On Friday November 22, 2013 the Lowell High School Band held their traditional movie night to close out the marching band season. The selection of the movie was Monsters University. Movie started around 4:30 pm and it was one of the funniest movies PIXAR has made in a while. I am telling you it was fantastic. the movie ended around eight-ish. (With a stop for food in the middle.) But that is not the story here. The real story comes with the spontaneous action that happened after the movie. Some of the seniors in the band (myself included) decided to go see a movie at the Showcase theater in Lowell. We elected to see Bad Grandpa.
This was a hysterical movie, in that Johnny Knoxville was a pure comedic genius. His pranks he pulled on the public were just outrageous. I could not stop laughing. The movie was fantastic. I guess the moral of the story is do not worry about what is going on in the now. Just go with an idea and run away with it. Being spontaneous can be absolutely fun with no regrets. If you act in the now and you are having a good time. The future won't matter. There will be no regrets about the past. I left that theater felling better than I had in weeks. All because of the spontaneous act I made to just live. It was worth the $11.25 to go see. I have now figured out I need to be a little more spontaneous with my life and I will not regret it.
On this night. On this night. On this very cold night, November 17th 2013. I went and saw the fantastic Trans-Siberian-Orchestra. The performed at the very nice Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Out in front of the arena.
The show was entitled, Trans-Siberian-Orchestra: The Lost Christmas Eve. I arrived at the arena with my two aunts at around 2:30. The Show started at 3:00. I had time to rome around and see what was going on. When I got back to my seat my aunt had bought a program
The program
And she bought me a concert tee shirt.
The shirt.
The show started and let me tell you I was not disappointed. It was really fantastic. I recommend everyone go and see them live. The clash between rock music and classical music makes this a very entertaining program. The show started and it was a story. It was about a little girl who was lost without a family on the eve of this holiday. One quote stuck with me though. "Hope is not lost, it just goes to sleep and needs to be woken up." I will say the show had very unique and interesting light show, in that, there were all these crazy combinations of the colors of the lights that enhanced the show. The pyrotechnics did not disappoint either. For most of the songs that were performed they included fire. The fire was so intense that every down beat of the song, the fire had a quick burst of energy. That being said sitting near the back of the arena I felt the warmth of the fire when the burst of energy happened. I was and still am surprised that no one got hurt.
If you have not seen them yet, it is worth the money to go and watch them play for two and half hours. They did not take a break. They just kept playing. The intensity of the place was through the roof. And they did this twice. Once at three and again at seven. They are a hardcore band, and their music was fantastic. It was an extravagant day, and I would love to see them again.
On Friday November 8th, school ended and it was time to leave for Syracuse, New York. It was planned that I would visit the campus of Syracuse University. My family and myself left Lowell at 3:00
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pm and headed towards New York.
I ended up falling asleep for about two hours and when I woke up we were at the Lee Plaza and stopped for dinner. McDonalds was the only option. It was gross. Another two hours passed and the family car need gas. So we stopped at a rest stop in New York.
Soon after we came to our hotel in a town outside of Syracuse.
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It was time to go to sleep for the night. Friday turned into Saturday and it was time to visit the campus of Syracuse University. We got there at 8:00 in the morning and the day began. We were greeted by a creepy looking Manor.
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They day moved on and we were headed to lunch and I have to saw it was good for college food. After lunch and we looked around the university.
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I even got my own sweatshirt.
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Then we headed to what I was waiting for. A presentation of Visual Story Telling. Or in simple terms, animation. The professor showed us two clips. One a disney short film but the other was one of the first animations ever.
Cool fact about this movie, it took 10,000 hand drawn drawings and about six months to complete and it was done for a bet. After the movie, the professor brought up that the character, Gertie can be thought as a fun but mischievous dog. When it was all said and done we went to the NewHouse college. This is Syracuse's communications college, which I would like to go into. It was worth the three day trip up to New York. I had fun at the University. I would like to go here someday.
I was so excited, I knew it was going to be a good day. So I went to pick the game up after I voted. I got home and lost track of the time. I got home around 12:30 and before I knew it, it was 7:00 pm. now I am terrible at Call of Duty, but I kept playing. I just loved it so much, that I couldn't stop. And when my eyes could no longer take it, I had to stop for the night. Knowing that right now it is calling me, to play for another hour, but one hour turns into six and then i am tired for school. So better stop then than now.
This past Sunday was MICCA Finals in Lowell,MA. It was my last one. I knew going into it that it would be a very long day. Between competing and helping the band parents serving food for everyone else. It all started at seven in the morning. My mother was nice and bought me Dunkins.
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We reached Cawley Stadium at 7:30 and the fun began. I helped prepare the food. And trust me when I say this there was a lot of food. I had practice at 10 am, but silly me had forgotten his marching shoes. So I raced home and grabbed them. I even looked stressed out.
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11:45 came around and Lowell High was going on at 12:15. We finished our warm ups and headed to OUR turf. Then we played our show. WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE/ PIANO MAN. MY LIFE/ ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG. AIR. And finally JUST THE WAY YOU ARE. We finished our show and we went back to get changed except for a select few seniors. They got to go onto the field for the awards.
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It was good we got three stars in all of the categories, but ended the day with a bronze medal. It was after 2:30 when I finally got out of my uniform, and went helped the band parents with the food. Time just flew by. Soon it was 6:00 and the day was nearly done. When we finished we had a lot of garbage.
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That was just the pizza boxes. We had a lot of left over drinks as well.
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Most of the drinks we sold, but not these. The day was almost complete. But we in the Lowell High band have an unusual tradition. To end the night we do what is called a field roll. What we do is get on of the goal lines, lie down like a log, and roll to the other goal line. When we get to the other goal line we have to get up and run back to the first goal line. It is truly a lot of fun. So that has ended my four year run with MICCA. It has been a great marching band year, and I am going to miss these days. I don't know what I will do with my life afterward. It has been so routine these past four years. I guess there would be an empty feeling. I don't know. It has been a fun four years, seeing that we could almost be state champions on Saturday Nov., 2nd at my last NESBA finals. That would be cool.
Saturday was one of the best days in the marching band season. It was the annual University of Massachusetts Amherst BAND DAY!! It took place at the one, the only Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA.
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With practice beginning at 10 am, I knew it would be a long day ahead of me. The theme for this year was the music from the 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It was one of the best Band Days I have been to. Practice ended around 12:45 in the afternoon, with kickoff at 3:00 pm. By that point I was getting very, very hungry. I knew that there was a Five Guys Burgers and Fries up at Patriots Place. But when I got there, there was a line through the door. I only had a limited amount of time so I went across the mall and saw this place.
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I had two of the best slices of Buffalo Chicken Pizza ever. Fresh out of the oven. Oh, it was as Willy Wonka would say "scrumdiddlyumptious."
My lunch hour was over and it was now 1:45, I had fifteen minutes to get ready and get in line for the game.
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It was now 2 pm and the line to get in was huge, there were 3,000 band kids from every New England State and New York there just to play some music.
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I got inside and I had one of the best seats in the house.
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The game started and UMASS deferred to the second half.
The first quarter ended and it was almost time for the moment of glory. With only 7:35 seconds left in the half, the students made there way down to get ready to go on the field. The half ended and we all looked like mad men trying to get to our spots, then it all started.
Thanks to Jon DiPrima the man who took this video who I think took the best one. He has the right angle and everything. So thanks again Jon.
Halftime ended, and the game continued. UMASS won the game 17-10 against Miami(OH). And the day was almost complete. It wouldn't be a day if UMASS didn't do their traditional 5th Quarter performance. The show ended and they closed the way the close every show.
Thanks to the person who wasn't named on the youtube channel for taking this video. I have been going to Band Day for five years now, I cried when this came up, they were tears of joy and sadness, knowing it will be the last time I will see the band at Band Day, but also because of how much I have grown, knowing the traditions that the band has. This song shows closure, which I got on Saturday.My Way by Frank Sinatra, is always played at the end of their performances.
These past five years have been a blast, these are the memories I will take the grave. I knew when I heard this song, I was ending a part of high school, that I always loved.
Although I think she may be wrong, that the GOP wants to shut it down. I also think she is partly right. She knows that Obamacare is
a good idea for the nation, that everyone should have the right to have basic health
care. She is not looking at it from the right point of view, yes the republicans want to stop this, but from
our friends in the senate Mr. Markey and Ms. Warren don't seem to care at
all. Here are some quotes from their twitter feed. Ed Markey- "ICYMI: Ed to be chair of U.S. Senate Climate change
Clearinghouse; continue work combatting dangers of global warming."
"Congrats @RedSox on making postseason!"
(Source) The problem I have here is this is the guy we sent down to vote represent us, has ruined our voice in DC, he voted present on the case of should we invade
Syria? Present really! What happens when something bigger is happening at
home, are you going to vote present on this as well, You cannot do that,
it is more important that a yes or a no comes out of your mouth, on this
situation. Plus who writes in the third person, not this guy. It is weird that
you did that. But at least you made a little attempt to show us that you care,
your partner in crime on the other hand didn't seem to do that. Elizabeth Warren- "Holly Petraeus
(@CFPBMilitary), @nikiinthehouse, @coleynee, (@MASSDVS) & I met #vets
& #milfam in Boston, Lowell today." (Source)
I am not even going to quote her next two tweets, they have nothing to do
with the shutdown. This saddens me when our own senators can't even put something out there in
social media concerning more about this shutdown that will effect
everyone's life. So when people say "It is the republicans that is stopping this
from happening." It really is not, it is everyone who is not
putting enough effort to try and stop this. Markey and Warren are not putting
enough effort, they don't care it seems. And with Ed's past voting on
something very serious, I expect the same for this problem, with the same
answer. A "present” vote. That won't help us nor will it help Mr. Markey.
Not right, but left.
