Category: Music

Do You Hear This Becca Squee?

12/4/2012

You guy, I'm so excited. Ridiculously excited. We are three weeks away from something huge.

December 25th.

LES MIS OPENS!!!

What, you thought I meant Christmas? Adorable.

This show...you guys. This show! It was my first love. Most little girls I knew who were falling in love with musical theatre were starting with Annie. Not I!

When I was a wee young thing, I loved to sing. My awesome parents then sent me off to take voice lessons. The first song that voice teacher found for me to sing was, of course, "Castle on a Cloud". I remember performing it in some sort of talent show in a dress my mom made for me and dyed a dingy brown color with tea bags. I was given a tape of the cast recording to learn it. From that moment, I was hooked.

I listened to that tape nonstop. I had no idea what was going on. I didn't understand the show at all. I knew there was a sad girl who missed her mother, there were people in love, there was something about fighting, and there were some bad words. I'm pretty sure for the longest time I thought it was about the French Revolution. By the time I was 9, I knew it all by heart.

My love affair with the show continued. It was officially my favorite show. The tape was played in my room and on every car trip. God bless my parents for putting up with me. It was the second Broadway show I ever saw (Second to Phantom of the Opera, but not by choice. It was only because there was a bus trip to see Phantom first. Les Mis came a couple months later).

I couldn't contain my joy. The theatre was immense. The famous turning stage blew my mind. I never even knew something like that could exist! It was like magic. By the end, I was sobbing. It was amazing! The best thing I had ever seen!

I continued to play that tape out until it died. Then I bought the CD. And every other recording I could get my hands on- London, 10th Anniversary, French cast. Any and Every DVD. I don't even remember how many times I've seen it on Broadway or on tour. Watched the non-musical movies. I even read the book. I was a girl obsessed.

Even as I grew and my tastes changed, it's still in my heart. I don't think if I just stumbled upon it for the first time I would like it let alone love it. Oh, but love it I do.

This is why I am ridiculously excited for the film. It combines my childhood love of the musical with my Adult Becca tastes. Have you seen the making of trailer?? Singing live on camera!? Making it as realistic as possible?! More intimate, less showy!?! PRODUCERS YOU ARE IN MY BRAIN MAKING THIS MOVIE JUST FOR ME.

I've heard a lot of resistance from fans of the musical. Fourteen Year Old me would probably agree. But this Becca? Oh this Becca gets excited to open each link in Vulture's Les Mis Advent Calendar. Seriously, check it out. It's all I can do not to link every little thing every single day.

Will it be perfect? Oh God no. I'm sure I'll take issue with many things. But I know me. And i know that I will love it. And watch it many many many times. And Cry. A lot. And dream of Enjolras....

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How a Concert became a Metaphor for My Life

7/3/2012

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If you receive my email updates, you know that I am kind of in love with a young up and coming musician named Ed Sheeran. (If you aren't receiving my email updates, why not?? They're fun!) I was lucky enough to see him in concert a few weeks ago. He's crazy talented live and while I realized I would have a good time, what I DIDN'T realize was how the entire process of seeing the concert would turn out to be a pretty apt metaphor for my life, particularly in regards to my career.

Bear with me here. I came up with this at 3am and it seemed incredibly deep at the time. Now that I've written it out, it seems a little silly, but I'm sticking by it. Because that's how I do.

Just as I have been inspired by talented actors, writers, and filmmakers which led me to the desire to be an actor myself, I was inspired by Sheeran's talent and desired to see him play live (told you it would be silly). It seemed impossible (tickets were sold out, scalpers were charging 6 times as much on Stubhub (I still don't know how that site is legal), I had no one to go with me), Just like sometimes it seems impossible that I will ever "make it" as an actor (the sheer number of people, the fact that I'm starting out so late in my life, questioning if I'm even good enough, etc).

But I didn't care- I wanted it, so I was going after it. I went to the venue in the hopes that maybe a concert goer would happen to have an extra ticket for me to buy at face value, but it turns out I didn't have to worry about that. They still had $20 tickets at the door- much easier than I expected (and cheaper since there was no ticketmaster fee)!

