The Tuxedo Post

This has basically been one of the best days of the year so far for me. Granted... there's only been nineteen days this year, but the first weeks back from school were kind of sucky and left me feeling defeated, plus the whole Zodiac scare didn't do much.

Anyway, the big news of today is that NYU apparently liked my prescreening CD I sent in and have invited me to audition on campus. Should I choose to accept this invitation, I'll go over to Manhattan one weekend and audition, and hopefully see a Broadway show while I'm there... maybe. We'll see. :D

I'm not as excited about NYU as I was earlier (I'm probably most likely going to CSU and then hopefully transferring to Manhattan School of Music), but I definitely want to keep my options open, and NYU is still my dream school, because it's freaking NYU. So if I get some sort of excellent offer, then so help me I'm going there.

But that's not the point of this post. What really put the icing on the cake was tonight's Senior Choir Concert. OH MY GOD. IT WAS SO AWESOME.

Everything went right... there was no "Groove Thing" Debacle like last year (though I'm of course not trying to say that last year's Senior Concert was in any was inferior to this year's... they're far too different to be even remotely comparable).

Last year's concert was a lot more traditional. All the choirs were separated, and there was very little movement among the choir as a whole. Sure, we danced and had fun, but it was different. We also ended on a mellower note, Josh Groban's "Thankful," a beautiful and meaningful piece, but not quite an audience-pleaser.

This year we ended with "Don't Stop Believin'," by Journey, to raucous applause. All the risers were placed in one long arch on the stage. There was no real sense of division between the choirs. And there was a heckuva lot more movement. I'm talking full-out dancing. I don't think I've even been in a show (and I've been in Footloose, the premiere dancing show) with such intricate dance moves that, overall, we're performed well by everyone. I would have never guessed that that would have happened, because such a large group of people would be difficult to do more than just a little bit of swaying, right?

Wrong.

Time and time again I am amazed at what this group of students can do. I first noticed it at the first dress rehearsal of Tale of Two Cities, where everyone was put together for the first time and everything just clicked, as if we'd been rehearsing for years. Then I was amazed on Art Day, when we have to maneuver ourselves around hundreds of students and faculty members AS A GROUP, all in the space of a few minutes. And now we managed to pull this off, against all odds. This group is truly miraculous.

Now, as a senior, I have the option to dress up formally for the concert as to contrast against the underclassmen, who are clad in the traditional white shirt and dark pants. I, being the freak about formal clothes that I am, decided to wear my tuxedo with my new emerald green vest. I figured there'd be a few other boys wearing suits, so the fact that I was being obnoxious wearing a tuxedo would blend in well.

Well, I was the only one wearing a tuxedo. A gentleman after the concert told me (and I choose to believe that he was just teasing playfully) that I had overdressed for the occasion.

I don't think I did.

I only get one Senior Concert. After tomorrow night, there will be no more Senior Concerts. No more miraculous dancing to tunes from Glee. Sure, I'll hopefully still be in choral ensembles in college, but there won't be anything like what I've had to offer from the THS choir.

So, I don't think it's possible to overdress for the occasion. There were plenty of girls wearing gowns worthy of prom... they didn't overdress either.

The truth is, when celebrating something as magnificent as this choir, there is nothing that can be done overboard. This choir deserves my utmost, sincere respect. In that regard, I was underdressed. There is no way to wear an outfit worthy of celebration of this magnificent group of people.

But I'm guessing a tuxedo comes close. And I'll be wearing it again tomorrow night. :)

GOAT

AS IF I DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH GOING ON WITH MY LIFE...

After 5,000 years of existence, a professor in Minneapolis (who, for all intensive purposes, has no business meddling in the affairs of other people... like me), has stated that the Zodiac cycle that we have come to know and love is completely false, and that there is an additional sign, Ophiuchus. So, instead of a nice even twelve zodiac constellations, there's thirteen, adding everything into the mix.

Now, I'm no big Zodiac freak, but I've always been an Aquarius. Now I'm a Capricorn.

Capricorn... is a goat.

CAPRICORN IS A GOAT.

WHAT.

No, no, you're not telling me that I went from water bearer (which was already a fairly lame zodiac sign to be born with) to... A GOAT.

GOAT.

