HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Last night was the best concert ever. I played in it. It was a combined Symphony Band (the one I was in) and Wind Ensemble. Even better, it was a Halloween Concert!! Thats right. The concert was completely decked out in ghosts, pumpkins, spiderwebs, wallhangings, and lanturns everywhere. We played on the first half of it...Mars (the Bringer of War) from the Holst Planet series, Danse Macabre by Saint-Seans, Night on Bald Mountain (ever watched the original Fantasia? It's the one with the gargoyle on the mountain), and a really cool piece called Voodoo.

DKAL (Mr. Kalatarian, the band conductor) came in for the first piece dressed as Charlie Cardinal. For those who don't know he is our sports mascot....and he was completely in character. It was so funny. On night on bald mountain he was dressed up as the cowardly lion....and was completely in character as well. Awsome stuff. And no one knew what his costume was beforehand so it was all we could do to keep from laughing on stage. (He had told everyone the night before that he needed a pair of white marching band shoes and if someone had an old pair to bring for him...all just to throw us off of course.

The Voodoo piece was especially awsome. For this piece, we turned out all the lights and played it in the dark (well, I didn't actually get to "play" but I participated). It starts out all creepy with wind and vocal sounds, with the occasional flashlight blinking intot he audience, then builds into a music section, then goes into a haunting section where we are all saying "voooooodooooo" really creepy-like, then it goes into some tribal-sounding percussive section. Some people are passing thier hand over the flashlights pointed at the ceiling so it looks like fire torches. Then everyone screams and starts chanting and clapping with really cool drums in the background, like a tribal dance. Now while all this "tribal" stuff is going, there are students spaced in the audience with flashlights, shining if briefly on their faces and then moving the flashlights all crazy around the audience. It was fun to watch the audience's reactions. Some were pretty scared. Well then it goes all black again while the band winds up to the climax very dramatic-like, and we all stomp our feet on the stage and yell "Voodoo!!" while holding the flashlights to our faces. I can't even really describe it it was so cool. If I ever get a video of it, I will post it. I should have gotten one at the dress rehearsal...oh well.

The second half was pretty cool too. The first piece....I don't even know what the first piece was, but it was a bunch of shorter movements that got really old after about the 6th one (there were like 10 of them). But the next piece was "Godzilla eats Las Vegas" and it was pretty cool. The ensemble did all the effects during the "story," such as clapping, sighing in relief, marching (with thier feet), screaming, screaming "Godzilla" and etc. There was a screen which they projected the story with what looks a homemade animated movie (ever seen Charlie the Unicorn...those kind of graphics) depicting the story. It was hilarious. Their last piece was different, called "Cave of the Winds." Everyone took off thier stands and chairs, and then it gets dark while they get into place on the stage. A narrator comes on, talking about how these cave dwellers live in a tiny cave node that never gets sunlight. "This node is located about 3 miles under the earth's crust, under the Field in Muncie." That part was funny. But he talks breifly how the musicians use thier syncronized heartbeat to play thier music by feel, becuase there is no need tot see, yadda yadda. So the lights come back on and everyone is in black wearing sunglasses. There are various plants set up on stage, and each group is organized someway around them. The bassoons are in teh middle, the clarinets and oboes walk in a circle around another plant, the flutes are peeking from behing another, the tubas are doing thier own weird things by another. Some are playing to the plants. There is a balcony at the back of the stage where the pipes for the organ sit, and there were ppl up there too. So they just played while doing thier own little wierd dances or movements. It was pretty cool I guess. The tubas were especially fun to watch....at one point they walked across stage, off down the steps, in front the stage, and then back on to thier spot....well they didn't walk, it was shuffling really fast so that thier bodies never seemed to move...it was funny. Guess you really had to be there though.

There were some pretty good costumes...I saw the Jokere (very realistic and completely in character...and he sounded exactly like him), a music stand, homer simpson, Bill Nye, a bunch of grapes, the whole clarinet section dressed up as different characters to Alice in Wonderland, a ninja turtle, a creepy rag doll, a banana, and the wind ensemble percussion section all dressed up as nuns (which was especially funny since all but one are guys). Ashley and I didn't want to do the cliche "Angels play harps," so we dressed up as sinister beings, very evil witih cloaks. Ashley had wings, so she was an evil angel, or dark angel. I didn't have wings, but I had a cool dress on that had huge embroidered wide sleeves and an embroidered hood...so I guess I was this evil scorceress or priestess. We did out hair and put lots of eyemakeup on. It was awsome. Afterwards, I wanted to go out becuase I had a pair of little butterfly wings and small plasic antennae that I really wanted to wear. I put on my jeans and a longsleeved black v-neck with them. I called up my friend and we went to steak n' shake to get icecream. I felt magical....plus I still had my big hair and eyemakeup. In fact, I still have my big hair this morning...that's going to be a pain in the butt to wash out, since it is practically stiff with so much product.

So i think i'm going to go eat breakfast now. This was probably a really boring post. I have noticed that whenever I start spouting off about music ppl tend to tune me out...but thats ok I forgive you. Happens all the time.