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Archived Interviews
Archived Interviews
Cedar Novak - 10th Grade Student at WDS
The man, the myth, the legend. You know him as the lead in the Woodstock Day School musical. Cedar has loved music and performing since he was a little boy and now he has fulfilled his dream of becoming a lead in a minor musical. Q:Tell me about yourself? A:My name is cedar novak, I'm 13 years old and I love acting so I auditioned for the WDS student musical, little shop of horrors and I got in. Q:What do you do? A:Well Robyn, I didn't just get into the school musical, I got the lead role in the school musical. Q:What do you hope audiences will take away from your portrayal of seymour? A:Since the musical was announced and I first saw the cast list, I saw that the character of Seymour really reminds me of myself so I think I can bring a lot of my personal experience into the role. Q:Are there any themes in the play that resonate with you? A: There are not many themes in the story that resonate with my life but I find the idea that you should be careful what you wish for makes a very interesting story. Q:What made you love acting? A:As a child growing up in a co-housing community, I was always putting on small plays with my neighbors. But what really got me interested in acting was when I was 7, my mother signed me up for an audition to marry poppins and didn't tell me until the day of, I got the role of michael banks. I had a really great experience and i've loved being in musical theater and ever since then I have loved to act Q:How old were you when you did your first role? A:7 Q:Take me behind the scenes for a second, what are your relationships with fellow actors like and what is the environment for the cast? A:The environment is really great. I honestly like staying afterschool for the musical more than going home because when you are not on stage having a great time acting you can be having a great time practicing and hanging out with friends. My Co-stars, CJ and Ruby are both amazing as Audrey and you can see us perform April 19-21st. Q:What inspires you as an actor? A:My entire family really, but my grandma especially loves and supports my acting career and whenever I enter a room she stops what she's doing to yell, “THE ACTOR!” Q:What's your favorite musical? A:Little shop of horrors Q:Do you think you could pursue acting outside of Woodstock Day School? A: Yes Q: And finally, why should people watch the play and what should we expect from our lead actors? A:I think that people should watch our play because we give so much effort in performance, our lead actors have given blood, sweat and tears to make this possible and it's gonna be great.
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Georgia Amenoff - WDS Alum
Q: What is your name? A: My name is Georgia Amenoff Q: What grade are you in and how old are you? A: I am in 12th grade and I'm 18 years old. Q: What’s your favorite utensil? A: Tongs, those are funny. Q: How did you get into fashion? A: I’ve always loved fashion and have been inspired by seeing people dress in experimental ways and doing so myself so I’ve always been passionate about it. Q: How did you get into singing? And how are you such an amazing singer? A: I don’t know how I’m amazing at it, It’s just a gift. My grandmother and my mom are also great singers so it may have been passed down. I’ve always loved singing but I really started to show my singing off around 9th grade. Q: What do you want to do professionally? A: I would either want to be a fashion stylist/designer or a singer. Q: What is your current favorite album or musician of all time? A: My favorite musician of all time who I’m also in love with is Bruno Mars. Some of my other favorite artists are Amy Winehouse, Ye, Bob Marley, Young Thug, and Mac Miller. Q: What childhood tv show or movie do you feel spiritually connected to? A: Jesse. Which teacher has helped you the most? Dana and Elisabeth Perez Which middle school grade is your favorite? 8th grade and the preschoolers. Do you have any advice for people going into highschool? Make sure you Have fun! Do your homework! ( Especially for Elisabeth Perez's class) and don't rush yourself, be a kid for as long as you can because highschool and life goes by very fast so take it in while you can!
