Volume 103, Issue 15

The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

Volume CIII No. 15

June 7, 2013

By Elena Milin and Andrew Wallace Last June, Slutty Wednesday marked the high point of Stuyvesant students’ antidress code movement, and in its aftermath, the dress code appears to have been left for dead. The dress code has been relatively unenforced since September. But, in mid-May, as warm weather descended on New York, Principal Jie Zhang decided to revive the dress code, keeping track of the ID numbers of students who were labeled as dress code violators.

On Stuyvesant’s website, the regulations, officially in place since September of 2012, are given as follows: “Sayings and illustrations on clothing should be in good taste; shoulders, undergarments, midriffs and lower backs should not be exposed; the length of shorts, dresses and skirts should extend below the fingertips with the arms straight at your side.”

The yearlong lull in dress code enforcement ended on Wednesday, May 15. Zhang

Sophomore Leadership Division Promises Improved Tutoring of Freshmen

By IN HAE YAP

In the Fall 2013 semester, SPARK coordinator Angel Colon plans to launch the Sophomore Leadership Division, a new program created to promote sophomore leadership and involvement in the school community.

Colon’s initiative is primarily designed to help freshmen adjust to a new academic environment, a mission similar to ARISTA’s but tailored more specifically to the incoming class.

While organizations already exist to help new students orient themselves, only juniors and seniors are allowed to hold positions in them. “I always feel like there’s a void in the sophomore year in terms of some of the leadership components,” Colon said.

“Because once you’re a senior or junior, there’s a lot of leadership roles to be part of, whether in clubs or student organizations, such as ARISTA and Big Sibs. But that’s something that’s missing for the sophomores.”

Furthermore, several freshmen involved in SPARK have told Colon that ARISTA tutors are often unfamiliar with the contents of the freshman curriculum. Juniors and seniors learn the subject at a more advanced level than freshmen do, and are thus often unclear as to what the more basic freshman curriculum demands. “Why can’t there be an ARISTA pre-division? You can take the best of the sophomores and utilize them to be tutors for the freshmen, since they’re only one year removed and the mate-

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The Dress Code Debate Reopens

Newsbeat • Freshman and math team member Max Fishelson placed in the top 24 of the USA Junior Math Olympiad, in which he competed against over 200 of the country’s top-performing ninth and 10th graders in mathematics.

• The ARISTA Induction Ceremony, which welcomed new sophomore and junior members, was held in the Murray Kahn Theater on Tuesday, May 29.

• Students in the Conversational Spanish elective presented an encore of their tribute to Federico Garcia Lorca on Monday, June 3.

The first performance, titled Dramatizing and Illustrating the Spanish Literary Text: A Tribute to Federico García Lorca, was held on Thursday, May 2. During both events, students recited original works inspired

by Lorca’s work and acted out scenes from Lorca’s own literature in the library.

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

rial is so fresh for them,” Colon said.

Colon has approached ARISTA and its leaders over the past few years, hoping to expand the program to sophomore year. After all previous attempts failed, Colon decided to embark on his own project to promote a sophomore-freshman program, working closely with Assistant Principal of Security, Safety, and Student Affairs Brian Moran and Principal Jie Zhang. While the Sophomore Leadership Division is still a work in progress, major steps in planning will be made over the summer.

To reach out to students and increase awareness, Colon will recruit students with leadership potential based on teacher recommendations and his personal acquaintances with students involved in SPARK programs. He also intends to reach out to ARISTA and Big Sibs to help kick-start the Sophomore Leadership Division. “I want people who will be open-minded, very committed, not doing this just for college.

[Students who will] do it for the right reasons,” he said.

Colon’s hope for this program is that it will be the first of many in the city, as he plans to expand it, if successful, to other public high schools. In addition to consulting other faculty and administration members for their ideas, Colon plans to bring his initiative up with the Youth Leadership Council outside of Stuyvesant as a stepping-stone to widening its scope.

Article on page 16.

Review of “Arsenic and Old Lace” The STC shines in its final production of the year, showcasing the humorous talent and dynamism of its actors.

and others stopped students who were deemed to be in violation of the dress code and asked them to begin dressing more appropriately, after which Zhang noted the individuals’ ID numbers on a clipboard. Zhang claimed that this was not for disciplinary reasons; she said that she wanted to see whether students were making the requested changes to their wardrobes. “I just wanted to see if people took my advice, to see if I am making a difference,” Zhang said.

Zhang was not informed of any issue with the dress code until the spring term began. As the weather warmed up, she began to get questions from faculty members regarding their roles in the dress code’s enforcement. In order to get a better understanding of what faculty members viewed as “appropriate,” she decided to observe which students got pulled over at the scanners as they were coming in.

“If you are having a rule, and you are unable to one hundred percent enforce it, there is

a problem,” Zhang said. “If you use the finger rule, then you should have everybody sticking fingers out [to measure garment length]. Now you have ‘this one looks okay, this one doesn’t look okay.’ So what I did was, for about a week, I just wanted to experience it. Where the confusion may have come from.”

Zhang sent out a schoolwide email on Wednesday, May 29 stating that the dress code is “still in effect,” and that “all staff members have the right to interpret and enforce these guidelines in the school setting.” She acknowledged student concerns about the enforcement and wrote that she would “be happy to discuss the matter with representatives from the student body in September,” but made no concrete guarantee of change.

Sophomore Lucy Greider, an active supporter of the last fall’s “Slutty Wednesday” protest against the dress code, still feels that the restrictions being placed on students’ attire are unfair. “I understand limiting what people wear to school to

some extent,” she said. “But [members of the administration] oversexualize [sic] girls’ bodies to the point where it almost creeps me out. Who in this building is going to be so distracted by my collarbones or lower thighs to the point where I’m forced to cover perfectly normal parts of my body?”

A teacher at Stuyvesant, who asked to remain anonymous, disagrees, fervently supporting the dress code. “I think what’s extremely important for high school students is to learn what is appropriate where. What might look beautiful at a party or on the dance floor may just not be appropriate for school,” the teacher said. “Kids need to learn to try to do what’s appropriate for the setting. You can extend this to using foul language or to displays of affection.”

Sophomore Maya Shaar offered a unique perspective opposing the dress code. “High school is a time when teens are very uncomfortable in their continued on page 2

Most Creative Promposals of 2013

By Alexander Gabriel and Sanam Bhatia “Roses are red, violets are blue. Prom won’t be fun, if I’m not with you.” This clichéd poem is exactly what you shouldn’t say to a girl if you want to ask her to prom. Year after year, seniors attempt to think outside the box and create extravagant methods of convincing their crushes to say yes, and the Class of 2013 has proved to be no different.

Out of the hundreds of promposal videos we’ve skimmed through, here are some of our favorites!

Sinian Ma and Jasmine Li Remember the paper fish taped around Stuyvesant? This was the product of Sinian Ma’s extensive promposal to Jasmine Li, which induced buzzing questions and confusion for those who didn’t understand the mysterious fish.

A week before he proposed, Sinian went to Staples and purchased stacks of paper and all the tape he would need to construct blue fishes. On the morning of the proposal, he arrived at school early and put up fish on every single floor of the school. A friend led Li to Sinian’s locker, where flowers and a bag of goldfish awaited her. Everything went according to plan and, when asked, Li said yes.

Due to a friend’s cheesy

pickup lines, Sinian was inspired to turn the clichéd line “There are plenty of fish in the sea, but you are the only one for me” into his proposal.

“I’m really excited for senior prom!” Sinian said. “It’s like a reward for completing four years at Stuyvesant.”

Albert Kwok and Fei Wang Albert Kwok took a unique approach to asking his girlfriend Fei Wang to the prom.

He decided to use an Aladdin theme, with a guest appearance by chemistry teacher Dr. Steven O’Malley. Kwok began the proposal by inviting Wang to join him for a magic carpet ride (a ride on the one of the tech charts). After singing a rendition of “A Whole New World,” Kwok got his genie in a bottle (played by their friend Jeanney Liu). He made a wish for flowers to give to Wang, which were brought in by Dr. O’Malley, a teacher whom Fei adores. To seal the deal, Kwok then wished for her to go to prom with him, but the genie left this one up to the girl in question. Of course, the answer was yes.

Kwok spent a few weeks planning one of the most original promposals of this year. “I asked a bunch of my friends, maybe 25 or so, to help me plan this out,” Kwok said, which is evident in the video of the proposal. The second-floor atrium was packed with stu-

Article on page 17.

dents who came to watch and friends who helped Kwok with the promposal. His idea came from a Youtube video. “I knew I wanted to sing a Disney song, and when I saw a video of a guy doing something like this for a prom date, I thought I could do something like that, too,” Kwok said. He was not nervous going into the proposal. “We sort of already had a thing going on, so I was pretty sure [she would] say yes,” he said.

Tony Scott and Sreshta Paranji Tony Scott asked his good friend Sreshta to prom through a tap dance performance that represented the relationship and feelings between the two.

After “Beauty and a Beat” came on at Dunkin Donuts and the two sang loudly with it, Scott’s friend David Kheyman suggested a “Beauty and a Beat” themed promposal.

“She is the beauty and my tap dancing is the beat,” Scott said. He choreographed an entire performance around the song with backup singers.

“I came up with an elaborate lie to [get] her into the second floor atrium at the perfect time. Basically, the entire world knew about it except her.”

Scott admitted to being incredibly nervous and sweaty, but when it came down to it, he said that his adrenacontinued on page 4

Humor

BOE Imposes Poll Tax and Literacy Tests For Election In light of the upcoming election, humor editor Robert Melamed satirizes the BOE with a little American history.

The Spectator ● June 7, 2013

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News

continued from page 1

own skin,” Shaar said. “So if wearing something can make you more comfortable, I think you should be allowed to.”

Physical Education teacher Rhonda Rosenthal said that she often stops 20 students in a day during warm weather for violating the dress code.

“When students know there is something called a dress code, and they pretend it doesn’t exist, it’s just not respectful,” Rosenthal said. “It puts [the faculty] in an awkward position.” While Rosenthal is personally not neutral on the issue of the dress code, she will continue stopping students as per Zhang’s directive in monitoring the issue. “I’m only doing what I’m supposed to do,” she said.

According to an email by Zhang, which was sent out to all students on Wednesday, May 29, “All staff members have the right to interpret and enforce these guidelines in the school setting.” Her email highlighted students’ primary concern with the issue—the idea that the dress code is subjectively interpreted and not uniformly enforced.

Senior Nadya Kronis objects to the way that some faculty members and administrators communicate to students that

their attire is unacceptable.

“They’ll say totally inappropriate, out there things,” she said. “It’s kind of discriminatory and kind of gross. They impose weird values on everybody and it’s uncomfortable.”

While Zhang does feel that changes need to be made, she thinks that it will be more productive to start discussions next year. “At this point, since we’re really, really approaching the end of the year, everybody is stressed out. For us to sit down and talk and talk about the dress code right now—I just don’t think it’s a priority,” she said.

And of course, by September, summer will turn into fall, and the dress-code will become a non-issue once again, until this debate is reopened next spring.

All staff members have the right to interpret and enforce these guidlines in the school setting.

—Ms. Zhang

Senior Places First in Postcard Contest

By REBECCA CHANG As the school year comes to an end and many seniors find themselves with more time to pursue their interests beyond the walls of Stuyvesant, some are leaving their mark in art competitions. Senior Charles Liu recently placed first at the Thomas Jefferson Postcard Contest, an art-based project that encourages students in pre-kindergarten through high school to connect the legacy of Thomas Jefferson with those of their own hometowns.

Each participant submitted a handmade postcard that explained how the contributions of Thomas Jefferson are still significant today. According to the contest’s official website, participants were asked to consider the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark Expedition, and the Declaration of Independence, among other important parts of Jefferson’s legacy, in their creations. Students were permitted to illustrate their personal connections to Jefferson’s presidency through words or pictures. Entries were divided into three age groups: pre-K to third grade, fourth to sixth grade, and seventh to 12th grade, with a total of ten cash prizes awarded per age group. Judging criteria were relevance to the theme, cre-

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The Dress Code Debate Reopens

Stuyvesant senior Charles Liu won first place in this year’s Thomas Jefferson postcard competition.

ativity, and message strength.

Liu, who entered the contest after hearing about it from his social studies teacher Linda Weissman, was one of the two first-place winners in the seventh to 12th grade group. He received $500 in prize money.

“At first I was a little bit dubious about entering something in this contest, but [Weissman] told stories about how her other classes have won and her students have won many prizes,” Liu said. “So I decided I would give it a shot, and it turned out it went pretty well.”

In his winning postcard, Liu discussed the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798, which Thomas Jefferson strongly opposed.

The Act allowed the government to deport foreigners and prohibit public opposition to federal decisions. Liu strived to depict Jefferson as a proponent of free speech and a figure who promoted the idea of a diversified America with people of different roots and ideas.

“New York City itself is a place where a lot of immigrants come from all over. A lot of protests take place here too, like Occupy Wall Street,” Liu said. “It’s hard to imagine how New York City would be without immigrants or having the right to express your opinion.”

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New York Architecture

by the Photo Department

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Features Not All Smiles and Rainbows

By ROBERT HE “That’s so Gay” “That’s so gay. Sorry, I mean ‘stupid’ gay, not ‘gay’ gay.”

Take a walk through Stuyvesant’s halls and you will realize it’s not uncommon to hear students use the word “gay” to mean “stupid” or “uncool.” “People use this a lot at Stuyvesant, and I hate it so much. It’s actually one of my pet peeves,” junior Rebecca Stanford, an openly gay student, said. “I always lecture people when they do this. And it’s really awful because a lot of the people who do it don’t actually mean it, but they just do it because they hear it so much.”

Another gay Stuyvesant student, who asked to remain anonymous, agreed. “Though I find it discouraging and somewhat harmful, I try to not be particularly bothered because I think people who use ‘stupid’ gay have been influenced by others who use it, and are not using it on the basis of homophobia.”

Using the word “gay” in a pejorative manner implies that having a different sexual orientation means being inferior to others. That’s not okay.

Tolerance, Not Acceptance

Angele Huang / The Spectator

With such a liberal atmosphere at Stuyvesant, it’s hard to imagine students not accepting LGBTQ students. But acceptance is more than just token approval, according to a Stuyvesant student who identifies as transgender and asked

to remain anonymous. “There are a great many non-LGBTQ people who think they are liberal and accepting simply by living in NYC and maybe having a gay friend, watching “Glee,” or buying a rainbow pin, but are actually not doing the best they could with regards to accepting and viewing LGBTQ people as human beings.”

The actions described above indicate passive support of the LGBTQ community, and suggest tolerance rather than acceptance. Despite their close definitions, tolerance, to put in perspective, is the fact that the school community has rules that serve to protect vulnerable members of this community. But acceptance involves the active movement of the student body to support fellow classmates.

Senior Stanley Chang, who identifies as queer, expressed agreement with this stance, and cited personal memories as examples. “I think most students want to believe that bullying doesn’t happen, but it does—it’s happened to me. Just because there aren’t violent assaults against LGBTQ students doesn’t mean there isn’t intolerance and homophobia.”

Chang described one hurtful experience. “One time during my sophomore year, I was lounging on the fifth floor with my friends, and this boy who was sitting down the hallway from us asked me in a vulgar manner if I had sexual relations with men,” he said. “After recovering from the initial shock of such a personal question, I truthfully said

‘No,’ which prompted him to ask me if I was gay, which I replied to with a ‘yes.’ He then shouted from down the hall, ‘What a [expletive] fag.’”

