January & February Issue of Slick Magazine

Slick.

MAGAZINE

ART

1, Deviant Art 3, No Fame, No Name 5, The Future of Art 7, Photo Spread

HUMAN INTEREST 9, Dungeons and Dragons 11, Growing Pains 15, How to Train Birds 15, Passions 17, Summer Nights

FILM

21, The Inspiring 23, TikTok Controversy 25, BTS

27, Loving Vincent 29, Over the Edge 31, The Killing of America 33, Top 5 Films 37, Waitress 41, Photo Spread

Hey You! Welcome Back!

After a brief two week hiatus for the winter holidays, we set out for another two months of hard work. For this edition, the theme of our issue is “The Artist.” Our writer’s goals were to showcase forms of art that ignite their inner passions. Our staff has worked tirelessly to execute this issue and provide a colorful and bright aesthetic. We brought abstract ideas to life on the pages. In this issue, a wide range of entertainment and culture are divulged alongside new designs. With this theme, many controversial topics and new voices are added to the dialogue. In this instalment of Slick, you will find discussions about history, modern artists, new music, old films, and how this generation defines and copes with love and loss through art.

We are excited to introduce our design editor for this issue, our art director, Grace Briquelet. As preparation for next year, we decided that next year’s leaders would have complete and creative control over this month’s issue. With new sets of eyes overlooking the publication, our theme was put to the ultimate test. Artistry and ingenuity are just a few of the characteristics displayed by our leading journalists this month.

With only a few months left in the school year, we hope this issue inspires you to follow your creative dreams. Never doubt the artist in yourself, paint, draw, photograph, or write for only you. We are proud to present this issue of Slick Magazine to the true artists of our community, the students. Thank you for reading, and we hope you enjoy!

Candy Hart-Peratt

Dixie Chatt

Ally Brodmann

Gracie Briquelet

Deviant Art: Satan or Saint?

By Parker Baughman

Among the social platforms that share the quality of uploading artistic media, none are more misaligned than the established website, Deviantart. Created in August of the year 2000, Deviantart, often abbreviated as DA, possessed the purpose of being the ideal setting for artists, youthful and elderly, novice or master, to converge and share their art, critique one another, and spread their ideas of universes or characters.

Such an image, however, is dreadfully overplayed. Take a moment to rethink, and listen as each reason may be refuted.

No. 1: Deviantart is much too unsafe for work and risque.

Most, if not all social sites (well, maybe not Tumblr as of now) contain risque and inappropriate material. This is true for DA as well.

While it is correct that unsafe works do inhabit the space, it does not call for the general population of tame artworks to be dragged into the heap of steamy nonsense.

Though some opinions persist, it has always been one of the most successful and massive outlets for creative expression in the arts, with seas of users posting their efforts at conjuring stories and harnessing their skills at drawing, animation, and even photography.

However, this is not the universal perception of what DA is. What is most often imagined by the opposing party is the image of a cesspool, teeming and brimming with so-called “cringe,� poisonous con artists, and monkeys with MS Paint installed.

1 | February 2019

Art by: Parker Baughman

Unless a specific setting is checked off, these types of media will not be displayed to the site goer, and you will have a pleasant and innocent romp around the millions of pieces to view and learn from. Secondly, it is in people’s nature to express themselves, whether that be in a displayable fashion or one that is rather carnal, and it is impossible to completely repress that.

No. 2: Deviantart is bad because of all of the poor art housed on it.

Not every artist is the most experienced and talented as of present time. This does not yet detract from the amount and quality of advanced artists that choose to upload media, and this is true for any site.

All artists begin somewhere, and if these artists are denied the attention that they deserve in order to improve, and are shunned because they aren’t as excellent at art as others already are, these people, not always children, will not have the chance to display their hard work, grow as both a person and artist, or achieve satisfaction in themselves with their craft in communing with the art community.

If you’d really not care to see anything below the level of skill that you deem “good,” you have the option of filtering the art you browse through with filters such as “what’s hot” and “daily deviations,” which often house pieces created by individuals of extreme experience.

No. 3: Deviantart is simply cringey.

What gives viewers of certain things the grotesque and enveloping feeling of secondhand embarrassment, or cringe, is for the most part subjective. DA seems give off this dread not in itself, but merely because of the minority art pieces that are held within the site.

Such feelings are subjective, and not shared by everybody, so the site itself should definitely not be labeled as a negative thing, and torn asunder by those who despise Deviantart for this reason. This “bad art,” this “cringe,” this risque work is not all of Da, and should never be regarded as such within the same breath as said minority.

Lastly, although DA maintains a partially bedraggled reputation thanks to the tearing of harsh and misinformed critics, it to this day is the place that it was founded to function as a website for artists, by artists.

With forums dedicated to question-answering, and upload options for displaying the fruits of your labor, Deviantart can be the perfect place to leap off from with art.

You’ve just got to give it a chance. It gave so many one.

No Fame, No Name, Great Art By: Moses Sandoval Photography by: Moses Sandoval

Think carefully. What intellectually represents the meaning of art?

After fifteen laborious seconds of research, I learned the main definition for art is “an imaginative and creative form of expressing the non-tangible, often portrayed by the visual forms of sculpture, performance, and paintings.

However, it can also be expressed auditorily (through music) and through literature.”

The concrete definition is a bit different, I had to rephrase it to avoid plagiarizing. Works of art are usually noticed when created by talented famous people like Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Leonardo Da Vinci.

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What I want is to prove it doesn’t take fame to evoke emotion through art.

To prove that fame isn’t customarily talent, let’s ride the highway. I must initially go to where the fame lies, literally. I traveled to Hollywood’s Walk of Fame to discover artists that work their auditory magic.

Without further adieu, allow me to present the man, the myth, the legend, Jay-L. Rapper Jay-L is an up-and-coming artist who, at no hesitation, greeted me fiercely.

I proposed an interview and he gladly agreed. My first question to him was, “What was your inspiration to become an artist?” I wanted to know what made him who he was.

“My elder brother,” he said loudly over the bustling street of Hollywood.

“I used to hear him rap happily about everything he could. In turn, I wanted to feel that beautiful magic and I want to share it with the world,” he said with a smile.

Satisfied with the answer, I asked him one more question, “What do you envision for yourself in the future?” He looked at me as if the question was new yet frequently asked. “A shot at the big stage wouldn’t be half bad, but what I really want is for my music to be heard worldwide, ya feel? I want my words to touch everyone.”

He then moved his head upwards as if content with the words that were just spoken. Music tends to be an art form many people gravitate towards. It is said by some that music connects us all, whether we are the dotted half note before the rest or the eighth note before the coda.

I think myself to be a simple half note on the sheet. Waiting for the composer to jot down the other half note to fill my bar. However, as wonderful as musical magic is, it is also said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Visual art is one of the easiest forms of art to create if it’s performance, architecture, or a painting. It may not be the best you’ve seen, but one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Visual art with its complex colors and distinct design. Feels extremely appealing to the eye, it’s used in almost every aspect of our lives; whether it is the design of a magazine or structure of the White House.

I can’t afford paint, so drawing is my favorite pastime. Although I'm not the best, I can recognize someone who is. Every time tend I observe him, he is drawing or playing on the piano app.

He is a dear friend named Jonas Rullier which, I got to interview. To begin I asked him, “When do you draw?” he replied by saying, “I draw almost whenever I get bored. It just gives me something to do.”

Cool, I thought to myself. “Do you frequently see art in your life?” Stopping his melancholic playing of the piano, he finally made eye contact.

“Art has been in my life ever since I could remember.”

As it turns out, his grandfather drew Manga, a Japanese style comic book read from left to right. To end the wonderful conversation, one final question was asked. “Is what you render on the page planned or random?” “No, not usually planned. Usually, I sketch what is going through my mind.

Though sometimes, it’s the favorite anime character at the moment.”

With that, we finish learning about his emotion conveyed into the art he creates.

Ending my amazing journey in the land of sound waves and portraits. I noticed one art form that did not get represented, literature. I didn’t find a writer without fame to interview.

However, the idea still stands that, and literature is one of the easiest ways to evoke emotion, just ask anyone who has ever read a book.

Look at Shakespeare for instance.

He had to start at the bottom along with everyone else. He himself wrote the quote, “A bad writer, can become a good writer, and a good writer a great one. See, even he said that it did not take fame to evoke emotion through art.

Photography by: Moses Sandoval

The Future of Art By: Aydann Hambruch

Who is Riley Hambruch and how did he become the artist he is today?

