In the action-packed movie “The Avengers” a team of six of the most infamous super heroes to grace the pages of Marvel comics must work together to, you guessed it, save the world.

However, “The Avengers” provided more for its audience than the typical action movie by dodging boring clichés and predictable plot lines like Loki dodged Hawk Eye’s arrows.

The heroes are equipped with their own special skills and weapons. Iron man destroyed his enemies with his high tech suit that left every robotics team member jealous. Thor swung his mighty, intergalactic hammer. Hawk Eye channeled his inner Katniss Everdeen with his archery abilities. The Black Widow shined as the lone female cast member, utilizing her assassin abilities-without smudging a dash of eye liner. Captain America defended the world and his flawless hair with his patriotically painted shield. And The Hulk lost his temper.

The heroes’ superpowers added to the cinematic glitter, as the special effects were as abundant as Captain America’s hair spray. Crowds cheered as they watched actor Mark Ruffalo transform into the Incredible Hulk and fight hand to hand (more giant green fist to hand) against Loki. Black Widow attacked the possessed Hawk Eye with her extraordinary combat skills and made the audience jump in their seats as each punch and kick added to the excitement. Anticipation ran through their frozen hearts as Thor fell through the portal separating Earth from another dimension. The wild action scenes did more than leave the audience dazzled, it allowed viewers to feel involved in the movie, as if they were fighting alongside The Avengers.

Between the action scenes, the superheroes’ intriguing back stories were revealed and allowed those less dazzled by the Hulk-smashing and explosions to connect with the film as well. The Hulk’s struggle to control his powerful alter-ego showed a softer, less green side of the man behind the super-human strength. The subtle love story between Hawk Eye and Black Widow sprinkled in a touch of romance necessary to keep even the preadolescent Twilight fans intrigued.

Overall, “The Avengers” left viewers with a connection to the characters, through incredible battle scenes, intriguing back stories or even the simple novelty of watching a Marvel comic come to life on screen.

The Interlocutor, played by Tony Award-winner Ron Holgate, and his cast of energetic and talented young men will now veer from their normal tall tales and tell the story of the monumental “Scottsboro” case of the 1930’s, where the truth, although told by all nine of the African American men accused of rape, was ignored.

The importance of the truth is definitely stressed in this play within a play. John Kander and Fred Ebb’s “The Scottsboro Boys,” is now playing at the Old Globe in San Diego.  May 5 marked the west coast premiere of  the Broadway show and was presented in association with American Conservatory Theater. This premier brought together many members of the original creative team including the associate director and choreographer, stage manager, scenic, costume, and lighting design.

Due to the carnival nature of minstrel shows, many of the musical numbers were upbeat and energetic, even the ones containing sad and racist subject matter. For example in the number where the prison guards explain to youngest of the incarcerated nine how he will get the chair, the music is lively and the dancing and the lighting effects so entertaining, that the audience is both horror stricken and impressed at the same time. Numbers such as these with the upbeat music and sadistic lyrics do an excellent job at conveying the injustices and brutality that not just the Scottsboro Boys experienced, but all African Americans faced during this time period.

The music and lyrics were ingenious and represented the harshness and close-mindedness of the thirties. Kander and Ebbs, who collaborated in “Cabaret” and “Chicago,” helped create another top notch production. Director and Choreographer Susan Stroman, who directed and choreographed 12 Tony Award Winner “The Producers,” once again  created beautiful staging and engaging choreography.

The pure creativity of the show alone is worth taking the trip to Balboa park. “Scottsboro Boys” will be playing through June 10 on the Donald an Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theater.

Chapin started out with a paper route as a kid, and moved onto taking and developing candid pictures of his neighbors, only to sell the prints for a dollar each. He then started a business to re-string tennis rackets, which paid $6 an hour. “I got to do it on my own time, so I was working around my own schedule and still getting paid,” said Chapin. He moved onto teaching tennis as a student at UCLA. “I had a specialized skill that was in high demand,” said Chapin, “I was paid twenty five dollars an hour. But, that was thirty years ago. Today, it would be about seventy or eighty dollars an hour. I was the rich kid in school, but not because I had rich parents.”

