The Uglyfish

• Erica on Tale as old as time…
• Michelle on Tale as old as time…
• Georgina on In Context
• Esme on This Year’s Been a Blast
• Catherine on This Year’s Been a Blast

• RT @wonderella: #thatawkwardmoment when you cut the monster in half and now there are two monsters :(1 day ago

Tale as old as time…

The past few weeks have been so busy for me.

I mean, most weeks are. Most blogs are “I’ve been busy with work, I’m tired blah blah…” but these past two weeks have been very busy for me, because for the first time since forever I had an actual exam.

The show I did at the Royal Court was technically an exam, but it didn’t feel like one at all – possibly because it went on for so long and because it was outside of LIPA. If it had been a LIPA show obviously it would have been different, but only seeing my lecturer once in 3 months took a lot of pressure off me.

I’ve had bits of coursework to hand in every now and then, but mainly it’s been my ongoing Stage Effects project. Stage Effects is so much fun – essentially you’re given £50 and told to make any effect you like – it can be pyro work, advanced flying, hydro effects…anything. So we made the rose from Beauty and the Beast.

I have a terrible girly weakness for Beauty and the Beast, though I try to keep it hidden. The soundtrack from the Disney version is stunning, and it’s just a nice story – and it’s a theatre show I’ve always wanted to be in charge of props for, so this seemed a great time to give it a go.

I’m not great with electrics, so I made the table with my new found drill skills, and I paper machied it so it looked like a tree. Then I made the rose, while the two people I was working with ( a pair of geniuses, they got the motor down spot on!) sorted out the motor connection. We got it controlled by remote, so someone backstage could just press  a button and BANG! Poor Beast is one step closer to remaining a monster for all time

We got it into the theatre and I covered it with fake cobwebs, and we lit it with a pink, blue and red light and put glitter on the table and petals.

And it looked AMAZING.

The lighting on it was beautiful, and the motor was so calm and sleek, it looked really natural, and it looked nice. We have a lot of paper work to do, but I was really proud of it. I was actually so nervous as it was being operated I forgot to take pictures, but my friends did, so I’ll try and put some up!

I’ve got the paperwork to hand in next week, and CAD and WYSIWYG to hand in in….14 hours time, which I haven’t finished yet, so I’m going to eat some coco pops and sleep.

In Context

As part of my course, both designers and technicians have to do a module called “The Context”, or “Contextual Studies” depending on who you talk to. I think the purpose of the module is to allow us to see our place as Arts Practitioners, and understand where in history our roles came about, and our roles in relation to art and other similar things. Bauhaus and surrealism comes into it somewhere, but I don’t know why.

In practise though, Context just turns into a massive debate between designers and technicians about art and culture. Today we started talking about the moon landing, and finished talking about the chemicals used to recycle cardboard, and how they’re more dangerous than just leaving cardboard to disintergrate. If we all had a pint or two down us, and were in someone’s house or a pub, context would be dangerous. It gets fierce.

One of the biggest discussions we had though was Facebook.

When it comes to Facebook, there’s a certain type of snobbery. Forget all the apps, and the timeline and the theories about our information being sold (which it is, I have no doubts about that) and just think of facebook as a communication tool. Facebook is a way to interact, just like texting, or emailing, or writing a letter, or talking on the phone, or talking face to face. But for some reason, communicating with someone over Facebook is looked down upon.

Why is it a lesser means of commincation? In what way is having a face to face conversation with someone better than having the exact same conversation but online? Personally I would rather be face to face, but that doesn’t mean I think any worse of the same conversation but on Facebook. Why is typing the words any different to saying them?

I understand face to face, or even vocally, there can be so much more expression, but even typing, you can put emotion into what you’re saying. It seems to me that people have a way of looking at technolgy like it’s the lazy, simple way of doing things – a cheat of sorts, and people look down on it like it’s inferior.

Moving away from this rant, I got my nose pierced the other day. I keep forgetting it’s there and touching my nose, and it bloody hurts.

This Year’s Been a Blast

I realise  it isn’t quite the end of the year yet, but I’m pretty sure with myself if I don’t post this now, I won’t post it. 2011 has been the greatest year of my life, and as much as I’d like to write everything down in one huge chronological clump, it just wouldn’t be readable! So instead here’s a lovely list of the top ten things, with links to stuff too, click them images to listen to the songs. (I’m so helpful, I should be working for commission…)

The Horrors - Skying

Skying – The Horrors

When The Horrors released Primary Colours in 2009 I was initially disappointed, and cast the album aside. Where was the shouting? Where was raw, crunchy guitar gone? I wasn’t happy at all with the album, and left if on a shelf for about 3 weeks until I gave it another chance, and I’m so glad I did. Primary Colours is the most beautiful album ever created.

