Songfest is tonight. It'll be my first time in attendance since our senior year (aka the great Songfest Robbery of 2003).

Julie and I will be there alongside two Songfest-winning writer/directors: current roommate Charlie, who led us to our inaugural victory in '02 (back when he and I were first roommates), and soon-to-be-roommate Jonathan, whose show took the trophy back home to AGO/AXO in '05.

I'm excited to be going to see my first show as an alumni. Charlie and I both feel that our 2002 show was one of the highlights of our respective USC careers, a feeling that has been solidified as the years have revealed an impressive precedent set by that first show. Three victories in five years, and now, a well-executed, high-energy show from AXO and AGO is now pretty much expected; witness today's article in the Daily Trojan:

AXO and AGO's performance at dress rehearsal confirmed they will be hard to knock off their pedestal. Their routine was nearly flawless, full of an exuberance that rumbled the large auditorium.

Rumbled the auditorium?!? I likes the sound of that.

(I know, I know, I'm starting to sound like an over-exhuberant dad at his kid's little league championship game, aren't I? I guess that's about right.)

Anyway, good luck to thelpslayer and the rest of the crew tonight. Make it 4 out of 6!

This is one of those stories that sounds too fantastic to be true.

My great-grand little bro in AGO (my little bro's little bro's little bro, got it?), Ben--or, as we like to call him, "pampers"--has written for the Daily Trojan for the past three years. A few weeks ago, he saw that the USC football team was having open tryouts, and, thinking of what a fun story it would be, Ben tried out. As Ben puts it, he's vastly undersized and hasn't played organized tackle football since he was in 5th grade, so he surely had no illusions that he would actually make the team.

Well, lo and behold, he actually made the team.

I know...isn't that the coolest thing you've ever heard in your life?

...one of the best evenings of my life.

And really, it's all because of my AGO brothers, both new ones (some of whom I'd never met until tonight), and some of whom I've known for six years.

Seeing the house for the first time filled my heart with incredible gladness and amazement...nearly brought a tear to my eye, it did. Seeing thelpslayer dress up as me for the theme night--he donned a faux Mr. USC sash and iPod headphones--was really, really cool. And seeing (and experiencing first-hand) the brothers' love, support, and genorosity towards me regarding my work in Iraq...well, there really are no words to describe what it meant to me tonight.

And afterwards, meeting up with some of my closest friends from college--Charlie, Shelvy, Ryan, Murph (and later, Tony)--was a surreal moment, the kind you would like to hold on to forever if you could. We sat all alone in the dimly-lit Italian restaurant that Charlie had just finished closing up for the night, sipping red wine, retelling old stories, and sharing new ones for the first time.

In truth, nights like tonight make me wish I never left these guys in the first place.

Alpha Gamma Omega and Alpha Chi Omega are the winners of this year's Songfest competition...and all is right again with the world.

It takes a while to get to the good part of this article, but it's well worth the wait:

The members of Alpha Chi Omega and Alpha Gamma Omega pretended to be both campers and counselors of Troy Camp at a campout. The highlight of their performance was when the lights went out and suddenly every person on stage turned on their flashlights. Michael Jackson's "Thriller" accompanied the performers as they danced the famous sequence from the music video. This scene showed creativity and originality and definitely made their performance stand out among the others. Jonathan Kahn [sic] not only directed with Karen Spurney, but also wrote the script for the performance.

Well, almost worth the wait...it's too bad they got kuhn's name spelled wrong, but it's nice that they complimented his work.

Jonathan had told me about the whole thing, and I loved the concept, especially the Thriller sequence. I can't wait to see the video of this performance!

Congrats to Jonathan, Melissa (firecrackerrr), Tim (phatfhorn), and all the other AGO boys and AXO sisters who were involved. It's good to see us reclaiming what is rightfully ours.

(For the uninitiated: Songfest is a major song-and-dance competition at USC that helps raise money for Troy Camp, the school's official philanthropy, and a wonderful service organization. Traditionally, fraternities and sororities will pair up to perform a 6-minute stage show that relate to the night's theme, all of which are voted on by a panel of judges. In 2002, in our first attempt ever at doing this, AGO teamed up with AXO and won the grand prize, thanks to Charlie Pecoraro's superbly-written "Television Has All The Answers." I played Inspector Gadget in that show, but Mike Escoto single-handedly won us the trophy with his brilliant performance as Mister T. Ahhh, what fond memories.)