“End of the F***ing World” was released on Netflix in 2017. The show follows the adventures of two lonely teens, James and Alyssa. James is convinced that he is a psychopath and wants to transition from killing animals to killing people and his first target is Alyssa. Alyssa, a new student at James’ school, feels as though she does not fit in and she befriends James. Alyssa and James embark on an adventure to find Alyssa’s dad while James plans to kill her. Over their journey, they begin to like each other. Their adventure is filled with many events, each one becoming more and more violent. In the end of the first season, James and Alyssa murder a professor and James is shot by the police.
In the beginning of the second season, James and Alyssa are older and they have been apart for several years. However, a student of the professor killed in the previous season sets out to kill the two as revenge for taking away her “lover”.
Now my thoughts on this season are pretty simple. I kinda loved it, kinda hated it, (a loving type of hate though).
However, this did not answer a lot of the questions I had from the previous season. For one, what happened to James’ psychopathic tendencies? Did they just disappear once he realized that he was in love with Alyssa? This season was pretty ominous and quiet and the death scenes in this season were far more gory. Season 2 was also much sadder than the first season (for obvious reasons) and it kind of altered the effect that the show gave me. It was almost too sad to watch.
Category: Arts & Culture
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The End of the F***ing Season
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“She Kills Monsters” Killing it at the Poly Playhouse
On November 14, 15, and 16 the Poly Playhouse presented their play “She Kills Monsters.” An action packed comedy which still managed to touch upon serious subjects, “She Kills Monsters” is a breath of fresh air amidst a stressful college season.
The play, put on by Mrs. Bon’s Play Production class, starred Gabby Kaiser as Agnes, an “average girl with an average face living an average life,” and Audrey Moor as Tilly, Agnes’ geeky little sister who died in a car crash and a renowned Dungeons and Dragons master.
Agnes and Tilly were never close while Tilly lived, both sisters being polar opposites and Agnes having a tendency to be ashamed of Tilly, a scenario which may be relatable to the audience. After her sister’s death, Agnes finds Tilly’s Dungeons and Dragons notebook, containing a game scenario she created.
Realizing there is much more about Tilly she does not know, Agnes seeks help from Chuck, a “dungeon master” who will lead her through a D&D journey in an attempt to understand the complex younger sister she never took the time to get to know.
Filled with cheerleading demon girls, an aggressive fairy, bugbears and a cube of slime which eerily talks like her boyfriend, Agnes is in for the time of her life as she explores the universe her sister has created and often found refuge in.
Once in the game, Agnes meet’s Tilly’s character, Tillius the Paladin, a mix between the side of her she never showed and what she aspired to be. Agnes discovers things she never knew about her sister such as her sexuality or her being bullied.
“She Kills Monsters” targets different audiences. Firstly and most obvious, to the geeks and nerds who are fans of the game and understand what it’s like to be Tilly. This play does not mock them or make them the butt end of a joke but rather, divulges into their lives and explores their sentiments under the surface.
But you do not have to be a D&D expert to enjoy the play, the premise is explained quite clearly, and remember, Agnes does not have any prior knowledge of the game so the audience can learn along with her.
But the play was not only relatable to a teen audience, adults could get a kick out of the endless 90’s pop culture references.
Overall, “She Kills Monsters” was beautifully executed play and made the audience laugh, think and cry at some point. The acting was phenomenal and the set design and costumes really transported the audience to a world of fantasy. “She Kills Monsters” was well worth seeing and my condolences to those who missed it. -
Choice Night
Poly pathways, sports, and clubs showed off their accomplishments so far in the year for potential incoming freshman on Wednesday, November 20 at Poly.
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Poly Hosts “The President’s Own” Marine Band
On October 24 “The President’s Own” Marine Band performed in the Andrew Osman Performing Arts Center here at Poly. The United States Marine Band is America’s oldest continuously active professional musical organization.
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What’s Your Ride?
Poly seniors and juniors drive to Poly in their cars each morning in 2019. Each student has a unique car, ranging from imports to American cars. The students are between 16-18 years of age, old enough to drive on their own.
All the cars the seniors and juniors own are mostly 99% automatic transmission. This is easier on the beginners and easier to drive on a daily.
Some seniors and juniors have learned to drive a manual, however. “It was hard at first, but as soon as you learn it, you’ll enjoy it,” said Poly student Alex Zarate. He owns a white 1991 Honda Accord in a manual transmission with a car bra on the front and lots of modifications on it. He said Hondas are one of the most reliable cars. They are good on gas, and there’s also a lot of aftermarket potential. In Kelley’s blue book website, it has 4.5 out of five stars for reliability, so it’s one of the best cars to start out with if you’re a new driver.
Devin Martinez owns a 1996 Toyota Supra with a manual transmission like Zarate’s Honda Accord. Instead of using a four cylinder engine, it uses a 3.0 six cylinder engine. It’s a two door coupe and is classified as a sports car in Car Gurus. Many car enthusiasts like Martinez adore the Supra because of how legendary it is and the tuner potential it has. “It’s definitely my favorite car,” said Martinez. His car has aftermarket rims, coilovers, a front lip, and an aftermarket exhaust system that makes the car louder. Since it’s a Toyota, the reliability is there, Martinez said. He wouldn’t recommend it as a first car, though, because it is expensive. He paid $39,850 for his. Not too many high schoolers have that much money yet. But if you have the money to support it, the Supra is a great car to get.
