Audience...Participate!

Given the overwhelming response of my readers (Thanks Kath and EEbEE!) I've decided to post the music for you to use to write/sing lyrics to! It's a very short loop, and it's not a great quality for now as it's just easier to upload and stuff this way. It's the little mp3 player on the side bar under the subtle heading of 'Competition Music!'.

The piece is a very chilled lounge piece. I did this because I figured that it's appealing to a wider range of audience (compared to, say, industrial...?) and because if the music is slower, it might make it a little easier to write/sing to. If you'd like me to mail you the loop itself for you to listen to over and over, please drop an email in my inbox (see previous post for address) and I'll happily send it your way.

PS. Let me know what you guys think!

PPS. For the record, it's an absolute bitch to find an mp3 player add-on that actually plays music you want to play and not the 'Top 20' from some arbitrary Russian site...

Audience participation!

I have had an idea, but I'd like to gauge it's potential success. So here goes.

I would like to collaborate with one of you on a piece of music! So, what I'm thinking of doing is compiling a loop sample that I will upload onto this, here blog for your auditory enjoyment. There is a catch: I'd like you to try and write/record lyrics for a song to this! Now, I know that not everyone has the most sing-worthy voices, but if you feel confident enough to do so, please do record and email me the recordings! Otherwise, strap a friend/family member to a chair and force them to sing for you! If possible, please make sure the recordings are of relatively high quality and are in a *.wav format. But this isn't crucial...

I royally suck at writing lyrics of my own, so I'm sure you will do far better than I can!

If you think you'd be up for it, please mail me at watchmonkeysblogsong@gmail.com with 'I wanna write your song!' as the subject line and I will then know how many of you are interested! Fill the contents of the mail with whatever you want (provided it isn't offensive...or viral in nature).

It's also a neat way to see how many of you are still avid readers here...

Post? But I'm too scared!

I may, or may not, have mentioned this at some stage, but I am...a bedroom DJ. Yes, I confess, I am a closet music producer whose works never reach the public domain! I can feel your damning glares spearing at me over the internet burning little glare-shaped holes in my mind!

So, on Friday, someone made a comment along the lines of '...you should post the music [my own music] onto the net somewhere and let other people enjoy and critique it! Otherwise the whole process is tantamount to [self-gratification] and nothing else!' He used less child-friendly terms but you get the jist of the message.

And now I am completely torn. I do want to release my work onto the vastness of the internet for all of you to partake in, but at the same time, I'm paranoid about copyright infringement and people stealing my work! What do I do? To post or not to post, that is the question...

'The most random thing...cont.

Blogger is being retarded and won't let me make a long post, so you'll have to read this in installments...

So, this film crew were running around the zoo, interviewing Dominic and film various animal species. Keith continued to question me about all my research. I explained my volunteer study and, after noting that this obviously wasn't what he was looking for, I volunteered information on my other work. I began by mentioning the study that I conducted looking at the behaviour of chimps in single-sex groups. At this point Keith's face lit up and he said something along the lines of, 'That's just what we are looking for!'

He proceeded to explain that the theme for that episode of said talk show was, what he called, the Patriarchy VS Matriarchy debate. He further explained that he would like to interview me along with Dominic on the topic.

Not thinking, I assumed that he meant, perhaps, at some stage in the future, we could organise it and he'd let me know. But this was not to be. Moments later the cameras were on, there was a mircophone and boom in my crotch and Dominic and Keith were practicing their entrance walk. Meanwhile, Athena had gacefully and cunningly darted inbetween the film crew and was standing behind them all grinning at me.

So, completely unprepared and, to a degree, in a state of shock, I was interviewed. Part of the interview was asking about bonobos, which are a species of chimp with a notorious sex life. It was really awkward being asked, and I quote, 'Who do you think has the better deal? Bonobos, or chimpanzees?' I responded with, 'I'd have to say, bonobos...'

Overall, it was quite fun, but definitely the most random thing that has happened to me in a long time!

The most random thing...

So I've not posted in a very long time, but I've been very busy, learning to Scuba dive, writing up my masters dissertation, going on 60km cycle races without any training...that sort of thing. But this post isn't about that. No, this post is about something that happened to me yesterday while I engaged in the seemingly benign act of chimpanzee observations at the zoo...

I was observing with a friend who is also one of my volunteers, Athena. It wasn't a fantastic observation day as there were countless numbers of irritating school children running amok in the zoo, hurtling food items whily-nilly at the chimpanzees, which always puts a dampener on things. None the less, we had been observing for about 20 min, not counting all the times I had to stop to shout at children. Suddenly, I felt a hand slap my side and a voice said, 'Howzit Bud'?'

