alayna

All you music people... I sing, play piano and violin, play bass pretty much... If you hear of bands that need a singer let me know.

Cast List:

Mabel                           * Ashley Ray *

Thank you to all of those who auditioned as well as those who served on the casting committee!  I look forward to seeing and working with you this fall!

Yours Truly,

*Ashley Ray*
**President**





SERIOUSLY??? WHY have the auditions?????  I'm gonna stick to makeup and find/put together a band.

i found something to do with all the cool stuff i find that i can't afford to that i don't need..


not that it's productive in any way :P

their codes are stupid and not working. it's this

 
that every phone number i thought i had deleted in the past two years is still in the trash folder. some of them multiple times. funnyyy
now the number of contacts in my phone dropped by 140. duh me.

you should really watch this
:D

in no particular order

-making costumes (chell and tira) for katsucon and having a fun weekend with ed and gi. i'm glad he and and i are friends
-getting my first tattoo
-going to see NR in new york with andrea, fun day!!
- cirque du soleil and some restaurant i don't remember the name of that had horrible service and everything after that with david
-actually auditioning for CDS
-going to that stupid show in a mall with david, but having a really great time getting there and having dinner.
-joining a band that turned out to be a ..learning experience, but really amazing musical moments with a great view for about a month, and playing bass, violin (again, finally), and keyboard as well as writing my own vocal harmonies.
-taking voice science. best class ever
- finishing college requirements. i think.
-starting to work on composing music 100% on my own, with much thanks to certain people
-facing personal fears and issues
-having the lead in a musical and being able to perform again!
-making new friends through that experience.
-finding a whole new creative side to myself, visually, and artistic growth in general.

i'm sure there are others but i'm tired.
happy new year!

random pictures

long hair needs to go! i think i know what i want to try, but if anyone has suggestions feel free. figured i'd post these in case anyone was curious.

http://www.alteredbookartists.com/

flickr.com/photos/hairport_lisbon/2183266813/in/set-72157610079741676/

this is mine :P











that's not too far off! haha

i am sick.
tea please? i don't want to make it. ha

LOL @ the first clip!!
thanks gi ;P

This year has been the first that i haven't decided on a Halloween costume in like February!  I was getting nervous that I was running out of ideas...but while talking to Giovanna I suddenly realized I should combine all of the projects I've been thinking about and be some sort of Steampunk.. lady. This is potentially the most involved costume I've decided upon.  It will all be my own design though so I can stop any time, but I haven't worked much with combining other mediums (besides fabric and sculpty haha) into a costume.

So.. what I'm trying to decide is if I want to make it a version of another character or an original character.  It will be a good excuse to buy little odds and ends and make jewelry like I told Meghan I wanted to make (and make one for her too).  I'd also like to have some sort of corset, and I'm definitely afraid to make that on my own.

Anyway, I'm excited to get ideas going for it :)

I'm really supposed to be putting down vocal parts for the cast and I don't feeeeeel like it.  But I do want everyone to be comfortable with their parts.  Maybe tomorrow.

First Brigadoon rehearsal today... and the man playing Tommy, my love interest is like 50. I'm not exaggerating. And I have to kiss him twice.
Guess I'd better get over it or my acting will suck!!
Otherwise, I'm excited that all of my solo stuff is pretty high! High A's in a musical is a rare thing these days. That's why I prefer the older ones.


I'm gonna go learn this stuff.. and my Debussy stuff... and my Voice Science stuff.

The WCC choir that I'm in is doing 5 performances in Avery Fisher Hall with the NY Philharmonic this December! Wow :)

One performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 2, and four of Handel's Messiah.   I'm excited!!  Come see me and hang out in NY after!

I got the part!
I'm Fiona in Brigadoon. Now I have to learn to speak with an accent and totally rearrange my teaching schedule. But it'll be worth it!

I haven't been bowling in ten years. er. Hadn't. Soo last night we went to some really really old bowling alley in Asbury Park and I sucked a lot ha! But the whole night was super fun! I wish I could do the same thing again tonight. There was an awesome DJ and even though Asbury Park used to be cooler ten years ago, it still has some of it's charm. Minus some of the shootings :D I suppose it's a trade-off! This whole week has been awesome (since last Friday when I finished camp) but last night was really great.

This weekend I'm going to the mountains. We're leaving tonight and will be back sat night, so it's a short trip. My sister, her fiance, his brother, my brother, and my parents are going. I didn't ask anyone because everyone works Friday. I'm the only one with the bizarre schedule. I'm bringing my sewing machine to work on some things, but besides that all I really want to do is go to the Good Will store to look for old maps. haha As long as I bring enough to sew (and I DO have plenty) I'll be busy enough.

My brother filmed the songs I sand at my recital the other day.  I might post them online but I have to make sure they don't suck first!! I forgot my words a couple times in the one song, but I made some up. ha. I know my emotive skills were not what they should have been since I was too worried about remembering the words so it may not be the best example of my singing but I'd like to have something. Still no luck finding people to work with. I think it's because I have nothing to show for the past 3 years, and I can't get stupid Adobe Audition to work for me so I can't get anything finished. That would help.

i had planned to have a party at my house. guests were more mischievous than previous years, obviously influenced by random bus violence and criminals from gotham city. there was a storm of pyrotechnics approaching, of which neighbors were intuitively and unhappily aware. the gates were left open, but the dogs knew it wasn't safe to leave the confines of the yard- somehow my neighborhood had become a corner in north philly! i had to leave, but i can't remember why. i needed to get to my dad's pickup truck- expectedly parked down the street to add to the stress of making it there before some unseen (or forgotten) threat caught up. the danger was once in the truck, fumbling with the proper key, which never seems to be there until looking three times and finally inserting it with maladroit hands. my neighbor took this opportunity to run out wielding a rifle, but never shooting it. instead, she gave me coded instructions: it was wednesday; if tomorrow was saturday, then drive to the left, down to the pond- but wait, the left was bad; if tomorrow was sunday, drive to the right. ha
the right postponed any attempts to blow my head off. it seemed odd of her to let me decide my fate for only a minute. she was the type of angry-old-woman crazy that wears a floral nightgown and bed-cap, and doesn't like to be interrupted when sleeping.  in my confusion, i had started driving left before realizing the consequences, and u-turned across the grass in an attempt to fix it. she leaped into the bed of the pickup and i awoke during my erratic driving attempts to send the old woman flying :P

it's so interesting to think back (an hour later) on what is completely terrifying and enough to wake us with a pounding heart and physical fear-sickness. my crazy old woman reminds me of some video game or movie but i can't place it! thankfully i don't have that uncomfortable feeling and and go back to sleep now.
i spell a lot of things wrong when i'm typing in the middle of the night. wow haha

Are people harder to find on lj or is it just that don't know anyone on here??

I'm thoroughly enjoying having regular weekends again! No more commuting to NY. It's unfortunate that things were the way they were, but I'm happy now.
Friday night I had my voice lesson (had to reschedule cause I was teaching at that camp all week! Wow, 52 tiring hours).., then went to play rock band with amusia and r0mp whichhhh didn't last very long, hah. But I lovvve that game :)  Mike told me the next day that he had only heard me sing opera before and didn't know I was good! lol

After teaching musical theater all week I was singing more like that, which was kind of annoying. One more thing to fix, you know? But at least it's not a habit. This week I'll have time to work on my own music again. It's interesting because when I start I usually don't have a specific idea in my mind, but  it seems to come. I used to have WAY more trouble with that. It seems that I'm more creative than I used to be, which makes me happy.

On Saturday I drove to Andrea's parent's house in NJ for her brother's bbq. It was a fun time, especially considering I knew no one besides her at first! Steph, Chip, and Matt showed up for a couple hours. I was too tired and had no one to drive to QXT's with annnnd it was an hour and a half away so I decided to skip that Life Cried show. From what David said it was like a furnace in there anywayysssss. I was glad to rest as well!  Andrea and I went shopping on Sunday and I bought too many pairs of shoes, then saw The Dark Knight with David. I felt like I was waiting for that to come out foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. It was awesome :) We looked it up afterwards on imdb and it's the #1 spot! BEST MOVIE EVER!! =P I wonder if it will stay there.
Really though, it was awesome. I was just looking on rottentomatoes.com and critics get on my nerves when they give obviously superior movies bad reviews. I think they just do it so people are like "OMG did you see so-and-so gave this a bad review??" and people talk about them and their names get out there. Being a critic has to be a great job though. ha

Sooo I'd really like to go out this week since last week I didn't get to! Maybe Shampoo........

we are going to the mountains this weekend!