All posts by HPSH Plaid Line

Entertainment, Movies/TV/Theaters

Movie Review – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

By: Gigi LeFebvre

Like most movies based off of Young Adult series (or YA for short), the last movie/book is split into two parts. The last Hunger Games book, Mockingjay, was published in 2010 where in shortly the first movie was produced and was a huge hit. For many fans, the last book was disappointing and was hoping that the movie would change a few things that would help improve it, which it did.

The movie starts at least a month after the ending of Catching Fire where Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is now in District 13, the district many thought was destroyed by the Capitol many years ago. The Rebellion against the Capitol has taken base underground in District 13 and are planning on using Katniss as the image for the cause. Katniss not only has to deal with inner demons as she continues to suffer from PTSD but with the treats from the Capitol and from the leader of the Rebellion itself.

Unlike the first two movies, there isn’t much action in this first part. Much of it takes place in District 13 where the Rebellion is planning propaganda (or “Propos”)and getting all of the districts of Panem on their side. The few times Katniss is seen outside is when she’s being filmed for Propos, in which Lawrence shows off her best.

Acting wise, the cast is still very strong. Jennifer Lawrence is powerful as ever and continues to portray a teenager with PTSD appropriately and near flawlessly. Julianne Moore (who plays President Coin, the leader of District 13 and the Rebellion) is able to show that she’s as much of a dictator as President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Best of all, Josh Hutcherson (Peeta Mellark) has greatly improved as an actor in these past movies. Having to play a person suffering from more than one kind of pain and doing it well not easy, but Hutcherson does it.

As a fan of these books and the movies, I have to be honest in saying that Mockingjay is the weakest of the books. They’re all written in Katniss’ perspective, which lets you know that she makes it through the end and that much of the interpretations of the situations are biased. However, the movie was very good.

The real question is: Was it necessary to split it into two parts?
In some ways, yes. Since they added and changed a lot in the movie, like showing what was happening in the Capitol and in the Districts rebelling, having the first part as a calm-before-the-storm was what was going to set up the main action of the ending. Obviously Lionsgate split it up solely for money reasons, but for the plot it makes the most sense. Reading the book should not be done in one day, it’s far too slow for that. Having the first part show the plans and the consequences of said plans leads up to an explosive ending (badaboom stss).

Four Stars (There would’ve been more if my favorite line hadn’t been cut out)

Entertainment, Local, News

Friends of Highland Arts (FHA)

By Maeve Gimpl

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Image source: http://audubonpto.org/home/arts-reach-starts-this-week/

Friends of Highland Arts (FHA) is a newly launched organization here at Highland that supports both curricular and extra-curricular arts education. Visual, cultural, musical, literary, and performing arts will be supported. FHA believes the arts are a great way to create a stronger community for students, families, teachers, and volunteers.

This new non-profit organization will reach out to the middle and elementary schools in Highland in an effort to support arts programming and to facilitate older students mentoring younger middle school and elementary aged children. The vision is to create a unique Highland Park arts identity.

FHA will also strive to develop community partnerships and funding for arts education. In addition, the organization will provide exciting volunteer opportunities for parents to get involved.

Mrs. Colleen Zuro-White and Mrs. Anne Gimpl (my mom) developed the organization as new parents to Highland Senior last year. Conversations and early reports indicate a great deal of support and enthusiasm for the organization. Highland Park Senior High School’s IB Coordinator Ms. Charlotte Landreau has agreed to serve on the board. After asking what FHA is hoping to accomplish in the near future, Mrs. Gimpl replied, “Right now, Friends of Highland Arts is in its beginning stages. We want to get the word out and create some enthusiasm for our awesome arts programs!”

CALLING ALL THOSE WANTING TO SHOW OFF THEIR EXCELLENT DESIGNING SKILLS: Friends of Highland Arts is looking for a logo to represent their organization. Stay tuned for more info on the HP website.

