Author: Francisco Escobar
Categories
Senior Q&A
As the school year is passing by, and the summer is getting closer by the day, the seniors here at C.K McClatchy High School are beginning to either get more antsy to end the year or are beginning to dread graduation.
Many students don’t want this year to end. Ending this year would also end their childhood as leaving high school begins the journey into adulthood. Becoming an adult gives a lot more challenges compared to being a high school student. I understand the grief of those who don’t want their high school experience to end.
I had the chance to interview some seniors here at McClatchy, asking them many questions regarding graduating and how their year is going.
Here is what was said:
“Do you think that high school is preparing you for your future and how you will turn out for college?”
“I guess so, I get a lot of really basic classes here and hopefully I won’t have to take them again in college.”
“How do you feel that you are graduating this year?”
“It’s hard to believe. I did not think that this day would come honestly, but it is, and it’s scary.”
“Do you feel that now that you’re an adult there is a lot of pressure on you?”
“Not really, I mean not like from my parents or anything, but I do get more responsibilities. Like I can vote and that sort of puts a little pressure on me.”
So overall I had gotten a bunch of mixed feelings from the seniors here regarding their future and graduating high school. Many students were scared of graduating and could not believe that they were graduating. Many were excited to get this part of their life over with and continue on into adulthood.
Although, I feel that deep down they were still worried like the rest because graduating and becoming an adult is a scary thing to do.
Movies have been around for more than 100 years and have always been the best way for people to come together and enjoy something they all like, whether that be horror, action, comedy, or in this case, a true drama story about skaters from Venice Beach.
The movie being reviewed is Lords of Dogtown, a 2005 drama film directed by Catherine Hardwicke. I am reviewing this movie as it is my personal favorite movie, as well as a great movie in general. It is a true story about 3 teenage skateboarders from Venice Beach. It progresses with the beginning showing the three being regular, poor surfers, and skaters becoming wealthy skaters as they become sponsored. They battle the hardships of greed over friendship.
The movie starts off with three teenagers sneaking out of their houses to go surfing, Tony Alva, Stacy Peralta, and Jay Adams. Jay launches off of a house with his board and over some homeless people as he skates towards the beach. Tony is the more daredevil of the group, so he bombs an intersection but gets caught up on gravel. Stacy is considered the outsider as he at first isn’t that great of a skater, so he bikes his way to the beach. That is really the beginning of the movie, just introducing the characters in a way that foreshadows later on in the movie.
As the three meet up at the beach, they find that there are others at their spot, and you come to find out that those guys work at a local surf shop, with Skip Engblom, the owner of the shop. After they all surf the very low tide, you get a montage of the three skating through the city in a great moment where they skate in between cars and hold onto a bus. It cuts to the surf shop where Skip is meeting with a businessman who is trying to sell “oil wheels” that can grip the wall and allow you to surf with a skateboard. Skip tries to tell the guy that “this is a surf shop” and he basically has no need for skateboard wheels, but he ends up just taking the wheels.
Soon after, the three come through the door of the skate shop, where you meet Sid, a kid who works at the surf shop. Sid explains to the guys about the wheels. Skip then takes all of the skaters he knows and shows off the new wheels at a skate spot. “Who’s got bad karma?” Everyone fights for the board with the new wheels with the winner being Tony and he tries out the wheels first. Then everyone tries out the wheels. It cuts to later in the day and everyone is skating. Skip is talking to the guys we met before during the surfing scene and he is telling them that he wants to set up a skate team, but the guys are telling him that they “just sell surfboards” and that’s it. Skip doesn’t listen and the next day he makes the team.
Skip tells everyone that they made the team, except for Stacy, tying back to him not being that good of a skater. Jay goes to tell Stacy that he didn’t make the team, as he wasn’t there to hear it. Soon Skip enters the team into a skate competition, and guess who shows up to the competition, Stacy. Stacy beat out all of the team and managed to take first place. After the competition, Skip goes up to Stacy and hands him the team shirt, implying that he is now on the team.
