2013 has been great - let's have 2014 now!

A year ago I wrote a New Year Blog in which I gave 13 reasons why 2013 was going to be an awesome year.  I was right.  2013 was great, but the reasons for it were not solely limited to the 13 things I wrote down last year!  8 out of a possible 13 things came true and they were not necessarily the 8 things you would have bet upon.  Andy Murray won Wimbledon, I stormed across Germany and I witnessed some fantastic films at the cinema.  From a personal note I got to attend the wedding of my secondary school best friend, and received a nomination to be a Queen's Baton Bearer for the Commonwealth Games (it doesn't matter if I succeed in carrying the baton, but to have been nominated means so much to me).

It would be a little bit too predictable of me to list fourteen reasons why 2014 is going to be a great year, so I'll just share my ideas with you and we'll see how I go in number.

A couple of days ago I sent off a part of my manuscript to two agents.  This is a big step...  I am not so good at accepting rejection where my writing is concerned, but I like to think that (even if these two don't like it!) someone will decide to take it on.  I just keep telling myself that I am pleased with it even if the agents aren't!

This year sees the finale of The Hobbit.  We are going to see the second film again today for time number three!  This epic journey seems to have been an age in the making - I was still at school when I first began obsessing over the Lord of the Rings trilogy being made - and 2014 will see the conclusion of it all.  It's taken pretty much half my lifetime!

2014 is also the year of some other great blockbusters.  My favourite Avenger returns for his second solo outing, and with two other Marvel movies on their way (The Amazing Spiderman & X-Men: Days of Future Past) this is another great year for someone with my taste in films!

This year I took a solo trip to Germany - heading to a country of which I once knew the language reasonably well (but now have forgotten pretty much all of!), and going alone... I was quite pleased with myself!  For someone who is usually so cowardly I impressed myself!  In 2014 I am heading abroad once again, to Ireland this time with Judith and Clemency, travelling to Dublin and Cork, which I am very excited about!  I have wanted to visit Ireland since I first fell in love with their music over half my lifetime ago.  But, not knowing very much about anything post-1950 I'm open to tourist suggestions.

On the subject of music (which as most of you will know is the topic that occupies me most of the time) 2013 saw the creation of my two choirs.  We stormed to success locally in the annual festival both with the adults [The Music Monsterettes] and the children [The Music Monsterlings], and I am hoping that this year we can match our record.  It has been my dream for some time now to establish a music school here in Caithness, and as a musician and a teacher I am two thirds of the way there (unfortunately the stumbling block is the final third - but I have splashed out and bought a lottery ticket just in case it is forthcoming!  I do consider myself (yes, I know I say this in every blog!) very lucky to have the most perfect job!

In July every year the Caithness Show dominates our time.  In 2013 I managed to bag a 1st and a 2nd place rosette as well as a best exhibit from a later show.  For 2014 I promised myself that I would enter every category.  I am doing ok so far with a substantial start on several classes - knitting and artwork are still my favourites, but I am learning lots of new skills in the process of trying to meet this goal.

I am also (hush, don't tell anyone!) something of a football geek and can't wait for the World Cup.  Every tournament I try to pick a different country to support throughout its entirety, working on the basis of who I think will win.  This time I am opting for Germany - I just have an inkling that they have waited too long to win a tournament and their team is just coming of age.  I'm probably completely wrong, but my sports prediction for last year was fulfilled so perhaps I'll be right.

In October we got a new addition to the family in the form of our gorgeous live-wire, Orlando.  I never thought that we'd have a dog, but after losing Milly (our cat) in January by September this year we were really missing the presence of a pet in the house.  So when our veggie provider had a litter of Sprockers in August we decided that it was time to bring an animal back into the house.  We're first time dog owners and 2014 is going to be a hard learning curve for us, but little Orlando is much loved.  So far we've discovered that we are far less tolerant of litterbugs since fishing rubber bands and plastic gloves out of his mouth is neither easy nor pleasant, but he is furthering The Doctrine of Smiles and encourages friendly talking with all our neighbours both close to home and further afield.

2014 is the great date of the vote on whether Scottish Independence should become a reality.  It is going to shape the lives of every single person in the UK, and many beyond, whichever way the vote is cast.  It is my hope that any change will be for the better and not at the expense of anyone.  Which way will I be voting..?  I'll tell you on 18th September!

