Daily Titan: Monday, January 25, 2010

Vol. 87 Issue 1

January 25, 2010

Terminally-ill professor scales world’s mountains Despite being diagnosed with a rare and ultimately fatal disease, health science professor Cindy Abbott is training to climb the tallest mountain in the world in an effort to draw attention to Wegener’s Granulomatosis CAMPUS LIFE, Page 4

Pee-wee’s show disappoints

MONDAY

The Pee-wee Herman Show onlys caters to an older audience.

DETOUR, Page 13

NERDGASM: We’re all going to die, says clock OPINION, Page 17

KIDS THESE DAYS: Texting kills civilized life?

OPINION, Page 17

The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton

Proposal may restore budget

By Katelin Paiz

Daily Titan News Editor news@dailytitan.com

In stark contrast with the last two years’ decrease in state support, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, earlier this month, proposed to restore the $305 million in “onetime” cuts to the Cal State University system budget.

The proposal will also give the CSU an additional $60 million for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

See BUDGET, Page 4

State general fund support to the California State University (in billions) $2.97 $2.25

$2.47

$2.61

$2.68

1999/00 00/01 01/02

>

The audience favorite was the “Wheel of Death.” Two male performers, both dressed like demons, performed deathdefying acrobatic stunts all within a huge spinning wheel of death.

The act makes your heart pound and jump in your throat and is most definitely an adrenaline rush.

Former Titan star one step away from NBA sports@dailytitan.com

It’s always nice to get from point A to point B as fast as possible, but if you’re former Cal State Fullerton basketball player Frank Robinson, taking the long way works too.

For Robinson, it has been an arduous journey to make it to the NBA. Behind the 42-inch vertical leap and 6-foot-9-inch wingspan, is an athlete who has triumphed through many trials and tribulations.

Robinson, 25, is currently a shooting guard for the Los Angeles

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A theatrical performance by the Trickster and his skeletal minions has a New Orleans feel to it and serves as a prelude to the wheel of death act.

By simon liang

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D-Fenders of the National Basketball Development League.

Naturally, he has drawn comparisons to former Titan and 12year NBA veteran Bruce Bowen because of their defensive ability.

“There’s always a place for you if you can defend. You look at a guy like Bruce Bowen – he can defend and hit open shots – and Frank can do that,” D-Fenders Head Coach Chucky Brown said.

He still has a long road ahead of him, but he is optimistic that he will reach his ultimate goal – playing in the NBA. See ROBINSON, Page 21

03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/2011

Schlaufman resigns from board of trustees Half a year after finishing his term as Cal State Fullerton’s ASI president and two months into his role as a student trustee on California State University’s Board of Trustees, Curtis Schlaufman has decided to leave Cal State Fullerton’s Higher Education Leadership program.

“All I’ve known in my adult life so far has been higher education. There is so much out there to explore in the world.

I’d want different perspectives and a change of scenery. I want to follow my heart and try to achieve goals and get my dream job,” Schlaufman said.

ASI president Juliana Santos comments on Schlaufman’s de-

cision. Schlaufman gives advice to all students. And Schlaufman describes what role Saturday Night Live played in his choice.

Cirque Du Soleil’s ‘Kooza’ hits Irvine Spring 2010 semester still

By Summer Rogers

For the Daily Titan

Detour@dailytitan.com

At the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, a traveling show has set up its tents.

The show features acrobats, men walking the highwire, a clever pickpocket and clowns of all shapes and sizes.

This may sound like the setting of a regular Barnum and Bailey circus, but it’s not. Under the blue-and-yellow Grand Chapiteau (or Big Top), is the touring Cirque du Soleil show “Kooza.”

“Kooza” follows The Innocent, a character looking for his lot in life, and is brought into the world of “Kooza,” created exclusively for him by The Trickster.

The silent Trickster creates an environment of world-class acrobatics, comedy and escapism. “Kooza” differs from other Cirque shows in that it pays homage to the origins of the circus and the “Big Top” with acts including balancing on chairs, highwire,

juggling, contortion and solo trapeze.

Even though the acts seem old school, Cirque modernizes them with different themes, intricate and difficult routines, and beautifully detailed costumes. “ K o o z a” Kooza details writer and director David • Runs in Irvine Shiner said through Feb. 14 of the clown • Runs in San characters, Diego Feb. 25 “In essence, through March 14 the clown is a character who Student prices: helps us keep Tuesday - Friday in touch with the sacred part $45 - $112.50 of ourselves. * Student discounts It’s a difficult are unavailable for part to play. weekend shows.

At the core of the character is longing and Visit the wish to Cirquedusoleil.com find meaning in life.”

“Kooza” is a dazzling display of humor and acrobatics and will defiantly make anyone appreciate and respect the talent and ability of the performers.

photo By Randy Cho/For the Daily Titan Former CSUF basketball player Frank Robinson has been working hard to improve his game for the NBA and has fit right in with the Los Angeles D-Fenders.

DETAILS, Page 2

to see further furloughs Furloughs are going to continue to be observed in the spring semester.

President Gordon designated three furlough days before June. One passed Jan. 22 and the other two are in February.

Erik Fallis, media relations specialist for the California State University comments on the matter, revealing insight on what the impact could have

been if furloughs were not in place. Whether furloughs will be in effect next year is uncertain.

Further comments are made by Paula Selleck, Senior Communications Officer of Public Relations, regarding the authority Presidents of CSU campuses are given when scheduling furlough days.

DETAILS, Page 4

Will vinyl records surive the next 10 years?

In a world where MP3 players and digital downloads fill our ears on a daily basis, vinyl records, a vintage form of listening to music, still seem to prevail.

It was foreseen by the record industry in the late 1980s that this form of listening would become extinct. However, as we are heading into the 2010s, vinyl records are still a popular purchase amongst both DJs and music fans alike.

How are vinyl records still able to prevail in a digitally dominated society?

DETAILS, Page 10

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January 25, 2010

Student trustee quits ‘Embracing Ambiguity’: a new to pursue a new path art exibit to open at CSUF munity. Curtis gave me a lot of advice and guidance while he was President and CEO and he was a great For The Daily Titan news@dailytitan.com trailblazer, which has helped to make my job easier,” Santos said.

Upon his graduation, Schlaufman decided to conIn November, Cal State Fullerton’s own Curtis Schlaufman was appointed by Governor Arnold tinue his education at CSUF as a graduate student Schwarzenegger to the California State University in the Higher Education Leadership program, which Board of Trustees as one of only two student trustees. aims to prepare future practitioners of student affairs In a phone call to the Governor’s office on Jan. to “support student learning and development,” ac11, just months after his appointment to the board, cording to the Department of Educational Leadership Web site.

Schlaufman confirmed his deAfter finishing his first secision to discontinue his higher mester in the program, he reeducation. evaluated his professional fu“I will no longer have the ture. position because it is a student “I’ve had a pretty long histrustee position. You have to tory here in student leaderbe a student, and since I no ship and always loved what I longer will be, I had to resign,” did; loved the opportunities Schlaufman said. and people I worked with. I The former trustee, 23, said thought this translated to a his resignation from the board career in student affairs. I did was not directly intended, but enjoy the semester, but I also “an unfortunate consequence” learned a lot about myself afof his choice to not continue ter graduating, especially in a his pursuit of a master’s deprogram that requires a lot of gree. self-reflection. I learned what The position, intended to I want in life, what I want for last two years, is being abanmyself and what I really want doned after only two months. to achieve and I realized that Along with his bachelor’s my goals didn’t align with the degree in political science, obprogram,” Schlaufman extained in May 2009, Schlaufplained. man’s five-year stay at CSUF Now, Schlaufman says he earned him several distinwould like to diversify his exguished titles within Associperience. ated Students Inc, including – Curtis Schlaufman, “All I’ve known in my adult president, vice president, chair life so far has been higher eduof Lobby Corps and director of Former Student Trustee cation.There is so much out governmental relations. there to explore in the world.

Included on his lengthy list I’d want different perspectives of student leadership positions, and a change of scenery. I want Schlaufman has also served on the California State Student Association’s Board of Di- to follow my heart and try to achieve goals and get my dream job,” he said. rectors for the entirety of his academic career.

Schlaufman says that dream job is acting on the “Hopefully people will remember me for everything I’ve done on campus over the past five years and not comedy sketch program Saturday Night Live.

“Some people might think it’s crazy, but people the past couple of weeks,” Schlaufman said.

Current ASI President Juliana Santos was on who really know me will understand. I enjoy enterSchlaufman’s executive staff during his presidency in taining people. Making people laugh is my passion,” he said. the 2008-2009 school year.

“The name Curtis Schlaufman is (recognizable) To read the full story, visit dailytitan.com both on this campus and among the entire CSU comBy Nicole F. Park

“

Hopefully people will remember me for everything I’ve done on campus over the past five years and not the past couple of weeks.

By Laura Barron-Lopez

Daily Titan Asst. News Editor news@dailytitan.com

“We both wanted to do something that wasn’t just an art show but something with a social impact,” Lynn Stromick said in regards to her and her partner Jillian Nakornthap’s, (both curators) desires for their exhibit.

“Embracing Ambiguity: Faces of the Future,” is an art show that will be opening in Cal State Fullerton’s main art gallery at 5 p.m. on Jan. 30, and will display works from 10 multicultural artists living throughout the United States. The show will run until March 5 and will be open Monday – Thursday 12 – 4 p.m., and 12 – 2 p.m. Saturdays.

“I want it to just be an experience. I want people to be able to be comfortable with their identity,” said Nathornkop.

In order to enhance the attendees’ experiences, Nathornkop and Stromick are creating a learning annex next to the art gallery that will provide videos, books and other materials to those who wish to explore multiculturalism in greater depth.

The learning annex opens the same day as the exhibit, but will close on Feb. 19.

The pieces all convey themes of identity and its contrast with the labels society forces upon individuals. Many of the artists are of mixed race, which adds to their desire to establish their own identities rather than allowing society to choose for them, according to a press release.

Laura Kina, one of the artists, will have three works from her “Loving” series exhibited. The series was inspired by the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, which overturned the last anti-miscegenation law. The series consists of nine lifesized portraits of mixed-race friends and acquaintances of Kina.

“The placing of the portraits is ambiguous, not making it clear if they are in prayer or confronting.

It is open to let the viewers decide,” Kina said.

Kina explained that normally the series is shown with all 10 portraits placed in a semi-circle, allowing the viewer to become surrounded by the pieces. Each portrait is similar, differing only in the position each subject chose to take, symbolizing slight individuality.

Pieces from the “El Sagrado Corazon (The Sacred Heart)” collection by Delilah Montoya will be displayed at the show as well.

Montoya’s work has been displayed in various venues, including the Smithsonian, and countries such as

Photo Courtesy of Loren Holland “The Unseen Presence” ,an oil painting by Loren Holland ,will be displayed at the main art gallery along with other pieces that all convey the “Faces of the Future.”

Japan, Russia and France. “(The series) is a collection of collotypes that portrays Albuquerque’s Chicano community,” said Montoya.

Montoya’s Mestiza background helped her throughout the series’ creation.

“The community was invited to collaborate in the realization of the project, ” Montoya said.

Bryce Hudson, another artist, will have three works exhibited.

Hudson comes from a blended ethnic background similar to the aforementioned artists.

One of the pieces that will be displayed, “There Goes the Neighborhood,” is “an abstract representation of where I grew up. The white constructions represent the Caucasian cul-de-sac in a neighborhood and the black jet line coming in off the side is me or my family,” Hudson said.

The works for Hudson’s “Biracial”

collection will also be on display.

“They fit with the theme of the show because the idea behind them is an abstracted vision of trying to find a space and define space not only on a wall but in life,” Hudson said.

These are only three of the 10 multicultural artists whose works will be shown. Through art, all the works displayed convey ideas, messages or thoughts that speak to people, mixed or not mixed, according to a press release “This exhibit is timely right now because Barack Obama is the first mixed raced president. Because it’s a timely matter, I think people will gravitate to the show,” Nakornthap said.

“Each time (the art) is seen, people will understand it differently.

Over time the meaning or message of a piece will change as the world changes around us,” said Kina.

Dance team wins nationals

By Katelin paiz

Daily Titan News Editor news@dailytitan.com

The Cal State Fullerton dance team beat out dancers from around the country to win this year’s UDA Division college national title, which was hosted in Orlando, Florida on the Jan. 17. The win gave the team its ninth title in 11 years.

“It was very intense,” said Chelsea Horn, a member of the team for the past two years. “There were a lot of teams there, but we were able to focus throughout the whole experience, which I think really helped us do well.”

This win follows what the team’s advisers call a disappointing third place finish in last year’s competition.

“To not only lose our title but to get third place, it was just a hard loss,” said adviser Jennie Volkert, an alumina of the team. Volkert added, however, that “to come back this year and be there with the girls and actually take our title back and get the win, it was amazing.”

The team was able to beat out local rivals Cal State Long Beach by over 13 points.

“This year was probably the best competition I’ve ever seen. I mean it could have gone a lot of different ways. We, fortunately, just had an amazing performance,” said Volkert.

The team credits its win to the incredible amount of work the team put in. During competition season, the team practices every day.

“They’re 100 percent devoted, that’s for sure,” said adviser Sam Shen, who, like her colleague, is an alumna of the team.

photo Courtesy of Sam Shen/For Daily titan All 13 members of CSUF’s dance team five minutes after they were announced the 2010 UDA Division College national champions. Also present are the teams two advisers.

Only 10 of the 11 dancers were able to compete following an incident last month in which one of the dancers hurt her thumb, an injury that required surgery, during a performance at a basketball game.

Team captain Sarah Ellman said she felt that the team was driven.

“We just pretty much did everything we could to really focus this year and we were determined to win,” said Ellman.

In a bonding effort, the dancers were paired up in a big sister/little sister fashion in which one of the teams veterans adopted a newcomer.

“We quickly bonded with them by having little sister/big sister,” said Ellman; adding, “some of us even room together off campus.”

For 11 years, the team has been a

fixture on campus, starting as a club under ASI. The team was adopted by the athletics department five years ago and has been an integral part of the CSUF Spirit Squad, made up of cheerleaders, dancers and mascots, ever since.

The team mainly performs at men’s and women’s basketball games but also attends volleyball, soccer and baseball games.

The tryouts for the team will likely be held between mid April and early May. An airing of the performance will be made available on ESPN and ESPN2 within the month.

The team will be performing its national-winning routine at the homecoming game this Saturday.

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4

January 25, 2010

IN OTHER NEWS Stem cell grant Haitian officials begin recovery plans in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE (MCT) – Haitians awoke Sunday to a land littered with crumpled buildings as international relief officials turned their attention to finding shelter and getting aid to those hundreds of thousands who survived the most devastating natural disaster in Haiti’s history.

With a key donors conference set for Monday in Montreal, Canada, Haiti leaders and the international community focused on finding the money and expertise needed to rebuild the quake-stricken Caribbean nation.As part of the strategy, the United Nations is hoping to put hundreds of Haitians to work in cleaning up their battered city by removing rubble, said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a meeting with former President-turned U.N. Special Envoy Bill Clinton.

“By creating jobs, by creating work for all these people, this would contribute to revitalize their economy,” Ban said.

NATIONAL Chicago-area plane crash kills 2 civilians FORT LAUDERDALE (MCT) – Two Florida men died after their twin-engine plane crashed in a residential neighborhood near Chicago Saturday night.

The men were identified as Drago Strahija, 32, of Lake Worth, Fla., and pilot Gary Bradford, 37, of Hollywood, Fla. The small Piper Aerostar crashed in Sugar Grove, a village 2 miles from the Aurora, Ill., airport where the plane took off, authorities said.