Art by: Riley Hambruch

Whether it is of a concert or a landscape, you are sure to find bright colors that stand out against their dark surroundings.

Riley’s photography displays everything from the bright pinks and oranges of the Huntington Beach sunsets to the lone brightness of flowers, and the harsh light of the concerts in which he frequently attends. His pictures also showcase people and places that have heavily influenced him.

Riley is a long haired college student who plays guitar, listens to metal and punk, and is an amateur woodworker, metalworker, photographer, and printmaker, with a knack for weird artwork. With all of these talents working together, he can create strange art that has never been seen before. When Riley is not at school or a concert, you can find him taking pictures of his surroundings or working on his next sketch.

Over the years since his art ability emerged, Riley has developed his own abstract style of drawing. Most of his art is very symbolic, utilizing figures such as skulls, flowers, trees, fire, or a combination of a few of these designs. The meaning of his art can have a wide range of variation.

Some of his pictures pay respect to a few of his favorite bands, people, or organizations, while others symbolize the imperfect balance between war and peace.

These ideas are born from many different events, some more complex than others, though they all share one thing in common; they come from the heart.

5 | February 2019

Throughout his works of art, you can see similar characters or ideas, such as faces that are hidden, covered, or deformed, skulls, and black-and-white roses. However, these objects are not just displayed in Riley’s sketches. They can be found burned into wood, cut out of metal, or even carved into charcoal.

Though his hand drawn art is usually on the darker side, his photography shows a new, more colorful side of him.

When out in nature, Riley takes pictures of flowers, snow, animals, and smaller objects that some would not notice or care about. This is starkly contrasted by the pictures that he would show after a long night at a concert. He always arrives at concerts early to be first in line and gets as close to the stage as possible. Riley’s pictures always turn out surprisingly clear for all the action that is going on around him.

These pictures capture one of a kind moments of the band members mid song, people circling the mosh pit, and the intricately designed stage.

“No matter what he takes pictures of, he finds a way to show the unseen beauty of anything.�

Another one of his many talents include woodworking and welding. Pairing these two skills, he is able to create anything including pieces that are practical, such as a tree made of twisted metal that doubles as a jewelry stand and others are made simply out of the joy of creation. One of my personal favorites is nails twisted to give the appearance of barbed wire.

To make these, he heats the metal using a homemade forge, then using special pliers, and sometimes a hammer, he creates any shape he needs to use. Some of his specialties are skulls, rings, bracelets of braided metal, guitar picks, and knotted nails.

Riley’s experience comes from many years of practice and taking courses in highschool and college to expand his art horizons.

Today, Riley attends Orange Coast College where he is taking art classes, like screen printing and printmaking, and working toward his certificate of fine woodworking.

Though he has taken many classes, his artistry comes from practice and experimentation. Whenever he can, Riley is out in the garage welding, sanding, improving his pieces, or out on an adventure with friends to take new and exciting pictures.

Art by: Riley Hambruch

contact

7 | February 2019

Photgraphy by: Andrea Certvantes

In 1979, sixteen-year-old James Dallas Egbert III vanished into the steam tunnels beneath Michigan State University to play a live-action game of Dungeons & Dragons, according to Phil Hilts from The Washington Post.

James was a troubled person and struggled to fit in with his peers.

James found comfort in playing D&D with others that were also branded as social outcasts. Directly after going into the steam tunnels, Egbert ran away from home. A year later in Morgan City, Louisiana, Egbert was found lifeless; he had shot himself. Unfortunately, many Americans linked Egbert’s suicide to Dungeons & Dragons, rather than the personal struggles that led him to take his own life. His death triggered an enormous scare that began in the eighties—many people feared that Dungeons & Dragons, a fantasy-tabletop roleplaying game, was negatively influencing their children due to its themes of violence, magic, and the occult.

Fast forward thirty years and Dungeons & Dragons has been integrated into popular culture more than ever before. No longer are those involved in the game considered the black sheep and geeks of society.

In fact, Huntington High School began its very own D&D club during the 18-19 school year.

9 | February 2019

Art by: Parker Baughman

By: Carter Bernard, Grace Briquelet

We sought out the club supervisor, Mr. Fritchoff, and the club president, Angela Czintos, in order to better understand why people still partake in the game and what they enjoy about it.

Michael Fritchoff is the club supervisor and an incredibly friendly, wellliked, teacher at Huntington Beach high school; having played D&D ever since he was first introduced to the game by his older brother twenty years ago. Fritchoff is incredibly fond of the game, for it gives him the “means to live out [his] fantasies of being Han Solo or Chewbacca on a job in a galaxy far, far away.”

There are no limits to what you can do in the game, as long as you follow the basic rules regarding leveling and dice rolls.

Though the game is traditionally played in a medieval-fantasy setting, many players enjoy building their own, unique worlds. The integration of player-made content is known as homebrew. For Mr. Fritchoff, “gaming was something that genuinely allowed [him] to feel comfortable being a complete nerd. “It instilled in me a confidence that made it possible to speak in front of large groups of people. It took time of course, but it gave me confidence when needed.”

He wasn't the only one: Angela, the club's creator, first came in contact with the game in 2015; having heard about the game through “media osmosis.”

He wasn't the only one: Angela, the club's creator, first came in contact with the game in 2015; having heard about the game through “media osmosis.”

It all started when the topic of D&D was brought up among her robotic club friends, and they decided to play together.

Like so many D&D-ers they all wanted to play, but never wanted to say anything and given the chance they all said yes. That was one of the main reasons Angela created the club because she knew that “it was popular for such a large amount of people” and that they had no “official meeting place.” On the second day of school, she was talking to Mr. Fritchoff saying “God! I wish there was a D&D club.” to which he plainly responded, “Do it.”

So on a whim, Angela made the constitution for the club. On the first day, she was surprised to see more than just her usual friends instead there were about twenty people.

Which included us, that’s why we wanted to find out only now the club was started and how we could tell more people about it, hence this article.

So the big question: What is D&D? This whole time you’ve heard about people loving it, but why? You see Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop game, meaning you sit at a table with friends to play: board game-esque.

There are usually five to three players and one person who serves as an overseer called the “Dungeon Master” (DM). The DM creates a story for the players; role-playing as custom characters, and places them into the fantasy world with rules and NPCs (all created by the DM).

The playing characters interact with the world built by the DM and they tell them how their actions affect the Campaign: an overarching story.

This all takes place at a table or over an online chat, as the DM describes what is happening based on what the characters want to do they all have to roll various dice to determine success or failure for certain actions.

Art by: Parker Baughman

The main reason you don’t find people who hate the game is that those who try it just don’t do it again and all your left with are people who love to play and will non-stop explain what Beholders, Mindflyers, and tarrasque are. People are allowed to hang out with friends and collaboratively create unique stories together with imaginative characters that they put time into. It can bring people together, so in its base form, it truly is just storytelling with friends. Just with a dice.

growing

pains

By: Izzy Agnello

Photography by: Izzy Agnello

At times, growing up can be extremely painful. When we are young, we tend to suffer the infamous knee scrape and the foreboding leg pains that creep up your legs, signaling you that you are maturing. Then as we grow, we tend to spread our roots and grow in unfamiliar ways.

We discover the age-old story of romance which usually leads to our first love and heartbreak.

My grandfather had become the general manager at Sam Ash Music.

After a period of time, my dad also began working there, unloading boxes, that kind of stuff. One day, while unloading boxes, a young girl, no more than four, came up to him and proclaimed he was fired. Of course, he was bewildered at first, but this was the beginning of an unlikely friendship.

Ever since I was little, running around and blowing bubbles, the only love story I looked up to was my parents’. It’s mperfect compared to the stories I hear and read, but the story is perfect when compared to the real world. A little over twenty years ago, my father and my grandparents moved from the Big Apple to the sunny Golden State.

The mother of the girl, my dad said, would mock him and make fun of his hair cut. However, this ultimately also turned into a friendship and then something more. My mother, my dad, and my older sister, as what I would say, were brought together by music.

Eventually, this three-thousand mile trek brought them to the compact city of Westminster, California.

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Indeed I love this story, but I wanted to know more about myself.

What I am composed of. I recognize other stories of my family and what traits I have.

However, as a junior in high school who is preparing my life, filling out forms that could help determine my future, I want to check a box that is not other. According to the world, I am other. Every so often when they do not permit me to check more than one box (online forms for example) that is what I am left with.

