Saturday, August 9, 2008

Umm. . . We are going to be a later than we thought

Bojangles breakfast while we wait for the garage to fix the oil gusher on our car. So for those playing along at home, that's two new tires and a new oil senser / plug. Silver lining-we are in good company

Friday, August 8, 2008

Some fun pics from Thursday and Friday

The boys on the escalators...yes, they're both 18, but it's still fun.






David and Sam hanging out the lounge of the Omni Hotel...way too late, but they were the best behaved FineArters there. They would never, ever dive into a pool where NO DIVING is posted!


I thought a little assortment of pics from the last couple of days would be fun.


PJ and the Boys!



Sam and David and their younger brothers...oh, and Hi Andrew!


Sam and Clayton discuss David's solo with him.


Clayton and PJ catch up at Fine Arts


Clayton, Seth and Joseph


Clayton and Seth cheering David on for his guitar solo


Michelle, Leann and Sierra cheering David on from the front room-Yay SCCC girls!!

David came in 5th place!

David came in 5th place!

He made it to the top 15 for callbacks and here's a phone video of his performance. He might not have gotten first, but he sure has learned a lot from Fine Arts and all the judges comments, critiques and suggestions he's gotten through the years. Congratulations David!!! There were a ton of extremely talented young men and it is an honor to be part of group like that.



Oh...no video yet...workin' on that!

UPDATED JANUARY 2, 2009 
Hey, got a video...the sound is really, really soft so you'll have to turn the volume way up.

And now for a lighthearted moment from Seth McCumber

We were very pleasantly blessed to have the Saunders Creek youth group come and watch David for his guitar solo. It was really fun catching up with them and hearing about their crazy busy week with AIM-Mega Sports Camp here in Charlotte. Here's some fun goofiness for a change up from the intensity of competition.

National Fine Arts Celebration Service

Beginning of the resultsservice

David's final call back. I think it was his best so far but we have not heard his take on it yet. We will post the video in an hour or so.

The infamous Callback Screens. If you look close you can see his name on the screen. He's finding a place to practice right now. There are 15 vying for the Top Ten. David is just happy that he made it to the top fifteen. He plays at 1:35 eastern time. He will only find out the results tonight if he made it into the top 3, otherwise the top ten usually take a couple of days to be posted.

David got a Callback! at

David got a Callback! at 1:35 in room 213A

Thursday, August 7, 2008

UPDATE!!!!



Here's Video

David up on stage performing his original instrumental composition, My Refuge.


David received a score of 39.47 (out of a possible 40) for his original composition-which earned him a Superior with Honors rating. It is the highest score that he has ever gotten at Nationals.
He didn't play it perfectly, but the judges liked his composition.

For his guitar solo, we know from the online results that he received a Superior with Honors but we do not know what his score is. We will find out around noon if he got a call back and will play again today.



David warms up before his composition

Erica is singing her callback right NOW!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Oh! The worship band recieved a 'Superior' for their presentation today.

The worship band received a 'Superior' today for their presentation. Nikki also received a 'Superior' for her keyboard solo. Erica received a 'Superior with Invitation' and is currently waiting to find out if she gets a callback. David, as per usual, is up in his room practicing his guitar.

UPDATE:

Erica recieved a callback for Thursday at 11:13 !!! Congratulations Erica!! Out of 701 (yes, they counted) she is one of only 34 to get a call back.

Having wireless issues but wanted to send a pic of swimming in a downtown rooftop pool. It is HOT!

We have moved. We are now in the Omni in dowtown Charlotte. We are having some issues when trying to hook up to the hotel's wireless, but I will keep trying to update regularly.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Fine morning for Fine Arts

David in his funky new shades! He came to visit Joseph and me by the pool this morning. He looks so different from his very first Fine Arts way back in 2004 in Austin. David said the speaker last night said some shocking-but excellent-things. I'll try to get a few quotes from him.

Today, Tuesday...oh, we got to sleep in!!! Joseph is really a fish...no perhaps an otter, as he has had swimming on the brain constantly. I took this pic from inside while we were finishing up our breakfast . Joseph couldn't wait any longer; after all it was almost 9am. He played and swam in the pool straight for 4.5 hours. Just him and an empty plastic water bottle.


Early this evening, we went to the U.S. Whitewater Center which is absolutely amazing. It will make you want to jump into a kayak or hook up to zip line or climb a rock wall. This facility was recently used as training and trials for the Olympics. More to come about this later.

And last, but certainly not least!!! This is the very first National Fine Arts Presentation of the week!! Nikki Arnold, playing her original arrangement for Keyboard Solo. I don't have editing software with me so here it is in all it's uncut glory:



Monday, August 4, 2008

Whew! We made it

Well, we all made it here to Charolotte, NC safe and sound. Mom and Dad are ensconced in an amazing hotel in Downtown Charlotte, next to the Charlotte Convention Center. We have an awesome room about 15 minutes away, with a great pool and free wirelss internet.

David and Sam had a very musical ride down...I heard that David played guitar and Sam sang. *sigh* I missed the good stuff. We had very quirt boys in our car.

The Schedule:

David plays his original instrumental composition Thursday afternoon at 2:52
then
he plays his guitar solo later that same afternoon at 4:28

(we are very excited about this...usually he has to play at 9am and it's really difficult to be warmed up enough by then)

His Worship Band, The Pulse, performs Wednesday at 11:48.

Thursday night they should find out if they get a callback.
Friday after 1pm David should find out if he gets a callback for guitar solo.
There are over 70 guitarists competeting this year. So much talent.

Nikki Arnold plays her piano piece (and it is a joy to watch her) Tuesday at 4:04pm.

Erica Kastor sings her solo Wednesday morning 10:24 am.

Both of these incredibly giften young women are in the worship band.


Okay, off to tonight's opening ceremonies...it's always a fun and LOUD time which I hope to post a few pics from when we get back to the hote.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

WOW! What a way to start a trip!!



I just had to share this with you.

This is Dad showing up to pick up David and Sam McCumber and NO! they did not call each other -this was a total fluke; Sam says he hasn't worn this shirt all year.

You can't quite see it, but their khaki shorts also matched.

It was a *sniff* beatiful thing.

Alrighty!
We're off.
Mom and Dad and 'da boys' (sam and david) have already left and we'll be taking off any minute.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Welcome!





Well, here we go again-

This is the 5th time that son David played his way into the National Fine Arts Festival and the fourth time we've all gone as a family.

Austin, Denver, Orlando (the one we didn't all go to), Indianapolis and now Charlotte, North Carolina.

So anyway, we like to send back pics of what's going throughout the week 'cause it's a long time to be gone away from our beloved family and friends.

We will try to keep this updated everynight.

If you don't want to wait for me though you can check out faf.ag.org for results too.

Hopefully, David will be able to update this blog directly from his cell phone that has a pretty good camera on it.