The Life and Times of Last Minute

Top Ten Things About Last Minute

2006-08-22T09:59:00.000-05:00

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Last Minute!

Last Minute are picked, sorted and packed entirely in the field.
About 100 people choke to death on Last Minute each year!
A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but Last Minute can not.
Red Last Minute at night, shepherd's delight. Red Last Minute at morning, shepherd's warning.
There are more than two hundred different kinds of Last Minute!
If you put a drop of liquor on Last Minute, they will go mad and sting themself to death!
You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching Last Minute!
Every day in the UK, four people die putting Last Minute on.
The difference between Last Minute and a village is that Last Minute do not have a church.
Last Minute once came third in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest.

Yay!

2006-07-31T11:38:00.000-05:00

We came in 5th internationally. That's pretty cool.

Yay!

It's been another month...

2006-06-27T01:45:00.000-05:00

Well, we're still preparing for San Antonio, which is in 2 weeks...

We hope to do well, but really we just want to have a good time. I think that's our plan everytime. Anyway, just thought we'd keep all of our many fans out there updated. Apparently, it's becoming a once a month thing...

It's been a month...

2006-05-27T16:21:00.000-05:00

....and a lot has happened. Meagy got married, Becca graduated, Dee got a date (or two or three...), and Sherida, well, she's Sherida. In two weeks we have a show to sing on, and then a month from there we compete at and international competition in San Antonio, TX. We have a lot to work on and last night we had a good rehearsal. We just need to keep dueting and keep our "wall of sound" consistant we should be good.

Just so you know.....

2006-04-27T13:20:00.000-05:00

Ok so last week I left my debit card in my pants pocket on the floor in my bedroom. I was driving home from Daniels house and stopped to get gas before I ran out. I pulled what I thought was my debit card out of my wallet and paid for gas and started pumping. Two days later I did the same thing! Then I realized I'd been using the wrong card!!! LM's card looks exactly like mine. So I felt really bad but I've gone online and worked out the accounts and trasferred money into the LM account so there's no missing money. I just wanted you all to know that! I'm not stealing money!!! I 'm going to put the card in a different pocket of my wallet so that doesn't happen anymore. :)
Love you all!
Meagan

I miss everyone!

2006-04-10T14:14:00.000-05:00

hey what happened? I miss you guys!!! When are we practicing next? Love ya,
Meagan!!!

packing list

2006-03-21T22:22:00.000-06:00

thought this might be helpful:
Thursday:
regular clothes for trip down
suits, camis, spark. tanks, shoes, pantyhose, jewelry (Deidra)
makeup
hair acessories(hair spray, bobbi pins, hair dryer, curling iron, hot rollers etc..)
pajamas( yes i am listing the obvious)

Friday:
moomoo(i have no idea how to spell this..lol)
last minute t- shirts and jeans(scarves??-i will bring them just in case we want to wear them )
*repeat thursday night*

Saturday:
regular clothes for breakfast
black outfit, jewelry, shoes, black nylons(i'm assuming we'll wear black for the afterglow??)
pajamas

Sunday:
pajamas

*soooo someone told me if we win rising star, we sing at some men's district show that weekend?? i have no idea what day it is we'd singing, but i take it we'll either wear our black, or our suits. sound good??
let me know if i forgot something!

Stuff

2006-03-05T14:53:00.000-06:00

yo yo.. just wanted to remind you guys about a few business stuff(yawn yawn). competition is getting much closer than we think, so i thought we should take care of this before our lives get even crazier.. i thought it would be nice to have cards for, the quartets. i know that everyone said not to worry bout getting stuff for everyone, but i thought being that we are the "experienced" quartet, it be nice to show our support:) did you guys wanna do a card with a pic of us, or do you want me to just go ahead and get some cards? it actually might be cheaper if we make them. i can do this as long as one of guys can email me a pic..and i can also take care of becki hines thank you card while i am at it:)
"I'm a Blonde" is being taken care of. Unfortunately we have to do it through snail mail, so it make take a sec to even find out how much we need to pay, but.... jen said that as long as we are in the process of getting our music paid for, we are legal to sing it. so no worries bout getting it paid in time for Troy, AL.
also..we may want to check and make sure we know where everything is: our suits, cami, sparkle tank, jewelry, shoes ..etc
k soo that's all i can think of right now. i feel like such a nerd for writing this blog, but i hope you guys find it helpful. let me know if you guys think of somethin.
Dee
ps- almost forgot!! jen said our show is not long enough...eeeck! soo she suggested some audience participation skit, or maybe even do the kellogg's jingle for the show and get the audience involved somehow. soooo really be thinking about what we could do, cuz right now i got nothin..apparently we are to do 20-30 mins..and we don't even have twenty, in fact i think we are closer to fifteen than twenty mins.... but we weren't named "last minute" for nothin, so no worries, we got this.

