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[05 Jul 2009|11:56am] |
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Explanation to follow after I've had some sleep; just got home, didn't sleep last night, 4 hours the two nights before. Crash time.
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[04 Jul 2009|09:01pm] |
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Well, I thought that was going to be just another workshop. Little did I know.
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[01 Jul 2009|06:01pm] |
Just had third rehearsal with them. It's an uncomfortable shock to be the only one in the room making mistakes, the one for whom everyone has to stop, after hours of the day being one of the ones in the room making the fewest mistakes. AAaaa.
Dinner now. Mark and Eric are still awesome. And Liz and Malina, too.
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[30 Jun 2009|09:01pm] |
And so yay. Eric is indeed a great friend; he and Mark are both just as sharp and bantery as the Swift boys, but they're also both overtly gentle and sweet. Especially Mark, who immediately when I met him reminded me of my dad, the very little I remember. He, Eric, and Malina all know and sing or play often for Toby Twining; Eric and Mark are on the Chrysalid Requiem recording.
Today was less upsetting; it was, however, just as tiring. I had a real rehearsal with the serious dudes. It went well, though I am still highly intimidated, and Liz brought me some food since I had to miss dinner for it. We all walk back together and now we sit in the living room playing internets and talking. I feel better.
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[29 Jun 2009|04:25pm] |
Am now calm.
Yeah, first-ever rehearsal with a pro a cappella group and I was 45 minutes late. And crying.
Last night, Eric and some other people from my group, mostly Mark (an awesome, mellow, perfect-pitched jazz pianist who can give everyone's pitches at machine gun speed and also has interesting things to say about interpretation), Malina (his cellist-composer girlfriend), Andrew (our only tenorish dude) and Sonya (the lady in charge of administrative stuff) stayed up way too late. First it was talking, then excitedly talking, then showing people stuff on the internet (none of them had seen Dr. Horrible), then Youtube surfing in the best kind of way. Mark showed me a Mondegreen video for O Fortuna that made me laugh so hard I almost died. The upshot of all this riotous gaiety was that I didn't get to bed til around 2:30. Which was fine, because we have today off.
So I woke up around 11:45 and ambled to lunch, where I sat with mostly the same people and talked. Mama had mentioned we should go to the bank to get me a DCU card with my own name on it before I go to Europe, so I got a little antsy when we kept talking and talking and didn't leave, because we had to be back by 3 for my rehearsal and I didn't know where the bank was.
Long story short, we drove a long way and couldn't find it in a reasonable amount of time and drove a long way back and I had to call the Western Wind and tell them I'd be late to their rehearsal. And then I had to call again to revise my ETA later. I arrived in quite a state, let me tell you. All I could think of was that this was such an opportunity and generally in the real world when you're late, you're fired. Also, I love and respect every single individual member of that ensemble and hated to inconvenience or disappoint them.
They were, of course, sweet and forgiving. And once the rehearsal started and I stopped fauceting, I did decently (though not as well as I might otherwise have done). And then I ran away and found the most deserted corner I could find and wallowed in the shame for half an hour. I think I'm okay now, though, and ready for the rest of the week. This computer is so tiny.
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[28 Jun 2009|07:08pm] |
Thoroughly alive! First two days of the workshop through with. Again, amazingness. Singing all day every day. Though I miss Alan an absurd amount; this thing is better with company. Eric, whom Roger mentioned to me several times and who is a Chanticleer alum and who hadn't been to a Western Wind workshop in like ten years, is awesome to hang out with. He and I will probably be great friends by the end of this thing. And we talk about Alan.
My group has done awesomeness, and people compliment me way too much, and I finally got the internet to work on the tiny tiny laptop my mom bought a couple days ago. SOon I will probably go get my mom and we will drive to Stamford and I will take a train to New York to visit Stephan, and then come back to rehearse with the Wind tomorrow at 3. I am swept away.
