Volume XLIV Issue 3 December 7,2012

LV Berkner High School 1600 Spring Valley Road Richardson, TX 75081

Let’s DanceDancers, stompers garner success

Violinist namedall-statePage 3

Step teamwins districtPage 7

Winter holidays meananticipated moviesPage 6

Student dancer stars in ‘Nutcracker’Page 7

Reviews December 7, 2012 2

Berkner Rampage1600 Spring Valley RoadRichardson, TX 75081

Editors-in-Chief Abby Hawthorne Ciara Mason

Features Editor Harmony Holder

Sports Editor Neyat Abraha

Photo Editor Evelyn Alonso

Assistant Photo Editor Charlie Gallegos

Graphics Editor Gabe Medrano

Staff Writers Tre Chappell Chinonye Duru Karilyn Gregson Forrest Milburn Michelle Pinilla Scarlett Smith

Photographers Mario Espinoza Justin Jennings Maylan Raymundo Gaby Rodriguez

Sponsor/Advisor Jarred Goodall Principal Mr. Ron Griffen

Letters to the EditorIn order to provide an open forum where students can discuss topics affect-

ing their lives and education, the Rampage accepts Letters to the Editor. We offer the opportunity to encourage students, faculty members and

patrons of the school to voice their opinion and use the newspaper as a me-dium for debate. We reserve the right to condense letters so they may fit the space require-

ments, or delete any that do not meet our standards of propriety. All letters must be signed; however, names will be withheld on request.

Rush rocks AAC with old, newKarilyn Gregson

Staff Writer

Rush invaded the AAC on Nov. 28 to promote its new album, Clockwork Angels.

Recently, I attended Rush’s concert supporting the Clock-work Angels album. It was truly a night to remember. It was definitely one of the top five concerts I’ve attended.

The night started off with a short intro video, and then “Subdivisions” from the Signals album. To me, that was one of the best songs they could’ve started out with because it’s awesome. Next, they played, “The Big Money” and “Force Ten” from Power Windows and Hold Your Fire, respectively; two of Rush’s successful albums from the 1980’s.

The next three songs, “Grand Designs,” “The Body Electric,” and “Territories,” I didn’t know that well but they still did a really good job of playing them. “The Analog Kid” from Signals was a huge hit with the crowd. Next, Rush played “Bravado.” “Bra-

vado” is a song that I really love and I’m happy that they played it at the concert.

They ended the first half of the show with an instru-mental named “Where’s My

Thing” and another song “Far Cry.” “Where’s My Thing” started with a bass solo, and in the middle, there was the first of three drum solos that Neil Peart will perform throughout the night.

There was a short break and another short video, and then they started off with the first song off the new album Clockwork Angels, “Cara-van.” I was ecstatic when they played it. I loved the orchestra that performed with them during this song. Whenever Geddy Lee said the word “fire,” huge bursts of flames shot up in the air. When he said “flares,” purple flares shot up. It was amazing. The next song they played was named “Clockwork Angels,” another song from the new album.

After “Clockwork Angels,” Rush played “The Anarchist.” That song was really great live and I enjoyed it very much. Next, they played “Carnies,” which included so much pyro it would make a KISS fan blush. Lee also does

a silly dance at the end when all the pyro is being set off. The next song played was “The Wreckers.” That song really makes me think and I loved hearing it.

The next song was “Head-long Flight,” which included a mini drum solo in the mid-dle. Following the drum solo was an opportunity for Alex Lifeson to show off his superb guitar skills. He performed a short but fantastic guitar solo. After that were “Halo Effect” and “Seven Cities Of Gold,” both from Clockwork Angels.

After ‘Seven Cities Of Gold,” Rush played “Wish Them Well” and “The Garden,” fin-ishing up Clockwork Angels. Rush returned to their vault with “Dreamline” from Roll The Bones, one of my favor-ites off that album.

After “Dreamline,” the third and final drum solo was performed by the master of drums, Neil Peart. Following that was “Red Sector A” from Grace Under Pressure. After was the instrumental that everyone loves, “YYZ.” They didn’t miss a single note. It amazed me. I was hyper-focused on the stage during the whole song; I didn’t want to take my eyes away from the epic battle between guitar

and bass that I witnessed. The string accompa-niment worked well, along with a dancing chick-en randomly making it’s way across the stage. I couldn’t imag-ine how they would follow that up, until they started playing “Spirit Of Radio.”

