Oh happy day, it’s the weekend!

Hope everyone had a splendid Friday and such. Last night I was at the Winter Formal with all the Sexy Pitches. At 7:30, we sang 3 of our most up-beat, fun lovin’ songs. I was sportin’ this green get-up from forever 21 and some jade colored eye-make up to close the deal. It was fun to get all spiffed up and attempting at the stylish route while singing my heart out. After a little a cappella, I danced it up with my roommate from freshman year in the Student Union Building’s Multi Purpose Room. I love Liz and I miss her greatly! At any rate, it was so nicely decorated, with snowflakes and white lights in the formation of icicles.  Christine Sweeney and I had some shirley temples, which were scrumptious and then we went out on the dance floor! You know, it was a really nice idea…and I wish the whole school attended as if it were prom in high school. Because it was such a sweet notion, with everyone dressed up to kill and dancing….UH, lovely! I had such a nice time shakin’ my booty off! I get into it, tis true. They even had a backdrop set up where you could take pictures of you and your group. They printed them out within 20 minutes! CUUTE! You know, NPBlogger Jesse was one of the people running this entire event, so I bet she has more information on the winter formal. I just thought I’d touch upon it, since I really thought it was cute and a grand ole’ time!

On Thurs. night the Sexy Pitches and Absolut A Cappella performed a dorm performance in Deyo Hall. So many people showed up, and I just want to thank all those lovelies for coming and supporting the love of music! Thanks again! It was a fun night. Absolut had a bunch of dance-able, crazy tunes like Mambo Number Five, which made me laugh and laugh! Oh I love how they have fun with whatever they’re singing! Us Sexy Pitches debuted a new song as well. Maybe I shouldn’t give it away, because we are performing tonight at The College Terrace on campus (behind the Sojourner Truth Library.) Maybe I should just say to come tonight, and find out! That will start at 10pm tonight to hear more a cappella sing-sations! Get there early if you want a good seat. Ya know.

Obviously I over-estimated my arm-length here. Everyone else looks sexy, while I look like I’m trying to catch my balloon which I mistakenly released into the atmosphere.

It doesn’t even look like my mouth is open, but I swear to you I’m singing.

I love Christine Sweeny’s smile in this. She’s the one in the black shirt singing the solo, “Killing Me Softly!” In the picture, she’s a little to the left of my flailing arms.

All these pictures are courtesy of Christopher Thurston. Thanks!!

Before the concert, today is going to be my reading/homework/laundry/cleaning/working-out day. That won’t be the most joyous thing in the world- I won’t sugar coat it. However, tomorrow is going to be great! Although I was on the waiting list, I’m going to Hunter Mountain to go skiing again! BOOYAH! I hope the weather is nice (with some sun, less wind preferably) and easy does-it on the amount of ice. That would be great. To be honest, I’m not going with ANYONE I know…I just signed up on my own. It was a nice deal! Twenty-five smackaroos for lift ticket, equiptment and lessons if need be. If I wanted to try snowboarding I could take the instructor, but to be honest, I just don’t think I’d have fun. I want to speed down the mountain in tight turns– seeing how many runs I can do. It will be nice to just have a hard ski day and then on the bus ride home, just read or listen to some music. I love being around people, but sometimes it’s nice to rejoice in solitude.

So those are the plans for the weekend! I hope everyone is relaxing!

Kristen

I just arrived back from Freshdance, and it was truly remarkable. Remarkable I say, with extra exclamation points! Last year I danced in one of the numbers, but this year I was a regular ol’ spectator. But, ya know what? I am truly happy to have been a supportive audience member, whoopin’ and hollerin’ as each curtain dropped from the heavens. Because each time the dancers froze in time on their final step, I felt a surge of inspiration, a passion of movement and strength and sound, just spill over me like fairy dust blowing from a child’s hands. I felt a reason to appreciate art and love. Each dance piece brought so much emotion in my heart that sometimes it carried through my arteries to my head, where it overwhelmed my eyes, making them brim and slosh with water.

I don’t need to tell anyone who’s ever seen a dance recital how much work goes into these numbers. People become emotionally and physically exhausted with every piece of effort they thrust towards these pieces with grace and skill. Choreographers, dancers, lighting designers, costume designers, sound designers, stage managers, wardrobe crew, run crew, and every other type of crew imaginable combines their talents into one collapse piece of beauty called art. And this art, referred to as Freshdance, is only here for one weekend here on McKenna stage at SUNY New Paltz. So you best get your booties here! I’m serious! Support the students, support the local dance teams, and support art.

Click here for more information on Freshdance!

I’ll be keepin’ ya posted!

So, from what I’ve heard, the Spring Semester is right around the corner, and it is a doozy!  Supposedly, the Spring Semester is a little more intense than the first, but I say bring it on.  It’s going to be here by tomorrow and that’s final -we can take it.  That being said I hope all of you had a splendid vacation and are ready to be back.  The winter break is a good chance to get away from schoolwork, roommates and various other New Paltz related things, to realize how good you had it, and that you can’t wait to come back.  Truth be told, that seems to be the way it works every time.

Now normally, I would talk about something and then place a song choice at the bottom, but I say no -I am going to talk about the song I will recommend to all you readers (Thanks, again):  “Who Put The Bomp” by Barry Mann.  This is a classic little Doo-op ditty that is juts chock-a-block full of fun.  Just today, I was in Rite Aid (I know, good times!) and I heard this wonderfullicious track playing over the generic, plain, normal celing speakers and I wrote down a line for later.  Later, I entered that line into Google to find out what it was, and then played it on YouTube!

Simple, right?

Ever since then, I have been busting out all sorts of whistling and dancing (with my room door shut) to this track.

If you don’t believe me, well then see  for yourself!

Barry Mann, “Who Put The Bomp”

Happy Semester,

Matt

: D

Technology is great huh?  In the past few days, I have have a lovely experience with technology.  First, My sister Christina received a Wii for her birthday and we had tons of fun.  We played Crash Bandicoot, Bowling, Tennis, Baseball and Golf: blastie-blast.  But it gets better, because my sisters, parents and I all made Mii’s.  That’s right -Mii’s! When you own a Wii, you can play Wii sports and certain other fun-fun games using a specific character, or a “Mii.”  At first I was skeptical, because when we were choosing all the eyes, eyebrows, noses, hair, etc. nothing really looks like us. But when it was all said and done, we had six Mii’s that looked like my family and I: Success!  And what’s more is, I kicked some butt in Bowling and Golf : D.

Another technological treat that I have recently experienced is the new iPod touch and iPhone.  Santa was very kind to me this year and gave me an 8 GB iPod Touch -Delight! Yes, I already had an iPod, but I wanted the iPod touch because it had more memory and WiFi.  And let me tell you, the WiFi on that little Gizmo is lightning fast!  It almost competes with my MacBook (…which is really lightning fast!).  In any case, I have had a ton of fun with it and it’s not even the New Year yet!  And, again, I know what you’re thinking: what about the iPhone?  Well, I recently met up with some visiting family members from California, and my Uncle Phil has the new iPhone.  He says that although its WiFi is slower than the iPod touch (no joke -I was there, I know!) it is still lightyears faster than the Blackberry Storm!  Which, as an Apple products fan, I was very proud to hear.  Apple has really done well with the iPod touch and the iPhone.

As for other Christmas gifts, I gratefully received some iTunes money and I hurried to buy:

John Mayer “Hummingbird,”

John Mayer “Tracing (Acoustic),”

John Mayer “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember,”

Coldplay “Prospekt’s March” Album

Peace,

Matt

: D

Hi-ya gang! How was break? Was it dandy?

So after the Goldie Locks Adventure at the Preschool, soooo much has happened! So so SOO much! I wanted to make a little video about the events. I DID make a video in fact before Thanksgiving break, but somehow it didn’t get downloaded. Such a darn bummer. Therefore, I guess I’ll just have to write about what I did. However, I have some videos for your visual stimuli satisfaction. SAH-WEET!

So let’s go back to 2 Wednesday’s ago. That’s right…come back with me to Wednesday, November 19^th. So later that day, I went to a lecture on Internships! I’m so up in the air about internships. I want to do one this summer, because they really REALLY give you connections in the theatre world. Nonetheless, I have a couple jobs at home during the summer, and I want to travel, and I want to see my home friends, and GOLLY GEE so much.