As one may have guessed, this doesn't happen very often when one is doing chimpanzee observations...

I finished marking the behaviour I had just observed, being a scientist data collection comes first, and turned around. I was surprised but relieved to see that the slapper was Dominic, the curator for carnivores at the zoo. He's a really nice guy, who I've never really met but always insists on smiling and being very friendly towards me. Better that than the alternative I figure...

So I greeted him and we chatted a bit about how annoying the little children are. Then, he turned around and spoke to some people behind him. 'Don't you want to speak to him instead,' he said, referring to me. 'After all, he studies chimps...'

The small gathering behind him concluded that this was a good idea and a tall individual with an...interesting beard, approached me. He introduced himself (anyone who knows me knows that I am hopeless with names, so for the purposes of this post, he shall be called Keith - it's really just to protect the innocent...) and began asking me about my research and what I did. It was at this point that Dominic explained that they were a film crew who were shooting a small insert for a talk show and that they had been around the zoo looking at the different animals.

Blame it on the weatherman

Today was marked by two extraordinary events. Both occurred at Wits. The first occurred while I was doing my marking at my desk in my office. I was busy going through one of the students answers that followed the mundane senselessness that is typical of the response of a completely uninspired student. You know the kind. The sort of answer to a question where the question is something like, 'If birds have wings, how do they help them fly?'. Naturally, students tend to respond with something like, 'Birds have wings. They help them fly. That's why birds have wings. To help them fly, because that's what wings do. They are there to help them fly. Flying is what birds do with their wings...' and so on, ad nauseum.

The best is when students write something like that, and after receiving their marked work back, demand to have it explained why exactly they didn't get full marks for the question...

Suddenly a face appeared at my door. He appeared just above my line of sight while I was marking, which added to the surprise, as I'm not used to having people appear at my door, half-way up. I looked up from my marking into a face that I instantly recognised as being one of some significance, but for the life of me, couldn't be placed. Now, this is fairly normal for me. I periodically run into people who I recognise visually, but can't remember their names.

So, I greeted him and he greeted me, continuing to ask if I had seen one of the lecturers in the corridor at all. I responded in the negative, all the while trying to figure out how the hell I knew this person. He simply thanked me and said that he'd keep looking for him. He then turned and left just as silently as he had arrived.

I resumed my marking, grateful that he hadn't referred to me by name, as this would have lead to a situation that required me to do the same. A moment later, it dawned on me who this fellow actually was!

It was Simon Gear, the weatherman from TV! It was really surreal to have had the weatherman appear at my door unexpectedly, looking for Ed, the lecturer. So Sarah, be sure to tell your grandmother that I have met Simon and that he is a very polite and quietly sneaky man.

The second incident occurred about an hour and a half later. I was walking down to my car, on my way to fetch my mother from work. On my way down the seemingly endless hill to my vehicle, I passed one of the female residences. There was a small crowd of girls standing outside the res, chatting. I didn't pay them much mind as this is a fairly consistent thing to see on campus. As I walked past them one of the girls broke away from the group. He walked over and greeted me.

This is the sad part. I immediately thought to myself, 'Oh crap...she probably wants to make a religious convert of me or is trying to pick my pockets...' which makes me feel terrible that I would think the worst of someone like that! She intercepted me and linked arms with me. As she did so, she said, 'I just wanted to touch you'. I, being very bad at thinking on my feet, responded with the cracking line, 'Uh...okay?'.

She seemed to see that I really hadn't got what she was trying to say and so, repeated herself, in a tone that implied complete earnestness. I responded with another 'Okay' and smiled at her. She then broke away from me, gently placing her hand on my shoulder and smiling. She then turned and walked back to her friends.

It was weird. I figure, either she was tripping on something, or she was coming onto me and I just didn't pick up on it at all...But it was a fitting end to my day!

PS. For anyone who has been wondering, Joshua, the baby chimp has now been introduced to the main chimp group save for one adult male, and everything has gone swimmingly! He's fully integrated and there are no signs of trouble at all!

The horror of your own works...

Have you ever done something that has really horrified you? Such as doing a drawing that was just SO awful that you find it hard to believe that YOU actually made it. I have done this kind of thing many times. My horrible works, however, tend to be pieces of music that I have written. Take, for example, the story of Tricky Tortoise.

My cousin, Sarah, is a first and second grade teacher and while she was still studying she asked me to help her with an assignment. She had been given a book and had been instructed by her lecturers to make an audio recording of the book complete with appropriate music and sound effects, a-la Disney read-along book-and-tapes. I, for those who don't know, mix and create my own music. So, I was hauled in to write some appropriate music for her to use for her audio recording.

