Wow...I've been busy.

Well, it's spring break now, so I finally have some time to blog. Let's see... what has happened over the past few weeks?

A couple of weeks ago, my orchestra went on its spring trip to New York. I had never been to New York before, so it was very exciting. My impression: A giant outdoor shopping mall that has become waaaaay too popular. The first night we were there, the orchestra got to see Phantom of the Opera, which was very cool. I still prefer Les Mis, but I enjoyed it, and so did several of my friends who absolutely love the musical. I thought it was pretty good, but if Carlotta was not trying to sing badly, she would sound better operatically that whoever played Christine. And indeed, the Carlotta person has played in several operas. Overall, it was very good. Unfortunately, our teacher got hurt herding teenagers out of the theater and to the bus, and when one of the chaperones/school administrators took her to he hospital, his car was broken into. However, the students in the orchestras, myself included, tried to encourage her so that she could conduct us for the competition. We gave her a get well card, and when she showed up the next day at dinner, she got a HUGE round of applause from our orchestras. We won a bunch of awards at the competition and thesymphonicc orchestra, the one I'm in, got first place for our division. One of the adjunicators said that, when we started playing, he listened for a minute with his tape recorder to record comments, but then set the recorder down, leaned back, and enjoyed our music.

The highlight of that trip for me was probably when we all broke up into little groups with chaperones and went shopping. We went to a store with lots of Broadway stuff, and I was able to find a Les Mis Tshirt (and magnet!). I feel kinda sorry for the guy who pointed the shirt out to me and had to put up with my excited squealings and jumping up and down out of happiness, but, to whoever that was, thank you!

Anyway, the trip was overall great. I may want to visit New York again, but I don't think I would want to live there. Thanks to our orchestra boosters and chaperones and ESPECIALLY our orchestra director for making it great!

After we got back, talk about the spring musical started. Our school is putting on Damn Yankees, a show which is jazzy and a bit corny, but otherwise interesting (though cliché). You can find info here. I am in the pit orchestra playing the bottom part of the second violin music. However, the term "music" is used loosely, because the sheet music is nearly illegible—it was handwritten with what looks like a Sharpie! And I always want to point out that the term "music" is in the word "musical" for a reason. We play a song or two, the actors sing along, great. Then they talk for five minutes. I almost wonder if it would be better considered a play with a few musical numbers. And please take out the songs that don't make any sense, like "Who's Got the Pain?". Do a search for "Damn Yankees Lyrics" or "Damn Yankees Libretto" and look that one up and you'll see what I mean. The recording we were given of the musical makes the song even stupider. But hey, I didn't write it, so if you enjoy that sort of thing, don't let me rain on your parade as much as it was a few minutes ago here.

Anyway, I gotta go... I think we're about to watch a DVD opera. And sorry about the rantingness of this post on "Damn Yankees". I'm tired. It's the first day of spring break and I spent half the day at school rehearsing "Damn Yankees".