Rebekah Meekins was chosen in the local contest in Charlotte called the Blumenthal Experience and Quentron Goodwin won the national competition called the Broadway Experience. Since they won they will see Broadway performances.

Meekins will tour Charlotte theatres, take classes with Broadway actors, dine at lovely restaurants and see the musical The Jersey Boys. Goodwin will fly to New York, stay at the Sheraton in Times Square, tour the city, dine at nice restaurants, and see two Broadway shows.

The Doctor Family Foundation will pay for the expenses.

A lot has taken place in Wayne’s life since then, and three years later, he has now released Tha Carter 4, which outsold the Kanye West and Jay Z collaboration album, Watch The Throne, by nearly 528,000 copies in the first week. It is a commercial success, but how is the quality of the album, and how does it fit into Wayne’s legacy?

The two components to any rap album are the beats and the lyrics. Being as big in the rap business as Wayne has become, means that he has the ability to work with the best producers in the world. The quality of Tha Carter 4’s beats is top notch and gives Wayne plenty of opportunities to shine. On his single “6 Foot 7” the beat moves quickly and forces Wayne to play catch up with his lyrics. Songs, “Megaman” and “John”, feature similarly rapid beats while “Nightmares of the Bottom” and “Mirror” offer a slower tempo for Wayne to experiment with. Overall, the beats are solid and lay the foundation for a would-be great album.

Unfortunately, Wayne has disappointed with his lyrical contribution to Tha Carter 4. Building up to the release, a lot has happened to Wayne, from his eight months of jail time to fathering his two newborn kids. He has chosen not to reflect on any of it. Instead, he talks about generic topics that are covered in every modern rap song.

Wayne says it best on the bonus track, “Two Shots”: “I should probably do better but probably, whatever.”

Most of the album consists of faceless punch lines and tracks that don’t achieve anything new. Songs like “6 Foot 7” feels weak when compared to “A Milli”.

Wayne did experiment with “How to Love” with relative success, and he dissed Jay Z on “It’s Good”, but it seems as though Wayne has spent too much time around fellow artist Drake whose raps lack deep meaning and whose songs are forgotten a few months down the road.

The best bits of the album include “Abortion” and “President Carter”, which feature witty lines and an interesting use of samples. Hits such as “How To Love” and “She Will” sound decent but they will get lost in the sea of music that Wayne has created.

Due the production quality of the album, it becomes easy to let Wayne slide on some of his more lazy songs. But in doing so, Tha Carter 4 fades to the background, becoming nothing more than a workout playlist.

Tha Carter 4, although not his best work, still adds to the already massive volume of music that Wayne has put out over his career. He does a few things right and the sales prove that Weezy is still capable of laying down heat, whether he chooses to or not.

Last July, the Taylor Swift Speak Now World Tour was postponed to November 16 due to Swift’s bronchitis. That night, the excitement that had been building since then finally came to a peak and the show began with a roaring Bobcats Arena.

The concert opened with Danny Gokey and a new, up and coming band, Needtobreathe. Many were anxious to see Swift, but Gokey’s soul and Needtobreathe’s comforting sound set the stage for Swift’s fantastical and idyllic world.

Swift “swiftly” began the concert with her country hit “Sparks Fly.” Everything about it personified Swift. While many might say that once you have heard one Swift song, you have heard them all, but in concert it is difficult to maintain that argument. Each song had its own story, and each story was represented by a skit and a troupe of dancers, who could all dance tap, ballet, and play a variety of instruments.

Swift’s fans insist her praised sound offers a unique combination of classic country and modern pop, infused with her own experiences to form a one-of-a-kind voice.  

Not only did Swift have multiple instruments and dancers, she also had several dress changes. She wore everything from the traditional Swift flapper dress to a flowing, princess gown. When she sang “Haunted,” a darker, different side of Swift came out; she wore a deep red dress and clanged large, brass bells. The performance of “Haunted” was a very refreshing presentation that contrasted from many of her other songs and traditional image.

The concert was more than Swift jammin’ on the stage to the adoration of her fans. Swift combined a Broadway musical and a country concert all into one. For many of the songs, Swift and her dancers told a story. One of the reasons Swift is so popular, is because the stories she tells are realtable to teens and even males.

Swift finished the show with one final sweeping glance of the crowd, literally. The final song she performed was her radio hit, “Love Story.” With one last dress change and a flying balcony Swift serenaded the crowd with her rendition of the story of Romeo and Juliet. The balcony suspended by cables flew around the arena.

“That was definitely the best and most magical song,” said an audience member and East Mecklenburg freshman, Kate Fialko, “Although I was kind of worried about her.”

            The Muslim Student Association also known as MSA joined forces with Diversity club a few years ago hoping to recruit more members and spread the message of diversity across East Meck.

“Our motto is universal, that every culture should be embraced,” said active club president Iman Abukar who has been involved in MSA since freshman year.

 “I am a minority and being in this group makes me feel like a majority. It’s great,” said senior Valerie Pandohie.  

            Drama club is one of the oldest clubs at East. The stage provides a safe place for students, allowing them to unleash their inner diva.

            Along with old clubs, new clubs were set up Monday night looking for people who would be interested in joining. Young Lady Eagles of Tomorrow is designed to provide guidance for the young women here at East. The club encourages etiquette, business skills, and even public speaking.

            With so many clubs to choose from, it’s not hard to be a part of something at East Meck. No matter your interests there is always a club for you.

Coming this fall it’s going to be like old times again. Nickelodeon made the decision to pull out fan favorites from their arsenal of original shows, a response to the overwhelming demand from teens who just want to re-live their childhood.

“I haven’t heard anything about this but I’m definitely glad that they’ve decided to do it. I’ll be sure to ‘toon’ in when it starts.” says sophomore Abdoullah Oufkir.

The new block, called “The ‘90s Are All That,” will air from midnight to 2 am, and will feature old classics such as Clarissa Explains It All, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Rugrats, Rocket Power, The Amanda Show, Keenan and Kel and many more.

“My favorite character was Helga from Hey Arnold, the girl that had a really big crush on him. I liked her because (as sad as it may sound) I had a huge crush on Arnold too,” said sophomore Sara Kim.

It is not known whether or not the shows will try to create new concepts for the characters or if they will pick up from where they left off years ago. Some people believe that making new episodes would be a great idea, but others think that it might be a risky decision.

“It would be really cool to see new episodes but watching re-runs would be just as awesome” says junior Morgan Hay.

Eventually, the network hopes to use the retro block to showcase other ‘90s programming and movies, but from fans’ reactions, these shows will do for now.

On June 30, 1997, Joanne Kathleen Rowling’s masterpiece was released in America. Few knew that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone would not only be the beginning of a legendary series, but a way of life.

For those who have followed Potter’s journey from the day he was left on the Dursleys’ doorstep to his marriage to Ginny Weasley, the release of the final installment of the Harry Potter film legacy, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, will be bittersweet.

“Well, as cliché as it sounds, Harry Potter has always been an important part of my life,” said senior Asher Bernstein. Growing up I read the first three books with my parents and the last four alone. I still love the movies and can’t wait for the second part of the seventh film.”

It is painful to know that it is the end of a series that fans have followed religiously. However, this movie could not be released at a better time. For seniors who are devout fans, the final film marks the end of their childhood. As Potter moves on to bigger and better things in the wizarding world, seniors move on to bigger and better things in the slightly less exciting Muggle world.

“Just because Harry Potter is over doesn’t mean it’s time to hang up your wands,” said senior Madison Rhodes.

While the Potter series is classified as a “children’s series,” fans of all ages have grown to love the characters, the story, and the lessons Rowling teaches us. The most influential and memorable lessons by far are expressed through the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore not only mentored Potter throughout his childhood, but he mentored fans as well, teaching them lessons of friendship, love, sacrifice, and perseverance.

