acorn; november 2010

November 1st, 2010

2 Acorn November 1st 2010

T h e A c o r n November 1st, 2010

Ch i e f Ed i tor : Eddy WangEditor: Madeleine Laitz

Advisor: JAMArtistic Advisor: Ms. O

email: [email protected] group: The Acorn

Twitter: harleyAcorn

Acorn November 1st 2010 3

News:

Election thoughts

Freshman Orientation

Math Team

SPORTS

Art:

the days That Became

Photography -DigiPhoto + AP Photo 2D

Macbeth: Preview

Opinion:

The Social NetworkIt’s Kind Of A funny Story

Ray’s-Ism

Ken Carlson

Chris Duffy

Danny Choe

Caitlin RichardEddy Wang

Seth O’Bryan

Anna Barbano

helana shumway

Zach Palumbo

Ray Chang

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Cover photo: Marissa MaloneCover Design: Ms. OPhotography: Taylor Holloran, Anthony Miller, Izzy Hirtelen-booker, Simo-ne Macirella, Madeline McGrain-Githler, matt Andrews, nora Wahlberg, Brian rich, taylor Freeman, JP Fauchet, Morgan Lehmancartoon: Frank Cotham


News:Elect ion

thoughtsKen Carlson

The midterm elections are upon us, although they have not been as advertised as the ones 2008, or even the ones 2006. Here is a brief summary of the candidates running for the Gover-nor/Lt. Governor in New York:

Andrew Cuomo & Bob Duffy (Endorsed by the Democrat, and Independence Party) Background: From Downstate New YorkThe Son of former Governor Ma-rio CuomoAttorney General

Carl Paladino & Greg Edwards (Endorsed by the Republican, Conservative, and Taxpayers Par-ties)Background:From Upstate New YorkReal Estate DeveloperAttorney

There are various other candidates for the NY Governor seat from third parties:Warren Redlich – Libertarian PartyKirstin Davis – Anti-Prohibition PartyCharles Barron – Freedom Party

Howie Hawkins – Green Party Jimmy McMillan – The Rent is Too Damn High PartyDan Fein – The Socialist Workers, and The Communist Party

Let me say that this is just an opinion. You make your own choice. I just want to deliver the basic facts, along with my personal opinion. Andrew Cuomo is just another downstate politician that is looking to take hold of the state and turn it into New York City. Whenever you talk to somebody down there, they think that New York City is all there is to the State of New York. Just look at one of Andrew Cuomo’s endorsements: the current Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg. He is the one who proposed to the state senate and successfully passed the cur-rent 8.8% tax on slicing a bagel. Now, you may be asking why I bring this up. Well, it shows whom Cuomo associates himself with and whom he endeavors to govern like. He considers Mr. Bloomberg as an Idol. Andrew Cuomo’s father, Mario Cuomo, was the Governor of New York State from 1983 to 1994. He was also just another

downstate politician of New York City. He did more for those five buroughs than he did for the en-tire state of New York. Andrew Cuomo was in favor of all government bailouts to date. While he was HUD (U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development) secretary, he pushed for the government lenders, Fannie Mae, and Freddy Mac, to buy out more of the loans issued to people that couldn’t afford the payments instead of al-lowing foreclosures. This decision has been linked by many people to be one of the main contributors to the current economic crisis. He has spent too much time working on the Federal level, and does not have enough insight to New York’s current situation, and in my eyes, this does not make him qualified for the position of New York State Governor. On the other hand, Carl Paladino is a man of the people. Unlike Cuomo, he does not have a very large political background to draw from at all. Until 2005, Carl Paladino was a registered Democrat, but he was a Blue Dog Democrat (Conservative-regis-tered-Democrat). He is from the Buffalo area, and one of his suc-


cesses was getting the toll booths removed on the NYS Thruway at the 190 off ramp in Buffalo. He is involved currently with the Buf-falo NY Mayoral Elections, hoping to get out the current incumbent Byron Brown. Until just a few short weeks before the primary, Paladino was not even on the bal-lots. Enough petitions were signed to get him on the ballot, and subsequently, he won the primary, winning the republican seat. As the days count down to the election it looks as if he has less and less of a chance of winning, due to his lack of self censorship, and the fact that our country has become too politically correct.

Personally, I think Carl Pal-adino should win. He has the right idea. I don’t agree with Andrew Cuomo’s agenda, which includes his plans to “Right Size” New York state government programs. We have over 1000 government orga-nizations in New York State, and he says that he wants to reduce them by 20%. Well, that still leaves 800 Government Programs. What do they DO? New York has four different employee assistance offices! Using the template set by the Democrats in the 2008 presi-dential election, the “Right Sizing” of the government has been equal to increasing its size. Andrew Cuomo agreed with the bailouts,

being in favor of spending bil-lions upon billions of dollars to bail out big businesses that should have simply filed for bankruptcy. If the little guy had failed, would the government have bailed them out? No. Why? Because when the government gets involved and expands, it only supports the big businesses and the people that pay the most taxes. It only supports the people who will give them the most money. No matter how much Cuomo denies it, government ex-pansion is his record.

cuomo VS. Paladino


The class of 2014 ar-rived at Camp Stella Maris during a downpour that would continue throughout the day, and kept the freshmen and seniors from doing anything outside for the entire day. But the camping staff led us on to have a great time indoors through goofy games that in fact made us closer. My favorite was the ending where four teams of mixed freshmen and seniors had to complete tasks or games and

competed to win. Later, after dinner, the rain stopped and we played a cordial game of capture the flag, encom-passing about a third of the camp, and in which neither team won. On the final day, we were able go on the ropes course and zip line whichwere rained out the previ-ous day. The ropes course was, to a person afraid of heights, dizzy-ingly horrifying. The zip line was like a roller coaster at Seabreeze; it was a long wait full of anticipa-

tion, even though the ride was short and not quite as exhilarating as you expected. The final team effort consisted of all the students trying to run under a jump rope within four rotations. Within half an hour, we created a solid plan through trial and error to beat the challenge. As the freshmen play to win, we almost did it about three times. Even though we ‘failed’ the challenge, we had a good go at it. As a final note, the senior’s prank wasn’t all that great.

F r e s h m a n O r i e n t a t i o n

C h r i s D u f f y

The Days That BecameAnna Barbano

Raindrops tumbledDown from theSteely skies above,We watched them streakDown the faces of Our friends, all wrappedIn blue and green andYellow plastics,The deep calm waterBeneath us ripplingSolemnly, and the airWas crisp and cool

And playful.

A fire was kindledHot and golden-orange,Inside we placedOur gifts from the Earth,Ripe potatoes and fleshy beets,Wrapped in silvery fareWhich turned gilded inThe welcoming embers.

The sky was dark,Blackened with the day’s ageThe crickets sang andWe laughed between linked arms.

As morning shatteredShards of light across the sky,Cold, cold water licked our bodies,

And countless stonesHopped across the Surface of the lake.

Our bodies shook with The day’s early bite andWe pulled each other closeTogether and smilesMultiplied like the warmth In our stomachs,Filled with eggs and Fresh onions and thanks.

Today the sun beat down,We sweat beneath the hallowed clear sky,Our shoulders ached together but weSmiled and laughed and


Sang together,Our music joinedThat of the mountainsIn perfect harmony andIt was beautiful.

And as the day settledQuietly, the air brimmed with more song andLaughter, the fireCrackled, the waterWhispered, and footstepsStamped the beat to our unison, our family,And the days that becameOur masterpieceUnfolded evermore.

Math Teamdanny Choe

The Harley-Allendale Columbia math team won the monthly competition (again) in the small school divi-sion at the math meet at Pittsford-Mendon on October 14, 2010. HAC’s score was very notable because HAC all to-gether is the smallest school in the Monroe County Math League, which has 37 participating high schools in Monroe County. The Varsity A team came in first place by more than plenty, the B team came in second place by plenty and the C team got third place in our division. We defeated the larg-est school in the league: Fairport. Also we came in third in the entire Monroe County League for October, beating every school except Brighton and Pittsford-Sutherland. Currently roughly 43 students are part of the team, and we are writing the underdog story. We encourage you to join the ultimate math extravaganza team!Next meet: Wednesday November 16th

Rank school/team Div pts1....P. Sutherland A..........S.. 1262....Brighton A...............L.. 1153....Harley AllendaleColumbia S.. 1034....Webster Schroeder A......L.. 925....Webster Thomas A.........L.. 856....Canandaigua A............L.. 817....Churchville-Chili A......L.. 808....Fairport A...............L.. 798....Gates Chili A.......L.. 7910...Penfield A...............L.. 7511...P. Sutherland B..........S.. 7412...Victor A.................L.. 7013...Brighton C...............L.. 6514...HF-L A...................S.. 6015...Mercy A..................S.. 5415...Spencerport A............L.. 5417...Brighton B...............L.. 5217...Fairport B...............L.. 5219...Webster Schroeder B......L.. 4820...Hilton A.................L.. 4721...Gr. Olympia A............L.. 4622...Harley Allendale Col.....S.. 4423...Webster Thomas B.........L.. 43

Taylor Holloran, AP Photo 2D


SportsTennis: We (the Wolves) went 10-1 in the league this season to become the number one seed for the class B team sectionals. We crushed Jefferson 5-0 in the quarterfinals after having a bye in the first round. Meghan Frost, Marissa Malone, and I won in straight sets for singles, and Amanda Johnson & Khushi Chhangani and Hannah DeSelms & Lydia Hill were strong in doubles. We then went on to face Aquinas in the semifinals and again won 5-0, with the help of Kristina Benjamin at second singles. In the finals, we faced Batavia. After hours of endless nail-biting, we pulled off a 4-1 win. But it wasn’t without a fight. Hannah DeSelms & Lydia Hill (in doubles) and I (in singles) won in straight sets, but the three other matches went into third sets. After the HAC fans were kicked out of the bleacher area and into the lobby (!), Kristina Benjamin and Meghan Frost both pulled off wins at second and third singles. Amanda Johnson and Khushi Changhani had a hard fight at first doubles against one of the best doubles teams in the Finger Lakes. We have returned the Section V class B title back to the Wolves after four years, and plan to hold onto it for awhile longer. Many of us also qualified and participated in the class B/BB individual sectionals. Kristina Benjamin (seeded #6), and Meghan Frost, and I (seeded #2) competed in the singles tournament, and Amanda Johnson & Khushi Changhani (seeded #7) and Hannah DeSelms & Lydia Hill (seeded #8) played as doubles teams. Meghan had a hard-fought match, Kristina upset the number 3 seed in the quarter-finals, and I made it to the finals. Khushi & Amanda made it to the quarters and won one of their playback matches, and Hannah & Lydia made it through the first round, only losing one game. Overall, it was a great tournament for us! I will be moving on to the state qualifier tournament, but all the ladies deserve credit for representing HAC tennis extremely well. Let’s go ladies!-Caitlin Richard, HAC Tennis

Golf: This year we had a really successful season. Our regular season record of 9-4 allowed us to go to a Team Sectional Playoff. In golf, there are only individual sectionals, but the top 4 players of the top three teams of every league get rewarded by earning berths into individual Section V sectionals. On Tuesday Oc-tober 12th at Ravenwood, we defeated Waterloo and Naples by three strokes to claim third overall in both the West and East Finger Lakes Leagues, behind only Honeoye and Geneva. This also gave us a berth into Section V sectionals. In addition, five players on our team qualified for the league championship, which Matt Van Niekerk (Allendale Columbia) won. What a year!-Eddy Wang, HAC Golf


Cross Country: The boys and girls’ HAC Cross Country teams continue to have successful seasons, and this year was no exception. Harley girls Rose Gilroy and Julia Aagesen have been constantly challenging their limits. The boys’ team was undefeated in the Finger Lakes West, winning the league title. They beat larger schools with strong running programs, such as Geneva and Williamson. This year, the varsity A squad consisted of the seven fastest runners, including our own Gage Willand. On November 6th the team will contend for the sec-tional title. The varsity B squad has logged a great deal of miles this season, and they are prepared to replace this year’s seniors next year. The Harley runners on the varsity B squad are Walker Zupan, Matt Andrews, Jeremiah Leit, Will Pryor, and Adeeb Sheikh. Let’s Go WOLVES!-Seth O’Bryan, HAC Cross Country Coach

Volleyball: The HAC girls won their first sectional game 25-18, 25-20, 20-25, 18-25, 25-21. Their next game is Wednesday November 3rd at Geneseo High School.

Girl’s Soccer: The HAC girls had an encouraging season, finish with a record of 6-8-1. Unfortunately, they lost in the first round of sectionals to Pavilion.

Boy’s Soccer: The boys had a nailbiting match against Kendall in sectionals this past Saturday, which went to pen-alty kicks. Unfortunately, they could not hold on.


DigiPhoto Periods 1 & 7Anthony Miller

Brian Rich

Matt Andrews

Madeline McGrain-Githler

Izzy Hirtelen-Booker

Nora Wahlberg

Simone Macirella Taylor Freeman


RIT Field Trip

JP Fauchet

JP Fauchet Morgan Lehman

AP Studio 2D

Silh

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ette


The Social NetworkMovies

Zach Palumbo

If I told you a month ago that a movie about the creation of Facebook would turn out to be one of the best films of the year, you’d probably tell me I was crazy. But The Social Network is indeed one of the most compelling dramas I’ve seen in a very long time, and it gives some very interesting insight into the men behind the creation of this social phenomenon. In my opinion, dialogue-driven films like The Social Net-work live and die on two things. The first, of course, is the dialogue itself. Luckily, in this movie, the dialogue is absolutely fantas-tic. The script, written by Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, Char-lie Wilson’s War), is one of the sharpest, snappiest, and most clever around, the best I’ve seen this year. Also, the back-and-forth between Zuckerberg and his then-girlfriend Erica in the opening scene is one of the most entertain-ing I’ve seen. The film should be a shoo-in for Best Screenplay at the Oscars. But even with the sharp-est script, this film may not have succeeded if not for its excel-lent cast. There’s not a weak link in the bunch (not even Justin Timberlake, who is actually very

