The Paw Print

A news publication created by Baruch's College Now high school journalism class

Commentary and reviews

Blast from the Past: Does Back to the Future still holds up as an 80’s cultural icon?

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delorean-38103_1280“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”

These are the last lines from the 80’s sci-fi film Back to the Future. The film is having its 30th anniversary this month and the main cast has reunited in London to celebrate it. But one question remains: does the film still hold up as a film classic after all this time or is it as dated as the time traveling tropes that the movie created?

    Back to the Future is about a teenager named Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, and his eccentric scientist pal, Dr. Emmett Brown played by Christopher Lloyd, and Brown’s time machine, a DeLorean, which lands Marty in 1955 with seemingly no way to return to 1985. While in 1955, Marty encounters his teenage parents, Lorraine and George played by Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover respectively, and he has to make sure his parents get together or else he may cease to exist.

After its release on July 3rd 1985, the movie became a cultural icon and even the president at the time, Ronald Reagan, even quoted the film in his 1986 State of the Union address stating, “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” The film became the top grossing movie of 1985 and spawned two sequels, multiple video games, and helped the DeLorean gain its iconic status.

   Back to the Future got everything right in terms of casting, script, and special effects. Fox and Lloyd had an undeniable chemistry and were able to play off each other in terms of comedic timing. Their characters were also believable in terms of actions and dialogue. The script was full of classic quotes, such as “I’m your density. I mean, your destiny.” and “If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 mph… you’re gonna see some serious s#!t”

It didn’t feel as if the story was hard to follow or understand for traditional audiences. The special effects like the lighting hitting the clock tower and sending Marty back in time may feel dated for people accustomed to the CGI of today but for the time and what it was trying to accomplish, it worked beautifully. The movie doesn’t feel like a traditional sci-fi movie because it also has action, adventure and comedy. This allowed it appeal to a wider audience.

So Back to the Future still deserves its iconic status, even 30 years after its release because it can appeal to a wide audience and has the potential to bring in a new generation of fans because it has a unique story. It was also the forefather for the devices that time-travel films released after Back to the Future utilize like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Project Almanac. Therefore, Back to the Future deserves the praise and recognition it gets from critics and audiences alike.

 

 

 

 

 

Big Apple Ranked #1: What for?

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“The Big Apple” has once more been proclaimed the number one city in the World, but this time it is for a less than flattering reason: rodent infestation. The website Animal Planet, in 2012, created a list of the “Top 10 Worst Rat Cities in the World,” and New York City ranked number 1.

We are dealing with a rodent control issue, and it is incontrovertibly a multi factored one. All five boroughs are impacted and included. Nevertheless, there are areas that are more severely infested than others. In 2014, The Gothamist, a local New York City news outlet published a map which locates the living rats:

The areas colored in yellow or light orange are also infested by rats, simply “less severely.” Nowhere is safe.

Quick Shocking Fact: In the building where diplomacy is in action, the rats discuss their issues too. Even the United Nations Headquarters has suffered from rat infestations.

According to the writer of the New York Times bestseller “Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants,” Robert Sullivan states, “It is estimated that NYC has twice as many rats as it has humans, which would mean approximately 16 million rats.”

This is not the most disturbing fact. Sullivan goes on to say, “There are more rats infected with the bubonic plague in North America, than there were in Europe at the time of the Black Death.”

To once more point to startling intelligence, female rats can have up to 15,000 descendants in one year. The bestselling author states, “A dominant male rat can mate with up to 20 female rats in just six hours.”

He says, “They [mice/rats] are adept at climbing, swimming, and yes, working their way through a serpentine of sewer pipes and exiting your toilet bowl.”

Unfortunately, this newsflash will not end the very alarming evidence of the danger that rat infestation evokes in our city. The author proclaims, “A third of the world’s food supply is consumed or destroyed by rats. Rats have eaten cadavers in the New York City’s Coroner’s office. Rats have attacked and killed homeless people sleeping on the streets of Manhattan.”

