Serena Williams called out for being a poor sport during the U.S. Open, but was she out of line, or the umpire?

Time magazine reported that during the first set of the U.S. Open, on Sept. 8, Williams was given a violation from chair umpire Carlos Ramos for illegal coaching from coach Patrick Mouratoglou. “I’m honest, I was coaching. I don’t think she looked at me, so that’s why she didn’t even think I was.” Mouratoglou said later.

After the violation, Williams told Ramos on the court, “I don’t cheat to win, I’d rather lose. I’m just letting you know.” Williams lost the match to Naomi Osaka, 20, after a total of three violations — including one for smashing her racket — which added up to a fine of $17,000. She later said she felt the entire incident was “sexist.”

Many athletes have defended Williams, including tennis icon Billie Jean King and soccer player Abby Wambach.

“Serena is a 23-time Grand Slam champion, both she and her sister are very focused when they’re playing, so I don’t blame her for getting upset that the umpire accused her of being coached. On the other hand, the umpire didn’t do what umpires usually do for other players, and make an effort to de-escalate the interaction.” said Steve Nuget, local tennis player of 30 years.

While Williams’ behavior may have been heated, it certainly wasn’t outside of the norm for a frustrated tennis player, and it seems many men have done the same or more, with no fines or reprimands.

“I think Serena has always had it hard, growing up in Compton, and being female, and being black, she just had to fight and overcome hurdles every step of the way. Overall, I don’t think the umpire was entirely unfair, but he didn’t give her the same treatment other players would have gotten.” Nugent said.

The crowd jeered and backed Williams in the dispute with the umpire, but ultimately, Osaka fired an unreturnable serve and won the U.S. Open. Even during the trophy ceremony, the crowd continued to boo loudly.

Despite her frustrations, Williams showed her sportsmanship by wrapping an arm around Osaka, who was crying and calmed the crowd. “She played well, and this is her first Grand Slam,” Williams told the fans. “Let’s make this the best moment we can, we’ll get through it. Let’s give everyone credit where credit’s due. Let’s not boo anymore. We’re going to get through this. Let’s stay positive. Congratulations, Naomi. No more booing!”

After the match, Osaka was asked about the confrontation on the court, but she didn’t have more insight for them. “I don’t know what happened on the court, so, for me, I’m always going to remember the Serena that I love,” Osaka said. “It doesn’t change anything for me. She was really nice to me at the net and on the podium, so I don’t really see what would change that.”

Williams defended her choice to speak out during the match. “I’ve seen men call other umpires several things,” she told reporters. “I’m here fighting for women’s rights and women’s equality … and for me to say ‘thief’ and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist reaction.”

“The fact that I have to go through this is just an example for the next person [who] has emotions and wants to express themselves, and they want to be a strong woman, and they’re going to be allowed to do that because of today,” Williams continued, “Maybe it didn’t work out for me, but it’s going to work out for the next person.”

In the world of pop culture, there is one specific superstar artist everyone needs back in their lives, and to make another album that will make you strike a pose. That superstar artist is Lady Gaga. She is back but making her debut on the big screen with the Academy Award winner as well as making his first directorial debut Bradley Cooper in the new movie called A Star is Born (ASIB).

This film was released on October 5, 2018. This film is about Ally Campana who was an unknown songwriter who was discovered by a country superstar singer Jackson “Jack” Maine who’s an alcoholic and drug user who saw Ally performing a song at a Drag Bar.  As Jack was mentoring Ally not only he was starting to fall in love with her but started to help reach her dream into becoming a famous songwriter.

Vanity.com stated that ASIB made 44 million dollars in the U.S., and 56 million worldwide the first weekend it was released. This movie has taken over the box office dramatically. This movie will automatically be nominated for next year’s Academy Awards.

The way Lady Gaga performs in the movie is what makes this movie so powerful and emotional. Majority of the songs in the movie is written by Gaga.  Daniela Criollo, Hayward Resident, enjoyed the movie and stated: “The music in the movie is so organic, and the way she just sings each song is just amazing.”

Of course, this movie isn’t for everyone because it is a drama/romance genre. Kelly Vance, a writer for the East Bay Express has certainly expressed his opinion on the movie on Rotten Tomatoes, and in his article. Vace states, “Just TV-commercial pathos and huggy redemption. Filmmaker Cooper, who reportedly “inherited” the vintage movie franchise from his pal Clint Eastwood, strives for a fast-paced, ultra-realistic, music biz environment and achieves it.”

A Star is Born’s soundtrack includes all 34 songs in the movie. It also includes the hit singles “Shallow” that is sung by Gaga, and Cooper together, and “I’ll Never Love Again.“When Gaga appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to talk about the movie, she explains what her experience was like singing with Cooper.

Gaga states “ The truth is I like singing with him, and at the end of the day I know from being close with Bradley you know he says it to me on camera, in the film, and says it to me in real life all you gotta do is trust me. The truth is we trusted each other, and the ideas you know not to “act” at all. You know to sing, to communicate, to have a conversation. And when we did our scenes together we did them over and over and they were different every time because we were doing it live.”

The question you might ask is “Is this movie worth watching?” Hell yes! Not only because Lady Gaga is in it but the overall storyline of the movie and if you just love country music. You can also stream the soundtrack on Spotify, Apple Music, or buy the album. Just make sure to bring a box of tissues and personal snacks before heading to watch it!

