Mount Hood

Avatar the Last AirBender: What we can take from a childhood favorite

A review of the show from an adult’s point of view

Brianna Lelieur | Entertainment Editor

Two months into a self quarantine, it seemed like there was nothing more to watch on television. People had rewatched the same old favorite movies and shows, and binged the new ones. Yet, with so much time, it seemed like everyone had seen everything. Furthering that, tensions were definitely beginning to rise with the current state of the world; people were certainly emitting strong emotions and needed something to brighten their day again. 

Thankfully, the world got a little brighter on May 15, when the children’s show “Avatar: The Last Airbender” was released on Netflix. After its release, the show exploded in popularity, especially among adult viewers. The show now has an even larger cult following than before; it has inspired thousands of fan creative art projects, merchandise, clothing, music and even food — all within the span of a few weeks since its release date.
Why the huge surge in popularity among adult viewers for a children’s show? Well, as a child who grew up loving “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” I of course admire it for the nostalgia; besides, who doesn’t love a show with characters that can manipulate the environment around them, a story of true friendship and stellar fight scenes? Although, after watching it as an adult, I’ve come to truly appreciate the show not only as a childhood favorite, but also for its writing of the story and characters, its research into the various cultures it’s inspired by, the music that supports the show and the subject matter it touches on. 

During my rewatch, here are a few of the things I took from the show. The first is learning to maintain balance and peace within yourself, as this is an essential theme of “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” When one aspect of life is out of balance, it entirely falls apart. It’s a genuine human struggle to manage balance, whether physically, mentally or in the everyday world. 

Furthering the topic of internal balance, the show weaves elements of spirituality, introspectiveness and meditation. The main protagonist, Aang, is someone with immense special abilities; he can tap into another aspect of the world that not many others can in the show’s universe. He is the bridge between humans and spirits. Meditation is key for him as it allows him to search within his own soul to discover more about his past life and maintain his state of mind. Every time Aang is faced with a dilemma, at most points he meditates on what he is to do and to help him find peace. 

Meditation was something I took from the show because, with so much going on in the world, it can be overwhelming and easy to lose focus of what is important to you. I wanted to find a way to start clearing my mind the way Aang practices, whether I’m dwelling on the past or the chaotic world.

There was a quote that resonated with Aang through his journeys from his mentor and great airbender, Monk Gyasto: “we cannot concern ourselves with what was, we must act on what is.” 

Despite everything that happened to Aang, he ensured to never dwell on what was or let it haunt him. He makes it clear that with the right self motivation, meditation and support, you can make it through just about everything. 

I learned a few interesting facts about the origins of the various bending styles within the show. Each fighting style comes from a different form of real life martial arts. For example, water bending is derived from Tai Chi; earth bending, Hung Gar; fire bending, Northern Shaolin; and air bending, Ba Gua Zhang. Each embodies a very different fighting style, technique, and rule set. For Northern Shaolin, one of the oldest forms of martial arts fighting, it is known to be immensely aggressive and is about long, strong movements that are meant to jab straight through your opponent. Within the Hung Gar fighting style, you are always meant to have a strong fighting stance and be connected to the ground below you for full force in your moves. 

This show has become very popular once more because it came again in a notoriously chaotic time, and people needed something lighthearted to help them get through it. This brings us to simpler times and helps us feel relaxed with sunset backgrounds and calming music. The characters make you wish you knew them in real life, and now, everyone wishes they had an Uncle Iroh. 

Watching “Avatar: The Last Airbender” as an adult again is both an escape and an actual learning experience. It reminds us of our basic morals that often get lost in translation. Whether it’s learning to ask for help when you need it, spending time with friends and family or simply to appreciate life, make sure to live it up. As Uncle Iroh once said, “life happens wherever you are, whether you make it or not.” 

Contact the author at blelieur20@mail.wou.edu

Steady tunes to study to: song recommendations

A collection of study songs from The Western Howl staff

The Western Howl Collective

With the beginning of school, there are so many things to prepare: supplies, textbooks, resources, study routines and much more. However, a strong study playlist is key in being successful. These are some recommendations from the Howl staff. Hopefully, these songs will encourage someone to create an individual study playlist for a wonderful term. 