Chapin’s entrepreneurial spirit never went away, and with a seed investment of $100,000, he and his sister created a business (with a license from Hasbro) to make themed board games, including Simpson’s clue and Beatles Monopoly.  This year alone, USAopoly is projected to make $25 million dollars. “I’d rather make more money than less money, wouldn’t you?” Chapin remarked when asked why he joined the business world as an entrepreneur.

But, with high reward came high risk. “After starting USAopoly, there were a few years that killed me,” said Chapin. Even in the health insurance business has proved to be a risky business for him. “We covered Bed, Bath & Beyond, and when they went out of business they still owed us half a million dollars. But, they couldn’t pay it because they were bankrupt,” said Chapin. 

Even with the risk, he has remained a successful entrepreneur by working hard and staying vigilant. “I found out that the people who are most successful in business are the ones that make the most phone calls. Tenacity and persistence, those are the two most important things,” said Chapin. He also stressed the importance of working hard. Even though it may be tough, he advised that the way to become successful is to keep priorities straight and make the correct choices to achieve personal goals. “I may have missed out on some fun and parties in college, but at the end of the day it’s worked out for me,” said Chapin.

Chapin now spends most of his time growing his real estate business, but manages to juggle each of his businesses by working with people who are just as passionate as he is. “I am surrounded by smart people I can trust. We have an intensive process to hire people that will do good work,” said Chapin. But, it’s not all serious business. “I love going to work on Mondays, it’s a fun culture. It’s business but there’s a lot of creativity involved.”

Chapin’s success is due to a mixture of personal drive and an aggressive attitude towards business, and he left a few words of advice for the class about how to follow in his footsteps. “Make yourself the smartest person in the business you are going into, and create a product or provide a service that creates differentiation in the marketplace,” said Chapin. He also mentioned that there is no such thing as being too informed, and it is important to stay up to date on current events.

In the end, he said, it’s necessary to stay realistic and flexible. “I would have loved to be a pro tennis player, but that wasn’t going to happen. That couldn’t be the end of the world. Now, the rewards of business are just as good as pro tennis, and I don’t come home every night with sore knees,” said Chapin.

“Urinetown: The Musical” is a story of a town plagued by drought and a pay-per-use toilet. If the tax to use the bathroom isn’t paid, the offenders are arrested and are sent to “Urinetown.” The town gathers and fights the man, who is manifested in the form of the “Urine Good Company.” “Urinetown: The Musical” ran on Broadway in the fall of 2001, winning two Tony Awards.

Instead of the planned musical of “Chicago,” “Urinetown: The Musical” was chosen for the Musical Theatre Production class, as a contemporary alternative. Since “Chicago” is currently playing in San Diego, the class was unable to obtain the rights. “We needed to choose [a play]that both we, the theatre department, can produce, and the band is capable of playing,” said Michaela Whatnall, senior, who is part of the class.

“Urinetown: The Musical” appeals to students with it comedic sense. “It’s a really upbeat show. Our intention is to have everyone laughing the whole time,” said Whatnall. Also, Whatnall added that the show parodies musical theatre itself.

 “Most songs are parodies of another well-known musical piece,” said Kerri Dobson, junior, also of the Musical Theatre Production class.

The Musical Theatre Production class is currently in their tech month. Whatnall, when asked why students should come, replied that “We put so much work into this [the musical]. . . For us, this is it. All of our work, all of our practices go to this one thing.”

Senior Brenton Scher plays Bobby Strong, the musical’s lead, and senior Erin Rosenburg  is the student director. “Urinetown: The Musical” runs at SDA on June 1, 2, 7, 8, 9 at the Clayton E. Liggett Theatre.

 Their new album “Kids In The Street” was released in April and recently I was lucky enough to be able to interview some of the band members over the phone.

 “I think with ‘Kids in The Street’, we have made our most diverse and cohesive record,” said guitarist Mike Kennerty. “It’s actually a record you can listen to from start to finish as an album.”