Questions? Comments? Email friendsofhighlandarts@gmail.com

Prezi presentation “FHA Overview”(https://prezi.com/fwblhccnm3-l/fha-overview/)

Clubs and Activities

Highland Math Team Heading Towards 20th Year at State

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By: Tate Bosler
The Highland Park Math Team had its first meet of the 2014-2015 season Monday at Central High School. While the team has been very successful for a long time – going to the state tournament every year for the past 19 – Monday’s meet brought another triumph as Highland defeated Central and the rest of the St. Paul City Division for the first time in six years, with a final score of 83-74. Juniors David (“D-Wheezy”) White and Katie Watson led the team to victory with 13 and 12 points respectively.
The math season runs from mid-October to mid-February, and it is composed of five meets plus a state tournament in March. Highland competes with the seven high schools in the athletic conference, plus Cretin-Derham Hall and Saint Paul Preparatory School. The meets have four individual events, lettered A, B, C and D, and a team event at the end. Each of the individual events is centered around a specific topic – Event A is mostly algebra, while Event B focuses on topics from geometry – and is worth 7 points. Events are much like short math quizzes, with students only having 12 minutes to complete them.
Eight students are pre-selected as “starters” before each meet, and their scores count towards the school’s score. They also participate in the team event at the end of the meet, a 20-minute, 6-question, 24-point event that they work on together. Highland scored a perfect 24 on the T event this meet.
The math team is well on its way to participating in the state tournament for 20 consecutive years. The team’s next meet is November 24th.
Team Twitter: @hp_mathteam
Team Coaches: Michael O’Connell & Christopher Anderson
Team Captains: Tate Bosler (senior, @ichiefboz) & Katie Watson (junior, @coffeemoose)
Getting To Know/History

Getting to know our SCSU student teachers

By: Maeve Gimpl

Ms. Allie Meyer, studying social studies education

As many of you already know, Highland has welcomed two student teachers from Saint Cloud State University. They stand alongside our current teachers here at HP to further engage in their final steps of learning before finally becoming educators themselves. I was able to spend a little time with Mr. Johnson and Ms. Meyer last week to ask them what a normal day for them would look like, as well as how they’re liking it so far.

To start off their regular morning, both student teachers get up bright and early to head to Highland for a long day of work. Ms. Meyer can be found teaching U.S. government with Mr. Zeitchick during the day, while Mr. Johnson heads up to Ms. Rise’s room to help teach geography. Both student teachers were telling me how much they enjoy working with not only their designated teachers but with the students as well!

For Ms. Meyer, this wasn’t her first time student teaching at a school; in fact, she’s on her fourth and final school that she has to teach at before she can finally become a teacher! I asked Ms. Meyer what her first day here at Highland was like. “I LOVED it,” she immediately replied. She proceeded to tell me that her favorite part of teaching so far has been interacting with the students–”and having them make fun of me,” she added with a laugh. When I asked her if she had a least favorite part of teaching, she said she didn’t have one! “I’m right where I’m supposed to be…I’m lovin’ life at HP!”

Mr. Kyle Johnson, studying social studies education with an emphasis on history

Mr. Johnson, just like Ms. Meyer, also said that his favorite part of teaching has been being able to interact with all the people at Highland. “I’ve had a lot of fun meeting the students and getting to know them,” Mr. Johnson admits. “It makes my day to be able to hang out with kids who are fun and have really good things to say!” He also told me that he has enjoyed his time with Ms. Rise both inside and outside of school, adding that they’ve even gone canoeing together on Lake Calhoun. Besides student teaching, Mr. Johnson loves biking, video games, and fantasy football.

It was great being able to get to know Ms. Meyer and Mr. Johnson this past week. One response really stuck out for me. When I asked both of them what their dream job would be, if they knew they could be successful in any career that they pursued, they both responded with confidence, “high school teacher.” This really shows how passionate and excited they are to continue their last bit of student teaching so that they can finally become teachers themselves!

Ms. Meyer conducting some one on one instruction about the Constitutional Convention
Sports

Girls tennis season recap

By: Emma Dombrow

Last year’s HPSH Girls Tennis Varsity and JV Teams

The girls tennis team had a great season this year, even though three of the starting varsity players were injured and out for most of the season. Our season started out with captain’s practices during the last week of July and will be finished as of Thursday 10/9.

