Portfolios are in and the term has come to an end, but you journalists are needed for one last task. We need to distribute the newspaper one last time.
Distribution day is set for report card distribution day. Come to school early to greet each student with a hot-off-the-press June Hilltopper.
Spread the word...
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Convention Anyone? Only $105/student
The CSPA invites high school students and faculty advisers to attend and participate in CSPA’s 84th annual Spring Scholastic Convention. This national gathering of student editors and faculty advisers to newspapers, yearbooks, magazines, video productions, and online media will be held at Columbia University from Wednesday, March 19 through Friday, March 21, 2008.
Delegates can choose from 350 or more sessions organized in seven sequences: newspaper, yearbook, magazine, online media, video/broadcasting, law and ethics and advisers. All seven sequences will run simultaneously throughout the three days of the Convention.
Throughout the Convention, our hourly schedule boasts a variety of special events, including Advisers Luncheons on Thursday and Friday. In addition, the Columbia Scholastic Press Advisers Association (CSPAA) will meet on Friday.
More than 500 newspapers, magazines and yearbooks that entered the CSPA’s 2007 competitions will be displayed at the 84th Scholastic Convention. The display will include recent high scoring publications. Delegates will be able to browse these displays on Wednesday and Thursday.
Delegates can choose from 350 or more sessions organized in seven sequences: newspaper, yearbook, magazine, online media, video/broadcasting, law and ethics and advisers. All seven sequences will run simultaneously throughout the three days of the Convention.
Throughout the Convention, our hourly schedule boasts a variety of special events, including Advisers Luncheons on Thursday and Friday. In addition, the Columbia Scholastic Press Advisers Association (CSPAA) will meet on Friday.
More than 500 newspapers, magazines and yearbooks that entered the CSPA’s 2007 competitions will be displayed at the 84th Scholastic Convention. The display will include recent high scoring publications. Delegates will be able to browse these displays on Wednesday and Thursday.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Another Noteworthy Jamaica Alumnus
Okay...who wants this scoop? Read below for more info...
TO: Josh Cohen, Journalism Teacher, Hilltopper Advisor
Ellen Frank, Librarian
FR: D. Jensen
Ferentz Lafargue is a 1994 alum and a published author. He is interested in speaking to JHS students. (See below.)
Please consider his offer and forward this message to Dr. Sloan (English Dept Chair) and anyone else you think might be interested in bringing Mr. Lafargue to JHS.
Incidentally, Eugene Lang's wife, Theresa Lang, is a JHS alum, class of '34. (See below.)
Dennis
From: Ferentz LaFargue [mailto:ferentz@ferentz.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 10:16 AMTo: dfjensen@optonline.netSubject: Re: Jamaica High School
Dear Dennis,Thank you for reaching out to me. I have pasted a biographical blurb below that you can post on the site. Also, I have inquired in the past about coming back and speaking to students at Jamaica and still remain interested in doing so. If there are any opportunities to do so, please let me know. Ferentz Lafargue is an assistant professor of literature at Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts and author of the memoir Songs in the Key of My Life . He holds a B.A. in English from Queens College, CUNY and PhD in African American and American Studies from Yale University. You can keep up with Ferentz and his activities at http//:ferentz.comAgain, thank you and I look forward to being in touch. Best,Ferentz
TO: Josh Cohen, Journalism Teacher, Hilltopper Advisor
Ellen Frank, Librarian
FR: D. Jensen
Ferentz Lafargue is a 1994 alum and a published author. He is interested in speaking to JHS students. (See below.)
Please consider his offer and forward this message to Dr. Sloan (English Dept Chair) and anyone else you think might be interested in bringing Mr. Lafargue to JHS.
Incidentally, Eugene Lang's wife, Theresa Lang, is a JHS alum, class of '34. (See below.)
Dennis
From: Ferentz LaFargue [mailto:ferentz@ferentz.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 10:16 AMTo: dfjensen@optonline.netSubject: Re: Jamaica High School
Dear Dennis,Thank you for reaching out to me. I have pasted a biographical blurb below that you can post on the site. Also, I have inquired in the past about coming back and speaking to students at Jamaica and still remain interested in doing so. If there are any opportunities to do so, please let me know. Ferentz Lafargue is an assistant professor of literature at Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts and author of the memoir Songs in the Key of My Life . He holds a B.A. in English from Queens College, CUNY and PhD in African American and American Studies from Yale University. You can keep up with Ferentz and his activities at http//:ferentz.comAgain, thank you and I look forward to being in touch. Best,Ferentz
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Is He Dead?
Do you believe the hype? Were you a victim of the laughing gas?
December 10, 2007
THEATER REVIEW 'IS HE DEAD?'
