ceebeegee: (soccer)
Friday night Tesse and I did a Right Rides shift which was fun. By the way, did you hear?

Guess who was named RightRides February Volunteer of the Month? Me!

Anyway, so Friday night was fun, if a bit offcourse. Our first pickup was at the Pleasure Chest, a sex shop in the Village near Marie's--we picked up 3 workers and were told to take them to various parts of Brooklyn. The navigator app routed us through the Battery Bridge Tunnel...which happened to be closed and under construction. We then tried to go via the Brooklyn Bridge but there was construction there as well and we were cockblocked at the entrance we wanted and had to go out of our way (and wade through traffic) before finally we were on our way to Brooklyn. We kept seeing Popeye's which started me craving a biscuit (I quoted one of Jason's best bons mots when he said excitedly "it's like the flour is made of butter!")--weirdly after we dropped off the Riders, we didn't pass any more Popeyes! And so alas, my craving was not satisfied :( Trying to go back into Manhattan caused us to rerouted over the Manhattan Bridge, and then on our way to the next pickup I accidentally took us over the Williamsburg Bridge. To cap it off, in driving the last pickup home, we ended up going to the GW Bridge. *cue sad trombone riff*

In my head, I now think of that night as The Bridges of New York County.

And in more exciting news, my league soccer team (Dolphman FC) won the championship title again! Very exciting, as we had a ROUGH start this season. We lost our first game, tied our second, and were HAMMERED In our third game, 9-3. Oy. The third game was against a thoroughly disliked team that I found out later basically everyone in the league can't stand. In fact they were docked a sportsmanship point in their game against us--they'd scored very early (in the first minute or two--our goalie was injured) and as they jogged back to midfield they were saying to each other "okay, so the goalie sucks." I glared at them and point-blank told them to shut up, it's not that kind of a league. Seriously dudes, there are a ton of leagues out there for aggressive assholes--go join one of them! I did score a goal against them which gave me a grim pleasure. It was another game in which we had no subs--for some reason half the team wasn't there--and yet AGAIN it was just Nikki and I the whole game! Not the first time :/

But that seems to have been the turning point--we won every game after that. I had a kind of cool goal in one of them--I was deep on the other team's half of the field, and someone on our team (maybe even me, I can't remember) kicked it out. One of their players was technically on the sidelines but very close to the goal, so he threw it to the goalie, thinking (I suppose) that I would just let them have it, that I wouldn't challenge them. Oh no! I scooted up and intercepted the throw (as I did so, I heard the goalie say "oh shit...") and quickly whipped off a pass to one of our forwards, Brian, who scored. Yay! I like to think of that as carving out a goal where there wasn't one before--I created that goal! :) Brian totally gave me props later. I had another moment when one of their players was dribbling about mid-field--a little casually I thought, so I came from behind and just took it away from him. I was telling my mother about it on the phone later and she was all "you used to do that all the time as a girl, you'd just sneak through their legs and take the ball away from them." Some habits die hard!

So yeah, we had the quarterfinals last week which we won, and then the semis yesterday, against a team which we'd beaten in the regular season, but just by one goal. We beat them again and we were off to play the grey team, who'd been undefeated in the regular season. They were GOOD. Very, very strong. And we had just finished our game, whereas their semifinal had been right before ours and they'd had some time to rest. But I felt that both teams were playing sort of tentatively in the first half, although they were slightly dominant. But in the second half we finally scored, and then another one--they scored as well but to no avail, and we ended up winning. Really, we were pretty shocked! What was really nice is there was no grudginess about it--we played hard but clean, and several times one of their defenders and I helped each other up after hitting the other. Just a nice classy team. And they applauded us when they got to the bar, which of course we returned. One of their girls is known for making cake pops and other yummy things for the games, and she'll share them at the bar--I told her how the previous week I'd made homemade chocolate toffee (I have a great recipe for it, you don't even need a candy thermometer although it did take me a few rounds to get the toffee consistency perfect). Their captain's eyes gleamed (he's British, they love toffee) and he TOLD me "you have to bring that for the spring season!"

1st place Medal

We had a lot of fun at the bar--the newer members of the team were marveling at the victory, since our first two titles came before many of them had joined the team. *I* was marveling, since we'd had such a terrible start! Our worst season (in fact we still have a negative goal differential!) and yet we ended up as the champions. Apparently this did not sit too well with the black team--one of them drunkenly told one of our teammates that we "didn't really deserve to be champions." Uh, not only did we beat you TWICE, we also beat the grey team who beat you! So suck it :) Anyway we were bonding quite a bit at the bar, and then I found out that two of our other players also had motorcycle licenses. That was it--the Dolphman Biker Road Trip is ON. How much fun would that be, a bunch of us all on bikes, with a few sidecars? Seth, our large-ish goalie, "called" sitting in my sidecar which made me giggle--little Clara atop the bike with big Seth squeezed into the sidecar! Get your motor running...

