Uni High Gargoyle Staff Blog

“NO!!!”

The word echoes for a few seconds after the initial sound dies away. Whoever knew that Uni Gym was so wonderful acoustically? And no, no, no. No one’s being attacked or anything.

In fact, just the opposite. What I’m talking about are the RAD (Rape Agression Defense) classes that I took this past weekend at Uni Gym. Our instructor, Joan Fiesta, drummed it into our heads that the word “no!” can shock an attacker (I know I personally jumped out of my skin when she shouted it unexpectedly). Our goal is always to escape, not to beat the attacker into a pile of mush (although sometimes that would be nice).

RAD classes are offered to women for self-defense against sexual harrassment. You have to take four classes to complete the course, and it’s only $12. The final two sessions will be held this weekend, also in Uni Gym.

In addition to the actual physical defense, we were instructed in all aspects of self-defense: how to behave in elevators, for example. Joan also emphasized the point that all women were special, and that no one had the right to make us feel uncomfortable.

The RAD students are varied. There was me, of course, but also a teacher and her mother, four seniors, and two subfreshmen.

Of course, there were no boys. RAD techniques were developed for women attacked by men, and males would approach each other differently. In addition, the atmosphere was more relaxed than it would have been with boys present: Girls tend to understand each other better, and we could talk more openly. So sorry, guys.

During the first lesson, we learned how to get into different stances and how to block slaps. With everything that we learned, it was always accompanied by a loud “NO!” or “STAY BACK!” I started cracking up halfway through I admit it. But when Joan came at me, it felt great to be able to stop her and get away with relative ease.

I had to leave the Sunday session early, but we were supposed to have started on kicks. Funny as it sounds, I can’t wait for this Saturday. At first, I really didn’t want to do RAD. It sounded ridiculous. And it was from noon to 3 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday an entire six hours of my weekend wasted.

But in fact, the comfortable atmosphere and the people involved have made it an extremely fulfilling and enjoyable experience. In addition, the skills we are learning are undoubtedly useful. While I hope I never have to use them, it’s nice to know that I’m prepared.

— Michelle Gao

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, Wednesday, April 19, I was invited to come to the Spring General Meeting of the Parent Faculty Organization. The topic of the meeting was how we can all coexist in the multicultural and multi-ideological environment. I was one member of a five-member panel that represented different views across the school, from conservative christianity to advocacy of more Asian literature programs.

I had done very little preparation for my remarks. In fact, all of my notes consisted of pink marker on a ripped paper tablecloth from The Bread Company. My main point was similar to one I stated almost two years ago in a column entitled “Ideological Intolerance at Uni.” I called for an end to the intolerance of political beliefs other than the accepted liberal norms of Uni.

I wasn’t entirely proud of my performance during the speech. I had trouble looking at the audience because I was so nervous, and I ended up generating a sympathetic response from the audience rather than generating the thought that I had hoped to create about listening to new ideas.

Not only was I upset with my own failure to communicate my message, but I was also worried about the message of the meeting. I saw that many parents were trying to divide the curriculum, especially of English, to cater to more ethnic groups. I do not think that it would be feasible to include a separate semester-long course for every single different group or culture, and I do not think that parents who were lobbying for specific courses would care at all about the courses that parents representing other groups wanted.

In the end, I felt as if we were more divided, and further away from a solution or compromise than ever. I think that instead of looking how we can separate people into different ethnic or cultural groups through teaching about each group as if it existed in a vacuum, we should look for common ground.

I personally believe that shared interests can be found in the canon of Western literature. In these texts we can find many universal themes that all humans share, rather than breaking up ideas by ethnic lines. Before I am accused of furthering Eurocentricism and colonialism, I would like to point out that the idea of multiculturalism itself arose from the Western intellectual tradition. In fact, without the Western ideas that arose from Renaissance thought, modern liberalism would not exist as we know it, and it is a distinct possibility that it may never have come to be at all.

Until we can come up with a feasible plan for incorporating multicultural values into our curriculum, we need to evaluate whether or not it is possible to accomodate the interests of so many groups that are all struggling to the top for cultural visibility, and whether we want to place multiculturalism as a priority over human values that we can all understand and to which we can all relate.

Max Goldberg

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Global warming fueling clothing industry

Heard of the ice caps melting? Dangers of losing our poles? Have you also noticed the trend in popular clothing lines? Seen the short shorts, skirts, and shirts that are so thin you have to wear at least five layers of them to look properly clothed?

Global warming is a scientific phenomenon that causes an overall trend of warming over hundreds of years. Caused by greenhouse gases trapping sunlight in the earth’s atmosphere, global warming is gradual, but pressing. The name is often misleading. Global warming does not cause a nonstop temperature rise until it we all die in a desert. At a certain point, the temperature rise that melts the ice caps we’re hearing about causes a shift in the underwater current. In turn, winds passing over these become colder – giving us the possibility for another ice age.

