Day 775: The Copy Room

What exactly do I do for a job these days? I make copies. And copies, and more copies. And on the rare occasion that I'm not making copies, I'm hanging around watching 50 some high school students just in case one of them needs a copy.

In all reality, I actually love my job. I sit down in the basement of the music building in the music library, sorting music, and from time to time I make my way upstairs to make copies for one of the groups. Meanwhile, at the moment, I'm in between music copying phases, and instead have to just sit and organize music. This, of course, allows me for plenty of time to listen to music, and it changes by the day, but that's another blog post.

The important part here is that over Valentine's weekend I not only played on two concerts with the Wind Ensemble, but also spent around 30 hours watching or ushering around those 50 high school students, all of whom were thankfully very well behaved. We had 0 problems, which definitely made my life easier, but it left me feeling pretty tired by the end of it all. On top of that, I got really far behind in all my work, and that would be why it's almost the end of February and I'm sitting here just now blogging for the majority of the month. Yeah, it's a problem.

But by far the greatest part of my job (aside from having my own desk and brilliant new Mac) is the ability to look through our music library. Of course, I have no say in what we play, but just the pure knowledge that we have a John Williams piece in our library makes my day a million times better. Of course, I also get pretty excited when we play a piece that has something to do with Disney, but once again, that's another blog post (that seems to be a reoccurring theme today).

Other than that, I really have no idea where this blog post is going. Those 30 hours of my life were largely uneventful aside from listening to music and studying for a French test, so there isn't much else to say for once. But I did somehow relate all of this to Disney on some level (Music, John Williams, etc), so it still counts.

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on February 24).

Day 617: Silent Star Wars

To be brutally honest, without music, movies would absolutely suck. And no, this isn't just the music major in me that says "Maybe you'll actually get to be good at composing music and can write music for a TV show or something." I'm saying, literally, that without music, films would be god awful.

Don't believe me? Watch this:

Ahh yes, the things you come across on Facebook and other social media. This one came up somehow and talked about how without the music, the end of the original Star Wars film is just a bunch of people smiling at each other, and IT'S SO TRUE. 

I watched this earlier tonight and all I wanted to do was make it stop. It's painful to watch...and this was just a couple minutes. Can you imagine a whole film? Gosh, that would be torture. Although Jupiter playing at the beginning really made me laugh because we just played that at a concert here at SNC.

So let's thank all the composers out there for a second, and thank the Lord for the music that backs the films. And for John Williams, because really, this makes a lot more sense:

Now I really, REALLY want to watch Star Wars.

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on September 14).

Day 459: On the Road

My family tends to travel a lot. That may have already been obvious by the simple fact of how often I've been to Walt Disney World, but either way we do like to go to places closer to home too. My Godfather actually lives in Chicago, which is about a four hour drive from us, and we've visited him a ton of times throughout my life. A little closer, about two and a half hours away, is Milwaukee, where we love to go to the museums and such. We've been other places too, all over the state, and sometimes out of Wisconsin.

So it should be no surprise to you that we have a distinct few songs we tend to listen to on these long drives. In fact, when we drove down to Milwaukee to catch our flight to Orlando a few weeks ago, we had a similar playlist of songs...all of which were Disney of course. I figured I would share a couple of my personal favorites.

Once Upon A Time

Now, I only put this on the list because it tends to be what I listen to when everyone else is asleep. I LOVE to listen to music while I'm driving, even if it's just really quietly in the background. And since I have the music of both Season 1 and 2 on my phone, I might as well use it! Actually, considering that lately it's become my reading playlist too, I think I got my money's worth out of it. The music by Mark Isham is beautiful, and in case you were wondering, my favorite tracks are as follow: Cinderella (S1), The Road to True Love (S1), The Clock Moves (S1 - This is my absolute favorite!), True Love (S2),We Are Both (S2), The Duelists (S2), Tallahassee (S2), and The Adventure Begins (S2).

The Muppets

It seems to me that one of my Brother's favorite CDs is the soundtrack from The Muppets. I'm talking the newer Muppets movie from a few years ago. Granted, with the awesome songs in that movie how could you not love it? Although I do get a little irritated when he continuously plays "The Answer is No" over and over and over and over and over....

Star Wars

Or any John Williams music really. Indy most certainly falls into this category too. I think our favorite time to play any Star Wars song is when we're driving on this one road near home, and if we time it just right and we're in The Falcon (that's my car, remember?), then it's basically like I'm Han Solo because my brother will be playing "The Asteroid Field" which is what I call "Han Solo is the best Pilot ever" song. It's a good time, and did we escape the Empire? You bet we did.

Disney/Pixar Greatest

My brother also likes to play this game (have you figured out who's generally in charge of the music yet?) where we have to guess what movie the song is from, and his favorite CD to do this with is the Disney/Pixar Greatest CD. It has tracks from most of the Pixar movies (obviously not the newest ones) and he'll just go through them and be like "WHAT MOVIE!?!" and then we have to figure it out and he gets angry when we get it wrong. Although at this point we've played it so many times it's hard to get it wrong.

