Randall “Dunn” With Roeper

Tuna
Talk
Vol. XII, Issue II
The Roeper School
December 2010
Marketing Committee’s “Gifted”-less Ad Campaign Angers Community
by Francesca Bennett
The Roeper Marketing Committee’s decision to
eliminate the word “gifted”
from all school ads has students, parents, and teachers
starting to pay more attention
to how the school portrays
itself in promotional campaigns.
“They’re gearing
away from the giftedness, and
that’s what our school has
been about for the past 50
or 60 years,” freshman Levi
Teitel says. Roeper was designated as a school for gifted
children 54 years ago.
This switch from using the term “gifted” to a new
approach was made early in
the 2009-2010 school year.
The new ads are showing
better application and admissions results for the school
than previous “gifted-ad
years.”
One of the main concerns is that the ads do not
accurately portray the school.
The Upper School ad focuses
on one hypothetical student’s
perfect AP score.
“It sounds conceited,”
junior Katie Saslow says. “It
should show our achievement
in a lot of different areas so
that you can appeal to a variety of kids – people in visual
arts, athletics, forensics, and
theater–and not just focus on
academics,”
“This could describe
any school,” senior Todd
Baker says of one advertise-
ment. Interim Middle School
Director Carolyn Borman
agrees that“giftedness” is a
main focus of the school. “I
don’t like it,” Borman says, in
reference to the “AP Biology”
ad. “The image and the comparison is the wrong thing.”
Upper School Director Lisa Baker declined to
comment.
Past advertisements
have featured the term
“gifted,” as well as school
pictures of current or former
students.
Admissions and
Marketing Director Lori
Zinser explains the reason for
the elimination of the word.
“We want to attract people
without using the word
gifted because we feel that
many prospective parents
didn’t know what it meant or
didn’t know how to recognize it in their children,” she
says.
The Roeper Marketing Committee is a team of
12 people that helps create
and market advertisement
campaigns for the school. The
board is comprised of Lori
Zinser, Director of Admissions and Marketing; Katie
Westbury, Marketing Associate; Sharon Pink, Marketing
Associate; Bonnie Schemm,
Graphic Artist; Carri Hammers, Advertising Associate
and current parent; Marcia
Ruff, School Historian and
former parent; Anne Gaha-
gan, current parent with
experience in marketing and
liaison for the Board of Trustees to the committee; Elli
Altman, Admissions Associate and former parent; Jamie
Michelson, current parent
and President of SMZ Advertising; two representatives
from an outside marketing
firm, Identity Marketing; and
Randall Dunn, current parent
and Head of School
Dunn is a supporter
of the “gifted-free” ads. “The
whole point of marketing is
to share enough about the
kind of thing that goes on in
school, to catch someone’s
eye. We’re not trying to
educate about what Roeper
is.” Dunn says, “What [the
ads] are supposed to do is to
encourage people check the
school out. People outside
of Roeper don’t know what
‘gifted’ is.”
At the Middle and
Upper School Open House on
November 7th, the new advertisements proved successful for the admissions staff,
with a record-setting number
of 59 families attending.
Those who attended represented a wide geographical
area, with people from as far
as Romulus, Flat Rock, Ypsilanti, and Windsor, Ontario.
“It’s always hard to
pinpoint what specifically
prompts a family to inquire,
and it’s almost always a
combination of things,” Zin-
Randall “Dunn” With Roeper
This ad has been successful in attracting prospective
students, but, students and staff wonder, at what cost?
ser says. “What we do know
handed out to people at over
about the new ad, which has
14 outreach events is that
appeared in several papers,
parents do seem to resonate
on postcards we mail to tarwith it.”
geted families, and also have
Head of School Discusses His Resignation
by Ben Kochanowski
Over the weekend
of November 5th, Head of
School Randall Dunn announced via email that he
would not return to Roeper
after the 2010-2011 school
year. He also announced that
he had accepted the head
position at the Latin School, a
preporatory school in Chicago, where he will move with
wife Liz and daughters, sixth
grader Chase and seventh
grader Hunter.
Tuna Talk sat down
with Dunn to discuss his
decision to leave Roeper after
seven years, his goals for the
rest of the school year, and
his ever shifting sports allegiances.
Black Dahlia’s
Brian Eschbach
‘01
p. 4
Tuna Talk: When did you
start considering moving on
from Roeper?
Randall Dunn: Probably at
the end of last year . Not
really seriously at that time,
but [it was] really something
to think about. . . . It was a
combination of a lot of things.
One was the fact that I had
one more year on a contract
with the school, and also I
thought about my kids ages.
I don’t want to pull them out
in the middle of high school,
so that went into consideration as well. As we got into
the fall, which is around the
time where headhunters and
people who are conducting
Lasting Effects
of the Internet
p. 8
searches get in touch with
you, you start to learn about
opportunities that might be
there. So that’s when the
alarms go off, and you start
thinking about it.
experience in their life. It’s
going to be a roller coaster,
but when they back away
and think about it, they get
excited about the new stuff.
TT: What do Hunter and
Chase think about this?
RD: When we first told them,
they just cried. I think that
they always thought they
were going to graduate from
Roeper, so it was really sad
for them. But as they thought
about the different things that
were involved–they thought
about living in a city, which
is something they’ve never
done. We think it’s kind of
cool for them to have that
TT: The Latin School in
Chicago, where you’re going to be Head next year, is
relatively more conservative
than Roeper and considerably larger. Were you looking for such a change?
RD: I wasn’t looking for
anything more conservative. In fact, that’s one of the
things that’s really interesting about the school. It has
a rep of being one of the
more conservative [schools in
Chicago] because the oth-
Artist Weiwei
Faces CCP
p. 7
For Students,
Primo’s Delivers
p. 9
ers are more ’progressive’
schools. It is sort of seen as
the elite school, but when you
visit and when you see it, it’s
different. I wouldn’t go to a
place where the girls were
going to be uncomfortable.
It’s definitely a bigger school.
There’s over 1,000 kids, and
that’s a new and different
challenge. It means a different role that I’ll play. While
it’s scary, I like what that
means for me professionally. I
was looking for some of those
things. There’s no place like
Roeper, so it’s always going to
be a little bit more conservative than Roeper no matter
where I go.
Continued on page 3
Surviving by
Vending
Machine
p. 6
2
Tuna Talk
CommunitY
Internet Trolling
You Rage - You Lose
by Duncan Burns
What defines the
credibility of humor? If
people believe in earnest that
they are being funny, does
that justify the means by
which they get a laugh?
Recently at Roeper,
the term “troll” has entered
the public consciousness;
although it was already familiar with certain members of
the student body, many were
baffled. They failed to grasp
the scope of this phenomenon’s existence.
For those not in the
know, a troll is someone who
presents intentional logical
fallacies on the Internet in
order to illicit a response.
Pranksters have always created misinformation as a way
of concealing their true intentions, but with the rise of the
Internet comes a level playing field, where widespread
anonymity allows anyone to
become such a joker. This
creates a problem: how does
one separate the intentional
jokers from the millions of
other idiots on the Internet?
To put it simply, the difference is all in the level of skill:
only those who are doing it
wrong stand out.
Let’s play a game:
we’ll call it “Good Troll, Bad
Troll.” Say, for instance, that,
on a political message board,
someone starts spouting that
Obama has been shot; this is
a Bad Troll. By stating something so easily debunkable,
the only response that that
person could hope to garner
is a weary “go away.”
Now, in contrast,
if someone on Lady Gaga’s
Editor’s Note
The Internet is an
ocean, and we the fish. Trolls
simply bait their hooks and
wait for anyone slow enough
to bite, and, once you’ve been
hooked, they’re never going
to give you up.
One cannot assume
that every inflammatory comment leads to some elaborate
joke any more than one can
suppose that everyone he
or she meets is a cool guy.
In fact, the majority of attempts at trollery lean toward
backward-thinkers trying
to communicate their hate
through humor. But we can
deal with all of these people
Illustration by Lorenz Mager in the same manner. When
fansite started comparing her someone writes a slur or
tries to irk you, calm down,
to Madonna while implying
because the second you get
that this constituted plagiamad, you’ve lost the game.
rism rather than homage, he
or she would immediately be
swarmed by incensed replies
and threats of violence; Good
Troll. COMING NEXT ISSUE
After the release of The Social Network in late
October (for Patrick Yee’s review, see the November issue),
the Tuna Talk staff became preoccupied with the virtual
realm. This preoccupation manifested itself into two
articles in this issue: Duncan Burns’ editorial on trolling,
and Kylee Weiss’ exploration of the effects of the Internet
on our culture.
In a recent interview, artist Ryan Trecartin
mentioned that artists born in the 1990’s will produce
great art because of their inability to separate Internet
culture from traditional culture. While this point is
arguable, it does seem that the Internet, which us current
high schoolers have grown up with, is permanent and the
lasting effects are starting to present themselves. Could we,
for instance, imagine a world without a social network?
Without e-mail? And how will all of these systems be
different in the (near) future?
For Trecartin, who has consulted the founder of
Tumblr for his work, the Internet Age means trending
toward transparency to a point where narrative becomes
obsolete. But what does it mean outside of art? For further
reading on this subject, check out Zadie Smith’s essay
“Generation Why?” in the New York Review of Books, and
e-mail your thoughts to tunatalkmonthly@gmail.com.
Go forth,
JDDG
Religion
at
Roeper
Detroit Emerging
Cultural Center
by Francesca Bennett
Q&A with
Bruno Mars
Pianist Phred
Brown ‘03
by Breena Blackmon
by Kylee Weiss
BACON
Brilliance
What’s After
AP’s?
Alum Cartier
Talks Mix Tape
by Ben Kochanowski
by Jeremy Gloster
by Ari Teitel
Sensationalism
in the Media
Spirit
Week!
by Patrick Yee
by Duncan Burns
And
much more
...
Tuna Talk
Staff
Editor-In-Chief - Jeremy Gloster
Copy Editors - Joey LoCascio & Kylee Weiss
Layout Editor - Lorenz Mager
Illustrators - Duncan Burns & Lorenz Mager
Photographer - Lorenz Mager
Reporters
Francesca Bennett, Breeana Blackmon, Duncan Burns, Ben Kochanowski,
Joey LoCassio, La Tressa Newberry, Ari Teitel, Kylee Weiss, Patrick Yee
Advisor - Linda Vernon
Tuna Talk
3
News
Dunn Resigns (continued from page 1)
by Ben Kochanowski
TT: How did you find out
about the school and what
attracted you to it?
RD: One of the first people
who contacted me about
[the job opportunity] was
a person that works there.
She was a parent at a previous school that I worked at,
and she knew I was Head of
School here, and thought it
would be a good thing for me
to think about. The people
who were doing the search
had my name on the list, so
that’s how it started. Then I
looked at it, and we thought
about the city thing, because
that was a fundamental part
of the school and how the
girls would live. We thought
about Chicago as opposed to
New York, or some other city,
but we like the Midwest feel
to Chicago. We moved here
and really like this part of the
country, so we thought those
were some of the attractive
things, as opposed to a city
on the East or West Coast.
TT: So your last job you
worked at for seven years,
and you’ve worked here for
seven years. Is there a pattern?
RD: That looks like a pattern
to me, but its not an intentional pattern at all. I actually
forgot that I worked at the
other school for 7 years. . . If
you do any research on it and
you look at what the average
tenure is for heads of school,
I think it goes from six to seven years. I mean seven years
is like a long time for a head
of school nowadays. I wasn’t
thinking about that, but
there’s a natural cycle of after
about that period of time,
there’s enough that you’ve
done or you get blamed for. .
. that probably causes either
the person to get fired, or
take a look at [the school, and
say ‘is it time for me to go?’
TT: Could you talk more
about the process of finding
a new head of school?
RD: At this point… the inten-
about it to the makeup of
our faculty in the Middle and
Upper school. We really don’t
have a lot of faculty of color
in [the Upper School campus]
and that’s really troublesome
that I haven’t kept an eye on
that and done a better job
there...so those are some of
the goals.
TT: Will you be changing
your sports allegiances?
RD: Chicago has plenty of
sports to root for, but I’m
probably not going to be converted to a Chicago sports fan
overnight. I’m still somewhat
a Boston sports fan. I like the
Red Sox, I like the Patriots.
I’m still not a huge Detroit Lions fan...so I don’t know how
quickly I’ll be converted, but I
like sports, so I’ll definitely be
watching.
Randall Dunn will leave his position as Head of School on June 30, 2011.
Photo by Lorenz Mager
tion is to try and find a new
head of school by July 1.
I think they’re going back
and forth as to whether they
might do something for a
year as an interim, someone
who might be able to step
in and do it, but there’s lots
of back and forth as to how
that’s gonna happen. There’s
still time to be able to find
someone by July 1. There are
lots and lots of terrific folks
who are in searches or were
a head of school someplace
else... There are still those
folks out there but we’d have
to start moving pretty quickly
to get that done well.
TT: What qualities are you
looking for in a successor
if you were involved in that
process?
RD: I think that anybody who
comes into this position has
to be able to manage a lot of
different personalities. It’d
be nice for them to be sort
of comfortable in their own
skin...you can’t have your
own issues as in ego or things
that...you just have to be able
to deal with the needs of different people in a deep way,
because if you’re not comfortable with that, this is not a
place to be.
TT: What has the administration’s reaction been to this?
RD: Everybody’s been supportive and good. People
understand–this kind of stuff
happens. . . people are sad
because it’s been a good relationship and a good time, and
it’s gone by really quickly in
my head. I feel like I just got
here. ‘Good for you bad for
us’ is a common phrase used
in the e-mails that I’ve gotten
so far. It’s going to be that
way for the rest of the year.
TT: You mentioned there
were still some goals you
had as Head of School. What
goals are you still trying to
reach?
RD: There are a number of
things. Every year I sort of
lay out for the Board some of
the goals that we are pursuing. I have been particularly
interested in Roeper School
as a model. It’s something
I’ve been talking about for
the past 4 or 5 years...there
are just ideas out there about
this kind of education being
a model, and how do you
move that to other places?
How do kids benefit from it?
[That] is one of the things I’ve
been talking about and I’ve
been trying to find ways to
do that and how do you move
that . . . one of my goals this
year is to move that along…
also working on diversity at
Roeper. And that has to do
with a number of different
things from the way we talk
TT: What do you feel the
most important characteristic a Head of School should
have?
RD: I think accessibility, in the
broadest sense. That means a
person who you can talk to,
as well as a person you can
find time to talk to, as well as
someone who themselves is
able to approach others. . . I
think that’s a very important
aspect of it.
TT: What Roeper things are
you planning to take to the
Latin School?
RD: A lot. I’m not going to
go and say ‘well at Roeper
we did such and such so you
people need to get in line,’ but
there are a number of things.
I’ve been here seven years,
I’ve learned a lot, and I can’t
help that being a part of me
and what I will take anywhere
I go.
HallFriday,
of Fame
Night
December 17th
Community Center
2010/2011 Inductees
Kamau Bashiri (Eddie Brown) ‘74 Sophia Braden ‘05
Betsy Cotton ‘01 Jesse Knox ‘00 Nico Martinez ‘02
Ben Simonton ‘00 Kevin Watkins ’97
Mel Aschenbrenner—Basketball Coach
Induction ceremony will take place between
the J.V. (6 p.m.) & Varsity (7:30 p.m.) Girls’ Basketball games vs. University Liggett
4
Tuna Talk
Once-Lacerated Alum Produces Equally Gruesome Death Metal
Brian Eschbach ’01 Creative Juggernaut Behind Black Dahlia Murder
by Lorenz Mager & Joey LoCascio
The Black Dahlia
Murder (TBDM) guitarist
Brian Eschbach ‘01has spent
the past nine years in accordance with the tattoo on his
foot—“live to get radical.”
TT: When did you first start
playing music?
BE: I think I was 12.
TT: What instrument did you
start on?
BE: Guitar. I started playin’
on guitar, and then a couple
years later started messin’
around on bass and played
that mostly, for years.
TT: Who founded TBDM, and
why?
BE: I wasn’t really all together
until we met Trevor [Strnad,
vocalist] and Cory [Grady,
drummer]. I guess I started
workin’ on getting the guys
together around this time, or
a couple months earlier, ten
years ago. It was me and the
original other guitar player,
John Deering, in the band.
As far as why, we wanted to
play some heavy stuff. It was
what I was really getting into
listening to at the time and
I just wanted to play it, ya
know? I think that was everyone’s motivation originally
and they wanted to experience playing it.
TT: As far as heavy stuff,
what genre would you describe TBDM as?
BE: The easiest one, and, I
think, most accurate, would
be, ya know, melodic death
metal. But I guess it’s an interpretational thing: everyone
will put their own label on
something.
TT: What kind of music do
you listen to? Are there any
particular bands that inspired the sound of TBDM?
BE: In particular, at the time
I was in love with “At the
Gates” and I think that still
shows. But other Swedish acts
like “Soilwork” and punk stuff
[that] isn’t really that good
actually... “Carcass” is another
huge influence.
TT: Is that why TBDM down
tunes their guitars?
BE: Oh man, all the ‘90s stuff
like, I mean, “Morbid Angle,”
“Carcass,” and “At the Gates,”
I don’t know if it was some
sorta written handbook out
there that said they all had
to tune their guitars to B, but
yeah, loved the sound cause
it makes everything kinda
heavier sometimes.
Brian Eschbach entertains
at the Holiday Assembly in
2000.
Photo courtesy of Linda
Vernon
TT: You recently completed
an international tour—what
has it been like touring
for most of the past seven
years?
BE: It’s been kinda crazy—
when I was going to high
school, I never thought I’d
end up seeing the world
doing this. It’s been a lot of
fun—I kinda feel real’ lucky
to be able to do it.
TT: What was it like getting signed to Metal Blade
Records?
BE: Weird, ya know? It kinda
feels like winning the lottery
[laughs]. Like when I got an
email from Brian Slagel from
Metal Blade Records, originally I thought someone was
pullin’ on my leg. Then a
couple minutes after I’m reading the email, he’s callin’ me
and I started freakin’ out!
TT: Is there a different vibe
now that your previous lead
guitarist John Kempainen
has left to work on his new
project with your previous
drummer Zach Gibson?
BE: Uh, yeah. It’s been a positive change—he was kind of a
struggle to work with and our
new guitarist is kinda easygoin’ like the rest of us, so
it’s been a great two years in
that respect... because, when
you’re on the road with someone, you’re living with ‘em—
you got to smell each other
all day, so it’s really important
to be able to get along with
the person—not have people
you’re with make a big deal
out of little nothings.
TT: Do you still go to Berkeley Music, where you and
John had previously taken
guitar lessons?
BE: I go up there every once
in a while if I have a guitar I need some work done
on—Mark does all the set up
stuff and the repair work—
he’s really good at what he
does—I always get my guitar
back from there in really
great condition. Every once
in a while, I’ll end up running
up there if I need a pack of
strings or something on the
fly—it’s a cool place. I actually bought a banjo [there].
Well, it’s not a banjo, it’s got a
banjo body, but it’s got seven
strings so it’s like a guitar. It’s
pretty cool.
TT: You play a lot of instruments, like the accordion,
bass, guitar, banjo, and, of
course, the electric guitar.
Does your wide range of
musical abilities help you in
the writing process?
BE: Well yeah, an idea for
the basis of a part for a song
can come from any instrument—you build around
that—it makes it a lot easier
like that—I don’t really play
the drums, but I can program
some drums. So understanding how to do that really
helps with—if I’m just gonna
sit down and try to write a
song by myself in a room.
TT: Will there be a fifth full
length album in the near
future?
BE: We’re done touring for
Deflorate right now, and we’re
just startin’ to full force, ya
know, writing stuff. That’s
pretty much what I do every
day now. I’ll just go to the
couch, grab my guitar, and
start messin’ around until I
feel like goin’ into my computer and recording some-
Brian Eschbach chills in green room with his guitar. Photo by J.Natalia Photography
thing.
TT: Shannon Lucas is your
current drummer, and he
seems to be a solid member; what’s it like having a
straight-edge member in the
mix?
BE: It’s not really all that
weird. A bottle of vodka will
last a little bit longer. He’s
a great drummer. Above his
beliefs and practices, he’s
always fit into the band from
when I met him and started
working with him because he
takes what he does so seriously.
TT: Who is currently sculpting the scene of metal
among yourself and others?
BE: Aw man, there’s so many,
so many bands just pushin’
the limits right now. You look
at a band like “Decrepit Birth”
that are not only extremely
technical, but you know, it’s
definitely for musicians and
anyone who can respect goin’
all sorts of different places
with an idea. That’s what’s
really cool, listening to all
that drum and guitar work.
There’s also “Psycroptic” from
Tazmania, and those guys
the Haley brothers, on guitar
and drums—they’re just nuts!
They’re so fast, and you look
at a band like that and wonder, “What’s gonna happen
next? What are they gonna
do now? Does it get faster?
Can it get heavier?” That’s the
great thing about it, ya know?
That’s gonna happen where
you’re like, “What?” Everyone’s minds will be blown!
TT: How did the band’s mascot, the Statutory Ape, come
to be?
BE: Well, we’ve never really
taken making music videos
too seriously, ‘cause, you
know, as a death metal band,
you only get X amount of
dollars to make it, and video
stuff is really expensive. So,
we’ll spend a hundred bucks
on a monkey costume, and
film him runnin’ around.
That was what we came to
the conclusion of, and you
know, it was a pretty stupid
idea to begin with, but people
actually seemed to really like
it—it’s funny.
TT: Any concert horror
stories?
BE: I can tell you a horror
story of what should have
been like the coolest thing
ever, but it wasn’t. We were
in Indonesia for the first
time... it was actually the only
time, because we were gonna
go back this past year, but
that fell through. So we’re
playing a show in Indonesia
for the first time, and there’s
3,400 people that show up.
We couldn’t even have known
that there was that kind of
metal following over there.
The weird part about it was
that all the PA gear for the
show was, like, ancient and
put together with duct tape
and, you know, some Elmer’s
glue. I remember just bringing in this wooden electrical
apparatus that looked like it
was straight out of Indiana
Jones, and then feedback was
flying all over the place. It
was really hard to play the
show, and I was thinking,
“This should be perfect,” but
it was going horribly. That’s a
horror story I can think of on
the fly.
TT: Who are the faces behind the music? Who keeps
the band running?
BE: Well, we have our manager of course, Jake O’Hansen.
He’s always gotta have his
ear to the ground, searchin’
for opportunities for us. You
know, if anything ever gets
majorly screwed-up, like
we’re stuck in a holding tent
in Japan because we don’t
have the right visa work
with us, he’s the one who’s
got to scramble and figure
out what’s goin’ on and, you
know, take care of us. Then
there’s also Charles Mathew
( “Woody,”) who does our
house stuff, and he’s a huge
part of our live sound. It’s
him knowing what we sound
like and how to best bring
that across in front of a large
group of people in a weird
room, ya know? There’s a
ton of people that keep us
running.
TT: Where do you think
you would be without Linda
Vernon, Student Life Cordinator?
BE: Haha, where would I be
without Linda Vernon? Well,
when I was writing for Tuna
Talk, if it hadn’t been for
Linda Vernon, I wouldn’t have
met and got to ask Ralph
Nader a couple questions...
Linda’s great, Linda’s one of
the many teachers at Roeper
that are still there that make
Roeper a really awesome environment for everyone there;
I don’t know if you guys feel
the same way, but the environment there really is great
for everyone, helps you feel
comfortable and lets you do
the things you really want to,
and it’s worked out great for
me.
TT: How about that rollerblading incident in 2001?
Everyone wants to know
about this, so could you give
us your take on what actually happened?
BE: Someone’s rollerblades
were just sittin’ out under a
bench in the hallway and so
I was bored and didn’t have
anything, uh... I felt like I
needed to do that right then
and there, so I threw those on
and I was just goin’ around,
goin’ slow um... alumni Brian
Wier, who I graduated with,
said, “Hey, grab onto my
backpack,” and I was like, “Ok,
this is a great idea,” so I did,
and he started runnin’ down
the hall. These things didn’t
have breaks on ‘em, which I
didn’t realize until I was, you
know, flyin’ down the hallway
and I ended up slammin’ up
against the glass by the...
what is that? The southwest
stairwell?
TT: By the office?
BE: Yes, they all knew about it
right away.
TT: I heard Linda Vernon
tended to you after the incident, so to speak.
BE: [She] and Michelle Robinson drove me to the hospital,
Beaumont, so yeah, she might
say that I wouldn’t be here if
it hadn’t been for her and I’ll
give her that.
TT: What do you do with
your off time from the band?
BE: I usually just hang out
with my wife for the most
part. When I’m at home,
I like to talk to my cats.
[laughs] Yep, it’s pretty nice
‘cause we’re usually out
on the road seven to eight
months of the year. So when
we’re home for a couple
weeks per year: it’s usually
Lazy City.
TT: If you were a meal at Sgt.
Pepperoni’s, what would you
be?
BE: At Sgt. Pepperoni’s? Oh
man! I never thought someone would be writing about
Sgt. Pepperoni’s when I was
there! Oh, this is cool... um,
if I had to be something? If I
were a meal, I’d be the poppers and a slice of pepperoni
pizza with an obnoxious
amount of parmesan cheese.
5. “Does Not Suffice” – “Does Not Suffice,” by far Newsom’s
most contemporary song, offers some relief from the rest of
her catalog. For one thing, it’s perhaps the most direct thing
she’s written. Here, she doesn’t cloak her emotions in a fable
or complicated song structure. Of course, the easiness here
is not just to give us a break; it’s thematic. She packs away
“everything that could remind you / of how easy I was not” –
her lover’s hangers “unburdened” by her presence. Emptiness
courses through Have One On Me, both spatially, in its sparse
instrumentation, and lyrically, particularly in relation to loss.
“Does Not Suffice” subtly jabs those who argue that Newsom
is pretentious: her intricate language isn’t a facade; it’s an
inseparable part of her being.
4. “Jackrabbits” – “I was tired of being drunk,” the first line
of “Jackrabbits,” couldn’t sound more haunting. Her voice is
hollow and desperate as she pleads a former lover to take her
back after a miscarriage. Religion comes up again, but in a
much more qualified, less earnest way. Her “faith makes her
a dope” and she seeks advice from the book of Matthew. Six
years after releasing her debut, she relies on humans, not God,
for salvation.
3. “Sadie” – Joanna Newsom’s gospel-driven caterwaul has all
but disappeared since her debut, The Milk-Eyed Mender. It’s sort
of a shame because she did it so well. “Sadie,” one of the many
songs in her catalog dealing with loss and salvation, stands
out for the speaker’s willingness to call on God for mercy. It’s
unclear who Sadie is – a dog? a child? a friend? all three? –
but it doesn’t matter. Newsom is master at making the general
specific, and the pinecone, the bone are these little details for
the listener to hold on to, even though there is, nothing left to
hold.
2. “Monkey & Bear” – From Y’s, Newsom’s best album,
“Monkey & Bear” is Newsom at her most arcane. A fable about
a dancing bear whom is exploited by a grinder monkey? Only
Joanna could make this sound heartbreaking.
Jeremy’s Picks:
1. “Good Intentions Paving Co.” – It may be an obvious choice,
but “Good Intentions Paving Co.” seems like the manifestation
of everything good about Joanna Newsom: that baby-twang
voice, beautiful instrumentation, subtle lyricism. Newsom has
the rare ability to make seven minutes seem like three, and
nowhere is that better demonstrated than here.
Joanna Newsom is a critically-acclaimed harpist,
pianist, harpsichordist, and songwriter. Her genre-bending
work – labeled, at times, as psych folk, freak folk, or indie folk
– combines virtuoso playing with meticulously written, poetic
lyrics. Her most recent album, Have One On Me, came out in
February of this year, and has recently made several best-of,
end-of-year lists. Each month Kylee Weiss and Jeremy Gloster write about
matters only they would care about. This month, they argue
over their favorite Joanna Newsom songs.
by Jeremy Gloster & Kylee Weiss
Kylee’s Picks
1. “Peach, Plum, Pear” – Taken from Joanna Newsom’s debut
album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, “Peach, Plum, Pear” encapsulates its raw, almost naïve quality. Simple end-line rhymes
accompany Newsom’s as-yet untrained and unrestrained voice
over a harpsichord arrangement that stands in stark contrast
to the intricate symphony and brass backings of her next
two records. However, her seemingly inborn way with words
already presents itself with such lines as, “I have read the right
books/to interpret your looks/you were knocking me down/
with the palm of your eye.”
2. “Only Skin” – Clocking in at just under 17 minutes, “Only
Skin” earns the distinction of being the longest song on Newsom’s second album, Ys, and of her entire catalogue so far. Its
length, however, is not what confers its magnum opus status.
No other song better conveys Newsom’s mastery of assonance,
internal rhyme, poetic imagery, and powerful emotionality:
“The cities we passed were a flickering wasteland/but his
hand in my hand made them hale and harmless/while, down
in the lowlands, the crops are all coming/we have everything,
life is thundering, blissful, towards death/in a stampede of his
fumbling, green gentleness.” She sings over polyrhythmic harp
and symphonic arrangements by Van Dyke Park, her melodies
moving and twisting as flawlessly as her lyrics.
3. “Baby Birch” – “Baby Birch” closes the first disc of Newsom’s
third, “triple” album, Have One On Me. Its delicate, tender
melodies evoke both hymns and lullabies, which is fitting,
considering the song’s quiet, devastating mourning of the
loss of an unborn child. While the first two-thirds of the song
find Newsom gently singing over harp, it ends in an outburst
of anger, drums, and violent imagery concerning the capture
of a rabbit: “I thought it’d be harder to do, but I caught her
and skinned her quick/held her there kicking and mewling,
upended, unspooling, unsung and blue/told her, ‘where ever
you go, little runaway bunny, I will find you’/and then she ran,
as they’re liable to do.”
4. “In California” – The centerpiece of Have One On Me,
“In California” exemplifies the album’s recurring themes of
heartbreak and loss. Its relatively straightforward, narrative
lyrics keep the song relatable; Newsom’s comparing her loveridden self to a cuckoo clock that “trembles on the edge of the
hour” is both extraordinary and understandable. Her wordless
cuckoo-ing, halfway through the song, communicates the pain
and yearning of a failed relationship, without needing explanation.
