Graphic by Monica Gierada

Cameron Jibril Thomas, better known as Wiz Khalifa, was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
In 2006, at about the age of 19, Khalifa released his first album, “Show and Prove.” Just one year later, he signed to Warner Bros. Records.

After signing with Warner Bros., his first single “Say Yeah” reached number 25 on the billboards in only 2008. Khalifa then began signing with other companies, such as Rostrum Records.

Again, just another year later, he then released his second album “Deal or No Deal.”

Once he had signed with Atlantic Records, Khalifa’s hit single “Black and Yellow” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

“He is my favorite rapper,” junior Jeremiah Camp said. “Personally, his new album is my least favorite of all his projects. It’s all good music; I’m just not feeling all the singing he is doing.”

Even though Khalifa creates music that can hit number one on the charts, fans tend to favor his alternate art, like his mix tape.

“I really became a fan when his mix tape Kush on Orange Juice came out,” Camp said. “I also follow his webisodes.”

His music is not that only thing that is making him so popular though. Khalifa’s style and originality also have an impact on people’s interest in him.

“He is original by the different type of attitude which he expresses in his lyrics,” senior Leah Johnson said.

Khalifa not only expresses originality through his words, but also through his fashion.

“He makes a different fashion statement, especially with his blonde patch,” Johnson said.

Khalifa has a tendency to decorate his body in a way that makes him stand out from other rappers. When Khalifa was younger he got his first tattoo on his arm, which simply stated his stage name.

Actually, not only did Khalifa tattoo his arm, but most of the rest of his body also. He put body art not only on his arms, but also on his chest, stomach, back, neck and even his forehead. Khalifa strives to be known as one of the most popular artists with the most ink on their body.

This just being another reason for his originality, Khalifa then created a song based off of his body art called “Ink My Whole Body.”

His latest album “Rolling Papers” just hit the shelves; nearly 500,000 copies have already been sold.

While Khalifa still struggles to be number one, he is making a name for himself.

Junior Charlie Harned accepts flowers from senior Christian Thomas in the spirit of Valentines Day for the month of February in the DECA Men of CHS Calendar. (Tom Haslam)

The calendar features men from different sports that are popular at the high school, and boys that many of the students look up to.

“This is the first year the CHS boys calendar has been made,” senior Erica Hill said. “It was an idea presented by DECA students, Samantha and Abygail Dulle.”

The purpose of the calendar was to raise funds for DECA.

“It was just a fun idea Aby came up with to get students involved and to raise money for DECA,” Samantha Dulle said.

Many of the boys showed a lot of excitement about the calendar because it was a unique idea.  Junior Charlie Harned liked the idea that it was solely based off men modeling since most calendars usually feature girls.

“Usually calenders have female models in them, so having male models is a pretty funny, but innovative, twist. On that,” Harned said.

The Dulles asked around to see who was interested in participating in this unique event. They chose students based on who stood out on their team and represented leadership.

“The boys were chosen based on sports and who the designers saw as the leaders of those teams,” Hill said.

Sophomore Tyler Walker is featured in the month of December along with Kameron Stewart. They were chosen to represent the football team.

Junior William Rosenfeld and junior Gabe Jacus are featured in the Men of CHS Calendar celebrating Cinco de Mayo for the month of May. (Tom Haslam)

“Since I was a big ball player, they considered me one of the ‘men of CHS,’” Walker said.

The boys that were chosen to partake in this event seemed to have had a lot of fun with it. They dressed up and took photos in front of a green screen, so that they could be edited later.

Two boys were paired together and assigned to a particular month, where they then dressed up and goofed off in front of the camera.

“I took pictures with Christian Thomas and it was really fun,” Harned said. “The Dulle twins and Ruthie and others were there just messing around and having a good time.”

If given the opportunity, many of the boys would definitely do it again.

“The calendar is a really cute and a fun idea,” Hill said.

The CHS Men’s Calendar is already printed and can be purchased in DECA sponsor Marci Boland’s office for $10.

“It was pretty stressful because I didn’t get on the ball quick, so I was kind of behind with it all,” senior Beau Hayden said.

The thrilling excitement of acceptance into a college marks only the end of a difficult road down the stressful college application process. (Emma Riley)

Even though the application process depends mostly on the student, the family is very important for making the decision on where a student should apply. For senior Phoebe Raileanu, it was very hard because her family was not there for her.