They had flown in from Texas and spent one night in Aurora before a planned trip to Denver, according to Pam Sullivan, a National Transportation Safety Board spokeswoman. The trip’s purpose was not immediately known, but the two men worked together at Hollywood-based ENS Corp., a software communications company.

STATE Clash of motives in the Prop 8 trial SAN FRANSISCO (MCT) – A majority of voters stopped same-sex marriage in California simply by casting a ballot for Proposition 8.

This week, when a federal trial resumes in San Francisco, attorneys challenging Proposition 8 will continue building a multilayered argument that voters’ action created an unconstitutional law based on prejudice and unfounded fear about homosexuality.

During the historic trial that began last week in U.S. District Court, attorneys for gay couples tried through opening arguments and witness testimony to show that the government -- or the voters -- have no rational purpose for excluding gays from a fundamental right such as marriage.

Proposition 8 attorneys, in an equally multifaceted approach, are working to establish that voters did have legitimate reasons to vote to make marriage only between a man and a woman.

Plaintiffs presented historians, plaintiffs and scholars of psychology whose testimony was intended to support the case for same-sex marriage rights. Cambridge University psychology professor Michael Lamb testified that children in families with gay parents are no less well off than in families with heterosexual families.

For the Record It is the policy of the Daily Titan to correct any inaccurate information printed in the publication as soon as the error is discovered. Any incorrect information printed on the front page will result in a correction printed on the front page. Any incorrect information printed on any other page will be corrected on page 2. Errors on the Opinion page will be corrected on that page. Corrections also will be noted on the online version of the Daily Titan.

Please contact Executive Editor Sergio Cabaruvias at 657-278-5815 or at execeditor@dailytitan.com with issues about this policy or to report any errors.

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Copyright ©2010 Daily Titan

given to trainees

By Marc Donez

Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com

A $1.28 million grant was recently awarded to Cal State Fullerton, along with Cal State Northridge and Cal State San Bernardino, for a cumulative amount of approximately $4 million for the Bridges to Stem Cell Research program.

The grant funding was made possible by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), which has already allocated roughly $16 million to 11 CSU campuses.

“Several campuses are already up and running,” said CSU spokesman Erik Fallis. “The first round of rewards were announced in March.”

Those campuses include Cal State Channel Islands and San Jose State.

Both schools were awarded over $1.78 million each, the most in the CSU system.

Fallis attributed CSUF’s lower grant total to the size of their program, saying every school’s program varies.

“Some schools received as low as $55,000,” said Fallis. “Fullerton’s grant is very competitive and will be taken care of with the amount given to them by the CIRM.” For Fullerton, it will fund the training of 10 stem cell researchers for one year.

This is part of the CIRM’s attempt to provide California with skilled and educated individuals in the field of stem cell research, according to a press release.

The grants were allocated from the CIRM through bond funding made possible by voters who passed Proposition 71 in 2004.

The proposition approves and regulates stem cell training and research at approved research institutions.

At CSUF, assistant professor of biological science Nilay Patel, the program director for the grant, believes those selected for the internship program will have a higher chance of securing a position in stem cell biology and related fields as an employee or as a graduate student.

“The goal of this program is to prepare the Stem Cell Scholars so that they can easily transition into their internships and be productive towards the research goals,” said Patel. “The stem cell curriculum and research experiences at CSUF will be a big help in preparing them for the internship.”

Only undergraduate students at CSUF are eligible for the program, Patel said.

Students who have finished their gateway courses in Cellular in Developmental Biology (C&D), as well as Molecular Biology & Biotechnology (MBB), are encouraged to submit an application.

“The program is designed to introduce students to research,” Patel said. “Prior research experience is not needed to be accepted into the program. This is important because many students think research is a requirement for this and other programs at our college.”

Students who download and fill out the application must have it turned in by March 15.

Selected participants will be announced and notified sometime in April.

Those who are accepted into the program will be enrolled in the stem cell focused curriculum during the

Graph Courtesy of MCT

summer and fall semesters at CSUF. All classes can be applied towards their B.S. degrees in C&D and MBB. “Students will also engage in research during the summer and fall and learn the fundamentals of lab research, with an emphasis in stem cells, of course,” said Patel. “They’ll also have intern opportunities at UC Irvine, UC Riverside, USC and the Children’s Hospital of Orange County.”

Students in the department of

biological sciences are excited and proud of this grant.

“The grant will enable more students to be able to get into labs, which is pretty important in research,” said junior biology major Beth Velasco. “Every student, not just biology, should be excited for Dr. Patel.”

Patel said successful candidates are likely to have a good GPA, be highly recommended by a lab instructor or research mentor and have demonstrable interest in stem cell biology.

Furloughs still in place for spring semester

By Jamie Iglesias

For the Daily Titan

news@dailytitan.com

Cal State Fullerton faculty and staff members are still required to take nine mandatory furlough days this semester to reduce the $564 million deficit facing the California State University system this 20092010 academic year.

The CSU system will continue with the way furloughs were handled in the fall 2009 semester because the spring semester still falls under the major deficit.

“The concepts of a furlough remain the same. It continues to be the same budget that we started with,” Erik Fallis, media relations specialist for the CSU system, said.

The presidents from each of the

23 campuses may schedule six fur- Selleck Senior Communications Oflough days for faculty members ficer of Public Affairs said.

At CSUF President Gordon has throughout the semester, giving each scheduled three of the campuses mandatory fura unique schedlough days for ule depending faculty on Jan. on their needs.

22, Feb. 12 and “Under the Feb. 16. Faculty terms of the members are left July 28, 2009 to decide how CSU Furlough to schedule the Agreement with remaining nine the California days Faculty Asso– Erik Fallis, furlough accordingly, she ciation, each Media relations added. campus presispecialist Furloughs dent may deshelp review the ignate up to six deficit because of furlough days for instructional faculty. President the 10 percent reduction. Since 80 Gordon designated three days for percent of the CSU system budget fall and three days for spring,” Paula is in salaries students will see the

“

The concepts of a furlough remain the same. It continues to be the same budget that we started with.

“

INTERNATIONAL

impact that the furlough program will have in the deficit, Clara PotesFellow Director of Media Relations for the CSU system said.

“We did have some people who were not retained, but the numbers would have been much higher had furloughs not been implemented,” Fallis said.Fallis acknowledged that the decision to implement furlough days was not an easy decision to make.

“Smaller paychecks are a hard thing for anybody, and it is not a decision that the CSU system would have taken had there not been the tremendous reduction there was in the 2009-2010 academic year,” Fallis said.

There is no clear answer to the possibility of furloughs in the 20102011 academic year.

Budget: too soon to make definitive plans From Page 1 “(The Governor) definitely made the CSU (system) … a priority even in these difficult financial times. So, it’s a definite improvement for the CSU (system) and hopefully for Cal State Fullerton,” said Brian Jenkins, Associate Vice President of Finance.

The amount is not the $884 million that Chancellor Charles B. Reed had hoped for and planned on sending to the board of trustees when he last spoke to the Daily Titan in November, but he remains optimistic.

“If adopted by the legislature, this budget will allow us to begin restoring student access to our university. In this extremely difficult budget climate, we recognize and very much appreciate the Governor making higher education a priority. Clearly, he understands how important restored budgets for higher education are for jobs and California’s economic recovery. We are still faced with challenging circumstances and it will be a slow process as we seek to return to financial stability. This budget will help start us on the path to recovery,” said Reed in a press release.

To be approved, the budget must pass through both Assembly and Senate health subcommittees and a revision process in May after the state accounts for tax revenues, according to Clara Potes-Fellow, CSU Director of Media Relations.

“It’s preliminary. We have a long way to go,” said Ed Trotter, acting Associate Vice President of Undergraduate Programs. “This is the first of many steps.”

As to whether the budget will be approved by the legislature, no one can say.

“It is too early to make a judgment,” said Potes-Fellow. “What we can say is that the proposed state budget represents a positive starting point for the CSU (system).”

The CSU system has implemented many cost-saving techniques including employee furloughs, enrollment reduction and student fee hikes in response to the 21 percent decrease in state support over the last two years, which amounts to $625 million.

It’s unclear, if this budget is approved, how it will affect these costsaving techniques. The dispersal of the money is up to the discretion of the Chancellor’s office.

“The CSU (system) is evaluating the proposed state budget to see what the impact will be,” said Potes-Fellow.

“This budget proposal, if approved by the legislature, could help restore student access.”

As for right now, the whole CSU system can only wait.

“At Cal State Fullerton we’re not incorporating those funds in our budget planning for next year,” said Jenkins. “Until we know the additional funding levels are actually confirmed and we know that we have them we’ll continue to budget extremely conservative on the campus so we don’t budget for funds that may not eventually appear.”

Despite the possibility of additional funding, the level of state funding support is still below the level in 2007-2008, according to a CSU press release.

January 25, 2010

The‘King of Pop’ at the Homecoming Week CALENDAR ‘Magic Kingdom’ again MONDAY Cirque du Tuffy -The Titan Walk and Becker Amphitheater will have circus performers, attraction, cotton candy, a dunk tank and game booths until 1 p.m.

TUESDAY Futuristic Speed Dating Mixer- Held in the TSU pub from 6-9 p.m. Students will have the oportunity to meet the student leaders involved with the win a date event.

WEDNESDAY Time Warp Runway- In the central quad from 12-1 p.m. students can sport clothing of different eras.

By Nicole F. Park

For the Daily Titan

news@dailytitan.com

THURSDAY Student Leader Fever-Win a Date- From 6-9 in the TSU Pub, students can sign up to win a date with a student leader.

SATURDAY The week will conclude with the homecoming dance in the TSU underground from 7-11 p.m. Students can bowl, dance, mingle and have caractures of themselves made.

For more information see: http://asi.fullerton.edu/asiprogramming

Web site promotes sharing

By Jamie Iglesias

For the Daily Titan

news@dailytitan.com

Courtesy of MCT

Oscar award-winning actress Angelica Huston portrays the evil witch in the short movie to whom Jackson's Captain EO must defeat for the sake of the universe.

Two of MJ's own songs are featured in the galactic dancing sensation.

Those include "Another Part of Me," from his 1987 album, Bad. The attraction includes fog, lasers and galactic stars, and with the use of 3D glasses, the audience is pulled into the middle of the adventure.

Kyle Reynolds, 27, a CSUF aluminus and cast member at Disneyland's Tomorrowland attractions, has seen the film many times during

the years it was in residence at the park.

"I remember seeing the lights turn into stars in the theatre and the magic of the entire planet's transformation at the end. I am absolutely thrilled to see its return," Reynolds said.

With the opportunity to bring in new fans and remind fans of the 1980s and '90s of the film, Reynolds believes the older generations of EO lovers can introduce their own children to the film.

McClintock did not have a release date for February, but said the attraction would open sometime during the month.

Many are looking for ways to save money and help the environment; Borrowme.com lets people to do both by allowing people to lend, borrow and rent a variety of items at a low cost, and sometimes for free.

People can create a profile, add items they are willing to share, create a wish list of items they are looking for and build communities to begin to share, lend and rent items.

“It was created out of the sense that all of us have such an abundance of possessions in our apartments, home garages and our basements that are unused and idled.

During a time where there is an economic downturn, it makes so much sense both economically and socially to find some way to tap all that value that is hidden away,” said Sean Young founder and CEO of Borrowme.com.

Kray Mitchell, who is in charge of marketing and communication relations for the Web site, stated in an e-mail that besides helping people save money, the Web site also helps the environment.

“Does everybody in your neighborhood require their own canoe, air compressor and hedge trimmer? We can greatly reduce spending as well as the amount of waste headed to the landfill by coming together as a community and shar-

ing our resources,” Mitchell said. thought to themselves ‘What am I Once users build their profile, going to do with all this stuff’ is a they are encouraged to build a com- prime candidate for resource sharmunity to begin the sharing or rent- ing,” Mitchell said. ing process.

Recently, the Web site has seen a “We encourage people to do one large number of expectant mothers thing. Share just one thing out of and college students contribute. all the things that you have. Try to Young would like to see students find one thing that you are willing create more active groups within to share,” said Young. the community to share and rent Shipping is an option for us- textbooks. He thinks this would ers, but they are encouraged to go save students money and reduce the out and personally meet the people number of trees that are cut down. they borrowing Some students from. from Cal State “We used to Fullerton think be able to go the Web site has a next door and good idea. borrow a cup of “It’s not like sugar from our throwing away neighbors, we your trash, but letwant to bring ting someone else people together use things that you again,” Mitchdon’t really need ell said. at times. I have – Jimmy Romero, bikes at home, I By going out and meetlend them to my Biology Major ing others, the friends, but if company aims there is a Web site to build trust I would totally use between usit to lend them to ers so they can help each other find someone else,” said Jimmy Romero, items they are looking for.

18, a biology major.

“There are really two types of “I would use it for textbooks people that come to the site, the because I don’t have money, and I ‘greedy’ ones that are looking for would rather borrow them,” said something for free, and those who Cristina Lopez, 18, a liberal studies want to build better communities, major.

Young hopes to see his company reduce waste and help our environbecome an alternative to major ment,” said Mitchell.

“Anybody that has walked into companies like eBay.com and Amatheir basement or garage and zon.com.

“

It’s not like throwing away your trash, but letting someone else use things that you don’t really need at times.

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The self-proclaimed king of pop, Michael Jackson, died in June, but his portrayal of heroic fictional character "Captain EO" is being brought back to life in Anaheim.

After months of speculation from the public, and repeated denial by Disney, last month Disneyland's blog announced the February reintroduction of the 3D attraction to the park.

Disney spokesperson John McClintock said the re-release is a limited-time engagement and gave no closing date for the film.

"Our goal is to allow people who have never seen the film the opportunity to experience it for the first time. We also expect a large number of longtime fans who are anxious to see it again," McClintock said.

Neil Middleton, 24, works in Disneyland's entertainment department and attends Cal State Fullerton as an entertainment studies major.

"I think it will be a great way for the park to bring in old fans and gain new ones. I think his death created a new element for viewership," Middleton said.

Like many members of younger generations, Middleton himself has only seen the film on YouTube.

"I appreciate his art and his work.

It's exciting for me, now that I'm older, to be able to see it now in its original form in the park that Michael Jackson himself loved so much," Middleton said.

The 17-minute film ran at Disney's parks from 1986 to 1997.

When asked if the film's 13-year hiatus was a result of controversy surrounding Jackson at the time, McClintock said its retirement was due to the need for space for the "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" attraction, which was closed Jan. 4 to make way for its previous and nearfuture resident, Captain EO. The film was directed by Francis Ford Coppola of "Godfather" fame and written by “Star Wars” George Lucas.

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January 25, 2010

Ailing Professor plans to climb Mount Everest

By Christine Amarantus Daily Titan Staff Writer news@dailytitan.com

Photo Courtesy of cindy aBbott Cindy Abbot and husband Larry pose with a CSUF flag on Mt. Elbrus Summit, located in Mineralinye Vody, Russia at an elevation level of 18,513 feet. Elbrus is the highest peak in Europe.

Despite being blind in one eye and joints giving her problems, Professor of Health Science Cindy Abbott takes on giants. Diagnosed with Wegener’s Granulomatosis, a rare, debilitating and ultimately fatal disease, Abbott is training to climb Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.

“My immune system is attacking me. It’s attacking my blood vessels,” Abbott, 51, said. “For me it’s attacked my sinuses and my eyes and my throat ... You just carry on.”

Abbott’s illness requires constant treatment and drug therapy. She also suffers from transient ischemic attacks which she described as “ministrokes.” The blindness of her eye led to the definite diagnosis of Wegener’s.

