Best Intentions

I have two barely started posts I'm sitting on right now. I want to post, I really do! But right now I'm in the full on crunch to get ready for The Spoutwood Farm May Day Fairie Festival. This will be my 8th year volunteering at the festival, my 7th where I've camped and been there all weekend. On Saturday this year my SO will be playing with his group The Barrage Band Orchestra (he's on the left in the top left photo); I may sit in on repurposed-kick drum-duval, even though really? I have no idea how to drum. I watch the bass drummer and follow along. Or add some zills to the mix. Around playing I'll be running around being useful and catching up with friends I only get to see at the festival.

So I'm trying to finish costumes, cook, pull out the camping gear, do laundry, borrow my parent's SUV, and generally get my act together around trying to finish up some work for a project and (reminder to self) paying bills. When I'm back I'll make sure to get working on those posts, and I'm sure the festival will inspire lots of new thoughts.

It's that time again!

Over the past year my troupe's performance schedule slowed down a bit. One member had a baby last fall, another has other performance obligations, and we all have busy personal lives. We're trying to get back into the swing of things, and so far we have long(er) sets to dance at two local events at the end of May and June. What that means, though, is it's time to pick music.

Ugh

It's tough. Different people with different opinions, though we usually manage to find a middle ground or compromise. Sometimes we're excited about something we all want to dance to. I've been having a lot of trouble finding music I like lately, and all the classics feel so . . . blah. Sometimes I think I should put together the most repetitive and boring practice sets possible (or sets of things that are danceable but not really for performance) so when we pull out "the good stuff" we're excited about it. I have some iTunes credit and a gift certificate to Amazon that I should put to good use, but then I end up paralyzed with indecision! I'll freely admit, too, that I am the pickiest person ever. I have a very clear idea of what I think works for us musically, it's just finding something that matches that idea (oh, to have a band to work with!).

To top it off we have to pick costumes. I've been wanting some new "looks" lately, but along with time constraints it can be hard to get it to where all of us have the money to make and or buy new costumes pieces.

At least we have almost 6 weeks until the first performance!