Glendale College

Photo Illustration by Sumaya Mehai

El Vaquero

FRIDAY March 2, 2007

Art Gallery

‘Another Febru-ary Skies’ fea-

tures local talent.

Page 5

In This IssueNews...................2-4Entertainment....5-8Sports.....................9Calendar.............10Opinion................11 Photo by Sumaya Mehai

www.elvaq.com

Low enrollment often leads to class cancellations. The college is attempting to improve student numbers by offering new programs and providing more options to serve students’ needs. See story, page 2.

Volume 91 Number 1

‘Bus Stop’

Theatre Arts show-cases first produc-tion of the season.

Pages 6-7 Photo by Ismael Reyes

Armenian Dignitary

Mayor of Yerevan tours campus dur-

ing L. A. visit.

Page 3

2 Friday,March2,2007 www.elvaq.com

NEWS

Low Enrollment Continues; Possible Solutions EmergeBy Diana PetrasEL VAQUERO NEWS EDITOR

Colleges statewide have been going through an ongoing

decline in enrollment and with fewer students signing up classes are in danger of being cancelled.

In response to this crisis, GCC has attempted to improve the num-bers by drawing more students into new programs and providing more options to serve students’ needs. Vice President of Administrative Services Larry Serot said that low enrollment is directly related to the economy. The economy is do-ing relatively well right now, and Serot said that when the economy is in a better state there are fewer students attending college be-cause not much is needed for peo-ple to attain more skills for a job. He said that the enrollment numbers may be diminishing be-cause there are people who are working while the economy is in good standing and there are fewer

high school graduates. Declining enrollment has also

been attributed to parking prob-lems on campus.

“We’ll see if parking makes a difference with the new ga-rage,” said Serot. “Then we’ll know if parking truly was a ma-jor deterrent [to enrollment].” However, Vice President of Instructional of Services Dawn Lindsay said the lack of park-ing spaces cannot be the sole reason for low enrollment. “There isn’t one answer to the is-sue here,” she said. “There are oth-er educational options and some students may be opting to attend colleges that offer different types of teaching modalities or classes [offered] at different times.” Even with a new semester, en-rollment is down all over this se-mester. Several classes are even on the verge of cancellation. Professor Jeff Smith, an adjunct who teaches public relations and broadcast journalism, said that he only has about 10 students

enrolled in both courses and that he was concerned because he was told 15 students are required to prevent a class from being can-celled. [At press time, El Vaquero found out that both of Smith’s classes have gone forward.] Both courses are only of-fered in the evening but Smith said, “night versus day classes is not the problem. [My classes] are now offered every semes-ter compared to once a year.” Last semester, international Fine Arts student Ngene Mwaura signed up for an animation class that got cancelled. “I needed it [the class],” he said. “I ended up having to take another class that I didn’t plan on taking then. That’s [a waste of] money and it’s just an inconvenience to do.” “All of the programs we offer at this college are very good,” said Lindsay. “Some [programs] draw greater student numbers [and] we are encouraging faculty and staff to open up new classes and share the information with El Vaquero

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OlgaRamaz

staff members

Graig Agop Susan Aksu Kara Aranas Tamara Baskin Katie Bussey Vida Djaghouri Sose Frankyan Stephen Hotchkiss Vartanoosh Kiourktzian Lenin Lau Anita Marto Arpee Markarian Sumaya Mehai Rachel Mills Diana Petras Melanie Sotelo Jennifer Tinoco

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El Vaquero accepts story ideas in news, features, profiles, sports and entertainment from the public. To submit an idea or an article, e-mail the editor at olga_ramaz@elvaq.com or call (818) 240-1000, ext. 5349.

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the students.” Students may be missing out on programs and courses like Smith’s classes be-cause they do not know all the options that are available to them. “I don’t know why classes are shutting down,” said Instructor of Business Edward Nandkishore. “We may need to find out from students to see if it is a loss of in-terest or from the instructor, but I am unsure. I have taught here at GCC continuously for 20 years. If all three of my classes are can-celled, this might be a first for me.” The downward trend has been consistent between both the fall and spring semes-ters, and GCC is looking at ways to improve enrollment. “We understand that there are other institutions [that high school students would like to go to], but we like to look at it so that they [the counselors] could recommend a community college [to the stu-dents],” said Outreach and Assess-

ment Manager, Alen Andriassian. The school had recently invited several local high school coun-selors on campus to inform them about Glendale College’s pro-grams and services. “It is our job to let them [the high school coun-selors] know what we have to offer here [at GCC],” said Adriassian. “So we brought L.A. Unified, Burbank Unified and Glendale Unified schools here [at the col-lege],” he said. “Dr. Levy spoke about the college and its mission. We had Dr. Lindsay talk about the institution and the classes we have, [and] Sharon Combs talked about Student Services and oppor-tunities we have here [at GCC].” “Our goal is to improve our numbers despite the fact that there are real variables that we don’t have control over,” said Lindsay. “We need to work on the areas where we have control

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NEWS

Mayor of Yerevan Stops by CampusDuring Local Tour

Susan Aksu can be reached at Susan_Aksu@elvaq.com

By Susan AksuEL VAQUERO SPORTS EDITOR

Cruising in a fleet of golf carts and accompanied by mem-

bers of the board of trustees, del-egates from the city of Yerevan in Armenia and members of the Ar-menian Consulate, toured the cam-pus on Feb. 21 as a way to famil-iarize themselves with the college.

Visiting the GCC campus was one of the stops the delegates had planned to make before signing an agreement with Los Angeles which would make Yerevan its sister city. The agreement will help Yerevan and Los Angeles work together and build strong ties with one another, according to Assistant Consul General Ha-kop Hovanesyan.

The delegates included the Mayor of Yerevan, Yervand Zakharyan; the Chief Architect of Yerevan, Samvel Danielyan; the Head of Health and Social Se-curity Department, Armen Sog-hoyan; the Deputy Head of Inter-national Relations Department, Lusine Mikayelyan; and the First Assistant to the Mayor, Vardan Amaryan.

The group toured GCC’s facili-ties with the guidance of Presi-

dent/Superintendent Audre Levy, who was also accompanied by Armen Liloyan, the Consul Gen-eral of the Republic of Armenia in Los Angeles; Harutyun Kojoyan, the Deputy Consul General; and Hovanesyan.

This trip to Los Angeles was the first ever for any mayor of Ye-revan. Zakharyan said that com-ing to Los Angeles and having Yerevan become a sister city of Los Angeles, gives them a bet-ter chance to be acquainted with the area, including Glendale. Glendale currently has a partner-ship with its Armenian sister city, Ghapan, which is approximately five hours away from the capital, according to Hacopian.

A self-proclaimed “Glenda-lian,” Hovanesyan said, “the del-egation must come to the com-munity college to be introduced to education,” which was one of the reasons they came to visit the college.

“I was quite impressed. It seems to me that it [GCC] has all the fa-cilities it needs in order to give students a great education,” said Zakharyan. “In the scientific field what’s demanded from people is quite large so it’s an important level to obtain and it seems like the facilities here can get students

Photo by Sumaya MehaiSuperintendent/President Audre Levy shares a few words with Mayor of Yerevan, Armenia, Yervand Zakharyan, dur-ing his visit to the GCC campus. This was the first time a mayor from Yerevan traveled to Los Angeles.

to that level.” He said he would be interested

in sending a team to Glendale to study and learn the system at GCC and exchange ideas. He also said that he would be more than happy to host students and faculty from Glendale to spend time in Yerevan. As it happens, Armenia is the destination the summer of one of the college’s study abroad programs, under the direction of Levon Marashlian.

The campus tour included a stop in the planetarium, the con-struction site for the future Al-lied Health and Science building and other areas throughout the campus.

“It was quite an honor for them to visit our campus especially since they took time out of their busy schedules to make sure they got to see the college,” said Levy.

Light snacks consisting of sandwiches, pastries and cakes were provided for the special guests and faculty in the Student Center at the end of the tour. Fol-lowing speeches given by Levy, Zakharyan, and ASGCC President David Arakelyan, Levy presented gifts for the delegates filled with GCC items for them to remember their tour of the campus.

Arakelyan said, “Yerevan could possibly adopt some of the things

we do here to better the education system in Armenia.”

The delegates were excited over the fact that they got to fly over Los Angeles in a helicopter earlier that day. Zakharyan said that he found the helicopter ride to be pretty impressive, and he also announced an open invita-tion to GCC students and faculty to visit his country.

“I would be more than happy to host them during their time in Armenia,” said Zakharyan.

Diana Petras can be reached at Diana_Petras@elvaq.com

[Low Enrollment], from page 2

New Classes Created to Enhance Enrollmentand when we offer classes,” she said. “We also have control over expanding programs like in-cluding more evening classes and opening online classes.” “Our mission is to service our community and our constituent groups. It [the mission] includes remedial classes, certificate pro-grams, AA/AS degrees, transfer, vocational training, credit and noncredit classes, community education and so much more.” According to Lindsay, the school is working to make sure that the current programs and certificates are still up to date by looking at the market needs so that they can market the courses to the economy and inform them

of what options GCC has to offer. “If we create a certificate and we do not have a program de-mand for in this particular com-munity, then it won’t be very successful,” said Lindsay. “How-ever, if we listen to the busi-nesses and the students, then we see what kind of curriculum we can develop that is more stream-lined for them [the students]. “[GCC] offers [students] cours-es to be successful in life,” said Smith. “The Los Angeles area is the entertainment capital of the world. It is a major media hub and [we] need to get the word out more.”

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4 Friday,March2,2007 www.elvaq.com

NEWS

By Rachel MillsEL VAQUERO FEATURES EDITOR

Rachel Mills can be reached at Rachel_Mills@elvaq.com

Levy Lectures Listeners On Classroom Challenges

Krieder Hall was packed on Feb. 22 with attendees await-

ing the discussion led by Superin-tendent/ President Audre Levy on the overall look of the classroom in 2020. The discussion covered how the classroom look and dy-namic has changed since the early days and suggested trends for the future

Levy began by having students and faculty express their personal and career goals for the future and asked students to consider what the classroom may look like in the year 2020. She then had audience members exchange ideas with the person sitting next to them.

Chris Beltran, a theater arts student, said he would hopefully

be married and raising a family, a few true friends, and that he hoped to act in movies.

Going back to the beginning of formal education in America, Levy began explaining the look and feel of the classroom set-ting. In the past the school year only lasted nine months at most. Students of all different ages and grade levels were put into one room and learned together.

“Students didn’t have home-work in those times due to the lack of light resources,” said Levy.

Textbooks of the past were rare. The method of teaching conducted was different as well. Students learned in groups more than from he teacher.

Progressing forward, Levy de-scribed the educational experi-ence of the years 1950 through

1980. Nine months was still the average length of the school year as it had been earlier, but the new concept of summer school was in-troduced into the system. Schools started to break up the different groups of students according to age and learning level. Primers were then issued to students at the start of the teaching process. Among these primers one popular series was the “Dick and Jane” series. Other tools that helped facilitate student learning were flash cards and workbooks. The furniture in the classroom started to become more movable and flexible.

