“[ADAM!!! at his locker] is something to look forward to when school is not fun and exhausting,” Adams said.

The two juniors have been friends since the beginning of sophomore year and stumbled into taking pictures every day.

“I take pictures all the time anyways,” Adams said, “so Adam doing weird stuff at his locker was just something I sometimes photographed.”

Eventually the two realized that they had a ton of similar pictures on their hands and a goldmine of potential Facebook fame under their noses.

“I was friends with both [Lexi and Adam], so I noticed when the pictures popped up and I was interested by the amount of them,” junior Addie Hart said. “I look through them a lot and several make me smile.”

Sometimes, however, it’s not all fun and games.

“There was a blurry picture of me that Lexi didn’t like,” Fales said, “so she took a different picture that day without me and I wanted her to put the one of me on, so I went on strike.”

Adams agrees.

“Adam and I get in fights a lot,” she said. “Our personalities clash and it’s frustrating occasionally.”

However, with the blurry photo uploaded and a bag of M&Ms as an apology gift for Adam, the Locker Strike was quickly dealt with. Now, they have just recently taken their hundred-day-of-school photo, which involved shoving Adam’s face into a pie, and are planning on more creative pictures of an otherwise boring, old locker. Be warned, though: they refuse to answer about future picture plans.

“I am not willing to speak on that at the current moment,” Fales said.

Despite being secretive about their upcoming pictures, they are welcome to any ideas.

“Sometimes it’s hard to come up with ideas,” Fales said, “but it’s pretty easy to take a picture every day.”

“I haven’t had any type of social life for about two weeks, and that’s not a joke,” junior Addison McCauley said.

With Encore coming up in March, this singer has devoted himself to getting everything ready to go for one of the biggest events of the school year.

“I grew up here, so I’ve been to every show since I was three,” McCauley said. “It’s something I’ve always dreamed to do, to be a part of.”

McCauley was a part of 15 different groups prior to auditions, one of those being a solo, singing “The Luckiest.”

“Every time I get the chance alone, I put in my iPod and listen to the song,” McCauley said. “I listen to the mini file and just practice.”

Now that auditions are over and the list is out, he is focusing on what songs got into the show and working hard to make them the best.

Songs that he will be a part of include: “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Take it Easy,” “Renegade,” “Boondocks,” “Go Where You Wanna Go,” “Down Under,” “Fix You,” and “Marry You.”

His solo, “The Luckiest,” didn’t make it into the show, but he’s happy with the songs that did.

“I’m pretty psyched about all of them,” he said. “The judges know what songs sounded good with the show and I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Senior Jevan Bremby is looking forward to the final outcome of the show, but he also enjoys all the steps that lead up to the final performance.

“It’s a great way to get to know people and perform the activity that I love,” Bremby said.

During auditions, a performance can be dealt with in different ways.

“When you crash and burn with a solo, it sucks,” Bremby said. “But if you crash and burn as a group, you can make fun of it and move on.”

Singers have seen the master list of songs, and Bremby will be taking part in seven:  “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Jessie’s Girl,” “Marry You,” “Fix You,” and a solo, “Nature Boy.”

Bremby is also a part of Chamber Choir, which will be singing “ Georgia On My Mind” and “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love).”

“I think this show will be memorable for sure. No one should walk away from this show without having a song or two stuck in their head, or an ‘oh my god’ moment,” he said. “It will be talked about.”

Junior Sidney Newlin has been committing her time to preparing for Encore, getting home late from rehearsals and giving up parts of her social life.

“I’ve done about 18 hours a week for rehearsals,” Newlin said.

The song list has been put out, and Newlin is a part of five songs: “Boondocks,” “Twist and Shout,” “Don’cha” and “Hold On, Only Prettier.” She will also be backing up a solo for senior Mary Soderberg in “Set Fire to the Rain.”

Although she didn’t get all ten of her songs in the show, she’s still happy with the the six that did.

“I wouldn’t trade any of my songs, everyone works so hard and you can tell by the outcome.”