The story itself was one of those African folk tales, along the lines of 'How the lion got his mane' and that sort of thing. For non-South African readers, these are a particular type of folk-tale that usually involves animals form the savanna talking to each other, one outwitting the other, and an animal aquiring a particular characteristic as a result. There's always a moral thrown in there somewhere and they usually don't make for very good reading beyond the age of 5.

This story was different in that no animal aquired a characteristic, nor was there any moral involved...but this is beside the point.

Anyway, I wrote this piece of music (aptly named 'Tricky Totoise') for my cousin. It was a guitar piece which was meant to sound particularly African and in the style of Johnny Clegg (Google him if you have no clue who he is). What I ended up with was one of the most catchy and ANNOYING pieces of music in the universe!!!

If blogger will allow me, I shall post it to share the misery with you all :)

It was a song that haunted all who heard it for weeks afterward, like the indigestion of a bad beans curry...

And last night, while at Duncan's house, I was composing the musical score for another movie that we filmed earlier this year. Duncan and David have been hounding me all year to compose the music so that Duncan could finish it all off and burn it to DVD (he keeps threatening to post the movie on YouTube, so there is a good chance that you bloggers may just get to see the sheer embarrasment of all of our work. Fun times!). While I was listening to some of the music, I realised that it was another 'Tricky Tortoise'. It is meant to sound really awful as the film is an intentionally terrible action movie (we can't really do better than intentionally terrible with a cast of three), but it still doesn't subtract form the fact that the music is still HORRID!!

I suppose it really does work with the film, adding to the humour, but I can't help writhing in horror on the inside every time I hear it...

Here are some pictures that Duncan took and edited of me. He's in an Andy Warhol phase at the moment... :)

Hmm...I appear to have misplaced the Tricky Tortoise song...you are very lucky bloggers...very lucky indeed...

I'm still going...?

Apparently, my body is a heck of a lot tougher that I ever thought! Last night, I was an extra for one of my cousin Duncan's films. He is studying to be a director and he was in dire need of extras for his picture, and so, scrapping the bottom of the barrel, I was picked. Just kidding, the film school doesn't like 'outsiders' being in their students films, so if you don't attend their institution, they don't want you. But, desprite times called for desprite measures and so David, my sister Gemma and I were called in.

We were supposed to be on call (at the set) from 5:00pm but I could only finish varsity then, so we got there at 6:00pm. We had such a blast! I love working on films! It's just so much fun! And you get to work with so many interesting, albeit crazy, people that there is never a dull moment!

The only down side, and hense the title of today's post, is that I finished up on set at 2:30am. So, I only got 4 hours of sleep last night. Yet, I'm still going! That, and the fact that I had a cup of coffee today, which I never do, left me somewhat amazed that I am still (at least I seem to be) functional. I readily admit that I did find many things over the course of the day very funny and I will probably think that they are so not funny tomorrow but at least I enjoyed my day, right?

If I ever get some of the photos from the film set, I'll post them. Well, I'm off to read up on schitzophrenia! Have a good one!

Random Fact Of The Day:

Bubble gum contains rubber

Human birth control pills work on gorillas

(Sorry, that first fact was too dull, I had to put in the second one...)

The mysterious money mystery!

I've solved it! Actually, all it took was a trip to the campus bank branch and a hike up to the finance people on the 7th floor but I know where the mysterious money came from!

For those who are completely lost here, earlier this week, I received R11 000 from my university with no apparent explanation. I was alerted to this when I received a phone call from someone in the amazing (sarcasm) Wits admin world demanding that I return the R1000 that they had accidentally put into my account. As it turns out, that money is a prize that I won from the university for being one of the top TA's. The really stupid part is that they now want me to give them back their money so that I can then receive it from them as a cheque at the university award ceremony! How retarded is that! I think that at the ceremony, they should just give me little piece of paper with 'Oh, you lucky boy!' written on it and I'll act just as happy and surprised!

In other news, not really much has happened. I have been watching the news in the morning (I generally try to avoid watching the news, period) and have come to realise that cricket is certainly not the 'gentlemen's sport' as we were all lead to believe it was! I'm talking about the recent murder of the Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer. It's scary to think that people could be that serious about cricket! I mean, you can maybe understand it with one of those hooligan games, like soccer or rugby (I don't know much about Aussie Rules but I'm sure it could easily fit in here too) but cricket? What is this world coming to...

