Ruby Rose - Girl Adventurine

For some reason I've gone back to Livejournal.

So if you want to catch up, you'll need to go here.

See you there

Alexandra

I am feeling moved to blog. Mostly to reassure myself that I have SOME brain function happening above my brain-stem (Work sucks pretty much. Can you say "Fourteen and fifteen-hour workdays" boys and girls?). But partly cos I actually have some news.

Last night I sang at the Wodonga Carols by Candlelight at the prettily-named Willow Park.

It was as well-organised as any concert I've been in (reminded me not a little of the Graduations machine swinging into action given that they have been doing this for some years now) but it was...well, very BORDER REGION in flavour (I refuse to say "country" because the only country towns I know fairly well are Albury and Wodonga and there would be very few other country towns that could even have a similar size, let alone all the other stuff....).

Firstly, although there thousands of people come and there is much money to be made from them, the event is free. (Unlike another event I could mention!) The much-vaunted supplement in the paper which listed all the carol words and profiled all the performers was also free (they had copies at the gate too, in case you were too cheap to buy the paper it came in).

They had the SES/CFA on the gate directing traffic into parking. The SES/CFA peeps are ALWAYS on the gate at these things. They even bring their own bright overalls. Bless them. People should give them a whole lot more money, really.

The organisers broadcast the whole thing on community radio (or rather, they would have, only they experienced "technical difficulties", so no recording for me, alas). So if you have your supplement and a radio, you don't even have to leave your living room.

I love all this stuff. I like getting paid to sing (hooley dooley, do I ever!), but I also approve mightily of families being able to come out for a night of sitting and singing and waving candles and kids running around like crazy things way past their bedtime, and doing it all for the price of the petrol to get there.

I suppose I'm making it sound a bit rinky-dink, but it wasn't, not at all. It was just on a scale appropriate to itself. The stage and the AV sitch were both completely professional. The Wodonga Brass Band has got some seriously good game.

But anyone could come to the "backstage" (read, side of the stage behind all the sponsors' banners) area and say hi (which is how come my sister suddenly appeared holding the hands of two very excited little daughters to say "yay!" when I was done).

The entire "green room" was very green indeed, ie it was some chairs on the grass and if you had to get changed there was a large green tent. The refreshments for performers was a lot of bottled water and some cups. (The stage manager had a beer, but he'd been given that by one of the crowd, so no beer for anyone else sadly).

And there was a crowd all right! No idea if they reached their target of 10,000, but there were several thousand there by the time I got on stage (I was the third-last performer and not too long after Santa arrived, which is a hard act to follow at a Carols night, believe you me).

And it was a beautiful cool night, no bushfire smoke, a light breeze, and I got to sing Joy to the World without the sound man having to push his "this loud and no louder" button. I had to sing with a MICROPHONE. I don't like them. I don't trust them. I don't seem to be able to get that orally-intimate relationship with them that so many singers have developed. It's more sort of coffee-on-a-first-date-and-no-touching when it comes to me and microphones. But I learned very very quickly how to keep the damn thing away from me when I really cut loose on the big notes.

My carols: well, I jollied the crowd along (the choir before me had sung some Andrew Lloyd-Webber, oh dear, and so they were a bit subdued) and the intro started and I MISSED THE CUE for "Joy to the World". Like I haven't sung that carol a million times before and also nailed it twice in both rehearsals. YEESH.

But I got it on the second line and then sang like my life depended on it to make up for such an ickily unprofessional error. I finished with the BIG NOTE (note: microphone held so far out from me it was approximately in the next suburb) and got some cheers, so that was nice.

Then I sang "Mary's Boy Child". Number of missed cues: NONE. Number of big finishes: one. Some more cheers.

Things I never knew about singing at a big Carols by Candlight but which I shall now impart unto you:

1. The performers can't hear the audience singing along.
I'm serious. There's so much noise from the band and from the foldback that you can't hear a damn thing outside the stage. So the crowd may feel they are with the performer and having a wonderful time; the performer just hopes like hell someone is listening out there and that their slip is not showing.

2. You can't see anyone in the crowd.
All those artistic shots of innocent little kiddlibink faces bathed in the warm glow of the candles? Yeah, right, whatever. You can see all the pretty twinkly lights of candles and glow sticks, and that would be it. No people. Just dots of light. It's all horribly metaphorical.

3. Unless you're Santa, you don't get the big applause
Or Prime Possum. Or indeed any mythical creature that gets to sing the total-and-utter crowd pleaser songs like "Jingle Bells".

