The Rant: Award Shows

Award shows are not important
Marina Gephart

And the Grammy goes to… Adele. Again. Honestly, how many award shows are out there that, rather than choosing the most deserving artist, seem to salute the same person or group again and again? Too many.

While I have no reservations about recognizing a job well done—everybody loves praise—I have a serious issue with a monopoly, and that’s exactly what a select group of singers and actors have over Hollywood and consequentially, the nation.

Over the past three years, Robert Pattinson has won nine MTV Movie Awards. Despite the unwavering hold the Twilight Saga has over the world, MTV had to shove more Edward Cullen down our throats. Pattinson’s underwhelming acting didn’t deserve one award, let alone nine. And we rewarded this notion by collectively sharing the moment and tuning in to MTV to watch it all go down.

While I enjoy a romantic vampire movie as much as the next guy, it seems unethical to award the most popular actor with award after award (especially with a guy like Pattinson, whose fan base relies massively on his looks and British accent).

This sheer unoriginality plays out at every awards show. I’ve created a fool-proof method to predicting the winners: look at those nominated in each category, choose the most popular nominee, and proceed to revel in psychic glory when they all win.

There are exceptions to the rule; Meryl Streep, with 26 Golden Globe nominations and 17 Academy Award nominations, wins an award at almost every award show she attends due to her vast record of successful movies and moving performances. Overall, though, young, popular actors and singers have increasingly drawn awards.

Such coveted awards should remain exclusive and special and not be exploited by such stars as Lady Gaga, a one-trick, pop music pony who, in the few years she has been famous, has reeled in nine American Music Award nominations and hundreds of other awards worldwide.

Why would we, as viewers, the fuel to the fire, want to feed into this madness by watching these shows? They’re always the same, regenerated programs of lackluster performances, embarrassing clothes, undeserved awards and notoriously bad presenters. Not to forget, these awards are going to mostly rich, spoiled and sometimes drug-abusing individuals who don’t deserve the public’s support. These awards aren’t for us, they’re for celebrities, and I don’t understand why we think we connect to them so much.
So my proposal is this: stop this award show insanity. These shows may remain, but please, let’s stop airing them. Give the deserving celebrities their awards and let us move on with our lives.

Award shows are important
By: Sarah Johanson

Award shows were originally created to recognize all the hard work different artist put into their careers. From the Academy Awards to the Grammy’s, award shows are a time to show the public how hard people in the entertainment industry work. The public only sees the glamour and end product; they don’t see the work that goes into making a song, album, or movie. Award shows inform the public of that hard work.

Publicity is always good for an artist. At the Grammy’s, there have been several occasions where a random band or artist beat out huge musicians. At the 2012 Grammy’s, the winner for “Best New Artist” was a band called Bon Iver. A lot of people had never heard this band but because it beat out Nicki Minaj, The Band Perry, Skrillex, and J. Cole, the public was interested. Certain award shows are not fan voted, which is great for artists that sometimes go unnoticed.

It’s hard to think, “Oh wow! The set design in this movie is great!” while you’re watching a movie. These shows point those details out to the public and show what went into making a movie. The actors and actresses are always being recognized for a great film because it’s not hard to miss them while watching. The people behind the scenes, such as the directors, producers, set designers, and make-up artists, are the ones who make all the magic happen. These artists don’t get as much credit as they should, which is why these award shows are so great…the people in the background are noticed.

My favorite part about loving music and loving bands is seeing them succeed. In middle school I really liked a band that I saw play at a local fair. I even got the chance to meet them a few times. A few years after I met them, they were performing at the Grammy’s with Stevie Wonder. For a lot of bands and artists, performing at the Grammy’s or winning a Grammy is the pinnacle of success. It’s reassurance that they’re doing something right.

It was really inspiring for me to see a band go from playing a fair to playing at the Grammy’s. It shows the world that hard work and dedication pays off.

The humor and controversies that come along with watching award shows are always a plus. Although controversies may not be a good thing for an artist, they’re always interesting and sometimes funny to see happen. Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMA’s made headlines for weeks.

Opening monologues from hosts are ones for the books. A lot of the time they make fun of celebrities in attendance and sometimes throw in a song and dance. Picking a host for an awards show can make or break the night.

Not only is it fun seeing who’s considered the best of the best, but these shows have tributes to important people who have changed the industry. Michael Jackson, legend. Whitney Houston, legend. The tributes aren’t always for people who passed away but for people who inspire others. The tribute to Britney Spears at the 2011 Video Music Awards had other musicians raving about her. Lady Gaga even said that Spears was her inspiration while she was trying to break out into the music industry.