Excitement is building with each passing week, and Newlin is looking forward to performing for her fellow students, teachers and parents.

“The show this year is going to be great. There is so much talent, especially from our senior class,” Newlin said. “And I think us juniors have done a good job of figuring out how everything goes.”

Jesse Braswell Roberts (Vocals/Acoustic Guitar/Mandolin), Isaac Flynn (Guitar/Vocals/Drums), Matt Green (Bass), Zach Mehl (Guitar/Piano), Garrett Childers (Vocals/Guitar) and Jim Barnes (Drums/Vocals)

2) How did Quiet Corral form?

Garrett Childers and I met when I was in the sixth grade. We would play covers in my parent’s basement and talk about starting a real band. Several years down the road, Garrett came to KU and met Jesse at their fraternity. At the time, Jesse was working on some solo material, and Garrett was impressed with his song writing/lyrical style. The three of us got together several times, and somewhere around then we decided that it was worth seeking out other musicians and pursuing this band.

We pieced together the rest of the lineup during my freshman year at KU (2009-2010). Jim Barnes was the last person to come into the picture. The two of us started a recording studio called The Art House in 2010. At the time Jim was reluctant to start a band while starting a new business, but I forced him into it, and he’s definitely committed now.

The last two members to jump on board were Matt Green and Eric Davis. Since then, the band has parted ways with Eric and acquired Zach Mehl. Zach, Matt and myself have been playing music together since we were 12, so the chemistry was already there. (Zach, Matt and myself are also all FSHS grads…shout out to the class of 09!)

3) How would you describe your style of music?

I’d like to think that our sound is a combination of traditional americana/folk music mixed with a hint of modern rock/pop. Since that is such a broad spectrum, we hope that there’s something for everyone to enjoy in our music.

4) Since you started in Lawrence, how has it influenced your music?

Lawrence is one of the most unbelievable towns to grow up in and to play music in. People are so supportive of the arts in this town, and they have been incredibly supportive of what we are doing. Another advantage about being from Lawrence is the university. The KU student body has backed us heavily, and it has really helped propel us into other college markets. We’ve seriously been blessed with some amazing opportunities, and Lawrence is at the heart of all it.

5) What sort of things has Quiet Corral been up to? (New releases, tours, publicity, etc.)

We have been writing, recording and touring a lot. The three of those things at once are somewhat demanding, but we’re enjoying having the opportunity to try to pursue music full time.

We recently released a new single, “City Steep”, and we have been recording a new album that will be out at some point later this year.

6) What advice would you give to ambitious young musicians?

Believe in what you are doing. A band has to have a great balance of confidence and humility to be successful.

7) How does the songwriting process usually go?

Songwriting is very tedious for us. Jesse or myself will bring the skeleton of a song to the band, and then the we will refine everything in the practice room. Jesse writes all of the lyrics, and the rest of the guys give their input to finalize the song. Everything is very collaborative for us.

When is your next show in Lawrence?

It looks like we will be playing Lawrence around Stop Day (last day of KU classes) this year. We are going to be out of town for a while, and then we are going to finish our new album. Lawrence is hands down the most fun city to play.

I spent New Year’s Eve as I have for the many times, hanging out with friends. Once we counted down to the ball dropping and rang in the new year, someone said, “Guys, we graduate in five months.” That’s when it hit me: I’m leaving high school.

I had watched older friends graduate, and two years ago I watched my brother do it again, and every time someone graduated I thought, “Someday, that will be me.” I never realized that my “someday” would be sooner than I ever imagined. In about five months I will leave this building for the last time as a student.

I’m sure every senior has that moment of realization, just like mine, but it all seems too soon. I never thought I would actually survive until graduation and now time is flying by.

I have no doubt that for most of the graduating class, the next chapter in our lives will only be better. Our college applications are in, we have (for the most part) chosen a path for next year, but for the next five months, our lives will consist of attempting to care about school, forcing ourselves out of bed, planning graduation parties and going through the motions.

