Day 1140: Rhythm of the Tambourine

What do you do after spending a weekend with High School Students and playing on concerts and it also happens to be Valentine's Day? Make yourself homemade spaghetti and meatballs and scones and watch The Hunchback of Notre Dame, of course!

If I had to name three movies that I grew up with as a kid, Hunchback would definitely be one of them. I watched it often enough, although mostly when there were thunderstorms, and to this day it's certainly up there on my list of favorite Disney movies. That standard is more because of the music than anything else, but having seen the show as a kid at what was then MGM Studios, and continuously watching the film, I just love Hunchback as a whole.

Now, as you may know, a broadway version of the story has come about, although it's currently not being performed and isn't going to Broadway that we know of, which is really disappointing. The musical version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame just blew me away, and I tend to listen to it all the time. So much, in fact, that I know most of the words to all of the new songs, as I learned the words to the classic ones years ago. If you haven't had a chance to listen to the Cast Recording of the Musical, you can check it out on Spotify HERE.

As for me, Valentine's Day was pretty quiet after all the high school students went home. Spaghetti is easily one of my favorite foods, especially when I make my homemade sauce, so it sounded like the perfect meal for me after a long weekend. Plus, the whole Lady and the Tramp connection has to count for something, right?

Let me know in the comments how Disney may have inspired your Valentine's Day and Have a magical day! 

Day 1131: Santa Fe

I still remember the day I met my freshman roommate Megan and she told me that she loves the Disney Broadway Musical Newsies, which I had never heard of aside from discussion here and there and the memory of seeing the advertisement in Times Square when I visited New York back in 2012. From there, she got me completely hooked on the story of the newsies of 1899, and then I got my best friend into it, and now it's become a huge thing.

So, as you can imagine, when we found out that Newsies would be visiting our local performing arts center, we knew we had to get tickets ASAP, and we did! My parents, Megan (best friend Megan, freshman roommate Megan is in Ireland...too many Megans!), and I went to see Newsies, and when we left I was tap dancing along to "King of New York" and humming "Santa Fe" all the way home.

It's pretty easy to say that I love the musical much more than I love the movie, especially since it has one of my favorite songs from the soundtrack: "Watch What Happens," and features some extremely elaborate dance routines that keep you on the edge of your seat. As for everything else, I don't want to give away too much because I highly recommend you go see this amazing show for yourself as it continues its tour around the United States!

This does bring my Disney musical total up to four though too, as I've previously seen The Lion King, Mary Poppins, and Beauty and the Beast. I've actually seen The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast twice, and I'd love to catch another showing of Mary Poppins, my personal favorite Disney musical, at some point in the future. What I'd really love, however, is to someday see a performance of the discontinued Hunchback of Notre Dame, which features some of my all time favorite Disney music in addition to new songs created for the musical adaptation. As of right now, it's not showing anywhere and it's not headed to Broadway any time soon, but it's definitely on my Bucket List!

In summary, Newsies was amazing, and you need to seize the day and see it for yourself!

Have a magical day!

Day 709: Heaven & HellFire

Within the music department, we tend to all help one another out. Whether that means running scales with each other or turning pages for an accompanist, we make things work. I help a lot with the latter, as one of my good friends, Jessica, is a Piano Performance major, meaning that she accompanies a ton of different students. I turned pages for her during one of my best friend's recitals a while back and I turned pages for her during juries too. If you don't know what a jury is, I'll explain real quick. Basically, as music majors, the most accurate way to test our work and progress is by a live performance, so we play or sing for several of the music professors, who then give us a grade for our semester. It's nerve wrecking, always, and has us all freaking out all semester.

Regardless, turning pages is a much calmer experience, as you just have to sit and listen to music while turning a page for the piano player every once and a while. I love doing it. I love hearing other students perform. It's fun and awesome to see what they've accomplished, and if I can help Jessica out in any way, I'm going to do it.

This year, I was fortunate to sit in on a jury where a song from The Hunchback of Notre Dame was performed, Heaven's Light & HellFire. The song is a sort of duet between Quasimodo and Frollo, and since Hunchback is one of my all time favorite Disney movies (my personal favorite for the music!), it was a complete pleasure and honor to sit in on the jury, and the performance was spectacular.

Here's the song if you want to listen to the version from the film:

Now I really want to watch Hunchback, but sadly I really don't have time for that. After all, there's more blog posts to write and more video to edit!

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on December 26 due to finals & holidays!)

Day 118: Out There

Do you know the song? Te one from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, where Quasimodo is singing about going "out there?"

Well it's one of my personal favorite Disney songs and if you haven't heard it, there's a link to the song down below. It came to mind today, when I was looking at my views for this blog, which because of the work I did yesterday, have gone up dramatically.

You see, for the last 116 days I've been a bit like Quasimodo, hiding behind the parapets of stone that are the "non-sharing" rule. It seems silly because I write a blog on the internet, so really, anyone at any point can come by and see it. But the other thing is, as the blog author, if I want people to see it and if I want my blog to stay active, I not only need to continue writing, but I need to promote it, and share it with the world, just like Quasimodo sings about living one day with everyone else.

But yesterday I began the promoting. After reorganizing my Pinterest boards, I still wanted to keep my original Disney board, Everyday Disney, and decided to use it to promote this blog. I posted all the different entries I could on Pinterest, shared the last couple of blogs on Tumblr, shared a link on Facebook and Tumblr and talked about it on Instagram.

Back when I had WDW kids, and when I started this blog sometime last year initially, I wanted to create a community of Disney lovers. I was under the assumption that just by writing a daily blog, I would gain followers. But the truth is, that's not how it works. And I'm ok with that. Granted, it's still one of my goals to have people discuss the topics I talk about, but if I even just get someone to read what I'm writing, that's good for me. I love to write, and I love Disney, and that's why I write this blog, just like I talked about a few weeks ago.

So, I'm always here if you want to discuss, and feel more than free to leave a comment! But I just wanted to thank everyone for reading my blog, even if you've just read one post...this one for instance. It means a lot to me. =)

Here's today's Disney History: 1995: The ABC television sitcom Family Matters debuts part 1 of the episode "We're Going to Disney World " Steve Urkel is a finalist in an Innoventions contest at Epcot and the Winslow family is invited along for the trip.

Have a magical day!