Ms. Mochi ran the Marathon!

On April 21^st, Marathon Monday, runners ran with the “Boston Strong” mind set.  These people were there to represent the victims of the marathon bombings last year, and among those runners was Melrose High special education teacher, Ms. Mochi. 

            

            “I’m running for my mom,” Mochi says, who ran with the Mass Eye and Ear team.  Mochi’s mom is deaf and has to use a copular implant to help with her hearing.  But the implant had some complications and now gives her headaches and dizziness.  Her mom is unable to travel so Mochi says the Boston Marathon was the “first time she saw me run.”

            

            This is Mochi’s fourth marathon; she has run marathons in Chicago, Disney World, and Marine corps in D.C.  The Boston Marathon has been the hardest one she had done.  And applying for this year’s marathon took more time than past ones.  Mochi signed up with Team Mass Eye and Ear which had a “very lengthy application, which took me an hour to fill out.”  The application consisted of questions and mini essays.  Mochi said “out of the blue they [Team Mass Eye and Ear] called me at the high school and asked if I could do a conference call.  Then during the call they offered me the spot right then and there.”

Part of running for this team Mochi had to raise $6500. “I was really anxious,” Mochi says about raising the money, “but I hit my goal in early march.” Mochi said she “did a lot of social media” to raise the money, and had the help of friends and colleagues who donated.   

Now that the marathon is over Mochi says, "I felt really great and so happy to be done, because it was very hot that day." Ms. Mochi got the chance to run with a girl on her team that didn't get to finish the marathon last year.  Mochi said, "it was really nice, we cried the whole way down boylston street."   

Ms. Mochi's next race will be a ten miler in October.  She hopes to run another marathon in the near future.   

By: Anna Garofalo

Imprint Podcast: Ms. Mochi on Senior Week and Boston Marathon

MHS Imprint spoke to Ms. Mochi yesterday to discuss senior week and the upcoming Boston Marathon.  


Ms. Mochi on Marathon!   

Ms. Mochi on Senior Week! 

By: Anna Garofalo 

Review - Grand Bubapest Hotel

            Captivating cinematography as well as committed characters are just some of the things you need to create a successful movie, and Wes Anderson has once again won over many of his devoted audience members with his new film The Grand Budapest Hotel. It follows the story of Gustave, the hotel’s concierge, whom is very popular among the ladies. A special one in particular is Madame D, who passes on during an unforeseen circumstance. When visiting her at the wake, he manages to smuggle a valuable painting that she left to him with the lobby boy of Grand Butapest Hotel, Zero. Not to long after, Gustave is accused of murdering Madame D and is promptly thrown in jail.

            The story follows Gustave and Zero throughout their hysterical and occasionally terrifying journey. Gustave is played by Ralph Fiennes who wholeheartedly commits to the character’s story and the elite persona of Gustave. Tony Revolori plays the timid and scared Zero, who audiences are sure to fall in love with over the course of the film. The two play off of each other in such a wonderful way and their relationship grows to form an uncle-nephew type of bond. Aside from all of the frustrations Gustave faces, he never purposely tries to neglect Zero.

There are many aspects of the film that may be pleasing to audiences; the soundtrack, the gorgeous cinematography, and the simple yet compelling acting. But for some reason I felt like there was something missing. I felt as though maybe I was missing part of the story or there was something that was not exactly complete. One can assume that Wes Anderson did not purposely do this but I left the theater thinking that there was something I did not fully understand. This should not stop people from going to see it in theaters because it truly is a beautiful piece of work, per usual done by Wes Anderson.

 By Natessa Storm

New School Store in MHS

The school store officially opened on March 10^th. Designed by Ms. Giovanardi’s CAD class and run by the life skills program, the post-grad program, and Ms. McBride’s business class, the Raider Zone is open during the lunch hours.

            Everything from school supplies to Melrose attire will be sold in the store. “Apparel would be sweatshirts, t-shirts, scarves. And school supplies would be anything you need during the day,” said Mr. Lawlor, a life skills teacher at Melrose High.

            At the school store, students can buy pens, pencils, calculators, USB drives, WhiteOut, and notebooks: “stuff that [students] come and ask [the teachers] for,” Mr. Lawlor said. “It is the convenience of needing something while in school.” The prices of these products vary; Pens will be under a dollar, T-shirts and sweatshirts will be sold at ten dollars. Calculators will be two dollars and notebooks will be a dollar. The school store tries to keep the prices around a dollar.

            The money the school store gets will be reinvested in the school store. The school received donations for the opening of the store, so the money will be used to buy more products for the store.

By Christian Hashem

Movie Review: Captain America: Winter Soldier

Friday, April 4th, 2014 marked the return of America’s super-Boy Scout, Captain America. The Winter Soldier is part of Marvel’s round two of movies. This sequel manages to incorporate many characters and plot-lines from the comics while still remaining relevant to modern day.

There is a noticeable lack of a costumed super-villain in The Winter Soldier. Even the titular Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) does not fit the role of arch-nemesis because little is known about who he is, and less is known about for whom he is working. The ambiguity of the enemy speaks to the modern state of US warfare. Also, the main plot was a clear allegory for the controversy surrounding the NSA. Captain America, and Marvel comics, comes down clearly against the NSA. Despite its 95-year-old protagonist, the movie feels current.

That being said, the movie also keeps many of the comic book characters. Chief among them is the Falcon /Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). For those who don’t know, the Falcon was so popular, that for a while the comic series was known as “Captain America and the Falcon.” Mackie is great, and his character is incorporated well into the plot. It does not feel as if the writers threw him in haphazardly to appease comic book fans.

Black Widow (Scarlett Johanson) also appears in The Winter Soldier. She works well with Captain America (Chris Evans). One of the strengths of these Marvel movies is this potential for crossover, which so far has worked well.

However, the new movie is not quite as good as The First Avenger. One of the most enjoyable things about the first Captain America movie was that it took place in the 1940s. It set Captain America apart from the other Avengers and gave him an identity of his own. Now that he is incorporated into modern society, his movie looks just like the Iron Man movies.

The fight scenes are amazing. The way they shot the fight scenes was confusing at first, but once I got used to it, it was great. It captures the speed of fights. The hand-to-hand, or hand-to-shield, scenes are good, but once the guns come out, it goes straight into comic-book hyperbole. The word to bullet ratio was low, at least 1:100, but probably closer to 1:1000. This was not because of a lack of dialogue, which was good, but because there were so many bullets.

Overall, this movie is well worth watching. Marvel once again strikes the perfect balance between action, comedy, and drama. It is heavy on the action side, but that is fine because it is a superhero movie.

By: Emma Morrison