the advocate, issue 11, december 3, 2010

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VOLUME 46, ISSUE 11 DECEMBER 3, 2010 3 11 Upcoming Genesis concert 6-7 MHCC volleyball: Second again Full-time faculty, part-time faculty and classified employee contract updates Winter closure at MHCC page 5

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The Advocate, the student voice of Mt Hood Community College for over 25 years.

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Page 1: The Advocate, Issue 11, December 3, 2010

Volume 46, Issue 11 December 3, 2010

3 11 Upcoming Genesis concert6-7 MHCC volleyball:Second again

Full-time faculty, part-time faculty and classified employee

contract updates

Winter closure at MHCCpage 5

Page 2: The Advocate, Issue 11, December 3, 2010

Editors-in-ChiefJen ashenberner &Jordan tichenor

Sports EditorJon Fuccillo

Advertising ManagerCopy EditorDavid Guida

Living Arts EditorDavid Gambill

Assistant Living Arts EditorAnevay Torrez

Photo EditorDevin Courtright

Opinion EditorL. John King

Submissions

Mt. Hood Community College26000 SE Stark Street

Gresham, Oregon 97030

E-mail [email protected]

www.advocate-online.net

503-491-7250 (Main)

503-491-7413 (Offi ce)

503-591-6064 (Fax)

AdviserBob Watkins

Assistant AdviserDan Ernst

The Advocate encourages readers to share their opinion by letters to the editor and guest columns for publication. All submissions must be typed and include the writer’s name and contact information. Contact information will not be printed unless requested. Original copies will not be returned to the author. The Advocate will not print any unsigned submission.

Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and guest columns should not exceed 600. The decision to publish is at the discretion of the editorial board.

The Advocate reserves the right to edit for style, punctuation, grammar and length.

Please bring submissions to The Advocate in Room 1369, or e-mail them to [email protected]. Submissions must be received by 5 p.m. Monday the week of publication to be considered for print.

Opinions expressed in columns, letters to the editor or advertisements are the views of the author and do not necessarily refl ect those of The Advocate or MHCC.

Reporters

2 OPINION THE ADVOCATEDECMEBER 3, 2010

Front-page illustrationby Christopher Hernandez

Joseph Baird

Jill-Marie Gavin

Chanel Hill

Riley Hinds

Laura Knudson

Yuca Kosugi

David Lopez

Mike Mata

Jess Peterman

Kylie Rogers

Mario Rubio

Shelby Schwartz

John Tkebuchava

Jessica Winters

Editorial

Hazards of black ice are more than meet the eye

By Gale BlessingDirector of Public Safety and Security Seven vehicles have been reported sto-len from the Gresham campus in the last three weeks ending Nov. 29.

Four of the vehicles were Honda Ac-cords and three were Toyota Camrys. The model years of the vehicles ranged from 1987 to 1998. There is no day of week pattern to the vehicle thefts, and they were taken from parking lots A, C, G, M, S and X.

The Department of Safety and Secu-rity strongly encourages individuals to take the necessary steps to reduce the likelihood of vehicle thefts on campus.

The more layers of protection on the vehicle, the more diffi cult it is to steal it. In all cases, notify the Department of Safety and Security at 503-491-7310 of suspicious activities or behavior.

Here are some tips to follow:

• Do not leave the key in the igni-tion.

• Do not leave your valuables such as global positioning sys-tems (GPS), laptops, CDs, book bags, purses, iPods and wallets in your vehicle, including in the trunk, under the seats and/or in the glove compartment.

• Remove your detachable stereo faceplate.

• Lock all your vehicle doors

• Close all windows.

• Use anti-theft devices, such as: audible alarms; steering wheel

locks; steering column collars; brake locks; wheel locks; theft deterrent decals; identifi cation markers in or on vehicle; win-dow etching; or laminated glass

• Devices that prevent thieves from bypassing the ignition and hot-wiring the vehicle, such as: smart keys; high security locks and keys; fuse cut-offs; kill switches; starter, ignition and fuel disablement.

• Use tracking devices that emit a signal to a police or monitor-ing station when the vehicle is reported stolen.

• Report missing or stolen prop-erty immediately to the Depart-ment of Safety and Security.

In light of the recent school closure, some of you may be thinking, why? If you aren’t from this area, you’re probably still scratching your head asking, “Where was that severe weather everyone was talking about?”

Before throwing insults at panicky Orego-nians, The Advocate wants to place a call for understanding the differences between a North-west snowstorm and those in other parts of the country. Addi-tionally, The Advocate would like to empha-size awareness and safe driving in all con-ditions.

On Tuesday, Nov. 23, MHCC closed the campus. There was only an inch of snow on the sides of the road but the biggest threat was ice. Ice is one of the most slippery sub-stances in the world and when a car, even with traction tires, moves over a patch of black ice, bad things can happen.

Black ice, according to weatherglossary.owlinc.org, is “on roadways, a thin sheet of ice which is fairly dark in ap-pearance.” Slippery and invisible is a danger-ous combination.

Chacha.com (a web based info service) says that one way black ice is formed is when snow melts and then refreezes. Because snow melts

quickly in milder climates like Oregon, places like the Midwest are less likely to experience the same hazards.

Hills can also be a source of trouble when ice is involved. Portland-area streets were designed mostly for water run-off.

But let’s not put this all on weather. Modern drivers need to lend themselves to a more defen-

sive style of driv-ing. It’s all too com-mon to see someone drive through a stop sign with a phone attached to his or her ear in the campus park-ing lot. Parking lot X through Z is not the drag strip that some would per-ceive. The average car weighs around 3000 pounds. The average-sized hu-man, even the above average-sized pedestrian, stands little chance of avoiding injury if struck by a moving vehicle.

Over winter break, please be considerate while driving. If it is snowing, slow down. Don’t drive if you don’t have to. There is no need to put another person’s life in danger over a bag of chips.

The Advocate wishes everyone at MHCC a safe and happy break.

Thefts continue as Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys targeted on campus

Guest column

vs.

There is no need to put another person’s life in danger

over a bag of chips.

Page 3: The Advocate, Issue 11, December 3, 2010

DECEMBER 3, 2010 NEWS 3Employee contract negotiationsare focus of fall term concern

By Jordan TichenorThe Advocate

There was movement from both sides this week during the fi rst contract mediation session between the Classifi ed Employees Association and the administration but no agreement was reached.

“There defi nitely was some progress,” said Jennie Burlingame, the president of the classi-fi ed association, of the Monday session.

The session lasted from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.,

according to Randy Stedman, the labor relations consultant hired by the board to bargain the con-tract for the administration.

“We were close but did not reach an agree-ment,” said Stedman.

At the end of the day Monday, the adminis-tration gave the classifi ed association a proposal, which they had until 5 p.m. Wednesday to accept or reject. The association declined the proposal.

A mediation session is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 13, according to Stedman.

By Jordan TichenorThe Advocate

Full-time faculty contract negotiations are now in their seventh month and there is no end in immediate sight.

A mediation date scheduled for Tuesday was postponed by the mediator until Jan. 11.

Faculty sentiment was made clear last month when around 150 members of the faculty as-sociation, along with an unde-termined number of classifi ed employee association members, marched to the November dis-trict board meeting in a show of solidarity, according to Jack Schommer, president of the full-time faculty.

Some faculty members be-lieve the administration is just biding its time until it can implement its last best offer, which would put its proposal into effect without a vote from the faculty association.

Asked about the possibil-ity that the administration is delaying negotiations for this purpose, Sara Williams, the faculty’s chief negotiator, said, “I have concerns that that may be their plan.”

This feeling comes from the fact that the administration, until mid-September, regularly ended negotiations sessions an hour to an hour and a half be-fore the session was due to end, and from the fact they have

refused to negotiate without a mediator after the formal 150-day negotiation period expired Oct. 23.

In addition, Williams said the administration did not give its full proposal until mid-Octo-ber, which was “unusual.”

Randy Stedman, the labor relations consultant hired by the board to bargain the con-tract for the administration, said, “We gave them (the full-time faculty) our proposals at the beginning of negotiating.”

Stedman said the proposal given in October was “very sim-ilar” to the one given in May. Stedman said he would not comment on the administra-tion’s bargaining strategy.

Once mediation begins, there is a 15-day, state-man-dated mediation period. If no progress is made at that point, either side may declare im-passe if they believe there is no progress. Seven days after that, both parties must submit their fi nal offers to the mediator.

There is then a 30-day cooling-off period, after which the administration may imple-ment its last best offer without agreement from the other side. At this point, after a 10-day notice, the faculty association may choose to strike.

This means that, potentially, there could be a strike in mid-March.

“In our minds, a strike is something forced upon us, not something we would hope for,” said Williams.

There has never been a com-munity college faculty strike in Oregon. The closest MHCC has ever come to a strike was during the 1998 full-time fac-ulty contract negotiations. Wil-liams, who was a faculty mem-ber at that time but not on the bargaining team, said “there were many things that were very similar.”

Williams said during those negotiations, the administra-tion hired an outside attorney to bargain on their behalf. The administration is also using an outside negotiator in the cur-rent contract talks.

“From my perspective, it was the outside attorney get-ting out of the way that helped bring a resolution,” said Wil-liams.

Regarding the possibility of a strike, MHCC District board Vice Chair Duke Shepard said in a Thursday email, “It’s a complicated and untested set of circumstances that we sincere-ly hope to avoid.

“We believe that good faith bargaining can produce re-sults.”

Stedman noted that in gen-eral, if there is a labor strike, management can hire replace-ments.

Classifi ed Employees

Full-Time Faculty: Analysis

Part-Time Faculty

By Kylie RogersThe Advocate

Veteran nursing instructor Maureen Westphal is leaving MHCC at the end of the fall term.

Westphal has been with Mt. Hood 23 years, begin-ning as a part-time teacher in 1987 on the Gresham campus and, after being urged to apply by colleagues, moved on to become a full-time instructor.

Her husband found her the original part-time job listing and told her, “Oh, you’d be perfect for this,” ac-cording to Westphal.

Her resume before MHCC included working as a nurse in the U.S. Navy. She was accepted into the Navy Nurse Candidate Program in her last year of college and moved on to work in the military.

Her work experience is full of variety. She’s worked in orthopedics, pediatrics, proctology, medical surgi-cal nursing and teaching, among others.

Westphal’s retirement was celebrated with a recep-tion in the Allied Health Conference room Thursday. A dinner at the Bruning Center, where Westphal has worked since it opened, will be held today, according to Dean of Nursing Janie Griffi n.

“I don’t think this has sunk in. It’s still surreal,” said Westphal about her retirement.

She hopes she has passed on the art of nursing to what she estimated is around 1,000 students.

“It’s the importance of being able to apply knowl-edge to patient care, thinking critically and always being a detective,” she said. “You can’t forget that the patient is a human being with needs.”

Griffi n described Westphal as “absolutely the most delightful, caring and compassionate person.” Griffi n said she is very positive, solution-oriented and that Westphal has served as a mentor to new faculty.

Westphal is considering teaching a part-time clini-cal class in the winter term. Griffi n seemed more than happy to keep Westphal around.

“If she wants to work part-time and there is a spot open . . . . She’s put all her energy and love into (nurs-ing),” said Griffi n. “I don’t think she’ll leave right away.”

Griffi n said she would be a big loss to the program and that it will be diffi cult to fi nd a replacement with the experience and personality of Westphal.

Nursing instructor set to retire, considering part-time position

� e MEChA club receives signatures � ursday in front of the bookstore in support of the Dream Act. � e act has been gaining more support over the years and if Congress votes no on the act, it would not be able to resurface for another two years.

Photo by Devin Courtright/The Advocate

Daring to act . . . .

By Jen AshenbernerThe Advocate

As part of their newly ratifi ed contract, MHCC part-time faculty can expect salary increases in 2011-12 and 2012-13 if salaries are determined to be under market comparability.

The four-year contract was fi nalized by the MHCC District board Nov. 22 after months of discussion.

“We are pleased the agreement has been reached and the college continues to appreciate the important role that our part-time instruc-

tors and tutors play in assisting our students to meet their educational goals,” said Brian Free-man, chairman of the MHCC District board, in a press release Nov. 29.

Other features of the contract include COLA (cost of living adjustment), health trust fund and self-pay health plans.

Marilyn Pitts, president of the Part-Time Faculty and Tutor Association, said, “I’m really pleased with the college’s efforts to expand ac-cess to health insurance to MHCC’s part-time faculty and tutors.”

Page 4: The Advocate, Issue 11, December 3, 2010

DECEMBER 3, 20104 NEWS

BrowniesIngredients:• Betty Crocker brownies in a box• Eggs• Oil• Water• Green stuff for the neighborhood musiciansMix according to instructions on the package and bake accordingly.

Popcorn ballsIngredients:• 2 cups sugar• 1 1/3 cups water• 1/2 cup light corn syrup• 1 teaspoon white vinegar• 1/2 teaspoon salt• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract• 18 cups popped cornIn a medium saucepan, combine sugar, water, syrup, vinegar, and salt. Cook over high heat until mixture reaches 255 degrees F (hard-ball stage) on a candy thermometer. Stir in vanilla. Pour over popped corn, tossing gently to coat. When mixture is cool enough to handle, press popcorn into 3-inch balls with lightly greased hands. Cool completely on waxed paper.