I have been trying to be more fearless as an actor lately. I have made phone calls to people, asked questions and for help, I've replaced certainty with curiosity (Certainty= "the concert is completely 100% sold out" or "this casting director doesn't have any roles for me". Curiosity = "What happens if I show up at the venue?", "What if the Casting Director's NEXT project has a role I'm right for?") I've been doing all of this and guess what? I'm not dead! Which ALREADY makes it easier than my heart palpitations would have led me to believe. That in and of itself makes it easier than I expected.

When I got to the concert, I looked around and was pretty sure I was the oldest person there that wasn't a parent- which is often how I feel at auditions and classes. But you know what? It didn't matter. I had what I wanted and I had an absolute BLAST. I enjoyed every second of it and gained a deeper respect for him as an artist.

Best Part? All the trouble I went through to get it made it all the better. Look!! I learned a lesson!

So, I guess I have no choice. I gotta keep at it until I make it. Oh, and friends, it will be sweet. I'm excited. :)

Thank you, Ed Sheeran and Bowery Ballroom. You've given me the silliest, yet incredibly apt metaphor ever.

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Falling Slowly

4/22/2012

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I cry every time I see a good Broadway show, usually within the first five minutes. I get this ginormous smile on my face and the tears start flowing. Wednesday was no different.

I'd been wanting to see Once the Musical since it was Off Broadway, but I just could never see it. Finally it made the move to the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre....and I still couldn't get to see it. It was just one of those things: when I had the money, i didn't have the time. When I had the time, I didn't have the money. After hearing so many people say again and again how good it was, I said enough is enough and dragged my bum out to finally see it.

Now, I have never seen the movie it's based on. I honestly never had any desire to despite the fact that I've had the soundtrack ever since the day it came out (side note: I will never ever feel cool enough to say that an album "dropped". Never). I just assumed it was a love story with beautiful music.

The show began before the lights even went down with the cast all jamming out on stage with their various musical instruments. You could just see the passion and joy pouring out of each and every one of them. They truly are living their dreams. That's what gets me each and every time. It's a quality I fall in love with over and over and over again whether it's in a person or a show or a performance or anything really. That passion, that pure LIFE exuding from every pore. When Steve Kazee took the stage for his first heart-wrenching number, he took everything up a step further. Technically it wasn't a joyful song, but the passion and life were all there. The tears, they came. As soon as I left the theatre, I bought the cast recording so I could remember that feeling.

This is exactly what life is. This is how it should be. Far too often I intellectualize moments and feelings to save my heart. My God, I am so very guilty of that. But what exactly am I saving myself from? I need to start living my life like I do in the first five minutes of a Broadway show. I need to feel that passion and joy and life in everything around me and feed it back into others. I'll try not to let myself cry TOO much (I have blonde eyelashes. Mascara is very important), but I will not keep that ginormous smile off my face.

Thank God for music, for its healing powers. And thank you, Once. Thank you for reminding me to be brave.

Thank you for letting me fall in love again.

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Rebecca Recommends!

2/12/2012

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I had a tough time coming up with a blog post this week. I've had so much going on in life lately, but yet nothing that I really wanted to sit down and write about. So instead of telling a tale or two, I figured I'd share with you all some things I'm very much a fan of! Perhaps I'll make this an ongoing thing. Mostly because I love the alliteration of Rebecca Recommends ...and the fact that recommends has 2 m's in it. I just love that for some reason. Anyway, onto the recommendations!

First of all, I seem to have a lot of fellow Aquarius friends as I have been celebrating a lot of birthdays lately. And with birthdays, comes delicious food, particularly dessert. One place in particular I went to for the lovely birthday of miss Katie Bland was ChikaLicious Dessert Bar. For $16, you can get a pre fixe beginning with an amuse, a dessert of your choice, and an assortment of petits fours. For an additional $8, they have a wine pairing. It's described as American Desserts, French Presentation, and Japanese tasting portions. The menu changes daily, but I highly recommend the warm chocolate tart with pink peppercorn ice cream and red wine sauce, not to mention the delicious Churchill Graham Reserve Port that goes with it. I hear the Fromage Blanc Island "Cheese cake" is also quite delicious. In fact, our waiter described it as "spooning into a cloud". Yes, please.

Honorable mention in the dessert world goes to Ayza Wine and Chocolate Bar. Great place for a lovely romantic date, or a great girls night out! My personal favorites were the roasted French Brie Crouton and the warm chocolate molten cake. Then again, I've never been one able to resist any kind of warm chocolate cake topped with ice cream.

I've also been listening to a lot of new tunes lately, particularly the latest album by Ingrid Michaelson, Human Again. I've never been a huge Ingrid Michaelson fan. She's fine, pleasant enough to listen to. It's nice background music. But for some reason, this new album has gotten under my skin and I can't seem to stop listening to it! I'm no music critic and I couldn't tell you what exactly it is about this particular album that has grabbed me, but I do highly recommend checking it out, especially if you dig singer/songwriters.

Finally, my favorite recommendation of all. If you've spent any time at all with me in person this week, you've probably heard me raving about the book I was reading, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I saw Julie Plec, the fantastically talented writer producer of The Vampire Diaries (which I also love and is another recommendation for another day) tweeting about it and so I had to check it out. You guys. This book. Wow. From the moment I started the book, I wanted to do absolutely nothing except read it. But at the same time, I didn't want to read it too quickly because then it would be over. It's been a long time since a book has made me fall in love with it as hard as this book has. The description on Amazon does not do it justice. This book made me laugh out loud with it's dark and twisted humor (my favorite kind!) one moment, then left me sobbing the next. The book goes from being incredibly cerebral, completely up in your head and then BOOM. The author will write one line that's pure heart that just smacks you in the gut because you're not expecting it at all. The language is absolutely breathtaking at times and while it's listed as a Young Adult novel, adults can find just as much (if not more) pleasure in it. I can not recommend this book enough. In fact, I may have to go and reread it now.

So there you have it! A few of my current favorites. What about you? What favorites do you all have at the moment?

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"Where You Invest Your Love, You Invest Your Life"

1/13/2012

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I have certain albums that I listen to during specific seasons. They’re my go-tos when I can’t think of what in particular I feel like rocking out to on my commute. It started with fall. To me, Fall sounds like Adele’s 19, John Mayer’s Continuum, and Mandy Moore’s Wild Hope. Summer sounds like Jason Mraz’s Live and Acoustic 2001. Spring has come to sound like Mumford & Sons’ Sigh No More. This is not to say I ONLY listen to these tunes during those seasons, but they bring up particular memories and evoke the feeling of those seasons.

Winter, however, doesn’t have a particular sound (with the exception of late December- that’s reserved for Christmas music! But NEVER before thanksgiving. This is a STRICT rule I make everyone around me VERY aware of). “But, Becca! WHY!? Why does winter not have a particular sound?” you may ask. Well, good blog reader, I’ll tell you why:

I. Hate. Winter.

Yes I’m from the chilly cold of upstate NY, but I escaped to go to Florida for college for a reason. I live here in NYC because I love this city, but man. If I had the option to live here AND somehow magically be able to avoid winter? I would be in HEAVEN. So in winter, I will break my Specific-Season-Only rule and listen to the above albums.

So far (knock on wood), this particular winter hasn’t been that horrible. In fact, it’s felt quitespring-like so I busted out my Mumford & Sons. One song I’ve listened to a bajillion times (yes, bajillion. It’s a scientific measurement. Trust me.), “Awake My Soul”, grabbed me, or at least one line of that song did.

“Where you invest your love, you invest your life”

This. THIS!!! SO MUCH THIS!!! This is the way I try to live my life. I have a big heart. I love a LOT of things that range all the way from friends and family to acting and singing and music, all the way down to a large coffee with half and half and 2 splendas. My mother always told me that the way you spend your New Year’s Eve foretells the way your new year will be. My NYE was spent surrounded by so many people I love, and so we jokingly dubbed 2012 the Year of Love. It’s not a joke to me anymore. I’ve never been a particularly negative person in general (although I do have my patented Bitter New York Cynic inside me), but this year I’m focusing on Love.

I will spend more time with the people I love.

I will fight harder for the things I Love.

I will Love myself.

I will Invest my Life in Love.

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Do You Hear This Becca Squee?

How a Concert became a Metaphor for My Life

Falling Slowly

Rebecca Recommends!

"Where You Invest Your Love, You Invest Your Life"

RebeccaKopec

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