Category: Opinion

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.

Jenny kiss’d me when we met,

Jumping from the chair she sat in;

Time, you thief, who love to get

Sweets into your list, put that in!

Say I’m weary, say I’m sad,

Say that health and wealth have miss’d me,

Say I’m growing old, but add,

Jenny kiss’d me.

• Leigh Hunt

We are all familiar with the warm feelings Fall can bring, whether it’s fashion, movies, or Halloween, Fall can bring amazing feelings of comfort through art. 

‘Freeway’

I stop myself just to smile

My mind wanders to you 

The kind thoughts of you stay awhile

My one lane freeway to you

• Amanda Cloninger

Tell It Like It Is 

• Aaron Neville

‘Tell It Like It Is’ By Aaron Neville has a dark undertone of instruments and lyrics to help you get into the fall mood

‘Tears Dry On Their Own’

• Amy Winehouse. 

The soft vocals of Amy really can make you think a while.

Halloween Favorites of 2023 this year are all about the costumes and candy. 

The best Halloween candy that is being passed out from every neighborhood, in my opinion, is Candy Corn. They have Halloween colors on the candy, they smell so good, and they come in huge bags.

Candy Corn is a very big debate about whether they are good or not. Some people hate them and some that enjoy this candy. The texture is odd but I like that it doesn’t dry out your mouth like other candies and chocolates would. They also sport the Halloween colors. I mean come on orange, yellow, and white are a part of Halloween colors.

A lot of people think it tastes like cardboard but I’d say they’re wrong, I think it tastes like a marshmallow, just with a different texture. It has a plastic taste to it, but a good type of plastic taste. Not a lot of people pass this candy out, but I’ll go out of my way to get it at the store. A big bag of them too. It also looks sort of like corn.

Now onto the best costume Idea I have seen or heard of this year, the one and only Justin Bieber. People go all out for these costumes, they do their makeup, and the Justin Bieber one just gets me every time, they usually use his 2015-era style. White jeans, a white jean jacket, a purple hoodie, his purple hat, and his all-white shoes with the mic. They even put their hair swished to the side. 

I also have seen people making a costume dressed up as the people from the Avatar movie. They make it look so surreal with the blue-painted body and the ripped clothing pieces. It just amazes me to see how many people are that creative to think of such things. 

Store-bought costumes are not my favorite because they’re not very creative. Instead of thinking of what you want to be and getting all the materials and the items together. Making time to create the final look and piece it together piece by piece trusting the process along the way is what makes them feel accomplished at the end of everything. 

I’ve also seen a lot of people dressed up as the character The Nun and scaring people with groaning sounds and running towards them. They even leave behind fake pieces of body parts. 

It’s so cool to see how many creative people there are out there to come up with all of these costumes to be worn outside publicly. My favorite so far though is the Justin Bieber costume.

Have you ever experienced Mexican culture? It’s very fun, cheerful, inclusive, and meaningful. There are many cultures but in my opinion Mexican culture tops all of them. 

It’s unique and has a lot to its culture, for example there are Mayas, Aztecs, Zapotecs, Otomis, Nahuas, and many more. There are so many cities in Mexico. Mexico is very popular. It’s the tenth most populated country in the world with over 128 million people. 

Mexico has several ethics groups. For example, mestizo makes up 62% of its population. Mexico has a lot of beautiful indigenous groups. They are all unique and have different beliefs. I grew up around Mexican culture and I think I did have a really good childhood. I feel like Mexican culture has a really good impact especially around kids because I think everything is just so family oriented. For example the candy, the holidays, the language and the food.  

People should learn more about the culture because its land of vibrancy and amusing history. On top of that, the people are so inclusive and heartwarming. The country has the richest culture. It has ancient roots and modern innovations making it unique and a place people can’t resist visiting. Other reasons why Mexico has such a beautiful background is because of its surreal beaches, mouth watering food, and adventurous activities that keep the adrenaline rushing and beautiful language. 

Mexican culture is very unique, from its food, holidays, traditions, music, dance and much more. Their celebrations have much more meaning, for example, Christmas has a deeper meaning than just opening presents and it’s more than that its ties in with religion. Christmas is the day Jesus was born and back then it was a day to spend with family and now it’s just something materialistic. 

Another holiday that we celebrate is la rosca. It’s like a big cake and you cut it open, the inside of the bread is a baby and it symbolizes baby jesus and whoever gets it needs to make food for the next celebration. Anyways these are just some of the examples of the holidays in Mexican culture. In my opinion Mexican culture is really beautiful. Although it has to do a lot with religion when celebrating it, you don’t have to see it as that. We are very inclusive and respect one another’s beliefs. 

One more beautiful thing about Mexican culture is the language. Every culture has their own language but us Mexicans have Spanish and Spanish indigenous, and believe it or not there are still a lot of people that speak it. It’s crazy because today it’s a global language with almost 500 million native speakers. Spanish is the official language for about 20 countries.  

