Singing High and Loud

They switched up the process for Candlelight choir this year.  Due to increasing demand, they have switched from first come-first served sign-ups to a lottery system, and now they're actually doing auditions.  They're not calling the process auditions, but "selections."  Either way, the idea that maybe there wouldn't be a tone-deaf person wailing behind me this year led me and my big fat ego to go out for it.

My "selection" was yesterday.

Of the four song selections, I originally decided to do the one that ends in a high A.  Why?  Soprano I ego, of course!  I broke out my old Candlelight rehearsal CD as soon as I signed up for "selections," and have been singing along with it on and off ever since.  Unfortunately, most of my other singing these days is of the alone in the car belting along with Christina Aguilera and Pink variety.  It turns out alternating between belting pop and singing high soprano (you know, with basically no warming up) will do a number on your vocal cords.

So I chickened out of the song that ends in the A, and instead went with the one with basically four bars of sustained G instead (from 1:23 to the end in this video, if you're curious).  I can't say I nailed it - I've got a lot more air in my voice than I used to - but I really do think I did well.  Well enough, for sure! 

I mentioned my "selection" on Facebook yesterday and got a comment that made me laugh: "You're a soprano?"  To hear me speak, you'd never guess that.  And the comment made me flash back to middle school, 7th or 8th grade.  I was auditioning for Ms. D, I believe for Small Ensemble, and she didn't even look up from the piano. 
her: voice part?
me: alto
her: (laughing, and speaking in a deep man voice to imitate me) alto

We then proceeded to do vocal scales, starting in the low alto range.  We kept going up and up, higher than I'd ever really even tried to sing.  I was aware that Ms. D was looking up from the piano, eyebrows WAY up in surprise.  Heck, I couldn't believe those notes were coming out of my mouth!  And the only reason my voice cracked and we stopped was because the girl standing next to me was laughing or making a face and it made me laugh. 

I've been a soprano ever since.

As far as singing goes, it's one of my true loves.  I'm better than average, but not great.  I still sing in the car, but rarely in front of other people.  Karaoke? Gah...no way!  I love singing Phantom more than Les Mis because I enjoy the high parts.  And I look back on that one moment in middle school as a turning point of sorts.  What if I never knew I had those high notes in me?

Anyway, just my self-absorbed deep thought of the day!

0% Normal, 100% Jamie

This morning I took a jog around the neighborhood, rather than run on the treadmill at the gym. This allows me to sleep for an extra 45 minutes and be a little less self-conscious about whatever random workout clothes I put on (dark bra + light shirt is much less of a problem outdoors before sunrise). Scott was nice enough to come out with me today, riding his bike (on the sidewalk… tsk tsk) behind me. That meant I could go down dark and shady paths because his bike has a headlight and I’m less likely to be abducted/raped/murdered when he’s with me.

I’ve noticed pretty much since I started running that I have an affliction of sorts caused by years of show choir and marching band: It is incredibly difficult for me to run or walk to music without matching my footsteps to the beat. It’s even harder to ignore the beat if it’s a song I’ve ever performed… and boy howdy that covers a lot of music! If the song is too fast, I find myself taking shorter steps. Too slow? I lengthen my stride and keep to the beat. Also, I have some smallish quirks relating to certain songs. For example, when “Barbie Girl” comes on, I tend to swing my ponytail more and bob my head left and right.

About 20 minutes into this morning’s run, “Greased Lightning” came bopping in through my headphones, and the music... moved me. That’s right, I did the arm motions to the song’s chorus every time through the song. Now, we were on a stretch of road where there were no dog walkers or drivers. It’s unlikely that I would have done the same thing if I was aware of anyone else. During the 10-miler when the song came on, I did the hand motions to “greased lightnin’…go greased lightnin’” but not the full-blown hand-arm combo. (those particular hand motions, by the way, are good for relieving dehydration-related sausage fingers)

(the chorus starts at 0:31)

It’s also unlikely I would have done the same thing if Scott hadn’t been with me. Occasionally during my longer training runs in the summer, I would take an extended walk break and start belting out a few lines of “Rainbow Connection,” as interpreted by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Those little performance breaks have become my way of saying “I know you’re there…thanks for not ditching me!”

So there you have it. If you’re ever in my neighborhood before dawn and see me jogging, just hang back a few yards and wait for the show. You never know what you might get!

