A.F. Sienko

Why Unpaid Internships are Wrong

2012-01-28T03:45:00.000-08:00

Why Unpaid Internships are Wrong for You and America
By A.F.Sienko

I see so many blog posts and articles on why unpaid internships are worthwhile. They list the experience, the connections, the resume building... but fundamentally, their logic amounts to "it's better than doing nothing."

This is exactly the kind of self-defeating attitude that has given us the terrible job market we have today. By embracing unpaid internships, we are only working against our own self-interest and taking paying jobs out of the market.

By taking an unpaid internship you are only making your future employment prospects worst, not better.

Now before you start comment bombing me on how your internship led to a high paying job with so-and-so, read on. While you may have had a positive experience from your specific internship, that does not change the fact that the preponderance of unpaid internships is generally an exploitive and extremely damaging practice to our nation's workforce during the worst economic crisis since the great depression.

4 Reasons Unpaid Internships are Wrong for You and America:

1. Unpaid Internships Take Real Jobs out of the Market
Face it, employers don't care if you are the next Steve Jobs or Nobel Prize Winner in your field or industry. They only care about the bottom line (profit!) - that's why they started their business in the first place. And they know that the job market sucks right now, and you have no choice but to take an unpaid internship. Just like that, they get free labor.

Employers have been gaming this system for so long, with the help of the college internship system, that a major part of their workforce is now unpaid interns. They have interns perform real jobs that otherwise paid employees would do. And if you do a job for free, why in the world would anyone pay you to do the same thing with a salary and benefits? Which brings me to the next point...

2. You Devalue Yourself and Your Skills in an Unpaid Internship
Yes, internships can give you valuable experience and skills to build your resume. There is only one problem with that: if you have a skill that an unpaid intern can do, why would anyone hire someone and pay them to perform that skill if they can get an unpaid intern to do the same thing for free? It's the very definition of a vicious cycle!

The amount of time you spend at an internship, varrying from a few weeks to about 6 months, is nowhere near the amount of time you need to develop a real, valuable industry skill. If companies trained you in such a skill, they would be wasting their resources on a worker that they know is only temporary. That's why all the important training goes to PAID workers, who are under contract to stick around. Again, it's about the bottom line.

By giving your skills out for free and working without pay, you are saying to other people that you have very little value as a worker. In fact, you are telling them that your services are worth $0. And if you take an unpaid internship after you graduate, drop that numerical value into a negative.

Talk to an HR person and tell them you did not earn a salary in your last position. No matter how impressed they were with your resume, you will immediately hear them get uncomfortable. They are thinking, whether it's fair or not, "what was so wrong with this person that they didn't even get paid for what they did?"

Think of it like building your brand. If you see a brand of clothing that sells jackets for $500 and jeans for $150, you immediately relate that brand to quality and value. That is just how our psychology works, especially in a capitalist economy. See the SAME pair of jeans for $20 and you will assume they are a cheap knockoff. The same goes for your personal brand.

3. Higher Education Destroys Students' Sense of Value
For many of you taking an unpaid internship is not an option, your university forces you to take at least one, if not two or more internships. And because most internships are unpaid, most likely you are working for free.

It's amazing how the one institution that is supposed to help you find a job does so much to make sure you won't, simply by supporting the corrupt internship system. Sure you get college credits for working in the "real world," but think about how sick that is and how negatively it affects your value as a worker and a person.

You are literally PAYING someone for the chance to work for free. Read that again: you are paying thousands of dollars in college credits to help someone's business earn a profit. This isn't slavery, it's something far worst - at least slaves were provided with some sort of compensation for their labor. You still have to pay for your transportation, housing, and bills; all for someone else's personal gain.

Also, as many students know from experience, many of these internships have little to nothing to do with the real world. The company knows you are temporary labor, and unskilled, uncredited labor at that. Most of the time they will have you pushing paper, answering emails, and doing all the tasks they don't want to pay someone $15 an hour to do.

And by forcing students to take unpaid internships, colleges and universities are basically guaranteeing a constant supply of free labor, further displacing paid jobs.

4. Unpaid Internships are Illegal
Unless your internship only involves training that doesn't benefit the employer in any way, your internship is illegal according to federal and most state laws:
http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/TEGL/TEGL12-09acc.pdf

That's right, you are an illegal laborer and your employer is breaking the law! At least illegal immigrants are paid for the work they do. Unpaid internships are exploitation, pure and simple. If your employer has no respect for the law, or for you, you think they will turn around and pay you a salary and benefits? Maybe in another lifetime.

In Defense of Internships
Now you ask, what about the referrals? The networking? That great job I got after working at company XYZ?

I'm sorry to say your positive experience is the exception that proves the rule. And the more we embrace unpaid internships, the fewer positive experiences there will be. Sure a small percentage of college students will gain valuable experience that leads to full time employment, but that percentage will shrink with the tidal wave of unpaid labor flooding the market due to unpaid internships.

Now am I saying to never take an unpaid internship? Of course not! Let me tell you a little secret: I was one of those people who worked their way through an internship and eventually landed full time employment in the company.

The important thing is to be smart and only take an internship, especially unpaid, if there is a real chance it will help you with your career. And by real chance, I don't mean you will be working at a famous company where you might meet and work with a major player in your industry. That doesn't mean taking an internship were you might get one or two clips published on the company website, or even page 18D of a regional newspaper.

I'm talking about listenning to other people who interned in that company and hearing how it actually helped their career. You have to know for a fact that someone who interned there was later employed to even consider that as a possibility.

In my situation, I knew the company I was walking into was a fast growing startup that would need full time employees as it expanded. I had spoken with my employer and he made it clear I could expect a gig there if I did well. And I also had access to all the resources the company had available, normally offered to its clients for thousands of dollars. You see the difference between that and the common unpaid internship?

"I don't have a job, why not just take the internship? Opportunity won't come if I'm sitting around doing nothing."

True, but again this is a self-defeating attitude. Because people are so desperate for any opportunity, businesses know they can get away with offering unpaid internships instead of wasting money on a paid position.

Instead of thinking about what others can do for you, think about all you can do on your own. The internet has made the world a lot smaller, you don't have to rely on big business to get ahead in life!

1. Build Your Personal Brand Online
Never before, in all of human history, have we had so many opportunities to publish our work and connect with other people at almost no cost. It doesn't matter what field or industry you are in, embracing social media can help you build an audience and credibility that may lead employers to come looking for you.

Start a blog. It's free and easy. Use it to publish your clips. Comment on relevant articles in the news. If you want to be a lawyer, discuss recent court cases from the news. Even if you don't attract a lot of readers, you can use your blog or website as an online resume when going on a job interview.

2. Connect on Social Media
In the days before Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn you had to go through several layers of defenses before being able to connect with someone important in your industry. You sent faxes to nowhere. You argued with secretaries to get you on the schedule to talk to a director or manager in a major company. No more!

With the click of a mouse you can connect with these same people on social media. You will be amazed when leading professionals in your field respond to you on Twitter. And trust me, you have just as much a chance of getting a job interview from your Twitter or LinkedIn connections as pushing papers in the basement of a major corporation (perhaps more.)

3. Network IRL
You have some great opportunities to network in unpaid internships. In 90% of these internships you will be networking on a day-to-day basis with a. the person in charge of managing interns and b. the other interns. Amazing! Another 5% of internships will give you some real opportunities to work with other employees and meet some important people from your industry. A rare few will get a chance to work in the trenches, meet clients, and have their Disney fantasy of impressing a higher-up with your skill, talent, and determination to land a job come true. Get over it.

Want to network? Go out in The Real World. This may be harder in some markets than others, but for those in major metropolitan areas like New York City, this advice is gold. Save the cash you would waste traveling to your unpaid internship and use that to go to a major industry conference or expo. Have a blog or press credentials? You can go for free! In some cases you may even have a chance to help or present at a business event. Trust me, this is the #1 way to meet people in your industry who may actually hire you or have job openings for you!

The employees in your unpaid internships do not want you to succeed - after all, you will be taking their jobs. But people who go to industry events will approach you if they see you as a good fit for a position they have in mind.

Conclusion
Never take an unpaid internship, unless you are 100% certain it will actually lead to progress in your career. It's true, you don't have any real work experience until you go out into the real world, no matter how great a college you finished. But that also means you don't have the judgement or perspective to realize when you have been given a raw deal.

Until you are forced to work for minimum wage, 6 days a week, from morning until night just to pay for your rent and food - you don't realize the value of work. After experiencing something like that you begin to realize that unpaid internships, i.e. working for free, is just exploitation. If you value yourself as a person and a worker, you simply cannot accept the institution of unpaid internships as the rest of the country has.

I'm open to comments and arguments as to why I'm wrong or right, and certainly for ways we can change this system.

*Waiting Room photo by Steve Snodgrass
*DC Rally photo by SEIU International

Election 2012: The Iowa Caucus

2011-12-15T00:23:00.000-08:00

On January 3rd registered Republicans in Iowa will get the first chance at choosing their nominee for president. There's only one problem: the person they vote for will most likely never become President of the United States.

And this is not just a GOP electability issue, but a wider symptom of an electoral system that fails to accurately represent the will of the people, on both sides of the isle.

The last few months have seen the meteoric rise and fall of several candidates; Texas governor Rick Perry, Representative Michele Bachmann, and Herman Cain were all leading in the polls before falling back into national political obscurity. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's campaign has returned from the dead and currently leads in Iowa with over 27% of the vote in most polls.

Photo by Gage Skidmore

Meanwhile former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney struggles to hold in the polls even as he is labeled the inevitable "presumed nominee" by the mainstream media.
Romney has the best chance at winning against President Obama in the general election compared to all of the other GOP candidates, polling at 40 to 48% against Obama if the election were held today. Meanwhile Gingrich would be soundly defeated 38 to 51%.

Yet the media has made a big deal of every change in the polls in the lead up to the early Republican primaries, even though these numbers represent a very small and homogeneous slice of the American public. Only 119,000 people voted in the Iowa Republican caucus four years ago. If the turnout were the same on January 3rd, that 27% Gingrich holds in Iowa would only amount to about 30,000 people. Those 30,000 registered Republicans in Iowa would have immense influence, at least momentarily, over an electoral system that eventually affects 300 million Americans.

This is at the heart of the electability issue for the GOP. These early primary voters are much more conservative than the general public, and their choice of candidate will likely be too extreme to win a general election. The primary system itself is a way of quickly pushing through a candidate that has not yet been vetted to succeed in the general election.

In 2008 senator John McCain was declared the presumptive Republican nominee by mainstream media sources such as the LA Times after winning only three out of the first seven primaries, achieving final victory in Florida. Even though no candidate earned more than 40% of the vote in any of the initial contests, with the vast majority of delegates yet to be selected, McCain clinched the election. He did so with a little over a million voters, just 0.4% of the American public.

That's because February 5th, 2008 was Super Tuesday. On Super Tuesday many more primaries occur than at any other time, including states with "winner takes all" rules like Texas. This makes the early primary states key battlegrounds that lead to an electoral steamroller on Super Tuesday which no candidate can hope to withstand.

The Republican party has tried to correct this by adding another month before the "winner takes all" states get to play, delaying the start date for those states until April 1st. The GOP is hoping to copy the primary system of the Democrats, a long process that ensured a centrist Barack Obama won the nomination in 2008.

Don't mistake my critique as partisan. The Republican primary system is just one timely example of how our democracy has failed to provide the candidates that people truly want representing them - left or right.

Learn how the Republican nomination process works.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A.F.Sienko is the son of immigrants who gained asylum in the United States after fleeing communist oppression in Poland. His parents settled in the Brooklyn projects and worked seven days a week to pay for his education.

Sienko's political life started on September 11th, 2001 when he witnessed the 9/11 terrorist attacks from his High School window. This led him to enroll in Hofstra University's School of Communication to seek a degree in journalism. At Hofstra Sienko was the founding video editor of Nassau News Live, a hyper local online news site run by journalism students.

At Nassau News Live he covered the 2008 presidential election and the 3rd presidential debate at Hofstra using the latest in webcasting and online syndication technology. At this time Sienko learned to anchor, produce, and provide live technical support using some of the latest technology available with a crack team of student journalists.

After graduating with Dean's List in 2009 Sienko joined Be The Media, an online startup that taught organizations and individuals across the globe on using new media to get their message out. Sienko worked with journalists and journalism students at hundreds of universities and organizations, including the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, the Columbia University School of Journalism, and the United Nations.

Currently Sienko works as an independent media expert specializing in the fields of online journalism, social media, and live webcasting. In 2010 he helped draft a media kit that led to an agreement with national nonprofit HomeAid to host the largest virtual event to benefit America's homeless.

"Blighted" Elmont intersection may be demolished

2010-08-05T16:20:00.000-07:00

By Andrzej Sienko

The Argo Theater in Elmont

*NOTE* This story was originally written and published in November, 2007. See my notes below the story to find out why.

