One Week Gypsy

Clothes: 20.2kg
Butoh Paint: 1.2kg
Sewing Machine: 9.0kg
Books: 7.5kg
Electronics: 10kg
Keytar: 6.4kg
Sound Gear: 14kg
Flutes: 1.2kg

TOTAL: 69.5kg

Ok, so this is unacceptable, as my ticket gives me only a 20kg allowance and excess baggage is charged at USD30 a kilo.

TOTAL: 49.5kg

My contract gives me an additional 20kg.

TOTAL: 29.5kg

They will also pay for what I needed for the show.

TOTAL: 7.9kg

Which I will probably stuff into my briefcase as additional hand luggage.
(But it is so heavy and you have too many bags. Oh no, look at my big headphones – I’m a DJ, I couldn’t possibly part with my expensive equipment. Are you famous? Not yet. Ok).

The only problem is, I have completely packed, and I don’t leave for another week.

Don’t Gypsies usually travel light?

Partings

I love Korea.

As my time here draws to an end, I am really feeling this country, and its people who have taken me in and made me their own.

When I joined this company, I didn’t gain friends, or co-workers, I gained an entirely new family. Full of older sisters (two brothers) and run by one despotic, demanding but incredibly generous uncle, and his grim, severely intelligent and terrifyingly eloquent counterpart. I have never experienced anything like it, and I am not sure that I ever will again. I have never had older siblings, and, let’s be honest, I am not a very quality specimen myself, but here I know what it is to be loved, cared for and protected – things that don’t usually happen outside your home.

I feel at home here. Of course, everything I have grown up with and learned to love isn’t present. I have no parents, no friends, no lover, just a grown respect for culture so entirely alien to my own.  It is very special.

I lost 23 kilos to get here, and Korea took another 3 or 4, but it has given so much back.

That was incredibly wanky.

But these feelings are real.

And that’s all that matters.

I can’t remember…

I remember opening this window maybe half an hour ago.

I had something witty and insightful to write, but then 4.5GB of Barbra Streisand fell into my computer from nowhere, and my priority turned into sorting and tagging it to make sure it fits nicely in my collection. Ah… the 3.5GB of Hindi/Bollywood is also done…

BUT I MUST NOT STRAY!

I have a plan of attack for my three days off. It starts with cooking an early lunch, and continues with going to work, faxing my plane ticket to my travel agent, going to the gym, buying more veggies, transcribing music of Zoe, sorting out my Zen application, writing a letter to a certain Brisbane composer for his support of my YAMP application … La la la la…

I also have to finish my allotted Daegeum practice. Meanwhile, playing that particular instrument is starting to become a joy. Which is a good thing. Soon I will be sitting under a tree, playing my heart out to the birds and the native animals.

And, in one foul swoop, Barbra distracted me again.

I am going to make baba ganoush with my copious eggplant. Then lunch. Then the other things.

Things 1: Daegeum and Sogeum

The first in my series on things that I own. Don’t ask why, just receive.

Life is so hard…

I was at work at 8.30 this morning, putting on makeup for an 11.30 show. I entertained close to 250 small children in identical blue and red – and bored most of their teachers. I ate lunch with my director and his superior in a small restaurant, run by a woman who looks like a horse. It cost all of $4.

I hit a small ball made of paper and gaff around the theatre for 30 minutes, and then endured 15 minutes worth of notes and rehearsal, most of which consisted of the director placing us on a jellyfish and pretending to hit us with a cymbal mallet, observing our reactions as he did so.

The entire company then produced their ukulele’s- all 9 of them – and we held the second formal meeting of the Ukulele Club. A bi-lingual version of ‘The Lumberjack Song’ was on today’s agenda. And that’s ok.

I then sat on the empty stage, practicing my Korean bamboo flutes for an hour, before being kicked out by the ighting designer, who wanted to go hom.  I then relocated to the ’Sunshine Garden’ to tutor our wardrobe boy in the subtleties of English. I learned some generic Korean.

I sat at the actor’s computer for 30 minutes, waiting for my ex-army gym buddy to decide when we are ready to go to the gym. Once a member of the meanest border-patrols in Korea, he now finds himself the AV operator and all-round fix-it man to the only original English-language theatre for children in Korea. He is responsible for the ‘Sunshine Garden’, a veggie garden on the balcony of the rehearsal studio, constructed of pots made of disused, hand painted helium canisters, and populated by a chili and a tomato tree (christened ‘Sunshine’ and ‘Rain’ respectively). On Saturday he prepared a Vietnamese lunch as an official opening gesture.

He nodded his head, and we left. We worked out, and I walked the 45 minutes home, feasting on assorted foods, purchased from assorted stores.

I am now placed squarely in front of my computer. I will presently be preparing an authentic Korean dinner for myself, composed of bean sprouts and dried fish.

How was your day?

Good Morning Starshine.

It has been well documented that I have requested the following items to follow me around / sit in the corner of my room and perform for me at regular intervals.

A European Boys Choir
A Black Gospel Choir
A boy playing the marimba and/or mbira (thumb piano)
A Korean woman singing folk songs / Playing a Daegeum
A Tuvan throat singing ensemble

And the most recent addition:

The cast of Hair (any cast) singing the following song:

Good morning starshine
The earth says hello
You twinkle above us
We twinkle below

Good morning starshine
You lead us along
My love and me as we sing
Our early morning singing song

Gliddy glub gloopy
Nibby nabby noopy
La la la lo lo
Sabba sibby sabba
Nooby abba nabba
Le le lo lo
Tooby ooby walla
Nooby abba naba
Early morning singing song

Obsessions

Bit-Torrenting is amazing.

So is my anally-retentive iTunes Library organising skills (aided by Doug’s iTunes Scripts… thanks Doug).

Happy Feet is amazing – possibly my favorite animated film of all time. Yep – all time.

Musical that I have fallen in love with in the last 24 hours:

Monty Python’s Spamalot
Billy Elliot: The Musical
Hair
Jesus Christ Superstar (again)
Tarzan: The Broadway musical
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Variations (not strictly a musical, but very good)

Also, Film Sountracks are in abundance in my home:

E.T.
Borat – Stereophonic Musical Listenings That Have Been Origin In Moving Film
A word on Borat. I have recently tried to sit through this film several times, and I can’t do it. It is too painful. But the sountrack is a work of art.

Needless to say, I am alone with a computer, high-speed internet, and a newly acquired office chair. The world is my oyster.

I went for a jog today along the amazingly resourced stream near my work. With Leah. It was cold, and my hands almost fell off. But I have been surprisingly active, considering my geek-like lifestyle. A beautiful, clear, crisp and happy day (insert: “There is Life Outside Your Apartment” here).

I live in a hovel-like den of mank that is worthy of any titles involving the word ‘Stain’. My resolution is to clean it this evening, late, whilst listening to my comprehensive collection of Tuvan Throat Singing. Actually my new favorite genre.

Then I will be in a place to continue writing my epic.

As long as you are still reading, my new life motto is:

“If it’s not a Daegeum, you don’t need it”
[Daegeum: 1 metre-long Korean Bamboo flute]

It is currently saving me from:

a. Overspending/Purchasing extraneous objects that WON’T make me happy tomorrow
b. Overeating
c. Engaging in activity that is counter-productive (almost).

And it is is encouraging me to:

a. Save money
b. Eat well and exercise
c. Create amazing works of art
d. Practice my Sogeum (30cm Bamboo Flute)

There are logical explanations as to why this is the case, but my neck is sore. And Hair just finished, which means it’s on to E.T.