the bird on fire

The Palm Valley School Student Blog

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

The 2018 Lunar New Year is Soon!

by Leave a Comment

Graphic by Harlow Berny

By Harlow Berny

Hello, Palm Valley Students, and Happy Valentine’s Day! As many of you know, the Lunar New Year/Spring Festival/Seollal is this Friday and will mark the start of the 2018 Year of the Dog. There will be an Advisory presentation and activities based around it today. Have a good day!

Editor: Claire Jenkins

FYI: For those interested in the personality and characteristics of those born in a Dog year, chinesenewyear2018.com says,

Men born in the Dog year are straightforward and genuine. They are energetic, though they’re more pessimistic inside. . . .

Women born in the Dog year are very cautious. They are indifferent towards people they don’t like, and don’t trust easily. But once they do, it’s permanent. They are intensely protective of their friends and family.

 

Upper School Cultural Potluck

by Leave a Comment

Graphic by Harlow Berny

By Harlow Berny

Hello, Palm Valley Community! This is an announcement to the Upper School teachers and students for the 2nd annual PVS Cultural Potluck this Friday! Over 25 people have signed up to bring a dish to the Potluck that either comes from their family, nationality, or religion. Just as a reminder for those bringing food, you need to 1) send an email to Jordan Dinerman confirming that you will bring a dish, 2) bring enough to serve small portions to at least 15 people, and 3) attach a piece of paper with your name, the name of the food you brought, a list of ingredients (since some people may have allergies), and where the food is from (family recipes, culture, religion, etc.). If you bring food for the Potluck, then you will be at the front of the line to eat.

 

Editor: Peter Kadel

Too Punk for the Pop Kids?

by Leave a Comment

By Makena Behnke

if you’re too punk for the pop kids or too pop for the punk kids, give these a listen*

  • “Shape Of You” by Eat Your Heart Out
  • “I Knew You Were Trouble” by We Came As Romans
  • “Stitches” by State Champs
  • “That’s What I Like” by Dance Gavin Dance
  • “When We Were Young” by Andy Biersack and Juliet Simms
  • “Fake Love” by Grayscale
  • “Closer” by Seaway
  • “Chocolate” by Knuckle Puck
  • “Stay the Night” by State Champs
  • “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” by The Maine
  • “… Baby One More Time” by August Burns Red
  • “When I Grow Up” by Mayday Parade

There are seven Punk Goes Pop compilation albums. Interested? Go to punkgoes.com or Spotify or YouTube.

 

*intro taken from “Figure Me Out” by The Summer Set*

Editor: Shelby Armor

California Split: And We’re Not Talking Earthquakes

by 2 Comments

By Brennan Nick

Last week, the founders of New California declared their independence from the rest of the state. With their own Declaration of Independence, they took a step to forming a 51st state. Within this Declaration of Independence, in their list of grievances, they describe California as being “ungovernable.” Their plan in the separation of New California is to take many of the western and northern counties in California–many of which are rural–and separate them from the big cities of the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Furthermore, the founders of New California can also be quoted saying, “The current state of California has become governed by a tyranny” (USA Today). Here is a map showing how they plan to divide California:

 

“New California” county map

 

Now, let’s be real; this is not going to happen. However, this has not been the first time a group of people have wanted to partition the state:

 

1965: The California State Senate voted on dividing California with the Tehachapi Mountains as the boundary. It failed.

1992: State Assemblyman Stan Statham sponsored a bill to allow a referendum in each county partitioning California into three new states: North, Central, and South California.

2009: Former State Assemblyman Bill Maze wanted to split some coastal counties which usually vote Democratic into a separate state, citing how “conservatives don’t have a voice” and how Los Angeles and San Francisco “control the state” (Downsize California webpage).

2013: Some Californians living in the far north wanted to found their own state of Jefferson with some Oregon counties.

2013: Tim Draper, a venture capitalist, proposed to split California into six new states, citing “improved representation, governance, and competition between industries”(“Six Californias”).

