I didn't notice the swastika tattooed on his arm at first. My boyfriend kept trying to point it out to me, but I didn't want to stare. Besides, it was on the underside of his arm, anyway.
Like a few of the other Oscar best picture contenders this year, "Milk" failed to bring home a lot of box office bacon. Maybe it's because it ended up playing second fiddle to front-runner "Slumdog Millionaire."
Some might have written it off as another over-the-top film about homosexuality. Whatever the reason, the tastefully portrayed true story of gay rights activist Harvey Milk's brief but significant career deserved more accolades.
How to have the most incredible summer:
1. Try a new water sport. There are plenty of places where you can rent a kayak. You could also try water skiing or jet skiing.
2. Have a summer solstice party. It's the longest day of the year, and a great excuse for a get-together. Get some fun going with water guns or simple party games, such as charades or Apples to Apples.
3. Take a day to merely relax. Wake up late, and lounge in your pajamas for the day. Also, indulge your inner child. Catch lightning bugs, make a sand castle or just sit in the shade and talk.
4. If you're going off to college, make sure you have everything ready. Get psyched for college by visiting campus again, going for a summer orientation or grabbing some of your college's apparel. Just going back to school? That's OK, you have more time to figure out your plans.
-- By AMANDA KNUDSON. Red Lion Senior High School
Arguably one of the most influential bands of its time, Coldplay continues to awe fans across the globe with its distinctive rhythms and powerful lyrics. The band consists of vocalist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, and drummer Will Champion.
Today the members fondly look back on the band's 1997 genesis when Martin and Buckland congregated in London's Covent Gardens to play Beatles' tunes. However, the jam ended with a police escort.
Despite the setback, the band performed its first gig on January 16, 1998 with the panicked, last-minute name Starfish. One month later, the members played their first concert as Coldplay. In May of the same year, they released the EP Safety. It contained a stunning three tracks.
The band's defining moment arrived in 2000 with the hit song "Yellow," which debuted along with their first album Parachutes. With millions of copies selling, the band progressed to A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002), X&Y (2005), and finally their current album Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008), the latter of which won the band three Grammies.
Today, the band has sold over 50 million albums, which include other hit tracks such as "Clocks," "Speed of Sound," and "Violet Hill." The members continue to write lyrics, strum guitars, and hum tunes. While concocting their next album, they participate in and endorse charitable projects. Perhaps the members' original homage to the legendary Beatles forecasts their own eternal celebrity.
I live in a box,
Nestled between blue and green at the far corner
Fingers pluck me out when they want me
Big, fat appendages grab and squeeze.
I am just a stick of wax smothered by a paper robe,
but so are the rest of them
Rows and rows of color sticks
Touching but not blending.
Red, it should be the color of passion or love
not duty and sacrificial blood
I just want to be melted and become a puddle
of liquid wax.
By Maria Stayer
York Suburban Senior High School
This poem is written in response to the novel The Handmaid's Tale.
When I was a kindergarten student life was so much fun --- finger painting, coloring, meeting new people to spread germs with. But, at home things were very different. Luckily, I had the job of the oldest child. Life is usually good for a little one with so much power.
Little did I know that soon, I would be hiding a secret that I would not reveal to anyone.
I remember the day that I was blessed with a baby brother. I also remember the day that changed my family's life.
Elliott was diagnosed with autism, a common disorder. But, of course, this was before many people knew about the disorder. No one knew what was really wrong with him. We were just aware that he didn't talk, had extreme allergies to certain foods and had unusual outbursts.
But in my little-girl eyes, my brother was always my little, chubby-cheeked companion.
Elliott now has a behavioral specialist named Karen who has has done so much in helping us get through life. He goes to York Learning Center, which is in the former Central York High School building. Amazingly, he loves school and strives to do his best there.