Now, how does this affect the clothing industry?

If it’s hot now, as global warming says, it’ll just get hotter. Bring out the tank tops and the shorts. We can’t stand this weather! But as most experts say, global warming makes weather more extreme – hotter, colder, wetter – and as the year goes round, we’ll need more shirts to bundle us up. Easy solution? Make shirts thin; that way, over the summer you’ll have as many shirts as you want to design your wardrobe and then over the winter, just put them all on over each other. More flexibility, more diversity, and more money – for the companies.

Layering has become the new fashion. Different sleeve-lengths, shirt-lengths, colors…put them all together, one on top of the other, and you’ll never run out. Mathematically, the combinations would go up exponentially with each shirt you bought. This also makes it worthwhile for buyers – you don’t need that many shirts to come up with a pretty expansive wardrobe. Plus, with global warming causing these unpredictably extreme weather “patterns,�? you’ll be ready for anything!

White was the new black last year, along with neon pink and green. That was the icy watermelon year; makes you think of bubble tea. This year is a more chill series of tones – browns and blues; makes you think of the ocean, beaches, and chocolate. Why isn’t black “in�? anymore?

You’d fry.

Again, this makes it much easier for clothing companies – they only need to pick two or three colors and mass-produce all articles of clothing in those colors. Who needs black? It’s not practical at all. At one point, it was safe to wear black because it worked on every occasion, could be casual or formal, and the sun didn’t bake you to death. Now, not only is it impractical due to the weather, but let me remind you that black isn’t a real color.

So, with global warming here, clothing companies can inch their way toward making the big bucks. People need more clothing for layering to stay weather savvy and to be accepted into this “in�? crowd.

Angelina Liang

Posted by aliang at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

All day Saturday and part of Sunday, I participated with other Uni students (Caroline Brown, Eunice How, and Aliisa Rantane) in a 30-hour famine. The idea basically went like this: Don’t eat for 30 hours to raise money for countries that don’t have enough money for food.

Saturday morning I awoke to the sound of my buzzer going off at 5:30. The plan was this: Eat some food before 6 a.m. (when the famine begins) so that I wouldn’t totally wipe out by the end of it all. But … it was too hard to attempt to get up (I had made the mistake of staying up the night before) so I ended up falling back asleep.

The morning and afternoon went by relatively all right. But then evening came. Since most of the youth in Aliisa’s church were participating in the famine, the church was sponsoring an all-night lock-in to make sure that we all didn’t decide to cheat off a few hours. Being the hardcore people that we were, we never would have, but a lock-in definitely sounded fun.

There we were joined by visitors from Grace Lutheran Church (where Eunice and Caroline attend) for an hour or so for some group activity before they left. By then, I was more than a little weary. Most of the time was spent lying down and smiling contentedly. Surprisingly enough, I wasn’t hungry. I was just tired, a little tired.

After a rather strange but amusing movie (“Meet the Parents”), Aliisa and I fell into a deep sleep permeated only by the cold and a voice shouting out every now and then. Morning came quickly, and we were on our home stretch.

Noon came, and the group was more than ready to eat after the long service at church. The youth leader was savvy enough to order our lunch before noon so food was ready for us. We had not eaten for 30 hours (more than that for those who weren’t smart enough to eat right before 6 the previous morning).

It was a satisfying feeling to be able to help people out around the world, and to share a bonding experience with friends while doing so.

I’ll most likely do it again next year. It’ll probably go better, now that we know what we’re actually doing.

Linda Song

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Never have I more appreciated the idea of having a school on the U of I campus than when I started to attend Uni High.

Not only can students go out and enjoy all the perks around campus (restaurants, hangouts, stores, and the Union), but once they get to the age of 15 or above, they can find work on this busy campus without too much of a sweat.

This year, I am looking for a summer job to save money for the future French trip, and I am considering all the different options I have. I like computers, people, writing, and reading. My applications for the Champaign Park District were filled out, but I kept looking for more options. Hey computers! Immediately, my mind swept towards Siebel across from Uni.

So today during my free period, I wandered out of the building and went right across the street. I found the business office after a couple of tries and inquired to the person there about summer jobs available for high school teens. Unfortunately for me, the lady wasn’t available, but I’m going to be seeing her on Thursday during free period again. Also, I’m going to be asking around other various places on campus for job options.

Being on campus doesn’t just mean all fun and food. Finding jobs in places close to school definitely adds to the attraction.

