FeelingElephants

Here's the story behind my blog's title.

I use the power of the internet to take human trafficking offline for my day job, but what I say here is mine, all mine.

New Mashups for a New Year

Every year I look forward to the new Bootie mashup. This annual mashup is, real truth, the reason why I am able to sing along to any song played at any convention dance (I’m looking at you Grace Hopper) or bar (and looking at you, Black Cat-which-plays-Doctor-Who-every-Friday-night-at-7:30pm). It is a mashup of the most popular [...]

Ed Sheeran and Mikill Pane’s “Little Lady” and Teen Sex Trafficking

[TW: teen sex trafficking.]

I’ve loved Ed Sheeran’s “A Team” since I first heard it:

It was one of the first songs I plugged into one of the internet’s many magical infinite-loop players–apparently people other than me like listening to songs until they can hear the cracks between the notes–but I never saw it as [...]

Good Hal/Bad Hal

Today I filled out a survey which asked “Where do you spend your time when you’re not at work?” and I answered “Online.” I have a lot invested in Skynet not taking over the earth, not just so I can continue to get my pop culture fixes but because I use the internet to try [...]

New York is Like Cairo, But Less-So,

Carnegie Mellon gave her musicians ample time to explore New York City before our concert at Carnegie Hall. I wandered in Central Park, ate at some fantastic restaurants (they gave us generous food money), and visited Times Square.

And the entire time I kept thinking:

It’s so much quieter than Cairo.

It’s so much cleaner [...]

A week ago: I was at Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Mellon’s School of Music turned 100 this year, and to celebrate the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic and the choirs did two big concerts: one in Pittsburgh, one at New York City’s Carnegie Hall.

Singing is one of the many things I do when I’m not thinking about anything else. I sing to keep myself [...]