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Difference of Entertainment Character’s Efficiency & Gender and Changes of Entertainment as a whole

January 15, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Darius Purnell

Staff Writer

In the past few years many characters in entertainment that been around for years have experienced major changes in who they are, whether it has to do with race, gender, or some other aspect of their identity.

Many cases, these changes add a special new spin to the stories we know or add new situations we would never think of.

In 2014 a female Thor appeared in volume 4 book #1 of Ultimate Comics Thor. The comic sold great with critics giving it an 8.0 out of 10.

In 2011 the well known hero Spider man, had a brand new twist. The original Spider man, Peter Parker dies and the new Ultimate Comics Spider man begins with a young mixed African American and hispanic teenager named Miles Morales. The comic series was marked #1 of the 200’s debuts on Marvel’s website.They quote: “Smart but still clearly learning, scared but full of courage, wanting to be the ideal son, but driven to keep secret, Miles instantly connected with the audience.” The first book broke digital records in the first week of release.

Disney is famous for taking known Grimm Fairy Tales and turning them into animated children/family comedies. In 2009, Disney did something different from their usual set up. They took the story the Princess and The Frog and made the Disney Princess African American. Disney is not known for being diverse and that small change made the story much more interesting. There was a chance that because of this new change, they would not receive as much excitement for the movie as they thought it would, but instead it was a big hit. The Princess and The Frog was marked the highest-grossing start to date for an animated movie in December. The film fell just under its budget of $105 million by making $104,400,899 in the US and Canada alone and an additional $165 million overseas for a total of nearly $267 million. Overall the movie made a success at the box office. How would the movie had done if the main character was caucasian? We will never know, but we do know the change was a good turn.

Also in the recent events we have been given stories with complete role changes and have strong female leads.

Scandal is a show starring a woman named Olivia Pope and she solves scandals for a living for politicians. While dealing with personal troubles and situation of the US government, including an affair with the president. Besides the personal issues, the show involving solving political scandals the show would not be as good if Olivia was a male. Fans call her a feminist icon and such a great character for african american woman. Also the show gives talent and gives them a way to shine.

All these new aspects to entertainment changes it for the better. Though, there are cases where the changes had little to no effect at all; one recent example is the the recent version of the movie Annie. After 9 other adaptations, people now have lost their connection to the little orphan. The recent 2014 adaptation has scored no more than 30% by major critics. It may had nothing to do with the specific change of ethnicity but just change in all repeated is never good for movies or shows.

Mayoral Election 2015

January 12, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Chhievling Seng

Staff Writer

If you aren’t aware, Philadelphia will be having a Mayoral Primary Election in May of 2015. Since the Mayor is almost always a Democrat, the primary is like the general election, so this vote matters.

The current Education crisis in Philadelphia have been shown to be one of the main concerns of both students and citizens in general. Will this Mayoral Election help with the education crisis at all?

Some candidates have already declared their run for the Mayoral Race. Lynn Abraham (District Attorney for Philadelphia) and Ken Trujillo (former city solicitor). Other candidates, like Terry Gillen (former Director of Federal Affairs for the City of Philadelphia and former Executive Director of Philadelphia’s Redevelopment Authority), have already dropped out due to lack of funds.

So, what does the SLA community think about these candidates?

Mr.Block and Ms.Jonas are history teachers at SLA. With their background as a history teacher, SLA media have gotten some of their views and opinion on the Mayor’s Election.

Ms. Jonas felt a bit different from Mr.Block on the Mayor’s election.

“It’s exciting, we haven’t got a new mayor in about 8 years. Its an important time for Philadelphia. Mayor Nutter have been a cheerleader for the city and have done a lot of great things,” Ms. Jonas said. “

SLA community thoughts on the link between the Mayoral election and it’s impact on Philadelphia’s public school education.

“The mayor only controls part of what happens with school, I don’t think that the Mayors election alone can change the situation, but the mayor can do a good job advocating it,” Mr.Block said

Ms. Jonas had similar opinion to what Mr.Block said.

“We have to be very careful with primaries election. There are more democratic and not many republican trying to run pPhiladelphia they know they probably won’t win because Philly have people who are more supportive towards democracy. In May, it’s important we go out and vote for a candidate that is for education.”