It’s Not Life on the Mississippi, Jean-François Honey
By BEN BRANTLEY
What might have been a wheeze turns out to be a giggle.
“Is He Dead?,” a previously unproduced play by the long-dead Mark Twain, has at last made its Broadway debut. And for something that’s basically been lying immobile for more than a century, gathering dust in archives, it has a remarkably sprightly step.
Most of the credit, I hasten to add, does not belong to the immortal author of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” whose many literary crowns did not include that of laurel-wreathed dramatist. Twain’s trenchant satirist’s eye is just barely discernible in this silly, formulaic farce, written in 1898, about a starving French painter forced to don women’s clothes.
But with the right doctors, even a long-buried dinosaur can be made to dance. “Is He Dead?,” which opened last night at the Lyceum Theater, benefits mightily from a top-grade team of resurrection artists. They include the director Michael Blakemore, the playwright David Ives (who adapted Twain’s script) and an infectiously happy cast, led by the wondrous Norbert Leo Butz, that serves a master class in making a meal out of a profiterole.
Reclaimed from the mothballs by the scholar Shelley Fisher Fishkin, who came upon the manuscript five years ago in the Mark Twain Papers at the University of California, Berkeley, “Is He Dead?” would likely generate only a few chuckles (and many a cry of “Oh, brother”) in the reading. Its plot suggests an ungainly younger cousin to “Charley’s Aunt,” Brandon Thomas’s popular cross-dressing comedy from 1892.
Set in and near Paris in 1846, “Is He Dead?” presents a lineup of cultural and farcical stereotypes, seen with the wide-eyed-with-a-wink gaze that Twain brought to “The Innocents Abroad,” the travel memoir that made him solvent. At the show’s center is Jean-François Millet (no, the name is not a coincidence), a brilliant but unrecognized painter played by Mr. Butz. Since Jean-François can’t sell a landscape to save his life (literally), his inner circle of bohemian friends — an ethnic stew made up of an American (Michael McGrath), a German (Tom Alan Robbins) and an Irishman (Jeremy Bobb) — convince him that faking his death is just the ticket for raising his stock. So Jean-François disappears from life and re-emerges as his imaginary twin sister, a widow both mad and madcap. The expected complications ensue.
You’re groaning, right? I’ll admit I wasn’t all that happy for the play’s first 10 minutes or so, despite the obvious polish of the cast and the physical production, which includes exaggerated postcard-pretty sets (Peter J. Davison) and costumes (Martin Pakledinaz), as well as a slew of reproductions of the real Millet’s paintings.
But once Mr. Butz puts on a pink dress, this Tony-winning comic actor (“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”), who had been rather flavorless in his opening scene, shows the true comic genius of which he is made. From that moment the whole production feels as if it’s been pumped through with nitrous oxide. Jokes you would swear you would never laugh at suddenly seem funny.
Mr. Blakemore, the British director who has brought such theatrical élan to the complexity of Michael Frayn (“Copenhagen,” “Democracy”), here exhibits the same comic assurance he demonstrated in the 1983 Broadway premiere of Mr. Frayn’s master farce “Noises Off.” He keeps the familiar machinery running smoothly without ever letting it shift into automatic pilot. And he understands the difference between knowing exaggeration and crowd-pandering vulgarity.
So does his cast, which offers a spectrum of witty variations on theatrical fossils. These include (in addition to the national cartoons of Mr. McGrath, Mr. Robbins and Mr. Bobb), John McMartin’s frisky take on the elderly gentleman lecher, Jenn Gambatese’s and Bridget Regan’s versions of the palpitating ingénues, and Patricia Conolly’s and Marylouise Burke’s sweet, stylish turns as a pair of fluttering old maids.
Byron Jennings appears to be having the time of his life as a sleek, melodramatic villain. (His greyhound carriage and vulpine face have seldom been used to such piquant visual advantage.) And David Pittu plays too many people to count with a consummate blend of precision and enthusiasm that is this production’s hallmark.
Looking like a cross between Kirsten Dunst and Joan Sutherland in “La Traviata,” Mr. Butz in drag is a minor miracle, both honoring the conventions of a hoary elbow-ribbing type and making them feel brand new. Like many great comic actors he suggests that he has more energy than a human body can naturally contain. Put him in the captivity of a whalebone corset and tiers of taffeta, and he becomes a bizarrely frilly volcano poised on the brink of eruption.
I’m not going to quote much from the play, since most of its jokes wither and die when removed from the rarefied air of the Lyceum. Anyway, I’m not sure which one-liners are Twain’s and which come from Mr. Ives, the author of the delightful “All in the Timing.” (Example: Mr. McGrath’s character speaks of taking a potential client “to ‘The Gleaners.’”)
