Good Music

What makes music, good?
I like music that tells a story,
In  a special way.
I like music thats got rhythm
to make me move.
I like music that can performed
to entertain many.
I like music that I can relate to
that triggers a memory.
I like music that makes me feel happy inside
and you can tell on the outside.
I love good music.

Bill B.

What the Fourth of July means to me.

The Fourth of July means getting together with famly amd watching the fireworks.

Years ago it ment family reunions with my mom's family. Eatting KFC chicken. Rememoring the fun times in the car when mom wold ask my dad if he wonted some chicken and she was trying to put the piece of chicken in to his mouth in stead it would wind up in his ear, since my mom would be paying to much atenchin to the road instead of puting the piece of chicken in his mouth.They were some funny times and still are.

Being with family is so special to me.

I love the Fourth of July. I look forward to it every year.

Clients are Given a Voice at Brain Injury Rally

Clients Are Given a Voice at Brain Injury RallyBy Jonathan Whitlock

Funding for services is extremely important to individuals with brain injuries.  Early in April, the Brain Injury Association of Pennsylvania announced their plans for a rally in Harrisburg, supporting continued funding and services for those affected.  Upon hearing about this from Acadia’s COO, Jack Poplar, the Acadia clients organized an outing to participate in the event, which was scheduled for Wednesday, May 2, 2012.

  On the day of the event, ten clients and four staff from Acadia traveled in 2 large vans to the State Capital in Harrisburg to join the rally.  After making our way through the enormous lines at the security check, we joined the crowd in the Rotunda, where there are classic marble floors and walls, and a picturesque mural on the ceiling.  The rotunda was filled with advocates and survivors, many of them holding signs with messages supporting continuance of funding.   

   Four advocates and seven state legislators took turns talking about the matter of funding, each illustrating the issues of limited funding and delays in eligibility for services.  Several family members of those with TBIs shared heart wrenching stories about their individual journeys, and gave specific examples of funding challenges.  These focused on the need for immediate availability of such services as attendant care at the home, as well as community-based programs, such as Acadia and UDS - Adult Enrichment.

  The advocates also endorsed the need to create a brain injury advisory board, to give the survivors an opportunity to influence their own services. Additionally, they advocated for the passage of a law, giving PA citizens the chance to make informed decisions in choosing their insurance coverage. Their last point illustrated the need to take action to prevent brain injury, which includes education in schools and communities. Increasing awareness will hopefully reduce the number of brain injuries. 

  After the speakers were finished, there was a chance for citizens to mingle with the legislators.  We then enjoyed a wonderful lunch downstairs in the café, where many legislators meet to eat.  Upon embarking back to Acadia, we were enthused about at the opportunity to participate in the rally and make ourselves heard to the state representatives.

The Avengers Review

In my last article, I gave a preview of this year's summer blockbusters, the first of which was The Avengers, a film that Marvel studios has been building up to for years. The Avengers was an enormous project and huge gamble on Marvel's part. So many different pieces had to come together—from the writing to the acting to the marketing—for this project to be successful. And it all hinged on this one film. And guess what? It worked - Beautifully! Sure, there were a few bumps along the way (Thor and Iron Man 2 weren’t the blockbuster hits or critical successes as they could have been), but The Avengers was every bit the film it was supposed to be. Not only is The Avengers a worldwide phenomenon, but it's an incredible movie. I realize, of course, that I am only one of millions who have praised this film. Audiences and critics around the world love The Avengers. I say the more the merrier.  As far as I'm concerned, this is the kind of movie that absolutely everyone (who is old enough) should see. The Avengers is one of those rare action comedies where both the action and the comedy are extremely well done, and incredibly well balanced. There’s a huge battle at the end of the movie that takes place in New York, in which Black Widow turns to Hawkeye and says, “This is like Budapest all over again, huh,” to which he replies, “You and I remember Budapest very differently.”

