the tempest, april 22, 2015

Are you doing this ‘stoopid’ thing?

OPINION ON 2

MORE ONLINE AT WWW.SOLANOTEMPEST.NET follow us on Twitter for more frequent updates: @solanotempest “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.”

- Emma Goldman

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

TTEMPEST • APRIL 22 - MAY 5, 2015 • VOL. 31, NO. 13 • FAIRFIELD, CA • www.solanotempest.net •

FEATURES ON 7

Stick around campus Friday night for live music

NEWS ON 6

Atypical professor leaves lasting impression

Luningning de JesusStaff [email protected]

Solano Community College has another chance at offering a Bachelor of Science in Biotech Manufacturing program come 2017. The California Community Colleges Board of Governors communicated that one or two spots in the Baccalaureate Pilot Program have become available, according

to Yashica Crawford, Chief of Staff. Solano was invited to reapply. “We’re really optimistic. We’re going to throw our hat in the ring again and see what happens,” said Crawford. Feedback from evaluators on the proposed program has been taken into consideration. “There are definitely a few key areas that they wanted some greater emphasis on,” Craw-ford said. While the proposal was quite strong in

areas like the description of the curriculum plan, the evaluators wanted to see more emphasis on how Solano would implement the program, according to Crawford. Crawford lauded the team that has been working diligently on the revised pro-posal, including James DeKloe, director of Solano’s biotechnology program, Edward Re, biotechnology professor, Leslie Minor, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Michael Wyly, Academic Senate President,

and Crawford. “We’re all excited. We have all hands on deck, so I think this a great example of everybody working together to make something really special happen.” If approved, Solano will be able to offer students in the Industrial Biotechnology program a seamless transition to earning their Bachelors degree.

Hopes rekindled for BS biotech manufacturing program

staff report

Stephon Harris, sports medicine major, adds a suggestion for Sola-no to have a male volleyball team to the ASSC student suggestions poster April 1, 2015. Students en-joyed the benefits of their sugges-tions when food trucks arrived on campus earlier this semester. Students grab the opportunity to write out their suggestions while enjoying ASSC’s free pizza on Wednesdays on the main campus. The ASSC aims to “ensure every-one has a chance to speak up,” said Zachary Freeman, political science major and Humanities senator for ASSC. The suggestions are collated and acted on during the ASSC meetings every Tuesday at 12:30 pm in Room 1421, such as having food trucks on campus, which many students requested.

ASSC suggestion “box” reveals student concerns, desires

Luningning de Jesus / Tempest

Get ready to vote!Your election guide inside on page 4

campus conversation-the extended version

Have you ever Googled yourself? What did you find?

2

opinion: social media

reporters/photographers: staff

THE TEMPEST n APRIL 22 - MAY 5, 2015

editorial

“Yes. A different Cory Belser came up who I guess was more famous than me... He was a basketball player, but um, I did have some ar-ticles from sports from high school and stuff like that.”

Cory Belserliberal arts

“Have I ever Googled myself? Yeah, I found all of my music. I do EDM, so I found anything that was related to gigs I’ve done, and promotional, and etc. etc. It wasn’t for ego or anything, it was just to see what content would show up. I did find some news reporters from across the world, since my names pretty unique.”

Hassan Sabbaghbusiness

“Yes I have. Well, I’m an actor and I do plays, so I do Google myself. Fortunately I see me still, there’s pictures of the plays that I’ve done. I remember a movie called ‘Wanted,’ and the actor Googled himself and it says ‘No results,’ and it says ‘loser, loser,’ and so I guess it’s a thing like you do it to see ‘Do I exist to the rest of the world.’ There is kinda like a subconscious thing. Then it’s like, ‘Are you tied to your name?”

Nestor Campos Jr.

“Of course I’ve Googled myself. Who hasn’t Googled themselves?It was like in 6th grade or some-thing, I don’t remember.”

Brian Ratliffwelding

“Yeah! I just got surprised that it was a famous singer, so I was just like ‘Cool! I didn’t even know.’”

Zulema Osorioscience

“No, since I know a lot of Brittany’s I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t really care.’”