Our season is almost finished, but we still have two more major events left!  First is the individual sections at the University of Minnesota.  It’s a competition where two singles players and two doubles teams from each school get to skip a day of school and compete.  This year from Highland, Anja Savic (10), Leah Barrett (12), Sabrina Hang (11), and Katie Tennis (11) will be competing for the doubles teams.  Emma Dombrow (11) and Preianna Swenson (12) will be the two singles players that are competing. Besides being a very fun opportunity, after the matches the players and Coaches go out to BDubs to eat wings and have some team bonding time.

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2014 Captains Leah Barrett and Sabrina Hang

Besides the individual sections, we also have our final end of the year banquet at Olive Garden in honor of a great season.  At the banquet, varsity letters will be given out to the players, and recognition certificates will be given out to the JV players as well.  We will also give our final thanks to our two great captains this year, Sabrina Hang (11) and Leah Barrett (12).  They had great team spirit and without their leadership the team would not have bonded together as well.

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Varsity and JV girls Katherine Jossi, Sydney Linssen, Elisa Machlitt, and Emma Dombrow

Next Year’s Season:  If you, or anyone you know, is interested in joining the tennis team, I would highly recommend it!  There is always room for anyone who wants to play, and it is a very fun sport with lots of friendly teammates.  If you would like to join or have any questions, contact Mr. Shaw or any of the varsity players.  Hopefully we will get some new girls next year!

Varsity Players:

(Coach Shaw)

Singles:

  1. Ana Savic (10)
  2. Leah Barrett (12)
  3. Sydney Linssen (10)/Emma Dombrow (11)
  4. Preianna Swenson (12)

Doubles:

  1. Katherine Jossi/Sabrina Hang and Katie Tennis(11)
  2. Georgia Angelo and Colleen Welter (10)
  3. Lily Brown and Marah Prpich (11)

JV Players

(Coach Andy)

  • Lily Weisman (12)
  • Elisa Machlitt (11)
  • Sami Linssen (8)
  • Neesha Moore (9)
  • Grace (10)
  • Rachel Van Fleet (7)
  • Natalie (12)
  • Nehali Van Der Leeuw (10)
  • Francis Atmore (7)
  • Lauren (8)
  • Shu Ye (9)
  • Sophie (8)
  • Grace (11)

Questions about the team? Contact Head Coach Michael Shaw: michael.shaw@spps.org

Fashion/Make-Up

Basic tips: Leggings

By: Izzy Rojas

“Basic Tips” is a new lifestyle column that focuses around what’s popular with the average high school girl. Written with expert consultation from the girls themselves, “Basic Tips” centers around fashion, events, and everyday high school life. This month’s topic: leggings.

A major debate these days seems to be focused around what type of leggings are the best. Girls are wearing leggings much more regularly than jeans for comfort sake. Leggings are the go-to clothing choice for almost any occasion. You may be asking yourself: there’s more than one type of black legging? Aren’t they all the same? Think again. Below is a comparison chart of the pros, cons, and prices of the five major players in the game. Take a look and decide for yourself!

Movies/TV/Theaters

End of year movie reviews

By Gigi LeFebvre

Reviews of two of the latest big releases, The Fault in our Stars and X-Men: Days of Future Past


The Fault in Our Stars

Whether you follow the hype of young adult novels/series becoming movies, you can’t deny how well they’re doing for the box-office. Movie franchises that started off as book series like The Hunger Games and Harry Potter have been the kind of investments that make money because of its large base, and The Fault in Our Stars is no different.

Hazel Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) has a terminal lung cancer that should’ve killed her years ago but still lives thanks to a lot of medication and an air tank. She meets Gus Waters (Ansel Elgort) after a cancer support group and the two strike up a bond unlike any other romance movie. Based on the best selling novel by John Green, the story is one for the ages, even if it is not a happy one.