“Harry Potter caught on because it is so relatable, yet set in a place of magic which is nonexistent,” said senior Hunter Raineri. “We can all relate to the characters, whether it be Harry or even Malfoy, because we have matured with them. There might not be any more books being written, but Harry isn’t going anywhere for a long time.”

There’s no doubt that theaters will be bombarded with fanatic Potter lovers dressed in their Hogwarts robes and carrying their wands hours before the midnight premiere on July 15. Laughter will be shared as Ron Weasley (the awkward redhead we have grown to adore) lights up the screen with his unintentional humor and tears will be shed as the final battle of Hogwarts unfolds before us.

Even though Rowling has printed her final masterpiece and Warner Brothers will be releasing the final piece of a decade long project, one thing is certain: the Harry Potter series holds a chamber in the hearts of fans that will never be forgotten.

The Game is a TV show originally on the CW network about the lives of three football players and the women that influence them. About two years ago the show was cancelled and the BET network decided to play their re-runs. Because of that, the ratings for the re-runs started to rise and BET decided to pick up the show.

“I always watched the old re-runs after school and [I] enjoyed the characters and plot lines.” said senior Tiara Mitchell.”Plus the guys on the show are really cute . . . it gives you drama and laughs at the same time”.

The new season aired in January and started with a bang. Already there is drama – Malik is going to rehab, Kelly is getting a reality show, Melanie has taken over the Sun Beams, and Derwin Ding Dong Davis is now “mainstream.”

Keeping up with the comedy side of things, NBC’s Parks and Recreation is back for its second season. The show follows the lives of public officials as they pursue random projects to help make their city better.

Even though the cast includes a list of comedians, like Amy Poehler from Saturday Night Live, Rashida Jones from The Office, and Aziz Ansari who hosted the MTV Video Music Awards in 2010, the show’s reviews have not been so great.

“It’s like a knock off version of The Office,” freshman Isaiah Grimsley said. “I didn’t even crack a smile through the whole show. It was definitely a waste of my time.”

Parks and Recreation does have some similarities to The Office, perhaps done on purpose in the hopes of having the same success. But lightning doesn’t strike twice, and in this case many believe it didn’t.

Another show that has returned for its second season is ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars. The show is about four friends who come together to band against an anonymous foe who threatens to reveal a secret about their friend’s death.

“The suspense and mystery behind the whole show makes me want to watch it,” junior Quentron Goodwin said. “It draws me closer and closer.”

The show is based off an eight book series written by Sara Shepard. In August 2010, the book made number one on the New York Times Bestsellers List. The show brings a different twist to the book.

“Honestly, I love the outfits of the whole cast,” Goodwin said. “Plus I love when I think I know who “A” is but I never do [know]”.

Going to South America for a vacation seems like a nice getaway, but in this show people face the daily medical horrors with only limited resources. Off the Map is ABC’s new series, set in a remote South American village, where seven doctors help patients and try to figure out what brought them to medicine. The show is a mix of Grey’s Anatomy and Gilligan’s Island, which explains a lot since Jenna Bans is not only the co-writer for Off the Map but is also a producer and writer of Grey’s Anatomy .

“It’s like a mix of a doctor show, which I don’t normally like, as well as having lots of romance and tragedy”, said senior Rebecca Sisco.
Saving lives while fighting mosquitoes seems like the perfect combination for a hit show.

Let’s not forget about animation. Bob’s Burgers is the new show on FOX about a family that runs a burger joint and the adventures that go on there. With neighboring shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy this show is sure to be a hit, but maybe not.

“Bob’s Burgers is a new show and I wanted to give it a chance.” said senior Kendra McCray. “[But] I don’t think it will [last long] because sometimes it has a little [bit] of stale humor.”

Not all shows can be a hit. Maybe surviving tooth and nail through a jungle is more interesting then flipping burgers. Maybe being nosey about the lives of athletes is more appealing than a boring desk job.

And maybe some people like a little mystery in their lives. The Game, Pretty Little Liars, and Off the Map seem to be sure to return for more seasons, while Parks and Recreation and Bob’s Burgers may fade in the distance.