“I’m lucky that I don’t have a more advanced case of it,” she said. “I’m on some support sites where there are people who can’t even walk up a flight of stairs or get out of bed.”

Wegener’s is an “orphan” disease, in that less than 200,000 people are afflicted. Drug companies don’t see a profit in creating medication for so few people; and with only so much research, Wegener’s patients are forgotten.

“Every person is their own case study,” Abbott said. “There’s not enough research, which is why I’m trying to get money for research.”

Abbott hopes that her Everest climb will bring awareness to organizations like the National Organization for Rare Diseases (www.rarediseases.org) with her climb listed on the Vasculitis Foundation’s Web site as a fundraising event (http:// www.vasculitisfoundation.org/ node/2247).

“It’s almost like I was given this thing because I can actually do something like this and still have the disease,” she said.

Prior to her diagnosis, Abbott and her husband, Larry, were on safari in Africa and decided on a whim to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. “And we did,” Abbott said. Kilimanjaro was

Photo Courtesy of cindy aBbott Cindy Abbott and husband Larry take a picture at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the world’s highest free-standing mountain.

their first summit. “And then my husband created a monster, because I later saw a special on Everest and said, ‘I think I have to climb this mountain.’ And then I was diagnosed.”

Rather than sit back and wait for the inevitable, Abbott took charge and sped up her schedule. “I don’t know when I’m going to go blind, I don’t know when my joints are going to get so bad I can’t use them to do this any more,” she said. “I don’t know when anything can happen.”

Abbott leaves for Everest on April 1 and will be gone 68 days. The first 10 days will be spent trekking to base camp at 17,500 feet and climatizing. The next month will focus on Abbott and other climbers getting physiologically ready to take on the summit. For three days in mid-May when the jet stream shifts, the climbers will reach the summit and take two days to climb back down.

The trip costs approximately $80,000. “I’ve taken all of my financial resources and put them into this in hopes of showing people to raise funds for research.” said Abbott.

After Everest, Abbott said she’d like to take her husband Larry on a nice scuba-diving vacation as a reward. Larry Abbott, 64, teaches scuba certification classes at Cal State Fullerton, of which the Abbotts are both alums. Along with climbing mountains around the world, the couple also scuba dive and ballroom dance. Abbott has put dancing on hiatus until after the Everest climb due to a problem with her foot.

“It’s going to be really, really hard for him,” Abbott said of Larry and her upcoming Everest journey.

“We’ve never been apart before ...

(We are) pretty strained financially.”

Abbott said Larry supports her completely. “He says that he’d rather me pursue my dreams than not live the quality of life I want.”

Of all of her experiences alpine climbing Abbott said, “It’s amazing standing there after weeks of working to get up there ... suffering and struggling.”

She excitedly looks through pictures of climbs she said she’s “dragged,” remarking on a picture of herself and Larry atop Mt. Elbrus in Russia, “It’s like you can see all of Europe.”

Abbott hopes that her journey will inspire others to overcome their own obstacles and embrace life. “Life’s for living. If I happen to have a rare disease, so what? I’m going to keep on living and that’s just my attitude.”

When Abbott’s doctor suggested she go on chemotherapy, she refused, despite his insistence that she was taking a big risk. “I said when there’s no life in life, I’m not interested.”

More information can be found on Abbott and her adventures on her Web site, ReachingBeyondTheClouds.com.

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January 25, 2010

Edinburgh: a mix of old and new

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Photos by Nick Marley

Daily Titan Photo Editor news@dailytitan.com

As I explored the cobblestone pavements, I discovered the emerging Scottish capital. The city may look like it’s old, but Edinburgh finds a good balance between the modern and the ancient.

1. A mix of contemporary and traditional housing near The Meadows, a large park, in Edinburgh.

2. The Elephant House is the coffee house where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter Novel on napkins.

3. Greyfriars Kirkyard, a graveyard in Edinburgh.

4. The high road, one of the many-layered walkways in Edinburgh Scotland.

5. This corner commemorates the dog, Greyfriars Bobby, who is a Scottish legend for waiting on his master’s tombstone for 14 years.

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Random Scotish Fact: A common term used in Edinburgh is ‘NEDS,’ non-educated delinquent scum.

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January 25, 2010

Artificial energy prevails on campus

By DANIELLE FLINT

By Serena whitecotton

Daily Titan Copy Editor features@dailytitan.com

It seems as if caffeine has become an essential part of college life.

With late nights filled to the brim with studying for tests, causing irregular sleep patterns, why wouldn’t any self-respecting student reach for a strong cup of coffee or an energizing soft drink?

Now it’s easier than ever to think of caffeine as an essential part of life – it’s everywhere!

On campus alone, there are dozens of vending machines, cafés and convenience stores offering all sorts of caffeinated drinks. Even water vending machines have bottles of Rockstar and Pepsi hidden inside their mechanized bellies.

What does it do that gets us so amped up? Should we really be filling our bodies with gallons of caramel macchiato and Mountain Dew? “(Caffeine) causes increased neural activity and an increase in adrenaline, (which) increases heart rate, blood pressure and blood sugar. It also dilates pupils and opens airways.” said Colleen Kvaska, a registered dietitian and nutrition instructor.

Although caffeine can cause a rise in blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat, dizziness and heartburn, Kvaska said that moderate caffeine intake can actually help students in a college environment.

“Since college students typically don’t get enough sleep, the benefits of caffeine may outweigh the risks if it is used in moderation,” Kvaska said. “(Caffeine) may help students concentrate while sitting in class or think more clearly when doing homework if they are sleep deprived”.”

Kvaska warns, however, that there is a definite risk of addiction when a student becomes dependent on caffeine.

“Caffeine is considered a drug, and withdrawal symptoms may produce severe headaches,” said Kvaska.

English graduate student, Coralyn Foults, 22, is no stranger to caffeine addiction.

A fan of the black coffee at popular campus café Aloha Java, Foults said,

Different yoga options offered at the Rec Center Daily Titan Staff Writer features@dailytitan.com

Photo Courtesy MCT Due to insufficient sleep patterns, students increasingly rely on caffeine fixes such as coffee and soda in order to stay energized.

“Oh, yes I am addicted. If I don’t have any by at least 1 p.m., then I have a headache and become lethargic.”

Her admitted addiction didn’t seem to trouble her, and she mentioned that she didn’t think the vast number of locations to find caffeine on campus was necessarily a bad thing.

“Everything is fine in moderation.

Also, the campus is very large and having so many places to get coffee is convenient,” said Foults.

Megan Ozima, 28, an English graduate student, was also unconvinced that it is the university’s responsibility to restrict the availability of caffeine.

“They should not be mandating students’ nutrition options. As an adult it is your job to make choices for yourself, and those choices can be either positive or negative,” Ozima said.

Kvaska advised that addicted students hoping to kick their caffeine addiction “should gradually decrease their intake (by mixing) decaffeinated coffee with regular coffee.”

Graphic By Kristen Hulsey/Daily Titan Design Editor Locations where students can get caffeinated energy through coffee or soda on campus are marked by triangles.

With the start of a new year and a new semester, many Titans are trying to start a workout regimen.

Yoga is one of many forms of exercise that’s all over the news, and for good reason. It’s relaxing, it’s fun and it gets the body in shape.

According to a 2001 Time article, as many as 15 million Americans include yoga in their workout routines, and as many as 75 percent of all U.S. health clubs offer yoga classes, including Cal State Fullerton’s Student Recreation Center.

The SRC offers three different types of yoga classes: flow yoga, power yoga and Pilates (another type of exercise based off of yoga).

Flow yoga is very relaxed and focuses on regulating breath, calming the mind and building flexibility. It is very slow-paced and is typically what comes to mind when thinking about yoga.

This class is recommended for those who have never tried yoga before or who need to de-stress and calm down.

Power yoga is a much more intense workout – You will break a sweat.

Not only does this class focus on your breathing, but it also whips you into shape with fastpaced exercises and strength poses. This class is recommended for

those who want to work on both muscle and heart strength. Pilates combines ballet, dance and general stretching into one workout. The class combines the best of yoga – the meditation, the breathing – with barre exercises from ballet. Many find they exercise muscles that they never knew existed. Beginners will be sore for a couple of days afterward.

The rise in the popularity of yoga is mainly due to the amount of stress people feel, explained Bekah Finch, studio manager and yoga teacher at Yoga Blend in Burbank.

“I think people just need (yoga) more now for whatever reason – the economy, stress, money – and I think people are realizing that as the economy collapses that you can’t get that stuff from outside,” Finch said. “You can’t find happiness in stores and credit cards and clothing. There has to be something more.”

While many feel relaxed after working out at the gym, Finch said that the numerous televisions and speakers blasting music can make for a stressful environment.

When people come into a yoga class or studio, the experience changes. The lights are dimmed, incense and candles are lit, and s o f t music hums as the class focuses on meditation.

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January 25, 2010

A new norm: Body modification keting at CSUF, said that having a visible tattoo could potentially affect the way you are perceived in the business world.

“It depends on the industry,” Atkins said. “ If you career is in the arts, fashion, music, entertainment and so forth, then a tattoo won’t hurt and could even help. In professional careers like business, it could communicate the wrong message or perception.”

Atkins told of a former co-worker who changed her hair color each week from bright red, green to yellow.

“At first I found it strange,” said Atkins. “However, she became a good friend and was a superb employee. Not all managers will see this that way so it also depends on the company culture where you work.”

Hollis mentioned that the acceptability of a tattoo depends on where you are, and where and what your tattoo is of. However, she personally has never had problems with getting a job because of her tattoos or piercing.

“If someone does not hire me because I have a tattoo, I probably don’t Photo BY APRIL EHRLICH/Daily Titan Features Editor want to work there,” said Hollis. “I Mathew Wheeler, a tattoo artist at Ace’s High, injects ink into the leg of fellow tattoo artist Jay Tinoto. was advised to take out my nose piercing when I was applying for jobs as a tocommunications major at CSUF, Hollis, all but one of her six tattoos are

By MEGHAN ALFANO professor, but I decided against it. I wears plugs and has stretched her ears symbolic of certain literary terms or Daily Titan Sound-Off Editor did not want to hide who I am.” to a half an inch. She also frequently phrases that are important to her. features@dailytitan.com Whether or not they found body changes her hairstyle, and has sported Aside from her tattoos, Hollis also modifications to be attractive, all Walk around campus at Cal State various cuts and colors, including hot has her nose pierced.

Fullerton and it is likely that you will pink and purple.

“I decided to get my first tattoo be- agreed that anyone should take great consideration into Rabbetts said she began stretching cause I wantsee multiple students with various tatwhether or not it is toos, piercings or other types of body her ears after much consideration, as ed to have the right for them, espeit was something she always wanted experience,” modifications. cially with tattoos, as A growth in the popularity of tat- to do. said Hollis. they are a permanent “Body modifications are a form of “There was toos has definitely occurred. In 1936, mark on one’s body.

Life magazine reported that approxi- expression, an art form, in a way,” she no big deciRabbetts added mately 10 million Americans had at said. sion-making that aside from the Rabbetts said she isn’t perceived dif- process with least one tattoo. Today, that number physical pain, a perhas increased to over 45 million, with ferently by her peers, but that she does the first one. I son who is consider36 percent of those tattooed ages 18 to get looked upon differently by people got more tating stretching their 25, and 20 percent living on the West from older generations because of her toos as I was – Erin Hollis, ears should consider Coast, according to the Pew Research hair and plugs. inspired by the permanence of it English professor “It’s kind of a cool thing,” said Rab- literature to Center. as well.

Tattoos and body modifications betts. “People come up to me and ask live my life in “Once it gets to a have become popular in the enter- me about it. It’s a good conversation certain ways. certain point, it’s kind tainment industry as well. Celebrities starter.”

My tattoos, except for the first one, are When asked his opinion regarding all reminders to me about how to live of like a tattoo in that it will never go flaunt tattoos on the red carpet, and tattoo artist Kat Von D has gained ce- students modifying their bodies at a in the world and how to treat people.” away,” she said. “Make sure it’s someyoung age, Ace’s High tattoo artist Jay lebrity through her show “LA Ink.” However, some argue that tat- thing you’re serious about, don’t do it The growing trend in body modi- Tinoto said, “I don’t see any problem toos and body modifications are just just to do it.”

“The key is to make a thoughtful fication leads one to question: Have with it, you just got to know what you a fad in today’s popular culture, and these types of body modifications be- want. I knew what I wanted when I that having such things on your body decision because you may or may not come more acceptable, or are they just was nineteen, but what I want today could ultimately hurt your chances at have to live with such a badge of honor has changed a lot.” another fad in today’s culture? obtaining a job in certain career fields. or perception for the rest of your life,” For CSUF English professor Erin Kristin Rabbetts, a senior phoStuart Atkins, a professor of mar- said Atkins.

“

My tattoos are reminders to me about how to live in the world and how to treat people.

Illustration By Shiori Nakamura/Daily Titan Design Editor

Lose your winter pounds

By JENNIFER KARMARKAR Daily Titan Staff Writer features@dailytitan.com

Ah, January.

The eggnog has curdled, the fudge was devoured weeks ago and Aunt Martha’s fruitcake is now doing double duty as a door stop. The holidays are behind us and, for some, the only reminder of the halls we decked is the extra fat that jiggles on our gluteus maximus.

If your clothes fit a bit too snug these days, take heart: experts say the average American gains 10 to 15 pounds between Halloween and New Year’s Day. Even people with good intentions end up gaining weight, said clinical nutritionist Christine Mohler, adding that having just a single piece of candy or glass of eggnog creates a chemical reaction that lowers self control.

“And then you actually crave more of those foods. It’s an addictive cycle,” she said.

To take off holiday pounds safely, Mohler counsels her clients to drink plenty of water, avoid processed foods, limit caloric intake and step up their exercise routine. She doesn’t believe in diets, saying “weight loss has to be a lifestyle change.” And New Year’s resolutions generally fail because people tend to eat emotionally and use food as medication or to feel better, she said.

“So if something goes wrong they grab a chocolate bar. You can only have self discipline so long before you sabotage yourself,” Mohler said.

Cassandra Madsen Peterson, a human services major, said that she typically gains three to five pounds during the holidays, and this year was no exception. Only Weight Watchers could keep her on track to

losing those extra pounds.

As for New Year’s resolutions, she doesn’t believe they are any more effective than making resolutions at other times of the year.

“I believe a slower, steadier pace is most successful,” Peterson said.

“I take it a day at a time, utilize my groups, track my food intake daily, and ‘get back on the horse’ if I have a bad day.”

Most experts agree that successful weight loss combines diet and exercise. Knowing what type of exercise is most effective makes a big difference when it comes to losing body fat, said Alain Bourgault, a group exercise coordinator at the Student Fitness Center.

“People think, ‘I’m going to get on the treadmill and burn a lot of fat.’ It does, but at a lower rate,” he said.

Most of the weight loss that comes from doing cardio is water, Bourgault explained. Instead, people should focus on resistance training, which builds strength and increases metabolism. He recommends 30 minutes on cardio and then 30 minutes on machines that target specific body parts, like chest presses, leg lifts, leg curls, shoulder raises and arm curls.

Bourgault said the best way to get back in shape is to take a dropin fitness class, or get a session with a personal trainer who will get you motivated and help you set goals.

A realistic and healthy weight loss goal is one pound per week, he said.

Any more than that is just water.

Bourgault and Mohler agree on the most important advice: don’t focus on the scale.

“Muscle weighs more than fat,” Bourgault said. “The scale may not change but you can look better.”

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10

January 25, 2010

Getting to know...

Walk the Rio By kristen hulsley

Survival of Vinyl Records In an era where digital downloads dominate, plastic still proves popular.