The classroom changes up to present were then presented. Desks today are easily moved and can be placed in a variety of shapes and positions. The majority of class-

rooms had iron desks which were nailed to the floor back in the day. Audio visual and other technolo-gies available play a vital role in student’s learning adventures. Now students do not just simply attend school for nine months because the school year is almost year round.

At one point in the Powerpoint lecture Levy d i s p l a y e d pictures of p r e s c h o o l and kinder-garteners in their classroom set-ting. She engaged the audience by explaining what was going on in each of the photos. Levy said she was amazed that the technology the young students had available to them at their school. She had pictures of small children work-ing at computer workstations much like on the GCC campus. Other pictures showed a child playing and taking photos on a digital camera.

These images, Levy said, “tell us what the future of education looks like because these students will be the GCC students of the year 2020.” Her predictions were that students would soon be see-ing the “emergence of more on-line and multimedia based class-rooms.”

Most importantly, students of the future would have their mobile communication devices incorporated into the teaching world some how. Future educa-tion methods will have to find ways to cater to the short atten-tion span of the students of to-morrow. More visual and moving stimulants could help address this issue.

Steve Taylor, an English pro-fessor, contested Levy’s research on the attention peak of the cur-rent student.

“The current student’s inter-est peaks after 15 minutes,” said Taylor.

Levy told the audience that the classroom of tomorrow will in-

evitably have to cater to the fast food stu-dent of tomor-row.

This fast food student defined by Levy exhib-its the need and desire for things on the go much like a McDonald’s meal. The same student also would

much rather read a bullet point list with short brief descriptions than read a long lengthy novel. Because of this the classroom of tomorrow needs to be readily available anywhere, any time and to any one.

Why have the students of today and those of tomorrow become like this? A rise in students who play video games could very likely be a contributing factor. To help with this problem teachers and students of tomorrow could see the use of 3D holograms and simulations introduced and used in the classroom.

Some teachers and faculty mem-bers on campus echo in agreement with what Levy sees as our future classroom, Ann Cassidy, from the instructional service center said, “I thought the analysis of 2020 presented by Levy was right on.”

Skill specialization and focus-ing on certain skills and abilities was also covered by Levy as a high possibility of happening.

“I questioned why the stu-dents of today and tomorrow aren’t learning what past stu-dents learned,” Ellen Oppenberg said. She thinks that masters like Shakespeare should be taught to students to help them grow intel-lectually.

The lecture presented by Levy opened new and exciting opportu-nities and helped students to see what the classroom of 2020 get a view of what the classroom holds. It is the first in a series of four humanities and social science lec-tures to be held through the spring semester.

Classified

Audre Levy

www.elvaq.com Friday, March 2, 2007 5

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

Showcase Examines Scale Variation, Non-Subjective ArtBy Olga RamazEL VAQUERO EDITOR IN CHIEF

Olga Ramaz can be reached at Olga_Ramaz@elvaq.com

“Another February Skies,” which runs through

March 10, is the first installment in a series of exhibitions on sched-ule for the spring semester at the Glendale College Art Gallery.

Under the direction of Roger Dickes, this current exhibit brings together a group of local artists whose works, when displayed in conjunction to one another, emit what Dickes calls a “very unusual exhibition.”

“I had put it [the show] together really quickly,” he said. “It was very challenging.”

“Another February Skies” was installed in place of another ex-hibit that fell through at the very last minute.

Although scrambling to or-chestrate a show last minute may sound difficult, Dickes’ regular visits to artist work studios facili-tated the installation of the exhi-bition.

For this particular showcase, Dickes acquired pieces from four Los Angeles based artists: Anoka Faruqee, Mike McMillin, John Pearson and Rebecca Ripple.

From prints, paintings and sculptures, each of the artists pieces convey a relationship be-tween the “physical world, body and landscape,” according to Dickes.

His main focus, however, was

to hold true to the title, “Another February Skies,” and bring the outside environment indoors.

“[I wanted to bring] the sky into the room without [having] any pictorial reference to it,” he said.

Walking into the gallery, one of the pieces that stands out from the rest is Ripple’s wood and Sty-rofoam sculpture appropriately titled, “Tongue.”

At first glance one may not be able to tell what Ripple’s piece illustrates. But on second look

Photo by Sumaya Mehai Rebecca Ripple’s sculpture titled “Tongue,” is an example of scale variation. Its letters, which fluctuate from big to small, coil from one end of the gallery to the center and grabs viewer attention.

word “tongue” coils from one end of the gallery to the center and its letters fluctuate from big to small.

“[When I] see [“tongue”] spelled out in a monumental scale, the first thing that came to my mind was catching raindrops on my tongue as a kid,” said Gal-lery Assistant John Fox.

In general, the show itself de-picts the variation in scale mea-surement.

Farukee’s piece, “Colors Ob-served and Magnified (MCY),”

consist of two panels; one mea-suring 50.625-by-51.625-inches and the other, 5.625-by-5.125-inches. She created the smaller panel first by using a large brush, which was bigger than the panel itself, and several layers of trans-lucent paint. After the small panel was complete she went on to cre-ate the larger panel, which was no easy feat.

She recalls spending weeks ob-serving the smaller piece, mixing colors and keeping a record of them in order to try and replicate the piece, but at a much larger scale. As Farukee describes, the larger panting is a representation of what she saw in the smaller one.

