Monthly Archives: May 2016

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R.I.P. Prince

 

“Warner Bros took the name [Prince], trademarked it, and used it as the main marketing tool to promote all of the music I wrote. The company owns the name Prince and all related music marketed under Prince. I became merely a pawn used to produce more money for Warner Bros.

I was born Prince and did not want to adopt another conventional name. The only acceptable replacement for my name, and my identity, was a symbol with no pronunciation, that is a representation of me and what my music is about. This symbol is present in my work over the years; it is a concept that has evolved from my frustration; it is who I am. It is my name.”

-Prince 1993

In memory of the legend, this word search is made up of Prince song titles
In memory of the legend, this word search is made up of Prince song titles | NECC Observer
Prince at Coachella 2008
Prince at Coachella 2008 courtesy of wikipedia
Arts and Entertainment, Opinion

2016’s ‘The Jungle Book’ outshines original

 

Some people are absolutely militant when it comes to the idea of remakes. “Why bother trying to fix what isn’t broken?” they roar, spittle flying from their mouths as they work themselves up into a futile rage. “Is nothing sacred?”

These people are probably disgusted with Disney’s recent idea to remake a number of its animated classics in live action, including “Maleficent” and “Cinderella,” and yes, Jon Favreau’s new take on “The Jungle Book.”

I’m a bit more flexible about these things; the idea of a remake is not inherently bad to me, although I do understand the hesitation to get excited. So many remakes, particularly when it comes to already-dubious genres like horror, are tossed out merely as a fresh way to cash in on an old idea.

But there are plenty of examples of film remakes that not only offer a new and exciting way to look at aged material, but also improve on the original — and it’s my hope that this iteration of “Jungle Book” will be studied in film classes as an example of this phenomenon.

That’s because Favreau’s take on this story pumps it full of life in ways I never expected. Where the 1967 Disney version was a typical animated musical comedy of the day, the 2016 edition is an exhilarating, electrifying and often terrifying adventure thrill ride. Yes, this is a movie that can be charming one moment with a rendition of “Bare Necessities,” then alarmingly suspenseful the next.

Those moments of suspense and horror are largely due to the strength of the film’s villain, Shere Khan, voiced by Idris Elba in a sinister and genuinely threatening performance. This time around, we get a bit more detail in the background of all the characters, which makes his — and everyone else’s — motivations a lot clearer.

Raised by wolves, Mowgli (Neel Sethi) is the son of the man who gave Shere Khan his scar (and lost him the use of his left eye). Tensions are high in the animal kingdom as the result of a drought, so when Khan discovers the boy, he agrees not to go after him until water has returned to the jungle.

Naturally, it does, leaving Mowgli to decide that he would rather not endanger the whole pack — and so, with panther companion Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), he sets off to rejoin his species in the “man village.”

The journey, of course, is not a straightforward one. All the better, I say, to look at all the visually stunning places Mowgli, Bagheera and later Baloo (Bill Murray) visit. That’s because this film is a landmark technical achievement in that its lone actor onscreen — Sethi — was filmed on soundstages in Hollywood, with the jungle and all the creatures around him rendered in CGI afterwards.

But this isn’t like a Zack Snyder film, where the CGI elements stand out in garish contrast to the real ones — everything in Favreau’s film is breathtakingly realistic and beautiful. And for his part, Sethi does a fantastic job acting as an organic part of this artificially-created world; though the Jim Henson Company was on hand to provide puppets for him to act alongside (none of which appear in the finished film), it still must have taken a degree of skill to act as a jungle inhabitant on a sterile soundstage, particularly at 12 years old.

What’s most impressive about this version of the tale, of course, is that there’s a real sense of adventure this time around. Kipling’s original books were probably not the ideal material for a comedy-musical, and their true nature comes through in a much more appealing way with the danger and tension presented here. Plus, Murray and Christopher Walken (playing a short scene as giant gorilla King Louie) balance this with plenty of light humor, making this a well-rounded and delightful bit of family entertainment.

