Tonight our FHE (family home evening) group was planning to go to a Jon Schmidt concert. Everybody felt they had too much homework except for Jerry and me, so it was only the two of us that attended. Which is too bad.
IT WAS AWESOME!
We got there about 45 minutes early, bought our tickets, and then stood in line to get in. We were near the front of the line. As soon as we got in line about 300 more people got in line behind us, so we came at the perfect time. We got into the theater and sat down almost on the front row right in the middle. They pulled the piano out and we realized that we would be 20 feet away from him at a perfect angle to see his hands play the piano. The music was incredible and impeccably presented. He is not just a piano player: he is an entertainer. We laughed when he did a backflip, when he told his corny jokes, and when he played the piano laying down on the bench under it and when he played with his toes and head. He played a song that I'd never heard before that was awesome that he said was new and was coming out soon. He played all of the favorites and then a few more.
It's really too bad that nobody else could go. It was totally worth the measly $10 a ticket to see.
Afterwards I got to see Janessa because she was up here in Provo for a Leadership Academy field trip thing. That was fun too.
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Monday, October 6, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
Perhaps the Busiest Week
Warning: Long Post Ahead
This last week has been...insane. I've been to four class periods the whole week - two on Monday and two on Friday. I've slept in my own bed once in the last seven days. Here's the story.
We'll start with Monday. At lunch-time FBLA left for our State Competition. We had a long six hour bus-ride up there, and then stayed up there until late at night Wednesday. We had lots of fun (I guess) in Ogden, where there is nothing to do. Especially by our convention center. However, here are the awards I remember:
*Desktop Publishing requires the submittal of a production test; our team had to create a logo, calendar, flyer, and other Desktop Publishing creations to be prejudged, then take an objective test at the State Leadership Conference (SLC)
Which means that James and I are going to Nationals, and there is a good chance that both Josh M. and the team of Sarah and Kassarah could be coming as well. Kirsten is also attending as a new state officer.
On Thursday the day was devoted to Sterling Scholar Region. Long and boring intervals were interspaced with brief moments of heart-attackish type adreneline rushes. We practiced the awards ceremony, broke for interviews, had lunch (hamburgers), had dinner, then had the awards ceremony. We had one Sterling Scholar Region Winner (Jordan H. in Mathematics) and about five runners up (I got runner up in General Scholarship). The winner of the General Scholarship competition had a 33 ACT score and had been out of the country for several weeks helping poor children in Cambodia or somewhere.
Friday was the day I went to school for half of the day again. The other half was spent decorating for Prom. At about 3:15 I left the Prom decoration event and went to the high school to travel on a bus back up north for the State Jazz Festival. Strangely enough I got the same bus driver I had for the FBLA trip, so I spent more than 25 hours in that exact bus. Big time waster. We played That's Cool by Shelly Berg, In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning, by I'm not sure, and Mongo's Mood, by I'm not sure (a different I'm not sure). We received a II, another II, and a II+. Pretty good considering this is the first time we've even qualified for State Jazz in approximately ten years.
We got back from our trip on Saturday at around 5:00 p.m., just in time to go home, get ready for Prom, then attend the Priesthood Session, then go pick up our dates (Jerry R. took Sarah C., and I took Whitney S.). We ate at Olive Garden, then attended the dance. Jerry and I were both at State Jazz, which means that we were not around on Saturday to do any sort of "day date" thing, so we are planning a cool date for next Saturday, which I'm looking forward to.
