Volume 109, Issue 16

The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

FEATURES

Lights Out Features writer Veronika Kowalski dedicates a tribute to the darkroom, which will be converted for another use in the future.

What “What the Constitution Means To Me” Means to Me

Arts & Entertainment writer Stefany Quiroz discusses a show that initiates a conversation about the current state of our nation and its history that has been long overdue. see page 16

see page 9

Volume 109 No. 16

Junior Vishwaa Sofat and sophomore Julian Giordano were elected Student Union

President

and Vice President, respectively, for the 2019-

2020 school year.

Jane Rhee and Cathy Cai have been declared valedicto-

rian and salutatorian, respec-

tively, of Stuyvesant’s Class of 2019

Hanah Jun and Summer Shabana were chosen as two of six Milken Scholars from Seniors

New York City.

Freshman Michael Chan, along with senior Lauren Mei and freshmen Aryan Ruparel, Aryan Patel, and Aaron Contreras, won honorable mentions in the Genes in Space competition.

Senior Sean

Takada and juniors Nicholas Jun and Lucas Amory won the annual Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Young Musicians Showcase.

William Lohier, junior Richard Kim, and freshmen Zoe Buff, Cyrus Cursetjee, and Felix Bransbourg were Senior

invited to perform during “Night of Remembrance: Stories from Holocaust Survivors” on May 30.

June 10, 2019

stuyspec.com

Meet the 2019-2020 Big Sib Chairs!

By MADDY ANDERSEN and ERIN LEE Juniors Harper Andrews, Kristie Chu, Victoria Wong, Frank Yang, and Patrick Zheng have been chosen as the 2019-2020 Big Sib Chairs.

They were picked by 2018-2019 Big Sib Chairs Jessica Gruboy, Jennifer Lee, Angela Sun, Joshua Weiner, and Bo Xuan Wu. With the recent acceptance of new members into the Big Sib program, both the previous chairs and their successors are excited about the upcoming year and the future of the program.

The process of picking the next Big Sib Chairs was thorough and intensive. “We all submitted a written application, and then they set up an interview. We also had to submit two Little Sib recommendations from our homeroom and one teacher recommendation. We also needed a Homeroom Leader recommendation, and they met with the homeroom leaders oneon-one to discuss and read what they wrote,” Chu said. “During the interview, everyone [was] nervous at first, but they [made] it a really chill environment for you. There were two faculty members there as well, but they didn’t really say anything, so it’s essentially just you and the Big Sib Chairs.”

The Big Sib Chairs did not know one another very well at first and come from different backgrounds.

“I definitely can see us all coming from different dynamics. [...] We all do different things. The previous Big Sibs Chairs always talked about compatibility, and I don’t know how they did it, but the first time we stepped into the room together when they announced results, we all clicked,

Tiffany Yu/ The Spectator

NEWSBEAT

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

despite not meeting each other before,” Chu said.

Andrews is a two-season athlete, with soccer in the fall and track and field in the spring. He is also on Model United Nations (MUN) and has been a Student Union Project Manager for his three years at Stuyvesant. In addition, he tap dances outside of school.

While Andrews enjoyed being a Big Sib and getting to know his Little Sibs, he had to decide between having a more personal relationship

with the incoming freshmen or a larger role reaching all of them. “I decided that I would like to play a role not having that one-on-one so much as being impactful on the entire incoming body and being able to help new Big Sibs achieve the same relationship I was able to have,” he said.

Chu plays on the girls’ varsity lacrosse team in the spring. She also directed the Latin dance group for SING!, and she has been taking ballet lessons outside of school since

she was four years old. Additionally, Chu is on ARISTA, and she takes photos for the Indicator on spirit days and of sports teams.

Chu was drawn to the energy of the Big Sib program, which encouraged her to first become a Big Sib and later apply to become a chair. “I remember when I first came to the Stuy open house, and one of the Big Sibs who led my tour was so enercontinued on page 2

Stuyvesant Hosts Japan Day

Athena Lam/ The Spectator

By KAREN ZHENG, NEIL SARKAR and JAKOB GORISEK-GAZZE

The Stuyvesant Japanese department celebrated Japan Day in the student cafeteria on May 3.

The festival is one of the many annual events organized by the language department, and it aimed to spread appreciation for Japanese culture. Established in 2017 by Japanese teacher Chie Helinski, Japan Day was inspired by Japandemonium, an annual celebration of Japanese culture already held in Japanese classes.

The event included sushi, rice, and dumplings cooked by students, a raffle with Japanese candy, and student volunteers dressed as ninjas and sumo wrestlers.

Roughly 100 students attended the festival, which was solely organized by Helinski and run by students taking Japanese. Helinski attributed the enthusiasm of the event among the student body to the popularity of Japanese cultural mores such as anime and J-pop.

Japan Day, like other language department events, allows students to immerse themselves in other cultures. “Japan Day is important for the students because everyone has the opportunity to experience the culture, the language, and the cuisine. Attendees will have their fortunes told, and they will meet Ms. Helinski,” As-

sistant Principal of World Languages Francesca McAuliffe said.

Students in the Japanese program worked on creating different booths, making food, and advertising the event. “I [was] volunteering at the various tables and helping out with the raffle, and as part of the job, I [had] to dress up as a ninja,” sophomore Dario Cipani said. The number of booths compared to last year was smaller, but the students did their best to work with what they had.

The Japanese department is the smallest language department in terms of students who take the course. “It requires everyone in the department to pitch in, […] but ultimately, it is a really great experience for bonding and bringing the school together,” Cipani said. The event required those in the Japanese Honor Society to spearhead the event and make sure that it came to fruition. The experience of putting the event together helped create a tight-knit group among students taking Japanese.

However, the turnout and overall atmosphere of the event were disappointing compared to last year’s. In previous years, 500 or more students attended, but this year’s turnout was down to 100. Last year, 1000 origami cranes were made for the event, and the walls of the cafeteria were decorated with posters that

explained different parts of Japanese culture.

However, Helinski did not add these decorations to this year’s event, as she found that most students attending the fair neglected to read the posters and appreciate the cranes. According to Helinski, students were not learning from them, and the hard work of the Japanese students was going to waste. In addition, there was not enough food—which is made by the students themselves—for attendees to eat.

Because of this, Helinski expressed concern for Japan Day next year. “When students do not participate and chip in food, I cannot generate everything myself. We may not have the ability to [host Japan Day],” Helinski said. However, next year, Helinski plans to ensure that students prepare enough food and make more booths with activities and presentations.

Despite the issues revolving the event, attendees enjoyed Japan Day and felt that it enhanced their experience with the culture. “The foods served at Japan Day are all foods that have cultural significance in Japan. Many events like origami and wish making are also important aspects of Japanese culture, so Japan Day was a good way to experience these events,” freshman Ismath Maskura said in an e-mail interview.

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The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

News continued from page 1

getic about Stuy. When I saw him, I knew I wanted to be like him,” Chu said. “He seemed to know so much about his school and he did so many extracurriculars, and I thought, ‘I’ve never seen anyone do so many things at one time and be so happy about it.’”

Wong is an active participant of SING! and Stuyvesant Theater Community (STC), both as an actor and a director. Wong is also in acappella, and she wishes to go into the medical field to be a pediatrician.

During the summer, she is involved with Stuyvesant Summer Tutoring, which tutors kids at libraries.

Wong appreciated being able to develop relationships with everyone involved in the Big Sib program.

“My favorite part [is] obviously how close you can get to your Little Sibs, but also how close it makes Big Sibs, too, to each other,” she said. “The program brings people, teachers, everyone together.”

Yang is an active member of lights and sound, directing crews for both STC and SING!. He is also involved in MUN, is a part of the Board of Elections during election season in the spring, and is on ARISTA. Yang is also a podcast enthusiast, and he enjoys learning about economics, linguistics, and politics in his free time.

Yang’s decision to apply to become a Big Sib Chair was based on his experience as a Little Sib. “My personal experience as a Little Sib was not amazing. I don’t want to say that I was alienated by my Big Sibs, but [...] I always thought, ‘Would my Big Sibs be different if I were in a different homeroom?’” he said. “My former experience has made me more interested in the Big Sib program and, after this past year of being a Big Sib, want to have a more immersive role in deciding what Big Sibs do and how they interact with their Little Sibs.”

Zheng is passionate about gymnastics, inside and outside of school.

In addition to being on Stuyvesant’s team, Zheng coaches gymnastics for kids. Zheng has also shadowed doctors and participated in programs due to his interest in pursuing the medical field. Finally, Zheng plays the bass, and is attempting to learn how to play the double bass.

Zheng enjoyed developing relationships and interacting with his Little Sibs. “One of the things

WORLDBEAT Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation amidst the ongoing Brexit Deal failure.

The Supreme Court upheld the law requiring abortion providers to bury or cremate fetal remains in Indiana. However, it turned down the appeal of banning abortions based on sex or disability of a fetus.

Seventeen schoolgirls and two adults were stabbed on May 28 in Kawasaki, Japan. One of the girls, who was 11 years old, and a 39-year-old man were killed. The attacker, who has been identified as Ryuichi Iwasaki, also fatally stabbed himself.

I came to appreciate was how fast you can get close with a group of people,” Zheng said. “One of the biggest things [...] I experienced was how much help you can provide as a Big Sib, kind of passing down your experiences or memories to the Little Sibs, and they really appreciated that.”

The new Big Sib Chairs were selected during a time of recent controversy surrounding the program’s lack of racial diversity. Despite backlash, however, the Big Sib Chairs have defended the application process. “Do you really think that five students out there have an agenda to set a quota of Asian Americans, a quota of whites, a quota of brown people? I respect The Spectator and I respect the article they wrote and I respect the evidence they collected, but I just don’t agree with they said.

You can’t expect the makeup of the Big Sib population or the Big Sib Chairs to perfectly reflect the racial makeup of the student population,” Yang said. “We just accept who we think is worth it. We don’t think about whether the person is Asian, whether the person is white, whether the person is this or that.”

The Big Sib Chairs also acknowledged the fact that four out of five chairs are Asian; however, they did not attribute race as a factor in the decision process of the previous chairs. “I am for certain that there was something that the [previous] Big Sib Chairs found in all of them that would make them amazing leaders, great role models, and just generally awesome people to run the program, and I am confident that each one of them will be able to bring that same exact thing forward repeatedly,” Andrews said.

In light of the recent Big Sib application process, the Big Sib Chairs have recognized the lack of personality diversity in the program and the advantage of having different Big Sib personalities. “Appealing to more personality types is a good way to maybe get more people involved [who] are not so similar,” Andrews said. “I know that there is not a lot of consistency among what you see in Big Sibs—energetic, outgoing, and all that—and that’s amazing, but [...] not everyone can connect with that personality.”

Yang agreed. “I am all for accepting people with different personalities because that’s what would appeal to the most people. That being said, being outgoing and being friendly is obviously a must-have

Tiffany Yu/ The Spectator

Meet the 2019-2020 Big Sib Chairs!

characteristic among all of our Big Sibs, in that during every homeroom, they should be talking to their Little Sibs. There are some traits that should be universal, that I want to see a speckle of in every person, but we should also aim to accept different personalities,” he said.

In addition to increasing diversity in Big Sib personalities, the Big Sib Chairs are attempting to modify the image of the ideal Big Sib. “It can be intimidating if all the Big Sibs have a lot of extracurriculars. I remember when I was a Little Sib, all of my Big Sibs had so many extracurriculars, and I was really overwhelmed,” Chu said. “We don’t necessarily look for someone with a lot of extracurriculars, and they can be more on the quiet side, as long as they will still reach out to their Little Sibs. You don’t necessarily have to be outgoing to take initiative.”

Since selecting the 2019-2020

Big Sibs, the chairs have begun brainstorming ideas to help better integrate the incoming freshmen. A key change the chairs wish to implement is strengthening the relationship between Big and Little Sibs. “We want to focus on getting that relationship between Big Sib and Little Sib more personal. There are a lot of events where it’s kind of broad [...], where there’s not so much one-on-one or even just a group with a Big Sib,” Andrews said. “We just want to develop that relationship and make it more personal rather than, ‘These are the five people who come to our homeroom every two weeks and sometimes they are helpful.’”

They also wish to add more events to bring Big and Little Sibs closer together after the summer.

“We want more activities for Big Sibs and Little Sibs, because once the school year starts, you really just have homeroom [...] and one

dance,” Wong said. “I want to have more events like that.”

Zheng agreed, and added that a dance or event at the end of the year would mark the end of a successful freshman year. “As the Little Sibs transition into sophomore year, there’s no final event that really signifies, ‘Wow, you guys made it past your first year, congratulations,’” he said.

The Big Sibs Chairs share a common passion for their new responsibilities, and are looking forward to the year ahead. “From the minute we were all sitting at the table in Ms. Pedrick’s office and they were announcing the results, I could tell the enthusiasm was tangible, and everyone was so excited about just having the opportunity to show who they are and be able to lead and have an awesome role in the school,” Andrews said. “We all share that same drive, and that’s really powerful.”

Robotics Goes to World Championships

By ANNETTE KIM, HAYEON OK, REBECCA KIM, and THEO SCHIMINOVICH

Stuyvesant Robotics Teams 310 and 694 competed at the Detroit World Championships over spring break, where Team 694 placed 36th out of 68 teams in their division and Team 310 placed 73rd out of 80 teams in their division. However, both teams learned from and enjoyed the competition by watching other teams compete and collaborating with them.

The Detroit World Championships were run by the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) organization, which is an international youth organization that aims to promote student involvement in engineering and technological fields. There are two types of teams that can compete in FIRST championships: larger FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) teams and smaller FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams.

Stuyvesant’s FRC team, Team 694, and Stuyvesant’s FTC team, Team 310, represented the school this year in the world championships.

Teams from around the world came to compete in Detroit, and each team was put in a division.

There were six divisions of FRC teams, with the winning teams in

each division moving forward to the final competition at Einstein Field. Meanwhile, there were two divisions of FTC teams, with the winning teams competing at the final competition, the Da Vinci finals.

Before the competition, both the FTC and FRC teams were informed of the challenge of the competition. The FTC team received their challenge in September, while the FRC team received it in January. They then began intensively building their robots, testing them, and making improvements.

“One of the main things I [wanted] to do is have [the FTC] team come into the lab. […] We had people from the industry come in and mentor the kids. So it’s been great having the FTC team work with those people or myself and get to use the machines [in the lab] more,” robotics teacher Joseph Blay said. In the competition, each team’s robot performed tasks such as hanging off rails, picking up game pieces, and climbing up steps. The FRC teams competed two-on-two while the FTC teams competed three-on-three.

Stuyvesant Team 694 placed 36th out of 68 teams in the Daly division and made it to the semifinals of their division. Stuyvesant Team 310 placed 73rd out of 80 teams in the Ochoa division, but won two of the qualification matches they competed in. “We

kind of expected it since we were competing against the best of the best FTC teams, with amazing outreach, engineering, and software skills,” freshman Emily Tan said in an e-mail interview.

Unfortunately, Team 310 ran into some problems during the competition. Due to the rough nature of matches, their robot broke down after almost every match, and the team had to spend a lot of time repairing it. In addition, members had to repair the robot after issues during transport.

“Two wheels and a motor completely fell out of our robot. The whole night at the hotel was spent fixing the robot and restoring it to a working state,” sophomore and Vice President Megan Gupta-She said.

However, the competition wasn’t limited to robotics. Team 310 organized a volleyball game to socialize and have fun with some of the other teams. “When we attend competitions outside of New York, it is a tradition for our team to have a volleyball match against whoever is willing.

This year, the game pieces of the FRC game are basically yoga balls, so my president, Lili, and I borrowed one of these balls to use during the game. It was a spirited match and honestly so much fun,” Gupta-She said.

Team 310 considered the world championships a great

learning experience, as they got to see other teams perform at the competition. “Something that separates the top-tier teams from other teams is that they all have robust and innovative ways to solve the little problems everyone has,” Gupta-She said. “[The FTC team] was going with the goal of ‘let’s learn a lot from all these teams; let’s have fun; let’s prepare ourselves for the next season,’” Blay said.

At one point, when Team 310 had a problem, one of the teams it was allied with during the match came to provide assistance.

“People who stopped by our pit whom we made small talk with helped us find solutions to fix the mechanism, and in the end, we still couldn’t make it work, but it was really cool to once again see gracious professionalism in the FIRST community,” Tan said.

Competing at the world championships was a great experience for Teams 694 and 310, the latter being the first Stuyvesant FTC team to ever make it to Detroit.

“The cohesion of our FTC teams [was] so apparent during this competition. I am so proud of how far our team has come, even in terms of team dynamics because you could tell that every single person on our team wanted to be there and felt like he or she was part of the team,” Gupta-She said.

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

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News

Stuyvesant Model United Nations (MUN) hosted their 16th annual StuyMUNC conference on Saturday, April 13. Over 350 delegates from 30 schools from the New York area, as well as from Long Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut, attended StuyMUNC. Modeled after the United Nations, MUN conferences are divided into specialized committees where delegates, each representing a country, tackle relevant political, social, and economic issues. Delegates immerse themselves in these issues as they generate and weigh possible solutions.

Organized by Directors-General senior Ben Platt and junior Ahmed Sultan, StuyMUNC 2019 was the accumulation of months of intense preparation. Sultan credits this year’s success to an early start on planning heavy logistics, which began in October.

He also credits miniMUNC, the first conference the club attended this year, which was also organized by the Directors-General. miniMUNC, in addition to providing planning experience for Platt and Sultan, also gave underclassmen a chance to attend a relatively low-pressure conference. “It was a lot less hostile, and you were surrounded by your peers, who [were] also delegates. The people running the club were your chairs and directors, and so everyone already knew each other,” Sultan said.

Computer science teacher and faculty advisor Topher BrownMykolyk was also a key player in planning this year’s conference.

“He pushed us at the beginning of the year to work with last year’s head of StuyMUNC to develop a timeline of what we should’ve done seven months out so we could have an exact checklist of what needed to get done,” Platt said.

In addition to the efforts dedicated by the Secretariat, the people in charge of MUN, over 30 stu-

dents volunteered as staffers. They were responsible for helping committees run as smoothly as possible and for simulating world crises.

StuyMUNC received almost unanimous feedback from delegates who enjoyed aspects of the conference, which ranged from the size of the committees, the unique topics of specialized committees, and the overall atmosphere received from chairs and directors.

“We try to emphasize the intimate experience in having a specialized crisis committee, while other local conferences generally try to stuff people into big committees where you’re not going get as much attention,” Platt said.

These committees were headed by chairs and directors who aimed to create a welcoming environment for delegates. “At other conferences, it’s a lot more cutthroat, and we try to discourage that behavior by hosting an inviting conference that everyone can come to,” Sultan said.

The underclassmen found StuyMUNC to be more enjoyable than other conferences, since they were able to assist as staffers and not just attend the conference as a delegate. “All the committees that I have been in were General Assemblies, so it is not really actionpacked. This was a lot more actionpacked, and I actually got to control some of the things that were happening,” said freshman James Lee, a staffer who assisted his chairs and directors. As part of the joint Pakistan vs. India crisis committee, his “committee was faced with the threat of nuclear war. There were many trials, and there were multiple people [who] were killed,” Lee said.

Sophomore Katie Leton, a last-minute chair at the conference, expressed her agreement. “Since I was the one helping to run the event, it was interesting to see what it was like not from the perspective of a delegate, but rather from somebody who was helping to make sure everything went okay,” she said.

Both Lee and Leton found their first StuyMUNC to be a

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worthwhile experience and credit the upperclassmen for guiding them along the way. “Ahmed [Sultan] did a lot of work, and it took a lot of weeks to prepare for it. At the end, it was worth it,” Lee said.

Leton agreed and said, “The main chair of the [World Health Organization] committee, Harper Andrews, definitely knew what he was doing. I was just helping out, writing stuff on the board, and making sure the committee knew what they were doing, and it ran well.”

As for any potential changes for StuyMUNC 2020, Platt is considering extending the confer-

ence over the course of two days.

“It would help delegates develop their MUN skills more, and it’s less pressure on chairs and directors.

Right now, you have to move pretty quickly in choosing between different crises and responding to them,” Platt said. On a more logistical level, senior and Secretary General of MUN Joshua Weiner said, “[I want] people sticking to deadlines, [and I want] that background guides are written earlier and that crisis arcs are planned before the eve of the conference.” Sultan looks forward to inviting more schools next year, as this conference was a success.

StuyMUNC, as one of the last conferences of the year, was

especially meaningful for graduating seniors. “It is a unique thing that we create [something] fully— something we built from scratch.

We have to invite the schools, work with them on payments, and create committees, so it’s a very organic effort coming from within the club,” Platt said.

When Weiner was reflecting on his overall experiences on MUN, he said that “[It was] phenomenal. [...] The feeling of being wanted and belonging is a great feeling to have,” he said. “To then become an upperclassman and provide that for others is amazing.”

Senior Nathaniel Unger captured MUN in a nutshell as a “club

The College Rejection Wall

Courtesy of Zoe Oppenheimer

By SUBYETA CHOWDHURY and TINA ZHENG

Courtesy of Shafali Gupta and Tyler Matos

Stuyvesant Model United Nations Hosts StuyMUNC 2019

“When there is a wall tacked with colleges that students were rejected from, we view college with a more realistic perspective.” —The Editorial Board See Page 10 for this issue’s staff editorilal discussing Stuyvesant’s college culture.

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The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Features “It’s a Love-Hate Relationship”

By THE FEATURES DEPARTMENT

We asked students about their opinions on Stuyvesant. Here are some of their responses.

“I like it; I don’t hate it. I do not have strong feelings either way, but it is my school and I can appreciate that it is a good one.” —William Mo, freshman

“Both! I love and hate Stuyvesant simultaneously because I love the opportunities that Stuyvesant provides us with to grow into the people we’re supposed to be, but I also think it’s really taxing on [...] our mental health and breaks us in the process.” —Harshita Singh, junior

“I love Stuyvesant especially when there are three tests and a project I haven’t started [yet] due the very next day. Jokes aside, because Stuyvesant is so challenging and stressful, I get the opportunity to learn a lot about myself, my limits, and what my priorities are.” —Andrew Jiang, sophomore

“It’s like a love-hate relationship. First of all, the pressure at Stuyvesant is mad hot. And that’s the reason why I hate it. But the community is much better than any other high school that I’ve ever seen. The pressure makes people bond together, and you won’t see that anywhere else. [Take] Latin for example. Everybody hates Latin, and we bond with that. If you were to look at it as a purely no friend, no classmate relationship, yeah, it’s a horrible school.” —Asif Sattar, sophomore “I always remind my friends and family that I can’t wait until the day I leave Stuy, but I know in the future, I’ll look back at my high school years and find the bad memories just as special as the good ones!” —Maya Furusho, senior

“I might hate Stuyvesant currently because of the workload, but I feel like in the future, I’ll grow to love Stuy.” —Averlyn Chen, sophomore

“I love Stuyvesant because of the heartfelt conversations that unite students of all grades. As soon as you enter, you become part of a family that will always stand by you in your academic journey.” —Kristoff Misquitta, sophomore

“I would say that I love Stuyvesant. I am very close with a lot of people I [have] met here and have really enjoyed my time here. I couldn’t imagine going to another school. I also feel I probably love it more because of the pride I get when I associate myself with this school because it’s so prestigious.” — Charlotte Siragusa, junior “In the beginning, I think I sort of disliked Stuyvesant for its competitive nature. But as a senior now, I think I’ll really miss Stuy, one of the main reasons being that going to college, you won’t have this guided path that you have at Stuyvesant anymore, and at Stuy, the teachers are very welcoming and everyone here is supportive of each other. Now that I’m starting to go into the ‘real world,’ I think I’m going to miss Stuyvesant a lot and having this daily routine of coming to school, just doing what I do.” —Harrison Chan, senior

“I think overall [Stuy] is worth it, and the part that makes it worth it the most is all the people that you’ll meet and the connections [that you’ll make] for the future.” — Hanna Yang, senior

By CLAIRE TEMPELMAN

Caffeine is ubiquitous at Stuyvesant. Everyone has at least one friend who has mastered the technique of sneaking in an iced coffee past the security guards on the bridge. Perhaps your friends regularly fill their thermoses up with their favorite brew before their first period class or have a cup of green tea before school. It is pretty obvious why caffeine is so popular, as a lack of sleep is endemic at Stuyvesant (and among high schoolers in general). Unless you are willing to sleep in class at the risk of your grade, caffeine is your best bet to getting through the day.