 

Brianna Lelieur | Entertainment Editor

“The Last Cherry Blossom” by Rudemanners — This is a Lo-fi song off an entire playlist, it is upbeat and very soulful. 

 

Rylie Horrall | Managing Editor

“I Miss Those Days” by Bleachers — My study playlist changes a lot but this song is almost always on it. I like listening to it because it has a mellow and relaxing beat that helps me focus without the words being too distracting. 

 

Allison Vanderzanden | Lifestyle Editor

“Cassini” by Curtis Schweitzer — I enjoy this song because it’s soft enough to not distract me while studying. I also like that the melody isn’t overly repetitive or predictable.

 

Sean Martinez | Copy Editor

“Vertigo” by Khalid — I don’t often listen to music while studying, but for me, it’s easy to get lost in the process of writing or studying while this song is playing. Plus, this song is about Khalid asking himself the big questions, making it a great song for concentrating on whatever task is at hand.

 

Kyle Morden | Head Designer

“comfy vibes” by LilyPichu — Sit back and relax; it’s time to get comfortable with some Lo-fi beats. No matter how stressful studying can be, this song will create a calm atmosphere for any listener.

 

Cora McClain | Editor-in-Chief

“I’ll Keep You Safe” by sagun — There’s a Lo-fi song for every occasion, and studying is no different.  I’m easily distracted and lyrical songs often make it harder for me to focus on work, so Lo-fi is my go to. The repetition and distortion that sagun’s uses keeps my brain engaged for long study sessions while not breaking my focus.

 

Kiara Wehrenberg | Photo Editor

“Dream Catcher” by Damu the Fudgemunk — This song is good for me to study because there are no lyrics for me to get distracted by while writing. I also like how the music is upbeat enough for me to stay focused and not fall asleep — most songs by this artist have a similar style perfect for studying. 

 

Stephanie Moschella | Digital Media Manager 

“3 Nights” by Dominic Fike — This song gives me the summer vibes that we all missed out on this year. It’s calming and melancholic, and leaving it on repeat helps drown out all the noise around me while I study. 

 

Sydney Carpenter | News Editor 

“Dr. Wanna Do” by  Caro Emerald  — After a long study session I like listening to some electric swing or Jazz to boost my mood and overall attitude. However, I usually don’t listen to anything while I work — it’s difficult for me to focus as is, and adding music to the mix doesn’t help me in my studies. 

 

Listen to the playlist here!

Students artwork to be represented online

Never Retallack |  Entertainment Editor

In a year where everything is shifting and time is spent at home, the WOU Art Department and Cannon Art Gallery have decided to continue on with their 52nd year of the Juried Student Art Exhibition which will now be in online format.

When talking with Paula Booth, the gallery director for Cannon, she said that 32 students submitted their work this year which was more than she expected. 

“We are being very flexible with photo quality since many students do not have access to professional photo equipment at home,” said Booth on the subject of students needing to send in five images of their chosen artwork.

Any student who attended Western in the last year, regardless of their major, was allowed to send in their artwork. 

“Students submit work that they have completed during the last year, and professional jurors — professional practicing artists from around the region, the juror or jurors are different each year — look over the work and, based on artistic criteria, decide which work will or won’t be a part of the exhibit.” Booth mentioned how having a juried art exhibition is good practice for the students and looks impressive on their resumes.

The jurors selected which art would be in the gallery on Sunday, May 24 and even chose the “Best of Show” award which will come with a cash prize. But it’s not all about the money.

“I hope that by giving students an opportunity to share their work with their families and the WOU community in this way, they can feel proud of what they’ve accomplished this year!” Booth said. Booth’s goal for the gallery is a positive outlook and one that is needed for the strange times students and staff are going through.

There are diverse styles of art, including painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, drawing, video, animation and graphic design. There are also videos of graduating students’ Academic Excellence Showcase presentations available online.

This year’s jurors are Ariella Tai and Rubén García Marrufo, who both bring different expertise and perspectives to their decisions. Tai is a video artist, film scholar and independent programmer from Queens, New York, who is interested in Black performance and culture in film, television and media studies.

Booth says Marrufo is “a Mexican filmmaker whose work focuses on borders, the separation from place and its aftermath and an american installation artist. It finds its place between fiction and documentary video forms with narratives that are rooted in hearsay of multiple languages.”

