30 Day Blogging Challenge: Day 7

Day 7: Your 5 Favorite Songs

CRAP, 5 favorite songs?  Really, 5, only 5?  I don't know if I can handle that.  This is like that whole what 10 books would you take on a desert island thing which I also find impossible to answer.  I tried to do this the diplomatic way and looked at my iTunes, however, the most played songs are all songs I either have routines to or that I have choreographed for my students in class.  That was no help.

1) Cabaret is my favorite musical.  So can that be one of my 5?  Just the entire musical?

2) Once More with Feeling - BtVS - yeah, gonna put that whole CD on here as well.  What can I say, I LOVE Muscials.  Probably why I have that whole degree in Musical Theater thing.  It's fun, reminds me a good times with friends and amuses me, everything I need.

3) Poison, give me a best of CD, it's a guilty pleasure and I love it.  Go ahead, make fun of me, I don't care.

4) Soft Kitty?  Seriously I am drawing a blank.  I have forgotten the name of every song I have ever listened to.

5) ... Something I can sing along to!

I suck at this game...

2013-01-30 RIP Patty Andrews, The Last Andrews Sister

Patty Andrews was the last surviving member of The Andrews Sisters.  She passed away at age 94 in her home in Los Angeles.  She was the lead singer of The Andrews Sisters.  They recorded over 400 songs and sold more than 80 million records during their long career. You can check out a lot of their amazingness in The Best of the Andrews Sisters.  Known mostly for their work with the USO and entertaining troops over seas, they held a special place in the hearts of many of the service men they entertained and brought hope to during those dark times during World War II.  They were the first sister act to break away from being huddled around a microphone singing to dancing to the music during breaks in the songs which really brought up the energy and made it more of a stage show which put them ahead of the other acts of that time period.  They were also recorded with popular bands of the time period, such as Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller.  Patty was preceded in death by her husband and both of her sisters. LaVerne Andrews died in 1967 of cancer and Maxene Andrews died in 1995 of a heart attack.

I was always a big fan of the Andrew Sisters thanks to my grandmother's love of music.  When I first started doing burlesque I was in a period themed troupe and I tried to track down everything I could as far as music from the 1940s.  Every single compilation or box set I could find was full of their hits.  The Andrew Sisters were everywhere and had songs that ranged from up beat messages of hope to slow sad ballads that were full of longing to be at home with your loved ones.  Each beautiful song held meaning and frozen moments of time for a war where so many passed away and would never see their loved ones again.  They spread their songs from base camp to base camp helping bring a little piece of home to all of those soldiers over seas.  It's a sad day that the last piece of history and American Patriotism that was The Andrews Sisters is now gone, hopefully they're doing beautiful trios in the afterlife.

2012-12-21 Atlanta Xmas Apocalypse

So the end of the world was supposed to happen on Dec 21, 2012...obviously that didn't happen.  To celebrate this auspicious occasion, 7 Stages with The Little Five Points Rock Star Orchestra decided to put together a holiday show hosted by Santa with  Satan, Black Jesus, The Grinch, Scrooge, Mrs. Claus, Krampus singing while there was burlesque, aerials, sacrifices, crucifixions, pericers, suspensions and more Virgin Marys then you can shake a stick at!  This was actually their 4th year of having a blasphemous Xmas, however, with it being the end of the world they decided they were going to step it up a notch!  I was lucky enough to be asked by Heidi Howard, the director, to Stage Manage. I also worked with Dee Dee Chmielewski on costumes (most either she had made for the previous years or she and I raided and altered out of our personal stashes) and some how I let them talk me into performing as well.  And did I mention that we put the whole show together in under a week?

We had some meetings a few weeks before to go over an outline.  The Friday  one week, before the show we had a band rehearsal so they could get familiar with the music.  Monday we had a meet and greet to go over the outline of the show, assign final parts and talk through everything that we needed to do while the band hand one last music rehearsal with just them and the singers in the other room.  Tuesday, we brought in the band and staged the first half of the show.  Wednesday we ran through what we had already staged and then finalized the staging for the end of the show.  Thursday we had our preview show with a modest audience, mostly friends of the performers that couldn't make it out for the show on Friday due to other commitments.  Friday, the most awesome, amazing show in the whole world!

