Compositions

Wow... I'm super busy and haven't blogged in FOREVER!

Well, quick updates:
-I now have a pen name: Michaila Curtis.  Like me on Facebook if you haven't already, please!
-I'm currently failing NaNoWriMo.  As much as Calista wanted to come out of my head, her story wasn't fully developed.  That, and my life is insane.  Remind me later to tell you about car troubles.

I'm composing stuff!  Trying to figure out what songs and pieces to send in for a composition scholarship, so I shall post those that I have on Noteflight here: (beware, many of them are works-in-progress)

My latest project: Rain's Dream/Rain Dreaming/Storm Children:


"Princess at Heart" from my musical Twice Upon a Time
"Please" (just a start...need to finish notating)
"Perfect Mystery/Under the Stars" love themes from Twice Upon a Time (just melodies)
"A Day in the Life" from Twice Upon a Time (just look at the end part...first part makes me cringe)  Yeah, so that's about it.  I still have "Changes," a piano piece, "Chasing Mountains," a horn duet, and "The Promise," a clarinet/violin (part can be played by either), flute, and piano trio that need to be entered into Noteflight and/or re-notated.  I also have a guitar piece called "Daydreams"...need to remember to do that.

Camp NaNoWriMo, VBS, and musicals

So, I'm doing Camp again, trying to finish.  And it seems to be working.  I've been giving myself a 30 minute word-war against the clock every night and it seems to be doing the trick.  I've gotten on average 4-5 pages done, which translates to 2,000-2,500 words. I started the month with 24,500 words, or 47 pages.  I just added 20 pages to that in the last 6 days (33,500 words) and FINALLY figured out Jennie and Micah's love theme in a way that it didn't sound like the soundtrack from How to Train Your Dragon... and fit well with Connie and Nolan's theme...and now I have them together! at last!
It's a perfect mystery under the stars!

VBS started today, and this year is the Luminous Mysteries! (link in case you don't know what those are)
I'm Glinda, the VBS volunteer!  I wear a pink tutu *scowl* pale pink shirt with tulle "wings" on the shoulders *scowl* Elli's pink flats, which are kinda small, even on me (they're 2's, if that gives you any idea.  She wore my shoes today on accident-we each have a pair of $5 "fairy-tale" black flats [they look like the flats from the Disney movies, so we call them fairy tale flats] hers are 2's, mine are 3's.  She's like "My shoes feel too big" Me: "Are you sure they're not mine?" They were.  Oh well.) oh, and a tiara.  (COOL!  I like tiaras!)

So let me set the record straight here:
I love fairy tales.  In every way shape and form, I am a total fairy tale freak.
I love Disney.  And magic. (Watched Beauty and the Beast last night with Elli *smiles insanely wide*
I DO NOT like pink, glitter, or otherwise insanely girly things, like tutus.
Pouffy ballgown?  If it's not pink, then yes.  Tiaras?  Definitely. I'll wear coral, but not pink.  Especially not in that abundance.  And I had a bad experience with glitter when I was the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella of Loreland (not Disney...) The glitter would not come off for weeks, and in every picture I took I have shining triangles on my cheeks.  We used glitter eyeshadow all over me.  And the last performance- well, let's just say they were trying to get rid of the glitter.  By slathering it all over me.  I was glittery for two weeks. No joke.

Also just got a whole bunch of soundtracks and musicals and Disney music from the library.  Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid on Broadway. (She's in Love, Me...ah!  great songs! One Step Closer...) I have the soundtrack for How to Train Your Dragon and I love listening to it because every character has an instrument.
Dragons=brass
Toothless specifically=French horn (or so I think)
Astrid=violin
Vikings=bagpipes
and Hiccup, our hero? A Tin Whistle.  And it fits him perfectly. :)

Gotta go.  It's late and Glinda needs her beauty sleep...

Random Quotes During the Past Few Days

Analyzing Dave and the Giant Pickle on Sunday over Elli's birthday dinner:
Dad: He must be a dill, because he sure isn't sweet
and
Elli: He's a giant pickle!  What's not to love?
(Elli once got a jar of pickles for Christmas.  Pretty sure it was her favorite present.  Not lying.  Just to give you some perspective)
All the while, I'm wondering "What if VeggieTales had stuck closer to the original Bible story and had Dave cut of Goliath's head?  Kids would just think someone cut a pickle.  But it's Nightmare Fuel for the Veggies.  Think about that from a Veggie perspective *shudder* On second thought, don't, if you're a vegetarian!!!

