U the Magazine, Vol. 5 Issue 2

Winter 2014-2015 FREE

The Triangle’s Student Magazine

www.uthemagazine.com

Back to Basics

August Alsina

Nature Artist Sam Scalz Garcia

The Art of Stand-up Comedy

Study Abroad: Argentina

the magazine

U the Magazine | Winter 2014-2015 3

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4 U the Magazine | Winter 2014-2015

Table of ContentsFEATURES Back to Basics: Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle During School ............... 6

Why Our Smartphones Are So Awesome ..............................................10

Study Abroad: Argentina .........................................................................12

Nature Artist: Sam Scālz Garcia ...........................................................16

Social Media ............................................................................................. 22

DEPARTMENTS DINING: Keeping it Traditional: Sunday Brunch .....................................18

MUSIC: August Alsina ..............................................................................20

ARTS: The Art of Stand-up Comedy ........................................................24

TV SHOWS: The Blacklist .........................................................................26

MOVIE REVIEW: The Maze Runner ........................................................28

COUPONS ................................................................................................. 29 Check us out online at www.uthemagazine.com for more great stories! U the Magazine is a college-lifestyle magazine published three times a school year, Back-to-School, Winter and Spring. Featuring articles, written by student interns and guests, from fashion and careers to relationships. Valuable coupons from local merchants are featured in the print version as well as the online version of the magazine. U the Magazine can be found on college campuses, apartment communities, retail stores and restaurants throughout the Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill areas.

Abby Herman, freshman at NC State University, models clothes from Uptown Cheapskate for our Winter Cover and “Back to Basics” article. See more on pages 6-9. Photo by: Donna Newton, D&G Photography

Winter 2014-2015 FREE

The Triangle’s Student Magazine


Back to Basics

August Alsina

Nature Artist Sam Scalz Garcia

The Art of Stand-up Comedy

Study Abroad: Argentina

the magazine

Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill

Winter 2014-2015 Volume 5, Issue 2


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When life jolts into busy mode, the first thing most people stop making time for is their healthy habits. These habits that take up a copious amount of time and a great deal of effort do not always have short-term, visible, or noticeable effects. Therefore, they are easy to push off to the side when you are swamped with other things. This may be the most ef-fortless method, but maintaining health should be a top priority for everyone in order to have a high-quality, long life. The first step to keeping up with healthy habits is to balance your schedule. The reason this is first is so that you will have time to spend on all of the other steps that follow. Time management seems to be one of the most impossible aspects of college for a mass quantity of students. Between class time, the daily mountain of homework, extra curricular activities, jobs, internships, and social lives, it can be a ridiculous challenge to have time for it all without negatively affecting your health. The most crucial facet of the ultimate balancing act is not to take on more than you can handle. If possible, try to stick with a reasonable amount of commit-ment in each category: 14-16 credit hours of class instead of 17-18, one job or internship at a time, and one main extra curricular activity. It can be hard to narrow down the list of undertakings because of the pressure to graduate on time, to be involved, to secure a job after college or receive acceptance into grad school, but these daily pressures can be appeased without giving up your health. Also, it is more likely that you will do a higher quality job with each undertak-ing if you pick the select few that are the most important to you, instead of attempting to spread yourself too thin.

Once you have chosen which obliga-tions to keep in your schedule, plan out everything in advance. Procrastinating is one of the unhealthiest habits you can allow yourself to take part in because it causes unnecessary stress, inefficient time management, and an unbalanced schedule. The steps for planning in advance are: 1. Look at your syllabi or class schedule for the upcoming week and the following week for each class. 2. Write down each assignment you want to complete for the upcoming week on a specific day, so that you will know which day to work on each assign-ment. Plan out your time according to an estimated time for each assignment. For example, if you have a test you need to study for on a Friday where you need five hours total of study time, then plan five study sessions: one hour-long session on Sunday through Thursday instead of waiting for the day before. It is actually proven that studying over time will improve your retention of the knowledge you are studying. 3. Keep each day as equal as pos-sible based off of your previous commit-ments. 4. Every day look at your calendar to see what work you planned for that day, and do it! 5. Plan out your schedule once a week for the following week. Following these steps will ensure that you complete all of your work in a timely fashion, which prevents unneces-sary all-nighters. Each day will have a relatively equal amount of work. Best of all, once you finish that day’s work you will be done for the day! Knowing that all of the work you have to do in the next week is already planned will

help you to feel more content with the amount of work you finished instead of having future work hanging over your head. It is a rewarding feeling and results in more enjoyable free time to relax or spend time with friends. Now that your schedule is evenly planned, you have a balanced amount of free time to add an exercise routine. The amount that you exercise determines how energetic you feel on a daily basis as well as the longevity of your health and life. It is recommended to do thirty minutes of mild to moderate exercise five times per week. It is best to mix up your types of exercise so that you are not per-forming either all cardio or all strength training; it is preferred for your health to get an equal amount of both. The best method to keep up with regu-lar exercise is to figure out what kind of activity you take joy in, so that you will be motivated to sustain it. A few poten-tial cardio options are: power walking to the store, restaurant, school, work, or any place within a reasonable distance instead of driving, Zumba or cardio dance classes, swimming laps, walking a pet around a lake, biking, hiking, rac-quetball, or squash, basketball, soccer, or tennis. And for strength training are: Pilates, TRX (suspension training), rock climbing, or yoga. Once you have discovered which types of exercise you will complete every week, plan it into your regular schedule. Leave thirty minutes aside five times a week to go to the gym, park, court, or wherever it may be. Keep your exercise schedule inflexible so that you have a specific schedule to stick with. This is helpful to ensure you undergo each planned session.

By Laura Greenstein Photos by Donna Newton, D&G Photography

Back to Basics: Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle During School


The most crucial aspect of eating is to be well balanced

with your meals to ensure that you

are getting the proper amount of

protein, fruits, veggies, carbs,

dairy and keeping the desserts

in moderation.