4 NEWS4 NEWS

As we approach the heart of the holiday season, you may be asking what you’re going to do with your win-ter break. Shopping for Christmas presents is probably ranking at least number four on your “to do list” but falls way to the bottom of your “want to do list.”

The Advocate’s gift to its readers is a variety of secrets that could possibly save you from spending your en-tire winter break among pushy people and crabby sales clerks. Tear out this sheet and use it wisely.Secret #1: Make a list and check it twice.

Mama always said never go to the store hungry. The explanation would be because you will always buy more than you need. Make a list that includes who you need to buy for, what you want to get them, where you will go to fi nd it and the maximum amount you are willing to spend. It’s always a good idea to include backup ideas. For less venturous shoppers, go to a big retail store and map out the departments you need to visit to fi nd what you need.

Secret #2: Food. One great way to take care of gifts for everyone in a matter of an hour: bak-

ing. You can make brownies (just don’t mix up the ones for Granny with the ones for your musician neighbor), fudge, Christmas cookies or popcorn balls. To make it even easier, The Advocate has included simple recipes for your convenience. Remember that packaging is everything. Go get some Christmas-y baskets and plastic wrap to make it look like a gift.

Secret #3: It’s the thought that counts.It doesn’t take any amount of thought to shove a twenty-dollar bill into a card

and call it good. However, if you buy $20 worth of Christmas lottery tickets and wrap them in a big box, now that’s thoughtful, especially if the gift receiver wins $1 billion. You would be wise to put on the gift tag that you get half, though.

Secret #4: A picture is worth a thousand words.Go through all of your pictures and pick out ones of you and the gift receivers.

If you need to get them enlarged, Walgreens offers inexpensive enlarging and printing services. Get them framed. Wal-Mart has good, cheap frames in any size. Put a big bow on it and ta-da!

Secret #5: Give the gift that gives back.Buy gift cards from your neighborhood elementary school. The school will get

a portion of the proceeds and you can have the honor of telling the gift receiver how they helped the crumbling education system. It’s a win win.

Secrets

of giftgiving

By Jen Ashenberner/

The Advocate

FudgeIngredients:• 2 1/2 cup Sugar• 1/2 cup Margarine or butter• 2/3 cup Evaporated milk• 1 Jar (7 oz.) marshmallow crème• 2 cups Semi sweet chocolate chips• 3/4 cup Chopped walnuts• 1 tsp Vanilla

Line 9-inch square or 13x9-inch pan with foil so that extends over sides of pan; butter foil. In large saucepan, combine sugar, margarine and evaporated milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil fi ve minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add marshmallow crème and chocolate chips; blend until smooth. Stir in walnuts and vanilla. Pour into buttered, foil-lined pan. Cool to room temperature. Score fudge into 36-48 squares. Refrigerate until fi rm. Remove fudge from pan by lifting foil; remove foil from sides of fudge. Using large knife, cut through scored lines. Store in refrigerator. Makes about 3 pounds — 36-48 squares.

Recipes:

Page 5: The Advocate, Issue 11, December 3, 2010

DECEMBER 3, 2010 NEWS 5

By John TkebuchavaThe Advocate

A crash in the FlashAlert website, a system used by MHCC to notify students of weather closures and delays, caused confusion during the school’s closure Nov. 23.

After the MHCC campus was abruptly closed due to icy weather conditions on the Tuesday before Thanksgiv-ing, Maggie Huffman, direc-tor of communications, has urged students to register for the FlashAlert system for both text and email notifi ca-tions.

“Registration for email with FlashAlert — that is the preferred option,” said Huffman on the ideal way to receive accurate and quick closure and delay updates.

Huffman also wants to remind students they must annually re-register to the system in order to receive the updates.

The college initially de-cided to open at 10 a.m. (a two-hour delay) in a report sent out by the FlashAlert system.

But offi cials decided by 9 a.m. to close the campus for the day.

Huffman said after exami-nation of the parking lots by the facilities department, the campus was deemed unsafe for students by 9 a.m., and campus was closed upon the decision of the lead public safety, (Wayne Feagle), the director of facilities (Dick Byers), and the vice presi-dent of administrative ser-

vices (Heidi Franklin).Huffman said, “Despite

efforts to melt the ice in the parking lot, we still had thick ice. In the best inter-est of driver and pedestrian safety, they decided to close the school.”

One source said an insuffi -cient supply of gravel (which was applied to the parking lot) was another cause for the closure, a claim refuted by Dick Byers, the director of facilities. “No, gravel was not a problem,” he said.

The main problem that arose, Byers said, was that the substance used to melt the ice on the walkways and stairways “was not working because it was too cold” and although there were clear skies, none of the sunshine

was reaching the ice in those areas.

Along with slick roads, other problems arose from the sudden arrival of winter weather.

Huffman said the closure policy was followed, as usual, with the fi rst notifi cation on the two-hour delay released by 5:30 a.m.

Huffman then contacted FlashAlert to inform them of the decision, which was later changed to a full closure by 9 a.m.

It was then that FlashAlert, as Huffman put it, “had a huge problem.”

KGW-TV, one of the main sources where the FlashAlert information is posted, caused a crash on the FlashAlert website when, instead of

posting the closure informa-tion on their website, placed a link which led to FlashAlert’s homepage, causing excessive traffi c on the site which led to its crash.

The closure was not a negative to some. “Volleyball class was cancelled because of the two-hour delay,” said Taras Senchuk, an MHCC sophomore, who added that he “enjoyed his extra day off.”

Others were not as pleased, “I got screwed over for a photo shoot,” said sec-ond-year Pro-photo student Audrey Larson, who was supposed to pick up lighting gear, but was informed of the closure by her sister.

Visit the MHCC website for updated closure protocol and FlashAlert registration.

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Icy college closure complicated by FlashAlert breakdown

New building to provide more access to childcare

By John TkebuchavaThe Advocate

“Something Wonderful” is accepting sponsors through Monday who can contribute to the charity program by adopting one or more fi nan-cially troubled families.

“The purpose of ‘Some-thing Wonderful’ is to give back to our MHCC commu-nity in helping families most in need during the holidays,” said Rich Duval, one of the main organizers and found-ers of the program. “These are families who are strug-gling to make ends meet and aren’t able to give their chil-dren a Christmas,” he added.

Since it began in 1994, the “Something Wonderful” char-ity donation program contin-ues to inspire and bring the joy of Christmas on the local level by helping directly with the MHCC community, Du-

val said.“A group of us saw a need

in the community and espe-cially at MHCC and wanted to do something about it, so we started ‘Something Won-derful,’ ” he said.

Although contributions to the program have been great-ly appreciated, Duval insists that there is still work to be done.