“It was very stressful because I don’t have my family here to help me,” Raileanu said. “I also did everything early decision so I had to have everything done by November first, but once I heard I got in the first week in December it was such a relief to be done. So it was totally worth it.”

One of the most important parts to the college application process is writing the personal essay because it is the one way for a student to write about whatever they want, and stand out. English class senior year is very helpful in this part of the application.

“Choosing the actual topic for the essay is often times difficult because there are so many different directions,” senior Deanna Depke said.

English classes senior year are very helpful in this part of the college application process because students begin writing their personal essays in class. The teachers are accommodating to this component because they can offer ideas and suggestions, as well as commentary.

Many seniors applied to numerous schools, from as little as one to 12. Depke who applied to 12 schools received an acceptance letter from 10, and is still anticipating an acceptance letter from her top choice: Emory.

While Hayden applied to 10 schools, and was relieved to be accepted to all of them, including his top choice Tulane.
“I ended up only applying to one school, George Washington,” Raileanu said. “I finished my entire NYU application, but I stayed up all night doing my George Washington application so that was the only one I submitted and I ended up getting in. I was so excited!”

While receiving the acceptance letters can often times be relieving, the effort and time put into the process is often very rigorous. Many students are spending on average 10 to 15 hours on the entire application process.

“Dealing with the counseling office was probably the most rigorous part of applying for college because sometimes the schools didn’t have all my transcripts and stuff so I had to go in and talk to the counselors about all of that,” Depke said.

As far as applying to schools, a majority of the stress can be avoiding if students keep up with the applications and do not fall behind.

“I would recommend that juniors start looking at schools now and be informed, don’t be afraid to ask questions and don’t get behind,” Hayden said.

Even though CHS has been preparing students for college since freshman year, it is important that students realize how much work applying can really be.

“The college process is not so much actually doing it, it’s more like getting instructions what you need to be doing and thinking as well,” Hayden said. “It’s a lot of contemplating if you want to go to certain colleges or what majors you want to pursue.”

Specifically, one team that made it farther than they were predicted was they varsity football team. This year has been a huge success in that the hounds have made it to the playoffs, competing all the way to sectionals, which they lost 35-21 on Nov. 8.

“Last year we were 1-9, now we are 8-3,” sophomore, Tyler Walker said.

Walker said that people thought the Hounds would go 0-10.

“We had everything to gain, but nothing to lose,” Walker said.

They have really proved that the underdogs can take the lead.

Another team that has proved their dedication is the boys’ varsity soccer team. Even though the boys had a slow start, they were able to really step it up and make it, not only to districts, but to win the district game as well.

“Overall the season has been up and down,” senior Will Hayes said. “We have beaten some good teams, but have played soft against some not so good teams. Mostly because of injuries but specifically for me, it has been hard because I couldn’t play in the first 13 games. But as districts started, the team really began to click and we have been having success ever since.”

The soccer team was able to win the District Championship against MICDS, as well as the State quarterfinals against Duchesne and still continue to play with high hopes of making it even further.

The Clayton cross country team had some major success this year as well. The girls’ team did not manage to make it as far as they would have liked, but the boys’ team really stepped it up and made it to state as a team for the first time since 1999.

“This year we changed districts, and it was a lot harder,” Sarah Graeber, captain of the girls’ varsity cross country team said. “Last year we qualified as a team, but this year only Nicole Indovino qualified.”

Even though switching districts meant not qualifying as a team for the girls, it gave the boys an opportunity to really step it up. They finished in 11th place at state, and many of the runners were able to set a personal record, including Nicole Indovino and Matthew Garrett.

The boys swimming team did not have as much success as the cross country team, as they did not make it to state, but their great sportsmanship kept them going.

“This year’s season boys’ swimming season definitely rivals the success of previous seasons,” junior, Zach Praiss said. “Although we had nobody qualify for state, I believe we had the strongest team that I’ve seen since I was a freshman.”

The boys swimming team also had many new members, which added a whole new aspect to the sport.

“In each event, we were always able to put forth if not two, three strong swimmers,” Praiss said. “As a result, we were able to win far more meets than previous years as we could consistently pull off not the first place, but rather, both the second and third places in events. In addition, this year’s team truly came together unlike years past. Everyone felt that they were a part of the team and that they played an important role in our successful season.”

For the girls’ varsity volleyball team, the season did not go over so well.

“The season was pretty rough,” Katie Marvel, one of the captains on the team, said. “We didn’t win as many games as we would have liked. We were a very close team, but didn’t start to ‘click’ as one unit until the end of the season.”
Although the season did not go over so well, the girls are sticking to the sport in hopes of making it even farther next year.

