Quirks presents...

2:54pm: Meme redux
Last asked in May 2007 by daweaver, replied by me in a comment box. Some answers have changed, some others bear repeating.

1. You are gifted a thousand dollars, or your country's equivalent, to spend in one store of your choosing. this money cannot be spent anywhere else. where do you go, and what do you spend it on?

I wasn't sure about this at the time. I sure am now - furnishings for my prospective new rented home.

2. It is five years ago, what is something you rememeber most about yourself or your life back then?

May 2003 would be when I was just starting to see myself on a very limited level as a singer-songwriter. This was roughly also when a certain teacher prevented me from running for the presidency of the sixth form union, and essentially said I'd be incompetent. Did he use his power to kick out the co-presidents who did nothing between them, save for organising a couple of illegal* nightclub parties and following up on an idea that originated from me? Don't make me laugh. They were popular.

* 'illegal' in that alcohol was served, was a significant part of the purpose of the night, and under-18s were drinking it. After standing as a lonely student voice against the nights - supported only by two members of staff, who happened to be the husband-and-wife heads of the sixth form - eventually one of them led to bad consequences and disruption for local residents, earning the school its first negative press headline in literally years, and said heads of sixth form belatedly forbade them. Don't say I didn't warn them... ;)

3. What one book would you like to see made into a film -- and adapted well -- and who would you pick to play the lead characters?

As I said before; couldn't say who'd be in it, but Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time is the excessively obvious choice.

I propose a 3a., adopting a book into a television series. In an age where the FA Cup's romance is thriving but the competition's prestige is still down the toilet (actually, the latter is at least part of the reason for the former, as Division I teams field weakened sides and get found out...), I propose one of my favourite childrens' books, Even Stevens F.C., for a CBBC adaptation. Childhood fantasy at its finest, not to mention a positive message of multiculturalism I'd forgotten existed, and perfectly suited to expanding into a television series with each match as its conclusion perhaps.

They'd have to get rid of the Moronican sitcom Even Stevens they have at the moment, and that's probably another reason to do it...

4. What kind of shampoo do you use, and how would you describe the way it makes your hair smell after a bath/shower?

I'm on the Lush stuff, I don't notice the smell. While my other senses are heightened, smell is weakened. Don't ask.

5. What is the most delicious thing you know how to cook?

Sadly, probably the cheese pizza at Iceland which I genuinely like (and should have stocked up on while it cost 80p - it's now £1)... as I put it at the time...

Ah, but that would imply I can cook anything properly. I can fend for myself courtesy of heating frozen food, albeit with very much non-zero fear of heat-related injury; more complex procedures bring further fears, such as injury through using sharp knives, and I am far too wary of such dangers.

ShinyPad search update: incredibly tempted by Dornan-house, whether I should be or not is another issue. Hearing from an actor in the Showcase of student-written plays (including my own, though he wasn't in that - second night went quite well, for what it's worth) that the Saint-denys area (in which he lives) is not free from student noise is an enormous selling point for Dornan-house, for it implies it is the only property I have viewed so far that is safe from student noise. Just the A33 to cope with...

( Trigger warning )

The hunt will continue...

11:18pm: Too clever by half
The SSAA piece I wrote for the choral concert? Not in it; it was confirmed tonight, although it was a rejection with a view to placing it in another programme. Simply put; it was dissonant enough to stand out like a sore thumb in a programme with one-third of a piece worth of dissonance in ninety minutes, but it is not intrinsically bad, just bad for this concert. Lyndsay asserted there was slightly too much in the way of dissonance, certainly for an acapella piece, and has suggested adding at least some piano accompaniment and/or removing some dissonance.

I had an analogy for this: a young football player of talent, anticipating a moderately weak Division I team to sign him in the summer, is instead told that a top-six team will sign him in January if he improves a couple of elements of his game.

Meanwhile, it was the Showstoppers show pitching. The main show of the year... good heavens, it's Copacabana. Even though I saw the vocal score in the Mennyms audition, I can't believe it. Surely it's just another revue-with-a-flimsy-plot like so many others this decade? And surely I can do something better, or at least more substantial?

Apparently I'm too intellectual in an interest that I know little about...