“Most of the time, [Stuyvesant’s] environment is completely safe for LGBTQ individuals, but there are incidences which detract from that,” a student who identifies as a homoromantic pansexual and requested anonymity said. “There is still work to be done on making [Stuyvesant] a safer place for LGBTQ individuals. I’ve heard a story of one teacher who referred to a trans student by the wrong pronoun, and who said that ‘it doesn’t matter’ when confronted about it. I also have a gay friend who presents effeminately that’s had a bad experience with one of his teachers. This teacher threatened to cut off his long hair. The same teacher referred to another of my gay friends, a guy, as ‘Porcelain.’”

Stanford has also witnessed bigotry and bullying firsthand.

“For a while during my sophomore year, this one person in particular would often say things to me that were inappropriate,” she said. “They wouldn’t be completely obvious to somebody who didn’t know me, but I definitely knew what she meant when she said them. This really sucked, especially since my sophomore year was when I really started coming out and being open to people. I have also been told multiple times that people say stuff about me behind me back. Somebody once told me that somebody had told them that they had seen me walking with my girlfriend and that it was sick and disgusting and shouldn’t be allowed. I think that it’s really sad that people feel this way, but even sadder that they have to talk about people behind their backs.”

One of the homosexual students, who requested anonymity, said that he doesn’t believe that his teachers are aware of his sexuality, but is confident that they would not treat him differently even if they did know. However, Chang acknowledges that this is an area to be constantly cautious of. “It’s really hard to

know for sure if a teacher is treating you differently because of your identity unless they actually call you out on it. But if I ever knew for sure—trust me, I would say something and get their ass fired,” Chang said.

One transgender student, who asked to remain anonymous, says she would actually prefer if her teachers treated her differently, though not in a negative way. Transgender students identify with a gender that is not their assigned sex at birth, and go through “transition,” a process of acclimating to the gender they feel most comfortable with.

“The thing about transition is that it actually does require the person to whom you’re coming out to ‘treat you differently, ’but in the way that you actually do want to be treated, i.e. a different name and/or pronouns,” the student said. “Most of my teachers messed up my pronouns for the first few months after I came out. So in that way, I guess I was definitely treated differently, since most dudes don’t get called “she” on a semi-regular basis.”

Unseen Bullying The incidents of bigotry and prejudice at Stuyvesant largely go unnoticed for a variety of reasons. “I don’t think that the majority of the student body knows about [bullying]. I think that it is a very sensitive issue, so many people don’t make it a point to be aware of it,” Stanford said. “I feel like there aren’t enough students who are willing to stand up and stop somebody from getting bullied.”

Another homosexual student felt that bullying isn’t noticed because “it’s not blatant so it doesn’t attract attention,” the student said. Bullying still remains a gray area for many schools, as they struggle to fully define what exactly it constitutes. Despite its depiction in cartoons and television shows, bullying is no longer physical. It has taken on a verbal dimension as words become the primary method of attack, and many students don’t realize that what they categorize as “teasing” is, in fact, a form of bullying. “Any at-

tempt to ostracize or isolate an individual based on their identity is bullying, and it definitely happens at [Stuyvesant],” Chang said. “I’ve had people in this school who are fully supportive of the gay rights movement ask me why I behave so ‘stereotypically’ and label my femininity as an act. Don’t tell me that I’m playing up a character when I’m just trying to be myself. Nobody wants to subject themselves to the criticism that follows with being effeminate.”

Community Ties

There are varying views about the LGBTQ community at Stuyvesant with its recent emergence. One of the anonymous students quoted above believes that the LGBTQ community is more like a group of individual students with something in common than a tight community. “I am not an active GLASS [Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Spectrum] member, but aside from GLASS meetings, I feel that LGBTQ people are more likely to know each other, but I don’t consider them to be a close-knit community,” he said.

Stanford, who is also not a GLASS member, believes that improving the club is one way to bring together the LGBTQ community. “I think that because of the way it is set up and run, GLASS isn’t advertised very much, and not only do many kids not know it exists, but many people aren’t that interested in it as a club,” she said. “I think that there are ways to make it much more interactive so that it would interest a lot more people, both gay and straight.”

Yet another view is taken by Chang, who thinks that defenses are still needed against potential attacks on the LGBT community. “Most of us know each other, but I do think there could be more cohesiveness and unity among the LGBTQ individuals in our school. I mean, besides the fact that we’re queer, we also share the pressure of having to conform to social norms, and so I think we should look out for each other more,” Chang said.

Michelle Lin / The Spectator

ASK.FM: The Double-Edged Social Network

By SANAM BHATIA Ask.fm links are invading our newsfeeds. Users set up profiles that display all the questions they have ever answered, asked by other users or by anonymous us-

ers (often referred to as “anons”).

These questions can be playful or complimentary, but there are darker, more threatening questions containing “hate.” These ridicule the user, usually based on appearance or relationships.

Many students with Ask.fm accounts say they made one because either all their friends had one or because it seemed interesting, but for some it is about entertaining others. “I try to make as many jokes as possible and make people laugh [with my answers],” sophomore Daniel Goynatsky said.

As expected, Ask.fm is more complex than it seems. “It seemed fun [at first] since I could get a bunch of questions and share tidbits about myself too,” freshman Kathy Wang said. But she soon realized the drawbacks of such a platform: the hate.

Some users get anons calling them fat or those that question their relationships. While there is an option to block anonymous questions, Wang believes that the effect of the hate is still there and it still hurts. Many say that users do not have to answer hurtful questions, but “even though you might not respond to it publicly, reading those things people might or might not think about makes you feel worse about yourself,” Goynatsky explained.

Sophomore Hall Zhang also thinks that questions that people receive show “how insecure peo-

ple can be, and how they need outside reinforcement behind their own ideas—that’s the whole point of anonymity,” Zhang said.

Sophomore Franco Caputo, however, argues that Ask.fm allows people to correct any misconceptions people may have about themselves and also “can be a fun way to find out about people with appropriate questions,” Caputo said. “[Still, it is] anonymous. People think they can say whatever they want without repercussions to their actions.”

“Ask.fm also really shows how much we care about what other people think and how vain the world is. I know that some of my friends spend a lot of time formulating the perfect response to questions to show that they are funny or sassy,” sophomore Andrew Lee said.

Another part of Ask.fm is the various pages created by anonymous users. The pages prompt students to submit names so the page moderator can give his or her opinion on them, positively or negatively.

The pages are often quickly deactivated, however, removing almost all traces of their existence.

A page that gained popular-

ity earlier this year was “SophomoreOpinions.” Goynatsky revealed that he was running the page, but according to sophomore Jenny Baran, the page tended to be more positive with its opinions. Other pages, however, “definitely have the potential to be mean,” Baran said, especially because the moderators do not know who submitted the name and thus do not restrain themselves while answering.

Another page like this is “Honestuy.” Although there have been no new answers for a month, the account has not been deactivated. The answers address freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, and range from kind comments to attacks targeting an individual’s personality, appearance, or behavior.

“Just because it’s “honest” [does not] mean it’s good, and it even though some people may get nice compliments, it can be hurtful to others,”sophomore Emile Jean-Baptiste said.

“I think some people have nothing better to do with their lives than give commentary on people they don’t know very well,” sophomore Miranda Chaiken said.

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Special Thank You E D I TO R S

IN

C HIEF

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E ditors

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E ditors

Anne Chen Thomas Zadrozny F eatures

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A rt

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Niki Chen Christine Lee Margot Yale

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Emmalina Glinskis* James Kogan Nina Wade S ports

humor

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The Spectator’s 2013-2014 Editorial Board would like to thank the 2012-2013 Editorial Board for their guidance and support. Special congratulations on your graduation, and best of luck in the future.

Features Most Creative Promposals of 2013 line kicked in and he just went from there, forgetting his plans and singing. “Somehow it all worked, and it was over before I knew it,” Scott said.

Jeremy Kalpitt and Arielle Gerber Many choose to be dramatic with their promposals, with dancing and singing and fancy artwork, but Jeremy Kalpitt chose to do ask his longtime girlfriend Arielle Gerber during a Model United Nations (Model UN) Conference in Washington D.C.

By MAISHA KAMAL Pop culture has defined feminists as women who don’t shave, hate men, and are masculine and unattractive. But despite these modern definitions of who a feminist is, these stereotypes are not true. Stuyvesant’s Women’s Voices elective, now taught by English teacher Eric Ferencz, seeks to disprove these vulgar generalizations and delve deeper into gender issues and the central question of what it means to be a feminist.

Women’s Voices has been offered at Stuyvesant for over 15 years. The class was originally taught by Annie Thoms, but due to her maternity leave, Ferencz was offered the position and jumped at the opportunity.

“I love gender politics,” Ferencz said when asked what inspired him to teach the class. “I think it’s incredibly interesting when you go through life as a white man [and] you don’t understand the opportunities you’ve been afforded.”

Ferencz also mentioned that the topic of women’s voices was

History teacher Kerry Trainor had planned a tour of the Capitol Building and Nancy Pelosi’s office for the Model UN team, and Kalpitt knew that it was the perfect opportunity to ask. “[I] decided that the most meaningful possible way of doing it was by asking amongst people she cares about in an environment she finds significant,” he said.

So he gathered the Model UN team and called Gerber up to ask her a question, mentioning how important their relationship is to him. Then, he asked her simply and she said yes.

Gerber said this moment was certainly special for her. Even though she had no idea what

was happening at the beginning of Kalpitt’s announcement, she “knew it was either something incredibly serious or something incredibly silly,” she said.

For both of them, it was their last high school Model UN conference, surrounded by their teammates and friends in a place so important to America. “Jeremy asking me to prom solidified that as a moment I’ll probably remember forever,” Gerber said.

Kalpitt agrees that the setting was incredibly important as well. “I know Model UN has meant a tremendous amount to both of us over the past few years, and it’s the place where

both of us have strengthened most of our closest friendships and found a social home, so I felt

Women’s Voices

incredibly modern, and that there are ongoing debates about the matter to this day. “As Americans, we claim we’re an equal society, but we can’t seem to agree on common-sense issues affecting women. Even the dress code itself [at Stuyvesant] is heavily biased against female students,” he said.

Ferencz, who is in his second year of teaching at Stuyvesant, hopes to take the class in a new direction. “I anticipate real-world assignments where students will utilize the environment of Stuyvesant High School and New York City as a social laboratory,” he said. One of these real-world assignments involves visiting clothing stores and connecting feminist scopes with daily life in the real world. The Women’ Voices curriculum involves reading novels by notable feminist authors such as Margaret Atwood, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, and Marhane Satrapi, in addition to analyzing current events. “We have the opportunity to talk about gender through a variety of lenses and try to understand the female experience

not only in Stuyvesant [or] New York, but the world,” Ferencz said. He hopes his students will learn to explore, ask questions, and learn from other peoples’ experiences.

As for why he, as a man, is taking on the job of teaching a class with a pro-women perspective, “You don’t have to be a woman to be a feminist,” Ferencz said. “One of the reasons I find myself drawn to teach Women’s Voices is quite similar to why I am drawn to teach literature. Through literature and its analysis, one learns how to understand our world. Considering how much of our civilization exists in a hegemonic patriarchy, it is incredibly refreshing to challenge predetermined ideals and listening to the voices that are perhaps overlooked or ignored.

And in doing so, we can truly understand our world with a richer and deeper understanding while shifting towards a society that values all experiences and voices equally.” He hopes that his being a male teacher will encourage male students to sign up for the class.

she’d feel it to be most meaningful if I asked at a conference.”

Sara Chung / The Spectator

continued from page 1

Thoms, the previous Women’s Voices teacher, has “always been very interested in gender roles in literature,” she said. She mentioned that novels discussed in most English classes were written by male authors, mostly because that was what was expected of men through most of history. During her time as teacher, Thoms focused on the transformation of this preset, helping students develop “an appreciation for women’s voices in literature,” she said.

Especially in today’s society, a shift in how people view women is specifically crucial. It can be argued that although women may have been given the same kind of rights as men, they are not recognized in the same manner. Such debates are the heart of the class. “Everybody has a story to tell, and if you spend the time to ask questions, everybody says something that is poetry,” Thoms said.

So, who exactly takes this class? Are there significantly more girls than boys? Thoms says that the gender makeup of the class varied through the years.

“When I first started teaching, I expected that [those] who signed up would have a certain level of feminist ideas,” she said. “So, the class was largely female.” She admits that a more mixed group made the class exponentially more interesting and realistic, as the gender and racial differences of each student added flavor to the class dynamics during heated discussions and debates.

This might explain the comical posters of sloths, Pauly D, and various memes plastered across the halls, as Ferencz tries to recruit a new and diverse class that will achieve the same intriguing effect.

A new take on a gender debate that has been alive and thriving for years, the course delves into an interesting realm of the political world that is relevant to all students, male and female. Still, it is a class that remains to not only be serious, but enjoyable as well. “Everything sounds so heavy, but it’s going to be fun,” Ferencz said.

Page 6

The Spectator ● June 7, 2013

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The Spectator ● June 7, 2013

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Page 7

The Spectator ● June 7, 2013

Page 8

Editorials Staff Editorial

We’re in it for All the Wrong Reasons

The Spectator

Your Time at Stuyvesant

Freshman year: If there’s someone at Stuyvesant you don’t know and you are looking to start a conversation, chances are you can talk about how many tests you have coming up. Or what teachers and homework you’ve gotten this term. Or how much sleep you got last night.

Sophomore year: By now, you’ve learned that a better way to introduce yourself than complaining about your struggles as a Stuyvesant student is to discuss the clubs and activities you’re involved in: Red Cross, ARISTA, Science Olympiad, or even The Spectator.

In a school of over 3000 students, it’s not unusual to seek some form of community. Any student entering Stuyvesant for the first time is, after all, bombarded with various posters advertising the many clubs our school has to offer. While some of us may have a genuine interest in yoga, aviation, or gardening, the majority of us find ourselves gravitating towards the larger, wellknown, and better-established clubs at Stuyvesant, such as ARISTA and Big Sibs.

So many of us apply and get into ARISTA and Big Sibs, claiming that we truly care about giving back to our school. But are we in it for the right reasons?

Junior year: You’re rushing down the hallway and smile briefly at a fellow Big Sib, proud to be wearing the same shirt, and proud to be part of the same organization. And then you see your Little Sib. You know you know him, but you’re afraid to say hi because you’ve forgotten his name.

For many, getting into ARISTA and Big Sibs means fitting in. It means finally finding our niche within this dauntingly large school and not falling behind as everyone else we know finds extracurriculars to add to their college resumes. And once we get that acceptance letter, we’re done. We’re in. What we promptly forget is that

Big Sibs is not just about attending events or wearing the shirt. It’s not there for us to add two more words to our “Extracurricular Activities” sheet. It’s not even about showing up to our Little Sibs’ homerooms each week. It’s about creating relationships with our Little Sibs, about connecting with our school as a whole, not just those “in the program.” It’s about remembering past mistakes and experiences, and ensuring that others (even those we may not necessarily know) benefit from what we have learned. Being a part of the Big Sibs program should be about enjoying our time with and guiding a new generation of Stuyvesant students. And being a part of ARISTA should be about using our talents and skills to service our community, not to fulfill credit quotas.

