my second, and last, spectacular. -sinking into post-spec depression- T_T
it's funny, how you appreciate things more when you know you're going to lose it soon

i admit, on friday, by the time of the evening concert, i was this walking zombie ><" i slept through all the items which we weren't performing in, and diana had to wake me up... 2 or 3 times when we were about to stand up.
note to self: i CANNOT survive for 18 hours on 5 hours of sleep ><" (WAS going to sleep at 10pm, but then felt too excited on thursday night, and then ended up msging diana/listening to spec recordings til 12am; woke up at 5am, because i think i was overexcited. T_T then was just lying in bed until 5:45am, and err... msged diana at 5:30am for good measure, to wake her up xDDD got whacked for that later T_T)

saturday, evening concert, it finally sunk in: this is the last concert. after this, no more arts north concerts, no more celebration concerts, no more school spectaculars with pansy, diana, grace and clara. and so we were all high-ing, mainly because between the 5 of us, we ate.. 8 tubes of mentos in one day.
(ruse isn't involved in these concerts, for reasons beyond me ><") these 2 years have been very good times in choir =] music tour next week will be the last time we can go high together, and hopefully, music presentation night on the 10th will offer the much needed closure.

bleah, sidetracking.

anyway, back to school spectacular, this year was a special year, because it's the spectacular's 25th birthday! =] at the same time, mary lopez, the director of the spectaculars for 25 years, is retiring; so one can imagine the mix of emotions.

recently there has been a questioning of the spectaculars, and there have been ppl critisizing it for it's commerciality, that it's deviating from it's original purpose, and that is to provide a platform for students all over australia to showcase their talents. last year, you could count me in the category. i was rather put off by some of the instructions, and the whole show just seemed very fake and "constructed" to me, but my opinion has changed.

and so, with the driving force behind the spectaculars leaving, we're all left wondering, will the school spectaculars ever be so great again? with no one left to fight for it, who's to say it won't just crumble and get canned in the next few years?

hmmm... anyway, 4 concerts, and shall (boringly) recount the spectacular moments which i shall pick from all the concerts. actually it's not a real recount because i'll just be jumping around all over the place and it most definitely will not be in chronological order ><"

a lot of things went wrong in the first concert...
1. THE CURTAIN TORE when it was about to rise up in the 2nd half cause it was caught on something, but in retrospect it was a good thing, because we got to see more of the show xD!
2. when introducing the sponsors, john foreman (the host) said university of NSW instead of university of western sydney! ><" and he had to correct it later
3. rolf harris was sick and couldn't turn up for the show (which applied to the first 2 concerts)
4. the little girl who sang little ragged blossom from snugglepot and cuddlepie had a mental blank and was completely and utterly out of tune. i think she totally forgot what note she was going to be singing, the poor thing, and she started out so terribly low and was struggling to find the note, but then, thank goodness, managed to catch on when the choir came in. but she has such a sweet and pretty voice (like connie talbot, except even better! XP) and when she's in tune and not overcome with nerves (it IS pretty nervewracking to be singing on your own on the stage in front of 10,000 ppl when you're only 9 or 10 years old) she is a wonderful singer ^^

but at the same time, the first concert was special, because it was the first time i was seeing a lot of items in the concert. just the morning, we went through a technical rehearsal (which is part of the spectacular miracle. that more than 4000 people can get together, having each rehearsed with their own groups, and then pull off a concert with a single run through together) but we were only talked through a lot of the show.
there were moments that i just went "wow" at perhaps the dancers in their costumes on the dance floor, or just simply the energy and enthusiasm, and for that split second forgot that i was a performer, and not the audience. xD

it was also in the 1st concert that i developed a newfound respect for human nature. i always thought of them as.. cheesy and typical. when they sang "got to get you into my life" i was just like... bleahhh ><" hmm, their voices are pretty nice though. probably just the acoustics in the entertainment centre.
but then there was an immediate change of pace when one of them introduced their next song.

before that, i shall sidetrack again to explain some things. this year's spec is about revisiting (while at the same time looking forward) all the highlights of all the spectaculars so far, and welcoming back all the stars of the past spectaculars. and guess what, human nature started off at spec! so did john foreman xD

back to the concert. the song "danny boy" was dedicated to one of the founders of school spec who has passed away. he was someone who saw "something special" in human nature, and so the song, his favourite song that he always used to ask them to sing, was for him.

