During March Break, I took a little excursion to the Art Gallery of Ontario to see the Edvard Munch (pronounced Ed-vahrd Moonk) exhibition, featuring 59 examples of Munch's symbolist woodcut prints and lithographs.
Munch, a famous Norwegian painter and printer, was born in 1863 and lived a tortured existence. His mother died when he was only five years old. His little sister Sophie died of tuberculosis when Edvard was fourteen. He had a six-year long affair with an older, married woman, which ended painfully. After that, he fell in love with a lovely young woman named Tulla Larsen who turned out to be a psychopath (she shot his finger off during one of their little "spats").
These events in his life gave Munch a fascination for death and dying, as well as making him a bit of a misogynist.
His works, many of them hauntingly beautiful, reflected his views on women, fear, and death, including "Lovers in the Waves", "The Lonely Ones", "Vampire", "Puberty", "Maddonna", and "Death in the Sickroom".
The real reason I went to the AGO was to see his most famous work, "The Scream".
The first time I saw this frightening image, it burned into my mind, and when I heard about the exhibition, I knew I had to go.
About fifty people were huddled around the painting, many of them with tears streaming down their faces. Others just stood there, mouths agape, staring at it in awe. A bunch of Goth kids were sitting vigil around it.
In the AGO gift shop, many things with the image of "The Scream" printed on them were on sale. Notebooks, greeting cards, keychains, T-shirts, canvas bags, and even pillows that let out a little scream when squeezed. Munch is probably rolling over in his grave.
All in all, it was a kind of a strange experience, but it was very worthwhile.
In the past two weeks, almost 30,000 people have visited the exhibition.
I urge all students to go see the exhibition while you can. It closes on May 25th, and the oil painting "The Scream" goes back to Oslo on April 20th. Admission for students is only $6.00.
Sofi Papamarko
Editor of MacNews
*send me e-mail at: sofi@wwdg.com
Bright and early last Thursday morning, forty hyper OAC Mac students gathered at the Sportmart parking lot awaiting the twenty-minute late bue that was going to transport them to and from Montréal. When the bus finally arrived, all the luggage and a keg was jammed into the luggage compartment under the bus.
After six hours of inhaling second hand smoke coming from the chimneys at the back of the bus, we pulled up in front of our hotel. The Hotel Chantlie used to be an apartment, so all the rooms had their own little kitchenettes which included a fridge, oven, and sink. We unpacked, filled our fridge and cupboards with food we brought from home, and headed out to Cresent St. where all the pubs and small night clubs are located. Many of the pubs had specials on things such as ladies get in free and drink till twelve a.m., and one club even had Chip and Dale dancers! While some of us were partying outside of the hotel, some of us decided to get drunk and party inside the hotel. "They" created so much chaos and damage, all of us eventually got kicked out by the hotel manager. But nobody's pointing fingers. (cough, cough)
The next couple of days pretty much all blended in together. I honestly couldn't tell you what we did on a certain day. All I know is that EVERYONE of us got "buzzed" at one time or another. "Hey, is the floor slanted?" People ended up walking into other peoples' rooms, etc... you know how it is!
The Dame (the hottest night club in Montréal) kicked butt! People were dancing in cages, people were swinging from the ceiling. "The Dame...The Dame...The Dame is on fire!!" I guess you had to be there! Aside from the night life, some of the other attractions are: Old Montréal, Notre Dame, Chinatown, and St. Catherines (Yonge St). But having no sleep in two days, you can imagine what kind of shape we were in for sightseeing! (Shadow pictures) After four days of hanging around and living with my closest friends, I can honestly say we've all gotten closer. To top it off, we climbed up to the top of Mount Royale which overlooks all of Montréal. There, we stood in a pack, shivering in the wind at 6 a.m. watching the perfect, pink sunrise...(sigh)...what a moment.
Thanx to the people who made this trip memorable. Niki - Thanx for all your hard work. I know it was stressful but it definitely paid off. To "The Gang" - Olympic walk anyone? How about *** on the beach? Chug! Chug! Watch out bla... (plop) Black ice!! The laughs, baggy eyes, and AT-TIT-TUDE I received throughout the trip will be forever close to my heart! We rocked!!
Shnu
Banana Power
Dear Editor,
Some of us at Mac do not like rock music and hockey, yet that is all your newspaper seems to have. We would appreciate if you could realize that there is more to Mac than rock and hockey. Start adding a variety of things so that it would appeal to everyone. Some suggestions are:
P.S. We have to give you some credit for doing that Greece vs. Canada thing, though. It was interesting and different than what you usually put in. Try using other countries in future issues as well.
Dear "unsatisfied",
Thanks for your suggestions. We're always happy to hear from the students on how we can make MacNews better. We have had a couple of surveys throughout the year, and we will try to make up some more. That whole thing on "dissing teachers" is kind of a bad idea, though. Most teachers don't really like us to begin with. You seem fairly eloquent, "unsatisfied", and there were no spelling errors in your letter. We could use people like you at MacNews. Are you busy Thursdays after school?
Sofi, ed.
Hey MacNews! I felt that I just had to congratulate you on your article "The Top 5 Toys We Don't Ever Want To See Made!" on December 19th, 1996. I couldn't stop laughing! (Chia Kramer!) Really, really good!
Well, cya
Matthew Pullerits
Thanks, Matt! We'll be coming out with a sequel about movie titles soon. Watch for it.. and keep sending us flattering e-mail. It makes us feel cool!
