We here at Jet Fuel Review have some exciting news to share this week. It is my absolute pleasure to introduce three new assistant blog editors who will not only be contributing their own unique blogs to this site, but will be working hard to enlist the work of others as well, making for a much livelier blog, brimming with more content than we’ve ever had before.
Gina Capperino
First up, we have Gina Capperino. Gina is currently a senior nursing student at Lewis University, and this is her second semester as a member of the Jet Fuel Review. During school sessions, she works as a CNA (certified nursing assistant), where she lends her ear to veterans so often that she thinks we’re still at war with Korea. In the future, she hopes to work as a healthcare blogger or simply to harass politicians to change healthcare policy. In her free time, she likes to explore the world and compete in risky sports that disqualify her from getting life insurance.
The blog that Gina is going to be writing will be called “Capperino’s Romantic Inquiries,” and it will be all about intimacy in media today. From movies to books, Gina plans to explore how relationships and intimacy in media can affect the viewers of such media. Intimacy is essential to human nature, and media has the opportunity to affect how boyfriends, girlfriends, friends, and any other relationship can communicate. What are these movies and books doing to change how we connect with others? That is the question that Gina will be trying to answer in her blog.
Armon Thurmond
We also have a brand new member joining the Jet Fuel Review family — Armon Thurmond. Armon is a freshman at Lewis University. He is majoring in biology and hopes to one day become a physical therapist. His poetry has been published in Blind Literary Journal, Straynotions, and Messenger. On the side, he is working on a poetry blog and writes short stories on Figment.com. Armon freelance juggles and reads fantasy novels in his spare time. He enjoys watching Steven Universe, everything that is anime, and trashy reality television.
Armon would like to welcome everyone to his blog called “Over the Rainbow.” Since the community aspect of media has become such an important part of our culture, Armon has decided to take this opportunity to give a particular community a voice. In OTR, he will be reviewing LGBTQ themes in literature, movies, TV shows, and music. He won’t only analyze LGBTQ characters, but also the themes and messages conveyed in their stories. He hopes that you all enjoy your trip “over the rainbow” every upcoming Friday!
China McDonald
Lastly, we have China McDonald. China is currently a junior at Lewis University. She is majoring in journalism with a minor in Spanish and political science. When China was younger, she couldn’t stand the thought of reading books, but then one year books miraculously became her life. Now she reads every single day and has published a story that’s still in progress on FictionPress. She hopes to become a popular author and journalist. When she’s not reading, she’s watching Scandal on Netflix or some type of anime show. She’s obsessed with dogs and has two Alaskan malamutes named Summer and Winter. She loves spending time with animals and doing research about them. One day, she plans to have a nice house filled with crazy children and cute puppies.
In China’s blog, “Exploration into Blaxploitation,” she will be looking to the past to discover and review the major Blaxploitation films of the 1970s and beyond. If you are unaware, the Blaxploitation movement in film was an African-American-centric subgenre of the exploitation film movement of the 1960s and 1970s. This type of film was targeted toward an urban African-American audience and paved the way for African-American filmmakers. Films in this category are known for featuring all-black casts with the music styles of funk and soul. China chose to look into important works of black culture to see how they handled race relations and stereotypes, and to perhaps peek into what led to the demise of the Blaxploitation film.
All three of these aforementioned blogs will begin within the next few weeks. I, for one, am extremely excited to see what these new blog editors will have to offer over the course of the next few months. These three new blogs are just the beginning, as we already plan to have even more new bloggers join the fray in the coming weeks. Make sure you come back every week to read all of the new blogs!
— Michael Lane, Blog Editor
