El Camino Real Charter High School November 20, 2012Volume 43, Issue 6

N S E D I :I

KING’S COURIERStudents learn how the economy works in different countries

Economic Summit El Camino remembers to give

back during this year’sThanksgiving season.

know to seem smart.

Your brain on news!

What you need to

Sources predict that Twinkies will return to stores, just under a company other than Hostess.

Studies show that bright lights may lead to depres-sion.

Xi Jinping is the new ruler of China’s Communist Party, and will most likely replace President Hu Jinatao when his term comes to an end.

-CNN

D I D Y O U K N O W ?

-TIME.com-CNN

FDA investigates the en-ergy supplement after three deaths have been directly related to the shot.

-TIME.com

Photo courtesy of Andrew Thai

-page 2 -page 10

By GOLNAZ GUIVATCHIAN

Key Club members sported their pufferfish mascots in yellow and blue at the Fall Rally at Mag-ic Mountain on November 10.

Key Club is a lunch-time club at ECR which volunteers time and raises money for causes such as UNICEF.

Other schools in Hawaii, Cali-fornia and Nevada also have their own divisions.

ECR’s Key Club division, 25 West, won the spirit stick, which is awarded to the most spirited division.

Key Club has been raising money for the Pediatric Trauma Prevention organization since April. The Fall Rally is where all divisions of Key Club in Cali-fornia and Nevada get together to celebrate all of their accom-plishments and the money they have raised for the cause. ECR’s Key Club has raised $2,000 since April.

“The most interesting thing I did to exude spirit was when I

Key Club attends the annual Fall Rally South spirit session at Magic Mountain. Key Clubbers performed their signature “eight-clap” cheer which brought the spirit stick home to Division 25 West, the district containing El Camino as well as surrounding schools.

Key Club celebrates at Magic Mountain

5 Hour Energy Unsafe? Dim the lights Twinkies will make a comebackChina under new leadership

Make sure to appreciate

-centerspread

Profile on Olympian

was on stage. I put up a heart and my whole division put up hearts as well,” Key Club Division 25 West’s Lieutenant Governor, ECR senior Andrew Thai, said.

Key Club vice president Negin Fadaee said that Thai has been dreaming of winning the spirit stick for his division for a long time, especially since our region’s Key Club won second place last year.

“My favorite moment was when our division, 25 West, won the session two spirit stick,” Fa-daee said. “It was even more memorable for Andrew Thai.”

ECR is under Division 25 West and has the puffer fish as its mascot.

A persistent stereotype at El Camino is that Key Club is all Asian, Thai said that differs from school to school. “Although many people assume that Key Club is just for Asians, there are just more Asian people in our specific divi-sion,” Thai said. “Other divisions are dominated by other races. Some are mostly Mexicans.”

Olympic champion wrestler opens up in interview

Model UN attends UCLA conventionBy CHRISTINE YUEN

After a couple months of dili-gent preparation, the ECR Model United Nations club attended the much anticipated two-day Bruin MUN Conference held at UCLA.

The ECR club brought a team of 30 students, each representing delegates from a foreign country, on Saturday, Nov. 17 and Sunday, Nov. 18, to the competition that annually attracts 1,300 delegates from around the world.

This year, Model UN beat its previous record of awards at any conference it has attended, the club brought home seven awards, three delegate awards and four re-search awards.

The most prestigious award, Best Delegation, was given to freshman Elnaz Guivatchian and junior Libin Kuriakose; senior Jacob Burman won the Outstand-ing Delegate Award, and seniors Joshua Villarreal and Jenny Chi won the Commendation Award.

“I took immediate control of the committee and made sure everyone in the room knew my [country’s position],” Villarreal said, recalling the reason for his success in the conference. Yet, while making sure others knew he was competition, Villarreal also

had fun meeting the delegates and making memories with his MUN family. He said they told “horrid, corny jokes” and had fun during the breaks.With similar feelings of ECR ca-maraderie and her own methods o f w i n n i n g a n a w a r d , Guivatchian, one of 14 new members, also shares her pride in working with such a “hardwork-ing team,” as well as her belief that “persistence in debating” is crucial.

Another challenge for a Mod-el UN team is writing position papers before the actual confer-ence. The best papers are given research awards.

Junior Golnaz Guivatchian and senior Lisa Bauman, juniors Manali Kulkarni and Farah Najib, freshmen Vanessa Phan and Me-dinah Najib, and seniors Kayla Aihara and Yasmin Torabi re-ceived research awards.

“I am in charge of teaching members how to write position papers,” junior and vice president of MUN Golnaz Guivatchian said.

“The fact that so many people won proves that we have a prom-ising team this year.” Because the team did much better than in previous years, UCLA will most

Golnaz Guivatchian/King’s Courier

Model UN team members Vistaa Farkhondehh, Rick Chattopadhyay, Jacob Burman, Libin Kuriakose, Riley Franklin, Kaley Cheng, Farah Najib, Vanessa Phan, Elnaz Guivatchian, Aria Mohseny, Madinah Najib, Emily Edgerton, Lisa Bauman, Josh Villarreal, Sami Delbick, Yasmin Torabi, Katrina Franklin, Manali Kulkarni, Ashley Yun and Golnaz Guivatchian gather together in front of one of the UCLA committee buildings for the annual BRUIN MUN high school conference. The conference annually attracts 1,300 MUN members from around the world.

likely assign ECR to richer, and more well-known countries next year.

“Everyone put his or her all into this conference,” said club co-president Jenny Chi, with a mile, adding that their efforts re-ally shined. “I’m so excited for our next conferences, and I think with more training, we can earn even more awards.”

The team has three more con-

ferences scheduled for the rest of the year: the Global Classrooms’ UCLA Model United Nations Conference, Berkeley Model United Nations Conference, and El Camino Real Model United Nations Conference.

Replicating the mock MUN conference Chi and other club co-president senior Dahlerbruch hosted privately at ECR last year, they hope to make the event, called

ECR MUN, an annual tradition to help their club members become more comfortable with the MUN procedures and achieve greater success in the future. The MUN members who went to UCLA are part of the MUN club that meets Mondays at lunch in B118.

The members had to apply and then have an interview. Over 50 members applied to go and 28 were chosen.

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Photo Courtesy of Robin Stigers

Annual food drive continues Thanksgiving tradition

With the holiday season here to stay, and more difficult than ever to ignore, many are in frantic preparation.

Many people use these pre-cious pre-holiday times to stress out over expenses and debate over gift giving.

On the other hand, some use this time to forget about their own problems and give to others.

Dean of students Wendy Treu-haft is hosting her annual Thanks-giving basket drive again to help out local families in need.

She has been holding this Thanksgiving drive for the past six years.

In this annual drive, Treuhaft collaborates with the staff as well as El Camino students to assem-ble turkey dinner baskets.

The baskets include a com-plete Thanksgiving dinner: a frozen turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, vegetables, and more, all stored in a plastic laun-dry basket.

Before the drive began, Treu-haft asked teachers to nominate students and staff members they knew were having financial trou-bles and could be greatly affected by one of these baskets.

The goal is to help people with struggling families who may not

be able to afford a Thanksgiving dinner. All of these names were kept private.

Treuhaft hopes to provide each of these families a Thanks-giving dinner.

With all of the names submit-ted, she plans on filling 48 baskets to give away.

Students and staff were en-couraged to donate anything they could to support the project.

Donations that she accepted included money, gift cards, and food.

Every donation was gracious-ly accepted and contributed to the drive.

The main goal is to allow ev-ery family a Thanksgiving meal.

Treuhaft and her helpers be-gan putting the baskets together on Monday, and plan to give them out as soon as possible.

Treuhaft is not only using this food drive to help out struggling families, but also to create a giv-ing community within the school.

“I believe that everybody wants to give, particularly at the holidays,” Treuhaft said.

“Sometimes they hesitate to give because they don’t know where their donations are going. However, this project gives them the opportunity to give and know their donations are going directly to El Camino families,” Treuhaft added.

By MAURINE LAMBERT

Thanksgiving Break, No School

Mr. El Camino Rehearsal

Varsity Football Banquet

By CLARE RAMIREZ

Photo Courtesy of Emily Gilbert

Belgium wins Economic Summit; Peru, Hungary tied for second

Seniors Vanessa Vasquez, Sidnie Thomas, Anisha Weeras-inghe and Emily Gilbert pose for a picture at the Economics Summit. The group represented Greece in the Summit and dressed appropriately in togas strategically made from bed sheets. The group pictured above is in Jennifer Rosenthal’s Economics class, but many other economics classes participated in the event, excluding all AP classes.

