A Cappella Goodness

Just to clarify something I put in my first post: I do plan on making posts about what's going on in my life. However, I hope to shift the focus more towards the good aspects of my life. In my subprofile, I seemed to dwell on all the depressing aspects, which probably wasn't the healthiest use of it. Still, if something is weighing heavily on my mind, I'll be sure to let you guys know about it. Let me demonstrate what I'm trying to do with my first, personal life-related post.

Recently, A Cappella has been a recurring theme in my life. I guess it started with the TV show, Scrubs. Best classified as a dramedy (if I may use the term, and since it's my blog, the answer is certainly "yes" :-P ), Scrubs follows the exploits and misadventures of a group of up-and-coming doctors at Sacred Heart hospital, where they work. When it first came on the air, I watched the first season religiously but then lost track of it when I arrived at Lehigh. Seeing the movie Garden State, directed by and starring Scrubs's main star Zach Braff, reminded me of how much I enjoyed that show so I sought to get back into it. This past Christmas gave me that opportunity when I was able to purchase the 1st and 2nd seasons on DVD. I proceeded to watch those seasons over the last month.

And what does all of this have to do with A Cappella? Well, in the show, there's an A Cappella group referred to in the show as "Ted's Band", named after one of the characters in the show. I really liked their sound and happened to find out that they had an album out under the name of "The Blanks". I ordered it, and it's not bad; it's full of renditions of catchy TV theme songs, including Six Million Dollar Man and Underdog (I'd almost forgotten about that cartoon!).

Last night, A Cappella reasserted itself into my life. My roommates for next school year are all involved in the choral arts here (sidenote - my current roommates are all seniors, thus why I had to find some new ones), and two of them help run two different a cappella groups on campus. One is a new all-guys group called A Whole Step Up, while the other is a long-running mixed gender group called the Melismatics. Yesterday, both groups performed as a part of The Second Annual A Cappella Invitational here at Lehigh. As expected, they were both excellent, with lots of great gimmicks. For example, the Melismatics framed their performance as a dance party so for one number, they turned off the lights, brought out the glowsticks, and started a strobe light, creating a rave atmosphere. Creative touches like those made for a wholly entertaining and captivating show. The songs I remember from the show include "Take On Me", "Take Me Out" (a Franz Ferdinand song, one of my favorite bands), and "Living on a Prayer", all of which were composed fairly well to fit the A Cappella format while maintaining the sound of the original song.

The reason I mention all of this is because I think it makes an interesting statement about serendipity. Without intending it, I have suddenly made A Cappella a significant part of my life. Who knows what will happen next? Well, right now, I have to go to a meeting, but after that? Short of becoming an A Cappella singer myself (my only singing experience was with my intermediate choir in high school), I suppose anything's possible. And I like that about life.

Addendum (8:08 pm) - At the meeting I went to, we talked a little bit about a party that's being held this evening, and somebody asked whether a band would be playing. The host of the party replied, no, but maybe they could do an A Cappella performance. While this is more of a coincidence than serendipitous and a result of me listening more acutely than normal for any references to A Cappella, I still thought it was worth mentioning. Make of it what you will.