VOLUME 110 ISSUE 9 ONLINE EXCLUSIVES AT PCCCOURIER.COM October 23, 2014

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Labor dispute only hurts students

EDITORIAL

PAGE 3>>

One student’s battle with cancer

Razorcake writers at Vroman’s

PAGE 6>> PAGE 7>>

THERAPY THROUGH ART

PUNK PERSISTS

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Senate leaders decry hiring estimates PCC student killed in car crash

Daniel JohnsonNews Editor

Academic Senate president Eduardo Cairo announced that the senate executive committee would work only the minimum number of required hours in response to interim president Robert Miller’s estimates of full-time faculty hiring needs that Cairo said merely attempt to meet state minimums.

Cairo urged faculty to follow suit, recommending that they conduct their classes, office hours, and the mandatory five and a half hours of professional develop-ment time (also known as release time) per week and nothing more.

“We’re not going to be over-worked anymore,” said Cairo following the meeting. “If the college is fine with putting up the minimum number of faculty, if that’s what they think is good enough for this college, then the faculty will be good enough with putting in the minimum amount of time.”

Miller took a conciliatory tone when reacting to Cairo’s proposal.

“I understand that president Cairo is frustrated,” said Miller. “I know they are working beyond

their release time hours, and I appreciate that.”

“I can’t dictate what he or other individuals decide to do,” he added. “What I will try to do is improve the overall atmo-sphere for [all faculty] so that they are that much more encouraged to go the extra mile for their students.”

The figure known as the full-time faculty obligation number (FFON) is at the heart of the dispute.

It is determined by what Miller

described as a very complex math-ematical formula. He welcomed any faculty member to examine it with associate vice president for strategic planning Dr. Ryan

Cornner.“I invite any

faculty member who wants to look at the FFON to sit down with Dr. Cornner and try to work it

out,” said Miller. “Absolutely no problem at all.”

The number is reached through certain calculations of full-time student enrollments.

While Miller has publically

discussed the FFON with the Academic Senate, he has not indicated the number of full-time faculty the school will hire.

That recommendation comes from the Faculty Hiring Priority Committee, which is chaired by Cairo.

The committee has not received hiring requests from all depart-ments yet, and is unable to name a specific figure.

However, a document obtained by the Courier indicated that 27 new hires were being asked for, with some departments yet to weigh in.

Of these, 22 are replacing out-

School’s princesses not chosen as 2015 Rose QueenMonique LeBleuStaff Writer

Full stomachs and comfort-able clothes were first priority for both Rose Court Princesses from Pasadena City College, Ve-ronica Sara Mejia and Mackenzie Joy Byers, after welcoming their new Rose Queen on Wednesday night.

“’Are you hungry?,’” laughs Mejia, on the first words from her parents and family following the ceremony. She and her fami-ly went to Panda Inn.

“I took off my shoes, I got in nice PJs and I ate In-N-Out!,” Byers said. “It was a very re-lieved moment.”

Madison Elaine Triplett, 17, of Altadena, was crowned the 97th Rose Queen for the 2015 Pasadena Tournament of Roses at the Pasadena Civic Auditori-um Plaza amongst hundreds of family, friends, and Rose Parade fans on Tuesday.

Triplett, the daughter of Reg-gie and Jouslynn Triplett, attends John Marshall Fundamental High School. An active partic-ipant in student government at Marshall, the Pasadena City Youth Council, and the Black Student Union, she spoke de-cisively and clearly on her wish to create a nonprofit to educate minorities on financial literacy.

Triplett, Byers, and Mejia

graced the stage with Princesses Gabrielle Ann Current, 18, of Flintridge Sacred Heart Acade-my, Bergen Louise Onufer, 17, of Mayfield Senior School, Si-mona K. Shao, 17, of Westridge School, and Emily Alicia Olivas Stoker, 17, of Temple City High School.

Once announced by Pasadena Tournament of Roses President Richard Chinen, the new Rose Queen and her Court were escorted offstage to prepare and change, while a brief video was shown featuring the process of choosing the seven members of the royal court out of over 700 Pasadena-area applicants.

ROSE page 2

Keely Ernst/CourierPCC students Veronica Sara Mejia, 19, (left) and Mackenzie Joy Byers, 18, stand with 97th Rose Court Queen Madison Elaine Triplett, 17, at a ceremony on Tuesday night at the Pasa-dena Civic Auditorium.

Daniel Johnson and Matthew KiewietStaff Writers

A PCC freshman was killed in a single car accident around 8 p.m. Tuesday night.

David J. Echauri, 18, died after his car struck a light pole, guardrail, and freeway sign before rolling over on the westbound 134 freeway near the 2 freeway, according to a report by the Glendale News-Press.

The report states that he was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

Echauri was a registered nursing major who had attended Arca-dia High School, according to a statement from interim president Robert Miller’s office.

Crystal Kollross, who taught Echauri in her first-year orientation class, remembered him as a dedi-cated young man.

“It is a huge tragedy,” she said. “He was a very nice young man that everyone got along with. He was going places.”

Echauri is the second PCC stu-dent involved in a fatal car accident in just over a month, following the death of April Townsend on Sept. 12 in Santa Clarita.

Ryan Kevin/CourierAcademic Senate Vice President Kris Pilon (left), President Eduardo Cairo (center) and Secretary Pat Rose at their regular meeting in the Circadian held on Monday.

Executive committee to work minimum hours in response to full-time hiring estimate

“If the college is fine with putting up the minimum

number of faculty...the fac-ulty will be good enough with putting in the mini-mum amount of time.”

-Eduardo Cairo

HIRING page 2

Kristen LunaStaff Writer

PCC students, staff and fac-ulty at the Community Educa-tion Center joined more than 10 million people statewide in the Great California ShakeOut Earthquake Drill.

At 10:15 a.m., the campus alarms rang and students quickly responded by dropping to the floor, squatting under their desks and holding on. After a few moments, professors led stu-dents out of the building where campus police directed everyone to parking lot A.

For anyone who has grown up in the California school system, earthquake drills have been a way to get out of class for a few

moments and chat with friends. That appears to be true even to this day, with most students carrying on conversations with their classmates and taking their time exiting the building.

However aside from the ban-ter, PCC Police officer Michael Despain said that as a whole, “it went flawless.”

ESL professor Greg Marlowe agreed.

“It was ok. It was fun,” Mar-lowe said. “We survived it and there were no problems.”

California residents have always been aware that earth-quakes can be volatile and occur when least expected. And cos-metology student Lucy Shahinyn feels that earthquake drills are still a necessity.

“It’s an experience and you have to be ready because lots of earthquakes happen here,” said Shahinyn.

Last year, PCC participated in the drill on the main campus but that was not the case this year. According to Despain, the drill was relocated because the school had “limited resources.”

Despain hopes that next year the campus police will have more resources to bring the drill back to the main campus.

The Great California Shake-out educates citizens on how to “Drop, Cover and Hold On” during an earthquake. This annual drill allows participants an opportunity to practice how to protect themselves should an earthquake take place.

2 COURIER October 23, 2014

Create it. Autodesk software is FREE* for students and educators.

Autodesk software, including Autodesk® Fusion 360™, is FREE* for students and educators.

*Free Autodesk software and/or cloud-based services are subject to acceptance of and compliance with the terms and conditions of the software license agreement or terms of service that accompany such software or cloud-based services. Software and cloud-based services provided without charge to Education Community members may be used solely for purposes directly related to learning, teaching, training, research or development and shall not be used for commercial, professional or any other for-profit purposes. Autodesk is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2014 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Don’t just imagine it.

School participates in California ShakeOutNEWS

Paul Ochoa/CourierStudents exit Gisela Mena’s class during the Great California ShakeOut on Oct. 16.

HIRINGContinued from page 1going staff, while five are new positions.

It is this ratio of replacement to growth that Cairo has the big-gest issue with. He is concerned that the administration will not make enough full-time hires to keep up with retirements and other turnover.

The conflict over the hiring figures began at last week’s Coun-cil on Professional and Academic Matters (CAPM) meeting and continued at Monday’s Academic Senate session.

At the CAPM meeting, Miller put forth that the FFON would be between five and 10, which drew an angry response from Cairo.

“Based on the number of administrators we’ve hired in the last couple of years, it’s insulting to say we only need five to 10 [new faculty hires],” said Cairo then.

Miller revised his estimate Monday when he joined the sen-ate session, citing new data that increased the estimated FFON to between 11 and 24 new positions by Sept. 2015. He said that Cai-ro’s previous indignation played no role in the increased figures.

Miller told the senate that adding more than the mandat-ed amount of new faculty was possible, depending on factors such as the new Faculty Asso-ciation contract currently under negotiation.

“I can assure you that I will take as high a recommendation as

we possibly can this year on full-time faculty, trying to balance all the other things we need to bal-ance from the light bill to library books and everything we need

to have a full-service institution,” said Miller. “We are planning to grow from three to four percent each year over the next for or five years. That is going to require faculty, obviously.”

Cairo remained dissatisfied upon hearing the new estimates.

He cited senator Russ Di Fiori’s assertion that four percent growth worked out to about 21 new teachers, meaning that simply meeting the FFON would not fully address vacated posi-tions.

“There are many positions that haven’t been filled,” he said. “We need to hire people to fill them before we get to growth.”

Cairo indicated that if retir-ing and vacated positions were

addressed, he would accept the FFON as additional hiring growth.

“Ideally what should happen is that if the college says 11 or 12, we’ll say we’ll take whatever you give us, plus the [retirement] number,” said Cairo.

