The Student Newspaper of Northside College Prep HS April 2011

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The Student Newspaper of Northside College Prep HS
April 2011, Volume 12, Number 7
Online at thehoofbeat.com
NCP News • April 2011 • The Hoof Beat
EVENTS
NCP NEWS
EVENTS
Prom to be held in gym
Jazz and Concert Band Preview
Lack of funding leads to relocating
senior prom in the schol gymnasium.
Annual Jazz and Concert Band concert
to be held on March 31.
Rahm Emanuel has lunch with Mr. Belcaster
by Zobia Chunara
On Thursday, March 17, anyone could
have seen two men wearing suits eating lunch
in the social science department office. Mr.
Belcaster, social science department, wearing
a charcoal grey, herringbone weave, Brooks
Brothers suit with white shirt and dove grey
tie, along with Rahm Emanuel, who wore a
navy blazer and white shirt, were found. It
turns out that Emanuel had paid a visit to
Northside to have lunch with Mr. Belcaster.
“It was terrific and delicious. We split a
falafel sandwich,” he said. “He told me that he
typically wears a blue shirt and khaki pants,
but decided that it would be a bit uncomfortable to come to Northside to have lunch
dressed like me. So he switched for the day,
into a white shirt and a blue blazer.” Evidently, however, Mr. Blecaster decided to dress
more like the mayor-elect and their mutual
friend, President Obama.
Emanuel and Mr. Belcaster go way back
to 1992, when khakis first came into fashion.
Mr. Belcaster was working on Pat Quinn’s
political campaign, who was state treasurer at
the time. Quinn was running to become governor before backing out and deciding to run
for secretary of state. Rahm Emanuel played
a small part in that work way back then. Now
after reuniting, Mr. Belcaster had a few words
to describe Emanuel.
Mr. Belcaster with Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel, an old friend, in the oval social sciences office | EVAN ROGERS
“Well, [he’s a] smart guy, funny guy, energetic guy, vulgar guy, profane guy,” Mr. Belcaster said. “The word on the street is that
he likes to swear, right? And if you ever have
lunch with Rahm Emanuel, you will see that
he is missing part of one of his fingers. When
he was in high school, working at Arby’s, he
actually chopped off his middle finger. If you
talk to the president of the United States, he’ll
tell you that when Rahm Emanuel chopped off
his finger working at Arby’s as a high school
student, he had rendered himself mute.”
This however, did not stop Emanuel from
running for mayor. He asked Mr. Belcaster
who he voted for, and Mr. Belcaster replied
that he was not happy with any of the candidates except for one, Tim Devine.
“I wrote the name Tim Devine in as my
choice for mayor of Chicago,” Mr. Belcaster
said, “and Rahm Emanuel said to me, ‘Well
I was going to get angry until I heard that
it was Tim Devine you wrote in. I know Tim
Devine, Tim Devine is a friend of mine so I’m
okay with that.’”
At the voting booth, Mr. Belcaster’s vote
for Tim Devine did not win because votes for
Rahm Emanuel were counted twice. On departure from Northside, Emanuel had some
suggestions for Northside that he told Mr.
Belcaster in secrecy.
“I don’t know if I should reveal this,” Mr.
Belcaster said. “He’s a bit disturbed with our
social science lineup. He’s troubled by who
teaches AP Government. He’d like to see the
school make some changes there. I’m not
going to name any names.”
Mr. Belcaster assured Emanuel that they
are on the same page, and that he will do what
he can from the inside to push those changes
forward, while Emanuel works from the outside to get those changes in place.
Emanuel said that he would like to make
it a habit of his to visit CPS schools unannounced, so Northside can look forward to
having him back.
“What I learned at Straight Camp”
A journalist’s journey
in a gay conversion
camp
by Mikyung Eum
“How to not be gay anymore” is the first
slide that Ted Cox, an atheist, activist, and
journalist, displayed during his presentation
on his undercover experience at a gay conversion camp, acting as a homosexual man struggling to convert into a heterosexual.
Hosted by the Gay-Straight Alliance and
the Unbelievables Club on March 10 in Northside’s choral room, Cox made his first ever appearance at a high school. Cox illustrated the
purpose of a weekend healing process by calling up six male volunteers from the audience
to demonstrate a series of ritual-like procedures that were meant to help the boys regain
the fatherly affection that they lacked as children. After all, many religious adherents oppose homosexuality, believing that the attraction towards the same sex start at a young age
because of both mental and physical abuse.
The majority of the focus in the presentation was on the types of therapy that was offered to the public including shock therapies,
methods in which one uses rubber bands,
blocks of ice, heating pads, and in more extreme cases, electric shock, to “shock it [the
homosexual demons] out” of their soul. The
anti-gay believers go as far as practicing gay
exorcisms on their loved ones to “save them
from going to hell.”
Throughout the presentation, Cox gave
distinct examples from the research and ob-
servations that he had gathered to better educate teens who may be struggling with identity issues as well as to encourage the rest of
the student body to be active in the cause.
“Cox was really informative on an issue
where the truth is often concealed behind
religious and mainstream propaganda,” said
Kelsey Waxman, Adv. 202, who attended the
event.
On the other hand, there are numerous
Christian organizations that thrive to support LGBTQ society, approaching them in a
loving and nurturing manner. Soul Force is
an organization that works toward taking a
nonviolent approach “to end the religious and
political oppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, queer and questioning people,”
mainly through campaigns. Another organization is The Trevor Project, a nationwide 24hour suicide hotline for gay and questioning
youth, which is devoted to suicide prevention
efforts in LGBTQ youths.
Balancing the two opposite sides of the
debate and staying as objective as possible,
Cox left the issue and debate open to the audience to make its own judgment. However,
Cox stated after the formal presentation that
as a journalist, he is the least objective and
believes he cannot help but to be biased given
the fact that he was once a Mormon until the
age of 19 when he took biology courses in college.
As difficult as it is to “come out of the
closet,” Cox encourages teens to find someone
to talk to when in need. Cox hopes that he will
have many more opportunities to reach out
to high school youths, believing that the years
in high school are valuable times to discover
one’s identity.
Ted Cox speaks to Northside students about his experience at a gay conversion camp | JEFFREY JOSEPH
The Hoof Beat • April 2011 • NCP News
Cheating scandal involving a Northside senior surfaces
by 凱利布坎南 and 克萊爾基爾帕特里克
According to the Chicago Public Schools
Student Code of Contact effective September
16, 2010, “Plagiarizing, cheating, and/or copying the work of another student or source”
are considered a group of three inappropriate
behaviors, which “seriously disrupt the orderly education process of the Chicago public
schools.”
It is this code that has dictated the suspension of math prodigy 費米麻 from Northside
College Prep for ten days, effective immediately. 費米麻 was caught using an abacus (a
device not approved by the ACT®) on a multivariable calculus test and on the Prairie State
Examination last year. His first offense, in
Ms. Elizabeth Runkel’s multivariable calculus
class, occurred almost a year ago, but did not
invoke punishment per the terms of the Student Code of Conduct. It was kept secret to
maintain his reputation within the Northside
community and the geeky math community
at large. Evidence of his second offense has
just surfaced via two pictures released from
an anonymous source. These pictures depict
費米麻 with the ACT® booklet using an abacus. ACT® has been notified and his score has
been cancelled. An investigation is pending on
whether or not 費米麻 has used this unauthorized device on other examinations.
“It was pretty stupid if you ask me,” said
路易斯科雷亞, Dean of Students.
Despite this opinion, 費米麻 does not believe 費米麻 college acceptances should be
revoked.
“It was poor judgment,” said 路易斯科
雷亞, “But a student works hard to make it
through four years of high school and one or
two mistakes should not ruin the rest of his or
her life.”
When 費米麻 returns to school after his
suspension, it will be interesting to see how his
classmates react to his return. 費米麻 has long
been one of the most glorified math students to
walk through the hallowed halls of Northside.
Though the school may have tried to keep his
plagiaristic habits hidden, everything is now
in the open and 費米麻 will be subjected to
ridicule from his classmates.
“It is not fair that 費米麻 has garnered
unprecedented recognition for his accomplishments in math while using an abacus all
along,” said someone. “A lot of other students
have done just as well without using such an
advanced technological device.”
To the untrained eye, the abacus seems just
a few beads on some metal rods, nothing more
than a child’s toy; however, 費米麻 has apparently realized its potential. On the day 費米麻
was caught using the device during an ACT®
test, the students around him reported extreme
annoyance in the clicking noise made as 費
米麻 slid the beads from side to side. While
費米麻 is removed from premises by Chicago Officer Art Billingsly, abacus still in his hand | CLAIRE KILPATRICK
the noise might be louder than any graphing
calculator, such a disadvantage is quickly forgotten when one considers the personal style
an abacus lends. Given 費米麻’s outstanding
score on the ACT® and multivariable calculus
exam in which he used the device, the abacus
Education Summit brings
funding to attention
Prom venue change
by Carly Jackson
Due to a lack of funding, and at the
administration’s request, this year’s senior
prom venue has been changed from the
Shedd Aquarium, and instead will be held in
Northside’s gymnasium.
Currently, the price of prom tickets is
roughly 85 dollars. The price can easily increase if not enough funds are raised through
selling Cubby Walk t-shirts. Administration
has concluded that hosting prom in the gym
will be economically better for all of the seniors.
By not having to pay for a venue, the
students’ money will only go towards decorations, food, and music.
The issue of transportation was also
taken into consideration. Some students plan
“This education summit doesn’t have to
end tonight,” Danny Sobor, Adv. 100, said.
“We have students coming around with note
cards and pens and we invite you to write a
letter to Governor Pat Quinn, to Mayor-Elect
Rahm Emanuel or state senator or representative; we have students walking around with
laptops who can look up your district for you
if you don’t know it.”
As the Education Summit held at Northside on March 24 from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. came
to an end, attendees participated in the action
by writing to elected officials about education
funding. These letters will be addressed by
students of the No Child Left a Dime colloquium who organized and volunteered during the event. The letters will then be mailed
by Tim Devine, social science department,
Adrianne Cirrincione, adventure education
department, and Victoria Andrews, technology coordinator, summit sponsors.
The event began with an introduction by
Honghe Li, Adv. 106, who planned the summit with the help of Mr. Devine after attending the Bezos Scholars Program last summer.
The primary speakers were Ms. Julie Smith,
Governor Pat Quinn’s Senior Education Advisor, and Mr. Ralph Martire, Executive Director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. A question and answer session about
how education is funded in Illinois and the
problems caused by the current system followed the presentations.
In Northside’s auditorium for the event
were Illinois state senator John Mulroe, U.S.
Department of Education employee Sam
Ryan, members of Chicagoland organization
United We Learn, Northside parents, teachers, students, and Local School Council members.