Brittany Gomezscience

“Yes, actually. It was for a class. It was just kinda random, I didn’t think there were a lot of people with my name... my last name too! It wasn’t anything shocking, but it was kinda cool.”

Brianna Hallbusiness

“No, nope!”

Jordan Laheynursing

Editor’s note: Editorials are the opinion of The Tempest editorial board.

How often have you gotten your “daily briefing” by scrolling through your Face-book or Twitter feed? Depending on who posted the links, those news sources may or may not be credible. More and more, so-called “news” comes from websites with a strong bias, be it conservative, liberal, or otherwise; or from celebrity news sites, which frequently make stuff up.

Facebook has gone beyond being merely a social media platform, with the Pew Research Center saying 30 percent of American adults use it as an aggregate source of information. Sad to say, this is not the most reliable source at all. Should

you really believe your boyfriend who read on his friend’s status page that Beyoncé is giving out free tickets to her concert? Of course not!

What is astonishing and frightening is the fact that the American populace, a people once paranoid about making sure they have accurate information, is losing their critical eye, and becoming less curious and unwilling to dig and search for the truth. People blindly accept what they read and hear without checking their sources.

The loss of critical thinking leads us to become complacent about societal norms, or things that have slipped into American lives and become common place. Despite losing their critical eye, Americans have not

lost our curiosity. We are easily tempted by click bait, which are a huge source of income for many sites.

Chances are that your attention has been snagged by a headline like “They pointed a telescope at the sun, 5 years later? Un-believable” while scrolling through your Facebook feed. Your curiosity aroused, you click on the link to read the cool part of the article. Advertisers often pay a certain amount per clicks on links from articles, which makes money for the content pro-ducer and keeps everyone happy. It is also the reason why articles on Facebook can be misleading.

Speaking of misleading, news satire published by the likes of The Onion and

The Daily Currant confuse the issue even more. While The Onion parodies current events – some real and some fictional – The Daily Currant is all-out fiction. This is NOT news, people! Do you really think that a site called The Onion is publishing any information that is not satire? Let’s hope not!

The thing is, the irony on The Daily Currant is sometimes so subtle that it has fooled many into thinking it is real news. Even reputable news organizations like The Washington Post have erroneously picked up information from this site. Which just goes to show that publishers of news satires should make it clear to their readers that about whether their news is accurate or not.

Why getting news from FB is stoopid

opinion 3

The Tempest is published by Solano College students. Opinions expressed in the paper are those of the indi-vidual writers and artists, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the college’s governing board, the admin-istration, the faculty and staff, or the Associated Students of Solano College. Readers may take up to five copies of The Tempest free. Additional copies may be purchased for 25 cents.

Member: California College Media Associa-tion • Journalism Association of Community Colleges • California Newspaper Publishers Association • Associated Collegiate Press

contact us:

It is Tempest policy to correct any errors in the paper. Please contact us if you spot one. To get in touch with us:phone:(707) 864-7000, ext. 4361e-mail: [email protected] address:SCC, Room 18614000 Suisun Valley Road,Fairfield, California 94534

Dagmar Kutaeditor-in-chief

TEMPESTT H E V O I C E O F S O L A N O C O L L E G E

THE

THE TEMPEST n APRIL 22-MAY 5, 2015

Kem’sorner

In this day and age of social media it seems that people tend to depend on what strang-ers think of them rather than the people closest to them. A girl posting a picture of herself half-dressed is almost guaranteed to get more attention than a young woman wearing a cap and gown getting ready to graduate. When did we all become obsessed with trying to gather all of this attention from people we will most likely never meet in life?

From the very first like on Facebook, there seems to have been a race for people to be-come “internet famous”, or at least, to get a little more noticed by the masses. This seems to be a little more prevalent in teens and young adults.

Generation M2, as these 8-18 year olds are being called, seem to be more interested in winning a popularity contest amongst their peers. Posting what’s considered “cool” or “in”, trying to fit in with everybody else in-stead of being their own person. This has become so prevalent that pediatricians are trying to come up with ways to reach out to their young patients.