There are many other things that I am looking forward to in 2014 - working to raise money for my favourite charity, the RNLI (for whom my pupils raised about £450 with their performances); another year of 100% pass rate for my pupils (can you tell that I am a proud teacher?!); further tennis victories for the Sport's Personality of the Year (I really am a sports geek!); poetry, painting and prose galore, for competitions and just for fun; and perhaps, more than anything, sharing smiles in Caithness and beyond.

So there you have it...  My new year targets (they're not exactly resolutions) for what I hope will be achieved in 2014 by me and my family, friends and pupils.  It's not all about life changing decisions, it's about making the most of the decisions life gives you.

May you all have good health and happiness in 2014 in all that you achieve and all that you strive to achieve!  Happy New Year!!!

[A quick sum of the things I am looking forward to in 2014 will reveal that I am a VERY predictable individual...]

Wish You Were Here?! Yes, definitely!!! RunRig and their Party on the Moor 40th Anniversary Concert

This weekend is the massive RunRig celebration “Party on the Moor”.  If I’m honest, I’m more than a little miffed that I’m going to miss it!  Back at New Year I listed this in my Blog as ‘thing to look forward to number 5‘, and my plan was to write a similar blog with 40 reasons I loved RunRig, but having reached 30-something I realised it was going to make a very long blog!!  So I condensed them down to 10 (rather vague!) categories.

I’m sure it is no secret to anyone who knows me that the RunRig line-up that became ‘The Classic Six’ is always my listening of choice, though I never got to see them in that formation, being only 12 when Donnie left.  I’ve seen Donnie a few times - maybe a few more than a few - so that’s where we’ll start!