The week has been rather hectic but kinda slow at the same time. I have had lots of hastles with my 1st year students. They keep handing in work about a week late. It's really bad for them because, I work on a principal of 10% being deducted for each day that the work is late. It generally works to motivate people to hand stuff in on time, but for some reason, one student has consistently handed in really late. It got really bad with his last hand-in where I had to take off 70% of his mark! He would have gotten 80% for his work had it been in on time!

Well, I'm not sure how many of you remember my rise to fame as an 'Isidingo' extra? This Sunday is the week omnibus and I'll be on TV! Yay! I'm in two of the bar scenes; one where Maggie gets a job as a gossip columnist, and the other where Maggie gets into trouble for writing some of her stuff. You must all watch! Naturally, if you live in another country, I don't expect you to watch it...heh heh.

My cousin came over last night to work on some music for a movie he is doing as a project. He goes to AFDA, the South African film school, with a non-sensical acronym. He is studying to be a director (very exciting!) and he is currently directing his second movie. We made a track for one of his actors to sing to last night. It was so much fun! It is a kind of glam rock thing. It sounded so cool! If I can ever figure out how to post audio on this site, I'll do that.

Well peeps, that is all that I have for you for now!

Random Fact For The Day:

Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors and it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips

I'm a STAR!!!

Okay so I'm not exactly a star, as such, but my elbow is definitely going to be on national television! Other bits of my anatomy may also be on TV. I'm not sure which ones though. And just to calm any of you who are in shock, I didn't do any nude scenes!

So today I went off to be an extra on a local TV series, 'Isidingo'. It was my first time as an extra for this show. I once did some extra work for another series that is no longer in production, called 'The Pure Monate Show'. That too was great fun apart from the fact that we shot in the bar of some dodgy hotel in Hillbrow with real crack-whores outside and stuff!

Well, I havn't had this much fun in a long time! All we had to do today was to sit at tables in the bar (not a real bar, it was the set) and mime conversation with each other. I went with Duncan and the two of us had endless conversations, albeit in mime, about innumerable silly things like imaginary car crashes with clowns, the discovery that Duncan was a uniche (spelling?) and the like. It was so much fun! I would definitely recomend extra's work to anyone who is interested in trying something new.

The casting agent was also brilliant! He was such a nice guy who had a wicked sense of humour and was generally just a lot of fun. We had to be there from 08:00 to 14:00 and despite the fact that the majority of our time was spent waiting for the crew to be ready for us, we got paid R140 for it!

The only bad thing was that all the other, more experienced extras kept warning me about the wardrobe lady who is apparently a complete dragon. So by the time that I had to go in and see her, I was terrified. Then, she okayed my clothes and that was all. I got out with all my limbs intact which is apparently a rarety...

I recently discovered the joys of YouTube!

After the filming, I went to keep Duncan company while he registered at AFDA, the South African Film School. I know that the acronym doesn't fit but I have no clue what AFDA actually stands for. It took us two whole hours but we eventually got through it all.

Today has made me really think about where I want to go with my life. I've always loved acting but due to the fact that it's not really a steady job I always thought that science was a much better plan. And now, I regret that to a degree. I wish that I could do all that acting stuff just because it's so much fun. At the same time, I'd never have gotten to experience some of the amazing things that I have if I'd done acting instead.

In other news, I read an article last night about a cheap means of travelling around the coastal islands of Madagascar. Coincidentally, I got so excited about the stupid article that I couldn't go to sleep. It looks amazing, and I have decided that I am going to save up every penny that I can and go on this tour. Whose with me?

Random Fact Of The Day:

On an average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily

Oh! The humiliation!

How embarassing! My readers now know what a scatter-brain I am! Helen and Angela both pointed out that the last Random Fact For The Day: was a previously used fact! So today I will post two facts to make up for it as well as my sincere appologies to the universe in general. Sorry!

And in other news, tomorrow I am going to be an extra for a TV show! Yay! If you are lost, extras are the people that fill all the space in the background, doing things like trying to buy fruit or chatting on the phone, while the main characters of the TV show do all the important stuff such as kill people or make out with someone that they barely know in public. It's gonna be a blast! I'll let you all know how it goes.

Today was a work-filled day. I went in to the zoo and did my observations early for a change. It's actually rather disturbing because I'm getting up early and working hard which all goes very much against my inner stuff. I'm not usually like this...(ask Helen!)

Well, it's that time again...Time for...

Random Fact(s) For The Day:

During the chariot scene in 'Ben Hur' a small red car can be seen in the distance

Einstein couldn't speak fluently when he was nine. His parents thought he might be retarded

I knew that second one somehow...how disappointing...