The same pattern happened with Skying – I got it, I listened once, I didn’t like it. A few weeks later I gave it a second chance and it deserves it. It’s as different from Primary Colours as Primary Colours was from Strange House and every bit as well made. Ocean’s Burning is one of the most touching and haunting songs I’ve ever heard.

The Elder Scrolls - Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls – Skyrim

For weeks all I heard from my sister was “Skyrim this, Skyrim that, woohoo Skyrim” and I just nodded and agreed. Don’t get me wrong, I love fantasy RPGs as much as the next person, but I hadn’t been paid, and with DSMing in rehearsals in the day and op-ing shows in the night I wouldn’t have had time to play it even if I had it. At the end of a very stressful and tiring rehearsal period and tech week, one of cast came up to me and handed me a little green box. “This is for you,” he said “just to say thanks for everything”.
And I’ll be damned if it wasn’t Skyrim.
It’s the single best RPG ever made, and playing it has got me back into all the other games I let slip away, WoW, Final Fantasy, I even went on a mad hunt for Legend of Dragoon. Skyrim is amazing. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, and if you’re looking for something to take over your life – here it is.

Breaking Benjamin

Breaking Benjamin

I know Breaking Benjamin must have been out for ages, and for all I know they may have split up and gone on to become lovely little folk singers by now, but I’ve only just started listening to them and ohmaidays. They’re like so many other bands – Papa Roach, ThreeDaysGrace, but there’s something about them that really captures your interest. In fact, while writing this out I’ve had Anthem of the Angels on repeat, and although it looks like the paragraph shouldn’t have taken me more than five minutes, I got a bit distracted by Facebook in between…….

Angus and Julia Stone

While I was sitting in the rehearsal room one day, catching up on my paperwork and eating my lunch, one of the cast members came in. She sat down at the piano and began to play. Then once she’d finished playing, she sang, and then she combined the two. It was hauntingly beautiful, and the reverb around the room gave it such a natural but ethereal quality. She told me the song was Big Jet Plane by Angus and Julia Stone, and it’s one of those songs that you picture playing in the soundtrack of your life as you walk down a street. I know that doesn’t really make much sense, but it will once you’ve listened to it. I’m sure their other songs are just as good, but if I’m honest I’ve only listened to Big Jet Plane.

Emmy The Great – Virtue

I felt I had to like Emmy when I first found out about her. She was the backing singer on Lightspeed Champion’s album Falling off the Lavender Bridge (a STUNNING album) and was just about to bring out her first album – First Love. First Love was good, I had it on repeat for about a month, but it was very raw. It had a wonderful home produce quality that made it more enjoyable to listen to – but Emmy’s voice is crystal clear, and First Love didn’t do it justice.

Virtue does. Virtue is a story album – she was to marry an atheist, but he found God and left her, and the album drifts on not making much sense, until the last song – Trelick Tower. I cried.

OrtoPilot

My friend Paul introduced me to Ortopilot. OrtoPilot is one man from Manchester, he does original music, but his covers are absolutely amazing. He has one of the most relaxing voices I’ve heard, and although really he is very monotonous, there’s a really emotive quailty in his voice that makes it sounds like he truely means everything he’s singing. He’s a brilliant instrumentalist too, and an all round good guy! I’ve linked to his cover of A Team by Ed Sheeran, but his cover of Fix You by Coldplay is also worth a listen, as is Use Somebody by Kings of Leon.

Royal Court

Getting a really big theatre job

About this time last year I worked on my first big load out – I was crew for Coldplay when they played at the Royal Court in Liverpool. I was one of about seven other other people from LIPA to work on it and in my opinion I was shit. A few days later though I got a message from the Royal Court offering me two days work, and then nothing. 3 months later, quite out of the blue I got a message from them asking me to DSM Brick Up the Mersey Tunnels. It was my first ever stage management role, ever. I wasn’t even sure what a DSM did, but my friends helped me and the people at the Court helped me and it was one of the best times of my life. Then a month later I was making props for their next show, You’ll Never Walk Alone, and then just two days after that show finished I was DSMing the Christmas show Little Scouse on the Prairie. I love my job, so much, and I know it’s really cheesey and stupid but it keeps me going. So many people hate their jobs and by sheer good luck I landed in the most fun place I could ever imagine working in. It’s such a shame I’m shit at my job and won’t be employed again…

Rugby

Rugby League

I love rugby league. I don’t really need to say much else. Just, I love it.