A good movie formula is this: Good Writer + Fantastic Cast – Long Running Franchise=Oscar Worthy, this movie has everything it needs and more. Sure, this movie might be taken for granted because of all the young actors and it being based on a young adult novel, but it shouldn’t.

This moving film is filled with life lessons that even the healthiest of people should learn from; life is not a wish granting factory, and making an impact on one person is more important that making an impact on the whole world. Though this movie is hard to get through because of the reality of death and cancer, it is surprisingly heartwarming.

Five Stars and Two Tissue Boxes

You can read about the girl that inspired the book and the organization “This Star Won’t Go Out” here—>http://tswgo.org/our-mission.html

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Marvel Studios is famous for its Summer Blockbusters. This summer, they’re already making millions with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. So it was a bit shocking to find that X-Men: Days of Future Past wasn’t as good as expected.

Set in a apocalyptic future where Mutants are being hunted into extinction by Sentinels, robots created by humans that can detect Mutant DNA even in the most normal looking disguise. The only way to stop them is by going back into the past and stopping Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from causing this dark future. Which sounded like a good idea in the comics when Shadowcat (Ellen Page) goes into the future, but in the movie they had to change a few things in order to work with the story line of the movies. So much to nobody’s surprise, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is sent back.

As a person who loves the X-Men, I had some expectations that this movie would make me forget that The Last Stand ever happened, which it did. However, this movie was very hard to follow. With the conflicting storyline between what happens in the comics and what happened in the movies, there was no way to properly execute what could happen next for the X-Men. Bryan Singer, the director of Days of Future Past, tried to connect what he had done in First Class to the older movies in order to make a brighter future for the franchise, which seems nearly impossible.

Despite all the great actors and great story, this movie was boring and confusing. Not to mention I couldn’t even count how many times Wolverine said, “By the way, I’m for the future”.

Marvel has been beating the dead horse known as the X-Men franchise for too long, making two solo Wolverine movies and First Class. Frankly, if they want to make things right, a reboot with a new cast is what’s going to do it. It’s very hard to fix a vase that’s been thrown out an airplane.

Three Stars because Quicksilver was the only thing I really enjoyed.

Editorials/Student Voice, School Life

Student editorial: Highland Student Council (STUCO) elections

917d34b8eb6e90866f55eb687a7566ad_biggerRecently, the Highland Park Student Council held elections for positions on the 2014-2015 school year executive board. The election results for the executive board were as follows:

 

  • Mimi Mejia (’15) – President
  • Maddy Costello (’15) – Vice President
  • James Farnsworth (’16) – Director of Communications
  • Ryan Ross (’16) – Treasurer
  • Tate Bosler (’15) – Logistics
  • Zenobia Aferworki (’15) – Director of Merchandise

These positions were determined by a vote from members of the Student Council full house. Last fall, full house members presented speeches to an audience of STUCO advisors, school administration, and members of this year’s executive board, and were elected by an executive board vote.

This year’s election has brought to mind the lack of transparency in the election process, both for full house members and for executive members such as the President. The student council itself is not entirely at fault. Because of the inconvenience in interrupting class time for voting, individual students have little say in these crucial elections, despite the fact that the student council representatives are supposed to represent all of Highland Park.

As student council works to become more integrated into the student body, the lack of student voice in the election of the executive board and full house is going to have to be addressed. According to an anonymous person affiliated with Student Council , “I feel that students should be able to pick their representation in student council. As a student council and a body that is representing the students, all students that go to the school should be able to vote on who is serving on it, especially on the executive committee.”

Questions were also raised as to the legitimacy of the elections after the addition of executive board positions that were included after voting, and not included in the initial list of roles. The anonymous source continued: “I also feel that the executive board had pretty straight-forward positions, so why did they create new positions just because individuals lost an election?”

Student Council is a organization that does many great things for the Highland community and is a strong asset to the school, however us students would like more of a say on who represents us and who has a voice in planning important events, representing student interests, and sharing ideas on how to improve Highland.