1. Donnie Munro - OK, so he’s not with the band now, but he did sing with them for over half of their 40 years!!  Let’s face it, people, whatever your views of the band (although if you’re not a fan, I’m amazed you’ve got this far into the Blog!!) this man had [and still has] one of the greatest voices of all time.  He can take any notes and just make them melt together into a mesmerising melody.  He’s also a great guy, happy - or at least willing - to meet his fans and on the occasions I’ve met him he always seems to remember us…  Maybe because we’re the only crazy group of sisters that have ever attended his gigs.
2. Calum MacDonald - One of my favourite bits from the RunRig “Going Home” book is when Donnie comments that he remembered Calum from school, but didn’t remember him as being particularly musical.  Be that as it may, Calum co-created some of the most amazing tunes and there can be little doubt that he is a wordsmith to rival any of the greats.  [Carol Ann Duffy is not a great, by the way, and what she calls poetry is generally what I would call drivel… not quite sure which wise spark elected her to represent our country in poetry!!!]
3. Rory MacDonald - Where Donnie’s voice is so pure, Rory’s is so emotive.  [Oh dear - I think the singing teacher in me is making a bid for freedom into this blog!]  Some of my favourite of all RunRig’s music are those songs where the two singers interchange lines and verses like Rocket to the Moon (see point 7!).  Rory MacDonald has given some of the most amazing songs of the generation, with totally heartfelt music, lyrics and performance (if I‘m wrong, then at least he‘s good at pretending!!!).  Plus, I have great respect for anyone who can read and appreciate the writings of Neil Gunn!
4. Malcolm Jones - What the MacDonald brothers are to song writing, Malcolm Jones is to instrumental music.  It always amazes and disappoints me that he does not appear on the lists of great guitarists when he creates and plays some of the most amazing music on those six strings!  He strikes me as one of those people - like Judith! - who picks up an instrument for 20 minutes and can get a tune out of it!
5. Musical Snob - The truth is, I’m a Musical Snob!!  I like to think that it goes with the job, but in truth I think it is just that I can’t help but appreciate the finer things in life!!  I blame it for the reason that I find Simon and Garfunkel far preferable to The Beatles, and likewise why I find RunRig ultimately superior to any band that has come or gone in the last 25 years.  Perhaps it is the fact that the music is created by siblings that it works so well - I know that, after a number of years working musically with my sisters, we produce much better sounds than when we work with anyone else!  Maybe it is genetics, similar wavelengths or just something completely different, but whatever the reason RunRig play inspiring music with intelligent lyrics.  This appeals to a musical snob like me!
6. Music of the Landscape - Who would have bet on a Gaelic rock group?  I’m fairly sure that, back in the 70s, I wouldn’t have done…  Not that I was alive in the 70s, or even the first half of the 80s, I hasten to add!!  It doesn’t matter where you are (unless you’re driving, in which case this is not advisable!) if you close your eyes and listen to the music of RunRig, you can see the place of their heritage.  The landscape, the people and the history of Gaeldom have given them solid roots for their amazing music, and perhaps the most amazing thing of all is that they are able to recreate that and send Gaeldom out into the world.
7. Fan Mail - OK, confession time: we send fan mail!  But I like to think that our brand of fan mail is something refreshingly different!  When Clemency was still at school, the only way to wake her up in the morning was to play Rocket to the Moon as loud as possible.  This was duly written into a fan letter to Rory (Clemency’s hero in the band) with a request for a picture of a Rocket to the Moon…  Needless to say, this is THE most treasured RunRig letter ever sent.  When Judith was doing her A-Levels she wrote to the Brothers MacDonald for help with one of her pieces of work (a CD blurb for a RunRig album) and got a fantastic reply from Calum, that she was able to then quote for her work.  She did get a reply from Rory, too, very late and very apologetic!  But the accessibility and genuine interest of RunRig in their fans is heart-warming.  Even things as seemingly trivial as replies on Twitter, they mean a lot to people - I know I always get excited to find that they’ve responded to me!
8. Highlands and Islands on the Musical Map - Back in 1991 no one came to the Highlands to perform a rock concert.  Growing up in Orkney, it was groundbreaking when they set up their stage in Kirkwall, and since then countless bands have flocked to Highland and Island gigs.  Highlanders and Islanders owe a lot to The Big Wheel tour.
9. Sticking Power - On the BBC News page today about the 40th Anniversary concert, Rory was listed as making a comment about leaving one foot in the roots and putting the other foot forward.  The fact that RunRig has existed for 40 years, never taking long periods of time out, shows that they are a band open to adapting, but their unique style that has won them fans (and loyal fans, at that) over the years has never been open to compromise.  I would certainly never say that they have aged, but that they are maturing!!!  There is no amount of change in circumstance and musical approach that will cause them to forget their roots.
10. Inspiration - Earlier on, I mentioned RunRig as an inspiration.  Whenever I’m writing I try to have music going, and RunRig (especially the Gaelic songs) are amongst some of the my evocative and powerful pieces of inspiration, rubbing shoulders with some of the great composers.  I’m not sure quite how the band would take that, but it is meant as a compliment.  It is true that we have also written an immensely comical and highly tongue-in-cheek version of the band’s history that could be subtitled as “What if RunRig existed in a Fantasy World” but that will never see the light of day!!!  At the end of the day, what all artists strive to do is inspire, to share something that will strike a chord with their audience.  When you look at the fact that every single hotel room in Inverness and the area surrounding Muir of Ord is booked out, it’s a pretty sure way of knowing that this is a band who are not short on giving or receiving inspiration.

So, I’ll be missing Party on the Moor this weekend, but I will certainly be there in spirit.  Thanks for 40 years of music, poetry and sheer inspiration.  It’s good to be a fan when you have a group like this to be a fan of.

The Musical Month of May - no: June!

It seems an age ago that May gave way to June.  There are months you have where you can only remember the vaguest of events, months that pass you by with no keepsake memory whatsoever.  March is usually like this, although it wasn’t this year.  Then there are months, like June has turned out to be, where you are not sure how so much has been crammed into such a short space of time.

So here’s how it worked out:

1st June: Concert in Thurso by Michael Collins and Michael McHale.

5th June: Got seriously sidetracked while practising pieces for the impending festival and started composing.

8th June: Completed composition

10th-14th June: Caithness Music Festival

17th June: Post Festival Concert

21st June: ABRSM exams

As well as all this, my 9:30-8:30 music teaching continued through the first and third week.

At this point, I have to reiterate how much I love my job.  Working with budding musicians, some of whom have the musical ability to soar, should they choose to, is the most rewarding role I can imagine.  It is true that, on the evening of the 10th June at 11:00pm, I was having to recite this mantra over and over again to try and make myself believe it after a 9:45 start in the morning, but it is all part and parcel of the job.

