Archives for August 2011

The 1941 comic, Captain America: “The First Avenger,” came to life on July 22, with actor Chris Evans. Captain America is one of the first Marvel Comics. This action packed thriller is about a simple kid from Brooklyn who wants to complete his duty as a man and fight for America in the mist of World War II. Even after being denied from every recruiting station and seeing his best friend Bucky get accepted, Rogers continued trying. The opportunity arises when he meets a man that is able to change his life with an enhancing experiment, which turns him into the hero, Captain America.

Among the main characters is Steve Rogers, a wimpy guy determined to get into the arm. Soon enough he achieves this by becoming captain America, through an experiment procedure that makes him buff and irresistible. There is of course the leading lady, Peggy Carter, played by Hayley Atwell (“Any Human Heart”), and her character is a strong-headed woman. She works as an assistant general to the General, played by Tommy Lee Jones (“Men In Black”).

And of course, what’s a super hero movie without a villain? Hugo Weaving plays Johann Schmidt ( “Matrix”), who later in the movie becomes Red Skull. He steals the mixture that is used to create Captain America. he steals it to form his own empire and control the world, a master plan that is destroyed by Captain American and his team.

The director, Joe Johnston, captures the story and portrays just about everything, from action to romance, and even wise cracks to lighten the mood of the movie, but not too much to take away from the action. Johnston uses the 3D feature well, by having Captain America’s famous shield fly into the crowd a couple of times. Having this movie in 3D is an advantage.

This movie is a great movie for Marvel comic fans, and even some who have never seen a Marvel comic or movie. Even though this movie isn’t as popular Spiderman, “Captain America” did well in the box office. As of Aug. 7, 2011, the worldwide gross is $246,203,967. Stay tuned after the credits for a sneak peak of the 2012 release of another Marvel classic, “The Avengers.” 

The Common Application is quite annoying. I have no idea what to write for the essay and unless I finish it, I can not access the supplements for the five schools I am applying to. My choices are: evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you; discuss some issue of personal, local, national or international concern and its importance to you; indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence; describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence; a range of academic interests, personal perspectives and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you; topic of your choice.

These questions are so vague that I have no idea what to write about. At first, I thought I would write about the daily influence of the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) in my life. But, after consulting some of my college friends, I realized that his name is taboo among much of conservative academia and would subject me to discrimination from the admissions officers. I then considered writing about the Arab-Israeli conflict in response to the international concern question, but that would subject me to negative bias as well. Now I am considering writing about seeing my first byline published and the story behind it. 

Students at Murry Bergtraum High School in lower Manhattan are planning a riot the first day of school in protest of the new dress code and uniform. But this may not be the best approach.

Many students are opposed to the idea of a uniform and believe that a riot is the only way to show the principal that they will not wear it.

The new policy (burgundy, navy and white collared shirts, with khaki or grey slacks) was announced with a flier at the end of the 2011 school year by Dr. Andrea Lewis, the principal. This is her second year at the school and has ordered the dress code to improve the learning environment for the 3,00o students at the school. 

One student created a Facebook event to join his classmates into rioting with him in response.

“In organizing a riot, I was planning to do two things. The more obvious thing was to not have uniform, but the underlying message was that we don’t need uniforms because …it has no effect on the school at all,” said Danny Hoang Vo, 16

Students attempted this same form of protest last December when they were locked out of the bathrooms for the entire day. Students sent out mass text messages to organize themselves.

During the riot, hundreds of students ran the hallways making excessive noise and putting other students in danger. It was impossible to walk in hallways and one wheelchair bound student was trapped in the stairwell.

All the students accomplished was running around like a bunch of wild animals and attracting bad press.

However, rioting is not the only way to protest, there are much safer and reasonable ways to get the students voices heard.

One thing students could do is organize a sit-in, or sit-out in this case, where a large number of students could stay home or come to school and refuse to go in until the dress code is lifted. Instead of causing destruction to school property, creating an unsafe environment and putting students and faculty in danger, a sit out is another effective way of protesting.

Showing the administration that the students can gather themselves in an orderly fashion, would be much more respectable. It would also make the faculty more willing to talk to and negotiate with the students.

Anyone searching for eggs, pancakes, bacon, or any other breakfast item at any time may want might want to consider B.A.D. (Breakfast All Day), a 24-hour seven-day-a-week diner in Williamsburg.

The chef of the restaurant, Steve Lynn, may be familiar to Burritoville fans. He has evolved to owning not only places that serves burritos but somewhere that invites any kind of person in, even if they aren’t breakfast lovers.

Located between Bedford and Berry on Grand street, the diner is near the north side of Brooklyn, meaning it’s surrounded by small establishments that sell quirky and eccentric clothes, books and anything else you can’t seem to find in your average store.

B.A.D. is a quiet place with a loud personality designed with flames on the walls and metallic chairs and tables. Though the tables are small, the staff should be considerate enough to immediately help move two of them together if necessary as ours was. Alive with rhythmic music that gives one the urge want to tap their foot, B.A.D. is the place for a relaxing breakfast, lunch, dinner or midnight snack.

