Scoop Feburary Issue

THE SCOOP

February

MY FAVORITE THINGS

Pocket knifeBy Daniel Ward, Junior

I often times wonder how many lives have been saved through prior proper planning; in my book, carrying a pocket knife is one such way to ensure that you have yourself covered in a wide-range of less-than-desirable in-stances. At the very least, there is a sharp blade that can function as many different tools (it’s what separates us from the monkeys

after all)! The knife on my desk has two blades, a bottle-opener, and a leather-punch. The way that it catches the light from the artificial light at my workplace connotes a sense of seriousness, like the friend who has got your back come hell or high water. A beautiful wood-inlay adorns the sides, and the pitted surface of the bark has been rubbed a bit through years of use. In my mind’s-eye, I see my grandfather who gave me my very first pocket knife and many more in-cluding the subject of this de-scription. Even in old age, Grandpa still manages to catch the light and give that comfort-ing feeling. Knowing that I symbolically carry around a family member so dear, a Fresno State alum himself, is such a good feeling. One of my favor-ites!

Favorite things that brought me to Fresno State!

One of my favorite possessions, and one that gets me from A to B.What I brought to college- Great Music

“This Year’s Model”- Elvis Costello: A ReviewBy Shae Dougall, Freshman

The Scoop is asking us what we brought to college. Well, I brought some fantastic tunes. Among my massive iTunes al-bum collection is this gem from 1978- “This Year’s Model” by Elvis Costello. Often lumped in with the punk/new wave move-ment of the late 1970’s, Costello actually tends to lean more to-wards pop song writing- albeit some of the most bitterly com-posed lyrics of the era.

“This Year’s Model” is no exception, as it opens with a whispered “I don’t wanna kiss

you, I don’t wanna touch.” “No Action” certainly sets the tone for an album that seamlessly combines cold apathy, broken-heartedness, furious sarcasm, and Farfisa organ to create a musical experience that draws you in, chews you up, and spits you out leaving you completely disoriented. It’s a 13 track romp that rarely sees a break in the energy.

After “No Action”, which is a song about a man who is disgusted with his girl-friend, come a power trio of songs, “This Year’s Girl”, “The Beat”, and “Pump it Up”. The three songs rush by the listener in a whirl of irony mixed with miserable lust. “Pump it Up” is the star of the bunch, and is also

featured in Rock Band 2. It has some of the most unclear lyrics on the record, leaving the lis-tener to fill in the blanks.

“Little Triggers” is next, and is relatively unimpres-sive. It evokes images of a 50’s doo-wop singer crooning to his girl. It’s the only spot on the al-bum where the energy drops down to a minimum level, and it would have probably benefitted from being placed later on the album.

The sixth and seventh tracks, “You Belong to Me” and “Hand in Hand” are quick dit-ties. The former is bouncy and catchy, but the latter tends to lean towards dull songwriting, mostly due to the music itself,

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and not the lyrics, which are sharp as ever.

“Chelsea” is the first truly incredible song on the al-bum, and it’s followed by three tunes that all keep up with “Chelsea’s” standard. “Lip Serv-ice”, “Living In Paradise”, and “Lipstick Vogue” are all excel-lent as well, but for completely different reasons. “Chelsea” it-self is a song about last year’s model and how nobody wants to be with her any more due to the newest model being so fresh and exciting. “Lip Service” contains great lyrics about how men can be so cruel to the women they love. “Living in Paradise” is a groovy song about jealousy, and the bass drives through each verse with a soft implied feroc-ity that must be heard to be un-derstood.

“Lipstick Vogue” is so good, it’s almost unbelievable. I

don’t think I’ve ever heard such a frantic, mean spirited take on pop music since Love’s “Seven and Seven Is”. “Lipstick” roars along at 155 BPM, but feels a lot faster. Only Costello has enough rage in him to even sug-gest that the idea of love is “just a tumor”. If I could recommend one track off the album, it would be “Lipstick Vogue”. By the way, as a bass player myself, my opinion is that Bruce Thomas is one of the best bass players ever. Just saying.

Sadly, “Night Rally” is surprisingly unremarkable. It’s quite a let-down, given that the songs that sandwich it at #12 are some of Elvis’s best tunes.