In reality, I am more than that. I am Italian and Filipino but also I am seasoned with other ethnicities. At least that is what my mother always told me.

I wanted to know exactly what I am, and whose legacy sits in my hands.

This hunger for knowledge enticed me to sign up for websites like Ancestry and Familysearch.

To trace my roots, I dug up copies of documents and pictures of monochrome faces frozen in time. I felt the eyes pierce into my soul as I began filling in what I knew.

Photography by: Izzy Agnello

William Kinsella, Nicholas Angelle, the surname Molina these are the identities that spin around my mind.

As my tree develops some more branches, and I learn of relatives I had never heard of.

On my father’s side, there is plenty to go off of. I recalled dates, names, and people who provided me starting points to go off of.

However, on my mother’s side, I haven’t received much back. Thus far, I have been able to dig up a ship’s boarding document from when my great grandfather immigrated, Santos, to Hawaii, to Santa Ilocos Sur, Philippines, a fourth class municipality on the coast of the South China Sea. As time moves forward it leads to my grandfather and his sister, Santos’s son and daughter, to sail from Hawaii to San Francisco. From here they would move to southern California, and my grandfather would end up going to Rancho Alamitos High School.

This is where he will shortly play football and attend high school before dropping out to work on the family ranch. Before he was known as dad and grandpa he was known as Tony Busto number 51. Unfortunately, the hints had stopped coming in on this side of the family, and I have been unable to find anything else.

Not too long ago, my paternal grandmother, Gram, saw me perform in a musical skit for the school’s annual holiday show, Sounds of the Seasons. After the show was over, she kept raving about how I was natural performer, leading to me telling her that I have a lot of anxiety when it comes to performing.

As the branches on my family tree began to grow, so did I. Except my mind and body are not just leaves that will fall off in the winter and grow back in the spring.

From there she continued to tell me that my grandfather, Poppie, who is an accomplished guitarist and musician, also had stage fright. This was followed by a hazy memory of the 70’s New York rock scene. Even though I question the story’s accuracy, it has made me feel acceptive of not only my fear but also myself.

However, I do find life is ever changing like the seasons and we have to learn to adapt to it. Here I am 16 and getting ready to leave my living family to pursue my future.

It is possible that’s why I am investigating this, not to feel closer to the past, but to feel alive in the present.

I will one day tell my children that moving forward with my life is scary; but lately I have been impartial to my fears, treating them as apart of me.

Unlike my mother’s side, I have significant amounts of dates and names when it comes to my father’s family. Last time I was in New York, I stayed with my great aunt, Aunt Susie. She showed me pictures of my ancestors, New Yorkers molded from Italian roots.

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However, out of all of those faces encrypted in black and white ink, one always seems to follow me.

Born to an immigrate from Marsala, Sicily, Italy, and a Brooklyn born woman in 1925, Virginia Lentine has always influenced me even though I never met her.

In photos, she virtually always has a big toothy grin with squinted eyes, and my smile is identical when I am genuinely happy. We not only share the same nose but similar tastes in clothing and shoes. The best picture of her, in my opinion, is where she is laying on an old school teeter totter with her sunglasses on, arms crossed and is either is like no cares given or posed for the picture. This reminds me of the random things that I do, and I feel like this is a representation of how our

personalities are connected even if time separated us.

I am a spiritual person. A few weeks ago, before starting this story, I read an article about how ancestors could act as your spirit guides.

Spirit guides appear in all sorts of western culture. They are entities that remains as disincarnate spirits to act as protectors or guides to an alive person. I feel as if spirit guides were real, Virginia would be mine.

An adolescent version of her with painted red lips, sunglasses, and that big toothy grin we share. If this is so then I am content because her physical presence is a stranger but I feel her every day.

As I am writing this, it is 10:26 p.m. the night before my article is due and here I am, writing my third rewrite. This may have started out as a search to find myself, but instead

I found out things that brought me closer to my loved ones. I am not just other. I am a Lentine, an Agnello, a Mondello, and a Busto. I am a mixed bag of hopes and dreams tied with a pretty bow of love.

Hug your family. Whoever you have.

Whether it be your parents, siblings, a teacher, an aunt, an uncle, a friend, and when you have them in your arms tell them you adore them.

Sometimes they can be too much.

Sometimes they may understand.

However, in the end the people you genuinely love is all you have, so make the most of it. Growing up can be painful if you are doing it alone.

Photography by: Izzy Agnello

How to Train a Bird

By: Lea Nguyen

B

irds are not just entertaining by their vocal cords but they are animals who could play with you. There are many different types of breeds that have different personalities. Some will whistle all day, talk all day or to you, or most of them would just play around grabbing their toys to have a little show. Maintaining a bird is not difficult because it feels like taking care of a dog or a cat if you had any experiences with them. With these precious creatures, you could have fun and teach them many tricks you would do with them, such as roll over, sing, talk, and many more.

Introducing your bird at home The first few days with your new bird can sometimes be traumatizing or easy depending on their personality. Birds can easily adapt to the environment of your home where they reside. Give your bird space when you first introduce them into your room with wooden toys. It is easier for them to adapt in the environment with toys, food, and a perch because they would be more comfortable with their surroundings and aura of your home. Many store owners advise you to not play with your bird because they get frightened easily. It depends on how old your bird is in order to play with them. Observe your bird and make sure they are comfortable with their surroundings. Question yourself on what they need to keep them healthy.

Teaching “step up” Teaching your bird how to step up benefits for you and themselves because it could save their life if they are in danger. “Step Up” is very simple; this is when your bird goes on your fingers or hand. Birds may not know what you are doing so be aware that they might be a little scared and run away from you because they do not have the instinct to get on your fingers naturally. However, many birds can learn easily depending on their personality.

15 | February 2019

Positive Reinforcement Training Positive reinforcement is very common for training dogs and cats, but it can also be used on parrots.

The idea of positive reinforcement by B.F. Skinner, shows that when you reward your bird on doing something good, it ignores the bad behavior. When there is unwanted behavior, there is no reward which diminishes as they develop new sets of behavior. This trick identifies the parrot’s behavior and what they desire such as giving them treats or attention.

Is it Possible to Discipline a Parrot?

It is nearly impossible to punish your parrots because they are very sensitive creatures that can be depressed easily. For them, they would see you as a threat if you hit them and it would cause them to attack to defend themselves.

Conclusion Overall, it will take time to train your bird depending on their age. It would at least take a year for your bird to connect with you. Providing them a lot of attention would be best if you want them to bond with you easily. Taking care of them is not hard but time consuming.

Spraying your Bird with Water: This method would almost always work. First of all, they would think that you are giving them a bath which is great to discipline them. They would be calm and open their wings for more. On the other hand, sometimes they can be fearful if they know it is their punishment so they stop immediately.

Flicking their Beak: The beak is the most sensitive part of the body and you should treat is carefully. Flicking it or hitting the beak is NOT allowed because it could break or bruise easily which can cause bleeding or loss of beak. Birds prefer gentle tapping of the beak because it is more of a connection rather than a punishment.

If you are busy, at least take them out and place them onto your shoulders as you do your homework or chores. If you want to know more, buy a book that could teach you many other things about the breed you have or have already chosen.

Wobble/Drop: Wobble and Drop is the easiest trick if your bird starts to bite. If your bird is perching on your wrist and started to bit on your fingers, you should give them a light scare such as jolting your arm lightly. They will eventually stop due to their loss of balance and they would be in shock. Applying a rapid and aggressive pressure would tend them to lose their balance and fall onto the floor if their wings are clipped.

Violence: Violence is never an option because it is considered animal abuse. Hitting or throwing objects at your bird is not exceptional because these could traumatize your bird. If the bird is traumatized, they tend to bite, hiss, and attack depending on their size in order to defend themselves from danger.

Photgraphy by: Lea Nguyen

Dedicated to Passions

By Carter Bernard

When you die, what are you proudest of?

Too soon? I agree. If you had to choose something, anything, fulfilling your soul to the brim with infinite satisfaction for the rest of your existence before you suddenly flash out into nothing, what would it be?!

Most people are content with working a day job and fish in their free time, but your passion is what makes you feel alive. Every second we live, we dedicate ourselves to one thing because without it we feel like we are already dead.

We have all heard something similar: that somewhere at some point in our lives we need to find one thing makes living pure bliss.

It is actually daunting to think about, yet not everyone has the opportunity to strive endlessly towards something they want. It's more likely that we find a subject that we love that won’t completely envelope our hearts. It is okay to be content with something without exhilaration.

