1388 That’s That.

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It’s been a long time coming, but this arc is finally wrapping up. We’re left with a few loose ends to deal with as time goes by. I’m really glad that John got a little area to himself mostly. I’m looking forward to exploring his character more later. As I am all the new cast members really.

Okay, so, Monday the kid had a choir concert. It was themed patriotically. Now, I am actually a very patriotic American. I think that my country is all screwed up, and we need to do a lot of work to fix it, but I believe in the principles on which the nation was founded. That said, the songs were pretty awful. These concerts start out with the little kids and work up to the older ones, so we have to sit through the worst parts for an hour before getting to the Teen’s grade. It is torturous.

This time the lyrics of some of the songs were so ridiculously jingoistic that I got tickled and had to force myself not to laugh. I finally lost it when the kids sang a song where they just listed the states, in alphabetical order. To their credit, the kids sang with feeling. Or at least the ones who weren’t shy did. The shy ones just do the best they can.

The instructor is terrible. I know this because I spent 15 years in choir classes before I finally got fed up with it and quit, so I know how to sing. The Teen does not know how to sing. She sings from her throat so she’s often off key and sounds nasal and reedy. I know she could sing well with some proper instruction because she screams like a banshee 75% of the time her mouth is open. The problem is not one of lung capacity or volume. And before some asshat comes into the comments to tell me I should take the time to teach her myself, first of all fuck you, and secondly I have. She won’t listen to me because I’m me and therefore nothing I know is real.

Music is actually a big thing in my mother’s family. My grandparents were local celebrities in their day, and my mother, and uncles were in the band at various times. The Teen’s father was the only one who ever really did much acoustic singing after that whole thing was over. Well, my grandpa still sings for stuff. A lot of funerals for friends now… because, you know. He still has a really good voice. In fact, you can hear it because I remembered that I have one track of his on my PC. Here you go, it’s super old so the sound quality is weird. A Father’s Lament

I don’t have very good range when it comes to singing. I can go relatively low and decently high, but anything in the mid ranges I can’t do. My voice breaks so I have to keep to a very narrow area. That’s actually part of how I got out of being in choir when I went through puberty. When the instructor was trying to figure out what my range was she said it was really strange and would be harder to work with. By that point I was so fucking sick of concert singing I would have taken any reason to get out. Unlike with piano lessons I’ve never felt an ounce of regret for quitting. I can sing along with my mp3s and that’s enough for me.

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I was in glee club in elementary school and I sang higher than the girls, so I was put in that row of boys next to the girls so I’d ‘blend’ in. I don’t remember much about it unlike a lot of memories from grade school up. I do remember my voice cracking and I hit somewhere in the range where dogs and spy satellites pick you up and I THINK my best friend at the time had his hearing damaged for a week.

They’re still making kids sing that song about the states in this day and age? I unfortunately still remember singing that back when I was in elementary school and that was back in the mid-90s.

I’m surprised there are still music classes in this day and age.

Same here. Art and music are generally the first targets for pay cuts (because why would we cut the super intedent’s pay)

Luckily for us in Canada we don’t have as many provinces as you have states, so any such music would be quite easy for us ;) I DO remember having to sing Celine Dion songs in choir…

I find myself hoping John still has a chance with Alex one day, but then there’s also the Victoria in case he doesn’t. It was good to see him blushing and a little flustered though. Honestly, for what was seemed like it was going to be his arc, Reggie stole the show completely, and then got the girl…John can’t win for losing, seems like.

John is purposefully avoiding an arc. I can feel it. He tries to be as much of a background character as possible. We’ll catch him one day

As far as your tonal reaches, you’re not alone, I’ve got that weird voice where I can hit high, and low, but anything medium causes my voice to crack and go dead silent. Usually means I can solo duet songs though, “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus is one such song, singing majority of it in the lower register, female voice comes in and I jump to the higher one without thinking, and had an uncle glance over and says, “Do you have a woman sitting in your lap over there?” It was amusing, but it’s not the first time, nor was it the last time.

That regret on his face….Btw, Alex looks really pretty here, You always do a good job, but really like how you made alex look this strip. Also memory is fuzzy, but I think the deal was 2 weeks of meetings, so he will be going to the next meeting and we get to hear his story after all? (I mean its not like he got accepted into the group) still, as much as I love this arc, I do want to check in with everyone else too~ (I miss carol, thomas and nina~)

The power of a smile and a little confidence go a long way. Not to say that she had no confidence before, but in her element she can just cut loose and be adorable. And sassy.

I don’t know….It kind of seems as if she appears a little more real here. Maybe just the difference in the art, but I like it.

This rant reminded me of two things –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSvJ9SN8THE – states and capitals song from Animaniacs, was that the song they were singing?