Seeing as no other state has this frequency of partitionist movements, this is indicative of large divisions in such a massive state. Let’s take a look at what these divisions may be.

2016 election county map

We usually refer to Northern California as NorCal and Southern California as SoCal. The reasons we say this have a greater reason than simple geography. Northern California with the big cities of San Francisco and San Jose is known for its progressive, liberal streak. Meanwhile, Southern California with the suburbs of LA, San Diego, and Orange County brings a more conservative tone. This can be seen in the election of governors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan whose vote tallies were carried by Southern California suburbs. Meanwhile, San Francisco would vote the most against them. This was the dynamic in California politics for decades–the North voting Democrat and the South voting Republican. The Southern California shift towards “blue” occurred during the campaigns of Bill Clinton.

In recent years, however, this North-South Divide has turned into an East-West divide, with the urban West Coast finding common goals in the state legislature while the rural eastern interior feeling left behind. This can be seen with Orange County. Once one of the most conservative counties in the state, this year it voted in majority for Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump.

These eastern counties could even be argued as having more in common with those in rural Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona than urban California, and this is the reason why some people in the far north of California want to found their own state by the name of Jefferson. Just consider what you think when someone says “Northern California.” You don’t immediately think of the far northern county of Trinity; you think of San Francisco, or Sacramento.

Nevertheless, these are the divisions that come with having a state of such land area and population size. These divisions have always existed and always will exist as long as California exists.

 

Editor: Claire Jenkins

“Ava” Film Review: Shelby Goes to the Palm Springs International Film Festival

by Leave a Comment

By Shelby Armor

 

I recently volunteered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. As a reward, I got a film voucher to go see one movie. A bunch of friends and I went to see a French film called Ava. It had previously won an award at the “Festival de Cannes.” The Palm Springs International Film Festival also gave it the “Best Director” award this year. Needless to say, I was pretty excited. We went into the movie knowing absolutely nothing about it. The only thing we knew about the movie was that it was of a girl who was slowly going blind and was desperate to explore life before she lost her vision.

The reality was slightly more complicated. This girl of 13 is indeed slowly going blind, but she’s dealing with nightmares and suicidal thoughts as a result. The movie starts by following a black dog belonging to a Spanish gypsy named Juan (Juan Cano). The girl, Ava (Noée Abita), sees how the boy is mistreating the dog and proceeds to steal the dog, whom she names Lupo. Along with all of this, she has a strained, love-hate relationship with her mother (Laure Calamy). The relationship grows even more strained when her mother gets a new boyfriend.

The movie is beautifully symbolic, making use of different objects and people throughout the film to represent the coming-of-age of Ava. At the beginning of the film, she is infatuated with the dog, Lupo, wanting to get him away from this bad man. But, as she begins maturing as a person, she becomes less and less interested in the dog, and more infatuated with Juan, his owner. Lupo also serves as a coping mechanism for her incoming blindness. She repeatedly uses him as a guide dog so she can rely on her other senses.

The movie itself is chock-full of symbols. And, if you’re not really paying attention, they can often fly by. There are times where I had to sit back and comprehend the literal and symbolic meaning of various scenes, as other scenes seemed somewhat random if you weren’t paying attention to what was going on inside Ava’s head. To get a better look of what was going on inside her head, there is a nightmare sequence, going through her deepest fears of the future. There are images of her baby sister without eyes, a giant eye moving around in her mouth, her mother and boyfriend (whom she dislikes), and the police shooting her baby sister. Each and every one of these flashing scenes makes her wake up in a cold sweat. However, only one thing has started to take the nightmares away.

As she becomes closer and closer with Juan, she forgets all about her fading vision. She starts focusing more on their relationship and less on what might happen when her vision fails her. The end of the movie is a freeze frame of her smiling at Juan, utterly content with life. This seems to indicate that the nightmares and suicidal thoughts are coming to an end now that she is with Juan.

