I apologize for posting two videos in a row, but anyone who has been reading me for awhile knows that I am a huge fan of both American Idol and Canadian Idol. Last year I was cursing the fact that, as a Canadian, I couldn’t vote in support of David Cook.
This year, I found myself initially a bit ambivalent, but I’ve ended up becoming a *huge* Adam Lambert fan. I also really like Danny Gokey quite a lot and would most likely love his music when he puts an album out in the future, but after the past several weeks I fully expect that Adam is going to win this season and after last night’s performance I really think it would be beyond shocking if he doesn’t. Check this out, from last night’s “standards” theme:
As soon as it was over and the judges thew their praises upon him I immediately fired up Skype and started discussing how amazing that was with my fellow Idol fan.
Are you watching? Who are you pulling for?
(I promise I’ll have an actual *content* post up soon!)
My sister sent me this link to a YouTube video this morning and I swear to you, it just set my morning off on the best foot. It’s really hard to watch it without smiling.
Apologies if the song is now stuck in your head, but really, how well done was THAT, right? Seriously awesome.
I used to try, once upon a time, to hide the fact that deep down, I am a complete and utter sap. I’d try to put up the tough exterior as often as I possibly could. Sometimes it was a good thing. No one wants to break down in tears after a poor review at work or after getting yelled at by one of your high school teachers. And when you live most of your teen years through pathetically unrequited love, it was really handy to be able to pull on all those acting desires and hide the tears until you were alone at home.
But really, it’s good to be emotional, it’s good to feel things and for years now I have shrugged off most attempts to be tough and untouchable. There may still be times when it comes in handy to have a mask but overall I am who I am (“I yam who I yam”?) and who I am is a ball of emotion.
I cry at the drop of a hat. George likes to tease me about it because I will cry while watching movies – even if they’re not necessarily meant to be sad, they just need something really touching to set me off. I cry over children’s movies (yes, I’m looking at YOU Wall-E!).
I cry over television shows – “Criminal Minds” is my favorite show but it makes me cry from time to time because of the crimes and the victims. Same goes for “Law & Order SVU”. And don’t even get me started on “Grey’s Anatomy”. While I haven’t done any formal research, I’m quite sure that I have never ever gotten through a full episode without crying at least once. Sometimes that show has made me cry so hard I worry about having an aneurysm (shaking my fist at the writers behind Denny, damn you!).
I cry over books. I’m reading Slumdog Millionaire since I loved the movie so much and as recently as today I found myself in tears during one chapter. And let me just say that while A Thousand Splendid Suns is my favorite book ever, I am so glad I was not trying to read that book in public anywhere because I was a total mess throughout, oh, 85% of it at least.
So yeah. I cry. I cry easily and I get embarrassed when I’m caught all teary-eyed and blowing my nose, but that’s the way I am. So it didn’t surprise me when I caught this commercial on TV for the first time tonight and was immediately dissolved into a puddle of tears.
Seriously. COME ON. To make it worse, that commercial aired during Grey’s Anatomy and, well, see above for how I fare during THAT show.
Please tell me I’m not the only sap around and that you get all emotional too!
Every once in awhile a song I haven’t thought about in ages will suddenly just pop into my head, usually when I’m doing the dishes. I hate dishes because I don’t have a dishwasher, so I pass the time by listening to my iPod or by just singing random songs.
The other night, I suddenly found myself singing “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” from Grease. When I was still taking acting classes and wishing I was brave enough to just GO somewhere like Toronto or New York or L.A., I auditioned for the theater program at one of our local colleges. When I tried out I knew that I couldn’t actually go; I wasn’t living at home anymore and had rent and bills to pay. The theater program is so intensive that you can’t work. I could have applied for financial aid but since the school itself is free, it only would have covered enough to pay for textbooks and student fees. It was utterly impossible. Still, I applied to the program and got an audition date just because I wanted to see if I could get in.
We had to prepare two monologues. One had to be classic (in other words, Shakespeare) and one had to be modern. I hired my acting teacher for a couple of private lessons in order to prepare. For Shakespeare, I pieced together a monologue from Julius Caesar, playing Portia* and for the modern monologue I created one from “I Am A Camera” which was the play that inspired “Cabaret”. I did Sally Bowles, the character later played by Liza Minelli.
