OnlineApril 29, 20111401 Artesia Blvd.Vol. LXI Issue 9www.lavistamchs.com

FLOWERING PEACH: Sophomore Shannon Sackley’s photo, taken in Victoria, British Columbia with a Nikon D60, was a runner-up in this year’s annual La Vista Photo Contest. See the winners on pages 8-11.

Taylor, Austin win Student Government elections for president, VP

Dale plans for new interactive technology

MBUTA, MBUSD come to tentative agreement

By J. Zack Rosenfeld

news editoR

Mira Costa Principal Ben Dale presented a Manhattan Beach Unified School District plan to add more interactive technol-ogy in classrooms to Mira Costa teachers and staff during depart-ment meetings on April 20.

The plan includes a projection system or SMART board in every classroom by next year along with a document camera. The adminis-tration will also run a pilot pro-gram next school year for a num-ber of teachers to have a class set of 35 iPod Touches and an Apple computer to utilize new technol-ogy to teach in classrooms.

“This stuff is absolutely amaz-

ing,” Dale said while showing an interactive Algebra 1-2 textbook on the iPad. “These new products are now viable instructional tools for teachers that will benefit stu-dents tremendously.”

The administration has already chosen eight teachers to use an Apple iPad for the remaining two months of the school year in or-der to test the devices’ capabili-ties and spread the word to other teachers next year who may want to consider using one as well.

“Think of all of the applica-tions on the iPad,” Dale said. “For example, we can have a student’s English portfolio be instantly published to the internet. This changes how we do everything.”

The administration will also

be installing wireless internet connection throughout campus. According to Dale, by the next school year, there will be 100 wireless internet access points on the Mira Costa campus.

“I think that it’s really going to put Costa on par with other schools in the world in terms of technology available and increase the educational experience,” ju-nior Connor Toscano said.

Dale says the program will receive funds from community support, such as donations from the Parent Teacher Association and Manhattan Beach Educa-tion Foundation and technology grants.

SportsDJ MacHale, author of the “Pendragon” series, spreads his magic at the Costa library.

By dylan faiR

staff wRiteR

Juniors Travis Taylor and Mackenzie Austin were elected Student Government president and vice president for the 2011-2012 school year after students voted on April 22 during second period homeroom classes.

Taylor beat out fellow junior Alec Weaver. He will be respon-sible for overseeing other gov-ernment activities, ranging from pep rallies to prom. In addition, the president runs SG meetings where the organization plans school events.

“The main aspect of Mira Cos-ta I would like to improve is our lack of school spirit,” Taylor said. See ‘Elections’ on page 3

“I would like to see more student attendance at sporting events, homecoming and after-game dances. Costa students should want to support their school.”

Taylor served as SG treasurer during the current school year and as sophomore vice president in 2009-10. In addition to the presi-dential election, students elected junior Mackenzie Austin as SG vice president, sophomore Dillon Shambaugh as treasurer and ju-nior Victoria Torres as secretary.

“I’m very excited for the SG class next year; I feel everyone elected has great work ethic and really loves what they do,” cur-rent SG president Iktae Park said. “I have great confidence the organization will be great next

year and make the school year extremely memorable for all stu-dents involved.”

Class officer positions, presi-dent, vice president, and secre-tary/treasurer were also deter-mined for incoming sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

Juniors Trent Fujii and Michael Diaz were elected as president and vice president of the incom-ing senior class; sophomores Ra-chel Humphrey and Paige Olson were elected as president and vice president of the incoming junior class; and freshmen Joe Luck and Kirk Law were elected as presi-dent and vice president of the in-coming sophomore class.

By Maggie RoBak

staff wRiteR

Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers’ Association teachers approved an agreement with the Manhattan Beach Unified School District on April 22, with a 5:1 vote in favor.

The agreement included chang-es to the evaluation, salary, health and welfare benefits, and stipends clauses of the contract. The con-tract will cover the teachers for the 2011-12 school year and is ef-fective on July 1, 2011.

“As this contract avoids the fur-lough days, pay cuts, and benefit reductions that many school dis-tricts are suffering, it represents a fair and reasonable agreement for the teachers of MBUSD,” MBU-TA Vice President and bargaining chair Wayne Knutson said.

The contract states that there will be no salary change for the 2011-12 year. However, there will be a 1 percent increase in stipends for teachers with extra duties. Additionally, new stipends have been added or increased for over 50 teaching positions that have extra-cirruculars or Advanced Placement study sessions.

A stipend for teachers who hold Advanced Placement review ses-sions has also been added. Unlike the others, these increases will become effective for this school year as well as 2011-12.

“The AP study session stipend will ensure that sessions are a permanent fixture at Mira Costa, rather than teachers and students waiting to see if the district will pay teachers for holding them

each year,” MBUTA President Rachel Thomas said.

Mira Costa teachers and staff voted on the tentative agreement and are awaiting the approval of this new plan by the MBUSD board’s vote to finalize it after its approval.

“We are happy with the way the agreement turned out,” MBUSD board President Bill Fournell said. “In this contract we do not have any layoffs or furloughed days and that is something to be happy about.”

The final change that was made to the contract was concerning the Evaluation and Health and Welfare Benefits committees. MBUSD and MBUTA both agreed that these committees should con-tinue to meet and discuss alterna-tives and make recommendations to both parties.

“Although modest, these changes recognize and encourage those teachers who work with stu-dents outside of the normal school day,” Knutson said. “Without the economic benefits these stipends represent, it would be extremely difficult for Mira Costa to offer the extra-curricular activities that make it successful.”

Overall, both the MBUSD and MBUTA are satisfied with the tentative agreement.

“We are in an award-winning district, and teachers should re-ally be compensated to represent the commitment they give to our Manhattan Beach students,” Thomas said. “This compensa-tion ensures that these teachers will continue to be completely committed at the highest level to provide to our students.”

Page 12

Features

Page 20

See ‘Apple Tech’ on page 3

The administration proposed that students sleep in every Monday.

Opinion

Page 5

Did the UC system makes unwise cuts this fiscal year?

leland lesneveR/la vista

The Mustang boys sprint to victory against Redondo in a 71-66 battle. Check out the website every day

for updates on Spring sports.

FATE IS IN HER HANDS: Senior Chloe Kojima counts the ballots for the annual Student Government election on April 22 during fourth period.

Due to donations, the Mira Costa administration is making campus-wide technology changes by next school year.

CampusApril:29 “All Shook Up:” The musical based on Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” features Elvis Presley music. The perfor-mance starts at 7 p.m. in the auditorium. Additional per-formances are on April 30 at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

May:2 Staff Appreciation Week: Staff will be honored with a breakfast on April 4 and a lunch on April 6.

3 Education Council Meeting: The meeting begins at 2:15 p.m. in the guidance office.

4 Late Start: School starts at 9 a.m. due to a staff appre-ciation breakfast.

6 Percussion Studio Concert: The concert features per-cussion ensembles of students from Costa bands that will perform music from around the world. The performance begins at 7 p.m. in the auditorium.

April:29: Opening Reception for MBUSD Art Exhibition: An opening reception for an exhibit featuring student art will be held at the Creative Arts Center located at 1560 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Manhattan Beach from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The exhibit will run until May 5.

29 Richstone Pier to Pier Walk: This annual walk helps prevent and treat child abuse in the South Bay. The walk begins at 7:30 a.m. at the Manhattan Beach Pier, and pledges can be made at www.richstonefamily.org

May:3 Manhattan Beach City Council Meeting: The meet-ing begins at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.

5 Mayor Richard Montgomery’s Coffee Dialogue: Mayor Montgomery will be at Peet’s Coffee and Tea in downtown Manhattan Beach at 7 p.m. to answer questions and discuss topics of interest to the city with community members.

7 Endless Summer Classic Car Show: Classic American cars from the 1940s to 1970s will be on display on Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

10 Hermosa Beach City Council Meeting: The meet-ing begins at 7 p.m. at the Council Chambers located at

17-19 STAR Testing: Testing takes place from 8 a.m. to 1:45 p.m.

19 Media Arts Film Festival: View student short films, music videos, animation videos and other media projects from various South Bay schools in the auditorium at 7 p.m.

20 Pops Concert: The orchestra will perform modern music in the auditorium at 7 p.m.

Boys Volleyball plays rival Redon-do away at 7 p.m.

Today

Page 2: April 29, 2011

Track and Field:May 2: Costa hosts Bay League Finals, 3 p.m. Pending Bay League results, individ-ual Mustangs will compete in CIF Prelimi-naries on May 15.

Swimming:May 4: The Mustangs compete in Bay League Preliminaries, time TBA.May 6: Costa competes in Bay League Finals, time TBA.Pending Bay League re-sults, individual Mustangs will compete in CIF Preliminaries on May 11-15. Baseball:May 30: The Mustangs play in the Redon-do Tournament, time and opponent TBA.May 4: Costa faces off against Redondo at home, 3:15 p.m. May 6: The Mustangs play at Redondo, 3:15 p.m. May 10: The Mustangs compete against Palos Verdes at home, 3:15 p.m. May 12: Costa ends its Bay League season

at Palos Verdes, 3:15 p.m. Pending Bay League results, Costa will compete in CIF playoffs May 20, 21, 25 or 28.

Boys Golf:May 2: Costa competes in League Prelimi-naries at Harding Golf Course, 8 a.m. May 5: The Mustangs compete in League Finals at Wilson Golf Course, 8 a.m. Pend-ing Bay League Final results, Costa will compete in CIF team divisionals on May 10, and individual regionals on May 17.

Softball:May 4: Costa competes at Leuzinger, 2:45 p.m. May 6: The Mustangs play at West, 4:30 p.m. May 10: Costa faces off against Redondo at home, 3:15 p.m. May 12: Costa ends its Bay League sea-son at Palos Verdes, 3:15 p.m. Pending Bay League results, Costa will compete in CIF Preliminaries on May 18, 20, 25 or 27.

Boys Tennis:May 2: The Mustangs compete at Palos Verdes, 2:30 p.m. May 4: Individual Mustangs play in Bay League Finals, time and location TBA.

May 5: Costa doubles teams compete in Bay League Finals, time and location TBA. Pending Bay League results, the Mustangs will compete in CIF Preliminaries on May 11, 12, 14, 18 or 25.

Boys Volleyball:May 3: Costa competes at Redondo, 7 p.m. May 5: The Mustangs end their Bay League season at Palos Verdes, 3:15 p.m. Pending Bay League results, the Mustangs will compete in CIF playoffs May 10, 11, 13, 15 or 18.

Boys Lacrosse:Pending Bay League results, the Mustangs will play in Southern Section playoffs, date TBA.

Girls Lacrosse:Pending Bay League results, the Mustangs will compete in Southern Section playoffs, date TBA.

CALENDAR Community

SPORTSBoys Lacrosse competes against Peninsula at home, 7 p.m.

Baseball competes against Penin-sula at home, 3 p.m.

March 25May 10

Softball plays its final home game against Redondo, 7 p.m.

On The Webwww.lavistamchs.com

Watch a book talk from D.J. MacHale, author of the “Pen-dragon” series. MacHale visited the MCHS library on April 19.

Stephanie Sakahara/ La ViSta

go green: The city of Manhattan Beach hosted an Earth Day celebration in Polliwog Park on April 16. Community members listened to bands, participated in games and visited different booths.

May 3

kendaLL BuSBy/ La ViSta

hat trick: Junior Michael Diaz hands out candy and campaigns for ASB senior class vice president during lunch on April 20. On April 22 Diaz was elected senior class vice president and Trent Fuji was elected as senior class president.

patrick FueSterer/ La ViSta

carina GLaSSer/ La ViSta

hit the sweet spot: Junior Ryan Erickson swings at a pitch in Costa’s 7-4 loss to La Mira-da in the Redondo Tournament on April 22.

News 3La VistaApril 29, 2011

‘Apple Tech’ continued from page one

‘Elections’ continued from page one

MBUSD board selects MBEF member Karen Komatinsky after public interviewing process to replace city councilwoman Amy Howorth By Joani Gillam

Staff Writer

Manhattan Beach Education Foundation board member Karen Komatinsky was elected to fill the vacant seat on the Manhat-tan Beach Unified School Dis-trict board at a special meeting on April 13.

The MBUSD board chose Komatinsky to fill the position left by newly-elected Manhattan Beach city council member Amy Howorth until the general elec-

tion to choose her replacement takes place in November.

“I’m a little overwhelmed, but excited,” Komatinsky said. “I’m so lucky to be a part of this school board. The four other board mem-bers are some of the most talented leaders I’ve ever worked with.”

Komatinsky was one of four candidates that took part in the public interviews for the school board member position. The oth-er applicants included MBEF site representative Christine Hurst; former teacher Tim Flake; and Gifted and Talented Education committee member Lisa Bair.

“It was a difficult decision,” MBUSD board member Penny Bordokas said. “I could have been happy with any of the candidates because they all were qualified, but Karen was the one who could get working immediately.”

To decide which candidate would be selected, the MBUSD board questioned the applicants on topics regarding Measure BB, MBEF, Mira Costa’s Ath-letic Foundation practices and the Manhattan Beach Parent Teacher Association. Each candidate was allowed to make a two-minute opening and closing statement, as well as answer questions that the current MBUSD board members asked.

“It’s amazing that all the can-

didates came up with completely different answers in the limited amount of time,” MBUSD board member Ida Vanderpoorte said. “It proves that we had a tough de-cision to make. But in the end, we wanted to put the community first when electing someone.”

Komatinsky, a mother of two children who attend Meadows El-ementary School, says she hopes to represent a part of Manhattan Beach that hasn’t been represent-ed before. On the MBUSD board, she has said she will be a voice for elementary schools.

