No, the cat didn’t vomit on the keyboard. That stands for National Novel Writing Month, or some such thing. Now, I’m not planning on writing a novel; I’m far too flighty for that, but I am planning on writing more often.
I see, with chagrin, that I haven’t posted since the middle of August.
Much has gone on in the house of the Songbird. (Huh. I see that I really need to change my blog name as well. That’s a whole other story in itself, but the name will be changing soon.)
September was mostly back-to-school, how-does-this-routine-work-again drivel, but October? October was pure singing fun!
I started the month off with a bang, by going, with my beloved husband, to an Enneagram Workshop with Tom Condon. The man is a genius. He has the same sort of demeanor as Columbo. That whole bumbling, asking odd questions, tell odd stories thing until you get to the end of the conversation and realized that he has uncovered something that you didn’t even know you had hidden.
Okay, so none of that first weekend was about singing, at least not directly, but it leads up to singing.
Weekend number 2 in October was STAR WARS IN CONCERT! I was hired to be one of the 60 voice choir to sing for Star Wars in Concert. This particular choir was hired to sing for the two Sacramento concerts (in the ARCO Arena) and the two San Jose concerts (in the HP Pavilion, or the Shark Tank as the locals like to call it, since the San Jose Sharks Hockey team plays there).
Yes, there is choral music in Star Wars. I know, I know, everyone keeps trying to remember if there was anyone singing in the bar scene. No. There wasn’t.
We performed two songs. Duel of the Fates from Revenge of the Sith and Battle of the Heros from The Phantom Menace.
What was particularly cool about the whole deal was being behind the two full rows of percussion! They had three marimbas, a set of COW BELLS!, 4 timpani, two snare drums, a big bass drum (a piccolo, a piccolo, too. — oops, that’s from Music Man and that’s not until later, sorry), a GONG! cymbals, etc. It was incredible. Not to mention the rest of the orchestra.
We felt particularly cool when we went in to work on the pieces with the orchestra. The maestro ran both pieces through once and then released us. We were later told by “our” stage manager that that was the shortest time he had ever worked with the local “pick up” choir. We ROCKED!
Anyway, fun, fun, fun! And Anthony Daniels, too! (For those of you who aren’t Star Wars fanatics, he’s the guy who played C3Pio, or however that’s spelled.)
Weekend number 3 was Kiss Me, Kate! A small chorus of 18 sang with some folks from Broadway fame along with the Symphony Silicon Valley. We had four performances in four days. Lilli/Kate was played by Christine Andreas, and Fred/Petruchio was played by Richard White.
Weekend number 4 was Copland. The Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale sang with Symphony Silicon Valley (say that three times fast) Copland’s Old American Songs.
There is just nothing quite like singing with a full orchestra.
Weekend number 5 (yes, there were five weekends in October) was Halloween. But I spent the last week in October with a turned ankle and then a rather brutal head cold. I think it was my body’s way of saying: “Stop and rest! All this singing is fabulous, but pacing yourself might be a good thing!”
And now we’re up to November 1st.
I may, or may not, go back and fill in more details about some of the more eventful events of October.
Oh yes, I also dyed my hair. You wouldn’t necessarily know it, because it’s not a drastic change, but it is gorgeous, if I do say so myself. Okay, I didn’t dye it. I had Tuan dye it. He did a fabulous job. I have tried my hand at dyeing hair and I’m not likely to attempt that again anytime soon.
With that, I bid you ado, until whenever I get back here again. My intention is to get back here tomorrow. It’s on the schedule, so that makes it far more likely to happen.