Although Elliott still doesn't talk, we all know he understands. Just because he can't respond doesn't necessarily mean that he doesn't comprehend. Someday, we know that he will be on the verge of normal. Because autism spectrum disorder is so widely known now, we are hoping Elliott will be able to live life as a normal person. The hardest part is everyone flocking to your house trying to help. Too many people have come into our home trying to help but end up making the situation worse.
Some people think that an older sibling would be left out of the family equation because the other child takes up the spotlight. I've never once thought that. I see Elliott as a blessing, not some kind of curse that someone decided to put on my family.
Kids with parents who have passed away understand my constant struggle with keeping Elliott's disorder a secret. I don't want people to think that I can't handle teenage stress because of what I have to deal with at home. I am not ashamed of my brother's disorder, but I didn't think I would be able to deal with the "what's wrong with him?" factor from my peers at school.
I am still a normal teenager I love to send text messages and update My Space. And even though my little brother isn't like other little brothers, he still is and always will be my friend and companion.
--- By MELANIE CRISAMORE, York Catholic High School
3 Reasons To Hate Soulja Boy
As anyone familiar with the music industry should know by now, hip hop died when Biggie and Tupac took their last breaths. Every form of rap today is commercialized, with an emphasis on irrelevant lyrics over a somewhat catchy beat. The biggest advocate of this catastrophe is, of course, Soulja Boy, or as he is known on iTunes by his much cooler name, Soulja Boy Tell 'Em. If you don't hate him already, here's something to think about:
1. Lyrics - Not everyone can share Eminem's assonance or Method Man's flow, but Soulja Boy's lyrics are equivalent to a childhood nursery rhyme and his flow is reminiscent of an inebriated hobo shouting at pigeons to get away from his shopping cart of recycled cans. His latest, "Kiss Me Thru the Phone," is another exercise in incompetency. First of all, I'm not sure how you kiss someone through the phone, but I can imagine it's very awkward for all parties involved. However, Soulja Boy really felt he had a sentimental love ballad on his hands, so for about three minutes, he repeats different variations of the words "I miss you," his phone number and, of course, the title of the song. Brilliance.
2. Money - Interscope Records (the biggest of the many labels to which he belongs) pays Soulja Boy millions of dollars to be an idiot. The average salary for a brain surgeon is about half a million. To put it in perspective, Soulja Boy's incoherent rambling earns him about four or five times what the most challenging profession in medicine makes. The message? All you members of the middle class who are struggling to pay the mortgage or put your kids through college should take out a notepad, stare around the room you are currently in, and write down the first object you see about 20 times. Find some white kid who thinks he's black to beat box while you babble that word for roughly four minutes, and you should be a millionaire. Given, you might not have Soulja Boy's distinct creativity, but money is money.
3. The Fact That He Is Single-Handedly Helping To Kill Music In General - Hip Hop is dead, but thanks to people like Soulja Boy, all sorts of genres are trying to be more commercial with their music. Current music is garbage. I gave up my iPod for Lent and was forced to listen to the radio. By Easter, I was ready to harm myself. Pop, rock, alternative -- everything is more Nickelback than Nirvana, more Flo-Rida than Wu-Tang. I realize money rules everything, but if idiots like Soulja Boy are successful, bands and rappers altogether will stop trying to write good lyrics and produce catchy beats and resort to spitting out some piece of crap that gets all the 12-year-olds at junior high dances to grind on each other like a rottweiler going to town on a stranger's leg. And all the 90-pound boys in wife beaters will throw their hands in the air and go "Woooo! Soulja Boy's lyrics are insane, yo!"
Soulja Boy is the devil. He needs to be stopped. His music has insulted our intelligence and made us cover our ears for too long. Hopefully he will fade away before people stop listening to music altogether.
-- By SEAN RAMIREZ, Susquehannock High School
I love the countdown of the last days of school...5 more days of classes for me, but untill i graduate there are 8 days!!! That's CRAZY!! I also had my last gym class EVER today. The 5th is class trip day, but it's to Six Flags, which no one is going on, so I'm going to Hershey with a bunch of friends. Super fun! Where was everyone else's class trips? And what are the rest of you seniors doing after school?