Wyatt Reu - Middle & Upper School Spanish Teacher
Q.What is your favorite snack and/or food? A. My favorite snack is chips. I’m a chip addict, I love kettle brand air-fried chips particularly. My favorite food right now are Turkish eggs (Two poached eggs over a bed of greek yogurt and garlic and dill, with chili olive oil on top, and a side of crusty bread.) If you haven’t tried them, I highly recommend it. Q. If you could talk to/eat lunch with anyone in the world, alive or dead, who would it be? A. Dead, maybe Socrates or Confucius. Alive, Barack Obama, I’d have a lot of questions about being president. Q. What subjects do you think you could teach (besides the one you do) and why? A. I think I could teach Philosophy, probably History, and Gym. I think Gym would be lots of fun to get to teach. Q. What is your favorite part of being a teacher? A. The students. Q.Why is education important? A. To quote John Dewey, education is life itself. I’d say it’s a structural part of education, one of the great joys of life. Q.If you hadn’t become a teacher what career path would you have followed? A. Maybe a writer or a translator. But I do think if you choose to follow one job you won't do that forever. Q. What was the last song you listened to? A . A neo-grunge song by the band Superheaven, I can’t recall the name. Q. What have your students taught you? A. I think what I'm learning from my students is the value of being prepared and seeing how much is possible in a 45 minute class when students are eager and ready to learn. Q. What was one of your classes’ funniest moments this school year? A. The funniest was a joke about “artesanias”—it's hard to explain but my 10th graders will understand. The funnest was speed dating on Valentine’s Day with made up characters. Q. What keeps you going through the day? Caffeine, sugar, the promise of a free period, all of the above? A. Caffeine and going outside. I love that there’s so much sun.
Ruby Bar-Illan - WDS Alum
Q. What’s your favorite subject? Why? A. My favorite subject is music because it feels personal to me and its how I express myself. Q. What’s your go-to daily lunch? A. Honestly chicken. My mom always makes chicken and there’s always chicken in our house. Q. What do you love about WDS? A. I guess the small classes. I came from a public school where it was 30 kids to a class. Q. How would you describe your fashion style? A. Baggy? I don’t know, I just grab whatever’s in my closet. Sometimes I color match. Q. What’s your favorite event of the school year? A. I have two. Prom, and Adelia’s Senior Project Class. Q. What’s your dream career? A. Something music related, or ceramics. Music-art education. Q. What’s your favorite musician/songwriter/artist? A. The Beatles and Tyler the Creator. Q. What’s your secret talent? A. I can wiggle my ears. Q. How would your friends describe you? A. Ruby's friend Adelia: She's very nice, like the nicest person ever, and forgiving, very calm and a nice presence to be around. Q. What book are you currently reading? Do you recommend it? A. I don't really read books, but Love and Gelato is a great book. I would recommend it if you’re looking for romance books, and Ivy and Bean is great too. Q. What are you planning for your senior project? A. Emotional power of music, how it affects our emotions. I wrote two original songs and I’m having a concert. Q. What advice would you give to upcoming seniors? A. Honestly just enjoy your senior year. You probably will want to get out of this school, but make memories with your friends and have fun.
Adelia Bream - WDS Alum
Q. What’s your favorite subject? Why? A. Art electives because that’s what my main interest is. Q. What’s your go-to daily lunch? A. Usually an egg salad sandwich. Q. What do you love about WDS? A. I like the inclusivity and the teachers' relationships with students are good. Q. How would you describe your fashion style? A. Normal? I don’t really think about my fashion style. Q. What’s your favorite event of the school year? A. Right now, probably Ivy’s 5K run, I walked and got a medal. Q. What’s your dream career? A. I want to be an art teacher. Q. What’s your favorite musician/songwriter/artist? A. Frank Ocean. Mostly r&b. Q. What’s your secret talent? A. Horse-back riding. Q. How would your friends describe you? A. Ruby BI: She’s very bubbly and very kind and funny as well. Q. What book are you currently reading? Do you recommend it? A. I’m not currently reading any, but I recommend Long Way Down by Jason Renalds. Q. What are you planning for your senior project? A. For my project I researched the effect of how our education reflects K-12 students. Q. What advice would you give to upcoming seniors? A. Take time with your work and make sure you put effort into it.