believable as Napster creator Sean Parker). Even those with only ten minutes of screen time play their roles remarkably well. However, there are two actors that I feel deserve special mention.

Jesse Eisenberg, for one, is terrific in the lead role. Zuckerberg could have easily come off as completely unlikable , but thanks to Eisen-berg’s surprisingly deep and nu-anced performance the audience actually does sympathize with him a bit, even as he’s alienating everyone around him. Eisenberg has often been called the “other” Michael Cera. This is not entirely unfair, as he has mostly played the slightly awkward teenager in

previous films. This film, though, proves that he has remarkable range, something that we haven’t yet seen in Cera. This film should catapult Eisenberg’s career, and I couldn’t be happier.

The other prominent actor in this film is Andrew Garfield, playing Eisenberg’s best (and probably only) friend, Eduardo. He is the most likeable character in the film, and you really do feel sorry for him as events unfold. He manages quite a few chuckles, and his dra-matic moments are exceptional! (As a side note, Garfield is slated to play the role of Peter Parker in the 2012 Reboot, and after seeing this film I think he has a chance at


outdoing McGuire). Now, with just the afore-mentioned elements the film would have been very good, but the element that gives it the final push into greatness is the expert direction by David Fincher. Most will most likely be familiar with him for directing the seminal Fight Club and, much more re-cently, The Curious Case of Ben-jamin Button. With a resumé like that, Fincher has a lot of expecta-

tions to live up to, and he abso-lutely delivers. The film is perfect-ly paced with nary a dull minute, with perfectly placed comedic mo-ments and funnier than most films that call themselves comedies. To sum it up, The Social Network is pretty much a perfect film. With a cast full of talented actors, one of the sharpest scripts, and deft direction by Fincher, it’s very hard to find any fault with the film. It may not move you to

tears the way Toy Story 3 did, and it may not cause you to question your very existence like Inception, but the film is just as entertaining as both of those. If you have any interest at all in the creation of Facebook, or if you just like good movies, you owe it to yourself to go and see The Social Network.

*5 out of 5*

Frank Cotham

Make a caption and send to theharleynewspaper.gmail.com !


It ’s Kind Of A Funny Stor y

Zach Palumbo Many people will rec-ognize the directors and writers of this movie, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, as the duo behind one of 2006’s best films, Half Nelson. Let’s get this out of the way to save you all the disappointment that some critics have experi-enced: this is not another Half Nelson. While Half Nelson was an emotional, subtly beautiful piece of cinema, It’s Kind of a Funny Story is nothing more than an entertaining dramedy. And don’t let the term “dram-edy” throw you off. It’s Kind Of A Funny Story is actually rather light on the dramatic side of things. The film begins with a clini-cally depressed teen Craig (Kier Gilchrist, who puts in a good, if somewhat one-note, performance) checking into a mental hospital because he has been feeling sui-cidal. In the hospital he meets many eccentric and endearing characters. Among them are his love interest Noelle (played ami-ably by Emma Roberts) and Bobby (Zach Galifianakis), who quickly befriends Craig. Galifianakis has been get-ting a huge amount of attention since his hilarious breakout per-

formance in The Hangover, but some feel that his routine is get-ting old. These people should be very pleased to know that, though he retains some recognizable traits from his comedic roles, Galifiana-kis really comes into his own as a dramatic actor in this film, giving

what is by far his most under-stated and nuanced performance to date, and the few dramatic moments in the film all succeed because of this. Though the film is fairly light on the drama, it absolutely succeeds comically. The film is full of chuckle-worthy gags and even a number of laugh-out-loud mo-ments (including a fantastic musi-cal number). Psych ward comedies often fall back on a number of clichés, but It’s Kind Of A Funny Story does a good job of avoid-ing most of these. The film’s jokes never come off as mean-spirited, and though some may berate the film for not getting into the darker

side of mental illness (which I would completely understand), I feel that doing so would have interfered with the tone the film-makers were going for. The film has a quirky in-die sensibility about it. Its strong soundtrack is composed pre-dominately of indie artists, and it features some excellent artwork. While the film at some moments does become so self-consciously quirky that you’ll roll your eyes, the majority of the time the quirki-ness is endearing. It’s Kind of a Funny Story is not Half Nelson. Then again, it doesn’t really try to be. Though some will be disappointed by its lack of ambition compared to the directorial duo’s début, those who go into it looking for nothing more than a fun hour and a half at the movies will not be disappointed.

