Music 2

Music is the basis of life. It really is, if you can't express something in words you'll often find it expressed in music.
One of my conductors favorite phrases is "Nature doesn't make straight lines, man does." he often says this when he want's dynamic contrast or contour added to the piece. And the more I think about it it's true. The first straight line was made by man. I mean, man needs a ruler (how we make those straight I don't know) to make a straight line. the straight line is really a curious thing. It's unnatural. If you were to go to a National Park and just look around you wouldn't see even one straight line. the cliffs aren't straight, arches aren't straight, even bugs and animals aren't straight. NOTHING IS STRAIGHT, nothing natural anyway. so why do we try to make anything straight? I don't actually understand this. yet we do. what an interesting phenomenon.

"Talketh Not, Plucketh Not" "The canvas of music is silence" two very closely related quotations. one is from my school orchestra teacher one from my other conductor. essentially the message is, "silence is golden." When you're listening in a concert you always have a cough or two, a door shutting, simple small noises, but they are ten times louder. Why? Because silence is truly the canvas of music. As I sat listening to a concert on Saturday I closed my eyes and was able to picture some of the things going on. the pictures were real to me because they started in a moment of pure silence. In my opinion silence is beautiful in it's own way. To be alone with one's thoughts is not truly possible until one is in complete silence. These days we plug our ears with technology and we are almost never in true silence. Silence is the canvas for many things besides music. it's the canvas for great ideas and true, complete thought. Today we rush around, not taking the time to sit in silence and contemplate the beauty in silence, and an unrushed life.

"Ah music, a magic beyond all we do here" -Albus Dumbledore true and complete music is a magic all in itself. We always rush ourselves into things,and we don't realize that the magic of painting a picture in our brains is a magic. it is, it is! can I not stress enough that music it beauty, love, passion, thought, intelligence, feeling, all bundled into one. if that's not magic I don't know what is.

In my life, there is nothing so amazing and beautiful as the music I make myself, or the music I hear in music. As I grow older I appreciate music more and more. Next time you go to a concert I challenge you too close your eyes, and (don't fall asleep) create a picture in your mind, it doesn't have to be perfect it's your interpretation of the music that surrounds you. Or, go to your instrument, sit down and play a piece, it doesn't have to be fast, in fact the slower ones are the one's that are easier to envision, and listen to the tone, the melding of the notes, and then close your eyes and imagine what's going on, make your own story.

Paired Epitaphs

For English we had to write Paired Epitaphs and since I am actually very proud of mine I'll post them.

Romeo Montague

Perhaps I moved to fast

Perhaps I threw caution to the wind,

But in the face of true loves kiss

There was no way to win

Perhaps I should have listened

Perhaps I tried too hard to please

But yet with all I tried to do

Still the vict’ry was not mine

I find out now, when all is lost

That my fair Juliet did but sleep, not dead

Within in the grave

How swift was my heart to make the grievous choice

That led me to my grave

Tybalt, I slew him, remorse was in my face

Mercutio, why didst thou die in the prime of life?

Juliet, my sweet, pure, loving wife,

Thou too didst die alone

Though I was there my breath was dead

And my body cold

Dear Father, how I wish that this feud

Never had been started

For this was why

I didst die

And my sweet Juliet with me

Oh help me here, and help you there

Do not rush your life, for time is short

And much there is to do

Waste not your life, throw it not away,

But live it to the fullest

Juliet Capulet Montague

Love did soar on Falcon’s wings

And Lovers eye did see me

And with a look of Romeo’s wondrous eyes

There was no other to compare

A single kiss, and then another

Had me trapped within his arms

But, if the choice was mine to make

I never would have struggled there

But soon I did see his love was hot,

And pounded in his veins

So making him a reckless, hasty fellow

And bringing me, within a day, to my wedding hour

Complain, I did not, for I too was much in love

And to be a wife was more than I did hope for,

My Romeo was there for me, and loved me just the same

He was the idol of my soul, the love that could not die

But then in reckless haste he came

Oh, why did he not heed advice?

And when I slept he thought me dead

And hastily he drank a drink and left me all alone

As I did wake I felt no breath from him

My soul did tell me I could not live without him by my side

As I kissed his lips once more

I took the dagger from his sheath

To kill my lonely body there, and with him, once more sleep

Now in my Romeo’s arms I rest

And a happier couple never was more blest

To hold each other in their arms, in true loves rest

Under Constant Attack

Have you ever noticed today how girls are under constant attack all the time? I have and it’s also something I have to deal with. I watch as girls are pressured into things they don’t want to do because “It’ll make them look like the stars.” However, these procedures often have no effect, yet they damage the natural beauty that was already there. The things that are attacked most often are clothing, faces, and personalities.

It is an increasing trend that is starting to affect little girls as well as “big” girls. In 2005 a survey showed that the average age of a girl wearing makeup was 17 now it is in the range of 13.7 that’s quite the decrease. The cause of all of this is the bigger pressure on young women to think that they don’t look good the way they are. There is a commercial that shows a young woman going in to a studio and getting her makeup and hair done and then a picture taken. After that picture is taken it is tweaked to make her look almost inhuman, and then it is placed on a billboard for the entire world to see. You see the attack that girls, mainly teens, go through? To see that perfect face that isn’t even real and think we have to look like that.