You can have a boring, well paying, day job while fishing in the free time; to do what we love we

17 | February 2019

need to able to support ourselves.

Everywhere in media, we are shown how people have followed their passions and taken great strides in their work, or they failed and are living miserably.

Those situations are one of the most rigid contrasts from doing the same thing: following their dreams. Following dreams/passions is risky business because even if we have the ambition, we might lack the skill. In the show Haters Back Off, a girl thinks she can sing; doing so with the confidence of a goddess.

She is terrible, refusing to give up she keeps trying, not from perseverance, but instead hubris. She thinks she is perfect and never tries to improve. On other the hand in shows like America's Got Talent, American Idol, etc. They present people who let passion lead them to demise. The contestants lack skill, and even with training some still are not up to par.

Encouragement and improvement are vital, yet sometimes we are beyond help. At that point, it’s okay to move on and drop it;

finding something you’re better at and can even develop a passion for.

Life is full of risks, miracles, and perseverance, but it is also still filled with harsh realities. I am not saying we shouldn’t prepare for doing what we love, rather, we can find something that we are good at that truly inspires us and find prosperity. If you are horrible at what you love to do, you can still do it, just don’t seek it out as a sustainable career. Never forget your passion; you can improve on it or you can find more, try to make things you are good at into passions. Dropping a passion could be hard, but you can find things that you had no idea you are passionate about. Following dreams can end in abrupt awakenings, but preparing with reality and dreams hand in hand can start you off right.

Photography by: Carter Bernard

Summer Nights

Art by: Angie Martinez

Summer of 2018.

The memories still sit freshly in my mind. I can feel the sweat drip down the crown of my forehead as everlasting nights turned into days with a boy that I loved. Kisses on the cheek or holding hands represent things I would constantly find myself fantasizing about in the past. In spite of that, summer inevitably ends. The sun always goes down and the fall breeze always comes out. Nothing is perfect.

“I rode my bike to the beach.”

The first line of my letter to the boy I thought I loved. No greeting, no introduction. Just seven words that seem like nothing, but are simultaneous, everything to me. I wonder to myself how such an easy task, an easy verb, could have such an impact on me. I always ride my bike to the beach. But now, it’s been tainted with painful memories that haunt me.

“As the wind blew into my ears, I could almost hear our laughs as the summer sun beat down on us.

By Angie Martinez

It felt like the faster I peddled, the faster these emotions I could never truly understand would leave. My thoughts were fogged with you and I disliked it with a strong hatred. I hated the way everything about you made me feel.”

I will never genuinely comprehend why I started liking him. That’s probably why I loathed the idea of merely loving him. Admittedly, he was just another boy who happened to be the best friend of one of my friends. I remember hearing him talk in my French class. It was perfect French and I couldn’t help but be amazed. I continuously stared at him from across the room, desperately hoping to be friends with him one day.

“It sounds cliche, but what did you expect from me? The hopeless romantic who was friends with your best friend. When the possibility of you moving away was first mentioned, I felt nothing. I could feel myself losing a grip of the things that simply kept me alive.”

Before I began talking to him, I felt alone.

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I felt like there was no one who could understand my feelings. Our first conversation escalated quickly.

One second we were talking about the French homework, the next we were talking about the future. I found it rare to have someone who could understand what it felt like to have no purpose in life. He was smart, charismatic and had something going for him. Yet, he too was fighting his own demons.

“I listen to the songs we once sang loudly and danced to wildly under the night sky. I wish I could’ve held those memories close to me.

Now, they’re songs I can’t listen to anymore, or I feel the sudden urge to cry. I imagined what life would be like without you. It sent shivers up my spine. You had been there ever since I could remember and now you are only a piece of my memory that I’m bound to forget.”

During this time, I found myself listening to the songs I loved that reminded me of him. The songs were upbeat and rhythmic and I felt like I was on Cloud 9 whenever they would randomly play.

Now when I listen to these songs, I’m helplessly forced into distress that I can’t handle. I hoped that perhaps, one day, he would sneak up behind me and give me one of his affectionate hugs. That never happened.

“I thought that the night we snuck out meant something. I thought our day together at the fair meant something. I thought I meant something. I thought love was an actual feeling, and it wasn’t something only the other kids talked about. But to you, I was just a hopeless romantic who was friends with your best friend. Constantly, I ask myself why I thought there was something?”

Love has always been a strong word to me. I can never bring myself to tell my friends I love their outfits.

Love. I feel uncomfortable whenever I overhear the word. Even writing the word is strange to me. Love doesn’t exist for me.

“This whole situation reeks of a Netflix show and I detest it. I thought I was in love with you, but it lasted as long as the summer happiness does. It was all a fantasy. I came to that realization once I saw you turn your head. It panged my heart with utter pain that words cannot describe. I found myself staring at my purple wall, longing for the warmth you brought to my heart. Your life went on without me.”

To me, Netflix shows are incredibly cliche and no one can relate to them.

That’s where I drew my inspiration from. The unrealistic story of how kids could somehow find love in a hopeless world was everything I could hope for. Yet, I knew I didn’t have a story where I ended up happy. I had a story in which I would only feel an indescribable pain. I wanted to show the reality of an actual relationship.

"I felt time go slower, and I kept slipping. I slipped and I slipped until my hand had finally let go. I no longer remembered nor felt the warmth you brought to me. Vividly, I remember the warmth of your hands brushing away the tears that fell down my eyes after my parents yelled at me. Now it’s like your hand is actually there, even though you aren’t near me anymore.”

It’s unbelievable how much comfort I felt with him. There were times when no one else in the entire world could make me feel the way he did.

I wanted to feel again. I wanted to feel his hugs again. I wanted to feel safe again. I clung to those memories that pained me, but I was addicted to the idea of having him be there once more.

“The night I finally let go, I rode my bike to the beach once more. My mind immediately thought of all the nights we spent gazing up into the stars while the cracking of the logs served as background noise. I still remember how our conversation that night went. ‘What do you think of the stars?’ I whispered to you.

I had always felt comfortable around you, but at times, you intimidated me. You turned to me, your crooked grin on your face, as you began to talk. ‘I think the stars represent the good in the world.

The night sky is black, but the stars truly shine. Our world nowadays is black and filled with such evil,’ you paused and I looked up at you. I could only see disappointment and sadness in your eyes, something I had witnessed many times before.

You continued, ‘But there will always be a star to light up the darkness.

A star as bright as you.’ My head immediately shot up and made eye contact with you. I noticed the way your brown eyes and how the fire would reflect against them. At that moment, nothing was wrong.”

I lied to myself a lot during this time. I told myself he was the reason for my “happiness.” I ignored the texts of my own friends and family, just to spend one more summer night with him. One more summer night. That conversation with him will always stay fresh in my mind. I could never forget that night, let alone the pain in his words. It hurts me to know the star he once thought I was had begun to start dulling. The inner brightness I felt with him no longer shone. I was turning into the darkness, something he feared.

“I find myself criticizing myself for things I never did. I could never accuse you of the pain you made me feel. I think of your face when you would be the cause of problems. It hurt to see you like that.

To me, the pain you feel is the same pain I feel. I don’t want you to feel guilty for any of the issues I possibly have now. Is that a problem? I don't know anymore.”

I consider myself to be a generous person who purely wants the best for other people. However, before the start of the summer, I would’ve never considered myself as someone like that. It weakens me to think about the type of person I was.

Laughing, I would have shaken my head because those words would have never belonged when describing me. I thought of myself as someone who wouldn’t care about anyone. Being greedy, I continuously put my feelings and opinions above others. Spending more and more time with him, I realized that with all the flaws I had in me, that with every bad thought I had about people, I could be a better person. I could be someone who cares about others. I could be someone who people wanted to turn to. He made me want to change.

“I found myself writing as a way to cope with my feelings. In my head, I knew keeping it all to myself couldn’t be good. I knew a time would come when I exploded and could no longer handle the feelings that mingled inside of me. I wanted to scream. I want to scream.”

It hurt. It hurt with a complex pain.

My ceiling became something I would stare every day at. I spent hours wondering what I did wrong.

What did I do wrong? Was it because I was selfish?

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Was it because I’m just a disposable person? Was it because I was, simply, not good enough?

“I respected your viewpoint. Day after day, I understood what you felt like. You made me feel like there was better in the world. I believed in a more decent future. I grasped what it felt like spending endless nights, staring at the bare, white ceiling, hoping I could feel anything.

The one thing I crave most was the comfort you brought to me. I want to feel the warmth you gave me even though you are now on the other side of the world. I write this with the hopes that one day, I’ll be able to have a laugh at this situation. I hope I can look back and laugh at my naiveness. I hope one day I’ll no longer feel the pain I feel before bed. But most importantly, I hope one day you will live a joyful life with someone that makes you feel the way you made me feel.”

The original copy of the tragic note is gone. I wrote out the letter, but I experienced an unusual amount of emotion. I couldn’t bear seeing it anymore. Vividly, I remember ripping it out of my notebook.

Words like beach, love, warmth, and slipped all jumped out at me. My head spun, and I felt myself losing control. Again. I eventually crumbled it into a ball and threw it down a sewer, just like he threw the idea of “us” away.

the inspiring By: Sarah Tran If art was ever “safe,” the world could never have the ability to interpret what it truly means to be provocative. But what does it rea ly mean to be safe?

What does it mean for art to be provocative? To be able to express what someone sees through their eyes and have the freedom and courage to do whatever they want? If art was ever only touching the line of societal standards, then this would be considered as safe.

Something must be done to allow it to be dangerous, innovative, and most of all inspiring.

The fine line between being able to plainly see art for what it is and what it could be is what it takes for art to be provocative.

To be able to cross the line and be aware of how a piece of art can spark controversy and chaos is what art is supposed to be all about. Through action, artists are able to guide themselves into how they want their art to be portrayed.

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Though, what everything really starts with is the inspiration to create something out of thin air and manipulate it in order to be awe-inspiring.

In the end, artists find themselves from the beginning to end of their masterpiece with the guidance of what inspires them. “I’m usually inspired by music or even when I go outside. I’ll see things and I would just connect everything together or even sketch things out and envision that, go home and draw that or try to picture what it could be.”

Huntington Beach High School student, Karly Dang, explains confidently. Dang asserts what she is inspired by and more importantly, how it affects her as an artist when revealing that she believes that “the best art that I do is when I’m sad” she goes on to heavily express that she doesn’t “want to say that” as an outlet to go to, “but it is what it is because it helps me get my mind off of things.

That’s why I like to do art while I’m sad, it makes me feel better since it acts as a stress reliever.

I don’t get sad while doing art in the moment and I always feel immensely happier in general” because there is that outlet “I can just go to and rely on.”

Many times the stress of life and the events that go on around an individual is so intense that it’s essential to be able to have an escape that alleviates the chaos; that for Dang is her art. Moreover, Dang admits her “art can come off as depressing, but really think[s] it depends on your mood at the time.”

There was a certain theme throughout each of her art pieces and at first it “was the color red and it’s not usually the color red necessarily, but moreso the theme of red where it can resemble that of romance or even death; its the different images of red” that appealed to her, Dang claims.

Art by: Karly Dang

She then explains how the next theme started to have the basics of “euphoria… which was just drawing things that made me happy or things that reminded me of a happy moment.”

It would even stem off to where she drew things that symbolized those who made her happy to be surrounded by; if she was content with who she was around “they would have an influence on myself and my art” as a whole, Dang proclaims. While describing the process it takes for at least one of her art pieces, Dang expresses: “It usually comes naturally me, it can take a while or maybe not that long at all, it depends. Sometimes, I can draw four pictures in one day or I can draw one picture every five months, so I don’t give myself a time frame. Whenever I feel like I want to do art, at that moment it is what I’ll do because it feels as if I rush it, it won’t be what I want it to be or it’s not as good as I know it can be.”

Similarly, for other artists, having what many call “artist’s block,” being able to overcome such an obstacle only takes time that Dang recognizes and is aware that there is absolutely nothing rushing her or her art.

What it takes for her is just one idea that she finds through the simplest things or even the most pressing.

“I believe that anything and everything can inspire someone because I find that many aspects in life are a pattern; essentially, we can just connect everything” Dang asserts.

What many view through their eyes from something that inspires them, can lead to a completely new wave of ideas that branches from then on.

Art by: Karly Dang

Through inspiration, many individuals, such as Karly Dang, find a motivation that allows them to produce an art piece that connects to the real world, its generations, and the current events that happen within it.

Moreover, if inspiration were non-existent, artists would not be able to create what art is really about, the human experience.

This experience can be conveyed through all types of art, from literature to paintings, many can interpret what they view and how they view it freely.

TikTok Controversy

Art by: Parker Baughman

By: Lilly Vu Tik-Tok is an extension of one of the most profitable startups on the planet, Musical.ly, as well as one of the most controversial social media apps at the moment.

However, a vast majority of the population knows about the platform from the memes. To provide a bit of background, Musical.ly was an app possessing many similar features to Tik-Tok but not as specialized noting the numerous features available to enhance the production quality of one’s videos.

There are many elements which differentiate the app from others on the market and is a primary factor as to why it has such a large following. In July of 2018, Tik-Tok hit 500 million active monthly users with 6 million US downloads as of November that same year. It is still a fraction of the size of Facebook (2.27 billion active monthly users) and Instagram (1 billion), but it is, nonetheless, far ahead of platforms such as Twitter (336 million) and Snapchat (186 million).

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TikTok Clout On a surface level, Tik-Tok isn’t necessarily unique compared to similar apps in their prime, i.e. Vine or Dubsmash. In fact, the very best Tik-Toks take a vast amount of time to create, but it is also what allows your average, unassuming classmate to become a huge star.

Some of the largest Tik-Tok stars include Baby Ariel with 29 million fans, Loren Gray with the same amount, and Jacob Sartorius with 19 million fans, all of whom have used the platform to jumpstart their careers in the music industry. They have also made appearances on several TV shows and movies since building huge followings on Tik-Tok’s predecessor, Musical.ly.

This, however, isn’t necessarily what Tik-Tok wants to be remembered by. With the vast number of Tik-Tok cringe compilations on YouTube, Tik-Tok videos are purely targets of ridicule to a generation of cynical internet users.

Without a doubt, teens should be allowed to experiment with the app’s numerous features, as well as develop their own personal style of editing, but their inclination to do so doesn’t protect them from the Internet’s ridicule, and thus ending up in one of the many Tik-Tok cringe compilations on YouTube.

YouTube creators, meanwhile, pique the collective interest of their followers by watching these Tik-Tok cringe compilations in reaction videos with titles like “Tik-Tok Must Be Stopped” and “Tik-Tok Gamer Girls Should Be Illegal.”

Similar to Vine, Tik-Tok welcomes scripted content with open arms.

Scripted comedy, however, is extremely hard to pull off and is even a bit unpleasant to watch sometimes when executed poorly. The way some Tik-Tok artists have attempted to avoid this obstacle by lip-syncing to iconic scenes from shows, existing Tik-Tok sketch, or viral tweets is even more unpleasant to watch. Contrary to popular opinion, the user base isn’t necessarily the issue, as the memes or “challenges” on Tik-Tok are actually pretty clichéd. In addition to these crazes, “belly dancing” is also seeming to be taking over, not only Tik-Tok but Instagram as well. The phenomena mentioned, however, are merely a small fraction of the vast biosphere within the realm of Tik-Tok. The Darker Side of Tik-Tok Even though users must be thirteen or older to even go on the app, it is not exactly as restricted as some parents may think, as many adults log on to prey on young children.

According to the South China Morning Post, studies show that “hundreds of Hong Kong children as young as 9 years old unintentionally exposed their full names, phone numbers, and schools by including the information in public videos.”

In addition to this shocking breach of personal information, these accounts were also prone to grooming from adults asking young girls to “be their girlfriend” or going as far as to ask for their cellphone numbers. As shocking as it may seem, Internet predators have been around for as long as anyone could remember.

In 2017, for example, a sevenyear-old from Indiana was asked to send photos of herself to a stranger on Musical.ly as described in an ABC news segment issued around that time. Around the same time, a 25-year-old man from Fresno, California, was charged with sexual misconduct of minors through Musical.ly and other social media apps.

The problem, however, arises in the vast population of adults preying on adolescents whose minds have not yet fully developed, thus enticing children to hand over their personal information without posing much of a hassle. Ultimately, from the lense of a young teenager, the Tik-Tok experience is unique to each individual.

BTS Behind the Scenes By: Kayla Nguyen

Striking fans by surprise, BTS, a seven-member boy band constructed by BigHit Entertainment, released the first work of their influential album trilogy on September 18, 2017.

The three albums: Her, Tear, and Answer have received endless amounts of attention and surpassed records upon records.