(Above) The Stigers family -- Robin, Anat, Pete, P.J. and Sarah, along with their friend Shelby Silverman, were just one of many families at Dodger Stadium for the annual Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation benefit walk on Sunday, Nov. 11. (Left) English teacher, Natasha Zwick walks with her family team, Believing for Barry.

Dressed in cultural garments and bringing in a variety of ethnic food, seniors in economics class-es participated in the annual Eco-nomic Summit on Wednesday, Nov. 14, during periods 1-4.

Each group of students repre-sented a country and were to ac-curately demonstrate their coun-try’s economic policies and form trade alliances with each other.

Winners of the Economic Summit are typically announced at the end of the event or by the following day. This year, how-ever, winners were not revealed until Monday due to some cheat-ing during the summit, economics teacher Robert Boyle said.

“In order to try to make it more fair to the seniors who didn’t cheat, we had to take a few vari-ables out of the judging criteria, especially money,” Boyle said.

He added that variables such

as the groups’ trade issues and costumes were given more con-sideration, in an attempt to make it more “wholistic.”

“It was more subjective than what I would have liked,” Boyle said, “but we really had to take money out of the equation.”

After adding up all the points, first place went to Belgium, rep-resented by seniors Seamus Sul-livan, Feras Morad, Damian Miranda and Leah Overseen.

Seniors Manuel Seraydarian, Cora Chan and Rebecca Simon represented Peru, and seniors Matt Anderson, Brandon Cagle, Derek Gomez, and Brandon In-atomi represented Hungary. Both countries received second place.

Jamaica and Kenya shared third place. The former was rep-resented by seniors Jerrad Guba-ni, Timothy Holcombe, Aaron Broctman and Chris Cerda, and the latter by Gabriel Fernando, Logan Sturney, Brandon Matsuda

and Houston Oyarbide.“Aside from the fact that it

was really crowded, it was over-all an amazing experience,” said Sullivan, who was part of the Bel-gium group. “I liked seeing the many costumes, and it was nice to know that people really liked [my group’s] trade proposals.”

Anderson, who was part of the Kenya group, shared that while he had a lot of fun at the summit, he also thought it was “a bit unor-ganized.”

“It was very rowdy, and a lot was very biased, especially because it was peer-judged,” he said.

Boyle said that because of the subjectiveness of peer judging, he will “reinstitute parent judging,” as it has been in the past.

“There were some complaints about the peer judging, and we’re definitely going to try new things for next spring to fix that,” he said.

Photo Courtesy of Natasha Zwick

3NEWS November 20, 2012

CLUB CORNER: TeenAge Republicans

TeenAge Republicans president Jung Won Kim leads the discussion during a club meeting. The TeenAge Republicans meet Thursdays at lunch in Z-5, where they create a unique mix of politics and community service.

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Although many clubs at ECR are community service based, TeenAge Republicans mixes community service and politics.

TeenAge Republicans club is indirectly sponsored by the Republican Party.

TARS and Young Repub-licans two youth wings of the GOP.

“The club’s main goal this year was to do everything we could, like volunteering, to help Republican candidates get elected,” TARS president Jung Won Kim said. “We weren’t ex-actly successful this year but we tried our best.”

The club has been intern-

apps because it shows that the students are informed and active in the political world, which af-fects everything in America.”

Now that the major elec-tions are over, TARS will focus on the mayoral race that begins in March. On election night, Kim attended an election party for Todd Zinc, the California Republican candidate for Sen-ate. He said that meeting Zinc was his favorite experience.

Although most of the club’s activities are outside of school, the members still discuss poli-tics and future plans in the club. TeenAge Republicans meets every Thursday at lunch in Spanish teacher Fabiana Cavil-eris’ room, Z-5.

ing and volunteering at the San Fernando Valley headquarters where it goes door to door and makes phone calls to solicit for the Republican Party.

“I started it because I found that there were no other student organizations in our school that provided a place where conser-vative students can discuss their beliefs and work together to pro-mote Republican ideals,” Kim said.

Most of the club consists of Republicans, but some are inde-pendents.

“Students should join if they have the same or similar beliefs as the Republican Party and also if they want to actively help the Party,” Kim said. “This club is also a great boost on college

By GOLNAZ GUIVATCHIAN

Alexandria House founder shares her storyBy ELNAZ GUIVATCHIANContributing Writer

On an average night in Los Angeles, 84,000 people are homeless. Judy Vaughan has been fighting this problem for many years. Born on August 8, 1945, in Los Angeles, the third generation Angelino decided to found a shel-ter to reduce the number of home-less people.

“I am an activist, so a lot of my life has been spent trying to work for social change,” Vaughan says. Vaughan founded the Alexandria House Shelter in downtown Los Angeles for women and children in September 1996.

When Vaughan was younger, she wanted to be a nurse, but now realizes it would be a bad choice since she doesn’t like seeing peo-ple suffer. Growing up in the ‘50s pre-feminist days, she says that there weren’t many options for young women.

Vaughan went to Cathedral Chapel Middle School and St. Mary’s Academy for high school. She went on to Mt. St. Mary’s College for a degree in sociol-ogy. She also went to San Diego State University for her master’s in sociology and the University of Chicago for a Ph.D. in social ethics.

When Vaughn was 20, her sister escaped from domestic vio-lence.

Vaughan worked at the House of Ruth in East LA, so she says her family was not really sur-prised when she decided to found

Golnaz Guivatchian/King’s Courier

No-Shave November supports cancer

Things are getting hairy at El Camino as the month of Novem-ber wears down.

For those who aren’t aware, November is when students and staff are encouraged to go a month without shaving to pro-mote awareness for prostate can-cer, one of the most common and lethal forms of cancer in men.

Although this seems like a tra-dition that will always be around the campus, it is relatively new as we only started participating in this quirky activity since last year.

Assistant principal Suki Dhillon was the man who first brought this national movement to El Camino, which should sur-prise no one, as he also came up with Wednesday’s Words of Wis-dom.

“I started the tradition because overall there are issues that men have to deal with that we can-not discuss,” he said. “Doing things like this can help men deal with these problems.”

People participate in No Shave November for various reasons.

Dhillon decided to focus this hairy month on prostate cancer awareness. “We decided to focus on prostate cancer because No-Shave November is all about masculinity,” Dhillon said. “Since women aren’t physically affected by prostate cancer, it seemed like a good focus.”

Though not shaving one’s beard is what most people think about when they hear

By ETHAN MILLMAN

a shelter. She says they were more surprised when she left her teach-ing job at Mt. St. Mary’s after getting her Ph.D. and deciding to work full time at shelters.

“The car has become the new affordable housing,” Vaughan says. When a spot does open up at the shelter, she says it is hard to pick whom to accept. The board committee at the shelter looks to see if they have any other re-sources such family willing to take them, if they have very limit-ed resources, or if they are having a hard time looking for a shelter that will take them in.

This program has so far helped 149 families and the shelter is still in touch with 115 of the families. Vaughan says of that group, 82 percent are in permanent housing and many of them come back to volunteer themselves.

The Alexandria Shelter has also been featured on the reality television show Secret Million-aire. From the show, the shelter has gotten many small donations, volunteers, and touching letters from people who have escaped domestic violence.

In the future, the shelter would like to strengthen the job compo-nent, start a catering business, and get another apartment.

Vaughan says that working with the shelter women is very rewarding. “I have had a very blessed life,” Vaughan says.

(Above) Celina Beckham, Paige Tendler, Laylee Abedi, Quethzali Coronado, Madison Sidoti, Rachel Hambly, Samantha Scherer, Alexandra McMurray and Ayla Morton prepare to go on their limo for the homecoming dance.“The best part of homecoming was when I got In-N-Out with my limo after the dance,” sophomore Filamena said. (Right) Aria Mohseny and Meena Qayum pose at the homecoming dance at the California Market Center.

Elnaz, a freshman in Journal-ism 1, hopes to join the King’s Courier staff next semester. Photo Courtesy of Aria Mohseny

Photo Courtesy of Rachel Hambly

“No-Shave November,” Dhillon was happy to say, “It would be awesome to see the girls not shave their legs for the month.”

So as the month of Novem-ber settles down, and the beards keep getting longer, it is neces-sary to remember that while we look different, almost homeless, with anything from heavy peach fuzz to a heavy beard, it is all to support research and awareness about an illness people hope will be stopped, one beard at a time.

4 November 20, 2012OPINION

Are Macs really better than PCs?PRO CONBy JUSTIN HOANGBy SARAH STIGERS

With the newest editions of Mac-books and iPhones and iPads -- oh, my -- it’s hard not to fall in love with Apple’s sleek, elegant style, paired with an easy user interface. In other words, once you go Mac, you never go back. Hash tag, first world problems.

