Ned Donovan - Ithaca ‘12

Hey everyone,

So I’ve been here at school freaking out about life and the things I have to do, because everything is so hectic right now.  It was only today, that I had a sort of epiphany, where I realized just how confined to my own program I am right now.  Looking at the trials and tribulations of my friends and family I realize just how much less stressful my life is than I thought.  Specifically my brother and my father have been having truly stressful and trying months.  We’ll start with my father. My dad (Michael Donovan, and no, not the director who is all over my resumé; they are different people) is a city councilman in Allentown Pennsylvania. Earlier this year he was assaulted by some teenagers he asked to stop go-karting in a park they were not allowed to be riding motorized vehicles in.  One kid punched him in the face and broke his cheek bone.  My father, did not push the full wrath of god upon this kid to make an example of him, instead he talked with the boy, the judge, and the boy’s father, and came up with a suitable juvenile sentence.  I can tell you if I had been hit, I would have gone after him in a heartbeat.  Later on this year my father went next door late at night to ask his neighbors to quiet down and to bring their barking dog inside.  When he knocked on the door, he was answered by an angry woman who was screaming at him, and she slammed her glass door in his face.  The door shattered, covering him in glass, and he (wisely) left the scene after calling the police.  Soon after he was served with two cases, one for criminal harassment, and one for destruction of property (she maintains that he broke her door).  The harassment case was thrown out by the judge at the end of the summer, and the DOP case was voluntarily removed by the complainant after receiving a letter detailing the penalties for the consequences of wrongful use of civil proceedings and abuse of process.  You can read the details here on Bernie O’Hare’s blog.  The time between the charges being dealt, and the dismissing of the cases was a few months, however, and over that time many biting personalities in Allentown were able to take potshots at my father over the case (Bill Villa being the #1 instigator).  These people have been coming after my father a lot recently, and this is the other trial my father is constantly facing.  On his public blog he hopes to allow a forum for people to get ideas through to the city council.  As with all political public blogs, these bring out the best and worst of people.  Recently he’s been getting a lot of the worst from Bill Villa and his supporters.  In that blog post I just linked, Mr.

Hey everyone,

So if you all have followed me on Twitter, then you’ll know that earlier today I was updating with some songs off my Greatest Songs Ever.  Period. list.  I decided I wanted to get some of these songs down, so the following are 25 of the songs on that list.  Now before the shredding of these choices begin, know that there were some criteria here.  The judging was done as follows:

• It had to be a song that just makes you want to bounce, dance, sing, slam your hands against your steering wheel to the rhythm, or any of these natural reactions to kickass crazy awesome songs.
• The song must induce a heartrate increase.
• It can not be a song that I love, but helps to put me to sleep sometimes.
• It is not a song which I love, but is of the softer nature.
• It is a song that I would rather yell at the top of my lungs, than sing politely.

Now that you see some (but not all) of the grading criteria, the following are my list (in no particular order) of the songs on the Greatest Songs Ever. Period.  Are there more songs deserving to be on this list?  Probably, and I’ll add them as they come to me, or as people convince me to add them.

Hey everyone,

Just a quick post to let you all know that I have a new video up on my YouTube channel, and therefore here on my website.  This one is a performance of “I’m Coming Out of My Shell” from A Year With Frog and Toad.  To see the video simply click here, or click on the “Media” button in the upper right hand corner of the page, followed by the “Videos” subpage.

The video is from the Bonnin Studio Recital on June 28th 2009 at the Italian Heritage Center in Portland Maine.  I had hoped to put up a video of myself performing “Streets of Dublin” from A Man of No Importance, but due to both my own error while singing the song, and a camera error involving intermittent sound cutouts as well as focus issues, that one will have to be saved for another day.

Enjoy the videos, and please let me know what you think either by leaving me a comment here on the site, sending me an e-mail using my contact form, or leaving me a comment on the video on Youtube!

~Ned Donovan

Hey everyone,

Just letting you know that I’m putting up the 5th recording on my audio page (which can be found here) or under the “About” section of my website.  The song is “What is it About Her?” from The Wild Party by Andrew Lippa.  It’s a great song and I love singing it, so check it out and let me know what you think.  Over the summer I’m planning on bringing new features to my site.  Instead of having links on my audio page, I’m hoping to have a flash player which will be able to handle my songs so there is more ease to listening to them.  I will be using a youtube player in order to show you all my videos in the soon to be updated/overhauled video section.  I am hoping to get some functionality out of this website, and I think by adding these features I can.

I am also considering starting an infrequent podcast.  Most of my updates would still happen here on neddonovan.com but this way I could create an audio component to my page beyond just my recordings.  The podcast would be available through itunes for free, and listeners could subscribe to it.

Hey everyone,

Over the summer my goal is to get audio and video sections onto the site.  I have gotten four recordings up onto the audio section already.  The audio section can be found under the About section. I will add recordings and videos as I get them ready to be put up.  The first four are “Prologue” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, “I’d Give it All For You” from Songs For a New World (with Genney Myers), “I’m Coming Out of My Shell” from A Year with Frog and Toad, and “Run Away With Me” from The Unauthorized Biography of Samantha Brown.  Please listen to them and enjoy.  Please let me know what you think about them, and also give me tips for getting better recordings up, as well as song ideas.

Thanks,

~Ned Donovan