The auditions have been held, the songs sung, the necessary facebook group created, and the castlist posted. [Sort of.]

Over the past month or so, the production team for High School Musical at Live Arts has been working hard holding auditions, designing, casting, and reading those god-forsaken 100 pages of script more times than anyone thought possible. And tonight we’re finally going to start the next phase - all the cast members are meeting for the first time in a sort of pre-rehearsal.

But admittedly, the hardest part of getting through these first few weeks of production (alongside of my AP exams, which are still going on, by the way) is how I have to do it all without coffee. I know, crazy, right? But you see, after my experiences during Mother Courage, I figured it was time to pull the curtain on my coffee drinking days; at least until college :P. A teenager getting to the point of three cups a day is pretty disgusting. Hot chocolate’s been a pretty good substitute…

Now, speaking of High School Musical, I know what you’re going to say:

“That’s so lame!”
“Why is Live Arts doing a crappy kids musical?”
“That music makes me want to strangle small animals.”

I felt the same way before I got involved. And I’ll admit, I finally watched the movie a few weeks ago, and absolutely hated it. But the stage version’s better - especially Live Arts-style. I just wish I could have convinced more people to audition. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with the people that were cast. But I think we still technically had less males audition than there were male roles… See, upper-elementary schoolers were all-for auditions; so were college kids. The former are legitimately allowed to like the movie - the latter are old enough for it to be cool to like kids movies. Unfortunately, high schoolers (what we needed) are all at that awkward stage where they’re so insecure about themselves that they wouldn’t dream of acting in a musical that could jeopardize whatever “coolness” they possess. Snap.

Oh, and you can all pretend like you’re not going to go see the show, but we know you’ll be there in the back row.

We know.

As most of you Charlottesville readers know by now, the Downtown Mall is undergoing some significant changes. From rebricking to the new Landmark Hotel at the old Boxer Building, I’m a little worried that the mall I visit when I come home from college will be very different from the one I’ve come to know and love over the past few years. This is my mall! I’ve spent Friday evenings here for practically all of high school! The mall is where I’d get all excited about going on a Saturday afternoon in 6th grade when my family would go see a movie together. It’s where I went on my first date, where I had my first quasi-job, and collectively have eaten more pizza than you should in a lifetime.

Admittedly, the rebricking needs to be done. I’ve stubbed my big toe no less than four times in the past month on loose bricks, not to mention seen a woman who got her high heels stuck in the nonexistent grout. And I have to say, the new section they’ve finished next to the Paramount looks rather classy.

But I’m a bit less enthusiastic about the Landmark Hotel. Take a look at this rendering of the hotel (about halfway down the page). First of all, whoever thinks that the downtown mall is that empty at night is severely mistaken. Second of all, I completely disagree with Mayor Norris’ assertion that, “anytime you bring something like this downtown, it can only help.” I’m sure that’s exactly what residents near Barracks Road said when the John Paul Jones was being built.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m not completely anti-development. But parking’s already hard enough to find on a Friday afternoon, thank-you-very-much. Plus, I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to tourists, I’ll admit.

What do all of you think about the Landmark?

You know, I’ve almost posted about a dozen times in past two months (even written a few posts out, but by the time I finished, they were irrelevant) – but it just never happened. I’m not even sure as I’m writing this that it’ll ever be read by anyone. I can use the general excuses: senior year, the musical that just wrapped up yesterday (Anything Goes), or even just 17-year-old laziness. But the truth is, I just never bothered.

So I figured I’d do a post on that musical:

Yesterday night, all the seniors involved in Charlottesville High School’s Theatre Department were sobbing on stage after their last main-stage show in high school. Surprisingly enough, I was the only senior not creating huge streaks in their stage makeup (which, given my reputation for sobbing at terribly cliché moments in every movie imaginable, was odd). That last show was probably the most depressing of my life, though. All the seniors were miserable for most of it – I spent the entire time consciously trying not to think about how this would be the last big show I ever did at CHS. Furthermore, since I won’t be doing theatre in college (and I somehow don’t think I’d be that competitive in New York anyway), last night was essentially the last show I’d be doing in years.

All of that hasn’t sunk in yet, or I probably wouldn’t able to type all that out with a straight head. As far as last shows go, however, I couldn’t have asked for it to have gone better. I had a lead role that was incredibly fun (British accent the entire time), a solo (which Allyson and I nailed for the last performance), and left much closer to everyone in the show.

I’ll link to the pictures that were taken as soon as I put them on the Theatre CHS website (my costumes included yellow running shorts a la Michael Cera in Juno, and a silk bath robe…).

I feel really guilty I never kept up with my blogging about my internship at NBC. As my time over at Channel 29 is coming to a close, I’m starting to wish that I had a record of how my skills and views about the media have changed during these past few months. I’ve been through a lot over there: drug busts, shootings, going to my first football game… Despite me going into the internship with my idealistic worldviews and aspirations of making a difference (like every young student of journalism that’s never had real experience), I quickly found myself melding into the system that is Big Media. Excitement over the big stories (Death/Destruction/Dismemberment), groaning over the soft stories (graffiti, development, finance)… The job became about the thrill of running after a story, finding a way around the police tape. And I lost touch with everything I’d originally hoped to glean from the experience - the connection with the community that allows you to truly tell stories about the people.

And this is why I loved my internship yesterday. Originally, I was scheduled to help out with coverage on a giant Meth bust that involved dozens of people and years of dealing. “Awesome!” I thought. That was the kind of excitement that kept my adrenaline going well past the 11 o’clock broadcast. 30 seconds later, however, I was reassigned to go ride along in the Santa Van - a group of Charlottesville Police Officers that dress up as Santa Clause and give out toys to kids in poor neighborhoods. Drug bust, or riding in a claustrophobic van for two hours… You can imagine which I would rather have been on.

But as soon as I got in the van with the officers (and an off-duty Daily Progress photog who just loves kids), my entire mindset changed. The van was completely filled with stuffed animals, toys, fruit, and candy canes; not to mention the four officers who had more Christmas spirit than any people I’d ever met. The NBC29 photographer I was with had the filming covered, so I was able to forget about the establishing shots and color balance and the Nat Package we were supposed to be creating. I wasn’t an intern for those few hours - I was just a kid helping Santa help the community.

And it made me remember why I had first become interested in the media, in journalism. It reminded me of what journalists are supposed to do. Because it’s not just about “reporting the news” - or at least the “news” we tend to concentrate on. It’s about giving a voice to those who speak softly; it’s about telling the stories of the people that make the world run, whether it’s on a global or local scale. And most importantly, it’s meant to be a service to the people. Not a business, not an international corporation - journalists are meant to be public servants, helping the communities in which they live by opening up lines of communication between its residents.

That’s what we were doing, riding on that Santa Van, watching the kids literally run up to us, screaming out of excitement to see Santa. To see the love and care that the citizens of Charlottesville are capable of.

We never ended up running that story about the Santa Van - three deaths and a major meth bust bumped it out of the lineup.

So guys, I think it might be about time for another Charlottesville Bloggers Meet-Up. Personally, I had a lot of fun at the last one back in May (has it really been over six months?), and if there’s still interest out there, I’d love to have another one of these things - check in with my fellow bloggers, and what not. I’d be happy to organize it again, but I want to give a chance for someone else to put it together and get all the attention (not to mention pageviews) if they want. Do something similar (get a big table at Mudhouse/Java Java/etc. and talk about random geeky blogging tips), or be creative an come up with something entirely different - it’s up to you! So, the offer is out there for anyone brave enough to organize it [it's not that much work] - otherwise, I’ll go ahead and try to set something up. Let me - and your local blogging friends - know!

Slash, it’s my first post on my new laptop! Sorry, Mac users, it’s a Dell with Vista. For some reason, people are still surprised when they find out I’m a PC guy, like I’m too cool for that, or something… Well that’s incorrect. I’m *not* too cool for PCs. There! Hmm, that sounded a bit less flattering than intended… Ah well. For those of you that care, it’s an XPS M1730, and it’s a back breaker, weighing in at 12 lbs. Yes, I’m crazy for agreeing to carry that around - but I loved the 1920×1200 screen too much to say no… And honestly, I’m getting used to Vista very quickly. Aside from a few of my codecs not installing properly, I haven’t had any problems thus far.