Lexi Kasper - 11th Grade Student at WDS
Q. What’s your favorite subject? Why? A. Math, because it comes easily to me even if I’m confused and it’s a new subject and it gives me a confidence boost. Q. What’s your go-to daily lunch? A. I struggle with lunches but always a lettuce bag, with EXACTLY three pieces of lettuce (plain, romaine lettuce) in a ziplock that you pinch close, a main course and some snacks, but it varies. Q. What do you love about WDS? A. A lot of things! The music programs are VERY nice, unlike public schools where they stunt creativity classes like ceramics and it's an open campus which is amazing. Q. How would you describe your fashion style? A. I like to say I have four moods: emo goth, stereotypical gay man, cowboy, and androgynous hippie. Q. What’s your favorite event of the school year? A. I’m torn between the musical and concerts. Q. What’s your dream career? A. My dream career is s musician/actor (musical specifically). Q. What’s your favorite musician/songwriter/artist? A. It changes daily, but currently Slip knot, cave town, basement dweller. Mostly alternative and indie. Q. What’s your secret talent? A. I’m good at keeping things hidden. I’m also really good in the forensic field. I’m generally good at ways to not get found out. Q. How would your friends describe you? A. Gratia: Lexi is the kind of person that when you see them it makes you want to smile. cedar: she’s short. Q. What book are you currently reading? Do you recommend it? A. I just finished reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and the Iliad. Q. How long have you been acting? A. I’ve been rehearsing for the musicals since 7th grade but unfortunately I got covid the weekend before tech week so I couldn’t be in the Adams family. My first acting in the musical was in Shrek jr. playing Lord Farquaad. Q. What would be your dream musical/role? A. I unfortunately only know 8 musicals, but I think my dream musical would be Noel from rye the cyclone because he’s a gay man and I really like playing gay men.
Gratia McTigue - 10th Grade Student at WDS
Q. What’s your favorite academic subject? Why? A. You know, I really like science, it’s fun. I like it because I like learning about how your body works and how the world works and I think Beckett is a great teacher. Q. What’s your go-to daily lunch? A. Peanut butter and Nutella sandwich Q. What do you love about WDS? A. The community is great, its like a family. Especially when you’re in a small class. The teachers are great and everyone’s so kind. Q. How would you describe your fashion style? A. My fashion style is basic, comforting, functional clothes. Q. What’s your favorite event of the school year? A. The musical. Q. What’s your dream career? A. Performing in any way—dancing, singing, acting. Q. What’s your favorite musician/songwriter/artist? A. You know-Jordan Fisher Q. What’s your secret talent? A. Forging people’s handwriting. Q. How would your friends describe you? A. Cedar: Gratia is a very talented person. A lot of talented people are bad people, but Gratia is the opposite. She’s very honest and kind. Q. What book are you currently reading? Do you recommend it? A. I'm reading the Bible for English, book of genesis. Read it if you want to, I don't think it should be forced upon you, it’s a hard read, if you have the right mind and headspace for it you should read it. Q. How long have you been acting? A. I’ve been acting since I was in 2nd grade. 2nd grade was the first time I did a musical and it was robinhood. I was a mermaid in Blackbeard the next year, which was really fun. Q. What would be your dream musical/role? A. Eurydice from Hadestown or—well, the accent would be tough but Jenna from Waitress.
Archived Articles
Tesla Stock Plummets Amidst Widespread Protest
By Aiden Wheeler-Rappe
Recently, numerous Tesla cars, dealerships, and charging stations have been vandalized or become victims of arson attacks. These attacks are just one of the newest effects of the backlash to Elon Musk’s powerful influence on the US government. After Donald Trump was inaugurated on January 20, he issued numerous changes to the government. These included establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE is technically not an actual government agency, rather an advisory board part of the Executive Branch. DOGE has representatives that advise the President on budgeting. According to the branch’s head, Elon Musk, DOGE has saved over $1 billion dollars of government expenses by cutting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) contracts. In addition, DOGE has gained access to the Treasury Departments payment system. This system stores vast amounts of sensitive data about most Americans, including social security numbers and banking information. Furthermore, tens of thousands of federal employees have been laid off. These actions have sparked public outcry, leading to protests around the world. While many protests consist of organized marching, some people have chosen another method: instances of arson and gunfire attacks on Tesla cars, charging stations, and dealerships have erupted across the globe. These protests have brought international awareness to the criticism Musk and DOGE are facing. As a result, Tesla stock has plummeted a whopping 53% since its all-time high in December of last year. Recently, Tesla stock experienced a slight 5% rise, before being beaten back down shortly after. It is difficult to say whether or not the value will continue to drop.
