Ouch.

I reeeeally don’t want to go to choir today. It’s one of those things. Like your kid begs you to let him start taking karate lessons, and then three weeks later he’s complaining that he doesn’t want to go, and you force him to go, and he has a great time because he kicked Freddie in the face.

Anyway, I’ve not been for 2 weeks because I was ill the first time, and the choir leader was ill the second time, so I feel kinda rusty and insecure and apprehensive about it again. I know it’ll be fine once I get there. But you know how it is. It’s a dreary, woeful Tuesday and the rain is just waiting to pounce and cling to the bottom of my scuffed trouser legs. I hit my head on a cupboard today which was a fabulous highlight, and I’m not even going to begin to tell you what is happening within the walls of my workplace, except that it smells like despair and feels like wearing a coat made of syrup (sans pancakes).

I’m taking tomorrow off in an attempt to regain my composure (read: sanity). My plans thus far are to have an exceedingly long bath, write a bunch of cover letters, cook some dinner for my long suffering husband, and play lots and lots of music. I have a busking catalogue to refine, four songs to write, and Briscoe things to find my place among. I have a feeling that one day isn’t going to be enough, but I’ll take what I can get.

Perspective

I am getting better at meditating without distraction in loud or busy spaces, although I am also finding my tea is usually cold by the time I’m back in the land of the conscious. Mindful meditation is what I’m mainly focussing on now. I have been too lazy to charge my iPod shuffle for, oh, over a month now, so I’ve not been listening to my audio in that time.

The weekend had a lot of unpleasantness in it so I will focus on the blessings instead: the coming together of friends, the rare spotting of a giant wombat foraging for food, and the serenity of quiet contemplation at the platypus pools (albeit without seeing any actual platypuses, but a relaxing endeavour nonetheless).

I’ve decided to focus on the challenges that don’t involve any costs until my karma balances out and I can justify paying for silliness again. This firstly means recharging the iPod so I can upload some Learn-Japanese CDs onto it. I figure if the weather is bad and I can’t cycle to work, I can at least spend 40 minutes each day listening to a recording of someone speaking gibberish and then asking me to repeat them until something sticks. If nothing else it might get someone to finally laugh at me on the train.

Music has also become a core default setting in my brain, which is a surprising return after many years of my songwriting habits de-evolving. In anguished moments I find myself thinking it would be nice to just have a few hours with a guitar, or space to sing. Maybe that’s just a reaction to not having had a band rehearsal or gig for a couple of weeks, but this in itself is noteworthy as usually having so much band stuff on can be quite draining. Maybe it’s the subconscious urgency of having to write 19 more songs before next July. Maybe it’s the realisation that singing other people’s songs is rather enjoyable. Let’s also not forget that half-decent busking might actually make me money, a very rousing prospect.

I also just made an appointment to give blood for the first time, so that puts some things in perspective and makes me feel a little better about things in general.

Request line open

Besides honing my ideas for the Yeats thing, I’ve decided to start learning some songs for my busking challenge. I was walking through the tunnel yesterday and heard 2 guys (I think they were called ‘2 Boys 1 Box’ or something similarly reminiscent of that disturbing web video I wish I’d never watched) doing a cover of… oh crap what was it. I want to say Cut Copy but I always get them confused with The Presets and it is probably neither of them. Crap. Well anyway it was a fun song and they sounded great and it actually made me smile and want to give them money. Unfortunately for them I have many, many minus dollars at the moment, so all I could offer was my happiness that they weren’t that aboriginal guy who only knows 3 chords on the guitar and plays didgeridoo at the same time. That guy drives me nuts.

It hadn’t really occurred to me until then that I didn’t have to learn Oasis songs after all. I can play songs that I like, or other songs that would just be interesting to learn to play.

“Novocaine For The Soul” by The Eels is immediately on my list. And maybe “Hearts A Mess” by Gotye. And something by Blur. And something by The Rapture. And since this challenge came from Kim T, I should probably throw a Whitlams song in there. “No Aphrodisiac”?

I am now taking requests… please leave your suggestions in the comments section and I’ll do my best to add them to my repertoire.

I-Tube

22 postcards! This is getting exciting. I never actually thought I might receive them all... just a couple of the usual unreliable suspects lagging. Some of the latest additions include posting one of my songs on Youtube, joining a theatre group, and doing a mini-busking tour of Australia (must comprise of 2 capital cities and 2 country towns). That's a clever one. Must find out about busking laws. I actually already have a couple of songs on Youtube, but I'm going to use this one as an excuse to film a proper video clip. It's something I've been wanting to do for far too long.

Speaking of songs being posted on Youtube, I think I've written the first of my "songs about challenges" challenge. I just need to practice it a bit more, and then I'll put it on the interwebz. Bart's stipulations are quite detailed, and one of the instructions is to hastily record the song in some semi-professional capacity, so I am planning to put video versions up first (raw, like!) and record later to pretty them up a bit. As long as the song is written before the 22nd of each month, it's allowed. This first song (imaginatively titled "This Song") is a bit ridiculous actually, so we'll just have to see how it pans out.