Home » Discussion Forums » Blog Post Discussion » The suckage of circumstance
| The suckage of circumstance [message #39041] |
Fri, 04 February 2011 20:09  |
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 Black Bear
Messages: 3216
Registered: September 2008
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA |
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Sometimes, circumstances suck.
"The time is always right to do what's right."--MLK Jr.
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| Re: The suckage of circumstance [message #39044 is a reply to message #39041 ] |
Fri, 04 February 2011 20:47  |
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anne_d
Messages: 206
Registered: October 2008
Location: Orange County, California |
Senior Member |
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[huggles Robin]
I'm sorry you have to drop out of O&C; maybe this just wasn't the right singing venue for you. Sometimes, you have to make hard choices. Sometimes you just have to say "no, I can't right now".
I'm sure that the right one will find you, and when it does, you'll be ready. [sends purple sparkly vibes]
I just remembered that when I learned to knit, the teacher had me doing sample squares of progressive difficulty with the idea of putting them all together into an afghan someday. They're still in the bag, but I've gone on to bigger (scarves) and smaller (wee little beaded bag) things since, so that's cool. So anyway, play around. The expert knitters are right, just do knit squares until you're comfortable with that, then purl, then both, then add fancy bits... It's supposed to be fun.
Or you could just do a hellhound blanket; I'm sure they'd love anything you made for them. 
[Updated on: Fri, 04 February 2011 20:50]
"The creative urge can come out in any form: in embroidery, in... cooking, in painting, drawing and sculpture, in composing music, as well as in writing books and stories... the artist's inner satisfaction was probably much the same." ~ Agatha Christie
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| Re: The suckage of circumstance [message #39046 is a reply to message #39041 ] |
Fri, 04 February 2011 21:24 |
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waltzjump
Messages: 17
Registered: March 2009
Location: USA, Midwest |
Junior Member |
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I have a degree in theatre, still take the craft itself rather seriously because it was a calling, you see, but so is staying alive and thus I work in a cube. I'm even rather good at the cube work, but better at appreciating things like health insurance and indoor plumbing and a roof over my head. My compromise to that nagging calling niggling at me in the background is that occasionally I do community theatre, very occasionally of late.
In musicals I am always a Pip, never a Gladys, and quite pleased that that is the case. This Octopus thing, they shouldn't have you sitting around not singing. I don't care who's producing it, you don't waste people's time by repeatedly having them sit around for hours twiddling. That's a poorly organized rehearsal/rehearsal schedule.
It's not all about the performance, no, no, no. It's about the process and if the process is painful and you haven't the time and you don't even get to do anything for MONTHS... sheesh! Do not feel guilty. Do not.
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| Re: The suckage of circumstance [message #39050 is a reply to message #39046 ] |
Fri, 04 February 2011 23:20 |
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equus_peduus
Messages: 437
Registered: September 2009
Location: France |
Senior Member |
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| waltzjump wrote on Fri, 04 February 2011 18:24 |
In musicals I am always a Pip, never a Gladys, and quite pleased that that is the case. This Octopus thing, they shouldn't have you sitting around not singing. I don't care who's producing it, you don't waste people's time by repeatedly having them sit around for hours twiddling. That's a poorly organized rehearsal/rehearsal schedule.
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Oh good, I'm not the only one wondering why Robin has been sitting around for hours not doing much at rehearsal. I was only in one musical on stage (in the chorus of my high school's production of Oliver!) but I remember that the rehearsal schedule was set so that those of us in the chorus didn't have to be there for many of the rehearsals - we did a bit of sitting around, but most of our actual rehearsal time involved figuring out where we were all going to go, and practicing singing and dancing bits. If they weren't planning on rehearsing a bit with the chorus in it, we didn't have to be there mostly. This also holds true for the few musicals and comic operas I played in the orchestra for - we didn't have to go to most of the cast rehearsals, and not the whole cast was present at every rehearsal anyway. Except the dress rehearsal (and depending on the director, sometimes a couple of pre-dress-rehearsals). And, obviously, the performances, but that's not rehearsal any more.
Don't feel badly about dropping out of something you weren't enjoying and don't have time for. As much as I (and probably many of us) applaud your desire to attempt some actual performance (even from a back row!), I think we'd all much rather find out what happens next to Sylvi and Ebon
Good luck with the bells as well. And the knitting.
