Hair Ties

When I was younger, my mom would tie my hair with those little ties that had balls at the ends, you know, where you would wrap the elastic around the ponytail and fasten them by stretching one ball over the other. I don't know what those were called, but the internet today seems to call them "ball hair ties" so that's what they'll be called.
I had all kinds of them, and the vast majority of them were from Asia. They had little Asian cartoon characters on them, or they would sometimes be flowers, or sometimes just a clump of fancy looking puffballs and shiny beads. Either way, they were always made of bright colors, and they were hard to miss.
Those are what I tied my hair with. And I never thought anything of it until sixth grade, when one morning at Sunday school, we went around the room saying what we appreciate about each other. When it got to me, a girl gushed, "I love how you always have cute little things in your hair!" and everyone agreed how I always had my hair tied with "cute little hair ties."
"Cute little hair ties."
That's not what I thought they were. They were just the norm for me.
And that's when I realized that they were different. These little Asian hair ties that my mom got for me? They weren't the stretchy brown circular hair bands that held up everyone else's ponytails.
I thought about it a lot that day. That's the last time I ever wore them. I got home, pulled them out of my hair, and replaced them with the regular circle kind.

And I haven't really thought about that until now.
Because it didn't seem like a big deal to me back then. It was just an accepting, submissive "this is different about me, I don't want this difference, and it's easy to change, so I'll change it."
I've always thought of myself as fairly indifferent to judgments and expectations. I remember at my birthday sleepovers in middle school, when all of my friends brought their hair straighteners and curlers, I always refused to let them touch my hair with an iron. I liked my hair. I didn't want to change it. I overheard my dad consult my mom with possible concern, "She's not doing her hair like all the rest of her friends." My mom shrugged and said, "She has confidence." And that was the end of that.
So I wonder what is was back then that made me switch those ball hair ties for the normal bands. What was it that made me quietly reject what had been part of my everyday life? And, in a way, they were reflective of my heritage. Ball hair ties were sold in US stores, but the ones my mom got me were made in Asia, and you could tell. Thinking back on it, I'm feeling some nostalgia and a little bit of regret. How did I let the comments - they were even compliments - of my classmates so easily persuade me to change what had more or less been a part of me?

It didn't mean much back then.
So what am I throwing away now? I am making many changes in my life. I do all of these in hopes of bettering myself and my future, but which ones of these changes may I someday regret?

