Cougars Show Off Their Talent - My High School Journalism
Cougars Show Off Their Talent - My High School Journalism
Cougars Show Off Their Talent - My High School Journalism
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Entertainment<br />
The Chronicle February & March 2010<br />
10<br />
What’s<br />
On Your<br />
iPod?<br />
Kyle Warshauer<br />
Junior<br />
1. “You’re nobody until<br />
somebody kills you”- Biggy<br />
Smalls<br />
2. “Killer”- Drake<br />
3. “Something in Your<br />
Mouth”- Nickleback<br />
4. “The Worlds Greatest”-<br />
R. Kelly<br />
5. “I Feel Like Dying”- Lil<br />
Wayne<br />
6. “Crew is in The Spot”-<br />
Corey Qunz<br />
7. “Get Right Tonight”-<br />
Corey Qunz<br />
8. “The Good Die Young”-<br />
50 Cent<br />
9. “Go Getter Go Getter”-<br />
Lil Wayne<br />
10. “After Me”- Salvia<br />
Lauren Deitrich<br />
Junior<br />
1. “Sky <strong>High</strong>”- Wiz Khalifa<br />
2, “Bring The Goons Out”-<br />
Red Cafe’<br />
3. “Beef”- B.I.G.<br />
4. “For <strong>My</strong> Town”- Bird<br />
Man<br />
5. “NOVA”- Jay Z<br />
6. “Homerun”- Jietz Santana<br />
7. “Skys the Limit”- Lil<br />
Wayne<br />
8. “Like Yeah”- Tech Nine<br />
9. “Imma Star”- Jeramiah<br />
10. “Cali Love”- 2Pac<br />
Mercury Switch is a Favorite Among Students<br />
By Zach Baker<br />
Staff Reporter<br />
What is Mercury<br />
Switch? Mercury Switch,<br />
noun: an especially quiet<br />
switch that opens and closes<br />
an electric circuit by shifting<br />
a pool of mercury to cover or<br />
uncover the contacts. What is<br />
the meaning behind that?<br />
There isn’t any. It is<br />
just a cool name that Chet Szwejkowski<br />
and Steven Lane<br />
found. They were sitting in<br />
English class one day and<br />
opened up a dictionary and<br />
saw that name on the page.<br />
They then looked at each other<br />
and decided to make that<br />
the band name. “It was way<br />
better than Ask” said Szwejkowski.<br />
There are four members<br />
of Mercury Switch. Chet<br />
Swejkowski and Lawrence<br />
Ayers, seniors at Kettle Run,<br />
play guitar and vocals. Ryan<br />
Newby plays bass, and drummer<br />
Steven Lane attends<br />
Fauquier and Liberty.<br />
Szwejkowski and Ayers<br />
met as freshman and began<br />
to play and write simple<br />
By Tamour Malik<br />
Staff Reporter<br />
A visual masterpiece<br />
is the best way to describe<br />
Avatar, director James Cameron’s<br />
follow up to the blockbuster<br />
Titanic.<br />
Being one of the most expensive<br />
films ever made, with<br />
a total budget of over 300 million<br />
dollars, Avatar has since<br />
become the highest-grossing<br />
film of all time, raking in<br />
over 2 billion dollars in the<br />
worldwide box office.<br />
Set in the year 2154, Ava-<br />
By Emmaleah Jones<br />
Staff Reporter<br />
If you were crushing<br />
on the movie “He’s Just<br />
Not That into You”, you’ll<br />
fall in love with “Valentine’s<br />
Day”, the new romantic<br />
comedy (date movie)<br />
that debuted with a bang<br />
and ended with a kiss.<br />
The star-studded<br />
cast (Bradley Cooper,<br />
Ashton Kutcher, Jessica<br />
Alba, Jessica Biel, Jennifer<br />
Garner, Jaimie Foxx,<br />
Patrick Dempsey, Taylor<br />
Swift, Taylor Lautner,<br />
Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts,<br />
Topher Grace, Anne<br />
Hathaway, Queen Latifah,<br />
and much more!) doesn’t<br />
disappoint those who were<br />
Mercury Switch poses for a picture with Miss Virginia.<br />
music. They eventually talked<br />
to Lane and began to practice<br />
together. They started<br />
playing mostly Weezer and<br />
Foo Fighter covers before<br />
recruiting Ryan to play with<br />
them.<br />
There are many<br />
bands that influence Mercury<br />
Switch. Ayers said, “The<br />
most notable bands include<br />
Foo Fighters, Weezer, Four<br />
Years Strong, and Blink<br />
182.”<br />
“There are so many<br />
tar tells the story of Jake Sully<br />
(played by Sam Worthington),<br />
a paraplegic marine,<br />
who was sent to a faraway<br />
planet called Pandora, to replace<br />
his deceased brother in<br />
