Surprise Releases: Is This
New Music Strategy Working?
With the current age of the internet, the music industries are
looking for new and inventive ways to sell records. Lately, it
seems albums leaking weeks before they are supposed to come
out have been a regular event. Torrent sites like Limewire,
PirateBay and uTorrent have made a business out of getting
leaks of albums. So, it seems artists nowadays have to get
creative with album releases. Enter the newest trend in the
music industry: Surprise Releases.
A surprise release is an album, mixtape or project that comes
out on the internet without any prior announcements. The
recent trend of surprise releases started when Beyonce’s self
titled fifth album was released onto iTunes, selling 617,000
copies in its first week alone.
With people seeing the
success Beyonce had, many other artists started to follow, the
most notable being Drake’s If You’re Reading This Its Too Late
(which went Gold in three days).
Another trend similar to surprise releases are releases that
dropped with little notice, to build up hype over word of
mouth in a short period of time. For example, Kendrick Lamar
announced his third LP To Pimp A Butterfly on Instagram, then
released it a week earlier than expected. As of writing this,
Tyler, The Creator announced his fourth album Cherry Bomb, and
on Monday, April 13 it released at #1 on the iTunes top 100
Charts.
So it seems this strategy is working. With bigger and bigger
names announcing surprise albums (Kanye announced his next
album So Help Me God will be a surprise release, and Frank
Ocean’s third album will come out early July), it seems this
strategy will be here to stay. But should it stay?
Honestly, surprise album announcements are really cool when a
huge name does it, like when Drake did it, or when Kanye is
going to do it. But when more and more people start to do it,
there’s going to be no more hype around albums. A key
component to surprise albums is that the artist is so
secretive about the project that he or she will not talk about
anything music related at all, or even stay off of social
media. Frank Ocean’s announcement of his new album was the
first major announcement from him in years. Many fans just
wanted to know if he was alive, let alone doing music.
The best part of albums coming out is hype. I remember when
Jay-Z’s The Black Album was announced as Jay-Z’s last album,
so he was going to put his all in this one album. Now this is
interesting, this idea of Jay-Z’s last album got people
talking. Is he going to top The Blueprint? Is he going out
with a bang? Is the album going to have features?
I also take into account what people are saying about the
albums, whether this is coming from a review or from a blog.
When a surprise release happens, all I see is the news that an
album was released, not the opinions on the albums. The only
opinions I see online are super fans calling it “The Hottest
Release of the Year!”, but why is this “The Hottest Release of
the Year!”. When a huge artist has a surprise release, I
automatically get it because it’s new songs from an artist
that I love, but what if it turns out to be trash? I just
wasted $11.99 on an album I’ll never listen to again.
Overall, I do like this new trend. It’s innovative and it’s
working for the artists. But after a while, this trend might
come off as annoying or stale. So for now, i’ll just keep
refreshing the iTunes main page, hopefully seeing Kanye’s new
album.
Miramonte Runners Dominate at
Arcadia Invitational
This past weekend, the Miramonte Track and Field team sent
their best eight athletes to compete in a prestigious national
invitational, Arcadia. Every year Miramonte’s relay teams and
exceptional individuals have qualified to run at this meet.
This year the girls and boys 4X800 relay teams and Arden
Creson ‘17 competed.
Lola Olabode ‘17, Hannah Fishlow ‘17, and Georgia Roden ‘15,
and Creson ran the best time Miramonte has ever ran in the 4X8
during Arcadia finishing in 9.39.35 (2:24 second ½ mile
average for those who don’t run track). This time is currently
#1 in NCS.
The men’s team, Jackson Braitberg ‘16, Christian Gonzales ‘16,
Elliot Fong ‘15, and Charlie O’brien ‘15 ran an exceptional
relay time of 8:01.84 (2:00.4 ½ mile average). This time is
currently #2 in NCS. Gonzales ran first leg on the boys relay
and split a phenomenal 1:57.
Creson competed individually Friday night in the long jump.
She jumped an 18’2”, which unfortunately did not beat her own
record, but it is #2 in NCS.
Overall, Miramonte continues to excel in track and field and
there are high expectations for the rest of the season. “Our
league has a lot of talent this year so its been a highly
competitive season,” captain Roden said. “But we continue to
get a lot of young talent and our underclassmen always pull
through and do really well.”
Coach Tristan Tool says, “The varsity girls are continuing to
look very strong and are working toward their third league
championship in a row. Our first challenge will be our home
meet against Campo and Acalanes this Wednesday.”
California Music Festivals:
Coachella v Outside Lands
Coachella and Outside Lands. Sprawling expanses of grass, huge
stages, food vendors, floppy hats, laser light shows, bad
decisions, and burly security guards. One is held in the
middle of San Francisco, surrounded on all sides by
skyscrapers. The other is in the middle of the desert outside
Los Angeles, a field that in 2014 would have become the 5th
largest city in California, tallying 579,000 visitors in six
days. Both festivals attract artists from a wide range of
genres and generations, with headliners from this year
including Drake, AC DC, Kendrick Lamar, and Elton John.
So in a head to head match up, who would win?
Outside Lands is well known throughout the entire Bay Area,
drawing artists from all over the country, both headliners and
less well known artists. Outside Lands takes place over three
days in August, in Golden Gate Park in downtown San Francisco.
Artists perform at several different stages, playing a mixture
of electronic music, rap, and rock. According to junior
Merrick Goodman, one of last years musical highlights was
“absolutely, indubitably, 100% Kanye West”. OL definitely
trends towards the “I used to be a hippie because I did acid
in college” demographic, both in its musical guests and decor.
One thing that sets OL apart from other festivals are the non
musical attractions. Artists use OL as a huge outdoor art
show, and food vendors present a multicultural rainbow of
options. Senior Kyle Rechnitz, an avid attendee of past and
future Outside Lands, said “With a nice venue and great and
food and drink, it’s a perfect way to spend time with friends
during the summer”. Another attraction that this author has
yet been able to experience is the Winelands; an area where
people over the age of 21 can partake in some of Northern
California’s finer wines.
Looking at size, Coachella far outweighs Outside Lands. Over
two weekends at the Polo grounds, an astounding 210 artists
hit the stage, compared to Outside Lands 73. Artists perform
on six different stages in front of packed crowds over the
course about ten hours. The musical choices tend to appeal
more towards the youngins, with the majority of artists being
electronic or rock groups. Another big difference between
Coachella and OL is the accomodations. While OL attracts
locals, Coachella’s world wide popularity fills up not only
the local hotels, but also the campgrounds. Camping is almost
always the more popular option, providing proximity to the
venue and also the opportunity to interact with some of your
fellow Coachellers. “The campgrounds were very laid back and
chill, and you become like a little community with your tent
neighbors and everyone looks out for each other” senior Emily
Burch said, who attended the concert this weekend. With
general admission tickets selling out in under 20 minutes, it
is easy to see how popular Coachella is.
Duke Emerges as the Champion
of March
Winner of March Madness: Duke
The Duke Blue Devils won March Madness on April 6 after
defeating a fellow one seed, Wisconsin. Coach K’s Blue Devils
found themselves in a hole when they were down by nine with
about 10 minutes remaining in the game. Freshman Grayson Allen
scored eight straight points to bring Duke back into it. After
that, guard Tyus Jones took over the game by scoring 19 points
in the second half. Jahil Okafor, the potential number one
overall pick in the NBA draft, was forced to the bench with
foul trouble, but when he was in the game, he played very
well.
Biggest surprise team: Michigan State
Tom Izzo’s Michigan State team earned a trip to the Final Four
despite being a seven seed. It wasn’t a walk in the park to
get there either; they had to play Virginia, Oklahoma and
Louisville, who were all nationally ranked in the Top 25. Led
by seniors Branden Dawson and Travis Trice, the Spartans used
their momentum from their run in the Big Ten conference
tournament, to fuel their run in the tournament.
Best Player: Frank Kaminsky
Although he didn’t win the championship, the senior center for
Wisconsin, Frank Kaminsky, had a great tournament. The Wooden
award winner averaged nine rebounds to go along with his 22
points per game. He ended his Wisconsin career on a good note.