But, there are problems with the movie as well. The first half of the movie is beautifully written and filled out. The cinematography is absolutely stunning, and the score is really captivating and quite elegant. By the second half, the tempo is starting to fade. The pace can seem somewhat rushed in comparison to the rest of the movie. To others who had watched the movie with me, this really bothered them. I didn’t really mind the sudden change of pace. It made sense to me that the change of pace was accompanied with the presence of Juan. But that might be part of the appeal of the movie to me; the entire film is subjective.

The film itself is made almost entirely of symbols and can be quite hard to follow if you aren’t really the type for these kinds of films. I would recommend this film to anyone who likes a provoking piece of cinema. If a film that really makes you think about the impact of each scene is thrilling to you, then this might be the film for you to see.

 

(Warning — there is mature content in the movie)

 

Editor: Claire Jenkins

Sing Street Hits the High Notes

by 7 Comments

Review by Movie Enthusiast Leo Milmet

Grade: A+

Sing Street helped me discover even more about what exactly I love about film as an art form and why I have such an incredible passion for film. Sing Street is one of the truly great films of the 2000s. Why? For me, it’s the potent feeling it gives me every time I watch it.

Now, trust me, no one is more cynical about the modern American film industry than I am. In my humble opinion, most films nowadays are a joke. Most big-budget films are often well-crafted, yes, but to what purpose? Money? An Oscar? Most films, in general, are well-intentioned and perhaps even well-created but forgettable. They are created for selfish commercial reasons, not truly as art. Sing Street is a completely different story. Sing Street is so quietly bold as to take countless risks without even letting you know it’s taking them. Yes, Sing Street includes some cliches for this type of film in general, but the entire idea of a film about a very musical young man in high school being bullied by boys (and men) who don’t understand the meaning of art or creativity–who “have the power to destroy, but not to create” as the protagonist Conor puts it in one scene–is so boldly original that (and I rarely say this about clichés) I simply don’t care.

The film is set in Dublin, Ireland, in the 80s. In the opening scene, Conor is strumming his guitar in his room, with the audio of his arguing parents in the background. They call him out and say they’re transferring him from his posh school to a Jesuit school. Cut to an all boys’ high school–it’s pretty much totally uncivilized. Boys are screaming, fighting, laughing. All play, nothing is sacred, nothing is serious. They behave like toddlers. The rest of the film, despite mostly being an amazing romance story with great music, is truly about the introduction of a limited amount of art into a community full of teenage (and adult) ignorance. Ultimately, this changes so much without really changing much at all. It’s perfectly realistic. That’s why I love this film. It dares to be both optimistic and cynical, staying realistic throughout. All of this is partly due to the beautiful music and the brilliant cinematography. The music acts as the emotional heartbeat of the film, while the gray look of the film (contrasting with a few brilliant, deliberately oversaturated dream scenes) seems to ground the film in reality. However, this is not to take away from the incredibly smart writing in this film. After just a handful of scenes, we have already fallen in love with maybe four-five different characters, and while not every member of Sing Street (the band, not the movie) gets enough to do, every major character in this film is on par with those characters we love from the true classics of the coming-of-age genre. Sing Street is not a musical that uses its music as a crutch. The great music is another necessary element of the brilliant story, which is, at its heart, definitely the finest coming-of-age story this side of Boyhood. The film is perfectly paced and incredibly well-structured. There’s never a scene that feels rushed, nor is there a scene that drags. Some subplots could be cut without changing much, but they are more than engaging enough to not only keep our attention but to enrich the film itself. This is quite an achievement. In my humble opinion, John Carney, the film’s director, shows as much expertise in this one film as anyone has in one film in the past three years.

However, there are a few small negatives: some characters seem totally underdeveloped and are only there to flesh out the band; some scenes in the film are a tiny bit repetitive and/or very slightly contradictory; and, if this bothers you, an ending scene leaves loose ends and involves lapses in logic. However, the ending is open to interpretation in many ways, so it doesn’t bother me. I was swept up in the emotion of the moment and didn’t realize any of this until I had seen the film five times. However, none of these total nitpicks takes away from what a masterfully-created, beautiful film this is. Sure, it’s not for everyone (looking at you, lovers of only spectacle and/or mindless entertainment), but for those of you who like to experience art that is unique and interesting, this beautiful work of art deserves, at least, the meager attention of one viewing.