Sports

Softball team gets some recognition

 

With all the early season success of the NECC softball team, they were featured in the Eagle Tribune on April 18 and on the front page of the Sports section in the April 19 edition of the Newburyport Daily News. At the time, the team sported a 10-4 record, but have took a slight downturn since the paper came out. Since April 19, the Knights have gone 2-4 in three doubleheader matchups against the Community College of Rhode Island and Dean College.

The team played a doubleheader on the 19th at home against Rhode Island. The Knights won the first game, 12-4. Nodine Webster was the winning pitcher, recording 3 strikeouts. Maddy Crateau and Angelina Correia both hit triples.

The second game against Rhode Island that day was a different story. NECC lost 20-10, giving up 7 runs in the 2nd inning and 9 in the 3rd. Crateau, Kassidy Kennefick, Kelsey Trudeau and Correia all hit doubles during the game, but it was not enough to keep their team from losing by 10 runs.

After the 1 win, 1 loss day at home, the Knights traveled to Dean College two days later, where they would gain another win and another loss.

NECC scored 4 runs in the first inning of the first game and won 13-7. Webster picked up another win and struck out 4 on the day. Crateau hit a home run and recorded 2 RBI’s.

The Knights lost the second game of the doubleheader 8-6. Dean won the game when in the final inning they scored 5 runs to get up on NECC. Toni Mariano hit a home run while Kennefick, Trudel, Katherine Quevedo and Hannah Benning all had a stolen base.

The next day, the Knights came home to finish off their regular season in a doubleheader against Rhode Island. The day ended in two losses for NECC. The first game was a 6-1 loss, and the game after was a 4-2 loss.

The Knights ended their regular season with a winning record of 11-8, which may be good enough to squeeze into the Region 15 postseason tournament. The tournament berth for the Knights is tentative.

softball
| NECC Observer
Features, Home Page Featured News, Sports

Boston Red Sox host Journalism Night

 

As an aspiring journalist, more specifically a sports journalist, meeting and networking with professionals in the field is essential to furthering my career.

The Boston Red Sox organization emailed multiple colleges about some of their “theme” nights throughout the season that coincided with college majors. The first theme night of the season was Journalism Night on April 12. Going to Journalism Night also came with a free ticket to the game against the Baltimore Orioles after the event.

The Faculty Adviser of the Observer, Mary Jo Shafer, made sure the email with details about the event made it to me. I saw the message and knew right away that I had to attend. Two of my idols and famous sports journalists, Bob Ryan and Gordon Edes, were going to be there — and Edes was the master of ceremonies.

Ryan is a former sports writer for the Boston Globe. He wrote about the Boston Celtics and Red Sox there from 1969 until 2012. He is also a voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame and is occasionally on “Around the Horn” on ESPN.

Edes is the Red Sox team historian. Before taking that position, he had been the Red Sox beat writer for the Boston Globe for 18 years, and has been a sports journalist for 35 years. He has also worked for the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune.

The other sports journalists on the dais that night were Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, Jennifer McCaffrey of MassLive.com, Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald and Maureen Mullen, a freelancer who had formerly worked for both the Globe and the Herald. It was an all-star cast of Boston area sports journalists.

April 12 came a few days after I got the initial email. I got ready to go to Fenway Park that night and shook all the butterflies out of my chest before I left. I had to make sure I looked my best and acted as professional as possible at the event.

I got to Fenway and had to ask a few employees where the Champion’s Club was located before I received a straight answer. Not even the employees knew where the conference room was! Finally a hotdog vendor pointed me to the right direction and I was in.

I was the first of many to enter the room. I looked around: there was a buffet, there was a table where the guests would be sitting and, as I got further into the room, I saw the epitome of sports journalism.

There was Edes sitting by himself at one of the tables on the phone writing in his notebook. He was talking to a player agent in another country about the prospect the agent was representing, getting info and quotes, asking proper interview questions. It blew my mind that a legend like Edes still does what I do, and what others hoping to be in his position one day do. He is the definition of a great journalist.

I was watching him the whole time in wonder with a huge, ridiculous smile on my face hoping to talk to him before the event started, but I let him be. I knew there was more time to meet and talk to him. Journalism Night was just starting.

Everyone had filed in, mostly college students like myself, but there were also plenty of people of other ages attending. Once everyone settled down, Edes introduced himself and the guests, talked about what would happen over the next hour and a half and thanked everyone for coming to Journalism Night.

Mastrodonato talked about what it means to be a journalist and how this career is only made for people completely devoted to the craft.

“The number one thing is, you have to be passionate about it,” he said. “I was told you’re not going to make a lot of money doing this, so you better enjoy it. Remind yourself every day that you’re in it to be happy, to enjoy, to share your knowledge of sports with people.”

Then Mastrodonato began a conversation about the “Twitter effect” in news.

“The immediacy causes you to be more careful,” he said. “One wrong remark will bring you down a notch.”

Mullen then added her views about the “Twitter effect,” and how the Internet is changing how news organizations work and get the news to the masses.

“To me, one of the concerning trends is this concept of ‘aggregating.’ It’s where news outlets, or so-called news-gathering outlets, have people sitting in the office pulling stories off of websites and saying ‘as so-and-so reported’ so they don’t get charged with plagiarism. . . I think that’s a dangerous trend in the business, because nobody has to go get the news. You look at what the Boston Globe did with ‘Spotlight.’ Somebody has to go get this news. Sometimes a story will just fall into your lap, and you have to actually show up and be there,” Mullen said. “I think that’s one of the things that we as an industry as a whole should be on the lookout for.”

More questions about the news industry were asked, but then we moved on to more light-hearted subjects, like how to approach a professional ballplayer, and each writer’s favorite athlete to cover. Speier said his were former Red Sox Gabe Kapler and Pedro Martinez, while Mastrodonato said Brock Holt.

Then the question of “who’s your favorite player to cover” got to Bob Ryan, and instead of answering the question, Ryan and his distinct loud voice yelled out who his least favorite player to cover was.

“There has NEVER been anyone who has poisoned the clubhouse like Albert Bell. Never. And covering him was a misery,” Ryan said. Everyone laughed and was happy, because Bob Ryan can have that effect on people.

After a few more questions and comments, Edes declared the event was over and that now would be a 20-minute networking event. This is what I had been waiting for: my chance to rub elbows with the bigwigs.

First I came up to Edes and Speier, who were standing together, talking and having a good time. As I approached them I realized that I hadn’t planned anything to say to them. It was going to be a disaster, I thought, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I began talking to Edes, telling him how much I have followed his career and what a great time I was having that night. I told him the I was the Sports Editor of my college newspaper, and his eyes lit up. I told him I saw him sitting on the phone writing notes before the event started.

“Well, that’s what guys like us do to get a good story,” he said.

I almost lost my mind, in a good way. Gordon Edes just said “guys like us” to me, he grouped he and I into the same class. The butterflies in my chest were in full effect.

We talked for the rest of the 20 minutes about journalism, my life, and how he influenced me. There were laughs shared and smiles galore. He then called over Bob Ryan to come and meet me. This was one of the best nights ever.

We talked for a bit and then I suggested to Edes that the three of us should get a picture together. After that, he told me to go have a fun time at the game and bid me farewell.

My night was already made. I couldn’t really focus on the game; the rest of the night I thought of the event, my future and how I was so glad this opportunity fell into my lap.

That night made me love sports journalism more than I already did, and reassured me that I’m in the right field and on the right path towards my future     career.

Campus Life, Opinion

Opinion: Lawrence campus offers better food

 

By Carly Colombo

Correspondent

A small counter sits in the Dimitri building atrium selling food and drinks to students. The counter is known as Napolitana, and serves as the main food vendor for the Lawrence campus as well as the building across the street next to the bookstore. What many students do not know, is the Lawrence campus food comes from a completely different company than the food on the Haverhill campus. Napolitana is the name of the cafe, but it is in fact owned by the Lupoli Companies, who are also responsible for the Sal’s Pizza and Salvatore’s chains of Italian restaurants. The pizzas sold at the cafe are actually the same flatbread pizza recipe used in Sal’s stores.