By Stungun Photography

I am always amazed yet never surprised by what this group can accomplish.  After working with most of them during Dracula, we definitely have a comfort level for working together, but A WEEK?  Seriously, everything came together in the amazing cacophony of chaos that only worked because of everyone's dedication, perseverance, and willingness to never say no but always saying "yes, we can totally make that work!" no matter how weird or insane an idea was.  I am honored to get to continue to work with this amazing group of people and I was so glad that I was able to pull in some of my burlesque and circus family into this show.  I keep joking that I am happiest hiding in a dark theater, but really I am happiest being around amazingly wonderful and creative people!

2012-12-01 Hillbilly Casino Rock'n'Roll Christmas Show

I really wasn't going to go out on Saturday.  Friday I had the Atlanta Xmas Apocalypse meeting to hand out the info to everyone, and go over costume ideas to see what we already had, which led to chatting, which led to a few drinks, which led to silliness and led to me not getting home until 2:30am.  So on Saturday I was planning on just dropping off some costumes at 7 Stages for Dee Dee to use for an upcoming show and ended up hanging out and grabbing lunch.  Then hung out some more and we ended up running some errands and lost about two hours watching L&O:SVU.  I was going to go home because I had been kind of dragging all day and was pretty sleepy but Dee Dee convinced me that we needed to actually go out and do something that didn't not involve us working on a show.  She threw one of her shirts on me, we slapped on some make-up and went out to the Star Bar.

When we got there the show had already started with Cletis & His City Cousins.  They were fun, I wish I had gotten to see a little more of their set, but with showing up late and then running into about 20 people I knew as soon as I walked in, I was just not in a position to pay as close attention as I would have liked. So we grabbed some drinks, chatted and enjoyed the last bit of their set.

Second was Ghost Riders Car Club.  They were fun and the reason that Dee Dee wanted to go out in the first place since she's friends with many of the band members so we wandered up to the front of the stage running into more people I haven't seen in forever.  I've been really bad about going out and seeing people, but I digress...  They were fun, amazing music and awesome to watch on stage.  GRCC made you want to dance around and just enjoy life which was a nice change from the school, work and more work routine that I've been keeping the last few months.  Afterwards Deeds wanted to go back stage to say hi so we wandered back there for a few before coming back out.

Hillbilly Casino were the headliners and there for closed out the show.  They were fun, had high energy and were rocking out.  At that point it was getting pretty late and I was pretty wiped out so we didn't stay for the entire set.  

Over all very fun evening, Rev Andy's next big show will be HollyFest on Feb 2 at The Star Bar.

2012-11-29 Brass Band Blow Out at The Five Spot

So Tuesday we finish up our meeting for Atlanta Xmas Apocalypse and I am checking my calendar to realize that we moved our next meeting from Thursday to Friday so I can now go to the Brass Band Blow Out that some friends are playing.  The problem, when everyone you know going is on stage, who do you stand in the back and drink with while making comments?  Luckily, while talking this out, Heidi said she would go with me, so on Thursday I got my girl date on and went to the Brass Band Blow Out at The Five Spot.  The band line-up was Good Golly Svengali, Black Sheep Ensemble, and Mercury Orkestar.

