The Bolivarian Revolution and the Chavez Code

The last couple days have been especially educational, despite my recovery process (Just a cough left, by the way). After a few glimpses, I finally have a fairly complete outline of recent Venezuelan history and society. First we watched a documentary about the Bolivarian Revolution, and later we listened to Eva Goliger, author of The Chavez Code, talk about the US attempts to destablize Venezuela that she uncovered using the Freedom Of Information Act. I'm not as certain as she is about all her findings, but Venezuela has definately been misrepresented in the US media.

Hey everybody,

I'm pretty much sick in bed today, but I decided to take some time to check e-mail and such. Yesterday a few of us went to one of the free clinics set up by the Chávez administration and were treated by a Cuban doctor. They took some blood to rule out the really nasty diseases and had the test results back in half an hour. We were told that it was just a flu, but we were all glad to hear that it wasn't something worse.

Anyway, for now we're mostly resting and waiting for our fevers to break.

Venezuela - End of Festival to Coroni

Well, it's been more than a few days since I've been able to blog, so I'll just post some of my memories: (Sorry, still no pics!)

At the final night of the Festival, SPC won an award for best song: "Si somos americanos," a song celebrating the shared heritage of all Americans, from the northernmost villiage in Canada to the southernmost tip of Tierra Del Fuego. Our director's own composition, "Let America be America Again" got only a lukewarm response, but it was cut down from 20 minutes of choir and brass ensemble to the last 6 minutes accompanied by keyboard, so I expect a better response when we sing it in its full form in Caracas.

Another of the groups that performed that night was Sies Seis, a Venezuelan vocal jazz group. I'm definately going to find a way to get one of their CDs, because it's exactly the type of music I listen to. I already know of a couple German a cappella groups, but this is the first time I've been able to find a South American group in this style. All their songs were in English or scat, but I hope they have some in Spanish too.

Yesterday we stopped in a small town to see the Festival of St. John the Baptist. Crowds of people in red were in the streets dancing and chanting "eh áh" (apparently an African word). At each intersection, four people carrying an alter with St. John as a boy made the sign of the cross, and people threw rice, lentils, and confetti.

After a couple of days on the road, we're relaxing for a few days in Coroni, a small beach town. I've got a bit of a cough, so I'm taking the day off to relax instead of going on one of the day trips. Last night there was another fantastic group of drummers. They were mostly just kids, but I couldn't manage to count most of the rhythms they played. We sang a few african songs and they played along lightly. Then we sang "Si Somos Americanos" and we had some problems. Some drunk guy misunderstood the point of the song and started chanting "Viva Venezuela." Doug tried to explain it too him, but he didn't want to hear it.

Usually Sergio explains our songs before we sing them with a particularly long speach before that one, and now I see why. Though many latin americans protest that they too are Americans, they've come to expect that estadounidenses use the word americanos solely to refer to themselves.

I'll try to get photos up later today using another computer, but that's it for now!

Venezuela - Days 1-3

This is the first time I´ve had access to a computer since I left, so I´ll try to catch everyone up on what´s been happening:

The Seattle Peace Chorus flew via Houston, so during our layover we gave a practice concert at a local church, which gave us a delicious dinner. Back at the airport, we passed the remaining time singing along to a guitar, violin, and flute that various members had brought along. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:59PM, but when we got there the sign informed us that our flight had been delayed until midnight.

When we arrived at the Caracas Airport we had another, shorter layover, and I had my first taste of la comida venezolano. I ordered una tortilla con jamón y queso and was surprised that the word "tortilla" in Venezuela does not mean a type of flat bread like it does in México, but an omelete, like in España. We also traded songs with a children's choir called "Sonata" that was going to the same choral festival.

We got on our final plane, which took us to Isla Margarita, and a bus took us from the airport to the hotel. After we had a bit of time for swimming and dinner, we performed at the first of several nights of concerts in the festival. There was some sort of audience-choice awards for the evening, and "Seattle Peace Chorus" won second place. "Sonata" won third, and an amazing women's choir from Cuba took first. They had an entire song about how they were not going to sing or dance the congo, but hidden underneath the the avant-garde choral sounds were recognisable conga rhythms and a bit of choreography.

I warmed up my Spanish ear on the flights by watching The Bridge to Terabithia and The Kid en español. I finally managed to work up the courage to speak some Spanish at dinner. I decided to sit with a choir from Marida that was about my age. I haven´t felt so tounge-tied in my life! It took me a good 15 seconds to remember "Tengo dieciocho años," and even longer just to say the number seven in Spanish rather than German. This morning Justin (the only member of our choir close to my age) and I tried again with better results.

Both the Houston concert and our first concert on Isla Margarita have been well recieved. Last night a guy named Andreas(?) told me that he especially enjoyed "Shenandoah," because it reminded him of a group he had sung the song with. I´m surprised that our hit song seems to be "This Little Light of Mine." In Houston four girls started dancing in the aisles, and we had the whole audience on their feet at our last concert.

I'll write again soon, and hopefully be able to post pictures!

Homesickness

I think I've finally figured out why I've been bored this weekend. There's plenty to do, but sometimes I just don't feel like doing it. Yesterday I tried calling some friends and realized that most of you are either in Germany or Spain.

