Where I’m At Right Now.

Recently I’ve been feeling really fed up.

Work With Me!

Hello! I’ve decided to offer advertising on this here blog. Below you can find my stats and what kind of advertising I’m offering. 

Quizmas

If you’re not familiar with my project Quizcats, Quizcats is a 10 piece band and we put on events that combine live-band karaoke with a pub quiz. The nights are themed (films, musicals, 90s etc) and end up superfun in a silly, easy way: dancing, costumes, prizes for best team name and so on. I spend most of my time working on Quizcats – sorting all aspects of the show and promoting it.

Next Sunday we’re doing a Christmas themed show, Quizmas. I am SO excited!! I didn’t think I could get through this month without telling you about it – it’s been my sole focus for so many weeks and I’ve dedicated myself to the project. This show has a few festive surprises – we have a Christmassy photobooth (I’m secretly jealous I can’t get involved with this!) and the rest of the band (the 9 guys in the pictures) will all be dressed in seasonal attire, complete with me in a ridiculous Santa dress. I can’t wait to see what the audience wear!

We get a lot of comments from the audience on how much fun they have and I think it’s genuinely because (as cheesey as it sounds) we, the band, have so much fun on stage. I put in a lot (a LOT) of unpaid hours to the job, but the minute I get into rehearsals with the guys or up on stage with Chris it’s like I’m having the time of my life. The shows are at the forefront of my mind for such a long time, occupying so much stress and toil, but on the night I just basically go on stage and have a ball.I think the place I’m really happiest is performing in front of an audience and the Quizcats boys are just such an awesome bunch, every show we do feels like we’re just hanging out and having a great time. To have an entire audience join in dancing along and cheering with you is indescribably fun!

I’ll definitely share some pictures of the event itself once it’s happened! If you’re London based and want to come then use the code “TapeParade” for 40% off tickets. And let me know so I can come and say hello! #Quizmas :)

 

Rose’s Song

Day 4 of #Slogmas! Hopefully from tomorrow onwards I’ll get out of the habit of posting these at the end of the day.

Today’s “thing” is not a blog. It is a rough demo of a song. Here you go.

 

 

Slogmas

Welcome to the 1st December! The first day of advent calendars, the first day of winter, the first day of #Vlogmas, #Blogmas, and something I’m going to christen: #Slogmas. For #Slogmas, I intend to release one new piece of content per day. There are a few paths this content may take.

I’ve definitely (sort of) got the hang of blogging (sporadically), but really the number of posts I write bears no resemblance to the number of blogs I post. I have TONNES of half-written posts lying around; the few that have made it into actual posts have done quite well and it seems stupid to not have finalised more of them. So: sometimes the content will be blogs.

I’ve also made a few forays into videos over the course of this year which haven’t been massively well-received (or actually, received in any way) but I’m a stubborn creative, and I want to make more; it’s something I enjoy and I’d like to get better. So: some of the content will be videos.

And lastly, and most importantly to me, are my songs. I’ve spent this whole year supposedly trying to finish writing my first album, finish recording my EP and JUST GET STUFF OUT THERE. In the little time I have reserved for my own music I find just getting friends to turn up to a gig is a marathon race and leaves almost no spare time for recording. But I’ve been writing and writing and writing and I want to get these songs out there. It makes me want to cry when I think about how little I share.

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Why the slog, I hear you ask? Well, I’m going to do this alongside running Quizcats, fielding four public gigs (one of which I’m directing) and my regular teaching and directing jobs. Through November I’ve managed an average of 1 post a week so increasing that by 700% is more than a little ambitious and I predict it will at times feel like a massive slog. Not even taking into account that it takes a lot longer to make a video or a song than it takes to make a blog.

So, this is completely a personal and creative challenge I’m setting myself, but I hope some of you will be interested in what I have to give! If you want to make sure you’re in touch for everything #Slogmas then you can join me on my blog page, my youtube page or my soundcloud page. Or sign up to my personal Facebook as I’ll make sure everything gets over to there. Alright, let’s do this!!!! #Slogmas #PuttingtheparadeintoTapeParade #ARGHHHHH

Tapeparade.com !

Hello! Some of you may have noticed my blog disappeared for the last couple days… well, I am back and this page has a brand new look! I’ve long been wanting to bring back the sidebars for a while so you’re given a little more context, and I’m also really happy with this new layout to show you my pictures.

