With the beginning of the new year, this issue of Pulse is all about looking forward to the many changes that we can expect over the course of the next 12 months, on both a national and local level. Opinion Editor Glenn Borok has compiled a list of 14 athletes, musicians, actors, politicians, and other influential individuals who

are set to be making headlines in 2012. At a CCA level, Sports Editor Colin Seitz discusses CCA’s imminent switch to the Palomar League which is set to dramatically change CCA’s standings athletically in the coming year.

To coincide with the changes happening within our athlet-ics, English teacher Mr. Tanner Kortman has written a sassy guest piece about CCA’s sports fans (or lack thereof). Nata-lie Hoffman explores the inner workings of underground rave culture in our cover story, beginning on page 15, while Feature Editor Jess Mersten profiled two CCA seniors and the charitable way in which they spent their summers.

As for the future of Pulse, second semester’s Pulse staff is one of the smallest in our magazine’s history. From an original staff of 26, we are now comprised of 13 dedicated editors, staff writers, business managers, and layout editors. Despite our size, we are looking forward to the remaining issues of this school year and have some great ideas that we can’t wait to share with you.

Enjoy our issue,Tess Wallenstein

editor.

Afrom the

ONLINE EDITORElijah Granet

NEWS EDITORNachi Baru

OPINION EDITORGlenn Borok

SPORTS EDITORSColin SeitzHallie Tate

LAYOUT EDITORSAlison DelNegroKailie Dishong

Kristina KrasnikovaKate MarinHallie Tate

BUSINESS TEAM MANAGERJoelle Leib

BUSINESS TEAMPaulina MurphyRithika Verma

CREATIVE DIRECTORCrystal Long

FEATURE EDITORJess Mersten

ENTERTAINMENT EDITORArianna Irwin

PHOTO EDITORDaniel Metz

STAFF WRITERSNatalie Allen

Stephanie FrickerNatalie HoffmanKayla Jefferies

Amy Kim

ENVISION EDITORMadison Rhodes

COPY EDITORSLaura Fouquette

Elijah GranetDaniel Metz

ADVISORChristopher Black

STAFFletter EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Tess Wallenstein

Printed by Golden State GraphicsSpecial thanks to CCA ASB

Contact UsCanyon Crest Academy, Pulse Magazine5951 Village Center Loop Road(858) 350-0253editors.pulse@gmail.com

@Check us out at ccapulse.com!

All photos by Daniel Metz unless otherwise noted.

The opinions expressed by the writers and the content of the advertisements does not necessarily reflect those of Pulse Magazine, Canyon Crest Academy, or the San Diego Union High School District.

Cover Story:“Inside Rave Culture”Natalie Hoffmanp. 15

February 2012. Vol. 7. Issue 2

CCA Student Bandsp. 1

p. 3Twins

Guest Piece:

“The Search for the CCA Sports Fan” p.5

By Tanner Kortman

Equestrian TeamPalomar League

p. 4

p. 8Philanthropy in Latin America

An Inside Look at Conservatoryp. 11

14 People to Watch in 2012p. 13

Student Artfeaturing Jamie Franks

and Gabby Riosp. 4

Trailing Teenagers:Stores Suspicious of Us

p. 7

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2012 Calendar

February

1

6 7 8

151413 Valentine’s Day

5

12

19 20 21Presidents Day 22

26 27 28

CCA Grad Night Meeting

CCA Grad Night Meeting Back to School NightNorth County Farmer’s Market

Late Start

CCA Choices NightRaven Wishes Night at Del Mar Hilton

Red Hot Chili Peppers @ Valley View Casino29District Honor Band

in Proscenium TheatreAP Exam Registration in Finance Office

World Radio Day

2 3 4

9 10 11

181716

Groundhog’s Day

Young the Giant @ SOMA

23 24 25

CCA Grad Night Meeting

Spring Athletic Packet Due ACT

Late Start No SchoolSpring Sports Begin

Raven Wishes Night at Del Mar Hilton

Hot Chelle Rae @ House of Blues

John Baldessari Exhibit @Museum of Contemporary Art

Red Hot Chili Peppers @ Valley View Casino

Spring Clearance Card Pick-up in Athletic Office

DFA Art Seminar

1

Named after a Transit song, punk band New Year appeared on the CCA music scene two years ago after Junior Sam Sarokin and Se-nior Andy Rusinek bonded over their similar music tastes. Joined by bassist Jake Kelsoe of The Grauer School, New Year has played at local venues including Epicentre, SOMA, The Kava Lounge, and Chain Reaction in Anaheim. New Year’s main influ-ences include Say Anything, Brand New, and The Wonder Years.Drummer Sam Sarokin believes that there are two different types of New Year songs: “Andy will sometimes write a song by himself acoustically and bring it to us, but the most common one is we’ll be jamming and then like something and write it as a group.” Ul-timately, Rusinek says, “In the grand scheme of things, [pursuing a career in music] is not very realistic or plausible,” but in the mean-time, New Year will be playing at Battle of the Bands this spring.

Pop band Deadmau3 first emerged onto the CCA music scene last year at Battle of the Bands. “What started out as a joke turned into some-thing real,” says lead singer and CCA Junior Danielle Pompeo. Pom-peo, along with core members Megan Helsel and Sideara Weisgrau, had an idea for a band focused around cats. “We sing about cats and do cats things and make cat noises.” With influences that range from Ke$ha to Adele, Deadmau3 covers several genres, but Pompeo is con-fident that “there is no one else like [Deadmau3].” Pompeo says that being a band at CCA “definitely helps because there are a lot of people around to help us; if we need a guitarist for a song, there’s so many we can pull from.” With new songs called “Me Gusta Leche” and “I’ll Always Land on My Feet,” Pompeo says, “You’ve got to know your cat and what cats like…we put more thought into it than you think we do.”

New Year

Nostalgic PeopleJudging by the amount the stickers around campus, indie rock band Nostalgic People has a loyal fan base here at CCA. Comprised of Jack Conway, Ethan Cohen, Troy Woodhall, and Sean Elliott, the band has played at local venues such as SOMA and Epicentre. As guitarist and CCA junior Ethan Cohen says, “[Nostalgic People] pretty much rocks the San Diego indie scene.” Lead singer, bass-ist, and CCA Junior Jack Conway says, “We’re all best friends; it’s our thing. When we hang out, we have band practice.” Nostalgic People’s influences include Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys, and Jude. Of writing new music, Conway says, “It’s a very cohesive process; we all do it together.” The band notes that is it easy to be a band at CCA because of the popularity of indie music with CCA students. “If we went to Torrey Pines, no one would care at all,” says Cohen.

Deadmau3

CCA Student BandsBy Madison Rhodes, Staff Writer, and Laura Fouquette, Copy Editor

Afterglow

Alternative rock band Proud Moon includes CCA juniors Griffin Carlborg, Matt Peterson, Michelle Larney, and sophomore Mitchell Rincon. Jumpstarted by the friendship between Carlborg and Peterson and the rock band program at the Boys and Girls club, Proud Moon has gone on to play at Epicenter and Fiesta del Sol. When asked about the origin of the band’s name, Carlborg explains that it comes from a nickname. “Matt’s mom calls me Moony. I don’t know why, but we wanted to do something with that,” he says. Some influences in-clude Wavves and Weatherbox, but they explain that it is fairly hard to compare themselves to other bands. “It’s pretty unique; the stuff Matt is writing is kind of new.” The alt-rock band also pulls influ-ence from other genres like jazz and classic rock. “What we listen to, we bring a little bit of each of it to our music,” says Carlborg.