“Currently, most board mem-

bers are Mira Costa parents, and I think that by being a Meadows parent, I can bring a new angle and perspective to the board and make sure that all of our wonder-ful community is being represent-ed,” Komatinsky said.

Komatinsky also has prior ex-perience as a PTA president for Meadows and as a PTA legisla-tive representative in Sacramento to help with her new position as a school board member.

“I’ve worked with the Manhat-tan Beach school district for the past six years, and I’ve gained the ability to make tough decisions in

tough times,” Komatinsky said. “This and my passion for educa-tion are qualities that I hope will make me an effective leader on the school board.”

Komatinsky will take part in her first official board meeting on May 4.

“Karen will be a really great contribution to our school board,” MBUSD Superintendent Dr. Mi-chael Matthews said. “She has already been a proven leader, and I believe she will get along with our other board members really well. I anticipate nothing but great things from her in the future.”

ALL BOARDED UP: MBEF board member Karen Komatinsky will be taking the empty seat left by city councilwoman Amy Howorth.

CourteSy Karen KomatinKSy

ALL THE SUPERINTENDENT’S MEN: (From left) MBUSD officials Ellen Rosenberg, Ida Vanderpoorte, Penny Bordokas, Dr. Michael Matthews, Dr. Steve Romines, Bill Fournell, and seniors Sierra Bloodgood and Emily Goldenberg listen to board member candidates answering questions during the April 13 board meeting.

leland leSnever/la viSta

“I believe that people will hear about what were are trying to install into Mira Costa and get excited and want to come forward with money to be a part of this,” Dale said.

According to a handout passed out to the Mira Costa staff, the MBUSD hopes to be 95 percent paperless in these selected classrooms by the 2012-13 school year. Dale is already taking steps to cut costs in the paper budget, which currently reaches up to $20,000.

“Our lease with our printer company was up so instead of signing a five-year lease we decided to sign a one-year lease to cut costs and because we simply don’t need to waste the money on it long term if we are going to make major changes in the short term,” Dale said.

Some teachers on campus are not pleased with the way the administration has mapped out these new technology plans.

“Any major change to a classroom is going to present complexity, thinking in advance, and careful planning,” English

teacher Shawn Chen said. “We have not necessarily been told the entire process for this change and don’t feel included in this process.”

Chen believes there needs to be a policy for the teachers who receive the Apple devices in their classrooms so the teacher knows the liability of having them in the class in case they are broken or stolen. She also dislikes the devotion to one compa-ny’s product.

“I think that Costa is notorious for theft, and, thus, if the opportunity is presented, they will hack and steal,” Toscano said.

Dale hopes to have these changes in the next few years so that the current elemen-tary school and middle school students will also be able to benefit from these improve-ments.

“Look at current elementary school stu-dents, and look at our current students at Mira Costa,” Dale said. “These kids will experience a different way of teaching than the present Mira Costa student body within the next four to five years.”

Junior Kelly Nutten will serve as the sec-retary/treasurer for next year’s senior class; sophomore Natalie Pratt for the incoming junior class; and freshman Kaela Hornstra for the incoming sophomore class.

“I’m really excited to be a part of SG for next year,” Nutten said. “The 2012 school year is going to be great, and I’m looking forward to seeing what we will be able to accomplish for the school next year and for the years to come.”

In addition to the election of class and executive positions, SG will now carry out an election for management positions. Of-ficers with these duties are responsible for the actual assembly of school events, such

as pep rallies, club days, and spirit week for homecoming. Management positions include commissioners of campus mo-rale, entertainment, elections and athlet-ics. Elections for these positions will take place next week.

“I am highly looking forward to work-ing with Travis and the rest of Student Government,” Principal Ben Dale said. “Iktae’s shoes are extremely hard to fill, but I believe Travis’ role as the snitch on Mustang Morning News put him over the top. It’s always really exciting to start with a brand new slate, but leadership and team building will translate to a great year for Student Government.”

4 La Vista April 29, 2011

Diana Sieker receives Mira Costa’s Teacher of the Year award from district committee

News

By Regan estes

staff WRiteR

After being nominated by Mira Costa teachers, Diana Sieker won Mira Costa’s 2011 Teacher of the Year on April 18.

“It’s an incredible honor,” Siek-er said. “I was totally caught off guard and completely surprised. I thought something was wrong at first, but when I realized I won, I was so honored.”

Sieker was nominated by her fellow teachers and was selected unanimously as Teacher of the Year 2011. The selection commit-tee had a group of administrators and department heads.

“Ms. Sieker is very inspiration-al to her students, and they feel comfortable coming back after class to talk to her. Her students also say that they have learned a lot from her class,” English De-

partment Chair Deborah Hofre-iter said.

A group of representatives and teachers on April 25 from the Manhattan Beach Unified School District visited Sieker’s class to compare her to other teachers of the year in the school district.

“I’m really enthusiastic about my job,” Sieker said. “I have a passion for English and writing, and strive to make an environment where everyone feels comfortable and welcome. I really like to give students outlets to be themselves and express themselves freely.”

In May, the MBUSD board will recognize all teachers of the year from all of its district schools and select a district-wide Teacher of the Year. The chosen teacher will be first compared to teachers within the county, then state and the nation.

“Ms. Sieker has a broad range of teaching abilities and conducts very engaging classes that stu-dents love,” Principal Ben Dale said. “I think she’s going to go very far in the competition. She’s going to beat Obama.”

Sieker has taught at Costa for six years and teaches AP Eng-lish, 3-4 basic English, and senior seminars on 1980s (Reagan-Era) literature. Before joining the Mira Costa faculty, Sieker graduated from the University of California

LOUDER THAN WORDS: (From left) Senior Katie Hopp, senior Ciara Brown and teacher Theresa Tower all participated in the Gay-Straight Alliance Day of Silence on April 15. The participants did not talk the entire day in recognition of LGBT teens without a voice.

LeLand LesneveR/La vista

at Irvine and taught at a Beverly Hills private school before join-ing the district.

“I am amazed and inspired by Ms. Sieker’s upbeat attitude which is contagious in her class-room,” senior Brian Davis said. “Mira Costa students are really lucky to have her.”

Sieker worked as a reader for the English department before becoming a teacher. According to Hofreiter, she was one of the best at editing and performed her job very well.

“Like teachers who were nomi-nated before, she allows her stu-dents to learn a lot without being afraid,” Hofreiter said. “She is a great English teacher who knows how to write well, as seen from her excellence as a reader, and knows how to teach.”

“Ms. sieker is very inspi-rational to her students, and they feel comfortable coming back after class to

talk to her.”

Deborah HofreiterenglishGDepartment

Chair

“It’s an incredible hon-or. I was totally caught off guard and surprised. I thought something was wrong at first, but when I realized I won, I was so honored. It was a wonder-

ful surprise.”

Diana siekerenglish Teacher

5OPINIONApril 29, 2011 La Vista

DSniatiohStahdard

Current UC system budget plan needs restructuring

Restore equitable economic policy

Agreements to restore study sessions benefit Costa’s AP studentsBy Alec lAutAnen

theme editor

Study sessions for Advanced Placement exams have histori-cally been a source of conflict for Mira Costa teachers and admin-istrators. However, new negotia-tions between the teachers’ union and the MBUSD have established a pay structure that, to the benefit of Costa’s students, guarantees study sessions for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years.

During the most recent contract negotiations, teachers originally sought a general wage increase. However, according to MBUTA vice president and teacher Wayne Knutson, teachers decided to fo-cus on increased pay in other ar-

eas, including extra-duty pay. The agreement that was reached

is a fair reimbursement for AP teachers and sets a precedent for future negotiations.

According to Knutson, this increase consists of a $900 stipend per course from the MBUSD for teachers conducting AP review sessions. Because the stipend is not dependent on the number of study sessions, teach-ers may conduct reviews how they see fit.

Now, with a defined wage agreement for these extra ses-sions, teachers are thankfully af-forded the ability to focus on les-son plans instead of negotiations.

This decision hugely benefits students. Because the reviews are locked in for the next two years, students will not have to turn to expensive private tutors.

Despite the merits of this

agreement, the delayed nature of negotiations hurts AP students.

According to union and dis-trict representatives, this year’s negotiations began in March and were finalized the second week of April, three weeks before the start of AP exams.

Because after-hours pay was

being negotiated this year, teach-ers were uncertain whether they could conduct study sessions, and reviews started later than usual.

According to Costa teachers, this is not the first time nego-tiations have been unresolved so near to AP exams.

In the 2005-06 school year, the inability to reach an agreement led to the PTSA paying outside tutors to conduct the reviews in-stead of Costa teachers.

Negotiations over issues with immediate and direct effects on students should have an earlier timetable. Starting earlier ensures that future negotiations won’t im-pede students’ educations.

Thankfully, the current agree-ment of pay will make sure that a

similar situation will not occur in the next two school years.

Some say a flat stipend does not do enough to accurately represent the time teachers spend working after hours.

However, by doing so, it elimi-nates pressure on teachers to bal-ance the number of study sessions with pay and enables them to fo-cus on preparing their students for the AP exams.

The stipend system should be included in future agreements about these reviews.

Review sessions for AP classes are a valuable asset for students, and Mira Costa must strive to preserve them for future years through a collective effort and combined support.

Top 10 STAR testing Senior Seminars

10. “How you could have gotten into the college of your choice without trying.”

9. “Sexting, Beer Pong, and Facebook: What you need to know to have fun now that you’re 18.”

8. “Beginners’ gambling” with Dan Debevec, or simply AP Statistics.

7. “Sound financial planning in a recession... with iPads.”

6. “The most efficient ways to utilize 4/20 double late starts.” 5. “How to consistently ditch school without getting SART’ed.”

4. “Fertility Drugs: your body and you” taught by retired drug abuser Manny Ramirez.

3. “How to bargain with the attendance office,” taught by the boys water polo team.

2. “Offer interesting story ideas to Mustang Morning News.”

1. “The Jurassic Era: a first-hand account with Randy Brissey.”

- Kyle Allen, eric Zheng, And cAsey ZirBel/ opinion editors And dAnny Kelleher/ sports editor

By Kyle Allen

opinion editor

And dAnny Kelleher

sports editor

When Adam Smith and those of the Manchester School estab-lished the idea of laissez-faire economics, also known as capi-talism, they intended to create a society based on merit.

When conservatives advocate for similar economic conditions in modern American society, however, they fail to see the economic disparity that prevents free and fair compe-tition in this country.

This economic disparity has been largely caused by an imbal-anced and inequitable tax policy that the federal government has pursued since the 1980s, the era of “Reaganomics.”

Currently, the federal govern-ment is faced with over $14 tril-lion in debt, underfunded social welfare programs and a hugely imbalanced tax code.

America is far from the image of equal opportunity that it tries to

portray to the rest of the world.According to studies done by

New York University, the top 10% of earners in the United States currently control over 68% of total wealth, the second high-est concentration of wealth in the hands of the upper class in the world.

However, American wealth has not always been this polarized;

according to the NYU study, the amount of wealth controlled by the top 1% of earners has risen steadily since the 1970s, when these top earners controlled 19.9% of the available financial wealth, to the current 34.6% of the available financial wealth.

This economic disparity makes it impossible for Americans to compete on an “even ground.” It is clear that the cards of American economics are stacked against the middle and lower classes.

The extreme polarization of wealth to pre-Depression levels is

mostly a result of an increasingly inequitable taxation system.

According to the IRS, the in-come of the average American taxpayer has actually decreased since the 1980s, while the average income of the top 1% of Ameri-cans has tripled in that time.

The “Reaganomics” philoso-phy developed in the 1980s by the Reagan administration and pursued by Congress all the way through the current administration did nothing to alleviate this glar-ing gap between rich and poor.

In fact, according to a statistics from the nonpartisan Tax Foun-dation, the highest income tax bracket has decreased from 70% in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s to the current rate of 35%.

To restore the America of lore, a place of equal opportunity and societal advancement, the federal government must return to the progressive tax scale of the mid 20th century.

These policies drove an era in which the middle class was booming and drove the largest economic expansion in American history.

By mAggie roBAK

stAff Writer

Since Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown announced his proposed budget for 2011, University of California President Mark Yudof has out-lined a five-year plan to deal with cuts laid out in the budget.

While this plan succeeds in im-proving the financial aid system, it has many flawed core ideas that undermine the essence and pur-pose of the UC system.

The aim of Yudof’s plan is to bring stability to the universities by increasing revenue and reduc-ing expenses. A tuition increase of 8 percent has already been ap-proved for the 2011 fall quarter, and other increases in costs will follow.

While budget cuts are most likely a necessity of any reform to the UC system, the effects of these cuts can be minimized through careful calculation and simultaneous revenue generating reforms.

To this end, several of the plan’s ideas need to be reconsidered. Yudof would like to increase the number of out-of-state students, who pay $23,000 more than Cali-fornia residents annually to attend UC schools.

While the extra revenue these students would generate is appealing, it would decrease the amount of in-state stu-dents accepted into the UC system.

The UC system is highly respected and is one of Cali-fornia’s greatest assets. If the num-ber of California residents who at-tend the univer-sity decreases, the UC system would repudiate its main goal as stated in its mission statement: to provide “continuing education for Californians to improve

their job skills and enhance the quality of their lives.”

If the number of out-of-state UC students increases too much,

the integrity of UC’s public iden-tity could be jeopardized. With universities such as University of Michigan relying more and more upon out-of-state tuition, many

public universities have be-gun to seem more like pri-

vate universities. Another facet of Yudof’s plan is to charge more for certain undergradu-ate majors, like the sciences.

While in theory this is a practical solution because these majors tend to cost the univer-sity more money, this option has many negative components.

First, the UC should not penalize

its students for academ-ic decisions and choices of

majors. Additionally, President Barack Obama and others have

highlighted the U.S.’s under per-formance in the sciences. Uni-versities across the nation should incentivize these science majors, not punish students that select them.

