Vic's Buskers open-mic
hosted by Vic Cracknell
"Dragons and Demons"
Well that was a strange one. When I rehearsed during the day I thought I had never ever played or sung better and was really up for last night and it's probably an indicator of my confidence that I was prepared to start with Can't Let Go. However the fact that once again I couldn't get through the first verse was weird and not very impressive. Undoubtedly a major factor is what appears to be this problem of Can't Let Go in a live environment though I also wonder if rehearsing too much on the day of a performance is an issue too. Unfortunately a less than smooth start upset the tenor of the rest of the set although actually I suspect I'm focusing too much on the negatives as The Things She Said did seem to go well. Also it was refreshing to hear Cold Heart again having not played it for a while. This might be a clue to the way forward, i.e. to not rehearse heavily those songs that I'm going to perform later.
In the film Finding Joe (see below) much is made of slaying dragons and demons when on the "hero's journey". I can see that one of my dragons is Can't Let Go in a live environment and it's slowly dawning on me that it's going to require a little more than just straightforward rehearsing to slay it.
My Set:
Don't forget the screening of the film about the work of Joseph Campbell, Finding Joe, hosted by Stand-Up Cinema at Reading's The Rising Sun Arts Centre on May 18th at 6:30pm. The start time is early so that the film will end by 8:00pm and not conflict with Bohemian Night Showcase.
Campbell said the following in the last lecture he ever gave:
"In my writing and my thinking and my work I've thought of myself as addressing artists and poets and writers. The rest of the world can take it or leave it as far as I'm concerned."
So if you're an artist, writer, musician , or just someone wanting to break out and go their own way, or even actually dare I say, a Star Wars fan (George Lucas based his original films' stories on Campbell's work), then I think you might find the film interesting and indeed I hope encouraging. Next week I hope to pull together all of this site's reference's to the film and explain why I found it meaningful. I don't expect it to be everybody's cup of tea but if it helps encourage one person along the way to achieving what they want to in their life I think my job will have at least been partly accomplished.
