Dido, Magic Flute, The Voice, and Movie Monday

The opera went really well. There was an amazingly good turn out and we performed better than we ever had before. I never really got nervous either. It felt like the most natural thing in the world.

We got a lot of really great feedback from the audience and I'm really happy and proud with what we did. I can only hope that this will start something really amazing with the opera program at USD. It is a program that is atrociously under-funded and I think that this could be a catalyst into something greater. Dr. Gesteland has worked hard to make something out of not much, and she's done a fantastic job. She put her heart and soul into this project and I think that it really paid off. I'll be very excited to see what the program is like in 5 years. I think it has a bright future. Public service announcement over...

I auditioned for Die Zauberflöte last night. Sounds of South Dakota is centered out of Sioux Falls and they are putting on the production in September. I would love to be a part of it. My audition didn't go as well as I wanted it to so we'll see what happens. I haven't figured out what I'll do for living and travel arrangements if I do get the gig, but I figured I would cross that bridge when I came to it. I'm not worried though. I know enough people in the area to find a place to stay. Kenny auditioned to. He sent in an audio recording. I can't see any reason for him to not get it. We don't have a ton of basses in the area. Oh, to be a male singer! Jealousy doesn't even sum up what I feel! :) It would be really perfect if we both got in because we could coordinate what happens next better. We are in the process of trying to figure out when and how we are moving to Chicago. He is going to be taking lessons from a teacher at Northwestern and I'm going to try to get in touch with a teacher at Roosevelt that I want to work with. Now we just need to have the time and the money to find a place to live and move ourselves out there. Right now the time frame is centered around this opera. It is nice to have that freedom, but I'm bad at not having a plan. We were told that we should find out the results of the audition in about 3 weeks. So fingers crossed!

I'm addicted to The Voice.

I didn't think I was going to like it the first time I watched it, but now I'm hooked! I love the judges, I love the contestants, I love the songs that they sing. I'm lost forever! I typically don't like televised singing competitions. They just make me angry. But this show is a bit different. They pick their teams without knowing what the people look like. After that they weed them down without letting America have all the final decisions. They've removed almost everything I hate about media talent shows. America doesn't get the entire decision until the very last round. By that point, everybody is ridiculously amazing so you don't even care so much who wins. I LOVE IT! My favorite contestant right now is Juliete Simms. She is like Cindy Lauper and Janis Joplin had a baby. She is epic awesome and I hope she wins the whole thing. Then again, I also love a bunch of the other contestants and hope the win the whole thing. I'm so stressed with how much I want everybody to succeed. What a great problem to have!

MOVIE MONDAY!!!

Adrian and I recently went to 21 Jump Street.
Again, I didn't think I was going to like it, but I found myself laughing through the majority of the movie. It had the previously blogged about hottie Channing Tatum and the ever hilarious Jonah Hill in it. It was an interesting take on the television series and poked fun at it on a regular basis. It had an obligatory Johnny Depp cameo, lots of car chases, and lots of teenaged stupidity. I couldn't get enough of it. Most epic movie ever? Not so much. But it was a nice bit of fun that I wouldn't take back. There was a certain young up-and-comer that resembled James Franco. Keep your eyes on that one! Definitely see the movie. Don't expect it to change your life, but expect to be entertained. 

Work, Summer, Opera, and Sexy Saturday

I got a second job! I'll be working at Stream Global Services taking customer service calls for AT&T. Not exactly by dream job, but it sure will pay the bills. And it is guaranteed full time. I have to iron out a few schedule kinks with Walmart but I don't think it will be so bad. The plan for the summer is to make as much money as humanly possible. I read my lease and it turns out that I don't have to move out until July 15. This is so much more convenient than June 15 and I'm ecstatic that I read it incorrectly in the first place. So then I just have to decide if I want to move to Chicago at the end of July or find a place to sublease until September. I'm not nearly as worried about my work situation as I was though.

Summer is a week away and I'm so happy to be graduating. The idea of taking a break from school is the best feeling in the entire world. I want to enjoy the summer more than I usually do. I want to spend time with my friends and go places and see things. I've never had so many options as I do now.
I still need to practice and find a teacher but if that's the hardest thing I have to do this summer...I'll take it! I still have quite a few things to do before I get to summer. I have a paper to finish and I need to finish the choral library. The choral library is going to be ridiculously time consuming but I don't mind the work that much. After spending a week in a stuffy closet filled with choral masterpieces, I will walk across a stage set up in the middle of the Dome and accept my fake degree and be deemed an official person with real live skills. I'm not sure what those skills are yet, but according to that rolled piece of blank paper, I have them. Yay!

