SNEAK PEAK: My Senior Cabaret/Recital

Okay all four people who read this blog, y’all are going to get a cool little sneak peak into my senior cabaret (Thursday, April 10, 2014 at 5:30 p.m. in the Recital Hall at Moody Music Building – pencil it in!). Oh yeah! I’m still in the programming stage, but I do have a few things picked out that are definite. I want to share some of my inspiration with you in this post. My recital will be pretty different from most senior recitals because it will be all cabaret rather than classical, but most importantly it will reflect me. All of the music I’m choosing is very personal to me which I adore! Some of it is new, some of it is old, so without further ado, here goes…

1.) “I Am Playing Me” from [title of show] by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell

I sang the duet “Secondary Characters” from [t.o.s.] my junior year in a scenes program with UAOT. I absolutely loved it so I turned back to the show when I was looking at cabaret material. The title of this number caught my eye and I gave it a listen and was super stoked to learn it was a female solo for Heidi, the role I sang in “Secondary Characters.” I had never heard of it until a few weeks ago, but it will perfectly sum up my recital in that I literally am playing myself and it’s a funny shout-out to Over Dinner, a new musical we workshopped and premiered the music from this year with UAOT. I legitimately played myself in it because it was written expressly for our cast, pretty cool! This is the original cast recording.

2.) “Sing, but Don’t Tell” by Carner and Gregor

This song is a true cabaret piece in that it’s not from a musical, it’s a whole scene in and of itself about a singer who is in love with her accompanist. Sam Carner has a post about it in his blog in which he talks about an encounter he had with a singer who wondered what it would be like to be “played” by another musician. Hilarious. Hence, the inspiration behind this song. I’m singing this as a loving shout-out to my long-time collaborative pianist. We’ve been through hell and high water together and he’s been sort of a big brother figure to me during my time at UA. I’ve gotten comments about him in my comment sheets from various lady judges throughout the years at competitions so this song pokes fun at that. This recording is one of my absolute FAVORITES on YouTube because I think she has such great acting instincts. (Oh and she was a FRESHMAN at the time this was filmed. I’m sorry, but what?)

3.) “Before It’s Over” from Dogfight by Pasek and Paul

This song makes me weep! Dogfight is a movie from 1991 that was turned into a musical in 2012. It ran Off-Broadway last year. (Fun fact, Dogfight stars Lindsay Mendez and Derek Klena are the newest Elphaba and Fiyero in Broadway’s Wicked and they’re KILLIN’ it.) Mendez’s character, Rose sings this song in the show after her first date with Klena’s Eddie. It’s such a sweet song about taking full advantage of life and relationships before they end. I’m including Shoshana Bean’s version, even though it’s the concert version which isn’t the one I’m singing. I’m singing the show version, but I figured we might as well continue on the Wicked kick and get another killer former Elphaba in there.

Want more? Come and see me on April 10!

Collegiate Opinions

First and foremost, let me state that I think opinion writing in collegiate papers should be handled differently than in professional newspapers. College is an all-too-brief (Can you tell I’m a senior?) time young journalists have to start honing  their voices and finding their writing style, within the set parameters of publication. (Basically, it’s a metaphor for life.)

I’ve been a member of The Crimson White family for the past two years and on the whole, I feel like our opinion page does a nice job of reaching out to different voices on campus. There are the odd occasions I feel someone has written something that’s blatantly rude or uninformed, but I think that should serve as a learning process.

I very vividly remember the MDB article Laura brought in when it came out my freshman year. I was actually really upset that the paper would publish something like that. My roommate, little brother, and majority of music friends were all in band and it was just ignorant. Band formations aren’t supposed to be like hand puppet shadow shows. They are often simplistically staged in order to best show off the band, no small feat when your band is as huge as ours is. This article angered a lot of my friends, but I know there were people that agreed with it. I don’t think the majority opinion was really thought through when the author wrote this piece though.

A professional paper (hopefully!) wouldn’t have published that piece. We talked about it plenty in class. I think it was published because students do and should have the freedom and ability to make mistakes in opinion writing.

Opinions are tricky little buggers. When do you know you’ve crossed the line between assertive and offensive? Believe you me, common sense is truly the least common of senses. College writers should obviously try to avoid these pitfalls, but they should be cut some slack while they’re finding their footing.