The Town of Hempstead is set to declare a central intersection in Elmont "blighted," potentially transforming the area as part of an urban renewal plan, government officials said.

A study drafted for the Hempstead Department of Planning and Economic Development declares the southwest intersection of Hempstead Turnpike and Elmont Road to be substandard and unsanitary. If a Jan. 22 town board hearing agrees, the current businesses may be bought out by developers, according to the commissioner of the department, Charles T. Theofan.

"The blight study is the first step for implementing the urban renewal plan," Theofan said in an interview. He said contractors would submit proposals to develop the area and offer to pay business owners for their property and to relocate. If a deal cannot be reached, the town can take the land using eminent domain, he said. Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray had spearheaded the renewal project after several community meetings in September.

The Argo Theatre, an old-style cinema constructed in 1950, dominates the disputed area. It is described by the study as “obsolete” and “awkward.” Today it houses the Elmont Discount Department Store, one of several businesses affected. They may all be demolished as part of the plan, according to Theofan.

“Pay me my money and I’m out,” said the store’s owner, who asked to be identified only as Ali. He said business had been down 15 to 20 percent over the last few years, and he welcomes relocating from the ailing local economy. A deli next door is going out of business, its owner, Roger Patel, said. He blamed a decrease in traffic. “Small businesses just can’t compete.”

The study concluded that the area is "underutilized” in what should be a thriving neighborhood intersection. The town wants a 40,000-square-foot supermarket to take the place of the Argo, filling the community’s need for a large grocery store after a local Waldbaum’s closed down several years ago. Civic organizations have tried to bring another supermarket to Elmont, unsuccessfully because of lack of space, said Sandra Smith, leader of the Elmont Coalition for Sustainable Development.

Smith described the intersection as a commercial center, and said the Coalition had been working for years with Saccardi & Schiff, who drafted the blight report, on ways to revitalize the area. However a Nov. 13 town board decision on the study was delayed two months after a phone call from Smith, asking for more time. “How can we decide without knowing?” she asked. She said the Coalition had not been informed where the blight study was taking place, and needed more time to talk to all parties involved.

Smith said that Elmont residents may have mixed feelings about demolishing the Argo, adding that “it’s become more than just a 99 cent store.” She said refurbishing the outside of storefronts may be enough without relocating important Elmont businesses.
Evelyn Martinaz works in one such business, a restaurant owned by her mother for eight years. She agreed that the community needs help, but said more should be done to solve crime and drug problems. “People in this neighborhood hear about these problems, and unless the families and kids are more engaged, they will leave.” She said a supermarket would help, but “a YMCA would help more.”

Theofan said the town is trying to fast track the process, so that by May 2008 officials will be ready to adopt a plan and select a developer. He said the new developers could benefit from state grants of up to $2 million to restore the area and receive tax credits for being in a special business zone.

Some current business owners said they are skeptical about how long the acquisition will take. Ram Thapa, who recently opened a retail store near the Argo, is worried about the relocation. “A new business has more expenses: new merchandise, new location…who will pay for all that?”

Thapa and others said they want to hear a good offer before deciding to move.

***

This was my first "official" journalism piece for Hofstra University's school of communication. It was first published on a site called NassauNews.org, and "lost" when the school did not renew that domain. Later it was updated and became part of a multimedia project, with an interactive HTML map of the location (I'm still looking for that).

I approached Newsday about publishing the article in print, and I thought it had a shot since no one in the community had heard about the project and it had not been written about before this point. The Newsday editor I approached said (I paraphrase) "thanks so much for the lead but we will not publish your story." Now it's up here just so I have a public record of it.

Help Me Be The Media!

2010-02-04T13:04:00.000-08:00

Photo Tour of Krakow: Part 2

2009-07-07T03:32:00.000-07:00

Krakow has centuries of history behind it, and describing every piece of that history that now remains would be nearly an impossible task. Still, I would like to describe a few other interesting locations in Krakow.

Road in Krakow.

Wow, it can't be... more medieval stuff!

One interesting landmark is the Kosciuszko Mound, or "Kopiec." It was built in the years of 1820-1823. Building this huge earthen mound must have been a difficult task to say the least. The local population had to carry the earth up a daunting hill using wheel-barrows, as there were no trucks or trains at the time.

The Kopiec.

Entrance to the mound.

The mound is a monument to Polish national hero Tadeusz Kosciuszko, who is also an American hero. He was a general who helped the United States during the Revolutionary War, before returning to Poland to fight for freedom in his homeland. On July 18th, 2007, then Senator Obama said Kosciuszko helped "win our country's independence."

Description of Kosciuszko's role in the American Revolutionary War.

Top of the mound.

The mound stood until 1998 when flooding caused it to collapse. The floods of 1997-1998 were the worst in Poland for over a century. The mound was rebuilt with modern aquaduct systems in 2002.

History of the mound.

View of Krakow from the top. A somewhat cloudy day!

Seems like a small city when walking through it, but from this view you can see Krakow stretches far in every direction. No wonder my feet hurt!

Before World War I Poland had been occupied by foreign powers for over 120 years. After a long struggle for independence it looked like the Poles would have a sovereign nation again. The Austrians, after their defeat on the Western Front, had promised to depart from Polish lands. However they took everything they could before leaving, including food, materials, and equipment. This caused a period of great poverty and famine, especially in the Krakow area.

Underground Polish resistance forces eventually organized, and walked up to the Austrian Military Barracks in Krakow (in the Podgorze area). They ordered the Austrian troops to disarm and leave, and then stopped all trains carrying stolen Polish goods. This was the first time foreign troops were peacefully disarmed in Poland, marking the beginning of Polish independence. The square below is the former site of the barracks, and there is a monument today to this historical feat.

Krakow had a large Jewish population before World War II. Poland overall had a diverse number of peoples of different faiths because it was one of the most religiously tolerant countries in all of Europe (and perhaps the world). Under the Polish constitution (the first constitution in Europe) there was a right to religious freedom. Today many synagogues still stand in Krakow's Jewish district. However this population is long gone because of the tragedies of World War II. Jewish residents were rounded up into the Krakow ghetto by German forces, and eventually sent to Auschwitz and other concentration camps. Below is pictured a monument in the place where the ghetto stood.

Chairs stand here to symbolize the people lost in the Krakow ghetto.

A very old synagogue.

Finally, in the interest of journalism, I demonstrate an important Polish cultural practice. Or "How to Drink Polish Beer 101"

Photo Tour of Krakow

2009-07-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

Krakow is a medieval city in Poland, the ancient seat of kings and the first Polish capital. It has a vast and diverse history spanning centuries. Today it is a very active university city. It has the character of a small college town, with thousands of students walking its busy streets. However it also has all the luxuries of a major metropolitan center, without ever making you feel overwhelmed.

News post in Krakow.

Outdoor market; a common sight in Polish cities.

One of the main streets.

Below is a picture of the now demolished Wawel Chocolate Factory. They used to have a lot of Christmas chocolate left over after the holidays, and would sell it at a discounted price of one Polish dollar (or zloty). This made it popular with the local students.

Demolished chocolate factory. How sad!

"Slak", or "Trail" street.

One of the busiest streets in Krakow is "Duga" or "Long" street. The medieval sidewalks here are packed with students and city residents. Interestingly, every time I passed a certain Alcohol store on this street, there was always a man falling out of it. The first day a man came out with his pants falling down, claiming "Well, I just don't have a belt!" Not sure if this is an everyday occurrence, but my cousin convinced me it was.

"Long" street... could have been a bit wider!

A Hostel, or cheap living quarters. A common sight in Krakow and other European tourist destinations.

Many buildings have ornate sculptures or other designs built on top of them to draw attention. They are also commonly used as landmarks. One such place is the "Bookstore under the Globe." Famous poets and authors come here frequently to give lectures and host discussions.

A trolley! So cool. And fun to ride.

The monument below features king Jagaila of Poland and his royal entourage. This is in memory of his victory at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410. This was the largest battle of knights in medieval Europe, when the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth defeated the mighty (and feared) Teutonic Order. The Teutonic Knights were the most powerful organization in Northern Europe, and their defeat in this battle changed the course of history. Something you won't read about in most Western history books.

The "Old Town" of Krakow used to be surrounded by walls. Today only the main gate remains standing. In front of the gate is the fortress of Barbakan, a sort of "customs entrance" that everyone entering the city had to go through. It was in a very strategic location because attackers could not attack the main gate without having archers shoot upon them from Barbakan.

Barbakan.

Barbakan and the main gate. This photo shows how anyone attacking the main gate was in Barbakan's field of fire.

Barbakan.

The main gate.

The last remaining portion of the original wall.

A shot of the gate from the other side.

After going through the gate, you enter Florianska Street. This is a historical street that's centuries old. In the early 20th century it was a popular spot for students and artists, where they would drink cognac and wine. Today it has been heavily commercialized because many people and tourists walk past here to get into the center of the Old Town. It is the most expensive street in all of Poland to rent on.

Giant walking beer. Only in Poland!

Florianska leads to the main market square. This is the largest medieval market square in all of Europe. This was the playground of kings and royalty of centuries past. Most of the apartment blocks in these photographs are several hundred years old. One legend regarding the square is that a "Hejnal" or "Performer" sang here when the Tartars of Mongolia descended on Krakow. He sang so that everyone would gather in the square and defend the city. It was said that he was shot through the throat by an arrow in mid-song. Today performances in the square end abruptly as an homage to this legend.

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Central marketplace building.

The shopping mall of its day!

Statue of Adam Miskiewic, famous Polish writer who wrote the national epic "Pan Taduesz." Students frequently meet here. Students also come here after their High School Prom and jump around the statue on one leg in order to get better grades on their finals.

This is the first church in Krakow and one of the first churches in all of Poland. It was built in the 10th century, the same century that Christianity came to Poland. It was rebuilt in the 17th century.

This tower used to be part of the original Town Hall that was demolished in the 19th century.

St. Mary's Basilica, located in the central square, is one of Poland's most historically and culturally signifcant churches. It was built in the 12th century in the Gothic style. Its size was immense, especially to an everyday peasant from that time. It was basically the skyscraper of its day. There is a legend surrounding the construction of the two towers of the church, with two brothers competing to build the taller tower. When one succeeded, the other killed him out of jealousy.

Massive.

Note how the left tower has shorter but more numerous sections, while the right has taller sections.

Epicly massive.

There is a local joke here that on every street in Krakow there is a church. I must disagree, because on many streets there are two or even three churches. One explanation for this is that King Kazimierz the Big frequently cheated on his wife, and was ordered by a bishop to build a church every time he did so. Considering he also built an apartment block in the main square for one of his lovers, we can see why there are so many churches and cathedrals here today!

The oldest Baroque style cathedral in Poland.

The oldest Roman style church in Poland.

Cathedral in the Podgorze area.

Many of these cathedrals were on the same street or within a minute's walking distance. But there is more to Krakow than these architectural monuments!

Medieval city without a carraige ride? No way.

Church, but in the distance!

12th century Church of All Saints used to stand here until 1835. Now Square of All Saints.

Current town hall.

Small Square.

Nunnery at the Small Square.

Skarga, priest who incited a patriotic ferver in Poles right before they lost their independence.

Wawel (Vavel) Castle is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe. The hill upon which it was built was populated for centuries, possibly into the BC era. It was built as the official headquarters of the Polish kings. It was rebuilt through the centuries, and you can see these vast shifts in architectural design in many of its buildings. In one word: EPIC.

Guard tower.

Entrance to the castle.

The immense, nearly insurmountable defensive walls of the castle. The Wisla (Vistula) River is in the distance.

A look into the inner castle, where kings lived.

The royal chambers.

Some medieval ruins. Not sure what was the story here, but my theory is that hobbits lived here.

Wawel Cathedral, where kings attended mass.

Another shot of Wawel Cathedral. Kings and Polish national heroes are buried here.

Note the various patterns of architecture. The cathedral was built upon many times over the centuries.

Wawel Cathedral.

Wawel Cathedral contains a massive seven ton bell, only rung when a truly monumental event happens (such as the death of Pope John Paul II).

Standing at the gates.

Interesting design in this clock.

Hanging with my cousin and his girlfriend in the castle.;

Statue of Pope John Paul II, admired by many Poles.

This was originally part of the inner-wall, but was rebuilt into housing.

Cathedral from another angle.

There is an outside world.

I hope you have enjoyed this photo tour of Krakow, Poland! It's really an amazing place. Check back to see one more blog entry where I talk about a few other important places and events in this city.

Wisla again, an important river that runs through most of Poland.

Heavy Metal Trends Shift to Eastern Europe

2009-06-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

Band Profile: In a House of Brick

***Another article from two years ago, but it still applies as these guys are going strong and doing their thing!***

Photo by In a House of Brick

The city of Rzeszow, Poland is not know for noise or intimidation. Traffic is closed on most of its cobble-stone streets, and crowds can only be found in open-air markets staffed by local villagers. A music festival this summer promoted the usual acts: polka bands, rock groups, and a singer or two. But this relative civility was quickly interrupted by booming amplifiers and screams from one of the stages. In a House of Brick had started playing.