Following the meeting, Miller expressed his desire that all par-ties keep up respectful discussion.

“I respect everyone’s com-ments in there and if I could wave a magic wand and do what they want I would,” said Miller. “In the meantime, if we can work together and keep talking maybe we can come to a rea-sonable position, and remember every year we get to hire new faculty.”

ROSEContinued from page 1

For the presentation, the Roy-al Court was escorted back on stage, with the Rose Princesses dressed in midnight blue Tadashi Shoji gowns that complimented Triplett’s own in shimmering white. President Chinen then lead Triplett through a brief pledge and the new Rose Queen was adorned with the coveted Mikimoto crown that features “more than 600 cultured pearls

and six carats of diamonds.”The rest of the year will be a

very busy one for the new Royal Court as Ambassadors for the Pasadena Rose Parade.

“The Royal Court participates in anywhere in the neighbor-hood of a 100 events before January 31st ,” said Andrea Joy, a tournament spokeswoman. Their first event will be this weekend for the Club 21st To-gether is Better Walk-a-Thon in Pasadena’s Central Park.

File photo by Daniel NerioInterim President Robert Miller.

Keely Ernst/CourierPCC students Veronica Sara Mejia (left), 19, and Mackenzie Joy Byers, 18, await the announcement for Rose Queen.

3OPINION

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COURIEROctober 23, 2014

ONLINE POLL RESULTSOnline, we asked: Does L.A. need its own football team?

Results as of 5 p.m. Wednesday:

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Labor dispute only hurts studentsJustin ClayOpinion Editor

Academic Senate president Eduardo Cairo’s announcement that the senate executive com-mittee would only work the minimum number of required hours in response to the college hiring the minimum of full time employees sets a dangerous precedent.

Cairo is suggesting that the rest of the faculty follow the lead of the committee and teach their classes and follow through with the mandatory office hours and nothing more.

The dispute over hiring and the idea that facul-ty are overworked is a serious one, but if faculty decide to scale back their time, it only hurts the students.

The faculty is here to serve the students and the community as a whole. The idea of faculty members doing the minimum work load because they are upset at a specific policy that is in place is like a student deciding at the beginning of a semester that all they are going to do is the bare minimum in order to get a C in the class because they don’t like the homework policy.

No one is disputing that teachers are over-worked, but shutting down and phoning it in mid-semester cannot be the answer.

Students shouldn’t be punished because facul-

ty members are having a dispute about decisions that the students themselves don’t have any effect on whatsoever.

The idea that someone is upset because their employer is doing the minimum required as far as hiring practices and their response is to count-er with the minimum required as far as workload makes little sense.

Is Cairo hoping that students will suffer so much that they will express their outrage to the administration?

There are students at this college that struggle financially and work multiple jobs just to be able

to afford school expenses. So the fact that the faculty that they look to

for guidance would take their ball and go home because of a labor dispute has the danger of causing a serious disconnect between the two groups.

No student is responsible for solving labor disputes, therefore they should not be penalized for said disputes.

Being an educator is a thankless and tiresome job, but no student should have to watch their faculty have a public pouting fit over something that they have absolutely no control over anyway.

Paying voters won’t solve political apathy

VOICES:

“I think it’s important because there’s all these

props that we need to acknowledge but people don’t know about them.” Joseph Garcia, Nursing

“Yes it is important. If I don’t vote than I’m not

going to get the benefits that I need to sustain my

life.” George Tinoco, Graphic Design

“Yeah I think it’s import-ant but I get lazy and don’t end up voting.”Khristine Camarena,

English

“No, I don’t think so. I just want to focus on the main

election.”Elina Finau, Electrical

Engineering

“Yeah if you have a strong stance on something, I think you should vote

instead of what someone tells you to vote.”

Austin Cox, Music

Do you think it’s important to vote in the midterm elections?

Reporting by: Kristen Luna Photos by: Nagisa Mihara

Joey Calderon GuzmanStaff Writer

Given last year’s poor election turnout, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission has begun consider-ing the idea of using cash prizes to increase voter participation. While people are definitely motivated by money, it still won’t solve the apa-thy people feel toward politics.

According to Pew Research, we are more divided now than we’ve ever been in the last two decades. People are much less likely to tol-erate other people’s beliefs outside their political spectrum, so it’s understandable why most people would rather simply recuse them-selves from the conversation than risk losing a friend. It’s socially advantageous to be apolitical.

The more people don’t care about politics, the more power special interest groups like the Koch brothers have to influence the government. Eventually, when the public inevitably becomes up-set with the fact that their interests aren’t being met, the partisanship kicks into full gear and both sides start to blame each other for the exact scenario they were both profiting off of just a minute earlier.