Second, couldn’t find a clip of it, but Al Murray giving the audience advice on what to say to their son/daughter – something like, ‘Son, or daughter, I’ve got 4 important words to say to you, they’ll be the most important words of your life, till the end of your days, keep this in your heart, and remember it well, love, (or treacle), these words will shape your life here and now, and you’ll thank me later, here are the words, here it comes – YOU. CAN’T. FUCKING. SING!’

Maybe you could say those to the teen…

The song in question was not the clever one you mentioned.

Does the song in question happen start with “50 nifty United States from the 13 original colonies…”? Because that’s the one I was forced to sing in grade school, and consequently the one that is stuck in my head now. Thanks, Jackie. :p

I don’t think I’d be very good at singing. Like dancing it’s another thing I’m uncomfortable doing in front of people. But also, whenever I hear recordings of my voice it’s pitch or tone seem to be all over the place from the beginning to the end of a sentence.

My brand of patriotism, as expressed by a great American:

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.
— Mark Twain

I think I’m just as patriotic as the next person. Politeness and tolerance is to be expected even if not deserved, except in Quebec where the opposite applies. Quebec is the goatee adorned, evil mirror twin to the rest of Canada. Then there is Toronto which can best be described as tossed salad and scrambled eggs.

This got me thinking on a bit of a tangent though.
Baloney is intolerable when heaped on thick and annoying when spread very thin, yet there is a sweet spot where it is thick enough to be obvious but thin enough to be enjoyed. The Irish call it Blarney.
Sarcasm unfortunately has no equivalent as far as I know yet has a much finer zone that is constantly moving. If it is too thin it totally misses its mark and you look like an idiot, yet if played overly thick could result in a punch in the nose.

I just had this flash that Reggie does have a bit of the gift of Blarney. He uses it on the rare occasion but he lacks the skill and experience to use sarcasm as effectively, yet he seems predisposed to use one over the other to his detriment.

After moving from out west to Ottawa, I have definitely found it less polite and less friendly. I thought it was my western biases, but after talking to some other people who have lived both places, apparently it’s not just me.

Don’t worry, teen. I can’t sing either, but I’ll still do it sometimes. Just not where strangers might hear.

My doppelganger summed it up this way:

“PdQ: it’s inhuman, it’s un-Canadian, it’s French.“

He is Chilkoot, born in Haines Junction, Yukon, so I’ll pretend he knows whereof he speaks.

A doppelganger from Haines Junction… must be a pretty good story behind how that encounter came about. Good bakery in that town but I can’t imagine there are many other opportunities to meet people from there. Kinda far from the rest of the Canadian population.

Oh no I don’t believe he’s even a tiny bit right.
French are much more rude. When we meet anyone from la belle province, it’s always an astonishment for us to see how nice they are – a bit like belgian people. So it’s not french, not even close. Of course there is french rudeness which a whole order of magnitude above anything you can encounter in Canada, and parisian rudeness, which is two ordres of magnitude above.

“Oh, right… you meant the stories. Heh, heh… Yeah.”

At least he blushed when he said that. A telling point, I think.

“It’s been a long time coming, but this arc is finally wrapping up.”

Well, about freakin’ time!

(Juuust kiddin’)

> She won’t listen to me because I’m me and therefore nothing I know is real.

Actually if she’s anything like me at that age, you can say “she won’t listen” and stop right there. That’s probably why her teacher hasn’t gotten anywhere either.

I didn’t really learn how to sing until college. Before that it was more enthusiasm than accuracy, but I got encouragement from friends and family so I didn’t give up.

My thoughts on American patriotism can be summed up with:

“This country went from landing on the Moon to ‘THIS BAG IS NOT A TOY’ in only 30 short years”

In addition to the fact that neither my American car nor my American motorcycle work, but my Japanese motorcycles are doing fine.

I don’t have enough energy to say “f*ck this place” but I sure as hell don’t feel it’s worth defending.

Attack us and take our cars. See how far you get.

Choir. I barely remember the month I had in it before my parents took me out of it and put me in a remedial (catch up) class cause I had a B in Social Studies. They and my teachers figured it’d bump the B to an A. all it did was give me extra time to read and get homework done. My grade never changed.

I was taught how to sing by friends who’d taken the class. Learning to not sing off key was the main reason why I had signed up for choir.

Now that is one of my many ‘failures’ constantly thrown back in my face every time I visit my parents, whom always seem to find something to put me down about, be it my husband, our tine spent gaming, the fact that I barely talk to them let alone visit. Half the time I visit is spent getting put down, or ignored and treated as if I weren’t even there.

Talking doesn’t work because they refuse to see any other side of the situation but their own. I literally can’t handle the stress of simply talking to them anymore.

Just a tip-

I’ve found that- vocal warm ups…like doing scales, + breath support, are important in singing.

If you do those two things, you won’t wreck your voice, or your throat, when you sing.

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