Carnegie hall!

A few months ago my men's choir, Tactus was invited to sing at Carnegie hall. We will be one of only a couple high schools, and to my knowledge the only public high school to be asked to attend the event. The concert is set up by DCINY Distinguished Concerts International New York. The man who was curating the event was using you tube as a means to find groups to come sing, when he stumbled upon our version of "prayer of the children" (which is still on youtube you can look it up as Tactus ((BTW Tactus is not pronounced like cactus but more like TAHctoos))prayer of the children). So he found that he liked us he talked to his supervisor which is the director of Chanticleer who also is a director of one of the colleges down there, i think its UC Berkeley, Which surprise we had gone down there for our Choir tour two years ago and had stopped by him, so he knew we were good. So we got invited and we accepted the invitation. The problem is is that it is going to cost us upwards of $65k  to get our whole choir there, approximately $1700 per student, so we have been fundraising our butts of. What im really trying to say, is that if you're rich and you happen to read my blog, or even if you're not rich but would like to donate any amount, which is tax deductible, please visit our website sendustonyc.org thanks in advance.

my life revised 650 word version

Born in La Grande Oregon on February 4^th 1994 my brother Allan was born atypically. Flash forward 2 years, April 30^th, I am born healthy and loudly crying, my parents were happy for that, in Scottsdale Arizona. Flash forward two more years and a move to Los Angeles California, my sister Mia, also born atypically. What is atypical? My brother and sister were born with a genetic defect, Cri-Du-Chat, which is French for cry of the cat, they cry softly and quietly when young. Cri-Du-Chat also causes mental retardation, and other physical effects. For example my brother cannot gain weight, however he has great gross motor skills. My Sister has always been a chubby blonde haired child, she has terrible gross motor skills, but her fine motor skills are great. Here is snippet of my abnormal life.

            So flash forward to my first memories, I remember of my brother and sister, is of playing in the back yard of my current house, in the dirt. We owned two yellow steel Tonka trucks, and my brother and I would sit in our backyard and play with them, I never even realized he was developmentally delayed, until I was probably six. I knew that I was smarter and bigger than my sister, but I was older, I was also bigger and smarter than my brother, and I didn’t get that he was older than me. This confused me at the start, and I began to wonder why that was, eventually my parents explained the situation to me. Right then and there I loved my brother even more.

 He was always my friend, my loveable goofy brother who has the most contagious smile you have ever seen, though there is no perfect child. One day I remember quite vividly we have air vents in our floor. Allan pulled one out when I was probably ten; he just left it there, upside down. Keeping in mind he has been told not to play with the air vents and leave them out, they have sharp edges. However when I got in the room something entirely different made me mad and I literally was hopping mad I’m sure you get the rest of the picture. That’s my awesome brother for you, in a nutshell, loveable and goofy, sometimes obnoxious.

            My sister is a goof ball too. She would always go in my room, and “borrow” (*cough* steal *cough*) my stuff and play with it, and when I would get home from football or wrestling she would go and hide, of course not what I enjoyed most. A year ago she was diagnosed with Angioimmunoblastic T-cell Lymphoma; this diagnosis is beyond rare for anyone under the age of 20 having only a couple diagnoses ever. She went through her first round of chemo, no longer chubby. She went to Salt Lake City in early November to get a bone marrow transplant from her own cells, anticipated to be there for three months came home in early December on my dad’s birthday, with new dark brown hair. They thought that the cancer was gone, they were wrong. In June they found the cancer was back so they started several new drugs for chemo. Currently my sister is in Salt Lake City with my mother, and they have a month left. This time however the donor of the bone marrow was our sister Jessica age five, so far in early October everything seems good, and she should be home with my mom in a month.

            I realize that I have really told the background of my siblings, and that’s because they are what has made me. My siblings have taught me so many things; patience, responsibility, Trust, understanding, listening, patience, love, respect, kindness, long suffering, and did I mention patience. My siblings are who I am, and I am their protector.

My life story

Feel free to share, ill post two revisions of this, one where it is a maximum of 650 words, and one where i fill out my sisters side of the story in a bit more detail, and add stories from my childhood. thanks for taking the time to read.

Born in La Grande Oregon on February 4^th 1994 my brother Allan was born atypically. Flash forward 2 years, April 30^th, I am born healthy and loudly crying, my parents were happy for that, in Scottsdale Arizona. Flash forward two more years and a move to Los Angeles California, my sister Mia, also born atypically. What is atypical? My brother and sister were born with a genetic defect, Cri-Du-Chat, which is French for cry of the cat, they cry softly and quietly when young. Cri-Du-Chat also causes mental retardation, and other physical effects. For example my brother cannot gain weight, however he has great gross motor skills. My Sister has always been a chubby blonde haired child, she has terrible gross motor skills, but her fine motor skills are great. Here is snippet of my abnormal life.

