The adventures of a young man...

Whats that all aBUUT!

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 02:17:38 +0200

My main mission in Canada has obviously been to tell the millions if the South Park rumours are true....namely that these split head ppl say abuuut instead of about. Well, i can tell you that within 2 days of being here, its DAMN WELL TRUE! When I first heard Matt (guy from Montreal on floor above me) say it I was actually in fits of laughter - all that expectation finding a happy conclusion.

Its not quite the abuuut that South Park use, but anything with 'out', or even some words with just 'u' are pronounced weird. Out would be pronounced Ooot (not always but it slips out more pronounced sometimes!). During the international orientation day, everyone was asked to stand up, introduce themselves and mention what struck them since arriving. I got myself really popular by saying that the rumours are true, then explaining myself to Mrs. Bisonette et al, which got a mixed response!! Soon I will record someone talking for a while so everyone back home can get what I mean!

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Settling in with frustrations...

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 01:58:08 +0200

So, generally things are dandy here, people are friendly and lovin the accent. Some things cause a bit of frustration though, such as my courses not being confirmed after all. I still need to confirm various aspects of nearly every one with the prof in charge, and it looks as though I won't get onto the Applied music course, which had the tuition included. Either way a stink must be created in the international office for not talking to the relevant departments - this has happened to the other English girls too, so I'm not alone here.

The socialising aspect has at least been pretty good. Last night a bunch of us went to a comedy show followed by a boat cruise. the comedy really was great in places, the highlight being the brilliant lip-synching (and I mean brilliant timing and facial expressions) to Whitney's quivering lip 'I will always love you', then a great duo to end it all to 'Total Eclipse of the Heart', again with lots of flying kicks to encapsulate the power of that great 80s snare sound!!

The boat trip was on the Ottawa canal, but just in Quebec so that the lickle 18 year old can have a drink (different laws)! There are actually a lotta young guns around, as Canadians finish high school at 17, and I dont think the gap year is as common just yet. The overall spirit levels are high (emotionally!) but these Arty 'Cheers' are starting to piss me off a little - at first they were genuinely funny, but after 50 times....! (Inuendo like 'Let me see you stroke your pussy, jack-et off, trim your bush etc!) Evening ends with me toppin and tailing with a crazy little guy who has been christened Lil' Stomp within the Arts faculty (or Squeak in my books!). He,like many students here liives in the suburbs of Ottawa, and had had too much to drink to drive back. I filmed him reassuring his mum the next morning that he hadn't had a drop!!

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First days in Ottawa

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 04:48:57 +0200

So, I make it to Philadelphia on time and in one piece - quite apt that it is in the USA where the problems start. My 'bone hasn't made it thru to the belt, and the faff of looking for it means I miss my connection.

Once I arrive in Ottawa I report the loss, and they reckon it will make it to me by the next morning (which it hasn't). Anyhow, I get a lift with the Uni helpers, and I receive my keys plus all the bumff. As soon as I enter the corridor I hear Hannah call 'Oh its Nick!' which is somewhat reassuring - she is the other RHUL exchange student, and has the room next to me. The room is your average student expectancy, with internet plus landline, but without sink unfortunately.

By now the jet lag has seriously hit me, and I sleep a normal Canadian night, waking up at 8:30 (14:30 Germany time!). The other Brit, Emma from Tunbridge Wells, and a friendly Canadian called Matt walk with me and Hannah to the Arts Faculty induction, just round the corner. The campus is niceely integrated into the city centre, not in any way sectioned off like in Egham.

Wot a blast of an ice-breaker the induction turned out to be, with über-enthusiastic ringleaders, with seemingly endless amounts of 'Cheers', shout-outs etc! The rivalry was clearly against Engineers and the other Ottawa Uni, ......... Something incorporating a sealion being something like 'Fuck' in french was pretty funny, but my furry jet lagged memory won't access it right now! Another Canadian Johnny joins our increasing crowd as we're told to literally make our mark on the place with crayons....