Oh and P.S. in case anyone cares Julie now pulls herself up all by herself! She is smiling at me as she holds onto the couch right now.
With the exception of graduation, I'm done high school.
BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH what do I do now?
After months of searching, I finally got a job at Rita's on Queen Street. What a relief! For anyone who is still looking for a job, I heard that Big Apple Bagles on Grantley (near York College) is hiring and so is the Yorktowne Hotel.
Congrats to all the schools who preformed at the Rosies at the Strand this evening. You all did very well. Except a few schools concerned me. I am so very sorry, but I got excited when, I think it was Surburban, maybe, said they were preforming from Footloose. But whatever they sang and wore was interesting, to say the least. And Annie! That rocked! My favorite, for sure. Also, Laura, Teen Takeover staffer, I saw you onstage, and you sang very well!!! Good Job girl!
And my school's musical, High School Musical won the best overall award!! It was really great! Again congrats to all participating schools!
When I was doing some more research on Darfur a few nights ago, I came across this article. I have been thinking about it ever since.
What is exactly is the best term to apply to the crisis occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan? Is it genocide in the traditional sense, or is it some new breed of genocide? Is it really genocide at all, or is it tribal warfare?
Well, yesterday I stopped fasting. I wrote up a nice, little entry attempting to explain exactly why I decided to do that... but I apparently didn't save the entry properly. I am very sorry I unknowingly left you un-updated on a day that turned out to be rather significant.
Here's what you missed:
I was sitting around after school, hungrier than I had ever been in my entire life (I hadn't eaten any of my rations since around 11 am) and with a really weird sort of stomach ache (I had been eating only grains.) I was tired and irritated. My planned group of fellow fasters had ceased to exist. I didn't feel as though I was accomplishing anything.
So I had a peach smoothie, and it was the best peach smoothie I ever tasted. And I later paid for that fine, fruity concotion with the guilt that I experienced.
"We all might ask ourselves why we tune in to these more trivial matters and tune out when it comes to Darfur." - Nicholas D. Kristof
As you've heard (or read) me say before, this fast was undertaken specifically in response to the expulsion of international aid organizations from Darfur by the Sudanese government. The situation before this development was by no means less serious, though. And yet it is not at all shocking that so many people are unaware of the specifics when it really receives no serious coverage by the mainstream news outlets.
Don't you hate when something makes a whole weekend bad ?
I know how you feel, especially this weekend.
Drama. Drama. Drama.
I hate drama, but it's like it follows me around...
How was everyone else weekend?
Anyone have prom?
Today I started the refugee rations fast, and aside from the fact that the food is tasteless, and I felt somewhat light-headed and hungry, things didn't go badly at all. In fact, I felt pretty guilty.
Much of the point of the fast is, after all, to go through what the people of Darfur are going through. Since most of the international aid organizations have been expelled, rations are much less readily available, and many people are starving. To be more in touch with this reality, I think that I will stop eating my rations after noon for the rest of the week. I should be able to get through school while still learning what it is truly like to be hungry.
Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel inspires me.
The world knows this woman as Coco Chanel. But I do not admire her international label. I admire the courageous way Chanel created that label.
Raised in a French orphanage until age 17, Chanel experienced a childhood in stark contrast with her adult life. After leaving the orphanage, she entered the world of fashion as an amateur milliner, opening a small boutique on a busy Paris street. With fashion innovations redesigning the couture world, the "double C" logo became increasingly popular with European women. By age 33, Chanel was a financially independent business owner, an unlikely situation for a young woman living in World War II-era France. Despite fierce competition among designers, Chanel made a name for herself, a name that people still recognize across the globe.
