Kara's Wonderful World of Singing Adventures!!

Ok… nearly a year later!!!

karabritz — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 02:29:04 +0000

I’m BACK.. and let’s see how long it lasts this time! I’m REALLY hoping to get back into the habit and really keep up this time (famous last words, right?)!

I’m getting all geared up and ready to head out with Joe Cocker this fall! It’s been an incredible summer.. I’ve learned SO much and even had the amazing experience of singing with CHER in Vegas! I shared the backing vocal platform with none other than Lisa Fischer.. one of the most incredible women I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. And that’s not just because of her RIDICULOUS Grammy Award Winning talent, but because of her beautiful, warm, loving, selfless heart. I learned more than that woman in three weeks than she’ll ever know!

So here we are, 9 days away from a flight overseas to hit the ground running on another fall tour, this time with one of my long time idols, JOE COCKER. 13 Weeks on the road with a living legend. This one is truly a dream come true. His albums have been a huge part of my love affair with music and I can’t wait to share the stage with such a talent!

So, I’ll post pics as I take ‘em, and share stories as I live ‘em! These blog posts really help me out with any homesick that may settle in on the road, even though I feel like this group is going to provide an incredible, warm, loving journey full of amazing musicians and lots of exciting experiences!!

Watch out, Eastern Europe! I’m comin for ya!

xoxo

Here is Lisa and me just before showtime singing bvs for CHER!

YOKOHAMA

karabritz — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:30:16 +0000

Time to CATCH UP!

I’m soooo sorry I’ve been so absent on this thing. The Jet Lag was really helping me keep up with this thing when everyone was sleeping… and as soon as I switched to Japan time, it’s like I lost all of the free time! So, I’m sorry!

This tour has been one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had in my life. I’ve grown so much as a person, a musician, and a friend. I love everyone here for different reasons. What a great group of people…. OK, but enough sentimental for one post… Here are some of my favorite stories/pictures/memories… ENJOY!!

This is me in front of the water right outside of our hotel. There was a walkway all around the edge of the city right on the water. This city is my FAVORITE so far in Japan. The combination of the water with the beautiful small city feel makes this one hard to beat!

Loved it!

YOKOHAMA!

How beautiful is this city?

This picture is a PERFECT explanation of when you’ve reached a point of happiness that you just can’t handle… The weather, the pier, the people, the job… Life is good!

This pier is ALL wooden and HUGE… it had so many levels and it was perfectly clean… AND… it was SO pretty, it even got me to RUN! I ran this 2 mornings in a row… absolutely gorgeous!

JAPAN!

Fall in Japan! So beautiful!

SHOWTIME!

Me with Monty, one of the other BV singers!

Lunch in Roppongi!

karabritz — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:43:19 +0000

Here are a few pictures from Roppongi.

Monty and I decided to walk over there to try and find some lunch. Made for a fun little trip. It is only about a 10/15 minute walk from our hotel in Tokyo. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe Tokyo which was fun. The waitress was very familiar with who Yazawa is so it was fun to talk to her and get a sense of who he is here in Japan. Not too much story to this blog, but I’ll post a few pictures instead!

In front of a statue of a woman playing a guitar in Roppongi... Can't remember her name?

In front of the big Roppongi sign...

About to cross the street in Roppongi.. and in true ME fashion, I dropped my wallet in the middle of the street and all my money went flying everywhere!!!! Jeez. HAHA

Shopping in Harajuku!!!

karabritz — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:16:56 +0000

: The Street Sign in Harajuku lit up at night

Last night we went shopping in Harajuku … what an amazing place! I got some great new things to wear on the road… nice comfortable clothing… completely with T-shirts and sweatshirts Had a lot of fun walking around, watching people, and getting more and more comfortable with the train systems and the culture. I love it here, Japan still hasn’t let me down yet. The people just care so much about each other. I bet I could leave my laptop on the street overnight and it would be there in the morning for me to come back to it. Love it here.

Ran into another adorable little Japanese Baby… her outfit was adorable. So of course, Monty and I had to stop and take pictures with her… Here is the one of me and her… she kept playing with her hair.. she was so sweet… when I bent down to take the picture, she just leaned right on me.. so trusting. OF course, again, I fell in love!

We walked from Omotesando to Harajuku, so we stopped to check out an incredible indoor mall on the way. This district is the closest thing to Rodeo Drive in Tokyo. It is BEAUTIFUL. The streets are all lined with perfectly groomed trees and as you can see in the picture with the little girl, the sidewalks are even gorgeous!