Prom was generally awesome. All three of the others in my group, including my date (Whitney, Jerry, and Sarah) were fun to be around. The only complaint I have is that the picture line was too long; we only were actually on the dance floor for about an hour and fifteen minutes. So I was pretty annoyed, and when I'm annoyed I'm edgy, and so I probably wasn't the most fun to be around in the line ;). We had a bunch of fun though. Swinging is always a fun dance style, even if your flower falls off. (That reminds me...a quick note...I learned how to make corsages from Jerry's sister, and we both made one for our dates; it's so cheap and easy I don't know why we don't do them all the time ourselves) I was elected as Prom King, a great honor that is nice to have and boosts self-esteem, but it was an award I would rather not have received (at least in front of everybody at the dance). I am not built for publicity and stuff, and then people come up to me in the hallway all the time and say stuff like, "Congratulations on being Prom King!" and some try to be sneaky and come up and say hi and then under their breath breathe, "Prom King," like I'm supposed to say, "Oh, thanks" rather sneakily and give them a big fake wink. I never know what to say when people say stuff like that. I thank them, but I'd much rather everybody forgot about the whole deal. This kind of stuff makes me uncomfortable. Natalie H. was the queen, Cody P. was the prince, and Tanya H. was the princess.
The best part of the logistical side of the dance was the music; because we picked all of the music beforehand ourselves, and because we spent the little extra money to hire a good DJ, the music was awesome.
We sold out of Prom tickets beforehand and then sold some more at the door. We sold about 175 tickets, which means about 350 people at the dance. After the dance we stayed to help clean up, because I'm on the Prom committee, and then we went to Tia B.'s house to eat crepes. We did get a picture of the Prom committee, but not of the royalty.
Sunday we left again, this time to watch general conference at my grandparents house in St. George (we don't have T.V.). Hectic. More posts coming soon.
This last week has been...insane. I've been to four class periods the whole week - two on Monday and two on Friday. I've slept in my own bed once in the last seven days. Here's the story.
We'll start with Monday. At lunch-time FBLA left for our State Competition. We had a long six hour bus-ride up there, and then stayed up there until late at night Wednesday. We had lots of fun (I guess) in Ogden, where there is nothing to do. Especially by our convention center. However, here are the awards I remember:
- Josh M. - 3rd in Accounting I
- Sarah C. and Kassara S. - 3rd in *Desktop Publishing
- James P. - 6th in Cyber Security, 8th in Computer Problem Solving, 9th in Networking Concepts
- Kirsten W. - Was elected as a State Officer - Secretary
- Sean F. - 1st Place in Business Communication, 5th Place in Cyber Security, 6th Place in Business Calculations
- Sean F. and James P. - 1st Place in E-business
*Desktop Publishing requires the submittal of a production test; our team had to create a logo, calendar, flyer, and other Desktop Publishing creations to be prejudged, then take an objective test at the State Leadership Conference (SLC)
Which means that James and I are going to Nationals, and there is a good chance that both Josh M. and the team of Sarah and Kassarah could be coming as well. Kirsten is also attending as a new state officer.
On Thursday the day was devoted to Sterling Scholar Region. Long and boring intervals were interspaced with brief moments of heart-attackish type adreneline rushes. We practiced the awards ceremony, broke for interviews, had lunch (hamburgers), had dinner, then had the awards ceremony. We had one Sterling Scholar Region Winner (Jordan H. in Mathematics) and about five runners up (I got runner up in General Scholarship). The winner of the General Scholarship competition had a 33 ACT score and had been out of the country for several weeks helping poor children in Cambodia or somewhere.
Friday was the day I went to school for half of the day again. The other half was spent decorating for Prom. At about 3:15 I left the Prom decoration event and went to the high school to travel on a bus back up north for the State Jazz Festival. Strangely enough I got the same bus driver I had for the FBLA trip, so I spent more than 25 hours in that exact bus. Big time waster. We played That's Cool by Shelly Berg, In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning, by I'm not sure, and Mongo's Mood, by I'm not sure (a different I'm not sure). We received a II, another II, and a II+. Pretty good considering this is the first time we've even qualified for State Jazz in approximately ten years.
We got back from our trip on Saturday at around 5:00 p.m., just in time to go home, get ready for Prom, then attend the Priesthood Session, then go pick up our dates (Jerry R. took Sarah C., and I took Whitney S.). We ate at Olive Garden, then attended the dance. Jerry and I were both at State Jazz, which means that we were not around on Saturday to do any sort of "day date" thing, so we are planning a cool date for next Saturday, which I'm looking forward to.
