The O-town Scene

Scene the O-Town Vol. 1, No. 42 www.otownscene.com 102 Chestnut St., P.O. Box 250, Oneonta, NY 13820 (607) 432-1000, ext. 255, editor@otownscene.com EDITOR Cassandra Miller PUBLISHER Armand Nardi ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITOR OF THE DAILY STAR Adrienne Wise CONTRIBUTORS Mark Boshnack, Matthew Harby, Jim Koury, EDITOR OF THE DAILY STAR Sam Pollak Terry Ludwig, Emily Popek, Mark Simonson and Danielle Tonner ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Sean Lewis The O-Town Scene is published Thursdays by The Daily Star Inc. Free copies are distributed throughout Oneonta, as well as parts of Otsego, Delaware and Schoharie counties. Member of The Associated Press and CNHI News Service EDITOR’S NOTE I love to sing. Not many people have heard me sing in my actual voice, because I get stage fright. Which is hard to explain, because I’ve performed a lot _ in musi- cal theater, all-state music festivals, choral societies, jazz ensembles. But, I haven’t performed as myself by my- self in years. It’s that whole putting yourself out there for judgment thing that freaks me out. In a group, fine. Using my “actor” belting voice _ loud, but not necessarily pretty _ sure. But as me? My palms are sweating just think- ing about it. That’s why I’m in awe of the singers who have per- formed in front of hundreds at Ultimate Idol, the annual summer-long karaoke sing- ing competition sponsored by Central New York Radio Group and held at Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center (see Pages 16-17). My friends and I have at- 2 O-Town Scene Aug. 4, 2011 tended almost every per- formance this summer, and each performance we say the same thing, “It takes balls to get up there and sing.” Several contestants made it all the way to the semifinal round July 27 on sheer con- fidence. But, awe-inspiring confidence can only get you so far. The 10 finalists are all good singers in addition to confident performers. My friends and I think that almost as important as confidence and vocal ability is song choice _ the audi- ence has to like the song. We like to play the What Song Would You Sing? game. I would sing Otis Redding’s “Sittin’ On the Dock of the Bay” because it’s in my range, and who doesn’t love Otis Redding? One of my friend’s says she would perform Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Some- body (Who Loves Me),” be- cause even though she is not a seasoned singer, the song is a sure-fire crowd-pleaser. Entertaining the judges and those who come out to sit in lawn chairs under the big, white tent at Foothills is kind of the point of the whole thing. The audience sincerely wants every single performer to do well. We want them to have fun. We want them to hit the high notes, and pick a song that not only they sound great singing, but we like to listen to. Maybe that’s why the audience has gone crazy every time someone has sung Adele’s No. 1 hit, “Rolling in the Deep.” It’s a great song, and it’s been a free ticket to the next round for anyone who has been able to belt it even close to in-tune, which has happened at least three times this summer. I’ll be rooting for every finalist to do his or her best Wednesday, Aug. 10, and I know the rest of the crowd will be, too. — Cassandra Miller Cassandra Miller is the founding editor of the O- Town Scene. She can be reached at editor@ otown- scene. com.

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