By charles purnell

Daily Titan Design Editor

Daily Titan Staff Writer

Soundoff@dailytitan.com

Soundoff@dailytitan.com

When Shawn Walker began writing music for his grandfather’s hypnotherapy-for-children project a year and a half ago, he couldn’t have foreseen that it would be the key that would open the door to his future, or that it would bring six gifted people together to fuse their unique musical talents into one unifying sound.

Sensing that his hypnotherapy music had some serious potential, Photo by Eric Silva/For the Daily Titan Walker set out on an ambitious quest Walk the Rio is (from left to right): Shawn Walker, Justin Vidal, Dustin Russell, Eric to gather his army. He began with Rios, Christina Mansour and Marty Cole.

Eric Rios on guitar. When trying to It’s a common assumption that, the band. He has not, however, let dub their new band with a name, Walker and Rios jokingly suggested when you put six artists together, his injury hinder him. Instead, he combining both of their last names. the results typically won’t be a hap- played shows in his wheelchair and When they found it more intrigu- py union of coinciding ideas. Walk fought through the pain. According ing than humorous, they knew that the Rio seems to break that bar- to Vidal, “No matter what the obthey had found their name. Next, rier. Combining multiple genres of stacle is, do it. There’s always going Walker added Justin Vidal, Cal Sate sound, including rock and dance, to be another test. Christina said it Fullerton kinesiology major and old Walk the Rio creates a marriage of best – I have a really hard obstacle to ballet buddy (yes, ballet – tights and heavy guitars, ultramodern beats and get to a really big goal.”

Walk the Rio has released two all), on the drums. He was originally killer vocals. The result? An insane rejected by keyboardist and CSUF rocker love-child, catchy enough to EPs so far, and is currently working implant itself on a new one to be released by the illustration major permanently end of this year. As for the future, we Christina Mananyone’s can expect to see a lot of evolution in sour, but changed Walk the Rio creates into brain, regard- the sound. The newer music is “unher mind with the a marriage of heavy less of what touchable,” according to Mansour, influence of his guitars, ultramodern type of music and implements a heavier guitar song, “One More think you sound as well as a more computerSong.” He added beats and killer vocals. you love. ized and modern beat. They will also Marty Cole, bass The result? An insane Besides the be back on tour and performing once guitarist and Dustin Russell, rocker love-child, catchy expected chal- Vidal is completely healed. Russell, lead guitarist, enough to implant lenges facing lead guitarist, also emphasized a dean up-and- sire to connect people to each other around the same itselt permanently into coming band, through music. He summed it up by time. According anyone’s brain. Vidal has been saying, “The future is a bright one. to Vidal, Cole and facing his own We are making music that allows Russell were the challenge since us to play … with passion and total last pieces of the May 2009. disregard for how cool we look. We puzzle. And with May 16 at around 8 o’clock in the hope to inspire people, because we that, Walk the Rio was born.

After playing world-famous ven- morning, Vidal was hit by a car in inspire each other.”

Walk the Rio’s music can be ues like Whisky A-Go-Go, Knitting front of CSUF while riding his bike Factory, Chain Reaction and the home from a friend’s house. After found on iTunes or by visiting www.

Viper Room, not to mention play- receiving multiple spinal and col- walktherio.com. For more informaing at the 2009 Warped Tour after larbone surgeries, he is still not fin- tion on the band, upcoming events, winning the Ernie Ball Battle of the ished healing. Needless to say, the or individual members, visit the Web Bands, it seemed like they are well accident had tremendous effects on site. Also, look for Vidal or Mansour Vidal’s ability to dedicate himself to around campus for a free CD. on their way to success.

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Music industry insiders made a prediction in 1989 that vinyl records would soon be extinct.

The foresight was partially true because record companies stopped producing 45s (vinyl singles) in early 1990. The reason: buying behavior of music patrons had changed. Cassettes and compact discs proved far more appealing than the flat, black circles with only two songs on them.

As it turned out, LPs (long players in industry jargon) maintained appeal with DJs throughout the decade of cassettes and compact discs.

With the emergence of DJ software like Serato in 2001, another prediction was made – LPs would soon be extinct because digital vinyl could be used to play MP3s. Furthermore, turntables were going to be tossed to the wayside because digital turntables, allowing DJs to scratch and back cue CDs, were underway.

Music industry specialists were wrong again. Vinyl LPs survived the digital era and are still being produced by record companies and sold around the world.

Chris Cervantes, 28, of Fat Beats Records in LA, a music retail store that caters to consumers of vinyl records, says that music industry insiders three times announced predictions that vinyl would become extinct. However, according to Cervantes, no other media can compare to vinyl. When you buy an album or single, for example, the record’s jacket is like a poster. Plus, listeners can manipulate vinyl in ways they can’t with a CD or any other me-

Photo courtesy of MCT Nicole Pope, 27, left, and Ryan Bonacker, 26, look through the indie rock albums at Love Garden in Lawrence, Kan.

dia.

“Nobody’s going to give that up,” he said.

There are three reasons why LPs have managed to survive the past 20 years: some people prefer the warm analog sound of vinyl, some DJs haven’t crossed over to digital DJing because they are intimidated by the technology; either it’s too expensive, or they prefer to “dig in the crates” so to preserve that element of DJ culture, and some people simply own only analog turntables.

People like listening to music as it is being distorted. For some, the smooth, silky and noisy sound of vinyl is preferred over the shiny, bright and detailed sound of CDs and other digital media.

John Robinson, 55, who

works in Mr. C’s Records in Downtown Orange said he has customers ranging from ages 9 to 30 who buy vinyl regularly. He said they like the clicks, pops and hisses.

“Vinyl has a wider dynamic range than, let say CDs,” Cervantes said. “If you looked at a CD’s sound-waves on paper, they would all be the same size, the same range, and that makes up this compressed sound. But if you look at a sheet of paper with vinyl’s sound-waves, they would be up and down, all over the place, different ranges, giving you a fatter sound.”

No digital media, including digital vinyl, comes close to reproducing the warm, full and airy sound of vinyl.

Accordingly, vinyl will be around for many more years.

DJ Lime Green from Orange County is a professional DJ who continues to buy vinyl. He admits to crossing over to digital DJing, but he prefers to “dig in the crates” for the perfect song to cue up. According to DJ Lime Green, digging in the crates is the essence of being a DJ and one reason DJs continue buy See Vinyl, Page 12

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11

January 25, 2010

Ke$ha - Animal By adrian gaitan

Vampire Weekend – Contra

AFCGT– AFCGT

By Juanita Vasquez

Daily Titan Copy Editor Soundoff@dailytitan.com

For Fans of: Lady Gaga, La Roux

Daily Titan Staff Writer Soundoff@dailytitan.com

By April Ehrlich

Daily Titan Features Editor

For Fans of: The Hospitals, Factums, The Intelligence, Story of Rats

Soundoff@dailytitan.com

For Fans of: Animal Collective, Phoenix, The Strokes

Ke$ha debuted her first album, Animal, Jan. 5 with more than 15,000 copies sold in the first week.

Animal doesn’t express total originality, but rather distinction in this fast-changing music world. With beats that sound like something from Lady Gaga’s most recent album, The Fame Monster, or from newly-emerging electro-pop artist La Roux, it’s no wonder Ke$ha’s album shot to the number one spot of the Billboard 200 the first week on shelves.

In some songs, Ke$ha sounds like a more mature version of Ashlee Simpson back in her raspy man voice days, the only difference being Ke$ha actually knows how to use her “man voice” in a way to compliment her singing style.

What I’m really saying is, Ke$ha is actually, well, good.

When first hearing Ke$ha’s album I thought, “Oh great, here’s another ‘wanna be’ singing about getting wasted and dancing on top of the bar.” But after listening to it through a few times it’s rubbed off on me, and I’m impressed.

Ke$ha hits almost every part of the emotional spectrum right on key, like in “Party At A Rich Dude’s House,” a song describing throwing up in a closet and not being able to find articles of clothing the next morning, in comparison to “Blind” – one of the best slower songs on the album – a track describing an emotional drama-filled relationship. This song must be heard to understand the emotional intensity.

Ke$ha is a bluntly honest, badass comedian who likes to throw in sexual innuendos every so often, all while showing her vulnerable side.

The greatest thing about Vampire Weekend’s new album, Contra, is the assurance that if you enjoyed their debut, you’ll enjoy this. Although critics could argue that these boys should have spent the last two years doing something other than replicating their first album, it appears as if these four Ivy League East-Coasters realized that their fans fell in love with them for a reason. Their laidback, breezy newpop style is a jaunty catch for a friendly beat, and Contra doesn’t miss a step.

Granted, there are moments when their initial Afro-rumba energy is taken a bit too far, and suddenly what was once a simple, refreshing sound

is crowded with obnoxious tropical percussion. “Horchata” is the most extreme example – it sounds like all the banal quirks of Jamaica, Mexico, and India collectively barfed into the same song, or Vampire Weekend swiftly morphed into Animal Collective.

Nonetheless, most of the album is less daring. “White Sky” is just another “Oxford Comma,” and “Holiday” is just another “A-Punk.” The cardigan sweaters and tucked-in shirts always fit these boys well, and as usual, they

flaunt their English-Lit prep with confidence, keeping to a dancey, ska/new wave/pop style marked by wispy violin clips and occasional indie-boy yelps – not that there’s anything wrong with that.

There’s nothing more irritating than your favorite band taking too many advancement cues from the music industry, and suddenly you’re listening to an over-produced amalgam

of MTV kitsch. Vampire Weekend only twisted things a bit, making their style more fun, eccentric and party-worthy.

Even with an increased use of processed sounds and a little more weirdness, Contra remains a familiar nostalgia to what fans fell in love with two years ago – a sprightly sunny beat paired with cute collegiate prep.

Daily Titan Editor’s Picks

Beach House- Teen Dream

By Meghan Alfano

Favorite album of 2009

Daily Titan Sound-off Editor Soundoff@dailytitan.com

For Fans of: Grizzly Bear, The Raveonettes, Fiery Furnaces It is seldom I find an album I can listen to from beginning to end in a single go. Beach Houses' Teen Dream, has fit into that rare category. Each song off of the third release by duo Alex Scally and Victoria Legrande left me completely blown away by its eerie beauty.

A mix of keyboards, organs, drums and other instruments layered with Legrande's androgynous yet soft vocals, blends together in a weird but dreamy way. The production of the album is much cleaner than their previous ones, yet the band has managed to stay in tune with the sound their fans have grown accustomed to. The band takes elements of both ’60s psychedelia and ’80s synth-driven music, but not in a way that is obnoxious or painstakingly obvious.

The songs on Teen Dream are cohesive and emotional, but are at times almost too much so to take in. While listening, it feels as if Legrande is walk-

photo Courtesy of beggars group

Sergio Cabaruvias – Executive Editor The Diry Projectors – Bitt Orca Jeremiah Magan – Managing Editor Patton Oswalt – My Weakness is Strong ing listeners through the various stages of a faltering relationship. "Walk in the Park" stood out the most; a tale of coming to terms with heartbreak as Legrande sings, "In a matter of time, it would slip from my mind." "Take Care" is an ideal end to the lineup, finishing an album ample with lyrics of heartbreak and sadness simply with the lines "I'd take care of you if you'd ask me to in a year or two."

While the lyrics are not uplifting, the arrangement of music itself is sunny and melodic. Teen Dream is ideal background music for relaxing at the beach, or bike riding through a park.

There is no doubt in my mind that Teen Dream will be on many "Top of 2010" lists, and a staple in my own personal music collection for a long time to come.

Teen Dream is out Jan 26.

Gilbert Gutierrez III – Asst. Sports Editor Weezer – Ratitude Meghan Alfano – Sound-off Editor Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer April Ehrlich – Features Editor The Pomegranates – Everybody Come Outside Christa Connelly – Photo Editor Andrew Jackson Jhihad – Can’t Maintain Skylar Smith – Opinions Editor Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion

AFCGT is the result of the bands A Frames and Climax Golden Twins morphing into one entity. They have produced music that, although appears accidental and incongruous, fits perfectly into a puzzle of free-forming jams. The five-member band uses rock instruments to create an arsenal of sounds and noises that are reminiscent of meditation, outer space, and psychedelic boat rides. Think of three guitars, one bass and a drum kit put inside a small boat, rocked gently in a sea of electronic noises, and slowly pushed ashore by the underlying tracks of raspy guitar sounds and occasional voices.

Closing one’s eyes is the recommended method of listening to AFCGT, for only then can the seven tracks be taken in as they should – free of any distractions that might interfere with musical enjoyment. Although there might be a moment in which it appears as if the songs don’t flow together in the album, AFCGT have a cunning way of moving their music around until it sounds like a collage made up of droning effects and layered sounds.

It is the murmuring echoes found in every song that makes it possible to join the loud and vigorous drumming in “Black Mark” to the slow-moving pace of “Two Legged Dog.” This constant rhythm has such an affect on the auditory stimulants of the brain, that if you continue to listen with your eyes closed at the end of “Slide 9,” your eyes might just want to remain closed to savor the sounds of fingers sliding up and down the strings of a bass guitar.

12

January 25, 2010

Monday, Jan 25 Eugene and the 1914 Band, The Steelwells, Dusty Rhodes & The River Band, Mississippi Man Silverlake Lounge, free 21+ 8:00p.m.

Year Long Disaster, Dirty Sweet, Karma To Burn, Dead Meat Spaceland, free 21+ 8:30p.m.

The French Semester, Team Abraham, Le Switch, Wonderground The Echo, free 21+ 8:30 p.m.

Girls Detroit Bar, $12 21+ 8:00p.m.

Tuesday, Jan 26 Olin And The Moon, The Henry Clay People The Echo, free 21+ 8:00p.m.

The Cribs (feat. Johnny Marr), Jemina Pearl The Glasshouse, $15 all ages 7:00p.m.

Wednesday, Jan 27 The Airborne Toxic Event The Troubadour, $45 all ages, 8:00p.m.

Love or Death, Hydra Melody, Dirty Madame The Viper Room, $10 21+ 7:30p.m.

Lucy Schwartz – Record release show The Hotel Cafe, 21+ 9:00p.m.

Thursday, Jan 28 Fruit Bats, Citay The Echo (Echoplex), $13, 8:30p.m.

The Parson Red Heads, The Chapin Sisters, Social Studies, All Spots To Black The Echo, $7 18+ 8:30pm The Mother Hips The Hotel Cafe, $15 21+ 6:30p.m.

Abe Vigoda, Silk Flowers, Bronze, Pearl Harbor The Smell, $5 all ages 9:00p.m.

Friday, Jan 29 Polysics The Roxy, 16.50 8:00pm Ceremony, Rotting Out, Wolves and Thieves The Glass House, $10 all ages 7:00p.m.

Saturday, Jan 30 The Residents The Henry Fonda, $23 all ages 8:00pm Bowerbirds, Julie Doiron The Echo, $10 all ages 5:00p.m.

Moving Units, Rumspringa, Casxio The Glass House, $20 all ages, 7:00 Agnotsic Front,Death by Stereo The Galaxy $13 all ages, 8:00p.m.

Sunday, Jan 31 Bobby Syvarth The Hotel Cafe, 21+ 8:00p.m.

Vinyl: Music fans stay loyal to old school discs From Page 10 ing vinyl.

“I still rock vinyl at hip-hop shows in conjunction with Serato,” he said.

And then there are the DJs who just aren’t Internet savvy.

Depending solely on a computer to store and playback music is risky because hard drives crash. DJs buy vinyl these days to back up their MP3 playlists in case something goes wrong with their hard drives.

In addition to backing up hard drives, some DJs purchase vinyl because they don’t want to pay for, or can’t afford, digital DJ software which ranges in price from $299.99 to $699.99.

