Scanner Reflection

Final Reflection

Throughout the first semester of this year I have participated in the journalism class at Cumberland High School. I worked on the paper my freshman year when it was still a written publication, by helping with the layout. However, as the years have gone by, my interests have changed, and for this year I wrote as a fashion writer for the Pop Culture page on the Scanner. I am glad that I took journalism this year, and I really enjoyed the class.

Throughout this year I have written an article every week that one was assigned, keeping up on all the articles. The majority of the articles that I have written have been about fashion, or topics surrounding fashion. The articles covered topics from Paris Fashion Week all the way to the Golden Globes Fashion. Besides the times that I was sick, I have kept up to date on my articles and have been an active contributor to the paper. Along with fashion articles, I have written a few school-centered pieces, including one about the Commissioner’s visit and another about the Drama Club. I feel that after my first few articles I became more comfortable writing in the newspaper format and I believe that I made good contributions to the Scanner. However, I did learn that I needed to double check my work because I had many spelling errors in my first article.

I enrolled in this course because I felt that it would be a good experience to have for college, and that it would be a fun and interesting class to take. Since I want to major in fashion merchandising there are many different job opportunities that could go along with that major. One of those opportunities could be writing for a fashion magazine, and I now have a portfolio of pieces gathered that could help with getting a job in the future. By signing up for the class I expected it to be fun and to learn something at the same time, which is what happened. I learned different hints and skills to help with writing in a journalistic style. I also enjoyed the discussions that we had in class, found the different issues interesting, and enjoyed hearing other points of view on the stories.

Overall I am very happy that I took journalism and I feel that I have learned a lot. As a student, I feel that I have contributed regularly to the paper and that my work ethic has remained persistent. Although my articles might not be worthy of the New York Times, I believe that I have submitted quality work and that not only have I learned from the class, but I hope other students have learned something from my articles.

Golden Globes Fashion

On Sunday, January 17, 2010 the 67th annual Golden Globes were held at the Beverly Hills Hotel, in Beverly Hills, CA. There is really only one reason that I watch award shows, and that is for the red carpet fashion. As usual there are both best and worst dressed celebrities, with a big margin in between. Throughout the night many neutral colored ensembles were seen, including many black outfits.

However, a few bright stars shined, such as Sandra Bullock, in a bright violet Bottega Veneta gown. Along with Bullock, other stars whose fashion choices stood out were Emily Blunt in a pale pink Dolce & Gabbana dress, Jane Lynch in an amazing green Ali Rahimi gown, and Lea Michele in a black strapless Oscar de la Renta gown. Even though there were highly stylish stars that night, there were also fashion disasters. Although Anna Paquin had a stylish date going down the red carpet, her over-sequined gold Stella McCartney number, which was low-cut and with a short slit down the side, was way to over the top. Among the other worst dressed of the night were January Jones in a simple black dress with a headband, Fergie in a lavender princess like prom dress, and Drew Barrymore, who wore a peach ensemble with fabric bulging out at the side.

Although there were plenty more fashion do’s and don’ts throughout the night, a celebrity’s style changes at every event. Even if an actress chooses a horrible dress for the Golden Globes, doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t dress amazingly at the Oscars. On the flip side, if an actress dresses glamorous at one red carpet event, it doesn’t mean that they could not look horrible at the next show. Red carpet walks are always fun to watch and critique and I will never get tired of doing it.

H&M is Called Out

Last week, on 35th Street, New York City, unsold H&M clothing was found ripped up and destroyed in garbage bags, behind there 34th Street store. H&M is a stylish and affordable Sweetish store; well know throughout Europe and the United States. Instead of being donated to the less fortunate, or even being put on sale, the clothing was made un-wearable and was secretly disposed of.

The news of this disposal came to light shortly after the clothing was discovered, however not many knew of the incident until twitter got a hold of the story and the store was hit with inquires. Once word was out H&M was bombarded with complaints and questions, however they did not respond right away. Further down on the same street clothing from Walmart was also found destroyed and disposed of, contributing to even more of an outrage. H&M did not return over ten phone calls so the story was leaked to the press. However, once the company was finally contacted, they admitted what they did was wrong, and are now committed 100 percent, to no longer destroying their excess clothing. Walmart has also been contacted, and have said that they donate all of their extra clothing, and could not explain the bags of discarded clothing found, destroyed with machine like holes throughout every garment.

Barbie Represents New Style and Pop Icon

Fashion icon and pop sensation Lady Gaga is adding something else to
her resume, Barbie doll! Veik, a 29 year old designer from Beijing,
decided to create as very unique new Barbie Doll. Although Veik does
not work for Mattel he soon might. Many fashion followers who have
found the photos of this doll are overjoyed and hope that this
over-the-top doll will be released for real. Veik took a normal blond
Barbie dolls and styled them to reflect the pop princess Lady Gaga.
From Gaga’s red MTV Music Award ensemble, to her strange Kermit the
frog getup, the Babies help to portray a variety of Lady Gaga’s unique
looks.

Stefani Joanne Angelina, later nicknamed Lady gaga, is a 23 year old
from New York that has been interested in music since the age of 4
when she learned to play the piano. As she grew up in New York, her
interest in music and performing increased, leading up to her
admittance and years at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. However,
partway through her attendance at NYU, Gaga dropped out in order to
pursue her musical dreams. At the age of 19 Lady Gaga was signed by
Def Jam Records, only to be dropped three months later. However she
was quickly signed again and released her first album, The Fame, in
2008 and her second, The Fame Monster, in 2009. Within 2009 she was
the first artist to have 5 number one singles within a year.

With Gaga’s cutting edge music style and outrageous fashion sense it
is only normal to have her sense be captured within a Barbie, even
though it is not an official Mattel Barbie. Fashion and music fans are
now looking up to Gaga and if this Barbie was released, it would soon
become very popular.

Drama in the New Year

Although students are counting down the days until holiday vacation there are many things to look forward to once we return in the new year. For theatre geeks like myself there are three main events occurring during the second half of the year.

The first is the Rhode Island Educational Theatre Conference which is on Saturday, January 16th. This is an annual event open to all Rhode Island theatre students and educators. The day includes many different workshops, a chance to get to know other students with the same interests, and the chance to be adjudicated on a song or a scene. Anyone interested can sign up with the Mr. DiMartino sometime before vacation.

The second even to happen is the auditions for Living Lesson’s Little Shop of Horrors. Living Lessons is a student run theatre group that puts on a play or musical every few years. It was created to provide an educational and fun learning experience for students that also provide real world values. This years play is going to be directed by Senior, Emily Yang, and it will hold auditions the second week of January.

The last, but certainly not the least, is the auditions for the Drama Club’s All the
Great Books, for the Rhode Island State Drama Festival. This comedy is a three character play which explains “all the great book” within an hour’s time. Anyone who joins the cast or crew will be able to spend the weekend at the State Drama Festival which is an amazing experience where you can meet new people and see a lot of remarkable and diverse plays. Auditions will be held sometime in the beginning of January and the festival will be held a weekend in March.

Anyone interested in any of these activities please get involved and have a lot of fun at the same time!