The villain of this movie is Loki, Thor’s stepbrother, who starts out the film by opening a portal into the S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters from his realm of Asgard, so that he can steal an immensely powerful object called the Teseract. Loki threatens to subjugate humanity under his rule believing that subservience is our “natural state.” Eventually, The Avengers are assembled to try and stop him. Samuel L. Jackson plays SHIELD director Nick Fury, who gathers Iron Man/Tony Stark, (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Bruce Banner/The Hulk, (Mark Ruffalo), and SHIELD agents Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Clint Baton/Hawkeye  (Jeremy Renner) on The Avengers own private airship which serves as the primary set piece for the movie and where Loki willing gets taken prisoner (it’s all part of his plan).The Avengers exchange some very funny and well written scenes of dialogue where they try (and fail) to work together as a team. Screenwriter Joss Whedon has a knack for witting ensemble pieces and this film is no exception,. Whedon also directed the movie, and I was very impressed at how well-put together the action scenes are. All the action is clearly shot: you can tell who is doing what. The fights are also well paced and high energy.  One of the best aspects of the film is that while it is a two-and-a-half hour movie, it doesn’t really feel like it’s that long while you’re watching it. The film is so engaging and high-energy t that while there is a lot of movie, the events seem to fly by. On the negative side, the film makes an effort to weave in essential exposition about plot and characters that were first established in the Avengers tie-in films to better make this a stand-alone film. For the most part, I’d say it’s successful at hat. However, I would say the film takes too many elements from Thor to make at least that movie recommended viewing for context. Granted, I was just more confused by having seen that movie because Thor’s powers are supposed to me gone by the end. The film tries to justify Thor’s presence and continued use of his powers in a quick exchange between Thor and Loki, but it comes off as a bit forced. I might also recommend Iron Man 2, since that was the introduction of Nick Fury and Black Widow, and there was a lot of discussion of the Avengers Initiative. With this kind of movies it always helps to at least be familiar with the source material, but I think the Marvel movies have done a great job of condensing 60+ years of continuity and making it comprehendible to a wider audience. The Avengers film didn’t need to delve into the back-story of the Chitauri the alien warrior race that Loki convinces to fight for him. Al that matters to the story is that the Chitauri take part in the invasion-of-New York fight scene at the end of the film. In brief, this is a film for everyone. I saw it twice, and that's really the best possible compliment I can give this film.

Colin V.

No Self Control

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCfmgghYiFE

This is the song "No Self Control" by Peter Gabriel. It was filmed lived for his P.O.V. concert video, & if you look closely, you can see Steve Van Zandt & Nils Lofgren of the E Street Band at the beginning of the video. I like how they used the backlight during the bridge.

Creek Mary's Blood

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJqWwt6d5-E&feature=related

This is the song "Creek Mary's Blood" by the Finnish heavy metal band Nightwish featuring John Two-Hawks. It was filmed live at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland, for their "End Of An Era" concert DVD.  I like it because i have the DVD.

Ray's Poetry

There once was a man named ray 

he likes to play all day 

but some other people said that is not okay 

I don't know what else to say . 

I once met a girl from frystown 

every day shes still bringing me down 

but whenever she comes to town 

she still makes me frow

the mean girl and strange girl from frystown !

Pyramid Poems By Josh B

Monsters

Big, Scary

Eatting,Sneaking, Growling

I Get Very Scared At Night

Darkness

Scary, Wicked

Cloaking, Dominating, Worrying

It Is As Black As Midnight

Universe

Infinite, Dark

Expanding, Accelerating, Floating

It Moves Faster Than The Speed Of Light

Magic

Mysterious, Special

Casting, Purifying, Assisting

I Wish I Could A Wizard

Light

Pure, White

Glimmering, Refreshing, Restoring

It Shines As Bright As The Sun

Ruins

Historic, Mystical

Mystifying, Wondering, Searching

I Look For The Ancient Relics

Future

Unknown, Strange

Worrying, Reassuring, Hoping

What Is Going To Happen Tomarrow?

