Today, Mark finished out District Chorus. He placed high enough that he's onto Regional Chorus in March. Of course, he needs to place at District Band next month first :-) Maybe he'll post some of the highlights of the trip, THRILLER-BOY!!
On a personal note, I missed seeing Ethan there. I've been attending his district and regional concerts for two years hence, so this was Mark's first solo moment. Our family tradition is that when any family member is performing on stage, those in the audience wait until they think the performer is looking in their general direction (and before the music or program has begun). We then wave our arms big and wide (like those airplane directing people).
(I recognize that this is not proper concert etiquette and rather redneck, but who cares? We live in Redneck, U.S.A. :-) Why do it? If we don't, the kids spend the entire concert looking for us, and desperately ask us where we were after the concert. Back to Ethan....)
After the initial shock and embarrassment of his family waving to him, LOUD AND PROUD, during the first few concerts, Ethan got over it and was proud of our signal and looked for it. He always broke out into a HUGE grin, and we knew we had made contact.
With Mark, we were never sure he saw us, and I wasn't going to go through all of that without confirmation. So, we came up with a return signal. Mark touches his nose. Today, I didn't even have to wave--he found me immediately, and after NOT attending a concert in months, he remembered the signal and motioned back to me with his signature nose touch. It was good to see him singing directly to me at times during the concert, and when I thought back to Ethan AND Mark singing together last year, I got a little teary. Those heartstrings are indeed long!
I definitely miss it. Districts and Regionals were some of the only times when I really felt like I belonged to a specific group in high school. Even if I hated thespians, and didn't do anything else I knew that PMEA was my thing, and that I had friends whenever I went.
ReplyDeleteDistricts this year actually for me was probably better than last year, besides the fact that Ethan wasn't there to join in the fun and awesomeness of being in the tenor 1's(: Last year, sure we did a bunch of cheering, and I had a couple friends, but man this year, I was the BMAD(Big Man At Districts(:(: ) I had sooooo many friends(: So many old friends from last year who I didn't appreciate were there, and I loved seeing them, in addition to all their friends who I had never met and who later became my friends(:(: Like seriously, every meal, I would always eat with at least 8 different people, all of whom were not from State College( in fact, those silly SC kids never even tried to interact with other schools; they were so antisocial. Makes me wonder where the whole stereotype of SC kids being all arrogant comes from/:/ Anyways, point being that I was not a shy kid at all, and I made some new friends in addition to getting to know some old friends even better(;
ReplyDeleteThe other reason why I liked this year so much was because of one event that sort of led to my popularity(: Our director was having some real big problems getting us to sing this one piece with a lot of energy, probably because the piece was really hard and no one liked it(: The title is called "The Earth is Tired" and in the piece, there are parts where it reminded the director and the choir of natural disasters, in particular tectonic plates moving. With this inspiration, our director, in order to get our energy going, split us up into our sections and told us that we had 10 minutes to plan out a skit that depicted a natural disaster. At first we brilliant Tenor 1's planned a simple representatin of where we would stand 5 people against 5 people facing each other, and one side would blow the other side over to depict a hurricane. However, as we watched the other groups go, and the audience had to guess what was depicted, one disaster that showed a volcano eruption seemed to people to be a zombie attack...........well theres quite an INTERESTING idea. So i turn to my section, and ask them if we should switch. I mean honestly, who would rather watch some pitiful representations of homes get knocked down over seeing brainseeking, bloodsuckling, mangled bodies attack the human population and humanity go extinct over some problems with science and magic???
ReplyDeleteSo we're planning this all out, and all of a sudden, one of my good friends from last year turns to me and in a whisper, asks: Mark, you know the Thriller dance by Michael Jackson right? I was like: Yeah, but I can't do that up there. That's crazy and it wouldnt work...............and then my mind started working..............It COULD work. The only way the audience would know it was Thriller was if the famous bass line was playing, and look, there was a piano right below the stage, and since one Tenor 1 there had perfect pitch, he could figure it out and play it perfect the first time. Its really simple, so I had total faith in him. So it comes our turn, and we go up there, completely impromptu and unrehearsed. Honestly, I was freakin' out. What if this doesn't work? what if the bass lines wrong or they don't recognize it or I just forget the dance??? So as planned the zombie who starts the pandemic comes out. The bite is made and the tenor actors scream in horror and run offstage, leaving me to face the crowd. All of a sudden, from the fog of small laughter of the audience comes the famous bass line of the incredible Thriller masterpiece. It was honestly a miracle that they figured that out. How they knew the intevals and the notes to play, I will never know, but man was I sooooo happy to hear that. As soon as the audience realizes I'm dancing Thriller, they go crazy. Screaming and shouting and clapping, it was like being a rockstar, a celebrity on the red carpet and a king greeting his subjects all at once. I've gotta say, I don't know where all that adrenaline was coming from, but it was definitely oozing out my ears(:(: Best of all, I remembered the entire dance, which made me very happy. And then just when the crowd thought I had finished, I did the one, the only signature Michael Jackson move that brought him and me to fame.............................the dreaded, feared MOONWALK!!!!!! Yeah baby, I had learned that move a long time ago and it took me forever, but finally it paid off. The crowd went even crazier and the audience gave the famous tenor 1's a standing ovation for like a full minute. Honestly, those were the coolest 2 minutes of districts this year, and was the reason I loved districts so much(:(:(:(: Ever after that, I was getting comments about it, and man, if that made me feel so happy. I guess the lesson here is carpe diem: seize the day and opportunity and really express yourself. HAHA man it really paid off this time. That was an amazing festival and I'll remember it for the rest of my life. If only Ethan were there too, it would have been perfect, but oh well(:(:(:(:(:
ReplyDeleteYOU'RE AWESOME LITTLE BROTHER!!!! I LOVE YOU DUDE!!!
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