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| Re: The suckage of circumstance [message #39051 is a reply to message #39041 ] |
Fri, 04 February 2011 23:37 |
EMoon
Messages: 662
Registered: March 2009 |
Senior Member |
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How much can go wrong in one day? (Bites large chunk from tongue not to relate today's array of Things Going Wrong in someone else's internet space. The sore throat. The snow. The sick spouse. The burst pipe. The no-more-hardware-store-in-this-town necessitating a 40 mile round trip to get a few plumbing parts. The missing plumber's putty, discovered AFTER return. The flat tire on the muck cart. The breaking rope handle on the muck bucket. The muck rake whose plastic-dammit fingers decided it was too cold and broke...o rats, the biting of tongue did no good at all, did it???)
But great sympathy (and virtual very gentle hugs) on the occasion of dropping out of something previously committed to. It feels awful. It feels like failure and dishonor (and something is buzzing at me on my desk that isn't even plugged in...or I'm going nuts. Tonight I'll bet on nuts.) Anyway. I can only hope tomorrow is better for both of us.
E
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| Re: The suckage of circumstance [message #39053 is a reply to message #39041 ] |
Sat, 05 February 2011 03:35 |
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Diane in MN
Messages: 2728
Registered: October 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN, USA |
Senior Member |
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Sympathy for having to make a tough decision about the O&C chorus, but it sounds like the right one--and it also sounds like someone should have warned you that in this case, "chorus" did not equate to "lots of singing in this play".
::Proffers virtual gingerbread and tea and enters a wish that the PEG II demons appreciate the sacrifice::
But among other drawbacks, I’m a klutz. Me, knitting needles and yarn? This does not sound like a good plan.
Robin, I am a klutz. Handy Hannah is not my alternate identity. But I learned to use chopsticks and drive a stick in my twenties--and then taught a friend to use chopsticks and drive a stick, with the encouraging words "If I can do this, anyone can." And I learned to knit in my thirties--admittedly, in a class and then a knitting group, but still. You ring bells and handbells. You drive a stick. You use chopsticks. And did you say you used to embroider? You can learn to knit.
"The point of books is to have way too many but to always feel you never have enough . . . " Louise Erdrich
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| Re: The suckage of circumstance [message #39054 is a reply to message #39046 ] |
Sat, 05 February 2011 03:53 |
CathyR
Messages: 574
Registered: July 2009
Location: NW England |
Senior Member |
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| waltzjump wrote on Sat, 05 February 2011 02:24 |
This Octopus thing, they shouldn't have you sitting around not singing. I don't care who's producing it, you don't waste people's time by repeatedly having them sit around for hours twiddling. That's a poorly organized rehearsal/rehearsal schedule.
It's not all about the performance, no, no, no. It's about the process and if the process is painful and you haven't the time and you don't even get to do anything for MONTHS... sheesh! Do not feel guilty. Do not.
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I've never been in a performance of anything, but even I was beginning to think that the O&C rehearsals surely shouldn't have required you to just sit around and *not* rehearse for so long. It is tough giving up something you committed to and wanted to do - but, it turned out to be not what you thought you were signing up for, so you've done the right thing, given everything else going on in your life right now. The right show *will* come along for you, at the right time - these things happen for a reason.
Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.
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| Re: The suckage of circumstance [message #39077 is a reply to message #39062 ] |
Sat, 05 February 2011 11:21 |
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Robin
Messages: 5999
Registered: September 2008
Location: England |
Senior Member
[Hellgoddess] |
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Unfortunately my LEARNING style is ALSO visual and tactile. This came as a great shock to me, and rather late in life. What? I'm totally book oriented and I don't like groups of people!!!! WHAT? --But it's true. And it's probably reflected in how many 3-dimensional things I seem to choose to spend time on away from my *job*. But I have always had huge difficulty learning things out of books. I can read a recipe, sure, but I *learnt* cooking by rediscovering the wheel, over and over and over again. LOTS OF PEOPLE taught themselves to knit out of books, but I'm not at all sure I'll be able to. But I've got a NEW BOOK . . .
Probably more to the point, FIONA COMES AGAIN ON MONDAY. Fiona, the eyes of the blog are upon you.
PS: I keep meaning to ask you knitters out there. Penelope is left handed and says she knits left handed, whatever the frell that means, since there seem to be styles for you to knit either-handed WHICHEVER handed you are (NOT TRYING TO BE CONFUSING OR ANYTHING). She says that she had trouble learning from a right handed knitter and that she's had trouble teaching right handed knitters although she's happy to give it a try. What do you think? (She's a VERY GOOD knitter. I've seen what Niall wears.)