Guardians

Defensive, Evasive

Protcting, Guarding, Defending

I Shall Attack The Enemy With My Power

Pyramid Poems Written By Josh B

I am Ray

I am fun and pleasant

I wonder why the sky is blue

I hear a train horn

I see pretty clouds in the sky

I want a nice girl friend

I am a father and grandfather and love it

I feel sad when I see someone crying

I touch other peoples hearts

I worry about my daughter

I cry when I think about when my mom died

I am fun and pleasant

I understand that I have memory problems

I say people should treat each other the way they like to be treated

I dream wonderful dreams that I don't want them to end

I try to be nice to other people

I hope that I meet a nice lady and always treat her great

I am fun and pleasant

-Ray

I am

I am kind and creative
I wonder if I am imaginative
I hear the sound of the wind
I see the gusts of the winds
I want to be the best I can be
I am kind and creative

I pretend to battle dark beings
I feel the presence of evil beings
I touch the aura of living things
I worry I will lose it all
I cry because I think I will fall
I am kind and creative

I understand the Universe is ever-expanding
I say "Let's go on forever"
I dream about my own future
I try to do my best
I hope I can do my best
I am kind and creative

-Josh

Summer Movies 2012 Pre-view

I'm honestly stumped for topics to write about this week because I don't want to write another sports article and I haven't seen any new movies. Still, I like the idea of looking ahead to some upcoming movies as I'm watching the baseball season unfold. Therefore, I'm going to use this space to preview summer movie season 2012. These are some movies I plan to watch this summer, and also films I think may deserve a look from the general public:

The Avengers: Release date May 4. This will be the first Marvel film distributed by Disney (with the exception of the Spider-Man films, all the others were distributed by Fox). I personally see this as a good thing. If there's one thing Disney does best, it’s marketing and creating high expectations (hype). This movie is what 4 years and five films (Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, and Captain America) have been leading up to, and you can expect Disney to build it up like no one's business. The Avengers will be the film that officially kicks off the summer season, and it will do so in grand fashion. I have hopes for this movie, especially since it's being directed by Joss Whedon (creator of nerd-friendly shows like Buffy and Firefly), but I don't know much more about it besides who the characters are. The one thing that I am sure of, with this movie, is that it's going to be big.

Brave: Release date June 22. Pixar’s Brave is another film with which I’m mainly basing my opinion on hype. I don’t know a lot about the creative team or voice actors, because none of them are Pixar regulars that I recognize, but the trailers for the film (Pixar’s first try at fantasy) look really good. I plan to see this movie. Pixar has earned my trust.

The Amazing Spider Man: Release date June 22.The second Marvel movie this summer, Amazing is a reboot of the Spider-Man films, previously directed by Sam Raimi and staring Tobey McGuire. This film will star Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and will be closer to the original comic book, in that Peter’s first love interest will be Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), instead of his eventual wife Mary Jane Watson. I will watch this film out of a sense of nerdy obligation, but I have my reservations about this executive-driven reboot. I loved Andrew Garfield in The Social Network, and I wish him and director Mark Webb the best in these films, but I’d rather keep Spider-man as far away from Sony as possible

The Dark Knight Rises: Release date: July 20. Another superhero film released this year. The Dark Knight (2008) was one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, and this film, it’s sequel, is probably the most anticipated blockbuster this summer.  This is the movie I am most looking forward to this year.

Other summer blockbusters that I will wait and see on, but may be worth checking out (if the reviews are good):

Men in Black III. Release date May 25.The first MIB movie was the perfect Will Smith action comedy - the second one, not so much. I don't particularly have high hopes for this third installment, but it certainly looks like their trying to bring some level of dignity to it with the casting (Smith and co-star Tommy Lee Jones are back, with the addition of Emma Thompson as another MIB operative).

