The insanely boring life…

The one act play is coming along. I failed to mention that a few days ago we changed scripts, so the new script is completely new and different and has never been performed before. It is called “Vincent and Dolla.”

It is about two classes of dolls stored in a storeroom. The upper class window shop manikins and the lower class crash test dummies.

It is a very abstract play and really well written. It was written by the director’s brother. Anyway, my role has changed slightly. I am now an actual character in the play. My character’s name is “Flenters” and that means (translated to english) “Broken”. Yes, that is what my character is called. I am a slightly insane old doll who says these deep philosophical things. I hardly know what I am actually saying, half the time. But I’ll gt there. There will probably only be 2 people in the entire audience that actually know what I am saying.

Anyway, I still have to write some of the music. I just have to write one more song, then I am done. I won’t be playing live because I am permanently on stage and in character. I have to admit that it is a lot of fun.

The only thing I am concerned about are the costumes. The other actors who has been in a one act play before calls them “cats suits.” Why? Because they are similar to the ones the actors in the musical “Cats” wore. Now, those are ery tight things, and my figure just was not meant for them. I am not going to worry until I actually see them. I REFUSE to get myself worked up.

Anyway, I have been practicing every day from almost directly after school to as late as 17:30. But I am not complaining. It is fun.

School holiday has finally started, and I have loads of work for the holiday because I made it into the school’s famous one act play. The one that tours around the country… I am not an actor in it, though, but because of a good reason.

The reason I am not an actor is because I am having an operation on my face in June which is when the competitions become really rough. So, for me to have an operation then would be very bad. But I am exited about the operation, because that means I will finally be able to smile normally.

So, what am I doing in the one act play, you may ask. Simple: I am the Musical Director. Now, that title means the following: I have to write the entire musical score of the play and I have to put two poems into music and teach the kids all the songs (which I have to write). When I first heard exactly what I will be doing I almost got a heart attack. It is a daunting task to say the least. On the script are several indicators of when and what music should play. For instance, in the first few minutes I have to write (and I quote) “rape music” because the girl is being raped in that particular scene. That is just one example of the awkward music which I have to write.

The play is about 30 minutes long, so that is a lot of music to write.

I am worried because these plays are always national competitors and have won the national competitions on several occasions. The school spends up to R100 000 (about $12500) on these plays, so if my music flops, the entire performance will flop.

But it gets better: I have to perform the music live during every performance. I will actually be on the stage playing the music. Now if you don’t call that the epitome of stress, then I don’t know. This is probably the most stressful thing someone could ask me to do. But I am happy.

But besides that, my Sweeney Todd sheet music book has arrived. I paid $100 for this book (not including international delivery and taxes). The book was worth every cent, though. It is the entire script of Sweeney Todd and includes all the choir parts, all the music (for piano [and sometimes organ], but can be split into an entire orchestration) and all the lyrics. I am having a blast with it.

But that is all that is happening in my life. Thanks for reading this!

In my previous post, I said that I wrote my IT test. Well, I did, and I got my marks.

54%.

It is horrible, to say the least. Well, besides that, I found out that I had to do a music exam today just out of the blue. And lo and behold! I got 71%, which is not that bad for a music exam.

There is only ONE more test to go, and that is on Thursday (maths). Spare me. I don’t know how good I will do in that subject. I did choose the easy maths subject, but it is still quite difficult. Oh well. I will just have to lift up my head and move on.

We are currently doing Macbeth in English. If that teacher did not explain what every second word meant, then I would be lost. I have done Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet and Merchant of Venice before, so I know a little about Shakespeare, but Macbeth is just twice as hard. Like Greek with a Spanish accent, if you ask me.

Today was the most stressful day of my life. It was one of those days where everything just happened at the same time. This is what I did today:

• I.T. Test
• Drama Practical test
• Auditions for a play
• Musical rehearsals

All of those things required me to study a great deal. And I would have done so were it not for the fact that we went away for the weekend, which left little time for any studying.

