Castle On A Cloud- Jenna Marshall

She is a fifth grader!! : 0

Javert's Suicide- Russell Stephens

Stars- Russell Stephens

he will be coming the U of A next year : )

One Day More

On My Own- Victoria Morrison

Bring Him Home- Cody Webb

One More.....song

Ok so after I wrote the last post I went to youtube and googled the show and like half of the show is on there....so Enjoy!!!

Les Miserables

Ok, so as yall have probably already figured out I love musicals and theater! Most people would think that if you love those kind of things you are the stereotypical theater geek, but things were and still are different at Huntsville High! At Huntsville High, the drama department and the spring musical is the things to do....almost everyone tries to be in the play at least once! It is something everyone puts on their checklist of "Things to Do Before I Graduate". Our teacher/director is one of the main reasons that everyone enjoys the doing the shows. He makes those four months the best four months of the year, and about the only four you really look forward to! During my four years, I was apart of "Annie", "The Sound of Music", "Grease", and "Beauty and the Beast". As you can see he likes to pick classics that everyone know, so it only seemed natural for him to pick "Les Miserable". 

Last weekend I went home to see my best friends perform! I went closing night, the night where everyone gives everything they got left, so it is normally the best show of the run! I was blown away! I knew they would pull out all the stops, but I wasn't prepared to be so moved by high school performers, performing one of the most dramatic musicals ever. I had chill bumps half the time and the other half I was balling my eyes out! I think the public underestimates the amount of understanding and emotion teenagers actually have and these high schools definitely proved them wrong! Along with the lighting and the set, which equally matched the amazing talent on the stage, you couldn't walk away not in aw of what you had just seen. I walked away very proud to have been apart of that drama department and proud of all my friends and the bright futures they have ahead of them!

Brahm's Requiem

Many people sadly dont get over to the music school very often. Every weekend something is always going on over there and not very many students are informed, or bother to go! 

Last weekend the music school worked very hard to perform Brahm's Requiem. It is one major work, with six different pieces within it. The performance takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes and their is no intermission and the performers dont really get a break (that is a long time to perform at once!). The Requiem requires a symphony and hundreds of voices! The Huxford Symphony Orchestra (the U of A orchestra made up of U of A students) took care of the orchestra part.  Both choirs, the University Choir and University Singers combined forces to tackle the very demanding vocal part. In all there were probably about 300 or more people up on the Concert Hall stage. I have never seen that many people crammed on one stage! The Requiem is a very hard piece to perform and will probably never be done again here in Tuscaloosa! It was a real treat for those who got to hear it! They performed Friday night and Sunday afternoon! I went Sunday afternoon and the house was packed :), which is something you dont normally see! If you did go I hope you enjoyed it! If you didnt.....the music school really does have some great things to offer to our campus and I hope you will try to make it over there at least once! 

Just Some More Information

Ok, I know I just put up a post about Blackburn Institute, but I remembered some more stuff that I wanted to say! 

Once this class of Blackburn student fellows was selected we all went on a day retreat to get to know each other. We went and spent one day at Camp Tuscoba. It is a retreat center in North Port located on a small lake, Lake Tuscoba. I would have never known this was around if it weren't for the retreat! It is a very small camp, but they have a ropes course with 2 different spider's webs and the 12ft. wall, along with others. They also have a gym/ retreat center with kitchen and a grill. It is a really cute, secluded camp. 

Ok so since this whole blog project is suppose to make us talk about local issues I thought I would let you in on some local stats. As a part of the Blackburn Institute, all the new fellows had to take a class one night, Alabama 101, where we learned as much as we could about our state in 3 hours. Here are some things you might find interesting....think about them for a while! 

• there are about 4.6 million people in Alabama
• that is a 3.4% increase from the census in 2000
• 24% are under 18
• 13.4% are over 65
• 19% have a college degree
• about 70% have a high school degree
• 1 million are considered disabled 
• per capita is $18,200
• 16% are below poverty line
• in the Black Belt, half of the population over 25 didn't graduate from High School

These are just a few statistics that we were given that night! I hope that opens your eyes just a little bit! We are all lucky that we are here getting our college degree, which is a minority in this state! Thinking locally is a lot more important than we think! It is only with local knowledge that we can make changes for the better...and as you can see our "local" needs a lot of work.

Blackburn Institute

This semester I was honor to be selected as a new student fellow in the Blackburn Institute, an organization named in honor of Dr. John L. Blackburn. Not very many students know about this organization, so I thought I would inform ya'll about it and some of the great events that we sponsor, cause I would love to have some of you there! 

The Blackburn Institute takes thinking locally to a whole new level! Its purpose is "to develop a network of leaders, the Blackburn fellows, who have a clear understanding of the challenges that face the state of Alabama. The Institute provides the fellows opportunities to explore issues and identify strategic actions that will improve the quality of life for out state and nation." We get together and all put our heads together, or butt heads, and discuss all kinds of local issues and ideas. We all have a passion to makes things better and we all have different solutions. Hopefully, though, we will all be able to come together and change some things eventually. 

