Janie Simonton | Staff Writer I don’t know how to feel. I’ve spent the last 11 trimesters of high school consumed with AP courses, frantic trips to Edline and four a.m. wake-up calls to finish the homework I couldn’t get to the night before. Granted, I’m a control freak. I need to know when everything is happening and why it’s […]
Read moreThom Carter | Staff Writer I’m curious as to when the last time so-called “music channels” placed a band deservedly into the spotlight through extensive airtime of things like music videos, interviews and live performances. The argument regarding stations like MTV and the lack of music it actually airs is one that has been chewed up and spat out since […]
Read moreThom Carter | Staff Writer The original “Skins” was a bold teenage drama that spun the typical formula on its head with a barrage of alcohol-fueled parties, recreational drug use and casual sex. The actors portrayed were all age-appropriate and mostly inexperienced, while the writers of each episode were teens themselves. The series, initially criticized for its over-the-top scenarios, became […]
Read moreJanica Kaneshiro | Staff Writer Google “Lady Gaga.” The first thing that will most likely pop up is a picture of her in a meat dress. She has her catchy phrases that include “disco stick,” “pa-pa-pa-poker face” and the completely senseless “ro-ma-ro-ma-ma.” What? But upon hearing about her much-anticipated new single, “Born This Way,” set to be released the night […]
Read moreThom Carter | Staff Writer Movies have the Academy Awards, the Emmys commend television and Broadway celebrates with the Tonys. Of course, the Grammy Awards seem like the obvious choice as the premier award show for music, but is it? To be frank, no, it’s not. In fact, the Grammys represent everything wrong with the music industry. Trent Reznor, who […]
Read moreJulia Halpin | Editor Intern I definitely don’t look like her. She’s the girl on the cover of Seventeen magazine every month. And she’s quite the opposite of me. Her legs are about as long as my entire body. I mean, Lord knows I’m nowhere near 5’9”. I chopped off six inches of my brown hair last summer, so it’s […]
Read moreJulia Halpin | Staff Writer Welcome to Mason High School, home of the Comets–scratch that, more like home of the stressed out, college bound, overly-fatigued and caffeine-dependent students. In the time I’ve spent as a junior here at MHS, I’ve noticed something; that a lot of kids walking these halls are completely and entirely exhausted, and for the most fleeting […]
Read moreThom Carter | Staff Writer It may sound pretentious, but I like to expand my horizons. Whether it’s shuffling through entire compilations of music or flipping through my Netflix instant queue, I enjoy floating toward an ocean of art and culture. This attitude leaves me lonesome in a town like Mason, a place where Half-Price Books and Spin It Again, […]
Read moreJanica Kaneshiro | Staff Writer I hear it far too often — the heated political debates that usually spark from some unintelligible phrase like, “our president sucks.” As I sat in class, I heard two boys in particular go at it. One was a Democrat and the other a Republican. All heads were turned towards the pair as they battled […]
Read moreJanie Simonton | Staff Writer The other day, I pulled into my driveway after school, locked my doors and walked to the mailbox. Perusing the daily post, I see the usual suspects: the bills for my parents, the “Hey, come check out our campus!” letters from colleges I would never even consider. Usually, most of the college envelopes that show […]
Read moreJulia Halpin | Editor Intern Parents always talk to you about the “dangers” of high school — the peer pressure to drink, smoke, use any kind of illegal drug you can get your hands on, etc., is imbedded into teenagers’ minds as the pressures that are going to attack them as they walk in the building. While these pressures are […]
Read moreJanica Kaneshiro | Staff Writer As I stood before the parents of the varsity soccer team in the minutes leading up to the game, I announced that I was from National Honor Society, and was selling Wendy’s cards for a dollar to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. Almost in unison, their heads turned away from me and avoided eye […]
Read moreThom Carter | Staff Writer With the new school year comes a brand-new season of primetime television, and people are feverish for the return of some of their most beloved shows. This made me begin to ponder the difference between television here in the U.S. and television in the U.K. Spending much of my summer across the pond, I couldn’t […]
Read moreThom Carter | Staff Writer As always, movies are changing. Special effects become exceedingly spectacular, monsters become more and more convincing, and disasters become startlingly real. But what if all these things and more came out you in eye-popping 3-D? More than ever, the third dimension has become the new avenue for filmmakers to venture down, and with good reason. There’s no […]
Read moreJanica Kaneshiro | Staff Writer Put simply, the First Amendment is an important one. It’s what makes us Americans. Okay, so we’ve been hearing this since the second grade, right? But it wasn’t until recently I had even considered that there might be a truly ugly part of this freedom. I don’t think it’s so much the amendment I’ve suddenly […]
Read moreJanie Simonton | Staff Writer So, here’s my idea for a senior shirt: “Football Ticket: $4.00. Homecoming Ticket: $20.00. Senior Memories: Priceless.” Just kidding, that’s not my idea. At all. Two reasons: 1. The Mastercard “Priceless” parody is so trite, it’s practically as cliché as the phrase “a penny saved is a penny earned.” 2. Senior memories are not priceless. […]
Read moreJulia Halpin | Staff Writer If any of you are avid MTV watchers, you might have seen the show “If You Really Knew Me.” Traveling to different schools around the country, the show delves into the lives of specific high school students in order to reveal who they “really are.” Surprisingly so, people admit to rather personal details on this […]
Read moreJanica Kaneshiro | Staff Writer I’m tired of being told what I can’t do. Ever reminisce about the toddler days when great-aunt Sue asked you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I do. I answered in a variety of ways of course, like all young kids, from “I want to be President” to “I want to […]
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