Senior Year: You’re standing within a mass of blue robes and caps, except there’s a bright gold sash on you and some others that distinguishes you from the rest of the graduates. You finally have something to show for being a member of the ARISTA National Honors Society!

You recall not the students you helped tutor or the charitable events that you attended, but the stressful haste at the end of every semester to get in the minimum number of credits.

The reality is sad. The problem with these big programs is that it is nearly impossible to make their members genuinely care and commit because members apply for the wrong reasons: the majority of us don’t want to serve, but the majority of us do want to belong to an honor society. And until we restructure our priorities, each and every one of us is going to be contributing to a corrosive force at Stuyvesant that is reducing what should be some of our best institutions to faceless groups.

In Mandler’s editorial, “Why Senioritis Must Be Treated,” he describes the results of an anonymous survey he gave to one of his classes on being a second-term senior, and expresses his concern over seniors’ lack of effort in their classes after being admitted into college.

Seniors, he wrote, should not forget the intrinsic value of learning and should “allow for [their] innate curiosity about how and why the world works to once again take possession of [them]...”

In a comment on the article on The Spectator’s website, junior Jake Soiffer wrote, “Dr. Mandler implies that enjoying learning and schoolwork is an option students have, one that we are simply choosing not to take [...]

The academic environment is focused on tests and grades—not ‘curiosity’ or understanding.”

Soiffer’s comment gets to the heart of the senioritis issue and our teachers’ misdirected criticism of it. The root of the problem is not that students lose sight of the deeper value of their learning at Stuyvesant, but rather that many students never saw this deeper value in the first place, instead working for purely carrot-and-stick motivations. Furthermore, this goal-oriented mentality is reinforced by teachers and curricula. Our teachers are disheartened that many students excel in their three and a half years at Stuyvesant, “only to discard their mask of studiousness as soon as their college acceptance letters arrive.” The reason students start to slack off is that their “mask of studiousness” is precisely that: a mask. Too few Stuyvesant students do their work to achieve goals of self-fulfillment or to quench their thirst for intellectual activity.

It’s really the simplest thing: students drive themselves crazy with work and stress, driven by a certain external motivation. Once that motivation is taken away, they stop working.

The real question, then, is why Stuyvesant students don’t find some value in their education beyond extrinsic motivation (primarily college acceptance). Many students enter Stuyvesant not caring about the education and are not shown its importance, and those who do care find little to like in Stuyvesant classrooms. Teaching excessively to standardized tests is not an uncommon practice at Stuyvesant, and classes place too heavy an emphasis on numbers and grades, as The Spectator never fails to point out.

The list of factors creating the atmosphere that ultimately leads to senioritis goes on and on, but the point remains: it’s not solely the students’ fault that they don’t care anymore once they’ve gotten into college. In a way, they have been given the right not to care.

However, Dr. Mandler and Stuyvesant teachers and parents also have the right to be concerned. “A fatalistic solution would be to accept that senioritis is inevitable,” writes Dr. Mandler. Like him, we refuse to accept that seniors should spend their whole second term slacking off. We appreciate his willingness to confront this tough issue. But, rather than blame students for not letting their love of learning guide them through their last year at Stuyvesant, we should look to the system that prevents this love of learning from being cultivated. It’s the system that must be changed. And it’s the system that can be changed.

Inherent Within the System

Conclusion

Danny Kim Sam Kim* Justin Strauss

The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

Introduction

Stuyvesant students are prone to diseases: SAT fever, AP fever, College App-itis, and the all-encompassing “mental health day.” But there is one illness that, unlike all these, lasts for a whole semester, an illness that selectively targets a sizable portion of the Stuyvesant population.

Senioritis.

In response, teachers have urged their students to learn for the sake of learning and bring back the intrinsic motivation, strong work ethic, and spirit of learning that propelled them for the first three and a half years at Stuyveant.

Recently, this plea for seriousness was the topic of English teacher Dr. David Mandler’s editorial in The Spectator.

But what if this intrinsic motivation, this so-called spirit of learning, never existed in the first place?

The sad truth at Stuyvesant, one that is written about over and over again, one that defines us probably better than any description or ranking, is that students are college-obsessed. Take away that college obsession with acceptance letters, and, suddenly, we lose the force behind our Intel prizes, speech and debate tournaments, and science Olympiad finals.

We lose almost everything we have been striving for the last three years.

Senioritis is just the epitome of a general apathetic attitude that plagues Stuyvesant. It is not the only disease of its kind.

The recent ARISTA (Stuyvesant’s National Honor Society) induction ceremony and the announcement of Big Sibs demonstrate this point exactly. Students who join these groups are largely motivated not by a genuine wish to benefit the community or even help their peers. Rather, they simply go through the motions in a selfish attempt to improve their resumes. Once accepted, some these students grudgingly meet the credit requirements, while others cheat their way to meeting their quotas.

And yet, even with the knowledge that we do things for the wrong reasons, Stuyvesant moves on. No matter how many times our ugly culture is dissected and revealed, it doesn’t matter to us.

Nothing matters to us—except that which is in any way related to college.

But maybe it’s time that things like ARISTA, Big Sibs, and school during the second term of senior year started mattering.

Ph o t o g r a p h y E di to rs

E D I TO R s

IN

art

F e atures

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L ayo ut

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d i r ec t o r s

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s p orts

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The Spectator We are compiling an archive of past issues.

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The Stuyvesant Spectator 345 Chambers Street New York, NY 10282 If you have any questions, e-mail us at: archives@stuyspectator.com

A Note to Our Readers: The Spectator will now accept unsolicited Op-Ed pieces written by outside students, faculty, and alumni. These columns, if selected, will be published in The Spectator’s Opinions section. Recommended length is 700 words.

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• In Issue 13, Hayoung Ahn took the photo of Nicole Sanchez for the Opinions article, “The Second Civil Rights Movement.”

• In Issue 14, Philip Shin’s name was spelled incorrectly next to his photos of Opinions writers David Cahn, Severyn Kozak, and Justin Weltz

Though we can precisely dissect the problem, we seem to be at a loss when it comes to aptly addressing all of the aspects when trying to stitch up the issue. In all honesty, real change can only happen with a revolution of our collective attitude toward what it really means to be at Stuyvesant.

But that doesn’t mean that we can’t take steps towards change.

Let’s start with making second-term seniors submit a senior thesis: a culmination of a semester’s worth of independent work, supported by class time at Stuyvesant. Let’s stop reinforcing the reward mentality with the golden graduation sash ARISTA members get and instill in us the desire to serve even without incentives. If this means less people volunteer, so be it. At least we will learn what “service” is about.

We all want a surefire solution, a proposal of how to effectively eradicate senioritis and transform Stuyvesant’s college-obsessed attitude. The truth of the matter is, we’re all the problem, from students, to teachers, to parents, to the administration, to colleges, to the society that views Stuyvesant as some sort of Ivy-bound-student-making machine.

It’s time that we reconsider our priorities.

Because honestly, is this really what we want from Stuyvesant?

The Spectator ● June 7, 2013

Page 9

Opinions

Alice Oh / The Spectator

War on Drugs: The Homefront

By Benjamin Attal While the U.S. wages a part of its War on Drugs internationally, in countries that export illegal narcotics and opiates such as Nicaragua and Mexico, there is another struggle—an official part of this War on Drugs playing out domestically. This internal U.S. effort results in the criminal justice system arresting one-third of its men of color, and in some cities as much as one-half of the black and brown adult male populations. While we may be actually addressing and making a dent in illegal drug traffic abroad, the government’s domestic drug policies have not only largely failed in their intended purpose—they have also promoted inequity and racial injustice within the United States.

Over the past two decades, drug arrests in the U.S. have fueled an explosion in the prison population. In 1972, fewer than 350,000 were in prison;

in 2010, that number is over 2 million. Arrests for marijuana possession comprised 80 percent of the growth in arrests in the 1990s. While the number of incarcerations on account of drug related offenses increases, the total number of pounds of illegal drugs seized per year remains same—suggesting that the neither the supply of drugs, nor the demand has greatly decreased.

The incarceration rate has consistently risen over the past few decades, in part due to massive spending on anti-drug law enforcement training and initiatives. Since the inception of the War on Drugs in the 1970s, increasing arrests and cracking down on the possession and sale of drugs has been a major goal of domestic drug policy. But is this spending, and are these specific policies effective? Or are they merely resulting in a form of racial repression, the unintended or intended consequence of the domestic War on Drugs?

As Michelle Alexander reminds us in her book “The New Jim Crow,” the U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration (750 per 1,000 people) in the world, higher than what are considered repressive regimes like Iran and China. The “Jim Crow” laws were used throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries to disenfranchise black voters in the South. While the War on Drugs does not outwardly take voting rights away from minority citizens, increased incarcerations and arrests involving drugs can and do result in disenfranchisement. In other words, if a man is arrested because of possession for marijuana, then he runs the high risk of losing his voting rights. While this might seem like a legitimate response to drug possession, it is important to note that a vast majority of those incarcerated on account of drug possession and dealership (and therefore those who are disenfranchised)

Over the past two decades, drug arrests in the U.S. have fueled an explosion in the prison population.

Whether this mass incarceration of blacks is unintended or intended, the result has been the repression of minorities through a modern-day take on the Jim Crow laws. are black. 50 percent of those in jail because of drug-related offenses are black. 33 percent of those arrested on account of drug related offenses are black, though blacks only constitute 12.8 percent of the population. In some cases, the rate of incarceration of black and brown men is 20 to 50 times more than that of their white counterparts.

All through the 1980s to the present day, this has been the case. It is an indication that more resources for the War on Drugs are used to target minority groups—not that Black and Brown people “do more drugs.”

While statistics show that 1.3

percent more of the black population uses drugs than the white population, this small amount does not account for the huge disparity in incarcerations. And whether this mass incarceration of blacks is unintended or intended, the result has been the repression of minorities through a modernday take on the Jim Crow laws.

These incarceration and disenfranchisement statistics reflect a disturbing trend at the core of the modern War on Drugs.

In short, the United States’ domestic drug policy is in need of reform. The government must make place for a larger focus on educating the populace on the health issues related to drug use and reduce the crushing impact of the War on Drugs’s criminal justice tactics. Like New York’s latest Stop and Frisk policy, which allowed police officers to apprehend “suspicious looking” individuals in the city streets, the current domestic drug war policies have targeted minorities. The intrinsic motivation behind Stop and Frisk abuses, and behind increased minority incarceration and disenfranchisement, is an issue that needs to be openly discussed and dealt with in the context of criminal justice and law enforcement.

We may be winning the war against faceless foreign enemies and drug-lords on another continent or in other countries, but we are taking a thorough bruising on the home front, and hurting our own citizens in the process.

By Neeta D’Souza

Michelle Lin / The Spectator

In early October, I finally took a seat in room 627, our school’s debate room, to start adding articles and academic journals to a list of sources—a filing system—that we could use to validate our information in speeches. As the captain of extemporaneous speaking, a form of debate centered around current events, I decided to turn to the news to see what our country’s politicians, think tanks, and interest groups were saying about a political issue that has embroiled our nation for decades—the abor-

tion debate. When I tried to reach websites that could have helped me understand more about the issue, however, I immediately hit our school’s filter.

This time, instead of stating the reasons for blocking the sites as “entertainment” or “non-educational content” as are most social networking sites, blogs, and video-streaming sites, the Websense filter cited “ProChoice” or “Pro-Life” as its reason for blocking these sites.

The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) began to require schools to filter their internet connections in 1999, and since then, numer-

ous bills have been passed in state school boards across the country addressing the issue of internet safety and censorship. The DOE’s actions aren’t novel—the school boards of conservative states across the country (e.g. Tennessee, which banned LGBTQ-friendly sites in the early 2000s) have been doing the same for years. What’s surprising is how the DOE is getting away with this in as liberal a city as New York, where most students consider free thought and open discourse their rights. The DOE has absolutely no legal reason to be blocking students from seeing these sites, and we ought not wait for a lawsuit to take place before demanding our rights as students. In terms of practicality, these sites are hugely beneficial for students’ political education.

The censorship that the DOE is engaging in is hurtful to the overwhelming majority of Stuyvesant and New York City students who don’t know much about politics, or the issue at hand. Those students who are trying to learn more by using their school resources but are continually blocked by inane, unnecessary filters. When we don’t know about the political issues that plague our country, we can’t take part in the political processes that solve them.

By taking away our access to the knowledge we need, the DOE is preventing us from performing our civic duty.

This isn’t simply an issue

of political education, however. Arielle Gerber, a former features editor of The Spectator, explains: “The DOE is preventing students from accessing information that pertains to their rights, yes, but more importantly, to their health.”

Students who aren’t able to access pro-choice websites won’t be able to find out where they can pick up emergency contraception or get access to proper abortion clinics. When they can’t look up pro-life sites, they don’t get access to extremely important information about legitimate adoption agencies and support groups. The lack of political information due to the DOE’s censorship of schools’ internet has also led to a lack of practical information for pregnant or at-risk teens.

Some argue that a school is no place for this information to be looked up, and that students should learn about this issue at home. These critics should understand that most of the information that we receive at home is biased information— information colored by the political lenses of our family members. Schools are the last places where we as students can receive completely unbiased information on such controversial topics. By restricting our education on the matter, the DOE is interfering with our ability to decide completely for ourselves what we feel on this issue. On a practical note, teens who are pregnant may need a safe space to find infor-

Cindy Li / The Spectator

DOE Censors Abortion

mation about what to do next because their families may not be helpful in such situations. In these cases, the school should be a source of open information, but with DOE restrictions in place, students are left with nowhere to turn.

When I realized that my debate files on abortion couldn’t be filled while I was on school premises, I felt as if my educational infrastructure had failed my thirst for knowledge. As students like me continue to look up information on the abortion debate, they will continue to be frustrated by DOE practices that don’t have any real legal basis, but do have real political and practical repercussions.

The DOE needs to realize that it is fostering a culture of ignorance and apathy and reconsider its censorship policy on pro- and anti-abortion sites.

Page 10

The Spectator ● June 7, 2013

Opinions Riding Down the Right Road: NYC’s New Bike-Share Program

Eight years and eleven months ago, the United States sent the first drone into Pakistan. Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are aircraft without human pilots, used by the United States government for predominantly military purposes—specifically, for firing Hellfire missiles at targets on the ground, usually high-profile terrorist leaders. But this first strike didn’t just hit a terrorist leader. Instead, it killed eight people, including two children.

Since then, drone operations have only increased, and with them, the number of casualties.

Now, the total count in just two countries (Yemen and Pakistan) ranges from 3,050 to a whopping 4,261 from June 2004 through September 2012. A very welldone interactive called “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” highlights the enormous toll of our drones program. All of this has been done in the name of the “Covert War on Terror”—a Covert War on Terror that is highly overt and has done nothing but increase terrorism throughout the Middle East and give validation to the al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives recruiting in the region.

The numbers are clear: according to Professor Jenna Jordan of the University of Chicago, terrorist organizations whose leaders are killed almost uniformly grow not only in strength (81 percent are reported to do better after their leaders’ deaths), but also in group cohesion and dedication. President Obama has mistakenly doubled down on drone use since Bush’s presidency (by about 775 percent, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism), but promised to restrict use of these unmanned strikes in a recent conference. However, if the preservation of American security is truly Obama’s goal, he’d better follow through on his promise.

