Plants vs. Zombies

The latest in PopCap Games’ line of stellar casual games keeps PopCap’s reputation intact. As you might have guessed, you play as weaponized plants under siege by the undead hordes  in a tower defense-style game (Well, maybe you didn’t guess that). Frame rates tend to drop when the action gets frantic, but aside from that, the game is great in every way. $2.99 Learn more about the app.

Choas Rings

Chaos Rings is an epic iPhone-only RPG from Square Enix, creators of the renowned Final Fantasy series. Amazing graphics and simple-but-intuitive battle controls make this easily Squenix’s best effort on the iPhone so far. $15.99 Learn more about the app.

Zenonia 2

The sequel to last year’s unlikely hit, Zenonia 2 improves on its predecessor’s Zelda-style hack ’n’ slash game play with improved customization options and tightened controls. The lack of real change is the game’s only real flaw, but if you’ve never played the first Zenonia, you owe it to yourself to try Zenonia 2. $4.99 Learn more about the app.

Raymond v. Raymond

Manners
by Passion Pit
Passion Pit’s album is a fantastic CD, full of unexpected high vocals topped with a catchy rhythm. One track on the new album, “Making Light,” is filled with upbeat keyboard rhythms that make you want to jump on your bed and dance. “Making Light” has a techno-pop mix underscore with electric beats. Another track on the album is “The Reeling,” a fast track that is a good party song with its quick, awesome tempo.

Freight Train
by Alan Jackson
Alan Jackson’s new CD, Freight Train, is a great CD for anyone who loves country music. Compared to Jackson’s 2008 album, Good Time, this album is more mellow. The songs on Freight Train define country unlike on Good Time, where they were more fun and upbeat. None of the songs are much different than his usual songs, but the lyrics stand out because of the stories they tell. A must-download song is “It’s Just That Way,” whose beat and music stand out more than the lyrics. Quinn Truax

Congratulations
by MGMT
MGMT’s new album, Congratulations, is definitely a trip off of the beaten path. Most of the nine songs are a blend of acoustic guitar chords and sounds that can hardly be described in terms of an instrument.

MGMT was brought to fame by their previous album, Oracular Spectacular. Their single, “Kids,” a more mainstream alternative song with synthesizer mixed in, was not like the rest of their album. The band’s true colors were not well represented by this song.

Congratulations is lyrically unique, creating poetry that can be interpreted in any way; which makes listening to the songs over and over entertaining instead of monotonous.

The instrumental genius of “Lady Dada’s Nightmare” runs through the plot line of a good dream turned sour. With screaming and wailing sounds to accompany a heroic sound, it makes you feel as if you are walking through a forest at night.

Many of the songs share a similar sound, such as “It’s Working,” and “I Found a Whistle.” Both utilize a soft falsetto. Some individuals might not like the far out songs at first. After a few listens though, they too will be humming along with the catchy beats.

-Connor, Quinn, Monica, Damon

The themes are:

• Monday – Exercise Day
• Tuesday – Sleep in a Box T-shirt Day
• Wednesday – MTV Day
• Thursday – Class Color Day [Freshman-yellow, Sophomore-green, Juniors-red, Seniors-blue, and Faculty-black]
• Friday – Cougar Crazie Day

During all three lunches, come to the Spirit Club table by the West Mall doors so we can tally all of the participants of Spirit Week. Help show us that your class has the most spirit! The winner will be announced in the afternoon announcements on Friday, April 23rd.

The following Monday, the 15th, will also be a day off for SMNW students. The 15th is Presidents’ Day. Be prepared for a late 9:40 a.m. start on Tuesday.

Brady Klein

The 2009 baseball season came to a conclusion with the New York Yankees winning their 27th World Series title Nov. 4. The season has been over for a month, and yet, there is still controversy involving the game. Not surprised, right?

But this controversy has nothing to do with steroids, which have plagued the game for over a decade. The problem is about the American League Gold Glove Awards. For eight of the nine winners, it was a popularity contest, plain and simple; nearly all of these guys have their faces plastered on billboards and on TV screens across the nation. Most of them are hitting sensations or are on great teams, which really doesn’t reflect their defensive play at all. For those eight guys, I understand why they won. But for the ninth winner it is a complete mystery to me.

The first two winners in the outfield, Torii Hunter and Ichiro Suzuki, had both won their ninth Gold Gloves, and their stats in the field were impressive. The final winner in the outfield was Adam Jones. He is the center fielder for the Baltimore Orioles. He finished the season with a .986 fielding percentage and nine outfield assists, which are pretty strong numbers. But was it third best? I don’t think so.