Current Favorites

I feel like I should give a little run-down of my current favorite things... just kind of as an introduction, but also as a landmark, because these will definitely change in the future.
Favorite musicals: Newsies (kinda have to have that one on my list, cause it's what inspired me to start musical theatre), Hamilton (of course..... only of COURSE though), Next to Normal, Rent, Kinky Boots (ever since they came to my city a couple of weeks back and I spent so much time sitting across the lot, staring at the trailer...), Finding Neverland (got to see that one on Broadway after convincing my parents that it was the show to see)... I would probably like Fun Home and Les Miserables if I saw them...
Favorite Broadway actors: Lin-Manuel Miranda (of course... only of COURSE though), Andy Mientus, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Santino Fontana, Tommy Bracco, Adam Kaplan (bless that man), Corey Cott, Jeremy Jordan... of course, Christopher Gattelli, though he's a choreographer (bless that man even MORE)....
Those are the only things I like. Musicals and Broadway actors.
I'm gonna go over the list of who I currently follow on Twitter. It's a very select number cause I only follow those I'm interested in, so I don't have to wade through lots of irrelevant tweets. Or at least, irrelevant tweets from irrelevant people. (Irrelevant tweets from relevant people are okay.) And I know that just sounded really judgmental and unfair, but chill. It's Twitter. It's just that I'd rather my timeline be nice and condensed.
Anyway, here goes, starting from the person I've been following for the longest:
Taylor Groothuis (she's a kid actor, we used to be internet friends, don't really talk anymore, but I don't have it in me to unfollow her for as long as she follows me), Rowan Blanchard (followed her BEFORE SHE GOT COOL AND ON 'GIRL MEETS WORLD' and turned into an intelligent, poised activist), Nicole (best friend, have to follow), Ariana (again, friend, have to follow, she kinda made me do it hahaha), Corey Cott (played the lead role in Newsies when I saw it on Broadway, also Corey is such an inspiration, he's a strong Christian on the Broadway scene and isn't afraid to show and share it at all... if I make it to Broadway someday, I want to be like Corey), David Guzman (while I was watching Newsies, I liked him the best out of the ensemble), Jeremy Jordan (he's just everything), the theatre that I did 'The King and I' at (because that's necessary), this guy I did K&I with (also necessary, for as long as he follows me too), Christopher Gattelli (because he's my Broadway inspiration and yaaaaaas he's everything, even more everything than Jeremy), Greg Zane (worked with him on K&I), Emilio (he's actually on Broadway K&I now, but I worked with him in the one I did, and he was my favorite castmate, wow, he influenced me so much), Jon (he's also in Broadway's K&I, we're internet friends, I got to hang out with him for a second in his dressing room when I went to visit them, but he's my age and he's like currently the only person on Broadway who's our age), Alejandro (ugh wow beautiful), Adam Kaplan (saw him as Davey in Newsies when he understudied the role, also met him when he came with Kinky Boots, which I saw like three times.. but I gave him cookies and he flipped out... and we also have matching t-shirts), Ryan Steele (Newsies, dancer, beautiful as well), Tommy Bracco (Tommy Bracco for Prom Queen... that is all), Amaya (from Broadway's K&I), this filmmaking dude in my city who I met who's important who I should follow (because keeping connections), Michael Fatica (Newsies), Aaron Albano (Newsies, also Broadway K&I, I met him there when I visited), Tyce Green (Broadway but not Broadway guy? We're internet acquaintances, also my friend grew up with him), NPH (of course), Lin-Manuel Miranda (of course... only of COURSE though), Santino Fontana (saw him first in 'Submissions Only' - which, by the way, I am on my third time of watching, it's so great), Stephan Bienske (also saw in Subs Only but he's engaged to Chris Gattelli, so that's important and cool), Andrew Keenan-Bolger (made Subs Only also makes like everything all hipster and cool about Broadway, he's the total trendsetter), Colin Hanlon (Subs Only, but he's great), Telsey + Company (I want to work for them, they're the biggest casting company on the Broadway scene), Andy Mientus (ugh he's perfect, that's all), Sean Grandillo (also basically perfect), Chris McCarrell (also basically perfect), J Harrison Ghee (was Lola when I saw Kinky Boots tour, got to talk to him a couple of times and ugh he's so sweet and humble), Juan (from Kinky Boots, he knows Emilio too because they were both on the West Side Story national tour), Michael (Kinky Boots dance captain, he looked so cool) AND THAT'S IT. THAT WAS SO UNNECESSARY. AND TIRING. But I had to stick it through.
Sorry about that.
Good night.

Changes....

All right, y'all... I changed the layout of the blog... and like... everything about it. I really liked how it looked before, and I shoulda taken a screenshot of it before I changed it, but I made the changes before I realized I was doing it.
I changed the name, too... 'Annasophie Awesomeness' is definitely not descriptive of, like anything. Partway through these changes, I wondered if I should have just made a new blog and left this one as is... but nah. The words are still there, and that's what took years to build up. And this is me. So that's how it'll stay.
Also, somewhere along the way, Blogger must have made some deals with Google cause now the Google profile seems to be the Blogger profile and it doesn't say my name is 'Annasophie' anymore so... I guess I'm really gonna just be Mia on my blog now.
But, yeah. These changes, they happened.