The plan is also troublesome due to its effect on the number of undergraduates in science majors. The U.S. as a whole lacks science majors and the plan would con-tinue to skew the distribution.

In order to make the neces-sary budget cuts, Yudof should consider increasing the student-faculty ratio. Although this is not ideal, the universities are already very large, and increasing the class sizes slightly will not have as drastic an effect on the educa-tion of students.

Plans to meet the budget must focus on the UC’s main goals, which are to educate Californians and help to keep the economy competitive.

In order to maintain the reputa-tion of the UC system, these goals must be made a priority.Keely murphy/ lA VistA

It is clear that the cards of American economics are stacked against the middle and lower classes.

Despite the merits of this agreement, the delayed nature of negotiations hurt this year’s AP students.

beneficial teaching assistants in most high school classrooms. Studies done by the MBUSD and administration have mostly been limited to the applications of mobile devices in primary education, not second-

ary education. According to

many teachers, their opinions about Costa’s t e c h n o l o g y situation were not solicited or considered. As a result, the adminis-tration cannot assume that mobile de-vices will im-prove teach-ing without input from the teachers.

Before any a d d i t i o n a l

upgrades, like mobile devices, are consid-ered, problems with the current computer infrastructure must be resolved.

Most of Costa’s computers run severely outdated software and lack the necessary speed, processing power, and memory nec-essary to be functional.

Keely Murphy/ la Vista

6 OPINION April 29, 2011La Vista

Editors-in-ChiEf

adaM robaK

leo shaw

Managing WEb Editors

Jason boxer

daina raMa

Copy Editor

laura Vaughn

Managing Editor

treVor thorpe

nEWs Editors

robin Janotta

J. ZacK rosenfeld

abby watKins

opinion Editors

Kyle allen

eric Zheng

casey Zirbel

EntErtainMEnt Editors

rose graner

duncan gregory

audrey McKenZie

fEaturEs Editors

alex parducci

Kelly rethMeyer

allie rosen

thEME Editors

Katie barger

alec lautanen

connor wright

sports Editors

danny Kelleher

hanna Mcguire

eMMa rosenbauM

CalEndar Editor

allie caMpbell

WEb Editors

isaac siegeMund-broKa

shannon hagedorn

carly Montan

iKtae parK

arts Editor

Keely Murphy

photo Editor

Jacqueline peha

businEss ManagEr

will wong

assistant businEss ManagEr

lisa ducKers

tEChniCal Editor

JeroMe redMan

CirCulation Editors

benJaMin whistler

Jessica wu

advisEr

MiKe McaVin

staff WritErs

daVid copeland, braden currey, J. ryan ericKson, regan estes, dylan fair, J. ryan franKlin, Zane franKlin, ZacK gill, Joani gillaM, Juliana hoft,

aVa Klein, eliZabeth Kneisley, sandor KopitZ, diane lee, haile lidow, Katie Mcgregor, nicolette olson, Michael powell,

Maggie robaK, logan schlossberg, erica schneider, Justin taM, Matt wah,

erin weldon

photographErs

Kendall busby, lindon chen, carina glasser, Jessica hanley, leland lesneVer,

stephanie saKahara, Madison swart

Editorial board

Kyle allen, Jason boxer, robin Janotta, daina raMa, adaM robaK, ZacK rosenfeld,

leo shaw, treVor thorpe, laura Vaughn, abby watKins, eric Zheng, casey Zirbel

la Vista is the student newspaper of Mira costa high school. its content, which is the responsibility of the la Vista staff, is not subJect to adMinistra-tiVe approVal. unsigned editorials reflect the opin-ions of the newspaper, while opinion coluMns repre-sent the writer’s View only. adVertiseMents do not necessarily represent the newspaper’s Viewpoints. la Vista, an open foruM, welcoMes signed letters on topical issues froM the Mchs coMMunity. they May be Mailed to MiKe McaVin in the adMinistra-tion building Mailbox or eMailed to laVistaopinion@gMail.coM. letters May be edited for length and clarity. for ad rates, please contact our business

Manager at laVistabusiness@gMail.coM

Editor’s NotE

staff Editorials

by adaM robaK

editor-in-chief

This year, La Vista received an unusu-ally low number of submissions to the an-nual photo contest. The number was so low at first that we had to extend our deadline twice in order to receive a decent amount of participants.

Now, this is not because Mira Costa stu-dents were suddenly uninterested in partic-ipating in the contest, or because we failed to advertise the event early enough. Rather, we lacked early participants because of a student body that is inadequately informed of campus events.

Currently, Mira Costa teachers are sup-posed to read the bulletin themselves to their second period class in order to com-

municate more efficiently and minimize student distraction. However, many teach-ers simply refuse to read the bulletin, and others fail to communicate it properly, in-stead having students read it.

This creates an environment where stu-dents are left in the dark about important events on campus.

The Principal’s Leadership Council has made it a goal to increase communication among campus organizations. While that is a noble goal and the council is making good progress on meeting it, it is irrel-evant if only the organizations are aware of events while few individual students are.

At the same time, the schedule of events on the Mira Costa website is bare and mostly contains a list of concerts and late start days. A more comprehensive list of

student events would vastly improve stu-dent knowledge of campus events.

However, this lack of communication is not entirely the fault of the Mira Costa ad-ministration, as many Mira Costa students are not interested in being involved with the events around them. Being disinterest-ed in Mira Costa events has become almost a culture within itself.

For the administration to make these changes, Mira Costa students need to take some ownership of and responsibility for monitoring when events occur, whether it be on the loudspeaker or on a comprehen-sive list through the Mira Costa website.

Ultimately, in order to ensure that all stu-dents have easy access to a vast store of information, the campus’ communication of student events needs to improve.

Students need better channels of information

The Manhattan Beach Unified School District, in conjunction with Mira Costa’s administration, is considering using money raised from grants and donations to pur-chase iPads for eight select Costa teachers, install wi-fi and establish more technologi-cal support as part of a larger technology im-provement plan.

Although the pro-gram provides the much-needed improvements of better internet speed and campus-wide wi-fi, it does not focus on updating vital components of the technological infrastruc-ture and lacks research in improvements applicable to high schools.

One teacher in each de-partment was selected to re-ceive an iPad for school use.The administration hopes that these teachers will test the viability of mobile devices in the classroom and then increase demand among others for classroom iPads.

If the pilot program is a success, the ad-ministration plans to provide an iPad to any teacher that wants it in the 2011-2012 school year.

It is not yet clear that iPads will even be

Costa technology reform lacks concrete structureAlthough the administration has rea-

soned that mobile devices would be easier to install in classrooms than upgrading the entire computer system, doing so still leaves a gaping hole in the technological infrastructure.

Even if it doesn’t make financial sense to upgrade all of the student-available com-puters, teachers need functioning comput-ers to do their jobs. Furthermore, mobile devices like the iPad can only be used to their fullest extent when its data is stored on a serviceable computer.

The district and administration also did not comprehensively investigate how stu-dents, the supposed beneficiaries of any technology improvement program, think technology should be integrated into the classroom.

Although the program is well-inten-tioned, allocation of the available funds should be prioritized to reflect the best implementation of technology in the class-room and the most immediate technologi-cal needs of the school.

The administration must take into ac-count what students and teachers believe the role of technology in the classroom should be, what must be done to improve the overall state of technology on campus, and how effective each component of the proposed plan will actually be in changing the way students learn.

A committee of Costa’s department heads and administrators recently voted on and named English teacher Diana Sieker as its Teacher of the Year for the 2010-11 school year. Even though she is an appro-priate choice, in the future students should have a voice in the Teacher of the Year se-lection process.

According to the administration, Teacher of the Year candidates are nominated by their fellow teachers, who hold all the re-sponsibility of nominations, then voted on by the committee.

The teacher selected by this commit-tee continues on to be compared with the other chosen teachers of the year from each school in the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. The winner of Teacher of the Year for the entire district is then evalu-ated on a state level, and if successful in this arena, a national level.

Considering that students, not co-work-ers, are the ones who experience the skills and abilities of teachers firsthand, it is es-sential that their opinions be considered in the nomination process. The student body should be provided the opportunity to nominate Teacher of the Year candidates.

Teacher of the Year process requires student inputA process could be developed to include

student input. Just as teachers are able to submit evaluations of peers they believe are appropriate choices, students should be able to submit similar, comprehensive as-sessments of exemplary teachers.

In order to solicit student input, the administration could distribute teacher nomination forms to students. These forms

should include space for students to explain the rationale behind their nominations.

Afterwards, the nominations could be tallied and once a teacher receives a set number of nominations, the nomination will be sent to the leadership committee for a final, decisive vote, and from there the process could continue as usual.

This is how the Sandacre Scholarship Fund Teacher of the Year Recognition Award, an annual award given to Mira Costa teachers, currently works. A similar system involving students for the Teacher

of the Year award would be appropriate.The fact that this idea has never been se-

riously contemplated by the administration is disconcerting. In the past, students gen-erally have had little influence or voice on many of Costa’s decisions.

Some teachers might argue that students’ have an incomplete idea of a teacher’s ef-ficacy due to their limited observance of

all teachers. While this may have some merit to it due to students taking a limited number of classes, the teachers’ view is just as limited due to not observing other teach-ers’ classrooms as well.

If such a process were to be implement-ed, students would bear some responsibil-ity making difficult evaluations of their teachers’ work and attributes.

However, it would also help ensure that nominations are justified, and that those teachers who have had the biggest influ-ence on students are rewarded.

Currently, the Teacher of the Year selec-tion process is too narrow. Students should be able to participate in this decision be-cause they are the ones who actually expe-rience the benefits of a teacher’s skills.

The student body should be provided the opportunity to nominate Teacher of the Year candidates.

OPINIONApril 29, 2011 7La Vista

Pro/Con

Does Obama’s budget deficit proposal get the job done?

What do you think about the federal budget deficit proposals?roving rePorter

Pro: Con:Obama’s budget ensures prosperity for all Ryan’s alternative creates economic growth

“I feel as if it is important that both parties come up with a

compromise.”

Michelle nwokeSophomore

“I think the government should cut unnecessary services and be

wiser with their decisions.”

Michael Hernandezteacher

Photos by LeLand Lesnever/ La vista

“I think people are cheapskates. If they want good services,

they’ll have to pay for it. You can’t keep cutting forever.”

thea JaucianSenior

Antoinette CarloSophomore

“More money should go to edu-cation and health services, and

not unnecessary services.”

“The people in charge need to shut up, sit down, and do their

jobs.”

Anthony ShannonSenior

by nick ZobeL

contributing Writer

For once, Republicans and Democrats alike can agree: our deficit must be con-trolled. We’re quickly approaching the debt ceiling of $14.3 trillion and unem-ployment is still at almost nine percent. Whereas President Obama’s proposed so-lution is unclear and feeble, House Budget Chairman, Rep. Paul Ryan has produced a deficit-reducing plan that increases ef-ficiencies and curtails the ballooning na-tional debt.

President Obama’s proposal to trim the deficit, which he promises will not leave seniors “at the mercy of the insurance in-dustry,” utilizes the recently-created cost-control board to monitor health care prices for seniors. The board’s price controls ac-tually hurt consumers by restricting them from benefiting from price competition in

the insurance industry.Additionally, Obama plans to cut de-

fense spending by $400 billion, a danger-ous and rash move considering the ongo-ing upheaval in Libya, Syria and Yemen and continued operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Most importantly, and the greatest thorn in Republicans’ sides, Obama wants to raise $1 trillion in new taxes from wealth-ier citizens, which will in fact disrupt the United States’ economic growth.

According to factcheck.org, approxi-mately half of all citizens making more than $200,000 are business owners. Tax-ing this portion of the population reduces the investments they can make in their

businesses, preventing them from expand-ing production and increasing employment, ultimately keeping the economy stagnant.

Obama also offers no viable alternative to Medicare and Medicaid, only making vague promises that Medicaid spending will somehow be reduced through cooper-ation with the states. Obama plans to rely on the creation of revenues by tightening federal tax loopholes, but gives no specif-ics on how to generate these figures.

Ryan’s proposed budget is a superior alternative to Obama’s plan. Ryan’s pro-posal meets an impressive goal of slashing $4.4 trillion over 10 years, as opposed to Obama’s $4 trillion in 12 years.

The GOP’s “Roadmap for America” plan provides a successful alternative to Obama’s indistinct proposal. Ryan’s plan proposes a gradual increase in the Medi-care eligibility age to restrict Medicare enrollment only to the seniors that need it the most, and offers a Medicare alternative that provides vouchers to subsidize the cost of private insurance plans, reducing administrative costs and allowing citizens

to benefit from market competition.Republicans also plan to regulate the

health insurance industry by redistributing surpluses enjoyed by employers that have healthier workers to those with unhealthier workers, and thus, higher insurance costs.

Additionally, the Roadmap offers alter-natives such as rainy day funds for emer-gency medical care and converts Medicaid into state-distributed block grants.

In an attempt to compromise with Dem-ocrats, the GOP plan only repeals the most harmful aspects of the 2010 Health Care Bill, including the expansion of Medicaid, penalties for employers who don’t cover their employees and the contentious re-quirement of all citizens to maintain health insurance.

In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the government’s nonpar-tisan analysis group, “most of the other changes made to the Medicare program would be retained.”

According to the CBO, the “Roadmap for America” will eliminate annual deficits by 2040. Though this may seem like some time away, it is crucial that we take steps now to secure our futures and those of our children. Our nation is at an imperative economic crossroad, but thankfully, we’re not lost. We have a road map.

by casey ZirbeL

oPinion editor

As the United States faces a future filled with gargantuan national debt, growing annual deficits and unchecked spending growth, it is imperative that the nation respond to the budget crisis immediately. President Barack Obama has laid out an effective proposal for tackling the primary problems we face today that doesn’t devas-tate the nation’s social programs.