Linda Song

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, what is with the wild turkeys roaming around southern Urbana? Sunday evening, we found one in our backyard. Now, that turkey is obviously lost. In the newspaper Saturday, it said that they were trying to hunt down the turkeys and put them in a preserve, but whenever they look for them, they can’t find them. That’s pretty funny.

But you know what’s funnier? The sheer stupidity of these birds. They will cross the street right in front of cars and then just stand there, looking at the car. I saw a college student chasing and throwing sticks at a turkey, and then all of a sudden the turkey stopped and started charging at the student. All I have to say is, “Way to go turkeys!” Anyways, let’s hope they get rounded up soon before some drunk fraternity guy ends up in the hospital from a turkey attack.

Sarah Pfander

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 6:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thursday. 6:58 p.m. Places everyone.

There’s a rush toward the narrow hallways behind the stage. People finger props and straighten costumes under the neon glow of blue lamps.

Crammed together amidst dusty flats and hat racks, the cast resembles a blend of bohemian peasantry and Woodstock nostalgics, with vests and skirts in bright, loopy floral patterns. The intended effect is a Brothers Grimm fairy tale feel, further enhanced by primary-colored scenery.

Some cast members linger in the South Attic. They’ve been there, done that. But as the murmur of the audience grows and penetrates backstage, even the experienced thespians trickle in and peek into the risers, trying to catch a glimpse of their future spectators.

Every tech rehearsal this week has been a dress rehearsal, attempting to echo the stage pressure which will arrive with a real audience. But even then, a dropped line or missed entrance is not the end of the world. There has been time to tweak, to improve. Not so anymore. There is no going back. Mistakes will remain as such, and hang in the air. No more redos.

In fact, the entire structure of “Story Theatre” is very exposed. The risers are arranged in an unconventional round-about pattern, circling the entire stage instead of facing it head on. Cast members must walk behind and among the audience to make entrances from certain corners. The sound-effects table is shoved next to a row of chairs. In the words of Ms. Ridenour, this play is “theater laid bare.” The audience is intended to see many of the inner workings of the various skits which compose “Story Theatre.”

This level of interaction with the audience is also enhanced by the story-telling nature of the play. Characters are often forced to look directly at the vague faces among the risers in order to narrate a particular action or plot development. Many of the skits are fairly convoluted adaptations of Grimm Brothers fairy tales, and thus this narration is particularly important.

Nevertheless, as the night progresses, the all-too-close and personal audience turns out to be a blessing. Uni parents, students, and faculty laugh at every other line, to the great bewilderment of the cast members. They have dissected and drilled the text so many times that nothing truly seems humorous anymore, just automatic. Perhaps the most significant role of opening night is re-opening cast members’ eyes to the value of the script and their own performance.

Emma Anselin

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After a literal sausage-fest with Max and Tom at Papa Del’s and an unfortunate White Sox defeat, I returned back to a lethargic “Story Theatre” cast loitering in the first floor of Uni. While underclassmen labored away in the attics moving heavy risers from place to place, the seniors entertained themselves by singing Christmas carols in the stagnant elevator. Unlike “Rumors,” the last play I was involved in, “Story Theatre” has come along quite nicely in rehearsals. Although many costume changes are being made last minute and a few scenes need to be cleaned up, this is nothing like the mess we had to frantically work with in the final rehearsals of “Rumors,” which was entirely a senior cast.

While this is our last play as seniors and we feel perfectly justified in letting things go lax, underclassmen still feel the need to work hard to impress the director that will decide their fate in future theatre productions. Some in the cast, freshmen even, feel the need to yell at us to get us motivated. Thinking back on my own freshman year, I can’t help but chuckle at the gall of some of the youngsters. Despite their most earnest efforts, our seniority trumps their determination and we will continue to work at our own pace.

After the first couple hours of slowly arranging costumes and getting ready for the play, we went into a break-neck pace of acting on stage, running off to change and collect our cast members for each play and trying to hit our cues. The past rehearsal was key in helping each actor remember his or her lines amidst the chaos. During breaks each relaxes in his or her own way, some by eating (a big no-no while in costume), some by doing their Calculus homework, and my personal favorite, rocking out to music from the stereo. As the play came to a close it was a consensus that everything went more or less as planned, so we’re confident coming into opening night performance that the play will go well.

In this play, which features several small stories and fables, I’ve been cast (hopefully not type-cast) as a sinister element, appearing repeatedly throughout the stories as anything from a flesh-eating murderer to a downright cruel older brother. So with a simple warning that these seemingly juvenile and recognizable tales carry a rather dark element (me), I do hope you’ll come out and enjoy the bright and flavorful spring play once in the next few days.