I hope that everyone in the senior class chooses to enjoy this the way I plan to. I had always heard from the older classes that the senior class really comes together; something I haven’t yet seen this year. I have heard it described as everyone “just getting along and being happy.” I still have hope for this magical phenomenon.

I have spent a lot of time trying to grow up. I always want people to perceive me as mature. Now, while we spend our last minutes on the verge of actual adulthood, I am attempting to cling to my childhood. I don’t want to seem even a little too old for the “childish” things of my past and present at high school. It has dawned on me that all of the things I have been “too mature” for are actually part of the high school experience.

The world I will enter at college is sort of a test bubble of the real world. Our generation is not being handed a great job market or a perfect world, but there are grand possibilities out there. While we sit in our classes, daydreaming of the future, I am going to make a change. Instead of living my very numbered days in our little Free State community thinking out the next step in my life, I am going to attempt to follow some very overused advice: live in the present.

I am going to live up every last cheesy, school-administrator-approved moment while I’m a Firebird. We might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

What We Do
YOUNG DEMOCRATS
Events like Wikipedia’s controversial daylong shutdown often spark discussion during the Young Democrats meetings. In addition to the discussions, the club members will occasionally play an activist role. Most recently, the Young Democrats emailed congressional representatives, listing specific areas where budget cuts have cut a little too deeply.

“When you’re emailing a congressperson, you have to be precise,” Bailey said.

JSA
JSA members members in Lawrence usually lean more toward the democratic side, but they factor in many perspectives. In November, when college students in California gathered to protest the police’s use of pepper spray, JSA members discussed both the students’ rights and the police’s rights.

“What I like about JSA is that we talked about issues and take it from both sides,” senior Reuben Ghijsen said.

The Election

YOUNG DEMOCRATS

The favored topic of the Young Democrats’ club is the 2012 election. They closely examined the republican primaries, analyzing swing states like California and Florida.

“Primaries have split, which leads to more competition between republicans which leads to more attack ads, which makes them look bad in the eyes of the independents,” Bailey said.

As for Barack Obama, the Young Democrats are confident in his re-election.

“He has a lot of support among the minorities and the minorities are becoming bigger and more important,” Bailey said. “We feel confident about the Latino vote because the republican immigration policy is alienating to them.”

However, if a republican showed up to a Young Democrats meeting, they would certainly not be alienated.

“We’d debate issues with them respectfully,” Bailey said. “We’d not make personal attacks, just conversation about the issues.”
JSA

JSA members do their research.

However, they often look beyond the typical dry, stuffy, political drudge.

“We watch the Daily Show or the Colbert Report to get their view on the situation, but we also watch Fox News,” Ghijsen said.

They also visit websites such as politico.com, which boasts headlines such as “GOP Readies Contraception Offensive” and “Obama’s Assault on Religious Freedom.” Newspaper articles and news programs assist JSA members with formulating their opinions.

“Gingrich and Romney both have their flaws,” Ghijsen said. “We’ll just have to see what happens.”

Like the Young Democrats’ club, most members of JSA would like to see Obama re-elected.

“He should come off a little stronger and take more action on a few issues, but it’s hard with Congress when all the republicans are against you,” Ghijsen said. “We just need to avoid a bi-partisan stalemate.”

GET INVOLVED

Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Anarchists–be sure to stop by Wedge’s room the first Monday of every month or Grinnell’s room every other Wednesday for research, discussion and pleasantly heated debate.

“It’d be a lot more fun if more people came,” Ghijsen said. “Then we could actually have full debates and we’d have more things to talk about.”

November 6, 2012: The next presidential election. With a new election cycle comes new 18 year old voters. The question usually is “okay, now I can vote. But, how do I register?”

With new technology, it is easier to vote than it has ever been: online.

If new voters want to register as a Kansan voter, a quick visit to www.kdor.org/voterregistration with a valid id or driver’s license will suffice.

Once one begins registration, the prompt will help navigate through the four easy steps.

If a new voter would rather register with a form, a PDF file can be downloaded and printed out from the same website, and sent into the county election office.” For Lawrencians, the county election office is as follows:

County Election Office
Douglas County
1100 Massachusetts St
Lawrence, KS
66044

When it comes down to it, registering to vote really is not that hard. The real question now is who to vote for.