Biggest Disappointment: Iowa State
A team that many had going to the Final Four, Iowa State,
suffered an early exit after losing to UAB in the first round
of the tournament. The 14th seeded Blazers barely squeaked
into the tournament after winning the Conference-USA
championship. Despite being underdogs by 13.5 points and not
having any wins vs. Top 25 opponents, the UAB Blazers sent
Iowa State home with a 60-59 win in the round of 64. Iowa
State’s star forward Georges Niang really struggled in the
game shooting 4 for 15 from the field while UAB’s Robert Brown
shined, scoring 21 points. Iowa State’s early exit was
certainly a surprise considering they beat three straight
tourney bound teams to end the regular season.
Review: The New Cinderella is
Great for Any Age
“Have courage and be kind,” is the moral in this retelling of
the classic Cinderella story. Released on March 13, 2015, it
grossed $397 million worldwide. Its faithfulness to the
original plot, beautiful scenery and costume design, and good
message made it a hit for children and adults alike.
While sometimes the plot of Cinderella can get old, especially
if you are like me and watched the modern Selena Gomez version
of it at least 10 times as a child, this retelling was just
unique enough to be interesting without making it a new story.
It drew some of the older crowd as well, starring Cate
Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, and Downton Abbey actresses
Sophie McShera and Lily James. It was shot at several real
castles, including Blenheim Palace and Windsor Castle among
others. As a result, the scenery was gorgeous and as
fantastical as anyone could have hoped for in their wildest
dreams of being a princess.
The characters of the step-sisters and mother were as
frustratingly nasty as usual, and by the end you are almost on
the edge of your seat, even though the ending is obviously set
in stone.
The most unique part of this retelling, however, is the
takeaway. It has a good message that’s not so cheesily
inspiring that you want to barf up your popcorn, and it’s
accessible to young girls as well. While some people may argue
that Cinderella is not a good role model – that she’s passive,
and just gets her happy ending without any work on her part –
that is definitely not the case. She puts up with constant
belittling and lives in fear of being cast out of her family’s
house, which she promised to her dying mother that she would
maintain.
And the whole time, she sticks to her mantra – “have courage
and be kind” – ending the cycle of abuse and bullying. After
years of loneliness and unrewarded hard work, she’s
acknowledged for her good nature and gets her happy ending.
It’s not just a story of a girl sitting around and getting
swept off her feet; it’s about a girl who is strong and brave
in the face of hardship, expecting nothing in return, and then
getting her prince.
Overall, Cinderella is a must-see for any age group.
Miramonte Blood Drive Is a
Success
The Miramonte blood drive was held yesterday in the small gym.
Student had to sign up the week before to reserve an
appointment time to have their blood drawn. However, more walk
ins than were expected showed up, overwhelming the system and
causing long waiting times.
Students first had to answer a series of questions and have a
small blood sample taken to assure they were clear of
infectious diseases or poor quality blood. They then had to
wait for a chair or machine to open up. After having their
blood drawn, students were required to sit in the recovery
area for at least 15 minutes while their body adjusted to the
loss of blood. In all, the whole process took around two
hours.
Blood Centers of the Pacific, the non profit that organized
yesterday’s blood drive, is community-based organization that
provides blood and blood components to hospitals, physicians
and patients throughout Northern California. It also houses
the Blood Systems Research Institute which conducts medical
research to improve blood safety and patient care. Blood
Centers of the Pacific helps 50,000 patients every year with
blood donated by community volunteers.
Leadership organizer Jen Stanten ‘15 said the drive was a
success and Leadership hopes to continue the tradition again
next year.
Dan
Miller
Proposes
a
Solution on Climate Change to
Miramonte Students
In conclusion to Climate Change Awareness Week, Miramonte High
School welcomed clean technology venture capitalist Dan Miller
to give a quick seminar educating the students of Miramonte on
the effects of Climate Change as well as proposing a potential
solution.
Miller provided shocking facts about climate change, including
the fact that humans have recognized Climate Change as a
problem since 1958 and that sometime in the next 100 to 300
years the southern tip of Florida will be underwater. Miller
also showed students a map that projects that in 2060 the
Mediterranean region will change into a desert-like ecosystem.