"Above The Earth, Below The Sky": is it a Good Album?
By Beni Gordon
The band If These Trees Could Talk consists of guitarists Jeff Kalal, Cody Kelly, and Mike Socrates, bassist Tom Fihe, and drummer Zack Kelly. Their sound is instrumental post rock with a sprinkle of metal. Their 2009 album “Above The Earth, Below The Sky” greatly reflects this with huge crescendos, fast melody playing, and amazing drum rhythms. It’s impressive how they can make great songs without any lyrics. The first song, “From Roots to Needles” really makes you believe this. How would any lyrics fit in this song? The song firmly establishes itself as the hook for the album with a sad but ominous intro that leads into one of the biggest crescendos. The second song, “What’s in the Ground Belongs to You” pulls you right in with a very fast guitar intro. The choruses in this song feel like the band members are trying to play their best, but are also not trying at all (in a good way). The serenity of the chorus helps contrast between their fast guitar playing throughout the song. Almost all of the songs on this album are connected to each other. “What’s in the Ground Belongs to You” connects to “Terra Incognita,” which then connects to “Above the Earth,” and then “Below the Sky.” “Above the Earth” and "Below the Sky” have similar but different feels. Above the Earth is more relaxed and short, while Below the Sky is more fast paced and is one of the longest songs on the album, with a length of 7:20. “Below the Sky”, similarly to “From Roots to Needles”, has some insane crescendos. “The Sun is in the North” (the sixth song), takes you through some of the most complicated playing on all of the album. This isn’t just one specific instrument, it’s all of them combined. It’s like going through a spiderweb of professional musicianship. In my opinion, this is also one of the most metal-y songs on the album. Its choruses are rough, strong, and gritty. “The Sun is in the North” connects to “Thirty-Six Silos”, which is song number 7 out of the 10. This one features less drums in the first 2 minutes than all of the other songs on the album (other than the intermission songs). I think, in a way, they’re preparing you for an extremely fast guitar riff which sparks a short but driving chorus. When you’re not expecting it, drums come back in with another fast and loud chorus. “The Flames of Herostratus”, which is the eighth song on the album, feels quite happy and less driving than the other tracks for the intro. Just like the other tracks, it ascends into a big crescendo. The crescendo ends, and the song is reminiscent of being in a field on a sunny day.
UK Government Attempted to Spy on its Citizens, but What Does This Mean?
Recently, the United Kingdom allegedly issued a request to Apple to add a backdoor to their encryption software. This backdoor would enable the UK government to secretly access encrypted data from users, allowing for extreme levels of surveillance. This is effectively the digital equivalent of the government placing hidden cameras around your house without your knowledge to collect information about you. But why does the UK government have this power? In 2016, the UK passed the Investigative Powers Act (IPA). The IPA decrees that the government can secretly order tech companies to relinquish protections on user data. It is likely that this act was used recently to order Apple to install the backdoor. Apple, however, refused this demand. As a result, Apple was forced to remove their Advanced Data Protection option from the devices of users in the UK. But what does this mean for those affected? Normally, with Advanced Data Protection, when a message is sent on an Apple device, it is end to end encrypted. In simple terms, the messages are turned into code that is complete gibberish unless one possesses a key to decode it. The only people that have access to this key are the sender and the recipient of the message; not even Apple has a key. The same thing applies to photos. However, due to the actions of the UK government, this normally ultra-safe data could be compromised. And this doesn’t just affect the UK. An order like this sets a new precedent worldwide, potentially encouraging other governments to request backdoor access to their citizens' data, thus further compromising privacy on a global scale.
By Aiden Wheeler-Rappe
TOOL's Fear Inoculum: Is it a good Album?