CNN reported that Dr. David Hill, chair-man-elect of the American Academy of Pe-diatrics’ council on communications and media, gathered a panel of pediatricians together for a discussion titled, “Social Me-

dia: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, which focuses on various topics for the pediatricians to discuss with their patients. This is a good idea because then it opens up the doors of conver-sations that their patients may not be able to talk comfortably about with their parents. Espe-cially if they’re possibly being bullied or pressured into doing things that could very well be harmful to themselves and their well-being. Especially those who already have self-esteem issues.

Jodie Gummow of Alternet, reported that social media can sometimes be more hurtful than helpful, especially when it is being used to gain some sort of validation amongst your peers. A study conducted by the University of Salford in the UK has shown that up to two-thirds of people find they have issues sleeping after spending any amount of time surfing around social media. Of the 298 users that were polled, more than half of them have said that social media has caused them major self-esteem is-sues.

Then I sit and wonder, how can the in-ternet make someone lose their self-esteem? According to psychotherapist Sherrie Campbell, social media can give a false

sense of belonging and a connec-tion to others that is not built on real-life experiences. This makes it increasingly easy to lose your-self to internet associations and gives them more weight than they really deserve.

It’s already bad enough to live a life where you don’t think too highly of yourself that you

would put yourself out there to be judged by faceless people and profiles. Many people, like my-self, can take the negativity being

spouted by people on social media and it doesn’t affect them in any way. They post what they want and say what they feel and really don’t care who has what to say about it.

But what happens to those who essentially live their lives by how many “likes” they get or how many friends and followers they have? When the pain of someone’s everyday life is coupled with nothing but negativity on seemingly neutral ground, that doesn’t leave them much room to feel good about themselves. The Atlantic researched the social media blog site Tumblr and noticed that it seems that low self-esteem is being shown to be a more beautiful thing than someone who thinks highly of themselves.

Dr. Mark Reinecke, chief psychologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, has said that during the vulnerable years of adoles-cence, kids tend to seek out self-affirmation and recognition from others. This new, easy promise of being recognized as strong, beau-tiful, and mysterious by their Tumblr “fol-lowers” can be very tempting. In theory, this may lead them to believe that being termed as “misunderstood” is what it the in thing is. Unfortunately, in the end, it doesn’t help them… it only hurts them and leads them to more depression and at the end of the spectrum, self-harm.

There is always going to be an upside and a downside to this social media fad that has taken over the lives of young adults and even people my age. It might feel good to post a picture or a quote and get 50 or more “likes” on it. But at the end of the day, just how many of those people are actually sup-porting you to see you succeed, and how many of them are secretly hoping you’ll fail? When you put too much emphasis on what other people think, then you lose your indi-viduality. And in this day and age, it is better to stand out for being the unique individu-als that we were created to be as opposed to someone who follows along just to be con-sidered “cool”.

staff writers:

Makafui AhorneyMo’Nique Booker

Luningning de JesusJoy Harris

Daphne KutaQhianna Sanchez

Suzy-Jane Edwards-Freet

news/features editor: Dagmar Kuta

opinion editor: Kemberlee Jones

sports editors: Mo’Nique Booker and Joy Harris

staff photographers:

Kemberlee JonesJoy Harris

* * *

faculty adviser: Samanda Dorger

Kemberlee Jones Staff writer

[email protected]

Do it for the likesSocial media is becoming a source of an inflated ego for much of America’s youth, but is this really how weshould be fostering our young adults?

4

electionsTHE TEMPEST n APRIL 22 - MAY 5, 2015

ASSC student elections Qhianna SanchezStaff [email protected] Although ASSC elections were pushed back six weeks from the end of March to May 4 -7, there still is plenty of competition among the candidates. Two teams are running for the president and vice president positions, while three candidates are running for the position of student trustee. The only position running uncontested is legislative advocate. According to the ASSC website. the president’s duties are to meet regularly with the president of the college, manage student committees, propose the ASSC budget, and ensure the senate adheres to policy documents, parliamentary procedure, and the Brown Act. The vice president is to help in these duties as well as to run the Inter-Club Council (ICC).

