So tired today after a very full yesterday! Made 18 Stars and a Moon on a Stick for Thursday's performance, which itself meant a 4 mile round trip for the supplies:
The stars were bamboo skewers stuck with hot melt glue. The process didn't take long. Blessed be my knowledge of glues! The moon was jigsawed from 3mm MDF, and stuck both sides. This was blue. I then thought that I could make a sign for the keyboard stand and use the off-cuts of glitter foam from the moon to make some lettering:
It's not green, but it will suffice. Again this was jigsawed from 3mm MDF, then painted. All of this meant a lot of running about. I seem to spend all of the money and twice the work on every performance! But so it should be. It's odd how I thought, at the start, that each show would be about the same, that we'd evolve into a way of working, with certain set equipment and leads, certain lights, certain instruments, yet after nearly 20 shows this is not so. Each one is unique, each instrument setup, and even the music. This will be our first show with the Stars on Sticks for 'She Comes More Near The Earth'. The instrumentation will be different, and sounds better than ever. In the past we've used a projector for this, a huge moonrise, but now, it will be the audience which will (hopefully) rise to the proverbial occasion.
I woke today aching and already exhausted after yesterday's constant running, then decided to work on the new script for the Ragtime Ragdoll Robot. I needed a new robot voice, but also a stand for the mic. So far, with the Microkorg I've used a full sized mic and stand, but this time I'll need that for my vocal performance. I have used a tiny mic directly plugged into the Korg, but I can't do that on a tiered stand, so I needed to make a rod which will clamp to the keyboard stand via a Smallrig camera clamp. This was a tricky job... I need a gripper for the mic itself, and a way to fit the holder to a camera thread.
In the end, I used wood and managed to drill a 5mm hole into the base of the 6mm dowelling, using a tiny 2mm bit as a guide. I used a crocodile clip to hold the mic lead.
This was more a complex job than it appears. It had to look good as well as fit in the correct place on the stand.
Tomorrow we will complete a full rehearsal.
I feel so very tired at the moment, and still overwhelmed with jobs and tasks. I need to complete my book and practice piano. How crude my playing is! I need to improve my scales in particular. I've hardly played piano at all in nearly 3 years. I didn't need to and never expected to need to play again, but now I must! I need to learn, master, play better than ever, and must practice. My simple scores desperately need more complexity.
I almost always play with more complexity than I score, but this is a form of laziness. I was pleased to play and add this little baroque curl to the otherwise simple Salome music today.
But I must get Thursday out of the way; the book, the Flemish Painters album, and the Salome project. One thing at a time.