and they started singing acapella. and it left me in absolute awe. i think the group has one of the best blends of voices i have ever heard. they really did something amazing with the their voices, the way it seemed to swirl into one single, rich sound that filled the whole entertainment centre and reached out to every single person. and in the choir rises, what with the foldback and everything, an almost haunting quality was added to the song. the applause they received for all 4 concerts was thunderous =]

and and, they were always perfectly in tune! for the beginning verse, when they sang, there were a lot of chord changes and diminished 7ths and what not and it is just SO easy to go out of tune acapella, BUT, when the orchestra came in halfway, there wasn't the slightest discrepancy, and i'm just thinking... oh my gosh!!!!!
on the sat evening concert, the wife of who the song was dedicated to (sorry, can't rmb the names ><") was in the audience! and human nature acknowledged her and her husband and i'm pretty sure she was in tears by the end of the song... i would be XP

-jump to choir highlights-
the opening was spectacular! knock on wood xDDD!! and then the choir features, aida and unwritten!!!
aida's "glorias" were glorious, and yay, i remembered all the lyrics xDD
the sound was brilliant and it was all grand with the orchestra and the whole dance floor filled with dancers (all rather squished together, poor things) but it really was quite a spectacle when at the end of the song they all raised their arms up and half the dancers who had been kneeling all rised up. stunning when say, 2000 ppl do it in unison XP

i'm pretty sure unwritten (my favourite song!!!!) took the whole audience by surprise. straight after aida, a four bar intro by the orchestra, and naturally one expects the choir to come in while the orchestra keeps playing. but bang, it's all silent for a split second, and then the choir comes in acapella =] i think that's when we're the most exposed, and the first concert wasn't that good ><" the entrance wasn't clean and someone behind me was clearly struggling with getting to the right note. zzzzzzzz T_T but by the last concert it was really great =]

bleah, i'm tired ALREADY, and i'm not even halfway through yet T_T

we were suitably eerie and haunting in message to my girl; jake the peg and consider yourself was a load of fun; thriller, vogue, you can't touch this and please don't stop the music was... hmm should i refrain from commenting? xD haha, i pity the dancers, but who knows, they may actually like their costumes. but by the last concert, i was beyond caring about how lame the actions were and how stupid the choir probably looked XP

all for one!!! haha, so it was really lame (but then it's high school musical *cough*) and mickey was hilarious xD
as finale for 1st half we did disco medley! including funky town and YMCA xDDD!! YMCA was very amusing, and i think when we did the play off, everyone was singing the melody instead of harmony, and then ian was just shaking his head at us but he didn't say anything about it, lol XP

ian never fails to amuse. he surprised us first in mickey, when he got out these pink and silver shiny foil pompoms, and started waving them around, LOL xDD he really got into it, and hmm.. i think he would make a rather good cheerleader XP
and it was so impossibly hard to keep a straight face when the curtain rose up for the disco medley and there ian was, all poised to conduct us. with a BLUE WIG (you know, the very ridiculous type with the curly hair) and "cool" sunglasses on.

during the interval of the first concert i was bored to death, but then i discovered that SAYO HAS AN IPHONE! ahhhhhhhhh. then so for all the following intervals i stole his phone from him so i could play the games on it xDD the games are really really fun!!!
there's this tap tap tap game, which is kind of like DDR, where you tap the phone on the end as these little bubbles come towards you xDD and there's even 2 player! where each person holds one end of the phone and taps away. hahaha was playing with grace and i kept winning her at first BUT SHE GOT BETTER T_T and then i lost by a huge amount ><"

and there's this cool fake call application, LOL xDD and and, this beer drinking addon thingo, where you hold the phone upright and the screen will slowly "fill up" with beer, and then you can hold it to the side and tilt it and pretend to drink it. HAHAHA =] xDD it's too cool!
jimmy has an iphone as well, but he never really let me play with it except to send SMS and call someone (but that was still fun as well! =] can tap tap tap away to msg ppl)