Wrapping Up the Explanation

So here comes where I explain why I'm doing this. Or, I mean, now I'm able to give a more comprehensive explanation, because I've gone over a few things.
Next semester will be so busy. I'm taking, like, fifteen hours at school (only twelve right now) and one of them is REALLY crucial and I need a B in that class for it to count, and it kind of has to count, because it's a prerequisite for like everything and I'm taking my math class. It's Statistics, and I took AP Stat in high school, so I should be good? But still it'll require so much effort, and I need to be able to get myself to do that.
Again, I spend way too much time talking to people, and I actually do type this much when I'm talking to them, so I know I'm literally typing essays here, but honestly when I'm typing to someone, it's essays upon essays upon essays. Because there are responses. And I can't predict how long a conversation will go for. So I'm going to cut down on time with this.
And I need to get time cut down because I have to choose what I need to focus on. Of course, school has to be a first priority... I guess it is, in my mind, but in my heart, school is like "nope" and I just want to do all the arts instead. See, this semester, I've spent lots of time reading plays, working on writing plays, practicing dance in my dorm room... but I can't do all that random extra stuff. I mean I guess I'll probably continue practicing dance stuff and stretching in my dorm, but just less because I'll be taking lessons and ACTUALLY dancing.
So, of course, school. Gotta do that.
Then dance. Will have to do that.
And I think that's it, that's all I'll be able to get myself to do and do WELL.
I might even schedule, like, and hour by hour agenda for myself, and I might not follow it, but at least, if I don't follow it, I'll feel bad about not following it, which will hopefully guilt trip me INTO following it.
I'll give that a shot. But I'm not going to have time for social (I should probably do another post about that) but that's not a problem and it's not really a priority. I'll probably drop out of a couple of organizations I'm in, just for next semester, at least. Which reminds me... that if I do dance classes, I won't be able to do any student plays... which I might get to later in another post... but... oh. That's okay, cause win LOTS, lose some, hopefully. There's one organization I was totally planning on going to, but I've only been to one meeting, so, oops. Then there's one that I've been going to, but it hasn't been helpful, and I have a class next semester that starts right when this organization ends. One of the only reasons why I'm in this org is because it increases my chances of getting a job at the company it's linked with (not like big job, just little stuff but it's still something I'd like to do).
So I'll just not do those organizations... I'll do school and dance and mannn I gotta figure out when I'm going to go to Bible studies and stuff... cause I need a Christian community, just... I have a class during the time they meet as a college group. But there's a Bible study on Sunday evenings with the college girls, and I guess I'll go to that. And church in the morning, of course. I need to be able to figure this out. Cause this should be the number one priority, but it just.. isn't, really, ya know? And it needs to be.

Anyways. Yeah, I think that's it. Basically, I just gotta cut down on the things that aren't my top three. And I'm making lifestyle adaptations accordingly (like this). So let's see how this goes.

(Actually) Me, 2015

All right, we're back here again. Present-day now, mkay, so...
I'm a college student now, I'm majoring in Advertising which is really cool! Advertising is really cool! And I like it! It's a good creative outlet and it's something I enjoy! But! If I could do anything and know I couldn't fail, I would head into a career of theatre performance.
Because theatre is my passion.
I had mentioned it used to be film, I used to be die-hard passionate for film, but once all the theatre stuff happened in my life, I just... I can't stop thinking about theatre. It's what I want to do. There's just something about being trusted with time and a story that's so appealing to me. It's an honor, really, to be a performer, because when people watch movies? They do it cause they're bored. And it costs, like, a few dollars. But for live theatre, they have to physically go to the theatre, buy a ticket that is usually about $50, and commit an entire two or three hours to watching what you're doing on stage. It's so much more of a commitment, but that's how you know they WANT to be there. They've made an effort and have come this far, so you can't give them less than everything you've got. Because you can inspire them, really. People come to the theatre to be inspired.
I can't not do this.
And I know I didn't even do theatre in high school, but, in a way, I feel like people who DID theatre in high school take it for granted. (And I should hold that thought because it's for another post.)
So, yeah, I'm majoring in Advertising, but I'm in the process of trying to get into the Theatre Department at my university so that I can double major with Advertising and Theatre. I did an audition and everything, and I think that went well, but there's a lot that will go into whether or not I get in. A lot of it depends on the incoming freshmen, cause the department has to accept students, the students have to choose whether or not they are actually going to come here, and then they have to choose what, like, "focus" they want to study (performance, directing, playwriting), and THEN the transfers and double majors like me get to see if there's still space for us. So there's a lot. And there's only so much I can do, but I'm gonna do it, because this is something I will actually work hard for. Cause I'm only in college once. And if I can get two degrees out of these four years, I'm going to do it. We'll see. If it's supposed to happen, it will happen. I'm trusting God with this one. And if it doesn't happen, I'll most likely try again next year, and if it still doesn't happen, then I'll just do something else. Cause I know that God will put me where He wants me, and, wherever that is, I'm going to have to be okay with that.
I'm working on becoming a better performer, too. I'm taking dance classes, and because I have to pay for those, I think I'm going to work a job over winter break. I wouldn't normally... last time I worked a job (like actual normal people job, not something related to film or theatre) was senior year when I worked retail for like a month to get enough money to buy a really good camera. But this time I will spend what I earn on dance classes, because it's worth investing in, really. It's going towards career (because you can't do musical theatre without being extremely proficient in all three areas of acting, singing, and dancing). Hopefully I'll get to take, like, three classes a week. Cause I need to get good next semester.
Also thinking about auditioning for a spot in the vocal coaching studios at my university. Apparently you can do that, you can take lessons, and it's included in the tuition cause it counts as a course, so that wouldn't cost extra, and I really need vocal coaching because I have no idea how to sing well. I will work hard to get trained, cause there's no other way to do this theatre thing.

