Rent is a musical that is one of the greatest of our time. In my opinion, the power of the music is perahps comparable to The Phantom of the Opera, The Sound of Music, Wicked, and West Side Story. It is one of the most thought provoking musicals out there, and it is also one of the most risky musicals. For those of you who don't know, Rent is about a group of people who are living in poor parts of New York City at the turn of the twenty-first century. The characters have to deal with drug addictions, relationships, sickness, and money issues. It is a very mature play, and the roles call for outstanding acting and vocal ability. Each character has been through a ton of ordeals in their lives, and to play a role in the show is truly an honor.
Now I haven't seen the movie in its entirety, but I think I have seen all of the parts separately. Although all of the parts together create a magnificent story, each part has its own morals and teachings. The most powerful part of Rent for me is the meeting of the people who have AIDS. The song they sing is called Will I? It's a very powerful song, especially when everyone starts singing. These people are dying and they don't know if they will wake up tomorrow. That's a horrible thought for everyone, and the song cuts to the heart with its simplicity and strength. Here's a video of the song from the anniversary show about a year ago. Perhaps you will understand the people and their trouble just through this song.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
This Is One of Those Moments
Read the lyrics to this song, and maybe you'll see why it's one of my favorites. (The lyrics are changed a bit-these are the ones my show choir sang last year).
There are moments you remember all your life
There are moments you wait for and dream of all your life
This is one of those moments
I will always remember this stage, these people
The way the light streams in
The clothes I'm wearing
The words I'm hearing
The face I'm seeing
The feeling I'm feeling
The smell, the sound
Will be written on my mind
Will be written on my heart
As long as I live!
I can travel the past and take what I need
To see me through the years
What my father learned and his father before him
Will be there for my eyes and ears
I can walk through the forest of the trees of knowledge
And listen to the lessons of the leaves
I can enter rooms where there are rooms within rooms
Wrapped in the shawl that learning weaves
I remember
Everything this taught,
What this gave me
Look at what it's brought me
There are certain things that once you have
No man can take away
No wave can wash away
No wind can blow away
I can open doors and take from the shelves
All the books I've longed to hold
I can ask all the questions, the whys and the wheres
As the mystery of life unfolds
Like a link in a chain from the past to the future
That joins me with the children yet to be
I can now be a part of the ongoing stream
That has always been a part of me
There are certain things that once you have
No man take away
No wave can wash away
No wind can blow away
No tide can turn away
No fire can burn away
No time can wear away
And now they're about to be mine!
There are moments you remember all your life
There are moments you wait for and dream of all your life
This is one of those moments
Last year, my show choir sang this song, but it deals with much more than show choir. To me, it means a time that I will never forget- The Music Man national tour. Every time I hear I song from that show, I can feel what I was feeling when I was hearing it during the actual thing. When I hear the "Iowa Stubborn" I hear it through a monitor, and I smell fresh cotton. You see, during "Iowa Stubborn" I was in my dressing room putting on my thigh-long white socks that went in the wash after every performance. Nearly every moment in the show is accompanied by a feeling, a smell, a more specific sound. "The Music Man" was one of those moments.
This song is almost exactly how I feel about The Music Man. I will always remember the stage, the people I was with and the lights shining on the stage in all the different forms. Everything will be written on my mind and my heart for my whole life. No one can take away those great feelings. No one can take away the memories. Those memories are mine. Those moments are mine.
There are some songs that you just want to sing over and over again. This is one of the songs that I could sing over and over again. Every time I see the lyrics I just want to burst out in song. Everyone has a song like that. Everyone has a song that when they hear they just want to join along. Music is something that everyone enjoys, and everyone wants to be a part of it at some point- even the worst voices. Although the song that people sing out loud is different from person to person, the fact that there is a song is great I think. There is always an opera lover singing opera and there's always a teen singing along with songs such as "I Kissed a Girl," whose tune is actually pretty catchy.
I couldn't embed this video in my blog, but here's a link of the This is One of Those Moments with Barabara Streisand singing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMoV6Uc-03Y
There are moments you remember all your life
There are moments you wait for and dream of all your life
This is one of those moments
I will always remember this stage, these people
The way the light streams in
The clothes I'm wearing
The words I'm hearing
The face I'm seeing
The feeling I'm feeling
The smell, the sound
Will be written on my mind
Will be written on my heart
As long as I live!
