We have several musical happenings to report. Let's start with Dan. He is a member of the excellent Bellaire High School Choir, under the direction of Ms. Amy Solberg. This year they travelled to Disneyworld in Florida for a national competition and came away with ten awards.
Dan also participated in a statewide solo contest and not only scored in the highest category, but also received an enormous medal for being placed in the elite "distinguished" category. One of his ambitions is to appear on "American Idol" so watch out for him there!
For concert performances, the Bellaire High School choir members dress in tuxedos and long gowns, but on this occasion to sing the National Anthem at a school football game, they could dress more casually.
The Bellaire High School musical theatre production this year was Into the Woods and Dan played the part of Rapunzel's Prince. This picture was taken when the cast was relaxing after the show, and Rapunzel herself is lower right.
Jason has been doing a lot of musical activities too. At his previous school he was part of a "Stage Band" class and one of a few students from that class to be invited to participate in various gigs in a group called the Glory Hounds. Here's video of their first event, which was held at a beach bar. In this clip he starts out on drums and then switches to bass guitar.
Back at the same bar a few weeks later, this time a reporter was present and wrote an article about the band, including this paragraph: "Jason Rossiter is a long, thin fellow whose arms and legs manage to dangle even when he's sitting still. He plays bass and drums in the Glory Hounds, but at the moment he's playing neither. He's just sitting in the crowd, quiet and unremarkable, in a pink T-shirt two sizes too small. In about 20 minutes he'll take his place behind the drum kit and become an entirely different person. When he's playing, he's the Glory Hounds' leader, their showman, and he'll say as much after the show."
Another gig for the Glory Hounds involved playing outside at a park dedication. The gentleman to the right is the middle school teacher who created the Stage Band class a couple of years ago. Not only is he a musician and teacher, but he is also a professional wrestler!
Just before school started, Jason found out that the high school marching band needed a bass guitar player. Since that sounded more fun and less exhausting than the cross country running that he had planned to do, he switched and joined the band. It turns out that in addition to the marching musicians, there is also a "pit" of instruments that do not move. As you can see from the photo below, setting up the band for football games is a mammoth operation, especially given that the games are played in a stadium, not at the school. Lugging all those instruments around takes a rented truck and some considerable muscle.
At the football games, as well as playing on the field at half-time, the band also plays during the game from the stands. In that configuration, the pit musicians are reassigned and Jason gets to play an incredibly heavy pair of cymbals. So with all the moving, lifting, and playing of heavy instruments, the band has ended up as quite a physical activity after all.
The Bellaire High School band marched in the Houston Thanksgiving Day Parade and Jason got to march for an hour with those heavy cymbals (and be on television). Meanwhile, Dan was also in the parade, but dressed up as King Henry VIII and so he got to walk all that way in fur and tights (and be on television as well).
Continuing the musical theme, Belinda is now in her 4th year with the Houston Choral Showcase. Each season (which is twice a year) they learn a new set of songs and put on several performances in different locations around the city.
This is a slide show of photos from the first Houston Choral Showcase performance of the Fall 2008 season, held at the Nutcracker Market in Houston.
Alan may not have been making as many public performances as the rest of the family, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been creative. His new book, Professional Excellence: Beyond Technical Competence has now been published. Under no illusions that this will bring him fame and fortune, he continues to work hard in his day job as a chemical engineering consultant.
Alan and Belinda have lived in the Houston area since 1987, and this year had their closest encounter with a hurricane. On Belinda's birthday, Hurricane Ike came thundering through the Texas coastal region and left a great deal of damage. In Houston, the damage was primarily wind-related and the consequences for us included tree branches down, a fence collapse, and roof damage. However, we were amongst the fortunate 25% who got their electricity back within three days -- many friends of ours were without power for over two weeks. The boys also missed school for two weeks because their school needed repair before they could return.
Although the time immediately after the storm was difficult, it was also an opportunity for communities to grow closer together as neighbour helped neighbour. Alan, Dan and Jason all worked several days at one of the many hurricane relief stations around town and here they are on one of those days.
At this particular station, thousands of meals were prepared each day and it was hot and heavy work.
Earlier in the year, Dan and Jason both participated in a youth mission trip to Mississippi, where they did more hot and heavy work to help communities still recovering from the devastating effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita a few years ago.
An honour for Jason this year was the opportunity to speak to students and parents at his middle school graduation ceremony.
While visiting her mother during the year, Belinda's brother also drove up to join them so it was nice to have a brief reunion. It had been a long time since all three had been together.
For no particular reason, here's a picture of Dan dressed for a costume party (as The Fonz). He looks nothing like this now, as he has recently dyed his hair red!
And yes, the obligatory animal picture. Unfortunately this comes with sad news. Shadow came to us several years ago, already a teenager by the vet's reckoning. We shared many happy times and the second picture was taken on his last day with us.
A project that keeps the boys busy, especially Jason, is designing products to be sold through the Zazzle web site. Check them out and buy something! Jason's site is www.zazzle.com/duck_and_punch, with a selection of products shown here.
