Houston Symphony Concert - "Hooray for Hollywood"

[Saxbabe 28]

I saw the Houston Symphony doing Wagner this weekend, and saw in the program the lineup for their upcoming film music concert. Oh yes...loving it...

"Hooray for Hollywood"

May 25, 26, 27, 2007 (and May 24 in The Woodlands Pavilion)

Jones Hall, Houston, TX

Houston Symphony

Michael Krajewski, conductor

Hooray for Hollywood! - J. Mercer/R. Whiting

Selections from The Wizard of Oz - Arlen/C. Sayre

The French Collection arr. Mancini

Scott Holhouser, piano

"Sicilian Pastorale" and "Love Theme" from The Godfather - N. Rota

"Viktor's Tale" from The Terminal - J. Williams

David Peck, clarinet

Theme from Schindler's List - J. Williams

Angela Fuller, violin

March from "Superman" - J. Williams (!!)

-Intermission-

Goldfinger - J. Barry/N. Raine

"The Creation of the Female Monster" from The Bride of Frankenstein - F. Waxman/Gerhardt-Vaughan

High Anxiety - M. Brooks/A. Bass

Robert Froehner, theremin for both of above

Suite from The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring - H. Shore/J. Whitney

Theme from On Golden Pond - D. Grusin/G. Prechel

The Great Westerns Suite - arr. J. Tyzik

Great pick of JW pieces!! I'm so excited to hear all of them, but especially Superman! Their Wagner concert this weekend showed a powerful brass section in top form. Almost drowned out the strings, hehe, but beautiful intonation and tone.

So many other great pieces too, equally looking forward to Goldfinger and the LOTR. And a real theremin? Now that should be interesting. Too bad they're not doing any Herrmann, with theremin The Day the Earth Stood Still would've been cool.

There's also something special about this concert. In 2001, the Houston Symphony's music library was lost in Tropical Storm Allison, literallly wiped out in the floodwaters, priceless parts with markings going back to Previn, Barbirolli, and Stokowski. Since then, donors have slowly helped build the library, but sadly and unbelivevably no one has coughed up for most of their John Williams music.

Here's the list of what they still lack:

Focus On The Music Campaign

The pieces on this program have been recently donated for, and the donors' names are printed on the program and will be forever printed on the score. If I had a couple of thousand extra, my god, that could buy Battle of the Heroes, CE3K, Adventures on Earth, Flight to Neverland. Only a few hundred for a score is nothing if several people go in on it.

Anyway, so it looks like an awesome concert, I'll definitely be there, but was curious if any other Texans would be going before I buy my tickets...

-Greta

[scissorhands 16]

Good to see a rarely performed theme, Viktor's Tale, in the programme. They should have included some cues from Spellbound with that theremin in the hall (I would like it to see it live!), in the 100th anniversari of Dr. Rózsa.

Hope you all enjoy the concert!

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

Tropical Storm Allison demolished the Houston Symphony Music Library which totaled approximately 152,500 pieces

Oh my!!

[Ollie 1,059]

Hmmm I may have to check my calender and see if the wife and I can make a trip down to Houston.

[Lurker 5]

Mark, cancel anything on your calendar and go.

Neil

[robthehand 3]

Wow, great programme! Wish I could go.

[Saxbabe 28]

Hmmm I may have to check my calender and see if the wife and I can make a trip down to Houston.

Mark, we're coming in from 2 hours away, if we can you can too.

Seriously, Houston doing the march from Superman isn't something I'd want to miss!

When you find out Mark, let me know what day you're going...

Greta

[John Crichton 4]

Crap! I took some time off work to go out of town next week, if I had known about this I would have scheduled them together. Still if it's going to be on for 4 days I might have a shot if I can swing getting one of those days off and make a red-eye drive to Houston and back. What day are you going Greta? And Mark? A Texas JWFan Party sounds good to me!

[Ollie 1,059]

Right now it looks like Sunday would be the only day we could go, unless I go by myself.

[Saxbabe 28]

A Texas JWFan Party, that would rock. Any of the days would probably work for me.

It would be great if we could meet before and hang out/go out to eat downtown near the hall. Doable?

Are there any other Texas JWFans interested? I'm trying to remember who we've got on here from this area, Hlao-roo (Alan) and new member TheDarkOrb come to mind.