Over the last 6 months or so I’ve been wrestling with trying to maintain this blog as well as my professional website (next on the redesign hitlist); should I incorporate both? Should I use a different name? Should I keep my audiences separate? I’ve decided that for now it’s best to keep my blog away from being a straight-up career diary (although I will be posting more about my work), and I’ve invested in both a new design (this is actually the second one after the first one ended up being unusable) and my very own domain name for this slice of my life.

I’ve got lots of ideas for content as well; although I love sharing pictures, realistically it stops me from posting as often as I’d like as I simply don’t have the time to edit them all. I’d like to share some longer articles dealing with all manner of subjects; my beliefs, my background, my projects and my interests are all things I’d like to start sharing alongside my day-to-day life, my outfits and my travels. I hope you’ll find this interesting, and thanks so much for your continued support. :)

It’s now far easier to explore my categories and archives, so please have a look around and join me on my social media channels if you haven’t already. It’s likely a few posts from the past may now have some weird formatting – please shout if you find anything severely broken and going forwards it should all work fine!

Goodbye, Tour

I just got back from a 6 week tour around the south of England with Rhum & Clay, touring a show we first made back in 2012. I thought last time we said goodbye that would be it (as I said at the time) – so you can imagine my surprise when I was contacted about a 2015 tour. A Strange Wild Song was the first show I wrote for professionally (I was still in university at the time) and the subsequent touring accompanied my weird, final year in education when I was also very unhappily living at home.

It was kind of amazing to revisit the show, to redevelop and tour something we’d created so long ago. In the world of independent, original theatre, it’s very rare to be given the opportunity to redevelop a piece and I was so grateful to have the experience. I cringed at my earlier choices in music; who uses 7 different instruments in the same show? The old music was incohesive; I was more than happy to go back and change that (…although it still uses 7 instruments). I had lots of fun getting back to the unique “ramshackle” Rhum & Clay dynamic the guys have, both on and off stage. It was great fun becoming part of the fabric of a show; long rehearsals and a lengthy run where everybody starts to mesh together – I’ve not been part of a cast in a while. And as I said, it was a relief to visit the sea. In a weird way I realised how unhappy I was during previous tours, leaving to return to my difficult Masters and taxing home life. This time I had no worries or doubts from the rest of my life to creep in: when the time came, I was happy to head home and touch base with the rest of my world.

Nelson Mandela said there’s nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. For me, that place that remains the same is apparently not a set place at all, but a rented van crowded with set and costumes; a small stage in a new theatre by the coast; a cold pint in a new pub with old, inside-out friends; a stranger’s spare room and home-cooked breakfast; the stool behind a whole host of pianos that rarely get played.

Thank you everybody involved in the tour and for allowing me this experience to come back to the project.

Laila Lately

Hello! A lot of things have happened which have rendered me unable to post. They’re not altogether good things so here’s a quick update…

– My laptop has died! I’m floundering a lot with work as nothing is backed up! I’m particularly upset at the idea of losing my Japan photos and videos (So soon! So cruel!) and my business plans and year overviews. Cross your fingers that the genius people from Apple will be able to salvage my files :(

– I have an eye injury! I’m back to wearing glasses full time which I HATE – movement is restricted, the frames are heavy on my face, vision is compromised everytime the glass gets dirty (a lot) and I get headaches.

– I’m in full rehearsal for A Strange Wild Song! I wrote all the music for this show a few years back and we have toured it 4 times before (long time readers may remember the previous two tours). The rehearsals are fun but knackering. I’m averaging about 5 hours sleep…

– We are going on tour the week after next! I love touring but right now it’s more of a logistical nightmare as I’m trying to reschedule all my normal work around being away. I’m excited to actually get on the road!

If that all sounds pretty negative than I guess it is – I’m very tired at the moment, struggling to work effectively and frustrated by having glasses full time. Here are the positives:

– One of our housemates recently moved out. They’d turned out to have a lot of issues and been causing a lot of friction within the house and a sense of relief has come over all of us still there. Never underestimate having a happy living situation!

– I’ve hired a PA! I cannot believe I didn’t get one sooner, it has revolutionised my productivity. Even in this very exhausted and timeless space I’m currently inhabiting.

– I went to Japan! It feels like a lifetime ago, I have so much I wanted to share and if it’s not all been lost then I will spread the Japanese joy on this blog soon.

 

Anyway. So that’s me. What have you been up to?