So June started off on a definite high note.  A much respected Caithness musician and friend, Robert Fields, was having a world première of some of his compositions by premier musicians: Clarinettist Michael Collins and Pianist Michael McHale.  Prior to the concert there were, of course, the comments made about whether the clarinettist would bear any resemblance to Liam Neeson (who in actual fact bore very little resemblance to the historical figure of Michael Collins who he was portraying), but I could not find any similarities!

© North Highland Connections

If I could relive that evening again, I most certainly would.  I’ve not been privileged to have seen such brilliant performances as these for a very long time and it is a credit to North Highland Connections that they could bring such world class musicians to our little corner of the earth.  My only regret was that I had not managed to persuade a few of my piano pupils to go and watch, I’m certain they would have gained a great deal by watching Michael McHale play.  But it was a learning curve for me, too.  I have never been a clarinet fan, but hearing Michael Collins play, it sounded like a completely different instrument.  Not tempted to pick it up though!  I can occasionally manage a tuneful squeak on a reed instrument but that is as far as my wind playing ability stretches.  I’ll stick to the ‘cello, thank you very much!

I bought a CD of each artist, the true testimony of how highly I regarded them!  And have listened repeatedly to The Irish Piano, and some of the tracks have even been promoted to our inspirational play list on Spotify, keeping me company while I write.

But despite the musical mastery of 1st June, the month had to roll on.  I’m someone who is, once inspired, impossible to break from my idea.  So when, whilst practising the piano accompaniment for one of my pupils, I got sidetracked by a six note melody I became like Alice following the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole and could not get to the manuscript paper fast enough!  Three late nights and sneaky free minutes here and there and I’d finally produced a piece of music I was actually pleased with!  This was a particularly big thing for me as I’ve never composed a piano piece, and the last song I wrote and was pleased with was while the year was still a single digit!  I owed it entirely to the inspiring piano playing from the concert the week before; it was my thank you!

All things considered, the late nights were not so good in the build up to the festival, though!  But my pupils achieved an impressive 14 firsts, and I was proud of every single one of them, not only the winners but all of those who plucked up the courage to perform in front of their audience.  The next stop from here will be our October concert, raising money for the RNLI and giving all of my students the chance to perform to an audience once more.  But the festival was gruelling at times and during the harp recital I was forced to prise my eyelids open to stay awake!  Harps are great, but not at the end of a 12 hour day!  The festival certainly taught me that the music community is a small world, however, when our adjudicator began telling the audience that he had been Michael McHale’s teacher - crazy small world story for the Caithness community!

I do keep thinking back to the children’s choir performing The Seven Little Kids and thinking about how healthy and safety would have had a field day with us: shutting kids in cardboard boxes, chasing each other around a stage…  Still the children enjoyed doing it and they performed so well that they were asked back on the following Monday evening to perform three of their pieces again as well as one of them performing a solo.  After the antics of the festival week - including one day where we had only 20 minutes to run home, eat dinner and then be back again - a part of me had hoped to have had a bit of time off before continuing with the hectic whirl of musical performance, but they once again did me proud and the feedback that I’ve received has all been completely to their favour.

I was a proud music teacher that week!  I really do have the best job ever!

On the 21st, the height of summer, came exam day, with drama it has to be said!  A car crash at the gateway to one of my pupils’ house was not a great start to her climb up the exam ladder.  But despite that, I am sure I was more nervous than she was when I walked into the exam room.  Quick calculation said it was 12 years since I last went into an ABRSM exam and I almost felt like it was me who was sitting the test.

Another cause for me to love my job and be full of pride in my pupils!

So on 22nd I had my first free Saturday since January and began looking forward to our holiday in Orkney.  Its always great to head back to revisit those places that were second nature to me when I was a child, and to monitor, with varying degrees of approval, those changes that have occurred there.  I'm sure that June will remain a music filled month until it gives way to July, and I’m equally certain that there will be no musicless days in July!  But, despite being almost musicked out, I have no doubt it would be a dull day indeed to have no echoes of melodies, and not just from instruments.  I love the tune of the gulls crying and the leaves on the trees brushing against each other in the summer wind; those remote whirs of lawnmowers that speak to me of sunny days in childhood; waves lapping or crashing and the contented sound of busy bees to-ing and fro-ing as they industriously gather their nectar.