Miller’s solution to the problem was a Fee and Dividend system
where the government places a tax on carbon emissions and
equally distributes the revenue to all legal United States
Citizens. Miller projects that each family of four will
receive $3,500 annually if this system is implemented. Miller
then proposed placing a tariff on goods from other countries
that do not reduce their Carbon Dioxide emissions in the hope
it encourages them to do so.
This is a clever take on solving the issue of Climate Change,
as it appeals to all American citizens with the allure
of money. One difficult thing about inspiring action against
Climate Change is finding a way to make people feel they are
directly affected. The Fee and Dividend System does that,
although some questions remain. During the question and answer
period, one important question a student asked Miller was how
to ensure the cooperation of other countries. Miller responded
that when their commercial interests are threatened, countries
will make the change.
Ultimately, the seminar provided an engaging and effective way
of inspiring discussion on how to face the problem of our
generation.
Students wishing to learn more or join in the effort can visit
Miller’s website ClimatePlace.org. The full video of Miller’s
presentation to Miramonte students can be found here:
https://sites.google.com/a/auhsdschools.org/mhs-climate-change
-awareness-week/
Morning
Practice
Offers
Negative Consequences
The Miramonte swim team requires swimmers to attend morning
practice once a week for both JV and Varsity. Practice starts
at 5:15 a.m., requiring swimmers to wake up hours before they
normally do for school.
Even though morning practice is required, many swimmers don’t
attend, in hopes of getting a few more hours of sleep. Those
students who do attend morning practice are losing at least
two hours of vital sleep, and attending two swim practices
that day.
“It’s hard to get up at 5:00 in the morning and get in the
pool, but it’s also very rewarding after it’s over,” junior
Elise Anthenien said.
Waking up early for morning practice makes swimmers tired for
the rest of the day. Many swimmers are exhausted during class,
and therefore are not learning the material very well.
Occasionally, there is a morning practice on the day of a swim
meet. Normally, it is best to rest the day of a race, but
morning practice makes swimmers tired, and may not swim their
fastest at the meet later that day.
The Miramonte track team is now having morning practice twice
a week. Unlike swimming’s practice, track morning practice is
optional. Despite not being required, about 20 people go to
each practice. “It is good because you get extra fitness, but
it’s bad because it disrupts sleep which is important for
running in general, and for our academic performance,” junior
track team member Natalie Adey said.
Morning sports practices distract students from their studies.
Not only are they tired and unfocused during school, but they
are tired while doing their homework, and therefore, may not
complete everything they need to get done.
Fresh
Off
the
Boat’s
Attention to Detail Makes it
Special
Fresh Off the Boat is a new 30 minute comedy show about a
Chinese family that moves from Washington DC to Orlando,
Florida. It airs every Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. on ABC. After
seeing trailers and previews of the show I was initially
skeptical. Being half Chinese myself, I was concerned that the
show would be written and developed by caucasians who would
draw their humor only from common stereotypes about Asians,
therefore making the show racist and inaccurate.
I decided to watch the first two episodes, “Pilot” and “Home
Sweet Home-School” with relatively low expectations. After 60
minutes of essentially non-stop laughter, I can genuinely say
that Fresh off the Boat is both hilarious and accurate. The
show is based off the 2013 memoir by Eddie Huang, which
details his struggles growing up as a Chinese-American. The
show stars Randall Park as Louis Huang, the father of the
Huang family and owner of the Cattleman’s Ranch steakhouse,
Constance Wu as Jessica Huang the aggressive and frugal
mother, and Hudson Yang as Eddie Huang, a sixth grader who
must adapt to a new school.
Huang has recently spoken out against the show, calling it an
“artificial representation of Asian American lives.” He
furthered that the show has gotten so far from the truth that
he doesn’t recognize his life anymore. I ,personally, beg to
differ. While the show may deviate from Huang’s actual
experiences, I still find it an accurate representation of
Asian-American culture and daily life.
My father is relatively Americanized, so I do not experience
the more “traditional” lifestyle that many Chinese American
children lead. I have, however, visited the homes of relatives
on that side of the family and gotten a look into their lives
and heard stories of their lives growing up. Many of the
happenings in Fresh Off the Boat are incredibly similar to
stories that have happened on my father’s side of the family.
For example, the fourth episode, “Success Perm,” captures the
essence of Chinese values, both important and ridiculous.