“

”


Exercise is arduous to begin, but once you establish a regular routine and uphold it, it continuously gets less strenuous. After a few weeks, you will rely on your routine to feel energized, strong, and healthy. You will most likely notice the first time you skip a session that your body will feel more sluggish than you are now used too. The endor-phins you will receive from completing an exercise session will motivate you to continue with your routine. The perfect element to pair with a solid exercise routine is a healthy diet. Main-taining a healthy diet is usually the most challenging aspect of being healthy, but what you eat represents how you feel, look, and the amount of nutrients your body has to use. The most crucial aspect of eating is to be well balanced with your meals to ensure that you are getting the proper amount of protein, fruits, veggies, carbs, dairy, and keeping the desserts in moderation. It is a great deal of time and energy to keep track of your daily in-take for each of these food groups, so it is simplest just to pay attention to what is on your plate and

make sure you have a reasonable bal-ance of each one. A few other tips for eating more nutri-tiously are to cut out fast food and soda, and to drink more water rather than other beverages. Fast food is rarely prepared in a way that is healthy for your body, and that is why it is so cheap and quick to get. You would be doing your body a favor if you never consumed the grease, fat, salt, sugar, and other un-healthy ingredients from fast food. If you rely on caffeine, replace soda with coffee. Soda has a similar acidity as toilet bowl cleaner, which is terrible for your body. Coffee has more caffeine than soda so you can drink less for the same boost of energy. Also, there are minerals from coffee beans that are actually nutritious for you. Similar to red wine, drinking one cup of coffee a day is beneficial to your heart. The issue that occurs with coffee drinkers is adding sugar and cream. A method to make your coffee taste better but still be healthy is to fill one third of your cup with milk and the rest with coffee. It makes the coffee taste far less bitter

and adds calcium to your diet. Drinking water is an imperative habit that is easily forgotten about. The optimum method to make sure that you are drinking enough water is for you to carry around a reusable bottle and drink water continuously throughout the day. It is not necessary to track how much water you drink a day, but it is crucial to make sure your body is hydrated at all times. If you are sporting a water bottle with you wherever you go, then you most likely will not let yourself get dehydrated. Water does not always taste as delicious as soda, juice, or coffee, but it is a necessity to function well. To make water tastier and less boring add your favorite fruit to your water bottle for a naturally infused flavor. At the end of the day, after you have successfully completed your schedule, exercise routine, and made good eating choices, it will finally be time to sleep. Everyone knows how essential sleep is to having consistent energy throughout the day. In order to maintain a solid night of sleep every night, create an approximate routine for your sleep.

When life jolts into busy mode, the first thing most people stop making time

for is their healthy habits.

“”


Set times to fall asleep and awake for every day that fits in around seven and a half hours. Seven and a half hours will ensure five full sleep cycles, which are an hour and a half each. Trying to wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle is much more difficult than in between sleep cycles, but it takes planning in order to have your alarm set for the right time. In order to make sure that you fall asleep at the right time for your alarm to go off between sleep cycles, figure out how much time you need to fall asleep. If you are someone who falls asleep immediately every night, you might not need to budget any time to fall asleep. But if you are not that lucky, then you might need 30 minutes or an hour in order to enter a sleep cycle. If you have a difficult time falling asleep at night, a helpful method is to take one melatonin every night. Melatonin is a chemical that the brain secretes in order for people to sleep. Taking melatonin in tablet form gives some extra sleep aid for those whose brains do not secrete enough melatonin for them to be able to fall asleep easily at night. The way in which it is recommended to use melatonin is to take one at the same time every night about forty-five minutes to an hour before bedtime. It helps the brain to achieve a regular sleep schedule and to feel tired enough to sleep around the same time every night. This is useful to achieve a sleep schedule that revolves around restful sleep.

(Always consult with your doctor before taking any supplement.) Following these steps should help you feel better daily and make the most of each day as well as to improve the quality and length of your life.

The most crucial facet of the ultimate balancing act is not

to take on more than you can handle.

“”

Thanks to Uptown Cheapskate for furnishing the clothes modeled here by Abby Herman, NCSU freshman. Special thanks also to Donna Newton of D&G Photography for her photos seen here.


I got my first cell phone when I was 14, but I didn’t upgrade to a smartphone until I was 21. While I had a “dumb” phone for seven years, my friends and peers were using iPhones and Androids. Now that I own a smartphone, I see why they have become so popular, especially among col-lege students: These phones have become miniature computers. Using a pocket-sized iPhone or Android phone, you can access a smorgasbord of fun and functional apps. But before you had a smartphone, you could only use some of these features by buying separate pieces of technology. Smartphones have combined individual pieces of equipment to work on one device, often for free. Here are some features and apps respon-sible for making smartphones so awesome:

Constant Internet Access Cellular data is one of my favorite features. Being able to use email, Pandora radio, or Facebook when I have no access to Wi-Fi is incredibly convenient, especially when my Wi-Fi cuts out unexpectedly. Having internet access at all times can also be a necessity. You can receive urgent weather alerts while you’re making s’mores on a camping trip. If you get lost on a road trip and don’t have a GPS, you can find your way using a map on your phone.

Touch Screens Before I had a smartphone, I had to rely on dozens of buttons to use my phone. With my smartphone, all but the home button and volume buttons are gone, replaced with a touch screen. Smartphones have screens that translate swipes and touches into directional movement and virtual button-presses. Pinching an image zooms out, and pulling at an image zooms in. It can be frustrating at first because the screen seems so sensitive. But interactive screens make the device easier to navigate.

Efficient Calendars Ordinary cell phones have calendars built in, but smartphones take it to the next level. If someone sends you a message with a time in the text, your phone will recognize

it and link it to the calendar in your phone. When you add an event from an email, the calendar gives you the option of tracing the event back to the original email to see additional details. You can set a couple of alerts for events within the calendar, too. Alert times range from a week before the event to the time of the event, making it easy to remember. Flashlights Some smartphones feature a flashlight function that you can access from the home screen. Other phones have access to several apps. Having a flashlight on your phone makes it easy to find lost items behind your couch or to find your car’s keyhole in the dark. It is certainly more efficient than searching for a flashlight in your closet or having to find working batteries of the right size when the light starts dimming.

Maps You don’t need a GPS anymore. Google Maps and other apps for your smartphone give you step-by-step directions, including an interactive map. Your smartphone also recognizes addresses in a webpage or in a message. Clicking on the link will automatically give you the location within the map and display the driving time from your current location. There are also apps you can use to save your favorite locations. Pin Drop, for example, lets you locate your favorite spots and organize them with colored pins and tags.

Quality Cameras Newer phones have between 8 and 16 megapixel cameras—my Nikon camera has 12 megapixels. While a nice, handheld digital camera has more features, it’s less portable than a phone. Uploading photos from a digital camera can be a lengthy pro-cess, so it’s much easier to take a snapshot with a smartphone and save it or upload it directly to social media. Front-facing cam-eras on phones are an added touch, allow-ing for impromptu group photos that don’t accidentally cut anyone out of the picture.

