Projects | loraleeslooneytunes.com

Because I’m vain enough to believe this is exactly what you’ve all been dying to read, right?!

March 18, 2008 By loralee 20 Comments

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by the lovely, creative and talented Sarcomical . It was so much fun! Y’all should click and give her site some love, but for those who have fatigued mouse fingers or are just hung over from drinking green beer yesterday, I’ll post it here.

Before you skip on down through the questions, is there anything she missed or that you are wondering about me? Any question about me that are burning inside you like a scorching case of herpes?

I have a lot of new readers and my life can be a little “HUH?” (and in some cases, “WTF”?) so I want to throw that out there. Usually these open calls involve a sad, lonely comments section with crickets chirping forlornly in the background.

Sigh.

Let me know and I’ll pipe up.

My First Contribution to the Great Interview Experiment: Interviewing Loralee

As part of my participation in Neil’s Great Interview Experiment, I’m not only honor-bound to be an interviewEE, but also an interviewER. I was lucky enough to be able to interview the lovely, bright, and interesting Loralee, and at long last am able to post my (fantastic, imaginative, intelligent) questions and her (hilarious, sweet, revealing) answers.

Et voila:

Let’s start light. If you could ask [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bits of Information, Kudos, Projects, YAY 20 Comments

Fun With Rice Krispy Treats.

June 11, 2007 By loralee 7 Comments

I have decided to have my children help me bake and cook this summer to help keep them occupied. I have a rampant paranoid fear of them catching fire from the stove or mangaling a limb in the garbage disposal, so I have been wary up until now.

They need to know how to cook before they leave my house. For one, it will help them when they are living on their own and for two, it’s just a good life skill to have. I LOVE that Jon and I can cook together. True, he isn’t as adventerous as I would like him to be, but still…There is something homey and comforting about preparing a meal with your spouse and family. The chopping, the banter, it’s just…appealing.

I decided I would start with a very basic recipe and show them how to turn it into something fun and creative, albeit a bit “Girly”. I got this idea, all on my own, way back in the 9th grade when I had to do a cooking demonstration in Home Ec. I have used it ever since.

RICE KRISPY KISSES

3 Tbs. Butter

1 Bag Large Marshmallows (Or 4 Cups Mini)

6 cups Rice Krispy Cereal

A cup of cold water, aluminum foil, butter, paper, scissors and a cookie sheet are also needed.

Make the Rice Krispy Treats:

Measure Rice Krispy’s and pour them in a mixing bowl. Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Add marshmallows and stir until a thick, gooey cream forms. Pour over Rice Krispy’s and Incorporate. Let sit for about 5 minutes.

Butter a large funnel.

Spoon mixture into the funnel. Dip your fingers lightly in the cup of cold water (Or you will get SO much goo on your fingers) and press. Turn the funnel over onto cookie sheet and repeat.

Let the treats sit for about 15 minutes.

While they are sitting and your children are devoring the remains of the mixing bowl, write out your personalized message to put in each of the “Kisses”.

Put a kiss on a square of aluminum foil. Place the message at the side and wrap up.

VOILA.

Yummy Rice Krispy Kisses.

I had SUCH a good time doing this with my boys today. I think it’s just more fun than plain old Rice Krispy Treats and it makes me feel like one of those cool, inventive, “Crafty” mom’s.

Cool.

Filed Under: Every Day, Family, Food, Kids, Projects, Recipes 7 Comments

"For Good"

February 19, 2007 By loraleeslooneytunes 53 Comments

This post is killing two birds with one stone.The MOST exciting is that my long-awaited duet with Loralee Christensen is finished and uploaded at the bottom of this post. At last!

Also, this is week three of February’s Self Portrait Challenge. The theme is “Black and White”.

I have wanted to do a series like this for a long time. I prefer a strong contrast in black and white shots and I have prominent features that can pull it off. True, the color on the IPOD and the heavy contrast is akin to those prints you used to hang in your room in Junior High, you know, where the woman has a tear running down her face and her either her lips or a rose has a hint of red to it?

So, forgive the cliche, but I like these.

I picked a secondary theme of music for this series.

WHY, you ask?

Brace yourself. This is long, but it represents six MONTHS of planning and work, so it should be.

Last June, I received a very lengthy, very amusing fan email from a vocalist in California. Her name was also “Loralee”. She was even a “Loralee C.”! She was Googling herself in the middle of the night and found my blog. Just from THAT information, I knew we were going to click, and we have. She calls me “LL” and I call her “Thing Two” or “Thingy” for short. It is just too WEIRD to call another person “Loralee”.

I heard her CD’s and raved. She saw my dorky youtube videos and was very complementary.
About 6 months ago, we started discussing the possibility of recording a duet together. This is no small consideration, since I live in Utah and she lives in California. One day, though, we just decided to DO it.The next issue was what on earth to sing?! Thingy is all rock and roll and I am classically trained.

Hmm…A quandary.

She came up with such a great suggestion, I am ashamed I didn’t think of it myself. I love the song, “For Good” from the Broadway musical, “Wicked”, a story about how the witches of OZ became who they ended up. This song has such a sweet melody and the words are so emotional and meaningful to me.

She wanted to record it and asked if it would be a good idea. The answer was, “HELL yes!”

Once we decided that the project was a GO, we began the very long process of recording and mixing. Loralee 2 laid down her tracks in California and then sent it to me. My parents got me studio time for my birthday and I laid my vocals down in 70 minutes.

There were some concerns on my part. I have never recorded solo in a studio, and this was a stretch for me vocally. To quote my brother, “Where did your opera voice go?”. I love singing like this, but to be honest, I am usually not allowed or asked because a lot more people can sound like this than when I sing opera, if you get my drift. Liken it to being Dark Karo Syrup your whole life and then switching to being Light Karo Syrup in an hour.

People ask how we managed to “Blend”. This would be the almost 25 YEARS of choir I have participated in. You get good at matching people if you do it enough.

Besides being much less experienced than Loralee 2 at studio recording I had another fear about this project. This song is just about as emotional as it gets for me. I don’t need to go into it, but I was worried how I would do. I had to book my session 2 months in advance and it fell just a couple of days after a huge, horrible fiasco in my life. The day of my session I felt like a humiliated, despised, guilt-wracked heap of pathetic.

I didn’t think I would be able to eek anything out during my session. Is it was, I came of lighter and more nasally then I would have liked but this might have something to do with the tears and the mucous that came as I snotted all over the microphone at times. The sound guy was very understanding and he had plenty of water and tissues on hand for me to use.

In the end, I just grasped the lyrics for what they were: Take hard things (And the snot-drenched) , and try to get by by remembering what good came from it.

So, I did.

I sent back my vocals to California and then “Narren the Amazing” stepped in and worked his magic.Narren is the dad of Loralee’s son. He has a studio in his house and he is the one that recorded Loralee2 and mixed EVERYTHING for us. He put in all the instruments you hear and blended us together. He is so talented. Every time I listen I hear some tiny detail that I cannot believe he thought to add. What an ear.

I think the end result is that we sound really good together. It was a stretch for both of us, but it was so worth it. This has been one of the highlights of my life. It is just a perfect story, a perfect song and a perfect experience for very imperfect people.

The moral of our fairy tale?
Never underestimate what a bit of rampant narcissism at 2 am can garner you!

Enjoy it. WE did.