So, the 7th and 8th of June 2008 were Saturday and Sunday, respectively. I spent them out in the city.
Saturday, 7th June 2008, 9:30am was first rehearsal for Chorus Oz at the Sydney Opera House. Having gotten the CD and music on Wednesday, I'd listened to a few tracks and stupidly didn't look at it much, so I was basically sight reading the Carmina Burana in the first of what I was expecting to be two rehearsals. (It turned out to be 3, actually.)
It was shocking, how fast some of it went, and how badly I did with keeping up. When I got home, I spent a good while with it on the piano. I don't usually appreciate the ability to learn music quickly - in hindsight now, I am so glad I was gifted with it.
Singing with Brett as conductor again was a lot of fun. He spent a good 15-20min on warmups; how to breathe, introducing the concept of keeping a bubble in one's mouth to raise the palate, and the use of a chewy hum to warmup and/or massage the vocal chords.
"Hands up if you're easily offended."
A few people put their hands up.
"Today is not your day."
He did an entire throwing a childish temper tantrum act to demonstrate how we were supposed to sing one bit, slouching, frowning, sobbing/sniffling while singing and going to the point of kicking the pole on the podium that kept him from falling off it backwards. The words translate roughly to "Where is my lover? Why is he gone for so long!?" *pine* *sulk*
During the break, Liz (Vox conductor) told 7 of us that we'd be singing some parts on our own, and ran us through them. Ben and Jo, accompanists for the day, joined us in the room in the bowels of the SOH backstage, and were specifically called by the announcer when rehearsal was to start again; Ben griped about getting a mere one minute warning.
After the Saturday rehearsal finished (it only went for a few hours), I headed outside and tried to call dad. It didn't work. Turns out he'd run out of battery.
There were army personnel nearby, they'd set up several things that looked like cannons (a bit of googling leads me to believe it was a hamel gun). There were three when I first saw, located on the wharf next to the Botanical Gardens and pointed out towards the prison; the personnel were pulling them over to trucks and attaching them to the end to be towed away.
While wondering what to do since I couldn't contact dad, I ran into some members of the uni photo club, gathered in front of the Opera House waiting for the-guy-who-keeps-egging-me-to-jump-off-UTS-tower to arrive. Around this point, dad arrived too, and I made a quick decision to go on the photoshoot in the Botanic Gardens with the club since Deckker had a spare camera.
There's a folly in the gardens, which Deckker referred to as the birdcage. It was fun to climb, and interesting to take photos of/around/with.
@arthur, a member of the club, spent much time taking macro shots. He was not overly impressed with the variety of subjects available, although he spent much time revelling in the use of his macro lens, which cost more than the camera itself.
We stopped for food at a cafe, and left when bat poop splattered onto the ground in front of Deckker, from the bats roosting in the tree above. We continued on to Mrs Macquarie Point, taking photos of the-guy (I think his name is Shayne) riding his bike down a set of stairs and many photos of the model-like LicentiaPoetica.
When we got there, group and fight scene photos were taken by @arthur.
We kept joking that we'd see Barry, a member who we knew was taking photos at a wedding on the same day. We passed two weddings in the Gardens, but it was when walking to Pitt St Mall for food that we actually did see Barry, taking photos in front of the Sydney Art Gallery.
Left around 16:00 after finishing food, as I wanted to catch the last bus home and had to take trackwork into account.
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