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.