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Since 1919

The Prairie News

Since 1919

The Prairie News

Since 1919

The Prairie News

Jonah Dietz

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter

English-speaking, American-born European from Germany studying English at WTAMU in order to one day become the next person to aspire to be a great author.

All content by Jonah Dietz
Photo by Jonah Dietz

Op-Ed: Monstersongs is a WT talent showcase

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter November 2, 2021

On Oct. 31, West Texas A&M University’s Department of Art, Theatre and Dance screened their production of the song cycle “Monstersongs”, written and based on the graphic novel by Rob Rokiki....

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Picture courtesy of Pixabay

The WT students behind the Monstersongs curtain

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter October 18, 2021

West Texas A&M University’s Department of Art, Theatre and Dance is streaming their newest production, the song cycle “Monstersongs”, written and based on the graphic novel by Rob Rokiki, just...

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Photo courtesy of Pixabay.

Op-Ed: Decline and division in American news media

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter October 4, 2021

In the 1976 film “Network,” news anchor Howard Beale loses his cool on air and boosts ratings with his impassioned, honest and unscripted rant on the state of the world’s affairs. This prompts the...

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Prairie News Movie Review

Op-Ed: A letter to Dear Evan Hansen

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter September 26, 2021

Dear Evan Hansen, today is going to be a rough day, because you, a senior in high school, are being played by a 27 year-old Ben Platt and people are freaking out about it. His tenure as you on Broadway...

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West Texas A&M University's Sybil B. Harrington Fine Arts Complex, photo courtesy of WTAMU

WT Theater Productions: What, how and why

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter September 19, 2021

Every year West Texas A&M University’s Theater Department puts on around four to five productions, ranging from Shakesperian dramas to musical comedies. Each summer the production list is announced...

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The Prairie News - Film Retrospective

Op-Ed: Please watch Labyrinth

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter September 12, 2021

Netflix recently added a long list of new and old titles to its United States roster, among which was the 1986 classic fantasy musical adventure film “Labyrinth” directed by Jim Henson of “Sesame...

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The Texas A&M system has decided to begin the process of normalization. (Photo courtesy of WTAMU)

WT begins return to normal over summer

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter April 28, 2021

As the spring semester draws to a close and the fall semester approaches, it seems only natural to look to West Texas A&M University for information on how it will proceed in the wake of a waning pandemic...

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Prince Philip died on the 9th of April, 2021.

Op-Ed: You don’t have to care about the monarchy

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter April 25, 2021

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, born Prince of Greece and Denmark, died on April 9, 2021 at the age of 99 and is now buried. He was the longest serving royal consort in the history of the world. And...

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Dealing with burnout in college

Jonah Dietz, Reporter April 23, 2021

College burnout--the concept has permeated the popular and comedic culture of the past few generations, has squarely positioned itself as a mainstay of the current university atmosphere, and continues...

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The Medley Cast sing the untitled opening number.

WT’s Theater Program stream [title of show]

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter April 14, 2021

West Texas A&M University’s Theater program streamed four student performances of “[title of show],” a meta musical about the writing of a musical, from April 8 to April 11. The musical, written...

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Around 45 million Americans are struggling with student loan debt.

Op-Ed: Joe Biden should cancel student loan debt

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter April 8, 2021

The day Joe Biden was inaugurated as President of the United States, he signed an executive order that paused student federal loan payments, but was hesitant to contemplate anything more long-lasting and...

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COVID-19 one year later

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter March 23, 2021

  In March of 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 epidemic a pandemic and this fast-spreading and deadly virus altered the course of the entire year. Now, on the anniversary...

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Prairie News Movie Review

Op-Ed: Earwig and the Witch fails to enchant

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter February 24, 2021

Studio Ghibli easily stands alongside Pixar and Disney as one of the most influential, awe-inspiring and gorgeous creators of animated entertainment the world has ever known. Many of their characters have...

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Celebrating Black History Month at WTAMU

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter February 12, 2021

In order to help make this year’s Black History Month a time of celebration as well as learning, West Texas A&M University’s Black Women’s Association organized local black speakers to come and...

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2020 Election results and opinions

Jonah Dietz, Reporter November 13, 2020

Four years have passed since the U.S. received Donald Trump as its president. And whether or not he would reprise this role or he would be replaced by Former Vice President Joe Biden was meant to be...

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As the semester progresses, COVID-19 cases rise.

COVID-19 continues to spread on campus

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter November 7, 2020

Since March 1 of 2020, West Texas A&M University has experienced 423 confirmed COVID-19 cases among both students and staff. According to the university’s website, which has been dutifully cataloguing...

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Homecoming activities mostly cancelled

Homecoming activities mostly cancelled

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter October 3, 2020

           Students of West Texas A&M University are entering the second half of their semester, as October breaks on the horizon bringing with it shattered dreams of Halloween, costume parties...

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What vaccine producers would like us to know.