“Spirit Of Ra-dio” has always been close to my heart. It was one of the first songs I learned on gui-tar, so, naturally, I air-guitared along with it. After, they fin-ished that song,

Geddy screamed “Goodnight Dallas!” How-ever, I knew

they couldn’t leave without playing “Tom Sawyer,” and I was right, as they returned two minutes later to play “Tom Sawyer.” My voice was already giving out, but I had

enough energy to sing this song at the top of my lungs.

I thought it was over until I heard the familiar sounding effects for “2112.” They didn’t play the whole 20-minute song, but “Overture,” “The Temples Of Syrinx,” and “Grand Finale.” I was sur-prised that Geddy could still sing “The Temples Of Syrinx.”

Rush ended the show flaw-lessly with the lines, “Atten-tion planets of the solar fed-eration. Attention planets of the solar federation. We have assumed control. We have as-sumed control.” at the end of “Grand Finale.” Then Geddy again shouted “Goodnight

Dallas!” this time, for real. Shortly after, another short video played and the lights turned back on and everyone went home.

Overall, the show was amaz-ing. Lee’s voice has aged a bit, but when you’ve been singing since the late 60’s, that’s going to happen. Alex Lifeson can still play the guitar beauti-fully, and Neil Peart is still the drum god. I didn’t want it to end. I’m looking forward to them coming by Dallas again soon.

Forrest Milburn Staff Writer

Berkner High School continues to exhibit fantastic displays of talent, cre-ativity and dexterity. None other than Berkner’s Orchestra Program presents a good example of this.

In the fall, each individual student prepares for a different kind of com-petition, which tests playing ability at the region, area and state level.

Senior Violinist James Lee comment-ed on his first chair placement at the All-Region audition

“I was really confident walking into the audition room, especially since I’ve been through it for four years and every year I’ve made the Orchestra, and I ended up doing really well this year. It surprised me, because there were some really good players there.”

This year, 12 members of the Berkner Orchestra made All-Region Orchestra, and two were chosen as alternates. Of the overall scores for All-Region, the top two violinists were both from Berkner High School, Lee and freshman Heechul Shin,

Lee scored first chair overall, there-fore naming him the Concertmaster of the Region Orchestra. The Con-certmaster is the principal, or first chair, violin that leads the orchestra in warm-up and tuning.

First chair of the 2nd Violin section in the Symphony Orchestra, sopho-more Elissa Dabaghi, had a lot to say about the work and effort that goes in to preparing for the All-Region audi-tions.

“Most of my work on the etudes for All-Region occurs at home with my lesson teacher, and my lessons with my teacher really help me get to where I need to be skill wise,” Dabaghi said.

Of the final scores at All-Region tryouts, 50 Violins (25 for the first Vio-lins and 25 for the second violins) are selected to perform in the All-Region Orchestra.

“They hear a lot of violinists, and out of all the ones that they hear, you need to stand out in order to get a good score, and the way you play makes you stand out,” Dabaghi said.

If a certain player’s placement is high enough, then the student has the opportunity to advance to the next step in the All-State process, All-Area level, and then if their placement is high enough from there, they advance

to the All-State Or-chestra.

“Being in the All-State Orchestra is a huge honor for the students that make it, because it is so selec-tive,” Mr. Needham said.

Less than one per-cent of all Orchestra students in the state of Texas ever advance to the All-State Or-chestra.

“I’ve auditioned three times for the All-State Orchestra, and I was so happy to make it my senior year. I had to play 12 excerpts and etudes when I was tape recorded for State, and I had to play flawlessly, because everyone else who was being recorded sounded really good. The slightest error could determine whether you make it or not,” said Lee.

The top perform-ing orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra, consistently places high at statewide competitions, includ-ing last year when it placed 4th at the Full Orchestra Honor Competition and 6th at the String Orchestra Honor Compe-tition. In addition, under the first time direction of Ms. Ashley Johnson, the Concert Orchestra made all ones at their UIL competition last year.

