Since I last left you in the snow of Mount Donna Buang. There are no major exciting things to report this month. Work, the gym and my saxophone has kept my time fairly full. I have had a chance for a couple short day trips out of the city with Tommy and the band has had 2 performances. I’ll try to jazz up these events and make them seem like you are here with me as best as I can.
The month started with a day trip to Wilson’s Promontory. A National Park south east of
Melbourne about a 3 hour drive. It’s a large triangular shaped peninsula with a thin strip of land connecting it to the mainland. It is also one of the southerly most points on the Australian continent. This was the first long drive I took and a good chance for me to check the kilometres per litre on my new rig. As I imagined a 19 year old vehicle with that much steel in the body isn’t in the higher ranges of fuel efficiency. This has led me to start to investigate converting the engine to liquid petroleum gas. It’s VERY popular here. Every petrol station carries it and it averages about 40% of the price per litre that petrol does. It won’t improve my kilometre ratio but it won’t hurt it either. The perks are the Australian government will give you $2000 in rebates to do the conversion and it’s much more environmentally friendly. I would be able to keep the petrol fuel system it has now. The cost is about $4000 to do the conversion. But I’d save the difference in petrol in less than 18 months. As for now I’ve only done a little research on the web and will need to save some money before taking this plunge. I’ve heard conflicting reports that the rebates are good until 2014 or they could end next month. So we’ll see. But I digress... Back to the road and a 3 hour drive each way.
Wilson’s Prom (as it called here) was closed for most of the summer because of wild fires. I had heard it re opened just about a month ago. There are close to 300 campsites packed into one area near the beaches in the small hamlet of Tidal River. No camp fires are allowed (for good reason) and I wanted to check it out for a future camping trip. There is extensive back country hiking trails and this would be a good place to test my new sleeping accommodations in the back of Tommy. Unlike my Easter trip where I ended up way the hell out in the middle of nowhere. There’s a ranger station and general store near the camp sites and no real 4x4 roads. So not to worry my many moms I’ll be much safer this time. I have made some reservations for the next long weekend. The Queen’s Birthday (not actually her birthday for some reason) it’s the first weekend in June and we have Monday off. So I’ll drive down Saturday morning and get a good full day hike in on Sunday before heading back to town. This trip has a few set backs beyond the things I mentioned above. Most are out of my control. Like June is the middle of winter here. So the weather will mostly likely be about 50 and grey. There will be 12 hours of darkness with no camp fires that means I better bring a good book, lots of batteries for my torches (flashlights) and plenty of blankets. The bright sides are the above mentioned people facilities and that fact the place should be relatively empty. (Seems Australians don’t like to camp when it’s not warm and sunny) So I should have the beaches and forests to myself and not bother too many people with my sax practice. I’ve included just a few pictures from this trip because I imagine there’ll be more in a future blog.
The next weekend the band had a fundraiser at the hall where we practice. It was a trivia night event and with my limited knowledge of Australian trivia I decide my skills would be better suited in a support roll. So at 2pm on a Saturday I showed up and did whatever was needed to lend a hand. I washed 75 wine glasses, hung the stage backdrop with stars and the moon. I helped organize tables with chairs, and wrapped door prizes. Once the guest arrived I sold raffle tickets, bussed tables, and backed up the bar. Myself and some of the other volunteers formed our own trivia team and did our best. Only in 1 category was I very helpful, “THE YANKS” I got 12 out of the 15 questions all by myself. The best round our team had. Yes we missed the other 3 questions but I was the ONLY American in the room of 100+ people. So I thought I did pretty well and now I don’t think I’ll ever forget that Bette Midler made her name at the Continental Bathhouse of NYC in 1970. As the evening ended there was a lot of clean up to do and several of us that arrived early in the afternoon didn’t leave until well after midnight. Needless to say I slept in that Sunday morning. Many pictures were taken but none by me so you just have to imagine a room full of queens, dykes and our loved ones drinking and conversing gaily.