The proposal has four main strategies: limit the defense budget, keep annual spending low via cuts, reduce health care spending and reform the tax code to elimi-nate loopholes and increase the wealthiest Americans’ contributions.

The rival proposal, supported by Rep. Paul Ryan, would make key cuts to pro-grams such as education, transportation and low-income aid programs. The programs that help the poorest and most underrepre-sented Americans should be protected, not attacked.

The predictions given by the Congressio-nal Budget Office and the Office of Man-agement and Budget regarding Obama’s proposal as well as Paul Ryan’s opposing proposal rely upon assumptions such as Ryan’s prediction of three percent unem-ployment by 2020. These assumptions are unrealistic and cause analyses of the plans to be unreliable.

Because of this, the appropriate way to compare the plans is through their pri-mary goals; upon doing so, Obama’s plan is clearly the superior, relying on cutting waste rather than important programs.

Obama’s decision to cut defense spend-ing will eliminate a huge amount of waste-ful spending. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, defense spending in the U.S. in 2010 ac-counted for 43 percent of the world’s to-tal expenditures. The U.S. does not need to spend as much as the rest of the world combined just to feel safe.

As for reforming the tax code, the Unit-ed States has long needed to boost tax rev-enues and eliminate unjust tax burdening. Since the Reagan era, tax revenues have been steadily decreased through out the years. Obama’s plan to let the Bush tax-cuts expire for the rich and to possibly raise taxes further on the wealthiest Americans is a start.

For those earning more than $200,000 in-dividually per year, the income-tax would only increase from 33 percent and 35 per-cent to 36 percent and 39.6 percent if the Bush tax-cuts expired. This increase still leaves the rate of the highest tax bracket a full 40% lower than its historical high, and therefore, is not out of line.

Obama’s plan would aim to reduce sub-sidies to industries such as agriculture, limit tax loopholes such as specialized de-ductions which are primarily utilized by the wealthiest Americans as well as corpo-rations, and raise taxes only on the richest citizens. These types of measures target true waste rather than critical programs.

Obama has made it a priority to protect Social Security completely as well as make Medicaid and Medicare more efficient through investigative commissions com-posed of various medical groups. Most im-portantly, his plan avoids the gouging cuts

supported by Republicans. The aim in this case is to protect those who need help, and that goal is admirable.

Obama’s critics have claimed that his plan ignores Social Security in his propos-als, an argument which has some merit to it. However, slashing Social Security benefits is not the appropriate alternative. Conserving these benefits and finding cuts elsewhere is a much better solution.

Although imperfect, the president’s budget proposal is the best plan yet for solving our nation’s long term issues. Not only does Obama place the burden of cuts on those who can bear it the most, but he protects vital programs which would other-wise be slashed.

keeLy MurPhy/ La vista

THEME La Vista 8April 29, 2011

La Vista’s 20th annuaL PhotograPhy Contest

“Beauty at its Best”anna Pavlova

Junior Anna Pavlova took this picture while vacationing with her friends and family last November af-ter a snowfall.

“I took this photograph at Yosemite National Park during break,” Pavlova said. “While we were walking, I spot-ted this breathtaking view, and I felt like the river and the trees’ shadows were pulling me into this magical place, and there was no way I could have said no.”

This photo was taken with her Nikon D3000 camera. This photo captures winter trees’ reflections on

teachers’ Pick

“Wasted youth” alex Kojima

While out skating with his friends, senior Alex Kojima snapped this pho-tograph of a friend about to go into an indoor halfpipe.

“I took this photo of Mario Thorn-ton skating at a secret indoor half-pipe,” Kojima said. “I used speedlite and 1/40th shutter speed to capture the blur and then switched it to black and white.”

This was taken without a flash on his Canon Rebel XS with Battery Grip and no adjustment through Pho-toshop, which is very difficult to do when capturing motion.

Through all the stacks of different

“stranded and out of Luck”

ariella robinson

Ben Dale’s Pick

Jacqueline’s PickPhoto Editor

During mid-winter break, sopho-more Ariella Robinson spotted this scene in Santa Cruz.

“I took this using the Nikkormat FT-2 and Tri-X 400 film,” Robinson said. “I was just walking down the street when I saw him and thought to myself ‘Hey, this would make a nifty photo.’”

The simplicity of the scene cap-tures the passion and struggle of the subject, a young man with a guitar seated in the back of a car. The sub-ject appears in all his misfortune,

the Yosemite Park river.“What inspired me to take this pho-

tograph were the snow covered trees and the beautiful view,” Pavlova said. “Every time I look at it I remember that exact moment when I pressed the capture button.”

Along with the reflection, this photo also showcases November in Yosemite as a peaceful winter won-derland and was a clear favorite ac-cording to the teachers.

“This photo has a beautiful view along with other aspects which gave it its name,” said Pavlova.yosemite national Park

Manhattan Beach, Ca

santa Cruz, Ca

photos, Principal Ben Dale claimed this photograph as his favorite.

“I picked this photo because of the motion,” Dale said. “Everytime I went around the table I kept walking back to it because of that. The con-stant blur kept me captivated.”

Kojima was able to capture the es-sence of motion through his camera. The force of the photograph draws at-tention to itself.

“The blur and the contrast in the photo are just something that I have never seen before,” Dale said. “ It’s simple but keeps onlookers interested in what is going on in the photo.”

with no money for gas and desparate to get moving.

This photograph stood out to La Vista Photo Editor Jacqueline Peha because of its realism and accurate portrayal of human feelings.

“I chose this picture because it really captures the emotion and raw-ness of everyday life,” Peha said. The contrast between the car and the guitar player creates an overall jux-taposition within the photo. I think it overall captures the mood very well and the plight of the subject.”

THEME La Vista 9April 29, 2011

“Beauty at Its Best”Brittany Clark

While in Berlin last winter, junior Brittany Clark took this photo visit-ing a Holocaust monument. As she was walking on the sidewalk in front of the monument, she took this photo. It depicts a leafless tree backlit by the winter sun during an overcast day.

“It had been snowing, and the pho-to was taken right off the side walk,” Clark said. “As I had been walking, this bare tree really caught my atten-tion. The way the sun light reflected off the snow onto the bare branch was alluring.”

Even though the weather was harsh, Clark opted to wait to cap-ture the perfect shot, highlighting the beauty of the still moment. This pa-tience resulted in a simple, yet pow- Theme Editors’ Pick

“Escheresque” Dakota Wood

Senior Dakota Wood captured this shot, a double exposure of art deco buildings in downtown Los Angeles and snow-capped mountaintops in Mammoth.

“For the photo of the buildings, I was walking through Downtown hip to get the composition I did,” Wood said. “The mountains were shot when driving back from Mammoth over Spring Break.”

Wood used a Canon EOS Digital Rebel TLI camera for the shot of the buildings and a point-and-shoot 35 milimeter film camera for the moun-taintops, then combined them using Adobe Photoshop.

“I like this photo because of the color contrast as well as the setting contrast: warm and cool, the great

“Oradour-sur-Glane”Erin Murphy

Adam’s Pick

Leo’s Pick

This photograph, taken by junior Erin Murphy during the France trip, showcases a medieval French castle in Oradour-sur-Glane, which was beseiged by the Nazis during World War II. The entire village was de-stroyed and all 600 of its residents massacred by a German army com-pany during the Nazi occupation.

“I took the picture on the France trip when we visited Oradour-sur-Glane. This is the church where all the women and children were taken and killed,” Murphy said. “It was taken on a Leica digital camera.”

“Oradour-sur-Glane” provides a visual representation of the depth and seriousness of the subject and its connotations by having an otherwise sunny day blocked out by a fortress of cement and bricks. Shadows in

Editor-in-ChiEf

Editor-in-ChiEf

erful photo, combining the bright sunlight of a winter’s day with the skeletal outline of a tree in the fore-ground. The contrast of the branches and light creates a sublime image.

“I snapped it with very little prepa-ration time using my Nikon D-5000,” Clark said. “After I took the photo I knew it was going to be something I would remember. Although it is not my favorite picture, I am glad others appreciate the photo.”

La Vista Theme editors selected this photo as this staff pick because of its simplicity and depth. Although the photo has a single subject with a simple background, the role of light and the way the few elements are uti-lized appealed to us.

outdoors and the big city,” Wood said. “I also like how it encapsulates my style of completely candid, free-fire shooting and combining two photos as one.”

Senior Adam Robak, editor-in-cheif of La Vista, saw this photo and admired its variation and unique-ness.

“This photo has an interesting set-ting contrast between the mountain-ous environment and the urban city setting,” Robak said. “I also enjoy the smooth integration of two candid photos to create a much more com-plex and unique image.”

“Escheresque” was one of the few composite images submitted to the photo contest.

the windows complement these op-posites. This photo was one of many submitted from the recent France trip, and it provides a new perspec-tive on a sight many students wit-nessed.

“Oradour-sur-Glane” was chosen by Editor-in-Chief Leo Shaw as his top pick. Showing a forboding and serious castle in front of a bright sunny background, this photo is a powerful demonstration of contrasts, which appealed to Shaw.

“There’s a really interesting pres-ence to the building that occupies the foreground,” Shaw said. “It’s this heavy, 3-D mass in steep perspec-tive that looms foward in front of the airy, immaterial background. It’s almost as if the picture has multiple layers.”

Los Angeles, California / Mammoth, California

Oradour-sur-Glane, France

Berlin, Germany

Continue onto pages 10 and 11 for

more contest winners

D.J. MacHale celebrates the release of his latest novel at Costa12 FEATURES April 29, 2011

By Lisa Duckers

staff Writer

Some writers, including D.J. MacHale, didn’t even like to write when they were younger, but later discovered their passion and found success. Costa was for-tunate enough to have this best-selling fantasy author come talk about his experience as a writer.

MacHale, a Manhattan Beach resident, has written many TV series and books, including the best-selling “Pendragon” series. After noticing the students’ posi-tive reactions to author visits at her old school, Mira Costa Librar-ian Jane Lofton arranged to have him visit Costa on the day that his most recent book, “The Black,”, went on sale.

“I was familiar with MacHale’s books, and I was excited to learn that he lived in the area and con-nected to our school libraries,” Lofton said. “The Grand View library specialist Heidi Snively was kind enough to contact him for me, and he said he would be happy to visit us for the day.”

Despite the fact that MacHale hated writing growing up, he at-tended college at New York Uni-versity where he got his Bachelor of Fine Arts in film production and also discovered his passion for writing.

When he entered a writing class he had put off until his se-

BOOKWORM: Celebrated author D.J. MacHale visited Costa on April 21 to promote the release of his latest novel, “The Dark,”, the second in the “Morpheus Road” horror trilogy. This special event was organized by Costa librarian Jane Lofton after seeing the benefit of having authors come as speakers at the school where she previously worked.

nior year, MacHale realized that the film work he had been do-ing in high school was actually a form of story-telling.

“In school I gravitated toward making films and videos rather than writing standard reports,” MacHale said. “That carried over to film school where I decided that the best way to break into the industry was by writing scripts, so that’s exactly what I did. But I was always a storyteller, even from the time I was very young.”

In addition to the “Pendragon” series, MacHale has also written the first two books of a horror trilogy called “Morpheus Road,” which centers around a teen being haunted by supernatural forces.

“Marshall Seaver [the main character] is a kid who has seen some trouble and sadness in his life and because of it is reluc-tant to grow up and deal with the challenges of being an adult,” MacHale said. “I start with a real, human conflict and then add the sizzle from there.”

MacHale has a large follow-ing among Costa students. Some have only read one of his books while others have read the whole “Pendragon” series.

“He has a very honest, relat-able writing style,” senior Eliza-beth Griswold said. “He has inspired me to write something every day.”

MacHale plans to continue his

“Morpheus Road” trilogy and the “Equinox Curiosity Shop” series, a set of fantasy adventure books about a toy shop that comes to life. The prospect of a “Pendrag-on” movie is now closer to reality for MacHale.

“I’ve said ‘no’ to a lot of peo-ple because I wasn’t convinced they would be able to pull it off,” MacHale said. “On the other hand

carina GLasser/La Vista

La Vista

I’ve yet to get a ‘yes’ from the people who I think could pull it off. Right now I’m working with a producer and plan to bring it to the studios soon to see if we can mount a production.”

In the end, whether someone is about to write a book, a play, a short story, a poem, a screenplay or anything creative, MacHale told students that there are three

things that every writer must do: practice a lot, read a lot and write what you know.

“When you write about what you know you’re writing with au-thority and readers will respond to it,” MacHale said. “Another way of saying that is: learn about life. The more you know and ex-perience, the more you’ll have to write about.”

13FEATURESApril 29, 2011

S-Club holds second annual Brain Tumor Awareness Week By Reagan estes

staff WRiteR

OLD SCHOOL: The American Cinematheque screens classic movies as well as new ones almost every night of the week at the Egyptian and Aero theatres.

“We have shown films about bands, new films from foreign countries,

new prints of older films that have been restored,

and of course, premieres.”

Margot GerberDirector of Publicity

By allie Rosen

featuRes editoR

American Cinematheque offers rare film-viewing experience in L.A.

RAISING AWARENESS: Junior Anna Pavlova (left), one of the event coordina-tors for BTAW, distributes bracelets to club members that were sold to raise money. Proceeds benefited the We-Can Pediatric Brain Tumor Network.

stephanie sakahaRa/ la Vista

La Vista

Brain cancer is a disease that kills roughly 13,000 Americans each year and is the second lead-ing cause of cancer deaths in chil-dren and young adults. To support its cure, the Mira Costa S-Club held its second annual Brain Tu-mor Awareness Week during the week of April 18.

