Good Things

Well, I'm home for the holidays. After a long day in airports and on airplanes, I finally arrived on Christmas day. Of course, my right leg smelled of oranges, courtesy of one of my row-mates, and my bum was a bit sore from being kicked and nudged through my seat by a small child almost repeatedly throughout the flight from Minnesota to Washington, but I got home. And just in time for a fabulous Christmas dinner, and more Christmas presents than I was expecting--always a welcome surprise. The next surprise was borne of a lie of omission by my parents. In view of the impending sale of my Grandma's estate, my parents have been shopping around for a new house. It must be said that a new house is well overdue my family, as our current house is the one we moved into when I was about a year old, when my parents were hardly twenty years old, and they weren't exactly expecting a family of four children. So, although our small house has been a good home, I am so completely excited that my parents will have the opportunity to move into a nicer, bigger, more comfortable home in a nice neighborhood. Oh, I got distracted. Anyway, they had told us that we would get to look at the three homes they'd narrowed their search down to. They took us to the first home, and we got out, expecting to look around. Not so. The owners had forgotten about the meeting, and were a little skittish about letting us in when the place was a mess. So, my dad said "well, take a good look, cause 'welcome home!'" Our collective response was sort of a "huh?" They had already bought the house, and escrow will close sometime around early February. So the next time I come home, it will be to a new house. I suppose I'm lucky in a way, having that happen long after my first years of college. But, on the other hand, perhaps others who have moved earlier and more often are more accustomed to change. Who knows. Either way, I'm happy for my parents, who got a spectacular deal on a house almost twice the size of the one I've known almost since birth. (1600 sq. ft. to 2250 sq. ft.) Yay for them!

Hmm. But change is good, right?

It's December 23. The night before the night before Christmas. My activities for the first non-working, non-churching, non-classing, non-practicing day in months? Went to bed around 5am, woke at 10am, 12pm, and finally, 2pm. Made lunch, ate lunch, compulsively checked email, watched parts of Return of the King. Took a nap. Woke around 6pm and took a shower. Ahhh, nothing like a fabulously indulgent shower after a fabulously indulgent day. Also, nothing like brushing your teeth way later than you should. Makes your teeth feel extra squeaky. Well, mine at least. 8pm, dressed and bundled to fetch last minute things (i.e. cab cash, chocolate) before Sunday, as all activities tomorrow will be limited to before 2pm. Looked for my keys. Did not find them. Cursed, yelled a bit, became frustrated. Still did not find my keys. Roommate's boyfriend came home with roommate's keys. Borrowed them, and went outside for the first time today. It's a lovely forty degrees, which feels excellent (said like Mr. Burns). Now it's 11pm, and I am eating the best pork chop I've ever cooked, accompanied by perfectly prepared lima beans. I've been reflecting on my activities for the next two days, and have concluded that this will be the weirdest Christmas I've ever had. Tomorrow, I will be at church from 2pm until sometime after midnight, and Sunday I will spend about twelve hours in airports and in the air. Weird. Merry Christmas.

The New Mini: Mini-blogs

I suppose I could just call the proceeding blog a bit better organized than its predecessors, but I like the title. Call me a fan of my own cleverness, but it’s staying.

New York Transit Strike

Boo. Seriously. I understand that striking is a universally recognized way for a large group of people to make demands and be heard. Nevertheless, the MTA striking is just ridiculous. Thank goodness I got out of NYC last night. In order for them to get more money, they’re currently being fined a million dollars a day as a union, and two day’s pay per day as workers. On top of that (and this is what pisses me off), they’re costing the 7 million would-be transit riders indeterminate amounts of time and money. The public now has to pay extra money for cabs, lose money in time off from work, or walk long distances in twenty degree weather. I hope the MTA feels good about making elderly citizens walk around outside in the frigid December air. This sucks. On a personal note, my little sister (who has no money to spare on cabs even if they’re available), whose plane home for Christmas leaves at 7am on Thursday, will be walking sixteen blocks through Harlem by herself with a large suitcase at 2 or 3 in the morning to catch a Metro North train into Grand Central where she will try to catch a shuttle to LaGuardia. Seriously—MTA, heed this warning! If my little sister misses Christmas while you’re at home on your butts losing money, my wrath will be swift and terrible. Perhaps just in the form of a strongly worded letter—but swift and terrible.

All is Quiet at Northeastern

I can’t hear anything. Nothing from outside that would indicate the presence of students/drunkards/partygoers at Northeastern University and its surrounding campus. This is a blessed miracle—something I forgot would happen when the end of the semester finally came around. Thanks be to God. Should I be so bold as to hope for a brief respite from the street vomit?

