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| Friday, April 12, 2002 |
| Contact Information If you have questions, comments, corrections, tips, suggestions for stories, or letters to the editor, please contact the Middleburgh Student Press through one of the means below. U.S.Mail- The Middleburgh Student Press Robert Kerley, Editor C/O Mr. Jonathan Bright Middleburgh High School Main Street, P.O. Box 400 Middleburgh, N.Y. 12122 E-Mail- mcsnewsman@yahoo.com Personal Contact- Talk to Robert Kerley |
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| Two weeks ago the Middleburgh High School had its Instrumental Spring Concert. The Band played Declaration, Ballade, Finale The Blue, The Grey, and The Crosley March. All the songs were well performed I thought, as a participant of the performances. The Jazz Ensemble also put on a great show. Also playing 3 numbers: The Chicken, Chameleon, and April in Paris. ?The Chicken? came out howling with an energetic, building intro that lead to what would be considered a funky, upbeat tune. ?The Chameleon? was the funk of the show, and it had the crowd moving and clapping right along. The great soloist Peter DeBartolo on his Alto Saxophone wowed the audience with his wonderful woodwind work. ?April in Paris? was the jazz of the show and the catchy swing beat proved our authenticity as a Jazz Band. Friday the 6th, the Jazz Ensemble will be leaving at 10:30 in the morning, to travel to the college to play for the staff of the 10th grade career day. Although it would definitely be better to play for the 10th grade at the event, we will play all the songs we have learned so far this year for the audience that was assigned to us. The list includes those played at the spring concert and ?A Wonderful World,? ?Get it on,? ?25 or 6 to 4? by Chicago, and lastly a song called ?Hot Sauce.? I?m hoping that whatever they hear they will enjoy. |
| Recently, I watched an episode of ?Boston Public? on FOX. I often try to catch this show if I have free time, because of the controversial, yet credible topics that it often deals with. I feel that it is a very honest reflection of our national school system (not just middleburgh), and the problems that plague both the students and the teachers. This episode was particularly controversial, since it dealt very honestly and frankly with the power of a word that I am not allowed even to print in a student paper due to its racial nature. In this episode, one of the teachers actually assigned a book to his class for them to read and learn about the term. The sub-title of the book is The Strange Career of a Troubling Word. The title, is in actuality the same word it dissects and goes into, written by Randall Kennedy. The book ignited quite a bit of tension between teachers of different races, arguments between the characters ensued where many good points were made. I didn't like the end of the show, it turned out that this racial slur was appropriate to teach, provided someone of African American dissent taught the students its power. Personally, I failed to see how that taught tolerance of the word at all, if only a certain minority was allowed to teach it. I would feel the same way if you had to be Irish to teach to teach children the power of a racial slur such as "mick". But I digress; the book in the story was what truly held my interest throughout the show. I thought it would have been a wonderful thing for someone to finally call this issue out into the open, acknowledging that in this - Continued on page 4 |
| Jazz Band and the Instrumental Spring Concert |
| MUSIC REVIEW by Evan Durfee |
| Boston Public introduces controversial book |
| TELEVISION and BOOK REVIEW by Katie Malark |