In conjunction with the non-profit organization We-Can Pe-diatric Brain Tumor Network and its founder Gigi McMillan, S-Club members senior Logan Griffith and junior Anna Pavlova organized the event. They en-couraged students to participate in Brain Tumor Awareness Week as well as become more aware of brain cancer and brain injuries by putting statistics and information in the daily bulletin and selling bracelets.

“We want to promote how common brain injuries and brain

cancer can be,” Griffith said. “Brain tumors affect children all over the world and often times are not noticed until the teenage years. Students should understand that it can affect anyone.”

All of the money that S-Club raises will benefit brain tumor pa-tients. The money will go to We-Can and to Jack’s Camp, a camp for brain tumor patients.

“Everyone will benefit from Brain Tumor Awareness Week,” Griffith said. “The students will benefit personally and the pa-tients will benefit from the money raised.”

Throughout the week, S-Club members sold light blue, glow-in-the-dark bracelets for $1 that read “2nd Annual Brain Tumor Aware-ness Week.” The money from the bracelets helped to fund a bowl-ing party for the brain tumor pa-tients and the excess was donated to Jack’s Camp.

“The party is for patients and S-Club girls,” Griffith said. “It is the patients and their families that

will truly benefit. It is a chance for them to come and relax, be themselves, and just have fun.”

Aside from Brain Tumor Awareness Week, S-Club has been raising money for and vol-unteering with We-Can for over 10 years. Members attend Sand-wich Nights each month where they interact with patients in ad-dition to making blankets to de-liver to patients in the hospital.

“We Can offers information and emotional support to families whose children have brain can-cer,” McMillan said.

In addition to working with We-Can, members participate in many projects sponsored by Soroptimist, make lunches for the homeless, work with senior citizens and collect prom dresses. S-Club is affiliated with an Inter-national women’s organization called Soroptimist.

“Brain Tumor Awareness Week was a huge success, and we plan to continue it in the future,” vice president Hayden Ozawa said.

CLASSIC: Some Costa students are beginning to venture up to the Aero and Egyptian theatres to see movies that are not available at local theatres.

The American Cinematheque, in conjunction with the Aero and Egyptian theatres, is bringing classic movies back to the big screen for the Los Angeles com-munity.

The American Cinematheque, a Los Angeles-based organiza-tion, is not only devoted to pre-serving an appreciation for clas-sic movies, but also to supporting new filmmakers and providing an environment for moviegoers to interact with cinematographers.

With different movies playing nearly every night of the week at the Egyptian and Aero theatres, people of all ages come from around Los Angeles to enjoy films ranging from 1950s classics to current independent films.

“Our mandate is to provide Los Angeles with rare and un-usual film-going opportunities as well as the classics,” American Cinematheque Director of Public-ity Margot Gerber said.

Gwen Deglise and Grant Mon-inger, who are responsible for programming for the American

Cinematheque, work to create a show schedule that will please everyone.

Their goal is to vary the genres of films they show enough to en-sure that there is something ev-eryone will enjoy at least once each month.

According to Moninger, when they decide which films to screen and when to show them, they try to create memorials, celebrate anniversaries, or make retrospec-tives that tie into a new film that an actor or director may have coming out that month.

“Sometimes we choose the films, and other times they choose us,” Moninger said. “We have a great reputation and are often contacted when lost films are found or a publicist wants films shown of their client.”

The American Cinematheque also frequently invites well-known actors, directors or other crewmembers from films to speak at the end of their movie. They often talk about their experiences creating the film, answer ques-tions and take photographs with fans.

“When I went to see ‘The

Fighter’ last February at the Aero, actress Amy Adams and director David O. Russell came to talk about the making of the movie and to give some background on the characters,” senior Niki Moshiri said. “It was definitely a more interesting and fulfilling ex-perience than seeing the movie at a regular theatre.”

The American Cinematheque screens its movies at both the Egyptian and Aero theatres. The Egyptian Theatre, which is owned and operated by the American Cinematheque, is located in Hol-lywood and was the home of the first Hollywood movie premiere in 1922.

“The city sold the theatre to us in the early 1990s for $1 with the stipulation that we do a complete restoration of the building. $15 million later we re-opened on Dec 4, 1998 after an 18-month reno-vation period,” Gerber said.

Although it has consistently remained a neighborhood theatre rather than a high-profile one, the Aero, located in Santa Monica, was built in 1940 and, accord-ing to Gerber, serves as an ideal venue for the American Cinema-theque.

The organization leases the theatre, which is much smaller than the Egyptian, with a 38-foot by 18-foot screen and roughly 400 seats.

“The owner of the Aero want-ed to find an operator and he liked the idea of having a historic sin-gle screen theatre with specialty film programming for the Mon-tana Avenue neighborhood. We opened there after minor renova-tions in January of 2005,” Gerber said.

According to Gerber, the au-dience is extremely diverse, with senior citizens looking to see films they recall from their youth as well as young children looking to experience something new. She said that many parents are also introducing their children to the movies of their childhood

and that many high school and college-aged students freqeunt the theatre.

“We have a core group of members, but we get different audiences depending on the pro-gram,” Gerber said. “We have shown films about bands, new films from foreign countries, new prints of older films that have been restored, and of course, pre-mieres.”

The American Cinematheque offers a student membership, which requires a one-time fee of $55. Members can buy tickets to

shows, many of which are double features, for a reduced price of $7. Without a membership, gen-eral admission tickets cost either $11 or $9 with a student I.D.

“I’ve been to the Aero and Eg-pytian theatres a couple of times and am thinking of getting the stu-dent membership,” senior Emma Vale said. “It would be great to get the ticket for a cheaper price and to get special offers.”

The Egyptian Theatre is locat-ed at 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles and the Aero Theatre is located at 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica. The schedule is posted online at americancin-emathequecalendar.com. The box office opens 90 minutes prior to show time or tickets can be pur-chased in advance on fandango.com.

“I have been to the Aero with my friends a few times and have seen all sorts of movies. I really enjoyed ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and the original version of ‘The Pink Panther’. Moshiri said.

CouRtesy ameRiCanCinematheque.Com

CouRtesy ameRiCanCinematheque.Com

14 La Vista FEATURES April 29, 2011

Courtesy Jennifer sharp

AHOY MATEY: On April 16, marine science teacher Harold Coller led a group of 27 students on the annual tall ship sailing trip aboard the Tole Mour.

By ZaCk Gill

staff Writer

Marine science students embark upon annual voyage on the sea

Mira Costa students have many exciting opportunities when it comes to the various trips offered through school. Marine science teacher Harold Coller’s annual tall ship sailing trip provides ex-periences to students and aspiring naturalists seeking adventure.

Early in the morning on April 16, Costa students and other members of the faculty set out on the five-day voyage from Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor, en route to many of California’s Channel Islands.

“Twenty-seven students joined

Invisible Children Club works to ‘Break the Silence’ about Africa

Junior Aurora Foster’s voice can be heard in every corner of the world

Courtesy BelCantoinst.orG

OPTIMAL OPERA: Junior Aurora Foster was recently selected to participate in a program for tal-ented young opera singers at the Bel Canto Institute in Florence, Italy over the summer.

By hanna MCGuire

sports editor

By eriCa sChneider

staff Writer

us on the the trip,” Coller said. “This year, they were all juniors and seniors. Earth science teacher Karl Kurz and lab assistant Karen Cunningham were also in atten-dance, along with Paula Spence, the first administrator to ever go on the trip.”

On the first day, students were introduced to the life on a ship at sea. Some students found them-selves seasick at first, but they still learned the basics of operat-ing the tall sail ship.

“What’s cool is that the orga-nization that ran the trip is also a sailing school, and by teaching a lot of the kids various skills on board [the Tole Mour], they can

earn basic sailing credentials and a certificate,” Coller said.

The trip is organized by the educational company Guided Discoveries, which also runs Cat-alina Sea Camp and AstroCamp. The Tole Mour has been on over 300 trips with various organiza-tions.

“We were on the Tole Mour. They’ve been using the ship for all of the Mira Costa tall ship trips,” senior Johnny North said. “It’s the second largest tall ship on the West Coast.”

Most of the trip is devoted to studying wildlife. The students snorkled in the waters of the Pa-cific Ocean three times and Col-

ler caught an octopus that the students observed on the ship and eventually released.

“We see amazing things,” Coller said. “We see ecology in action. I saw a pod of dolphins chasing a ball of fish and peli-cans trying to take advantage of the ruckus. I got extremely lucky and got to rub a friendly sea lion’s belly while snorkeling, too.”

The Mira Costa voyagers ar-rived back on the California mainland on April 20.

“Some of them were pretty tired because they haven’t done that much physical work during that short a period of time in their entire lives,” Coller said.

Still, the students who went on the trip were extremely enthusias-tic about what they had seen and what they had accomplished.

“Honestly, I haven’t been hav-ing a lot of fun lately and my life hasn’t been going perfectly,” North said. “[The trip] took me right out of my element. I’d never done anything like it befor, and it was probably one of the best ex-periences of my entire life.”

Coller promises to bring the trip back for the eleventh annual time next year.

“We didn’t have time this year, but next year, we might go to an island we’ve never been to be-fore,” Coller said.

Courtesy Jennifer sharp

For junior Aurora Foster, singing is more than a passion; it has given her the opportunity to see the world. This summer, Foster will be attending the Bel Canto In-stitute in Florence, Italy for one month to improve her opera singing.

Foster, who started singing at the age of three, has been a member of Mira Costa’s vocal ensemble for two years. Although she knew music was her calling, Foster only recently discovered her love of opera.

“In the middle of my sophomore year I decided that I wanted to pursue opera,” Foster said. “Being able to sing at Costa and have Mr. [Michael] Hayden and Mr. [Mark] McCormick as teachers has taken my passion for music to a whole other level.”

McCormick, who is both the staff ac-companist and Foster’s music theory teacher, has been watching her improve as a singer and as a student.

“If I had one word to describe Aurora, it would be consistency. She is always on the top of her game with her voice sounding perfect,” McCormick said.

Along with training from music teach-ers Hayden and McCormick, Foster has started taking private singing lessons.

“Aurora is an exceptional music stu-dent, and I have no doubt that she will flourish in the Italian music experience,” Hayden said.

The Bel Canto Institute includes per-formance classes, private voice lessons, Italian classes, lectures and two concert performances in public venues in Florence. Foster also will be living with a host family while she is there.

“I’ve been to Italy twice already, so I’m familiar with the people and their way of life,” Foster said.

Getting to become a student at Bel Can-to was no easy task. Foster had to compile an audition tape and send it in, along with many other hopeful applicants. Only nine high school students in the country have been accepted into the program.

“I was nervous when we sent in my tapes because I was sick when we recorded them,” Foster said. “When my mom told me that I got in, I was in total shock.”

After high school, Foster wants to ma-jor in vocal performance in college and achieve her goal of becoming a profes-sional opera singer. This adventure in Italy is a large stepping stone leading Foster to where she hopes to end up.

“Singing is wonderful to me because when I’m standing on stage, everything just melts away, and it’s just me and my voice,” Foster said.

kendall BusBy/ la Vista

Mira Costa’s Invisible Children Club recently raised their collective voices about the longest running war in Africa by remaining silent for an entire day.

Beginning April 24 at 9 p.m. and end-ing on April 25 at 8 p.m., participants re-frained from speaking to help the cause. Club members partnered with other volun-teers across the nation to bring awareness to the use of child soldiers in the violence in Uganda.

The 25th anniversary of the rebel war waged by Joseph Kony’s Lord Resistance Army was April 25, 2011. The nationwide event, “Break The Silence,” was an attempt to bring attention to the genocide occuring in central Africa.

“The purpose of the event is to bring awareness to the fact that there’s a war go-ing on that involves thousands of young people,” Invisible Children vice president junior Riley O’Connell said. “We remained silent on the 25th for those who don’t have a voice, mainly the children.”

Students who participated in “Break The Silence” were required to raise a mini-mum of $25 for the event.

Mira Costa’s Invisible Children Club is a small part of a much larger community of volunteers and supporters who are attempt-ing to shine a light on this neglected hu-manitarian emergency. The long-term goal

of the organization is to help an entire gen-eration of children to finally live in peace and to have a brigther future.

“Every day, children in Africa are ab-ducted from their homes and forced to be-come child soldiers; our club is making the effort to stop this,” president senior Sylvia Hartley said.

The Invisible Children Club has been on campus for several years and currently has 25 active members. Hartley and O’Connell have worked this year to raise funds with the help of other students.

In addition to their participation in the “Break the Silence” event, club members sold shirts around campus in order to pub-licize the cause and educate students about the suffering occurring in Uganda.

“Not only are we helping kids in Africa who are forced to live through some of the most brutal civil wars, but we also learn a lot about the lives of the kids that we help, and I’ve learned that they are not that much different from us,” junior Kate Kious said.

Mira Costa’s Invisible Children Club meets on Thursdays in room 46. Those in-terested in joining should attend a meeting or contact Hartley or O’Connell. More in-formation on the war in Uganda and Invis-ible Children can be found on the website, www.invisiblechildren.com.

“Invisible Children club a is an amaz-ing way for high school students to get in-volved in something that is far greater than anything they are used to,” Hartley said.

BON VOYAGE: The group left from the Long Beach Rainbow Harbor and visited a variety of California’s Channel Islands. While on the trip, each student had the opportunity to snorkel, interact with sealife and learn how to survive at sea.

Elephant proved their evolu-tion beyond a wannabe White Stripes group with a boisterous performance that featured lead singer Matt Shultz in a red polka-dot dress, wandering among the crowd while singing.