In a survey sent out to the student body with 83 responses, just under 70 percent of students say they consume caffeine. It is possible that this number was skewed in either direction as students knew that this survey was about caffeine. Among the non-caffeine drinkers, while the number one reason for not consuming caffeine is a dislike for the taste of tea or coffee (54 percent agreed), around 50 percent stated that they did not consume any drink containing caffeine because they thought caffeine is unhealthy. Forty-five percent of caffeine consumers agreed it was unhealthy.

The biggest concern, though, was about caffeine being addictive. “Caffeine is a drug, and like other drugs, it can be highly ad-

“I fully and unequivocally love Stuy because of the opportunities it has provided me, a low-income woman of color. It was because of Stuy [that] I was able to delve into theater and finally get a chance to try my hand at leading. I got lucky: I have found my passions and some of my best teachers here. I couldn’t be more grateful with what Stuyvesant has provided me in the last three years.”

—Debi Saha, junior

“I really [enjoy] Stuyvesant because of the sense of community in both academics and extracurriculars. I like to paint this picture at high school fairs: people dancing in the stairways and testing out robots in the stairways. If I had one criticism, however, I feel that Stuyvesant is very test-heavy. At least that has helped me develop good study habits and will prepare me for college.” —Melbourne Tang, junior

“Stuyvesant and I have a love-hate relationship. There are the good days, [when] I don’t have too much work, am able to have fun with my friends, and go to bed at a normal time. And then there are the days [when] I’m looking at a million projects and tests and go to bed at 2:00 a.m. Every school has its ups and downs, but Stuyvesant’s are just more pronounced than most. Regardless of all the tough days, I think I’ve met some of the most amazing people at Stuyvesant, and if I had to pick again, I wouldn’t pick any other school.” —Maya Dunayer, freshman

Stuyvesant’s Caffeine Culture

dictive and change one’s behaviors,” sophomore Jonah Keller wrote. “It is unbeknownst to me whether this behavioral switch is for the better or worse, but I hope my peers understand the possible effects of consuming such beverages.” However, only 24.1 percent of caffeine consumers said they felt dependent on caffeine. Of course, students do not always realize when they are addicted to a substance.

While caffeine is not the most dangerous stimulant people use, there are some serious side effects to caffeine usage, especially among teenagers. Symptoms of caffeine withdrawal, which occurs among people who regularly consume caffeine and abruptly stop, include headaches, irritability, and a lack of concentration. According to a 2004 Johns Hopkins study, even stopping a one-cup-a-day habit can quickly lead to trouble.

Caffeine withdrawal pales in comparison to other drug withdrawal effects, however. Plus, if someone wants to quit caffeine, gradually consuming less coffee each day is an easy way to quit without feeling the side effects of withdrawal.

Because of this lack of significant dependence, caffeine can not really be called an addictive substance.

Research is still inconclusive about the exact effects of caffeine on teenagers. First of all, no research has shown that caffeine stunts your growth (unlike what our parents tell us), but the

American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting consumption to 100 milligrams a day, which is around one cup of coffee. Sleep is critical for teenagers, and consuming too much caffeine can lead to insomnia, along with anxiety, restlessness, nausea, and fast heartbeat, according to Mayo Clinic. Too much caffeine can also limit brain growth over time and lead to osteoporosis (the breaking down of bones). However, in general, if one follows the suggested intake limit and does not have any underlying heart conditions, there are no clear risks of consuming caffeine.

Most Stuyvesant students appear to follow these criteria, as only 20 percent of students report drinking more than one cup of coffee a day. However, many students still reported caffeine overconsumption or withdrawal.

As one anonymous student wrote, “I’ve been caffeine-dependent, and it was awful. I drank coffee every day for a while and then skipped a day, and I had such an awful headache. Tylenol didn’t help, and I was really shaky so then I stopped drinking as much coffee.”

“Stuy[vesant] kids prioritize coffee too much. Kids will come late to class because they had to get coffee, which just undermines its purpose to keep you awake in class if you’re not even in class,” an anonymous student wrote. “I realized coffee addictions are the least

Aishwarjya Barua/ The Spectator

“I guess I love Stuyvesant mainly because of the English department. Both of my English teachers [were] amazing and really motivated me to continue writing.” —Natalia Velez Rios, sophomore

of everyone’s problems when a kid in my Spanish class pulled out a large can of Monster.” In fact, 3.4 percent of caffeine consumers reported they drink energy drinks, while 81 percent drink coffee and 67.2 percent drink tea.

Among Stuyvesant students, there seems to be a difference in how caffeine is consumed. While energy drinks are seen as unhealthy, caffeinated tea is healthy, and coffee is somewhere in the middle. Another anonymous student said, “You can’t put tea and coffee in the same bunch.” Freshman Victor Veytsman wrote in an

e-mail interview, “Tea is a great alternative to coffee because it has less caffeine and has more health benefits. I started drinking tea because of my parents, but now I drink it because I like the taste and because it helps me get up in the morning. Tea gives me some energy when I need to focus. I’ve heard too many bad things about coffee’s addictiveness to try it.”

Green tea, which is celebrated for its health benefits, is the most popular tea at Stuyvesant.

Iced coffee, especially those from Ferry’s or the breakfast cart, is Stuyvesant’s coffee of choice. An anonymous student summed this up with the following: “Coffee, pungent or luscious as you may be, / [is] the temporary release from / the confines of sleep-deprived insanity.” This represents how Stuyvesant’s caffeine culture mostly centers around being able to power through morning classes after just a few hours of sleep.

There is a social element to caffeine culture as well: students often meet up with friends at the coffee cart.

While there are risks to consuming caffeine, it is clear that Stuyvesant’s culture would be very different without it. So, enjoy your green tea or iced coffee from Ferry’s before your physics double period without shame, and don’t be afraid to go with your friends to Starbucks or a niche tea shop after school.

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Page 7

Features

By TASFIA RAHMAN

Stepping into Competitive Ballroom Dancing

Ruojia Sun (‘16) Currently a junior at Cornell University, Ruojia Sun participated in many ballroom dancing competitions at Stuyvesant and continues to compete at the collegiate level. She was introduced to ballroom dancing through StuySquad, where she was a part of Latin dance during her freshman and sophomore years. She recalled, “I always thought ballroom dancing looked super impressive but never thought I would be able to do it.

It was a really fulfilling experience because I learned something I’d never done before and had a great time doing it.”

However, Sun did not learn the expansive range of ballroom dancing until her senior year at Stuyvesant. StuySquad Latin had exposed her to “one dance, the cha-cha, out of the 19 [possible] dances in competitive ballroom,” she said.

StuySquad Latin did not “focus on leading and following, which is integral to partner dancing,” she added.

During Sun’s senior year, Physical Education (P.E.) teacher Silvana Choy helped Sun gain a more comprehensive view of ballroom dancing. “Ms. Choy showed us the great variety of ballroom dances and taught us how to connect with our partner while dancing,” Sun said. Unlike her peers, who were timid and afraid of how they would be perceived in class, Sun took the class as an opportunity to be fully engrossed in an art form while having fun. “I went into the class with an open mind and internally committed myself to being fully engaged rather than just trying to get it over with,” Sun described. “With that mindset, I think it’s very easy to just have fun with it and enjoy the music

because when else am I going to have the chance to dance during my busy day?”

Sun pursued competitive ballroom for a few different reasons.

For one, she enjoyed her experience with ballroom at Stuyvesant and wanted to expand her experiences beyond what Stuyvesant offered. “If I didn’t have the opportunity to learn ballroom at Stuy, I don’t think ballroom dancing would’ve been on my radar when I entered college nor would I have believed that it was possible for me to pick up ballroom dancing, since I don’t have a background in any dance style,” she said.

Sun was also inspired by previous Stuyvesant alumni who went into the professional ballroom world. “In the P.E. class my year, we also had demonstrations from two other alumni, Yimeng [Xu (‘11)] and Danica [Chan (‘11)], and I was really impressed with their dancing. They started their ballroom journey in Stuy’s P.E. class too, so that also gave me the encouragement that it wasn’t too late for me,” she explained.

Sun also hoped ballroom would give her an opportunity to experience being part of a team.

“Coming into college, I wanted to be in a close-knit group, and the ballroom team at Cornell has been my family since. I’ve been mentoring team members individually since my sophomore year, and I’ve been teaching the advanced standard class for the ballroom team since the beginning of this school year,” she added.

The first competition Sun attended with her collegiate ballroom team was during her freshman year in October 2016. “Most of my best memories at competition actually come from hanging out with my team and friends from other universities. I’ve gotten to know a lot of people through

ballroom all over the Northeast, and every competition is like a reunion,” she described. “The atmosphere is very supportive and energetic, from girls on the team helping me do my hair to me losing my voice cheering for my friends on the competition floor to food runs with my dance partner—eating after you finish dancing is the best feeling—to open dances in between the competitive rounds where anyone can jump on the floor.”

Of course, Sun loves the competitive side of ballroom dancing too. “I do feel very rewarded when I get a good placement, but the best part is the people,” she said. Furthermore, Sun admitted that she was particularly attracted to ballroom for its camaraderie.

“When I dance, I’m competing against all other dancers in my level, not going one-on-one against another couple or school, so it’s very easy to form relationships and root for dancers from other schools. I think it’s the right balance between competing as an individual and as a team, because it allows me to work really closely with one person and grow together [while] having the support and resources from a college team,” she said.

Sun spoke of her longtime dance partner, James Chin (‘16), and how their relationship has strengthened after dancing together. They have known each other for seven years and “being friends with your partner helps a lot [when] working together,” Sun said. The biggest challenge they face is finding the time to practice together, considering that they attend schools two hours apart. Despite this challenge, Sun is grateful for their partnership and friendship.

For those who are interested in pursuing competitive ballroom,

she stressed the importance of finding the right partner and instructor. “Competitive ballroom may seem like a really esoteric activity, but it’s actually very easy to get into,” Sun revealed. “Despite what society often tells us, it’s never too late to learn something or invest in a new hobby.” She recommended joining a college team even if you are only remotely interested in it. As ballroom dancing is competitive, “it can be easy to get too caught up with results, but always be grounded in the reasons why you enjoy dancing and just have fun with it,” Sun advised.

James Chin (‘16) James Chin, who currently studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), was introduced to ballroom dancing at Stuyvesant. Through the advice of upperclassmen friends on his robotics team, Chin decided to take the P.E. Ballroom class as an opportunity to explore the world of dance.

“There were two alumni who used to go back [to Stuyvesant] all the time,” Chin recalled. “One of them used to be on the robotics team, and I happened to be wearing my robotics shirt that day. And in the beginning of [the ballroom] class, he pointed at me and [said], ‘Yo, I was president of that team.’

I sat there, flabbergasted. I was so excited. I don’t remember anything they said or taught or showed that day because I was [thinking], ‘What? This person did robotics.’

Afterward, I talked to him, and now we’re really good friends. He taught me a bunch of stuff and so after my senior year, since I took a gap year, he suggested I join the Columbia ballroom team.”

Chin’s interest in competitive ballroom is related to his familiarity with competing in robotics.

However, ballroom, unlike robotics, is more subjective. “I think ballroom is less about being super competitive and more about enjoying yourself on the floor,” Chin said. “Judging is so subjective, unlike ice skating or ball sports. I think there’s more freedom to get better without trying to be super toxically competitive.”

Chin has participated in competitions all across the Northeast.

His first tournament was at Princeton University, and since then, he has competed at a wide range of universities, including the University of Maryland and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Chin also competed in the 2017 and 2018 Nationals in Baltimore, Maryland alongside Sun. Like Sun, Chin explained that finding time to practice together is challenging. However, they have overcome this challenge by traveling to each other’s school once or twice a month in addition to practicing on their own. He further stated, “When we do get a chance to meet up, we ‘re-calibrate’ to each other.”

His favorite memory from his whole ballroom dancing career was at a low-key event at a large competition. “I danced a ‘fun dance,’ [a random event] that happens at competitions sometimes in which you do a modified version of a ballroom dance and it’s supposed to be this fun thing you do with a friend,” Chin said. “I did Straight Leg Jive with my friend, and it was quite hilarious.”

Chin strongly encourages others to give ballroom a shot, even if they are almost done with their time at high school. “The thing I love most about ballroom is actually the really special connection you form with the person you dance with,” he said. “It’s like communication without words.

Also, it’s just a lot of fun!”

Aye, Aye, Ma’am

A Stuyvesant Alumna’s Experience in the Marine Corps and Her Work Advocating for Changes in the Military

By TALIA KAHAN Anuradha Bhagwati (‘93) does not mince words in the advice she offers to current Stuyvesant students. Bhagwati counsels, “Definitely follow your dreams. There is so much pressure on [Stuyvesant] kids to follow other people’s dreams, oftentimes, parents’ dreams. So, try to figure out what you’re passionate about and what really makes you happy.”

Bhagwati certainly practices what she preaches. She grew up in a traditional household and, like many students, felt that her mother’s decision on any given matter was non-negotiable. This was a difficult situation, particularly during her high-school years, when she came out to her parents as being lesbian. She recalled, “They were horrified. My mom threatened to kill herself. [...] When she said, ‘Break up with her or I’m going to kill myself,’ I took that at face value. Culture matters more.”

In college, Bhagwati continued to struggle with the dilemma of whether to follow her parents’ preferences or her own. She would have liked to major in Religious Studies, but her parents did not support her choice. She studied English instead. “They were kind of elitist about some subjects. Religious Studies just never crossed their paths,” she said.

Though Bhagwati did break up with her girlfriend in high school and majored in English in college, she did not allow herself to succumb to her parents’ pressures as an adult. In the middle of a semester in graduate school, where Bhagwati was studying International Studies and journalism, she decided to drop out and join the Marine Corps. This decision marked a turning point for her. “I did everything that [my parents] had told me to do at that point; I fought a little bit along the way, but at the end of the day, they had the final say,” she explained. In joining the Marine Corps, Bhagwati was finally on the road to pursuing her

own passions and dreams, but that road was not one without its own hardships.

Bhagwati recalls that the initial 10 weeks of her training were a “fog of experience” consisting of mentally and physically grueling activities, little sleep, and a lot of shouting. “The entire process is one of you being yelled at for 10 straight weeks. […] It’s literal chaos, like receiving a firehose of words and you are running around with your head cut off the entire time,” she described.

The most difficult aspect of the Marine recruit training and Bhagwati’s experience in the Marines was the sexism she and other women faced. The Marine Corps is the branch of the military with the lowest number of women (women represent about eight percent of Marines, but 18 to 20 percent of the Army and Navy). According to Bhagwati, the Marines have the strictest physical fitness standards of all the branches and are the least open to women. Because the Marines had not integrated women into its forces at all, Bhagwati’s initial experiences were very rough. “I remember very clearly feeling that women weren’t treated very well.

There were lower standards for us; we were expected to fail. […] I was accused of cheating on a physical fitness test because they thought I ran too fast,” she recalled. “A lot of the language used in the basic training for officers was very gendered, very demeaning to women; it didn’t need to be this way.”

This sexism manifested itself in a multitude of other ways.

For one, the Marine Corps separated men and women during their initial training. This segregation reinforced the principle that there were different physical standards for men and for women. Second, women were verbally abused. “We were constantly reminded that women were weak and nasty and didn’t belong,” Bhagwati said. She pointed out that in the Marines, being called a “girl” was an insult.

Third, many of the male Marines

disrespected women. “It’s a very hostile work environment. […]

They wanted to have sex with us, not work with us,” she said. “It was very well known; there was degrading language and pornography in the workplace; the guys were going to strip clubs all the time.”

Bhagwati attended Officer Candidate School and was one of the four women who graduated out of a class of 18. As a captain, she supervised Marines who had never worked under a woman. She noted that while there were some men who did not want to salute her, there were also men who ex-

time she had filed the investigation, she realized that it would end her career because the other officers would try to protect the officer engaging in the harassment.

Ultimately, the investigators sided with Bhagwati but only recommended that the perpetrator be removed from the Marines. “[Because] it was just a recommendation, it wasn’t enforced. He stayed another 10 years and then got kicked out for adultery, which was completely ridiculous,” she voiced.

After Bhagwati left the Marine Corps, she met many female veterans who also experienced sexism

“There is so much pressure at [Stuyvesant] to get into certain schools and sometimes other things get lost. Now that it’s been quite a few years since I left here, it doesn’t matter so much where you go to school or what your degree is inasmuch as the values that you bring to society— how you try and help people.”

—Anuradha Bhagwati (‘93) pressed support for the achievements of female Marines.

Because women were so much in the minority, Bhagwati had no female role models in the Marines.

“I knew one woman who was senior to me. There are so few women in the Marine Corps; it is a little bit like seeing an endangered species,” she said.

For Bhagwati, her breaking point occurred when she filed a sexual harassment investigation against a fellow officer. “That was the final experience I had. It was really painful; I was scared for my life. I had to get a restraining order against him,” she said. At the

in the Marines and other branches of the military. These women formed the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), an organization that advocates for change in the military. Within her work at SWAN, Bhagwati is most proud of her role in revoking the combat exclusion policy. This policy banned women from joining many units, such as infantry and Special Operations. Now, all of these units are open to women.

Even though SWAN has made great strides toward achieving more equality for women in the military, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done regarding sexual

violence in the military. Bhagwati commented, “Now, there’s consciousness, but [...] the military justice system is still broken, so we’re still hoping.” SWAN worked with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to write the Military Justice Improvement Act, a bill that would require any felony-level crime to be handled by a military lawyer rather than by the unit’s Commanding Officer. Bhagwati acknowledges that it would be difficult to get this bill passed, but believes that the need for the bill is significant.

Despite all the difficult experiences Bhagwati endured in the Marine Corps, she appreciates the opportunities she had to run a platoon or a company in her early 20s.

She explained, “You can’t have that access to management experience in the civilian world; it just doesn’t happen that fast.” She described her role as being a bit of “a parent, a mentor, and a big sibling” for the Marines under her charge.

More importantly, Bhagwati thinks of her time in the Marines as a time of great personal growth. “I learned to find my voice. I can assert myself if I have to,” she said. “[These skills] are useful, particularly for women, who are socialized for all the wrong reasons to let other people go first, to acquiesce, and to take care of others. It was very useful to learn to speak up for myself because I had to—otherwise I would have been crushed.”

Bhagwati has written a memoir about her journey in the Marines and her work as an activist called “Unbecoming.” She is now working on another book about her experiences after leaving the military and having a service dog.

Learning about Bhagwati’s experiences in the Marine Corps might elicit different reactions from students: some may be discouraged by her experiences, while others might want to learn more about the military. Regardless, Bhagwati’s story is an inspirational one, and we will want to continue hearing from her and seeing where she finds herself next.

Page 8

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Features From Student to Teacher and Back Again

By MATYLDA URBANIAK and TASFIA RAHMAN

Every semester, Stuyvesant students enjoy learning from student teachers in multiple departments. Outside of the classroom, we don’t know much about these members of the staff. We spoke with three student teachers from the English department to learn about what brought them to Stuyvesant, and what they have learned so far.

Mark Chen/ The Spectator

BRIANNE ROSA “I think [coming to Stuyvesant] was this personal desire for myself that I could get in because I didn’t get in when I was in eighth grade,” student teacher Brianne Rosa admitted. Before fulfilling her dream of coming to Stuyvesant, though, Rosa fell in love with teaching English in South Korea following her graduation as a business major. Unable to study abroad in college, Rosa seized this opportunity to teach as a part of this special program. After returning from South Korea and having a brief stay as a real estate agent in the Hamptons, Rosa decided to pursue an education as a teacher at the Teachers College at Columbia University.

Just as coming to Stuyvesant is extremely challenging for many students, it has not been a walk in the park for student teachers, either. Rosa remembers coming into Stuyvesant and meticulously planning out her lessons every day, including reading quizzes to ensure that her students were reading at night. However, she soon realized, “Oh my god, we are totally missing all these awesome conversations that we should be having in the classroom because we’re spending all this time on these stupid quizzes that I am so attached to.” Rosa realized that in order to improve as a teacher and engage her students more, she had to partner up with them. “I trust that they read and let us have a conversation. Once I started doing that, everything else was so much better,” she detailed.

Though the transition to Stuyvesant was difficult, challenges often come with successes, and Rosa is no stranger to that notion. When asked about her most validating moment at Stuyvesant, she laughed. “There are so many, so many,” she said. She fondly remembers a time when one of her students told her, “Ms. Rosa, you’re so good at English.” Rosa admitted,“That really means a lot to me.”

For Rosa, the biggest lesson she learned during her time at Stuyvesant was when she was forced to teach less in order to become a better teacher. “I learned that often when I step back and stop teaching, the students’ voices become amplified and they start to fill in the space with their understanding, their interpretation, and they start to do the work of teaching themselves,” she explained. As someone who spent most of her high school education sitting in rows listening to lectures, she knows how disengaged students can easily become when teachers simply speak to them for the whole lesson. Rosa learned about the importance of stepping back at Teachers College, but coming to Stuyvesant was the first time she was able to put this idea into practice.

PHILIP KOHN

Sheyantan Chanda/ The Spectator

Before finding his love for teaching, Philip Kohn had originally planned on pursuing a career in editing and publishing. He realized that it would be very difficult to find a job in this field, especially considering the competitiveness of the job and little experience he had in the field. Kohn explained, “I thought about the most practical way I could use my English degree, and teaching English was something that just kept coming up.” During his graduate program, Kohn realized that teaching English was the perfect way for him to continue pursuing his passion for literature while also making use of his degree.

Kohn recalled planning out lessons diligently for the periods when Assistant Principal of English Eric Grossman would be observing the class. Kohn found that he performed well during these stressful observations. He recounted an observation with his supervisor present as his most challenging and gratifying moment at Stuyvesant. “[My supervisor] had a particular comment, which was very nice. I don’t know if it was justified or not, but she left a comment that was, ‘I would be happy having you teach anyone I loved.’ I don’t know that I fully deserved it. I thought I did well that day, but that was almost over the top for me,” he recalled. “But it felt very good nonetheless.”