According to another study done by both Princeton and Northwestern Universities, when they compared the preferences of average Americans and the prefer-ences of affluent Americans along with special interest groups, they found out U.S. policies tended to highly favor the rich and powerful. Meaning it doesn’t matter which

way you vote—if you aren’t paying for their reelection campaign, chances are they won’t care about you want.

However, according to Chief Justice John Roberts, not only is this not corruption, but it’s how the system is supposed to work.

“We have said that government regulation may not target the gen-eral gratitude a candidate may feel toward those who support him or his allies, or the political access such support may afford,” Roberts wrote.

What he doesn’t mention is where that leaves the rest of us who don’t have that much money? Does that mean we don’t have as much free speech than our richer counterparts?

In 2012, 90 percent of congres-sional incumbents were reelected

despite the fact that that same year, as a whole, they had an approval rating of 10 percent. They weren’t reelected because of how well they did their job, they just found the perfect balance of pandering to the public while groveling to the people actually that pay them.

It is not all bad. A whole new generation of voters coming of age will, for the first time, out-number the baby boomers and those numbers are growing. More than any generation before them, 50 percent of millennials identify as political independents. They’re far less trusting of the traditional parties that, up till now, have dom-inated the political spectrum.

They not only have the means, but also the motivation to change the system, they just don’t know it yet.

Cartoon by Mick Donovan and Paul Ochoa

COURIER4 SCENE

Keely Ernst/CourierBarista Eric Narangjo (above), 23, of Pasadena brews a cup of coffee for a customer on Tuesday morning at Copa Vida. Copa Vida has been open since August 2013 and is located at the corner of Green Street and Raymond Avenue.

Keely Ernst/CourierBarista Alex Barth (above), 31, rings a customer up on Tuesday morning at the Zona Rosa Caffe located on El Molino in the Playhouse District in Pasadena. The Dia de los Muertos themed cafe specializes in organic Latin coffee.

Nagisa Mihara/Courier Richard Lee shelves coffee beans at Intelligentsia Coffee on Colorado Boulevard on Tuesday afternoon.

Nagisa Mihara/Courier Intelligentsia Cafe sells various coffees from beans all around the world to customers on East Colorado Boulevard in Old Pasadena.

5 SCENE October 23, 2014

Keely Ernst/CourierBarista Alex Barth (above), 31, rings a customer up on Tuesday morning at the Zona Rosa Caffe located on El Molino in the Playhouse District in Pasadena. The Dia de los Muertos themed cafe specializes in organic Latin coffee.

Keely Ernst/CourierNaomi Hirahara of Pasadena reads an eBook with a cup of coffee with her dog, Tulo, outside of Zona Rosa Caffe in the Playhouse District in Pasadena on Tuesday morning.

Keely Ernst/CourierPets are memorialized in a Dia de los Muertos art exhibition that inhabits the upstairs room of the Zona Rosa Caffe in the Playhouse District in Pasadena on Tuesday morning.

Nagisa Mihara/Courier Richard Lee shelves coffee beans at Intelligentsia Coffee on Colorado Boulevard on Tuesday afternoon.

Nagisa Mihara/Courier Intelligentsia Cafe also sells beer and wine with happy hour everyday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. where customers can get $1 off all alcohol.

Nagisa Mihara/Courier Customers at Intelligentsia Cafe buy coffee, pastries, and alcohol on Tuesday afternoon. The cafe houses artwork for sale by independent artists affialated with Art Unified.

Nagisa Mihara/Courier The Intelligentsia Cafe came to Colorado Boulevard in August 2010 and is the largest in LA.

Nagisa Mihara/Courier A macchiato, a Kunga Maitu brewed coffee and a peanut butter cookie from Intelligentsia.

Anthony MartinezStaff Writer

A new culture-based talk show is headed to Lancer Radio as a result of a collaboration between two anthropology professors.

The Super O Show, hosted by Alexis Altounian and Mark Gordon, transforms the broad, highly academic topic of culture into entertaining discussion. Even the show’s name was derived from the academic work of the famous anthropol-ogist Alfred Kroeber.

Kroeber taught at UC Berkeley, where he wrote numerous books and articles on culture.

“One of [Kroeber’s] most famous articles outlines the concept of the su-perorganic,” said Altounian. “He’s talking about how culture is so important that it is actually above the organic…like the basic things, food, water, shelter, but the culture is so much more than that.”

“It’s everything that we share, from language to traditions, customs, to things that are so hard for us to describe, but they’re all part of this superorganic,”

Altounian added.While the history behind the show’s

name sounds complex, listeners should not fear the content. The show brings education and entertainment together to examine aspects of culture that might surprise listeners.

“I don’t know what’s more entertain-ing that the wacky and exotic things that people do,” stated Gordon. “We wanted to create almost like a ‘best of ’ so it’s not exactly the way we would teach our courses, but we take the traditional topics in anthropology and we’ll…throw in some of our favorite subjects.”