And I probably shouldn’t tell you that there’s extended horseplay involving the stench of Limburger cheese and the centuries-old shtick involving an attractive woman who turns out to be made of artificial parts. Mr. Butz and company proceed with such giddy confidence that by evening’s end the show fleetingly assumes the authoritative absurdity of Oscar Wilde and Joe Orton. (There’s even a thrown-away Wildean-Ortonian line, “I congratulate you on your polygamy.”)
I don’t know about you, but as winter’s grayness creeps up on us, I’m in the mood for savvy stupidity. And Broadway isn’t doing much to satisfy that taste. (“Young Frankenstein”? Give me a break.)
“Is He Dead?” may be a scam, trying to pass off copper as gold. But by the time Mr. Butz raises his skirts and kicks up his heels for a final dance of the seven petticoats (or however many there are), there was indeed gold dust in my eyes.
IS HE DEAD?
December 10, 2007
THEATER REVIEW 'IS HE DEAD?'
It’s Not Life on the Mississippi, Jean-François Honey
By BEN BRANTLEY
What might have been a wheeze turns out to be a giggle.
“Is He Dead?,” a previously unproduced play by the long-dead Mark Twain, has at last made its Broadway debut. And for something that’s basically been lying immobile for more than a century, gathering dust in archives, it has a remarkably sprightly step.
Most of the credit, I hasten to add, does not belong to the immortal author of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” whose many literary crowns did not include that of laurel-wreathed dramatist. Twain’s trenchant satirist’s eye is just barely discernible in this silly, formulaic farce, written in 1898, about a starving French painter forced to don women’s clothes.
But with the right doctors, even a long-buried dinosaur can be made to dance. “Is He Dead?,” which opened last night at the Lyceum Theater, benefits mightily from a top-grade team of resurrection artists. They include the director Michael Blakemore, the playwright David Ives (who adapted Twain’s script) and an infectiously happy cast, led by the wondrous Norbert Leo Butz, that serves a master class in making a meal out of a profiterole.
Reclaimed from the mothballs by the scholar Shelley Fisher Fishkin, who came upon the manuscript five years ago in the Mark Twain Papers at the University of California, Berkeley, “Is He Dead?” would likely generate only a few chuckles (and many a cry of “Oh, brother”) in the reading. Its plot suggests an ungainly younger cousin to “Charley’s Aunt,” Brandon Thomas’s popular cross-dressing comedy from 1892.
Set in and near Paris in 1846, “Is He Dead?” presents a lineup of cultural and farcical stereotypes, seen with the wide-eyed-with-a-wink gaze that Twain brought to “The Innocents Abroad,” the travel memoir that made him solvent. At the show’s center is Jean-François Millet (no, the name is not a coincidence), a brilliant but unrecognized painter played by Mr. Butz. Since Jean-François can’t sell a landscape to save his life (literally), his inner circle of bohemian friends — an ethnic stew made up of an American (Michael McGrath), a German (Tom Alan Robbins) and an Irishman (Jeremy Bobb) — convince him that faking his death is just the ticket for raising his stock. So Jean-François disappears from life and re-emerges as his imaginary twin sister, a widow both mad and madcap. The expected complications ensue.
You’re groaning, right? I’ll admit I wasn’t all that happy for the play’s first 10 minutes or so, despite the obvious polish of the cast and the physical production, which includes exaggerated postcard-pretty sets (Peter J. Davison) and costumes (Martin Pakledinaz), as well as a slew of reproductions of the real Millet’s paintings.
But once Mr. Butz puts on a pink dress, this Tony-winning comic actor (“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”), who had been rather flavorless in his opening scene, shows the true comic genius of which he is made. From that moment the whole production feels as if it’s been pumped through with nitrous oxide. Jokes you would swear you would never laugh at suddenly seem funny.
Mr. Blakemore, the British director who has brought such theatrical élan to the complexity of Michael Frayn (“Copenhagen,” “Democracy”), here exhibits the same comic assurance he demonstrated in the 1983 Broadway premiere of Mr. Frayn’s master farce “Noises Off.” He keeps the familiar machinery running smoothly without ever letting it shift into automatic pilot. And he understands the difference between knowing exaggeration and crowd-pandering vulgarity.
So does his cast, which offers a spectrum of witty variations on theatrical fossils. These include (in addition to the national cartoons of Mr. McGrath, Mr. Robbins and Mr. Bobb), John McMartin’s frisky take on the elderly gentleman lecher, Jenn Gambatese’s and Bridget Regan’s versions of the palpitating ingénues, and Patricia Conolly’s and Marylouise Burke’s sweet, stylish turns as a pair of fluttering old maids.