Proud Moon

The self-described “post-hardcore” rock band Afterglow has CCA stu-dents Max Vinetz and Edward Salem on guitar, Thomas Richards on lead vocals, Martin Vicario on bass, and Chris Borst on drums and vocals. Al-though they have influences like Letlive, Lower Definition, La Dispute, Our Last Night, and Stray from the Path, guitarist Vinetz explains, “We are more self-motivated. We don’t want to be like anyone else.” The band has found CCA to be a very positive atmosphere to be starting a band as “there are a bunch of musicians that are fun and easy to work with in such an art-immersed environment.” All members of the band plan to continue with music as a passion, if not a career, for the rest of their lives.

The band’s name comes from a Greek word that is untranslatable into English and best describes the action of “when you put some-thing of yourself into what you’re doing,” explains senior Shane Moylan. And indeed, the CCA-student-filled band puts heart and soul into their music, as one should with influences like Beyoncé, ABBA, and Karp. The band includes Shane Moylan on guitar and vo-cals, Sarah Linton on bass, Nick Arnold on drums, and Jake Kelsoe on guitar and vocals. Meraki is described by its members as “awe-some with neo-classical and new wave/old wave.” Moylan said that the environment at CCA has helped him develop his music, citing Envision as “[the] stuff that probably got me started.” In the future Moylan would like to play music in college, “but not as a major.”

Meraki

2

3

The bittersweet friendships and mischievous uprisings exemplified in movies such as The Parent Trap have led to perceptions about what it is to be a twin. Growing up with a nearly duplicated, or in some instances identical

sibling brings about everyday dilemmas, yet this lasting friendships proves to be unlike any other. After speaking with a few of our own sets of twins on campus, these perceptions were made even more clear.

Colin and Brady Seitz are current seniors at Canyon Crest Academy and are well known on campus for their humor, identical appear-ance, and blond hair. They have been playing soccer together for the past ten years, reflect their brotherly teamwork on the field. “Brady and I play really well together,” says Colin, “We’ve been playing soccer our whole lives so we know each other’s tendencies, and I always know where Brady will be on the field.” Colin and Brady are committed to Philadelphia’s Haverford College for the Fall of 2012, where they will play soccer for the NCAA Division III program. Colin and Brady’s togetherness reaches beyond the sports scene, they are inseparable. “I like having a twin because I always have someone to hang out with,” Brady tells us, “We have the same group of friends so we are always with each other.” Colin and Brady’s love for soccer and strong brotherly friendship reflects their many similarities and further strengthens their lifelong relationship as identical twins.

feat

ure

Like Hallie and Annie from The Parent Trap, Colin, Brady, Tina, and Marie demonstrate how, similar to their ap-pearance, they share many of the same interests whether realizing it or not. CCA’s twins prove that the combina-tion of family connection and friendship creates an everlasting bond unattainable by anyone but twins.

CCA juniors Tina and Marie Vachovsky are another pair of identical twins who have similar passions and a communal lifestyle. They are dedicated members of the Envision Digital and Fine Art Conservatory and have a true talent for the arts. You can find them playing music on the guitar and bass, and enjoying San Diego’s pleasant weather. Tina and Marie enjoy walking their dog on the beach, surfing, and skiing together. Just like any sisters, these twins experience everyday frustrations. “Tina cajoles me into procras-tinating,” Marie says, while Tina explains that Marie is the source of her tardiness. “It sucks sharing the car,” Tina states, “but I don’t really care when people don’t recognize us.” Tina and Marie, despite these disagreements, enjoy the friendship created by their natural similarities.

Tina + Marie

Brady + Colin

Twins ByKate Marin, Staff Writer

4

By Hallie Tate, Sports EditorSo far, the 2011-2012 school year has

been a great one for CCA Lady Ravens athletics. Both the field hockey and ten-nis teams have been CIF finalists, and girl’s golf was a CIF semi-finalist. Hop-ing to follow suit is the newest addition to CCA athletics, the equestrian team.

Accomplished equestrian and CCA senior Hanna Zlotnick started the team in Septem-ber of 2011 after noticing that riders through-out the county were representing their high schools, but CCA did not have a team for its many equestrians. Aside from bringing CCA’s equestrians together, Zlotnick views the team as a chance to “introduce riders to different styles of riding besides their own.”

Zlotnick and most of the team ride in Eng-lish disciplines and compete in hunter-jump-er events. The “jumper” portion of the name concerns the competition “that is not judged by a judge or style or elegance,” but instead

is based on speed and accuracy. “The rider at-tempts not to hit the jump rails. If a rider com-

pletes the first round without faults, he or she moves to the final round, called a ‘jump off.’”

While the team competes primarily in hunter-jumper shows, Dressage and West-ern riders of all skill sets are encouraged to join the team. Also unlike most CCA sports teams, the equestrian team does not hold official tryouts. Instead, a rider simply

joins the club, whether they own a horse or not, and is able to compete with the CCA team or participate in other equine-related activities. The team is also self-funded.

Aside from competing, the club has guest speakers come to their lunchtime meetings and promote different equine causes within the San Diego horse community through charities such as Justworld and International.

Although Zlotnick is graduating this year, she has high hopes for the future of the equestrian team. Her position of team cap-tain is likely to go to current junior Kailey Lawson. “She supported the idea of creating [the team] and has been an active member of the team since the beginning,” says Zlotnick.

For more information about CCA’s equestrian team, visit their Face-book page or contact Hanna Zlot-nick at hanna.zlotnick@yahoo.com.

By Colin Seitz, Sports EditorFor he past few years, Canyon Crest Acad-

emy sports teams have been participating in the Valley League. While enjoying success and bringing in numerous banners for league championships, the relatively large traveling requirements have forced some students to miss substantial time in fourth period class-es. Citing geography as their main focus, the North County Conference facilitated large movement among numerous teams in their re-leaguing efforts. Beginning the 2012-2013 school year, all CCA sports teams with join the competitive Palomar League, joining Torrey Pines, Ramona, Westview, Rancho Bernardo, and Poway. Along with CCA, Mt. Carmel will also join the Palomar League. This new league will surely bring tougher competition, though also giving CCA a chance to establish itself in athletics.

Despite our current successes in the Val-ley League, coaches are thrilled with the op-portunity to compete with some of the best teams in San Diego. “The new league will have some good and bad aspects,” says var-sity soccer coach Tom Lockhart, “For one, it

will prepare us well for playoffs, being the only D3 school and having faced solid oppo-nents through the season. However it does put more pressure on our teams to perform well in the preseason, as we will most likely have less success in league play. That be-ing said, as long as we have a positive pre-season, we have an advantage over other D3 schools.” For men’s soccer, for example, the Palomar League features three of ESPN’s top 50 high school teams, with Rancho Ber-nardo, Torrey Pines, and Poway at 17,26, and 27 respectively. It may be tough to become league champs in such a deep and talented league, as each school is traditionally strong across all sports. While impossible to pre-dict throughout each sport, the first few years in the new league may be a transitional peri-od, attempting to adapt and bolster our sports program in order to challenge these older and bigger division 1 and 2 schools. Our sports have been on the constant rise, and our in-creased enrollment coupled with breaking the mold of an arts only school should re-sult in establishing CCA as a contender in the Palomar League in the coming years.