Fans call them “Iahob,” and the band represents an emerging scene inspired by musical trendsetters in the United States. Hardcore, a punishing combination of metal and punk, had blown up in the US, mostly among young urbanites. Yet its inspirations are clearly heard in this eastern enclave, far from its tumultuous birthplace on the East Coast. On a dusty field in Rzeszow Poles are throwing their fists in a circle pit, running to the rhythm of frantic drum beats and guitar breakdowns.

But to call them copycats would be a disservice. After the show band front-man, called “Kwieca” by fans, discussed Iahob over a few beers, as per Polish tradition. “We don’t like to categorize ourselves, be like someone else,” Kwieca said, “of course there are inspirations. But this movement is our own.” Kwieca performs bass and vocals in the band. His screams stem straight from the traditional hardcore vein, greatly confusing random bystanders. The song structures, riffs, and percussion paint a much more diversified picture, with everything from rock to reggae being touched on.

Iahob would not stand a chance under Poland’s rigid communist system, but since the fall of the Iron Curtain a burgeoning metal scene had emerged. Death metal was Poland’s first major export, with heavy bands like Vader and Decapitated touring Europe and the US. But until very recently, hardcore had been missing.

“There are magazines here now, shows, new venues, everything is possible. We’ve even been on tour, in Poland, something unimaginable before,” said Kwiecia. The band hopes to make it big and land a record deal. They have almost the same resources as western bands: good gear, recordings, t-shirts, and even a Myspace page. Songs are in English, though the average listener might not notice.

“Who knows, maybe one day you guys will be listening to us over there,” smiled Kwiecia.

http://www.myspace.com/iahob

Antidepressants- Friend or Foe?

2009-06-21T05:54:00.000-07:00

Features & Analysis: Antidepressants- Friend or Foe?
Andrzej Sienko, April 2008

***This is the first in a serious of articles that I wrote during my studies at Hofstra University that have either never been published or only saw limited distribution. Some may require additional updates, but I have tried to select only the most timely pieces. Here is a short feature I wrote about antidepressants that I think is both informative and even-handed. Looking forward to hearing what you think about this issue!***

Almost a decade ago a high school senior in Colorado applied for the Marine Corps, but was rejected. The reason: recruiters learned he was taking the powerful antidepressant Luvox. Five days later Eric Harris opened fire on fellow students in Columbine High School, killing 13. Today the controversy continues over whether antidepressants are safe.

A 2005 study by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention said antidepressants are the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States. Recently traces of antidepressants have even been found in the drinking water of major cities. Prescription medication to treat depression has been around since the 1950’s, but use in antidepressants surged in the 1990’s after SSRI’s, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, became available. SSRI’s like Luvox, Paxil, and Zoloft increase levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which influences mood, and is thought to alleviate depression. The concern comes from the side effects, which include suicidal thoughts and mania.

The effectiveness of antidepressants is still in dispute, with many contradictory studies. A 2002 study in the psychology journal Prevention and Treatment said that antidepressants are 30% more effective than a placebo at improving mood. However a 2006 analysis by the Food and Drug Administration found that antidepressants double the risk of suicidal behavior for patients 18 to 25 years old. The FDA put a “black box” warning label on antidepressants in 2004 because of these concerns.

“They are effective,” said Charles Levinthal, chair of the Hofstra University psychology department and author of Drugs, Behavior, and Modern Society, “whenever you have studies that compare pharmaceutical therapy and talk therapy, the best treatment is a combination.” Levinthal said in his book that suicidal thoughts only increase in 3% of patients on SSRI’s compared to a placebo, and thoughts do not necessarily mean actions. “That concern should not be the main reason of withholding medication from a patient, absolutely not,” said Levinthal.

In fact the black box label may have increased the youth suicide rate after a sharp decline in antidepressant use in 2004. The suicide rate for ages 14 to 19 increased 11% that year, leading some to reexamine the warning. Levinthal said the label is appropriate: “the medical professional should know the full story. It may not scare off people necessarily.”

If the relationship between antidepressants and suicide is complex, what part they play in violent acts is even less clear, and much more controversial. Many of the perpetrators of recent school shootings, including Columbine and Virginia Tech, had been on antidepressants. However many had not taken their medication at the time.

There was no trace of the Prozac prescribed to Virginia Tech’s Seung-Hui Cho, who ignored a court order to continue treatment. Three weeks before Steven Kazmierczak killed five students in a shooting at Northern Illinois University he had abruptly quit taking Prozac and began behaving erratically. Groups like the International Coalition for Drug Awareness said the case highlights the dangers of antidepressants. Many psychiatric professionals argue that the drugs played little role in the shootings. “Those incidents are more about when a person doesn’t take their medication than does,” said Levinthal.

The debate over antidepressants is likely to continue, especially because of the difficulty in relating so many different variables. One factor is genetics: everyone reacts to the medication differently. There is risk involved, but many psychiatric professionals agree that proper treatment is always better than none when it comes to depression.

A Child's Story: World War II

2009-06-16T14:47:00.000-07:00

I would like to share with you a story that made me appreciate the lifestyle that we are privileged to live today. It may not resonate for many of you. After all, “The War” occurred many decades ago in a far away land. Yet in spite of the fact that I was raised in the urban jungle of Brooklyn myself, I always had a great interest in World War II. If you look at the humanity (or lack thereof) of the conflict, as well as the sociological implications, it hits very close to home. Who is to say such a thing is not possible on our own shores? The demonization of the NAZI movement has made the resultant horrors seem distant, almost alien. But are we to believe that those Germans were somehow innately evil? I think it is more likely that this destructive potential is hidden deep within the human psyche, waiting to be unlocked by the right set of psychological and societal circumstances. Not that I am a pessimist; I think a vast potential for good is also present within people. And that is exactly why I’m writing down these historical accounts right now, because during these most trying of times the innate good within people is often revealed. I’m hoping they will give you a deeper appreciation of what we now have, and an even greater motivation towards keeping it intact.

***The following story is very graphic, with descriptions of war atrocities. For those who may be affected by this, take caution.***

Reenactment of German mobile infantry from World War II. Creative Commons photo by lyle58 (flickr).

The German invasion of September, 1939, went by almost unremarkably. My grandmother’s father had been drafted into the army, but by the time he had been equipped and sent to the front, most of the major fighting had been over. As the Germans approached his position he went to see the commanding officer, who was nowhere to be found. Returning to his barracks he said “The Battalion leader is gone. Tell no one I said this, but it looks like you are all on your own as far as getting home.” Everyone understood what he meant by this- the war, for them, was over. They dressed in civilian clothes and started back home on foot, a distance of several hundred kilometers for some. They were joined by thousands of civilians fleeing the war in the west, a panic made worst by rumors that the Germans were using chemical weapons and poison gas. Many of these families lost all of their properties and belongings, and were unable to return home because all the empty buildings were occupied by German personnel.

Meanwhile in the small village of Lubli things continued as usual, my grandmother’s brothers working in the fields. Suddenly they saw two Polish tanks drive by, followed by several infantrymen on foot. A moment later German planes flew overhead, ignoring the retreating Poles. Soon after that several men rode in on white horses. Her brothers asked themselves “why are those soldiers dressed in white?” They were the first Germans they ever saw, a scouting force sent ahead of an armored spearhead. The Germans wore distinctive grey-white uniforms, compared to the green uniforms of the Polish army. They were followed by tanks and mobile infantry loaded in trucks, a highly mechanized force compared to the earthbound Polish infantry. For these simple villagers this was truly a sight to behold, since many of them had only seen a car once or twice in their lives, and none had ever seen planes or tanks.

At this point the Germans left the population mostly to their own devices. They did require that every homestead hand over foodstuffs to passing German supply columns. This included wheat, hey, and almost everything produced by the poor farmers. Everyone was poverty stricken, overworked, and starving for most of the war. If you refused to give enough of your foodstuffs to the Germans, they would just come to your house and take whatever they wanted. My grandmother was only nine when the war started, and had just finished second grade. She actually wanted to go to school, unlike many kids today, but the schoolhouse was used as a barracks for German troops. So her formal education ended before the third grade.

As the war progressed, so did the level of terror. The inhabitants of Jewish settlements were rounded up, loaded onto trucks, and taken into the woods to be shot. Many pits were dug for this purpose, and thousands died in this manner. Even if you were not shot, you were sure to be buried alive under a ton of dirt and bodies.

No one was truly spared from this terror. One day two German soldiers made their way to a local Polish wedding. They were drunk, and it was said a few rude comments were exchanged with some young ladies at the wedding. When some drunken farmboys stepped in, this turned into a brawl, and the soldiers were killed. When they did not return to their barracks, their fellow infantrymen knew something was up. They rounded up everyone at the wedding, including the bride and groom, put them on trucks and took them to the forest.

It just happened that my grandmother was walking through the forest with her brother as they returned from work. At the sight of the Germans they climbed high onto a tall tree, and waited in silence. In this area the Germans had already dug ditches for exactly this sort of situation. My grandmother, a little girl, watched in horror as the soldiers shot everyone who had been at the wedding. She watched as the bodies fell into the pits, many still moving. She watched as they covered the pits in dirt and drove off.

The children were so frightened that they refused to get down, even as hours passed since the soldiers left. They slept in the tree the entire night, even though they could easily fall and die from that height. It was something she would never forget.

As the war progressed the German methods of terror became more systematic. As part of the “final solution,” Jews were no longer shot but instead sent to concentration camps. Those who could fled into the countryside, where their fate was uncertain and the path dangerous.

A little Jewish girl stopped at my grandmother’s house one night, and stayed there for about two days. She carried gold coins with her to pay anyone who would shelter her. But the situation grew dangerous, as there were daily German patrols. Anyone who was found harboring Jews would be shot on the spot, and their entire family executed as well. So the little girl moved on to another house at the outskirts of the village. She was never heard from again, which led the neighbors to believe that she had been murdered for her gold. After the war the people living in that house suddenly disappeared without any explanation. It was widely assumed that some sort of Polish resistance or underground Jewish organization had taken them as revenge for the little girl.

After the war many people disappeared in this manner, meaning those who had been known to have harmed or turned-in the fleeing Jews. There was never any explanation, and no one ever saw what happened to them. Yet for all these tragic tales, there were many of heroism and triumph. Thousands survived the war hidden in attics, basements, and farmhouses. After the war these grateful Jewish families would return and often repay the Poles who helped them with large gifts of cash, land, or even documents to move abroad.

Replica of Katyusha rocket battery. Creative Commons photo by W.Grabar (flickr).

In 1944 the front had reached the village of Lubli. This was a tragic time when many families were displaced and lost loved ones. The village was literally split in two, with the advancing Soviets occupying one side and the Germans occupying the other. In order to escape the fighting, my grandmother’s parents told her and her siblings to take their two cows and move west. Unfortunately the fighting moved so quickly that their parents were trapped on the Soviet side. My grandmother was only fourteen at the time, and her siblings were all between the ages of ten and sixteen at most.

Both the Germans and Soviets evacuated all civilians to eight kilometers behind the front lines. They did this because the civilians would impede military activity and cause traffic on the roads. So these kids had to walk into the unknown, pulling two cows along with them. They rested for two days in one family’s house, but were soon ordered to evacuate once more. Desperate, and afraid to go on without their parents, they decided to head back east and try to get back to their home across the front lines.

At this point a thick fog rolled over the entire area, so no German patrols saw them and, luckily, no one shot at them. Eventually they reached an area right before the village, with barbed wire and trenches running for kilometers. Before they could make it home a German soldier suddenly jumped out from a heavily-camouflaged bunker. “Halt!” he yelled, and explained that to go on would mean certain death. The entire area had been planted with land mines to stop the Soviet offensive, and it was likely that Soviet machine-gunners would shoot anyone appearing before them in the fog. After a few minutes of discussion he finally convinced the children to head back west.

They stayed where they could, and ate whatever they could find. Fighting continued on the front throughout this time. One day they were in for a surprise: their mother rejoined them. She had walked across the lines and somehow had found them. Unfortunately this was more of a problem than a blessing. She was severely ill at this point, and could do little to help them. Instead her children had to take care of her and share their meager resources with her.

My grandmother was sent to work at a German kitchen. She harvested and prepared food for several senior German officers. While she recounted tales of German atrocities with a heavy heart, she still reminisced about the Germans in a sympathetic manner. She said that if a German soldier saw someone trying to go into your house when you were not there, they would yell “Halt!” and stop them from stealing anything. She said the officers were kind to her and the other girls working in the kitchen. They were also provided with food, which was nothing less than an absolute indulgence after the poverty they had lived with for the last few years. They ate everything the officers’ ate, and she would bring food home to feed the other children and her mother.