The fact of the matter is that drone strikes have increased the influence of terrorist organizations. To quote a piece in the New York Times from June of last year: “Dear Obama, when a U.S. drone missile kills a child in Yemen, the father will go to war with you, guaranteed. Nothing to do with Al Qaeda.” And children have been killed, at least 175, in the more than five hundred reported drone strikes. In fact, according to a study by the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think-tank, only 1.3 percent of those killed were “highlevel” operatives. For example, like in the first Pakistani strike, the first killed in Yemen also had an enormous civilian casualty count—four women and 21 children were left dead, leaving 42 devastated parents and 14 furious husbands to grieve or possibly take up arms.

Indeed, while it’s hard to prove conclusively that more men have joined organizations because of drone strikes, the 710 civilian and children deaths have led to anti-American sentiment.

This is evidenced by more than twenty interviews conducted by the Washington Post in Pakistan and the increase in al-Qaeda membership in the Arabian peninsula from 300 to 700 operatives, ever since the first missile strike by President Obama in Yemen in 2009. The unfortunate truth is that when we kill terrorist leaders, those men are glorified as heroes and martyrs in the eyes of the public.

Finally, the legality of drone strikes is highly suspect. There has been criticism not only from Pakistani officials, who claim the strikes infringe on national sovereignty, but also from various United Nations officials, who have referred to the attacks as “indiscriminate” between civilians and militants. In June of last year, the Obama administration was called upon to justify its use of lethal force instead of the capture and interrogation of suspects.

But whether or not the UN supports the strikes is irrelevant.

The real message is that we are now the ones who are on the wrong side of the law. The United States is the one running a civilian-killing program with no accountability and causing hundreds of innocent deaths. Rather than “leading of the free world,” we have earned the image of a bully in a playground throughout the past decades, disregarding international law and thoroughly disinterested in how many lives we extinguish with the dropping of a single bomb.

Despite Obama’s claim of surgical precision and that drone strikes have been helping to protect United States interests, the strikes have undoubtedly done nothing but the opposite, fostering anti-American sentiment and increasing local resistance at a time when we’re still trying to restore our standing in the world.

With these strikes, we’ve lost our ethical and moral compass, killing civilians just as liberally as do the terrorists we so despise.

Although the government is undoubtedly already attempting to do so, it is time for it to prioritize precautionary measures when sending in UAVs. We need to build more accurate technology, and we need to ensure that we avoid civilian casualties at nearly any cost. Until the point when we can hit only what we aim for, we should curb our drones program, using it only in situations in which we are completely sure of success. Let’s stop our wanton killing and restore our standing as the premier advocate of freedom. Let’s make sure that we’re not the ones who leave buildings in flames.

By Emma Bernstein Summer is just around the corner, and with it comes liberation. We will be free from the halls of Stuyvesant, if only for a few sunshine-filled months. Some of us will flee the city, running off to camp, to the Poconos, or overseas. But for those of us sticking around in the city this summer, things are going to be a little different with the recent launch of a new bike-share program across the city.

New York isn’t leading the way this time; instead, we’re jumping onto a 50-year-old trend to reduce our carbon footprint. Though many commend Bloomberg for this green initiative, he has also met strong opposition from taxi drivers, business owners, and even a few neighborhoods that see the new bicycles as nuisances. What these people fail to realize, however, is that their own

“Every morning when you walk in, and each evening when you leave, you walk over one of the kiosks downtown, conveniently located under the bridge.” sacrifices today will bring plenty of rewards tomorrow.

The new bicycles are impossible to miss; in fact, every morning when you walk in, and each evening when you leave, you walk over one of the kiosks downtown, conveniently located under the TriBeCa Bridge. Citi bikes are sturdy, blue bicycles with three gears, comfortable seating, and a small compartment at the front complete with a bungee cord for carrying around groceries or small bags (very similar to those in D.C.). Like the Capitol bike share program, rentals will not come with helmets. Loaded up and ready to go this Memorial Day, the bicycles are available for a $95 yearly membership, with 7-day memberships costing $25, and 24-hour memberships costing around $9.95. These memberships will allow for unlimited 30 to 45-minute bike rides. After that time period has been surpassed, the biker will be charged

based on the extra time used.

While this may seem like a debilitating limitation, the purpose of these bikes must be taken into mind. Citi bikes are for commuters — they are meant to be used, docked, and again used by another person. Additionally, this system prevents theft by discouraging people from using their own locks and keeping the bike throughout the day.

Through studying other bike share programs around the globe, NYC has attempted to minimize errors by learning from others’ past mistakes. For example, Citi bikes won’t come with a bike lock; instead, each bike must be locked up in one of the kiosks. Not only does this minimize theft, but it also makes more bikes available more of the time. Furthermore, the type of station lock at the kiosks is designed to minimize theft and vandalism.

However well thought-out the system is, these bikes have not been welcomed into New York with the love that they truly deserve. Instead, the kiosks have taken many shots as they’ve been introduced into the city, sparking lawsuits from buildings and neighborhood associations. In short, business owners worry that the kiosks make parking difficult and complicate deliveries, while taxi drivers think that the bikes will discourage cab usage, and residents believe the kiosks take away the neighborhood’s atmosphere (an especially prevalent concern in neighborhoods like the West Village).

But aside from the anti-beautification argument — which depends on aesthetic preference — the impact of the kiosks should be minuscule. For example, some complaints came in that the kiosks blocked emergency vehicles; as a result, the city has swiftly relocated them. As for businesses, few New Yorkers own cars and drive them around frequently; instead, assuming business is

based off of pedestrians, having a kiosk nearby should boost business. For taxi drivers, there will always be demand: a woman in high-heels and a pencil skirt with hair that she spent an hour perfecting would never choose a bicycle over a taxi. Taxis will always be more convenient in certain instances. And if we did see a decrease in gas-guzzling transit, New York would become a greener city.

But just how much greener would we be? According to a 2011 study by the European Cyclists Confederation, in which CO2 emissions were measured per passenger per kilometer and included fuel (and a cyclist’s food), a bike is by far the most ecologically friendly vehicle. Results concluded that a bicycle only emits 21 grams of CO2 per kilometer, while public transit, such as a bus, emits around 95 grams.

Choosing to ride a taxi produces 229 grams of CO2 per kilometer, 208 more grams than a bike.

The last issue is safety. Though we are blessed with a multitude of bike lanes throughout the city, I can say as a daily commuter that having bike lanes is very different from being able to ride in them. Cars and taxis constantly turn their heads and pretend that the little green strips of road don’t exist, and why should they?

There really aren’t that many cyclists, and the ones on the road are experienced city bikers who typically know their way around a taxi. Though it will take some getting used to, increasing bike usage may be just what we need to boost bicycle awareness out on the streets, creating a safer environment for all cyclists.

The bikes are here and ready to go. 14,000 New Yorkers have already chosen to make our city greener, more bike friendly, and more fun, so let’s seize the summer emptiness and try something new for a change: summer cycling.

Andrew FischerT / The Spectator

By Daniel Kodsi

Hayoung Ahn / The Spectator

Hayoung Ahn / The Spectator

It’s Time to Reconsider

Introduced on this year’s Memorial Day, NYC’s bike share program may bring about beneficial changes involving the environment, local businesses, and traffic safety, all just in time for summer.

The Spectator ● June 7, 2013

Page 11

Arts and Entertainment Food

The Little Korean Food Cart That Could

Jackson Diner: Little India’s Crown Jewel

Bringing Korean barbecue to Tribeca, Gangnam Style stands out among the neighborhood’s countless halal food carts.

By Matthew Dalton

Laura Eng / The Spectator

Of all Asian cuisines, Korean food has remained the best-kept secret. While sushi bars, dim sum, and curry restaurants adorn nearly every street of New York, a good Korean BBQ restaurant is nearly impossible to find beyond the single midtown street that is Korea Town. That is all changing, for Tribeca residents at least, with the introduction of Gangnam Style, a Korean BBQ food cart located on the corner of Chambers and Greenwich. With the flair of a Central Park hot-dog stand, the cart’s only focus is on making traditional and downright tasty Korean platters.

Gangnam Style is all about simplicity, producing good food without a five-star chef, using locally sourced organic ingredients, or any of the other modern criteria a meal must meet to be classified as respectable.

The one and only dish at Gangnam Style is the Korean BBQ platter, which offers three choices of meat: chicken ($5), beef ($6), or bulgogi ($7). The chicken is always grilled well with a hint of smoky charcoal flavoring. A tangy teriyaki sauce tops it, packing a sweet punch into the juicy chicken strips. The beef is heartier than the chicken, and proves much more filling. It also comes with a chipotle mayo sauce that is slathered onto the beef, adding a creamy element to the beef’s texture. You can also add Gangnam Style’s homemade hot sauce,

consisting of freshly cut chilies, to the beef, creating a perfect storm of salty, spicy, and sweet with each bite. The final meat on the menu is bulgogi, which directly translates from Korean as “fire meat” and refers to the process of marinating thin strips of meat (in this case, pork) on the grill. The pork is similar in flavor to the beef, though it is cut thinner and tastes sweeter. The taste of the onions and peppers, which are cooked alongside the meat, fuses itself into the bulgogi and accentuates the flavor.

The platter is also served with brown rice and a salad, which consists of a few scoops of lettuce topped with Korean mayo. The addition of these sides serves only to complement the meat, holding very little value as stand-alone items. The salad is unremarkable except for the sweet Korean mayo dressing, which sets up an interesting contrast with the salty meat; the rice is often undercooked.

Gangnam Style comes close to bringing good Korean food to Tribeca. The BBQ itself is on par with that of any high quality Korean restaurant, even though it appears so ordinary in its Styrofoam packaging. When you order one of Gangnam Style’s excellent platters, you’ll find that price is not necessarily indicative of quality. Instead, you discover that to experience truly good food, you only need some meat, a grill, and a corny K-pop name.

By Matthew Dalton and Ben Vanden Heuvel “Learn to appreciate the void,” lead singer Matt Berninger sings remorsefully in “I Should Live in Salt,” the opening track of Brooklyn-based indie rock band The National’s newest album “Trouble Will Find Me.” In a way, Berninger’s words are a plea to the listener to acknowledge the lonely grief that has been a central motif in all of The National’s albums since its debut

in 2001. “Trouble Will Find Me” picks up where The National left off three years before in “High Violet,” mixing signature dense textures and somber baritone. It is comforting to the band’s fans that despite its growing popularity, The National has continued to produce its unique blend of orchestra-infused, melancholy rock ballads and enigmatic lyrics, unlike other groups whose fame affects their music’s style.

For example, “Demons,” the album’s first single, has the same sound we heard in the group’s

Located at the center of Queens is what has become known as Little India: Jackson Heights. Flourishing culturally with outdoor markets filled with spices from the Middle East and a wide range of clothing, jewelry, restaurants and cafes, this neighborhood is incomparable with any other in the empire state.

Among the multitude of restaurants and cafes, Jackson Diner has no trouble standing out because of the quality and quantity of dishes it offers.

Located on a block filled with what appears to be an infinite number of Indian buffets and cafes, Jackson Diner is larger and more successful than any of its competitors. The vast assortment of options available at the buffet table is instantly noticeable from the outside. The restaurant offers over ten hot dishes for only $10.95 per person. Among these is the Goat Biryani (tender and tasteful goat mixed in with lightly spiced rice) and the extremely flavorful yogurt-based Curry Pakora. While the curry’s bright yellow color can be intimidating, it’s not too spicy, and the zesty relish that emerges from its ginger-garlic mix makes it a must-try at this diner.

Another option to consider is the Tandoori Chicken. Because of the unconventional cooking techniques necessary to make Tandoori Chicken, many restaurants are not able to achieve more than a dry, lackluster taste.

Despite this, Jackson Diner offers a deliciously rough and slightly burnt twist that accentuates the dish’s flavor without the usual dryness. One of the most popular Indian dishes in New York City is still, without a doubt, the best non-vegetarian dish offered: the

Eva I / The Spectator

Crystal Cheng/ The Spectator

By Othilla Wlodarczyk

Jackson Diner, located on 37-47 74th St. in Jackson Heights, stands out among the crowd of Indian eateries in the neighborhood with its great taste in cuisine and decor.

Chicken Tikka Masala. The chicken is delectable and the sauce is a delightful mix of tomato, yogurt, and spices that range from cumin to cayenne.

Although the non-vegetarian meals offered are the most commendable, the Jackson Diner also offers a few vegetarian options, such as the cabbage and peas and tandoori vegetables. Out of these dishes, the one that deserves the most credit is the Matar Paneer.

Prepared with flavoring very similar to that of the Chicken Tikka Masala, the dish consists of baked tofu in a similar tomatoyogurt sauce, only slightly spicier.

Another great aspect of the diner is the two rice options: white rice with peas or rice with turmeric, as well as warm pita bread.

What is most unique about the Jackson Diner, however, is that Masala Dosas are prepared by order and are included in the buffet price. The Masala Dosa is a mixture of fried potatoes in turmeric, onion, and spices, placed in a crispy crepe made of rice and urad dhal. Last but not least, the

rice pudding with nuts available as a dessert dish is just the right amount of sweet and without an overly thin consistency.

The interior design of the Jackson Diner is generally appealing, with modern walls in relaxing green, pink, and yellow tones, accompanied by organic leaf structures and Middle Eastern sculptures. However, the mood of the diner is more cafeteria-like than romantic. The only real downside to the restaurant is that it gets loud easily because of the large number of people in the diner and the traditional music played in the background. The diner’s casual atmosphere takes away from the appeal of the exotic foods it offers.

Still, the overall experience of the restaurant is fantastic.

The diner is open for lunch buffets from 11:30 p.m. till 4:00 p.m.

Although it is a slight trek from Manhattan, it’s a trek worth making for the delicacies it offers and a taste of blooming Middle Eastern culture.

Music

Sad Songs for Avid Listeners 2007 album “Boxer.” Berninger’s growling low notes are paired with seemingly upbeat instrumentals, but the lyrics tell a different story: “I can’t get down any farther / All my drowning friends can see / Now there is no running from me.” This striking contrast is intended to reflect the happy masks we use to cover up our own demons. Berninger croons about his separation from his friends and his isolated emotional struggle. In addition to continuing the deep, intense sounds of the band’s more recent albums, “Trouble Will Find Me” pays homage to the group’s origins in more acoustic ballads such as “Heavenfaced” and the final track, “Hard to Find.” Whereas the band’s songs in past albums usually hit the listener with a wall of sound, it is easier to pick out individual melodies in “Trouble Will Find Me.” This can be seen in “Heavenfaced,” in which wailing sounds overlay an uncharacteristically acoustic backdrop.

The album’s second single, “Don’t Swallow the Cap,” tells a more hopeful story: “Tiny bubbles hang above me / It’s a sign that someone loves me.”

Berninger tries to convince himself that he isn’t completely isolated, struggling against the

heavy emotional theme of the album. Weighty beats and the deep sound create the dark backdrop, but the soaring opening guitar riff and driving pulse of the song evoke a kind of half-hearted optimism. In the context of the album, the song provides a refreshing counterpoint to the generally dark subject matter. It is possible then, to listen to the whole album without being left in tears.