 This new addition comes ten years after the group’s debut album “The All-American Rejects” first introduced the world to the Rejects. 3 years later AAR released their second album; “Move Along” which helped further the bands wider popularity and developed a loyal and dedicated fan base.

 After touring internationally for a few years AAR released their third studio album; “When The World Comes Down”.

 For the band, the popularity of their past albums has been both challenging and inspirational into making their most recent album a success. “Our biggest challenge is pushing ourselves creatively, I think a lot of bands have become kind of complacent and are just going through the motions,” Said Kennerty. “This is our dream and we realize we are incredibly lucky to be doing this and we don’t take it for granted. We still push ourselves just as hard as we did for our first record.  The biggest challenge is making something we are proud of and worth putting out into the world.”

 For the new album, AAR teamed up with successful producer Greg Wells, who has worked with music powerhouses such as Adele, Celine Dion, and Katy Perry, to give the album more mainstream appeal and to attract a wider audience.

 “It worked out amazing. We just worked with him [Wells] so well,” Said Kennerty. “He’s just an all-around music guy; he knows everything, I mean he’s worked with all these talents. He turned out to be the best producer we worked with.  He pushed us to push ourselves; he pushed us to go places we have never gone before.”

 And in a gossip driven, 24 hour news media environment, the Rejects have remained above the fray. “We’ve watched a lot of bands make the wrong decisions and be bad people and that has been the biggest influence,” Said Kennerty. “We see these jerks and we say we don’t want to end up like that, so I guess the biggest influence have been those bad ones.”

 Staying relevant has been a problem for many music groups over the decade, something the Rejects have continued to outlast. “It’s kind of amazing that a band can stick around for 10 years, we have always tried to create good songs.  A lot of our fellow bands, have fizzled out because they were trying to capitalize on their past success, and didn’t make new material ” said Guitarist Nick Wheeler. “It feels like we kind of have to start over every time we make an album, but I think that’s why we are still here.”

 When asked what keeps them going Wheeler said: “We’ve always done it because we have fun doing it. This is our escape and we hope everybody else can come to a show and forget about their problems for an hour and a half.”

 “Kids In the Street” could bring  more fame and fortune to the Rejects, but even if it doesn’t, they’re still content with their place in the music world. “We’ve never quite fit in so we are kind of on the outskirts and below the surface of what’s going on,” Said Kennerty. “Even though we have been around a lot longer than most bands, there have been other bands that have come up and become more popular than us and then gone away.  We always sort of remain.  We have always been that band where we aren’t quite cool enough to be the big one but we just seem to stick around…and we don’t mind that.”

In order to achieve sustained growth in STAR test scores the administration sent out pledges to students during homeroom. The pledges contain students’ STAR test scores from previous years, a place to write their goal for this year and  how they will achieve it. Students had mixed feelings about the pledges’ effectiveness on STAR test scores.

Students expressed different feelings about the STAR tests and the pledges. “I hate STAR testing; it’s one of the most boring parts of the whole year. But, we all have to endure it,” said Riley Murphy, freshman.

“I think this will be effective because students are creating specific scholastic goals for themselves and typically, when we try to achieve a goal we do,” said David Galloway, sophomore.

“I don’t think this is necessarily going to motivate students; it’s just going to make them feel bad about their previous scores. Plus, just because you set a goal doesn’t mean you’ll end up achieving it,” said Parker Lack, freshman.

While STAR test scores may not have immediate effects on students, if scores drop drastically the school could face long term consequences, according to Principal Tim Hornig.

“Nothing would happen immediately. What we could see way down the line, after consistent drops in our STAR test scores, is a government agency coming into our school and taking action,” said Hornig.

“It’s important to care about our STAR test scores because it affects our campus and the future generations at SDA. Plus, it’s always nice to rank higher than LCC,” said Shannon O’Donnell, sophomore.

The two-round contest, which took place in front of the Performing Arts Center, involved a two-student team of an eater and a blindfolded feeder from each homeroom.