Procuring an iPhone through months of begging or working can be an enlight-ening experience. It is comparable to the literary allusion to Plato’s cave; once one leaves the cave -- in this case, of vari-ous flip-phones that never seem to break -- and sees the “light of day,” being the iPhone and the possibilities it holds, one can never return to his cave and continue to be content with his current means of technology. Our ignorance has been shat-tered; thank you, Steve Jobs.

As shallow as possessing a dynamic duo, or even a trifecta of Apple products may seem, the reality is that if you treat these products right, they will last quite some time. Mac computers, whether they be of the book, desk, pro or air type, can be seen in the arms or on the desks of students ranging from middle school to college, and are heavily integrated in the business world.

Macs or PCs? How is that even a question? When it comes to raw power, there’s just no competition. There’s a rea-son why the majority of computers in the world are PCs. They’re fast, they’re du-rable and they’re affordable. From desk-tops to laptops, and phones to tablets, Microsoft has it all.

When it comes to buying a computer, price is a big factor. Who wants to spend $1,000 for a sub-par computer when PCs of equal or better ability are available for half the price? Much of the hardware in a Mac is exactly the same as a PC, such as Intel processors, NVIDIA graphics, DDR3 memory and other components.

Software. It’s what runs our comput-ers. Whether it is Microsoft Word or the full-fledged Adobe Suite, it’s the crucial element in our productive workflow of everyday life. More specifically there is a noticeably significant difference between the amounts of software for PC versus Mac.

Although gradually decreasing due to many companies begrudgingly convert-ing their million lines of code into Apple-Script, software for the PC is so much more available. Even if Mac versions of

Even our own King’s Courier and El Camino Reality staffs are part of the Mac family, as the newsroom is scattered with various Macbooks and lined with donated desktops which have helped both staffs achieve awards and honorable mentions in many competitions.

An additional perk of being a “Mac” is the option of being able to buy, install and update the newest software available without actually buying a new computer. My personal Macbook, bought in 2007, has hung in there thus far with the help of multiple updates. So long, in fact, that this specific model isn’t even available for purchase in stores any longer, and still sufficiently runs the Adobe CS3 Suite and Google Chrome smoothly. I also doubt that any PC could look as nifty with a Snow White decal on the front.

Although this battle between devout Mac and PC users seems like a constant battle of “anything you can do, I can do better,” with the one-ups and product-bashing commercials, the real percep-tion of which is the superior brand is the satisfaction of costumers. Judging by the number of happy selfies from iPhone users on Instagram, one can conclude that Apple is living up to their high expectations.

these same programs are released, they are most often delayed for months, if not years. Though programs such as ‘Cross-over’ are used to run Windows programs on Macs, they just aren’t the same.

There’s a reason why most “tech guys” prefer PCs. We like that we can customize our computer to our specifi-cations and not take what Apple wants to shove down our throats. We can up-grade our graphics card to devour the next game. We can upgrade our hard drive gets filled up with all those fam-ily photos. The upgradeable options are endless.

As a computer technician, I often carry a work PC laptop to scheduled on-site appointments as opposed to using my personal MacBook, as I find things to be much simpler with the PC compatibility and functionality on broken unknown networks.

So why do people choose Macs over PCs? I’ll admit, their designs are sleek and elegant, and their aluminum unibody keeps it nice and cool while stylish. But paying double the price for a PC hidden in an aluminum body, with a few more tricks and a glowing apple symbol on the front isn’t worth it.

PCs are the computers of champions.

America’s position on potBy BRIT-EL GIBSON

For California, a less-than-strict attitude toward marijuana is nothing new. In fact, according to a study conducted by the Research and Development Corporation, California smokes around one-seventh of all the pot smoked in the United States. For many, the state’s infamous tolerance toward weed is part of what solidifies a sense of pride in identifying as a Californian.

California was the first state to establish a medical marijuana program brought about by a vot-ers’ petition with Proposition 215 in 1996. The bill let people with lasting, painful medical condi-tions light up, and later in 2003, Senate Bill 420 clarified the scope of Proposition 215 and generally simplified things. All marijuana use is still illegal under federal law however, and until recently, recreational marijuana use was il-legal in all states.

But on Election Day, despite the prohibitionist federal attitude, Colorado and Washington voters approved measures to legalize pot for recreational use—for adults 21 and up to possess, buy, sell and grow it.

Colorado’s Amendment 64 requires not only a 15% excise tax on pot, but that the first $40 million in revenue generated an-nually from the tax go to funds for construction projects for pub-lic schools.

Washington’s equivalent, Initiative 502, would earmark their pot-tax revenue for sub-stance-abuse prevention, re-search, education and health care.

Such use of funds addresses anti-legalization concerns in an undeniably diplomatic fashion. It also touches on a powerful point—for a nation with our debt, it seems wasteful to pour money into trying to make people stop smoking and keeping people in prison because of it.

There’s also the fact that pot is criminal while cigarettes and alcohol are not, two substances which cause lung cancer and

are responsible for many deaths. These substances are legal and taxed, but are far more risky than marijuana.

Marijuana has fewer carcino-gens than cigarettes, and is gener-ally less harmful to one’s health in comparison to other mind-al-tering drugs.

The federal government has not outwardly opposed these ac-tions, but has not taken steps to put their support behind it either.

Washington Governor Christine Gregoire said to the Associated Press that as things are, Washington plans to implement decriminal-ization—decriminalization just means making marijuana not a crime—but that she doesn’t want to spend a lot of money starting something if the federal govern-ment is going to try to block it.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, slightly more tongue-in-cheek, said that the voters’ voice needs to be respect-ed and that the state intends to do so—but “federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don’t break out the Cheetos or Goldfish too quickly.” He also posed for a picture with legaliza-tion advocate Ean Seeb at a mu-seum fundraiser, holding bags of Cheetos and Goldfish.

Marijuana legalization is still pretty shaky, and federal govern-ment response isn’t set in stone quite yet. But the fact that two states democratically approved recreational pot use is a little ex-citing—it reminds us of our own power.

Coming from someone who believes the presidential elections are a sick joke, the recent victo-ries in Washington and Colorado put a smile on my face.

For both the partakers in ganja and those who don’t smoke, and disregarding any individual ethi-cal arguments, this is a testament to the fierce, effective power of citizens getting politically active on a local level and changing not just their own situation, but the entire nation’s.

So with this still fresh in everyone’s minds, who knows which states will be next?

Once you go Mac, you never go back PCs are the one and only

By CLARE RAMIREZ

This Saturday, I had the plea-sure of performing at Disneyland with ECR’s Camerata and choir. After our performance, we were free to roam the park and do as we pleased.

At a completely random point during the day, I wandered off to admire the splendor of my sur-roundings. Before Saturday, it had been almost two years since my last visit to Disneyland, and I had forgotten how the park natu-rally emits a euphoric sense of imagination and mystery.

Slowly breathing in that allur-ing aura, I wondered what exactly it is about the Disney enterprise that enchants people of every generation. As my eyes jumped from one attraction to another, I realized what they had in com-mon: they reflect the true essence of Disney movies.

It then dawned on me that Disney’s ability to captivate hearts and minds comes from its unmatched talent for storytelling through its remarkable movies.

As a ‘90s baby, born during the Disney Renaissance, I pride myself on growing up with such motion picture classics. To this day, I enjoy watching these mov-ies, even having memorized every

line and every song of Beauty and the Beast, Hercules and Aladdin, to name a few.

Yet I have never wondered why this is so. If they are indeed the secret to Disney’s success, then what is it about these mov-ies that makes us fall in love with them?

Recently, my cousins and I watched the new Disney movie, Wreck-It Ralph. My expectations weren’t high, as it is my instinct to believe that this century’s Disney movies cannot compare to those of the 20th century.

Though I still stand by that opinion, I never expected to enjoy Wreck-It Ralph as much as I did.

With its witty wordplay and compelling plot, Wreck-It Ralph is probably one of Disney’s best mov-ies of this century since Tangled in 2010. It was ingenious, clever and surprisingly heartwarming—all the elements that comprise an ex-ceptional Disney work.

How do the Disney geniuses do this? With their artistic origi-nality and astounding attention to detail, they create stories that never fail to leave audiences smil-ing and in awe.

We are drawn to Disney mov-ies because deep inside, we are

children. We all have a little bit of Peter Pan within us, hoping to re-tain our youthfulness even as we grow older.

Walt Disney himself, a man of creativity and vision, understood this before any of us did, and his entire legacy continues to produce movies that keep us connected to our childhood passions.