As for who they are voting for, their opinions also differ.

“I remember Lynn Abraham when I was growing up, but I was in the younger generation so I didn’t payed much attention. It’s exciting that there are women running. Never had a female mayor. Most importantly, we also should look at what they stand for and what they did in their past political lives,” Ms.Jonas said.

Mr.Block had a different view on the candidates that have been declared.

“ I want more candidates because I’m not really excited on those candidates. I can’t really relate to most of their visions. I think someone should have a way to draw people into more positive ideas for a change in the cities. I would like to see a positive leader for many different types or people. It ddidn’tseem like the candidates put a lot of ideas out yet but I am curious to see on what they have coming up. I have high hopes, I hope that some good candidates will emerge,” Mr. Block said.

“We should pay as much to Mayors election as Presidential because local politics are often an impact on our day to day lives, then Presidential politics do,” said Ms.Jonas.

Adults and students in Philadelphia should be more aware of what’s going on and the changes that are promised by the candidates. Don’t forget to keep up with updates on the Mayor’s election in May of 2015.

Photo courtesy http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OEcMs1a0vU8/UkwzQ4urn4I/AAAAAAAAHDI/rmPtnT1ncnE/s1600/Every+Vote+Counts+In+2013+City+of+Houston+Mayoral+Election.jpg

SLA’s book vending machine

January 8, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Corinthia Bell

Staff Writer

Have you seen the Black venting machine on the 3rd Floor Ballroom? If not, go see it’s there. This black venting machine isn’t filled with snacks or gatorades, it is filled with books that are enjoyable for everyone. The groups in charge of organizing this event are the Hand and Head Press and the 4th Floor lit mag, which began collaborating in the spring 2013. The fourth floor is ran by SLA students and the Hand and Head press is a separate writing company with professional authors.

It was placed there at 6 pm Wednesday, on December 3rd, for a kick off event hosted by both groups. Currently, In the machine there’s a total of six books by both SLA students and professional authors. There’s A chain of paper dolls by Autumn Konopka, Believe by Tara Altebrando, Margot & Moises by Liliam Rivera, Fade to Black by Robert Marx, In memory of Lester by Jennifer Hubbar, and Mad by Ruby Jane Anderson.

One of the editors from the 4th floor Lit mag, Junior Leo Levy, says, “This vending machine is for chapter books which are short stories published, independently by high school students and the Hand in the Hand press authors. Each book costs $2 and its an opportunity to get SLA kids work recognized and help them understand even though they’re teenagers, they can still be dedicated, committed, active artists and writers and thinkers. This will impact the SLA community by it being a source of pride cause more than anything else, it shows they’re able to produce work comfortably with professional writers.”

Another editor of the 4th floor Lit mag, Junior Anna Sugrue, says, “There’s a group of writers who sit down read pieces and talk about them and try to hear from everyone and come to a decision as a group and the collaboration is essential in their writing process.”

To learn more about the 4th Floor magazine or to get involved with their group, they meet weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays in Mrs. Pahomov’s room.

Teachers, Students React to New Relations with Cuba

January 8, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Benjamin Simon

Staff Writer

Screenshot 2015-01-08 at 12.30.48 PM — Image courtesy of: http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/

The conflict between the United States and Cuba goes back to 1959. The problems began when the Cuban Revolution occurred, which brought Former President Fidel Castro to power. Shortly after this, America decided to cut ties with Cuba. Until now.

In 2009, Mr. Alan Gross was arrested in Cuba. The American born employee of the U.S Agency for Development was in Cuba trying to improve the communication network for Jewish Neighborhoods. As he continued to provide sources of technology intelligence for these citizens, he was detained. After Mr. Gross was accused of “Acts against the Independence and Territorial Integrity of the State” in 2011, he was sentenced to a grueling fifteen years. With his mental and physical health slowly deteriorating by 2014, his family wondered how much longer he could live.

For the past years, President Barack Obama has made it a priority to bring home Mr. Gross. However, he knew it would not be an easy task to negotiate the return of a prisoner with a country that America has not been able to cooperate with for tens of years. President Obama started by releasing two members of the Cuban Five, a group of men who were thought of conspiracy and espionage, in 2013.

