-31.3-

The acapella workshop.
At first I didn't volunteer for the workshop, because I felt...shy about singing/performing. However, after Herricks Idol, I found myself rejuvenated. (Also, the workshop was for group singing, so it wouldn't put too much pressure when we performed.)
I enjoyed working with Andrew and the group. It's been years since I've sung in a choir, and now I remember how much I liked singing with others.
This is the first time I've sung acapella, but it didn't feel extremely difficult. Andrew was very professional, but he was also paitent and really friendly with us!  Also, we were all quick learners. It's great to have a group of people that want to be there. Because we were all motivated, we progressed from starting the song, to being able to run it through in less than a week!

 






First we went through the long process of song selection. We all suggested songs and listened to them (through this, I found that Andrew is a fellow fan of Cake!) We settled on "Settle Down" by Kimbra. We started to figure out parts, Andrew figuring out most of the song. The next few days consisted of us learning our parts, recording run-throughs, and studying the recordings at home.

We had a week off for midtetms, then it was last-minute rehersals after school and right before STAC live!
-video of performance-
Overall, I'm proud of learning the song with the group, and I had a great experience with this workshop. Next time, I won't hesitate to sign up!

-29.3-

I just saw Le Miserables.
It was very moving.
I admit, I got teary during "I Dreamed a Dream" and when *spoiler alert*Jean Valjean died. This was because Hugh Jackman's acting and singing were so excellent...*sigh*
It was interesting to see how the director adapted a play to film. I think he pulled it off well. Close-ups helped to underscore when a single actor/actress soloed, and large cast scenes helped make the mood in establishing shots, that certainly would have been hard to do on stage. Also, the use of cgi was effective in expanding the "set" of different scenes. It was interesting that the movie kept stage-like lighting at times (was this intentional?)
I loved the quality of the sound in the movie, too. It took a bit of getting used to hearing all of the dialouge being sung, but once you did, you could hear every word of the songs, which is a big difference from live performance. This way, I appreciated the poetry in the song lyrics!
Seeing it in film makes me curious about seeing it live, but I'm a little worried that I won't be as drawn to the performances of the actors as I was for the movie...

-26.3-

Disclaimer:
I am tired, running low on sleep, and it's dark out so these issues may very well be "night thoughts" and possibly are out of porportion to what I usually think during the daytime and at happier times.
Three minor issues:
1. Can I have hobbies?
I was a little bothered by this during the song writing workshop. I know that I'm not as serious about songwriting as my peers, and I don't intend to write songs for a living, so I feel like someone else who really cares should be in my spot. That I'm not...worthy enough to be with the serious people. That I'm out of my league. And yet...I want to be there and learn, too, but using chords and chord progressions is hard and it makes me think that I'm not cut out for song writing, but then I remember how accomplished I feel when I finish a song, and how I like the feeling of my brain turning off as I write a song, almost like when I'm drawing or painting.
2. Does everything have to be original?
Sometimes I want to play around. To not turn everything I do into an artistic statement, or something "of my own"- to not feel pressured  to make a great work and compete with others. To just do what I want. But sometimes I don't quite know what I want to do with Art.
3. Art funding vs. Science funding
This is from part of an episode of the show "Slings and Arrows" (which I love and I'll talk about in a later blog post.)
In one of the episodes, the financial director of a theatre company has to get funding for the production. He goes to the Minister of Culture, who grudgingly allots some funding. The Minister makes it a point that the funding for the production was the cost of one MRI machine, which could have been used to identify many terminal diseases in early, preventable, stages.
Ever since that episode, I was troubled by this. One must have bread, but also roses, I know this. However, I have a cousin who needs financial medical assistance, and I know that she's struggling to wait for a new wheelchair because hers is partly broken and a repair is too costly. It makes me uneasy to think that some of the money in the government that goes towards art programs prevents people in need, like my cousin, from getting much needed assistance. I know that funding art is important, I was angry when STAC got all of its funding cut (why can't they put some money from sports towards us!), but thinking about this issue brought feelings of conflict to the surface.