Ten years ago, pundits struggled to come up with a name for the first decade of the 21st century. At the decade's end, we have made little progress. Names possibilities have ranged from the Ohs (proposed by The New York Times 10 years ago) to the Zeros (which was popular in the UK) and many seem to have settled for "The Aughts" (or Naughts). Already, people have gotten to proposing names for the next decade. A leading Australian news site has taken an optimistic route and chosen the One-ders as the winner of a naming contest. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's remember that this decade still isn't over. Yes, there's only a day left, but as we move on to the next 10 years, let's look back at the events that shaped our world and the tumultuous 10 years that have defined us for decades to come.
December 2009 Archives
With 2009 coming to a close, some of the last indelible images of the year for Stuyvesant students included the flashing lights of fire engines and locked bathroom doors. For many, the fires were an ultimatum on a year marred with problems of budget cuts, overcrowding, and increasing student apathy. It was the last straw for both students and the administration. Principal Stanley Teitel, fed up with the increasing number of problems in the school, issued threats of a lockdown. Students, fed up with the fires, protested in the only way they knew how--on Facebook and with allusions to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire."
As this "worst year ever" comes to an end, let's take a look back into history. Although students took it upon themselves to establish the Billy Joel hit as their protest theme, the original purpose of the song was to rebut critics of the Baby Boomer generation and refute claims that the generation's rejectionary attitude caused the political upheaval and social atmosphere that characterized the later half of the 20th century. In light of the recent events in the school, I was moved to create this music video, which brings together historical archival clips of the people and events referenced in the song with concert footage from the band's 2006 River of Dreams Tour in Germany. It took me close to a month to find clips of all 119 items mentioned in the song.
For most people, their plans for the 24th and 25th of December were quite clear. On Christmas Eve, they rendezvoused with their families and awaited the arrival of Santa. On Christmas morning, they opened their presents and later at night shared a big dinner with family members. If they're Jewish, well, as the classic Robert Smigel sketch "Christmastime for the Jews" goes, "They can finally see King Kong without waiting in line. They can eat in Chinatown and drink their sweet ass wine."
And then there is the day after. If you are a student, you're most likely still on vacation. And this year, we're lucky enough to have the 26th fall on a Saturday. So what to do with the day after Christmas? Traditionally, the day is known as Boxing Day, a day observed in the UK as a sort of after-Christmas for the less fortunate (the name comes from the tradition of haves giving boxes of durable or monetary goods to have-nots). In the US, the 26th traditionally signifies the end of the holiday season. What's your after-holiday tradition? There are so many ways to spend that extra day after. Here are some suggestions.
So this week, you found out you were either done with the process and celebrated, or that you have a few more weeks to go and then four more months of agony. If you were accepted into a college you want to go to, you have both my congratulations and my envy. If you still have to go through the process, you are with me on the long haul. This week, I'll share with you two articles I found on The New York Times: one fascinating, the other hopefully reassuring. Maybe they will put you at ease with this arduous process.
Here it is at last. The documentary short featuring highlights, interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage of Stuyvesant's annual Culture Festival is finally finished. Sorry it took so long to produce (we had some encoding problems). But, it's finished and up now, so enjoy! Special thanks to junior Fannie Law and senior Victor Ma for their help with filming and junior Sara Son with reporting. You can check out her review of the buffet and show here.
We are currently in the pre-production stage of our next project, a short documentary on The Spectator's production process and the fate of journalism in a technologically evolving world. Stay tuned for updates!