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. Release date June 8, Yet another three-quel to an unnecessary sequel to a good movie. Are you starting to sense a pattern too? If I were you, I'd save my money and watch the Penguins of Madagascar TV show instead of this cash-in.

Mirror, Mirror: Release date March 30.  This is the only movie on my “wait and see” list that I may actually check out. This is a spoof of the Snow White story, and from the ads, it looks pretty funny.  Like the other movies on my wait and see list,  I’m still going to wait for positive reviews on it before I check it out.

Final Oscar Post: Academy Commentary

After much discussion and review of this year's Oscar nominees, the Oscars are over, so I've decided to give my opinion of the 84th Academy Awards. My reaction to this year’s Oscars is very lukewarm. To be frank, I think the Academy is getting a little out of touch (warning: rant imminent.). The one decision they made this year to appeal to a wider audience was to bring back Billy Chrystal as the host, who was hilarious as usual. Other than that, the Academy still seemed to ignore the larger public.  Modern movie going demographics are all over the place in terms of age, gender, nationality and ethnicity. In contrast to that, a Los Angeles Times study found that that the Academy voters are 77% male, nearly 94% white/Caucasian, and 84% over 50 years old (\latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/academy/la-et-unmasking-oscar-academy-project-html,0,7473284.htmlstory ). This helps explain why the Academy continues to vote for movies that mostly appeal to just a small, select group of people (old-fashioned movie buffs). The age gap is what matters most to me. This year, The Artist, a silent , independent film , won 5 Oscars, including best Picture and best original score (someone please explain to me how a silent film wins for best music score) . Who saw The Artist before the Oscars? Apparently, just the critics and people who live in big cities, because before The Oscars, I hadn’t heard from anyone who’d seen it unless they specifically went to New York or Philly to see it. I’m sorry to anyone who had seen The Artist during its limited release and loved it ; but, it seems to me that the system is rigged so that limited release movies like that can be made specifically to win awards. Slumdog Millionaire did almost the exact same thing a few years ago.

          I want to be clear that I am less upset about The Artist winning than I am about what other deserving movies it beat out. Believe me, I’m sure The Artist was great (I intend to see it during its wide release), but Hugo and Moneyball were also nominated for best picture. Both were deserving movies that I already reviewed. If Hugo had won, it would have been the first 3D film to win Best Picture. If Moneyball had won, it would have been the first baseball movie to win. I bring this up because Hugo and Moneyball were accessible, enjoyable films. They were also really good and dramatic. Why didn’t they win? Were they not traditional enough? Hugo did win in several other categories,(cinematography, sound nixing, sound editing, visual effects) but Moneyball didn’t win in any. I call foul. A similar thing happened last year when the excellent but very modern The Social Network lost to the also great but more traditional film, The King’s Speech.

Again, I want to stress that I am not against good films winning awards. What bugs me is the accessibility gap. In an earlier review, I voiced concerns that The Adventures of Tintin, an excellent and accessible film, wasn't even nominated for best animated feature. While the eventual winner of the category, Rango, was pretty good film, I have my own issues with it in terms of accessibility. Personally, I found that Tintin was easier to follow, had more likable characters, and relied less on old cinema in-jokes. For proof, I point you to both films' world-wide grosses: Tintin grossed $373,567,516 and Rango grossed $244, 57,58 1(boxofficie.com).

I have other issues with the Oscars, Like Harry Potter not winning a single award, even for makeup, but this article is long enough. Thanks for reading it.

St. Patrick's Day

                                            
    The Irish are popping in green for their holiday. There is green EVERYWHERE!! The people usually always dress in that color for work and school days also. Some times you see little leprechauns hopping around, LOOK OUT!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you won't get to scared if some foot prints are the yard, please don't call Erlick.