Still, Cuba refused to allow Mr. Gross to return home. Amidst almost ten meetings in Vatican City and over the phone, the foggy details began to clear between President Obama and President Raúl Castro.

Alan Gross 140412-alan-gross-mn-1200_9d76532e0413553f774fae120c0cdbb9 — **Alan Gross**
Image courtesy of: 140412-alan-gross-mn-1200_9d76532e0413553f774fae120c0cdbb9

Many months later, the other three members of the Cuban Five were released and Mr. Gross was set to return home. On December 17, 2014, Mr. Gross stepped on American soil for the first time in almost half of a decade.

This swap was a great step in President Obama’s intentions to resume diplomatic relations with Cuba. Since their refusal to talk decades ago, Cuba’s economy has had some troubles. The losing one of its largest suppliers and buyers has provided its toll. This exchange of prisoners has raised many eyebrows. Should America make strides to better their relationship with Cuba? Can America really call them allies? Isn’t it a huge problem if America has such a bad relationship with Cuba that people cannot fly from here to Cuba?

“I think normalizing relations with Cuba, and other ‘enemies’ like Iran are necessary for diplomacy to be possible,” said Mr. Herman, the digital video and photography teacher at Science Leadership Academy, who visited Cuba in 2008.

His visit showed him that many of the pre conceived ideas about Cuba as a pessimistic and terrible country are not always true.

“And yet, with all of the daily struggle Cuba is a very happy, excited, energetic and optimistic place,” explained Mr. Herman. “Simply stating ‘Soy de los estados unidos’ was normally met with a huge smile and a big conversation as if we had been friends for years.”

His experiences there have convinced him that open diplomatic relations are best.

“Without such measures it feels impossible for our societies to work together to avoid deeper, more damaging conflicts,” he said, “Opening channels of communication is critical to moving forward. Simply put, It’s about time!”

Arsenio Gomez, a sophomore at SLA, added a different perspective.

“America is going to be in a worse situation,” he said. “We need to worry about ourselves before we try and save the world. [America is] trying to expand too fast and be friends with everyone.” He also noted that America has its own gaping problems that need to be fixed before we worry about the relationship with Cuba.

“Obama’s executive decision to re-establish an embassy and an official ambassador in Cuba is an important step in the right direction,” added Mr. Herman in the interview with SLAMedia, “If anything, this will hopefully lead to an easing of restrictions on Cubans traveling back and forth so they can be reunited with family members they haven’t been able to see in years.”

Like it or not, America and Cuba are taking giant strides in resuming of diplomatic relations.

Should Parents Help Their Kids With Homework?

January 5, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

William Derry

Staff Writer

Image Courtesy of sheknows. com

When we begin school at the age of 5 or 6, (sometimes later) we are given homework. At that time, we do not really understand why this happens but we know that are teachers constantly remind us to do it. Usually it starts off with the teacher putting the homework in your notebook, then proceeds into us writing down the homework from the whiteboard. The question is: what happens when we get home?

When I was in 4th or 5th grade, my mom would check my homework after I finished it. She would make comments on it, and I would have to correct it. This was fine until one day, I did want to not do my homework. I just sat at my dining room table and just stared at the homework. My mom yelled at me and told me do it. I knew that I must have been crying very hard, because after I finished the assignment I could see the tears on the spelling worksheet. Oh, I forgot to mention that my mom is a teacher and better yet, she is an elementary school teacher. Needless to say, she was never going to make life easier for me by doing the work.

When kids are first starting kindergarten and up until they reach middle school, they should be helped by their parents with their homework. This does not mean that the parents should do the homework for the student, but should encourage the student to complete that night’s assignment and try to answer any questions that the student has about the homework.

Once the kid has reached middle school, they will not need the parents to dictate when and how they do their homework because the foundation that was set when the kid was in elementary will still be intact. If those good habits are not there, that’s when kids really get lazy — and when parents might cave and help them actually do the work.

With my own mom, her attitude helped me in the long run. It gave me that fear and constant reminder that I had to do my work myself. She would follow up on me, but she never did the work for me. As a result, I make sure to do my homework every night, at 6pm on the dot.

The age of the kid and who the kid is, will dictate if you should help them with their homework and if so, how long in their educational career you should help them with their homework.