After checking out the Cafeteria (the 'Caff') for lunch, we head back and I nap for an hour. NB - all prices here are give before tax has been added, which irritates and baffels us Brits, as nothing is ever a round number anymore!) The bank holiday (Labour Day) prevents us from going on a much needed shop, and we eventually go to the outdoor music event. The bands are shite so we leave in pursuit of alcohol, but fail, finding an open supermarket in the process however. One basket full of essentials comes to 40 dollars, quite dear in actual fact....

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Edinburgh: Tuesday-Wednesday condensed!

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 17:56:27 +0200

Due to lack of remaining time before Canada looms, I must condense the remaining memories of the week in Bonnie Wee to bitesize bullet points...

Tuesday

- Afternoon off, so use only chacne to see RHUL's 'A Misummer Night's Dream' Production. Stunningly slick, Steve as the Donkey was absolutely hilarious, and 'filled the room' as Joff put it. Chris (hypnotised!) could've projected his voice better throughout, but altogether a great effort.

- See the 'Antonio Forcione Quartet' - a stunning hour of musical genius from some remarkable musicians. Other than Antonio, the Brazilian percussionist stands out, adding huge energy levels to each number. The duet with him on tambourine carefully builds up simple grooves, whereby the two of them start slapping each others instruments in time. AF keeps it funny through his miming, such as scratching his stubble and making an appropriate sound effect! Plays on specially constructed 10-string beast, occasionally just raking up or down the top 5 strings, creating a beautiful harp-like effect. Also has a fretless acoustic, which he uses specifically for an Indian sitar effect - a novel idea, but tastefully pulled off.

Antonio Forcione Quartet

'London-based Italian Antonio Forcione is one of the capital’s favourite guitarists, a regular on Jazz FM and at the Edinburgh festival where he has won ‘Best Spirit of Edinburgh Fringe’ award. He is ‘one of the great acoustic guitarists’ (the Guardian), who ‘plays unstringed parts other players can’t hope to reach’ (the Independent). Delighting audiences around the world with his virtuoso yet heartfelt playing, ‘he imbues his bright but intense themes with passion grace and fire’ (The Times). This concert sees the London launch of his long-awaited new CD Touch Wood (Naim) - an album that is inspired as much by Italian folk music and Pat Metheny as it is by Brazilian, Spanish and Cuban music. With fellow Italian guitar virtuoso Giorgio Serci, Nigerian cellist Jenny Adejayan, and Brazilian percussionist Adriano Pinto, you can expect fireworks. Check out www.antonioforcione.com'

For more superlatives check out
http://www.bluesonthefarm.co.uk/archive/botf2004/bands/antonio_forcione_quartet.htm

Must buy the new cd....

- The Spiegel Tent: student tunes and atmosphere, one chick hits on Mike by pretending to lose her ring!

Wednesday

After rehearsals, I suffer immense pain as me and Dave somehow find ourselves in the middle of an immense laughing fit! The thing about Dave's laugh is, it resembles Mozart's in Amadeus in an uncanny way, except the falsetto shriek gets higher each time it returns! Introverted violinist Jason had to leave the room as tears of laughter were flooding down his face

- Havana Rumba - rated *, we go on recommendation and are slightly disappointed. the musicians are top notch, but the dancing gets repetative, and the old man narrator doesn't mould well into the scenery (yeah right it was his 60th birthday THAT day!). Still great fun though, and we all get up and boogie in the final act!

- BBC standup comedy night:

'Why doesn't beer have disclaimers on it like fags do, such as "Makes your arse explode"' !!
Beer: its good for everyone (There was actually a man in the audience who was a professional voiceover man, with v. rich, deep voice- a pot of gold for the comedian to work with for his entire set!)