“As of the deadline (for turning in the applications), we received 110 applications for ‘Something Wonderful,’ ” he said. “This is the most we have ever received in one year. The need is great in our community.”

To this point, 46 of the 110 families have been adopted, but the Toy and Food drive is looking to help with around 40 of the families.

“The fi rst year we helped two families and last year we

helped 55. Our focus is to help families who are asso-ciated with MHCC either by being a student or involved in one of MHCC’s programs,” said Duval.

Some of the families will receive their donations Wednesday at a SnowCap event held on the MHCC campus. The other families will have their donations delivered directly to their homes.

Students interested in adopting a family should call (503) 491-7641 or go to the Project YESS Offi ce, Room 49 (lower level of the College Center).

There are also numerous boxes located throughout the Gresham and Maywood MHCC campuses where stu-dents may donate to the Toy and Food drive to help sup-port the families as well.

Help still sought for seasonal fundraiser

By Riley HindsThe Advocate

Construction of the Early Childhood Cen-ter, the fi rst new construction at MHCC in 30 years, will begin Monday.

Parking lot Z and the adjacent row in park-ing lot Y will no longer be available as of Mon-day morning. Students and staff are advised to build additional time into their schedules to fi nd alternate parking.

The center will be 21,000 square feet and cost approximately $6 million. It will be oper-ated by Head Start, a federally funded pro-gram that provides child development services to economically disadvantaged children and families.

Maggie Huffman, director of communica-tions, said, “In an exciting example of public-private partnership, fi nancing for the project is through a combination of federal and state

grants as well as private donations from the community.”

The new facility is expected to provide care for 184 children under age fi ve and is set to open its doors in fall 2011.

In addition to offering childcare services, the new building will provide a new learning environment for students who are going to be entering careers as early childhood teachers.

Full time day-care services will be available for full-time MHCC students while priority for half-day childcare will be given to part-time MHCC students.

There will be eight classrooms housing 124 half-day sessions accompanied with two communities for administration and the 60 students enrolled in the early childhood care training program.

—Additional information gathered by Laura Knudsen and David Guida

Page 6: The Advocate, Issue 11, December 3, 2010

DECEMBER 3, 20106 SPORTS

By Jon FuccilloThe Advocate

If you attended the NWAACC Volleyball Championship this year, you might have asked, “Didn’t this already happen . . . like last year?” The answer is yes. For the second year in a row, the Saints walked away from their own gymna-sium as the runner-up.

On Nov. 21, the Saints (38-9) of the Southern Region and the Blue Mountain Timberwolves (43-6) of the East met in a clash of the titans style championship match like no other. In the end, it came down to a one game tie-breaking fi nale.

The Saints had forced that one-game fi nale after earlier roaring back from an 0-2 (22-25, 16-25) defi cit, surviving a tense, fi ve-game match against the Timberwolves only 35 min-utes prior. With their backs against the wall, they rallied to pull off the near impos-sible – winning three straight games (25-22, 25-21, 18-16) and forcing a one-game play-off for all the marbles: the 2010 NWAACC title.

A year ago the coaches from the NWAACC voted on a potential new tiebreaker for-mat — best-of-three games — due to the extra day (Sunday) that was added this year. That format was rejected.

Freshman outside hitter Devan Belshe, who was se-lected to the All-Tournament First Team, led both teams with 23 kills during the fi rst fi ve game match and 25 de-fensive digs. Her partner in crime, sophomore outside hitter Kyra Speer, chipped in with 20 kills and 21 defensive digs. Speer was also selected to the All-Tourna-ment First Team.

It came down to the fi nal minutes and the Timberwolves proved they had more energy than the Saints, who ran out of gas. The Timberwolves took advantage of the Saints 11 hitting errors in the championship game. The Saints went on to lose a nail-biter 25-21 and left the court in tears.

Speer ended her fi nal game as a Saint on a high note. She led the game with eight kills along with a game-high seven defensive digs.

Sophomore outside hitter Rebecca Haight of the Timberwolves was named the tournament’s most valuable player and head coach Dave Baty was named coach of the year.

Haight ended the fi rst fi ve-game match with 21 kills and 20 defensive digs and she was all over the court offensively and defensively. You could tell that the team fed off her energy.

Over a week removed, coach Chelsie Speer

has fi nally come to terms with the loss, saying that it’s taken a while for her to get over some-thing this dramatic this soon, and especially two years in a row. She said the stakes this year were higher than during last year’s second-place fi n-ish to the Spokane Sasquatch.

“I wanted it for my girls more than anything,” said coach Speer on the loss. “Thought things were going to go our way. It took me the entire Thanksgiving break to let it go.

“It’s so draining. You put so much into some-thing and fall short. It’s not a bad thing. I am just a very competitive person.”

Asked if she favored the new one game win-ner-takes-all format, Speer said, “In the past it would have made more sense because they used to play the championship match on Saturday (same day as semifi nals). Now with an extra day (Sunday), it should have been two-out-of-three.”

She was quick to point out that the new for-mat didn’t favor one team over another.

“Should of, could of, would of,” said Speer, who clearly didn’t want to rely on excuses. “They (the Timberwolves) were the better team and made less errors than us, rightfully so. That’s the way things go. Can’t think back on all of the ‘what if ’s’.”

Coach Speer said the Timberwolves were very deserving of winning it all. The two teams had split 2-2 through the year, prior to the fi nal one game match.

“They’re good, for sure,” said coach Speer. “Thought we were pretty even, we fought hard.”

Kyra Speer, the two-time Southern Region most valuable player from Gresham High School, and three other sophomores fell just short of the title two years in a row. She wasn’t afraid to hold back her emotions.

“I was mad,” said Kyra. “It sucks working so hard for one thing (the NWAACC title) and losing in such an intense game. We just had too many mistakes during the last game.

“It’s hard enough losing and working your way back up, then to have to beat the team (Tim-berwolves) twice in a row.”

She did admit that fi nishing second two years in a row is an accomplishment on its own and the Saints have no reason to hang their heads after battling all season long, including back-to-back undefeated seasons in the South.

“Second is good and we all worked so hard,” Kyra said. “I’m proud of everyone for coming and giving it their all. It’s always a bummer ending second. We had so much heart.”

Chelsie Speer, like many coaches, tends to have no down time. She is sending emails, mak-ing phone calls and trying to contact new recruits for next season. Along with heading the volley-ball program, she will also serve on the softball coaching staff as an assistant to Meadow Mc-Whorter.

“Thinking about the next season already,” said coach Speer.

Same story, different yearSaints volleyball capture second place at NWAACC Championship

Kyra Speer

Head coachChelsie Speer

"They (the Timberwolves) were the better team and made less errors than us, rightfully so. That's the way things go. Can't think back on all of the 'what if's'."