The Disney storytellers have done impeccable work over the decades. Through their mov-ies, they have taken us on magic carpet rides, shown us a life un-der the sea, and have taught us a problem-free philosophy that we’ll remember for the rest of our days.

Near the park’s entrance, visi-tors can see the quote, “Here you leave today, and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fan-tasy,” and this quote could not be more true.

At Disneyland, the movies we see on screen come to life before our very eyes, transport-ing us to vivid worlds of fantasy and youthful spirit. It is where we can escape from the troubles of the real world, and where all people, no matter how old they are, can feel like a child once more.

THE TIES THAT BIND

Ingredients for Disney magic: film, fantasy and youthful fervor

Nora Murphy/King’s Courier

Illustration by Jacob Biletsky

Editorial Policy: All editorials on this page are the collective opinion of the King’s Courier editorial board. As with all major daily newspapers, these consensus editorials run without byline.

Contributing Editors: Mariapia Aquije, Amy Ayala, Brittany Brody, Rachael Cohen, Brit-El Gibson, Golnaz Guivatchian, Maurine Lambert, Ethan Millman, Clare Ramirez, Madison Spiegel, Sarah Stigers, Yasmin Torabi

King’s Courier

November 20, 2012 5EDITORIAL

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distributed, free of charge, to a student body and faculty of over 3,700. Advertising information is available by emailing us at ECRJournalism@aol.com. Suggestions, comments, or letters to the editor may be dropped off during schools hours in room S-6, or placed in Ms. Messadieh’s

mailbox in the Main Office.

Editor-in-Chief.......................................................................Sarah StigersOnline Editor-in-Chief.........................................................Clare RamirezManaging Editor.................................................................Christine YuenNews Editors.................................Golnaz Guivatchian, Maurine LambertOpinion Editors.........................................Rachael Cohen, Yasmin TorabiFeatures Editor.......................................Mariapia Aquije, Brittany BrodyA&E Editors...........................................Brit-El Gibson, Madison SpiegelSports Editors.................................................Amy Ayala, Ethan MillmanAdvertising Manager.........................................................Katherine AlasPhotographer........................................................................Nora MurphyPollster/Public Relations.......................................................Imani White Distribution and Exchange..............................................Isabella ChavezWebmaster.............................................................................Justin Hoang Adviser.......................................................................Kimberly Messadieh

AN EDITOR’S INSIGHT:

-Sarah Stigers

Kindergarten wasn’t wrong; don’t hateate is a strong word. It’s one notch above dislike and two notches below

loathe. It seems we have become de-

sensitized to the true meaning of hate, judging by the way we go around saying, “I hate her. I don’t know her but it’s something about her look.”

We may not be fond of some-one else’s style but disliking someone’s shoes should not es-calate to hate. Even in the case of exaggeration, people take of-fense.

We pride ourselves on being a close-knit community but when do you hear, “Hey there neigh-bor! I hate you.” Being a com-munity means we need to be nice and respectful to one another.

It seems like an elementary principle but after reading all the comments on the girls’ bathroom stalls, it’s apparent that we need to be reminded that people do, in fact, have feelings.

This doesn’t mean we should be making flower headbands for each other and adorning our class-mates in friendship bracelets, but what we do need to do is reflect and determine if we really have reason to hate other people.

Not all of us have the same be-liefs and morals, so we are bound to come across people whose ac-tions we don’t approve of. But we cannot hate people for doing things that are not our business.

Before we go around ripping other people apart, we should consider the possibility of some-one saying hurtful things about us.

Imagine being friends with someone who used to hate you. It may seem like a trivial thing to worry about, but knowing that someone hated you, without even having any idea of who you are, is bound to make you uncomfort-able.

While some might dismiss the idea of hate without cause as a

strictly female tendency, boys are just as guilty. Boys admit to hat-ing people just by looking at them as well.

Whether it is because they look annoying or “it’s just some-thing about them,” everyone shares in hating their peers.

Admittedly, some people do have a certain energy about them that may not be agreeable. But is hating the appropriate way to re-act to people who aren’t our type? Why don’t we just let them be?

They’re not bothering any-one; do they really deserve to be hated? We mean it in a hyperbolic way, but associating people with such a negative word is some-thing we should not consider ac-ceptable.

To truly become a supportive community, we need to do away with negative comments. Allow us to take you back to your kin-dergarten class: if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

H

America: The land of the free and the home of the generous

any people are aware that America has put forth effort to benefit

not only its citizens, but also the global population. If a disaster strikes, we do not hesitate to help repair the damages or help rescue citizens in danger.

When one of our allies is attacked, we send aid as soon as possible. This loyalty is one of America’s best and worst qualities.

It is reasonable to think that America’s instinctive response is great. Being humane and dependable is one of the best characteristics a country can have. It’s what makes America unique and defines us as a nation. Where would America be without these qualities? How could we expect aid from other countries if we did not help them in their hour of need?

Although helping others is important and brings so many positive traits along with it, there are negative aspects that we sometimes forget. According

to the Huffington P o s t , A m e r i c a spends about $50 billion every year on foreign aid. That money is greatly needed in America.

W h e n the next 7.9 earthquake hits Japan, America will be more than happy to help, as is its custom. Still, spending this money on other countries has the ability to backfire. When our country suffers a natural disaster, such as the recent Hurricane Sandy, we need those relief funds to restore order and rebuild our infrastructure.

Our history of throwing money at problems has hurt us in the past, as seen during the Bush Administration and the two

wars in the Middle East. This spending, although helpful to other countries, can hurt us, especially as we are currently in $4.4 trillion of debt.

There is no denying we have helped countries recuperate after disaster and will continue to do so, but we still need to keep ourselves in check by keeping an eye on the problems that need attention here in our own country.

Illustration by Charmaine Lai

although I’m too stubborn to let my life change too drastically, this experience has given me insight into the true character of my friends and family.

My family has been strong for me from the moment I left the doctors office, and will be years after you read this letter. The reactions of my friends, however, is what has made me so proud.

They treated me like the same crazy and loud Sarah that I had always been, and didn’t treat me as weak or fragile as I had felt. I will always be thankful for that.

Friends are the family you choose, and I’m glad I chose them. More importantly, I’m glad they chose me, too.

It’s really amazing how much more people can achieve when they band together. For instance, the clubs featured in this issue’s centerspread have accomplished more together than they ever could have single handedly.

The members of WIN, for example, have taken it upon themselves to help the homeless women population here in our city.

In my own experience, I know that I could never have accomplished half the goals I set in RAM without the help of all my friends who give their time and effort to help provide healthcare in California.

In all, I know that I have more than enough people to be thankful for this holiday season, and I encourage KC readers to reflect on the people they should be thankful for, as well.

I also encourage students to take a look at whom you’ve become in the past year, and see if you’re happy with the changes, or in some cases, the lack of change. Time is of the essence, so embrace the people who inspire you and ignore the people

who dismiss you. After all, “Life’s too short to be sitting around miserable.”

Photo Courtesy of Robin Stigers

While filling out my application for Chapman University, the supplement asked what my favorite quote was. At first, I had quite some difficulty choosing just one, but I think I’ve finally reached a decision.

I’m choosing to employ my creative liberty, and combine two quotes from two vastly different sources: Albert Schweitzer and Rihanna. “We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit,” because “life’s too short to be sitting around miserable.”

There are many things to be thankful for, and on Thanksgiving, some choose to focus on the things that classify us as “more fortunate,” such as food and shelter.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be thankful for these things, but for me, Thanksgiving is a time to take a step back and be thankful for the people who have shaped my life and made me the person I am. These people may have given you something to fight for, or against, but nonetheless, they gave you passion.

Recently, I was given eye-opening insight into the role my family and friends play in my life, as I faced a discovery I was not prepared for.

I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes this past summer, and

I would like to thank Shelby Silverman for always being the best friend that anyone could ever ask for. M

Illustration by Charmaine Lai

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” -Oprah Winfrey“H

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“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.” -Helen Keller

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” -Buddha

“Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t appreciate kindness and compassion.” -Dalai Lama

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What is Appreciation?By BRITTANY BRODY

Appreciation is an “expression of admiration, approval, or gratitude,” according to Merriam-Web-ster’s dictionary. Sometimes, people keep the appre-ciation they have for others to themselves, often not realizing how much it could mean to those people if they shared their feelings aloud.

Showing appreciation towards others has been proven to positively affect the lives of both the people receiving and giving the gratitude.

It would seem that, with the passage of time, people have become less appreciative of the assets they have and the possessions that are so easily af-forded to them.

Nowadays, there are elementary-school children walking around with iPhones, living through the in-ternet rather than appreciating all that the real world has to offer.

Expressing gratitude can be as simple as saying “please” and “thank you,” the two “magic words” Barney and Sesame Street have taught children for generations.

Americans take for granted so many possessions, freedoms, hopes and dreams while others suffer and can only wish for such things.

The United States is protected by trained and able military, made up of our people who are willing to serve our great nation. To show appreciation for these brave soldiers, civilians, such as math teacher Sue Schuster, donate their time to write letters and make packages of goods to send to the troops to remind them that what they are doing is incredible and that all of those at home are thankful for what they are doing. These packages are sent year-round, but are custom-ized depending on the season.

Other people show their appreciation by spending some of their free time doing volunteer work for those in their own communities who are less fortunate. Dean Wendy Treuhaft, for instance, spends time each year packaging meals to give to ECR families who other-wise wouldn’t be able to have a Thanksgiving dinner.

Others, donate their time or money to soup kitch-ens and serve the homeless and the poor.

Simple Ways to Show Your Appreciation

•Say “please” and “thank you” •Make a handmade gift •Give someone a note/card expressing your gratitude •Bring them chocolates or baked goods •Give them flowers •Offer to buy them coffee or food •Give them a hug •Give them a gift card •Offer to lend them a hand •Share your gratitude by telling them face to face

“In the past,

students have

given me

cups [as gifts,]

and they

forgive me

when I don’t

remember

their names.” -David

Roberson

“I have three or four binders of stuff students have given me. I think it’s cool when they bring me something that reminds me of the inside jokes we have.”

-Karen Ritchie

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” -Oprah Winfrey “Those who have the ability to be grateful are the ones w

ho have the ability to achieve greatness.” -Steve M

araboli, writer“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.” -Helen Keller

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” -R

obert Louis Stevenson, novelist

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” -Buddha

“Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t appreciate kindness and compassion.” -Dalai Lama

Thanksgiving: Where it StartedBy MARIAPIA AQUIJA

Remote Area Medical: RAM raises money and supplies, such as do-nated glasses and toiletries, to send to the RAM California foundation which brings the supplies to conventions that supply free dental, medical and eye care for people who can’t afford health care. The club meets Thursdays at nutrition in C18.

Women in Need: W.I.N. is a club at ECR that volunteers at and sup-ports shelters for the homeless and women in need. They also collect canned goods and are part of a penpal system where they make friends with and write to kids at the shelters where they volunteer once or twice a month. The club will be volunteering on Dec. 15 at a fundraising block party at the Alexandria House Shelter in Los Angeles, featuring LMFAO. W.I.N. meets every Friday at lunch in B113.

Salvation Army: The Salvation Army is organizing the third annual Rock the Red Kettle Concert. Performers this year include Owl City, Bridgit Mendler, Hot Chelle Rae and Andy Grammer. The concert is free and will be held at L.A Live in downtown L.A. During the concert, the audiences can make donations to the Red Kettle or text the word GIVE to 80888.

Operation Gratitude: Operation Gratitude works year round to send care packages to deployed soldiers. The packages include entertain-ment items, snacks and personal letters addressed to them. You can get involved by volunteering your time at the Armory, organizing a collection drive, writing a letter, or donating hand made crafts such as scarves or bracelets. Visit www.operationgratitude.com for more information.

Each year, on the fourth Thursday of November, Thanksgiving is celebrated by spending time with family and expressing gratitude. The tradition of Thanksgiving dates back to 1610 when the first perma-

nent settlers in Jamestown celebrated it. In 1621, the Pilgrims celebrated the first modern

Thanksgiving at Plymouth, located in present-day Mas-sachusetts. The feast lasted for three days and was a way to express thanks for a successful harvest season.

On October 3, 1863, nearly 242 years after the Pil-grims celebrated their Thanksgiving, Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving an official, national holiday. Ex-pressing gratitude for the Union’s victory at Gettysburg, Lincoln stated in a speech that Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every November.

Each year on this holiday, families get together for a Thanksgiving dinner feast. It is common for fam-ily members to express what they are grateful for. A traditional Thanksgiving feast tends to include that the Pilgrims ate on their first Thanksgiving, such as turkey,

fish, pump-kin pie and potatoes.

The United States is not the only country that rec-ognizes the Thanksgiving Holiday; Canada celebrates Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October. Other countries celebrate a similar format to America’s Thanks-giving including Japan, Germany, Liberia, The Nether-lands , The Norfolk Islands and some European Countries.

Clubs and Organizations

“In the past,

students have

given me

cups [as gifts,]

and they

forgive me

when I don’t

remember

their names.” -David

Roberson

“I have three or four binders of stuff students have given me. I think it’s cool when they bring me something that reminds me of the inside jokes we have.”

-Karen Ritchie

“I like when students show their appreciation through cards that they give me and they tell me what they’ve learned through-out the class.” -Setareh Bahri

“[I used to get] mugs, hot cocoa [and] gift cards, but I would feel bad getting it from people who were failing because I would still have to fail them. Some students come back and tell me

they chose a career because of my class.”

-Frederic Beerstein

Pictures by Mariapia Aquije and Imani White/King’s Courier

November 20, 20128 Arts & EntertainmentHumanitas starts new record

Paperbacks versus silver screens Vox Pop: Do movie adaptations of

books live up to expectations?

“The Lord of the Rings lived up to my expectations because it was very close to

the book.”

-Jason Kelly senior

“I think that some-times they are done well, but most of the time they change the

story line for Hollywood.”

-Vanessa Kingeryjunior

“I think the books are always better

because they have much more detail.”

- Melissa Marroquin freshman

By RACHAEL COHEN

The wonderful thing about reading is its invitation to imag-ination. A book comes with de-scriptions of its characters and setting, but every reader men-tally envisions the details dif-ferently.

Although people read the same plot, the personal expe-rience each creates is unique to the reader. Books present a wonderful opportunity to cre-ate your own version of a pub-lished story.

This raises a few questions: Do movies based on books ruin or enhance the reading experi-ence? Or, does it eliminate the need for books altogether?

Personally, I always look forward to seeing the on-screen adaptations of books I’ve read.

I’m interested to see how another person envisioned the same words and story line I read, how they pictured a cer-tain character or how they

would portray a certain scene. I don’t find a book “ruined,” per se, if it is turned into a movie, no matter how unsuccessful it turns out to be.

To me, sharing with the world how you saw the story is an ar-tistic form of self-expression. It doesn’t have to resonate with ev-eryone, however, a problem many people have with screen-interpre-tations is accuracy.

It would seem that most peo-ple would agree with the spot-on nature of the Harry Potter series based on the popularity of the movie series, as each role seems to be perfectly cast and each set-ting designed to a T.

However, not all interpreta-tions can be as in-sync with the general reader interpretation, as Harry Potter was.

Another unavoidable problem is the length restriction of movies. Many movie-goers are outraged when parts of the plot are cut out, simply to save time.

They see it as the director

not staying true to the story. Even series such as Harry Potter and Twilight have split their final seg-ments into two parts to preserve the accuracy and completeness of the plot. As entertaining as movie versions of books can be, howev-er, they will never render written stories obsolete.

The reason that movies like Twilight and The Hunger Games are so successful, is the momen-tum built by the release of the book.

Only after readers clamored for more vampires and fighting teenagers did Hollywood wise up to the possibilities of bringing these stories to the screen.

As many successful screen-plays are written, nothing com-pares to the excitement of see-ing the portrayal of a previously loved novel.

Does watching the film ver-sion of a book ruin the freedom of imagination and creativity in-volved in reading? Not really. Just as long as you read the book first.

The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings are among many books that were turned into successful movies. All three are notable due to their close simi-larities to the original books and accurate casting.

All photos Madison Spiegel/ King’s Courier

By YASMIN TORABI

One of ECR’s defining char-acteristics is its respect for tradi-tion and encouragement for stu-dent involvement.

Humanitas students show this passion as they prepare to release their third benefit album.

Humanitas is a writing based academy that puts students in the same grade level a certain group of teachers who coordinate les-sons. This small learning commu-nity aims to create relationships between the different classes that students take.

“Students all get together, write songs, record them, select the best ones, and those make the benefit album,” explains Humani-tas coordinator Dean Sodek.

The Humanitas benefit album is a student-created project, and 100 percent of the profits go to a non-profit organization.

This year’s album will ben-efit Friends of the Island Fox, a group that focuses on saving the Island Fox, an endangered spe-cies off the coast of California on the Channel Islands.

“We look for an organization that’s looking to solve a particular problem that we see in society,” says Sodek. “We take requests and pull information for students and research to make sure we al-ways work with a reputable orga-nization that’s doing good in the world.”

The album was first inspired by the Gulf oil spill three years ago. Seeing how other creative groups and artists put their talents to use to support the relief effort, Humanitas decided to be a part of the effort.