4. Being the "opera singer" and assuming the Marina Position cuts both ways
Some of the other singers were bitching and moaning (well, more than usual anyway, singers ALWAYS bitch and moan when gathered together) because they had to come after me. Oh eep. Also, my legend has grown with each new and inaccurate mention of me in the paper. I think they stopped just short of having had me sing at Covent Garden for the Queen. I provided my CV, my CV is accurate, they took it and put a spin on it that would have put the US govt to shame. And I find I'm not nearly as shameless about publicity as I thought I was, and the whole thing has made me Twitchy.

5. Singing in the middle of an oval in the middle of a drought has its moments
e.g. - the fine bulldust EVERYWHERE raised by thousands of people and cars, which gets into everything, up to and including the moment you open your mouth to sing and you can feel your throat coated in it. Uck. Not to mention stiletto heels on soft, dry earth - all the girls looked like Marcel Marceau doing "stuck in the mud argh argh".

6. Singing for thousands of people is way cool
Yup. Totally. I know performers carry on about "the energy", but all those little dots of light put out SOMETHING that gets you seriously hepped up.

7. Singing for your family under the guise of singing for thousands of people is way cooler
I really wasn't singing for the glory of God and Albury-Wodonga. That was fun, and maybe it will get me some local recognition; but really, I was performing for five people about 30 feet from the stage, and they loved it, so I'm happy.

Still got four ceremonies to go, then back off to Albury on Friday so no time to do Xmas cards or anything, so if you read this regularly:

Have a Snappy Happy and a Cool Yule

Hugs

Alexandra

I needed a photo for the Boring Maudlin Mail (or the Boring Mail as it has become) as they will be printing a SUPPLEMENT of all the people singing in Carols by Candlelight, Wodonga and Albury versions, with photos and bios and all manner of things.

Yes, I'm in a Christmas Carol Cattle-dog. It's bizarre. Even more bizarre than the Caroloke incident.

Anyway, apparently this supplment excites the local populace so much that they turn up in droves, to the tune of 10, 000 for Wodonga and 12,000 for Albury. Ye gods and little fishes.

In one of those interesting twists, my little niece Isabel has already been in some of the publicity for the ALBURY one, (she's the one with the antlers) which apparently is not so much a CBC but a "Concert at Christmas time" sort of deal.

Or so sayeth the musical director for the Wodonga one, who rang me today about carol versions. There is nothing more fun than to listen to a musician with an economy-sized axe to grind. The normal social filters fall off and the bile doth spew forth. The Wodonga one is much more your traditional Have A Bash At All The Choruses sort of deal, apparently, hence much more christmassy. I'm now having visions of families across the Albury-Wodonga region rent asunder and a-feudin' and a-fussin' over which one they go to.

My family has no choice - my Dad and Isabel are in the Albury one and I'm in the Wodonga one so we should be all Caroled out by the time we get to actual day!

Anyway, the photo - Melinda and I betook ourselves to the cloisters here at the Uni about 7pm last night and had a bash at something suitably-soprano-headshot-like.

Yergh - when DID I get so OLD??? Digital cameras are very unkind. Still, this is the best of a bad lot, and it's not TOO bad if you look at it quickly.

One shall be enthralled to see what comes out in the supplement. My bio is a bit longer than some people's but what can you do? I been around.

Verdi Requiem update soon!

Last night I got a CD in the mail.

It is from Gregory Lewis, the organiser of the Wodonga Carols by Candlelight, and it contains the instrumental arrangements of the Carols I will be singing.

I put the CD on and would like to note the following:

1. Truly, this is CBC fare - you have gotta hear the big cheesy finish for both Joy to the World and Mary's Junior God.

2. In case (1) left you in any doubt, you have SO gotta hear the unsubtle key changes at exactly the two-thirds mark in both.

3. I started to sing along with the first track and realised about halfway in that there was no singer on the recording. It was....just the backing track.

It's......CAROLOKE!!!

When I was just a wee thing in my 20s and the world was full of wonder, I found myself in a massed choir, sitting behind Ray Martin at the RVIB Carols by Candlelight.

(We had Humphrey B. Bear for the Kiddies - not a Wiggle or a Webster in sight - and admission was free - even the chairs at the front - and the choir was all in hideous purple gospel robes and there were fake stained-glass windows and the word "Christ" was mentioned - that's how long ago it was, back in the CBC Dreaming).

