Bus-y Weekend

This weekend I got a chance to explore Sudbury a little more.

Friday night was a bit of a snoozefest. Literally. I was gonna go downtown, but then I got too lazy. I was gonna make dinner (chicken adobo, if anyone is interested - or adobo MANAK according to this dude: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=FeIXhLM_93Q, and no, i didn't follow HIS recipe). Anyway, I was gonna make dinner and then I got lazy. So I continued watching my Perfect Stranger DVD and fell asleep. Of course, taking an hour nap at 9pm doesn't really bode well for one's sleeping schedule, so I was up wasting time youtube til about 3am.

On Saturday, I woke up at about 10:30am and watched Balki and Larry get into a few comedic situations before I crawled out of at 11:30. I made a pretty good breakfast, well i guess brunch by that point, consisting of my leftover adobo, some garlic fried rice (I had A LOT of rice leftover from the previous night so it was perfect for some fried rice) and an over-easy egg. YUMMERS!!! For those of you that aren't Filipino, you haven't lived til you've had Filipino breakfast. All I need was some longanisa and it would've perfect!

Then I went with C's daughter, let's call her "N" to New Sudbury for the best shopping in town - New Sudbury Centre. Yes, some of you are probably laughing at what Sudbury has to offer shopping-wise. Honestly, it wasn't as bad as you'd expect. It's a pretty new mall. I'd say it's sort of like Scarborough Town Centre or Richmond Centre for you Vancouver folk. We took the bus there, and it wasn't terrible, I guess. We had a to wait for a bit. It's just annoying cuz it took us over 45 minutes including waiting and one transfer, but it would only take about 15 if we had a car.

Anyway, we stopped off at Starbucks and I got me a Strawberry & Creme. I normally wouldn't get such an extravagant drink, but it's on work, so why the hell not?! Then we did a little more shopping. Again, nothing spectacular. N's friend works at a nutrition store and we hung out for a bit. She's N's "smart" friend. Apparently her other friends are airheads, but this nutrition friend is quite intelligent. We had some enlightening conversations about the state of the world (it must be cuz she studied sociology :) I also got some protein shake stuff there and tried this weird exercise machine that just vibrates. Apparently a 10-minute workout on it is the same as a regular hour. All I know is that it felt weird and I was a bit shaky when I got off of it.

So, after we stopped off at Superior Meats to cure my craving for beek jerky (weird, huh?), we go back home. N and I did have plans to go out that night, but plans sort fell through. I was actually okay with it as I had an AUDITION to rest up for the next day!

Whhhaaatttt?!?!? An audition? Yes, an audition for Theatre Cambrian's Best of Broadway 2. It's a community theatre here in Sudbury and the show is like a musical revue, and it's a basically a concert - no dancing really.

I was a bit nervous. I hadn't auditioned for anything in over 2 years!!! I was on their website and saw that they were having a call for auditions in a few days (the last day of three audition dates) and I thought "Why the hell not?" I had to choose 2 contrasting songs, one slow and one fast. I was mulling over what I was going to sing and didn't decide until this morning. I decided to go with "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" from The Sound of Music and "Light of the World" from Godspell. I was that close to singing "A Whole New World" but decided against it cuz I'd have to do a weird solo thing where I'd have to sing to both parts at once. Anyway, so that's what I decided to go with.

So, it was back on the bus today and off to a new part of town as the audition was in the West End of Sudbury, which I had never been to before. But...the buses only run once an HOUR!!! Awesome! I was organized, however, and decided to head down a little earlier. After having practiced singing out loud (for the first time all week...I was a little shy with C and N hearing me) just before noon, I left just before 1 o'clock even though my audition wasn't until 3. I thought it would be good for me to get downtown early, maybe go the mall a bit, grab some tea and water, and then walk to the audition, which was only about 1.4 kms away from the bus terminal.

Well...the bus actually didn't take that long to get me downtown - only about 15 minutes or so, but the mall downtown was not what I'd expect it to be. It's not like New Sudbury Centre. The biggest department store is called "Hart", which I've never even heard of! And, by the way, sold soap, toothbrushes, floss, but NO toothpaste that I needed to get. What the!?! How do you sell all that other stuff and NOT have toothpaste?! Anyway, half of the stores were closed too, but I guess that's Sudbury on a Sunday!

After already having had my Timmy's grean tea, some Dasani from the dollar store and looking over my sheet music, I decided I'll just walk over to the audition early, well, really early, since I didn't really know how far it was and after discovering that this mall kinda sucks. Luckily, as I'm walking down the street I hear music. Sweet music. I hear music everywhere (m!m). Down the street at Market Square there were two women with guitars singing. They were actually REALLY good. They sang a bunch of different stuff, from Nelly Furtado to Tina Turner. They sorta had a bluesy, rock thing goin' on. It was boiling hot outside, so I decided to go inside and there were a bunch of vendors selling jewellery, etc. When I go back outside to listen to some more music, I notice a sign that says "Blueberry Festival at Market Square". Ummm....where are the blueberries? I don't see any damn blueberries! Don't tell me there are blueberries if there aren't any cuz I'm gonna wanna eat blueberries and then I'll get disappointed!