Continuing with the tone of scale and the concept of the exte-rior conveyed indoors, Pearson’s inkjet prints titled “Suns,” is a series of six prints illustrating the sun. The prints are cropped details from picture postcards of sunsets.

Having the prints enlarged to 71.5-by-71.5-inches each, lends itself to imagination and wonder. Looking at the prints, one is able to visualize what the sun would look like up close as opposed to seeing it from a distance.

This show, like most exhibits in the past, is open to viewer in-terpretation. While some enjoy the more straightforward art, oth-ers like art student Daniel Giron, enjoy the more conceptual art.

“[I’ve been in the gallery] a few times,” he said. “[What ap-peals to me] is that it’s [the art]

non-subjective.”Following a trend set by “A

Pin-Up Show,” showcased in the fall, and “Flesh Soup,” which was on display this past winter and put together by Fox, Dickes is giving the students of GCC a little more leeway when it comes to partici-pating in art shows as well as put-ting them together.

For the next one night only ex-hibition, students will be able to submit their creations in a show titled “S-M-L-XL: A T-shirt Show.” Gallery staff and hosts will judge t-shirt entries which will be accepted at the gallery on March 12 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The artist’s reception will be on March 13 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

This one night only show is open to all students, not just those concentrating in art.

The next major exhibit will be “Modern Lovers,” a group show organized by Dickes that will showcase an array of pieces rang-ing from photography, paintings and sculptures.

The Art Gallery is located in the Library and is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m. For more information on “Another February Skies” or fu-ture gallery exhibits call, (818) 240-1000, ext. 5663 or visit www.glendale.edu/artgallery.

Photo by Sumaya Mehai Student Daniel Giron focuses on a series of works by Anoka Farukee titled, “Rainbow Triplets.” The flashe paint on panel pieces illustrate clusters of asterisks depicted by an array of colors.

6 Friday,March2,2007 www.elvaq.com7

ARTSANDENTERTAINMENT

— Story by Vida Djaghouri• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Photo by Ismael ReyesConfined together due to bad weather, Bo, Travis James Riner, and Cherie, Brittany K. Grob, confide in each other about their romantic pasts.

Photo by Ismael Reyes Cherie attempts to stop Bo from taking Virgil back to the ranch in Montana where the two men worked together. “Bus Stop” will be performed for two consecutive weekends at the GCC Mainstage Auditorium.

‘BUS STOP’

Photo by Ismael ReyesVirgil, played by Chris Beltran, tells Bo, played by Travis James Riner, to make things right with Cherie.

Photo by Anita K. MartoIn “Bus Stop,” a play by William Inge, Bo asks Cherie for permission to give her a goodbye kiss.

O n Thursday, the Glendale College Theatre Arts Department opened the season with the William Inge’s 1955 play, “Bus Stop.”

According to Inge, “Bus Stop” is “a composite picture of varying kinds of love, ranging from the innocent to the depraved.” The play takes place in a rural town in Kansas in the 1950s. Grace, the owner of a diner, along with her helper, Elma, and the town sheriff, Will, are keeping the diner open for a late-night busload of passen-gers who will have to stay there because of a snowstorm.

After the bus arrives, the first to enter is Cherie, a chanteuse, looking for a place to hide from a lovesick cow-boy named Bo, who has apparently kidnapped her and wants to marry her. Soon after, the rest of the passengers enter, including Bo, the cowboy, Virgil, his right-hand man, and Dr. Lyman, a tipsy and verbose professor. This array of such colorful characters creates a chemistry that shines throughout the plot, in which the eight weary travelers stuck on the highway of life get to know a little more about themselves and each other.

“It’s definitely a story about human qualities and humanity,” said Jeanette Farr, the director of the play. “It’s a nice sweet little piece about showing our vulnerability to other people that is somewhat rare today because we’re all very guarded.” This is Farr’s directorial debut at Glendale College.

Each member of the cast of “Bus Stop” vividly portrays a complex character who receives his or her turn in the spotlight. A professor who has a physical and emotional breakdown, performed by Joe Thomas, and the seemingly tough Bo (Travis Riner) and the all-seeing sheriff (Ryan Robbins) who find themselves in an intense brawl are among the acting highlights.

About the young actors, Tiffany Brain, who plays Elma, the bright-eyed bookworm who longs for love, says “I think this is the best cast I’ve been in chemistry-wise. We’ve all gotten along very well. We’ve really been looking forward to it. Some of us have been waiting for this since October.”

The set designed by Chris Krambo presents a vivid depiction of a ‘50s world down to a gleaming diner coun-ter that is so real “you could almost order a hamburger out of it,” said Royce Herron, the production’s costume designer. It is precise even down to a rotary phone hanging on the wall.

The costumes, as designed by Herron, also contribute to the setting. The actors are clad in articles of ‘50s garb from head to toe, including cowboy hats, pink waitress uniforms, tweed suits, and even a sparkling showgirl costume draped on Brittany Grob in her portrayal of Cherie the chanteuse.

The lighting design is by Guido Girardi.Music too plays a big role in this production. Contributing to the feel and ambience is a side stage designed to

be a studio from which live performers play and sing ‘50s songs that the characters are listening to on the radio on the set. According to Farr, “It’s nice to be living in this world for a while as a director and as a cast. It lifts you up and it’s fun.”

Although the Americana piece is lighthearted and set in a time and place very different from the diverse Glendale community, it can still speak to its audience. The characters demonstrate that, in reality, appearances account for very little.