By Beni Gordon
TOOL (drummer Danny Carey, bassist Justin Chancellor, guitarist Adam Jones, and singer Maynard James Keenan) is known for their harsh and gritty sound, weird time signatures, lengthy songs, and being one of the greatest progressive metal bands aside from Dream Theater. Their most recent album was released in 2019, Titled as “Fear Inoculum”. The album starts off with “Fear Inoculum”. The intro for this song, like almost all TOOL songs, is 4 minutes long. The song is a great opening song. It is the hook for the album, and it solidly reestablished their sound of strange time signatures, lengthy songs, and constantly changing tempos. The second song (Pneuma) is, in my opinion, one of the greatest songs on the album, and one of my favorite TOOL songs all together. This song’s feel is really firm and tight because of Danny’s brutal drumming and Adam’s great guitar intro at the start, and changes throughout the song with many classic TOOL tempo and time signature switches. The third song, “Litanie contre la Peur”, sounds like a bunch of vocoded synthesizers. The title of this song in English means “Litany against fear.” Litany is a repeating sequence of chants. This song leads into the next song, Invincible. Invincible has one of my favorite guitar intros on the album, and it is short and tight. It makes you want to keep listening. Song number 5 is another double song, meaning this song and the next are connected. The first song, “Legion Inoculant” makes a reference to the album’s title, saying “Bless this immunity”. An inoculum is a vaccine that gives you immunity against something. A “fear inoculum” would be a vaccine against fear. The second song, “Descending”, fades into another great guitar intro. The choruses are very aggressively laid back, and they feel sort of lifting. “Culling Voices”, the seventh song, is very ominous, and the vocals are very clear, but are up for interpretation, like all of the other lyrics on the album. Maynard keeps on repeating “don’t you dare point that at me.” I think that this song is about a person who has hallucinations, and this is ruining their relationships. Maynard says “heated altercations we’ve never had”, meaning that this person is being ostracized by the culling voices. The overall theme of the song is about someone who is hallucinating and paranoid. “Chocolate Chip Trip”, the eighth song, is one of the strangest on the album. It starts off with wind chime sounds and fades into a big drum solo (amazing work, Danny). The song has a constant repeating pattern of weird synthesizer noises. The second to last song on the album is the longest. It is called “7empest” and has a runtime of 15 minutes and 43 seconds. The intro consists of Danny’s drum triggers which are creating the marimba sound throughout the album. After the cool sounding intro, there is a very solid yet loose feeling. This is one of the heaviest songs on the album with its open sound and gritty guitar work. The song is like a big jam session between all of the band members. The last song, “Mockingbeat”, is a bunch of jungle noises that slowly get more distorted as the song goes on. In my unbiased opinion this album is a 7/10. Its overall feel is a constantly changing, up and down bundle of amazing progressive metal. If you have some time to spare, listening to this would be a good choice. While an hour and 30 minutes is a long time for an album, you will be surprised with their intricate songs and how complex some parts of their songs are, for example, Danny’s drum solo in Chocolate Chip Trip.
OpenAI’s New Program Sora and How it Could Change the World:
By Beni Gordon
As you probably know, artificial intelligence (AI) has been recently trending all over the Internet with people generating images, songs and stories. While this media is impressive, it pales in comparison to the brand new AI tool, Sora. Sora is a software program developed by OpenAI, the same company behind the popular program ChatGPT. While Sora is not yet available to the public, OpenAI has released a few sample videos it has generated. The videos look like they were created by a professional photographer rather than some lines of code. The quality of the videos are immaculate, with realistic joint movement and aerodynamics. It’s safe to say that Sora is a breakthrough in AI technology. On the other hand, Sora may put many people out of their jobs. Sora is a self learning AI, which means that it will only improve from the stage it’s in right now. Rather than paying for a professional photographer or videographer, you could simply enter a prompt into a computer and get a similar or even better result, much quicker, much cheaper, and much more reliably than from a human. Another issue that may arise from Sora is the ability to easily create realistic videos of people to spread disinformation. For example, imagine someone creating a video of a politician saying something they didn’t actually say to displease voters or to reduce public support. The video would be so realistic that it would be exceedingly difficult to tell if it was fake or not. It would be especially damaging to young children and elderly people who may not be able to tell the difference between what’s real and what's not. Sora is an undeniably incredible tool. It is truly a testament to human achievement and the near infinite capabilities of artificial intelligence. Despite this, it is important to consider the negative implications Sora and AI in general could have on society. Many people could be put out of work, and AI can sometimes accidentally provide incorrect or biased information. But for now, let’s celebrate this colossal leap in technology and the advancement of the human race.
