It's a quarter past one in the afternoon and I've not long managed to pull myself from my slumber to toast some pastry. I've been going to bed late recently, around two in the morning and I'm paying for it. This has made me become lazy, since most days I don't really have anything I need to get up for I will spend most if not all of the morning in bed. Pop tarts have become my regular breakfast food, today I have a pair of the strawberry ones in front of me. I tried to be healthy by having a cheap variation of Kellogs Crunchy Nut, but that didn't last very long; all the same with me and any healthy foods really.
I do however have a lot to do today, at least in my head thats what I keep telling myself. I need to spend some time on my Summer Research Project as I've neglected it this week and I also want to have my proposal finished by the end of this month. That was one of my goals that is still easily achievable, but my other "to have read two books by the end of the month" is not so. In other news, the new band is going well. We have out first gig on August 10th, but we don't now where it is yet? ...We are currently called Robots, but we will be hosting the Tournament De Nomenclature to pick out a better name that we can all fairly agree on. We currently have three original songs that are about there and just need a little bit of tiding up in terms of structure and we have a couple of covers in mind. We don't seem to have a set genre, which I like. Our first original song has sort of an alt-rock vibe, our second punk and our third; creepy ska. We are at the point where things are starting to get exciting.
There's nothing worse than burnt icing on a pop tart.
Friday 28 July 2017
Thursday 20 July 2017
Wednesday 19 July 2017
Temporary "Duh" Disposition
I felt like my head was in the right place at the start of this week. The temperature wasn't too hot and I made a solid start to my project, but both today and yesterday have been a struggle. I've managed to add 300 words or so today and to be fair to myself, I did go out yesterday. I was introduced to the Nottingham Library which has an impressive collection of books that I now want to get my head stuck into, but this has been one of those awkward days where I really struggle to motivate myself. I have however, tidied my room. I have much more space to move about more easily than when there was a coffee table in the way, it feels more open although I still think I need a second desk.
Despite being slightly productive, I feel like I've done nothing and sat staring at a screen with my mouth open all day. My main problem is Facebook. I find myself endlessly scrolling, sometimes for hours with no person gain other than the odd meme, a friendly post or wholesome video. This doesn't make me want to delete my account. I have a lot of friends and contacts that I only really connect with because of Facebook interactions, groups and chats, even creating friendship links with some people in America. It really can be a fascinating site, but it's so addictive.
For now, I'm going to get changed (I've been wearing shorts all day and it's not really been all that warm) and I'm gonna grab myself a McDonalds. I have a thing for their BBQ wraps, just like I have a thing for anything BBQ. They are better than the measly KFC ones. So much more chicken. When I get back I will try to trick myself into doing some work. Anyway, food.
Monday 17 July 2017
Research Project Updates
So, today I originally planned to dedicate an hour to my summer research project in terms of reading followed by another hour dedicated to Bach harmony. Lets just say, I never made it to that second dedicated hour. My reading took me in a new direction. I noticed Thorn's repetition of the words "Authenticity" and "Artifice" which made me question everything I was truly aiming for and anything I have ever done musically.
I had already started writing my proposal, but without a title which I now have. It feels a bit bland, but it feels right. There is no question in my title which feels slightly wrong but, I've decided to go for "Understanding Music: The Artifice of Performance". I now have some topics I want to cover listed in a table of contents and have already included some figures for imagery. I have set up 15 pages for these topics and they seem to be in a comfortable and reader-pleasing order. I think for now, I will only reveal the title of this work so far as I still have some uncertainties and I'm feeling slightly overworked today just by dedicating so many hours today. My total word cord is nearing towards 1400 and I'm feeling quite proud of what I've produced so far, with all of it's emptiness. A part of me only hopes that it is not just all bullshit as I haven't yet referenced anything.
This is exciting.
For now, I'm going to treat myself to an hour or so of games before I have to leave for tonights band practice session with my new band, Robots. I'm still not keen on the name, there's just something about it being so simple that bugs me and I recon if we keep the name it could cause problems. Maybe I'm too fussy, but a band name is an important thing. If anyone can suggest anything any better, let me know!
I had already started writing my proposal, but without a title which I now have. It feels a bit bland, but it feels right. There is no question in my title which feels slightly wrong but, I've decided to go for "Understanding Music: The Artifice of Performance". I now have some topics I want to cover listed in a table of contents and have already included some figures for imagery. I have set up 15 pages for these topics and they seem to be in a comfortable and reader-pleasing order. I think for now, I will only reveal the title of this work so far as I still have some uncertainties and I'm feeling slightly overworked today just by dedicating so many hours today. My total word cord is nearing towards 1400 and I'm feeling quite proud of what I've produced so far, with all of it's emptiness. A part of me only hopes that it is not just all bullshit as I haven't yet referenced anything.