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[26 Jun 2009|01:36am] |
At 10:50 I will be on a plane to Northampton, MA, where the Western Wind will kick my voice back into gear for a cappella ensembly goodness. I haven't been in... three or four years. Updates will probably be fewer and farther between, as life becomes utterly, utterly full during this workshop, and it will probably be even fuller this time, as I'll have to rehearse a lot outside the official workshop rehearsal hours. It'll be fun, but much more intense than the last time, since there'll be twice the music to learn.
David came this afternoon and showed me the design he's got for the house he's going to put on the orchard property. It's a castle. AND I GET TO DESIGN THE DRAGON that is climbing over the second floor. IT WILL BE SO COOL. I almost don't want to leave, because the process is so much fun, but he'll work on it while I'm gone and then WE WILL BUILD IT it will be awesome.
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[25 Jun 2009|01:35am] |
I talked more this evening than I have at once in ages. Well, I guess the last time was also with Trevor. I met him at Café Brasil and we proceeded to talk. A lot. Some about the play, some about Sorkin, but mostly about me and my issues. Friend therapy for the win; he may fix me yet. Not that that's what he's trying to do.
He had to be somewhere around 8:30, so I loafed over to Susan's and talked to her about many of the same issues for half an hour (also helpful and informative) before getting to Mollie's and talking to her. And of course, season 7.
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[24 Jun 2009|06:25pm] |
Annnd now he's gone. We bopped around town this morning after I made everybody eggs. His apartment two blocks away to get his stuff to drive to Wyoming with, Ikea to return bed slats, 59 Diner for lunch, Texas Art Supply for dye... And then we watched Company, so, as ever, I am in a contemplative mood. He gave me a green leather sketchbook he found at a flea market in London, and drew a puppy on the first page.
Dinner with Trevor, then, off to Mollie's for Buffy.
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[23 Jun 2009|11:09pm] |
A plethora of superlative situations.
I am back, with Joodles, from The Farnsworth Invention, with a talkback after the show with AARON SORKIN.
He even answered my questions, though not from the card I asked on. Joodles and I agreed that it's not just my Sorkin fangirlishness; it's a good play. Ethics of advertising, history of TV, spirit of exploration. For once, I could hear and see the themes and personal relationships and foreshadowing and reference as the play happened, rather than thinking at the end, "oh, that was smart and satisfying" and then listening to Stephan analyze its quality and being forced to agree. It helped that Sorkin himself pointed out some things he intended that I had noticed or suspected. I don't know whether to feel proud that I followed the smart and understood it, or dumb since I could only articulate it once he explained it himself.
In any case, I'd go again, even without the talkback after. I saw Evan and Dan Derozier there, too, which was a surprise, and Trevor, which was not (he called before the show to say he'd decided to go). I'd better see some more of them both before the end of this summer, Trevor particularly before the end of this week, except that JOODLES IS HERE and I hardly want to do anything but hang out with him before he leaves. He's crashing in the guest room because his roommate has the key to his apartment. Getting him from the airport was a trip; I brought the binder full of Western Wind music and my mp3 player to listen to them with, since we left to get there two hours before his plane to beat the traffic. It sure is right to have him around. I may have mentioned it before.
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[22 Jun 2009|04:25pm] |
Omgz the music all came in the mail today. There's a lot, and I only know a little of it, and I only kinda know a little more of it. I haven't had to learn new music at speed in a long time; the standard choral rep of Rice and the HSC doesn't vary often, and their rehearsal time is ludicrously excessive. I also haven't been sight-reading regularly on the weekends for over a year now, so I am not going to just trust I can swing it when I get to Massacusetts. I'm going to buckle down and practice in advance, which is something I never used to do.
At the moment, I'm in the process of extracting tracks from the giant blobs of concert recording they sent me, so I can listen to individual songs with impunity. This is putting my VJ and Cabaret Night uploads on hold.