Everything goes great with the team from there, until they are offered to be on the front page of a magazine. That is when everything goes downhill. Not for themselves individually, but for their friendship. The team is cut down to the main three, Jay, Stacy, and Tony. They all begin to not skate for themselves but for the money. They feed on greed and they turn on each other. They end up quitting the team and joining a new sponsored team, except for Jay. Stacy created his own brand, Powell Peralta. Tony made his own brand, Alva. Jay joined no group but turned to his past and joined a gang.
It wasn’t until Sid had gotten cancer that they would all become friends again. The last few shots of the movie were of them skating a bowl together.
Overall, I thought this movie was great and very underrated. Being my favorite movie I have watched it hundreds of times and have not found much that I would have changed. The only thing I did not get was why they made Skip a completely different person, from when they introduced him to the second time you see him. He goes from a great surfer who seems nice to a drunk who makes fun of the kid who works for him.
I would rate this movie an 8.5/10, I liked it and I liked how it foreshadowed the characters from the very beginning and sort of gave a Cinderella story of rags to riches with them going from basically nothing to being the most well-known skaters at the time. It was also great how they showed Jay not turning to greed as from the very beginning he only used his money to get his mom out of her terrible job that kept her from morning to night.
I would recommend this movie to anyone who reads this as it is great to watch when you want something to focus on or something you just want to have in the background.
Categories
Sweet Dreams: A Short Story
*This story contains disturbing imagery*
Two boys named Eric and Joseph are on a trip to their grandparent’s house. It is 1975 and they are on their way to Lathrop, CA. Eric is looking out the window, watching as the cars pass by. Soon, he notices a man at an empty gas station, staring and waving at him. He doesn’t take much notice of it though.
Soon they arrive at their grandparent’s house. Eric and Joseph get their bags out of the car, while their parents go greet their grandmother. Eric finishes getting the bags out of the car and goes into the house. Everyone is sitting down with his grandmother. He looks around to say hello to his grandpa, but he can’t find him. Eric asks where Grandpa is. Everyone is silent
They sit Eric down to tell him what happened. They tell him that his grandpa had been killed near the trail. Eric’s grandparents live in an area near a trail that is known for weird occurrences such as this one. His grandpa had gotten curious and decided to go explore the trail. Well curiosity had gotten the best of him, he is gone now. Everyone is stunned and quiet.
Night comes and everyone is asleep. Eric is awakened abruptly by the sound of the back door opening. He realizes Joseph is not in his bed. He goes outside and follows Joseph. Eric asks his brother what he is doing. Joseph tells Eric that he is looking for his grandfather. Joseph still believes that he is still alive and out there somewhere, so he is going to look for him. Eric doesn’t think that this is such a great idea, but Joseph doesn’t care and continues to walk. Eric, being the older brother, follows Joseph. He catches up as they are stopped by a fence. Joseph then begins to climb the fence, but Eric tells him to stop. Joseph is at the top and looks down at Eric to tell him to shut up. As he does that he falls off the fence to the side. Joseph is in much pain as he has broken his leg. He shouts out and cries.
Eric starts to climb the fence to help his brother. Soon when he begins to climb the fence a man comes from the side of the trail, out of the forest that surrounds them. Eric yells telling Joseph to get up. He tries to get to the other side, but his shirt gets caught on the fence. Joseph can’t get up, he is in too much pain. Joseph looks behind him and the man gives a frightening smile. He grabs Joseph up by the shirt and takes him deeper into the trail.
Eric tears his shirt to be released from the fence. He then scales the rest of the fence to go run and find his brother. He runs down the trail and finds Joseph, hung up on a tree. His hands hanging down, his skin all cut up. Then the man comes around the tree and tears Joseph from the tree, staring at Eric as he does. The man then begins to tear apart his brother. Eric watches in fear of making a sound. Then Eric screams as he watches his brother die.
