The Unlikely Maestro – Tropfest New York 2013 Winner

Link to the video Here!!

Link to the Music Composer Here!!

Today’s tale begins in a mid-town landmark,

Uptown from Times Square,

Downtown from the park,

Above subway cars loud,

Under skyscrapers tall,

Is the most hallowed space of Carnegie Hall,

Now this is a story that seems hard to believe,

But it is true as the truth,

And as real as can be.

The Unlikely Maestro

Just atop the grand stage of Carnegie Hall,

Lives a kindhearted rat,

Who answers to Paul,

And unlike all the rest of Paul’s rodent kin,

a love of fine music lives deep inside him.

Yes the sonatas of Mozart and Bach’s harmonys,

Make Paul feel alive,

Make him weak at the knees.

Paul loved music so much that he took up conducting,

But he learned from a school of Russian instructing.

All across New York City our rat hero conducts,

To the tunes of the subways,

Of taxis,

And trucks.

From the beats of the day,

To the notes of the nights,

each sound of the city,

gave Paul such delight.

Then one day as Paul walked down 51st street,

when a poster above him made his heart skip a beat.

The world’s top conductor,

Gustav The Great,

was to play in New York,

Paul could hardly wait.

This man was Paul’s hero,

A real god-like figure,

That Paul had admired since his days in the litter.

So the elderly Russian arrived into town,

 With twelve bags in town,

And his trade-mark frown.

Paul dressed to the 9’s,

Almost to the 10’s,

And his face was a smile,

End to the end.

And so Gustav appeared and the audience gazed,

As the 90-year-old hobbled onto the stage.

But before the first note, or the chance to be heard,

He coughed, and he spluttered,

He moaned and he slurred,

And he grabbed at his chest,

And did show his age,

and promptly dropped dead,

Right there,

On the stage.

The audience gasped,

An oboe was too fainted,

the loveliest of evenings,

looked most certainly tainted.

 The silence so silent,

Not one soul said a word,

Then the strangest of feelings deep inside,

Paul stirred,

He thought,

“Hold on a minute,

Could this really be?

The grandest of chances,

for them to watch me?”

So Paul took the moment,

Breathed in,

Looked around,

And he grabbed his baton,

And fell to the ground.

And proving to all that dreams can be lived,

Paul made the stage sing,

And made the night his.

To himself and the city,

Paul showed it was so,

That such beauty would come from,

An Unlikely Maestro.

 

 

My Young Childhood Toy

Bubbles, the one who waddled through my life, his flightless wing grasping my hand as we went on wondrous adventures, finding more and more of the Ubbles family.

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At the age of 5, I was finished with my hike up Enchanted Rock and on the way home. We stopped at a small town hoping for some ice cream to cool ourselves from the poisonous floating lightbulb we call the sun. As we relaxed, letting the frozen ice cream melt down our esophagus, little me, spotted a toy store. Excitement flared in my eyes as a smile crept along my face. “Mommy, Daddy!!” I yapped with anticipation of reaching the beloved toy store. I pointed a short finger towards the store and squealed with exhilaration of wrapping my arms around a new plushy that I would probably throw away in a couple of days. Due to the annoying sounds of my sister and I, my parents slugged towards the store.

The auto-slide, glass door opened, and as soon as I took my first step into the world of partially overpriced plushies I spotted Him. At that very moment I knew that He was the one and I would be with him forever. I ran over to the swiveling organizer and snatched my favorite animal. “Mommy, Mommy!” I barked, “I want this one!!” I showed her the stuffed Emperor Penguin, with a gleeful smile, exposing my first lost tooth that I lost recently. I clamped my mouth nervously, and embarrassingly staggered my way to my father and asked him if he could let my Penguin rest on the counter where he could truly become my friend. Finally we checked out and I met my very best inanimate friend that I would be with, not a couple of days like my parents predicted, but for four years.

Bubbles, the messy penguin who could never keep his feathers clean. I took him on all kinds of adventures, I made up stories that I told to my sister and grandfather. Bubbles had a brother named Wubbles, who was cleaner and more organized. In the stories that I told my grandfather every morning at 7:00 am, Bubbles was the super hero who saved Antarctica from the invading polar bears or evil babies, and Wubbles was the sidekick who warned the town of icy cold igloo town to escape from the bad guys. I played with Bubbles and Wubbles like they were dolls. Although they didn’t have a doll house of their own, I would use my doll house to simulate one, where Wubbles would be captured by Neighbort, an evil horse, then be saved by Bubbles. I collected more and more pengiuns, I even have a glass one that still sits on my bed-side table!

I loved my Penguins, until I lost Bubbles, then I fell into pieces. I looked for hours, and finally gave up forever. Too keep me from crying any longer, I told myself that Bubbles is out on a super secret mission and will not be coming back for a long time. I still keep an eye out, in hope that I may find him again.

 

 

My City

I am from a city. A place where huge music festivals and everything weird comes and joins at one point; where years of drought still exist; where dress like a cowboy day is common; where the beautiful blue bonnets grow. I am from Austin and I love it here.

Austin is a great place to visit, especially during certain times of the year, for example: in the Fall there is Austin City Limits (ACL). Although I have never been, ACL seems like a really fun place. ACL is not the only event the fall of Austin has. There is also F1, more for people from Europe, but I attend there every year. I think it’s really fun with all the Drag Racing and other events besides just the race. In the Spring, there is South by Southwest (SXSW). There are tons of places to go! My mother went there this year and met Nick Cage himself!!

Another reason you want to visit Austin is not just because it is holds a lot of events, you might just want to visit the zoo or adventure around 6th street, maybe even visit UT!

Finishing off, I love my home town Austin and all of its weird things and crazy events. I hope if you come here you may enjoy it just as much as I do!!