JACC Los Angeles 2010-Team Feature 2.0 On Assignment

by Jack Barnwell, Editor

Chabot's staff jumped into the fray Friday when Sean Jones, Arpi Narkashian, and Jack Barnwell hit Hollywood Boulevard for the conference's Team Feature 2.0 competition. The assignment was to find a story or a feature along the streets, so long as any building had an entrance from the boulevard.

Here are a few photos of the staff members while on assignment.

 

Spectator writer/photographer Arpi Narkashian waits for the Metro train at the 7th St/Metro Center station Friday morning.  Fifteen minutes the staff was in North Hollywood—two stops past the destination.

 

 

Arpi Narkashian (at left) and Spectator multimeadia jedi Sean Jones getting off the L.A. Metro (at the right stop this time).  Both are more than prepared to tackle and dominate the competition.

 

Sean Jones chimping on his camera, checking out a photo he just made.

 

Sean Jones watches as Arpi Narkashian attempts to take a photo of an oncoming metro train on the way back to the hotel.

Football 10-10-09

Photography by Sean Jones

Sean Jones - JACC 2009

Sean Jones - International Night

Sean Jones - Sports 2009

(updated 3/12/09)

Sean Jones - Battle of the Bands 2009

Vineshia Cedillo - Laurens Had Enough

Yes the rumors are true! MTV’s hit show The Hills is coming to an end. Conrad tells Seventeen magazine “the upcoming season of "The Hills" will be her last.” She goes on to say "I gave MTV a deadline and said, this is as long as I can do it and stay sane, it's difficult for me to remember what I was like before I had a mic taped to me. But I think I've become a little bit more independent and not quite as ... I don't want to say it, but pathetic.”

Lauren isn’t thinking about her fans at all. The show is the only way her fans can see what’s going on in her life. I think she’s just ending the show because she’s embarrassed that her life isn’t really going anywhere. Whitney has moved to New York and is working for a famous designer; Audrina is living on her own and is pursuing her acting career. While Lauren is pretty much staying the same. Still the show is the only way we know Lauren, I wonder what she will be without it.

Is ending The Hills a good career move for Conrad? I definitely don’t think so. Lauren has always been famous for being a reality star and without a reality show she’ll slowly disappear from the spotlight. I think the fame has given Lauren a big head to think she’s big enough star to succeed without the show. I personally love The Hills and never want it to come to an end but sadly it has. It seems like it was just yesterday she had moved form Laguna to Los Angeles. Nothing will ever replace the drama on The Hills and it’s sad to see it go.

Ann Seitz - CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT TIME IT IS?

Racing down the second floor hall of Building 300 to my Shakespeare Studies class I wondered, “Am I late?” Ha, a clock, I’m saved. My question could be answered, a student’s pot-o’-gold. No, wait. The time on one side is different than the other.

Stepping closer to the clock I must have entered a shortcut through space and time because facing west the time was 10:49 and 21 seconds and facing east it was 4:06 and 42 seconds thus keeping perfect time in reverse to reason. Does time really flow in only one direction anyway I wondered? I expected to hear a ‘Cuckoo—Cuckoo’, but all the chronometer could do was not tell time. Apparently, non-operational clocks have been a timeless problem at Chabot.

Almost two decades ago Instructor Barbara Pope mused it would be nice to get the clocks right at least once a year. Nick Pereira, then head of the college’s Maintenance and Operations division, explained our clocks are tied to a central clock, which automatically sets the time. He had replaced the ‘mother clock’ with a digital devise two years before former student Marc DeSaussure interviewed him in 1991. Pereira went on to say, “Obviously, this isn’t working…. ” and added, “Unfortunately the school’s clocks are already around 20 years old and probably don’t work properly…(they) have worn out signal wires.” Replacement would have cost the college between $150,000 and $250,000 then. Almost forty years of “whatever” ticking later, not much has changed.

But, one mustn’t complain without solutions.
1) Take the clocks out, they’re not clocks, clocks tell time, it’s better not to have clocks;
2) Mount a contest to see who could embellish “time” more than it already does on its own. Prizes could be awarded for the most inventive, colorful or thought-provoking clock and there are hundreds to choose from;
3) Make “Any Time Is The Right Time” the school’s official policy. If a student shows up late for an exam they must be given the full three hours to complete the test, after all they were on time according to some clock at Chabot;
4) In 2000 B.C. the sundial answered the need for marking time. Chabot has talented metal and stone artists. We have physicists. Start building.
5) Satellite clocks stay accurate. I just got one free for subscribing to a magazine. Start subscribing;
6) Go Japanese. Feng Shui informs us that clocks are powerful generators of energy and if you just sit near or under a clock that doesn’t work it creates stagnancy, nothing happens. If you sit near a clock or under a clock you are always under pressure, never seem to have enough time to complete projects;
7) Design and wear “Start Clocks, Not War” buttons.

