Shorelines editor Matt Porto preps for more submissions (David Hiestand/The Current).

by David Hiestand

“There is just something magical about seeing your work in print,” said Terri Lowry, faculty sponsor of Shorelines, Longview’s annual publication of student writing and artwork.

Shorelines pays students for exemplary work through its annual “Creativity Contest,” which features cash prizes for fiction, poetry and artwork.  The entry fee is $1 per submission, but Lowry says students do not have to enter the contest to benefit from publishing in Shorelines.

“Many publishers and literary magazines read college publications like Shorelines,” said Lowry.  From her experience as a novelist and poet, Lowry says that having published works to put in a portfolio or cover letter helps immensely when submitting to larger publications.

Shorelines student editor Matt Porto will oversee much of the production of this year’s issue.  Last year, Porto took second place in the poetry contest and worked as a reader for Shorelines.

“It’s a great confidence booster to write something and see it actually published,” said Porto.  “It opens up a lot of other possibilities because, once you see how easy it is to submit something, you realize that there are so many other places you can submit to with similar criteria– especially online.”

Someone who can personally attest to the possibilities that open up when one takes a proactive approach towards writing is internationally published sci-fi author and Longview history instructor Steven Murphy.

Murphy says that the Crystal M. Field award he received in 2007 for his student work with Shorelines, along with the short stories he published in prestigious magazines such as Interzone, greatly assisted him in landing a position as a history instructor– a position which provided him with the credentials to work as a historical research assistant for sci-fi author John Birmingham.

“There are lots of people who aspire to be writers but 99.9 percent never submit anything.  When you submit to a magazine like Shorelines, you move away from the wannabes and that much closer to publication,” Murphy said.

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The 2011-2012 edition of Shorelines will be available in the Longview library and spread around campus after the first week of May.  Although a digital release is unlikely for this edition, Lowry and Porto would like to integrate a website in the near future.  They say they envision a website that would regularly publish student art and writing, and also feature student film, music, and animation.

“A Shorelines website would further broaden the submission process and allow for greater creativity; there are almost an endless amount of mediums you can exhibit online,” said Porto.

To achieve this dream, Shorelines needs students with web design skills.  Lowry says any such students would be welcomed to the Shorelines team.

Students interested in submitting to Shorelines, or working on their website, can pick up a blue flyer with further information from Terri Lowry’s office at the LA in room 202W.

The deadline for submissions is March 15.

~Michael Scassellati

‘Tis the season to be jolly, but for the college student, being strapped for cash can take the jolly right out of the holidays. The economy is tough and even tougher on the average college student when it comes to travel costs. But there is good news. Travel companies are making it easier to help students afford travel this holiday season.

In 2010, the American Automobile Association (AAA) estimated that 42.2 million Americans traveled 50 miles or more from home over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. As the number of travelers gets higher, the costs for gas and tickets are sometimes either really high or conveniently low.

When searching for airline tickets, take the time to do proper research online. Several websites are currently offering discounts to college students. The airline AirTran is offering one-way tickets as low as $49. Students must meet certain eligibility requirements, such as age and baggage limitations, to receive the price so don’t forget to read everything in fine print before purchasing any tickets.

Purchase tickets well in advance. The longer someone waits to buy a ticket, the more expensive it will be.

Prices are high for gas, but it’s a necessity that must be endured if traveling by car. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Mobile Sources has tips for better gas mileage.

Go easy on the brakes and gas pedal. Sudden braking and “jackrabbit” starts expend more fuel.

Avoid long idles by turning of the engine. Idling burns more gas than restarting the car.

Take out unnecessary heavy items from the car.

Avoid high speeds. Gas mileage can improve about 15 percent by driving 55 mph rather than 65 mph.

Keep tires inflated and aligned as well as regular tune ups and other car maintenance check ups.

Carpooling and ridesharing can save the college student money. Since 1999, eRideShare.com has been the leading carpool and rideshare website. Sharing rides with others can help save money on fuel, vehicle wear and tear, reduces stress from driving and reduces traffic and greenhouse gases. The website is offered to countries all over the world and is free to sign up.