From his experience preparing lessons, Kohn realized that he could not structure each class the same way, since each period of Freshman Composition had a different dynamic. “Not too long ago, I was teaching [a] lesson in my fourthperiod class and it did not go particularly well,” he said. “I did the same lesson with a few tweaks in my sixth-period class, thinking about this as a more interactive class [...] and I addressed a few things. And it went much better and this is 40 minutes apart from each other.”

Shreyantan Chanda The Spectator

SAPNA CHEMPLAVIL Sapna Chemplavil, who works with English teacher Alicia Pohan, was introduced to teaching from a political justice angle. “I was working in an AmeriCorps program that did after school programming […] so I was getting into that, but I was pretty sure I didn’t want to be a teacher,” she explained. “Then [in] the second year, I was in charge of the training of the people who are in my job, and I realized when I could come up with my own lesson plans, I liked it a lot.” After working mostly in low-income minority neighborhoods in Oakland, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., Chemplavil wanted to come to Stuyvesant to gain learning experience while working in a different environment.

At all her previous schools, Chemplavil found that some teachers believed that their students were not capable of learning. Stuyvesant has shown her a different perspective, one where teachers assume that their students are smart and intellectually curious.

Some of Chemplavil’s most gratifying moments while teaching at Stuyvesant come from her interactions with students. Coming from a background of teaching low-performing students, Chemplavil has often come across those who believe they do not have the ability to complete certain tasks. Even though Stuyvesant is perceived as a high-performing school, Chemplavil has seen the same sentiment at Stuyvesant. “I can think of one student who, for our first assignment, kept thinking he couldn’t do it, he couldn’t do it, he couldn’t do it, but he finally turned in the paper […] and it was great, and he just had no concept of how great it was because he had gotten it into his head that he wasn’t a good student,” she recalled.

Chemplavil is used to extensively scaffolding her lessons, or meticulously planning out tens of questions that she asks her students throughout the course of her lesson in order to lead them to a certain idea. However, at Stuyvesant, students try their hardest to get to that idea, and as a result, do not need to be led on as much. “There’s a little bit less of a motivation challenge here than there is at some other schools,” she said.

She has also reshaped her lesson plans to facilitate a better flow of ideas. “I’ve refined some of my transitions [...] to make it easier for students to make connections between seemingly disparate transitions,” she explained. In addition, she has been blown away by how fast Stuyvesant classes speed through their material. A good teacher can make their class fly by in the blink of an eye, but a good class has that same effect on its teacher.

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“I learned that often when I step back and stop teaching, the students’ voices become amplified and they start to fill in the space with their understanding, their interpretation, and they start to do the work of teaching themselves.”

—Brianne Rosa, student teacher

“Not too long ago, I was teaching [a] lesson in my fourth-period class and it did

not go particularly well,” he said. “I did the same lesson with a few tweaks in my sixth-period class, thinking about this as a more interactive class [...] and I addressed a few things. And it went much better and this is 40 minutes apart from each other.” —Philip Kohn, student teacher

“I realize that I didn’t know what I needed to become the type of teacher I wanted to be because I [hadn’t] quite seen the type of teaching I wanted for my students.”

—Sapna Chemplavil, student teacher

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

History has always played a large part in the life of history teacher Dr. Zachary Berman, who is unsurprisingly also a passionate world traveler.

He has a reputation of telling his students all about his trips across the globe, most of which are to places with an enriching history.

Some of his most noteworthy trips were to Colorado, China, India, and especially, Egypt. As an experienced traveller, Dr. Berman prefers a unique style of travelling, saying the following: “I love getting lost. I love getting to a new place and wandering around and eating street food.”

Though Berman claims that his favorite destination is ever changing, it seems as though he has a special connection to Egypt and its intriguing people, food, and history.

In fact, the region has such a rich background that Dr. Berman decided to intensively research it when working for his PhD. He explored the meaning of British and Egyptian imperialism as well as the responsibilities of conquerors by proposing the following: “If Egypt is part of the British Empire, is the Empire of Sudan then part of the British Empire? Does the transitive property apply?”

However, Dr. Berman began to lose interest in the project midway.

“I kept doing it because I felt that I should finish. I realized I really didn’t like doing research, especially historical research, which is mostly spending time by yourself in the archive,” he explained. Dr. Berman found that looking through these records was the most challenging part about

Features

From Bears to Berman

earning a PhD. “Your dissertation ends up being not that you have interesting ideas, but more that no one has had your ideas before,” he said. He found that this requirement strayed from his love of history and speculations about the subject, culminating in his motivation for earning a PhD. Dr. Berman was inspired by his seventh grade history teacher to learn about history in-depth and to appreciate the rich culture in history.

“He had a lot of freedom over his curriculum, so he decided to teach only about Indians. We learned about Native American tribes and Ancient India. We read an abbreviated version of the Bhagavad Gita,” he said. History, he realized, was even more interesting in detail.

Perhaps it was for this reason that Dr. Berman decided to become a teacher, starting at Stuyvesant in the midst of writing his paper. Yet, not all of his connections to Egypt bring back lonely, stressful memories from his student days, for he also talked about the fantastic culture he experienced when travelling.

Dr. Berman utilized his environment in Egypt to improve his fluency in Arabic by using an unorthodox strategy. At first, he was disappointed when most Egyptians he encountered spoke English to him. “The upper class could speak English well—better than I could speak Arabic,” he said. To learn more Arabic, he then observed the working class. Noting that working-class men all had mustaches, Dr. Berman decided to grow a mustache to blend in with the locals and discovered that he could use this assimilating trait to initiate conversations. “I would walk

by buildings, and it was easy to start a conversation with someone by saying ‘Nice mustache! (in Arabic).’ I got positive vibes and nice conversations,” he said.

While in Egypt, Dr. Berman visited various museums and archives, but he did not have the easiest time doing his research there.

The archives were poorly organized, and the documents were in Arabic, which Dr. Berman was familiar with.

But, the messy Arabic coupled with “archaic spelling” made reading the old manuscripts a slow and difficult process.

Outside of research, Dr. Berman particularly enjoyed how the architecture and areas of Egypt differed by their time period. “One had to be a historian just walking around town,” he said. “[At] one thousand years old, Cairo is the Islamic part of town, full of meandering narrow streets and countless beautiful old mosques. [At] two thousand years old, Cairo has churches and synagogues from before Islam. [At] three thousand years old, Cairo is the pyramids and the museum full of items from the times of the pharaohs,” he described. Even in the present, this layered history is preserved and continues to grow all the time.

Dr. Bermon recollected various stories from his college days, when he led backpacking trips with groups of children. They would hike a mile and a half, “and you feel great about it,” he said.

On one particular occasion, there was a bear who took one of the children’s backpack. All of the children have been told to remove food from their backpacks and put it away in a special bag so the bears

could not get it. However, one child had left gummy worms in his backpack, and as a result, a black bear had come to the campfire, holding that backpack in its mouth. While the other children ran away with their backpacks, Berman had to face the bear by throwing rocks at it. In the end, the bear dropped the backpack,

which was returned to the child.

This summer, Dr. Berman is going on a backpacking trip with his brother in Yosemite, where they carry the supplies necessary for a few days and hike for miles in the wilderness. “I did that a bunch when I was in college and after college, so I’m excited to do that again,” he said.

Sheyantan Chanda/ The Spectator

By ARPITA SAHA, NICHOLAS MARTIN and SUAH CHUNG

Page 9

Shedding Light on the Darkroom In the digital age, film photography is a dying art. Stuyvesant offers an accessible way to explore this waning craft.

Stuyvesant’s original darkroom and photo studio in room 336 have been a part of the current building since its creation in 1992. Over the years, they have been used for semester-long classes and independent student projects. Until June 2020, room 336 is guaranteed to remain as it is. After that, given funding, the administration plans to clear out its equipment and use the space as an environmental science lab to combine the disciplines of engineering and sustainability.

The way the photo studio at Stuyvesant was put together is unlike that of any other studio.

Unlike most photo studios, which use a large sheet of paper as a backdrop for pictures, the builders of Stuyvesant’s photo studio spent $60,000 on a custom-made one. They also purchased a supply of strobe lights that “could have lit Madison Square Garden,” according to photography teacher Joel Winston. The room actually requires only 12 times less light than what was originally in place.

Winston replaced the more powerful strobe lights with studio lights. “There are a lot of things that I thought they wasted their money on when they originally built it,” Winston said. “They used the finest computer timers, darkroom, enlargers [...] they could get for the money, which I thought was overkill.”

The photo studio is connected to the darkroom via a tall, tight, and black cylindrical door.

The door is designed this way to block outside light from reaching the darkroom. Passing through this door is like going into a different dimension.

The principal use of a darkroom is to develop and enlarge pictures from a roll of film, which is a long strip of plastic.

A darkroom typically contains several enlargers, which produce the prints in the absence of extraneous light. The darkroom at Stuyvesant contains approximately 30 enlargers, half of which are broken. The room was initially set up to process color film. Howev-

Courtesy of Zoe Oppenheimer

By VERONICA KOWALSKI

er, if Winston had been the one to design it, he would have set it up to process film in black and white. Now, it is difficult to garner interest in reinvesting in the materials. As a result, students in Winston’s class partner up when operating the usable equipment.

Developing photos is a truly remarkable experience. By the time one has put the negative (or the “before” image) in the enlarger, taken it out, and bathed it in a tray, weeks could have passed since the time the picture had first been taken. “It’s like giving birth,” Winston testified. “It’s like, oh my God, I haven’t seen this in a week.

I forgot about it, and here it is. It’s coming alive. And it’s just a magical feeling.”

No experience is required to take Winston’s class, which spends a few weeks in the darkroom. Students create photograms, images that are negatives of a collection of objects exposed to light. They also build their own pinhole camera from cardboard, take pictures from them, and have those pictures developed in the darkroom.

“And they love that,” Winston said, smiling.

For senior and Photography Club Co-President Danny Jiang,

photography is an outlet to recreate the vivid descriptions he found in books when he was younger, and to document city life with all its little details. He might capture someone crossing the street, a father with his daughter on his shoulders, a child in Williamsburg on his balcony, a driver sleeping in her car, restaurant workers on a smoke break, or a bird resting on a branch. “I think these are just all moments that people don’t notice,” Jiang said.

Jiang joined the photo club at the end of his freshman year.

Prior to joining the club, he had no experience with film photography. “I remember my first ever roll of film turned out so terribly because I had no idea how to properly expose the camera.

It was definitely a learning experience,” he mused. “For a lot of sophomore year, my hands always smelled like developer.”

In his junior and senior year, though, Jiang did not have as much time (or developer) on his hands. He put his duties as president of the Photo Club “on the backburner,” which is one thing he regrets as his time at Stuyvesant is coming to a close. “The photo room is somewhere I used

to just hang out twice a week every week in sophomore year,” Jiang admitted. “I wish I was able to do that for the next generation of photographers at Stuy.”

In addition to participating in the Photography Club, Jiang has also taken Winston’s class. “Being in the darkroom again was actually my favorite part of the class, because my favorite medium has and always will be film,” he said.

Senior and Co-President of the Photography Club Ting Ting Chen agrees that Stuyvesant’s darkroom deserves more attention. “I like to call it Stuy’s hidden gem because not a lot of people know about it,” she said.

Juniors Khandaker Ridwan and Eugene Seo are slated to be co-presidents of the club for the upcoming school year. Ridwan expressed enthusiasm about making meetings more consistent.

He would like to make the art of photography more accessible by taking members of the Photography Club on field trips. These trips would allow members to take pictures that raise awareness of current issues and injustices.

Given funding, Principal Eric Contreras would like to put the space to another use in the fu-

ture. Stuyvesant has limited space for full-time courses, but the darkroom is a place that has not been programmed for a full-time course in over five years. “As principal, you have to make difficult decisions in regards to space utilization,” he said.

Utilizing the space in the darkroom would be one step in a multi-phase process, initiated by biology teacher Marissa Maggio with the help of biology teachers Aimee Hill, Stephen McClellan, and Jerry Citron, that would gear Stuyvesant students toward engaging in environmental issues within the school day. The first step, which has already been enacted, was to create an Advanced Placement Environmental Science class for ninth graders. The second step would involve using the space in the current darkroom to create an advanced learning lab to support environmental studies.

The third step would be to add a rooftop greenhouse and student space on the fifth-floor balcony.

Finally, a new class would be introduced that would combine environmental science and law. All of this would only be implemented if Stuyvesant has the capacity and necessary funding in years to come.

If feasible, Contreras plans to make the current darkroom into an environmental science lab where students can explore aquaponics, hydroponics, and possibly methods of sustainable energy such as solar, wind, thermal, and tidal power. Stuyvesant would still have a class for digital photography, but this new environmental science lab would serve 34 kids for 10 periods a day—340 kids per year. “This generation will have to solve the problems past generations have caused and ignored,” Contreras said. “Our current generation can no longer hand it to someone else. We only have one planet and we need to be good custodians of this earth.”

The fact that Stuyvesant has a darkroom is notable, and it has given many kids the joy of witnessing their photos being developed. Its future, though, also has big plans. Interested students should use the darkroom as is before the space is put to another use.

Page 10

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Editorials Go College Crazy Recently, Stuyvesant held its annual College Apparel Day, when seniors wore outfits bearing the name of their intended colleges.

While there is cause for much celebration and pride, there is also a tension that comes from an event that puts into the spotlight the institution that we obsess over: college.

The attitudes surrounding college influence the way we perceive College Apparel Day; while it should be a day of mutual support and pride in our schools, it also becomes a source of negativity when students choose not to celebrate their colleges. It perpetuates our school’s college culture, which instills the perception that our future is Ivy League or nothing.

This idea takes hold well before students enter Stuyvesant. In one survey of incoming freshmen, 50 percent believed that they would attend an Ivy League or other elite university. However, the number of accepted students into such schools is far lower, with each Ivy accepting 10 or fewer students, except for Cornell, which accepts more than the rest of the Ivies

combined. Including the eight Ivy League schools, plus Stanford, MIT, and UChicago, around 146 (17.8 percent) of the 820 Stuyvesant graduates in 2017 ended up attending one of these universities.

A comparison of these numbers shows that the expectation of getting into these especially coveted elite colleges is unrealistic. While it’s difficult to pinpoint one cause for that expectation, the combination of parental influence and immersion in a college-crazed environment heightens our standards, to the point where going to a lesser college would seem like a step backwards. We often joke about ending up in BMCC when we receive a poor test grade. The value that a community college holds for most New Yorkers is undermined when the college becomes the centerpiece for ridicule; one year’s senior prank involved the entire senior class applying to BMCC. While many of them were accepted, none of them actually attended and BMCC’s entering class that year was greatly reduced.

Regardless, there are seniors who proudly wear the name of

colleges that are not the Ivies, MIT, UChicago, or Stanford—and we’re here for it. Students hold significant influence over each other, and a senior’s pride in his or her college does impact Stuyvesant’s college culture. To a Spectator board of sophomores and juniors, events like College Apparel Day, College Fair, and the College Wall of Rejection effectively challenge the idea that our future is Ivy League or nothing. When seniors celebrate their colleges and when representatives from lesserknown institutions fly in to speak to us, we begin to understand the idea of the “right fit.” When there is a wall tacked with colleges that students were rejected from, we view college with a more realistic perspective.

The Editorial Board interviewed seniors and alumni to gain a sense of how their perceptions of college have changed since going through the college process.

Here is what they have to say about Stuyvesant’s college culture.

Interviews have been condensed for the purpose of this editorial.

The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

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C HIEF

Amy Huang* Artem Ilyanok* E D I TO RS

Maddy Andersen* Erin Lee* F EATURE S

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Talia Kahan Zoe Oppenheimer Amanda Peng O PI N I O NS

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Michael Dekhtyar Jonathan Schneiderman* S P O RTS

I think College Apparel Day is definitely a celebratory day for a lot of people. People are proud of where they are going. It is the one day of the year where people who’ve worked hard get to celebrate their accomplishments and the place they’re spending their next four years in. But for people who are not yet excited with where they are going, or people who didn’t get into any of their dream colleges, it’s painful to see people around you succeed but you seemingly have “failed.”

This is unacknowledged but there’s a certain feeling of, “What did they do that I didn’t?” or “Why was it them who got in and not me?” which [are] toxic but natural thoughts people might face.

I think when people don’t participate in College Apparel Day, it results in an atmosphere of negative energy. What you’re saying is that you’re not excited for whatever college you’re going to and want to hide it for whatever reason. College Apparel Day is more about being excited for the next four years and having been accepted to college rather than about which college you got into.

No one will put you down for wearing a shirt of a safety on College Apparel Day. I think for some people, College Apparel Day brings up painful memories of the college application process of schools that might have rejected you but I think by May 1, people’s mentalities need to shift toward “I’m excited for where I am going and there’s no looking back.”

Did I care that no one knew what Pomona was? No. Did I care that my dream school was Yale and I didn’t get in and there was a bunch of people wearing Yale shirts? No. I took pics of my friends who got into Yale and was happy for them. There was a kid [who] was like, “Why would you choose Pomona over Dartmouth the Ivy?” and I was like, “Because it’s my life.” Not everyone at Stuyvesant is like that. If you’re down on yourself for where you’re going to college, that opens up room for other people to be down on you. Most people at Stuyvesant are positive people who will not judge you for what college you’re going to. News flash: [more] people are going to SUNY/ CUNY than not. That doesn’t mean people not going to those schools are going to look down on you for going to a school like that.

I feel like underclassmen also judge more harshly than seniors do because they have had no experience on the process and have misconceptions of what the process is like. People also don’t realize that what college you go to is an academic decision as well as a financial, family and a you decision. Also I personally think the Ivy obsession is stupid. A small fraction of the top percentage of the grade is going to get in, and even then it’s not guaranteed. Just because a school is more well known does not mean it’s better. Maybe more recognition helps but everyone has their fit. One of my friends was seriously considering University of Florida over Princeton, Yale, and UPenn because it was a better fit for her.

For some people, one month might not be enough time to deal with rejection or be excited with where they’re going. But it’s ultimately better to use College Apparel Day as a way to move on by being happy for yourself and all your friends and peers. You can’t be bogged down by your rejections for the rest of your life; honestly, it makes the rejections feel worse. Everyone has a different way of moving on; it’s up to you to figure out how to do that and live your best life.

PHOTO GRAPHY E D I TO RS

Matt Melucci** Zoe Oppenheimer Catherine Yu D I RE CTO RS

Rebecca Collins Michael Hu Jade Lo L AYO UT

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Pomona Class of 2023

Thomas Chen Emma Linderman Jacqueline Thom Jiahe Wang

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Kerry Garfinkel for clarity and length. © 2019 The Spectator All rights reserved by the creators. *Managing Board **Editor-in-Training

Lois Wu, senior Princeton Class of 2023 To be fair, I do speak as someone who has been lucky enough to have had success through the college process, but I support College Apparel Day. I think that after working on our apps and being so stressed about college for so long, it’s good to celebrate everyone’s accomplishments and achievements. The energy in the senior atrium after school that day was so high—everyone was giving each other hugs and taking photos. I took some photos with a number of old friends I had class with back in sophomore or freshman year [who] I had fallen out of touch with, and it was just a really friendly place, in general.

I respect people who decide not to partake in it or decide to stay at home, but in my personal opinion, by May 6 or whichever date it will be next year, I think it’s time to start trying to move on—college isn’t the end-all, be-all of our existences. Keeping everything on the down low almost increases the negative energy around the college application process, in my opinion—everyone’s scared of asking each other where they’re going or where they’ve gotten in, which I get—sure, you don’t want to be nosy or disrespectful—but I also want to know where some of my more distant friends are spending their next four years and just be genuinely happy for them.

Winnie Lin (‘17) Baruch Class of 2021 It’s obvious that our attitude toward college is that since we’re in such a prestigious high school, our expectations of ourselves and our peers are much higher. And that definitely comes with the judgment of, if you’re not going to a school that’s Ivy League or even something out of state or out of NYC, it’s kind of a step down from what people expect of you. Changing Stuyvesant’s culture is hard because we know that we go to such a big-name school and we know that our college choices are important, and in the end, it’s hard to change that mentality in Stuyvesant. But it definitely matters less about what college you go to as you get older because it’s about where you want to go in life and there’s not much difference in what college you go to besides the people you meet and the things you learn, etc.

My thoughts on College Apparel Day are mostly that it’s a day to celebrate, but going to a CUNY, which wasn’t ideal for me, just didn’t mean that much to me. It was mostly the kids who [were] frequently featured in the yearbook [who] had their photos from there, and it just didn’t matter to me enough to buy something representing my college and go. It might be different for other people in terms of celebrating with their friends and etc., but I just was never too involved with senior activities.

But yeah, I would say in college, it starts to matter more about where you want to go, what your path is, and less about your GPA unless it’s important in the industry you want to get into. Because ultimately a lot of us are going to stop our education after the college diploma and grades won’t matter anymore. It’ll matter more about the kind of person you are, what you’re good at and want to do, and what you want to achieve because it’s your life.

I sound really pessimistic because I do believe that I kind of messed up in the college process but I still wouldn’t know what I want and what I’m looking for even if I could go back. And also, [I’m] making the best out of the situation because I probably wouldn’t have been traveling this much if I didn’t go to the school I’m going to now.

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

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Opinions

Opinions The Troubles of Talos

By MAYA DUNAYER Since its implementation in spring 2018, Talos has been used to digitize and centralize different schoolwide programs for Stuyvesant’s programming office.

Created by Stuyvesant alumnus Rodda John, it was originally instituted to help students select choices for Advanced Placement (AP) courses, but was then expanded to include elective selections as well. From there, Talos has grown to currently encompass not only course selections, but also course lists and descriptions, program changes, various form uploads, marking period and semester grades, and WiFi access for student devices.

Though well-intentioned and— at least initially—off to a promising start, Talos has many flaws that render it impractical for use by the Stuyvesant student body.

Of course, Talos does have a multitude of benefits for the school administration. In a Spectator News article written by Jamie Zeng and Erin Lee in September of 2018, Assis-

tant Principal of English Eric Grossman said, “[Talos] was really helpful in AP registration.

It allowed me to add kids to AP courses, [...] see their selections, filter their choices, and add them without having to do it manually—without getting a printout and going to eSchoolData, looking at transcripts and grade point averages, and then writing down names and handing those names or e-mailing those names to the Program Office.” Talos removes the need for long lines outside the guidance suite or the offices of various departmental assistant principals, ostensibly creating a more streamlined and efficient course-selection process. It also allows administrators to apply a grade average limit to AP course selections, a rule that was hard to enforce under the previous system. Though Talos carries several important benefits for the administration, the negative effects it has on the student body cause Talos to be a nuisance rather than a useful tool.

The first issue with the program change system on Talos is the way you have to format your requests. When requesting a change, you first have to “drop” classes to make space for the course that you want in a specific time slot. Then, in order to move the class, you have to request the class that you dropped. This system is fine if you are making a simple change, such as switching two classes, but for more complicated changes, the system becomes extremely inefficient.

A related issue when requesting program changes is the lack of information that one has about the classes they are switching around. At the time of program

changes, the student does not know which teachers they have, or which teachers will teach the classes they are trying to switch.

Though this does prevent students from attempting to switch out of certain teachers’ classes, a prevalent problem before Talos began to be used, it makes it very difficult for a student to know exactly what they are changing.

They may really like a teacher from last semester, but accidentally switch out of that teacher’s classes due to the lack of information.

