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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.

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