So, I start talking to this one vendor and she explains to me that it was really busy yesterday at the festival and all the blueberries sold out this morning. Dammit! I actually wanted to go to the Blueberry festival but didn't know where it was. Then I accidentally found it and no luck. But, I end up talking to her for about 5, 10 minutes about Sudbury, how I'm new and about pow wows and First Nations stuff. Then, it's off to my audition!

It actually was only a 15-minute walk from the Market - I thought it'd be longer. But, it was a profusely hot day and I was Professor Pittain by the time I got there (that's a Friends reference - You'll have to find out what that means if you don't already). When I got there, I was sort of confused cuz I passed a church and next door, which is the address I was given, was a regular building with a huge cross on it and a tiny sign for Theatre Cambrian. Hmm....I gingerly rang the doorbell, but luckily a guy (all red and out of breath) came out of the side door of the church and let me in to fill out an audition form.

So, I filled out the form, but of course I can't remember my postal code so I call N. I fill out the regular audition information, like what were the last few shows you were in. The next question was sort of weird: "Defining characteristic: _________________." I wasn't sure what that meant, so I asked the dude and he said, "what makes you distinct from everyone else". All I could think of was that I'm Filipino! So, I put that down. I think that's pretty defining...in Sudbury!

So, it was my turn next. I went to the basement. A little nervous, but I don't think my palms were sweaty when I met the artistic and musical directors - phew! But, to my chagrin, I found out that there was NO PIANIST! The piano, or should I say keyboard, wasn't even plugged in. Everyone had been singing a cappella. WTF!!! So, the two of them awkwardly moved the piano close to an outlet and plugged it in so that I can at least get my first note - I wasn't about to try and play piano AND sing all by myself. They asked me a little about the shows I've done and then it was singing time. I sang both of my songs and I think it went pretty well. I was a bit nervous, and I think that showed a little bit in my voice, but I think I did pretty well considering I wasn't expecting to sing with accompaniment. I was pleased, and relieved, with what I did.

After I was done the musical director, she said that I had a beautiful and that she really likes it, but (uh oh....here comes the but) she wants to hear more versatility. Apparently when they did Best of Broadway last year, there were only 11 people in it and they were all very versatile. One guy went from singing Phantom to a Queen song. So, she wanted me to sing something that showed a "dirty" and "gritty" side!!! YIKES!!!

This really threw me for a loop! I had nothing else prepared! I mean, my other song was "A Whole New World" and I wouldn't call a Disney song "dirty" or "gritty". So, I stood there frantically trying to think of a song to show off that side of me(which I said I could pull off because "I'm an actor, I can do anything", but I'm not actually sure that I could). After all of us start brainstorming what I could sing, they suggest something from Spring Awakening. I try singing that but I sorta butcher the lyrics near the end. What can you expect off the cuff? He also suggests "Hound Dog", but I only knew the first verse, and not too well at that. They ask me if I know Rent, but I only really know "Seasons of Love". That's still a little too "sweet" of a song, but they ask me to sing the solo parts in the middle, which I do. After a bit of a loss for what to do next, they apologize for throwing this at me. The lady says that I have a good voice, but she just wants to know that I can sing something that's not so pretty sounding like Rodgers & Hammerstein and Gilbert & Sullivan, and he says she thinks I might have it in me. Finally, she asks me a little about my choral experiences and they express that they're impressed by my dance background (but I don't think that really means anything in a non-dancing show). And then they said they'd let me know, either way, some time this week.

All in all, I was actually pretty happy with how things went. I sang my songs well and they were impressed with that. They did recognize that I'm a sweet, happy person and I guess that exudes when I'm singing. That'd be great if I'm auditioning for Mary Poppins or seomthing, but if they're gonna have a concert that'll have some rock musicals in there, then who knows? Oh well, I'm a happy guy who likes to smile. That's just me...take it or leave it! But at least they complimented me on my singing. So, if I don't get in (and with such small numbers they're looking for, it would be improbable anyway), it's because I'm just not what they're looking for for this show, and not because I suck :)

After being proud of myself for getting the guts to audition after I hadn't done it in so long, in a new city where I don't know anyone, I decided to celebrate by getting bubble tea! Yes. Bubble in Sudbury. The funny thing is that the Cree lady I was talking to at Market Square asked me if I worked at the bubble tea place - I guess she figured I was Asian. And, it was actually pretty good. Or, the fact that I got a taro slush (which I hadn't had in FOREVER) on a hot, "you're so bluck now" summer day made it taste better than it actually was. Then I went home, where I ran into C on the bus. Later, I ran across the street to get toothpaste at the corner store, went across to "Paris Natural Food Store" and got some organic chicken sausage to BBQ. C and I had an impromptu barbecue, using her brand new grill, and we sat outside sipping mango coolers and conversing about everything from the American government to the politics of organized religion.

So, it was a pretty good weekend.

And to put the cherry on top, I'll see what shenanigans Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia get into now that I'm done with Balki and Larry.