Friday, April 29, 2011

Shangalangadingdong

Rockapella Cruise
Day 2 -- Sunday, January 23, 2011
Port of Miami

Liz and I let everyone know that we would be having breakfast in the hotel restaurant.  Wendy and Jeff met up with us, but since we didn't know exactly how may people would be joining us, and it seemed that the biggest table available was for 4 people, we ate with them.  Karla and Stacey sat a table nearby.  We had all agreed to wear our PellaPosse shirts for the 1st day of the cruise, and Stacey was happy that she had something to wear, since she *still* had not received her luggage.  The breakfast was either made-to-order or buffet, and I chose the latter.  

Jeff, Wendy, and Sher at Breakfast



Afterward, we wanted to actually experience the beautiful beach morning, and I decided that I wanted to get my feet wet.  I did not realize that I would also be getting my calves wet, but that's how waves are!  I laughed and had Jenn join me for pictures.  Unbeknownst to us at the time, Wendy & Jeff were spying us from their room, and saw us taking pictures, giggling that I was taking this picture of Bananaman on the Boardwalk.  

Liz and Jenn took a walk to Walgreens and didn't get my text requesting stamps....because, as I found out later from the beeping in her bag *in our hotel room*, she didn't have her phone with her.  Oops.  Sorry to all of you that thought that they were getting postcards from me.  I texted a bunch of people for addresses and everything!  Oh, well.

The shuttle arrived, so we got on, but without Stacey, because she was still waiting for her bags. For several of us, this was our first cruise, and we were worried about getting motion sickness, so we had obtained patches before the trip.  The patches require that you place them 4 hours prior to boarding, so we decided to put them on while in the shuttle.  "Patch Party on the shuttle!", shouted Wendy.  

We arrived at the port, and met our baggage porter, Clinton.  I couldn't help but tell him, "You're cute!"  That got a nice smile out of him for our pictures, and he made especially sure that our bags would make it onto the ship. 
Clinton & Jenn


 We took pictures of the Glory, and went into the security area. Those of us that brought our free hotel wine in our carry-on bags had a short delay, but since it was only one per bag, we were allowed to keep our wine.  Not that we ever drank it, but more about that later.  At the embarkation area in Terminal D, we signed stuff saying that we weren't sick (which would warrant a visit to the ship's doctor), and checked in.  I had a bit of a snafu with my code, but it turned out fine, and the extra time that we had with Carnival helped us figure out what exactly was supposed to happen next.  Our zone number was 19, so we waited for our number to be called.  My favorite number is 19, so I was happy, knowing that it was a sign of good times to come.  As we waited, we saw Fred, Jeff, John and his wife.  John pointed us out to Dan, our coordinator from Galaxsea Travel, so he came over to us and said hi.  His wife, June, whom we had the most contact with via e-mail prior to the trip, joined us and they told us that they loved our shirts.  :)  I decided that June was loud.  We all decided that perhaps she had already started drinking due to our impressions from the pre-cruise letters we received.  We love you, June!  She's a riot.  June told us to find her when we got on the ship, so that she could give us the itinerary for the Rockapella Group at that time.  Yay!
Back of PellaPosse shirt

Our zone number was called, and we took our first official cruise picture together.  It looks sooo awesome with our PellaPosse shirts!  After our picture was taken, I received a text from Stacey, whom was in a cab (with her bags) with a driver that didn't know where to go.  Oh, geez.  She did arrive in time, just not for our picture.  Our rooms weren't ready yet, so we went to the dining area for the first buffet of the cruise.  It's a good thing, too.  Since Jenn had not eaten breakfast with us, she advised us that she was hungry.  Karla, to me:  "Is Jenn like you when she's hungry?"  Me:  "Yes."  Karla: "We'd better get her some food, then!"  (When Karla first spent some time in my presence, I was very hungry.  I said that I was hungry about 85 times in the span of an hour.  OK, that's exaggerating.  2 hours).  As I searched for Fish and Chips, I found the seafood station, where they were serving Tenderloin of Ahi Tuna on a cube of watermelon.  I'll take 2, please!  YUMMY.  I also had my fish and chips, which almost slid off the plate when I tried to put the tray on the table.  For dessert, I had a Mango Mousse Parfait and a cookie.  I was delighted and full.  

We spotted June, and she gave us our itinerary without us having to find her desk, which would be midship on the Lido deck.  Our itinerary included a trivia contest, cocktail party and two private concerts.  The karaoke party date had not been set yet, but it would happen.  Cool!  We also received a roster of the entire group's cabin rooms so that we could all find each other in case we needed our own Rockapella Lifeboat.  I kid.  The roster listed our hometowns, so that we could know a little bit about our fellow Rockapella fans.  Besides those of us in the PellaPosse, there was one other person from So Cal.  REPRESENT, CALI!  June needed to find more people, so she yelled her sign-off, "Later, Dudes!" and went on her way.  June wasn't even gone 5 minutes when she returned with her son, Robert.  He's done a lot of cruises because he's worked on the cruise lines, so he gave us a few tips.  

It came time to go to our cabins, and Liz and I were happy that our luggage was already waiting for us at our temporary home, Cabin 6435 on the Upper Deck (6th floor).  We looked around our cabin, which was nice because it had a little living room area and a balcony.  We also had a towel in the shape of a seal.  We unpacked our bags, and then participated in the safety drill (without life preservers).  The lifeboats looked much more like they could save our lives than those dinghies that they showed on "Titanic", so we were relieved about that.  They told the families to stay together, so we decided that we were a family.  Our lifeboat was #17 in Muster E.  Thank God we didn't need to know that officially for the rest of the trip.  Even when we got back to our cabin, Liz kept watching the safety video.  That's my 911 operator!  I put our PellaPosse Central collage on our cabin door, as well as the white board that Jenn gave us. 
Sandwich Crew Poster

We received a phone call from Jeff E, so we met up with them at their cabin to marvel at their beautiful poster.  We then moved to Jenn's cabin, since hers was at the forward of the ship.  Karla and Stacey joined us and we all stepped onto he balcony for departure.  SOMEONE shot off their confetti gun even though we had been advised that we were not supposed to throw anything off of the ship, but we didn't get in trouble.  We did advise that person that she/he probably killed a dolphin, though, as the confetti gun fell into the water.   OK, OK.  It was a "she".  Wendy wouldn't let Jeff shoot his gun more than once. Jenn pointed out her view to us:  she could see the Captain's Wheel and we ogled at the crew member standing there in his tight white pants.  When he turned around, we all looked away (I can't remember if Jeff looked away, though).  Jenn got a picture of the crew member's butt.  You know that we get obsessed with butts, especially when Pella is in the vicinity.  Well, at least, I do.  Jenn said that she wants to walk the catwalk (up at the Captain's deck).  Karla said to her: "Don't wear your Pella Posse shirt."  Jenn:  "Like I'm going to be wearing anything."  
Karla's arm, Jenn, and Stacey

On the way to Jeff and Wendy's cabin, Liz and I spotted a table with brochures from the ship's spa, which had a special Traveler's Tension Massage for the day.  We called the spa from Jenn's room to make our reservation, and Karla and Stacey made reservations, too, for another time.  The spa was holding a raffle, so we all went to the fitness center, where we witnessed our friend Ross win a massage. This made MJ very happy, since you know that Ross would have never taken it for himself without MJ having one, too.  We said hi to them, as well as JT and Tim, whom were also there.  JT told us about the Adult Deck, which is nice and quiet, without kids running around everywhere.  It's actually called Serenity, like the Serenity Spa, but I love that he called it Adult, for various reasons.  ;)  We told JT that we'd already made reservations for massage, and told him about it.  He said, "Ooh, fancy!"  I also signed up for Yoga for the next day, and we made note that there would be a morning stretch every day, so Liz and I decided that we'd do that.

Liz and I went to the spa for our massages, which were very nice and relaxing.  The massage focused on the feet, head, neck and shoulders.  My hair was all oily from what was put into my hair, so I needed to take a shower before dinner.

Fred, Geo and Sandra
All of our dinners, unlike the schedules of many other guests not in our group, were planned for the Platinum Upper Level, so that we could all stay together and sit with one of the guys at our table each night.  This first night was quite a treat for us, as we sat with George and his girlfriend Sandra, as well as Fred.  Also sitting with the Pella Posse were Elisa, Jill and Terry, whom Stacey knows from the East Coast shows.  

Jenn still didn't have her luggage by dinner time.  We all found out later that her luggage had gone to Luggage Jail because she put her bottle of wine in her regular luggage instead of her carry-on, so she had to go to the very bottom deck to retrieve it.  I think she picked it up after dinner.  (We all had a change of clothes in our carry-ons, since you are not guaranteed that your luggage will be in your stateroom before dinner time).

I tried to stick to the Carnival Spa menu in order to stay semi-good about my nutrition, as I'd been doing before the cruise.  So I ordered Fresh Fruit with Mango Coulis as my appetizer, Tilapia with carrots (which had WAY too much ginger for my taste) for dinner, and a Chocolate Molten Cake with vanilla ice cream for dessert.  I said semi-good, didn't I?  ;)

Knowing that Geo had gone wine tasting the day after the Napa show, I asked him how it went.  He had such a great time and bought so much wine that he couldn't remember any of the names of the places he went.  He started to make up names.  I offered up one of my favorite words, which another bass in my life used very often back in college: "Shangalangadingdong".   He repeated it.  Several times.  I was ecstatic.  I love George.  

George told Sandra that Joe, Liz's hubby, is his dad.  Liz explained.  We asked them how they met each other.  They met each other on plentyoffish.com.  Sandra didn't know what Rockapella was, and when Geo told her that they sing without instruments, Sandra said, "You guys must suck!"  She eventually changed her mind in Napa.  :)  

Then it was time for Sandra to ask questions.  Since she was still shy with us at the time, George asked us for her.  
1)  How many shows have you been to?  (Me:  Less than 100, but I don't know).
2)  What keeps you coming back?  (Karla:  "5 sexy men."  Fred said:  "5 sexy men and me.")

Geo and I talked about BoyzIIMen no longer having a bass, and my missing it.  It turns out that he was asked to come back to the group after Michael left, but Rockapella was there, and he's happy that he stayed with the Pella. 

Geo asked us, "Have I impressed you guys yet by eating with a knife and fork?"  Yes, George.

Geo talked about writing "No Pressure".  He said that Scott had asked all of the guys to write a song.  Geo didn't know what to write.  He was at a Wal-Mart and a security detector kept going off.  They didn't stop another guy who also got buzzed, but they stopped Geo.  He transformed his "All I want to do is _____" into "All I want to do is dance" and the song was born.  Then we all started dancing in our seats, singing to ourselves, "Excuse me, officer...."  OK, maybe it was just me, Geo and Wendy. 

During dessert, Geo said he was a gentleman because of the way he drinks his tea, pinky up and all.  Have I told you that Geo is hilarious?  

I gave PellaPosse shirts to all of the guys, except for Scott, who was a no show, because, APPARENTLY, he was sleeping.  Thank goodness it wasn't the night that he was supposed to be at our table, or I would have been irritated.  The people at John's table wanted a shirt, but I didn't order that many.  I met John's wife Christina.  

Steve was very excited about the shirt because I had told him about them back in January.  At that time, he asked, "You're *making* shirts?!" incredulously.  I told him, "I'm not *sewing* them."  On this day of the cruise, I had given the shirt to him folded up and taped with his name.  He said, "Is this the shirt or the cape?"  I told him that it was the shirt.  (More on the cape another day).   I met Steve's parents, and told them that I only remember one word in Armenian, even though I have several co-workers who speak the language.  Steve's mom has given me the permission to call her "Achik".  :)  I told Steve's dad, Steve A, that Steve gets his Flirty Flirty Eyes from him.  Steve A said that they're old now from overuse, but doesn't need them for Ginger (Steve's mom) because she's easy.  Cute.

JT told us to go to Bingo and Welcome Aboard and Trivia.  He was going to go all out on the cruise, since it's his first one, too.  We talked about our doors.  Ross said that JT had pictures of us on his door.  I said that JT doesn't even own a camera.  JT asked if the conversation would keep going if he just kept quiet.  Probably.

We went to the "Welcome Aboard" show, which featured dancing, singing (by women with a big opening on their chests showing off their ample cleavage), and an MC whom was also our Cruise Director.  We'd see CD George (or Jorge, if we see him after 5pm) several times during the trip whenever we turned on our cabin TVs.  The show included a guy dressed as "Fun Ship Freddy".  Be afraid.  Be very afraid.  We didn't stay for the whole show.  It was late, and we were tired.

We skipped Bingo and Trivia and went back to our cabin to sleep.  What an exhausting and exciting day!