“Radio Radio” follows as the encore, and it is an ironi-cally radio friendly protest song about the airwaves. “You better shut up or get cut out/They don’t wanna hear about it/It’s only

inches on the reel-to-reel,” sings Elvis with an arrogant tone reminiscent of The Sex Pistols; A very fitting ending to an al-bum that is simply begging to be listened to. If you have already given Elvis the King your undi-vided attention at some point in your life, why not try the Other Elvis? I guarantee you’ll like what you hear, but be prepared for something different from what you’ve heard before.

“This Year’s Model”- 9/10

More Than a SongBy Parker Nalchajian, Sophomore

When living in the dorms, you have a limited amount of space to identify as your own. The cold cinder blocks and the creaky wooden frame bed can

tend to feel a little off-putting so we find something to make it even a little like home. We bring trinkets and decorations from home that will harken back to days before the dorm. Whether it is a favorite blanket, a treasured stuffed animal, or a picture of friends at other col-leges, we all have something that is uniquely ours. These things make our new home a little more home-y. There are plenty of ob-jects I could single out that I am thankful for bringing to college. Our fluffy rugs--both last year and this year’s iterations--have seen many a gathering, movie

night, and study session. The patio chairs that make wonderful nap zones are also awesome. The most important aspect of my life has always been music and as such, I would not wish to go through college without bringing my own personal li-brary of music. Back in high school, I was tremendously involved in the instrumental music program and since then I have continued volunteering my time during the marching season. The memo-ries I have during those four years are not memories that can be captured in a single picture (or even a movie, for that mat-

DestressitizerBy Hannah Richardson

The best thing I brought with me to college is this squishy purple ball. I call it my Destressitizer. It’s hard to understand its great-ness until you’ve had it there next to you during a frustrating homework assignment or extra long paper. It’s also excellent

for those days when there is ab-solutely nothing to do, not even homework (or maybe you are just avoiding the homework…) because in addition to being a good means of taking out your frustration, it is also just plain fun. So, I sometimes call it the Unboredifier or Procrastassister when it is not acting in its offi-cial destressitizing capacity. I

know you’re jealous of my word creating skills. And of my squishy purple ball. I might let you bor-row it if you ask nice.

ter). The whole of my music experience is best captured by recordings of our performances. Each piece is a memory catalyst that takes me back to the days when I could wear a tuxedo regularly and sit up on stage with the glaring lights and com-pletely let go. I filled my iPod with these memories and they mingle with hundreds of other songs that make up an indispen-sable aspect of my identity. I grew up listening to my dad’s classic rock like Emerson Lake and Palmer, Queen, and

the Electric Light Orchestra. I learned to hold classical and wind band music very near and dear to my heart. I (much like the borg, to betray my nerdiness) assimilate the notable music tastes of those I meet, associat-ing each new group with a friend made. It has gotten to the point that when I listen to my iTunes library on shuffle, any span of fifteen minutes can include jazz, opera, dubstep, and symphonic metal and much more. Each song, artist, and playlist com-pose an indispensable part of my

identity, however cheesy that sounds. I feel empty when I don’t have a song stuck in my head and I am often found humming, whistling, or other-wise singing something at all times. When all is said and done, I could not live without my music and I am tremen-dously grateful for the advent of the personal media player. Now I never have to be without a song to sing.

Windows 8By Abhijit Suprem, Freshman

Just recently, Micro-soft, the giant among software industries, released its newest evolution of the Windows OS, Windows 8. It is immediately apparent upon using the OS that Microsoft had been working, and working hard on this, for quite a while. I had the chance to try out the developer’s pre-view (pre-beta, e.g. ready for the app developers) this past week, and so far, it has dazzled.

First of all, the new OS is designed to be ubiquitous, i.e. it will function on both tab-lets and a PC, and users can switch between the two inter-faces. The desktop interface’s the same as the standard Win-dows desktop, with icons, a desktop background, and gadg-ets. However, there is one cru-cial aspect missing - the start menu. Rather, the erstwhile

‘Start’ button now leads the Metro interface (Figure 1).

The Metro interface, I have to say, is much cleaner that Apple’s iOS. It is composed of Metro tiles - rectangular “tiles” that represent icons and kill two birds with one stone - they open up apps, and at the same time, they display pertinent informa-tion related to the apps. The So-cialite app (Facebook) tile shows recent updates, so you can check Facebook without even opening the app. Similarly, the News app tile shows recent

updates right on the Metro desktop.

