Joyful and Triumphant

Yesterday marked the end of the 2008 WVHS Prism season. It was the eleventh prism I've attended, the third I've been a part of.

Prism concerts are something...out of this world. I love them so much and they're one of the reasons I'm not excited to have Christmas away from Napauroraville.

So what is Prism? You see, WVHS has one of the strongest music programs in the area. The pinnacle concert of the year brings together the band, orchestra, and choir students in a two-hour concert of streamed music fit for the Holiday season.

Of course, WVHS is a public high school with a music program run by conductors who live for all kinds of music and all kinds of beliefs. So it isn't 100% Christmas music...there's some classical, some Hanukkah, we were originally going to do a Kwanzaa song for Mosaic (trust me, the new one was much better), and there's some folk holiday songs from around the globe. Of course, these non-Christmas songs are never audience favorites, but I bloomin' love Prism so much, I don't really care.

I've been eager to be a part of Prism for years...since the first few concerts I saw, I think it's safe to say. Freshman year, the first thing I did when I tried on my robe for the first time was pumping it into the air for "Jingle Bells". Heh...at least I got to do it once. : I quit curricular choir after freshmen year, and since the freshmen don't preform at Prism, and only curricular kids get the robes, I never had my robe to fist-pump with. And I'm never going to stand in the front of the audience, holding the hands of Varsity kids. I will get that Santa hat, though.

See, for those still reading and confused, Prism is steeped in tradition. The concert itself has been a WVHS tradition for...geez, I don't know how many years. We put on four shows because it is so popular and so well-loved by the community. My personal highlight every year is the Finale, the Creme de la Creme, the pinnacle moment- the Christmas Festival.

This song brings together all the students in Prism and has been with the concert for years. Almost every year, the special effects team adds a little something more, so viewers old and new can feel that rush.

It begins with a swelling timpani, and immediately, audience members know magic is happening. The lighting moves from hyper-focus on the conductor to the stage, filled with talented musicians. In front of you, behind you, and all sides are choir students, robed in green (or donned in Black for the mosaic-only kids like myself). Dotted through the room, students sport Santa hats. These are the seniors...the ones most likely to cry. Unless you're Alaina Hendricks. Then you cry every year. ;)

The first song of the medley is "Joy to the World", and it sets the mood immediately. Smoothly, it moves into "Deck the Halls", and with a minor transition becomes "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen". The smooth song picks up pace into the high, exhilarating "Good King Wenceslas"...the bane of all freshmen, the only one whose words they don't know. Once that song ends, the transition slows for the moving and angelic "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". Then, the cellos solemnly set the stage, mirrored by the literal setting of the stage as the lights dim and the scrim lights up, Christmas lights putting on a faux starlit sky perfect for "Silent Night". The song of heavenly peace ends with the chipper and immediate switch to "Jingle Bells"...fit with snow, real fake snow falling from the catwalk onto the audience. After one verse, everyone takes it down an octave and fist-pumps that "Hey!" we've all been waiting for. Once that ends, the back curtain open wide, revealing a full hidden layer of brass, trumpets flared towards the audience with a beautiful winter scene behind them and a hanging wreath to top it off. The band and orchestra on the stage, combined with the additional brass with the power of a thousand angels pick it for the powerful and truly impressive "O Come All Ye Faithful", fit with impressive "accompaniment" that I can't help but conduct along to. It sweeps into the impressive chorus, powerful music ever-swelling and moving, far past when the choir quits. The cymbal crashes signifying the end are just as amazing as anything, especially as this year they were mirrored with flashes of colored lights. After that final note, the audience rushes in the applause they've been asked to withhold, offering a standing ovation to the thrilled performers. The applause is so much that we always offer an encore of that amazing "O Come All Ye Faithful"...this year, tripped up a bit (on purpose..."tripped up" is just as positive lingo as it is negative) with an extended drum roll between cymbal crashes.

You know Prism's over when the seniors toss their Santa hats into the air...their last Prisms and the end of something much bigger.

There's a reason WVHS passes out limited number of tickets to a concert that we offer four times.
There's a reason seniors cry when they preform their last performance.
There's a reason I cry (just a bit) of gratitude each time "O Come All Ye Faithful" begins.
There's a reason they preform the same finale every year to the same reaction every year.
There's a reason new audiences show up and gasp at the starlight...the snow...and the performances throughout the entire concert.
There's a reason I've wanted to be a part of this show more than any other thing in WVHS.

And until you see for yourself...you'll never know that reason.

Then again, people do walk out of the show muttering about how few Christmas songs there were, how long the rehearsals are, how off certain performances were, and how horrible the traffic to leave is. But for every Grinch has a heart that can grow four times, and I seriously believe that Prism helps tap at that Christmas spirit.

After all, what is Christmas about? Family? What better family to celebrate the gift of music with than the WVHS Music Department family, that gives its hours, nights, and weeks to the advancement of its students?