Chelsie SpeerHead coach

(Top) � e Saints interlock arms during the Star Spangled Banner before the NWAACC Volleyball Championship match Nov. 21 in the Mt.Hood gymnasium. � e Saints went on to lose the sudden death tiebreaker (21-25) to the Blue Mountain Timberwolves. Freshman outside hitter Devan Belshe (middle) shares an emotional moment with older sister and former Saint Brittney, who � nished her volleyball career at Oregon State University.

Page 7: The Advocate, Issue 11, December 3, 2010

DECEMBER 3, 2010 SPORTS 7

All-Tournament First Team:Sophomore outside hitter Kyra SpeerFreshman outside hitter Devan Belshe

Freshman setter Rylie Engelson

All-Tournament Second Team: Freshman middle blocker Demi Belshe

"They (the Timberwolves) were the better team and made less errors than us, rightfully so. That's the way things go. Can't think back on all of the 'what if's'."

Chelsie SpeerHead coach

SAINTS VOLLEYBALLFINAL RESULTS

NWAACCs RUNNER-UP

1ST IN SOUTHERN REGION

38-9 OVERALL RECORD

SOUTHERN REGION ALL-STARS

First Team:Sophomore outside hitter Kyra SpeerFreshman outside hitter Devan Belshe

Freshman setter Rylie Engelson

Second Team:Sophomore libero Kelsey Kai

photos by devin courtright/the advocate

(Top) � e Saints interlock arms during the Star Spangled Banner before the NWAACC Volleyball Championship match Nov. 21 in the Mt.Hood gymnasium. � e Saints went on to lose the sudden death tiebreaker (21-25) to the Blue Mountain Timberwolves. Freshman outside hitter Devan Belshe (middle) shares an emotional moment with older sister and former Saint Brittney, who � nished her volleyball career at Oregon State University.

Page 8: The Advocate, Issue 11, December 3, 2010

DECEMBER 3, 20108 SPORTS

By Jon FuccilloThe Advocate

MHCC men’s basketball coach Geoff Gibor learned a lot about his young and inexperienced team over the weekend in Longview, Wash., during the Red Devil Classic at Lower Columbia College.

Gibor was most satisfi ed with his team’s effort and willingness to play three games without a true point guard. The Saints were missing starting point guard Marcus Moore due to transcript issues from his former school, the College of Southern Nevada.

Moore stepped into the starting point guard role after sophomore Drew Johnson went down with a stress fracture in his left foot before the season even got on its way.

“We’re waiting on the offi cial transcript,” said Gibor on getting Moore back on the court. “Once we get that, we will be good to go. Give us a true point guard. Every day crossing our fi ngers.”

The Saints went 1-2 in the three-day tourna-ment, including back-to-back losses to the Yakima Yaks, 86-70 on Saturday, and then to the host team, the Lower Columbia Red Devils, 70-52 on Sunday. Just a year ago the Red Devils placed second at the NWAACC Championship.

“We got better over the weekend, although the score didn’t show that,” said Gibor. “It was the fi rst weekend out. They did a pretty good job. Part of it is trying to get to know one another.”

Freshman guard Coletun Tarr was the unsung hero for the Saints. He ended the tournament aver-aging 18 points and six rebounds per game, includ-ing two 20-plus games in the fi rst two games.

The highlight of the tournament came on Thurs-day when the Saints beat the Centralia Trailblaz-ers 76-70 on the sharpshooting of Tarr, who had 23 points on 8 of 13 shooting from the fi eld and 3 of 5 from behind the arc. Freshman forward Spencer

Clayton recorded his fi rst collegiate double-double – 14 points and 10 rebounds — in the winning ef-

fort. Freshman guard Otho Lesure chipped in 12 points.

“He (Tarr) just knocked down shots,” said Gibor. “Did everything within the system. Good way to start the season.”

Gibor’s main philosophy is emphasizing the im-portance of defense and rebounding. The Saints out-

rebounded their opponents 125 to 90 in the three games but they turned over the ball 73 times

compared to only forcing 41 on the defensive side. “My goal is to have 10-plus rebounds on our op-

ponents,” said Gibor. “We turned the ball over too much. Most of our

turnovers didn’t come from our point guards.”Due to injuries and grade issues, the Saints were

forced to play with a nine-man rotation. Players had to fi ll unfamiliar positions and play more minutes than originally expected.

Sophomore Jake Rickert had to move from shoot-ing guard to point guard and freshman forward (6-foot-8) Rei Jensen had to play small forward instead of his normal power forward position. The Saints were forced to play a lot of zone defense to keep fresh legs.

“Played a lot of zone over the weekend,” said Gi-bor. “We were low on numbers and wanted to stay out of foul trouble.”

Including point guards Moore and Johnson, the Saints were without freshman guard Delroy Gibbs due to GPA problems. Gibbs is expected to return as soon as Dec. 17. Forward Robbie Rivers is recover-ing from mononucleosis and forward Adam McCarty is rehabbing from hip surgery.

“At the end of the day, I’m not going to make any excuses,” said Gibor. “Would we have won with those guys? Who knows — maybe, maybe not.

“The way I see it, it’s good for some of these other guys to learn new positions. It’s not ideal, but it’s what it is. Always have to look at all of the positives in every situation. Could be a heck of a lot worse.”

The Saints are preparing for this weekend’s tour-nament in Walla Walla, Wash., where the Saints will face the Walla Walla Warriors tonight at 6 p.m. The Warriors ended the Saints season in the NWAACC tournament last year.

Saints start strong, then drop final two in Red Devil Classic

Freshman Otho Lesure drives to the hoop early in the season in a home scrimmage against the Warner Paci� c Knights at MHCC.

Photo by devin courtright/the advocate

Advocate adds new sports web exclusiveBy Jon Fuccillo and Jordan TichenorThe Advocate

For the fi rst time, The Advocate last month decided to test the technology waters and provide a live web-feed during the NWAACC Volleyball Championship on coveritlive.com. that streamed live on our webpage advocate-online.net.

We got the idea primarily from websites such as gizmodo.com, which cover primarily news-related technology. Often, at tech conventions, these websites will use similar software to give play by play of new products that companies are releasing. The thought was that this type of soft-ware could easily be adapted for use in sports.

Like any new idea, it presented challenges and technical frustrations. But through the four days of live online coverage, it became easier. A two-person system worked well to keep tabs on the scoreboard and the action in the game. Ideal-ly, this is a three- -to-four-person job but we were able to manage with two people.

We were able to stream live coverage along with an up-to-date scoreboard during the volley-ball championship. As expected, we didn’t receive a lot of feedback or followers but are hoping that, with a bit of advertising in our newspaper along with word of mouth advertising, we will be able to use this tool through the course of the school year.

All in all, the process was a great tool to pro-vide our readers with a new resource instead of having to wait for the print version. We felt that after working out a few details, we will be ready for full winter sports coverage for men and wom-en’s basketball.

� is is an example from the Nov. 21 NWAACC Volleyball Championship live stream that � e Advocate ran on its home page. Look for future live streams on advocate-online.net.

Page 9: The Advocate, Issue 11, December 3, 2010

DECEMBER 3, 2010 SPORTS 9

An ode to the MHCC fall sports department

By Jon FuccilloThe Advocate

It might be a little bit late but I am still in the Thanksgiving spirit, especially with Christmas lingering around the corner.

I thought it would be appropriate to give thanks and praise, without getting too emo-tional, to all of those who have made this fall sports season possible at MHCC, especially on the news side of things.

So as sports editor of The Advocate, I de-cided I would make a thank-you list to every-one involved in the process and who put in long, hard hours of preparation.

Sports can truly be an emotional roller-coaster. But in the end, you learn a lot about life and it prepares you for the real world.

It’s been a long season of ups and downs during this fall term of athletics, mainly highlighted by the upside of the spectrum.

So here it goes:• Cross Country – Head coach Matt Hart,

along with the expertise of his sidekick and assistant coach Keith Maneval, put togeth-er another tremendous women’s and men’s team. They didn’t always fi nish in the top of the pack but they ran with heart and com-petitiveness and represented MHCC well. Congrats to the women for taking fi fth place at the NWAACC Championship at Clacka-mas Community College in Oregon City.

• Volleyball – Second-year head coach Chelsie Speer has set the bar high for the future of Saints volleyball. She has made it quite clear that she is here to win and to do so the right way. She has done a great job recruiting women who play at a high level and succeed in the classroom. Congrats for taking second place in back-to-back years at the NWAACC Championship here in our own gymnasium. You gals showed over and over why the Saints volleyball program is considered one of the best in the Northwest. Going 20-0 in Southern Region over a two-year span is quite impressive in its own. Way to go!

• Athletic Director Kim Hyatt – This is a good time to thank Kim for all that she has done in a short amount of time. She is con-stantly smiling and loves to joke around. She has fi lled a position that has had three direc-tors in the last three years (including her) and that is not an easy role to fi ll. She has done an excellent job.

• The parents and support system of the student athletes – Without you guys, this is virtually impossible. I kindly thank the mothers who brought these kiddos into the world. Without support, we have nothing. It’s important to help people fi nd their niche in life. For a lot of people, including myself, it can be one of the hardest decisions in the world to let a sport go. So support them while they have this special God-given gift.

Once again, thanks to all involved in our fall sports for making my job easier and be-ing able at all hours of the night and day to be responsive even after tough losses and emotional victories. I hope I didn’t pull too many teeth and that people take the time to realize how hard the sports department works on a daily basis.

By Laura KnudsonThe Advocate

The Lady Saints basketball team gave up a com-bined 204 points in two losses during the CSI Thanks-giving Invitational last weekend in Twin Falls, Idaho.

In defense of the Saints, it was a high-caliber tourna-ment that included some of the best community college competition in the nation, including the No. 13-ranked College of Southern Idaho Golden Eagles who cruised past the Saints 101-48 in opening action Friday night

Head Coach Larry Davis knew the competition would give his young team a hard time. The Saints have only one returning player with experience at the collegiate level, sophomore Charlie Nielan. The team has 10 freshmen.

“We’re a young team facing teams with loads of ex-perience who are ranked in the top 25 of junior col-leges,” Davis said. “We’re also facing a lot of adversity within in the team, having lost key players due to inju-ry or leaving due to homesickness. We’re without four of our starters and have a few others nursing injuries,” he added.

In their fi rst game, the Saints trailed 45-26 at half-time and were outscored 56-22 in the second half.

The Golden Eagles ambushed the Saints with a full-court press resulting in 43 turnovers, compared to the Golden Eagles 14 turnovers. Top performer for the Lady Saints was freshman for-ward Gina Bianchi who netted 11 points (4 of 11 from the fi eld) and had four rebounds. Freshman point guard Emily Burch chipped in 10 points (4 of 6 from the fi eld). They were the only two who scored in double digits for the Saints in Friday’s loss.

The Saints shot 39 percent from the fi eld (18 of 46), 40 percent from behind the arc (2 of 5) and 59 percent from the free throw line (10 of 17). They ended the con-test with 38 rebounds.

Davis said the pressure got to the girls in the begin-ning of the game and the team lacked execution.

The Golden Eagles shot only 38 percent from the

fi eld (38 of 101), 21 percent from behind the arc (6 of 28) and 68 percent from the free throw line (19 of 28). They ended the game with 62 rebounds.

Sophomore Tina Fakahafua led the Golden Eagles with 16 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists and 4 steals.

“I felt like I was more in control than I usually am,” said Fakahafua. “I’m usually a little jumpy, but tonight (Friday) I was focused on doing what the team needed.”

She did exactly that for the Golden Eagles offense, along with a strong performance on defense.

“They are well coached and have great talent on the roster,” Davis said of the Golden Eagles. “The press was defi nitely disruptive, but a good lesson for us.”

Saturday’s game against the Lady Badgers of Snow College in Utah left the Saints fl attened for a second time with the scoreboard reading 49-13 at the half and 103-31 at the fi nal buzzer.

The Saints had their work cut out for them for a second night in a row. Seven Badgers tallied in double fi gures, while the Saints Bianchi scored almost nearly half of her team’s points. She fi nished with a team high 13 points (5 of 11 from the fi eld).

Saints Sophomore forward Charlie Nielan said the tournament experience was “Defi nitely an eye opener. We are young. We’ll get where we need to be with some more games under our belt. But you’ve always got to live and learn from games. What’s in the past you can’t get back, but you can always go up from where you left off.”

Davis said it’s hard to gauge how the rest of the sea-son will unfold since not all of the players are healthy.

“It’s somewhat of a rebuilding year since we have a load of freshmen, but the goal, just like any other year, is to give our very best every time we step onto the court,” said Davis.

The Saints play Friday in the Bellevue Invitational at Bellevue Community College in Bellevue, Wash. They will face the Big Bend Vikings of the Eastern Re-gion at 6 p.m.

MT. HOOD CC SAINTS (48)Teri Gilbert 1-4 0-0 2, Charlie Neilan 2-10 0-0 4, Natalie Humble 0-2 2-2 2, Gina Bianchi 4-11 3-6 11, Emily Burch 4-6 2-3 10, Haley Chovich 1-2 0-0 2, Allison Howbert 3-3 0-2 6, Maria Nolan 1-1 2-2 4, Melissa Carey 2-7 1-2 7, Michelle Silva 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-46 10-17 48.

CSI GOLDEN EAGLES (101)Felicity Jones 0-4 0-0 0, Tina Fakahafua 4-6 7-7 16, Kyler Parai 7-16 0-0 15, Kylie Hardison 3-5 0-0 8, Laurel Kearsley 3-8 0-0 7, Tayllor Gipson 3-10 0-0 7, Kylee Schierman 3-6 2-2 8, Taylor Altenburg 5-13 2-6 12, Holly Checketts 0-4 2-2 2, Mechela Barnes 5-10 3-5 13, Chakala Carthen 1-2 2-2 4, Guili El-Mir 1-7 1-2 3, Fanny Cavallo 3-10 0-2 6. Totals 38-107 19-28 101.

MT. HOOD CC SAINTS (31)Haley Chovich 1-6 0-3 2, Teri Gilbert 3-6 1-2 7, Charlie Neilan 0-10 0-2 0, Gina Bianchi 5-11 3-6 13, Emily Burch 0-4 0-0 0, Allison Howbert 2-8 0-0 4, Maria Nolan 0-3 0-0 0, Melissa Carey 1-5 2-2 5, Michelle Silva 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 12-54 6-15 31.

SNOW COLLEGE BADGERS (103)Dani Lockhart 7-7 0-0 14, Allie Finch 5-14 2-2 14, Ballie Reynolds 5-13 5-6 16, Kelsi Wells 6-7 1-1 14, Erica Marinez 6-12 0-0 16, Christina Augustin 5-10 1-2 11, Carolina Rebolledo 0-2 0-0 0, Jaquel Christensen 0-1 2-2 2, Meissa Diop 0-1 0-0 0, Lindsay Card 0-2 2-4 2, Megan Riggs 0-2 2-4 2, Cassie Holmes 5-9 0-0 12. Totals 39-80 15-21 103.

— Information gathered by Jon Fuccillo

Web photo

Friday game results against theCollege of Southern Idaho Golden Eagles

Saturday game results against the Snow College Badgers

Women get rolled over in Idaho tourney

Page 10: The Advocate, Issue 11, December 3, 2010

DECMEBER 3, 201010 LIVING ARTS

Tuesday, December 7

C a l e n d a r

Wedensday, December 8

Thursday, December 9

Friday, December 10

Genesis performance in the College Center 12:30 p.m.

Neon Trees and Tokyo Police Club to perform at the Crystal Ballroom 8 p.m.

The Christmas Revels 2010 7:30 p.m. Dec. 9Scottish Rite Center, 1512 SW Morrison St.

Last day for textbook buybackHappy Holidays from The Advocate staff

'Exploring the Winter Sky' Planetarium show 7 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. First day of textbook buyback in the bookstore

Monday, December 6

Review: End of term show starts slow but finishes strong By Kylie RogersThe Advocate

The MHCC symphony, orchestra and choir started out rough but end-ed on a positive note at their Wednes-day “End of Term” concert.

The opening of the choir wasn’t too promising. Vocally, they would have been fi ne without the addition of in-strumentation, which caused diffi cul-ties. Some of the instruments over-powered the group.

The pieces themselves were simi-lar and it was hard to tell if they were supposed to be holiday related or not. They did manage to balance the vo-cals and instruments by the end of the concert.

The stage was set up for the or-chestra and it was obvious it would be a small ensemble. The fi rst piece was well balanced and rather enjoy-able and featured the plucking of some stringed instruments.

As for the rest of the orchestra’s performance, the featured harpsi-

chord and fl ute were exciting. The last piece of their performance

still used the harpsichord and had an elegant echo of the strings and a nice fl ute element. The music played was fi tting to the group’s abilities and came across very nice.

The last performance of the eve-ning came from the symphonic band. It was pleasant to fi nd that the per-formance consisted of more up-tempo music.

There was a nice shuffl ing of in-struments during the performance, people grabbing other ones from their laps and moving around. The result was a nice balance and hearing a va-riety of sounds.

They split the three pieces be-tween two directors. The music was a good match for them.

The concert as a whole was good. It would be nice to see a more pro-fessional appearance from college groups and maybe a more eclectic va-riety of pieces.

Photo by Devin Courtright/The Advocate

� e MHCC symphonic band, choir and orchestra performed during an end of term show in the Performing Arts � eater Wednesday evening.

By Mike MataThe Advocate

The approach of a total lunar eclipse later in this month will be one of the topics covered in the Dec. 6 planetarium show called “Exploring the Winter Sky.”

The show will be about the celestial spectacles found in the winter sky. Along with the eclipse, there will be reports on nebulae, star clusters and galaxies to be seen with the naked eye.

“Oregon is situated particularly well for seeing this event,” said astronomy instructor Pat Hanra-han.

Hanrahan said that people should be dressed ap-propriately to be with others, as they would if they

were going to see a movie. For the student who has not yet made it to a

planetarium show this year, where the astronomy department recreates on a dome-like theater screen astronomical happenings for any season and at any latitude, as if there were no clouds in the sky. There are also generalized sky tours and a planetarium tradition of “The Galaxy Song.”

“The ‘Galaxy Song’ is always a favorite and plays very well with the planetarium star motions,” said Hanrahan.

The astronomy department puts on public shows on the fi rst Monday of each month. They also will put on private shows on Fridays for $100 for groups of any size up to 70 people. All groups, from senior

citizen and park recreation groups to clubs, are al-lowed to request shows, though the majority of pa-trons are school groups, said Hanrahan.

“Each show is 45 minutes. In contrast, OMSI’s planetarium shows are less than 30 minutes long. Another advantage we have is that our shows are live while most other planetarium shows are re-corded,” said Hanrahan. The audience also has the opportunity to ask questions of Hanrahan.

The show times are 7 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. The planetarium is located below the library. There is no cost for MHCC students, but for non-students, there is a $2 fee.

“This is quite a bit less expensive than the cost at other planetariums,” said Hanrahan.

Preview: 'Exploring the Winter Sky' to light planetarium

41st Annual' Scrooge Lives'

Photo by Devin Courtright/The Advocate

A vendor shows o� one of her creations that were displayed Wednesday in the College Center during ‘Scrooge Lives’. � e two-day event was an opportunity for anyone to sell their cra� s.

Page 11: The Advocate, Issue 11, December 3, 2010

DECEMBER 3, 2010 LIVING ARTS 11

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Ceramics Holiday Sale

Photo by Devin Courtright/The Advocate

By David GambillThe Advocate

As a warm-up for their trip to New Orleans in January to the 2011 Jazz Education Net-work Conference, Genesis will end this year with a concert in the College Center Tuesday at 12:30 p.m.

The free concert by MHCC’s vocal jazz en-semble will be a 10-song, 50-minute set and is a dress rehearsal for the conference, said Gen-esis Director Dave Barduhn.