Additionally, students find the new league to be an exciting challenge. A rivalry with Torrey Pines, which remains relatively non-existent due to the lack of head to head matchups, will inevitably arise. The shorter geographical distances between schools - traveling to Torrey Pines, Poway and Ran-cho Bernardo instead of Valley Center, Or-ange Glenn and Del Norte - allows students with fourth periods to miss significantly less class time. While he won’t reap the ben-efits of the new league, Matt Weinberg, a CCA senior who plays varsity baseball, ar-ticulated the challenges of our current Val-ley League, “The missed classes definitely affected my grades. While it didn’t seem like a lot at first, I found myself getting be-hind and having difficulty catching up. The new league should lessen the already in-creased stress placed upon student athletes.”

The general consensus regarding joining the Palomar League has been positive. The new competition, together with less extensive traveling demands should ease the burden of being a student athlete while strengthening new rivalries among our neighboring schools.

Palomar LeagueHow CCA’s athletic future is about to change

The Equestrian teamThe newest addition to CCA Athletics

Tanner Kortman is one of the most beloved teachers on campus. As an AP English Language teacher and a coach for girls’ volleyball, he blends his passion of art with his support and respect for athletics. In this article, Kortman illustrates the importance of unifying these two worlds at CCA. Introduction by Arianna Irwin, Entertainment Editor

5

I thought that perhaps an editorial in our school magazine might be a good place to start the conver-sation of how we can make this happen. And when I say “we,” I really mean “you.” My part in

the hoped-for revolution will conclude with this article, the rest will be up to you (that tingling you feel in your extremities is the impending sense of power to cause real and lasting change). What follows is a thinly disguised, poorly contrived plea to you, dear reader, to find that hidden wellspring of spirit that is seeking its way through the faults of your immaculately curated teenage detachment and to let that pressurized out-flowing of enthusiasm and cheer rush out in a geyser of raven-like “caahs,” a volcano of “We Will Rock You” chants, a veritable Vesuvius of fist pumps, hand claps, and foot stomps. Before we get there, however, let’s begin with a State of the Union ad-dress for our current lack of sporting spirit.

How We Got HereEight years ago, our school began as an

institution defined almost in opposition to the sports-obsessed cultures of our district forebears. Whereas La Costa Canyon and Torrey Pines had been athletic powerhouses for decades, CCA was going to be a place where the arts had a chance to be the focus. Instead of state tournaments for football, volleyball, or tennis, the radical new cam-pus would produce award-winning theatre, showcase artistic talents and temperaments, win state competitions with cuddly-named

robotics teams (I’m looking at you, Alumi-num Narwhals). In fact, initial discussions regarding the direction that our campus was going to take included the notion that we would have no interscholastic sports teams at all, just intramural teams whereby cooperation was stressed instead of com-petition. Thankfully, that notion was about as popular as a surf contest in Wyoming. Someone had the radical notion that being creative didn’t require physical clumsiness, that coloring outside the lines didn’t mean that you couldn’t play within them. Thus, those early Ravens had a chance to build successful athletic programs and traditions right along with the great work that Envi-sion and Conservatory were engaged in.

Almost without exception, those athletic programs have surpassed everyone’s mod-est expectations for them. The more our teams won, the more they made a habit of it. Banners began to appear on the gym wall, trophies began to fill glass displays all over campus, CCA student names even began to pop up in local sports media coverage. People were beginning to realize what schools like Stanford and UCLA and Notre Dame have always known, academic excellence does not prohibit athletic excellence. On the contrary, the same factors of discipline, diligence, and, yes, creativity are responsible for both.

Along the way, though, something lagged far behind our surprising athletic success. Lost in the hoopla surrounding API scores (which, by the way, deserved all the hoopla it got) and the jolt to school culture and spirit that such an accomplish-

ment merits, the truth of our dismal atten-dance at athletic events plagued coaches, administrators, and athletes alike. How can the call of the Raven be so loud some-times, and so alarmingly absent at others?

I believe the truth of that disparity lies in the principles of our founding. By rightly focusing on those aspects of our campus culture that differentiated us from the other options in our district, we were finding a label that we could be proud of. We were the artsy school, the creative school, the school that wasn’t afraid to be innovative and take risks. We were a place where the jocks didn’t rule. As with all labels, however, their usefulness eventually runs out. Labels are reductive by nature and cannot capture the complexity of the thing that it hopes to name. Our school will continue to value the things that have been so important to its suc-cess, but we can be so much more. In fact, those same things that distinguish us from our peers can be utilized to create a new kind of fan- the Enlightened Sports Fan.

The Enlightened Sports FanIt is high time that the convenient distinc-

tions between the mind and the body, the intellectual and the physical, highbrow and lowbrow, were forever destroyed. The stereo-type of the sports fan as some shirtless, face-painted, chest-thumping, screaming, unintel-ligible yokel is as outdated as the sweater vests that Rick Santorum and I so cherish.

Sports may be one of the few things left that transcends all easily definable bound-aries or systems of stratification. Only at a

Let me be plain: CCA sports need fans. Period.

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The Search for

The CCA Sports Fan

Teacher Guest Piece:Tanner Kortman

6

Boston Red Sox game can you find the nau-seatingly prolific writer Stephen King shar-ing an arm-rest and pack of peanuts with that aforementioned yokel (of which Fenway Park, home to the Red Sox, has its fair share). Only at Wimbledon will you find Elton John enjoying strawberries and cream, the tradi-tional Wimbledon fare, along with the rest of the gallery, or perhaps even the Rocket Man himself donning his more colorful ver-sion of the famed Wimbledon “whites.” The point I’m trying to make is that there need not be a feeling that attending a basketball or baseball game somehow makes you less authentic as an artist or intellectual. As long as there have been organized team sports, there have been intellectual Titans and Lil-liputians alike to live or die with each win or loss of their favorite team. The question then is not whether we should be fans, but rather, what kind of fans we should be.

New TraditionalistsWhen my brother attended high school

at Torrey Pines, he was so frustrated by the rule of conventional behavior that he created a club that was meant to be a thorn in the side of all things typical and safe regard-ing the adolescent experience. His club, the New Traditionalists (oxymoron intentional), were motivated only by well-meaning cha-os. They organized a “clothing drive” where members of the student body were invited to bring old clothes to school and “donate” them to a vast mountain of clothes piled up in the middle of the quad. Students could then come and grab any other student’s clothes that caught their fancy and take them back home. It was a sort of experiment in fashion socialism. The New Traditionalists also created a band called Jumbo Malaria that would compete in Battle of the Bands each year. The concept behind Jumbo Ma-laria was that anyone could join the band at any time, including during the performance, and play whatever instrument they liked.

The New Traditionalists enjoyed a brief but impactful influence on campus be-cause of their willingness to take risks, challenge conventional approaches, and disregard the limitations of stature or so-cial standing. This attitude is the same that I hope future CCA crowds can embody. Participation in a sporting event is an op-portunity for collective creativity, unbri-dled enthusiasm, and purposeless industry that has no corollary in the public sphere.

Consider, if you will, the following traditions among current fans that con-

tain all the trappins of performance art with none of the pretentions:

•The students of Duke, renowned for their passion and devotion to the Blue Devils basketball team, attempt each game to find a way to distract the op-posing team’s free-throw shooter. The student section is directly behind the basket and it is not uncommon for the students to organize dances or signs tailored to each opposing player in order to upset his focus. In one game, in 2003, the students were surprisingly quiet and still as ri-val UNC player, Jackie Manuel, came to the line. One young man, forever dubbed “Speedo Guy,” stood up wearing nothing but his speedo and proceeded to do a dance that was loosely interpretive of a flower blooming while the hushed crowd and players looked on. Jackie Manuel, as you might imagine, missed both free throws.

