Category: journalism

Equality in the Military

frog3Leave a comment

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This week something wonderful has happened!!! Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has announced that (sometime in the near future) women in the United States military will be able to serve in combat roles. The United States has taken another step to become the pinnacle of equality it preaches to be.

Although women in the United States military have seen combat before, they were not officially allowed in combat only roles. The lifting of the ban of women in combat does not come without a catch. The Pentagon had said that certain combat roles will still be open to men only.

This is England

smackyjackjackLeave a comment

It’s time for another movie suggestion everyone, so hold on to your horses. This week’s suggestion is Shane Meadow’s This is England.

The film documents the life of a twelve year old named Shaun while he struggles to grow up in the 1983 slums of England. Pretty early on in the movie, Shaun falls into line with a gang of much older skinheads who take him in and treat him like one of their own.

Now, keep in mind these are pre-racist skinheads, or original skinheads. Being a skinhead then basically meant juvenile delinquent.  The style was actually brought over from Jamaica by the Rude Boys there and eventually led to music like ska and 2tone. But back to the movie.

Remember how I said Shaun hangs out with non-racist skinheads? Well that all changes in about 30 minutes of the movie when Stephen Graham comes into the scene. Leave it to him.

The rest of the movie is about how little Shaun goes from this…

To this…

Little scamp.

Anyways the movie is an amazing portrayal of Falklands-era England and what was going on back then. Big thumbs up. Its Netflix watch instantly too, go check it out.

Aside Daphne PsaledakisLeave a comment

As a kid, we all have that one thing that brings us comfort. Sometimes it’s a blanket, or a stuffed animal, or even a lullaby sung every night by your mother. We all have that safety blanket we run to whenever things get tough. For some, the teddy might stick around a little longer than […]

And we’re back!

callmemaybe32Leave a comment

Well, Saturday marked the first day of the 2012-2013 NHL season, well I guess the 2013 season at least.

It was a long and frustrating lockout, but the teams are back lacing up the skates and getting out on the ice.

I witnessed a moment in history that will only happen once, and that was watching my beloved Los Angeles Kings raise their first Stanley Cup banner up into the rafters at Staples Center.

While watching the captains of the team skate the flag out to center ice I started to feel something.

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The Native Americans Plight

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The Native Americans who stood on long held land, were once asked to leave.

The Native Americans, aghast at the Europeans request politely refused.

It was their right to refuse.

However their greatest mistake was to trust the Europeans word.

In order to take from the Native Americans they had to rationalize their request.

The Native Americans of course do not really need their land and besides we can convert them to.

So the forced removal began with the Native Americans fighting to hold onto their homes.

It was for naught, the Europeans could easily destroy the Native Americans with unseen weapons.

Disease, an invisible force that cannot be fought decimated the Native American tribes.

The Europeans in all their false righteousness eventually won out.

Capitalistic Inefficiency

frog3Leave a comment

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Money what is it?

Humans assigning artificial value.

Perhaps.

Why?

Humans greedy creatures cannot decide what people should have.

A short lasting solution is brought into play.

Everything is given a value.

A system is created.

A human works and is given a value.

This value gives humans the ability to buy objects.

These objects are of course given value.

Capitalism has risen.

That’s all fine and well.

Social Darwinism is the norm.

A worker who works hard will rise in social size.

How logical.

So then a lazy worker will fall in social standing.

A sound concept in theory.

It does not work like this.

People who work hard may suffer, those who don’t may thrive.

Why?

My Second Family

Daphne PsaledakisLeave a comment

As I step off the plane, my friend texts me: “Welcome home!” Normally, I wouldn’t even think twice about this. I would respond saying thank-you, and how excited I was to be home. Only this time, I paused for a second. I had to think twice about it.

I spend the majority of my time here at OVS. I live here, I go to school here. And at some point, withought me even realizing it, I started thinking of it as home.

My family is in Colorado, and when I’m on break that’s where I go. Aspen is beautiful, but at the same time it’s hard for me to be there. The friends I had while going to school there I have grown apart from.

It’s hard to go from living in the dorm, where almost all of my friends are around me 24/7, to Aspen where I don’t have very many people to connect with. When I came to school here my friends slowly became best friends, and from there they morphed into a second family.

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And while I miss being home at times, when I’m home I miss being at school.

So when my friend texted me that welcome home message at the beginning of break, I thought to myself that it’s just one of my homes. The home where my family is. But my life, my life is back in California.

Man of Fury

displacedlocalLeave a comment


I am a man of fire and fury

I leave a wake of destruction and fire in my path

As I cross oceans they become steam.

Deserts become mountain ranges of glass in my wake.

I walk through cities and around me civilization Is gone.

Timeflies

callmemaybe32Leave a comment

I recently came across a musical group called Timeflies.

I was drawn in by a rap that I found while studying for finals called “Adderall and Redbull,” that raps about staying up late studying for finals.

I thought that the vocalist Cal had extreme talent in his vocals and his ability to rap.

The song featured above was a freestyle on a track previously made by another artist.

To have the ability to freestyle is something I wish I had, but it is extremely difficult and takes great talent.

He shows his great freestyle ability in a cover of Ke$ha‘s “Die Young.”

In this song he has his friends write down random topics on which to rap about.

He gets the basket while in the booth and makes great music out of it.

Cal and Rez have only been around as Timeflies since 2010 but are growing in fame with the great music they are producing.

Most of the songs feature an electronic track with great vocals and raw raps.

The song “Turn it Up” features a more electric/dubstep ish style.

The groups ability to merge genres is something that they have been credited with since performing in high school and college bands.

His album “The Scotch Tape” can be found by clicking on the link.

Hope you enjoy the music

2012 in review

thebrownguyLeave a comment

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 21,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 5 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.