I should receive an award this month for getting next to no sleep at all. Delirium has completely set in, as I often find myself working until the wee hours of the morning, only to awake a few short hours later and head off to work.
Rinse, lather and repeat.
Gigs, gigs and more gigs. They just won't stop coming in. I fielded a call from local Folk artist Phyllis Sinclair who asked me to play drums for her CD-release party on September 23rd. It sounded like it would only take a few rehearsals, and since I was not booked that day, I agreed.
Unfortunately, the next caller wasn't so lucky. I was formally asked to play drums for this years' Music Theatre production of West Side Story. It broke my heart to turn the gig down.
Musical Theatre productions are an absolute riot. The camaraderie is fantastic; you bond with the cast and crew. The shows are spectacular, and the crowds are immense. It is widely expected that over the course of eight days, nearly seven thousand people will see the show -- and every single spectator wants to be there.
It's not like playing a bar where a small percentage of the patrons are there because you are there; a large percentage could care a less that you are there, and the remainder of the patrons don't even know that a live band was even playing. In this sense, a musical theatre production is much more rewarding -- if you thrive on applause.
The problem with Musical Theatre productions is that they are a massive time investment. One month prior to the show, you can expect to invest 20 hours per week in said production. The week of the show, all your energies are focused on delivering your best performance possible. Everything else falters, including your work, sleep, and relationships. The icing on the cake is that you are not paid. All you get in the end is a pat on the back.
It's largely for these reasons that I could not accept the Musical Theatre gig. I have other gigs that are making me money.
DH's album is coming along nicely. At the rate it's taking us, it will likely be a year before the album is complete. It is sounding like even though he is pleased with my efforts, that the time frame is unacceptable, and he has asked to increase the number of recording sessions, so that we might have the album finished by the end of the year. We are in the middle of tracking the second song. My guess is that we will begin working on the third song by early next week.
Next weekend the Savoys will be playing a private function in Kananaskis. This is a big gig, where we will be breaking in our new bass player, MA. He's been doing his homework; he will be ready for the gig.
The question is, are the rest of us ready to play the gig? Some of us haven't played in months!
As you can see, this month has been crazy. It has been so busy in fact, that I have had not the time, nor the energy to hop on the phone and begin scheduling my students for the fall. I was hoping to start teaching in less than two weeks.
Welcome to my life. Insanity isn't such a terrible thing.
Now, about that raise....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment