 McKenzie Feldman Staff Writer With the holiday season quickly approaching, so is the year’s largest shopping day: Black Friday. When I think of Black Friday my mind immediately turns to the four-in-the-morning battles over holiday discounts. However, a person can get his/her money’s worth without all the constant scrambling. We all know that Black Friday can be seen as chaotic and overwhelming, but here are some insider secrets on how to score stellar deals with less stress.  Cameron Goz
Sports Editor The Southwest Wake Athletic Conference champion Apex Cougars took home a bevy of honors when all-conference teams for boys’ soccer were announced. The league’s nine soccer coaches came to the conclusion that Apex’s Coach Kevin Todd would take home Coach of the Year honors while star forward Will Tomlinson, senior, was crowned the SWAC’s Player of the Year. Tomlinson’s year consisted of thirty goals and six assists, and he led his Cougars to a 21-2-1 (15-1 in SWAC) record. Senior goalkeeper Corey Vodicka joined Tomlinson to represent Apex on the all-conference’s first team. Seniors Patrick Bailey (seven goals, three assists) and Cole Pena (eight goals, seven assists) joined junior defender Thomas Zygmuntowicz on the second team. More first team players came from the Fighting Falcons than any other school, and eighth-place Fuquay-Varina was the lone school without a representative. Middle Creek and Holly Springs each claimed two spots, and a single player from Cary, Panther Creek, and Athens each held one on the SWAC’s first team all-conference.  Taylor Tyson Staff Writer And that is a wrap! As the Marching Band Season draws to a close, just take a moment to commemorate this year and how far the Apex High School Marching Band has come. The AHSMB ended the marching season off with the award for Grand Champion at Cary Band Day. Alike to most local bands, AHSMB values Cary Band Day as their final hoorah, their last chance to shine against tough local competition. After countless losses, the AHSMB has won the Class 4A/5A Grand Champion Award for their exemplary performance of My Spanish Heart for the first time in over a decade. With over one hundred members, the Apex High School Marching Band is setting new standards. In a previous interview with Mr. Jarvis, he discussed the “growing pains” that the band was enduring such as the loss of their old band director, Mr. Rowe, and the shift in members. Although the band is changing, their overall goals have not changed. Striving for respect, inspiration, dedication, and excellence, the AHSMB is not shying away from any obstacle. Also, for the first time in over ten years, a junior is Drum Major.  Henry McKeand Editor-in-Chief and A&E Editor The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has attempted to face the lack of diversity in Hollywood by awarding African-American director Spike Lee with an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards this past Saturday. Lee, the writer and director of such classic movies as Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and Crooklyn, has been the premier black director in the industry for almost thirty years and has commented before on the underrepresentation of African-Americans in movies. Last year, The Academy nominated no black directors or actors for Academy Awards. Lee used his acceptance speech to point out Hollywood’s race problem, saying that, “It’s easier to be president of the United States as a black person than be head of a studio.”  Taylor Tyson Staff Writer The “Face With Tears of Joy” emoji has been named Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year for 2015, and the response is astonishing. As Casper Grathwohl, president of the company, puts it, society has “been preoccupied with emoji and this form of communication.” It is one thing to embrace the emoji in language as it has become a part of the average American’s vernacular; however, it is an entirely different problem when an emoji surpasses “on fleek” for word of the year. It is not common to hear someone go around from day to day saying “Face With Tears of Joy” emoji to every joke they hear.  Jes Stiehm News Editor Harry Potter’s story might be over, but J.K Rowling hasn’t stopped writing about wizards and witches yet. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (FBaWtFT) was first mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as one of Harry’s textbooks. At the time it was only a throwaway title to fill up a school book list, but Rowling took it further and actually published a copy of FBaWtFT under the name of the fictitious author Newt Scamander in 2001. Scamander was known as a famous magizoologist in the Harry Potter universe. The short book is a basic guide to the magical creatures in the Harry Potter Universe. Since then, Warner Brothers proposed the idea of making it a spin-off film, and Rowling readily agreed. Rowling wrote the film’s screenplay and welcomed back David Yates, the director of the last four Harry Potter movies. Rowling has released several tidbits of information over the past few months. Eight promo photos were released early November, giving Potterheads (collective name for Harry Potter Fans) a look inside Newt Scamander’s world. It has become apparent that there are several differences between the wizarding worlds in Britain and America. To reveal these pieces of information, click on the magical "read more" button below.  Hailey Loftin
