Nurse Diesel

Okay, I promise I'm not obsessed, but here is the Nurse Diesel clip from "High Anxiety."  Maybe it you watch it you'll be in on me and Danny's "fruit cup" inside joke.

Madeline Kahn

After I found that clip of Madeline Kahn singing on Sesame Street, I remembered how I used to be obsessed with her back in my teenage years.  I mean, I watched every movie she was in.  What I couldn't get over is that she was beautiful, funny, and an amazing singer, and I always wanted to be like that...

But anyways, I don't want to be one of those whores that posts a bunch of videos on her blog...but I'm going to anyway.  Here's a trailer for my FAVORITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME, "Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother" by Gene Wilder.  Kahn's in that, and it's out of control funny.

And then I found this, also from Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, and it's the opera scene.  My real purpose in posting it is because I think this is what the opera is going to turn in to this semester...

She was also in High Anxiety, a Mel Brooks film, which is one of my favorites.  Maybe if I really want to get on people's nerves I'll create a post about Nurse Diesel...long story.

When I was in high school, my choir conductor (Mr Hook) made me listen to his Soundheim Live CD, and that pretty much changed his life.  He played for me this song, performed by Madeline Kahn right before she died in the late 1990's.  She's crazy good.

And then I had to post this, because no Kahn tribute would be complete without the penis scene from History of the World.

I found this randomly, and I think it's kind of cool.  It's about how she stumbled upon opera accidentally.  If you ask me, she could be a real opera singer (that sounds cliche and un-educated of me...but I believe it's true).

Sesame Street is Always Cool

Madeleine Kahn and Grover.

Rachel

Today I woke up and my throat felt like it had been clawed all night long as I was sleeping. I stayed in my bathrobe all day and watched bad tv until choir, which sucked.
Despite my being sick, I rehearsed with Rachel for my audition a week from tomorrow. Let me emphasize how much I love Rachel AuBuchon. She is wildly intelligent, stimulating, entertaining, beautiful, honest, and she is the most musical person I know. Rehearsing with her was very therapeutic. She had these wrist warmers that ONLY Rachel AuBuchon could wear, and she let me wear them the whole time. She was so happy, which made me fell happy. Afterwards we went to her place and read through some music (Rameau and Respighi), and then headed out to McGinty's for some drinks.
McGinty's is right next to our apartment, but I've never been there. Rachel's boyfriend Glen works there as a bartender and she goes all the time. Rachel is one of those girls who goes to bars alone and sits at the bar with a book. I love that about her. McGinty's was great. We got glasses of Boulevard and played Shuffleboard. Mark joined us later on and Glen made us all carrot cake shots. When he was done we all played pool and drank. Rachel is crazy about Glen, and I'm so happy for her.
Mark and I came back home, and it was then that I realized how sick I really was. He made me dinner and I am very thankful for that.
My plan for the weekend is to rest and get better for my Indiana audition. Mark just informed me that he can't accompany me to Indiana that Saturday, so I have to con someone else to go with me. Or else it will be my mom, and I don't know how I feel about that.

Uh oh!

I think I'm getting sick. If I'm sick next week for my audition I'll cut a bitch. Seriously.

Happy Birthday, Domingo!

We had Bach choir rehearsal tonight, and despite my love of early music I was not excited to be there. So afterwards Kyle, Chad, Mark and I all celebrated with pitchers of beer at the Berg. And it was nice.

Mousse

I alluded to the idea of my readers' mentality at the beginning of my previous entry, but now I'm convinced that I'M the dumb one. I thought it would be a good idea to pack my mousse in my suitcase without the cap, so now there's fruity smelling mousse all over everything I own. Including the inside of my shoes.

I have a story...

I have a story, and the name of the story is..."University Singers Went to Chicago and They Were a Hot Mess." I don't know if I need to explain this title, but I will in case my readers are dumb. University Singers went to Chicago. And they were a hot.mess. The trip was planned really poorly. We spent 6 1/2 hours at a suburban mall, but we only got 2 hours downtown. And those were spent at the art museum (giving Mark and I only enough time to view the neoclassical sculptures and the early European paintings.  Blasphemy!). There often wasn't enough time for dinner or lunch (i.e. "make sure to eat lunch in your two hours downtown, which will be spent at the art museum!") and when we did do dinner it was usually pizza or buffets (more specifically "Old Country Buffet"). Now, I didn't plan it. And if I did it would probably have been worse because I can't plan a damned thing. But, you know.

There were, however, some wonderful highlights and stories from the trip:

1) We went to Macon and sang for Emily Edgington's choir.  They were the best audience and I was so proud of Emily.  It was definitely the best school we visited.  She made us sight-read a spiritual with her choir, and Dr. Crabb and I stood next to each other.  He was a crazy goof and could not sight-read the spiritual to save his life.

