Musics I done

Sunday, August 03, 2008

it's been a good month

since i've written. no, a _good_ month. i've had the month off y'see, to pursue 'other projects'. unusually, an album is not one of them. the band and i have so much material to work through, and absorb so much musical energy, that i really don't have much time for new works, although having my acoustic down now means that side is satisfied again. i recorded a four minute uke improv yesterday, and listening back it's a bit aimless so i won'tbe putting it out there. there's a new acoutsic feel to my myspace.

i got wind through a friend of a friend that there bach's b minor mass was being performed (featuring her naturally - we're all so talented. i took rachel and it was a proper date. it was at the church at trafalgar square, where they've turned the crypt into a restaurant (well it's a bit of a touristy cafe but it looks good - like those incredibly spacious places you see in american psycho). great reverb - just about a second and a half. utterly brilliant performance. stamina and talent. alison described it as 'phat liturgy' which i can't really beat. afterwards rachel and i went into soho for pizza and wine. at a cool, good place, somewhere off the main drag.

my contract at UCATT finished without much of even a whimper; i've never felt so good about finishing work. i usually get a little upset; despite not finding the work dull, i'm usually terrified by the insecurity, the fact that it could be weeks before i see anymore money coming in. this time, i knew there would be weeks, and i was prepared; i had an interview at east london uni for a pgce (teacher training) to prepare for, i had an interview to volunteer at a playscheme, i had lesson observations. i even cancelled a gig because it was the friday before tuesday's pgce interview. unheard of! absurd! this was a month i didn't want other obsessions to get in the way of.
the interview at kid's city, the playscheme, went actually well. there were two lovely people interviewing me, who really seemed interested. i went purple once when they asked me about teamwork, but i didn't go too far south and they didn't seem to mind. i booked myself in for a week.
being free, i was able to come and meet rachel for lunch, often as part of work experience, and usually not at all. but we did have a couple of lunches, curries natch.
i spent alot of time in doors, preparing for the big interview - the questions, the hilarious interactive interview, the curriculum. i prepared the presentation on my chosen subject - averages - and thought and thought (and played some pc games, but not enough to get in the way really).

then was the 'introduction to playwork'. an interesting slightly 'aura'ish woman led three days of ideas and facts about working with children compressed into a weekend. it really felt exhausting being so squished up, with lots of scary stuff about what to do if a kid tells you they're being abused. and it turns out that step is incest after all. just in case there was any confusion.

the pgce interview was a shocker. i arrived at stratford station with ten minutes to spare, what i thought would have been plenty of time given the map... with some running, i got to the front desk right on time, to find that my department was somewhere in the campus, follow the signs. i jogged along prettily where i could, through oodles of building work, and got there; no one seemed to notice my apparent lateness and i never know whether to bring it up. they sat me in a room and gave me some maths questions (about maths rather than of maths) and a comprehension. i had no idea how long i was meant to have; when the man came back in i;d only finished the maths bit. i think it was just because the interviewer was waiting, but i just don't know. the interviewer reminded me of a guru-type figure; big hands and floppy hair. it seemed short, i fumbled some questions although others he said 'good' at said i was obviously an idealist. we disagreed over whether a square is a rectangle or not. he asked me how i would introduce a class on angles. i completely fluffed, i hadn't prepared this, i'd prepared a presentation on averages, a fact that totally slipped my mind until i was on the bus home. i had no further questions. someone came and hooked up the pc so i could type out the comprehension. it was a piece from some paper about klondike kate; i got most of the way through, but stuck on the last question: ' write about a personal hero or villain of your own.' i blanked.


next: my week at kid's city.

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