“Sal (Lupoli) rented a spot in NECC and we originally served his pizza, but switched to the flatbread recipe to be healthier for students, since there’s way less bread used in the crust,” said Jenny Eduardo, manager of Napolitana and NECC student. “Our pizza is stretched by hand, and it comes every day between 10:30 and 11 a.m., fresh. The Haverhill pizza seems like it was made in a pan or something. I’m not sure where they get it from, but it’s a lot thicker and doesn’t look handmade.”

Napolitana also serves pastelitos, fresh and made my hand. They have beef, chicken, ham and cheese.

“It feels more Spanish at this one,” says Jennifer Lopez, an NECC student. “Like we don’t have hummus and pretzels like the Haverhill campus, but we have the pastelitos. There’s definitely more variety in Haverhill, but the food in Lawrence is so fresh.”

“I make them all by hand. I season all my meat and make them fresh to order. I hate how in Haverhill, all the food is just sitting there. I don’t keep anything out, because it won’t be as good over time. People always tell me, ‘Wow, your pastelitos still have that crunch,’ and it’s because I literally just made them fresh. Making them fresh also allows me to be more conscious of peanut and gluten allergies. We had to stop ordering our pastelitos because they were making them with peanut oil, so we just started making them here.” says Eduardo.

Eduardo even explained the cookies are made fresh, baked on-site after receiving the prepared cookie dough from a warehouse. The food along the counter, such as the snacks, muffins and brownies, were all shipped in, but the salads, sandwiches, pizza and pastelitos are prepared fresh.

“The food at Haverhill isn’t like handmade,” says NECC student Stephanie Velez. “I only went to the Haverhill cafeteria like once to get a yogurt or something. But everything was sitting out on shelves, all the parfaits, wrapped sandwiches and stuff, like it’s not made to order. I don’t really like it as much as the food here.”

The cafeteria in Haverhill is known for having the infamous refrigerator shelf of cheese and crackers, yogurts, sandwiches, salads, hummus, and fruit all pre-packaged for sale, which isn’t offered at the Lawrence campus. It is very interesting that what seems to be a smaller campus with less student traffic has more food offered that is prepared to order. Perhaps since there aren’t too many students there is more time to make sandwiches to order instead of selling them pre-made.

Eduardo takes pride in the food offered to students at the Lawrence campus. She regularly throws away food sitting too long and tries to keep the hot food as fresh as possible. Even though the counter seems vacant and limited, the Dimitri building may have itself a hidden gem.

Features

Rollins goes extra mile in philosophy class

 

By: Kali Routier

Correspondent

Philosophy is an area of study that aims to answer the world’s most unanswerable questions with logic. For example: Does God exist? What happens after death? And what, exactly, is the purpose of life?

Dustin Rollins, a philosophy professor at NECC, helps students seek the answers to those questions.

He began teaching at the college about eight years ago in 2008. Rollins received his undergraduate degree at St. John’s College in Maryland with a major in liberal arts and an emphasis on math and philosophy and a master’s in philosophy from Boston College.

Rollins says he has always had a natural curiosity about the world, and when his humanities teacher showed him the quote “Philosophy begins in wonder,” from Aristotle, Rollins realized that philosophy matched up and was a good fit for what always came naturally to him.  Practical Logic, Ethics and Fresh

man Seminar are some of the other classes Rollins teaches.

“I hope to engage all students to where they can find meaning in their own lives,” Rollins said.

“The way in which I try to help students find that meaning is different with each class, because each class is different.”

Rollins’ philosophy class is conducted more like a conversation than a lecture; and there’s an interesting air and tone of voice to the material being taught.  Rollins requires his students to read original works written by Plato and Aristotle, which in itself can be considered to be an advantage according to student Christian Fanaras.

“What’s most interesting about Rollins class is that you’re learning the actual ideas of the original philosophers, as opposed to preconceived notions created by other people,” said Fanaras.

Another goal Rollins has for his students is to help them become good reasoners.

“Philosophy can be beneficial because it requires the students to be critical thinkers,” Rollins said. 

“Students have to pull information out of material that’s not so easy to understand. Those kind of skills can be applied to everyday life, and can contribute to achieving personal and professional success.”