Also, grad school health forms are coming to be due soon, so we rushed to the Health Services center to get my vaccination records we couldn't find in the boxes. However, my mom is copying all the information from one form to another. So I am doing this instead. My mom is so helpful. Sometimes I worry she takes care of so much for me that I won't be able to do anything and be a real person when it comes time for real life.
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[21 Jun 2009|07:20pm] |
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I was on my way down the sidewalk to Southwell's when Bryce hailed me from a car and gave me a ride and the DVD of my Cabaret recital. We chatted a bit over my burger before he had to leave, and I walked home and watched the thing. It's vocally worse than I expected, acting about what I remember. I'm in the middle of burning it to the computer; it and VJ may be up on youtube within a couple days.
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[21 Jun 2009|11:32am] |
Tony's externally gracious family threw him a graduation/recital-viewing party, which I unexpectedly had the opportunity to attend. It has been a very long time since I went to a party that made me that nervous. I got better at interactive crowds (impersonal crowds don't bother me) in college with all the cast parties, but man, I remember now how difficult it is to be a social person. Difficulty compounded by the quixotic regard in which his parents hold me and my mom; they've never said anything to our faces, but they apparently object to us once we're gone. I have a little more skill, and a little more inclination, towards diplomacy now than I did in high school (hurrah for acting training), but I am by no means a socialite. It's exhausting and nerve-wracking.
The food, however, was quite good. As was the company for the most part, since Tony considerately seemed to spend most of his time with us. And it was fun to see half his recital projected onto a screen hung over the overturned trampoline, played over gigantic speakers. He'll come by Tuesday to play us the rest (the crowd was getting restless; they were more appreciative of the Dream Girls song Danny sang at the piano inside later). Maybe by then I'll have a copy of my own last recital.
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[20 Jun 2009|01:54am] |
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At least we got to Sam's Club today to print some awesome pictures I'm taking to Boston with me. Otherwise, I went to Mollie's house and finished a whole season of vampiric goodness. And an awesome finale that I was totally gullibled into. And I avoided a Salad call because contrary to earlier belief he did actually freak me out a little last time.
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[18 Jun 2009|06:37pm] |
The trip is finally coming together, despite a super-eventful day yesterday. Well, it was much less eventful than most school days, but it felt pretty eventful for the kind of lazy summer I've been having lately.
I went down to Chinatown to get a physical from the doctor I last saw, which was for my physical in high school for the swim team. He was just as nondescript this time, but at least time-efficient; the whole visit, including wait, was just 15 minutes. So we had an hour and a half for lunch before Darla would be in her office to chiropract me. Since we were already in Chinatown, I poked my mom into going to Tan Do, which is the official feast location of Hammeltide, Laudetide, and the Swift House. It was surreal without them, but I ate a quarter of a roast duck and was comatose for the chiropractor visit.
Since Darla tends to talk, the extra hour I had assumed we'd take wasn't quite enough, and Andrew showed up at my house before I got back. Still, we had time to peruse the highlights of the Candide DVD that had come in the mail, and then we went to the library (I have to sign in these days, which is weird) to see Parker and pick some cities to aim for when we're in Europe backpacking together.
Katina, of all people, was in town and called to invite me to dinner, so I brought Andrew with me and we picked her well-traveled brain about European arrangements. Carrie and her lovely boyfriend Aditya were there too, and even Zach, whom I had not seen in forever and whom I always forget how much I like. I stuffed myself with awesome exotic food for the second time that day, and then we adjourned eventually to the Fischers' house where Carrie was housesitting. She and Katina made it all the way through the Company DVD I made, and seemed to appreciate the kind of production comparison I love to contemplate.
Meghan, though Katina had mentioned she might call, didn't get off work till late and so Andrew drove Katina to her house and we ate blueberry tart and ended up talking till 2, which was somewhat unexpected. Andrew's strange father accepted the premise that Andrew could spend the night somewhere other than home, and we continued the Katina and Meghan adventure in the morning. We had lunch at Ziggy's and a couple turns watching DVDs of our operas, including the Company scenes, before people got busy and Andrew dropped me back home.
