The most and least fun part of the AS play, besides the actual performances of course, is tech week. Actually, I don't necessarily know, because I was in the IS play last year, but you get the point. Right now when I'm writing this we are at the point where we are right on the edge of the panic-attack week, also know as tech week. I actually love tech week, because we finally get to see the completed set, run the play with lights and sound, put on costumes, etc. Sometimes though it can get a little bit stressful. These situations can range from when you suddenly walk in to play rehearsal and you're five minutes late and everyone else has their costumes on, to when you suddenly realize that you are doing a harmony wrong and you have 3 days left until the play.
Right now there are exactly three days left until the play, including the rehearsal tonight. If you go to my school and are reading this, you should all come, because it will be amazing. If you do not, then oh well. I think that opening night is always the best night, in terms of how smoothly the play runs and just in general, because it's the first time you get to show all of your hard work to people, and sets the standard for all of the other performances to come after that, and even farther in the future. Another great thing about my role besides the bunch of singing that I'm doing is the fact that I get to open the play and close it. Technically, I have the opening of the opening night, which is epic.
So come watch the play. It will be great and hilarious and you will all love it. Just trust me.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Writing a Song/SOL 3/6/14
When you write a song, there are three main things that you have to know to write a good one:
1. It doesn't have to be perfect. When I started writing songs, I would just discard an idea from my mind if it wasn't a good one. That is the curse of perfectionism. After a while I just was making no progress, and reasoned with myself that songwriting doesn't come naturally with me, and even if I should keep writing songs. This is not true at all. What I was doing was I wasn't even writing songs at all, because I didn't want to write at the level that I was at then. I had to put this past me and start writing songs a lot in order to get to the place where I wanted to be. This was hard for me because I'm a perfectionist with most things, so I had to lower my standards.
2. There is not one right way to write a song. When I started writing songs, I'd search the internet on how to do it, because I just didn't get it. There was all this information on tips about writing songs, but not how on you do it in the first place. This is because all of the smarty musicians online everywhere left out the fact that there is no right way to write a song. Some people start by playing some chords and singing along to them; this is often supposed to be the easiest way because there are a lot of common chord patterns that you can look up. Personally, since I had no idea how to write a song, I started writing melodies in my head, then trying to figure out the chords, and then finalizing the lyrics. You can also start with the lyrics, the beat, or even a riff or a hook. You can do whatever is the best for you.
3. Every song has to be personal for you. This is probably the most important rule, that you have some sort of emotion resting on this song. The way I do this is writing every song that I write about either me or someone or a situation that I know or know about. Basically, write every song like it's your last.
These are probably the biggest three rules in writing a song. The truth is, songwriting takes a lot of work. It took me a long time to get where I am now with songwriting, and to the point where I actually could write reasonable songs. I also didn't even write the songs down on paper for a long time, because I started thinking of melodies in my head. It's kind of like you don't talk before you know the words of a language. Overall, songwriting is totally worth it, but does take a lot of work, so if you want to, you better start writing now.
1. It doesn't have to be perfect. When I started writing songs, I would just discard an idea from my mind if it wasn't a good one. That is the curse of perfectionism. After a while I just was making no progress, and reasoned with myself that songwriting doesn't come naturally with me, and even if I should keep writing songs. This is not true at all. What I was doing was I wasn't even writing songs at all, because I didn't want to write at the level that I was at then. I had to put this past me and start writing songs a lot in order to get to the place where I wanted to be. This was hard for me because I'm a perfectionist with most things, so I had to lower my standards.
2. There is not one right way to write a song. When I started writing songs, I'd search the internet on how to do it, because I just didn't get it. There was all this information on tips about writing songs, but not how on you do it in the first place. This is because all of the smarty musicians online everywhere left out the fact that there is no right way to write a song. Some people start by playing some chords and singing along to them; this is often supposed to be the easiest way because there are a lot of common chord patterns that you can look up. Personally, since I had no idea how to write a song, I started writing melodies in my head, then trying to figure out the chords, and then finalizing the lyrics. You can also start with the lyrics, the beat, or even a riff or a hook. You can do whatever is the best for you.
3. Every song has to be personal for you. This is probably the most important rule, that you have some sort of emotion resting on this song. The way I do this is writing every song that I write about either me or someone or a situation that I know or know about. Basically, write every song like it's your last.