Elli playing with bubbles during a severe thunderstorm watch and there's 4 bubbles sticking together.
Me: Oh look, it's a baby!
Elli: ????
Me: That's what babies look like like two seconds after they're conceived.  Don't you know any biology?

And this, rather embarrassing gem:
Me: Look!  It's a multicellular organization!
Elli: Organization?
Me: I mean orgasm.  (realize what I just said)  No no NO!  I meant ORGANISM!!! ORGANISM!!!!
(Elli is not mortified enough to have comprehended this)
Me: Do you even know what an orgasm is?
Elli: No.
Me: Oh.  Good.  I didn't say it.  Forget it.

Spent the weekend camping with my family and my aunts and uncles and my cousin- oh, and three of Elli's friends from heart camp. (she has a pacemaker, and Camp Odayin is a camp for kids with heart problems.)  If you want something funny, watch The Secret World of Arrietty with a bunch of heart kids.  (and Arrietty- what a beautiful name!!! Wish I could use it.  It's like a fancy Aria)  Anyway, lots of fun, lots of skeeter bites.  I HATE getting them on my fingers and feet.  Guess where I got them?  Yep. *wrinkles nose and scowls*

I'm 17 and a half- officially.  Elli and I are exactly 2 and 1/2 years apart, to the freaking hour.  Not kidding.  December 10th, 1994, 6:54 pm=me June 10th, 1997, 7:02 pm=her.  Kinda scary when you think about it.

Umm... just wasted most of the day watching versions of fairy tales on Youtube.  Do you know how many versions of Cinderella there are?  Seriously, it's the most over-re-told fairy tale out there.  My favorite? Ever After.  Seriously.  Love it.

Had a mission meeting today.  I'm going to an Indian reservation in ND to run a residential VBS camp for 1st and 2nd graders.  I'm on the skit team, and our theme is "Love Never Fails"  So we're doing "The Lion King" and having Timon and Puumba teach Simba and Nala how to love and be friends.  Since our skit team is 2 guys and 2 girls and we have 3 guy parts and 1 girl, I ended up being Simba!  Haha!  Makes me happy.  Apparently, the kids there love the Lion King and that movie was watched like 5 million times last year.  Wouldn't know, cuz I wasn't there.  But should be fun!

That's it for now.

CAMP NANO UPDATE: 12,000 words.
SONGS:
"A Day in the Life"- don't ask. >( One verse is a major accomplishment.
"Princess at Heart"- FINISHED!!!!! I have finished my first song!!! WOOHOO!!! The tune is my own original that I rediscovered yesterday and set to rediscovered lyrics.  The tune was 4 measures long and aptly titled "Unexpected Triumph"
"That Girl" - mostly written, lyrics are pretty much done, just need to add them to my Noteflight thing.

There's something odd about that girl

There's something not quite right

There's something strange about that girl

Like something's changed overnight

I don't know what to do with her

She's not the same; anyone can see that

There's something odd about that girl

There's something not quite right

There's something strange about that girl

Like something's changed overnight

It's like she's forgotten everything

That we worked so hard to teach her

What's wrong with her?  It's beyond me to tell

What's odd about that girl

What is not quite right

What's so strange about that girl

What has changed overnight?

Oh, that girl!!

"Perfect Mystery" Jennie and Micah's love theme.  Less done.  Have lyrics, but the tune keeps changing so that I can fit it in with "Under the Stars" Also needs verses.

How did this come to be?

How did it work so perfectly?

It doesn't really matter to me.

It's a perfect mystery.

Perfect mystery.

"Under the Stars" Connie and Nolan's love theme.  Chorus is done, both music and lyrics.  Need to write a verse or two.

Here with you

Under the stars tonight

Love so true

And it feels so right

When you're here

By my side

It's crystal clear

This night is ours

Here with me

Under the stars

"That Girl (reprise)" more done than the first.  Just because the lyrics are done and the tune's the same. (villain's song)

There' something odd about that girl

There's something not quite right

There's something strange about that girl

Like something's changed overnight

It's got to be more than just something that she saw.

It's got to be more than what they say it is. 

There's something odd about that girl

There's something not quite right

There's something strange about that girl

Like something's changed overnight

I know it's more, it has to be. 