“We thought, ‘Gosh, we have a lot of creative students in Hu-manitas,” says Sodek. “What we wanted to do is pull our talents and do something to create some positive change in the world.”

Students work in groups to write lyrics, create a beat and re-cord a song.

Even if students are not musi-cally inclined, they can help with the technical rather than creative parts of producing music, like us-ing Garage Band to find an origi-nal beat. “Everyone finds a niche and a way to contribute,” Sodek says.

Freshmen Nicole Meron and Carolina Calderon are working together, along with two other students, to produce a song called “I’ll Remember” about relation-ships between friends and lovers.

“I was really excited because we’ve never done anything like this,” says Meron.

Though writing lyrics sounds difficult, it was relatively easy for Meron and Calderon. “We just said what we felt,” says Meron. “It actually took us a day.”

Putting yourself out there can be nerve-wracking, as it was for Calderon. Even though she felt it was embarrassing, she says “it was really fun to do.”

Although the album is re-leased in the spring, students be-gin working on the album early. “It takes about two months of song writing and recording to get the demos in,” says Sodek, “and we hope to have all the tracks chosen before the winter break.”

This year, the album will be sold in a deluxe package includ-ing the album, vinyl, a poster, and guitar picks for $20.

American Music Awards 2012: 40th birthday celebration

By MADISON SPIEGEL

With the awards show sea-son in full swing, the American Music Awards delivered a spec-tacular show, complete with star-studded performances, memorable tributes and notable fashion choices.

Despite the extensive ad-vertisement for the show’s 40th birthday celebration, ratings fell drastically from last year’s, dropping from approximately 12 million viewers to only 9.6 million this year.

The 40th annual American Music Award ceremony Sun-day night began and ended with high-energy performances.

The first performance of the night was given by Usher, with green laser lights beaming onstage as he performed a num-

ber of songs including “Numb,” “Climax” and “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop.” Usher performed in an all black outfit with the exception of red shoes, kicking off the recur-ring fashion trend for the night.

Taylor Swift won her fifth consecutive award for Favorite Country Female Artist.

“This is unreal. I want to thank the fans. You guys are the ones who voted on this,” she said. She later performed her new song, “I Knew You Were Trouble,” also wearing red and black.

Kelly Clarkson performed, too, making a nod to her start on American Idol by wearing a num-ber on her chest, and singing to three judges sitting in chairs.

She sang a few of her older songs such as “Miss Independent” and “Since U Been Gone,” ending with her latest hit, “Stronger.”

Justin Bieber ultimately took home the most awards of the night

for his wins for Artist of the Year, Pop/Rock Male Artist, and Pop/ Rock album. He also performed an acoustic version of his hit “As Long As You Love Me,” as well as “Beauty and the Beat.”

Other winners of the night in-cluded Carly Rae Jepson for New Artist of the Year, Katy Perry for Pop/Rock Female Artist, and Ma-roon 5 for Pop/Rock Band of the Year.

The show closed with inter-national online sensation PSY, performing his hit, “Gangnam Style,” with a surprise from MC Hammer in the middle.

“I thought the show went in-credibly well, and I think every-one had an incredible time,” said the assistant director of the show, Julie Gelfand.

“The AMA’s celebrate what we love about music. Everyone that was a part of it did just that,” said Gelfand.

Phot

os c

ourt

esy

of Ju

lie G

elfa

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(Above) Justin Bieber accepts his third award of the night for Best Artist of the Year. Bieber overall took home the most awards of the night.

A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

November 20, 2012 9Arts & Entertainment

By NORA MURPHY

By GOLNAZ GULVATCHIAN

Feel like displaying your musical or artistic talents in

the Courier?Know about some

cool local creativity you should know

about?Contact the Arts

and Entertainment editors, Brit- El Gib-

son or Madison Spiegel, at ecrjour-nalism@aol.com

Photoshopped presidents with cigars and smug, surprised expressions covered the hallway walls, preparing students for an-other drama production, this one, a distinctly interactive play tai-lored especially for the election season.

“We did this play to help edu-cate the students -- with humor -- about America’s past,” said junior Darian Nejad, a member of Play Production.

The Play Production director, Sue Freitag, came up with the idea to do a parody of U.S. history, be-cause it was election season.

“My favorite aspect of the play is that even though we’re all Americans, we can still look at our country in such a cynical way,” said Nejad.

The interactive production featured a ‘splash zone’ where students were sprayed with wa-ter guns used by some of the sol-diers in the play. The production parodied and mocked U.S. his-tory, and, in fitting with the title Complete History of America: Abridged, skipped over the 30 years of the United States’ Indus-trial Revolution, when times were “not funny,” as the characters in the play explained.

“This play is very different from our other selections. Al-though we love doing things that will inspire people, this play was really just fun and a break from the inspirational pieces we do,” Nejad said.

The play consisted of skits mocking various important eras from U.S. history including the Revolutionary War, the explora-tion of the West, the Civil War and both world wars.“My favorite aspect of the play was getting to play so many dif-ferent characters,” senior Play Product ion member Jacob Bernardino said. Bernardino played Clark during the Lewis and Clark skit, among other char-acters. “Because the show was written for three people, it was interesting to see how it looked with a full ensemble.”

Most of the audience seemed to enjoy the play, laughing at the cynical jokes satirizing American history.

“As this was the first play I have ever seen in El Camino, I was really impressed by the qual-ity of the production,” freshman Elnaz Guivatchian said. “It was a really well-executed parody.”

My dad, aunt and I attended a Bob Mould concert at the El Rey Theatre in Hollywood the night before Halloween.

Bob Mould is an American al-ternative rock musician, popular among listeners of not only his solo work, but also of his previ-ous work in the bands Husker Du and Sugar.

Driving down the streets of Hollywood at 7 p.m. gives you the chance to see the caliber of night life that the area has to of-fer. By this time, many clubs are just getting ready for the hours of the night that lie ahead, and va-let attendants are waiting to park cars for those heading into classy restaurants.

The El Rey theatre is a con-cert venue on Wilshire Blvd. It has the outside look of an old movie theatre but once you step inside, you see nothing but a large open floor lit by chandeliers, with numerous couches and chairs lin-ing the walls.

Upstairs is one of the bars, and a luxurious VIP balcony view with tables and large booth areas that are either reserved or can be rented for the night. From the bal-cony, you can see the entire down-stairs section of the venue, and the stage is in perfect perspective, guaranteeing a good view.

Since the musician happens to be one of my dad’s favorites, he thought it would be worth the $75 for a table on the balcony, and it was. Wanting to get pictures and video of the night’s performance, I liked the high view much bet-

ter than getting trapped between a large number of older, drunk and energetic fans.

As soon as Bob Mould and his band appeared on stage, he said nothing, but just began to play. The main focus of that night’s show was an older album called Copper Blue from Mould’s 1990s band, Sugar. However, Mould also played several tracks from

Conform, consume, obey: when the satire of pop culture actually becomes popularBy BRIT-EL GIBSON

Nora Murphy/King’s Courier

My first time...At the El Rey Theatre in Hollywood

his newly released album Silver Age.

The first aspect to get used to was the volume level. As the music played, the whole venue seemed to fill with drum beats, the sound of fans singing along, the bass and the vibes that accom-panied each performance. After a while, the abrasive noise died off, and I began to enjoy the atmospe-

here. Hearing musicians on the ra-

dio is one thing, but seeing them perform live is another.

Even though it isn’t the music of my generation, it was still a concert worth remembering. At-tending concerts to enjoy music and be around people with similar musical tastes, is quite an experi-ence.

Bob Mould and his band rocked a very packed house at the El Rey theatre in Hollywood the night before Halloween. Unsurprisingly for a rock concert, the show included a very enthusi-astic and possibly intoxicated fans in the pit who spent a good deal of the concert gripping the edge of the stage, head banging and bouncing up and down.

New playparodies U.S. history

Walking around El Camino gives some insight on current popular culture and tastes. Some people wear their tastes on their clothes with phrases like “cult,” “posse,” and basic universal sym-bols of wealth, like diamonds or gold.

It sort of seems like clothes are showing off collective con-formity to some authority, and youth culture’s strange fixation with money is almost like some strange rehash of the “ A m e r i c a n Dream.”

Clothing serving as stylized advertisement—Hollister, Aber-crombie—is nothing new. This bunch is different, though; young people seem to have gravitated to-ward clothes that seem to weirdly style itself after and parody mili-taristic, totalitarian propaganda.

