Do it.

Afternoon Delight Playlist 29 March

As promised, here is my playlist from today's show:

1. Dream Diary - El Lissitzky
2. Tommy Guerrero - Que S'est-il Passe
3. Cut Copy - Where I'm Going
4. The Dodos - Don't Try And Hide It
5. The Head and The Heart - Down In The Valley
6. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - The Body
7. Shannon and The Clams - Sleep Talk
8. Hunx + His Punx (featuring Shannon) - The Curse of Being Young
9. Smith Westerns - Weekend
10. Grace Oberhofer - Time
11. Chain and The Gang - Bill For The Use of A Body
12. Admiral Radley - Ending of Me
13. Wolf People - Tiny Circle
14. Lykke Li - Get Some
15. Fitz and The Tantrums - Breakin' The Chains of Love

I hope you enjoyed the show! Listen in next week at KUPS to stream it online or on your radio at 90.1FM. Get your weekly dose of Afternoon Delight every Tuesday at 2pm.

Invisible Children

A year ago today, I didn’t know anything about Invisible Children. If someone had asked me what it was, I wouldn’t have been able to answer them with a single correct, solid fact. Last October, when I was at a leadership conference, I saw an Invisible Children presentation and was deeply moved. The videos I watched made me cry because of the atrocities that the people of Uganda were living through everyday - children not being able to sleep in their own home out of fear that the LRA would come and kidnap them in the middle of the night, being orphaned because their parents die from disease or their older siblings have been abducted; these videos also made me smile because of the strong spirits that these people had - having the will and drive to go to school everyday in order to educate themselves and be able to change something about the world in which they live, the creators and volunteers of Invisible Children who continue to risk everything to help people who they don’t know anything about but by helping, create some of the strongest relationships they have ever had and develop a truly unbreakable and strong drive to do everything they possibly can to help the people of Uganda; even if it seems insignificant to someone else, everything they do is helping.
This was my first exposure to Invisible Children and it made me want to do something, anything. Tonight, I went to another presentation; this one was held at my school. When I entered Kilworth Chapel [a few minutes late] I was extremely shocked and ashamed that there were only a handful of people present. I know my college is extremely small [a total of less than 2500 undergraduate students], but how could there be only 30 people on this campus who actually care about this and are interested and concerned about what is going on? I really couldn’t believe it. This presentation was another very moving one. There was even a young woman from Northern Uganda who came to tell us a little bit about her story. Unfortunately, I had to leave early to go to a group project meeting. But, before I left, I made sure to do something to help, even if it is something small. Invisible Children is an amazing organization and it’s definitely one that I would love to be more involved with in the future. So, I took my first step to doing so tonight. I purchased the 25 Campaign kit. By doing so, I have promised to raise money for The Protection Plan [a minimum of only $25] and awareness. On April 25th, I will go silent. I will wear my IC shirt, and carry around small cards explaining why I am silent, why we need to raise money for The Protection Plan, and why I am a part of 25. So what is The Protection Plan?
The Protection Plan is a program set forth by IC in Central Africa. Through this program, they are able to set up radio towers to connect remote villages in Central Africa. This allows the villages to receive radio announcements telling them where the LRA is and where they are heading. This way, people can take any precautions they may need to in order to keep themselves, their families, and their friends safe and away from the LRA. In addition to this, The Protection Plan has established a search and rescue plan to find children who have been abducted by Joseph Kony’s forces and have been required to join the LRA. After they have been found, The Protection Plan will place the children in rehabilitation centers. These are meant to counsel the children in any way necessary and, after spending a few weeks here, reunites them with their families.
This is the first step I have taken to help and be a part of Invisible Children and I hope to continue my participation. So now I’m asking you to help me with this. Please, do what you can, raise awareness, donate time or money, anything will help. 100% of the money I raise through the 25 goes toward The Protection Plan. Help me reach the goal of raising $25 by going here and donating money on my page. Even if it’s just one dollar, every little bit helps. And, if you are so inclined, buy your own 25 kit and spend one day in silence and raise awareness amongst your family and friends. Horrible things are happening everyday in Central Africa and we can actually help. Seriously, do it.

Something about this song

<3

National Public Radio

Stream 24/7 here. I love this.
:]

I'm actually getting really bad at updating this

It seems like I only write something on here about once a month - if that. My life hasn't been filled with much music lately, just the same old choir rehearsals and voice lessons. Actually, last week I asked my voice teacher if I could sing one of my all time favorite songs. I prefaced it with "this may be a bit unconventional but..." I thought it was appropriate, because the song I asked about is a little unconventional for a classical voice department at a school of music that focuses solely on classical performance and dabbles in jazz. The song is Think of Me from The Phantom of the Opera. Now, I know it may not be the most challenging of songs, but it's a song that I love. I grew up listening to The Phantom of the Opera - just like all the kids do, right? - and it's probably one of the reasons why I have become so involved with music and singing. It marked the beginning of my growing love for music and it's a play that I still love and a soundtrack that I still blast every so often in my dorm. I'm just so connected to the whole thing and this song is one of the only solo ones I could think of that is for a soprano voice. Anyway, so I asked and he said that he'll check with those in charge. He didn't name names, but I know who he's talking about: her, "upstairs," both literally and figuratively speaking. So, I guess I'll find out the final decision once we get back from spring break! I hope she says it's fine, I'd love to sing that song.

In other not so relevant news, in exactly 17 days I will find out whether or not I'll be spending my summer in Washington, D.C. I don't know if I mentioned this previously, but I applied for an internship with NPR for this coming summer in D.C. I actually applied for three internships with them. We'll see what happens, I've done all I need to and can at this point and all that's left for me to do is wait. It's actually a very difficult task. I can't tell you how many times it crosses my mind, how many times I check my calendar to see how many more weeks or days until I'll know for sure. I also hate the feeling of uncertainty. It's not so much being nervous about not getting the internship, but more of not knowing exactly where I'll be this summer or what I'll be doing. I like to have these sorts of things figured out pretty far in advance. Also, I won't be completely heart broken if I don't get the internship. I mean, I will probably have a heart attack and die if I do get it. I will be so ridiculously excited and thankful and oh my god, I just don't even know. It would just be amazing. But, at the same time, I'll be okay with not getting it, too. If I don't get it, that means I can spend the summer here, in Tacoma, and hopefully work at Diversions and live with some friends while saving up money to study abroad [oh, have I mentioned that? I'll get to it in a bit] and maybe even take a class to fulfill my last core requirement. I would actually love to spend my summer in Tacoma. So many of my friends are staying in the area, it would be so much fun, and having an almost-full-time job will be really nice and an easy way to save up money for the Fall semester. I'd also take a 3-week vacation to do my internship at the Ojai Music Festival, again. I loved it so much last year and had so much fun and they asked me back this year, so why the hell not? It's a great experience and a great environment with amazing people who I got to know really well last year. Basically, I have a back up plan. Either way, I'll be happy with what I do this summer. It's just a matter of waiting for NPR's decision. I'll keep you posted.
As I mentioned for a split second, I'm going abroad next semester! I'm going to the epicenter of music: Vienna, Austria. It's going to be an amazing experience. I've always equated college with studying abroad. I mean, to me, it just seems obvious that one would go abroad for a least a semester to study and completely immerse oneself in a different culture. I can't wait. In addition, one of my really good friends, Rachael, is going abroad with the same program as I am! So it will be nice to have a friendly face around; we've already started talking about things we want to do and places we want to go. While abroad, I'm hoping to keep this blog going. At that point, it will expand to more than just music, it will be a general travel blog about everything going on with me in Vienna and every other city I visit! It will probably still be mostly focused on music, though, because it is the city of music and I plan on going to operas and concerts galore.
Alright, I think I'm going to get ready for bed and watch some of The Sound of Music [have I mentioned that I'm a music nerd?] - goodnight!

Random thought: Maybe I should update this more often so that my posts don't become so ridiculously long.

Take it as a spice, nothing more and nothing less

I promised a new post several days ago and now I'm finally getting to it. I know I haven't been the best blogger for the past couple of months, but this semester has turned out to be equally as busy as last semester and maybe even more so. I don't know how much time I'll have to write things or even go to many music events, but I'll try my best! By the way, my new radio show is on Tuesdays from 2pm to 3pm and it still has the same name [Afternoon Delight]. Now, to get to the good stuff.


Last weekend, we had a lot of events going on around and on campus. It was definitely a crazy week for Puget Sound students and I'm sure everyone had a great time doing whatever they ended up doing. For me, it was especially busy. On Friday afternoon, Lamppost Revival came to Puget Sound and performed in Marshall Hall during lunch. I think I mentioned in an older post that I had been working with my friend Carlton, who had worked on the band's CD, to get Lamppost Revival to come Puget Sound. We were successful in those efforts and were able to have the band perform twice on campus! They received a great response from the students and were able to sell several CDs and pins after their first performance here. After their show, my friends Shelby and Jovia and I were able to sit down and have lunch with Carlton and the band. Jovia is actually the reason I know Carlton, they're friends from back home [Alaska] and he came to visit her last year sometime and he stayed in our room - Jovia, Shelby and I were all roommates last year. So, anyway, I got to talk to the band and get to know them a little bit, which was really awesome. They're all cool kids from Western Washington and they definitely have talent.
The next day, I spent the majority of my time helping to set up for Casino Night. Casino Night is the biggest event that RSA puts on every year. We get donations from local businesses to raffle off as prizes, have live entertainment, snacks and drinks, and [of course] some gambling; but not real gambling. Basically, it's just a fun night to hang out with friends and play some card games in a cool environment. Also, all the money we raise goes to a charity: Kids Can Do! This charity has a pretty large presence on campus, with a lot of students who are active mentors for the kids. Lamppost Revival also played at Casino Night and got a great response, again. I'm really glad they came out to do these two shows on campus, it definitely made the night a lot more fun than it would have been without them and Puget Sound really did enjoy them. I also know that they played another show at a hookah lounge in downtown and I heard that went pretty well, too. So, overall, they're trip down here was a success and I'm glad.

Here are a few photos from the night

Lamppost Revival and me!

Lamppost performing at Casino Night

People gambling

Disclaimer: Facebook is doing some weird stuff right now and won't let me save pictures onto my computer directly from the facebook albums [which is really annoying] so these are all cropped screen captures, I apologize if they're extra bad quality.

The night of Casino Night was the same night that Victor Wooten came to campus. If you don't know, Victor Wooten is an amazing five-time Grammy award winning musician from Tennessee. I got to meet him this past summer at my internship with the Ojai Music Festival and I had him sign my copy of his book: The Music Lesson. I haven't read it yet, but I'm really looking forward to being able to actually do that. Except apparently it's lost somewhere because no one back home can find it where I'm sure I left it...anyway. I actually ended up leaving Casino Night for about an hour and a half to go see Victor Wooten perform. He performed in Kilworth Chapel with the Jazz Band.
The whole thing was amazing. There really aren't words that can justifiably describe the experience of being there and seeing him and listening to him play the bass. Everything about it was just so awesome. Everyone could tell how much he loved music, how much he could physically feel the music, and how talented he is by listening to and watching him play. It really was an experience unlike any other I've ever had. He was so inspiring and the music was beautiful. I remember sitting there and wanting to cry at some points because of how amazing everything was and I just could not believe it.
The name of this post refers to something that Victor Wooten said. Throughout the concert, he would talk and at one point, he started talking about music and how it is formally taught in schools. Before giving his opinion, he told us all to "take it as a spice, nothing more and nothing less." Meaning, in our spice cabinets, we all have many different spices that we use at different times. Now, he wanted to give us another spice that we might want to use, but we don't have to use it. It's just something to have, a thought to have, just in case we might want to access and use it someday. Then, he proceeded with his point. He talked about how the formalization of teaching music gets in the way of actually learning how to play music. We [students, professors, performers, etc.] get caught up in the logistics of music, we think too much about music theory and not enough about music performance. We care too much about following the rules and teaching the proper notes to play and the correct chord progressions. Instead, we should give instruments to students and simply tell them "play". Have them play whatever sounds right to them, let musicians do what they feel is correct and make good music. He demonstrated this by having a girl join him on stage. She was a random girl whom he chose from the audience after asking everyone who had never played an instrument before to raise their hand. She had not ever played an instrument, never received any sort of training in music, and certainly was not expecting to be dragged up to the stage in front of the large audience. Then, he gave her his bass, told her where to put her fingers, and told her to play. He had the drummer and keyboardist from the Jazz Band play along with a simple rhythm and melody and basically told the girl to have at it. Granted, she didn't play anything particularly spectacular, but she did play and she played well. She knew when to go up a major third and then back down to the root by simply listening to the rest of the music; she created her own repeated rhythm. It was pretty amazing to see this happen, to see someone with absolutely no formal background in music, play an instrument so easily. I think Victor Wooten is right. I think all the strict rules and guidelines and theories are what hold people back in music. I think that, where music is concerned, naivety is the best option. I'd rather not have to think about which chord should come next in the progression if it's following the 'correct' rules. I don't think musicians should have to base their music on strict music theory methods in order for it to be accepted as well-written. I think this is what holds back so many people when it comes to music and I think this is what turned me off from studying music so much. It loses its fun when it becomes like this. It loses its character. I wish someone had told me when I was younger "play" or "sing" without giving me something to actually follow. I think I would be a more confident singer, a more talented musician, with a freer mindset when it comes to music.
Here are some picture from Victor Wooten's concert, they're all done by my friend, Gregory Nissen who is an amazing photographer and you should check out all his other stuff by following that link.

Victor Wooten and the girl he brought on stage

Sorry this post has become so long, I wasn't expecting all this to come pouring out when I started to write it. Long story short: Victor Wooten was amazing, Lamppost Revival was awesome. Last weekend was a great experience and I'm glad I was able to take part in both of these things. I love music and there's not really much more to it.

Here's a link to Lamppost Revival's facebook page. Enjoy!


Edit: Just some more wise words from Victor Wooten:
“Progress is like climbing a mountain; if you get halfway and look up, you’ll think ‘man I’ve got so far to go’, you have to look down and think ‘wow, look at how far I’ve come.' The joy is in the struggle."