Final guy Jimeoin's impression of moth as it struggles to reach the moon. He was so spot on with audience manipulation, and predicted the moment we'd stop laughing, then calls out 'Ride with me on this one' as the giggling starts up again - immensely funny! (The changing eyebrows, finding the funniest part of the stage + party trick where you carry 2 glasses to get out of a tricky conversation!)

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Edinburgh with the Rehearsal Orchestra - arrival and curry!

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 22:01:57 +0200

So, I've arrived in Edinburgh - what now? Well, this was certainly one of the most enjoyable and memorable weeks of this year, if not my life in general. To recap....

I arrive at George Heriot's school, a monolithic structure facing the back of Edinburgh Castle no less - epic indeed, especially as the TATOO has been erected next to it.

A caretaker named Norry kindly shows me round everywhere, lets me freshen up and directs me to a Starbucks to get some zzzs! when I return Ann-Marie and others are in the rehearsal room, and we chat and set up for the evening rehearsal. When all is done, she drives us to the flat in Riego Street - turns out they're Napier University Halls! I dump my stuff and try to kip a bit longer - all a bit blurred at this stage. When I wake, 2 others have arrived in the flat, both total weirdo's! One guy is a bassoonist called Phil, who struggles to put a sentence together and has a red zit under one eyeball! The other is an elderly gent cellist who can't even answer me straight whether he prefers Stravinsky to Beethoven!! I avoid him throughout the week, but Phil features more often...

Upon returning to the rehearsal room Lev is standing up at the front - what a reassuring sight he is, and I shake his hand wholeheartedly like a long lost friend! We smalltalk about Holloway people and Carl Woodcroft's awful dreamteam line up (apparently Lev's wife finished higher than him!), and my headstart on the 'Girl Crazy Overture' (which he conducted earlier in the year @ Holloway!! Other conductor Bob takes us through Die Fledermaus Overture. At this point Dave, the first trombonist, moves next to me and we begin what is to be some legendary banter. Oddly, when he first called out 'Stand up' as a quip to Lev, then made other comments quite loudly I tbought i wouldn't get on with him - how wrong I was! He is half Indian and gay, which I don't cotton onto until later!

I presume the same about his mate Mike when he calls back 'Are you coming for a curry with us later'? He too is a sound bloke, a trumpeteer and History student from Cambridge, who is our walking, talking map throughout the week! The last main dude within the trio who know each other from previous years is Ed, a double bassist from Wimbledon, about to go to Uni in Sheffield (or Leeds?).

Within seconds of leaving the school, I feel at home with these guys, as they mention a hilarious moment the previous year, where dave was forced on stage at some live comedy and wrote M.W.A (instead of NWA) on a whiteboard!! we head on up to the nearest Indian, orginally named 'Gandhi's', and stock up with glorious food. Within 30 mins the others find out why I am often referred to as the hoover!! Anyway, from what I remember we drink lots of beer and hit the blue blazer pub at some stage. Dave introduces us to his 'Indian-english', in which he is supposedly fluent:

Aim TELLING you (= I told you so)

and

'Ohhhhw Godd'

were my personal favourites! I was flaggin for sure towards the end but didn't want to look like a pussy so foolishly stayed til the bitter end - as i did every night thereafter!

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Download Festival remembered...

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 21:58:16 +0200

Some of the highlights of this memorable event (June 8-12 2006):

- Our bizzarre crowd of midlands wasters, called something like Spunky,Andy and Chris, whose conversation over these days can ACTUALLY be reduced to the following lines:

I popped sommma those pep pills earlier, think I'm coming up now

Are yer gettin perkeh??

At the end of the day, we've been gettin FUHCKED all day long

- The futile attempt to watch the england match on the cinema screen, during which people were constantly cutting through to the loo's, blocking everyone's view..

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Da Vinci with joff and jazz

Sat, 20 May 2006 22:23:46 +0200

What a disappointment. Rubbish direction, editing, scoring, the lot, altho acting was good! There was more excitement afterwards with the black possie in McDonalds causing trouble (a copper gets involved) and on the train back where the guard appraoches as we haven't paid!

