ok, a little late...
So Jazz Day was a blast! First I had to perform with Camerata which meant once again donning my all-too-big tux for a not comparatively important performance. But anyway, our main worry was that everyone wouldn't remember the words to this one song "Alive and Well" but we pulled it off, granted pretty miraculously. We weren't stellar, but we didn't have much time to prepare and Contino said that the rest of the groups that morning were bad, so as long as we were good by comparison that's fine by me. And that wasn't the important performance of the morning anyway.
So after that all the guys who were in the jazz chorus for all county went to change, and I changed into my uber-spiffy suit (black pants and jacket, bright insanely red shirt, white tie, belt with stripes of all three colors) which I was soooo proud of, and we went to perform. And AAAAAAAAAH it was fun. Peter Eldridge from the New York Voices was our conductor and he was just SO COOL. He was funny and engaging and you could tell he was just having a ton of fun. Which rubbed off on all of us. And he sang us a composition of his which was not-too-obviously about the many turmoils of being gay and in love, which is something I could definitely relate to, and it was just so good. And sad. But anyway, we sang "Moonglow" (a spiffy kinda slow swing song), "Centerpiece" (basically just a bunch of blues riffs with words and an excuse to scat), "Masquerade" (not the Phantom one; it's like a latin jazz piece, very smooth), "Old Friends/Bookends" (very VERY touching emotional arrangement of the Paul Simon song-just GORGEOUS), and "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens" (just a BLAST of a song-totally big band, all sorts of shout parts, etc.). We were good in pretty much everything. Not super-great, but definitely really good. The only real disappointment for me was at the end of "Old Friends/Bookends" when we kinda messed up the ending, but it was really Peter's fault because he was playing the piano and not really conducting properly. And I'm sure he kind of expected us to intuitively know when to come in since he's from such a cohesive ensemble-type group. But either way, he forgot to cue us in a place we needed to be cued on and we kinda messed up, but not really. So it was still okay. And god, do I love that song. It always makes me all teary and thinking of Ian and I or Kristin and I or Ian and Kristin and I (hopefully, one day) just being old and looking back on when we were young and maybe having that make aging less painful, and being happy about my life in retrospect. Which as of now, I can't really do completely. And stuff. "Chickens" was a blast-it's just SOOOOO much fun to sing. SOOOOO much fun. And I can't wait until we go to Albany to perform all the songs again. And then after that I met up with my mom and grandma and we watched the band which, as usual, was really amazing. There's just something about all-area jazz ensembles that makes them generally better than regular all-area ensembles. I think it's some kind of combination between the smaller size, the level of fun-ness associated with the genre and the ability to more easily cover up mistakes. And then I went home and went to work. Which sucked. But I had "Chickens" stuck in my head the entire time so it made it go a little faster. And then I went home and slept.
And THEN, Sunday I studied for Bio practically all day, except for a woodwind quintet I saw with Ian, which featured a bunch of REALLY talented people, some of whom I had seen perform before at the Staller Center and stuff. And the really pretty french horn player was there, and wow is she pretty. Pretty people make me angry ;) And it was kind of scary because right after intermission the bassoon player's bassoon broke slightly, but it all turned out mint. And then he came over for a while...and stuff...and then I studied more for bio until about 1. I love my boyfriend! WEEEEEEE!
And THEN, Monday was my bio midterm. Out of 120 questions I'm absolutely positive I got 102 right (85%), but it's on a curve so that doesn't really matter. But it was pretty harmless in general. I think I'll do well. And then I surprise went over to Ian's house and we snuggled for a while and then he made some reeds while I took a nap, and then I woke up...and stuff...and then I went back to school for driver ed lecture. And then Ian came to school for driving make-up and that was the end of the driver ED! And then Steph and Ian and Kristin and I all went shopping for clothes for Steph. And it was soooo much fun! And Steph was so happy and that made me really happy. And I got a yummy-smelling candle. And it was fun! And I love having friends. And I love hanging out. And now that it's second semester I can do more of that YAY! Well gotta go to class. Love!
So after that all the guys who were in the jazz chorus for all county went to change, and I changed into my uber-spiffy suit (black pants and jacket, bright insanely red shirt, white tie, belt with stripes of all three colors) which I was soooo proud of, and we went to perform. And AAAAAAAAAH it was fun. Peter Eldridge from the New York Voices was our conductor and he was just SO COOL. He was funny and engaging and you could tell he was just having a ton of fun. Which rubbed off on all of us. And he sang us a composition of his which was not-too-obviously about the many turmoils of being gay and in love, which is something I could definitely relate to, and it was just so good. And sad. But anyway, we sang "Moonglow" (a spiffy kinda slow swing song), "Centerpiece" (basically just a bunch of blues riffs with words and an excuse to scat), "Masquerade" (not the Phantom one; it's like a latin jazz piece, very smooth), "Old Friends/Bookends" (very VERY touching emotional arrangement of the Paul Simon song-just GORGEOUS), and "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens" (just a BLAST of a song-totally big band, all sorts of shout parts, etc.). We were good in pretty much everything. Not super-great, but definitely really good. The only real disappointment for me was at the end of "Old Friends/Bookends" when we kinda messed up the ending, but it was really Peter's fault because he was playing the piano and not really conducting properly. And I'm sure he kind of expected us to intuitively know when to come in since he's from such a cohesive ensemble-type group. But either way, he forgot to cue us in a place we needed to be cued on and we kinda messed up, but not really. So it was still okay. And god, do I love that song. It always makes me all teary and thinking of Ian and I or Kristin and I or Ian and Kristin and I (hopefully, one day) just being old and looking back on when we were young and maybe having that make aging less painful, and being happy about my life in retrospect. Which as of now, I can't really do completely. And stuff. "Chickens" was a blast-it's just SOOOOO much fun to sing. SOOOOO much fun. And I can't wait until we go to Albany to perform all the songs again. And then after that I met up with my mom and grandma and we watched the band which, as usual, was really amazing. There's just something about all-area jazz ensembles that makes them generally better than regular all-area ensembles. I think it's some kind of combination between the smaller size, the level of fun-ness associated with the genre and the ability to more easily cover up mistakes. And then I went home and went to work. Which sucked. But I had "Chickens" stuck in my head the entire time so it made it go a little faster. And then I went home and slept.
And THEN, Sunday I studied for Bio practically all day, except for a woodwind quintet I saw with Ian, which featured a bunch of REALLY talented people, some of whom I had seen perform before at the Staller Center and stuff. And the really pretty french horn player was there, and wow is she pretty. Pretty people make me angry ;) And it was kind of scary because right after intermission the bassoon player's bassoon broke slightly, but it all turned out mint. And then he came over for a while...and stuff...and then I studied more for bio until about 1. I love my boyfriend! WEEEEEEE!
And THEN, Monday was my bio midterm. Out of 120 questions I'm absolutely positive I got 102 right (85%), but it's on a curve so that doesn't really matter. But it was pretty harmless in general. I think I'll do well. And then I surprise went over to Ian's house and we snuggled for a while and then he made some reeds while I took a nap, and then I woke up...and stuff...and then I went back to school for driver ed lecture. And then Ian came to school for driving make-up and that was the end of the driver ED! And then Steph and Ian and Kristin and I all went shopping for clothes for Steph. And it was soooo much fun! And Steph was so happy and that made me really happy. And I got a yummy-smelling candle. And it was fun! And I love having friends. And I love hanging out. And now that it's second semester I can do more of that YAY! Well gotta go to class. Love!