It's Over Now, The Music of the Night

   At long last, we've reached the end of Phantom.

   Our Saturday and Sunday performances were absolutely stunning. But let's start with Friday, seeing as I posted before and it was a fun performance.
   There are a few jokes that I'm going to have to omit from this blog. It's not that I feel the need to censor myself, but this is the Internet, and certain things just shouldn't be said. If you're curious and not too sensitive, contact me at the About page at www.nerdsunderfire.com
   Moving on, Friday. We actually started out fairly well, but several minutes before they were supposed to, the stage crew dropped the hanged dummy from the ceiling. Needless to say, the pit orchestra collectively lost their shit laughing, and it was a solid minute before they finally pulled it back up. Really just so they could drop it again.
   Saturday and Sunday went remarkably more smoothly (read: boring). Don't get me wrong, Phantom is one of, if not my favorite musical of all time, but after seeing it so many times, you start to rely on the little slip ups to entertain you. Regardless, they were still fantastic shows to watch. Carlotta, as always my favorite character was absolutely fabulous.
   I should clarify by saying Carlotta is not my favorite character because of her personality (though who doesn't love a good antagonist?), rather because of her solos, particularly her rendition of Think of Me. During that song was one of the rare times when I found myself fully enraptured during every rehearsal, and show. It is absolutely gorgeous,and Christine really pales in comparison at that point. Our Carlotta was particularly talented, at it was incredible to watch her work.
   The only other time in the show I experienced this was Christine's song to her father in the graveyard. Particularly the line "Why can't the past just die." Both on and off Broadway, this is easily the most powerful moment in the show.
   Anyway, now that it's over, I'm rather sad. Back to regular life. Not necessarily a bad thing, of course. Even in the pit, four shows back to back is exhausting. Particularly for someone who isn't used to playing that much. While I do make sure to practice every day, I don't perform every day.

   Of course this week, I basically do. Tomorrow I have a concert with the high school orchestra, followed by the NYSSMA solo competition (I'll be performing Vivaldi's Spring, if anyone was curious), after which is a wind ensemble concert. So basically what I'm saying, is that I'm not going to have a lot of time for my usual hobbies.
   In the mean time, however I have a little free time. I'm still plowing my way through Pokemon Y, and I'm awaiting eagerly the launch of ranked season 1 in Hearthstone. I'm hoping to at least make it into the single digit ranks this time around, but what I'd really like is that Legendary card back. I know it's just a silly cosmetic, but still-it's a cool silly cosmetic.

Pictured: an awesome waste of time

   I'm also watching Pokemon Black and White at the moment' having depleted Netflix's Indigo League collection. I'm really just doing it to put off watching Breaking Bad, though. I don't really enjoy it, but people keep telling me to watch it.
   That's about all that's going on in my life at the moment, I'll see you all on Wednesday!

As always, tacos.
Gladdstone