Whether you like awards shows or not, you’re not required to watch them. For a lot of people it’s fun to see the fashion and the performances. Other people respect artists

Kony 2012, a bad idea

By Erin Michel
Reporter

If a child goes missing in the United States police are notified and everything is done to bring the child home to their family. They go after the abductor to put him behind bars, so they cannot harm any other child. In Uganda nothing is done for the child to be found, just the sound of silence while another school, town, and house has been swept by Joseph Kony’s child army, known as The Rebels, in Northern Uganda. Though, heartbreaking, it is too late for the U.S. to change the damages of the lost childhoods.

The things that are happening in Uganda are terrible; families are killed, children are getting abused, walking for miles, and the biggest one of all is their childhood being stolen from them forever. No child should have to go through those types of things.

The issue should have been focused on much earlier. Now over 30,000 children have gone missing in Uganda in the last 20 some years that Kony and the LRA been abducting children for his army. Ugandans believe that it’s a little too late for the United States help; and I do agree. This was important to them about 10 years ago, but by now it’s just something normal for them. We could help by sending army forces to train the Uganda’s army to catch Kony, but I believe that this will turn out to start a war with the rebels, because Kony will want to keep his power and army.

These may not affect us physically or nationally, but this is very heartbreaking to know that things like this are happening around the world and it’s normal for them to have those things going on. No matter what color, religion, or gender you are; it should never be okay to let these types of people abuse and abduct children. However, we neglected to care until now and now we can’t do anything about it. If something likes would happen in our country the abductor will be found in 24 hours or less, but 20 years and 30,000 children long gone in Uganda is a way to late for us to help and rebuild Uganda’s family’s and childhoods that have been taken away. The best thing we could do would be to focus on the rebuilding of Uganda and our own issues going on in the United States.

Confidence Week March 26 to March 30

Opinion Editor
Ashley Davis

March 26 to March 30 is Confidence Week. During this week all students are encouraged to participate by not wearing makeup, not styling their hair, and not wearing anything fancy. The purpose of this week is to show the world that each individual is a confident person, even without makeup or cute clothes; the message is that these things don’t define the person.

Confidence Week is being promoted by Mrs. Rice and her health classes. Mrs. Rice was inspired first, when she found a movie called Missrepresentation. The trailer for this movie can be found on Youtube. Missrepresentation is a movie that explores the role of women in today’s society. It discusses the serious issues of how women are viewed as objects, rather than people. It also sends a message of how our society sets unrealistic goals for women to achieve, in order to appear ‘beautiful.’

This video sparked one of her students to suggest that Heritage hold a Confidence Week. Since Confidence Week has been proposed, many other teachers and schools are participating in their own way. Evergreen, Union and Battleground are participating. Mrs. Perez will be exploring the use of Photoshop in ads and the Dove advertisements with her marketing and advertising classes. Mr. Emmert will be taking portraits of people au natural, during Confidence Week, who are committed the cause between 7:30 and 1 in room 601. Mrs. Keller will be exploring what actually goes into makeup, and how we can find more natural products. Mrs. Rice says, “I love to see all of the other teachers participating in this as well, and incorporating these ideas into their classrooms.”

The purpose of this week is really to unite and embrace ourselves as individuals. Mrs. Rice says, “It’s really the elephant in the room. How do we expect kids to go far and go after their dreams if they aren’t confident enough?” Mrs. Rice also admits that it won’t be easy. “It will be really hard for everyone, even myself, but I have talked to girls who are excited to take off the mask and boys who are excited to see girls without so much makeup on.”

Mrs. Rice hopes that everyone, including guys, participate in Confidence Week because, “confidence is not just a girl’s problem.” The message is really to embrace who you are as an individual, rather than how everyone expects you to look.

DECA: six for six

Anna Tomlinson
News Editor

DECA’s state competition was a huge success as six massive projects were submitted, and all six qualified for Internationals. Having taken twenty-six students to State in Bellevue, fourteen will be moving on to Nationals.

Senior Hannah Terry has been a member of DECA all four years of her high school career, and said it is “something I’ll never regret”. The club has been on an impressive roll this year, winning the newly-added DECA Spirit Award at the Area Nine competition, and by having each one of their six intricately-constructed projects qualify for Nationals. It showed the competition that Heritage DECA is ready to conquer. “I think this is the most successful we’ve ever been,” said Terry.

