Artist poses with ‘Me’ — er, with himself

'Me' by Victor Zepeda

By Alexis Tittle

GROSSMONT COLLEGE — The Hyde Art Gallery was busy and full of Grossmont students, teachers, parents, and art enthusiast all enjoying the 300 + pieces on display. The night also included complementary pizza and cookies with coffee and soda to drink. The occasion: The awards ceremony May 17 honoring winners of the Student Art Exhibition.

Twenty-nine awards were given in seven different categories such as best of show, award of merit, art and design club, digital, art history, ceramics and photography. The honor of best of show and winner of $200 was awarded to Marie Ritz for her photo piece,” Grandma’s Pin”.   Ben Aubert, the gallery’s curator,   said he was mesmerized by its unique scale and felt the win was well deserved.

I was drawn to a piece by Victor Zepeda.

His self-portrait, appropriately titled “Me,” won the Art and Design Club award.  Although the piece is a self-portrait, Zepeda said his brother was the primary inspiration. The piece was selling for $75 of which Victor stated “ Its kind of high because I want to keep it.”  Then his brother Tony Zepeda interjected, “I’ll buy it from you.”Victor also said the drawing is not meant to be serious;  it’s meant to be funny.

OPT program raises money at Souplantation

By Alexis Tittle

LA MESA, California –With school funding declining, many programs, including Office Professional Training (OPT) at Grossmont, hold fundraisers at local restaurants to assist in their needs.

At Souplantation in La Mesa on Thursday, O.P.T. added funds to its program coffers.The deal was that the restaurant donated to the OPT 15% of customer-designated sales including dinner and a drink.  To incentivize supporters to participate in the Souplantation fundraiser, OPT gave away gift baskets.

In its continuing campaign, OPT held a fundraising walk On April 30.  Now it is calling on supporters to go to Goodsearch.com and search for Grossmont College. Whenever people search, a penny in donated to O.P.T.

The OPT program is a one-semester course for office professionals that specialize in accounting, insurance, banking financial services and office administrative support. The training program last 17 weeks and students are enrolled in 12-20 units of college credit. All students take courses in keyboarding, office procedures, effective job search, business English communication, Microsoft word and Microsoft excel. 
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Tittle is a student in MComm 132; her email in alexist@gcsummit.com

Movie review: ‘Rio’

By Alexis Tittle

GROSSMONT COLLEGE — Rio is the latest animated feature from Blue Sky Studios, the creators of Ice Age.  Although this movie is rated G, it is not just for kids – it’s a good date movie as well.  The story is about Blue (Jesse Eisenberg) a tropical bird from Rio de Janeiro, but misplaced in Minnesota, who returns to his home to ensure the survival of his species.

Blue grows up ‘protected’ and never learns to fly.  An exotic bird scientist (Rodrigo Santoro) finds Blue and convinces his owner to bring him to Rio de Janeiro so Blue can be mated.

The mating doesn’t go exactly as planned as Blue and his match Jewel (Anne Hathaway) are captured. They escape with the assistance of a series of characters including a Toucan played by George Lopez.

Lopez’s voice is awkward for the toucan – it just doesn’t sound good.  Other than that, the movie was funny.  A highlight for me was the pick-pocketing gangster marmosets that distract tourists with tricks to steal watches.

At one point in the movie, a standoff ensues between birds and monkeys, then someone yells “Birds versus monkeys!” and they all fight.  In a real fight the monkeys would win but,  because Rio is a bird movie, the birds win.

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Tittle is a student in Media Comm 132; email her at alexist@gcsummit.com

Art students exhibit their best May 9-19

GROSSMONT COLLEGE—The Hyde Art Gallery on campus will host the annual student art exhibition May 9-19.  Mixed media pieces representing almost every art form are expected to be on display including ceramics, digital media, photographs, paintings, drawings, jewlery, sculpture, 2-D and 3-Dimensional design.  An awards ceremony and reception is planned from 7 to 9 p.m., May 17.

Exhibitors will be students currently taking second-semester art classes at Grossmont.  Recommendation of a faculty member is a prerequisite for entry, with a limit of two pieces per student.  Approximately 300 works are expected to be shown at the free exhibit.

Ben Aubert, curator of the gallery, said the goal of the exhibit is “to display work that represents the best work of the students over the last two semesters.”  Judging will be by an art council that will award cash prizes for best-in-show and in each individual art form.  Exhibitors who wish to sell their works may do so. 
— Alexis Tittle

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Tittle is a student in Media Comm 132.  She may be contacted at alexist@gcsummit.com

Election time for ASGC

 

Editor’s note: Voting for ASGC officials starts today. This past week our reporter spoke to some candidates and filed this story.

 

By Alexis Tittle

GROSSMONT COLLEGE—It’s April and besides your taxes, this month the Associated Students of Grossmont College (ASGC) will be holding elections. Most of the candidates will be running unopposed but see this year’s elections as a way of getting students more involved and aware of ASGC and the many benefits it has to offer students.

In case you were unaware ASGC helps organize and regulate campus activities. It also donates half of its expenditures to academic and other school department in the form of grants, helping them buy things like sports equipment, cadavers, Bunsen burners and computers.

The election will take place April 11th and 12th. The ballots will be an all online process. Students will be notified by email, not necessarily at their school email account, but at the email address that was set up with their web-advisor account.

Last year’s election had a less-than-1% turnout. I had a chance to speak with a few of the candidates about their take on this year’s election.

Auction raises $3000 for student art exhibition

By Alexis Tittle

GROSSMONT COLLEGE –Art students will have a chance to show off their work and compete for prizes and scholarships at the upcoming Student Art Exhibition, which runs from May 9 to May 19 at the Hyde Art Gallery.

To be part of the exhibit, students must be taking an art class and submit a piece that relates to their class at Grossmont. Awards will be presented at a special gallery opening on May 17 at 7 pm.

More than three thousand dollars to support this endeavor was raised by the Grossmont Arts Council at their arts auction at Hyde Gallery on March 11. The night was an event to remember featuring the work of 18 local artists.

Commentary: what’s to know about petitions?

Alexis Tittle interviews Randy Shimizu (Photo: Russ Lindquist)

By Alexis Tittle

GROSSMONT COLLEGE — When they solicit Grossmont students’ signatures for the three forms on their table, Tony Willison and Randy Shimizu get, according to them, no hourly wage or compensation for signatures for a petition to overturn Prop 8, receive nothing when someone fills-out a Voter Registration, and are paid only one dollar for every signature on a petition whose aim is to create a new political party – The Americans Elect.

San Diego honors its first Jewish settler

By Alexis Tittle

SAN DIEGO — There are many places in San Diego which honor famous people of the past and  interesting historical events. In Point Loma, at the old Naval Training Center, one such plaque was unveiled and dedicated to Louis Rose on Thursday, March 24th.

Former San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy (left) and Grossmont College instructor Don Harrison unveil the plaque honoring Louis Rose (Photo: Dan Schaffer)

The city set aside the dedicated spot, as Louis Rose Point, in 2004 for the 350th anniversary of Jewish settlement.  Rose, who was a prominent San Diego civic leader, was the first Jewish settler in San Diego.

The event was attended by third- and fourth-grade students from Cabrillo Elementary (which was originally named Roseville Elementary, after the townsite that Rose had created in 1869).

At the event, students planted twin rose bushes in honor of a budding sister-school relationship between Cabrillo Elementary and The Grundschule, in Neuhaus-an-der Oste, Germany.

Rose first came to San Dego in 1850.  He lived an accomplished life and many community areas are named in his honor. One such area came to be known as Rose Canyon, where Rose started the first tannery in San Diego county.

The book Louis Rose: San Diego’s First Jewish Settler and Entrepreneur, written by Grossmont Media Communications Instructor Don Harrison, charts Rose’s life and his many accomplishments.

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Tittle is a student in MCOMM 132; email her at alexist@gcsummit.com

Freedom Riders highlight book signing event

By Alexis Tittle and William Dudley

GROSSMONT COLLEGE–The phrase “living history” is perhaps overused, but it exactly describes what more than two hundred people witnessed at Grossmont College on Thursday, March 17 at an event that made campus history in its own right.

The history lesson being taught concerned the 1961 Missisippi Freedom Riders, who fifty years ago risked beatings and jail for defying local segregation rules in interstate buses and railways.

International Club raises fund for Japan

International club collects donations for Japan Relief (Photo: Mojgan Badiei)

GROSSMONT COLLEGE — The recent 9.0 earthquake in Japan  caused much devastation  to the people. The International Club on campus is collecting money for relief and aid for the victims  through Thursday March 17 all day long – 9am to 5pm, east of the tech-mall, just outside the outdoor cafeteria.  Collections will resume on Tuesday, March 22.

While I was there an anonymous donor left 100 dollars. — Alexis Tittle

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Tittle is a student in MCOMM 132; email her at alexist@gcsummit.com