Suddenly, Eric wakes up from his dream. He breathes heavily, and soon he hears a sound. It is the sound of the backyard door opening…
Categories
Never Walk Alone: A Short Story
*This story contains disturbing imagery*
A teenager, José Aguilar, is hanging out with his friends. It is a Saturday night and they are all walking through Old Sacramento, laughing amongst themselves.
“So we hittin’ the Ferris Wheel or nah?” said José’s friend, Angel.
Two of his other friends, Jasmine and Manuel, agreed, “Yeah!”
José, checking the time, realizes that it is almost 11 p.m. and time for him to get going.
José disappointingly says to Angel, “Aye bro I gotta go home.”
“What?” He replies, disappointed.
“Yeah, my ma gon’ be on my ass. My fault.”
“If you stay like 30 more minutes, I’ll give you a ride home,” Manuel offers
“I can’t bro, I’m sorry,” José says.
They say goodbye to José and he begins to walk home. As he is walking home José’s mom texts him and says that he better be home in 5 minutes. So José then cuts through an alley to save himself some time. He walks through the alley where he finds himself facing some dumpsters. He passes the dumpsters and at the end of them there is a crouching woman, her back facing José, and it seems she is covering her face. While he is passing her he notices she is crying, but he pays no attention to her and continues to walk.
He reaches the end of the alley, but he then hears the dumpsters. They make a loud noise, so José turns around to confront the commotion. He turns and sees the lid of a trash can close, but he notices something strange. The lady is gone. He is frightened. He doesn’t know what to do. Should he be scared, should he carry on, he doesn’t know. Ultimately he decides to just continue to walk home.
He turns back around and there she is. The lady is in front of him, at the end of the alley. Her back, still facing him. Then she turns around, with a grin, and reveals her face. Her face can only be described as something from a horror movie, something that couldn’t be real. It seemed as if something or someone had taken a bite out of the flesh. All of the skin that might’ve once made her beautiful, had been gone. All that was left of her face was what should’ve been hidden by her skin. Her blood oozed from everywhere, her nose only being that of bone, her eyes popping out like the moon at night. And the grin. The grin was the most unnerving. It seemed as if it had been slit, the edges stretching from cheek to cheek.
José stands there, frozen as if he had been doomed for life to just look at her. The lady then reaches behind her back and reveals a knife. José is terrified. Then in an instant, the lady darts for José. He suddenly regains the ability to think, and in a split second, he too takes off running. He runs back down the alley and towards the direction of his house. He continues to run down countless streets, but so does the lady. Although it was a weekend, there was not a person in sight who could hear his shouts.
He turns a corner, just one last street, and reaches for his key. He turns around to see the lady, but she is no longer following him. José, still frightened, opens the door to his house. He has won and can finally breathe. He sits on his couch and relaxes. Then he pulls out his phone to text his friends what had just happened, but hears a noise coming from upstairs. He calls out for his mom to let him know he is home, but gets no reply. He checks her location to see if she is even home, but she’s not. José, almost passing out from exhaustion, gets up to check what’s upstairs. He goes to turn on the stairwell light, but it doesn’t work.
“You know, ‘cus why not?” José storms back to the couch in frustration.
José grabs his phone from the couch then gets the courage to walk upstairs and turns on his phone flashlight. He points the flashlight up the stairs and makes a shocking discovery. The lady is in the house, staring at him from the top of the stairs, still with the same grin.
José runs out of the house, along with the lady. He runs anywhere he can and he finds himself running through another alley. He tries to escape the lady, but it is too late. The lady catches up to José and stabs his back with the knife. José and the lady fall to the floor. The lady then begins to continuously stab José with the knife, he spits out blood and cries for help. He’s gone. The lady then gets up and walks away crying. José’s body lays in the alley, lifeless, one stab wound after the other covering his body, no one in sight to find him.
The CKM 23’ homecoming has come and gone, here is everything that you might have missed!
Homecoming has been a long standing tradition in most to all high schools and should not be overlooked as it plays a key role in one’s high school experience. According to “omella.com”, the homecoming tradition began in the 1910s “to welcome back alumni in their alma mater for a football game and other festivities.” That has not necessarily changed as compared to a modern homecoming.
