Month: May 2015

By Nia Evans, Staff Writer

If you haven’t heard about Zayn Malik leaving the biggest and most successful boy band in history since the Beatles, then you need to catch up. In the last few days of March the world was shaken up by the surprising news that Zayn from One Direction was leaving the famous band. The news broke millions of teenage girls’ hearts around the world, and personally when I heard the news I shed a few tears myself. Prior to the news, any 1D fan could guess, that the first person to quit the band would have been Zayn, many expected this day would come. But no one expected that day would come so soon. Zayn explained that his departure from the band was due to the immense amount of stress it put him through, the strain it put on his personal relationships, and overall wanting something different. He feels he out grew the band.

When the news broke there was a lot of hate towards Zayn, but even more so towards his fiancee Perrie Edwards, who is a member of the group Little Mix. The event that really pushed Zayn to his breaking point, was tabloid pictures of Zayn getting close with a “fan” , there were two pictures of Zayn with a girl one picture of them holding hands and the other one with his his hand all over her waist. Which stirred up conflict between him and his fiancee pushing him to finally quit the band.

At first I too shared this hatred towards Zayn thinking that he’s being selfish and  letting a lot of people down, but then I realized I too have grown out of my One Direction phase and I’m not as big of a fan like I was a couple of years ago. And it’s quite selfish to ask someone who isn’t happy with their life to keep living it that way just for our entertainment.

But now, the question on all of our minds is what’s in the future for One Direction? Zayn’s vocals were a major contributing factor to the band’s sound.  Is the fame of the band really going to be short lived after only five years of being together? Historically,  it’s around the five year mark where boy bands begin to disperse.The famous American boy band Nsync broke up only after seven years together. The Beatles were only together for eight. So it shouldn’t come as a shock if the band only lasts a year or two more. It’s sad to see this generation’s biggest boy band slowly coming to an end.

Now, people aren’t waiting for the final breakup, many know it’s already here, but rather are waiting to see who will rise up and become the Justin Timberlake of boy bands and have a successful solo career. Will it be Harry, Liam, Niall? ( we all know it won’t be Louis, well maybe except for Louis). Or maybe it will be Zayn who is already in the studio starting on his new solo career. All we know right now is that One Direction will never be the same again.

By Abby Douglas, Staff Writer

Have you ever wished you could design your own pair of shoes? Three students from McClatchy are doing just that, through the 2015 Vans Custom Culture Contest. The contest allows 3,000 high schools around the United States to sign up and receive four pairs of blank white Vans. The schools can then choose artistically talented students to customize the shoes according to the contest’s four themes: Art, Music, Action Sports, and Local Flavor. The designers can be as creative as they want– as long as each of the four pairs of shoes focuses on one theme.

After all the designs are submitted, Vans chooses five Finalist schools and flies the artists to a Final Event in New York City. During this all expenses paid trip, surprise celebrity judges pick one Grand Prize Winner. The Final Event is filled with other fun festivities, including prizes from Journeys, Truth, and Laguna College of Art and Design.

The Grand Prize is huge. The winning student designers will receive $50,000 for their high school’s art program and a chance to have the winning shoe design sold in Vans retail stores. The four runners up also receive $4,000 in funds for their schools.

McClatchy’s own ceramics teacher, Johnathan Hubbard, got student designers involved and made sure McClatchy was among the 3,000 schools to be sent blank Vans. CKM’s three student designers are John Henry Sedrome, Valentina Polendo-Rodriguez, and Matt Cowley.

John Henry (‘15) chose the “Art” theme and drew the inspiration for his creative Vans from two Hindu gods, Ganesh and Suvannamaccha. He says that his designs are a result of “the clash of different subcultures mixed in with my personal aesthetic.” John Henry has been customizing objects long before this contest– as a kid, he used to draw all over the walls and floors of his house. When he’s not designing a pair of Vans, John Henry enjoys sewing, painting, and drawing.

Though he claims to have gotten involved in the contest because he was “bored in school and swimming hadn’t started,” Matthew (‘15) took an everyday concept– “Sports”– and made a unique pair of Vans with an Aztec influence. His goal was to create a marketable shoe (keeping in mind that the winning design could be sold in Vans stores), and he chose the sport of surfing to make a fun design. Matthew has taken art classes at McClatchy and has loved drawing since elementary school.

Like the other designers, Valentina (‘15) has been an artist her entire life. She remembers looking up to her talented brother and starting to carry a sketchbook with her wherever she went. As she got older, Valentina began to be influenced by graffiti art and calligraphy, which shows through in her Vans design. Choosing the theme “Music,” she placed elements like a singing mouth, music notes, and colors to represent “the many emotions one can get from just one person singing.” Though she was reluctant to participate in the contest at first because she was worried that it would get in the way of school work, Valentina says that it has been “an amazing memory of my senior year in high school.”

For the fourth pair of blank Vans, Valentina and John Henry collaborated under the theme “Local Flavor.” The two designers decided to center the shoes on Sacramento’s “City of Trees” nickname. John Henry painted abstract tree designs on the sides, while Valentina made the Tower Bridge span across the tongues of both shoes. They also included a Sacramento sunset and view of the river. Valentina drew graffiti words “Sac” and “Town” on the backs. They hope that this beautiful design will give the Vans judges a taste of McClatchy’s home city.

    Mr. Hubbard says of the experience, “It was nice to watch the three different student artists work together and collaborate on a piece, and spend a month or so working in a medium that they weren’t familiar with. A lot of problem-solving and great collaborative effort. I’m very proud of them.”