The New Orleans conference will feature clinics, meetings and panel discussions about a variety of jazz topics. Barduhn said he looks forward to seeing New Orleans-based bands like “The Dirty Dozen Jazz Band” and “The Creole Serenaders.” A few of the other groups Barduhn said he looks forward to include “The Airmen of Note” (the Air Force’s top band), the University of North Texas Band and a vocal group from the University of Miami.

“The students will actually take a four-day bath in jazz education,” said Barduhn.

Being in New Orleans means a lot to Gen-esis. Barduhn said, “Genesis is an interna-

tionally acclaimed, award-winning vocal jazz ensemble and being selected to perform at the Jazz Educators Conference is the greatest of honors for our group. This is the fulfi llment of countless hours of preparation (including three six-hour rehearsals over winter break) before a very exclusive audience of jazz edu-cators and professional musicians from all over the world.”

The group has set some time aside for sightseeing and will visit places like the French Quarter and Storyville.

The conference, in its second year, will be held Jan. 5-8, at the Roosevelt Hotel.

Genesis will perform on the Orpheum Ball-room JENerations stage at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 8.

The summit schedule notes that Genesis “takes great pride in the fact that since its inception, Genesis has only used community college students, including the rhythm sec-tion.”

Student-generated funds, not college dis-trict money, is being used to pay for the trip, said Barduhn.

Genesis to play warm-up concert

By Shelby SchwartzThe Advocate

The well-known hip-hop group ‘The Black Eyed Peas’ released their sixth studio al-bum titled “The Beginning” on Tuesday.

The group consists of will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo and of course possibly the most recognizable of the group, Fergie.

The lead single for the al-bum is “The Time (Dirty Bit),” which has been on the radio since its release in early No-vember.

The lead single was strange as it starts off almost like a Celine Dion song and turns into crazy fi st-pumping music.

The best song of the album is “Light Up the Night.” It has a catchy rhythm through-out and it could be good for a sing-along in the car.

One of the weirdest songs was “Love You Long Time,” with a robot voice delivering the lyrics. The voice may have

been Fergie’s voice, but it was a bit scary to listen to.

This album is not for easy listening. This album would be recommended only if you are going to turn the music up loud and jam out. However, for sitting down while doing homework, or to just listen to some chill music, stay away from this CD. You will spend more time trying to fi gure out what they are saying than ac-tually doing homework.

The track “Someday” was actually an easy listen and surprisingly enjoyable, but that isn’t saying much since the rest of the CD was seri-ously lacking.

The song “Whenever” had a very pop music vibe and is different than all of the other tracks on the album.

All of the songs are very back and forth, constantly changing beats and feel of the song, which may leave one feeling a bit confused.

The song “Fashion Beats,” is an example of this confu-

sion. The tune of the music changed so often that it al-most seemed like three dif-ferent songs.

This album has 12 tracks, but one may be ready for it to be over with by the seventh.

Throughout the CD, one thing is consistent: The Black Eyed Peas have little creativity as they repeat words all of the time and drag one word out for 30 seconds. The album would have been better if their songs had more variety, but in some cases they repeat the same seven words for a three-minute song.

There are not enough songs on this album that I liked enough to make me want to buy it or recommend it. If you’re looking for a Black Eyed Peas CD, listen to their 2009 album “The E.N.D.” I liked it much bet-ter than “The Beginning.” The tunes are much catchier and have a great beat.

Concert Review: Australian trio rocks the Crystal BallroomBy L. John KingThe Advocate

Listening to the John Butler Trio play Wednesday at the Crystal Ballroom, and being unfamiliar with and ex-pecting nothing from his music, was like tasting choco-late for the fi rst time.

When Butler picked up his banjo, I groaned the way you might if your mother hired a clown to play the accor-dion at your 13th birthday. Fortunately, an Appalachian revival routine involving rattlesnake handlers did not en-sue. Instead, Butler proceeded to knock out some of the best butt-kickin’ rock music I have heard in a long time.

The band is from Australia and I worried when I saw the upright bass player switch over to a didgeridoo the

size of a small canoe. The psychedelic, otherworldly sounds could make one wonder what kind of mushroom was on your pizza.

Song after song, listeners were treated to a musical tapestry woven with fi bers from all the world’s music. In addition to reggae, blues, classic rock and folk infl uences, the band’s music had infusions with East Indian, Native American and Celtic vibes as well.

The bassist and drummer provided powerful accom-paniment. One can experience Butler’s vast range by watching “Ocean”(nearly 10 million views) and then com-pare it to his searing bluesy-rock duet with Keith Urban on YouTube. You really should not miss the John Butler Trio the next time they swing though Portland.

CD Review: B.E.P. E.N.D. better than 'The Beginning'

Photo By Yuca Kosugi/The Advocate

A dragon vase at the Ceramics Club campus sale. � e sale, in the Visual Arts Gallery, ends today and is open from 10 a.m. until 7p.m.

John Butler plays banjo at the Crystal Ballroom Tuesday.

Page 12: The Advocate, Issue 11, December 3, 2010

THE ADVOCATEDECEMBER 3, 201012 THE FLIPSIDE

TuesdayShowers43o F

MondayPartlyCloudy42o F

SundayPartly Cloudy41o F

SaturdayPartly Cloudy42o F

WednesdayShowers47o F

7Day

ThursdayShowers44o F

FridayShowers42o F

ForecastForecast gathered from www.weather.com

Ready to transfer?Interested in thecreative arts?

Join us for an information session:

Saturday, February 26 at 9 a.m.Marylhurst campusBP John Administration Bldg., rm. 200

Register for this free event [email protected] or 503.699.6268.

Academic excellence since 1893 www.marylhurst.edu17600 Pacific Highway (Hwy. 43)—10 miles south of Portland

MARYLHURSTU N I V E R S I T Y

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MUSICmarylhurst.edu/music

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CREATIVE WRITINGmarylhurst.edu/english

FILMmarylhurst.edu/culturalstudies

Advocate-Online.net

Genesis ConcertMen's

Basketball

MHCC's men's basketball took the fl oor in the Red Devil Classic's

three day tournament at Lower Columbia College on

Nov. 27 and 28.

Page 8

"Something Wonderful"

Come see MHCC's jazz vocal group Genesis at its concert Tuesday, Dec. 7, in

the College Center at 12:30 p.m.

Admission is free.

Story on Page 11

Accepting sponsor applications until Monday, Dec. 6.

Happy Holidays

from The Advocate

staff

Consideration of a contract extension with Jenzabar software maintenance and a new health informatics degree will be discussed by the MHCC District board Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the boardroom.

Other topics on the agenda include �inancial, accountability and president’s reports and the approval of a two-year academic calendar.

The next district board meeting is scheduled for Jan. 12.

MHCC Districtboard advance

See page 5