Guitar: The Baseline of John Grismer’s Basketball Career

By Baker Reding '21

John Grismer ‘21 is not just a Cadet and a basketball captain, but is also a musician. Grismer has found his passion for playing the guitar and writing music. High school students tend to have a lot on their plate, especially at STA, and on Grismer’s was the challenging basketball season:“Obviously, it was not the ideal season, but I found playing my guitar as a way to combat the stress built up from losing so many games. I am fortunate that I have something that I can do to relieve my stress because, without it, the winter would have gone by in slow motion,” said Grismer. 

Grismer has been fascinated by music since his days playing the piano routinely and claims, “I get my musical curiosity from my sisters,” who both play piano and guitar. Watching his older sisters thrive on the guitar, John was eager to give it a try. Throughout the summer before junior year, he spent hours learning the basics of the guitar and quickly began to write his own lyrics to complement his style. 

In Defense of Good Music

By Jack MapelLentz '22

Genres: the quest to fulfill humans’ insatiable desire to sort everything; to quantify. One might think that pop music would be the most, well, popular, right? Think again: rap and hip-hop, as I’m sure you’re all well aware, have taken the world by storm. The vast majority of kids don their headphones and queue up some Juice WRLD, Trippie Redd, or Lil Uzi Vert.

I, too, as I write this, am listening to a masterpiece. Yet, if I had to guess, I’m sure that none of you have heard of it: Bon Iver’s 22, A Million. Few other albums or artists — and few other things, in general — can etherealize my emotions anywhere near as eloquently as Justin Vernon’s aching falsetto and exquisitely enigmatic lyrics.