Marcus Campbell
Mesa Legend

The Game of Thrones season seven finale wrapped up a seven-episode arc and closed the book on one of the best seasons of Game of Thrones yet.  It was full of homecomings, reunions, jaw dropping battles, and zombie ice-dragons.  The season also saw a reshaping of power within the show. Over the course of the seven-season series, the role of women has been criticized in Game of Thrones. Journalists, writers, bloggers, and feminists have cited countless examples of the shows poor treatment of women. There is the forced incest, countless rapes, murders, and debauchery that all influence the women in the show.

influence the women in the show.  At one point in the series, Senator Claire McCaskill gave up on Game of Thrones and took to Twitter to voice her frustration.  McCaskill said in the tweet, “Ok, Im done with Game of Thrones. Water Garden, stupid. Gratuitous rape scene disgusting and unacceptable. It was a rocky ride that just ended.” What critics of the show commonly fail to acknowledge are the positions of power the women in Westeros hold and the number of sexual crimes committed against men.

Danny Harrison Lena Headey_editedLord Varys was castrated when he was a boy before the audience has the pleasure of meeting him and Daenerys Targaryen commands an entire army of men who have had their genitals removed as children and call themselves “unsullied”. Theon Greyjoy also has his manhood chopped off at the climax in a sadistic Game of Torture perpetrated by the same man who raped Sansa Stark and caused so much controversy. Rape and sex crimes are not to be ignored or taken lightly but must be placed within the context of the all the acts of violence and power dynamics within the show.

Resigning women to puppets of abuse is limiting to the range of the power and influence of women in the world of Westeros. Women occupy the two highest offices in the land, Cersei Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen sit on thrones on opposite sides of the world. Arya Stark and Brienne of Tarth are other examples of powerful women in the show who overcome gender discrimination. Neither of them wants to be a lady of their house and both spend their lives as warriors, a role traditionally designated to men.

Both women earn the respect of those around them as warriors by proving their prowess and superiority in combat. Sansa Stark played a major role in the deaths of both men who wronged her.
She orchestrated the death of the man responsible for the show’s most controversial rape by ensuring the success of an entire military campaign.  She then outmaneuvered the most cunning character in the show and had him executed for murder and treason.  The difference between the women in the show in two years is profound. They are no longer on the sidelines and they are no longer at the mercy of other characters in the show. In fact, some the most powerful characters in Westeros are women and Daenerys is commanding that men “bend the knee”.

Sydney Ritter
Mesa Legend

For the busy student and faculty member, Mesa Community College (MCC) offers affordable and flexible exercise programs to both. Exercise has always been revered for making a person healthier, look better and generally feel like an all around better person but for the average college student, there is no time to work out. “I think the first thing for the students is to find something they enjoy doing and it’s really about time management. Possibly even writing everything down, making a schedule for themselves and scheduling in their activity that they want to do,” said adjunct faculty of the Exercise Science department Gail Herndon. “It’s about consistency.”

Students that spend a majority of their days at MCC and are looking to find the time to get some more exercise in their daily lives have the option to use fitness facilities at MCC. Both the Southern & Dobson and Red Mountain campus have a Fitness Center for their students and faculty to use when they have the chance to.  Currently only Southern & Dobson has a Group Activity Center.  There are, of course, classes can be taken for credits include golf, weightlifting, and yoga, but apart from the credit classes, noncredit classes are also available including Community Fit, semester access to the Fitness Center and the Group Activity Center, and Mini Fit, two months access to the Fitness Center and the Group Activity Center.

The Fitness Center offers students total conditioning that features both resistance and cardiovascular exercise equipment. The Group Activity Center is also open to students looking for flexible workout sessions of the student’s choice during the Fall and Spring semesters, Monday through Friday and Monday through Thursday during the Summer Sessions.  Both day and evening classes are available so students can create their own schedule. The classes available at the Group Activity Center include aerobics classes, body sculpting, boot camp, cycling, kickboxing, Pilates mat work, yoga, and Zumba. MCC also hosts an exercise science club on campus that offers exercise programs for any student that wants to join.