Anyway, in the vein of one of those humourous "I'm holding up the leaning tower of pisa - see? see? Take the friggin' picture take the friggin' picture ARGH" holiday snaps, I appeared to be sitting on Ray's head. My mother and sister watched the show on the telly and were able to pick me out from the semaphoric flashes of my earrings of Pure Bling. Because I wasn't sitting there chatting all through the show and looking at everything but my music. Nope. That would have been dissing Ray and his Happy Shiny Hair and the Folx at Channel Nine with their proven commitment to Quality Family Entertainment.

Anyway, I remember two things from CBC rehearsals -

1. meeting Anthony Warlow and getting his autograph for my Mum and trying to explain to him that no, really, her name was actually Noelle (Captain Context says: "this WAS after a three hour christmas music rehearsal, remember, people!")
2. When Marina Prior came tripping gaily down the centre aisle of the REHEARSAL VENUE, smiling and twinkling in a lacy skirt and ballet slippers and carrying a covered basket. She wasted all those twinkles on a bunch of very hung-over choristers who just thought "oh purLEESE" at her before she launched into "Angels we have heard on high". What we should have done was thrown her to the ground and savaged her scrawny carcass - we coulda taken her. What price your twinkles NOW, bitch?

Ahem. Sorry. Channelling the Ghost of Party Seasons Past there.

Ah - but how the wheel turns!

After some back and forth, it turns out I will be doing the Wodonga City Council Carols by Candlelight.

Which, while not being the big CBC at the Bowl, is still an Event, as apparently they get anything up to 10,000 people there. Ten thousand! That's 10% of the entire regional population. Wow.

Dunno about you, but that would make it the biggest room I ever played as a soloist.

Now, given that they will have any number of Idol Wannabes on hand ready and willing to murder any number of carols by the sheer power of their nasal whine, that puts me in THE MARINA POSITION.

Yup - I am officially the Sole Source of Class and Refinement for this Gig.

(Today I am dressed in a fetching ensemble of old cotton pants (unironed), a weekend-quality top (unironed), scuffed sandals, no makeup, and my hair is falling out of its shower knot and it's not yet 10:30am. Although I would like to point out that my jewellery is still diva-class - two of diamonds ALWAYS wins).

To prove this, I will be singing "Joy to the World" (okay, that's a Naice Traditional Carol, I can definitely live with that, although nothing can ever stop me looking out of the corner of my eye for Ned blasting out "JOYyyyyyyyyyy" on the bass drone note when I hear or sing it - too many carol gigs in too many forsaken shopping centres, that's my problem)(well, one of them).

But then I get to do the solo "Mary's Boy Child". Oh NO. I HATE that song, purely hate it.

But I will smile and smile and sing it prettily and everyone will say "awww" and there's the magic of Christmas for you - pasting a smile over the hate and making the flim-flam real for three minutes and 20 seconds.

Although if I have to do a little dance with Humphrey Bear or Santa gropes me or they give me a fake prop guitar to hold there will be TROUBLE.

I am not a luddite, but the saaaaaga of me getting broadband has been dragging on for far too long.

Even my mother has broadband. It comes to something when your parents are more techno-groovy than oneself. (Mind you, my parents love The Chaser's War on Everything, so it only goes to Show. What it Shows, I have no idea).

So Fiona has undertaken to find me the right package. I can't do it - I look at the thingie on Whirlpool and my brain just shuts down after about a minute. But Fiona has an In at whirlpool and will find things out for me.

So in the anticipation of being able to come home and download my angst, I'm attempting to get back into the bloggin' habit. (before my mother gets one, which shall surely be a sign of the End of Days).

Things going on:

1. This - wheeeee! It's fun being a choral grunt again. Mind you, it is also most fun singing next to the Young Sopranos and watching them trying to hear themselves when they've got Kim and me blasting away in the foreground. One of them so forgot herself last night that she renounced her membership in the groovy music nazis clique and actually stood with a hand over one ear and looked even more constipated than usual trying to Hear the Muse. (Oh I am so going to Heck.)

2. I've rejoined FlyLady - oh thank dog! Such a relief to have some order back in one's domestic arrangements. Plus I have had the parental units and Isabel and Josephine flitting about the place for a couple of days. Young children and older people really dig routine and they've dragged me back into some semblance of order. I've had breakfast four days in a row now.

3. This will either kill me or cure me - oy vey - 10 ceremonies in December - and to think I used to complain about just the one when I was at Swinburne!