“I’m excited to vote,” senior Michelle Stockwell said. “I will finally have some input in the political process and feel capable of contributing to change.”

One of the many misconceptions of your teen years is that “everything changes” when you become 18. At least in my experience, that’s not very true. You still live in your parent’s house, you still have to go to school.

People look at this birthday with special emphasis, but in reality, the only difference is being able to buy lottery tickets and cigarettes (I have been 18 since September and have yet to do either). One of the few noticeable perks, however, is being able to vote in our first election.

Some people don’t see the point in voting, or they don’t see it as an opportunity; which is exactly what it is. It’s an opportunity to impact our government, to voice our opinions and to personally uphold our little piece of democracy.

Voting is a right we are granted as citizens of a democratic country. It is a privilege that many around the world are fighting for this very moment. The countries of Egypt, Syria and Libya have struggled through the Arab Spring in their tumultuous fight for a say in their respective governments. While the citizens of these countries have lost their lives for this right, we don’t seem too concerned about our right to vote.

One vote. Just a single vote. So many disenfranchised young Americans argue against the power of that single vote. “It doesn’t matter how I vote, it will be canceled out by someone else.”

Even though you only get one vote, that is the magic of the system; everyone gets one vote. The 1%, the politicians, the elderly, the youth voters, everyone only gets one vote. Though this country is far from being socioeconomic equal, this is one way we get an even playing field in the decisions that affect our government.

So I encourage my generation to get out, register (learn how to register on pages 6 and 7) and change this election. While the country may not become radically different overnight just because you waited in line at a voting center, you made a statement.

That statement says a lot about you, and what you want to see over the next four years. Most of the class of 2012 will be 18 by the next presidential election. That’s big. It’s a gift the senior class receives only once every four years.

So get online, do some research (politico.com, thedailybeast.com, and factcheck.org are all great places to start) and make an informed decision at the voting booth. Send a message to our politicians, and set an example for future generations.

Within the past two months, three major file sharing websites (Megaupload, BTJunkie and FileSonic) either have been shut down or have ceased function in an attempt to prevent the illegal downloading of music. Although this may make it more difficult to download pirated music, it will also harm the music industry.

Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can easily share files with the rest of the world. Once a file exists on a user’s computer, they are able to upload it to a multitude of different websites, most free of charge. Once said file is uploaded, it is available for download to anyone who searches online or has the proper URL. This concept was appealing to everyone, until they started losing money.

The legal use for file sharing is to help businesses store and share information with each other (i.e. spreadsheets, presentations, etc.). To put it as simply as possible, these websites serve as an online flash drive, where any file can be downloaded anywhere.

Here’s where things get illegal: instead of using these sites to share business information, they are now being used to share music. People quickly learned that these sites could be used to share their mixtapes and favorite songs without ever having to leave their homes, or burn CDs. This brings us to where we are today. Basically, every album or song that you might want is available for free download, and there is huge portion of people that take advantage of this.

To be brutally honest, in this day and age there is a group of people that simply isn’t willing to pay for music. Once people get used to having something for free, they aren’t going to be willing to suddenly start paying. It’s like those fake Facebook pages that threaten, “In 30 days Facebook will start charging all of its users.”

If that happened, the majority of users would log off and search for another website that fulfills their social networking needs. Shutting down file sharing websites isn’t going to increase record sales; it will have a reverse effect.

Although it is morally wrong that people are downloading music without paying, that is where we are, and things aren’t going to change. By refusing to accept this, record labels are hindering undiscovered new artists and the music industry. For example: say I start a band, and want to get my music out there. How do I do so? Make a demo tape and hand it out to my friends at school? No. I upload it to a file sharing website, so people can download it, then pass it along to their friends. In a society where only a small amount of music exists on the radio, and on music television, new artists rely on file sharing to gain exposure. Once I stopped relying on iTunes’s short samples of songs, and their “Recommended Song of the Week,” I discovered music I wouldn’t have otherwise.