Exercise is not the only key component to staying healthy while balancing a busy schedule. In a statement given by the World Health Organization, “good nutrition – an adequate, well-balanced diet combined with regular physical activity – is a cornerstone of good health. Poor nutrition can lead to reduced immunity, increased susceptibility to disease, impaired physical and mental development, and reduced productivity.”Students can find themselves eating healthier while on a strict budget like most college students have. “Going to the local farmer’s markets and things that offer fresh options. I also feel like it’s almost cheaper and healthier to make your food than buy something that is processed with all the chemicals,” Herndon added.

Farmers markets are easy to come by in Arizona since there are a little under 100 farmers markets spread across the valley.  Not all markets are outdoors either. For anyone who enjoys indoor grocery shopping, local stores like Sprouts have introduced farmers market prices to the grocery store setting. Websites like LocalHarvest.org have made finding farmers markets close to home easy.  Along with fresher foods, another way that students can eat healthier on a budget is cutting out the fast food and decide to cook meals at home instead. Heart disease, high blood pressure, and obesity have all been linked with eating fast food regularly.  Eating locally and cooking the food at home may seem like more of a hassle but in reality is extremely healthy and affordable.

Marcus Campbell
Mesa Legend

Netflix released its tragic adaptation of Death Note on August 25 for streaming.  The movie is the worst misstep for the streaming giant since The Ridiculous 6.  The series has already been adapted multiple times in Japan as a live action tv series, an animated film series, and a musical.  This time Adam Wingard, director of You’re Next and The Guest, directs the feature film adaptation of the beloved manga and anime series Deathnote.

In both the series and the film a high school teenager named Light comes across a notebook with magical properties that allow the user to kill people just by writing their name on the pages with their face in mind.  Along the way, Light encounters a Shinigami, or God of Death who is one the original owners of the death notes and a genius and eccentric detective named L. That is where the similarities end, what was once a suspenseful, cerebral thriller becomes a bumbling mess. The Asian cast has been completely disassembled, with one quick name change Nat Wolff steps in and Light Yagami becomes Light Turner.

The only Asian charter that remains in the main cast is L’s servant Watari who ironically is one of the few characters in the original cast that could have passed for white. The brilliant detective L, Light’s antagonist through most of the series, is stripped of most of his intelligence and reason in favor of a quick story turn around and an attachment to his butler Watari. Lakeith Stanfield portrays L and provides the only redeeming quality from claims of white washing. Stanfield also turns in the only human performance of the bunch even with his limited material.

Willem Dafoe makes a much welcome appearance as the voice of the Shinigami Ryuk, and provides the film with its only humorous moments. The character of Misa Amane is renamed Mia Sutton and is one of the few female characters from the original that makes the cut. Unfortunately, she is stripped of all her appeal from the original anime.  She no longer has her own deathnote or her own Shinigami making her essentially Light’s cheerleader and not useful at all on her own. At one point in the film the character of Mia even remarks, “I was just a cheerleader before I met you, Light.”

Light’s sister is nonexistent and Light’s mother is written out of the story in a car crash for the sake of making Light’s character morally jaded in a way he wasn’t in the anime. In the original anime Light’s character, morality, and ethics are all pristine but once he finds the deathnote the audience witnesses him slowly unravel and become a villain. However, in the film adaption Light already has a warped sense of justice and earns trips to detention for helping other students cheat. The story and characters loose almost all their interest in this adaptation.

The film condenses 25 of the 37 original episodes and as with any adaptation there are major sacrifices. Light is never ultimately invited into the investigation by L and there is only one deathnote present in the film despite their being numerous deathnotes in circulation in the manga and anime. The relationship between Light and Mia is as contrived and forced as a B-story relationship can possibly be.

