We're here!

Gracie and I joined Jack yesterday evening in Irvine. We're rehearsing at an empty 20,000-seat outdoor arena. When we pulled in it looked like we were approching an abandoned carnival, which was cool and a little eerie.

It's an incredible thing, watching this show go up. We did an orchestra read-through last night at 8p. Based upon what I saw and heard this concert is going to be amazing! The video is beautiful. I had to break it to Gracie that we were singing yesterday, for sound-checking purposes. She was not happy. The moment is finally now upon all of us. Jack went into a detailed discussion with her about what exacly a sound-check is, and that seemed to help her get into the right frame of mind to sing. She sang her part at around 9:45 last night. She was brilliant singing with the orchestra, so my fears for her have been assuaged. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be, and everyone seems to think it went well, although I think I have better performances in me than one I delivered last night. (Hopefully at the Bowl..!) I have pictures which I'll upload when I can.

This morning Gracie and I relaxed at the hotel and played a lot of Crazy Eights and War. Kings in the Corners next! We got to the stage around 1:30. Laurie and Martin arrived, and we have been woodshedding our Final Fantasy trio. It'll be pretty spectacular if we can pull it off.

Gracie is conked out on the production office couch right now. We go into a full blocking rehearsal in about an hour. Wow. We're really doing this...

Suspended Animation

Well, everything is eerily quiet around the house with G gone for a week. Jack and I went out to dinner last night. That was highly unusual these days. I've never seen him this busy. He's been rolling on around three or four hours of sleep, but he seems to be loving it.

I think that I found a dress for the show. I'm just waiting for approval from the director. Laurie is in Arizona, and we haven't even seen the score for the duet we're going to do yet. Ulp.

I spent several hours yesterday just woodshedding my brains out. Today I kind of collapsed. Tomorrow, back to the grindstone. I confess, I feel a little guilty with my post-school-year lolling, while my spouse is moving a mountain in a room twenty feet away. We all have our destinies...

We're Stylin' Now

So, Jack is adding more and more pieces to my plate (well, it's not too much, just three), but I'm really going to be seriously woodshedding over the next few weeks. I've been doing Seth Riggs warm-ups sporadically over the past month or so, but will be hitting it daily from now to the show.

Laurie and I don't know whether we'll be getting costumes and makeup, or whether we'll be expected to style ourselves. We're going to hire a stylist together if we need to. It's been quite a while since I've had to deal with applying stage makeup, but I'll have to learn how for the road. It'll be fun though. There is a deepdown girlie-girl in me that's just crying to get out. Now's her chance!

Magic Bus

Traffic is starting to swell on the Video Games Live site. Interest is picking up, which is very exciting. G and I are starting to think about what we're going to pack for the tour. The asthetics of a bus tour are new to us, so we're winging it. We're excited to get to see so much of the US in such a compact period of time. She is counting how many states she's been in and how many states she will have been in by the end. Those second grade geography lessons are being quickly put to practical use!

High in the Sky

"Don't worry," my sister informed me. "No one will even be able to tell if it's a good or bad haircut from all the way out in the audience." (It's a nice haircut.) Which would be true, were it not for the gigantic screens that will project our faces and whatnot (look out for the whatnot) larger than larger than life, so the audience can assess not only the haircut, but possibly every hair, as well. So, off for a facial tomorrow that will probably be the first in a series. Vanity takes on gigantic proportions for, well, the gigantic proportions that, well, loom...

The Tones of Bones

I took G to a vocal coach yesterday. She was not very enthused as she walked in. A woman emerged who exuded encouragement, and instantly began to draw a fuller, rounder, and stronger sound out of her. She was sunny and optimistic, and G responded right away. The teacher discussed esoterica about the human voice, including the sound frequency of bones, resonators, and vocal registers. She managed to neither talk down to eight-year-old G, nor to make the subject so obscure and adult that she could not grasp the concepts. G's voice came out the top of her head and soared over the bush that sits next to the teacher's house. I'm feeling better about her participation in the show.

In perfect harmony...

Ever since someone told me that there was a slight problem in my harmonization one night when the sound was not good and I couldn't hear myself that well, I've sort of lost my ability to instantly put myself into harmony's space. It's so odd. I can still harmonize fine, but it's like I need a roadmap now to get there, whereas before I could plunge in and land where the music demanded with pinpoint accuracy. Words have power. Anyway, tonight is the Shabbat at the temple where I work as sideman with my guitar and my back vocals. It's a well-worn harmonic path, so it's not an issue. But I do miss the mindless zen of instant harmony. Tonight marks the first time Jack is officially off the gig. Gracie may not even join me. It's not the same without my family.

Beeps, Boops, Strings

Jack works in his studio, prepping for the show. Tonight he played selections from Frogger and Pong for me. We laughed and did goofy jigs to them, and I tried to imagine what they will sound like when swelling string sections join their silly noodling melody lines. This is what people really think video game music still sounds like. The pity people used to take on me when I informed them that my husband was a video games composer... It was subtle, but palpable. The asthetics are still emerging, and there is inherent beauty in video game scores being produced today. I'm pleased as punch to be a part of it.

Not the voices in my head... yet

So, after much consternation regarding the name of this blog, I finally found one I can live with for a while. It seems like it verges on the appropriate. I'm finding that I can hit the F#s better than I used to, due to head voice access. But this is not to be a technical blog about the mechanics of the voice. It is to be musings about the nature of using the voice as a spiritual communication tool, and all of the psycho/physio-logical issues attendant in that use. Also, I'm preparing to jump on the world stage, and I thought it would be interesting to try to chronicle it. In public. We are all shameless extroverts in the age of the blog.