And it's back to school. Yay! The house to myself to get some work done. Today it's workshopping and class prep and editing and maybe working on my own stuff -- if there's any time left. And that's the problem with my priorities really. Everyone else's work comes first. I'm going to be looking at ways of addressing that the next few weeks.
Time to review the holidays, which were almost a non-event this year. We did see several movies: Race to Witch Mountain, Inkheart, Knowing and Duplicity -- and I saw The Reader, just before the holidays began. Plus we went to see Wicked, and didn't I get a shock when we drove into the city because we were late (what a surprise! not) and missed our train. I was expecting parking to be around the $20 mark. Foolish, foolish woman. I'd forgotten that usually when I drive in to go to a live show, it's the weekend, and weekend parking is cheaper. The first place we stopped was $47. Gulp. Then a bit further out we found one for $40. Further out still we eventually found parking for $32 -- one of those places where you leave your keys in the ignition, and they park it for you, which really freaked out the kids. Our plenty of free time was eaten up in the cross-city slog, and neither child had eaten anything, so by the time they bought food (which I was most surprised to find out they were allowed to take inside) it was right on starting time. We had great seats -- second row -- so close we could see where the actors' hairpieces ended! Anyway, I'll post reviews on my writing blog.
Other things we enjoyed -- Victorian State Singers presenting the Credo Mass on Good Friday. I was settling in for something that was going to go on for hours and was surprised to find out it was considerably shorter than I expected, but beautifully presented as always. Man, I love this choir, which is struggling a bit with numbers, though I can't imagine why. Actually, that's not quite true. I do know why -- I just think in a perfect world this group would be bursting at the seams. First, people have to get over their misconceptions. Princess Sleepyhead has been trying to recruit at school and not meeting any kind of success -- kids saying why would they want to join a daggy choir.
And why would they? Here's a few reasons. For a start, there's the practice of singing for three hours a week, which for those doing VCE can only be a huge benefit. Then there's the performance experience. This is a choir that does fairly regular performances -- great at getting any performer used to what's expected -- with a varied repertoire of music. So that's the next point -- learning lots of different styles of music, broadening knowledge of what's out there. And then there's the other thing, perhaps the most important of all: this group has fun! They love singing, and their leader, Doug Heywood, and pianist, Alexander Cameron, are great motivators. It's a serious choir with a great sound that has lots of fun -- what more could you want?
1 comments:
That choir sounds wonderful, I agree, you'd think it would be bursting at the seams.
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