Alex's Journal

Ha, so, the post I made before my new-year post was actually a post of goal-ish type things, so let's look back and see how I did:
( Read more... )

(As may be assumed from the post title, I did pass my grade 6 exam. With a 78, even.)

So I am at the point where I should pick my grade 7 songs, and it's turning out to be surprisingly hard.

For starters, the RCM book is not the only book that I have the option of taking songs from - it's actually a much longer list, especially for List A. I have one of those books, thankfully, but that still gives me 11 songs to pick from, which I have to narrow down to two.

On the other hand, List B is a short list. Thankfully, my teacher agrees with me that Dolente immagine di Fille mia is pretty much the best choice, and also covers my non-English requirements (although I'll probably wind up with either another Italian song or a German one, which will be HI-LAR-I-OUS except not really)

List C right now is in a toss-up. The problem is: do I go with a (fast) song in French, or do I go with Danny Boy, which 1) is probably insanely overdone and 2) All The Emoting. (I have trouble with Emotions in music. In real life too, but.)

List D is going to depend strongly on how high What I Did For Love goes. (I need to get my hands on the Hal Leonard book to take a look.) Otherwise I'll probably go with Far From The Home I Love.

--Also just realized that in order to get my grade 6 certificate, I need to do my Intermediate Rudiments, and for grade 7, I need to do my Advanced Rudiments. I mean, I get five years to do it in? But, hork. I haven't thought about musical theory in a looooong time.

...but I'm only going to do 20 songs because LAZY.

( 20 songs to guess for your entertainment below the cut! )

Via sasuran:

1. Put your playlist on random.
2. Post a line from the first 45.
3. Get your friends to guess what song the line belongs to.
4. Give credit when someone guesses correctly.

(I've skipped songs that weren't in English, were mashups, or didn't have lyrics.)

( Below the cut... )

I have made a playlist of a number of songs I'm working on in my voice lessons! *beams*

I'm not nearly as good as these singers, obviously. Also, can you tell that mostly we work on opera and musicals? ;)

Also, it annoys me for no good reason when their lyrics are slightly off from the ones I have.

So, as some of you may know, I'm on the waiting list for Queer Idol. More than a few of you are music geeks or ex-music-geeks, and I am having a WHACKLOAD of trouble coming up with song ideas.

Now, since I'm still on the waiting list, I might not even get an audition. (I had to miss the first set due to fever, which leaves me equal parts annoyed and sad.) But, as a fun exercise in picking songs, I figured I'd set out the various stages and ask for help picking songs! After all, even if I can't participate in QI this year, it'll give me something to sing for karaoke. ;)

The ground rules:

1) It has to be singable by someone who sings alto (moi). No Christine in Phantom crap here. I am not Sarah Brightman. With luck, I might be Emily Haines. In my wildest fantasies. I will sing songs with male vocalists, though.

2) I have to be reasonably certain I can find a karaoke track for the song. Unfortunately, a cursory glance means this wipes out most of Metric's catalogue, the bastards.

3) It has to fit in one of the categories! What are those you ask?

-Audition song
(Open to anything! Right now I'm tossing between The Dakota by Christine Lavin, The World Is Not Enough by Garbage, or something by The Beatles.)

-Musical theatre, divas, and “torch songs”
(This is fucking impossible. Especially since almost all the musicals I know are mostly ensemble casts or the above-mentioned Phantom. Divas are right out. I was thinking Sometime After Midnight might count as a 'torch song', but that's low for me. ...there's always I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major-General... or What Can You Do With A B.A. In English.)

-Holiday season
(Probably the easiest of any of them. I LOVE Christmas music. I just don't want something too overdone. Which is all of them, I know.)

-Sex-positive music
(I am ashamed to say I don't have much for this. What I do, there is no fucking way I could get a karaoke track for it. I Touch Myself? *LOL*)

-Music that encourages social reform
(...I think this one is probably going to Green Day, although I don't know how 'social reform' they are so much as pointing out fucked-uppedness. Unfortunately, that fucks with my track selection for openly-queer singers.)

