So my brother decided to have some fun making a video… note:  this is not his real speaking voice =)  Pix below the video - kinda hard to see the bird (who we’ve named “Hootie” - thanks Dad) in the video. 

Five students at the Cleveland Institute of Music have been selected as finalists for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra! 

YouTube invited musicians from around the world to audition for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra in January. The video entries will be combined into the first ever collaborative virtual performance, and the world will select the best to perform at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in April 2009.  Finalists have been selected. Now, you have the opportunity to choose who goes to Carnegie Hall! Here is information for voting for the five CIM students who were selected for the finals:

Go to www.youtube.com/symphony

Then click on the large VOTE button.

Near the top of the next page, you can select different instruments by clicking on the pulldown menu named “category”.  You can then search for individual competitors with the keyword search bar.  The search only allows one word.  Here are the best words to use when searching for the Cleveland music students.

Alexandra Early - Violin - Alexandra

Ben Odhener - Violin - Odhener

David George - Bass - David

Joel Negus - Bass - Joel

Tara Klein - Cello - Klein

Karla Donehew - Violin - Schumann  

After searching, the resulting videos will appear on the right side of the screen.  Click on one and it will play on the left.  To vote, click on the Green Thumbs Up button.

Voting will only be open until February 22.  People can vote once per day per video to select their favorites.

Thanks to Jen Toohey, Q104, and the Q104 listeners for their support.

David George

This video was created for the AARP U@50 video contest and placed second.

We were talking about Valentine’s Day plans on the show on Friday (the 13th) and I happened to mention that my boyfriend Nate and I were going roller skating (we were trying to think of something different to do rather than dinner/movie).  I was a little nervous since I hadn’t roller skated since Jr. High, then I got even MORE nervous after I got TONS of calls on air from people that had broken tailbones, elbows and all kinds of things while roller skating.  MANY people highly encouraged me NOT to go… after much consideration, though, we still moved forward with the plan.  And as promised on air, here’s the video of the experience:

… you may have heard me talking about Fannie May chocolates on the show - they’re located in Westgate Mall and in Hudson, and their chocolate is absolutely DEEELISH!  I’ve never seen such huge chocolate covered strawberries… I just had to share a pic!