an avatar program.<br />
Pandora, is a small moon<br />
planet inhabited by a native<br />
population called Na’vi. A<br />
very rare, and highly desired<br />
element is located under<br />
their colony, and they refuse<br />
to move.<br />
Using the avatar program,<br />
Jake is transformed into a<br />
Na’vi, and is sent into their<br />
different bands. We all have<br />
our own favorites. We’ve Covered<br />
Foo Fighters, Weezer,<br />
We Are Scientists, Led Zeppelin,<br />
and even Phish.” said<br />
Szwejkowski.<br />
Mercury Switch plays<br />
many local shows. They have<br />
played at Smokie Joes, The<br />
Barn at Lord Fairfax, The<br />
Marshall Ruritan, American<br />
Legion, and even parties.<br />
All the band members have<br />
different songs they love to<br />
play. “<strong>My</strong> personal favorites<br />
MOVIE REVIEW: On Avatar<br />
expecting a clean-cut romantic<br />
comedy with a happy ending.<br />
Directed by Garry<br />
Marshall,<br />
this smartly<br />
written<br />
comedy is<br />
about many<br />
intertwined<br />
stories of<br />
love and<br />
loss on Vale<br />
n t i n e ’ s<br />
Day, as well<br />
as a view of<br />
Valentine’s<br />
Day at its<br />
best and worst. This movie<br />
did as well as any cheesy,<br />
Garry Marshall movie, about<br />
this eventful day-of-love, can<br />
hope to do in the box office,<br />
colony...<br />
Using groundbreaking<br />
3D technology, Avatar<br />
gives an amazing visual experience,<br />
creating an entire<br />
fictional world. More than<br />
half of this film, is entirely<br />
computer-generated, including<br />
many of the characters,<br />
however, they still seem<br />
real.<br />
Many of the cast performances<br />
are motion-captured,<br />
but I was impressed that<br />
they were still able to give a<br />
good performance.<br />
Avatar is director<br />
its cast attracting more audience<br />
than the actual storyline.<br />
This movie was directedtow<br />
a r d s<br />
t e e n a g e r s<br />
and young<br />
adults, however<br />
there<br />
are stories<br />
thrown in<br />
there that<br />
people of all<br />
ages can relate<br />
to and<br />
understand.<br />
Those who<br />
make the effort to see this<br />
will love “Valentine’s Day”,<br />
or at least find it endearing.<br />
Overall, the movie<br />
was cute. It was very funny,<br />
photo courtesy of Mercury Switch<br />
are Shot One (written by us)<br />
and After Hours which is a<br />
cover by We Are Scientist.”<br />
said Ayers.<br />
While Szwejkowski<br />
said “<strong>My</strong> favorite song is<br />
probably Tetris. It contains<br />
the Tetris game theme song<br />
and it’s a big hit to our fans.”<br />
Mercury Switch has<br />
a strong fan base. They have<br />
a Facebook group with 463+<br />
fans. They also can be found<br />
on <strong>My</strong>Space if you want to<br />
listen to a few of their songs.<br />
James Cameron’s first feature<br />
film in 12 years, and it<br />
shows that he has not lost his<br />
touch.<br />
Cameron delivers some<br />
incredible filmmaking, however,<br />
his screenplay suffers<br />
with a predictable story.<br />
Even though, the film is very<br />
predictable, and the screenplay<br />
lacks, it’s still one of the<br />
best movies of the year and a<br />
must-see for sci-fi fans.<br />
OVERALL: 5 out of 5<br />
MOVIE REVIEW: On Valentines Day<br />
easy to understand, had<br />
happy moments and sad moments<br />
(but nothing too serious)<br />
and it also had some serious<br />
eye-candy. At one hour<br />
and 57 minutes, it’s hard to<br />
say whether it is worth the<br />
time and money; I think it<br />
seriously depends on the<br />
person (or people). However,<br />
I would say: wait. While this<br />
movie was good and fun, it<br />
will be just as good (if not<br />
better) in your house as it<br />
was in theaters…waiting a<br />
few weeks is worth the extra<br />
$10, especially in these<br />
times.<br />
I loved this movie,<br />
and I was really glad to see<br />
it, but I would be equally as<br />
glad to have seen at home,<br />
on my couch.