Random Tidbits

It's Halloweekend and I have the best costume.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I'm going to be the TARDIS from Doctor Who!!!!! I wanted to be the TARDIS last year but I never got around to ordering the dress but this year I was on top of things and ordered it (a couple days) in advance so now I'm going to be the coolest person at both parties I'm going to. I'm kind of sad that I probably won't be getting a whole lot of trick-or-treaters, if any. I'm on the third floor of the building so if anyone gets trick-or-treaters it'd be my neighbor on the ground floor. Ah well, maybe next year!

The Mixtapes are gearing up for a busy-ish November/end of semester. We have two gigs the weekend of November 13 and 14. On the 13th we're performing uptown with a group from Columbia, we'll be performing on their campus. I'm super excited about that gig, Columbia is gorgeous and it's going to be a fun event. And then on the 14th we're singing with a couple other local a cappella groups at a park sing in Washington Square Park that's being organized by the Jewish a cappella group, Ani V'Ata. We haven't sung with them yet (or at least, in the year or so that I've been in the group) so that'll be fun. It's always nice to make aca-friends (don't judge). Plus, we're filming some of our songs to have good videos for promotional usage, and then on November 15 or 16 we're finding out if we got into the ICCA, and if so which region we're in. Fingers crossed! And finally, we're preparing for our big concert of the semester, which will be on December 11. The theme is.....

....not telling until the week of the event, because we're keeping it a secret until our big reveal the week of the concert!

First Mixtapes Gig & ICCA Recording

It's been a busy weekend for the Mixtapes!

On Saturday we had our first gig of the year, and our first performance with the baby Tapes! We performed at an NYU sorority's charity ball, which was a lot of fun. We sang "Evolution of Justin Timberlake" and I got to solo on one of the songs. It was an interesting venue, definitely reminded me of performing for Hollywood Hosts years and years ago, where there'd be entertainment but it wasn't the focus of the event and people would be walking around mingling and talking and eating. This weekend's performance had its challenges, because we weren't properly mic-ed (although we usually aren't at venues like this) and also the energy of the audience was very weird. Other than that, we still had fun and enjoyed ourselves!

Then on Sunday, we recorded some of our audition material for ICCA 2016. We recorded four songs, I believe, and hopefully we have enough useable material from that to submit because the deadline is Thursday. But I'm also hoping that we decide to record Lady Marmalade because for one, I have a solo, but also because we sound amazing on it and it'd be nice to have a recording of that song anyway. We'll see if we need to record more on Thursday. Also, we recorded a bridemaid/maid of honor proposal for this couple that hired us to sing for their proposal earlier in the summer. This guy asked us to help propose to his girlfriend by singing her favorite song, and the girl now asked us to record a rewritten version of "Treasure" by Bruno Mars to ask her friends to be her bridesmaids and maid of honor.

Lady Marmalade & Crazy Mixtapes Party Season

This past weekend my a cappella group finished learning our arrangement of "Lady Marmalade" from Moulin Rouge and it sounds SO GOOD! This is my first solo in the group, I'm singing Pink's part, and it's such an exciting arrangement! At the very end of the song there's a crazy riff section where all four soloists sing in harmony and it sounds incredible, and we were playing around trying to figure out what we wanted to do to end the song. We came up with a really cool riff that I don't fully understand (if I were to pull it apart note by note), but it's one of those things where I'll get it right if I don't think about it too much. The four of us recorded just the riff so we could practice, and then we went back into the room where everyone else was and put the entire song together. When we got the end everyone started freaking out because it sounded so amazing!! I'm so happy about this solo because not only is it my first solo, but I also feel like this is going to be one of those songs that we sing frequently because it's a great arrangement and we sound killer on it. And I'm one of the soloists in it! Plus I got a little mini solo on another riffy bit in our Evolution of JT medley. So far so good! We're recording our ICCA audition next Thursday apparently, and I'm hoping that we do Lady Marmalade as one of our songs.

