The James Logan Courier

By James Sarmiento and Gene Romero, Courier Staff Writers

Are you worrying about Junior Prom and Senior Ball? Well, here are some tips and advice you could use to prepare yourself for this "magical" event.

Worrying about who you are going to take and how you are going to ask them? No problem, remember you don’t need a date to go to prom. Just go alone! Going alone has its perks, no stress about what color should to match, how much money is going to spent on two people, and you will have much more fun being alone not having to worry about your date during the dance.

By Jack Bragg, Courier Editor in Chief

One of the most popular indie bands in the world, New Mexico’s The Shins, have come back with their first album since 2007’s Wincing the Night Away, as well as the first on the Shins own record label, Aural Apothecary. Port of Morrow features a great mix of new sounds, especially those that revolve around the use of electronic influences and synthesizers. The band however stays very anchored to their classic indie sound and acoustic based music.

The album was largely the brainchild of frontman James Mercer, who not only writes, sings, and plays on all the songs, but also helped to co-produce the album and give criticism on the album’s artwork. It’s Mercer’s essential return to the Shins after a brief hiatus with his side project, Broken Bells, in which he performs with producer Danger Mouse. Port of Morrow is heavily influenced by the electronic style that Broken Bells was based around.

By Tish Wells
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)


Stir in a little Lovecraft and magic, season it with apocalyptic gloom, and you have "Joe Golum and the Drowning City."

Horror author Christopher Golden and artist Mike Mignola, creator of the comic "Hellboy," have collaborated on an illustrated novel.

New York is "The Drowning City" set in an alternate world where earthquakes in 1922 start disasters that culminate with half of Manhattan under water.

By Mike Swift
San Jose Mercury News (MCT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Facebook's monthly user population has passed 900 million people, increasing the size of its regular user base by one-third in the past year, while about half a billion people access the social network through a smartphone or tablet.

But while Facebook's first-quarter revenues jumped by 45 percent compared to the same quarter last year, profit fell as the social networking company spent heavily on research and development. Facebook Inc. disclosed the numbers Monday in an addendum to its IPO filing.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

"Supremacy MMA Unrestricted" is, without a doubt, the best mixed martial arts game in the Playstation Vita's library.

Unfortunately, that's partly because it's also the only one. And while some MMA action is better than nothing, there's enough working against "Unrestricted" to temper the enthusiasm serious fans may have for the sport's Vita debut.

Most glaring is the uphill battle against UFC's and EA Sports' games for fighter name recognition — a problem "Unrestricted" arguably eschews by opting for a mostly fictional roster of fighters based on real-life fighters whom casual fans likely wouldn't recognize anyway.

By Oline H. Cogdill
Sun Sentinel (MCT)

The effect of violence on small communities continues to be one of the most provocative themes for mystery fiction. Joseph Olshan expands that plot device for an in-depth character study of a woman who is emotionally stagnant because of her inability to forgive those she loves.
Olshan, best known for his non-genre fiction such as "The Conversation" and "Clara's Heart," makes a bold and quite effective foray into crime fiction in "Cloudland." Using the hunt for a serial killer as his foundation, Olshan's sturdy plot builds on his believable characters. Olshan's greatest risk — and his most persuasive — is creating a lead character who is unlikable yet also intriguing enough to make readers want to delve into "Cloudland."

By Yari Nieves-Rivera, Courier Book Editor

The Giver by Lois Lowry is a novel set in the near future, where the world is split up into different communities. In this society, not only are people not allowed to have children, they aren’t allowed to choose who they marry or the way they live their own lives. At the age of twelve, they are assigned a job that they will have for the rest of their lives. At a certain age, when the adults in the family unit have served their purpose, and they are sent to housing for childless adults. There, they wait out their days until they are ‘released’ outside of the community.

The story is told in third person point-of-view, and follows a boy named Jonas. Jonas lives in a standard family unit, consisting of a mother, a father, and a sister. None of them are biologically related, but they hold a strong bond like any other family. Since they live in this community, they are told to show no emotion and to be the same as others. While the children grow up, they are watched carefully by the Council of Elders. They choose the jobs based on the child’s special abilities. Jonas fears the day this comes, more and more every day.

From Wikipedia:
James McCune Smith (April 18, 1813 – November 17, 1865) was an American physician, apothecary, abolitionist, and author. He is the first African-American to earn a medical degree, and the first to run a pharmacy in the United States. Smith wrote forcefully in refutation of the common misconceptions about race, intelligence, medicine, and society in general. His friends and colleagues in this movement were often famous and consisted of many noted abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass.

Read James McCune Smith's essay on chess, free from thechessdrum.net.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

No single gaming genre is mired in a longer slump than the Japanese role-playing game, which (scattered exceptions aside, naturally) has been consistently reeling for years.

"Xenoblade Chronicles" is the arguable slumpbuster — a massive adventure that arrives with significant fanfare and, instead of using that hype as a crutch, cashes it in to teach a tired genre some overdue new tricks. It liberally adopts concepts that have propelled Western RPGs forward, but merges them with a flavor and storytelling approach that leaves no doubt where its lineage lies.

Crucially, "Chronicles" lays most of it — a monstrous open world, versatile side quests, customizable armor and weaponry run wild — almost immediately at your feet following an opening sequence that's similarly generous with its combat system.