Jessica’s sister and her family pay the Huangs a visit, and
the get-together degenerates into a competition of who is the
more successful daughter. The episode is titled “Success Perm”
because the fathers of these families get perms before
meeting, as curly hair is rare among Asians. I can personally
say that this is incredibly true, and curly hair is highly
celebrated among Chinese families. When I was younger I had
very curly hair, and to this day still hear stories from some
of my great aunts who remembered “how so very cute” I was when
my hair was curly. I laughed so hard during this scene, mainly
because it was the first time someone poked fun at the Chinese
culture and it was actually 100 percent accurate, and about
something that someone of the heritage wouldn’t necessarily
understand.
Another plot line from “Success Perm” is a competition between
Jessica and her sister to impress their mother by finding a
better bargain. The two go back and forth reading off their
sale prices, but the mother is not impressed until Jessica’s
sister states that she got a dress for free (that she stole
from Jessica). This is another Chinese value that I can say
firsthand is true. Just recently, my grandmother started a
competition between my aunt and second cousin to see who could
be more frugal. This blew up in her face when my aunt bought
her a cheap smartphone that I can’t even figure out how to
download apps on. The concept of being frugal and saving as
much money as possible is probably a lesser known Chinese
credo that Fresh Off the Boat effectively captures.
My favorite instance comes from the episode “Persistent
Romeo.” Jessica watches a special on the nightly news about
sexual harassment, and urges Louis to give a seminar at the
family restaurant about identifying and reporting such
actions. Throughout the episode, Jessica tells everyone she
meets about sexual harassment, complete with anecdotes of
victims and alarming statistics. This translates directly to a
recent story involving my grandmother. She calls my father
completely out of the blue one week night, and rather than
check in and ask about the family, she immediately warns him
of an app that criminals use to take pictures of people’s
house keys and develop copies to rob houses with. The
inclusion of the so-called “Chinese Paranoia” is yet another
example of the show’s ability to accurately portray ChineseAmerican culture.
This past week’s episode “Very Superstitious” shed some light
on another aspect of Chinese culture. Some Chinese people are
terrified of things they believe to bring bad luck, especially
the infamous number four. The Chinese word for four sounds
incredibly similar to the word for death, so Chinese people
tend to avoid anything with a number four on it.
While I do understand why Huang may be offended by the show, I
still believe that the show is authentic in its own right. It
doesn’t revert to overused stereotypes, and uses situations
and jokes that only someone of the culture can really
understand. What is really important about the show is its
ability to poke fun at certain aspects of the Chinese culture
as well as capture the essence of what makes the Chinese
culture special. The show places an emphasis on hard work and
commitment to each other, the core values of the Chinese
culture. The constant reinforcement of these concepts along
with some mockery of the more obscure beliefs makes this show
worth watching for people of all ethnicities.
Spring Breakers: Mats Edition
College Touring
At this time in the school year college is on everybody’s
mind. Many juniors used their Spring Break to look at
potential colleges. Some of the most popular colleges for
touring were University of Southern California, University of
California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles,
and University of Arizona. “The schools I visited were USC,
Chapman,SDSU, LMU, and UCLA. My favorites were USC and LMU
because they had beautiful campuses and seem to have really
good programs,” junior Merrick Goodman said. College touring
was a bit hit during Spring Break.
Stayed Home
Sports is the biggest reason why people stayed home for Spring
Break. Nobody wants to miss anything for their teams whether
it is conditioning and lifting or in-season sports. For
others, Spring Break was a time to relax before the final
stretch of school. Freshman Nikhil Shastri said, “when I
stayed home I went to three days worth of Miramonte basketball
strength training sessions, as well as kicking it back with my
friends and playing 2k.” For Shastri, 2k is life.
Scotland
The Lamorinda Rugby team travelled to Scotland during their
Spring Break for a tournament. The team stayed with some of
the players from around the world. The experience is something
that the group of people will never forget. Junior Bobby
Capdeville said, “ The atmosphere was like family, it was
really fun and exciting. Me and the guys shared lots of laughs
and memories.” Most of this rugby club has played together
since 5th grade or younger, and this trip concluded a great
run for the seniors.