[Updated on: Sat, 05 February 2011 11:24]
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| Re: The suckage of circumstance [message #39080 is a reply to message #39077 ] |
Sat, 05 February 2011 13:00 |
Fiona
Messages: 61
Registered: June 2010 |
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| Robin wrote on Sat, 05 February 2011 11:21 |
Unfortunately my LEARNING style is ALSO visual and tactile. This came as a great shock to me, and rather late in life. What? I'm totally book oriented and I don't like groups of people!!!! WHAT? --But it's true. And it's probably reflected in how many 3-dimensional things I seem to choose to spend time on away from my *job*. But I have always had huge difficulty learning things out of books. I can read a recipe, sure, but I *learnt* cooking by rediscovering the wheel, over and over and over again. LOTS OF PEOPLE taught themselves to knit out of books, but I'm not at all sure I'll be able to. But I've got a NEW BOOK . . .
Probably more to the point, FIONA COMES AGAIN ON MONDAY. Fiona, the eyes of the blog are upon you.
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ULP!! Put me under pressure why don't you!!  But I'll do my best
*starts knitting a disguise;)*
And hellhound blankets might be a good practice project. (Acrylic isn't as NICE to knit with as wool, but it's not as evil as it's often made out to be - I can bring you some to have a try with if you like? (I seem to have quite a bit of bright red left over from a slightly insane project from last year....) And while pure cotton can be a bit tough to knit with, there are some decent cotton/bamboo blends that knit up more easily which might work for you)
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| Re: The suckage of circumstance [message #39082 is a reply to message #39062 ] |
Sat, 05 February 2011 13:23 |
b_twin_1
Messages: 2592
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
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[Moderator] |
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| blondviolinist wrote on Sat, 05 February 2011 09:29 |
| Mrs Redboots wrote on Sat, 05 February 2011 09:16 |
Drive a stick????? What can you mean?
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Drive a standard transmission car, rather than an automatic.
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We'd say Manual Transmission.
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: The suckage of circumstance [message #39084 is a reply to message #39041 ] |
Sat, 05 February 2011 14:49 |
claning
Messages: 266
Registered: February 2010
Location: California |
Senior Member |
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If you really want to SING, a choir or chorus group is a much better bet than a musical, even though in a musical they refer to the group that you're in as a "chorus." A choir rehearsal is usually a couple of hours, but unless there are a whole lot of announcements, almost all your time is actually spent SINGING, all the way from the "mah may mee moh moo" warmups onward.
O Chris Laning <claning@igc.org> - Davis, California
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| Re: The suckage of circumstance [message #39107 is a reply to message #39041 ] |
Sun, 06 February 2011 11:30 |
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It probably would be easiest to learn from someone who knits right-handed, but the dirty little secret about knitting is that, like handwriting, no two people hold and move their hands in exactly the same way. Once you muddle along far enough to see what you are meant to accomplish with each stitch, it becomes a process of relaxing into a comfortable position and letting your motions fall into your own rhythm (it does indeed become soothing).
The learning process is a lot like handwriting, too....awkward and messy at first, but once the fine motor skills are drilled into your hands, it's done without even thinking about it. That was the chief appeal of knitting for me--the chance to let my grad-school firebombed mind and fine-print exhausted eyes rest for an hour or two in the evening (watching TV, listening to music, thinking through ideas, going blissfully blank,) while avoiding the restlessness of being unproductive. I'm not a sitter either. I completely sympathize about 'Octopus'. I shamelessly avoid department meetings like the plague for much the same reason...I can make the time as long as I'm accomplishing something, but I just don't have time to do nothing.
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| Re: The suckage of circumstance [message #39114 is a reply to message #39082 ] |
Sun, 06 February 2011 14:18 |
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Mrs Redboots
Messages: 943
Registered: October 2008
Location: London, UK |
Senior Member |
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| b_twin_1 wrote on Sat, 05 February 2011 18:23 |
| blondviolinist wrote on Sat, 05 February 2011 09:29 |
| Mrs Redboots wrote on Sat, 05 February 2011 09:16 |
Drive a stick????? What can you mean?
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Drive a standard transmission car, rather than an automatic.
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We'd say Manual Transmission.
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As in an ordinary car, then, as opposed to an automatic? Thank you.
Fiona, the eyes of the world - well, Robin's Blog World - are upon you. I'm sure you'll be able to help Robin get started.
And can I just say that I really like acrylic? I find it soft and easy to knit with, and you can throw the result in the washing-machine without having to worry about it! Plus it is cheap. And when you are knitting for someone who is apt to outgrow your offerings while you're still knitting them, and whose favourite thing is to suck the cuffs and wipe food all over himself, that is important. I do like knitting with cotton, too, but am far too poor to have ever tried bamboo or any other of these interesting-sounding modern fibres. What I really, really hate knitting with is wool with bits - yarn, I should say, for our American readers (it's all wool on this side of the Atlantic, even if it isn't) - like eyelash wool, or mohair or nubbly stuff. Yuck.
Mrs Redboots
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
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