Weather Apps Instead of reading the paper or check-ing a local news website for the day’s weather, you can now get the forecast right on your phone. Weather apps will keep you updated with the current temperature, cloud cover, humidity, chance of rain, and five-day forecast. Some apps include the Doppler radar. Checking the app just before you head out the door tells you whether to leave your umbrella at home.

Social Media Before I got a smartphone, I had to wait until I had access to a computer and to the internet before I could check Facebook. Now, I don’t need either. You can access your social media sites whenever and where ever you choose.

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Why Our Smartphones Are So AwesomeBy Casey Reep


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In addition to checking updates from your hometown friends or favorite celebrities, you can use social media to keep in contact with people around the world. Jessica Peters, an iPhone user and senior at NC State University, enjoys using Twitter. “My best friend lives in Canada, and I don’t have international text messaging,” she says. “DM (direct messaging) allows us to basically text each other.” Other social media apps cater exclusively to smartphone users. Instagram and Yik Yak are two examples.

Google Drive Sometimes it just isn’t prac-tical to carry around a com-puter. Accessing a document, spreadsheet, or presentation is available through Google Drive for your phone. The files update and save as you are working on them, as they do in Google Drive. Google Drive’s apps are a great way to make notes and have access to them on your computer. I use these apps to keep up with school work. When my computer cannot pick up Wi-Fi in certain places, I can use these apps to work on group projects and papers.

Music In addition to using iTunes to listen to your music and stream radio stations, you can use other apps. Spotify and Pandora are popular for streaming music. My personal favorite is 8tracks, an app you use to listen to users’ playlists. These apps are great music sources for long car rides or small parties.

Reference Apps A lot of reference books and websites have individual apps available for smartphones. Merriam-Webster dictionary has one. So does IMDb, the In-ternet Movie Database. Newspa-pers, magazines, encyclopedias, math formulas, and even surgery references are available in the App Store.

Coupon Apps RetailMeNot posts active coupons for just about every-thing—car repairs, furniture purchases, pet exams, dinner entertainment, and clothing. This app provides offers near your current location, a list of your favorite stores, and a list of your saved coupons. Now you don’t have to sign up for dozens of email lists to get the best savings. Metronomes and Tuners Smartphones even have features for musicians. Met-ronomes for keeping time and tuners for musical note accuracy are now free apps that would have been independent devices. PitchLab, for example, is a tuner that has a rainbow-colored rib-bon to indicate the note you are playing or singing. It works with several musical instruments. “It’s a different tuner than most people expect,” says Praise Wu, an Android user and musician at NC State. “There are different options to suit your needs.”

These are just some of many features that are offered with smartphones. iPhones and Androids have revolutionized the way we use our phones. No longer do we have to rely on multiple devices to check email, listen to music, get directions, or define a word. Nor are we limited to using phone calls or text messages to communicate. After using a regular, “dumb” phone for years, I found that switching to a smartphone was exciting—overwhelming at first, but efficient and fun. We college students have access to nearly all the features that we need or want, all within a handheld device. As unprece-dented pieces of technology, our smartphones are fun, functional, and fascinating. There is little wonder why we are so intrigued by them.

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This summer, I returned from a month-long study abroad trip to Argen-tina. It was a program provided through my school, Northeastern University, which is called a “Dialogue of Civiliza-tions.” This program allows a group of students to travel to another country for a month (so it’s less of a time com-mitment than an actual study abroad semester) with a professor, and take two courses at the desired location. Being a Spanish student for almost my whole life, it had been a longtime dream of mine to visit Argentina and the wonderful city of Buenos Aires. We arrived on July 4th, and from the moment we stepped off the bus into the capital city, it was clear to me that Buenos Aires truly earns its title of being the “Paris of South America.” There are signs of European influence everywhere, from the architecture to the sheer abundance of Italian restau-rants. Buenos Aires is roughly the size of New York City (maybe a little bigger), and just like Manhattan, you need to take the subway (called “el subte”) or a bus to really get anywhere. I lived with five other girls, three from Northeastern and two from University of Missouri,

in a house in Nuñez, a northern suburb of the city. While we may have lived farther away from school than any of the other students

in our group, I felt that we were com-pensated by having the sweetest, nicest, and funniest host parents imaginable: Alicia and José Luna. Alicia was kind and

happened to be the best cook on the planet, and José was both funny and wise. We would eat dinner at 9 pm every night, and then we would spend an hour after dinner just chat-ting about politics or world issues. It was great practice for us, because we only spoke Spanish in the house (in fact, the only times during the trip where I didn’t speak Spanish was when I was with the group). Our school, Bridge Argentina, was located in the heart of the city, not far from the Obelisk and Ave. 9 De Julio, which has the distinction of being the largest avenue in the world. Bridge Argentina is a place where Argen-tineans went to learn English, and foreign students like us came to take Spanish courses. Our teacher Juan was extremely friendly, but what I loved most about our class was that we fo-cused on conversation-based learning. We would start every class by going around the table and each student

relating what we did the day before.

Study Abroad: Argentina By Janine EduljeePhotos courtesy of Janine Eduljee

Riding (or attempting to ride) a horse at Estan-cia Don Silvano, a gaucho farm outside the city.

On the waterfront with the ladies! Incidentally that body of water in the background is not the ocean, but the Rio De La Plata which is the biggest river in Argentina and connects Argentina to Uruguay. The water is brown because of a high concentration of sediment.


Then we might learn colloquial phrases, or listen to an Argentinean song, or even play a game like Pictionary. It seems frivolous, but through the constant speaking, I learned more language in this one month than in all my years of Spanish classes before. The afternoons were spent taking various excursions in the city, or staying at the school and listening to lectures from guest speakers on topics like eco-nomics, history, and literature. The evenings were free for us to go and explore the city. We visited El Ateneo, one of the most famous bookstores in the world, on our first evening there. It was housed in what used to be an old theatre. The store had maybe four levels, filled with books and media, but it was the grand architecture of the place that made the visit memorable. Our class toured the Teatro Colón, one of the most famous opera houses in the world. The theatre had some of the most beautiful and ornate decora-tions I had ever seen, and that was just in the hallways. There was a room called “El Salón Dorado,” which translates to “The Gold Room” and it was dressed entirely in gold décor. It was absolutely breathtaking to see. I made several trips to the Cementario de Recoleta (Recoleta Cemetery), one of the most famous cemeteries in the world. It was amazing to witness, because not only is it huge but it is designed almost like a city of the dead.

