Boorish Chorus

For the first time ever, I will have a chorus at my school this year.  I have always wanted to have a chorus but never really got around to it.  Now I have a lot of excited kids and a lot of excited teachers and parents (could be a good or a bad thing).  Our first meeting is tomorrow and I needed some inspiration.  Have you heard of PS22's chorus?  You probably have.  They are on the news quite a bit.  They are an auditioned chorus of 5th graders at a public school in Staten Island, NY.  And they are good.  Real good.  Their teacher, who goes by Mr. B is obviously doing something right.  Check out their blog or their YouTube channel.

Anyway, I frequently visit their blog and videos because these kids are just so awesome and talented and (best of all) emotional!  You have never seen 10-year-olds who are not afraid to show their emotions like this before!  You should probably go and watch, like, every video, but I will share my current favorite.

Ok, pretty awesome, right?  There is something way better to come, trust me.  Mr. B has his kids improvising a lot (something I also do--just usually on instruments).  He is so incredibly supportive and you can tell how comfortable the kids are around him.  Here is a video of two of his students improvising a duet while he plays a piano.  Now remember these things:

1. These girls are in the 5th grade (that's elementary school, guys).
2. They come from Staten Island.
3. They are making this up entirely as they go.  No prior discussion or ideas.

If that's not beautiful, WHAT IS?!

Hopefully I will have some updates in the future about how my chorus is doing.  Now, I can't promise anything like the videos you just saw.  But they are certainly excellent inspiration for the principles a chorus could be built on.

Speaking of building--I have been so busy lately I haven't touched anything that has to do with home improvement.  The first week of school really kicks it out of you!  But I have so many projects and ideas that I want to accomplish, I just need to find the time and money!

Tomorrow I am going to my friend K's house to help her paint her living room.  This is definitely going to be a learning experience for me.  I have never painted a wall in my life.  But (shhh... don't tell) I am pretty happy I will be practicing on someone else's walls and not my own for the first time.  Plus, it's a really light grey color, so not too much could go wrong, right? We'll see.

Then on my long Labor Day weekend Josh and I are staying at my mom's house in Cumberland and going to the WVU vs. Marshall game on Sunday.  You might not believe this about me, but I am simply not a football fan.  So instead, while everyone else is watching 4 hours of live college football, I am going to be hitting up all of my favorite restaurants in the city that I lived in for 5 years but haven't seen in 15 months.  And yeah, I might even go to more than one restaurant.  And do I care that I am going to be alone? Nope.  The whole city will be like a twilight zone while the game is happening anyway.  Fun times.