When Sarah Darr, a mother of two girls, sees students in her eight-year-olds class wearing makeup she says to herself, "I think, 'Who let you outside of the house with that on?' It's trashy and irresponsible looking. We are having our kids grow up earlier." The fact is you don’t need to wear makeup until the later years of Junior High, and even then you may not need it at all.

The general Young Women’s President in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Elaine S. Dalton, said this in encouraging the young women of the church, “I learned about what I now call “deep beauty”—the kind of beauty that shines from the inside out. It is the kind of beauty that cannot be painted on, surgically created, or purchased. It is the kind of beauty that doesn’t wash off.” There is that beauty out there, Sister Dalton calls it spiritual attractiveness, but I think it also extends to the natural beauty each one of us has inside. Some girls attempt to hide this under layers of makeup, but really there’s no need to do that.

The other kind of beauty is one of an inner beauty that Sister Dalton also mentioned. There is a light burning deep within one’s soul called a personality. This thing is something that defines us all. We not only look different from each other, but we are different from each other. We all have something about us that sets apart and nothing can tear that away but ourselves. This happens when we don’t think we are any good and that our personality is wrong and that someone will think us silly. When that happens we tend to build a wall around ourselves and make a fake personality that is not us at all. However, when this happens we tend to attract people that are totally different than us and that sometimes don’t have our standards. When I think of inner beauty I think of the true personality of someone around me, and their personal beauty is reflected by an almost blinding light in their eyes.

The third thing girls do is go for fashion. Fashion changes almost daily. It changes so inconstantly that girls are often found out buying the newest fashion. In fact Oscar Wilde noted this and said, "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." See, those clothes you buy, that are so ‘fashionable’, will probably be out of ‘fashion’ in a very little amount of time. I prefer to find my own style. The clothes that I wear are simply me, and though they may seem to be out of fashion, so be it, it’s my statement to the world that I’m going to be me, no matter what the cost.

Natural beauty, true beauty, the real you beauty, isn’t skin deep it extends to your personality and the way you feel. The attacks on girls are not relevant unless you make them so. Be yourself, be you, and your beauty will shine through.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/leadertimes/living/s_722835.html

http://lds.org/ensign/2010/05/remember-who-you-are?lang=eng

This is my comma essay for Honors English , but I though it would be good to put it on here too.

Amazing Experiences

I've had some amazing experiences in the past few days. And I think I'll share them with you.

On Saturday my friend had her 16th birthday party. We met at her house at 1 o'clock, and promptly drove down to Murray. there were only 5 of us girls and her little brother. Her mother didn't even tell her what we were doing. We pulled up in front of the Desert Star. It's a theater that performs spoofs of other movies or musicals. Her mom just left us there, 2 16-yr-old girls, 2 15-yr-old girls, one 14-yr-old girl(me) and one 13-yr-old boy. she didn't tell us who was picking us up only that we would know.

We went into the theater, a little freaked out, and got our tickets to see a spoof called Back from the Future. Our table were right up next to the stage and so we saw it all up close. It made us all laugh sooooo hard. It was very good however. at intermission 4 of us went to use the restroom and started to speculate who would be picking us up. Just joking around someone mentioned, "What if it was a Limo?" Then we went and finished the play, which was absolutely hilarious, and the Laughing stock afterward.

Then we went out front of the building to wait for our ride. We waited outside for awhile and then this man in a suit came out and asked us if one of us was Bonnie White (my friends mom) and we said we were, and he asked us to follow him. We followed him to the back of the building and there was a white limo. we climbed in and being teenage girls burst into giggles. You wouldn't believe that we had guessed it. It was so neat!

then yesterday I left school at about 10:20 and my mom dropped me off at Northridge High School, why? So I could climb on a bus. I found a seat next to Sarah and Kaitie and once we had everyone there we started off to . . . Abravanel Hall.

When we got there we had lunch and then we went and got our instruments out and went on the stage, yes the Abravanel Hall stage, and warmed up. Then we played in the Youth Symphony Festival. It was so neat, except that I forgot a rock-stop and my cello started to slip halfway through our performance, that was really frustrating. Then 5 of us, Sarah, Kaitie, Boyd, Paul and I talked for about 2 1/2 hours of the time that other orchestras were performing. I can honestly say that we are a very funny bunch. We laughed soooo hard. I had so much fun. And I'm really glad we only listened to 2 groups because I almost fell asleep during Utah Youth Phil and Utah Youth Symphony. Oh while we were out in the foyer this lady came up to us and told us that where we were sitting would be considered a fire-hazard. "The fire-marshal would have a fit" were her exact words. We moved about 5 feet and didn't consider ourselves a fire-hazard anymore.

I have had such amazing experiences the past 4 days. I can't even believe it. Let me tell you, It has been so much fun and soo amazing.