“Trouble Will Find Me” is unique in that it was produced by band members Aaron and Bryce Dessner, with every other member of the group contributing to different songs on the album.

This has allowed The National to build on its trademark style of blending together elements of traditional rock ballads with orchestral sounds, adding a density to ots music that makes it difficult but rewarding to separate out the songs’ individual components. This is one of the most unusual and special aspects of the sound created in this album: it manages to become more captivating with each listen, as each time a new lyric or instrument shines through. “I Should Live in Salt,” for instance, seems to gain more and more character as we play it on repeat, its fascinating transitions creating a surprising-

ly intricate quality. Another important feature of “Trouble Will Find Me” is the tempo, a consistently slow adagio. The National has always favored down-tempo music, often combining lethargic verses with creative instrumental rhythms. The band’s experimentation with unconventional mixtures of tempo and rhythm manages to create either an unsettling and troubled feeling or a calm, almost spiritual experience.

For The National’s loyal fans, this album is a solid reassurance that the band will keep its unique style. Critics might claim that the band could have done more to branch out, as the sounds we hear on “Trouble Will Find Me” stray little from the formula developed in previous albums. But as they say, if something isn’t broke, don’t fix it. The National’s style has managed to maintain its own distinct character, separate from much of the indie rock world around it. The emotional depth of the album isn’t hindered by the fact that the sound isn’t new. It’s more than engaging.

It’s insightful. It offers listeners the opportunity to explore the complex beauty of The National’s trademark sound and the cryptic intrigue of its poetic lyrics, and to join it in appreciating the void.

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The Spectator ● June 7, 2013

Arts and Entertainment

Teen Back to the Future (1985) Rebel Without A Cause (1955)

By Geoffrey Luu

By Emre Tetik

Lydia Wu / The Spectator

“You’re tearing me apart! You say one thing, he says another, and everybody changes back again!” So declares Jim Stark (James Dean), shouting at his parents as they pick him up from the police station he’s been taken to for public drinking. This is the opening scene of “Rebel Without A Cause,” Nicholas Ray’s classic coming-of-age film about juvenile delinquency.

The film, made in the 50s, is more than just a fine example of Ray’s masterful filmmaking (it includes his powerful use of background architecture and color schemes to bring out James Dean’s iconic red jacket). It is also, arguably, the ultimate cinematic expression of teen angst.

Later in that opening scene, Jim explains to a social worker his frustration at his parents’ constant bickering, specifically his father’s oversubmissiveness to his mother. “I don’t know what to do anymore,” he says. “Except maybe die.” At the police station, he meets Plato, a fellow troubled youth, and Judy, who was brought in for being alone after dark. The story begins with Jim starting the new school year, in which he and Plato strike up a close bond and get in trouble with school gangs and bullies, culminating in the death of one of the ruffians.

“Rebel Without A Cause” is very much a story of its time. The young don leather jackets and run combs through their greased hair on almost a constant basis. The film was made at a time when youths acting in ways they hadn’t before worried that nation. Then film’s intense scenes, filled with violence and romance, demonstrate this changing youth culture. Though America has changed much since the ’50s, the film still captures the way we, as teenagers, sometimes see our lives and struggles with an inflated sense of gravity. And that will never get old.

Starring Michael J. Fox as high school student Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd as eccentric scientist Dr. Emmett Brown, the 1980s classic “Back to the Future” combines science fiction, comedy, action, and romance to make a teen movie that is completely different from any other.

Its success spawned two sequels and various other spin-offs (equally successful in their own right), and the series is now regarded as one of the best ever made.

At the start of the film, the Doc reveals his latest invention to Marty, a sports car/time machine, and Marty accidentally activates the machine and sends himself back to 1955. Almost immediately, Marty causes more trouble for himself when he manages to prevent his own birth by inadvertently stopping his parents from meeting. Locating a younger version of Dr. Brown, Marty learns that he has a single week to restore his parents’ relationship and go back to the future.

The film takes place in both 1985 and 1955, and director Robert Zemeckis distinguishes the two time periods skillfully. To do this, Zemeckis places great emphasis on just how out of place Marty really is in the past. His appearance and knowledge of the future provoke bewilderment and confusion from those around him, adding to the film’s comic relief while also driving the plot forward.

When Marty first meets the younger Dr. Brown, Marty attempts to prove that he really is from the future by stating that the American president in 1985 is (then-Hollywood star) Ronald Reagan.

Later, Marty manages to escape from a group of bullies by making an improvised skateboard, stunning the ‘50s residents who have never seen one before.

As you would expect, “Back to the Future” offers similar issues and meditations found in other teen movies, but with some unexpected twists.

Marty’s problems with his parents, for instance, are not issues with parenting, but rather with attempting to get his parents to meet each other for the first time. Marty ends up defending his parents from bullies and finds himself the unwilling object of his own mother’s affections. Like any other teenager, Marty also struggles with punctuality, though in this case this yields far greater consequences.

Interestingly, teenagers (excluding Marty) and their problems are not the primary focus of “Back to the Future.” The film focuses just as much his efforts to stay out of trouble and return to his own time. The shift in emphasis and the many genres the film encompasses make the film completely original and exciting. With so much happening at once, there is something in “Back to the Future” for everyone.

Persepolis (2007)

By Claire Burghard Most teenagers have experienced their fair share of personal drama, but few have come of age in the midst of a major political upheaval in their home country. Marjane Satrapi, writer and protagonist of the graphic novel and later film “Persepolis,” did. The film follows her adolescence in ’70s and ’80s Tehran, during the tension and violence of the Iranian Revolution. Marjane is caught between the unpopular government, which seeks to indoctrinate her through disciplinary education, and her middle-class family, which frequently joins street marches and protests, and she must somehow find herself through the chaos and turmoil of her world.

Despite the film’s intense setting, Marjane’s youth is filled with elements of normal teen life that make “Persepolis” relatable. The film contains all of youth’s insecurities, heartbreaks, awkward physical changes, and epiphanies. Marjane discovers punk music and clothing, blasting Iron Maiden in her room and strutting in a denim jacket down the street in a sea of burqas. She picks up cigarettes, fights with her teachers, falls into depression, and is hopelessly cheated out of love.

But along with the typical side effects of teen angst, there are the seemingly endless pressures of war breathing down her neck. The uncertainty of whose apartment will be bombed next or whether she will be stopped on the street for showing too much skin become a part of Marjane’s life. She seems especially sharp for a teenager girl, understanding the complex politics of her world to a surprising degree. Precocious, she reads sophisticated works in politics and literature, and figures like biblical prophets and Karl Marx often appear in her dreams.

The film’s animation adds an artistic touch: it is simplistic but crisply captures expressions and atmosphere, making the film eerie, mysterious, and breathtaking. It’s best to read the graphic novel first and then to watch the film’s original version, which features more expressive voices that add to its ghostly splendor. Satrapi and co-director Vincent Paroonaud successfully create a teen character who is enchanting, compelling, and lives in remarkable circumstances, but is at the same time is remarkably similar to us.

The Spectator ● June 7, 2013

Page 13

Arts and Entertainment

Movies Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

By Emma McIntosh

Raquel Brau Diaz / The Spectator

With a soundtrack illustrating the new rise of dance-pop music and an abundance of large hairdos, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” excels as both a movie teens can relate to and watch for generations to come and as a representation of the time period, which is known for its rebellious youth. Ferris, portrayed by Matthew Broderick, is a restless teen accompanied by a best friend (Cameron, played by Alan Ruck), a girlfriend (Sloane, played by Mia Sara), and a desire to have the best day of his life. When playing hooky gets him farther than expected, Ferris and his friends manage to weasel their ways out of the grasp of their smarmy principal and take off in Cameron’s dad’s prized Ferrari, which he loves “more than life itself.”

The film accentuates teenage life as it was in the ‘80s, as well as the education system of the time period. Perhaps cutting school was easier then, but Ferris insists on creating the most complex of maneuvers to ensure his success. The trio finds their way to the Sears Tower, the stock market, a Cubs game, and more, all the while maintaining exceedingly complicated alibis.

Additionally, an upbeat and quirky soundtrack featuring Yello’s iconic “Oh Yeah,” “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles, and The Flowerpot Men’s “Beat City” accompanies the movie, giving it a fast-paced, buoyant atmosphere. Leopard-print vests and jackets with tassels further reproduce the thoroughly ‘80s lifestyle. “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” taps into a memorable time in teen history and deals with a number of issues that are still prevalent among teenagers today, including depression, sibling rivalry, and school pressure; however, it manages to maintain an optimistic tone as Ferris never seems to stop loving life.

Pretty in Pink (1986)

By Eda Tse

Bonny Truong / The Spectator

Audiences love simple stories as much as they do complex ones. John Hughes’s “Pretty in Pink” offers up the well-worn plot of a poor girl, a rich boy, and their love, which will, probably, maybe, hopefully transcend social boundaries. Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) feels sparks fly with Blane McDonough (Andrew McCarthy) in TRAX, the record shop where she works. Repeating the age-old adage of “he/she’s not like the others,” Andie and Blane strike up a romance through a few coy glances and a cute computer trick using a very primitive version of messaging.

There are a great number of scenes filmed inside TRAX and showcasing the records of the day, which include Madonna and Lionel Richie. Duckie (Harry Dean Stanton), Andie’s best friend, embodies the ’80s with his lip-syncing, which includes dramatically tossing his body over shelves of records and running up the stairs and flipping over while his huge lips flap to “Try a Little Tenderness.”

Cementing “Pretty in Pink” in the ’80s is the over-the-top clothing: Rich kids like Blane wear “casual” suits to school. Thrifting and making your own clothes, like Andie does, isn’t considered DIY or cool (as it is today), but rather a sign of her poverty. One of Andie’s most notable self-made outfits is her prom outfit, a strapless pink-and-white polka dot dress with a sheer pink neckline attached—the result of stitching together a dress her father bought and a dress from her boss.

“Pretty in Pink” is a cute movie that follows an easy and unoriginal plot, but Duckie and his unrequited love for Andie brings the film together. Duckie is especially hug-worthy when bragging to the bouncer at CATS, the local club, about how much Andie loves him, and being subsequently ignored as Andie exits the club. With Molly Ringwald, shots of Blane’s fancy BMW and Andie’s banged-up car, and Duckie’s iconic fashion sense (perfectly round glasses, a brooch attached to his prom tuxedo, and a checkered vest), Hughes makes yet another classic teen movie. Years later, Hughes’s teen angst still has not gone out of style, and Stanton’s performance as a classic “Nice Guy” rings true to this day.

The Spectator ● June 7, 2013

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Arts and Entertainment Split-Screen PC Gaming is Better

Consoles

By James Bessoir The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is undoubtedly one of the most iconic pieces of technology of the last 30 years. It introduced millions of people to timeless characters like Mario and Link, and, with its revolutionary controller, set the standard for game consoles well into the future. When the NES was originally launched in Japan, it was known as the “Family Computer,” or FamiCom (FC). This name was designed to distinguish the device from the clunky personal computers (PCs) of the day and designate it as a fun system for the whole family to use.

Nintendo was onto something. Even today, a PC is a multiuse device that sits on a desk, often with a professional connotation.

To play a PC game, you must be alone, sitting up straight, hands poised over a keyboard and mouse, and squinting at a computer monitor less than three feet away from you. In contrast, many people play console games with their friends, comfortably sitting on a couch, holding an ergonomic controller, and gazing at a large TV on the opposite wall. Family Computer, indeed.

While the FC/PC name dichotomy only lasted a few years, the implications of this distinction between game console and PC have lasted to this day. While there is an infinite number of different PCs, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, there is only one Xbox, and it’s an encapsulated, controlled environment. There’s a beauty in this simplicity. Every single game released for the console will run flawlessly the first time.

When playing a PC game for the first time, there’s usually a lengthy installation, followed by about an hour of painstakingly tweaking the controls and graphics settings to make sure the game runs properly on your computer. All you need to do to play a console game is put in the disk, grab a controller, and go.

Consoles are cheaper than PCs, too. While some will go on about

how PCs can be cheaply upgraded, you’ll never need to upgrade a console over the course of its 5-10 year lifespan. Plus, a new console usually costs $200-$500. Even though virtually everyone has a computer, not everyone’s PC can meet the graphical demands of new games.

The cheapest home-built gaming PC will cost $500-$1000, not including the costs of maintenance and upgrades to keep games running at good speeds.

The ability to play games socially is by far the greatest advantage of consoles. While both PC and console games now have robust online multiplayer systems, antisocial online play just can’t replicate the fun of playing a local, split-screen multiplayer with your friends. Local multiplayer is perfect for party games like Rock Band and Just Dance, but also for fighting games like “Street Fighter” and “Super Smash Bros.,” racing games like “Mario Kart,” and even shooters like “Halo” and “Call of Duty.” Whether you play casual or hardcore games, sitting down on a couch with friends for an afternoon of gaming is something you can’t do on a PC, where you’re restricted to gaming alone or using a dehumanizing online voice chat.

Your favorite gaming memories, will likely be nostalgic social experiences, not of sitting alone in front of a computer screen.

There’s a lot to be said for a modular, versatile, and powerful PC, but the very nature of such a device—anchoring you to a desk, forcing you to play by yourself, and requiring an obscene amount of setup—seems antithetical to what video games are at their core.

They should be fun diversions for people to play with their friends at leisure. Anything that misses some or all of these aspects isn’t a game system, no matter how much the “Starcraft” commanders or Indie Game hipsters would like you to think otherwise.

By Thomas Duda

“Throw $200 in the toilet and sign an oath not to upgrade for six years, and you have a gaming console.”

“While both PC and console games now have robust online multiplayer systems, antisocial online play just can’t replicate the fun of playing a local, split-screen multiplayer with your friends.”

Take a computer. Now cover up exactly half of the ports with duct tape. USB’s, DVI’s, what have you. Now take out the graphics card and processor, and replace them with hardware that would’ve been considered mid-range about a year ago. Now rip off about 80 percent of the keys on the keyboard. Now throw about 200 dollars into the toilet and sign an oath not to upgrade for at least six years.

You may be thinking to yourself, “That’s really stupid, why would I do that?” But the fact is that that’s what happens every time you buy a console, except all the work has already been done for you.

The biggest reason that PC gaming is superior to console gaming is that PCs are better able to handle games, even with something as simple as how many buttons you have at your disposal. The average game controller has eleven buttons and two analogue sticks. A PC, on the other hand, has 88 buttons on the average keyboard, plus the buttons on the mouse and the motion of the mouse itself. If you’re playing the latest survival horror game like “Metro: Last Light,” do you want to have to scroll through layers and layers of menus and memorize arbitrary button combinations just to change weapons, or do you want to hotkey each weapon so that all it takes is a quick pinky movement? On consoles, you’re monster food; on PCs, you just beat the level in record time.

Say what you will about the “Golden Days” of old-school gaming.

There’s a reason why developers very quickly moved past the four directions and four buttons of the SNES era.

Speaking of nostalgia, many people love playing games that are either old or similar to old games.

I myself enjoy playing “Galaga” once in awhile. But you don’t need hardware that’s been obsolete for years to play these games. Consoles don’t have their hardware upgraded until the next console generation, which usually takes six to

eight years. This means that, by the end of the generation, game developers usually have to code two different games: one that can handle the advanced hardware of PCs and one bogged down by the age of consoles. Dozens of competing companies assure that a PC gamer will be supplied with a steady stream of powerful but cheap hardware components. Most gamers don’t have great memories of staring in awe at the simplicity of the insides of old consoles. Gamers have great memories of playing great games, and both old and new games can be played to their maximum potential on PCs, but not on consoles.