Prequel: Me, 2015

All right, how do you run down an entire high school career and almost half a college semester in one blog post?
Y'all. This is either gonna be really short or really long. And, knowing me, it's probably gonna be real long, but I'll try to keep it short.
Let's see... I remember approximately .9482384% of freshman year in high school, and of that percentage, there's like uh 0% that I actually want to remember, so let's not talk about that. Sophomore year was pretty chill, I started getting into film, and I was like, "Yeah this film thing, I want to do this." Junior year was like, "Ayy I'm good at violin, I made All State Orchestra and I'm Secretary for our school orchestra, but this film thing is real cool, I'm good at it and I have resources cause my dad does lots of film for hobby, and this is what I want to do, because I can do it." I worked as a production assistant on my first film (it was a film made by university students, and I did that so that I would be ahead of everyone in my grade). I'm not entirely sure what I thought I wanted to major in junior year... I don't think I ever honestly wanted to be an RTF (Radio-Television-Film) MAJOR because I wanted to get a major in something that you actually need a degree for in order to get a career. So film career was what I wanted, but I knew I could get experience outside of schooling, so I didn't want to go to school for that. (This is gonna be long, I think. I thought I could keep it short. I'll try. I'll keep trying, hang in there.) Oh, also. Junior year I saw 'Newsies' on Broadway  (on a trip with school orchestra to play at Carnegie Hall) and that changed my life. So hard. As soon as I got back, this is so crazy, and honestly I could talk to you TO ETERNITY AND BACK about this, and it's gonna come up a lot later, but ... as SOON as I got back from NYC, this audition call for 'The King and I' at the professional theatre in my city came out. REAL long story short, I auditioned, got in (still don't really understand how), did the show at the beginning of my senior year... which was crazy... because, you know, professional theatre, so we learned the show in two weeks, had a week of designer rehearsals, then tech week on the mainstage, then we had our performance run... seven shows a week for five weeks. It was the most brilliant, exhausting, inspiring period of my life, and, basically, now.... okay I'm gonna try to rescue any pride I have left at this point (because I thought I could keep this short and I'm gonna cheat a little and split this into two) I'm going to continue from present-day on the next post.