Find your footing

Covering “Hip-Hop and Black Politics,” Group-Style

I enjoy a group project about as much as I enjoy eating my own hair, let’s be real. I think journalism – as far as print goes – tends to be a lonely business because journalists do a lot of work on their own. Broadcast journalism, however, is a team effort. Everyone has a job to do and it’s imperative that everyone does that in order to produce one cohesive project.

For this particular JN 325 assignment, we had to do a two-camera shoot, live-tweet, and take still photos to make a news package. My group (Phoebe, Kristy, and Tyler) was sent out to cover Dr. Lester K. Spence’s talk, “Hip Hop and Black Politics.” This lecture was scheduled at 2 p.m. the Friday before the LSU game. I was honestly worried that no one would come to the event, despite the snappy CW preview, and we’d be stuck filming a speaker talking to four people.

Thrilling.

Luckily, the room began to fill at about 1:50 p.m. (Classic college student move.) and we began to take our places. Tyler shot wide, I shot close, Phoebe took to social media, and Kristy took still photos. The whole event lasted about an hour and a half with a question and answer portion, and my battery died about twenty minutes before the lecture ended. It was a bummer, but not detrimental to us because we had a second camera that we used as back-up. We left with way more footage than we needed for the minute and a half video.

Besides the battery debacle, our challenge was covering an event that didn’t have much of a central argument. He just chatted about a general theme. It was clearly geared towards a political scientist crowd so there was also a lot of jargon that I didn’t understand. This didn’t come as a surprise to me though because Dr. Spense is a political scientist. In 2011 he went on The Marc Steiner Show to talk politics. He seems like a very intelligent and inspired individual and this is certainly not my field of expertise so I expected there to be some things I didn’t understand.

Overall, our group dynamic has been working pretty well. I think we gel really well and I’m glad I’ve gotten to know my group better because we don’t have a ton of opportunity to hear people’s personalities in class.

One of the moments Spense referred to in his lecture. (I did understand that.)

Beauty Blogging for the Stage

The assignment for this week has us writing about our ideal blog that would appeal to the masses. Well, I may be stretching masses a bit, but if I had to start a blog about anything, it would be a beauty blog.

I love them. I love reading them. I love watching beauty vloggers. I find them to be entertaining in a sort of mindless way. They provide a nice release from everyday stress, and they make you feel beautiful. At least they do for me. I’ve learned so many new things since I started watching girls like Tati, Emily, and Tiffany D.

They share things like product reviews, hauls, tutorials, collection videos, and tags with their subscribers. There are a ton of beauty bloggers out there so it’s a hard thing to get into. You really have to have something unique to say and a personality that transcends your page. I like watching and listening to people who seem like they genuinely know their stuff and have similar skin/hair/tastes/budget as I do.

Quality is also really important. I like blog and videos that are pretty high quality. These women use really nice DSLR cameras and editing systems like Final Cut Pro. They practically make documentary quality videos in their own homes. I don’t know, I just think that’s so cool that people can do that. I’d love to do that.

My beauty blog would have to have some catchy name like Katie McBroom’s Martinis and Mascara. (I mean, c’mon. That’s the cutest name ever!) Then, it would really have to have it’s own voice. I feel like I’m in sort of a unique position because since I am an opera singer, I have a pretty decent amount of experience with stage make-up and make-up for auditions and big gala events. There’s certainly a science to it all.

Learn to contour, Katisha-style. “The Mikado” with UAOT Spring 2012

I’d love to really reach out to singers and other performers and have a blog just dedicated to beauty for us. An example post could be something such as “How to Pin-Curl Your Hair Quickly” because we all have to pin-curl our hair if we’re in a show with wigs.

So many pin curls happening under that wig

Stage make-up is some of the coolest stuff. I’d love to have people send in their photos of their coolest looks from productions and product suggestions. (I don’t know about you, but I could look at cool glitter looks all day long.)

The Juggler in Malcolm Fox’s children’s opera, Sid the Serpent Who Wanted to Sing. I was a glitter bomb with under-eye falsies.

Gallaty suggests having people send in their photos in the book. I love this because I think the best blogs feel like a mini community. They should encourage discussion. I want to know whether people prefer pancake or liquid bases. I’m fascinated by it all. Then for our days off, I’d have a section about everyday make-up. (That’s the stuff the girls I watch usually talk about it.) When you have to wear a ton of make-up for your job, you either get really into it or you want to take a break on your days off. I know I fall into the first category, but I can definitely understand that second one.