Additionally, the first part of first semester every year is apparently dubbed "Crazy Mixtapes Party Season" and here's why. Just about every weekend starting from when we take our new members to maybe November or so (the end of CMPS depends on the year) there's a birthday or a housewarming or something to celebrate almost every weekend. There's maybe six or so birthdays in the first half of first semester, so we sing Happy Birthday a lot. In addition to the normal insanity, this past weekend there was an all a cappella mixer hosted by one of the all-male a cappella groups at NYU, Mass Transit. It was a really fun event! The only people there were a cappella people so we all already had something in common, and we didn't have to explain what a cappella was or get the typical response of "Oh, so you're like Pitch Perfect?". It was really nice to have a chance to meet the other a cappella groups because I know some people in some other groups but there hasn't been a chance for us all to mingle like this. I think a little over half of the Mixtapes went, so we had a good representation. I almost didn't go but then I thought that I should at least stop by to make an appearance and support my community. I'm glad I ended up going, because I met a lot of nice people, plus this one girl who's roommates with one of my sophomore friends in the VP program.

Back to School and New Mixtapes!

School's been back in session for about two weeks now and it's been a lot of fun so far. I really enjoy my classes, especially my Science of Language class. I find linguistics so interesting, and my professor is great. He obviously loves the topic and is super engaging, plus he's easy to understand.

The last couple days have been fairly stressful for me however because the Mixtapes have been having auditions and callbacks for the fall semester. We had auditions last Friday and then this Thursday and Friday, with callbacks all day Saturday. My best friend Lexi auditioned and I was so nervous for her!! We gave her a unanimous callback and throughout the entire process I was so nervous because I wanted her to get into the group so badly. When we voted her in I quite literally cried, I was so happy. We took two girls, including Lexi, and two guys. I think the guys and the other girl are all freshman, and then Lexi is my year. I cannot wait for this upcoming year, it's going to be so great having Lexi in the group. Everyone already knows her because she's come to all our concerts and parties and she even came to both of our ICCA competitions. I get to be in an a cappella group with one of my best friends at NYU, and I couldn't be happier.

I Was An Extra!

Last weekend I was an extra in a student film! Elle has a friend from a summer camp she went to and he posted a notice about needing extras for his film project and she forwarded it to me saying that I should get in touch with him. So I emailed him and he was like, "Sure! We'd love to have you be an extra."

It was definitely an interesting experience. The script for the movie was kind of confusing, but then again I only briefly glanced at it. I was supposed to be a "90's cool kid", and I was in the party scene they were shooting. I got there at 9, like the call sheet said, but no one else was there except some of the crew. So I was kind of just standing around for a while, and no one really talked to me or introduced themselves to me except Aidan, the guy Elle knew, and some of the other actors who were there. More people showed up around 10:30, and then by the time 11:30 rolled around we'd only gotten two shots. The entire evening took what felt like forever. It was kind of awkward because I had to pretend to be friends with all these people I didn't know.

We were supposed to finish by midnight but I knew that wasn't going to happen, it was all very unorganized and I never really knew what was going on. I think we finally finished around 1:30, and then luckily one of the people who actually bothered to introduce himself to me was headed back to the same area of Brooklyn, so we took the subway together. I was glad about that, because I wasn't too excited about taking the subway back from midtown by myself at that hour of the night. I was perfectly fine to go back by myself, I felt safe, it was just a long trek and I would've gotten bored.

No clue when this movie is going to be finished, but I did run into Aidan and some of the crew in Washington Square Park when I was going to meet Elle for dinner. They were filming a scene at one of the chess tables in the southwest part of the park. I said hi, and I think they recognized me. One of the guys said he definitely remembered me because no one else had purple hair, so that's something. Hopefully they'll let us know when the movie is done so we can see it. I wonder if I'm actually in any of it!

Free Day!

Today I had the day off from work which was awesome! I slept in until 11, I woke up because someone was knocking on the door. Turns out it was one of the landlords and two people who were thinking about buying the building. Apparently they'd told Jules about it and she said someone'd be home, but she completely forgot about it and forgot to tell me. They didn't stay too long, which was good. They looked around and asked some questions, and then left fairly quickly.

