Returned from Sunny Florida!

Yes, I've returned from my 9 day trip to beautiful Florida!

My family and I spent a night at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando, which is by far the best hotel ever created. I was in Rock N Roll heaven, wandering around the floors of the HRH looking at the memorabilia, especially the Gingerbread Graceland that I found (That's my pic of it! It's AMAZING!) What's great about the HRH is they're a incredibly nice hotel, while still being down to earth. All of the bell hops, desk help, and even the waiters are funny, and helpful. One of the best parts about staying at the HRH is that if you show your room key when you get in line on any of the rides in Universal studios or Islands of Adventure, you get to go in the Express Lane! I rode some great rides at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, and my sister and I still agree that Earthquake is still the most fun.

After Orlando, my family drove down to our time share in Hollywood Beach, Florida. Hollywood Beach is the french quarter, with a full "Broad-Walk" (It's not a boardwalk, since it's not elevated...So the pool attendant claimed). There are plenty of restraunts and shops, and a full beautiful beach to enjoy.

Over all, it was a wonderful christmas time!

Thursday Thirteen #11: Classes

Thirteen Classes I've enjoyed in my 5 semesters at The University of Michigan (and 2 half semesters)

1. Theatre Pedagogy
The wonderful Dr. EJ Westlake led this 4 person class on teaching theatre, and using theatre as a teaching tool. I learned so much and had a lot of fun. With only 4 people in the whole class, we had some very good discussions on how theatre should be taught and what we've learned through observation.

2. History of American Film
The film department no longer offers this class, but I thought it was awesome. We went from Edison's black mariah films all the way up to today's industry. I got to see movies like The Gold Rush, Night of the Living Dead, Shaft, It Happened One Night, and Shampoo up on the big screen and talk about film history---a subject I personally love.

3. Set Design 3
Considering I was the only person who showed up for every class (and on time too!) I enjoyed this class. I feel like I'm really growing as a designer, and it's fun to see my class mates improve so much also.

4. Intro to Stage Management
Considering there's no Advanced Stage Management class at UMich, I'd have to list this one. I loved learning about the field hands on and in the classroom. No one can teach a class like Nancy Uffner.

5. The Screenplay as Literature
I took this class during the spring half-term. It kicked my butt, since I was working part-time too, but I kept up with the reading. I learned that the Godfather's script is much different than the movie, that the screenplay of Star Wars sucked, and that Harold and Maude is amazing.

6. Intro to Design
This is the class where all the freshman designers get their feet wet. Featuring projects like: pasting macaroni to paper, painting a hat, making shoe box models (aka diaramas), drawing/painting characters from The Snow Queen....wait, was that College or Second Grade?

7. Theatre History 2
After suffering through a semester of theatre history I didn't care about, I finally got to the real meat of what interested me in theatre history. We read some great plays, and the professor led some good discussions. Mostly, I liked my group's final project, where we presented 2 minutes from Twilight Los Angeles: 1992 as a battle rap.

8. Communications 101
Another spring half-term class, this one was pretty cool. Basically, we talked about media, and how the world interacts with it, how technology has changed everyday life and how media is created, etc. The professor was a little crazy, but she was super nice and understood that all of us were working and taking other classes at the same time, so she was really flexible.

9. Intro to Technical Theatre
The best part of this class was the professor, because Gary Decker is amazing.

10. Rendering
This class taught me to draw, paint, and approach design well. The projects were challenging, but I enjoyed doing them. My portfolio is awesome now!

11. Intro to Information Science
From the name, it looks boring, right? And I admit, that I took this class purely to fulfill my Social Science graduation requirement, but I will also admit that this class was really interesting. The flow of information is complex and confusing, but I understand it now. Also, how we gather and store information has evolved a lot over the last few decades. The lectures were amazing, so I always showed up...even though the Professor podcasted the lectures. I've been pleasantly surprised by most of my non-theatre classes, and this one takes the cake for the most surprising.

12. Scenic Painting Lab
I spent 45 hours in the paint shop for this One Credit practicum, but I'd rather spend it there than anywhere else.

13. Musicology
I love music history, so studying music from Bach to the Beatles was right up my alley.

Pics are of projects I did in some of my classes. First is my Waiting Room set design, second is my Snow Queen scene, and last is my rendering final project

Thursday Thirteen #10: Sufjan Stevens

My Thirteen FAVORITE songs off of Sufjan Stevens' album Songs for Christmas


The Michigan native Singer/Songwriter, Sufjan Stevens, has been earning acclaim for many years now for his one-of-a-kind music. Sufjan has recently been in the spot light because of his mission to record an album dedicated to each of the 50 States. Already tackling Michigan and Illinois (IL got 2 albums, technically), Sufjan has released a 5 CD box set for Christmas. Songs For Christmas started as a simple tradition that Sufjan started, by quickly recording Christmas EPs for his friends and family, and the following box set is the result of 5 years worth of EPs. The production quality improves with each disc/year, but Sufjan's original approach and heart-felt delivery of each song brings new meaning to many christmas classics. Sufjan also supplies brand new Christmas songs that are infused with his creativity and humor. The following list is a very small selection of the 2 hours of sonic bliss that I promise you will experience while listening to these albums.


1. Holy, Holy, Holy (Disc 5 version)

2. Get Behind Me, Santa!

3. The Little Drummer Boy

4. Angels We Have Heard On High

5. The Incarnation

6. O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Disc 1 Version)

7. Star of Wonder

8. Ding! Dong!

9. Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming

10. Only At Christmas Time

11. Once In Royal David's City (Disc 5 Version)

12. Christmas in July

13. The Winter Solstice

Concert Review: Ben Taylor @ Borders

Ben Taylor featuring Sonya Kitchell and David Saw
Friday, December 1, 2006
Ann Arbor-Downtown Borders

Ann Arbor's 107one, local radio station, has a feature on their station called Studio A2, where they have national artists perform and get interviewed. Last year they started doing Studio A2 ON THE ROAD at the downtown borders. This was an interesting event, since it was technically just a live radio interview, that just happened to be at Borders.

For those of you who don't know, Ben Taylor is the son of James Talyor and Carly Simon. I first saw Ben when he was on tour with his mom as the opening act. He immediately blew me away with his great acoustic guitar lines, brilliant lyrics, and his voice sounds exactly like his father! After seeing him that one time, I became addicted to his album "Another Run Around The Sun" and was hoping he would come back to the Ann Arbor area. A year later, he finally returned! Unfortunately I couldn't go to his concert at the Ark, but 107one set up this great in-store appearance.


The set up was incredibly simple, just 3 stools, the sound equipment, and a backdrop. I was really impressed with how good everything sounded eventhough the venue isn't suited for this kind of performance.

Finally, between the cookbooks and coffee shop, Ben, Sonya, and David appeared from behind the backdrop and were introduced by the local radio personality. Sonya Kitchell performed her song "No Matter What" first, which had a great guitar line, lyrics, and featured her voice really well. David Saw accompanied her on guitar, and Ben provided back-up vocals.

I was completely floored to find out during the radio that Sonya was only 17 years-old! She says that "[I] was born, and started singing." She was raised in a very creative household, since her parents are both visual aritist, and they have always been supportive of her music career and her dreams.

After the brief interview with Sonya, Ben played a new song called "Wicked Way," which was a really witty song that immediately had the crowd laughing and clapping at his lyrics. The song will hopefully be on his next album, which “About...0%” has been recorded, according to Ben.

Once the song was over, Ben talked about growing up as the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon. Their advice to him was to always remember that "music is blue collar; don't be fooled that everything is glamorous." He took this to heart, understanding that his parents came from a time when it was much easier to be successful in the music bussiness, and that the industry has changed a lot since they started.

Sonya played one more song live on the air for the radio audience, which had a very sophisiticated melody, and wonderful lyrics. David and Ben both played guitar, and their strumming/picking styles blended very well together. Unfortunately, the song hasn’t been recorded yet, and probably won’t be any time soon, since she’s touring in Europe in the spring, and will be unable to get any recording done until the fall of 2007.


Ben played one more song for the in-store audience, which is one of my favorite songs off of Another Run Around the Sun, called “Ghost”. Ben apologized to the audience, since he had flown from Dublin the night before and on top of that he was pretty sick, so he was afraid he sounded terrible. But honestly, I thought he sounded great!

Over all, I thought the morning was really fun, and this intimate setting made me enjoy it all the more. I hope that next time Ben comes through town I’ll be able to see a full concert of his!

Welcome to the NEW Cosmic Kid!

I spent all sunday night re-building this wonderful blog, and I for one, think it turned out beautifully. Featuring my own photography in the background, and some improvements on a stock blogger template, I came up with this.

Hopefully this week I'll finish my concert review of Ben Tayor's in-store acoustic set at Borders, and an awesome new Thursday Thirteen.

Next week, I'll have a book review, and my Favorites for the Month of December!

See you around,

The Cosmic Kid

Thursday Thirteen: Trapped on an Island

Thirteen Albums I'd want to have with me if I was trapped on an island


1. Rent-Original Motion Picture Cast Recording (Delux Edition)

2. Bruce Springsteen-The Wild & The Innocent & the E Street Shuffle

3. U2-Best of 1980-1990

4. Beastie Boys-To the Five Burrows

5. Elvis Costello-North

6. Dashboard Confessional-The Swiss Army Romance

7. Jack's Mannequin-Everything In Transit

8. Bruce Springsteen-Live 1975-1985




9. Joni Mitchell-Blue

10. Radiohead-OK Computer

11. Wicked-Broadway Cast Recording




12. The Who-Ultimate Collection


13. Ted Leo-Shake the Sheets




On a Side note: Go buy Sufjan Stevens' Album Songs for Christmas if you want to hear some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard! If you buy this box set and can't find at least one song that you like, I will buy the CD back from you.