Hello and welcome to my memorial page for my friend Blair Phillips
(January 10th, 1989- January 19th, 2013) He was many things during his short lifetime, which included but were
not limited to: a son, a brother, a cousin, a grandson, a friend, a pianist, a
UVA Architectural School graduate, a vocalist & member of the Academical
Village People. Last but not least though, Mr. Blair Phillips was an
ever-present, constant shining light to those around him.
My name (though not important) is Erin Avery. Please let me
briefly share and explain why I decided to publish this page: I created this to
honor my friend Blair Phillips because I felt he deserved at the very least his
own memorial page. I didn’t know Blair for very long. I only met him in college
and from that point on knew him as my good friend until his recent passing. At
the moment I am currently working for a cruiseline as an Entertainer and due to
my binding contract I was withheld from the opportunity to briefly return to
the states for any of Blair’s memorial services. I guess you could say that’s
what particularly motivated me to dedicate something, anything to Blair and
thus that’s why I created this page; it has helped me with my grieving process.
I hope its contents will serve to help others that knew and loved him not only
honor his life but additionally keep alive the memory of Blair’s inner joy and
the laughter he brought to us all. Lastly before I begin I would just like to
humbly mention I am aware my memorial page for Blair is but a meager one. Since
I only knew him for a few short years, there is much I probably have
unwillingly and unknowingly omitted. All I could do was but my best at attempting
to capture the Blair I knew, so please forgive me if in the process I left out
anything you (other fellow friends &
family of Blair) felt should have been included.
Academical Village People
As I mentioned above, I met Blair for the first time through
the mutual friends we shared at our collegiate institute: the University of
Virginia. Blair was in an all-male a capella group known as “The Academical Village People” (aka AVP) and it
just so happened that I had several good friends who were also in this group.
At the time and even now AVP held/holds a special place in my heart because all
the boys were/are so talented and so spirited during their performances! I’d
say more about AVP but since I’m not an official part of their group I believe
it would be out of place to say anything more….it would just make me look like
a groupie ! Therefore to finish this section off I just included some video
clips that in my opinion really showcase the talents of Blair Phillips and the
rest of my AVP boys!
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| The AVP Fourth Years (minus Robbie Eckardt) plus myself on the night of A Capella Ball |
Remembering the Good Times…
Meeting up again for the first time
since college
One of Blair’s roommates, John Buttram has a hometown friend
(Caroline Hoover) who also went to UVA with the group of us. My friend Rachel
and I knew Caroline at UVA because she was in the same sorority as us. Anyways,
one night early last year Caroline was throwing a
housewarming party for any and all of her DC based friends. Rachel and I hadn’t
seen Caroline since graduation so we both came to the party together, which is
where we saw Blair & the boys (John and Witt) of whom we also hadn’t seen
since UVA Final Exercises. As Caroline played the role of social host
fluttering about talking to everyone who came, the five of us ended up hanging
out chatting and catching up as we sat cross-legged in a circle on the floor.
No pretentious UVA kids there! We didn’t need chairs. The floor was good enough
for us! Haha actually though in reality we sat on the floor due to the limited
amount of provided seating but still, we didn’t mind taking a comfortable seat
on the apartment floor.
Eventually Caroline’s party moved from her apartment to a
nearby bar: the Mason Grill. Everyone spread out once inside except for myself,
John, Witt, Blair, and our other friends Natasha & Rachel. The six of us
stuck together on the dance floor as we moved and sang aloud to the music being
played by the resident DJ. Blair and I kept laughing because basically anytime
a song came on the two of us never knew the lyrics, only the chorus. Everyone
else was singing along to the whole thing but we could only chime in on the
chorus sections. We would go from not singing at all to blasting off the roof
when the chorus kicked in! My favorite part of that night though had to be when
Blair decided since the DJ was taking requests he was going to put one in….for
Hanson’s “Mmm Bop!” At first when Blair told the DJ his request he was laughed
off; the guy thought Blair was just kidding. However once the DJ realized his
sincerity, he told him he would play “Mmm Bop” in a few songs. Forty minutes
later though when the desired song still had not been played, I took it upon
myself to go request “Mmm Bop” myself and hope that power in numbers would
finally make Blair’s musical dream become a reality! Long story short after I
went up and asked, the Hanson song played one song later and the six of us literally
took over the floor (anyone else at the bar left the dance floor and stuck to
the sides once the song came on) where for the first time Blair sang along to
the ENTIRE song: lyrics, chorus, and all! If memory serves correctly I believe
John, Witt and Blair even harmonized together to “Mmm Bop.” The group of us may
have been quite the sight singing & dancing along to a song popular from
our pre-teen days but we didn’t care! We were solely focused on having our fun
with some Hanson music.