[SomeNewGuy 0]

Man, if I didn't have exams those days... crap.

[John Crichton 4]

It would be great if we could meet before and hang out/go out to eat downtown near the hall. Doable?

Absolutely. I'll have some idea of what days will work for me later on this week.

[Saxbabe 28]

Man, if I didn't have exams those days... crap.

You have exams on Saturday and Sunday night? If so, now that does royally suck...

[Ollie 1,059]

Well it looks like Saturday is now open so we will be going for sure on Saturday.

[John Crichton 4]

That's the day I'm shooting for as well, and I'm going to try to get Sunday off too so I won't have to rush back home, it's a good 6-7 hour one way drive for me. An overnight stay?

[Ollie 1,059]

I'm planning on staying overnight. You do have a long haul, I wouldn't try to drive back either.

[Saxbabe 28]

Hey! This is shaping up!

Okay, I'm going to get my tickets for Saturday the 26th as well.

I'm from 2 hrs away and my parents aren't fond of my driving I-10 at night so I'm going to stay the night as well. Do you guys know where you're going to stay yet? I can do a bit of research and maybe we could stay at the same place. (Somewhere nice, but uh, cheap lol)

I'll see what I can rustle up. This is going to be fun!

-Greta

[Ollie 1,059]

I'll do some hotel hunting tonite.

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

This looks like it's shaping up to be the next official JWFan meeting! I expect lots of pictures and a thorough report. Getting autographs and photos of JW would be nice too!

Ray Barnsbury

[Lurker 5]

Getting a photo of Williams there might be tough.

Neil

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

You are always so negative.

[Ollie 1,059]

There may or may not be pictures.

I must protect my identity.

[John Crichton 4]

Somehow every picture I appear in I'll look like a talking skull.

[Ollie 1,059]

You are always so negative.

Actually Neil is correct this time.

Obtaining Williams' photo and autograph will be extremely difficult.

Somehow every picture I appear in I'll look like a talking skull.

Fun with photoshop.

I might let my picture get posted.

[John Crichton 4]

You are always so negative.

Actually Neil is correct this time.

Obtaining Williams' photo and autograph will be extremely difficult.

All we need to do is have someone call Williams' people and tell them that some JWFans are getting together in Houston and if he'll come by and hang out. Couldn't be simpler.

[Ollie 1,059]

Yes, of course.

[John Crichton 4]

Well, it's almost here. So far the Official Texas JWFan Party will be: myself, Greta, Mark, and Mrs. Olivarez. Expect pictures aplenty (featuring Mark and me appearing in picture form for the first time), a write up, and all that good stuff!

[Red 75]

Ten gallon hats for everyone!

[Ollie 1,059]

I don't think so.

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

I'm so excited for you guys...enjoy the show and meeting one another!

Ray Barnsbury

[Ollie 1,059]

What happens in Houston stays in Houston..............

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

You and your wife are into swinging?

Ray Barnsbury

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

Let me be the first to start rumors of a bootleg video tape with questionable content...

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

Our very own scandalous JWFan sex tape!

Ray Barnsbury

[Ollie 1,059]

I don't think so...

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

He's denying! That must mean it's true!

[Ollie 1,059]

I'm a good boy. I don't do that kind of stuff.

[John Crichton 4]

OK, we're back up. Again. Good. Better get this written before the board disappears for good.

We're back from Houston. A good time had by all. It was great meeing Mark (accompanied by Mrs. Olivarez) and Greta. What, you want more detailed that than? Uh-uh. What happens in Houston stays in Houston..... OK, we'll get into that later, I want to get a review of the concert up first, it was a memorable evening. We'll get more into what happend when we hung out later, although I'll say now that there was never a mention of a sex tape. Or swinging.

So, the Houston Symphony Orchestra. They're good. Jones Hall is very nice, simple but elegantly designed. Greta and I sat in the very middle of the very back row of the Upper Orchestra section, and I must say we were both very impressed with the sound quality. The program:

Hooray for Hollywood: Just a compilation of some famous Hollywood themes. The 20th Century Fox fanfare was partially played, I really wish it had gotten a full statement. Overall a good start.

Selections from The Wizard Of Oz: A nice collection, I'm not all that familiar with Oz's score, but this was enjoyable. A lot of laughter for the tuba solo for the Cowardly Lion's song.