We also had to sing a short song (I forget the suggested length now), and I froze in a panic because sing? What, in front of PEOPLE?! I love to sing. I sing a lot. But not in front of PEOPLE. As much as I love a good musical I wouldn’t likely be in one, unfortunately. Unless I could drink a lot of wine before going on stage.
Anyway, it wasn’t because they wanted great singers, apparently it’s a way of seeing how well you can project to the back of the theater. Nervous, I chose “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” from “Grease”. Sandy may be the big part in “Grease” but I always wanted to play Rizzo because she’s more fun.
God, this is turning into the longest flashback ever. So I did my two monologues and then I took a deep breath and belted out my song. A month later I got something in the mail. I totally made it. And then I wondered why I had done that to myself because you have no idea how hard it was to pick up the phone and call them to say that I was very grateful but my “circumstances had changed” and I would not be able to take the course since I needed to work. Heartbreaking. I still wonder what would have happened if I had told my ex I was moving back home with my parents so I could study theater. Ah well.
I chose to sing that song because it wasn’t out of my range and was a solo. But my favorite song from “Grease” is definitely “You’re the One That I Want” by Sandy and Danny.
God. I love “Grease”. I got to play Cha-Cha DeGregario in my high school drama class but I always wanted to be in the full thing. I guess I’ll settle for singing the songs while I wash my dishes.
*I did the whole monologue, on the suggestion of my teacher, in a British accent. I do it quite well, especially when I’ve been practicing. I delivered a very killer “Dwell I but in the suburbs of your good pleasure? If it be no more, Portia is Brutus’ harlot, not his wife.” One of the women holding the audition told me my accent was AWESOME. Blimey.
I have always loved the saxophone. I may live with a guitarist and I love what he can play with it, but there’s something about the sax that just blows me away. It’s my favorite instrument.
When I was in grade seven, we had one elective that changed every six or eight weeks throughout the year so that we would have an idea as to what we wanted to choose to take the following year. This included Technical Drawing (I was pretty good at that, much to my shock), woodworking (I was even better at that, and that’s what I ended up choosing), Art (nothing killed my creativity quite like a barking Art teacher), and Music. I already knew how to play the recorder, so I probably would have been best suited to the oboe, especially with only having a handful of weeks to play it.
I did not choose the sensible oboe. I chose the sax. The tenor sax. I was so proud to have a shiny albeit banged up saxophone in my grasp with a little package of brand new paper-thin reeds, and wow was I going to have fun practicing.
Have you ever heard an elephant die painfully on the plains of the Savannah? Me neither, but if I did come across such an experience I am willing to bet good money that it would sound exactly like me, playing the sax.
Luckily for me, my own horrid attempts did not destroy my love of the saxophone. Prince put out a song called “Partyman” and Candy Dulfer was featured in it. That sparked my attention, and then I discovered the collaboration between Candy Dulfer and The Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, “Lily Was Here”.
I loved the song, and I still do.
I thought of her the other day and went YouTube-ing and found a great deal of excellent music that she’s put out since those old days. She is absolutely amazing and no matter how much I loved the sax I never had a chance of sounding like Candy. But that’s okay. Now that I have her most recent album, I’d rather just listen than try to play!
(Duh. Some “Friday” flashback. I wrote it up in advance and saved it as a draft. And then I forgot to publish it. OOPS!)
Hayley has a bit of trouble training Pearl or getting her to do things when she wants, such as getting her to let go of something or to get down. Mostly it’s because Hayley either talks with too much of a playful lilt, which makes Pearl not take her seriously, or she gets hysterical and starts shrieking which doesn’t work at all.
Surprisingly, even though Breanna is the smallest one here, she does very well with it. She uses a no-nonsense but calm tone when she speaks to the dog and it’s hilarious. There have been times when Hayley has tried unsuccessfully to retrieve one of her stuffed animals from Pearl’s jaws and she’ll ask Breanna to do it for her – and it works.
Here’s a quick clip I shot of Breanna teaching Pearl to sit and stay before returning to give her a treat and some praise for her efforts.