This year, however, the Berkner Orchestra program faces tough chal-lenges.

The Berkner Orchestra, unlike the Mighty Ram Band, cannot possibly come to the high school during the summer to rehearse, due to the fact that many Orchestra members are off on their respective summer vacations or other things that occur in the stu-dents’ lives. So, this can be a real prob-lem for the director of the Symphony Orchestra, the top performing varsity orchestra, Mr. Craig Needham

“We ba-

sically start our rehearsals the day school starts, and since Symphony’s first competition is the String Honor Orchestra on Oct. 15, we only have about six weeks’ time to prepare, and normally we have eight,” said Mr. Needham.

To make up for this loss in time, the orchestra has extra rehearsals outside of its individual periods.

“In addition to meeting first period, we also meet 30 minutes earlier on days that we need to, and we also meet after school to rehearse,” said Mr. Needham.

The Berkner orchestras meet only once a day during the school year for their regular rehearsal times, and this does not include neither early morn-ing extra rehearsals, nor sectional time. The Symphony Orchestra meets

during first period, the Concert Or-chestra meets second, the Philharmonic meets third and the Chamber Or-chestra meets fourth.

These rehearsals help prepare each orches-tra for its concerts and competitions throughout the year. Each orches-tra prepares music for

performance at three concerts in No-vember and December, including the winter concert on Dec. 4.

However, not all orchestras at Berkner have the opportunity to re-hearse outside of their respective class period according to Ms. Johnson, the director of the Concert Orchestra.

“The Concert Orchestra doesn’t have extra rehearsals, so what we have to do is get all of our preparation done during class. To do this, we have sectionals in class, help sessions before or after school and playing tests to help motivate the students,” said Ms. Johnson.

Since there is a limit of time to pre-pare its music, each orchestra must be reasonable about the choices it makes on musical selections.

“I try to pick music that challenges the students, but is still achievable in the time span that we have. It needs to be at an appropriate level of difficulty and length,” said Ms. Johnson.

In addition to the normal activities of orchestra and All-Region audi-tions, some orchestra members are also members of the Mighty Ram Band, jazz band, Ramblers, theatre, volleyball, Varsity Football and other extracurricular activities.

In addition to this, the 12 students who made the All-Region Orchestra will also have the opportunity to perform at a concert in Febuary, which could be a great opportunity to see just how extraordinary Berkner is in its talented programs, like the Berkner Orchestra.

News 3December 7, 2012

Orchestra fine tunes its product

A portion of the Cello section stops to listen to BHS’ ochestra teacher Ms. Ashley Johnson’’s instructions. Despite difficulties in scheduling rehersal times outside of class. the BHS’ orchestra continues as one of the state’s best. (Photo provided by Ciara Mason.)

Video Game DiversityContrary to popular belief the first video game ever

created was not Pong, it was....Tennis for Two

Created in 1958 by nuclear physicist William Higinbo-tham, who has also worked on the famous Manhattan

project.Although Pong is the first official game ever released,

Tennis for Two was the first created. The orignal screen?

Two people could play the electronic tennis game. There were two control-

lers connected to an analog computer with an

oscilloscope for a screen.

“I like shooting games and games that make me feel like I’m in the army serving my country.”-Daniel Green

“Galiga is one of those old games that never loses its ability to make you happy when you play it.” Anony-mous

“Super Mario, or any Mario game really, is my favorite because I love the adventure and challleng-es you have to overcome. And the 8-bit graphcs are definitely a plus.”-Ciara Mason

“This game isn’t bloody or gory. Yet it involves battling. The pokemon are epic and creative. It’s kind of like having your own virtual pet.”-Betha-ny King

“I love when Sonic travels everywhere and he tries to beat chaos.“-Satonya Easter

“The Soul Calibur games have beautiful graphics and an exemplary weapons fight-ing system. The new ways you can cus-tomize your characters are great as well.”-Grabriel Gainey

