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.