ok, enough random stuff. at this point i shall apologise for jumping all over the place and er.. boring anyone who's even read up to this. i think only connie will see this, yes? XP if i'm wrong, please do correct me. xD just that connie reads rather literally, EVERYTHING on my blog. hahahaha =] hope you're having fun/had fun in malaysia! ^^

the second half of the concert was very different from the first half. first half was fun and crazy, whereas the second half was more... classic i guess xDD
although it was more boring for choir in the 2nd half, but the 2nd half was good =] 2nd half opened with but i still haven't found, a song which i really like =] fun to sing, not too lame actions, and well, rather meaningful xD

one of the highlight highlights of the whole spec this year for me was perhaps love is in the air. haha yes, *groan* it is a rather lame song. overused and everyone's just sick of it, really XP
but it was performed at spec with a twist.

spec is a showcase of talent, definitely. but what type of talent? is it really true that all the performers at spec possess the stereotypical qualities of the typical TV star, that spec chooses performers to achieve the greatest commercial value? who cares if the decision this year to include the item was to merely dispel this view in the audience, or if it's just to put spec in everyone's good books again, because image and perception no longer matter when one realises the huge difference this item has made to many ppl's lives.

hmm, i'm getting cryptic XP the item was staged in typical spec style, really. lead singer, backing singer, orchestra, dancers, choir. i didn't even realise that love is in the air was going to be different until john introduced the performers, and i glanced at the big screen which was showing a close up of the lead singer and i felt speechless (or i would be, if i needed to talk) with all my negative perceptions of spec crumbling away in that instance. because whatever anyone may argue, or whatever the intention of including this performance, it achieved something amazing.

any ideas yet? XD all the performers of the item (excluding backing singer, orchestra and choir) were either mentally or physically disabled.
the lead singer was this guy who you would be able to identify as mentally disabled the minute you saw him, but he had an absolutely beautiful voice. i think ian said he was autistic or something?

that aside, it's so very difficult to describe the atmosphere in the entertainment centre during that item.

it wasn't especially eye catching; the "dancers" were of all ages from special needs schools and they were just jumping up and down and waving, and there were some very minimal choreographed movements, and all of them had to be guided (by their teachers?) who were dressed in black and you could see that the teachers had to encourage them and lead them. halfway through the song, a few children in wheelchairs were wheeled around on the dance floor and "spun", and they were madly waving and closeups of their face on the screen (which i kept glancing at although i should've been looking at ian XP but i know my part =P) showed their absolute joy.

forgot the name of the lead singer! ><" ahh very sad T_T but anyway, he was rather.. cute xD (sorry, lack of better descriptive. should take douglas' advice and go read a dictionary this summer hols T_T)
he has a very nice voice, slightly nasal, but nice nonetheless! and he was so very enthusiastic for each and every concert, and he was just so excited all the time. and then when he was singing he would stand on the spot, but sway from side to side, and it was just very very cute!!! he had an absolute disregard for what the audience thought. i guess he was merely oblivious, or couldn't care more.

him and everyone else, they were having the time of their lives, and they didn't care what they looked like or other ppl thought of them, they were just enjoying the song, living the music, love was in the air, and they knew it.
they were performing in front of the hugest audience they ever had, and everyone was absolutely spellbound... who knew that someone mentally disabled could sing so very very very well?

i can't remember which concert, but in one of them for a part of it he forgot the words and he was just singing made up syllables, but still perfectly in tune, and then when it got to the chorus he started singing love is in the air again, and it was a glaring mistake, but no one cared.

their item was the only one (apart from a later one which is coming up XP) to receive a standing ovation. it definitely made a huge difference to their life, but at the same time, i think it touched everyone in the audience in a special way, and i'm just thinking, how proud their teachers must be, how proud their family, their parents will be of them... =]

and their performance highlighted something to me, that really, every single person, no matter who they are, have their own, very special talents =] and every one of them deserves a chance. ^^ and then it was over.

big bad bush bush ranger was so very cute!!!! and lord of the dance was brilliant.