GOAT.

GOAT.

NO.

I can't be a goat. Goats are lame. Do people go around getting tattoos of goats? No. The majority of people with zodiac tattoos are, I'm guessing, not Capricorns.

This has thrown me way off. I don't even know what to say. It's beyond ridiculous. I always thought I was lucky enough to be an Aquarius, who narrowly escaped being a goat.

Now I have to wait another 5,000 years for another professor to discover the 14th zodiac constellation, which will maybe put me around Sagittarius. The centaur. That's a little less lame than a goat.

I'm already the rooster in the Chinese Zodiac... now I'm a goat in the star zodiac. What's next? My social security number? I'm in the process of applying to college. What if everything changes. WHAT IF THE ENTIRE WORLD AS I KNOW IT COLLAPSES AROUND ME? If the Zodiac can change on a dime like this, then nothing is for certain. I could wake up tomorrow to discover I'm purple.

And the icing on the cake is that I have my Lit Oral tomorrow and I should be studying for that but instead I'm sitting here reading up on the Zodiac and making sarcastic remarks about it in a blog.

GAH.

2011 Update

First off, I LOVE CHRISTA SO MUCH BECAUSE WE ARE BEST FRIENDS WHO NEVER GO ON DATES.

Secondly, I haven't posted in a while because 1) I was on Christmas break and tried to just sleep most of the time and 2) Since break has ended, I haven't had a moment to myself. But for the sake of my readers, I will make a quick post to let you know how life has been going in the life of Eric.

As far as colleges go, I have applied to nine universities (my parents are annoyed) and, of those nine, I have received three acceptances (no, I haven't received six rejections. :P) I have been accepted to Colorado State University, Luther College (IA), and DePauw University (IN), all with fairly significant academic scholarships. I'm supposed to hear from the University of Miami by January 15. Let's all cross our fingers. I've actually been looking into Miami's Vocal Performance program, and I really like it. Also, it's one of two places I have applied where snow virtually doesn't exist, which is also nice. Perhaps now is the time when I'm most motivated to go someplace like Miami. But I've also been very impressed with DePauw's music program-- when I went to the Classical Singer Convention/Competition in NYC last summer, I had a master class with their classical vocal teacher, and she was really awesome.

Anyway, yeah. I've sent recorded auditions to Miami and NYU (actually, New York was a prescreening... if they like me enough to invite me to audition, I might have to talk my parents in letting me go there for a live audition.) I'm auditioning at CSU sometime in February, and I have plans to audition at DU as soon as possible (especially since they removed me from their Early Action application because, apparently, since I signed up to the music school, the audition is part of the actual application, and I won't even get in until I send that in.) I'm auditioning for DePauw on March 6-7 (live-- I'm actually really excited), and I'm probably going to send recorded auditions to Luther and Capital University. I'm not sure about University of the Pacific or St. Olaf yet-- I'll have to see where that leads me.

But school itself has been keeping me busy. I've been working on my G4 Project for science. We're examining the voltage of electrolytes in sports drinks and then assessing their effectiveness on slowing heart-rate while exercising... I know it sounds very exciting. And then I have my Lit Oral Examination (yes, it's a funny name) this Friday, for which I feel reasonably prepared.

In a more positive note, the THS Senior Choir Concert is next week, and I'm singing a solo with my friend Kiani (who, for the record, is awesome) on the final night of the concert, for which I'm very excited. I finally have my entire outfit ready... I'm going all out and wearing a tux with a green vest, then switching into a royal blue vest for my performances with Select and VJ. (It's January 19-20 at 7pm... and it's free. :D) Then we go directly into our choir musical, which is confirmed to be Chess (it's a Cold War musical... I'm very excited), and the same week I audition for that, I will audition for Sound of Music at NYT, which (assuming I get in) will be my last show there, which is endlessly sad for me, because I only have done two other shows there before, because I was lame and only did school stuff until last year.

Did I mention that I was accepted into the Colorado All-State Choir earlier in my blog? Well, if you haven't heard, I did, and I'm very excited. I'm singing Bass 2 (really low) in the Men's Chorus, and I've been working hard on memorizing the songs on top of every-bloody-thing else I have to do.

So it's understandable that I haven't blogged in a while. :)