Vocal Exercises

Whether or not you enjoy (or even appreciate) opera, I don't think it's possible to watch this video without at least admiring the control and discipline it takes to sing a song like this... and to make it look like you're having so much fun while you do it.



Incidentally, I found this song while flipping through YouTube for another song that Elphie might like, since she has recently shown a tendency to absolutely lose herself in a specific song I found by accident. If I can remember how to use my camera to shoot video, I'll see if she'll let me record her listening to her favorite song tomorrow.

(nope, Cecilia Bartoli didn't do it for her at all)

Lyrics and Music

I made up a song to sing to my cats today. Kilo seemed to really like it. Milo tolerated it. And Elphie won't have any part of it. Here are the lyrics:

Scratching your head
I am scratching your head
Scratching your head
I am scratching your head
Scratch your head

Now we can have a sing-along!

5 of Diamonds

I started a rap group.

OK, I started an imaginary rap group. At work. With a random assortment of people who absolutely DON'T belong in a rap group. So far we have a name (see above - which is a clever pun on a certain rating and will make advertising easier because we'll have a calling card, just like The Joker). Next up, PhotoShopping a funny album cover. I haven't gotten that far, and probably never will. That's the kind of thing you really can't do at work, and I don't have enough time at home to do it. Plus, I don't have PhotoShop, just Paint and some other cheap photo editing software. Anyway, back to the members:

J-Mo
That's me. I haven't really flushed out my character as much as some of the others. I know that I'll need long hair in a tight ponytail and giant hoop earrings.

C-Diddy
The skinny kid from the kitchen. He's going to have a big gold chain with a knife or whisk hanging from it. Much like some rappers do songs about shooting or being shot (am I showing my ignorance of the genre? oh well!), he'll be rapping about cutting. It will sound bad-ass, but if you really listen to the lyrics, they're about butterflying shrimp (think about it: "I'll cut out your insides") or dicing vegetables.

C-Money
(look, it wasn't my idea to have two guys named Chris. that's just how it happened) He has already decided that his look is going to involve a chain with a giant Mercedes symbol hanging from it. I also want to put him in pin-stripes. He'll be like the Posh Spice of our group.

The Iz
The man is 7 feet tall, so I have made him the one who stands in the back and spins the records. He's going to need a sweat band or something. Perhaps a bandanna tied around his head? I also see him in sunglasses all the time.

E-Sharp you can call her F for short
Her name starts with E, and she plays the harp. So she got a musical stage name that makes me laugh every time I think about it. She was the last one added to the group, and I spent all my creative energy on her name. Right now her persona is blank to me.

C'mon... admit it... you want to see an album cover... Actually, no lie, three of the people in my imaginary group know about it and really do want to see an album cover. Somehow this little imagination exercise is getting me through the boring moments of my job. Every life needs a little silliness.

And speaking of silly, here's a poem that C-Money and I collaborated on yesterday:

There once was a man from Nantucket...
He had small scallops.

Idina!

Last night was the Idina Menzel concert at House of Blues.

I can't make my mind break down the night into anything coherent, because it was just one big blur of fabulous. She did (I think) every song off of her new album, plus 2 songs from RENT and 2 songs from Wicked. Oh, and Roxanne. Hey - every concert needs a random cover, right?

Idina is fabulous beyond words, and her set was about 2 hours long. Sweet! I love the stuff off the new album (note to self: check BMG before buying anywhere else), but the most thrilling to me were the Broadway songs that she made famous in the first place. "No Day But Today" was totally surreal for me because I was on another stage singing a much less fabulous version just the day before. And I can't even describe what it was like to hear her do "Defying Gravity."

Hearing her do "For Good" is probably something I'll never forget. That song is really special to me for reasons that I'm not going to talk about here. But I had tears rolling down my cheeks hearing her sing it live. Wow. So of course, I went on YouTube to find a video from another concert date, and the one I found has crappy video and crappy audio. She was better last night. But here you go. The song starts around 3:11.



If she came back next week, I'd go again. For now, I guess I'll just have to buy the album and occasionally watch blurry, shaky, illegal YouTube videos to relive the memory.

Yes

Yes, I am embarrassed that a few moments of this video made my inner 10-year-old squeal in delight.

You don't have to watch it... but I bet you will!

Dispatches from the In Box

This NetFlix debacle is, I believe, finally over. But that's not what I thought 10 minutes ago. I had the following e-mail this morning in my in-box:

Dear Jamie,

It appears that you accidently* returned one of your personal DVDs or CDs in a Netflix envelope. Rest assured, we will send your disc right back to you.