So I’ll leave you with two quotes that make up my forum signature:

“Music is Forever” (Paul Simon)

And

“Music is well said to be the speech of angels” (Thomas Carlyle)

I think they sum up the role of music rather well.  At least how I view it.  There’s music everywhere, June has taught me to take time and appreciate it, I’d prompt you to do the same…

...Oh, and did I mention that I love my job?!

FAB1 in Caithness - A Noble Cause

As I start writing this it is 9:34 in the morning.  Normally I would still be waking up, or on Tuesdays and Thursdays I would just be starting work…  Today I have been up hours and six hours ago I was just leaving the house.  The reason for this insanity was, of course, the FAB1 trek of 4 celebrities travelling from Land’s End to John O’Groats.

Judith, Clemency and I journeyed off to be there at the end of the road when Chris Evans, Gary Barlow, Brian Cox and James May made it over the finish line.  And we weren’t alone…  We weren’t even the first people there, despite arriving almost and hour and a half before the pink Rolls Royce!  There were all sorts of people there: men and women; elderly people and young children; and there was a real sense of eager excitement for the 90 minutes that we stood waiting.

It is true that the temperature was just a little bit above freezing and that after the first 15 minutes my fingers refused to acknowledge their own existence, but a few stomping dances and cheek-to-cheek hugs kept us warm enough to stay standing out there!  There were pleasant exchanges and greetings as people met friends there.  John O’Groats was busier than I have ever seen it!  One friend commented on how crazy it was that she had seen more cars on the road at 4:00 in the morning than she normally sees six hours later.

And everybody was there for a common purpose.  To meet the celebrities, of course, but also to be inspired.  To see their role models, these figureheads of society in their own rather separate fields, stand up for something that they believe in.  We discussed - we are people who discuss everything - why driving from Land’s End to John O’Groats was a worthwhile thing for these people to do; whether it would not have been better for them to have just donated a portion of their salary to Breast Cancer Care.  But charity is not solely about money.  Without such ventures as this, such fun outings, many people do not even know that charities exist.  Awareness and events are crucial to the work of any charity as much as one off donations.  They are two sides of the same coin.

When at last they did arrive, after some very contradictory timekeeping announcements, there was much excitement and lots of cheers from the crowd.  It was about 5:30, the gulls were circling wondering what on earth was going on and the numbness was beginning to seep through our whole bodies!  Here we realised, as Gary Barlow did the rounds of the barriers autographing papers and pictures, that we were ill prepared and so paper was hastily found.  We didn’t get an autograph…  We didn’t really mind too much, but for one little girl who had been there with paper in her hands for longer than us, it was too much and she burst into tears there and then!  I don’t know whether I felt more sorry for her or poor Gary Barlow who was trying to sign as many things as possible.  He didn’t get much help from James May, or Brian Cox who had unashamedly announced that he was going back to the car to keep warm… Meanwhile the rest of us shivered to the point of almost spasming.  Still, one must respect honesty, and he was clearly just not cut out for Caithness weather!  Chris Evans, it must be said, had already greeted the crowd, rushing round shaking hands before he had to jet off to Inverness to present his Breakfast Show on Radio 2.

Excitingly I did get part of a firework hitting me on the head.  Knocked some sense in?  Possibly, but you got the distinct impression that John O’Groats, with its weather and early dawning, was not what had been expected.  We travelled back with a confused mix of excitement and anti-climax.  But the bottom line was not whether or not we got an autograph on a piece of paper, had a picture taken of or with one of these celebrities, but what they managed to produce from their fan base for the very worthwhile cause they were there to represent.  They set off to raise 1 Million over the year but they have raised at least a million in regards to awareness for this charity, something so many people are affected by, either directly or indirectly.

And for that, I take my hat off to them…  Even in the numbing cold Caithness weather!!!  Well done, lads!

Les Miserables - The 2013 Film Fest Begins!

Well, the film going of 2013 is underway.  Discounting The Hobbit (since it came out last year, really!) it began yesterday with Les Miserables.  It seemed too good to be true that our local cinema would have it from the release date, I love musicals but I couldn't imagine that the majority of our small local community would feel the same.

How wrong I was!

