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.