After that Jules and I got ready and went into the city to run some errands. We went to Chelsea Market to look for a specific juice that Jules wanted. I hadn't been there since freshman year and it was Jules' first time there. I think we found the brand of juice that she was looking for, but they didn't have the flavor she wanted. After that we headed to Whole Foods to pick up ingredients to make breakfast for dinner - we made french toast, eggs, and bacon. So yummy! I suggested to Jules to cook the eggs in the bacon grease (which she'd never done before) and now she's saying she's always going to do that. Score one for me!

Other than that, today was a fairly relaxing day. Did a lot of reading which was nice, I don't get much time to read these days. I did pick up a bunch of books from The Strand for 50 cents or a buck each, which was awesome, and I've been reading those on the subway. I finished Ender's Game and Sarah's Key, and now I'm working on 1984. I'm going to raid Jules' book selection next once I'm done with this one. Seems like the only time I can really read is on the subway and on my lunch break. I'll sit at the table in the kitchen at work and read while I eat, and a couple people have commented on that. Nothing negative, just people find it kind of funny/interesting that I like to read on my lunch. They usually comment on how it's rare these days for people to read physical books, as opposed to stuff on Kindles and e-readers, and also that it's rare for people in my generation to read versus being on their phones. It's just a nice break, I suppose.

Happy Birthday America!

Yesterday was the Fourth of July, and my downstairs neighbor invited me and Jules and our guests to join him at the party he was having, which was really nice. He made so much good food! We had curried ribs, he made some kind of dish with duck, and there was pasta and hot dogs and hamburgers. I had a little bit of everything and I was stuffed. Then for desert there was homemade ice cream and cookies and cupcakes. Some of his friends are DJ's so they came and played music for us. Plus, there was a little pool outside set up from when Jean's daughter was here (she's eight) and one of Jean's friend's had a little eight-month-old baby boy who went paddling in the pool for the first time - that was adorable. It was a little awkward, just because the only people at the party were either Jules' friends or Jean's friends. Jules' friends were my age so I got along with them, so that was fine, but Jean is maybe in his forties or so, so all of his friends were a lot older.

For fireworks, we walked outside and watched from the stoop area. We actually had a fairly good view, because people were setting off fireworks from a couple houses down and then in the neighborhood. Probably wasn't safe, but it was fun to watch! I got to see fireworks!

Apparently Jean is having another party next weekend, a friend of his is moving to London so they're having a going away party for her, and he invited me and Jules and told us we could bring our friends if we wanted. I'm not sure if we're going to go but it's nice that he invited us. He's a nice guy and he cares about us a lot, so I feel safe having him live downstairs.

Sisters in the City

Sorry for the delayed post.

Katherine came to visit this last week and we had a mini sister vacation! Unfortunately I worked most of the time that she was here (during the day at least), so when I was at work she went off and did her own thing. I think she went to some museums and did touristy things. She also saw a bunch of shows without me, which made me sad.

The night she flew in I met her at my apartment and then we went into the city to go see On The Twentieth Century with KRISTIN CHENOWITH!!!! Ugh it was so amazing, it was my inner theater nerd's dream come true to see KCheno perform. That night it was pouring outside, which Katherine wasn't happy about, but luckily when we left my apartment to walk to the subway station it wasn't raining, and then it started up again when we got to the subway station. It sprinkled a bit when we were walking back from the theater but over all we managed to avoid the worst of it. In fact, it was kind of weird weather the entire time she was here. Overall it'd be fairly nice but it was still kind of muggy and overcast, and it'd sprinkle a lot.

On her last night here we went to go see Aladdin, which was amazing!! We saw James Monroe Iglehart as the Genie, which was so cool. I remember seeing him in Into the Woods and Spelling Bee and all these shows that he used to do in the Bay, and now he's on Broadway! Very cool. Afterwards we waited at the stage door and got pictures with him and talked to him a little bit about how we were from the Bay and that we used to see him perform. He introduced himself to us, and we were so starstruck. We left the stage door and went to Coldstone to get ice cream, because it felt appropriate.