In conclusion Mexican culture is one of the best cultures out there. Don’t knock it till you try it. Anyone can experience Mexican culture. We are really inclusive and we just like to have fun. We have amazing food love to eat. Although we may be nosey, it’s just very fun and enjoyable having a Mexican family and being part of Mexican culture. Every celebration or everything that has to do with Mexican culture has a background meaning behind it, and that’s the beautiful part of it.

As a musician in Sacramento, it can be a great place for veteran musicians and beginners alike. 

However, when I was starting out playing music I had some experiences with guitar shops that were not so great. Let’s just say they were not super kind experiences. First things first, as I discuss these shops, I’d like to make it clear that it’s not to promote or discourage future business for these shops. 

The first music shop that is my personal favorite is Kline Music at 2200 Sutterville Rd, Sacramento, CA 95818. 

First, they have really great selections for Fender guitars specifically Jackson guitars. They are super kind and have helpful assistants. Especially, when I bought my first Fender Mustang at a good price of $400, which is somewhat of a hard deal to come by. But as of recently, I have had some experiences with their new employers that left me honestly heartbroken. I understand that they are locally owned businesses and they don’t have the same privileges as chain stores like Guitar Center. 

One occasion when I was paying a visit inside the shop, I was playing a decent player series Fender Stratocaster and to top it all off I was playing at a low volume, like 3 on a practice amplifier. This tall gentleman approached me and told me that I needed to part ways from the guitar area due to me clogging up the store. Even though it wasn’t a busy day and there weren’t any guitar students inside. I was kicked out for just playing their instruments.

I still do not know what I did wrong, and I am actually old friends with one of the employees. It still baffles me. So Kline Music is a great one-stop shop music store, but when you want to know what you’re getting yourself into with purchasing an expensive guitar and would like to play it, make sure you make it quick and don’t bother asking to plug in an amplifier. 

Alright so the next guitar store I would like to critique is Guitar Workshop, and this one I won’t be so nice about. One day during my practice session on my guitar, my tremolo broke and needed to be fixed along with a simple set-up for my Kurt Cobain signature Fender Jaguar. Once called Kline Music and was informed that they do not work on electrics and only do wood repairs for acoustic guitars. So I decided to visit Guitar Workshop, located in the Sacramento area of 3248 on J Street. It is dead empty. 

I walk up to the counter and there is a man sitting up front and saying hello. I ask for help, but he ignores me and continues working on this other guitar. So I walk around the shop and browse. Then he finally asked me what I wanted, so I asked him how much it would cost for a set-up on my Fender Jaguar and a repair on the tremolo system and how long it would take. He tells me it’ll be around $300 and around 4 months in total for the set-up. I was in shock. I politely said, “Okay thank you very much for your time.” He gave me a discourteous look back and then I left. 

According to many reviews on Google, I am not the only one who came across this kind of behavior. Some reviews include: 

“Uninformed staff will typically oversell or recommend items you don’t need (No, I do not need a new Bartolini preamp, thanks for not listening though). Turnaround time is awful. Don’t ask any basic questions, there’s always passive-aggressive responses. Even if you ask for a price, they will give you a spiel before telling you.”

To leave this article on a brighter note, probably one of the best music shops ever, in existence, maybe even in the whole county, I am proud to say is Watermelon Music Located on 1970 Lake Blvd suite #1 in Davis. And let me tell you this, they are genuinely the kindest people I have ever met. 

They were so nice to me, once they even did a free restring on my electric and they were all like “Dude don’t worry about it.” Everyone in the music store is not only so kind but also super knowledgeable, approachable, and relatable. They want to know what you look for in an instrument. They offer some great offers on some Fenders, Yamahas, Paul Reed Smith’s, and many rare kinds of guitars. The store also always has events happening and I was even fortunate enough to play a gig there with my band, Seawater, once. It was one of the best performances we had in a long time. 

However if you don’t live near Davis and don’t think it is worth the drive all the way over. I humbly recommend “Music Go Round” at 9163 E Stockton Blvd #310, Elk Grove. I’ll tell you about my smooth experience there. Once I was at a jam session with a buddy of mine and the drumset skin on the kick drum batter head side ripped from the Jammage. So we drove to Music Go Round and right away the guys there were really cool about the tone of each layer in the skin of the drums. They were really diverse when it came to talking about music genres. Metal is one of the genres we spent nearly an hour talking about. It was a fun visit and my buddy got a good deal with the new drum skin so it was a smooth transaction. 

In conclusion, this review wasn’t to bash any of the businesses mentioned, it was to spread the word. I recommend sticking to the ones that are a must-visit. I hope this article was helpful and I hope it doesn’t offend anyone that likes these stores. Thanks for reading!