Renee Lopez elementary education senior

Education senior reflects on steel drums, stomach flapping, professors' after-hours secrets

WILDCAT: Do you like to sing?

LOPEZ: No. Actually, I'm in the steel drums program.

WILDCAT: If you could sing, which syllables would you use to warm up: "la, la, la" or "mm, mm, mm"?

LOPEZ: Mi, mi, mi, mi; miiiiii-miiiiii-miiiiii-mi!

WILDCAT: You said you're in the drum program. What instrument do you play?

LOPEZ: I play bass.

WILDCAT: Why did you pick the drums? There are so many other things. You could have picked the xylophone or something.

LOPEZ: Well, actually, I'm not a percussionist. My main instrument is actually clarinet and saxophone, but then I switched because the steel drums are just more exciting than anything. Not to mention you need discipline to play the xylophone. I don't have discipline at all.

WILDCAT: If you could make your own instrument out of any body part, what would it be and what kind of noise would it make?

LOPEZ: My stomach, and it would make some sort of a hollow, flappy type of noise. I'm not going to play it, but you get the idea.

WILDCAT: What's the first thing you think of when I say "cello?"

LOPEZ: Yo Yo Ma.

WILDCAT: There aren't many people here right now. Do you think the professors have all gone home and maybe they're rocking out to 'NSync and Britney Spears?

LOPEZ: Oh, of course! They've got their fake hair and are head banging to whatever they want and jamming out to Britney.

WILDCAT: Do you like 'NSync or Britney Spears?

LOPEZ: No.

WILDCAT: What about Elvis?

LOPEZ: The King? Who doesn't like The King?

WILDCAT: Pick a line from your favorite song and let's see if I can guess what it is. And you have to sing it.

LOPEZ: That's rough. There are so many songs.

WILDCAT: Pick one. (A lollipop-bearing friend stops and whispers a suggestion in her ear.)

LOPEZ: "Happy Birthday"? Everyone knows that song. I'm a thinker. I've got to think about these things, man.