THE OPERA IS TONIGHT! I'm so excited. This is a moment we have been waiting so many months for...so many years for! It looks like we are going to have a really nice sized audience and we are singing well. The orchestra sounds great. The set looks amazing. The costumes are done. The dancers are dancey. Everything is ready. Downbeat is at 7:30 tonight and I won't be able to sit still until then. My parents and my grandma are on their way here as we speak. We're going to fix my car and enjoy a night at the opera. I can't think of a better way to spend a day. The opera fun doesn't end for me after tonight either. Tomorrow after work, I'm headed to Sioux Falls for my Magic Flute audition. Perhaps I just haven't gotten around to it yet in light of everything else that's going on, but I'm not nervous. I'm sure I'll be quivering like a baby bird tomorrow but for now, I feel pretty confident. If I don't get the job, it will just be one of many rejections I'll have to deal with. So I'm just going  to go into it with confidence and positivity and hope for the best. Now that I've done a fully staged production, I'm a little hooked and don't want to stop now. Let's keep the good times rolling!

SEXY SATURDAY!!!

This week I am going back to the basics of sexy. And nobody sets the standards of sexy like Brad Pitt!

This newly engaged hottie has always been on the radar. Generations of girls have drooled over his yummy body and equally yummy acting choices. From the first time I saw him shirtless in Thelma & Louise, I've been hooked! Movies like Interview with the Vampire, Se7en, Fight Club, The Mexican, Ocean's 11, 12, and 13, Troy, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Babel, Burn After Reading, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Inglourious Basterds, and the recent Moneyball have only made him more and more dear to my lust filled heart. He is also a humanitarian. He donated $5 million to Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans and has visited a lot of worldwide areas in need with his fiance, the jaw-dropping Angelina Jolie. He has about 3 million children with names that nobody can keep straight. Some of them are his and some of them are adopted. The fact that he wants to take in needy children makes him even more sexy. He has had some not so good looks throughout the years but his default is staggeringly hot even at 50 years of age. William Bradley Pitt, I bow down to your chiseled body and sexy jawline. You are the reigning king of my dirty girl dreams.

Clinic, Dentist, Choir Concert, and Thespian Thursday

I went back to the clinic yesterday for my follow up appointment and they still don't really know what is causing my chest pain. They have put me on antibiotics for some infections that I might have and if that doesn't work in a week, we are going to explore the possibility of me having severe reflux problems or possibly an ulcer. Nothing about this process has been enjoyable and I have way too much to do to get the rest that I'm supposed to be getting. I'm calling in sick to work today and I'm going to get into so much trouble but I just don't have the steam to get through a long day anymore. I have no energy and it is hard for me to take deep breaths and I get winded really quickly. Being on my feet for a 5 hour shift just sounds like pure misery. Besides that, my doctor told me to take it easy and rest. I don't think I'll get fired at this point, but I'll probably get written up. Sigh. Who wants to work at Walmart anyway? I'm really hoping to transfer back to Aberdeen. It would just make the move easier if I didn't have to find a job. But in anticipation of my possible termination, I've started looking around for a new job. I've had so many absences because of my ever conflicting music schedule. This clearly won't be a problem anymore after I graduate but I don't know if anyone is taking that into consideration. We'll find out!

Yesterday, I also got to go to the dentist. I haven't been in a while so the visit was long overdue. I have one wisdom tooth that needs to get pulled and five cavities that need to be filled. I have also been referred to an orthodontist because the dentist thinks that I might need braces to correct a slight under-bite. I also need a mouth guard because I've been grinding my teeth. How can so many things be going on in one body at one time!? And I can only be told that the things happening can be triggered by stress one more time before I start screaming. Yes! I'm stressed! And there's nothing I can do about it for the next 2 weeks. I do believe this is the least stressed that I've been in a while though so...I don't know what's going on. Melissa has a theory that I'm turning into a super hero. I'm okay with that theory as long as I was never bitten by a radioactive spider. I really hate bugs. Ugh!

There's a choir concert on Saturday! It will feature the Men's and Women's Chorus, Swingset, and the Concert Choir. I'm so excited because this is Swingset's biggest opportunity so far. Aside from singing in a nursing home last year, we haven't done much performing. But we are pretty good and feeling really ready for this. I hope it goes well and that people will take more of an interest. It is my greatest wish that USD have a vocal jazz group. It is what I've wanted since I got here and now it might actually have a chance. Woot! So yeah...choir concert on Saturday in Aalf's Auditorium. Should be good.

THESPIAN THURSDAY!!!

