Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief

So this last week I went to see the Lightning Thief movie. I actually liked it a lot more than I thought I would. It's always really hard when I go to see a movie about a book I really like. It's hard because books have so much information in them that it's really hard to put it all into about two hours. So they have to cut out a lot of parts from the book, even if they were kind of important. So it's really hard when you've read the book about 50 times and then they all of the sudden change it so it has a completely different plot. But even though they changed a lot of it, it was still good and they kept the parts of it that made the story really good. Something that I really like about the Lightning Thief is that it has all the original Ancient Greek stories, but it's all combined with the modern world so they all go together. They brought that out in the movie even more. In one part where Percy is fighting Medusa, he takes out his iPhone and uses it to look at her reflection. I thought it was cool how they brought out the attributes of all the gods in their children. Poseidon's children can breathe underwater, and water makes them stronger. Hermes's children are thieves, but know about roads and traveling. Athena's kids are smart and good fighters, and Aphrodites's children are beautiful flirts. They also brought out a lot of the myths from Greek mythology. They were trapped for what felt like a few hours, but was really a few days, in the lair of the Lotus Eaters. They had to cut off Medusa's head like Perseus did because her stare turned people into statues. And then it has things like satyrs, and centaurs, and it really helps people learn about mythology in an easy way. A hard part about the movie was that they changed some of the really important parts, and they even took out some majorly important characters; so I'm not sure if there's going to be any more movies after this one. But I think that overall it was worth going to see. They brought out the parts of the book that really made it unique, so in a way it made the movie unique too. And most of the actors were good too. The actor who did Percy was pretty good because he really let you see Percy's character. Pierce Brosnan (James Bond) was Chiron, the centaur mentor guy so he was really good. And all the actors who played the gods seemed to really be able to feel their character and they were believable gods. I also liked the way that Percy's mom (Sally Jackson) really seemed like a mom, and not some actor pretending to be one. Overall, I would really recommend that people should go see this movie. Even if you haven't read the books you'll like it, but you should read them too. They're one of my all-time favorite series and a lot of different kinds of people like them. I really liked the movie, and it was a really fun way to spend President's Day.

Solo Ensemble

Well this week our school is having the Solo Ensemble Festival. They have it for choir, orchestra, and band. In choir I'm doing a solo and an ensemble. An ensemble is a group instead of just one person. The song I'm doing for my ensemble is called, "900 Miles". It is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. There are four girls in my group: two sopranos and two altos. I'm a soprano. Another cool part about our song is that in some parts the sopranos and altos all split so that there are four different parts, and it makes it sound kind of like a train. The song is about someone who is 900 miles away from home, and they're trying to get back on a train. The song says how they think that the train whistle sounds lonesome because they're so far away from home. The four of us have been working on this song for a really long time because we were in a special district choir called Select Choir. I think we're going to do really good, and the song is going to sound amazing!

For my solo I'm singing a song called, "Danny Boy". It's an old Irish folk song, and it's a song that I've liked for a really long time. It's about someone telling someone named Danny Boy that he has to leave them. But they tell him that someday he's going to come back, even if they've already died. Then he can come see there grave, and they'll be happy just knowing that he's there above their grave because they love him so much. I love everything about this song. It has a beautiful melody, and there's just something different about it because it's not like the music that comes on the radio. I know this song pretty well because I did a group singing workshop with my voice teacher in January. Pretty much the point of the workshop was to prepare people to audition for choirs and to get ready for Solo Ensemble. Everyone has a private lesson where they choose a song, and she helps them with it and gives them some tips. Then there are 3 group lessons where you work on a bunch of different things, including your song. At the end there's a recital where everyone sings their song. So I'm pretty confident about my song and hopefully I'll do well.

Solo Ensemble isn't technically a competition, but it sort of is. First you're competing for who gets to go to District, and then at District you're trying to be better than the other schools. At the festival there are two judges. They watch you sing and grade you on different things. They also write comments about what was good and what could be better. Then they give you an overall score. A 1+ is the best score you can get. Then 1, 1-, 2+, etc. Last year I did a solo and I got a 1-. I almost got to go to District, but a 9th grader in Rhapsody got a few more points than I did. From what the judges said last year, my main problem was that I forgot to smile. Sometimes I'll be singing and I don't realize that I'm not smiling at all. So this year I've really been working on having better facial expressions for whatever I'm singing. I'm really excited, and I hope I do good! It's on Wednesday, and I can't wait!