Interested in Video Game Design?Written by: Dalton Repp and Ciara Mason

Many people still don’t know about the video game design course added this year to Berkner High School. Headed by Mr. Jeff Bishop the class uses progams such as Maya, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, and a new program called Unity. Many of those programs may seem like a foreign language to some students, but Mr. Bishop assures the Rampage that this class is for nov-ices as well as students who have taken animation one (a preferred prerequisite that is not required), “You don’t have to be awesome to begin the class, I’ll give you what you need to pass.” While he didn’t mean to rhyme Mr. Bishop’s excitement about teaching the course is evident. Having already taught art one and a continued affair with animation, being able to teach something like video game design is a dream come true for Mr. Bishop. “Being able to teach this course is definately satifsfy-ing the nerd fantasies of my life!” said Mr. Bishop. Throughout the year students get to create a giant war hammer, as well as other miscellaneous items, and they also get to recreate the classic Halo map “Blood Gulch.” All of this work leads to the final exam; the creation of your very own video game, which you can keep the rights to and sell at the end of the year if you choose. Students in the class are amped up about the oppourtinity to experience this before they have to pay for the class in college, it is undoubtedly one of the most interesting courses. It is not for those looking for an easy ‘A’ however, Mr. Bishop says that in order to pass, you need to have the drive, pasion, and love of computers and videogames, everything else will be given unto you.

Video Game Diversity

Which gaming console sold the most units?Sony’s Playstation Two sold 153.6 million units, it was

released in the year 2000.

Videogames have only been embedded in the culture of the American public since the 1970’s. Yet, over the past few decades, gaming systems have become much more advanced, and the games have followed them. The Consoles

The Handheld

Karilyn GregsonStaff Writer

I had a tough time deciding what I

should review for this issue. I thought Christmas music would be done to death, so I went with Moorhead’s 1979 album, Overkill, one of the most influential classic hard rock albums of all time.

The lineup for this album is the clas-sic lineup for Moorhead, the iconic vo-calist and bassit Ian “Lemmy” Kilmis-ter, “Fast” Eddie Clarke on guitar, and Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor on the drums. Motorhead formed in London, England in 1975, and released with its self titled album, Motorhead in 1977. Motorhead’s most iconic album is their fifth album, Ace Of Spades. After nearly 40 years, they still continue to tour and put out albums to this day.

I really enjoyed the album, espe-cially the first three songs. The song “Overkill” is the first song in Heavy Metal history to introduce double bass drums, which are used quite profusely throughout the song.

The second song, “Stay Clean,” has the iconic Motorhead sound, which is what makes it one of my favorites. However, my favorite song on this album is the third song, “(I Won’t) Pay Your Price.”

“(I Won’t) Pay Your Price” converys “I’m not going to take your crap” at-titude. I love the line “Shut the door behind you when you go, why you’re still here, I really don’t know.” Lemmy seems really mad at this person he’s speaking to and I like how he can be straightforward and honest.

Initially, I was skeptical about the

song “I’ll Be Your Sister” until I lis-tened to it. I mean, a song named “I’ll Be Your Sister” sounds pretty stupid right? No. It was a really cool song and I enjoyed it very much. Like all the rest, it had the iconic Moto-rhead sound and style that makes them so awesome.

The next song “Capricorn” was much slower and moodier than the rest of the album.

“No Class” and ‘Damage Case” both continue with the classic Moto-rhead sound that makes them so amazing to many people. I didn’t enjoy these songs as much as the first three, but they were still pretty good.

“Tear Ya Down,” “Metropolis” and “Limb From Limb” were decent. They weren’t as enjoyable as the rest of the album. One can only listen to Lem-my’s voice for so long because of the scratchiness of his vocal sound.

Overall Jimmy Miller did a good job producing the album. He has worked with artists such as The Roll-

ing Stones, The Plasmatics and Blind Faith. Motorhead doesn’t seem like they would be in his catalogue, but it doesn’t matter, because Motorhead is amazing.

I would recommend this album to anyone who likes Motorhead or any of the NWOBHM (New Wave Of Brit-ish Heavy Metal) bands such as Iron

Maiden or Diamondhead. The album did a really good job of just being a classic Motorhead and not conform-ing to the disco popness of the 1970’s, which was popular at that time. I’ve always loved how Motorhead can do its own thing and not care about what other people think.