To put in perspective the seriousness of the issue and its far reaching effects Sullivan adds, “The Department of Homeland Security, as part of its post 9/11 bio-terrorism alertness effort, catches rats and inspects their fleas to see if terrorists have released the Black Death in New York City.”

The daily life of New Yorkers is challenged to new levels. Literally nowhere is safe.

To reserve a table in any restaurant, one would unconsciously share a meal with the mice, and pay a high price for it too. Even the most expensive restaurants are located in areas that share this very problem. It is true that more expensive restaurants might have a budget that can afford exterminators more frequently. So one might think that these restaurants are a safer way to go, but rodent infestation is constantly a threat, a threat for businesses and a threat for citizens. According to a Harvard University Graduate Study of 2013, in Manhattan, zip code area 10128, 74 out of 154 eateries are infested by rats.

The Health Inspection grading system has the primary objective of empowering the consumer by providing reliable information, and establishing an incentive for businesses to be more sanitary. In the long run, the goal is to fortify eateries from the dangerous rats. However, this has not been achieved.

The Health Inspectors are famous for their sternness. One of the finest and most expensive restaurants in the world, Per Se, received the grade C, CNN reported. In contrast, a Dunkin Donuts, in Ridgewood, Queens, one of the most severely rat infested areas, leaks all the garbage on the streets; receives witness based accusations from the community for its lack of sanitation, yet its grade is an A. Thus, the popular belief seems to be inaccurate.

The failure of the Health Inspection grading system makes its obvious that an overhaul is necessary. One reason for the system’s miscarriage is that it depends on individual inspectors who lack focused guidelines. This conflict, poor restaurant sanitation enables rats to roam everywhere and endanger the human settlement.

Artyom Matusov, a Legislative Policy Analyst at New York City Council stated, “We have a government agency that’s willing to blatantly lie to the public, if we cannot trust the health department to provide real scientific data … then we cannot trust any agency.”

If the City is to decimate its rat population, it is essential to tighten government action. However, that would not be nearly enough. The public is as essential.

Solutions are being implemented. The city financed $611,000, for a project that would bring 45 inspectors to neighborhood associations, community boards, elected officials, building owners, and businesses to plug holes and put poison in the rat holes and tunnels.

In addition, restaurants, other businesses, and even vacant buildings have owners, and those owners must be penalized in some form if they do not contribute to the effort of controlling rodent infestation.

The first step to implementing a sustainable solution has been completed by the work of Senator Bill de Perkins and the media, who published an interactive report on the rat issue. New Yorkers were asked to take a survey and reply to the question: “How often do you come into any form of contact with rats in the subway?” 87% of respondents said daily, and 80% described the situation to be severe or state of emergency.

To resolve the rodent infestation issue of New York the subway must remain in focus, because it is a hotspot for the rat population. It is where rats live, it is where rats reproduce.

Niels Bohr, a Nobel Prize physicist and philosopher once said, “Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.” That certainly applies to this problem.

There are many possible solutions. One is to create a sustainable public education campaign to increase awareness, and bring to light the behavior of our citizens, which contributes to the increase of these unwanted inhabitants.

Another potential solution that might introduce controversy is banning eating on the subway, or establishing a fee for it, a fee that is equal to the fare. This would not be a direct ban, but to a large extent it would play the same role.

One other obvious solution is to require a better job from the Transit Maintenance Crew, expand this department, and increase the funds for better, new, and cleaner supplies. Perhaps every 24 hours the Transit Maintenance Crew could not merely pick up garbage, but also wash the platforms thoroughly. This in the long term could create more jobs.

Create a better system for littering throughout the city; citizens must seal their refuse before placing it in the cans.

In a comment on Senator Perkin’s survey, one citizen said, “I would like an experimental program to be conducted. Allow volunteers to have access to gloves, brooms and dustpans, to clean the platform while waiting for the train to arrive. I am sure there will be many who would participate.”

The city could certify a scientific research group to develop a chemical that could exterminate a large number of rats, and simultaneously be affordable. The government could then create teams of professionals to go to houses (with the citizens’ approval) to apply this extermination medicine.

Another anonymous citizen provided the idea of having a weekend shutdown for major extermination, with follow-ups and regular maintenance.

