mellysblog

As of this afternoon, if you logged into NPR.org, you'd see my pretty face (in a god awful platinum blond wig) next to Paula's. Why is my pic on NPR? well-there's been a lot of media hype about a recent spread on Jacob Cooper's TimberBrit. We shot a video two weeks ago that launched slightly before the NPR blurb on All Things Considered.

Here's a link to the NPR interview - complete with slideshow of Melly, and below is the youtube video.




what's been amazing to me is the comment threads, we're even a twittering topic..and on reddit? Various blogs have picked it up, and man, has it sparked a lot of discussion into what 'opera' is. It seems we have two audiences commenting, those of the NPR 'opera must be written by dead guys crowd', and the real Britney fans who think it's weird, but somehow have missed the point that this isn't actually Britney...I'm a little disapointed in that I expected more from the crowd that supported us nearly a year ago...when we packed TWO SHOWS in a row on a Sunday night in Tribeca. So apparently, there are more than nine people willing to pay for it.

Hanging up the wig for the evening, as always, yours in platinum love,

Melly
aka
Brit


previously on Mellysblog


timberbrit podcast
a beatiful show indeed
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I know I promised to be better about blogging regularly, so here's the quick catch-up on the last two weeks...After a somewhat anti-climactic fourth of July (unless you consider watching both Terminator movies a typical fashion in which to celebrate freedom) I give you Jack the toothless wonder!! My little baby lost his first tooth yesterday - and the tooth fairly gave him $5!! I only got quarters when I was a kid!!


Okay, so what's been going on in the world of Melly. First and foremost!! Matt's post-Christian nihilist pop-opera, The Little Death has been given the official greenlight for release from New Amsterdam Records! I am officially a co-hort and New Amsterdam Recording Artist. So psyched for Matt. This project has been his baby almost as long as I have been his baby, and it's been fascinating watching his manic tinkerings mature into what has become a truly unique compositional voice. (Psst - and if you're in the city on the 8th, check out Matt's WNYC commissioned remix of Rhapsody in Blue..)

Fresh from a three day trip to Seattle to listen to a new premiere of his for Seattle new music Series TownMusic, Matt helped me load all of my earthly possessions into a U-Haul, and move into his place temporarily as the search for a bigger and better apartment continues....So, yeah, I've moved and am covered with the obligatory mysterious cuts and bruises... am currently shuffling through old boxes of papers and photographs and enjoying the memories that come with it... am also re-arranging cabinets and hanging shelves!! Wielding my hammer and fierce set of IKEA allen wrenches, intent on maximizing space efficiency and organization for three people in a small, synth and gear crowded apartment, like creating a database of all of the VHS and DVD's in the apartment and sort by format, genre, director, length, etc, dorky right?

On Friday I found myself at NPR doing an interview about my involvement with Jacob Cooper's TimberBrit. It was really exciting sitting in that booth by my lonesome, with nothing but a microphone to keep me company. I feel like I expressed myself fairly well considering my interviewee didn't really ask deep probing questions. We'll see what they actually take from what I said (it wasn't a live broadcast).. and the radio engineer and I had a very interesting conversation about experimental music ending with her asking me, "Do you ever ask yourself, 'what would Lucy Shelton do?'" she was kind of awesome..sigh...

I also found out that a proposal I had submitted for an evening of "Dark Cover Songs" entitled the Mafoo and Melly Variety Hour was accepted for the Gershwin Hotel in August, so I really need to get cracking on that set list now! I've always wanted to do an I Enjoy Being a Girl/I Feel Pretty/Somewhere that's Green/Part of Your World Death-Metal Medley..what do you think, does that work?

But in the meantime, I have two new arias to learn for the American Opera Project/Opera on Tap's on-going project An Opera Grows in Brooklyn. On Friday July 17th @ Galapagos, I'll wail through three of David Little's arias one from his most recent Carnegie Premiere Dog Days, and one from Soldier Songs, and finally, a Newspeak staple Sweet, Light, Crude. My co-horts on stage with me are performing regulars at La Scala and New York City Opera, so I kind of need to get cracking, like right now...