So, the IT test was catastrophic, to say the least. It was the most horrible experience. I will probably get 50% for that test, which is a horrible mark for me. The Drama Practical was not too bad, although I did forget my words halfway through. I got 96% for the poetry part and a shocking 76% for my monologue. I am devastated. The one act play auditions went fine, as well. Although, when I saw the other kids who also auditioned (we were five, I think), I could not help but think, “I can not possibly compete with that.”

The musical rehearsals were the only thing that went well. I actually say about one word. Whoopie. I play the Mayor, as I’ve said in a previous post, and I am overruled by my wife the whole time. I don’t get a word in edgewise. Sad, isn’t it? But I play another character as well, so I am kinda happy. I play the character of the stage manager.

So, with those things said and done, my life will slow down now until the holiday. At which time I have 2 weeks off, then school will start again and my life will pick up its usual pace again.

I dread the day we get our report cards, though…

I have found out that I am in the musical. I play both the characters “Stage Manager” (yes, that is an actual character) and the “Mayor.”

So, yay. That means no dancing. I am so happy about that, because, you see, I cannot dance to save my life. It is simply impossible. IMPOSSIBLE!

I also auditioned for another play our school will have. This is a major major major play that is always entered into national competitions, etc. It only has one scene, so it is between 20 and 30 minutes long.

That main character, though… What I would not give to play that. And not BECAUSE it is a main character (well, maybe a little), but because of what the character represents.

It is about a boy who is physically disfigured and mentally unstable.

I won’t go into detailed plot lines now, but that character would be a very demanding role to play. Do you want to know how difficult it was to pull that off during the audition?

I hope I get the part, but I’m not going to get my hopes up. I have not auditioned for a role this big before, so I don’t think they would put so much on someone who has never done this before, even if the directors did make it sound like I would get the part because I have personal experience in regards to the teasing etc. that this boy goes through.

Wish me luck!

Right, I have a lot of things to say in one post.

Firstly, I am going to buy the complete Sweeney Todd Vocal Score, which costs a staggering $100. I have saved up for this quite a while. I can’t wait, though. It will be amazing.

Next on my list - I have finally gotten around to writing my own Fan Fiction after reading so many Harry Potter Fan Fictions. Mine is called Harry Potter and the Poet’s Dream. It is a Powerful!Harry story, which is probably a synonym to “Super Harry.” You can read it, if you want. It is about Harry who finds out that he is the heir of Merlin and finds his soul mate, and along with a god who cannot use his power to help them and Ron and Hermione, they have to save the world from one evil person. That reminds me, I still have to get rid of Voldemort. he is not the supreme evil of this story. I am really trying hard, but I am not COMPLETELY getting it right, so bear with me. i might do a complete rewrite once I am done with it.

And moving on.

I thought I’d have a little fun. I have two songs which I love to sing, and I thought I might post the recording of me playing it. I play it on the keyboard while I sing it. These songs do NOT include my voice. I must admit that they have a lot of errors in them, because I had to work out all the notes and chords out by myself and I play them while singing. Please forgive the errors. tell me what you think? Here are the two songs:

• Every time We Touch - Cascada
• Edelweiss - Sound of Music

And moving on to our next subject…

The cast for the musical which my school will perform will be announced on Monday. I am EXTREMELY excited. I probably won’t get a big role. Probably a small character and backup vocalist. I don’t know, though. It all depends on what the director decides.

And now I have come to the end of my speech. I am exhausted. Thanks for reading all this!

A short film was made in 1969 by David Lynch, called The Alphabet.

Now, I took the time out of my busy day to look at this bizarre short film, and I have came to my conclusion of what it means: I think it is a load of strangeness that no one, save David Lynch himself, can ever hope to understand. I think the girl might just be a little disturbed and had trouble learning the alphabet, or something, but OK.

Something odd that I actually expected to happen: I expected that something will pop up any moment and I will shriek for the neighbours to hear. You know, like those videos you watch where everything is serene and then all of a sudden a sharp noise and sudden flash of a revolting image scares you to death.

Of course, that never happened. Instead, this made me think of the video in The Ring. If you want to see it, be my guest. Follow the link.

Right, Alex gave me a shout out, so it is only fair that I give one back to her.

Her blog is located on blogger.com and she is one of the few people who read my blog. She is still learning this whole blog thing, but she is doing it surprisingly quickly.