Ready….set….watch!

Then Thursday I was interested in attending something called Interfaith Dinner. I’m not a very religious person. It was just the way I was raised. However, I am a spiritual person and so I wanted to experience this dinner where all different religious groups on campus came together and to share their faiths with some good food. I was thankfully invited to sit at the Hillel table to eat with my friend Renee. I’m just happy something like this exists on campus; a celebration of accepting all different religions. It was a free, loving Thanksgiving dinner, a week early.

VIDEOS and PHOTOS.

Look what a little kid drew!

Meg DiMaggio pointing out the lovely center piece of gords.

Chowin’ down at the Hillel table!

Renee Levine has knife and fork in hand.

Delicious!

Director of Hillel: Ellen, in the pink.

Ginormous Turkey!

Some of the prayers.

Some music even!

Here are videos of 4 different religious groups on campus in action at the Interfaith Dinner.

OH and plus, I went to see the midnight showing of Twilight in Poughkeepsie that night, which is about 25 minutes away. I never read the Twilight books, and I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to follow along. Uh…it’s a human and a vampire falling in love. How difficult did I think it was going to be? But ya know what? I LOVED the movie. I heard mixed feelings about the movie from Twilight fans, but I just fell in love with the story…and oh…Robert Pattinson! UH… DREAMY! I thought they did a great job of taking a fantastical concept and converting it into believable, beautifully awkward moments. I asked my mom and dad for all of the Twilight books for Christmas, probably like every other thirteen-year-old girl, but I DON’T CARE!! I will be having a lovely time this winter break reading up on Edward Cullen and Bella Swan’s love story…and juuust being a romantic mush.

Here’s a bunch of us seeing Twilight at the midnight showing!

Friday was loads of fun. I have a lot of classes that day, which ISN’T fun, however, I had a group project due in my English Lit 1 class. We had to summarize a canto from Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, point out and research the allegories represented in the canto, and do a close reading of a couple of stanzas. My group and I had to teach the class what happened in Canto 10. To help the class comprehend this difficult canto, my group and I had the idea to make a skit incorporated with modernized language. That way, the class could laugh, have fun, AND understand it for that tricky final coming up. We asked for volunteers from our classmates to read parts and they really had a blast with it! They loved our references to things such as Twilight, Charlie the Unicorn, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Fellow pupils (that’s right, I actually used that out-of-date word for students) came up to us and said how good our presentation was and…WOW…it was such a wonderful, rewarding feeling!

Here’s a picture of my group and I, after the class was over!

Liz, me and Joanna!

Saturday was a nonstop day! Didn’t even get to sleep in! But hey- I made some dough, so why should I be complaining? I went in at 10am to work in the Admissions building to help with all the mail we’ve been getting this year! WHOA so many applying to New Paltz, it’s insane in the membrane!

All the Student Ambassadors who came in that day had a lot of laughs, eating bagels in the morning, pizza for lunch, and just opening mail or working at the computers (like I did.) I worked until 3pm and then at 4pm I met up with a friend who graduated last year. Her name is Lizz Guzzman and she has a heart of gold with a brain of gold to match (I think I just made up a new expression?) At any rate, we sat at the Plaza Diner, which is right in the Stop N Shop shopping center in New Paltz, for 2 ½ hours because we just had so much to share. She’s so inspiring and bright, and just one of those people that is so relatable. She double majored in Theatre Arts and English last year, and last year she won the “Outstanding Undergraduate Award.” Here, check it out… http://www.newpaltz.edu/english/workscitedvol1issue5.pdf

After having such a lovely time with her, I had to race over to get ready for Our Sexy Pitch performance at 60 Main. The Sexy Pitches is an all girls a cappella group. We opened for fellow New Paltz student Sophia Wortzel, who was my suitemate freshman year! This is her myspace: http://www.myspace.com/sophiawortzel Here check out some of these videos I took.

Sorry, it was kinda dark in there!

Oh and hey, the Sexy Pitches debuted our new song that we arranged: Killin Me Softly with His Song. Check it out! I got it on Viiiiiiideo! Boo ya!