-Celebrating the ‘70s
(Bridge Over Troubled Water? My Sweet Lord? Kung Fu Fighting? ABBA? There's a reason we left the '70s behind. I guess there's always Queen.)

-Celebrating the ‘80s
(This, on the other hand, I probably have shamefully covered. However I'll still take suggestions.)

-Honoring Canadian singers/songwriters
(Remember how I said Metric was impossible to find karaoke for? Yeah, fuck you very much too. I'll probably do BNL. ...or Hallelujah because I am a sucker for that shit.)

-British Pop and World Beats
(Did you say The Beatles? Why yes! Now, which song to pick...)

-Songs by openly-queer singers/songwriters
(There are a lot of queer female vocalists that sing in my range! But I hate all of them! Whatever is a girl to do. Besides suck it up. Sing Green Day, perhaps. Of course, I would never in a million years make it this far, but let's pretend.)


So? Thoughts?

So Katie-love made me a playlist! As follows:

1. David Bowie: John, I'm Only Dancing
This one is more about the Bowie and the queer-sexy and the sound than the lyrics and song itself.

2. Airborne Toxic Event: Missy
Same with this one. It's a great song, and Missy kind of reminds me of your Melody character.

3. The Beatles: Paperback Writer
"But I need a break and I want to be a paperback writer"
Poor Alex just needs a break.

4. Takako Minekawa: Cat House
"I'm a cat and sensitive girl/ Better than a compu-kitty/La la la la la la la/ meow, meow, meow, meow"

5. Belle & Sebastian: Expectations
"Your obsessions get you known throughout the school for being strange"
I know your high school years were good, but I can see you feeling like this now.

Right now I have it as the first five songs on my blip.fm playlist (like so). It is pretty awesome. I require more ATE.

Is it worth it to drop all your money-making capability to pursue a job you love?

Is it worth it if that job is something that very few people [get to] do, and holds a strong possibility that you won't be able to achieve paidness in that job?

Basically, how much do you [have to] temper your idealism with your pragmatism?


I mean, I don't think of my job as a "career". I'm a phone monkey. I don't think it's likely to lead into anything I'd like to do more. Should I therefore drop everything and pursue a line of work that won't pay much, if at all?

Does the answer change if I've discovered that "doing what I love" as work turns love into, well, work?

Or do I keep the job I have, where even if I don't love the work I'm doing (I don't really care one way or another) I do like the people I'm doing it with, and I'm making money so that I can afford the things that I do enjoy?

Because that, to me, is a perfectly reasonable compromise. Rather than making myself hate the things that I once enjoyed to try and make money off of them, I'll use work to fund the things that I enjoy.

Which seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Furry Happy Monsters, REM & The Muppets

Via jaltok


Further pimpage: I feel an intense need to tell you all about Pandora. Much like Gnoosic, it analyzes the songs/artists you put in, suggests new musicians or songs to you... and then creates a "radio" for you that plays that style of music. You can give thumbs-up or thumbs-down to any number of songs, or put them on the backburner if you don't feel like listening. I'm using it to discover more angry music for Leah (put in Phobia and Cannibal Corpse, come out with stuff that's very appropriate for Troll Thrash Metal!), as well as expand my personal horizons from my current big 5 (Green Day, The Offspring, October Project, Barenaked Ladies, and Evanescence). Plus, you can e-mail your 'station' to a friend.

I'm getting some very neat new songs. And, of course, "If I Had $1,000,000".

http://www.braintoy.net

I sat next to their drummer, Riley, on the train up to Waterloo last Friday, and he told me all about their band. Apparently their single is being played on 102.1, and they're trying to get a record deal.

I figure I can plug a local band for an interesting conversation. :)

Never Goes Away isn't a bad song, either. Destitutional is also pretty cool.

They're going on tour at the end of the month. Horseshoe Tavern on the 26th, for those of you that like these sorts of things.

They've spent $30,000 out of pocket to try and get off the ground, so if you have the money and like their songs, buy the CD, OK?

Riley said they have a lot of influences - APC I believe was the only one I recognised - I can definitely hear it.

Anyway, there you go. Plug! PLUG!

"You can borrow [our webmaster], but you can't keep him... kinda like vibrators and girlfriends."