This week the USD Department of Theater is presenting Sweeney Todd. I'm planning to go tomorrow night. I've never been a big fan of the musical but the theater department finally cast some music majors so I'm definitely going to see it. Sweeney Todd is a musical thriller by, the genius himself, Stephen Sondheim. Many people have seen the film adaptation that features a mildly talented Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. I despise the movie version. Tim Burton's loyalty issues really got in the way of casting actual singers. Although the two are very different, they have the same plot. It's about a man who is framed for a crime and sent away. When he comes back, he finds out that his wife has killed herself after being raped by the evil judge. Sweeney vows to take revenge on the judge and the world. He teams up with Mrs. Lovett who owns a pie shop and he opens a barbershop. While cutting people's hair, he kills them and then Mrs. Lovett bakes them into her pies. Horror ensues. Relationships are revealed. Almost everyone dies and children are horribly traumatized. The judge's ward, Johanna, falls in love with Anthony (Sweeney's shipmate). They live and go on to sing positive music and learn the consequences of unprotected sex. I don't know that for sure...that's just what I think happens. Johanna will be knocked up within a month I think. Traumatized girls statistically put out...

More info on the plot is available at http://musicals.net/cgi-bin/synopsis?sn=77&show=Sweeney+Todd. See the clip below for a little taste of the spine-tingling musical done by the broadway revival cast.

Recitals, Emergency Room, and Tacky Tuesday

My recital was on Saturday and it went fairly well. It was very well attended and it felt so good to get it over with. A lot of my family was there and even more of my friends. There are a million things I wish I could have done better, but I feel like it will always be that way. The gowns looked spectacular and I felt like a princess. Mom and I went shopping on Friday to find the perfect jewelry to go with. We found something perfect at Icing. I don't usually go in there but the necklace gave my navy gown exactly what it needed. Everyone commented about the champagne gown though. It was very gorgeous and I couldn't be happier with how the two designs turned out. I haven't listened to the recording yet and I'm a little scared. After I listened to the recording of my junior recital, I was so unhappy. I definitely think this one went better but it is hard to not be super critical of everything I sing.

The day after my senior recital, Dr. Gesteland's studio put on our showcase. It went really well. I sang "Perfect Relationship", "My Funny Valentine", and then kicked off the finally piece that we all sang together. It was a lot of fun. The one sad moment was when I stepped on my champagne gown and ripped a small hole in it with my heel. It isn't really noticeable but I was heartbroken when it happened. Dr. Gesteland couldn't stay for the performance but she videotaped it and I hope that she is happy with what we did.

Sunday night after the showcase I was writing a paper and started feeling these horrible pains in my chest. They were accompanied by an awful headache. The pains would hurt really bad for a little bit and then subside for a while. All the while, I would feel this horrible pressure. I tried to sleep it off but the next day it hadn't gone away. I finally buckled down and went to the clinic at about 4pm on Monday.

The clinic didn't have the equipment to help me so they sent me over to the emergency room. They hooked me up to machines and took x-rays of my chest and gave me shots and took blood. It was really intense. A few hours after we got there, the doctor came back and said he thought I had a Pleurisy. This is an inflammation in the lining of my lungs. It causes sharp chest pains, shortness of breath, and coughing. He said I was showing no signs of any other heart conditions and that rest and ibuprofen should clear things right up. Today, things aren't much better. I have been taking the ibuprofen and laying in bed. I'm frustrated because I have so many things to do. I also didn't go to work yesterday so I'm going to get in trouble for that. There's pretty much no fun all around. I have a follow up appointment at the clinic tomorrow at 10am and hopefully by then I'll feel better. If not, I have to go through more testing. I also have a dentist appointment tomorrow to figure out what's wrong with my jaw. I'm hoping that is something simple as well. I'm falling apart and the most inconvenient time of year. I just need to pull myself together and power through the next couple of weeks of school. Then I'll have all kinds of time to be laid up and sick. Come on body! Work with me!

TACKY TUESDAY!!!

The tackiest thing I can think of is codependency. I know way too many girls who make their boyfriends their entire world and change their whole lives around because of them. That has never been my style and I don't really understand why a self-respecting woman would want to do that to herself. We live in a time where women can pursue careers and get for themselves everything that a man could provide. I don't consider myself a hard-core feminist. I enjoy men as much as the next person. I think they can be supportive and sensitive and smart and witty and so much fun to be with. But at the end of the day, I don't feel the need to completely uproot the things that I want and need for them.

I also don't feel the need to rotate my emotions around the things they feel from day to day. If the boy is in a bad mood, that doesn't mean that the girl should be in a bad mood. If the boy doesn't want to go out, that doesn't mean the girl shouldn't go out. If the boy doesn't like something or somebody, the girl doesn't have to dislike that thing or person as well. I see way too many girls that completely lose their own personality while in a relationship. I even know a few who think that they've maintained their independence when they can't go one conversation without talking about their boyfriend. I'm happy that they're happy, I just wish they knew how pathetic they sounded when they only have one topic to discuss. It is a broken record of sadness and people who still control more than half of their brain can't stand listening to it all the time. It just takes me back to high school again. I didn't hate my high school experience, but I'd never go back there. I find myself pushing my codependent friends out of my life and making room for my legitimately mature adult friends who don't have to wait for their boyfriend/girlfriend to be busy in order to spend time with me. I find it so much more enjoyable.