Almost Done With School Forever

That’s right, I am now officially one/1/ein/un/uno semester away from being done with school. Forever. Of course, I wouldn’t rule out an artist diploma program if a good (and valuable) situation presented itself, since it’s mostly just taking lessons and performing, but for now, I’ll be done for good this May. No more classes for me, no more late night procrastination unless it’s something I’m doing for myself. Hurrah. All joy aside, however, being done with school soon really brings into focus the fact that I’ll be moving to New York in September. To live and work. This is fairly daunting, since my profession is difficult/impossible to break into at the best of time. Oh well, I should think positively. There are doors to be opened, and I’ll just have to open them. And I’ll be living with my brother and sister. Well, that’s a double-edged sword, but I’ll be grateful to be with family, whether at my house, or my parents’.

Christmas Day Travel Plans

As much as I’m enjoying the silence in the streets around me, it does remind me that most students are home with their families right now, getting ready for Christmas in whatever way they usually do. I’ve known for a while that once you “grow up,” you don’t always get to go home for Christmas. Nevertheless, all I want to do right now is go home to my parents, and live in my pajamas for at least a week. This semester, while incredibly rewarding, was unbelievably stressful. Everything came to a head all at once, and was thrown into the mix with four big performances in two weeks, followed by finals, a weekend trip to New York, multiple Christmas Eve church services, and my flight home at 6am on Christmas Day. The rational part of my self wants to hope that the flight will be empty, but I know better. It’s pretty much the only flight going out to Washington that day, so it’s going to be packed. I wish I liked flying better. It’s not out of any fear that I dislike it—more of a slight claustrophobia, and a dislike of sitting very close to strangers in confined spaces thousands of feet in the air. Oh well, I’ll get home eventually, and partake in a half-conscious version of Christmas dinner and present-opening. Oh, the one other thing that’s a little less than fabulous about coming home on Christmas Day, is that when your parents include your plane fare in your Christmas present budget, it sucks when your flight costs almost three times as much as that of your siblings. Boo. Oh well, at least I get to go home and live in my pajamas. And see my dog. And not be in Boston. And not do any homework besides writing and arranging music for my recital. And see my family, my friends, and their new babies. New babies. Oh, woe.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Winter. In Boston. Which, for people like me who have very few sentimental feelings about snow--sucks. I'll just never understand how people can think fondly of cold, sharp, wet stuff driving insistently into your face. Or how about the immense, great lake-sized slush puddles in the gutters at intersections? You practically have to walk half a block to the nearest drain and cross there. Where are my hip-waders? In other news, the Django Bates concert was last night. It went really well, and was one of the most fun concerts I've ever been in. The audience seemed to have a great time, and we received a lot of positive feedback. All stress from having to learn ridiculously challenging music in a short period of time aside--it was a great experience, and a lot of fun. And, after having spent several hours in the presence of a funny Brit, my new favorite word is: "wonky," which I believe means "out of sorts, or weird." Now I'm off to walk/skate/wade home from work in the delightful slurpee outside. Cheers!

Jazzconnect Vocal Jazz Online Competition

So here’s the deal on the voting for the competition. It’s actually a fairly involved process, and your scoring (for me and everyone else) will only count if you go all the way. This being said, I know how busy everyone is, so I obviously don’t expect everyone to spend lots of time voting. But, if you have the extra time between now and December 26, and you think you’d enjoy listening to a bunch of jazz singers and rating them accordingly (Jenny, this one’s for you!), then by all means, go to this link:

www.jazzconnect.com/competition/

You’ll have to follow the registration process to get your password and be able to login. You also will have to download realplayer to listen to each contestant’s tracks. Once you’re in there, you’ll see a link for each singer (including a link to their website), and the option to listen and vote. In order for your judging to count in the final tally, you must listen to and vote for at least 30 singers. You’ll be scoring them on diction, intonation, interpretation, and phrasing. Be honest. They’ve made it clear to us that attempts by contestants or their friends to vote themselves up and everyone else down will be disqualified. So, since most of you are singers or instrumentalists, take this rare chance to get to say exactly what you think (via a multiple choice form) about each singer you hear. Also, you can only register with one email address. There have been contestants in the past who have manipulated the voting by using multiple addresses, and it’s just bad news. (As if you have enough time to vote 30 times more than once, but I thought I’d let you know).

Wow. That’s a lot of work. But if you have the time, and want to do me a favor and listen to a wide variety of jazz singers, then do it! Let me know if you have any questions. And thanks in advance!

Nagged into action....