Let's Give This Thing Another Spin

All right, guys... I wasn't really going to do this, but I think I'm gonna make a return to this blog. I mean, probably no one reads it, and that's okay, but the thing is, a lot of times I have to just GET stuff out, ya know? I gotta say something. And a lot of times, when I need to do that, I text someone, but, you know, when you text someone, it's an actual real person, who responds, and then I respond, and then I lose like an entire hour of my day because I'm having a conversation that ends up kind of irrelevant.
So I think I'll just put as many as those spiels on here, just to try to lessen my time spent in conversation, cause that's the biggest source of my procrastination.
And I can't procrastinate. (I mean, I'm definitely capable of it. And I do it all the time. It's actually really bad, and that's the only reason why I'm pulling this middle school blog out of the ashes and giving it another spin.)
Honestly, I really should be studying, but I've got class in like an hour and then I've got the rest of the day (wait actually, I don't, because it's Monday and Mondays are very busy for me) but I feel like if I don't get this thing started right here right now, there's no way it's gonna end up picking back up for me. And I don't know if I'll continue to post, and if I don't, that's because I'm not getting a real-time response (which I'm not expecting) and that probably would discourage me? I like spreading ideas to an audience, and there's not an audience on here, while, when I text someone, there's an audience... of one, but it's still an audience.
Anyways, I'll probably spend the next couple of posts kind of talking about who I am now... because I was kind of all over the place back in middle school, when most of my blogging took place.
Let's see how this goes.

Some Changes, Then....

I changed a couple of things. The layout looks the same, but I changed my profile picture to an actual picture of myself and I also updated my bio a little bit. I mostly deleted the interests, cause those didn't seem too important, and I changed my name from Annasophie to Mia. Mia is actually my name, and the whole Annasophie thing was this deal in middle school where we all had blogs and we all had little code names cause we thought people were going to find out information about us (though our blogs were all private...?) Also, apparently I'm on the author's list of other blogs. I do remember "Sophie's Stories", which I just posted some parts of stories I was writing. I'll have to go back and read them, though... hmm. There's this one story I tried to write that I never finished (cause I realized it didn't even make sense, but it's like forty pages long already) and all I read was the part where one character introduces his cat. The cat's name is Frisky. Mmmm as far as I know, "Frisky" didn't mean other things back when I was writing that. Welp. I mean I could change it, but I also could keep it... I feel like I'm gonna run into a lot of things like this when I read over my previous work....

Change or No Change....

Well, that last post felt good. I'm currently trying to decide whether or not I want to change this layout. I'm thinking not... I like the color and design and everything, though I kind of do feel like I want to change it... but I also want to keep it sort of as an homage to my middle school self, haha... ya know, when I used to write, like, four posts a day on here. Maybe I'll just change some profile stuff and keep the layout the same. I'll do that. Again, we'll just see where this goes.

Return! ...maybe.

So... I haven't been here in a while. I haven't really found the need to, and, anyways, I usually write for the sake of having people read what I write, and since people weren't reading this anymore, I didn't feel like it was going anywhere. Umm... I'm not really sure where to begin. So much has happened since my last post. Lots of stuff... Okay, so I feel like whenever I have something to say, I've gotta get it all out and tell SOMEone. So, recently, I've just been texting people random thoughts I have. But then I kind of realized that I guess I do that for myself, and people probably don't care anyways. And I sort of wish I still had documentation of my thoughts on things as they happened. So I said that lots of stuff has happened. Whew. Umm... I'm not going to get into all of that, because if I'm doing this blog for myself now, I already know everything that happened within the past year. Does that make sense? Like, this past year was life-changing and I now I won't forget it (so I'm not going to explain it). I'm sitting down right now to write a couple of posts. But this one is just to kinda throw it out there that I think I'll be getting back on this more often. I think I'll also open it up to public (though I may not... but it doesn't hurt and probably doesn't matter anyways). So, yea, we'll see how this goes. Onnnnn second thought....... I had been planning on making a video blog... so maybe I'll do that. I got a Canon T5i and everything, I just gotta actually take that initiative and start filming SOMEthing. I'll do it... so maybe I'll do less writing on here and more talking to my camera? We'll just see where this heads.

Twitter SUCCESS!!!!!!!

I know that I haven't been here in forever. That's mostly because I didn't find anything worth sharing or I got most of my excited feelings out by ranting (in a positive way) to other people. In this case I don't think I can ever calm down from this. Get this. Ready? Okay okay. .... Tyler Oakley favorited one of my Tweets. And Max Schneider replied to one. ALL IN THE SAME DAY. Do you understand... no you do not understand. I have been trying to get the attention of both of them for sooo long. Obviously, I'm not obnoxious about it, not begging for a follow, etc. I finally struck gold! I'm just so incredibly stunned that they are now informed of my existence.