Rows upon rows of mausoleums and crypts, adorned with beautiful marble sculptures and chiseled art, unlike any other graveyard I’ve seen. The most famous person to be interred there was Eva Peron (Evita), and generally only the very wealthy can afford to be entombed there. I visited two art museums, Museo De Bellas Artes and MALBA. Museo Nacional De Bellas Artes was the fine arts museum in Buenos Aires, home to paintings by artists both from Argentina and abroad. I got the amazing op-portunity to see the famous Degas ballerina paintings. MALBA, which stands for the Museo de Arte Latinoaméricano de Buenos Aires (Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires), was Buenos Aires’ modern art museum, filled with unique treasures (including a Frida Kahlo painting, and light motion art by Julio Le Parc). Museum tickets were inexpensive, especially for students, and sometimes even free admissions were available.

A shot of the beautiful port town of Colonial de Sacramento, with its cobblestone streets.

El Ateneo bookstore—the old theatre is clearly visible in its architecture.

An example of some of the beautiful sculptures.

A ceiling view of the Salon Dorado.


In fact, almost everything in Argentina was extremely cheap compared to what it would have cost in the US, from food to taxi fares. You could walk into a posh restaurant and order the most savory, juicy steak on the menu and maybe spend $10 for the entire meal. A taxi ride would cost around $7 and then you could split it among your friends. A subway ride one way cost about 40 cents, and a bus fare was even cheaper. The unofficial exchange rate we had access to was around 10 pesos for one US dollar. It sounds too good to be true, but that’s why Buenos Aires was absolutely perfect for a group of college students like us who were on a tight budget. The low price of food meant that any time of the day could be a chance to indulge in a new local culinary delicacy. Without a doubt, Argentina provided the best meats and wines my taste buds have ever savored. Some of the staples of Ar-gentinean cuisine that we routinely dined on included: empanadas (a half moon shaped turnover filled with beef, chicken, ham and cheese, or veggies), choripan (a sausage split in half and open-faced on a bun with chimichurri sauce drizzled on top), pizza (there was a place called Soffly’s directly across the street from our school, where we would go multiple times during the week to pick up a delicious half-pizza for roughly $4; my favorite type was “fugazzeta” which layered mozzarella and onions without the sauce). For sweeter fares, we ate medialunas (crescent-shaped flaky butter pastries with a sweet glaze, similar to a French croissant but infinitely

more tasty), and dulce de leche (similar to caramel in America but much more deli-cious, a sweet sugary spread used on just about everything. Wine and beer were also regular accompaniments at meals, because there the drinking age is 18. As for the FIFA World Cup, there was no better place to be than in the city. We went to the Plaza De San Martin to watch the final games on the big screen among a crowd of hundreds of enthusiastic fans from all walks of life. It was a surreal and thrilling experience to be in a place where soccer has an almost religious-like importance, and the fans could not be more devoted. One weekend was spent taking a day trip to the neighboring country of Uruguay. We went by ferry, spent the day exploring the lovely port town of Colonial De Sacramento, and people had the rare opportunity to withdraw American dol-lars from ATMs (in Argentina, US dollars are virtually impossible to find). Another weekend we took tango lessons and saw a tango show at a tango club in Puerto Madero (the rich financial district of Bue-nos Aires). We even got to visit a gaucho farm outside the city one Saturday, and got the opportunity to ride horses and see cowboys perform on horseback. The last week of the trip, our group flew to El Calafate, Patagonia, the south-ernmost region of Argentina (in fact we were closer to Antarctica than Buenos Ai-res). On our first day there we took a boat tour to see the iceberg-filled waters (luck-ily we didn’t hit any). We were eventually supposed to sail up and see the Ushuaia

glacier, but because of the icebergs in the way we were unable to sail the full course (to the annoyance of many Argentineans onboard). The second day, we were given a free day which we spent visiting my first ice bar. It was the final day that we got the chance of a lifetime to walk on top of a glacier. With crampons strapped to our boots, and multiple layers for warmth, we methodically hiked the sloping terrain in single-file fashion, and there is no other experience in my life that has measured up to that moment. Our guides showed us the endless caverns below, how the ice be-came layered and compacted over many years, and let us taste the freshest ice water in existence. At the end of the trip, we were treated to whiskey on the rocks and alfajores (a popular cookie snack), which was absolutely unreal considering where we were standing. The view was awe-inspiring, but it was the feeling of being in another world that really made an impression- it was the closest I have ever felt to this planet and its breathtaking natural beauty. In the end, what I take away from this trip is a group of friends with whom I have truly bonded, an acquired knowl-edge of all things Argentina, amazing experiences (some wonderful, some strange, but all opportunities for learn-ing), and a new confidence in Spanish. This is why I firmly believe that if you have the chance to study abroad, don’t hesitate, because you will never regret your decision for a moment.

The grand entrance to the Recoleta cemetery. A Degas ballerina sketch from the Museo De Bellas Artes.

The majestic Obelisk, the principal monument of the city of Buenos Aires.


Icebergs are blue because the snow has been compacted over many years. You generally only see about a small fraction of the actual mass of an iceberg above water. That’s why it is so dangerous to try and sail around them.

A view of the glacier, and you can see that it really does seem to stretch on forever because it’s abso-lutely huge. The reason Perrito Moreno is the most famous glacier in the world is because a) it is the easi-est for tourists to access and b) it is the only glacier in existence that is not shrinking in size (the others of course are melting at an exponential rate because of global warming).

Our group—we survived the grueling hike!

At the big final World Cup game, Argentina v. Germany, decked out in the country colors.Our group hiking on the glacier—those spiky instruments tied

to the bottom of our boots are called crampons, and they are necessary to provide traction on the icy terrain (because it’s very easy to slip and fall).


For Sam “Scālz” Garcia, the journey to becoming a nature artist began as early as grade school. Much to the chagrin of his first grade classmates’ parents, Garcia would sell drawings of dinosaurs and fish to the other kids at school. This fascination for all amphibious and reptile creatures developed over the years into a niche position in the fine art and scientific illustration arena.

His artist moniker, Scālz, was actually given to him by a fellow fisherman in high school.

“I would often get covered in fish scales when I was chumming bait to attract fish to the boat on the Pacific Coast,” Garcia said.