The COVID-19 vaccine continues to cause strife

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter September 26, 2020

Like the tortured souls on their roof during a flood waiting for the rescue helicopter, the world waits for the COVID-19 vaccine—seemingly the only long-term solution to this pandemic. But while a vaccine...

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In Germany we had a saying for the 2016 election. "Do you want the plague or cholera?" How can a country be reduced to that choice?

Op-Ed: Why can’t we choose neither?

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter September 19, 2020

                This year President Donald J. Trump is running for reelection against former Vice President Joe Biden and people are upset. Once again, America is to decide between...

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Coming back to school amid COVID-19

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter September 18, 2020

“Your engagement in—and outside the classroom is key to the ultimate college experience,” says the official West Texas A&M University website, as it describes how its faculty are always looking...

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Any enjoyment I might find in the film would be taken away by my anxiety.

Op/Ed: Why I’m not going to the movies anytime soon

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter September 12, 2020

Select movie theaters all across the United States are opening their doors again for social-distanced crowds of viewers. Seeing this as a welcome vestige of normalcy is natural. The world is up-side-down...

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Cover artwork for Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play, by Joe Landry

WT Theater finds a place on the airwaves

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter September 5, 2020

It is difficult to begin a story about the effects of the pandemic without making it seem like the outbreak was a spontaneous and surprising event that happened last Thursday. We are not surprised...

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"I'm sorry, you cut out for a minute there. Was that an I do?"

Getting hitched during lock-down

Jonah Dietz, Senior reporter April 12, 2020

With research done by the University of Washington estimating Texas’ recovery date from the pandemic being somewhere around the end of May or the beginning of June, many long-standing plans set to take...

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A romanticized representation of my listless distraction, which is more accurately just a barely audible groan of frustration, brought to you by my measly skills with acrylics.

Op-Ed: A Self-Isolating Anxious Mind

Jonah Dietz, Senior reporter April 4, 2020

The last little bit of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece of a film 2001: A Space Odyssey features a man quietly, solitarily living out his days in a windowless, white room, slowly aging, eventually dying,...

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The cluttered desk that could belong to any one WTAMU student or professor; a reminder of displacement but also the temporariness of the change.

Online courses: The shared struggle

Jonah Dietz, Senior reporter March 28, 2020

As every student of West Texas A&M University currently enrolled in a class should know by now, the majority of courses have switched to an online format to decrease the spread of the novel coronavirus....

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Artists of WTAMU

Jonah Dietz, Senior Reporter March 13, 2020

West Texas A&M University boasts a large pool of artistic talent. From musicians, artists, and dancers, to actors, singers, and poets. The Department of English, Philosophy and Modern Languages hosts...

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Chess: An honest opinion

Chess: An honest opinion

Jonah Dietz, Senior reporter February 23, 2020

Chess. Is it dull to watch? For some, yes. Is it challenging to play correctly? For me, absolutely. Are the pieces cool? Depends on the set—a lot of sets are handcrafted and really cool. Some...

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Red Dead Redemption 2's cover art, courtesy of Eneba.

Red Dead Redemption and the new west

Jonah Dietz, Senior reporter February 16, 2020

  There are four bookshelves in the English, Philosophy and Modern Languages lounge that are completely stocked from end to end with books of western genre fiction. The titles, like “Two...

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Valentine’s Day with the Buffs

Jonah Dietz and Rafael Flores February 14, 2020

Being a college student means different things to different people. Depending on the season of life one is in, college can be a time of self-discovery, finding one’s purpose, or discovering a source...

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Cats: A hairball of hubris

Jonah Dietz, Senior reporter January 25, 2020

The esteemed director Tom Hooper, known for generally well-received adaptations of musicals, released a film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ostentatious, hair-brained and indulgently ritzy production...

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Stafford Hall, fenced off and hollowed out, Friday, Nov. 15, 2019

Farewell to Stafford Hall

Jonah Dietz, Junior Reporter November 15, 2019

Stafford Hall, one of West Texas A&M University’s oldest residence halls, which has housed over fifty years of WTAMU students, is being demolished. This supposedly haunted building, that was...

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Spanish film festival shows Devil's Backbone

Spanish film festival shows Devil’s Backbone

Jonah Dietz November 1, 2019

At 7 p.m. on  Oct. 30 in the Old Main theater, the Spanish Film Festival put on by the Department of English, Philosophy and Modern Languages, screened Guillermo Del Toro’s 2001 film “El Espinazo...

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Room 220 of the Old Main, location of the film festival, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019

The Spanish film festival screens first film

Jonah Dietz October 19, 2019

The Spanish Film Festival kicked off on Oct. 17, in the Old Main Theater with a screening of “El espiritu de la colmena”, director Victor Erice’s ambiguous, government-critical film about the life...

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A screening of the documentary, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" as well as a discussion panel was held to end the week.

Diversity week asks: Won’t you be a neighbor?

Jonah Dietz September 27, 2019

The Office for Diversity and Inclusion hosted a viewing of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor”, Morgan Neville’s critically acclaimed documentary on famous children’s television star Fred Rogers, at the...

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