Running under the wall clock to my Shakespeare class again I recalled Hamlet’s proclamation, “The time is out of joint. Oh, cursed spite that ever I was born to set it right.”

Thu Saminathen - Relationships

“Are you single?” is a common opening line to hear in your late-teens to early-twenties stage. Relationships are a big factor in everyone’s life. You're either in a solid rock relationship and are fully in love, or despise every aspect of what a relationship holds. As for me, I can go both ways. I’m not really looking to settle down, but if Mr. Right came along, I wouldn’t mind.

My theory on relationships, coming from experience, is this: At our age, no one should be ready to settle down. We are way too young to devote all our time and energy to one person that’s not you.

A relationship takes two people to be completely committed. Both must be ready to do what it takes to make the other person happy. I believe that during the duration of college, no girl or guy is ready to be, or should be, put in a position to be “wifed” up. This our time of trial and error and having a relationship would only make life harder because you have someone else to answer to.

On the other hand, if you’re in love and are willing to do what it takes to make it work, than kudos to you. You have another person right next to you through your college experience.

From my experience, I learned the hard way, but I’m glad I did, because it would have only gotten harder. I was in a fun, committed relationship for two years. We parted ways about six months ago. The hardest thing I ever did was to break out of my daily routine and realize that all I have is myself at the end of the day.

As time goes on I realize that I am happier making my own decisions instead of always putting someone else first. If I make mistakes, I only have myself to blame. It works, and there is a lot less fighting!

Dating is also something everyone should take part of. Dating allows you to create new relationships, good or bad, and allows you to learn from new people.

I also realize I am turning 21 years old, which entitles me to a whole other world, a world that doesn’t include relationships.

Women and men come and go. It’s hard to realize that when you're in a relationship or want a relationship from a specific person. But at the end of the day you have just got to say, “There’s plenty of fish in the sea.”

Chloe Waldrep - All for a bathroom break

If you've ever been to a basketball game, you might have caught a glimpse of a halftime show as you were getting up to get food. If you've ever even seen one on television, you may have seen the show behind the announcers who were summing up the first half of the game. For most basketball fans, the show is simply a bathroom break.

For the dancers who rehearse for it for half a year, it's a pretty big deal.

All of our 72 competition dancers were completely excited for a full three months before the performance: rehearsing our own bits over and over every waking moment of the day.

When the actual game day began, it was very hard to believe it was here.

It felt like a normal day until 5 p.m., when I transformed from average me into...sequin-clad, clown-makeup me. Although we all look like little blobs from the audience, us dancers spend hours finding the brightest red lipstick, applying false eyelashes, putting mascara on the false eyelashes, and applying enough eyeshadow to completely cover our faces if we wanted.

We'd had at least an hour a week to work on this dance, but nothing prepared us for the experience leading up to halftime.

The dancers, teachers, and parents had all been sectioned off into a certain area of the arena, where each individual group of dancers formed their own rows. All the dancers got there well over an hour before the game and we chatted together and tried to figure out which way we were supposed to face when we dance, a process that was not helped by one of our teachers, Rob Perry ("Well, if upstage is behind the W, when the W is upside down, which way are you facing?").

As soon as the first half is finished, we all run as fast as we can down at least three thousand flights of stairs, and in what seems like several circles, until we are in a cement, warehouse-like backstage. Several tour groups pass us with funny stares and lame jokes. We all line up in a very thin line right behind the North Tunnel curtain while security guards and CIA-like men talk into walkie-talkies and freak us out.

Checking the clock every five seconds, we all feel the excitement building, and as soon as that buzzer rings, we all run onto the very slippery court and make our carefully rehearsed formations, not unlike secret agents.

Our hearts are pounding, we all try not to fidget, and we have never felt more excited and nervous in our lives.

As the music starts, I am reminded of this blog I have to write and all of my happiness is replaced with one thought:

"All of this for a bathroom break?"