The Closest Shave You'll Ever Know

   Wednesday is here, and that means just one more day until I'm off to Boston for my last marching band trip ever. Sad, but I can't wait.
   As I write this, I've finally sat down to watch Johny Depp's Sweeney Todd and I must say,I had no ideaeither he nor Alan Rickman had the voices they do. They really are fabulous together. It's an excellent movie. I've never completely figured it out, but I absolutely adore dark characters. The Phantom, Dr. Horrible, Sweeney Todd, they are all some of my absolute favorite characters in all of fiction. Interestingly, they're all from musicals, which probably helps seeing as the villains/dark protagonists always have the absolute best songs (come on, do you mean to tell me that Music of the Night or My Friends aren't a couple of the best songs ever written?). Although, I must say, Jamie Bower is the real vocal star in this film. What a voice on that one. Absolutely astounding.
   Anyway, I'm about an hour in, and the chemistry between Depp and Carter is absolutely incredible. I will absolutely have to look for more with the two of them working together. One thing I don't understand, though, is whether or not he's killing everyone? It seems like that, but that would be stupid.
   I'll be singing these songs for weeks-I'm certain to sound like a bloody psychopath, Although, to be completely honest, that won't be a huge change from what I usually sound like.
   Before I change gears, when the homeless woman called Mrs. Lovett a witch, I about died. Greatest happy accident ever.
   In other news, I caught wind of an incredible opportunity today. Tiana told me about a Europe trip run by teachers at the school. It's not through the school, but the teachers run it still. The only issue, is it cost about $3,000.
   On the bright side, I think that if I pick up a few more hours at the restaurant, I shold be able to afford it, although I may have to cut out buying the new Super Smash Bros for a while. Completely worth it, though. We fly into Milan, and visit several villages in Italy and the French Riviera before going to Madrid, which we fly out of. Granted, it's only 9 days, but I've always wanted to go to Europe, so I'm incredibly excited-especially to be able to go with Tiana. It will be an amazing chance.
   I think that's all for now. I'll check back in on Friday (from Boston!).
   Oh, also-I will never trust a barber again.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Just Checking In

   All right, Monday is over. Thank God, hahaha. I've finally reached season 9 of The Office and I'm starting to get really pissed off at the story line and what's happening with the relationships. I won't spoil anything, but suffice it to say that I'm pretty angry. They're screwing up my perfect couple.
   My weekend was pretty quiet. I got some yard work down, I sat around, finished off the ice cream in the freezer, and, oh yeah, I recorded the pilot for a brand new podcast!
   That's right, Geek Council recorded it's first ever episode was recorded on Saturday with my dear friend Nik. We discussed several things, including a fascinating Florida Man story (for those unfamiliar with the meme, Florida is a really messed up place. Let's just leave it at that). It also features a review segment as well as a segment designed by Nik that he will do each time he's on the show. It should be up on her, and the Nerds Under Fire website soon. Keep checking back!
   No school for this guy tomorrow, thanks to the Common Core testing. If one good thing that comes out of it, it's that AP students don't have to take the test. So, yeah! Whoo! Day off! We're going to go see Maleficient in the afternoon. I really love these kinds of stories that take a look at a villain, and really sort of humanize them, for lack of a better word. Can you guess what my favorite musical is?
   Duh, West Side Story.
   Hahaha, just kidding. It's Wicked, obviously. As you know, I just went to see it in NYC last week and the music is still stuck in my head. Not a bad thing, though. That music is the shit.
   So it should be a good day. Not much else to report on.
   I'll see you all Wednesday.

Tacos,
Gladdstone

One Short Day

   Welcome back, friends. I hope you all had an excellent Memorial Day. For those of you outside the United States who don't celebrate, I hope you had a great...Monday. Anyway, here is my delayed post, as I promised, and I have been waiting so long to finally get this out here. Exciting things. Let's jump in, shall we?
   So, Saturday morning I rose (reluctantly) at 7am to get in the car and drive the four hours to New York
City where I had the distinct privelege of seeing my all-time favorite musical, Wicked.

source: milwaukee.broadway.com

   Now let me just say, the first few times I went to the city, I was distinctly unimpressed. It always just sort of came off as crowded, and dirty, and smelly. But every time I go, I find I like it a little more, and this past time I thought maybe, just maybe I could even live there someday.