As Garcia’s art subjects are mostly fish and reptiles, signing the nickname to his pieces was most befitting. The name was also later adopted as his DJ name, often interpreted as meaning musical scales, in his college years. Garcia took many art classes during his time at university, as well as in high school, but credits being mostly self-taught through observation of other artists’ work.

“I feel like my style is always dynamic and, at this point in time, I have adapted more than one signature style that defines my work,” Garcia said. Particularly, Garcia found that working with a species directly in their envi-

ronment was the best avenue for understanding physiology and behavior, which in turn gave au-thentic credence to the work he produced. Over the course of 27 years, Garcia worked within several areas of the industry that allowed intimate contact with a variety of species. Everywhere from public aquariums and zoos, hatcheries, wholesale facilities, specialty retail stores, to research laboratories—Garcia has done it all.

Along with selling his own artwork – original “Scālz” pieces typically sell for

$100 to $5,000, depending on the size, materials, and complexity—Garcia cur-rently teaches art sessions at a private art academy to students 18 years old

and under.

Garcia notes how often he sees young artists believing they are asking for too much when selling their art, some-thing of which he claims to have been mistaken about in his own career as well.

“What [artists] have to realize is that their talent is uniquely their own and often cannot be duplicated exactly by any-one else,” said Garcia. “Early in my career, I would often sell a piece for far too cheap and find out that a buyer would have spent five times more without questioning it.”

He suggests one way to resolve this is for artists to study the

Nature artist, Sam “Scālz” GarciaIntroducing:

By Lauren Vanderveen All photos courtesy of Sam Scālz Garcia


market and compare one’s own work to the work of similar artists.

As for scientific illustration of species and nature, Garcia expresses how cru-cial it is to be accurate in proportion, scale counts, and body positioning. When live specimens are not readily available to render, Garcia makes use of his personal collection of images to get the size and angles in his artwork just right.

“Although there are standards used in literary works, I prefer to tweak the boundaries ever so slightly to assure that there is a more life-like realism to the finished piece,” Garcia said. “An inaccurate image will not work in many reference materials so it is very important to get everything correct or start over.”

For Garcia, the biggest challenge is translating a colorful subject into black and white, as working in pen and ink

demands time and incredible patience.

“I learned that the basis for a good, realistic painting is a great, realistic drawing,” Garcia said. “I also found that not every detail has to be defined for the viewer to understand the image as a whole. In fact, details away from the focal point can actually be distract-ing from the subject.”

Garcia is based in San Diego, California. In addition to his artwork, he frequently travels to exhibitions and conventions within the industry.


DINING: Keeping It Traditional: Sunday Brunch

For some of us, breakfast is just a necessary part of the start to our day; for me, it’s always been much more. If I could eat breakfast foods for all three meals every morning, afternoon, and evening, I probably would. Naturally, it’s tough to do the “break-fast for lunch” thing every day of the week, but there’s something about Sundays that just screams “brunch.” Maybe it’s because I was born and raised in the south and it’s a south-ern tradition. Or, maybe it’s because Sundays are, traditionally, a time to sleep in—and when I wake up around, say, noon, I’m craving a good breakfast even though breakfast time is techni-cally over. But, for whatever reason, Sundays always have been, and always will be, my time to sample all of the brunch foods—and, consequently, all of the brunch menus—that Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh have to offer. So, naturally, when I first moved to the Triangle area for college, one of the first items on my to-do list was to find restaurants that served the best Sunday brunch items. Brunch, in my opinion, isn’t just something you do because you wake up too late for breakfast. Rather, it’s a time to get together with friends—usually, for me, on the weekends, but possibly during the week, too—and catch up for a few hours over classic breakfast foods that are still delicious well past the noon hour. CHAPEL HILLCrook’s Corner 610 W Franklin Street Chapel Hill, NC 2756 919.929.7643 Since I went to school at UNC, naturally, my first order of business was to find the best venue for brunch in or around

Chapel Hill. After asking around, pretty much everyone said the same thing: You have to try Crook’s Corner. Sure enough, it only took one time trying this place out to see what all of the fuss was about. Any classic southern breakfast dish you can think of is on the brunch menu (available Sundays from 10:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.) from shrimp and grits to pancakes and everything in between. During my last visit here, I opted for the fresh mixed herbs omelet with a side of ham. If, however, you’re looking for something that’s more like lunch than breakfast, the brunch menu also has you covered, with dishes such as the barbecue sandwich platter. This venue is also one of Tar Heel town’s finest in terms of desserts, my favorite of which would have to be the signature hot fudge brownie. DURHAMElmo’s Diner 776 9th Street Durham, NC 27705919.416.3823 Within walking distance of Crook’s Corner is Elmo’s Diner, which is also a must for anyone looking to sample the Triangle’s best brunches; and if you’re in Durham, have no fear—Elmo’s also has a location there, on Ninth Street. One of my favorite aspects of this place is how casual it is—if you’re looking for somewhere to go at the spur of the moment with a few friends on a Sunday morning after sleeping in, this is the perfect spot. The brunch selections (which are, by the way, available all the time) include pretty much any kind of pancakes, waffles, and omelets you can think of, and several quiche options are also popular go-to items. During my last trip, I went for the biscuits and gravy with country ham—and, of course, being a born and bred southerner, I also had to throw some grits in there as well. Elmo’s also has a variety of non-brunch items up

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DINING: Keeping It Traditional: Sunday Brunch By Anne Brenner

for grabs; some of my favorites are the chef’s salad and the salmon fillet. RALEIGHPlates Neighborhood Kitchen301 Glenwood Avenue Raleigh, NC 27603919.828.0018 As much as I love the casual atmosphere at Elmo’s, if you’re closer to Wolfpack territory in Raleigh—or if you’re looking for somewhere a little on the more formal side—you might want to check out Plates Neighborhood Kitchen on Glenwood Ave-nue. With a spectacular brunch menu that is available from 11 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. on Sundays, this is the perfect destination if you’ve got a parent and/or significant other in town for the weekend and are looking for a place to show them the Triangle’s best. Some of the more popular brunch dishes here include pancakes and maple syrup, over easy eggs and fries, and crab cake benedict; my personal favorite here is probably the Plates kitchen burger with bacon. The non-brunch menu here also includes a number of items certainly worth sampling. The cheese plate, served during dinner hours, is literally one of my all-time favorite dishes for any Triangle area restaurant. The dessert tray is also, in my opinion, one of the area’s finest, particularly the crème brulee. So, the next time you forget to set your alarm on Sunday morning (as all of us college kids sometimes do) and end up sleeping until well into lunchtime, don’t panic—whether you’re a Tar Heel, a Blue Devil or a member of the Wolfpack, you’re covered. They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but at these three venues, it can also certainly be the most enjoyable!