“Wait!” you cry. “Doesn’t upgrading your PC end up making it cost more than a console?” Absolutely true. But if you’re a gamer, you’ll end up spending less money on games if you play them on PC. For the most part, the cheapest way to get a game on consoles the first year after it comes out is to get it used, which usually strikes about $10 off the price. On PC, there are dozens of ways to get games cheaply. The Humble Bundle Charity organization bundles games together and lets you pay what you want for them. Steam, a video game distribution service, has constant sales that go for 50% or more off of the latest games. Indie developers practically give their games away so that you’ll try them. If you love playing video games, you’ll definitely get more bang for your buck on PCs. Everything that has ever been able to be done on consoles has been done better PCs. There are even controllers designed specifically for gaming for those who just can’t stand gaming with a mouse and keyboard. PC gaming is higher quality. Unless you’re so desperate for the good old days that you have to use a device that’s low-quality, overpriced, and doomed to always stay the same, become a PC gamer.

Sam Luangkhot / The Spectator

Crossing the Line

By Wonyoung Seo Fans are the driving forces behind any artist, from YouTube singers to manga artists to

professional performers. Recognizing this support, many artists, most notably in the Korean music industry, shower ardent fans with gifts and special

benefits. While many official fanclubs of Korean celebrities are notoriously hard to get into (most only open registration once a year), the benefits are worthwhile: priority seating for music shows and fan meetings, free items from the group, and early notifications of events. In return, fans continue to support the artists by helping them reach the top of album charts and win the coveted numberone spot on Korean music programs, and by showering them with admiration.

But then there are times when fans take their devotion too far, when “ardent” begins to take the negative connotation.

A lack of respect emerges, and fans cease to see the celebrities they love as people deserving of privacy. Unfortunately abundant in number, these fans follow artists around, camp outside their dorms, and take pictures. They inappropriately grope certain body parts and engage in sexual harassment.

They send letters written with their own bodily fluids. They break into artists’ houses at night to try to kiss them in their sleep. They make it impossible for artists to have relationships beyond friendships.

Even public locations such

as airports have become places of safety hazards and sexual harassment for these adored artists. In fact, exiting airports and going to movie theaters would be near-suicide if not for security, which still does not protect against the onslaught of mobs that accompanies these artists’ public appearances. Korean artists’ exasperation is exemplified in a picture posted by Korean singer Xia Junsu, which shows him and a friend at a restaurant. The tired, strained look on Xia’s face is not nearly as jarring as the mass of teenage girls pressing their faces against the restaurant window, fighting for a good look at him. Many netizens have likened the image to one of an animal on display at the zoo, an apt description.

Perhaps most astonishing is how others react to these fans.

People criticize such lifestyles but rarely do anything to stop them, and when the singers try to defend themselves or lash out in frustration, many netizens are quick to turn against their “atrocious” behavior.

Some even profit off of fans by running car companies that help fans stalk celebrities. The public scorns the fans, yet it looks at celebrities with disdain for choosing such lifestyles, as

if being stalked and groped by obsessed teenagers is their retribution for earning more money or simply having the title of “celebrity.”

People don’t consider celebrities humans. The fact that celebrities enjoy displaying their talents doesn’t mean that they have given their consent to being stalked and harassed every day. So if the celebrities are not to blame, then who is? Rather than shake our heads in pity or pass it off as another example of Asian craziness, we should all be aware that this level of obsession is possible with all fans.

American fans aren’t that far off, if One Direction’s description of American fans trying to break into a bus is accurate.

Cheering on artists isn’t a bad thing. But what fans must realize is that it is one thing to buy their CDs, and another to keep watch over their dorms 24/7. We should do our best to both respect the lives of artists and make sure that the people around us do the same. Seeing celebrities on YouTube doesn’t mean that we have the right to monitor their every breath. It’s time we step back from the line and respect their right to freedom from the public eye.

The Spectator ● June 7, 2013

Page 15

Arts and Entertainment Looking Forward SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY 7

Concert Old Crow Medicine Show The Capitol Theatre 149 Westchester Ave, Port Chester, NY Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

This event is 18 and over.

Movie release “The Internship” Genre: Comedy Director: Shawn Levy Cast: Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Dylan O’Brien, Rose Byrne, Jessica Szohr

9

36th Annual Plantathon and Crafts Fair Broadway, between 73rd and 86th streets 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Museum exhibition “John Singer Sargent Watercolors” Brooklyn Museum Available through July 28, 2013 This exhibition displays over ninety of John Singer Sargent’s watercolors and explores the watercolor practice with various videos and a special section dedicated to deconstructing his painting techniques.

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Concert Paul McCartney Barclays Center 620 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 8 p.m.

Album release The Lonely Island’s “The Wack Album” Genre: Comedy hip hop Label: Universal Republic

Concert Apollo Theater Spring Gala Apollo Theater 253 W 125th St 7 p.m.

Album release Big Time Rush’s “24/ Seven” Genre: Dance-pop, teen pop, pop rock Label: Nick Records, Columbia Records

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Album release Sigur Rós’s “Kveikur” Genre: Post-rock, ambient Label: XL Recordings

Concert Junip Highline Ballroom 431 W 16th St 9 p.m.

TV Season Premiere “Ghost Hunters: The Ghost Hasn’t Left the Building” 9th season premiere Syfy Network 9 p.m.

Museum exhibition “The Civil War and American Art” Metropolitan Museum of Art Available through September 2, 2013

TV Season Premiere “Pretty Little Liars: A is for A-L-I-V-E” 4th season premiere ABC Family 8 p.m.

TV Season Premiere “Chopped: Cleaver Fever” 16th season premiere Food Network 10 p.m.

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Seventh Heaven Festival 7th Ave, from Flatbush to 18th St Park Slope, Brooklyn Starts at 12 p.m.

Turtle Bay Festival Lexington Ave, from 42nd to 54th St Starts at 10 a.m.

Museum exhibition “Bill Brandt: Shadow and Light” MoMA Available through August 12, 2013

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Times Square Block Party 46th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

17

18

Concert Paul McCartney Barclays Center 620 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 8 p.m.

Concert Tamia Highline Ballroom 431 W 16th St 8 p.m.

15

Times Square Expo 41st St, from Lexington Ave to 3rd Ave Museum exhibition “Claes Oldenburg: The Street and The Store Claes Oldenburg: Mouse Museum/Ray Gun Wing” MoMA Available through August 5, 2013

Movie release “Man of Steel” Genre: Action, Adventure Museum exhibition Director: Zack Snyder opening Cast: Michael Shan“Le Corbusier: An Atlas non, Henry Cavill, Amy of Modern Landscapes” Adams, Kevin Costner, MoMA Diane Lane, Russell Available through SepCrowe tember 23, 2013 Concert The Postal Service Barclays Center 620 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 8 p.m.

19

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Concert Iggy Azalea Bowery Ballroom 6 Delancey St 9 p.m.

Album release Hanson’s “Anthem” Genre: Indie rock, Pop/ rock Label: 3CG Records

Concert Atlas Genius Bowery Ballroom 6 Delancey St 8 p.m.

Concert The Boxer Rebellion Webster Hall 125 E 11th St 7 p.m.

Concert Hanson Irving Plaza 17 Irving Pl 7 p.m.

This event is 16 and over.

Album release Green River Ordinance’s “Chasing Down the Wind” Genre: Alternative rock, country, acoustic Label: Universal Republic

Museum exhibition opening “Ellen Gallagher: Don’t Axe Me” New Museum Available through September 15, 2013

Ballet “Swan Lake” Metropolitan Opera House 7:30 p.m.

24

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Ballet “Sylvia” Metropolitan Opera House 7:30 p.m.

Album release John Legend’s “Love in the Future” Genre: R&B, Hip hop soul, Jazz fusion Label: GOOD Music, Sony Music Urbana Poetry Slam Bowery Poetry Club 7 p.m.

Cost: $7

Album release Album release Tom Odell’s “Long Way Bosnian Rainbows’s Down” “Bosnian Rainbows” Genre: Acoustic, folk Genre: Alternative Rock Label: Columbia ReLabel: Clouds Hill cords Records

14

Movie release “This Is the End” Genre: Comedy, Sci-Fi Directors: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen Cast: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, Emma Watson, Jason Segel, Rihanna

SATURDAY 8

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Concert Marisa Monte Beacon Theater 2124 Broadway 8 p.m.

Art exhibit opening “Drama Queen” by Wayne Hollowell Michael Mut Gallery 97 Avenue C Pop art celebrating NYC gay pride

21

Movie release “World War Z” Genre: Action, Horror, Thriller Director: Marc Forster Cast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, Daniella Kertesz, Matthew Fox, David Morse Grand Central Summer Festival 43rd St, from Lexington Ave to 3rd Ave 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

22

Sixth Avenue Summerfest 6th Avenue, between 34th and 42nd streets 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

The Spectator ● June 7, 2013

Page 16

Arts and Entertainment Arsenic and Old Lace: Inebriated with Laughter

By Shahruz Ghaemi

Yueer Niu and Justin Strauss / The Spectator

The audience that assembled in the Murray Kahn Theater on the evening of Friday, May 31 was paltry. More’s the pity, though, since those not in attendance missed an impressive STC production of the 1939 Joseph Kesselring play “Arsenic and Old Lace.” The STC, in its final production of the year, did justice to this black humor-driven comedy, as evidenced by the audience’s laughs.

Just as the trailer for the

1944 film adaptation roused audiences through the star power of Cary Grant, this production of “Arsenic” was carried by the STC’s actors. Junior Nick Kaidoo starred as the drama critic Mortimer Brewster, providing a strong foundation for many of the play’s supporting roles. In fact, Kaidoo’s solid acting helped carry one of the most important scenes of the play, when Mortimer discovers that his kindly aunts (freshman Margaret Garber and sophomore Maggie Gutmann) murder elderly single men

with elderberry wine laced with titular arsenic. His clear, caricatured facial expressions and emotionally expressive body language cemented his character’s believability.

Though his entrance was delayed, senior Michael Evans stole his scenes when he arrived on stage as Mortimer’s estranged and criminally insane older brother Jonathan. Evans’s soft-spoken and straightbacked manner communicated the menace inherent in his character. It also helped that he towered over everyone else

on stage, including his octogenarian aunts and brother.

That’s not to say that compliments should be reserved solely for the starring roles.

Sophomore Jasmine Thomas, a veteran of six productions, delivered a solid performance as Elaine Harper, bringing her character beyond its minor role in the script with her confident stage presence. The whole bunch of hapless cops who get involved in the affair clearly display their respective nervousness, ease, or furious anger, adding juxtaposed

exaggerations.

Sophomore Shane Lorenzen played Mortimer’s insane brother Teddy, who garnered many laughs for his amusing attempts at portraying President Theodore Roosevelt.

Beyond the individual characters, though, were the dynamics between pairs of actors that accentuated the talent of the comedy’s actors.

The classic example of this is the aunts. Garber and Gutmann’s movements mirrored and played off each other; they looked like a pair of matching, hunchbacked, terrifyingly nice dolls. Mortimer and Elaine worked well as a pair of lovers, though their chemistry was more effective in their early scenes together. Even Jonathan had his companion in the alcoholic plastic surgeon Dr. Einstein, played by junior Michael Sugarman. The classic villain-sidekick dynamic worked for Evans and Sugarman throughout the whole play.

Many of the laughs came from the play’s slapstick or physical comedy.

Garber and Gutmann’s slow, silent shuffling across stage won a laugh—and a well-deserved one—every time, as did their terrifying excitement at having found a new target for their kindness. In fact, Garber and Gutmann’s constant and bubbly cheeriness creepily offset their murderous intentions.

Mortimer’s incredulity in the face of his aunts’ matronly murder was another consistently funny dynamic.

Yet the play’s funniest points came with the actors’ individual interpretations of and additions to the characters. Evans’s Jonathan sported a maniacal wheeze-giggle that sounded like the classic evilvillain laugh. On the last night of the production, Evans and Kaidoo engaged in competitions, as befitted their characters’ rivalry. Kaidoo won the running competition of seductive poses, which eventually drew in even freshman Tyler Smalls’s minor cop character.

Even lighting failures were turned into “clap-on, clap-off” jokes.

The play did begin to falter halfway through the third act, though. The actors seemed to lose their edge during the production. The actors on stage stumbled, got nervous, and did what all nervous actors do: they hammed it up to the max.

The angry cops began to sound monotone and as jarring to the ear as the uncertainty in blocking was to the eye. The act was saved, however, by the return of familiar characters to the stage.

The STC production of “Arsenic and Old Lace” was a rousing, well-acted performance, just the thing for a hot Friday night. It’s on days like these that one almost wishes for a nice, cold glass of elderberry wine.

The Spectator ● june 7, 2013

Page 17

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

Obama Denied Entry Into Stuyvesant High School

By Spencer Weiss and William Chang Stuyvesant High School has recently embarked on a string of regulatory measures that students have found ridiculous and unnecessary. However, the administration may have gone too far when United States President Barack Obama was denied entry into the building last month.

Witnesses reported that during Obama’s first attempt, he was informed by security guards that he would not be able to enter the building until they

finished patrolling the school seven times for hoodlums on floors other than the first or second. “I was a tad irked, but I understood,” Obama said. “They were simply trying to protect a high-ranking, intelligent, and dashing government official.”

Onlookers said that Obama proceeded to whittle away the 20 minutes of waiting by completing the Metro crossword, which he described as “pretty damn hard.”

When he was finally allowed to enter the building, he was immediately kicked out, as he could not present a Stuyvesant ID card. Sophomore Theo Klein

witnessed the ensuing altercation. “I saw the President spitting fire at one of our security guards. I mean, he was really letting the man have it. It was more painful to watch than Junior SING! boys’ hip hop,” Klein said. Other reports quoted Obama directly as saying, “If you don’t let me in, I’m going to sequester my stimulus package so far up your Republican majority, you’ll wish you’d voted for Romney.”

Some students, however, were unaware of the argument.

“We had school today?” junior Egor Chernishov said.

After an hour, Obama made

Stuyvesant On the Brink of Civil War

By Shane Lorenzen “It is important that we remain calm and try to maintain neutrality. We are currently engaging in intense negotiations with the clashing parties, and hoping that we can maintain peace,” Senator John Kerry said. The international community is holding its breath as the Zhang and Damesek camps move closer to war.

Earlier last week at a Model United Nations meeting, student-led protests interrupted Principal Jie Zhang as she delivered her keynote address about the relationship between obesity and escalator usage. Halfway through the intended six-hour speech, a crowd rushed the entrances of the Murray Kahn Auditorium chanting demands for the impeachment and arrest of Zhang before she was escorted out of the building by Assistant Principal of Safety and Security Brian Moran. The protest’s ringleader, who was arrested soon after and has had his outto-lunch privileges temporarily revoked, would give no indication as to his motives besides yelling, “I am loyal only to my Queen, [Assistant Principal of Organization] Randi Damesek; may she crush the infidels!”