If you have any comments you’d like to share with us regarding this editorial, please email us at: hpshplaidline@gmail.com 

 

Wrestling

Wrestling team update

By Chris Young

This wrestling season so far has been pretty exciting. Of course it has had its ups and downs, but one thing that has made it exciting is the athleticism of our wrestlers!

We have 4 freshman wrestling this year: Desmond, Zack, Antonio, and David. These freshman are pretty tough and have proved that they should be on our team. They also show a lot of resilience against stronger, smarter and older wrestlers. It’s pretty fun to see when our 1st year freshmen wrestle like the older, more experienced wrestlers.

Our sophomores have a strong core as well, with 8 of total wrestlers, and 5 of them starters. It’s a better younger squad. Our sophomores are Dean, Ethan, Jeff, Jake, Bluhmy, Jack, Qadre, Andy, Ger, Jeff, and John.

Now, our juniors are 2 really stronger competitors: Billy and Steven. These two wrestlers are really experienced and talented.

Then we have our senior, me, Chris. So far this season I’ve seen tons of improvement and have really enjoyed working with this group of athletes. I also look forward to wrestling at Como Park tonight at 7 p.m.

Photo From Wrestling Team Update

Photo From Wrestling Team Update

Photo From Wrestling Team Update

Movies/TV/Theaters

Movie review – ‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’

By Gigi LeFebvre

Whether you’re a fan or not, it’s hard to ignore the hype that’s been radiating from the second movie installment of The Hunger Games franchise: Catching Fire. The trilogy, written by Suzanne Collins, has made itself at home at the top of the New York Times Bestseller list since the first book was published. Now, its movies are setting up shop at the top of the box office. On opening night, the domestic box office totaled approximately $25 million, and the weekend of release brought it up to $136.1 million.

Many people complained and were put off by the first movie: from shaky camera shots to Liam Hemsworth’s brooding looks, or the grisly fact that twenty four kids were forced to fight to the death for entertainment as people watched. However, many may rest assured knowing that with a new director and a bigger budget that Catching Fire is a film you should not miss.

The movie takes place a few months after the events of the first movie. Katniss Everdeen, played by Academy Award winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, returns home after winning the 74th Hunger Games with her fellow tribute and fake lover Peeta Mallark (Josh Hutcherson). The two of them then have to embark on the Capitol’s victory tour, where they visit all twelve districts. Katniss and Peeta won the games by attempting to eat poisonous berries. Many people in the Capitol saw this as just an act of love, while people in the districts saw the underlining meaning of defiance. This is what ignites the revolts and rebellions within the districts that Katniss visits during the tour. Katniss and Peeta then find themselves being forced to participate in the Quarter Quell, a special Hunger Games that takes place every 25 years. This time they are up against past winners of the Hunger Games from the other districts.

As a fan of the books, I saw The Hunger Games last year at the ungodly hour of 3:15 AM on the day it came out. So naturally, I then saw Catching Fire at 11:30 PM on the night before its release. Nevertheless, I was not disappointed, even though a scene I was anxious to see was cut out. Despite reading these books many times, I still found myself sitting at the edge of my seat thinking, “Run! Run! Run! Run! Run!”. Half of the movie is intense drama that leads up to thrilling action and suspense that doesn’t stop until the credits roll.

Fans of the books will enjoy not only the new actors like Sam Claflin (cast as Finnick Odair of District 4) and Jena Malone (cast as Johanna Mason from District 7), but the use of direct quotes from the books. I found that to be the most exciting thing. Even if you’re not a super involved fan or you haven’t read the books, you can still enjoy the story. The aesthetically pleasing scenery and graphics make this dystopian world all the more believable and real. The performances given by these talented actors and actresses are moving and powerful. Relatively obscure actors and actresses like Clafin will leave lasting impressions. I was exceptionally moved by Jennifer Lawrence’s portrayal of PTSD, which her character developed from being in the last games.

However, this movie is obviously not for everyone. There’s less blood and gore compared to the last movie, but there are scenes with loud explosions and noises that might give you a jolt. Unless you disapprove of violence and death, you shouldn’t have much to worry about with this movie. I recommend that you see it.