Monthly Archives: March 2014

Drum Sets in General

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By Peter Leonardo

Joey Jordison of "Slipknot"

Joey Jordison, former drummer for Slipknot

So, what is with drummers having so many toms, cymbals and bass drums if they rarely use all of them? I want to talk about Joey Jordison the former drummer for Slipknot, a heavy metal band. Why does he use so many toms and cymbals- he never uses any of them! All he uses is his 2 bass drums, his hi hats, snare and a couple of toms! Sometimes, I believe he doesn’t even touch some of his drums.

Honestly, I think it’s just for show for some drummers, but Neil Peart, drummer for the rock band Rush, knows what he’s doing.  As said on Peart’s Wikipedia article, he “has received numerous awards for his musical performances, and is known for his technical proficiency and stamina”.

Musician Neil Peart of the band Rush

Musician Neil Peart of the band Rush

I like Neil Peart more than Joey Jordison, because when he plays beats, he stays in the pocket.  That means he plays the drum beat precisely and when he does his fills, he doesn’t  use a double foot pedal for every single fill. On the other hand, Joey Jordison uses uses it constantly and that’s just unprofessional.

Quest Love of ,"The Roots"

Quest Love of The Roots

One of the drummers that I look up to is Quest Love from, The Roots.  He currently plays with The Roots on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon . The band is great and fits perfectly with the show. One of the reasons I look up to Quest Love is because he plays so flawlessly.  It’s like he’s  floating on a cloud when he plays and fills go perfectly every time.  And, Quest Love only uses a 4 piece Ludwig set and he uses Ziljian cymbals.

These days, I feel like drummers should not always assume that if a drummer has millions of toms and cymbals that they are then amazing drummers.  They have to listen to what and how the drummer plays and listen to the drummer closely to see if he’s doing the same or unnecessary fills. In my opinion, a good drummer is somebody that keeps the beat in the pocket, plays at a necessary volume, does not do too many fills, or unnecessary  fills. For example, if he’s playing jazz, don’t burst out playing a metal fill!  That’s just unprofessional and disrespectful to the audience.

Nerds are Misrepresented in Popular Culture

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By Jonah Wolmark

imagesWhen you think of the stereotypical nerd, you probably think of Steve Urkel or some character from The Big Bang Theory. This is terrible. Most people have an extremely incorrect view of what a nerd is, and my goal is to fix that.

Nerds are not all knowledgeable about everything nerdy. I personally have next to no knowledge of most comic books and anime, yet I am great with computers. I have friends that are the exact opposite. Most of my friends have never played more than one game of Dungeons and Dragons, if any at all. Not all nerds hate sports. In fact, many are good at them. These are just a fraction of the misconceptions that can be dispelled in just a sentence.

There are many different subgroups in nerd culture; not every nerd likes all nerdy things. There are computer nerds, like me, who know much more about computers than the average person. There are RPG nerds, who spend their time LARPing or playing tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder. There are comic book nerds, who quite simply read comic books. There are literary nerds who appreciate reading and such. There are other nerds that enjoy other aspects of education. And even though there are all of these groups and more, most nerds fall under more than one.

They way the Big Bang Theory portrays nerds is very disheartening to me. They over exaggerate everything, most of the references are either incorrect or unreasonable, and they follow the untrue nerd stereotypes like a bible. A lot of the humour that involves the character Sheldon is making fun of severe mental illness, which is disgusting. The characters try to be part of every nerd subgroup out there, which makes them unrealistic. I’ve heard this show described on the internet as “Nerd Blackface.” Unfortunately, this is not too much of an exaggeration.

Malaysian Airlines Tragedy

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boeing_777_9m-mro_mh370

By Jon Roshan

How can a giant Boeing 777 get lost without any clues? On March 8 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared from air traffic control. The disappearance has been an entire mystery due to the lack of any distress call or notification.

Later, it was found out that someone deliberately shut off the airplane’s transponder and this is what has created many conspiracy theories. Immediately, people were coming up with conspiracy theories such as possible pilot suicide to even more abnormal theories, such as the plane being struck by a meteor.

At first, one detail was brought up and that was that two Iranian men had stolen passports and since we live in a post 9/11 world people were startled and demanded a search of who these people were. As it turned out, the government found nothing linking them to any extremist groups and they concluded that these two men were simply looking to leave Iran.

Malaysian government officials haven’t ruled out hijacking, sabotage, pilot suicide or mass murder, and they are checking the backgrounds of all 227 passengers and 12 crew members along with the pilot and the co-pilot. Malaysian officials have also been attempting to be very careful with their words because of their uncertainty of some things and this seems to have just caused more and more anxiety and anger for the families affected.

As police investigate the two pilots of a Malaysian passenger jet that disappeared more than a week ago, a possibility they must consider is that one of them deliberately crashed the plane. Cases like deliberately crashing a plane have been seen before, but families are attempting to hope that this theory simply isn’t true.

On Saturday, Malaysian police confiscated a flight simulator from the pilot’s home and also visited the home of the co-pilot. On March 19 2014, Australia gave a potential lead when they mentioned that theirs satellites found a couple of strange objects near them and this was in range. As of then, ships have been dispatched to attempt to find the wreckage and possibly find an answer for this mysterious event.

For now, all we can do is wait and pray for flight MH370 and our hearts and prayers go out to all the families impacted by these events.

March 24th, 2014 Update: Based on evidence found by the ACARS, the Prime Minister of Malaysia reported that the aircraft was lost in the Indian Ocean and and that none of the passengers or crew on board survived. Our hearts go out to all the families and we send our condolences to all who are affected by this horrible tragedy.

Film Review: Non-Stop

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By Peter Leonardo

Non stop photoIn this film the main character, Bill Marks, played by Liam Neeson, is a U.S Air Marshall who’s going on a flight from New York City to London.

In the beginning, he is shown to be an alcoholic and in the movie, that’s how he relieves stress. When the plane gets to a cruising altitude, that’s when Marks starts getting these text messages demanding to instruct the Airline to transfer 150 million dollars into an account.For every twenty minutes the money isn’t transferred, someone will die.

If you are a fan of Liam Neeson and action thrillers, I say it’s a must see movie.

Class Profile: Street Law

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Interview by Max Cruz

This is Jeff.

This is Jeff.

One of the classes that Jeff teaches is Street Law. This a class that will really have an impact on students even when they graduate from school (hopefully assuming that they all graduate). Being in this class, it’s rather curious how the minds of the students are blown every lesson.

Once you think you know something, another student’s view could flip the way you think about that topic. I had a chance to interview Jeff this week. Note that Jeff is a very busy man. This interview is completely unaltered and unedited.

Max: Jeff, what do feel is the importance of teaching this class?

Jeff: To teach students how to understand how the law works.

Max: Do you think students will be applying what they learn in this class to real life situations?

Jeff: Yes.

Max: Do you think these lessons will have an impact on the way people think of the law?

Jeff: Yes.

Max: What subjects will you be covering in the class?

Jeff: The law.

Max: Thank you Jeff.

Jeff: You’re welcome.

 

 

Nerds Have Their Own Sports, Too

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By Jonah Wolmark

Magic: the Gathering logo

Magic: the Gathering logo

When you hear “sports”, you probably think of people running around, throwing or hitting things and such. But, that’s not the entirety of sports. Magic: the Gathering, an extremely popular Collectible Card Game (CCG), has an entire culture revolving around competitive play. There are huge tournaments consisting of some of the best Magic players from all around the globe, many times a year. But before I get into that, what exactly is Magic?

Magic: the Gathering (also known as MTG, or just Magic) is a Collectible Card Game created by Richard Garfield, and first published in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. In the game, players are powerful spellcasters, their decks representing their arsenal of spells. Magic decks can be any size greater than, or equal to, 60 cards. This minimum does change between different formats of play, but I’ll get into that later. Any given deck can only have a maximum of 4 of any given card in it, again, with a few exceptions. At the beginning of the game, each player draws an opening hand of 7 cards. If a player doesn’t like the cards they drew, they can “mulligan”, or shuffle their hand into their deck and draw another hand with one less card. As the game progresses, the players’ goals are to reduce their opponents’ life points to 0 from 20. Players normally achieve this by summoning creatures to attack their opponents. But that’s not the only way to win. For example, if a player has no more cards in his deck, usually caused by the game going too long or spells that remove cards from their deck, that player loses.

There are many different formats of playing MTG. All formats are divided up into 2 major categories: Constructed and Limited. In Constructed, players have decks with 60 card minimums that they build before playing. In Limited, decks with 40 card minimums are built from a specific card pool, usually a number of booster packs. Examples of widely played and notable Constructed formats are Vintage, Legacy, Modern, Standard, and Block. Each Constructed format has a different selection of cards that are legal to use in play. Limited play is rather different, however. In Limited, decks are built from a certain card pool as part of the event. Each Limited format has a different way to build your deck from your card pool, and many have different card pools, so summarizing the format is difficult beyond this.

On March 7-9 2014, the largest Constructed tournament to ever be held in the history of Magic: the Gathering occurred. This tournament was a “Grand Prix”, which means that anyone from around the world can enter, and the winners get immense prizes. Held in Richmond, Virginia, there was a total of 4303 participants. Only one, Brian Liu, emerged victorious. The top 8 highest placing players got invitations to the next Pro Tour, which is another important tournament that, as the name suggests, only the best Magic players participate in.

Student Profile: James Heinlein

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By Jon Roshan

Village School junior, James Heinlein.

Village School junior, James Heinlein.

Here at Village School, there are so many different students with different personalities who impact the school in numerous ways. James Heinlein is a student who has brought something to the school that is irreplaceable. That thing is his attitude. James is known for his hilarious and quirky sense of humor, which can be completely random at times. James’s sense of humor touches upon things such as references to internet memes to jokes about his favorite food, bacon.  And although these are things that anyone can speak about, James finds a way to make them funny in ways others can’t.

But, there are many instances when James shows his ability to be a kind friend and a great listener. When speaking to James, you feel like no matter what is going on, everything will end up being alright.

When asked what he thought about the school, James responded, “I think The Village School is a great place because it is a more interesting learning community than any other school.” James has expressed his gratitude for the teachers of the school when he said “A lot of the teachers here have a lot of insight on how I may obtain my goals of getting into college and getting a job.” When asked about his favorite class James stated, “I would probably say Business Math because some classes seem to give us information that seems to be irrelevant for the time being as opposed to Business Math, which teaches you actual useful skills in managing your finances and whatnot.”

When asked about his plans after high school he said, “My future plans after leaving the school are to go to college and get a job where I make a comfortable amount of money and see the world.” James also mentioned why he loves making people laugh and smile with his sense of humor.  “I like making people laugh because it’s much better than being bored. I like to notice things that just happen and make jokes of them. When I make a person laugh, I feel like it adds to the atmosphere, rather than everyone just sitting around tired and unamused.”

In expressing these sentiments, it’s clear James loves it when others are happy, which is a generous and wonderful thing. People like James make this school what it is and we are so grateful to have such a kind and interesting student among our Village School Family.

Going Bald to Help Cure Kids with Cancer

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By Tyler Plaktsis

The "Before" Shot: Tyler has been growing his hair out for the big shave as part of St. Baldrick's Foundation's annual event.

The “Before” Shot: Tyler has been growing his hair out for the big shave as part of St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s annual event.

On July 4th, 1999, Tim Kenny issued a challenge to his colleagues, John Bender and Enda McDonnell: How will you give back in return for your own good fortune in business? Enda’s full head of hair gave John an idea: Shave their heads in exchange for donations and give all the proceeds to cancer research.

The first event had only 19 “shavees”, but raised $104,000, all of which was donated to The Children’s Oncology Group. Now, anywhere from 100 to 2000 people are shavees in head shaving events that occur all over the country and millions of dollars have been raised.

This year, I will be a first time participant because I would like to help contribute to research to help cure childhood cancers. Saint Baldricks is run solely by volunteers and all of the proceeds go right to charity. This charity is doing a great thing.

Go to http://www.stbaldricks.org to find out more about this charity and check out The Villager next week to hear about the event and see my “After” photo!

Understanding the Goth Subculture

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By Max Cruz

There's more to Goth than you think.

There’s more to Goth than you think.

The Goth Subculture is something people really take for granted. Goths, you see shouldn’t be judged by the stereotypes that surround us. Look, do you think of stereotypes as the entire truth? I certainly hope not. So then, why do people tend to think in such ways? Perhaps it’s just that people are afraid of what they don’t understand.

Many hear the term, “Goth” and imagine a person who acts mopey and hates life. Well, guess what? That couldn’t be further from the truth. We’re not into that crap!

Here’s the deal with Goth: it was originally a branch of Punk that became it’s own subculture. We dress in a certain way. But, the way a Goth chooses to dress depends on the branch of the subculture with which he or she chooses to identify. We listen to a certain kind of music. Originally, Goth music was Alternative/Dark Wave/Post-Punk music which included bands such as The Bauhaus, Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees, The Sisters of Mercy, The Cure, etc.

But at one point, Goth went techno, and so, the first branch of Goth, CyberGoth, was born. Cyber-Goth is a more futuristic style, with followers wearing such items as goggles and respirators. Goth has divided into more branches over the years and so has the sound of the music. Newer examples of Goth music include Evanescence, Within Temptation, Leaves Eyes and Emilie Autumn.

Goths are actually happier than you would think! We’re still human beings after all. Goth is also type of literature. Notable Gothic authors include Edgar Allen Poe, Neil Gaiman and Anne Rice.

Still curious? Look into it. Post any questions below and I will be sure to answer them!

Breaking News!!!! New Species Discovered!!!

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shark-horseBy Buk Lau

Discovered by unsuspecting campers, roaming deep in the Bornian Rainforest, the animal was seen with its pants down. Embarrassed, it ran away and was not seen again for 11 days 6 hours 42 minutes and 13.5 seconds. Originally thinking it was a unicorn, the campers couldn’t believe what they saw. When authorities arrived on the scene, the campers were found dead 43.3333333 millimeters from their camp site.

During the call to the authorities, the animal was discribed as a mix of a horse and a shark. In the pocket of one of the camper’s a cellular phone was recovered, on which a photo of this animal had been taken. Using this photo, we were able to track down this incredible species and its entire flock! The newly discovered animal has been named the Horse Shark. The head of the flock, the flurgle, agreed to an exclusive interview with only our news team!!

Buk Lau: How long has your species has been around?

Flurgle: Yes

Buk Lau: Where have you been all these years?

Flurgle: Tuesday

Buk Lau: What other animals can you communicate with?

Flurgle: Tuna… salad sandwiches…and the aliens that are invading on Friday.

Buk Lau: Well, then. Thank you for your time.

Flurgle: No problem… But, now I have some roasted chicken to attend to.

After the interview, the Flurgle mingled with our crew and had his way with the Kraft food services table. He hasn’t been seen since.

THE SHALLOT

by Eric Bernstein