Hello hello!

So it’s Sunday evening, and I really don’t want this weekend to come to a close! I feel like it just flew on by without a warning!

So I’d like to tell you about my Saturday night! As a junior you’re allowed to have a car here, so after I did some homework and ate some dinner at Hasbrouck (of course!) I drove to Albany. Jessie is completely right in her past blog; New Paltz IS the perfect distance. It takes me about 3 hours to get home to Long Island (eastern Long Island), about an hour and a half to NYC and an hour and 10 minutes to get to Albany. So it always feels like a mini road trip whenever you decide to go somewhere. I like that, well, because I love road trips! I’m getting better at driving long distances, thank heavens, because I’m the one out of my friends who has the car. So I best get used to it.

My bro Kyle, who is a sophomore at U Albany, had a performance Saturday night. He’s in an a cappella group called the Earth Tones and they just so happened to have their 10 year reunion concert! How cool is that? They opened up the concert by all (about the 40 of them who could make it?) singing an introduction together. Then the original Earth Tones groups sang and as the concert progressed it made it’s way to the present group. It was great! My friend Renee was there with me, along with my parents and my Uncle Paul from Florida. We all sat and watched, marveling how energetic they were and what amazing vocal chords they had! Uh! I just couldn’t believe how in sync the oldest groups were, when they haven’t sang this, in, what, a decade? Their blending was amazing! Renee and I commented later how we thought it sounded better than a recording! I’m in an a cappella group here on campus as well, called The Sexy Pitches, so it’s always wonderful to hear other groups have fun and do a fantastic job! (P.S. I can’t wait to post videos/pictures about the Sexy Pitches in blogs to come!)

Renee and I were ecstatic when the soloist Christian Rodriguez sang “September.” WOW were we smiling like crazy. We love how he sings that song!!! I think I’ll post a video from youtube of a past performance of it. You just have to hear it! His low notes are so rich and when he gets up to those high notes, your jaw just drops! “Do you remember, on the 21^st night of September?”- That’s today ladies and gents, by the way!

“September” by the Earth Tones @ the 10 Year Reunion Dinner!

OH and my brother totally surprised me by singing a solo! He sang “Everything” by Michael Buble. I’m so proud of that lil’ bugger! He had no voice that morning and he just did everything possible to get it back and WHAM…he performed it beautifully! I wish he told me he had a solo though, or I would have brought my video camera. Ohhh well. I looked around the audience when he was singing and saw a bunch of cameras out, so hopefully someone took a video of it and slapped it on youtube. Go Ky!

This is my brother singing “Everything.” So proud of him!

Above, some Earth Tones’ Alum dancing, while singing “Africa.”

To sum it up, the night was fantastic. Unfortunately, Renee and I couldn’t stay to hang out with the Tones afterward. We had to get home after the concert finished because 1.) we had Fresh Dance auditions Sunday morning (I’ll tell you about those in a bit.) And 2.) We had to see our friend Paul Rigano on SNL! That’s right! Our friend was on Saturday Night Live. Fun fact: Paul and I are a married in Company, the musical (the main stage production that’s being performed on campus) so I guess you could say I was “so proud of my hubby!”

After we left the UAlbany campus, Renee and I stopped at a gas station, filled up the tank and starting driving down the thru way listening to Gavin DeGraw. Renee and I made it back to her apartment, which is right on Main Street in New Paltz, with plenty of time to relax and chat before 11:30PM rolled around. We changed into comfy PJs, put the kettle on the stove, threw some popcorn in the microwave, and a bunch of us crowded around the TV to watch our friend (and by the way, Renee’s house mate) on the telly! James Franco was the star guest that night and he was doing a scene about John Steinbeck’s alternative ending to Of Mice and Men.

Ok, so Paul is the guy with the brown hair, stubbly face, and he’s holding the dog’s rope in his hand. SO LOOK FOR THE GUY WITH THE DOG WHEN THEY CHASE JAMES FRANCO (OR GEORGE’S CHARACTER) OFF STAGE LEFT! It’s at the end of the skit! He’s the last guy to leave the stage…with the dog!!!

Paul Rigano on Saturday Night Live!!! TAKE A GANDER!!

Then today, Sunday, was Fresh Dance auditions. Fresh Dance is a dance recital New Paltz has every year which runs for one weekend (Thurs-Sun.) All of the dance numbers are choreographed by students who attend SUNY New Paltz, and so they hold one large audition where 20 people enter the dance studio at a time. Then the choreographers select the people they want in their piece (and contact them later.) I talked to one of the choreographer’s today and she said there are at least twenty choreographers this year, so that hopefully means there are going to be a lot of opportunities. Unfortunately, some of the numbers have a chance of getting cut if the number isn’t ready by piece showing. Piece Showing is when each dance number is performed in front of Yoav Kaddar, the director of Fresh Dance. He makes the final decision if the dance has an efficient concept and is ready for the actual performance of Fresh Dance. There are all kinds of dance pieces, from lyrical, tap, ballet, solo pieces, hip-hop, jazz, musical theatre selections and more!

At any rate, auditions were a little long (about a half n’ hour) but they were enjoyable, and even though I messed up a heck of a lot, it was still fun to dance around and do funky moves! I loved the hip-hop audition piece. It was loads of fun, even though my hip-hop skills aren’t up to par. I just gave it some attitude and BROUGHT IT! Haha, not really, but I did have fun with it!

OK, well I have rehearsal in about fifteen minutes, so I better post this and say my goodbyes! I will be talking to you soon! And check out everyone’s blogs about Spirit Week. I’m sure there will be many of them, since it was an exploding event that took place on campus this weekend! Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend due to theatre rehearsals/Fresh Dance Auditions/Seeing my brother/Homework. Guess ya can’t do it all.

Peace

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 21st, 2008 at 11:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.