The next season starts in a month or so--we're back at Baruch Fields on Sunday nights. I detest that crappy field, but I love the bar! The bartender there is really cute ;)
ceebeegee: (Great Pumpkin patch)
So I've been reading about how badly Irene hit upstate New York, so I definitely want to plan an apple-picking/pumpkin-patching trip sometime soon, so we can give them our money! Gotta look after our agrarian brothers and sisters...

Rocky Horror Show auditions--as I mentioned, I heard a couple of weeks ago that they'd be bringing it back, minus a few cast members. I told Dave I would be very interested in auditioning for Columbia--I said I could tap some, but my weakness was picking up choreography quickly. This is because of my training--I'm hyperliterate (started reading at a very young age and read voraciously), and as an actor and as a classically trained singer, I've been taught to look at the page first. But dancers don't learn this way--they learn with their feet. Even with my athletic background, it's not as easy for me--there's a whole extra step in the learning process for me that trained dancers don't have, which really slows me down at auditions. When I was in rehearsal for my ship contract, we ran up against this with our choreographer when Aly and I were taught the Land of a Thousand Dances combination. One of the easiest combinations ever--just the dance steps that are outlined in the song (Pony, Chicken, Mashed Potato, etc.)--but we didn't know some of those steps and after an already exhausting day, not much was sinking in and it took us forever to learn the sequence. I was begging the choreography (Stacy?) to just STOP and let me write down the steps--I kept trying to explain to her that singers learn differently. But she didn't understand and just kept drilling us.

I make up for this lack by working my ASS off in rehearsal. No one who sees me dance in a show will ever see anything less than the most polished performance I can give. Susan can tell you, when she and I did shows together, I was constantly pulling her aside and making her breakdown sequences for me. Since I'm not nearly as strong a dancer as I am a singer, I can't get away with anything--I have to work TWICE as hard. At any rate, Dave seemed interested...then the following week I saw the audition notice go up on Facebook. Columbia was not listed, so I thought gee, I guess the other girl is coming back, and I emailed Dave. He said no, I was still in the running and Robert needed to see me tap.

So I did my homework. I hadn't tapped in over ten years, so I took a couple of classes at Steps on Broadway. They have Basic Tap on Saturday and Sunday mornings. (I cannot get over how inexpensive dance classes are--$17 a class! Susan thinks it's a ripoff but I'm comparing it to voice lessons which are easily $80 and up in NYC.) The one on Saturday was with an older black woman and there was just me and on other dancer in the class, so it was almost like a private session. She certainly knew her stuff but it was very, very detailed, small, micro-teaching, focused on technique. We didn't learn any combinations. The class the next day was more like a traditional tap class, with a lot more people (at least 25) and a guy at the front showing us the steps, breaking them down, and then combining them together. He went kind of fast but I'm proud to say I was able to keep up, although I was fudging some of those steps at the end! (Although it helped that I already knew how to do a time-step.) I really enjoyed the Sunday class and found it more helpful--what I need most is to build my tap repertoire and learn steps like back essences and the waltz clog.

The next day I called Susan and asked if she could help me--originally I asked her to make up a tap combination and teach it to me quickly, under audition conditions, so I could get back into that mode. This evolved into my learning Columbia's combination from the movie. I found a breakdown of the steps online and then we compared it with the few clips of the combo that are on YouTube. (Richard O'Brien obviously polices his show quite thoroughly! Clips of RHPS are not easy to find online.) I learned it and was even able to do it a tempo after a couple of days--it wasn't pretty but I did learn it! Most of it looked fine but the chaine turns--turns are NOT my forte! I don't spot very well...