5. “Go Long” – Also from Newsom’s third album, “Go Long”
picks up where “In California” leaves off; after the initial storm
of separation, forgiveness and compassion emerge. Newsom
weaves elements of the Bluebeard folktale (its eponymous
nobleman, a serial killer whose victims consist of his numerous ex-wives) with colloquial expressions, such as, “silly
goose,” the juxtaposition unspeakably effective. This meeting
of the horrific and the everyday seems to follow the process
of letting go of caricatured exes for mature understanding. As
Newsom sings, “You burn in the Mekong/to prove your own
worth/go long, go long/right over the edge of the earth/you
have been wronged/tore up since birth/you have done harm/
others have done worse.”
Have One On Us:
An Introduction to Joanna Newsom
LEFT: We always knew that Roeperians commuted from all over,
but now we have a graphic to prove it. Grosse Ile and Oxford
barely fit on our map, and Lansing is so far west that it had to be
relegated to a box, as if it were Hawaii or Alaska. Graphic by Ben
Kochanowski.
Where The
Wild Things Are
AC
BW
CM
DF
EJ
FO
GR
HD
IB
JA
KN
LK
MG
NL
OY
PP
QH
RS
SV
TE
UX
VT
WQ
XU
YI
ZZ
Generate names of famous or notable people
for each of the initials below. (Example: AJ =
Andrew Jackson, MJ = Michael Jackson, BJ =
Brian Jones, etc.) Don’t list anyone you know
personally, unless he or she is actually famous.
The first person to find a name for each of
the initial sets will be rewarded with a box of
Triscuits. Happy sleuthing!
Opportunist:
The Dinner Party
Here at Tuna Talk, we’re passionate about writing. We’re also passionate about life.
Sometimes, for various reasons, we can’t always fit our personal preoccupations onto
the main stage. Here’s hoping you’ll enjoy our more experimental side, our Surplus.
Surplus
Tuna Talk
5
Tuna Talk
6
BREAKFAST
“Fruity Delight”
Orange Fanta, Strawberry Pop Tarts, Kellog’s Fruit Snacks
At first sip the Fanta is like raising the curtains on a sunny morning, so bright on the
tongue, almost too much. Blinded by the flavor, you reach out for something to cover
your eyes. Enter the poptart, whose bready exterior neutralizes the stark reality of the
beverage. Accompany this with a fruit snack or two. Bliss.
DINNER
“Breaded Baltic Banquet”
Swedish fish, Bugles, Sprite, Cookies n’ Crème
When you bread the delectably sweet Swedish fish and the surprisingly salty bugle, they
form a marriage… a dynamic fusion. Hints of lemon and a spritz of lime, with other indefinable citruses, and light bubbles traipse across the tongue as if to say “Hey…you’re all
right.” The definition of a clean simple flavor. 2010: THE year for Sprite. Remember that
champagne is not for dessert, so refrain from mixing the Sprite with Cookies n’ Crème,
nausea will ensue.
Meet Jerré, a curly-headed youth and student of The Roeper School. He also
happens to be the definitive critic on everything. Late one Friday Jerré, returning to Roeper to pick up his Raybans, gets locked in the school. Does he fret?
Does he resort to cannibalism? No, with all the deftness he learned as a Man
Scout (an obscure kind of scout you’ve probably never heard of) and the $10
in his wallet, our hero Jerre manages to plan a trio of three-course meals that
could almost make one forget that he or she is eating from a vending machine.
by Duncan Burns & Ben Kochanowski
Jerré
Illustration by Duncan Burns
Come Sunday, Vern came and let Jerré out. He never ate from that vending machine again, but he knew that the memories would last a lifetime.
These are
paid professionals
please
do NOT
attempt at home
LUNCH
“Autumn Picnic”
BBQ chips, Lemonade, Watermelon Sour Patch
A myriad of oral sensations – a chilling sourness, the soft mesquite practically falling
off the chips. A sip of the chilled lemonade allows for the flavors to be restrained, yet
distinct. Dunking the Sour Patch in lemonade allows for a tickling sensation to overcome
one’s pallet. Mild, like an August sunset. A contrast between two different types of bold.
DISASTER
“Terrible Taters, and Tilapia”
Cheddar and Bacon Potato Skins, Swedish Fish, Sprite
Avoid the potato skins, dear god, avoid the potato skins. If you have a heart, avoid the potato skins. Have you ever seen something so awful that you blocked it from your mind?
This meal declared jihad on good taste, it hurts to remember…don’t make me go back
there.
Photographs by Lorenz Mager
Tuna Talk
7
Features
Free Weiwei
by Jeremy Gloster
If you want the government
to crash your party in China, just
serve river crab.
Still, it’s remarkable that Ai
has maintained relative freedom in
view of his criticism of the Chinese
government (from his Englishlanguage Twitter: “This country has
a terminal disease, which everyone
knows already. However, I don’t
understand why you have to commit
suicide with a terminal disease?”). He
has derided his most known work, the
“Bird’s Nest” Olympic stadium, as a
“fake smile” to the world.
The Chinese hexie, or river
crab, is a homonym for the Chinese
“harmony,” and a reference to the
Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP)
initiative to create a “harmonious
society.” For Chinese citizens, the
term “harmonize” is a tongue-incheek euphemism for government
censorship. (Example: “I can’t access
the China Digital Times, it must have
been harmonized.”)
Artist Ai Weiwei, perhaps
best known for designing the 2008
Olympic stadium, planned to serve
10,000 hexie as a “celebration” party
for the pending demolition of his
$1.1 million Shanghai studio, which
will be “harmonized” by the CCP
government for not receiving proper
governmental approval, despite the
fact that Ai allegedly built the studio
on an invitation from Shanghai
Mayor Han Zheng. Consequently, the
government placed him under house
arrest until the party passed, though
protesters still gathered at his studio
and feasted upon local river crab.
Artist Ai Weiwei plays in his Sunflower Seeds installation currently on
display at London’s Tate Modern. Photo courtesy of the Daily Telegraph.
The studio brouhaha was
not Ai’s first run-in with the Chinese
government. Last year, Ai was
assaulted by police in an attempt
to prevent him from testifying in
support of Tan Zuoren, a writer
currently imprisoned for his
independent investigation of the
2008 Sichuan earthquake. Ai had to
undergo cranial surgery in Munich to
stop the cerebral hemorrhage caused
by the beating.
New Students
Puzzled
by Roeper
Experience
by La Tressa Newberry
Freshman Swarna
Shil wakes up at 6:30 a.m.
and carpools to school with
new student and classmate
Mohaymin Kadir. Both students can say that this is their
first year at Roeper, and Shil,
like many, found that starting
Roeper was awkward at first.
“I was kind of shy,”
Shil says about her first day
in Mariana Schackne’s homeroom, where she initially
clung to another new student.
She now has many friends,
most of whom are in the 9th
grade.
For new students who
come from schools with bells,
hall passes, and announcements, coming to Roeper can
be a big adjustment.
Students are given
freedoms here that they use
and recognize, but new kids
are shy and therefore slow to
embrace those freedoms.
Lots of the students
regard Roeper students as
nice and friendly. Senior Emily Henderson, who came to
Roeper as a freshman says
the people were, “Very nice,
it was a little awkward at
first because I wasn’t used to
people being that nice.”
Ninety percent of
new students interviewed are
unaware of events at Roeper.
Roeper’s ways of communication are not reaching out,
and many new students don’t
know how to use the email
system. New students need
help in terms of better communication. “Talk to them,
make them a part of the community,” sophomore Austin
Farrow says.
Apparently, new
students were not forewarned
about a few things before
school started: one was the
amount of homework they
would receive. “[I didn’t know
about the amount of] homework and how hard it was
going to be,” new freshman
Lauren Anderson says.
Senior Duriajaiye
Lewis agrees. “[There’s] a lot
of challenging homework,” he
says.
Another issue for
new students is way the
school day operates. “I was
surprised [that there was] no
bell [between classes],” senior
Emily Henderson says.
New students also
recommend better communication.
“It’s not just new kids
[who don’t know what’s going
on], “ sophomore Morgan
Harrison says. “Make announcements . . . use a P.A,”
says.
New sophomore Julie
Pudar agrees. “I don’t know
if people actually check their
Roeper email. Get people to
do that. I mean, I don’t even
know how to check my own.”
When asked about
whether or not they understood the philosophy, most of
the new students who were
interviewed answered, ‘No.’
“I didn’t know that we had
one or that it was that important,” new junior Elyse
Lancaster says.
Ai represents a unique case
in which his public notoriety has
limited the government’s ability
to react to his criticism. House
arrest and a police beating may go
relatively unnoticed abroad, but any
punishment that would keep his
work from reaching the Tate Modern
and other locales, such as long-term
imprisonment, would cause uproar.
In China’s most famous artist, the
CCP faces a paradox: it gains a source
of cultural pride, but it also gains a
harsh critic.
Mid-term Exam Schedule
January 11-14, 2011
Tuesday, 1/11
F-day
Thursday,
1/13
Friday, 1/14
C-day
A-day
B-day
MS Homeroom
8:00 - 8:15
8:15 - 10:15
Wednesday,
1/12
1
2
3
4
US Homeroom/ MS Break
10:40 11:25
2
12:10 12:55
6
1:15 - 3:15
5
3
4
1
7
5
Lunch
8
Afternoon
Break
6
8
7
Snow Emergency*Alternative Exam Schedule
January 11–14, 2011
Tuesday,
1/11
8:00 -8:15
8:15 – 9:00
9:25-11:25
F-day
2
1
Wednesday,
1/12
Thursday,
1/13
Friday, 1/14
A-day
B-day
MS Homeroom
3
4
US Homeroom/ MS Break
2
C-day
1
3
4
7
5
Lunch
12:10 –
12:55
6
1:15 - 3:15
5
8
Afternoon Break
6
8
7
8
Tuna Talk
Features
Plugged In But Not Checked Out
by Kylee Weiss
There are nearly
two billion Internet users in
the world, with almost 240
million of them residing
in the U.S. alone. Since its
widespread adoption in the
mid-‘90s, the World Wide
Web has become the main
medium of communication
for most Americans, as well
as the go-to agent of instant
information. But how does
the Internet affect personal
relationships when compared
to the face-to-face friendships
of the past?
Along with video
games, modern movies, and
other Generation Z-era paraphernalia, the Internet has
been condemned by scores
of concerned parents, community leaders, and politicians who aim to pin today’s
youth’s violent inclinations
on the media to which they
are exposed. Others argue
that Grand Theft Auto, Saw,
and the unlimited content
available on the Internet have
no such effect; indeed, that
they provide an “outlet” for
modern teenagers’ destructive urges.
Steven Pinker, a
professor in the Department
of Psychology at Harvard
University, would disagree
with both sides’ reasoning;
he doesn’t seek to assign a
cause, nor remedy, to modern
day youth’s aggressive tendencies. Pinker believes that
there has been a decrease,
rather than increase, in violence throughout the evolution of the western world, and
that “today, we are probably
living in the most peaceful
moment of our species’ time
on earth.” Pinker attributes
this change to our cultures’
exponential modernization,
insisting that there is “something in modernity and its
cultural institutions [which]
has made us nobler.”
One of the most important elements of technology with regard to the social
perception of violence lies
in what some scholars term
the Internet’s “global village” effect. With the rise of
social networking and user-
other and the outside world
– to the innumerable music,
video, and other media feeds
that wouldn’t normally be
readily available to foreign
spectators, the Internet has
provided a space in which
people from around the world
can come together in a virtual
community. Facebook has
allowed already closely-knit
groups of people such as
coworkers and classmates to
become even closer, through
real-time status updates,
online photo albums, and
hassle-free communication.
Perhaps this increase
Illustration by Duncan Burns of insight into the lives of othgenerated content sites like
ers has unwittingly created
Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr,
a greater sense of empathy
and Twitter, the chance for
among individuals. If people
international communication
can identify with each other,
has also grown. From the
they’re less likely to hate or
2009-2010 Iranian presidenbe hated, to fear or be feared;
tial election protests – largely they’re less likely to want to
made possible because of the
hurt each other.
protestors’ Tweets to each
For Students, More Than A Tweenage Dream
by Patrick Yee
A 16 year-old boy
walks out onto a brightly lit
stage. The largely female
crowd is quickly whipped
into a frenzy. The screams,
shrieks, and squeals of joy are
almost deafening. Why? The
answer to that is simple; it is
a Justin Bieber concert.
There is a large group
who worship pop stars such
as Bieber, the Jonas Brothers, and Taylor Swift and
enjoy movies like High School
Musical and Camp Rock. The
stereotypical fan of a pop star
“tweenage” girls. This is only
part of the story.
“I asked my mom
The best of both worlds, the Jonas Brothers and Justin Bieber, suit up for the Grammys.
for tickets [for a Taylor Swift
able differences between the
notable of these is J-14 (both
“It’s pretty much mush, but
concert] and she thought I
star and the fan.
a magazine and a website). It it’s appealing. It’s entertainwas joking,” junior Nathan
Pop stars may act
covers the news that relates
ment really.”
Flynn says. Flynn is not alone, to pop stars, but it does not
On the other hand,
the fans of pop stars are both different in their private lives
appeal to all of the fans of
there are some pop stars who
male and female, they vary in than they are in concert.
The fans know and accept
this new generation of pop
are disliked within the group
age, they come from various
this. “When they’re on stage,
stars. “They’re kind of silly,”
of fans. The most prolific exwalks of life; and they have
they’re like Superman,” Flynn
Flynn says. “It was all just
ample of this is Justin Bieber.
their own reasons for liking
says. “They can be as fake
posters of people. It was like
“I actually find him really
and disliking various pop
as they want, but in private,
a more juvenile magazine
annoying, Shapiro says. “He’s
stars.
they’re just like normal
without like any good details
just annoying. He sounds like
Why do students
people, they’re not larger
it was a lot of surveys, just
a girl, and I don’t believe he
like teenaged celebrities?
than life.”
kind of fluff, you know.”
has talent.”
The most common answer
“I’m sure Taylor Swift While J-14 primar
“He’s really kind of
is that they can relate to
is not the nicest person,”
ily glorifies pop stars, there
full of himself,” Raheem adds.
them. “I really like the fact
Shapiro says, “Stardom gets
are also sites that publish the
Still, fan support of pop stars
that [Taylor Swift] appears to
to people’s heads, you know.
darker side of the world of
is impressive. For example,
be the average teenage girl,”
celebrities. The blog created
the most prominent Justin
fellow Taylor Swift fan, junior Their record label tells them
who they want them to be.”
by Mario Armando LavanBieber fan page on Facebook
Amanda Shapiro says.
deira, Jr., better known to the
has 15,291,683 fans, that is
“She just writes about “I know people who knew
Justin Bieber, and they all
world as Perez Hilton, is one
almost five million more than
life, ‘It’s like reading my disay that they hated him,”
such example of the gossip
the largest fan page for the
ary,’ you really feel that come
freshman Eli Simmons says.
site. “I go on his website reliBeatles. But becoming a fan
through,” Flynn says.
