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Show B5 MONDAY MARCH 31, 2008 Life • THE COLLEGE TIMES The Obama Movement Former UVSC student and center of the Michael Moore controversy releases The Obama Movement, a collection of student essays. Jack Waters Managing editor F ormer UVSC student Joe Vogel has compiled a group of essays written by students supporting Sen. Barack Obama's presidential run. The book, while not an official Obama campaign activity, contains the personal stories of young people in the trenches of one of the most exciting and significant elections in American history-and reveals why they are determined to make their voices count in 2008. The College Times' Jack Waters interviewed Vogel about the book, Sen. Obama, and the youth movement. College Times: The Obama Movement's initial release was back in Sept., will there be a second edition? Joe Vogel: Yes. It's in the first printing, and we will release a second edition this May. CT: Will there be new content in the upcoming edition? JV: Oh yeah. It's almost an entirely new book. It will include a full account of the campaign from Iowa to the present, the latest statistics on youth participation, Obama speeches, positions on issues young people care about, and a foreword by Cornell West. I've been working hard on it. In the meantime, the first edition has become an Amazon, com bestseller. CT: What was the experience of putting together a book like this, one of such national import at this time? JV: It was amazing. Like so many others working in this campaign, it's the only time in my life that I have R E T R O felt passionately about supporting a presidential candidate. And it's not just Obama as a person that has people so excited, it's the grassroots movement he has inspired. He has reintroduced the idea of citizenship in a democracy. CT: Have you heard from the Obama camp directly? Have they had anything to say about the book? JV: Yeah. I've had conversations with several people from the campaign about the book, including the campaign's youth director, Hans Riemer. The book was "applauded by Senator Obama" in an official statement. CT: As far as content, is there an overarching theme throughout the essays? JV: Well, people have all kinds of different stories, which is one of the remarkable things about this movement. He transcends traditional barriers. But the pervading theme is that the regular people, who have felt disillusioned with politics for so long, are suddenly engaged and interested and participating. Time Magazine recently said: "(Obama's) campaign has become the first in decades - maybe in history ~ to be carried so far on the backs of the young." It's true. And it's snowballing. It's getting bigger every day. He has over one million donors now. That's unheard of. He's shattering all kinds of records and will do so even more in the general election. CT: This movement has been bolstered by online networking sites, especially Facebook. What kind of impact do you think that sites Obama nomination mean to a UVSC student? THE OtfAM momn WIT BAUCIQIUU STEAKS Tfl AMEIICA'S » I T I www.joseptivogcl.net Joe Vogel's collection of essays is set for its second edition in May. such as Facebook have on elections? JV: Well, it's allowed us to organize in ways that would have been impossible in previous elections. This book, in fact, wouldn't have been possible if not for Facebook and my.barackobama. com CT: The networking going on has seen many in the nation come together, actually caring about politics and the state of the nation. Can this be attributed to Obama, an apparent dislike of the current administration, or a combination of the two? JV: I think it's a combination. The youth movement has been building for several years now, even before Bush and the war. Most young people can only remember the scandals and excesses of the Clinton years and the corruption and incompetence of the Bush years. Obama comes in and offers something fresh and hopeful and he's now riding a wave that's been building for some time. CT: What does JV: Well, it means they can get a $4,000 tax credit for school for doing some service. It means they will have affordable, universal health care. It means America will be respected around the world again and our troops will be coming home. It will change the entire tone of the nation. You really couldn't get a more stark contrast between administrations. CT: Where can we find The Obama Movement, and how much does it cost? JV: It's $12.95. It's on Amazon.com and should be at the UVSC bookstore. My website is www.josephvogel.net and you can get it on there as well. CT: is there anything else you'd like to say to your alma mater? JV: Vote! Or I'll bring Michael Moore back! Vogel, who guest blogs for The Huffington Post and whose book Free Speech 101 was published in 2006, hopes that by giving young people a representative voice in print he is encouraging all of America to take seriously what its younger generations have to say, even beyond the outcome of next year's elections. "This book is essentially a symbol of a movement," he said. "Barack Obama has inspired it, but it's bigger than just him. It's not his celebrity or his 'rock-star' status. It's his ground-up message, his challenge for real citizens participating in a real democracy. It's about transforming America." an C O O L B E A N S Hickmans Column Harry Potter fans, this one's for you. On March 12, Warner Bros, announced that the final installment of the Harry Potter series, The Deathly Hallows, will be released as a two-part voluminous movie: the first being released around Christmas 2010, the second around May 2011 (a la Kill Bill). David Yates, who directed the last and is currently working on the next, will direct both installments. I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan. I've only read one of the books. I've seen all the movies. Generally speaking, they're good. I have fun watching most of them. I'll say the following about the movies: The Sorcerer's Stone was not bad for a kid's movie; and considering that The Chamber Of Secrets is in that same category, it was better than the first. But then, The Prisoner OfAzkaban came out and shocked everyone with how much darker it had gotten since the previous movies. Director Alfonso Cuaron {Children Of Men) created a richness that could captivate any audience, Potter fans or not. The biggest mistake, however, was made when studio heads at Warner Bros, had to go and hire sissy-la-la Mike Newell to direct The Goblet Of Fire. What could've/should've been the best HP to date, was bastardized. And what else would you expect coming'from the director who'd just finished Mona Lisa Smile? ' When Order Of The Phoenix came out last year, everyone was so happy with what the new- • est and current director, David Yates, had done. Dressed-up, costume^ wearing geeks could be seen exiting theaters in masses ranting and raving about how good this fifth installment was. Was it good? Yes. Was it worth the hype it was getting? Definitely. Com-, pared to The Goblet Of Fire's disastrous attempt at adapting HP to the big screen, The Order Of The Phoenix was a friggin' masterpiece. That's not to say it was flawless, but it sure was moving in the right direction. Yates is currently working on this fall's Half-Blood Prince, anff will get to work on thfe final installment(s) upon completion. My only fears are the following: Yates will continue to make nori: threatening villains like he did in The Order Of The Phoenix (these little wizard kids were running around easily blasting Death Eaters that never fired back); and they won't know how to fill two movies with one fairly simple book (unless the first movie consists of Harry and Hermione teleporting and camping for an hour and a half)I'll cast no judgments. We'll just have to wait and see. BRAWLING from B3 run a wide gamut of variety. And maybe the No. 1 reason to add Brawl to your game collection is just that: variety. Because underneath its Nintendo-fan-service exterior, Brawl really does have something for everybody. Whether its competing in online tournaments, playing some mini-games with mom and dad, or meticulously searching for all of the in-game collectibles or secret bonus content that the game is almost literally bursting with, the latest addition to the Smash Bros, franchise really does live up to its tagline as "The Brawl To End Them All!" R E V I E W One man's shopping center is another man's treasure Michael Douglas goes for the gold in King Of California Jason Pyles Life writer www .amd20n.com Now on DVD, Mike Cahill's King Of California. A buried treasure lies just across the street beneath Wal-Mart's floor. OK, not really, but WalMart has Cadbury Mini Eggs on sale, and those are worth their weight in gold. Remember: "When Easter's gone, they're gone." King of • California, which was recently released on DVD, monkeys with similar shenanigans. An explorer named Father Torres led a 17th century expedition whose cache of "doubloons" (Spanish gold coins) happens to still be located underneath what is now a Santa Clarita Costco. At least, so says Charlie (Michael Douglas), who learned of this legend online while living in a mental institution. Charlie's independent, 16-year-old daughter, Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood), has little patience for her father's eccentric- ity; nevertheless, her narration confides to us, "Parents have this advantage over us: We want to believe in them; and when we don't believe in them, we just want to be with them.". The charismatic father lures his leery daughter and his old. Jazz-combo buddy, Pepper (Willis Burks II), into his treasure hunt. At one point, when Charlie unearths some pottery shards believed to belong to the expedition, he tells his daughter, "Put that in your hands, and feel how old that is." We know from the opening scenes where all this is leading: Inevitably, at some point in the film, the gold diggers will attempt to exhume the loot (which we're not sure exists) from Costco. Imagine executing a heist like that. Michael Douglas pulls off insanity almost as well as Jack Nicholson does. See Douglas in Falling Down (1993), where he plays a distraught dad who snaps www.sxc.hu These are not doubloons. one day and unleashes his Id upon society's irritants. King of California yields a quirky metaphor for how colossal superstores are like geese, sitting upon golden eggs, which are otherwise inaccessible to little guys like us. By way of contrast, Miranda's allegiance to her McDonald's job cannot afford her a dishwasher (the only thing she really wants), while Charlie's obsession is to swipe the discount levia- than's "dirty" money. Like most who grow rich from corporations, Charlie hop£s to "get in at the ground level." Meanwhile, product placement and shameless advertising abound. Charlie says of Costco, "This place has everything!" King of California is an OK comedic caper. It is Mike Cahill's directorial de* but and a promising sign of his potential. The movie's PG-13 rating pushes the envelope with three "F-words" (not Fresno), and a benign gathering of middle-age swingers. UVSC has an actuaf, semiburied treasure within its walls. Look in the Sorensen Center, across from the bookstore, near Scoops; there sits a brick box, a veritable time capsule, built in 1993 to be opened in 2093, as the inscription, reads, "to provide insights into our lives." Too bad we have to wait 85 years for those insights. ; |