I can travel the past and take what I need
To see me through the years
What my father learned and his father before him
Will be there for my eyes and ears
I can walk through the forest of the trees of knowledge
And listen to the lessons of the leaves
I can enter rooms where there are rooms within rooms
Wrapped in the shawl that learning weaves
I remember
Everything this taught,
What this gave me
Look at what it's brought me
There are certain things that once you have
No man can take away
No wave can wash away
No wind can blow away
I can open doors and take from the shelves
All the books I've longed to hold
I can ask all the questions, the whys and the wheres
As the mystery of life unfolds
Like a link in a chain from the past to the future
That joins me with the children yet to be
I can now be a part of the ongoing stream
That has always been a part of me
There are certain things that once you have
No man take away
No wave can wash away
No wind can blow away
No tide can turn away
No fire can burn away
No time can wear away
And now they're about to be mine!
There are moments you remember all your life
There are moments you wait for and dream of all your life
This is one of those moments
Last year, my show choir sang this song, but it deals with much more than show choir. To me, it means a time that I will never forget- The Music Man national tour. Every time I hear I song from that show, I can feel what I was feeling when I was hearing it during the actual thing. When I hear the "Iowa Stubborn" I hear it through a monitor, and I smell fresh cotton. You see, during "Iowa Stubborn" I was in my dressing room putting on my thigh-long white socks that went in the wash after every performance. Nearly every moment in the show is accompanied by a feeling, a smell, a more specific sound. "The Music Man" was one of those moments.
This song is almost exactly how I feel about The Music Man. I will always remember the stage, the people I was with and the lights shining on the stage in all the different forms. Everything will be written on my mind and my heart for my whole life. No one can take away those great feelings. No one can take away the memories. Those memories are mine. Those moments are mine.
There are some songs that you just want to sing over and over again. This is one of the songs that I could sing over and over again. Every time I see the lyrics I just want to burst out in song. Everyone has a song like that. Everyone has a song that when they hear they just want to join along. Music is something that everyone enjoys, and everyone wants to be a part of it at some point- even the worst voices. Although the song that people sing out loud is different from person to person, the fact that there is a song is great I think. There is always an opera lover singing opera and there's always a teen singing along with songs such as "I Kissed a Girl," whose tune is actually pretty catchy.
I couldn't embed this video in my blog, but here's a link of the This is One of Those Moments with Barabara Streisand singing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMoV6Uc-03Y
Sunday, February 1, 2009
The Dog in the Woods
So I was sitting at my computer earlier today, just blogging. My computer room is surrounded by glass windows on two sides, and you can see the woods from each side. I was just staring off and out of the corner of my eye I saw something run past the snow in the back. There's a ton of wild animals in my back yard. There are turkey, deer, squirrels, and one time I even saw a hawk fly by. But this time it was dog. I'm not sure what breed it was, but it was smooth haired and white with golden brown spots. He (or she) was running past, and I had never seen this dog before. It didn't 
look to be homeless, but it seemed to be lost. I got worried that the dog wouldn't find its way home, as one of my fears is that my dog could runaway and get lost forever. So I immediately put on my coat and my shoes. I went back out to the computer room to pinpoint the where the dog was in the vast woods, but it was nowhere to be found. The poor thing was lost in the wilderness with no sense of survival skills except for the ones he was born with. It would've been a lost hope for me to go out in the woods and search, for the dog was nearly sprinting and I wouldn't have been able to call for it. Much to my chagrin, I was compelled to take my coat and shoes off and begin typing away again.
After the Super Bowl I came back home, and the first thing I hear is barking from the woods. It wasn't very distinct so I had no idea from where the barking was coming. For all I knew, this dog could've been the dog that lived next door or two doors down. However, my gut told me that it was this dog that I had seen earlier. Again, it would've been a lost hope for me to go searching for the dog, for its bark ceased after only ten seconds or so. I felt bad though that I hadn't acted before. I should've kept my eye on the dog and gone out for it. That's what I would've wanted someone else to do if they had seen my dog. The dog is still out there I think in the woods. The only cover it has is cold snow and its frame is made of ice. If only I had another reason to searching for the dog. I wish there would be a sign.
look to be homeless, but it seemed to be lost. I got worried that the dog wouldn't find its way home, as one of my fears is that my dog could runaway and get lost forever. So I immediately put on my coat and my shoes. I went back out to the computer room to pinpoint the where the dog was in the vast woods, but it was nowhere to be found. The poor thing was lost in the wilderness with no sense of survival skills except for the ones he was born with. It would've been a lost hope for me to go out in the woods and search, for the dog was nearly sprinting and I wouldn't have been able to call for it. Much to my chagrin, I was compelled to take my coat and shoes off and begin typing away again.After the Super Bowl I came back home, and the first thing I hear is barking from the woods. It wasn't very distinct so I had no idea from where the barking was coming. For all I knew, this dog could've been the dog that lived next door or two doors down. However, my gut told me that it was this dog that I had seen earlier. Again, it would've been a lost hope for me to go searching for the dog, for its bark ceased after only ten seconds or so. I felt bad though that I hadn't acted before. I should've kept my eye on the dog and gone out for it. That's what I would've wanted someone else to do if they had seen my dog. The dog is still out there I think in the woods. The only cover it has is cold snow and its frame is made of ice. If only I had another reason to searching for the dog. I wish there would be a sign.