“I think that there’s a lot of messages that are universal in the show about love and how friendships can be made through diversity,” said Chris Beltran, who plays Virgil the cowboy. “I think that’s important. I wish people at GCC did that more. Maybe this show will help them.”

Bus Stop” will be performed for two consecutive weekends at the GCC Mainstage Auditorium: Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $6 for students and seniors and $4 for children and groups of 10 or more. Tickets are available at the box office or by reservation by contacting the Theatre Arts Department at (818) 240-1000, ext. 5618.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Photo by Anita K. MartoVirgil, right, gives Bo advice about his romantic dilemma.

Photo by Anita K. MartoVirgil hears a conversation between Sheriff Will and Bo.

‘Ghost Rider’ More Tasteless and Tacky Than Artful

F i l m o o o o o o o o o

o o o o o o o o

r e v i e w

ByKaraAranasELVAQUEROSTAFFWRITER

“Hell is about to be un-leashed,” is the dark

and sinister tagline used forMark Stevenson’s remake oftheMarvelcomic,“GhostRid-er.”The strongandmenacingphraseturnsouttobetastelessand tacky, curtailing this ac-tion-packed movie that doesnotfailtodisappoint,butwillfailtoexciteviewers.

The story of the movie isabout motorcycle stunt rider,JohnnyBlaze(NicholasCage),whosellshissoultothedevil,Mephistopheles(PeterFonda),to save his dying father fromcancer and protect the love

of his life, Roxanne Simpson(Eva Mendes). Before long,hecrossespathswithMephis-topheles who makes Blazean offer he cannot refuse. Inexchange for his freedom hemust become the legendaryGhost Rider, an icon of bothjusticeandrevenge.Aspartofthis quest and agreement, hemust defeat Mephistopheles’sonBlackheart(WesBentley),whoplanstoremovehisfatherfrom power and make hell amorehorrifyingplace.

Despite the all-star castand a seemingly stimulatingplot, where a flaming skull hero fights evil to protect his loved ones, the approach tothe movie becomes a typicalclichédlovestorywheregood

triumphsoverevil.Thehumorprovided by comedian Don-ald Logue who plays Mack,Blaze’sstuntcompanion,turnsout dry and a bit meager, notgiving the film the edge it needs.Theactingismediocre,notconvincingenoughandattimes,abitcorny.

Cageseemsawkwardintherole, trying toactouta toughyet mysterious renegade witha deep secret, which is notcoming through inhisperfor-manceanddoesnot suithim.Mendes’ playing the role ofa reporter, and Blaze’s loveinterest, seems more comicalthanappealing.

There isnopassionorkickthat sparks the on-screen ro-mance. There is not enough

chemistry between Cage andMendestoreallygrasptheau-dienceandmakethissupposedloveaffairbelievable.

Throughout the film, in just about every scene, it seemsthat the makers are trying tocreate a chilling ambiance,onlytofailmiserablyandmissthedesiredeffect.

On the contrary, a positiveaspect of the film is that the effects stood out in Blaze’scomputer graphics. Blaze’sflaming skull and piercing eyes is enough to scare eviland demand justice out of allthe demons that he fights.

Overall it was entertain-ing to watch but much likeprevious comic remakes suchas the “Punisher,” where

a strong storyline turns outflimsy due to feeble improvised lines, dry wit, and predict-able, mainstream scenarios,“GhostRider”failstodeliver. To put it frankly, it wouldnotgivecomic fansa run fortheirmoneyanddidnojusticeto the fearless, vice conquer-inglegendthatGhostRiderismadeouttobe.

The end result is anotherweak, unoriginal and unsatis-factory remake, which nowa-days, seems to be a growingepidemic among producersanddirectorsinHollywood.

Rating**outof4

Kara Aranas can be reached at Kara_Aranas@elvaq.com

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www.elvaq.com Friday, March 2, 2007 9

SPORTS

Lady Vaqueros Defeat Santa Barbara College, 5-4By Susan AksuEL VAQUERO STAFF WRITER

D espite a rained out preseason the GCC Women’s tennis

team (1-0) prevailed to be num-ber one on Tuesday after winning their first game of WSC season 5-4 against Santa Barbara College (1-2) at Glendale.

The singles matches were less successful for the lady Vaqueros. The first matches were domi-nated by SB with Jennifer Chung losing to Anna Ottman 2-6, Mi-yuki Yokozuka to Kayla Riley 5-7 and Sonia Rodriguez to Jane Prior 6-7.

Match winners during the first match for GCC were returnee Zaira Rojas against Suzanna Pet-rie 6-1, Nancy Bogado against Madaleine Towery 6-1 and Maria

Bagofora against Bridget Not-tingham 7-5.

The second round of matches were dominated by Glendale as they stepped up their game. Chung won 6-3, Bagafora won 6-2, Yokozuka 6-3, Rodriguez 6-4. Bogado and Rojas once again won the second round with 6-3.

Moving onto the third round Chung stayed defeated 4-6, Yo-kozuka lost 3-6 and Rodriguez won 6-4.

“I think our doubles teams are pretty well set,” said Coach Terry Coblentz.

“They need to be comfortable playing with each other and their skills need to be able to compli-ment each other’s.”

Rojas and Bogado remained undefeated and were the only ones to bring in a win for GCC

in double plays. The pair won 8-4 against SB’s Petrie and Towery. Yokozuka and Rodriguez lost 7-9 against Nottingham and Riley; Chung and Bagofora lost 4-8 against Ottmann and Prior.

“We’ve got a great group of women. They’re all hard work-ers. They’re ready to play,” said Coblentz.