Robert has been sick at last week but was finally better for the weekend and we set up an audition appointment at his place, for Sunday evening. Saturday was my first volunteer shift for RightRides which was fun but EXHAUSTING. I did not get into bed until 5:30 am! So rehearsal for the reading of The Empress of Sex was not easy, because I was trying VERY hard not to fall asleep. After rehearsal I went over to Susan's apartment and tarted myself up good with fishnets, dance shorts and lots of glittuh eye makeup. And I did my hair in messy ponytails--I was going for the "kid who's stayed a little too long at the rave" look for my Columbia. I warmed up at Susan's place and on the train (which naturally took forever). When I got to Robert's place (his apartment is adorable, nice little restored ground floor place in the Heights), he got right to work and tested me on a battery of steps, including double-time steps, back flaps, and various shuffle and ball-change mini-combinations. At one point he asked me "can you do [ describes lunge-shuffle step]" I said "do you mean maxies? Sure." *execute right and left maxies* He asked if I could do wings--I said No! He asked if I could fake them--I hesitated and then, figuring the fake would be most convincing the closer my feet were to the ground, relaxed my legs from the knees down and then whipped out a fake wing. He said, good! Can you do two in a row? Sure. *does so, then does 3 in a row* He said to me in amazement, who knew you could tap?! I said well, I haven't done it in a while but yes, I have tapped in several shows. I was trying to remember them all--I started with Me and My Girl, then The Boyfriend ("Perfect Young Ladies" which technically was not tap as I did not have on tap shoes for that number since I was in the preceding scene but the technique was all tap and the other dancers, when they entered, all had on tap shoes. I *still* remember that combination!), Lucky Stiff ("Welcome back, Mr. Witherspoon!" *stomp, STOMP* "MIS-ter WITH-er-spoon...we always knew you'd be...BACK..." *stomp, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, stomp, ball-CHANGE*). I know I did another tap show as well but it's escaping me right now. ANYWAY, Robert said you've got the part. YAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!

So so excited!!! I love it that this is a DANCE role, my very first one! (That is, my very first dance principal.) I mean, it's not Anita or anything but it's a by-God DANCE role. And I wanted it and I worked for it and I got it!

Robert told me where to find a rehearsal video of the combination so I looked it up--other than the wings, it'll be easy!
ceebeegee: (Massachusetts foliage)

  • How effing cool is this? NYC is going to introduce a bike share program--you pay an annual fee, pick up a bike at a rack and then you can ride it for up to 45 minutes. I LOVE THIS. I just think this is the coolest idea! For one thing, I would love to bike more but bikes takes up mad room--even with an apartment the size of mine, I want more space. It's also a pain to carry a bike up and down stairs. This is so convenient! And green-friendly, and community-firnedly, and it'll encourage fit habits! When I lived with Ryan and Cami I used to run errands on my bike--maybe I can get back to that.


  • The weather is getting chillier, guys, and you know what that means--apple-picking time! Gothamist had a cool feature on several orchards that seem to be pretty close by, and maybe less expensive--Apple Ridge Orchard is only $9 admission, and Outhouse Orchards has peaches and pears as well. And Dubois was voted Best Pick Your Own. Maybe we could branch out from our beloved Applewood winery? Or stick to the boozey good times? Let me know your thoughts, guys! Ooh, can't wait to make some apple bread.


  • I got cast in a reading! Duncan sent out an email to a bunch of us to submit ourselves to Oberon's reading of The Empress of Sex and the director cast me as...uh, the Empress, I think! Other people I know, like Walter and Amada from PCTF, are also in it. The rehearsal is next Sunday, and the reading is the next day. So now I gotta update my website.


  • To which, BTW, I have been adding more and more content (note the video clip from The Promise and the audio of me singing "Come Away, Death"), as I get used to iMovie on my lil' Macbook Air. Everyone is right--iMovie is infinitely better than Windows Movie Maker. Truly, I cannot believe Dell or anyone would allow Microsoft to crap all over their hardware with WMM--it is easy to learn but has way too many bugs and is frustrating as hell. No program would be better than WMM.


  • As I announced on Facebook, I'm taking on a new project. I was so angry at the rape cop verdict, I decided I had to do something with that anger. I did some research and found out about a fantastic organization that really fills a need--a group called RightRides, that offers FREE rides home on the weekends to women and those who identify as LGBTQ (since the aim of the group is to tackle gender-based street/subway violence). I'm going to be volunteering with them as a driver! They operate from 12-3am on Fridays and Saturdays--if you need a ride, call (888) 215-SAFE (7233). They serve 45 neighborhoods in NYC, and they add more according to demand--so even if they don't serve your neighborhood, call 'em anyway so they'll add it!

    (888) 215-SAFE (7233)

    How much fun will that be? Riding around the city late at night, chatting with passengers--I'll be like a preppy, blonde Travis Bickle!


  • Happy Birthday, Prince Harry! He was born right around the time of my cousin Jessica.


Profile

ceebeegee: (Default)
ceebeegee

May 2020

S M T W T F S
     12
3456 789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Feb. 8th, 2026 08:59 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios