Oberlove

Reunited, and it feels so good.

-Brandi

And I, Brandi Ferrebee, was one of those production assistants. I’m beyond thrilled at the reception of this video, and, of course, how amazing it turned out under the hand of Dan Schloss.

oberlin-college:

In case you were unaware, today is Friday.

A collection of talented young video folks and production assistants, along with several extremely wonderful Oberlin College administrators, joined forces for this year’s senior supper video: a parody of Rebecca Black’s Friday.

Enjoy.

Hey gang. Sorry about that. Guess I forgot about the internet or something. I spent a while mucking about. (I was in DC working on Madame Butterfly til 3/20, then Oberlin til 3/29, then home in MA til 4/4, visiting Greg Manley and others in NYC til 4/10, home again, Fishers Island for a spell, home to unpack and repack and then repack again (better), and have been back in Alexandria, VA since 4/29.)

I’m back at the Kennedy Center, interning with Wigs and Makeup. We opened Iphigenie en Tauride last Friday and Don Pasquale will open this coming Friday. Our dear Placido Domingo is performing in Iphigenie and conducting in Pasquale, so I get to see him a bunch, which is always pleasant. Iphigenie’s design is very crazy—sort of The Matrix meets Rocky Horror—which means that my job has been Lead Tattoo Makeup Artist (or something). Essentially I get to paint awesome tribal tattoos on a dozen or so extremely talented singers and dancers. Don Pasquale is not so hardcore, but as it’s set in the Cavalier period, there’s a billion awesome wigs, so I’m helping with chorus wigs for that show.

It’s been a ton of work and little rest, but I love mostly every moment of it. Once Pasquale opens, we’ll be able to settle into a bit more of a rhythm and work won’t be so rough. I’ll sadly be missing the final night of Iphigenie and the last two performances of Pasquale, what with having to head back to Oberland and graduate. (See you the 26th.) After graduation, I’ll be heading straight to Cooperstown, NY, where I’ll spend twelve weeks working (for money!!!) at Glimmerglass, a summer opera festival. I can’t wait. For anything. Everything is awesome.

xoxo

<3A

Alright guys. So you know that I have this unpaid internship with the opera in DC doing wigs and makeup, and my awesome boss extended it through May because she wants me to be her protegé. And you know she’s hiring me for a paid internship at Glimmerglass this summer after which I’ll be trained enough that she can hire me or send me to the prestigious Juilliard internship program.

Except today, today she told me I don’t have a paid internship at Glimmerglass this summer.

Today she told me I have a Junior Staff Position. Because we’re going to work our hardest this spring to get me trained up in time.

Let me tell you the other brilliant windfalls that have occurred in the past two days.

• My photography professor wants to trade art with me. I’ve known this for a while but he has continued to show interest. This is amazing because his work>my work.
• A gentleman I met while at the International Toy Fair in NY in February finally contacted me about freelancing building models for his toy company.
• I received freelance work doing illustrations for the Oberlin Conservatory Development website. The alum hiring me also threatened to purchase a sculpture while admiring my portfolio.
• My brother informed me that he’ll begin prototyping toys soon, and I am allowed three designs. Clearly we are on our way to our dream smash-hit New York toy boutique.
• He also told me that his housemate who works at a kickass gallery in NY likes my art. This can perhaps be cultivated, and if not, it is at least an awesome compliment.
• Today I received a text from a good friend/past supervisor at the Story Pirates in New York, soliciting my puppet-building skills. Unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to build/get it to NYC on time, but they like me a lot and will think of me again in the future.
• What.

No really. What. What is in the water.

<3A

Well hello there, dears! I have just returned home from a 12+ hour day at the opera, which culminated with a fascinating conversation I witnessed between my coworker Rayna and one of the male principals, a former NFL player. Placido Domingo continues to be charming and universally kind. Today I even met Marina, the wonderful assistant to the art director who helped me get in touch with my supervisor and get the internship in the first place. I also got to watch a large chunk of the young artists orchestra dress rehearsal (the woman debuting as Cho-Cho-San is silly amazing—she had Anne and me in tears). I continued to learn the makeups for four principals, who I worked on tonight (and like 3/4 last night), and will be working on solo tomorrow night. Yay! I am a real makeup artist! Even if I’m not getting paid!

I’ll be working with Anne this summer at Glimmerglass, in Cooperstown, NY (hopefully/allegedly/probably). Before that, though, I get to do some extravagant moving about. Madama Butterfly closes on Saturday, when Miss Brandi, my beloved costar, will be visiting me in lovely Northern Virginia/DC. Brandi has a job, so she’ll have to get right back to Oberlin, but with the opera over and the next one not until May, I have some free time!