For those that don't know, Good Golly Svengali is the name of that awesome band you guys listen to when you come see The Imperial OPA Circus.  Yes, they have a name and are a band in their own right, not just the soundtrack for the hi jinx you watch on stage.  They've been doing more gigs as just the band and branching out all of their original music from just what you would expect to hear while watching acrobats balance on each other and then fly through the air with the greatest of ease.  They've added in a lot more guitar and some very funky rifts an even though it was not an OPA show there were improv dancers popping up all over the bar that felt moved by the music.  They were the only band who had guitars, a violin and an accordion   The rest of the night's bands were almost entirely brass.  Wango and Pyramid are super funky and may be my favorites out of the new tunes, but there will always be a place in my heart for Sketchy Gypsy.  I did love the addition of Lorenzo, who plays sax, singing a French folk song.  After four years of High School French I could not understand a word.  Heidi was translating it for me, it sounded pretty dirty but I suppose everything in French sounds dirty.  For the final song Black Sheep Ensemble came out to play along with Good Golly Svengali and that was the most brass I have ever seen played at one time outside of a symphony or orchestra.  The Five Spot was so full of performers playing and dancing around that you could feel the resonance in your entire body.

Black Sheep filled the stage with performers, easily 20 musicians on stage.  They did a great job but I'm not as familiar with the song they were playing.  It seemed more traditional marching sounds, and as I often see them at festivals playing as a marching band that would make sense.  One of the things that I did love was that they all looked like they were having fun.  Did I also mention that Laorenzo also performs with Black Sheep?  So he got to do two sets back to back, but he seemed to be having fun!

Closing out the night was Mercury Orkestar.  They were a little rowdy but were obviously having a great time which made them fun to watch.  I think they were a good choice to close as by the time they went on everyone was a little drunk and since Mercury Orkestar rocked out to some covers it was easy to get a drunk audience into the groove with things they knew.  Most memorable to me was their amazing cover of More Human Than Human by White Zombie, Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire by Jimi Hendrix and a super fun rendition of Conga by Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine.  It brought the improv dancers back out along with the drunks and was very much a party at the end of the night atmosphere.  Which is how the glasses happened...

Over all it was a fun show and everyone seemed to have a great time!  Highly recommend going to catch any of these bands if you see that they're playing.  

PS.  Good Golly Svengali will be closing out the night at the Syrens of the South 6th Annual Tits for Toys for Tots show on Dec 8th at The Five Spot.

2012-07-04 4th of July Parade and Concert

So after a week being up all night multiple days to finish to the float it was finally THE BIG DAY!  AECAFI, who puts on the Art-B-Que each year, has been putting a float in the annual Avondale Estates 4th of July Parade the last few years under Bart Webb's direction.  This year Bart chose the Avondale Avengers as the theme.  The AECAFI float featured a bald eagle's head at the front with a large beak that opened and closed (I actually upholstered the beak) with a front chrome grill underneath and patriotic Cadillac fins at the back.  It was covered in many of the AECAFI board members and their families.  There was the Dumpster Diva, the Sweeper, and many more original characters on the float in crazy costumes having a great time.  They were off to go throw candy to the crowds lining the parade route and show everyone the super hero team!

After the parade, everyone headed over to Bart Webb Studios for live music, bar-b-que, and swimming pool fun!  The first show went from 1-7pm with six amazing local bands.  Master Chef, formerly of the James Joyce (RIP), had spent all night doing prep for the potato salad, baked beans, chicken kabobs, and home pressed hamburgers!  She then spent the day manning the grill and serving the masses while they enjoyed all of the amazing music.  As this was a children friendly event, the Avondale Estates Beach (a giant sand box with 3 foot deep 12 foot wide inflatable pool) was full of splishing, splashing and laughter by many of the local kids.  There was even a smaller kiddie pool for the babies!  After the bands played everyone went over to the Avondale Lake to catch the fireworks.  The fireworks were amazing and huge and looked beautiful over the lake.  The only down fall was that Sam (Bart's dog) was very unhappy with the fireworks and kept switching forth between barking and trying to hide in my skirt which was adorable but rather awkward.  Once the fireworks were over everyone came back over to Bart Webb Studios for the laid back after party.  The grill was fired up, The Good Golly Svengalis (the Imperial OPA Circus house band) played two sets.  Lively circus and eastern music with a flare of samba and soul.  There was some night swimming and additional fireworks to be seen from the pool.  Over all it was a pretty amazing day and I hope that all of you had an amazing 4th of July as well!