Ahhhhhh I love Twitter. See, Facebook is for people I KNOW in person. Twitter is for the celebrities. Through Twitter I have been able to contact others, such as Sam Tsui, Bailee Madison, Rowan Blanchard, Tyler Ward, Ashley Argota... through them following/replying to/favoriting/retweeting me. Twitter is great.

I can't wait for the day when I can bring someone so much joy as Tyler and Max just brought me. Because if I can do that for someone else, that means that I have made a difference and that I can make in impact.

After all, that's all I want to be. Someone's inspiration. That's all I want from myself.

Goodbye now, much love <3

SAM TSUI CONCERT

So I went to a Sam Tsui concert yesterday! Wellllll, technically, it was Alex Goot's, but I went for Sam. Anyway, it was a long line (we got there before doors opened) and it was raining AND really sunny at the same time. But we got in there and we actually had dinner there while King the Kid played (we didn't particularly want to listen to them, just cause we didn't really know who they are). We listened to Luke Conard and Landon Austin, who were good, as well. I was just too busy thinking about Sam being under the same roof as me! Finally it was Sam's turn, and when he came out, I was completely freaking out. He was SO pumped and energetic!! He looked so cute, jumping and dancing around the stage the entire time. He sang "Make it Up" as his intro, then also sang "Shadow," "Just a Dream," other songs from his album... "Don't Want an Ending" was special because he wanted to do it acoustically (a tradition that formed when he was on his first show and the electricity went out or something, but he wanted to continue anyway, so they just did it without any electricity). He sang "Wherever You Are," but at that point Zoe, Alexandra, and I had left to go to the merchandise table to wait for him. I was second in line, and he came out and sold stuff to the people in front of me... Then he got to me and he looked so happy and he shook my hand and said, "Hi, I'm Sam, thank you sooooooo much for coming out tonight!! Hey, I really like your shirt, going old school there!" (My shirt said "I <3 Sam & Kurt".) I got a poster and had him sign it, and I also had him sign this little book thing where each singer got their own page with a picture of them, their name, and a place for them to sign. Oh, yeah -- Kurt wasn't there. >:( He's in LA filming a video. *sigh* Oh, well, Sam was enough! He told me to come find him out front after the concert, so I did, and I was about to get a picture with him, but I went up at the same time as a little girl, so I let her go first, and he looked at me and said, "I'm doing you next, okay?" So it was my turn and I gave him a hug (I don't think anyone else did) and I had him take a selfie with me! I also asked him why he named his cat Phoebe. I just really wanted to know. :P He spent so long explaining... in short, it's because he was a Greek major at Yale and Phoebe is a Greek goddess or something, and his roommate at the time liked the name cause it was a character in 'Friends,' so it was something that both of them could agree on. Honestly, I think he remembered me the second time. :P I have pictures of him explaining to me.... Anyways, it was great and we took pictures and yeah. :)

Blue Knight and Day!

