Week 1*

*This is really the second week of my holidays, but its the first week of my blog. So there.


My main goal for this week is to prepare myself for my performance parts at the Marxism Fundraiser this Friday night (7th Dec), so that I can bring the freakin' house down. I'm doing a joint performance of a few songs in a quartet - we practiced two of the songs last night and got them down pretty well, with all the harmonies seeming to come together. Its the first time I'd tried to sing as part of a group with harmonies so I'm glad it worked out well. The bass part was quite a bit lower than I'd normally try to sing. But yeah, it was a good experience and got me even more excited for the night itself and for my solo parts.

I'm also performing Bob Dylan's 'Times They Are A Changin'' and Joseph Bovshover's 'Revolution' (a poem later put to music by Dick Gaughan, http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/songs/texts/revolutn.html). The Dylan song I'll be singing, but trying to give it a bit more punch and relating it to the struggles of today and Australia's position in world capitalism in the context of the economic crisis, austerity policies and the fightbacks across Europe. I first heard 'Revolution' as the song by Gaughan, but I think its words would be given much more impact with a spoken word style (taking some inspiration from the theatricality and power of Slam Poetry, which I have come across lately and don't know much about, but want to look into more). I'm pretty excited about both of them. I think that if I put the effort in to learn them properly - with some punch, emotion and polish - then they'll be crowd pleasers for sure. It'll be a good way to get some experience performing and maybe start taking this more seriously as something I want to pursue.

So, to make this happen, I need to:

1. Practice the shit out of them. The bbq tomorrow night will be an excellent time to get the Dylan song down alongside musical accompaniment. This one I'm not as worried about because I know pretty much all the words and and have a good idea of how I want the performance to go, but I do need to practice it and practice it good until I know I have it right. 'Revolution' is a lot longer. I've memorised the first couple of stanzas but there are a lot more and I don't want to have to rely on my phone or a sheet of paper in front of me on the night - that would really take away from the performance. I've also only got a broad idea of the phrasing I want and the style of performance itself because I haven't practiced it as a whole. This one will need a bit of work.
2. Find out if there are going to be images of the various struggles or of political figures that I can point to in the performance. If there isn't going to be any, then (if there's time only, because its not crucial if I do a good job with point 3) make an accompanying slideshow of images to play throughout the performances.
3. Write and practice a bit of an introduction to each of the songs. I reckon this could be almost as important as the performance itself, giving it some grounding by explaining some of its crucial parts (at least in the way that I would like them to be interpreted). It will be even more important if I don't have anything to point at to help with interpretation.

Other things to do this week:

• Buy some sweet ass books to read for cheap over the interwebs.
• Clean up the damn front room, porch, bedroom, front bathroom and Zephy's hutch.
• Get the Dip Ed application for Notre Dame in.
• Read more of The Casual Vacancy
• Get over being sick (came down with a cold properly yesterday (it had been brewing for a while) so I just bundled myself up and the worst was over by the arvo - flippin' sweet!)
• Find more work if I'm actually not getting more shifts (just got a roster for the holidays where I only got one shift for the whole six weeks - joy!)
• Hang out with Ash (I know you're reading this)
• Visit the folks and sis.