Ooh, ooh! I’m on NPR! (Kinda!)

My tournament was the lead story in a recent NPR piece, an interview with senior GQ editor Mickey Rapkin, whose book, Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory, recently hit national bookstores. (Sorry, Rob bought the only copy at the Borders on State and Lake, so you’ll have to get yours elsewhere. Or you can just have my copy.)

You can listen to the piece here.

Pretty wild, huh? I find it hilarious that I am now learning things about my own business on the radio. (ICCA is pronounced “Ick-uh”? Seriously?) I mean, it makes me giggle to hear the host of an NPR show talking about the tournament’s organizers making this huge decision to amend the judging system that ultimately changed the landscape of competitive a cappella, when in reality what transpired was a 15-second conversation on the plane home from New York City:

Amanda: “Shit, did the Juilliard judge really screw them over then?”
Rob: “Yeah, we’d better start having five judges and throwing out the top and bottom scores.”
Amanda: “AAaaauauuuuuugh. Seriously? That’s so much work!”

Of course, it wouldn’t be my tournament without the aca-drama, so it makes me feel somewhat better that even NPR had to explain itself in the aftermath. Listen here for their follow-up piece that patiently insists that all the a cappella tunes they played really WERE done entirely without instruments. Seriously, Dad, they really AREN’T sneaking drum sets into the studios or playing tiny trombones from in the wings!

Tags: a cappella, Borders, collegiate a cappella, GQ, ICCA, instruments, judging, Juilliard, Mickey Rapkin, New York City, NPR, Pitch Perfect