183 Days Of... Not Much

After a brief time away from my blog, I always begin with an apology to those very few (but very appreciated) people who actually take the time to read it. This time round, I don't think I will. I'm not sure why, but in the huge gap between then and now I just didn't feel like writing anything. I'll use the excuse of writers block, but I'm not quite sure what it was. From now on though, I will endeavor to keep my brain hydrated with stuff that you good people may find interesting/amusing.

Over the past 6 months (and 2 days to be precise) I don't think I've done anything that is worth highlighting, I've been unemployed for the majority of it (not by choice) so I rode my bike a lot, that's about it. Me and my gorgeous girlfriend Sam celebrated our 6 year anniversary a few days ago so that was really cool. Oh and I started reading Twilight! Is that sad? I liked the movies so I thought why not. Anyways that's enough babble.

The date as you can clearly see from the top of this post is Friday 6th of August 2010, and tomorrow I will be performing with a choir at the convention & AGM of The Association for Singing Teachers. I've been to 2 rehearsals with the choir and the final one is today, my nerves are fine at the moment but I'm pretty positive when the time comes tomorrow it shall be a very different story. For me It's the fact that the entire audience will hear the slightest mistake like it was a blatant curse word in the middle of a Hymn, and whats even worse, is that they are LOOKING for the mistakes. Not because they are evil or sadistic because that's what musicians and teachers do. I think as a general rule people who have a dedicated profession, wherever they are just instinctively look out for indicators of there work. For example, a singer could go to an open mic night with friends, having a few drinks, enjoying the evening, but as soon as someone is singing, without thinking about it they would listen and critique the person(s) singing. A Dancer could go to watch a performance and again from the moment someone walks on stage, instinctively he/she would critique the performance without thinking about it. I'm not saying this works for every profession, shelf-stackers wouldn't be arsed if the muesli wasn't evenly spaced on the shelf, but in saying that shelf stacking isn't really a profession, it's just a job. A painter and decorator or a kitchen fitter may go round to his/her friends house for a party/watch the football, whatever, and once more they would check the work, it's not a bad thing, its just what people do. A bad example would be a gynecologist, they are clearly NOT going to go to their mates house, kneel down in front of the wife/girlfriend and say "Ok deep breath, this might be a little bit cold", that just wouldn't happen, but of course you see my point. The main point of all this is that I'm shitting my pants and the audience will sense that like a shark in a blood soaked paddling pool.

Moving swiftly on, reading the news on the web as I often do, I came across a story about a set of parents who have had their children taken away from them, presumably because they are crazy. The parents on the other hand think it's because of what they named the children. Now before I tell you the names, you will need to understand that if you call you're child something ridiculous then immediately warning bells flash up for the social services and you will either be court ordered to change the name or you get you're children removed from you're care. Heath and Deborah Campbell from New Jersey failed to realise this when naming their children...

Adolf Hitler Campbell, 4
JoyceLynn Aryan Nation, 3
Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie, 2 (taken supposedly from Heinrich Himmler)

I shit you not, this is true, and I'll post the link towards the end to prove it. Apparently the case came to light in 2008 when a shop refused to decorate a cake with the name Adolf. Now firstly, what retard actually allowed them to use those names in the first place? I can see it now, at the registry office, "What name?" "Adolf Hitler Campbell mam" "Oh what a pretty name!". The mind boggles. Secondly on a more serious note, the name Adolf (synonymous with Hitler, obviously) is a traditional name in Germanic countries, Scandinavia and The Netherlands. It comes from the Old German Athalwolf which means Noble Wolf and has been the name of many Kings, Princes, Dukes (Including Prince Adolphus, The Duke of Cambridge) not to mention countless composers, musicians, scientists, sportsmen, even a mayor of San Francisco. In my opinion a store should not refuse to put some icing on a cake in the shape of a name, doing so only facilitates that particular name is bad. If a man named Kyle (random name) came along and massacred millions of people in our time, yes I can understand that the name Kyle would therefore be blacklisted and boycotted everywhere for an extremely long time but WW2 and its atrocities happened many years ago and even today, there are still repercussions from it. Refusing to write Adolf in icing on a cake is just stupid. That child isn't Hitler and neither is anyone else that bares his first name, so why should they be discriminated against because of it. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the store was Jewish and they felt a particular religious objection to doing it, I don't know. All I know is, I feel sorry for the children. The full article is here.

Well I think I'm gonna run and start getting ready to go to rehearsal, need a shower and some food before I head out. Tradition runs strongly on my blog, so I will leave you with a YouTube delight, in the form a Happy and Sad choice. The happy option, an amazingly up beat song and the Sad option reminiscent of my lack of a blog post. Enjoy

Happy or Sad

Thanks as always for reading,

Take it EZ

LW