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Rock the bells

adviser — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:57:57 +0000

Rock the Bells. Doesn’t it sound like some sort of boring Catholic rock band that uses bells instead of guitars?

Luckily, it had a lot more substance than a repetitive drone of bell ringing and soft singing.

Saturday, August 27th, many people came out to the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View to watch a mash-up of various hip hop artists perform some of their most popular songs. These artists are considered as underground hip-hop stars rather than mainstream ones.

The festival was about 12 hours long and was filled with different performances by the artists that were promised to be there.

A festival as long as this might cause people to think twice about attending a festival where it revolves only around a genre that people typically stereotype with violence or illegal activity. “If other genres of music are able to host festivals, such as Woodstock, then why wouldn’t hip-hop be able to do the same?” said the new math teacher Michael Tobler

However, there was more than just music there. There were many clothing booths set up to sell artist paraphernalia. “[Rock the Bells] was mostly filled with listening to music, but it also felt like you were at an outside shopping mall,” junior Kate Nguyen said.

The festival wasn’t only centered around the artists performing either. “There were three stages with artists and another one for Grindtime rap battles,” senior Aldric Constantino said.

Being a festival that was centered more on a sub-genre of hip-hop, this festival was probably not for everybody. “Only people who love real hip-hop would enjoy it. There weren’t really any mainstream performances, but it was packed with underground hip-hop and real, legit lyricism,” said Nguyen.

Overall, the day was extremely fun and a lot of people got their money’s worth of hip-hop performances. “The day was great, I’m definitely copping tickets for next year regardless who’s performing or not,” Senior Deryck Ylanan said.

Controversy brews over the Help

adviser — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:57:12 +0000

The Help, another book turned movie, is the story of a woman, Skeeter, who decides to write a book about ‘the help’, black women who have spent their lives working in the homes of white families. She befriends Aibleen and Minny, the maids, and together they work to uncover the lives of the help.
Since it came out on August 10, The Help has grossed over $100 million and continues to hold its position as #1 at the box office. But any avid movie watcher would wonder why a movie with such a basic storyline is the #1 movie in America? Shouldn’t it be Rise of the Planet of the Apes, or some other crazy action movie?
“There were a lot of funny moments,” sophomore Lauren McGary said. “And it’s different from other movies because it’s more about the individual stories of each of the maids and how they were mistreated by their employers.”
Whatever it is, The Help has drawn a lot of moviegoers. However, all good things come with a price. In addition to a large audience, the movie has attracted a lot of controversy.
The Association of Black Women Historians released a statement arguing that the movie’s maids are a perpetuation of the Mammy stereotype, women who were “asexual, loyal, and contented caretakers of whites.”
In response to this criticism, director Tate Taylor said, “If anything they were a victim of a circumstance, of what opportunities you had as a black woman in 1963.”
But this argument goes further than just the movies depiction of the maids.
Many in the African American community, in particular women, are troubled by the fact that Kathryn Stockett, the author of the book, got things wrong in her historical depiction of these women.
Many feel the struggles and hardships African Americans went through during the 60’s were profoundly more significant than what the movie displays, and therefore negates the movie’s attempt at historical accuracy.
“I was a little suspicious of books written by white people of black peoples’ experience,” director of technology Shawna Martin said.
In an interview with Jet magazine, Octavia Spencer who plays Minny, stated her response to such disapproval. “It’s a reminder of from whence we came. And for a lot of people it’s just too painful to go there because it says to them that the rest of the world doesn’t think that we’ve evolved. I disagree.”
Nonetheless, whether you believe it was accurate in its historical depiction of the times, or merely a Hollywood drama, all can agree that the movie provides an important message.
“Just thinking about what people of my race went through, how they were mistreated, hurts my inside. I feel like the movie helped me make that connection,” McGary said.

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