How’s this for today’s horoscope?
Arranging a big social event is sure to make your eyes gleam with delight. You're never happier than when you're putting your organisational skills to work. Invite children and loved ones to join in, and assign them tasks that appeal to their individual strengths. Just remember you are captain of the ship.
Seems to bode well for the gigs next Friday & Saturday (see my website for the flyers). There are some hurdles to get over of course – our bass player is off wandering the South Island, the drummer’s got a knee injury, and the other guitarist and computer guy are also out of town. It’s kind of built into the ‘concept’ of Ascension Band to never have the same lineup twice – others will join in though and it’ll have a totally different character from what we did at Happy in September.
Speaking of which, I got the first copy of the Live 2004 DVD done. It’s been a slow process, having to get footage in correct file format, synch sound & visuals, add titles etc. Compressing it all to mpeg format took the computer six hours or so, an overnight job (I had to get up at 4am to tell it to start the next one), then preparing the data for the disc took another 45 minutes. Hopefully from here it should be a straightforward matter of copying discs, not sure how long that takes. It should mainly appeal to people overseas, as you Wellingtonians can simply come to the gigs.
I had some odd misgivings about going out tonight, it was the mr sterile album launch at the Cross. I have a certain ex-girlfriend in that band, albeit hidden under a white fat suit and fake moustache. I felt sad watching them, there was a feeling of obsolescence on my part. We’re no longer relevant to each other. She joined a band who are literally going places – moving to the Czech Republic around March. I should also leave about the same time, first stop Melbourne then who knows?
I may end up returning to Wellington around next August for a couple of months to finish off my journalism diploma – I still have to pass shorthand. Or I might put it on hold for a couple of years and spend the obligatory year teaching English in Asia before hitting Europe. The annoying thing is that I have to decide by Christmas whether to re-enroll. Either way it limits my options, or at least decides my course in advance. I spent today putting together my application for the JET programme – but I won’t know until February whether I get in. So the red tape of bureaucracy reaches out to smother.
I was feeling cynical before I went out tonight about the whole social politics in the arts scene buzz. Wellington’s divided into scenes and sub-scenes, and there is a certain amount of competition going on. It feels a bit like a strategy board game, with alliances and backstabbing, and maneuvering for advantage. You’d think art should be above politics but it’s all intertwined. Elisa can wipe the floor with me as far as social games go, and she’s positioned herself in the mr sterile team, where politics is the explicit subject matter rather than merely implicit as it is for me. I don’t know whether she really believes in the anti-capitalist side of it, but the band gives her plenty of opportunities & exposure and hence social power: politics of a different kind. But I managed to psych myself up to see her again and went along tonight.
I couldn’t play in mr sterile myself if I wanted to; my style is way too loose. On the other hand Wellington would be boring if everyone played like me, there’s infinite room for diversity of approaches. My advantage is being an instigator rather than a bandwagon-jumper – at worst it gets kind of lonely. I’m bringing a new team onto the board with Ascension Band, hopefully enough people will rally to the cause and we’ll do some great music. The music of mr sterile is totally different from what we’re doing so the whole competition idea is bullshit, and I completely support their efforts.
Rather than risking yet another tiresome & ugly confrontation with Elisa I simply avoided her. There was nothing to gain by knocking the old scabs off yet again. I’d like to give her a big hug before we go our separate ways, she’s a wonderful person (or can be). Her bass playing’s alright, she doesn’t need me to tell her that. I bought the CD, will maybe give it to my nephews for Christmas.
It’s good to move on. I had my birthday on Thursday and felt fairly content during it, working on gig flyers & preparations. The post-gig party on Saturday can double as a birthday celebration even if I don’t tell everyone. Elisa’s utterly irrelevant to me at 26. I thought I looked ok in the mirror, my hair’s definitely thinner than a year ago but it’s nothing anyone else would notice – no bald spot yet, but the hairs have spaces between them now. I still blame shorthand, which is unfinished business. Oh well, it’s an excuse to come back when I get tired of smog…
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Posted by fiffdimension at December 11, 2004 12:45 AM | TrackBack