Lorenzo Hays-Phillips & Rodney Harrison II

Ages: Hays-Phillips: 50, Harrison:18Majors: Hays-Phillips has 10 AAs from SCC, 2 BAs from UC Davis and is currently going for his AA in sociology/history, Harrison: political scienceGPA: Hays-Phillips: 3.2 (when left Solano in 2010) Harrison 3.22Free time: Hays-Phillips volunteers at the library for an adult literacy program (he received an award for 70 hours volunteered last year); Har-rison enjoys studying politics.

Casey Bess & Erika Gonzalez, incumbents

Ages: Bess: 30, Gonzalez: 22Majors: Bess: biology, Gonzalez: psychologyGPA: Bess: “about 3.4,” Gonzalez: 2.7Free time: Bess was a gamer until he got in-volved in student government, now “free time is a rare commodity”; Gonzalez likes to spend time with her boyfriend, watch movies, and explore new places to eat.

President and Vice-President

Vanessa FranklinAge: 25Major: She is majoring in criminal justice and history to become a lawyer; she also is majoring in theater as a hobby.GPA: 3.5Free time: “My daughter is my number one priority. She’s the one I’m doing all this for.”

Nicholas BattisteAge: 23Major: Main focus is auto body and mechanics; his other majors include small business, account-ing, political science, and graphic designGPA: 2.82Free time: Battiste enjoys going to the Sonoma raceway on Wednesday nights to watch drift cars, sometimes plays League of Legends, works on cars, spends time with siblings, and parties.

Zachary FreemanAge: 21Major: political scienceGPA: That’s not something I was expecting to be asked, but I know it’s above 2.0 Free time: Outside of homework, Freeman is an avid gamer (he’s the president of SCC’s gamer club) and reader of non-fiction, especially his-tory.

Larry Bartlow did not respond by the time this article was due for publication.

Student Trustee

Legislative Advocate

April 22: first mandatory candidates’ assembly Where: Clock tower, 1 p.m. (tentative)

April 23: first mandatory can-didates’ assembly Clock tower at 1 p.m. (tentative)

May 4 – May 7: election week Any currently registered student of SCC may vote. Voters must show some form of picture identifica-tion in order to receive a ballot. Locations and times to be determined by election committee meeting.

Casey Bess and Erika Gonza-lez are running for re-election because they want to be able to complete what they started dur-ing their first term. “A lot of what I wanted to get done is something that takes time,” Bess said. “You have to create the groundwork and then you have to implement it. I’m running up against my time run-ning out. That’s the whole rea-son I’m running again. I think it’s really important that I finish what I started.” “We started this, we have to, if not to finish it, at least clean it up,” Gonzalez said. “Because

the way that I see it right now, it’s just a hot mess. It bugs me. I have to clean it and make it okay at least, not just forget that it even happened,” Gonzalez said. Bess and Gonzalez ran unop-posed together in spring 2014. They ran together because Bess’s first choice for vice president in spring 2014 left school for a well-paying job. “I was his last resort,” Gonzalez said, laughing. “Even though she was my last resort, she’s probably way better than any of them would have been—they were too like me,” Bess said.

–Qhianna Sanchez/Tempest

The student trustee attends SCC governing board

meetings and reports to the governing board.

Nicholas Battiste, current career tech-nical education ASSC senator, says he likes solving problems in unique ways. Earlier this semester, he submitted candidate applica-tions for all four elected positions because “our election code is very flawed. And I made it a point to show to the election committee that it was flawed. With me declaring all four positions, I got the election committee to change it to one position only without actu-ally amending it,” Battiste said. He is running for student trustee because it fits better to his nature and role in the sen-ate, Battiste said. His number one goal is out-reach to students, especially for their rights

on campus. Zachary Freeman, current humanities ASSC senator, decided to run because Casey Bess asked him to run. Freeman said he has leadership experience beyond that of school and has been practicing leadership for a large portion of his life. As a youth, he achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts. “It was there I learned everything I knew about leadership: the ability to delegate, to lead, to have the right attitude. I’ve held almost every position, and done almost anything you could do in a troop. I led a small group to Mission Solano, where we repainted the walls, fixed the chair railings, holes in the wall.” Larry Bartlow did not respond by the time this article was due for publication.