Terry, along with fellow seniors Fletcher Stenlund and Michael Youngs, began their project back in April 2011, laboring for over eleven months thus far with even more to go. The trio’s project was about public relations, and after their ever-impactful SKID presentation, and after the assembly earlier this year touched the whole school, their estimated impressions spanned about 383,000 people.

Each of the students who competed and took part in the 2012 State Competition worked hard to prepare. Other students that will be attending nationals are: Sophomores Victor Duran, Zach Dyment, Johnathan Hubbard, and DeMitre Rodriguez, juniors Samantha Ballard, Mati Hendrickson, Dakota Kerns, Emily McCoy, Grant Terry, and senior Caileigh Gale. Mrs. Perez, the club advisor said, “It was a fun award celebration for our outstanding students.”

All of the DECA members have worked hard to represent Heritage well, and their success is worthy of congratulations.

Joseph Kony

Ashley Davis
Opinion Editor

A video recently went viral made by an organization known as Invisible Children, called KONY 2012. In 2006, a documentary film was made by three college students that formed an organization called Invisible Children. The video attempted to shed light on the human rights abuse by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) also known as the ‘rebels’ in Uganda. Children are abducted by the LRA, forced to become soldiers and kill. The documentary depicts the abduction of children who are used as child soldiers by Joseph Kony and the LRA, which he leads.

Now, the Invisible Children Organization has produced a short 30-minute documentary called KONY 2012 that sends a message of urgency. It asks all people to take action against Joseph Kony, by ‘making him famous’.

Joseph Kony is the leader of the LRA and is responsible for the deaths of over 30,000 people. He is also wanted by an international court for crimes against humanity. The documentary informs the public about who Kony is, and what exactly people can do to help in capturing, and arresting him for his crimes. Their website says, “We are advocating for the arrest of Joseph Kony so that he can be tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a precedent for future war criminals. The goal of KONY 2012 is for the world to unite to see Kony arrested and prosecuted for his crimes against humanity.”

People are urged to share the video through social networks, and it has had millions of views in just a short period of time. With all of this publicity, controversy has arisen. Many people are questioning the organization and its motives and practicality but the status of its final success is yet to be determined.
The organization is also hosting a night called ‘Cover the night’ which is set to happen on April 20, 2012, on all surfaces in every city. During Cover the Night from 9 o’clock – 12 o’clock at night, people will fill the streets and cover every public building with posters and stickers of Kony’s face, in order to ‘make him famous’.

On the Invisible Children website www.kony2012.com people can pledge their support, buy kits with posters and stickers, and write letters to famous celebrities and politicians in power, asking them to help raise awareness. This is all in hopes of getting the government to take further action against Kony, capture him and make him serve his time for the crimes he has committed. This is considered the first step towards a big change for Uganda and for the world in its entirety.

To learn more about KONY 2012 visit their website:
www.kony2012.com

They ask for participation by doing these five things:
1. Watch the video titled Kony 2012
2. Pledge your support on their website
3. Write letters to famous celebrities and politicians asking them to help raise awareness
4. Spread the word (through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr…etc).
5. Participate in your local ‘Cover The Night’

Sources:
www.invisiblechildren.com
www.kony2012.com

CONFIDENCE!

EMMERT

Heritage High School is hosting CONFIDENCE WEEK starting March 26th.
It will be a rally to fight against misrepresentation of women in the media, and stand against the twisted importance of outward appearance that pop culture pushes on us.
To show the world you love yourself just the way you are, wear a plain t-shirt, no makeup, and use no hair products.
True confidence comes from within!

Stop by Emmert’s room 601 to be photographed as your all-natural, beautiful self.
Come by anytime Monday-Friday between 7:30-1:00.
Your image will be included in a mosaic celebrating our strength!

On a scale unprecedented in human history, the media communicates cultural values, dictates gender norms, and tells us who we can and cannot be. The collective message that seeps into our subconscious is that women’s value lies primarily in youth, beauty and sexuality. As a result, both men and women have a limited understanding of who women are and what women can be, leading to the under-representation of women in key leadership roles and skyrocketing levels of eating disorders, sexual assault, cosmetic surgery, and exploitative pornography. In this climate of dangerous stereotypes and rigid gender roles, women are rarely seen as powerful figures, and it is difficult for the average woman to feel powerful herself.
–Jennifer Newsom

DINNER FOR ONE

kronski

Home isn’t a place that is just anchored down in one specific spot. It’s a place that follows you and stays with you no matter where you are…
[zenphotopress album=44 sort=random number=100]
A photographic series by AP Photo student Dylan Smith