Remember the previous week where the Vue manager lectures the whole cinema after MI:3:

Thank-you VERY MUCH the individual who smoked inside during the film - you almost caused an evacuation of 2000 people and ruined the evening tonight....

We worked out that barely 1000 people fit into the complex

N.b - Jürgen P. in Da Vinci reminds me of Berlin incident where I follow his clone around for a while until he notices me! (There was a theatre production featuring the man and I genuinely thought it was him!)

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Egham Brass Band - the first experience!

Sat, 20 May 2006 22:09:55 +0200

Friday, 19th May

Decide to ring Egham Band's ringleader Gareth Green to ask if I can watch or play in the rehearsal. He doesn't sound thrilled but I realise thats just his nature later on! Will kindly drives me down to the station, and I eventually find the purposebuilt house from HM the Queen (1975). No greeting, I just sit down and start playing from the red Salvation Army march book (memories of HMK's little books!)

The repertoire isn't too taxing, but crucially fun and at least I'm PLAYING, not COUNTING - !! Repertoire includes 'Born Free' by John Barry, which has a Dances with Wolves, open frontier mood at times. Also, 'The A-Team' is a great laugh, he makes some valid points about 'being metrically correct' and 'sustaining the volume of the note until it ends' as oppossed to trailing off.

Afterwards the 1st Tbist buys me a drink from the members bar upstairs (!), then I chat to Gareth, who is overweight, has SILLY long hair, makes little eye contact and is quite full of himself, but in a charming kind of way! He asks about my instrument, seems to know a fair deal, and even says 'By default I know more about the instruments in here than most of the players' !! He speaks of the necessity to learn EVERY alternate valve position for Bass Tb.ists, then mentions that there is apparently a book by some Israeli player which covers it best. When I mention the exact name of the book and author he is somewhat taken aback!! He is RHUL alumni, as are various other of the bandsmen, and remembers Jim Dack and Erik Levi!

Says I can return to play 2nd as well if necessary, so watch this space...

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Defining moments @ Holloway (Uni!)

Wed, 15 Mar 2006 22:55:13 +0100

March '06

Charlotte, a dizzy but lovely flautist has volunteered to play in performance class. During the last bars she fluffs a high note, but manages to squeeze a yelp of 'Sorry' in the quaver's gap before the final chord !

Student/Staff meeting. Topic: Woodlands (as always!). HOD John Rink questions whether or not anyone would make use of 24hour access,then points out that he used to religiously practice until 1am. Rob Hodge asks if he ever considered having a drink in the pub with others at those times, to which he replies

I think we know the answer to that: I had no life back then!!

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'Feast of Chamber Music' !

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 13:39:22 +0100

Friday 3rd

Have been rehearsing a lot this week for the fundraising chamber music gig in the picture gallery. Group session with Tom sorts out the last 'feinheiten' on the Gabrieli, which sounds very good now.

Brass Quintet is first however, but unfortunately it is so hot in the gallery, and the audience is SO close that it affects my playing. Also, the aucoustics are so dry compared to the boomy Woodlands rooms that you get a bit of a complex about how you sound. Apart from a wrong entry in the Handel and no solo in 'Aint Misbehavin' it runs quite well.

Ironically I'm much happier with the Trombone 4-tet's performance, possibly because we know the pieces so much better. The Gabrieli has nice rubato and dynamic contrast and even when Christina plays one beat too soon we cover it well! After the applause the plan was to bow, then for Dave R to count us in for the surprise number 'James Bond Theme' - Tina somehow came in totally solo with the first emphatic quavers, which provided plenty of laughs for the rest of the evening!! Party afterwards at Dave's, Harvey sings to Monty Python, me and Jem official tell Cathy :-[" class="middle" border="0"> that my blazer rules and Goddard plays Bach at full volume!

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