Here are a few pictures of the mall I took. I couldn’t help it because the architecture was amazing. Apparently it was designed by a world famous designer… I always joke that I’m living in the future, but I’m starting to believe it! HAHA

: This is the stairwell in the hotel… all of the little shadows you see on the stairs are from a light show they installed in the ceiling.. so cool to see!

: Whooops!

Next up, we found a CHOCOLATE SHOP! It was very cool. Maria described it perfectly.. it was like a Jewelry Store for Chocolate. The display cabinet was awesome!

The display case... I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be upset if my husband to be presented me with a piece of chocolate instead of a diamond... HAHA

Me and the chocolate shop... match made in Heaven...

Maria and I loving the chocolate!

All in all, it was a great day off! I’ll have to post a few more pictures from earlier in the day when we visited Roppongi… The weather worked out perfectly! It poured down rain while we were indoors all day rehearsaing and the sun came as soon as we were able to explore! Love it!

Katsu’s Birthday!

karabritz — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:59:10 +0000

We all went out last night after our last rehearsal before the first show… it was also Katsu’s birthday, so we had a lot to celebrate. I’m having so much fun with this group! Katsu’s from Philly which makes me so happy because I feel like I have a buddy who gets me on the tour… refreshing considering I’m the only American. He lives in Japan now and he’s our translator/manager for the tour… but at least he gets the East Coast thing… HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATSU!

KATSU!

Rainy Day in Tokyo!

karabritz — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:55:55 +0000

It poured down rain today in Tokyo… BUT that didn’t stop Monty and me from going over to the Electronic District to finally buy our new cameras! We took the subway over to Akihabara, best known for all of it’s amazing electronic shops, and started to shop. We met the nicest salesman there who helped us SO much… I’m still so pleasantly surprised at how amazing the people are here. They go above and beyond to help you… OH, except when we were walking yesterday, we accidentally crossed a street with cars coming (keep in mind, it’s like the UK where everyone drives the opposite) and we darn near got run over, so we were screaming and laughing joking around as we quickly dodged the cars and this one lady that was walking in front of us turned around and gave us the death stare… so apparently people don’t do that here.. whoops.. I think we sincerely scared the poor woman!

After we bought our new cameras, we went out to catch a cab… we found the NICEST cab driver to take us back across town. He gave us candy while were riding and then when we got out, he gave us these cute little cartoon keychains as presents… who does that?! They do’nt even accept tips here and they still do things like that?! Amazing!

Here’s a few pictures from our trip..

BY THE WAY… Look at this first picture from the batch…

Me and Monty in Akihabara with the Typhoon rapidly approaching!

AND THEN… Look at this picture of Ernest! HAHA

UNCANNY Resemblance!! Hahaha

Couldn’t help it

In the cab with candy and presents!! If I didn't know better, I woulda thought we were in an episode of To Catch A Predator! HAHA

A few pictures I finally uploaded…

karabritz — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:48:30 +0000

A few pictures that I finally uploaded…

This first one is an adorable little baby that kept blowing kisses to us at breakfast yesterday… why are Asian babies the CUTEST?!?!

Little munchkin...

And then, here is the first batch of per diem… All my Yennnnn Hahaha! Couldn’t help it!

Yennnnn!

And then finally, here is one I snapped in the studio… everyone trying to organize parts, pronunciation, and levels… Love this group!

Studio recording bvs

AWAKE.. it’s 5:40am…

karabritz — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:50:51 +0000

When we got back to the hotel last night, even though the ONLY thing I wanted to do was order a bottle of wine up to my room to drink while writing lyrics to some new song ideas and then falling asleep quickly, I decided to try and fight the jet lag by going out to dinner with Toshi, Monty, Maria and her cousin, Vicky… It was a GREAT meal… we went to a restaurant near the hotel and I finally got to try real Ramen for the first time (Pictures to come… Vicky took a few of me with my Ramen.. mmm haha)! I got back to the room and skyped with Mom for a little bit and then watched 30 Rock until I fell asleep.. but I STILL woke up around 4am… I hate Jet Lag… I have a band aid on my butt because of the darn flu shot and now I’m wide awake at 4am with my glasses on because my contacts hate me… HAHA… needless to say, I’m annoyed that I can’t sleep through the night yet… I’m kiinda of a smiley cranky pants… Trying to convince myself that my body isn’t an achey mess… hopefully by day 6 this will have been resolved. Otherwise, things are great. Been keeping up with everyone pretty well.. THANK YOU for trying so hard to keep in touch with me even though the time change is brutal.. it helps a LOT to know what’s goin on back home! Everyone in the band is starting to feel more and more like family, so I’m hoping that continues… They even smile at me when I am tired and cranky! I have a bad habit that I can’t help… when I’m tired, I’m going to sleep… no matter how hard I try to fight it! HA so hopefully the jet lag passes so I can make it through a full rehearsal without wanting to rest my head on my mic to pass out… We ran the whole set yesterday, there’s a song called “Travelin Bus” that feels like James Brown and I LOVE it… I’m thinking it’s going to be my favorite, I hope we play it more often than not. Took a very unattractive picture of myself right now just to keep everyone up to date… not exactly the cutest thing, but I’m trying my hardest to keep it real here.. Jet Lag just aint pretty all the time HAHA

Ok, I think I’m off to the gym to get in some cardio while memorizing lyrics… and then maybe I’ll tire myself out enough to take a cat nap before lobby call!

