Current mood: achy
Currently listening to: Duran Duran - "Ordinary World"
Yo. Well, I should really go take a shower because I reek and should head to the Iron Pour at some point soon, but, what can I say? I'm a hopeless blogger...
Anyhow, yesterday one of the most talented men I've ever come across made his way to NHS. How much they paid him/how they convinced him to come (maybe he did it because it looks good on resumes?) I don't know, but I am grateful that they did. I speak of Cameron Carpenter, a genial organist. I was able to see him perform twice; the first time was his first performance, the last his last. When he initially was presented, he ran on stage, hopped on his bench, and slid down it-- consequently beginning to play madly. Watching him was exhausting, refreshing, enrapturing, and amazing. He played an electric organ because it could be moved-- essentially a computer that was able to reproduce every sound a pipe organ was able to emit. The guy looked interesting, although, when I got a closer look, I realized he also did look a lot like Michael Jackson (save for the nose), which was kind of frightful, but his incredible talent made up for everything, I thought. Anyway, his hair was parted on the side like mine, but the side of the part where the least hair was supposed to be was shaved, and the other side of the part showed long hair. He wore skin-tight pants (the Darkness-style), a torn silky jacket, and shiny flat boots. His organ consisted of three keyboards for the hands, all the additional tassels, of course, and the fourth keyboard was on the lower part of the instrument for his feet. And wow-- he played a piece by Chopin in which the part of the left hand was performed by the feet, and it was breathtaking. He opened with the theme from
Star Wars on his last performance, and he played Bach so amazingly that I actually came to appreciate Bach (I had priorly nearly despised Bach's stuff for I thought it very boring). He played some Rossini, and he performed the killing theme from
Psycho, which was frightful and just wow-- he was even able to set his organ to sound as though it were in a cathedral, so one can imagine how much effect that added. Some morons insisted that he play hip-hop, but he politely answered that it would be idiotic to try that on an organ. Upon request, he played "Bohemian Rhapsody," which was overly awesome. He also played "The Phantom of the Opera," at which point I nearly melted. He closed his very last concert as he closes all his concerts-- with an "improvisation." He "improvised" "The Star Spangled Banner," but it was quality composition. It sounded as though the piece had been carefully written, and it was beautiful. In addition, he was an excellent, very instructional speaker. He's played for 19 years... He goes to Julliard, but I find it surprising that he is still a student with a professor-- this fellow should perhaps be teaching his professors. Anyhow, he is coming back to Atlanta on December 4, but it just dawned on me that if we do sing at Biltmore Estate on December 5, I will not be able to go. I really want to see him again, and he won't be coming to Georgia anytime soon after the end of this year. If you get a chance to go, please do, for 'tis an extremely rewarding experience. He is playing at Spivey Hall, too, which I imagine will be wondrous if he sounded that marvelous in itty crappy NHS Auditorium.
Go to
www.cameroncarpenter.com for more info.
I did a bit better on my SAT, but not by incredibly much. I am a little disappointed, but I am overall faintly pleased. Verbal went very well, but Math only improved by ten points... go figer. I'm a relatively advanced math pupil, and yet I can't manage to do well on the Math section of the SAT, which rather hurts my score. I find this a bit ironic, too, seeing as I am foreign. Oh, well. I never have to take that test again, so that is better than worse...
My muscles hurt a lot. Yesterday I broke coal and iron, but doing it gave me a nice feeling of accomplishment. I also did a scratch that will be used as a mold today. It consists of a backwards G-clef. I didn't meant to do it backwards, but once I finished scratching it, I realized that I was supposed to scratch it backwards. So, then, I tried to fix the issue by writing a note to any happening on-looker: N.B.: Read in Reverse. Of course, I messed that up, too, so the way it will turn out will be with a central backwards G-clef, and the writing will read: "Reverse N.B.: Read in." However, I am very happy with this, for 'tis such a mess that it works. Besides, it matches me, think you not? All right, I REALLY need a shower, so I'll go do that now and get to the iron pour (maybe even read a little).
Toodley-doo!
Edit (@ 6-something): The iron pour was much fun and interest. My iron piece looks great. It is as backwards as I predicted, but it really came out great. Maybe later I'll take a picture of it (if I can use it for my cultural portfolio, that is) and post it. Wee!! (My back hurts like crap and I will have a really huge bruise covering the span of my entire right thumb... but it was worth it!)
Edit again (@6-something-else): Holy scoowampling frying fishstix. It's October 23. How the fry did that happen? I'm gonna go home now...
