a musical created on the internet by the award-winning writing team Kerrigan and Lowdermilk based on the lives of two young bloggers as they share the story of their freshman years of college
I hope that you will go back to the beginning and read through all of PC’s and CC’s respective years because we’re going to definitely keep these up for a while. I’m sad to see the project end - and we’re still going to get you guys “Last Night’s Alcohol” as soon as we can get things together to do it. We’re in the middle of some Sam Brown rewrites and some other things as well, but we’ll definitely get it to you soon.
On another note, Ella’s song is pretty damn cool. It made Brian and me blush and we didn’t know what to say. I’ve definitely never had a song written about me before. In addition to writing some great lyrics and some sweet rhymes with a clear and tight rhythm (none of which just anyone can do), thank you for thinking I can belt high notes that I certainly cannot belt, and thinking Brian is older than me (he’s not - he’s only 25). But seriously, it’s the most flattering thing I’ve ever read. It takes a great deal of work and some fancy budgeting to be able to be a writer in your twenties - and also a complete disregard for the important things in life like health insurance…
But nothing you said you want to do is out of reach. So go and do it, Ella. College is the best time to write a show if that’s what you’re looking to do. You’ve paid your 40k (or some scholarship has) in order to have unlimited access to the school’s resources for your education. So educate yourself. Write a show and put it up. That’s exactly where both Brian and I started. And then we started working together and since we were both such self-starters, things started happening more quickly.
It’s just a matter of doing it. And finishing things. From what I can see, the difference between a writer and a would-be-writer is that the writer finishes projects.
Good luck to all of you. I feel like I have a vested interest in each of you doing exactly what it is you set out to do. Do us proud and keep in touch!
Kait said her goodbyes in her most recent post, but I just want to reiterate how honored I am to have been part of this project with you. We had a blast making this video - it’s a tribute of sorts. If anyone else is mourning the end of the experiment and looking for an outlet, post a video response.
This is a very hard post to write. I’ve been thinking about it all day and I’ve been dreading it. This is because it is my sad task to tell you that The Freshmen Experiment is coming to an end… at least in this incarnation. After lots of discussion, we have decided that the website it too all-consuming for us to do without major tech support and too expensive to do with major tech support. It’s been a hard decision to make, but now that our freshmen are no longer freshmen, we have decided that this is the right time to suspend the site.
The suspension won’t take effect immediately. Brian and I have a few more tricks up our sleeves. We plan to finish off “Last Week’s Alcohol” and we even have a few surprises to share, but our bloggers will stop blogging at the end of this week, and we will finish off our songs soon thereafter, and our experiment will be complete.
For me, this has been a beautiful and illuminating experience. I have laughed and cried at some of the posts and comments. I am more proud of some of the songs we’ve written for this project than of anything else we’ve ever written. Partly it’s because they felt so real to us, but I think it’s also the attempt to take the words of our kick-ass bloggers and turn them into lyrics and melodies.
And then there are the relationships that we’ve developed with the readers which has been something different than anything I’ve experienced before. If any of you all-star commenters come to a concert of ours, please introduce yourselves. You’ve been a crucial part of this special and incredibly personal project.
Two great pieces of news come out of this. One is that there’s no way we won’t try this again. It was way too much fun and we learned way too much not to put it to good use - only next time we’ll have a videographer, sound designer, web designer, tech consultant, and a marketing firm… oh yeah, our plans are BIG. The second is more immediate. CC will continuing blogging on her own new website. Brian and I will follow wherever she goes, of course, and beg her to let us write songs based on her writing on occasion. Maybe she’ll even let us guestblog for a week or two here and there (hint hint)…
You can always find me on my new lyrics blog (www.kerrigan-lowdermilk.com/lyrics), where you should comment because it’s very lonely there without you. Even after the experiment is completely finished, this website will still be here for you to come back in wistful moments and read / listen to your favorite posts. Please do. I know I will.
Thank you guys for everything. You have made this site what it is.
Hey guys, so here’s the chorus that kait and i currently have. kait’s also got text for the first verse, but i haven’t set it yet.vermont is amazing, expect lots of juicy bad years videos soon.xo, b