By Andreas Katsis

As I sit at my desk, beginning to write this piece for journalism, I reflect upon just how truly artsy this class I have taken for two years really is. Here at Menlo, to graduate, each student needs one arts credit in addition to the given freshman rotation. Menlo requires students to take chorus, drama, photography, movie-making, dance, or art in order to fulfill this said credit. I would define art as the production or expression for an aesthetic result. Each of these disciplines contains creative and imaginative dimensions which make the class worthy of an all mighty arts credit.

To start things off, chorus. The use of the vocal chords, chest, diaphragm and throat must be perfected to sing at a high level. To perform at a high level in the choral world, one would need numerous voice lessons, daily practice, and a skilled teacher to serve as a guide through the treble clefs, sharps, and flats of the music. After all is said and done, the young singer has gone to lessons and has trained, he sings in front of an audience and gets a standing ovation. The audience was pleased with his result, which happened to be a beautiful, prolonged sound, formed of words combined into sentences. In addition to the standing ovation, the singer also is granted with an arts credit.

The next art, drama, usually involves a team of actors, as few as two, assuming roles of fictional or historical characters which tell a story or part of someone’s life while on stage. To become a great actor you must attend classes, learn how to deal with stage-fright and become accustomed to playing the role of someone you have never met before in your real life. If all the members of the cast, some would call it a team, all go to rehearsals together and perform an interesting, maybe comical play, they too will receive an ovation from the crowd, and then a Menlo arts credit.

I now put photography and movie making in the same boat as I believe movie making to be essentially high-speed photography with many pictures which are shown in rapid succession of one another. A successful movie or photograph comes with a grounded knowledge of how to use a high- quality, often expensive camera or movie camera and the knowledge of how to control lighting for your own affect. Once a mind-blowing photograph or suspenseful movie is shown, like the last two arts, it is followed by clapping and an arts credit.

The second to last art that Menlo offers is dance. Dance involves choreographed body movements, usually combining the movements of many people, but not always, is once again for aesthetic wonder and spectacle. The athleticism involved is unmatched in the arts as well as the teamwork needed to pull off a captivating dance. For this, like the last four, ovation, clapping, yelling, arts credit.

And for the last art, art. A little more creative and vague in its definition, art, at Menlo at least, is really the formulation of lines, curves, and different colors to depict an image, either concrete or abstract, for aesthetic pleasure from viewers. Whether it is on paper or 3D, in pencil, ink, or paint, art is purely for pleasure, both from the artist who is expressing himself in this way, and for the viewer who marvels at the artist’s work. Either way, the artist will end up with a Menlo arts credit.

Finally, journalism, not on the beginning list, or in the middle of the list, nor is it at the end of the list of arts Menlo offers.  This is because, in the eyes of Menlo, it isn’t an art. As I view it, journalism, with its many forms, styles and techniques is a combination of all the arts previously mentioned. The first aspect of art, ritual practice and the honing of your skills is quite prevalent in journalism. Every day in class we are taught lessons, much like the actor learning to control stage fright or the singer learning to hit a high note, on how to write journalistically, while minimizing any possible arguments which could detract from your piece. The second aspect, the team aspect in journalism is no weaker than the same aspect in any other “art”. The newspaper must run like a company, with leaders (editors) teaching workers (reporters) the nuances of journalism in order to produce a final product, a visually appealing, informative paper. Finally, most importantly, the goal of newspaper is to produce an aesthetically beautiful paper which must also be informative and time relevant. We must take photographs, like in photography as well as post video stories online, like in movie making, to remain time relevant and up to date. Formatting the paper is much like art, deciding which fonts to use, making sure pictures are in the right places, and that all the stories line up in an appealing order for the reader with witty, creative titles.

In total, the production of a newspaper is essentially a combination of many aspects from the other arts Menlo offers. Our audience is the local community, eager to learn what is happening at Menlo, while also being blown away by visually pleasing photos and graphics. Our applause comes in the form of the number of subscribers and views we get on our website, individuals eager to read what we have to say and marvel at our artistic style. Our only variation from the other “arts” given at Menlo, is that after receiving our version of applause, we, for an unknown reason, are not granted a certain credit.