My Ducky, My Wucky

Kiss Me Kate is proving to be one of the most satisfying theatrical productions I've ever worked on; maybe it's because I'm stretching so far. Singing, dancing, good times. In working on my vocals I have discovered some odd things about how my voice works; it seems that I close up my nasal resonators when I speak or sing. I'm trying to figure out when or if I should open those resonators up; FLT, our esteemed male lead, has an astonishingly full voice, and it sounds like all his resonators are operating at peak effeciency.

I really enjoy watching the dancing at rehearsal, and not just because the dancers are cute. I have great admiration for people who know how to use their bodies; I often feel like a spastic robot. Precise, controlled movement is like a superpower in my eyes.

A friend emailed me at work to inform me that today has been declared a National Day of Sass, and that I should sass off to someone. Soon thereafter I got in trouble for NOT using wild-ass guesswork. Usually I get in trouble for using wild-ass guesswork. Who knew that the first time I took a strict construction approach to the rules that I would get in trouble for it? I firmly believe that this will be resolved in my favor; these situations usually play out in favor of strict construction. But I wrote a sassy email. And then I unsent it. What a coward.

That's one of the nice things about the company email system... you can "unsend" stuff if you have second thoughts. I learned this as a trainee; I sent a spicy email to a lady friend and accidentally sent it to a dozen other folks. One of them kindly taught me how to unsend. Another gave me funny looks for a while.

Was that enough wooly posting for now? I swear I'll get my computer fixed soon.

What Hath Babbage Wrot?

It appears that having a working computer is not part of God's plan for my life, so I won't be updating this too often for the near future. Things always seem to be better in general when I don't have net access though. The next few weeks are pretty much about Kiss Me Kate.

Strong suggestions: go snag a copy of the soundtrack (there's a couple versions) of Out Of This World, a forgotten Cole Porter show with some splendid songs. Check your email to make sure you didn't just get three different party evites. And don't drop an Ibook unless you want it to turn into a big paperweight.

Hanging Over Everything

Tonight we rehearsed the opening of Kiss Me Kate, and it just gets better and better! It's a complex scene, blending acting, singing and dancing; all the stuff you expect from a musical. It's fun to do, and I'm hugely fond of this cast, even though I barely know most of the folks.

Anyway, I watched from the sidelines as a few folks ran through a dance number, and the thought crossed my mind: "Someday every one of the delightful people in this cast wil be dead."

Mono no aware, the Japanese call it... Life gains a certain sweetness from the knowledge that it's only a temporary condition.

P. S. Why isn't my blog allowing UBB code all the sudden? I tried to post a link to an article about Mono no aware, but if I can't do it with a pretty UBB link then fergit it. I am about to pitch a big tantrum; the perfect antidote to wistful melancholy.

This post was written in haste and shall be repented at leisure.

I heard an excerpt from United 93, the new flick about the 9/11 hijackings, on NPR the other day. It really rattled me; hearing these breathless voices trying to figure out what was going on brought back all the terror of the time. I don't think I can bear to watch this movie, and that's peculiar to me; I can usually take any amount of cinematicly induced stress (enjoy it is another matter) because after all, it's a movie. But sometimes the movie is a shadow-puppet play that refers to real events. Still I've watched movies about the Holocaust and other such evil, hateful events, and been emotionally affected, but it wasn't the same. Those movies didn't trigger a memory the way this one did; they only upset me at a pretty abstract moral level. And ultimately, how useful are abstract morals?

On a seperate topic, now that I have a sense that life is finally a banquet for me to enjoy, I've become a big old hypochondriac. I live in terror of breaking, ripping, rending, poisoning, infecting or otherwise ruining my body. This is why I've decided to become a vampire. All they have to do is drink some blood. I've never been one for the mystique, exoticism or eroticism of vampires, but I am into the not-dying of vampires. Well, I suppose I could use a dash of mystique, exoticism and eroticism too.

Sing! Sing! Sing!

For a while now I'm been puzzling over the phenomenon of Guys-who-aren't-conventionally-good-singers-but-who-get-to-sing-anyway-because-they're-good-songwriters-or-guitarists. You know the ones... Dylan, Hendrix, Leonard Cohen, Mark Knopfler... The thing that puzzles me is that they're all... guys. Can you think of any women who are successful singers who aren't conventionally "good" singers? Other than so-bad-they're-good novelty acts like The Shaggs and Mrs. Miller. Or like the Raincoats, a female punk band... in punk bad singing is expected; anything resembling good singing (The Clash, of course) is unusual. So where in rock, jazz or pop can you find popular female singers with limited or off-kilter styles? Well, I finally got a lead.

Since I'm in a production of Kiss Me Kate I've been on a Cole Porter kick, and so I picked up a Cole Porter tribute Revue CD recently... it's got a bunch of (mostly older) singers doing really terrific versions of Porter tunes... and some of those old gals don't quite have the pipes they must have had back in the day, but they more than make up for it. You can hear all their years' experience coming out of those cracked, straining, imperfect but wise and expressive voices.

And if you really delve into show tunes you'll hear more singers who can't hit the notes but who sell the songs wonderfully. Listen to the original recording of Send In The Clowns. And the original version of Sue Me from Guys and Dolls... the guy in that was actually tone deaf, and it shows! But the performers are selling the songs and the parts. I'm listening to these partly for the pure pleasure, but partly to solve the challenges of singing with my relative inexperience and wonky skills. I've been surprised by the diversity and idiosyncracy allowed in show tunes... I would have expected a more homogenized, pasturized vocal style would have been mandatory, but musical theatre is teeming with happy surprises for the receptive newcomer.

A Great Big Kiss

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MiqzGNPY43E

I wish I were a girl group singer.

Kiss Me Kate

I have three songs in this show where I'm not safely ensconced in the ensemble-Another Opening, Another Show, Cantiamo D'Amore, and From This Moment On. The first song starts the show; I don't have any actual solo lines, but I'll be one of only a few voices for a few measures, and a goof at the beginning of the show could really mar the production. In Cantiamo D'Amore I've gotta make like an operetta singer as part of a trio; the other two guys are the real operetta deal, and at least one of them is cuter than me by a wide margin (haven't met the other guy yet.) The last song is a duet (I almost typed "duel!") with the lovely and talented leading lady, Michelle B., who awes me yet spurs me on to do my best singing for just that very reason. Everyone's doing fine work, and I think this is gonna be a show to take great pride in, but the challenge of doing all this singing is new to me.