Sunday night is not really prime time at the cinema, not like those big Friday or Saturday nights, or the weekend matinees.  Sundays are still very much a quiet time for many  people here, but the cinema was well over half capacity and we were fortunate to get decent seats.  Before the film Clemency and I posed beside the poster - Clemency with the half that was Hugh Jackman and me with the half that was Russell Crowe - but the magic had certainly not kicked in at this point!  I really went along to support a musical in the local community’s cinema (and hear Russell Crowe sing!) but having coached several people through the singing of these songs, the music from Les Miserables didn't really hold a fascination for me!  Les Miserables songs tend to become party pieces for people and I've heard some performances of them that have caused me to shrink in my seat - not from my students, I hasten to add!!!

I knew the storyline vaguely, it isn't up there with my favourite musicals and not one that I would be desperate to go and see - perhaps because living up here live theatre is not something that is readily available! - I knew it was a life story of this guy and the lives that intertwined with his, but it didn't speak of anything beyond what I would have expected from any other run-of-the-mill musical.

How wrong I was - again!

Perhaps given my degree subject of theology, something that now I just delve into for interest and development, I was encapsulated in the story the moment that the bishop told Jean Valjean that he had saved his life for God.  If the struggle with diction in the first song - only in the chorus parts, mind - had put my back up a little, it didn't last.  The solos were delivered incredibly well and with such songs as “I Dreamed A Dream”, a song I loathe after hearing so many abysmal takes on it, seeing it here in the film not being sung perfectly but being delivered with an overwhelming heartfelt empathy, it fitted so well.  I noticed that the BBC today had a story on their entertainment news about whether Anne Hathaway or Susan Boyle sang it better.  That’s like trying to compare Lesley Garrett with Adele, an impossible task that should not be undertaken for one minute, the song may be the same but the genre and the setting is totally different.

I didn't cry when Fantine died.  I comforted Clemency who did and I could hear snivels from throughout the whole cinema, I’d stake a day’s pay that some of the sniffles were coming from the men, too!  I don’t cry at films, I haven’t done for about 15 years and even then it was only one film.  And I certainly don’t cry in public.  There was nothing this musical could hurl at me that I wasn't prepared for.  I knew Fantine died, I was expecting it.  Perhaps my eyes would glisten but I would not allow a single tear to spill!

How wrong I was - yet AGAIN!

I was not disappointed in Russell Crowe’s singing - it was, after all, one of the major reasons that I’d gone to see it.  I thought that Eddie Redmayne delivered his songs with almost all the pointers and precisions I would set my singers on to, I was even impressed by the female singers, not something that I generally find when watching musicals.  Sacha Baron Cohen was worthy of note, and I'm fairly surprised not to find more nominations for supporting roles appearing for the awards ceremonies.  Having listened to Howard Keel and the fabulous Alfie Boe singing "Bring Him Home" - one of the only songs I actually would choose to listen to from Les Miserables - I felt a little affronted when Hugh Jackman began singing and it seemed so raw, but as he continued I really got wrapped up in that raw emotion and here I shed a small tear, confident that no one would notice!  It really was heart wrenching in its delivery.

So having sneaked a tear at "Bring Him Home" I felt quite content that my crying was done, but oh no! when we reached that final scene, I wept.  I've taken 24 hours to try and comprehend why I found it so emotional.  I've watched films in the past which had a similar conclusion and never shed a tear, and besides I knew this was a life story that would inevitably end in death, but here my faith and theology kicked in.  Here was someone who life had wronged but God had rewarded, but moreover here was someone who knew the order of things and accepted them with an overwhelming faith   Without turning this into a lecture on divine truth or something vaguely resembling a transcript of a sermon, it made me realise a few home truths about those things that should be more important - most especially the safety and wellbeing of our fellow men - and those we should worry less about.  I could write a whole thesis about the theology that runs through the film, and almost certainly would have done if it had been made eight years earlier while I was doing my “Theology on Film” module, but I’d just recommend you go and watch it and draw from it whatever you can.

I couldn't talk at the end, I sobbed and sobbed, but was not quite as inconsolable as one poor girl who was crashed out on a sofa crying!  The film got a round of applause from the audience who were so engrossed by the end that it might have been a stage performance, for the barrier of the screen was definitely broken down.  Before we went to see it Alex had commented that he’d seen someone say that the film had left them feeling a part of something, although they weren't sure what.  I think that each person who went into that cinema screen felt exactly that and, when they emerged, it was as a slightly different person.

Thanks for a tremendous feat of filmmaking - you all carried us along with you and gave us something to take away from it (aside from the admission ticket smudged with tearstains!).

Good job well done!