In spite of this, the danger continued. The front lines drew ever closer. The Russians would bombard the German front lines for several days every week. They would fire artillery barrages for several hours in the early morning. This often included the infamous “Katyusha” rocket launchers, which disintegrated in the air. Anything that was hit by a fragment of the Katyusha would instantly explode in flames. These bombardments were especially nerve-wracking for my grandmother because every house was built from wood, and the roof was often made out of straw.

She would go out every morning with an old German soldier to pick potatoes. They rode into the fields on a horse-and-buggy. The fighting came so close that one day they were shot at with several machine gun rounds. When the girls returned to the kitchen, they refused to go back out in fear of their lives. The German officers gave them a choice: continue working tomorrow in the fields, or be sent to a labor camp in Germany. After talking it over with her family, my grandmother decided to stay in spite of the danger. After all, the front would reach Germany eventually anyway! The next day the old German soldier took a more cautious route, driving the buggy in between the hills and valleys of the area instead of harvesting from the higher fields. They were not shot at again.

World War II reenactment of German soldiers. Creative Commons photo by ymir_pl (flickr).

Eventually it was time to move again. In an unprecedented order, the Germans evacuated over 25 villages. Thousands of people flooded into the drastically decreasing German occupied zone. All the healthy young men and young couples were segregated from the population, loaded onto trains, and sent to labor camps in Germany (where there was a shortage of labor due to the war). Everyone else was moved to the area known as Biecz.

There was a prisoner-of-war camp nearby for Russian prisoners. This was more of a concentration camp than anything else, since the prisoners were not fed and were forced to do harsh labor all day. Every day a horse-and-buggy would leave the camp carrying the bodies of prisoners who had starved to death. Seven Russian prisoners helped with this process, and were guarded by two German soldiers. One day the prisoners made a break for it, since the guards could only kill a few of them before they escaped. Three prisoners made it into the forest nearby, a dense forest were they easily hid from the Germans. The only problem was that there was no food there whatsoever. They knocked on the doors of local Poles, but were often turned away because helping these prisoners meant immediate execution. Still, a few brave Poles fed the escaped prisoners, who looked more like starved skeletons than human beings. Eventually the three prisoners were able to get across the front lines and rejoin their Soviet comrades. Except, according to Soviet military and political doctrine, surrender was treason. A “true soldier” had to fight to the death against the Fascist invader. The three prisoners were shot on the spot.

This helps explain the brutality that my grandmother would witness in the coming days. On the Eastern Front there was no surrender, no retreat. To be captured by either side meant certain death. This is why the Eastern Front was considered a “total war,” a bitter fight to the death.

The bombardment continued daily now. The Germans would evacuate their front line positions after the intense fire, but the Soviets would not advance. After a day or two the Germans would return, and the entire process was repeated. This bizarre strategy was for two reasons. One was that the Soviet forces were exhausted after four years of heavy fighting, and had to regain their strength with fresh reinforcements and armament. The second, and perhaps more important reason is that the Germans were being encircled and driven into an ever smaller pocket. While the Soviets forces on the east did not advance forward, other forces were slowly cutting the Germans off from the north and south.

When the trap was sprung, the brutality of total war was made fully evident to my grandmother. Soviet planes, the legendary Il-2 Sturmvokic “flying tank,” flew overhead almost every hour. They strafed and bombed the German positions nonstop. My grandmother and her family would wait and listen to see which direction the planes were coming from. Once she saw them, they would walk to the other side of her house in order to avoid being seen or shot at. When the planes passed, and another squadron came from a different direction, she would move again to the other side of the house.

Because surrender was not an option, the Germans in the pocket chose to stand and fight, knowingly accepting certain death. My grandmother describes this as one of the most horrific scenes she had ever witnessed. Once the Soviets advanced, there was little left to oppose them. My grandmother was able to move freely and see the carnage for herself. Hundreds of bodies littered the roads and fields. Trucks and tanks stood disintegrated, burning. Flies covered the bodies of rotting horses laying by wagons blown into a pulp. She saw the bodies of the officers she had met and fed for those few weeks, and knew they had died with an absolute certainty of their fate. It was nothing less than a slaughter.

She described the Soviet forces, the Russian solders, as a very ragtag bunch. They were mostly farmboys from the poorest regions of Russia and the Soviet Republics. Many didn’t have proper shoes or any personal belongings. These starved soldiers fell upon the bodies of the fallen Germans, taking everything they could. Especially valuable were the high-quality German leather boots, and the Russians knew that every German soldier carried a pocket watch (due to the precise nature of German warfare). Perhaps because of this scene she describes the Soviet forces with more distaste than the Germans she had worked with, who she said had seemed classy and cultured. Yet in the furnace of war, there was nothing but bloodshed and horror.

When she finally returned home, all the windows in their house were blown out by a grenade. They swept, put things back together, and life went on.

For more information, I recommend simply looking up World War II online or checking the wiki article for this conflict. There are thousands of good books on this subject, check them out.

The Real Deal Polish

2009-06-14T11:57:00.000-07:00

This June I had the opportunity to visit my family in South-Eastern Poland, in the area known as Rzeszow. Basically my entire family is here, as my parents had met and married in the United States. At the time Poland was under communist rule, but many freedoms were relaxed as the Solidarity movement gained prominence in 1980. My father left Poland in December, 1981, the very last day before martial law was declared and travel outside of the country was completely restricted. So by a difference of one day my fate was sealed: I was born in the United States.

Church near the Rzeszow city center.

Rzeszow is a rapidly growing region with a diverse set of industries and areas. It is a relatively small region, both economically and in terms of population, but European Union funds have drastically changed the local landscape. In fact, Poland and Bulgaria are the only EU countries whose economies grew in spite of the financial crisis. The main city of Rzeszow is prized by foreigners, especially those from Western Europe. Its central streets, especially May the 3rd Street, are paved with cobblestones and closed to traffic. This, as well as its aesthetically pleasing buildings, make it a very enjoyable place to visit, meet with friends, or shop in.

I will have more pictures for you of some of these areas in a future post. For now, I'd like to look at some of the notable monuments in the area.

This is a major monument right near the city center. It stands in front of several major intersections that must be passed in order to drive around Rzeszow, so the city residents know it well. This is a communist-era monument to the liberation of Rzeszow from the Germans during World War II. Notice the stark "brutalist" architecture that is reminiscent of other such monuments placed all throughout Poland and other Eastern European countries involved in the conflict. The defeat of the German army by Soviet forces on the Eastern Front was used for many years as a propoganda tool to justify communist occupation of Poland after the war. For this reason, and the concrete construction of the monument, many residents now view the monument as more humorous than inspirational.

Closeup of the monument. Note that both Polish and Soviet soldiers are depicted.

Now juxtapose this to another, more recent World War II monument built across the street from the one I just described. This monument celebrates General Władysław Sikorsky. This Polish general worked with the Polish government-in-exile in London. He died in 1943 in a plane crash that is now widely believed to have been an assassination. The Western government-in-exile was seen as a force of opposition to communist rule after the war, especially after it called for an investigation into the Katyn massacre of Polish officers by Soviet authorities.

This new monument reflects the changing political climate in Poland after the collapse of communism. For many years communist authorities suppressed the discussion of Soviet atrocities or the questioning of its authority. Instead it emphasized the cooperation of Polish and Soviet forces in the liberation of Poland from NAZI control.

Closeup of General Sikorsky.

Nearby fountain.

While Rzeszow is the "primary" city in the area, it supports hundreds of other small towns and villages across the area (and vice-versa). My mother's side of the family lives in nearby Budziwoj. This village is a caricature of the traditional Polish agricultural community. There are vast fields, and everyone has chickens (if not a cow or two).

View from my window. So peaceful!

Countryside in Budziwoj.

Yet even this idealic area is slowly transforming. It is nearly impossible to make a good living on agriculture, especially after Poland joined the European Union. The problem was that the EU uses subsidised agriculture, and there were as many farmers in Poland as all of the original states of the EU (ie Western Europe). So things like milk quotas were established to control the food market. Most households now have at least one person working "in the city" (Rzeszow) and use agriculture for additional income or simply to grow their own food. Most of the younger generation is going into higher education. This new generation is unlikely to keep any livestock or harvest produce in the traditional manner. Adding a boom in construction, Budziwoj may be a suburb within a decade or two.

My cousin and uncle cutting some grass for the cows.

Fear me, mortals!

I also have a field. It's the best field ever. Check out the corresponding videos for more info, and a historical overview of the area.

Ok, so it's not live... I got a little carried away.

First person view of a tractor ride!

Tree marking the start of my awesome field.

If you go far enough through the fields of Budziwoj, you will reach Boguchlala (or "Praise God"). This is a more of a suburb, somewhat similar to something you'd see in the United States. For pics of this, you will have to come back for another post!

Bridge through the fields of Budziwoj and Boguchlala.

Looks safe, don't it? Glad I know how to swim!

Small river running in between the two towns.

View of Boguchlala's church from the fields.

My grandmother's backyard garden in Boguchlala. Seriously!

A Siberian cat. Not domestic to Poland, my family just has one because it's so cute and fluffy!

Check back for more epic Polish updates. Coming up next time:

-How to make pierogies.
-Epic story of my grandmother's childhood during World War II.
-Rzeszow, Krakow, and possibly Wroclaw.
-Interview with my Aunt, a distinguished professor and published expert on Polish economic affairs and the European Union.
-Polish beer!

A Statement of Purpose

2009-06-13T03:47:00.001-07:00

It's more than obvious that this blog has fallen into the old internet cliche of the "unupdated website." At one point I had dreams of frequent updates, reviews, editorials, daily traffic, etc. But the opportunities life has presented me have and always will take precedence over having a "successful" or traditional style blog. My work at Hofstra and the emerging world of new media has left little time for such an indulgence, albeit an important one.

Instead I have decided to repurpose this blog and use it as a portfolio for my latest work. Trends in blogging have also pointed me in this direction. There are now millions of voices online, all trying to grab the attention of a generation that barely has the time to read a traditional article all the way through. We have moved instead into a network of quick and powerful interactions, via free tools such as Twitter and even Facebook. The goal of the game is to make the most out of your connections on a variety of levels. This makes the old-school blog look more like a practice in egoism rather than constructive social development.

Instead of reading every post on several blogs daily, people now rely on these new networking tools to refine and curate information for them. That is why I will use this blog in conjunction with these tools to allow greater access to my work, and ultimately, greater interactivity.

Over the next few months I will post my observations from my trip in South-Eastern Poland (boy, I do love roadtrips). I will also publish some of my favorite work from my time at Hofstra University, where I recently graduated with a degree in Journalism. I urge you to comment me, but I'd like it even more if you would follow me on twitter.com/AFSienko -my new base of operations.

Thanks!
-Andrzej

Top Ten Student Myths About The Debate

2008-10-17T11:35:00.001-07:00

Top Ten Myths About The Debate:

10-Volunteers will have reporting opportunities.

9-Traffic will begin at 9am, when the entire Hempstead Turnpike is shut down, and last until after Election Day.

8-All the people who don’t show up for class on Thursday, the day after, were really Secret Service agents planted to spy on you.

7-Your best dress shoes are a must for the debate, even if you haven’t worn them in years because of the pain.

6-You will later see most of the interviews you gave to the media.

5-Protesters from the Tri-State Area will take the one, two, or even three hour long-trip to Hempstead to stage a giant demonstration.

4-Commuters who can’t leave campus will be given luxurious rooms to sleep in.

3-There will be free beer all day at the Budweiser tent, official sponsor of the debate. Seriously, I still can’t believe this, even after seeing it!

2-Everyone who crosses the Unispan will be strip-searched.

1-The candidates will tour the campus and meet with students, and not be sped in by armored motorcade.

Just as a side note, this is meant as a humor piece, and is not to be taken as literal fact or criticism (though surely, humor is based in both?)

Epic AZ-CO Trip: Mt. Bierstadt

2008-08-12T16:35:00.000-07:00

Without further ado comes the culminating moment of my trip to Colorado. This moment captures struggle and hardship, pain and pleasure, beauty and darkness, and all those other things that can only be labeled "epic." And what is more epic than a mountain? And not just any mountain, a 14,060 foot monster (4,285 meters) in the Rockies. I am speaking of none other than Mt. Bierstadt.

View from the beginning of the trail.

Mountain hiking is a little obsession of mine, and I find few things more rewarding. There is nothing like the struggle: man v.s. nature. Pushing further ahead by power of will alone, after your body has long ago exceeded acceptable limits. Then the awe-inspiring scenery that is your reward, that makes you feel humble before the majesty of our universe. Yup, mountains are cool.

Another view from the trail.

I had originally planned to scale a few summits. I used the simply amazing website 14ers.com, with pages and pages of information for both beginner and expert alike. What's great about this site is the interactivity: routes are mapped and rated by fellow climbers. You can even see photos of the route in question, check its difficulty, find the required equipment, and meet with other climbers.

OMG its getting closer!