Next up:  Fun Day At Sea

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Rrrrroooooaaaaarrrrrr

After church service on Easter Sunday, Linda and I had a yummy brunch at The Cheesecake Factory, where our server, Shannon, was wearing a cool tie with a bunch of African animals on it.  He told us that he had gone to a wildlife preserve in Africa last year, and showed us a picture of a lioness on top of a "sleeping" giraffe.  I've always wanted to go on a photo safari in Africa, and that made me just want to do it even more.  Perhaps I'll just settle for a local one here if I have to do so, but that would just be wayyyy cool.


Anyway, I had already planned on seeing "African Cats", but his tie inspired me even more.

  •  Samuel L. Jackson's narration made me want to see some fighting, with his voice over peppered with some kind of "Mother (eff) ing" thing.  Yes, I know it was a Disneynature film, and meant to be "G" rated.  Still...
  • The first shot of the hippo did not make me happy, but all of the other subsequent shots had me whispering to myself, "Hippo!"
  • Was I the only one thinking "Do not look into the eyes of Mara"?  I was?  Oh.
  • Also, I wonder if I was the only one with the song "Layla" playing in my head whenever her name was spoken.  Aw....Layla.
  • OMG, all of the baby animals made me want to pet them.  Sooooo cute, especially those cheetah cubs.  They are now the wallpaper on this laptop that I'm using.
  • I totally loved the lessons that Sita's cubs had to learn.
  • I didn't know that cats formed gangs: I thought that they were loners, except for the Lion Prides.
  • That Fang vs. Crocodile scene was cool.  You see?  This is where Mr. Jackson could have said the line I wanted to hear!
  • Hyenas are creepy.
  • Loved the credits at the end, especially the one for Underwater Photography.  :)
I now want to watch all of my Planet Earth DVDs, but I don't have time! It's NBA playoff season!


Saturday, April 23, 2011

DLR LotD 04/10/11

Disneyland Resort
Line of the Day
Sunday, April 10, 2011

"Oh my gosh!  We haven't filled out the Scantron!" -- A panicky V, at 3:58 p.m., on the way to MouseAdventure Central, before being told by Bro that he had been filling it out all day.

Thank you for such a fun day, Frozen Tangerines!  11th out of 47 in Basic/New division ain't bad at all.  :)

Frozen Tangerines with Tropical Hello Kitty

Friday, April 22, 2011

Neo Zenith Tablet

Yesterday, I had some time before work and rehearsal to see a movie.  Due to timing, my choices were "Rio" and "Limitless".  After hours of not-really-focused decision-making, I chose "Limitless". I'm sure glad I did!

  • I've decided that my favorite Bradley Cooper hairstyle is the one he usually has, with the waves, but not too long.  He has two other hairstyles in this film, and I did not enjoy them.
  • The water along the Mexican Riviera is as blue as B.C.'s eyes.  GORGEOUS.  It makes me want to go back on a cruise.
  • Abbie Cornish reminds me of Nicole Kidman.  Back in the day, this could have been a Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman movie.  I can totally see that.  
  • Cooper was on "Inside the Actor's Studio" a few weeks ago, which was quite emotional for him because he is an alumnus of the school, and they had a clip of him as a student asking a question of then-guest Robert DeNiro, his acting hero.  I couldn't help but think of that interview during their first and last scenes together.  That experience must have been amazing.
  • I wonder if that little girl ever wanted to go ice skating again, or if she's too traumatized to do so.
  • So Gennady was going to flay Eddie.  I wonder if I'm the only one that thought of AngryWillow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • Which reminds me....eeeewwwww....drug in bloodstream, now on floor....eeewwww.
  • What about the drug makes everyone hobble like that?
  • The visual effects were pretty cool.   I didn't understand why the opening credits had us moving forward so quickly on a New York street until later, but I liked the effect.  I especially liked seeing the letters fall from the ceiling as Eddie wrote his book.
  • So if this drug gets you to remember everything that you've seen and you can apply this knowledge almost instantly, I'm wondering what I'd be like, because I've watched a LOT of TV.
I really enjoyed this movie.  I don't care about the preposterous notions of certain things, but the ride was fun, and it made me think (see that last bullet above).  Definitely recommended, especially for all of the shots of those gorgeous blue eyes.  :)

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

My Most Favorite Bunnies of All

JT posted this on Facebook today.


Although most of the people that read my blog have already seen it, I need to post it here so that I can refer to it always.