More information when the art has been selected will be availble at https://dev.wou.edu/art-and-design/cannon-gallery-of-art/.

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu

Photo by Rachel Hetzel 

The year through song: Western Howl’s playlist

Western Collective

As this turbulent and trying year comes to an end, the staff at The Western Howl have compiled songs that relate to this year, or have gotten them through it. For those who are interested in jamming along with us, look us up on Spotify at TheWesternHowl.

The Weepies — “The World Spins Madly On”

Panic! at the Disco — “New Perspective”

Megan thee Stallion (feat. Beyoncé) — “Savage Remix”

Weathers — “I’m Not Okay”

MAGIC GIANT — “Disaster Party”

KYLE — “All Alright”

Ieuan (feat. Commonminds)  — “Over the Garden Wall”

Superorganism — “Something for Your M.I.N.D.”

Fall Out Boy — “Thnks Fr th Mmrs”

All Time Low — “Wake Up, Sunshine”

BIGBANG — “SOBER”

Asyndenton — “Ascending Heaven” 

Afroman — “Tall Cans”

EARTHGANG — “This Side (A COLORS SHOW)”

Future ft. Kendrick Lamar — “Mask Off”

Get cozy with these funny graduation films

Rylie Horrall |  Lifestyle Editor

As the year comes to a close, some graduates may find themselves wanting to have a movie binge night — whether it’s virtually with friends or in person with those they’re social distancing with. A great way to do this would be with some classic graduation films. Get cozy and check out the list of movies below.

  • “Legally Blonde” (2001) (Amazon) — A woman beats the ditzy-blonde stereotype by attending law school and graduating at the top of her class at Harvard Law.
  • “She’s All That” (1999) (Hulu, Showtime) — Popular guy and artsy girl make a bet to see if they can make the artsy girl prom queen.
  • “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” (2008) (Disney+) — The gang’s ‘all in this together’ as they navigate their senior year and graduation.
  • “Adventureland” (2009) (Hulu) — A college grad moves out to Europe for graduate school and falls for his amusement park co-worker.
  • “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986) (Netflix) — Right before graduation, a group of friends duck out of school for one last hurrah.
  • “10 Things I Hate About You” (1999) (Hulu, Disney+) — A senior focused on finishing high school and going to college is set up with the new kid so that her little sister can go on a date.
  • “Booksmart” (2019) (Hulu) — Two academically strong seniors try to catch up on the special moments from their teen years on the night before they graduate.
  • “Accepted” (2006) (Hulu) — A fake university is set up by a senior to fool everyone into thinking he’s attending college, but then many other students also try to attend the nonexistent university.
  • “Life of the Party” (2018) (Amazon) — A freshly dumped housewife returns to college for a journey of self-discovery.
  • “Dazed and Confused” (1993) (Hulu) — Crazy shenanigans ensue on the last day of high school for a group of rowdy teenageers.
  • “Into the Wild” (2007) (Hulu) — A recent college graduate donates all of his money and gets rid of his possessions before setting out on a journey in the Alaskan Wilderness.
  • “Reality Bites” (1994) (Hulu) — A woman creates a documentary about herself and her friends after college.
  • “The Social Network” (2010) (Netflix) — Following Mark Zuckerberg post-graduation and the creation of Facebook.
  • “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006) (Amazon) — A college graduate with big dreams starts a job at a magazine firm as an assistant to a dubious editor.
  • “Superbad” (2007) (Showtime) — Two best friends try to handle the last couple weeks of high school by throwing a giant house party.
  • “The Graduate” (1967) (Hulu) — A recent college graduate moves back home with his parents and tries to navigate post-graduation life while avoiding the question, “what do you want to do with your life?”

Contact the author at rhorrall17@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

Photo courtesy of Annapurna Pictures

Book review of Xander Blue’s debut Western fictional novel

Never Retallack |  Entertainment Editor

During the wrath of quarantine, I have longed to be in a different time; reading Xander Blue’s “Whipping Up a New Past” certainly allowed for that.

Blue lives in Phoenix and has always had a passion for history in different eras and decided to write his debut novel in “The Goddess of Death Series.”