An online presentation about the summit can be found at educationequation.org.
by Melissa L. España
on renting cars or renting limousines, and the
venue change will provide the students with
free parking, which is a benefit not provided
at the Shedd.
The administration also believes that
more students would be inclined to go to
prom if the price of the tickets dropped and
transportation was no longer an issue.
Although the administration understands that the change in venue will not
please everyone, they hope the students will
understand their reasons for the change. To
make up for the change in venue, the administration has hired teen pop sensation Justin
Beiber to perform at prom. However, because
of the high cost to hire him, Beiber will only
be able to perform three songs that night.
Senior prom will be held on Friday, June
10. Tickets will be sold closer to the date.
Camille Ward, Adv. 104, and Rheylouie Antonio, Adv. 106, dress up in anticipation for senior prom | EVAN ROGERS
may soon surface as one of the most banned
devices in testing history, more so than cell
phones or computerized calculators.
費米麻 has set the bar for a new generation of cheaters. It will be amazing to see what
he will come up with next.
Jazz Band and Concert
Winds practice for concert
by Carly Jackson
On March 31 at 7:30 p.m., the Jazz Band
and Concert Wind Ensembles will perform
in Northside’s auditorium for parents and
friends. The ensembles began preparing for
this spring concert in the middle of February
by sight reading the pieces to grasp the technical aspect of the music, and then practicing
the pieces to produce an emotional interpretation. At this concert the ensembles will perform “Russian Christmas Music,” “Loch Lomond,” and “The National Fencibles March.”
“I feel that the concert sneaked up on us,
but I think it will be good practice for competition,” said Nicole Mathews, Adv. 208,
saxophone. “I personally love the song ‘Loch
Lomond.’”
In preparation for the concert on March
31st, the Concert Band split up into sections
to focus practice time on difficult sections of
each piece. “Basically, I give the kids the tools they
need to read through a piece, and then once
we work out the technical aspects, then we
work on the musical aspects of it,” Director
of Jazz and Concert Band Michael Lill, fine
arts department, said. “The kids respond really well to the emotional aspects of putting a
piece together. It’s not just playing the notes
and the rhythms, it’s what you do with it emotionally... they really put their hearts into it.”
The 15 members of Northside’s Jazz
Band play saxophone, trombone, guitar,
piano, bass, drums, and percussion, and the
60-person Concert Band includes flute, bassoon, trombone, tuba and percussion musicians, as well as students playing many other
instruments. The students will be performing
again in the CPS Band Competition in April.
“Anything can happen at any moment in
a piece or with the students, so that’s a wonderful aspect of live music,” Mr. Lill said.
NCP News • April 2011 • The Hoof Beat
Love triangles and dancing cowboys
“Oklahoma!” at
Northside
by Jamilah Alsharif
Northside’s spring musical “Oklahoma!”
attracted some of the largest audiences over
four nights. The musical tells the love story
of Laurie, played by Noa Rosen, Adv. 208, and
Curly, played by Jacob Laden-Guindon, Adv.
307, in a small Oklahoman town. Laurie is
pursued by a violent Jud, played by Justice
Reed, Adv. 201. Curly and Jud are each trying to be Laurie’s escort to a local dance where
many side stories ensue. One of them includes
a love triangle between Ado Annie, played by
Tasha Viets-VanLear, Adv. 101, Will Parker,
played by Benjamin Sullivan-Knoff , Adv. 108,
and a peddler man named Ali Hakim, played
by Ben Winnick, Adv. 208.
The musical was presented from March
17 through March 20 and put together with
the help of some of the fine arts department
teachers. Ms. Martinez was the director of the
show and Mr. Lill conducted the orchestra pit.
Ms. Caplice was the set designer and received
help from Mr. Lill and the stage crew in building and painting the sets. Apart from the fine
arts department teachers there were parent
volunteers. Ms. Sutliff, mother of Phoebe
Winnick and Zoey Bergstrom, Adv. 102, preparing for the show during Tech Week rehearsals | BUSHRA KABIR
Thatcher, Adv. 207, and Jack Thatcher, Adv.
405, was the primary costume designer and
coordinator. Some parents provided dinners
for the students during their longest rehearsals at school.
“We could not have done it without the
help of every single adult who helped the pro-
Naviance crashes
Students must re-type
self-assessments
by Regine Sarah Capungan
Since its opening in 1999, Northside’s
counseling department has relied heavily
upon Naviance, a college planning website.
On March 22, a virus was downloaded onto
the servers at Naviance, causing the entire
system to crash. Although the website has
been recovered, nearly all of the site’s data
has been deleted including student information that is necessary to begin the college application process.
During their junior year, students are
each given access to their Naviance account
during Northside’s college planning night.
The account contains information about the
standardized test scores they have taken,
their grade point averages, and parent and
student surveys.
Juniors must complete a self-assessment
survey on Naviance to assist the counseling
department with writing the letters of recommendation that most colleges and several academic programs require. However, the self-assessments were deleted during the Naviance
crash and all the juniors, as well as seniors
who are still applying for college scholarships,
must retype the 35 question survey.
“Most of my friends spent over three
hours typing up their self-assessments,”
Christian Schmuck, Adv. 201, said, “but I
procrastinated and didn’t do it yet so it’s all
good.”
Because Naviance’s crash has caused delays and confusion in the counseling department, the self-assessment surveys must be
completed by April 5. Students who miss the
deadline will not be able to receive any letters
of recommendation from their counselors
until the following school year.
“For those students who have already
completed their self-assessments,” Mr.
Hughes, counseling department, said, “I hope
they were able to save it somewhere else, and
all they have to do is just cut and paste. For
those that have not already done it, I would
suggest that they type it out first in case the
system crashes again.”
The counseling department cannot send
any transcripts until all of the data that has
been lost in the crash has been re-entered
into the system. This will be a lengthy process, because although the website has been
recovered, frequent glitches still occur on the
duction along,” Ellis Srubas-Giammanco, Adv.
206, said. “We are so grateful for their work
with us.”
The performers started rehearsing after
winter break. As the show got closer to its
debut the rehearsals got longer. The performers started coming in on Saturdays and stay-
site. The counseling department, in the process of re-entering the data that has been lost
in the crash, often found that the updates
they make get deleted or changed.
“It’s a delay in the work that we [counselors] have to do with uploading materials on
the students’ profiles,” Hughes said. “In the
long run, it affects students because there’s
information on there that needs to be completed in a timely manner. With a crash like
this, it slows things down.”
Despite the inconveniences of the crash,
the effects that Northsiders feel from Naviance’s crash are not as worse as the effects
that students from other schools are facing.
Other schools, both CPS and on the national
level, have lost entire student accounts and
must re-register students into the system.
Northside’s administration, as well as other
CPS school administrators, is considering a
move from Naviance to some other college
planning website. One of the potential websites includes CPlan, a college-planning website created by CPS. The site will have features
that are similar to First Class.
“I finished my survey when it was due on
March 18,” Katherine Graden, Adv. 200, said.
“I shouldn’t have, this is one of those cases
where procrastinators actually benefitted.”
ing at school until nine at night. Each day
there was something different to work on; the
crew and actors worked on blocking, lighting,
dancing, and singing with the orchestra.
“Any mistakes we made probably weren’t
realized by the audience,” Srubas-Giammanco
said. “Opening night went better than we
could have hoped for, and each night after
was even more amazing. Aside from a few
little mishaps and issues we were all totally
prepared and I definitely think it showed.”
The musical received the biggest audience on Friday night. The auditorium was
nearly full.
“I think the bigger audiences gave us more
energy and confidence,” Victoria Inojosa, Adv.
201, said. “It actually was much more than we
expected. Thursday and Sunday night we did
not expect to have a large crowd but we were
pleasantly surprised.”
Performers on stage received support
from actors and actresses off stage at the moment. Students that were waiting to come out
for their parts would wait around the green
room, backstage, or watch the musical from
the wings.
Among the audience members were the
Japanese exchange students who enjoyed the
Northside event. It was an opportunity for
Northside students to show their talent to
parents, peers, and other audience members.
Toxic chemicals at NCP?
by Faique Moqeet
Many students leaving Northside on
March 22 may have noticed the arrival of fire
trucks and police cars after potentially toxic
chemicals were accidently created during a
chemistry class.
“Yes, a small amount, about half a burp’s
worth, of toxic gas was released – nitrogen
dioxide. We deal with toxic substances every
day in chemistry and we don’t panic because
we deal with them responsibly.” Mr. Michael
Coy, science department, said. “The difference
this time was that it was a gas that I had not
worked with in the past, so before I felt comfortable sweeping the issue under the rug, I
wanted to make sure that this tiny amount
released was not a dangerous amount.”
After consulting the Material Safety Data
Sheet (MSDS), Mr. Coy, who was teaching the
Block 8 Chemistry class when the incident
occurred, called poison control. Even with
repeated attempts to convince the operator
that the minute amount of nitrogen dioxide
had dissipated, the operator called a Level I
Hazmat emergency. The situation was cleared
when the fire department saw how insignificant the amount of gas was.
Northside moves spring break to May
by Jeffrey Joseph
Northside College Prep has decided to
push back the spring break date for students
until late May. This action is partially in response to the several snow days which were
implemented by the Chicago Public Schools
during the blizzard of 2011. As students are
aware, the blizzard caused several snow days
during February of this year. Northside’s administration felt that the loss of these days
was so disruptive to the school year schedule
that teachers have not had time to adequately
recover, even with the extra school days.
The reason that Northside is able to do
this is because it is an Autonomous Management and Performance School (AMPS); this
means that is allowed to make many decisions at the local level without the approval
of CPS.
At a recent Local School Council meeting,
several other reasons for this change were
cited by the administration. One of them
was that having spring break during the previously scheduled time of April 18 through
April 22 seemed to promote Catholicism.
This is because Easter Sunday occurs in the
weekend immediately following spring break
on April 24. Students at Northside had protested to the administration to advocate for
the change, stating that a significant portion
of the Northside community is not Catholic
or Protestant, and therefore it was unfair to
them.
Yet another reason cited for the change
is that it gives students more time to prepare
in class for the AP tests. The administration
says that the change is justified because this
year the exams occur the week immediately
after spring break. Because of this, they feel
that students should have more time in class
for review in order to increase the school’s
AP test scores. This also means that students
will have to spend less of their own time to
study out of school, decreasing the stress of
Northside students. An increase is AP test
scores will also lead to an increase in our US
News and World Report rankings, which have
slipped in recent years.
Though some students are opposed to
the abrupt break with tradition, the Northside administration plans to move on with its
plan for spring break in May as it feels that it
is in the best interests of students as well as
teachers.
ELECTIONS
WORLD
Sports
1:1 kids: where areJapan
they?disaster
GLOBAL AFFAIRS
The Hoof
Beat • April 2011 • Global Affairs
POLITICS
Voting rights
Going back to class
A look at the aftermath of the
events in Japan.
Big changes on Capitol Hill to affect
voting rights for young adults.
Going rouge in Chicago
Palin set to visit
Northside Prep
by Sony Kassam
She won the Miss Wasilla Beauty Pageant in 1984. Later, in 1988, she eloped with
her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin, and
gave birth to her son, Track, a year later. She
became a Member of the Wasilla City Council in October 1992, and then eventually
rose to the ninth Governor of Alaska, starting December 2006 until her resignation
in July 2009. During the latter half of that
time slot, she lost the 2008 elections as vice
president of the Republican Party for John
McCain. Finally, she published her memoir
“Going Rogue” in 2009, followed by her second book, “America by Heart” in 2010. And
now, in April 2011, Sarah Palin is coming to
Northside College Prep.
“We [the administration] are definitely
excited for her to come to Northside,” Principal Mr. Barry Rodgers, said. “I think it’ll be a
great opportunity for the Northside community to be able to have such an honor.”
After Palin’s five day international tour
of visiting India and Israel to “get grips with
foreign policy,” as stated by The Guardian,
Palin will begin a tour in the U.S. Likewise,
one of the 2012 presidential candidates, John
Davis, is currently on a “Votercade.” In other
words, Davis is travelling to all the counties
in America to gain support for his candidacy and to spread his ideas concerning the
unnoticed problems in America. Like Davis’
method of gaining support and connections,
upon her return to the states, Palin hopes to
tour some of the nation’s biggest cities and
key areas to boost support for her 2012 Presidential Candidacy as well. Starting in early
April and lasting until mid-August, Palin will
begin her tour in Albany, New York and work
her way up to Chicago, Illinois in mid to late
April, followed by Kalamazoo, Michigan and
Gary, Indiana.
Northside College Prep has been chosen
to act as a venue for Palin’s political rally.
Originally, Lane Tech was set to be the welcoming site because of its enormous gym
capacity. However, due to a rat infestation in
its gym, Lane Tech will no longer be able to
host Palin. As a result, Northside was chosen
for its reputation in academics and in nurturing bright students, not to mention Mr. Tim
Devine’s, social science department, connections.
Northside’s gym and auditorium will be
used on two separate occasions, one for the
upperclassmen at Northside, and another for
the adults of the surrounding neighborhood
Young people to lose suffrage?
New bill seeks to
restrict young peoples’
voting rights
by Will Riley
Every two years in America, millions of
high school seniors and college students exercise their right to democracy by voting in
federal elections. That process could become a
lot more difficult if legislation recently passed
by the U.S. House of Representatives and now
in committee hearings in the U.S. Senate becomes law.
Under the bill, an election judge who believes a voter could reasonably be between the
ages of 18 and 22 can ask for photo identification with a date of birth. If they are within
that age range, the new law gives the election
judge a series of “tests” to administer.
Critics were quick to jump on the bill for
denying Americans an age-old right and declared it unconstitutional.
“There are many problems with this legislation,” Jimminy Jetson of the American
Peoples’ Liberties Union (APLU) said. “The
first clause is prejudiced against those living
in a certain region. The second provision is
sexist, the third imposes an unnecessary and
extreme time burden, and the fourth fuels
the military-industrial complex Eisenhower
warned us about. Finally, the last is purely
absurd. This bill is obviously designed just to
make it impossible for people ages 18 to 22
to vote, and it is wrong, and we will fight to
overturn it in the courts.”
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) held a press
conference Wednesday to field questions
about the new bill and detail his efforts to
halt its passage in the Senate.
“I wish I could say we have the votes to
strike this down [in the Senate],” Durbin said.
“Right now, however, I’m not so sure.” Durbin
is the chamber’s majority whip, which means
he is tasked with counting votes for legislation under consideration.
The bill has attracted supporters and detractors on both sides of the aisle, creating
strange bedfellows along the way. Rep. Dennis
Kucinich (D-OH), who has supported measures such as impeaching Bush and Cheney,
found himself united in support of the measure with Rep. Peter King (R-NY), who has
held hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims, and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC),
who became famous for shouting “You lie” at
Obama during a Congressional address. This
unity among ideologically opposite members
of Congress has analysts foreseeing a realistic
pathway to passage in the Senate. Even if it
passed, however, President Obama has said
he would not sign it.
Under the current bill, called the Omission of Voting Entitlements and Responsibilities for Lots of Young Folks that Ought to Restrict and Cease their Excessively Detrimental
Ability to Currently Re-elect Officials Notwithstanding Yeomen’s Misgivings (OVERLY
FORCED ACRONYM) Act, young people must
undergo five “tests” before being able to vote.
First, the young person in question must go
out in the world and take a picture of a giant
panda, adjust the tint to maximum and the
contrast to minimum in iPhoto, and bring
it back to the polling place. They then must
bench-press 225 pounds at least 10 times.
After that, they are allowed to take a 10-minute break, but then must feed a hungry child
in Africa and enlist in the Navy, before finally
Palin giving a speech during the 2008 elections as John McCain’s running mate | COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS
as well as the rest of the city.
“We’ve been communicating back and
forth,” Mr. Rodgers said. “We’re hoping to
have the day for Ms. Palin to talk to the juniors and seniors about her experiences with
her trips to Israel and India. It would also be
a great way for our future soon-to-be vot-
ers in 2012 to be knowledgeable and more
well-informed about the candidacy. Later
on, Northside’s gym will be open for other
interested guests around the neighborhood
and anyone else who’s free that day. We look
forward to her arrival.”
delivering a golden snitch to the steps of the
Library of Congress. Upon returning to the
polling place, if they can verify their actions
with video evidence, they are allowed to vote
as normal.
“I see no way anyone can get to Africa
and back before the polls close here in America, rendering them unable to vote,” Obama
said in a Rose Garden press conference. “All
the OVERLY FORCED ACRONYM Act would
do is eliminate preciously held freedoms for
millions. I encourage Congress to spend time
debating more important matters, such as
the budget I have submitted them and they
have yet to even glance at.”
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (RFL), who introduced the bill in the House,
defended it as a necessary precaution against
“irrational” voting habits of young people.
“Young people, by and large, lack the life
experience necessary to make an informed
political choice,” Ros-Lehtinen said. “This bill
makes a reasonable attempt to indoctrinate
them with some of that life experience, rapidfire style, by forcing them to go to Africa and
join the Navy, among other things, before
they can vote.”
But on the other side of the aisle, a caucus of Democrats called the Group of 20 $uper
C00l C0ngre$$men (G20-c00l Katz), hoped
to see a drop-off in support for Republicans
by restricting voting rights for young people.
“Those other Dems think 18 to 22 year
olds are a major source of support for us,”
a senior Congressmen who requested to be
identified only as B-fly (D-CoolestStateInTheUnion), for fear of retaliation from other
Democrats, said. “But us G20-c00l Katz think
that 18 to 22 year olds actually support the
GOP in larger numbers now. Research shows
more and more are growing up in rural com-
munities, which tend to be overwhelmingly
red.”
Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), who is a
huge fan of physical activity, is on the fence
because he thinks it would be “fun” to bench
225 before voting.
“What are these kids, wimps?” Bingaman
said.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the lone
socialist in the Senate, surprised many by
supporting it because he said opposition
would “harm the military.”
“There are two things we are trained not
to do as politicians in this country,” Sanders
said in a speech on the Senate floor. “Those
are: raise taxes, especially on the rich, and do
anything to cut support from the military.
Voting against OVERLY FORCED ACRONYM
would do severe damage to our Navy, which
would lose a lot of potential recruits.” Other
Senators present at the time later reported
that Sanders had a blank stare on his face the
whole time, his hand had “no taxes, taxes bad,
military good,” written all over it, and he had
just come from a meeting with lobbyists from
Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense
contractor.
A group of high school seniors in Seattle
protested the bill by attempting to undertake
each of the tasks with the aim of showing how
impossible they were.
Jerry “Bigfoot” Thomas, a self-described
supporter of medical marijuana, said they
had already stumbled after the first step.
“We walked out our door, and we were
like, ‘Aight, where’s the pandas?’ Man, we
don’t know where to find a panda,” Thomas
said. “We tried to make a panda out of some
tinfoil and sh** but we all gave up cuz…I
dunno man, I just vote for whichever candidate supports medical marijuana anyway.”
Global Affairs • April 2011 • The Hoof Beat
The more, the merrier
Longer classes and a
longer school year for
2011-2012
by Diana Obracaj
The various new classes that will be available next year will not be the biggest change
for students next year. The biggest change
will be the installment of a longer school day
and an even longer school year. Some schools
in China start at 7:10 am and end at 5:00 pm
and student attend school up to six days a
week. The Chicago Public Schools system will
be the first in the United States to adopt a ten
hour school day and a 250 day school year.
This change will help to put Northside and
its students further ahead of the rest of the
schools in the nation.
On March 28, 2011, the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill that all schools
days will be extended two hours to maximize
learning and lengthen the school year by sixty
days. They believe that expanding the time
that students spend in school will minimize
the amount of homework per day and maximize the performance of students while in
school.
Congressman Daniel Lipinski recently
commented that installing the longer hours
will be better for everyone.
“By having everyone in school longer,”
Lipinski said, “both teachers and students
will be able to go home after the long day and
relax without worrying about school work as
much.”
A study conducted by Doctor Michael
Steel, who holds a Ph.D. in School and Child
Psychology, shows that students who are exposed to school material for a longer period
of time, can comprehend the information and
store it for later use better than those who
simply spend the minimum amount of time
on it.
“It just simply would make sense that the
longer you apply yourself to something, the
more you would understand it, so it makes
sense that schools are extending their hours
and days of learning,” said Doctor Steel. “I`m
surprised this is just starting to catch on.”
The Illinois Department of Public
Health’s Board of Circadian Systems (BCS)
has released a statement revealing that they
plan on training students for a week before
each school year. This is so that students will
be able to tolerate the extended school day,
and their brains would learn to adjust to it.
By providing this preparation class, the BCS
hopes that students will have a smoother
transition into the longer school days.
For a flat fee of $50, students can come
in and be trained by circadian specialists provided by the government. The program will
prepare the body to keep their mind open and
aware for the new 10 hour school day for 250
days.
“During the drills, kids will be hooked up
to a machine that will test their brain waves’
patterns. Throughout the different exercises,
they will be able to extend their waves and
maximize their ability to concentrate,” Veronica Mills, a representative from Circa Survival, said.
Students and faculty have mixed views
on the new schedule. Some think this is a
good idea because they won’t get any homework, while others think that the school year
was fine and did not need any changes.
“There wasn’t any problem with the
[old] system,” Melissa Bravo, Adv. 110, said.
“I went to school for eight hours, then went
home and did my homework and I had six A’s
and 1 B, and I was satisfied.