Cervantes said one reason why people are sticking with vinyl records over digital vinyl is because there is latency from where the needle is on the digital vinyl and the playback of the MP3. The latency can throw a DJ off beat, especially when he or she is

scratching.

Although there is latency involved when playing vinyl records, everything is still in real time.

Lastly, there are people in this world who own turntables and enjoy playing back vinyl records. Companies such as Sony and Vestax still produce record players. Vestax record players have a built in speaker, eliminating the need for an amplifier.

Cervantes says there is still a market for vinyl records, as long as they are packaged properly and come out on time.

Sales of vinyl records comprise 80 percent of gross sales in Fat Beats Records.

DJ Lime Green said major labels are only pressing vinyl records that are guaranteed to sell, and most singles come out on vinyl after the single is played-out. Lime Green said “Swagga Like Us” by rappers T.I. and Jay-Z came out on vinyl six month late.

“Vinyl will never die 100 percent,” he said. “All the wax that comes out in super low quantities over the next few years will become collector items.”

According to Cervantes, there are enough die-hard vinyl users to keep vinyl records alive. He also predicts a backlash effect in the realm of digital DJing. Newer DJs are going to look at other DJs and wonder why they are using digital vinyl when regular vinyl is better for mixing. And then new-school DJs are going to stick with vinyl records to out do the digital DJs. DJ Lime Green has a similar prediction.

“I think in a few years people are going to wake up, or there’s going to be a whole new generation that is going to see all the old-school stuff and be like ‘forget these new school cats playing music off their laptops. We need to take it back,’” he said. “And I think it will be considered cool to play records again.”

Underground Sounds

The Top 40 beat down Merriweather Post Pavilion last year.

The song starts off with a slow drone that lulls you in and gives way to Soundoff@dailytitan.com grooveable drumming beats and an uplifting harmony. You might not Do you think Ke$ha has seen be able to do the “Guido fist-pump” to it, but it has that pleasant feeling Mick Jagger recently?

The dude is pushing 70 and, that, when embraced with lyrics and don’t get me wrong, he’s way cool, overlapping harmonies, reminds me but by no means in his prime. I so much of the style of Brian Wilson imagine that if he were to ap- from the Beach Boys.

But maybe you just like songs proach a 20-something girl at a nightclub, she would not let him that make you want to dance, and “try to touch my junk,” unless she Animal Collective isn’t your booty were sporting some serious beer- shakin’ music. Or perhaps you think goggles, which by tone of the song it sounds too much like hippie could be entirely possible. Seems drumming music. Fair enough.

If you’d like something that’s like a story from Texts From Last Night. It’s a catchy song, but I’ve funky and has hip-hop swagger, then I strongly recommend listening had enough.

I ask myself questions of this to “Let There Be Horns” by RJD2 sort when songs like “Tik Tok,” on his freshest album The Colossus.

Ke$ha’s Top 40 single, become so RJD2’s debut album, Deadringer, popular that they literally creep was also pretty good if you dig funky their way into my ears on a weekly dance beats.

“There are no lyrics in that song. I basis and, like a Pavlovian dog, I get sick at the very sound of them. need to hear the singer tellin’ me to Pardon my indie pretentiousness. rock that body,” you say? Well I can’t So here it is: I have dedicated honestly recommend Timbaland’s myself to finding alternatives, “Carry Out,” except for maybe the have completely rejected AM/FM Alvin and the Chipmunks remix. Seriously radio (the shutthough, down of Indie 103.1 was when I I have dedicated myself hcan o youw lost all hope) and to finding alternatives, write a have gone to the song inInternet (the new have completely rejected spired by underground, if AM/FM radio, and have the extra you will) in search gone to the Internet in value of music that is new, noteworthy search of music that is new, menu at and good – in my noteworthy, and good – in McDona l d s ? opinion at least. my opinion, at least. “ Ta k e The track my order “What Would I ‘cause Want? Sky” from the Fall Be Kind EP shows that your body like a carry out.” You Animal Collective is still making must be kidding me. It’s this kind great strides as a musical group, of Top-40 slop that needs to stop, even after the huge success of people.

By Skyler blair

For the Daily Titan

“

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Event Calendar: January 25-30

Here’s a song that is uplifting, danceable, has lyrics and doesn’t use fast food as a metaphor for getting laid: “I Will Be Here” featuring Sneaky Sound System on Tiesto’s new album Kaleidoscope. The single is littered with bits of trance which makes this collaboration very intriguing.

Typically in dance type songs, the bass stomps out most vocal harmony. But in “I Will Be Here” Tiesto seems to work in tandem with the lyrics to make a song that is both a club thumper and has meaningful lyrics. Eat that Timbaland.

For the next one, I’m knowingly throwing out some haterbait by mentioning anything indie-pop related, but here it goes. Surfer Blood is an awesome indie-rock band from Florida that has the same, echo-y vocals as Animal Collective, so I thought I would keep them out.

Somehow they got together with the Allen Blickle, the drummer from Baroness (a heavy metal band from Georgia) and created an incredible remix to the song “Swim (To Reach The End),” Surfer Blood’s number one track from Astro Coast. I like to think of it as hard-indie, same thing you get when you have a hipster at a Vampire Weekend show … zing! But seriously, it’s an infectious amalgam from both sides of the rock spectrum that’s a real treat to listen to.

I hope these suggestions have provided an acceptable alternative if you are tired of hearing Jason Derulo’s embarrassing rip off of Imogen Heap or the same old Nirvana songs for the millionth time. If not, at least you can say you attempted to broaden your horizons.

13

January 25, 2010

Inked and loving it By brittny uLate

Daily Titan Detour Editor detour@dailytitan.com

Draft beer, dried fruit and mini-rockabilly style clothes for infants shared space with tattoo and body piercing booths representing different artists and tattoo shops from all over Southern California – and as far as Arizona – at the Body Art Expo in Pomona this past weekend.

The three-day event, which was put on by Hacienda Heights-based Mega Productions, was a letdown in terms of expectations, as it only occupied half of the building in which it was located. Though it did work as a way to introduce people to the world of tattooing and some of the culture that goes along with it.

Admission to the event cost $20, which in this economy is a huge rip-off, considering you can take in all the expo has to offer in less than an hour. Unless, of course, you’re getting a tattoo. To add insult to injury, if you get thirsty you’ll have to shell out another $10 to get a small beer from the couple of booths offering the beverage.

The saving grace of the expo were the actual tattoo artists and the people running the booths. There was a sense of camaraderie in the air as patrons and sellers alike shared their common interest and love for tattoos, body piercings and the unique culture that surrounds the body modification community. Everyone was welcoming and friendly as interested attendees walked up and checked out their booths.

Tattoo parlors, like Club Tattoo, came from as far away as Phoenix, Ariz., while All Hallow’s Ink Tattoo represented the Orange County area, hailing from Fullerton. Most of the tattooing booths came prepared to do on-site tattoos, many with their portfolios open to entice future clients. One of the popular attractions was the Sailor Jerry booth, which featured artists Dave Sanchez and Dre Perales. Sanchez did a lot of Dia de los Muertos themed work, while Perales was busy adding to tattoo enthusiast Paul Santos’ collection of body artwork, which already included about 11 pieces that featured an anchor with a banner that read “Strength through Struggle.”

The expo was a way for artists to show off their skills, as they did their tattooing out in the open – some even drawing their designs right on their client's body, forgoing the traditional stencil, with all to see as they walked by.

Body piercing was also done on site. Belly buttons, eyebrows and ears were all fair game for piercers at the expo. Both traditional and not-so-traditional hardware were available for potential clients, including plug earrings – which are growing in popularity. Plugs usually go from 22 gauge (being the smallest) to the most widely used size, 00 gauge, which is approximately 10 mm. They can of course go bigger, and at the expo they accommodated those willing to try, with some plugs as big as two to three inches.

For some, the expo was a way to get an idea of what kind of tattoos are out there.

For others, it was more about business. Vendors sold everything from ink to tattoo beds. Luis Serrano, a tattoo artist working out of Pasadena, was there to get supplies

and said the LA-based expo was actually “getting worse,” in comparison to other expos he’s visited, including ones held in San Francisco and Las Vegas.

Clothing companies were another popular attraction at the expo.

The Clothesline, a Santa Fe Springs-based store owned

by Diana and Brandy Weingart, offered higher-end rockabilly-style clothes – originally priced as high as $280 – at least half off, along with jewelry featuring brass knuckles, necklaces and skeleton hand barrettes. Another clothing line, The Civilian Press, combined sexual appeal with traditional tattoo images like Dia de los Muertos skulls, roses and sacred hearts.

With body piercing and tattoos becoming much more accepted in society and celebrated in mainstream media with shows like LA Ink and Miami Ink on TLC, and Inked on the A&E network, one would think a Body Art Expo held anywhere in LA county would be a popular destination.

According to a 2008 Harris Poll, 20 percent of Americans living in the West have at least one tattoo.

Body modification is increasingly looked upon less as a taboo, and more as a form of expression.

Indeed, when going through tattoo artists’ portfolios and seeing the actual tattoos on people walking through the aisles, you feel like you’re in an art gallery and the people are walking canvases. Whether it be a tribute tattoo to a loved one or a funny keepsake to always remind you of a cherished moment in your life, tattoos are leaving their Photo By shruti patel/For the Daily Titan mark on society.

‘Art Paty’ thrown by local skateboarders By charles purnell

Daily Titan Staff Writer detour@dailytitan.com

Artwork from creative minds within the local skateboarding community are being displayed in an exhibit titled “Art Party 2” at downtown Fullerton's Hibbleton Gallery through Feb. 7.

The gallery, located on Wilshire Avenue, contains paintings by Scott Lee, a skater and recent college graduate who majored in illustration; paintings on foam by Michael Myers, who skates and works as a graphic designer and Web site developer; paintings by Rob White who works as a Web site developer for Liberty

Skateboard Shop in Brea; black and white photography by Austyn Gillette, who is a professional skater; and line drawings by Michael Hsiung who isn’t a skater – the gallery owners just like his work enough to bring in four of his drawings.

The gallery is open Thursday and Friday 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The photography by Gillette hangs on a wall five feet away from, and facing, the entrance, but a DJ rig to the left tends to attract the eyes of visitors first when they walk in.

The rig acts as a leading line to a bookshelf of used books that cost $2.

To the right of the bookshelf begins the oil on canvas paintings by Lee.

“Pansies for the Pickens” is a 35by-22 fantastic painting of an attractive and nude brunette holding a flower that has five petals.

In front of her lies a colossal alien insect that is dead, or extremely sick, from eating one of the flower’s petals. The alien insect has jumbo teeth that are cracked and it has no lips.

The jumbo teeth but no lips trait shows up again, this time on a 5-foot-6-inch-by-7-foot-6-inch watercolor painting of a green monkey with a pink face.

The monkey is climbing a tree and clenching an attractive woman – similar to the famous scene in the movie King Kong. A baby monkey is holding on to the parent monkey’s lower back.

There are five other 5-foot-6inch-by-7-foot-6-inch watercolor paintings by Lee on display. Three of them have been purchased. The buyers will take them when the exhibit ends.

Lee’s mother, Carol Lee, created a mosaic skateboard deck that is featured beneath Lee’s 5-foot-6-inchby-7-foot-6-inch watercolor painting.

“Skull Stream and Moon Flowers” is a skateboard deck decorated with glass tiles, stones, geode slices, stained glass and ceramic tile. The deck has been bought for $150.

Past Lee’s paintings and his mom’s mosaic skateboard deck are Myers’ hand-painted silk-screens and gouaches on foam.

One of the gallery’s four owners, Landon Lewis, 27, described Myers’ paintings as lowbrow street art, which is art that usually has a humorous message and is combined with street art.

For the rest of the story, go to Dailytitan.com/2010/01/art partyathibbleton

Childhood friend returns with live act in LA Photo By shruti patel / For the Daily Titan Scott Lee’s “Pansies for the Pickens” is open for interpretation at the Hibbleton Gallery exhibit, “Art party #2,” in Downtown Fullerton.

By damon lowney

Daily Titan Online Editor detour@dailytitan.com

Let's get this out of the way right now: I didn't watch Pee-wee Herman when I was a kid, nor did I watch it when it appeared on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim in 2006. Yes, I caught an episode here and there, but I just don't enjoy him that much.

“The Pee-wee Herman Show” at the Nokia Club in downtown LA, which I attended last Thursday night, didn't change my mind. In fact, the live show was almost exactly how it is on the tube: bright and kid-friendly with blatant humor.

It was refreshing to go to a play that filled its intermissions with a classic cartoon, another mainstay of the show.

I think what draws people to this show is unexplainable. If a fan tried to explain why he or she likes Pee-wee Herman, I would probably lose myself in a flurry of half-baked theses.

It's not a very deep show and it's predictable, but it's also unique because of its weirdness. What other

show features a black cowboy dressed in purple and pink? This weirdness is trademark Pee-wee Herman, but there was some subtle adult humor thrown in for the older crowd to relate to.

The people in attendance were almost exclusively adults who grew

up watching his TV show, Pee-wee's Playhouse. Taking that into account, this production is obviously aimed at adults.

The funniest scene of the show featured a bear and Pee-wee sitting on a bench. He was mourning about his

Photo courtesy of Ed krieger Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens), Ginger, Flowers and Cowboy Curtis (Phil LaMarr) entertain the crowd at the Nokia Club.

unselfish decision to give up his wish to his friend, Miss Yvonne. The bear wasn't actually a bear; he revealed himself to be a man in a bear suit who had made some "mistakes" in his life. The bear made it clear that little Pee-wee could confide in him as he scooted closer to the gray-suited, white sneakered "boy." I almost felt as if a van would roll up and abduct Peewee on set.

But if you are already a fan of the show, there's a lot to like here. It doesn't stray far from the tried-andtrue Pee-wee formula that netted so many fans in the ’80s and ’90s. Paul Reubens, who plays Pee-wee Herman, is wise to cater to the generation that grew up watching him.

"If I could fly, I would be the luckiest boy in the world," Pee-wee Herman stated shortly after the show commenced, but I'm not so sure this show will fly above the rest. In the end, well, I'm not going to tell you. If you are new to the show and you think $29.50 is not a fair price to pay to watch Pee-wee's story, you shouldn't go. Let the fans enjoy this one.

14

January 25, 2010

MOVIE By shruti patel

For the Daily Titan

detour@dailytitan.com

The Book of Eli stars Denzel Washington in a role that is as intense as his usual movies. But as main character Eli it seems that he shines in a different light.

The movie takes place after the apocalypse, referred to as “Big Flash,” and follows Washington on a 30-year journey to deliver a sacred book to a place he isn’t sure even exists. The movie starts off with a slightly confusing scene – a very tight shot – which made it difficult to decipher what I was seeing on the big screen. The movie is mostly shot in monochrome, different shades of a single color, which made it easier to understand the time period, but added to some of the confusion.

As the movie progressed, the story began to unfold, and it was easy enough to follow the storyline and

MOVIE By adrian gaitan

Daily Titan Copy Editor detour@dailytitan.com

Nine is the story of Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis), a debonair Italian man with multiple – and might I add­ gorgeous – lovers looking for his latest inspiration for his up-andcoming ninth film, “Italia.”

Intriguing and original, right?

As a whole, this musical was a total disappointment.

I expected so much more from Chicago director Rob Marshall. But when you take out all the dialogue, and just leave the musical numbers of the film, it turns into this great masterpiece – OK, maybe not masterpiece, but

get caught up with what was happening to the characters.

