The other day upon paying for a male friend of mine’s lunch, I caught myself saying “Yeah, fuck gender norms” to no one in particular, with a sense of pride in the fact that I had defied the rules of gender that currently plague our society. The cashier across the counter from me responded with furrowed brows and a look...

There’s one special day a year where you might have your face and attention buried in your phone while you type a text, and then out of the corner of your eye, you spot an astronaut strolling by. You might start questioning your sanity when you then see Chewbacca making a cup of boba, but when you see Buzz Lightyear...

When Kevin Maxwell first told his grandmother he was going to make a film about her life, her first question was “how are you going to do that?” It was a fair question. At that time, Maxwell had never made a film, and had only recently left a full-time government job, working with the Transportation Security Agency.“No one in my...

Most Angelinos are familiar with only one kind of jungle: the urban jungle full of concrete, cars and cellphones. The constant sound of car horns and engines boom as you walk down the street. As a college student, one tends to be locked into this man-made world that seems to have no escape. However, there may be. Envision a land...

In recent years, many city-dwellers have taken to growing their own food. Community urban gardens have sprung up all over major cities, Los Angeles being one of them. And at our very own school, students have been busy cultivating our Organic Learning Garden. Club Grow is a student club that teaches people on campus about how to grow their own...

There is this real sense of loneliness. It must be the combination of the endless, flat landscape and the equally infinite sky. All you can hear is the wind and the occasional thumping of your racing heart. Storm chasing is as exciting as it is frightening. Living in Southern California, it’s easy to forget what bad weather is like. During...

2016 has quietly broken the rule that movies aren’t supposed to get interesting until the first big tentpole movie release in May. But even though we’re still a week out from the official start of the cinema summer with the release of that one big superhero movie people seem to be buzzing about, Hollywood has already started to give us...

People perceive vegans as radical, self-congratulatory, and cult-ish. They think being a vegan means announcing it upon walking into every party, crying each time you pass a farm, and throwing pig's blood on celebrities who wear fur. There's a whole lot of unnecessary context added to what is, for many, just a dietary preference. My digestive system sees nothing but...

The extent of the conversation surrounding veganism tends to wallow around the shallow pools of animal cruelty. Sometimes the strength of the present intellect will allow the dialogue to venture into sustainability territory — which is a good start. However, we as a society almost always fail to recognize what the larger implications and long term effects would be if...

For the past several years, Santa Monica College has been nurturing a tradition of being environmentally savvy and sustainable through it's Center for Environmental & Urban Studies (CEUS), alternative transportation initiatives, and various outreach from many of the clubs on campus. Having organized 11 events already last year, the environmental groups within the college aimed to further spread their message...