Finding culture in everything and everywhere is one of the major purposes of the show, according to Altounian. As a result, potential episode discussions include dating, comedy and magic along with special guests.

“All of the things that already interest people, it really is anthropology wheth-er or not they put that name to it,” said Gordon.

Both Altounian and Gordon hope the show generates interest among students to “whet their appetite” to explore an-thropology. Additionally, Gordon hopes

listeners find the show’s discussions relatable despite sounding heavily rooted in academics on the surface.

“I think our personalities jive to make that happen,” he said.

In their first episode, Altounian and Gordon will discuss culture generally,

Kroeber’s contributions, and how they both got into the field of anthropology.

The Super O Show debuts on Oct. 27 at from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Lancer Radio, which will be available in podcast format after the airing of the show.

FEATURES October 23, 2014COURIER6

Cancer survivor strives to help others through art

Anthropology professors bring culture to the airwaves

Mick DonovanOnline Editor

People wearing bio-hazard radiation suits walked into the room carrying a container. The lid opened with a ksssssssssh as it released the freeze-dried smoke. From out of the container they pulled a black pill and handed it to the girl with three-foot long tongs and waited for her to swallow it before leaving the room again.

The only thought going through her head was “Why aren’t I wearing one of those masks?”

“I mean, I had fun with it. What can you do in that situa-tion?” said Danielle Aguilar. “I was in quarantine pretty much. No one wanted to come near me. Even when they brought food, they’d call me to say ‘get away from the door’ and to go to my bed, and then they’d open the door and roll the cart in real quick and close the door and they said to wait a minute to pick up the food so they could walk away from the door on the other side. That’s how radio-active I was.”

Danielle Aguilar is a survivor of thyroid cancer and plans to use her experience as fuel to help others through art therapy.

The doctors could not originally deter-mine that Aguilar had cancer. They knew she had a lesion but could not be certain of what it was until it was removed. Agu-ilar couldn’t stress enough how important it is for a person to trust what their body is telling them when they feel something may be off.

“The first surgery was to remove the lesion that I had, because they wanted to test it,” Aguilar said. “The biopsy showed that it was not malignant. But because it was strange, they removed it anyway. And then when they got the results of that, then they found that it was cancer.”

Aguilar attributes the cause of her cancer to her bad attitude when she was younger, but she is also able to say with a smile that it is what turned her life around.

“When I got out of the surgery, it was

eight hours long. Of course, I wasn’t aware of that because I was knocked out,” Aguilar said. “But I remember waking up with such gratitude that I was awake. And I think that a part of me, I don’t know, left the world or something, and I didn’t know if I was going to come back.”

Art is what helped get Aguilar through such a difficult time, and why she feels that it is a crucial tool to recovery.

“I think there’s, emotionally, a lot of blockages,” Aguilar said. “I’m still learn-ing. But from my experience, because I’m going back to my roots, and learning more about my roots, I feel some sort of liberation. Art, I think, creativity, express-ing, thinking are really important to break those blockages.”

Aguilar felt as though her art, and its process, helped her to overcome negative feelings she would experience throughout her life. It was an outlet for her and she recognized how it helped to heal her.

“…It was just a sense that I had in me, that this was meant to happen to me for a reason,” Aguilar said. “And, so, what can I do with it? And I think that’s part

of the reason why I want to use art for healing. Because art has been healing for me all my life. If I was sad or nervous or whatever, I’d be in my room painting or drawing, even if it’s just scribbling, you know, making scratchy, not pretty stuff; it didn’t matter. It’s just the movement of creating that releases something. So yeah, it changed me.”

Chicano and psychology studies have brought to light in Aguilar how import-ant art, history and culture are. Being a Mexican-American, and essentially a child of two worlds, she felt a disconnect from who she was. Aguilar was unable to identify or feel comfortable around any group, and she believed this was a large part of what caused her inner turmoil and the cancer.

“I don’t speak Spanish. My family’s Mexican American. My mom speaks Spanish,” Aguilar said. “My dad was born in Mexico, came here when he was two or three years old. So, we’re an American family. But when we’re with other people, or certain people, we feel too Mexi-can. And then when I’m with Mexican

people…I feel too white-washed. And I’m not the only one.”

One of Aguilar’s professors also notes how much has been lost through immigration and a clashing of cultures, and how much is still trying to be regained.

“Many of these students have been disconnected from their cultures (some over generations) due to assimilationist agendas in schools and media primarily in this country and in others as well,” said Professor Silvia Villan-ueva in an e-mail. “Again, there is a long history of this in the U.S. but it is not a history that is emphasized in mainstream school curricula.”

Aguilar is one of the many who have been through this devastat-ing and life-changing experience. She has proved, if anything, that there can be a light in the dark-ness.