This is exciting.
For now, I'm going to treat myself to an hour or so of games before I have to leave for tonights band practice session with my new band, Robots. I'm still not keen on the name, there's just something about it being so simple that bugs me and I recon if we keep the name it could cause problems. Maybe I'm too fussy, but a band name is an important thing. If anyone can suggest anything any better, let me know!
The Last Day Of College... Until It All Starts Again!
So, that's it now. I shouldn't be officially setting foot back in college until at the very earliest, late September to enrol for the second year. I say officially because I can already see myself managing to find a reason to enter beforehand. It seems strange this week, the lingering thought that I have nothing to do but I seem to have a new collective of untethered work to keep my head in gear. My research project (although I haven't yet fully settled on a topic) is coming along nicely and I'm finding myself tucking into Tracey Thorn's book, Naked At The Albert Hall. I have a couple of ideas and a hunch and I've given myself until the end of the month to figure out what the hell I'm doing.
Last week was a nice end, only visiting college once on the Thursday for what I guess you could call a "lesson". A very long lesson. NR wanted to teach me Bach Harmony and so we arranged this for 10:30am. With a half an hour break or so around 12pm, we didn't finish up until around 3pm. I was quite impressed with myself for being able to keep focused for so long, until I started to lose it a little at the end, just through tiredness I guess. It was a nice way to finish the year anyway. It almost feels like we've gone full circle. Me and NR used to do music theory bits seemingly all of the time, it's most of what I recall from my lvl 3, only now I have a folder full of Chorales awaiting their Alto, Tenor and Bass parts. I've given myself a target to at least do one or two per week. This should keep my head busy. I'm also trying to get into a habit of giving myself a schedule, like for today I have dedicated an hour to reading and an hour to harmony, leaving enough time to visit the gym later before band practice.
Tuesday 11 July 2017
Podium
"That's twice today my cat's got right under my feet and I've had to catch myself as if I were a falling vase..."
To which I got a tongue in cheek reply...
"Since when did a vase gain the skill of catching itself whilst falling?"
Well....
Imagine both my head and torso as the vase, my legs as the podium it sits upon. My arms quite naturally are my balance extending to my fingertips, where so much as adding muscular tension through my arm, to the knuckles of my thumb and four fingers could keep me stable. In the situation where my podium starts to wobble as a reaction to an unexpected feline tickling below my knees and around my ankles, my arms counteract to prevent the vase from falling thus keeping it intact. To catch oneself involves extending outwards, physically reaching out at the air to keep the vase from falling using a combination of arms, legs feet and hands, predominantly my podium and balance as well as coordination with the very top of the vase. Once the feline had dispersed and my feet had resumed the right placement, it was safe to adjust myself accordingly and remove any embarrassment which may have encountered from memory.
This analogy starts to fail once the vase smashes completely, when an accurate comparison would mean that I would be at the least "shattered" or more seriously, "blown up" or "dead", when actually I would have just fallen to the floor.
If you hear a yelp or meow, you've probably stood on a cat.
To which I got a tongue in cheek reply...
"Since when did a vase gain the skill of catching itself whilst falling?"
Well....
Imagine both my head and torso as the vase, my legs as the podium it sits upon. My arms quite naturally are my balance extending to my fingertips, where so much as adding muscular tension through my arm, to the knuckles of my thumb and four fingers could keep me stable. In the situation where my podium starts to wobble as a reaction to an unexpected feline tickling below my knees and around my ankles, my arms counteract to prevent the vase from falling thus keeping it intact. To catch oneself involves extending outwards, physically reaching out at the air to keep the vase from falling using a combination of arms, legs feet and hands, predominantly my podium and balance as well as coordination with the very top of the vase. Once the feline had dispersed and my feet had resumed the right placement, it was safe to adjust myself accordingly and remove any embarrassment which may have encountered from memory.
This analogy starts to fail once the vase smashes completely, when an accurate comparison would mean that I would be at the least "shattered" or more seriously, "blown up" or "dead", when actually I would have just fallen to the floor.
If you hear a yelp or meow, you've probably stood on a cat.
Monday 10 July 2017
The Play That Went Wrong
Last Friday, for the first time in years I went to the theatre to see a comedy play. I wasn't really sure what to expect as my dad had brought the tickets, so I only knew that it was going to be hilarious. We were seated on the second tier and as we waited I noticed some piano playing coming from down stairs. We wandered back downstairs as we had plenty of time to waste and I noticed a lady sight reading at the grand piano on the first floor. I thought it was CD playback until I got halfway down the stairs, hearing the acoustics thinking, "Oh my god, that sounds live!" I was quite proud that I recognised some of the tunes as well, including Misty.
