The Wiz at City Center

I'm a HUGE fan of The Wiz, both the stage version which starred Stephanie Mills and Andre DeShields and the film version which starred Diana Ross and Michael Jackson when he was Black. HOWEVER, I'm not too sure of New York City Center's forthcoming production starring Ashanti as Dorothy...I just don't know...

I so want to see this 2009 rendition but I don't want to shell out the coins and be disappointed. It would be splendiferous to see Tony Award winner LaChanze in ANY ROLE, but the rest of them...I just don't know. I hope they don't butcher my beloved Wiz.


Also starring are:
Tichina Arnold as Evilene (She's gonna kill it on "Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News!")
Orlando Jones as the Wiz (Umm, OK)
Lachanze as Glinda the Good Witch (Sure to be excellent)
Dawnn Lewis as Addaperle (Where has she been?)

Glee

OK so until LOST returns in 2010, I have another show to start watching. The pilot was awesome. Glee definitely has the potential to become a must watch week after week. Click here to learn more about the show.

According to Fox's website:
From Ryan Murphy, the creator of "Nip/Tuck" and "Popular," comes GLEE, a one-hour musical comedy that follows an optimistic high school teacher as he tries to transform the Glee Club and inspire a group of ragtag performers to make it to the biggest competition of all: Nationals.

Will Schuester, a young optimistic teacher, has offered to take on the Herculean task of restoring McKinley's Glee Club to its former glory. Everyone around him thinks he's nuts. He's out to prove them all wrong.

I am so late...

...but Chrisette Michele's album I Am is sick from beginning to end!

No Prom / No Senior Trip

The following will not receive invitations to either the trip or prom:

281
RH
JA
DF
LM

282
LW
IC
SM
DK
AC
KH
SO

283
AA
TF

284
RM

LOST Season 5: Episode 16: The Incident Parts 1 & 2

I don't think there's been a season finale this intriguing and riveting since the season 1 finale. You know what, I take that back. All of the season finales have been excellent but this one takes the cake. This two hour episode was WELL worth the wait and a great way to end the season. First of all, it was Jacob-centric! I found it to be:

Mindblowing
The first few minutes with Jacob and his perceived nemesis on the beach, the final seconds when Juliet detonates the hydrogen bomb, finally hearing "What lies in the shadow of the statue," getting a little more information about Richard...the list goes on.

Heartbreaking
When Juliet got pulled into the Swan Station hatch by the electromagnetic force.
When young Sawyer wrote his "Dear Mr. Sawyer" letter on the church steps.

Sensational
We finally learned "What lies in the shadow of the statue" and who Jacob really is.
The answer was some ancient Egyptian, cryptic phrase. Who knows what the answer really means? I'll have to check with the ABC.com message board because those people really do their research! Through some crazy twist, Jacob faces defeat by the guy in black pictured above via a "loophole." Man this episode will probably make more sense when we see the premiere of Season 6, which will not happen until 2010. BUMMER!

Revealing
OK so we finally found out what happened to Rose and Bernard and where they've been. BUT, what about the other people who stayed behind? What about them, huh? It was also clear that Richard and Jacob know each other. Who knew that Jacob really lived under the foot of the statue? So why then was he in the cabin? And what is the ash around the cabin? We also found out that Locke is really dead! I guess dead really is dead! (Episode 12 title)


Season 6 will be the final season. It will all come together and everything will make sense. Perhaps Daniel/Jack's plan to detonate the hydrogen bomb will change history and flight 815 will never crash in 2004. However, whatever happened, happened, right? Well, the tag line for Season 6 is "Destiny Found" so this is definitely intriguing as to what that means for the Losties. And they have to tie up all the Egyptian connections, especially with Richard Alpert and now Jacob, who we saw at one point go and touch everyone who wound up on the island.
Here's to an amazing final season in 2010! Can't wait!