An especially eventful couple days, considering the way the summer goes while I'm home.
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[15 Jun 2009|06:46pm] |
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I just got back from the dentist for the first time in 20 years. I got a filling. Now I can't feel the right side of my face. It's distractingly weird.
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[13 Jun 2009|03:36pm] |
The zoo yesterday morning was more of a kid-herding than animal-watching experience, but it was fun nonetheless. Heather and her kids, as well as Marissa's husband and kids, showed up and did the moderate rounds that such a crowd requires, and all before noon. A nap was in order afterwards (not least for me, as I am not used to being up before 1pm these days), so we hung out at Marissa's apartment and played with knives some (Steven's a Cutco sales rep this summer), and then we all schlepped to Heather's, where the tiny kids discovered what water balloons do when you drop them and we all ate barbecue and talked and played with more knives till way long past when Steven should have left. And then he had to bring me home, and hung out talking till 2. I do like him quite a lot.
Today, pants. Well, eventually. I am making a dent in the pile of pants from boxes of yore that no one has tried on in decades, and I have a short pile of "will never fit me/I'll never wear", a slightly larger pile of "these are okay to wear now", a much larger pile of "these would fit me if I lost 20 lbs", and a gargantuan pile of "I would wear these if they didn't come up to my bra/the legs didn't taper to a pencil point". For short, I call these piles "no", "yes", "later", and "alter".
Meanwhile, I am rewatching Castle, because Nathan Fillion is a charming devil and I love his relationship with his daughter.
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[12 Jun 2009|12:51am] |
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Driving, ick. But Steven, one of my favorite cousins, is in town! And he was at Marissa's house, so I drove there. With many a mishap, but no accidents. And we hung out, and I was reminded why Steven is one of my favorite cousins. And I drove back. And perhaps I will go to the zoo in the morning.
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[10 Jun 2009|11:27pm] |
I exist, I promise. Just not very interestingly. I had a couple thoughts about life, theater, and writing, but my coherence left with all the water I threw up the other day, so I'm not going to try to put it together. Suffice it to say, they're important.
I went to get my external drive back from Dan, even though I almost didn't because driving is still a really unpleasant activity for me. It was much better than I expected, though, as was the visit, even though Dan had work to do. He was a little crazy from having too long hours and too little sleep, but we've rarely had such a fun chuckly time outside of some kind of rehearsal backstage when no one's looking.
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[09 Jun 2009|01:50pm] |
It was the food. Ah, well. Reward for 24 hours of miserable food poisoning=losing five pounds overnight.
Yes, I'm kidding, I know it's mostly water and I am dehydrated and fixing that as fast as I can.
Another thing I accomplished, though, while unable to move more than a millimeter without incurring the wrath of the bacteria, was cleaning out the TiVo of the random interesting really long stuff that takes up all the space and prevents the latest episode of HIMYM or House or something equally important. First there was a 2-hour PBS documentary about the Last Days of Fillmore West, which was a huge and amazing concert series at a San Francisco hall. There were lots of hair and round glasses and flares, and I kind of wish I had been there, because Lamb and Cold Blood and Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead and Santana are kind of an awesome lineup, especially at the height of their powers. The next two-hour thing we knocked off was a Clapton/Windwood collab concert, and boy can they still play. Then a four-hour TV movie somebody made of Pratchett's The Color of Magic, which was underwhelming but fun anyway. Nice to see Tim Curry, Christopher Lee, Sean Astin, and Jeremy Irons in a movie together. The associations I have for each of them make for a nice LotR/Rocky Horror/Lion King incoherence while the connections in my brain don't fire properly.
Anyway, better now, possibly even hungry, plan to sing today if the stomach acid hasn't completely dissolved my vocal cords.
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