That's fantastic! You know those shows for small children where they ask a question and then pause for an awkwardly long amount of time so even the slowest of children can answer?
Yeah, that's who you thought of. I know. Well, I guess if you don't have small siblings, it wouldn't make nearly as much sense. Oh well.
So I haven't updated recently. It's not that I've been super busy, but I've been doing things. You ever have things like that, where you really don't do anything, but you're still for some reason doing something? That happens to me all the time! And then the day is somehow over. What? What the, what? You win this time, world. And then you do it over again the next day.
So, I have a few things of a legitimate nature to talk about: random questions, my birthday, and then show choir.
Random questions.
Do you feel lucky? Well do ya, punk?
The answer is yes I do. I feel so lucky.
What is my favorite sport?
I don't know. The activity that I enjoy taking part in is unofficiated, and therefore not classified as a sport. I love playing ultimate frisbee. It's the best! But for an actual sport, probably football. It's just fun.
When was the loudest that I laughed?
That's tough. I laugh pretty loud at a lot of things, as pretty much all people I know can attest to. However, it probably has to be when the doorbell rang at my house and my dog Rusty started barking and running towards the front door. For some reason he slipped and ran face-first into the door. It was extremely funny. I laughed a bunch.
Anyway, the next thing I had to talk about was my birthday. It's today! On Sunday. I am now nineteen years of age. I can do so many things now! Just kidding. Mainly just be older. And go on a mission. Also, I'm finally old enough to be on my favorite show of all time, Between Two Arms! I'm super excited, my boys Bryant and Tyler are going to do a birthday special with me. It's the best. And the way I get to celebrate my birthday is by only having to go to church for three hours instead of my usual six! Nice! With that and Between Two Arms, what could be better? Happy birthday to me! And it's the second day of my birthday! Or at least it feels like it. My family sent me a package on Thursday, and I kind of opened it. Extra days of birthday for the win!
Now for the last item of business.
Show choir. Just so everyone knows, I will be posting a lot of videos. All are worthwhile to watch.
In Ankeny, Iowa, there is a show choir called Visual Adrenaline. It's one of the best show choir programs in the country. And I was lucky enough to be a part of it for three whole years. But first off, what is show choir? Let me tell you what it's not: It's NOT GLEE. Oh my gosh, I hate that show. It portrays show choir and all people who are into the arts as some kind of weird people, and it's not full of drama and problems all the time. If there was an actual show about show choir, it probably wouldn't sell very well.
But i digress.
Show choir is where a choir sings and dances in sync onstage. It's really fun, and very demanding. If you want a good example, let me show you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I7t8SEn1sA
If that is all you see of show choir, that is okay. That is what show choir is. However, there are other styles that are more showy, and use props and backdrops. Some of those choirs are good, such as John Burroughs Powerhouse from California.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1mkWz7hwGM
They're good, but a lot of their show is in the production, and not in the vocals and choreography, which is what I personally prefer. They do a lot of relatively easy singing and dancing, and never do them together. Also, they're mainly backing up a soloist instead of singing. But they do it very, very well, and the differences are not bad. It just plays their strengths, and it can be chalked up to a difference of opinion.
Then, there are the groups that I hate. A lot. This is Happiness, Inc. from Davenport, Iowa.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYBJthvLGwg
They are overly showy. This is a choir that decided that they had to put more "show" into show choir. They also use props for no reason. Props should never be used unless they enhance the show. And I've only ever seen one instance of it.
This is Clinton Attache, and notice how together the props are. That is some nice umbrella work. Also, only watch until the girls come on. Because then it's not as important.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLAkuU4GmCk&feature=related
But pretty much other than that, I've never seen good props. Not that people haven't tried.
As I see more show choirs, I see more and more props. Unfortunately.
This is Center Grove Sound System, I think from Indiana. I'll show two things.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLAkuU4GmCk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WwXm8hI8Fo&feature=related
You just go WTF? Why would anyone do that. I don't know. But now let's get into what wins.
There are best vocals, best choreography, and best show (a.k.a. best props). Vocals are more important than choreography, and choreography is more important than show. But our group, since we didn't have props, would get docked. For no reason, even though our shows would be more exciting and had both more difficult choreography and vocals, which we would pull off. Visual Adrenaline won twice in the three-year period, even though we went to nationals twice and got a third and second place, both times with best choreography. And we lost to choirs like Center Grove, or Happiness, Inc. And when I would look at their shows, I wouldn't know what to say. But for some reason, that kind of stuff is winning now.
If you care about show choir, you might be saying to yourself, "Is there a way to make this better? And there is. People/judges really like very full sound and clean(together) choreography. The best way to do this is to simplify vocal parts and make choreography less involved. That will encourage a supported, full sound and clean choreography, without having to resort to props. Yay!
And that's what people are doing. That's what's winning right now. And that's all that I have to say about show choir. Except that it's super fun and awesome. It made my high school experience fantastic. Lots of my friends were in show choir, and I don't know where I would be without it.
Well, here I am at the end of another post. Thanks for reading. Also, if you enjoyed watching some of this, I would recommend checking out Ankeny Visual Adrenaline, Clinton Attache, and John Burroughs Powerhouse on Youtube. They're all fantastic choirs. I'll be back sometime in the near future. And I'll post a link to Between Two Arms on here when it comes up. Keep it classy and take it easy.
I totally agree about the whole props not being necessary thing. We ran into the same problems with marching band. Our school's budget was pretty much nonexistent, so we never really had to have many visuals. It was always so annoying to see other bands have super cool props, but then their marching wouldn't be as complex. Or they would march when they weren't playing and stand still when they were. Or it would just be a bunch of soloists that played while the band rarely did. However, my band wasn't even that good because we tried to do hard things that we weren't capable of doing, so I'm glad that your show choir was amazing!
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