Prom was generally awesome. All three of the others in my group, including my date (Whitney, Jerry, and Sarah) were fun to be around. The only complaint I have is that the picture line was too long; we only were actually on the dance floor for about an hour and fifteen minutes. So I was pretty annoyed, and when I'm annoyed I'm edgy, and so I probably wasn't the most fun to be around in the line ;). We had a bunch of fun though. Swinging is always a fun dance style, even if your flower falls off. (That reminds me...a quick note...I learned how to make corsages from Jerry's sister, and we both made one for our dates; it's so cheap and easy I don't know why we don't do them all the time ourselves) I was elected as Prom King, a great honor that is nice to have and boosts self-esteem, but it was an award I would rather not have received (at least in front of everybody at the dance). I am not built for publicity and stuff, and then people come up to me in the hallway all the time and say stuff like, "Congratulations on being Prom King!" and some try to be sneaky and come up and say hi and then under their breath breathe, "Prom King," like I'm supposed to say, "Oh, thanks" rather sneakily and give them a big fake wink. I never know what to say when people say stuff like that. I thank them, but I'd much rather everybody forgot about the whole deal. This kind of stuff makes me uncomfortable. Natalie H. was the queen, Cody P. was the prince, and Tanya H. was the princess.
The best part of the logistical side of the dance was the music; because we picked all of the music beforehand ourselves, and because we spent the little extra money to hire a good DJ, the music was awesome.
We sold out of Prom tickets beforehand and then sold some more at the door. We sold about 175 tickets, which means about 350 people at the dance. After the dance we stayed to help clean up, because I'm on the Prom committee, and then we went to Tia B.'s house to eat crepes. We did get a picture of the Prom committee, but not of the royalty.
Sunday we left again, this time to watch general conference at my grandparents house in St. George (we don't have T.V.). Hectic. More posts coming soon.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Happenings
I'll quickly breeze through some happenings.
We're counting up ballots for Prom 2008 royalty right now...every free minute at school is spent doing it, and they're not ScanTrons, either. We are going to have a run-off ballot, where the top eight or ten are put on a ScanTron to finalize the vote.
The Photography Club field trip is on Thursday, March 27th, to Michael Fatali's gallery up in Zion.
The State Jazz Band Festival is coming up on April 4th and 5th.
Prom is April 5th. I'm on the committee, so we have to plan it.
Website work is fun. I must say.
We're counting up ballots for Prom 2008 royalty right now...every free minute at school is spent doing it, and they're not ScanTrons, either. We are going to have a run-off ballot, where the top eight or ten are put on a ScanTron to finalize the vote.
The Photography Club field trip is on Thursday, March 27th, to Michael Fatali's gallery up in Zion.
The State Jazz Band Festival is coming up on April 4th and 5th.
Prom is April 5th. I'm on the committee, so we have to plan it.
Website work is fun. I must say.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Valentine's Dance
As many of you know, today is Valentine's day. In honor of this special occasion, the school music department hosted a Dinner Dance, in which spaghetti and Jazz, breadsticks and Rock, and mints and music mixed for a few mellifluous moments. I performed in (I would list all of the numbers, but even I don't expect my memory to be that good! In fact, I've probably left out a bunch that I played in...in other words, please enjoy this list of a small sample of the performance tonight):
- Boo-Ray (percussive joy)
- Stick Schtick (percussive joy)
- Sea Sounds (we all got some good "vibes" from this piece)
- Embraceable You (choral in Utah, and we don't even have an ocean!)
- Smoke on the Water (Rockish piece played by the Jazz Band)
- Too Young (Ballad)
- It's Only a Paper Moon (Jazzy piece)
- Do Nothin' 'till You Hear From Me (likewise)
- In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning (ditto)
- That's Cool (Cool Jazz)
- Steam Heat (choral in Utah, and we don't even have an ocean!)
- We had a few skittish people up on stage, didn't we?
- and much, much more!
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