Upgrading the 100 years old transit system is another potential solution, placing strong lighting, painting the underground platforms in brighter colors, and implementing an eco-friendly cooling system. This will make New York City become the number one city in the world, and for a reason that can make all proud.

Solutions exist; the speed of their implementation must increase. The health concern is one that greatly endangers all. Rodent control is vital, the consequences would be too ghastly to discuss, for the danger is demonstrable and indisputable.

All must dig in, as Senator proclaimed, “YOU FEED THEM, YOU BREED THEM.”

As the Crumbs Empire Crumbles

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Crumbs cupcakes will become artifacts

Yes, Crumbs really closed all 19 locations in New York City. But while some cupcake lovers mourn the fall of the empire, others search for cupcake stores to fill the vacuum.

Some attribute the massive size of Crumbs’ cupcakes to their failure. Hilary Stout of the New York Times writes, “There was little dainty about Crumbs. Its signature product was a softball-size cupcake with a calorie count that sometimes topped 1,000.” For many, the cupcakes were too big to eat in one sitting, contradicting what many believe a cupcake should be: a small indulgence.

This would explain the success of Baked by Melissa, a store dedicated to selling bite-sized cupcakes which has many locations throughout Manhattan. Although its bestselling cupcake is the classic red velvet, it sells a variety of interesting flavors including chocolate chip pancake and peanut butter and jelly. And the benefit of the cupcakes’ small size is people can try many different flavors.

However, the cupcakes can be considered expensive for their size. Each cupcake is $1 and it is about the width of a quarter. In my opinion, the cupcakes are overrated. Their size seems to be their only claim to fame, as their flavor is just mediocre. I consider them too small to really taste the complexity of the flavor; they just taste sweet.

Less well known is Sugar Sweet Sunshine, a small cupcake shop located on the Lower East Side. According to the store’s owners, Peg Williams and Deb Weiner, the store was created to “make people happy every time they walk through the doors.” And they do. Sugar Sweet Sunshine scored four out of five stars from over 1,000 reviews on Yelp. One reviewer wrote “ooooo, it tastes like MAGIC! This was, by far, one of the best cupcakes I’d had in NYC…made me wonder even more why anyone likes Crumbs.”

I agree. The cake is moist and the texture is just right. The icing and cake are not overly sweet and very flavorful.

Its Ooey Gooey cupcake, chocolate cake with chocolate almond buttercream, has just the right amount of almond flavor and its Holla Back Girl, banana cake with cream cheese icing, has visible banana chunks with a real fresh banana taste. I would highly recommend all of its cupcakes as it has many simple but delicious flavors. It also has amazing puddings and pies!

Sugar Sweet Sunshine is not overdone or overrated like Crumbs and Baked by Melissa. Instead, it is humble, intimate, and warm. Although the space is small, it is cleverly designed with thrift store finds, hand-me-down furniture, polaroid pictures, and holiday cards. It looks like a grandmother’s living room! And, as soon as you walk in, you can smell the aroma of fresh baked goods.

Butter Lane is another cupcake store which is often overlooked. Butter Lane is small like Sugar Sweet Sunshine so you could almost walk by without noticing it if it wasn’t for the smell. Much of Butter Lane’s space is used by its cooking class, which is often in session, so you can smell the delightful store from a block away.

Butter Lane is unique because you can mix and match your cake and frosting. Although cake flavors are limited to chocolate, vanilla, and banana, there are about ten different frosting flavors, not including seasonal flavors. My favorites are the chocolate salted caramel frosting on any cake, which is the perfect mixture of salty and sweet, and the cream cheese frosting on the banana cake. You can taste the time and care it puts into its cupcakes.

I would highly recommend both Sugar Sweet Sunshine and Butter Lane. I believe they are superior to Crumbs, although I doubt Butter Lane and Sugar Sweet Sunshine’s owners have the desire to create empires. But that is fine with me. When cupcake stores become chains they seem to lose their charm.

Redress the Dress Code

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Public school dress codes seem to exclusively target girls.
Public school dress codes seem to exclusively target girls.