The Honda Accord and Toyota Supra cars are both imports, which tend to be better than American cars. A study in 2014 by Toyota of Murfreesboro concluded that Ford’s highest mpg was 36.8 while Toyota’s was 44.2. But at the end of the day, it’s your choice whether you want an import or an American car. Everyone has different taste, and each car will have its ups and downs. -
Oil and Instructor Changes
The Long Beach Poly automotive classes are under new instruction, as the previous teachers have retired.
Michael Schenkelberg is the new instructor, and this is his second year at Poly. “The class isn’t just to learn about cars, it’s a life skill,” he said.
The class helps you learn about basic information about cars, which helps you perform work on everything to do with automotives. Daniel Castillo, a JUSTICE junior who is new to Poly this year, said, “Auto Shop is very important, and the class is helping me get my license.”
BEACH sophomore and second-year automotive student Osvaldo Gonzalez said that the class was very beneficial. It led to him having a greater understanding of cars and how to fix them.
The class is very useful for all types of things, not just an interest in cars. As Schenkelberg also teaches AVID at Poly, the class this year focuses more on being successful and teaching through hands on experiences. The class has helped many students with their own cars over the past two years. -
Un”Boxing” The YouTube Match
Two popular Youtubers, Logan Paul and KSI (Olajide Olatunji), are set to fight their rematch on November 9 at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, California. The two YouTube stars meet in a rematch of their highly anticipated amateur bout, which ended in a controversial majority draw.
According to Eddie Hearn, a reporter from the Independent, the pay-per view cost will be around £9.95 on Sky Sports Box Office and will also stream on Youtube. With KSI and Paul possessing a combined subscriber count of over 40m on YouTube, it would make sense to put the fight exactly where the fans are.
The first fight generated about 1.3 million pay-per view buys, a number expected to increase, according to experts, due to the hype of seeing these two powerful influencers go head to head once more.
During the build up of KSI vs Logan Paul, they held two press conferences, one outside of the Staples Centre, and the other in the UK. They exchanged a few harsh words with one another in order to promote the fight.
It’s the nature of boxing, but the tension between these two seems real. In recently uploaded videos posted on their channel and based on the press conference they look like they are both determined to knock each other out.
Since it is a professional bout this could be the start of a new career for each of them. “If they’re a professional fighter and they go 1-0, who knows!?” Hearn said, “I’m not looking at it for the future of their careers, I’m looking at it as a one off.” The fight is set to take place on November 9th in the Staples Centre live on pay-per view. -
Library Renamed In Honor Of Poly Alumni
On September 21, the Long Beach Public Library reopened its doors with an improved and renamed library. The now Billie Jean King Library held an opening ceremony with guest speakers such as Mayor Robert Garcia, council member Jeanine Pierce, among others as well as the tennis player and women’s right activist herself, Billie Jean King. King was greeted by an uproar of applause and proceeded to tell the story of how she would sleep with her tennis racquet and library books at night. The Poly alumni is fiercely loyal to Long Beach and hopes this new addition will be a helpful resource to the community.
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Bye Bye Spidey: Spiderman Leaves The MCU
Spider-Man is a character that everyone in the world knows about. Fans enjoy him, people enjoy the movies, and kids demand his merchandise. But Sony wants to take the rights that Marvel owns from using Spider-Man in their movies. You might wonder why this is an issue, but when Sony wants to take away Spider-Man in the middle of his story being told, fans will get angry.
Back in February 2015, Disney, Marvel Studios and Sony announced a deal to share the Spider-Man film rights, leading to a new version of Spider-Man to be introduced and integrated for the Marvel cinematic universe. The deal allowed Sony to have final creative control over MCU films where Spider-Man is the main character, while Disney had full control over films with Spider-Man as a side character. It also stated that the character was allowed to be in five movies as part of the contract. I believe that Marvel misread the contract since they wanted to make five stand alone movies of Spider-Man, but Sony is including Spider-Man’s cameos for the Avengers as part of the five movie deal. Right now, Sony has offered to give Marvel 30% of Spider-Man rights and money that it makes from the films, but Venom from Sony’s Venom universe needs to be included in the MCU as well. It’s weird how Marvel owns this character, yet they’re fighting the rights to use it with another company. I believe that it shouldn’t even be an argument about who owns the character since Stan Lee of Marvel created him in the first place. But at the end of the day, we can say that money has a lot to do with it. It couldn’t be about anything else…that’s Hollywood baby.UPDATE:
Spider-Man is reportedly back in the MCU after the studios, Sony and Marvel, reached a new deal to continue their partnership. The new deal sees Marvel Studios producing the next installment of Spider-Man’s cinematic franchise, with Kevin Feige taking a lead role in the production once more. Spider-Man will also appear in other MCU movies going forward as he has previously done. -
Come One, Come All
On April 4, 2019 at Poly’s auditorium, Julia Gustafson’s period 4, Advanced Piano class, put on a recital of extraordinary ability. The pianist lineup began on the right foot with a rustic song titled “Arrival in the Country,” arranged by Weekly and Arganbright as performed by Gregory Chao, Justin Ramsical, Chan Thon, and Alexander Vega. This gave the audience a little taste as to what was to come. The pieces had so much variety. The songs played ranged from pieces like “Fantasy in A Minor” by Mary Leaf, and “Scherzo, Opus 129 No. 6” arranged by Phillip Keveren to pieces such as “Feelin’ Good” by Robert Vandall and “Beauty and the Beast” by Alan Menken. The recital also included a multiple instrument piece titled “Lindaraxa’s Balcony” by Walter and Carol Noona. The leader of it all, Mrs. Gustafson even joined in on the fun playing “Valse Noble” with students Abigail Menchaca and Samuel Santana. Within the mix were amazing solo performances such as the one from senior Lucia Sato, playing the classic “Deux Arabesque No.2” by Claude Debussy. She stated that she has “been lucky to be a part of the piano program for two out of the four years.” Ms. Sato also gave advice for upcoming piano students: “Keep practicing and have fun while playing piano. Also, try not to stress out during your performance because there will be many more.”