These are probably the biggest three rules in writing a song. The truth is, songwriting takes a lot of work. It took me a long time to get where I am now with songwriting, and to the point where I actually could write reasonable songs. I also didn't even write the songs down on paper for a long time, because I started thinking of melodies in my head. It's kind of like you don't talk before you know the words of a language. Overall, songwriting is totally worth it, but does take a lot of work, so if you want to, you better start writing now.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
SOL
The fire warmed up my face, legs, and finally my softly cold hands. It whispered and crackled, contributing to our own conversation, laughing along to our jokes as its warm colors flared and tried to warm me up from the inside out. I shift on the rough log, squished between two of my friends. Laughter and happiness fills the air around me, seeming to warm it up as much is the fire does. The fire spits a couple of flaming sparks in the air and they pop and float up quickly, almost as if they are pointing at something, telling me to look, look up there! I flip my hood off my head, and look up. The giant swirl of stars stands out against the dusky blue of the night sky. So many different colors glow in their different ways, warm and cold, bright and soft, all swirling together and smudging and blending to create one kind of giant masterpiece. Little spots of light in the big, black, empty universe. The stars twinkle, like a reflection of our fire in the cosmos above us, set in the velvety lake of the night.
The smell of s'mores brings me back to Earth. Some people start singing a song, which drifts all around us and connects us in that way that only music can. I look at the fire again. Music is red, I decide, the red of the fire. No, music can be all different colors, but I think that the effect that it has on everything is red. At that moment I also decide that red is my favorite color. Suddenly I can't believe that I've only known most of these people for a couple of months but what I can believe is that I'll have a lot of fun spending the rest of the year with them.
I look up at the stars again, at the big black emptiness of the universe. It really should make me feel small and insignificant, but how can the universe be that big, and that empty, if it's filled with little moments of happiness, kindness, and warmth like this? Maybe each star stands for one of these moments of happiness and friendship. I mean, it's possible. You never know.
My friend hands me a toasted marshmallow, hot and sticky. I look at it for a moment, its golden toasty warmth, how it glows in the surrounding blue of the night. I take one last look around at my friends, everyone. The fire whispers to me goodnight, goodnight Sarah, goodnight.
And here we are, one little speck of light in the big, black, empty universe.
The smell of s'mores brings me back to Earth. Some people start singing a song, which drifts all around us and connects us in that way that only music can. I look at the fire again. Music is red, I decide, the red of the fire. No, music can be all different colors, but I think that the effect that it has on everything is red. At that moment I also decide that red is my favorite color. Suddenly I can't believe that I've only known most of these people for a couple of months but what I can believe is that I'll have a lot of fun spending the rest of the year with them.
I look up at the stars again, at the big black emptiness of the universe. It really should make me feel small and insignificant, but how can the universe be that big, and that empty, if it's filled with little moments of happiness, kindness, and warmth like this? Maybe each star stands for one of these moments of happiness and friendship. I mean, it's possible. You never know.
My friend hands me a toasted marshmallow, hot and sticky. I look at it for a moment, its golden toasty warmth, how it glows in the surrounding blue of the night. I take one last look around at my friends, everyone. The fire whispers to me goodnight, goodnight Sarah, goodnight.
And here we are, one little speck of light in the big, black, empty universe.
Security Cameras
Security cameras are bad. They are meant to catch villains, and if you are trying to steal 1,000,000 on you day off, they suck. This is most everybody's view on security cameras in a nutshell. There are also those really annoying ones that catch you (or if you're a middle schooler like me, your parents) one inch over the parking line and someone comes and yells at you and gives you a ticket and you end up being late to soccer practice or whatever. The guy in the security room booth must have a very boring job, too. Maybe that defeats the purpose of security cameras, if the guy monitoring them just falls asleep.
But one thing that occurs to me just now is that security cameras don't just capture all of the bad stuff that happens in the world, they also capture the good stuff too. It's not like they're monitoring all of the happiness that goes on in the world, it's just, well I guess that you could say a hazard of looking for crime and law-breaking and criminals. I bet you that the guy watching the security cameras all day doesn't just see boring stuff and occasionally maybe the crime that they were looking for in the first place, I bet they see random acts of kindness, spontaneous hugs, and happy dancing and singing. So maybe that wouldn't be the worst job in the world anyways.
Just something to think about.
But one thing that occurs to me just now is that security cameras don't just capture all of the bad stuff that happens in the world, they also capture the good stuff too. It's not like they're monitoring all of the happiness that goes on in the world, it's just, well I guess that you could say a hazard of looking for crime and law-breaking and criminals. I bet you that the guy watching the security cameras all day doesn't just see boring stuff and occasionally maybe the crime that they were looking for in the first place, I bet they see random acts of kindness, spontaneous hugs, and happy dancing and singing. So maybe that wouldn't be the worst job in the world anyways.