President/Vice President

Bess & Gonzalez: Create the groundwork

Student trusteeLarry Bartlow, Nicholas Battiste, Zachary Freeman

Meet the candidates

Source: individual candidates

election timeline

elections 5THE TEMPEST n APRIL 22 - MAY 5, 2015

ASSC student elections

May 11: ballot count Location and time to be determined by election committee meeting.

May 12: ratification of election results by the ASSC Senate. Where: Fishbowl (1400 Building) during ASSC senate meeting at 12:30 p.m

May 20: presentation of results to SCCD governing board. Where: 600 building during gov-erning board meeting at 6:30

the way that I see it right now, it’s just a hot mess. It bugs me. I have to clean it and make it okay at least, not just forget that it even happened,” Gonzalez said. Bess and Gonzalez ran unop-posed together in spring 2014. They ran together because Bess’s first choice for vice president in spring 2014 left school for a well-paying job. “I was his last resort,” Gonzalez said, laughing. “Even though she was my last resort, she’s probably way better than any of them would have been—they were too like me,” Bess said.


President and vice president contenders Lorenzo Hays-Phillips and Rodney Harri-son II are running to bring student gov-ernment back on track, Hays-Phillips said. “The current student government is slowly being disintegrated, broken down,” Hays-Phillips said. “It’s ineffective for the students, it’s ineffective for the adminis-tration. I’d like to bring in students and train them the way I’ve been trained in student leadership and public service and empower them to hand them back their power,” Hays-Phillips said. “Our current president, our current trust-ee, and our career technical education senator, they’re doing a really good job.

I applaud them for that,” Harrison said. He believes that it’s time for a new face to come in since the current ASSC executive board has been painted as bad people by the administration, Harrison said. He and Hays-Phillips want to “do the same thing that they are doing with a better reputa-tion than they have,” Harrison said. However, Harrison also said he may not be attending SCC next year. He hopes for acceptance to a private school in Florida, with summer 2015 as his last semester here. Harrison said if he and Hays-Phillips won, they would probably appoint Geff Freire to fill the vice president’s position.


on campus. Zachary Freeman, current humanities ASSC senator, decided to run because Casey Bess asked him to run. Freeman said he has leadership experience beyond that of school and has been practicing leadership for a large portion of his life. As a youth, he achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts. “It was there I learned everything I knew about leadership: the ability to delegate, to lead, to have the right attitude. I’ve held almost every position, and done almost anything you could do in a troop. I led a small group to Mission Solano, where we repainted the walls, fixed the chair railings, holes in the wall.” Larry Bartlow did not respond by the time this article was due for publication.


Vanessa Franklin, current diversity affairs ASSC senator, is running unop-posed for legislative advocate. The ASSC website states the legisla-tive advocate’s role is to report to the ASSC on federal and state legislative af-fairs affecting students and the college, as well as to represent the college at na-tional, statewide, and regional student meetings, and serve as the chairperson of the Political Activities Committees. Franklin says she was initially unsure about running, but both her adviser and incumbent president Bess encour-aged her to run. “I fight for what I be-

lieve in, I go hard all the way, I do not back down from anything. I get to the point and do what I can to get my point across. I’m a fighter,” Franklin said. She is running to uphold the rights of the students, becoming the voice of the students and the college. “I fight for other people, not just myself. I look out for the best interests of everybody, again, not just myself,” Franklin said. “We, as senators, don’t interact with students as much as we should. Being that I’m new, I wanted to change that,” Franklin said.


Source: student services


Bess & Gonzalez: Create the groundwork


Hays-Phillips & Harrison: Empower students

Student trusteeLarry Bartlow, Nicholas Battiste, Zachary Freeman

Legislative advocateVanessa Franklin, unopposed

election timeline

Casey Bess Lorenzo Hays-Phillips

news6 THE TEMPEST n APRIL 22 - MAY 5, 2015

Daphne KutaStaff [email protected]

From top-secret govern-ment clearance to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) student trainee, it’s clear that SCC student Colin Eaton is well on his way to leaving his mark on the world.