1960’s simple make-up and hair with the ladies of Gianni Schicchi at the Astoria Music Festival in Oregon. This was my first experience with a bun-filler. I wanted to steal it, but it belonged to my cast-mate who had to take it back to New Zealand with her. Bummers.

No Treats for You: North Dakota Women Gives Out Halloween “Fat Letters”

This caught my eye last week. WAFF-AL posted a story on Facebook about a North Dakota woman who was planning on giving out “fat letters” to trick-or-treaters she thought were “morbidly obese.” This perhaps well-meaning, but callous public servant launched herself and her now infamous letter on to talk radio in Fargo, North Dakota and lo and behold, the story grabbed national attention.

My favorite headline is CNN’s, “Halloween grinch to replace candy with fat notes?” Brilliant.

Obviously, there is a lot wrong with this scenario. Publicly shaming children in front of their peers will do a lot more damage than good. It’s impossible to judge how healthy someone is or is not just by looking at them. Young kids are so vulnerable to criticism, especially from strangers. Cheryl’s letters are just hurtful.

I wanted to write about this after Halloween because I wanted to see if she really went through with it. I SCOURED the internet to try and see if she actually went through with it or if it was just a prank. It took me a long time, but I found a story on Twitter (of course) that pointed me in what I think is the right direction.

The letter a North Dakota was planning to give out on Halloween

 

On Halloween, ABC Action News posted a story about similar radio pranks. It suggests that this incident was simply a prank. It’s kind of frightening considering how many people chimed in on this issue. No major online site has posted a follow up on this story though which leads me to believe it was just a prank. The radio station never released “Cheryl’s” last name which raised eyebrows of listeners.

Regardless, I think it brought up a few important issues. Healthy living is important, but so is sucking it up and having a little bit of holiday spirit, if not for yourself, then for others.

A digital push: e-books in schools

Are textbooks becoming extinct? It’s a weird thought, but over the past few years we’ve seen a gradual increase towards e-books and “digital schooling,” utilizing the use of laptops and tablets. Perhaps it’s too early to see if these are really making a difference in the way children are learning, but like anything new, the topic in and of itself has become a forum for debate.

This summer the Huntsville school board decided to implement a new digital curriculum in all their schools. Some board members raised concern about this. “How would younger students learn rudimentary skills like writing?” asked board member Topper Birney.

Superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski recognized this fear and reassured the board that technology would be useless unless educators were able to transition it to “real-world” experience.

I think this digital push is starting to become our real world and I’m not the only one. In The Atlantic’s “The Touch Screen Generation,” Hanna Rosin suggests that maybe the use of the iPad isn’t so bad. Young children, even toddlers, are becoming super adept at using technology. She suggests that if parents integrate this technology into their children’s lives without the weird anxiety adults tend to have about technology interfering with some sort of “pure childhood,” it can be productive.

If one in every three adults own a tablet isn’t this incentive enough to get them into our schools? I feel as though they could be helpful. People are surprisingly better at adapting than we would have each other believe. Our president has even called for e-books to be utilized in schools. I think they should be given a fair chance.

Students using the iPad in a classroom

An Artists Guide to Criticism & Loyalty

As an opera singer and a journalist (How’s that for a twist?), arts criticism is very important to me. I know how important reviews are to performers, companies, etc., but I also sympathize with the decisions journalists have to make to serve their readers.  These are some of my thoughts when it comes to navigating the murky waters of loyalty and criticism.

1.) Your loyalty is to all. // When talking about loyalties as a critic, it would be unrealistic to simply state that we should only be loyal to performers or only loyal to our readers as the book would have us believe. Journalists will always have a myriad of loyalties to deal with when dealing with arts criticism. It’s just extra tricky because as a critic, we are commenting on one of the world’s most ambiguous and subjective topics, the arts. I believe in that old idiom, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. With the arts this is so true and I think it’s important to always keep that in mind as far as being respectful goes. We have to be loyal to the people who make art and its potential consumers.

2.) Own your good taste and strong will. // When writing arts criticism, it is extremely important to have a sense of what you like and don’t like. This will help guide you when dealing with loyalties. What does your gut tell you is wonderful or lacking in a production? People will read your work if they can generally agree with you as a tastemaker, however arbitrary that may sound. Good taste and strong opinions that can be backed up with solid examples will win you credibilty as an arts critic.