Shephard Fairey’s “Obey” campaign in pop culture is prob-ably the most ironic of all the brands. Assuming everyone in a Fairey-designed “Obey” shirt isn’t making the subtle, ironic so-cial commentary the shirt was ini-tially inspired by, it is somewhat confusing as to why the majority of young people have gravitated toward apparel with often con-sciously designed authoritarian themes.

Years ago, Shephard Fairey started his “Andre the Giant” street art campaign as a satire of government propaganda, and the concept that power would be

achieved through repetition.The phrase “Obey” was in-

spired by a scene from John Car-penter’s 1988 film They Live, where a character -- after donning special sunglasses -- sees the real messages behind advertisements: “consume,” “conform,” “obey.” Fairey’s work is a rather straight-forward criticism of American society’s consumerism, and sub-

sequently pop culture in gen-eral.

“I think he knew he’d get popular off it,” said sopho-more Brady Hogarth of Fairey’s work. “His whole

fame, and the fact that he let him-self become that famous is mock-ing consumerism. He’s blatantly making fun of people and the fact that they don’t know they’re be-ing made fun of.”

The “Obey” merchandise is actually 100% nonprofit, going to various charities benefiting Haiti, Darfur, environmental and other causes picked by Fairey himself.

So while the causes are com-passionate, the true intent of his work is still not completely un-derstood, and is basically seen as just another hip designer lable.

“I’d hope that it’s popular be-cause it mocks propaganda, and why people get so fascinated in following others so easily,” said senior Adrienne Lane. “However, it is probably so popular because it looks cool; again, presenting the irony of ‘people getting so fascinated in following others so easily.’”

Brands like Shephard Fairey’s “Obey” seem to capital-ize on the very concepts they satirize -- mass success in popular culture, consumerism and propaganda. The caption under the “Obey” logo on the Obey Giant web-site reads “Manufacturing Quality Dissent Since 1990,” obviously consciously using the paradox of “manufactur-ing” dissent.

Photo Illustration by Brit-El Gibson

“His whole fame, and the fact that he let himself become that famous is

mocking consumerism.”

-Brady Hogarthsophomore

10 SPORTS November 20, 2012

By KATHERINE ALAS

Alumni basketball games give experience to players

Every year seniors in the ECR sports program, graduate and sometimes continue their athletic legacies into college-level sports. Though some sports choose not to showcase the alumni, the bas-ketball team does.

The boys and girls basketball teams will play against return-ing veteran players.

“I am so excited to play against gradu-ates of El Cami-no,” freshman Sasha Samuels said. “It is going to be a fun and competitive game. My team and I can not wait.”

The new players will get to experience competition with some of the best basketball play-ers from El Camino’s past.

The name of this game is ex-perience and improvement. The alumni players have gone though the same situations that current players are going through.

The successful nature of this

event is what made it a tradition. Though intimidating as it may

seem for newer players, returning varsity players encourage the up-and-coming athletes to participate in the event.

Sabrina Halloran, who now attends CSUN, experienced this situation first hand.

“My junior year I was scared to play in the alumni game, because that was my first year on varsity,” said Halloran.

“But when the game came

around again during my senior year, I knew our team could win.”

Not only is this an opportunity to grow as athletes, but it is also a chance to showcase talent on both sides of the court.

“When I was ready to play my senior year, we had the right mind set going into season, and we were ready to show the alum-ni what we were made of,” said Holloran.

Junior Julian Richardson handles the ball during a game last year against Taft. Last year, Richardson averaged seven points a game along with six rebounds. Now, after a successful 2012 season, the team prepares for the an-nual alumni basket-ball game, where the players get a perfect mix of a fun and competitive game. The alumni games will be played tonight; the girls start their game first at 5:30 to 7. The boys will play directly after the girl’s game and will end at 8:30. Though the competition seems tough on the boy’s side due to the high skill level of last year’s graduated seniors, the boys still have have the skill of Richardson on their team.

“It is going to be a fun and competitive game. My team

and I can not wait.”

-Sasha Samuelsfreshman

Many student athletes have dreams and aspirations of making it to the next level and playing the game they love in college, while getting an education at the same time.

Recently, two ECR basket-ball players signed their way to colleges that not only offer what they want in education, but also a place to play the sport they fell in love with.

Those two students are var-sity basketball players Michael Thomas and Cora Chan.

Thomas signed his letter of intent to the Univers i ty of Hawaii in Manoa, and Chan signed to Westmont Univers i ty in Santa Bar-bara.

T h e r e were several factors that went into the decision of what school to attend.

Thomas said what made the University of Hawaii stand out was its “focus on school and bas-ketball, and the fact that it’s Ha-waii.”

There were other schools he was considering such as the Uni-versity of California Santa Bar-bara, Boise State, and Northern Arizona.

Although the University of Hawaii is a division one school, Thomas said one of the main rea-sons he chose to go there was that it is one of the top schools for the business and international busi-ness majors that he is interested in.

As for Chan, she said that even though Westmont has a good basketball program, one of the major reasons she chose to at-tend there was the fact that “they are a private school, so when I heard that they were having small

Thomas and Chan sign letters of intentBy AMY AYALA sizes, it was a better fit rather than

a big school.” “They have a lot of connec-

tions with companies so I’ll have a higher chance at getting a job,” Chan said.

Both of these athletes have had goals to play past the high school level, and onto college, a dream they are currently achiev-ing. “It is a dream of mine to play basketball beyond college,” Thomas said. “I’m hoping to make it happen, whether that be in the NBA or overseas.”

“I don’t plan on going on to play professionally,” said Chan. “I just want to continue playing and I have the opportunity to play

at a higher, more compet-itive level and beyond that I feel moving to play profes-sionally is not for me.”

They both attribute their success on the

court to their coaches and team mates.

“Coach Cara Blumfield has helped me by showing me differ-ent ways of seeing and playing the game,” said Chan. “She has put me through all types of chal-lenging situations that I needed to learn to overcome, to become a better teammate and player.”

“Following my coaches’ ad-vice and being humble enough to accept criticism and correcting it” helped him prepare the most to play at a higher level, according to Thomas.

All the hard work and disci-pline these players endured dur-ing their high school careers defi-nitely prepared them for the next stage, but as of now they have one more season to play high school basketball.

Thomas said, “Right now I’m focused on high school ball and winning it all here. We have lofty expectations and we plan to fulfill them.”

“Following my coaches advice and being humble

enough to accept criticism and correcting it,”

-Michael Thomassenior

Photo Courtesy of Julian Richardson

11SPORTSNovember 20, 2012

Sports Faceoff

Sports Editors AMY AYALA and ETHAN MILLMAN debate the question...

Amy’s Side:In the NBA, the East-

ern Conference leader is obvious with the defending champions, the Heat. There has been a surprise team in the East this season, the New York Knicks.

With their squad I have no doubt the Knicks can be a dangerous threat in the playoffs. They have argu-ably the best scorer in the NBA with Carmelo An-thony; last year’s defensive player of the year, Tyson Chandler; and proven vet-erans such as Jason Kidd, Marcus Camby, Rasheed Wallace and Kurt Thomas. Not to mention they still haven’t gotten back Amar’e Stoudemire.

With the East very open with the Heat and Celtics being the top teams, the Knicks have been play-ing very well and can give any team a hard time. They have the best record in the East (8-1), the season is still young, and they still have work to do.

The Knicks can defi-nitely be a top team in the East and a contender to take it if they keep moving at this pace. While many doubt them because of the Heat, this team is quickly gelling together and can make great strides in the post season.

Ethan’s Side:The NBA has already

taken many twists and turns but none more unex-pected than the Knicks be-ing the best in the East. The question now is this: is it a fluke?

The answer to this is yes. Even though the Knicks are doing well now, they will once again be de-feated early in the playoffs. As far as I have seen, the Knicks are a team of old players, Carmelo Anthony being the only exception.

People are saying that they are playing great now and will be even better when Amar’e Stoudemire comes back, a common misconception. Stoudemire will come back rusty and will not play like the super-star he was known as.

Let’s not forget the de-fending champions. The Miami Heat are far too strong for any team in the East to contend with them. Anthony can not match up with Dwayne Wade and definitely not with Leb-ron James. In the end, The Knicks are going to crash and burn.

Loyalty and flip floppers

Illustration by Charmaine Lai

Sports are widely known as a time for recreation, fun, and a time of togetherness. When fans come together to watch their fa-vorite sports team take on the en-emy for the day. But the way fans are come to be known now is very different.

There are those fans who al-ways stay loyal whether it’s their home team or another team in an-other city or state.

Win or lose those fans stay behind their favorite team and cheer them on, although they all enjoy a win every now and then, those never-failing loyal fans are always there.

However, there are those flip-flopping, band wagon fans that always seem to root for the best team in the league or their city.