If you haven't already sent back the Netflix movie you intended to return, please include it with your next return along with a note including your name and email address so we can match the movie to your account.

-The Netflix Team

Umm... you mean the personal CD that you sent to me? You're going to send it back?!? But it's a Backstreet Boys song. I don't want it!

So I called customer service to figure out what was going on. The nice man (Derek) who answered my call assured me that it was an automated message, and that they had already processed the return and a new movie is on its way to me. Let's hope he's right.

Any bets on whether or not that other CD is being returned to me after all?

* I cut & pasted that right from their e-mail. Apparently NetFlix doesn't have spell check.

Unexpected Song

Well that was interesting!

I just went over to the TV to play a NetFlix movie I've had for a few weeks, and I got quite a surprise when I removed the disc from its sleeve. There was no DVD in the sleeve - there was a CD-R with handwriting on the front. It says, "I love you like a fat kid loves cake. Musical Clue!" And the ! is dotted with a heart.

Seriously.

I didn't want to risk exposing the computer to some malicious hacker with girly handwriting, but I just had to know what was on the CD. So I put it in the stereo in the bedroom (you know - the one with 1/4" of dust on top that hasn't been used in about a year). The CD had one single track: I Want You Back, which I believe it by the Back Street Boys.

I wish I knew the story behind the disc. Was there a break-up? Did she try to surprise him with the disc by hiding it inside a movie sleeve, and then accidentally drop it in the mail? Did he send it back as an act of rejection? Is the movie I tried to rent really worth re-ordering?

Oh, the intrigue...

Pick a Day, Any Day

Scalzi's Weekend Assignment: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday: of all the days of the work week, which is your favorite? Yes, I know a lot of people will default toward Friday, because it's an easy one, but I hope you will actually put some thought into your response and give each day its due. If you finally settle on Friday, fair enough. But even Monday has its good points, you know?

Well John, I've got you on a technicality here. I work a goofy shift - four 10-hour days with Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday off. So of the days you mentioned, Monday is definitely my favorite. Because it's my day off without Mr. ParkHopper, I get to sit at home and just vegetate all day. I even get to control the TV remote (which never happens otherwise)! Occasionally I'll do a load of laundry or wash dishes, but for the most part I just watch DVDs and play on the computer.

Of my own work days, Sundays are my favorite. But not because it's "my Friday." Friday and Saturday nights are quite busy at The Restaurant, and most of my energy is focused on making sure the tiny details of the day are taken care of. Sundays are my get-things-done day. I catch up on my paperwork, order supplies, and generally leave feeling like I've accomplished quite a bit. In fact, this Sunday promises to be quite exciting. A crew is coming in to yank some pre-existing countertops off the wall on Wednesday, so Boss #2 and I have to clean all the stuff from under and on top of the counters so that the office is ready to go on Wednesday.

Extra Credit: Name a song you like with a day of the week in it (you can include Saturdays and Sundays for consideration here).

In high school, our concert choir was at a choral festival and heard another group performing some weird song where they were basically singing the days of the week. The really weird part is that they started with Tuesday! However, I pick Friday I'm in Love by The Cure, which also lists all the days of the week. But at least they started with Monday!

Ring Tones

I was on the Sprint website this morning trying to upgrade Scott's text message plan (who knew 300 per month wouldn't be enough??) and instead came across an ad for a "free ringtone… just use this code." So I went browsing for ring tones.

This process is quite overwhelming to me. In general, I think that phones should RING. They shouldn't talk. They shouldn't sing. And they shouldn't play the Mexican Hat Dance. AND I can't believe there are about 4 zillion different ring tones out there to choose from.

In the end, I chose this one. Why the lame obscure song from The Wizard of Oz? I don't know! I guess because it made me laugh! And because they didn't have the guards singing "OREO COOKIES."

I still need to find a good call tone, but that will wait until another day. For now, I will just have to settle for being embarrassed every time my phone starts singing, "the wind began to switch… the house, to pitch… and suddenly the hinges started to unhitch… just then a witch, to satisfy an itch… went flying on her broomstick thumbing for a hitch." And I'm guessing my friends from Encore! would appreciate the humor as well.