But with reading material dating back to 350 B.C., it can be difficult to understand. Student Luke Guicho, says, “one of the best things about Rollins’ teaching style are his explanations.”

After sitting in on Rollins class, it becomes clear that he goes the extra mile to make sure every student understands and will take different approaches to explaining this complex material.

Philosophy is a solid class to take because it discusses topics that come from the most human part of the soul. A lot of people in this world have curious souls, and philosophy aims to explore that incurable curiosity.

Features

NECC COG supports Walk for Hunger

 

On Wednesday April 20, Community Outreach Group had a bake sale for the Walk for Hunger organization. 

Nick Stuart, the president of COG has been an active member for four semesters.  “The club has gained a lot of new members as of late and that’s really exciting,” he said. 

For the most recent bake sale, they raised about $225.  Additionally, club members have been getting donations from friends and family that all go to the organization. 

The COG goal for the Walk for Hunger is $500. 

The money raised for the Walk goes to support more than 255,000 households that “can’t always predict where their next meal is coming from,” according to the NECC COG fundraising page for the Walk.

There are five students from the club that are going to be participating in the Walk: Alyssa Torres, Tori Stubbs, Julianne Darnelle, Alexander Barkas and Shawna Lachance. 

The Walk for Hunger is a 20 mile walk in Boston and is coming up this Sunday, May 1. 

Anyone interested in sponsoring one of these 5 students can go to http://support.projectbread.org/goto/NECCCOG.

Their meetings take place every Monday at 12:00 in C-107. 

Features

English professor takes sabbatical

 

NECC English professor Tom Greene has taken the spring semester of 2016 off for sabbatical. During this time, he is working on producing a manuscript for a novel and seeking to publish it.

A sabbatical may be granted to a professor every seven years, where he or she can ask for time off to do their own research or their own work and get paid for the time off.

Greene wrote a proposal for what he wanted to do. Since the school approved his project, they gave him some paid time off from teaching.

“It varies from one college to another. You don’t teach, but you do the other work that you agreed to do. Then at the end of the semester, you show them the work that you have done,” Greene said.

English professors who take time off usually write a book, and if they teach fiction writing, they may take the time off to write a novel.

Greene has been teaching at NECC since 2008. The sabbatical was a good way to get the extra time to work on his novel. It is a science fiction novel with a subgenre of space opera.

He described space opera as “large scale mythic stories that happen in space.” The original term, soap opera, was changed for shows like Star Trek which are essentially soap operas that happen in space.

Star Wars is another example of “big events and large political movements and spaceships,” he said.

Right now he has a manuscript of about 76,000 words. The outlining took about a month and the first draft took about five weeks. Rewriting took another four weeks.

Since then, he has been rewriting for about four or five months.

“The original writing is only about 1 percent of the work and then most of it is revision after that,” he said.

“It’s different every day. Some days it goes well and some days it goes really poorly, but it’s just about persistence.”

This semester, in order to completely devote himself to his book, he has not been on campus at all.

He has never attempted to write a novel before, which is why this was important for him.

He has published some short stories in science fiction, and in the past he has taught the Fiction Writing class at NECC.

A few of his students would ask him what he knew about writing a novel, and he would have to answer

“Well, I haven’t done one myself,” and then would share information about what other authors have said from their experience.

“In order to be a better Fiction Writing teacher, especially for those students who want to write novels, I thought it was important to have some firsthand experience,” he said.

He has been reading science fiction since he was a kid and trying to write science fiction since he was 16.

He has an MFA in Fiction Writing from UMass Amherst. He wrote continuously for about 27 years before he ever got published.

His first published work in a professional publication was in a fiction magazine called Strange Horizons with a story titled “Zero Bar,” like the candy bar.

In professional publications, he’s gotten four published and is getting another one published next year.

“I constantly yell at people when they don’t take a sabbatical every sevem years,” he said, laughing.

“I mean, why wouldn’t you take one? The most you can ever take is one every seven years and if you don’t apply, you don’t get it back. Plus, it really is a good way to recharge for another seven years of teaching.”