There's some great video below of our joint performance with The Fiery Furnaces captured by vlogger Ephman. I can't say much for the sound quality, but what you do get is a pretty good picture of what rocking out with your friends looks like! Hit US is part of three pieces performed by the one man band that is Massey..... I didn't realize until my first rehearsal with Newspeak that Massey, aka Andrea Mazzariello was a man, so, I sang the first two in the soprano octave until David graciously stopped me, and told me I should be singing in the tenor clef. My Bad! So, yeah, it lies REALLY low in my register, or not quite my "fac" as I like to say..

What I like most about this video is my little foot dance halfway through. God, if my voice teacher from grad school could see this. It may not be Handel, but I am selling the shit out of it!

Melly's home sick today after two weeks of amazing performances with Newspeak and the ACJW. Newspeak was invited to perform at the Bang on a Can't Afford the Real Benefit Party, and we rocked. One week later we took the stage again at LPR to open for that quirky brother sister duo The Fiery Furnaces, and we looked good... although I don't think the hipster PBR crowd was really our scene, as one friend commented, "you know you're at a Fiery Furnaces show when there are more men in the bathroom doing their hair than pissing." On Saturday I performed John Adams' Grand Pianola Music with the ACJW orchestra under the direction of Jeff Millarsky. And Sunday I found myself once again at LPR for Alarm Will Sound's Music of Derek Bermel concert, which was fabulous, and only more wonderful because Matt's mother and sister happened to be in town. All the rehearsals, all the late nights, all the complimentary drink tickets! You guessed it, I'm halfway through a package of Tylenol Cold right about now.

But I am catching up on Reader and tweeting for the first time this week. I've fallen so far off the tech bandwagon that I admit, some of twitter frightens me, and at times straight up nauseates me, but I'm gonna stick it out a month or so. If the election coverage in Iran isn't enough to inspire me to take a second glance, nothing will.

I stumbled across the following video amidst the throws of coughing and feverish dreams yesterday and loved what I saw. You can catch the rest of Sarah Haskins videos over on Current TV. They're pretty awesome. I recommend the Carl's Jr. one, and the Fairy Tale one especially.



Also, on Sunday you can catch me perform Music for 18 Musicians as part of the Make Music New York series, which Newspeak was profiled in last year. Music for 18 will begin at 6pm @ Cornelia Street in the Village. Special props to Yamaha for donating the 4 pianos!

And hopefully, the streamlining of my life, my search for a new job, my new apartment forthcoming, the recession on my musical career somewhat lifting.. hopefully I'll return to some state of regular blogging...Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I know, I've said it before...

A few months ago I wrote about how my Vag and I would not be makin biscuits....well I have been. And the truth is, I've actually really, really enjoyed it.

Many times the past few months I wanted to throw a RIP sign up on the blog. I was over it. Needed to reconnect with actual living breathing people. I needed to remember what it was like to have a hobby... be patient with my medium of information...read a book, do a puzzle, knit mittens...Remember how I RULE at using elipses....

Now that I have perfected my pie crust, (pizza crust, biscuits, pot roasts, porkchops, roasted vegetables, guacamole...) it's time to return to the sunshine...

So, the question remains, can I still be a feminist if I like making pies?? Well let's see....my most recent Barnes and Noble purchase was the current issues of: BITCH, and The Joys of Roasting, and not the Bob Saget kind...So get ready for more snark, and better pie crust recipes in 09 bitches... I leave you fondly with:

A Quick Melly Link Dump:

Couple Divorces because of severe PMS
Woman Burns off husbands Penis!!!
Vatican blames environmental damage and erectile dysfunction on CONTRACEPTION
AND
That Phantom Maple Syrup Smell is BACK