                                 JUST LOOK OUT FOR THE GREEN GUYS 

Post created by:  Robyn and Gary

Summer Olympics 2012 London England

       The Summer Olympics, which is always an event which bring many tourist too the host city will be hosted by London England during the 2012 games.  This is good news for the people of London who are surviveing through one of the worst economic crashes ever.  It is estameted that the 2012 Olympic Games will bring in about 1.6 billion dollars for British busnieses which as the prime minister David Cameroon said. The games will bring investors too London if they have never been there before.  But with the outside investments the games bring several problems with it too the host city.  Owners of London's movie theater's are ecpecting the theaters to be filled tith empty seats.  Also the London form of public transportaion, the tube, which is like the subway had its contuctors therten to strike. But with the games comes the growth of the construction insustry. This will also help England's economy since the construction companies will need to buy building matterial and also hire prople to design sporting complexes, which England will be able to turn into housing complexes, because the foundation had already been layed, once the 2012 Olympic games have been cimpleted. As the former wastlands of East End have been completly remaid so that they will comply with the olympic building standards.  This formula worked in 1992 when Barcelona hosted the summer olympics and again in 2010 when Vancouver hosted the winter olympics they were forced to sell some of there assets.  But for every eucess story there is one that ends up with the opposite end result. There is an Athens story of despair, who hosted the 2004 and ended up in dept with millions of dollers still to pay of after they hosted the Olympic games. For every tale of debt and depair, there is the angle Vancouver choice to take and sell off some of its own assets to help pay for the total cost of the games.

Ncaa men's basketball champinship

         Min's basketball in the NCAA (national Collete athletic association) national championship is determined by a national tournament in which every team that qualifies is invited. Every team in the tournament is given a seed number. That number is how the experts predict that team will finish. Before the first ball is tipped every expert decides which of the four regions each team will play in. East, west, south east, and south west, the regions depend on the location of the school. There are a few ways in which a team may earn an invitation to the tournament. When a team wins their conference tournament they automatically earn a spot in the national tournament. There is also what is called an at large bid, which means if a team beats other teams that are bigger and more have a higher rank that team will also earn an a bid. The first round starts with 64 teams, but the national tournament is a win or go home tournament, so half of the teams are cut every round. The second round starts with 32 teams, then down to 16, 8, 4, finally the national championship game is played. Although the teams with a number one seed have the best chance to win but, there are some surprises every year. One of the biggest surprises of last years tournament was the small college of Vcu and Butler, Butler who played Uconn in the national title game. Vcu which made it all the way to the elite 8, before losing to 2011 champion Uconn (41-53). Although Butler made it further than anyone expected they were defeated by another power house school University of Connecticut. The fact that the small college of Butler made it to the final forces the public to wonder should more small schools be given the opportunity to show the country that they can play competitively with the powerhouse universities. Although it will not happen mostly because the major powerhouse schools bring in a larger audience to their games and also donate the more money, than a small school can.
 The final outcome of the national championship would have been different had Butler been able to shoot the basketball a little better.  But the fact is the game was taken over by the Connecticut big men, Kemba walker and Jeremy Lamb.  Butler had only one player who could score as much as the Uconn big men and that was Shelvin Mack, who led his team in points, (13) and rebounds (9).  But that is compared to Uconn's Kemba walker's (16) points and Alex Oriakhi (11) rebounds.
     Had Butler had a big man that could score and play defense they might not have needed so, much from their star Shelvin Mack who must have been extra tired having too lead Butler in Scoring and rebounding.  The fact is though that Butler did better than anyone had expected them too.  But the fans of the University of Connecticut would say the biggest story of the tournament was the fact that for the first time a school,Uconn, who did not receive an invitation too the NCAA tournament the year before, came back as an at large bid and won the entire tournament. Never before has a school been able too accomplish that goal.
    

