers: Omar Solorza (112 pounds), Sam Gleitman (119 pounds), Jake Keller (125 pounds), and Gianni Forster (135 pounds).
“I have a broken fin-ger, but if I had a serious injury, like a stomachache, I wouldn’t be wrestling,” joked an injured Tanner Mill-
er, wrestling at 130 pounds.Even with their lower
weights struggling, the wres-tling team pulled through in Friday’s duels against Bell and Mira Costa, beating Bell with a flurry of pins, and decisively defeating Mira Costa.
With a major meet at Rosemead next Friday, and looking into the future, the team is focused on solid per-formance across the board.
“For the past eight years, we’ve sent at least one person to Master’s and State. But rather than focusing on individuals, I think we need to focus on getting a larger group a distance [through
CIF].” Cascio said.Cascio also has high
hopes for the team’s success, citing Robert Forster’s Phase IV fitness program and the middle school feeder pro-grams.
“We’re only going to get better,” Cascio said.
Forster, however, puts this optimism into perspec-tive. “The season is only go-ing to get harder,” he said.
And for Solorza, with some wrestlers consider-ing dropping an additional weight class for Rosemead (an extra 5-10 pound loss), ice cream prospects are grim.
HIT THE DECK: Sophomore Jesse Matty sprawls off his opponent’s shot.Photo by Neil Thomas