Even if I believed the characters loved each other for a second I still would not have cared that they constantly try to kill each other in the third act.Every aspect of this film falls flat and the 41 Metacritic shows critical disfavor across the board. It’s no wonder why Warner Brothers passed on the project and handed it over to Netflix and lord knows why Netflix took it.

Justin Freemyer
Mesa Legend

Walk into the MCC Library and you’ll likely to find Laney Greynolds sitting at the front desk ready to help you with your paper or just point you in the right direction.  This nearly ten-year library technician is also an accomplished performer.  For the past seven years, Southern Californian natives, 52-year-old Greynolds has been performing throughout the west coast in bars, festivals, performing art centers and house concerts.  She’s part of a duo with partner 63-year-old JC Scott. The group is known as “JC and Laney.”

Their style of music is a combination of pop, rock, comedy, folk and a touch of blues. “Our music is a result of everything we have listened to, it’s Americana,” Laney said. Despite the fact, the group performs about 100 shows a year in places like L.A., Seattle, Las Vegas, Portland and Phoenix, Tucson has become their home base.  They’re considered the hometown band. They do a lot of house concerts there, where they stay overnight at a home and perform for a small group of 50 to 100 people.

The duo said they enjoy performing in this environment because of the intimacy of the experience for them and the fans. “We are entertainers, you have to have a good time and be emotionally moved by it. Which is our goal,” Laney said.  This partnership started in Prescott at a bar called “The Birdcage” on Whiskey Row. Greynolds and Scott were sitting at the bar stools next to each other, but strangers. At one point “Bell Bottom Blues” hits the jukebox and the two began singing in harmony.

The duo said the bartender was so impressed by what the two strangers’ collaboration that he offered them a regular gig at the bar.  A partnership was born.  “It was kind of magic for us,” Scott said about working with Laney. “Solo is lonely.” Their list of successes is long.  They have produced and released seven CD’s and were the opening act for country-western singer John Michael Montgomery.  And just last year JC and Laney were nominated for a Grammy Award in three categories and received 1st place with over 5,000 entrants in Grammy sponsored contest in the category for Amplifier for their song “When it comes to love”. The song has 60,000 streams on Spotify and 100 thousand on SoundCloud.

“It’s a DNA strand,” Scott said passionately about singing.  Singing has been a lifelong journey for the two Californians.  Laney moved to Arizona in 1995 and attended MCC.  During that time, she was a student worker at the library and was an exercise and wellness major. But Laney’s dream to sing. She has been performing since she was 18, singing in cover bands. She said she was influenced by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Journey, Bonnie Raitt and Kenny Loggins.

While Scott was inspired by storytellers like Bob Dillan and The Every Brothers.  He reminiscent of his beginning, writing songs fresh out of the Navy in the 1970’s.  His performing days started in West Hollywood with bands such as Redwood and 88 performing in places like The Rainbow Room, The Viper Room, Whiskey a Go Go and the Roxy.  “I feel music today is going retro, the students and my children are always listening and talking music from the 60’s and 70’s like Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin, “Laney said.

According to the partners, they have fulfilled a lot of their dreams.  Among those is having performed at the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) and opened for a major act which was country-western star John Michael Montgomery. Among their goals for the future is to expand their band and contract a publisher to help them get their music featured on music videos and in movies.  They say they’re aware of some the challenges they face today including age discrimination.

But, they add, it isn’t stopping them from doing what they love to do. “We ain’t done yet, we’re all over the place, we love being on stage and performing,” Laney said.  In the last four years, they have headed north and established a summer residency in Williams, Arizona at a place called Bistro 66.  Locally you can catch them at the Higley Performing Arts Center, Chandler Center for the Arts and their favorite place, Fiddler’s Dream in Phoenix You can catch the duo at the Tucson Polk Fest in the first week of May and at www.jcandlaney.com