Giving? What better way to give than through the gift of music? To touch the lives and hearts of those around you and remind them of the power of a song? (There's also donations to be accepted out every door...;P)

Christ? As much as our school censors religion and asks for separation of Church and State...Prism does celebrate the Reason for the Season. What better way to celebrate Him than to sing Hallelujahs and Noels of His miraculous birth and mission...and to share that in the secular environment of schools?

Love? How can you better spread love than through song...both the teaching of and the sharing of? What better way to express your love than to support your students, friends, and children as they do what they love for whom they love? More teachers cried this audience than I've heard of in awhile. :)

Togetherness? The music students are infamous for our stereotypes...the dirty Band Geeks who hate the nerdy Orch Dorks and the elitist Choir Nerds who ignore them all...but for this one concert...for that one song...we all come together and push past all of that to spread that message and that joy of Christmas. What better purpose to come together than for this holiday season with more power than any other time of the year?

I LOVE PRISM. In case you can't tell. And I cherish the opportunity to sing with some of the most talented people I know for the best purpose imaginable...even if I can't wear that green robe I've dreamed about.

I believe in the power of Prism more than I believe in the goodness of Santa Claus.
And geez, you'll be hard-pressed to find a seventeen-year-old who loves Santa more than me.

"O Come All Ye Faithful" can be found anywhere this season...yes, including during Prism.

Enjoy the Humor of the Situation

Today started out normal enough. I have English first period, and we were supposed to start watching "A Knight's Tale" with Heath Ledger. It's based (lightly like woah) on Canterbury Tales, which we just finished. Also, it works for a three-day break for those who would rather not get homework as Prism (our big Christmas Concert) and Finals approach.

So we turned on the movie and it was just a few minutes until we got an announcement from a very frantic, very frightened-sounding Principle, alerting teachers that we were "in a hard lock-down" and this was "not a drill". Trulife, friends! Google it!!

So for those first few minutes of being cramped and sqeezed against the wall with lights off in silence, we were all terrified. At our wits ends. After a few minutes, we started to make jokes and lighten up a bit...but the majority of us were still just trying to ignore our fear. Mrs. Bello assured us that she's never had a real lockdown in her WV career, and they're very frightening things...especially when we realized it was a gun threat that put us in our spots. We could hear cop cars (and see them out the window) and all knew it was very possible there was an armed threat walking around.

Just a bit longer and we had loosened up a bit (physically) to the place where no one was any longer sitting on top of people. We turned the TV on mute to see if we were on the news. We got to CNN and the screen showed cop cars, fires, and explosions. The room went silent as we were all wondering; is that US? But it only took a few seconds for us to read the caption.
"Anarchy in Athens".
No one could do anything but laugh.
By this time we had already decided that someone should write a book about this, if not a movie.

We kept flipping channels and Janesh (the kid who is sort of our designated class techie) settled on a commercial of a fairly heavy-set african american woman advertising Tylenol. Mrs. Bello (my teacher) asked what he was doing on that channel and he answered, "it's the closest I could find to Waubonsie!" It's not hard to say that, again, we were laughing.

Easily, the most amusing part of that first hour or so was with Lauren's lunch. She was one of the very few in our class blessed enough to have packed her lunch that day, and first she shared her pretzels. We warned her against wasting her rations, but she always assured us "don't worry, I have a banana and a sandwich!". At this time, as it was still that half hour or so of laughing to mask our fear, we had planned millions of ways to protect ourselves should Gunman walk in. Mrs. Bello had already volunteered her ice tea, we had plenty of kids ready to chuck books, chairs, and printers if needs be. Eventually, when Lauren pulled out her banana, we found our best protectator yet. You know those lovely "Chiquita" stickers on the bananas? Well, our class's patron hero had one of its own, reading "The Food that Fights for You". The banana was passed around the class, perhaps sharing our first true laugh. Mrs. Bello promptly tied it to the overhead pully-string, drawing chalk arrows on the board to remind us of its constant protection.

Eventually, Mrs. Bello decided it was a good idea to put on A Knight's Tale on mute, as we were all cramped under the TV anyway. So, for the next two hours or so, we watched it. Very funny movie, but I've been assured the best part is the music/voices, so we missed out. Plus, only about four people paid attention to the TV. Most were chattering, laughing, or playing games in our tiny uncomfortable corner.

Hours went by. The movie finished, and Mrs. Bello decided to teach. NOT COOL, BTW. IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING. In case you forgot, Knight's Tale is supposed to last us three days...Today, Tomorrow, and Friday. Then, Monday we have for Finals review and Tuesday is our Multiple Choice final. Real finals go from Wednesday-Friday. The lesson she taught us is supposed to be for after break. We got that homework she promised to never give us for Prism.

