By: Dani Porter

 I recently added a new book to my collection. It’s a small tome, but filled with enough wit, humor and emotion to keep any avid poetry lover entertained for years. Professor Sam Pierstorff’s first published book of poetry, “Growing...

By: Marck Thornton

Do not worry readers -- your concerns about Tim Burton's apparent increasingly indulgent direction can be alleviated. Alice in Wonderland does not fall into the same category of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It is a lovingly filmed and meticulously c...

By: Dionne Evans

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By: Joe W. Grant, Jr.

     The online polls closed December 31, and the results are in. The Modesto group “And All Was Lost” came in second place in a nation-wide Battle of the Bands through Project Independent, an international touring progr...

By: Matthew Johnson

Aaron Durr, the lanky, bespectacled lead singer for...

By: Christin Hutsell

Now that the so-called “Late Night Wars” between Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno have drawn to a reluctant close, we can look back on the whole situation with a grain of salt. Is this really something that should matter to the average America...

By: Macie Bennett

All MJC departments have been affected by the state budget cuts. But within the Music Department, one cut has been particularly deep....

By: M. Levi Ridgway

Ah, the martial arts film; one of cinema’s classic genres.  One we haven’t seen done well in a long time. Not since Akira Kurosawa, Bruce Lee, and the Jackie Chan/Jet Li team up two years ago has this film trope been given its proper due ...

By: Danielle Porter

For those of you without much to do this December other than put up Christmas decorations, make sure you find yourselves sitting in the Little Theatre of the Performing and Media Arts Center on East Campus on December,4, 5, 11, and 12 at 7:30 p.m. or on D...

By: Marisol Diaz

  The current  blockbuster  film 2012 is inspired by predictions the Mayans made more than a millenia ago. Though the film  bypasses the details, a local anthropologist  spoke to a Pirates' log reporter to illuminat...

By: Macie Bennett

New progressive and voiceless metal band Wait for Sleep is shaking up the Modesto music scene with their unique dynamic instrumental flavor .  Wait for sleep was founded nearly a year and a half ago  by Larry Smith, Alex Yarbough, Anthony and Al...

By: Tyler George

     Indie icon Death Cab for Cutie has been notorious for sticking to their roots and not conforming to typical radio wave standards; but it is a “new moon” for the band. Earlier this year the band was asked to perform on ...

By: Danielle Porter

     Sublime is back? But how? Has Bradley Nowell somehow risen from the grave, blunt in hand, ready to serenade us once more with the sound of his voice? No, he has not. Instead replacing him is 21 year old Rome Ramirez to voice lyric...

By: Paul Guerrero

The new sitcom, Community, has put a whole new definition to community college. Introduction to Statistics, Introduction to Debate and Home Economics are some of the names that NBC calls their episodes on Community, the new television show that began airi...

By: Macie Bennett

 The Fall Sing is an annual event that features Modesto, Turlock and Ceres School Choirs, as well as colleges such as MJC and Stan State.        The choirs performed from Modesto, Ceres, Downey, Enochs, Turlock, Pitman...

By: Macie Bennett

The floor was crawling with men in black and white tuxedos and women in short, tight, skimpy dresses, anticipating announcements of the winners of each category for the 2009 Modesto Area Music Awards (MAMA) hosted by the State Theatre on Wednesday night, ...

By: Jon Frye

  So, every year around this time, we turn on the T.V. and notice that we can't watch a half hour program without being reminded that Halloween is coming. Whether it's the stores trying to get you to buy candy or the films that are being released, H...

By: M. Levi Ridgway

Genetic engineering, cybernetics, dark matter, nanobots, DNA manipulation. These things sound like subjects of bad science fiction movies but according to Dr. Kirsten Sanford, or Dr. Kiki as she is known on television and the web, these things are much cl...

By: Kristopher Pierce

  If a picture is worth a thousand words, then writer/director/producer Tony Kaye's black-and-white, 15-years-in-the-making documentary on the abortion debate could be worth hundreds of thousands of words. The groundbreaking film was recently shown...

By: Lahna Dixon

Horrible parking, infinite waitlists, and the chopping of classes right and left have been difficult and depressing for the students of Modesto Junior College (MJC) this semester. Yet, somewhere in all the ...