One of the most promising aspects of Windows 8 is its platform base is huge. It will be able to run Metro apps (similar to Apple’s apps) as well as native Windows applications, such as Word, Adobe Pdf, Pho-toshop, and just about any Win-dows software.For the tech guys among us, it can also run Visual C++, SSH, and Dreamweaver. Further, I am sure the Consumer Preview (public beta) will come with Skydrive, which is sort of like Apple’s backup plan, ex-

cept Skydrive backup offers 25 GB of data storage. Free. That’s five times as much as Apple provides. Because of its ability to run most of the applications out there, you can keep all your iTunes music, and in the future, probably run your Apple apps with an emulator. For me, the future looks bright for Windows 8. Already Windows has a ma-jority market share of over 80% of the OS market. With the in-troduction of Windows 8, the gradually declining market share (Figure 2) will increase again.

Figure 1. Windows 8 Metro interface

Figure 2. Windows OS market share

The Best Thing I Brought to CollegeBy Jenna Mersereau, Sophomore

You are all students here; you all know the time it takes to walk from class to class during the day. What would you say if I told you that you could easily cut that in half? That’s right. Wheeled transportation is the way of the future!

I understand the reasoning be-hind not buying an expensive bike that you have to chain up and worry about getting stolen. I understand if you are afraid of

careening off a longboard and breaking your face. I understand that rollerblades are not the footwear fashion-statement you want to make during class. But, I tell you, I have a solution. Scooters. They are relatively safe (brakes and handlebars) and easy to ride. When I came to college, I didn’t know how to ride a scooter, but it didn’t take long to learn.

I have to say the best thing I brought to college was a scooter. I really have no idea how much time it has saved me, but I do know that when I have to walk instead of ride – the speed difference is highly no-ticeable.

Scooters can also be customized a bit! I added a bike bell to mine. It serves as a hands-free “hello” to my friends and a “look out for your lives” to slow-moving pedestrians. One

can also consider adding streamers to the handles for a festive look. Personally, I am waiting on a cup-holding at-tachment for my Starbucks.

All in all, scooters are wonder-ful to have around! Plus, the commute time you save can be put toward doing something you enjoy!

The Future According to 1959

By Nick Vizenor, Junior

Looking around my desk in my dorm room, one can easily pick out some of the things that are important to my life. Sports, chemistry, and politics are easy to pick out, but the one thing that stands out is that I must be a Disney-lover. I have several Vinylmation figurines on my book rack (which contains at the moment 2 books on Walt Disney) and a pair of Mickey Ears off to one side. As many of you already know, I love all things Disney and more impor-tantly Disneyland; Walt Disney is a personal hero. And as such, my favorite item I have brought to college, sums up this passion quite clearly: a framed print of the original Disneyland Mono-rail poster.

When one enters The Happiest Place on Earth, you walk under the railroad tracks and through a little tunnel that serves as a berm to the outside world, but also serves as a pre-view for what you are about to experience in the form of post-ers displaying some of the more favored attractions that line the walls. Walt originally came up with this idea when building the park, as he saw Disneyland as a movie, and the posters were the previews to get guests excited. He even wanted there to be a curtain at the end of the tunnel, but that plan fell through. The Monorail poster is a favorite of mine and as such, I adorned the wall of my dorm with a smaller version of it. Not only is the Monorail a Walt Disney original, but it was the first operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere. Walt truly was an innovator, and the Disneyland Monorail is a prime example of that. The print also exudes a certain charm; created in 1959, it has a very classic and nostalgic view of the future. Tomorrowland, as Walt intended it, was meant to show the future of society in what was then the far future of the

1980s. The 50’s were a time of great innovation and techno-logical discovery and so futur-ists became optimistic for the near future of society. Shiny chrome plating, and fast moving vehicles, which may or may not be flying abound in such images of the future. It’s a whimsical and humorous vision of the fu-ture now, but one that still has a certain level of kitschy charm. Harkening back to a simpler time, but yet projecting a future, that we still haven’t seen come to fruition, the poster inspires me. It fills me with happy Dis-ney memories, but also gives me some inspiration to continue my studies and go forth into chemistry, trying to do my small part to make Walt’s vision of the future a reality.