Update on Last Night's Concert

This clip above is what I was expecting.......but not what I saw. Maybe my expectations were too high.

I'm really conflicted about what I'm about to write. I rarely want to hurt anybody's feelings......and I guess if Tom Scherer is right (for once) when he says nobody except him and the Merriam police read this blog then maybe it is okay to continue.

From my previous post it was clear that I wasn't excited about my kid having a Chorale Festival on KU/MU Big Monday and being forced to endure performances by every grade level from 5th grade to high school. I DID paint on a happy face for my kid.

When the High School director, Marsha Moeller, got up and announced a very exciting performance by the school's show choir that would be performing in a few weeks at Disney in Orlando I was genuinely excited. I mean I had expectations of a really dazzling performance. In fact, I remembered fondly of how good and competitive my school's show choir had been (no, I wasn't in it.....) These kids today are exposed to incredible opportunities and in our incomparable Blue Valley School district I was expecting nothing less than "America's Got Talent" or the finals of "American Idol". This is the school of State Championships from Debate to Football...........the music program has to be great as well, right? If they are going to Orlando??

This is the tough part.........cause I want to be careful because these are still high school students. I can't believe this group would represent us at Oak Park Mall not to mention Orlando and I don't think it speaks entirely to the individual talent of the kids. They were not prepared. They seemed incredibly unrehearsed. Some of the kids themselves actually seemed embarrassed to be there and some of them, it seemed, took very little pride like they were just going through the motions. Kids who sang solos looked pretty scared with the exception of a couple girls. This was not good. Not good at all on many levels and for this Miss Moeller to try to sell it to us as quality........ FAIL. Usually at this level don't you get kids who can really belt out a song? ........kids who have real aspirations of a career in entertaining and have a chance. Other than the 60's classic "Come Go With Me" in an a capella all men's version that was really pretty tight and good.....albeit it with no choreography to muck up the works....... it was basically pretty poor. I was expecting kids who would rather sing and dance than do just about anything. I was expecting Troy and Gabriella and we got something way less than Sanjaya and perhaps just slightly and I mean slightly better than William Hung........sadly, I'm not joking.

I went from feeling bad for the kids to concern that they will really be laughed right off the Disney property. Really. I mean if they look completely stupid does that make us here in the Midwest look pretty stupid too? Shouldn't there be some policy that they have to be at least decent to good to travel to other places and represent us?

I didn't say a word to my wife. About 2 hours later after the kids were safely in bed she said to me......."holy crap that was bad wasn't it?"

So I knew it wasn't just me. Sorry, don't hate me. Somebody has to say it.