One might ask: “If record labels embraced file sharing, how would anyone make any money?” Record labels should view file-sharing as a sort of strange investment. Restaurants give away free food all the time; why can’t labels do the same with music? By allowing music to circulate illegally, it will in turn gain attention. People will post it on their blogs, play it at parties, and book these artists for concerts. In today’s world, it won’t take long for the good music to break into the mainstream, which is where the money starts getting made.

Artists will gain exposure through various television appearances and magazine write-ups, which will grab the attention of people who do pay for music. Artists and the labels they are under are able to make money off of their music by simply allowing a portion of society to download it for free.

Now the question is, “How do labels make money off of this portion of society that doesn’t pay for music?” The answer lies with Steve Jobs. Before he died, he was working on a new type of sound file with a quality much higher than the current MP3. The only flaw with file-sharing is storage space. Because these websites limit the amount of storage space for each account, songs and albums are often compressed, lowering the sound quality.

Regardless of what company continues this project, even the most steadfast illegal downloaders have to agree that songs with a quality exponentially better than MP3 are definitely something worth paying for.

Even though it is morally and ethically wrong that people are able to download music without paying, that is the way things are. Instead of ruining a great idea, record labels need to change with the times, and find new ways to make money off of their music. If file sharing websites continue to get shut down, record sales will not go up, and many up-and-coming artists will not receive the attention needed to make it in the music industry.

Just kidding, this is one of the many words of advice I was given at the Lawrence Metaphysical Psychic Shop located at 727 Mass. St. Although I could relate to many of the things the psychic said, I was probably just trying to convince myself this whole experience wasn’t bogus.

The night before we went in, junior Madi Branstrom and I called the psychic to see what their hours were. Usually, when you call a business, you hear something like: “Hello, so-and-so business, how may I help you?” All we heard was a simple “Hello?” followed by an incredibly awkward phone conversation. I spoke to a woman who never gave me her name, and except for the price, which was $35, she mumbled almost everything she said. Let’s just say this didn’t help any uneasiness either of us were having about this experience.

The next day, I awoke to a voicemail from the psychic. She explained she was making a special trip just for us, and she wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to “just not show up.”

Even though our phone conversation and her voicemail made me extremely uncomfortable, I was still very excited to have my palm read.

Before we went to see the her, I expected the psychic’s store to look something like the one in “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.” Dark, smoky and draped in beads. That was not the case, except for the smoky part. The entire room smelled like it had been hot-boxed with cigarettes. Sadly, that was not the only thing that didn’t live up to my expectations, as the psychic herself was not in the stereotypical gypsy-style attire. It may just be me, but half the fun of seeing a psychic should be for the atmosphere and weird clothes.

Once the psychic was ready, I left my friend Madi and entered a separate, more “private” room to have my palm read. After entering this room, seeing the rest of the building and hearing a television in the background, I became convinced she lived there.

The first thing she had me do was stick my hands out and make two wishes; telling her one and keeping the other to myself. After I did so, she immediately began to read my palm, never touching my hands in the process. Things started off rather vaguely, as she spoke about my personality traits. She explained I don’t take myself too seriously, but I have to make sure not to let others control my mood. At the moment, this sounded like great advice, but with more thought I realized almost anybody could relate to that.

As our session progressed, she began to get more specific. Like I mentioned earlier, she told me I am close to a friend who is two-faced (something I will have to keep an eye out for), and also that I have a career change coming in the future. Then she went on to tell me I will soon have to choose between two women in my life, and the second week of June will be very lucky for me.

After some thought, I realize a psychic is more of a magician than someone who can foresee the future. With advice about friends, my current job and women, she tried to trick me into thinking what she said was special to me. But in reality, the majority of what she said could relate to almost any guy my age.  It doesn’t take a genius to notice I am a teenager, or to figure out the problems a typical high school student has. Basically, unless I get fired from Dillons, suddenly have two women interested in me and get really lucky in June, I no longer believe in psychics.