So thanks for playin a little catch-me-up with me! I hope you enjoyed the aplethora of videos and such! Have a not-too hectic Tuesday!

Watch and tell your friends!

Matt Stracq

: D

Sunday….Sunday, the day to relax.

Yeah, more like, the day to do massive amounts of homework and fight off the intensive urge to nap the day away. However, this Sunday, although there was homework and napping involved, was different from most Sundays. This Sunday I attended On Wings of Love. Actually I was apart of On Wings of Love, which is even cooler!

On Wings of Love was a concert to benefit Angel Food East. Angel Food East has been providing and delivering free, individual, nutritious hot meals for people living with HIV/AIDS in Ulster County for the past 15 years. Meals are provided to those regardless of age, gender, race, religious affiliation, economic situation or sexual preference. This independent, non-denominational program is run from a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Kingston (where the benefit concert took place.) The program costs approximately $40,000 a year to run and is funded solely by grants and donations. This concert was the 6^th On Wings of Love Benefit Concert, and through these shows, over $14,000 has been raised.

The night had many amazing (as well as impressive I might add) performers who donated their time and talents for this cause. I would like to start off with our emcee being Ron Nyswaner. If that name sounds familiar to you, it may be because he wrote the screenplay for Philadelphia, a 1993 film revolving around HIV/AIDS, homosexuality, and widespread attitudes concerning gays and homophobia. This movie starred actors such as Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, and Antonio Banderas.

Let me talk about the OWOL 2008 chorus! I sang in the On Wings of Love chorus, because I was asked to by the show director, Liz Toleno. Liz is busily enjoying her life by being a musical director, accompanist, vocal coach, and flut/piano teacher in The Hudson Valley and then some. Also, Liz works here at SUNY New Paltz as well, working as an accompanist in my Voice 1 class as well as working in the pit for the musicals. At any rate, I received an e-mail from her a while back, describing this benefit concert and what it entailed. I was free so I accepted full-heartily! I feel like I never have time to do events outside of campus, so now that time allowed, I really wanted to get involved!

The OWOL chorus opened up with the choral arrangement of “Everlasting Melody.” The soloist in the beginning was by an eleven-year-old boy named Thomas Netter, who had a smiley disposition on his face and the gift of song in his heart. He was phenomenal! He hit these high notes like no other! He was singing in my section with the altos. Darn tootin’ impressive! Here’s a video on YouTube of ANOTHER chorus singing “Everlasting Melody,” because, well, I couldn’t tape myself doing it now could I? I just want you to get a feel for what it sounds like! It’s quite catchy and I feel this chorus does a nice job with it

The next performer I’d like to talk about is Kevin Archambault, who sang “I’m Not Afraid of Anything.” He has several Off Broadway credits, such as Love Letters, Young & Beautiful or Hello I’m Old. National Tours include: West Side Story, Bye Bye, Birdie. Here’s actually a video of his song.

Sorry I’m so far back, and the zoom isn’t at its best. The reason I’m sitting all the way back there is because after the On Wings of Love chorus sang the opening number, we all dispersed for any seats available in the back.

There were other famous performers, such as James Dybas, who was featured in eight original Broadway shows, in regional theatres and cabaret throughout the country, on TV & in films. He’s a 6 time recipient of the Los Angeles Drama-Logue Award, and is a longstanding member of Actors Equity. He sang a Medley of “At Long Last Love,” “Give Me the Simple Life,” and “Feeling Good.” It was full of emotion and the crowd loved him.

Another wonderful WONDERFUL duo, who I wished I taped, was Aysa and Ron Morehead. I actually searched them on google, to see if they had a resume of their work, but I found Ron’s myspace? It’s actually pretty informative of what he’s been involved in, his family, and well, his life. So if you wanna check it out, here it is.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=121763337

An act that I DID tape was the Cast of Anything Goes from Coleman High School singing a choral arrangement of “Blow, Gabriel, Blow.” So here, you can see it and hear it.