Seeing Washington fight off a group of five or more people at once, and coming out unscathed, seemed almost unimaginable. While it seems that Washington was a savior riding in on a white horse was a bit dramatic, his heroic actions proved to be absolutely necessary.

Gary Oldman plays antagonist Carnegie, a power-hungry town mayor who is after the book – which he cannot find no matter how much he tries. Carnegie sends out his own set of barbarians (who are combated

by Washington) to jump, pillage and take all that they can – including every book left over from the “Big Flash.” A few scenes, which I personally did not think were appropriate, had me thinking of The Hills Have Eyes due to their barbaric undertones and the showing off of male chauvinistic pride.

Mila Kunis plays a sensational part as an outspoken but submissive "possession" to Oldman. Not only does she end up helping Washington

with his quest, but she also learns to become her own woman along the way.

This was a different kind of movie for the Hughes brothers and it was success.

Not only did it show that they can do something different, but they showed something that has been done so many times in a new perspective.

it is good. I mean come on, look at the cast; they’re all, for the most part, amazing actors and singers.

Marion Cotillard plays Louisa Contini, Guido’s innocent, loving and talented wife. Maybe I’ve been under a rock, but I’ve never even heard of Cotillard until this movie. Her talent and beauty impressed me, so I won’t bag on her too badly. I loved her role and song “My Husband Makes Movies.”

Penélope Cruz plays Carla, Guido’s sexy mistress, and was a total smoldering temptress throughout the entire movie. Her song “A Call From the Vatican” was ridiculously hot and borderline soft porn.

Nicole Kidman plays Claudia, the star of Guido’s eight other films and his muse.

When seeing Kidman’s name on the list of actresses to

star in the film I thought, “Could this movie be the next Moulin Rouge?!” It sure wasn’t.

It was so disappointing to find out Kidman was only in the movie for 2.5 seconds. OK, I’m being a little dramatic, but she was only in the movie for one scene that lasted about 10 minutes. Come on Marshall, utilize who you’ve cast, especially when they have talent like Kidman’s.

Kate Hudson plays American fashion editor Stephanie, an admirer of Guido who tries to seduce him after multiple rounds of drinks.

Really, who would have thought that Hudson had a set of lungs on her? Her song “Cinema Italiano” was by far the best performance in the movie. It consisted of tons of lights, a runway and about 20 men in slimming black suits with skinny black ties along with Hudson in a silver-sequined mini dress. This two-minute performance made the movie worth the $11.

For fans of any of these women I would suggest you not waste your money and just watch their individual acts on YouTube.

BOOK

By BRITTNY ULATE

Daily Titan Detour Editor detour@dailytitan.com

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is less of an escapist mechanism for the reader and more of a form of therapy for the author. Alison Bechdel seemingly used the graphic novel as a way to explore the complex relationship she had with her father, and took a retrospective look at her coming out and at his death.

That being said, Fun Home is a thought-provoking and darkly comedic read. Graphic novels are no longer just for action stories filled with superheroes and villains, they are being increasingly used as legitimate storytelling media.

Fun Home teeters on the edge of being referred to as “chick lit:” an increasingly popular term being used to describe literature that has female antagonists and deals

WEB

By Skylar smith

Daily Titan Opinion Editor detour@dailytitan.com

Do you spend three hours a night browsing YouTube for music videos and little hidden bootleg recordings of your favorite artists?

Do you relish those little DVD extras on concert movies that show the band doing an intimate backstage performance? Well, here is a Web site meant for you.

Blogotheque.net is a French music blog focusing on much of the world's indie scene. Once Google has finished translating the page for you, there are several well-written articles about some bigger-name bands, some indie bands and several French bands you may not have heard of at your disposal. While all of that is great, it isn't the best part of the site.

La Blogotheque's most popular feature is a sub section called "Concerts A Emporter" or "TakeAway Shows." It's essentially a col-

heavily with a woman’s outlook on love, sex and romance. Yes, the main character is female, being an autobiography, but the subject matter isn’t exclusive to a woman’s perspective.

The novel chronicles Bechdel’s life from childhood to her years in college, when she first realized she was gay.

The story balances itself between flashbacks, with no real present tense

being established and Bechdel’s narrative smoothly transitioning from one decade in her life to another, finding connections and similarities between her life and that of her father’s.

The panels, if taken by themselves, are superb. There is enough detail in each one to entice the eye, even if you aren’t following the story, which at times is hard to do.

Being the daughter of an English teacher and studying it herself at Oberlin College, Bechdel sometimes bogs down the story with literary allusions, leaving the reader at times a little lost.

If reading at night, it can act as potential Ambien.

The story is a painfully honest look at the life of her closeted-gay father and his struggles of dealing with family life and his true feelings, which he acts upon, much to the detriment of his family.

Fun Home is an interesting read that questions parent-child relationships and in turn makes you question your own.

lection of videos of bands performing in non-traditional venues. From the rooftops of Paris to crowded trollies in San Fransisco, La Blogotheque has some of modern music’s best up-and-coming stars performing their favorite songs in a way that only a small camera and an embedded video could create.

The great thing about "Take-Away Shows" is that each video has a blog accompanying it, describing how the band found the location and how the blogger convinced the band to perform. It also includes any potential run-ins with the law or other fun anecdotes and facts that the band might have. These bits of storytelling add a depth to each video that lets you in on that band's life for a brief moment.

Even big names like Sigur Ros and Cold War Kids have graced the camera and revealed a bit of their own personality.

For an introduction to what "Take-

Away Shows" is all about, I love showing people video number 10. It features the now immensely popular and beloved band Grizzly Bear, as they were back in 2006, when they made videos but almost no one had heard of them.

Another great concert is by the band Cold War Kids. Highlights from their video include a bare-bones performance of "St.John" as they are wheeled on large loading crate through a warehouse. They later perform their song "God, Make up Your Mind" to a bus full of students in a dark parking lot.

Some of my other favorites are: Beirut preforming "Nantes" with his full band next to a café in France and Delta Spirit performing "Strange Vine" in a carpet shop where they purchased a harmonium from the owner, all adding to the charm of the site.

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January 25, 2010

Titan Editorial

Providing insight, analysis and perspective since 1960

Corporate Campaign Funding Last year, Cal State Fullerton held its annual Constitution week; a week of studying and celebration of constitutional law. Monday of that week, the dean of the new UC Irvine law school, Erwin Chemerinsky, gave a lecture about the Supreme Court.

In that lecture, he said the following about a case in which a company violated the first amendment law and made a degrading ad against Senator Hillary Clinton: “Corporations exist to make money for the shareholders who own them ... Corporations have the First Amendment right to give as much money to candidates as they want to. This will dramatically change elections in the U.S.” Chemerinsky was right. That case was one in favor of the corporation’s right to invest in political campaigns however they wish.

This ruling negated over a decade’s worth of important cases and rulings. No longer are corporations restricted by those pesky 1907, 1974 and 2002 rulings that made it so neither they nor unions could create their own political campaign ads. No longer are multinational corporations held back from blatantly supporting any running senator, governor, House representative or president who may advance their corporate agenda.

Guess what, Sony’s got a megaphone for politics now, and you can bet your ass it will be impressive, sleek and in HD. So why is this so bad for us as private citizens and students? Because as President Obama put it, he couldn’t “think of anything more devastating to the public interest.”

As it stood before this case, no corporation could make their own political ad campaign in support or against a candidate, nor could they

invest as much as they wanted into a candidate. Now the advertising flood gates are open and it’s bad news for all of us voters.

This gives corporations the ability to drown out the voices of the public, by buying the votes of elected officials who have more say in Washington than you or me. This also means the money invested by private citizens for campaigns is pointless, as the only people who have the millions of dollars it takes to support a campaign are probably already CEOs of a major corporation. Why would a politician ask his neighbors for campaign dollars when Viacom is more than willing to pay for it? Why should students even bother paying for a campaign t-shirt when the investment means nothing?

Secondly, this puts more power in the hands of multinational corporations. Companies that already have a stake in countries around the world can invest in American politics.

Finally, the 5-4 decision was made with a perfect ideological split. The four Republicans voted in favor of corporations, and the four Democrats voted against.

With the swing vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who usually siding with conservatives. Why is this?

The Republican party is known to give tax cuts to corporations, where as the Democrats are known to tax the wealthy. Which party are corporations likely to invest in? Republicans or Democrats?

Exactly.

As journalists, we enjoy our freedom under the First Amendment and do not like criticizing laws in favor of it. However, giving corporations control over campaign advertising is the first stepping stone down a bad road.

Should skateboarding be allowed anywhere on campus?

By Jeremiah Magan

Daily Titan Managing Editor opinion@dailytitan.com

While discrimination comes in many forms, it is always wrong.

Whether that discrimination is based upon ethnicity, religion or something else, it is wrong to have one set of rules for one group and have different rules for another.

While bikes and scooters are acceptable forms of transportation around Cal State Fullerton, as long as they remain within designated lanes/areas, skateboards are outright banned.

What makes people who ride skateboards worthy of discrimination over people who choose to ride a bike or scooter around campus? This is a clear case of transportation-ism. Skateboards are just as legitimate forms of transportation as any other form of human-powered vehicle.

President Milton Gordon issued Directive No. 16 as a clear set of rules regarding what vehicles may or may not be used on campus. The frequently asked questions page about Directive No. 16 states that, “Skateboards may not be ridden anywhere on campus, including parking structures and residence hall

walk ways, except for instructional purposes and/or during University sanctioned events.”

This is an unfair proclamation.

The university’s reason for banning skateboards is flimsy at best.

“Skateboarding is restricted on campus because of the likelihood that if a skateboarder falls, he or she will inadvertently project his or her skateboard into another person. In addition, those performing ‘tricks’ using their skateboards are very likely to damage University property in the process.”

To say that the skateboarder WILL hit another person with their skateboard if they fall is a baseless judgment. To assume that skateboards cannot be ridden without the rider inevitably knocking out someone’s tooth is a nothing more than an assumption based on rare occurrences.

The school’s concern for student safety is admirable, but to assume that accidents cannot happen because of people on scooters and bicycles is ignorant.

While it is true that on occasion a skateboard will launch in the air if its rider falls, it is just as likely that a cyclist will lose focus while riding on campus and hit another student or that someone will hit a rock and lose control of their scooter.

The reality is that it is difficult to get around the campus on a standard-sized skateboard because of the type of cement used on campus.

No one is asking that CSUF repave the campus to make it skateboard-friendly, only that those who know how to properly ride a skateboard be afforded the luxury to use their preferred form of transportation.

By Skylar SMith

Daily Titan Opinion Editor opinion@dailytitan.com

As long as I can remember, there have always been issues with skateboards on campus.

From elementary school all the way up to college, I have heard countless skateboarders complain about not being able to skate either on or around campus. I have witnessed many of my friends receive detentions and even be stopped by cops on campus.

In college, the students are less rebellious and those on skateboards dont have stickers that read “Sk8ting isn’t a crime” on their backpacks. Most of the riders I see at Cal State Fullerton ride long boards, some clumsily riding their friend’s skateboard.

Still people get up in arms about a ban on skateboarding around campus.

Sure, the reasoning President Milton Gordon gives for banning skateboards on campus may be flimsy on paper, but I can see his point and fully agree.

What is the major difference between bikes and scooters, which are given limited riding space on campus, and skateboards, which have no access? Skateboards do not have brakes. Let’s say you are

riding down the paved hill from the Kinesiology Building to the Pollack Library and you’re on a bike.

You are building up speed, and so far, no one is in your way.

Suddenly you hear a friend shout your name, you turn to see who it is and wave. After acknowledging your friend, you turn around and a student running to get to class is right in your path! You slam on your breaks and avoid collision.

What would happen with a skateboard? With no brakes, you would have either swerved onto the grass (potentially harming yourself ), collided with the student (possibly injuring you both), or jumped off the board (sending it flying in a random direction).

Sure this scenario seems exaggerated, and sure this doesn’t happen on a daily basis, but you can see why Gordon might be concerned.

CSUF is a campus filled with little cracks, dips and garden hoses for skateboards to catch their wheels on; cracks that one wouldn’t even notice on a bike. I have seen even the most experienced skateboarders fall to the wrath of unexpected cracks. I have seen students on boards with huge wheels loose their balance in an attempt to make a tight turn, or dodge another walking student and send their board flying into the shins of an unsuspecting person.

Before you get mad at the man for keepin’ you down, just take it into perspective and realize how potentially dangerous skateboarding is on an especially crowded campus. Even bikes, a fairly safe mode of transportation, have very limited riding access throughout campus. Keep your board at home and take a nice walk to class.

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January 25, 2010

“Made from 100% all-natural opinion”

A foreward to readers

by April Ehrlich

Daily Titan Features Editor opinion@dailytitan.com

Call me what you will – a liberal, flower-picking hippie, a dirty, treehugging freak, or a nerd with nothing better to do than to preach about why I am better than you because I recycle my water bottles. That’s not what this is about.

We’re talking about some greater cause that has succumbed to a trendy kitsch; a fashionable political statement that has lost all meaning.

As students sport their new tote bags embellished with giant green recycle emblems, found by the dozens at your local Target or Wal-Mart, the cliché green movement once reserved for high-end LA ardor has transcended into the most commonplace of everyday living, and not many of the affected understand what it means.

Here we have “Going Green,” starring Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, and George Clooney, with a thought-provoking message stating that together, we can make this world a better place.

How? By trading in your polluting gas-guzzler for a Lexus hybrid SUV. By purchasing reusable bags from your local grocery store, only to store them behind your fridge, never to see the light of day again.

By drinking from Starbucks’ coffee cups, made from 10 percent postconsumer products, then dumping them in the nearest trash bin.

What was once an innocent cause dedicated to the improvement of humanity, has been stripped of all morality and stamped with an attractive logo, all because major corporations recognized the consumer’s malleability regarding everything Hollywood.

And so, the moment that Leonardo DiCaprio established his own foundation to promote environmental

causes, Nordstrom’s slapped a bunch of exclamatory hippie t-shirts onto every spoiled teenybopper’s back before anyone could say, “That’s so chic.”

Nonetheless, aside from the media coverage and celebrity advocates, this decade’s green movement stands out in its ability to collect a considerable amount of legislative support.

Not only are the most beautiful people in the world (i.e. George Clooney) interested in preserving the planet, the leaders of our nation are taking action and making real

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we could learn, considering we are the most gluttonous, hazardous species on this planet, and we contribute no beneficial traits to the natural ecosystem.

Granted, we can’t suddenly immerse ourselves into the wild without domesticities, such as a working shower, a full-size mattress, and precut meat, because that’s all we were raised to know (Alexander Supertramp proved that).

Yet, considering our own American habits, we are comparatively the most wasteful culture in terms of food, automotive, and spending way beyond what we can afford.

Try to see the green movement not so much as a pretty color, but as an act of regulation.

Much like one fasts in order to prevent the consumptive sin of gluttony, we must limit our purchases to the bare essentials, which can both indirectly better our planet and directly impact your lifestyle, and your bank account.

That’s what this is all about. By taking a look at the green movement as it is today, it’s utter silliness and complete seriousness, “Shades of Green” will unveil the movement’s positive tactics that can better your own personal lifestyle, whether it be putting your grocery list on a diet, refilling water bottles with filtered tap water or learning the techniques of reusing and recycling.

True, we may be too far into the damage to really fix things at this point, and no matter what, we are slowly heading towards the earth’s imminent demise, but if we share whatever is left of the its life-sustaining resources, we can enhance its lifespan so we don’t have to see our children’s children suffocate from lack of vegetation or be microwaved by global warming.

An eco-friendly lifestyle is more than using energy-efficient light bulbs or zipping through five-lane highways in a Prius.

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changes.

For instance, over 7,800 federal lobbyists were hired in 2008 to pressure Congress on energy and environmental issues. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama has been pushing plans to limit the amount of carbon emissions released into the atmosphere since the day he was sworn into office.

With such national lifestyle changes in consideration, we must stand back and wonder, what is the cause of all this? Why go green?

An eco-friendly lifestyle is more than using energy-efficient light bulbs or zipping through five-lane highways in a Prius. The first green movement of the 1970s emphasized the fundamentals of life – taking only what you need.

This seems to be the best lesson

Alien in America “From the inside looking out”

The weather outside is frightful

by Isa Ghani

Daily Titan Multimedia Editor opinion@dailytitan.com

Don’t you hate going back to school after winter break? I sure do.

The problem with winter break is that a month is not long enough for you to get bored and want to go back to school.

In summer, the first month is action packed with days at the beach, party-filled nights and figuring out how to get laid.

The second month usually consists of lazing around in bed all day, figuring out how you can play video games while lying down, or getting food delivered directly to your bedroom door.

By the third month you’re aching for something real to do. You don’t mind so much getting back to school, reacquainting yourself with friends, and figuring who you can sleep with next.

In winter, however, you have to cram all that into one measly month.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful (sorry, Christmas just came and went), with a full week of rain and tornado warnings. Now isn’t that just perfect weather to get out of bed early and start the week fresh for school? Hell no.

This brings me to the real point of this article – how much California sucks when it rains.

California is the land of sun, sea and sand. The land of beaches and babes. Constant rain was not in the brochure.

A little drizzle is fine. To some extent I actually miss the rain and welcome the occasional shower. But this is more like a prolonged bath, and my shoes have not been dry in over a week.

If I wanted monsoon level rains, I

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would have stayed in Malaysia.

Now you may be wondering why I seem to be overreacting to a little rain. I’m fine with rain, or even snow. Hell, in places like Seattle or Wisconsin, it snows and rains all the time.

So why bitch, right? See, the difference is that in a place that regularly has crappy weather, you’re ready for it.

If you’re expecting rain, you have your poncho, raincoat, or umbrella ready by your door. If you’re expecting a snowstorm, you either dress appropriately or just stay at home.

But how many of you Californians

know how to drive in the rain. They think they do but end up by the side of the road flipped over.”

Having driven from LA to Orange County in the “tornado-watch” level rain last week myself, I can tell you – Californians cannot drive in the rain at all.

Your average Californian becomes one of two types of people when driving in the rain: One, the cautious type who puts on their headlights to the maximum, holds the wheel with both hands in a death grip, looks straight ahead, and brakes at the slightest thing.

Then there’s the one who thinks driving in the rain isn’t anything to be worried about and drives ridiculously fast – as only Californians who regularly drive 15 to 20 miles above the speed limit can.

Don’t believe me? Go drive on the 57 Freeway at exactly the speed limit and see how many people honk at you.

Finally, for those who walk to school on a regular basis, all we can hope for is getting soaked from our tops to our toes.

California rain doesn’t just pour straight down, it’s accompanied by winds the blow the wind sideways, upside umbrellas and inside hoodies.

Cal State Fullerton fills up with water, from the front of Langsdorf Hall to the Quad, and we have to navigate through the two-inch puddles like intrepid explorers crossing the Amazon. Plus, you’re guaranteed to get soaked just going from class to class.

I know I sound bitter, but this just ain’t what I signed up for. If this is going to be how things are like around here this semester – I want a refund.

A little drizzle is fine. To some extent I actually miss the rain and welcome the occasional shower. But this is more like a prolonged bath ...

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Shades of Green

have an umbrella handy?

In California, no one expects the rain, and are therefore woefully unprepared for it.

Think about it. Most major malls in Southern California or LA, like The Irvine Spectrum or The Grove, are open air. So when it rains, no going to malls.

Roads in Southern California aren’t used to heavy rain, and thus get slick. California drivers aren’t used to driving in the rain, and thus suck.

But don’t just listen to me. Foster Dennis, the President of the California Paving and Grading Co. said, “It never rains here, and people don’t

January 25, 2010

by Danielle Flint

17

Kids These Days

Nerdgasm

“Observing teen culture so you don’t have to”

“Exploring the highs and lows of nerd culture”

Text me to hell

Daily Titan Copy Editor opinion@dailytitan.com

A snapshot of the model American family on Christmas Eve: Father lounges by the fire in his favorite LaZ-Boy, pipe in his smiling mouth, speaking fondly of holidays past.

Mother sits quietly in her blanketed rocking chair, nursing baby and nodding at Father. Little Brother roots through gifts underneath a flawlessly-ornamented tree. Grandma and Grandpa rest their ancient feet on the ottoman together, playing footsie and giggling like young lovers.

But wait… Where is Big Sister?

Big Sister is huddled in the far corner of the living room; her fingers tickle a clicking keyboard as the little screen hidden under a Christmas blanket lights up her disgusted face.

“I h8 my family lol...”

What happened to the human connection, apathetic teens of the world?

It seems as if every teenager on the planet now has a little pink sparkly (or silver and manly, depending on your gender or personal preference) phone glued to their grubby little fingers. What is the point of having a mouth if you only use it to sigh when your mother does something totally embarrassing when she drops you off at the mall?

I can’t even walk to class without seeing a hundred or more of you moving your thumbs in a blur across little itty-bitty keyboards – without looking where you’re going, I might add. I always secretly hope you’ll accidentally type a semicolon instead of a “J,” and walk straight into a lamp post or a thorny bush.

That’s not to say that all of you distracted clickers are teenagers.

Usually, that sort of thing is limited to girls and boys of the 13 to 19 persuasion, but for the sake of argument, I’ll refer to all perpetrators and enablers of this annoying behavior as “teens at heart.”

Some argue that texting is convenient when a message just can’t wait – but there’s no way all of you are typing something super important as you drive with your knee and sip your nonfat mocha. If it was, you would have the decency to call your

stop.

Just like way back when teens were under the misguided impression that smoking was cool, texting has reached the influential eyes of the younger generation. This time, instead of candy cigarettes, gummy cell phones have hit grocery stores and 7-Elevens near you. There is nothing more horrifying than watching a five-year-old press her stubby little fingers against the cold hard plastic of a fake cell phone.

Even Barbie has hopped on the ROFLCOPTER (Get it? I replaced bandwagon with roflcopter because it’s a popular expression of delight in text language and a potential mode of transportation!).

That’s right, Barbie has a cell phone.

A real cell phone.

Now kids all over the country can be just like their older siblings and ignore emotional connections with friends and family in favor of sending abbreviated feelings to friends and famPhoto Courtesy MCT ily elsewhere.

No more of this Fireparty and inform them voice-to- fly bullshit – little Jimmy has a bigvoice. (I’m not partial to phone calls boy phone. either, but it’s too early in the semesTeenagers are more influential ter to have my readership thinking (and annoying) than they think, and I’m Amish). this texting thing isn’t just a nuisance Since when did texting your “bff” – I’d go so far as to say it’s an epiJill become more important than demic. continuing the conversation you’re Taking advice from an editorial is having with the person two feet in never a good move, but at least nibble front of you? I’m astounded when on some of this food for thought: a friend or colleague throws up the Put down your phone and listen “hold-on-just-a-second-I’m-about- to Father’s stupid story about two to-ignore-you” finger and flips open Christmases ago, when your uncle his or her “Envy 2” just to giggle, put his beer in the oven by mistake. tickle back a message, and slam that You’ll probably remember it longer little bugger shut. than the frivolous, six-word converThis kind of behavior has got to sation on your buzzing cell.

Doomsday by ashleigh johnson

Daily Titan Copy Editor opinion@dailytitan.com

Welcome back, fellow Cal State Fullerton students! I hope you all had an amazing break and didn’t do too much damage to your livers.

I know I did! Had an amazing break, I mean. I can’t do too much damage to my liver anymore on account of my old one withering away long ago, forcing doctors to perform a complicated surgery to implant a Brita water filter into my abdomen.

I’m a cyborg now, guys!

Also, thanks to my unnaturally yellow skin tone, I can easily cosplay as a Simpsons’ character whenever it tickles my fancy. Basically, I’m awesome.

But back to the point. While you all were partying it up, thinking that you had to squeeze in every last ounce of living that you can because then end is nigh (the world will end in 2012 if you’re a goddamn hippie), scientists at the University of Chicago have decided to screw with you. Turns out, the world is a little bit safer. For now, anyway. Allow me to explain.

If you aren’t familiar with the Doomsday Clock outside of the Watchmen graphic novel or movie (If you haven’t read the graphic novel yet, I’m very disappointed in you), then allow me to be your guide to a fun, magical time known as the Cold War. Once upon a time, there lived two countries called the Soviet Union (a nation whose chief exports were, and still are, mail-order brides and gymnasts) and the United States (whose chief exports are corn and whoopass).

Both were big countries who had helped each other in the past, but

one day they got in a hissy fit.

After much hair pulling and eye gouging, they both stood and stared at each other warily. Finally the Soviet Union broke the silence.

“I’mma gonna blow some shit up,” it said.

“Nuh-uh!” said the United States.

“If you blow shit up, I’m gonna blow up even more shit. So there.”

This continued on for several decades.

True, some other stuff happened in between – I think the Soviet Union sent E.T. a puppy at some point, I don’t remember all the details to be honest – but I’m just giving the Cliff Notes version of the Cold War (I know, I really missed my calling as a history teacher).

In response to the constant backand-forth bickering, in 1947 some members of the Bulletin of Atomic

Scientists decided it would be really cool to harsh everyone’s collective mellow by creating a clock to symbolize how close the Earth is to its own destruction.

The original time was set at 11:54 p.m. The closer the time got to midnight, the closer the Earth was to spontaneously combusting.

The Cold War has long since ended, but the Doomsday Clock is still up and running. Now, instead of worrying about communists forcing everyone to work on collective beet farms, scientists have decided to worry about the environment and advances in technology.

Now I know that Al Gore did a really sweet PowerPoint show that demonstrated (with graphs!) how we’re all going to die in two seconds because your grandma refuses to buy a Prius because it talks to her (“Cars don’t talk unless there’s black magic afoot,” she says, crossing her arms stubbornly. “And I’ll be damned if I buy myself a Satan-mobile. I remember when all this was orange groves … ”), but apparently scientists disagree, because they recently moved the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock back one minute. Why? Damned if I know.

Apparently, scientists think that the nations of the world have learned to play nice with one another for the time being. You know what that means, right? Those scientists at the Bulletin for Atomic Scientists got super crunk one night and decided to inspire hope in the hearts of man.

Later, they’ll giggle and move the hand forward three minutes and watch as everyone freaks out.

It’s called science, and it’s pretty neat – not as neat as making a squid monster and unleashing it on New York, though.

I did that 35 minutes ago.

18

January 25, 2010

The Walk-Off.

Sometimes I just don’t get the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

For starters, they change our name, make it the longest and mostoften-joked-about in sports history, then leave us fans to deal with arrogant Dodger fans who say things like “You don’t deserve to have Los Angeles in your name,” and “There’s only one ‘real’ Los Angeles baseball team.”

Then the front office kicks every important Angel from the past decade to the curb, without any real explanation, only to watch each one decompose on another team for the next three years.

On top of that, we sign “The Player That Shall Not Be Named” to an indefensible contract after a flashin-the-pan year, only to find out he’s the love child of Bernie Madoff and Mo Vaughn.

Then come every trade deadline and offseason, fans cry for “the one missing piece: a big bat or a power arm,” and complain about the ex-

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photo courtesy mct Former Angels outfielder (27) Vladimir Guerrero celebrates with teammate Bobby Abreu (53) during the playoffs.

Los Angeles hotel room, handcuffed to the bed beside a drag queen, a rodeo clown and Bridgette Neilson.

(Wait, that didn’t happen? Not that we know of, anyway.)

In an offseason full of headscratching moves, the Angels lost two of the remaining three players from the 2002 World Series squad (Lackey and Figgins), our most dependable set-up guy (Darren Oliver), our Vin Scully (Hudler) and the only guy who could possibly put the first Angels hat in Cooperstown

one to replace Erick Aybar as the designated “tell-Bobby-Abreu-that the-umpire-was-wrong-for-callingthat-ball-a-strike” guy.

In what has, without a doubt, been the most active offseason in recent memory, it’s hard to argue that the Angels are any better than they were the night they walked out of Yankee Stadium last October.

Then again, as the old adage goes – that’s why they play the games.

Think Different. Think Simon.

Even with the losses piling up, the Titans still have a fighting chance By simon liang

Daily Titan Sports Editor sports@dailytitan.com

road against the top two teams in the tans have a skilled back-to-the-basket league, University of the Pacific and scorer in the paint that most teams UCSB. cannot match.

“They are both hard places to play His talent has not been fully exand really good teams,” Titan Head posed this season because teams Coach Bob Burton said. have been going to the zone defense Against Pacific, CSUF continued against CSUF. the theme of every first half this sea“We’ve had trouble against zones, son – coming out slow and lackadai- because we are not a great shooting sical. team,” Burton said.

However, in the Two days later, second half they the Titans traveled Whoever can rise to Santa Barbara to shot 54.5 percent from the field. play the Gauchos. to the occassion and The Titans CSUF came out fought back but execute on crucial a step slow and they could not possessions is going to were down by 10 stop Pacific junior win the Big West title. at the half.

Demetrece Young For some reason, late in the game. they can never start “They just don’t games aggressivly give you anything, so they fall behind they take everything away, they know and have to dig themselves out of a what they’re doing offensively, and hole. defensively,” Burton said.

Against mediocre teams they are Senior guard Aaron Thompson able to come back but against the top had 16 points and seven rebounds. tier teams in the league, even a valiant Thompson is one of the better second half effort has not sufficed. rebounding guards in the Big West, That effort came after intermission and has vastly improved his outside and it looked like the Titans were goshot since last season. ing to capatilize on their hot shootHis 52.8 percent from three- ing. pointer land is good for seventh in With 19.8 seconds left, after a the nation. couple Titan free throws, Gauchos’ Redshirt junior center Bryce Web- redshirt sophomore, Orlando Johnster was in foul trouble once again. son, hit a three-pointer with 3.4 When he is in the game, the Ti- seconds to go to take the game into

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photo By chad uemera/For the Daily Titan Sophomore guard Jacques Streeter tries to dribble past a Cal Poly SLO defender.

(Guerrero).

In exchange, we added an international media circus in the form of an aging designated hitter with no ties to the Angels, their fans, or America for that matter (Matsui), another unreliable closer (Fernando Rodney) and a number-five starter for the low price of $8 million a year (Joel Pineiro).

All that, yet we ignored our needs: a solid catcher, power-hitting thirdbaseman, a guy who has a handshake for everyone on the team and some-

Does anyone even remember the Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball team beating UCLA back in November?

I can understand if you’re saying, “That was so last semester.”

After starting off the season with three straight wins, including the win over UCLA, CSUF has been in a funk of late.

The hot-and-cold Titans have had two three-game winning streaks and three three-game losing streaks, but none more significant than their last string of losses in Big West Conference play.

