Journal Entry January 27, 08

This time we were able to make it to sing/play at the Delta Firehall open mike on January 25, 08.  This time it was a full audience compared to other times. Fun night out among people in the neighborhood whom we don’t know very well. The man who ran the audio control board is a very nice man.  Most of the crowd were Caucasian people.  Many Sikhs live in Surrey, but not many Sikhs were in attendance.  I was one of the few people of color in my age group who performed at the open mike.  

I do not think I’m a harsh, nasty judge about what’s good and not good—who sings/plays descent or bad, but basically I can assess who is good as a singer/player. Everyone was good.  Most everyone played an instrument, played/sang or only played instrumentals with the exception of a group, two 15 year old girls who sang songs with a cd.  One of the girls sang/played with a guitar afterwards.  Also, I videotaped our performance to document how we perform at a given period of time. I knew it would be hard to perform two things at the same time.  As a performer, I felt nerve wrecked about the performance: will I forget the words and everything else?  The items a videographer has to remember, prepare and shoot for an event has to be prepared.  I managed to do it, but a person really has to focus and not lose track about what is going on.  In the chaos and midst of it, I get so caught up emotionally and mentally. Videography and sound recording is very technical. Have to be on top of that, if the videographer/sound recordist wants descent picture and sound.  

The next day I watched the play back of Mark and myself.  I actually I thought I didn’t do very well, but I was okay. Glad of that.  Mark is always good. I don’t usually shoot performances like this all the time, so this was different.  It was a good experience to get practice to shoot a singer, singers and guitar player with a digital video camera and sound.  Even though I did not want to do it because it’s a lot of trouble to go through, I was glad I did it.  Every time I shoot something different as that, a person learns.  The next time I do it, I will get better at it.  

Journal Entry January 25, 08

This evening we will perform an open mike at the Delta Arts Firehall a couple of blocks away.  Getting a little nervous now  about it.  I have practiced the song I will sing, California Dreamin and the harmonica I will use when I sing the Hoochie Coochie Man. I sing woman instead of man. Will only sing two songs and that’s it.  The rest Mark shall perform, his songs he wrote and I will videotape singing/playing.  So I made an appointment with the guy who runs the audio control board to arrive earlier to set up the sound system, check to see if the camera can connect to the audio control board.  I have xlr cables to do that.  

It starts around 7 p.m.

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I really like rock and roll music, reggae, blues, rhythm and blues and discoteque.  Been reading bios about people: all of the Marvin Gaye books I could find about him, all of the books about The Doors and Jim Morrison as well, Iggy Pop/Jim Osterberg, The Buffalo Springfield, and the Delta blues music.  I can relate very well to that period in time, late 60’s – early 70’s and mid-70’s because I grew up during that period in Phoenix, Az., San Francisco and Seattle, Wa. I was apart of the counter culture as it was tagged.  I’ve always luved black music when it became prominent through the Motown artists.  

Rhythm and blues is very danceable.  Marvin Gaye and the people who helped produce “What’s Goin On,” created a genius album.  A song in particular when I hear it, makes me cry because it expresses the despair a person feels, when things are down like being unemployed and when the troubles of world are heavyweights.  That album had real relevant, strong messages, plus danceable melodies. The messages still apply to today’s world problems and issues. I liked it at the time when it was released, but I appreciated it more as I became older.