![After placing second in their respective LDEs at the Capital District contest in early November, freshman Jesus Jaramillo-Gallegos and freshman Wyatt Pickett will compete at the Area XII LDE contest in Georgetown on Nov. 23. Jaramillo-Gallegos is competing in Greenhand Spanish Creed Speaking, while Pickett’s LDE is Greenhand Creed Speaking. “Honestly, [I’m excited for] just traveling around, maybe meeting more people,” Jaramillo-Gallegos said. “And [I’m] nervous about probably just not being able to define my weak areas. I feel like I did decent for my first time ever doing this. I just think it’s fun.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Navy-and-Yellow-Simple-Group-Project-Presentation-1200x675.png)
![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
![Sitting at a desk past the rows of books laid out for the Book Fair, senior Kimberley Walters assists people in purchasing books and finding titles. The Book Fair is taking place Dec. 16 through Dec. 20, and is an annual event during which students and faculty have the opportunity to go and purchase books and other trinkets in the library. Kimberley said she encourages all to go to the Book Fair, even if they think they don’t like to read. “If you make reading something that is fun for you and you find the things that you like to read, it will never be a chore,” Walters said. “So [the Book Fair is] a good opportunity to find something that will respark your want to read [like] when you were a child and you went to the book fair and you loved the ‘I survived’ books. Maybe you'll find your ‘I survived’ books of your high school experience, and it'll re-spark that kind of love for reading that may have died out.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Addie-L-47-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, sophomore Olivia Mahlmeister and seniors Samantha Jameson, Adhit Eswaramoorthi and Justin Khadavi celebrate completing first chamber in the Congress Meet. All four students advanced to the final chamber. “Out of the 20 kids in the final chamber, we had a seventh, ninth, 11th and 13th, and they took the top four to move on to state,” AP US History and Debate teacher Josh Marsh said. “[Even though] we didn't make state this year, all four of them moving on [and] placing is phenomenal.” Photo courtesy of Josh Marsh](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-Regional-Congress-Team.jpg)
![Standing in front of a small audience, senior Kimberley Walters shares a social criticism poem titled “Pity the Nation” by Lawrence Felinghetti. Every month, sponsored by the poetry club, the library hosts a poetry reading. “I never thought I would be interested in [poetry readings] because I’m not the biggest poetry fan,” Walters said. “I think poetry is a very succinct way to express feelings and get a story across. Whereas lots of books have a span of a whole story, but it’s put in a lot of words. The power of poetry is that you can be so succinct within, and there’s a lot of power within the words that are used.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KIM-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding the Grand Nationals trophies, drum majors Helashi Wijayawardhana, Abigail Pettey and Eddy Kim pose for a photo. The BOA Grand Nationals competition took place in Indianapolis on Nov. 14-17. “My favorite thing was just looking back at the field, and I was like, ‘Oh, crap. I know all of their names, I know who all of them are’,” Wijayawardahana said. “It's just insane to me that I was able to make so many connections. [Being a drum major] taught me how to build relationships with people who I’m not really that similar to, and how to juggle a ton of things all together.”
Photo courtesy of CPHS Band SmugMug](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AJC.GrandNatsFinals-169-1200x801.jpg)
![Delicately placing the string to form the shape of a cornucopia, seniors Haley Burton and Avery Nelson create the November arrangement for the Flower of the Month Club. This club is led by Advanced Floral Design Students and provides a monthly arrangement to community members who subscribe to receive them. “I think flower of the month club is a really impactful way to show your loved ones ‘hey I really care about you,’ or even if they’re just for yourself, they’re a little pick-me-up throughout the month that [say] ‘I’m doing ok, and these flowers make my day a little bit brighter,” Nelson said. “I like giving people flowers because people value the flowers more and they value themselves more.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Ava-Holmes-3-edit.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.jpg)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
Armed with my favorite sunglasses and fueled with coffee, I arrived at about 11 AM to the Austin City Limits Music Festival filled with anticipation for a day full of sweaty crowds of people and a great expansion of my music library. Since The Fratellis were not performing until 1:30 PM, I was carefully contemplating as to where I should spend these few precious hours, when I heard it.
A bright, energetic sound was tumbling towards me from a nearby stage, immediately sparking my curiosity. As I walked towards the Austin Ventures stage, my curiosity continued to rise as I observed numbers of individuals dancing and bouncing awkwardly around swarming towards the stage with four guys, all clad in obnoxious sunglasses, bouncing just as awkwardly.
This was my first introduction to the colorful, mustache-and-tight-pants-wearing world of The Black and White Years, and quite a pleasant one at that. Scott Butler, whose appearance strangely reminded me of a certain Beatles member, was particularly entertaining with his enthralling leg movements and interesting vocals.
The Black and White Years main website amusingly describes the band members’ roles. Scott Butler is the vocalist, lyricist, and album artist for the group, along with being responsible for “guitars, keys, [and] costumes for tigers.” Landon Thompson not only plays “better guitar than Scott,” but is also known for his “whack FX, keys, [and] tight pants.” John Aldridge is acknowledged for his “listless bass, brass, hair, [and] non-sequitors.” Billy Potts, the drummer and newest member of the band, does not actually play on The Black and White Years’ debut, as he joined the band after the album’s release.
The Black and White Years have truly been lucky when it comes to their success. 2007 really brought the band their good fortune when, while playing at the small venue, Opal Divine’s Freehouse during that year’s South by Southwest, former Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison took a liking to them. Harrison offered the band an incredible opportunity and The Black and White Years flew to San Francisco to work with the music genius on their first album in the Sausalito Sound studio.
When Harrison picked them up, The Black and White Years not only had no manager, but also lacked a drummer—an obvious issue in the studio. The Austin natives had been using a sequencer to create their unique sound, but Harrison decided to try something a little different. Steve Ferrone, present drummer of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, tried to help out with some drum tracks, but Butler and the other members argued that Ferrone’s drumming did not correspond with The Black and White Years’ original sound.
“We started to get a little scared that the album would come out sounding nothing like us,” John Aldridge, bassist, told Austin Music and Entertainment Magazine.
After months of conflict between the band and their engineer, an agreement was finally reached. The live drumming that seemed to keep throwing off their individuality was combined with electric synthesizers to create the fantastical sound in all of their songs.
“We really had to fight to keep our sound the way we wanted,” Aldridge said. “We had to fight for our synth.”
Despite the drumming disagreement, Jerry Harrison’s influence on The Black and White Years is prevalent, especially in the vocals. Ironically, Scott Butler sounds surprisingly similar to former Talking Heads front man David Byrne.
With the demanding lyrics of their first single, “Power to Change,” The Black and White Years are gradually getting more and more noticed. Inspired by the elections, “Power to Change” has been appearing in the playlists of radio stations across the country. Despite its fun, dance-like sound, the song really does call for a revolution of the workings of the modern world. Butler actually declares that “we need a savior,” and “must believe in the power to change.”
The Black and White Years’ other songs are relatively similar to “Power to Change,” all full of vibrant energy, yet accompanied by deeper lyrics. Each song calls for a bobbing of the head, a tapping of the foot, or an all-out breakout of obnoxious dancing—making them not only a favorite in the car or home, but also a fantastic live performance.
The Black and White Years’ self-titled debut, whose album artwork is as animated as their songs, was released in September 2008. The band’s latest performance was at the “101-X Independent Workforce X-Mas Party” at Emo’s December 11 where they played to help benefit for Habitat for Humanity.