Just something to think about.
SOL 3/7/14 Daydreaming and songs and why everybody should read books
I thought all of this in less than a minute and decided to write it down:)
Have you ever wondered why books always end the way they do, with a happy ending? Me too. They say books are supposed to take you away to another world, and make you imagine things. But what's the point in imagining things if you can't transition them to your real life? When I was a really little (and pretty cute) 5 year old, I loved to imagine things, and play "pretend games". I even made an alter ago for myself, a horse named Cannonball, which is pretty creepy if I think of it now. But seriously...why do only children daydream, and make believe, and not adults or even most teenagers. And what am I even doing questioning it?
So what was I doing daydreaming when I was five? I really don't know. Why would I want to be someone else and somewhere else if I liked my life in the first place, which as a five-year-old, I think that I probably did. Maybe it was that my five year old self knew something that I didn't, which was that my life could always be better. I was happy as a five year old kid, but I was dreaming about everything I would LOVE to do, and hoping that it would come true. As I started to grow up, and went through kindergarden, first grade, all the way up to now, in 7th grade, I learned slowly how to accomplish these things, but I forgot one thing which was actually what goals are in the first place. And what's the use in knowing how to do stuff if you don't know what they are in the first place anyways?
But what about books? Here's what I've decided; the people who write books, write songs and music, and poems are the people who haven't completely grown up yet, and never will. They pour their fantasies and emotions into the story of the song, or the book, or whatever, hoping that someone out there will listen, and try to make the world a better place, or even an almost perfect place, if that is possible. Maybe that's why books always have morals, or happy endings. After all, the stories did come from the writer's mind in the first place, so it's basically like playing pretend when I was five. Maybe everyone is born with that gift, but some people lose it just as they figure out how to accomplish their wildest dreams. The authors, the songwriters, and the artists are the ones that secretly convey these messages to the rest of the world, maybe unknowingly. And the cool thing is, I think that I could be one of these people in the future. I don't know yet, but I think that every one could be their own form of Peter Pan an in some small way, never, ever grow up. This is why books, and songs, and poems are so amazing. Convinced yet?
Have you ever wondered why books always end the way they do, with a happy ending? Me too. They say books are supposed to take you away to another world, and make you imagine things. But what's the point in imagining things if you can't transition them to your real life? When I was a really little (and pretty cute) 5 year old, I loved to imagine things, and play "pretend games". I even made an alter ago for myself, a horse named Cannonball, which is pretty creepy if I think of it now. But seriously...why do only children daydream, and make believe, and not adults or even most teenagers. And what am I even doing questioning it?
So what was I doing daydreaming when I was five? I really don't know. Why would I want to be someone else and somewhere else if I liked my life in the first place, which as a five-year-old, I think that I probably did. Maybe it was that my five year old self knew something that I didn't, which was that my life could always be better. I was happy as a five year old kid, but I was dreaming about everything I would LOVE to do, and hoping that it would come true. As I started to grow up, and went through kindergarden, first grade, all the way up to now, in 7th grade, I learned slowly how to accomplish these things, but I forgot one thing which was actually what goals are in the first place. And what's the use in knowing how to do stuff if you don't know what they are in the first place anyways?
But what about books? Here's what I've decided; the people who write books, write songs and music, and poems are the people who haven't completely grown up yet, and never will. They pour their fantasies and emotions into the story of the song, or the book, or whatever, hoping that someone out there will listen, and try to make the world a better place, or even an almost perfect place, if that is possible. Maybe that's why books always have morals, or happy endings. After all, the stories did come from the writer's mind in the first place, so it's basically like playing pretend when I was five. Maybe everyone is born with that gift, but some people lose it just as they figure out how to accomplish their wildest dreams. The authors, the songwriters, and the artists are the ones that secretly convey these messages to the rest of the world, maybe unknowingly. And the cool thing is, I think that I could be one of these people in the future. I don't know yet, but I think that every one could be their own form of Peter Pan an in some small way, never, ever grow up. This is why books, and songs, and poems are so amazing. Convinced yet?