3.) Look out for the understudy. // Do you have to review a local community theatre production of My Fair Lady, again? Maybe the Eliza was at best mediocre, but the housekeeper stole the show. That good review is going to mean a lot to that actress who played the housekeeper. It’s what she’ll cut out and post on her dressing room mirror. (Speaking from my own experience, it happens sometimes!) Rather than devoting full paragraphs on the inadequacies of the Eliza, spread the wealth. By not mentioning the Eliza as much, your readers should get the memo.

“A professional but uninspired celluloid version of the fabulous Lerner-Loewe musical play from Shaw’s Pygmalion (qv). A prodigious expenditure of talent, and to a lesser degree money, is evident, and there is plenty to enjoy; but more might have been packed into the most eagerly anticipated musical of the decade.” – Leslie Halliwell, The Filmgoer’s Companion.

Confessions of a Football Know-Nothing

The assignment for this week’s post was to write a personal column about sports. Oh boy. Cue the deer-in-headlights stare.

I’m going to share a secret with you, dear readers. I know nothing about sports. I know, it’s embarrassing. I shouldn’t even be allowed to live in the state of Alabama. I really racked my brain to try and come up with a campus sport I knew a lot about, but I kept drawing blanks. Sure, I have a blast at gymnastic meets and I’m all for the Equestrian Team doing well, but I’m not expert. I’m sure the rest of my class wrote beautiful elegies on the SEC’s shortcomings compared to Alabama, but I knew that’s not where my strength lied. If you want to talk about opera or episodes of Portlandia, I’m your woman, but sports? Oh no.

Do you want to know the strangest part about my sports ignorance? It doesn’t keep me from partaking. Heck, I even cried – CRIED – when Alabama won the National Championship in 2011, after the tornado flattened part of our town. I felt like it symbolized some greater coming together after a tragedy. I’m sure Faulkner would shake his head in dismay, but it felt like a Southern poetic triumph. I’m sure our boys played with great form, but to me the win was something greater than that.

My intimate understanding of football is just that though. I understand football in a fly-on-the-wall sort of way. To me, Alabama football is a melting pot of Southern accents on the Quad. I could listen to them all day. I actually make a point to walk to Starbucks early in the morning on game days just so I can listen to all the tailgaters setting up and their wonderful accents. The tailgaters are old-school devotees. They are people whose children wear houndstooth in school pictures because it’s a “special occasion.” I know I don’t belong in their club, but I’m happy to be on the fringe.

It’s a fashion show. You would be amazed at how many combinations of crimson, black, white, and houndstooth designers can dream up. I’m fans of just about all of them, especially if it involves houndstooth pants.

Homecoming pomps, the truest form of school spirit.

It’s the “day-after” Quad that game days bring. If you’ve never experienced it, you’re missing a real treat. Imagine a field marinated in Budweiser and hot dogs and toss about 80 squirrels into the mix who couldn’t be more jazzed to be picking on people’s fallen leftovers the morning after they leave. It’s party central on Sunday mornings.

It’s that one guy who is always irrationally angry at his own team, no matter what happens. Seriously, what is wrong with that guy?

It’s being charged $75 for tickets your senior year as opposed to the usual $35 and then being yelled at if you leave the stadium early because our boys play for four so you should stay for four. Catchy logic. Sorry UA. Maybe if football was a game that didn’t take seven hours at a time, I’d be there, but alas. Ms. Lauren has things to do. Just be happy I put on the dress and heels in the first place. I have no idea what the heck is going on and you’re charging $4 for water.

To me, Alabama football is all of these wild and hilarious things. Despite my ignorance at what’s going on on the field, I consider myself a fan. I have no idea what a third down is and I have no desire to learn. I know that getting the ball in the end zone is the important part. I don’t have time to learn about football because I’m too busy accumulating my game day wardrobe. I know I’m not the only one. I’ve spotted my fair share of know-nothing followers tucked in between a tailgater or two. (They’re usually wearing the least sensible shoes.) So cheers to all you fellow ignorant football fans. I’ll see you with shaker in hand, following the crowd.

Waiting for the stadium to fill, an hour and a half before the game starts, as any super fan would.

Haunted Alabama

(JN 325)

There is finally a chill in the October air! I’m ridiculously happy about this. Fall is officially upon us and Halloween is right around the corner. The Halloween season (If it gets its own section in Target, it can be called a “season.”) brings a wealth of ghostly themed tours to Alabama every year. Huntsville, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa, are all offering up autumnal ghost tours before the weather gets too chilly.

