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!
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Sunday, December 14, 2014
GOING HOME
The most exciting part of my week thus far has been the fact that I'm going home on Wednesday. I love New York and school and all my friends here but I'm very much ready to go home. I haven't been home since I left in August and I'm more than ready for a break at this point. Classes have been stressful lately, and there's been a lot on my plate. A good long break is highly called for.
In other news, the Mixtapes performed at the Bronx Botanical Gardens yesterday. That was pretty fun, we sang two half hour sets and we got to see the train show for free. As far as I could tell, it was just a bunch of miniature trains running through fake cityscapes and to-scale versions of historical NYC landmarks. It was cool I suppose, but not really my thing. It was nice that we got to go for free, though. The Gardens paid for our tickets because we were performing there. We sang outside which wasn't too bad for the first set but for the second set we were all FREEZING so I put my jacket and gloves and hat back on. It was definitely a fun experience and a nice way to end my first semester with the Mixtapes.
In other news, the Mixtapes performed at the Bronx Botanical Gardens yesterday. That was pretty fun, we sang two half hour sets and we got to see the train show for free. As far as I could tell, it was just a bunch of miniature trains running through fake cityscapes and to-scale versions of historical NYC landmarks. It was cool I suppose, but not really my thing. It was nice that we got to go for free, though. The Gardens paid for our tickets because we were performing there. We sang outside which wasn't too bad for the first set but for the second set we were all FREEZING so I put my jacket and gloves and hat back on. It was definitely a fun experience and a nice way to end my first semester with the Mixtapes.
Sunday, December 7, 2014
The Mixtapes Who Stole Christmas!
Concert weekend, yay! Yesterday we had our Christmas-themed concert, How the Mixtapes Stole Christmas. It was a blast! We definitely didn't have as big of a crowd as we did for our last concert, but it was a decent crowd and they had good energy. We didn't have an opener for this one, so we added two songs from our last concert repertoire to round out the night and make it a fuller concert. I had a couple solo-y moments in this concert which made me happy. I sang in the trio for our Mariah Carey "All I Want for Christmas/Christmas (Baby Please Come Home" mash-up.
We also had three small group songs where we split the entire Mixtapes into three smaller groups and each group sang a different Christmas song. My group sang "Sleigh Ride". The arrangement was really cool because it was the one song the entire way through, but we change the style in which we were singing, we sang it "in the style of" a bunch of different groups. We started out in the style of Reliant K, then we moved to The Ronettes, then Ella Fitzgerald, then TLC, then Karmin, then a regular section, then we had a 7/8-time section, and we finished with a regular 4/4-time section. The way the piece was arranged meant that everyone in the group got a small solo. I soloed in the Karmin section, and then in the regular section after we traded the solo between Andrew, Sarah, and me. It was nice to have a chance to solo so I was pretty happy.
We tried to live-stream this concert like we did the last one, but when we went to turn it off at the end we realized it wasn't running the entire time. We did have a camera running filming the entire concert, so we'll put videos up soon.
Also, side note, I'm going into my last week of classes for the semester. WHERE DID THIS SEMESTER GO??? I'm genuinely curious, because there's no way that three months have gone by. As hard as it is to believe that the semester's almost up, I'm very much ready to fly home a week from Wednesday. It's been waaaayyyy too long since I've been home, and I'm in need of a good long break.
We also had three small group songs where we split the entire Mixtapes into three smaller groups and each group sang a different Christmas song. My group sang "Sleigh Ride". The arrangement was really cool because it was the one song the entire way through, but we change the style in which we were singing, we sang it "in the style of" a bunch of different groups. We started out in the style of Reliant K, then we moved to The Ronettes, then Ella Fitzgerald, then TLC, then Karmin, then a regular section, then we had a 7/8-time section, and we finished with a regular 4/4-time section. The way the piece was arranged meant that everyone in the group got a small solo. I soloed in the Karmin section, and then in the regular section after we traded the solo between Andrew, Sarah, and me. It was nice to have a chance to solo so I was pretty happy.
We tried to live-stream this concert like we did the last one, but when we went to turn it off at the end we realized it wasn't running the entire time. We did have a camera running filming the entire concert, so we'll put videos up soon.
