Spring in Hollywood

The cool thing about living in Hollywood is that at any time you can meet a celebrity. Like the day after watching LA Ink we saw Kat Von D in her tattoo shop High Voltage. We went to a Steel Panther concert and Dan moshed with Fred Durst.



Saw the following guys at school

Guitar virtuoso Andy McKee played "Rylynn" along other songs.


Piano genius Ben Folds sang "I am the Luckiest", and spoke about the industry. We talked to him afterwards and i mentioned to him i was from Iceland, he told me he wanted to go there but things didnt work out, so i told him i knew some people. He told me to contact him on Twitter, i did and got a tweet back. Such a cool guy!



Talking about stars, I did an interview back at home with DV which had the headline "Anna is used to Hollywood stars" which made it look like I was one of those girls who makes friends or sleeps with celebrities to get in the news. The funny site Sannleikurinn took the article and turned it around. Really funny.I wanted to have my say on it so i wrote an article describing my view but Pressan didn´t publish it, so i posted it on my facebook site, http://www.facebook.com/notes/anna-claessen/%C3%A9g-og-brad-pitt-grein-sem-pressan-birti-ekki/10151511417000602

This all went down when i was in Michigan so there was not a lot i could do about it, but let it die.

Once we returned back to L.A. a mail awaited us....from Jimmy Kimmel. We had sent him a letter saying Thank You since we met in line for his show...and this was his response.

"Dan and Anna, Congratulations! Please don´t blame me if it goes to hell. Your Pal, Jimmy Kimmel"

Dan and I celebrated our 6 months anniversary by having drinks at Roosevelt Hotel. Also saw the movie "Five Year Engagement", it was great, not only mocking Michigan (which Dan loved since he´s from there) but also mocking Zumba (i´m a Zumba Fitness Instructor)...great romantic comedy.

The Icelanders who graduated together had a little dinner together where we also took some pictures of us all with our graduation dresses on, so much fun. Well up to the point where i had a ginger tea and got sick, turns out ginger is my enemy, my allergy. I lost my voice and was sick for a week after that. Nothing worse for a singer than loose their voice.

I was invited to a premiere party at my friends house. Her boyfriend was starring in a new icelandic action movie Svartur a á leik, which describes the drug world so well back at home. Great movie about a horrible world. It was suppose to happen in late 90´s so i couldnt help but laugh at the old phones, eurovision and the fashion. Took you back.

Saw my friend Jonina perform...and man she´s good! I hope i´ll be that good after my program. See my favourite song of hers "Hold on my sister."


I am taking the Vocal Performance Program at Musicians Institute, which i love. I´m learning sooo much, but I realized I have a love-hate relationship with school. I love what i´m studying, but i stress myself out to the point where i think i´m not good enough. Not a good mix. I´m just trying to enjoy it.

I´m a dancer so it´s total opposite what i´m now doing, as a dancer i breathed through my mouth and held my stomach in and express myself a lot, in singing you breath through your mouth using your diaphragm and expressing less, using your voice to put the emotions you want your audience to feel. I film all my live performances at school and it´s great to see the progress. Like when i did Janis Joplin´s song Piece of my heart.

Piece of my heart in class
http://socialcam.com/v/AKGZjJYh?autostart=true

Piece of my heart performed later in the concert hall
http://socialcam.com/v/4kzBSSls?autostart=true

headvoice vs. chest/mask voice....you can hear the difference

So my life these days is mostly school, school, school. Go a couple of times with my friend to the gym and we have friends over every weekend just to be social!

Back to school, Back to Hollywood :)

Live Performance of Falling for you

Finally on youtube....

Spring break travels

2 countries and 7 flights....my spring break

I went back home to Iceland to change my visa status from M1 to F1 and talk to my bank and LIN (loan institution). Not only that but i got my hair done, dentist appointment, newspaper interview and managed to see my family and friends in less than a week. Wonderful to hug my loved ones. Had dinner with the family on Mon, met my friend Kolla and her family on Tues, movienight with Gudrun on Wednesday, goodbye party on Thursday and saw my grandparents and hung out with my sister and her twins on Friday and I left Iceland on a Saturday. Flew to Boston for a layover and then two flights to end up in Michigan with my man Dan and his family.

This had been the longest me and Dan had been away from each other since we met, so you can imagine our excitement when we saw each other. Dan came running with open arms. So sweet. I finally got to meet his best friend Andrew in person. So sweet. He drove us to Dan´s family. His family greeted me not only with open arms, but a  poster and a gift basket. Could they be any cuter? Yes, they also bought cola and made popcorn because they know i love it. Needless to say i fell in love with them instantly.

The next day, Andrew, his mom Ruth and Dan took me on a tour through West Bloomfield to Detroit. We walked around and ended up having hot dogs at Coneys and their rival (side by side) and Andrew showed us the main hat store in town. Really cool. We had dinner with his family and then met his friend Nate.


The next day Andrew drove us to Kalamazoo (or Tiramisu as I call it), where Dan studied and most of his friends are. We did though make a beer stop at Dark Horse and Bells, two amazing breweries.  met his other best friend Inga and his other friends, we took a tour of his old campus but mostly hung out with his friends. I was so happy to finally meet the people Dan talked so much about. I got to know why Dan loves beer. If anybody tasted Bells beer they´d know why. The bars there were also fun. One bar is named The Library, another Beer exchange, where it works like a stock market and 411, where Dan played. So cool. I got introduced to Disc-golf, it´s pretty much golfing, except there is a frisbee and you throw it in a basket. I made this legendary shot. His friend Wes drove us back to his family where we had Shabbat dinner and then movie night ( My Blue Heaven) with popcorn and cola, my favourite. Such a great way to end the trip! We took the 4:11 flight (ironic since Dan played at a bar called 411), two flights and then our roomates picked us up in L.A.

You need to get out of Hollywood once in a while and i was really happy to spend the spring break in Iceland with family/friends and in Michigan getting to know dan´s family/friends. But i´m happy to be back and look forward to start the Vocal Performance Program at Musicians Institute. Bring it on!

Graduation Day 2012

Graduated from the Musician´s Institute IAP Program on March 17, 2012

I was really proud of myself. I did it, 

i had worked like a maniac for a year to afford the program and i had an EP to show for it. 

My family normally bought me jewelry to wear on my graduation day but since i paid for it myself i bought myself some awesome guitar earrings from Hard Rock to celebrate this great accomplishment.

My graduation, however, left me feeling blue. It´s nothing if noone shares it with you. 

I was happy that my best friend here in L.A. Sara and the Icelanders were there but Dan and my family/friends were away, so i didn´t feel the love. Plus it rained in L.A. that day. What are the 

odds? We Icelander looked at each other and smiled, thought it reminded us of home.

The bright side of the graduation...having Alice Cooper as our keynote speaker. 

how badly i wanted to pull a WE´RE NOT WORTHY!!!!

How many people can say Alice Cooper was at their graduation?
Only in Hollywood!

Selling my songs so i can be at my sisters wedding

Selling my songs so i can be there for my sister on her wedding day.

For more information go to 

http://annaclaessen.bandcamp.com

Vote Funny or Die!

Carlos & Brandi 2 - watch more funny videos     

 

Was asked to play Boo in the funny or die video Carlos & Brandi 2 

Honored to be a part of the Icelandic Poniez comedy team, although playing tennis in full makeup, a skanky outfit and high heels on a hot day in L.A was challenging. Fun to step into acting for a day.

Vote Funny or Die! Common, the Baywatch effect alone on my behalf deserves it!

www.funnyordie.com/videos/7250a1fce8/carlos-brandi-2