Sofi, ed.
Hey sports fans, welcome back. I hope you're all feeling OK. You see there is this bug going around and it's pretty contagious. In fact, I've got it. Your heart skips a beat, your palms feel sweaty, you're really anxious. If you too are suffering from these symptoms, you have Hoop Hysteria. It's normal for this time of year; March Madness! Yes, it has arrived. The Road to the Final Four-NCAA basketball. Wasn't the Spring Break perfect? A whole week of chillin' on your couch watching b-ball. Life is good.
There are a lot of great teams in the tourny this year. Let's recap some of the teams.
Teams who are favoured to win:
Ant the number one seeded teams: Kentucky, Minnesota, Kansas, and North Carolina.
Also number two seeded Utah and UCLA.
Teams who were a disappointment:
Third seed Wake Forest, Second seeds Duke and South Carolina.
Pure Cinderella Teams:
Fourteenth seed Tennessee Chattanooga (where did they come from?) Fifteenth seeded Coppin State.
Teams that will go far:
Sixth seeded Iowa State and Tenth Seeded Providence.
Teams that didn't even make it:
Syracuse, Michigan, Memphis, and UConn.
The best game of the tourny so far:
Boston College vs. St. Joe's
And I guess you could say all the other games that went into OT.
Enjoy the rest of March Madness, and may the best team win.
L.A. Tzekas Sports Editor and GreenEggsAndHam (Ghostwriter)
Over the Exam Week and March Break, the Webmasters of MacNews Online have almost completely redone the site! We have made a frames page for people who have frames-capable browsers.
Also, due to many overwhalming complaints, we have been able to shorten the address of MacNews Online to "http://macnws.home.ml.org", which routes you to the same place. This way, you don't have to remember our longer GeoCities address. Our e-mail address is still "macnews@wwdg.com" and all the articles we had before are still accessible. Our offer to accept any donated IBM compatible scanner is still open. Please contact the Webmasters through e-mail or by dropping a note in the MacNews mailbox.
Nony LaSouris
In our last issue we asked the student body to vote for one of the possible candidates to decide which would be given the illustrious title of MacNews mascot. Here are the results:
| Macky the Moose | 3 votes |
| The MacScot | 5 votes |
| Miami the Cat | 7 votes |
| Mooky Monkey | 8 votes |
| MooMoo the Cow | 9 votes |
| Sofi's dad | 39 votes |
MacNews
Love, hate and frailty all belong to me
I am like a magnet, attracting your sins
I cannot see the attributes
That breed the confounded realm I am in
Perhaps it was meant to be, only for me
Perhaps not...
I believe that the tide will rise for you
And if you are left standing, you shall flourish
If you remain indifferent
You will be engulfed by the strongest current
The cataclysm of your fortune
Francis Nitsis
Surely,
If I leave my gilded cage,
Spread my eager wings and fly.
I'll rest among the clouds
And sleep above the sky.
Surely,
If I leave my rock fortress,
Run, frolick, hugging what's free,
They'd dry me in the soil
And wash me in the sea.
Surely,
If I grew many petals,
And gave away all but one,
With that I'd kiss the breeze
And, in summer, love the sun.
If I wept along with a willow
And slept alongside a dove,
I somehow feel I might
Give birth to a child called Love
Christine L. Estima
Can you picture a spring break weekend in Montréal? We don't have to, we experienced it. In short, it was a weekend of non-stop partying! Sight-seeing, we didn't do any, did we? Who could get up after a night of dancing, drinking, (only those of legal drinking age, right? -ed.) flirting and just having pure unadulterated FUN!?!?!
On behalf of the entire group, we would like to thank the two people who made this trip possible; Niki Vahaviolos and Ollie Kennedy, OAC reps. We're glad that we voted for them! We would also like to give special thanx to our tour guide Mike (Temple & Temple Tours). Without him, we would have had to make our way back home the next night we arrived, seeing as we got kicked out of our first hotel. Need we say more?
The memories of Spring Break '97 will never die!
We'll leave you with a few:
It was a BON WEEK-END!
Montréal people
I just saw the greatest story ever told. No, I don't mean Spaceballs. I'm talking about Star Wars. And watching previews with Princess Leia in a gold thong didn't hurt. But, I wish they had added those scenes in the first movie of Star Wars...and the second...and some more in the third, but I'm nopt going there yet. The first sight of an Imperial warship brought tears to my eyes; not to mention Princess Leia. Hey Darth, what's with the heavy breathing? What James Earl Jones does in his spare time, I don't want to know. Now why does Luke have to be such a wimp at the beginning of the movie; now I know we're supposed to see him grow into a hero but, "power converters", not to mention Princess Leia. Then we get to see C-3PO's arm get cut off by sand people. "Hi, I'm Astro, a robot, I can put my arm back on." Now, about that force, where can I get some of that? "You will go out with me." Why is Han flying around space with a big hairy guy? And why do they call him Chewy? Not to mention Princess Leia. "Last time we met I was but a student, now I am the master." Jume, jume, jume. (Lightsaber sound FX here) "You can never win Darth." Jume, jume, jume. "If you strike me down now, I'll become more powerful than you could possibly imagine." Jume, jume, jume. Not to mention Princess Leia. But, I just have to say it is the greatest show ever made, and I'm not going to ruin it anymore. Just go out and see it, or you'll miss a great movie. Not to mention Princess Leia.
Han & Chewy