Outbreaks like these have skyrocketed in frequency ever since Zhang’s decision to move Damesek’s office from its position near the second-floor entrance to room 103. “As princi-

pal, you learn to be always on your guard, to keep your friends close and your enemies even closer,” Zhang said when asked about the decision. Zhang’s right-hand man and five-star general Brian “The Warden” Moran will fill the vacancy in Damesek’s office. Critics of this move, such as AP Government teacher Kerry Trainor, have

“As principal, you learn to be always on your guard, to keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.”— Jie Zhang, Principal

described it as “a gross and unconstitutional overreach of principal powers,” he said.

Zhang has declared a state of war and martial law in Stuyvesant. She has cracked

down hard on all dissidents by removing Prom privileges and banning spaghetti straps. After a series of “expanded interrogations” by Zhang’s top agents, the Stuyvesant Robotics Team has been coerced into building deadly, unmanned drones capable of carrying out attacks for the Zhang regime. “Now, I understand the student body’s concern about the power granted to me by these drones, so I assure you that they shall only be used to punish those who pose serious threats to my power,” Zhang said. “Let’s be clear: I will never use a drone on my own people, probably.”

However, despite this tightening of administrative control, resistance has been cropping up all over the student body, most prominently in the ProDamesek terrorist organization “Damesek’s Army” (D.A.). “The Great Satan that is Stuyvesant’s administration will suffer for its decadence and be brought low by our glorious martyrs,” a spokesman for the D.A. said in a statement issued last night.

However, reports just in indicate that Damesek and Zhang may be working toward a détente. A hotline, made of two paper cups and a flimsy piece of string, has been set up between their offices to facilitate communication. Furthermore, rumors suggest that a cease-fire drill is imminent. The Stuyvesant community can only wait and collectively hold its breath.

“When I managed to look inside, I could see that the escalators weren’t working,” Obama later said. “If I hadn’t been kicked out, I probably would have left immediately anyway.”

• By Winton Yee • The record $600 million Powerball Jackpot was announced to have been won

by Bill Gates. When asked what he would do with the money, Gates, a known philanthropist, stated he was “going to build an iron robot suit or something and save the world.”

• Maxim has named Hillary Clinton the “Hottest Woman Alive.” Stuyvesant Principal Jie Zhang came in at No. 88.

• In a recent meeting, Stuyvesant’s Model United Nations (MUN) condemned North Korea for its continuing refusal to use antibacterial soap in its nuclear testing facilities. “It’s absolutely repulsive,” MUN member Kim Sook said. “At this point, they’re asking for it.”

• Anthony Weiner was chosen as commencement speaker for the Stuyvesant Class of 2013.

• United States President Obama and Student Union President Adam Lieber met over a lunch of Rafiqi’s. Sources report they spent 40 minutes pointing and laughing at pedestrians less successful than them.

BOE Imposes Poll Tax and Literacy Tests For Elections

Justin Strauss / The Spectator

President Barack Obama was denied entry into Stuyvesant High School twice last month.

Background by Philip Shin ,Foreground Courtesy of Weasel Zippers

a second attempt to enter the building. This time, he seemed to be in the clear until he was pulled aside to be relentlessly criticized over the length of his tie, which did not extend beyond his wrists when he put his arms at his sides. “They told me that I’d never get married if I dressed that way,” Obama said in a 60 Minutes interview. After countless minutes of tying and untying, his garment reached the required length. Obama almost made it past the scanners until the guards took note of the coffee hidden inside his blazer pocket, and he was forced to exit the building yet again.

Later, Obama wrote a semiformal letter to the Stuyvesant Student Union (SU) asking it to reform the entrance system. “When I first received the letter, I thought it would be a great idea to actually do something, and decided to immediately forward the request to my peers,” SU President Adam Lieber said. However, the Lieber’s hopes were once again crushed when the SU cast a decisive vote against the new legislation.

“My first job as a Republican is to make sure that nothing the President ever proposes gets passed,” junior and SU member Austin Ostro said.

Newsbeat

In order to vote, underclassmen were discriminated against and forced to pay steep poll taxes during student government elections on Tuesday, June 4.

By Robert Melamed Earlier this week, the Board of Elections (BOE) made the decision to impose poll taxes and literacy tests on this year’s Junior and Senior Caucus and Student Union (SU) election. The BOE has decided to implement these tactics to reduce the number of underclassmen votes. “Think about it like this. If we can get 80 percent less underclassmen to vote, then the number of competent voters goes up by 350 percent,” junior and BOE member Eugene Lee said. “Trust me, I did the math myself.”

The BOE, however, is mainly targeting freshmen with these new rules. “We want to treat the freshmen like the second-rate students they are,” sophomore

and BOE member Kevin Yoo said while clasping his whip in one hand.

Many students and faculty were upset with the BOE’s decision to conduct literacy tests.

“No, no, English very bad. No can vote,” physics teacher Eugene Majewski said, unaware that faculty members were not allowed to vote in the election anyway.

Despite some backlash, the BOE believes these are the right measures to take to fairly conduct student government elections.

“Hopefully, the BOE will generate enough revenue from the poll taxes to be able to afford at least a few competent members next year,” SU Presidential candidate Edward Zilberbrand said.

Page 18

The Spectator ● June 7, 2013

Sports

Angele Huang / The Spectator

No Fame, Just Game

continued from page 20 The season before the Spurs drafted Duncan, they were an abysmal 20-62. They’ve won over 61percent of their games every season since with a 70percent winning percentage overall, giving Tim Duncan the highest individual winning percentage of any player who has played more than 1000 games. He has won rings with four very different rosters, two of which did not include another All-Star, and one of which had some guy named Francisco Elson in the starting lineup.

Most people recognize Duncan as a great winner, a consistent star, and a fundamentally complete player, but he’s more than that. He’s in that top tier with the likes of Michael Jordan and a select few other players. No other player has ever accomplished more with less. Only 13 times in NBA history has an All-NBA First Team player won a championship

without another teammate being named to either the First, Second, or Third All-NBA teams—in other words, carried his team to a title without another star player.

Tim Duncan did it four times. His 2003 supporting cast featured a decomposing, 37-year-old David Robinson, Malik Rose, Speedy Claxton, and the inexperienced trio of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Stephen Jackson (all of whom shot below 39percent from the field). In the championshipclinching game, Duncan recorded 21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists, and eight blocks in what ought to be considered one of the best individual performances of all-time.

Isn’t the ability to lift a mediocre team to greatness the best way to define excellence in basketball?

Finally, Duncan is one of only eight players in NBA history with a total of five combined Most Valuable Player and Finals MVP awards. The others: Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, LebronJames, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and Larry Bird. Tim Duncan’s credentials put him in that elite group, and it’s not debatable.

Tim Duncan is easily one of the ten greatest basketball players to ever live (maybe even in the top five), and nobody realizes it.

Maybe this NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat, a clash between Duncan, who always had a knack for staying out of the spotlight, and Lebron James, who couldn’t get his name out of the headlines if he tried, is Tim Duncan’s last chance to come up with a vintage performance and finally get the respect he deserves.

Girls’ Tennis

Lobsters Hope to Shed Fragile Shell for Next Year

By Annique Wong

Three years ago, anything less than city championship appearance by the Lobsters would have been considered a disappointment.

The team was on a four-year winning streak, winning the League A3 championship title each year. This year, after their three-year dry spell, the Lobsters were forced to settle with a decent run in the playoffs and no chance at the pennant.

During the 2012-2013 season, the Lobsters went 10-2, losing only to the Beacon Blue Demons in the regular season and making it to an underwhelming second-round playoff appearance. The heartbreaking losses during the regular season can be attributed to faulty play in both doubles matches of both games. The first doubles team consisted of juniors Aleksandra Stanisavljevic and Alicia Ng, while the second team consisted of seniors Irina Titova and Natalie Kozlova. In these four doubles matches, neither Lobster duo was able to contribute to the scoreboard.

One reason the doubles teams suffered this year was excessive experimentation with team combinations. As a result of testing the best groupings of team members, the duo teams never built chemistry.

Typically, members of the doubles teams were assigned partners only 30 minutes before a match and played with these partners for the first time during warm-ups. Experimentation in any sport can be beneficial. However, too much change

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mid-season can, as in this case, be harmful.

“In doubles, you have to build

“In doubles, you have to build a bond with your partner. It can’t just be built over a warm-up before the match starts.”

—Julia Gokhberg, sophomore and #1 singles a bond with your partner,” sophomore and #1 singles Julia Gokhberg said. “It can’t just be built over a warm-up before the match starts.”

The doubles teams are not the only ones at fault for an early end to the season. There were integrity issues that also affected the Lobsters’ performance this season. “There was a freshman projected to play #3 singles who did not play a single match due to a lack of maturity off the court, and a four-year starter who decided she only wanted to come to practice and matches on her own schedule,” coach Jeffrey

Menaker said. It is clear that the team members need to demonstrate more dedication and maturity in order to improve in future seasons.

As if enough issues didn’t plague the team this season, yet another subject of concern arose: leadership. “What’s missing is student leadership. Everyone wants to say they’re a team captain, but nobody wants to lead as captains do,” coach Menaker said. “That means speaking truth to your friends and teammates about their responsibilities. It means putting the team first in every situation from the beginning of the season to the end, not just the obvious moments during competition.”

Although the team still has a chance at some redemption in the Mayor’s Cup, a tournament in which they will encounter their regular-season rivals, it’s important that the Lobsters start planning for the 2013-2014 season. This June, six seniors will graduate, cutting the team roster in half. This loss will be bittersweet. Losing Dina Lévy-Lambert, a nationally ranked tennis player, will be a big blow to the team. But the reduction in size will force the remaining Lobsters to grow closer and reinvent their collective values.

There will be ten spots open for the incoming class of 2017, the largest number of opened spots since Menaker began coaching at Stuyvesant in 2009. It’s a big opportunity that will define the future of the Lobsters for good or for bad.

The Spectator ● June 7, 2013

Page 19

Sports

Anne Duncan / The Spectator

More Than a Mentor

Senior and captain of the boys’ track team Jack Stevenson hopes to carry his countless track achievements over to Harvard University’s track team next year.

By Samantha Lau He started off as a football player and ended up a track star.

After two months of recovering from an ankle injury, he returned at full strength. He juggled Intel, the notorious Stuyvesant workload, and track — he succeeded in all three. And he’s going to Harvard. Who is this superhuman?

Senior Jack Stevenson.

Stevenson is ranked fifth in the state for the mile and qualified for the Millrose Games, the most prestigious indoor track meet held in New York City, and the Loucks Games, the biggest invitational meet in the Northeast during the outdoor season. He is captain and role model for the Stuyvesant boys’ track team.

Stevenson started running at Booker T. Washington Middle School, where he was part of a track club and ran twice a week.

In freshman year, he was the running back on the Boys JV Football team. “Football wasn’t for me. I could have done it and end up okay in skill, but I didn’t see myself doing it,” Stevenson said.

The way Stevenson joined track is different from most people. Instead of voluntarily joining it, he became involved when Coach Mark Mendes, the coach of the track team, saw his Booker T. Washington track tee shirt from middle school and asked him to join. Stevenson ended up trying out for the team and proved to be a decent runner. Unlike other talented athletes, he did not start out the best of the team. He was mediocre during the indoor season, and had a good, but not great outdoor season — it was cut short when he hurt his ankle during a steeplechase. He was out for two months and returned for a good cross-country season. Coming into his sophomore year, Stevenson became engrossed in the culture of the team, which motivates everyone to do well and rejects half-heartedness.

Contrary to popular belief, being able to run is not the only thing that is needed to be on the team.

Along with some degree of talent, the whole team has to be able to survive extensive training, which includes practice five days a week with an optional practice on Sunday. These practices include long runs of up to 10 miles, “recovery runs” of four to six miles, and hill runs in Central Park. “Not everyone responds very well to the stuff we do. Being the right kind of person is important,” Stevenson said.

This mentality might be daunting for some, but it helped propel Stevenson even further.

The person responsible for Stevenson’s accomplishments is Coach Mendes, leader of the team through 38 straight borough championships and the person to whom Stevenson attributes his accomplishments. Knowing the stresses that Stuyvesant students face, Coach Mendes trains his runners around their busy schedules. “My job as a coach is to adapt scientific training principles to

the lack of facilities, academic overload and commuting time to school,” Coach Mendes said.

When the members of the team are unable to consult their coach for advice, they go to their captain, Stevenson. Though they look up to Stevenson, the role model himself doesn’t see a captain as being any different than a fellow teammate. He sees himself as a figure who simply states the obvious, or what any runner should know. What he contributes include important things to remember instead of groundbreaking insights. For example, some small tips he gives his teammates are to run straight through the finish line instead of slow down at the end, and “go easy on their easy runs, because it may be fun to go fast but it doesn’t actually make them faster,” Stevenson said.

After training for four years at Stuyvesant, Stevenson has made and broken many personal records. His personal bests for the 4000 and 5000 Meter Runs, 12:49.10 and 16:13.39. Since freshman year, Stevenson managed to cut off almost two minutes (from his 4000 Meter) and a minute (from his 5000 Meter) cut off his times. But although his personal records are impressive, his competitive records are quite significant as well. Out of all PSAL athletes this century, he had the fastest two-mile (3200M) time in the Glenn D. Loucks Games (9:12.20) and the fastest time in the mile in the Penn Relays Carnival (4:13.92). “Penn [Relays] is the pinnacle of track running and [Stevenson] was honored to be selected and also to place in the top 6 of the event,” junior Andrew Puopolo said.

The workout for cross country is the following: On Sunday, athletes run on their own — there is no formal practice. On Mondays, team members do long runs, or 10 miles in Central Park. On Tuesdays, team members do lactate threshold runs in Central Park building to 24 minutes at a pace slightly below the lactate thresh hold. On Wednesdays, there is a recovery run of four to six miles followed by six to eight strides at school. On Thursdays, there are hill repeats or long intervals in Central Park that total up to seven to eight miles. Finally, Friday ends with a short recovery run. Being on the team clearly requires a lot of endurance.

Even though Stevenson has been running since freshman year, he admits he doesn’t like racing. With a multitude of events in three different seasons, the constant intensity takes its toll on Stevenson’s body. “I don’t thrive in this environment which is why I think I’m going to be happier in college. You only race five times in a season compared to Stuy with 14 or 15 races. I have a habit of trying to race this much and burning out towards the end of the season,” Stevenson said.

Next year, Stevenson plans to run for Harvard’s Division I program; he has laid out his path next year, and he seems prepared for it. “It’s weird to know how many hours you’re spending on [track] every day for the next four years,” Stevenson said. “Coach keeps saying things like school comes first but track should be a close second. It’s like going out and getting your first apartment. You have to be really serious now and I’m ready for it.” Stevenson will begin his college running this summer at Harvard preseason.

Even though Stevenson is not a fan of being called a mentor, he is still proud to call himself a runner. “I love the sport. I don’t think taking a day off is something I would do unless I was injured,” Stevenson said. “I love practicing and easy runs. It’s a way of life. I don’t think I’m training for a sport, I’m just a runner.”

Boys’ Track

Greyducks Win with Ease

By Chris Kim and Eric Morgenstern Coming into the Manhattan Outdoor Borough Championship, the Greyducks, with a plethora of talented Stuyvesant

“It was expected, but it doesn’t mean that we didn’t work as hard as we did for the past years.”

— Brian Lui, sophomore

track stars, expected a relatively easy win against the other Manhattan teams. The team has won the Manhattan Outdoor Borough Championship

all 38 times in the past 13 years.