Well, the OWOL ended the concert by us singing “Make Them Hear You.” It’s a really beautiful song with touching lyrics, that can definitely pertain to this cause. Here’s a version of it on Youtube, that I felt did it justice. This is from Wayzata Choirs in MN. They don’t have visual, but the music is BEATIFUL! JUST LISTEN!

I just want to mention, that because this event did take place in Kingston, I did have to drive to it. Luckily I have a car. It’s approximately a 28 minute drive. However, I could have carpooled with people if I didn’t have an auto-mobile. I did drive a freshman in the Theatre Department here named Annette Storckman, who takes singing lessons with Liz Toleno. I’m really glad I was able to get to know her via transportation. We also sang the same part together in the concert. It’s always nice meeting new people and learning from them. For example, she was writing in a personalized, decked-out, marble notebook about ideas for screen plays, and I couldn’t help but be inspired. Even though college can be so busy, the work load didn’t crush her creativity. It makes me just want to sit down and write in my journal for hours with music blasting. Ya know? Plus, she worked at The Renaissance Fair, so I was asking about the audition process and how she liked the experience. I hope to talk with her more in the future.

On that note, On Wings of Love was a giant success and a wonderful benefit to be apart of. I was honored I could make it and be involved.

(If you would like to volunteer please contact Angel Food East @ 845-331-6538. Drivers, cooks, and helpers are always needed.)

Saturday night was GIRL’S NIGHT! So it was just me and my best friend Renee Levine. We’ve both been “hella” busy, as Renee, the Californian native would say. Therefore, we wanted to hang out and get a chance to talk. We haven’t seen each other in a dog’s age. Since we were both finished with our obligations at 5pm, we planned to meet up and then decided we wanted to go to this event called Dance Evolution 2008, The Joker’s Revenge.

Dance Evolution was an event of all sorts that took place at the New Paltz high school, which was a 3 minute drive to get there! So close! Even if you didn’t have a car, they had shuttles leaving from the Haggerty Administration Building circle on campus, so you could make it to the event on time and without paying a cent! However the event was 4 bucks if you lived on campus and 8 bucks if you lived off…so not ENTIRELY free. I drove Renee, my friend Akeem, who lives in the same suite as my brother at UAlbany, Angie, and Lisa, Angie’s roommate. Dance Evolution was SUPPOSED to start at 6pm “sharp,” but there were major technical difficulties and it almost started an hour later than anticipated! To be honest, that was a little frustrating. This is no fault to anyone, especially the performers. Heck, I’m sure it was frustrating for them too, but it was a while to sit in the audience and wait for the show to start. At any rate, everything turned out alright. The event had several entertaining acts, as well as an enthused audience. Let me show you!

Below are several videos! The first one is the National Anthem sung by Paula (I didn’t get her last name) and the black National Anthem.

Video of M’Powered! 9-17 year olds dancing hip hop and African dance! This dance group is A-MA-ZING!

Video of Culture Shock 1^st part

Video of Culture Shock 2nd part

This guy rapped a song called “Bubble Butt.” Obviously he could have sang, “Mary had a Little Lamb,” and the lady audience members would have still loved him.

Then after the concert, Renee and I were starving so we drove into town and decided to try this new sushi place. It was called Hokkaido. The restaurant was a cute little place and we were excited to get a nice meal, but uh, we couldn’t find the door. There were stairs on the side of the restaurant, but no doorway. So we actually walked around the building a couple of times until we finally found the entrance around the corner. AH. So we sat down, ordered some endamame, and some rolls. For those who don’t know endamame is a healthy appetizer. Here, I’ll copy and paste what Wikipedia says about them: “endamame is a preparation of baby soybeans in the pod commonly found in Japan, China and Korea. The pods are boiled in water together with condiments such as salt, and served whole.” I ordered the common California Roll and the Shitaki Avocado Roll: both hit the spot!

Then after we had some “us” time to talk and catch up on each other’s lives and thoughts, we went back to Renee’s apartment on Main Street, which she shares with three other people. I changed into my pj’s which I brought from my room and jumped on the couch with Renee to watch Thirteen going on Thirty. I bought that movie over the summer and haven’t really had a chance to watch it yet. It was an uplifting chick flick, but there were parts of it that were SO SAD! However, it ends nicely, thank the lord. It stars Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo and Judy Greer. I really love Jennifer Garner. I find her acting to be so genuine. Anyway, it was a nice ending to a nice night. Our girl’s night, sleepover was a success!