The second problem with Talos stems from the impersonal process of course selections it has created. A major source of stress for the student body comes from Talos’s digitized program change system. Before Talos was implemented, a student would have to go to one or more departmental assistant principals, as well as their guidance counselor, to request a specific change to their schedule or to ask for further information on a particular course. This personalized process was more dependent on the student, as it was their responsibility to get permission from the required administrators.

Now, through Talos, this approval by the AP and guidance counselor is done through the Program Changes section on the Talos website. Though this is meant to streamline the program change process, in reality, the lack of communication only causes more problems and stress. Talos removes the personal aspect of being able to communicate more closely with a guidance counselor during the program change process. Guidance counselors are often unavailable through e-mail

during the process due to the sheer volume of program requests they must process, and it is very difficult to personally meet with a guidance counselor during the chaotic process of program changes. In addition to this, when requesting program changes online, the status of your change is vague, sometimes saying that the request is being processed for days on end. Without the personal connections that come with meeting with an assistant principal or a guidance counselor, it is much more difficult for students to navigate the process.

Talos’s numerous technical issues only add to the difficulty it creates. With a system that services 3600 students and countless administrators, there are bound to be some server issues and malfunctions. One would be justified in thinking that, after nearly two years of improving and adjusting Talos, the Program Office would be able to handle the expected influx of course selections and schedule change requests.

But this term, not only did the course selections fail to be released when they were scheduled to, but the website also crashed or loaded extremely slowly for some users. Aside from the server issues, Talos’s built-in course directory, which is supposed to contain a comprehensive and accurate list of every class offered at Stuyvesant, contains numerous inaccuracies and unclear information. When it was launched, the “pre-approval” system caused mass confusion and took several days to function correctly, and the technical inaccuracies—some juniors saw AP European History (a 10th grade course) in their class list, and some freshmen

were slated for chemistry (also a 10th grade course)—did not help with the chaos that Talos initiated.

The final issue with Talos is the newly instituted Argus system, which eliminates the need for students to connect to WiFi at the beginning of the day. Instead, Argus allows each student to register one device that will connect to the school WiFi. Though this may seem to be a good solution on paper, there is one problematic catch that affects a good chunk of the student body: only laptops or tablets are eligible for connectivity to the school WiFi. In a school where four percent of the student body is listed as economically disadvantaged, many students who cannot afford computers or tablets use their cell phones to do homework, send emails, and check assignments. It doesn’t help that Argus has faced technical issues of its own, often failing to connect a device to the Internet for days on end and simply not functioning for others.

Talos was clearly implemented with nothing but good intentions for Stuyvesant in mind. To be clear, the platform does hold real potential for the school administration; its ability to streamline what was previously a tedious and exhaustive process is valuable. But the real problem lies with the lack of improvement the student body has seen every time Talos has been employed. From technical bugs to overloaded servers, from missing course descriptions to flat-out inaccurate schedule listings, the perpetually troubled Talos doesn’t resemble the marvel of mythological engineering it was named after—not even close.

A Direction Toward Protection: Loft Law and What It Has to Offer

By ELIO TORRES and ISABEL CHING For decades, the cutthroat warzone that is the New York City real-estate market has perpetuated a system that favors the interests of business tycoons in lieu of the fundamental rights of tenants. In fact, the need to accommodate our expansive population has forced city planners and the government to take the side of wealthy developers who are often in the industry solely for personal monetary gain. It takes no more than a stroll down Chambers Street to recognize that the culture of development and construction, which for so long has earned us the title of the city that never sleeps, is certainly prevalent.

From simply a glance out of the Stuyvesant cafeteria, we have a grand view of SoHo and Tribeca, an area riddled with cranes and ambitious building projects. It is alarming to consider that no more than four decades ago, these neighborhoods were inhabited by impoverished artists who sought affordable living spaces. But, as SoHo gained a reputation for having more lenient zoning laws and as affluent residents became attracted to its architectural style and favorable location, it faced gradual rent increases and a wave of gentrification. For the artists that had long established SoHo as an artistic haven, such changes were drastic, and many left the neighborhood, aware of the increasing loft rents. And as the city updated its residential code, many original tenants were pressured to leave for liv-

ing in “illegal” apartments, and their buildings were turned into upscale businesses. The deceptive nature of gentrification is that it is beneficial to the economy, but slowly eliminates cultural identity and individuality, and ultimately forces displacement.

With 18,000 evictions in New York City in 2018 alone, we must be cognizant of the contentious and daunting housing crisis plaguing our city. This predicament can be attributed to the lack of affordable housing and a spike in rent and lease prices, which has forced many residents to turn to less conventional sources of housing.

Commercial zones, or districts whose primary use is business, have become that alternative.

However, this move to commercial zones has left city scrambling to provide basic tenant rights to those who do not live in residential areas, which are districts specifically for housing.

The city’s previous inaction has been heavily criticized by local politicians, and it has thus been forced to address the issues caused by gentrification.

Loft law, a code designed to protect tenants living in formerly commercialized and manufacturing buildings, safeguards tenants from eviction and other threats made by landlords and has become one of the forerunners in this fight for civil protection. The law ensures rent stabilization for all residential units and guarantees that the Department of Buildings (DOB) will not vacate illegal residencies nor remove their tenants. Nor will the DOB force landlords to use the buildings units solely for

commerce. More importantly, it requires landlords to legalize their residencies so that they abide by the city’s fire and safety regulation.

Once a tenant goes through the strenuous three-year-plus process of lawyers, documents, and anxiety to acquire the city’s protection, a number of safety rights are granted as well. A tenant’s unit will be legal to work and live in, and basic living conditions, including heat, hot water, and electricity, will be guaranteed. They will also be protected by the Housing Court and can voice their concerns before small claims court.

Tenants are not the only people who benefit from the protection of loft law. Loft law also grants a landlord the power to sue a tenant for the non-payment of rent and file for updated rent adjustments to keep with the changing economic climate.

Loft law is the ideal solution to satisfy the controversial tension between residents and developers because it places a strong emphasis on legal and proper development. It ensures that tenants are protected from unlawful eviction and guaranteed basic tenant rights, and yet also provides landlords with the legal authority that is needed to properly control tenants.

However, New York politicians have voiced their concern about the extent of loft law and its radical effects on the real-estate industry on numerous occasions. New York State Senator Julia Salazar and many prominent business advocates argue that loft law is not considerate of all of New York

City’s growing needs. Caroline Spivack, a contributing reporter for numerous political publications, claims that “an expansion of the law will only endanger manufacturing and construction businesses and their workers in areas designated for industrial use.” However, this claim is far-fetched, because despite the possibility of an influx of construction jobs at newer job sites, the effects it might have on the people living in the neighborhood must be considered. These residents are some of the city’s most vulnerable and impoverished, primarily people of color. With skyrocketing rent and lease prices, they have been forced out of their neighborhoods by wealthier residents who are searching for homes. Already displaced, these residents are simply looking for safe, affordable homes with basic necessities, like heat and water. They need places where they are not threatened by eviction or abused by landlords. Reversing loft law would kindle a wave of displacement among these impoverished communities, and would only further worsen the lack of affordable housing in and around the city.

Politicians that do not support protecting tenants and local business owners are setting a standard that big business is more important than the personal and cultural development of the people who illegally reside in industrial buildings. New York City is built on the backs of blue-collar workers who are exploited by large corporations, and they are the people whose basic human rights we

must protect. Without them, economic growth and the expansion of the commercial industry becomes even more difficult. Beyond simply protecting vulnerable citizens, we must recognize the impact that the people in these districts have on our economy and industry, and advocate for their safety and rights.

Though efforts are in place to make loft law more accessible for New York residents and to expand the protections of those who are already beneficiaries of it, it has been difficult to enact change. A tenant must go through a demanding and arduous process to obtain loft law, and if denied by the public loft board, does not receive the benefits of the law at all. This is not the standard we should aim to set, especially if we want to protect our streets from bland, corporate homogenization.

Though the implications of what may result if the future of the real-estate industry is put in the hands of biased city-planners is unimaginable, loft law and the rights that it provides are a huge step toward protecting New York City’s most vulnerable citizens. Expanding the protection loft law designates is the only way to guard against the gentrification that will consume our city. Prioritizing the needs of the commercial industry instead of advocating for some of New York City’s most vulnerable and unprotected citizens is a heinous disservice.

Loft law is the best protection for those who need protection. Don’t let it go to waste.

The Spectator ● June 10,2019

Page 12

Opinions SHSAA vs. CSA: The Alumni Make Their Case For years, the Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association (SHSAA), a major source of funding for Stuyvesant, has faced characterizations by some alumni as being opaque in its organization and fundraising. Some years ago, the SHSAA implemented some reforms, but many alumni were still left dissatisfied, prompting the formation of the Concerned Stuyvesant Alumni (CSA) Group. Four years ago, CSA began a boycott of the SHSAA, withholding all funds in favor of donations to other organizations linked to Stuyvesant like the Parents’ Association. The two groups make their cases.

We are Stuyvesant

By SOO KIM ‘93

continued on page 13

Courtesy of Matt Melucci

It’s been almost five years since we announced the agreement between the Campaign for Stuyvesant and Friends of Stuyvesant to make peace with one another and unite behind a single banner, the Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association (the “Association”).

With this, we ended 14 years of schism and hurt. The Association itself had gone through some lean years, having been physically evicted from the school. It also nearly run out of funds, and for a time, it lost its 501(c)3 status.

But that is now in the past. Stuyvesant today has an alumni association befitting not just its status as one of the best high schools in the nation, but one that could hope to represent our strong alumni community with more than 40,000 individuals.

Of the directors who were involved at the time of the ‘Unification,’ just two, Christina Alfonso ’01 and I, still serve on this board. We ourselves were at the time part of the Young Turks that ushered in change to the Association; now, we are the last of that Old Guard. The board has been completely refreshed with highly qualified and engaged directors. The basic governance structures of the board are the same except for one distinction: we eliminated Staggered Board Terms, so now, each of the 20 directors are subject to election at our Annual Meeting of Members.

Our directors, officers, and staff are bound by state-of-the-art policies reviewed by leading law firms, adhering to the best non-profit practices. Given all that has transpired in the past with other Stuyvesant-affiliated charitable organizations, our directors insist in running the Association in a transparent manner. Our regularly scheduled board meetings meet in the Principal’s Conference Room six times a year, and are open to the public in person or via conference call. Our Financials, Form 990s, and Minutes of Past Board Meetings are available on our MyStuy portal, open to any member who has registered.

Our commitment to accountability is critical given that the stakes are higher than ever. When this fiscal year is complete, we expect to have raised in excess of $7.5 million over the past five years. We view this as an affirmation of progress—that we have regained some of the trust of our alums and that we are starting to inspire them to give back to Stuyvesant.

What do we do with those monies

raised? It’s obvious to see the impact of alumni gifts when you visit the Weinstein Library or the Zahn Innovation Lab. The new Lin Robotics Lab is the next step in the evolution of the entire Stuyvesant technology curriculum guided by Principal Eric Contreras’s vision and generous support of the alumni. Notably, we contributed myriad smaller gifts that help Stuyvesant clubs and teams such as chess, Speech and Debate, and Science Olympiad.

For the first time, we have established a permanent endowment for Stuyvesant’s Ultimate Frisbee teams, and we also funded the Bell Choir. A few years ago, we stepped in to provide emergency funding to save SING! that year after a change in DOE rules that created unforeseen financial burdens. Last year, we gave over $100,000 of college financial aid to graduating seniors. We have been fortunate to partner with the alumni community to meet the needs of the Stuyvesant community with such tangible metrics. But, we need to do more.

Money is just one way we can measure the impact the Association has on Stuyvesant. We run an Alumni Mentoring program that connects over 120 current students to dozens of alumni to teach things which you cannot learn in the classroom. We fund the StuyPrep program in conjunction with the school club and ARISTA, providing free SHSAT Prep to over 100 underrepresented minorities. We have helped students aspiring to enter research competitions find labs and mentors.

We have touched the lives of hundreds of students each year and it’s still not enough. We need to do more.

We also focus on building fellowship among our alumni. We maintain an active contact database of more than 20,000 alums as well as a social media presence, which includes a Facebook group with 10,000 active members. We publish multiple Alumni Spectators per year and operate the school store. We have also trademarked “Stuyvesant” so we can capture the power of the brand for the benefit of the school. Each year, we help organize reunions for multiple classes. Last year, we brought back over 1000 alumni to the school as we hosted reunions for the 5th, 10th, and 20th classes—our largest turnout yet—and we fully expect to build upon that in future years so that more and more people from each class choose to come back to Stuyvesant.

Why do we do this? Because we are

At $4.1 million, Stuyvesant High School’s endowment is far less than many other specialized high schools.

Improving YOUR Alumni Association

By DANIEL GLASSER ’81, DR. JEFF GOLLAND ’57/P’92, DR. BETH KNOBEL ‘80, and JIM STERGIOU ‘67 Stuyvesant may be New York’s best high school, but its alumni association is far from the best.

The Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association (SHSAA)— whose mission is to nurture the alumni community and raise funds to support current Stuyvesant students—is poorly run, shuns accountability, and is unresponsive to its constituents.

Though it may have good intentions, it is squandering the vast potential of Stuyvesant’s alumni network.

Why does this matter to you, the current students of Stuyvesant? Because you stand to benefit today from a vibrant and effective alumni association. Soon, you will graduate, and SHSAA will be your organization, too. We believe you deserve to hear what SHSAA will not tell you and does not want you to know regarding the serious flaws in its operations and governance.

Its elections are meaningless.

SHSAA doesn’t trust Stuyvesant alumni to choose their own leaders. New candidates for the SHSAA Board of Directors are hand-picked

by SHSAA’s current leadership. In the most recent elections, there were exactly the number of board nominees as there were open positions on the board, making the “election” by paid members nothing but a rubber stamp. There is a separate Board of Trustees selected to manage SHSAA’s endowment, but there is no transparency to how members of this board are chosen either. Without meaningful elections, SHSAA leadership looks more like a Politburo beholden only to itself than a representative body serving the alumni community.

There are serious financial questions. SHSAA’s financial reporting is inadequate and slow, making it difficult for donors to know whether operations are done efficiently. It releases minimum required information and has resisted calls to offer greater financial transparency to its members. Access to the Board Minutes and Financials page on SHSAA’s website is protected by a password and restricted to registered alumni only, and recent full-year financial reports contain roughly a dozen lines of concrete information. Back-ofthe-envelope calculations suggest that more than a third of the Alumni Association’s budget is being spent on its own administration rather than on the school; SHSAA confirmed as much in a New York Times story in 2017. If an organization like Charity Navigator were to rate the SHSAA, it would likely get a low rating because of its high overhead. Donating to Stuyvesant through the SHSAA has become an economically inefficient way of helping the school and its students.

Its governance is slipshod.

SHSAA leadership has repeatedly ignored its own rules and procedures

and has changed its rules frequently for questionable reasons without informing alumni in a timely manner. For example, in 2018, SHSAA eliminated term limits for members of its Board of Directors—the same term limits that it insisted were industry-standard and essential when it enacted them in 2013. There have been numerous significant changes to the roles of the paid employees of SHSAA and turnover in these positions without clear communication to the alumni community about the reasons for these changes.

If the SHSAA will not follow its own rules and does not communicate with alumni effectively, how can it possibly be trusted to steward millions of dollars in alumni donations?

Right now, it can’t. We know of numerous alumni donors who have cut their ties to SHSAA over the past few years because they have lost confidence in the performance and accountability of the organization.

Several years ago, a loose confederation of hundreds of concerned Stuyvesant alumni from across six decades came together and has been reaching out to SHSAA since then in the spirit of collaboration, encouraging greater transparency and accountability. This group includes Stuyvesant alumni who have graduated in every decade since the 1950s; it also includes some current Stuyvesant students. This group’s hope has been that by exercising patience and polite persistence, it would convince SHSAA’s leadership to act in the interests of the alumni community that it aims to serve and to reform its practices. One would expect that, as an alumni service organization, SHSAA would value such feedback and respond with sincere interest and good will.

Instead, these efforts have been treated with contempt by SHSAA leadership. For asking SHSAA to live up to its responsibility to represent the entire alumni community in a transparent and effective manner, we and other concerned alumni have been referred to publicly as malcontents, rebuked at during SHSAA board meetings and on social media, and even banned from SHSAA’s official Facebook page for expressing dissenting views. Reform-minded alumni who have attempted to work from within by joining the SHSAA Board of Directors have quickly learned that such efforts are fruitless in the face of stonewalling by SHSAA leadership.

We ultimately concluded that as currently comprised, the Alumni Association is not an effective steward of the Stuyvesant alumni community and its resources. This is why we have taken the regrettable step of asking all Stuyvesant alumni to withhold all support from SHSAA by refusing to attend its events, not paying its membership dues, and redirecting charitable support to other organizations that support Stuyvescontinued on page 13

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Page 13

Opinions Improving YOUR Alumni Association

We are Stuyvesant continued from page 12

Stuyvesant. Stuyvesant isn’t about a building or the classes you take. Nor is it about the teachers and administrators (with no disrespect to all the wonderful ones we are fortunate enough to have). Stuyvesant is—and has always been—the students themselves.

I ask people to remember this when thinking about why they should give to Stuyvesant. We are giving to the person we were. This is a purer form of altruism because there is nothing directly in it for donors. Our gifts cannot gain our children or relatives admissions. And unlike the common misperception, we know that the school is funded like any other public NYC high school and that the students don’t have rich parents to lean back on because we didn’t either. All we had is each other. And like how we proved at Stuyvesant everyday, that was enough then and will be enough for the future as long as we never forget.

We understand that Stuyvesant can be a lonely experience, and many of us have chosen to leave our homes and communities to attend this school so far away. It’s almost an unnatural act for most 14-year-olds Americans. But what we lose by leaving our homes, we gain in each other. We become each other’s community. This is what I mean when I say the following: we are Stuyvesant.

If you take this to its logical conclusion, Stuyvesant doesn’t have to end after our four years together.

High school ends, but we can still share our journey together. And since all Stuyvesant graduates share this experience, you will all join the greater community when you leave Stuyvesant. We alumni, as we did when we were students, can continue to push and pull each other to ever greater heights.

We invite all who have been a part of the Stuyvesant community (past or present) to join us as we say “We are Stuyvesant.”

Continued from Page 12

ant, such as directly to the school’s departments and clubs or to the Parents’ Association. This boycott of SHSAA will remain in place until its leadership demonstrates with tangible actions that it is committed to operational excellence, transparency, and accountability. Please note that this is a boycott of the SHSAA— not a boycott of giving to Stuyvesant. More money will be directed to student needs if it is donated to the Parents’ Association instead of to the SHSAA, thanks to the Parents’ Association’s low overhead.

Please do not mistake our dissent for disloyalty. We continue to be strong supporters of Stuyvesant, and we believe that all Stuyvesant alumni should both remain connected to and give back to the school. We

believe that the SHSAA is uniquely equipped to serve the alumni community; we don’t want it to fail, and we don’t want the chaos of multiple, competing organizations purporting to represent our community, as has occurred in the past. All we are asking for is that SHSAA become a transparent, accountable, and effective organization. We believe that our community deserves an alumni association that is as committed to excellence as Stuyvesant is itself.

We ask that other Stuyvesant alumni, parents, teachers, and friends join us in withholding their support from the SHSAA and helping us bring needed change. The readers of The Spectator, the current students and future graduates of New York’s best high school, deserve nothing less than a first-rate alumni association.

It’s Time for a White House Judgment Day

By JACOB STEINBERG Special Counsel Robert Mueller released his report on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign’s relationship with Russia and any matters arising therefrom on April 18, 2019.

It was a culmination of two years of anticipation with a reaction that had been predetermined by both sides. The report was rather indecisive, showing instances of misconduct but not going as far as to allege any specific crimes.

Since its release, Republicans have been arguing that since Mr. Mueller had the opportunity to press charges but didn’t, the issue shouldn’t be pressed any further presidentially. Democrats argue that if the report details actions that constitute crimes, then it is actionable, regardless of whether it makes any specific allegations of specific crimes.

Regardless, the process that the Mueller Report underwent before its release darkens an ugly shadow on the incumbent White House that had accumulated throughout the investigation.

When analyzing the release of the Report, it’s important to look at what the Report actually says. The Report took time to be released, and there is likely a reason for that. Mr. Mueller refused to officially specify a crime, presenting evidence but refusing to make any conclusions about whether or not further charges ought to be brought against anyone.

However, he did make mappable paths that could lead to both obstruction of justice charges and collusion-related charges. Documents and references to WikiLeaks, an organization well-known for leaking documents detrimental to the Democratic Party, and details regarding the meeting between Donald Trump Jr., former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and a federal Russian lawyer structure a potential case for collusion with

Russia. In regards to obstruction, the successful firing of former FBI Director James Comey, the failed attempt to fire the Special Counsel himself, and the attempted control of the testimony of President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen outline a possible criminal case. The potential of crimes should, at the very least, bring a reckoning upon the White House.

Though Mr. Mueller declined to bring charges, he also declined to rule them out.

He made sure to specify that the President was vulnerable to charges, no matter his position. He very clearly stated that though there are privileges the President is able to enjoy, “The Constitution does not categorically and permanently immunize the President.”

He was even more explicit in condemning the idea that the President is in a different judicial category from the rest of America, saying “no person is above the law,” and “while the report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” Future charges definitely have not been ruled out.

Mr. Mueller did provide a roadmap for potential charges. In regards to collusion, he pointed to President Trump’s information connections with Russia and the Kremlin.

According to Mr. Mueller, President Trump repeatedly asked former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn to obtain former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, referencing a scandal in which she allegedly deleted e-mails stored on a private server. In response, Flynn “contacted multiple people in an effort to obtain the e-mails.” He also pointed out that though an exchange wasn’t set up by the White House, “the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally

from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.”

Mr. Mueller also explicitly said that he did not find obstruction of justice, but he clearly gave evidence that may appear as so. President Trump apparently fired the then-FBI Director James Comey in response to his insistence that Comey should lie about an investigation into Mr. Trump. As Mr. Mueller explained, “Substantial evidence indicates that the catalyst for the President’s decision to fire Comey was Comey’s unwillingness to publicly state that the President was not personally under investigation, despite the President’s repeated requests that Comey make such an announcement.” Mr. Mueller also found cases where President Trump attempted to obstruct the progress of the probe through Twitter, saying “Evidence concerning the President’s conduct toward Manafort indicates that the President intended to encourage Manafort to not cooperate with the government.” Overall, there is evidence of collusion and obstruction, but Mr. Mueller decided that it was inconclusive.

As part of the investigation, a multitude of people connected with President Trump have been arrested and indicted on charges related to perjury, conspiracy, and financial crimes. From former campaign personnel, such as George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and Michael Flynn, to longtime associates like Michael Cohen and Roger Stone, the Trump circle is riddled with convicted criminals. The combination of assumed and proven crime shows the need for a change in an already controversial White House.

With that volume of illegality, it seems logical that the Trump administration would be resistant to the release of the Report. As a result, current Attorney General and Trump appointee William Barr has

played a heavy role in confusing the American people and muddling the context of the Report. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Barr had written to the White House and Justice Department, saying that he believed Mr. Mueller’s inquiry to obstruction was ill-conceived. After he was appointed, he seemed to maintain that belief. Mr. Mueller, on March 22, 2019, finished his 448page report and gave it to Mr. Barr. After processing it, Mr. Barr released a four-page summary in which he claimed that Mr. Mueller said that there were no crimes committed.