According to Forbes, a business magazine, Tamar Herman stated “all three albums of the Love Yourself trilogy also went to No. 1 on South Korea’s Gaon chart” which systematizes weekly ratings of South Korea’s albums or songs. From that point on, BTS have been recognized as global figures for their struggle to success. When connecting their three main songs: “DNA,” “Fake Love,” and “Idol,” they narrate the process of falling in love, destined heartbreak, and the realization of loving oneself.

DNA: Love Yourself: Her, the first album released for their trilogy, centers around the idea of love interests.

“DNA” is a fresh track that introduces BTS’ direct approach towards youthful relationships. The music video has professional production that have always exceeded fan’s expectations and it displays a colorful message for viewers. The main track, “DNA,” delves into the process of infatuation and butterflies in one’s stomach.

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On Billboard, BTS’s leader, RM quoted, “When we’re talking about our title tracks, “DNA” is about the expression of young, passionate love.” The lyrics concentrate on the bizarre feelings when falling head over heels for someone. For instance, the verse, “Everytime I see her, I freak out. Surprisingly, I keep gasping and it’s weird, maybe this is the emotion they call love” recalls the sentiment of having affection for another person and the utter confusion that comes from it. “DNA” received positive results and even climbed it’s way up to Billboard Hot 100, but BTS didn’t stop there.

“DNA” is just a prequel to their second title track, “Fake Love,” a song that changes people’s insight on the idea of romance.

Fake Love: After only eight months since releasing their hit song, “DNA,” BTS satisfied their fans with another thrilling song that uncovers a different perspective of love titled “Fake Love.” There is a stark contrast from the bubbly aura of the “DNA” music video, while “Fake Love” conveys a rather cheerless impression. By utilizing different standpoints of the camera and locations, they are able to express each member’s individual obstacles. In terms of their choreography, it incorporated movements that mirrored fragmented dolls and puppeteers.

In relation to the K-pop industry, idols such as BTS are put under ceaseless stress and pressure as they are expected to reach an unattainable standard as big-named artists. All things considered, “Fake Love” expresses the melancholic, yet imaginative spirit of one’s experience with love.

Idol: When Love Yourself: Answer was released, “Idol” was their leading track. From an interview with Brooke Reese, they stated that they artistically blended in “African rhythm” and “EDM sources” with Korean traditional dances and expressions which could symbolize their interpretation of being worldwide. With hidden morals and components of Korean culture, the music video is worth viewing. The highly anticipated album Love Yourself: Answer is the conclusion to their love-themed series.

Throughout the music video, the members are set in different locations and shown wearing and doing things the way they want to.

This is them celebrating their true sense of self-love. “DNA” and “Fake Love” symbolize the early stages of budding relationships, whereas the track,“Idol,”is where genuine happiness begins.

Art by: Parker Baughman

In a Beats 1 interview about their latest album, Love Yourself: Answer, RM explained “so we tried to show the emotional developments of a you know, of a young man through, through love and we tried to send a message that loving yourself is where the true love begins,” and that is the principal message of “Idol.”

As a fan myself, BTS’ symbolic songs have impacted me on a large scale. Their empowering lyrics made me change my mindset on romantic relationships. On the online newspaper MumbaiMirror, an anonymous journalist wrote, “[t]he series saw the group experience different stages of love, but found the answer to be simple and clear - To love yourself for who you are.”

The last step in love is to appreciate yourself, for who you are and for what you do because as BTS sang in their chorus “[nobody] [can] stop [us] [from] lovin’ [ourselves].”

Loving Vincent By: Cooper Gilliard

Why animate a film when you can shoot and illustrate it frame by frame? It has been a year and a half since the Polish/UK feature film Loving Vincent knocked critics off their feet in September of 2017. The murder mystery comprised entirely of oil paintings left audiences drowning in a pool of tears, in awe of its mind-blowing cinematic achievement.

Despite confusion, the method in which the movie was made has been classified as a form of animation, although the movie was shot and then illustrated frame by frame. This begs the question: is the method close enough to stop motion to be considered a legitimate nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film?

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Loving Vincent was originally imagined by its creators to be a seven-minute short film in 2008. It was later re-imagined by Dorota Kobiela, a Polish painter who studied Van Gogh’s methods through his letters.

Thankfully, it made the jump across the pond to American theatres and saw availability in multiple languages, which made the film popular across Europe. Van Gogh’s style as a Dutch artist shaped the formation of modern-day European art, as well as modern artists worldwide.

Fascinatingly, he painted over 8,000 works of art upon his death and The Red Vineyard at Arles was the only one that ever sold. It now rests in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Art in Moscow.

Audiences took the movie to be very in depth and rich with incredible detail, mainly within the illustration but also in the storyline. The filmmakers fit just about every detail revolving the story into an hour and thirty-five minutes. It is as if you’d finished a documentary by the time the credits roll. Almost like the air around the characters tells their backstory as the film moves forward.

However, some have questions on whether or not this film should have been eligible for an animated film award. To an extent, the film was shot in the same manner a regular movie. Then, they used what’s been labeled an “animation method” including 65,000 oil paintings. The method is similar to that of stop motion. However, the method has evolved since it’s first use in 1898.

When asked, Dorota Kobiela said, “My goal was to use art to tell the story of an artist.”

As far as the story goes, it does a fine job of accurately noting what we know to be true and creating an enticing story out of what is not factually known. The artistic use of exaggeration within the history of cinema has been used to bring the audience deeper into a story, and despite many successful uses, it is not an easy thing to pull off. In one of the first opening scenes, Roulin doesn’t have to say anything in order to tell the audience how he views Van Gogh, which is an ill man that cost his father's reputation in their community.

Every character has to be explained in anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours, primarily through the use of facial expressions. Anyone in the US lucky enough to have seen it would no doubt understand the characters and their intentions from an hour and thirty-five minutes. The misconception came when critics on major film sites such as IMDb and Fandango described the characters as being defined by the atmosphere of the film. Rather, it was the facial work exaggerated by the illustrator.

Particular scenes were more heavily filmed before they were illustrated, specifically scenes with excesses in motion. They are still obviously illustrated. However, from a cinematic standpoint, you can tell that for the motion to be as fluid as it is the filmmakers would need to shoot the scene and then illustrate based on the footage.

One particular scene that breaks the spell main character Armand Roulin, played by Douglas Booth, meeting a boatkeeper by the river in the last home of Vincent Van Gogh. As the scene progresses, a profile shot of the riverman standing in front of a riverside bush develops. However, as this happens, wind sound effects are used to make the outdoor scene more realistic, but it only makes the scene seem less realistic to the audience as they see that the brush and trees in the background aren’t moving. Subconsciously, this makes the scene look much less professional to the naked eye.

Despite minor errors, Loving Vincent illustrates a story explaining the last days of, and more importantly, the motive for, the father of modern day art. The arc of Van Gogh’s childhood is downtrodden. He and his younger brother Theo were the only children of his family generation to survive past 18 years old. According to the film, Van Gogh spent most of his life trying to live up to the standards his deceased siblings had established with his mother, which he could never measure up to in her eyes. Despite this, he and Theo managed to survive and grew up close to each other via mail. Their mutual mail carrier is the father of main character Armand Roulin, whose main goal is to deliver Vincent’s last letter to Theo. Along the way, he gathers that Theo suffered from General paresis of the insane, and had died as a direct result of Vincent's death.

was suicide, as a result of a mental breakdown. Throughout the story, Roulin learns all the simple things that happened to Van Gogh before his death and how the choices he himself made are similar to the ones that led Vincent to his end. At the start of the film, Roulin is livid about how he is asked to deliver Vincent's final letter, and is wondering why his father is so hell bent on having Roulin deliver it. He eventually comes to realize that his father sympathized for Vincent, considering Van Gogh had a breakdown and most of his home town turned against an ill man.

All in all, Armand fails to understand what his father understood. With his son as an alcoholic with a temper, he could lose him at any moment, he would want his son's last letter, assuming he had written one. Just like everyone in the audience would want a letter from a recently deceased family member.

T

he wild nature of teens is captured in one of the most honest and liberal films of the late seventies, Over the Edge. Released in 1979, it rewinds viewers to the rowdy teenage scene that erupted earlier in the decade. The base of the film focuses on the fictional, suburban town of New Granada and a group of young adolescents who struggle to find their place in the city.

With a glowing yellow tone, overalls and bellbottoms in every shot, it drops audiences in an entirely different cultural America. Although, it’s an America where adolescent dilemmas don’t stray far from our 21st century problems.

