This doesn’t mean that QuarkXpress is inferior to InDesign, the new release has many great changes. The biggest difference Quark users will notice is the new look of the interface. All original tools and functions are the same, but they are more aesthetically appealing. Let’s face it, Quark hasn’t updated their interface for nearly 20 years - this was way overdue. Not only has the interface changed, but now Quark has integrated the ability to edit flash without having to switch between programs.

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Everyone uses a different browser for surfing the web and what may work for one person may not necessarily work for someone else. I, too, am no different for having a preference for browsing the Web: I am a Firefox gal. Now, I am not biased against other browser maybe with the exception of Internet Explorer (who’s constant crashes drove me nuts) or Netscape, a browser that is so slow that even the Slowskys (the turtles featured in Comcast’s High-Speed Broadband commercials) would complain.

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But where do you draw the line? On July 1, California joined the states New York, New Jersey and Connecticut by imposing a law that requires drivers to use a hands-free device for their cell phones. Drivers who are 18 or younger are not allowed to use cell phones in the car at all.

For California this new law is a big step in the right direction. A University of Utah study showed that talking on a cell phone with or without a hands-free device is just as dangerous as driving drunk.

Read the full opinion and rebuttal  here.

“Steel Magnolias,” City College theater department’s latest production, hit the stage at Diego Rivera Theatre under the direction of Gloria Weinstock Nov. 9 and runs through Nov. 18.

Under Weinstock’s direction, “Steel Magnolias” stays true to the original play, written by Robert Harling.

In “Magnolias,” we are taken into the lives of six incredible, gossipy Louisiana women: Truvy Jones (played by Elizabeth Rossi), Shelby Eatenton-Latcherie (Laura Espino), M’Lynn Eatenton (Mary Waterfield), Annelle Dupuy-Desoto (Casey Gaut), Ouiser Boudreaux (Dee Baily) and Clairee Belcher (Donna Edmonson), all of whom become close friends in a small town beauty shop.

“I truly enjoyed the play,” said Millie Cabato, a member of the audience. “The ladies were very convincing in their roles and moved me.”

The audience follows these gossipy ladies through the years as they change and grow. When the house lights rise at the beginning of the next act, the audience encounters preparations for a wedding and the arrival of a baby.

The play centers on the life of Shelby and her effect on the women in the beauty shop. Shelby is newly married and expecting her first child.

Shelby has diabetes and it takes a terrible toll on her body. Shelby’s mother M’Lynn tries hard to protect Shelby, even as her only daughter marries and moves in with her new husband.

Under the pressure of life, M’Lynn sometimes can’t stand on her own two feet. When she needs a shoulder to cry on, she looks to her friends for strength and comfort.

The women share many laughs and gossip about all the people in their lives, including their husbands and each other — but it’s not all fun and laughter.
The play ends on a tragic note, but ultimately brings the women closer together.

The cast put on a spectacular performance. They were powerful and so convincing that they moved many of the audience members to tears.
“The ladies did a good job,” said audience member Nancy Chapman. “They adhered and stayed true to the story. It was a wonderful performance.”

Leah Ferrer and Leah England dance the night away. (This photo was taken by myself).

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome, im “Cabaret,” au “Cabaret,” to “Cabaret.”

If you’re a fan of corsets, ruffled knickers, garter belts and seamed stockings on beautiful women, then put on your coat and hat and head on over to the Diego Rivera Theatre for “Cabaret,” a sinfully decadent night on the town in one the best shows that City College has put on yet.

Jenny Vellieux, who plays lead character Sally Bowles, is no Liza Minnelli, but she sure comes awfully close in a theater and music department collaborative production of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s Broadway hit, which opened on April 18 under the direction of Deborah Shaw.

The theater department has put on many shows that have been well produced and performed in the past, including “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “The Taming of the Shrew” and recently “The Beard of Avon,” but none of them possess the same energy as “Cabaret.”

The cast’s performances keep your eyes glued to the stage, wondering what’s going to happen next even if you’re familiar with this classic.

Clifford Bradshaw, played by Corey Lappier, is a struggling young American writer who has traveled across Europe to find the “inspiration” for his novel he’s been working on for quite sometime. He heads to Berlin hoping to find it.

On his journey in to Germany, Bradshaw befriends Nazi sympathizer Ernst Ludwig, played by Spencer Peterson, who helps to secure him accommodations during his stay. What Bradshaw doesn’t know is that he’s going to get a lot more than he can handle.

Instead of inspiration, Bradshaw gets a “whirlwind from London” named Sally Bowles, who turns his life upside down and inside out. Bowles has an innocent nature about her, despite all the complexities of her personality.

She’s full of life and energy, fighting with the demons within and insisting to “never ask questions” to ward off inquiries on her past.

If you loved Joel Grey, who originated the role of the Master of Ceremonies, then you’ll definitely fall in love with Joseph Steifvater’s show-stealing performance of the exuberant emcee. His high-energy performance would make Grey proud. If you haven’t seen Steifvater in previous productions, then this is truly the one to see because this is his best performance to date.

Let the show begin!

Life is a cabaret, ol’ chum. Come to the “Cabaret” before it’s bye-bye, mein lieber herr.

It’s almost impossible to imagine a life without the works of William Shakespeare. Would it be too far of a stretch to think people would feel the same about his works if he hadn’t written them? What if Christopher Marlowe, Edward De Vere or even the Queen of England wrote them?

Amy Freed, playwright of “The Beard of Avon,” brings to life a fictitious account of the life of William Shakespeare in this delightfully wicked satire that took the stage March 8 at the Diego Rivera Theatre under the direction of Dr. John Wilkes.

“I began by wanting to write a comedy about people who are obsessed by conspiracies,” Freed said in a Jan. 9, 2002 article in the Stanford Report. “I became obsessed with this conspiracy.”

The story begins with a simple country bumpkin, William Shakespeare, played by Simon Timony, who is unhappy with his mediocre life and sets out for London seeking a life on the stage, leaving Stratford and his family behind.

Edward De Vere, played by DeWayne Spalding, turns Shakespeare’s life upside down. De Vere is man of nobility who is afraid of being cast out by his fellow nobles for being a writer and enlists Shakespeare to be his front man, or his “beard,” so he can write at his leisure without the risk of being banished. Hilarity ensues.

“The Beard of Avon” is a must see. Humor, promiscuity and salacious and suggestive dialogue make this play entertaining.

The dialogue itself is enough to keep you at the edge of your seat with its philosophical rhetoric or raunchy comments.

“It’s not a vote for De Vere. It’s a mystery,” Freed said to the Stanford Report.

“On the surface, it’s a spoof or parody about authorship issues, but on a deeper level it’s about what makes a writer like Shakespeare. Is it talent? Is it access? Can you do it just by genius alone? When you have a desperate desire to achieve something important in the art world — and let’s say in the writing world — what lengths do you go to get there?”

If you haven’t seen this amazing and provocative spoof, go and see during its last weekend.