            So flash forward to my first memories, I remember of my brother and sister, is of playing in the back yard of my current house, in the dirt. We owned two yellow steel Tonka trucks, and my brother and I would sit in our backyard and play with them, I never even realized he was developmentally delayed, until I was probably six. I knew that I was smarter and bigger than my sister, but I was older, I was also bigger and smarter than my brother, and I didn’t get that he was older than me. This confused me at the start, and I began to wonder why that was, eventually my parents explained the situation to me. Right then and there I loved my brother even more.

 He was always my friend, my loveable goofy brother who has the most contagious smile you have ever seen, though there is no perfect child. One day I remember quite vividly we have air vents in our floor. Allan pulled one out when I was probably ten; he just left it there, upside down. Keeping in mind he has been told not to play with the air vents and leave them out, they have sharp edges. However when I got in the room something entirely different made me mad and I literally was hopping mad I’m sure you get the rest of the picture. That’s my awesome brother for you, in a nutshell, loveable and goofy, sometimes obnoxious.

            My sister is a goof ball too. She would always go in my room, and “borrow” (*cough* steal *cough*) my stuff and play with it, and when I would get home from football or wrestling she would go and hide, of course not what I enjoyed most. A year ago she was diagnosed with Angioimmunoblastic T-cell Lymphoma; this diagnosis is beyond rare for anyone under the age of 20 having only a couple diagnoses ever. She went through her first round of chemo, no longer chubby. She went to Salt Lake City in early November to get a bone marrow transplant from her own cells, anticipated to be there for three months came home in early December on my dad’s birthday, with new dark brown hair. They thought that the cancer was gone, they were wrong. In June they found the cancer was back so they started several new drugs for chemo. Currently my sister is in Salt Lake City with my mother, and they have a month left. This time however the donor of the bone marrow was our sister Jessica age five, so far in early October everything seems good, and she should be home with my mom in a month.

            I realize that I have really told the background of my siblings, and that’s because they are what has made me. My siblings have taught me so many things; patience, responsibility, Trust, understanding, listening, patience, love, respect, kindness, long suffering, and did I mention patience. My siblings are who I am, and I am their protector.

Questions

Why does this life of ours just sort of drag on some times. Do you all know what I'm talking about, occasionally we just live life really slowly. For example about a month ago I was still in my summer vacation, my pre senior year summer vacation. And then school started, it was like someone took a giant mat of rubber and wedged it against the conveyor belt of my life, it was kind of insane the difference. I think its mainly because I added about 6 more hours to everyday, and a lot less down time than I previously had. Which means I'm being more productive, but everyone knows its great to have some down time, and i actually really enjoy the amount of downtime that I get. anyways what are some questions you guys have?

Random stuff from school

Analysis paragraph #1

                Ayn Rand is an author who employs the arts of description. She eloquently weaves her words and adjective into a flowing picture in your mind. She envelops you in the scenery and the sounds flood your ears. Imagery and scenery are what make a story a story, without it you just sit there in a world of words. A world of words is black and white there is no imagination to pick enjoy there is no world to view, just words laid out in front of you like an endless highway. Ayn rand shapes the words and molds them into worlds; she carves them into mountains, sculpts them into seas, and creates a world that you never had known. 

My Music theory

Every musician has their theory on what makes great music (its a fact do not question it). Some believe the harder the song is to play the more people will like it, some believe the opposite, some believe you have to swing everything, and so on and so forth. Of course the factors that depend on some random person liking your music is the presentation, it always helps to be clean shaven and have a nice suit, or other suitable clothes. Then the actual music, but what is it about your music that makes everyone want to listen to it, what is it that makes your music more interesting than mine, van halen's, ingrid michaelson's, or the beatles? I want to break the types of music into two categories, to discover how to find that small part that makes you different. There is music with voices and music with out voices, the challenge is for both to sound like the others great qualities.  I doubt few would argue that the human voice and words can more easily speak to any listeners soul than a guitar solo. however rhythmical and tonal integrity or more easily and much more true on instruments.
Voices have a talent of speaking to and uncovering a mans deepest desires, secrets, thoughts, and emotions. because the words are more relatable they teach you how to live they let you know directly what they mean. Even all instrumental songs have a title of words. this is the missing element most instrumentalists are missing when they set out to create their music, they lack a voice. my secret for instrumentalists is to mimic the human voice and words. Mimic the inflections of your favorite singer and try to play that song like they are singing it, rise and fall where they do even with every word, not just with lines or phrases. ill get back to y'all tomorrow and elaborate on this some more