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Teachers Leaving SLA

May 9, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

by Tamir Harper

Staff Writer

Which teachers are leaving SLA at the end of the year?

When asked, students at SLA predicted all kinds of teachers as moving on, from veterans like English Teacher Matt Kay to newcomers like History Teacher Dan Symonds. (In fact, both of those teachers are sticking around for next year.)

While many students don’t know which teachers are going, Principal Chris Lehmann and staff have begun interviewing for four vacancies that need to be filled. Three will fill the positions of teachers leaving and one new position is opening up to assist the Career and Technical Education (CTE) department.

Since not all teachers are public about their resignations yet, Mr. Lehmann could not release all of the information in order to respect of the teachers and because the teachers have not yet notified their respective advisories. But for those who have already told their advisories, we wanted to find out more information on why.

After eight years, Digital Video and Photography teacher Douglas Herman is moving on from SLA . Mr. Herman is leaving to “give 100 percent to Rough Cut Media endeavors”, according to Technology Coordinator Marcie Hull. But Herman will still be part of the SLA community, Hull shared that Herman will continue to work with the school so that “the school continues to have one of the number one student led production sites in the district.”

Herman shared details about his departure to SLA Media. Herman received a big offer in November to work at a school in Los Angeles as a Director for their Digital Video program, but decided to not accept that position because “developing a program there wouldn’t change the inequity we see in our society in terms of access to media creation tools. The only reason I am leaving SLA is to attack this inequity by expanding the reach Rough Cut currently has in Philly.”

Spanish Teacher, Melanie Manuel will be leaving after being at SLA for 9 years.

One teacher that is not public is stated that he/she is “moving to another state.”

For filling the vacancies, Technology Teacher and Hiring Committee Member, Marice Hull stated that interviews are going smooth but stated that once someone accepts they will stop interviewing for the vacancies. When asked about when the new hire will be announced she stated “when Lehmann want’s to announce who’s been hired.”
*SLA Media will keep you updated with the latest news of the new hires as soon as we find out.

Song Review: “Origo”

May 9, 2017 by lpahomov 1 Comment

Maddi Etxebeste

Staff Writer

What is the “Eurovision Song Contest”?

Yearly, a big international music contest is held in Europe, called the Eurovision Song Contest. It is the longest-running annual international TV song competition, held since 1956. It is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world. Each participating country has to submit an original song to be performed on live television and then each country votes giving a certain amount of points to decide who is the winner. Since 1981, the winner country hosts the next year’s contest. This year it is hosted in Kiev, Ukraine, after Jamala’s victory with her emotional song “1994”, which caused controversy in Europe due to its political content.

Almost no Americans watch this contest, although hundreds of millions of people around the globe live for it (including me!)

This year, there is one song that is standing out and impressing Europe: “Origo”, sung by Joci Pápai. This will be the song representing Hungary. Joci Pápai is a Romani-Hungarian singer, rapper, songwriter and guitarist. A popular English term for Romani people is “gipsy”.

This song stands out by having ethnic sounds and dances, and its peculiar chorus. He tackles some tough topics as ethnic discrimination and prejudices. Pápai sings it in Hungarian and he describes his song as a “message of hope and strength” to all the Romani minorities in the world, who, in some countries, may feel mistreated. He also explains how he found his strength in God and he describes himself as a “believer, dreamer, father, fighter, singer, and Samurai”.

The song also tells the story of a Romani man, him, falling in love with a White European woman, and how belonging to the ethnicity he belongs to was a problem that kept them apart from each other, as he says in the song: “Hogy meghódítsd a szívem ismerned kell lelkemet” which means something like “To conquer my heart you must know my soul.”

I wanted to do a review about this song because ethnic minorities in many countries suffer from not being treated the same way as natives, and because SLA has people from different cultures within the community, and if they never feel bad because of their origins this song shows how a man is having the same troubles. Maybe you can get to feel, or at least see how he suffered with the tone of his voice.

The first time I heard this song, along with the others presented this year, I was really surprised and I didn’t really know what I just heard. First of all, I don’t understand Hungarian, but I’m pleased that he decided to sing in his national language because most of the other songs are nowadays sung in English to “make it more international”. The song could be described by people as “weird”, because it is obvious that it is not a song that is going to be played in the radio stations worldwide and that it will not please most of the people if they listen to it for the first or second time.

The live performance add a lot to the song. Pápai appears with a woman who dances with a Romani style and with movements similar to “flamenco” dances in Spain. In the official video this woman also appears dancing and there are also shots of someone’s hand touching his heart. Even if the staging is not extraordinary it complements the song, the singer, and the dancer.

Something that can also surprise the audience is how “ethnic” the song sounds and suddenly hearing how Pápai starts to rap, and is combining two styles that are completely different.

“this song is a blend of styles: electronic beats, Hungarian popular music and gipsy style.” Once, in an interview, he was asked why did he add the part of the rap in the song, and he answered “In the Eurovision Song Contest songs can only last three minutes as a maximum, and rap is the best way I can say all the things I want to say and fast enough to tell you all of them”.

Even if this song has a meaning that has to do politics, being politics a topic that the contest wants to keep apart from the festival and focus on the music, the song is receiving a good acceptance within the “Eurofan” (Eurovision Song Contest fan) community. In the betting odds provided by www.eurovisionworld.com, one of the most known Eurovision websites, he is placed 14th out of 42 countries, which is a very good placement and means that he is seen as an absolute qualifier for the finals.

I wish him and his team the best, because Hungary is not a country that has always sent good songs, but this one is making the difference and may have a good result. Though, in the semifinals of this year most of the songs are balanced and some good entries will fail to qualify just for a few points, so no one knows what could happen. In any case, he deserves qualifying to the finals and finishing in the top 15.

