Today I am preparing to moderate a panel discussion, at ISEA04 ("the olympics of new media"), on art projects that use GPS technologies. My co-panelists are Joel Slayton, Teri Rueb, and Pall Thayer. They are all too multi-talented to be associated with only one link, but googling them would prove abundantly resourceful. They have all done cool things with sound, from playing in rock bands to creating abstract compositions based on satellite data. (Ok, anyone reading this should know by now that I am a nerd!) Anyway, I'm very excited about this and I just wanted to tell you. I'm not sure how it will directly influence my standings, in the American Idol Auditions, but I know it will be a good sound-related life experience, and that's good enough for me...
More Than Meets the Eye
Today I am back in Helsinki and I am on a mission to track down the super fabulous Helsinki Male Voice Choir (YL). Something tells me they could teach me a lot about what to do, in my American Idol audition endeavors. I know there's a big difference between a bunch of Finnish men and a single girl, but their average age is 28 and they sing mostly a cappella, so I feel like we already have a connection. Also, their website says "A love for music drives the singers to endure the hours of rehearsals...." Substitute training for rehearsal and we're singing the same song...
Tuesday in Tallinn
I'm now in Tallinn, the super cool Estonian city by the bay. Last summer, my friend Mads Lynnerup came here, plastered ads all over town, held auditions, and formed a band in one week. Their first and last performance was at the Tallinn Art Hall and let me tell you... they sounded mmm mmm good! I'm hoping to follow in Mads's bootsteps and find some cool musicians to sing with. (You may have noticed that my voice has been neglected with all my other training activities.) I also got a random e-mail from a guy who runs Club Hollywood--which he swears is the coolest music club in Tallinn. Maybe I'll check that out, too...
My Lucky Day
Today is the one lucky day that I am in Stockholm. Why is it so lucky, you ask? Because there is an ABBA exhibit at Nordiska Museet (the Swedish Museum of Cultural History)!!!!!!! I'm off to check out what my fellow blonde singers have been up to. Now that auditions are only 50 days away, I am really hard up for wardrobe tips and those Swedes knew how to bring it, in that department...
Cruisin
Today I'm taking a "sound art" cruise from Helsinki to Stockholm. There will be cool "electro-acoustic" music all over the boat (including in the pool!!!) and the Fylkingen Society for New Music and Intermedia Art is organizing performances by a ton of cool Baltic musicians, including Jori Hulkkonen (FI); Jean-Louis Huhta (SWE); Pink Twins (FI); Sam & Gigi (FI); DJ Borzin (FI); Andreas Tillander, Arash Moori & Stefan Lewandowski (UK/SWE); Amfibio (FI); Nicky Sangiamo (FI) and Fylkingen (SWE). I'm especially excited about the Pink Twins! They rock! I'm going to look into jamming with a few of these cool folks, while we're all on the same boat. That's right... just try to keep my musical ambition "at bay"!
Flourishing in Finland
Today I am in Finland. Lest you Americans think that Scandinavia's only gifts are inexpensive furniture and clothing, Finland is also home to a thriving new music scene and legends like Ismo Alanko, Popeda, Yö and Eppu Normaali! And check out this photo of Finns HIM, one of the most awesome genre-bending bands in Eastern Europe... (They call themselves "love metal" and they had an album called "Razorblade Romance"--yowza!) I'm hoping to see some cool bands during my time in Finland, and maybe pick-up some good wardrobe or showomanship tips. Feel free to e-mail me with suggestions!
RIP, Rick James
I keep thinking about Rick James, the "king of funk," who passed away, this week. I do like his music, and I used to love his girl-band, the Mary Jane Girls. I used to sing along to their In My House tape all the time!) But liking the music does not always mean liking the man. So many people wanted to be Rick James (Dave Chapelle, MC Hammer, and so on...), and so many have sampled him. Thinking about all of this has me thinking, in a more political sense about song selection. It can be hard to separate the tune from the auteur, and while I'll have a choice for my first audition song, I wonder how much of a voice I will have in the callbacks and on the show--should I make it that far... I wonder if the folks at American Idol or the Fox Network have any specific political policies regarding the content of their programs...?
An A-Sharp Day
My friend & collaborator, Lee Walton, gave me a great idea. He knew that I was trying to make my American Idol Audition Training a full-time effort and he said, "In the Indian culture, music singers will spend an entire 24 hours humming one single note. It creates an endorphined meditative state. A true high." He also sent the attached picture for motivational purposes. It worked! I'm humming my heart out, today, even as I type. So far it's working wonders on my mental state. I have already decided to spend as much time as possible, in the American Idol Audition Line, humming... If anyone has suggestions as to the best note to focus on, please let me know...
The Man in the Mirror
Download maninmirror.WAV
This week my training is being taken to a whole new level. I am beginning to work on preparing myself, psychologically--not only for the audition line, but for Possible Eventual Stardom... As a sideline to my audition training, I have been working on an art project (in collaboration with the totally awesome JD Beltran!) called "Top 40." I am merging my face with the faces of the artists on the 40 albums that have most influenced me. I will be repackaging the albums, which will contain only a single track, each, sung & recorded by moi. These pix are from the first two albums--click them to enlarge them.
The experience of working on these photos, with JD, allowed me to begin embodying stardom. I had to put my body in the exact same positions as the artists did, often wearing the same makeup, and trying to channel their gestures through my face... It was a deeply moving experience and one that I think has better prepared me to Be The Idol. (Go Mo!!!)
Dancin' With Myself
I'm back in SF, today, but I couldn't leave home without doing some last-minute musicological research. I finally watched the Lizzie McGuire movie in which Hillary Duff plays two characters and sings with herself on stage. Ironically, I'd popped in the DVD just after watching a TV special on the Carpenters and their use of overdubbing. I'm really excited to learn about all these performance-enhancing technologies and I hope I'll get my 15 minutes of overdubbing, some day soon... Speaking of Karen Carpenter, there's a woman who understands audition dieting. I don't want to go to that extreme, though. RIP, Karen. My friend Sanjay recommends that I sing her Superstar or Rainy Days & Mondays, for my audition. Keep the tips coming, people. They are grrrreat!