Slightly unconventional, the breakfast menu consists of reinvented platters such as huevos rancheros with sweet potatoes cubed like home fries wrapped in a tortilla.

The service is rather quick and the food seems endless as it comes out on large plates piled on the waitresses arms.

The huevos rancheros ($8.50) was an unexpected delight and came with sweet potatoes.

As for the non-breakfast items on the menu, the hot wings ($7) are especially meaty, the garlic potatoes ($3) delicious, the chocolate shake ($4.25) was filled to the top with whipped cream, and the cheese fries ($5) are drowned in cheese with the occasional surprise of bacon bits.

All in all, the diner is definitely not one that can be imitated, and should be tried by everyone who has an appetite for something new and breakfast at any time of course. 

Just the other day, our class had a sports writer come in to talk to us. Even though I don’t plan on ever going into writing news for the sports world, I found that I learned a lot of things from Rich. He kept offering to give us experience on the “field”, and the opportunity to go out and learn how to be a journalist. He said to be serious about being who we want to be. Besides the fact that he kept saying that being a reporter takes away from your social life, I have to say that he was the most helpful of the speakers. 

The 1941 comic, Captain America: “The First Avenger,” came to life on July 22, with actor Chris Evans. Captain America is one of the first Marvel Comics. This action packed thriller is about a simple kid from Brooklyn who wants to complete his duty as a man and join the army. He wants to fight for America in the mist of World War ll. Even after being denied from every recruiting station and seeing his best friend Bucky get accepted, Rogers continued trying. The opportunity arises when he meets a man that is able to change his life with an enhancing experiment, which turns him into the hero, Captain America.

Among the main characters is Steve Rogers, a wimpy guy determined to get into the arm. Soon enough he achieves this by becoming captain America, through an experiment procedure that makes him buff and irresistible. There is of course the leading lady, Peggy Carter, played by Hayley Atwell (who acted in the 2010 film “Any Human Heart”), and her character is a strong-headed woman. She works as an assistant general to the General, played by Tommy Lee Jones (one of the stars from “Men In Black” (1997).

And of course, what’s a super hero movie without a villain? Hugo Weaving plays Johann Schmidt (from the 1999 film “Matrix”), who later in the movie becomes the “Red Skull.” He steals the mixture that is used to create Captain America. he steals it to form his own empire and control the world, a master plan that is destroyed by Captain American and his team.

The director, Joe Johnston, captures the story and portrays just about everything, from action to romance, and even wise cracks to lighten the mood of the movie, but not too much to take away from the action. Johnston uses the 3D feature well, by having captain America’s famous shield fly into the crowd a couple of times. Having this movie in 3D is an advantage.

This movie is a great movie for Marvel comic fans, and even some who have never seen a Marvel comic or movie. Even though this movie isn’t as popular Spiderman, “Captain America” did well in the box office. As of Aug. 7, 2011, the worldwide gross is $246,203,967. Stay tuned after the credits for a sneak peak of the 2012 release of another Marvel classic, “The Avengers.” 

It’s 2 a.m. on a Wednesday night and 17-year-old Carl Wu grabs his camera and takes the passenger seat of his friend’s smart car. Carl got word that Lady Gaga is staying nearby and his mission is to get a picture of her. As they pull up next to Lady Gaga’s car, Carl pulls out his camera. A security car cuts them off and blocks his shot. Carl’s accomplice jumps the curb onto the sidewalk driving parallel to Lady Gaga, Carl zooms in and snaps the picture.

Soon the 30 million readers of OK! Magazine and People will see Carl’s work on the front cover, not knowing what adventures he took to get the shots.

Carl is one of the youngest paparazzi to get his pictures published in such major tabloids. His pictures sell for as much as $5,000. With the money he gets, he saves some of it and enjoys the rest. To celebrate his most recent birthday, he rented an apartment in downtown Manhattan for a weekend of partying.

His first job as a paparazzi came when he was 14 and his friend got him a job with the photo agency Insight News & Features. “I used to get autographs when I was 12 and sell them, then I was like f**k this cause I love photography anyway,” said Carl.

Carl switched to Fame Pictures two years ago when, according to him, INF didn’t pay him for his work because he is underage. He said they sold the pictures anyway and made money off him, so he quit and went to work for Fame where he gets paid a satisfying amount. Neither INF nor Fame would answer the phone to comment on their relationship with Carl.

Fame pays the expenses for Carl’s travel. “It’s mad fun traveling,” Carl said. “My agency put me up in Jersey Shore for a week last month.” Often these trips result in him missing school but to him, it’s worth it

When he first started he was seen as a little kid with a camera amongst his peers who are more than twice his age. “It took a while,” Carl said “but after a while they saw my shit running and actually respected me.”

He says being a paparazzi is a great job, however when he’s older he sees himself doing other kinds of photography: “I’d much rather shoot for National Geographic.” 

It’s only two weeks into August, and I’m already saying goodbye to summer. Summer has passed by so unexpectedly, and so many things were done. I can say I made this summer productive. I worked my brain for more tips and knowledge. I also got paid for doing something I enjoyed, which is always a bonus. I learned so much about becoming a better writer and I consumed it for the future ahead of me.