She's changed not once but twice. 

It's almost as if she's two different people.

Ahh...

I know what's odd about that girl

I know what's not quite right

I know what's strange about that girl

Something has changed overnight

Yes, those girls!!!

"Under the Stars/Perfect Mystery" a mosh of both love themes.  Here's the start I've got:

That's it for now

Opening night!!!!!

so the play opened tonight. it went pretty well, but I was really stressed out. I thought I had to pick someone up and I didn't. I forgot my shoes at home so had to go back. I got stuck in rush hour and ended up . my makeup wasn't working right my hair was falling out and I didn't know how to do my wrinkles it was stressful. anyway I'm on my mom's phone and it is not working very well so I'm going to stop now.

 IDEA: actress with multiple personality disorder who makes a person for every character

that's it for now

Irish stuff!

Finished my music project this weekend- you can take a look here.  Enjoy.  I made all the videos (except the one at the end) and only had to record the 16 second Irish jig.  The rest I had from last spring... it was weird.
Anyway, in case you're too lazy to look at my project, I'll post the videos I uploaded on here. 

Irish Jig

It's like 16 seconds... it's short

Evening Reels

From my recital last spring

Be Thou My Vision

recorded this for a project last spring...never used it...

 and last but certainly not least

Loch Lomond

Did this in honor band in 10th grade...it was amazing!!! this video's long, but watch the whole thing, because it's totally worth it to hear the french horns (my instrument of choice) play at the end... I did all the videoing on this but did not do the music.  I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!

Other things I'm working on/excitited about

• French horn solo, the Nocturne from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Mendelssohn
• Piano solo, Grieg's Puck (it's so fun!!! I've got it memorized...)
• The musical!!! I got the music and script to read and practice... need to get my voice up to the high f, and auditions are coming up at the end of the month.  Plus my friend just told me the other day that she wants to play Helen... so at least we're not going to be competeing for the same part.  That's nice since she's really competitive.  I'm not going to be mean about it, but it's just the way she is.
• Passed my astronomy test with an A
• am working on several screenplays, "Twice Upon a Time" and "Night at the Library" a short film my siblings and friends and I are doing or the library movie competition this summer.  It's kind of a mix between Inkheart and Night at the Museum. Who knows what happens after the library closes at night?  Libby Akona is about to find out...
• Am going to see 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee this Friday
• am going to Feed My Starving Children on Friday and get to spend the day with my friend...
• My idea for an awareness campaign in my small group communications class (our big project is running a campus awareness campaign this semester) will probably get picked.  It's how to use campus technology... and how not to save your stuff in a place where they'll be deleted...
• I lost 7 pounds...

I need to go now... I've got class in 15 minutes... adios!

-Haili



I have officially titled my book!!!

Okay, so today I decided on a title.  Please welcome to the world of NaNoWriMo noveling, Written in the Stars.  By me.  I am also trying out a new software called Celtx which I'm super excited about.  It's for novels and plays and screenplays.  I'll be taking an online class at my college called "Intro to Creative Writing for Stage and Screen" next semester, so this might come in handy... especially if I do Script Frenzy... which I'm still debating.  But I definitely can't wait until next November for NaNo again, so I'll see you at Camp NaNo!  (Yes, the story of Calista cannot wait until November.  I've decided she's blind, so the new title is "Beauty is Blind" should be interesting since I love first person...hmm)
I printed out a copy of my manuscript today- all 134 pages of it.  Single spaced, back to back.  It's still huge.  It's awesome.  I started editing and found a few mistakes.  Word drives me nuts because it's all like didn't' when I type didnt' which is annoying because of the autocorrect... so I've got to fix that...

Okay, moving on.  Happy December!  My birthday is 8 days away!  YAY!  Anyway, last year my little brother and I did a duet of "When Christmas Comes to Town" from The Polar Express.  I'm going to try to embed the youtube here.  However, should this fail to work, here's the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FGE_Cm3IcA

Anyway, consider this your early Christmas present.  I'm working on a few videos now that NaNo is over and I'll be posting stuff on my youtube of me singing in preparation for the auditions for the musical in February.  Which is the Enchantment of Beauty and the Beast... my favorite fairy tale, if you can't tell...

okay... I'm going to go and practice "There's been a Change in Me"  so that I can post it as soon as possible.
:D