The French Connection: An arrangement from the recent work of a couple of French composers. Honestly I don't remember their names, and I can't find them in my program. Something about one of them winning an Oscar for Best Song recently. To be frank, I was lucky I stayed awake during this. The gentelman featured for the piano solos did a nice job.

Sicilian Pastoral and The Love Theme from The Godfather: Rota gets a shout out for the crowd (conducter Michael Krajewski comments that "Mr. Rota is in the house tonight", and it gives Greta and I an idea for the next piece...) Well played, nothing spectacular but it was nice to hear.

Viktor's Tale from The Terminal: Here we go. As soon as Williams' name is mentioned, Greta and I let out a loud whoop. And we're not the only ones! The Olivarezes do to, as well as at least a handful of other places in the crowd. Very nice to hear. A good performance here, but the tempo was a bit slow.

Theme from Schindler's List: The sympony's new concertmaster, Angela Fuller, handled the violin solo duties for this, and honestly we were a bit underwhelmed. It was played OK but not specatularly, she was complelely drowned out by the orchestra a few times. Greta can give the greatest details on what happened here, as a performer herself she knows what to look for. (The woman in from of me, is she crying? I mean, it's a great piece, but this isn't exactly the best I've ever heard it played.)

The Superman March:: This is it. We knew going in this would be the highlight of the evening, as Greta raved about how great the brass was going in. They lived up to the hype and then some. Other than a couple of slow points, and I couldn't hear the ostinato under the love theme, a perfect performance. Rousing, bold, and about 3,742 times better than the travesty at the start of Superman Returns. (The woman in front of me is still messing with her face. It must me a runny nose.) This left us all very happy going into...

INTERMISSION. We went to the bathroom. Film at 11.

Goldfinger: Ugh, what happened here? Maybe the orchestra isn't back from the bathroom yet. If it didn't say Goldfinger on the program I wouldn't know what was being played.

The Creation of the Female Monster from The Bride of Frankenstein: Every concert there's one piece that reaches out from nowhere to grab you and stun you by how amazing it is. This was this concert's. To start of with, they actually brought in a theremin! I've never seen one before, and it's a funky looking contraption. Just play music by waving your hands around! This was an actual cue rather than a concert piece, and that "on the scoring stage" feeling was remarkable. Everyone in the orchestra nailed it, creepy, scary, powerful, and I would love to hear it again. (Runny Nose Lady can't stop lauging every time the theremin plays. Kinda annoying.)

High Anxiety: Another showcase piece for the theremin, this time from Mel Brooks' parody of the disaster movie craze. Another surprisingly great piece, and the theremin parts had me rolling on the floor lauging. Classic Mel Brooks. (And yes, now I'm laughing during the theremin parts. Does that make me a bad person?)

Suite from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: This was universally the big disappointment of the night. There was nothing wrong with the performance, but the arrangement was all over the place. Someone just took all the major FotR themes and slopped them together with no thought at all. And for someone like Greta who's been lucky enough to attend the LotR Symphony it was a real letdown.

Theme from On Golden Pond: Krajewski leaves the conductor's podium to take up the piano solos for this. It was there, nothing more.

The Great Westerns Suite: Not bad at all, a nice finish. Or so we thought...

All during the second half I was thinking about an encore. What would it be. I was really hoping they'd whip some Star Wars out (and, as I found out after, so was Mark). So this is pretty much how it went: Krajewski's picks the mic back up (All right! Here we go! Star Wars, something Williams, please!). "So, this summer a movie's coming out..." (Huh? Something new.....No. No. They couldn't. They wouldn't. Please no.) "....a movie involving pirates...." (Oh dear God and all that is holy, stop this man now! They can't!) "....we now present a suite from Pirates of the Carribean!" (I don't know what's more disappointing, what they're playing or the positive reaction it's getting).

So, we spend the next five minutes by having our senses assaulted in the worst way imaginable. The talented orchestra, bless them, did their level best to make it all sound tolerable, but this was beyond even them. I really don't want to say anymore, I'm talking about it enough at my daily therapy sessions.

[Ollie 1,059]

The two French composers were Francis Lai and Michel Legrand. The selections performed were from; Love Story, A Man and a Woman, Summer of 42' and one other film by Legrand that escapes me.

I think John is correct in his review, although I did enjoy the French suite.