He will compete in the second semifinal which will take place on Thursday, May 11th. The grand final is on Saturday, May 13th.

Official Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LflrKXL022U

National Final Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2stjsoO0NfM

Movie Review: Fate of the Furious

May 9, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Deja Harrison

Staff Writer

The Fast and the Furious is an action series that is centered around insanely fast and illegal car races, heist and family. The recurring theme in the films are family is everything and they focus heavily on loyalty and trust. The films have been a huge success since the original in 2001.

After the sudden death of main character Paul Walker who played Brian O’Connor in the Fast and Furious series in 2013 many fans speculated about the release and quality of the recent 8th film. Walker played a huge role in all of the movies so the controversy that surrounded movie was very understandable. I decided to take a look at the movie and see if it still lived up to the previous films.

In the Fate of the Furious, or Fast 8 as most would call it, the themes are still very apparent. Dominic played by actor Vin diesel is forced to go against his family/crew by a mysterious female cyber terrorist named Cipher.

She is using his highly trained skills to wreak havoc across the world, her ultimate goal is to have power over all in the world. Dominic’s team consisting of his wife Netty(Michelle Rodriguez), Luke(Dwayne Johnson), Roman(Tyrese), Tej (Ludacris), and Megan(Nathalie Emmanuel) have been assigned to track and put a stop to him and Cipher’s attacks. The team does not know that Cipher is forcing Dominic to go against them, they simply assume that he is going rouge. I don’t want to give too much away but what Cipher is holding over Dominic’s head is huge and is a major game changer for the series.

In all I believe all the doubts on the movies story and overall rank were for nothing. Paul Walker’s death was very tragic and it made it hard for fans to see the films because they couldn’t envision the crew without him. The crew in my opinion did an amazing job honoring him and they kept his name alive in a way that I won’t reveal because it will be a major spoiler. This movie is definitely a must see if you enjoy laughs, family and some nice kick butt action. I recommend it to all.

Show Review: Everyday Struggle

May 5, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Mekhi Granby

Staff Writer

Complex is a New York–based media platform for youth culture which was founded as a bi-monthly magazine by fashion designer Marc Eckō. Complex reports on trends in style, pop culture, music, sports and sneakers with a focus on streetwear, sneaker culture, hip-hop, and graphic art. Complex currently reaches over 120 million unique users per month across its owned and operated and partner sites, socials and YouTube channels.

Complex released a new segment/series titled “Everyday Struggle” which can be viewed on their website or via YouTube. The show features “retired rapper” Joe Budden, YouTube personality DJ Akademiks, and Complex journalist Nadeska Alexis. These two individuals have very strong opinions about many different topics regarding music and pop culture. Everyday Struggle is a talk show with heated debates between Budden and Akademiks.

The best thing about Everyday Struggle in my opinion is the frequency of episodes being released, since the debut of the show (April 10, 2017) there has been 24 videos of content as of May 2, 2017. I say “videos of content” instead of episodes because on Complex’s YouTube channel they also include highlights/clips of episodes about a certain topics discussed in the full-length episode. These clips range from 4:25 to 10:43 while the full length episodes are usually in the 30-50 minute time frame.

With the frequent controversial topics that are discussed on the show, Everyday Struggle has been gaining a lot of views.

For example, epsiode number 2 (listed as 102) focuses on the current status of Lil Uzi Vert and his ongoing label issues. Joe Budden angrily expressed his opinions about young artists signing to a major label company. Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill were brought up in an interesting conversation about “who won the break up”.

Another episode, episode number 4 (listed as 104) DJ Akademiks and Joe Budden debated who they think the greatest rapper alive is; after that they broke down the Janet Jackson divorce rumors and then talked about the rumored Quavo and Karrueche romance.

One element of the show that I think doesn’t get enough appreciation is the moderators. Nadeska Alexis is super calm and laid back on the show compared to the angry, loud voiced Joe Budden. She sometimes expresses her opinions and slightly joins in on the conversation, but her main focus is to keep the debate on topic as it can spiral in other directions.

Overall, there’s nothing I don’t like about this show. There’s an episode released today which features a guest appearance from Lil Yachty which means the show is headed in a great direction.

I would recommend this show to anyone who likes music, more specifically hip hop as that is the focus of the show. It’s super entertaining and hilarious.

Senior Open Campus Reincarnated

May 5, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

by Saamir Baker
Staff Writer

Senior open campus is something seniors look forward to every year. Sadly, this privilege has been abused in recent years, so a new system was implemented in April in order to monitor students more efficiently.

Technology and Art teacher Marcie Hull came up with this new system where all seniors get a special barcode to keep on their Student IDs that allows them to scan in and out of the building with very little delay. The previous system involved students writing their names down on a sheet of paper and was clumsy and slow. In the new system, when a student scans their ID, they appear on a Google spreadsheet with the time and date of the scans in and out. Taking part in this program is simple: a senior must not be failing any classes or have received an interim in the 3rd quarter. They also must adhere to the rules about food: they are allowed to bring back food for themselves (a huge change compared to last year) but it cannot be for another student. Seniors are able to use open campus during their lunch band or if they have a free period during X or Y band, but cannot use it during any other bands. There is no time limit on how long students can be out as long as they are not late for class.

Counselor Zoe Siswick handles all of the administrative aspects of this idea. Her duties include accounting for when people come back late and being responsible for all eligible students having their barcodes. She noted that students were very excited and open towards this new approach but teachers weren’t as excited. The biggest fear amongst the staff was students abusing the policy, but a democratic poll amongst the teachers showed they still favored the new policy by a landslide.This could be a new era for senior open campus if this idea goes well and is not abused like in previous years. There will always be tweaks, but so far the bar codes have been off to a hot start.