“He would make friends
giously,” senior Alia Raheem
on Facebook is free, even bet“I definitely feel like I can
with people just to get more
says. “He’s basically built an
ter indicators of the loyalty of
relate to him because he is a
empire from just a blog.”
a fan base are the merchan16-year old who loves to sing popular.”
There are plenty
Why is celebrity gosdise and concerts.
and dance, which I do [too],”
of web sites and publicasip enjoyed as much as it is?
Some of the most common
classmate Shekinah Hockentions devoted publicizing the
“It’s just something you can
items that fans purchase are
hull says about Justin Bieber.
pop stars. One of the most
take lightly,” Raheem says.
CDs, and chances are, if they
However, there are inescap-
are willing to purchase one,
they are willing to buy all of
them. “I have all of [Taylor
Swift’s] CDs,” Flynn says.
Like Flynn, Raheem has all of
Taylor Swift’s albums but she
also has most of the Jonas
Brothers collection.
Concerts are one of
the best ways to see a pop
star in person. “It’s fun to
get to see the songs live after
you have listened to them
on your iPod,” says Raheem.
The concert experience gives
an entirely different experience from simply listening to
them. Pop stars also take the
opportunity of being able to
interact with the fans to get
closer and make it easier to
relate. “[Taylor Swift] actually enters the crowd and she
spends probably like a half
an hour just hugging fans,”
Raheem says, recounting a
Taylor Swift concert she attended.
CDs are not the only
thing that fans have purchased. One of the more
common forms of merchandise is the poster. “My best
friend got me a poster of the
Jonas Brothers on the cover
of Rolling Stone, their first
cover; so, that’s on my door.
I have a Taylor Swift poster
that I got from her concert on
my wall,” Raheem says.
The new pop stars
are here and their fans follow
close behind, their reasons
for doing so are as diverse as
they are. Contrary to popular belief, this phenomenon
is more than a list of young
celebrities; it is an entire subculture within itself.
Tuna Talk
9
Features
Insecurity Leads to Girl-on-Girl Animosity
by Breeana Blackmon
How many times have
you been called a bitch in the
last week? How about a slut?
If you are a female in middle
or high school, it is likely that
it has happened to you, either
to your face or behind your
back.
In Pamela Paul’s
article “Mean Girls and Bad
Mommies” she highlights that
the author of The Twisted Sisterhood, Kelly Valen, conducted a random survey of “3,020
women, ages 15 to 86,” that
lived in all across the United
States.
“Eighty-four percent
of respondents said they had
‘suffered terribly’ at the hands
of other women; 88 percent
had felt ‘currents of meanness
and negativity emanating
from other females.’ Nearly
1,000 women said they had
struggled with depression or
sought counseling as a result
of intrafemale trouble.”
Female on female
animosity is a growing issue,
specifically among young
girls. The media inform us on
how girls are being abused
verbally as well as physically,
and sometimes the conflict is
resolved quickly. Then there
are other instances, when
girls suffer in the long run,
and if the situation really gets
“
Nearly 1,000 women said
they had struggled with
depression or sought counseling
as a result of ‘intrafemale trouble.’
Female on female animosity
out of control, lives can be
lost.
School psychologist Reanne
Young explains that the cause
of the level of competition
among girls is the environment to which they are
exposed. For most girls, this
is school and home. Roeper
is not a place filled with as
much girl on girl animosity as in most other schools,
but Roeper is not free of the
problem.
Last year, there were
a lot of confrontation issues
between Middle School girls.
“Boys are more inclined to say, ‘hey, I don’t like
that’ or ‘forget you’ or some
other fun term, right?” Young
says. “And then they get over
it or sometimes they go to
blows.” Girls tend to be quietly vindictive, and boys face
confrontation straight on.
Although most of the
”
animosity is developed between the girls during school,
it carries over into extracurricular activities. Sometimes
girls opt out of playing sports
because of other girls on the
team. According to junior
Briana Ratchford, during her
freshman year, the older girls
on the basketball team made
her life a “living hell.” She has
not played basketball since
then.
Athletic Director
Ernie Righetti says that girls
having issues with one another is nothing new. It affects
how the team plays together,
so he tells the girls to drop all
personal problems when they
step onto the court. He adds,
“They just have to respect
each other.” This is what this
issue boils down to: learning
to respect one another.
Here at Roeper
there is a program that was
recently developed that will
hopefully help curtail the animosity between young girls.
Diversity Coordinator Carolyn
Lett started a girls mentoring
program last year to “help
young women to start thinking about themselves in ‘sturdier’ ways,” she says. Carolyn sent out an
e-mail inviting Upper School
girls to be a part of the program. 12 girls responded, and
they became the pilot program for the year. Among the
12 girls were current seniors
Ann Finkel, Cachet Colvard,
and Alia Raheem.
The Upper School
students were put into groups
with the Stage IV girls, they
were instructed not to pair up
one on one, “because in doing
that we would form cliques
and that’s not what we want
to do” Lett says. The girls
meet once a month, whenever
is most convenient for the
majority, and discuss a topic
as well as participate in an
exercise or an activity. They
discussed topics like friendship and identity.
These topics were
chosen by the girls themselves and there were social
activities planned as well. According to senior
Cachet Colvard, “the girls
were open” to the opportunity and the program “helped
them cope with things that
they probably couldn’t cope
with at the beginning.”
She also says it was
“nice for them to have somebody that they know they can
look up to and that they know
they can go to for comfort.”
During the program,
the girls had a “slumber
party” filled with fun, games,
and insightful discussion. The
mentors and the mentees are
going to continue the program this year.
There has been
discussion over the program
being accessible to Upper
School girls to get mentored
as well.
Overall, Interim
Middle School Director,
Carolyn Borman says, when
it comes to the issue of girl
animosity, “it’s something that
needs to be discussed. Girls
sometimes need to be helped
to understand the power of
their words and to learn more
direct and assertive ways of
dealing with their problems
with each other.”
Primo’s: An Upper Crust Experience
by Ari Teitel
Primo’s Pizza has
grown to be a mecca for Birmingham area students who
want a tasty lunch without
putting a dent in their wallets.
“[Primo’s is] the best
pizza I’ve ever had,” junior
Zack Silverman says. “I can’t
even describe the taste – it’s
amazing.”
During his freshman
year, Zack Silverman decided
to make going to Primo’s every Friday a tradition. He has
spent $3.50 every week since
9th grade, buying two slices
and an Arizona Arnold Palmer
every time he goes there.
Seventeen years after
opening in 1978, Primo’s
started to offer a student
discount to pizza lovers like
Silverman. Ever since then,
high school students have
become an integral part of its
business. Primo’s developed
a following by crafting their
pizza in a unique fashion.
Primo’s uses a higher-grade
pepperoni than most other
pizza establishments, they
have a special sauce recipe,
and they don’t cook their
pizza in a conveyor belt oven,
unlike other pizza parlors,
which allows the crust to
become crispy.
Primo’s General
Manager Mike Beauford
considers his relationships
with students, who typically
come from local high schools
including Roeper, Seaholm,
and Groves, to be one of his
keys to running a successful
business.
“The relationship
that starts with high school
students extends past high
school,” Beauford says. “They
love coming here, and they
come back here on college
breaks. The same kids who
were seniors when they came
15 years ago are coming in
now with their kids.”
Roughly 35 percent
of their slices are sold to
students, a large number of
whom come from Roeper.
Beauford’s relationships clearly pay off; go to
Primo’s on any given lunch
block, and you will find a
number of students lined up
to buy slices and a drink from
the store’s diverse beverage
selection. You may find a few
Seaholm kids hanging out
in the parking lot. Beauford
often asks customers how
they’re doing, and he can
usually guess his frequent
customers’ orders. He serves
them quickly, since slices are
always hot and ready. Primo’s
typically serves anywhere
between 30 and 50 students
per day, and sells at least 60
slices a day. “[Beauford] does
business in a kind and orderly
fashion,” Silverman says.