2) The first night in Chi-town we went to a bar next to the hotel called McCormick and Schmick's.  It was really expensive and ritzy, but what the hell we needed a drink.  We got there during last call, though, and they recommended we walk a mile up the road to another bar called Stoneybrook what-ever-it's-called.  We were all a little drunk from our wine at Schmicks and got even drunker at bar #2.  Some might even say we were out of control--I certainly was.  Then we walked back to the hotel in below-freezing weather, completely wasted.  And it was nice.  

3) We sang at a beautiful downtown Chicago catholic church.  The accoustics were alive and breathtaking.  The audience, however, wasn't.  There were about 10 people there and they all sat on the right side.

4) Mark and I bought a chocolate cake for Trent's birthday and it was really good.  In fact, that same afternoon we had glorious food (white-wine crepes and corn chowder, no

t in that order) that we ate while it snowed.

5) Mark, Ryan, Whitney, and I went to IKEA and had an adventure getting there on the trolly.  IKEA is a wonderland of the modern world.  I wish I were Swiss.

6) We sang at a Japanese church in Skoke.  I got really sick and almost passed out, so I left after the first song and laid down on the floor outside of the sanctuary.  The church had terrible accoustics so I'm not upset I missed out on that one.  After the concert we had homestays with the church members, and Whitney and I stayed with a crazy old caucasian woman from the congregation named Carol.  Carol lived an hour away (awkward).  She had one bedroom in her house.  Carol slept on the couch while we slept in her bed (awkward).  When we got home at 9:30 pm, Carol told us we had to go to sleep, so Whitney and I whispered the entire night, stifling laughs (awkward).  Carol told us we had to be up at 7:00 am to make it to our 9:30 am call, so she knocked at our door promptly at 7 to make sure we were up (awkward).  Carol bought us new blue towels to use for our shower but did not wash them, so they left blue fuzz all over our bodies (awkward).  She made us breakfast that consisted of tiny pieces of bacon and little eggs (awkward).  Carol told us that Budapest has a secret underground city that no one has ever heard of.  Awkward.

7) Mark and I met Matt Williams at the Art Institute and I fell in love (again) with the Renaissance paintings. 

8) We had a tour of the Chicago Lyric Opera House, and it was phenomenal.  Our tour guide was an old man named Kit who called Deborah Voight "Debbie" and made fun of her.  Mark and Kyle and I were in heaven as we touched Renee Flemming's costume for her La Traviata performance and we went into Thomas Hampson's dressing room.  Mark even got to try on a wig made with Yak's hair for Falstaf.

9) Our performance at the 2nd presbyterian church in Bloomington was incredible.  Dr Crabb was crying.  And Ginny Crabb drove five hours with the Greens to come see her husband, which made me love her even more (she's the world's most perfect person).  After the performance we had another homestay, but this time it was with the world's COOLEST homestay family.  Dorris and what's-his-name Hill.  She was the music director at the church and the organist/pianist for the services.  Six girls slept on bunk beds (I love bunk beds) and they made us ice cream a fresh strawberries for dessert as we talked by the fire about life and music and Carol (and her made-up underground Budapest cities).  They were perfect and restored my faith in humanity (just like the IKEA store).

That sums up the trip pretty well.  We got back into Columbia at 3:30 this afternoon and I've since been trying to find basses for my choir.  Oh the life of a choral director...

Battle of the Blogs

Today I walked in on Mark and found him blogging. It's always a little scary to walk in on Mark because he could be masturbating (in fact, that's a high probability). But today his door was cracked open slightly, signaling either A) it was okay to come on in, or B) he was masturbating and forgot to close the door. But, he was blogging. Not a cool, fun, bitchy blog...but a mormon friendly family blog that masks his real identity. I don't know how I feel about that. I, personally, would like a record of my witticism, which, indeed, is NOT mormon friendly. Let's see whose blog is the best in this BATTLE OF THE BLOGS!

Today I have to go to campus and work on this COMP stuff. My job is dumb and I'm not particularly good at it: it's all about communication with people I don't know, and organization, which are two of my weaknesses. Everyone knows I'm bad at it, too. So, I'm kind of a joke around the office. I like not telling Tina and Susan I'm there, so maybe I can catch some gossip about me through the office walls (this, by the way, HAS happened). The biggest issue in COMP right now is getting the judging done for the contest. But, on top of this, this corporate PR bitch named Bridgette keeps calling me. INCESSANTLY! She's quite a whore.  I've gotten her off my case for the past few days. Let's see if today's meeting with my boss erases her from my life forever. 

Last night Mark and I split a bottle of wine and then pretty much fell asleep. It was nice--being drunk for about 45 minutes and then immediately losing all control of consciousness. I had a bad dream about a bitch in a hostel in Holland who got mad at me for ducking under a curtain instead of pushing it aside when I walked through it. That's dumb.