Students enjoy caricatures, obstacle course and live music at end of journalism conference

JACCpalooza tops off journalism conference with live music and games

The Journalism Association of Community Colleges held its bi-annual conference for students interested in Journalism.

This year the organizers decided to change things up with the first annual JACCpalooza after the awards dinner.

The event was intended to help students relax after the long weekend. The event included inflatable races, jousting and a boxing ring. Students could also have their caricatures drawn by an artist or have their futures told by a tarot card reader.

The JACC holds a state conference and a regional conference every year where students compete in workshop and contests ranging from photography, newswriting and multi-media.

Artist Connie Lane shows that great risks can lead to great success.

Many artists struggle and sacrifice for their dreams, but some go further than others.

One of these artists is Connie Lane, whose exhibit “No Place Like Home” is currently featured in the Cerritos College Art Gallery.

Born in Hong Kong, China, Lane comes from a family with seven brothers and three sisters.

Growing up, Lane was not exposed to art, but always felt she had a natural sense for it.

“When I went from primary to secondary school in Hong Kong, neither of them had art classes such as drawing and painting, design, Lane explained.

“Without knowledge of artistic background, I knew I was good at coordinating things together, I was like the art consultant in the family.”

Lane’s first taste of the art world came after high school when she started working at a typesetting factory.

“My urge to study design abroad began with encouragement from my former school mate who immigrated to USA with her family.”

It wasn’t an easy choice for Lane and her mother was against her choice at first.

“My mother was very worried and strongly opposed my choice. She knew I was not happy with my life in Hong Kong, but she couldn’t do anything to make me change my plans.” Said Lane.

Eventually, her mother came around and helped Lane achieve her goals.

Lane went on to graduate from Cal State Long Beach her Bachelor in Fine Arts degree in ceramics in 2005, and a Master of Fine Arts in mixed media sculpture in 2012.

Despite wanting to attend school in the United States, Lane had a tough time transitioning.

“Although I learned to write and read English at an early age at schools, there were not many chances that I could practice speaking. Living in a foreign country was a culture shock.”

While she missed her family Lane knew that she had made a choice and wanted to stick with it.

“By taking the risk to leave my country, I literally started a life, said Lane, I fully embraced America that gave me the opportunity to pursue my dream.”

Despite misstep Russia’s Opening Ceremony impresses with trip through Russia’s history and culture

If something has to go wrong, you would hope that it is something unnoticeable. Unfortunately for the organizers of Russia’s opening ceremony it was hard for the world not to notice. The problem occurred when one of the electronic icicles that were hanging above the audience failed to open. It was supposed to open to portray the Olympic rings along with the other icicles, but did not respond.

Overall the ceremony was a strong show and did a great job showing the world the rich culture of Russia.

However the show moved forward and still managed to show off the beauty of Russia’s history and culture. It drew from many aspects of Russian history such as ballet, the Red Square, and the Communist Revolution.

The ceremony went through the major turning points in Russian history. It portrayed the creation of the Russian state, the rise of Peter the Great and the Propaganda train during the rise of communism. It also drew upon different fairy tales and myths such as the world being born on the back of a whale.

The ceremony did a amazing job of combing the images on the ground with music to create a sense of atmosphere for each era. The communist era was particularly strong with the sound of building combined with the images of building and blueprints to show the rise of the Soviet Union. The dancers helped tie everything with the synchronized hammering and building.

It was also interesting to see a more joyful exciting side to communist Russia. American history tends to overlook this side of Russian history and tends to resort caricatures.