The final day was packed with popular acts such as Wiz Khal-ifa, whose set was barely vis-

Explosions in the Sky make fireworksBy Justin tam

staff Writer

Explosions in the Sky, post-rock darlings since the universal-ly-acclaimed third album, “The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place,” recently released their first effort since 2007.

The long-anticipated album “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” borrows heavily from the band’s last effort, giving it a somewhat sterile sense of famil-iarity. However, this is partially offset by the simple and brilliant way the band conveys emotion and uplifting positivity on its new record.

For those unfamiliar, Explo-sions in the Sky is composed of four instrumentalists: guitarists Munaf Rayami and Mark Smith, bassist Michael James and drum-mer Chris Hrasky. Though with-out a vocalist, the band plays mu-sic that is both intensely elaborate and oftentimes cathartic in its simplicity.

The post-rock scene is laden

Courtesy unCluster.Com

Take NoTe, Take NoTe, Take NoTe: Post-rock quartet Explosions in the Sky continue experimenting on “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care.”

April 29, 2011 La VistaENTERTAINMENT 15

with darker-themed works of artists such as Tortoise and This Will Destroy You. Explosions in the Sky sets itself apart, how-ever, with its distinctly elevat-ing and optimistic soundscapes, oftentimes cinematic in their in-vigorating bass, drum and guitar symphonies. They make the kind of music played in movies during scenes with the sun rising over the horizon and signaling a new beginning.

Although the band loathes to define itself as post-rock, Explo-sions in the Sky is a longtime staple of the genre, establishing a new era of post-rock with its 2000 debut, “How Strange, In-nocence,” which is very likely the band’s most personal and vi-brant record. Up until the release of “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care,” Explosions in the Sky had released five albums and the soundtrack to the 2004 movie, “Friday Night Lights.”

Explosions in the Sky’s music has been called formulaic and, at this stage in their career, ultimate-

ly stale and dull. However, on its latest album, the band shows how precisely it has honed its craft since what is arguably one of the best post-rock albums of the last decade, “The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place.”

“Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” is a short but familiar trot through the band’s work up until now, both stirring and stimulat-ing in its rampant positivity. Not every element of the album is entirely typical, though, as is dis-played on the uncharacteristically short third track of the album, “Trembling Hands.”

The song abstains from the slowly-building crescendo of most post-rock acts and instead dives head-first into what is eas-ily the most climactic piece on the album. It features surprisingly hushed, wordless vocals and a palpable sense of immediacy in the guitar work.

Explosions in the Sky has been together for over a decade, and it shows. From the first track, “Last Known Surroundings,” to its last, “Let Me Back In,” the band es-tablishes clean, crisp, melodious guitar-work combined with busy, pounding drums. They evoke per-fect proportions of hope and mel-ancholy as the songs build to their respective climaxes.

It may be true that Explosions in the Sky is beating a dead horse on their new album, that the band hasn’t really ever truly left its comfort zone, and that the band, eschewing vocals, can’t have too much personality with just two guitars, a bass and drums. But de-spite these odds, “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” is an exemplary model of what post-rock can be: both exhilarating and inspiring in its sweet optimism.

Ultimately, it is not particu-larly novel or boundary-testing as far as post-rock goes. “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” is a success and a treat and people can find a lot to enjoy on this album. “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” is available on iTunes, vinyl and anywhere music is sold.

By rose Graner

entertainment editor

and aBBy Watkins

neWs editor

The sixth season of the Brit-ish series “Doctor Who” began Saturday with the episode “The Impossible Astronaut.” The pre-miere gives longtime fans hope that showrunner Steven Mof-fat will continue the standard of quality he established after taking over last season.

“Doctor Who” began in 1963 and has played sporadically since then. The current series began in 2005 and the main character, the Doctor, has been played by Matt Smith since season five. The plot of “Who” follows the time-traveling Doctor’s misadventures through space and time.

The premiere episode was a gripping, inscrutable hourlong adventure. In the first 10 minutes, the Doctor himself was killed. Now, typically, his death war-rants anticipatory curiosity rather than outright concern, because the Doctor’s mind can be “regen-erated” into a new body.

In this episode, however, Smith’s Doctor is killed while regenerating, halting the process entirely. Surprisingly, the Doctor that is killed is in a version from several hundred years into the fu-ture; the Doctor whose storyline runs concurrent with the other characters is alive and well and turns up barely five minutes after the other is killed, prompting an

Music To Their ears: The 2011 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was host to a wide variety of crowd-pleasing acts that included Kanye West, Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon and Flogging Molly.

The Doctor is in (your TV)investigation into the identity of his killer and how to potentially stop his death.

In fact, the episode as a whole demonstrates the best aspects of Moffat’s storytelling. His pro-pensity for disturbing monsters whose abilities are based on the power of perception continued with his introduction of the “Si-lence,” alien-like creatures who can only be remembered as long as they are seen by their victims.

This creates a nice sense of continuity between Moffat’s sea-sons, something that is not always commonplace in a show whose cast and writers are constantly changing.

The new season also represents something new for Doctor Who: the introduction of a married cou-ple as lead characters. Amy Pond (Karen Gillian), who traveled with the Doctor throughout the previous season, married long-time love interest Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) in the finale.

As a result, Rory has been pro-moted from supporting role to regular character. Considering that most companions are female and usually end up falling in love with the Doctor, it’s refreshing to have that storyline off limits.

By setting up an intriguing season-long arc with “The Impos-sible Astronaut,” Moffat ensures that season six of “Doctor Who” will be quality and sets a prec-edent for years to come. “Doctor Who” airs on BBC America at 9 p.m on Saturdays.

Coachella: the annual rich hippie party and hipster showdownBy aleC lautanen

theme editor

Two weeks ago, scores of bands and tens of thousands of excited fans descended into the deserts of Indio for three days of music and entertainment at the 2011 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

The festival, held from April 15-17, featured headliners from contemporary rock acts such as Kings of Leon and Arcade Fire to the aggrandized hip-hop of Kanye West and the post-punk revivalist sounds of the Strokes.

Day one started out with a powerful performance by dance-punk band !!!, followed by DJs Excision, Skrillex, Afrojack, and A-Trak, who were punctuated by an energetic set by hip-hop collec-tive OFWGKTA (Odd Future).

After being hyped by articles in the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone, Odd Future’s act was easily one of the most antici-pated of the whole weekend.

Flogging Molly and the Chem-ical Brothers closed the night. The former concluded their set with members throwing out cans of Guinness to the audience after

hop oN iN: The sixth season of Steven Moffat’s “Doctor Who” is a refreshingly thoughtful addition to BBC America’s Saturday TV lineup.

Courtesy BloGspot.Com

a passionate performance.Day two brought equal enthu-

siasm for headliner Arcade Fire, with fans camping at the main stage for six hours to get a close spot. Animal Collective also pro-duced its trademark experimental rock sounds complete with psy-chedelic visual components.

Earlier in the day, Cage the

ible through the thick clouds of marijuana smoke permeating the audience. Noise-rock band Death From Above 1979 played their first show since 2006, much to the enjoyment of the crowd.

Julian Casablancas and the Stokes followed after a nostalgic set by Duran Duran, their per-formance consisting mainly of tracks off debut album “Is This It.” Kanye West ended the night and the festival with a surpris-ingly uneventful set.

Coachella 2011 was a success-ful combination of many genres, spanning techno, punk, alt-coun-try and indie. It also begged the question of whether or not popu-lar hip-hop headliners are now a de facto element. Overall, people who enjoy long, exhausting mu-sic festivals will certainly love Coachella.

Courtesy unCluster.Com

Clever writing and design make ‘Portal 2’ worthwhileBy Zack Gill

Staff Writer

Puzzle video game “Portal” de-served all the critical acclaim and internet memes in 2007. Through clever writing and atmospheric design, it managed to forward video gaming as a storytelling medium and as an art form, all in a three-hour, affordable package.

Its sequal, “Portal 2,” is one of the most hotly anticipated games in recent memory. Promising more than four times the amount of gameplay than its predecessor, “Portal 2” is also being released to staggeringly lofty expectations. Luckily, the game delivers on all fronts, containing more than 12

hours of moody exploration, hi-larious writing and mind-bending puzzles.

“Portal 2” takes place decades after the original game when pro-tagonist Chell is awakened from a cryogenic sleep by spherical robot Wheatley (Stephen Merchant). After accidentally reawakening the diabolical computer GLaDOS (Ellen McLain), Chell is forced to navigate the ruined, labyrinthine facilities of the unethical research corporation Aperture Science.

Chell does this by utilizing the portal gun, a device that allows her to create inter-dimensional portals to solve various puzzles. She must throw herself across chasms, activate switches with

April 29, 2011La Vista ENTERTAINMENT16

weights and lasers and avoid mil-itary turrets.

Much of why “Portal” is so highly esteemed is because of its writing. Evil supercomputer GLaDOS has some of the fun-niest one-liners in all of video-gaming, many of which are still logged throughout the annals of the internet. “Portal 2” adheres to the trend of making video game scripts complex by providing two additional characters to augment gut-busting quips throughout one’s navigation of the game. For example, GLaDOS constantly pokes fun at Chell’s weight and fashion-sense.

Voice acting is one of the strongest elements of “Portal 2.” Ellen McLain voices GLaDOS once again to continue her ten-ure of some of the best work in video game history. Stephen Mer-chant voices the robot Wheatley and stars in “Extras.” He portrays the character with a manic en-ergy that greatly contrasts with the cold, scientific atmosphere of “Portal 2.”

Acclaimed actor J.K. Sim-mons voices the founder of Aper-ture Science, Cave Johnson. His performance is gruff and earsplit-ting, bellowing many of his one-liners in a manner similar to his performances in “Juno” and the “Spider-Man” films.

The new single-player cam-paign provides more than eight

hours of gameplay and expands upon the story of the original “Portal.” While many levels con-sist of “Test Chambers” similar to the original game, expansion to a full length allows “Portal 2” to also insert lengthy sections where players explore Aperture Science behind the scenes.

There are also new gameplay elements, like floating gels that alter surfaces, launch pads that propel players and bridges made of light that can be sent through portals. While none of these addi-tions drastically alter the “Portal” formula, they add a complex layer to the game’s ingenious puzzles.

A multiplayer mode is the key addition that makes “Portal 2” a

fantastic new product. It enlists two players to cooperatively tra-verse the laboratories of Aperture Science as robots P-Body and Atlas. Its puzzles are the easily the most difficult of either of the “Portal” games and require both intense concentration and smooth cooperation. With the additional five hours of gameplay, the co-op campaign alone is longer than the entirity of the original “Portal.”

“Portal 2” provides hours of clever and mind-boggling chal-lenges. It also cleverly tells a wonderful story and lives up fully to the heavy expectations set upon it. “Portal 2” is rated E10 and is available on the Xbox 360, the Playstation 3 and the PC.

Portal 2 Portal: “Portal 2” is played by using “portal guns” that allow Chell, the game’s recently cyrogenic-sleeper protagonist, to solve puzzles by creating interdimensional portals.

courteSy PrimotechnoloGy.com

leaPing to new heights: “Portal 2” will exceed the staggeringly high ex-pectations that fans of its predecessor (2007’s “Portal”) have. Its complex, intelligent writing and design elevates the video game medium to art.

courteSy BloGcdn.com

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Atmosphere gives a breath of fresh air with ‘The Family Sign’By Logan SchLoSSBerg

Staff Writer

Atmosphere is back from their recent tour with a new album, “The Family Sign,” on which the group delves into deeply personal and often dark subject matter with success.

Atmosphere is a hip-hop en-semble that consists of rapper/vo-calist Slug (Sean Daley) and pro-ducer Ant (Anthony Davis). The group has been active in various forms since 1989, making them one of the most long-lived inde-pendent hip hop artists.

Atmosphere’s new album is a complex, emotional collection of tracks that is much more sober than some past releases. This new direction is an entirely welcome one. The ensemble is experiment-ing and finding new ways of put-ting its talents to the test.

Slug has a skill for storytelling that comes through on “The Fam-ily Sign.” In the song “The Last To Say,” listeners are introduced to a chilling story about spousal abuse. Slug’s talent puts his au-dience in the midst of the story

rather than simply giving them an outside view. This personal as-pect to the album helps listeners develop a strong emotional con-nection to the music.

“Became” is another song in which listeners are immediately drawn into Slug’s storytelling. In this track, though, Slug is much less specific with his lyrics, which allows listeners their own inter-pretation of what he is describing and, ultimately, relate better to it.

“The Family Sign” is tonally complex compared to past Atmo-

April 29, 2011 La VistaENTERTAINMENT 17

sphere releases. For instance, one of the few songs that is somewhat upbeat is “Just For Show.” Its or-gans and guitars immediately give listeners the idea that this song is bubbly and bright, but Slug’s sar-castic vocals tell a deeply emo-tional and somewhat dark story.

With every album there’s bound to be a misstep or two. “She’s Enough” is a reprieve from the sad tone of the album, but the production of the song as a whole is sloppy-- for instance, its hook is too off-beat.

“Bad Bad Daddy” is also a dis-appointment. It fits with the over-all “family” theme of the album, but it is much less thoughtful than the rest of the songs on the album. In it, Slug describes a horrible fa-ther. It is tolerable to begin with, but the chorus leaves listeners longing to change the song.

The album quickly gets back on track with the song “Who I’ll Never Be,” where Slug takes lis-teners through an unforgettable tale of unrequited love. “Some-thing So” is a thematically com-

You have nothing to atmos-fear: Atmosphere’s latest release succeeds due to lead vocalist/rapper Slug’s im-pressive storytelling abilities and his willingness to reveal his own personal history to create fresh, captivating lyrics.

courteSy LaLunoux.com

Television ends its dramatic affair with soap operas

On April 14, ABC cancelled both “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” effectively ending the longstanding tradition of soap opera programming. This isn’t much of a shock, nor is it really a bad thing at all. It simply means that consumers have come to ex-pect greater quality of and control over personal entertainment.

