Art fight

The winners of this year’s Art Fight Completion are the Blue Werewolves! Every year during July there is an art competition known as Art Fight. It starts on the first of July and ends on July thirty-first. Players are split into two teams at random after applying. Player’s “attack” others by drawing art of their original characters, and that person’s team gets points based on what they made for the attack. The artist who is “attacked” can counter the attack by drawing art in return. The forms of art are not limited to just 2D still art, it can also be animations, paintings, handcrafts, or 3D modeling. This year’s teams were the Red Vampires and Blue Werewolves. The Blue Werewolves won with 36,875,472 points, 408,855.5 points more than the Red Vampires! 

– Lex Bailey

Out of the Woods

On August 9, 2023, at Sofi Stadium located in Los Angeles, California. Superstar Taylor Swift announced a new album, 1989 (Taylor’s Version). When Taylor first became a star, she was signed with Big Machine Records. This record company did not allow her to own the rights to her music. In June of 2019, an American entrepreneur, Scooter Braun purchased Swift’s catalog for 140 million dollars. Soon After, Taylor Swift signed with another record label, Republic Records. In contrast to Big Machine Records, Republic Records allowed Swift to own the rights to the albums produced with them. In addition, Republic Records allowed her to re-record her catalog. I am delighted to relive this experience again. I am thrilled to make new memories and keep the old memories forever in my heart.  

-Shayla Torres

Fleabag Season Two

Every few months, when colors are bright and vivid, and the morning’s birdsong is presented in high definition—signs that my emotional battery is recharged and operating at maximum efficiency—I know I’m due for a rewatch of Fleabag Season 2. The final season of Phoebe Waller Bridge’s one-woman-play-turned-despair-inducing-hit series is a notorious tear-jerker, the bummer foil to Jason Sudeikis’ feel-good Ted Lasso. A quick Google search of the season turns up an assemblage of articles commenting on the painful beauty of the show, articles with titles calling it “gorgeous, heartbreaking” (Vox), a show that “breaks the fourth wall and then breaks our hearts” (Vulture), and an experience of “agony meet[ing] ecstasy” (The Atlantic). Fresh off a rewatch, just recalling certain scenes is enough to make my throat constrict and my eyes water, but it is not an affinity for sadness or an urge to cry that drives me and other Fleabag devotees to return to the season again and again. At risk of sounding hyperbolic, I believe the experience of watching Season 2 presents a sublime confrontation with the human experience in ways that very few television shows manage. Bridge’s writing demonstrates a deep capacity for both empathy and silliness. Even as the script leans into heightened displays of absurdity—criminally bad haircuts, clairvoyant foxes, and family dinners that erupt into fistfights—so strong is Bridge’s sense of the human species and its idiosyncrasies that the show somehow transcends mere sitcom mimicry to capture some of the absurd, goofy, ridiculous, implausible truths about being human. So yes, if you’re going to watch Fleabag Season 2, expect some tears and maybe even the hollow, depleted feeling that follows an intense emotional experience, but also expect wonder and awe and beauty. Lots of beauty. And who knows, maybe you’ll even learn something, not just about the characters but about yourself.  

-Mrs. Tribou

Tres Leches Cake

There is more to a satisfying slice of pizza, or a reassuring bowl of pho, than just ingredients and preparation. Every dish (and every meal as well) has a temporal component. Eating French toast for dinner is delicious not only because you’re eating what the world’s most indulgent cuisine considers an indulgence, but because you just got back from Cross-Country practice and your sweat is beginning to dry. Each clink of the fork is the tick of a clock. 

So, for this week’s Chipper’s Choice, I chose what I came home to at 9pm on a Monday after a cancelled Cross-Country meet: Tres Leches Cake. In my fridge, there was a little less than two square feet of sponge cake drenched in God’s glorious trifecta of evaporated, condensed, and whole milk topped with a sheet of freshly whipped cream and cinnamon. I know the wonderful ingredients and my mom’s skilled preparation made that cake so good, but the racing shorts sticking to my thighs and the spikes cast off in the kitchen made each bite better, a little more sweet. 

-Jake Hall

Slammed to my Core

My Chipper’s Choice for this week is Slammed by Colleen Hoover. When reading this book, I felt slammed to my core by the end of it. It took me through a roller coaster of emotions and had a very heartwarming ending that will leave you with tears if unprepared. It tells the story of a girl who moves from Texas to the state of Michigan, and as the book goes along, there are so many twists and turns. It really makes you reflect on the character’s actions. 

My two favorite parts of the book would be how easily you can understand how the characters feel at certain times, making it easy for the reader to also somewhat feel the emotions, almost like you’re in the book. Also, how the characters are fleshed out. You feel as if they’re real people like you and me, and they’re set up masterfully. Lake, the main character, falls for her neighbor Will and finds out a very unfortunate piece of information she must keep to herself, or she’ll ruin his livelihood. This twist hurls Lake into sadness and it’s very transparent how she feels. You can’t help but feel sorry for her. I believe this to be one of her best works and I can’t recommend it enough! 

-Cameron Cable

Weight Training

I am a new student here at Cartersville High School. I took weight training all last year and wanted to take it at this school this year as well. My first experience was good. I got into the best group and even became friends with them. The coaches there are great, and I already have a fun connection with them. Everything they teach is great for the human body and it is also just a fun class in general.  

-Beyonce Martinez