But, his passion for geol-ogy wasn’t always so clear.

“Truthfully I was never into geology growing up or anything like that,” said Ea-ton, who served in the Ma-rine Corps for nine years before coming to Solano to take classes. “When I left the Marines and started school, I did not have a plan. I knew that I wanted to do something scientific, but I felt as though I would find something more in-teresting than the rest and could then make a better decision.”

Eaton’s internship involves working at the California Water Science Center in Sacramento. The

timing couldn’t be more fortunate, with California’s drought rearing its ugly head. “Water is an incred-ibly special and precious material with fascinating scientific properties crucial to all things geology,” said Eaton.

Eaton will primarily be collecting and inputting data from lakes, streams, and other water sources into a geographic informa-tion system to accumulate information regarding California’s water state.

Eaton took a physical geol-ogy course with Mark Feigh-ner that helped make his decision for him. “There’s something about looking out at the world around you and seeing the little clues about the past and the gigantic forces at work that is simply fascinating.” He went on to take the honors course from Feighner, which solidified his passion for geology.

Eaton worked in the tutor-ing center on campus dur-ing the 2014-15 school year, and is leaving them to work

for USGS. He received an Excellence in Achievement award for his services there in mid-April.

Once the paperwork is completed, Eaton hopes to begin working in the summer.

“I didn’t just sift through a bunch of openings, decide which one sounded fun, and automatically get accepted. It took quite a bit of work, googling these positions, and also asking for recommendation letters from my professors, and those professors know who they are and how deeply I appreciate the time it takes to write those types of let-ters,” said Eaton.

“[The Honors Geo class was an] incredibly interest-ing glance into the type of education that doesn’t revolve around normally scheduled classes. Work-ing with the rock saw and microscope made me feel, for the very first time in my life, like something of an actual scientist, and I do not think I will ever forget that.”

Makafui AhorneyStaff [email protected]

Professor Robert DaPrato is one of Solano College’s longest serving teachers and one most students know at least by name. DaPrato has taught psychology at Solano College for over 35 years. “When I was in high school, I had a good friend who was a teacher. He was a high school teacher and I thought, ‘Gee, that sounds like fun,’” DaPrato said. “I went to a private school and the teachers there were all different than public schools but I thought it still would be fun to be a teacher.” DaPrato describes himself as an atypical employee. He has worked here longer than the average person stays at one job and this has made him a part of Solano College history. “Probably the most interesting thing about me is that I’ve worked with every president of Solano College. So when you go to the boardroom and look at all those pictures, the first one was the guy that hired me and that was when they moved the campus here from Vallejo.” DaPrato helped design the first smart classrooms for the college. He has been involved in curriculum development for the psychology program. DaPrato worked with former Solano College president Virginia Holton to revive the Education Foundation. In addition to the Fairfield campus, he has taught at the Vallejo campus, Travis Air Force Base, and even the California State Prison Solano. “I taught inside the prison with a classroom that had half inmates and

half regular students. I do remember one class in psychology where one of the inmates who said he was there be-cause he had committed seven counts of rape. And everybody’s eyes went open, but then he had explained why. He had described how he’s come to understand the causes and the reasons and had gone through enough therapy that he was considered to be a resocial-ized person.” “I’ve had students that went on to four-year schools to graduate and then became professionals in the field who have said, ‘Do you remember me? I took a class from you in 1980 some-thing’ and now they’re practising some place. That’s always rewarding.”The impression he made on those past students is one he still makes today. “Professor DaPrato is a very intel-ligent man,” said Daniel Keeling, one of DaPrato’s students. “He’s incredibly energetic and he loves what he teaches and that’s what makes you love it and you interested in it even if you may not be a psychology major.” Andrew Koon, another student, said, “He’s a really interesting professor in the sense that he explains things really well and he explains it in a way that people are actually going to listen to him. He uses humor and things to get our attention. I think that’s a really effective way of explaining things.” With all the knowledge he has acquired over the years and all the his-tory he has witnessed, it is no wonder that DaPrato is thinking about writing a book. “This is my last full-time semester. Next year, I will be on a reduced load. I will only be teaching three classes and after that I am going to retire.”