Also, side note, I'm going into my last week of classes for the semester. WHERE DID THIS SEMESTER GO??? I'm genuinely curious, because there's no way that three months have gone by. As hard as it is to believe that the semester's almost up, I'm very much ready to fly home a week from Wednesday. It's been waaaayyyy too long since I've been home, and I'm in need of a good long break.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Thanksgiving in New Jersey
This Thanksgiving I spent the holiday in New Jersey with my friends Kiyan and Dan. We stayed at Kiyan's house for the weekend. On Wednesday Dan and I took the bus from Port Authority to Montvale, where Kiyan lives, and he picked us up from the bus stop. We drove to his house and hung out there for about an hour and a half or so, talking to his parents and figuring out our next course of action. Kiyan and Dan wanted to go to an arcade to play dance games (like DDR) so we went in search of the arcade. That was an adventure in and of itself, we drove around in circles basically trying to find this place. We found it eventually, and we spent about an hour and a half there. I read a book I brought while Dan and Kiyan played their games. Then we went back to the house and watched a movie called Ride Along. I'd wanted to see it when it was in theaters a while back but I never did. It was funny, but not quite what I was expecting.
Then the next day was Thanksgiving! The food was amazing, Kiyan's mom is a wonderful chef. We had turkey and stuffing, broccoli, asparagus, biscuits, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and something she called scalloped potatoes. They kind of reminded me of potatoes au gratin that I've had in the past, but these were cooked in some kind of creamy white sauce with mushrooms. For dessert we had homemade apple pie and pumpkin pie. The apple pie was so yummy! She made it based on a recipe she's had for something like twenty years, and it's probably the best apple pie I've had. She made everything from scratch, even the crust. Then after dinner and dessert we watched A Most Wanted Man, but I didn't see too much of it because I fell asleep about twenty minutes into the movie. Oh well!
Friday was nice and relaxing, we all slept in and then had open-face turkey and stuffing sandwiches for lunch. YUM!!! Best way to have next-day Thanksgiving food. We sat around for a bit trying to decide what we wanted to do, and then we came up with the idea of going and seeing Mockingjay. Dan hadn't seen the second Hunger Games movie, so we watched that while Kiyan did some work, and then we headed to a mall to get food and see the movie. The mall we went to was GIANT!! Even bigger than the San Francisco Westfield one, this was four floors and easily three times the size of Valley Fair in San Jose. Oh. My. Goodness. We ate at Yard House and I had really yummy pasta (Mom we should go to the one by us) and then saw Mockingjay. It was a really good movie! I love the Hunger Games series, I've read all the books, and I really enjoyed this movie. It's part one of two which is annoying because it means we have to wait until next Thanksgiving I think to see the end of it. Then after the movie Kiyan's parents picked us up and drove us into the city. They only live about 35 minutes away without any traffic, because they're right on the border of New York and New Jersey. Which, for someone from California where you drive 35 minutes (let alone two hours) and you're still in the same state, is a foreign concept.
Then the next day was Thanksgiving! The food was amazing, Kiyan's mom is a wonderful chef. We had turkey and stuffing, broccoli, asparagus, biscuits, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and something she called scalloped potatoes. They kind of reminded me of potatoes au gratin that I've had in the past, but these were cooked in some kind of creamy white sauce with mushrooms. For dessert we had homemade apple pie and pumpkin pie. The apple pie was so yummy! She made it based on a recipe she's had for something like twenty years, and it's probably the best apple pie I've had. She made everything from scratch, even the crust. Then after dinner and dessert we watched A Most Wanted Man, but I didn't see too much of it because I fell asleep about twenty minutes into the movie. Oh well!
Friday was nice and relaxing, we all slept in and then had open-face turkey and stuffing sandwiches for lunch. YUM!!! Best way to have next-day Thanksgiving food. We sat around for a bit trying to decide what we wanted to do, and then we came up with the idea of going and seeing Mockingjay. Dan hadn't seen the second Hunger Games movie, so we watched that while Kiyan did some work, and then we headed to a mall to get food and see the movie. The mall we went to was GIANT!! Even bigger than the San Francisco Westfield one, this was four floors and easily three times the size of Valley Fair in San Jose. Oh. My. Goodness. We ate at Yard House and I had really yummy pasta (Mom we should go to the one by us) and then saw Mockingjay. It was a really good movie! I love the Hunger Games series, I've read all the books, and I really enjoyed this movie. It's part one of two which is annoying because it means we have to wait until next Thanksgiving I think to see the end of it. Then after the movie Kiyan's parents picked us up and drove us into the city. They only live about 35 minutes away without any traffic, because they're right on the border of New York and New Jersey. Which, for someone from California where you drive 35 minutes (let alone two hours) and you're still in the same state, is a foreign concept.