Students discussing the Egypt Station album while listening to it.

The launch of The Spectator’s new Listening Party was held in The Spectator office (2325), above the cafeteria. This trial run featured Egypt Station, Paul McCartney’s new concept album.

During this early event, only a few students attended but seemed to have a good time.

“I’m not exactly sure what a listening party is,” said Tasha, Chabot student. For the uninitiated, a listening party is an event to listen to a whole album, have free pizza, and at the end, you share your opinions about the music. “That sounds pretty cool, it might be cooler if it was pizza AND dessert,” said Anna Lisa, another student.

Many students don’t listen to whole albums anymore, “Of course I love music, though I usually just find one song, and buy or download that.” 19-year-old student, Hualani said.

This does seem to be a trend, although the album isn’t dead, “I usually listen to an album once, and then the songs I really like, I add to my playlist.” Ovi, a 26-year-old student, said, “I love music, I think a listening party is a great idea.”

Ovi continued on the issue of most people not listening to albums anymore. He expressed the feeling many agree with, when you hear a song on the radio, it’s only a small snapshot of someone’s work. If the radio plays a popular song, who decided its popularity?

If you listen to an album, you learn more about the artist, the ideas behind not only one song, but that song in relation to the album as a whole. When only one song is picked out of the album for you, by someone else, perhaps with an agenda, the message you receive may be entirely different from what was intended.

Continue reading →

Chabot parking lot monitored by campus safety

Are you late to class again because you couldn’t find parking? The answer to this question for a lot of students at Chabot is yes. Finding a parking spot is especially difficult at the start of the fall semester when most students register for their classes.

But is there a solution to this problem? Some ideas have been mentioned, but as of now, we don’t have a lot of information as to what has happened to those ideas.

One of these ideas was the possibility that a staff parking lot would be removed to make more space for student parking. The other idea was to add additional parking spaces.

Officer Steve Lowry addressed both of these ideas, “Right now the information we have is that it has been delayed or suspended, as of today there is no change in staff parking. There are no additional parking spaces that have been added to my knowledge.”

Another concern is that parking prices have gone up. Officer Lowry told us, “during the summer semester the board of trustees approved a $1 increase.”

But is $1 really that big of a deal? Well taking into account the income of the average college student it might be. As various students prefer to park across the street rather than purchasing a permit. Others prefer riding their bike or using public transportation. There are also students that haven’t even noticed the $1 increase though.

In previous editions of The Spectator, officer Nate Moore said, “Parking permits do not guarantee a parking space; rather, they authorize parking in available spaces.” With this in mind, a possible solution could be not overselling permits and only selling as many permits as there are parking spaces so that it has more value for students.

Michael, a student at Chabot stated, “It depends on the times, in the mornings it’s obviously going to be more difficult to find a spot. When I come for my afternoon class though it seems to be fine. Mainly it’s the first few weeks where people fight over spots and it’s just always full, sometimes I have to park across the street.”

For now, all we can do is play the waiting game and see what is done about this parking issue. Continue reading →

BART is already preparing for a possible earthquake with projects underway at both the Coliseum and Fruitvale stations.

The BART communications department stated, “Stage one began in June and is expected to last through the end of the year. Work is taking place under the south end of the BART alignment located near 73rd Avenue, parallel San Leandro Street, this includes the stairwell off San Leandro Street which connects to the pedestrian bridge. This is all part of BART’s systemwide Earthquake Safety Program.”

“The retrofit work will help the columns better withstand damage from future earthquakes” they added “Construction work is being performed on each column that holds up the BART trackway on the north side of 35th Avenue. Work is also being done to the columns and fixtures located inside the Fruitvale station.”

The good news for BART users is that none of this will change the train schedules in any way. The estimated duration of this project is 4 months and will not affect riders.

“In November of 2004, voters in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco counties approved Regional Measure AA, the BART Earthquake Safety Bond. It has been funding most ($980 million) of our $1.2 billion systemwide projects to strengthen the original BART system, protect public safety and ensure that BART service returns quickly to avoid gridlock following a major earthquake.”

BART said this is what inspired them to start this project to improve their structures and prepare for an earthquake. It’s a good decision on their part since experts believe a major earthquake could hit California in the next 30 years.

Jesus, who is a frequent BART rider told us, “That’s very important, especially for people’s safety, that way we feel more comfortable and secure with BART trying to take the necessary precautions to keep people safe. The safety of the riders should be the most important thing.”

When asked about his usage of BART and the impact it has on him that the train schedules won’t be affected he added, “it’s very important because as everybody knows traffic in the bay area is a nightmare for everyone, you try to go anywhere, and there’s always traffic. BART helps with that, so it’s good that we’ll still be able to use the service without worrying about changes in the schedule.”

“I use BART almost daily, I work in the city, so if I use my car it means it will take 2 or more hours to get there, whereas with BART I can just take an hour and I don’t have to deal with finding parking and sitting in traffic, and all that stuff, it’s just less stressful” added Jesus.

Overall it’s a pretty positive response from people to BART’s project to prepare for a major earthquake. Also, it is true that BART helps a lot of people get from point A to point B without having to worry about the daily traffic issues in the Bay Area.