Overall it was a fun little vacation for the both of us, and it was nice spending time with my sister! Just waiting for the next family member to come visit so I have another excuse to eat good food and see Broadway shows :)

The One Where Melissa Walks A Lot

This past weekend I hung out with a lot of friends who I haven't been able to see in a while because we're all so gosh darn busy.

Friday night I got dinner with Elle at a Thai fusion place near Washington Square Park called Galanga. Weird name, good food. We unfortunately sat near the world's LOUDEST four women, they kept talking extremely loudly and would periodically burst out cackling. It definitely made for a fun dinner, we had to keep pausing what we were saying until the four women next to us quieted down for a brief second. After dinner, we went to Sundaes and Cones and walked around the city. Apparently they've started showing movies in WSP on Saturday evenings, because we walked through and saw a huge screen put up in front of the arch. They were showing some foreign French film. I definitely want to look into what they're showing this Saturday, might be a fun thing to go to.

Saturday I stayed in and did chores, not very exciting.

Yesterday I went into the city to have brunch with my a cappella friend Jerry and his friend Lauren from high school. We went to The Penny Farthing (FAVORITE BRUNCH PLACE YUM) and then went to the Strand to book browse before meandering over to WSP to people-watch. Lauren got a text from her boss saying she needed to go to their company's booth in Tompkins Sq Park and clean off some chalk graffiti, so we walked over with her and helped her out. She works at some organization (I think it's called the Poet's Society of NY or something like that), and for the summer they've set up a wooden booth/shack thing with a typewriter inside, and during certain hours people can come in and write whatever they want on the typewriter. It's hooked up to an iPad which somehow logs every keystroke from the typewriter and puts it up on a website they've set up, so it's kind of like a live stream of the New York conscious. It launches tonight, actually, at 6 pm, but already someone tagged it with chalk. It's New York, what do you expect? Then after we cleaned off the booth, we went back to WSP and did some more people watching and book reading before heading back to our respective apartments.

I'd just like to say that walking from WSP to Tompkins Sq Park and back, and around the surrounding areas, is no small feat. I definitely got my exercise in for the day!

No New News

Sorry to report that there's no new news this week. Finished the third week of my internship, going into my fourth week. Living in Brooklyn is going well, joined a gym so I'm going to try to start doing that. Life is fine, just trying to get into a rhythm and figure things out.

Summer Craze & General Life Nonsense

Life has been crazy with both internships and trying to balance them without going insane. 

I'm now halfway through my third week of both internships, and settling into the swing of things. I've gotten into a bit of a rhythm with everything, and I feel less like a fish out of water.

I'm really enjoying working at Reservoir, I like the work I'm doing and the people I'm working with. The office has filled up the last couple of days with other interns for the summer, so I'm slowly meeting everyone else and figuring out names. Looks like there's six interns total, four guys and one other girl besides me. Also, my boss Cat told me that she's hoping to hire someone in the coming weeks to work under her (kind of a step between her position and mine), so that'll be fun to adjust to. She said I'd have the upper hand because I'll have been here longer, so even though this new person will be my superior in title, I'll be like their superior in experience at the company. 

Every Friday I'm tasked with completing something called Analytics, which is just a fancy term for data entry on the social media we're putting out and how it's being perceived. Pretty much what this means is going to various websites and figuring out what people looked at, how long they looked at it, how many people were engaged, etc. Ian (the guy who had this internship before me) said he hated doing Analytics because it was tedious, but I actually really enjoy it. I've had to do it twice already, and even doing it the second time I somewhat felt like I knew what I was doing. I wasn't totally familiar to the point where I didn't have to look up in my Intern Packet what to do, but most of the steps felt familiar. Plus, I really enjoy the whole data entry type of thing, I'm not really sure why. But I look forward to doing Analytics each Friday.

General life nonsense! 

I still have yet to do laundry, which really needs to happen soon. The laundromat around the corner from me closes at 7 or 7:30 every day, and most days I don't get home til close to 6. It takes about an hour and a half to do one, maybe two loads, so you do the math. They're also closed on Sundays. There's another laundromat not too far from me, it's by the subway station so maybe three or four blocks away. I could walk there, because I know they're open later and longer (sometimes they're still open when I come home from my second internship at 8 or 9). I just don't want to walk all that way with my laundry bag, I'd feel kind of silly. I'll figure it out though, I'm running low on clean undergarments.