Happy Easter, Everyone!





Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Bananaman, meet Monkey and Gloria

Rockapella Cruise
Day 1 -- Saturday, January 22, 2011
Miami Beach

On Friday night, I had a wonderful birthday dinner with a bunch of friends at Catal.  I had packed pretty much everything beforehand, but didn't want to go to sleep when I got home, for fear that I wouldn't wake up in time for my very early flight.  So I stayed up to blog the Line of the Day and finish up whatever before the wee hour of the morning when Bananaman and  I needed to leave.  Yes, Bananaman joined us on the trip!  After all, this was partly a birthday present to myself, and it was still January.

I drove over to the Everetts' house, parked my car there, and their very nice friends drove us to the Ontario airport.  I had tried to weigh my bag before leaving my house, and wasn't really sure whether or not I'd need to distribute the weight a little bit more to my carry-on bag.  You know, if the stupid airline would just let us have at least one bag free, I could have checked two bags and been just fine, but no.  I missed Southwest even while I was packing.  Anyway, much to my delight and surprise, my very pretty and very new luggage was a grand total of 50.00 pounds.  PERFECT!  What a great start to the trip!  This made me so happy that you wouldn't think that I was a non-morning person going on NO SLEEP. 

My seat on the plane was on the aisle, just as I had chosen it.  Someone had asked if I would switch to their middle seat so that they could sit with whomever, and I declined because I knew it would be a long, uncomfortable trip.  I felt bad about it because someone had switched for me before on another trip, but then I remembered that I chose my seat way ahead of time, so why didn't they do that for themselves?  Perhaps those were the only seats left.  I don't know.  I was just annoyed again that I wasn't on Southwest, because then maybe I wouldn't have cared as much about the fact that I had done my job of buying my flight months in advance so that I could choose my own seat without having to sit between two strangers. 

When we arrived in Houston, we took a very long walk to the other terminal for our plane change.  As I was getting something to eat (the other part of the Sandwich Crew had, of course, bought sandwiches at Subway), Liz arrived at the gate as she was going to be on the same plane for the last leg of our flights (she had flown in from LAX). We landed in Miami and contacted Jenn, whose flight arrived a little bit after ours.  We walked a very long way (but this time with very heavy luggage in tow) to get to her terminal.  Really, Miami Int'l, you need to have a shuttle system that goes around the airport for free, or at the very least, have people that can tell you that the terminal you want is hella far from your current terminal.  I mean, I know that I was exhausted, but this did not help.  Jenn's luggage took a while to be available, so we were treated to a tantrum by someone who was not a 2-year-old.  (No, it was not one of the PellaPosse). 

Jenn and the shuttle driver seemed to have some kind of weird miscommunication, but we eventually found him after dragging our luggage across several lanes of traffic and back a couple of times.  He was very talkative as he gave us a little tour through Miami on the way to the hotel. 

Ah, the hotel.  Jenn had very generously used her Starwood points for the PellaPosse to stay gratis at the Four Points by Sheraton Miami Beach.  Thank you, Jenn!  Liz and I stayed in Room 909 (the area code to the I.E.!  This made the Everetts happy).  We notified Karla that we had arrived.  Then I heard 3 knocks at the door like this:  knock knock knock "Sherry?"  knock knock knock "Sherry?" knock knock knock "Sherry?".  So I ran to the door to find Ms. Karla herself, giggling all the while in her Sheldon-ness.   Stacey was there, too!  They talked about the walk that they took this afternoon, and the saga of Stacey not having luggage.  Stacey had taken an earlier flight than planned, and the airline assured her that her bag would be transferred with her.  Unfortunately, they had stayed on the delayed flight, and now nobody was available to transport her luggage to the hotel.  Ooh, American Airlines was getting an earful from our Stacey.  Because Bananaman isn't enough for me to carry in my purse, Karla gave me a cute little pink hippo that we named Gloria (after our ship, the Glory).  I gave them their PellaPosse shirts, which prompted Stacey to be thankful to at least have one other shirt to wear for the cruise.  We agreed on a time for dinner, and I went to Jenn's room to prepare goody bags for the Posse.  Since Jenn had been on several cruises before, she had little treats for us, like little white boards, adhesive notes, pens, confetti guns, and nail files.  I added the other shirts to the bags. 

My friend Drace was disappointingly not available to join us for dinner, so we ate at the hotel restaurant, the Sungrass Cafe.  I had the special, which was salmon on fried rice with a Greek salad and a slice of chocolate cake, with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, which came with the dinner.  How nice!  I would have rather had some tiramisu, but the restaurant was all out of tiramisu, lava cake, and key lime pie.  Whatevs.  Jenn pretty much expected at that point that we would just have yogurt and granola.  The bread was served with roasted garlic on the side, which made Wendy and me giggle because we know who likes that stuff. 

Karla and Stacey had a very nice view of the moon and the beach from their hotel room.  We were all given free bottles of wine in our room, which we all agreed to take on the ship.  I made sure that Liz packed it in her carryon as per the cruise instructions.

By the time we went to bed, Stacey's luggage had still not arrived.  She had skipped dinner in order to wait in the room, and she still didn't have luggage?  We were angry at the airline right along with her. 

Exhausted and excited at the same time, we turned in for some shuteye.

Good night, Miami!
This is from the next morning, but I didn't take any pics that night.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Use the Source, Jake

I had a bunch of extra time before meeting up with my friends for a birthday dinner at Umami Burger (which was quite yummy, BTW), so I went to the Arclight to watch "Source Code".



  • I still mix up Jake Gyllenhall with Tobey Maguire, so at one point, I thought that Spider-man had died.
  • The last movie that I saw with Vera Farmiga in it was "Up In The Air".  So when she was asked if she was married, I thought, "Yes, but she's having an affair with a guy that fires people."  Clearly, I need to separate actors from their characters more than I do.
  • I love that the bomber's ID shows that he lives on Hemlock Avenue.
  • So do you think that bad people that watch this movie are now thinking of taking the handgun from the official train compartment, and that they're bringing big flashlights to break the lock?
  • I've decided that I'm good at deciphering big city skylines/aerial shots.  I figured out that it was Chicago because I couldn't think of another major American city with all of the water going through it.  Those were spectacular shots, BTW.
  • I liked the sci-fi aspect of this film.  I wonder if it would actually be possible to trigger a person's memories from their brain after their death.  But wait.  How did they get Sean's memories?  Wouldn't he have blown up beyond recognition? OK, I'm being morbid now.
  • I also liked the "Groundhog Day"-like reactions that he had, especially near the end, when he avoided the soda and handed over his ticket.
  • I wanted Jeffrey Wright to say that he knows what it's like to be in the military, and that's why he uses a crutch.  But he didn't.
  • Totally bawled at that ending.
  • "Quantum Leap"'s Scott Bakula as a major voice in this particular film?  PERFECTION.
I enjoyed this movie, and am now thinking, "What would I do if I knew that I only had 8 minutes to live?"  Probably do an end-of-life blog (if I was at a computer with internet access), thanking everyone for being a part of my life, with a little prayer at the end. 

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Rockapella on WeLiveFM

Fellow Pella Fan and PellaPusher Friend Ross has recorded a video of Rockapella being interviewed by someone that actually knows about Rockapella and is a fan himself.


Take a gander at the guys talk about Scott's scar, Carmen SanDiego, Taco Bell, the new record, and Scott's first gig with Rockapella.


Great job, Ross!




Sunday, April 3, 2011

m-pact-ed

m-pact
Lewis Family Playhouse
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
March 25, 2011

A Cappella has returned to Rrrrrancho Cucamonga!  No, it wasn't Rockapella, but a vocal jazz group that is local to L.A.: m-pact.  I haven't seen the group since, I think, Harmony Sweepstakes.  Or something else.  I just know that it's been a very long time since I saw them.  I had told Jeff and Wendy at dinner that I met one of them at Kevin's last Rockapella show in CA, but couldn't remember which one it was.  I looked at the pictures and still couldn't really figure it out until they got on stage.  The group has been through a few personnel changes since I last saw them, and they didn't have the updated pictures in the program.  It was like going to a Rockapella show.  ;)

The set list below is thanks to m-pact's Jeff, whom provided it to Aura when she asked for me.  Thanks, Jeff!  BTW, Jeff is the drummer.  It's like a law or something that the VP guy in an a/c group must be called "Jeff".  

Come Together:  m-pact is much more about the voice than it is about choreography, so if you're new to them, don't expect a lot of flash.  Instead, the flash is in their vocal prowess.   Their arrangement of this Beatles tune is much like a lot of their arrangements, wherein you're not sure what the song is at first, then you figure it out as it goes along.  That's jazz for you!  

Signed, Sealed, Delivered:  Yay, Stevie Wonder!  This was the first of Stevie's songs tonight.  The PellaPusher is happy.  I wish that Liz had been there.  Oh, perhaps I should say who was there:  Wendy, Jeff, Karla, and her friend Cindy.  At least at the beginning.  :)  

I Do:  m-pact performed this song at a festival in Germany.  Boyz II Men was there, too.  It sounded B2M-ish with this arrangement, and I whispered, "WHERE IS AURA?!"  Yes, it was a whisper-kind-of-yell.  I really like this song.

This Masquerade:  Mmm...George Benson.  Jazzy.  Yay, Aura's here!  

My Favorite Things:  Finally, someone treats this as not-a-Christmas song.  :)  I like the syncopation.

Baby I Need Your Lovin':  I also like the rhythms in this one.  

My Funny Valentine:  The soloists sat on stools and stood up for their solo portions.  This arrangement is gorgeous.  The song has good memories for me, and I drifted off into memory land with the Valentine's concerts that I've been in/watched.

All Blues:  I mean, come on!  This is jazz improv at its best.  I was amazed by Fletcher's crazy-high notes and scat, as well as Marco's smooth Miles Davis-esque trumpet, and Trist's awesome jazz bass.  Incredible.  BTW, Trist is the one that showed me how to take a picture on Aura's i-phone at the Pella meet and greet.

I Wish:  Yay, more Stevie!  I decided that Jarrett's voice was my favorite, because of all the Stevie.

Intermission

Fantasy/Let's Groove/Shining Star:  Groovy.  I think I saw some choreography in there!

This next song was sung by m-pactfor a friend's wedding, and it was the worst they'd ever done because they were all crying by the end of it.  It won an Academy Award for Best Song back in the day for a movie that nobody knew.  When the title was announced, the audience sighed a collective "Awww...."
What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life:  NICE.

Trist said that former member Britt wanted to arrange every song known to man, and before he left, he wanted to mash all of the best songs ever into one medley.
TV Medley  This included The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and The Jeffersons.  That was fun.

Higher and Higher:  I love this song too much, especially when it's sung a cappella, so naturally, I had a big smile on my face.

Have A Talk With God:  That's THREE Stevie songs, people.  Three.  YAY!!!

Drum Solo:  Wow, Jeff!  That was fun.  His style is more beatbox than classic drumming.  After showing off his VP skills, he included the audience. Our section was supposed to clap.  I will have you know that our row was not the row that was off in the clapping.  I told Jeff that afterward, too, as if he actually cared.

29 Ways:  OK, I've heard Tonic Sol-Fa do this song, and now I wonder who did it first.  I like both versions, just want to know.  

Encore

Northwest Passage:  WOW, wow, WOW.  They killed this one.  It was originally done by the Woody Herman Orchestra, and it's just craziness.  It's also crazy difficult.  How do they do this at the END of a show?!  My goodness gracious.

Meet and Greet
I'm so used to having people watch me during MnG that I was excited to actually watch Aura talk to people for a change.  Of course, she introduced me to everyone, so I ended up talking to them anyway.

Mort:  I asked him if it was cold enough in CA for him.  He said that his fellow Danes would love the weather in L.A.  

Jarrett:  I told him that he was my favorite.  He asked if I said that to everyone.  Aura vouched for me that I did not.  So he agreed to take a picture with me.  He was excited because he would get to say to his wife when he got home that he's someone's favorite.  :)

Jeff:  He said that they're working on a new CD with all of the current group members, which got me excited, so I hope that they include "I Do".  He said that he was at one of the Rockapella shows in Rancho, but hadn't seen Steve with Pella yet.  So he hasn't seen them in quite awhile.

Trist:  I told him that I remembered nothing about what he taught me on how to use Aura's i-phone camera.  I'm a dork.  I also told him that he made my butt vibrate.  Well, he did!

Marco:  Aura caught him for once before he left, and then proceeded to accidentally delete the picture that I took of them.  Oops.

I took a picture with Shakespeare outside, but it came out too dark.  Here's a picture, though, of me and my favorite m-pact guy of the night.
Sher and Jarrett
Thanks for a great show, guys!  I hope that the gap between my viewing your shows is not as long as the last one.