 

Already  in the middle of summer, New Yorkers find the weather outside increasingly hotter and hotter. The dramatic change from an intense frozen winter to a sweltering summer calls for a new wardrobe of shorts, tank tops and flip-flops.

With the transition in clothes, public school students (mostly girls) find themselves called out for disobeying dress codes. School officials enforce dress codes now more than ever, in an attempt to cover up as much of the female body as possible. This includes shoulders, midriffs and legs, body parts you would expect to see in the blistering heat.

Most public school dress codes include the fingertip rule: a girl’s shorts pass her fingertips when her arms are down at her sides. Another common rule is the ban of spaghetti-strap tank tops; all straps must be wider than two fingers. Some public schools have gone as far as completely banning leggings, yoga pants and flip-flops.

Almost all dress codes are targeted towards girls; exposed legs, shoulders and midriffs are all unacceptable. The same cannot be said for restrictions for the boys, for “offensive” clothing on boys is considered baggy pants or shirts referencing drug use. They are not forced to go home and change or wear oversized school uniforms over their clothes. They are simply asked to pull up their pants or turn their shirts inside out. School officials don’t seem to care about what boys wear, but how they see their female peers.

On May 21st, Lindsay Stocker was accused of wearing too short shorts by authorities at her high school in Montreal. Two vice principals walked into her sophomore classroom and asked students to perform the “fingertip test.” Lindsay’s shorts did not pass her fingertips and she was asked to change.

“In front of all my peers and teachers they said I had to change,” said Lindsay, according to the Huffington Post. “They continued to tell me that I would be suspended if I didn’t start following the rules…they told me that it doesn’t matter – I don’t have to understand the rules, I just have to comply by them.”

As a response, Lindsay put up flyers around her school saying, “Don’t humiliate her because she is wearing shorts. It’s hot outside. Instead of shaming girls for their bodies, teach boys that girls are not sexual objects.” There have been similar acts of protests in other schools, of people putting up posters with the same message. One poster read: “Instead of publicly shaming girls for wearing shorts in warm weather, teach male students and teachers not to over sexualize normal female body parts.”

“Slutty Wednesday” was an act of defiance by the students of Stuyvesant High School. The school’s dress code included a ban on exposed shoulders, lower backs, midriffs and undergarments. According to the New York Times, students “…peeled off sweatshirts, revealing tank tops and spaghetti-strap blouses.” Students also passed out flyers with slogans like “Redress the Dress Code” and drew X’s through printed versions of the school’s clothing restrictions.

School officials continue to argue that girls who reveal bare shoulders, legs, midriffs or backs distract male students and teachers. The revealing of girls’ bodies apparently causes the boys to be unable to compose themselves in an appropriate manner. “We could, instead, try having some more faith in young men – they are, in fact, fully-formed humans with the capacity to exercise self control,” says the Guardian.

Public schools are now teaching girls that they must cover up their bodies in order for the comfort of their male peers. When a female student is sent home to change, she is essentially told that her education is not worth that of male students. She is taught to be ashamed of her body, and must cover up every inch of bare skin because she is on display. Instead of teaching girls that their physical appearance must adhere to the comfort of boys, we must teach boys not to over-sexualize female body parts.

With the new school year coming just around the corner, we can hope there are changes in schools targeting young girls for their bodies.

 

Sheeran’s Risk Brought Rewards

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“Everyone can have one hit, but the second one is always the make or break. Everyones watching this time.” -Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran is regarded by his peers as one of the best singer/songwriters in the industry, and he has cemented such views with his second album, “X” (pronounced “multiply”).

After Sheeran’s first album “+” (plus) was released in Sept. 2011, it sold 42,000 records in its first week. Since then, Sheeran began to burst into the pop scene. He opened for artists like Taylor Swift, who praised him for his unique songwriting.

In the MTV special “Nine Days and Nights of Ed Sheeran”, released just a few weeks before his second record was released on June 23, 2014, Sheeran highlighted the necessity of achieving success. In the documentary, he explained how his second album would achieve success by becoming much more hip-hop based, yet maintain the same pop and folk characteristics many people loved him for.

