It's painful to hear a recording of yourself.

We finished recording my audition video and S is now compressing the files before putting them on my flash drive.  His accompaniment sounds very nice (DMA in piano performance, after all) but I'm not enjoying hearing myself sing.  I was struggling, especially with the Purcell, and I can hear every glitch, every wobbly pitch, every place where my technique is, shall we say, lacking.  I know you're always your own worst critic; I just hope the auditioners are kinder to me than I am to myself.

That's a relief! But "wait" is still a 4-letter word

I had expected to hear by now whether I'd been accepted to uni for the spring semester; still no word. I was getting concerned, largely because the Nov. 1 early-admission deadline for the fall is looming large.  Turns out that's the deadline for freshmen; for transfer students, it isn't until March 1st, so I don't have to worry about reapplying for a few months yet.

In related news, I record my music school audition video tonight!  I'm feeling by turns fatalistic and panicked, calm and nervous.  If I'm not accepted for Fall 2016, I'll just reapply for Fall 2017.  (They only admit new students in the fall.)  Pray for me, and for the Chief, who has to put up with me during this whole process.

I hate apps that nag.

Last night I started my music school application, which just needs my audition videos to be complete.  Today I got an email from the application system titled "Finish your application today", "reminding" me that my application is due soon.  Trust me, little app, I'm painfully aware of the deadline.  Now leave me alone!

Now that's love!

The Chief is what I call a "peanut butter purist" - only eats peanut butter in a sandwich.  He's not interested in peanut butter in any other form (ingredient, flavoring), and thinks peanut butter/chocolate candy (especially peanut butter cups) is an abomination.  Imagine my surprise when I was unloading the groceries today and found he'd bought me a package of not just one, but two, Reese's chocolate-covered peanut butter pumpkins!  He had fun making a big show of shuddering at bringing such "contamination" into the house, but he obviously enjoyed bringing home a little something he knew I'd enjoy.

This is getting real!

Tonight I had my first (and only!) rehearsal with my replacement accompanist.  He's a genial guy, with a doctorate in piano performance.  Not only did he play both my songs with ease, but he followed me well, too.  I recorded him playing both accompaniments so I can work with them at home (as I told him, "so I can take you home with me to practice").  Friday night we record my audition video! =:o  After all these months and months of working these 2 little pieces exclusively, it's hard to believe it's almost over.

I just finished drafting my music school application.  It's ready except for the video files (they want each song as a separate file).  Friday night we'll record, S will do the conversion and load my files onto a flash drive, and I'll upload the files to my application and send that baby on its way!

It'll be a relief to have this behind me after working on these songs for what feels like years.  I've already told my voice teacher I want to take next week off, then work on something, anything, else.   She agreed that that's a good idea; she's probably almost as tired of those pieces as I am.  She suggested we do something she's done with other students in similar situations - bringing in 3 or 4 new songs each week for a few weeks.  We'd give them a quick once-over, I'd take 'em home and work on them a little, we go over them at my next lesson, then pick another few and repeat the process.  Sounds like a relatively painless way to explore new pieces while giving myself a break from the audition pieces that have been eating my musical life for the past several months.

Today's lesson - Soundboard 001

Today my Tech Theater prof had us help the events team setting up for tomorrow's College Enrichment day.  Since I'm going to be running the sound board for next month's college production, I was assigned to the sound designer.  She showed me how she was mic-testing the wireless mics, then had me put fresh batteries into the handheld mics, then sound-check them.  I even got to set the initial levels.  She also showed me how she gave the TV crew a line out and had me set the levels for that feed.  Pretty basic stuff, but it's a start, and of course it also gives me a few grains of familiarity with the board.

Looking forward to being the sound tech for "The Odd Couple"; another skill, however, rudimentary, to add to my repertoire.

That was unexpected!

I was standing in line to get a sandwich between classes today.  The gentleman ahead of me turned to me and asked what I was having.  At the cashier's encouragement ("Are you gonna miss a golden opportunity?"), I let this total stranger buy my lunch.  I haven't any idea who he was; he might have been a professor, but who could tell.  (I've been mistaken for faculty once or twice, just because I'm so much older than the overwhelming majority of the student body.)  The cashier didn't seem too surprised, which leads me to think he's done this at least a few times before.

What a nice little surprise on a chilly, overcast day.  I also found a $5 bill earlier today; this seems to be my lucky day!

What did you do in school today?

This week's stage make-up class was on learning to do bruises, cuts & scars.  We had fun making ourselves look like we'd been in a brawl or were zombies (two classmates are quite experienced - impressive skills!).    My "bruise artwork" wasn't great - I had my colors placed badly so it just looked weird - but it'll improve with practice.

After lunch I reported to the scene shop to get some more shop hours (I have to get 30 hours by the end of the semester).  We had to take down a flat that my Tech Theater class had put up the other day and dismantle it because some of the dimensions were wrong.  We had to close up early, though, as the materials we need to rebuild the flat won't be delivered until next week.  Three quesses what we'll be doing in the shop once that load of lumber arrives...

Past the midterms - whew!