DaPrato relaxes in one of his classrooms. The Spring 2015 semester will be his last full-time load at Solano Community College.

Makafui Ahorney / Tempest

“Atypical” professor leaves lasting impression on students and college

A watershed moment for SCC student

Colin Eaton holds his Excellence in Achievement award that he earned by working in the tutoring center during the semester.

Daphne Kuta / Tempest

features 7THE TEMPEST n APRIL 22 - MAY 5, 2015

Suzy Jane Edwards-FreetStaff [email protected]

“A place where nobody dared to go...They call it Xanadu.” These are the opening lines to the title song by Electric Lights Orchestra. How could Jeff Lynne, writer, lead singer and future member of super group The Travel-ing Wilburys (google it!) have foreseen how accurate those words would be for the Olivia Newton-John vehicle? Newton-John was fresh from her success from the film version of “Grease” when “Xanadu” was released to mostly negative reviews. It barely managed to break even at the box office and was the catalyst for The Razzies, a yearly award given for the worst pictures and actors of the year. It is a musical in the classic sense, with a wonderful soundtrack by ELO and amazing choreography. It is the last picture featuring Gene Kelly, whom you may know from the 1952 “Singin’ In The Rain”. Kelly was in as fine form as ever, dancing his heart out. The picture also stars Michael Beck, who had a major hit with 1979’s

“The Warriors.” Newton-John plays Kira, one of the Seven Sisters and daughters of Zeus. They are the Muses who inspire artists. Enter Beck as Sonny Malone, a frustrated artist who feels he’s wasting his time and talents paint-ing other peoples album covers. He meets retired musician and clarinet player Danny McGuire (Kelly), and Kira inspires them to open a 1940s/1980s hybrid roller disco. Then it gets weird. Though the movie flopped, it became a cult classic. The album, however, did not flop. It went certified Double Platinum in the U.S. and Gold in the U.K. The soundtrack alone contained five Top 20 singles. More pertinently, it inspired a tongue-in-cheek Broadway musical in 2007 that was nominated for several Tonys. While the picture cannot be judged in any way by the play, there is a wonderful opportunity to see it locally. Benicia High School is performing a production on May 1,2,8 & 9 at 7:00 p.m. and May 3 & 10 at 2 p.m. Dare to go see this play, and certainly see the film! You will be (dare I say it?)... a “mused”.

Notorious Hollywood flop gets another chance at Benicia High

UXANAD


Editor’s note: Daphne Kuta is a member of the speech team.Solano’s Speaking Falcons competed in the 2015 Phi Rho Pi National Forensics Tour-nament in Cleveland, Ohio over spring break, bringing home gold, silver, and bronze awards in various categories. After competing against 56 other community colleges, Solano emerged with five awards from the six person team.

Destiney Smith took home gold in Interna-tional Public Debate; Remington Green a silver in Informative speaking; and Becky DeSantis and Daphne Kuta took bronze in Persuasive speaking and Informative speaking, respectively. As a team, Solano Community College took 3rd place in the Debate Sweepstakes.

Ana Petero, head coach of the team, ex-plained that the Speaking Falcons compet-ed in small schools, where the maximum amount of event points you can take is 15, and Solano took 14.5 to nationals.

The tournament lasted five days, with rounds starting at 8 am and ending at 7

pm. Students competed in at least three rounds a day, with some students compet-ing in ten rounds a day, such as Kaleb Henderson-Redd, or Destiney Smith, who took four and three events respectively.

Smith explained she felt the debate resolu-tion almost skewed her out of the round. “When I found out I had to argue that the United States does not need to reform its immigration policy, I was sure there was no way I could win gold,” said Smith. “Having my teammates in the room with me during the debate, and [receiving] texts from my husband reminding me that Proverbs says ‘sweetness of speech increases persuasive-ness’, gave me courage to do my best and have fun, no matter the outcome.”