On the other hand, Daisy Belden, Adv.
202, is excited for next year because she will
have more free time after school to pursue
her goals.
“I’ve always wanted to learn how to ride a
unicycle, but I have never had time because of
all the homework I get,” said Belden, “I would
much rather spend more time in school if
that means I would have time to myself afterwards.”
Ms. Boeck, Service Learning Coordinator,
agrees with Bravo and is all in favor of extending the school days and school year.
“I look forward to spending even more
time with my students. Think of all the service learning opportunities they will have,”
Ms. Boeck said.
“If we are doomed, so are the
pandas”
The effects of Japan’s tsunami
reach the rest of the world
Earth day is cancelled
Northside shows support for Japanese disaster
victims
by Lyanne Alfaro
Earth Day, an annual event celebrated
across the world on April 22 is now to be cancelled. The Earth Day Network, which organizes the event, released a notice on March
23, three days before the Earth Hour hosted
by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), claiming the
weather was “too severe” and “dangerous” to
celebrate Earth Day this year. The Network
is making arrangements with the WWF to
cancel the Earth Hour event for the following
year.
Ms. Lisa Volesky, Advanced Placement
Environmental Science teacher, received the
cancellation notice while grading tests in the
afternoon. She received a call from individuals at the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) on Wednesday after colloquium.
“I was surprised and shocked,” she said.
“It took several days to overcome the depression that came from the reality that this was
really happening.”
Mr. Steve Arnam, science department,
suggests that perhaps the Republican Party
had something to do with the matter.
“Doesn’t everybody try to save Mother
Earth?” Mr. Arnam said. “Was it the Tea
Party?”
“Earth has exceeded its
carrying capacity, and we
are in our sixth mass extinction, so it makes sence to
stop celebrating in such as
lost cause”
Ms. Lisa Volesky,
Science department
Every Earth Day, Ms. Volesky makes a
“special attempt” to help Mother Nature. This
year, however, she will not be picking up litter
on her way to work on that day.
Meanwhile, Mr. Arnam has decided to
give up recycling. Just as Ms. Volesky did, Mr.
Arnam says he soon realized that there was no
use in trying to save Mother Nature anymore.
Despite the fact he has cleaned local beaches
such as the Montrose beach since 1989, he
plans to give up on that as well. He plans on
completely changing his behavior when paying a visit to the beach.
“I can now go there and enjoy myself,”
Mr. Arnam said. “I don’t have to look fervently around for that little recycling bin or pieces
of paper. I will be able to caress my head on
a bed of plastic bottles and perhaps pieces of
jagged metal.”
Despite the Network’s reasons for the
cancellation of Earth Day, Ms. Volesky has
other theories for Earth Day’s cancellation.
“Earth has exceeded its carrying capacity,
and we are in our sixth mass extinction,” she
said, “[so] it makes sense to stop celebrating
in such a lost cause.”
Mr. Arnam is currently working on finding an alternative to his current Aquatic Marine Science class since he thinks marine life
is helpless at this point. He says forming a
partnership with British Petroleum Global
(BP) might be possible.
“We can show students how BP worked
on the day that they ended up spilling oil into
the Gulf of Mexico,” he said, “and we will no
longer encourage students to contribute to
cleanups.”
Due to the late notice, the WWF announced on March 25 that it will not make a
movement to cancel Earth Hour until 2012.
“After having to accept and come to
terms with the loss of Earth Day, this news
was easier to understand,” Ms. Volesky said in
response to the news. “If we are doomed, so
are the pandas.”
By Jamilah Alsharif
Japan is a country prone to earthquakes
and tsunamis, and therefore many buildings
are made to resist the destructive power of
these natural forces. However, the tsunami
that hit Japan on March 11 was unstoppable.
Sendai was the first city to experience the effects of an earthquake with a magnitude of
9.0 (Japan Today). The protections the country built to guard itself against tsunamis did
little to keep the 46-foot waves from devastating Sendai and other cities in northeast
Japan.
“Volunteers went to Sendai. The volunteers included high school students and junior high school students. I think the country
was early to react. Before the tsunami came
we had warnings but the tsunami was came
very fast.” Kaho Imai, a Japanese exchange
student, said.
Homes and cars were at the mercy of the
waves; buildings were torn from their foundations. Though some areas of Japan such as
Imai’s town, Niigata, were unaffected by the
devastation. Most people tried to get out of
the northeast cities but the death toll has
passed 10,901 and there are still over 17,000
missing people. There are also an estimated
190,000 people living in evacuation centers
in northern and eastern Japan (BBC News
3/28/2011).
“I was worried about Japan, my family,
my friends, and people in and around Sendai,” Imai said. “Foreign people were working
in Japan. The government told the foreign
people to leave Japan.”
Damages to Japanese nuclear power
plants have caused fears over radioactive contamination. Smoke was seen rising out of one
of the six reactors in the Fukushima plant and
later there were gas explosions that rocked
some of the reactor buildings (BBC News
3/28/2011). After the tsunami caused the
power lines to get cut off, the cooling systems
went down. Although the cooling systems are
being restored to the reactors, the explosions
and radioactive steam have caused radiation
to leak into the atmosphere.
The United States, Russia, Australia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and China are
among the countries that have banned products such as milk, vegetables, and fish from
Japan’s nuclear crisis zone over fears of radioactive contamination (The New York Times).
Other products are also being monitored for
contamination.
According to Japanese officials, there are
shortages of food, water, fuel, and medicine
in shelters (BBC News). Since March 14 there
have also been rolling power blackouts in
Japan causing the rate of traffic accidents to
increase (Japan Today). Our own Northside
community has taken part in helping Japan
by fundraising money for the tsunami victims. Northside was able to show its support
to Japanese exchange students that arrived
on March 19 with a somwhat bittersweet
feelings.
“We want to study English in America,
but we worry about Japan too,” Imai said.
“My parents asked my school in Japan to cancel the homestay but we could not because everything was paid for and ready. Niigata had
not experienced damage.”
During the Japanese Honor Society induction ceremony Richard Moy, Adv.104,
president of the Japanese Honor Society, led
a moment of silence to commemorate the victims of the tsunami. Banners with hope-filled
messages from Northside students were also
presented to the Japanese students at the
ceremony.
“I miss Japan,” Imai said. “We really thank
America because they supported us.”
SPORTS
Women’s Soccer
The Hoof Beat • April 2011 • Sports
Men’s Water Polo
Didn’t win, but didn’t lose
Off to a good start
Women’s Soccer manages to tie
against rivaling school
Men’s Water Polo succeed in early
match of the season
When hard work does not pay off in the end
Men’s Volleyball
suffers unfortunate
defeat
byAndrew Hague
“We are going to be good this year,” Chris
Ceisel, Adv. 208 , said. “Like ‘We are going to
win a championship good.”
The Northside Men’s Varsity Volleyball
Team has high expectations for the upcoming sport season. The players want to win the
whole thing this year more than anything.
Last year’s team consisted of only juniors and
sophomores with no seniors. But now the
team consists of the most talented players at
Northside.
The squad is much more focused this year;
each player trains using the workout program
P90x. They spend hours every day watching
footage of elite volleyball players, Misty MayTreanor and Kerri Walsh, playing the game.
Practices are held daily from 3:30 P.M. to 8:00
P.M. in the gymnasium. All of the players’
hard work and determination throughout the
preseason led to huge expectations for their
first game against Lake Zurich High School.
The privileged students from Lake Zurich arrived at Northside in two separate limousines; one transporting the junior varsity
team, the other driving the varsity team. The
students walked into Northside with alligator
skin warm-up uniforms and Rolex watches
strapped on their wrists.
“I’ve never seen such a small gym,” one of
the Lake Zurich students said. “It’s crazy.”
After each team took an hour to warm up
for the game, their match finally started. The
Mustang’s starting lineup consisted of Ceisel
, Tae Lee, Adv. 204, Nikko Simon, Adv. 100 ,
Off the crossbar
Northside Women’s
soccer ties against
University of Chicago
Lab School Maroons
by Imran Senlik
The Mustangs’s left back, Heidi Molina,
Adv. 203, stepped up to take the throw in. She
took two steps off the line and then took two
really fast steps towards the border line, making sure that both her feet were in place, and
threw the ball over her head with both her
hands. Bridget O’Brien, Adv. 203, attempted
to trap the ball, but there were two Maroon
jerseys on her. She quickly passed the ball
back to Molina who kicked the ball up the
line to the Mustang’s left mid-fielder, Victoria Andrade, Adv. 200. Andrade crossed the
ball into the 18 line box, towards Kate Flannery Gillespie, Adv. 306, one of the Mustangs
forwards. The ball was a few inches two high,
and a Mustang player on the right side of the
field got the ball. She managed to cross the
ball through the Maroon defense, but the
ball took a deflection off a Maroon player and
went out for a corner kick.
Ceisel, attemting to return the ball | ANDREW HAGUE
Wesley Morioka, Adv. 203, Niko Nodal, Adv.
201, and Lukasz Sobieraj, Adv. 100. In the
first game, the Mustangs quickly got out to a
5-1 lead after a few brilliant defensive plays
by Simon, a high jumping exchange student
from the Philippines. Every time an opponent
touched the ball, he shrieked like a monkey in
an attempt to distract them. His efforts were
futile, however, as Lake Zurich quickly came
back to take a 9-7 lead. Lake Zurich’s tallest
player had a poor vertical leap; therefore, he
could not hit the ball over the net. This led
to Sobieraj feasting off of the opponent’s
missed opportunities by spiking the ball for
eight consecutive points, helping the Mustangs take a 17-14 lead. Unfortunately, Lake
Zurich came back and took a 20-18 lead. The
two teams traded points until the Mustang’s
great play caused one of the Lake Zurich players to pull the net down in frustration. The
penalty tied the game at 24. Despite the tension in the stands, the packed crowd roared
Becky Schuba, Adv. 102, took the corner
kick in the last few minutes of the game and
there were about six people with the black
Mustang jerseys, in and around the penalty
box. Schuba placed a brilliant cross right inside the penalty box to O’Brien who headed
the ball. The crowd went silent for one moment as they watched the ball hit the crossbar. Gillespie took the rebound and blasted
one towards the goal, but the goalie did not
allow for a score. The play continued with the
Maroons clearing the ball onto the Mustang’s
half.
“Agh,” Mr. Robert Albritton, women’s
varsity soccer coach, said. “That should at
least count as half a goal.”
He was kidding, but one could easily hear
the frustration in his voice, because the Mustangs was still tied against a team that they
should have already scored a handful of goals
against.
The soccer match ended as it had started,
0-0. The Northside players were disappointed
because they knew the Maroons had put up
only a little challenge.
“First game of the season,” Mr. Albritton
said, “it’s always hard to do everything right.
But, we did the majority of the things right.