Mr. Mueller refuted the summary, writing to Mr. Barr that it failed to catch the “context, nature, and substance” of his report. President Trump has been open about his connections with the Attorney General’s office, so the possibility of an attempt to minimize the report is non-zero.

As the issues of Mr. Mueller’s investigation are intrinsically tied to national security and the classified dealings of the President, large portions of the report are redacted.

The reasons for this are varied, but the redactions consistently hide large portions of potentially relevant text.

For citizens, that makes sense.

However, there has been a severe lack of lawmaker viewership of the Report. Due to boycotting over masking the full report from appropriately-credentialed congresspeople, only five Republican congresspeople have seen it, and no Democrats have. The viewership of the Report is at the discretion of Mr. Barr, so the inability for Democratic action in the House is in the hands of the Attorney General. When called to testify in front of the Democratic House Judiciary Committee, Mr. Barr refused to show up and was held in contempt of Congress. The White House’s attempts to keep the full report away from credentialed Democrats ought to bring further ire.

Throughout the process of Robert Mueller’s investigation into President Trump’s ties to Russia and any attempted obstruction into the investigation, a serious issue was uncovered. A web of convicted criminals ties very closely to the inner circle of the Trump administration, and there may be several more that could not be convicted because of the high standard of evidence for bringing charges in major cases. High-up positions, like Attorney General, have been filled by people who go against the sharing of all the truths regarding an investigation and its participants. Littered top to bottom with people seemingly against the interests of the American public, the Trump administration cannot stand as is.

It’s upon the Democrats in the House to take action.

Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler, the current Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has a massive amount of power in regards to subpoenas and investigation. If used properly, Representative Nadler could bring further clarity to the investigation and clue the public in on the issues that Mr. Mueller couldn’t. If he is effective, impeachments, where needed, could be brought down throughout the White House.

With the apparent pervasiveness of crime that has plagued the Trump administration, Congress must act. We cannot let a precedent of a lawless presidency continue. America has gotten through a crimefilled presidency with an effective investigation, as with President Richard Nixon and Watergate, but it has also faltered with the Special Counsel of President Bill Clinton and an investigation that devolved into the definitions of sexual conduct. If President Trump and the White House are left alone after this report and its history, then we will begin to lose the lawful system that defines democracy.

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The Spectator ● June 10,2019

Photos

REFLECTIONS

by THE SPECTATOR PHOTO DEPARTMENT

By Matt Melucci

By Joseph Yu

By Megan Huang

By Coco Fang

By Angelina Grzybowski

By Meiru Shang

By Zoe Oppenheimer

By Fion Sin

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Page 15

Arts and Entertainment Avengers, Assemble

film

Whatever else it may be, “Avengers: Endgame” is an extraordinary achievement. At three hours and two minutes, it tops off a 22-film franchise of unprecedented scale. It is one that, love it or hate it, has become a seminal part of the movie industry. “Endgame” is not the last movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU); just this summer, Marvel Studios has “Spider-Man: Far from Home” slated for release. It is, however, the last in this first, and it proves definitively that the fundamental project of the MCU―to build a massive, sprawling franchise with dozens of characters and almost as many plot threads― can work. It might not generally produce high art, but it works, and it works well.

“Endgame” picks up where last year’s “Avengers: Infinity War” left off: with the quasiMalthusian titan Thanos (a purple, astonishingly CGI’d Josh Brolin) having killed half of the universe’s population with a single snap of his fingers. In a reprise of the tear-jerking final scene of “Infinity War,” Clint Barton, also known as Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), watches his family disintegrate. It’s emotionally manipulative as hell, but it works, if you’re willing to let it.

In fact, much of the movie is emotional manipulation that works if you’re willing to let it. I myself very willingly cried throughout, but any viewer who goes into the film needing to be impressed will be sitting through the three hours with one eyebrow firmly raised up. With a silly time-travel plot and little in the way of artistic beauty or sophistication, the film is a moneymaking venture on the part of

music

By MORRIS RASKIN

Captain America, now forlorn, but still determined to keep everybody together. He makes the Avengers a force to be reckoned with. Evans’s contract with Marvel has ended, but he certainly gave the audience a farewell performance to remember.

It will be exciting to see what new angles the next generation

first.

While not an aesthetic masterpiece, the film has a fun script that is brought to life by a cast of skilled actors. Robert Downey, Jr., whose starring role in 2008’s “Iron Man” propelled the MCU into existence, gives an emotional and moving performance, reminding everybody why we fell in love with him when he first debuted as a superhero. Chris Evans plays

of Captain America—played by Anthony Mackie—can bring to the character. Mark Ruffalo portrays Bruce Banner (Hulk) in a way that has never been explored in the MCU before, and for the most part, it pays off. Though his evolved character looks kind of funky, Ruffalo plays into the story well and portrays the new Hulk in an exciting way. Chris Hemsworth, meanwhile, shows us a beaten down and self-loath-

ing Thor, distraught from the events of “Infinity War.” Also shown is his journey to redemption.

Other cast members include Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanov (Black Widow); Bradley Cooper as the anthropomorphic racoon Rocket; Brie Larson as the extraordinarily powerful new kid on the block, Captain Marvel; Paul Rudd as the loveable doofus Scott Lang, (Ant-Man); and Karen Gillan as Thanos’s daughter Nebula. Everyone does their part effectively and has a clear, fulfilled purpose for being in the movie. While some might complain that the movie was overcrowded (given that it’s an ensemble movie and has a large team size), the character moments were handled well, giving all the original Avengers nice moments and send-offs that serve their characters well.

With such a plot-driven movie, the color palette wasn’t ever supposed to be the main focus, but during the gray-dominated battles, it was difficult to figure out what was going on.

The CGI was mostly great when it came to animating characters like Thanos and Rocket, but was inadequate when rendering the Avengers’ cheesy-looking quantum suits. This film was not intended to be nitpicked for its every CGI blunder, but rather meant to be ogled at as what is one of the most ambitious movies ever made.

That being said, the plot is a lot to take in. With more than three hours of sensory overload, it’ll take several more hours after the first viewing to fully understand every intricacy of the plot. The heroes travel through space, time, the multiverse, and the quantum realm, leaving little breathing room for the audience to process what’s going on. But for diehard fans, this is every-

thing that could be asked for, as every scene provides depth to the character of focus, and there are several moments sprinkled throughout the film to ensure applause all around. When the plot fails, it fails minorly, but when it succeeds, it does so with explosive energy. Keeping up with the breakneck pace of the movie is a daunting task, but it proves to be worthwhile for fans and casual viewers alike.

Even the music used in Marvel’s latest film seems to have been amped up. The Avengers theme is dramatic and fulfilling. It is just as nostalgic as the other music that Marvel pulled from previous MCU films as the characters travel back in time to gather the Infinity stones, most notably when a few Avengers travel back to the beginning of “Guardians of the Galaxy” and find Star Lord singing “Come And Get Your Love.” That moment is a powerful callback that reminds us of just how far we have come since then and how much Star Lord has matured since his first movie. As I watched the scene, I felt like I was in the fourth grade again, watching the Guardians in a small Maine theater. In “Endgame,” the music is used most effectively when it evokes memories and emotions in the viewer, which it does to great effect numerous times.

It is simultaneously epic and yet saddening to see the superheroes we’ve grown up with leave in this chapter of the MCU, but at least they were treated well in this last movie of theirs. With superb acting, an exciting plot, excellent music, and nostalgia galore, “Avengers: Endgame” is by no means a perfect movie, but it sure is close to a perfect Marvel movie. It’s safe to say that this is one for the history books.

AJR Grows Up in “Neotheater” journey through late nights, moving out, heartbreak, boredom, temptation, and more. In just over 44 minutes, AJR manages to capture the joy, frustration, and depth that comes with growing up. For three brothers in their twenties, the level of intricacy and thought that was put into this body of work is astonishing. Songs like “Karma” and “100 Bad Days” showcase the brothers’ insights into life, love, and adulthood. After all the songs are over and the performance in the “Neotheater” is done, a finale plays, where AJR lays all of their final doubts, concerns, and angst out on the table before they depart. An album that begins with some level of naiveté and ignorance ends with wistful spite toward growing up, as goes the story of every child learning to be an adult.

But could a pop album with such poignant subject matter really have so much attention put toward the production as well?

The answer is an unflinching yes.

The number of different styles, themes, and sounds put into the instrumentals is overwhelming in all the best ways, and the vocal mixing and pitching is done flawlessly, allowing the brothers to alter and shift their vocals as they please with exceptional results.

The production on tracks like

“Don’t Throw Out My Legos,” which is an all-out explosion of noise spanning every genre in the book, and “Beats,” which provides a tropical feel to an already diverse album, should induce smiles, no matter what the musical preference is. The percussion is dramatic in songs like “Wow, I’m Not Crazy,” but soft and contemplative on songs like “Finale (We Can’t Wait To See What You Do Next).”

The lyrics of the album are almost always thought-provoking and well put together, but it is somewhat in AJR’s nature to make some cheesy lyrics, and it is signature to their sound. I wouldn’t try to lie in this article and say that every lyric that fills up the work is some kind of beautiful poetry, but every word serves its purpose, which adds to the overall story that makes up “Neotheater.” The most standout lyrics can be found in “The Entertainment’s Here,” a track about our generation’s lack of tolerance for boredom and need for constant distraction. The verses, which are about things the brothers do to distract themselves from inevitable boredom, are juxtaposed with the lyrics in the chorus, “Oh my, oh my God, the entertainment’s here / You don’t even gotta use your brain from here just / Sit back, man /

Relax, man / Sit back, man, don’t make plans.”

When you compare “Neotheater” to AJR’s last studio effort, “The Click,” it’s clear that the band has grown considerably, both lyrically and productionwise. “Netflix Trip” from “The Click” featured a thorough dose of cheesiness compared to “The Entertainment’s Here” or “Turning Out Pt. ii,” which provide insight into AJR’s minds and positively adds to the album’s story arc. There is a greater focus on narrative in the new album, as opposed to the almost chaotic lack of attention to tonality and structure in “The Click.” While AJR’s previous album was great, it just doesn’t match the musical prowess displayed in “Neotheater.”

In the end, “Neotheater” is an album that brings AJR to its full strength. It has cheesy lyrics and a tendency to reflect perhaps a bit too heavily on the nostalgia that comes with age, but overall, it works well to see a band work to address their faults and turn their flaws into a distinct sound that makes them instantly recognizable. The production, lyricism, and themes make the album a great alternative to typical top 40 pop hits, and the genre-bending style will guarantee that you will discover new things with each listen.

Best Songs: “The Entertainment’s Here” and “Wow, I’m Not Crazy” Overall Rating: 9.5/10

Yaqi Zeng / The Spectator

AJR grew up on April 26, 2019, releasing “Neotheater,” an album that delves deep into the intricacies of adulthood. AJR is comprised of three brothers (Adam, Jack, and Ryan) who started making music in the early to mid-2000s and made it big with their song “I’m Ready,” a SpongeBob sampling dance track, in 2013. Since then they’ve been making genre-bending music that draws inspiration from pop, hip hop, EDM, rock, doowop, and folk. Their 2017 album, “The Click,” was moderately successful, but did tote the hit single “Weak,” in which AJR sings about their insecurities and comes to the realization that there’s nothing wrong with being unable to resist temptations.

Now two years later, AJR released “Neotheater,” a 12-song body of work that is largely structured like a musical. With the first few notes, the opening act begins.

A large choir sings, chimes swell, the pianos kick in, Neotheater’s figurative curtains are drawn open, and AJR readies themselves for their big performance.

After the introductory song in “Next Up Forever,” the album starts from the beginning: a song about blissful ignorance as an infant, and from there, the brothers’

Marvel Studios and Disney. The goal of the film, above all else, was to smash box office records and provide fanservice to viewers who have been watching Marvel movies for over a decade. At the moment of writing this, “Avengers: Endgame” is the second highest grossing film of all time, and it is gunning for

Daniel Berlinsky / The Spectator

By MORRIS RASKIN and JONATHAN SCHNEIDERMAN

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The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Arts and Entertainment What “What the Constitution Means to Me” Means to Me

Theater It’s extremely uncommon to hear of a show that is unconventional, funny, and argues a case for women and minorities in our current society, especially on Broadway. More commonly, instead, we see musicals and plays that depict issues and stories not prevalent in our world today.

Enter Heidi Schreck’s unconventional “What the Constitution Means to Me,” an engaging masterpiece that is an absolute must-see this year.

Directed by Olivia Butler, “What the Constitution Means to Me” premiered March 31, 2019 at the Helen Hayes Theater. On a simple set that resembles an American Legion hall recreated from her memories, Schreck recounts the vital role the Constitution has played in her life. In an extremely engaging fashion, she begins by enacting the story of how, at the age of 15, had enough money to pay for her entire college tuition by competing at Constitutional Debate competitions nationwide.

With Mike Iveson playing a legionnaire, and providing rules and additional insight, Schreck recreates her winning speech.

In these types of debates, the competitors were asked to explain the impact the document had on their own lives. Here, Schreck draws parallels between her family history and the Constitution, and how the document that she idolized for so long fails to protect not only the women in her family, but also continues to fail women in the nation today. She pays homage to these

film

By EMMA LINDERMAN It has been 25 years since his directorial debut, and Ben Stiller wants to get just one thing straight: “I just want to, maybe, apologize for the way the film fetishizes smoking,” Stiller said.

Since its 1994 release, the romantic dramedy “Reality Bites” has earned a reputation as a cult classic through ironic humor, a catchy soundtrack, and a scarily accurate depiction of typical twenty-somethings. Times have changed, but the film remains relevant, a statement which was resoundingly reaffirmed by the movie’s cast and production team as they reunited at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Begging comparison to “Friends” (1994-2004) and “Melrose Place” (1992-1999), the film revolves around Lelaina Pierce (Winona Ryder), a college valedictorian and aspiring filmmaker who should be destined for success, but is sorely mistaken. She and her group of friends navigate the ups and downs of early adulthood in the ‘90s—key issues being the AIDS crisis and baby boomer disdain—as Lelaina becomes entwined in a love triangle between the frustratingly nihilistic Troy (Ethan Hawke) and borderline yuppie Michael, played by Stiller himself.

The film’s success can likely be accredited to several factors: the work of screenwriter Helen Childress, who was 20 when she began to work on the

women, going back generations and detailing the domestic abuse they faced. In her monologues, she quotes the Constitution, cites statistics, and recounts personal anecdotes, demonstrating what it truly means to be a woman in the United States, and the failure of this document to protect and acknowledge women throughout history. She goes on to express her current concern as to how this historic document

The show concludes with Schreck introducing a high schooler for a formal debate on whether the U.S. Constitution should be abolished or kept.

Rosdely Ciprian, a 14 year old freshman, alternates performances with Thursday Williams, a senior. Ciprian was the debater for the performance that I attended, and after a coin toss, she argued for abolishment while Schreck argued the other. Mini

citing current events and parts of the Constitution to build a solid argument. An audience member chooses the winner of the debate, and everyone walks away from the show reflecting on the many points made in this historic document.

Heidi Schreck is an engaging performer, who by the end of the show, leaves the audience pensive, with her many insights and criticisms of the document

affects the human rights of minorities and underrepresented communities both positively and negatively. Even though this document was something she idolized and was devoted to growing up, Schreck realizes it “is doing exactly what it was designed to do from the beginning, which is to protect the interests of a small number of rich, white men,” Schreck said.

Constitutions are passed out, allowing the audience to follow along if either debater mentions or quotes certain parts. In one of the best moments of the show, both argue in a hilarious but sophisticated manner. Though the show is scripted, there is a realistic element, as both sides make cutting remarks in efforts of making their side more appealing to the audience, while also

and the current state of our country sticking in their heads.

She breaks down the Constitution and its many amendments as if she were addressing a member of the audience directly, using personal anecdotes, sarcasm, and jokes to get her main ideas and points across. She does this in a way where it’s hard to believe the show is scripted, and not an improvised and open

Jennifer Sun / The Spectator

By STEFANY QUIROZ

conversation. Not once does she let us lose sight of how the Constitution relates to our lives and affects us directly today. She reminds the audience of issues that take place throughout the country today, from domestic abuse to discrimination to the lack of representation and rights for people of color and immigrants. As a minority, there are so many aspects of this show that were beautiful to see. The guest debaters are minorities as well, and are advocating for underrepresented people and a better future that is inclusive rather than exclusive. This is such a huge contrast to what is normally seen on Broadway stages.

It’s satisfying to see Schreck initiate this conversation about the nation, one that was really necessary to have. By breaking down and tracing years and years of oppression and dehumanization brought on by the Constitution, Schreck gives the audience a new perspective that is constantly overlooked. Rather than leaving the audience with a grim sense of hopelessness and despair after recognizing all the flaws and wrongs of the document and nation, she inspires a call to action for change, one where we can rewrite a future that is diverse and female for once, instead of the same white men that are constantly seen in the history of the country. She evokes a sense of hope in the audience, where it is acknowledged that yes, the Constitution is flawed, and yes, our nation is flawed, but both are capable of being improved.

X,Y, and Z: The Legacy of “Reality Bites” film (which was then referred to as “The Untitled Baby Busters Project”); the raw and fresh direction of Stiller, who, at the time, was solely recognized for the briefly-running “Ben Stiller Show” (1992-1993); and, perhaps the most vital component, the participatory willingness of Winona Ryder.

As the credits rolled during the festival screening, a fleeting appearance was made by singer Lisa Loeb, who performed the career-launching “Stay (I Missed You),” a breakout hit on the “Reality Bites” soundtrack. Deemed the “centerpiece” of the movie, the song was also granted an accompanying music video, which was produced by Ethan Hawke.

The score is possibly the film’s most telling ‘90s emblem, as it consists of songs that reflect entirely the decade’s emphasis on maintaining individuality. As recounted by Stacey Sher, “all of these bands, we were begging [them] to be in the film,” whereas today, the roles would likely be reversed. “It was the ‘90s,” Sher continued, “none of us wanted to sell out.” Struggle for independence aside, the carefully sought after songs are, in the simplest terms, irreplaceable. In one of the movie’s most iconic scenes, Lelaina and her friends Vickie (Janeane Garofalo) and Sammy (Steve Zahn) dance to The Knack’s “My Sharona” in a gas station, as Troy looks on with disdain. “All I Want Is You,” by U2 was a must-have

for Stiller, and it is written into the film accompanying a perfectly ‘90s angst-ridden montage of Lelaina and Troy’s romantic turmoil.

In her tale of the musical copyright battle, Sher touches on the decision to set the movie in Houston, Texas, which, at the time, had a significant underground music scene. Winona Ryder’s response to Sher was, “In Houston?,” a reaction that would likely make these lesserknown musicians proud. Holding firmly to a true-to-self career was a necessity for the area’s artists; Sher mentioned that, by their own accord, none of them ever reached more widespread success.

Such values are equally present in “Reality Bites.” In a notable scene, Lelaina declines Michael’s offer to show her documentary to his production company, saying, “I made this promise to myself that I wouldn’t...unintentionally commercialize it.” With such values being present both within the film as well as outside, Shamberg, Sher, and Stiller felt that the movie should be given a platform that would simultaneously advertise it to the mainstream and prevent it from selling out. After a discouraging lack of support from brands and artists (“Michael [Shamberg] had to fly up to beg The Gap to let us use [the store] in the movie,” Sher recounts), Winona Ryder signed on and, in terms of credibility, gave the production team

a toehold.

Coming off of Oscar-nominated performances in “The Age of Innocence” (1993) and “Little Women” (1994), Ryder’s enthusiasm for a project headed by the relatively-unknown Stiller was something of a shock.

“Didn’t you just work with Scorsese?” Stiller exclaimed. Ryder’s reason for signing turned out to be quite simple: “I got to wear normal clothes,” she said. After it was certain that Ryder would be playing the starring role, the pieces of “Reality Bites” began to come together.

Sher reminisces about preparing to fly to Ireland with rolls of film to convince U2’s Bono to let “All I Want Is You” be included in the film. Before departing, Sher got the news that Bono agreed to provide rights to the song simply because he knew Ryder.

Because of her earlier projects (Think “Beetlejuice,” “Heathers,” and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”) and ahead-of-thecurve reputation, Winona Ryder had reached a level of iconically alternative status by the early ‘90s. While her participation was essential to the film’s success, Ryder herself felt indebted to the rest of the production team for giving her a platform to support a female screenwriter.

Drawn in by the parallels to her own ideals and attitude, Ryder anticipated that the film would be true to ‘90s so-called counterculture.

The one unintentional consequence was that “Reality Bites” ended up being branded as a “Gen X” film. With its grungy undertones and blatant themes of nonconformity, (in her speech as valedictorian, Lelaina asks, “How can we repair all the damage we inherited?”), “Reality Bites” was an easy target for broad labels. Childress, however, simply meant to write a movie about her and her friends. “I don’t even like to say...Generation certain letter,” Winona Ryder added. She also mentioned that, when first reading the script, all she saw was an honest story about people her age. According to Janeane Garofalo, “This is Helen’s story. It doesn’t represent a ‘generation,’ it represents those people.”

If anything, the film is just as applicable to the Lelainas of today. Just as the Baby Boomers looked down upon the counterculture of the ‘90s, Gen-Xers expressed disdain for millenials, as millenials did in turn for Generation Z. Judging by the turnout at the anniversary screening, “Reality Bites” serves as a common ground for the young adults of both the nineties and today. “One of my favorite experiences associated with the movie would be...watching the movie today with this audience,” Ben Stiller said. “We’re all having this one experience here, not one else is going to experience it.”

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Page 17

Arts and Entertainment Tribeca Film Festival Features

film

By THE ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT DEPARTMENT

This year’s Tribeca Film Festival (April 24 to May 5) was bolstered with a slate of over 100 titles, including several world and New York premieres of films starring casts of big names like Jared Leto, Elijah Wood, Margot Robbie, and Fionn Whitehead.

The Tribeca Film Festival, which was founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro (yes, that one), and Craig Hatkoff, has become more than a place to see some new films. Now on its 18th run, the festival is a creative platform for the next generation of great filmmakers. Out of a total of 9,295 submissions, the 2019 Festival chose to feature a lineup full of women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQIA community.

Despite being called a film festival, though, in recent years, it has also recognized advances in gaming, television, and virtual reality, with something going wildly not-right (but not wrong) at each year’s Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards.

The Arts & Entertainment Department visited the Tribeca Film Festival. Here are some of the highlights and the best new things to check out.

Highlights • • • • •

The top three juried awards were all awarded to first-time directors.

Phillip Youmans was the first black director; he is also the youngest to win the narrative competition for his film, “Burning Cane.” He is also the youngest director to have a feature at the Festival.

The Festival continued its Art Awards Program, which awards winners of each film category a cash prize and a piece of art from an acclaimed contemporary artist.

The cast and crew of Ben Stiller’s “Reality Bites” met for a screening and panel of the film for its 25th anniversary.

Robert De Niro!