Success was achieved when Sheeran sold 5 times more copies of his second album than his first album in the first week of sales . The 210,000 records he sold according to Billboard.com were enough to earn Sheeran his first No.1 album on the Billboard 200, and at only 23 years-old it appears like it won’t be his last No.1 album.

Sheeran molded his songs to mainstream culture without losing his unique appeal. He reached a new dimension with his second record by proving to people that his skills crossed through many genres, from rap to pop with folk influence. The 23 year-old’s acoustic sound offers a pleasant change from the auto-tune dominated market.

Ed opens up his sophmore album with “sing,” a song inspired by industry mogul Pharrell Williams, who believed the song’s upbeat lift could make people ”dance.” He was right. The song has already been Sheeran’s largest American hit, and is praised for being far different from Sheeran’s commonly criticized romanticized sorrow– exhibited throughout his first album.

In “X,” Sheeran attempts to build a holistic identity, testifying to the fact that his ill-guided love narratives are just a piece of the puzzle. Sheeran’s risks of tapping into other genres was gutsy but seemed to pay off, bringing people with different tastes to his music.

As the album progressed, the young fiery-haired British man showed off his spoken-word lyricism in “The Man”. Despite the glimpses of diversification, Sheeran finished in his comfort zone with songs like “Afire Love”, a tribute to his deceased grandfather.

Ed Sheeran’s second record proves his career is promising, especially if he continues to tap into different realms of the music world. Sheeran’s music insight led him to believe, “If you look at people’s careers, if their second record is as big or bigger than their first record, they’re a career artist forever.” If that’s correct, then career artist he will be.

Your Building, Our Canvas

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Graffiti is around the world, and can be dated back to Before the Christian Era, when writings of the Safaitic language, a form of proto-Arabic, were scratched into the rocks and boulders of what is now named the Basalt desert in northern Saudi Arabia.

In Greek cities such as Ephesus, though, graffiti was mainly advertising prostitution, but it was graffiti nonetheless. Even in Ancient Rome, graffiti could be found on the walls and the monuments. Their graffiti was more of messages with the political views and social aspects that we see today. They wrote about love, poetic quotes and even magic spells.

In today’s world, graffiti is a form of art and expression with different aspects and uses–unique, pure imagination and out-spoken. Graffiti art is seen as a sign of rebellion and an insult to the community. It’s very sad that something so colorful and wonderful is looked at negatively and frowned upon by so many people.</p?

The reason why the artists make such “sad excuses of art” is to add a little color to the world full of darkness and dread we live in now. They light up the world on building walls and bridges. Is it such a terrible thing?

In views of the law it is the mark of crime growing. To know that graffiti is seen as crime is sickening. That the law tries to cover up the loud voices they scream through their creations on the street is like the government keeping quiet about the NSA program. At one point, someone will notice and someone will speak up about it. Just because graffiti isn’t a canvas on display or a piece of paper frame doesn’t make it anything less than what Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O’Keeffe or even Michelangelo did. It’s amazing and new, in its own way, to this world.

But then there are the negatives. The fact it is seen as public vandalism instead of public hope is one. The other major one is that people use it in their negative ways for instance, gang affiliations. This is the main reason why graffiti art is frowned upon. The gangs had taken this art form to represent them and their group, to show who is “in charge” of a specific area. Those are the people that should be incarcerated for vandalism. They are not artists and they do not deserve the title or respect for it. They are the reason why it’s viewed as crime. The people who create such dreadful things on walls misuse colors and creation to take out the darkness they have in their soul and use spray cans to unleash it to the world.

Graffiti shouldn’t cause darkness to this world; it’s filled enough with it as is. It should contradict it. Graffiti art shouldn’t be used to hurt society , but to bring the streets the color and happiness they need, to keep the world spinning, to keep the world from plunging into total darkness.

Joey Bada$$ Releases His Latest Mixtape: Summer Knights

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“The sky’s the limit, that’s what they told the f#@king fool. I disguise the limit, now I’m headed for the sun and moon”.