Disney In General

When we did drive down to Chicago this weekend, we happened to listen to a playlist of Disney. I have it for when I'm at home doing chores or something and feel like singing. So I'll put it on and it has the classic Disney songs on it. Ok, not all of them, but a bunch of them, and I'll just go around the house singing these songs while I work. They have always said that it goes faster when you're having fun, right?

In the end, I guess it kind of changes depending on where we're going, but overall I think the general theme for us is Disney music. But really, that shouldn't surprise you at this point. I do write a blog about Disney in my everyday life, don't I?

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on April 8 due to Travel).

Day 209: Star Wars Celebration

If you are a long time reader of my blog, you already know that I love Star Wars, and if you're not, you know now! Back in May when Star Wars Weekends were going on, I did several posts about that, but there's one piece that doesn't always come during the month of May! And that something is Star Wars Celebration!

This year in Germany, the Star Wars Celebration is a convention for everything Star Wars. Kind of like ComicCon or VidCon...only JUST Star Wars. And that means that it's AMAZING. Sadly, I live even further from Germany than the location of the last Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, so I obviously wasn't able to attend. But I did get to see some pictures and I followed the news like a Hawk, so here's the basic rundown of everything I felt was super important from Star Wars Celebration Europe!

1. JOHN WILLIAMS.

Now, you must really live in a hole or be out of the loop if you missed this one. That's right, John Williams has officially signed on to compose the score for ALL THREE of the new Star Wars films, started in 2015! This is great news because it means one of my three requirements for the new films has been fulfilled (the others are Harrison Ford and Han Solo MUST NOT DIE).

So, in celebration, watch John Williams is the Man, because we all know it to be true.

2. The New Movies aren't going to be like the prequels.

I think this is great news, although I guess what I just said can't really be confirmed. Either way, the basic idea is that the new films are going to use a mix of Real Locations and Models along WITH Digital stuff. I mean, I think it really shows in the difference between the originals and the prequels. The originals looked great even without all the crazy graphics because they used real places and real things to make it work! The prequels just looked really fake to me. Like it's said there isn't one shot in all of the prequels that doesn't use a blue-screen. That's just terrible right there.

3. The Next One is in 2015 in Anaheim! 

That's right, Star Wars Celebration is headed to the home of other great conventions such as D23 and Vidcon! Hopefully in the future I'll be able to make it to all of them...just probably not all in one year. You'll hear more about D23 in the coming weeks too! But either way, Star Wars Celebration is moving out to the Disneyland area for a convention just before the anticipated release of Episode 7. Who else wants to go?!?! (This is where I start begging for people to take me with them!)

Oh, and they announced a couple of other things, like a TV show called Star Wars Rebels. Not much on it yet, but I'm not sure if I'm excited or not. Honestly it has to include Han Solo for me to be excited. One thing that came out of the last Star Wars Celebration that looks like it will never happen is Star Wars Detours. It looked like such a great idea and I'm really sad it will never come to be! 

Here's today's Disney History: 1998: Disney's first cruise ship, The Magic, is christened by Patricia Disney (Roy E. Disney's Wife) in Florida. Built by Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri, the Disney Magic can hold approximately 2,400 passengers. The ship boasts 10 expansive decks, a total length of 964 feet, a maximum width of 106 feet and an astonishing gross tonnage of 83,000. It will embark on its maiden voyage two days later. 

Have a magical day!

Day 155: The Imperial March

I feel like I've had a lot of posts about Star Wars lately, mostly because of Star Wars month, but this one was just too good to pass up.

Although I'm technically no longer a student and am graduated from high school, I've been returning to help out with band stuff. Today, I spent a large portion, ok, all of my time sorting out pep band music so that I can go through and finish organizing it all this week...if I can finish it all! Either way, I have three steps while sorting. First, I have to sort through the miscellaneous pile of music and determine if it should go on it "ok" or the "it's fishy" pile. If it's ok, then it goes to be sorted into alphabetical order in the smaller pile before I sort them out by alphabetical and specific piece. There is currently music all over the band room, and I used probably about 20 stands and six chairs, each with at least four pieces on it, with many stands having six. Either way, in that first step, I found a copy of The Imperial March, and this is what it looked like:

Yeah, they actually crossed out Imperial March and replaced it with Vader. It honestly made my day to see that, and it got a good laugh out of me while sorting too. It didn't take me long to decide that this piece of pep band music would be today's blog post, because it is a little bit of Disney that worked into my everyday life, and this is the exact kind of stuff that I planned on putting on this blog originally.

But I think the lesson here is this: If you ever find yourself with a copy of the Imperial March, be sure to cross that out and write Vader. Or, if you're more like me, and have the music from Star Wars in general, cross that out and write "Han Solo."