The seventies is known as a coming-of-age decade in itself.

Emerging from the sixties’ liberation movement, scandals, revolution, and rock pushed forward.

Political unrest caused by anti-war movements and a suspicious haze surrounding the government left younger generations into questioning: what is normal?

The film begins by peering into the lives of typical teenagers of the time. Panning across the New Granada school, dirty long-haired blondes smoking cigarettes dispute the latest gossip and appear to have no cares whatsoever. A small gang of shaggy, brunette boys and strawberry-blonde girls tease each other and meander around the halls.

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By: Angelina Sotelo

Photography by: Angelina Sotelo

Over the Edge Within the first minutes of the film, the audience can see that the teens roaming the city are looking for something to do— a purpose to own. When the families of the kids are introduced, it’s clear that these teens witness the drab middle-class lives the adults around them lead, and are quick to reject it. For them, leaving conservative ideas behind and soaking in liberal ones is their only salvation from the dull, modest majority.

Predictably, this combination of curiosity and frustration birthed a surge of disobedience. Left and right kids found themselves in the hands of the police for a span of offenses.

Drug and violence charges against minors became more mainstream, and vandalism soared. Across the nation, teens began to voice their problems with action. They took to the streets and their schools to mock “the system” they were in the midst of growing up in. Rebellion became the new normal; rebellion became the teenage tongue.

This piloting of popular disobedience never faded in the decades to follow. It is seen throughout our own lives in the success-governed world of Orange County.

Huntington Beach High School is consumed by teens who may not have financial trouble but suffer from being lost.

Feeling neglected for one reason or another and at a loss of direction, many of these kids resent the authority in their life because they have less-thanhealthy relationships and misbehave to show how little respect they have for them.

Others resent these adults because it’s a trend to follow, an image to upkeep. However, instead of vandalizing, this youth culture graffities its opinions on the internet. It’s easy to find people searching for themselves on social media and in the often meaningless relationships between fake and empty friends. There’s still garage house parties and the nightly exploration of the town, but there’s now an outlet that amplifies these constant adolescent problems.

Growing up in Orange County, it is common to sum up this cycle of privilege and resentment as the Huntington Beach culture.

But it’s littered across the country: in history, in books, in movies, and in our own neighborhoods. No matter if it’s the blazing seventies or the twenty-tens, human nature is too strong to lose its will. There will always be a little space between the ages of thirteen and eighteen that shapes entire lives, and there will always be a sense of confusion and loss which at one point or another, sends teens over the edge.

By: Jameson Jaksch In 1981, a documentary titled, The Killing of America was released. The film details the violence in the country that the filmmakers believed began with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which progressively got worse leading up to the 1980s.

The documentary features actual footage of the many infamous acts of violence during the period, as well as interviews with some of the killers featured. At the time of its release, most of the atrocities highlighted in the film were relatively recent cases of crime and murder, such as terrorism, serial killings and mass shootings. Since the release of the documentary, not much has changed.

Rise of Terrorism According to reports by The Nation Institute and Center for Investigative Reporting, acts of domestic terrorism in the US have continued to climb each year. In 2014, there were 29 terrorist incidents. In 2015, there were 38. In 2016, there were 64, and in 2017, there were 65.

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Even though 2016 and 2017 had nearly the same amount of incidents, there were more than triple the amount of deaths from terrorist incidents in 2017. Last year in October, Cesar Sayoc Jr, an avid supporter of President Donald Trump, sent packages containing pipe bombs to various critics of Trump, important members of the Democratic party, such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and one to famed actor Robert Deniro. After one of the packages was found in the mailbox of billionaire, George Soros, bomb squad officers safely disarmed it and members of the secret service intercepted the remaining packages.

Although the attempted attack never actually came to fruition, if it had actually went to plan, it could have been one of the most devastating series of assassinations in world history.

Undoubtedly, the most tragic and atrocious act of terrorism were the September 11 attacks that rained on New York city in 2001, and in turn the rest of America.

The attack changed the face of America, the feelings of the general public, and overall America’s signature sense of optimism and hope. 2,996 people were killed, and over 6,000 were injured. America’s children were killed, it’s future, it’s families, and what felt like itself.

Gun Violence Today, it seems the most prevalent form of murderous violence in our country are the overwhelming amount of shootings we endure. All day, everyday. There have been 90 mass shootings in America since 1982, according to the investigative magazine Mother Jones. Some of the most notorious mass shootings took place at the schools in our country, the very place our children are supposed to feel the safest. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, April 20th 1999 in Littleton, Colorado, just weeks before their high school graduation, committed one of the most infamous acts of domestic terrorism in United States history.

Armed with 2 shotguns, a TEC-9, a carbine rifle, and various homemade explosives that all inevitably failed.

When it was all over, Eric Harris and

When it was all over, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had killed 13 people, before both committing suicide by shooting themselves in the head. Even more recently, on October 1st, 2017, Stephen Paddock stockpiled a heavy arsenal of weapons in a room at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Preparing for months to do the most unthinkable and most atrocious mass shooting in America’s history.

At around 10:00 PM, Paddock began shooting from the window of his hotel, and out at the crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival. At first most of the people in the audience had mistaken the gunshots to be fireworks, until the bullets began hitting attendees in the crowd. The gunfire continued for 10 minutes, and by the time police gained access to his room, Paddock had shot himself in the head, and brought 58 innocent citizens down with him. Even though this shooting was the deadliest in America’s history, it has seemed to be quickly forgotten with time. America has become accustomed to gun violence.

Riots, Protest, and Hate Protests were once a way to use someone’s own voice for desperate need of change and to combat civil unrest, and injustice in the most peaceful way possible. Protests in America have become a sanctuary for violence, hate crimes, and bigotry. People try to pin the violence that occurs at these events on either side of the spectrum, but in reality the violence is very prevalent on both.

In February 2017, on the campus of UC Berkeley in California, Milo Yiannopoulos, a gay Republican advocate and public speaker, was planned to hold a speech on the campus. Instead, he was met with violence, death threats, bigotry, and hate. People from both sides, Republicans and Democrats, clashed on the university grounds. A group known as Antifa (Anti-Fascists), are often cited as antagonizing and perpetrating the violence committed against opposing protestors. Yet, with the chaos coming from both sides at these events, its very hard to tell who to blame. The group that has the most evidence to incite violence is undoubtedly Antifa though, as members stated in a Vice documentary, “Fear is apart of our tactics”Although it’s nearly impossible to sympathize with white power movements, most of the attacks ommitte aginst white supremacists have nothing to do with self defense, and everything to do with radical-Left extremists trying to block out freedom of speech.

White supremacists ncite violence, even decades after their infamous history of hate killing and crime. The most notorious example perhaps was the Charlottesville car attack that took place on August 12, 2017, where 20 year old James Alex Fields Jr drove all the way from Ohio, just to crash his car through a sea of peaceful protestors at the Unite the Right rally. 28 injuries and 1 death resulted from the terrorist incident. Heather Heyer was the only fatally wounded casualty. The perpetrator, Alex Fields Jr., was known to have adopted neo-nazi and far-right wing beliefs.

The perpetrator, Alex Fields Jr, was known to have adopted neo-nazi and far-right wing beliefs.

Conclusion The one thing all of the antagonizers of these atrocious, criminal, and violent attacks have in common, is a history of a struggle for power. A thirst and longing to feel important, after an entire life of abuse and neglect.

Whether this neglect comes from parents, peers, society, politics, and whatever else that holds a place of power varies, but each attack these modern monsters commit are all forms of terrorism in a way. And a way of showing society they are not these little, fragile creatures to be kicked around and abused. Each of them has a goal, and one goal, to in some form or another.

Murder the foundation America stands and prospers on.

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5

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Top 5 Films By: Cole Clark

By: Cole Clark The House That Jack Built

Shoplifters

Roma

The House That Jack Built plays like a long-form essay on the consequences of corruption, peppered with sporadic instances of extreme violence. Writer/director Lars von Trier has dabbled in the style of Godard throughout his lengthy and controversial career, but here he fuses the carefree criminality of Breathless and the French director’s recent, documentary-like work. It’s a testament to von Trier’s talent that he can support such a full script without coming across as patronizing or needlessly vulgar.

