The Yeti builds a snowman during it's visit to the Magical Realism CR.

On Friday, March 5th, a Yeti visited the block 6 Magical Realism CR in room 222, as well as Kris Ann Berger’s Spanish 3 class. The students of the CR observed the Yeti’s behavior, as that is what the class is currently studying. Students, along with their teacher, payed attention while the monster ate carrots and built a snowman.

The Yeti enjoys some snow.

In the counseling office, flags of universities hang just above the "Who Got In" list.

Alia Persico-Shammas, a sophmore, signs cards in memory of Julia Strecher, former CHS Student, who died Tuesday, March 2.

The Mannequin in the Art Room.

Instead of focusing only on the usual contemporary and modern dances, Dance Body spiced it up with a variety of different types of dance. Sophomore dancer Gillian Teall said, “I thought it was a lot more diversified than last year. You know, last year, it was all contemporary and modern. This year it was hip-hop and slow sad songs and fast happy songs, it was a lot more interesting.”
These dances included junior Annie Flynn running around in the upbeat jazz dance titled Awkward Turtle, composed by Squirrel Nut Zippers and choreographed by freshman Adina Nadler. Flynn ran around the stage as the awkward dancer, while the others wore different kinds of bow ties in their hair and danced in sync.
Nama Rivlin choreographed to a song titled “In The End” by James Blunt. In this love song, Rivlin and partner Hailey Keen danced passionately and at the end walked off the stage in opposite directions. On stage right, Rivlin walked to the side where the dancers wore white t-shirts while Keen walked to stage left, where the dancers wore black t-shirts. The black and white t- shirts represented their now separate lives.

Another highlight was the final performance, when the dancers came out with hair messy, trash bag skirts and dresses — and a lot of makeup. The song titled “Stomach. Eyes. Flesh.” by Charlotte Martin was choreographed by senior Nicole Chen. “It’s a whole different experience. I’ve been dancing at my other studio for a long time, and this is something so new. I’ve never choreographed my own routine before. It was an interesting process and I was really nervous. It worked out so well,” said Chen.

However, the dance that received the loudest applause was the hip-hop dance to “Breaking Into A Locked House With A Jerk And A Wack King Tut” composed by Jem. The title comes from the actual hip-hop moves called breaking, locking, jerking and wacking.

All the dancers walked out dressed in sweat pants, t-shirts and Nikes, showing off their new moves. “It made me want to get up and dance… you know I wanna do that hip-hop number!” said English teacher Brian Miller. Health and Fitness teacher Robbie Stapleton agrees, saying, “I love the athletic dancing, and I sort of miss it!”

Junior Sander Bregman was a strong asset to the hip-hop dance, doing an outstanding breakdance performance. Being the first male dancer in a while, Bregman is satisfied with his decision of choosing to do Dance Body. “It’s kind of awesome, honestly; at first I was nervous to sign up for the class. I was the first guy in six years.” However, Bregman says Dance Body has also helped in “expanding his dance vocabulary,” claiming that it has made his style more unique.

The hip-hop flavor comes from the current long-term sub, Alison Hurd. She has been dancing for 20 years to a range of dances including ballet, modern, jazz and all forms of hip-hop. Teall said, “Hip-hop was very, very new [to us]. We learned how to house, how to jerk, how to cut, how to break, how to wack.”

Hurd stumbled upon the job while she was searching online for a long-term sub job. “It just popped up dance and I was like, ‘yes!’” Hurd was extremely proud of the show saying, “I was so happy with it. Oh my gosh, it was the best every piece has been, it was incredible, it was perfect!”

The Maxed Out jazz band performance was outstanding as well. Jud Branam was on drums, Max Bowen on guitar, Spencer Johnson on saxophone, Max Hully on trombone and Aidan Cafferty on bass. They played the songs “Flamenco Sketches”, “Pfrancing”, and “Spain”. “It was good, that Dance Body and the Community Jazz program could integrate for the event,” said Hully. “I thought the performance as a whole was good; it was a really tight show with no awkward pauses.” From the audience, junior Magda Aeschbach agreed, “The dancing was really great, but I loved the drum conversation and the jazz combo. It’s cool to combine two of the arts from Commie.”
Overall, it was a successful night, packed with a lot of fun. “I think it went well. I think we had some really strong pieces. We had a lot of fun; we always do!” said junior Elise Caruso. English teacher Judith DeWoskin agreed, “It was fabulous, wonderful. I’ve been coming here for 25 years – I’m practically their roadie. It definitely exceeded my expectations.”

The monsters on the wall; they're coming for you!

