Taylor Mali

Taylor Mali is a slam poet that I found on youtube while doing research for my communications class, and I absolutely love him and all he has to say.  This guy is hilarious and witty all while giving a great moral at the end of his poem.  Best of all, he is a teacher and uses his poetry to defend teachers regularly.  Here is my favorite of his poems:



Here is another one of his teacher related poems:


Brilliant! I love all of it!  But not all of his poems are about teaching.  Here is one of his funnier ones that anyone who has ever written an essay can appreciate:


And here's just one more.  It's not funny, but really makes you think.  Great poem:



Really makes me proud to hopefully teach one day! :)

Christmas Shopping and My Next Book!

So I just got back from doing all of my Christmas shopping. Good God, do I hate going to the mall.  Certainly, the mall is one of Dante's circles of Hell.  I also got the next book I will be starting. Kurt Vonegut's Slaughterhouse-Five.  Kind of excited for this hilarious piece of work. Thanks AJ for the advice!!!

Ragtime... the Novel!!!

Ok, I really have to stop with these Ragtime related posts, but I just can't resist.  So I bought the book that the musical is based on, and the book is every bit as good as the show! With movies that are based on books, its almost guaranteed that Hollywood will bastardize the plot so much to a point that people will be forced to say "Well, the book is much better than the movie". But with live theater, I hold it true that the theatrical version of a book is always as good, if not better than the original.

Ragtime, for example, is EXCELLENT. Wicked by Gregory Maguire is an absolutely abhorrent novel, but the musical version is absolutely stellar (no matter how much of a sell-out it is).  Cabaret the Musical is based off of a play called I Am a Camera which in turn is based on a novel called The Berlin Stories.  The only exception I can find to this golden rule of theater was Lestat by Anne Rice, but the reason for that is that Elton John is the one who got ahold of the musical, so that's why it was such a red-hot tranny mess.

But back to the point, Ragtime the novel is excellent and the musical really worked to keep the original plot without missing very much at all.  The novel is so good because it really goes in-depth to show exactly how terrifying, yet exhilarating , a changing country can be.  I feel like it very much reflects the kinds of things that are happening in the US some hundred years later.

Skullcandy!!!

Last week, I was in a friend's dorm, and I got to try out his pretty sick Panasonic Retro Headphones and I really liked them. So much so that I decided I really wanted a new set of headphones for myself.  I have always used earbuds, and as of lately, I had been using the Bose earbuds.  Well, after a week of research, I decided on the Hesh from Skullcandy.  Took a trip out to the new Target in Sunnyvale, and bought me a pair for $50.  Tada!

So far I am really pleased with them.  They sound great, and don't really hurt my ears that much.  I would highly recommend them to anyone.  They came with a nice little carrying bag that I will probably seldom use. Haha.  They also came with a little Skullcandy decal that I put on my Macbook!

Overall, a pretty good day. :)

Quadre Christmas Concert

Even more recently than David and Lisa was when I worked for the french horn quartet Quadre.  They had a Christmas concert at the Graham Theater, and they wanted me to do the lights and sounds for them.  This picture was taken near the end when they had a bunch of band kids come out and perform The Little Drummer Boy with them.  Really easy gig, and I got to hear some great Christmas music for free! 

David and Lisa

I recently went back to my old high school to design the lights for their fall drama David and Lisa in their brand new $15 million theater. Best part of all, I got paid this time! Here are a few photos of some of my favorite designs.  I really got to play around in this show unlike I have ever been able to before.  It was really refreshing to have so much flexibility when it came to any visions I had.

Here's one of the curtain before the show started.  I love being able to use some legitimate curtain warmers!

This is the very opening of the show.  David is standing in his room which was a platform center stage, so I used two Source Fours to square off just the platform from above. Created some really interesting shadows on faces and clothes.  David was played by this really cool guy named Ryan.  This was his first role in a show at our school, and he just blew everyone away with his incredible talent!

This is when David first gets to the school.  I put a gobo to shine on the desk to look like window blinds.  I like the patterns it created on the desk and on the clothes of the people who walked in front of it. The doctor was played by Franny, and she was absolutely stellar! I miss her so much!!!

Here, David meets all of the other students at the school.  You can barely see it, but I had a giant windo gobo shining on the floor to look like sunlight or moonlight (depending on the time of day).  It looked really cool and eerie during the nighttime scenes.  One of my favorite specials.

This is when David and Lisa first met.  Delaney, the girl who played Lisa, was so outstanding I can barely find words to describe how incredible her performance was.  Even though she was playing a 16 year old girl with schizophrenia and autism and really only had two legitimate lines (all of her other lines were just silly little kid rhymes "Wobble wobble gobble wobble gobble"), she made the transitions between her two personalities so perfect, it was just outstanding.  Shivers every night because of how talented she was.  I miss working with her so much.

Another scene in the doctor's office, this time at night.  Look, it's Mrs. Yang! She's having a baby soon, and I just know she is going to name him Zack, she has to!

This scene took place in a park, and while it's not all that impressive, but I really like how this photo captured his face in that light.

Another park scene, but this is at the end of the show when Lisa is getting harassed by two thugs.  I really like he back lighting that looks like moonlight coming down on them.

So that's it for photos, there were definitely some other designs that I absolutely loved, but unfortunately they were never caught by the photographer, but I will post them when we get the DVD copy of the show.

Best Episode of Glee Ever

I thought posting the fall finale of Glee was pretty important.  So many good songs, and so much happens!!! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!

A Happy Cabaret???

I recently found this video of a German production of Cabaret:




For those of you that don't know, Cabaret takes place in Berlin, Germany at the time that the Nazi party began its rise in the country. A really touching story because it shows how the Nazi party tore apart the country and negatively effected the country's citizens, Germans and Jews alike. But overall, it is a very sad show because, well, Nazis are just a sad subject in human history. Which is why its so hard to believe that this German production can take one of the most depressing musicals ever, and make it into this fun and silly night of musical theater. How ridiculous!!!

Creators of Ragtime

Here are Ahrens and Flaherty discussing the creation of Ragtime, my favorite musical.  Hopefully they will get that cast recording out for the revival asap!!!

Teaching

Look what came in the mail. Two books about being a teacher. Both are written by Jonathan Kozol who also wrote "Amazing Grace", a good book about how lowered expectations on children of urban life can lead to those children actually living up to only those expectations. I'd really like to become an English/Drama teacher. Two subjects I'm really passionate about and I'd really like to help students understand.

Ragtime at Belmont University

Usually I wouldn't care about some college's production of Ragtime, but good God, is this good.  While it may not be very aesthetically pleasing, it sounds phenomenal.  Just watch the opening number:




Incredible! There is so much talent in this show, it almost physically ails me.  The girl who plays Sarah just blew me away with her performance of "Your Daddy's Son": 





And the act one finale is enough to make my head want to explode. It is so rare that you can find an amateur production of this show that actually has the vocal talent for all of these songs.





Now, the lighting designs are not my favorite.  A little too obtuse and in-your-face for me.  Although, there are a few that I think are extremely effective.  Check out the button at the end of "He Wanted to Say".  I really like how it looks.  





Ragtime is a musical that is based off a famous novel.  It is the story of three different families from three different classes all making their way through the turn of the century in the United States.  It's one of my favorites because the music is so pretty and powerful and it really takes a perspective look at the "American Dream".  It opened up on Broadway in 1998 with Audra MacDonald as Sarah Brown Eyes.  It closed eventually, after a successful run.  Luckily though, there is a revival in the works and will be opening up on Broadway very soon!  I couldn't be more excited about this one!  Here is the finale to the production at Belmont University.  Again, not very pleasing to the eyes, but it sounds phenomenal:  

Vintage Lady Gaga

Here is a video I found of Lady Gaga back when she was still Stefani Germanotta.  It's her performing two songs most people haven't heard: Captivated and Electric Kiss.  They are so good that even my buddy @timbe2 (a hardcore Gaga-hater) loves them!  What some people *cough* just don't understand is that Lady Gaga is a performance artist and she has a distinct and unique vision.  The girl knows what she's doing...