The next little adventure I had took place right in the middle of Melbourne’s central business
district and what’s called Federation Square. I’m sure I have mentioned this place in my earlier blogs. It’s the central plaza area for the city and the place where people go to watch others, enjoy a lunch, watch a footy game on the giant screen TV or as in my case enjoy the sounds of the Melbourne Rainbow Band performing for the Budda Day Festival. You may ask yourself, like I did. How does a group of gay people get hooked up to perform for Buddhist? Well our conductor, Mark Lyall’s boyfriend is Buddhist, that’s how. A fairly easy leap to make once you know that titbit. As most of you know I’m not one to sit around much and if there’s help needed I do my best to lend a hand. So I unpacked the camping gear from Tommy and loaded the tank up with band gear and hauled it into the city in my butch 4x4. We’re performed 3 songs and I played very well. I was quite proud of myself and it was VERY cool to play at this particular location. It’s a place I have been too many times (not far from my office) and I had recently attend some lunch time jazz concerts there. So getting to perform in the heart of the city was a great experience. After our short set we loaded Tommy back up with gear and headed to a pub for some grub. My friends, Dean, Jake, Mhairi & Ian we’re all there to share in the fun. As I was driving I skipped the alcohol (I know gasps of horror!) enjoying my lunch with a diet coke and good conversations.
Top row left to right:
half of David's face, Andrew, Glen, Bill, Mark, half of Ben's face, Mark (conductor), and only a third of Andrew's face
Middle row left to right:
Tall guy not sure of his name but he's straight anyway, Rachael, most of Ivan's face, New girl not sure of her name, Greg and ME! (it's all about me). Russel and Adrian
Front row left to right:
Chris, Flick, Beck, Abby, Pramont, Pru, Teong, and Chris
Just last Sunday (May 24th) was the bands big formal concert at Chapel Off Chapel. An old church that has been converted into a small concert hall. Complete with stain glass windows and stadium seating. I went out the night before to the gay bar down the street from my house, the Greyhound. While I did have few drinks I didn’t get smashed and I even passed up a few cute men that had been hitting on me in order to get a good night sleep. This didn’t really work very well as I woke in a funk that I couldn’t shake all day. We have been practicing for this concert for several months. The theme was LOVE and WAR. I had put a LOT of effort into learning 1 complete song, the theme from “The Hunt For Red October” Once particular section had a lot of 16th notes and syncopation (when notes are played in between the standard 4 beats) in it. I spent hours breaking down this song into little phases working my fingers to the bone trying to get the difficult patterns correct and doing countless clapping exercise to get the rhythm and timing just right. At first just playing the part at 40 beats a minute and working my way up to the required 80 beats per minute. Just about a week before the show I managed to bring it all together and was able to played it once with all my band mates in practice. About a month before the concert I was told I would get a 2nd alto sax solo part in the classic Australian song Waltzing Matilda. (the long version which is VERY sad, trust me) Now when I heard this I totally FREAKED out! A solo OH MY GOD I’m not ready I thought. I’d been practicing “Red” for weeks and didn’t have it. How could I learn this in such a short period of time? The part as it turned out was slightly easier. Being mostly whole and half notes. But slightly different as there are 6 beat instead of 4 and they are at 110 beats a minute instead of the more standard 80 beats a minute. It all boiled down to a lot of counting 1,2,3 then 4,5,6, in 2 groups like that. I managed to learn this and practiced it several times with the band in the weeks leading up to the concert. I was actually more confident about this than I was about playing “Red”. As I was saying before I woke up in a strange funk that morning. I’m not sure if it was a slight hang over or nerves. This concert was sold out and people had paid $25 each to see us perform. It wasn’t a free gig for Buddhist but the real deal. I arrived at the hall about 2pm for our 6pm performance. I helped Fiona and Ben wrap gifts for special guests and soloist. After that around 3pm there wasn’t much to do so I wandered off in search of some lunch. When I returned I heard the band playing our opening number “MARS”. We were doing a sound check and I was the ONLY person missing! How embarrassing, let me tell you! I found out later I missed an email detailing the day’s events. Once finding my spot which was on the other side of the Saxes from where I’m used to playing (another of the days surprises) Right smack in the middle of the band. I did my best to play well and even nailed my solo piece completely! As 6pm approached we all donned our black outfits with white bow ties and white (8.5” x11” paper folded in half the long way and taped to our wrist) cuffs and took our places back stage. I was fairly nervous at this point. Butterflies in the tummy, sweaty palms and everything! Michael, my flat mate, was there for moral support and another friend Tas showed up at the last minute. As we walked on stage the audience cheered our arrival. I tried to step gingerly around music stand and chairs, over extension cords and lighting cables to reach my seat. My last step brushing one of the plugs and disconnecting a whole series of small lamps we used to read the music while performing. The entire band, the conductor and the audience stared at me while I tried to do the simple function of plugging the cord back in. Thank god! Flick, (a clarinetist) next to me managed to do this faster than I could. Our opening number went off well. I managed to play the parts I could and kept up with the rest of the band. From there things went downhill fast! I total screwed up the part for “Red October” I’d been practicing for months! When it came time for my solo I played 2 notes and lost count. Andy, one of the other sax players, noticed my fumble and jumped in to save the day. At that point the crowd was VERY lucky to not see a saxophone flying across the room! How could I not just freaking (So not the word I want to use but my grandmother will see this!) count to 6! The notes are simple A, A, A, F Sharp, G sharp, C sharp and so on. I as I recanted the story to Michael at home later that night. I realize all I could think about was there were over 100 people staring at me and with the bright lights I couldn’t see a single one of them. I just kept thinking all those people are watching! To my delight several of the other, much better, musician flubbed (yes that is the word I want to use) up some key points too. Most of these minor miss steps aren’t things the average audience member wouldn’t even notice. But we have been playing these same 10 + songs for 3 months and know them intimately, being human we still make mistakes.