Out of 5 classes that I'm taking this semester, only 2 had any kind of midterm requirement.  My acting class midterm consisted of a) a monologue; b) a paraphrase of said monologue, to be handed in before doing the monologue; and c) considered answers to several questions about the monologue (what's your character, what's that person's relationship to the one(s) they're speaking to, etc.).  The memorization of the monologue was the only scary or challenging piece; the two written parts were a breeze.  We drew numbers to determine the order in which we'd present our monologues.  I traded to get the first ("get it over with quick") slot.  I got out there, started, and quickly realized I was skipping pieces.  I took a deep breath or two and started over, after which it flowed reasonably well.  I don't know how I did, but at least I didn't crash & burn, so I'm optimistic that I got at least a B.  (I have no idea how the grading goes on these things - will we be graded on a curve? based on our improvement since the beginning of the semester? some other criteria?)

My Intro to Theater class had an actual midterm exam, on the history we've covered to date.  I was sweating bullets over that one, not knowing how involved it would be or how much detail we'd need to know.  All I knew, from last week's review, was that there was going to be a long-answer (3-4 paragraphs) essay as about 25% of the exam grade.  The essay questions weren't the ones I'd prepped for (we'd been warned we'd be asked to pick one of 2 topics to write on), but the one I wrote on was a subject I'd reviewed just before we had to put our books & notes away, so I think it went well.  My one problem was that there were 2 short-answer questions on things that I know we never covered in class.  We had to do a short answer "essay" (2-3 sentences) on 5 out of 6 questions.  I suspect he'll have to give everyone credit for one of those, as only 4 of the 6 were on subjects covered in either lectures or online reading assignments.  Aside from that, though, I thought it was a fair test.  I'm much more relaxed now that I've got that behind me and am satisfied with how I did.

Memorization

When we had to memorize and present a monologue in my acting class, I had two classmates ask me about memorization tricks and techniques.  (When I told them one trick I'd used to memorize my monologue was to learn it starting at the back, their reactions were entertaining.)  

Then tonight the Chief asked me about memorization.  I warned him that the techniques I use to learn lines and monologues wouldn't necessarily be much help to him with tax court rules and procedures.  He was a bit disappointed but took it well. :)

How strange that all of a sudden I have 3 different people ask me essentially the same thing in the course of just a week or two.

Trying to get the blasted audition video done is even harder than I'd expected.

A few weeks ago I started having problems when singing.  Despite bringing all my best technical skills to bear (breathing? check; posture? yep; placement? good), I would have to stop after half an hour or less.  Even when being careful to sing correctly and not push or anything, my throat would ache as if I'd been blasting away for an all-day sing.  As a result, I put myself on a singing moratorium while I tried to get an appointment with my primary doc so I could get an ENT referral.  this meant cancelling my Oct. 10th appointment to make my music school audition video. :(

Had the ENT appointment today.  I'm OK to start singing again, but I have a lotta ground to make up after not singing at all for 3 weeks!  Now I'm trying to match schedules w/ my accompanist and my friend who offered to do the video, but the accompanist seems to be teaching whenever I'm available to record.

The school of music application deadline is a week from Sunday, so I don't have a lotta leeway here.  I don't have time to find another accompanist - it took weeks to find this one!  If I miss the deadline, I gotta wait another year (they only accept for fall, not spring, semester).  I could have this behind me if only my throat hadn't decided to be uncooperative.  After working for months and months on this audition, I'd really hate to be unable to do it just because we can't get schedules lined up.  Waaahhh!

The down side of online homework

Got back from my reunion/family weekend, tried to do the homework for one of my classes; no dice.  We're supposed to go to a link and watch interviews with 2 actors, but when I followed the link, it only connected to a trailer for one of the interviews.  I can't do my homework!  This is frustrating beyond words!

My first on-camera work

Yesterday I did my first acting for a camera.  My community college's Communications and Theater Dept. was filming a series of vignettes for an in-house PSA and the director tapped some of us from her acting classes and the acting club to be in them.  I had 2 little clips to do.  

In one, I was one of a series of people reading quotes about change.  (Mine was by Maya Angelou: "I've learned you can't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands.  Sometimes you need to throw things back.")  They had me sit on a stool on stage in front of the theater's proscenium curtain and look straight into the camera lens to read my quote "as if you're talking to a friend."  I was amused to see that they actually used one of those clapper boards, although this one looked like it was made out of plastic rather than the wood or slate you see in old movies.

The other bit was an action scene.  I had to enter a hallway from outdoors to find a group of impatient  students waiting outside my office.  When I asked them who they were waiting for, they chorused "You!!!"  I replied, "But no one ever comes during my office hours!", then unlocked the door to my office (actually an empty office).  We ran it several times; first to tweak action, lines, and timing, then for the cameraman to try it with different lighting.

I may never see the results, but it's kinda fun to know it's out there somewhere.

I was also surprised to learn that not just one, but two of "my students" were named Maureen!  That's the first time in a long time that I've met another Maureen, and the first time I've met African Americans with that name. 