Music: Rising Star—August Alsina

The music scene has once again found a diamond in the rough as up and coming rising star and New Orleans, Louisiana native, August Alsina, has steadily begun his claim to fame. After taking the R&B world by storm with his number 1 hit, “I Luv This,” he has set the stage for his Testimony Live! Tour which made its way to Charlotte, NC, at The Fillmore Charlotte. This intimate venue led fans into a vulnerable side of the artist. From the nurturing lyrics of You Deserve to the pain and distress of Make it Home, this artist is sure to make waves. BET award-winning singer and songwriter, Alsina, exploded onto the scene in early 2013 and has made it clear that he has no plans on leaving. After releasing his highly-anticipated album, Testimony, on April 15th, 2014, critics were more than impressed seeing how the album was met with generally positive reviews. The release date, however, was far from a typical day for Alsina. April 15th marked the birthday of his older brother, Melvin La’Branch III, who was shot and killed on August 31st, 2010. With a successful debut album under his belt and endless waves of momentum, Alsina has never wavered when it comes to making sure his brother’s legacy and his message lives on. While Alsina has plenty of body art on display for the world to see, the date, April 15th, tattooed on his arm speaks volumes to the effect his brother has had on his life. “Don’t forget about your brother. Don’t forget about his daughters. Don’t forget your little nieces growing up without a father.” A lyric taken from one of Alsina’s songs from the emotion-driven EP, Downtown: Life Under The Gun, speaks volumes for the responsibilities the artist faces besides the hustle of being a rising star in the world of music. Life has been anything but a fairytale for Alsina on his road to making a better life for himself through music as he explains through his lyrics. He often refers back to his past life being forced to call the back of a convenient store ‘home’ after being kicked out of his house. Growing up without a positive male role model in his life, he watched his Mother struggle working two jobs on her own to provide for him and his siblings. After the death of his older brother, La’Branch III, he came to the realization that he would have to make major steps in order to make his dreams come true. Citing critically-acclaimed artist, Lauryn Hill, as his biggest inspi-ration to pursue singing, he began posting videos of himself cover-ing songs on YouTube. After years of hard work and determination, Alsina finally landed a record deal with Def Jam Recordings and he hasn’t missed a beat yet. As his debut album, Testimony continues to top the charts, his tour is well under way and so is his hard work. For more information on August Alsina or upcoming tour dates for his Testimony Live! Tour, be sure to visit www.augustalsina.com

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Bill Nye once said, “The informa-tion you get from social media is not a substitute for academic discipline at all.” I do not disagree with him, per se, but I do feel that social media has made informa-tion vastly more accessible and can be a powerful tool for learning, when used not to substitute an academic discipline, but supplement it. In fact, I feel that social media has been life changing on a per-sonal scale, even helping to prepare me for my college majors (Political Science and Marketing Communications). For example, I follow a multitude of political pages on Facebook and their posts help me to stay up to date on politi-cal news, something that is a necessity for my Congressional Elections and Politics Class, a class in which my fellow stu-dents and I follow and ultimately create a Broadcast revolving around the senate race. The articles shared through these Facebook pages are not always in depth or free of bias, but they help to draw my attention to issues and events about which I might not have otherwise heard. That initial awareness allows for me to do further research on my own, something that would be impossible had I not first become cognizant of the issue. My Marketing Communications major requires for me to take a class in Mass Communication, which is by far my favorite class of the semester. In this class, we discuss media literacy and analyze the cognitive, aesthetic, moral, and emotional implications inherent within any given piece of mass media. This is something a lot of my classmates have struggled with, since they are unused to assessing

mass media in this way, but my experi-ence as a member of social media site Tumblr helped me to learn to be a critical consumer of media years before I stepped foot into a college classroom. This is because there is a strong social justice presence on Tumblr that is adept at assessing either the moral strengths or weaknesses of media programs, and my involvement within this community taught me to reflect more deeply on the messages being conveyed. The teaching assistant designated with running my Mass Communication lab gave me a leadership role in the class because she was impressed with my performance, and told me more recently that I was one of only three people to score highly on our first paper of the year (I earned a 100%), and asked if she could share my paper with the class. I cannot take full credit for this accomplishment, however, because my immersion in social media helped to give me a leg up over my peers who are having trouble developing analysis skills, due to the fact that they have not been a part of the same on-line communities that I have. Even so, my fellow students are still benefitting second hand from my exposure to social media, since I’ve shared my own knowledge with them freely and eagerly. In this way, the transformative power of social media carries on. There are caveats, however, to the benefits of educational gain provided by Social Media. Social Media must be used correctly, for one, in order for it to be used as an educational tool. For instance, one must genuinely use it in the context

of pursuing knowledge, rather than simply wasting time by aimlessly surfing the web or scrolling through cat pictures. In addi-tion, the source of a claim must be taken into account and, if information is found on a blog post, a quick Google search is always helpful—just to verify the veracity of any statements made. Social Media works so well as an educational tool because it connects people of all sorts of levels of knowledge and cultural backgrounds. Still, different Social Media sites tend to be comprised of different demographic make ups, meaning that users are often connected with other like-minded people more so than they are confronted with contrast-ing points of view. This is very similar to the early days of social media. Geocities, created in 1994, was one of the very first social media sites. It allowed for users to create their own websites, characterized by one of six “cities” that were known for certain characteristics. Today social media sites themselves all have different char-acteristics, and as such, attract varying communities of users. Furthermore, Social Media is a use-ful tool, but that does not eradicate the privacy concerns that it has brought into being. I mentioned earlier that I get a lot of my political news from Facebook. I also tend to share articles and infographics that interest me, which means that my Facebook wall is very political in nature. I have always stood firm in my opinions, so I am not particularly concerned with what friends and family think of this. It could, however, cause me problems when I begin to pursue a job, especially if a po-

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tential employer is more conservative than me. Due to this, I have tweaked my privacy settings so that people with whom I am not Facebook friends can see very little of my on-line activity. This keeps future employ-ers from seeing too much, and means that they have to friend me first if they want access to my Facebook page. That way I will have time to clean up my profile before granting them access. Tumblr raises less privacy concerns than Facebook since it seems to have been cre-ated with user anonymity—or at least the option for it—in mind. This means that one doesn’t have to worry about being linked to his or her Tumblr account for one’s entire life in the way that one does on Facebook. Still, one needs to be discerning with the information one chooses to share, since the allowances for anonymity only work if they are implemented effectively. I would not suggest sharing the school one attends on Tumblr, for example, because I have seen firsthand instances of on-line bully-ing in which threats were made, and was hesitant to post pictures of myself on the website for the longest time. This feeling of apprehension was not helped when 4chan users invaded Tumblr and began photo shopping pictures of people’s faces onto nude photos. Still, I firmly believe that, in most cases, the benefits of Social Media outweigh the potential harm it can cause. Like any tool, one should be cautious when using Social Media, but it is indeed a tool, and a power-ful one at that.