Matthew Freeman

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two things spell certain disaster for an actor during tech week: Zorba’s giant gyros and peach snows from Evo. Both things fuse together in one’s stomach to create a conglomeration of roiling sludge that always threatens to retreat back up the windpipe and out onto the stage. Unfortunately, I consumed both of these items in the hour before we were called at 5 p.m. to start rehearsal.

Sick to my stomach and worried about ever-present calculus homework, I was not, to say the least, ready for the assault of foundation, blush, and male lipstick (called “manstick” by veteran actors) that arose in front of me. I cannot describe how I looked afterward without the use of vulgar language, so I’ll leave it up to you to decide. Think of the most offensive phrase for “really stupid” you can come up with.

After much excitement, shouting, and scurrying that I conveniently avoided by hiding in the elevator, we were ready to start the show. I can’t give away too much here without telling the entire plot, but suffice it to say that I will be wearing rainbow stockings and seductive red gloves in two out of my three parts.

At the end of the night I listened to notes given by our director, Barbara Ridenour, while interspersing my own comments, which resulted in heightened directorial annoyance. I tried to take off my makeup with baby wipes to no avail, as I am still wearing dark brown eye liner at this moment.

And that’s the way I like it.

Max Goldberg

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My power went out yesterday.

I know: It’s not quite an “ohmygod” worthy statement. “So what?” you’re probably thinking. “Stop whining. At least nobody you know got hurt.”

And yet, it’s not until something like this happens that you realize how utterly dependent our society is on things like electricity and running water — things I’ve taken for granted.

Sunday evening, right after dinner, I headed upstairs to do my calculus homework. It was a bit of procrastination — but hey, there were still at least three hours left before I needed to sleep, and there was no way calculus was going to take that long. Right?

Wrong.

The siren went off, and we headed down to the basement. Still no worries at that point. I like our basement. We’ve got couches, and a TV and a table, so it’s really not a bad place to get stranded in. I laughed and said that it might actually be sort of fun — a Champaign-scale moment of excitement. My mom’s turning on the TV to get some news and I’m flipping open my calculus book when the power goes off.

I freeze. It’s pitch dark in the room. I look down at the dark pages of my calculus book, and it suddenly dawns upon me that I’m kind of screwed.

I spend the next hour trying to do my homework via flashlight. It doesn’t work too well, mainly because my eyes are ultra-sensitive and started hurting. To cut a long story short, at 8 we finally go upstairs to rummage for candles and matches. Being extremely prepared, we have neither (save for a couple of those birthday candles).

Our neighbor enlightens us with the knowledge that we can open the garage door manually, so we head out to my mom’s office where there’s light (all hail electricity, please). The town feels kind of ghostly as we drive down the darkened roads. It’s strange. No city lights. No traffic lights. Just … black.

My mom brakes suddenly and I’m thrown forward. She apologizes and says that she didn’t realize there was an intersection. I didn’t realize it either. The traffic light was off, and there wasn’t a stop sign. We watch as a car speeds across, and we both shudder a little. What if we hadn’t stopped?

I think we’re all pretty lucky. The tornado didn’t stike us, no one I know got hurt, and really, what happened to me last night was simply a minor inconvenience. I ended up spending an unnecessarily long time trying to get my homework done, and I had to sit in the dark a little. Big deal.

But people got killed yesterday. Houses were destroyed. What if that had been us? I’ve lived in Champaign-Urbana all my life, and I’ve been through multiple tornado warnings but no tornados. We’ve been lucky is really all I can say.

What if our house had been demolished? I didn’t have electricity, but at least I had running water. What if I didn’t have that either? What if the power outage was permanent? Just how dependent are we, as a society, on things like this? My life is pretty stable, I think. I feel safe at home. But just how secure are we all? Isn’t it all, in some way, just an illusion? We rely heavily on electricity and running water, and we really don’t have much control over those things.

Just some things to think about.

Annie Liang

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know, I know, the whole Uni High Gossip Girl thing hapened forever ago, and the fact that I am even bringing it up seems kind of lame, but I made an exciting new discovery.

Over spring break I picked up a teen series called “Gossip Girl.” It’s quite a brilliant little series by the way, focusing on the lives of rich, exciting, beautiful, sexy, partying, snobbish, smart people. Anyways, there’s a small subplot from which the series gets this name. An unknown girl has created a Web site called GossipGirl.net, where she posts the latest gossip, sightings, and goings-on. Sound familiar? But wait, there’s more.

She signs every entry “you know you love me, gossip girl.” Now that sounds really familiar. So, I just thought I’d share with everybody that Uni High’s Gossip Girl was inspired by this book. And if you’re still wondering who she is, look for an avid reader of the “Gossip Girl” series. Oh yeah, I would also like to point out now, that our Gossip Girl was definitely a girl, because I really don’t think that boys read “Gossip Girl.”

Sarah Pfander

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)