Love you guys!

5am in Tokyo... Trapped in the hotel room on Pacific Time!

Tonight will include a glass of wine… :)

karabritz — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:01:49 +0000

Hey again!

Just got finished with Day 2 of Rehearsals for the Fall Tour… WOW… We got to the studio at 10am this morning and we just finished up at 7pm… We recorded all of the bvs for the live shows, SO great to have that out of the way… and then we had to get our FLU Shots!!! The actual show (surprisingly) didn’t hurt at all.. but my body feels even MORE loopy now.. haha.. as if the jet lag wasn’t making me weird enough… throw in a flu shot to boot.. and then have Boss come in to run the entire show … made for a VERY interesting day!

We survived it all and Boss seemed happy so that’s good… Still have lots of parts to memorize, but it is slowly falling into place… we have another 3/4 days of rehearsal and then it’s off to Niigata for the first show!

I tried to take a few pictures today (I am going to spare you the flu shot experience b/c I took it in my bum… haha) so I’m posting those here. The first picture is Maria and I at breakfast this morning. There’s a great little cafe outside the hotel in the courtyard and it got even TASTIER when we realized we were sittinng in a hot spot! :)

The next picture is of me in the studio this morning… I went to Starbucks first thing today and got a triple shot latte… lasted me until about 2pm.. HAHA. And the last picture is Toshi and Monty in the rehearsal room learning more parts! Surprise surprise

Had a great day even though it was long… nice to get the hard work out of the way early..

Love and miss everyone!

Kara

Me & Maria at breakfast

In the studioooo

Toshi & Facu working on a new part

Day 1 Down!

karabritz — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:57:13 +0000

Konichiwa!!

Just got back to the hotel from the first rehearsal… all in all, we have a LOT of work to do! HAHA.

They gave us 6 new songs today that we didn’t know we’d be singing on… so that brings the total number of songs to know for this leg of the tour to a whopping 24! Wish us luck!!

I took a quick video of the three of us BVs sitting in the lounge trying to hack through a few of the new songs.. learning the japanese and organizing our parts.. pretty hilarious to see a Virginian and 2 Argentinians trying to get the pronunciations sorted out! HAHA

I absolutely love working with this group of people.. everyone is so nice and understanding.. and SO professional! It never feels like work… just when we start to get annoyed or frustrated, we take a break, make a few jokes and then we’re back in the saddle to finish out strong.

Today was hard as far as the jet lag thing goes… I think by 3:30pm I could have crawled in the corner of the studio and slept on the wood floor and wouldn’t have even noticed the side fills booming!! HAHA, so I’ve been fighting it hard for the past few hours… and I will continue to fight it tonight for a few more just so that I can get a few more songs under my belt before bed time and then maybe I won’t wake up at 3am wide eyed and bushy tailed.

The weather is amazing right now here.. today was one of those perfect fall days where the wind is blowing just enough to keep you cool without freezing you! The weather here feels like the falls in Virginia or NYC and I love it… That’s one thing I didn’t realize would make me so excited… I miss the seasons a lot, and this tour’s timing is just perfect… I’ll be coming into my favorite holidays (Thanksgiving, my bday, and Christmas) with the chilly weather, and then as soon as New Year’s is over, it’ll be back to Sunny SoCal! PERFECT.

I think that’s about all I know for today… we recorded 3 of the songs today already, getting up early and going to the studio to record a few more tomorrow before the first show run through with Boss… It’s going to be a long few days of learning, recording, rehearsing, and memorizing all of these songs… but I’m up for the challenge.. so happy to be able to do what I do.. Kind of had one of those “moments” today… just excited to be a part of something that I love and to be able to make it a career is getting more and more exciting. I miss everyone back home, though. So thankful for skype, ichat, facebook, and blogs!!! Makes me feel so much closer!

OK, enjoy the video and then I am gonna post a few pics that we took today in rehearsal too…

Ma ta ne!

Love, Kara

Kara, Monty, and Maria... Working hard, or hardly working???

Caffeine, caffeine, caffeine... at WAR against Jet laaaaaag