She is a fifth grader!! : 0
Monday, May 5, 2008
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!
Saturday, May 3, 2008
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!
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