Our own Kansas City Royal, David DeJesus was much more deserving than Jones. He played all three outfield positions this season and did not make a single error at any of them, while Jones only played center. DeJesus’ fielding percentage was 1.000, which is perfect. Additionally, DeJesus had 13 outfield assists to Jones’ nine. Do the math: DeJesus’ percentage was .014 points better than Jones’ and he had four more assists than Jones had. But it was Jones who won the Gold Glove.

This would make more sense if the winner was at least a big name, but he isn’t. Jones did not stand out this year in any category. It seems like a lot of guys win because of a good offensive season or a good team, but Jones did not have either of these. He had a mediocre year at the plate, and the Orioles finished even behind the Royals — a 64-98 record versus the Royals’ 65-97 record. How can a team with a season just as bad as the Royals have a guy who played worse defense than DeJesus win the Gold Glove?

All three winners in the outfield were center fielders. Many people have said that left fielders basically can never win the gold glove because it is an easier position than others. I believe this is incorrect, left field can not be that much easier than center or right. It still challenges the defenders to have a strong arm and great range. The position only has a bad name because it is a notorious spot for the worst fielders in the league. But DeJesus was one of the best in the league based on his impressive defensive stats. So the position he played should not even matter.

One center fielder, one left fielder, and one right fielder should win the award. That is how it works in the infield. You don’t see three third basemen winning the award, so why should three center fielders win, especially one that is not deserving of the gold. Even so, DeJesus didn’t play left field the whole season. He played a little right and a good amount of center, where he went errorless as well.

And still, I don’t understand why Jones won. Maybe it has something to do with Zack Greinke winning the Cy Young, and the committee thinks that the Royals only deserve one award winner.

All I know is that whoever votes for the winners robbed DeJesus of his trophy. He played in 144 games out of 162 (Jones only played in 118) and left it all on the field every inning, just to have some unknown from the Orioles putting his hard- earned award in his case.

Well, maybe next year will be different… but then again, how can it?

The girls’ volleyball team advanced to sub-state but failed to move past Olathe Northwest, ruining any plains for state competition.

Coming off of a tough loss in state competition last year, the team knew they had to come back stronger this year. They knew every team was going to look at them as one of the top contenders in the Sunflower League. One of their toughest games this year was against Lawrence Free State.

“In past years, Lawrence Free State has always been a tough game because they have always had a good team. And this year we knew we had to go out and give it our all,” junior Kelle Carver said.

The Cougars got off to a rough start, taking three early losses. However, the girls never gave up. They earned their first win against SM South and followed up with a few more wins. Their best game of the season came against Lawrence Free State, when they walked away with a hard fought win.

Washburn Rural High School won the Kansas 6A state title, and Blue Valley West finished second.

Mural club members Staci Darby, Cassie Jones, Sara Irick and Michelle Landis met on Tuesday, Oct. 27, to brainstorm ideas for their upcoming mural. “We’re trying to put something unique on the walls that can’t be found in other murals,” said Irick.

“It’s my last year here, and I want to make a mark,” said senior Cassie Jones, co-president of mural club. There are about 15 members in the club, including junior co-president Sara Irick.

“We’re trying to put something unique on the wall that can’t be found in other murals,” Irick said.

Although the club is small, the group has quite a large project to complete. It involves a lot of discussion and processing to finalize just the sketch of a mural, and everyone must edit it and perfect it to produce the final product.

“You have to make sure it all goes together collaboratively, that all the elements work together,” Jones said. “It’s really cool to see everyone’s creativity just kind of blossom.”

After measuring the designated location for the mural, the club must put their sketch in a one inch to one foot scale. After the group accomplishes all of this, they must get their idea approved by the administration.

Currently, the club is working on an idea that came from junior Staci Darby. They are reluctant to give away their final product, but it involves a bridge with an infinity point. They are attempting to make it look a little more three dimensional and realistic, almost like you could walk into it. Because it’s still a school mural, it must tie into academic interest.

“Academically, it can apply to anything. That’s what’s so great about it.” Jones said.

So far, the group has managed to come up with a thumbnail sketch. Currently, working on perfecting the sketch and scaling it to size is the main priority. Although the administration prohibits the club from painting any of the walls in the new wing of the school, they are considering putting the mural near the environmental education room or in the family and consumer science wing.

“We have the lowest recycling rate of any metro [area] in the country now for glass, and we think, over time, we can completely turn that around and make this [area] a leader in the nation,” Jeff Krum, Ripple Glass co-founder, said.

In the past few years, glass recycling has slowed in Kansas City, and millions of bottles are sitting in local landfills. Curbside glass pick up halted in 2003, making recycling difficult for residents.