Eater freshman Nick Cook, fed by senior Lindsey Valenzuela, won the first round of the contest by eating two donuts for biology teacher Michael Santos’s homeroom. “I grabbed the donut and I shoved it forward. I knew I was hitting the right target because I felt the donut crumble in my hand,” said Valenzuela.

The second challenge of eating a bowl of Goldfish crackers was won by eater Fred Leon and feeder Sergio Gonzalez, both sophomores in math teacher Paul Brice’s homeroom. “I am so proud of winning this event. I didn’t eat breakfast just so I could win it,” said Leon.

The eating contest was run by the Homeroom Olympics Committee. “We thought it would be funny and wanted to do something that would embarrass everyone. It went really well,” said event organizer Ashlynne Mclean, junior.

Santos’s and Brice’s homerooms won 500 points each for winning the contest. Currently in the lead of Homeroom Olympics is Broemmelsiek with 3,400 points, followed by Santos with 3,350 points and Siers with 3,200 points.

Junior Dominic Anguiano hit an RBI double in the second inning to score the first run for the Mustangs.

After Anguiano hit in the first run in for the Mustangs, they went on a hitting streak, eventually winning and shutting out Valley Center. Before this game, Valley Center was tied with SDA in league.

Junior Noah Huggins pitched the whole game, and shut out Valley Center in all six innings. The Mustangs are now undefeated in league with a record of 3-0.

Junior Marc Vela said, “I think we are off to a good start and that we will go undefeated this season in league. The hardest team we will face this year is probably going to be Del Norte.”

The varsity boys baseball team is confident this year.

One record on the list of this year’s anticipated ‘indie’ releases is a brand new EP from synthy pop-makers Animal Collective, named “Transverse Temporal Gyrus.” Whether this is a latin name for some sort of botany or random gibberish, fans of the band are anxiously awaiting the EP – it’s been two years since the band has released any new songs.  Other indie-ish bands with releases to watch out for include M83, Arcade Fire, M. Ward, and Grouplove.

A more household name in music, Bruno Mars, is also participating in record store day with the release of his 10” EP entitled “The Grenade Sessions.” Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, another band who reached radio level last year with their road trip worthy song “Home,” is releasing a small collection of unheard songs on a record called “One Love To Another.”

Besides these, an array of golden oldies are being re-released from bands and artists including Grateful Dead, Paul McCartney, Otis Redding, and Bruce Springsteen. A master list of all the musicstuffs being released can be found at Record Store Day’s website.

If all the new releases still haven’t got you convinced, both Lou’s Records and Spin Records will have live bands performing while record-seekers shop: Bands Sick Balloons and Trouble in the Wind will be performing at Spin at to-be-announced times, and groups SweetEverAfter and Montalban Quintet will be at Lou’s at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., respectively. More information can be found at Lou’s Records’ website and Spin Records’ website.

“I saw Titanic in 3D and drooled over Leonardo DiCaprio. I also went to LA for Passover and relished in the fact that I didn’t have to tour colleges.” –Senior Nikki Cohen “

I went to Paris and bonded with my cousin who is going to school there.” –Senior Domenica Berman

“I didn’t go anywhere over spring break. I just worked, relaxed, and asked my girlfriend to prom.” –Senior Evan Eichenberg

“I went to Sky High Sports in LA. There were trampolines everywhere, on the floor and on the walls. I jumped ‘til I was exhausted.” – Junior Brady Mears

“My spring break was fun. I went to Mammoth. It was great because there was a lot of snow up there.” –Sophomore Josie Overland

“It was fun. I went to the beach a lot. That’s about it.”—Sophomore Geneva Bandstra

“I went ice skating with a bunch of friends on Friday. Then I visited UNCand NAU and then came home and visited Whittier.” –Senior Damon Ferreirae

“I went to Lake Las Vegas and we stayed in a really pretty resort.” –Senior Korina Casterjon

“Over spring break, I went to the east coast and visited colleges with my family.” –Senior Katherine Hee

“I went to Cuba to visit my brother who is studying there for a year.  It was really fun!” –Junior Kai Schlesinger

