Final Talon Marks issue of the semester

The final issue came out today and I have to pat the Talon Marks staff on the back.

Editor-in-Chief Scott Watkins, Online Editor Steven Martin, myself, and page designer Kyle Edquist all worked hard to get those pages done and we did an outstanding job.

This was a way to go out with a bang.

Former Editor-in-Chief Erick Galindo deserves props for his inside pages. They are amazing.

I hope the Spring staff next year can produce something like that to keep it as a running tradition for the Talon Marks.

I also hope it produces a magazine over Spring Break.

We didn't make one this year because we simply did not have the skill sets to put one out.

There were three active editors this semester. Even if we were all experienced enough to make a magazine, we still wouldn't have had the manpower for a magazine.

But that's fine. We have had a good semester and I'd like to thank the entire staff for all the efforts it put forth.

Iron Man pre-screening

I saw only a couple Cerritos College students at the Iron Man pre-screening last night.

I was worried about not being able to get into the theater so I went early to stand in line.

The theatre didn't even fill up, like Paramount hoped would happen by overbooking.

About the movie, I loved it. Robert Downey Jr. plays a perfect Tony Stark.

It had a lot of great humor (with a great Stan Lee cameo), great special effects and great action.

The story was well thought-out.

I wasn't sure at the beginning, because the film goes right into the story with Tony Stark in the explosion.

I thought we would need a better introduction first.

But then there was a flashback that fully explains the Stark character for those that don't know already what he's about.

So it was better this way.

There was a foreshadow for what will happen in the sequel if this makes a lot of money.

I'm not going to post a spoiler of what exactly happens.

Since I read the comic book and have been for a long time, I know what will (or should) go down for the sequel.

I really recommend everyone check this out. It's amazing.

Campus Transformation Plan

I was pleasantly surprised last week when the concerns for Cerritos's Master Plan were addressed by Roger Ernest, English instructor.

I'm not sure what the Campus Transformation Committee feels about Ernest's plan, but I like it better than its plan.

The current Master Plan is good but needs some work done on it.

Ernest put the tennis courts back.

That was the main concern I had. The school has plenty of parking and the tennis team shouldn't suffer for more parking.

The Burnight Theatre is moved to the corner of campus. I don't think it's a big deal that the Burnight Center is being moved to the back of campus.

At first, I thought the Hill being moved to Falcon Square would've been a great idea.

That was before I talked to Holly Bogdanovich, director of Student Activities.

Where Ernest put the Hill, it's too close to the Student Center.

If someone wanted to put on an event at the Hill and someone else wanted to put on an event on the Student Center stage, it couldn't happen.

The noise would conflict with each other.

It's good that ideas are being thrown around for the Hill. It shouldn't interfere with other events though.

MySpace revisited

Faculty Senate Liaison James Lee said at the Senate meeting yesterday that the Faculty Senate discussed a block on MySpace in the computer labs.

I thought this was a great idea. The signs obviously aren't enough to keep people from browsing the Internet when other students need to do their work.

However, I went into the computer lab today and saw a few people on MySpace.

I bumped into Lee at the food court and asked him about it. He said that was just what he heard and didn't confirm whether it's true or not.

One senator at the meeting mentioned a Web site that can override a block onto another site.

It's possible that these students I saw did this. I'm not sure.

However, if the block isn't there, there needs to be one.

Though there are school-related MySpace pages such as Talon Marks, other clubs and an ASCC one (coming soon?), these are not the pages students are going to.

Students are looking at their friends' pictures while other students are waiting for open computers to write their term papers on.

A block on MySpace would be important, as well as YouTube and Facebook while the Faculty Senate is at it.

Concrete Underground

Today at 11 a.m., Concrete Underground featured an experimental band, Cosa Nostra, and hip hop artist, Young Blaze.

I enjoyed the whole concert, even Young Blaze. I am not a rap or hip hop fan, as anyone who knows me knows.

What I thought was cool about Cosa Nostra is that since the drummer wasn't able to make it to the concert, the band wrote all new music the night before and experimented with a couple different key things to make up for the lack of percussions.

What I thought sounded particularly good was how one guitarist was patting on his guitar. It let out a really good sound.

It was also the first time the band used vocals. It was just the prolonged "Yeah" the entire time, but it works with some music.

Also, this story gave me the opportunity to play around with audio editing a little. Due to an appointment (and one story turning into three this week), I couldn't do enough with it.

I hope it gets done though. A lot of page design is coming up for me, so I can't spend too much more time on the audio.

JACC Conference

The conference was fun as always.

While I was waiting to go into the critical review writing lab, I was talking to some people from San Francisco City College about what kind of things it runs on its Arts page.

One person said he writes short comic book reviews.

I had been thinking about that idea for a while now.