“I think this new program will impact our community in a positive way. People will feel like they are doing a good thing by recycling glass instead of just trashing it,” junior Alexandra Kahtava, who plans to use the program, said.

On Nov. 2, the program went into action with 60 drop-off locations in the metro area. The large purple bins are placed outside various local businesses, including Perceptive Software on W. 68th Terrace in Shawnee.

“Our goal is to not only make it convenient, but to allow people to make it part of their routine so it’s not an extra trip,” Krum said.

After collection, the recycled glass will be converted to fiberglass insulation via Owens Corning. Not only will this reduce energy waste, but it will help create and maintain local jobs.

“Because of this bad economy, more jobs would be very beneficial,” Kahtava said. “But besides that, recycling always gets my thumbs-up.”

According to container-recyling.org, 95 percent of recyclable glass is thrown into landfills, a number that Ripple Glass plans to reduce.

“It frustrates me when I see someone throw something away that they could recycle,” Kahtava said. “The more we can recycle, the cooler our world is.”

By Nov. 15, all of the collection sites will be in place, and Ripple Glass will be well on its way to making the Kansas City area a greener place.

“It’s never too late [to start recycling more],” Kahtava said. “But, at the same time, I think it is best for all of us to always be thinking about what we can do to make this world healthier.”

Click here to visit the Ripple Glass website.

“Where am I headin’? / I ain’t certain. / All that I know is / I am on my way.”

The rousing chorus from Act I of the 2009 musical, Paint Your Wagon, echoed through the auditorium. But this wasn’t opening night. No, it was far from that. Only a few weeks before the show, the student actors and actresses were still turning the wrong way during dances, forgetting lines and missing cues for entrances.

As production nears, these groups, along with the pit orchestra and set crews, will be working to perfect their individual tasks so all aspects come off seamlessly on the production dates.

For those three nights, time will move backwards on stage. The actors and actresses will sing and dance, the pit orchestra will play, a set of devoted stage crew will manage everything behind the scenes and the audience will be catapulted back to 1853.

The Stage

Paint Your Wagon is a tale based on the California gold rush and the ensuing chaos that occurs when a small mining town is occupied by 400 men and one woman. Many factors contributed to the process of choosing this show, including the resources available to build sets and how talented the students are.

Senior Andrew Shaw and Junior Hailey Esch, along with the rest of the Paint Your Wagon cast, dance on stage during rehersal on Oct 24.

“You have to think about a whole bunch of stuff when you decide what you’re going to do. You have to think about what you’ve done in the past, because you don’t want to do the same thing every year,” drama teacher and director Keli Rodgers said. “We ended up picking this show because I had lots of men who were upperclassmen, so I picked a show that had a lot of men in it.”

The eight-week rehearsal process began with auditions immediately after Labor Day. For the audition, students were asked to quickly learn a small section of choreography from the musical in addition to a vocal audition.

“[As a senior] I thought that auditions weren’t that hard, but [as a freshman,] I was totally freaked out at that first audition,” senior Mickey Baltzley said.

One consideration in casting the actors and actresses was the huge number of upperclassmen who tried out.

“Sometimes freshmen get the idea that they’re not good simply because they don’t get cast, which is not necessarily the case. A lot of the time with underclassmen, it’s that they get cut for no reason except I didn’t have room for them,” Rodgers said.

At callbacks, students were given a part of the script to learn in a few minutes to read in front of Rodgers, as well as choir teacher Scot Schwartz and choreographer Mindy Moritz.

Baltzley’s experience at auditions paid off. He ended up receiving the lead role. Other students like junior Gwen Devonshire were surprised when they received callbacks. Devonshire had only worked in the theater on the props crew, chorus, and in the understudy show Talking With….

“Auditions were difficult for me because there is a lot of tough competition. When I found out I made callbacks, I was really excited. I wasn’t expecting it, so I kind of set myself up for not getting the role,” Devonshire said.

On Sept. 11, auditions ended. fifty-two students were chosen, and rehearsals started Sept. 21.

For a week or two, students labored in the choir room, running through the music to learn the melodies and harmonies of the solo and choral parts. Once the music was somewhat ready, Moritz then came in to work on the choreography.

Although lines were not yet memorized, it was time to move to the stage. Devonshire’s role as Elizabeth Woodley may be one of the few female leads in the play, but she doesn’t even really speak much in Act II. In fact, the majority of the time, it’s mostly the male leads who have to come to almost every rehearsal. Baltzley plays Ben Rumson, the main character, and Claire Martin plays his daughter, Jennifer. Vik Govindarajan, Eric Fillmore, Andrew Shaw, Josiah Rosell and several other thespians are also among the multiple male leads in the production.