Going out as a group to karaoke
As established earlier, Blair and his roommates had all met in college through their male a capella group (AVP). It would make sense then why once when our group was all hanging out we discussed the possibility of going out to karaoke for fun, right? Therefore on the chosen night, Blair, John, Witt, Rachel and I all crammed into my car and headed towards Cafe Japone, a karaoke bar in DC. We had some difficulty finding the bar initially. I think we walked around the area for about ten minutes searching for this infamous location before we finally found it! Upon entering the place we discovered this particular karaoke bar had some interesting interior decorating. It's theme was "Under the Sea" haha "sea" below
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| Cafe Japone |
Some of my favorite memories that night included:
- When Blair, John and Witt harmonized and sang along to some Backstreet Boys musical selection. Everyone in the bar was so impressed with their singing skills that when they finished the song, they received roaring applause!
- When myself and the other lady friends who joined us (Rachel, Natasha, & Allison) chose to sing Carrie Underwood's "All American Girl." We made Blair join us so he could sing the verses of the song, since the vocal range on that part was too low for all of us. Haha Blair didn't know the song AT ALL but we kept pretending and insisting to him that he did. We told him, "Blair come on! You definitely know this song! Help us out and sing with us!!!" Blair being the good sport he was, took it in stride and attempted to sing along....in total disarray of the song's rhythm and harmony haha. It was hysterical. Another example of Blair's good nature :)
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| The boys feeling empowered and manly after a long & hard karaoke session... |
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| ...but whew, karaoke is tiring! |
4th of July cookout
Blair lived with his roommates in an amaaaazing apartment
near Four Corners in Falls Church area. The first time Rachel and I visited the
digs Blair met us in the lobby and we followed him into the elevator where he
pressed the “PH” button. Yes that’s correct: “PH” for Pent House! Initially us
two ladies laughed because we thought Blair was just playing a joke when in
reality, he was not. The two of us walked into a gorgeously decorated apartment
complete with tasteful interior design, beautiful artwork, and an extensive
outdoor deck with white Christmas lights garnishing the railing. Who would have
thought this was a male apartment? No one, that’s who! The three boys told us
Witt’s parents had touched up the place since all of them weren’t from
Virginia; they wanted to make sure the boys felt comfortable and happy in their
apartment or home away from home!
As the Fourth of July approached, the group of us talked
over ideas of what we could do to celebrate the holiday together. Since the
boys lived in such a great apartment Blair had the idea to throw a good ‘ol
American cookout at their place, to be followed by a game night. I had received
a board game called “UVA-opoly” for Christmas about two years prior that had
never been used so I brought it along that evening. I also brought homemade
white chocolate covered strawberries whose design was based off of an idea I
found on Pinterest (Strawberries dipped in white chocolate with the tip dipped
in blue sugar sprinkles). After everyone had eaten their dinner of hamburgers and/or hotdogs, compliments of "Grill Masters" Blair & John, a few of us (including Blair) settled down outside on the patio to enjoy the strawberry dessert and also to play a game of UVA-opoly...which ended up lasting over 2 hours! For me at least, this was hands down the best 4th of July I had ever spent. There's nothing like chilling with fellow Cavalier friends over hamburgers, sliced watermelon, white chocolate covered strawberries, classic board-games, awesome conversation and good 'ol fashioned fun!! :)
Other funny memories
- Hearing Blair tell me about the man, the myth, the legend: “Barry Lemonade” (the New Orleans rice guy)
- Playing “Guess the Person On my Head” while driving out to DC….not the actual name of the game…I can’t remember the real name. You are probably familiar with it though: it’s that commonplace game where you have a stack of cards listing the names of real people or fictional characters. When we played the game, once it was your turn you had to wear a sweatband around your forehead and insert the selected card facing outward so that everyone else playing could see the name of the person/character. Then it was the job of the person sporting the exercise headgear to ask 20 questions about that card which would hopefully lead up to the discovery of the card’s identity. All I remember from this experience was that the group of us busted our sides out laughing when we played…especially when it was John’s turn: he got “Quasimodo.” John couldn’t guess the correct answer for the life of him so we extended his questions to about 50 (before finally he gave up and we had to reveal the card’s identity)!!
