La Di Da

Well praise be, I'm done with my choir audition. Woot! Of course, I don't know if I'm in or not, but I'm pretty darned confident that I am. This confidence pretty big for me since my usual state of being is self-doubt bordering on certain doom. I should back up and say that, seeing as how I was in this choir last season, it's really a RE-audition but that didn't stop me being nervous. When auditions were announced we were told we'd sing a Mozart excerpt in quartets, a melisma from Messiah, a solo piece of our own choosing as well as sight reading and range testing. I practiced more than I normally do (which is barely) and decided on "And He Shall Feed His Flock" (also Messiah) for my solo. I've been dreading this, but when I get to the audition, I find out that we're NOT doing sight reading. My heart soared. I felt approximately 65 times better. Our octet went in, we jammed through the piece, walked out, went back in one at a time for the solo and melisma. As I should have expected, the accompanist plays my piece at about 1/2 the speed I practiced. Combined with my nervousness-related breath control issues I sound warbly and - of course - nervous, but I make it through and I think I manage to stay on pitch. I rock the melisma (bless the fact that I've sung Messiah a few times) and then HAUL ASS out of the building. I was literally in my car, out of the lot and down the street in less than 5 minutes. It feels so good to be done.

Of course, now it's Friday night and Liz and I are trying to figure out something fun to do. What do young human beings do for fun when they're footloose and fancy free? Probably don't say things like "footloose and fancy free" but that's beside the point. Um...I think I suck at being young?

Things That Make Me Laugh Uncontrollably

Photoshop Phriday's latest installment Randomly Generated Video Games! (Part 1 of 2) brought me the greatest of joy. The first two are my absolute favorite, but I have to say, if it were a real Wii game, I'd definitely play "Scottish Trampoline Showdown" from page 7, no question.

This wonder was inspired by The Video Game Name Generator on which Liz and I spent way too much time tonight. I'll leave you with some of my favorites:

Ancient Janitor vs. Street Fighter
Spooky Mall in Space
My First Jungle Hoedown

Big Business Fiesta
Trendy Robot in Middle Earth

Dangerous Hobo Nation
Generic Nudist Dance CD

Things That Happen on Weekends

I like going with Liz to visit their family. If I can't see mine, I'll see hers. I also like visiting Liz's family because they have fun things. Like a new puppy named Sophie who is too small and too cute to live.

OH, GOD! THE CUTENESS! I THINK I'VE GONE BLIND!

Also, at her dad's new office there are all kinds of fun things to put on and get into. I only wish there'd been a full biohazard suit. But I guess you can't have it all.

Outbreak 2 - coming soon to a theater near you


SAVE YOURSELVES!

What the Frak, So Cal?

1) We're having an open house going away party for my supervisor tomorrow with a number of our clients. There will be wine at work starting at 3pm. Think sober thoughts, Darcy, think sober thoughts.

2) Went to a class at the gym today. The human body can only take so much jump roping. Childhood me would be so disappointed in 25-year old me.

She could totally kick my ass.

3) I want to go to Sharon's bachelorette party more than anything. WHAT THE FRAK, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA! WHY ARE YOU SO FRAKIN' FAR AWAY!?

Tell You Why, Mrs. Lovett, Tell You Why

Greetings, friends. Nothing particularly fantastical has occurred since last we met EXCEPT that I realized I'd forgotten to tell you all about Sweeney Todd. About two weeks ago Liz and I went to see a youth summer production of the musical and it was one of the best plays I've ever seen, youth, professional, community or otherwise. Seriously. The kid who played Sweeney was mind blowing. I've never heard any guy his age (nine-friggin-teen!!!) with a voice that sounded that good. If there were a cast recording with him in it I'd buy it and rank him juuuust behind the original with Len Cairou, slightly before the revival with Michael Cerveris (and I love MC's voice, I want to have it's babies, but still...) and way the hell out in front of the movie with Johnny Depp (sorry, Johnny). I also loved it because he made Sweeney almost affable. Really, you can play him creepy all you want but it seems more likely that you'd get in his chair if he appeared to be a normal person rather than a terrifying dead-faced brooder, right? And yet he was entirely believable when he had to be a horrific, hopeless, outraged, vengeful killer. This production also put in all the humor and just-bordering-on-over-the-topness that I love about the play and which was sorely lacking in the movie. Mrs. Lovett was loud, busty, deceitful, ditsy, amoral, needy, salty and thoroughly entertaining. Sweeney and Lovett really seemed to be enjoying themselves while heckling Tobias as he tried to sell Pirelli's Miracle Elixer and the puns go over so much better in "A Little Priest" when they seem silly and even a little slap-happy with their so-crazy-it-just-might-work murder/cannibalism plan. It wasn't a perfect production, of course, and some little things REALLY made me laugh in a way that the director probably did not intend. Example: the kid playing Antony was, shall we say, of noble heft, and the tight white sailor pants really did nothing to flatter his figure. But all in all, a damn fine way to spend $15 and a Wednesday night. If it weren't for the fact that it's no longer running I'd go see it again right now.

"Silence is the Perfectest Herald of Joy""

For all that I can be incredibly loud, one thing I really appreciate is comfortable silence. While half the time I'm rambling at a high decibel, the other half I absolutely cannot think of anything to say and would prefer not to try. In honor of my second half, I judge to some extent the strength of my relationships with people by whether or not I can just sit in silence with them. Maybe we're doing nothing, maybe we're engaged in separate activities, but whatever the reason, it feels comfortable, relaxing, and pretty darned okay.

Have I mentioned before how awesome Liz is? Today we had a Quiet Day. We both woke up fairly early considering how late we went to bed, moved out to the living room and have spent most of the day napping, reading, going on the computer, watching a movie, and being almost entirely silent. Despite the fact that I felt ill for a majority of the time, it was one of the most pleasant days I've had in recent memory. And this afternoon when she went out for a walk, she came back with a popsicle for me. I have an awesome friend.

Recommendation: Buy someone a surprise frozen treat, it'll make their day.

The Hills Are Alive

You know what I enjoy? Music. In many different forms it causes me to freak out. As in my last post, there is Sondre Lerche squeal-mellow-joy-bouncy-upbeat-adorableness-wicked-way-with-words style joy. In February The Sleeping Beauty Ballet is going to be performed in Seattle which brings me a dance-Sleeping-Beauty-on-Ice-Diseny-movie-memories-instrumental-kick-assness kind of joy. Last night I went to a Summer Sing, an event put on by my choir that's open to the public where you spend one evening singing through a well-known piece on stage in Benaroya. It was PACKED and made me smile to see all the new people; plus, I forgot how plain ol' FUN Carmina Burana is. This brought me sexy-drinking-reversal-of-fortune-good-memories-I-wish-I-were-a-dude-so-I-could-sing-THAT-part-choral-music-f-ing-ROCKS kind of joy. It took me about two hours to wind down after Carmina last night, I was so jazzed.

How does music do that? Case in point: sitting at work today I put Carmina on to entertain myself. Several times I found that I had to restrain my enthusiasm and force myself to work instead of dancing and silent-singing. Having spent so much time in choir and hanging out with music majors in college part of me thinks I should have been a music major, too. On the other hand, I only took one Survey of Western Music course and while it was pretty darned cool to learn, I apparently didn't need to take all that theory and history and composition and conducting to enjoy music to the point of soul-bursting, face-splitting, high-kicking joy that occurs oh so frequently in my life. If I added any new musical knowledge, thus increasing my ability to appreciate and enjoy, I might explode.

Rock on.