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
AS Play
"Oh, brother". I finish my last line with Brynn and Lydia and go sit down next to Kate on the risers. Where's my iPod-Danielle! I go and steal it back from her as Max Davidson starts to do an interpretive dance of something. I nudge Kate. "Quickly, let's video it" and grab her phone. Max stretches his hands up to the to the sky as Kate and I try not to giggle as his face turns redder and redder. Max finally brings his hands to his heart and promptly starts a tuba solo. Welcome to the Logan School AS Play, everyone. It's really fun, actually...well considering that I have about the hardest harmony in the play. Or maybe it just seems hard because I'm the one singing it. That's probably true. People always bring homework here or something, and I should, but it's like the only time I get to listen and play on my iPod and phone at school. I mean, really? So who cares about homework if I don't need to do it, at least. I turn on my iPod touch and put in my headphones.
Monday, March 3, 2014
SOL 3/31/ L.A.
We gently roll of the highway as I look at my directions. I still can't help feeling super cool in our new shiny white car, even if it is a rental with a broken heater. And a Kia. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it is the official car sponsor of The Voice. Why do my thoughts always circle back around to The Voice?
My dad's voice rings out, shaking me out of my reverie."Sarah, what parking lot are we supposed to be in"? I try to find the map that my dad had given me about five seconds before and I had randomly put down somewhere. Do you ever get that feeling. I reach down into my jeans pocket and realize-oh wait, I'm wearing a dress. So that's the thing that I forgot to tell you; we're in L.A., going to the Grammys. Yeah, it's pretty sweet. It was kind of like a 13th birthday present because 13 is all special and stuff like that, kind of my dad is a lawyer and got free VIP tickets from his client type thing. But anyways, I was there. Almost. Just around the corner...
My dad looks to turn onto the street that led to our parking lot, called "Figueroa Street", and...it's blocked. A guy with curly dark hair shaved close to his head, and a shiny neon traffic director bib runs up to us. "How can I help you", he asks. We show him our pale blue parking passes, and he points to the next street. "Go that way, and the make the first right on Pico Blvd. Then take the first right."
We do as he says, and drive right by the Staples Center where the Grammys are being held. So freaking close!!! We keep driving and promptly encounter some police officers, blocking off the road. We show them our pass, and they give us some directions that are totally different then the last guy. My dad rolls up the window. "Okay..." I say. At least these guys are police officers and look like they know what they're doing. We take about 10 minutes to follow their instructions and go about 2 streets over, because of the traffic-oh, we did see Wiz Khalifa, that was pretty cool, and come to where the lot is supposed to be, and find these guys blocking off the street, who we show are parking passes. I've seen these pale blue parking passes so much in the last hour that I start making comparisons. I think that they look like the artificial blue lolli-pops they give the little kids at the doctors office, or maybe the blue font option on a computer. Anyways, the people don't let us through. Long story short, we end up just paying 15 dollars and parking in a side lot close to the Staples Center. We missed most of the pre-telecast, but you know. Whatever.
My dad's voice rings out, shaking me out of my reverie."Sarah, what parking lot are we supposed to be in"? I try to find the map that my dad had given me about five seconds before and I had randomly put down somewhere. Do you ever get that feeling. I reach down into my jeans pocket and realize-oh wait, I'm wearing a dress. So that's the thing that I forgot to tell you; we're in L.A., going to the Grammys. Yeah, it's pretty sweet. It was kind of like a 13th birthday present because 13 is all special and stuff like that, kind of my dad is a lawyer and got free VIP tickets from his client type thing. But anyways, I was there. Almost. Just around the corner...
My dad looks to turn onto the street that led to our parking lot, called "Figueroa Street", and...it's blocked. A guy with curly dark hair shaved close to his head, and a shiny neon traffic director bib runs up to us. "How can I help you", he asks. We show him our pale blue parking passes, and he points to the next street. "Go that way, and the make the first right on Pico Blvd. Then take the first right."
We do as he says, and drive right by the Staples Center where the Grammys are being held. So freaking close!!! We keep driving and promptly encounter some police officers, blocking off the road. We show them our pass, and they give us some directions that are totally different then the last guy. My dad rolls up the window. "Okay..." I say. At least these guys are police officers and look like they know what they're doing. We take about 10 minutes to follow their instructions and go about 2 streets over, because of the traffic-oh, we did see Wiz Khalifa, that was pretty cool, and come to where the lot is supposed to be, and find these guys blocking off the street, who we show are parking passes. I've seen these pale blue parking passes so much in the last hour that I start making comparisons. I think that they look like the artificial blue lolli-pops they give the little kids at the doctors office, or maybe the blue font option on a computer. Anyways, the people don't let us through. Long story short, we end up just paying 15 dollars and parking in a side lot close to the Staples Center. We missed most of the pre-telecast, but you know. Whatever.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)