Smith ended up taking the win in her gold round, and said that she “cried out of shock” when she found out she won. “[I was] amazed that I won my last two rounds and super excited that I got a win for my team.”

To see how you would fare at a debate tournament, coaches Ana Petero and Dar-ren Phalen are putting on an On-Campus Tournament, which will be held May 8 from 1 p.m.-4:30 p.m.

Speaking Falcons bring home gold from national tournament

Students are invited to Rock the Sport, a live music event featuring local rock bands, Think Again, Tarzandragon, IV Orpheus, and Ghost Color. The event is sponsored by SCC’s Nature of Sound club. Nature of Sound is a club that does outreach to gen-erate opportunities in music, art and film. The event takes place on April 24 in the

1400 building from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The event is free, but donations are re-quested. Donations will benefit the athlet-ics department and the rugby club.The event is organized by Hassan Sabbagh, the ASSC senator for Fine and Applied Arts and president of the club.

rockthe

SPORTSCC hosts live music event to support the

sports department and the rugby club

The Speaking Falcon’s display awards on the final night of the tournament.photo courtesy of Ana Petero


Editor’s note: Daphne Kuta is on the SCC swim team.

The Solano Falcons swim team placed fifth last weekend in the 2015 Bay Val-ley Conference Swim Championships hosted by Solano College. Six commu-nity college swim teams met April 16-18, going head to head in individual and relay events. The top spot went to College of the Sequoias with 3,305 points. The Falcons earned a combined total of 875 points in 37 individual events and six relays.

Other participating schools were Merced College, Shasta College, Laney College, and College of Marin. College of the Sequoias traveled the farthest, with a drive of four hours.

“The team performed very well,” said SCC head coach Scott Parrish, “with most of the swimmers swimming their career-best times.”

Solano’s team finished the semester

with 11 swimmers; seven women and four men. Of the 37 individual events, Solano took 17 races to the top eight. Ricky Morse and Daphne Kuta took all four events, Gabriella Arca took three of her four, Alex Palting and Jayna Mis-lang two of their four, and Eric Writer and Alyssa Haddon Zimmer took one.

“I think that each swimmer improved immensely and posted their best times this weekend. So, great job to the entire team,” said Morse, a first-time Solano swimmer. “I was very excited about

achieving some of my personal goals as well, and had a fantastic time this season.”

Second-year swimmer Mislang agreed with Morse and said that the team did “amazing.” “Knowing that it was the last meet of the season really pumped people up to do our best,” Mislang said, “and person-ally, knowing it’s the last meet that I will ever compete in on the Solano team is a bittersweet ending. I’m really going to miss the people on the team–and just

swimming–but I am happy of what I accomplished this season.”

“The fact that this is my last meet is kind of sad,” said Palting, a sophomore on the team, “even though it is bitter-sweet, I am glad it happened.” On the bright side, Palting said he broke times “that I thought I would not even be able to break.”

During the meet, the coordinators recognized the sophomore swimmers, and their intended schools of transfer. Some of Solano’s transfers are Morse, who intends to transfer to Grand Can-yon University with a major in business management. Haddon Zimmer aims to transfer to SF State, majoring in ocean-ography; and Palting plans to transfer to SF State for biochemistry, with hopes of leading into his goal of becoming a pharmacist in the military.

This meet marked the end of the swim season for the Solano College team. Anyone interested in joining next year’s team may consider taking swim condi-tioning classes in the summer and fall. Contact Scott Parrish ([email protected]) for more information.

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sportsTHE TEMPEST n APRIL 22 - MAY 5, 2015

SCC hosts swim meet

Daphne Kuta/Tempest photos

Second-year Solano swimmer Jayna Mislang competes in the indi-vidual medley race Sat. April 18 at Solano College.

Far left: Alex Palting holds the American flag during the National Anthem.

Left:Freshman Gabriella Arca pulls ahead in the breast-stroke.

swimming

Daphne Kuta/Tempest photos

Alyssa Haddon Zimmer (left) and Jayna Mislang (right) swim the butterfly section of their 100 individual medley.

Falcons wrap up season fifth in meet, some making career-best times

the tempest, april 22, 2015

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