Nerves of Jelly

Well, I had my excitement for the month last night. I actually went out and auditioned for something. "Something" in this case being a choir composed of Disney people and their families/friends. I had been talking myself into and out of auditioning for a week. In fact, at 4 pm I didn't think the novocaine from my 2 fillings was going to have worn off and had pretty much decided to once again let something potentially fun slip away. Then by 6 I had decided I was fine and needed to get out and actually try something new and scary.

So I went out and tried something new and scary.

The main choir has about 120 people in it, and then there's a bunch of solos and smaller ensembles as well. I don't know how many auditioned total, but I was #50 on the sign-up sheet last night. In my favor: there's not a whole lot of Sop-1's out there. I know that from Candlelight - 90% of the women in my section defaulted to the lower parts.

Besides, I feel pretty good about my audition. I got some positive feedback from the three guys on the panel (the two in pink shirts and one in a blue shirt - that's literal, not code for anything else), and got through my entire song selection, which was almost twice as long as the 16 bars the flyer said I would get to sing. Of course, I did mine a cappella because I didn't know the arrangement on the sheet music and was afraid it would mess me up. So then I had to sing When You Wish Upon a Star - I'm assuming to show that I can follow a piano on timing, etc. The snag: I forgot to bring my water into the building with me, and was there about 45 minutes before my audition, so my voice was a little bit airy. But I nailed the music, and was so strong on the high notes that it sounded like I could go much higher without a problem (in fact, my high range only has another 2 strong notes in it - after that it's a crap-shoot).

All along I had been planning on singing Think of Me from Phantom, mostly because I was supposed to pick a song that showed my range. But then the night before I came across my Carousel music from high school and decided on If I Loved You (Windows Media audio file) because the range was wider - middle C# up to high G - and I figured it was less likely that they were going to hear a half dozen people doing that song.

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me. We don't hear anything for two weeks - they said they'd be e-mailing everyone by May 16. Of course, if I do make it, and you are related to me or live in the area, you will be expected to fork out the money for a ticket (which gets donated to a charity anyway - it's probably a tax deduction!) to come and see the show at the end of July.

Oh yeah - I also learned yesterday that Kilo does not like it when I sing high. He stood at the balcony door and cried to be let out every time I ran through the song. Ha!

Happy December!

For those of you in Central Florida, don't forget that Magic 107.7 is now running Christmas music non-stop... except for their frequent chat breaks and commercial breaks.

Honestly, I keep flipping onto the station (I actually set another radio pre-set button for this one), and every time they are either in commercial or it's Delilah talking to people about their miserable existances. I have yet to hear an entire song!

And I think my Christmas CDs are packed with the rest of the decorations that haven't come out yet. Oh well - I'll just have to listen to my latest compilation CD ("Jamie's Mostly Showtunes CD") for a little while longer.

Meow Meow Meow

Weekend Assignment #94: What's the worst possible song to get stuck in your head? You know: the song that once you hear it you cannont drive from your skull, even with an ice pick and a centrifuge. They have a word for that kind of song: "Earworm." We want to know what you consider to be the most evil earworm possible.

Possibly the most evil song of all time is a little tune from a Disney ride. Need I say more? Let's all sing together...

It's a world of laughter

A world of tears

It's a world of hopes

And a world of fears

There's so much that we share

That it's time we're aware

It's a small world after all

There is just one moon

And one golden sun

And a smile means Friendship to every one

Though the mountains divide

And the oceans are wide

It's a small world after all

It's a small world after all

It's a small world after all

It's a small world after all

It's a small, small world

What really amazes me about this song is the love-hate relationship people have with it. Frankly, I love it. I want to learn how to sing it in all the languages that they have through the attraction. But I only love it when I ride the ride. I don't love it at elementary school recitals. I don't love it when I call Disney and get put on hold. And I certainly don't love it when I hear random goofy parents singing it to their children.

Extra Credit: Is there a song you can use to drive the evil earworm out? Unfortunately, the only way for me to knock out one annoying song is to replace it with another. I've found that usually the only reason a song gets stuck in my head is when I can't remember the next line. It's like a scratch in a record that causes the track to skip over and over. That's why I like the jingle for Meow Mix!

Meow Meow Meow Meow
Meow Meow Meow Meow
Meow Meow Meow Meow
Meow Meow Meow Meow

(yes - I know it has real words too)
I've found that I can walk past someone at work and sing this under my breath and the next thing I know, it's stuck in everyone's head and noone knows why. Shh...don't tell!