Regina Spektor

Last night, a little after 9:30, I went to the holiday a capella concert thrown by The Higher Keys [male and female, about 20 members, including Kayla and Sarah Kay] and The Bear Necessities [the group which I tried out for and didn't make callbacks]. A lot of our floor was going to go and we were all going to walk together, but for some reason my RC, Andy, was left behind with me, so we ended up walking together. It was freezing cold - I didn't take my hands out of the pockets of my thick black jacket once the entire way there. Earlier that day I had done so to ride my bike, and I couldn't feel my thumb when I went to lock it up. On the way there we talked about the Ratty, and how the morning after the Daylight Savings Time change, your body felt like it was waiting until 11:30 to eat breakfast, which sucked. Furthermore, a lot of people went at "10:30" which was actually 9:30 and had to sit there, hungry, waiting for an hour.

When we showed up, we ran into a couple people that seemed to know Andy, including one friend he had called as we were about to pass The Gate. There was a girl, I think named Kaylie(?) who was from Philadelphia and remembered me from the train up to Brown during ADOCH. Her grandmother lives in a development right off of Naaman's Creek Road, near the Wawa. She was friends with Sophie, an Asian girl in WORD that I've talked to a bunch of times and thought was nice, so we and Andy and his friend sat together during the show when they let us it. We were supposed to donate ($2?) to the Women's Hope Foundation to help women in [I think] the Dominican Republic who otherwise had no access to health care, but when they opened the doors everyone was so concerned about getting The Good Seats that no one donated. Maybe people did afterwards, I'm not sure.

The groups had decorated the chalkboards in the auditorium we sat in - the main hall of MacMillan. There was one board that was shaded green and said "HAPPY/MERRY/JOYOUS" and then one shaded in red beneath it that said something like "CHRISTMANNUKKWWAAKANZAKA." I can't recall exactly, but I remember thinking it made absolutely no sense. Just about the only other things I remember on the boards was an amalgamation of the letters "TBN," which I guess is the symbol for Bear Necessities, and I think a snowman drawing.

The show started very abruptly, I remember. The Higher Keys came out after a very short introduction by someone guy I don't know. I can't remember their first song, but I remember thinking it was by a kid who was a little bit awkward. After it was over, they started tuning for their second song, and Andy's friend said "Sounds like F major!" I asked Andy if he had perfect pitch and he said that he did.

At one point in the show, The Higher Keys's spokesman said something to the effect of, "I hope you guys stick around for the Bears 'cause they have even more kick-ass stuff for you all." A kid behind us in the audience said, "What? Is that meant to imply that this is kick ass?" You had to hear how angrily he said it, but it was funny, I promise.

I think it was actually the second song by The Higher Keys that I really liked. It was soft and slow, and the lead singer/soloist - I swear I've seen her before, but I don't think she's a freshman - had the most amazing high pitched voice I've ever heard. Like, operatic almost. I asked Andy if he knew who it was by, and he didn't know, so I asked Sophie and she said it was by Regina Spektor. I'd heard of Regina Spektor before but I didn't really like that one song of her's I heard [Fidelity, it turns out], but this one was very, very different and I could tell I liked it much more.

When I went home, I found the video for it on YouTube and I swear, in the past 24 hours, I must have listened to it 20-30 times. I don't think I know all the words, though, but I don't really care because I just like how it sounds. I really like a couple lines, though, like "The bible didn't mention us" and "kissed me 'till the morning light."

This morning I was talking to Viv and I told her that I feel in love with Regina Spektor last night, and she was very excited for me. She said that I should learn how to play Samson [the song I heard/fell in love with] on piano, and I said yeah, sometime I should. She got me the sheet music a couple minutes later from a Yahoo Group called Regispek. I figured I would play it tonight for midnight piano.

A little after 12, I decided I would go. It was very very cold outside again today. I couldn't feel my hands. I even went to the Army Navy Surplus store to buy mittens but got dizzy and didn't find anything and people were talking about NASCAR and poker so I left without any. It snowed a lot today, and I think there was still some snow coming down because my Samson sheet music is crinkled and wet, and there was a lot of ice on the ground and even/especially near the stairs on the Andrews Terrace and I was very afraid I was going to fall. I didn't wear a jacket or anything - just my Duke shirt and my "This is my Brown t-shirt?" white gym t-shirt - because I was just running to Alumnae Hall. I went in through The Gate, and saw Jasmine and Malcolm and Spencer and Danny, but really wanted to play so I just said hello and went on my way.

When I got up the spiral staircase that leads to the hall, I heard piano. I figured someone else must have figured out my trick. The lights were on, thankfully, and a door was open. I wasn't sneaky or anything, and they heard me come in [which is what I wanted]. There were actually three of them. It looked like one of them, whose name I found out was Kelly, was teaching the other two how to play, but I'm not sure. There was a guy on the bench, too, named Chris, and a girl whose name I really wish I could remember but can't. She had dark hair and skin and eyes and played classical piano and was an accompanist, but I can't remember her name.

When I got to the piano, I kind of just wanted to say hey and then go on my way - I could play another time. But they pretty much insisted that they were done. I still wanted to talk to them though and definitely didn't want them to leave/feel like I wanted them to leave, so I asked them how they got in and they told me through a window (!). I told them they could get in through the spiral staircase by The Gate, and they said they should use that from then on. I also told them if they had a friend in the Orchestra, they could ask them to get a key and then give it to them which I said was what I did, and that made them feel like they had to go, but I said again that no, they didn't have to leave. And they said they'd been there for a while and should, and I said No, you can stay! And Chris said they had school tomorrow, which I guess was a good answer, but I still wanted them to stay. One of them asked me why I came, and I told them about Regina Spektor and that I just wanted to play it tonight. It seemed like Chris and the girl whose name I forget knew the song. She asked me if I could play it. I wasn't sure if I could or not - I'd never looked at the music before - but I told her I might be able to play it and not sing it. So I put it on the music stand and told them to go along with me.

I started playing - five sharps (!), but I knew the chords for the most part right away so it wasn't too difficult for me. We couldn't sing it perfectly, and I messed up some of the timing, but I actually ... well, I liked playing and singing with them, I guess. And I wasn't nervous at all. I didn't even think about my nerves until this minute, actually. The girl whose name I can't remember said Chris was a good singer - and he was. But she was also better than she gave herself credit for.

I think it was actually after we finished playing that they introduced themselves to me, and the girl whose name I can't remember told me she wished she could read chords for her accompanying and that she was finally teaching herself how. We walked outside together, just for a minute, before they had to go to Keeney and I had to go back to Andrews. We have school tomorrow, of course...

On the way back, still wearing just just my two shirts, I heard someone call my name from the other side of the Andrews sidewalks. I looked over and saw Bekah, bundled up in a huge white coat. I told her that I'd been meaning to talk to her for a while but I never got the right time.

Peace out.