“I’d love to shop at local businesses, but I just can’t afford to.” This seems to be the general belief about local grocery shopping. It’s great for the local economy and for the community, but it’s so expensive that only some families can afford it. This mindset has turned local shopping into a sort of charity – you either pay more to support a good cause, or you make cost the priority and choose the big-box store for the best prices. But how accurate is this perception? Are local businesses really more expensive? If so, how much more?
Here is a “typical” dinner. The prices on the left are those found at Kroger, which is owned by the Kroger Co., one of the largest grocery chains in the U.S. with over 2,400 stores nationwide. The prices on the right are those found for the equivalent items at locally owned and operated Arbor Farms Market, which was opened in 1979

Purchasing the above items at Kroger comes to the total of $21.50. Purchasing the above items at Arbor Farms comes to the toal of $20.71

So is this a conclusive study? Not necessarily.
Take the tomatoes, for example. They are definitely out of season, and since Arbor Farms makes an effort to buy locally grown produce, they were probably grown in a greenhouse. This is expensive for the farmer, and translates into higher costs for the consumer. However, it is fair to assume that many shoppers would see the tomatoes priced at a steep $3.99 and pass them by. In the end, we can’t be sure what is really on each shopper’s personal agenda.
We must also remember that small local stores don’t usually have the selection or one-stop convenience of a big supermarket. The extra time it takes to go around to several stores to get the shopping done can be a hassle for busy customers.
Then there is the question of quality. Besides the absence of pesticides or antibiotics in the Arbor Farms steak, grass-fed beef is known to be more nutritious, and since it was raised nearby, it is likely fresher. The porterhouse steak from Arbor Farms is arguably higher quality, which should be factored into the cost, making it an even better deal. In addition, the romaine leaves found at Kroger were a little wilted and weren’t as crisp-looking as the Arbor Farms lettuce.
What we can fairly conclude from these numbers is:
- Local isn’t always more expensive.
- If you buy produce in season, you’ll get a better deal anywhere.
- You can sometimes find higher quality products at local businesses that cost the same as or less than at a chain supermarket.
This should be enough of a reason to consider shopping locally for at least some of your groceries.

It’s 7:30 in the morning and music is already filling the University of Michigan School of Music. Students from as far as Traverse City, Michigan and Columbus, Ohio have made the journey to Ann Arbor. Waking up as early as 2:00 am, they jump into busses, trains, and vans.

This is the U of M Jazz festival.
A noncompetitive event inviting high school and college jazz bands to U of M to play, learn, and listen. The festival’s theme was “Charles Mingus Day” and was split into three main events – big band workshops, combo workshops, and workshops open to all participants.

Instrument specific workshops throughout the day given by U of M faculty showed many young musicians what the next steps to becoming professional are. Exercises like overtones, ear training, and transcriptions were talked about in almost all the workshops.

Alex Patten, a trumpet player from Community High described the trumpet workshop he attended. “[Ed Sarath] offered lots of good advice. Not all of it was necessarily about trumpet specifics, but more about how to think about improvisation. [Sarath] is a great player and definitely gave everyone in the room something to think about.”

Another highlight to the day was a talk by Christian McBride, Robert Hurst, and moderator Linda Yohn called “Charles Mingus: The Man and Music”.

Adrian Koch, a Community High bassist, said, “The talk was amazing. [McBride and Hurst] told lots of great stories. Charles Mingus is one of my favorite bass players and I learned so much about him that I did not know.”

21 schools were invited to the festival including Pioneer, Michigan State, and Ohio State.

Community high sent three of its advanced Jazz combos to the festival; Maxed Out!, New Jazz, and Blue Connotation. All three bands had a 45-minute workshop with Andrew Bishop, the Assistant Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at U of M. Each combo played two or three songs and then got to work with Bishop.

Blue Connotation was the first Community band to play at 8:00 in the morning. They performed Roll Call by Hank Mobley and Blue Monk by Thelonious Monk.

“We played great today,” said Kyle Morrison, the tenor saxophonist from Blue Connotation. “The solos were better than in practice from everyone in the group. We had one big mess up but we recovered from it quickly.”

Next up for Community was Maxed Out!, starting at a much more convenient 1:00. They took on the challenge of playing Spain by Chick Corea and Pfrancing by Miles Davis. Max Bowen, the group’s guitarist extraordinaire, said, “As a group we played above average.”

Commenting on Maxed Out!’s performance, Bishop said “Well, Jack Wagner (band director for CHS) makes my job easy.”

Last for Community High was New Jazz. They played Adams Apple by Wayne Shorter, Ben’s Blues written by their own guitarist, Ben Pernick, and Joshua by Victor Feldman.

The next festival for all five of Community’s advanced jazz combos is the Western Michigan Jazz Festival, on March 13th.