During this time in the academic year, students across Southern California are graduating from their respective high schools. It is a time of unrestricted jubilance and serious reflection. Who and what do high school graduates credit their success toward?...
Connor Layden
Connor Layden recently graduated from Mira Costa High School, where he worked on the school newspaper, La Vista, as the Executive Video Editor. He writes columns/reviews and produces video for the Los Angeles Times High School Insider. He's an avid fan of the First Amendment, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Chipotle. He will attend Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in the fall.
Surf Review: The Social Experiment glimmers with progressivism
Chancelor Bennett’s emergence as a liberated visionary really is a miracle. The savvy, young artist has the listener waiting to hear his signature flow from the very first blow of Nico Segal’s trumpet on Surf. The opening croons and brass crescendo of “Miracle”...
Huntington Beach sweeps Costa boys volleyball in CIF semifinals
On May 21, Mira Costa’s boys volleyball team fell to Huntington Beach as the Oilers swept the Mustangs and advanced to the CIF Division I Finals against Corona Del Mar. The match featured two teams ranked within the top five volleyball teams in the nation,...
Mira Costa boys’ volleyball sweeps Servite in second round of CIF playoffs
After a first-round win against Dos Pueblos, the Mira Costa Mustangs hosted the Servite Friars in the second round of CIF. The Mustangs barely escaped Servite with a 25-20 win in the first set, but roared back by completing a sweep of the Friars, winning the next two...
The Horseshoe: 2015’s best tracks
Connor Layden’s Picks 1) Kendrick Lamar - “The Blacker the Berry”, To Pimp A Butterfly When I first heard this song, I was blown away. Kendrick never fails to come out of nowhere and drop a song that rattles the hip-hop, no, the music world. Every lyric is filled to...
Teens of LA: Mira Costa High School
"This month I was finally able to start this organization that I've been trying very hard to create for a while now. It's called Wish Forward and I'm really excited because it's been approved to launch by Make a Wish. Wish Forward is a group of Wish kids and their...
Column: The Horseshoe — cherish the moment
It’s really quite surreal. Over three and a half years of my high school experience has passed, with the remaining month and a half soon approaching. From every awful haircut, tacky clothing style, and experimental choice of footwear, it has been an astounding...
Review: Tyler, The Creator’s ‘Cherry Bomb’ veers from previous work
Dr. TC is out of a job and Camp Flog Gnaw is out of session. The guttural, primal bellow detailing life’s lack of meaning has been exchanged for an awkward, yearning warble. The deathly shock value is out of stock and the flowers are in store, blooming below Tyler,...
Mustang Tracks: Generations of Tweedy
A boyish grin adorns the high-cheekboned face. Tall and a bit lanky, his attention is quietly commanded. Unkempt, chestnut colored hair, like of a child’s bedhead, lies tousled on his...
TPAB Review: Kendrick Lamar’s Saving Grace
With his earth-shattering verse on “Control,” he seized the attention of every single artist by the scruff of the neck. Ruthlessly truthful, his words resonated in the heads of listeners. Once the message was sent, he dropped the artists from the clutches of...