Chanel's life demonstrates that hard work, talent, and determination can overcome a bleak beginning. She continued to make her mark on fashion and society for 70 years despite struggles in her professional and private lives.
At times, I doubt my own dreams of becoming a successful writer; the world of journalism is highly competitive. But if I develop the same motivation and passion for my work as Chanel did, I hope similar success will come my way. I look to Chanel as my example that it does not matter how you start -- what counts is the way you finish.
It is now after 8 PM, which means that it has officially been over 24 hours since I last ate.
As someone who normally struggles to get from one meal to the next without snacking, the past 24 hours have not been easy.
So, you probably wonder, why I am depriving myself of my oh-so-beloved food?
The answer is simple -- it's Darfur.
If anyone is interested, Suburban will be doing the musical, Footloose, this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 PM and Saturday afternoon at 2 PM.
Myspace. Facebook. Friendster.
These days, there are countless social networking sites. Each very similar to the next, however, unique in certain aspects.
Buzznet.com is very similiar to any other social networking site. On Buzznet, you can create and customize a profile, upload pictures and videos, post blogs, and add (or deny, in any case) friends.
Winning eight Oscars, including best picture, "Slumdog Millionaire" is on a high right now. It's high off the publicity, its happy and surprised break-out actors, and the fact that Hollywood is practically bowing down to it.
Not like it doesn't deserve it. In fact, it deserves all the praise it gets. Not only is "Slumdog Millionaire" the feel-good movie that America - and the whole world - needs right now, but its educational qualities make it just as exemplary.
Many teens are hunting for jobs this summer. With the sluggish economy, finding one might not be easy. Here are a few simple tips for landing some summer work:
1. Apply early - Don't wait until the end of school to apply. By that time, many jobs have been secured, and the rest are slim pickings.
2. Apply to many places - Limiting yourself to working for just one company is just that -- limiting . It can decrease your chances of finding a position.
3. Be enthusiastic - In an interview do not be bland and act like the only reason you want the job is to appease your parents. Be excited about the prospect of getting a job.
4. Be willing to work during the last month of school - Offering to work right away shows you are excited to work and want to get started early.
5. Be willing to work your way up - Realize you are not going to land the perfect job. You might start out with few hours or doing undesirable work, but if you stick with the job, it might get better.
6. Tap into your connections - Talk to your parents or your friend's parents to see if they know of any available jobs. If they do, then it will be easier for you to land the job, because they already know and like you.
This week is York Catholic's Art Show, featuring the multi-talented students and our fantastic pieces! Senior displays will be showcased as well as artwork from the underclassmen, grades 9 through 11. The show will be available to viewers May 5 - May 7 from 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Come see our hard work if you have a few minutes to spare!!
Defeat.
The feeling washed over him like water.
No, not like a light rain, which takes its time to soak the skin.
Instead, more like the crippling flow of a violent waterfall.
That was the word. Crippling. Crippled.
He felt it, both physically and mentally.
Once, this body belonged to a spirited, vivacious, striking gentleman.
Paul Nelson.
However, this man here,
This sad, beaten figure with a right shoulder slumped and abnormally angled,
This man here was not the Paul everyone, and even he, remembered.
What gives a body the right to suddenly refuse its call to duty?
Like an old soldier, he thought.
Too much battle. Too much marching. Too many miles.
After so many years, something is bound to give out.
He touched his wrinkled, weathered hand to the metal side of the chair.
It returned no cool, soothing sensation.
Pushing himself upward slightly, he bent forward to look at his feet.
They were much closer to him than they had been before.
Were they always that large?
The right foot sat heavily next to its counterpart.
He thought about the deception of perspective.
How something grand can seem so small, and vice versa.
How someone grand can seem so small.
He straightened up slowly, heavy with the weight of unwanted grief.
He rolled himself clumsily towards the hospital room's only window.
Positioning his numb right hand in his lap, he then turned to look at upon the city's haze.
Eventually, he slept.