Using this resource I first planned to hike a lower trek in order to get my body used to the high altitudes. Altitude sickness is no joke in the Rockies, as I soon discovered. My body was not at all ready for what it would have to endure. My journey started in the lowlands of Brooklyn, then took me to Tucson, Arizona at 2,389 feet, from whence I drove to Broomfield, Colorado at 5,344 feet. In only a few days I realized I would no longer have an opportunity to climb any mountains, and so just decided to go for one big one instead of preparing physically for the elevation difference.

Looking down to the beginning of the trail. Can you find the parking lot where I started?

Getting to the trail required me to drive to Georgetown, a small mountain town nestled amid scathing cliffs. From there you have to get on the Guanella Pass, a curvy mountain road riddled with gaping holes and shifting sand, with a mortally challenging fall into a deep valley on one side. Exciting already, eh?

Looking down on the trail.

I finally reached the trail at 11,669 feet. There was absolutely nothing to breath. I opened my lungs and took a deep breath, but came up empty every time. At this altitude there was shockingly little oxygen, less than I have ever experienced before.

Snow on the mountain, even though its the middle of the summer.

The bottom of the trail began over fairly flat and marshy lands. It was a freak 100 degrees in Colorado, so it was pretty hot. However as I scaled the side of Mt. Bierstadt everything became more and more vertical with every step, and the air only got thinner and colder. After an hour or two I was panting and catching my breath after running a few meters, then running again, catching my breath, and so on.

"Lake" in between some mountains, due to ice melting on their summits.

My fingernails turned purple. At certain moments, as I stopped to breath in the nearly non-existent air, I felt almost beyond my own body. My eardrums swelled and I could hear my heartbeat in them, and my hands shivered. But I continued nonetheless. While physically this route was definitely not as challenging as ones I had climbed before, there were still many difficulties and some rock-scaling, going a distance of seven miles altogether.

You have to climb this to get to the summit.

As I had anticipated my metabolism began to adjust as I neared the summit. It was cold and there was still ice, even though it was the 1st of August. While in the beginning I could hike with no shirt on, now I had to cover up with everything I had to keep warm. This was what it was like at the summit of 14,060 feet. The views were, of course, breathtaking. The Rockies extended for miles and miles in every direction, truly a sight to behold.

View of the Rocky Mountains from the summit at 14,000 feet. Utterly breathtaking.

This was not the end of my ordeal, however. Returning I asked myself again and again "had I really walked all this way?" The last mile or two were the most difficult of the bunch. At that point I had returned to the "warm" zone, with the scorching hot sun burning my face. My feet moved by force alone, no longer able to continue on their own. One shoe in front of the other was the only way to go. The exhaustion was so draining, so thorough, that I felt like laying down right there in the rocks and falling asleep. Every part of my body was sore, blisters began to arise on my soles, and I constantly felt like throwing up (was it the coffee, beer, or altitude sickness?)

Rocky mountain youth group I met on the summit. They spent the last seven weeks hiking and doing conservation activities.

When I finally trudged into the parking lot, I decided I was too "out of it" to drive safely on that winding road. So I tried to lay down on the grass, but that harsh mountain grass was full of ants. So I opened a tea and started down the road. Unfortunately I only felt worst and worst with every mile I drove. I turned the air conditioning all the way up and pointed it towards my face, but to no avail. That road was just so winding, so curvy...

I pulled over and threw up on the side of the road. This made me feel a lot better, and I returned to the winding road. It took another hour and a half to get back, an hour and a half of constantly battling sleep and exhaustion. Still I drove better than many of the drivers. Didn't they ever hear about looking before you change lanes? Sheesh.

After I returned home I noticed my face had turned red. Not only was there less oxygen in the mountains, but there was also less UV protection. My skin came off after a few days.

Epic.

Cryptopsy- The Unspoken King

2008-08-10T13:44:00.000-07:00

Band:Cryptopsy
Album:The Unspoken King
Label:Century Media Records

This review is really about musical philosophy. Should a record be judged on its quantitative quality, or on its relation to musical works past and current? If you are reading this review you have most likely heard the rumors, the whispering of metal's most venomous curse words: "sell out." Is The Unspoken King a good record? Unquestioningly so. But when judged alongside what we have come to expect from Cryptopsy, it falls far short of the bar, and perhaps even more damningly: intentionally leads one of metal's most brutal acts into softer territory.

To many, The Unspoken King comes as a complete shock. Though a small minority of fans will always complain the newest record isn't another None So Vile, most of Cryptopsy's latest offerings have still garnered praise and acclaim from fan and critic alike. All include the trademark blast beats, time changes, and outright aggression fans have come to expect, culminating in 2005's over-indulgent experimental album Once Was Not. Now, with the departure of infamous vocalist Lord Worm, Cryptopsy suddenly shifts gears into metalcore territory.

Cryptopsy have defended this move as musical progression. While I agree that a band may change their sound as they wish, there may be different opinions on what constitutes progression. In many ways Cryptopsy have borrowed clichéd musical phrases and progressions right out of the metalcore yearbook, constituting a regression from seasoned death metal intellectuals to heart-broken teenage boys. There are moments of genius and fist-pounding heaviness, but now they are all mired in a diet mix of MTV metal videos.

First not all blame is to be shifted to vocalist Matt McGachy. While his screams are far more in the vein of former vocalists Mike DiSalvo or Martin LaCroix, he seems to have an understanding of song flow and intonation that sounds best out of the three of them. However this can little excuse Cryptopsy's biggest offense on this album: clean vocals. And not just any vocals; 100% emo vocals. Pounding your head, turning down the volume emo vocals. Even some metalcore bands don't use these... emo vocals. The beginning to "Bemoan The Martyr" will leave you asking "when will this end?" with almost purposely lengthy clean phrases. The chorus on "Leach" sucks the life out of the song. "The Plagued" is just balls-out emo. And there are several numbers that should simply have never been on a Cryptopsy album, including "(Exit) The Few."

This is not to say the album is a waste. Everything, even the copied material, has that Cryptopsy touch that makes it heavy and disconcerting. Compared to almost every metalcore album yet produced, this would be one of the heaviest and most technical. And there is at least one moment in every song were you will feel like the first time you heard None So Vile.

Unfortunately these moments are few and far between. They end suddenly. Just as you are about to enter the pit, the band shifts gears into another emo chorus. Every song is slower, catchier. One of Cryptopsy's biggest assets, drummer Flo Mounier, has been neutered. While Once Was Not was filled brim-to-brim with maniac blastbeats, thundering rolls, and unapologeticly complex fills, Flo has now been chained down for this album. There are blasts here or there, but they begin to resemble the single tired blastbeat every deathcore band has made their own. Even the jazz fills have been surprisingly truncated, considering the percussion space afforded by Cryptopsys "light direction." The bass, however, takes full advantage. For once Eric Langlois can get his basslines deservingly heard.

Again and again we are thrown hackneyed metalcore devices. You have a little bit of everything, including punky, rock-driven rhythm, random "screamo" style sweeps, stop-and-go discord riffs, and simplified one-chord riffs. To their credit Cryptopsy never goes into a one-chord breakdown, but the driving dynamic behind the music has gone from grime to MTV time.

After an angry response from fans, Cryptopsy posted a track on their myspace called "It's dinner time." It basically said angry fans live in their basement with their mothers. But since these fans were the driving force that built Cryptopsy into the death metal force it is now, what does that say about the band and who they originally targeted their music to? Have they really evolved by looking towards the emotional 14-18 year old crowd? How much longer will the metalcore trend last before the band must evolve again, and next time, what part of their message will be lost?

The reason fans are mad isn't because they hate change. In fact they embrace it: a change from the trendy, mediocre culture they face everyday. This is why they turned to something pure and brutal, that which we now call Cryptopsy. Without that, isn't this merely "just" another album?

"Worship Your Demons" by Cryptopsy. Note that Cryptopsy released this video after a leak of some of their softer tracks appeared online, inciting a hostile fan response. "Worship Your Demons" is one of the heavier songs on the album.

Epic AZ-CO Trip: Denver

2008-08-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

I have no idea where New York City got the reputation of being a dangerous place. Or should I say, the "comparative" reputation. Sure when we were growing up people would steal your shoes and throw rocks at your (or both), but when I walked through downtown Denver I was in for a real shock.

Central Denver, skyscrapers and all.

Denver Town Hall peeking out from some buildings.

Firstly I know Denver must have many great attractions, and this is not to be construed as some sort of attack or insult on the city. Rather this is entirely a judgment of my one specific experience in the downtown area. How did I choose this locale, forsaking the many museums, gardens, parks, and cultural events this city has to offer?

Metal.

Coors Stadium in Denver. I was pointed here on numerous occasions as a place with fun bars and activities.

I needed to find metal cd's in Denver, and one result that kept popping up online was a place called "Twist and Shout." Touted to have every obscure artist, be it some feeble indie outfit or the long lost demo of some Scandinavian band whose members were long ago incarcerated, this looked like the place I was looking for.

Twist & Shout in downtown Denver. Obscure music, dvd's, and toys: yes.

"Twist and Shout" was located in downtown Denver. This store had everything that was promised, and more. Though the used metal collection paled in comparison to something like Generation Records, all the main "underground" players were here for the taking. I picked up a copy of the newest albums from Whitechapel and Cryptopsy (yes, reviews soon to come!)

A street in downtown Denver.

The downtown Denver area is a mix between NYC's Village and perhaps, NYC's Harlem. Trendy new-age shops appear on almost every corner, including independent bookstores, tattoo parlors, and some place called "Purple Haze." Amidst these are placed local eateries and diners, many run by immigrants. But where it really gets interesting is Denver's sidewalks.

Paintings on the side of an apartment building in downtown Denver, a sight appropriate to this distinctively "artsy" area.

On these sidewalks one can see a parade of interesting characters that would cause even a lifetime New Yorker to pause. Bikers, punks, grunge-esc individuals, people with tattoos on their entire bodies, attitude-laden construction workers, immigrants from every part of the globe, and town drunks. Unfortunately the town drunks really took the cake here. It seemed impossible to walk down one block without seeing someone swaying over from some sort of internal chemical/biological reaction which we could only guess at (though a drug test would probably help).

Statues watching over the entrance to City Park in downtown Denver. Possibly, they are here to warn anyone wearing a colonial-era dress that downtown isn't the safest place for them.

Sculpture outside a building central Denver.

Another cool sculpture. Art is prominent in the business and downtown districts.

Another interesting thing I noticed about the areas around Denver was the number of strip malls and malls. Even though the entire state of Colorado is only about the population of NYC, there are more malls here on one block than in all of Brooklyn. Not that this is a criticism, in fact it makes me wonder where everyone does their shopping back home.

"Deer" running around Colorado's many strip malls.

Building with interesting architecture that makes it look like a satellite.

The sheer choices when it comes to fast food is astounding. Each Mexican "restaurant" I went to was great, offering everything from overstuffed tacos to overstuffed quesadillas. There was also a "New York" style pizza restaurant that I just had to enjoy. Sounds like a dumb idea on the surface considering my position, but if 50% of your diet was made up of pizza, you too would be itching for a fix after so many days. So many days away from beautiful, tasty pizza...

Only one more to go: my epic trek up a 14,000 foot mountain in the Rockies! Stay tuned.

Epic AZ-CO Trip: Colorado

2008-08-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

Town sign over Raton. Note the "evil" pentacle.

I awoke in Raton the next day to find a town at a crossroads. The old west and contemporary America mixed with interesting ease. There were many historical buildings next to newly built fast food restaurants. Pickup trucks from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s are abundant and apparently in running condition. However a new Toyota dealership stands near the motel. No other place I’ve visited so far has had such an interesting mix of cultures and Americana.

Street in Raton, New Mexico. Old style theater playing Hancock. This place is a mix of old and new.

Interesting homes in Raton.

A large, castle-like bed and breakfast.

An extremely pink bed and breakfast. Note: I did not spend the night here...

A train car standing near my motel. The ultimate toy!

Ha! Cigarette butts outside a store.

After leaving Raton I crossed the Colorado border, which led into a number of rolling hills and alternatively, flat valleys. In the distance I could see the beginning of the Rockies, and YES I was very excited. Mountain climbing, here I come.

First sighting of the epic Rocky mountains.

Heading into Colorado.

A farm on Colorado's eastern plateau.

Some farmland in Colorado. Yes, I actually think this is cool.

There can never be enough pictures of trains!

The city of Pueblo presented another snapshot of American history. The massive industrial works of the Rocky Mountain Steel Mills define this city. This represents an industrial past when America was a world leader in steel production. For many decades this made Pueblo one of the economic centers of Colorado.

Driving towards the Rocky Mountain Steel Mill.

However Pueblo’s industrial base fell on hard times with increasing foreign competition during the 70’s and 80’s. Countries like Japan revolutionized their steel production industry and many of the great American mills closed down for good. Pueblo was no different, and its steel production went into decline after the crash of 1982.