Luckily the first half was over and I was thinking I really couldn’t do any worse in the second half. While I still was beating myself up about my performance that thought did allow me to relax a little bit and I managed to step my way thru the rest of the concert without making a further ass (sorry grandma) of myself. All my band mates we’re filled with joy and excitement, the crowd was very appreciative of our efforts and in all a good time was had. Everyone congratulated each other on parts well done. No one said a single word to me about my mistakes. It would be in bad taste and something any good musician would never do on a performance night.
The month started with a day trip to Wilson’s Promontory. A National Park south east of
Melbourne about a 3 hour drive. It’s a large triangular shaped peninsula with a thin strip of land connecting it to the mainland. It is also one of the southerly most points on the Australian continent. This was the first long drive I took and a good chance for me to check the kilometres per litre on my new rig. As I imagined a 19 year old vehicle with that much steel in the body isn’t in the higher ranges of fuel efficiency. This has led me to start to investigate converting the engine to liquid petroleum gas. It’s VERY popular here. Every petrol station carries it and it averages about 40% of the price per litre that petrol does. It won’t improve my kilometre ratio but it won’t hurt it either. The perks are the Australian government will give you $2000 in rebates to do the conversion and it’s much more environmentally friendly. I would be able to keep the petrol fuel system it has now. The cost is about $4000 to do the conversion. But I’d save the difference in petrol in less than 18 months. As for now I’ve only done a little research on the web and will need to save some money before taking this plunge. I’ve heard conflicting reports that the rebates are good until 2014 or they could end next month. So we’ll see. But I digress... Back to the road and a 3 hour drive each way.
Wilson’s Prom (as it called here) was closed for most of the summer because of wild fires. I had heard it re opened just about a month ago. There are close to 300 campsites packed into one area near the beaches in the small hamlet of Tidal River. No camp fires are allowed (for good reason) and I wanted to check it out for a future camping trip. There is extensive back country hiking trails and this would be a good place to test my new sleeping accommodations in the back of Tommy. Unlike my Easter trip where I ended up way the hell out in the middle of nowhere. There’s a ranger station and general store near the camp sites and no real 4x4 roads. So not to worry my many moms I’ll be much safer this time. I have made some reservations for the next long weekend. The Queen’s Birthday (not actually her birthday for some reason) it’s the first weekend in June and we have Monday off. So I’ll drive down Saturday morning and get a good full day hike in on Sunday before heading back to town. This trip has a few set backs beyond the things I mentioned above. Most are out of my control. Like June is the middle of winter here. So the weather will mostly likely be about 50 and grey. There will be 12 hours of darkness with no camp fires that means I better bring a good book, lots of batteries for my torches (flashlights) and plenty of blankets. The bright sides are the above mentioned people facilities and that fact the place should be relatively empty. (Seems Australians don’t like to camp when it’s not warm and sunny) So I should have the beaches and forests to myself and not bother too many people with my sax practice. I’ve included just a few pictures from this trip because I imagine there’ll be more in a future blog.The next weekend the band had a fundraiser at the hall where we practice. It was a trivia night event and with my limited knowledge of Australian trivia I decide my skills would be better suited in a support roll. So at 2pm on a Saturday I showed up and did whatever was needed to lend a hand. I washed 75 wine glasses, hung the stage backdrop with stars and the moon. I helped organize tables with chairs, and wrapped door prizes. Once the guest arrived I sold raffle tickets, bussed tables, and backed up the bar. Myself and some of the other volunteers formed our own trivia team and did our best. Only in 1 category was I very helpful, “THE YANKS” I got 12 out of the 15 questions all by myself. The best round our team had. Yes we missed the other 3 questions but I was the ONLY American in the room of 100+ people. So I thought I did pretty well and now I don’t think I’ll ever forget that Bette Midler made her name at the Continental Bathhouse of NYC in 1970. As the evening ended there was a lot of clean up to do and several of us that arrived early in the afternoon didn’t leave until well after midnight. Needless to say I slept in that Sunday morning. Many pictures were taken but none by me so you just have to imagine a room full of queens, dykes and our loved ones drinking and conversing gaily.
