Oh, the weather outside is frightful

As if there weren't enough problems this week caused by the weather (although Manchester did pretty well compared to most enough places - there are still several inches of snow on the ground at my house, but this hasn't stopped me doing anything) I had a difficult day yesterday caused by a student sit-in. Apparently this started on Thursday, but the first I knew of it was on Friday morning when I arrived at the university (where I am currently temping) to find security staff all over the place. I was sent to three doors before they eventually let me in (I don't have a staff card, see, being a temp). Turns out the students had expanded into the post room, and our office is very near there.

So, not only was it a pain to get in (so I couldn't start work on time despite my train being early for once), we didn't receive any post and couldn't send any (there was one package that apparently HAD to go yesterday, so I spent a while after work trying to find a postbox with a wide enough opening, having bought stamps at lunchtime only to find that the package was too big for the nearby postbox, and I didn't have time to go in search of a post office). And by lunchtime, our part of the building was deserted, with only one security guard left, who said that if I went out he wouldn't be able to let me back in, so I had to arrange for someone to come up and meet me... I found out later that apparently the university had emailed everyone in that building to tell them to go home. They certainly didn't email me, nor anyone else in my office (at least I don't think so, because they stayed there all day too), but it's probably just as well because if I'd had to go home I would have lost half a day's pay!

And I didn't even see any of the student sit-in, despite having to go right past it - the many, many security guards kept people shielded. Oh well.

Anyway, choir this week was particularly good fun. The gig is on Thursday, so this was our last session before joining up with the youth choir (who will be singing the four solo lines - not as solos, just to give a different sound). We did sing every note of the Mass, for the first time (although not in order). I think it will be fabulous. And what made it even better was that we spent the majority of the rehearsal sitting muddled up (i.e. no-one was next to someone singing the same part). I *love* it when we do this, and wish we did it more often! I think it's really good for showing people which bits they need to work on individually. (In every choir I suspect there are a lot of "followers" who don't realise how much they are following - hopefully sitting jumbled up alerts them to this!)

I ended up sitting between Peter and Cliff, both 2nd basses, and it was WONDERFUL. I had never noticed how many glorious low notes they have in this piece - it was spinetingling. Actually, I thought the men in general sounded much better when they were jumbled up - I have a theory as to why this might be, but I will leave you to come up with your own!

On Wednesday we'll be rehearsing in the hall with the youth choir, which I'm very much looking forward to. Then on Thursday it's the concert, which I think will be our best one in a while (and ALL our concerts are great, so that should give you some idea how good this one will be!) I'm very pleased that they've changed their minds about having us sitting in the choir seats during the main concert - so we're back to being a proper post-concert event as originally planned. (I'd hoped we'd be performing on the stage rather than from the choir seats, but it turns out this isn't an option because there is no way we can *rehearse* on the stage, so I agree we should perform as we've rehearsed. It'll still be great!)

I'm particularly excited because not only is my mum coming on Thursday, my best friend and his wife will be there too. He hasn't seen the choir in *years* - and his wife never has - so I can't wait to hear what they think!

Anyway, hopefully there'll be a lot to say about the concert, but in the meantime I have, as usual, a few links.

On an Overgrown Path talks about unusual performance spaces (including Belle Vue) prompted by a concert he went to in Great Yarmouth.

The BBC Music Magazine tells us about opera singers in the crowd at rugby games.

There's a nice audio slideshow about the Soweto Gospel Choir on the BBC website today.

The Soweto thing is uplifting, but this is quite the opposite: Time magazine tells us about the increasing use of Auto-Tune software to improve vocal performances. The very thought of it makes me shudder.

Oh, and I applied for a music-related job this week. I've actually applied for this particular job three times in the past 18 months - I got an interview the first time, but not the second. So I don't hold out much hope, but I think I would be great at it, so I wasn't about to give up! I'll let you know if I get anywhere...