times like these... haha haha haa...

oh yeah, i forgot to talk about what happened the other day after "bootleg 'stars' carved in the back of my head" ordeal. alrighty, so im a part of this dance ministry + saturday was suppose to be a big performance for us. we were going to be in the gospel superfest, a show with lots of popular gospel artists such as mary mary, coco brothers, + more. it was going to be taped + shown on different channels, the gospel channel, bet, + such. so needless to say, we all were excited about the producers asking us if we could perform 2 pieces for them, 1 for a black history segment they were going to do + 1 for a christmas show they were filming that same day.

so we been practicing + working hard to get everyone ready + on point to do the routines. this past whole week had us going to either the dance studio or the director's house to practice so the producers can see it + tell how we looked. he saw it, loved it, but wanted to make a few changes. just little things. yeah, like cutting the christmas piece down in half... yeah. tiny. we took the advice, kept working through the week on formations, detailed movements, costume changes, acrobatics + tricks, music changes, people getting added to different parts... we basically been through nearly everything.

so finally call time at 4:30pm saturday comes + im at the civic center with the rest of the group downstairs in a "dressing room" that actually looked more like a large locker room. we run through the routines + wait... + wait some more... + wait again. its 7:30 + we haven't heard a thing. soon 8:30, we hear we up next + we running up the steps, down the hall, turning rights + lefts to get the sides of the stage. we get there to see kiki sheard singing, then suddenly we told to go back downstairs to the dunegon locker room. we hear that we going to perform our christmas piece in 20 minutes so be ready.

20 minutes passed. then 40... a hour later we being told that there is no time to do our piece, but they will tape it in 2 weeks... i try to keep a pleasant smile on my face while most of the other people got upset since it was our favorite piece. but the show must go on + we had the black history piece to do still.

so we ran through that piece a few times, made sure everything was right as we played the wait game again... it got to the point where we started do stuff just to pass the time. we had african drummers performing with us there + they started a jam session while we were freestyling + flackback dancing to the beats of africa. clearly, you can electric slide + bankhead bounce to nearly anything.

soon we were just tired, sleepy, hungry, some agitated + ready to go. it was near midnight + we haven't heard a word from anyone. then one of my teammates ran through the door + told us that we have 30 seconds to get to the stage. so AGAIN, we running, some falling, up the steps, bomb rushing down hallways, twisting through the place to get to the stage, which had a group singing on it already. next thing we know, the stage crew is telling us to go out there + dance to the music. confused but eagered to move around, we all go on to the stage, the auditorium 1/4 full, + freestyle to the group's song for about... hmmm, a minute. after they finished, the main singer said "thanks for coming out to the gospel superfest, have a great night!!" wha-...

...i had to laugh it off to keep myself from going amy winehouse on them + asking "what kind of f*ckery is this?" after we done sweated, took out hours of our time to practice, racked our brains to bring forth something creative + moving, + waited near 8 hours in a room that could be the next shooting location for "saw 6" to perform... we get a 1 mintue cameo?!?! OHHHWHATTHEWORLDMAN?!?!?

afterwards, the producer, the man who ASKED us to perform, explained that due to hosts taking a lot of the time + groups getting "caught up" in the songs, they was not enough time to feature us as promised. plus we were suppose to be getting food + drinks but it was sent somewhere else instead of downstairs in the locker room. he sincerly gave his apologies on behave of the network + the company + offered us money to get something to eat afterwards.

this is another time when i learned that everything is not always going to go right or as planned. there will be moments when you work so hard only to have it seem like it went to waste. but at the same time, some things are for the better. the producer did said that he wanted to use us in another taping of a show, plus we were able to network with different people there. so the heart was kind of hurt, but all was not lost... peace+luv 4eva, the 3rd tWin