“I was finding the silver lining,” Aguilar said. “Definitely, I saw a lot of silver, during this expe-

rience… It affects all of us, the whole family. And in the most twisted, but honest and amazing way, it brings people together.”

Aguilar and her family never expected for cancer to be a part of their lives. One day, she was just another kid, trying to find her way. The next thing she knew, she was fighting for her life. And at the end of it all, everything became clear.

“I was sick emotionally, and repressed, I kept my feelings to myself,” Aguilar said. “I was kind of a loner. A stereotypical artist: all black, emotional, dark, drug ad-dict, or wannabe drug addict… And then, cancer happened, and it just completely changed my outlook on life.”

Aguilar didn’t take horrible news and give up; she did everything she could to change it. And she feels it in her heart that she needs to help others to find them-selves, and she wants to do it through art, through action.

“Instead of looking at the negative and just wondering, look at the positive and take action,” Aguilar said.

Tiffany Yip/CourierCancer survivor, Danielle Aguilar sits in front of the Center of the Arts building on Oct. 16. Aguilar has a Bachelor’s degree in illustration from Otis College of Design. She has overcome two battles of Thyroid cancer since first being diagnosed in 2007.

Concepcion Gonzalez/CourierAnthropology professors Alexis Altounian and Mark Gordon, the hosts of Super O Show on Lancer Radio, recording their first show in the LL building on Oct. 15. The Super O Show debuts on Oct. 27 at from 12 to 1 p.m.

Monique LeBleuLifestyle Editor

Punk veterans Alice Bag, coordinat-ed with blue suede shoes to match her azure blue hair, and Jimmy Alvarado, in a black Ramones t-shirt, are likely the most eloquent and well spoken punk rockers that you will ever meet this side of Henry Rollins.

Vroman’s and Razorcake zine presented Bag and Alvarado, both featured writers for the prominent punk zine, Razorcake, at the Hastings Ranch store on Foothill on Sunday, Oct. 19, who shared their unique experiences in the 70s and 80s during the burgeoning L.A. Punk Scene, where they spoke to a standing-room-only crowd of fans and patrons bleeding deep into the store.

“That’s a lot of people,” remarked PCC student and bookseller Muriel Munguia, on coming to work during the event.

Todd Taylor, founder of Razorcake, introduced Alice Bag, a musician, writer, educator, feminist archivist and author of “Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Holly-wood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story.”

Alice Bag was lead singer of The Alice Bag Band, which was featured in Penelo-pe Spheeris’ quintessential film on the Los Angeles punk scene “The Decline of Western Civilization,” and Castration Squad.

Both bands played throughout Los Angeles, Hollywood and East L.A.

And with her, Jimmy Alvarado, a musi-cian, videographer, writer, and “collector of punk oral histories,” who both reflect-ed fondly and honestly on the Hollywood and East L.A. Punk Scene of the late 70s, early 80s and wisdom learned of the time.

“My real name is not Bag,” she said laughing along with patrons knowingly. “Taking your punk name is empowering.” Bag’s real name is Alicia Armendariz.

Bag said her first taste of punk was through the glam and glitter rock of the 70s when she read magazines like Circus and Cream and heard The Ramones, Patti Smith, and Rodney Bingenheimer’s radio show on KROQ that almost solely featured new bands of Los Angeles and vintage 60s rock, including TV band The Monkees.

On his early foray into the scene, Alvarado remarked, “I didn’t know Punk Rock from Pet Rock. I always was the kid that didn’t fit in.”

Both artists credit Flipside Records and fanzines for feeding their passion for punk music and culture.

For Alvarado, the scene provided an early outlet while he was restricted at home as a teenager.

“I had to live vicariously through these records and fanzines,” said Alvarado. “Be-cause I couldn’t leave the house!”

The Bags played mostly in Hollywood while living at The Canterbury, an apart-ment complex and a culture hub for the scene that resided in Hollywood clubs and bars on Cherokee. Both Bag and Alvara-

do spoke on the East L.A. scene and the bands they followed and befriended, many of which were incarnations that blos-somed from other band breakups.

“Our little scene was a little incestuous,” said Bag.

Although they spoke in admiration on local and known bands like X, The Stains, The Weirdos, Black Flag, Bad Religion, and L7, they spoke fondly of smaller local East LA bands such as Los Illegals, Los Olivos, and Mad Parade.

Smaller LA bands played wherever they could--car clubs, swap meets, nightclubs like The Vex, The Paramount Ballroom, The Starwood and Madame Wong’s and progressive art venues like Self Help Graphics in downtown and Al’s Bar.

The scene was underground but thick with those in the know. But mostly, it was in someone’s backyard.

“It became it’s own kind of beast,” said Alvarado of the backyard scene.

Drug overdoses, club thrashings, gen-eral burn out, and a stabbing at the punk club Fenders, diminished the then-fast growing music scene, and Bag and Alvara-do changed with it.