My two main concerns for that were:
- Do many students care? Let's face it, the comic book crowd isn't what it used to be.
- Will they be of sufficient length? A comic book is maybe about 300 words. How long can the review be?

I think it might be something interesting to experiment with.

I checked out San Francisco's online site now, TheGuardsman.com, and it sometimes runs one section that has two to three-paragraph reviews.

In other news, TalonMarks.com won general excellence and the "Heroes" ad won second place. I'm proud of that.

I'm happy for Werner Gomez, former staff member, for winning first place in the on-the-spot sports photo contest.

As for myself, I didn't win anything in the on-the-spot competitions.

However, for mail-ins, I got some good feedback.

For my "Hollywood Revisited" review, it said that I needed a little more description of what the event is.

I remember when I was writing it, I was trying to not give too much "plot" in it. I guess I went overboard there.

And my page design for the floats on Oct. 31, 2007 issue, which I was very proud of, needed a clearer explanation of what the numbers mean on the photos. Good advice.

I hope next semester I'll win something. I'm not in this to win anything, but I'd like to next time.

Harland Williams

Source: The Channel Guide

The morning before we left for the JACC conference, Editor-in-Chief Scott Watkins told me to check out TalonMarks.com.

Apparently, Harland Williams himself posted a comment thanking me for my "Bachelor Party 2" review.

If this was a real comment, that is really cool. It might be true.

He was on Love Line on KROQ before the movie came out. He might be checking out promotions in the SoCal area.

So I ask, what if it's just a joke somebody's playing on me or on the Talon Marks?

If that's the case, it's not a funny joke.

In any case, it's cool if it's true.

Harland Williams is an extremely funny and underrated actor and it's an honor for me to get that comment.

JACC coming up, advertisement being made, Arts page

There's a spring concert coming up this week but I cannot attend due to the JACC conference this weekend.

I'm excited about it. I always have fun at those and I feel like I learn a lot.

We at the Talon Marks have been working on an ad to submit to JACC but it's up in the air on whether or not it'll get done.

I want to compete in a lot of competitions this semester. I'm crossing my fingers that I might get at least honorable mention in one of them.

If not, it's no big deal. I always learn something from them.

In other news, I keep getting flack about the Arts page this week.

I have reasons for setting it up like I did though. I needed photos for the piano story and I didn't have them.

I wasn't going to make the main package be a movie review though, even though it had the biggest picture on the page.

I also think it's funny how we have the big movie review running and after it is my "Bachelor Party 2" review, which I wouldn't have reviewed if I didn't get the press copy of it.

My column/MySpace

Talon Marks adviser Rich Cameron pointed out the irony of the column I wrote in the last issue of the Talon Marks and the fact that the Talon Marks is now on MySpace.

He knew what I was actually saying in the column but maybe not everyone does.

I never wrote anything against MySpace. It's a cool site.

I really like how the Talon Marks is now on MySpace.

The article was about how students are just browsing the Internet in the library when others need those computers to do their schoolwork.

I thought the column was pretty straight-forward but some may see it as a bashing of MySpace I guess.

Photo Department Revisited

I talked to Talon Marks Photo Editor Michael Agudo about the color issue with the photo department.

He said the film-based photo classes don't use color and the chemicals for color in the dark room are too expensive.

Maybe that was Commissioner of Fine Arts Sun-Hee Kim's concern?

Maybe she thinks the Photo Department should get more funding so photo classes can have color.

Now I ask the question, will the photo students learn more if they had the color chemicals?

I learned a lot from when I took a photo class. I can't say I could've learned more if I was working with color.

Is the process essentially the same either way?

I was going to ask Kim these questions but she was a no-show at the Cabinet meeting today.

Concerns about color in the Photo Department?

I don't mean to pick on Sun-Hee Kim, commissioner of fine arts, but I'm questioning whether she's right for the job as the ASCC might think.

This is besides the fact that she's not outspoken and it's extremely difficult, for me at least, to understand what she's saying.

At the cabinet meeting yesterday, she expressed her concerns for the Photo Department.

She said it doesn't have color.

I've taken PHOTO 101. The class, where students shoot, develop and print pictures by themselves, was concentrated on black and white entirely.

So what's the problem?

I haven't had a chance to talk to Talon Marks Photo Editor Michael Agudo, who is closer involved with the Photo Department than I am, about this.

Maybe I'm wrong and there is a photo class that has color as a requirement.

I will talk to Agudo for more information later today.

If there is such a class, are we to think that the class has been doing without? That color is on the syllabus but it's been neglected?

Talon Marks is now on MySpace

We have added coverage onto our new MySpace page.

I hope this page will be an efficient way to reach students with our stories.

I think we have a nice-looking page now. The other night, I finally found a code to get rid of the "Who I'd like to Meet" text.