I know I haven’t posted anything really in a long time, but I thought this would be a good thing to post about. So this summer, my brother is in the Blue Knights Drum Corps, which is pretty much professional marching band. They perform all around the US. The Blue Knights are stationed in Denver, Colorado, so he has flown out there once a month ever since December. Starting the end of May, they don’t go home for three months: they train and rehearse and perform at Drum Corps International contests. Yesterday I got to spend time with them (I’m guessing they number about 200-300 corps members). I made three huge salads for them to have at dinner (which was after they got back from the competition – I ended up not being there when they ate it). I helped another girl in the food trailer wash a whole lot of dishes, and I cleaned tables and countertops. So pretty much what happens when they eat is the corps comes to get their food (which the volunteers in the food trailer help a professional catering chef prepare) and they get their choice of drinks, which is usually water and about three flavors of Gatorade. Then they find shade anywhere (behind a building, in the shadow of one of their tour buses, UNDER A TRUCK) and eat. Then one of the sections a day is assigned trash clean-up. Once I was done helping out in the food trailer, I went to find the horn line practicing. They sounded amazing… And it has been about two months into their tour, and they have four hours of rehearsal a day, so they are all so so so tan. They have the weirdest tans, too, I mean, of course they have the sock tan (they all wear flip-flops when they’re not rehearsing, so you can see everyone’s sock tan) and shorts tan, but they even have hair tans (immediately after they get a haircut), sunglasses/glasses tans, and glove tans. Glove tans sounds kind of weird, but think about it – they’re out in the sun, rehearsing with their instrument for four hours a day. The horns are made out of metal: if you don’t have gloves, the horn is going to get really hot, and you’d cut your hands on the sharper parts. My mom, dad, and I went to the stadium before the corps did. We watched the other drum corps perform. And, just because I can, I will list all of the drum corps names that I know: Phantom Regiment, Cavaliers, Bluecoats, Blue Devils, Blue Knights, Blue Stars, The Academy, Pioneers, Cadets, Madison Scouts, Santa Clara Vanguard, Boston Crusaders, Troopers, Spirit of Atlanta, Carolina Crown, Colts, Crossmen, Genesis… that’s all I know right now. That’s most of them that were there. And because I love critiquing, here is my critique on the particular corps: Phantom Regiment. I have heard so much about them and have only dreamed of seeing them in person. Well, honestly, they were kind of a disappointment, their show was kind of generic, and if they weren’t the one and only PHANTOM REGIMENT, I wouldn’t have been so excited during their show. Cavaliers… were my favorite. They are an all-male corps. They’re like a cult, though, from what I’ve heard! You aren’t considered a Cavalier until you get into the corps for a second year. And apparently they have their phones taken away and can’t call home or anything during the three month time period. And at 10:00pm they are gathered and quizzed over information from this book, random trivia about the Cavaliers. You need to know who was drum major in what year, and all that crazy stuff. It doesn’t seem like a fun place to be, but they’re good at marching and I liked their show, so, yeah. Their show was really cool… Their show’s theme was ‘The Secret Society’. They all came out in hooded capes, which they wore for the first act. They took the capes off while they were under these props that were tilted posters…probably for the use of changing behind. But when they came back out, they had blindfolds on! At first, I thought they were real blindfolds, and I was AMAZED that they could still take their formations with them on, but then I realized (after asking my dad about it) that they were probably made from a thin material that they could see out of. Their formations included a triangle, which was kind of the theme visual, as they had triangular prop and, at one point, made a huge triangle tent that the colorguard used to run into, take off their jackets, and come out with just the undercoat on… Over all, it was really cool. Bluecoats! I have always looked forward to watching the Bluecoats play. I liked their show, there was this storyline where a girl with a red balloon comes out, and she looks like she’s looking for something, and she sees the corps marching around and tries to catch the attention of them, but no one pays attention to her, and she can’t catch up with any of them. Finally, she taps the shoulder of a drummer, and he turns around and… I forget what he does… but at one point another colorguard girl came up and popped the red balloon. Then a guy came to the girl and gave her another red balloon, and they ran around the field holding hands, and it kind of had a Peter Pan feel to it… he showed her around and whatnot, then he disappeared somewhere… Maybe something happened to the balloon or something, but somewhere near the end, the drum guy from before gave the girl (who somehow had lost the balloon again) the red balloon back… It was an American theme (‘To Look for America’). Blue Devils, Blue Devils…. They ended up snatching first place. I