Not a single note was lost in translation as Santa Monica College's highly anticipated production "American Reflections: Broadway in Concert" finally made its way to a sold-out crowd at Shandong University in Jinan, China, showcasing an electrifying medley of unique Americana that left the crowd, as Elvis would say "All shook up.

Amara and crew rocked Electric Avenue in the dark side of town with the 9th annual Evening of Experimental Middles Eastern Dance last Sunday. The black-box theatre of the Electric Lodge was splashed with a dazzling concoction of shows that shattered the boundaries of traditional Middle Eastern and Belly Dance.

There was an air of energy on Thursday, Oct. 16, as students from the Santa Monica College's Synapse Contemporary Dance Ensemble prepared for their upcoming showcase on Nov. 7 at the Broad Stage at the SMC Performing Arts Center. This will be the ensemble's first time performing at the new stage.

If there is a more eloquent way of describing how well the Santa Monica College Lady Corsairs Soccer team is playing, then please send in your suggestions. Last week's Tuesday and Friday games yielded victories of 10-0 and 4-0, extending their winning record to eight wins, one loss, and four ties.

On Sept. 30, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger planned to sign a bill proposed by Sen. Alex Padilla that would force all restaurants in the state of California to post calorie counts for each item on a menu and provide informational brochures that include calories and grams of saturated fat.

With its last performance this past Sunday, at the Santa Monica College Theatre Arts Sound Stage, the cast and crew of "Talk Radio" put in a little extra oomph to make it a special showcase for all to enjoy. On Sunday, Oct. 19, the Santa Monica College Theatre Arts produced play, "Talk Radio," a play by Eric Bogosian, drew in a crowd at Sound Stage 1A for the last time to showcase a magnificent performance from its lead actor, George Torres.

Last weekend my close friend and I shopped at Baby's 'R' Us for a Halloween costume for my 1-year-old brother and his 15-month-old "girlfriend." After browsing the racks for a good 20 minutes, I picked out a pair of cute matching monster outfits, pink for the girl and blue for the boy.

On May 11 on the 1900 block of Pico Boulevard, Peter Brumfield was brutally beaten. He was taken to a local hospital where he died from his injuries on May 16. The Los Angeles County Corner's Office declared the death a homicide. The corner's office concluded that Brumfield's death wasn't suicide or accidental.

At the risk of jumping on the enormous counterculture cliché bandwagon of expressing disdain for our country's obsession with the personal lives of celebrities, I have to say that I still don't understand the ridiculous interest that people have in these overpaid, overmedicated, endlessly interchangeable faces.

As the use of technology and the information from it becomes increasingly more in demand, the question we now face is how far can we let technological experiments go until our own civilization may be in jeopardy? On Wednesday, Sept.10, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, launched its first successful test that involved their newest creation, the Large Hadron Collider, which is "the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex, [that] intended to collide opposing beams of protons [one of several types of hadrons] with very high kinetic energy.

Santa Monica College Athletics and Kinesiology departments celebrate National Breast Cancer Awareness Month on Thursday, Oct. 16. Administrative assistant Francine Duran, a one-year survivor of breast cancer, spearheaded this cause after an SMC athlete recently underwent surgery after her own bout with cancer.

When people praise America, they usually have a political bent behind their words. During times of crisis, leaders bring up the stars and stripes to people to rally behind their policies. After 9/11, it wasn't hard to find a bumper sticker or poster saying "united we stand" with a bold picture of the American flag.

Ping pong, table tennis, whatever you wish to call it, is one of the most popular sports in the world, but to most Americans it's merely a curiosity. Table tennis isn't a large part United States history. Who can remember their grandfather recounting tales of a tempestuous match of table tennis against their rival school? Table tennis in the U.

The bailout provided to Wall Street by the government seems to have helped the economy stabilize... for now. Its purpose of helping the same financial institutions responsible for the economic crisis has been successful, but now many investors have been scared away from the market.

As the hurricane season is nearly gone, the after effects are still very much evident. While Santa Monica College students and staff routinely enter and exit gas stations with nothing more to complain about than the seemingly high prices that we've nearly grown accustomed to, just weeks ago residents in many major metropolises in the southern United States saw their day-to-day life change dramatically with a signifi cant gas shortage that caused major adjustments and a major headache for locals.

Many Americans sat down this past Tuesday evening to watch the presidential debates between Republican candidate John McCain and Democrat candidate Barack Obama with very strong views of both candidates, but the real story is the number of undecided voters that could swing the November election one way or the other.

As the economy plummets with every passing day and increasingly leans towards the verge of completely collapsing, people are starting to wonder if a repeat of America's Great Depression is looming around the corner, ready to strike us when we are at our weakest.

With a 4-0 win over College of the Canyons this past Friday and a 2-2 tie against Los Angeles Pierce College, the Santa Monica College Lady Corsairs women's soccer team has been quietly rolling along to a 6-1-4 record, equaling their win total from their previous season in half as many games.