6March 2012 Hi Times Issue 6 Vol. 103

There hasn’t been this much hype about a movie series since Twilight. On March 23, movie-goers will pack into theatres all over the globe for the midnight premiere of The Hunger Games. Considering the popularity of the best-selling trilogy, which has sold over 23.5 million copies in the United States alone, crit-ics are expecting big things from the new movie. “I have read all three books, and I must say the first is my fa-vorite. I desperately hope they don’t change it too greatly. I am really afraid they are going to play up the love plot too much and make it like a Twilight,” said senior Hannah Addie. The movie is based off the first book in the trilogy by Suzanne Collins surrounding Katniss Everdeen. Katniss is the 16-year-old protagonist living in District 12, which is the poorest of all 13 districts. To provide for her family since her father’s death, Katniss spends her time hunting ille-gally with her best friend, Gale Hawthorne. Although Gale is described as Katniss’ best friend, readers find themselves questioning the existence of any hidden feelings between the two. However, the pondering is cut short by the occurrence of the annual reaping. The reap-ing is held by the government in Panem, the country in which the book takes place. Each year, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each dis-trict put their names into a lot-tery in order to determine who will be chosen as tributes in the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games are a dangerous game that revolves around death. Twenty-four tributes go into the battle arena

on the first day of the games, and only one will make it out alive. Each tribute must fight for their survival. The games are a televised event that the government in the Capitol sponsors. The entire population of Panem is forced to watch the Hunger Games as a punishment for a past revolt. The Hunger Games are the Capitol’s way of keeping the people in the districts scared and needy. In District 12’s reaping, Kat-niss’ little sister, Primrose, is chosen as a tribute. It is custom-ary that someone else from the district may volunteer in place of another tribute, and Katniss volunteers herself to take Prim-rose’s place in the games. With Katniss as the girl trib-ute, Peeta Mellark is chosen as boy tribute for District 12. Peeta is 16 and the son of a bak-er. Peeta’s character progresses as the plot proceeds throughout the novel. Relation-ships be-tween the main char-acters grow, complicate and evolve. Each page is just as suspenseful as the last and the ending does not disap-point. Believe it or not, there is a love triangle that assists in the juicy plotline. Readers find themselves torn between Gale and Peeta, and it would not be surprising to see some fans sporting ‘Team Gale’ or ‘Team Peeta’ shirts at the pre-miere. “I am definitely Team Peeta! I mean, what can beat a man who has loved you all his life. He is just too sweet,” said Addie. On the opposite end of the de-bate is senior Lynndsey Swan-son. “I am Team Gale. He took care

of her and was her best friend,” said Swanson. Along with their mentor, the tribute duo must learn how to manipulate many parts of the game in order to heighten their chances of survival. With such strong characters in the trilogy, the cast of the movie has high expectations to live up to. Jennifer Lawrence will take the role of Katniss, Josh Hutch-erson will play Peeta and Liam Hemsworth stars as Gale. Lawrence has appeared in X-Men: First Class and Winter’s Bone, but The Hunger Games may prove to be the starlet’s ‘big break’. Hutcherson is most well-known for his role in Bridge to Terabithia and recently starred in Journey 2: Mysterious Island along ‘The Rock’ and Vanessa Hudgens. Hemsworth, most commonly known as Miley Cyrus’ boy-friend, had his break-out role as Will in The Last Song.

Their perfor-mances on the 23 will deter-mine whether these actors rise to the high standards set by written counterparts.

The series is availabe for sale at Barnes and Noble, Target and Walmart. Amazon.com and Ebay.com also sell copies of the books for great deals. Tickets for The Hunger Games are on sale now at AMC.com/Michigan City. Tickets for the midnight pre-miere are anticipated to sell out fast. “I cannot wait until The Hunger Games premiere,” said Swanson. With such tremendous suc-cess as a book, it is difficult to predict if the movie will meet fan’s high expectations. One thing is for sure, The Hun-ger Games will leave fans begging for a second helping.

The Hunger Games bursts into theatresBy Courtney WestEditor-in-Chief

One of LaPorte High School’s most talented musicians, senior Dakota Morgan, couldn’t go more unnoticed as the Variety Show quickly approaches on March 23. The previous three years of the Variety Show have featured Mor-gan’s junior year performance “My Hero” by the Foo Fighters as well as awe-inspiring drum solos his freshman and sopho-more year. Whether blowing the audience away with a mesmer-izing drum solo or touching the hearts of many with another vo-cal performance, Morgan is sure to entice the crowd at this year’s event. Having been inspired by the great Dave Grohl to branch out his musical interests as much as possible, Morgan now rocks out with drums, guitar, bass, piano, harmonica, vocals and soon to be adding to the list, banjo. James Neary, Ryan Trost and Morgan’s mother have greatly influenced his passion for music as well. “My mom taught me the im-portance of music. Dave [Grohl] truly shows me that it’s possible to keep on keepin’ on and to nev-er let anything bring you down. James is my musical brother, we create synergy like no other. We were made to make music together. After Ryan’s passing, I was inspired to start taking lyr-ics and applying them; his lyrics were amazing,” said Morgan. Currently, Morgan and Neary

are in the writing process of their next creation, with Dakota working on drum solos and cov-ers. “My dream is to do what Tra-vis Barker did but better,” said Morgan. Those who know Morgan know him to be lively, outgoing and downright loud. To Morgan, its a mask he wears here at school. He has always believed that once he shows someone who he is and what he’s all about, they would appreciate him more. “Ask anyone who knows me outside of school or school ac-tivities, I’m not totally the per-son I’m made out to be,” said Morgan. A notion of Morgan’s is that music is the foundation of so-ciety and that without music, society would crumble into an expressionless, bland dust. “I honestly believe that with-out music, everyone would be

the same. Take a second and ac-tually think about how music ef-fects your life and how it has an effect on your personality,” said Morgan. Morgan says that music has changed him spiritually as well as his perception on life. “Piece of advice. Start taking song’s lyrics, analyze them, then apply them to your life or current events. You never know how it’ll effect you. Instead of liking a song for foul language, under-stand why they felt the need to put that language in the song. They may have just needed to emphasize something and stress the importance,” said Morgan. When it comes to Dakota’s tal-ent, anything seems possible in his future. “Well, wherever I go, I just hope to inspire people. I’m not in it for the money, fame, or power. I just want people to take something out of it,” said Morgan.