Here's today's Disney History: 1990: At Disneyland, the Bengal Barbecue, a quick service food location in Adventureland, opens. (Note: Lizzie absolutely loved this restaurant when she visited Disneyland in 2011).

Have a magical day!

Day 133: Bittersweet

You know what's one of the saddest things ever?

Playing your last high school band concert.

That was my night, and honestly I'm proud that I managed to get through the entire thing without crying. There aren't many things in my life that are more important to me than Disney, but band is one of them. I've spent the last four years of my life with this group, and tonight was super bittersweet because I was honored for all my work, but now it's almost over.

Granted, really, it's not over since we still have another parade, graduation and a Disney audition to prepare for...and after that we have the band trip and then the summer stuff before I come back for next summer's trip to Disney.

This concert was probably my favorite concert I've played in high school though, because not only did I get to play my feature piece in Jazz Band, but we also chose "Brave" as our senior selection, meaning that we got to play songs from Brave at the concert! Along with this we got to play a selection called Hollywood Milestones, which had everything from Jaws to Back to the Future and Beauty and the Beast. It has 11 songs in it total, so it was pretty awesome. Especially since 80% of those songs were by John Williams.

Either way, it was a pretty sad time, but it was still amazing. And I couldn't ask for a better group to have spent my last concert with.

Here's today's Disney History: 2001: The Wonderful World of Disney airs "Child Stars: The Shirley Temple Story."

Have a magical day!

Day 80: Music for Band

Each year, my band has the seniors choose one selection for our final concert and to play at graduation. I, of course, would love to play a Disney song, specifically one that features each senior in our group, which is easy for us since there are only 5 of us. Either way, it's generally a score from a movie or musical, since last year we did Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and previously we've done Wicked.

So I've spent some time researching this music and it's interesting to see what's all out there in the world of concert band arrangements of Disney songs. Currently I'm listening to Circle of Life, but earlier I had on Brave. I personally really like Brave because it does feature each section nicely and the idea of the songs and film fit perfectly in line with graduation, so it's certainly a possibility.

But I wanted to say that someone should write a great jazz arrangement of Everybody Wants to Be a Cat. You'd think there would be one out there, but there really isn't, and it's the one song I really wish my jazz band could play because it would just be so entertaining, especially since my best friend's favorite Disney movie is indeed the Aristocats.

I would also love to see a John Williams arrangement that features everything from Indy to Han Solo and the Princess (especially Han Solo and the Princess). I'd write something myself but I am not that talented and have no where near enough time. I think it would be fun to do something like that someday though.

Now I'm listening to Hollywood Milestones, filled with Beauty and the Beast, Jurassic Park, Apollo 13, Raiders March, Jaws and more. It's quite entertaining to spend all morning doing this.

Here's today's Disney History: 1962: Actor Matthew Broderick, the voice of the adult Simba in Disney's The Lion King, The Lion King II: Simba's Pride and The Lion King 1 1/2, is born in New York City. He also starred in Disney's 1999 live-action feature Inspector Gadget and the 2003 ABC-TV edition of The Music Man, which aired on The Wonderful World of Disney.

Have a magical day!

Day 26: Hard Times

Today has been...interesting.

I suppose that's really just the best way to put it, and I certainly will not be going into anything was was extremely upsetting to me, but I have been pretty upset all evening.

Anyway, I figured I'd talk briefly about the news in the Star Wars Universe...as I think we have all heard that J.J. Abrams is directing the next installment into the Saga. I don't really have an opinion on this as I have only a few standards for the new films...

1. Harrison Ford must be there, as should the other original actors.
2. Han Solo cannot die. He just...I respect Harrison Ford's potential want to kill him off, but I don't think it will work. If they can come up with a way for it to work, ok, but I just can't see the galaxy's favorite smuggler being killed off.
3. John Williams must provide the music.

I don't know much about J.J. Abrams either, but based on the people I look to when it comes to Star Wars, he is a good choice. I suppose this means I really should watch that Star Trek movie that came out a few years ago to see what he's all about, but if Corey Vidal thinks that Abrams is a good choice, then so do I.

In all honesty, if you haven't see ApprenticeA, go check out the youtube channel, and then watch the daily vlogs at ApprenticeEh. It's amazing...I can't even begin to describe how they've changed my life. But when the news broke that Disney bought Star Wars and 20 minutes later Corey was making a video...I didn't care about Disney buying Star Wars...I was freaking out because if Corey thought Disney was a bad idea, I might just cry, for obvious reasons. Luckily Corey thought the whole thing was a great idea...and just recently he made a visit to Disneyland and rode Star Tours 7 times. That daily vlog was 20 minutes (it's down below) and is my favorite one of every vlog they have ever made.

If I actually have any readers out there, what do you think about the choice for the director of Star Wars? I'd love to hear some thoughts since, like I said, I really don't know much about the guy.

Have a magical day, and may the force be with you!