Marching Band

This year for marching band our music was from the new star wars movies. You know, the three new ones with nice special effects. Yeah. Those ones. We had a fun little medley that including the most popular music, and also music that probably had absolutely nothing to do with star wars but sounded nice on the field. Thats just my speculation, it could be totally wrong, but I'm pretty sure that there is more than one grain of truth in that statement. Probably at least three grains, but my bet is about 2 million grains. That brings up the all important question; how many grains of sand are in the ocean? Actually it doesn't bring up that question, I just thought it would be fun to put in my blog. If anybody actually can answer that question that would be totally cool though, we should set the worlds greatest minds on figuring out the answer to that question. I'm sure it would solve a whole bunch of our most pressing problems. I mean seriously, would there really be war if we knew exactly how many grains of sand there were floating or sitting in the ocean? I bet there wouldn't be! And you can't even prove me wrong because i doubt that you know the answer to that question. Thus, I have bested you, and you have lost.

I appear to be digressing from the title of this blog don't I... Back to band. Our show was pretty fun, and actually less tiring then shows in the past as far as i can remember. In the past I've practically had a hard attack because I had to play as loud as I could at the end and I had basically no air so i was squishing the life out of myself. Nearly. Back to band. We got a major confidence boost at the beginning of the year at the marshalltown competion. We took grand champion, first in our class (funny thing is we were the only band in class 4A), and all the caption awards. I'm pretty sure these included best winds, best colorguard, and something else. Maybe best drumline/percussion? Then at all our other competitions we didn't do so well. I'm speaking of the important ones: Valley and Ankeny. I mean, we did all right and we looked and sounded good, but the judges were always placing us worse than we thought we should be placed. That seems to happen a lot in life doesnt it? At Valleyfest we got sixth or seventh, and we tied with Washington. Then at Ankeny we got fourth for the fourth or fifth year in a row so it was kind of lame. Washington did not look very good and their show was super boring, the crowd almost never clapped. During our show, on the other hand, the crowd went crazy like fifteen times. Then the general affect judge kept whining about how our color guard wasn't in a good position blah blah blah. It was stupid.




This is our video from Valley. Valley has the most amazing high school stadium currently in existence. This of course is 100% true, not influenced by my opinion in any way shape or form. Its got a really good view and you can see the forms nicely (not like anyone but a marching band person would even know or care what forms in band are)

Here is a random video of Texas Tech performing Star Wars/ Trek music in the dark with light up suits or something. Pretty much way better than any high school band.

Auditions

Last Saturday I had the wonderfully exciting privilege of auditioning for all-state. I actually do not believe that it is a good thing to be allowed to try out, because auditions are quite possibly the most frightening thing on this planet. I hate them with a very large passion.

About five weeks before the real thing, Ms. Fleer made anyone that wanted to try out do a pre-audition try out, in order to wean out the runts of the school and to give those that pass a better chance of making the final audition. That was scary enough as it is, because at that time I had barely begun to practice and was still pretty horrible at the music. Thankfully, due to last year where I made recalls, Ms. Fleer told me that it was fine if I didn't do the thing with her. Saved! It was quite the wonderful feeling.

My all-state time was 3:20, so I got to Oelwine around 2:00 and started to warm up and prepare. I was really nervous because I felt a lot less prepared than the year before. When I practiced my solo part I actually had to stop once, and go back because I got so screwed up that I just couldn't go on anymore. It was very disheartening. I went to my room a few minutes early just in case they were running on time, and turns out they weren't. After all of my warming up and preparing I had to sit and wait for 20 minutes. Absolutely perfect for de-warming and not concentrating. Oliver Jorge and I sat and played games on my iPod for awhile and then finally, and unexpectedly, it was my turn to go. I walked into the room and said hello to the judge, who said hello back pleasantly enough. This would turn out to be the only pleasant thing she would say or do throughout the entire experience.


I screwed up my solo a little bit and it made me sad especially since the judge said she had heard of the song. Its called Divertissement by Pierre Max Dubois. Who's heard of that song anyway? She must have very little in her life to keep her interesting. That's all I have to say on that matter.

Then came the etudes that we had to have prepared. I played both of them without any major mistake and was feelin' pretty good. The slow one was super good sounding in my opinion, I didn't have that nervous spazzy vibrato problem like I have had in the past.

I picked F# as one of the scales on my little card, and F# is definitely my worst scale. Thankfully I contrived (isn't that a neat little word) to play it note perfect at the properly fast tempo so I felt pretty good.