Don’t forget about the option to travel by bus or train. Amtrak and Greyhound both have college student discounts, too, and many students ride the discount bus line Megabus, which offers advance tickets starting as low as $3 and increasing over time. Each mode of travel has their unique pros and cons. Accommodations, time, price, safety and environmental impact are factors to consider when choosing your mode of travel.

Create a budget, list what is important for you and then create a pros and cons list to help choose what travel option is best.

The Metropolitan Chorale of Kansas City held its yearly Christmas performance on Dec. 10.  “This year’s program will have a unique sound of Christmas music than anything we’ve done before in the past,” said Blue River’s Campus Life and Leadership administration assistant Luann Heacock. Heacock has been a member of the Metropolitan Chorale since 2007 and it has been a wonderful experience, she said.

“I had been in choir before, and I thought I would join the Chorale as a one-credit-hour course,” said Heacock.

Heacock isn’t the only one who joined for the school credit and music experience. One-third of the Metropolitan Chorale consists of MCC students, while the other two-thirds are community volunteers.

The first half of the Dec. 10 performance featured pieces from Benjamin Britain’s cantata, while the second half will consist of regular holiday frivolities. The Stone Church right by the Independence Square hosted the Metropolitan Chorale.

“It’s a really pretty place with stained-glass windows and is made up of stone of course,” said music director Rebecca Johnson. “Last year we held our Christmas event at First Baptist Church, but we try to change venues every year.”

Johnson’s goal for these performances is to make less-well-known music more accessible to the non-musician, she said. In fall 2010, they performed Mozart’s “Requiem” and gave the audience a preview of information so that they could personally pick up on the notes to listen for throughout the show. Combining education with entertainment, Johnson hopes she achieved the same for this Christmas 2011 event.

After nearly 20 years of singing and dancing, the Mighty Voices of Longview have gone silent.

The show choir is no longer being offered at MCC-Longview after director Cathy Hardy-Parcell, music department coordinator at Longview, said that “due to her own health issues” she would not be able to keep it going.  Longview still has a chancel choir, which is a strictly singing group with no choreography.

“A lot of students attended and enjoyed being a part of the Mighty Voices,” Hardy-Parcell said.

The Mighty Voices started in 1991-92 with eight students and ended last spring with 36-40 students involved. Choir members met for 55 minutes three times a week and learned 20 to 30 songs along with choreography to be performed at one show. Their final show, held last April at the Cultural Arts Center, included many well-known Disney songs from “Beauty and The Beast,” “Aladdin’” and other movies.

John Parcell, Cathy Hardy-Parcell’s husband and an instrumental music instructor at Longview, said “it was astonishing for them to memorize so much.”   He found that the “movement along with the singing helped in the memorization.”

The Mighty Voices’ end comes just as the popular TV show  “Glee” has increased the popularity of show choirs. MCC student Laura O’Donnell, a “Glee,” fan herself, said that a show choir/glee club “would really bring students together.”  O’Donnell said she would attend show choir concerts because “I’ve always been big into musicals and things like that.”

It’s 7:45 a.m. and you’re on your way to your eight o’clock class when a sudden crave for coffee comes over you. Soon you have no choice but to stop by New Longview to indulge yourself. You stroll into JP’s Coffee across from MCC Longview’s Campus—oh, wait, it says “Gusto” now, with a large logo painted on the wall. You suddenly realize that the new title for the coffee shop isn’t the only new addition.

Gusto has also added a frozen yogurt bar, as well as started carrying whole, roasted beans from Blue Jazz Roaster.

“We wanted to have something that was more family-friendly,” said owner Brenda Gustafson. “We didn’t want to keep carrying alcohol like JP’s, so we made the switch.”

Brenda and her husband Don Gustafson, who bought the popular coffee shop from the JP’s group, also decided to keep all of the original staff to help run the newly managed coffee shop. “They knew how to do their jobs well, and we didn’t want to change that,” she said.

Gustos employee James Noland has been working there since it was JP’s.
“There have been a lot of new changes that were necessary,” said Noland. Some of the changes included opening and closing times of the coffee shop, which, in Noland’s opinion, were too late for practical business hours.

“I like how involved the owners are,” he said. In fact, the Gustafsons oversee and even work on the coffee line throughout the week.

With the switch of management from JP’s to Gusto, the coffee shop hasn’t lost its study-friendly ambiance. College students continue to come and take advantage of the 10 percent discount on beverages, free Wi-Fi, and a place to do homework.

“It’s a friendly and quiet place to study, but at the same doesn’t make me feel isolated like when I’m at home studying by myself,” said Longview freshman Kiana Lovelace. “Also, the 10 percent discount for students makes me wanna come here more than Starbucks.”

With November already underway, the online Harry Potter experience, Pottermore, is on the verge of being open to the public.

In her official introduction of the site, J. K. Rowling calls it a “safe, unique online reading experience built around the Harry Potter books.” The site will also be the only provider for Harry Potter e-books to be used on e-readers such as Kindle, Nook and others.

But what features can online users expect from the site? The website incorporates the stories of Harry Potter with interactive entertainment giving users the chance to become Hogwarts students. “Students” will get to enjoy being sorted into houses, practicing spells with wands chosen specifically for them at Ollivanders, and make potions. All of these activities help to earn house cup points.  Users can make friends and challenge them to wizard duels, collect chocolate frog cards, and enjoy, in an abridged format, the story of Harry Potter.

As the website is only in its beta stage, some glitches are still unresolved.

“The potions lab lags really bad,” said former MCC student Madison Devor. “Every time I try to make a potion my computer lags so bad that I end up melting my cauldron. It’s really frustrating.”

Other disappointments include the lack of material, since in the beta stages, only book one is available. These things are likely to be repaired before the final version is released.

Despite some downsides, the website does offer some interesting features. For every chapter, extra excerpts are featured that are not included in the books. These excerpts include things from extra background on characters to information that, while not important to the central plot, lend a deeper understanding to the book as a whole.

So while Potter fans looking for an interactive role-playing online game will be disappointed, those who are looking to enjoy the book in new ways will be satisfied.

Silents Night was anything but silent for Cultural Arts Center’s family friendly event, which took place on Friday, Nov. 4. The event, which featured black and white silent films, was accompanied by organist Dr. Marvin Faulwell, who specializes in playing along with silent films.

“We had a unique opportunity to host Dr. Faulwell here at Longview, and we didn’t want to pass it up,” said MCC Public Relations Coordinator Mike Ekey. Ekey estimated that there was an attendance of around 100 people at the event.

It was customary in the 1920s and 30s for silent films to be accompanied by an organist, to provide a theatrical element to the motion picture. Longview CAC’s event strived to recreate this form of entertainment.

“The goal is that when people watch the film, they forget about who’s playing the organ and get caught up in the story,” said Faulwell. Since retiring from his former profession as a dentist, Faulwell’s beloved hobby has led him to play for more than 150 silent films and multiple film festivals, such as Silents in the Grace Cathedral and the Kansas Silent Film Festival in Topeka.

On Friday, students, family and faculty alike not only got to watch silent films such as Big Business, starring Laurel and Hardy, and The Gold Rush, starring Charlie Chaplain, but also got to enjoy them at free admission.

The event drew all ages together. Advertised as a 1920s night, college students took on the invitation to wear costumes to feature the event.

“I couldn’t pass an opportunity to dress up,” said Longview sophomore Katelyn Rawert. “I really thought I wouldn’t like the black and white films, but I actually found them funny.”

Tanks shoot, planes buzz over the battlefield, bullets blur your vision and it feels like you are there when you play Battlefield 3, which was released Oct. 25, 2011 in the United States.

BF3 is the 11th installment of the Battlefield franchise and is a direct sequel to 2005’s Battlefield 2. BF3 is developed by Electronic Arts and uses the Frostbite 2 Engine. The Frostbite 2 engine boasts unmatched visual and realistic quality. Buildings can crumble and bullets drop after shot out of any weapon.

The campaign is interesting and the plot line keeps the player in it. The use of certain vehicles is limited, but it is still extremely fun. For serious gamers out there try playing campaign on hard, it will give a hard time.

The online multiplayer is unrivaled in realism with Frostbite 2 and the 24 player multiplayer on consoles and 64 player multiplayer on PC. The physics on multiplayer are awe-inspiring. Crashes from aircraft are fantastic and bullet impacts on buildings are impeccable. The massive maps and space for players to hide and shoot from add the quality of this game.

BF3 has four roles on multiplayer: Assault, Engineer, Support and Recon. Each class has specific perks and upsides that other classes do not possess. Each class has specific weapons with attachment unlocks. These help the player get tactical advantages. This game also uses flashlights and laser attachments that when used blind the enemy at close range.

Also for you players that want more out of your Battlefield 3 experience, it will take you 100 hours on each class and unlock everything. Although it is not necessary to unlock everything, gamers that want to can and will find it hard to get bored.

There are more good things to say about Battlefield 3 than bad and it’s up to the players to find out. This game is magnificently fantastic and keeps players playing. Modern Warfare 3 is good, but it does not match the gameplay, customizability and the mind blowing quality of Battlefield 3.

BF3 is available across PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. It has won many awards including 20 at E3 including Best of 2011 Game Critics award winner.

Mention the word “bar,” and most people think of a place to get a drink. Now it can also mean a place to get an exotic smoke.

Hookah bars, which offer the Middle Eastern method of smoking tobacco through a special water pipe, have become more popular in the Kansas City area, where many see it as a more social way of lighting up.

A hookah is a water pipe that is used to smoke shisha, a tobacco that is covered in molasses and flavors that can range from mixed berry, pineapple, coconut rum, double apple and hundreds of others.

Jason Ballou, who owns Jaskki’s Tobacco Café in Kansas City, said that like many other trends, hookah started on the East and West coasts and spread toward the Midwest.

“Basically hookah bars have been in Kansas City for the past five to six years,” Ballou said. Nationwide, hookah bars have been around seven to 10 years, he said.

The art of smoking hookah originated in the Middle East. “Hookahs are literally everywhere in the Middle East,” said Ballou.
Nas Alazzeh, a manager at Jerusalem Café in Kansas City, said he has been seeing plenty of old and new faces coming in to the café’s hookah bar and becoming regulars.

“It’s getting popular and it’s a very social thing to do,” Alazzeh said. “Doing hookah is something to do and it’s a great way to just sit down and talk and have good conversations.”

Wil Piercey, an associate at Outlaw Cigar Company, said people like the way hookah smells compared to a cigar, cigarette or pipe.
“It has that fruity sweet smell that is not an overpowering form of tobacco smoke,” Piercey said.

Hookah’s growing popularity has helped it evolve evolved “from a thing to do into more of a legitimate sector of the tobacco industry,” Ballou said. But with that growing popularity has come a growing concern about hookah’s safety.

While research about hookah smoke is still emerging, evidence shows that it poses many dangers, according to Richard D. Hurt, an internist and director of the Nicotine Dependence Center at the Mayo Clinic.

In a posting on the clinic’s website, Hurt said that tobacco is no less toxic in a hookah pipe, and that that water in the pipe doesn’t filter out the toxic ingredients in the tobacco smoke. Hurt said hookah smokers may actually inhale more smoke than cigarette smokers do because of the large volume inhaled during a typical smoking session, which can last as long as an hour.

But while its health effects are being debated, it’s certain that hookah smoking has developed a growing following in Kansas City.
“I don’t like to compare smoking cigarettes to smoking hookah,” Alazzeh said. “People do it for the flavor and don’t get addicted to what’s in the tobacco.”