A new opportunity will be offered to all alumni of the Wilmot Music Department.  Mr. Haas is calling all former Wilmot musicians to join the “summer sings” program.  The plan is to meet toward the end of May, practice twice in June, and then perform at the Twin Lakes Fourth Fest in the first week of July.  According to Haas, the group will be “whatever the members want it to be”.  If there are 5 members, and a couple play guitars, it will be a rock band.  If there are 25 girls, and no instruments, it will be a treble choir.  “I won’t know until I see who shows up for the planning meeting”, said Haas.  The planning meeting is scheduled for May 27^th, 6:30p.m., which is after most students return from college.  Anyone interested can contact Mr. Haas for more information.

In the 70’s, it was one of the only ways to listen to music, and now vinyl is making a glorious comeback. With a high demand for classic albums from some of the older artists, alot of record companies have made the wise decision to re-issue classic records from popular musicians. Some other artists and record companies have started printing new albums on vinyl, such as Ace Frehley’s Septmeber 2009 release “Anomoly,” which was relased on CD as well. Some other artists that have re-issued classic albums on vinyl are: The Jackson 5, The Pixies, Nirvana, The Rolling Stones, and many more. While it is mostly classic albums being released in their entirety, some artists are releasing live recordings also, such as Nirvana’s “Bleach,” which has been re-issued on vinyl and features a previously unreleased live recording of the band at Portland’s Pine Street Theatre. Good news for those wish to start or for those who have been collecting vinyl records, most new albums sell for under twenty dollars, about as much as a cd, and some of the older, less famous records can sell for as low as a dollar.

A vinyl album for those unfortunate enough to have never seen one.

Both oranges and grapefruit come in two sizes.

The Wilmot Band takes a trip every year. This year they are going to Chicago to stay overnight. To raise money to go on this trip, students are selling Florida oranges and grapefruit from the company Riversweet. They are on sale until the first weekend of November. They will be delivered near the beginning of December. If you are interested in purchasing either oranges or grapefruit, you can contact me here for more information. Otherwise just look around for any band student. They surely be willing to sell to you.

Everyone has been going crazy about the new Zune HD and its capabilities, but does it stand a chance versus the iPod Touch? Obviously the Touch has been out for quite some time now and has over 1,000 apps, internet access, and much more. Lets look at the statistics:

Microsoft Zune HD

The Price:

The 8GB iPod touch sells for roughly 199$ brand new, the 16GB Zune HD, however, sells for only 20$ more at 220$. So that’s more space for less cash.

The Battery:

Apple has bragged with a hefty 30 hour battery life and 6 hours of video playback, but once again, Microsoft has shined through with a whopping 33 hours of battery and 8.5 hours of video playback. In addition, Microsoft claims the HD will charge faster as well, only 2 hours from a wall charger. Apple, on the other hand, says it charges fast to 80% but takes an additional 2 hours to reach full life.

Apple iPod Touch

Size/Weight

With the 2nd generation iPod Touch, it seemed as if nothing could be thinner, at a microscopic 8.5mm profile. Granted the Zune HD hasn’t been able to beat this incredible thin physique, it makes up for it in every other dimension. 2.1in wide to Apples 2.4in, and 4.0in tall to Apples 4.3 in. Also, the Zune HD takes the cake once again by weighing in at a feathery 74 grams,  36% less than the 115 gram iPod Touch.

Apps:

No doubt, the iPod Touch has almost limitless app capabilities. The Zune HD could not compare one way or another to 75,000 apps and counting. Granted the HD’s apps are all free, the abundance of apps the Touch has says it all.

In my opinion, I have been a Microsoft fan for a long time, I think that the Zune HD has really stepped up their game as far as competition with Apple. The Zune HD is very innovative and supports video playback, Internet access, as well as listening to your favorite tunes just as good, if not better than the Touch. Most people are loving the size and weight of the Zune HD because it is so small and compact, most people dont want to carry around a bigger portable media player. Most if not all of the polls on the Internet have voted in favor of the Zune HD, for example, a poll from Polladium.com, 53% of people (94 voters) have voted for the Zune, and 46%(82 voters) voted against.