The Painted Tape Logs

Back to the drawing board

*#^@&*# #$&^@ #^#$&*@!(*#@&$^%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That is what my practice sessions have been sounding like lately. No melodious notes coming from this little soprano...well, maybe a few, but still fighting the battle with the high E's.  I don't suppose I can really complain, I mean it IS a high E three octaves above middle C, but after hearing it be so easy for other people that wouldn't ever even sing those notes in public, well, it's just sickening and yes, I'm going to whine about it not being fair again!

Right. So I'm just going through the struggles of not having a teacher and not being consistent with my technique.  Hey, you try as best you can but sometimes you just need some other ears that you trust.  Times like this when I wish I had won the lottery and could just jet back over to Austria for some touch-up lessons, but I'll just have to be content with my Richard Miller book and Ben & Jerry!

Secret Agent Opera Singers Report

Sometimes I think I missed my calling in life...actually it happens more often than I realize.  I once wrote this essay for graduate school admissions about how I watched Katerina Witt skate to Bizet's "Carmen" when I was a little girl and I thought that I was supposed to be a figure skater -- when really the universe was telling me I was supposed to be an opera singer -- and I ended up skating for 12 years until the apple hit me on the head and I realized the message from that experience was really the "Carmen" and not the Witt. 

And then I recently reread the first Nancy Drew mystery, you know, "The Secret of the Old Clock" -- I used to gobble up those mysteries almost from the time I could read -- and what component of the story is in there?????  Opera singing.  Nancy sets up a private lesson for one of the poor clients she's trying to solve a mystery for.

And then there was the opera singer who lived in the house across our backyard whom my dad and I used to do silly imitations of.  Hmmm...I wonder if she ever heard our squawking renditions...

Now what the hell does all this have to do with me missing my calling?  Well, I used to think I was supposed to be a private detective too and work for the CIA...hahahaha....yeah, like that would ever happen.  But here's my point:  I've never actually felt comfortable with my calling in life until now.  Just spent the last two weeks at a Arts Festival in Fairbanks, Alaska.  Now, it's not New York or Vienna by any stretch of the imagination, but sometimes you need to have a safe place to go to get a little confidence in your singing again.  Somewhere you can feel like you're on top of the world, well, I guess literally I am! 

So anyways....the festival combined with all the signs I missed during my childhood have finally convinced me that I'm actually not supposed to be an ice skater or a secret agent or a comedian making fun of opera singers....but an actual opera singer.

Told you so!

So I had coffee with my very first voice teacher last night -- 8 years it's been since she put "Deh vieni non tardar" in front of me and I said, "um...what's this?"  "It's opera."  "Oh.  I ain't singing no opera!"

Well...20 billion dollars and hundreds of singing hours later and she's got the last laugh!

Anyways...looks like she's got the creative bug herself when it comes to choices of profession and money-making ventures.  After 30 some years of singing and teaching what is she working on now??  Well, she's still teaching, but she's also studying to become a personal trainer so she can help singers with their levels of fitness and help seniors stay fit when she's finished teaching voice.  See?  We singers are always reinventing ourselves....and it was nice to see that a professional is in my boat!

Master of the wacky ideas....

I think artists have trouble holding down real jobs because they're always trying to be creative about ways to get money too.  I mean...really, how many artists do you know that have a steady job??  I signed up with a temp agency about a month ago and just finished my first temp assignment at a credit union last Thursday.  I was there two weeks...two weeks of unbelievable boredom like I've never known before...two weeks of hiding crossword puzzles and sudokus under my sign-in clipboard...two weeks where my only duties were answering a phone that rang about once every 20 minutes and sorting the mail.  It was so bad I thought I might cry, but I guess that's the nice thing about temping -- the torture only lasts for a little while!!  Hey, I'm not complaining...ok, yes, I actually am...only mostly because I'm currently being tortured by the amount of taxes they took out of my paycheck for those two weeks!  Sheesh! Welcome back to America!

No matter, I have plenty of other ways to make money...anyone need a babysitter??  I had this great idea to approach my parents about a business loan.  You know...the business of ME!  (This is going to be funny since they read this blog.)  You know, a business loan to help me with the expenses of flying to auditions and taking lessons.  It could work!  But then I talked it over with a few persons of special interest...who laughed at me, so maybe back to the drawing board...especially since my parents have been investing in me for the last 28 years and not seeing much of a return!  So I'm still doing the travel writing, which is buying my next box of contact lenses and I'm determined not to ask my parents for money.  (Mom, Dad...see? I'm publicly letting you know I'm not coming to you!)  The good news...I had plenty of time to work on a budget at that temp job...also plenty of time to muse about money-making ideas.  Lots of time realizing how I'm finally living like a poor artist!! 

Actually I think it's kinda cool.  I'm determined to do it.  I'm pimping myself out as a -- what do they call them? -- Journeyman...roustabout...jack-of-all-trades??  the kind of person who does all kinds of stuff??  In fact, I should make up a new business card....Christine Renee Keene, soprano, house and babysitter, dog walker, receptionist, piano teacher, maid, carpenter...ok, I lie on that last one...but I DID make a desk one time....ok, it fell apart after a year, but then it made a nice shelf for my violin...and then it looked real good in the trash.....

Good news:  Going to Fairbanks in a week for the Fairbanks Arts Festival and already getting emails from some of the teachers and festival participants saying they've heard of me.  Yes!  The networking is working!  Possibly getting a piano by Labor Day here at the house so I can start teaching lessons...my very own piano!  Have a competition and a house-concert set up for August!!!  VERY excited about those things!

Bad news:  same ole, same ole...no money and a little headache today.

Good news:  I have some very great, kind, awesome people in my life who make sure I don't starve or freeze to death or go insane from not having any fun things to do!