“Certainly winning doesn’t hurt. I’d like to say I want to win every single match and I do want to win every match, but I don’t put that pressure on the kids be-cause I’m not sure that it’s a real-istic expectation.”

The next meet at GCC will be on Thursday against Cuesta College.

Susan Aksu can be reached at Susan_Aksu@elvaq.com

Vaqueros Unable to Produce on Offense, Fall to Bakersfield

The Vaqueros suffered their second consecutive loss

Tuesday night with a tough 1-5 defeat to the Bakersfield Ren-egades at Stengel Field, falling to 11-7 on the season.

Sophomore pitcher Matt Stone got to a great start allowing only two hits and one run in the first five innings. The Renegades were not able to produce their first hit until the top of the fourth inning.

“As far as [Stone’s] perfor-mance just on the mound,” said Vaqueros coach Chris Cicuto.

“He was great; he was real, real good.”

Unfortunately for the Vaqueros, errors during the top of the sixth inning allowed the Renegades to score a run and put their run-ners in scoring position. By the beginning of the seventh inning, the Vaqueros had dug themselves into a hole, falling behind 0-3.

Offensively, the Vaqs were un-able to produce runs. The Vaque-ros totaled only three hits and one run. The highlight of the offense was sophomore infielder Michael Pacheco’s solo home run in the bottom of the eighth, which cut the score to 1-4. The Vaqueros offense was not able to produce

any more points and eventually fell 1-5.

“We didn’t come out the same team we’ve been, tonight,” said Cicuto.

“We’ve been more enthusias-tic about the game. It’s a disap-pointing loss for us because of our intensity.”

“Our guys weren’t dialed in; we weren’t locked in as we have been in the past. We just have to be more intense as far as know-ing what the guy is throwing and going to bat and having a plan. We are a much better hitting team than it shows from tonight.”

Glendale, which has averaged about nine points in the past 13 games, will play at Los Angeles Mission College this Saturday. Cicuto hopes that his ballclub will play at a higher level of vig-or next contest.

“We’ve all played this game a long time, and they know how to get up and when to get up,” he said.

“We just got to get back to playing like the team we have been in the past.”

Lenin Lau can be reached at Lenin_Lau@elvaq.com

Photo by Sumaya Mehai Nancy Bogado takes a stroke during a 5-4 Vaquero victory against SBCC.

Vaquero Sports SummariesUpdates • Scores • Highlights

WOMEN’S SOFTBALL

Glendale won three of four games last week to improve to 8-7-1. They defeated Oxnard 3-1 in a WSC game and the game Thursday against Santa Barbara was rained out. The Vaqs also beat San Diego City College 4-1 last Saturday and San Diego Mesa 7-6. They lost to Grossmont 10-6 Sunday. In the win over San Diego Mesa, starting pitcher Jennifer Naz-arian got the win and Vanessa Escobar and Desiree Cunanan both doubled and had an RBI.

The Vaqueros beat San-ta Barbara College 5-1 on Wednesday at home.

TRACK & FIELD

Glendale competed in the Cerritos Invitational last week-end and the men and women posted solid results.

For the women, Tove Berg won the 1500 meters in 4:46.71 and Lili Hernandez was second in the1500 meters in 4:59.48, second in the 3000 meter stee-plechase in 11:46.83 and ninth in the 800 meters in 4:59.48. Desiree Ruiz finished third in the steeplechase in 12:23.38 and Brenda Santana was fourth in the same race in 12:39.79.

Berg also finished seventh in the 800 meters in 2:25.41, San-dra Martinez was eighth in the same race in 2:26.69.

For the men, Cecil Menifield won his heat in the 400 meters in a personal best time of 50.13 and the 4 x 400 relay team of Menifield, Michael Flowers, Chris Lopez and Troy Huiz-enga also took first in its heat in 3:26.73. Lucas Williams was second in his heat of 100 meters in 11.6 and the 4 x 200 relay team of Ricky Davis, Menifield, Huizenga and Wil-liams was second in their heat in 1:32.15. Flowers was third in the 3000 meter steeplechase in 9:56.22 and Alberto Ramos was fourth in 10:11.29. Both were personal best times. Alex Love took fourth in his heat of the 100 meters in 11:81, Hui-zenga was sixth in his heat of the 100 meters in 11:43, Lopez was seventh in the 800 me-ters in a personal best time of 1:58.29 and Flowers was 10th in the same race in 1:59.76.

Alex Leon Sports Information Director

can be reached at 818.240.1000 ext. 5764

aleon@glendale.edu

By Lenin LauEL VAQUERO SPORTS EDITOR

Unclassified, part-time, temporary position performing non-hazardous support functions for the

Fire Department. Must be at least 19 years of age. Requirements: HS grad or equivalent and eitherconcurrent college attendance or an Associate or

Bachelor’s Degree. For City app, visit www.ci.glendale.ca.usor call (818) 548-2110. APPLY ASAP. May close any time.

$9.70 - $12.89/hour

City of Glendale

FIRE CADET

10 Friday, March 2, 2007 www.elvaq.com

C a l e n d a r

Around Town

On Campus

exhibition

‘Another February Skies’ — A group art exhibition, “Another February Skies” runs through March 10 and features the works of local artists; Anoka Faruqee, Mike McMillin, John Pearson, Rebecca Ripple and more. The GCC Art Gallery is located in the Library. Admission is free. Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Fri-day and Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. For more information call (818) 240-1000, ext. 5663 or visit www.glendale.edu/art-gallery

‘S-M-L-XL: A T-Shirt Show’ — The Glendale College Art Gallery presents a one night only engament, “S-M-L-XL: A T-Shirt Show.” Submissions for the show will be accepted on March 12 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the art gallery. The reception for the exhibition is on March 13

March 15 in room 211 at noon.Admission is free.

sports

Mens Tennis —

• The men host L.A. Pierce on March 6. Match starts at 2 p.m.

Womens Tennis —

• The women host Cuesta Col-lege on March 8. Match starts at 2 p.m.

• On March 13 the women host Ventura. Match starts at 2 p.m.

Baseball —

• The Vaqueros take on L.A. Mission on March 6 at Stengel Field. The game gets underway at 2 p.m.

• The men face Citrus College on March 10 at Stangel Field. The game starts at 1 p.m.

• On March 15, the Vaque-ros host L.A. Valley at Stangel

theatre

‘All About Walken: The Im-personators of Christopher Walken’ — Christopher Walken impersonators try their best to be the best fake Walkens on March 5 at 8 p.m. at the Paul Gleason Theater located at 6520 Holly-wood Blvd., Hollywood.

‘An Evening with Jon Lovitz’ — Comedian Jon Lovitz takes the stage at the Laugh Factory on March 7. The show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $18. The Laugh Factory is located at 8001 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood.

‘My Fair Lady’ — Written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, “My Fair Lady” takes center stage at the Glendale The-atre Centre located at 324 North Orange St., Glendale, through April 7. “My Fair Lady” was one of the most popular musical plays of the 1950’s. The story of phonetician Henry Higgins, who transforms the the Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a

society lady. Performance show-times are Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 3 p.m. Tickets for the show are $21 Wednesday and Thursday evenings as well as for Saturday and Sunday matinees. Tickets for Friday and Saturday evenings are $24.

exhibitions

‘Fever Dream’— Gallery 1988 presents new paintings by Joe Ledbetter. The opening is March 6 from 7p.m-10p.m. Gallery 1988 is located on 7020 Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles.

‘The Art of Motion Picture De-sign’ —More than 100 costumes from films released last year, in-cluding the 5 Oscar nominated films being shown at the FIDM Museum. The museum is located on 919 S. Grand Ave. Downtown Los Angeles open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thurs-day and from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. Friday through Saturday.

music

Some Girls — The El Rey pres-ents Some Girls, Har Mar Super-star and Willowz on Saturday. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show gets underway at 8 p.m. Tickets for the event are $14. The El Rey is located at 5515 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90036. Tickets are $14. For more infor-mation call, (323) 936-6400.

‘Hip-Hop for Education’ — Hip-hop legends Dilated Peoples, underground rappers KRS-One and X-Clan and spoken word poet and musician Saul Williams par-ticipate in the Hip-Hop for Edu-cation at the Los Angeles Center Studio located at 450 S. Bixel St. in LA on March 3rd begining at 4 p.m.

‘Family Concert Super Strings and Slimy Things’ — A con-certo of violins, cellos, violas and double basses takes place on March 4 at the Alex Theatre lo-cated at 116 West California Ave.,

Glendale. The concert starts at 2 p.m. and tickets for the event range from $9 to $15. For more information call the theatre box office at (818) 243-2611.

Free Monday — Kissing Tigers and Price are among some of the bands performing for free, March 5 at the Troubadour. The Trou-badour is located at 9081 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood.

film

‘Everything is Illuminated’ — The Glendale Public Library lo-cated at 222 E. Harvard St., pres-ents “Everything is Illuminated,” a film starring Elijah Wood, on March 6 at 2 p.m. “Everything is Illuminated” is the story of a young Jewish American man goes on a quest to find the wom-an who saved his grandfather in a small Ukranian town that is decimated by the Nazi invasion. Admission is free and open to the community.

‘The Pink Panther’ — Steve

Martin plays the role of inspector Clouseau, made famous by Peter Sellers, in the film “The Pink Pan-ther.” The film will be showing on March 13 at the Glendale Pub-lic Library Auditorium at 2 p.m. This prequel tells the story of the clumsy inspector, Colombo, who must help the government after a famous soccer player coach is murdered. For more information on this film screening call (818) 548-2030.

other

Book Sale — The Art and Mu-sic section of the Glendale Public Library proudly features a year-round book sale. Items for sale include art, music books, maga-zines and much more. The sale area is available during library hours at the Brand Library and Art Center located at 1601 West Mountain St. Proceeds of the sales go directly to the library. For more information call (818) 548-2051 or visit www.ci.glendale.ca.us/art_music_sale.asp

Field. The game starts at 2 p.m.

Softball —

• The Lady Vaqueros take on L.A. Valley at the Glendale Sports Complex on March 13, located at 2200 Fern Lane. The game starts at 1 p.m.

• On March 15 the women face Citrus College at the Glendale Sports Complex. The game gets underway at 1 p.m.

other

Mental Health Counseling — The Health Center provides free and confidential counsel-ing. Appointments can be made at the Health Center located on the first floor of the San Rafael building. For more information call, (818) 240-1000, ext. 5909.

‘Too Hot to Handle Chili Cook-Off’ — Culinary arts stu-dents from 9 area high schools partcipate in a Chili Cook-off

on campus today from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Los Robles patio. Students and faculty are welcomed.

Life Long Learning Seminars — Through June 13, a wide range of free classes are being offered to mature adults as a part of the Glendale Commu-nity College’s Lifelong Learn-ing Seminars program. Courses such as Quiltmaking, Philoso-phy and Ethics, Sketching and Oil panting classes will be held at several locations throughout the community. For more infor-mation on class times and the Lifelong Learning Seminars, call (818) 243-5196.

Athletic Hall of Fame— A spe-cial induction ceremony will be held at the J.W. Smith Student Center on Saturday at 5 p.m. For more information call, (818) 240-1000, ext. 5618.

from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Create, tag, rip, sew, destroy, paint, dye, cut, etc. Entries will be judged by gallery staff and hosts.

theatre

‘Bus Stop’ — The Theatre Arts Department presents “Bus Stop,” a play by William Inge. The production runs through March 11 in the Auditorium Mainstage Theatre. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $6 for students and seniors. Admission for children 12 and under and groups of 10 or more is $4. Tickets may be purchased at the door or reserved in ad-vanced. For more information call, (818) 240-1000, ext. 5618.

music

Faculty Music Recital — The GCC Music Faculty will per-form in the Auditorium on

www.elvaq.com Friday, March 2, 2007 11

OPINION

Passion and Intelligence May Not Win Election

Vartanoosh Kiourktzian can be reached at Vartanoosh_Kiourktziani@elvaq.com

By Vartanoosh KiourktzianEL VAQUERO ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

America has finally been given the chance to elect a

president who is smart and char-ismatic, no longer are they stuck making a decision between the lesser of two evils.

With Bush’s approval ratings at an all time low and Democrats being the majority in the House of Representatives and the Sen-ate, people are ready for a change. Democratic candidate Barack Obama has fresh ideas about the war, foreign policy and social security. Obama is passionate about the things he believes in. He speaks about real issues in-stead of distracting voters from the war and economy and does not focus on fluff issues such as gay marriage like President Bush has been doing. With all this said, does he have a chance at being the first bi-racial president of the U.S.? No.

Obama has many things work-ing against him, one is his lack of experience. Despite being in the Illinois State Senate for seven years, Gallup polls from Feb. 16 show that 40 percent of people said his lack of experience would make him a bad president. Which is nothing more than a cop-out.

His opponents, the Republicans, voted for President Bush who only had eight years as governor of Texas under his belt. Bush has had the same amount of experi-ence as Obama if not less. Maybe his daddy being former president somehow meant he knew more

about running the country than his 2000 presidential opponent Al Gore, who served in the House for eight years, then as a senator of Ten-nessee until 1993 when he became Vice President un-der, Clinton.

Lets not forget John Edwards. Ed-wards will beat Obama in the primaries and not because he has better ideas and better plans for the U.S. but because he is the more tra-ditional can-didate of the two. He is a white male and was raised in a Baptist church. In a 2004 inter-view with Kim Lawton of Reli-gion and Ethics News-weekly, Edwards said that since the death of his son in 1996, religion has been very important to him.

This religious aspect can be es-pecially helpful when it comes to getting conservative votes. Ed-wards is almost like a modern day Kennedy and the people deserve someone like him, especially after

seeing an inarticulate and tongue-tied president like Bush in office

for the past six years. Then there is the matter of Hill-

ary Clinton. Among Democrats, she is perceived as being the most qualified and having the largest chance of beating a Republican candidate in the election. De-spite Obama receiving a lot of

coverage for being a minority candidate, the average American

is much more likely to recog-nize Clinton’s name and pho-to than they are Obama, who is the least recog-nizable of all the major con-tenders.

Hillary Clin-ton also has the support of her husband, for-mer President Bill Clinton, who is still very popular. Clinton is cur-rently ahead of Obama in the polls, with 40 percent of the Democratic voters support and 60 percent of voters from both parties that say she would make a good president, while only 53 percent believe Obama would make a good president.

She is currently ahead of her Republican opponents as well; she leads John McCain by a 52-46 margin and has a 49-48 point margin over Rudy Giuliani.

And what about minority vot-ers? Is the color of Obama’s skin enough to ensure that he gets

black Americans vote? Bill Clin-ton is extremely popular with black voters, so much that writer Toni Morrison, a Nobel laure-ate, in 1998 named him “the first black president.” Clinton’s popu-larity with black voters will be a big asset to his wife.

Many minority votes are also thrown out. In the 2000 election, 54 percent of the discarded votes in Florida were those of African Americans. In Ohio, 35,000 votes were rejected, a majority of them those of blacks. Obama should not take the minority vote for granted.

Unfortunately Obama is not only trailing his Democratic op-ponents but his Republican ones as well with 52 percent of regis-tered voters, both democrats and republicans, saying they would rather vote for Rudy Giuliani.

If the race came down to Giu-liani and Obama 28 percent of Democrats would vote for Giu-liani. Recent Gallup polls show that many voters feel he does not have the best chance of defeat-ing a Republican candidate in the presidential election and a stag-gering 40 percent of Democratic voters feel Clinton has a better chance, then Edwards with 27 percent and Obama coming in last with 21 percent.

Obama should just save his time and money, and run when voters believe he has a chance of winning. Now I’m not saying that Obama has no chance. You never know, pigs could fly.

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has fresh ideas.

Vahag Yeressian 19

“People in America won’t vote for a Black president. Hillary will get the conservative and liberal vote because she has been working both ends.”

Campus CommentsDo You Think Barack Obama Could Be President?

SevanaTamrazian20

“There’s no problem with having a black president. If he’s a good leader why not? I would vote for him.”

SergioKing20

“I haven’t heard of him. Hillary Clinton might be the bigger candidate.”

— Compiled and photographed by Vartanoosh Kiourktzian

Danny Omar21

“I don’t think so because he is colored. I think Hillary Clinton has a better chance.”

Column

12 Friday,March2,2007 www.elvaq.com

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