•European soccer (sorry, football) fans usually get a bad rap for their creatively off-color songs about opposing players. The songs themselves remain rather mysterious in how they are conceived and subsequently passed around, yet undeniably at some point during a match the entire stadium will in-terrupt their whistles, jeers, and groans to spontaneously burst into song. The best are probably unprintable, but here are a couple of ditties that made me giggle involving the Manchester United star Nani and the former Middlesbrough player, Jérémie Aliadière:

• “Nani are you OK? Are you OK Nani?” (sung to Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal)

• “Ohh, we’re halfway there. Ohh-ohh Aliadiere!” (sung to Livin’ on a Prayer by

Bon Jovi)• Not to be outdone, Turkish football

fans can only be called rabid in the degree to which they support their team (and denounce the opposition). For one club, Besiktas, the fans often chant variations on a theme regarding their solidarity. When an opposing manager disparaged the Besiktas manager because his father was a janitor, the chant was “We are all Janitors” for two hours. Mystifyingly, when Pluto was removed from the list of planets, the crowd chanted “We are all Pluto” for two full hours at the next match.

•Hockey fans are well-known for their unique contribution to fandom (see exam-ples of fish or octopus throwing). Hockey fans at Cornell, however, get my prize for most creative. They have an entire web page (Lynah Faithful) dedicated to their traditions. The most notable of these are when they chant “Safety School” to oppos-ing teams (most of which are Ivy League

schools) to rile up the other fan base, or yell “Booooooorrrrriinnnng” when the line-ups are introduced for their competition.

There is no doubt that some of these tra-ditions might not meet CIF regulations for sportsmanship, but they do point to the poten-tial for doing more than clapping or booing that is the accepted behavior at most games, though we are lucky if we even get that much.

A New ChallengeFinally (I promise), I cowme to the heart

of the matter. Our modest athletic accom-plishments will be put to the test next year as our school undergoes league realign-ment. In the interest of competitive fair-ness, transportation concerns, and a host of

other considerations, CCA will be moving to the most competitive league in San Di-ego County which will include such ath-letic juggernauts as Poway, Rancho Ber-nardo, and Torrey Pines. We will be faced with competition from larger schools with more resources, richer histories, and big-ger crowds. It is imperative that we make a positive showing as a school by support-ing our teams as only we know how- being more creative, more enthusiastic, and more intelligent about our approach to being fans.

Recently, at the first CCA boys basket-ball home game of the year, our team played Westview High School. Not surprisingly, they had more fans even though it was in our gym. The CCA fans that were there were helped by the always spirited Samba Corvo group. Despite this, it pained me to hear the opposing team chant, “We Can’t Hear You” to our beleaguered fan base. Our team played as most of our teams do- with intelligence, heart, and an uncompromising will. On that night, Westview happened to win the game. It was the fans, however, that suffered the more disheartening defeat. Outnumbered, out-cheered, and out-classed, the fans in at-tendance did their best but needed more from those noticeable in their absence. When the Westview crowd started chanting, “You’re an Art School,” the sense of pride that came with such a designation felt a little more emp-

ty. I only hope that next game or next season, CCA fans will be there to answer the call by lifting their voices together in response, perhaps even emulating a favorite chant of BYU fans near the end of the games, and scream sardonically, “Drive Home Safely!”

Opinion:Trailing TeenagersBy Amy Kim and Kayla Jefferies, Staff Writers

According to the USC’s National Learn-ing and Resource Center, approximately 25 percent of shoplifters are minors, and 55 percent of adult shoplifters began shoplifting during adolescence. Over the past 20 years, the arrest rates for juveniles between ages 11 and 17 have been consistently higher than the arrest rates for adults, says California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office. With statistics like these, students within the community are feeling the pressure of heightened sus-picions when they walk into local stores.

Recently, however, stores’ reactions to juvenile theft have come under debate. Sus-picious of possible young offenders, many stores have implemented the “tail the teen-ager” approach. CCA freshman Alessan-dro Thomson says that he experiences this treatment all the time. “At Rite Aid, I was just holding a water gun and the security guard followed me around the store, mak-ing sure I wouldn’t steal it,” says Thomson.

Teen Court, a program that allows high school volunteers to participate in juvenile court cases, gives minors who commit theft an opportunity to have the charges virtually eradicated. Local Teen Court supervisor Bran-don Johnson collects referrals from SDPD, as-signs teenage theft offenders to either himself or another adult case manager, schedules their hearings, and monitors offenders’ sentencing compliance, an entire process in which he pro-vides information and referrals. When asked about his opinion on store security treatment inflicted upon teenagers, Johnson replied, “If it is indeed true [that stores watch teenagers more carefully] and the adolescent in concern is not shoplifting, then no harm, no foul. Nev-ertheless, law enforcement looks for certain patterns that help them predict, prevent, and solve crimes, and by doing so, security some-times unfairly targets populations, which causes a disproportionate percentage between that population and untargeted ones that are essentially in trouble with the law.”

A particular type of attire that teenagers

wear can also serve to elicit suspicion from a store’s security apparatus, says Johnson. “From what I’ve seen on Loss Prevention reports, it seems that if a teenager has back-packs, purses, big jackets, or other shopping bags, stores then view it as a red flag and will watch the teenager[s] in concern closer.” CCA students like Thomson bestow their opinion on the subject, “I was wearing a hoodie, the one with a single pocket.” Moreover, Kath-ryn Stevens recalls, “We were wearing a lot of black clothes, but it wasn’t sketchy. Stores think that all teenagers are mischief makers.”

Because it is crucial to take the store’s standpoints into consideration and there were multiple reports from the interviewed students about the strict security in the Del Mar Highland’s Rite Aid, we believed it was necessary to ask the Rite Aid staff its opin-ion. However, co-managers Tim and Nicole refused to participate in the interview, claim-ing that they weren’t allowed to divulge in-formation about store security in general. “We’re not supposed to divulge whether Rite Aid watches teens more carefully than they do to other age groups,” Tim replied.

Other stores, however, were more ac-commodating. When asked whether stores watch teenagers more closely than they do to other age groups, Del Mar Highlands Town Center’s Pretty Please manager Aimee af-firmed, “In certain occasions, yes. It’s just a stereotype that sometimes plays. We try to look at everybody the same, but it’s just a precautionary action.” According to Ai-mee, Pretty Please’s policy on loitering is, “If there are people in the store who are not shopping, we ask them to be mindful of the other customers. But if people want to look around, they’re more than welcome to do so.”

Not all stores share the same mentality, how-ever. Highlands Bath & Body Works sales as-sociate Libby says that the store does watches every potential customer equally. According to Libby, Bath & Body Works’ shopping bags are made out of clear material to deter poten-tial shoplifters, and its store security should stay unchanged since there haven’t been many problems. “We trust our loyal customers.”

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How two seniors spent their summers By Jess Mersten, Feature Editor

Philanthropy in Latin America:

Spitters with some of the local children.

Ostroff with his “brother,” Edgar.

just so cold,” Ostroff recollected. During the day, Ostroff helped the family with chores, shelling fava beans, cooking, and cutting grass for the guinea pigs, a local Peruvian delicacy. He spent hours fishing and play-ing games with his two young host brothers. As part of the program, he led activities in the local school for an hour each day and helped his community plant 300 pine trees.

Molly Spitters travelled with one other volunteer to the village of Santa Maria Ya-cochi in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. “We had eight people living in the house when we arrived, and none of them knew we were coming except for one,” Spitters re-called. Due to an excess of volunteers and lack of available communities, Spitters was assigned to a new village only days before the trip. Like Ostroff, Spitters helped orga-nize the community for a group project and taught in the local school. “We went on a hike down to the river to show [the students] how the water flowed and we focused on the trash they’d left in the river.” Spitters also addressed personal health issues, such as the lung damage from hearth cooking and trash burning. When she was not teaching in the local schoolhouse, Spitters assisted her host family in grinding up maize to make tortillas and visited with neighbors.

The volunteers slowly adjusted to sim-ple meals of watery soup and hours hiking steep terrain. After returning to San Diego, Ostroff was shocked to learn that he had lost 22 pounds over the course of the sum-mer. But neither Spitters nor Ostroff fully adjusted to the routine of showering. Since both villages lacked indoor plumbing, volunteers learned to bathe in the latrine with buckets of cold water. “I would fill up a big bucket and let the sun hit it until it warmed from freezing to cold or tepid,” Ostroff recalled and somewhat hesitat-ingly conceded to only showering three times during the eight weeks. At the men-tion of showering, Spitters groaned: “Such a process! I rarely showered once a week.”

An initial barrier between the volunteers

While many of their friends relaxed on the beach and prepared for the upcoming school year, seniors Molly Spitters and Jesse Os-troff spent eight weeks in rural Latin Amer-ica without indoor plumbing, cell phones or the Internet. As volunteers for Amigos de las Américas, both Spitters and Ostroff worked alongside local people to improve the overall health and quality of life within the commu-nity, ultimately developing lifelong bonds with their host families and gaining skills essential to becoming self-sufficient adults.

Volunteers for Amigos de Las Américas prepare for the program with eight months of intensive training and mandatory fundrais-ing. Each volunteer must plan a community activity, such as building latrines or planting trees, and teach in the local school. Before traveling, volunteers know little about their community; Amigos staff spend one night in each potential location before assigning students to a host family in each location. Communities range from rural mountainous regions in Peru to urban centers in Paraguay where, once a week, staff from Amigos visit the volunteers to check in on the progress of their project and their overall health and safety. However, despite months of train-ing, little could have prepared the volunteers for the reality of the trip. Spitters described, “They tell you that you’re going to have to organize the community for a project, and you’re going to teach and plan lessons. It all makes sense in briefing until you get there and realize, ‘am I doing this by myself?’”

Jesse Ostroff travelled to the small village of Se upstairs of the tiny house while he had a room near the kitchen. His bed consisted of two large stone slabs with a flat board, sheep pelts and a mosquito net. A day after Ostroff’s arrival, the mayor of the village gave him a mattress. “I slept in a zero de-gree sleeping bag with wool blankets. It was

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and their hosts was communication. Both families were hesitant about the new vol-unteers, unsure of their purpose, and spoke little to no Spanish. Since their communi-ties were among the most rural, Ostroff and Spitters experienced the added challenge of not speaking their host families’ local dialect. In Peru, years of mineral exploita-tion by Americans made the community cautious of Ostroff’s arrival. Ostroff noted their hesitation in the way his neighbors re-ferred to him as “special guest” rather than a member of the community. Around the dinner table, Spitters felt alienated when her hosts spoke in a native Mixe instead of Spanish. “It was hard to get to know them, they weren't so open to getting to know us.” Despite these obstacles, by the end of the summer both Ostroff and Spitters were ac-cepted like family. “No matter how differ-ent our culture was, and the language, and what we ate, there’s something about being human that we shared,” Spitters described.

Even though he was miles away, Ostroff also noticed this shared “human connnec-tion” in Peru. Once during dinner, while dis-

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No matter how different our culture was, and the language, and what we ate, there’s something about being human that we shared.

cuss ing future plans, Ostroff learned that one of his host brothers wanted to attend school to become an electrical engineer. In Peruvi-an culture, students must move to the city to pursue higher education, which means one less person to work in the fields. “I told him I was really proud of him,” Ostroff described. “I feel like he felt it could be more possible because I had discussed my plans to apply to college next year. I don’t know how much I impacted people directly, but I know that within my family because of the little things, like him being more confident and hav-

ing ambitions, I was responsible for that.” As the eight weeks came to a close,

Spitters took time to reflect on her experi-ence. “We sat in bed for a while on the last night and realized how used to our situation we’d become. Sleeping on a wooden bed in sleeping bags was no big deal and making food on a stove was nothing; we did it ev-ery day. Everything was so normal to us.”

No amount of training could have pre-pared Ostroff and Spitters for the culture shock they experienced upon returning to San Diego, which Ostroff described as the most difficult part of the entire experience. Usually an emotionally reserved person, Ostroff remembered crying upon return to San Diego, ashamed by the lifestyle he had been accustomed to before Amigos. “You hear all these stories about reverse culture shock. I didn’t get emotional the entire summer I was in Peru, which was uncom-mon, but I got home and I just broke down crying. I hadn’t cried in years.” Compared to the simple agricultural life of Santa Ma-ria Yacochi, Spitters was shocked by the materialistic attitudes she noticed upon return. “People seemed so stupid and self-ish. They worried about parties and getting wasted. A lot of my friends changed when I was gone.” Spitters paused and added, “Maybe I was the one who had changed.”

In Peru and Mexico, Ostroff and Spit-ters were self sufficient. “They viewed us as independent adults,” recalled Ostroff. Back in San Diego, they did not immedi-

Ostroff with his host brother, Edgar, outside of Edgar’s home. To the

right: Ostroff in his bedroom at his host family’s house in Peru.

ately readjust to their roles as student, son, and daughter. “I’m treated like a kid here. I had to tell my mom, ‘I was alone in a for-eign country for eight weeks, I can do my homework” Ostroff said. With the help and support of other volunteers from the San Di-ego chapter of Amigos, Spitters and Ostroff have now readjusted back into their routines.

The lasting impact of their experience with Amigos de Las Americas continues to surprise Ostroff and Spitters. “You gain things you don’t realize until afterwards,” Spitters says. After spending the summer working in the local clinic and teaching children, she now wishes to become a pedia-trician and study abroad during college. “I learned simplicity,” Ostroff concluded, “Ev-erything was purpose based and once you get all that you needed to do done, then you could enjoy yourself.” Ostroff, who before volunteering with Amigos wanted to pur-sue film, now wishes to study International Relations in college and is currently train-ing volunteers for next summer’s program.

Clockwise from left: Molly Spitters with students at the local school; Ostroff greeting workers in Peru; Local school children; Ostroff with his host family; Spitters making tortillas in her host family’s kitchen.

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It’s 3:15 pm, and the CCA campus is deserted. The air is still after suddenly – all of your friends who were hanging around in the afternoon sun moments ago – have scurried off, disappearing into studios and scene shops and stages. We hear plenty of Envision’s progressive Conservatory pro-gram, we enroll in Envision’s day classes, and we watch Envision’s young talent show off their work every once in a while. We know that Conservatory is something grand, but do we actually understand what tran-spires during those artistic operations after hours? A few of these artists tell us their stories, revealing the truth about the things we thought we understood about Envision Conservatory, helping us appreciate what makes our school unique. If you pay close attention, you will find that the stillness in the air at 3:15 is actually a tangible creative energy; electrifying the campus are the dancers, singers, musicians, actors, filmmakers, and fine artists who have finally been liberated from the tedium of their academic classes to express themselves through their art. For six dedicated hours a week, students who pos-sess sufficient talent and drive pursue their art in a professional setting that presents them with eye-opening opportunities to collaborate with each other and with profes-sionals in their field.