The end of the nearly 80 year reign of soap operas has certainly not come abruptly. Last year, CBS started the trend with their cancellation of the 72-yr-old soap, Guiding Light. Shortly after, CBS also decided to cancel As The World Turns, ending their final season on Sept. 17 of last year. These cancellations have left only four soaps left on the air, and even their fates are unknown.

Soap operas started as radio se-rials in the 1930s. They were dra-matic readings sponsored by soap companies, eventually merging into television. Although lacking in writing and production quality, they sometimes served as the only form of reliable entertainment in a married woman’s life.

Two things obliterated this phenomenon: the women’s move-ment and new entertainment for-mats like the internet and DVR. More women free to choose their career paths means less unwill-ing housewives watching soap operas.

The women’s movement was not enough to totally kill off soap operas; there will always be bored people hanging around their hous-es in the middle of the afternoon. Most of those people have man-aged to escape the unfortunate malady that is soap opera addic-

tion, though, with the help of the internet and DVR.

Now, reports are constantly written on the evils of new enter-tainment technology. Animation will replace actors; advanced au-totuning techniques will replace sound editing; Yelp will replace the Film Critics’ Association. Such a people-based industry is terrified of any big changes to the market that involve technology.

In the case of soap operas, more people have been helped than hurt. The soap opera busi-ness keeps a very small amount of the entertainment workforce em-ployed. Alternate forms of enter-

‘Scream 4’ is fun, if predictableBy DyLan fair

Staff Writer

“Scream 4” breaks the trend of long, over-exhausted horror franchises. Wes Craven’s fourth installment in the “Scream” se-ries shows a return to the ironic clichés that made the first two movies successful. Despite obvi-ous flaws, “Scream 4” is a treat to fans of the slasher genre with wit-ty banter and buckets of blood.

The fourth “Scream” movie takes place a decade after the orig-inal and now famous Woodsboro murders. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) returns to her home-town with a new book deal about her traumatic past experiences. She rekindles her relationship with newly-named town sheriff Dewey (David Arquette) and re-connects with her young cousin Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts).

On the anniversary of the original murders, however, a new Ghostface appears in Woodsboro to literally remake and better the previous events. The murders are targeted around close friends of Prescott and Roberts and create a “whodunit” scenario full of meta humor which keeps the audience guessing to the end.

What makes “Scream 4” the best installment since the origi-nal is the contrast from the earlier films. It is still an extremely mod-ern, stylized script, poking fun at horror movie stereotypes; howev-er, it does not try to compete with the first “Scream.” Instead, it sim-ply provides more gore and plenty of ridiculous entertainment.

While the script of the movie was promising, it relied on an ad-equate cast to fulfill the potential. In the case of “Scream 4,” the cast was able to do just that. Courtney Cox provides great one liners and plenty of spunk in her role as journalist Gale Weathers. Roberts also displays some acting chops in a surprisingly complex role.

Another key difference from the original and most recent “Scream” film is the substantial use of blood and gore, surpris-ing even for a horror movie. The stabbing scenes are much more drawn out, creative and more violent than previously depicted, resembling movies such as “Saw” (which are mocked at multiple points in “Scream 4”).

“Scream 4” hopes to follow suit with the first installment of “Scream” which attempted to rejuvenate the genre of horror

movies. With the slogan, “New Decade, New Rules,” Wes Cra-ven hopes to recreate an era of creative and even light-hearted scary movies. This goes against the trend of the self-righteous and the overly serious horror movies of the 2000s.

While the film offers many positive moments, it is not with-out flaws. The main issue is the convoluted twist ending. The fi-nal twist is a surprising turn of events; however, parts of the end-ing are unclear due to farfetched character motives, becoming what the film is supposed to be poking fun at. The confusing wrap-up is a poor attempt to be ironic.

“Scream 4” is able to provide sufficient and sprightly fun. Wes Craven has atoned for an atro-cious “Scream 3.” Strangely, this redemption is probably the best fourth installment of a series in movie history.

Any lover of scary movies will thoroughly enjoy “Scream 4.” This 21st-century slasher pro-vides an entertaining movie ex-perience that can be enjoyed by many and will beckon new and old fans from many generations. “Scream 4” is playing nationwide and is rated R.

tainment, like DVR or Hulu, actu-ally provide more jobs and allow for more varied creative efforts to be made within the industry.

Basically, we have to accept that occasionally there will be industry change. If only all of it were as benign as the death of the soap opera.

the end of soaps: The time when daytime television was dominated by soap operas is coming to an end.

courteSy onLinemoviecaSt.com

scream for ‘scream 4:’ The latest installment of the ‘Scream’ series proves to be one of the better films in the series, deviating from the earlier films but still retaining the campy sensibility that made the franchise a classic.

courteSy faShionnerrD.com

plex track about Slug not being able to “lift his voice to some-thing so beautiful.”

The previous Atmosphere re-lease, “To All My Friends, Blood Makes the Blade Holy,” con-tained a track called “The Loser Wins.” “Your Name Here” from “The Family Sign” seems to par-allel it. This continuity lets fans see just how much the ensemble has grown.

“Your Name Here” is about Slug’s run in with an old friend mentioned in the song “The Loser Wins.” After time to cool off from the emotional situation brought up in “The Loser Wins,” Slug handles the encounter with ma-turity. This reflects the new and thoughtful direction “The Family Sign”takes the ensemble in.

“The Family Sign” is one of Atmosphere’s heavier, deeper, more emotional albums. With it, Slug and Ant once again set themselves up for what will be an amazing tour and many satisfied listeners.

“The Family Sign” is available on iTunes and Amazon and wher-ever music is sold.

courteSy thriLLfiction2009.com

editors’ takeBy roSe graner, auDrey mcKenzie anD Duncan gregory

April 29, 2011SPORTS18 La Vista

Boys volleyball team reassures itself with April 21 sweep of Peninsula

After a win that Mustang play-ers considered dangerously close against Peninsula last month, the Costa boys volleyball team got a chance to reassure itself at home on April 21 against the Panthers.

Although the team has seen al-most nothing but success through-out the season, some players were discouraged by the closeness of their previous matchup against Peninsula, and the Mustangs demonstrated their gratefulness for the chance at redemption with three dominant wins.

By Zane Franklin StaFF Writer

Costa swept the Panthers with scores of 25-16, 25-11 and 25-16. In the Mustangs’ previous game, which took place on March 29, the boys won three games and lost one, but Costa coach Mike Ninnis deemed their performance “lackluster.” This most recent win helped the team prove that it has improved greatly since then.

“We passed better, our defense was significantly stronger, even serving was a lot harder,” Ninnis said. “It was a much better game than our last against Peninsula.”

The Mustangs currently sit on top of the Bay League standings at 5-0 and sport a 21-1 overall re-cord. The team will be hosting and competing in the Varsity Classic Tournament today and tomorrow. It also played West yesterday, but results were unavailable at the time of publication.

Costa grabbed a quick lead in the first game versus Peninsula. Senior Zack Proctor bombard-ed Peninsula with spikes, which were soon followed by more kills from junior Karl Acres and se-nior D.J. White. A hit by senior Weston Carico finished the first game at 25-16.

“Everybody came out and played with a lot of enthusiasm from the beginning,” Ninnis said.

The second game started off

Girls swim team carries on success at Peninsula while boys fall short By J. ryan erickSon StaFF Writer

Playing a rival school is difficult, espe-cially for the team that’s away. When the Costa boys and girls swim teams traveled to Redondo Union High School to take on the Seahawks on April 21, the deck was stacked against their success.

The Costa boys came out on the wrong side of a 94-75 meet, while the Mustang girls brought home a comfortable victory of 135-31. The team looked to end its Bay League season strongly yesterday at home against West Torrance High School, but scores were unavailable at the time of pub-lication.

“I’ve never seen the varsity girls look better,” coach Dan Bartlett said. “The boys still have Bay League to make up for it.”

Despite losing, the boys had some high points. Costa’s 200 medley team’s 1:49.73 narrowly beat Redondo, with seniors Tristan Koester and Kevin Portis along with sophomore Michael Brown getting personal-best individual times of 29.17, 25.68 and 30.86, respectively, in the event.

“Our boys and girls teams are loaded with talent,” Bartlett said. “Our girls seem like the best team we’ve had at Costa in years, and the boys are one of the best squads in the Bay League.”

Accompanying many other outstanding performances, the Mustang girls 200 free-style team took home the first, second and third-place finishes for the event. Costa senior Marisa Purcell broke her personal record with a time of 2:05.08 for the event but was unable to beat sophomore Meriel Mitsakos’s 1:59.85 first-place time.

“The pool had some bad conditions, but we overcame them and swam well against a tough team,” Purcell said.

Bartlett and other team members also took issue with some conditions at the meet, such as cold water temperature, shal-low pool depth and loud crowds at the meet. Bartlett foresees more success for Costa in its CIF rematch against the Seahawks, where these issues will be less extreme.

“We’re going to go out in our next match with a lot of energy,” Bartlett said. “As a whole, we’re all getting faster and more experienced with every match we have.”

Blue Crush: Sophomore Nick Jones (above) swims the butterfly in the 200 individual medley. He had a time of 2:20 in the boys 94-75 loss against Redondo on April 21. The girls won, 135-31.

Stephanie Sakahara/la ViSta

with Carico and senior Kameron Bain running the court with hits and serves. The score was a com-fortable 11-4 within the first few minutes. Strong blocks by junior Jackson Carr and Proctor helped the Mustangs raise the score. Ju-nior Kevin Inlow finished the game with a kill at 25-11.

Peninsula gained a small lead early in the third game. A block and a kill by Proctor tied the game, and a block by Acres put the Mustangs back on the offen-sive. A towering block by Carr put the score at 18-9, after which Proctor and Carico took the score to 25-16 with sharp offense.

“I didn’t really play as much during the game,” White said. “I did most of my work in the first and others got a chance to play.”

Proctor led the Mustangs with nine kills and Carico followed closely behind with seven. Inlow and White also contributed five kills while Bain gave 12 assists.

Senior Jake Miller and junior Chris Orenic both sat out with injuries, which gave other Mus-tangs more playing time than usual.

“We’re looking forward to get-ting a couple kids back from in-juries, but it’s been good to get some others more playing time,” Ninnis said.

SpoRTS BRiefSBaseball

In an away game on Wednesday against Peninsula, the Mustang of-fense struggled throughout the game, scoring only one run. Costa lost the Bay League game, 3-1.

Although senior pitcher Sean Isaac pitched a complete game and only gave up three runs, the lineup couldn’t mount an offensive attack. The team is now 14-11 overall and 2-3 in Bay League. The Mustangs play Peninsula again at home today at 3:15 p.m.

Boys Tennis

Girls Lacrosse

Costa’s girls lacrosse team traveled to Culver City High School on Wednesday and finished with victory of 20-3. The Mustangs are now 12-5 overall and 4-2 in Bay League.

Freshman Lia Sepanek led the team with seven goals while soph-omore Taylor Pool scored three goals and assisted one. Sophomore Carly McGuire also scored four goals. The girls will play their last league game today away at Peninsula at 4 p.m.

Costa’s boys tennis team defeated Redondo 12-6 on Wednesday, giv-ing it a chance to secure a CIF spot . The two teams will face off on May 3 to determine who will advance, with location to be determined.

The number-one doubles team of senior Chris Stanbrook and soph-omore Tom Wissel won two sets 6-0 and 6-2, and lost one 2-6. The Mustang’s record is now 11-9 overall and 3-4 in Bay Leauge. The boys will play Palos Verdes away on May 2 for their last league match.

Boys Golf

The Costa golf team defeated Cerritos High School, 397-390, at Lakewood Country Club Wednesday in a non-league match. The boys are 7-4 overall and 6-2 in Bay League.

Junior Daivd Kim led Costa by shooting 71. Senior JP Harper add-ed a score of 75 and junior Lorenzo Gillenwater shot 80. The Mus-tangs played Edison High School at Seacliffs yesterday, but stats and scores were unavailable at time of publication.

compiled By ryan Franklin/StaFF Writer, Shannon hagadorn/StaFF Writer, matt Wah/StaFF Writer and hanna mcguire/SportS editor.

lindon chen/la Vista

sky maul: Senior outside hitter D.J. White attempts to slam down a kill in Costa’s April 21 sweep of peninsula. He recorded five in the three games.

April 29, 2011 SPORTS 19La Vista

TEAM RECORDS (as of April 27)

J.P. HarperBoys Golf

In the Mustangs’ 196-180 loss to South Torrance, senior Harper scored a 39 on April 21.

Kameron Bain Boys Volleyball

In Costa’s sweep against Peninsu-la on April 21, senior setter Bain contributed 12 assists.

Kyle HubbardTrack

Junior Hubbard placed first in the 300 and 110 hurdles in Costa’s win over Redondo on April 22.

Taylor PoolGirls Lacrosse

Sophomore Pool had three goals in the Mustangs’ 20-3 win away against Culver City on April 27.

Michael CarellaBoys Tennis

Sophomore Carella swept his sets 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) and 6-4 in the match against Redondo on April 27.

Senior Sean Isaac throws pitches in the diamond and punches in the octagon

TOP PERFORMERS

PiTChER PERFECT: Senior Sean Isaac attempts a strike during Costa’s win against Crespi High School on April 20. In addition to being one of the leading pitchers on the Costa varsity team, Isaac competes in Mixed Martial Arts.

Carina Glasser/la Vista

Hey guys. It’s that time of year again, when AP exams start com-ing up quickly on the calendar and senioritis is starting to set in nicely.