Byron Jennings appears to be having the time of his life as a sleek, melodramatic villain. (His greyhound carriage and vulpine face have seldom been used to such piquant visual advantage.) And David Pittu plays too many people to count with a consummate blend of precision and enthusiasm that is this production’s hallmark.
Looking like a cross between Kirsten Dunst and Joan Sutherland in “La Traviata,” Mr. Butz in drag is a minor miracle, both honoring the conventions of a hoary elbow-ribbing type and making them feel brand new. Like many great comic actors he suggests that he has more energy than a human body can naturally contain. Put him in the captivity of a whalebone corset and tiers of taffeta, and he becomes a bizarrely frilly volcano poised on the brink of eruption.
I’m not going to quote much from the play, since most of its jokes wither and die when removed from the rarefied air of the Lyceum. Anyway, I’m not sure which one-liners are Twain’s and which come from Mr. Ives, the author of the delightful “All in the Timing.” (Example: Mr. McGrath’s character speaks of taking a potential client “to ‘The Gleaners.’”)
And I probably shouldn’t tell you that there’s extended horseplay involving the stench of Limburger cheese and the centuries-old shtick involving an attractive woman who turns out to be made of artificial parts. Mr. Butz and company proceed with such giddy confidence that by evening’s end the show fleetingly assumes the authoritative absurdity of Oscar Wilde and Joe Orton. (There’s even a thrown-away Wildean-Ortonian line, “I congratulate you on your polygamy.”)
I don’t know about you, but as winter’s grayness creeps up on us, I’m in the mood for savvy stupidity. And Broadway isn’t doing much to satisfy that taste. (“Young Frankenstein”? Give me a break.)
“Is He Dead?” may be a scam, trying to pass off copper as gold. But by the time Mr. Butz raises his skirts and kicks up his heels for a final dance of the seven petticoats (or however many there are), there was indeed gold dust in my eyes.
IS HE DEAD?
Saturday, February 9, 2008
The Elements of Journalism
Surfing through the hotly debated but tried and true Wikipedia, I found some tidbits I felt compelled to pass on to The Hilltopper staff:
According to The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosensteil, there are nine elements of journalism [1]. In order for a journalist to fulfill their duty of providing the people with the information they need to be free and self-governing. They must follow these guidelines:
The Elements of Journalism
- Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.
- Its first loyalty is to the citizens.
- Its essence is discipline of verification.
- Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
- It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
- It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
- It must strive to make the significant interesting, and relevant.
- It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
- Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.
On the April 2007 edition of the book [2], they have added one additional element, the rights and responsibilities of citizens to make it a total of ten elements of journalism.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Article 2 -- Missing the P.A.
Article 2- News - Missing the P.A.
With the advent of the public address system, the way of life for students changed dramatically. They would no longer have to rely on paper handouts, gossip, or newsletters. No, now they have that little white box, hanging above the chalkboard on the wall, announcing the pledge and a plethora of information about recent sporting achievements and forthcoming school activities.
What ever happened to that technology? Where has it gone?
...
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
My First Article- Bringing Spring News
Here it is man...Article #1...News...
Bringing Spring News
With the arrival of the spring semester, many Jamaica High School students will remember the tedious hours they will once again have to devote to the numerous, rigorous classes they have staring back at them on their paper program cards.
"I'm not ready for a whole 'nother semester," said super junior Ralph Blunder. "I feel like Regents week just ended, man. Where's the break?!"
Although many students echo the sentiments of one Ralph Blunder, other students have a much more optimistic outlook on the coming of a new semester.
"I'm excited about new classes! This means new subjects and new concepts to learn about with new teachers!" exclaimed freshman Ralphina Blunder. "There's something nice about new!"
Unfortunately, not all students will be experiencing the same refreshing elation Ralphina felt. Certain students that enroll in year-long electives such as journalism will be stuck with the same instructor, Mr. Cohen.
Despite being the same person he was in 2007, Mr. Cohen did admit to The Hilltopper that he plans on evolving the course for the spring semester.
"Now that the class has a journalism foundation, it's time to up the stakes, up the ante," said Mr. Cohen. "There will be more deadlines, definitely more deadlines--even weekly!"
With that, he also noted that the journalism classroom has been updated with actual working printers and Pentium 4 computers. Due to the new addition, he also has high hopes of incorporating technology into the course by, for the first time ever, requiring electronic portfolios instead of the standard hard-copy versions.
He recommended that students pick up a flash drive from their local office supply store, and that they all sign up for their own blogs at http://www.blogger.com/. In addition, he also noted students should make use of a handy steno pad like the real journalists do.
"This is the 21st century!" he shouted, getting all worked up in a frenzy. "We need to be technologically literate and actually be journalists online and in print."
And print is what they will do, unless of course they just post online, once they cope with those daunting program cards and start delivering the spring news.
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