Allstar Weekend is a relatively new band and is being mass marketed by Disney. Some say that they will be the next Jonas Brothers, who are beginning to loose popularity. At first glance, their music sounds like synthetic techno crap, a mix between Owl City and Big Time Rush. It would appear that their only redeeming factor is their hot lead singer Zach Porter.

And we walked into Amos’ Southend in early December with that exact attitude, and seeing a wanton mess of middle school girls, their parents, and their uncomfortable boyfriends didn’t help the negative impression we already had of Allstar Weekend. The only high schoolers there were a group of press members from the Carolina area. Obviously, we were ready to leave as soon as we got there.

The band manager led us into the small closet like dressing room, where the band was waiting for us.  The four boys (Zach, Nathan, Cameron and Michael) seemed well put together and passionate about their music, which at the time we didn’t think much of.

At first we made absent chatter about seeing fans and Swedish Fish (Zach’s favorite candy), but we quickly realized exactly how serious the band was about their career.

This group had worked for years perfecting their sound, playing music diligently every night before they finally got some attention on Disney Chanel’s “Next Big Thing.” Allstar Weekend is the definition of a high-school garage band that finally made it big.

Zach explained his feelings about getting involved in the industry, and said, “Choosing this life style was definitely scary; I think we obviously took a risk and I’m glad we did.”

So far, this risk has paid off, as their single “Journey to the End of my Life” has had over 2.5 million plays on their Myspace page, and 50,000 views of their music video on Youtube.

Knowing all that we did, for some reason we were still not convinced of their ability. So when the lights went down and all that was heard was the high pitch screams of tween girls as Allstar Weekend came to the stage, we prepared ourselves for the worst.

The minute Nathan Darmody, the lead guitarist, hit the first note, it was an unforgettable performance. They sounded much better live than they do on their album. The crowds’ participation was great; they were so pumped up with energy. In fact, we even found ourselves dancing along enthusiastically with the music.

“No matter what, when it comes time to step on stage, when is comes time to meet the fans, we do it and do the best we can,” said Zach.

. The band was constantly surprising us, first when Nathan grabbed the mic and started rapping the B.o.B song “Magic.” Then, they decided to do their own version of Shania Twain’s “Still the One,” and Zach pulled out his harmonica. However, the best moment of the night was when they performed one of their songs a cappella, their voices worked so well together, it seemed like they had been a band for years.

By the end of the night, we were glad we made the decision to go to the concert.

 “Waiting for ‘Superman’” gives statistics that disguise themselves as optimistic. According to the movie, if we eliminated the lowest performing five to 10 percent of teachers, we could have the solid public education system we had decades ago. While this may give some hope, it is misleading. The way our federal, state, and local education systems are acting, our definition of performance will continue to fail students and that five to 10 percent of teachers will continue to be in charge of the well being of students until they retire. These administrators, whether they are federal, state or local, may never stop adhering to the public’s opinion or acting fears over re-election. Are they forgetting that the only people who should matter to them are the students?

Case in point: Michelle Rhee. This D.C. schools’ superintendent tried to introduce an option for teachers to choose between pay based on performance and pay based on tenure. Pay based on performance gave teachers the option to earn more than $100,000, but, for some reason, the D.C. union still found this proposition radical to the point of chaos.

So what happened to the heroic Michelle Rhee, the woman going against any chance of public approval or re-election for the sake of the children she served? She was fired by the end of this November.

It’s obvious that the first solution is to eliminate tenure. What job, besides teaching, uses tenure? If a banker, doctor or even a grocer begins underperforming, he or she is fired without hesitation. So why is it that the pay and employment of teachers, who have the most important job in America, is based off of how many years a teacher has taught rather than how influential and successful a teacher is?

What is so thought provoking about “Waiting for ‘Superman’” is that the problems covered in the documentary are present in most school systems, like in our case, CMS.