The play started before it started (if that makes sense) where the guy playing the sound operator to the side of the stage, was asking the audience if anyone had seen a dog. It was good warm up in knowing what to expect and he went on to inspect all three seated areas of the Theatre Royal. Some views close by us suggested that he borrow their dog, but then went on to say it's sick. He then started asking people if they had a healthy dog that he could borrow... obviously for the show.
The play was full of slap stick comedy, someone was always being hit in the face, trodden on or knocked out completely. The first half was amazing and easy to follow, extremely entertaining. The second half, after I had had an interval of ice-cream was a little more difficult. More things started happening at once and the stage started to fall apart slowly, until at the end their was nothing left besides the framework the set was held up by after the wooden panels collapsed to the floor, ending with the smash of the chandelier (which I saw one of the actors pull the switch for!), fantastic show overall, just a little confusing at the end!
The play started before it started (if that makes sense) where the guy playing the sound operator to the side of the stage, was asking the audience if anyone had seen a dog. It was good warm up in knowing what to expect and he went on to inspect all three seated areas of the Theatre Royal. Some views close by us suggested that he borrow their dog, but then went on to say it's sick. He then started asking people if they had a healthy dog that he could borrow... obviously for the show.
The play was full of slap stick comedy, someone was always being hit in the face, trodden on or knocked out completely. The first half was amazing and easy to follow, extremely entertaining. The second half, after I had had an interval of ice-cream was a little more difficult. More things started happening at once and the stage started to fall apart slowly, until at the end their was nothing left besides the framework the set was held up by after the wooden panels collapsed to the floor, ending with the smash of the chandelier (which I saw one of the actors pull the switch for!), fantastic show overall, just a little confusing at the end!
Monday 3 July 2017
Summer Research Project 2017
As you may have guessed, I don't like not being busy. Already, I'm finding myself to have too much time and not really know what to do with it and so, I have decided to take on a summer research project to keep myself occupied. I've put together a reading list that is very ambitious, considering before last year I didn't really read anything expect Facebook posts and the odd news article, the page count totalling 1220, some of which being very big pages. It is also ambitious as it takes me many months to read a 250ish paged science fiction novel, but this is much more serious. I'm thinking this is what I will need to do to prepare myself for my final year. Yes, I'm already thinking about it. I have been all year.
As I've said, this is going to be quite a big project in terms of how time-consuming it will be and I will probably need to set myself targets which whether I meet them or not, I can later reflect on. Will it just self-motivation or will something else get in the way?
I want to do this properly. Maybe, not as if it was for my dissertation in the not-so-distant future, but I have already started writing a research proposal. I need to know what I'm going to get out of this and doing this is the best way not only to help meet targets, but to improve my academic skills. Also, I need a refresher on writing proposals. I find them to be quite tough after only ever writing my first two this year; the first one was scrapped for its vagueness. To improve my academic skills is one of the main aims and to give myself more practice, even if I don't feel like I get anything out of this in the end. I believe I will and I hope to have a solid conclusion of some sort, but it will be a true test of self-motivation; something I claimed to be of high importance nearing the end of last year.
As I've said, this is going to be quite a big project in terms of how time-consuming it will be and I will probably need to set myself targets which whether I meet them or not, I can later reflect on. Will it just self-motivation or will something else get in the way?
I want to do this properly. Maybe, not as if it was for my dissertation in the not-so-distant future, but I have already started writing a research proposal. I need to know what I'm going to get out of this and doing this is the best way not only to help meet targets, but to improve my academic skills. Also, I need a refresher on writing proposals. I find them to be quite tough after only ever writing my first two this year; the first one was scrapped for its vagueness. To improve my academic skills is one of the main aims and to give myself more practice, even if I don't feel like I get anything out of this in the end. I believe I will and I hope to have a solid conclusion of some sort, but it will be a true test of self-motivation; something I claimed to be of high importance nearing the end of last year.
Reading List:
Understanding Music, Antony Hopkins.
This Is Your Brain On Music, Daniel Levitin.
On Sonic Art, Trevor Wishart.
Naked At The Albert Hall, Tracey Thorn.
Stravinsky, Francis Routh.
Understanding Music, Antony Hopkins.
This Is Your Brain On Music, Daniel Levitin.
On Sonic Art, Trevor Wishart.
Naked At The Albert Hall, Tracey Thorn.
Stravinsky, Francis Routh.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)