Life, The Universe and Everything

Distance Traveled:   60,470 kms (BNE-MEL-SYD-BKK-PKT-BKK-CNX-BKK-PP-SR-BB-PP-HCMC-NC-TH-HA-H-L-MR-AG-SV-TF-AC-LL-ML-CZ-TF-CZ-SV-L-BP-ZG-SP-LJ-VN-PG-SZ-MN-ZR-GV-ML-FC-RM-FG-MN-VC-CT-RM-PDX-NYC-DC-PH-NYC-HP-NYC)

Time Difference: -14 hours (from Brisbane)

Soundtrack: Loads of barbershop, Spring Awakening recording, Elvis, Lacuna Coil

Stacks: None!
Agent Rejections Received:  7

Not my pic

As my final Broadway experience I decided to see Avenue Q.  If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a musical based on an apartment block in a fictional outer borough of New York.  The complex is inhabited by a mix of humans and puppets, some of which are meant to represent humans and others which are “monsters”.  The superintendent of the building is Gary Coleman (Diff’rent Strokes), who is played by a woman.  Songs include: “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist”; “The Internet is For Porn”; “It Sucks to Be Me”; and “Schadenfraude”.  Some of the puppet characters have sex on the stage, for quite a long time actually, and the profanity-laced music and dialogue is interrupted by frequent colourful cartoon messages and words on screen, Sesame Street style.  Hooked yet?  It was certainly a different one!

I liked the concept of using such a unique setup to tackle relatively sensitive “coming of age” dilemmas.  Did it pull that off?  Not really, in my opinion.  There wasn’t any real insight or anything markedly profound about the content.  The payoffs were pretty limp.  It was more like “Oh, here is this issue”.  “Now here is another one.  Lalalala.”  I would have preferred that they just kept it silly and fun, rather than attempting to deliver a poorly articulated bunch of messages.  Still, I found it entertaining for the most part, and was especially glad that I managed to get a last minute box office ticket for twenty dollars!  As in every single show I’ve seen here, the talent and production were exceptional.

Oh, hi!

On Monday night I headed out to Brooklyn to work with the Sweet Adelines chorus there on some Barbershop 101 stuff.  It was heaps of fun!  The group was really responsive and worked super hard.  By the end of the night I felt like I’d given them a lot of really solid things to work on, and of course I also got to spend some more time with the lovely ladies I met when I first arrived.  One of them kindly hosted me in a fabulously named suburb called Rockaway, where I spent the night petting her fat cat Oreo and listening to the sound of the waves crash on the nearby beach.  I need more beach.  Need it now!!  I finally experienced a true fresh onion bagel with lox and cream cheese from a little Jewish deli, and it was absolutely to die for.  You can click here to see my updated Brooklyn album.

Saturday dinner at Vocalfest

It’s been quite a musical week.  I had my last rehearsal with the Sirens on Thursday night (as I fly out this Thursday) and afterwards a couple of us went to the Voices of Gotham afterglow downtown, following a performance they had.  This was my last night with most of the boys too, so it was a bittersweet evening.  You can see my updated Sirens and Voices album by clicking here.

This weekend was spent with a bunch of Sweet Adelines from Region 15 (New York and New Jersey), including the Brooklyn girls and my very own Sirens.  Education and fun all rolled into one!  We had an incredibly impressive vocal coach working with us on technique, and some other interesting classes.  Nights were spent sharing beds at the Parsippanny Sheraton, many laughs and very little sleep.  I couldn’t have asked for more perfect timing in terms of a bonding experience with my girls before I left.  Of course now it makes me even sadder to be going!

Click here to see the photos from the weekend.

Street Fair on 8th

Speaking of sad, I went for a walk tonight to get icecream with a friend from Jersey and his two dogs.  He is coming to my leaving dinner on Wednesday so I didn’t feel sad about saying goodbye to him (yet), but it was my last time hanging out with the naughty puppies and, oh man.  What is it about animals?  I felt like my heart was breaking when I cuddled them goodbye.  I think they picked up on it too because they stopped going crazy and chasing each other around like idiots as I was about to leave, and came to hug and lick me when usually they just ignore me while they’re playing.  It just kind of hit me that it’s entirely possible that it is the last time I will ever see either of them!  Hard.

Today I encountered my first proper NY street fair and had the best pizza I’ve had here.  Not bad for a delirious outing after four hours' sleep.  Delirium took a fairly benign turn but still announced its presence when I noticed some makeup on a tissue I had used to wipe my face and got totally grossed out, thinking I hadn't taken my makeup off properly the night before.  I scrubbed one side of my face vigorously before realising that I had actually applied makeup that morning.  Then left it as it was.

You can see my updated Manhattan: 6 album here and my updated food album here.

Just a short one today, but the next week will be crazy pants.  Watch this space.

Til Next We Speak

*LOVE*

N