She really knows how to listen to a person, but when she starts talking, I must admit, she is very amusing. Obviously, her blog will grow along with her (as had mine, since it is now two years since I started blogging) and I suggest that you check it out. She is really not your typical emo disaster-waiting-to-happen.

So, here is to Alex, and I hope you have fun in the blogosphere!

On another note, I went to see Wolf Creek with my firend, Mia. It was scary, yes, but where they got the 18 age restriction, I will never know. I mean, I have seen horrors much worse, rated 16. I mean, I am sorry, but the age restriction was ridiculous. There were no sex scenes, there were no obscene kissing, nothing!

But the fact that those events actually happened are horrible. At least, one can only assume so, because one of the characters, Ben, was actually found alive to tell the story. He was arrested, though, as if he were the guilty one. I am sorry, but the police are stupid. He was arrested and released after 4 months in custody. I mean, come on! He was crucified to a fence! Surely that must count as something!

Well, I don’t know. It was an interesting movie, but not something I will see twice.

But why did we (South Africa) only get it in 2007, when it was released in 2005! We don’t usually wait THAT long to see a movie, after America gets it. But this was an Australian film, so that is different, I suppose.

If anyone remembers my previous attempt at a song, then you might also remember that it was not of the highest standard. Well, I am here to tell you that neither is the new song. I am trying, and one day I will get there. The song is arranged in such a way that I could not possibly say which hand should play which part. I tried my best, as you can see from the sheet music. If you want to play it, then just try and figure it out, if you REALLY want to. I tried to make it as easy as possible.

I did not make a recording of me playing it, because I have not yet played it to my liking and my own standards. You can see the sheet music and/or listen to the midi, though.

• You can download the PDF of the sheet music here.
• You can download the MIDI file here.

The whole point of this song was, originally, to write something happy. As you can hear, I tried, but every time I tried something happy, it just mutated into something that sounded more like a graveyard. Enjoy my attempt at happiness!

Note: The following post contains phrases or words that may offend sensitive readers.

You can’t trust anyone these days, it would seem: Everyone’s a spammer. Now, I don’t want to sound all knowing, but I know that all spam messages are related to sex. Spam is probably the single biggest problem of the internet. In fact, spam existed long before the internet (the post box is only SO big), but since posting became an ineffective way to make money, spammers targeted a person’s two biggest needs: His email address and sex.

But it would appear that even private message systems on popular video sites are being targeted, making the life of the user that much more difficult. I think I might have a solution to the growing problem. Here are my thoughts on what can be done:

• Firstly, my email provider (GMail) should put an option in the options menu that allows me to select the languages I can read. All messages that are not 90% that language should be sent directly to the spam folder. If I cannot understand the content, I probably don’t want it. Most of the time, spam messages for me are in a foreign language.
• If the spam filter detects the words “penis enlargement” or “Viagra,” then dispose of it. Why on earth would I want those emails. At the very least, give me an option to set those on.
• Everyone should just ignore spam. Just send it straight to the spam folder. Why on earth are there still people that either reply hatefully to a spam message or actually buy into the rubbish?
• Finally, I think that if someone is caught spamming, then the punishment should be so severe that he will no longer have the ability to even type a badly written add.

Back to the topic. Some of those suggestions are a little impractical, I’ll admit, but this is something spammers should be aware of:

Spammers, I hate you and everything that you are. Now that I have your attention, I would like to say why I hate you.

I don’t NEED Viagra. I can understand if you have…problems…but that does not mean we all do. I also do not need to have sex every night with a random Brazilian girl. You can have sex and get aids as much as you want, but I don’t think I will take that chance.

For all of those scammers who want to make a quick buck: I hope you die. You should die a painful death and then spend out the rest of your afterfile in eternal damnation and servitude. I hope that your supreme deity shows little to no mercy on your soul. Why do you want to cheat like that? What about the rest of us that need to work for money? Of course, all the blame cannot fall on you. The people who fall for your stupidity are your equals.

Spammers, if you really need love and attention so badly, then let me be the first to tell you that there are other ways to get it. I just hope you die painfully. Have a nice day!

That said, I will end my rant.