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Aca-weekend and NSC
This weekend was jam-packed with a capella.
First of all, an organization at NYU called Musicians as Healers was having an event on Thursday evening and they asked us to perform. It was during our rehearsal time which was perfect, so halfway through rehearsal we went over and sang for them. We sang four songs, and then we went back to rehearsal and kept rehearsing for about another hour.
Then on Friday we opened for the Macaulay Triplets from Macaulay Honors College. Macaulay Honors College is the honors college for the CUNY schools. The Triplets and the Mixtapes are good friends so we often open for each other a lot, and this was our first time opening for them this year. We were missing a few members of our group, which meant that we had a lot of alternates singing solos. One of our members Jared wasn't there, so I got to sing the "What Goes Around....Comes Around" solo in our Justin Timberlake medley. That was really fun! I sang the solo for our ICCA audition video but this was my first time performing it in front of an audience.
Saturday had no a capella, but I did go to the New Student Cabaret in the afternoon. I'm so thoroughly impressed with the freshman in my program; they're ridiculously talented! I'm just in awe of how good they sound. They blend so well, which I feel is completely different from my year. For my year's choir songs, I felt like we sounded like 31 soloists but this year's freshmen sound like a choir that's been rehearsing together for years, not just two or so months. I'm almost afraid of the freshman just because they're so good, they're definitely going to give everyone else a run for their money.
First of all, an organization at NYU called Musicians as Healers was having an event on Thursday evening and they asked us to perform. It was during our rehearsal time which was perfect, so halfway through rehearsal we went over and sang for them. We sang four songs, and then we went back to rehearsal and kept rehearsing for about another hour.
Then on Friday we opened for the Macaulay Triplets from Macaulay Honors College. Macaulay Honors College is the honors college for the CUNY schools. The Triplets and the Mixtapes are good friends so we often open for each other a lot, and this was our first time opening for them this year. We were missing a few members of our group, which meant that we had a lot of alternates singing solos. One of our members Jared wasn't there, so I got to sing the "What Goes Around....Comes Around" solo in our Justin Timberlake medley. That was really fun! I sang the solo for our ICCA audition video but this was my first time performing it in front of an audience.
Saturday had no a capella, but I did go to the New Student Cabaret in the afternoon. I'm so thoroughly impressed with the freshman in my program; they're ridiculously talented! I'm just in awe of how good they sound. They blend so well, which I feel is completely different from my year. For my year's choir songs, I felt like we sounded like 31 soloists but this year's freshmen sound like a choir that's been rehearsing together for years, not just two or so months. I'm almost afraid of the freshman just because they're so good, they're definitely going to give everyone else a run for their money.
Monday, November 17, 2014
WE'RE GOING TO THE ICCAS!
THE MIXTAPES ARE GOING TO THE ICCAS!!!!! I'm so unbelievably excited for this! My life is Pitch Perfect now (hehehe).
The competition starts in February and there's a couple different dates we could compete for quarterfinals, and I think we get to submit our preferences and then they assign us a date. I looked at the website and the locations for ICCA Northeast (that's our divison, apparently we're in a new division this year) are in either upstate NY or Massachusetts. Devin, our MD, is thinking we might try for a Massachusetts one because she's from just outside of Boston, so we could stay at her house and not have to pay for a hotel or try to go back that same night. It's looking like it'll be an overnight affair because the event starts late and we have to stay the entire time because they announce the results of the quarterfinals that night, so it makes sense to just stay wherever we are and come back the next day. Either way, I'm still really excited to compete, it's going to be so much fun. We've already started thinking about what we want our set to be and I can't wait til we figure it out because the ICCA set is going to have all new soloists, which gives me another chance to try for a solo and see if I get one this time.
Other than that, life has been pretty boring, nothing much to report. OH, my section of Song Analysis performing in Program Meeting this Friday, which I'm both excited and nervous for. I know both of my songs and I feel confident in the way I perform them, but it'll be my first time performing in Program Meeting, and my first time performing for literally the entire program since maybe New Student Cab. I don't count the Date Auction performances because not everyone was there, and it was more of a fun casual thing than what Friday is going to be. OH YEAH! New Student Cab is this weekend and I'm sooooo excited to see all the cute freshies perform! I remember how excited the upperclassmen were for my NSC and I'm super excited for this years'.
The competition starts in February and there's a couple different dates we could compete for quarterfinals, and I think we get to submit our preferences and then they assign us a date. I looked at the website and the locations for ICCA Northeast (that's our divison, apparently we're in a new division this year) are in either upstate NY or Massachusetts. Devin, our MD, is thinking we might try for a Massachusetts one because she's from just outside of Boston, so we could stay at her house and not have to pay for a hotel or try to go back that same night. It's looking like it'll be an overnight affair because the event starts late and we have to stay the entire time because they announce the results of the quarterfinals that night, so it makes sense to just stay wherever we are and come back the next day. Either way, I'm still really excited to compete, it's going to be so much fun. We've already started thinking about what we want our set to be and I can't wait til we figure it out because the ICCA set is going to have all new soloists, which gives me another chance to try for a solo and see if I get one this time.
Other than that, life has been pretty boring, nothing much to report. OH, my section of Song Analysis performing in Program Meeting this Friday, which I'm both excited and nervous for. I know both of my songs and I feel confident in the way I perform them, but it'll be my first time performing in Program Meeting, and my first time performing for literally the entire program since maybe New Student Cab. I don't count the Date Auction performances because not everyone was there, and it was more of a fun casual thing than what Friday is going to be. OH YEAH! New Student Cab is this weekend and I'm sooooo excited to see all the cute freshies perform! I remember how excited the upperclassmen were for my NSC and I'm super excited for this years'.
Sunday, November 9, 2014
No New News
Sorry to report that nothing exceptionally exciting or thrilling has happened this week.
Classes are still going well, we're getting closer and closer to my section of Song Analysis' performance in program meeting on the 21st. We're getting to our third and fourth songs in class, and I think we'll be deciding soon which two of the three/four that we want to present in program. I'm still on my second song but I'm almost done with song two, and I'll be moving on to song three. I don't think everyone will get to a fourth song, it really just depends on timing and how many people get coached per day and whatnot. I'd like to get to a fourth song, so that I have more options when I have to choose what to perform in program meeting.
Mixtapes rehearsals are going well, we're hard at work rehearsing for our next concert on December 6. Everything seems to be moving quicker for this concert, but I think this is the normal rate at which we work, or at least the rate at which we try to work. I heard that last year (and even for the first concert) they wouldn't get the theme decided until maybe a week or two before the concert so they wouldn't get advertisements out (like posters) until pretty soon before the concert. So now we're trying to get this kind of stuff decided ahead of time so that we can advertise sooner and get the word out to more people. This upcoming concert is our holiday concert, and the theme is The Mixtapes Stole Christmas. We've got some holiday mash-ups mixed in with regular repertoire, which is nice because it means it won't be all holidays songs.
Classes are still going well, we're getting closer and closer to my section of Song Analysis' performance in program meeting on the 21st. We're getting to our third and fourth songs in class, and I think we'll be deciding soon which two of the three/four that we want to present in program. I'm still on my second song but I'm almost done with song two, and I'll be moving on to song three. I don't think everyone will get to a fourth song, it really just depends on timing and how many people get coached per day and whatnot. I'd like to get to a fourth song, so that I have more options when I have to choose what to perform in program meeting.
Mixtapes rehearsals are going well, we're hard at work rehearsing for our next concert on December 6. Everything seems to be moving quicker for this concert, but I think this is the normal rate at which we work, or at least the rate at which we try to work. I heard that last year (and even for the first concert) they wouldn't get the theme decided until maybe a week or two before the concert so they wouldn't get advertisements out (like posters) until pretty soon before the concert. So now we're trying to get this kind of stuff decided ahead of time so that we can advertise sooner and get the word out to more people. This upcoming concert is our holiday concert, and the theme is The Mixtapes Stole Christmas. We've got some holiday mash-ups mixed in with regular repertoire, which is nice because it means it won't be all holidays songs.
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