They received Superior ratings from all 3 stage judges and from the 1 sight-reading judge.  Chase Banks also received a Superior rating on the student conductor piece he did with the band.

The Symphonic Winds will now prepare for the State Concert Music Assessment held the last week in April in Gainesville.

Thank you to all the teachers that worked with our band students to help them keep up with their class work!

Here is the link to see all the rating in the FBA District 3.

Traditions have been established in the sixteen year history of the Ceremony. The Lifetime Achievement Award is a special accolade for performers that have achieved a high level of excellence. Actor, George Burns was presented the award on the first televised Ceremony. Another tradition was established when actor, Tom Hanks was quoted while delivering an acceptance speech. As Hanks pulled his Guild membership card from his pocket he said, “My wife, Rita Wilson, got hers for playing a cheerleader on The Brady Bunch.  We’ve all got our wonderful stories and wonderful memories connected with our SAG cards.”  This brought about the special segment “How I Got My Card.”

This year, the sixteenth annual Screen Actors Guild Awards were held in Los Angeles, California at the Shrine Exposition Center on January 23, 2010. Taking the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series was the television show “Mad Men,” while “Glee” was awarded for Outstanding Performance by an ensemble in a Comedy Series. Meanwhile, actress, Betty White was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding achievement in fostering the finest ideals of the acting profession.

Written by: Elisabeth Walker

The painting is titled “The Actor” and was completed in 1905 as he made his transition from painting homeless musicians to his work featuring colorful acrobats. In the artist’s world, this is known as Picasso’s transition from his blue to his rose period. The painting was donated to the Met in 1952, by the daughter of an auto world elite, Walter Chrysler, and since then has made appearances all over the world.

The incident took place during regular visiting hours when an art student lost her balance and fell against the painting, leaving a six-inch tear in the bottom right corner. Though the tear may be insignificant to the six-foot painting it is still important that it be fixed right away. Andrea Melton, a senior and a supporter of the arts had a lot to say on the issue, “Since the tear isn’t a part of the focal point, I don’t think that it is a huge deal. With that being said, people need to be more careful around seemingly priceless paintings.” She makes a good point, and the Met agrees as well as they are in talk of reananalyzing their security and protection systems. The painting is said to make a full recovery in time to go on tour with other Picasso works in late April.

Written by: Danielle Guthrie

Written by: Chelsie Vaughn

But, don’t think that the public is just getting tired of Jay Leno, Conan Obrien is facing scrutiny as well. Frankly, there are far too many of these shows on air, and the people are changing the channel! With the addition of George Lopez’s new show at 11 P.M. on TBS, there are now 6 late night talk shows: Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show” and Stephan Culbert’s “The Colbert Report” come on at 11 P.M. on Comedy Central, Conan Obrien at 11:35 on NBC, David Letterman at 11:35 on CBS, and Jay Leno at 10 on NBC.

Now, NBC is working to get these talk shows off air and put on something that viewers won’t turn from. Possible replacements include, Law and Order, the Jerry Seinfeld Reality Show, or a new sitcom called Parenthood. Whatever the outcome, Leno will be missed regardless of his recent drop in support. The show is projected to be cancelled in February, so tune in to watch history come to an end!

Written by: Asia DaCosta

Packed with action, love, and really cool special effects, people all over America have instantly fallen in love with the compelling story plot.  More people are raving about the movie, getting their friends to go see it, and giving it amazing reviews.  The movie has passed the test of approval with flying colors.

Written by: Hailee Morgante

Written by Mike Minners

So, they’re in English class, watching Romeo and Juliet.  I was honestly glad to see they used this in the movie, because this was the basis for the whole story plot.  It loosely follows the play, and I found it a sort of foreshadowing to later events in the movie.

Skip to the end of the night.  Party at the Cullen house…Bella, clumsy as ever, gets a paper cut, which, in my opinion, bled way too much.  Jasper catches the scent, tries to suck her blood…and Edward is just stupid for pushing her into more glass, so she bleeds even more.  Yeah, great way of protecting her.  She gets all stitched up, and then Edward takes her home, and then she doesn’t see him for the next couple of days.

Okay, this is the sad part.  Edward takes Bella out to the woods, tells her his family is moving, and he doesn’t want her to come with him.  He tells her she doesn’t belong in his world.  “This is the last time you will ever see me.  I won’t come back.  It will be as if I never existed,” he tells her, and leaves her brokenhearted.  I completely started crying during this whole scene.  It was genuinely sad.  I felt as if Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward, completely understood the feelings and mood of the whole scene and portrayed those emotions beautifully.

Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella Swan, actually did a good job of acting depressed while Edward was away.  The camera circled around her in a chair, staring blankly ahead as the months passed.  I was thoroughly impressed with her acting ability this movie.  But one thing I did find strange: Bella’s character throughout the whole movie writes e-mails to Alice’s invalid e-mail address, telling her everything that’s been happening with her life and how she feels.  Why would she write to someone she knew wasn’t getting any of her messages?

Another thing I was superbly impressed with: the Edward apparitions.  For any of those who have read the book, you know whenever Bella does something reckless and dangerous she hears Edward’s voice in her head.  Well, in the movie, she sees his apparition.  He’s standing right in front of her, transparent like a ghost, and fades away whenever she listens to his warnings.  She turns adrenaline junkie just to see him.  So she gets some beaten up motorcycles, and hopes to learn how to ride.

Enter Jacob Black, the other man in the story.  Bella turns to him to help fix the bikes up, and soon they are spending every day together.  They are best friends.  And as Bella says in the movie, whenever she’s with Jacob, she feels almost whole again.  Jacob made her feel alive, and a little less depressed.  He made her happy enough to the point where she gets a group of her friends to go to the movies.  And surprise, surprise: only Mike, who has a hopeless crush of Bella, and Jacob, who is in love with her by this point, are able to go.  She sits awkwardly through the movie, until Mike stands up and rushes to the bathroom, about to puke.  Jacob takes her hand and promises he will never hurt her the way Edward has.

But of course he breaks the promise, right?  And the reason?  Jacob turns into a werewolf and isn’t allowed to tell her.  Well, let me tell you, most of the scenes in the movie Taylor Lautner has his shirt off, and his abs are perfect.  Literally, every girl in the movie screamed when he took his shirt off and his amazing six pack filled up the screen.  It was that entertaining.

And once Bella finally gets the clue Jacob is a werewolf, everything starts to get a little weird.  It wasn’t quite clear to me why Jacob was off chasing a vampire instead of waiting for the vampire to come to them.  Bella, feeling alone, jumps off the cliff and Jacob saves the day.  Alice comes back, causes tension for Bella and Jacob, but they smooth it over in the kitchen.  In that one scene, the chemistry between Kristen and Taylor was astounding.  He pulls her forward, their lips just lightly touch…and then the phone rings. 

Guess who’s calling?  Edward, and he thinks Bella is dead, so he rushes off to the Volturi to get killed.  Alice and Bella rush to save his life, and miraculously they get there just in time.

This is where the movie started to get a little confusing to me.  They’re at the Volturi, and I understand they were going to kill Bella for knowing too much about vampires, but they had this huge fight.  I must admit it looked really cool, what with the vampire speed blurring before my eyes, but I just didn’t think the fight was necessary.

Back in Forks, Jacob comes to talk to Edward and Bella, and he gets so mad he turns into a werewolf and Bella has to break up the almost fight.  I didn’t think they needed that either, but I guess they needed to do some more of the CGI werewolf.  Jacob leaves, and we get the biggest cliffhanger of our lifetime.  Last words of the movie: “Bella, marry me.”  There were so many groans in the movie theater, mine included. I was thinking, I have to wait six more months (June 30^th to be exact) until the next movie comes out to see what she’s going to say.  What a way to end the movie!

So, all in all, I thought it most definitely lived up to all the hype and press it has been getting.  It was a million years better than the first film.  The acting was great, the actors completely embodied their characters, and there was more going on.  Werewolves, heartbreaks, and love triangles consumed us all.  It’s definitely a movie worthy seeing more than once.

Written by Hailee Morgante

Each Muppet on Sesame Street portrayed a different personality trait, such as Oscar’s grouchiness or Big Bird’s curiosity. But, Kermit the Frog was the ultimate portrayal of the human spirit and the ideals and complexities of everyday life. The success of the characters led to the success of many spinoffs of the original Sesame Street, shows such as: The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, The Muppet Babies, and Dinosaurs. Kermit was the only character allowed to cross the boundary to other shows. Fozzie bear and Miss. Piggy were new characters that also cleared a path to success. The original Sesame Street crew led to much success in the world of entertainment and will always be a classic.

Written by Elizabeth Walker