Former fine arts student David Mendoza and music business sophomore Tony Guerrero perform “Just Like Heaven” by The Cure with a makeshift microphone stand Sept. 28 in Loftin. A microphone stand was unavailable so a temporary one was fashioned from a guitar stand, chair and tape. Students gathered for Coffee Night Open Mic hosted by the Office of Student Life. The next open mic night is Oct. 26 in Loftin. Hannah Feuerbacher
Oldest club on campus held night for students to express themselves.
By Sasha D. Robinson
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
Don Mathis opened the open-mic Coffee Night with a story called “A Salute to Capt. Arellano.”
Mathis, who graduated from this college in 1978 with an associate degree in journalism, said that the story is about his friend’s father Capt. Marion Frederic Ramirez de Arellano, who was the first Hispanic submarine commander in World War II.
He told the story in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.
“My friend told me a lot of stories about his dad,” Mathis said. “I would shake my head like this is too much because no one could have a life like he did, but it was all true.”
Mathis looked up Capt. Arellano online and read all of his accomplishments.
In Mathis’s story, Arellano received the Silver Star for contributions in sinking the Japanese light cruiser Agano and received the Bronze Star and a letter of commendation for rescuing U.S. Navy pilots and sinking more Japanese ships.
The Cheshyre Cheese Club hosted the Coffee Night from 6-9 p.m. Sept. 28 in Loftin Student Center.
Debbie Webster, who graduated from this college in 2011 in liberal arts read William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 3” and told a joke that she heard from Chef Gordon Ramsay.
“Why did the chicken cross the road?” Webster said. “Because you did not cook it.”
Webster also told a story about how a treated her because said the term, “the customer is always right” is inaccurate.
She said that a parent cussed at her after she told his son that he was too young to pump gas.
She said the customer made a complaint to her manager about her and told her that the customer is always right and to mind her own business.
A couple of days later the same customer came back to the store and apologized to her for the way he talked to her.
Radio TV broadcast freshman Lauren Morriss and English freshman Salaam Alzagmoury came to the event just for support after seeing the signs in Moody Learning Center.
“We are working on some material right now,” Alzagmoury said about performing at the next open mic night. “We are perfectionist.”
Radio and TV freshman Shaun Smith read Marianne Williamson’s “Our Deepest Fear.”
Smith said it was one of the best poems he heard after he watched the movie “Coach Carter.”
“We spend so much time trying to focus on what’s wrong with us by trying to make us stronger and faster, but if we only stop and realize that we are already more brilliant than we ever imagine,” Smith said.
David Mendoza, who graduated from this college in 2014 with a degree in fine arts played “Highland Dry” by Radiohead, “Come Pick Me Up” by Ryan Adams and “Doesn’t Feel Like Halloween,” a song that he wrote on his guitar.
Music business sophomore Tony Guerrero played Social Distortion’s “Reach for the Sky,” Jason Aldean’s “Little More Summertime” and The Cure’s “Just like Heaven” on his bass guitar.
Mendoza and Guerrero played “Falling in Love in a Coffee Shop” by Landon Pigg together.
According to the club’s flyer, The Cheshyre Cheese Club, founded in 1926, celebrates the humanities and the arts and fosters social development and creativity.
Guerrero said the club’s next Coffee Night Oct. 26 will be the fourth annual Nevermore theme in honor of the graphic novel anthology of works by Edgar Alan Poe.
There will be a costume contest with three categories: most creative, funniest and scariest.
The club meets at 1:30 p.m. every Monday in Room 203 of Gonzales Hall.
For more information about the Cheshyre Cheese Club, send an email to cheshyrecheeseclub1@gmail.com or go to its Facebook page, The Cheshyre Cheese Club San Antonio College.