ARTS: The Art of Stand-Up Comedy

On September 27, I had the pleasure of attending a comedy show at Charlie Good-nights, a popular comedy club in Raleigh. Comedian Josh Blue was the headliner for the show, and he performed for a crowd that could not get enough of the unique presence he brought to the stage. It was a presence that illuminated from the combination of both funny and original material, as well as cerebral palsy, a motor deficiency Josh has lived with his entire life. Josh first gained notoriety when he was voted the Last Comic Standing on the NBC show of the same name in 2006. Since performing on Last Comic Standing, audi-ences across the country have been exposed to Josh’s side-splitting style of humor, one that incorporates relating various aspects of what life is like living with cerebral palsy in addition to his own observations of everyday

life. When he first appeared on Last Comic Standing, he opened a routine with the line, “People ask me if I get nervous before coming on stage. I said, ‘Heck no, I’ve got this many people staring at me all day!’” As a performer, Josh said that he finds it important to put his condition in the limelight and is not afraid to engage in self-deprecation when a joke can be made out of it. To give an example, at the show I attended, he began by informing the crowd that if anybody thought they saw a homeless person who looked like they were having a seizure outside the club, it was probably just him. Through his bold and fearless representation, Josh highlights that which makes a comedian good at what they do. It does not matter what you look like, what you sound like, whether you are single or married, what kind of past you have or even if you have a disability. What matters

is the material you bring to the table. How will you present your material? And will it make them laugh? Comedy is a form of art, pure and simple. And anyone who has stood in front of a crowd for an open-mic night will tell you, it is not an art that comes easy to too many people. Even those who the world considers to be stand-up legends can testify that at times, it can be one of the most difficult jobs imagin-able. There are thousands of comedians out there trying to give a unique

perspective on the things many of us think about in our daily lives, trying to say some-thing that hasn’t been said before and, most importantly, trying to generate laughter from a room of strangers in the process. Over many decades, the art of stand-up comedy has proven to be quite flexible. Many typically think of the observational style of humor that legends such as Bill Cosby and Jerry Seinfeld mastered in the 70s and 80s, and to a degree all stand-up comedy requires some form of observation as its underpinning. There have been those such as the late Robin Williams who could have the crowd at his fingertips with a storm of energy and unprecedented wit. There have been others like George Carlin who could captivate an audience with his skepticism, insight, and a fearless confrontational attitude. Others still could win an audience with a deep concentra-tion on the importance of their own identity along with the challenges one’s identity can bring to life. Few, if any, did this to the level of Richard Pryor. In terms of actually writing jokes, it can be a grueling process. Jerry Seinfeld once remarked during an acceptance speech for an award that even the jokes he was telling the audience at that moment took him a long time and a lot of hard work to come up with. It can also be an exercise in deep introspec-tion. Popular comedian Louis C.K., in a speech honoring George Carlin, described it as such, “When you’re done telling jokes about air-planes and dogs and you throw those away, what’ve you got left? You can only dig deeper. Start talking about your feelings and who you are, and then you do those jokes and then they’re gone. You’ve got to dig deeper, so you start thinking about your fears and your nightmares, and doing jokes about that.” Comedians like Josh Blue, as well as the others mentioned above, are perfect exem-plars that comedy is much more than making people laugh. It can also be an expression of one’s identity and what is important to them. Telling jokes is an art. Likewise comedians, being the tellers of jokes, are artists, and we should all make the effort to appreciate what they have to offer.

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TV Shows: The Blacklist

After a killer first season, NBC knew it scored big with its new crime drama “The Blacklist” which premiered its first season last fall. This show, while drawing upon the much used but always suc-cessful “criminal helps cops catch other criminals” formula employed in shows like “White Collar” and movies like “Catch Me If You Can”, puts a fresh twist on the classic scenario by providing rich characters with fascinating backgrounds that have only begun to be revealed. So what makes this show worth your time, effort, and general emotional trauma? In my opinion, the number one reason it has fans like me coming back every week, desperate for more, is the hero (or more appropriately nomencla-tured antihero) of the show Raymond “Red” Reddington. It’s a role that rightly earned James Spader a Golden Globe nomination for his absolutely sensa-tional portrayal of the witty, snarky, fabulous, and yet oddly compassionate Reddington. What sets this actor apart from the rest is his effortless ease at delivering sarcastic quotes with just the right twinge of sass. He makes you believe in the character, and that level of performance is often missing from primetime television (especially in the always booming genre of crime dramas). The show begins with Red, a veteran criminal that happens to be at the very top of the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list, surrendering to capture only to reveal that he will negotiate with just one person: rookie FBI agent Elizabeth Keen (played by the lovely Megan Boone). As the show progresses, it develops a kind of rhythm whereby Red will help Lizzie and her team arrest a person from the infamous “blacklist”, a collection of the world’s most nefarious criminals. In exchange, Red receives freedom to roam around D.C. in his signature fedora, engaging in his “business” practices and

occasionally facing an old opponent here or there. What adds interest to the show’s plot is the strange yet oddly fa-milial relationship which Lizzie and Red share, which only gets stronger as more and more connections between their pasts are uncovered. For my friends and I, although there were other merits to the show’s allure (the sexual ten-sion between Liz and fellow co-worker Donald Ressler, husband Tom Keen’s lurking dark side, the bond between Red and his assistant Dembe, and the quirky moments of adorable FBI tech wizard Aram), by far it was the ever evolving dynamic between Liz and Red that made sure that every Monday before 10 p.m., we would drop whatever we were do-ing and hightail it to a television. When dealing with Liz, the audience gets to witness a tender side to the baddie that he never shows to anyone else, and those moments produce the most memorable scenes of the show so far. With a plethora of quotable lines (“You’ve killed three people.” “I’m not perfect.”), cliffhanger endings to every episode, beautiful monologues that have us clutching our hearts, intricate plots that weave together in ways that no fan could ever have imagined, and a cast that just knows what they’re doing, I cannot comprehend why anyone would want to miss this show. The best part for newcomers is that unlike other popular series like “Breaking Bad” or “Game of Thrones”, “The Blacklist” is still in its early stages and only requires one season (that’s 21 episodes) of binging to be caught up. And for Netflix subscrib-ers, good news- “The Blacklist” has just signed a contract to get its episodes uploaded. So as Reddington says in the final moment of the season: “Now it begins.”