Rodgers challenges the actors to get into their characters’ shoes, and eventually be able to even think and feel their parts. They should know their role so well that if they happen to forget a line, they would be able to come up with something off-the-cuff that sounds like something their character would say.

“It’s really difficult at times to get into the character,” Devonshire said. “You have to think about what you would do if you were actually that person, and how you would carry yourself.”

At rehearsals, the lights flicker on and off, plunging the auditorium into complete darkness. The actors fall asleep while waiting for their time on stage. When running through the scenes, it requires many line cues and prompts, highlighting the students’ lack of familiarity with their roles. The actors however, love the challenge of getting everything together before opening night.

“When you’re acting, you leave all your problems behind and get to be someone else,” Baltzley said. “You just get to walk into someone else’s skin and crawl around a bit.”

The Pit

The pit orchestra, composed of 28 musicians, has practiced four days a week for 2 1/2 to three hours.

Sophomore Amanda Hedrick joined the pit to learn new skills.

“I thought it’d help me expand musically,” Hedrick said. “Personally, I think the music is challenging, but it’s not too difficult. It’s mostly the speed that kills.”
Although the pit is normally directed by either Sc

wartz or orchestra teacher Jeffrey Bishop, this year is different. The new conductor, Christopher Kelts, is the director of the Kansas City Civic Orchestra.
“I think it’s a good experience to work with different conductors. They’re able to focus on different things. I’ve learned things from him that I haven’t yet from Bishop,” Hedrick said.

Kelts was recommended by Debbie Allen, the director of Fine Arts for the district. He was eager to work with high school musicians because they are open to trying new things.

“Personalities just come together in a musical, and there is a camaraderie that I really like,” Kelts said.

The score for this musical is more than 80 pages. While that amount is not unusually long for a Broadway musical, it is challenging for the musicians.

“All Broadway shows are difficult because of the key signatures, but for this show, the tunes are memorable and catchy. There’s a lot of high energy in this musical, and it reminds me of ‘Oklahoma!’ because of that,” Kelts said.

The pit orchestra includes full string, wind, brass and percussion sections, including violins, tubas, and trumpets as well as a banjo.

“I’ve had a lot of fun,” Hedrick said. “I probably laugh more in pit than I do all day long because Dr. Kelts is funny, and I make so many stupid mistakes that it’s hilarious. I guess you just have to be there.”

Next week, the pit orchestra will tune up, sit down in the small, dark, sunken area in front of the stage, and play their best.

The Set

Backstage, another vital task is being completed. The sets, lighting and technology used in putting on a musical may be in the background, but they help create an atmosphere crucial for a full-scale production like Paint Your Wagon.

Many students help on the light crew, sound crew, grip (stage) crew or prop crew. Each crew includes two to five people, who are in charge of making the production run smoothly, even if the audience doesn’t notice their efforts.

“We’re giving an actual contribution to the show, even if no one knows we’re doing it,” senior Bryan Wheat said. “But you get to be behind the scenes, and you get to make the little kids in the front row think everything is happening by magic.”

Before the play opens, each actor is required to spend five hours building sets.

“I feel that being on a tech crew is what truly puts on the play. You get a lot more jobs and responsibilities than the actors. Now that I’m on sound crew, I’m in charge of every mic, and it proves that I can do a harder job than if I were just in the chorus,” sophomore Connor Stultz said.

One new thing for the sound crew this year is the addition of more body microphones.

“[The actors] used to have to share them, take them on and off, but now I think I have enough that everyone can just wear their mic, and people won’t have to juggle them. That’s better for the equipment and a lot easier for the actors,” Rodgers said.

Along with an improved sound system and speakers, and new lighting equipment, a new face will join the adult staff. Lighting designer Sean Glass works professionally at Harvest Productions, a local company that helps with sound and lighting at several corporations around the local Kansas City area, including the Kansas City Symphony, Shawnee Mission Theatre in the Park and AMC Theatres.

“I’m really excited about working with him. I think he’s going to do a lot of cool stuff for us,” Rodgers said.

Although the four sets being used this year are not the most challenging (they range from a Wild West general store to an old-fashioned saloon), according to Rodgers, they all move on and off the stage several times, making it very difficult for the running crew to change scenes. Four or five wagons are also being built, made of rolling platforms with walls. A typical set for one scene takes 12 hours to build and paint.

“All of it will be done pretty close to the show. In Grease last year, tech was rushed to get everything done,” Stultz said.

The crews are finishing up their sets; the orchestra, their final rehearsals; and the actors, their last days without an audience. The play runs Nov. 12-14, and tickets are $7 or $3 with an activity pass. The curtain rises at 7 p.m.