LIPA

Staying in LIPA

I was having some serious doubts about staying in university this year. I wasn’t enjoying it, it seemed like a waste of time and there was a time when I was doing my studies in the morning, going to the Royal Court in the afternoon, op-ing in the Studio in the night and then going home and making props, and LIPA just seemed like the one I had to drop before I dropped. A few weeks ago I was out with one of my best friends, and he convinced me to stay there. I have to admit that he was right, and now I’m so glad I stayed. I worked hard on my last assignment, and my current job in the Royal Court is going down as an assignment too, so I’m fairly confident I’ll do well and make everyone proud =]

New York

New York

New York got me out of Liverpool, got me out of England and made me experience a whole new world. It is the most amazing city, with the stunning buildings and beautiful parks and friendly people. Going there, with such a close group of friends to do what we did was an amazing experience I’ll never forget, and even now when I think of it I get shocking goosebumps. I loved it. John Lennon said it and he was right, I love Liverpool, and New York is like eight Liverpools rolled into one. The night we sat on the roof and saw that iconic skyline…for one selfish moment nothing else in the world mattered but that view. I’m saving to go back in August, and I will get there.

And that’s it! That’s my 2011! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas or a Merry whatever you celebrated! Hope your year was a good as mine! Take care of yourselves and I’ll see you all in 2012!

If It Ain’t Broke

I talk to myself.

I know everyone does really. If you’re alone in the house, and you’re looking for something, it’s perfectly normal to say “Oh where’s my such-and-such?” as you’re hunting under piles of ‘shit for whatever it is. It’s also normal to talk to your television or radio, especially when watching quiz shows. You just can’t help yourself from screaming the answer and the halfwit on the screen. How could they not know that? If only you were in their place, you’d be a millionaire by now.

In the past few days though, it’s become apparent that I talk to myself far too much.

I don’t leave the house without an MP3 player, to me it’s just not right. Without music playing I can’t walk in a rhythm, I just bounce around like an awkward teenage boy with my arms swinging, and for some reason, without music I stop paying attention to traffic, and despite what I might think, I can’t cross a road faster than a taxi can turn a corner, especially a Liverpool taxi.

So when Brick, my MP3 player, finally gave up the ghost the other day, I was at a real loss. I kept resetting it for three days solid, before realising it wasn’t going to move past it’s loading screen. The next step was to put it into my computer and try to format it, which also failed. It couldn’t load up enough to be recognised as a device.

I took the next logical step, as any technician would do, and took a screwdriver to the thing…

And four the past four days I’ve been without an MP3 player, and this has unfortunately coincided with Tech Week, and Tech Week for a DSM/ASM involves lots of walking around looking for props, and without music to distract me I’ve taken to talking to myself, which doesn’t bother me, and doesn’t seem to bother the people I work with – but it does bother people on the street. Today I bought myself a new MP3 player, a new Zen to keep me sane and stop me frightening small children. I have no idea how to use it, I can’t sync playlists to it and right now it’s stuck on a screen that says “Please Wait…”

You know, I’d rather just carry on talking to myself.

Post!

I don’t think I’m going to do this right at all, but here we go! Tine tagged me in a post a while ago and I completely forgot >.<

Firstly, thank you Tine!

Secondly, seven things about myself…this might be difficult

1) My aim in life is to be Deputy Stage Manager for an onstage production of Beauty and the Beast
2) I would one day love to play Rugby League for England
3) I’m deaf in my left ear, for years I wouldn’t go out with people on nights out because I was worried I won’t be able to hear them and they’d think I was rude
4) I’ve played trumpet for around 13 years now, but a lack of practise these last two means I’m as bad as I was 13 years ago
5) I LOVE JURASSIC PARK
6) My eyes change colour during the day, and can be anything from black, to grey, to green, to blue depending on the time
7) I’ve broken each thumb at least 7 times.

Another long pause from blogging, but I’ve been working again. The average day would go like this:

7:45am: wake up, get a shower, eat breakfast etc
9:30am: lectures
1:30pm: Royal Court / Props hunting
4:30pm: lecture
6:30pm: Actor’s Studio
9:30pm: Go home and make / source props
4am: Sleep

A lot of my friends were telling me to have a break, or call in sick one day, but you just can’t do that in theatre. You work until your work is done, then you help anyone else who still has work to do, that’s just how it is. At one point, the director wanted six Leeds United scarves. You can’t buy Leeds scarves in Liverpool, and their mail order service wouldn’t do next day delivery, so I had to jump into a car and go to Leeds. (It was only about a 2 1/2 hour journey, but I was very tired and get very car sick.)

I’m all done now though, and the show’s getting some killer reviews, and that’s what makes it worthwhile at the end of the day.