Over a dozen films into his career, Hirokazu Kore-eda has assembled his warmest and most revolving film in Shoplifters. A struggling family of rejects and friends do what the title suggests to stay alive, all the while taking part in complex social lives that depend on the state of their society. They rescue a young Japanese girl from abusive parents and welcome her into their own. Too young to know what they are doing for her, she is raised to love with limits as the film pivots between her’s and the cast’s changing lives as a result of her arrival. Photography from Ryûto Kondô is still life, mirroring the fragile stability the family has constructed to stay alive. The harsh reality of deception overtakes the final third of the film, but even with a morose and cyclical ending, Shoplifters is an unprecedented tale of familial love made with specific attention.

Roma begins with the relaxed, delicate washing of an unnamed floor. The reflection of a plane motors across the slick pavement, creating a separation between reality and fantasy.

Careful momentum leads the film down a voyeuristic journey toward several key moments: the theater scene, Cleo’s saving of the children in the ocean, the forest fire, there are so many events packed into Roma it begins to feel like an epic.

It travels beyond Alfonso Cuarónisms and modern film tropes, aiming for a style that has long been forgotten. It’s another in a year of films that forces the audience to watch at its pace, using its runtime to the absolute fullest. Other films released in 2018, but there were none like Roma, and never will be again.

Never one to focus on one theme, he also tackles the Trump presidency and the spirit of censorship that banned him from Cannes in 2011.

At the start of the film, von Trier delivers a message to the audience with the simple statement, “Never another Trump.” There’s enough ambiguity to prompt years of discussion, diving into what makes a person corrupt, as well as how lonely the modern American not-so-secretly is; it couldn’t be a more fascinating piece of filmmaking.

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of 2018

1

First Reformed

The Other Side of the Wind

Religion, suicide, corporatism, and love are put on trial in Paul Schrader’s return to brilliance, but the most enthralling aspect of First Reformed is that it comes as a total surprise. Star Ethan Hawke’s best roles have been of the carefree and lovable type, a far cry from his voracious minister, Reverend Ernst Toller. The vitriol he captured in Before Midnight has carried over, as Hawke delivers a performance so varied and cold, you wonder if he is the protagonist. Schrader, on the other hand, has delivered quite possibly his best film. The Academy aspect ratio, various special effects sequences, and one unforgettable ending combined, it is as if he has been reading a different book than the rest of us. It is the meeting of two great talents that makes First Reformed the debilitating triumph it is, and it won’t leave you with a second to catch your breath.

Director Orson Welles’ death put The Other Side of the Wind on an indefinite standstill, but in 2018, over 40 years after its production ended, it was released in full through Netflix. Ignore the impossibility of that chain of events for a moment and you are left with nothing less than is implied: a 70s influenced masterpiece from the master.

Through the story of fictional director J.J. Hannaford (John Huston) and his acolyte Brooks Otterlake (Peter Bogdanovich), the film’s subtext dissects Welles and Bogdanovich’s own troubled relationship, while the main plot satirizes the exact comeback narrative Welles was chasing from 1970-1976.

In footage from the documentary They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, Welles can be seen riding in the back of a car in a scene between Huston and Bogdanovich, feeding lines and staying out of frame.

It’s the perfect metaphor for the turbulent film: born and raised in its time, softly manipulated by its creator as he was trying to figure out what it was. The Other Side of the Wind tells the story not only of the reclusive and doomed Jake Hannaford, but of an era of unbridled creativity that an auteur like Welles thrived in.

Had he completed it, it would be a classic, but because he did not, it is much more. Enthralling, hilarious, and didactic, it’s a film lost in time, that by some miracle has made its way to ours.

Local Favorites Grace’s Favorite: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Director: Morgan Neville

In a politically charged era of strong differences and hatred, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? highlights what it means to be inclusive through a heartwarming and dynamic documentary.

Caleb’s Choice: Eighth Grade Director: Bo Burnham

Few movies capture the truly cringey nature of adolescence that this film does. Absolute masterclass in directing, acting, and writing. Authentic all the way through and genuinely moving.

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Caitlyn’s Select: Blackkklansman Director: Spike Lee

Blackkklansman is a meticulously crafted film which uses apparent parallels and criticisms of modern day society and politics. Spike Lee makes the film his own through the surprising combination of early 70s spunk, intelligent and witty dialogue, and a thought provoking narrative.

The Pies of Waitress By: Sheldon Stires

The movie and musical Waitress have some pretty and distinctive pie names. From “Betrayed by my Eggs Pie” to “A Little Wild, Wild Berry Pie,” each pie that Jenna has come up with has had some personal life inspiration that is important to her.

Not only are these pie names funny, but the pies themselves taste like a slice of heaven.

Prologue

Jenna is at the point in her life where everything is just a dead end and she is waiting for the next big thing to happen. Jenna is a waitress at Joe’s Pie Diner where she is the chief pie baker and she has many different variations of pies. These pies are important to her because, she used to bake with her late mother and baking is her only escape. Unfortunately, she is also in a dead end relationship with her husband Earl. She also finds out that she is pregnant with Earl’s baby. When she goes to see her doctor she begins a small affair with him which begins to spice up her life.

“A Little Wild, Wild Berry Pie”

This pie occurs when Jenna is learning to live on the edge a bit as she comes up with the name right before she visits her doctor, which she is having an affair with. Every time she visits Doctor Pomatter, she brings him a pie depending on what mood she’s in. That day, Jenna started to realise that it was okay to live on the edge. This pie also helped her by growing a stronger relationship with Doctor Pomatter as her pie names reflect to him on how she’s been doing.

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Recipe

You will need: 2 Pie Crusts 1 Cup of Fresh Strawberries (Chopped) 1 Cup of Fresh Blueberries 1 Cup of Fresh Blackberries 1 Cup of Sugar 1/4 Cup of Cornstarch 1 teaspoon of Salt 1/3 Cup of Water 1 Tablespoon of Butter 1 Egg Preheat Oven to 400 degrees.

Wisk all of the dry ingredients, butter and water until smooth.

In a saucepan combine all the berries plus the mixture base and bring to a boil.

Once brought to a boil, remove from heat and stir until thickened and cooled.

In a 9 inch pie pan lay down the pie crusts and brush the crusts lightly with egg wash.

Add the berry filling to the pie pan.

Add the other pie crust top to the pie with air ventilation at the top (Prefered method for best result is a lattice crust.)

Brush the top crust lightly with egg wash.

Place in the oven with an empty cookie sheet on the bottom rack of the oven (this is to prevent any leakage.)

Place pie in oven for 45-50 minutes or until pie crust is golden brown.

Once the crust is golden brown cool on a cooling rack before serving.

Tips for leftovers

Tips for leftovers Always store any leftovers in a refrigerator.

To heat up a slice of pie, cook in a microwave on high for 30 seconds.

If the pie is still not warm, cook for another 30 seconds.

“Betrayed By My Eggs Pie (or I Don’t Want Earl's Baby Pie)”

Betrayed By Eggs Pie comes out of frustration when Jenna finds out she's pregnant with her husband Earl’s baby. She is frustrated because of the life that Earl has given her and fears that this baby will only make things harder for her. This is not your typical, sweet pie as it includes eggs and brie cheese. Making this more of a kish and more of an excuse to have pie for breakfast.

Tips For Leftovers

Do not save! The pie will get moldy overnight in the fridge.

These pies have inspired Jenna to do better in her life and with out them she wouldn’t have wanted to take an extra step in life. When Jenna does have her baby, she quickly realizes that she needs to leave Earl and ends her affair and is given the diner. Later, Jenna and her daughter Lulu continue to bake pies. So when you’re feeling down, maybe try making a pie and baking will become therapeutic. I hope you enjoy these pies and I hope they taste as good as they look.

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Recipe

You will Need: 1 Pie Crust 4 Eggs 1 Block of Brie Cheese or any cheese of choice 1/3 cup of Heavy Cream Sliced Ham Salt and Pepper (used when complete Anything you may like with your Eggs Preheat oven to 400 Degrees.

Place pie crust into a 9 inch pie tin.

Lightly dust the crust with egg wash.

Line the crust with tin foil before placing in the oven.

Place pie crust into oven for 10-12 minutes or, until crust is golden brown.

While the crust is baking combine Eggs, Ham, and Heavy Cream and mix until all the ingredients are combined.

Take the pie crust out of the oven.

Let the pie crust cool and when cooled line bottom of the crust with thin slices of cheese.

Pour the egg mixture into the pie crust.

Place back into the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Dash salt and/or pepper on top.

Once removed from the oven wait till cooled before serving.

The

43 | February 2019

Artist

Candy Hart-Peratt editor-in-chief

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