The James Logan Courier

By Robert Workman
GamerHub.TV (MCT)

When "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe" came out a few years ago, I actually got a kick out of it. While it didn't quite match the level of bravado that the Marvel vs. Capcom games mustered, there was still something great about it, whether it was the way Joker performed his (off-screen) fatality or the way the gameplay clicked. But many people shunned it, mainly because it took the Mortal Kombat franchise down to the mature level that so many people flocked to.

By Yara Mukaled, Courier Staff Writer

Beloved is a surprising, suspenseful, and heartwarming book that will keep readers on their feet. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel by Toni Morrison and felt that it was a very powerful take on not only black history, but motherhood, raising questions of morality and responsibility.

The story includes many characters but focuses on Sethe, a runaway slave living in a house, with her daughter Denver, haunted by her dead baby daughter. The story unravels slowly, with Morrison not revealing the past all at once, but at various instances throughout the novel that may been seen as random by some.

Beloved is not an easy read in that it does not take place completely in the present, and can be difficult to follow at some points. Morrison may jump to a “rememory” suddenly and unexpectedly. Also, Morrison provides multiple perspectives of the same event at times, which can also be confusing. For example, one of the crucial points in the novel, when the reader finally learns what happened to the dead baby daughter, is told by three different people. Personally, I enjoyed reading the scene through different eyes but I must admit that I had to reread a couple pages over again before understanding that another person was telling the same story.

By Roger Moore
McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)

ORLANDO, Fla. - In Hollywood, they call it "on the nose" casting. And if ever you doubted that Matthew McConaughey was the perfect pick to play the yarn-and-myth spinning rural romantic title character in Jeff Nichols' Southern Gothic melodrama, "Mud," he puts your mind at ease the way Mud himself would - with a tale.

Mud, a good ol'boy on the lam and on the lookout for his life's true love (Reese Witherspoon), may be Nichols' ("Take Shelter," "Shotgun Stories") invention. But he is the laid-back Texan McConaughey's creation. Mud is a rough-hewn romantic, someone the well-traveled McConaughey has crossed paths with in the trailer parks and marinas where drifters and cruisers wear the label "off the grid" as a badge of honor.

"I met this sailor down in the Caribbean about 10 years ago," says McConaughey, who has done his time in trailers and boats. The sailor was a round-the-world cruiser, and an unforgettable character. McConaughey summons up the sailor's voice to tell his story - a guy who sounds, on every level, an awful lot like Mud, who also lives on a boat.

"'I was workin' offshore, off Florida there for a while,'" McConaughey says, affecting a non-Texas drawl. "We'd come ashore on the weekends, and we'd hit this dance club. And there was this one girl workin' there, and I took one look at her and said, 'Oh my GOD.' I was in love, straight off. She wouldn't talk to me or nothin', I'd tip her and tip her. I kept asking her to come to lunch with me on my boat. She said 'No' five times. But the sixth time, I got her to come meet me on my boat for lunch. Soon as I got her on my boat, we took off _ kept going, all the way around the world.'"

McConaughey laughs at the outlaw nature of that, the chutzpah.

"So he took this lady on board his boat, first date and all, and basically kidnapped her. She didn't talk to him for two months! But they got married in Spain, finished their round-the-world voyage, and had a beautiful daughter.
"That guy is somebody, like Mud, willing to show you how far he'd go to win a woman. I don't necessarily approve of what he did, but I love the spirit of it. He inspired me when I thought about how to play Mud, the place Mud was coming from."

Mud, who meets and recruits two Arkansas river rat teens to help him in his quest, is a character cut from Southern myth, a Huck Finn or Harry Powell, the Robert Mitchum menace from the classic "Night of the Hunter." Variety's Peter Debruge describes him as "feral," a waterfront philosopher / outlaw who benefits "greatly from that itchy unpredictability only McConaughey can bring."
"He is superstition and memory and a guy I could grab ahold of and say, 'I get him,'" MConaughey says. "How far towards the ends of the Earth, to limits of the universe would a man go to be with the woman he has decided is his one, true love?"

McConaughey, 43, has had a run of guys he can "grab ahold of." Starting with "The Lincoln Lawyer," the hunky leading man, long dismissed for gracing middling romantic comedies and muddled thrillers, has been on a roll: "Tropic Thunder," "Killer Joe," "Magic Mike" and now "Mud" _ compelling performances, often in supporting roles and always in good movies. The streak led New York Times critic Manohla Dargis to wonder "What happened? Did he roll out of bed one morning" with his movie-choice mojo back in hand?