The hilight of the evening was the Bride Of Frankenstein cue. It felt as if we were on the scoring stage watching a session. In all my years of collecting film scores I'm embarrassed to admit I'd never seen an actual theremin nor did I know how it was played. It was a real treat to see how it was played and I thought it was played well.

The encore was, how shall I put it, unique? I thought maybe Korngold when he mentioned pirates but it was not to be. I will say this, it's amazing what a good orchestra can do with crappy music and I'll leave it at that.

After the concert we all went back to the hotel and discussed film scores and listened to music until after 2:00am. The site of my wife falling asleep in the chair was a signal to end the evening's meeting and we retired for the night.

The next morning we met for breakfast and picked up where we had left off. It was nice to discuss film music that was more than just John Williams.

Overall I had a great time, although it was too short. When John and I first met Saturday we immediately broke into a discussion about the music of Star Wars while we were waiting for Greta to arrive. I thought we had some great conversations about movies and film music.

[scissorhands 16]

The JWFan connection B) it never fails.

I'm glad you all had a great time! Despite de Caribbeans encore... Any pictures?

[Ollie 1,059]

Oh yeah we have pictures.

[John Crichton 4]

Oh yes, there will be pictures. We spent a lot of time making sure we got some decent ones.

I totally agree with Mark, we had some superb discussions. It was so strange to actually verbalize everything rather than type it all, I've never had the chance to have that deep a discussion about film music with anyone before. And I'm not ashamed to admit how impressed I was with Mark and Greta's knowledge of the whole world of film scores, I was left in the dust on more than one occassion. Oh, and I got to listen to more Joel McNeely than I ever have in my life.

[Lurker 5]

The Bride of Frankenstein is a remarkable score and the piece you heard is just one of the highlights. I can't recommend it enough.

It sounds like you all had a great time at this concert.

Neil

[Ollie 1,059]

After the concert John and I were discussing the availability of this score, I didn't think one had been released. When I got home I did some searching and I found a version released by Silva, it's a re-recording but I ordered it.

I have a Kunzel/Cincinnati Pops CD that has music from Bride, I think it's just one cue but I've always wanted the complete score to the film.

[Lurker 5]

The Silva's what I have. Gerhardt and Mauceri have also re-recorded that cue.

If you're familiar with the Flash Gordon serials, you'll recognize a lot of the music on the album.

Neil

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

Oh, and I got to listen to more Joel McNeely than I ever have in my life.

Hah! I wonder who was responsible for that.

Sounds great, guys! I hope we can see some pics soon.

Ray Barnsbury

[Ollie 1,059]

The Silva's what I have. Gerhardt and Mauceri have also re-recorded that cue.

If you're familiar with the Flash Gordon serials, you'll recognize a lot of the music on the album.

Neil

Oh yeah, as a young child I'd seen all the Flash Gordon serials so I was familiar with the music.

Oh, and I got to listen to more Joel McNeely than I ever have in my life.

Yeah thanks to Greta now I have to go buy some George Fenton.

[Saxbabe 28]

Hehe, my two favorite undersung composers. Glad you liked Blue Planet, Mark!

So we all converged on Houston last weekend from a myriad of places, east for me, west for John, and NWish for Mark. Kudos to John for coming from 7 (!) hours away, though he stopped off overnight to shorten it, I know that was a long haul back. It came up a downpour on me and Mark before we could get there, that and the Memorial Day traffic made for a bit of hairy driving.

After we'd all said our hellos, we went up to get my room, and wow, it was like a suite and on the corner point of the hotel, the walls were all windows on both sides looking onto the skyscrapers of downtown. (Needless to say that's where the party came back to that night!) We immediately dove into talking about film music and the board and had to drag ourselves down to rustle up dinner.

View from windows

We went to Bayou Place, an entertainment complex across from the hall, to go to Hard Rock Café. To get to the entrance we had to navigate around a huge crowd of people in black and spikes and multicolored hair who were going to I think a Metallica concert. After a quick dinner we rushed back so they could get changed and pick up tickets, then fought our way through the packed parking garage which services all the downtown Houston theatres. Quite funny, the juxtaposition between the elegantly dressed symphony-goers and the outlandishly clad metal-fans! We got there with a little bit of time to spare and I bought a Symphony tote bag I had my eye on before, which has a very cute marketing slogan.