This American Western fictional book had some familiar elements when it comes to time travel. An old and eccentric scientist, Doc Brown — “Back to the Future” anyone — selects the chosen one to have the power of time travel; in this novel, it is through a futuristic bracelet that his star pupil, Janet Sun, can go back to the 1800s to educate Native Americans and kill the men who would murder her ancestors.

Janet Sun is the 64th richest person in the world, an Olympic bullwhipper, Taek Thai expert, gymnast, ex-military and college graduate. All around, she feels like someone that you imagine being when you grow up: she’s a superhero. 

After receiving a bracelet that allows her to time travel, she uses several different inventions Doc Brown provides her to enhance her knowledge of languages. He also offers her complex technology that works as bear and wolf repellant.

Sun’s mission was never fully explained or discussed; it felt more like a roller coaster of cutting heads off in the name of her family. An interesting part of this book is how much Sun alters the past — saving a baby from a burning building, murdering several men who were going to kill her ancestors, and even developing a romantic relationship with the sheriff.

In most time travel movies or novels, it is highly stressed that altering the past could have dire consequences. This story is centered around all the ways that Sun could alter the past.

Her character is caught up with helping others and creating knowledge, a noble goal for her mission, but one that was often not explained.

Much of the book was spent discussing how life was in the past, a specific way something was cooked or washed, or how trading or renting wasn’t an option. Some of the book felt like a way to showcase knowledge and research Blue had done in the time period, rather than focusing on character and story development.

The novel had good core elements, a strong main character who never waivered, an unstoppable mission and thorough information on the time they were in. I think the novel would have improved more if there had been more conflict for Sun — a book with only smooth sailing can feel flat. 

Overall Rating: While there is some room for improvement for this novel, I believe that there are some interesting and compelling moments throughout the book. For those who like a unique story about time travel, they should check out this novel; it is a quick read and more information can be found at https://XanderBlueBooks.wixsite.com/mysite.

 

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Xander Blue

Learn more about Western poet Cylinda Neidenbach

Never Retallack |  Entertainment Editor

Last week, The Western Howl published an article titled “Arms, revenge and flower crowns”

about the top three winners for the Peter Sears Poetry Prize. It’s time to get to know the first place winner, Cylinda Neidenbach — a senior at Western majoring in English with a focus on writing.

 

Q: How long have you been writing poetry?

A: I was prone to writing whimsical poems when I was about nine years old, a la Shel Silverstein. My parents used to read “Where the Sidewalk Ends” and “A Light in the Attic” before I even knew how to read. I’d be four or five years old, reciting “The Loser,” (“Mama said I’d lose my head, if it wasn’t fastened on,”) and for a moment my parents thought that I had somehow learned to read. To this day I can still recite it from memory. After grade school, however, I’m afraid I seldom wrote poetry — unless it was something witty to amuse my friends. I took Dr. Hughes’s poetry seminar last term and was dismayed to find that he didn’t encourage goofy, half-baked poems. They were all I knew. I wrote the “rough draft” of my winning poem the first day of class, when Doctor Hughes told us to “describe something.” I had just hugged my lover goodbye, and his arms were the first thing that came to mind. Misunderstanding the instructions and somehow forgetting that I was in a poetry class, I wrote a small paragraph that later became, through many revisions, my poem “To Bear Arms.” You can imagine my surprise that it won.

 

Q: What got you interested in writing?

A:  I do love writing. It’s one of the few things I do for myself. I have been writing short stories and novellas since I could read. It’s a passion of mine. (My current novel was started in 2011 and I have been writing it forever. I hope to be done around the time I graduate.) As far as poems go, I never considered poetry my jam, but rather something I should know at least a little about as a future English teacher. (Many thanks to Dr. Hughes for helping me whittle down my natural tendency towards long windedness. Constant Vigilance! Word Economy!)

 

Q: What does it feel like to write a poem?

A: What does writing a poem feel like? I don’t know how to answer this. I started to notice moments of remarkable beauty or connection with things: people, nature, the world. Moments that made me feel present, and I would try to get them out on paper. Often a single line would form itself right then, and I would try to hang on to it, press it in my memory, be the conduit. That’s how it worked for me.

 

Q: Anything you’d like to add?

A: Serious poems, while not as fun as the lively, fickle, frivolous poems of my childhood, are rewarding. They serve as snapshots of memory, moments in time preserved.

 

Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu

Photos courtesy of Tristram Kerrigan

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