Another shot of the Mill. Known in its heyday as the Colorado Fuel and Iron steel mill, it has since fallen on hard times.

Due to foreign competition and labor disputes, few operations still go on in the mill. The main blast furnaces and stoves sit unused.

Today the steel works are a shell of their former self, mostly engaged in scrap recycling. Little of the massive workforce remains after numerous layoffs and labor conflicts. Driving around the local area one can see that these economic conditions have had a very derogatory effect. While the city seeks to diversify its economic base, the steel mill stands as a constant reminder of a bygone era in America.

Old style pickup truck sitting in front of residences nearby. The city struggles to find a new economic foothold.

Driving northwards, I noticed the area around Denver to be sprawling with small towns, suburbs, apartments, and miniature cities. This was obviously the heart of Colorado, and I could imagine being from “Denver” could mean a number of things.

Denver in all its glory.

One of the numerous settlements around Denver.

Tune in later for my adventure in the Denver downtown area.

Cool old school roadster on the road to Denver.

Epic AZ-CO Trip: New Mexico

2008-07-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

Tucson was nice, but once again fellow travelers it was time to continue my epic journey. With my noble steed at hand, a 2007 Hyundai Elantra, I left Tucson on Saturday the 26th.

You're dedicated, long-haired driver. How did I take this pic while driving? Taekwondo.

I was no stranger to the extreme distances and open spaces of the Southwest, which are both breathtaking and even unsettling in their immensity. However I had never driven during such a stormy period. Rain clouds randomly crossed the desert, unleashing a massive torrent of water wherever they stood. These “flash floods” disappeared equally quickly. Throughout my entire journey I would come across these clouds. They could be sighted from miles away because of the visible stream of water pouring down beneath them.

A sporadic rain cloud drenching the hot ground beneath it.

Rainbow forming out of some rain clouds.

The emptiness of the desert was equally interesting, and even puzzling. Every dozen or so miles there would be a shack or trailer, sitting in the middle of nowhere. What purpose do these structures serve? Does someone actually live here, sometimes hundreds of miles from civilization and isolated in the scorching 100 degree heat? Or are these abandoned structures, commercial spaces, or even Meth labs? I was not about to pull over and find out.

The grand emptiness of the New Mexico desert. Some plants still cling to life here, in spite of the extreme environment.

Reflection in my car rear view mirror of the New Mexico sky.

Electric poles following the interstate, for miles and miles...

Massive freight train in New Mexico.

I took I-10 directly into New Mexico, where I got on the NM-26. What’s interesting is that everyone on the 26 was going south, with not single car behind me or in front of me going north. At the end of this road was the town of Hatch. This desert town looked primarily occupied by Mexican-Americans, as almost 80% of the population is of Hispanic ancestry. There appeared to be a thriving tourist industry based entirely around hot chili. There are chili stands and shops on almost every street, and this is actually a famous location for hot chili contests. I made sure to acquire a jar of hot peppers that promised to “kick my ass.”

Banners for a chili festival hang over a street in Hatch, New Mexico.

A home in Hatch built in the Southwestern style.

Next was another interesting desert town, called Truth or Consequences. Initially I thought this was some sort of reference to Christian lore or the bible, but the town was actually named after a radio show in the 50’s. Originally it was called Hot Springs, and I wish I knew this because then I may have looked for these springs. Both Hatch and Truth had a western character all their own, with many old style buildings with both Spanish and “old west” designs. There were both impoverished areas and beautiful suburbs right next to one another.

Renamed after a radio host offered to broadcast from the first town that would change its name to that of his show.

An almost excessively blue house in Truth or Consequences. There were a few beautiful homes here with interesting designs.

"The consequences."

After this scenic drive the journey took a turn for the worst, or rather, the desperate. I took I-25 north to Albuquerque, the largest city in New Mexico. It was only around 9pm, but the constant rain clouds quickly darkened the sky, inducing a premature night. I had stayed in this city before on my trip from Phoenix to New York (in four days, mind you), and so I continued on to Santa Fe instead of stopping. My original goal was to find lodging there, but things didn’t work out exactly as planned. After missing the only exit for hotels, I continued defiantly northward, thinking that the next hotel could not be too far off. Just for future reference to anyone who hasn’t been in the Southwest: never assume there will be civilization ahead. Because in many cases, there won’t be anything.

Pumping gas before my epic trip into the night. Still happy hour in spite of high gas prices.

By this point I had been driving for around eight or nine hours, and a good hotel was all that was on my mind. Signs pointed me towards Las Vegas. “Yes,” I thought, “there are more hotels there than anywhere else in America!” But a nagging doubt lingered in the back of my mind. In fact, it was more than a doubt. I was absolutely certain this was not the gambling capital of the world, which instead lay hundreds of miles west in Nevada. But somehow in that desert delirium I clung to the idea, the hope of seeing those beautiful casino lights in the distance. Instead, 123 miles later, I arrived in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

In the darkness this foreboding place looked more like some lawless western settlement than a regular town. I half expected to be raided by mustached bandits with six shooters, who would leave me in the desert wearing nothing but a wooden barrel. Undoubtedly I may have had a different impression during the daytime.

Only adding to the dangerous atmosphere were hundreds of motorcycles and choppers parked in every hotel lot. This is when I learned that there was a biker convention in town, and every single hotel and motel room was booked solid. I drove from motel to motel, but to no avail. Finally, realizing my situation, I continued onward. At this point it was past midnight.

So I hit the 25 again, hoping, even convincing myself that lodging had to be a few miles away. Boy was I in for a drive.

The first settlement I hit was called Wagon Mound. Appropriately, there was no sign of human activity here. Continuing into the dark night (only made worst by sporadic rain), I passed exit after exit that apparently led to nowhere at all. I stopped near Springer, were both a motel and bed-and-breakfast were promised. Relief at last! Oh did I yearn for the cold embrace of slumber while driving hundreds and hundreds of miles through nothingness. But both locations were… as you undoubtedly have guised by now… booked solid.

Grabbing a Coke for the caffeine content (people who know me realize how desperate this situation was if I drank the stuff), I continued on, with more hotels promised in Raton. However when I called the Holiday Inn Express in the area, they informed me there was a car show and every hotel was booked. I can still hear my screams of frustration echoing in the desert.

Finally, half dead after driving for 12-14 hours and nearly 700 miles, I stopped at the first motel with a vacant sign and collapsed into a deep sleep at four in the morning.

After some needed rest, MUCH more to come!

PS: Sorry for the car pics Prof, otherwise I would never get there :)

Epic AZ-CO Trip: Arizona

2008-07-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

On July 24th I finally had the opportunity to go on a “faux vacation” to Arizona. My epic journey took me from Tucson, Arizona to Denver, Colorado, a distance of around 900 miles. Now I share my experiences with you, fellow travelers, before gas becomes so expensive we are no longer able to leave the house, much less state lines.

I took off from JFK on a US Airways flight specifically designed as some sort of sensory deprivation experiment. A 7am flight for someone who hasn’t slept in days is no laughing matter, especially when the seats seem to specifically prohibit sleeping. We were even denied pillows, just to make sure no one had any rest. But I digress…

Desert wildlife near Tucson, Arizona.

I landed in Phoenix, a city I am somewhat familiar with. This metropolitan center defiantly stands in the middle of a scorching desert. Driving around is relaxing compared to the mean, pot-holed streets of New York, but many drivers have an unnatural tendency to tailgate. If someone has an explanation for this, I’m all ears. I’ve driven from Phoenix to New York before, and nowhere else do people more enjoy getting dangerously close to your bumper than here.

The temptation to dine at Pie Zanos Kitchen was too great. This place is a simply amazing create-your-own pizza factory. There are too many options to even list, with several types of crust, countless cheeses, and every topping you could think of (and perhaps some you never did). My order? Wheat crust, house sauce mixed with BBQ sauce, three cheese blend, onions, peas, black olives, mushrooms, garlic seasoning, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t even remember or name.

Afterwards it was off to Tucson. This is a much different place than Phoenix, and by no means a sprawling metropolis. Overall though a pleasant place if you like the desert.

View of Tucson from Pima Mountain trail.

The most impressive part of my stay in Tucson was the wildlife. Some of you may ask “there’s wildlife in the desert, and its interesting?” By all means! There are lizards and rabbits running around everywhere. The zebra-tailed and earless lizards are extremely fast, but if you catch them off guard they will bob their heads, swing their tails, and even change colors. The vegetation is amazing too, though often extremely prickly. The immense cacti have a presence and beauty all their own, much like ancient trees.

Earless Lizard caught unaware. Reacts by bobbing its head, changing colors, and flipping its tail.

Another Earless Lizard, this time tailess. Seen here regrowing a tail lost to a predator.

A desert rabbit.

Epic cacti.

Some of the best nature experiences occurred when I hiked the Pima Canyon trail. Unfortunately the first part of the trail is segregated because it goes through private property. This was the most disappointing part of my trip. Right in the middle of the desert wilderness, on the side of an immense mountain, stand big, ugly private houses. An ironic sign about declining herds is placed near one of these homes, and graffiti on it reads “look at this big ugly house.” I truly wish I had more time over here to investigate why the authorities are allowing this expansion, but I guess its more important that rich people get to live in a beautiful place than it is to preserve our natural heritage for future generations.

Private property fences in the first part of the Pima Canyon trail.

A house being constructed right in the middle of the canyon, despite ecological damage.

Ironic sign about declining wildlife next to house causing the decline.

Rich person's house: 1 Our natural heritage: 0

Right off the bat I had a rare encounter with a Gila Monster, the largest lizard in the United States and also the only poisonous one. Getting bitten by this creature would be a very painful and unpleasant experience, so I kept my distance, but managed to take a strangely amateurish video of it (hint: I was trying to take a picture, but had the camera set to video). At least this makes the encounter look even more unusual and rare.

Terrible video of Gila Monster running from me. Mysterious, eh?

Me running down the Pima Canyon trail.

Bridge over the trail.

Petrified wood on the trail. These trees turned into rock over millions of years, but still hold the same look and texture.

My trek ended abruptly as storm clouds gathered above. Apparently this is flash-flood season, and I returned home just in time to escape a massive downpour. The dry, desolate landscape erupted with lighting, winds, and gallons upon gallons of water. No doubt the plants were very happy because of this, but I was equally happy to be indoors.

Storm clouds forming over Tucson.

Epic lighting storm with flash floods, too epic for my camera. If you would like to make a donation for a new one, please do...

MUCH more to come!

Origin - Antithesis

2008-07-03T15:41:00.000-07:00

Band:Origin
Album:Antithesis
Label:Relapse Records

Don't let Middle School titles like Antithesis and "Algorithm" fool you: the latest offering from Origin is anything but sophomoric. This band has proven time and again that it can push the limits of technical death metal, but little else. Now "Antithesis" pulls out the stops to give extreme music lovers what they have been waiting for.

Firstly, let's understand, this is still Origin. Relentless blast beats, led by a machine gun snare and rooted in triggered-out double-bass, dominate this musical journey. The patently chromatic call-answer phrases still litter every song, inciting the reaction "haven't I heard this riff before?" But this time you just can't pout, because Origin's anti-melodic musing are now punctuated with a whole new slew of fiendish tricks and surprises.

The first track, "The Aftermath," defines this transformation. Don't be surprised to hear solos, breakdowns, and a variety of new riffs that go beyond the hollow blasts of previous albums. While most of the album still leaves you in indistinguishable bleakness, this atmosphere is now broken up with stylistic and rhythmic changes that add an emotional depth unknown to previous works, such as Origin.

While most tracks continue to hit the listener with over-tempo grinding, "Wrath of Vishnu" and the conclusive "Antithesis" travel into Nile territory with solos hinting at eastern melodies and some trudging, almost slow riffs that seek to inspire doom as well as the usual shock.

This album is not truly an antithesis as much as a synthesis. Origin packs as many notes and blast beats into a few minutes as possible, but now ornaments this brutality with some deserving technical and rhythmic progressions.

It may not be Beethoven, but Antithesis delivers the musical progression fans have been asking for.

A Different Type of Medicine

2008-05-21T06:08:00.000-07:00

The season finale of House MD has some Republican fans in an uproar. On Monday, May 19th the second part of the episode ran, entitled "House's Head."

House has a "medical conference" inside the hospital bathroom, in a scene parodying the arrest of Senator Larry Craig. House reaches his foot over to the other stall, and after touching the foot of one of his doctors apologizes for having a "wide stance." During this scene a "Change 08'" sticker is clearly present in the background.

Immediately after this scene the House message boards were aflame with people vowing to never watch the show again because of the subliminal political advertising. The first post was from someone who identified herself as the wife of a USAF officer, and said she would boycott the show and tell everyone to do the same. Others are simply annoyed for having to see a political message, stating "I watch this show to relax and get away from the usual BS we hear all day on most primetime news stations."

However most reactions were along the lines of "who cares?" Viewers argued that the writers have freedom of speech and its not an all out endorsement of candidate Barack Obama. Others even approved of the message, saying that the show is obviously liberal in ideology or at least anti-Republican.

