the bird on fire

The Palm Valley School Student Blog

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Cali-Pizza Party!

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Graphic by Harlow Berny

By Harlow Berny

 

Hello, fellow PVS students! Today from 11 am-10 pm there will be a Pizza with a Purpose fundraiser at the California Pizza Kitchen* on El Paseo**. In order to participate, you need to bring in a flyer–which you can get from either your Advisory teacher, the front desk, or online***–and present it to your server/cashier. When you do, 20% of your check will be donated to the school. Remember to write your Advisory teacher’s name on the flyer, as the Advisory class that has the most participation will have a pizza party!

 

Editor: Brennan Nick

*Phone Number: 760-776-5036

**California Pizza Kitchen 73-080 El Paseo Suite #8 Palm Desert, Ca 92260

***https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VPXscFvXAuMrsHk0bW1qUJEMTh3szJnL/view

Why California was once known as an…   Island???

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By Brennan Nick

 

Once upon a time when the Spanish were first exploring the Americas, there were tales of “an island called California very close to the side of the Earthly Paradise” that was inhabited entirely only by black women with no men. They were great warriors with golden weapons for “there is no other metal on the island other than gold.” These quotations come from Las Sergas de Esplandian, a Spanish novel published in 1510 by Garcia Ordonez de Montalvo.

 

It was this story that drove Hernan Cortes a few decades later to send an expedition to California led by his cousin, Diego de Bercerra. He landed on the southern tip of Baja California and saw water on all sides. Now, thinking they had found the fabled island, Cortes sent further expeditions. Shortly after, explorer Francisco de Ulloa followed the coastline northward until he reached the Colorado River, discovering that Baja California was, in fact, a peninsula, not an island. On maps, California enjoyed the privilege of being drawn as part of the mainland for sixty years after the first map in 1562 represented California as connected.

 

Then something happened. In 1622, on the title page of a Dutch map book, California was drawn as separate from the mainland. This reinvention of the status of California can be traced to the journal of an obscure friar who described California as being a separate island. He then included maps that he himself made and sent them to Spain to be examined and potentially published. The Spanish wouldn’t have found these maps credible due to their prior knowledge of the area. However, the ship these maps were being transported on was hijacked and the bad maps were taken seriously by the Dutch who proceeded to publish them as their own.

 

This mistake was reproduced for decades. Many well-known cartographers of the time, mainly in Northern Europe, had better access to Dutch maps rather than Spanish maps and gave the incorrect maps more credence than the correct ones. This misconception even penetrated into Spanish cartographers as they saw what their northern counterparts were doing. 249 maps showed California as an island from the time of this first Dutch map until 1747 when the King of Spain finally made a formal decree stating “California is not an island” (that’s word for word by the way) after someone bothered to actually remap the area of California (Esplandian). Ever since then, all the maps have shown California once again as part of the mainland–except for a single Japanese map made in 1865.

 

Editor: Charles Schnell–Formerly of Blog Class

Six-Word Stories: Can You Do It?

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Written and Compiled by Brennan Nick

 

Old Friends. Yelling. Gunshot. Silence. Regret.

 

Left footprints. Tide came. No footprints.

 

Every sickness starts with a hug.

 

Aimed for moon–Landed among stars.

 

Three steps backwards; two steps forwards.

 

Dark and stormy night?! Oh no…

 

If I’m alone, then who knocked?

 

Epitaph–“Only wanted to find home”

 

Once vibrant village now lies silent.

 

Orders given. Orders followed. Lives lost.–Peter Kadel

 

The side of my face hurts.–Peter Kadel

 

Feel free to write your own!–Peter did.

 

No. I’m sorry. I’m all out.–Makena Behnke

 

Editor: Makena Behnke

4th-Person Poem

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By Brennan Nick

 

So I was in English class talking about the perspective a story can have: 1st person, 3rd-person limited omniscient, 3rd-person omniscient, and 3rd-person objective. We also learned that it’s possible to have a story take place in the 2nd person with pronouns such as “you” and “yours.” Then, I searched if there is such thing as 4th-person perspective, and I was not disappointed. According to Wikipedia, “The term fourth person is also sometimes used for the category of indefinite or generic referents, which work like one in English phrases such as ‘one should be prepared.’” So here’s my attempt at writing a quick poem in the fourth person.

 

When one takes a nap in the shade of the Banana Tree,

One must be sure the Parakeet bird won’t see.

For if he sees one asleep, he will come in from behind,

And the bird may steal from you and not at all mind.

One’s food and one’s drink he will take as inclined,

And return to his perch all sated and dined.

If one wishes to sleep beneath the Banana Tree,

One must be sure the Parakeet bird will not see.

 

Editor: Shelby Armor

Doomsday Clock

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By Brennan Nick

 

Just yesterday, the annual movement of the Doomsday Clock occurred,… and it just moved ½ a minute closer to midnight.

 

For those who don’t know, the Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 by a group of scientists– many of whom worked on the atomic bomb–as a symbolic way to show how close we as a planet are to nuclear war. Since 2007, however, it has been expanded to also reflect how close we are to unalterable climate change, and new developments in science that could cause irreversible damage to humanity.

 

When the clock reaches midnight that means that Doomsday has occurred. The lowest the clock can go to is 9:00 PM to signify how far the world has come from a 0% chance pre-humanity. Just as a reminder, we’re at 11:58 right now, the highest it’s ever been–tying with 1958. To put this into perspective, however, the furthest from Doomsday the Doomsday Clock has been since its inception was 11:43 in 1991 right after the fall of the Soviet Union.

 

The group that manually changes the time on the Doomsday Clock moved the clock ½ a minute closer to midnight because of “the failure of President Trump and other world leaders to deal with looming threats of nuclear war and climate change.”

 

Now, hopefully we won’t be heading towards the apocalypse anytime soon… hopefully.

 

Editor: Shelby Armor

California Split: And We’re Not Talking Earthquakes

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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

Comfort

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By Makena Behnke

 

everyone goes through an awkward and clueless phase

that’s normal

you may not be the star quarterback or the lead role in a play

but eventually you will find your thing

it might be something artsy

something music related

something techy

or something completely different

your individuality is gained by understanding that the world around you

judges

no matter what

so do your thing

your gained individuality will help you find your thing

so if you’re grades aren’t that great

and if you have trouble speaking in public or reading

you’ll be fine

 

Editor: AJ Patencio

“ugly” things that are beautiful

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By Makena Behnke

  • acne
  • albinism
  • big lips
  • big noses
  • birthmarks
  • body hair that “shouldn’t be there”
  • bushy eyebrows
  • crooked teeth
  • curly hair
  • double chins
  • fat
  • flat chests
  • grey hair
  • hip dips
  • heterochromia
  • hooded eyelids
  • limb transplants
  • scars
  • short eyelashes
  • stretch marks
  • thin lips
  • vitiligo
  • wrinkles

–the “ideal body type” is trash

 

Editor: Peter Kadel

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

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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