One of the big events we sponsor for the University students is the Frank A. Nix Lecture, which will be this fall Friday Oct. 17 in the Bryant Conference Center. Some of the people this lecture has brought to Tuscaloosa include Dr. Condoleezza Rice, former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and General Wesley Clark (U.S. Army, Ret.). I don't remember who is coming this year, but I think it is a former leader from South Africa. It should be very interesting, so if any of ya'll might be interested in coming I would be happy to keep you informed about the event! 

Anyway being a part of the group has really opened my eyes to some of the local problems around us! Our generation has a lot to change and fix, but I think we are up for the task at hand!  

No Work and all Play

In downtown Birmingham is a little theater that brings in a lot of big names. Workplay theater has two rooms, one which is more of a coffee shop setting that allows you to get up front with the artists. The other room is a lot larger and is standing room only, much more like your typical concert. The entire theater, though, has a personal, close feel about it that makes their concerts not only special for audience, but for the performer too.

At the beginning of spring break, a group of us went to concert in the big "Hollywood" room at the theater with Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michaelson, and Joshua Radin. This probably has to be the best concert I have been to! The artists seemed to think so too! They kept saying how great it was play at Workplay because they are so close to the audience and everyone in the audience is so into the music and really seemed to appreciate it. I have never been to a concert where the artist and the guitar player just get up there and make a song up as they go, but that is exactly what Sara Bareilles did. Also I have never heard someone say we are going to try this trio, we just learned it 3 hours ago on the bus! But somehow Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michaelson, and Ingrid's back up singer, Allie Moss, got up on stage and sang the prettiest trio I have ever heard! It is things like this that you cant get anywhere else! We all walked out in awe of what we had just heard!  It is a unique experience and one that we all enjoyed! I know for a fact we will be back there this summer for some of their shows! It is really cool that we have a place like this and if you want something fun to do over the summer check out their calender and try to go to a show! It is definitely worth the price, which is not much, around $15 and you wont regret going! 

Ingrid Michaelson

Joshua Radin

Sara Bareilles

The Trio!

My Panama City Beach!

Me and my brother! <3

During spring break over half of the students at the University of Alabama could be found on the gulf coast, including myself! When people think about Panama City Beach for spring break they think about packed bars and clubs and little hotel rooms filled to the maximum capacity. But this is not the Panama City Beach(PBC) that I know and love! 

My mom's side of the family owns a house right outside of actual PBC, on a strip of beach known as Laguna Beach. They have owned this house for years and we have been coming here on vacation for as long as I can remember! There is no where else I would rather be than sitting on the back porch watching the sunset over the ocean. When we got to the beach though we do not do all the typical "tourist" outings. We like to have the "local" experience!

Down the road from the beach house one way is a Winn-Dixie and the other way is a local grocery store called the Carousel. Instead of going to the store that we are familiar with, we turn to the right and go to the local store. It is an experience itself and it is nice to walk into a store where everyone says "hey" and all the workers are pleased to help you. Another thing we love to do at the beach is wake up late morning and eat a huge breakfast! One of our favorite places is the Sunnyside Grill. It is literally a little pink shack on the side of the road that many people would not even notice as they drive by. But they have to best breakfast, complete with huge pancakes, eggs anyway you could possibly imagine, and my brother's favorite sausage. We also always have to get doughnuts from the Thomas Doughnut stand at least once. These are the best doughnuts you will ever have! They are a million times better the Krispy Kreme could ever dream about being! You go up to the window and pick out the kind of doughnuts you want, or if you dont like doughnuts you can order a biscuit or bagel from the kitchen inside. 

We my family goes to the beach we pig out on seafood! But we dont go to any of the chain seafood restaurants, because the local ones are a lot better! One of our favorites for lunch is Dusty's Oyster Bar and Grill, where the oyster shells make the gravel for the parking lot. Another place we love to go is right beside the bridge that goes over the Inter-coastal Waterway, called Boonedock's.  Their seafood is fresh from the local fishermen! Although we love to go out for dinner, our favorite thing to do is get food from Buddy's and bring it back to the house. Buddy's is a local fish and shrimp shop. Most of the fish are right from the boat! We like to get their shrimp and have them steam them for us with lots of wonderful seasonings and potatoes, the best shrimp you will find in PBC! 

This is my PBC, not the one people typically think of! When we go to the beach it is all about the local experience, which I personally thinks makes the trip. For my family is has almost become another "local" or home for us!

 

Dedication to students for half a century!

When you are a music major you are assigned a private teacher who you will study with throughout your college career. I am very lucky student in that I have the privilege of studying under Mrs. Penick. Knowing I would study under her is what made my college decision. You cant find a better piano teacher than her anywhere in the southeast or even around the nation. This year her teaching skills were honored when she won Music Teacher of the Year from the Music Teacher's National Association, which she definitely deserved! Almost every lesson she reminds me that she is not here to get all these awards of for her own recgonition, but because we - her students - deserve it.     