Editor: Charles Schnell (who agrees with just about everything Leo says of this film)

Explaining Polo: What’s a chukker and other key facts

by 1 Comment

By Claire Jenkins                  

Polo (the real kind, not the water kind) is known as the game of kings. To put it simply, polo is kind of like half hockey, half soccer, and throw in eight horses and eight players. The objective of the game is to get the ball through the goal posts, much like soccer. It is four against four in field polo, and the fields are about 300 x 160 yards, which is about the length of three football fields.

Four of the players are trying to score one way, and the other four are trying to score the other way. In field polo, after one team scores, you switch directions so that the teams are now going opposite ways. The ball for field arena is a small white ball, kind of like an oversized golf ball, but big enough to comfortably fit in your hand.

The match is divided into chukkers, each lasting seven minutes, with a break of three minutes between each one. At half time, the interval is extended to five minutes, and the crowds are invited to walk onto the field to tread in divots.

Polo has many interesting quirks, but like most other sports it has rules against fouling. There are lots of different fouls in polo, and some are severe enough to get you kicked off the field. Below are some common rules and possible fouls:

Right of Way–When the chukker is in play there is a  “line of the ball,” which is the direction in which the ball travels once the ball has been hit or thrown. When a player has established the right of way along that line, it can’t be crossed by any player if there is any risk of collision.

Crossing the Line–Any player who crosses the player who has the right of way close enough to be dangerous or cause a player to slow down, commits a foul.

Riding Off –This is the act of pushing another player and their horse out of the way using your horse and your body. It is allowed at any point in the game whether the person has the ball or not. It must not be done at a dangerous angle or varying speeds because that can cause serious injury.

Hooking mallets – A player may hook an opponent’s mallet if they are on the same side of the opponent as the ball and the mallet must be below the level of the opponent’s shoulder. Players cannot hook an opponent in front of the horse’s legs, as it would be called a foul.

 

For more information about polo rules or upcoming events, go to uspolo.org. or empirepolo.com.

Editor: Makena Behnke

Special Christma-Hanu-Kwanzaa-Kah Announcement

by Leave a Comment

Graphic by Harlow Berny

 

By Harlow Berny

Hello, Palm Valley students! For the holiday season, there will be a snowflake-crafting table to your left as you walk into the Front Office in the two weeks leading up to Winter Break. Also, every Friday morning while it’s cold there will be a hot chocolate booth run by our CSF club. One cup of hot chocolate will cost $1, so make sure to bring your cash. Next Wednesday, there will be a school-wide Ugly Sweater Day, and a Holiday Luncheon will be hosted by the Parents’ Association the day after, followed by a school-wide Pajama Day on next Friday’s half day, which is a wonderful way to end school before the Winter Break!

To give you an idea of three of the holidays taking place in December, I’ll tell you the dates of Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa in the order of when they happen. Hanukkah will begin on the evening of Tuesday, December 12, and end on the evening of Wednesday, December 20. Christmas will be on Monday, December 25, and Kwanzaa will begin on Tuesday, December 26, and end on Monday, January 1, 2018. Happy Holidays!

 

Editor: Makena Behnke

A Reading of Charles Fort’s “One Had Lived in a Room and Loved Nothing”

by Leave a Comment

Reading and Interpretation By Charles Schnell

 

Somber, subtle poems catch my attention and stimulate thought. Below is a recording of my reading of “One Had Lived in a Room and Loved Nothing” by Charles Fort–a somber, subtle, and stimulating poem.

One Had Lived in a Room and Loved Nothing

One had lived in a room and loved nothing.
Full of spiders and what memory remained,
one had loved and she had forgotten things.