By Amy Kaufman
Los Angeles Times (MCT)

LOS ANGELES _ There's only one rival that may be able to trip up the seemingly unstoppable "The Hunger Games" at the box office this weekend: a trio of out-of-shape goofballs. Although the fantasy epic starring Jennifer Lawrence looks primed to claim the No. 1 spot for the fourth consecutive weekend, it may face some competition from a new spin on "The Three Stooges."

After 21 days in release, the adaptation of Suzanne Collins' best-selling novel has already grossed more than $300 million domestically and could take in $18 million to $20 million more this weekend, according to those who have seen pre-release audience surveys.

"The Three Stooges" probably is headed for a debut of $15 million to $18 million, giving the PG-rated comedy a healthy shot at the top position.

By Colin Covert
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)(MCT)

If true art is achieving profound results with economy of means, there may be no finer artists in film than brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Their beautifully observed, scrupulously realistic dramas distill the lives of working-class Belgians into experiences that are moving and universal.

With its small cast, minuscule budget and compressed story, "The Kid With a Bike" could have been a minor film. It is a major achievement. The subject is 11-year-old Cyril (Thomas Doret) and the lives he touches on his search for the father who abandoned him to state care. An emotionally volatile firecracker with more energy than maturity, he bolts from school, literally running into a potential guardian, Samantha (Cecile De France, "Hereafter"), a hairdresser. Unmarried, childless, she takes on the troublesome boy as a foster parent and the pair negotiate a sometimes rocky relationship.

By Zohal Sharif, Courier Staff Writer

It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you look when they take your picture. For 25-year-old Zeddie Little of New York, an affable smile amidst the pain of long-distance running that was captured during a 10k race in Charleston, S.C. turned him into a viral phenomenon knows as "Ridiculously Photogenic Guy." Nearly 1.4 million people have view the photo in recent days on Flickr and it has been uploaded countless times to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. A simple photo captured the hearts of many, how did this even happen?

By Christine Cortes, Courier Staff Writer

The James Logan Advanced and Chamber choirs held their kickoff concert in the Performing Arts Center, giving a preview of the sets that they will perform in competion tomorrow in Anaheim.

With each choir performing three songs, the show was about 45 minutes long and only cost $5 per ticket, but it was definitely worth the money and the time. The students were able to showcase how hard they have worked by performing beautifully in each song.

By Gordon Houser
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

Marilynne Robinson is not only an award-winning novelist but an outstanding essayist. Her newest book collects 10 incisive essays on an array of topics, though common themes thread their way throughout, including education, religion and the nature of humanity.

When I read a book for review, I underline passages that strike me with their insight, the beauty of their language or their troublesome nature. Typically, by the end of my reading I've underlined a dozen or two passages at most. My copy of this book, however, is filled with such markings. There are few spreads without something underlined.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

The more credit you give "Ninja Gaiden 3" for respecting your ability to play it, the likelier it is to make you rue the thought.

That alone makes "NG3" — a beautiful, blazingly fast action game that's also a descendent of one of the most perfect action games ever made — a crushing letdown.

Superficially, "NG3" looks a lot like 2004's "Ninja Gaiden," a game so cherished that Tecmo keeps reissuing it (most recently, for the Vita in February). Ryu Hayabusa (that's you) remains one of gaming's most agile action heroes. The places you'll visit are beautiful and diverse, and while many of the enemies you face look like reskinned versions of enemies you saw already, the bosses — from a T-Rex to a giant witch whose body becomes a level unto itself — are satisfactorily outrageous.

By Christine Cortes, Courier Staff Writer

2NE1's new Japanese album Collection does not fail to impress. 2NE1 is a South Korean girl group that is at the top of the Korean music industry. Making an unforgettable debut in May of 2009 with their first single "Fire", they rose the standards of idol groups. Straying from the usual cute and innocent image, they prove that women can be and are strong in most of their music and performances. They grabbed the attention of Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am, who is currently helping in the production of 2NE1's American debut album.

Starting in 2009, Koreans began to try and break their way into the Japanese music industry, many of their idol groups released singles in Japan. 2NE1 joined in the trend in 2011, attempting to make their debut in spring. The first attempt was canceled due to the earthquake that hit, they left almost immediately after they arrived, as they were in Japan at that time. In September 2011, they returned to Japan.

By Alana Semuels
Los Angeles Times (MCT)

Young adult novelists are increasingly tackling darker subjects: kidnappings, drugs, rape. But few have delved into so many dark subjects as novelist Thane Rosenbaum, who ventures into YA territory with his latest, "The Stranger Within Sarah Stein," a novel revolving around divorce, Sept. 11, homelessness and the Holocaust.

What might be most odd about this combination of subjects is that the book isn't glum at all. Told through the eyes of the perky, bike-riding 12-year-old Sarah Stein, the daughter of a candy-making mother and an artist-painter father, it works as more of a fantasy than as a dark rumination on tragedy. There is sadness between the lines, but also a bright fairy-tale aspect, a kind of "Willy Wonka" meets "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close."

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

If you assembled a focus group of people who've never played a "Resident Evil" game and tasked them with designing the next one, very well might be what they conceive by day's end.

That isn't damning criticism so much as faint praise, because "City" at least with competency. It holds no candle to a traditional "RE" game. But as a cover-based, co-op-capable third-person squad shooter that hits every bullet point an online, experience points-driven, competitive/cooperative shooter needs to hit? Sure, why not.