Monthly Archives: May 2019

A+E: Lil Uzi Makes Statement In Return To Rap Game

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by Nnamdi Chugbo

Lil Uzi Vert has finally made his return to the music industry.

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The Philadelphia based rapper, born Symere Woods, had been on a hiatus from releasing any music since the artist released his hit single “New Patek” in September 2018, and his best selling album, “Luv is Rage 2,” in August 2017. Uzi struggled to release music due to  contract disputes with his Generation Now label executives, Don Cannon and DJ Drama. However, on March 28th, 2019, Uzi made his long awaited return to the music scene with a controversial single titled “Free Uzi.”

“Free Uzi” was a freestyle over the beat of “Gangway” by G Herbo, who is credited as an inspiration to Lil Uzi Vert. The song features Uzi discussing his issues with Don Cannon and DJ Drama, and plays along with the fact that fans have been constantly leaving comments under their social media posts to free Uzi from his corrupt record deal that causes him to struggle to release music.

Prior to Uzi releasing this song, he took to his Instagram page to repost fans who used #FreeUzi on his Instagram story. Uzi was not done at this point, as about 12 days later he came out with two more singles, “That’s a Rack,” and “Sanguine Paradise.”  

Fans are now in a frenzy, wondering whether the two singles that the Philadelphia rapper recently released will be featured on his long awaited album, “Eternal Atake.” However, the recent increase in activity in music from the artist is a ray of hope for all fans who are patiently anticipating his work.

Another promising occurrence that happened for fans was Lil Uzi Vert’s recent signing to Roc Nation and Jay-Z. After his two year struggle with his label executives, it is a sigh of relief that he is finally able to be managed by someone as legendary as Jay-Z.

Jay-Z has a reputation for helping artists in times of need. For example, he was able to help Lil Wayne release his Free Weezy album on Tidal under Roc Nation in 2015, then helped him resolve tax issues during his legal battles with Cash Money, Wayne’s label.

Having Uzi back in the rap game is a breath of fresh air for all people who enjoy his music after his two year hiatus. As fans continue their wait for the long-delayed Eternal Atake, they are satisfied by the fact that Uzi is finally back to being himself and is still making good music, as he showed us he can still do on “Free Uzi,” “That’s a Rack,” and “Sanguine Paradise.”

News: Mueller Report Analysis

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by Jake Bailey

On April 18th, after much speculation in the media, a redacted version of the Mueller Report was released to Congress, causing tremendous controversy, to say the least.

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The Mueller Report is the culminating result of a two year investigation by the Special Counsel into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. Ultimately and most importantly, the Mueller Report indicated that there was no finding of Trump, or his campaign, criminally conspiring with the Russians.

The Mueller Report stated that in regards to the Obstruction of Justice charges, they were unable to reach a finding, and leaves Congress the opportunity to pursue investigation on this front, if they so choose.

Additionally, the Report did find evidence of President Trump’s and Michael Cohen’s shared interest in building a Trump Tower in Moscow, Russia. The Report also found evidence of Michael Flynn trying to help President Trump’s campaign find Hilary Clinton’s emails. 34 people associated with Trump were indicted, some of whom have been convicted.

Trump, however, considers the findings a complete exoneration, likely because the investigation was initiated to reach a conclusion on the issue of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and administration with the Russian government.  The president also takes issue with the legality of the investigation.

“It began illegally, and I hope somebody takes a look at the other side. This was an illegal takedown,” said President Trump.

And as he so succinctly put it in a tweet, “No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION. KEEP AMERICA GREAT.”

As far as prosecution is concerned, President Trump, Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were all cleared of charges for interactions with Russian officials, and many people consider them fortunate to have escaped charges in the manner they did.

In a broader view of events, impeachment has been an extremely controversial topic among politicians as well as the general public.

Leaders of the Democratic Party and the House of Representatives have been conflicted over whether or not to pursue the impeachment of President Trump.   A primary consideration is that we are coming into the election cycle for the next President in 2020.  The controversy centers largely on whether it is wiser to move on and focus on the issues facing the nation, or follow this through to the end.  Congress requested and received a redacted version of the Mueller Report to review and make a determination.

According to ABC’s Mueller Poll, citizens are divided on the issue of impeachment.  While Trump’s approval rating is holding at 39 percent, over 50 percent of citizens believe Trump is guilty of wrongdoing of some kind and that he lied to the American public.

The responses from Democrats vary widely, as there are several different “blocs” of the Democratic Party.  The most liberal are calling for impeachment, the moderates are calling for a “ruling out” of impeachment, based on their review of the Mueller Report, and the conservative Democrats are calling for the party to move on from the controversy, even if they pursue other investigations.