Reviews 6December 7, 2012

Metal fans keep ‘Overkill’ alive

Holidays mean winter blockbustersTre Chappell

Staff Writer

It is holiday season again, which means it is time for anticipated movies to hit the the big screen.

These are the movies that could have easily been sum-mer blockbusters, because even with big budgets, they are almost guaranteed to make their money back.

First up is Director Peter Jackson’s return to Middle Earth for The Hobbit: An Un-expected Journey, a prequel to his immensely successful Lord of the Rings trilogy.

This time we follow Bilbo Baggins (played by Martin Freeman) as he, 13 Dwarves, Thorin Oakshield and Gandalf the Grey attempt to reclaim the Lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the mighty dragon Smaug.

It is safe to assume that the CGI (Computer Generated Images) will be fantastic and that the scope of the story will be epic. Since it is a prequel, however, we won’t get to see

most of the original cast from the trilogy. Although there will be a few familiar faces re-appearing, such as Frodo Bag-gins (Elijah Wood), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gollum (Andy Serkis). The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released on Dec. 14.

Next up is the Anne Fletcher directed comedy The Guilt Trip. In summary The Guilt Trip is about inventor Andy Brewster (Seth Rogen) and his mother Joyce (Barbra Strei-sand) as they take a cross-country trip to sell Andy’s invention and to reunite Joyce

with an old love. The Guilt Trip hits the theaters on Dec. 19.

Also on Dec. 19, Pixar’s 2001 classic, Monster’s Inc., will be rereleased in 3D.

For those who do not remember, it is about Sulley (John Goodman) and Mike (Billy Crystal) as they go from being the top monsters who scare kids for “scream ener-gy”, to power their world, of their company. While on the run they find a little human girl named Boo (Mary Gibbs) in their world of monsters

and discover that there are more to humans than meets the eye.

Monster’s Inc. re-released should open up the possibility for an entirely new generation to see a movie that they may have otherwise missed. Also it allows the older generation have to see it again.

In addition to the rerelease of Monster’s Inc., the return of a prominent actor to the big screen occurs on Dec. 21.

Tom Cruise is back again, this time starring as a former military police officer trying to discover the truth behind a massacre in Jack Reacher. After former infantry sniper James Barr (Joseph Sikora) is accused of shooting five people in a crowd, he calls to Jack for help in clearing his name and finding the real culprit.

Jack Reacher is based on the 2005 novel One Shot, written by Jim Grant using the pen name of Lee Child.

As for Christmas Day itself, Quentin Tarantino’s next film, Django Unchained opens. It is set in the Deep South during

the late 1850’s and follows Django (Jamie Foxx) as he is set free from slavery by Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) to hunt down a ruth-less gang known as the Brittle Brothers. In return for hunt-ing the Brittle Brothers down, Dr. Schultz will help Django find his wife, who was bought by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Tarantino is usually known for making action movies, filled with eccentric char-acters, and since this is a movie set a few years before the Civil War, we can expect Django Unchained to be no different.

I expect The Hobbit to per-form the best at the box office, but Django Unchained will not be far behind. Monster’s Inc. will do well because of Disney’s track record, even if it is a rerelease. The Guilt Trip is a wild card. We will see how it does later this Decem-ber. Jack Reacher will do well, with fans of the book coming out to see the adaptation to film.

Anticipated pictures hitting the big screen

Dec. 13Earth for the Hobbitt: An Unepxected Journey

Dec. 21Jack Reacher

Dec. 25Django Unchained

Features 7December 7, 2012

Step team stomps over RISD Chinonye Duru

Staff Writer

On Nov. 10 the Berkner High School Untouchables team and the Epic hip-hop dance team performed well at the 6th annual RISD step and dance team competition. The Untouchables placed first out of all step teams, and the epic hip-hop team placed second out of all dance groups.

This was the first year the Untouchables have won first place and their sponsor, Mrs. Tessa Pettigrew, is proud how far the team has come.

“I felt great because this is our fourth year going, where we actually placed first,” said Mrs. Pettigrew.

Tee’ira Griffen, an Untouchable, felt satisfied after the team’s victory.