“A few of the girls, including myself, are going to play club volleyball,” Marvel said. “So hopefully we will have a more successful season next year.”

Much like the varsity volleyball team, the girls’ field hockey team didn’t make it as far as they would have liked either.

“It started out rough, but by the end we bonded as a team and came out strong,” junior, Kate Harrison said.
Many of the teams that did not win nearly as many games as they had hoped for in the beginning of the season, but they kept their heads high and stayed motivated throughout the season.

Even though not all teams did as well as they would have liked, they still grew as a team to make their season enjoyable.

The girls’ softball team hardly won any games, but their team spirit made their sport fun.

“Once we started to see certain players working hard and our captains stepping up, we followed right behind and stepped up our game,” Harrison said. “Definitely having a new coach took some getting used to, but I feel he has done a great job this year and keeping us motivated to win. Teamwork is definitely a key priority as well. Like our coach established at the beginning of the year, our team motto was, “share the work” and we went by that every game.”

“My mom painted,” Hequembourg said. “She only sold work in a couple venues every now and then, but she painted a lot.”

Even though Hequembourg got his inspiration from his mother, he didn’t take after her same work. In fact, his art is very unique. Hequembourg creates a mixed-media, which includes a mixed collage with a painting engraving.

Hequembourg came up with this idea when he was attending the University of Iowa. Since he didn’t have much money, Hequembourg decided to make his own art out of wood.

“I couldn’t afford a press, so I started making paintings out of wood,” Hequembourg said.

He acquired a lot of inspiration for his work when he found slave houses on his farm that had been vacant for years. Hequembourg burned these houses down and began to use this wood for his contemporary work.

Hequembourg’s most famous pieces are “Slave Ship Gown” and “Strange Fruit.” These are both pieces that are historical works.

“Slave Ship Gown” is a picture of a woman whose dress is created out of slave ships. “Strange Fruit” also deals with slaves, but in this picture the fruit is created from pictures of actual lynchings that took place.

“I wanted it to affect people, and it worked,” Hequembourg said.

Hequembourg didn’t realize the affect his art would have on the people. However, once he began to show his art, many viewers reacted emotionally.

Artist Aaron Hequembourg presented his work at the 2010 St. Louis Art Fair.

“I wanted a simple depiction of history that is common to all of us,” Hequembourg said. “There needs to be something unique about it.”

Not only did he show his pieces to just a few people, but he also began attending art shows.

This year, the 2010 St. Louis Art Fair ran from September 10-12 and featured 181 artists.

Although Hequembourg presented a mixed media at this year’s art fair, there were also many other types of art as well, some of which were ceramics, digital art, printmaking, and photography.

Attending art fairs was just the beginning for Hequembourg, because soon after he began presenting his work to the public, he began to win more and more awards. Even though Hequembourg was winning many awards, he feels that he could always be more successful.

“In two years, I was supporting myself just from selling artwork,” Hequembourg said.

Hequembourg believes that if students are seeking an art career, to be completely successful, they should take many different art classes in college.

“If they are going to art school, take a little bit of everything,” Hequembourg said. “You have to mess around with all of it because you may go back to it later.”

Even though Hequembourg believes that nobody can be as successful as Picasso, he thinks that everyone has something to bring to the table.

For more insight on Hequembourg’s work, you can visit his website www.bigwhitedog.net