I'm proud of the design. I spent a lot of time on it with a lot of trial and error and I'm happy with the end result.

We may tweak something here and there but for now, I think it's a good look.

Hopefully, we can come up with some exclusive content to give students a reason to add us.

Thanks to Jessica for finding a way to post the RSS feed. Now the page will be updated every time TalonMarks.com is updated.

And I hope soon we will come up with some staff pictures to liven the page up in the pictures section of the page.

I looked at some other schools' MySpace pages for inspiration. I like Pasadena City College's page except for the fact that all of its headlines are posted as blogs.

We had East LA as a friend but I guess it deleted us. I can't find it anymore.

Anyway, I think it's great.

The Commissioner of Fine Arts

I am not trying to offend or be libelous here. If anything here appears offensive, I'm sorry and know that is not my intent.

At yesterday's Cabinet meeting, the Commissioner of Fine Arts, Sun-Hee Kim, mentioned the Talon Marks.

This is reasonable. Journalism is under the category she covers.

However, I was immediately reminded of the last time she mentioned the Talon Marks.

Last semester, she went in front of the Senate and told them her friend said, "These people don't know how to write an article."

She again quoted her friend, saying, "It looked like someone who doesn't know how to speak English."

After the meeting, I asked her about it and she said her friend said the Talon Marks is improving.

I didn't hear that at the meeting. After asking her several times if she mentioned that part at the meeting, Holly Bogdanovich, director of Student Activities, answered my question and said she did.

I understand that she talks really softly. The only part I heard was the negative part, however.

Now, why do I keep hearing her friend's opinion? What's hers? Why does she keep quoting her friend at these meetings when she could be telling the Cabinet, the Senate, whatever, what she thinks about it.

ASCC President Jason Macias and Vice President Michael Barrita have voiced their opinions of the Talon Marks in the past. Sun-Hee Kim, however, voices the opinion of her friend (in which she hasn't identified).

Again, I'm sorry if this is offensive in any way. I think this is a valid question though.

Is cosmetology art?

Is it art? That's the question I want to address in this entry.

I just read the article that was ran in the current issue of the Talon Marks on the arts page.

Hairstyling is hardly art.

Last semester, we at the Talon Marks ran a story about makeup that was done on Halloween. That's art.

When done in a creative way, I consider it art.

But who is to say it's creative? What's creative to someone else can be just standard to me and vice versa.

I'm not downplaying hairstyling and haircutting, but to call it art is stretching it a bit.

Is my haircut (or lack thereof) art?

Then again, I'm sure much more work and creativity would go into women's styling.

My hairstyle is done, for the most part, with an electric clipper.

But what is art is subjective. In the last issue, my story on the photographers was ran. Some may say they're not art, they're just photos.

For a story like a cosmetology story, the arts page is probably fitting. I wouldn't run it on the news or sports pages.

Urinetown, something of an intro

Some time ago, someone from the Talon Marks staff told me about the upcoming play, "Urinetown."

I stood in shock for a moment. I couldn't have heard that right. Perhaps it's called "You're in Town?"

No, it's called "Urinetown."

Feb. 5 and 6 are the audition dates at 6 p.m.

All I got from the Cerritos theater page is a list of characters and brief descriptions.

I looked up on Urinetown's Website that it won the following awards:
- three Tony Awards (2002),
- three Outer Critics Circle Awards (2002),
- two Lucille Lortel Awards (2002),
- Drama Desk Awards (2001) and others.

Richard Zoglin, Time Magazine, said it's "Better than The Producers."

According to the Wikipedia entry, it is a satire of capitalism, socialism, bureaucracy, corporate management and small-town politics.

It also parodies Broadway shows such as Les Miserables, Evita, Annie and West Side Story.

Being a fan of parodies, I'll be looking forward to this play.

Reciprocity

reciprocity: (n) a relation of mutual dependence or action or influence.

Works of Brian Moss and Sandra de la Loza went on display a couple days ago in the art gallery. I went to the opening reception last night and I have to say, their photography was something eye-catching and unique.

There was one series from each artist that particularly impressed me.

De la Loza's Family Photo Series was really quite interesting.

The photos are portraits with the people in them cut out with a different background in place of them.

I've spent a bit of time trying to understand what she's trying to say. I can't think of anything other than they are unique and interesting photos.

Moss' Durmire (or Where am I when I'm asleep?) series, I thought was really neat.

It is a series of blurry photos with people lying in bed.

It put forth the theme really well and I was able to relate to it a little more (it's art, everyone can interpret it differently) because I wear glasses. I always see blurry when I go to sleep and when I wake up because I don't have my glasses on.

Moss doesn't wear glasses so that's obviously not what he's going for.

These two photo artists' work will be on display until Feb. 19.

Unfortunately, it appears there will not be an artist walkthrough, which I enjoy so much.