honestly didn’t enjoy their show much, to me they didn’t sound particularly good, and I didn’t like the random vertical poles that were the main props in their show… They were just moved around and tilted, and I didn’t really understand why they were necessary… but apparently the judges did, so that’s that. The Cadets (their theme was ‘Side by Side’) colorguard had uniformed that were the exact colors of Taco Bell. Seriously. And they had these huge boxes that were their props… They just pushed the boxes around… no one, like, came out of them like I thought would happen. I guess it was kind of cool when they formed SXS (abbreviation of their show theme name). I really didn’t think they sounded good, either. The sound they produced somehow reminded me of unsanded wood. (Then again, my mind does make really strange connections… for instance, I think Robert Downey Jr. looks like ketchup, and Harry Styles looks like a can of tomato soup. Not that it’s a bad thing, I do like ketchup and… well, I actually don’t care much for tomato soup, but tomato soup isn’t a BAD thing, you know?) Santa Clara Vanguard did ‘Le Miserables’. I really liked their music. Their marching wasn’t really that memorable, they didn’t do many fancy formations or anything. But I did really like their music. Boston Crusaders! They were a VERY pleasant surprise. Them and the Cavaliers were my favorites (besides Blue Knights, cause my brother is in it, haha). Their show was so creative! There were many non-generic things that they did. For instance, they broke up into pairs and did really cool partner forms where, like, one would lay on the ground and put their feet on their partner’s back, and their knees would bend and their partner would lean back really far… things like that. There was a lead colorguard/character (she started off in the center of the field, looking all confused-like, then the whole corps came running out towards her, then they all fell down…and lay in the middle of the field… before they got up to proceed with their show. One really creative thing they did was the other colorguards made a staircase out of the poles of their flags, and the lead girl just walked up the staircase. My favorite part, though, was when the corps were sitting on the ground and they all took off their jackets and put them on the ground… then they got up and walked away, but when they left, you see that their jackets formed the word ‘RISE’, the name of their show. So, yeah, I REALLY liked the Boston Crusaders. The Troopers were a big surprise, though, their name and outfits looked generic and almost even pathetic… but theirs was the first show I REALLY enjoyed! I think they had some sort of a Native American theme to it… and I don’t really remember the highlights of the show, because I was blown away by the Boston Crusaders, who performed directly after the Troopers. My brother said he really liked Carolina Crown’s show, but I honestly don’t remember it that much. I know that they played part of ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ by Richard Strauss (the triumphant song most usually identified with epic suspense) near the beginning. That’s all the critiquing I have. If I left one out, that means I felt they were generic and there’s nothing much to say about them. So how it ended up… poor Pioneers got dead last place, that’s the only reason why I know their name (I didn’t see their show). It was pretty suspenseful, as they announced from 22nd place (last place) up to 1st, and we were REALLY happy when the Troopers (I *think*) got 11th place, because that meant that the Blue Knights placed in the top ten! The Boston Crusaders got 10th place (which almost surprised me, the fact that they beat the Blue Knights, I just thought I thought the BK was better because I was biased) and the Blue Knights ended up with 9th place. The Cavaliers got 8th, which REALLY surprised me, cause I did think the Cavaliers were THAT much better… but I really really REALLY REALLY do hope that BK beats the Cavaliers at some point. Carolina Crown got 2nd, which left me very unsatisfied, because that meant the Blue Devils got away with first. Oh, whale. :/ I don’t really agree with that, but… all right, whatever. After the show, I helped pack up the Blue Knights merchandise. I rolled a huge seven-foot rack all the way down to where the trailers were… After rolling the rack into the Blue Knights trailer, I stood in the parking lot, in awe of my surroundings. I mean, there we were, right next to the trailers for Phantom Regiment, Bluecoats, Carolina Crown, the Cavaliers… It was especially cool how the Phantom Regiment trailer must have carried all the equipment for their 2008 World Championship-winning ‘SPARTACUS’, which, by the way, I cannot watch the closer of without being irrationably excited. I was going to get pictures of all the big name trailers, but, meh. Ya know. It’s all part of being in the staff for a drum corps. Next year, if my brother goes back to drum corps, no matter which one it is (I hope he can make a higher corps), I would really like to spend at least a week with them. Because if just one day could hold as much as it did… think about how much more there is in store!

'Beauty and a Beat' - SCHNEIDER STYLE!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-BXNXvTvV4&list=UUplkk3J5wrEl0TNrthHjq4Q&index=6 This. This. THIS. <3

March

I'm gonna post just to post. It's March.