The Help

Goodreads Synopsis:
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've refrained from watching the movie until after I read the book. Now that I'm done, I'm very interested to see how the movie was adapted from this. I got off to a rough start because the language that Aibileen was using was pretty difficult to understand. Once I got a handle on that, I took off. I thought the book was compelling, you cared about the characters you were supposed to care about and you disliked the characters you were supposed to dislike but at times, you understood them and cared about them as well. You wanted Hilly's minions to see the light and stand back from racism. I was scared and nervous for what would happen to Skeeter and Aibee and Minny and all of the other maids.

I didn't care for the setup of the novel. Skeeter is trying to find a job and she applies for one in New York. Stein gives her some real life wisdom on how to become a successful author. Skeeter goes from a woman who is mildly repelled by Hilly thinking the help need their own toilet, to being downright outraged and needing to tell their story. It just didn't add up to me. Even when she is confronted with blatant racism from her dying mother and friends, she lacks the actual conviction to speak out. I understand that she had to hold her tongue to protect the identities of the people in the book and even protect herself, but I just wish that there had been more apparent passion for the cause than for the process of becoming a successful author. The black women came to trust and care for her because they thought she would be the change that they needed, and she cared about them too. But she cared much more about hitting her deadline and seeing where it would take her. She even chose to leave out what would have been a very interesting part of the book when she decided not to print about her mother. The story about what her mother did to Constantine's daughter was exactly the kind of behavior that could have helped the book make a bigger difference. But she left it out because it was about her family and far too horrible. She would run over a bunch of black women that she is representing, but not her mother. I didn't care for that.

I can't say how accurate the language and atmosphere is because hey, I'm not a 60's child, but I got sucked into the world. It is bizaar to think of how far the world has come since the 60's. It is discouraging to see how far we still have to go. I was very responsive to Kathryn Stockett's writing. I hope to read more by her in the future.



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Witch and Wizard: The Fire

Goodreads Synopsis:
Whit and Wisty Allgood have sacrificed everything to lead the resistance against the merciless totalitarian regime that governs their world. Its supreme leader, The One Who Is The One, has banned everything they hold dear: books, music, art, and imagination. But the growing strength of the siblings' magic hasn't been enough to stop the One's evil rampage, and now he's executed the only family they had left.

Wisty knows that the time has finally come for her to face The One. But her fight and her fire only channel more power to this already invincible being. How can she and Whit possibly prepare for their imminent showdown with the ruthless villain that devastated their world-before he can truly become all-powerful?

The Fire by James Patterson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I really enjoyed this book. I realized a bit late in the game that it was the third installment. That being said, I never felt like I was behind. James Patterson gave enough information to bring the bandwagon readers up to speed without going into too much detail. The book worked very well on its own.

My main issue with the writing style was how choppy it was. The story was great and I liked that he moved back and forth between characters. I didn't like that he inserted so many chapters for each character. There were pauses in the story that were unnecessary. All it did was interrupt the flow and make it easier for the reader to lose interest. I think the story would have been stronger if the characters were given more uninterrupted time to let their part of the plot unfold.

Aside from the constant intermissions, I liked the story a lot and am planning to go back and play catch up with first two installments. I'm definitely interested to read more by this author.



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Recital Hearing and Movie Monday

I PASSED!!! I'm officially able to do my recital. I don't know why I was so worried, but I'm not anymore! Yay! Now I just have a lot of perfecting to do. None of my music is really great yet. I have so much to do and I just need to stay focused. This would be easier if I was getting more sleep. I'm stressing myself into a person who sleeps roughly 5 hours a night. I'm a little exhausted and mildly cranky. I'm going to resort to sleeping pills on Thursday I think. I don't have class on Friday so it is the perfect time to drug up and sleep for a while. I hate to do it, but I need to get some zzzz's! Existing off of caffeine and sheer will power isn't doing it anymore. Like now, for instance, I should be sleeping right now...and yet...here I am. Sigh. Thursday night can't come soon enough!!!

MOVIE MONDAY!!!
An epic film is being re-released in 3-D and I couldn't be more excited!

The epic historical romance has won the hearts of people all around the world and made us all stand up and recognize the genius that is Kate, Leo, Celine, and James. Of course I'm talking about TITANIC! Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Celine Dion, and James Cameron are everything I want all in one movie! The plan is to go this Wednesday during girls' night for Hannah's birthday. I really hope it goes through because I NEED to see this movie. I think you should go see it too! Yeah you...no...on the left...yup! You! You go see Titanic. See you there! Good talk! :D