A Rubiks Cube and What it is
By Beni Gordon
A Rubiks Cube is probably something you've seen around, and probably played with. There are often many misconceptions about it. You might have heard that you can solve it with “only two moves” while in reality, the people who are trying to tell you how to solve it with two moves used those same two moves to scramble it and solve it. You also might have heard that it takes a high IQ or math to solve it, yet you don't need either of those things. The six-sided rainbow puzzle only needs 4 sets of moves to complete, and you can easily do it in around 3 minutes. An algorithm (in this case) is a set of moves that can put a piece in place or take a piece out. For example, an “R” move is when you turn the right face 90 degrees clockwise, while an “ R’ “ turns the same side counterclockwise. This goes for other moves like “U” (turn the top layer 90 degrees clockwise) and “F” (turn the face layer 90 degrees clockwise). There are variations of these moves, like if it is lowercase, you turn 2 layers and not 1. These are called wide moves (“r”,”f”,”u”). If you combine these moves, you can make an algorithm. The cube was created on May 19th 1974 by Ernő Rubik. Rubik created this to teach his architecture students to solve the structural problem of moving parts independently without the entire mechanism falling apart. He was playing around with the cube and he scrambled it. He spent the next month creating a solution for it and created a series of algorithms, and wrote them down. He shared his work, and the Rubiks Cube was made. Since 1974, when it was released, competitions and other events have been held for this puzzle. You could join a competition and participate in speedsolving the cube, or you could just spectate and watch other people. Overall, speedcubing has been popularized by tv, articles, and social media in general. Since the invention of this twisty puzzle, more than 450 million of these have been sold worldwide. Next time you see this cube, just know that you could easily solve it. So pick it up, dust it off and learn.
Generation Alpha: the Era of the iPad Kid
The Internet is one of the most impactful inventions, rivaling the likes of the wheel and writing. The Internet has allowed constant global communication, enabling a myriad of opportunities for learning, business, creative expression, and much more. Due to the vastness of the Internet, many people will use it maliciously. Some examples include scam calls, malware, and disinformation. However, there is another form of malicious behavior that commonly goes under the radar: kids content. Kids content comes in many shapes and sizes, from animations, to toy reviews, to the abomination that is Skibidi Toilet. The common denominator between all of these videos is that kids, especially very young children, spend hours watching this content often dubbed “brain rot”. Brain rot negatively affects young children in many ways. Kid's content is often extremely addictive for young children, with its overly saturated color scheme and constant stimulation. Kids' brains naturally react more to stimulation. This is because childhood is the time where the brain has to learn vast quantities of information so the child can be prepared for the world. Brain rot content leads to large quantities of screen time. Especially in children under the age of 5, when the brain is sopping up as much information as possible, excessive screen time can lead to diminished language, literacy, and cognitive skills. When young children, especially those of elementary age, are exposed to large quantities of screen time, generally exceeding two hours, they fail to develop necessary social skills. Furthermore, viewing videos that provide no educational or developmental value on a daily basis promotes a sedentary lifestyle which can lead to childhood obesity. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), obesity has been proven to lead to health issues such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, many types of cancer, high triglycerides, mental health issues such as depression, and many other serious complications. Kid’s content almost always provides extreme amounts of constant stimulation, which is extremely negative for a child’s idea of the world. Research shows that when children are exposed to “boring” situations in which they receive low amounts of stimulation, they are able to develop planning and problem solving skills, as well as creativity and flexibility. These skills are of vital importance in the classroom and the adult world. People who lack these skills tend to be less effective at overcoming obstacles, entertaining themselves, thinking strategically, and innovating. Taking all of the previously mentioned information into account, it can be concluded that children should not be exposed to large amounts of screen time at a young age. Generation Alpha has seen a massive spike in time spent on screens during early childhood, and the chief culprit is kids' content.
By Aiden Wheeler-Rappe
