Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic New Year’s Eve, as well as Christmas! Since we haven’t been in school since December 18th, and we won’t be back until the last week of January, I figure I’ll give you the lowdown on what I’ve been doing outside of class.

I am currently working on a feature film called Bongee Bear and the Kingdom of Rhythm. This film is a great opportunity for me for many, many reasons. One, this is an animated musical, and I don’t give myself enough credit when working with lyrics, so this is an opportunity to show myself that writing for songs isn’t actually all that bad! Two, Dom DeLuise—the actor who voiced Fievel in American Tail, as well as many other animated characters—and Debi Derryberry—the voice of Jimmy Neutron and Tommy from Rugrats—are main characters in the film.

The most interesting part about all of this is that it is a family project. My uncle is producing, and my dad is directing and writing lyrics. My dad also wrote the story and script and animated the original sketches. Over winter break, when I was home for about two weeks, my dad and I got to sit down to sing and write music together. He’s usually a pretty quiet person, so this was a great bonding experience for us.

Other than working on this feature, I’m also starting to analyze comedy shows in order to write an opening theme for a comedy TV show happening at Columbia next spring. Other than these two things, all I have going on right now is spending time with friends, which is absolutely great! I went to Columbia as an undergrad, but I have never had so many friends until this graduate program. All of us in the program keep in contact through Facebook, and we’re constantly joking about things that happened throughout the semester. This is a great group, as we take our education very seriously, but also have a fun, comedic side. Most members of the group have gone back home, but even without them here, there have been so many opportunities to make new friends over this break. I’m just excited to have my family back in town!

Also, I forgot to mention very good news! I’ll be interning again at Sonixphere, Inc. I highly suggest all of you to start learning multiple DAWs. Sonixphere works only with Pro Tools, but many other music production companies will probably work with Logic, Cubase, or DP. Prepare yourselves now, and try to find an internship when you get to Chicago! I know my time at Sonixphere has been above and beyond wonderful!

Till next time everyone!