Naturally, our biggest worries for the first two weeks of May do not have to do with free response questions, game theory or close analysis of poetry. As seniors, we are brainstorming ideas for what to do for the roughly 15 hours we are blessed enough to spend in the small gym with Mr. Ciasulli.

Let’s face it. Napping only gets you so far, and most of us don’t even have Block Dude on our cal-culators. (If you have a TI cable, let us know.) Hand turkeys are like, so Thanksgiving of second grade, and writing “This is Spar-ta” on your test and crossing it out

was never cool anyway. Worst-case scenario, we’ll raise our heads from the puddle of drool that’s collected on our desks and actually take the test for lack of something better to do.

Meanwhile, we have a fresh set of elected student representa-tives to figure out how to solve all the school’s problems. It’s been a pretty heated campaign season, but we think Costa picked the right people for the weighty tasks to be taken on.

We don’t know all of your new leaders personally, but they sure look like they can plan the hell out of a blood drive. And maybe, just maybe, they’ve got the grit to make a winter dance happen.

Even though we couldn’t vote last Friday, we can critique the

plentiful and colorful campaign materials that have littered the campus for the past few weeks. We’re pretty sure that Trent Fujii hired Karl Rove for his campaign staff to work some fear tactics, by the way. That bomb poster had some pretty serious subliminal messaging going on.

Anyway, the year’s not over yet and there’s plenty left on the cal-endar. One of our own is rockin’ the stage in “All Shook Up,” so we’ll shamelessly plug that. We promise the basketball game with MMN is still going down, post APs, and La Vista is definitely go-ing to bring the Scholar Quiz heat as well. In the words of Blake Griffin, “It’s about improvement and growth on a consistent basis.” Tough it out, Costa.

By allie CampBell

Calendar editor

Most students struggle to bal-ance academics and a school sport, but senior Sean Isaac man-ages to juggle both of these things while also competing in mixed martial arts events.

It wasn’t until before sopho-more year that Isaac started practicing mixed martial arts, or MMA fighting. Isaac’s interest in the sport grew after hearing of it from a family friend who trained with Ultimate Fighting Champi-onship legend Royce Gracie.

“My friend told me about it, and then I went and watched it in a gym,” Isaac said. “From there I just thought it was cool, so I de-cided to try it. That’s all it took.”

The type of MMA fighting that Isaac competes in is a mix be-tween boxing and several differ-ent forms of martial arts. In MMA fights, competitors are free to use any moves to defeat their oppo-nent. Fighters typically compete in three five-minute rounds or un-til their opponent is down and can no longer compete.

Fighters must follow a strict training regimen, and Isaac is no exception. During baseball’s off-season, Isaac trains three to four times a week for two hours with a personal trainer.

“In my workouts, I do differ-ent kinds of strength training, and there is always constant cardio,” Isaac said. “During baseball sea-son my coaches and parents want me to avoid injury, and I don’t have the time to train as much for MMA.”

So far, Isaac has competed in four official fights and has won all of them. Before every compe-tition, Isaac gets prepared in the locker room by having his trainer tape his hands and give Isaac a

pep talk. Isaac doesn’t just focus on himself at fights, though.

“I like to watch other guys, learn from them and see how they train,” Isaac said.

Isaac has excelled on Costa’s baseball team as a three-year var-sity player, a two-year starter and is currently a team leader.

“I began playing baseball just like any other kid does, but it really stuck with me and I have never stopped playing since,” Isaac said.

As the clean-up hitter and a starting pitcher for the Costa base-ball team, Isaac faces many high pressure situations. His experi-ence in MMA helps him maintain mental stability and perserverance on the feild. His determination is visible to other teammates.

“Sean is the number-one pitch-er in our starting rotation and is defensively a great first baseman

Sport Overall Bay LeagueWins Losses Ties LossesWins Ties

Boys LacrosseGirls Lacrosse

Boys GolfSwimmingGirls Track

Boys Tennis

When the going gets tough, just be a senior

Compiled By danny Kelleher, hanna mCGuire, and emma rosenBaum/sports edi-tors photos By lindon Chen, Kendall BusBy, JessiCa hanley, leland lesneVer and stephanie saKahara/la Vista

and outfielder,” senior teammate Steven Kuckowicz said. “As a captain, Sean is quiet and doesn’t lead by yelling. Our teammates follow by example because we know whatever Sean’s doing has to be the right way.”

For Isaac, the next step is com-peting at a collegiate level.

“I’ve been talking to some coaches, and there is nothing of-ficial yet, but I am really hoping to receive a baseball scholarship,” Isaac said. “But if I am playing college ball I will have to focus and may not be able to fight.”

Although Isaac has a passion for MMA fighting, he sees his future in baseball. Costa coach Cassidy Olson feels confident in Isaac’s ability.

“Without a doubt, Sean will be successful in college, and he deserves to play on a Division I team,” Olson said.

SoftballBaseball

Boys Volleyball

DIGITZ

12 5 - 4 2 - 6 2 - 7 4 - - - - - - - 6 3 1 1 1 1 8 2 - 2 1 - 11 9 - 3 4 - 14 4 1 2 -

21 1 - 5 -

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13 10 - 3 -1

9 amount of home runs that junior third baseman Stefanni Lajeunesse has hit for the softball team this season. Lajeunesse surpassed her pre-vious number of six from last season.

.56 amount of seconds that the Costa boys track team beat Redondo by at the Redondo meet on April 22 in the 4x400 meter race. The boys team defeated the Seahawks 71-66.

2 amount of records that junior attacker Chris O’Brien broke for the boys lacrosse team on April 13 against Beverly Hills with nine goals and 11 points. His points came after tying the record earlier this year at 10.

14 -32-11

Boys Track

Turner ConradBaseball

Junior Conrad struck out two Crespi hitters on April 20 to close the game.

SportS20 La Vista April 29, 2011

Costa boys upset longtime rival Redondo in track meetThe Mustangs boys redeemed themselves on April 22 after a loss to the Seahawks two years ago. They narrowly defeated Redondo after winning the 4x400, but the girls were unable to capture a victory.

winded: Junior Sean O’Connell (left) and senior Jeff Peterson (center) run in the 4x100 meter race in the track meet on April 22 against Redondo. With the help of juniors Clayton Chute and Ben Kartub, the boys finished first in the race with a time of 46.4 seconds. Redondo was disqualified from the event due to an illegal handing-over of the baton.

to lose, but that didn’t stop us from knowing that we could win,” Corbin Gates said. “I think we pulled off an incredible upset.”

Costa hosted West Torrance yesterday for the last meet of its regular season, but the results were unavailable at time of pub-lication.

The Costa boys team won the Redondo meet 71-66 after the fi-nal race, improving its record to 8-2-0 overall and 2-1-0 in League.

The girls, however, were not as fortunate. Redondo beat them, 89-47, and they are now 6-3-1 overall and 1-1-1 in Bay League.

Despite the loss, the girls team still had some highlights. Among those, Juniors Claire Barnett, Charlotte Barnett and Ashlee Dotson and sophomore Taylor Foland teamed up in the girls 4x400 race to pull out a close vic-tory, and Mustang senior Aryn Foland won the girls one-mile at

5:01 along with the two-mile at 10:53.

“It’s an amazing feeling to be part of a group like ours,” Claire Barnett said. “Our whole team came together and cheered every-one on until the very end.”

In the 3200-meter race, junior Adam Perez stayed behind two Redondo runners in the first half. Come the second half, however, he surged past both runners for the win. His winning time of 9:46

added five points to the boys’ score.

Costa junior Clayton Chute started off the 4x100 race for the boys with junior Sean O’Connell, senior Jeff Peterson and junior Ben Kartub following after him. The boys were trailing when Re-dondo was disqualified for hand-ing off the baton in the wrong zone, Costa’s win by default at 46.4 made the boys team’s dra-matic finish possible.

“It was great to pick up this win in such a big race,” Peterson said. “We don’t usually have a large amount of success in this event, and getting this win could not have happened at a better time.”

Senior Ryan Morrow won first place in the pole vaulting division, continuing his season’s success.

“We all went into it expecting a loss, but we pulled off a great upset,” Morrow said.

With this win, the Mustang boys sit with Peninsula and Re-dondo on top of the Bay League standings. The players and view-ers were not the only ones who felt ecstatic about Costa’s win.

“We came into this meet hop-ing for the best and needing a perfect storm,” Costa coach Bob Fish said. “There were some up-sets that we weren’t planning,, and I’m so proud of everyone.”

Two years ago, the winner of the Mustang boys track team’s meet against the Redondo Sea-hawks at home came down to the outcome of the meet’s final event: the 4x400 meter. By a margin of less than a second, Redondo walked away with a win in both the event and the overall meet.

As the 4x400 team prepared to run against the Seahawks in the meet’s final event on April 22 at the Redondo track, it was hard not to believe in deja vu. With the score tied at 66-66, the winner of the boys 4x400 would walk away with the overall win for the race.

Senior Brett Douville began the 4x400 with juniors Dylan Gates, Kyle Hubbard and Corb-in Gates following him. To say this event was close would be an understatement.

Redondo jumped off to an early lead, but Costa stayed competi-tive through the first three run-ners. It was Hubbard’s smooth hand-off to Corbin Gates that put the Mustangs in the lead, and he maintained his position for the rest of the race. Costa’s winning time of 3:26 was just .56 seconds better than Redondo’s.

“We went into the race favored

LeLand Lesnever/La vista

By J. ryan FrankLin

staFF Writer

the goal for his second goal, bringing the score to 5-0.

Culver City’s junior Ben Galpar then ran in a goal, breaking through Costa senior goalie John Mayfield’s defense. Shortly after, senior Marcus Egeck ran the ball down the field to assist a behind-the-back bounce shot by senior Tom Farrell.

“Tom puts it in the goal,” Silver said. “With tricks like his, I know we will go all the way in CIF.”

The boys closed the first quarter with a score of 7-1, but the Centaurs brought in a second goal early in the second quarter.

For the next three minutes, neither team gained offensive power over the other until senior Tajee Mobley weaved through the Centaurs’ defense to score. The Mustangs ended the first half ahead, 9-5.

Some Costa players were disappointed in their play in the second half.

“This was not our best effort,” Silver said. “We did a good job of holding Culver City off in the second half, but we could have had better offense.”

Starting the second half, Silver brought in Costa’s 10th goal early, but the team scored few goals after. Costa ended the quarter with a score of 12-5.

“I just don’t think that we gave the sec-ond half 100 percent of our focus and ef-fort,” coach Chris Jewett said.

In the fourth quarter, the Mustangs worked together to make successful offen-sive plays. Junior Chris O’Brien scored twice in the first five minutes off of two Farrell assists and later assisted Hafdell for the game’s final goal.

After this win, Costa looks forward to its title-deciding game against the Panthers tonight at Waller Stadium.

“It’s senior night and we are going to have goals firing out at every opening,” Mobley said. “Peninsula better watch out for our team.”

By emma rosenBaum

sports editor

Holding a winning streak is a difficult feat for any team, but Costa’s boys lacrosse team has been going strong for 11 games since its loss to San Clemente March 12.

Costa faced off against the Culver City Centaurs at Waller Stadium on Wednesday, where the Mustangs won 16-5. Costa’s re-cord is now 13-3 overall and 10-1 in Bay League. Tonight the team hosts Peninsula at 7 p.m in its final league game. The boys will hold the title if they win.

Costa started strong against Culver City with three goals, the first by junior Austin Hafdell, before two minutes had passed.

“We started with a lot of concentration and energy, and it showed,” Hafdell said.

Junior Ryan Silver brought in the next two goals for the Mustangs. After battling through the Centaurs’ defense, Silver threw an overhand shot to the top right corner of

Carina GLasser/La vista

put the team on your back: Sophomore Clay Russert (right) acts in a defensive play in the win on Wednesday against Culver City.

Boys lacrosse defeats Culver City

stephanie sakahara/La vista

squash the bug: Junior catcher and captain Katie Saunders takes a swing at a pitch from Sea Kings starter Alex Whittemore in Costa’s loss to Palos Verdes Wednesday.

By sandor kopitz

staFF Writer

Although a team’s offense is often given the most attention in softball, it was defen-sive perseverance that determined the out-come in the Costa softball team’s Wednes-day loss to the Palos Verdes Sea Kings.

The game was a low-scoring duel be-tween junior Mustang pitcher Breanna Kelly and senior Sea King Alex Whit-temore that ended with a 2-0 Sea Kings’ win, and Costa will look to improve upon its 3-1-0 Bay League record against Penin-sula at home at 3:15 p.m. today.

“This was the best they [the Costa play-ers] could do,” Costa coach Richard Am-berik said. “We had opportunities; we just couldn’t do it.”

No runs were scored in the first five in-nings, although multiple Costa runners were left on base in the third and fourth innings. By the end of the game, the Mustangs had left a total of five runners on base.

“We had two outs [for] all [of] the time [that] runners finally were getting on base,” Amberik said.

Both of Redondo’s runs came in during the top of the sixth inning. After the first two Sea King batters safely got on base and soon advanced on a wild pitch from Kelly, senior Palos Verdes shortstop Haley Sche-nasi hit a high-arcing double after a long at-bat delayed by injury. The hit brought both runners in and established a deficit that Costa would never overcome.

“In a normal game we would have been able to recover from that two-run double, but in such a tight game where the runs were scored so late, it was too hard for us to recover,” Kelly said.

Kelly wound up pitching all seven in-nings, and Whittemore also threw a com-plete game.

For the Mustangs, sophomore Nicolette Gialketsis went 2-3 and junior Stefanni Lajeunesse went 1-3 with a double in the fourth inning, highlighting a game of missed opportunities for Costa.

“We really need to work on our offense and on hitting the ball,” Kelly said. “Our defense was strong and we played well in the field, but, simply enough, we just need to work on our defense.”

PV holds softball to scoreless loss