Weekend Update by Eddie Renz

Sing

Friday night, February the 18th, I found myself once again smiling, applauding, laughing, and cheering to what I think is one of the best live shows that I have ever seen- SING!

SING is performed by the various Fraternities and Sororities at Baylor University in Waco, TX. I had the privilege to go to Sing 2004 and I couldn't believe my eyes or my ears. I don't have a large catalogue of live performances to compare SING to, however, I have been to see Rent by Jonathan Larson here in Dallas, and I have also been to Cirque Du Soleil - twice, and a host of much smaller venues at the Butterfield Theater in Gainesville and Denton Community Theater. But my nomination for best live performance in the 50 contiguous states goes to SING!!!

The entire show is made up of a bunch of mini-musicals if you will. Each Fraternity of Sorority chooses a theme and then performs it live with choreographed dancing, music, and singing. One of my favorite themes was a throw back to The Revenge of the Nerds complete with Nerds and the cool kids having a dance off. Then of course there was the "One Hit Wonders" who played tribute to such songs as Dexy's Midnight Runners' Come on Eileen, and the Sugar Hill Gang- Rappers Delight. At the end of the performance there was a brief dance performed by a much loved Napoleon Dynamite.

Another one of my favorites was "Wall Street" which was obviously influenced by "The Apprentice". The intro was "For the Love of Money" by the O'Jays (who also sang that catchy song in the Gap Commercial - People all over the world- Join Hands, Start a Love- a love train.)
The entire fraternity had to have at least 50 guys all wearing matching pants, vests, and ties, and a couple of their dance routines were borrowed from N'Sync.

All in all it was a wonderful experience. I enjoy the fact that these are just college students who have spent many hours of time and buckets of sweat to put on a great show. I love the camaraderie that comes from being in a play or any type of live act. I think it is a great bonding experience and there is so much joy and pride that comes from performing in front of a live audience. I wish that other schools in the country would follow Baylor with something similar to Sing.

One a different Note-

As a last hoorah before going on The South Beach Diet today, I bought a Central Market freshly prepared roasted vegetable pizza- it was awful. I was so disappointed. I think it is best to stay away from their Chef's Prepared entrees as I find them somewhat lacking in taste.

Also, since I am going to Hawaii in May, I need to lose some pounds and so please do not tell me anything negative about The South Beach Diet. I only want to hear encouragement and I could also use a lot of prayer. Fortunately, I pretty much stopped drinking Dr. Pepper at the end of last year and so I don't have to worry about giving that up, and I have also decreased my carb intake over the last couple months so that this won't be such a shock for my body.

Okay, I have to run... I love you!!!