Rhymes like this come off of Joey Bada$$’s latest mix tape titled Summer Knight. This is Joey’s third mix tape, and a masterfully produced and written one at that.

Joey Bada$$ is an 18-year-old MC (aka rapper) from Brooklyn, bringing back a ’90s style of hip hop with his rap collective or group named Pro Era (short for Progressive Era). The movement they and other New York rap collectives are bringing back is called Beast Coast, a resurgence of East Coast rap. In his latest project Joey Bada$$ rises to the expectations of his fans and delivers another 90’s sounding mix tape.

Despite the fact that his beats are produced by Static Selektah, Lee Bannon, MF DOOM, Chuck Strangers, and Kirk Knight (the latter two from Pro Era itself) all producers who make beats with a sound from the ’90s decade, Joey’s rhymes are very modern. For example, in his song titled “#LongLiveSteelo,” he raps about the sudden death of his fellow Pro Era member Capital Steez. Wishing he could have one last moment with him.

The mix tape has a very smooth sound to it. It’s not as hard hitting as his first mix tape 1999 where he has more a wider array of songs that vary from aggressive to melancholy to soulful. Summer Knights on the other hand is smooth and soulful all the way through, with a surprisingly relaxing mood with songs like “Right on Time” and “Sweet Dreams”.

Joey also has songs such as “Amethyst Rockstar” and “95 Til’ Infinity” where he uses a type of growl in his voice to make the song a bit edgy and aggressive. Joey doesn’t falter as he delivers his well-written verses with an impeccable flow to match the music.  As classic Joey does, he utilizes his lyrical expertise and genius to keep his fans and new listeners hooked. His verses are jam packed with puns and all have a deep meaning to them that resonate through your mind as you listen.

The mix tape features guest rappers such as Smoke Dza and of course, his Pro Era crew, but the majority of the tracks on the tape are just him, which many listeners may miss since his tape Rejex or 1999. Whether you’re just listening for the music, listening for Joey’s rhymes, or both at the same time. Summer Knights does not disappoint.

 

Amanda Bynes Continues Her Road Downhill.

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From Nickelodeon child star to spending more than a few nights in jail, Amanda Bynes is no longer idol material. From court to court and scandal to scandal, she has lost a lot of her fan’s admiration.

Amanda has been arrested numerous times, has been seen acting strangely in public and has made headlines with her Tweets. Tweeting topless pictures and sending out mean, nasty, disrespectful tweets, including calling her sister ugly only add up to her list of public displays of insanity.

Growing up watching Amanda on television was something kids wish to never stop doing. Many kids love her shows and movies. The TV show “What I Like About You” and the movie “She’s The Man” were just a few reasons so many teens admired Amanda, and even dreamed of to growing up to be like her someday.  Now when kids turn the TV on, all they see is the new scandal from Amanda.

Apart from all the gossip, rumors and court visits, Amanda looks terrible. She cut off all her hair, bleached it blonde and now wears rainbow wigs. Amanda tweeted “ I love surgery” before posting her plans to alter her entire face. She wrote, “I Plan Having Surgery On My Whole Face Straight Up.” Plastic surgery was not enough for the star. Getting tattoos, face dimple piercings and doing drugs are only helping her fall even faster.

Then there is her wardrobe. By now it wouldn’t be a surprise if Amanda showed up wearing something unusual even to the courtroom. Arrested after allegedly throwing a bong out of her 36th floor apartment, Amanda arrived at a New York court hearing wearing a turquoise wig, tank top and sweatpants.

After months of so much drama, Amanda finally crossed the line. Her latest scandal, according to celebdirtylaundry.com, took place on July 22 in, “Thousand Oaks, Calif. There “the former child star decided to set a fire in some random persons’ driveway and then didn’t have the presence of mind to flee,” the site reported.

It’s pretty obvious that Amanda is in need of some serious help. After all, we’re still rooting for Amanda. If Britney could make it, after surviving 2007, Amanda can with no doubt get back on the right track. Let’s hope that her placement on an involuntary psychiatric facility for 72 hours helps her recover.