It's so like us to have a great time with Jo!

2006-02-26T22:49:00.000-06:00

Well, we had our coaching session with jo and it was, as expected, wonderful. she gave us much to work on, and much to polish before we get coached by sher!! so folks, while i was on the plane ride home, i took the advantage of some free time and listened to my digital recorder of jo's session, dissected it all on to paper, and now it is ready to blog.. so here goes:

Ballad

sing happy!! ballad moves better.
smile, smile, smile..
don't let the technique show
"some fellas make a winning sometime..."out of tune, needs more smile.
Sherida- too controlled and eyebrows don't need to move to make the "smile"
"Believe me.." think higher!!! 1st chord belongs to Sherida, 2nd Becca, 3rd Deidra
"drifting by.." tune to Deidra
don't hold the word "find" blossom instead..(some fellas look and find...)
move through "some fellas make a winning sometime.." are destination is "sometime" so hold "some" a bit.
Deidra needs to cone and don't attack rainbow swipe. a little finesse is needed. other parts need to lift at rainbows and don't close the "n" too soon. Meagan's suspension on "bows"has been omitted. She also needs to smile and wail especially when Deidra gets closer to her with the swipe. Becca needs to smile, be high and light, on third of chord.
"waiting to find a little bluebird.." move through this line. (first time only)
Deidra needs to singer louder before handing melody to Meagan.."so tell me why I'm always chasing rain..bows
review new post

Uptune

unity needs work, just let it happen.
Deidra needs to finish all words with awesome dipthongs to give the vocal signals for the rest of quartet
"i"dolize, Meagan tune
keep jaw relaxed, no jaw flappin *lips to the teeth to the teeth to the mouth*
"are you wonderin what to do" Deidra needs to be high and light, on 3rd of chord, more Becca, Meagan tune half step higher
"flirty, flirty eyes." don't rush, hold longer.
"good morning sir..." background ooo's with Deidra sings line opera style
"idolize.." key change needs work! review notes
"prize.." swipe during stomp. Meagan think higher and think tiny half step.
"big.." review notes for tag. Sherida don't own end of tag

*whenever wings of quartet are having problems jo wants us to move you to the center to help fix any tuning, or unit problems

"Double Pregnant"

2006-02-21T23:51:00.000-06:00

So we finally had a rehearsal that lasted more than 2hrs.. it was awesome!! wow...we certainly had some good laughs!!! We, however laughing every two minutes(it's true, i got it on tape) were very productive. Mainly we worked on our set for the Alabama show, including mc work. things are finally shaping up and meagan is becoming a great blonde:) tomorrow is a big day for us as we will be coached by the awesome jo kraut!! woot! she will work us hard, but it will be verrrryy good for us. sher will be coaching soon after jo, the date however is still unknown. we also are planning a LM day. as of right now that day is Saturday, March 11. i say we plan a good rehearsal, plus just hangout time.. and i think we should invite a friend..like Jen for example:) i think she misses us. sooo..yeah..we're gonna be very busy in the next month. that's all we got guys..a month!!! less than a month for the show in Alabama!! isn't that crazy and exciting?!?!

Troy, Abalama

2006-02-07T20:18:00.000-06:00

Okay.. I thought I would go ahead and sript out a few things for our alabama show. None of this is set in stone. I just thought it would be nice to have a stronger foundation to work from..sound like a plan?? K so here goes:
Start of by singing “Goody Goody”
Applause Applause!!!
B: Thank you thank you…..Good evening! How’s everyone doin tonight! Woo!(lol) Once again we are Last Minute and we are so excited to be here! We’ve been performing and competing for a little under two years now and we are very honored to have (insert chorus name) invite us to be guest on tonight’s show. This is our first time in Troy, Alabama and we are having a great time. My name is Rebecca Box, I’ll be singing baritone for you this evening. Right next me is Deidra Ekins and she’s our lead, and singing bass this evening is the awesome Sherida Rowsell. Following Sherida is….
M:(interrupting B):Hello everyone I’m Meagan!!! I’m so glad you came to see me tonight!! And I just want you to know that you are my biggest fan!!! (blows pitch for “We Go Together”)
B,D,S: (sigh in disgust)
S: (shrugs and sings) “WAAHH OOOH…”
“We Go Together”
thunderous Applause!!!
M: Wow! Wasn’t that like awesome!!
B: Meagan…why do you have to act like that???
M: Because I’m blonde!!!
B,D: huh???(sherida grabs pitch pipe and begins blonde song)
“I’m a Blonde”
D: thank you thank you… Last minute has been very busy this year. We’ve had a lot to rehearse for and a lot to look forward to. In fact, next week is Region 23’s quartet and chorus competition. We’ve been gearing up for this for almost six months now and this is something we look forward to all year long!! We’ll be competing everyday that we’re are there, which is exhausting, but well worth it! So on Thursday we’ll be heading to Chattanooga, TN and will compete in the Rising Star Competition. This is for region 23’s quartets under the age 25…
M: (showing off her medal) that’s where we like got this big shiny thing…
D: thanks Meagan. Anywaz….on the following day is the “big girl” competition. We had great results of being in the top ten last year and are very excited to compete again. And on Saturday is the chorus competition in which all of us will be singing in the Tune Town Show Chorus. So it’s a very busy weekend but we are excited and wanted to take this opportunity to share our competition package with you. hope you enjoy!
“I’m Always Chasing Rainbows”
“Flirty Eyes”
Roaring applause!!!
S: thank you thank you…we just wanted to take this time to thank everybody for being so awesome and for taking such good care of us....( continue thanking particular people)…and thanks for having us and have a great night!
“Swing Down”