On a typical day, Conservatory students practice their art form rigorously to improve their craft. According to Mr. Raines, Cin-ema Conservatory teacher, “The primary thing that Cinema Conservatory students do is work on short films, basically going through the entire process from developing a concept all the way to full production.” In Dance Conservatory, students spend time rehearsing for dance shows, which are per-formed both on and off campus. “In the fall, we’re always busy with the fall show and rehearsals. In the spring, they are constantly getting their butts kicked with technique and rehearsals for another spring show that we have,” explains Rayna Stohl, director of Dance Conservatory. Afternoons spent in Conservatory usually include some independent working time as well. Scott Kazmierowicz shares his insight. “I feel that if you aren’t really self-motivated in Conservatory, then you end up wasting your time and your instructor’s time.” Scott is right; Conservatory is not a place for sloths. To survive in the wild, artists really need to be ferociously self-motivated. This usually is not a problem, however – it is safe to say that being a part of Conservatory guarantees interaction with very passionate young people. Maybe this passion is what makes our school such a special place.

On the other hand, time is more fluid in Vocal Conservatory. Scott Kazmierow-icz shares his insight. “I like the level of freedom that we get, but I would also like it if we had more orchestrated time… I feel like if you aren’t really self-motivated in Conservatory, then you end up wasting your time and your instructor’s time.” Scott is right; Conservatory is not a place for sloths. To survive in the wild, artists really need to be ferociously self-motivated. This usually is not a problem, however – it is safe to say that being a part of Conservatory guaran-tees interaction with very passionate young people. Maybe this passion is what makes our school such a special place. When not preparing for larger projects, Conservatory students have the opportunity to work with a variety of guest artists from the professional world. Benedyk describes her favorite guest artist. “Ms. Villanova’s father is awesome because he was the composer for a lot of the Star Trek series.” Dancer Alyssa Harry affirms, “We have the best guest artists!” Harry and the other dancers in Dance Conservatory have received instruction from professionals such as Erica Moore, Annie Boyer, Anthony Diaz, and Erica Beakner. Most guest artists have received numerous accolades, includ-ing film guest artist Destin Cretton, who has won the Jury Selection Award at the Sun

Story and photos byNatalie Allen, Staff Writer

Joelle Leib, Business Manager

An Inside Look at ConservatoryPr

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dance Film Festival. Zachary Brown, junior, describes how Cretton is able to offer “help from the real world – from pitches, to edit-ing.” Although Conservatory is obvi-ously an enormous time commitment, most students are content dedicating time to their passions. DFA artist Mithra Krishnan describes Conservatory as “almost like free time because if you love your art, it’s not that hard to do.” Although Acting Conser-vatory cuts down on her homework time, sophomore Grace Condon doesn’t mind. “I think that having Conservatory drives me to want to go to school the next day, and I also want to come home and finish all of my homework so that I can do Conservatory the next day. Kazmierowicz admits that “I prob-ably don’t sleep as much as I would without Conservatory,” but seems to really value his time studying the vocal arts, thoughtfully observing that “the time we spend shouldn’t be pure fun, and I think 90% is fun or productive – or is time we spend growing as vocalists.” Although losing sleep and homework time can be stressful, the time commitment for Conservatory is worth-while in the long run because it gives the students an incredible amount of insight on where their art can take them in life. Grace

Condon did not really anticipate what she was getting herself into, but she definitely feels prepared now to pursue her dream career in comedy. “I got to Conservatory and you learn so much about the real world and how things really are in the audition process.” Grace’s experience of profes-sional preparation is paralleled in many other Conservatory students’ stories. Said Kazmierowicz, “I haven’t decided whether I am going to major in music, but I know that whatever I decide to do, vocal conservatory has helped prepare me… not just in techni-cal knowledge, but also in working as a team, that creative time.” Whether students want to pursue their art professionally or not, Conservatory provides a supportive environment and excellent preparation for that professional world. Artistic passion aside, what truly makes Conservatory unique is the relation-ships formed over the course of three long years of collaboration. Brown’s favorite part of Conservatory is the people “When you are with them for so long, you kind of form a family whether you want to or not.” To Kazmierowicz, being in a room filled with talented youth has inspired him to be a better musician. “My favorite thing about Conservatory that I can’t get anywhere else is the artistic give and take between all of us.”

Want to become part of the Conservatory family? Auditions for next year will take place in August, so you have plenty of time to prepare your portfolio or monologues. The audition process includes a series of essays, interviews, and some form of showcasing your art. “It’s very simple actually. If you have a good portfo-lio, then you’ll get in,” assures Krishnan. Benedyk recommends getting creative with the application and showing the directors who you are as an artist. “There’s this box on one page that says ‘Fill in this box with anything you want,’ and that part was prob-ably the hardest in the application. I actually composed something for it, so that was one of the first original compositions I made for cello.” If you plan on applying for Cinema Conservatory, Mr. Raines encourages peo-ple to take Video Film first, “so they can see what this program is like because it’s a good indicator of whether they’ll like Conserva-tory.” According to Ms. Stohl, auditioning dancers should “be very strong technically, and we want them to show some artistry as well.” Across the board, however, potential is really what these teachers are looking for. Brown emphasizes this reality through his knowledge of the Cinema Conservatory audition: “You have to make a movie and write about why you love making films… they don’t care if it is that good, they just want to see potential.”

To survive in the wild, artists really need to be ferociously self-motivated.

3. Kim Jong UnThis North Korean dictator assumed the mantle of the government after the death of his famous dictator father, Kim Jong Il, last December. The rest of the world doesn’t know much about Kim Jong Un (not even his exact age), but the new Great Successor has sent mixed signals towards North Ko-rea’s bitter peninsular rivals South Korea, advocating both aggression and negotiation. Although the military has for now coalesced behind Kim, largely thanks to the patronage of his uncle Jang Song Thaek, it remains to be seen if Kim can further consolidate his power. With North Korea occupying an extremely sensitive place in terms of global affairs and security, Kim’s decisions as the new Dear Leader could have massive repercussions.

4. Josh HutchersonThis actor got his first break as a child with pop-ular films like Bridge to Terabithia and Journey to The Center of The Earth, but now he takes the lead role in the upcoming blockbuster The Hunger Games. Based on the wildly popular novels by Suzanne Collins, the film is expected to be a huge hit, and has the potential to trans-form Hutcherson into the next teen heartthrob. As if that role weren’t enough, Hutcherson will also star in the remake of Red Dawn. With these new projects already receiving critical acclaim and fanfare, Hutcherson looks to break into the top echelon of Hollywood stars this year.

11 People to Watch in 2012By Glenn Borok, Opinion Editor

With contributions from Nachi Baru, News Editor; Arianna Irwin, Entertainment Editor; and Elijah Granet, Online Editor; Tess Wallenstein, Editor-in-Chief; Crystal Long, Creative Director

1. Ricky RubioThis Spanish basketball prodigy was marked for greatness from a young age; he played his first professional match when he was 16 years old, and represented his country at the 2008 Olympics at 17. Drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2009, Rubio delayed his transfer to America until this season, to further hone his skills in Europe, a move that served to only bolster the hype building around him. Barely two months into his first year in the NBA, Rubio has so far surpassed even the headiest expectations, dis-playing both composed maturity and flashy bril-liance as he has led the long-suffering Twolves to a much better than expected start. Sports fans should take note; they could be witnessing the rise of one of the league’s next superstars.