Kings Dominion day trip
The last time I was officially able to hang out with Blair was when he, John, Rachel and I drove towards Richmond, Virginia...destination: Kings Dominion amusement park!!! Blair took over the wheel on the way there for the lovely three hour drive where our car sat parked in traffic most of the way. Car congestion aside the road trip was nevertheless a blast because not only was it spent in good company but we also got to listen to him describe his exciting new project at work (designing an amazing music venue) and also hear all about John's new purchase: a drip coffee maker for the apartment.
Riding roller coasters all day was a blast too, as you can imagine (unless of course you're not a thrill seeker or a fan of roller coaster rides). Despite it being a Saturday the park wasn't that crowded so we were able to ride the rides more than once all day. That would explain then why we rode the Intimidator 305 coaster 3-4 times; we loved that ride plus we kept blacking out during the big drop so we kept re-riding it just to test and see if we would be able to withstand blacking out. Verdict: failure.
I remember Blair's absolute favorite part of the day was at the end when the four of us visited the Kings Dominion water park last minute and went tubing on the lazy river. Our tubes were all close together when we started but through the (non-lazy) water current and the (non-lazy) children also enjoying the tubing stream, we were all severely separated only to join up again at the bottom of the river. My goodness though, that lazy river was so much fun we all kept telling Blair afterwards we were so glad he insisted we go there. It was the best way to end what had been a hot, full day of walking around the park and standing in line for rides. As Blair had said, "there's nothing quite like sitting down in a water tube floating along a lazy river."
Riding roller coasters all day was a blast too, as you can imagine (unless of course you're not a thrill seeker or a fan of roller coaster rides). Despite it being a Saturday the park wasn't that crowded so we were able to ride the rides more than once all day. That would explain then why we rode the Intimidator 305 coaster 3-4 times; we loved that ride plus we kept blacking out during the big drop so we kept re-riding it just to test and see if we would be able to withstand blacking out. Verdict: failure.
I remember Blair's absolute favorite part of the day was at the end when the four of us visited the Kings Dominion water park last minute and went tubing on the lazy river. Our tubes were all close together when we started but through the (non-lazy) water current and the (non-lazy) children also enjoying the tubing stream, we were all severely separated only to join up again at the bottom of the river. My goodness though, that lazy river was so much fun we all kept telling Blair afterwards we were so glad he insisted we go there. It was the best way to end what had been a hot, full day of walking around the park and standing in line for rides. As Blair had said, "there's nothing quite like sitting down in a water tube floating along a lazy river."
Supportive Friend
As I previously mentioned in my personal statement above, my
current occupation is as a performer for a cruise ship. Before the company
hired me I spent a year and a half going back and forth from Northern Virginia
(my hometown) to New York City for auditions. It was an interesting life I led
because whenever I was home I was working nonstop between two different
restaurants, which didn’t allow me much time for socializing or relaxing of any
kind. A lot of people were supportive of my aspirations in the beginning but as
time went on when my callbacks had still not yet turned into jobs, I began
receiving less and less of this support. People told me: “You’re killing
yourself and for what? You’ve auditioned for over a year and nothing has
happened yet….maybe this is a sign you should stop. Do you have a backup plan?”
However this was never
the case with Blair. He always
encouraged me to keep auditioning and he was always interested in hearing all
my audition stories. It meant the world to me and it was through friendship
like that that I was able to keep pushing forward. Naturally I admit I did have
my own personal passion and drive for the Arts that also enabled me to keep
trying and auditioning, but its through this example I wanted to emphasize
again just how much Blair’s friendship and support meant to me. The moment he
knew I had booked a gig he was absolutely thrilled for me!
The last night before I flew out to Hollywood, Florida for a
month of rehearsals I made plans to meet up with our group: him, his roommates
John & Witt, our other friend Rachel, and myself. The finalized plan: an
evening out for Indian cuisine! Sadly when the night got closer Blair realized
he was actually not going to be in town for my goodbye dinner. He texted me
right away and we had the following conversation (Blair’s texts are the ones in
blue)
- · “Erin I’m so sorry I’m out of town this weekend! Hope you all have fun tonight. How long will you be at sea??”
- · “Oh it’s okay, I’m sorry too that I won’t be able to see you before I leave but it’s hard to coordinate schedules sometimes! Hope you have a great trip! My contract goes from November 12-July 20. I’m in Miami the first month for rehearsals and then I’m on the boat the rest of the time!”
- · “Wow that is so great. You must be so excited!”