My reaction is no reaction. No one knows the reasoning behind the placement of the sticker or who did it. It may have been a writer, one of the actors, or maybe it was a team decision. There is no way to know unless the cast discusses the incident publicly.

And considering the direction and theme of the show, why hasn't anyone thought of this as a shot at "Change 08'?" After all, the sticker is in a grimy bathroom stall during a scene parodying Senator Larry Craig.

Finally it would be difficult to extract a political message from the show. House is more of an apathetic nihilist than a political dreamer. During a previous episode he had a patient who was running for the president, and was black. I'm going to assume he was running for the democratic ticket. House did not have any preference here, instead sticking to his adage of "everybody lies" and accusing the candidate of the worst possible political snafus, corruption, and scandals.

The episode will be online May 27th, for all those who want a medical dose of political trivia.

Another Superhero Movie as Thick as Iron

2008-05-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

#1 movie in the world? Widespread critical acclaim? Smart and fun? Did I see a different movie than the rest of the world, or has the food crisis depleted protein levels in millions of viewers across the world, causing them to think this movie was actually entertaining?

Iron Man isn't the worst of the new generation of superhero movies, led by the ultra-mediocre Spider Man franchise. The commercial success of this film is based in its talent and production. Robert Downey Jr. shines in his role as Tony Stark, billionaire weapons profiteer turned humanist superhero. The interpersonal dialogue and scenes are well crafted. Director Jon Favreau combines these elements to make a downright smart looking film. The only problem is, under the surface, Iron Man is anything but.

Let's dissect Iron Man piece by piece, looking at the emptiness underneath the pretty computer animated armor. Our hero Tony Stark is a pompous jerk that makes millions on the weapons he designs and sells. I understand Iron Man is based on a comic book, but come on, another millionaire superhero? Most people can't afford gas or food (as previously mentioned), and we are supposed to empathize with this guy? No doubt the "cribs" crowd will love Tony Stark, as a majority of the movie takes place in his mansion, with all the accompanying exotic cars, breathtaking views, and skanky liaisons we expect from the MTV show. Take that Vanity Fair!

What makes this film so disappointing is the promise at its beginning. We have all seen the commercials: Tony Stark is captured by terrorists and creates a suit that blows the crap out of them. This scene has everything that was promised: a tight storyline, great special effects, contemporary significance, and explosive action. Its all downhill from here, cribs fans.

The rest of the movie deals with Stark's realization his weapons kill people, and his attempt to build the suit to right the world's wrongs. After such a great introduction, we are immediately hit with irrelevancy and plot stupidity that accumulate into over an hour of near constant boredom.

First the philosophical subtext of the film is basically a mockery of a number of ideologies and policies. We are thrown into the complex and depressing world of war commercialism, focusing specifically on the war in Afghanistan. Only these matters are dealt with like most superhero movies deal with deep plot elements: make them shallow, comical, and illogical. Stark has a press conference where he says he will quit making weapons, except he makes everyone sit down like in preschool. Huh? His company, which makes billions by selling weapons to the U.S. government, is double dealing with terrorists in Afghanistan. Huh? How would that ever be profitable? And Stark's partner in the company meets face-to-face with terrorists? Huh? Maybe the creators of the film should have done more research before entering such a complex topic as war profiteering.

Again there is little reason to care for Stark's change of heart. He continues to build the suit, which is a weapon in its own right. In fact its the greatest weapon ever produced. When Stark sees terrorists killing people in Afghanistan, he flies there in the suit to kick their ass. The idiocy of this idea has so many angles that its downright perplexing. So the solution to weapons and war is... building the ultimate weapon, and then kicking the terrorists' ass? A moment ago the film presented the idea that there are two sides to every story, now we are shown some cheesy action scene where Stark beats up the "bad guys" and saves "innocent villagers." This is reminiscent of Rambo III, where Rambo took on the "evil" Soviets to help the poor Mujahideen (yes the same people who we are fighting now). Leave it to near-comical action movies to deal with complex international issues.

As far as the action goes, there is very little. The scene in Afghanistan is only one of three action sequences in the entire movie. Iron Man can't be damaged by bullets, and he kills everyone in his path, okay we get it. Again this has also been done in Rambo III. Does anyone remember that movie? I hope Iron Man is forgotten equally quickly.

Understandably there is a willful suspension of disbelief when watching superhero movies. They are, after all, fantasy made to entertain us. I wouldn't touch Iron Man's logical loopholes if it actually succeeded in entertaining. Instead it gives us mediocrity and boredom scene after scene, so I have little left to critique.

After over an hour of irrelevant and boring scenes you simply have no choice but to start looking at the rationale behind this film, especially since the director succeeds so desperately in making it look smart. Apparently that is all that audiences need nowadays, with the education level as it is, logical thought can be scrapped altogether and replaced with special effects. Everything is made to look incredibly smart, with Stark describing complex technical processes, and even hitting us with detailed instructions on accessing his office computer. "Hit F4, then press escape." Yes, this movie must make sense, because that sounds like something complicated and involves computers. So cool.

Too bad there is no logical reason behind having "gold encrusted titanium armor." Also Stark is no mere genius, he is like today's Thomas Edison. He invents a portable power plant that seems to have the same energy output as Three Mile Island. To top it off he invents a way to produce thrust without using chemical ingredients, instead relying on electricity from his device. Next he performs maneuvers in his suit that would kill any fighter pilot from the stress of G-forces. Yes it's a superhero movie, but no it's not smart. Since most of the plot revolves around us believing this movie is smart, those who have attended high school physics class will be bored out of their minds.

And what about that final battle scene? Iron Man fights another Iron Man, at night, under blurry and predictable circumstances. If I wanted to see computer animated robots fighting I would watch Transformers. Not only does it have better action sequences, but it doesn't try to make millionaires sympathetic.

I covered a lot here, and indeed it may be confusing, especially if you haven't seen the film. Trust me, the film was an even more confusing combination of different, uninspiring elements. From the bastardization of contemporary foreign policy issues, to constant reminders of the impossibility of the premise, this film has much to offer. Unless of course you are looking for something engrossing and entertaining. Do we really need another Rambo III? Iron Man and world box office sales say: yes!

Transcript- Interview with Kazimierz Nietupski of PAC

2008-04-15T19:56:00.001-07:00

Kazimierz Nietupski, Vice President of the Long Island chapter of the Polish-American Congress and the Polish Friends of Copiague

[00:00] SIENKO: Why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself and a little about the meeting today.

[00:05] KAZIMIERZ: My name is Kazimierz Nietupski, I represent two organizations now: Polish-American Congress chapter on Long Island and also Polish friends of Copiague. It was the fourth meeting of Polish organizations on Long Island, first three meeting was…first meeting was seven years ago, next meeting, second meeting was six years ago, and third meeting was last year when we made the decision about, about the establishment of the Polish-American congress on long island. Now we have the first meeting as the Polish-American congress, full organization…actually was not all organization, we invited about 25 Polish organizations on Long Island, but was only 10 of them. I think we are gonna’ work together and invite them for next meeting, and work at our meeting of organizations. Our goal is unite all of the organizations and help them on Long Island. It’s a very difficult job, a lot of work you know on this program.

[01:47] SIENKO: What are some of the most important issues for the Congress now or the Polish community here?

[01:53] KAZIMIERZ: Now its most important in this year, is to establish this organization, establish and make stronger in this area, and also voter registration on long island. It’s a very important thing that we do, that we’d like to do, on Long Island in Polish community.

Transcript- Interview with Zbigniew Krawczyk of PAC

2008-04-15T19:54:00.000-07:00

Zbigniew Krawczyk, Member of the Polish-American Congress

[00:00] SIENKO: Why don’t you introduce yourself and tell me a little bit about what your doing today?

[00:06] KRAWCZYK: Today as a member of chorus, the Oginski chorus, which is Polish alliance of singers, while member of the Polish-American Congress Downstate New York Division. We are right now, like we can say in the common word, under construction. This is the beginning to rebuild the Polish community according to social and political involvement, etc. We are located on Long Island, 329 Peninsula Boulevard, Hempstead New York 11550. Today we are talking about how to make fermentation, how to put another new yeast into flour to have better bread, bread about knowledge about Polish people, about Polish community, how to convince Polish people to make vote, how to solve many many problems. Not only because of Polish people, but also because of Polish society in America, in general society. We can tell that right now on Long Island around eight and a half million people, in that quata there are about half million Polish people. To make them more active, we have to find them, find them by organization, by churches, by leaders of Polish school, community, to have knowledge about people. So we are going to start this from the top, by going to the organization, next we are going to the common, regular members of the organization, and start that, what we are talking about, a new era for Polish people here on America soil.

Transcript- Interview with Anthony Muzia of Hejnal

2008-04-15T19:52:00.001-07:00

Anthony Muzia, Hejnal Polish-American Dancers of Long Island

[00:01] SIENKO: Why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself?

[00:03] MUZIA: I’ve been in the group for 10 something years, like 11 almost. Started when I was young, right out of Polish school. Father made us join. Didn’t really want to, but I guess I’ve stuck with it for 10 something years now, so its fun, good stuff.

[00:20] SIENKO: What do you like the best about the group or being in it?

[00:26] MUZIA: The dances is fun, it’s a, you know, form of exercise. You know, learning Polish culture, dancing, stuff like that. Just to see like peoples faces and stuff, and like, their applause after we’re dancing, that kind of stuff is always key.
You know, the people in the group are, you know, pretty much 90% fine, you know good. Its just fun, we do stuff outside of practice and stuff like that, you know we go on trips and stuff together. It’s just a lot of fun.

[00:54] SIENKO: The fact that you get to participate in your culture, is that important too?

[00:59] MUZIA: Yeah, actually, because I know how to speak Polish, I did Polish school for like seven years when I was younger. Back then it was like the next step, its like, once you graduated from Polish school it was an automatic that you come and join Hejnal. Its not like that anymore, we have to like, fight and pull teeth, and go out and really recruit. We’re like a D1 school or something like that, trying to recruit players and stuff like that.

[01:21] SIENKO: Why do you think that is? Did something change? Are youth less interested now?

[01:28] MUZIA: Different generations, you know. Work ethic, no one really wants to work hard I guess anymore. The generation that’s coming up wants everything given to them, they don’t want to work or anything for it.

[01:40] SIENKO: Why is it important for you to engage in your culture?

[01:45] MUZIA: To keep it alive. So it doesn’t die out. Because if we didn’t do it, you know, this whole group, and 40 years worth of work would go down the drain. We have a core group of people here, that can teach the dances, that can do the steps, that kind of stuff. It’s just mostly keeping it alive, keeping the Polish dance culture, keeping everything alive.

Production Memo-The Polish Community on Long Island

2008-04-14T10:07:00.001-07:00

It's been a long and arduous journey, but finally my JRNL80A multimedia project is complete: "The Polish Community on Long Island"

Inspiration for the subject came from a very personal source, my great-grandmother. Now passed away, she used to live in Hempstead and I remember visiting her as a kid. At one time Hempstead had a large Polish community, and though the demographics of the town had changed drastically since then, many cultural landmarks remain, and these places serve as focal points for the Long Island Polish community as a whole.

I began by stopping at Barbara's Polish Deli, a store hidden amidst miles of strip malls lined with fast food franchises and bargain outlets. I admit to compromising my journalistic neutrality by purchasing some of my favorite Polish chocolates. Barbara was also a member of the Polish National Club, a building nearby that housed many cultural events.

It was here that I met the members of Hejnal, a group of young dancers who have traveled across the country performing traditional Polish dances. I awkwardly tried a few steps, filmed a practice or two, and got some great interviews from the Muzia brothers, enthusiastic long term members of the group.

The next group that I profiled was the Oginski Male Choir. This award winning group had personally sung to Pope John Paul II. What struck me was the openness of this group. I was repeatedly asked to sing throughout the recording, but luckily you will not hear my bass in the project.

The Polish American Congress was one of my best sources. This organization represents a massive cross section of the Polish community on Long Island. They were enthusiastic to participate and get exposure for their organization and community. I was invited to attend the first full meeting of the Long Island chapter of this organization, where I interviewed the vice president and other important members.

Before starting on the video I transcribed all the interviews with time codes so I could easily find whatever sound bytes I wanted. I quickly wrote a script which I thought would paint a good picture of what I had seen and experienced.

I wasn't sure I could fit all the content in the script into two minutes. This is why I decided to obsessively trim everything in my piece from the beginning. I concluded that if I cut out too much and was left with extra time, I could easily add something on the end. This was a good alternative to fixing something in the middle of the movie!

It starts with a stand-up that I had recorded several days earlier. Everything was done with a Flipcam, but for the stand-up I was able to use a tripod. I recorded at the Polish National Club on a nice sunny day, but it still wasn't the easiest shoot for someone who had never done broadcast. I did as many takes as possible, often being interrupted by noisy traffic, ambulances, and people passing by. Finally I had what I thought would be the best recording, and the beginning of my video was set.