But in the wake of the recent death of the last remaining Ramone, Tommy Ra-mone, this event may have been a needed affirmation that punk was still alive and well.

“Nobody gets into punk because they are well adjusted,” said Alvarado.

That said, Bag went on to study law and earn her Bachelor’s degree to teach and

Alvarado regularly contributes as a colum-nist and podcaster for Razorcake.

Vroman’s Hastings Ranch store on Foothill has monthly zine workshops ev-ery third Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., but be sure to call the store for updates at 626-351-0828.

LIFESTYLEOctober 23, 2014 COURIER 7

Mick DonovanStaff Writer

Everyone took off their shoes. There were creaks as they stepped up onto the wooden deck, their feet relaxing in relief from the painful rocks inlaid in the dirt.

As they filed in one by one, everyone either took a spot on the floor cross-legged or kneeling, or on one of the few wooden stools. The walls were little more than decoration, being made of wooden slats that hid nothing from the outside world.

A woman dressed in a kimono stepped out of the room, knelt before the door, and bowed before re-entering, on her right foot.

No one ever enters a teahouse on their left foot.

Mikko Okita was the mistress of ceremony this past Sunday in South Pasadena.

She, along with five others, performed and hosted a tradi-tional Japanese tea ceremony for their guests.

“It’s usually a smaller group. The hostess will have made preparations a long time in advance,” said Darlene Kelly, a docent for the Japanese Gardens at the Huntington Library.

The unique setting for this ceremony was held at a Japanese Garden, on a residential plot, in the middle of a suburban neigh-borhood in South Pasadena.

Connie and Jim Haddad inherited the place from Jim’s mother and have since restored it to it a semblance of its original beauty.

“My mother-in-law came to the auction, not planning to bid on the property, but ended up doing so on a whim. When she acquired this property, it was much bigger at that time. It was seven city lots,” Connie said. “She lived here until her death

in 1985 and then she left it to her husband. And that’s very abbreviated. There’s a lot more to that.”

Normally, this would be held in a traditional Japanese teahouse and there would be fewer guests.

But Okita is striving to keep the art form and tradition of tea ceremony alive. The Haddads have been more than willing to help by offering their Japanese garden as a venue to host such events.

“This is the second one they’ve had this year. Mikko-san, who is the mistress of cere-monies, is a personal friend of Connie and Jim, and she’s also affiliated with the Huntington Garden. This is a labor of love for her,” said Nancy Helleno, a friend of Connie and Jim Hadd-ad. “She offers herself free of charge to keep the tradition alive here in this area. All of these other women are here also…they’re here at the invitation of Mikko, and they’re also here vol-unteering to keep the tradition alive.”

This ceremony is about more than tradition, however. It is also an art form. Those who host the ceremonies must train for about 20 years before they are consid-ered more than novices.

Everything about the cere-mony is linked to serenity and finding and being present in one’s calm.

Right from the start, as a guest enters the grounds of their host’s home, they must sit and wait to be called upon to enter the teahouse.

Before entering, they must purify themselves in a small bath that is placed outside. And of course, taking off one’s shoes is

required.“[You are] dusting off the

old world out there, [and] coming into a new world in the teahouse,” said Jose Salcedo, the teacher and translator for the ceremony.

Inside the teahouse, the only people to communicate with one another are the host and the first guest. No one else is permitted to speak. This is a part of the se-renity and the guests are crucial to that.

“The guests play such a critical role in creating that tranquil atmosphere,” Salcedo said.

The ceremony is about shar-ing tea, tradition and respect in

a neutral space of tranquility. It normally lasts for about four hours but these events are held both at the Japanese Garden in South Pasadena and the Hun-tington Library in a shorter time period and offer only a glimpse of the beauty of a true ceremo-ny.

It is a unique art form that Salcedo said won’t die any time soon.

“Many of the art forms in Ja-pan, they’re suffering…With this art form, there will always be people interested,” Salcedo said. “If you’re at all interested in the Japanese arts, the tea ceremony is a good place to start.”

Punk is alive and well in the hearts of many

Ryan Kevin/CourierMikko Okita preparing tea for a Japanese Tea Ceremony that embodies harmony, respect, and tranquility at Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden in Pasadena on Sunday.

Daniel Vega-Warholy/CourierPunk veteran, musician, and author Alice Bag with her book “Violence Girl”, at Vroman’s Bookstore Hastings Ranch on Sunday.

The Japanese tea ceremony: a tradition in the garden

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Men’s soccer unable to contain Long Beach VikingsDavid O’ConnorStaff Writer

The men’s soccer team played another game full of missed opportunities Tuesday, losing their third consecutive match 1-0 to Long Beach City College at Robinson Stadium.

