This is the third evening in a row I’ve sat up with my laptop & a candle, feeling at a loose end. I’ve been unproductive this week, had a legitimate day of rest on Sunday after the gig then haven’t got much done since. I've hardly touched my guitars, and I decided the short story I'd gotten stuck on at 600 words actually ends there - I'll call it a piece of flash fiction. So I'm in a transitional no-man's land, need to come up with some new ideas. I’m reading Samuel Beckett’s How It Is and a couple of books on mythology, maybe find some clues in there (or not).
It’s a weird feeling watching Wellington shut down around me for the holidays. I spent the two months (already!!) from finishing the course til Saturday withdrawing into my own personal universe to get the Live 2004 DVD and the first stage of the Fringe show done. Third year in a row I’ve done that – last year it was Parataxes and Loose Autumn Moans, and in 2002 Anterior Pathways and Mantis Shaped and Worrying. And once again I emerged blinking into daylight – the summer solstice no less – and the rest of the world didn’t notice. I’ve gotten out of step with everything and don’t have a job – familiar story. Art takes sacrifice y’know. Be nice if people would actually buy the bloody albums (grumble grumble).
I took some action on jobhunting – the prospects aren’t that encouraging. I’m not too fussy though, I just want a bit of income and preferably some time outdoors while I work on the Fringe show and then piss off overseas. Leads so far:
1) Proofreading at a legal publishing house, $12/hr. Boring as hell apparently, 10-20hrs/week.
2) Gardening & maintenance at Karori Cemetary. Fulltime, outdoor work but something like $10/hr.
3) Plant work at Otari Wilton’s bush – 18hrs, unpaid.
4) PR trainee for PR firm – fulltime, 1yr, $35K salary. Could be alright to open up a career, but there’ll be other applicants and would it involve selling my soul?
5) Nga Uruora Kapiti conservation project – worked for them last summer, got a glowing reference & they’re happy to have me back. Trouble is the job’s WINZ-subsidised and I’d have to wait around on the dole for six months to qualify. No thanks.
For the moment though it looks like I’m up against the Christmas break, so just have to sit back and enjoy it, and see the rellies. I still have to do Christmas shopping – luckily my family believes in minimising presents, but it would be dodgy to turn up completely empty-handed. My nephews are the biggest challenge since they’ve already got everything. And of course I’ve left it to the last possible day.
My family are a good bunch of people, I’m lucky in that respect. I got a surprisingly complimentary email from Dad about the show on Saturday:
Mum and I really enjoyed your show. Much slicker than we had imagined it
would be - even though its not entirely to our taste, we could appreciate
it. Keep it up. Have to agree that your Japanese friend spoilt it
somewhat. I felt it quite detracted from all that you had done. I doubt if
anyone was offended. A couple of the girls sniggered embarrasingly. I was
just bemused at the lack of originality and taste.
Love Dad
I don’t know where I’ll be for New Year’s – Wellington looks the most likely. I’ve got a recording session scheduled for the 29th of December with The Winter! I seem to have got Mike & Simon pinned down to that date – the only possible option apparently – but it could yet fall through. Playing with them as a band last year was one of my favourite musical experiences, there was a special chemistry between the three of us, but the futility of trying to get us together in one place at the same time to play has been one of the big downer themes of this year (although it partly inspired Ascension Band’s no-fixed-lineup approach). But I got an invitation from an American record label Last Visible Dog to contribute something to a 3CD compilation album with the theme of ‘extinct species’. Mike’s going away to Melbourne so this will be our last opportunity to play together – it seems fitting to contribute something by an ‘extinct band’ as our swansong, and should be a good bit of exposure if it all works out.
By procrastinating on the jobhunting until now I’ve cunningly given myself the new year period off, so I should take the opportunity for a holiday. Where to go? There’s the inevitable call of the South Island but then there are transport difficulties. I’m thinking of heading eastwards instead – East Cape, Gisborne etc is the one part of the country I’ve never seen, so it would complete my mental map of Aotearoa and make it appropriate to move on.
I bought my 2005 wall planner and put it up. 2004’s only got a week left! At this stage the pencil-plan for 2005 goes: Fringe show til March, then Melbourne til August or September, then come back and finish shorthand, then off to Asia. Subject to much revision of course…
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*Title of this entry is a quote from the Bob Dylan song 'It's All Over Now Baby Blue' and intended as an oblique reference to the pagan custom of lighting bonfires on the summer solstice to add to the sun's power. This entry was written by candlelight. How's that for pretension?
Postscript 24/12: I was awake til 6am and then of course slept through the morning, so it's now lunchtime and I've STILL got to do this Christmas shopping. I've got it planned out apart from the 11-year old nephew's.
I did have an odd dream, something about getting sneaky access to a hideously expensive top-of-the-line grand piano/organ/synthesiser hybrid instrument in a hall, but of course only being able to play it in my rudimentary way. I was scrambling around trying to find my dictaphone to record it. Then there was something about it being loaded onto a cargo plane, and me getting on the wrong flight. I guess you can see some of my current preoccupations in there...
Posted by fiffdimension at December 23, 2004 08:42 PM | TrackBack