Broadway, Jr. Trips

On Friday, May 15th, the Broadway, Jr.'s will be going to I.S. 252 to see a performance of Into The Woods. (We did that play 2 years ago.) It will be their last performance as "Somers Intermediate School" as they are phasing out. Then, on May 29th, the B'way Jr.'s will go to Brooklyn College to perform Stick to the Status Quo from High School Musical for the culminating exhibition. You must be in uniform if not in costume and you must hand in your permission slips and photo consent forms to Mr. Herring immediately. This is sort of a trial run in front of your peers. I can't go with you guys so good luck. I know you will do us proud. Uphold Bildersee's four year strong reputation of shining at this event.



We are down to the wire!!!
Our new sound sytem is being installed and should be up and running by Thursday.

Arrive at rehearsal on time, finalize your line memorization and practice at home.

Get'cha head in the game!

LOST Season 5: Episode 15: Follow the Leader

Again, this post is so after the fact but I have to blog about season 5 of the best show ever in its entirety, so here goes:



I thought this episode was going to be Richard-centric. I guess you could describe it as such. I don't know...this one just might be the most disappointing of the season for me. Not that it was bad, I just thought we'd come to understand the eternal youth of Richard and how long he's been on the island. It was actually Richard/Locke-centric. Honestly, not much happened really....no major developments. We saw Daniel's mother think twice about the fact that she killed him without thinking first and then try to make sense out of the Losties being from the future.

Then we saw a cool underwater tunnel where Richard and the young Eloise brought Jack and Sayid to get to the hydrogen bomb called Jughead.

Mr. Chang finally accepted Myles as his son and the fact that Myles and Hurley are from the future.

I guess we did learn one thing: We now know that the incident was what really made Dharma leave in the first place. But what will happen to Juliet and Saywer? Will they board the submarine? Are they leaving the island? We shall see.

This episode was kinda about leadership...we saw Locke reclaim his leadership position after coming back from the dead. Then he said he's going to kill Jacob. Yeah right. You probably can't kill Jacob! So as the show ended, Locke is leading all the Others to Jacob's creepy cabin.

Tomorrow is the finale. All of LOST's season finales are insanely good so I'm sure I will be more thrilled with it than I was with episode 15. This is still my favorite show!!! I still love the show and it's still the best show ever!

Academy II Celebrates Earth Day by Planting a Tree

[OK, this post is SO late but hey, better late than never. I've been extremely busy.]

Sixth, seventh and eighth grade students in Isaac Bildersee Intermediate School’s Academy of Urban Planning and Environmental Design planted a white oak (Quercus alba) tree on East 82nd Street on Tuesday, April 28, 2009. It was the first major theme-related project in which students participated since 2007 when students visited the intended Atlantic Yards site in downtown Brooklyn. Ms. Treena Hall, an English language arts teacher, applied for a free sapling from the John Browne Nursery in collaboration with New York City’s Million Trees Initiative. In addition to Principal Alex Fralin, Assistant Principal Dennis Herring, Jr. and Parent, Rae Phillips, in attendance was Ms. Julia Bove, Executive Officer of Instruction for the Integrated Curriculum and Instruction learning support organization. The weather was perfect as custodian Bernie Young assisted the students with digging the hole properly and generously watering the newly planted tree. The students, who wore “Go Green” t-shirts that they designed, rounded out the ceremony with readings of essays and poems that memorialized the significance of Earth Day.


Much gratitude to Ms. Treena Hall for spearheading this endeavor. It's quite a chore to put something like this together and still deliver the instruction of the regular curriculum. Thanks to all the students who wrote poems and essays and read them during the ceremony. Thanks to the guys of class 281 who dug the hole. Big shout out to Bernie for helping us with the water.

At first, we were told by the John Browne nursery that we weren't going to receive the tree because they never received our application by fax. Then the tree was surprisingly delivered the day after Earth Day. It looked like a plant. Thanks to all the rain we've had recently, the tree has sprouted several huge leaves although it hasn't grown in height yet. Ms. T. Hall will take pictures of the tree each month and display the images on her blog. So stop by the library to check out the bulletin board with student work and pictures and then visit right outside exits 9 & 10 and check out the Academy II tree! (Thanks, Ms. T. Hall for the pictures).