source: my iPhone

   We got into the city around 11:30. The show wasn't until two, so after getting lost briefly, we found the theatre, parked and found a restaurant (Applebees). We finished eating around 1:00, and my sister wanted to go to the Hershey store that was a few blocks down. It's a cute little store, but I didn't find anything particularly exciting about it. By the time we got out of there, it was 1:30 so we headed back to Gershwin Theater, got in and found our seats. I did manage to get a few crappy pictures of the set before the show started. It was really quite awe-inspiring to see. Everything was very steampunk, and the way the dragon at the top moved (yes it moves) was just so smooth you would never think it was attached to ropes.
   The show itself was absolutely stunning. Christine Dwyer as Elphaba was absolutely incredible, and she just meshed so well with Glinda. We sat up at towards the top of the theatre. The seats weren't great, but there really didn't seem to be any bad seats. If I had to make one complaint, it's that the audio wasn't quite up to par with Phantom. Now that may be a little much to ask, because no  one had a mic in this show, and everyone can't be expected to project the way that the Phantom did in that show (he just filled the entire theatre with sound. You could practically feel him singing. Oh, to have that kind of voice).
   Despite the sound being a little less than ideal, it was an incredible show. I expected to tear up during Defying Gravity, but there were just so many other little moments that really, really moved me. Moments where the audience laughed, I saw something completely different. I feel like people thought that the show was funnier than it was meant to be. To me, it's a tragedy. To most other people, they seem to think it's a cute little show that gives a new spin on an old story (trying to remain spoiler-free. It's an old show/book, but still).
   All in all, it certainly lived up to everything I hoped it would be, and honestly, may have been even better than I even could have thought. If you ever have the chance to go see a Broadway show, this is an absolute must-see.
   Looking ahead, Friday you can all expect an announcement regarding my new major project. I am currently getting together plans, and people, and the like. We're looking to launch in mid-June, but the official unveiling is scheduled for Friday, so stay tuned!
   I'll talk to you all tomorrow!

Tacos,
Gladdstone

Wicked Cool Weekend

Celebratory Bulbasaur!

   BAM. Friday post! Lookie what I did! I am here, it is a Friday, and this post is happening right here, right now.
   The past two days have been really nice, quite relaxing. Thursday was the junior class trip, and I elected to stay home (my classes were going to be empty, anyway). I got quite a lot done. I practiced Beethoven's 5th Sonata quite a bit, as well as my double stops.
   I also played a fair amount of Hearthstone, but I didn't make much headway in the ranks. I'm still fielding the same general shaman deck as I was before. I'm not sure what the issue is with it, but it seems to have a 50-50 win rate. I just need something to bump it into that 51-50 win rate, so that I can at elast move forward, albeit slowly. If anyone's feeling particularly like helping, contact me on Twitter or the like and I'll be happy to share my deck list with you.
   In the World of Warcraft, my troll shaman finally broke 500 item level through LFR, and I'm into Siege of Orgrimmar at long last. Not to say that I don't enjoy that raid, but honetly, it feels a little underwhelming. Let's just see what it's competing against. Last expansion, during the final raid we rode on Deathwing. We rode a fricking dragon and busted armor off of him! We then stood on a lava, rocky terrain and fought off all kinds of massive evil monsters until we finally slayed an ASPECT. Now let's back up to Wrath of the Lich King. The Lich King. Arthas. He had some of the absolute coolest backstory in WoW. There is no feeling that could compare to the first time I brought him down. WotLK was the expansion that I first came in during, and I worked really hard to get to Icecrown Citadel. The whole fight, vent was just on fire. People were screaming at each other, tensions were super high, and we were just channeling all this rage at the Lich King. Suddenly, BOOM. He's down. The server just completely explodes. It was just insane, nothing has ever been able to compare to what I felt in that moment.
   Today I actually got out and did some stuff for a change. Hahaha. No, seriously! I helped my grandfather open up his pool for the season. It was pretty nasty when we first started, but there was something really pleasing about scraping the algae off of the pool because it covered literally the entire pool, so there was just little streaks of light blue (the pool lining). I also had to work tonight, which wasn't too bad, surprisingly.
   But now to the big news. Guess who's going to see Wicked tomorrow? On Broadway???

This guy!

   That's right! Tomorrow morning, I will rise at 7am and drive to New York City. I will have lunch, and then my mother, my grandmother, my sister, and I will all go to see my all-time favorite musical. I can't wait!

   Speaking of which, it's getting late, so I should be off to bed. 

Tacos,

Gladdstone