Beauty and the Beast

Its a big set, with a large castle with a staircase in the middle. Between the seats in the audience and the set there is an orchestra pit, with many different things inside it. A lot of the pit is taken up by the three keyboards and the percussion instruments. Jealousy fills up looking at the person who gets to play all those cool percussion things. No, not really. This is how I have spent the last month of my life, looking at this for hours on end. It was tedious work, sometimes very stressful and overbearing, but in the end, I am glad I was able to be a part of it. Beauty and the Beast was an awesome performance and the people in it made it incredibly good.

First of all there were the actors. They have been working on the play ever since the end of August when they did auditions. The extras, like the townspeople and the dishes, cups, etc., were totally awesome, and I almost never heard them complain, and they only have a couple scenes in the two hour play. Belle was awesome; her voice was so beautiful, and she sounded almost like the girl in the disney movie. She was such a good actor, and such a good sport about the whole thing. She was even kind to the people backstage who helped her with her costumes. The beast's face looked so creepy, which I thought was awesome. They went to all that trouble to make him look exactly like he did not look. Gaston was so cool too, he was stuck up and very full of himself, which I thought was terrific. All of the actors' performance was great and they pulled it off very nicely.

The play does not just consist of actors though. There is the orchestra, which did a terrific job. Our school is one of the only high schools left that actually has a live orchestra, so we were thankful to have the opportunity to be in the production. Many of the audience members complimented us saying sometimes they did not even notice us playing because we were so good. We spent many hours working on the music, even giving up our early out Mondays to stay at the school and work on the music. Some of them, expecially one percussionist specifically spent hours outside of school working on their parts to perfect them. I would like to thank the one that played the xylophone and bells so beautifully. She must have spent a lot of time getting that so nice.

Most importantly, there are the "techies" who work behind the scenes. If it was not for them, the production would have been nothing. Ever since the beginning of the school year, they have been staying after school, working on the set, which was lovely might I add. The castle was amazing, and also the town. The actors costumes were so cool. I laughed because of how good they looked. But there is one "techie" I thought was terrific. In about a minute, Belle had to get off stage, and into an elegant yellow gown, and back on stage again to finish the song. The costume master (I am bowing, can't you see?) was beyond extrordinary. She, with the help of Belle and her mother, got her in and out of those crazy big dresses very quickly and I was amazed at how fast they could do that, so good job to you.

The performances were great; the last night we had a full house, and it was the best performance we did in my opinion. I will miss being a part of it but I am so GLAD it is over!

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I had the privelege to see the fourth Harry Potter movie in the theatre on Saturday. Like the others, I was pleased, but this one seemed to be much better than the others. The music, actors, and all the CG and scenery was awesome, making it the best HP movie yet.

Unlike the other HP movies, the music was not done by John Williams, which has upset many fans. I say good job to whoever decided to do that. I mean, I have nothing against John Williams, he's a genius and does terrific music, but if you think of the different soundtracks he has done, (Indiana Jones, Home Alone, Star Wars, the Terminal) a lot of the songs are very upbeat and happy. Every chapter of the HP series (meaning each book) gets eviler and darker than the previous one, and I just can not see the melodic, happy, it-will-always-get-stuck-in-your-head music. In this film, the music is composed by Patrick Doyle, who seems very mysterious. The music really set the mood of the movie, which is much darker than the happy Sorcerer's Stone where all they did was buy candy and talk about how Harry is so cool.

Now I just have to say, I loved their casting. The guy (Stanislav Ianevski) who played Victor Krum, the "Bulgarian Bon-bon" (quote from an interview with Emma Watson), was so uptight and stuck up, which is exactly how I pictured him, except maybe a nicer face. He was awesome. Then there was Katie Leung, who played Cho Chang. She had such a cute smile and seemed just like she should. Just a happy girl who smiles at Harry (but that kinda creeps me out since I know what happens next). There is also the three main characters, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) who, through each movie have become even more talented than before. They go through so much and are such good sports about it. Ah, and then last but not least, Cedric Diggory, played by Robert Pattinson, (his birthday is 3 years and a day before mine!) was...terrific. Throughout the whole movie, my friend and I were fighting over Cedric, even though I knew his fate. He was exactly like he should be...gorgeous. (sorry) That really made the movie cool. His demise sent shivers through my whole body and I cried my eyes out (but I won't admit it). The greatest thing about the actors was none of them really knew how to dance, and during the ball scene, Dan (Harry) really sucked.

The movie was shot in really cool places, such as Surrey, Oxford University, and Scotland, oh yes and the magical school of Hogwarts. They had underwater scenes, where Dan did his own stunts and swimming mostly. I am just amazed that they can have someone swimming by a blue screen and they make everything look so real. Everything looked awesome, but of course it did, it's Harry Potter.

The movie was terrific, but I only have one thing that annoys me about the whole HP thing. If Harry is a wizard, why can't he just fix his eyes?

This past week, I have become very interested in Africa. One of my best friends is going there in a few months, so I decided to find some pictures and see what it was like there. Africa would make the best vacation place because of the scenery, wildlife, people, and activites you can do there.

Mainly through my search of things of Africa, I found pictures of South Africa, mostly Capetown. Capetown is in the southwest, right by the Atlantic Ocean. The sunset, because it has an ocean on the south and west of the city, lands on the ocean, which is very beautiful. It seems to light up the entire ocean. The whole town is very beautiful, with its beaches, the Cape of Good Hope, and the cool looking Dr. Suess trees. Africa is also well known for safaris, which to me, sound really cool.

One of the main reasons why I like Africa so much is because of the animals that live there. There are elephants, giraffes, zebra, tigers, and many other funny looking animals. These animals seem to be so out of place from the others around the world, like they are from a different planet. They are very beautiful creatures, and they make me happy.

Africa is not even near as developed as the United States is, so they do not have all the comforts that we have. Therefore, they are not as lazy as we are. Africa would be a cool place to go because the people are more in tune with the world around them, and don't just sit in front of computers all day like I do. To them, they'd probably think that's a complete waste of time.

These things just seem to be relaxing, taking you away from everyday life.