donderdag 13 maart 2014

TV recording

Hello, here are some pics from this morning's TV show recording.
The topic was divorce but we managed to keep it lively and positive :)

Make up room

Chinese style Joke ;)

In the studio

Recording away......

With the director

With Stuart and Deng Lu

:)

woensdag 12 maart 2014

Spring....... hmmm........


Hello all! It is springtime in GZ which is not that great. Nope. No blue skies or lambs trotting around in meadows.... Nah-a. Not GZ style. Spring here is a combo of Dutch autumn and eternal fog. Some leaves are on the ground and some trees have pretty bright green leaves. It's drizzling almost all the time and the walls are starting to cry (aka condensate). Best case scenario is that we "only" have a few more weeks of this.

AISG on a grey day
I'm at AISG once again after I got a text at 20.30 last night. I was at the grandparents so I could check with them directly. I had just gotten there after a crazy day: Izzie wasn't feeling great so cuddles took up the largest part  of my morning (happily administered of course) then it was off to HuangPu for 3 hours of class, followed by a yoga class at 19.00. The yoga class took place in our music school. Since we have a small dance studio, we figured we may just as well use it! It was the first class so I needed to be there as the "boss" haha. I was too tired to be honest, but hey, gotta do what I gotta do.

It was nice to practice and I did feel a bit better after class. It was very funny: most of the twisting poses were very hard for me, while all the Asians were wrapped up as pretzels. When we went to the boat pose, in the variation were you grab your feet, I was the only one who could do it. I found it very easy while the rest needed straps to get into the pose a bit. Must be some structural difference in our bodies!


This week in GZ
On Friday night I played a gig for about 600 people. It went well and it was fun to do. The whole event was pretty "Chinese" in the sense that it started way too late, went on way too long and was waaay to loud. Luckily I was the first one on. After half an hour I couldn't take it anymore and I went home. My newly added Wechat friends kept uploading pics of the event and I was happy I saw them at home. Again I was pretty tired as I forgot to take my music stand home. It has been returned already ;) I will have to wait for my phone charger until next week because I left it in HuangPu yesterday. Scatterbrained much? We do have a spare at home.


Soprano saxophone gig!
I'll be back at AISG this Friday to do a music sub. Today I am on Chinese but the students just have to work on assignments. 

donderdag 6 maart 2014

Busy times


Last Thursday we filmed a TV show for Guangdong TV. The theme was feminism because Women's Day is coming up. The discussion was very general and women's voting rights couldn't be discussed because director deemed that subject "politically sensitive". Well yeah, there goes the whole historical background. In the end we discussed the Disney film "Frozen". That was safe enough.

With the "crew" after filming the TV show
On Sunday and Monday I was at AISG (American International School Guangzhou) again. This time not for substituting but to be a clinician at the band event. The first day I taught saxophones and clarinets together. The second day only clarinets so that was the best day for me. On Sunday night we had a nice dinner together with all participants and teachers.

AISG band festival
AISG is a nice school but it is very far away from the city center. That's the only downside really. On Sunday morning I shared a cab with Michael and on Monday one of our orchestra colleagues gave us a ride. There were kids from 4 international schools is the area. I gave all the teachers a brochure of our music school, of course ;) The kids just have band lessons, not private lessons so I'd be happy to help out with that!


First rehearsal

Concert day in the gym
My new toy arrived on Monday: a soprano saxophone. I'm playing a small gig with it tomorrow night. Hahaha. Hope that 4 days will be enough to prepare ;) My arm is very tired, I can tell you that!

Trying out my new toy with Izzie
Right now I'm at AISG yet again. I'm watching students take tests. Not very exiting....... Next week I'll be doing a music substitute again on Friday. I'm doing a half day tomorrow too since I have to get ready for the gig in the evening. They asked for a whole day but there's only so much I can do!

Izzie playing with/eating some blocks