We played against a team we would win eight
out of the ten times we play them.”
When asked about why they tied, team
captain Natalia Evens de Menezes, Adv. 109,
said that it was just a matter of getting used
to playing in games.
“We need to get in the swing of things.
We’ll step it up for the Jones game,” Menezes
said.
The Mustangs later won the Jones game
with Gillespie scoring a hat trick, three goals
in hope that the men’s volleyball team would
win the first game of their first match of the
year. Even though there was huge support for
the Northsider’s, they choked and Lake Zurich won the first game, 26-24.
The Mustangs came out with a look of vengeance upon their faces for the second game.
Sobieraj continued his dominance, slamming
the ball into a smaller Lake Zurich player’s
face. The hit broke the opponent player’s nose
and sent the ball into the huge crowd of fans
as a souvenir. Arthur Klisz, Adv. 104, blocked
one of the Lake Zurich players four times in a
row. The Mustangs used their powerful start
to take a demanding 18-2 lead. A fantastic
pancake play by Lee helped the Mustangs cap
off an intense sequence of plays to score the
last point, winning the second game 25-6.
In the third and final game of the match,
both teams came ready to play. Morioka, who
has been recruited by the USA National Volleyball Team, began to take over. He blocked the
opponent’s attempts at a kill while dominating on the offensive end. The Mustangs were
helped by Lake Zurich’s own failures, though.
One of the opponent’s players was unable
to make contact with the ball every time he
attempted to set the ball for his teammates.
Their tallest player, with no vertical jump,
was constantly rejected by the net. Lake Zurich eventually overcame their weaknesses,
going on a torrid run that allowed them to
crush the Mustangs in their final game of the
match, 25-10.
The Mustangs left the game disappointed
about their loss, but knowing that their season had only started.
“Today was a failure,” Ceisel said. “Tomorrow is a new day, a new time to shine. We’ll be
back-don’t worry about it.”
in one game, and Karly Raber, Adv. 205,
O’Brien, and Andrade each scoring a goal, resulting in a 6-0 win over a friendly game with
Jones.
Emma Hultgren, Adv.301, facing an opponent on the run | IMRAN SELIK
Sports • April 2011 • The Hoof Beat
Starting the season off quite swimmingly
by Kelly Buchanan
The clock is set to seven minutes and
seven players line each side of the pool: seven
Taft players clad in white caps line the deep
end side while seven Northsiders wearing maroon caps line up in the shallow end. Northsiders Reed Cabral, Adv. 301, Cyrus Deloye,
Adv. 305, Connor Gillespie, Adv. 407, Konrad
Kubicki, Adv.106, Michael Meyer, Adv. 106,
and Peter Podlipni, Adv. 110, start in the
field with Daniel Gonzalez, Adv. 408, in the
goal. The referee blows his whistle to start the
game and the swimmers take off, with one
player from each team sprinting for the ball
to gain the first possession.
Taft won the swim off, but within seconds, Northside gained possession, and Podlipni drew a five meter- a penalty shot- when
a Taft player fouled him inside the two-meter
line. Meyer took the shot and scored. Number
seven from Taft scored with just over six minutes left in the first quarter. Possession went
back and forth for the next minute, with turnovers due to offensive fouls or because the
shot clock expired: in high school water polo,
each team has thirty seconds to take a shot or
the game switches possession. With 4:50 left
on the clock, Kubicki took a shot and missed,
but Podlipni rebounded to score. After Taft’s
possession, Deloye made a fast break, sprinting towards the goal with no defenders, and
scored at 4:27. With just under four minutes
left in the first quarter, Meyer drew a kick out,
and a Taft player was ejected from the game
for twenty seconds. Though Northside was a
“man up” with six players in the field to Taft’s
five, they did not score. However, with 3:11 on
the clock, Cabral scored, making the score 41. Twenty seconds later, Gillespie made a pass
into Deloye, who shot and scored. At 2:27,
Deloye scored on a man up, after Meyer drew
a kick out. On Taft’s next possession, number
seven took a risky shot, from mid pool, and
scored. The score became 6-2. Northside regained possession and Meyer scored at 2:08.
The ball changed possession frequentlyfor the
next minute with neither team scoring, but
with 52 seconds left in the first quarter, Ivan
Capifali, Adv. 301, shot and scored. Twelve
seconds later, Alex Tran, Adv. 200, made his
first goal of the game as well. The last thirty
seconds of the quarter were fairly uneventful,
and the first quarter ended with Northsidein
the lead-9 goals to Taft’s 2.
Though the first quarter was high scoring, with a total of 11 goals made, the second
quarter was not. At the half, the score was
Northside 10, Taft 3. In the third and fourth
quarters, Taft did a better job at putting the
ball past Northside’s goalies; however, they
were unable to comeback for the win. The
third quarter ended with a score of 12-5, and
Northside stayed strong in the fourth quarter, winning the game by a reasonable margin, 14-8.
Northside’s win over Taft on March 22
was preceded by a close win against Lane on
March 15. The Men’s Water Polo team currently has a winning conference record of 2-1.
Last year, the team ended their season with a
3-11 conference record, but according to Podlipni, the team hopes to improve that record
this year.
“We lost only a few good players [from
last year],” said Podlipni, “and our team came
in this year knowing what to fix. We are already ahead of where we ended last year and
hope to keep on improving.”
Luis Granja, Adv. 306, preparing to pass the ball to a team member |KELLY BUCHANON
You can’t bend it like Becky
Becky Schuba,star
athlete, discusses
her time as part of
Mustang Athletics
by Evan Rogers
With three years as a varsity player under
her belt and a fourth just starting, Becky Schuba, Adv. 102, has never struggled to maintain
her dedication to Northside’s women’s soccer
team. Now a team captain, the center midfielder still enjoys the grueling practices and
games associated with her sport. In order to
better understand how she handles her responsibilities as an athlete and student on
and off the field, the Hoof Beat sat down with
Schuba for an exclusive interview.
The Hoof Beat: How do you maintain
your competitive edge while you are on the
field?
Schuba: Practicing constantly is very important to my success on the team, but even
that is far from enough. I do all the things the
team does to prepare. Our coach Mr. [Robert] Albritton, math department, has us run
ten miles before school and ten miles after
school. In addition to that, we do drills for
about two hours after an hour of intense yoga
each day. It really is not enough though, each
team member needs to go above and beyond.
Personally, I have found that diet is the key
to success – specifically a raw food diet. By
only eating food that has not been processed,
I better limit my intake of things that could
potentially disrupt my work on the field. Plus,
nothing beats gaba rice for every meal.
HB: Do you have any secret techniques
that you use to improve your performance on
Schuba showing Marty The Mustang affection with a kiss on the mouth | PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRIS SANTIAGO
the field?
Schuba: Beyond my practice schedule
and raw food diet, I find that visualizing is an
important part of success, perhaps even the
most important part. Rather than practicing, I sometimes just imagine myself playing
soccer. The stronger my mental limbs get, the
less I need to rely on my real ones. The better
my mind kicks the ball, the better I kick it on
the field. Sometimes I imagine myself playing
tennis instead of playing soccer, and pretend
like my leg is swinging a racket instead of my
arm. Or I pretend I am swimming when I kick
the ball during a game. I guess that may be
partially why I have been told numerous times
that I am an interesting player to watch.
HB: You have played soccer on the varsity
team for four years at Northside – do you intend to continue in college?
Schuba: I want to continue to play soccer in college, but it depends on what college
I go to. I have to make sure the team is good
enough.
HB: As a captain, how have you helped
your team members improve?
Schuba: I find that giving young soccer
players a strong female role model like myself
is essential. Plus, I try to keep them on their
toes. During a recent game, I kicked the ball
into our own net, just to make sure our keeper
Kim Truong, Adv. 204, was paying attention.
I find that the littler ones appreciate when I
give them this kind of individual attention.
Sometimes I pass the ball to people just so
they get to touch it, even though I could probably score a goal pretty easily if I just kept it. I
am basically a really nice person.
HB: How has your team helped you improve your individual skills?
Schuba: Our soccer team is very cohesive.
We are bonded. No matter if we win or lose,
we get closer and closer. Other than winning
and playing really well, or anything to do with
actually playing on the field, our team bond is
the most important part of the soccer team. I
love these girls. We have a lot of team bonding. And I guess that has pushed me to do
the best I can. I am motivated by the team
unity. My bond with the rest of my team has
helped me so much, and I do not know how
I would survive without them. Every time I
kick the ball, I think “wow, I’m basically best
friends with everyone in this pool.” And then
I remember that I am not actually swimming
when I kick and stop doing the front crawl
with my arms.
EDITORIALS
EDITORIAL
The Hoof Beat • April 2011 • Editorials
FAIQUE CLUB
Importance of laughter
End of colloquium?
The Hoof Beat looks into the world’s
best medicine
Mandate for a ninth block class
EDITORIALS
“Grandma, grandma, grandma, ooooh”
Adults rocking out to
teen pop music
Since the invention of the radio and Victrolla, the older generation has always scoffed
at some type of music. Whether it was dowop, rock-and-roll, metal, or rap, it seems
that the previous generation is always one
step behind the next. So it comes as a surprise
that seemingly every generation today is in
love with today’s pop music. Driving down
the street, one can hear soccer moms blaring
the Black-Eyed Peas and Ke$ha. Senior centers have reported that “Friday Night Bingo”
is quickly being replaced with “Friday Night
Bieber,” or the latest trend, “Partyin’ (Yeah!)
with Rebecca Black.” What could possibly be
the cause of this change?
For one, today’s pop music is phenomenally better than music of their adolescence.
Parents are most likely tired of listening to
the Beatles (“Love Me Do” doesn’t even make
grammatical sense), and surely adults today
are far beyond the level of the overly simplistic hard rock of Led Zeppelin. Pop songs
of today are much more dynamic than the
music of the past. Justin Bieber’s “Baby” has
lyrics that could beat anything ever put out
by Queen, and makes “Bohemian Rhapsody’s” “Mama” verse look shameful. The complexities of Rebecca Black’s “Friday” are too
numerous to name, but clearly lyrics such as
“We so excited” and “Tomorrow is Saturday/
and Sunday comes afterwards” trump anything jazz singers can croon.
Another reason is that parents often
emulate their children’s musical tastes. For
example, when Elvis first came on the scene,
most adolescents went crazy for him, prompting adults to follow; they lovingly named him
“Elvis the Pelvis” and encouraged their children to listen to his records, following their
children’s examples. Adults of today are merely emulating their parents and grandparents;
if the teenagers like it, then it must be worth
listening to.
Clearly, there is another reason parents
flip for pop music: who doesn’t? Everyone
ages 13 and over can testify that listening to
Bieber makes one undeniably cool and that
Rebecca Black makes one appear cultured and
mature. Adults are constantly trying to find
that line between cool and cultured; therefore, pop music appeals to them as a status
icon among adolescents.
With parents and grandparents going
crazy for pop, many teens are turning to different music to rebel from their parents’ choices.
There has been a large increase in sales of gospel and country music in the last few months,
and disco album sales have skyrocketed since
November. Insane Records (Chicago Falls, IL)
reported that they have sold 5,000 Bee Gee’s
albums since May 2010, more than they sold
since the Brothers Gibb appeared.
Teen psychologist Dr. Olutoye Adegboro
said in his newly published book titled “Hey
Brain, It’s Me, Toye,” “Adolescents need to
rebel from their parents, especially through
music. Parents listening to Justin Bieber will
push students into rebelling in other ways,
such as wearing mismatched socks and eating cookies for breakfast. Parents should instead listen to tried and true classics, such as
Beethoven and the Spice Girls.”
Dr. Adegboro said, teens should try to
rebel in less harmful ways. He continued,
“Teens should try rebelling using smaller
methods. Perhaps switching from black socks
to dark gray socks would be less noticeable
[than wearing mismatched ones] and then
parents would react more positively.”
Adegboro also said that teens should discourage their parents from listening to pop
music. “Parents want to connect with their
children,” Dr. Adegboro said, “and let’s be honest, there is no denying that Justin Bieber is
great bonding material. But teens should try
to make their parents aware of the problems
associated with cross-generational music listening, or CGML. Adolescents should discourage their parents from partaking in CGML,
and parents should put forth an effort to stay
within generational boundaries.”
So what should you do if your parents
have fallen prey to CGML? The first step is
obviously to make them aware of this problem. Once they realize the disastrous effects
of CGML, they will be more likely to try and
stop. At this point, it is best to slowly ease
the parent back into appropriate music selections. Depending on the parent’s pre-CGML
preferences, choices can include anything
from Mozart to Dizzy Gillespie to AC/DC.
However, when starting parents back on the
right track, it is best to avoid any songs from
albums debuting later than 1985. For severely
troubled parents (especially those fond of Rebecca Black), Gregorian chanting can be the
best alternative and can be found in many religious and alternative music (chantcd.com).
Once parents become re-assimilated into
the proper music choices, the teen can once
again relax and crank up “My World,” but not
too loudly if parents are home; one wouldn’t
want to cause a relapse.
Have a sense of humor
The importance of
laughter
Every April first, people seem to remember the fun of setting up (safe) practical
jokes, telling comedic stories, and enjoying
an honest laugh. Maybe it is because of the
good moods spring elicits from individuals or
because people want to distract themselves
from the gloomy skies that accompany April
showers, but whatever makes people relay
witty banter with one another and tell the occasional funny joke reminds us of one thing
— the importance of humor.
It is no secret that people often associate
a sense of humor with being comedic, as evidenced by Dictionary.com defining the phrase
as “the trait of appreciating (and being able to
express) the humorous.” Even at Northside,
when someone says the word humor, one’s
mind is often filled with thoughts of Michael
Scott and his shenanigans in “Scranton,”
Comedy Club’s flash mob dances, and Second
City skits. That is not to say that to associate
comedy with humor is a grave error, as comedy is big part of what humor entails, but it’s
not the only thing. Having a sense of humor
means that you are able to distinguish the comedic value of a story or joke and that you
have an intrinsic understanding of laughter’s
value. Laughter is not just a vehicle we use to
show our amusement with a particular sub-
ject, it’s a sign that we contain the optimism
necessary to know that while things may not
always turn out they way we want them to,
there are a couple of things we can still be
grateful for and take the time to appreciate.
“Laughter is the best medicine” is a cliché, but it’s a cliché for a reason: it rings with
some truth. While actual health benefits of
laughter are still being disputed, as discussed
in CBS News Reporter Melissa McNamara’s
“Is Laughter the Best Medicine?” when an
individual laughs, it is common for him or
her to feel stress and negativity melt away
for a couple of seconds. While specific types
of stress can be good, more often than not,
stress is not beneficial, and neither is negativity. Ridding yourself of the two, even if
only for a brief moment, can take away some
of that stress and negativity that could have
otherwise had an ill effect on your health.
One of the many functions that humor
serves is as a form of communication. For
instance, take a look at either of Comedy
Central’s two faux-news programs, “The Daily
Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report.” Both shows use satirical humor to relay
political beliefs, ideologies, and commentaries
to their respective audiences. Without a good
sense of humor, viewers would not be able to
properly translate the messages anchors Jon
Stewart and Stephen Colbert try to get across
to viewers. If we cannot communicate with
one another, we lose ideas that could poten-
tially benefit the world. It’s important to be
familiar with different types of communication, especially with a type that is used so frequently such as humor.
With this said, it should be recognized
that, in the slightly modified words of a certain superhero’s uncle, with a great sense of
humor comes a great sense of responsibility. Laughter has often been employed as a
method of helping people overcome tragedy
and personal struggles, but there is a difference between using laughter to help a person
get through a struggle or tragedy and using
those struggle or tragedy as fodder for jokes
and ridiculing. One of the great things about
humor is that it is a universal force that is
able to bring people together, but when we
abuse its power, and use it to make fun of
others’ cultures, tragedies, and misfortunes,
we diminish humor’s positive power, and ultimately, do a disservice to ourselves. While
comedians and humorists often push boundaries, most understand that a difference between pushing a boundary and going too far
exists. Having a good sense of humor entails
knowing the line between being funny and
being offensive and hurtful, and knowing not
to cross it.
So as April begins, feel free to conduct
playful practical jokes, tell hilarious stories,
and share light-hearted laughs with friends.
Just be respectful when you do so and make
sure to bring your sense of humor with you.
MASTHEAD
Northside College Prep H.S.
5501 N. Kedzie, Chicago, IL 60625
Tel: (773) 534-3954
Principal
Mr. Barry Rodgers
Assistant Principal
Dr. Margaret Murphy
Advisor
Ms. Dianne Malueg
Print Editor-In-Chief
Sarah Schoonhoven
Web Editor-in-Chief
Olutoye Adegboro
Assistant Web Editor
Jamilah Alsharif
Managing Editor
Zobia Chunara
Sony Kassam
Creative Director
Evan Rogers
NCP News Editor
Melissa España
Regine Sarah Capungan
Global Affairs Editor
Jeffrey Joseph
Special Features Editors
Andriana Mitrakos
Timothy Suh
Sports Editors
Nelson Ogbuagu
Andrew Hague
Editorial Editor
Faique Moqeet
Arts and Entertainment Editor
Diana Obracaj
Illustrator
Samantha Prestigiacomo
Staff Reporters
Olutoye Adegboro, Lyanne Alfaro, Jamilah
Alsharif, Ariel Basora, Kelly Buchanan,
Regine Sarah Capungan, Zobia Chunara,
Krystn Collins, Melissa España, Mikyung
Eum, Nicole Fiorito, Andrew Hague, Carly
Jackson, Jeffrey Joseph, Bushra Kabir, Sonia
Kassam, Claire Kilpatrick, Andriana Mitrakos,
Faique Moqeet, Diana Obracaj, Nelson
Ogbuagu, Rosa Pacheco, William Riley, Evan
Rogers, Sarah Schoonhoven, Imran Senlik,
Miles Singerman, Timothy Suh.
SUBMISSIONS
The Hoof Beat welcomes opinion editorials from its readers. Letters to the Editor
and Op-ed submissions may be sent to
[email protected]. Submissions should not exceed two pages.
CONTACT
The Hoof Beat is a monthly publication
produced by the Northside Prep Journalism Class. As a student-run newspaper,
your opinions are important to us. If
you have any comments, corrections,
or questions, please e-mail Ms. Dianne
Malueg at [email protected]
or the Editors in Chief of the Hoof Beat
at [email protected].
10
Editorials • April 2011 • The Hoof Beat
ADVICE
KEEPING UP WITH THE KLAIREDASHIAN
Global March Madness
Political instability
trumped by basketball
by Claire Kilpatrick
March 2011 marks
one of the internationally
most unstable months the
world has seen. There have
been political revolutions
throughout the Middle
East. A civil war in Libya
became an international
conflict. Japan was struck
by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake, followed by
a tsunami, and now is struggling to prevent a
nuclear meltdown. Oh, and President Barack
Obama released his 2011 March Madness
bracket.
President Obama released his bracket
on March 16, in the midst of political revolutions, civil war, and a nuclear meltdown. This
editorial is not meant as an attack on President Obama’s policies; rather it is a commentary on the responsibility the President of
the United States has as the symbolic head of
the nation. His actions and interests should
reflect the majority of the American people’s
interests. The release of President Obama’s
bracket in the midst of the turmoil around
the world reflects a disinterest and a level of
immaturity on the part of the United States.
Thus, he portrayed America and her inhabitants as disinterested and detached from
international affairs and fixated on college
basketball. I do not think I assume too much
when I say that this does not describe the majority of the United States.
Think of Japan, where men are entering
nuclear plants hoping to cool the reactors
knowing that such an action will cost them
their lives. For me, that puts Barack Obama’s
actions in perspective. As one of the most
popular presidents in history, having been
called the “celebrity president,” the amount
of influence he has is incomparable. Why not
draw attention to the stories of individuals in
Japan and Libya? Why not make it clear that
the United States is watching out for the people of Japan and the Middle East? The opportunity to make it clear that the United States
was empathetic and ready for action was
lost. An opportunity for the United States to
emerge as a leader was lost, as the Americans
all over sank back into their recliners to catch
the latest game on T.V.
Perhaps President Obama’s intent was
to provide a source of fun and lightheartedness for the American people in the midst of
crisis. But as we enter an increasingly global
society, it cannot always be about what makes
the American people feel at ease. Sometimes,
the interests of the American people will
need to take a backseat. Sometimes, America
will have to play as a part of a team. And this
should have been one of those times. The
American NCAA March Madness should have
taken a backseat to the March Madness that
has eclipsed the world.
Extending this logic, President Obama
must realize that there are some instances in
which his interests must be sacrificed in order
to best represent the interests of America. It
is understood that the President loves basketball. However, he was not elected Commander
in Chief to make basketball predictions.
As America moves into a position where
global cooperation and communication are increasingly important, it must be insured that
the interests of America are in line with those
of the world. The world probably will not care
if Obama turned out to be right when he selected Kansas over Ohio State to win it all. It
is time that America and her President learn
not to care as well and to focus on interests
besides their own.
Lyanne Alfaro’s
column “LA Times”
can be found online
at thehoofbeat.com.
Ask a museum curator shutting down at the end of
the day and trying to get everyone out of the
building
by Ronald McGee
Dear museum curator shutting down
at the end of the
day and trying to
get everyone out of
the building,
I’m into working out,
and I’ve heard conflicting
reports about supplementing my routine with whey protein to
build muscle mass. What’s your advice: use
it or lose it?