Staff Writer The Carolina Panthers have started the season 9-0 for the first time in the organization’s history. Carolina defeated the Tennessee Titans on Sunday with ease, winning 27-10. The season has been, for the most part, a series of easy wins. The exceptions to this came in Carolina’s games against the Green Bay Packers and the Indianapolis Colts. The Panthers’ difficult games have been problematic mostly due to their defense. Carolina allowed two touchdowns in the fourth quarter in both their game against the Packers and the Colts. The mistakes against the Colts forced the Panthers into overtime where they won but could have very easily lost. After a similar fourth quarter against the Colts, head coach Ron Rivera told his team that they needed to get better and that they would work on stopping fourth quarter scoring. This practicing was effective as the Titans could not manage to score at all in the second half. The Panthers take on the Washington Redskins on Sunday at 1:00. The Redskins are 4-5 but defeated the New Orleans Saints this weekend 47-14. The Redskins are having a mediocre season as usual. They are tied for second in the NFC East with the Philadelphia Eagles. Based on the records of the two teams the upcoming match between the Panthers and Redskins should be an easy win for Carolina. It will be interesting to see how the Redskins move forward after overpowering the Saints. Panthers fans are thrilled that their team is finally rising up and winning games. There are already discussions and tweets about a possible Panthers and New England Patriots Super Bowl matchup. The Panthers have never won a Super Bowl (they went in 2003 and lost to the Patriots 32-29). The season still has a lot of time left in it, but for now, the Panthers are on top of the world.  Montserrat Rivera Staff Writer Diversity in media is a very important thing; most T.V. shows and movies consist of mainly Caucasian characters. Their definition of “diverse” is a group of people with one person of color. There is an increasing amount of diversity in the media, with more shows and movies including characters who are not all Caucasian. A recent show that has a lot of variety is the Netflix original Master of None, created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang. Yang had previously worked as a writer for the show Parks and Recreation, which starred Ansari, and the series led him to stardom. Parks and Recreation also has a more varying cast. Another show with characters of various ethnic backgrounds is Orange is The New Black, which consists of a cast that is mainly women of different races and body types.  Taylor Tyson Staff Writer High school is pretty scary, especially on Friday the 13th. However, last Friday proved to be an exception as music lovers from all over the nation came together to celebrate not two but three music album releases last Friday. That is right; three albums were dropped on Nov. 13, 2015. The first record to drop was none other than Justin Bieber’s Purpose. Bieber has had quite the comeback this year. After his multiple sentences behind bars and his on-and-off relationship with ex-Disney star Selena Gomez, many fans were beginning to lose faith in him. Bieber has grown tremendously since his entrance in the music industry with songs like “Baby” and “Boyfriend.” Appealing to a larger demographic, bad boy Bieber even teamed up with Jack U over the summer to bring the hit single “Where Are U Now.” Purpose, as a whole, carries on his R&B style, giving everyone Bieber Fever.  Nick Stines
Staff Writer Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington left Stone Temple Pilots Monday, Nov. 9 to focus on Linkin Park. “I got to create and perform with one of the greatest rock bands of our generation that had so much influence on me growing up. With the amount of time STP deserves, in addition to being in Linkin Park, and with the needs of my family, one of them always seems to fall short,” Bennington says. Ex-bandmate Scott Weiland weighed in on the entire situation in 2013 upon getting fired, saying, “I’m surprised they [STP] did what they did without checking the legality of it, how they just decided to go and use the [band] name and go and hire another singer and start playing shows with a name I still am an owner of.” Bennington joined STP in 2013 upon Weiland’s departure from lead singing role; Weiland had nothing to say about Bennington’s departure. Stone Temple Pilots picked up Joss Stone to sing hit “Interstate Love Song” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Monday, Nov. 9. |