The last time I communicated with Blair was over
Thanksgiving. I was celebrating the holiday with my cast members in an
unconventional way: in Hollywood, Florida where all of us were away from
family. I sent him and multiple other friends a “Happy Thanksgiving” text and
wouldn’t you know, Blair was one of the only ones who sent back a reply! Of
course I understood the reason my other friends didn’t respond back was
probably due to the fact that Thanksgiving is a family holiday and they were
naturally busy spending time with their families. However since I was away from
mine, it meant so much to me when Blair wrote back with his friendly message! I’m
especially glad I texted him over Thanksgiving too since it ended up being the
last time I ever contacted him…
Never Forgotten
What you’ll find below are a selection of comments that were
posted on Blair’s Facebook page from friends and family. See Blair? Your life
touched so many people, just read on and see!
The last day I spent with you Blair Phillips was on Christmas, we went to Les Miserables, I sat right next you...we laughed and cried together that night making memories that we would have for a life time. When I found out that you were sick early in the week, later that week I tried out for a solo in chorus for the song "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables, when I came in chorus after the weekend of celebrating your life, I was given the solo, I hold my bracelet I was given when I found out we lost you. I know you are there for me when I sing it, I feel your love all around me as I sing and love that I have this wonderful opportunity to sing this for you. I always feel your presence day in and day out and know that I was loved and know, that I will always love you.
Happiness never decreases by being shared. Just as thousands of candles can be lit by a single candle. Although you're no longer here to see it Blair, the flame you ignited in all of us will continue to be passed. Rest easy friend
Happiness never decreases by being shared. Just as thousands of candles can be lit by a single candle. Although you're no longer here to see it Blair, the flame you ignited in all of us will continue to be passed. Rest easy friend
Blair,
A facebook message seems like such a poor way to honor such an incredible person. No words, written or said can bring you back. The best thing, the only thing we can do is honor your memory by living our lives like you lived yours, with humility and love and respect for all people.
It's easy to see why you were such an awesome guy, your family is incredible. The strength Dierdre and Paul have and their love for their son is inspiring. All of my prayers are with them and I know you will be watching after them and your sisters in this difficult time.
I will miss you with all of my heart. This really sucks because I know I won't hear your kind response to this message, or your words of encouragement that you always gave when you were alive. I am so sorry I never got to to tell you just how much your friendship meant to me, that I liked myself better just for having known you.
Rest in Peace my friend. You've earned it.
Love,
Stephen
A facebook message seems like such a poor way to honor such an incredible person. No words, written or said can bring you back. The best thing, the only thing we can do is honor your memory by living our lives like you lived yours, with humility and love and respect for all people.
It's easy to see why you were such an awesome guy, your family is incredible. The strength Dierdre and Paul have and their love for their son is inspiring. All of my prayers are with them and I know you will be watching after them and your sisters in this difficult time.
I will miss you with all of my heart. This really sucks because I know I won't hear your kind response to this message, or your words of encouragement that you always gave when you were alive. I am so sorry I never got to to tell you just how much your friendship meant to me, that I liked myself better just for having known you.
Rest in Peace my friend. You've earned it.
Love,
Stephen
Talented. The first word that comes to mind when I think ofBlair Phillips. Blair had a talent to charm with his kindness, charisma, and intelligence. Blair had a talent to make the most of the moment (even if it meant dancing with creepy drunk guys at BBB shows). Blair had talent musically and always seemed to be the one that could fill the holes (with trumpet, vocals, and especially keyboard) in the music of The Hoboz. Blair had a talent for embracing humor (even if he was the center of the joke). I am truly lucky to have shared important, memorable moments of my life with Blair. I witnessed him develop as as an athlete, a band mate, and a friend. I will miss the laughs, the music, the jokes, and the conversation. Most importantly, I will miss you!
This is Blair's Grandfather Ron Mack and Grandma Denise Mack. I have just spent 3 hours pouring over Facebook and Caringbridge, and the caring, respect and genuine love you have for Blair is overwhelming. We are not surprised, but the way in which you all express is so beautiful that it reaches to the core of an individual such as we human beings. Thank you
UVA creates scholarship in honor of Blair Phillips
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| Blair at his UVA graduation |
In Conclusion
Thank you so much Blair for everything. You gave of yourself
to everyone around you. Whether you were/are aware of it, you made a huge
impact on countless lives. You will always be remembered. Much love from myself
and everyone else to you! Your life, love, sunshine, laughter, and friendship
will be extremely missed!!! We pray you rest from now onwards in indescribable
peace.