So I had a feeling that I might be harassed for being a bit behind on my blogging after sending out an email encouraging friends to read it, but I have this to say:
Kirstin—be patient. We don’t all have time to make up mad libs. Haha.
Liz—you’re hilarious. When was your last blog? September? Slacker.
Anyway, enough of that. On to actually blogging. Hmm. Where to start…

Well, the most recent news to come my way was a bit surprising. I called my good friend RaeLynn (from home), as I knew she was due to have her first baby in the next few days. I was thinking I was ahead of the game, and could wish her luck before anything happened. Instead, I heard her baby fussing over the phone as we said hi, and found out that he had come a month early. Wow. It was unbelievable enough to think of her having a baby at all, but to find out that she’s had one for a month was just crazy. I’m so happy for her and her husband, and proud of them for building their little family. I’ll get to see them when I’m home for Christmas, and I can’t wait to hold little Jeffrey and take pictures. At the same time, it’s just really hard to process all of my old friends getting married, having babies, and moving steadily towards family and home, while I’m moving in a very individually creative direction which will keep me farther from home and definitely out of the family-building business for a long while yet. I’m completely satisfied with what I’m doing, and it fulfills me personally and artistically, but it’s just such a radical departure from what so many people I know are doing, that it’s a bit hard to reconcile the two paths. Incidentally, RaeLynn also informed me that two more of our friends are pregnant, and another is getting married. Maybe it’s the bracing desert air or something. More power to them.

In school news, things are extremely busy, but going great. I’ve been working hard in my lessons with John McNeil to expand my bebop vocabulary—something I’ve been needing to do since coming here—and it’s really opening up my options in improvisation. To clarify, I don’t just want to be a bebop singer, because there’s so much more available stylistically, but it’s a good foundation to have and is really helping me navigate chord changes more competently and confidently. I’ve really come a long way from just singing what sounds good as each chord happens. Of course, much of improvising as a singer is doing just that, but once you start to get a feel for the road map, your options open up and make way for a lot more freedom and discovery. It’s pretty cool. I actually just had a lesson with my voice teacher, Dominique, which was amazing, as usual. For a combination of reasons, I hadn’t had a lesson for about a month, and it felt so good to have some guidance again. We worked a lot on freeing up my lower passagio, which had been a bit screwy, and after doing that, my voice felt and sounded as if I had an entirely new color to work with. It was fabulous, and felt wonderful. Yay for that. I’m so fortunate to have such a great teacher. She really helps me to find the best way to use my voice that is the most expressive and flexible, and to exploit it in the most honest and creative way. Love her.

Along with lessons, classes and ensembles, this last week and the next are full of rehearsals and performances. Monday and Wednesday were the recital dates for my two small group ensembles. The Monday ensemble concert was sort of held together by a thread for various reasons, but ended up holding together anyway, and coming off pretty well. Wednesday’s concert was amazing. I’m in the duos ensemble, which means that eight of us rotate playing with each other in a duo format. No rhythm section, no accompaniment—just two melodic instruments. It’s very challenging, and requires sensitivity, listening, responsiveness, and a fair amount of outside preparation. But it’s really satisfying, and is some of the most creative work I’ve done here. The concert was no exception. Everyone’s tunes were well-arranged, well-rehearsed, and well-performed, and I really feel that my performance was the best I’ve ever given at NEC. Everything gelled, my duo partners and I were in-sync, and it felt great. A performance like that is so inspiring—to listen to, or to perform in.

My other upcoming performances are happening over the next week. I mentioned earlier that my friend Ryan was arranging “The Masquerade is Over” (best recorded by Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderly—if you haven’t heard it, check it out. It’s possibly one of the best jazz vocal albums I’ve heard.) for me to sing with the Jazz Composers Workshop Orchestra. The arrangement is really beautiful, and rehearsals have been going well. That performance will be on December 13. A more recently acquired gig is the Django Bates concert this coming Thursday, December 8. The chair of the jazz department emailed me on Monday to ask if I’d like to sing a few tunes with the Jazz Orchestra. I said yes, of course, and picked up the music. Well, it’s some of the most “out,” challenging music I’ve ever heard or sung, and it will definitely be difficult for me to keep up, but I’m pretty excited. Despite its intricacy, the music is very engaging, and at times, very tongue-in-cheek funny. Plus, I’ll finally get to sing in Jordan Hall, which has been a goal of mine since last year. Yay for that. In the meantime, I’ve applied for four separate competitions, so I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed. I didn’t get into the Sisters in Jazz group, (not as an alternate or an honorable mention either) but I’m still hopeful about the others. Speaking of, one of them requires online voting by what they call the “international online jazz community.” There are no requirements, and anyone can register to vote, so if you have the time and inclination, and enjoy listening to jazz singers, please go to www.jazzconnect.com/competition/ and vote. I’m not sure that the voting has started yet, so when it does, I’ll post a notice on here. But it should start within the next few days. It’s not the best singing I’ve ever done, but the recording quality is most appropriate for the venue, so please score me accordingly J Anyway, I’d appreciate your vote.