Apologies

2006-02-02T13:07:00.000-06:00

Fans and friends,

Apologies are in order. We have been delinquent on posting about our rehearsals and quotes. Please, please forgive us. We will strive to be better bloggers. Oh, and Happy Groundhog's Day.

Last Minute

"I'm not wearing tassles!"

2005-12-31T00:19:00.000-06:00

Sooo, we basically have the uptune memorized. Meagan, if you haven't done this yet, go to the Last Minute e-mail account and download you a copy of the Kim's tracks for "Flirty Eyes". We are planning to rehearse on Saturday, January 7th around 12:00pm at the rehearsal hall. We really need to do this because we all need to get this uptown down.

We had our first audience for the uptune today. Elizabeth Ellis, her husband and children, Jen, Mom, Dad, and Michelle Anderson were all there. Whew! It's been a while. We need to start singing for the chorus again.

Jen told us to sing in a line, so we can work on our unity because we haven't sung together in a while. We've kinda lost our unit sound. No worries, we'll get it back again.

That's about it.

Some quotey quotes:
S: "Beeeeeelch! I've been so gassy this Christmas!" B: "It's been a gassy Christmas for you?"
D: "Well, poop!" S: "Crap!" B: "I don't want to say that one!"
D: "This is a little uncharacteristic of a stomp, but let's do it soft." B: Let's do it like a stomp, but FAST!!"
D: "I'm not wearing tassles!"
B: "Oh, wan!!" (as in pan)

Another Round of Rehearsal

2005-12-22T22:34:00.000-06:00

We rehearsed again. I know, I know shocker! Here, I'll ease the shock a little. Meagan wasn't here, so it was just the three of us learning "Flirty Eyes". Sherida picked it up quickly (go figure), and Meagan, you will too. It's a fairly easy song. We'll get you the learning CD so you can get caught up a little, or you can just download it off the Last Minute e-mail. We want to have this song learned by the end of this year, so when we go to retreat we can practice like maniacs on it. Jo also said that she would love to coach us when she comes back in February to coach the chorus again. We need to have our two songs down so that Jo can tear them up, re-patch and make them better for us. If you haven't seen it yet Meagan, we made a few changes to "Flirty Eyes". See notes below.

And the trusty quotes....(for our fans):

"Eeeeeeeeeef..."
"Everybody does it."
"Everybody poops."
"Buuuuuuuuurp!! Ahhhhhhh!"
"What are we doing?"

"Teamwork Makes the Dream Work"

2005-12-20T01:54:00.000-06:00

Meagan and Sherida, you've got a lot of catching up to do to become as awesome and Deidra and Becca. We have both mastered "Flirty Eyes" and, well, you haven't.

Ok. Those are lies, but we did pretty much learn it tonight at the Christmas party for the chorus and then later at Becca's house. We also tweaked it a bit as well.

The tweaks are as follows:

On the second "honey" we are changing it to "baby". If you don't like it get over it.
The stomp begins at "cut time" and ends at "a tempo" on page 4. Deidra just realized that this was supposed to be a stomp anyway.
At the beginning of the tag, we're going to break after the word "great" and kinda fall off with it too. Then there's a hang on "big" with a little pizazz that we all may do or just Dee. We're not sure yet. Okay?
We're still at the tag. We're going to speed through "wonderful" and then let Dee hang onto the post for a little while.
We do have some choreography ideas, but we'll discuss that when everyone is present. I don't feel like describing it. It'll take too long to type.

This song is awesome. Yeah.

Some funny things that were said:

"Okay, what are we doing?"
"You're the lead. Get over it."
"Oh! Cookie!"
"I'm feeling good from where I took that 10 second nap...and drooled."
"I need to turn my dipthongs more. I give you a wedgie in your dipthong."
"Oh! Milk!" (after Becca spilled her milk all over herself....she didn't cry.)
"It'll be okay. Skim milk is basically water anyway."