The stage was set for an in-teresting tussle with the Vikings coming off a big win against the highly ranked Mt. SAC Mounties

last Friday, which meant that LBCC and Pasadena shared the same conference record (2-3-1).

Also, the Vikings have been the leading defensive team in the South Coast Conference by only conceding five goals, while the Lancers have been the worst team guarding the net by allow-ing 16 goals.

PCC was forced to start with-out its co-captains George Barba and Victor Manchaca, who were

benched by head coach Edgar Manvelyan for undisclosed reasons.

“There are a lot of things why George and I didn’t start,” said Manchaca.

PCC took charge of proceed-ings in the fourth minute with freshman forward Christopher Sinani almost pulling off a crisp header that was averted by the Vikings goalie’s diving save to the right. A minute later,

freshman midfielder Brandon Gerlach’s threatening free kick swerved away from the left goalpost, which left the Lancers regretting their unconverted dominance.

PCC looked like a different team with sharpened teamwork, anticipation and urgency. This higher level of play almost paid off with Sinani creating another scoring opportunity in the 19th minute by cutting through the Viking’s defense with a 20-yard run. But he took an extra touch that prevented him from a realis-tic scoring chance.

Defense has been a major issue for the Lancers of late, but freshman goalkeeper David Orellana made several impres-sive saves in the first half and was well supported by sopho-more defender David Abeyta, who thwarted a few of LBCC’s attacking raids with crucial blocks and tackles.

With the game tied 0-0 at half-time, the Vikings hit the ground running several minutes after the restart, when the Lancers wall of defenders was unable to stop a curling free kick that sailed into the right corner of the net, making it 1-0 LBCC.

Sinani feels that his side plays their best soccer when they are behind the eight ball due to poor defensive starts.

“I feel that we don’t start playing well until we get scored on first and we’ve conceded way more goals than we should have,” Sinani said.

Although PCC continued to create more scoring opportuni-ties, at times the Lancers turned over possession while pressing the Vikings defense in their own half. Pasadena outshot Long Beach 14-12, but ultimately lost the contest because of poor offensive execution.

According to co-captain Manchaca, the Lancers have been severely affected by the last two defeats, which has fractured team spirit.

“We are on a three game los-ing streak because our unity and morale is down. We have to pick it up as a unit, it’s that we’re not demonstrating what we can do,” Manchaca said.“We still have an opportunity to win and we’re going to take advantage of that here on out. It’s a lesson.”

Pasadena next faces ECC Compton at home on Friday at 1 p.m.

Volleyball beats L.A. Harbor in straight sets

Keely Ernst/CourierFreshman outside hitter Lahiz Longobardi attempts a kill against L.A. Harbor’s Carla Barrera on Wednesday.

Ansis Hoheisel/Courier Midfielder Diego Gonzalez makes a pass during Pasadena’s 1-0 loss to Long Beach City College on Tuesday.

David O’ConnorStaff Writer

The women’s volleyball team overcame a slow start to beat the L.A. Harbor Seahawks in an impressive straight-sets win at Hutto-Pattinson gymnasium Wednesday night.

The Lancers swept L.A. Harbor, 25-23, 25-20 and 25-22 in a match where the scoreboard did not reflect the gritty nature of their performance.

With the Seahawks losing straight sets in all five previous conference games, PCC was expected to dismiss the Seahawks easily due to their 2-3 confer-ence record.

The Lancers were forced on the back-foot early on due to poor execution of some wayward kills. This allowed the Vikings to forge ahead to an early lead. It didn’t help that key freshman players, Lahiz Longobardi and Chy’annea Hodges were kept quiet.

Sophomore setter Megan Williams felt that a mentality shift and letting go of self-inflicted pres-sure made the win easier.

“We felt expectation to win, we tend to have that issue. If we don’t know what the competition is like, we can focus on doing the best we can,” Williams said.

Freshman libero Sabrina Takeuchi was instru-mental in keeping her team on the heels on the Sea-hawks due to her infectious energy, selfless retrieves and physical dives.

“You have to sacrifice your body in volleyball, you have to go out there and you can’t be scared,” Takeuchi said. “We’ve had several talks that the team comes before you.”

With the first set tied at 18-18, Longobardi came into her own by striking a couple of crucial kills, enabling the Lancers to close out the first set and take some confidence into the second set.

Longobardi stepped up another gear, which gave the Lancer’s offense the freedom to flourish in the second stanza. Her power, accuracy and bounding leaps generated a fistful of kills that proved to be the difference as PCC leapt to a two set lead.

Head coach Bill Sanchez felt that his team dug themselves into a hole, but he was happy that the girls found a way to win.

“We needed this win,” Sanchez said. “Sometimes we overthink things on the court and make some decisions that aren’t too good and we don’t bounce back quickly, but we’re getting a little better at it.”

Pasadena host undefeated conference leaders El Camino on Friday at 6 p.m.