For example, one teacher’s success cannot be gauged on whether or not they can pull the test scores up of a class of thirty students who have grown used to the mediocrity of CMS’s (or, in general, America’s) schools. As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child, which means the efforts of the teachers, administrators, and school board.  Still, a teacher’s pay should not depend on how many years he or she has committed to a school. Students will be the first to attest that just because a teacher is an experienced veteran does not mean they have the passion or ability to be a teacher. Sometimes, teachers with more years behind them can be less enthusiastic than those who are new to the field. But when it comes down to the chopping block, these new, passionate teachers will be the first to go.

 “Waiting for ‘Superman’” challenges the complacency that some teachers have as a result of tenure, which is that they have the “right” to teach. This view is often due to teachers’ unions, who frown upon firing a teacher over poor performance or not rewarding teachers with tenure. Although teachers’ unions are illegal in North Carolina, this attitude is still shared in some classrooms.

CMS, as well as the state and national education department, must reconsider what it thinks a “high performing” teacher is, as it seems that Peter Gorman and his nine cronies are struggling to find a valid measure of a teacher’s success. This is seen in the school board’s new program with a somewhat misleading name, “Pay for Performance.”

“Pay for Performance” defines success as the average student improvement (on tests) from year to year. So this could mean that an AP or IB student, who is generally one that performs highly on End of Course exams, could go from teacher to teacher each year and improve their already high exam scores only slightly. These educators in charge of already successful students will be penalized simply because the improvement of these students was slight.

Many of us have been surprised to hear that some of the teachers we learned the most from are considered by the new teacher evaluations to be some of the lowest performing in the school. And thanks to the “Pay for Performance” program, these teachers’ wages will decrease, which may cause teachers to leave. Furthermore, on the state level, East Meck is a Distinguished School. But by CMS’s Pay for Performance standards, East Meck is lack luster.

The reason CMS has instated end of year exams for every class, even classes like Student Congress, is to gauge a base for determining teachers’ pay. And what about resource lab?  It will be completely cut.  Students are being trained to become a product of the citizens – literally robots who cannot think for themselves, only regurgitating information and saying “A, B, C, or D.”

Pessimists theorize that the reason behind this is so Gorman can save money by docking all teachers’ pay.  It seems that no teacher can succeed in the proposed Pay for Performance system.

Clearly something needs to change, and paying teachers for performance seems to be the answer.  But not Gorman’s way.  A teacher’s pay and a student’s understanding of a subject cannot be solely determined by test scores and faulty statistics.  It’s our future that Gorman needs to think about, not saving a buck or making the system look good.  The school system needs to impose realistic solutions to better the education of students.  The way things are looking, this could soon be an impossibility.

This album blows past anything that he has done and anything that other people have done. West is defining himself with this album. He continues to surprise his following of fans by featuring indie rocker Bon Iver, comedian Chris Rock and even a striking piano solo by music legend Elton John.  Only Kanye could get away with using such a wide variety of special guests, but this change is radically different compared to his previous albums. His potential lyrically was noticed back on his albums The College Dropout, Late Registration and Graduation, however his potential is truly shown in this album.

The song “Runaway” has ornamental presence that could quickly discredit this as a rap album. In fact this album doesn’t deal with a specific area of rap, but it deals more with all aspects of hip-hop and shows that no one but someone as crazy as Kanye West could have made this album.

You can’t discuss this album without mentioning the hit of the album, “Monster,” which features Bon Iver, Rick Ross, Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj. If you wanted a rap album from Kanye your best bet is to listen to this song, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Although Rick Ross’s intro is short and sweet, it sets up the rest of the song for Kanye, Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj to blow you out of your seat. However, Bon Iver’s front man Justin Vernon provides the hook that wraps up the total insanity that is “Monster.”

So what is Kanye actually trying to do?  He’s just trying to be better than everyone else and he’s succeeding with flying colors. Kanye isn’t trying to be perfect anymore, he’s attempting to create perfection. With this album Kanye is being honest with his audience and honest with himself that he can’t be perfect. So put all of your attitudes about the outbursts and immature behaviors aside (though I’m sure we’re in for more) and listen to this album. This album gives us hope in a society where we are so easily amused by terrible music. So can Kanye get much higher? I don’t  think so.