So I shall stowaway myself in Brandi’s vehicle, emerging only to take over the radio and possibly the wheel, and spend a week and a half in Oberlin (unfortunately during midterms and spring break), with my friends and family-away-from-family (minus Patrick). I plan on spending the week or so painting in the studios and abusing my abilities to go to the gym during the day, and cooking and drinking with my friends at night. I’ll sleep and read and create, and everything will be shiny.

On the 29th, I’ll fly to Massachusetts for my mother’s birthday (the first of April). I’ll cuddle with kittens and finish my tshirt quilt and love my parents dearly. Then I’ll whisk away to New York for a birthday and some days of visiting friends and Story Pirates and that dear brother o’ mine. My dad will venture down here to fix some of Cricket’s things, and collect my belongings (my iMac, at least). I’ll spend the rest of April at home, or on Fisher’s Island, earning mad ducats painting outside for my dad, who essentially curates an estate there.

May will be spent interning with the WNO again. Delight ensues.

Somehow in the last two weeks I went from the terror of knowing this internship would end soon and not knowing what on earth I was going to do afterward, to having a very good plan for the next few months, and the realization that I may have a pretty steady job in my career of choice for the foreseeable future.

Um. What? Did I somehow get awesome? That’s really cool. (To self: DO NOT MESS THIS UP. KTHNX.)

Love and hugs,

A

P.s! Forgot to tell you all my brief delighted tale of the niceness of Maestro Domingo! The first night he was conducting MB, he came through and grasped everyone’s shoulder and greeted them individually and equally. He treats everyone the same, no matter who they are or what they do. This included marching into the chorus ladies dressing room to greet everyone, just as he did the men. He came up to me again after greeting us all, while I was applying a wig to a male chorus member. Domingo grasped my shoulder warmly, looked me right in the eye, and babbled something incoherent but clearly sweet and encouraging. I thanked him and promised to do my job well, or something relevant to whatever I thought he’d said, and nervously smiled as he left. The singer whose wig I was applying looked up at my flustered, blushed face and laughed. “Your first time?” he asked. “I don’t know what just happened. I don’t know what to do with myself,” I replied.

Placido, ladies and gentlemen, is a stand up fellow.

HELLO! I am happily entrenched in DC, interning with the Washington National Opera doing wigs/makeup. It is awesome. I’m living with my cousin Cricket, her husband Tim, and the rest of her collection of wayward twenty-somethings, Catie and Brent, in a Civil War era mansion of prettiness.

That said, I have very few friends in the area. So our fine Miss Brandi decided to take matters into her own hands. She set me up on a blind friend date with her highschool homeslice Emma.

Best idea ever? Probably. We had a blast and will likely be chilling again soon, unless I am horribly mistaken and she hates me.

In other news:

Me: I am a totem pole of hangovers. One on top of another.

Brandi: oh noooooes

Me:  eagle bear raccoon squirrel

Brandi: LOL. In that order?

Me: Not particularly. It is more likely raccoon raccoon raccoon raccoon.

And then!

Me: I think I have like six hangovers stacked on top of each other.
Greg: Live by the sword die by the sword.
Me: Beer is my favorite sword.
Greg: Somebody told me beer is good for your prostate. Not YOUR prostate. MY prostate. “THE” prostate.
Me: I will keep drinking beer for you then.
Greg: My prostate sends his warmest regards.

My life, ladies and gentlemen.
xoxoAli

I have never been a fan of New Year’s Eve. Yes, every year I get excited. I make plans early, trying to have The Best Plans, with the Best People, having the Most Fun. But it never works, it’s always a letdown. The buildup, the anticipation, and then anything goes wrong, or just is boring, and it’s a wash.

So this year, this year I decided to hell with that. I had nothing I truly wanted to do, only loose ideas. I moved to Brooklyn yesterday, so clearly I’d be in New York. I wanted to be inside, with people and alcohol, but not in a nasty crowd. I wanted to be with Brandi, who braved her first trip to New York to join me for the holiday. I knew I’d see Ma’ayan, wanted to see Markel (my bff from SLC who was in the city for NYE) and some other friends. Brandi wanted to be warm and away from scary crowds. Markel preferred to be in a living space. Aries wanted to dance. Ma’ayan wanted a low-key night, ending with fireworks at Central Park. Those were the goals. We agreed to let them overlap or be mutually exclusive as necessary.

Guys. I had not only the best NYE I’ve ever had, last night was flat out one of the best nights.