"Pixie Ducks"

2005-12-15T00:42:00.000-06:00

Alright folks. Here come the notes for Abalama. Prepare yourselves.

Songs we know:

One Fine Day
We Go Together --------->Abalama Glow
Goody Goody
I'm Always Chasing Rainbows (If I Only Had A Rainbow) -------->Abalama Show
Beat It
Java Jive --------------->Abalama Glow
Swing Down Chariot ------------------------->Abalama Show

Songs we need to learn (and how!):

Flirty Eyes ----------------->Abalama Show
When Somebody Loved Me
Turn Your Radio On
'Cause I'm A Blonde -----------Abalama Show
Yesterday
Bohemian Rhapsody

Emcee work ideas:
Hopefully these make sense... this is very rough

Sing a song. (Flirty Eyes?)

(Someone from LM): Hi! We're Last Minute and we're a competing quartet for Region 23 and we're also all members of the TuneTown Show Chorus.
Meagan: Let me say it! I want to tell them!
(Someone from LM): No Meagan. You remember what happened last time in Tokyo...
Meagan: That's a hard language!
Deidra: We went to Tokyo?
Meagan: I can do it this time, I promise!
(Someone from LM): No.
Meagan: Fine! (blows pitch pipe)

Sing a song (If I Only Had a Rainbow?)

This is one is about how to get into "'Cause I'm A Blonde":

(Someone from LM): Meagan, why do you act like that all the time?
Meagan: 'Cause I'm a blonde!
Sherida(singing): 'Cause she's a blonde....

"Yeah, Yeah, No"
"I'm a fourth year freshman at Troy University..."

Sing a song (Cause I'm A Blonde)

We'll introduce ourselves and our part. Meagan is jumping up and down and waving her arms behind us saying, "I want to do it. I want to say my name."

Meagan: My name is Tenor. (giggles) I mean Meagan!
(Someone from LM): See Meagan you did it again!

(Note from editor: We probably need to add some more talking here. Maybe thank the audience and the choruses for having us and say what a fabulous time we had on the show?)

Sing a song (Swing Down?)

And now for some funny quotes from our rehearsal:

"Pixie Ducks!"
"What if having babies was like a gumball machine?"
"Jen, what's this for?"

Texas vs Connecticut

Tomorrow's Agenda

2005-12-13T00:31:00.000-06:00

Okay...so we are meeting at 8pm tomorrow at Becca's apt. Unfortunatley Jen won't make it, but.... we gotta a lot that we can work on!!!! first off, our charge for expenses for the Alabama show has been approved!! soo we need to get crackin on a set list and MC work for that show. we have twenty mins to fill...so be ready with any ideas. also we have our learning tape of our new uptune..yay!!! now becca...don't forget to print off some lyrics.. okay that's it for now. peace out. your lead,
Dee

lets gear up and git er done!!

2005-12-07T03:05:00.000-06:00

okay. first of all, i just wanted to remind you all that we have rehearsal this thursday 8pm at the rehearsal hall. yay!! here's something i think we should think about. our agenda for thursday would probably to go through the ballad, being that we won't have the new uptune just yet, work on old rep, and maybe start "I'm a Blond" ( meagan can you bring that again??) what i think would be awesome is if each of us spent five or ten minutes prior to thursday on the ballad. you can do this in the car, or just mentally sing through it before you go to bed... little crap like this is gonna bring us closer to our goals.....we can do this girls, but it's gonna take some work and individual time!!

Gearing up for Competition!!

2005-12-01T10:54:00.000-06:00

Ok girls lets get ready to go!! We gotta kick some butt and this year we actually have to practice more that 5 times ;)

To our Fans.....
We commit to the following just for you
*Self Commitment!!!
-we gotta practice on our own in our homes or in our cars or at work....Wherever you might be!
*We Need to be off the paper for "I Love a Piano" next time we rehearse
*We're going to have scheduled practice every week.
-After Christmas we go to 2 practices a week!
*We need to practice show sets. We're going to be in a show in March and we gotta be ready!

Okay, that's about all we can handle right now!! Everyone is making time for this...And it's going to be well worth it!!

Pictures

2005-11-18T00:00:00.000-06:00

Here some pictures of us at the Young Women in Harmony quartet competition (we won) and Regional Quartet competion for Region 23 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We also received the Novice quartet award for the Region, so there are some pictures of us at the Afterglow singing as well.

YWIH quartet competion
Regional quartet competion
Afterglow

Please note that some of them are a bit scary. Some of our facial expressions are hilarious.

A Last Minute Post

2005-11-17T19:50:00.000-06:00

Well folks, Last Minute finally made it to the blog circle. Here we will keep you updated where we'll be singing and whatnot. If you have any questions just email us up at last_minute4@yahoo.com or just leave us a comment. We'd love to hear from you!