The Republican Party also varies widely in their responses, as Republicans range from Trump enthusiasts to Anti-Trumper’s and everything in between. Those most loyal to Trump are calling on a continuation of the Russia investigation, with a focus on the origin of the investigation and the investigators, themselves.  Moderates are learning toward a focus on approving conservative judges and the issues facing the country (moving on), and those against Trump are using the Mueller Report as another reason to move on from Trump and select another nominee for the 2020 election.

Very few Presidents have endured the level of defamation of character, scrutiny, and slander that Trump has. The last President to do so was probably Richard Nixon, during the Watergate ordeal.

“The final blow came with the decision by the Supreme Court to order Nixon to release more White House tapes. One of these became known as the ‘smoking gun’ tape when it revealed that Nixon had participated in the Watergate cover-up as far back as June 23, 1972.  Around the country, there were calls for Nixon to resign.  At 9:00 pm on the evening of August 8, 1974, Nixon delivered a nationally televised resignation speech. The next morning, he made his final remarks to the White House staff before sending his resignation letter to the Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger,” says Watergate.info.

 Now, the Trump presidency hangs in the balance until the decision is made as to whether or not he will finish out his first term in office. 

 As expected, the two parties of politicians have passionate feelings about the release of the Mueller Report; and most are unwavering in their opinions.

According to EightThirtyEight.com, “Republicans who approved of how Mueller handled the investigation went up by 25 percentage points, from 21 percent to 46 percent, whereas the percentage of Democrats who approved of Mueller’s work went down by 15 percentage points, from 77 percent in February to 62 percent in March.”

Since the interaction between President Trump and Russia was proved to not exist, Russian officials quickly rushed to the side of President Trump and urged him to re-solidify the mutual friendship and respect between the two countries.

While Trump and his campaign were exonerated on the issue of conspiracy, there is no doubt that the Russian’s, on their own, interfered in the election.  Some say this has been occurring for many years.  Americans should be informed about the issue of foreign interference, which is anticipated to be attempted throughout the next election cycle.

A+E: MCU Phase 4 Preview

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by Jalen Manson

(WARNING: SPOILERS FROM “AVENGERS: ENDGAME” AHEAD)

A snap, a reversal, and the death of a beloved Marvel Cinematic Universe legend brought the end of Marvel’s phase three.

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Possibilities for future Marvel phase four movies (not confirmed)

Since the first “Iron Man” film debuted in 2008, Marvel has taken a group of characters and created a 22 movie-long MCU (cinematic universe) over the last 11 years of real time.

Within this time, the 22 movies released were divided into three phases, with approximately seven movies in each phase.

The first phase of the MCU set the tone for tremendous success down the line, introducing Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, the Incredible Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye as the original six Avengers. Phase one included the movies of “Iron Man,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “Iron Man 2,” “Thor,” “Captain America: The First Avenger,” and “The Avengers,” where all heroes came together to defend the Earth.

From here, the universe continued to develop and jumped into phase two, which continued the saga, introducing new characters and continuing the stories of others. Phase two included “Iron Man 3,” “Thor: The Dark World,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Ant-Man.” This phase set phase three up perfectly.

Phase three is arguably the franchise’s best selling period, jam-packed full of blockbuster movies. “Captain America: Civil War,” “Doctor Strange,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Thor: Ragnarok,” “Black Panther,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” “Captain Marvel,” and headlined by the famous “Avengers: Infinity War” and recent “Avengers: Endgame.” Spider-Man’s sequel movie “Spider-Man: Far From Home” will cap off phase three this summer officially.

The end of all these remarkable and memorable phases leads Marvel to it’s new and futuristic phase four. No official information has been leaked or let go about this new and future phase, but fans are speculating about what is to come.

At the end of Endgame, Iron Man had a sad but heroic death, Captain America went back in time and retired in the future, and Thor seemingly joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. The “big three” of the MCU is seemingly broken apart now, and the franchise will look to head in a new direction.

The question that remains is: what direction will this be? Fans already speculate that Captain Marvel may take the helm as the new “Cap” of the group. At the end of Endgame, Steve Rogers (Captain America) passed on his shield to his good friend and sidekick Sam Wilson (Falcon) which leads us to believe that Wilson will become the new Captain America.

Black widow died in Endgame as well, and Hawkeye wants to live life with his family as he previously did. That leaves “Professor Hulk” now as the only remaining of the original Avengers, and a new six may emerge.

At the end of the day, Marvel’s first three phases will be extremely hard to top for the future. You can guess that Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Sam Wilson, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange and others will be major parts of the MCU for the foreseeable future.

New characters could be rumored to debut as well, especially with Fox reaching a new deal with Marvel Studios that may allow iconic characters such as “The Fantastic Four” and the “X-Men” assimilate into the MCU. With Thanos dead, comic book villains such as “Galactus” and “Dormamu” or any of the Celestials can emerge as universe-threatening villains.

Whoever emerges, it will be hard to top the villainy of Thanos, an intergalactic psychopath who literally wanted to wipe out the entire universe as we know it. Thanos could arguably be one of the greatest villains in movie history. At the end of Infinity War, people were stunned and shocked walking out of the theatre, because for the first time in movie history it felt like, the super-villain one. Thanos was strong, smart and determined in his conquest to acquire all six infinity stones and take over the world.

Of course, through various intense heroics, the Avengers defeat the evil Thanos in Endgame, killing him off properly and restoring life in the universe, five years in the future.

It will be a tall order to fulfill to get the kind of dynamic action and character connection MCU fans have experienced for a little over a decade. However, the integration of new characters and the furthering of little-known ones could rekindle and start new relationships that fans can connect to and can experience for the future.

Time will tell where the franchise goes from here. Marvel would be foolish to just discontinue the MCU now, especially after the last two movies have absolutely obliterated the box offices. Endgame forced some theaters to stay open for 24 hours for multiple days of the week, with extremely early morning showings never seen before.

After one weekend, the movie already made about $1.2 billion, making more than last year’s Super Bowl. Bigger movies can be foreseen in the future as well, with people of all generations having a connection with the characters in these films.

The way these characters in the MCU were built up is truly remarkable to look back at. Captain America, Iron Man and Thor each had three individual movies, in which audiences and Marvel fans all over the world built connections with the various and core characters of the Avengers.

Due to this, it only leads us to believe that Marvel Studios – led by the Russo brothers – can have similar success for the future in continuing to craft this multi-verse. We look forward to the new and mourn the old, as the MCU will live on.

Whatever direction the franchise takes, it’s been an amazing 11 years, and Marvel Studios, ‘[We] love you 3000.’

 

Bosco: New Band Teacher Bobby Easton Fills The Gap

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by Lucas Agatep

When our Bosco community lost Mr. Eugene Fabiero, a space in our community was left and a position in the music program appeared. New band director Bobby Easton has come in to fill that gap.

A graduate of Long Beach State, Mr. Easton has 20 years of teaching experience, previously working around the Long Beach Unified School District mainly as a substitute teacher. Eventually, he taught full time for 4th and 5th grade students for a year each and worked in various after school programs, all in music. He worked with kids from preschool all the way up to college and adult students.

Apart from teaching, Mr. Easton likes to indulge himself in the music industry, working as a professional musician in his own band, playing around the LA area with different bands, records and music producers.

He has also recently even played at Coachella. On a more personal side, Mr. Easton also enjoys teaching Capoeira (Brazilian martial arts), Brazilian music, swimming and is a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers.

With it being close to the end of the school year, it was sudden to have to bring in someone that can pick up were Mr. Fabiero had left off. Though difficult, Mr. Easton is confident about his teaching skill due to him having much experience as a substitute teacher and picking up where others had previously left off.

“Absolutely, it is very challenging, but my experience as a substitute teacher has trained me to adapt quickly to situations that I come into. With Mr. Fabiero passing and the turning over with various different subs, I know it’s a challenge to come in here but I look at what we have to work with and just try to do my best with what’s at hand,” said Mr. Easton.

This type of community is actually a new teaching environment for Mr. Easton. This is the first time he has worked in an all-male and Catholic school. But, the way he teaches hasn’t changed because of that. The way he runs his class is what he calls an “organic approach” that tries to connect the art and feelings that is in music to help his students learn the material.

“Music is a mix between art and science in a way, because the theory of music can be very scientific, but music is an art of expression and feeling,” said Mr. Easton.

He could tell that the current state of the music department has potential and has heard of some indication of improvement in the future due to some of the current renovations and implementations that the school has done in recent years.

“I recognize that the music department has a lot of potential but needs a lot of help to pick up where the previous teachers had left off. I understand that the school has had renovated other parts of the school and I heard that VAPA (Visual And Performing Arts) would possibly be renovated in the near future. I really see a lot of potential in this school and students for their desire to learn,” said Mr. Easton.

With that in mind and the mention of possible changes in the program’s future, Mr. Easton would like to see a more diverse and unique field implemented into the music program. He requested that a modernization of the program would be beneficial and a nice addition due to the advancements of technology that are currently being used in music production around the world.

“I would like to see a jazz band. I would also like to see a music technology program here that teaches kids about digital music production and studio recording as we move deeper into the 21st century, teaching the kids the newer tools that are becoming commonplace in music,” said Mr. Easton.

Though it was sudden to have to replace such a memorable member of the community, it is nice to know that the music program is in good hands with Mr. Easton. Please welcome Mr. Bobby Easton to the St. John Bosco family and community!

 

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