Dreamland

Buffaloed

Directed by the young Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. It is a western about an adventure-hungry teenager (Finn Cole) who meets a fugitive femme fatale (Margot Robbie). The movie is equal parts bildungsroman and crime drama. Set in a picturesque town in Texas during the Dust Bowl, every frame is a love-letter to the wild beauty of sandstorms engulfing barns, green trees in the sweltering heat, and specks of dust rising up in the morning sun.

Despite being too focused on aesthetics, the film delivers the theme of teenage idealism clashing with the harshness of reality.

Directed by Tanya Wexler, Buffaloed follows Peg Dahl (Zoey Deutch), an ordinary girl living in Buffalo, NY with one goal in life: to get rich. In an attempt to fulfill her dream, she gets tangled up in the dirty business of tax collection, and trouble ensues. Deutch delivers a funny and realistic performance of a girl down on her luck. The film itself, while not a visual masterpiece, is effective in its storytelling and banks on the classic dilemmas of being an adult without being boring. While the romance between Dahl and her lawyer boyfriend seemed unnatural and a distraction from the main story, “Buffaloed” is a highly entertaining movie that perfectly captures the alternating mundanities and joys of just trying to make it big in life.

The Short History of the Long Road A heart-wrenching film, “The Short History of the Long Road,” directed by Ani Simon-Kennedy, follows a teenage girl named Nola (Sabrina Carpenter) and her father Clint (Steven Ogg) as they venture around the U.S. They are just two nomads and their RVs. When disaster strikes, Nola finds herself suddenly on the road alone with nowhere to go and no one to go to for help, forced to take the wheel for the first time. While her final destination remains unknown, Simon-Kennedy does an excellent job of illustrating the realities of isolation, which Carpenter delivers beautifully in a grieffilled performance of a girl trying to get over her past. While idealized in certain areas, “The Short History of the Long Road” is a bildungsroman that typifies the precariousness of life constantly lived on the edge, and it is a must-watch for anyone in search of an emotional drama.

Directors We Want to See More of Best New Narrative Director: Edgar Nito (The Gasoline Thieves) Best New Documentary Director: Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin (Scheme Birds) Nora Ephron Award: Rania Attieh (Initials S.G.)

Good Posture Directed by Dolly Wells and instantly charming and thoughtful, this film is about a young film school graduate (Grace Van Patten) whose lack of ambition and self-reliance leads to her search for greater meaning and a place to live in the bustling city of New York. Wells, always an actress filling the roles of deep, well-written characters, translates these values to her position as director in this gentle film that is both a coming-of-age drama and comedy. Van Patten seems to mature opposite Emily Mortimer onscreen. The characters communicate through passive-aggressive note-writing and witty banter that somehow gives audiences a sense of nostalgia over such a deeply-rooted companionship. This is only further elevated by a great, if at sometimes slow, story and talented cast.

Films You Should Check Out • • • • • • • •

Best Narrative: Burning Cane Best Documentary: Scheme Birds Best International Narrative: House of Hummingbird (Beol-sae) Best Narrative Short: Maja Best Documentary Short: Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl) Student Visionary Award: Jebel Banat Tribeca Critics Week: American Factory, Driveways, In Fabric, This is Not Berlin (Esto no es Berlin), The Weekend This Used to be New York: Martha, Other Music, The Projectionist

Thinkpiece

By BILL NI I watched “Endgame” during its opening weekend, “Captain Marvel” a month ago, “Infinity War” last year, and “Black Panther” before that. They were all amazing experiences, and yet there was something different between those movies and those that were standard box office fillers like “Mission Impossible: Fallout.”

I don’t think the audience was any less bored during “Fallout” than “Endgame,” but from the noise that they were making, you’d almost assume that the people watching the Avengers were Super Bowl attendees. “Mission Impossible” has just as much adrenaline-fueled action as “Endgame,” and it’s even more down to earth than the latter because of the absence of supernatural or

The MCU’s New Breed of Moviegoers futuristic powers that permeate through all of the Avengers. So why aren’t people cheering more during other movies?

Marvel has been groundbreaking in many ways. It has shown that heroes aren’t all perfect and that villains aren’t pure evil. You can also have serious movies interspersed with cleverly-placed humor and witty banter, all to afford us a level of relatability despite how far from human many of Marvel’s characters seem to be. Steve Rogers is a superhuman who has impeccable morality (sometimes to the point of having no allies), and Tony Stark is arrogant and uncompromising to many faults. Both characters have numerous other flaws, often explored deeply in their solo movies, that make them more human than we can see on first sight.

It is this kind of character development and exploration that enables Marvel to appeal to its audiences on a deeper level than most other franchises.

In the case of “Mission Impossible,” if you consider all six movies that have been released in the series, Ethan Hunt always manages to turn it around, being level-headed whether he’s in deep trouble or far from it. We know he’s always going to live, and everything will always be all right. Time and time again, Hunt never truly loses something nor someone close to him. It pushes his humanity far into a corner and makes it too easy for us moviegoers to root for him. Which is why we don’t. If it’s a big champ versus the underdog, we usually don’t cheer at all unless the underdog puts up a good fight. As opposed to Hunt’s knack for al-

ways reaching a good ending and leaving the scene unscathed, the Avengers are far from perfect invincible beings, which makes every single little victory worth cheering for and every single little loss worth gasping or crying for.

Going into “Endgame,” we know not all is guaranteed. Stark nearly died in the first Avengers film, Quicksilver exited as soon as he entered, S.H.I.E.L.D. turned out to be a cover for the festering HYDRA, and up until now, the Avengers’ fighting has often been among themselves. We are never sure how it will all turn out, especially when every Avenger and Marvel hero is ready to put their life on the line for the universe, making no sacrifice is too great.

With our most beloved characters fighting against overwhelming odds, it’s hard to hold our breath for them. We want

to be the driving force for their fight and make sure that that fight doesn’t end with our heroes in a bind or in death. Our cheering gives us that opportunity.

Our lack of knowledge or obvious outcome during these MCU movies makes us uncertain, and growing up with characters that have always won without a scratch, we can no longer enter the theater silent. Our cheers and gasps are all our attempts to boost our morale as we struggle to push the plot over to a happy ending when in fact, we are presented with an unchangeable and inevitable finish. At the end of the day, we come out of these movies feeling more connected—to each other and our heroes—and we bring that emotion over to the next movie, where more cheering and crying await us.

Page 18

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Arts and Entertainment Detective Netflix

Thinkpiece

By SYEDA MALIHA

ers, and it accurately recounts the murders committed by Ted Bundy while giving audiences a glimpse into his mind. The documentary covers the Bundy trial back in the ‘70s and the conversations that journalists Stephen G. Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth had with Bundy after his conviction in 1978. At first, it’s hard to understand the overall popularity of the documentary since it appears to be a general restatement of facts that were known to the public.

A recording of Bundy started to play, though, and the hairs on my arm stood up. Documentarian Joe Berlinger does a remarkable job at highlighting the narcissism in Bundy’s words and discrediting all of his pleas of innocence.

However, there are flaws in the documentary. While it does share the story of a survivor, it doesn’t give a voice to the families of the dozens of victims who were murdered. Furthermore, the documentary overemphasizes Bundy’s charm and charisma, which can be misleading and dangerous to a fairly young audience that might leave with the message that Bundy was able to get away with his murders for so long because he was an average man.

Berlinger’s tendency to oversimplify is also evident in his film about Ted Bundy, which pre-

As I scroll past thousands of thumbnails on Netflix, I always find myself stopping at one type of genre: crime documentaries.

It’s not that I particularly enjoy learning about the gruesome details of a crime, but 10 minutes into their morbid retelling, it’s impossible to look away.

Over the past decade, Netflix has accumulated millions of dollars and views on shows like “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes” (2019), “Making a Murderer” (2015), and most recently, “The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann” (2019).

While shows like “The Ted Bundy Tapes” scrutinize the lives of the convicted, the latter two were created to provide outsider insight that could possibly impact the future of these ongoing investigations.

Though the tendency to formulate theories about mysterious crimes and events past is completely normal, how do we draw the line between conjecture and fact? Documentaries don’t always thoroughly explain details of crimes; they aren’t police reports, they’re a form of entertainment.

“The Ted Bundy Tapes” documentary is well done, triumphant in fulfilling the curiosity of view-

miered as “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Zac Efron plays the role of Bundy, who is portrayed as a loving partner and father figure to Liz Kloepfer (Lily Collins) and her daughter, respectively.

It is not until the final moments of the movie that the audience is exposed to Bundy’s inhumane acts. The documentary ends on a similar note with Bundy saying, “People don’t realize there are potential killers among them.

How could anyone live in a society where people they liked, loved, lived with, worked with, and admired could, the next day, turn out to be the most demonic people imaginable?”

Both the documentary and the film, while attempting to paint an accurate picture of a renowned murderer, fail to do so. In the documentary, viewers aren’t presented with all the facts, creating a sense of paranoia and even more curiosity and attention than should be given to a killer who craved it. The film does the same by casting an actor who clearly did not watch the Ted Bundy tapes and could not accurately portray a psychopath.

Serial killers don’t appear out of thin air. They show warning signs such as pleasure in harm-

ing animals and committing small crimes. The documentary doesn’t focus on these details, instead opting to cut them out in the editing room in favor of an entertaining project. While it’s a commendable effort to discourage audience members from putting on their detective hats and spying on their strange next-door neighbor, it causes quite the opposite effect because of the lack of attention to detail for realisticality.

Unlike “The Ted Bundy Tapes,” “The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann” outlines the details of an ongoing case. In 2007, Madeleine McCann disappeared at the age of three after visiting Portugal. The documentary speculates what could have happened to McCann, but fails in its final hurdle. It ends with the suggestion that McCann might have been a victim of a pedophile, without any valid evidence. The ending of the documentary is theatrical instead of informative, and is completely unsettling.

Each episode covers a possible theory that is so compelling it makes audiences believe they are something akin to detectives.

Unfortunately, the documentary fails to provide any helpful information about the case and attracts unnecessary attention that can hamper with the inves-

Why You Should Stop Hating the Kardashians

Culture

Sophie Poget / The Spectator

By SYEDA MALIHA Talentless. Plastic. Undeserving. Spoiled. Stupid. This is just a fraction of the insults thrown at the Kardashian-Jenner sisters everyday.

Since 2007, when their reality T.V. show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” (KUWTK) began, the Kardashian-Jenner family has been simultaneously revolutionizing the beauty industry and stirring up controversies through their online presence.

The Kardashians are quite the confusing bunch. At one point, Robert Kardashian Jr. (yes, there are brothers in the family) was having a child with Blac Chyna, who already had a child with Tyga, who was in a relationship with Kylie Jenner, who is Robert’s half-sister. If you didn’t follow that, don’t worry—most people don’t.

The first time we heard the name “Kardashian” was during the O. J. Simpson case, in which Robert Kardashian Sr., an attorney and close friend to Simpson, became a crucial participant in the trials. Kris Jenner and Robert Kardashian Sr., already divorced by then, were the parents of four: Kourtney, Khloe, Kim, and Robert Jr. Kardashian. Kris remarried to Bruce Jenner (currently Caitlyn Jenner), an Olympic gold medalist, and they had Kylie and Kendall Jenner.

Growing up in Beverly Hills, the Kardashians created a stepping stone for themselves by building high status connections.

By 2007, Kim Kardashian became locally known for working as the personal assistant of Paris Hilton, the stylist of Lindsay Lohan, and as the co-owner of DASH (a clothing store she be-

tigation. Audiences are presented with theories without justification and a series of merely hypothetical scenarios. At one point, the documentary even suggests that McCann’s parents may have been responsible for the disappearance of their daughter.

This outlines a common issue with crime documentaries: they undermine the efforts of law enforcement by making it difficult to separate speculation from truth. In recent years, more documentaries have been leaning toward biased stances that formulate theories with little fact or evidence, thereby misinforming impressionable viewers. All this also proves distracting for actual attempts to solve the cases these documentaries discuss. Rather, documentarians should be presenting cases honestly, including as little of their own opinions as possible. Not only does this responsibly inform audiences of cases that revolve around such dangerous killers as Ted Bundy, but it also leaves all the truth-uncovering to law enforcement. Remember that the next time you rip open a bag of popcorn and check out a crime documentary on Netflix, you’re watching a show—the facts are on the actual police report.

gan with her two sisters Khloe and Kourtney). However, the creation and maintenance of this entire empire should be rightfully credited to the iconic “momager,” Kris Jenner. Kris Jenner contacted Ryan Seacrest to create an E! Series documenting their life after realizing the potential her family had. Willing to take a risk on this ambitious woman, Seacrest signed the Kardashian-Jenner family, marking the beginning of an empire.

Though tedious to comprehend, the start-up of the Kardashians is a crucial part of bettering your understanding of why each member of the family continues to succeed today both as an individual and as a collective. Each sister owns her own business with immense success. Notable moments include Kendall being the top paid model of 2018, Khloe releasing her “Good American” jeans line, and Kylie being the youngest billionaire through “Kylie Cosmetics.” With over two million views

on each episode, the family is still thriving 16 seasons into KUWTK. In 2016, the sisters renewed their contract for five more seasons, in return for $150 million. So why has this immense success come with hate?

The Kardashians have undeniably had many controversies in their decade long careers. Kim Kardashian has constantly been attacked for cultural appropriation because of braiding cornrows in her hair. In 2017, Kendall was part of a Pepsi advertisement that glorified the Black Lives Matter movement. Just a few months ago, the internet was torn apart after Forbes recognized Kylie as a “self-made” billionaire—though, it’s worth emphasizing the fact that, yes, Kylie had a leg up due to her pre-existing fame, but she was not given any money from her family to start the business at only 18 years old. As CEO, she creates, designs, and sells all units independently, so we should not discredit a young entrepreneur for

being born into wealth, a factor uncontrollable by her.

The hate and anger the Kardashians receive is almost always in unjustifiable amounts. Besides Kendall, all of the sisters have started their own families and desire to provide their children with a healthy childhood and environment. However, every time one of them encounters a personal problem, the whole world is there to provide its input. Imagine getting told you deserved getting cheated on—Khloe had to face just that after paparazzi caught her now ex-boyfriend Tristan Thompson cheating on her the day before she gave birth to their child.

The Kardashians are among the most consistently hated, yet misrepresented celebrities in the industry today. The Kardashians might not represent our stereotypical definition of intelligent, but perhaps it’s time to recognize that success can be obtained by being more than just book smart.

Yes, the Kardashians were lucky

to grow up around celebrities and have Ryan Seacrest’s investment, but that doesn’t erase the fact that every single sister had to work hard to build their own empire, whether it be gaining respect in the modeling industry or selling out a lip kit in minutes.

There’s a reason people keep coming back to watch a new episode, buy their latest makeup product, or follow their Instagrams. Not only are the sisters modern day figures of beauty, but they also motivate fans to push forward and ignore the weight of the rest of the world. We are mesmerized by this luxurious family living out their days and conquering the same problems all humans face, but on a much larger scale.

These sisters are not just faces behind a screen—they are humans. When you comment something demoralizing, someone is on the other side reading it, and that is true for the Kardashians, no matter how famous they may be. The confidence and strength of the family is clearly shown by their ability to not show weakness and hesitation every time they are hurt. As siblings, they get into arguments but they settle their differences. As workers, they get into fights with their employers and coworkers, but they resolve their issues. As humans, they face backlash, but they handle it with poise and elegance, even though they have billions of eyes criticizing their decisions.

The Kardashian-Jenner family had a goal, and they achieved it.

No matter your personal opinions on their lifestyle, we shouldn’t hate on them for living their dream.

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Page 19

Humor These articles are works of fiction. All quotes are libel and slander.

By AARON WANG and KELLY YIP Group projects, we’ve all been there. A traumatic yet inevitable experience that all students must face. Why work with other people when you’re the only one in your class who is perfectly capable of making good projects on your own?

EsPecIaLLy when literally everyone else is incompetent.

Though teachers view group projects as the perfect opportunity for students to form new lifelong friendships or whatever, it actually depends on the types of members you are grouped up with. With years of experience on this subject, The Spectator presents some of the most common types of group members so you can improvise, adapt, and overcome during group projects (also so we can secretly throw shade at some people).

The Control Freak “Why can’t you guys do ANYTHING right??! I’ll just do it myself, you incompetent peasants.”

This is the perfectionist of the group, and they just can’t settle on anything other than their own “perfect” vision, which isn’t actually necessary for the assignment, but hey, at least it looks pretty! Of course, they believe that they are only ones who can pull off these “gesamtkunstwerks.” As a result, these people will be the ones to kick everyone out and do it all themselves. At least you’re guaranteed a decent project with minimal effort, right?

That is quite the contrary. Often, these “masterminds” have visions that make you wonder if they have a mind at all.

Occasionally, you may meet the subtype of “The Control Freak”: “The Oppressive Vi-

By JACQUELINE THOM Our Lord and Savior Mayor de Blasio is taking full advantage of his educational monarchy by implementing a series of new policies meant to “benefit” Stuyvesant through “[insert a very real quote here].” After his recent bill passed to provide more nutritious lunches based on those of the Federal Correctional Institution, the mayor is now turning a glassy eye toward the Stuyvesant Environmental Club’s latest project: the Stuy Sharing Table.

The Stuy Sharing Table, also dubbed “The Sharing Table,” “The Table,” or just “Stuy,” has become quite the gathering place for the listless students of Stuyvesant looking for a meager meal to get them through their next 10 periods.

It is here that the picky eaters leave their various uneaten foods, most commonly plastic oranges and [insert funny adjective] apple juice, at the table.

The congregation of vultures, however, has proven to be incredibly chaotic as of late. Most

Types of People in Group Projects

sionary.” This type will dictate what each person can and will do to construct the uLtiMAte project, claiming that God himself bestowed this perfect idea while they were napping during class, but they won’t do any of the work themselves. This is a very unfortunate situation for you, as you can never meet their standards and will always remain a “disappointment” in their hearts.

The best way to work with these types of people is to be there to provide moral support, actually try to confer to their oppressive rule, or resort to making a secret backup yourself.

The Winger/Actor/Actress “I have no idea what this word means but don’t worry ‘bout it, I’ll be fine” Wingers tend to not contribute to a group project, but manage to save your failing ass (the donkey) with a glamorous performance that will mesmerize the audience during your presentation. During group work, they’re often the ones stirring up drama and demanding your undivided attention. However, on the day of the presentation, they burst into the classroom in a custom-designed costume complete with props about the digestive system with a oneman choreography, chorus, and orchestra.

The best way to deal with these members is to try and endure the initial hardships and be a good member by finishing up the project. You’ll just have to make the judgement call since these people tend to reveal their expertise only on the day of presentations. Be prepared to take over the presentation if they turn out to be a talentless garbage can.

The Flaker “Oops, sorry guys, I had a dentist’s appointment yesterday.

I promise I’ll meet you guys after school today though!”

Unfortunately, almost all of us has had a Flaker in their group before. Flakers won’t ever show up to any group meetings and will never actually work on the project. In addition, their schedule never matches up with anyone else’s, or they use awful excuses such as “I gotta play Splatoon with my friends!” or “Sorry, I gotta celebrate my grandma’s dog’s birthday today!” When a project is online, they just probably won’t do it.

You can message them all you want but they won’t respond, even if you see they are active on Messenger. During group presentations, they tend to just read the part that everyone wrote for them. At least they can read!

The best way to deal with Flakers is to not do anything!

Do not succumb to your urge to finish the project, just leave it. Simply leave a little note saying who was responsible for what, and that our special little snowflake didn’t do their part.

Hopefully, your lovely teacher who gave you this project will take pity and only dramatically lower the Flaker’s grade, leaving substantial emotional damage.

Make sure to give them absolutely terrible ratings for peer assessment if your teacher does them!

The Delicate Your Highness “Sorry I can’t work today!

My mommy wants me to go to bed by 8:00 p.m.! I can’t function without my 10 hours of beauty sleep.”

The most fragile and delicate member in your group, your highness insists on following their rigid regime set by their evil witch mother, which means being unable to allocate any time to work on the project.

Initially they seem pretty reliable as they often flex the fact

that they get at least 10 hours of sleep on a daily basis, making them appear as some sort of super student. You’d think that with their excellent time management and efficiency, they can carry the group. That is, until they give the excuse that they need to sleep at 8:00 p.m. (because any less sleep would render them incapacitated) and wish you the best of luck as they ditch you on Google Docs.

What about the weekends, you wonder? Unfortunately, your highness claims that they are too preoccupied with extracurriculars to have any free time. They will, of course, also add that they are only following their mother’s demands and that any extra time left over will be used for sleep to make up for any lost time over the week.

The best way to deal with this damsel in distress is to ignore their pleas for pity and, if possible, make them realize their responsibilities. If they absolutely cannot help on the project, then do locate the tower in which they are imprisoned and give them a good smack in their face and tell them to STOP BEING A GOODFOR-NOTHING LIABILITY before exiting.

The Alpha/Carry “[sigh] Looks like I’m going to have to do everything again… Okay guys, here’s the plan...”

The natural born leader of the group who actually has a plan, has their crap together.

It’s speculated that they are beings mandated by God himself—no, rather, otherworldly and celestial beings descended from heaven—to come bless us poor peasants. Often, they appear with a shining halo around their heads, and sometimes you can hear angels singing upon beholding their work. They’re

Diversity Through Staring

significantly impacted by this are the involuntary recycling monitor volunteers, who are having difficulties keeping up with the exponential increase in students trying to throw out their trash at the same time as everyone else, prompting staff like Assistant Principal of Cellular Device Monitoring Brian Moran to repeatedly yell into a megaphone during lunch periods. What he says during these moments is as unclear as school announcements with Marky Mark and Shar Shar.

Unfortunately, the masses of lost souls congregating at The Table have caused too much commotion to ignore. In a recent press conference at Terry’s, Mayor de Blasio announced his next plan for our high school, nay, our sPeCiALiZeD high school. Over the next 15 months, de Blasio will gradually convert the Stuy Sharing Table to the “Shy Staring Table”; this leaves enough time for the class of 2020 to skrtttttt but the rest of us won’t be so lucky.

“This is the first time I’m

seeing such antisocial behavior among the students at Stuyvesant High School,” de Blasio said. “As part of my plan to diversify the city’s top high school’s shy population, I’d like to introduce the new Shy Staring Table. Using our new Discovery program, I expect that a wider range of shy students will have representation at this table and will increase the overall timidity of Stuyvesant.” The mayor waved away any questions and moved closer to his microphone. He proceeded to stare into the distance for several minutes, breathing heavily but not speaking. Though the mayor said little, his profound words still resonate with us even several weeks later.

Changes are already being made. The original Table was moved out over the course of five hours in favor of a similar-looking but much sturdier replacement. One of The Spectator’s personal janitors observed three pale-faced students being carried by de Blasio himself from the school

kitchens to the table where they were promptly placed in a sitting position.

While helping himself to our gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches after a hard day’s work, de Blasio invited passing students to observe their peers on the table. In an aside to the same Spectator janitor mentioned above, de Blasio commented, “I think this new thing will really make a difference for this school. Already, the staring, both awkward and not, has really provoked insightful dialogue amongst students. The students sitting on the table are shy and will definitely develop great life skills that physics simply can’t provide for them, just by staring at the students who happen to be standing around. We’re also killing two birds with one stone! Y’all won’t need lunch monitors anymore!”

