Friday, July 30, 2010

What's with those necklaces all the baseball players are wearing?


Or you may be asking, "since when did it become cool for men to accessorize?"

Since Phiten came out with its sportswear necklaces, that's when.

If you pay attention to professional sports, baseball specifically, you've probably seen or heard of Phiten. Back in 2008, members of the Boston Red Sox were the first team to flash their Phiten paraphernalia for the world to see, and it wasn't long before the gear became a trend. Red Sox pitcher Josh Becket, the Yankees Joba Chamberline, Twins Justin Morneau and even golf star Sergio Garcia all endorsed Phiten products.

Then, at some point that year, Phiten made its way to Philadelphia and eventually to Germantown Friends School.

10 reasons to leave the house this summer....

10. go camping!

9. dollar dog night at the Phils Game

8. you're not entertained by watching a bunch of tools hang out at the shore

7. go get the latest "i"-thing

6. inception!

5. you have a way to get to Chicago for LALAPALOOZA

4. you're not into vampire shows

3. you are into vampire movies

2. you know of a place where there's a water slide

1. you don't have air conditioning

Thursday, July 29, 2010

John Mayer Comes to PA

Tickets are still on sale for the John Mayer and Train concert on July 30 at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, PA. Mayer will be playing his latest album Battle Studies, along with other selections.

Train will kick-start the night with the opening performance at 7 p.m., followed by the main act, Mayer, at 8:30.

You can hear Mayer's music the way it should be--up and close and personal (like he's serenading you)--by getting tickets in the lower levels of the stadium or in the "pit." If you're attending less for the music and more for the atmosphere, get significantly cheaper tickets on the lawn, where the event is more of a party than a concert.

If you miss him this month, Mayer will perform again in Hershey, PA at the Hershey Park Stadium on August 5th. Hershey Stadium is roughly the same size as the large-venue Susquehanna Bank, so expect a high-energy performance on both nights!

-Zoe Feingold

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers: The Review

Like any significant disaster, the statistics associated with Hurricane Katrina are upsetting--the fatalities, an entire city in ruins. But behind the mechanics of strong winds, levees breaking, and lives taken, are the indirect effects the disaster had on the residents of New Orleans in 2005. True, the media has featured numerous interviews with native New Orleanians, and Dave Eggers, author of Zietoun, even claims in his author's note that “This book does not attempt to be an all-encompassing book about New Orleans or Hurricane Katrina.” But Eggers journalistic account of one New Orleans family in Zietoun is much more comprehensive than any other source I've come across.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Summer Jobs: Which One is Right for You?

Last summer, I spent most of my days lying around complaining about the economy. I was not so concerned with the country's abysmal state of economic affairs that nothing else was on my mind, but I was absolutely fed up with the impossibility of finding a summer job.
 
Jobs were scarce, and I wasn't the only one stuck in the midst of a job-less, penniless summer. But this summer my friends and I learned from last year's misfortunes and we put ourselves out on the job market early to avoid missing out on all of the summer job opportunities.
  
As a teenager, having a summer job is critical. There are the obvious financial reasons, the importance of staying occupied, and gaining work experience to add to the all-important resumé once you've reached a ripe age for starting the competitive job-search. The former, earning money, is most important not only for teenagers but for the economy on the whole. If teen earning dwindles, the revenue for clothing, electronics, and entertainment businesses will slow, too, as teens stop spending--and then everyone is in trouble.
  
So if you're one of those unemployed teens who's looking for a job, you're employed and in search of a better job, or you're just bored at your job and want something to read, I'll give you the low-down on the season's best and worst employment opportunities, based on survey and interview results.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Inception: The Review

Have you ever wondered what it is, exactly, that causes a dream, or why the course of events is so fantastical and random? Well, you might not get the scientific answers you're looking for through Inception, but you'll certainly think the Sci-Fi theme is, frankly, pretty awesome.



Leonardo Di'Caprio plays Dom Cobb, a dream-manipulator extraordinaire, who was sucked into the vortex of self-induced and controlled dreaming in his youth, after being taught to manipulate dreams by his father, a college professor. When a mishap occurred as a result of his constant dream-world inhabitation, he turned to con-artistry by practicing the art of extraction, or stealing ideas from people during the dream-state, when their innermost thoughts are exposed via their subconscious.

Cobb is a fugitive in the United States, but desperately longs to return to his children. When a powerful client gives him the option to return, all charges wiped clean, Cobb leaps at the opportunity. Said mission, however, may be impossible--Cobb is given the task of inception, or planting an idea in someone's brain, feigning "true inspiration," rather than extracting an idea. The victim is a high-profile businessman, which makes the task even more difficult.

Cobb assembles a team of con-artists, each member with a particular speciality, and develops an intricate plan for manipulating the targeted tycoon. If you stay completely tuned in, you'll fully appreciate all the possibilities of the dream world and the genius of Cobb and his team. If not, though, you can still enjoy the special effects, a few of which include impossibly dream-like architecture, flipped dimensions and, of course, explosives.

The film is filled with fantastic imagery and not-so-subtle, but well-executed, symbolism. Inception met and exceeded my expectations--it's enthralling, suspenseful, and it features an all-star cast.

Inception is the kind of film that requires reflection, and maybe even some discussion, post viewing--the kind of film that expands in your mind, taking the cinematic experience past the theater. Watching Inception must come close to what experiencing inception would feel like...
-Zoe Feingold

Teen Support for Obama Takes a Hit

Picture
About two years ago my sister's iPod was blasting "It's a New Day" by rapper will.i.am, she was wearing a t-shirt that screamed "Hope," and her backpack was sprinkled with several red and blue pins. If you haven't recognized her yet, she was a generic teenager in 2008: an avid Barack Obama supporter.

Today, her iPod probably no longer has that will.i.am song, that "Hope" t-shirt is probably somewhere in my room, and those pins are most likely shoved somewhere in the cluttered basement. Where these three objects ended up today symbolize the shift in not only total support for now-President Obama, but also more specifically, teen support.


Monday, July 12, 2010

The Cheating Addiction

Add something new to the list of "habits started in high school that are nearly impossible to kick." No, it's not smoking, drugs, or some lame catch phrase--it's cheating.

This year, Junior year of high school, I saw far too many peers get sucked into the cheating whirlpool. The year was hectic--the homework load was heavy, sports commitments became more intense, and the constant reminders that everything we did would be inscribed on our college applications was no help. I can't count the number of hyperbolic complaints I heard about bad grades: friends saying they'd "never get a job now," or that their parents were "gonna kill" them when they saw a single B on their report card.