Community Christmas Celebration at the Austin Public Library

Score: Superstar Choir 1, Grinch 0. We won, of course; well, more like everybody won (except the Grinch, of course). A variety of factors conspired to make this event not even happen this year, but in the end, it all came together. Lots of folks showed up at the library this year to get in the holiday spirit with the Superstar Choir. I even saw one of my former Ortega students there who is now a few inches taller than me -- and I'm not short! The kids enjoyed performing for an audience of family, friends, familiar, and unfamiliar faces, then having some food (maybe someone will send me some pics of the food table -- it was pretty impressive!), doing some craft activities, having pictures taken with Santa, then getting back home with their homework already done -- yeah, 'cause like most times when we have a performance trip on a school night, it was Superstar Choir "homework club" in the music room before we left. This year, I think all of the choir members stayed at school from dismissal until we left at 6:30. Somewhere in that span of time, about a dozen pizzas showed up and were devoured -- good thing we get lots of exercise with all the singing, stomping, and clapping we do!

Another Great Great Christmas Tree Event (2011)

Well, we did again, again, again...but it never gets old. Each year we have lots of new members in our group and a fresh audience at the Great Christmas Tree Event at the Omni Hotel. For an event description, see the post from last year. Each year, Jackie and friends at the Omni tweak things a little to try to make this event even better. The projected snowflakes looked pretty cool, even though some of us were at times "snowblind" from the lights on the projectors. Ahh, showbiz. We couldn't ask for a better audience -- the kids feel like rockstars after doing this (I think that group from Galindo Elementary could have had a lot to do with that this year!).

Fourth Friday at Kenny Dorham's Backyard and a new school year, 2011-2012!

Well, we did it again, and it was a blast again! Harold and his group put on a great event here, which is free to the community, donations suggested if you also want to enjoy food that is on hand from Eastside Pies and other sponsors. This was September's Fourth Friday event, so it is a good thing that we started rehearsing the week we came back to school from summer vacation! We had an awesome turnout from our Ortega staff and families -- a few who had not been to a Superstar Choir performance, and they had a great time. The kids got to enjoy music from the rock group that followed us after enjoying pizza. This was our first performance of the new school year, so as usual, we went with our returning choir members. We lost several choir members to middle school and over-the-summer moves, but the group that took the stage at Kenny Dorham's Backyard new exactly what to do and they did it!

Dia de la Familia at Austin Community College (ACC)

This was fun as always, but where are those pics? Los Texas Wranglers, the Macallum High School Folklorico dancers, and lots of food and activities for the kids...

Time for a parade -- a "mini-float" parade

It is also time for Texas Relays Weekend here in Austin. Some groups including Austin ISD, the George Washington Carver Museum, and the NAACP got together to sponsor this family- friendly event which went from historic Blackshear Elementary to the George Washington Carver Museum. It is called "The B.L. Joyce mini-float parade" and is named in honor of the local-legend African-American band director B.L. Joyce. Musical groups besides us included the Pearce Middle School Band, and the Reagan High School Band (unfortunately, Kanye West couldn't make it!). We would have liked to have seen more floats, but maybe the word will get out to more schools and organizations for next year. I know we had a good time! The theme for our float was "Everywhere we go, there's music in the air," which is paraphrased/borrowed form the spiritual "Up Above My Head." Some of the kids got to take turns being the kite "flying" up in the air. In spite of the super-warm temperatures, we had a great turnout from families and our Ortega staff -- thanks all! It was hard to decide which pics to leave out, so there are several -- enjoy, and hope to see ya there next year!

Austin Marathon

Only the strong survive (or is that only the strong show up?)! This is one of those events that you don't see other elementary schools performing at -- could it have anything to do with the fact that our bus leaves at 6:00 AM, then we are performing in sometimes pretty chilly temps for an hour and a half to two hours? Every choir member who has ever participated in this event has had a great time. We are there along with 39 other musical groups to (supposedly) cheer on and help motivate the 12,000-14,000 runners. What winds up happening is they cheer for and help motivate us! This is also another of our "service learning" opportunities, as being part of making this such a popular event that runners don't mind shelling out $90 for an entry fee, much of which will go to charities such as the Capitol Area food bank is a pretty positive "giving-back" experience for our group. A great tradition that somehow got started along with this, is that the principal brings breakfast tacos for the group!

Great Christmas Tree Event

at the Omni Hotel Southpark Meadows. I have lost track of how many times we have performed for this event, but it is a blast! The event is called "The Great Christmas Tree Event," because several schools (usually 10-12) adopt a tree provided by the Omni Hotel, and they make ornaments for it, then bring them and decorate their tree the day of the event. The tree is then donated to a needy family who would not otherwise have a tree. The kids in Superstar Choir love being able to perform for an enthusiastic audience of around 400 other kids. This was our third day in a row of peforming (and yes, we had our hour and a half rehearsal on Tuesday as well), but you would have never known it -- the energy level was still super-high! The only pics from this event are from after the performance -- camera was in my pocket the whole time (Oops!).

Holiday Program at Ortega for PTA

Superstar Choir performed following the second grade presentation of "The Cactus Christmas Tree," which has become a holiday tradition here. We always have a great turnout for the Christmas program -- tamales and menudo prepared by the PTA don't hurt anything! This performance went really well, but something strange was going on with the lighting...

Community Christmas Celebration at Austin Public Library

This is an event that we have been doing each year for several years now and it is always a lot of fun. It is one of our favorites, because being the Oak Springs branch of the APL which is in our neighborhood, most of our families are able to make it. There are usually a few musical groups, we finish things up and end with a sing-a-long. There is lots of food, Santa shows up, and it is pretty much as loud as you will ever hear it being in a library! Happy holidays!