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Movies: The Maze Runner

By Lauren Vanderveen

I’m a steadfast believer that not reading the source material before the film adap-tation can make for a better movie-going experience. Call it willful ignorance, but that’s how I was able to enjoy Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where others could not. However, sometimes this ignorance can lead to an ambivalent reading of what the film is doing. This is exactly the case for the latest young adult sci-fi, The Maze Runner, directed by Wes Baall. It sidesteps the characteristic voice-over narration of the exposition and, instead, plunges deep into the thrilling paranoia. In fact, the first few scenes of the film downright throw a gauntlet to the floor. Immediately, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and the audience, by extension, find them-selves trapped in a steel-cage elevator. As it makes its fast-paced ascent to whatever is in store above, eerie lights flicker and panic sets in. The panic exacerbates from not knowing anything: where he is, who he is, or who the strange boys are that release Thomas from the cage transport and taunt him. The fight-or-flight response to his fear kicks in and Thomas bolts, only to encoun-ter the towering walls of the maze. Stone rises hundreds of feet above them, entrap-ping the boys in a small patch of grassland and forestry. The entrance to the maze, which closes off every night, is like looking into the heart of darkness. The Maze Runner exemplifies the best of its genre, but also clearly undermines it through the very premise. Only in the past few years has the young adult sci-fi fantasy film been wildly in vogue. The brick-and-mortar of its foundations has been built by the millions of teenagers, or young adults, going to see them. Typically, the genre is sneered at for its Abelard-Heloise or Romeo-Juliet level of unfailing and undeniable portrayals of love. But this one facet often distracts cynics from the true power of this genre. Again and again in these sci-fi fantasy tellings, youth is in revolt because it’s being undermined and controlled by the bigger schemes of society and government. In The Hunger Games, everyone be-tween the ages of 12 and 18 must put forth their names to see who will be picked as tributes for a fight to the death. Clary (Lily Collins) from The Mortal Instruments is lied to by her mother about her true calling and

purpose in the world: being a Shadowhunt-er. Divergent shows us a world that is like a hyper-intensive version of our own. At the age of 16, the youth of a post-apocalyptic Chicago are asked to choose one of only five options: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Daunt-less, or Erudite. Choose none and become factionless, or on the margins of society. Likewise, The Maze Runner upholds the genre by having a character that deviates from the norm, someone who refuses to be side-tracked by the veneer of established or-der and peace. Thomas is different because he wants to know more about the maze, how to escape, not about how to make their little community run more efficiently. One of the assigned leaders of this band of lost boys even says to Thomas, “You’re not like the others. You’re curious.” Thomas himself begs the others, “Who knows where this might lead us?” His curiosity pushes the boundaries of control, power, and knowl-edge within the narrative. The young adult sci-fi fantasy is ob-sessed with age and with this metaphor of youth being repressed, revolutionized and then punished for questioning the status quo. The Maze Runner excels in that. But by essence of this film being about a group of all boys diminishes what the genre has brought to the table in terms of gender. Yes, movies like The Hunger Games and Divergent have been accused of defining the genre by heteronormative love, particularly between a white male and a white female. But the female lead is also always assertive, stubborn, and intelligent—as is the male. They are on equal footing. It’s true that these films have various ways in which they are problematic, but they also demand for an entirely female perspective. It is a do-main that needs to spread to all genres, but right now exists primarily in these dystopian societies, where the female voice shouts past the vampires, monsters, or govern-ments in her way. But in The Maze Runner, we have been relegated back to the all-male perspective via Thomas. We panic when he does; we see his memories coming back to him in his dreams. Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) is the only female to ever exist in the Glade com-munity. Thankfully, she isn’t merely used as a romantic prop for Thomas to lean on (at least, in this first film installation). Even still,

Scodelario has only about 20 lines in the film’s entirety. Crazy is the only defining trait that can be discerned out of her character-ization. In the scene where she first finds herself among strangers, Teresa climbs atop a fort and begins throwing things at the boys like a monkey in a tree. Even Thomas approaches her with a nervous carefulness like he is encountering a scared, wild animal. What are even more revealing are the responses by two of the boys at the camp: “Girls are awesome” and “Is this what all girls are like?” The first, though said in a positive light by one of the more affable boys, codifies certain female reactions as “different” and “other” than boy reactions. Implicitly, her fear is “awesome,” whereas a boy’s fear is not. The second response is one left hang-ing in the air, leaving no room to contradict the matter. The unspoken “Yes, all girls are this crazy” remains. Yet, if we look back to Thomas’s first exposure to the situation, his reaction is also completely terrified and irrational. The difference is that Teresa’s re-action is made gendered, whereas Thomas’s is accepted as just normal. Some may perceive the 30-to-1 male-to-female ratio in The Maze Runner as fundamentally unimportant and unsexist or, conversely, as symbolic of a woman’s cur-rent place in society. I’m not buying either. Ladies, look left and right and tell me you see not one other woman around you. Are we truly alone in our fights or is this just once again a male perspective being propa-gated and reinforced? It’s possible that The Maze Runner books have something more to say about why there is only one girl, but such expla-nations do not come across in this film adaptation. However, The Maze Runner is undeni-ably gripping and strange to the last. The giant mechanical spider monsters are one thing; the inexplicable movements of the maze are another. But when one of the boys holds a gun to Thomas and says, “I belong in the maze. We all do,” it’s this genre doing what it does best. I only wish someone had the guts to do a gender-reversal of the entire narrative and we could’ve had some-thing truly noteworthy on our hands.

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U the Magazine, Vol. 5 Issue 2