-Worked out and wondering
Dear worked out and wondering,
Please do not touch that. It’s very valuable. Everyone must leave now. Hey, do we
have the janitors out yet? Get them out
now. We can start cleaning even though
there are still people in here. Hey you, put
that down!
Dear museum curator shutting
down at the end of the day and
trying to get everyone out of the
building,
My boyfriend’s been really uncommunicative lately, and I’m afraid he might be
cheating on me. I still like him though, and
I don’t want to offend him by approaching
him in the wrong way. What do I do?
-Lost in Love
Dear Lost in Love,
Well, that’s about the worst spill I’ve
ever seen here. Wow, what a doozy. CLEANUP IN THE VAN GOGH SECTION! What is
that, even? Like, cheerios and milk and orange juice and some McCafe, it looks like.
What kind of people were in here today?!
Dear museum curator shut-
ting down at the end of the day
and trying to get everyone out of
the building,
I don’t like my current phone and want
to replace it with an iPhone, but I kind of
want to wait for the iPhone 5. I’ve heard rumors that it won’t come out until September. Is it worth the wait or should I go ahead
and test the waters with a non-Apple product right now?
-Transient Techy
Dear Transient Techy,
Anyone in this room? Hello? No. Okay.
On to Monet. Anyone in – hey, get out of
here! The museum closed 45 minutes ago.
What are you going to do – steal our Monet?
GET IT??! Monet, like money. Ah hah! I
crack myself up. No but seriously, shoo.
Dear museum curator shutting
down at the end of the day and
trying to get everyone out of the
building,
I’m trying to choose between colleges
and one is offering me a lot of money but I
don’t really want to go there. What should
I do: take the money or go to my dream
school?
-Flummoxed with finances
Dear Flummoxed with finances,
What is this? Jim?! PAGING JIM ROBINSON TO DA VINCI ROOM. There you
are! Look at what your janitors did in here.
They’ve knocked over the Mona Lisa and
punctured it on a broom. Do you realize how
much that thing costs? We can’t have careless errors like this!
Ronald McGee is a regular contributor to
the advice column of the HoofBeat. He serves
as the curator of McGee’s Museum of Modern
Marvels in Moore, Montana.
FAIQUE CLUB
Students against colloquium
The need for a ninth
block class
by Faique Moqeet
Colloquium has prolonged its stay as part
of Northside’s curriculum. There was once a
time when colloquium
may have offered Northside students a getaway
from the hectic vigorous
academics of Northside,
but times have changed.
Colloquium is a waste of valuable instruction
time and thus, for the benefit of Northside
students, it must be immediately removed
from Northside’s curriculum and replaced
with a ninth block class.
Colloquium advocates have long argued
that by giving students a more relaxed day of
instruction, students are able to manage their
classes better. While extra sleep and rest are
good for the brain, if other Chicago Public
Schools (CPS) are able to maintain normal
five day weeks, then so should Northside. Unless we somehow believe colloquium makes
our curriculum superior to other CPS high
schools, there is no reason to be an outlier.
In Northside’s corridors, one can often
hear students complaining of not being able
to take a class they wanted. If colloquium
time could be used as an extra class – imagine, by the end of four years, Northsiders
would have experienced four more unique
classes that they would not have otherwise.
More students might be able to take both AP
Psychology and AP Microeconomics during
high school, something that is currently virtually impossible with the harsh eight-blocks
restriction.
Northside is falling in rank; however,
introducing a ninth block class would once
again give Northsiders the advantage they
once held. With college admissions becoming increasingly difficult each year, Northside
must reconsider if colloquium is truly consistent with the school’s mission. After looking
deeper into colloquia like AP Country Music
or Troop 5501, one must seriously doubt the
collegiate benefit of such studies. Is colloquium truly preparing Northsiders for success in
college?
With teachers as insightful as Northside’s
and class choices as interesting as Northside’s,
no student deserves to not be able to experience Sustainable Engineering and Economics of Development (SEED) under Mr. John
Belcaster and Mr. Johan Tabora. Similarly,
no student’s yearning passion for journalism
should go unmatched because they cannot fit
the class into their limited eight-block schedule.
Colloquium has always been about passion. Northside teachers set up their colloquia in their respective areas of interest
and students pick whichever they find most
intriguing. However, this formula has consistently failed among underclassmen, many of
whom are forced to take certain colloquia that
they have no interest in. This preference for
upperclassmen in selecting colloquia often
ensures a dull, and uneventful first two years
of colloquium for many students.
However, one has to admit that colloquium ensures a well rounded experience in
high school – or not. A typical Northsider
has experienced eight unique colloquia for a
semester each; yet, increasingly, many upper-
classmen, more so seniors than juniors, have
figured out a way around the system. Several
colloquia are filled with seniors who are taking the colloquium for a second time. It is a
shame that students often judge a colloquium
by its teacher, refusing to sign up for colloquia
of teachers they are not acquainted with.
It is often said that the most powerful
aspect of the American Constitution is its
dynamic nature. Its plasticity has allowed it
to be adjusted in accordance to the times, allowing a healthy and efficient democracy. To
be a functioning and successful institution,
Northside must learn from this and move beyond established traditions.
It is hard to imagine a Northside without
a colloquium – truly, change is difficult. However, there was once a time when colloquium
started earlier and ended earlier; the change
to the current timings was dreaded, only to
be loved by later classes, many which never
knew about this change. Similarly, once colloquium leaves Northside’s corridors, it will
be forgotten. Instead, the ninth block class
will be adored by Northside students as a key
aspect of Northside’s college preparatory curriculum.
TheEVENTS
Hoof Beat • April 2011 • Arts & Entertainment
MUSIC
LIVE
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
11
“How to makeTimeless
(Soon-To-Be)
it work”classics
Flanagan’s Top Ten Music List
MUSIC
Swag so official
Nelson Ogbuagu’s
track “Get Money”
leads to multi-million
recording deal
by Nelson Ogbuagu
What started out as a Northside journalism assignment for the Hoof Beat Online’s
blooming segment titled “A Northsider’s
Travels,” turned out to be the start of a possible career in music for Northside’s very own
Nelson Ogbuagu, Adv. 206, now known by his
rap alias, Young Neezy. His song, titled “Get
Money,” produced by Warren Olaya, Adv.
107, was highly praised by the recording label
OGS (Original Gangsta Swag) Records. OGS
Records is a renowned underground recording label, the host for many big time underground rappers waiting to get their chance at
stardom. They offered Ogbuagu a multi-million recording contract with the label, believing that though this is Ogbuagu’s only single,
his potential found in the single could not be
ignored.
“Neezy’s potential is enormous,” Boy
Thunder, OGS C.E.O., said. “The swag he exhibited on that track alone was enough to
have me desperately wanting him to be a part
of our label.”
According to Ogbuagu, he had no idea
that anything more would come of his recording experience, and that this notification
from OGS was a complete surprise.
“I was actually waiting on a call from a
Make sure to pick up “Professor Neezy’s Lessons in Swagonometry” when it hits stores. | COURTESY OF
SAMANTHA PRESTIGIACOMO
friend of mine when OGS called,” Ogbuagu
said. “They called and started telling me about
how much they loved the song and how they
thought I was perfect for OGS. I honestly
thought it was some friends pranking me, or
a cruel April Fool’s joke.”
When they appeared at his door that
weekend, Ogbuagu was convinced that he was
not dreaming, and that his song “Get Money”
had put him in the direction to do just that.
“I’ve always been awestruck by the type
of lives that big time rappers live,” Ogbuagu
said. “Of course, I am not too sure I’m suited
for such lavishness.”
Through Ogbuagu’s new-found affiliation
with the label, his horizons have broadened
tremendously.
“I was kind of skeptical at first about
being a part of this label,” Ogbuagu said. “But
when they started mentioning the possible
clothing line and shoelace deals, I was sold.”
With the contract, OGS Records wants to
help me establish a clothing line and shoelace
brand.
“I was hoping to have the clothing line’s
name be ‘KissDaChef.’” Ogbuagu said. “I really love cooking, and my role model, Lil’ B,
the Basedgod, who inspired me to become a
master chef, lay the foundation of the swag
that you will find in this clothing line.”
Currently, Ogbuagu is working on his
first project with OGS Records, a mixtape
titled “Professor Neezy’s Lessons in Swagonometry,” which will feature his hit single
“Get Money” as well as new singles like “Got
Money” and “Giving Gotten Money to Charitable Causes.”
“These songs really embody Neezy as an
artist,” Ogbuagu said. “They speak a lot to his
character, and his desire for success and a better understanding of life.”
Nelson will be touring on February 30
with OGS Records, and believes that this is a
start of a new life for him.
“I am really excited to see how far this
goes,” Ogbuagu said. “The thought of turning a hobby into a multi-million dollar career
is unbelievable and I look forward to seeing
where it takes me. Swag.”
MOVIES
A new twist on an old
classic
Cary Fukunaga’s
“Jane Eyre” stands
out among countless
adaptations
by Timothy Suh
A classic novel is adapted into a movie
with a modern twist. This interesting idea has
become a common endeavor in Hollywood
with countless award-winning and blockbuster films based on books. “Jane Eyre” directed
by Cary Fukunaga aims to become either of
such films as it tells the story of a woman
struggling for her own independence and
moral center in an unforgiving world. With
countless remakes by directors before him,
Fukunaga successfully attempts to portray
the character of Jane Eyre and capture her
narrative essence in a novel way.
The film begins with the shot of a weeping Jane Eyre, played by Mia Wasikowska,
fleeing from a large estate through a beautiful landscape. The beauty of the nature shot
is dampened by the rainy weather and disrupted by the following distorted shot of her
running down steps. The contrast of the two
shots sets the tone for the rest of the movie:
there is a grand, sweeping feel to the movie
but is contained in small shots with dark
lighting and sometimes shaky camera work.
Fukunaga, who has used handheld cameras
in his previous films like “Sin Nombre,” places
the audience in the perspective of Jane Eyre
by shooting scenes from her angle and leaving
the camera to move with her head, producing
the unstable shots present throughout the
film. Fukunaga also uses the contrast of the
green landscape of Thornfield Hall, Mr. Rochester’s estate, to the cramped corridors of the
interior. At first, Jane’s stay is primarily shot
within the hall making most of the scenes
dark and melancholy. However, as Jane finds
love with Mr. Rochester and begins to see
Thornfield Hall as her home, more scenes are
shot outside in the spring gardens and lawns.
In this way, Fukunaga manipulates the shooting setting to control the mood of the audience.Fukunaga also does a brilliant job at provoking emotion from the audience through
the movie’s scenes. The scenes of Jane Eyre’s
childhood at her aunt’s house are often jarring such as when Jane’s male cousin smacks
her head against the wall with a book and
blood begins to drip down the side of her face.