2. Marco RubioRegardless of whether or not Republicans topple President Obama in November’s election, there is no doubt that Rubio’s star is rising within the GOP. A Senator from Florida who was swept into office in 2010, many Republicans see the Cuban-Amer-ican as a potential game-changer, someone who could bring Hispanics (a demographic that tradi-tionally leans Democratic) into the conservative fold. Although he has so far denied any desire to run as a Vice President alongside the Republican nominee in the general election (a stance he could well reverse by the time of the convention this summer), there is no doubt that he will be a center of attention in the party for some time to come.

5. Jennifer LawrenceRecently nominated for an Academy Award for Winter’s Bone and starring in X-men: First Class, Lawrence has stepped into the Hollywood limelight. Noticed for her strong personality, curvy figure and long blond locks, Lawrence has become the new media darling in Hollywood, but her profile seems to grow even further in 2012. Lawrence is starring as Katniss Everdeen, the leading heroine from The Hunger Games. Similar to Hutcherson, Lawrence will receive a major profile boost if the movie earns the good reviews that are widely anticipated by critics and fans worldwide. With a ma-jor project like the Hunger Games under her belt, look for her to become the next Hollywood starlet.

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11 Michael FassbenderThis actor has starred in everything from 300 to X Men: First Class, but has been a relatively anonymous figure for some time. He went some ways toward changing that in 2011, when his portrayal of an embattled, tortured sex addict in Shame garnered both him and the film inter-national critical acclaim. Fassbender hopes to continue expanding his reputation, with star-ring roles in the upcoming movies Haywire and Prometheus. Prometheus, which will be released on June 8th, in particular is one of the most an-ticipated movies of the year, and if it lives up to its expectations, don’t be surprised to see Fass-bender become something of a household name.

6. Tim CookWhile the main focus of 2011 was the mourn-ing of founder and CEO Steve Jobs, 2012 will be vital for the future of Apple, as they attempt to build upon their strong foundation in the tenta-tive post-Jobs era. In steps new CEO Tim Cook, handpicked by Jobs to lead the company into a new era. In their first quarter under Cook full time, Apple has reported record profits with their stock price rising to over 450 dollars, a phenom-enon that can be attributed partially to Jobs’ pass-ing. It remains to be seen if Cook can continue to keep the company at the forefront of the tech world, in the absence of the visionary who many thought of as synonymous with the Apple brand.

8 Mohammed BadieMost Americans have heard of the mysterious Muslim Brotherhood that has taken power in Egypt af-ter the outing of Hosni Mumbarak, as politicians and diplomats the world over wait anxiously to see what influence the heavily religious party will have in an increasingly fragile and delicate Arab world. Charismatic Mohammed Badie, the charismatic leader of the Mus-lim Brotherhood, has promised that the Brotherhood will be a respect-ful and productive part of Egypt’s nascent democracy. Now the onus is on him to control not only more rowdy members of his own party, but the Brotherhood’s uneasy al-lies, the radical Salafists, while at the same time satisfying the fac-tion of moderates. However, the it was the two more radical Islamist groups that won a strong majority in the recent parliamentary elec-tions, leading to questions about the direction of Egypt’s government. The future of Egypt rests in Badie’s hand and the direction he takes the country remains to be seen.

9. The Weeknd Abel Tesfaye, who goes by the stage name The Weeknd, released his first free album House of Balloons in 2011. Later that year, he released his third album Echoes of Silence, which raised his profile so much that his website crashed from the traffic. Since then he has received praise from various musical publications, and MTV went so far as to call him the “greatest mu-sical talent since Michael Jackson”. Although he still remains relatively unknown among the general public, with his fourth album due for release later this year, it seems only a matter of time since Tesfaye hits the big time.

7. Tavi Gevinson of Rookie Magwww.rookiemag.comRookie features the elements of a by-the-book teenage girls’ magazine, only it’s smart. The site is updated three times a day on every weekday with anec-dotes, discussions, and how-to’s on first kisses, bangs, and sparkly tights, with a distinct intellectual seriousness. It’s never stated out-right, but is conveyed through the writers’ expectations for the read-er to agree with their empowered, liberal sensibilities. Tavi Gevin-son, the arguably most-talked-about fashion blogger from three years ago, started the site within the last year, and has since found a well-rounded group of dedicat-ed writers, but also offers the op-portunity for burgeoning writers to submit at rookiemag.com/you.

10. Ryan LochteFor years, American swimming has seem-ingly been synonymous with the legendary Mi-chael Phelps, but in the run up to the 2012 Summer Olympics, it is Ryan Lochte who looks to be in better form. Lochte, who won two gold medal’s at the pre-vious Olympics, was the standout performer of the 2011 World Cham-pionships, and was

named 2011’s swimmer of the year by the sport’s governing body, FINA. Although Phelps might grab more attention, don’t be surprised to see Lochte end up with more gold medals in London.

All images on the public domain with the following exceptions: Doug Manchester, dougmanchester.com; Michael Fassbender, Mark Kari; Scott Walker, Megan McCormick; The Weeknd, Danielle Da Silva

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Standing atop his gear table, Dutch electronic music producer and house DJ Fedde Le Grand plants himself between a Macintosh laptop and a MIDI controller, surveying the scene of the San Diego Valley View Casino Center. Before him is an ocean of bodies draped in neon flash bulbs, crowned by colorful headgear, covered in Spandex, glitter, beads, and face paint. In every direc-tion there are girls in hot pants, fishnets, sparkling bandeau tops, platform boots, feathers, and wigs of every color. The horizon fumes in a haze of neon fireworks and smoke. Glow sticks spo-radically erupt from the crowd, mimicking the streaks of flames that periodically burst from the top of the stage. It is a kaleidoscopic riot of flesh and light and dizzying excess. Nothing is static.

By Natalie Hoffman, Staff WriterRave Culture

An Exploration of

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This is a new era in American electronic dance music. This is where your parents don’t want you to be. This is a strip-club version of Cirque du Soleil on acid. This is a rave—and I’m right in the middle of it.

A globally recognized techno icon, Fedde Le Grand looks modest in his plain white graphic-tee and blue jeans. Given the fact that he’s playing for thousands of people at a venue that has hosted superstars from Justin Timberlake to Eric Clapton, his attire seems even more humble. However, this is no where close to Le Grand’s biggest gig. Last year, the Dutch legend made his debut appearance in the United States in front of a crowd of over 75,000 at the annual Coach-ella music festival in Indio, California.

Yet in the past, large scale festivals such as Lollapalooza or Coachella were never di-rected at a raver-based audience. Domestic house and techno artists have always focused on the European market to make a living due to lack of demand in the United States. But

after years of being relegated to the margins, the American dance-music scene is reaching critical mass. For most house and techno art-ists, both domestic and foreign, the fact that America is no longer the unfeasible final frontier changes the game entirely. The open-ing of the American market brings a surge of curiosity to the surface of what was once, and still largely remains an underground scene.