The video was divided into three parts based on my three sources. The Oginski Male Choir introduces the piece as I thought they best represent the original spirit of the community. It was after all originally founded in 1945 by workers from a German forced labor camp. They came to America seeking to escape tyranny in Europe, and Long Island became a new home were they could continue to sing proudly.

Barbara's Deli became the "meat" of the piece, if you will, because it concentrates on the current state of the community. Polish-Americans commute from all over the Island to celebrate their heritage, even if its by purchasing some fresh kielbasa.

Finally the piece ended with a look at the future of the community through the eyes of Hejnal. This group expressed both the spirit of youthful interest in cultural heritage and a realistic look at the conditions facing the community. The practice footage I had also worked great as a visual aid to voice-overs.

I learned many things while editing this video. Luckily an earlier video I did on the New York Auto Show lessened the learning curve. Don't get me wrong, Windows Media Player is a pretty simple tool to use, but there are things you have to keep in mind or you could lose many hours of work and sleep.

Firstly it is very important to perfect and edit your video as you create it. Do not leave anything untouched or save something for the end, because going back to add a transition or fix some audio can change the entire timeline and lead to a lot of confusion. Of course you may notice some things afterwards and try to fix them, but it's always easiest to edit as you go.

I made 40 millisecond transitions between "sections" and smaller 20 or 30 millisecond transitions between related scenes. It was fade all the way. I also made liberal use of fade in and fade out for the audio. To be honest I may have spent just as much time editing the audio as the video. There were often multiple tracks, especially for voice-overs. Its amazing how many small sounds and weird quirks occur while editing! A perfectly silent clip will suddenly have a strange noise after adding a fade out. Small bits of outside conversations or noises become very noticeable when you start cutting up interviews. Many parts of the audio would only work after much manipulation and the perfect combination of timing, audio tracks, and fading.

As for the reporting, its always good to start early and get as many sources as possible. I was lucky because the members of the community were eager to work with me. Even so, some methods always work better than others. Pretty much none of my emails were answered, some phone calls were answered but some where not, while going directly to a source, even without an appointment, offered the best bet for an interview or further information. Basically what I learned is that with almost every method you need luck, except going directly to a source, which only fails if you have bad luck.

Overall this was an enjoyable project that gave me a closer look at a community that few people have seen.

Transciptions from my project on the Polish community on Long Island

2008-04-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

Below are transcriptions of video interviews performed for my multimedia project, "The Polish Community on Long Island."

Zbigniew Koralewski, President of the Oginski Male Choir

[00:00] SIENKO: Hi, why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself and a little bit about your choir.

[00:05] KORALEWSKI: I joined the choir in 1995, I was laid off. One moment. I was laid off from work, and I heard the choir singing Christmas carols at one of the churches, and I was very impressed, and wanted to know who was singing, I went to meet these guys, and I saw elderly gentlemen. I was surprised, and they started talking to me, ‘maybe why not you could join our choir, why not just come, and just ask questions’ and I gave them my phone number, and I said ‘yeah I come.” But I never came. And, one evening, Wednesday, I looked through the window, I see Cadillac standing in front. The guy comes and says “you ready? Jump in!” So that’s how I started coming to the choir.

I’m a chemical engineer, and my whole lab was moved to Mexico, to Tijuana, that’s how I was laid off. That was my beginning of the choir.

[01:37] SIENKO: Do you feel the choir gave you a new direction?

[01:42] KORALEWSKI: I feel that the choir is something else. It makes life more interesting, and it’s much better to come here, spend time with other men, and at least I have a voice here. At home, it could be different, it’s not always possible. Here we can use our voice and have fun.

[02:17] SIENKO: How important is the cultural aspect of the choir to you?

[02:24] KORALEWSKI: Well this came gradually. I realized that we do something more important, not just for ourselves, but for the community. Not only Polish ethnic community, but in general, community on long island, communities on long island.

(Next Video)

[00:10] SIENKO: What do you think about the Polish community on long island? Are these sort of cultural events important for its sustenance?

[00:21] KORALEWSKI: We continue like a tradition, song is part of the culture, music is part of the culture, and I think it’s very important to have some kind of roots. We cannot say that we come from the moon, or the America, we come from Poland, that’s where we are born. Most of us are born in Poland, had Polish parents, and these are our roots. Culture is very important, part of the nation and belonging to something.

[01:09] SIENKO: Do you participate in any other events involving the Polish community here?

[01:15] KORALEWSKI: Events meaning?

[01:17] SIENKO: Or organizations I guess?

[01:18] KORALEWSKI: Organizations meeting at this place?

[01:20] SIENKO: Just on Long Island?

[01:23] KORALEWSKI: Do I know any other organizations?

[01:25] SIENKO: I mean, do you participate in?

[01:28] KORALEWSKI: Do I participate in events organized by other?

[01:33] SIENKO: Yeah sure.

[01:34] KORALEWSKI: Of course, we participate with Polish national home in Glen Cove, they invite us to sing over there, or American Polish Council organizes events and they ask us to come and sing. Polish churches of course, especially during Christmas we’re very busy. Not only just the Polish community, but also we sang for Mr. Suozzi, when he announced he will be running for governor of New York State, and we were the first group to sing and it was the first time when he made an announcement, and were on TV, and I had a short speech, encouraging him to run and wishing him to get to the top. Unfortunately didn’t work.

Barbara Stelmach, owner of Barbara’s Polish Deli
2057 Hempstead Turnpike, East Meadow, NY

[00:01] SIENKO: Could you please state your name?

[00:04] STELMACH: My name is Barbara Stelmach.

[00:05] SIENKO: Tell us a little bit about your store here.

[00:09] STELMACH: Okay, I open the store, Polish store, two years ago, and I’m still here. There’s a lot of Polish people in the area and that’s why I decided to open it. Working since, it’s good, what can I say?

[00:24] SIENKO: So are most of your customers Polish?

[00:26] STELMACH: Polish and Ukrainian.

[00:28] SIENKO: There’s a market now for Polish goods? There’s more Polish people coming to Long Island?

[00:35] STELMACH: Yes, aha. A lot of Polish people moving from the city, to Long Island, and they’re coming here. They don’t have to travel to Brooklyn to buy stuff, they’re coming here.

[00:46] SIENKO: There’s a lot of people moving here too? What do you think is the main reason?

[00:54] STELMACH: For the schools, better schools. And also another thing is, you have a single family house, they have backyards, they have more space than in the city.

[01:06] SIENKO: And do you think there’s a strong Polish community here?

[01:11] STELMACH: That’s why we have a Polish church, Polish club, Polish school. For starters, for the kids, to keep the Polish heritage in, and I think we’re doing very good. It’s not just my store, its more stores, and its also more Polish clubs in our area. There’s one in Glen Cove, one in Copaigue, Riverhead, all over Long Island.

[01:31] SIENKO: Do you think the Polish community is only going to increase?

[01:35] STELMACH: Yeah I think so. Because I know, around my customers from two years ago, and now, it’s more and more and I have new ones. They come, they move to buy house here, they move to Long Island.

[01:47] SIENKO: Are there any other people who just stop by?

[01:50] STELMACH: Everybody stops by. Its not just Polish people, I have people from Ukraine, I have black people, I have Chinese people, I have Indian people, from all over the place they come, stop by, they try it and they like it.

[02:02] SIENKO: And most of your products here are from Poland?

[02:05] STELMACH: Yes.

[02:06] SIENKO: They come directly from Poland?

[01:07] STELMACH: Directly from Poland, they come in big cargoes, and they distribute them here.

[02:13] SIENKO: What are some of the customer favorites or your favorites?

[02:16] STELMACH: My favorites… Ptasie Mleczko. That’s the sweets. And of course Kielbasa, now is not the season, but as soon as the barbeque season starts, they all come for Kielbasa for barbeque. And Pierogi also.

[02:31] SIENKO: I think that’s it, thank you.

[02:32] STELMACH: Thank you!

Peter Muzia, President of the Hejnal Polish-American Dancers of Long Island

[00:00] SIENKO: Tell me a little bit about yourself, a little bit about Hejnal.

[00:03] MUZIA: My name is Peter Muzia, I’m the president of Hejnal. I’ve been the president on and off for about 4 years, I’ve been a member of the group for probably between 12 and 14 years.

[00:17] SIENKO: Why are you in Hejnal, what do you like about being in the group?

[00:20] MUZIA: I just like the entertainment aspect of it, its fun, its something not many people do. It’s enjoyable, coming down here, it doesn’t seem like a lot of fun but it actually is when you go to like a big show and people are clapping for you and enjoying the show its like kind of like the performance aspect of it.*

[00:36] SIENKO: How important is the cultural aspect of the dancing for you?

[00:42] MUZIA: It’s about 50/50, personally it’s about 50/50. It definitely brings an old world feel back to the new age, of like, you listen to hip hop and everything, it’s like that, but something like, you bring back the old, you kind of like remember, you remember where you came from kind of.

[00:56] SIENKO: Is it important for you to preserve your Polish culture?

[00:58] MUZIA: Yes it definitely is, not many people consider themselves, everybody says they’re American, but I’m American Polish, so its kind of nice to learn something that’s from my culture that not many people know about.*

[01:13] SIENKO: What do you think about Polish culture on long island, or at least young people nowadays, are they interested?

[01:19] MUZIA: Interested in performing, as what we do, not very much because it’s not the social etiquette way of doing it, its not one of the fun things to do, not the socially correct thing to do. Polish people, I see them at the Pulaski day parade painted red and white, but I don’t see a lot of them down at practices. So it’s just mainly they’re thinking of themselves as Polish-Americans but they’re not embracing their culture and participating in their culture. *

[01:47] SIENKO: Is it important to participate?

[01:48] MUZIA: I think it definitely is, if you don’t participate in some of the cultural events, it loses its value, if you’re not doing something it’s gonna go kind of extinct.*

I should have stuck to HTML

2008-04-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

These days scores of new internet tools are popping up to aid in increasing and diversifying your internet presence. I remember creating my first web site on Yahoo Geocities way back in middle school. Just like many sites created using the "free" service, it wasn't very impressive, but someone new to the world of the internet could put up a few photos, some links, and play with the font and colors. At the time this filled me with great amazement, and offered an open forum to post, of course, poorly conceived computer game strategies.

Then came HTML class in High School, and it was a whole new world. Now you could control, more or less, what went on the site. I immediately began work on my band website, the eerily named Darkdoctrine.org (no need to look, luckily it is long gone). It may not have been perfect, but it basically fit into the standard site format, was easy to navigate, and bug free.

Today's internet tools are a far cry from the original Geocities menu. They offer users who have never heard of HTML to publish their own sites, adding as much multimedia and features as their heart desires. But after using some of these tools, I have to say, I prefer HTML.

What exactly is the target of my ire? www.Synthasite.com

I attempted to use Synthasite to create a sort of "digital resume," with links to my work, website profiles, etc. Synthasite was intended to make website creation easy. Yet by presuming the user is an idiot, it has condescendingly given us very few tools to use. After hours of revisions I am ready to throw in the towel and go back to HTML.

First off when it comes to some of these "user friendly" tools, they are anything but, especially if you know even a little about making your own sites. You are forced to work with a limited amount of style templates made available by Synthasite. Making meaningful changes to these is next to impossible. You can add a banner to some of the style templates, but if you decide to change the style, the banner simply disappears. Want to use the same banner? Tough luck, you have to re-size it because every style has different specs. Some don't allow a banner, even if there is plenty of space for it.

Moving your images and "widgets" around is a frustrating task. Synthasite will give you the green light to move an image or widget to a certain location, but when you try to drop it down, nothing happens. Clicking "edit" or "delete" on certain widgets does nothing, and these features have to by edited by looking through a number of counter-intuitive menus.

Instead of being able to change all font and color settings like in Blogger, you must edit each text box individually when you decide to change settings. This means playing around with the font and colors is pretty much out of the question without a steep time investment. And what happens when you want to edit text in an HTML box, for example a link? No such luck, you still have to use old school HTML commands.

Speaking of the HTML widget, even this simple feature comes off as condescending. When you start typing an anchor link it will automatically double up your quotation marks, so you do not have to finish your url with a quotation mark, its already there. Why would someone who took the time to write in HTML commands forget to close their quotes? Yes it happens to the best of us, but rarely. More likely you will be typing along, and suddenly extra quotation marks flood your link and you spend even more time fixing it. This feature could prove useful if you were to spend countless hours coding on synthasite, but after creating your page is this even necessary? Especially since most programs don't use this feature, I have to ask, what's the point?

Synthasite isn't all bad. Anyone can go on there and pretty quickly make a presentable website. But for someone who wants more from this tool, you will be punished every step of the way. The more ambitious your site, the more you will find yourself pulling your hair, yelling "Why?!"

For those interested, you can see my work-in-progress here.