“I worked my hardest and finally got what I wanted. Preparing for competitions was a chal-lenge,” said Griffen.

The Untouchables practiced long hours, everyday before and after school, preparing for the competi-tions. The Epic Hip-hop team practices the same

hours as well. The most difficult challenge for the hip-hop team

was making sure the members were dependable, and able to show up to every practice.

Although they didn’t win first place, the Epic hip-hop team competed hard, and worked constantly to get better.

Senior Jana Lau talked about the difference between performing at pep rallies and actually competing, as well as how she felt about the compe-titions.

“I was disappointed because we didn’t win first place. Competition is really different than perform-ing at pep rallies because there’s not as much pres-sure at pep rallies,” said Lau.

Although the hip-hop team didn’t place first, they are determined to push for first place and perfect its dance skills. In order to prepare for next years competition, they will continue to use pep rallies as practice performances for the real thing.

The Untouchables have come a long way in terms of competing. They will continue to work to get better.

Tee’ira G. ,Shakierra J., , Tiniqua S. and Arnisha L. sport their first place trophy from the recent RISD step and dance team competition. (Photo provided by Tessa Pettigrew.)

Junior dances with passionForrest Milburn

Staff Writer

At some point in life, every-one has danced. However, few people actually make it his/her passion or a way of life. Junior Marie Lawrence is one of these few.

“I’ve been dancing with the Tuzer Ballet since I was three years old, so I’ve been danc-ing for about 14 years,” said Lawrence.

The Tuzer Ballet is a student dance company for people of all ages located in Richardson. The Tuzer Ballet has many performances throughout the year, including its upcoming “The Nutcracker” on Dec. 22 and 23.

Lawrence also gets to travel around the country, perform-ing with the Tuzer Ballet and at times with other compa-nies.

“I have performed at McFarlin Auditorium at the Southern Methodist Univer-sity, the Eisemann center in Richardson, the Winspear at the University of North Texas, Sarasota Opera House and Peridance. The first four were with the Tuzer Ballet and the other two were summer intensives in Sarasota, Florida and New York City,” Law-rence said.

When in New York and Florida, Lawrence was able partake in a summer inten-sive dance, which is sort of like a dance “Boot-Camp”. Once there, she and the danc-ers were able to train with the company for however long to better their skills.

Being in the Tuzer Ballet and other dance companies, allows dancers like Lawrence to pursue their future goals in life.

Junior Marie L. receives a lift from her partner during a recent dancing perfor-mance. L. will start in Tuzer Ballet’s performance of “the Nutcracker” on Dec. 22-23. (Photo provided by Marie L.).

“I really hope that my future career is in Dance, and I really would like to be a profession-al dancer in a company later on in life,” said Lawrence.

Lawrence certainly seems well on her way of accom-plishing this goal, but it takes a lot of practice, time, and effort.

“I have dance rehearsals

from Monday through Satur-day, and my practices average about 20 hours a week,” said Lawrence.

Lawrence also faces other challenges in addition to her dance schedule, including having been in the Berkner Symphony Orchestra since her sophomore year, and be-ing fourth chair in the second

violin section. She also has many rigorous courses in-cluding Pre-Calculus and AP English III.

Mr. Jarred Goodall, Law-rence’s US History teacher, says that Marie balances her schedule very well.

“After learning her sched-ule, I would expect to see her visibly tired at least once.

However, judging that I have never seen her tired, she must balance her schedule well,” said Mr. Goodall.

One could ask, how can someone handle such a busy, hectic schedule?

“What do I do in my free time? Eat and sleep, haha! I just try to relax between the homework, school and dancing with music and friends,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence seems to handle it pretty well.

“Marie is a very open-minded, sweet, hardworking student who does super well in my class,” said Mr. Goodall.

Lawrence seems to refuse to be phased by her hectic, rigorous schedule. In fact, she seems to love it.

“Dance is the only thing I have ever want-ed for myself. It has kind of always been a part of my life I guess, and I can’t imagine living without it. For me, working to make myself better every day is the best feeling in the world,” said Lawrence.

Lawrence will be performing with in the Tuzer Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” on Dec.

22 and 23, at the Eisemann Center in Richardson.