The weather has been absolutely gross. It was nice and hot for a while, and then the last couple of days have been stormy and gloomy and icky. I thought it was June? 

Also, I got my first ever hair cut in New York the other day, which was totally as exciting as it sounds (sarcasm). I just got a trim and bangs, nothing special. I went to a Super Cuts, and the only reason I knew it was there was because I remember going first semester with Elle to get her hair cut. PLUS they gave me a student rate, which was awesome. 

So that's it for now! Updates on life to come.

Week One of Summer

This past week I started both my internships, and things have been crazy. I work 10-6 for the first internship, and then three days out of the week I'm at the other internship 6-10 on weeknights or 10-3 on Saturdays. Luckily, for the second internship I'm usually done early, so it's not as bad.

The first internship I have is at Reservoir Media Management, an independent music publishing company. I'm the Marketing intern, so I do a lot of social media work to advertise our catalog and spread information and whatnot. Like, if there's a new song released, I'll write a little blurb about it, get it approved by my boss, and then publish it where it needs to go. This has been a light week in terms of there not being much news or anything getting released, so I think I had a good introduction to the company and what my job is.

The second internship I have is at Strange Sun Theater, a theater company in NYC. My former acting teacher works there, and that's how I heard about it and got the job. I'm their social media intern for the show they're currently rehearsing, so that means I take pictures and videos and post on Facebook, Twitter, etc. about it. It's fun to be involved in a show again, even though I'm not part of the cast. And it's also a little weird too, because I'm not involved in the cast. Nonetheless it's good experience.

I've been living in my new apartment for about two weeks or so now! It's definitely feeling more like home, and less like I'm just staying here temporarily. I still have moments where I don't think of this place as "home", but those moments are rarer now. It's feeling more lived in and homey.

End of the Year Wrap-up!

Well here we are, with just over a week left of classes. Where did this year go??

Recent and relevant updates:

Signed the lease on my first apartment this past Friday--I'm officially a-dult! I've spent the last few days setting up utilities and trying to get things set up, and I'm hoping to move in officially this weekend, YAY! It's a cute little two bedroom on the top floor of a gorgeous brownstone in a historic neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. I absolutely love it. Every room has exposed brick, even the bathroom. And because we're on the top floor, my bedroom has a slanted ceiling which I love! Ideally I'd love to mount a TV on a certain part of the slant so that I can lie in bed and watch TV, that'd be so nice. OH I picked out a great bed, but the earliest it could be delivered is May 19 (and I'm supposed to be fully moved out of my dorm by May 15) so I think my roommate's mom is going to pick it up and bring it this weekend when she drives down from MA to help Jules and I move in.

Had our last Mixtapes concert of the year on Saturday. It's so weird to think that I won't have any more rehearsals for the rest of the semester and the summer until September. I'm so used to having my Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons spent in rehearsal and now that I don't, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself. I know I'm going to keep seeing my friends, just because we're done for the year doesn't mean we can't all hang out, but it'll be different not seeing them regularly anymore.

The British Are Coming!

This past Sunday the Mixtapes sang with Semi-Toned, an all-male a capella group from the University of Exeter in England. We sang with them in Washington Square Park, which was our first park sing of the year. It was so much fun! We performed a few songs from last semester, and then we sang "Barton Hollow" for the first time. We just recently learned it and decided that we knew it well enough to perform it for an audience and it sounded amazing!! I can't wait to perform it at our concert on May 2.

(Speaking of our concert, I have my first ever solo in the Mixtapes! I'm singing Pink's part in "Lady Marmalade" from Moulin Rouge).

After we sang, Semi-Toned performed a few songs. They're incredible! Some of the Tapes and I went and watched their mini concert on Friday night with APC Rhythm, one of the other coed groups on campus. They did all the same songs at the park sing but it was still fun to watch, and we got a huge crowd for both groups! Very exciting stuff.

Afterwards we took them to BBQ, a really yummy barbecue restaurant that we took the Scottish group to, the Alleycats. I guess that's become our spot to take visiting groups! It was also my suggestion (hehe).

After dinner they had to leave because they were going uptown to Columbia to sing with one of the groups there. But it was definitely a lot of fun, and so great to meet these guys. This past semester and a half of being in the Mixtapes has introduced me to so many new a capella people and has given me so many new friends, both in New York and abroad. I still keep in touch with some of the Scottish a capella peeps and I definitely hope to keep in touch with our new British friends.

Spring, Is That You?

Spring weather in New York is fickle. I don't understand this city sometimes. The beginning of the week was gorgeous-- blue skies, lots of sunshine, nice and warm. I even wore flip flops! Tuesday not so much. Tuesday was cold and windy and not as sunny, and it only went downhill from there. This week I've really been depending on weather websites and apps because I never know what the next day will bring. The last couple of days have been nicer, today for instance was a whopping 67 degrees (BEAUTIFUL). Of course, I spent most of the day indoors in a capella rehearsal, but walking to and from was really nice! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather continues to improve. And please, no rain!

In other news, the hunt for internships continues. I have a couple options lined up so far, which is very comforting. My acting teacher from last semester is looking for a social media intern for his theater company, so I'm meeting with him tomorrow to discuss that. Additionally, my friend Ian from my a capella group is currently a social media intern for an independent music company and he's unable to continue working over the summer, so his boss asked if he knew anyone who'd be interested and Ian immediately thought of me. So I'm going to talk to Ian about that soon to get more information about what I might be doing. Let's keep our fingers crossed that all goes well!

Week of Showcases

About two weeks ago, my life suddenly got crazy busy when I was asked last minute to participate in the Player's Club First Stages event on April 4. First Stages is a program where vocal performance students are paired with music composition majors and we sing their works.

I  was asked by Ben Yee-Paulson to sing alto two for a choral piece he wrote. I guess one of the girls already singing the piece, Caitlyn, recommended me to Ben because he needed more singers. So that's nice! Anyway, I got the piece the Saturday before we were supposed to perform, rehearsed it Sunday and Wednesday, and then performed on Friday. We got to use music, so we didn't have to be memorized, which was a relief. We were having some issues getting everyone synced and together, but we pulled it off and I think we did a good job! Lexi and Michelle came to watch, and then after the performance we went and got ice cream.

I also signed up for the VP version of First Stages, which is this Thursday. It's where vocal performance students perform other vocal performance students' works.  I'm singing soprano in a piece written by a fellow sophomore in the program, Stephen. It's a fun piece, it's from a show he wrote about Beethoven and time travel, it's a fun mix of sci-fi and history and music. I'm also (as of today) reciting a poem that another VP wrote. Luckily for all of this, as with First Stages, we're not expected to be memorized at all. But with this song I'm definitely more prepared, it's a lot easier and my part is fairly repetitive so I'm almost memorized anyway.

Back to Business

NYU is back in session for the second half of spring semester-- wow! Where did the time go?

Some exciting highlights of the last few weeks:

• Mixtapes competed in the ICCA Northeast Semifinals on March 22! We unfortunately didn't place and won't continue on in the competition but we had the amazing opportunity to perform in the beautiful space that is Boston Symphony Hall, which is an experience I'll never forget.
• Auditioned at the New England Theatre Conference beginning of spring break. I auditioned for over thirty different theater companies from the northeast and was called back for two. Still waiting to hear back from these companies.
• Was asked to perform in First Stages again this year and started rehearsing the piece yesterday. It's a student-written choral piece and I'm singing alto 2, which is an interesting challenge for me. I'm nowhere near an alto 2, and it's a lower range of my voice, but luckily it's not too low for me to manage. We perform the piece on Friday at 8 pm.
• Mixtapes are holding elections next week for Executive Board and various chair positions for next year. I plan on running for chair of Social Media.
• Saw my friends and fellow vocal performance students perform in the new work Beatsville this past weekend--so good! 
• Continuing to apply for endless amounts of internships in the hope of staying in New York over the summer. Waiting to hear back from the 6+ internships I've applied to. Have meeting with career counselor at NYU on Friday afternoon. 

Concert Weekend!

Sorry about the lateness of this post, school's been crazy with midterms coming up. But this past weekend was our first concert of the spring! We performed two new songs, two old songs, and we performed our ICCA set. We also officially announced that the Mixtapes will be competing in the ICCA Northeast Semifinals in Boston on March 22! A lot of people knew already, if they were friends with any of the Mixtapes, but we made an official public announcement at the concert. But other than that, the concert was a lot of fun! We had a smaller crowd than usual but it was nice, it was a more intimate concert. Lexi came, as well as Gabrielle, which was sweet of them. We had the Bryn Mawr Night Owls open for us, they're an all-female group from just outside of Philly. They were nice girls, but at our party afterwards they weren't very social with us, it was very much segregated between the Tapes and the Night Owls, but it was fine.



Here's a link to two of our songs that we did, "Blank Space" and "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?":

"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tNKHIrnRj0

"Blank Space"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASYM0LrnY4s

Concert prep!

The Mixtapes are gearing up for their first spring concert on March 7th! Our theme is MARCH of the Penguins (we're a very punny group). We're singing two new arrangements, two songs from past semesters, and our ICCA set (complete with choreography!). We're still learning some of our set but I know we'll be ready come concert time. Sadly three of our members won't be at the concert due to other conflicts, so we're going to have to re-choreograph the ICCA set a bit to account for the missing bodies.

I'm on decorating committee again (this time my friend Jerry and I are co-chairing, I think). The theme is March of the Penguins but I don't know if we're going to take the theme literally and put penguins and that sort of stuff around as our decorations, or if we're going to take it in a different direction. Our dress code for the event is essentially a tuxedo look: black on bottom, white shirt, and black blazer. I'm hoping we go with the tuxedo idea for the decorations because I personally wasn't a fan of the March of the Penguins theme, I definitely didn't vote for that. BUT our next concert is going to be Murder Mystery/Dinner Theatre themed which I'm very excited for.


ALSO! There's a video up of our ICCA performance, here's the link!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW7QXwkUUJ0

Sick Week and Theater Auditions

Well, at this point I've been sick for almost a week, and it's not getting much better. I don't have a lot of time to relax and to allow myself to rest enough to get better, but that's college for you!

In the wake of ICCAs last weekend, the Mixtapes have started working hard toward our next concert on March 7. We're learning two "old" songs (pulled from previous semesters) in addition to two brand new songs, plus polishing our ICCA set which we're hoping to perform with choreography at our concert. It seems as though everyone's getting sick again, as if everyone's immune systems made the collective decision that now that ICCAs are over, it's okay to get sick because the obligation is past.

Well that's not quite true for me--I'm currently in the process of auditioning for Sharon Playhouse's Collegiate Company in Sharon, Connecticut. It's a summer stock theater company where I'd be performing in three full productions in addition to taking master classes and having a Collegiate Company cabaret event. I have a callback tomorrow and hopefully we'll hear back soon after that as to whether or not we get cast. I've also applied to the New England Theater Conference (NETC) which is similar to Unified auditions for performing arts programs. It's a weekend where I go and audition for about 30 summer stock theater companies at once and anyone there can hire me to work at their theater company over the summer. I'm also looking into theater internships in New York. So many possibilities!

ICCA Weekend

This past weekend was the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella (ICCA). The Mixtapes went out to Hofstra University in Long Island to compete in the Northeast Quarterfinals. We placed third, which means that we don't get to advance, but at the very least we placed third out of eight groups. Last year when we competed for the first time we didn't place at all. Experiences like this weekend is why I joined the Mixtapes in the first place. I'm very proud of the work we did, I think we looked great and sounded even better. We got lots of positive comments from audience members after the show and our friends who came to see us said we never looked or sounded better. We have an audio recording of the event and a video is coming out soon, I'll come back and post the link to that once I get it.

ICCA Prep!

The Mixtapes are hard at work preparing for the ICCAs coming up this weekend. T-6 days! Today we had a clinician come in to help us clean and work on our routine. Her name is Mel Daneke and she's part of an a capella group called Musae, and she also works at The Vocal Company, which produces solely a capella music. PLUS she's a judge for the ICCAs on the 21st so she knows what judges are looking for.

It was so much fun working with her, she was really nice and not intimidating at all. We did our set for her (as far as we had choreographed), and then we sat and talked and broke down the set song by song. She's really into talking about the emotion behind songs and what they mean to us, which was a great way of looking at it. I feel like we spend a lot of time perfecting our sound but we don't spend as much time thinking about the performance side of things, or the "acting" side, so Mel taking the time to sit with us and discuss the emotion and drive behind our songs and kind of the general story arch of the set was really cool. Then we started from the beginning of the set and started and stopped so she could give us notes and fix formation issues and whatnot.

One cool part of the clinic was when we were singing through "Pusher Love Girl" at the end of our set. There's a moment when the girls have a crazy four part harmony that's super cool and very much our style, and Mel asked who was on the highest soprano line. Everyone pointed at me (awkward) and she was like "Okay cool! Don't be afraid to have more fun with it, you can totally belt it more than mix it" and I was like "Yeah okay I'll try that" and then we sang it through with that in mind and it was sooooo thrilling! We sang the harmony part and then stopped and everyone was hooting and hollering because it sounded amazing. It was a really cool breakthrough moment. I also felt really happy and excited personally because I got to let go a bit more and have fun with the line and belt my face off a bit, and everyone seemed really impressed. Erica, one of the sopranos who just came back from being abroad in Prague, came up to me after rehearsal and said that she was standing next to me during that bit and she was blown away by my voice. Yay!

BIRTHDAY WEEK

This Tuesday I turned 20!! That's right, no more teenagerdom for me! I'm now officially a 20-something. And of course, New York (and NYU) recognized the significance of the day by declaring a half day Monday and a full snow day on Tuesday--the first time I've ever had a snow day on my birthday! I also realized that it was the first time since probably preschool that I didn't have school on my birthday, so that was exciting. My roommate Lexi and I slept in and then went and got our nails done, I got a free birthday drink from Starbucks, and then we went to dinner at this darling Victorian themed restaurant near my dorm. It was so delicious and so cute! Lexi and Elle and I walked past it once last semester and when I was trying to figure out where I wanted to go for dinner I saw Lillie's Victorian Bar and Restaurant and decided to give it a try. We ended up really liking that place. Then we went back to our dorm and Lexi made me a cake (funfetti, duh), and we watched The Other Woman--very funny movie!

In other exciting news, my a capella group has started rehearsing and preparing for the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella (ICCA), we compete in just about two weeks. We finished learning our ICCA set today and started choreographing and it already looks and sounds amazing. We only have I think three (official) rehearsals until the competition, although we might add another one if we feel its necessary. But if the choreography is as simple and easy to pick up as the stuff we did today, I think we'll be fine.

Back at it!

Back in the Big Apple! I flew in on Sunday the 18th with fellow Mixtape Jerry. The next day about ten of the Mixtapes (those who were in the area/could make it) sang with and hosted a Scottish a capella group called The Alleycats from St. Andrew's University. They're a group of incredibly nice and talented people. We met in Central Park and sang around the park in various spots. We even sang in front of the Bethesda Fountain which is one of my favorite spots in the park. Then we went out to dinner at a barbecue restaurant and went back to one of the Tapes' apartments to hang out. At the end of the evening I hosted three of the Scots at my dorm and made sure they got to their meeting place on time the next day. Those two days were lots of fun and I made really cool international friends. If we ever find ourselves in Scotland, or if they ever come back to tour New York again, we're definitely going to give them a call.

Other than that, my week has been very relaxed. I've hung out with Mixtape friends quite a lot, and my suitemate Lexi came back yesterday which was really exciting. Classes start up tomorrow which is not as exciting. PLUS there's supposed to be an epic storm coming in tomorrow morning which should be interesting. As of now NYU is staying open through Monday morning but they may close for the afternoon or Tuesday. I wouldn't mind if we closed on Tuesday because that's my birthday, so it could be nice not to have class!