In the newer version of “Robin Hood”, Robin Longstride, an archer for King Richard the Lionheart, plays the hero. He stands up to King Richard and says that it was stupid to murder all of the women and children, so the king locks him up. When the king gets killed by an enemy archer, Robin Hood and four of his friends escape.
The king’s knights take his crown back to London, so that the king’s younger brother, Prince John, can be crowned king. On their way back to the castle the king’s knights get killed by a French spy, Godfrey.
Robin Hood ambushes Godfrey’s troops, finds the king’s crown and dress up as the knights. Robin Hood and his men take the crown back to London for Prince John. After returning the crown, he rides off to Nottingham to deliver the sword to Sir Walter Loxley.
He returns the sword and then Sir Walter Loxley asks Robin Hood to stay and pretend to be his son.  If he stays, he will in return tell Robin Hood about his childhood and what happened to his father. Robin Hood agrees to stay and pretend to be his son.
So he begins to become very popular. He then finds out that Prince John, now King John, has taken the advice of Godfrey to send a small army, led by Godfrey, and gather debts owed to the kingdom. If the people can’t pay the debts, their village will be burned down.
The whole point in doing this was to get the English villages to create a civil war. Once the debt collectors arrived in Nottingham, they locked all of the women, children and elderly men in a building and set fire to it.
The savage boys come out of the forest with Robin Hood and all the villages that were abused by Godfrey’s army, to help to save all of the people. After the villagers are safe, they get the money collectors to surrender, except for Godfrey who escapes.
Then the people of Nottingham convince King John that Godfrey is a French spy. They give him word that French troops are landing on a shore. So the villagers convince the king to gather an army to fight them. The villagers arrive at the shoreline and see the French ships.
They commence a surprise attack on the French and eventually the French surrender and the English win. They go back to the castle and the king exiles Robin Hood and anyone who harbors him. This is where the story begins.
These two movies are not even comparable to each other because they both tell two different stories. Not only that, but they are targeted towards two different sets of people. They are both brilliant films, and should be watched no matter what the age.

Sophomore athlete of the month Gabe Jacus led the team with 32 goals and 22 assists in just 20 games.

“Max Barron used to come to my house and get me to play street hockey and then he eventually got me to play ice hockey,” Jacus said.
Playing hockey as a child paid off in the long run, as Jacus began playing on the varsity Clayton team during his freshman year.  That season, he scored 1.5 goals per game.  Jacus dangled his way through the club season as well, and has now established himself on the St. Louis hockey scene.
Being one of the best players on the team, Jacus tallied a team-high 32 goals and 22 assists, showing why he plays on the top line. He has had three game winning goals this year alone.
So far this season, Jacus has scored half of the team’s game winning goals. Even though the team is 6-16-1, he still has a strong passion for the sport.
Jacus receives a lot of emotional support from his teammates as well.
“He is really fun to play with,” sophomore forward Will Rosenfeld said. “He scores a lot of goals and is tough.”
This season alone, Jacus had 47 penalty minutes, showing his phenomenal toughness on the ice.
In the last game of the playoffs, Jacus managed four goals and an assist in an 8-5 loss to Fort Zumwalt South.
On a better note, the Hounds’ first Ladue game was one of the team’s best because of their dedication and hard work on the ice.
“Our team was able to win without a full team,” Jacus said. “A lot of individuals stepped up their game, and that was fun to watch.”
Even though Jacus is dedicated to hockey, he seems to be very relaxed when it comes to setting personal goals for the season. This year he didn’t make any set goals for himself; however, he did want to score as many goals possible.
Jacus doesn’t have his heart set on any college just yet, but if the opportunity arose he may just take a scholarship.
“If a good offer came up from a school, then I’d think about it, but I have no problem just going to a school and having fun,” Jacus said. “I’ve got a lot of time to think about it, so I don’t worry too much.”
At this point Jacus is exceeding in the sport and may, in time, have an opportunity to make this a profession.
“For a while that was my plan, but a lot changes over time,” Jacus said. “It would be great, but the sacrifices you need to make and the dedication you need to have is just ridiculous.”
Jacus plans on playing hockey throughout high school and may eventually turn his love of the sport into a career.

Christian Thomas dunks in a recent away game. Thomas finished with 24 points on the night to improve his team-high average to 21.8 points per game.