Goin' is one syllable

Well, so much for daily updates! I had no idea how busy I'd be here. It really shouldn't have been a surprise, but I'm constantly doing something.

Monday, Wednesday:
Theory 4
Eurythmics 4
Solfege 4
Lunch
Acting
Voice Class
Recording Techniques
Voice Lesson/Coaching
Dance

Tuesday, Thursday
Choir
Lunch
Music History
Jazz Choir
Composer's Forum/Convocation
Musical Theatre
Recording Techniques

Friday is another Theory/Eurythmics/Solfege bloc, another Musical Theatre, and a Composition Lesson, then the rest of the weekend is free. However, four days a week I have classes almost continuously until 7 or 8 at night, not including homework and practicing.

The students here have bonded so quickly too. After the first day of classes I felt completely comfortable with my "group," which is mostly vocalists and a pianist from Milan, Italy. I'm also good freinds with about a half-dozen other people, and I'm still getting to know more people every day.

I think I'll start by describing a couple of my classes in each blog, so here's a couple that come to mind:

Jazz Choir is fairly self expanatory, but it's a lot of fun. There are four guys (two voice majors) and about twenty girls, jamming to "Everyday People," "Sir Duke," and a couple of others, including "Survivor," by Destiny's Child. Everyone thinks it's hillarious that the guys have to sing it too, but I'm more worried about the vocabulary. Every time I see goin', I end up pronouncing it "GO-in," when it should be something more like "gohn".

In recording techniques, we each brought in a sample of text to record. Most brought in poetry or song lyrics, though Johann read a Nazi-resistance speech. One of the Jazz Choir guys had forgotten, so he decided that he was going to read the lyrics to "Survivor" aloud. He didn't have the same problem I did, but he proved to me that no matter how hard we try, goin' isn't going to sound natural coming out of a white guy's mouth. I have to give him credit, he read it without cracking up and even added some emotion to his delivery. The rest of us were cracking up from the recording booth, but he couldn't see or hear us.

We also found out about some people's habits, as their whistling, tongue clicking, and murmuring were amplified into the control room before the recording began.

I'm having a lot of fun here, but I'm looking forward to the rest of a relaxing weekend before classes start again on Monday!

CMU: Days 0 and 1

This summer I am attending Carnegie Mellon University's Pre-College program, majoring in Vocal Music, with a Music Composition minor. I arrived on Friday the 10th, which I'll call Day 0, because today is the official start of the program.

All this week has been busy, with so much to do and so much to pack before I leave. I got on the plane yesterday at about 6 o'clock and was surprised to find myself in first class! It was the most comfortable flight I've had, except when the earphones the company provided gave me a shock. The in-flight movie was Failure to Launch, which I thought was appropriate, considering that I was leaving home early rather than late.

I deplaned at Dallas/Ft Worth Airport and got on their tram to get to terminal B. A few stops down, I realized that I had left my garment bag in the plane's coat closet! I got off and asked which gate I had arrived at (terminal D), then got back on a tram going the opposide direction. A couple of stops from terminal, a tram on that line broke down, so I got back on the other track and went all the way around in the opposite direction.

By this time,I was getting panicky, so I looked up the airport's number and was connected to the proper gate. They told me that if I didn't come for my suit, they would turn it in to lost and found, where I could reclaim it. I neeeded that suit for Carnegie Mellon, so I told them I'd try to make it. Intending to talk to the people at the departure gate desk, I got off at terminal B, but the desk was completely empty.

On my way there I had seen signs saying that I could walk to terminal D from there, but I had only 15 minutes before the plane would leave. I resolved to give myself 5 minutes to get there, leaving myself time to get back and some extra time just in case. I had to run both ways, but I made it back in time, though I was drenched in sweat.

It was a long and crowded bus ride from the Pittsburgh airport, but I met another early-arriving student, Ethan, and his cello. A couple of returning Pittsburghers gave us an overview of the city, and we checked into the residence hall.

There were about a dozen of us, and so far we've stuck together. Most of the other people came with their parents, so we've formed our our group for meetings and such. I expect that to change a bit when classes start, as we get to know the people in our groups.

Speaking of groups, the students break down into schools, and are further divided by major. People
are generally roomed with others from the same school, but floors have different groups.

• Music: voice and instrumental. Many people are taking minors in other instruments. I'm studying voice, with a composition major.
• Architecture: I've only met one of these, so I think the program is fairly small
• Art: Again, I've only met a couple
• Drama: of the 400+ people here, 120 are taking musical theater, while a few others are taking general drama
• Game Academy: a new program. I'm told it focuses on designing games more than making them
• AP/EA: This program allows students to take two college classes. At the end of the semester, they can choose whether to include it on their transcript. There are a lot of people here doing this too, including one of my roommates.

Today has been mostly about checking in and meetings, and tomorrow looks like it's more of the same. On Monday I take a music theory test, but after that it looks like the summer will really begin!

I hope to keep in touch over the summer, especially with my friends in Germany. Feel free to e-mail me, or just give me a call. I'm being especially careful about my phone's volume, so you won't be interrupting!