Quote of the Day

Jumping for joy is good exercise.  ~Author Unknown


Posted by Ben

Moneyball Review

The Oscars are this Sunday, so this will be my last review of an Oscar nominated film before the show itself. In my Hugo review, I mentioned Moneyball being one of the films competing with Hugo that I am rooting for.  Moneyball was nominated for Best Picture, Actor in a leading role, Actor in a Supporting role, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, and Adapted screenplay. I really hope Moneyball wins one of those six awards, because it’s an outstanding, worthy film, and not just for baseball fans like me.

Moneyball is an adaptation of the 2003 book which covered several subjects, most importantly the true story of Oakland Athletics General Manager and former player Billy Beane, who shook up his team and consequently the world of baseball around 2002. In The film, Beane is played by Brad Pitt, whose nomination for best actor is well deserved. Pitt steals every scene in this movie, when he’s not sharing the spotlight with fellow nominee Jonah Hill, who plays Beane’s assistant GM Peter Brand. All of their scenes together are delightfully fun to watch, even when they’re just sitting behind a computer talking strategy and statistics.

The film goes to great lengths to appeal to those in the audience who are not baseball fans. For one thing, all scenes dealing with the intricacies of how and why Billy is rebuilding the Athletics are easy to understand, and in most cases, are enjoyable to watch.        For another thing, the film is foremost a character study of Beane. According to the film, much of Beane’s motivation for rebuilding the Athletics by disregarding conventional wisdom comes from his past as a failed #1 prospect. The scenes of young Billy (Reed Thompson) choosing to sign with the Mets and subsequently  struggling on the field before finally giving up playing are powerfully dramatic and I would go so far as to call them the glue that holds the film together.

As  I said, I will be rooting for Moneyball in The Oscars, but it’s long shot since it’s competing against Hugo  in 4 categories and other Oscar favorite The Artist  in 3. Still, Moneyball is definitely worthy of it s nominations and absolutely worth watching.

By Colin V

Romance this evening at Acadia

I think we're in love

I'm falling head over heels

With you this evening

By: Robyn and Ben

A Stray

                                   LOVE IS A LONG WALK:                            

                                                           WAS IT LONGER THEN WE THOUGHT ;
                                                                  CAN WE SIT AND TALK ;

Acadia News

Hugo Review

When I was seeing Tintin with my mom and little brother, my dad and sister went to see Hugo. While I loved Tintin, eventually I decided to see Hugo myself because of the rave reviews. To put it simply, Hugo amazed me. Apparently, it also amazed the Academy, being nominated for Best Picture, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design, Directing, Film Editing, Original Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects, and Adapted Screenplay. That makes 11 nominations, the most since Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2004). What made LOTR  so special is that it swept all 11 categories, and while I’m not really rooting for Hugo to also sweep because it’s competing in some categories against films I saw and liked this year (Harry Potter, Tintin, and Moneyball), I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it does. Hugo is a nearly perfect film.  

The two things that stand out most about Hugo are the beautifully simple and captivating story and the intricate, out of sequence way in which it’s told. Throughout the film, the audience follows the tale of orphan boy Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), who lives and works in a Paris Train Station after WWI. All he wants to do is fix an automaton, the last relic of his late father. This leads to him “fixing” much more: The life and dreams of a retired filmmaker he didn’t even know. It’s a simple and beautiful tale. What makes it unique is that all the details of the story--How Hugo became an orphan, why he lives in the station, what led him to the filmmaker—aren’t made clear until the end of the film. In two incredibly well written, well acted, and beautifully directed scenes at the end of the movie, the plot comes together and all the character’s actions begin to make sense.  Until then, we get snippets of plot, like the scenes  detailing Hugo’s back-story, and him meeting and befriending Isabelle ( Chloë Grace Moretz) , the filmmaker’ s niece , trying to uncover the mystery  of the automaton,  but we don’t know what it means yet.  By the time it all comes together at the end, everyone is smiling—the characters and the audience. Hugo deserves all 11 of its nominations, and it definitely deserves a look.

By Colin V.