During Mrs. Bello's lesson, the police finally came in. A few hours before (it was quarter after eleven by this time; hour four of lockdown) we had recieved information (through secretive texts, as our classroom was one of the few not allowed to text or use our phones openly) that the police were "searching" from the third story down. Our classroom was on the bottom floor, so it was a good sign we were close to being done.

They had us line up and searched all our bags and frisked every student. Our officers were pretty nice and Mrs. Bello even chatted with them a bit. She was thrilled to introduce them to the banana that had protected us that whole time.

The officers told us we could leave our lights on and sit down as the threat had passed, but that we were to remain quiet. They also assured us that bathroom escorts were just behind them. Hours in one class is NOT fun...we were all missing passing periods where we drink and use the bathrooms, not to mention our lunch periods. Lauren's pretzels were long gone.

Mrs. Bello had us do homework and seemed to be even stricter about quiet than she had when the threat was still intact. That threat, by the way? It was revealed to be a bebe gun. Yup. And that movie I said would be written about the incident? I decided right then...it had better be a comedy.

After five hours in first period, our principle released us. Everyone was hoping and hoping and hoping we would be sent home, but instead we were told that the four lunch periods (3, 4, 5, and 6) would be for thirty minutes. Also, NOT COOL.

The remainder of the day wasn't bad, except for the fact that I was still at school. Genetics was pretty much spent looking up online articles about the lockdown. AP Art History we actually had class, but lunch and gym were really just complaining with friends.

Every class had a different experiance...some were awesome (the teachers that let them play games or text all they want), some were horrible (the kids who peed in bottles and trashcans, or the teachers that made them sit against the wall in total silence all five hours), some were funny (Mr. Lui getting a gun pointed at his face when he entered the classroom during their frisking from their 'pee room'), and some were sad (the girl who fainted).

Every individual had a different experiance, too. One girl trapped in the locker-room played hide-and-seek and made tons of new friends while Kathy, in that same locker-room, was without any friends and without her phone, homework, or our journal to write in and bored out of her mind. Jenny, who unfortunately can't seem to survive without laughing, realized how dangerous that can be. A girl in her class was flipping out whilst being frisked down, and Jenny laughed. The cop immediately pointed a gun at her vand yelled, "IT'S NOT FUNNY."

I know people were scared...both in and out of the school. But the longer we were trapped, the safer we knew we were. We had the Aurora PD with us as well as the Dupage County PD. Heck, we even had US Marshalls! There were dogs barking in the hallway, but really...that's just drug busts going down. Besides...we had that banana with us!

Lockdowns aren't joking matters. It's DEFINITELY not cool to bring a weapon to school...real or replica. And it's really not fun sitting in a corner for five hours, then going to other classes when you know you're not going to do anything productive.

But overall, the thing I learned most about this experiance?

I love Waubonsie. :)
"The Humor of the Situation" can be found by Barenaked Ladies

Angel of Music, Hide No Longer

This is old news, actually.

I've finished a completely new project since this one...but I've been lazy, I suppose, in updating about this one.

I'm quite, quite pleased with this one. But remember how the last one came out better on paper than on screen? Heh. The printer, for this project, decided it liked purple more than any other color. So the version anyone has seen at home is FAR too purple, and the version you all see now is FAR too not-purple so that the final print would be a nice medium.

If it gets to Fine Arts Festival or whatever, you can see the correct coloring there. It's a lovely rose, by the way. ;)

The prompt of this project was to create an object out of objects...much like the last project was a design out of letters. We had suggestions like a rasterbated image or inspired by nature or design shapes...whatever struck our fancy. One girl in my class was working on a BEAUTIFUL image of a woman in a dress of autumn leaves, far superior to the second example I gave you.

Originally, when the project was daunting us all, I wanted to just make an image, say I made it out of pixels, and be done with it. (hehe I'm so funny!) But one it hit me to use music symbols, I was on my way LONG before anyone else in my class. And honestly, all those music symbols are just from a font that types musical stuff. Which is MUCH EASIER than finding them all online...

In the original picture, the angel is surrounded by a horse and foliage. Neither of which were going to be accomplished through musical symbols...not in my lifetime, at least! Mr. Gehl had me ask another art teacher downstairs for her opinion and she suggested the treble clef "harp". LOVE IT, by the way. I eventually decided the classic cloudy-looking-angel's-heaven worked, so I had a LOT of fun with that. It's actually a double layer of the image, top layer "cut out" as seen in the example over here. Then, I used different levels of opacity to erase in places, giving me a look I just love. I wish I had spent a tad more time on it, though. Would have been splendid. Also worked with the sponge, a tool that saturates and desaturates the colors.

This was an interesting project. Once I figured out what I wanted to do, it was really more a matter of finding shapes that fit the lines on the original image. It was one of those projects I just relaxed and popped out...definately fun. Not exactly OH MY GOSH SO EXCITING but still, I enjoyed it, and I REALLY enjoy actually being happy with the turnout.

"Angel of Music" is from Phantom of the Opera, by Andrew Lloyd Weber