Beats to his own drumBy Nicky MazurStaff Writer Small towns usually con-

sist of small businesses, small clubs, and small schools. How-ever, growing up in a small town doesn’t mean one has to be stuck in it. Take it from Ashley Hin-shaw, who recently made her feature film debut in the box of-fice hit, Chronicle. When asked excusively by the LaPorte Hi Times newspaper staff, Hinshaw said, ‘Chronicle has been such an incredible ex-perience for me, as soon as I read the script I knew this was going to be a really special project and I feel so lucky to have been a part of it.” This is not Hinshaw’s first time in front of the camera. She has appeared in TV shows such as Fringe, Gossip Girl and The Glades. She has also modeled for numerous campaigns, her most notable ad campaign being for Abercrombie & Fitch. Although she is a new face, her career is soaring. So far it has been all work and no play for Hinshaw and she will next be seen alongside Miley Cyrus in the upcoming film, LOL; and James Franco in Cherry, in which she stars as the main character. Hinshaw said, “I’m on my way to Berlin next week for the world premiere of Cherry, along-side James Franco, Heather Gra-ham, and Dev Patel. It's exciting to see all the hard work pay off and finally be able to share these great films with others.” “Does the lion feel bad killing the gazelle? Do people feel re-morse when they kill a fly?” This is the question Andrew Detmer asks himself in the film, Chroni-cle, to provoke thought in the au-dience about whether what he was doing was right or wrong. And it’s a very thought-provok-ing question indeed. The film, Chronicle, starring Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan and Ashley Hinshaw, is a fresh take on the much-tired ‘hand-

held footage’ style of film. The film begins its journey when Steve (Jordan) and Matt (Russell) persuade Andrew (DeHaan) to take his newly bought video camera into a grassy hole they find in the middle of the woods. They find something mysterious, perhaps an alien/UFO- type spacecraft, and after things get loud - things go black. Next time they are seen, they are controlling things with their minds with new-found ‘powers’. They don’t know how they got these pow-ers, they don’t know why, and at first, they really don’t care. They decide to document their adventures such as cloud foot-ball and moving Lego pieces into full-blown models. However, as Andrew’s moth-er’s illness gets worse, as well as his school life, he is pushed over the edge, brooding with inter-nal anger and frustration. He, just once, wants to be accepted; he wants to have a peaceful day, just once. He doesn’t get it. This leads to the film searching the dark side of power in unstable hands and a phenomenal climax that hasn’t been seen before. Because of Hinshaw’s char-acter, a video blogger, the is-sue of only one angle/shot is solved and her camera later on becomes an important device in the final act. The film, written by Max Landis, and directed by Josh Trank, is an outstanding effort at taking the super-hero genre and giving it a dark undercur-rent. Chronicle works because the acting is great, as well as the seamless CGI, and the script is well-written. These teenagers are relatable even though what happens to them may not be. The movie as a whole is enter-taining and thought-provoking and I recommend it on all levels. The grand finale is memorable and when the film was reaching its end, I even heard some “Oh my gosh’s” in the theater.

“Chronicle”makes a debutBy Will LottStaff Writer

A lot of new trends have begun to emerge around the high school. Some trends include yoga pants, tight legged soccer pants, sparkly sequin Ugg boots and camouflage clothing. Yoga pants are worn by the girls in school. They have become very common over the past couple years. They are sold in about every clothing store. They can be worn for many different reasons or oc-casions. “I love wearing yoga pants. I wear them to school, to work out and just to relax around the house. They are very comfy and make it a lot easier to move around,” said senior Natsuko Mazany. Yoga pants are worn to do yoga in or workout. Most women wear them because they are very comfortable and easy to move around in. A popular clothing item for boys is the Adidas tight legged soccer pants. A lot of boys seem to think of them to be very comfortable and good to wear when warming up for a sport activity. They are very commonly worn by boy soccer players. Sparkling sequin Ugg boots and regular Ugg boots have become very popular. The sequin boots seem to be seen more recently. A lot of stores are selling sequin boots that aren’t as expensive as Ugg boots to attract customers. “I have a pair of sparkling sequin Ugg boots and other Uggs also. The sequin ones are fun to wear because they stand out and are very stylish,” said sophomore MaddieVoelker. These special boots have come in style since Christmas of this past year and have been popular ever since. Camouflage has also become a very trendy clothing style at the high school. It is usually worn by students who take part in hunting ac-tivities or of similar nature. “I have always worn camo the past couple of years. I don’t know why all of a sudden people are all of a sudden wearing it now,” said senior Austin Hertzburg.

Trends catch fire at LPHSBy Alex SaliwanchikStaff Writer

“I cannot wait until The Hunger Games

premiere.” -Lynndsey Swanson

Senior

Photo by Nicky Mazur

Dakota Morgan playing on the drums.