Fukunaga effectively shows Jane as a sympathetic and respectful protagonist by how she
handles herself despite her circumstances.
Other scenes include humorous moments
that lightened the otherwise heavy film. Many
of these moments were playful bantering between Mr. Rochester, played by Michael Fassbender, and Jane, building romantic tension
| COURTESY OF AMAZON.COM
between the two. The two actors portray the
quick wit and intelligence of their roles brilliantly, and this dynamic between the actors
is a captivating asset of the film. Wasikowska
depicts the observant and thoughtful character of Jane Eyre perfectly, a huge challenge
especially considering the countless portrayals in the past. Judi Dench plays the frivolous
housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax, who often serves
as the comic relief that brightens the dark
corridors of Thornfield Hall.
The film stays fairly faithful to the novel.
Many of the major events in the novel are still
present in the film and even smaller yet still
important parts, such as the death of Helen,
Jane’s childhood friend, and the attack of Mr.
Mason. Fukunaga also manages to recreate
the dark, eerie atmosphere of the novel and
avoid the easier route of a period romance.
However, there are a few notable deviations.
The novel begins with Jane Eyre’s childhood
and progresses with her life while the film begins as Jane reaches the house of St. John and
recounts the past events through flashbacks.
By starting the film in the middle of the story,
Fukunaga bypassed the most tedious part of
the novel and quickly captures the audience’s
attention. The other major problem with the
film versus the book is the lack of true department in romance between Mr. Rochester and
Jane Eyre. In the novel, the build-up is one
of the most enthralling aspects of the novel,
while the film has a few fireside chats before
Mr. Rochester proposes. Fukunaga could have
extended the two-hour length of the film a
couple minutes to make the progression of
the romance more realistic.
Fukunaga attempts to cast a new light
on a novel that has several film adaptations
in the past. The visual scenery, manipulation
of shadow, emotional control of scenes, and
actor interaction makes this new adaptation a
new standard in the portrayal of this timeless
novel. “Jane Eyre” was released in theaters on
March 11.
12
Arts & Entertainment • April 2011 • The Hoof Beat
ART
The thrill of discovery
Long lost painting
sparks controversy
by Krystn Collins
The art world has been taken by storm
due to a recent, unexpected discovery. During
his lifetime, famous painter Pablo Picasso created more than a thousand paintings and just
as many sculptures. In fact, Chicago is host
to one such sculpture, the “Chicago Picasso,”
which can be found downtown in the Daley
Plaza.
Recent developments indicate that of
Picasso’s hundreds of works, at least one has
been missed. This past weekend, a painting
verified to be an authentic Picasso was discovered in a neglected corner of the Northside art room.
The painting, which has never before
been seen has been given the nickname, “La
Pintura.” Analysis by experts places it somewhere between 1919 and 1938, in the midst
of Picasso’s transition from his Cubist Period
to his Surrealist Period. As a result, “La Pintura” is composed of a wide array of bright
colors and broad brushstrokes.
Althouh an incredible find, there is only
one problem with the painting: no one can
agree on what it depicts.
“It’s definitely a Cofagrigus,” John Dorf,
MUSIC
(Soon-To-Be) Timeless
classics
Flanagan’s top ten
music list
by Mikyung Kim
Ms. Flanagan, the great music guru of
Northside, is not only captivated by the catchy
tunes of these exceptional songs but also by
these poetically gifted artists. The list below
Adv. 103, said. “There’s no mistaking such a
distinct Ghost Pokémon. I could see where
someone could think it was a Yamask, but if
you’re really looking at it, it’s clearly a Cofagrigus.”
A well-known art-lover, Dorf’s opinion has gained wide popularity amongst the
school, but it has not gone entirely unchallenged.
“It seems really abstract,” Griffin Cox,
Adv. 105, said. “The colors are crazy, the design is all over the place, and I’m not really
sure what I’m looking at. I’d have to say it’s
Lady Gaga.”
A reasonable enough conclusion coming
from such an avid Picasso fan, Cox’s interpretation has nonetheless been met with criticism.
“I don’t know how anyone could come up
with Lady Gaga from that,” Emily Tran, Adv.
105, said, “It’s pretty obvious that it’s an expression of Picasso’s frustration at the lack of
a cooperative world government. You can tell
by the force behind the brushstrokes and the
contrast of blues and yellows, not to mention
the fact that he completed the piece between
the two World Wars.”
Tran’s somewhat controversial opinion
is not widely supported among the Northside
student body and is in fact directly refuted
by several of the most credible sources in the
school.
“There’s no way it’s anything but Lady
is a collection of some of Ms. Flanagan’s alltime favorites along with her reasons of why
they are the best.
1. “Firework,” by Katy Perry (Teenage Dream, 2010) “In another life, I’m a cheerleader, and I’m awesome.”
2. Any song by the Grateful Dead
(or Phish, in a pinch) “For when I want to feel
more peaceful and less hygienic.”
3. “Anthem,” by Good Charlotte
(The Young and the Hopeless, 2002) also,
anything by Fallout Boy “Mohawks all over
the world have been wrong. The husbands
of Nicole Richie and Ashlee Simpson are the
true pioneers of punk rock.”
Controversy has risen about what actually is depicted in the painting held by Mrs. Joanne Minyo.
| COURTESY OF KRYSTN COLLINS AND SAMANTHA PRESTIGIACOMO
Gaga,” Cox said. “The time period has nothing
to do with the meaning. Lady Gaga is timeless.”
Despite the debate over the ‘what,’ there
is no debate over the piece’s aesthetic qualities. Agreement amongst Northside’s art-lovers of the painting’s beauty is practically a
given, save for only the harshest of critics.
“That’s supposed to be a painting?” Ian
Schuba, Adv. 101, said. “I thought it was just
a bunch of scribbles on a canvas. Since when
is this art? …Modernism is a joke. Designs
without Roman Doric architecture influences
are not designs at all. It’s trashy.”
Regardless of its criticism by some, the
popular opinion at Northside remains that
“La Pintura” is a fine example of Picasso’s
work meant to be admired by the masses.
“It’s gorgeous, whatever it is,” Tran said.
“They should hang it in a really nice gallery
somewhere.”
Plans to display the painting have unfortunately been put on hold. Due to such high
demand for the rights to display the painting,
experts were called in to determine the monetary value of it, revealing “La Pintura” to be
worth a ludicrous sum of money, which some
experts claim to be in excess of $300,000.
Because of its high value, several well-known
galleries are currently struggling to raise the
money to secure it. As of now, the painting’s
future home remains a mystery.
4. Anything by Nickelback “Every
word – nay, every note – is pure magic. The
mere sound of the lead singer’s voice makes
unicorns cry.”
5. “In da Club,” by 50 Cent (Get Rich
or Die Tryin’, 2003) “Because I’m gangsta
when no one is watching.”
6. “Jam (Turn It Up),” by Kim Kardashian (2011) “Reality T.V. stars transitioning into music demonstrate their authentic
diversity of talent. Critics agree. We are lucky
to live in the same generation as a gifted multimedia artist like Kim Kardashian. Didn’t
she make a movie once, too?”
7. “Friday,” by Rebecca Black (2011)
“Shut up. That’s my jam.”
8. Anything by Insane Clown Posse
“Because when I’m not secretly a cheerleader
or a gangsta, I’m secretly a Juggalo. I lead
many secret lives, and they’re equally musically gifted.”
9. “Toxic,” by Britney Spears (In
the Zone, 2004) “My day can’t officially begin
until I rock this out in front of my full-length
mirror.”
10. “Tik Tok,” by Ke$ha (2009) “Go
ahead. Ask me when the party starts.”
“Runner-up: Any song by Pink, because
she’s the punk goddess I always wished I
could be.”
LIVE EVENTS
A country show
for the ages
Strait, McEntire, and
Womack perform for a
sold out Chicago crowd
by Rosa Pacheco
On Saturday March 5, three of country
music’s most legendary artists teamed up to
perform in front of a sold out Allstate Arena
crowd. The tour’s triple threat consisted of
Reba McEntire, George Strait, and Lee Ann
Womack. McEntire has been around the
country music scene for over 15 years and has
won countless awards and even had her own
talk show. Strait has dazzled fans for years
with hits like “Twang” and “I Hate Everything” and is known by many as “The King of
Country Music.” While Womack has been an
active country music artist for over 10 years,
she is most known for her massive crossover
hit “I Hope You Dance” in 2000. All three artists teamed up to play a three and a half hour
| COURTESY OF AMAZON.COM
| COURTESY OF AMAZON.COM
set list that left fans satisfied at the end of
the night.
The show opened with a eight song set
list by Lee Ann Womack who excited the
crowd for the rest of the show with some of
her other songs like “I May Hate Myself In
The Morning” and “Ashes by Now.” Although
short, her set list was a very fun and appropriate opener to what many people consider
the “King and Queen of Country Music.”
The sold out arena quickly rose to their
feet as the music began playing and Reba
McEntire took the stage. McEntire sparkled
in a sequin burgundy outfit and classic cowboy boots, but nothing sparkled quite like
her stage presence. She performed many fan
favorites such as “The Night theLights Went
Out in Georgia” and “The Bridge You Burn”
before being interrupted by her ex-Reba TV
show costar, and real life best friend, actress
Melissa Peterman. In the 10 minute comedy
skit, Peterman made hilarious references to
the hometown Chicago Cubs and the not so
appropriate nightclub Heavenly Bodies. Peterman then continued the comedic chemistry with McEntire by singing backup and
dancing in the background to the theme song
of the Reba TV show “I’m a Survivor.” McEntire’s set list continued with two covers. One
to Kelly Clarkson’s 2006 hit “Because of You”
and the other to Beyonce’s “If I Were a Boy-’ a
cover that is currently climbing up the country music charts. Fans were also treated to a
duet of McEntire’s “Does He Love You’ featuring Lee Ann Womack herself.
At the end of her set, thanked them for
recognizing her as the newest inductee into
the Country Music Hall of Fame, and hyped
the crowd up for the final performance of the
night, George Strait.
With the fans on their feet, the king,
George Strait took the stage and performed
songs like “Check Yes or No” and “Amarillo by
Morning” that the crowd sung word for word
as his classic country crooner voice filled the
arena. Strait sang and moved around the circular stage the way only a country superstar
could and fed of the energy of the Allstate
Arena crowd only taking breaks to sing more
of his more emotional songs such as, “I Saw
God Today” and “I Gotta Get to You” where he
showed every emotion from the song through
his singing.
Whether it was McEntire’s classic red
locks and soulful voice, Womack’s crossover
hits, or Strait’s classic country tunes, there
was definitely no shortage of amazing country performances for the audience that night.
Their tour kicked off January 14 in Austin,
Texas and will continue through April 9 in
Louisville, Kentucky.