the greatest love of all was the next surprise, seeing as we, the choir weren't involved, but there was a choir. the deaf signing choir =] it wasn't very big, i think 30 ppl max? but all their movements were perfectly in sync and there seemed to be an inbuilt tempo to their movements, although they couldn't actually hear the music. another breathtaking performance =]

and then it was one short day!!! =] YAY! ian whipped out a pointy wizard hat, that was bright orange with silver stars stuck all over it. nice =] we ended up singing it with all the cheese we could muster. quoting ian, "i guess if we're going to do it, might as well do it all the way. classic disney style" LOL xD i used to love disney ok! XP

ok, i'm starting to skip a lot of things now ><"

there was a dance of the puppets, which was a hilarious sight. let's see, mascot-like plushie milk cartons, washing lines, pineapple cans, pizzas, slippers, dancing to nutcracker and grooving it out on the dance floor. HAHAHAHAHA =] the audience broke out into laughter every single time XP

which was tightly followed by tie me kangaroo down, in which the 4 australian icons entered. the extremely cute kangaroo, cockatoo, platypus and koala! the koala was hilarious, cause it was so bulky and big, and the poor person inside always seemed to fall down every single time it walked out at the exact same place at the exact same timing. hmmmm... =] and then the koala would suddenly jump up and wave as if going "don't worry, i'm alright" and the audience would always cheer =] hmmmmm... xDDDD

ok, i'm nearly done. NEARLY XP

next song *drumroll* you raise me up! =] a tribute to the heroes of the public education system, our magnificent teachers! and all the teachers who brought us to school spec start streaming out on to the dance floor, and everyone's perhaps going, "woah, i never realised there were so many teachers involved in the school spec" and us in the choir are just madly clapping and cheering for our great, absolutely wonderful teachers =] i managed to spot mrs chan in the last 2 concerts! yay =] ^^

halfway through the song, mary lopez walks out onto the stage and the applause is thunderous and she gets given flowers and she waves to everyone, and then when she turns around to wave at the choir and orchestra we all wave back (we were instructed to) and then the audience cheers and screams and claps and slowly they all stand up and it takes all our self control to NOT start shouting out the song lyrics just to be heard, because we have mics and in the TV broadcast they'll adjust the sound lvls, but if we shout it'll just sound so very very terrible so we have to sing normally xDD

it was actually a very very emotional moment, because we were all saying farewell to the wonderful person who made all this happen, who conceived this idea in the very very beginning. it's absolutely fine to thank our teachers 4 times over, but it did kind of get weird to say goodbye 4 times... ><" oh well. what made the difference was the finale, which was straight after the farewell, led by angel (forgot surname, ahhh T_T)

she sang probably half of climb every mountain on her own before the whole cast started filling up the dance floor. and on the very last concert, last night, she was crying when she was singing it. and it was so heartwrenching, for some weird reason ><" well, i found it heartwrenching. perhaps because i could relate to the feeling of knowing this was the last time you perform... but she's such a charismatic and wonderful singer, i'm sure she could get into spec again next year. i think, equally, angel is devastated that mary lopez is leaving, because supposedly, mary was the person who discovered her and guided her into school spec, so yup...

and the spectacular isn't truly spectacular without a very spectacular ending =] SHOUT!!! ^^
yup yup, that's the song, "shout"
last night, everyone was jumping about on the choir rises, and THE WHOLE THING WAS SHAKING! afterwards, ian was like, "that was very very dangerous. the whole scaffolding was shaking all the way down to the stage!"
and we just had these guilty faces, because we had been told that we couldn't jump on the choir rises. even stamping our feet could shake the scaffolding T_T

but yeah, dance floor is absolutely filled up with squished dancers in a million different coloured costumes (sry, kind of exaggerating with the "million" XP) and every time we shout "SHOUT!" thousands of hands (not exaggerating this time XP) shoot up and do this action.. sort of like flicking water on someone? =P and then disappear again. very awesome when you're looking down on it from all the way up in the choir rises =] and everyone's just dancing (as best they can in the very little space they have) and having a great great time and then suddenly it's the end of the song, and with a bang, coloured confetti is blown everywhere and balloons are released from the ceiling and it's just absolute, colourful, wonderful chaos =]

and after last night's concert, i go outside and there are puddles everywhere and it's still drizzling. and it's just like waking up from a dream.

haha, i haven't blogged this much in a long long time xD
but yup, school spectacular 08 was truly spectacular, in so many different ways =] i'll never forget ^^