Their last two losses were on the

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sports@dailytitan.com

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By Brian Whitehead

Daily Titan Sports Columnist

cruciating inactivity from the An- los signed 35-year-old, over-the-hill gels’ front office and whine about Hideki Matsui, I reacted like Tom their unwillingness to trade heralded Hanks in “Cast Away” – laying there prospects for proven veterans, only helplessly as I watched Vladimir to hear they traded for Mark Teix- Guerrero vanish into the horizon. eira or Scott Kazmir, or signed Torii Throw in the out-of-nowhere Hunter or Bobby Abreu. firings of long-time television anFinally, the year we need our nouncing duo Steve Physioc and front-office brass the most – a mon- Rex Hudler, and the Angels did evster 2010 offseason with cornerstone erything but fire the guy who fills pieces of the franchise up for grabs the buckets of Dubble Bubble before – they go M.I.A. as our rivals feast each game. on our roster, triggering questions (Sidenote: Firing Rex Hudler like “Arte Moreno and Tony Reagins was inexcusable. Say what you may are still alive?” and “Is it possible to about the Wonderdog, but nobody trade Gary Matthews Jr. for a box of can deny his unrivaled ability to baseballs and a couple fungos?” liven up any television broadcast.

In what could possibly be re- Was he quirky? A little. Did he say membered as “The Offseason That some pretty ludicrous things? Can’t Changed Everydeny it. Did he unthing,” at times necessarily shorten It’s hard to argue it seemed like the every player’s name Angels have been the Angels are any by one to three lethosting a liquida- better than they were ters and add a “y” “o” to the end? tion sale at “The the night they walked or Big A,” with MatUh-huh.

Did thews Jr. assuming out of Yankee Stadium hearing him call the roll of that old, last October.

Brandon Wood holey leather couch “Woody” make me nobody wants to giggle like a thirdbuy for $10. grader in sex-ed When Chone Figgins signed with class? Of course it did. Whatever. the Mariners in December, I felt You can’t deny the man’s love for the like Christine Taylor’s character in Angels. He and his trusty baseball Dodgeball after enduring five min- will be missed.) utes of seduction by White GoodThen our newly anointed playman. by-play guy Rory Markas died in his When John Lackey chased the sleep on Jan. 4. Arguably the most dollar signs all the way to Boston, prolific player in Angel history signed I channeled my rage into a “Grand with the freakin’ Texas Rangers, and Theft Auto IV” killing rampage on then, on top of everything else, Mike par with Liam Neeson’s destruction Scioscia was caught wearing lipstick, of Paris in “Taken.” When the Ha- leather chaps and a Yankees cap in a

overtime.

From then on, the Gauchos wore them down on the way to a 85-80 victory.

Redshirt junior forward Jer’Vaughn Johnson scored 22 points on 9-of-10 shooting.

He is a versatile inside-outside threat who has become the leading scorer for the Titans this season.

Junior guard Devon Peltier, a transfer from Missouri State-West Plains, is doing his best Josh Akognon impersonation this season by lighting it up from behind the arc.

While it’s evident that the Titans do have some talented players, they have lacked the killer instinct that is needed to win close games.

The league is wide open this year and any team can win the conference.

Whoever can rise to the occassion and execute on crucial possessions is going to win the Big West title.

Even preseason league favorite Long Beach State is dwelling in the cellar of the Big West right now.

There is hope, guys; CSUF is still in the middle of the pack.

By the time the Big West Tourney comes around, everything goes out the window.

It is a fight for survival and a chance to play in the most coveted tournament in college hoops - the NCAA tournament.

19

January 25, 2010

Hockey loses to Anteaters sports@dailytitan.com

The Cal State Fullerton hockey club looked to tag on another win to their schedule Saturday night at the KHS Ice Arena in Anaheim, but the Titans six-game winning streak was put to an end by the Anteaters of UC Irvine.

The Titans’ suffered a heartbreaking loss with a score of 3-2 in an overtime shootout.

UCI is a Div. III hockey team, but they were hitting relentlessly on the ice between every whistle and minute of the game.

“At first we didn’t really expect a rivalry. I mean, it is their home rink also. So I think it definitely had something to do with they wanted show that they were better in our rink,” said freshmen center and cocaptain, Jacob Daniel.

UCI took 19 shots on CSUF sophomore goaltender Brandon Heethuis, and came up empty each time.

The Titans took control at 14:24 in the first period with a goal by Daniel, his twentieth of the season, which was assisted by freshmen defender Payne Sauer and sophomore right-wing Elan Duneav.

In the second period, Sauer gathered the puck in after a missed shot

from the Anteaters and skated to the play each time. One goal came at other end, shaking the goalie out of the seventh minute and the other in his path, and scoring the Titans’ sec- the fifteenth. ond goal.

With less than five minutes left One of the Anteaters looked to in regulation, CSUF co-captain and retaliate by skating from end to junior left-wing Andrew Hodge was end with the puck untouched, but penalized for roughing and disqualonce he approached the goalie, he ified from the game. was brought down hard by junior The call was made for what the forward Chad Pelliccioni, who was referees said was an intentional strike given two minutes in the penalty to the opponent’s knee that caused box for hooking. him to lay on the Seconds later, ice in pain, but senior defender the damage was We threw punches Cyrus Raagas was much worse on called for trip- and cross-checks back, the Titans’ homeping, and he too and for some reason front, as they had served two minallowed UCI to utes in the box, only we got called. climb back in the forcing the team – Jacob Daniel game. to skate two men In overtime, Freshman center down, but the Tiboth sides of tans were able to the ice displayed hold their ground strict defense and with strict defense. a couple of shots that just missed Heethuis used every inch of his the goal, but the five-minute period body pads to defend the outra- would end, and a three-man shootgeous Anteaters’ attempt at the net out would decide the game. by twisting, rotating and diving to Each team was allowed three snatch the puck out of the air for players to face their opponent’s the first two periods. goalie one-on-one in an alternating However, in the third period, format and the best of three goals UCI turned the tables on CSUF would win. UCI went first and and the Anteaters got inside the CSUF followed. minds of Titans, forcing them to UCI and CSUF both missed give up two key penalties that al- their first attempt. UCI’s second lowed them to score on the power shot went in, but their last shot did

“

“

By Gilbert Guiterrez

Daily Titan Asst.Sports Editor

photo By Brian evans/For the Daily Titan One of UCI’s players blasts a shot on CSUF goaltender Brandon Heethuis on Saturday night’s upsetting 3-2 overtime loss.

not. This brought forth Sauer and sophomore center Dalton Braniff a shot to win it for the Titan’s home crowd.

Sauer had made the second goal for the Titans in the second period, so he knew what he had to do to get by the goalie. His moves didn’t fool the goaltender and the puck skidded off the goalie’s legs.

“I was hoping he would bite on my move, but he didn’t, so I was kind of shut down after that,” said

Sauer after the game.

Braniff had his chance to tie the shootout and send it into possibly another one, but his deke and spin was not enough to get the puck passed the Anteaters’ goalie and the Titans lost 3-2.

After the game, assistant coach Steve Jobbit was mortified and said that the Titans were not aggressive and they needed to take more shots on their opponents.

UCI had come out much hun-

grier than the Titans, said Jobbit.

“We were up two-nothing, it was our goalie that kept us in.”

After the game, Daniel said he wished his team could have maintained composure, but UCI knew how to get under CSUF’s skin and get away with it. “We threw punches and cross-checks back, and for some reason only we got called,” he added.

The Titans will faceoff Northern Arizona University on Friday.

Women’s basketball cannot reverse Gauchos’ curse sports@dailytitan.com

The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos continued their dominance with 34 consecutive wins over the Cal State Fullerton women’s basketball team, with a score of 60-59 in double overtime.

Sophomore guard Megan Richardson put up 16 points and three rebounds. Freshman forward Mya Olivier earned her first doubledouble with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

The Titans have not defeated the Gauchos since March 8, 1995.

CSUF dominated out of the gate, putting up seven unanswered points to begin the game.

Gauchos’ senior guard Meagan Williams, responded with seven points of her own, knotting the score.

A back-and-forth of four lead changes followed, as UCSB started to pull away with a four-point lead.

Richardson nailed a long twopointer to pull within one, but UCSB sophomore guard Emilie Johnson bumped the score to 2522.

Winding down the shot clock and looking to close the gap for the Titans, junior guard Ashley Richie

nailed a two-pointer, sending CSUF into the locker room trailing 27-25.

Williams again started the scoring for the Gauchos in the second half, shooting a quick two points, but Richardson immediately responded for the Titans with two points of her own, keeping the deficit at two.

A missed pass by junior guard Lyndsey Grove led to a two-pointer

by Williams, giving UCSB a fivepoint cushion which was extended

by Johnson when she hit a twopointer in the paint, giving the Gauchos a 37-30 advantage.

With the score sitting at 41-35 Richardson nailed a three-pointer, eliciting loud cheers from the crowd of about 300.

Richardson hit another threepointer to make the score 41-38.

Moments later, responding to a score by Williams, Grove drained a three from beyond the arc, moving CSUF to within two at 43-41.

After falling behind 45-41, two consecutive three-pointers, the first by junior guard Britt Peters and the second by senior guard Jasmine Scott, brought thunderous applause from the crowd as the Titans took their first lead since the first half, 47-45.

“It was a confidence booster,” Scott said of her shot. “I think that the three gave us more energy.”

With .02 seconds on the clock into the net to bring the final score and her team 49-47, Gauchos’ se- to 60-59, as Grove failed to sink a nior guard Jordan Franey spotted three-pointer for CSUF with sectwo points in the paint, sending the onds to spare. game into overtime.

UCSB Head Coach Lindsay GotIn overtime, CSUF again fell be- tlieb was impressed with the way her hind, but Richardson hit a three to team played after the game. give the Titans a “We showed a 54-53 lead. ton of poise and “I got a good a lot of people We didn’t really rebound, took it made plays,” said out to my favor- knock down shots in Gottlieb. ite corner – I like the first half. We kind of Though it was that corner for a difficult loss to me – and made went through a wall. swallow, the Tiit,” Richardson – Megan Richardson, tans were not dissaid of her threeappointed in the Sophomore Guard pointer. game that they Holding onto played. a two-point mar“I thought we gin with six seconds left, UCSB had a good effort,” after the game seized control, and junior forward Richardson said after the game. “We Mekia Valentine scored a deuce to didn’t really knock down shots in the again tie the game. first half. We kind of went through In a heave from half court, Peters a wall. We played good defense,” attempted to hit a game-winner, but Richardson said. “We never gave up. the ball bounced off the rim, sending In the second half, we were down the game into its second overtime. by five and came back. We got three With CSUF down 58-57, Scott stops in a row.” took to the free throw line inside the Scott agreed that the Titans minute mark and evened the score. played well. “I think we played Following a timeout, she sunk her good,” Scott said. “I mean, certain second free throw, giving the Titans shots at certain moments – we didn’t a one-point advantage. actually get them – but if we fix that, Johnson quickly fielded the ball and get in more shots, I think that for the Gauchos, sending the ball would help us a lot.”

“

“

By Stephani bee

For the Daily Titan

photo by shruti patel/For the Daily Titan Sophomore guard Megan Richardson looks to pass to a teammate against UCSB.

20 January 25, 2010

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Horoscopes

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medium

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6 8 5

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) -- Today is a 6 -- As long as you understand your desires, you’ll get along fine with others today. Boost everyone’s spirits by involving them all the way to the end.

2 9 3

How To Play: Each row must contain the numbers 1 to 9; each column must contain the numbers 1 to 9: and each set of boxes must contain the numbers 1 to 9.

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Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) -- Today is an 8 -- It’s hard to remain logical when you’re being pulled in so many directions at once. Focus on what’s right in front of you.

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Daily Sudoku: Thu 21-Jan-2010

Daily Sudoku: Thu 21-Jan-2010

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Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) -- Today is a 6 -- Brace yourself! New ideas are flying fast and furious now. Make sure the idea’s author gives you a clear enough picture so you can take action.

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Robinson: NBA is within his reach January 25, 2010

act of kindness, and after redshirt- first NCAA Tournament in 30 ing in 2004-05, he began a stellar years.

Robinson bounced around four three-year career at CSUF. “He was really receptive to behigh schools and gained the attenHowever, his rise to prominence ing criticized, taking coaching and tion of George Mason University was not without any growing pains. all those things,” Burton said. “He and St. Mary’s University, but after “His first year here was really went from a guy who really couldn’t a tussle with a teammate had to go frustrating for him. I don’t think he guard anybody, to being the defenelsewhere. started, he was coming off the bench sive player of the year in the Big He chose East Carolina. In 2004, and that was a whole new thing for West Conference.” he was selected as the Pirates’ most him, but The jourimproved player in his only year he adjusted ney did not at ECU, but he only averaged 3.8 beautifully to stop at Titan points and 1.8 rebounds a game. it,” Burton Gym. After his coach was fired and said.

H e Conference USA split up, he decidHe thrived worked out ed to come back home to Southern in his new for the Los California. role and beAngeles He ended up at Fullerton because came the Big Clippers, of former Titan star Bobby Brown West’s Sixth State – Bob Burton Golden and the kinship he developed with Man of the Wa r r i o r s , Titan Head Coach Titan Head Coach Bob Burton.

Year in 2005Philadelphia “I was at a junior college workout 06.

76ers and in the summer and he came down In his secSacramento and hit his head, and was cut and ond season, Kings. had blood going everywhere and Robinson, along with three other “You have to realize that there’s everyone sat there not doing any- teammates, was suspended for so many guys who went to a bigger thing,” Burton said. the first three games because of an school and probably have a bigger Their relationship began when NCAA violation involving the mis- name than you, and you have to go Burton helped Robinson with his use of their book vouchers. out there and out play them,” Robinjuries even though he was just a Yet again, Robinson was faced inson said. spectator. with another challenge, but in Out play them he did.

Robinson never forgot Burton’s 2007-08 he led the Titans to their The Atlanta Hawks invited him to NBA Summer League and he played well enough to go to training camp.

The Hawks ended up waiving him but Robinson didn’t get down on himself.

He decided to hone his game in Germany and Slovenia.

Robinson said that he worked hard on his game when he was in Europe and came back with more of a combo guard mentality.

“It has helped me because of my size. I’m not the tallest, I’m a strong guard and (I have) long arms which has helped me a lot in the process,” Robinson said.

Coming back to the states, he was determined to show everyone how much he had improved when he was overseas.

He played in three preseason games for the Hawks in 2009.

However, the rekindling was cut short when they let him go a second time.

Persevering through yet another release was tough, but Robinson knew that he just had to work harder.

On Dec. 23 the D-Fenders came calling and Robinson has flourished as a starter.

“He’s an intelligent player. You don’t have to tell him what to do, he just goes out there and makes basketball plays. He has fit in really well,” Brown said.

During the 2010 NBDL Showcase in Boise, Idaho, Robinson was a standout player.

“I picked up full-court, guarded the best player and took him out of photo courtesy Mattbrownphoto.com the game and those are the things Robinson walks to the free throw line after getting fouled by a UC Riverside player. teams are looking for,” Robinson

21

From Page 1

“

He went from a a guy who really couldn’t guard anybody, to being the the defensive player of the year in the Big West.

“

photo By john Klewer/Daily Titan File Photo Former CSUF men’s basketball player Frank Robinson drives to the basket against three Pacific Tiger defenders at Titan Gym.

said.

Through nine games for the DFenders, Robinson is averaging 15.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists a game.

Considering he is guarding the opposing team’s best perimeter player along with his scoring ability – Robinson is a complete player.

“As far as athletically and defensively, he’s learned to put the ball on the floor now. He can do everything and he’s a winner, so I think an NBA team would be really smart to give him a shot,” Burton said.

Playing for the D-Fenders has definitely helped his chances of getting to the next level.

“You have to come into this league (NBA) with a mentality to bring a different aspect of the game to that team and my thing is de-

fense, which should help me out a lot,” Robinson said.

All eyes are watching now and he is just one step closer.

His competitiveness and ability to leave it out all on the court will ensure that he has a successful professional career in basketball.

Robinson is a true testament to

the old adage, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

Maybe his third try will be the lucky charm.

For video of this story go to http://www.dailytitan. com/frank-robinson