Music Camp

Our kids are attending another church's VBS this week. We've all been doing it for years. Every year Covenant Pres puts on a bible musical and the McPhersons join for the ride (despite obvious lack of musical abilities.) I think this year is the story of Gideon, but don't quote me on that. I'm going to find out at the end of the week when I go cheer them on in their little performance. You see? Shakespeare camp isn't the only camp insane enough to put on a play with only one week of practice!

Coincidence: Music Camp was where I first met Josh Grace, when he played Shadrach and I played Abednego. I saw him just last night at fencing. I was going to ask whether his sisters were going to be in it, but didn't find a chance.

Anti-Talent

Recently we had dinner with our old pastor from Florida. He caught us up on all the news of our old friends. One thing Alexie noted afterward was that all our friends from Florida were really really athletic although we were not. Mom then noted that when we moved here we made a lot of musically gifted friends, although we were not. It is kind of weird that we hopped into two cliques that we definitely did not belong in. It got me to wondering... am I worse at athletics or music?

Teeny Bopper

My darling eleven-year-old cousin and I went to see High School Musical 2. All my adult relatives were acting like I was doing them a tremendous favor or something, but I really enjoy going to theatrical productions. Even teeny bopper ones. In HSM2, Sharpay, the mean girl from last time who reformed in the end became evil again. Darn. What bum luck. What was kind of neat was that Sharpay's goony brother, Ryan, who was my favorite character, played a really big important role in the sequel. In the first one he just followed Sharpay around stroking her ego, calming her down, and apologizing to the good guys. I liked him 'cos he was such a minion. He was the background singer personified. (P.S. Without background singers, the world would be a hollow and boring place.) When Sharpay kicked him out of his part for the talent show, "The Frollicking Fish Prince," (LOL) I felt really bad for him. And his song "Batter Batter Swing" is so insanely catchy. That thing he does with his arms is amazing.

By the way, what was singularly unattractive in the sequel was how the main guy's friends treated him. The guy, Jason, missed his team's baseball game even though he was the captain to practice dancing with Sharpay. So his friends completely refused to talk to him for the entire second act finally culminating in his apology. I'd just like to apologize for all the times I've been a jerk and thank all my friends for not treating me like dirt until I apologized. You guys are the best friends in the world.

P.S. Someone needs to tell Gabrielle to stop giving Sharpay long boring lectures about how she treats her friends. The only difference between Gabrielle and Sharpay is that Gabrielle's friends enjoy goonishly worshipping her and Sharpay's friends only goonishly worship her because she's rich.

Do it with a chord~!

Recently I tried to play the piano again. It didn't work too well. So I've been re-teaching myself the basics. Every time I mess up one of the basic drills I get frustrated, so I play a C-chord to calm myself down. C-chords are great. Yes, you can put C-chords onto anything and make them sound fuller and grander. It's swell. Of course, at the rate that I mess up, I play more C-chords than actual notes. I'll get it eventually, though. Practice makes perfect.