Last month Mrs. Penick celebrated being at the University for 54 years. In order to celebrate such a wonderful 54 years, the music school put together a concert featuring many of her amazing alumni. The concert was on a Sunday afternoon in the Concert Hall in Moody. It could probably seat close to 2,000 people or even more and it had to have been at least 50% full. Skipp Snead, the director of the school of music, started the afternoon out with a speech honoring all of her hard work and dedication to the artsand to this University. He did a very interesting visual where he slowly asked different people to stand up. He started with her current students, then alumni students, then students of her alumni students, then people who had seen her television show, and so on. Eventually everyone in the entire hall was standing and he said, "see how many lives you have touched!" Afterwards several of her alumni performed and performed some of the hardest pieces written for piano perfectly. It was an amazing afternoon and the perfect way to honor someone who has been dedicated to her students and this University for over a half a century. 

The afternoon was especially moving for me. My piano teacher from home, who is like a second mother to me, was also a student of Mrs. Penick. She and my mom drove from Huntsville to attend the concert. Before the concert Mrs. Penick, Mrs. Daphne, and I took a picture together, one that I will cherish forever. All of her students are a part of a special family, Mrs. Penick's musical family. It is a family that sticks with you forever and her talents have bonded us all. This is what we know as "local". We may live all over the country, but for this family local is the music and our teacher that bonds us and connects us all to one area. It is a unique bond and one that I feel very privileged to be apart of everyday. 

<3>

My Music Family!

Lincoln Center

A couple of weekends ago I went home to Huntsville to see one of my very close friends play the lead in the musical "The Last Five Years".  It was done by a smaller theater group in Huntsville called, Renaissance Theater. I had never been to see a show put on by this group and had no clue which theater they were in. When I got there I was in for a real treat. This group had restored the old Lincoln Center and was now using it for their theater productions.

The Lincoln Center is located very close to downtown Huntsville near the old Lincoln Mill. This whole area of Huntsville was very popular in the 1920s when this mill was an active spinning mill. A whole community was formed around the mill. During this time employees were payed low wages but given low cost housing which the mill built and provided. This whole area around the mill became know as Lincoln Village. The workers live in the houses, their children attended Lincoln Elementary and they went to the barber and ate at the cafe in Lincoln Center. And upstairs in the Lincoln Center was a gymnasium which served as the school of the south.  In 1928 though they renovated the upstairs, since they didnt need the school, with the addition of Lincoln Elementary School.  They added a beautiful double stair case and the foyer and turn the gymnasium into a theater where they first silent film was shown for the mill workers.

People have finally taken an interest again in this area and people are starting to renovate all the houses and historic buildings. The beautiful foyer still exists and now the theater shows live theatrical shows from Renaissance Theater and now there are cute shops downs stairs. The shows was amazing, but it was even better seeing it in this old historic building. The mill played such a huge part in Huntsville growth and I think it is fabulous that communities have started to take notice of these buildings and this area. Hopefully one day it was all be renovated and again become an popular place in Huntsville.

A Tuscaloosa Tuesday

At around 5 this afternoon Molly called me and ask me if I would go with her to see this documentary she had to go watch for her Arts of Tuscaloosa class. My first thoughts were why would I want to go watch a documentary that I didn't have to see for a class, but I agreed to tag along and keep her company. We decided we wanted to go to dinner first and Molly said she had a place she had found this past weekend and wanted to take me there.  

We went downtown to the Capture Studio Cafe, which I had heard of but never actually been to.  The cafe is a quant little coffee shop, with a great atmosphere.  We both had a panini and left not even a crumb on our plate.  The cafe is owned by a former student of the University of Alabama who actually lives above the cafe. Tonight was open mic night just like every other Tuesday. Although we did not get to stay and hear the musicians, it got Molly and I thinking.  We have fallen under the spell of the this cute shop and now plan to make it a weekly event to go and eat there.  Then hopefully start joining in on open mic night, once we can get a some songs together. I have not heard of too many students mentioning the Capture Studio Cafe, but it is someplace that is worth visiting! 

After dinner we went around the corner to the Bama Theater.  When Molly and I walked in our jaws literally dropped. This theater transports you another time and place.  The interior design makes you feel as though you are living back in the 1940's when you went to see a movie in a beautifully decorated theater. The design resembles the style of a small Italian village, including a ceiling with twinkling lights to makes you feel as though you are looking up at the sky.  We both could not believe that we have lived in Tuscaloosa for five months and were just now discovering this spectacular theater!  

The documentary was about the Webb husband and wife team, who were publishers in the French Quarter in New Orleans.  There story was first made into a book by a professor here at the University and then was made into a documentary which features other faculty members and students here.  After the documentary the audience even got to ask the author and featured colleagues questions.  The whole night was filled with special events and experiences that could not be found anywhere else.  We had a totally Tuscaloosa Tuesday and now wish that other students would be informed and participate in such events like the documentary tonight.