John had gotten our tickets, so I really didn't know where they were. They turned out to be on the very back row of the hall. When I've been before I always got the pricey seats and was really curious about how these would be sound-wise. Vision-wise, it definitely wasn't bad, and the sound was awesome! I'm excited to say that the back row of Jones Hall sounds super. In fact possibly better than the center seats of the Balcony, because the sound goes straight out in that acoustic rather than lifting up much.

Finally the lights dim, they tune, and the video screen starts counting down in the old B/W style 5...4...3... Then we see Michael Krajewski, Prinicpal Pops Conductor, attempting to say "Hello, and welcome the concert" which he of course messes up royally and they say cut, and show many of these takes, some with him running into the wall or odd people in the background, etc. He's the congenial, bumbling sort and they played it up to the max. He was the funniest trying to introduce pieces, he stumbled around trying to think of stuff to say and kept losing the audience. Because probably very few except us care what year the score is from, or if the composer won an Academy Award...snore...ZZzzz...

He entered to "Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky complete with blinding spotlights and applause and cheers, this being the Pops finale the house was packed.

Hooray for Hollywood:

Great opener. I always loved this piece, it says old glamorous Hollywood to me. The trombones and brass immediately stood out as being on form. Cute arrangement.

Wizard of Oz Suite:

Just charming. It included We're Off to See the Wizard, If I Only Had a Brain (tuba player was great), Wicked Witch Is Dead...and Somewhere Over the Rainbow - to hear this live with orchestra was wonderful. The arrangement was gorgeous, sending the horns up for a soaring countermelody at the climax...ooh, all too brief.

French Collection:

Arr. by Mancini, hmm. Well, it was a bit drippy and Reader's Digest. The themes themselves are lovely. But string-heavy with that kind of pop-ish piano playing that seems so dated. Pianist was very good. But couldn't get into this one.

The Godfather:

Ah yes, there was a rabid Rota fan in the house, a man in the center right of the floor. Haha. Garnered a shoutout from the conductor. Nice to know there were some diehard film music fans there! Beautifully played, English Horn solo was especially haunting. Man, what a fine theme.

The Terminal:

John and I were ready, we cheered and the conductor commented "Ah, John has fans in the house too!"Hehe. So, Houston's principal clarinetist David Peck was the soloist, and he is super. It was a bit slow, but they went for in general a more, laid-back, comfortable approach. Sly and graceful, played more as a classical dance. Nice that they left themselves room to build for the orchestral tutti with the brass near the end.

Schindler's List:

I was so looking forward to this, I dearly love this piece. The concertmaster Angela Fuller was just appointed this year after a long search, in her late 20s very young to become concertmaster of a huge American orchestra. As she was introduced, there were cheers from the front row, no doubt her family, which prompted the audience to give a round of applause in recognition. I can definitely imagine, to play Schindler's at one of your first big concerts in such a high profile position is so nervewracking. The scrutiny is incredible.

Immediately she was very hard to hear, even though the orchestra was playing quietly. It seemed she had a lovely tone, but was hesitant. The English Horn could have been much softer, though I must say the supporting parts JW wrote here are beautiful. When you're nervous, the tendency is to back off high notes because you're afraid you'll go out of tune. And this is exactly what happened, rather than her singing into those high notes, she pivoted into them. It seemed the goal was to stay in tune and not miss a note. It was an absolutely safe, pretty, perfunctory reading, such a missed opportunity. I wasn't the only one who thought so, it was met with polite applause. :-/ Of course, there's more to being concertmaster than playing, the person must be a good leader and personally a good fit with the players and she probably is, I have season tickets next year so it will be interesting to see if she can grow and develop.

Superman March:

Oh yes. Fantastic start. Their brass are very in tune and in sync. I'm struck by this each time I hear them live. On a CD of theirs from the early 90s, I realized looking at the personnel list that in each brass section, nearly all the players were the same as now. So generally as a whole they have been together almost 15 years. Wow. The balance was good overall, the whirling JW woodwind flourishes showed up well. I love the lyrical middle section of this cue, when the woodwinds and the strings call and answer each other before coming together and leading into the full orchestral restatement. Brilliant! But at the very end it was a little hard to hear that wild trombone line (with all the jumps), the trumpets were having to rein themselves in. Though the playing was amazing, I felt the conducting lacked some fire, they had it and were ready to give, but it wasn't quite tapped.

Technical gripes: First, the piano was still miked. It was way too present in the balance and I found this distracting. And Krajewski made an obvious articulation change I wasn't fond of. When it opens up after the morse-code-like intro with the heroic trumpets, Krajewski had them slur the first interval (dat-dee-aaah instead of dat-dee-daaah). Only that one. I have never heard that done before and don't know the reasoning behind that. But man, they did this really well.

INTERMISSION

Goldfinger:

Playing was fine. Arrangement sucked. Seriously, how can you make Bond boring? A draggy bland arrangement does the trick.

The Creation of the Female Monster - Bride of Frankenstein:

Now we're talking, I think this was the best performance of the night, and a sleeper surprise for me. They dug into the nasty dissonances and glissandos and it was really spiky and on-point. Stage was lit up with grotesque shimmering light effects. It was a nice long cue, this is the one Gerhardt recorded on his Waxman album. Just incredible live. I got chills!

High Anxiety:

Here the theremin got to shine. Totally madcap, over the top theme. The theremin player was great, it seems a tough instrument, to uh, play and so fun to see live. He gave an interesting explanation of the thing and its history beforehand.

LOTR: FOTR Suite:

Oh my, this arrangement was not good. They did the best they could but it was simplistic, and occasionally had a pop-ish drumbeat. Orchestra must've been cringing, especially after performing the real LOTR symphony (which was wonderful).

Good lord, Houston, use some of that Enron and oil money to buy your orchestra some great arrangements so they don't have to go begging for music on their website. I think the price of a new Ferrari would buy every piece still left on their wish list. Shameful. [/soapbox]

Theme from On Golden Pond:

This was nice. I always like Grusin a lot and this was actually a good arrangement. The first half was piano alone, played very well by conductor Michael Krajewski, second half was orchestrated. Upbeat and breezy.

The Great Westerns Suite:

Ah, this was super. Began and ended with a rousing Magnificent Seven. Playing was fantastic, save a middle blip. After successfully navigating the high tricky horn jumps in Newman's How The West Was Won, Broughton's Silverado ate a hornist. Tough music though, quite impressive. I love both of those scores and it was great to hear a taste of them. Dances With Wolves was in there too. I could've done with a whole concert of Westerns.

The Encore - POTC:

The crowd goes wild, cheering for curtain calls, and it's funny, I hadn't even thought about an encore. I thought also, wow, this would be a perfect time for SW, anything JW, or just anything big and impressive. Um, well, POTC was NOT I had mind. I was in utter shock. Me and John looked at each other and just went "Noooo..." Us -->

They ironically sounded great on it, and it's just the cheesiest music. Nice they made fun of it though. The viola section donned black pirate hats (including one about 2 ft. across) and the conductor produced a plastic sword and conducted with it. Crowd ate it up and lost their marbles at the end naturally.

After the concert, we headed back to the hotel, and retired to my room with wine and music via my laptop (actually we ended up with 2 bottles but didn't even get through one, so no funny ideas!) We had all brought like a bunch of CDs, I think we had enough music to last a month LOL. We talked too much to really listen to music though, about anything and everything film music-wise, also about JWFan and how much we wish we could meet you guys. It's really special that something like this board can bring kindred spirits together. I have met personally some of the best friends of my life here.

The next day, we met for a leisurely breakfast and afterward I enjoyed Mark and John standing in the lobby talking about Star Trek and Indy rips. A shame we live so far apart and can't get together more, you guys are just so much fun. And Mark's wife is so cool! A great, great time was had by all, but all too short.

John, Greta and Mark

[John Crichton 4]

Thanks for posting all that, Greta, great stuff. I guess Mark and I have now been officially revealed on the internet. Please feel free to put up more pictures of us. I had forgotten how much of a rush we got into before the concert just because we couldn't stop talking.

So, I've been gone the last few days. I wanted to pop a quick note in here just to let you know, sometime Thursday night my computer suffered a hemmorage meltown aneurism stroke heart attack and probably 10 other near-fatal medical terms. I'm posting from my aunt's laptop. I've taken it to one place and they said it was more or less DOA, I'm going early next week to get a second opinion from a more reliable source. So I'll pop on here when I can, hopefully it's not too bad and can be fixed fairly quickly.

[Red 75]

Hmm.....