The next little adventure I had took place right in the middle of Melbourne’s central business
district and what’s called Federation Square. I’m sure I have mentioned this place in my earlier blogs. It’s the central plaza area for the city and the place where people go to watch others, enjoy a lunch, watch a footy game on the giant screen TV or as in my case enjoy the sounds of the Melbourne Rainbow Band performing for the Budda Day Festival. You may ask yourself, like I did. How does a group of gay people get hooked up to perform for Buddhist? Well our conductor, Mark Lyall’s boyfriend is Buddhist, that’s how. A fairly easy leap to make once you know that titbit. As most of you know I’m not one to sit around much and if there’s help needed I do my best to lend a hand. So I unpacked the camping gear from Tommy and loaded the tank up with band gear and hauled it into the city in my butch 4x4. We’re performed 3 songs and I played very well. I was quite proud of myself and it was VERY cool to play at this particular location. It’s a place I have been too many times (not far from my office) and I had recently attend some lunch time jazz concerts there. So getting to perform in the heart of the city was a great experience. After our short set we loaded Tommy back up with gear and headed to a pub for some grub. My friends, Dean, Jake, Mhairi & Ian we’re all there to share in the fun. As I was driving I skipped the alcohol (I know gasps of horror!) enjoying my lunch with a diet coke and good conversations.
Top row left to right:half of David's face, Andrew, Glen, Bill, Mark, half of Ben's face, Mark (conductor), and only a third of Andrew's face
Middle row left to right:
Tall guy not sure of his name but he's straight anyway, Rachael, most of Ivan's face, New girl not sure of her name, Greg and ME! (it's all about me). Russel and Adrian
Front row left to right:
Chris, Flick, Beck, Abby, Pramont, Pru, Teong, and Chris
Just last Sunday (May 24th) was the bands big formal concert at Chapel Off Chapel. An old church that has been converted into a small concert hall. Complete with stain glass windows and stadium seating. I went out the night before to the gay bar down the street from my house, the Greyhound. While I did have few drinks I didn’t get smashed and I even passed up a few cute men that had been hitting on me in order to get a good night sleep. This didn’t really work very well as I woke in a funk that I couldn’t shake all day. We have been practicing for this concert for several months. The theme was LOVE and WAR. I had put a LOT of effort into learning 1 complete song, the theme from “The Hunt For Red October” Once particular section had a lot of 16th notes and syncopation (when notes are played in between the standard 4 beats) in it. I spent hours breaking down this song into little phases working my fingers to the bone trying to get the difficult patterns correct and doing countless clapping exercise to get the rhythm and timing just right. At first just playing the part at 40 beats a minute and working my way up to the required 80 beats per minute. Just about a week before the show I managed to bring it all together and was able to played it once with all my band mates in practice. About a month before the concert I was told I would get a 2nd alto sax solo part in the classic Australian song Waltzing Matilda. (the long version which is VERY sad, trust me) Now when I heard this I totally FREAKED out! A solo OH MY GOD I’m not ready I thought. I’d been practicing “Red” for weeks and didn’t have it. How could I learn this in such a short period of time? The part as it turned out was slightly easier. Being mostly whole and half notes. But slightly different as there are 6 beat instead of 4 and they are at 110 beats a minute instead of the more standard 80 beats a minute. It all boiled down to a lot of counting 1,2,3 then 4,5,6, in 2 groups like that. I managed to learn this and practiced it several times with the band in the weeks leading up to the concert. I was actually more confident about this than I was about playing “Red”. As I was saying before I woke up in a strange funk that morning. I’m not sure if it was a slight hang over or nerves. This concert was sold out and people had paid $25 each to see us perform. It wasn’t a free gig for Buddhist but the real deal. I arrived at the hall about 2pm for our 6pm performance. I helped Fiona and Ben wrap gifts for special guests and soloist. After that around 3pm there wasn’t much to do so I wandered off in search of some lunch. When I returned I heard the band playing our opening number “MARS”. We were doing a sound check and I was the ONLY person missing! How embarrassing, let me tell you! I found out later I missed an email detailing the day’s events. Once finding my spot which was on the other side of the Saxes from where I’m used to playing (another of the days surprises) Right smack in the middle of the band. I did my best to play well and even nailed my solo piece completely! As 6pm approached we all donned our black outfits with white bow ties and white (8.5” x11” paper folded in half the