Campus Life

African students hold fashion show

 

By: Cleo Brigham

Staff Writer

NECC student Tracy Mukami wore her traditional garb for the fashion show
NECC student Tracy Mukami wore her traditional garb for the fashion show Cleo Brigham
Gold Omitor
Cleo Brigham
Even children attended the African Student's Club's fashion show
Even children attended the African Student’s Club’s fashion show | NECC Observer

On Wednesday, April 20, the African Students Club held an African attire fashion show in Spurk’s Hawrylciw Theater. In addition to the many items of traditional clothing modeled, club member Ercania sang a Haitian song.

The club was also joined by former NECC professor Jane Thiefels. In addition to previously teaching English as a second language at Northern Essex, Thiefels is also a nurse and has traveled to Africa as an ESL teacher.

After the show’s finale, the club asked their audience to stand and dance with the club members instead of applauding.  After the show the students gathered for a reception including a meal of sweet plantains, spicy jollof rice, and chicken.

The garments worn in the show ranged from casual street or market wear like dashikis, brightly colored tunics from West Africa to formal wear such as men’s suits, printed dresses, and long robes called agbadas. Many of the items the students already had in their closets. Psychology professor Peter Flynn, the club’s co-adviser, explained that the garments displayed in the show were contemporary pieces as opposed to costumes or festival wear.

Secretary of the club and Kenyan native Tracy Mukami described it as “a safe space where people can learn about Africa,” reflecting on how she didn’t realize how many African students there were at Northern Essex before she joined the club. Another member, Gold Omotor who is originally from Nigeria explained that she felt at home with the other members, stating that the club is, “bringing African students together.”

Mudasiru Oluwafolakemi, president of the club explained that in addition to the club meetings the members of the African students club help each other find jobs, and sometimes go out bowling or to a movie.

Professor Peter Flynn and Sociology professor Sheila Pierre co-advise the club which meets every Wednesday at noon in C105 on the Haverhill campus. The club encourages African, Haitian and West Indian natives as well as other students who are interested in the culture, foods, music and politics of Africa to attend, as their club motto states, “We are all Africans.” 

Arts and Entertainment

Sy Montgomery speaks at NECC

 

Sy Montgomery, the author of The Soul of an Octopus, naturalist and author of “The Good Pig,” spoke at the STEM Speaker’s Series at NECC on April 6. Montgomery based her lecture on her book, and her incredible experiences working with octopuses at the New England Aquarium.

She began her talk by referring to the octopuses not as a “something,” but as a “someone,” giving the impression of octopuses being capable of complexity and personality similar to humans.

“I would like to start by telling you about someone who I met in March of 2011,” Montgomery began. “This is somebody who changed my life, who opened the world to me, and would change my thinking.

“Her name was Athena, and if she stood up she would have only been about 4 ft tall, and she only weighed 40 pounds, and she had a beak like a parrot and venom like a snake.

“She had ink like an old-fashioned pen, and she could change color and shape and pour her baggy boneless body through an opening the size of an orange.

“Because Athena was a Giant Pacific Octopus.”

From there, she went into great detail about how octopuses can shape-shift, change color and develop their own distinct personalities. She described many of her experiences at the New England Aquarium, including her very first interactions with Athena, and other octopuses and how different they were from one another.

She explained how they behave in the wild, and how they are kept entertained with puzzles and children’s toys in captivity. She also explained the biological components of the octopuses, and how it offers an explanation for how diverse of a creature they are.”They gave me a gift beyond measure.

“I understand what it means to think, and to feel, and to know,” said Montgomery. She spoke with passion and wonder spread across her face as she flipped power-point slides, exuberantly speaking about her plethora of rich experiences while working with these incredible animals. After the talk, she had a book signing for “Soul of an Octopus,” which is currently the most popular book on Amazon for marine biology. She took the liberty of personalizing her signings, and answering questions about her book and her work.

Many audience members stayed after the presentation to have their book signed by the author, including NECC professor Mike Cross
Many audience members stayed after the presentation to have their book signed by the author, including NECC professor Mike Cross | NECC Observer
Sy Montgomery's new book "Soul of an Octopus"
Sy Montgomery’s new book “Soul of an Octopus” | NECC Observer