The Smith Museum of Natural History on campus is even giving a ghost tour on campus this weekend. I find all things paranormal to be super fascinating so I did my research to bring you a sneak peak of what to expect on this tour. What parts of campus are allegedly haunted? Where can you find a woman rumored to be the muse of Tennessee Williams? What areas are residual hauntings and where do intelligent spirits linger?

1.) Marian Gallaway in the Gallaway Theater in Rowand-Johnson Hall: As a singer, this is definitely my favorite of all the hauntings on campus. Marian Gallaway was a stage director who died in 1980, but it seems as though she’s still living for the spotlight in her theater. She has been known to slam the doors of classrooms in Ro-Jo at night and wander her stage dressed in white. In Beverly Crider’s blog post, Crimson Hauntings: The Ghosts of UA, she recounts a story her niece, a theatre major, once told her about Marian appearing in the audience during a show. Marian Gallaway is rumored to be the inspiration behind Tennessee Williams’ Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. It would appear that she’s not entirely done creating a scene.

Marian Gallaway

2.) Dr. Smith in Smith Hall: Continuing on the theme of ghosts who haunt their namesake buildings, Eugene Allen Smith (1841-1927) was a geologist who died in his home in Tuscaloosa, but is said to still roam the halls of Smith. The Tuscaloosa News talks about various Smith Hall incidents in, Who haunts the halls of Tuscaloosa? There have been rumors of an incident involving students being killed from Students have claimed they’ve heard Dr. Smith’s carriage in the halls late at night. The carriage is displayed in the Alabama Museum of Natural History. It hasn’t been used in years.

Dr. Allen Smith

3.) Adam in Gamma Phi Beta Chapter House: This haunting is one of the more dubious ones, but it’s interesting to speculate and it’s certainly the one I’ve had the most experience with, seeing as I have lived here for the past three years. According to the stories, the current Gamma Phi house was built on an old home for children where a young boy named Adam was accidentally scalded to death in a bathtub. There are notorious water pressure issues in the house, lights flicker when lots of people get together, tap water has been said to turn on and off seemingly by itself, doors slam, and electronics will turn on and off by themselves.

Gamma Phi Beta Chapter House at the University of Alabama

I’m pretty open to paranormal activity and the only thing I’ve really experienced in my years living in the house is my printer turning on and off by itself when it wasn’t plugged in. That was weird. I said, “Good job, Adam,” when the unplugged printer came to life and it turned off.

Boards & Vines: How Journalists are Utilizing New Social Media Tools

Pinterest, a photo sharing site that allows users to create virtual bulletin boards of pictures and links, was launched in 2010. Since then it has amassed millions of users. How can journalists and publications utilize Pinterest to support their own work and projects? Pretty easily, it turns out. These are some users who are doing things right.

1.) Vogue Magazine: Vogue’s Pinterest page boasts a whopping 59 boards spanning categories like weddings, Spring 2013, and Photography Inspiration. Like most magazine publications, Vogue Magazine pins photos directly from its own website, vogue.com. Pinners are directed to the site every time they click on a link which increases traffic on vogue.com. Likewise, if you are reading an article on vogue.com you find share-worthy, you have the option of pinning it straight from the website. It’s a win-win for both parties. 83,333 people “follow” all of Vogue’s boards on Pinterest. Not too shabby.

“Pinned” from Vogue Magazine’s Photography Inspiration board.

2.) Journalism Tools: This page is managed by a private user, Ezra Eeman, a journalist working in Belgium. Eeman’s boards are all about journalism, the craft, not a specific product. Boards include Story Telling Ideas, Marketing, Resume and Portfolio Help, etc. I personally follow this pinner and have found it helpful to have helpful links organized in such a user-friendly format.

Vine, is a more recent player in the scores of social media apps. launched in recent years. It’s whole shtick is providing 6-second videos across platforms like Twitter. Vine has been criticized by being a lazy man’s excuse for journalism because it lacks any editing and is so short. Can a story truly be told in 6 seconds from a smartphone’s camera? Twitter seems to think so. Last week, the New York City Twitter office celebrated the best in Vine journalism by awarding three finalists for exceptional Vines. It seems that despite the criticism, Vine, like Pinterest is quickly making its way into our journalism tool-bag. If the name of the game is short and sweet, perhaps Vine is exactly what we’ve been waiting for.