GOODBYE 2013 HELLO 2014

With the old year leaving, I thought it would be good to get one last post in 2013. This year has been a great year and it is time for the year review.

January: Nothing really happened in January, one of my dull months of the year. It is sad to say though because I had a great year and it did not start of well.

February: This is where my year starts going well. My family and I went on a weekend trip to the lovely Mt. Sunapee, in New Hampshire. I got a nice picture of the lake from the top of the mountain.

I believe the height of the mountain was 2,726 feet above see level. It was a nice change form my normal Nashoba Valley Ski Area.

March:  Ah March, the weather getting warmer, spring around the corner. And yet, my great accomplishment of the month was sitting inside and doing nothing. (I promise it gets better, in the summer and fall months.)

April: April was full of joy and sadness. We know of the Marathon bombings. But on the bright side, I learned how change the oil in my car. 

May: One of my favorite months, not to hot, yet not to cold. I went to prom. 

The band had its spring concert.

Just before we went on to perform,we were goofing off. This was the concert where we played one of my favorite pieces, An American Elegy. It was so beautiful. 

With the warmer weather came a warmer me.

June: A lot happened in June. I got a job at a radio station.

There I learned how to, edit clips from the air. And the best thing I learned, was how to produce a radio show, trust me when I say this, it is hard. You have to do a million different things at once.

Also in June came an exciting moment in my life. My first Red Sox game in the USA.

HERE IT COMES, FORM THE LOWELL MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM, IN LOWELL MASSACHUSETTS. TV'S MOST EXCITING HOUR. ITS THE PRICE IS RIGHT...on tour.

I was in the audience of one of my favorite game shows. And I nearly got called to play a game. I even got a game tag.

July: A few days after the Price is right I went to my second Red Sox game. This time with my family. You see my mother bought tickets to go from her alma mater.

They won that game. It was great. We had great seats, the weather held up. It was a nice night.

A few weeks after the fourth, my friend and I took a day and went to the beach. Boy was it hot out. It was so hot I needed extra coverage.

July quickly turned into August and summer was almost over.

August: The month I most look forward to. You see every year for the past ten years, my family and I have gone to a little dude ranch in upstate New York. The place is called Thousand (1000) Acres.  We have been going with the same people for ten years. They are like a second family I get to see. One week a year. I love going to this place. Although, everybody who goes this week has said, "It is not the place, it is the people. " It truly is the people, we all have a special bond. 

September: Crunch time for the Red Sox and a big birthday for myself. I turned eighteen, nineteen days into the month. And what a way to celebrate it. I got some scratch tickets and won $50. Haven't won since. but whatever.  Senior year was under way and the marching band had commenced. That is what I lived for. Friday nights going to football games, having fun with the band. I have no ides what I will do next year if I go to a school without a football team. It will just be emptiness. This has been apart of my life for four years. I didn't want it to end. But sadly all good things must come to an end.

October: This month brought a second place band back to Lowell High. For the first time in school history, the band came in second place at Nesba Finals. We had a great show. It was a great season, and I will not forget this ever. This was the month as well where I became an anchor on the Red raider Report. That was a fun experience and that is what I hope to be doing some day. Reading the news. Being on the radio or tv.

November: Not much happened in November. Thanksgiving, that's about it.

December: The year is ending and the best news came. (Look at my last blog post.) That is right I got a part in the school musical. I am Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. I also had my last winter concert at the high school. It is sad but closure is a part of life.

The year has come to an end I am proud of what happened this past year. All of those choices that I made have all been good and they all had a positive impact on me. 2013 has been good to me and good to us. We are still alive. But as 2014 approaches and when we wake up tomorrow. We won't feel different. We will still be the same people. I will still be Andrew Clark. A new year doesn't mean a new life, it means a new beginning. 

Have a Happy New Year Everybody!

Divine,Fierstein,Ball,Ashley,Travolta and now Clark

All these names have one thing in common. These names have all played Edna Turnblad, in Hairspray. Yes that is right. I got the part of Edna in the musical hairspray. I got my script today.

I am so excited that I got, the part I auditioned for. I cannot wait for the show to happen. It will be sometime in the spring, so Stay tuned for more.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. (11)

Every where you go, there's a tree in downtown, one in my home as well.

And christmas cards are going out in the mail.

One of my most favorite times of the year. The movies, the family, the gifts, it all makes what the holidays fun. I always have this tradition on Christmas, where I and my family watch Christmas movies from when we open our gifts, until we have to eat dinner. The bottom right picture of the card is my favorite. That is me soloing on the trumpet. My mother picked a good picture to put on the card this year. I cannot wait to see what she will use for next year. I also can't wait for next year. I don't like the fact that the season ends so soon. Well, New Years here I come.

Did You Know I Was a Bowling Champion? (10)

Yes, yes when I was a freshmen in high school, I took up bowling on Saturday mornings. I wasn't very good. Well that is from my point of view. I won a few trophies my first year.

 

I won the city tournament with my buddy Brandon. We were the city doubles champions. We were the underdogs two.  It did help that I had a high handicap, but we still one. It was my best game I had ever played. I couldn't believe that we had won. The team we beat, should have won, one of them came close to a perfect game, he had 275 out of a total 300 possible points.  A few months later the season ended and my regular season four man team won our division.

Thanks to my now buddy Alex, we took the division at the Brunswick Lanes in Lowell. That was my first season as a bowler. I only played one season due to the unexpected knee injury, that took me out for over a year. So I can say that my first season as a bowler was a good one. It was fun while it lasted, but I don't think I want to do it again. 

I Am Taking Away Your Sound. (9)

Over the past few weeks my Digital Media teacher has given the class a project. The project is very simple, we have to recreate the sound in the film, but we cannot use the original sound. She dumped the sound out of two scenes from movie scenes. One scene was form Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and the other was from Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Because of my hatred for Lord of the Rings it was an obvious choice. Here is the original scene.

After just a week this is what I have.

I know it is not done, but give three days to a week and i think it will be done. Truly I had no idea how important sound was to a film. I realize now that I do not take sound for nothing anymore. It is vital to a film. People can only look at one thing at a time, but can hear up to four or five things at once. I made all of these sounds by the way. I did not get anything off of youtube. Except the song, everything else was made by me. Sound is important to life only because we can interpret it. We cannot interpret pictures without a description. With a movie, the description is the sound. I made this video using Garage Band on my laptop at home and the Macs at school. Trust me when I say this the final product will be great.

Spontaneity (8)

Spontaneity: The state of being spontaneous.

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.

Are You Lost? (7)

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.