The mayor ended this by throwing out his sandwich crusts in the recycling bin before running out of the cafeteria. It is reported that de Blasio slid down the five-to-three

usually the ones who assign members their parts, and will make sure that they don’t slack off. They just have that ability to inspire others to work hard and are just super efficient at doing work themselves. We can all only dream for a Carry like them.

To handle a Carry, just succumb to their choices. Let the Carry carry you to victory. Make sure to give them an amazing peer review and five stars on Yelp. You may also choose to worship their blessed abilities with offerings of pieces of your expired Jupioca loyalty card.

The “Just Why” “What does this mean? Can you guys help me, please? Oops, I think I deleted something by accident. At least I tried my best.”

Wants to help and tries to help, but can’t. They’re actually a nice, innocent person, but gosh, are they utterly pathetic. They have pure intentions at heart, but let’s be honest, if they actually contribute it’s usually useless. It’s astonishing how awful their contributions are, so much so that you wonder if they even know what the topic is. Unfortunately, everything they write is usually super wrong, and you will be the one who ends up rewriting everything they’ve written. With these types of group members, you’ll end up with more apologies than sentences and more questions than the audience has for your presentation.

For these useless worms, you’ll have to acknowledge that whatever they do will have to be revised by yourself or another trustworthy member if you care about your project grade. Unless you’ve got the time to take it slow and work with them, be prepared to become a Carry for them.

escalator yelling “TAKE THE STAIRS, NERDS!” while jamming pencils into tiny crevices on the escalator. Due to this mishap, our Pegleg bobsledding team no longer has a practice space and will be set back a season, a truly horrific event that The Spectator’s Sports department will be covering three issues from now.

It is safe to say that Lord Build a Blasio’s most progressive and modern policy of all has been a real blessing.

Certainly, it is up to time to tell us if the Shy Staring Table will diversify Stuyvesant as much as expected, with currently only the top seven percent of antisocial students being admitted to sit on the table. Since the time of the writing of this report, the general silent tension in the school has increased dramatically thanks to The Table, leaving us with the hope for a more social environment. When we don’t have anything to eat, we’ll always be able to defer to some good ol’ staring. Thanks, Bill.

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Page 20

Humor

By THE HUMOR DEPARTMENT

Hello, what is up, my fellow 3400 classmates trapped in TriBeCa? It’s your favorite group of journalists, the Spectator Humor department! With the highly anticipated release of “Endgame,” coming out at a rather inconvenient time, we understand that it is not an ideal time to watch movies, pirate the movie, or snap yourself out of existence because of the burgeoning responsibilities placed upon you. We also understand that not everyone is financially fortunate to watch this masterpiece of cinematography, which is why it is our pleasure to help the Stuyvesant community save time and money by revealing every detail in “Endgame.”

Enjoy, and no need to thank us, we’re just doing our job lookin’ out for you all!

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nanotechnology does.

Thanos’s snap is undone by an interpretive form of dance.

“Endgame” dies in endgame.

Thanos isn’t vaccinated and is killed by the measles, and will be revived for “Infinity War 2” by a mom who is 69 percent British, 30 percent German, and 0.000000000001 percent Native American (though she vibes with Hindu culture) and her healing crystals.

The post-credits scene has the Avengers Juuling on Titan.

When Thanos gets killed, the Avengers start singing “Sweet Victory.”

Halfway through, you can hear the moaning of the two idiots who decided that a 7:00 a.m. screening of “Endgame” was the best time to get it on.

Shrek gets the Infinity Gauntlet.

“Old Town Road” is played in the post-credits scene.

Batman dies.

I saw a dog during minute 78 of the movie.

The mandatory big fight scene is just a Fortnite stream.

Stan Lee gets dusted in the beginning as part of a sick, morbid joke by the Russo Brothers.

Being Forced to Write Articles

By ISHQ GUPTA

Being a part of The Spectator’s Humor department is really stressful. You’re expected to write amazing, humorfilled articles 24/7, and if you don’t, then you’re threatened.

Like, honestly. We’re Stuy students. We don’t have the time to sit down and write pageslong articles; we get enough essays from our teachers as it is. With our busy schedule and other Stuy things, we lack an imagination. We can only write about the same things over and over again, reusing topics from previous issues and hoping no one notices. Originality? Creativity? What’s that? I’ve never heard of it.

As the editors themselves have a lot of work to do, you would expect them to be lenient with us and understand if we can’t write for a particular issue, but no. Every single time, they badger you constantly until you finally finesse some 100word article. I’m talking about non-stop reminders every five minutes to write any sort of article. They are so persistent that I’ve had to block them multiple times, but they always get me to unblock them by finding me in person and calling me “Ishie” in a high, screechy voice.

On top of wasting your already non-existent time, they mark up half your article, telling you that it’s utter trash, that they have no hope for the

second half, that you need to change it and make things funnier. They tell us to do better.

As if we don’t hear enough of that from our parents already.

So now you have to waste even more time, going back and editing an article you never really cared about—at all.

Oh, and let’s not forget that if you can’t write because you have, like, I don’t know, essays to complete, projects to do, or teachers to bribe, they threaten you. They actually threaten to kick you out of the department. If that doesn’t work, they blackmail you with pictures of your face photoshopped so that it looks like some grotesque meme. How on Earth they manage to pull that off is beyond me, but it’s made me try to convince my parents to move out of the state multiple times. If somehow even the blackmail doesn’t provoke your insecurities and make you write, then they’ll traumatize you by sending you memes that’ll make you want to crawl into a hole and never come back up.

All for a completely made-up, rushed, and irrelevant article.

You might think this sounds like I’m speaking from personal experience. Guess what? You’re absolutely correct. I’ve been badgered. I’ve been threatened.

I’ve been blackmailed. I’ve been traumatized. The result?

This article.

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It’s the final battle. Thor— all glowing and god-like— has Thanos pinned to the ground, Stormbreaker lightly and threateningly leaned against Thanos’s throat. Thor asks, “Any last words?” Thanos closes his eyes and slowly croaks out, “Save Odin.” His rage intensifying, Thor asks, “How do you know that name?”—all mean and angry-like. Thanos, with his eyes closed, slowly moans, “It was my father’s name.” Thor’s eyes widen, and he slowly steps off of Thanos’s chest, dropping Stormbreaker to the ground simultaneously. He drops to his knees limply, all that lightning coursing through him suddenly dissipated, and cries into Thanos’s chest about his dead family. Meanwhile, Thanos is furiously snapping his fingers, trying to get Thor off of his body, but the Infinity Stones will not touch a man who is broken.

In the Endgame HISHE video with that ending, Thanos winks at the camera as he’s lying on the ground, and the audience comes to realize that Loki is up to his nasty old tricks again.

In the grand scene where the Avengers are beaten and broken down and Captain Marvel comes in to save the day (to the track “Im-

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migrant Song,” of course, as she descends from the clouds in bolts of energy in slow-motion), Thanos snaps the Old Lady Skrull into existence. Without missing a beat, Captain Marvel proceeds to chase the old lady around for the rest of the movie, as a cat pursues its ball of yarn.

Once all the heroes are revived, Drax wrestles Thanos for the Infinity Gauntlet. He finally gets it on, and before anyone can react, he snaps.

Once the lights and smoke clear, we see he is gone. In

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his place is a floating bag of Zarg Nuts, which is slowly being raised into an invisible orifice.

Bruce Banner goes to counseling sessions with the Hulk. Soon enough, they’re touting their “performance issues” on ED medicine commercials. The green guy will do ANYTHING for green.

They showed the trailer for “A Dog’s Way Home” and I started crying before the movie even started.

Joker dies.

AlysonLin / The Spectator

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At the end, it’s revealed that the entire MCU was just a bunch of five-year-olds playing pretend.

The EICs of the Stuyvesant Spectator snaps Thanos out of existence.

Two hours into the movie, the characters themselves take a bathroom break.

An hour into the movie, an antivirus alert pops up saying that notpiratedmovies. com isn’t a reliable website.

Antman doesn’t actually explore Thanos’s nether regions… but someone’s

ENDGAME SPOILERS

A Tale of a Monogamous Bird

By KAREN CHEN

In a simpler time, when AP exams and broken escalators didn’t exist, our love story begins.

Bob was busy pecking away at french fries a random toddler had spilled on the ground when it happened. The moment he had always dreamed about during his childhood. The event that would add meaning to his futile life and let him finally muster up the courage to leave his deadend nine-to-five job to pursue his true calling as a masseuse, the experience that would propel him through his freshman comp essay at 1:00 a.m.

A few feet away from him, a gorgeous hunk of a flying rat began walking toward the pile of fast food.

There were hearts in Bob’s eyes. “I knew she was perfect!

Only my one true love would appreciate the gold stuff like I do” he thought.

“Well, it’s time to bust out the ol’ moves,” he said.

He knew the courtship pattern very well. It ingrained into him since he was just a squab. He puffed up his neck, spread his tail fathers, and put on his sexiest face.

“No bird in their right mind can resist the glorious display of my iridescent feathers,” he thought.

Bob strutted over. “Hey girl,” he cooed. “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?”

Her Pigeoness didn’t bother to look up.

She started on the remains of Bob’s lunch.

“Well, obviously she gets a lot of attention from lesser pigeons,” Bob thought. “I guess

my cooing doesn’t impress her that much. I’ll just have to prove that I’m way better than those fools. Get ready for my supercalifragilisticexpialidocious dance moves!”

A flurry of wings cut off his plans.

A rival, with brighter colors and a better puffed-up neck than him arrived. The upstart pushed past him. “Hey, beautiful.” that wannabe squawked out.

The dirtbag’s coos were like those of a songbird’s.

Based on his feathers, he worked in management, a.k.a one of those good-for-nothings capitalists who did nothing but order hardworking birds around all day. The love of Bob’s life preened her tail feathers.

“Darn my luck,” Bob thought.

He slunked back to his job.

Stupid Trend Ruins Hallway Floors

By LIAM KRONMAN

Stuyvesant High School is the academic hub of Downtown Manhattan, home to brilliant mathematicians, incisive chemists, and now the most idiotic of trends, “Heelying.” Heelys began in the early 2000s as a working man’s sneaker or the “utilitarian’s delight” (a term popular in Gen Z vernacular). A wheel locked into the heel of each Heely allows the wearer to navigate difficult terrain at a pace that would make Oscar Pistorius murder himself.

Nearly 20 years after the birth of the Heely, or 19 HE (Heely Era), a shift in priorities by the

student body of Stuyvesant has successfully transformed Heelying into an intellectual’s sport.

Those who attend Stuyvesant frequently “go to the races,” paying a buy-in price of $12 to join an elite betting ring. Whoever wishes to compete either brings their own Heelys or rents a pair from the Stuyvesant Heelying League (or the SHL) at a whopping $24 per hour.

“Races are almost always caught because we hold them in the same location at the same time every week,” an anonymous sophomore remarked. “We switch anonymous Discord servers virtually every 48 hours due to the IP tracing [the] adminis-

tration conducts.

Anyone located and taken into questioning [by the administration] keeps their mouth shut for 24 hours for any information they have to be rendered useless.”

But the consequences of only two months of the Stuyvesant Heelython have been far-reaching. Custodial staff have voiced their concerns to Department of Education supervisors, requesting more perquisites for a continuation of service. Astonishingly powerful student Vishwaa Sofat told the press after a Continued on page 21

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Page 21

Humor Stupid Trend Ruins Hallway Floors

Continued from page 20 recent Student Leadership Team meeting that “The friction between the Heely wheels and tiles forms scuffs in the floor that are painfully hard to rub out. [...] Two months ago, the floors of this school were vibrant, full of cyan, maroon, lavender, and burgundy. Now, I’m colorblind.”

Aside from hallway floors and Mr. Wisotsky’s trousers, Heelys have also put a stain on the organized crime scene at Stuyvesant. Members of the Stuyvesant Theater Community were apprehended, after a threeweek witch hunt, for their Junior Caucus Pi Day Bake Sale ambush. The group worked in conjunction with the robotics team to attach razors and motors to

the Heely wheels. Eyewitness testimonies say the menaces rolled in chanting a selection of existential-nihilistic lines from Arthur Miller, used their makeshift Heely-razor-drills to violate every pie, and then stole all the forks “for the Props Closet.”

The Theater Community is far from finished with tormenting Stuyvesant. A note was found in Ms. Pedrick’s office suggest-

ing the planning of a drive-by through the English department block, starting with the Writing Center, going through the library, circling around, and ending at 615E. The Theater Community is just one of the many tragic cases of a once-respectable organization at Stuyvesant being corrupted by the Dionysian temptations of Heelys.

The authorities at Stuyve-

sant have reached an impasse.

The two options they are left with are replacing all the floor tiles and adding speed bumps in an operation that would close school for two years and cost over $120,000 or letting the races go on. In a secret press conference, supervisors reveal that they plan to execute the latter option, as well as rename the school “ThunderDome Arena.”

The Respecc Tater

By MITCHELL LEUNG

My fuse has finally burnt down to its stubby, miniscule end.

It’s official: I QUIT the Humor department. It’s been approximately FOUR MONTHS since I was hesitantly accepted by Gaby and Kerwin into this cheesehole of a newspaper department, and NONE of the new editors show me any respect. The other day, I passed Abdullah and his gang in the second-floor hallways. I glanced at him, and you know what he did? Nothing. Not even a look left or right to see if anyone was looking at him, the unselfconscious little [expletive]. And this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.

Just last week I saw one of my Humor editors in the staircase in between fourth and fifth period.

As I pondered and made calculations in my head in that brief microsecond before finally deciding that of the four editors, that one SHOULD be Omar, he just, like, rushed past me without a second glance. Like I wasn’t even there, deciding whether or not to say hi and who to say hi to. And you know what? I was totally willing to forgive that sin. But just today, I swear, I was walking to the fourto-six escalator, ready to go up, and not giving off any bad vibes or anything. Get this: I spot VICTOR KUANG coming off the down escalator. I’m like, oh my gosh, one of my editors. I give him my best nonchalant stare for a good three seconds. The kind obvious enough to let Waldo find YOU. And you know what happened? This BIG BRAIN didn’t even look UP as he went on his merry way onto the fourth floor.

Like, I give my editor my FULL ATTENTION, and he can’t even be bothered to just notice me and say “hey!” and walk over and give me the illest dap and slap on the back that ever was conceived?

Well that was the final straw.

As a second-term senior with a list of things to live for finally longer than my list of college rejections, I couldn’t handle it anymore. I’ve completely broken from Humor—and Spec protocol overall—and I’m going to dive into a genre that writers for years haven’t even dared to encroach upon.

I give you: the Spring 2019 Respectator issue of The Spectator.

News I guess I should start with a News section, shouldn’t I? Well, it was just a week ago when I spotted the CUTEST Pomeranian positively loping along the West Side Highway. My gosh, the puff of its fur made me feel bad for all the times I’d eaten cotton candy prior, for surely this was proof that it could come alive. Anyway, this cloud of love and goodness was going down the West Side Highway on its merry way, when suddenly it FELL. It just TIPPED OVER. MID-TOTTER.

As I stood agape on the sidewalk, staring in horror at this tragic representation of civil corruption and moral desolation, at this Pom that just fell onto its side, that was so precious its TONGUE was still out, the most magical turnaround came to be. A PUG with a TOP HAT ON was just strolling along. Of course, I had sunken so deep into my mourning at this time that the appearance on the scene of an angel barely affected my disposition, but the Pom that was still tipped over caught the eyes of the gentle pug. While its body might’ve remained completely still, this Pom’s eyes fought immobility and desperately locked gazes with the pug.

In a moment of perfect understanding and nobility, I had the great fortune to witness what can only be described as a providential anointment transpire right in front of me. The pug got up on its hind legs, rolled up its sleeves (i.e. the fur on its front legs), bent down, and offered the Pom its hand. The Pom stared at this idiot, as it was clear it could not move its arms to close the gap.

Luckily, a tabby cat zooming by on the highway in its four-by-four Ford pickup truck yelled, “Pick him up, you pinecone!” spurring the pug into action. He grabbed the Pom’s paw and pulled him up finally, clapping him on the back as he hoisted him up to show that they were bros. The Pom—finally freed to motion—dapped the pug up as a compensational repayment and passed him his collar to jingle. When the pug had finally finished taking a hit, the Pom went on its merry way, as if all the innocence and virtue in the universe hadn’t almost been voided not even five minutes prior. The pug, satisfied with his work, bid me adieu with his top hat and continued his evening walk along the Hudson, but not before letting me pet him and give him a good scratch in the scruff under his neck. Definitely a good boy, 17/10 would recommend him at your next dinner party.

Features Now, this is going to be the most special Features article you’ve ever read. It will make you cry, it will make you laugh, it will make you think dark thoughts.

But not much darker than usual.

In light of the recent controversy over the implementation of PSAL frees for Stuy’s resident population of student-athletes— now that’s EXCLUDING all those mathletes, Science Olympians, and chess masters who really bring our school prestige— the gym department at Stuy has become inebriated—sorry, incensed—at the way students view P.E. classes at school. That’s right—I used the P.E./gym joke early on and in an unexpected and NONSENSICAL place JUST to switch it up and subvert your sad, tired expectations for a Humor article. As I was saying, though,

this pent-up rage and frustration at the lack of respect—and pretty much any thought beyond “Will I fail if I cut/come unprepared today?”—has finally come to a head in the form of concrete, lasting action by the gym teachers: the formation of an elite, active council known as the “Gym Class Heroes [GCH].” Sound familiar?

Well don’t tell them wherefrom, because they know they’ve heard it somewhere before but they’re not exactly sure where.

The GCH’s official mission is to “instill respect, spread awareness, and enforce discipline regarding the attendance of and participation in physically-educative courses.” This coalition will meet in the third-floor atrium at 7:00 p.m. every other evening, acting as a support group and an action committee for all those disrespected and mistreated P.E. teachers who come to work each and every day, even coming on time for first-period gym class when most of their students don’t. Taking cues from my health teacher’s infamous methods of instruction, the coalition will be generating promotional materials in the forms of posters and visual projects to display around the school, generating awareness for their plight. As many of these teachers double as coaches for our school’s beloved athletics program, they’ve also enlisted some of their own players as spokespeople for their cause, even going so far as to offer ARISTA credits and volunteering hours in their desperation to attain legitimacy among the student body. To find out more about how you can support this mission, donate to their GoFundMe page titled, “Gym Class Heroes Battle Apathy and Ignorance in Generation Z.” A&E So, next I’ll give you guys a juicy A&E article. Do you remember that awe-inspiring, untouchable group of saints who blessed millions of children’s lives with song, dance, and education—the Wiggles? Well, sadly their time is over, and we just have to somehow accept that weighty truth eventually. Fear not, however—salvation approaches in the form of a beautiful new creation, a popular children’s pop group dubbed “The Cordials.”

These newcomers may be fresh but they’re certainly not raw. From such hits as the wildly popular “I Would Like to Hold Your Hand, Please” to the bluesy, sensitive vibes of “It’s Never Too Late—Or Too Early—to Say Sorry,” The Cordials have dominated the Playground’s Top 10 for already three weeks now. Three weeks! For elementary schoolers, that’s basically the entire span of a relationship—no, no, a friendship. The five members—Tom, Dick, Jane, Harry, and Doodle Bob—each epitomize respect, honor, and friendship, and we can’t wait to see what more they bring to that elementary school

near Stuy in the coming months.

Opinions Well, let me just tell you. As a certified-drid senior, it is my distinguished privilege to absolutely rag on and blast the state of Stuyvesant freshmen this year.

Look, I get it—what’s happening to me is natural. The older I get, the more tiny and annoying these youth seem to me, despite my inability to break 5’7” over the past four years. It’s not just the fieldtype Humongo Backpackers and Lost Hallway Travellers this year.

No, the quality of the miscreants our proud institution admitted this past calendar year is obscenely disgraceful.

Take, for instance, one day while I was passing by the library in between classes. There was a whole ruckus on the line as students clambered and cried to be let in—as it should be. Mr. Bowlin came out—as is customary—to enforce order on the line, comb out the line-skippers, and generally tame the wild spirits of the prospective library-goers.

He bellows, “QUIET DOWN, EVERYONE! ORDER ON THE LINE, ORDER ON THE LINE!” When someone responded that they would greatly appreciate a chicken over rice with pita on the side, Mr. Bowlin graciously dragged the kid by the scruff of his neck off the line and trapped him in the most secretive location on the floor: the English teachers’ office, 615ABCDE. But you know what happened when he came back? The flingin’flangin’ freshmen actually quieted down. They actually lined themselves up, organized themselves by height order because short people have it hard enough as it is, and the cutters even called themselves out and apologized as they went to the back of the line. It was, in short, an abomination of nature. What this revelation comes down to is that the Stuyvesant Class of 2022 has a bunch of goody two-shoes—a far cry from the inglorious, proud days when Stuy students blacklisted the school for generations to come from BMCC as a senior prank. Anyway, that’s my annual spiel on the degradation of today’s youth, brought to you by the AARP.

Humor Oh, hey there! Welcome to the Humor section! This is gonna be an especially juicy one since it’s already in a meta-humor arti— Wait, what was that? We’re not doing a Humor article because real newspapers don’t have those?

Very well then—we will let sleeping dogs lie, as well as our president.

Sports In other news, there is a new PSAL basketball team in the city.

Formed from the pools of wannabe ballers and varsity basketball rejects that form every winter in NYC’s public high schools, this

interschool team accepts everyone who tries out and is called “The New York City BridgeBuilders,” as if the city doesn’t have enough bridges already, connecting Stuyvesant to the other side of the highway, the Bronx to Queens, and the rest of NYC to its creepy uncle, Staten Island.

They have no official coach, given that they believe in the worth of everyone’s advice, and that no one could be paid enough to even temporarily be associated with that team. They’re coed, because it’s 2019. Why’re there still gender divisions in sports? Boys and girls can play sports just as well as each other. We’re gonna sue PSAL for sexual harassment and discrimination—you know they couldn’t do it to ‘em. And they all wear exactly the samesized jersey, given that “nobody should feel bad about the way their body looks, feels, or is.”

That jersey size is XXL :).

In terms of gameplay, they’ve patented an innovative new style of offense and defense called “none of the above.” It consists of passing, passing again, passing back, passing again, passing forward, shooting—just kidding, it was just a really high pass that didn’t even make it to the threepoint arc—and finally, passing it to the other team once everyone has had at least five touches on it.

They maintain very tight possession of the ball when they choose to, to say the least. On the rare occasion that they foul the other team, each player personally apologizes to the fouled-out opponent—shaking hands, consoling them, even offering to refill their water bottle while they take their foul shots.

But most importantly, this team takes the most pride in its cheers. Ranging from “Do your best! But it’s okay to settle for less!” to “Have, have, have a good day!” the BridgeBuilders’ cheers are specially designed to make the opposing team feel good about themselves, inspire them to win, and just make sure they have a good ol’ time. Proven to make even sullen elementary schoolers feel better in time-out, nothing says a win like playing a team that cheers for you, gives free points, and even offers to give their future foul shots to you if you’re having a rough day. Truly inspiring. One spectator after the first match raved, “This game was so boring that I’m not even willing to bet on whoever they play next because it just makes me sad.” Yet another fan gushed, “Just watching this game made me lose my March Madness bracket. I lost every single Round of 64 pick I made today.”

It’s nice to know that win or lose, at least one team in this city won’t need to ask on Subtle Asian Dating whether or not they should shoot their shot.