"I think I'm making, actually, more selfish choices these days," he says, on his way to the set of a cable series with the working title "True Detectives" that he's doing with Woody Harrelson. "These roles are all challenging me, scaring me. I like that. 'I'm not sure how to play that. I'm not sure how to solve that acting moment that's in the script. I don't know how this guy works.' And that's a real turn-on."

By Christine Cortes, Courier Staff Writer

“Like We Grown” is the debut single of Trevor Jackson, who may not be well known, but has been in the entertainment business since he was ten. His single isn’t that different from most R&B songs that get playtime on the airwaves, but the track is easy on the ears and displays mature vocals despite only being sixteen.

As a child, he knew he was born to be a performer, stating that he began to dance at the age of three. He participated in a lot of sports, but at the same time took dance lessons to culminate his skills.

By Yara Mukaled, Courier Staff Writer

The only thing about Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis that I enjoyed was the fact that it is only 68 pages long. It is as though Kafka wrote the book in one sitting after some weird dream he had and never bothered to edit it.

The book begins when the main character, Gregor Samsa, wakes up and realizes that he has turned into a huge bug. Kafka does not even bother with an explanation. The first sentence of the book is, “One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous, verminous bug.”

That’s it. I guess Kafka just wanted to get right to it and didn’t want to waste any time, which explains why the novel is so short. While some people may view Kafka’s choice as a creative and powerful way to begin a novel, I felt it was not an enjoyable way to start the story. Had Kafka kept that as his first sentence and proceeded in explaining how or why Gregor turned into a bug at any point in the novel and provided some background information, I would feel differently and would perhaps applaud Kafka’s bold start.

By Sean Stewart, Entertainment Editor

I saw the latest entry in the Evil Dead franchise that's marketed to be a reboot, but I look at it more as a revival of it. The film is directed by Fede Alvarez and Executively Produced by Bruce Campbell (he played the main protagonist Ash Williams in the previous films)

The film revolves around a group of friends who are in an isolated cabin in the forest who are supporting recovering heroine addict Mia (played by Jane Levy). While in the cabin, the friends discover the basement, which leads them to a room of dead cats, Satanic messages on the wall, and the famed Necronomicon (aka The Book of the Dead). Like the generic idiots horror film characters usually are, they open the book and unleash an evil spirit who possesses Mia. The friends have to either deal with all of the horrific acts the demon performs, or kill Mia in order to kill the demon.

This film was great until it was on DVD and Blu Ray, so you have time to build up the courage.

By Yara Mukaled, Courier Staff Writer

At first glance, Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project seems like the run-of- the-mill self help or memoir for middle aged people trying to find themselves. I definitely did not expect to be so moved and inspired by it as an eighteen year old high school student.

What I found was that The Happiness Project is not geared towards adults or depressives, but is meant for anyone open to a new outlook on life. While riding the city bus, Rubin realizes that she has been going through life on autopilot and she begins to question whether she pays enough attention to her happiness.

The Happiness Project, her memoir, follows Rubin on her year long pursuit of improving her happiness. She dedicates each month of the year to different aspects of her life, and makes subtle changes in her routine, attitude, and outlook to improve her overall happiness.

As she documents her findings, Rubin comes off as not only self-aware and thoughtful, but down to earth, and makes it seem like anyone can start their own happiness project. I felt as though I could easily connect with Rubin, and her ideas about happiness (her “splendid truths” as she calls them) were relatable and thought provoking. For example, when she spent the month of January clearing her clutter, I wanted to do so as well and spent my spring break “decluttering” my room. When she worked to strengthen her relationships, I thought of ways that I could do the same.

By Christine Cortes, Entertainment Editor

After seven years, Justin Timberlake is back in the music scene with a new album, The 20/20 Experience. His absence from singing, however, might not have even been noticed because he was constantly in the limelight, whether it was because of SNL, his acting adventures, or his relationships, he’s always finding a way to be a household name.
Timberlake got his start on the Mickey Mouse Club alongside Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Ryan Gosling, and all four of them eventually became major influences in the entertainment business. He did not rise to prominence until he front-lined the boy band N’Sync.