Clock stopped and aeroplane lost in the dark,
and who was that voice on the telephone?
One had lived in a room and loved nothing.

It was a rare sleep in helter-skelter;
one awakened a half-blessed and charmed fool.
One had loved and she had forgotten things.

One had lived in a room and loved nothing.
Whose tiffany ring on her ring finger;
who gave one mantis kiss as the jazz played?

The faceless lover and last known address,
a writing pad and table overturned,
one had loved and she had forgotten things.

What was day or night with no hours left
and who were the two in the photograph?
One had loved and she had forgotten things.
One had lived in a room and loved nothing.

Charles Fort

 

This poem is a “villanelle.” A villanelle is a nineteen-line poem where the first and third lines of every stanza are the same, but they alternate places with every stanza. Every stanza is three lines long excluding the last one, which is four lines–the final two lines of that stanza are the first and third lines that have been repeating throughout the rest of the poem. In this poem, “one had lived in a room and loved nothing” and “one had loved and she had forgotten things” are those alternating lines.

 

When I first read the poem, I interpreted the poem as describing the tragic case of a woman who has now developed dementia. There are many signs of her not being able to remember something that she should be remembering, something important from her pre-dementia past: for instance, there is the unknown “voice on the telephone” (who I think is a family member) and the unknown “two in the photograph” (perhaps she and her husband or child). The poem speaks with a desolate, isolated voice. The images are empty, as if something is missing or wrong with the picture. This incompleteness sells the idea of something mis-remembered or gone.

 

I look up another person’s opinion online, and they thought the poem was supposed to represent a disconnect from the world. This could be a person without any disorders or the like, but rather just someone who is in a room that she has lived in for so long, for some reason suffering, that she has become unfeeling now. Very smart interpretation, I think.

 

If you would like to read this poem and many more like this, consider picking up Edward Hirsch’s and David Lehman’s The Best American Poetry 2016. The anthology contains lovely poetry: https://www.amazon.com/Best-American-Poetry-2016/dp/150112756X.

 

Here’s that other person’s interpretation I mentioned: https://ashberyland.com/2017/10/12/completely-subjective-charles-forts-one-had-lived-in-a-room-and-loved-nothing/.

 

Here’s where “One Had Live In A Room and Loved Nothing” was originally published: http://greenmountainsreview.com/two-poems-14/.

 

Editor: Peter Kadel

 

Thanksgiving Special: Curious Customs

by Leave a Comment

By Renée  

 

As Thanksgiving came and went along with Black Friday’s mindless shopping sprees and the eating of unhealthy portions, I mulled over the peculiarities of U.S. traditions. I was born in Mexico. And, in my foreigner’s curiosity, I decided to research other curious customs of the U.S. Here is my top 10 list of curious U.S. customs (along with my very helpful commentary). Enjoy.

 

Curious Customs from America

 

  1. The Pumpkin Chuckin’ Festival in Delaware. It is exactly what it sounds like…
  2. The National Hollerin’ Contest in North Carolina. Why?
  3. Tailgating Football Games. I’m not exactly sure why you would really want to wait outside a stadium during a game. You can’t see it.
  4. Pumpkin Pie Martinis. Why does all non-pumpkin pumpkin flavored stuff exist?
  5. Roadkill Cook-Off, West Virginia. Okay, kinda interesting, but I am conflicted.
  6. Cherry Pit Spitting, Michigan. Eww. No, nope. No.
  7. Black Friday Shopping Sprees. Groups of people running over other groups of people for stuff, *chuckle* no.
  8. Pardoning the Thanksgiving Turkey. Like a ceremony for telling a turkey that you’re not going to eat it.
  9. Choosing the Imperial System–It’s just dumb and inefficient and impractical, especially now that there is the far superior Metric System.
  10. Thanksgiving. It’s strange. Seriously. Cranberry in cans, turkey slaughter, Black Friday pseudo holiday, questionable origin story. Nope.

 

Editor: Brennan Nick