long way and taped to our wrist) cuffs and took our places back stage. I was fairly nervous at this point. Butterflies in the tummy, sweaty palms and everything! Michael, my flat mate, was there for moral support and another friend Tas showed up at the last minute. As we walked on stage the audience cheered our arrival. I tried to step gingerly around music stand and chairs, over extension cords and lighting cables to reach my seat. My last step brushing one of the plugs and disconnecting a whole series of small lamps we used to read the music while performing. The entire band, the conductor and the audience stared at me while I tried to do the simple function of plugging the cord back in. Thank god! Flick, (a clarinetist) next to me managed to do this faster than I could. Our opening number went off well. I managed to play the parts I could and kept up with the rest of the band. From there things went downhill fast! I total screwed up the part for “Red October” I’d been practicing for months! When it came time for my solo I played 2 notes and lost count. Andy, one of the other sax players, noticed my fumble and jumped in to save the day. At that point the crowd was VERY lucky to not see a saxophone flying across the room! How could I not just freaking (So not the word I want to use but my grandmother will see this!) count to 6! The notes are simple A, A, A, F Sharp, G sharp, C sharp and so on. I as I recanted the story to Michael at home later that night. I realize all I could think about was there were over 100 people staring at me and with the bright lights I couldn’t see a single one of them. I just kept thinking all those people are watching! To my delight several of the other, much better, musician flubbed (yes that is the word I want to use) up some key points too. Most of these minor miss steps aren’t things the average audience member wouldn’t even notice. But we have been playing these same 10 + songs for 3 months and know them intimately, being human we still make mistakes.
Luckily the first half was over and I was thinking I really couldn’t do any worse in the second half. While I still was beating myself up about my performance that thought did allow me to relax a little bit and I managed to step my way thru the rest of the concert without making a further ass (sorry grandma) of myself. All my band mates we’re filled with joy and excitement, the crowd was very appreciative of our efforts and in all a good time was had. Everyone congratulated each other on parts well done. No one said a single word to me about my mistakes. It would be in bad taste and something any good musician would never do on a performance night. In the photo I am in the middle of the orchestra. you can see part of my head just to the right of the conductor's head. Click on the photo to make it larger.
So with the crowd gone and the hall empty we set out on the task of packing everything back up. Here I felt I could be of some use and I quickly changed into jeans to do my part. One of the percussionists, Greg, gave me a ride home and I was in bed trying to put the bad behind me and focus on the future by 10pm. Telling myself I’ll do better next time. There will be a next time. No one gets to be good without making mistakes along the way. A wise person learns from those mistakes and improves themselves. So that’s what I’ll do. Until next time faithful followers.
Happy birthdays to out to Roger on May 22nd, Shelley’s was May 17th, Phyllis’s is coming up on June 26th I hope to get another blog done by then but just in case. If there’s someone I’ve missed please accept my apologies.
So with the crowd gone and the hall empty we set out on the task of packing everything back up. Here I felt I could be of some use and I quickly changed into jeans to do my part. One of the percussionists, Greg, gave me a ride home and I was in bed trying to put the bad behind me and focus on the future by 10pm. Telling myself I’ll do better next time. There will be a next time. No one gets to be good without making mistakes along the way. A wise person learns from those mistakes and improves themselves. So that’s what I’ll do. Until next time faithful followers.
Happy birthdays to out to Roger on May 22nd, Shelley’s was May 17th, Phyllis’s is coming up on June 26th I hope to get another blog done by then but just in case. If there’s someone I’ve missed please accept my apologies.
1 comment:
Oh, Brian! I so deeply appreciate your stories of your continuing musical career down under. You share such detail and I feel like I am right there with you.
This story of the formal concert brought tears to my eyes at the end. You really get it! All of us make mistakes along the way to becoming the musician we are. That's part of our journey.
Your work on "Red October" was appreciated by your bandmates - they gave you a solo in "Matilda" Yay!
So what you missed a few notes. You are one of the most dedicated and fierce players I know. I am so glad to know you. I wish I could have been at both your recent concerts to hear you and see you perform.
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