We all know they won’t (sad reacts only).

Page 22

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Sports ADVERTISEMENTS

Should we all Fear the Beard?

By LEWIS WOLOCH and OWEN POTTER

James Harden is Ruining the Game

Fear the Beard

Few things in life are better than watching good, clean, and smooth ball movement. Watch the Warriors play, for example. They exemplify good ball movement; their offense is built around All-Stars like Steph Curry and Klay Thompson moving without the ball, cutting, and using off-ball screens. The Warriors for the past three years are arguably the best team ever to play in the NBA, and it’s because of how well they pass and play as a team (though, having five All-stars doesn’t hurt either).

Now watch any clips of the Rockets playing the Warriors from the past two years. The Rockets are similar to the Warriors in one aspect: they shoot a lot of threes. Everything else about how they play is different and ultimately inferior. The Rockets value isolations; they use mainly on-ball screens, and most of all, their offense revolves around Harden. And let me get this out of the way: Harden has incredible basketball talent, with unparalleled skills and a fantastic shooting stroke. But he’s ruining the way basketball is meant to be played.

Harden leads the league in points per game this year by a whopping margin of eight points. He averaged 36 points, while the next highest, Paul George, averaged 28. However, almost half of all of his touches were off isolation plays. To put this into perspective, the player with the next highest isolation frequency was Chris Paul, with 29 percent of his plays being off isolations. And Paul just happens to be on the same team as Harden. Maybe it’s contagious. Harden is notorious for stopping the ball on offense, and while it’s obvious that this has led to his team’s success and his own personal success, his style of play isn’t good for the NBA. Another eye-popping stat is how many three-pointers Harden shoots per game: 17.6. His threes account for 54 percent of all his shots. I’m all for shooting threes; it’s the main reason I’ve had success at the varsity basketball level at Stuyvesant, but Harden is doing it way too much. Let me back this up. For the past three years, the Houston Rockets have led the league in three-point rate (the percentage of shots taken that are threes), with 46 percent, 50 percent, and a whopping 52 percent this year. No other team has ever even surpassed the 42 percent mark. The league is changing, and these numbers will continue to grow, but the Rockets and Harden are changing the way they play— that is, too fast for anyone’s good.

Ball stopping is a basketball sin, but taking off possessions, in my eyes, is the ultimate transgression. During the Western Conference Semifinals, when the Rockets played the Warriors, Harden would stand near the half court line every couple of offensive possessions and let his team play four on four. He’s doing this so he can conserve his energy and whatnot, but that is simply not how basketball is meant to be played. Elite players have always played hard on both ends of the floor. They are in the game every second, and Harden has no right to play differently. During Game 6, I watched as Harden held the ball for about 20 seconds, jab step, and then dribble it through his legs until he finally launched up a signature step back with two seconds left on the clock. The next offensive possession, he brought the ball up, passed it to Chris Paul, and proceeded to stand by the half court line, drawing a defender but not participating in his team’s possession. It’s hard to watch and easy to set a bad example for younger generations of players to follow.

Earlier in the playoffs, Ricky Rubio of the Utah Jazz made highlight reels by guarding Harden from behind. Yes, you read that right. He played defense by standing behind James Harden. From an analytical point of view, it wasn’t the worst strategy. Rubio was baiting, or even forcing Harden to drive toward the basket where other defenders were ready to help. Some might say that this just shows how elite Harden is. I think it proves my point exactly. When you played defense against Michael Jordan, you played straight up. Maybe you threw some help defenders at him, but you moved your feet, used your body, and prayed for the best. Players who guard Lebron James might move back a few steps off the three-point line because his ability to shoot threes is average compared to the rest of his game, but they play him straight up. Basketball isn’t basketball anymore when a player is so unorthodox that his opponents are forced to play defense a way that’s the opposite from anything they have learned. Harden scores a whole lot of points every game and helps his team win, but he’s doing it in a way that alters the whole framework of basketball as we know it and our parents and grandparents knew it. Harden is a bearded genius, but his style of play does not belong in the NBA.

As somebody who can score from anywhere on the court, James Harden is one of the most dangerous offensive players in today’s NBA. He is also the focal point of one of the NBA’s best offenses and can score 50 points on any given night. His talent is undeniable, but despite his league-leading scoring ability, his style of play is put under more scrutiny than any other star in the NBA. One of the biggest critiques against Harden’s game is that he tries to draw too many fouls, which I personally find ridiculous. Being able to draw fouls is a skill that, if any other star were to be able to do it at the same ridiculous rate, would be appreciated and even applauded. When Harden shoots a three-pointer and is fouled, he scores on average 2.6 points per possession. To put that into context, Steph Curry shooting an open three is only worth 1.6. Any other player shooting with that type of efficiency would be showered with praise, but the more fouls Hardens draws, the more critique he draws.

Harden’s critics also like to draw attention to his isolation style of play, complaining that good ball movement and planned offenses are what the NBA deserves. By taking so many shots off of one-on-one opportunities, Harden is apparently both a bad role model for younger generations and someone who hurts the entire NBA. To say that Harden is ruining the NBA by shooting off isolation plays is ridiculous. The fact of the matter is that most players simply aren’t talented enough to score as much as Harden does off of isolation. Most of this isolation ability goes back to Harden’s game-changing move: the step-back.

The stepback three is the key to Harden’s game, and it is what allows him to be such an efficient scorer while seemingly ignoring every other offensive norm. His stepback is such a good move that he doesn’t need to work off the screen or get the ball from a driving point guard.

When Harden shoots a stepback three, his shooting percentage off of just stepbacks would be eleventh in the NBA. No other player can shoot at such an elite level while they’re being guarded. Harden is certainly changing the NBA with his stepback. Young players like Luka Doncic are becoming known for their own stepback threes. However, it’s not as if Andre Drummond is going to start shooting stepback threes in isolation—he can’t. Harden isn’t a lazy player. Rather, he’s a generational talent that has the ability to score without the usual gimmicks an NBA team has to employ to get an open three.

As for Harden’s effect on younger generations, go to any street court in NYC. It’s true—you’ll see play very similar to Harden’s. Lots of threes, isolation, and, admittedly, an occasional lack of effort. However, that doesn’t come from Harden. Streetball has been played like that for many years before the Harden era, and it’ll be played like that for many years after him. It’s the same style of basketball I grew up playing. The only difference is that while other players are coached out of their isolationist ways, Harden is simply talented enough to make this playstyle work.

High school, college, and even NBA coaches are still going to teach young, talented kids to work in an offense and facilitate ball movement.

Kids on courts across cities are still going to shoot way more threes than they can ever make. All Harden is doing is bringing this style of play to the big stage, and, at the end of the day, fans don’t want to see ball screens. They want to see a nasty handle and stepback threes.

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Page 23

Sports Matthew Boling

Matthew Boling: The Next U.S. Sprinting Phenom?

By ALICIA J. YU A new sprinter by the name of Matthew Boling has come onto the scene this outdoor track season.

The senior from Houston Strake Jesuit High School isn’t just your average fast track athlete. In fact, he holds the overall United States High School Boys’ 100-meter record of 9.98 seconds, giving him the number one spot in the nation for that event. He came onto the scene around mid-March at an elite meet called Texas Relays, running a PR (Personal Record) of 10.20 seconds. A couple of weeks later, he ran a personal record of 10.11 seconds. Finally, he turned heads when he ran sub-10 seconds on April 27, a feat many high school sprinters would die for. As the gun went off in that race, the people in the crowd stood on their feet, and they couldn’t believe what they saw next. Boling did what he usually would do during a race, outpacing the other sprint-

ers by a good margin, and once he finished, the stadium’s board came out with the results. His time was 9.98 seconds. It broke the overall prep high school 100-meter dash record.

While the 100-meter dash may be what he’s most known for, he also excels in the 200-meter, 400-meter, long jump, high jump, and triple jump events. He is second among the group of U.S. High School Boys’ Long Jumpers, having a jump of 2.6-3.5 feet; he also places third at the U.S. 200-meter dash, having a dash time of 20.55 seconds.

Even more impressive is that he didn’t even start focusing on the 100-meter dash until this year, but with all the work he puts into his other events, it makes sense why he came out at the top. His great work ethic, build, and form are what make him an elite athlete.

For context, Usain Bolt’s world record is 9.58 seconds, a .4 second gap between that time and Bol-

ing’s PR. While the gap margin seems very small, for sprinting, it will definitely be hard for Boling to shave off even that teeny tiny number to even come close to the record.

Now, what is it that allows him to achieve such incredible times?

Well, if you watch the runs he’s done this season, he pushes his legs more outward from his body, a similar form to Bolt’s. This form allows for less contact with and time on the ground, allowing the athlete to run quicker and more efficiently.

What also sets him apart from other runners is his versatility in other events. Let’s compare him to Trayvon Bromell, who ran the 100-meter dash in 9.99 seconds in high school and has since ran at the Olympics. Their senior year times show that Boling is the more consistent runner (Note that their sub-10 second races were “wind-aided,” meaning that a there was a higher than

legal wind speed, which did have a role in their fast times). Most of Bromell’s other races were in between 10.3 and 10.6 seconds, while Boling maintained a range of 10.1 seconds to 10.3 seconds throughout his races. If Boling is able to be consistent in his races, that definitely adds to how he has improved so drastically within one season of competing in the event.

But it’s also important to note that Boling has a talent for an array of events. He has the 400-meter running experience, compared to Bromell, who is purely a 100 and 200-meter dash runner. Having the endurance from the 400-meter run, this definitely helps with being a strong runner, which is also key for being a great sprinter.

Boling also has a great build from his fieldwork as a jumper. Jumpers obviously need a lot of upper and lower body strength to get a lot of momentum to propel in the air.

Boling definitely has the potential to emulate Bolt if he con-

tinues doing what he is doing.

During an interview with news station KHOU 11, his dad noted, “In middle school, when he was running in seventh and eighth grades, it [felt like I was] watching a deer run. [That gave him] the work ethic that is beyond anything I’ve ever seen from anybody.”

Judging by this, Boling has exactly what it takes to become America’s next elite athlete. And he doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.

Recently, as the anchor leg for his school team’s 4 by 400 meter relay, he ran an incredible leg of 44.74 seconds, outpacing the team in front of him to capture the first place win for his team. Additionally, he’s already committed himself toward going to a Division I college at the University of Georgia. It’ll be exciting to see what’s in store for him in the coming years, and from what we have seen so far, he will set the bar high. Be on the lookout for Matthew Boling.

Athlete of the Issue

Beyond the Wickets: An Interview with Vishwaa Sofat

By SHIVALI KORGAONKAR An Interview with Vishwaa Sofat Grade: Junior Height: 6’2” Eye color: Dark Brown Hair color: Dark Brown DOB: 03/20/2002

1. When did you start playing cricket?

I was in third grade living in India. My family moved to India, and cricket is the biggest sport there so everyone plays it.

It’s honestly more than a sport; it’s kind of part of the culture and tradition, so I just ended up playing it. Also, my uncle got selected as an under-17 player so it was like, why not?

2. What made you want to join the cricket team?

I actually didn’t want to play cricket. It’s something I still struggle with today. I feel like cricket is very stigmatized and frowned upon. People think that only brown people play and [that] it copies baseball. I’ve heard people say that so many times. It used to get to me.

Freshman year, I knew that if I joined, my friends would have thought I was joking. But when I decided to join, I was thinking about all the fun memories I had in India playing the sport.

I knew I wouldn’t be doing justice to my identity if I didn’t try.

I didn’t have a lot of energy to play freshman year, but the old captains convinced me and I’m

3. What are your goals for yourself and the team this year?

My freshman year, I set the freshman record [for runs] and my sophomore year, I set the sophomore record for the team. Hopefully, I can set the junior record. I already set my personal record this season and I want to continue to grow.

Ideally, I’d be [in] the top 10 to 15 players in PSAL for batting average because that’s where I am consistent. I’m top 30 right now so I just need to step it up a little. And I really want to make Maris Cup. In terms of our team, making sure we coach and have enough players is important. Right now our goal is to win as many games as possible but even more so, to grow.

4. What is your respective position on the team, and what do you do there?

I’ve been the captain of the team for two years, but I have two vice-captains. We take care of practices, do drills, control the game, [and] decide the lineup. For the most part, that’s done by us. To an extent, it’s nice to have that independence because it’s nice to grow, but it’s somewhat restrictive as to how far we can go.

5. How has the captaincy changed your playstyle and outlook on the game?

Being captain changes the whole game. Freshman year, I would feel very free and confident. I would step on the field and I would think, ‘Hey I’m decent, I can do this.’ It was a lot easier. As soon as I became captain, it became a lot more [pressurizing]. When

you’re captain, you’re the one people look up to as the guiding figure. If you fail to perform, how does that resonate with everyone else? It was just always in the back of my mind.

Any mistake I made would be a bigger deal than anyone else’s mistake. My batting has gotten somewhat worse because of it.

Now I have to play longer and safer because we don’t have that many batsmen. I won’t get out and play any risky moves. If I’m even one percent hesitant, then I stop, calm down, and figure out how to protect myself and the wicket to save the team.

The captains [in] my freshman year told me they trusted me so I could hit more. But it’s different to trust yourself.

6. How do you deal with playing cricket and your schoolwork; do you have any tips?

My two vice-captains, Parthiv Lodh and Ahmed Rashid, have helped me a lot on the days where I can’t make practice. Every morning, I plan out what my day is going to look like after school. I can’t usually be there at 3:45 p.m. right after school, so the goal is to finish up whatever SU stuff I have to do within 30 minutes.

During the 30 minutes I’m not at practice, the rest of the team starts warming up. When I get there, I don’t really need to warm up because I’m more so coaching than playing myself. It kind of works out like that when my schedule overlaps. I’ve been forced to use my time really wisely. I was never a person to work on the train. My train ride is over an hour both ways. Now, I try to use that time to read my book for English or do SAT prep. I’ve gotten used to long nights and staying up late, [and] my body has gotten used to it. I do a lot of my work at night when everyone else is sleeping to avoid distractions.

Everything I do—SU, Model UN, cricket—is because I en-

Courtesy of Tanjum Lagno

The Stuyvesant Tigers, the coed cricket team, are in the middle of their season with a record of 1-8. Captain Vishwaa Sofat was able to beat his personal record for runs this season, and he hopes to reach 50 runs at some point. The team will continue to try their best in order to finish the season strong. The Tigers have a tough and exciting season ahead of them.

so glad I joined. It’s helped me be comfortable with being Indian-American, which is so hard and constantly frustrating. People don’t often get the way I was raised, but being around people with similar backgrounds has really helped.

joy it, so I do whatever I can to make it work. I’ve found different strategies over the years to balance it all.

7. What have been your favorite memories or moments in cricket?

My favorite memory has been winning a game in the last over, which is the last six balls.

We were playing against Francis Lewis. We had two balls and five runs to win. I hit the ball and I had the option to hit the ball or run a single. I took the single and my whole team was mad at me, but I stayed calm.

The person on the other side was a freshman and the next ball looked like it was going wide, so I thought he’d leave it, but no. He swept the ball and it went for a four. I was shocked.

I’d watched so many last-minute win highlights, and it was so cool to be a part of one.

8. Proudest moment so far?

My freshman year, we were playing Thomas Edison and a bunch of alumni captains were visiting. They are the people [who] hold almost every record for this team, and all of us look at them like gods. I remember I was batting, and I hit a six, which is the most you can get.

At the end of the game, the alumni told me I was better than them and I could take the team somewhere. The validation meant more than [that of] my parents or any coach.

Choice drink: When I have money, Joe’s Half and Half, but when I don’t, peach Snapple.

Favorite food: Anything vegetarian. I love all food.

Fun fact: My name used to be Shivam.

The Spectator ● June 10, 2019

Boys’ Lacrosse

Page 24

THE SPECTATOR SPORTS NHL

Peglegs Finish Season With First Round Exit

Is There A Method to the NHL’s Madness?

Frances Sy / The Spectator

By JOSHUA SPEKTOR

By WASEQ AHMED and YAE JUNE LEE

gy—having four defensive polecarrying players on the field at all times. However, the Peglegs implemented a new strategy to provide an even stouter defense: the midfield, who traditionally helps out on the offensive end, assisted the defensive end as well, making it difficult for the Peglegs to get scored on.

Looking ahead to next year, the Peglegs seem to be on track to keep their record above .500.

Despite the loss of all three cocaptains—Ariel Glazman, Rubin Peci, and Danny Jiang—the underclassmen will look to take over and lead the team next year with the crucial experience they received from the limited number of games. Junior Andrew Hirtle will look to take over more of the scoring on the team, and Thompson will aim to continue to establish a strong defense.

“We emphasized the improvement in the younger members of our team so they can look ahead for next year and lead the team to a championship,” Peco said.

Frances Sy / The Spectator

Led by senior and co-captain Rubin Peco and his team-leading 14 regular season goals, the Peglegs, Stuyvesant’s boys’ lacrosse team, appeared poised to upset the sixth-seeded Lehman Campus in the first round of the playoffs. The two rivals had previously battled in the regular season, in which Lehman Campus won in an intense match with a final score of 6-5. The Peglegs looked to avenge their heartbreaking loss earlier in the season, and were presented with a grand opportunity in the big stage of the playoffs. However, a rough defensive start doomed Stuyvesant, as Lehman Campus opened up the game early, pulling ahead to a 7-2 lead after the first period. They held their commanding lead throughout the game, winning it 11-5 and advancing onward to the next round of the playoffs.

The road to the playoffs was especially tough this year, as the Peglegs were forced to deal with

numerous obstacles throughout the season. Many of the games were postponed, so the Peglegs lacked opportunities to build chemistry, which is vital to the growth and success of any team.

Many of the younger players also did not get much experience in playing, which is crucial as they are expected to step up and lead the team in the future. However, despite these hardships, the Peglegs were still able to finish with an impressive 6-3 record. After a rough start, the Peglegs were able to step up on offense, an area that they emphasized improvement in during the season.

A high-level offense combined with a stout back end proved effective in winning games; the Peglegs were deadly in all facets of the game.

One consistent aspect of the team was its strong defense, an area that the Peglegs traditionally excel in. Junior and co-captain Alex Thompson, who has been playing since freshman year, is the leader of the defense. The Peglegs previously followed the fourth pole substitution strate-

SPORTSBEAT The Golden State Warriors sweep the Portland Trailblazers to make their fifth straight NBA Finals appearance.

Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors beat Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks in six games to seal their first NBA Finals appearance.

LeBron James is left out of the All NBA First-Team for the first time in 11 years.

Lewis Hamilton wins the 2019 Monaco Grand Prix.

Manchester City repeat as champions of the Premier League and become the first English team to complete the domestic treble.

Bayern Munich win a record-breaking seventh straight Bundesliga title, as Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben part ways with the club after more than a decade.

The Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues face off in the Stanley Cup Final.

While fans of every major North American sport will make their case as to why their sport’s postseason is superior, it is undeniable that the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs are up there in terms of game pace, brutality, and, most importantly, unpredictability. And sure, the latter can usually be chalked up to the fast-paced, lucky-bounce laden nature of the game. These playoffs, however, have been outright chaotic. To merely say that the hockey world was flipped on its head after this year’s first round would be a gross understatement.

For instance, take what might be arguably the most monumental collapse in sports history, ever. The juggernaut Tampa Bay Lightning, which tied an NHL regular season record with 62 wins and were favorites to steamroll their way through the playoffs, became the first team in league history to win the regular season title and not win a single playoff game, whimpering out in four games to a Columbus Blue Jackets team that treaded water between the trade deadline and playoffs. The kicker was that it was also the first series win in Columbus franchise history. Then consider the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team that had won two of the last three Stanley Cups but got swept by a New York Islanders group that was predicted by many analysts to be near the basement of the league at the start of the season. On top of that, all four division leaders were ousted in the first round for the first time in NHL history.

The defending champion, namely the Washington Capitals, which paced the Metropolitan Division, blew a 2-0 series lead and lost in seven games to a young Carolina Hurricanes squad that had just broken a 10-year long franchise postseason dry spell.

The St. Louis Blues, which were dead last in the league around New Year’s Day, performed a massive midseason to reach the second round. And as if that isn’t enough, the San Jose Sharks capped off the first round with a bang, clawing out of a 3-0 hole in the final period of Game 7 en route to overcoming a 3-1 series deficit against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Clearly, it’s not the year of the powerhouses. In fact, only three of the eight teams to advance to the second round this year were the higher seed in the first round, as opposed to seven last season, so a lot of new blood is chasing the Cup this time around.

The question of how such an unusual turnover would actually benefit viewership and the overall growth of the game has in the last few weeks become a lot more relevant to both devoted NHL fans and executives patrolling the league’s bottom line.

From an overall perspective, viewership ratings have been pretty impressive. These playoffs have been the most watched through one round in seven years and have had cable viewership go up by an astonishing 18 percent from last year, making it the most-watched first round on cable since 1994. Narrowing the scope, the Capitals-Hurricanes double overtime finale became the most-watched first round game on cable on record, up a

mouthwatering 16 percent from the previous record that stood since 2000.

Now, seeing as Carolina often gets ragged on as one of the league’s weakest markets, it’s fairly uncharacteristic to see their team as part of a game that set records in the viewership department. However, the fact that overall viewership peaked right after the game’s first overtime suggests that people just gravitate toward close winner-takes-all encounters, regardless of which teams are involved. This year’s statistical jumps come on the strength of 10 overtime thrillers and three Game 7s, so the NHL is no stranger to a close tilt.

2019 has thus far been great to small market teams like Carolina, which can’t afford to spend to the brim of the salary cap year in and year out. In fact, the Hurricanes, Islanders, and Colorado Avalanche all advanced to the second round while being in the bottom five in the league in total player payroll. So, in essence, this isn’t a game of the rich getting richer, like in association football or the NBA. Rather, people start out equally “middle-class” and work toward the top with what they got. An internal salary cap that an NHL team sets for itself should not impede its abilities to ice a competitive roster, and these three teams have each done a marvelous job stockpiling talent despite financial hurdles.

Such parity in the league has been crucial in creating fervent hockey markets in cities that would’ve otherwise never anticipated them. For example, the Nashville Predators, which entered the postseason with the least amount of points of any playoff team that year, went on an improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2017. While they didn’t take home the ultimate prize, they were able to start something of a hockey culture in Tennessee. No game was complete without the Nashville crowd’s unique chants, and every playoff game sold out.

A year later, the Vegas Golden Knights turned Las Vegas into a hockey home, defying all expansion team expectations by winning their division and playing their way to the Stanley Cup Final with a group of players other teams had left for the taking in the Expansion Draft. In both of these cases, on-ice success superseded any doubts that had persisted about how “hospitable” these areas were for professional hockey. The 2019 Hurricanes might be the continuation of this phenomenon, as their successes and engagement with fans have helped raise their average attendance from a third-worst 14,322 per game during the regular season to a fourth-best 19,092 in the postseason.

So, in short, the NHL wins when chaos governs the ice in the playoffs. The success of teams that aren’t your classic money makers like New York, Detroit, or Chicago still benefits the league by helping to bring the game to new fans while not sacrificing the quality of hockey going into May and June. It stands to be seen whether one of these smaller teams can truly break the sporting world by making their way to the Cup, but one thing is certain: we’ve got some fun weeks to look forward to.