West Side Story

There were lots of reasons why I was excited to go home for Thanksgiving break. I was going to see family, old friends, and even recently returned mission companions! I guess I was pretty excited to pig out for a week and enjoy the slightly warmer California climate as well. But one of the main reasons was to get together with some of my best friends from high school and go to San Francisco to see West Side Story! It was going to be great! I had been planning this for months . . . ever since my friend told me that it was going to be at San Francisco's main stage for only a month. So, I thought I write about it.

I love going to San Francisco. I love the weather, the tall buildings, the people. . . everything. As soon as my date and I got off the train i heard one of my favorite sounds in world, the sound of four voices singing together. Every time I go to a musical in the city the same four black men are standing outside of the theater singing a Capella and collecting tips. They always sound great and I always remember to bring some extra change to drop in their basket.

The show was really good. The dancing and acting was incredible and the orchestra was on point. The director put a new spin on the show and decided to translate most of the singing and dialogue of the Puerto Ricans(Sharks) to Spanish. I thought that was a great change to the script and it made it more authentic. West Side Story is one of my favorite shows, but this was the first time I have seen it done professionally. When all was said and done it ended up being a great night and I am happy to chalk up another great show to my list of musicals seen in S.F.

Writing and Rhetoric Book

I realized the other day that I have yet to blog about the notes I took from the reading we did at the beginning of the semester from the Writing and Rhetoric book. Now, I figure that those chapters may not be extremely fresh in our minds, so I'll just mention my thoughts on the book in general.
Overall, I liked what the authors had to say and teach a lot. They made a lot of good points and were very clear in the way they presented each idea in each chapter. The way they wrote was so simple that the new things that they were teaching seemed like they should be common sense. I think that learning how to effectively communicate with your audience is the most important part of writing. Of course, there are those who just write to express themselves and they don't really care who reads their work, but for the most part I think that when writing people, more often than not, are trying to prove a point. This book describes how to reach our best potential of getting our ideas and arguments across so that our audience can get the most out of what we write.
I did have one problem with the book and it repeated it self over and over. It seemed as though the authors of every chapter could have saved 2-3 pages per chapter. Every idea was presented and then beaten to death. It was all very redundant. Yes, it helped to get the point across, but there was just way to much repetition for my taste.

Thanksgiving Flight Home

Normally when I fly I expect the trip to be pretty uneventful. Especially around the holidays, I just get ready for busy airports and full flights with not enough leg room and babies crying for an hour and a half. However, this past Monday night brought quite a surprise. As I was boarding the plane I figured I should try an approach different than just going to the back to find an empty row. So, towards the front of the plane I noticed a pleasant looking woman who had tons of carry-on luggage. I sat on the aisle seat of her row and she warned me that she often works on needle point, so I should watch out. As I was laughing a young lady asked if she could sit next to me. That doesn't happen every day, so I quickly moved over as she took the aisle seat.
After that, it was the fastest flight I've ever taken! The young lady and I talked for half of the flight. She is actually my age and is also attending BYU; that was a first for a seat buddy on a plane! We had a great talk, then she had to finish a paper that needed to be e-mailed by the end of the night. So, I sat quietly for a moment when the woman on my other side started asking me questions about the conversation I had just had with the other girl. At first I thought it was comical, but she just kept talking to me so I started to really listen and engage in a full conversation. It turns out that this woman is the daughter of a famous visual effects designer and engineer from the old-school Hollywood days!
She had so many stories to tell about growing up in Hollywood and playing on the sets of many blockbusters. We talked about the movies her father worked on and the things he invented for movies that were later bought and used for commercial and military use. We also discussed her opinions on how film-making and the quality of films has changed over the years. She is very disappointed with movies in today's world. She says it's all about the special effects and nobody knows how to tell great stories that inspire and leave us wanting more. It was one of the most interesting conversations of my life. I am very involved in live theater and my brother loves to make live and animated movies, so we talked about the things we could do together and I promised her that if my brother and I ever make something worth the public eye, that it would have an incredible story! Anyway, I was on cloud nine and I could have talked to her for the rest of the night! I could go on for quite a while about our dialogue, but I think I'll stop now and hopefully leave you wanting more! Needless to say, I am really looking forward to my flight back to Provo this weekend!