Today. Shadow Puppets and Ugly Naked Guy

Today....

*I learned that the art of shadow puppetry is NOT lost.

It's alive and thriving in the Ohio Arts world.

*I saw a naked guy painting in a window while we were waiting to go on stage.

We were in the parking lot, and he was across the street on the third floor of an apartment building. Chris and Miguel saw him first, pointed him out to me, and then an entire parking lot of ballerinas saw him, too. His little kitty cat decided to rub all up against him... He was RIGHT THERE in the window. He had sheets of paper attached to the window that we assume he was painting on. Although, it would have been pretty awesome if he was just doing some spread sheets or taxes... you know, naked... IN THE WINDOW.

*I got my picture taken with this guy. Whatever he is.

Today we had a showcase for Performing Arts Centers in Ohio. I haven't been that flustered on stage in a long time. There were a number of reasons it was so difficult to get through. But I was told numerous times tonight "I couldn't hear what you were singing, but you sure have a lot of energy on stage! You were cute, and even though I couldn't hear you... I got the essence of what you are about." So I guess that is good????

Events with multiple acts are never easy. We do lots of them. But this one in particular is really frustrating. We PAY to get the privilege of playing at these things... we have to submit and hope to be selected. And especially after we've driven 27 hours to get here... it's more than a disappointment that no one could hear us because the sound was so bad. It was AWFUL on stage. But we always pull through no matter how bad or non-existent the sound is on stage. But when the audience can't hear you? Goodness. I mean, we are only allowed 10 minutes to play, so it's over before you start.

Ahh welll. You win some. You lose some. We've had a number of rough situations in a row, which just makes the driving and the "being away from home" and the no sleep and the "take-what-you-can-get food options" even harder.

And yet I still wouldn't trade it for the world.

Not for a minute.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.

~natalie

P.S. Watching James and Ari (my agent) try to reenact the art shadow puppets is about the funniest thing I have ever seen. It was definitely the best medicine one could have after an awful show. I really wish I had a video.

Hurry Up And Play Michael Jackson!

This is the blog I tried to post the night of the crazy thunderstorm!!! It's the first time I've had internet since then... I had to come all the way to California to get it ;)

Today I was contractually obligated to "sing my way into the hearts of the students". Seriously. That's what the contract said.

At both shows today, we were the entertainment during the big club/organization sign-ups for campus.  The first one was Miami Dade Kendall and it was a giant party in the cafeteria! We had a blast at the show. Everyone was dancing and jumping around and made it seem like a night-time stadium show :)

The second show was at Palm Beach Community College in Lake Worth, FL. It was a little crazy because our first show ended at 1:15, we got packed up and out of there within an hour. It took about an hour and a half to get to the next campus. They wanted us to start at 4:00, but we didn't get there until 3:45 going as fast as we could! They knew there was no way for us to get there on time and it even stated in the contract that we could start at 4 or as soon as we got there :)  I felt bad because our sound guy, Milton, wasn't actually a sound guy. He was the tech guy on campus that was the "most able" to run the sound. Don't get me wrong, he did a great job. But there were a lot of problems getting rid of feedback, getting the vocals and instruments balanced so you could hear everything, etc. Those things are difficult for ANY PROFESSIONAL sound man! I mean, when you're in a hurry like we were today, the event coordinator is yelling at you to get started, and you don't even have everything plugged in yet... it is REALLY stressful. I was VERY impressed with Milton though. He worked with us every step of the way.

The event coordinator kept requesting that we hurry up and do Michael Jackson. I LOVE me some Michael, and if you've seen our show, you know that we do a bit as part of our finale. But even after we'd played some, we got more requests for MJ! I'm a little blonde fiddle player, people!!! I can rock out with the best of them... but it's hard to pull off Michael Jackson well with a 3 piece band, big blonde curly hair and a fiddle. But they asked for encores! So I guess we did alright ;)

We capped off the night at a Brazilian Restaurant (I'm not even going to try to butcher the name for you). We found one that was playing the Chile vs. Brazil soccer game!!! Miguel hadn' gotten to watch one in forever. It was so fun, but we were the ONLY ones in the place cheering for Chile. Had to be a little careful on that one ;)

This sweet guy had $10 he was supposed to spend on getting his hair cut... but he bought a cd instead! Nice.

More awesome peeps!







Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie