A Taste of Fall

It's finally Fall! If you don't already know, Fall is hands-down my favorite season. There are few things I love more than cords, boots, sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, and warm apple cider. It's such a comforting season.

While thinking about what I wanted to blog about this week, I realized that I wanted you to experience Fall with me! Fall is absolutely beautiful in New York. Last year around this time, I went apple picking. Now, I let the apples come to me! I live on Union Square. The Union Square Farmer's Market is literally right outside my front door. And that means fresh apples every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday! I buy almost all of my produce at the farmer's market. It's cheap, fresh, and local - what could be better than that?

Pumpkins!

I didn't publish my blog post yesterday because my roommates and I threw a fall party, and I knew I would have pictures to share. We invited over a bunch of people and watched the Emmy's. 

We had a caramel apple bar.

I made homemade pumpkin spice lattes from scratch (and kind of improvised).

And we painted pumpkins!

All in all, it was a lovely evening. 

Fiorello! opens this weekend. We're almost completely sold out. As such, this week is tech week - which means rehearsals like crazy. I've planned and prepped all my meals, and somehow managed to get my clothes folded and organized. "I've been busy" is the understatement of my year. 

Now that it's officially Fall, I can begin my Christmas countdown!

All my love,

♥ Em

Christmas Countdown: 91 days!

Facing Goliath

The first few weeks of class can be a little nerve-wracking and exciting. It's often a week of little or no homework obligations and a week of adjustment - filled with reading endless syllabi and meeting professors. A time to catch up with old friends, reminisce about your too-short summer, or stare into your empty coffee cup and wonder why you're expected to be awake and functioning at 8a.m. This year, my first couple weeks were much, much more. Diving headfirst into a busy year, I have a stack of new songs to learn, books to read and music to analyze. I feel like I'm already halfway through the semester, but it's only been two weeks. It's been an exhausting, but very productive time of work and dedication. I love my professors, and I love all my classes. Overall, I'm very, very excited for this school year. But I can't help but admit I'm a little overwhelmed. I'm working, rehearsing, studying and singing my little heart out.

I'm back to working! That's right, folks, I have dipped my toes back into retail and have almost purchased half of Anthropologie's clothes. Rehearsals for Fiorello! are going really well. They're occupying every spare moment of my time, but it's an incredibly rewarding experience. We perform September 29th and 30th - so if you're in the New York area, don't judge my shameless plug and purchase tickets here: http://www.nyuskirball.org/calendar/fiorello. :) I'm taking 10 classes this semester including acting, music history, theory and ear training, song analysis, and the like.

Friday night at rehearsal, the lyricist of Fiorello!, Sheldon Harnick, came to our rehearsal. It was the most incredible experience. If you're not familiar with his name, he's most known for his collaboration with the composer Jerry Bock. (They wrote music & lyrics for Fiddler on the Roof, and She Loves Me, just to name a couple.) He essentially added another song to Fiorello! in the second act, and so he observed our rehearsal on Friday night and was gracious enough to answer our questions about his life and the show. It was inspiring not only to see someone who had such a successful career in the industry, but also to hear his stories about writing the songs and where they came from.

I know this is just a quick update, and I apologize for skipping yet another week for posting, but it has been so busy and I haven't made enough time for blogging. My goal is to get posting every Sunday again, but it's hard because my weekly updates all sound the same. Rehearsal, work, sing, study.

I do have some exciting news, though. I've started a food blog! Follow me, tweet me, pin me, share me! http://crowleycooksandeats.blogspot.com/ It's one post so far. I have quite a few up my sleeve, though, so you can start eating vicariously through me!

Sending my love home to Idaho,

♥ Em

Back to the Square.

These past two weeks have flown by, and so much has happened! The week after I last posted, I went to the beach with my friends Dylan, AnnMarie and Juliet. Juliet has a really amazing beach house on Long Beach Island and graciously invited us to stay a day at the house, swim in the ocean, tan (or in my case burn) on the beach, eat food and keep good company. It was a blast. Being the fair skinned Irish lass I am, I burnt to a crisp and looked like a lobster for the next week. It was a wonderfully relaxing way to spend one of my remaining summer days. That weekend, Mauri arrived from Idaho. She was here for a five day trip before she headed to England for school. We did everything touristy; Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Chelsea Market, the Highline, Chinatown... She absolutely loved Wall Street, and New York bagels. It was great being able to spend a few more days before we both start school. And, I was excited to share New York. When people from home come to visit, I always love it. It not only brings a piece of home to me, but they take a piece of New York with them. As everyone who visits will attest to, you rarely leave New York unchanged. We went to Babycakes, a vegan, gluten-free bakery. I had the best donut. Mind you, I haven't eaten a donut in years. It made for a happy tummy. We saw a French film, "Diabolique". We drank a lot of coffee, had Sunday brunch, and explored the city at our leisure. Overall, it was a lovely visit and I can't wait to see her again!

Stumptown Coffee

This week was filled with rehearsals, practicing, buying textbooks, and preparing for classes this week. It seems like there's always something to do. Last night, we went to see Newsies. It was insane. I grew up watching the Disney movie and have anxiously awaited its opening on Broadway. It opened earlier this year and initially was set to close August 16th, but it's been extended, so I finally saw it! It was mind-blowing. The musical is quite a bit different from the movie, so to any theater-goer who might be expecting the classic Disney tale, you're in for a bit of a surprise.

Jeremy Jordan is an absolute delight, thrilling theater regulars and newbies alike. His voice is incredible. The character choices he made fascinated me; he was definitely the quintessential Jack Kelly, and he worked well with a lacking script, adding motive to lines that seemed sort of out of place. The script was possibly the thing that bothered me most. It just wasn't that strong. For me, it didn't do much. The music underwent an interesting change in the translation to the stage as well. New songs were added to incorporate different characters and their role in the story, and a lot of lyrics in the original songs have been changed. The plot is quite different; characters were both cut, added and changed. The storyline strays a lot from the movie version, although it maintains the "main" idea of the newsboys strike, there are different subplots that change the motives of each character. There's a new "love interest" for Jack, who plays a much larger role in the stage version, Jack is an artist, and his drawings serve in part as inspiration for the strike. The choreography and staging was brilliant. The dancing was absolutely insane. A very athletic, dance-oriented show, Newsies was very entertaining. Although I had my complaints, Newsies is definitely a must-see, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's been a great few weeks back in the city, and I'm looking forward to a bright new school year. Also, if you are in or around New York, buy tickets to the show I'm in - Fiorello! at the Skirball Center on September 29th and 30th. http://www.nyuskirball.org/calendar/fiorello. :) 


Saw this in Washington Square. "I was in love with New York. I do not mean "love" in any colloquial way. I mean that I was in love with the city the way you love the first person who ever touches you and you never love anyone quite that way again. -Joan Didion"

This guy's work was featured on HONY a few months ago. Look up "Honschar" on Facebook. He writes things on sidewalks around New York. It's pretty cool. 

Sending my love back home to Idaho.

♥Em

The end of an endless summer...

Well, this little girl is back in the big city and ready to take on another year filled with adventure! I had a lovely arrival into the city on Thursday and I've already had a weekend packed with things to do. On Friday, I had oodles of time to kill in the city. So, I helped my sister bring her compost into the Union Square Farmer's Market. After that, I got coffee with my friend Sarah and finally ended up wandering New York. I meandered my way back to Union Square and bought lunch at the farmer's market. There's this incredible vegan bakery that had a stand there that day (I wish I could remember what it was called), so I got this ridiculously good vegan empanada. I would've taken a picture, but I ate it too fast. I window shopped at Bed Bath & Beyond and stumbled upon the most incredible craft store I've ever set foot in. I guess I can't call it a true craft store. It's a stationary/paper creations store. I easily could spend every penny I own in that store.

I browsed Barnes & Noble, I sat in the park and read, and finally made my way to the Strand! The most incredible book store in the United States (easily). After the Strand, I went to visit my sister at her workplace and then we headed back to Brooklyn.

Saturday was less eventful, as we spent the majority of the day lounging around, but Saturday evening I headed back into the city to meet my friend Curtis for dinner! We went to this place called Caracas Arepa Bar. It's an incredible Venezuelan restaurant and ridiculously affordable. I had an arepa with guayanes cheese, fried plantains and avocado. Arepas are basically a Venezuelan food staple - they're a corn "bun" that have a similar texture to an English muffin, but are slightly sweeter and a bit more spongy. They're also gluten-free, which makes my tummy very happy, and super delicious.

My arepa!

As you can see, it's a tiny place, but it's a great restaurant to meet one or two people for lunch or dinner. I highly recommend it. Afterward, Curtis and I made a quick trip to Butter Lane, a yummy cupcake shop just down the street from Caracas. Butter Lane is a quaint, really cute cupcake shop that lets you choose your cake and frosting combination. It's delightful. I had a vanilla cake with honey-cinnamon frosting, and Curtis had a chocolate cupcake with sea salt chocolate frosting. Amazing. (Since those were scarfed down rather quickly, I also didn't get a picture of those). 

Afterward we met up with our friends Jake and Dylan. Before long, it was time for me to head back to Brooklyn and get packed and ready to move in. Today, my sister, her husband and I moved my stuff in and got slightly settled. I've spent the majority of the day trying to be productive, and it hasn't worked very well. So, here I am, finally catching you up on my life! I'm trying to get back in the swing of things, which is much easier said than done. I miss and love everyone from home, and can't wait for another successful school year! 

♥ Em

A true man of honor.

I have the incredible responsibility of typing my grandfather's journals this summer. He kept a series of journals, 17 in total, starting in June of 1979. He was in the midst of building the beautiful log cabin on Swan Lake that he and my grandmother would spend the next 28 years living and loving in. The home came to be more than just a place for them to retire: it was the trademark of every grandchild's summer memories. Each summer, my parents would load up their 1979 Datsun pickup with all 6 children and make the 8 hour trek to Northern Montana. My siblings have stories beyond compare of times at the lake, going tubing down the river, games played with the cousins, and so much more. I came on the tail end of things - the 7th child, 10 years after the "youngest" before me had been born. And though I don't share all of their memories, I still remember losing quarters to my grandmother to "buy" back the stuff I didn't put away. I still remember the smell of Saturday morning waffles, the way my grandfather sat at the head of the table making the waffles. I remember sitting on the window seat, watching the birds feed early in the morning. The sound of my grandfather's laugh. Playing horseshoes and always losing. (Gramps was the champ). There were many memories I didn't experience. I was too young to play with the older cousins, needed to stay inside more often, had to be "looked after" all the time. But the lake was still my favorite memory, and remains my most beloved place in the world.Typing up these journals has been an amazing experience. It's like reading a book, but you know the characters, and you've been to the setting. 

Later in his life, my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He passed away 5 years ago today - July 4, 2007. It seems appropriate. He loved his country: he fought in World War II, being honored with a Purple Heart for being shot in the head. He spent the rest of his days serving his fellow men in various ways. He was the most considerate, loving, genuine man I've ever known. He took care of his neighbor's properties when they were gone, looked after them, was heavily involved in the betterment of his community, and had a genuine concern for government and righteousness. He was an educator, a principal before he retired, and had an incredible mind.


We love you and miss you, Grandpa. Thinking of you today and always. 

These are my cousins - they're awesome. This song is dedicated to my grandpa.