I still hate "Company"

The Chief and I went to see a local production of "Company" tonight.  I am not a Sondheim fan, and I don't like any of the music in "Company"; I only went to support a few friends who were in it.  Neither one of us liked the show, which is pretty dated.  The one thing I did like was Joann's "Here's to the Ladies Who Lunch".  This Joann delivered it with all the bitterness it needed - well done!

A string of good lessons - I think I'm getting this!

Had another good voice lesson today.  I continue to hit snags, still have a few places where I'm trying to work out the technical things (phrasing, breath control - the usual), but it all feels much more solid and much easier.  As I told my teacher this afternoon, I think I'm finally getting the hang of this business. :)  Seems like I'm thinking about and applying the latest technique I'm working on even when I'm not working on my lesson music (i.e., at church or in "Mattress" rehearsals). 

My two uni audition pieces are far enough along that they're ready for a second opinion.  A previous voice teacher lives near (and was the one who sent me to) my current teacher, so at C's recommendation, we've asked K to sit in on the 2nd half of my lesson next week so she can hear my audition pieces and offer suggestions.  It's been a long time since she's heard me sing; I'm looking forward to showing her my progress.

Tomatoes! And other food

The cherry tomato plant (Sweet 100 variety) is really coming into its own - we've got about 2 cups of little red gems sitting on the counter waiting to grace a relish tray on Saturday, with more tomatoes expected to join them in the next few days.  The grape tomatoes have also been ripening; it's just that the other plant is so very prolific, it makes this one look like an underachiever, even though it's already produced more tomatoes than I got off my container-grown plant all last summer.  I've mostly resisted snacking on the tomatoes, but it's hard - they're just so good!

TW and I are having an open house Saturday afternoon.  It's been 21 years since I bought the house (!), so maybe we could consider it a coming-of-age party for the house?  (Of course, the house is much older than 21, having been built in the 1920s.)  I spent most of yesterday & today making party food - triple batch of hummus, double batch of dill dip, triple batch of salmon spread, triple batch of brownies, double batch of muesli cookies and gluten-free peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies.   We'll also do a deluxe veggie tray and a full batch (makes about a gallon, by actual measurement) of "awesome salsa", which has black beans, corn, and other goodies in it.  The lovely thing about making this kind of party food is that we can have leftovers for dinner and know that it's all good for us (well, except for the brownies & pb-choc chip cookies; even the muesli cookies are pretty healthy).

Last music-only rehearsal

Last night was our first music-only rehearsal in about a month, and our last until we get to the Sitzprobe in a few weeks (!).  I was reminded of the difference between doing this for a musical vs. an operetta.  Operettas tend to attract a LOT of trained singers, with the rest of us being amateurs with a lot of choir experience, all of whom can read music at least a little.  In community musical theater, on the other hand, you get a much wider range, from trained singers and instrumentalists to those who learn only by ear, or can carry a tune but have trouble holding their musical line when the people around them are singing something different.  That means a lot more time spent woodshedding parts.  I think that's at least one of the reasons we lost one of our ensemble members - didn't understand why others had so much trouble learning music he got on the first or second run-through.

So yes, in an ideal world we wouldn't need to spend nearly so much time on the music, but this is community theater, where the performers have day jobs.

Sometimes our good deeds do come back to "haunt" us

Yesterday I finally managed to line up an audition accompanist - hurray!  Better, she's someone I already know, as she directed a show I was in 4 or 5 years ago.  I also gave her daughter rides to several "Yeomen" rehearsals and performances last year.  Because of that good deed, D quoted me a rate for 4 hours of her time that is only slightly more than I pay for a 1-hour voice lesson - a very friendly rate indeed!  I told her that her daughter had already given me a thank you gift for the rides, but "this is from a very grateful mother."  Happy to oblige!

Here come the tomatoes...

Our two tomato plants (cherry, Sweet 100 variety; grape, Santa variety) have been thriving - the Sweet 100 is quite bushy and at least 6' tall!  Both now have a dozen or more clusters of little green tomatoes on them.  We harvested the first few tomatoes a week or so ago, and have been getting at least 4 or 5 a day the past few days.  Looks like those numbers will start rising steeply pretty soon, though, given the dozens of little greenies that are getting paler by the day and starting to turn orange.

These are doing SO much better than when I tried growing tomatoes in containers on the deck - we've already harvested more than we got all last summer.

Better yet, the replacement zucchini plant seems to be thriving.  I'd be delighted if we actually manage to get a zucchini off the thing before the weather turns colder.

I've got my books!

My books for the semester (well, all but one) arrived from Amazon the other day.  I could wish they'd bothered to put the box between the main door and storm door, as it was raining and my box was wet, but fortunately the books weren't damaged.  I got a better deal from another vendor for one of the books so that one is still en route.  Ordering online was cheaper than getting them from the school's bookstore; I managed to save about $78 with the sales tax.  (It helped, of course, that I already owned one of the books for my Intro to Stage Make-up class.)

They're all sitting on a shelf together, just waiting for classes to start 3 weeks from Monday.  Well, for two of them to start that week.  The other three don't start until 3 weeks later; odd schedule!