Final Music Video Disappointment

I posted an earlier blog post entitled "My first music video" where I discussed how a journalism 4th year had asked me to participate in a music video for her television portfolio.  The music video is finally done, but only after a few large changes.  The song was created by Lu "vondirty" , a really cool DJ in Grahamstown.  The vocals were done by me and Sne, an old drama student from Rhodes. Due to way too many complications, the music video could not be made for the song.  This was really disappointing for all three of us.  So, in the end they went back to using my original song "Coming Back".  The music video is below....it is really not as great as I expected it to be and I have arrived at the conclusion that I am terrible actress; something that shocked me since I took drama at school, ha... Anywaaay it was a cool experience I guess and the actual filming is pretty cool :) And I guess it's cool that my own song was made into a music video, even if they had to cut it a bit.

The video won't fit here so it will be on my YouTube channel for a while - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL5BoB3sx04&feature=youtu.be

Here is the song created by Lu with five pics of me in studio :)

Hobson Hall Welcome Dinner

We recently had our Welcome Dinner for Hobson Hall.  I performed Paperweight by Joshua Radin and Schuyler Fisk. I was a tad nervous as usual, but this time they placed me on the agenda to perform before any of the meals, which is great because I'm usually so nervous that I cannot eat anything.  It went well though :)

This is one of my favourite songs to perform

Why I Write.

“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all,” the wise words of Thumper’s father, from the movie Bambi.  These are words that I have been taught to live by, but this guidance has often resulted in my own exploitation.  When your conscience denies you the opportunity of “sticking it” to someone, it is highly likely that without an alternative form of relief, the malice will explode and splatter all over some innocent soul. Writing is my personal form of liberation.

My greatest ambition is to remain optimistic in every situation.  An unconscious habit of mine is to draw imaginary smiley-faces with my index finger on every surface.  It is something that personally drives me crazy when I become aware that I am doing it, but it has turned into an addiction that began all too long ago.  I practise the art of writing not merely to scribble down nasty insults that I should have uttered in a moment of conflict, but rather to contemplate on my feelings.  It is through this act that I am able to assure myself that it is not worthwhile to allow another to take up my time, feeling that way. 

Releasing the little demon in me is not the only reason for why I write.  Writing has the ability to listen to you in a way that a human being cannot or it may be you listening to yourself reflecting.  It is a way of checking up on yourself and receiving a dosage of strength to persevere. The pen the syringe, the ink the liquid drug and the page my veins.    It is a technique that is inexplicably able to mend numerous lesions. I write to deal with death, I write to engage with God, I write to etch images into my memory. 

I always answered “be an author” when elders asked what I wanted to make of my life.  Or in earlier years, the answer was “be an ‘authress’”.  A while back, my younger sister, Julianne, and I christened each other with the nicknames of “rat” and “slug” respectively.  Julianne has always been the artist and I, the writer, and so, it has always been a life goal of ours to create a series of novels entitled The Adventures of Rat and Slug.  Julianne, being the illustrator and I, the author, we would pair our personal passions together and create a story. 

 Julianne draws for the same reasons that I write; the primary motive being that it is ultimately her greatest form of release.  Whether it be to continue my life’s ambition to always see the brighter side of life or deal with bereavement; writing has never ceased in giving me that sense of elevation that I am searching for.   

My first music video :D

A few weeks ago a fellow Rhodes student, Kirst Allnutt, also a Journalism Fourth year asked me to be a part of her semester assignment.  A music video :D She remembered me from first year when I performed with a friend at one of the hall balls. She asked me to write a song and record it on my computer to send to her.  She liked the song, but then decided that she was going to ask her friend, Lu (a super cool DJ) to also be a part of the project.  My depressing song and his heavy drops did not collaborate all too nicely so we sadly had to chuck my song completely.  A third friend, Sne, came on board who is the male vocalist.  So far, we have all put together a pretty cool song and spent this entire weekend at Grey dam (I think it's called that) recording my parts of the music video. I had to get my feet quite dirty walking through streams and sloshy mud.  It was pretty cool, but extremely exhausting; I don't know how stars do it.  Also lip-synching can be an awkward experience. I am really excited for the final product! It's been a real experience.

Here is my original song - It's the first song that I have ever written that doesn't sound like Taylor Swift wrote it...so that's a bonus :)

I will post our collaboration at a later stage :)

My first posting :)

I should probably just jump right in, this week I have learned a new song on guitar. Majority of the world should be familiar with it if they listen to the radio or watch music channels - Neyo "Let me love you"

This song is definitely a part of a genre that I am not used to learning or singing. I just really love the acoustic version of it, so I gave it an attempt and failed quite dismally...the chord change is so odd in this song. I can easily play the guitar and sing the song, I just can't put these two together just yet...but I've only had one try so we'll see how it goes! I also have no idea how to play the bridge...but I'm pretty sure the entire song is F;Am;G to F;Em;G throughout, on capo 5. I'm not a musical genius so I'm not sure how to explain the quick chord change, but I got the chords off of Ultimate guitar if you want to check them out, I think I transposed them on the website.  I find it way easier to play the song on keyboard, transposing it 5 up :)

At the moment I am listening to a mix of Paramore :)

In high school, my best friend, Chantelle Kean, and I were in a duet band thing and we used to perform at tiny gigs probably just for our families, but it was a lot of fun :) We called ourselves Kristell Blue because the first word is a mix of our first names and the word "blue" was in the lyrics of every song in our set for our first performance.

Anyway, my point, is that we did a cover of 'The only exception' by Paramore in one of our gigs :)

This a picture from 2009 - Introducing Kristell Blue :P