I arrived in the city and got to my apartment by 4:30PM. I took some time to unpack and change, before heading up to Ma’ayan’s grandmother’s apartment on the upper west side around 6PM. I ran into Aries and Brandi at 42nd St, on the platform for the 1,2,3. Hurrah! I saw Aries, recognized the shorter figure beside her, and swooped in to lay a glittery kiss on Brandi’s cheek before she saw me.

We ventured to Ma’ayan’s, where we were greeted by Ma’ayan, her brother Ben ‘14, Sandhya ‘10, Sturdy ‘10, and Chris(tine) ‘10 (who I’ve known since we were 12). Hugs were exchanged, and glee, and joy. Two of Ben’s friends arrived (one of them ‘14), along with Reid ‘10. (I think that’s everyone…) It was a very merry pile of Obies. We ordered Asian “Fashion” (fusion) and got $150 of food delivered (only about half of which has been devoured so far).

We played two truths and a lie to get to know each other (though we really know each other too well for that, for the most part). It basically became an excuse to tell good stories. Sturdy regaled us with tales of teaching math at a mad rural public boarding school for mostly boys, while Chris discussed her life as a sales associate on the Cape. Sandhya discussed unemployment and shiny clothes, while Brandi, Ma’ayan and Aries talked Communications shop. Around 10PM, Brandi, Aries and I elected to head to a 20s swing/speakeasy party at the Bowery Poetry Club, so Aries popped open the two bottles of champagne she’d bought, and we went around the room toasting things until it was gone. (Class of ‘14, unemployment, “being in a room with more beautiful women than I’ve seen in a long time,” “being one of them,” “Goldfish, the tasty snack that smiles back,” and “families away from families” to name a few.)

After this, I asked everyone to reflect on the things they’d done in the last year. These included: starting at Oberlin, graduating from Oberlin, art shows and sales, the acquiring of jobs, moving home, surviving finals, summer jobs, not sleeping with freshmen even though your front yard is one of their dorms, kissing three freshmen, the ends and beginnings of relationships and friendships… I like to look back on the past year and think about how I have changed and grown, as well as hearing about my friends’ experiences. It’s nice to know where you stand, to face what has occurred and move from it, taking everything as a good thing, a learning experience where you found out what worked, and what didn’t. It’s a nice thing.

Brandi, Aries and I headed downtown while Reid and Sandhya headed uptown to Reid’s house. We got in touch with Markel, who was hanging out with a friend of my brother’s in Brooklyn. We didn’t end up meeting up with her during the night, but she’s in NJ, so I have a month to catch up with her at some point. I drank my last nip of Bailey’s (left over from exam week) as we walked from Bowery and Canal up to BPC (around Houston and Bowery). I confessed to Aries and Brandi that I was having a nice enough night that even if we got stuck outside or underground at midnight, it would be ok, because there was no one I’d rather be with than the two of them.

We got to the bar around 11:30PM, unloaded our coats and began to dance. I collected a Magic Hat #9 and put on my unicorn horn. A group of people around our age started flipping out, thought my horn was pretty cool (“A deer antler!? You get ten badass points! I’m from Vermont. I like to hunt.” “Brandi’s daddy killed it.”) This boy later spilled my champagne all over me before the midnight toast, and offered to let me lick the spilled alcohol off of his arm so I could still “get drunk.” I declined, and Brandi gave me some of Aries champagne (which, by the way, Aries had to fetch after downing both hers and Brandi’s before the toast, because they didn’t know what was going on).

Countdown. Kisses. Everyone cheered and it was lovely. The music continued and dancing ensued. Brandi’s feet began to hurt, so I distracted her with a nice photographer while Aries and I danced the night away (with frequent interruptions by the aforementioned boy, an architect student and fan of Frank Gehry, who became enamored of me, despite his inability to remember my name, though he had no trouble with Aries’ or Brandi’s).

We left around two, bidding goodnight to an ironically mustachioed “cute Jeff” on the way out, and meeting a gorgeous Australian couple seeking a light for their cigarettes. Aries left us at 42nd St to head back to Westchester, and Brandi and I returned to Ma’ayan’s before she went to bed. We gossiped briefly, and I shed three pairs of pants, a sweater, a sweatshirt, a lace leotard, a fat layer of hot pink glitter and black eyeliner, rhinestones under my eyes, my coat and scarf and boots, and climbed into bed somehow still fully clothed (so many clothes, man).

Sweet dreams and nice texts from people I love dearly. Happy New Year. It actually was.

<3A

This year for Christmas, we did what we always do, and we’ve done it so many times, this year, it actually all went really well. Christmas Eve we all headed to the house of some family friends for their annual party. There were fewer attendees than usual, so many of the “traditional” delicious and artery-clogging appetizers were absent. I mingled (exclusively by the food) and chatted with neighbors about having graduated, and the internships I’m looking forward to. I was bored within a half hour, and proceeded to eat and drink and chat with Katherine, my 12 year old protegé I’ve babysat since I was younger than she is.

Katherine, by the way, is far cooler than I can ever hope to be. She plays guitar and skateboards, and kills me in checkers even though I taught her how to play. She wore a hipstery sweatshirt and a scarf I complimented before realizing I’d given it to her for Christmas a year or two ago. We talked about the Macbook she was sure to receive for Christmas, and the camera I was looking forward to, as well as her new school. Conversation around the table drifted to the gentrification of Williamsburg, as it became evident that Katherine’s move to a private school, while commonplace these days, was a rare occurrence back when Mac and I left the public school system for Eaglebrook and Bement, respectively.

While Katherine has classes with the intellectual offspring of college graduates, Mac and I took classes with students who struggled to read in 4th, 5th, 6th grade. We’ve known for years that a lot of our peers’ parents were not the soberest. Many of the kids in our classes lived with other relatives, because their parents were imprisoned, addicted, or young.

By 9:30PM, I was bored and spent, so I plopped down beside Mac to catch up with him for a few minutes before we made our annual early exit when Connie and Dom’s townie friends begin to show up. They’re just a few years older than me and Mac, but we’ve never been close, and things tend to get rowdier after they appear. This year was far more lowkey, due to fewer attendees and soberer parents, but we still wanted to make an exit.

I went home to sleep away my finals-exhaustion, and Mac headed out into the night to party with his local Jewish buddies.

Christmas morning, Dad and I surprised Mom and Mac with Rafiki and Paprika, two 3 month old kittens we’d adopted two days previously and kept hidden at a friend’s house in Hadley. When we headed into the studio to collect the kittens before opening the presents beneath the tree, Mac turned to Mom inside the house.

Mac: I bet they’re coming back with something with four legs. But I want a four-legged something with ears like this *makes floppy ears*, not like this *makes pointy vertical ears*.

Mom: The only thing with four legs I want is Ruby, but I don’t want her to be dead.

I walked in holding Paprika, a long-hair female calico who bears striking resemblance to Ruby, our kitty who died last February. Mom’s jaw dropped as she took in the sight of, first, a cat she thought was Ruby and realized was not, and second, another kitten, as Dad followed me in carrying Rafiki, a male pale grey tabbycat.

After the initial shock, and the overwhelming realization of the work and responsibility that came with these two kittens, Mom was happy, and after separating the unfamiliar kitties, we got down to presents. Dad nearly cried when he opened the Macbook with which Mom had surprised him. She’d wrapped the Macbook box, put it in the shipping box, wrapped that box, and put it in an even larger box, which she wrapped as well. He couldn’t guess what it was (as he always tries to do) and was super delighted with the outcome. It was really sweet. My camera is awesome. Mac got pants.

For dinner, we headed to another house of family friends for our usual dinner. We alternate between houses, dining with Katherine’s family (parents Sara and Neal, and Neal’s mother Lee) and my brother’s friend Colin’s family (parents Peter and Ticia, who is Sara’s cousin). This year we were at Colin’s house, where we were greeted warmly at the door by Elwood, a perplexing Siamese cat who once face-hugged me in a fit of unwelcome playfulness.

We had drinks and hors d’oeuvres (including the most amazing array of cheeses), and then moved on to dinner. I shot all night, after Mac taught me how to use my new Rebel on the drive to dinner. We had a Christmas ham, Mom’s brussels sprouts featuring Mac’s superb deep fried shallots, salad, a sort of squash pudding thing Sara made, and a smoked gruyere and sharp cheddar macaroni with shittake mushrooms that Mac slaved over all day. After dinner, and drinks, and cleaning, and dessert, we retired to the beautiful living room to open presents. I reclined by the fire, talking comics with Mac and Colin, who gifted us his copy of American Elf, a book he firmly believes should be passed from reader to reader upon completion.

We drove home happy and sleepy. There were no fights, no fallen puddings, no gifts that fell flat or just wrong. It was really quite lovely. Happy holidays, homeslices. I hope yours went smoothly too. (God knows we needed it after the shit I pulled last year.)

<3A

Dappercat wishes you a very happy New Year!

(Yeah so we totally got kittens for Christmas. Meet Rafiki!)

xo

<3A

p.s. Oh, yeah, so I graduated! More on that later. Moving to Brooklyn tomorrow for a month of interning with the Story Pirates. :D