"Fab Five"
The Fab Five show choir concert is perhaps one of my favorite show choir performances we ever have. It's very different from all of the other performances, but I think it is different in a good way. At all of the other performances, we perform so we can entertain people, but mostly to win a trophy. We practice all year round, and we're basically judged on how well we are as a group by how well we do in the competitions. I think it's funny how show choir is all about competing, and in many ways I think it is wrong (although there's nothing like winning first place). Anyways, the Fab Five concert is unlike any other concert because it is only about making people happy. It's about entertaining people and giving people a good time. The audience is there because they want to have a good time, and by doing this, the groups can be judged on how entertaining they are, instead of being better than one another vocally or visually.
It's one thing to compete against another group to win a prize and to compete against them for pride. No trophy can replace pride, and when there's no trophy, no group can not have pride because they have not been beaten. Although I think my group could've beat all of the other groups in a competition, I think that all of the groups felt a pride for their own group that day. There wasn't a trophy to erase that pride, and that's what makes the Fab Five competition so special and great.
It's one thing to compete against another group to win a prize and to compete against them for pride. No trophy can replace pride, and when there's no trophy, no group can not have pride because they have not been beaten. Although I think my group could've beat all of the other groups in a competition, I think that all of the groups felt a pride for their own group that day. There wasn't a trophy to erase that pride, and that's what makes the Fab Five competition so special and great.
Trusting No One
I should have realized this much earlier in my life, but I'm finally realizing now that you can trust no one. You can trust people with secrets and such, especially if they're you're best of friends, but really you cannot predict someone's actions. You can't predict what a person's going to do in every single situation. Sometimes, the person you trust doesn't have control, and the trust may be broken not by him or her, but by the person that is acting upon him or her. Oddly, whenever I start thinking about this kind of thing I start to think about The Lord of the Rings. For example, no one can be trusted with the ring, not even the one with the most integrity. Frodo was this character in the book and movie, but the ring still overcame him several times in the story. Also, Smeagle wouldn't have told where Frodo lived unless the evil forces tortured him to say it. When I think of real life, I think of marriage and relationships. They all start off pretty great, and as time goes by, the two people start to trust each other more and more. After a year or two it would seem as if the trust is nearly unbreakable (well it could take more time for it to be unbreakable, I guess). However, sometimes the trust breaks as a result of a stupid mistake, of which the actions are unforgivable.
At my school recently, there was this couple who had been dating for a year and a half. They are seniors now, and to me, they seemed like the strongest couple in our school. They were honest with each other. They both deeply cared for each other, and they had gone through adversity from some peers and from some parents. It seemed as if they would grow old together. However, just recently, the guy decided to start liking this freshman girl. He wanted her to start a relationship with him, even though she didn't want to. He expected her to take on the baggage that he carried. He ended his year and half relationship for her he had said. Think of the pressure that girl had on her. This guy had just finished a relationship that she had never even fathomed. She couldn't just hop on the horse like he expected to.
And for the other girl, the senior, she was heart-broken. This guy that she had trusted for a year and a half began to want to be with this other girl, who by the way he had only known for about a week. Now this girl (the senior) is perhaps one of the coolest girls ever, and I don't know why this guy (who is also pretty cool) would want to jeopardize his relationship with her for this girl he barely even knew. The girl (the sr.) had trusted him, yet she couldn't predict what he would do.
To trust someone is a very hard thing to do, because it means that you are predicting their actions in a way. You are trusting them to make right decisions, and since right is a very person-to-person opinion, right must be what you want. Trust is a great thing to have, but sometimes you cannot rely on trust alone to decide what people are going to do.
At my school recently, there was this couple who had been dating for a year and a half. They are seniors now, and to me, they seemed like the strongest couple in our school. They were honest with each other. They both deeply cared for each other, and they had gone through adversity from some peers and from some parents. It seemed as if they would grow old together. However, just recently, the guy decided to start liking this freshman girl. He wanted her to start a relationship with him, even though she didn't want to. He expected her to take on the baggage that he carried. He ended his year and half relationship for her he had said. Think of the pressure that girl had on her. This guy had just finished a relationship that she had never even fathomed. She couldn't just hop on the horse like he expected to.
And for the other girl, the senior, she was heart-broken. This guy that she had trusted for a year and a half began to want to be with this other girl, who by the way he had only known for about a week. Now this girl (the senior) is perhaps one of the coolest girls ever, and I don't know why this guy (who is also pretty cool) would want to jeopardize his relationship with her for this girl he barely even knew. The girl (the sr.) had trusted him, yet she couldn't predict what he would do.
To trust someone is a very hard thing to do, because it means that you are predicting their actions in a way. You are trusting them to make right decisions, and since right is a very person-to-person opinion, right must be what you want. Trust is a great thing to have, but sometimes you cannot rely on trust alone to decide what people are going to do.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Whenever I talk to my older brother (who's a sophomore in college) about going to a football game or going to a school event, he often criticizes me. He says that high school is a joke. Now I wouldn't go that far because it's not a joke, it's real life and many people care about it. However, I have began to understand where he's coming from. Really, everything that goes on in high school is just a perception. Everything that happens isn't really as important as we take it to be. In five years we won't still be thinking about that really awesome basketball game or that huge test we had on Friday. It's the same with us thinking about middle school. Middle school wasn't that important in our minds, and when we were middle schoolers we didn't think that elementary school was all that it was hyped up to be when we were there. It's really all a big preparation because later in our lives, there will be a test that will change our lives. Passing the MCATs is a big deal or the LSATs. Both of those tests would change our lives, but a D on a chemistry test in high school wouldn't impact us at all as long as we got an A on the next test.
Everything is important to everyone now. Everything that is happening NOW is often the most important thing to us, and I think that most of us will realize in later years that what's happening NOW is not always the most important thing for us to think about.
Everything is important to everyone now. Everything that is happening NOW is often the most important thing to us, and I think that most of us will realize in later years that what's happening NOW is not always the most important thing for us to think about.
What My Future Holds
I am now starting to understand that one of the biggest decisions in my life is ahead of me. It is the question of where I should go to college. Since I am a good student I could go nearly anywhere I want (except for the major Ivy League schools). Also, since my mother works at the Coe copy center, her benefits include her children going tuition free to any school in Coe's system (I think it's called the ACM). So there are lots of opportunities for me to go to school for free. However, I want to go to a school that will give me the most opportunities and prepare me for life. I have to know what I want to do when I grow up so that I can find the school that will give me the greatest opportunities and preparation. Right now, I am quite unsure of what I want to do. Here are a few ideas.
I'm thinking that I could go to Med School. I would like to become a doctor and help people that way. I really enjoy biology (I took AP Bio last year). I would really like those skills to be used directly instead of indirectly like molecular biology does. Another way I could do that is by becoming a marine biologist. I really love animals, and when I was in Alaska I visited the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward. It was a great experience, and although I didn't have much time to spend there, I felt like I could've had the whole day there. There was so much information and exciting things to look at and learn about. It inspired me to think about becoming a marine biologist.
I also really love languages. I love speaking to foreigners, and I love being
able to communicate in a different tongue. Russian and Chinese are my best ones right now, and it wouldn't be very difficult for me to catch on to Hebrew since I can already read the script. I would love to integrate these skills into my occupation.
My favorite subject in school right now is Calculus. I just think it is amazing how everything falls into place. However, the only practical way I could use this information is if I become an engineer or become a teacher or professor. I can't really see myself becoming an engineer (I just don't have a passion for that), but I could see myself becoming a teacher.
The thing is, I have my whole life ahead of me. I could do all these things if I really wanted to. My only hope is that I have the most knowledge that I can possibly obtain, and I hope to be doing something that I love.
I'm thinking that I could go to Med School. I would like to become a doctor and help people that way. I really enjoy biology (I took AP Bio last year). I would really like those skills to be used directly instead of indirectly like molecular biology does. Another way I could do that is by becoming a marine biologist. I really love animals, and when I was in Alaska I visited the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward. It was a great experience, and although I didn't have much time to spend there, I felt like I could've had the whole day there. There was so much information and exciting things to look at and learn about. It inspired me to think about becoming a marine biologist.
I also really love languages. I love speaking to foreigners, and I love being
able to communicate in a different tongue. Russian and Chinese are my best ones right now, and it wouldn't be very difficult for me to catch on to Hebrew since I can already read the script. I would love to integrate these skills into my occupation.My favorite subject in school right now is Calculus. I just think it is amazing how everything falls into place. However, the only practical way I could use this information is if I become an engineer or become a teacher or professor. I can't really see myself becoming an engineer (I just don't have a passion for that), but I could see myself becoming a teacher.
The thing is, I have my whole life ahead of me. I could do all these things if I really wanted to. My only hope is that I have the most knowledge that I can possibly obtain, and I hope to be doing something that I love.
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