I went back to the gym after playing my scales to wait for the sign. When it got posted I had oliver jorge look for me and I didn't get a recall this year. Darn! I actually wasn't sad because I just really wanted to leave that gym full of obnoxious band lovers.

All Around Me Song Review

All Around Me by Flyleaf Review

"All Around Me"

My hands are searching for you
My arms are outstretched towards you
I feel you on my fingertips
My tongue dances behind my lips for you

This fire rising through my being
Burning I'm not used to seeing you
I'm alive, I'm alive

I can feel you all around me
Thickening the air I'm breathing
Holding on to what I'm feeling
Savoring this heart that's healing

My hands float up above me
And you whisper you love me
And I begin to fade
Into our secret place

The music makes me sway
The angels singing say we are alone with you
I am alone and they are too with you
I'm alive, I'm alive

I can feel you all around me
Thickening the air I'm breathing
Holding on to what I'm feeling
Savoring this heart that's healing

As I cry
The light is white
And I see you
I'm alive,
I'm alive,
I'm alive

I can feel you all around me
Thickening the air I'm breathing
Holding on to what I'm feeling
Savoring this heart that's healing

Take my hand
I give it to you
Now you own me
All I am
You said you would never leave me
I believe you
I believe

I can feel you all around me
Thickening the air I'm breathing
Holding on to what I'm feeling
Savoring this heart that's healed

This song is pretty addictive as well, but it definitely isn't one that you go around humming. Its fun to listen to while doing something like homework, but it doesn't really get stuck in your head. The main thing going for it is the combination of the singer's voice and the instrumental stuff, it repeats frequently throughout the song (as you can tell from the lyrics) and it makes it good background music. It is also easy to hum along to after just a listen or two, unlike some songs (ex: Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap) which take several listens and maybe a quick search for the lyrics on the web.

This song is most likely talking about a girl and her boyfriend. It seems to me like it might be a love song with a little bit of exaggeration, talking about a secret place and whatnot. It reminds me of Pocketful of Sunshine when Natasha Bedingfield is talking about her secret place with rivers that nobody knows about etc etc. It is one of the few songs by a band that seems to get close to the edge of hardcore rock that I actually like. It is one of the few songs that Flyleaf has that I like listening to, some of them get a little to "rocky" and a little too screamy. Like a death metal band that took some chill pills. Yeah. I said chill pills. So there.

I hope to listen to and review more songs from flyleaf in the future, the only obstacle is actually buying the cd or songs. I've only heard All Around Me on the radio, none of their other songs, so I can only say what I said in the paragraph above (you know, the part involving some of those mythical chill pills).

Okay so here is the music video for it, and I'll have you know you almost didn't get to watch this from the blog. For some reason embedding this official music video was disabled, but lucky for you, I am dedicated and I found one that could be embedded.

Okay I realize that this music video is a little odd, the lead singer (Lacey Mosley) has her eyes closed a little too much and looks a bit emo in my opinion. And what's up with how she looks like she has some super bad migraine or something? Maybe she is allergic to light! That would explain the pale skin too!
She seems much different in real videos, not like this fake overdone music video. The whole paint splattering or running down the walls seems a little bit crazy too. That red paint looks way too much like blood for my liking. Very disturbing.

Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap Review

Imogen Heap
Hide and Seek Lyrics

a combination of my lyrics and stlyrics.com's

Where are we? What the hell is going on?
The dust has only just begun to fall,
Crop circles in the carpet, sinking, feeling.

Spin me round again and rub my eyes.
This can't be happening.
When busy streets a mess with people
would stop to hold their heads heavy.

Hide and seek.
Trains and sewing machines.
All those years they were here first.

Oily marks appear on walls
Where pleasure moments hung before
The takeover, the sweeping insensitivity of this
still life.
Hide and seek.
Trains and sewing machines. (Oh, you won't catch me around here)
Blood and tears,(hearts)
They were here first.

Mmm, what you say?
Mm, that you only meant well?
Well, of course you did.
Mmm, what you say?
Mm, that it's all for the best?
Ah of course it is.
Mmm, what you say?
Mm, that it's just what we need?
And you decided this.
Mmm what you say?
What did you say?

(hide and seek)
Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth.
Mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut-outs.
Speak no feeling,
no I dont believe you.Y
ou don't care a bit. You don't care a bit.

(hide and seek)
Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth.
Mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut-outs.
Speak no feeling, no I don't believe you.

You don't care a bit.
You don't care a bit.
You don't care a bit.
You don't care a bit.
You don't care a bit.
You don't care a bit.
You don't care a bit.



This song is rather amazing. The vocals are incredibly orchestrated so that there is almost always some totally fantastic chords and dissonance. Whenever the lyrics have a lot of emotion, the dissonance levels increase. http://lostthingsfound.blogspot.com/2006/12/totally-blown-away.html%20(A(A really good review of this song, but when i later returned to view it it no longer was there, so be warned, it might not work)

It takes some time to get used to actually hearing and understanding the words, its best if you look at the lyrics the first time so you don't hear something wrong and then get really confused once you know what it actually is saying. Once you can understand the powerful lyrics, and get the harmonies in your head, the song is stuck. It is nearly impossible to get this song unstuck from your head once its in there. Imagine somebody threw a little urchin covered with barbed spines right at your brain. Once its in there, it won't leave. It's like that...minus the blood, guts, and pain. I believe a porcupine would be an appropriate analogy as well, depends on your preference.

Video Time! Now for the warning... This is some random frightening video made by a creeper somewhere that thinks that people care about how and where they drive. Well, we could not care less. The reason that this was the video chosen is simple; the real music videos have their embed functions disabled by request, so this is what we get. You are lucky I even went to the work of finding this one, I had to make my search parameters tighter and actually burn an extra one billionth of a calorie for you, my mysterious reader.



Now for the actual lyrics part. Some other review for this song I read talked about how they believed the lyrics were talking about some girl, possibly imogen heap (what kind of name is that anyway), visited her childhood home to find that it was very changed. The author of this review was saying how the part, "Oily marks appear on walls, Where pleasure moments hung before, The takeover, the sweeping insensitivity of this still life," was quite obviously talking about a family portrait that was no longer there. I think that this is utterly ridiculous. First of all, why would a family move but leave their portrait on the wall? That would be just stupid, wouldn't it? Yes. The correct answer to that question is yes. The thing is, if you cared little enough about it to just leave it hanging on the wall, why would you be sad if when you visit years later its no longer there. Makes lots and lots of sense. Not. Secondly, the portion of the song that goes like this, "Spin me round again and rub my eyes. This can't be happening. When busy streets a mess with people would stop to hold their heads heavy." Why on earth would people on a busy street decide that it was a really wonderful time to get all depressed and down just because someone found their house with a family portrait gone. A family portrait that in my opinion doesnt exist. Thirdly, what would ransom notes have anything to do with somebody visiting their house and being sad? I'm going to throw out a random guess. Lets go with... hmmm. Nothing! Unless of course their house was stolen from them by the Mafia and they thought it would be best to wait a while, like a few years, before coming to visit. Gotta be safe and all, don't want to get shot or anything looking at your house.


another song review- http://christianpruitt.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/album-of-the-day-music-from-the-oc-mix-5/

Fall Reflections

Reading the title of this blog I bet at least one reader thought it was about water. Well guess what, its not! The reflections for this blog are introspective reflections.

As the leaves change colors and animals prepare for winter, I think about what I did the previous summer, and if it is what I wanted to do. In other words, I give myself a rating on how well I accomplished my goals. Usually the goals are small ones, nothing major. It seems as if most of the time my goals go un accomplished. I tend to distract myself from my goals and forget about them. I think that this happens to most people with goals that are repeated year after year. Such as losing weight after Thanksgiving, or Christmas. After both of the aforementioned holidays, an influx of new people appear in every gym. People want to work out, to be fit, yet somehow by that time next year, people have forgotten their goals, become too busy. That is how my goal setting works, but I try to set my goals before summer. Every summer I get busy, and before I know it, the summer is over and its back to the drudgery of school.

Fruit

Did you know that a cucumber is a fruit? How about a habanero pepper? Well they both are, weird, isn't it? The strangest plant by-product must be that a banana plant is actually a massive herb. Yeah. Thats the truth. No matter how many types of fruits or false fruits there are, the best one is the apple. It is incredibly delicious on its own, and there are so many different things to be done with fresh apples.
There is applesauce, which when you are making it looks disgusting to the extreme. It is just pulverized apples that you squish the pulp out of... mmmm. There is apple crisp, apple pie, apple bread, apple tart, apple pastry. The list goes on and on. Each type of food when made fresh tastes just like a delicious apple, not like the store-bought applesauce which just tastes like... Nobody really knows what it tastes like, but it doesn't taste like a nice crisp apple.