Here’s the trailer for this movie!

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2209546521/

In the morn we got up at 8am since Renee had work at 10:00AM and the Bistro, right down the street, was calling our names for a hot meal. So we got all freshened up and ready for some breakfast. The Bistro is always SUPER CROWDED so we wanted to get there early. Never have I ever walked into Bistro and sat down right away. There is ALWAYS a wait, because it is just that well known. However, today, we made history, by being seated right away. We were right by the door, but we were sitting! We both ordered the Breakfast Special, which is 2 eggs any way you like, homefries and 2 pieces of wheat toast, all for a little under $2!! Isn’t that amazing? It’s handy for all us poor college students, that’s for sure. Anyway, as soon as we were delivered our meal, the power went out….I’m not kidding here. The power just went, Ka-poot. So I saw another historical moment: The Bistro had to actually TURN DOWN customers, because they wouldn’t seat people until the power went back on. Crazy! And it wasn’t just The Bistro that lost power- it was all along Main Street! Starbucks had a sign on the door saying it was closed due to the power outage, and I know my friend who lived on Main Street didn’t have power…insane! While we were eating Renee looked at me and asked, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I wasn’t sure, but she said, “I’m thankful we got our food before the power went out!” Wow were we on the same wavelength with that one!

I took a picture of some of these robots that were on the wall of the Bistro. They were called Junk Bots and they were on display for purchase. Interesting. Renee’s favorite was the robot that had a body similar to the shape of a piece of bread. Do you see it?

So I went out to eat a lot, at least one meal each day of this weekend, but it was fun and worth it! Plus I got to spend it with good company.

Alright, mucho sleepy. Must go to bedy bye! Night all! <3

Hello second Weekend of Company!!

So last night was our last Thursday performance of the musical Company. Thursday nights are full of “the peers.” This is because 1.) its 9 bucks only on Thursdays if you go have a New Paltz ID and 2.) all the theatre classes have to see the main stage productions as part of their class requirements (so Thursdays are the cheapest!) Therefore, the house was packed! I can’t believe Company is in it’s stages of “lasts…” It’s a little sad. I’m going to miss this show. Well- I can’t talk like that now! There are still shows to do!

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you a homemade trailer that was created by our very own Michelle Hines. Michelle plays the major role of Joanne in Company.

Her trailer is hilarious and well perceived by all involved! Check it out!

Enjoy the video and enjoy your Friday!!! OH and tomorrow is one of TWO Open Houses here at SUNY New Paltz. It’s gonna be craaaazy!

It should come as no surprise that I post at least one song in every blog.  I like to think if it as my “song-of-the-blog,” but today there will be a blog of the song -two actually.  Thanks to RA Shannon (who was my RA last year) i have been exposed to an artist with soul coming out of his eardrums!  And to tell you the truth, it doesn’t really surprise me that Shannon introduced me to Ray (and a few others) because her taste in music is beyond excellent.  Well, I kind of gave it away approximately one line ago, but anyway, Ray Lamontagne is his name and love songs are his game.  There is one song that really just touches my soul and that is “Trouble.” But the fun thing is that the title makes it sound negative when it isn’t -at least I don’t perceive it to be.  Ray has this very GNARLEY beard and an equally and gnarley, raspy voice.  These are just a few “soul-boosters” to Ray’s credit, but his delivery and “presence” (<even though its just YouTube) are the real attraction.

I also love pairing two songs together that really jive.  I just get them ready on my computer and switch back and forth between the two.  In fact, one of those songs is Ray Lamontagne’s “Trouble,” and the other is James Morrison’s **Tangent: whenever I see that son title I think of “Better Man” by Pearl Jam…  Anywhose!  The two go together like “lamb and tuna fish,” to quote “Big Daddy,” and it makes for a majestic listening experience.

That being said, I’ll keep this one short because I just wanted to let you all in on my musical excursions.

“Trouble” by Ray Lamontagne

and

“Better Man” by James Morrison

Matt Stracq

: D