For example, in 2010 most people in Los Angeles were die-hard, loyal fans of their home team champions, the Lakers.

The following season “fans” everywhere were hoping that the Lakers would win for a third con-secutive year, but sadly they got swept out the playoffs for the then champions the Dallas Mavericks.

As soon as that happened, some of those die-hard Laker fans became Clipper fans by the start of the next season since they acquired the great Chris Paul as they sang along to “Lob City.”

Somehow this season, those fans once again jumped the band-wagon when the Lakers acquired Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, and now have a super team. So much for loyalty.

The perfect examples of loy-alty are people like Clipper Dar-rel, Jack Nicholas, or Spike Lee, take your pick.

The teams these three people root for have had their ups and their downs, but they are always there sitting, watching, rooting no matter what the score board says.

All these fans show that even in the worst times you stick with your team and cheer them on no matter what.

Being a fan is a commitment much like a marriage, for better or worse, through sickness and health, ‘til death do us part. But we live in LA, so I guess it is un-derstandable why “fans” divorce their teams all the time.

Loyalty has gone out the win-dow as we want to be pleased by wins from a team that we could have hated last season or last night for that matter.

Like those fans that hated Le-bron two years ago are now his biggest supporters since he got his first ring. There are also those Dodger and Angel fans, do they just decide to root for whoever they find more appealing that sea-son?

Another example this very

Boys varsity Cross Country advances to state meetBy ETHAN MILLMAN

The boys and girls cross coun-try teams participated in the L.A. City Section Championships on Saturday at Pierce College.

The teams clearly had success as the boys took second overall, allowing all of the boys team to advance to the state meet, rather than just the two El Camino run-ners who placed within the top 12 in the meet.

The individual qualifiers among the boys were junior Ezra Soriano, who placed eighth over-all, along with fellow junior Ricky Buckelew, who placed 11th.

The boys are clearly happy about this second place victory as they seem to be very team ori-ented.

“We did well because our team was able to constantly push each other,” Soriano said, “especially our captain, Austin Walker.”

Buckelew’s thoughts are sim-ilar to Soriano’s. “It’s all about achieving focus and pushing yourself and your teammates to the limit,” he said, “and having a team filled with runners who plan on helping each other helps a lot.”

The placers all did similar things. “I just listened to Coach,” Soriano said.

By AMY AYALA

Athlete of the Month: Jing Yang

Q.) How long have you been playing golf?A.) I have been playing for two years now

Q.) How did you get started?A.) My family and I were on vacation and I just got started playing. I also took the summer camp and tried out for the school.

Q.) Are you planning on continuing after high school?A.) Yes, I plan on playing in college.

“Are the New York Knicks

a contender in the Eastern

Conference?”Photo Courtesy of Ian Plocky

(Left to right) Mason Fordham, Jonathan Garcia, Ezra Soriano, William Weber, Ricky Buckelew, Anthony Campos and Austin Walker make up the state-qualifying, second place varsity boys Cross Country team which will travel to Sacramento for the State race. Soriano and Buckelew placed as individual qualifiers in eighth and eleventh place respectively.

A team needs motivation to get anywhere.

“Most of our motivation comes from our coaches and the rest of the varsity team,” Walker said.

Even as captain, Walker does not take credit for the team’s suc-

cess. “Being captain is just orga-nizing workouts and keeping peo-ple together. Anyone on my team can do what I do. We are only great when we are together.”

Now that the team is advanc-ing to the state meet, they have to change their intensity.

“We were surprised when we found out that we qualified,” Buckelew said.

Even though the state meet is different from the others, “we are still doing our normal training and treating this like it’s just an-other meet,” Soriano said.

year in the NBA is the New York Knicks.

They have had a lot of either terrible or mediocre seasons in past years.

Now this season the team is having some success as they hold the best record in the East.

Now that they are winning

all of a sudden there a bunch of Knicks “fans” who were support-ers this whole time

There are still those fans that players look forward to playing for and those are the fans that drive the other team nuts. What kind of fan are you? Speak now or forever hold your peace.

Ethan Millm

an/King’s Courier

12 SPORTS November 20, 2012

Girls water polo dives into new season

The girls water polo team took on Eagle Rock High School on Friday with an non-league away game. The final score of the night was 17-2, ECR losing to Eagle Rock.

“Friday’s game was a great eye opener,” says team captain and starting goal keeper Taylor Barrett, who has been on the team since her sophomore year.

“A lot of the girls had never played this sport before, but through Friday’s game they have now learned how things work.”

The team also faced other weaknesses during the game, in-cluding their inability to spread out more in the water.

“We needed to be more open,” says sophomore Samantha Flamenco. The team was also not able to stay on their opponents, as well. But the team still kept its confidence up and was able to have a good time on the water.

“Though we lost, we still went out and gave it our best,” says Flamenco. “We still had fun.”

The team is already prepar-ing for its next game against Pali-sades Charter High School. The team’s strongest point is unity. “We are so close to each other,” says Barrett.

The girls’ unity helps them work more efficiently together out on the field, but the team is now focusing on improving skills before the next game.

Hoping for a win on the next game against Palisades the team has been training hard and focus-ing on improvements, since some of their players will not be able to play on the next game.

They have also been work-ing on trying to make more goals and passes to each other and they have been focusing on improving their weak point.

“We are all very passionate about the sport,” says Barrett, “and we get very frustrated when things do not go our way.”

Girls water polo will play again next Wednesday with an-other non-league away game against Palisades Charter High School.

Jake Varner is known as a California wrestling hero and his resume describes it all. After win-ning the state title his junior and senior years in high school, Var-ner won the NCAA championship title twice while attending Iowa State University.

This year at the London Sum-mer Olympic Games, Jake Varner took home a gold medal, making him one of only two American male wrestlers to place first.

Like all stories of great ath-letes, Varner’s started at a very young age. Varner had a wrestling background, as his father was the coach of highly-regarded great California wrestling school, Ba-kersfield High School.

“I started competitively wres-tling when I was five years old,” said Varner, 26, who has now wrestled for a total of 21 years,

When Varner started high school at Bakersfield, he recalls not having an easy time on the mat. “It was a team filled with se-niors,” Varner explains. “I would get beaten up by these older wres-tlers,” he says. As the training as-pect goes, Varner was unique. “I never lifted weights until I start-ed college,” he says. “What our coach would have us do back in high school was just run a ton of sprints after we were done wres-tling.”

Two years of losing in a med-al match would deter many, but not Jake Varner. In fact, this may have been a factor in Varner’s success. “I hated losing,” Varner said, multiple times. Not once did Varner say anything about win-ning, just about wanting to stop losing.Varner would win two state championships in a row, followed by an impressive college career.

Though Varner is now known as the best in the world at what he does, his story is unique. While some champions get their nation-al victories at early ages, Varner never won a national title until college.

By ETHAN MILLMAN

Justin Hoang/ King’s Courier

Junior Allison Hacker and seniors Scarlett De Jean and Emily Gilbert run drills during their practice after losing their last game 17-2. The additional skill, stamina and strength exercises will help the team build the fundamental basis needed to have a successful season.

College is when Varner be-came the wrestler he is now. “By college, things changed,” Varner explains. “My attitude and inten-sity had changed.” He credits this to his coach, the great wrestler Cael Sanderson.

“[Sanderson] is the whole reason I had decided to go to Iowa State when I went to col-lege,” Varner explains. “He told me that he could help me win an Olympic gold medal.”

Varner says that winning Olympic gold has been his goal since he was in middle school. Varner was able to trust Sander-son’s promise of gold, as Sander-son had been down the Olympic road not long before, winning the gold himself.

Vartan trained seven years with Sanderson before his goal of winning the Olympics was real-ized, but not before trying for the Olympics back in 2008 for the Beijing Games.

Four years after his denial of going to the Olympics, four long years of training with Coach Sanderson, Jake Varner would go to London to wrestle in the free-style wrestling tournament.

Varner said all of the train-ing he had done for 21 years led to this moment. All of the train-ing for a 16-man bracket, a total of four matches.

Four matches later, after wrestling the best wrestlers in the world, Varner could finally call himself an Olympic champion.

What ultimately won Var-ner the Olympics was one of the best ankle pick takedowns hit in the whole entire tournament. On the topic of this takedown, Varner couldn’t help but smile.

“I always loved ankle picks,” Varner says. “I was good at them before, but working with Coach Cael was great,” he explains. “I mean, he was the ankle pick mas-ter. During the gold medal match. I just felt it and hit it.”

“It was this great feeling of relief,” Varner said, “It left me thinking about what I wanted to do next,” Varner says with a smile.

Champ wrestler shares journey to Olympics

By MARIA AQUIJE