*3.5 out of 5*


Macbeth Interview with Helana Shumway, who plays Macbeth

November 18, 19, 20Could you tell us a little about the play Macbeth and the role of your character Macbeth in this play? Macbeth is one of Shake-speare’s most famous tragedies. It is a play about power, ambi-tion, violence, and magic. This play depicts the life of Macbeth, his wife, and many other crucial characters that are a part of the “government.” By that, I mean the King’s friends, enemies, and ac-quaintances. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is told that he is Thane of Cawdor, and will become the King of Scotland. The three witches, who have a constant role throughout the performance, tell him this information. Upon hear-ing this, Macbeth progressively becomes more willing to do any-thing in order to make the witches’ prophecy true. He will go as far as killing the king, a father figure to him, and ordering the murder of his closest friend, Banquo. He or-ders the Macduffs to be murdered as well. Portraying Macbeth has been an adventure. Without a doubt, it is the most challenging role I have ever done. It is Mac-

beth’s ambition that drives him to insanity, and finding a way to channel that energy is thrilling and terrifying all at once.

How is it playing a man?

Playing a man is totally new territory for me. It is very interesting to say the least. Ev-erything from the way I walk, to the way I talk, to how I breathe, to making changes while I am in character. It is also important for me to not lose myself completely in the character, meaning that there are many elements of myself in Macbeth as well.

What have been the challenges of rehearsing Macbeth?

There have been many challenges during the rehearsal process. For most of us in the per-formance, including myself, it is the first time we have done Shake-speare, which is difficult. When we do not understand a part of the text, it is our job as performers to find out what the text means or symbolizes. We also are learning how to do stage combat. That is quite fun! However, in a profes-

sional performance, every minute of fight choreography takes ten hours of rehearsal on average. So, we definitely will continue practic-ing the fights throughout the rest of the rehearsals.

Lastly, has acting changed you in any way? If so, how?

Acting has changed my entire life. When I am onstage, I have the most energy. I love interacting with different charac-ters, especially people I might not have the chance to get to know otherwise. Theater is my form of expression. For me, getting to walk across the stage as a different person for a few hours of a night is without a doubt worth the weeks of rehearsal. Our director, Maria Scipione, helps us throughout the entire process. I have learned so much from her. Acting has taught me how to have confidence in a scary situation, how to love someone beyond reason, how to spy effectively, and now, how to become a greedy man who will not stop in getting what he wants until his only reason for living is not to lose.


My Grandma doesn’t Like Sushi.

I believe I was eight years old at the time. My grandmother and I were at Haneda Airport, waiting for the plane to Korea to depart. The plane was delayed due to an unexpected weather prob-lem. “Why can’t someone expect the unexpected?” I asked myself. I was extremely bored. As soon as my grandmother asked me if I was hungry, I said yes. It was not because I felt hun-ger, but because it sounded way better than just sitting on a bench. So, we went to a Japanese restaurant and or-dered su-shi, which was the only Japa-nese food I knew. However, there was a problem: she had a very little amount of money.

Technically speaking, she lacked Yen, Japanese currency, since she put almost all of her Yen in her suitcase so that no one could steal it from her. She said that I would be able to eat some food on the

plane, but I persis-tently teased her for sushi. I cannot think of any reason why I gave her a hard time. As I mentioned above, I was not hungry. Also, I do not like su-shi particularly more than other foods. I guess I just did not want to obey her. Therefore, she opened every single pocket that she had, includ-ing her backpack’s, pants’ and jacket’s pockets, in the middle

of the restaurant. Finally, she collected enough money and

bought me a small box of sushi which contained four items.As she handed me the box, I felt vague emptiness. There is no such word that can describe the feeling. It was as if I finished a show which I had prepared for a long time. Be-fore starting the show, I thought I would be free once it was over. However, as I finished it, I could not feel any difference at all. It was exactly how I felt. I forgot the taste of sushi as I ate them. I gave her one. Maybe I felt sorry for her. But, she said she did not like sushi. So I ate it all. She probably does not remember the day anymore. These days, she even forgets my name for a few seconds. I, however, still remember what she said: she does not like sushi…

Opinion

Ray’s-ismRay Chang

acorn; november 2010

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