The tradition would begin to gain popularity in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Schools would have a football game and then right after, everyone would go back to the school for the dance. Now, schools, Like CKM, will typically have the football game a day before the homecoming dance.
Students here at CKM were pumped up for homecoming. This year’s homecoming week, game, and dance have all been a blast with this year’s theme being Barbie. I attended this year’s Homecoming and was able to get some quotes from attendees, this is what McClatchy students had to say.
During the dance, I got the chance to interview a couple of people who had attended. Although not being able to talk to many people as everyone was busy having fun, I still got some information.
“What made you want to come to this year’s homecoming?”
“Those who came to homecoming, went primarily just to go. They had no reason to come, but there were people that came to go on a date.”
“What would you rate this year’s homecoming?”
Those who I had asked this question all had something to say about the dance. Most people did not think the dance was all that great, with the music not being as great as past years or there not being much to do, and I can agree.
The music, although being kept up to date, was not the best in regards to a dance. It felt more of a rave with everyone circling in the middle of the gym and moshing. While some were in the gym, most people were outside standing around. Which could say a lot about the vibe of the dance.
As I said before, there was not much to do. The only thing that you could do, if dancing didn’t interest you, was eat and take pictures. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the lines took 20-30 minutes.
I get it was a dance so the main purpose was to do just that, but those two problems go hand in hand; the music was not all great in regards to a dance, so as a result there was nothing to do.
Although nothing should stop you from attending future dances, this year’s homecoming has obtained a reputation of not being all that great. As said before, nothing should stop the students from attending future dances and should be pumped for them.
Sacramento, CA is home to many small businesses and small business owners. Restaurants are among the most common types of these businesses.
However, according to fourth.com, many of those restaurants closed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The question though, is how did the pandemic affect those restaurants?
The pandemic was a hard time for all of us, but it was even harder for small restaurant owners. During the pandemic, many small restaurants were forced to close down due to high rent, lack of business, lack of employee payment, and overall inflation.
How did the pandemic cause those terrible things? According to brookings.edu, it’s simply the fact that it directly raised prices rather than wages. Nationwide Financial claims that the pandemic, “has played a leading role in the jump in inflation as lingering COVID-induced supply chain disruptions have made it difficult to find some items while driving up consumer prices.”
What they mean by this is that because of COVID-19, many of the supply chains that would deliver food and all of the materials that are needed to supply a restaurant were highly affected. Whether that be staff issues, trouble transporting the product to the supply chains, or there was no product at all.
COVID-19 also caused issues in the farming industry. Not only did COVID-19 cause a supply crisis, but it affected mankind. There were no laborers to farm for the food that would be needed to supply those restaurants, which played a huge role in why these businesses shut down.
As well as the restaurants that are shut down, there are many Sacramento restaurants that are struggling and not far from closing completely. These restaurants could be victims of the same problem. Considering the fact that these businesses are the only source of income for the owners, we need to stop these closures.
One restaurant, Old Soul Coffee, is a perfect example of going from struggling to success in their business. Old Soul Coffee had seen its patronage decline. All because of coronavirus. Although they had this decline, they managed to keep going and have their business continue to strive.
How did they manage this? All because of other local businesses. As well as their customers and their continued support. Customers would instead go to Old Soul Coffee to pick up coffee beans instead of paying extra at say, a grocery store. This is what we are trying to endeavor for. For people to continue to go to these small businesses to stop the restaurant closures.
Give your support to the following small businesses, though these aren’t the only ones facing possible closure, and try to make a change.
Oscar’s Very Mexican Food – 3061 Freeport Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95818 or 1350 Harbor Blvd A, West Sacramento, CA 95691
La Capital – 1535 N St, Sacramento, CA 95814
Thai Canteen – 1501 16th St Ste109, Sacramento, CA 95814
Tres Hermanas – 3260 J St, Sacramento, CA 95816
Simon‘s Bar and Cafe – 1415 16th St, Sacramento, CA 95814