The team placed first in 7 out of 19 events, and additionally had top three finishes in all events but the Pentathlon, which led to an easy win for Stuyvesant.

Senior Jack Stevenson came out on top in the 3200-meter race by almost 18 seconds over his junior teammate Jeremy Karson, who followed up in second place. Senior Ian Outhwaite also greatly contributed to the team’s win, finishing first in both the 110-meter high hurdle race and the high jump. Freshman Jacob Faber Rico won his second 400 intermediate hurdle of the year, and senior Maxwell Berkow earned his first event win this season with the Discus Throw. The Greyducks also came out on top in the 4 x 100 relay and the 4 x 800 relay.

Stuyvesant came into the competition knowing that they were the favorites to win, and made sure not to disappoint.

“Stuyvesant has won boroughs for years,” sophomore Brian Lui, the triple jump third place recipient, said. “It was expected, but it doesn’t mean that we didn’t work as hard as we did for the past years. It’s the team’s hard work that makes the Borough Championship seem so easy.”

Fellow sophomore Frankie Li, who finished twelfth in the long jump, agrees with Lui. “I

felt that, although the win was expected, we showed our determination to keep our reputation as number one in the city,” he said.

But Stevenson gives most of the credit for the team’s success to its coach. “It’s all [Coach] Mendes,” he said. “His coaching has got us through 38 straight boroughs. We all work hard, and when we follow coach, it shows.”

One wouldn’t think that a sport like track heavily relies heavily on coaching; however, whenever the Greyducks follow Coach Mendes, success inevitably follows them.

Stevenson has very high standards for himself and his teammates, but he did not seem to think that the borough championship victory was a very big deal. “There was no serious competition in the race, so it was easy and fun, but it wasn’t one for the ages,” he said.

Though savoring the victory in the moment, the Greyducks’ freshmen and sophomores still have an event to work towards.

The PSAL Freshman/Sophomore City Championship is on May 27, and the team’s younger players must stay in shape to continue Stuyvesant’s dominance in New York City track and field events.

Boys’ Handball

Dragons Nearly Slayed, but Have Enough Fire to Blast Them to the Semifinals

By Jason Lee After winning both of their playoff games, the Stuyvesant Handball team, the Dragons, knew they were up for a tougher challenge when they faced off against the Midwood Hornets in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, May 21. Both teams came in confident, but only one triumphed in this tight, close game.

The match started with the second singles match, in which sophomore Young Kim and junior Long Yip gave the team some momentum. They started off slow, and the game was close, but after they took their first lead they began to serve more powerfully, which helped them win by a score of 21-13.

“I feel like the game today was very intense because Midwood is a solid team,” Yip said.

“We, as a team, were very resilient and held on.”

In the first singles, senior and co-captain Cody Tong started neck and neck until he took the lead. He then continued to hit the ball towards the right side of the court, a location where his opponent could not return the serve and shots.

By taking advantage of his opponent’s weakness, he was able to win the match 21-14.

“Cody won the first singles, a really important [game]. He’s been our best player and our leader of the team,” coach Robert Sandler said.

The Dragons had a com-

fortable 2-0 match lead, and needed only one more win to advance to the semifinals. The Hornets, however, did not give up without a fight. In the third singles, senior John Hu made costly errors, hitting the ball out of bounds multiple times—this ultimately cost him the game, as he lost 21-12.

Later, it was a 2-1 lead for the Dragons; their opponents were staying alive. First doubles brought the game to a tie. The Hornets’ serves brought sophomore Marco Liu and junior Wilson Li difficulties, and to combat the issue, they switched spots in an attempt to handle the serves better—but they were already too far behind.

The 21-6 defeat tied the match at 2-2, and it all came down to senior and co-captain Alexander Bu. Bu started the match off quickly and dominantly with a 10-1 run to start the game.

However, his opponent didn’t give up, and, taking advantage of Bu’s mistakes in returning his serves, made up the early deficit to tie the score at 19-19.

However, Bu remained poised and determined to win, scoring the final two points on hard shots to win the tensest match of the season 21-19. “[Bu] showed a lot of mental toughness and skill and he won,” Sandler said.

“Yesterday’s quarterfinal series was the most intense we’ve had all season. It was great how we pulled through during our

last match and closed out the series with a 3-2 win,” Tong said.

The win gives the Dragons a lot of momentum when they

“I’m really proud of them for getting to the semifinals without four starters from last year.”

— Robert Sandler, coach

square off against Bayside High School, the number one ranked school. Last season, the Dragons got into the finals for the first time in school history, but lost to Bayside in the finals.

This rematch is certainly one to anticipate.

“This is a rematch and it’s very dramatic. I think we can definitely win,” Sandler said.

“We need the starters to play to their abilities and play the best game they can play.”

June 7, 2013

Page 20

The Spectator SpoRts

Sports Wrap-Up

Boys’ Golf

Left) The Eagles, Stuyvesant’s Boys’ Golf Team, continues deep into this year’s playoffs under coach Emilio Nieves’s guidance; (Right) Junior Takeshi Fukui positions to take a swing during playoffs.

By Luke Morales As one of Stuyvesant’s most successful teams, it’s surprising that the Eagles, Stuyvesant’s boys’ golf team, don’t get as much publicity as do other, less successful teams. Consistently making the playoffs since the team’s beginning in 2007, the Eagles have repeatedly demonstrated their dominance in PSAL, winning nearly 70 matches with a score of 5-0.

From the team’s beginning, coach Emilio Nieves has carried the Eagles, instilling confidence and skills through his frequent practices and coaching style. “I always thought we had a championship team,” Nieves said. “It has just never really manifested.

I have a really good feeling about this team though, more so than previous years.”

However, the success of the

team can also be attributed to the resolve and devotion the Eagles have always demonstrated. “Our success is based on the effort and dedication of our team,” freshman and #1 player Niel Vyas said.

“We have extremely strong players who both support each other and provide encouragement.”

After finishing the season undefeated—a road often traversed by the Eagles—Stuyvesant was given the number two seed in the playoffs. In their first round match, the Eagles faced the Robert F. Kennedy Panthers, routing them easily in a 5-0 match and advancing to the quarterfinals.

Over the past five years, the Eagles have unwaveringly made it to the quarterfinals, but have been unable to bypass that threshold. “Every year, we would make it to quarters, and then lose 3-2 in heartbreaking fashion,” Nieves said.

However, for the first time since 2007, the Eagles defeated their quarterfinal matchup, the Midwood Hornets, in a decisive 4-1 game, thus breaking the fiveyear dry spell and advancing to the semi finals.

In the semis, the Eagles realized they would face a monolithic challenge in their next opponent—Tottenville High School.

The Tottenville Pirates have won the championship title for the past three years and are widely recognized as the best team in PSAL. To compound the challenge, many of the Stuyvesant players had rarely practiced on the course that the match was scheduled on.

“The course is a vital part of the game,” junior and #5 player Takeshi Fukui said. “If a team is used to a course, they know which shots to hit and how to play each hole, but little irregularities unique to each course can mess up anyone new to a course.”

Yet, in almost fairytale fashion, the Eagles overcame the aforementioned challenges and routed the Pirates with a score of 4-1, securing a spot in the championship match against Staten Island Tech. With masterful coaching, talented players, and great resolve, the Eagles couldn’t buy better chances if they wanted to.

“Right now, we are playing very well, as good as anyone,” Nieves said. “We are peaking at the right time. The team is confident and they don’t seem afraid of the moment.”

No Fame, Just Game

CREDIT / The Spectator

Courtesy of Emilio Nieves

Off To the Ship!

By Lev Akabas We remember everyone in the upper echelon of all-time NBA players for very specific reasons: Bill Russell for winning (11 championships), Wilt Chamberlain for mind-blowing statistics (100 points and 25 rebounds in a single game), Magic Johnson for flashy style, Larry Bird for being white (and versatile), Lebron James for never-before-seen athleticism (a 6’9’’, 250-pound human with a 40inch vertical leap and a 20 mph top speed simply should not exist), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for scoring the most points in NBA history (most of which were via sky-hook), and Michael Jordan for all of the above (well, except being white).

San Antonio Spurs’ power forward Tim Duncan has something that sets him apart as well, something that should also grant him a spot in the NBA’s top tier: consistency.

Per 36 minutes, Duncan has averaged between 17 and 23 points, between 10.5 and 12.5 rebounds, and between 48percent and 55percent field goal shooting in every single one of his 16 seasons. His statistics year to year

look faked due to their uniformity.

Duncan’s longevity is even more remarkable. He averaged at least 17 points, nine rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 2.5 blocks per game both at age 21 and at age 36 (15 years apart!), making him both the youngest player by two years and the oldest by two years to ever have such a season. That same durability has allowed him to become the first player to ever make the Finals with the same team 14 seasons apart. Furthermore, he has aged more gracefully than any player in league history. In his 20s, he averaged 21 points, 11.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.4 blocks per 36 minutes, while shooting 51percent from the field. In his 30s, he has averaged 20.2 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2.2 blocks per 36 minutes while still shooting 51percent from the field.

Those last two sentences are eerily similar.

It is not a surprise that Duncan’s consistency isn’t as praised by the media or the fans as, for example, Wilt Chamberlain’s individual statistics. After all, why would anyone notice a player who throws up 20-10 every game, rarely having an off night or an offensive explosion? Yet despite how easy it is to overlook Duncan’s greatness due to its unwavering nature, that Duncan is rarely extolled doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve to be.

Besides his consistency, there are other reasons that Duncan is never talked about. He never went through a slump, never threw a teammate under the bus (despite his comically poor cast of teammates some years), never asked for a trade or more money, never gave himself a nickname, never appeared in commercials, and was loved by his teammates. Have you ever seen “Tim Duncan” and “Breaking News” in the same headline? Have you ever even seen him quoted in a news article? When it comes to his legacy, Duncan is penalized because he doesn’t tweet

like Kobe Bryant, have the personality of Shaquille O’Neal, appear on the top ten plays of the day. He doesn’t have any drama surrounding him.

Tim Duncan is like the quiet kid in the back of the classroom who churns out 94s every term, never hands in an assignment late, does community service after school, and is a great group member because of his reliability. Tim Duncan’s getting a better college recommendation than the student who gets 100s on almost every test but half-asses some homework, talks during class, has poor attendance, and allows his grades to slip during junior year because he can’t handle the pressure.

This is why the San Antonio Spurs’ owner would have to have at least 15 drinks before you’d have a chance at convincing him to even consider trading Tim Duncan. That can only be said about Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Bob Cousy, and John Havlicek.

Even all-time greats Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Shaquille O’Neal, Julius Erving, Kevin Garnett, Charles Barkley, and Oscar Robertson were traded during their primes.

Tim Duncan has been denigrated for being boring throughout his career. Off the court, he is boring, but on the court, he is anything but.

His game has no holes. Offensively, he can shoot from anywhere within 20 feet of the basket, run a pick-and-roll to perfection, take anyone to school in the low post, and pass out of the post. At the other end of the floor, he is fourth all-time in defensive rebounds and eighth all-time in blocked shots.

Every single superstar except Michael Jordan had some flaw. Not Tim Duncan. continued on page 18

The Eagles, Stuyvesant’s boys’ golf team, remain undefeated, winning their quarterfinal playoff match against Midwood and semifinal showdown against Tottenville. They advance to the championship game to face Staten Island Tech, a team that lost to Tottenville during the regular season, making the Eagles the favorites to win the city title.

Stuyvesant’s boys’ handball team, the Dragons, lost in the semifinals against the handball juggernaut and number one-seeded Bayside Commodores, the team that went on to win the PSAL Championship.

Stuyvesant’s cricket team, the Tigers, despite finishing the season with a disappointing 3-9 record, won three of its last six games, including the season finale against Bronx Science, a 108-70 victory in which senior and captain Vinit Shah scored 51 runs.

Despite being plagued by injuries that limited their success at the PSAL City Championships, the Greyducks, Stuyvesant’s boys’ track team, featured several outstanding performers. Senior Ian Outhwaite cleared 5 feet and 10 inches in the high jump, good enough for third place, and junior Henrik Lempa-Cho placed fourth in the javelin with a throw of 130 feet and 4 inches.

Stuyvesant’s girls’ handball team, the Furies, lost in the quarterfinals of the playoffs after winning ten games for the second straight season.

Stuyvesant’s girls’ fencing team, the Vipers, lost its first postseason match by only one touch, 38-37, after going 7-3 in the regular season.

Senior Janie Ou Yang finished fourth in the 1500-meter race walk at the PSAL City Championships with a time of 7:52.49.

Girls’ Handball

Furies’ Success Based on Determination and Support

By David Rothblatt “We’re not training for a sport — we’re doing something we love with people we love,” senior and co-captain Jasmine Li said.

It is this cohesion and love for handball that formed the foundation of the team’s successful 10-2 season. Though the team was hoping for an undefeated season, only an unexpected forfeit and one close loss to Bronx Science prevented them from achieving this goal. The Furies’ regular season dominance secured them the seventh seed in the playoffs.

They were able to advance to the quarterfinals for the third time in the last four years, having being eliminated earlier last season.

A good amount of the Furies’ success is thanks to their work ethic, support for one another, and philosophy concerning being a part of a team: “Practice is something we enjoy, and we often stay so long that the custodians have to kick us out before we actually go home,” senior and cocaptain Jenny Chen said. “Last year, there was somewhat of a division between upper and lower classmen. But this year, that has disappeared and the team is truly a cohesive unit.”

As the playoffs drew nearer, the players understood that they had to have a different approach: “We needed to start channeling more of our energy into games and strategies. We had to calm down, keep ourselves grounded, and focus on winning more than just having fun,” Li said. “The moods of the team members and coach definitely changed as playoff season came closer, and the stress was evident at some times, but we played to the best of our abilities [and] always kept our heads up.”

The Furies, however, ultimately fell in the quarterfinals to Fort Hamilton, a team that certainly outmatched the Furies.

They lost four of the five matches by at least 15 points and were

dominated to a degree that they had not experienced all season.

“We knew going in that Fort was going to be a hard team to beat,” Chen said.

However, when it was clear the match wasn’t going well for the Furies, they refused to throw in the towel like other teams may have done: “A couple of the girls got a little nervous, but other than that, they fought hard for every ball,” Wisotsky said. “They know that no game is over until the last point is scored. As Yogi Berra once said, ‘it ain’t over till it’s over’”.

With another successful season under their belts, the team already has high hopes for next season. That being said, they also know that improvements can be made to make the team stronger.

“Next year the focus will be to develop physically as well as mentally. A good physical player also needs to be a smart player. We will work to develop higher level skills and develop the strategies of when to use them,” Wisotsky said.

This season, the Furies were able to find a winning formula through dedication, hard work, and a supportive, family-like environment. However, the Furies’ success has plateaued over the past three seasons due to the inability of the team to translate regular season prowess into playoff victories. Since 2010, the team is 29-3 in the regular season, but just 2-3 in the postseason.

However, the second doubles pairing of current juniors Ada Cen and Ida Huang, winning six of eight matches this season, showed chemistry that they can carry over to next year. Sophomore and first singles player Karen Huang also went 6-2 this year and was the only Stuyvesant player to nearly pull off an upset against Fort Hamilton, so she, with two seasons still remaining, will certainly lead the Furies next season in their try at a deep playoff run.