More Vacation News

To Aloysious: Yes I was playing the pipes in the wedding.

On Wednesday, I toured the White House in the late morning. It was really neat to enter the building where the President of the United States lives. It was even more special to me because George W. Bush lives there right now. Unfortunately, ever since September 11, 2001, only certain rooms are open for touring. For example, the Lincoln bedroom which used to be part of the tour is no longer open to the public. It was still cool (no pictures inside though).

After leaving the White House with my family, we walked along the fence on the north side of the lawn. While standing there, many police officers started moving all of the pedestrians to the other side of the street. I sort of had an idea that something special was about to happen. After about ten minutes, police officers lined up all along Pennsylvania Ave. from 15th St. to 17th St. After another ten minutes I heard sirens coming from 15th St. Soon we saw about eight motorcycles parading down the street followed by a number of all-black suburbans and followed by the presidential limousine. The limousine was flying a miniature American flag and Iraqi flag. I knew it was carrying the Iraqi prime minister and George Bush because they were coming from a speech the prime minister made at the House of Representatives. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture because we were only allowed to bring in a limited number of personal items into the White House.

That was one of the major highlights from my trip. I'll probably give a full summary of my vacation after I get back next week.

Vacation, Wedding

So far my vacation with my family has gone well without any major hitches. Yesterday my brother and I played in my cousin's wedding which was a lot of fun. Tommorrow more sightseeing with my family. Unfortunately I have to get up extremely early so I'll give more details later.

I am also very happy that Tiger Woods won the British Open.

Marcus Roberts

Every night the education channel where I live plays recordings of classical arts recordings ranging from orchestral pieces to ballet excerpts. Well this evening when I was flipping back-and-forth between the education channel and Mission Impossible II I saw this man playing piano whom I recognized. It was Marcus Roberts, one of the jazz professors at FSU. He was playing with the Berlin Philharmonic and Seiji Ozawa (conducting) at the Hollywood Bowl in California. Marcus was playing his own arrangement of "Rhapsody in Blue" with improvisation sections interspersed. It was extremely cool.

Movie

I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest last night at the midnight showing. It is definitely a great movie and highly recommended. I realized Hans Zimmer does keep some of the musical themes from the first movie contrary to what I thought. Go see the movie and you'll be glad you did (but make sure you've seen the first movie already or else you won't understand anything). I'm getting ready to leave soon so that's all.

Disappointment

Alright, I am already disappointed in the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest score. The score for the first movie was written by Klaus Badelt and it was great. The score for the second movie is written by Hans Zimmer. Nothing against Hans Zimmer, but the score is no where near as good as the first one. Now I am somewhat reluctant to see the movie.

Eagle Warrior

Today I spent a lot of time cleaning out my room. While I was cleaning out my desk I stumbled upon a paper that I had typed up some time ago. I remembered in elementary school I had made an attempt to write a story and this was the first portion of it. It is not really that great at all but I felt it would make a funny post. So here it is in unedited fashion:

Eagle Warrior
By: Stephen Kyle

One day in North Carolina, Chris was walking through the forest. He found a small hill near a hat that said, "Eagle Warrior." He tried the hat on and he herd a vouce that said you are Eagle Warior. Then he saw a suit with a lightenig bolt. Then Chris found out that it was Eagle Warrior's suit. Chris was happy that he was Eagle Warrior.

Chapter 1

The next day Chris "Eagle Warrior" had an adventure. He was making a veichle for Eagle Warrior. He worked very hard that day. Then when he got mail he had to pay a bill for electricty. Chris payed his bill. Then he finished his veichle. When he was done he named it EAGLE 1,000. Chris bought some high tech computers, faxers, beepers, celeuar phones, and sencers. He set them up and started working. Then one of his sensers found a problem. He had to get on his suit and find the problem. There was a fire. He stopped his EAGLE 1,000. Then he got the fire extinguisher. He put out the fire and got the child out of the house. The parents were glad that he saved their child. Then he went back home and got some rest for the next day. The next day a cub scout came to his house to sell some popcorn. Chris bought two choclate carmel crunches. Then the boy left Chris's house. It was almost Thanksgiving Day and that would mean family would be coming for Thanksgiving.

I think when I wrote this I must have included a lot of random stuff that I had been thinking about at the moment. Obviously this would not win a Pulitzer Prize award. The story was not that great but I think eventually I could have an act for writing something like a children's story. We'll see.

Here is something else that I have discovered recently: clarinet is the most popular and widely used instrument for movie scores, television shows, and television commercial jingles. I base that theory on the fact that I have seen probably 10-15 commercials/television shows in just the past week that feature clarinet in the background. I also base that on the fact that clarinet is featured as the main instrument for melodies in a number of movie scores this past year including: Cars, Pride and Prejudice, Ice Age II, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Some people may think it is biased but I think it is a pretty accurate theory. This week Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest comes out and I anticipate that there will be at least one clarinet solo (in the first movie, the clarinet solo came in the last scene right before Johnny Depp jumps into the sea). Also pay close attention to any commercials or television shows that you may see in the future.