Thomas has been playing since he was only eight years old, and his heart has always been in the sport. He started playing basketball because he wanted to be just like his dad.
“My dad was a big basketball player when he was in high school and he played at Kansas State, so when I was little I decided to try and be like him,” Thomas said.
When he was younger, his father was constantly trying to challenge him in order improve his overall game.
“To get better, my dad had me always play against older kids,” Thomas said. “Also I played with my brother who is six years older, so he always challenged me.”
As soon as Thomas entered high school, all his hard work paid off. He began playing on the varsity team his freshman year.  Thomas actually entered a situation at Clayton that benefited him because it was a young team and not a very high-caliber squad, which allowed him to adjust to the varsity level of play without much pressure.
Many Clayton students fondly remember the shot that Thomas hit at the buzzer in overtime against the rival Ladue Rams in district play to win the game in 2008.  Even as a freshman, Thomas showed that he had nerves of steel, calmly putting back a Greyhound miss in order to extend the team’s season.
With the help of Thomas, the team’s record so far is 12-5, compared to last year when the team finished 18-9.
“I know we will win more and make farther in districts, hopefully even state,” Thomas said.
Each season Thomas sets an expectation for himself. This season he wanted to improve from the last.
“I wanted to average more than 14 points a game because that’s what I did as a sophomore, so I wanted to improve on that,” Thomas said.
However not only did he want to average more than 14 points per game, but Thomas also wanted to get stronger and improve his shooting.
Thomas is clearly improving on his shooting, as evidenced by his performance against Eureka in which he scored 40 points, which happens to be his fondest memory so far this season.
Thomas has a field goal percentage of 52 percent, and a 47 percent average from behind the three-point line. From the free throw line Thomas is shooting almost 66% by connecting on 87 of his team-high 132 attempts.
“Christian has as much talent in his little finger as most of us have in our entire bodies,” head coach, Ryan Luhning said. “He is someone who doesn’t take his talent for granted. He is our hardest worker and that’s why he’s successful.”
Thomas has done a remarkable job of improving his ball handling skills, as well as his jump shot.  The changes have already paid off for the Hounds and Thomas.
In a game against MICDS earlier this season, the opposing Rams were determined to not let Thomas beat them down low, so he easily stepped outside the arc and drained his first five three-point attempts.
As well, Thomas has carried the ball up the court much more this season than in the past.
Thomas hasn’t just improved on goals he set for himself, but he has improved the overall team as well.
“Christian isn’t just someone who plays basketball,” senior forward Preston Burnsed said. “He’s a basketball player who was born to play the sport. His natural talent along with hard work will help the ‘Greyhound pack’ have a very successful season.”
Since Thomas is such a great player, he has already had college scouts looking at him, several of whom came to watch him play over the summer.
Thomas has got his eye on one college in particular, the University of Nevada.
“I like the coaches there and they have a good winning tradition,” Thomas said.
To Thomas, basketball isn’t just a high school thing. His love for the game is something that he wants to pursue in the future.
“I definitely want to play in college and if I get the chance to make it a career, I would love to,” Thomas said. 

“Snow Angel” is a story of a small group of teenagers on a snow day, who find a lost girl and attempt to help her find her way back home. Throughout the play, the main character, Eva meets each of the other characters and portrays each of them as they appear to others.

After the long process of auditions, the actors soon received their roles and began looking over the script.

The actors tended to show some mixed feelings about the show.

“It’s really abstract,” said freshman Eudora Olsen, who plays Frida.  ”We’ve done more show-tuney productions whereas this is more edgy; the audience has to think so it’s new to me,” freshman Eudora Olsen who plays Frida said.

Freshman Emma Riley, who plays the role of Eva, said she didn’t originally like the play.

“After blocking it and seeing how it looks, and how we act together, I think it’s going to be really good. And we have a good director to pull it off.”

This year’s director for the freshman-sophomore play is Adam Florese.

“I love the director,” Olsen said.  ”He’s such a chill guy.”

Florese tends to make the rehearsals fun for students. Not only that, but he has also helped to improve students’ acting abilities as well.

“The quality of the blocking is so much better,” Riley said. “Beforehand [in middle school productions] it told me just where to go. Now I feel like I’m improving my acting abilities as well.”

This director hasn’t only helped to give the actors better direction, but he has also helped them to develop a better understanding of their characters.

This was done by having each student bring in a song that best represented the character they would be playing, and then having them explain it to the group.

“The director helped us to get a better understanding of our characters,” Riley said. “It really helped because we know our characters better and we know how to interpret them and say their lines.”

Florese has a unique way of doing things when it comes to theatre. One of the rules for “Snow Angel” is that every character must wear one costume piece of their own. They must also lend a costume piece to another character as well.

The drama department puts on a show meant to be mainly cast with freshmen and sophomores because it gives them the opportunity to receive larger roles.  Even though this show is meant to be for mainly freshmen and sophomores, the upperclassmen tend to take part in it as well.

“In case they needed more people, we’ve always implemented upperclassmen into the underclassmen play because of the shortage of parts,” junior John Holland, who plays the character Crank, said.

Since upperclassmen are allowed to audition and because this year specifically all the auditions were done together, the freshmen were a little tense about them.  Riley explained that this was only her second time having callbacks and for her it was a little frightening.

“It was a little nerve-racking because you get experiences with other actors in callbacks and there’s more competition,” Riley said.

The actors have gone through the long drawn out process of auditions, and are in the process of surviving the hard work of rehearsals. They hope that they get a good crowd to come and see the play. Tickets are five dollars, and the show will take place on Nov. 20 and 21.