His previous album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, spawned five major singles including “SexyBack”, “What Goes Around... Comes Around”, and “My Love” which all hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

“Pusher Love Girl” is the first song on the album and it’s over eight minutes long. He performed this song along with the lead single, “Suit & Tie” at the Grammy’s in February. Both songs explore a doo wop type of sound. Timberlake also lets listeners know that he hasn’t lost his clean falsetto sound in his break from music.

by Yara Mukaled, Courier Staff Writer

Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 (Part One) is the story of two people, Aomame and Tengo, living in Tokyo in what is supposed to be 1984. The two characters never meet, they lead separate lives for most of the novel as Murakami switches from Aomame to Tengo from chapter to chapter. It is only until towards the end when the reader is shown their connection.

I was very excited about reading the book and bought a version that includes all three parts of the trilogy. However, while the beginning was interesting, I realized I was 200 or so pages into the book without really being able to tell you what the novel was about.

By Yari Nieves-Rivera, Editor-in-Chief

The Princess Club at James Logan High School is accepting donations of prom supplies for students who can't afford them.

Based off of the Princess Project of California, this club's ultimate goal is to provide clothes and accessories to students who can't afford them. This project began in February of 2002, when in a similar situation, a female student needed a dress for prom. The founders of the project, Laney Whitcanack and Kristi Smith Knutson, decided to aid the girl by attempting to create a dress-drive that would allow women around the Bay Area to donate old dresses. The response was definitive.

By Francisco Sierra, Courier Staff Writer

Known by many as the man who brought the untamable voice of reggae music and Rastafarian culture to the world and united many people and nations with his words of peace, love, and unity, Bob Marley's impact on music history and role as a social and political prophet is both unique and unparalleled.

Marley is the story of a young, mixed-race boy born in the small village of St. Ann, Jamaica. He later moved to the shanty town of Trench Town in Kingston, Jamaica, where he first discovered his immense love for music, soccer, and the great Haile Selassie.

This moving documentary surfaces the story of the musician, revolutionary, and legend, from his early days to his rise to international super-stardom. Viewers will walk away knowing Bob Marley in much more intimate and accurate fashion, rather than the specious, superficial or incomplete picture they may have had before.

by Yara Mukaled, Courier Staff Writer

Into the Forest joins the many tales that take place after the fall of life as we
know it. It's set apart apart from stories like the famous The Walking Deadseries in that it is a coming of age story that is also very relevant to many current global issues. The story touched my heart and really got me thinking about the values of society and what would truly happen in a world without electricity and technology.

Nell and her family live in Northern California on their own secluded plot of land surrounded by lush, public forest outside the town of Redwood. Seventeen year old Nell and her eighteen year old sister, Eva, have been homeschooled their entire lives and are both focused on their own, separate and distinct futures. Nell is working on studying for her exams for Harvard while Eva spends most of her time in her studio dancing and preparing for her debut with the San Francisco Ballet.

However, Nell and Eva are forced to deal with this new, dark world - and it seems like they are the only ones living in it as they begin to realize how bad things have really gotten outside the forest that shields them.

by Francisco Sierra, Courier Staff Writer

This Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary takes place during the AIDS/HIV Pandemic of the 1980's. This is the story of two coalitions—ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group)—whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time.

Faced with their own mortality, this improbable group of young people, many HIV-positive young men, broke the mold as radical warriors taking on Washington and the medical establishment. With complete access of never-before-seen archival footage from the 1980s and '90s, filmmaker David France puts the viewer smack in the middle of the controversial actions, the heated meetings, the heartbreaking failures, and the exultant breakthroughs of heroes in the making.

by Yara Mukaled, Courier Staff Writer

On Lytton Avenue, just outside of all the action on University Avenue, Sancho’s would be pretty easy to miss if it weren’t for the crowds that gather during weekday lunchtimes. I stumbled upon this humble taqueria while in search of some real Mexican food near Stanford University. A friend and I decided to give the food a try.

We arrived on a Wednesday afternoon during a normal work week, so the lunch crowd had just left. The seating inside is limited and crowded but there are several outdoor tables. The cashier, whom I took to be the manager, was very friendly and welcoming. We told him we were “dining in” and so my friend and I both received a generous basket of hot, homemade tortilla chips to go along with whatever we ordered. There was a buffet of homemade salsas ranging from mild to extra hot that we could help ourselves to with small, to-go, containers to dip our chips into.

by Luiegi Magnaye, Courier Staff Writer

Synopsis: Bewildered and scared, two innocent children are left in the woods by their father. Left for hours, Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) wander off in tears, believing their father is never coming back. Stumbling upon a sketchy ginger bread house made of candy and other delights, they fall for the trap and barely escape the clutches of a witch. Having their first taste of blood, they turn into vigilantes and seek retribution. Facing the worst kinds of witches, Hansel and Gretel confront their past.