“Mike is a total boss. He has a
bubbly personality, which is a
good personality.”
Students can drive
from Roeper
to Primo’s, buy
their pizza, and
drive back to
school within 15
minutes.
Several
Roeper students
have spent a fortune on Primo’s
pizza. Senior
Scott King
spends $12.50 a
week at Primo’s,
which adds up
to over $1300
spent over the
last three years.
“Instead of just
making a lunch,
I go to Primo’s,”
King says. “I
don’t go to Jet’s
because that
isn’t fiscally
responsible.”
Because
King frequents
Primo’s often,
the staff knows his order. He
even calls ahead of time to
reserve corner slices.
In addition to Primo’s
low prices, its specific taste
appeals to classmate Griffin
Dennis. “[The pizza] is rather
doughy and greasy,” he says.
“My favorite part of the pizza
is the cheese.” He believes
that he has spent $200 on
Primo’s in the last year. Dennis tends to purchase Vernors
ginger ale or Arizona Iced
Tea, the latter of which Beauford says is the most popular
drink selection.
Seaholm students
frequent Primo’s as often as
Roeper students.
“In high school, I
went to Primo’s one to two
times a week,” Seaholm
alumnus Jimmy Fox 09’ says.
“I’d spend three to four bucks,
since at the time it was a
dollar a slice, and I’d get one
of the various Arizona [iced
teas].” Fox has even gone
to Primo’s five times since
graduating high school. When
asked about the taste of the
pizza, Fox says, “It’s just really
f***ing good.”
In their recently
renovated location on Adams,
Beauford and his staff prove
that serving quality food at a
reasonable price, while showing appreciation for customers, ensures a successful
business.
10
Tuna Talk
in Review
Deathly Hallows Transforms Potter
by Kylee Weiss
Since the first Harry Potter book was published in 1997, the series has gained, and steadily
maintained, a fan base that borders on the fanatic. At 12:00 A.M., November 19th, thousands
of such fans crowded movie theaters to see part
one of the franchise’s finale, willing to suffer the
long lines and lost hours of sleep to be there at the
moment of the film’s release. They were not disappointed.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows begins
with a shot in which the Minister of Magic, Rufus
Scrimgeour, gravely announces, “These are dark
times, there is no denying.” Coupled with the film’s
bleak, low contrast cinematography, these opening lines make it clear that the next two-and-a-half
hours are not going to be spent tipping back the
Butterbeers in the Three Broomsticks, or, as was
the case with the sixth film, awkwardly initiating
teenage romances.
This comes as no surprise to avid readers
of the series; they know that the first half of the
seventh book details Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s
attempts at discovering and destroying Voldemort’s
horcruxes – the objects in which he has hidden
parts of his soul, and which ensure his immortality
– a task which sounds about as fun as playing with
a blast-ended skrewt. Those familiar with the novel
are also aware of the numerous deaths that take
place within its pages, starting in the first chapter
and continuing until the final.
Why would anyone want to see such a
grim and gloomy movie, then? David Yates, the
film’s director, ensures that, however dark the film’s
themes, its moments of humor and intimacy more
than keep the viewer entertained. In fact, the juxtaposition of scenes of close friendship with absolute
self-involvement, of heartfelt grief with apathetic
sadism, serve to drive the film’s (and author J.K.
Rowling’s) comments regarding love in the face of
fear further home.
The monsters of Deathly Hallows aren’t literally monsters; there are no three-headed dogs, giant spiders, basilisks, or dragons. This time, the sole
villains consist of Voldemort and his followers, the
Death Eaters. Granted, Voldemort and his crew are
wand-wielding evildoers, but, in the Potter universe,
they’re still human.
Yates plays upon the Death Eaters’ humanity by approaching the story in a highly more
realistic manner than any of the films have done
before; in his own words, he wished to use a cinéma
vérité technique. By largely forgoing gratuitous CGI
for quick shots of teacups stirring themselves and
whatnot, and keeping the remaining special effects
relatively realistic, Yates places greater emphasis
on the actors themselves, as well as his source material.
By bringing the film into the real world, not
just formally, but through the use of on-site locations throughout England (in fact, we never once
see Hogwarts,) Yates brings the film into our world.
Rowling’s obvious allusions to World War II are
then capable of being taken seriously by the viewer;
from the barely-glimpsed, blood-spattered walls of
Bathilda Bagshot’s home; to the Muggle-Born Registration Commission; to the death tolls endlessly
announced via radio, the horrors of Deathly Hallows
are real. That is, they involve, not enchanted diaries
and secret portkeys, but the human hate, prejudice,
and pain that fuel massacres.
The movie isn’t all horror and hardship,
though, remember. Among the scenes of battle and
tragedy lie those full of dry wit, laugh-out-loud moments, and tenderness, superbly acted by the three
leads. Perhaps it’s because this is the seventh film
under their belts, or maybe that they’re all in their
early twenties now, but they act with such subtlety,
more effectively communicating emotion than ever
before. Rupert Grint especially comes into his own
as a jealous and insolent Ron, the most sensitive
one who must overcome his own insecurities.
That being said, perhaps one of the best
scenes in the movie occurs while Ron is away.
Harry and Hermione, played by Daniel Radcliffe
and Emma Watson, respectively, are sitting in their
tent, atop a desolate crag in the middle of nowhere.
They have been on the run for a few months
now, constantly moving to evade Death Eaters.
Hermione, still upset at Ron’s desertion, sits on a
cot. Harry tunes the radio to a station playing “O
Children,” by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Hermione
laughs at Harry’s attempts to dance. Then, the two
of them slow dance, as the static-y song swells to
non-diegetic levels. When it ends, Hermione turns
away without a word.
The song’s “poignant and tender, but oddly
uplifting” mood, in Yates’ words, superbly captures
what seems to be the main motif of the series, that
of valuing friendship, love, and companionship in
the face of the direst circumstances, of the people
and events which would take them away. Its chorus,
“O children/Lift up your voice/Children/Rejoice,
rejoice,” among its verses full of guns, gulags, and
butchers, brings to mind the epigraph of the last
book, also filled with violent imagery, but which
ends with a hopeful, “Bless the children, give them
triumph now.”
Perhaps this structure also mirrors that
of the final two films. In Deathly Hallows: Part One,
the trio must overcome immense challenges, from
the world, from themselves, and from each other.
Things go from bad to worse as they lose more
and more of their friends, and as their enemies
continue to gain strength. Part Two, then, holds the
outcome, of whether Harry and his friends can truly
defeat Voldemort. This is what the series has been
building up to: the final, desperate call for love to
triumph over insurmountable odds.
Kanye’s Fantasy Becomes Reality
by Duncan Burns
Kanye West has officially brought back the family picnic-style hip-hop collaboration
album, and it’s about damn time. For years we’ve had to listen to people just handling it all
wrong, throwing half notable samples on dog pile tracks hoping that it’ll somehow hold the
song together.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye’s 5th album and by far his most conceptual, has
an integral smoothness that seems alien (sorry, Weezy): from start to finish, it manages to flow
from one artist to another, almost never detracting from the songs as a whole.
You want artists? BAM you got ‘em. Everyone short of the Pope is on this album: Fergie,
Drake, The-Dream, Rihanna, Bon Iver, Jay Z, Kid Cudi, Elton John—too many to list in one
review.
As for criticisms, I have few: Pusha T’s verse on Runaway is stupid ( it’s the only verse
that feels tacked on to me), Jay Z nearly bombed on monster ( Nicki Minaj saved him). This
album must be taken whole—accept no substitutes. 8/10
Have a great Holiday Break!