While recently dance music may ap-pear to have taken an ultra-commercial turn with mainstream acts such as Skrillex and Deadmau5 (pronounced “Dead Mouse”), the underground rave scene is still alive and thriving. By its very nature, raves are underground. The origins of electronic music stem from 1970’s disco and early 1980’s hip-hop later evolved into house and techno. The rave scene largely focused on an underground market due to the need for separation between two distinct cul-tures—mainstream radio and the alterna-tive club nightlife. Techno was made for

the sole purpose of getting people to dance, not for radio play. As this disjointing was further recognized and the music industry started to collapse, logically it was under-stood that the only place techno-house mu-sic would be safe was underground. This is where the rave scene has stayed—until now.

Back at the concert, Le Grand pumps a wave of bass that radiates outward through the weightless crowd. Every arm, most of which are clad in colorful beaded bracelets, is upstretched as the bass snaps back and forth like a whip. All around me these kids move without a care. It seems that raving in itself is a free dance, whereby the move-ments are not predefined and the dance is performed randomly, simply harmonized with the beat of the music. Throughout the crowd, some sport bright LED gloves, while others flash neon glow sticks, creating invig-orating and breathlessly captivating light dis-plays in the dark atmosphere of the crowded San Diego arena. For such performers, their

“Logically it was understood that the only place techno-house music would be safe was underground. This is where the rave scene has stayed—until now.”

props serve as supplementary materials for creative freestyle dance. One of these young adults, David Lomax, a Los Angeles resident and frequent rave attendee, enlightens me on the specifics of light-related rave dancing.

“For starters,” he says, “There are four types of light-oriented dances—glow-sticking, glow-stringing, gloving, and lightshows.” Lomax prefers using LED lights attached to black gloves, or gloving, for the versatility. “LED’s come in various colors and settings,” he explains, “the low intensity setting causes a strobe effect, leav-ing a trail of dots so to speak whereas the high intensity setting leaves a solid line.” Techniques like this are abundant in the crowd, where these performers make their lights flow with the music to create visu-ally pleasing and truly mesmerizing patterns.

While taking in this captivating environ-ment, I cannot help but notice the age dif-ferentials of various attendees, many of which cannot possibly fulfill the 18+ age requirement. It must be noted on my part that I in fact don’t complete this necessity ei-ther, being four months shy of 18. However, many of the kids around me, half-dressed in skimpy neon bikinis and beaded brace-lets, look to be not a day over the age of 15.

Laura Green, a freshman at La Costa Can-yon, has been going to raves since she was 13 years old and has since attended an es-timated 35 to 40 events. Though Green got her start in the rave scene early, she doesn’t believe that younger kids should be allowed to participate. “The majority of kids simply aren’t mature enough to handle it,” she clari-fies. When I prompted her as to what exactly these youngsters couldn’t handle, she tells me “the drugs, the loud music, the amount of people—basically everything. You need to handle yourself as an adult. You can’t make somebody else take care of you at a mas-sive event because there are so many things going on that you’ll end up getting lost.” Cory Goldstein, a senior at CCA, agrees. “In my point he says,” he says, “age limits

are a needed thing for the electronic mu-sic scene or raves. Those events that don’t have age limits on them should be more strict on security and also have shorter end times. Younger kids should be able to go to events as long as they are with someone 18 years of age or older. This is because hav-ing an older friend or influence to help make sure they are okay and to monitor them then there would be a lower likely hood of them getting into trouble.” Green and Goldstein both admit that many of the larger scale rave events are focused upon drug use, but insists that the music plays the largest role. As Green explains, “for most people, the drugs do make the music a lot more en-joyable. But if it’s really good music, you don’t need the drugs to make it great.”

Despite these claims, rave events are usu-ally culturally branded by mainstream media and law enforcement as purely drug-centric in nature. With drugs such as ecstasy, ket-amine, cannabis, and cocaine readily avail-able at most electronic dance functions, it seems that simply put: Ask and you will receive. When looking down the sweating, bracelet covered arms of those in the crowd it’s not uncommon to come across small messages written on the hands of those under the influence. “It’s okay, you’re on drugs,” is a common reassurance scribbled on the skin of these young adults, reminding them to stay calm while in an altered state of mind. As Goldstein, who chooses to stay so-ber at rave events, points out: “Drugs are ev-erywhere in the world whether it be at a rave, at home, at school, or in the middle of no-where. Drugs are something that if a person

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“But the future doesn’t matter. These kids are liv-ing in the moment, relish-ing the present, true carpe diem”

wants to partake in there are plenty of ways to do so.” In recent times, large rave venues have taken to increasing security, setting age requirements, and hiring local law enforce-ment to reduce drug use. Tonight, scattered on the outskirts of the crowd are local police officers surveying the mass of neon covered bodies. However their appearance is by no means threatening. At events of this size and vitality law enforcement and security are plainly and exceedingly outnumbered by the attendees. And these events—are huge.

In the past ten years, gigantic electron-ic-house music festivals have gathered at-tendance into the hundreds of thousands. Known as massives in the raving commu-nity, events such as TAO and Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) have become internation-ally recognized for their size and grandeur. Just last year EDC boasted an astonishing 230,000 attendees, surpassing Coachella’s seemingly miniscule 75,000 and prompting the indie-centric event to skew its lineup to-wards more electronic dance acts. In addi-tion, many of these festivals have taken on a traditional touring model similar to that of Lollapalooza or the Vans Warped Tour. The approach of Identity Festival, Hard, and the Love Festival is much like a traveling electro-circus in the sense that they bring electronic-house music to the masses of young adults intrigued by modern rave culture. While their profiles are sketchy to say the least, they are true examples of how this new electronic movement is being tailored to fit the particu-lars of American large-scale entertainment.

Yet the future of electronic-house mu-

sic is still uncertain. Today, wherever you look, you’ll find collaborations between dance producers and mainstream pop stars, rappers, or R&B singers. Miami rapper Pit-bull worked with Afrojack, a popular Dutch house producer, for his recent radio hit “Give Me Everything.” David Guetta had num-ber one singles with the Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling” and “When Love Takes Over,” featuring Kelly Rowland. Even the legendary icons Kanye West and Jay-Z sampled French house duo Cassius and British dupstep producer Flux Pavilion on their album Watch the Throne. This prompts many to question if an integration between the two genres is indeed possible. And if not, one wonders if electronic music can stand on its own in the mainstream sphere. The idea is by no means ludicrous. Just this year electronic music producer Skril-lex, who won over the mainstream market with hits such as “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” and a remix of La Roux’s “Going in for the Kill,” has been nominated for five Grammy awards, including Best New Art-ist. While the results are still unknown, the severity of these nominations illustrates the extreme commercial potential of electronic-

house music if its producers are able to cap-ture the widespread mainstream audience.

I divert my attention back to the stage, where Fedde Le Grand intricately yet ef-fortlessly flicks, spins, and clicks various proponents of his tabletop sound system to produce a sound that is both sticky and chemically sweet. And without a doubt, these kids are eating it up. The energy in the arena has surpassed the realms of rowdy. No adjectives can explain the vigor and force with which the crowd passionately moves. They are a human kinetic symphony, with Le Grand as their conductor. Their movements as unpredictable as the future of the very mu-sic they vibe to. But the future doesn’t mat-ter. These kids are living in the moment, rel-ishing the present, true carpe diem. And as I look closer, I’m sucked into the inescapably brilliant, psychedelic vortex that is a rave.

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Above:Jamie Franks, 12

Above:Gabby Rios, 11

Student Art

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