As a fellow piano student, this allowed me to see a performance from the audience’s perspective for the first time. I can simply say that what Mrs. Gustafson, along with the hard work of the students, put together a fantastic performance. I only have three words to use to describe the performances: Sophisticated. Fun. Brilliant.
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The Art of Shoe Selling
Shoe selling has been a hustlers job ever since the 1970s when notorious brands such as Nike and Adidas took off. With the worlds fashion evolving and sports such as the NBA where shoe game mattered, several people caught onto the trend of dressing, “bottom up.” The amount of payout especially now could be endless and could make millions of dollars. With brands dropping shoes on a limited basis and amount, the large consumer community can only acquire them one other way, the local shoe entrepreneur. This begs the question, how do they do it?
Although on paper shoe reselling is plainly buying shoes first hand for less and selling to a desired customer for more, this process take more energy than said. First, you have to understand the market, just like stocks there are shoes that are hot at the moment, but die down. It is best to start with something cheap to sell for more.
Unfortunately, the start is always luck based. Sometimes traveling to your local retailer (Marshalls, TJ Maxx, or Ross) and finding a pair of shoes that could sell for more is a steal! For example, after Marshalls restocked their shoe section I found SF Air Force 1s (size 11.5). These go for around $45.00 dollars on shoe selling websites like StockX which take a cut of the money (transaction and payment processing fee), but when selling on your own account these go for $55.00 dollars any day of the week. But STOP! Even though these shoes are relatively recent drops, you are better off finding a more reliable pair of shoes that will stay in, “the loop.” The most reliable pairs of shoes for resell to start with are Air Max 97s or Jordan 1s due to the prevalence in the fashion community.
Let’s say you find a reliable pair of shoes, take the Air Max 97 “South Beach,” which retail for $160.00, but resell for $200.00. How do we go about selling these beauts?
Start a shoe selling social media account. These blow up with a few shout outs or little advertising as consumers want to find different people with different stock. Best media accounts are the obvious Instagram, but places like reddit or Facebook are great for putting your shoes out there.
What now? Well it is an uphill battle from here. Now that you have profit here starts the endless process from buying recently dropped or cheap shoes and selling them. This process takes extreme patience as sometimes you will find a buyer the next day or next month. Some tips to stay in there is to set long term goals such as a shoe you want to work up to. From famous rapper Jay-Z, “Only two things can get you through this: that’s patience and persistence.”
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Get Out the U.S.
Jordan Peele’s movie Us came out March 22, 2019. Featuring stunning performances by the entire cast, Us is a great reflection on the idea of how society treats its less fortunate and the consequences of these actions.
That is one interpretation of the film, as there are many more. There are also many theories surrounding the events in the film.
Warning spoilers will be present from here on, so if you have not watched it then you should get to it. On with the theories: the most interesting being that Jason is a tethered, this theory claims that Jason was switched similar to the way Adelaide was. However there are holes in this theory, mainly the timing of these events, if you want more information you can search it up.
There is another interesting theory that encompasses Peele’s other movie Get Out with Us. This theory begs the question whether or not the movies are part of a shared universe.
There are already many movies that have a shared universe so would it be so far fetched as to think Peele could be trying to do the same? Anyway the theory suggests that there is a connection between the sciences that created the tethered in Us and the ability of putting two consciousnesses inside a single body in Get Out.
All we know of how the tethered in Us were created is when Red tells the family that they were created by a shadowy government organization and abandoned. This fits in with the explanation that Dean gives in Get Out when he explains the origins of his “practice.” The most fascinating theory however is that the tethered are better than “Us”.
Throughout the movie they are seen working together collectively to achieve the goal they worked for, however the “civilized” part of society is not able to defeat them.
The tethered were even able to accomplish the goal of Hands Across America, which famously was a failure when first conceived in 1986. This asks the question of whether or not the more civilized society deserves what they got, if they are so focused on themselves and not on the greater good of society.