“I stayed in San Diego. I went to the beach and shopping and relaxed and watched movies. I had a good time because I was homework and school free.” –Sophomore Rachel Rahilly

“I went to L.A. to see my family and to Disneyland. It was my cousins first time there. He’s five so we got to go on all the little rides; it was fun.” –Sophomore Emily Ross

“I had to bring my dad something in San Clemente, so I bribed someone for a ride up there and ended up camping!” –Junior Kelly Goehring

“I went to Japan. I got my hair cut, which was really fun because they give you head massages. Every time we’ve gone [to Japan]recently , we’ve gone to Nara where they have deer that bite your butt until you feed them.” –Junior Emily Nathan

“I went to San Francisco because I wanted to see the city again and it would be a good experience. We went shopping and ate a lot.” –Junior Courtney Houle

“I went to my dad’s house up in Northern California, bleached my hair, and drove everywhere because I finally have my permit.” –Sophomore Emily Murdock

“I tried to go to the beach whenever it was sunny; I even went in the water. I also beat my sister in our Easter Egg hunt.” –Junior Joleyne Lambert

“I visited universities in Oregon and Washington. I spent my birthday in Portland enjoying the city and eating Asian food.” –Junior Nicole Sinno

“I went to a gun range with my dad and had a full round of consecutive head shots.” –Senior Kat Wildermuth

“I saw a disappointingly pedantic and sophomoric art show at UCSD with my friend Jenny.” –Junior Naomi Sinclair

“I had many adventures in New York City. The best, by far, would be when I tripped and fell in 30 Rock. I now have a giant bruise on my shin but I’ve become mentally okay with it by telling myself that it’s somewhat similar to Tina Fey kicking me in the shin which, in its self, would be an honor. Oh, also I fell in love with Nick Jonas dancing in a bow tie. A green one.” Sophomore Kirsten Walz

“I had the most amazing Spring Break ever! I was at the beach almost everyday…even the day it rained! Me and my friends lived on Raul’s and Berry Happy. It felt like summer! Now I’m just really sad that break is over. I don’t feel like we should be here.” –Sophomore Lizzy Knox

“I went to Tahoe, built a snowman, then went to Santa Cruz and got lost in the forest. Perfection.” –Sophomore Wendy Disch

“I went to Arizona and there were Zonies and I went hiking in the Grand Canyon and Chelsea Kansler saw me and didn’t say hi.” –Sophomore Roya Chagnon

“I went to the Getty Museum. It was a culturally eye opening experience. I transcended, actually.” –Senior Desiree Otillio

“During spring break I slept. I also wen to the wild animal park with my mom. It was hot and we exercised a lot, but it was fun. We held birds and saw butterflies.” –Junior Ino Stofer

“I went to Cancun with my family and visited the Mayan ruins, snorkeled at the coral reef and went to the beach.” –Freshman Daniel Ballard

“The weather during spring break was pretty crazy! There weren’t many things to do outside so I had fun avoiding the rain and hanging out with my siblings at home.” –Senior Carolina Diaz

“I went to Oahu where I paddled to an offshore island in a kayak because my ankle’s screwed up. Other than that I went to the beach, bought a tank top, got sunburnt to the point I could be sold at Red Lobster. I got called a “haoli” for dropping in on a wave bogey boarding. ” –Senior Max Pazevic

“I went to Palm Springs over break. It was delightfully horrible because I did nothing but get bored. So to compensate for this I went on Wikipedia for fun. I fixed up my car though and bought some pieces for my car at the junkyard. When leaving I left my wallet on top of my car when leaving and it flew off my car. I lost $500 in gift cards and cash. Then I got grounded and had to work.” –Senior Kolten Horner

“I went to Palm Springs over break, but so did everyone else. I went all the 15 Dollar Stores and I took a five mile hike up a mountain in 90-degree weather.” – Junior Brittany May

Reporting by: Caitlin Hird, Lily LeaVesseur, Katie McPherson, Laurel Sorenson, Kyle Hoff, Mae Wright, Olivia Mock, Caroline Glass, Cassia Pollock, and Kianna Eberle