Well, here I am again having procrastinated myself out of another month of blogging. It's not like nothing has happened, in fact, the month has been quite busy and there is certainly lots to tell...There have been many highlights so please bear with me folks, this is probably going to be a bit of a rant...
So, the most memorable experience this month has been a well anticipated Australian visit from Texas Tea's french touring partners, Orville Brody and the DDD. The tour was great, much broken english/french was spoken, there were BBQs, pool parties, wine soaked dinners, double kisses, double entrendres, and double trouble with TT and the DDD side-by-side again.
I can't explain to you the joy I feel when I watch this band. I think it is a combination of the pure entertainment value of the DDD and nostalgia of times gone by. Memmmmmoriiiiiiiiies aaaaaw. It was so amazing, and completely surreal, to see them on Australian soil. I had aligned their existence with France alone so it seemed impossible seeing them on a different backdrop. That first night it was like they were on green screen, an artificial inclusion in my world, but before too long, they were donning their hibiscus-covered board shorts, cracking a VB and firing up the barbie, and it suddenly seemed quite natural.
So, I am always laughing about funny things that the French say that don't quite make sense in English, and I believe I was ultimately due for the karmic tables to be turned in this next anecdote....
This is the first time I see the DDD in Oz, they are still on green screen, TT had flown to Melbourne just for one night to play a show with the boys and it was a celebration as you could imagine. Many drinks were had and after the show we were all hanging out, some of us speaking french, some of us speaking english. I could overhear Orville telling a funny story in French, that the Frenchies all thought hilarious. Now, Orville is a funny guy so this scenario is not unusual at all, but what made my ears prick up was that it seemed to be a story about me. I keep hearing 'french french french french 'oh kate!' french french french [insert raucous laughter from Frenchies here] french french french'. Then they would all look at me like I was cute and stupid.
So, the thing is, I had been writing letters to the French leading up to the show in Oz. It is a French tradition to sign off letters with 'Gros Bisous' meaning 'Big Kiss', and I was doing this. However, I was spelling it wrong. My version was 'Gras Bissouss' which roughly translates to 'gross greasy pash'. Oh boy, they couldn't get enough of this story, and I heard Orville telling it in French, and English, many times. I'm certain it was told many times when I wasn't there as well. sigh.
They left yesterday and goddamn I miss them hopelessly already, but luckily, Texas Tea have managed to book a tour of Italy and France in early July, so we will be seeing them again very soon. Magnifique! We are currently doing a grant application to get funding for the tour. Grant writing, good lord, what a tedious process. Hence why I am now writing this blog entry. Can you see the procrastination food chain forming here people?
I really need a supervisor or something.
In other news, Ben and I did some demos for the new Texas Tea album over the weekend. We managed to get 11 tracks down. That's some mighty fine demoing handywork right there if you ask me. Was great to get back into the studio and they all turned out pretty good actually. Ben's are the best (...not just saying that).
Another thing that happened this month was the Women in Music conference, held in Brisbane on International Women's Day. Now, I probably wouldn't have a attended something like this if I wasn't invited to speak but, wow, it was great! It was a purely female event bar 2 male teachers escorting their students for the day. Oh boy, I felt sorry for those 2 dudes, it was such a right-on, girl-power experience. The vagina brigade was a force to be reckoned with and I'm sure the two outsiders must've been absolutely terrified by the experience.
I believe the two males made it through the day unharmed... but I can't be certain.
So, I was speaking on the song writing panel in the afternoon...
Let me just say that I get REALLY nervous with these kind of things and had intense anxiety for days leading up to the event, so you can imagine my relief when I found myself actually making some kind of sense in front of the 300 strong audience. So, everything was going quite well until the facilitator asked about my song writing partnership with Ben and how we went about writing songs together. I went ahead and explained (quite gracefully I might add) that we have tried many different techniques, gave some examples etc. I then talked about the new album, that we decided to be completely collaborative for the process and work on all the songs together in their initial stages in order to form better arrangements, better lyrics and stronger ideas for the album as a whole. Then I said 'we like to put each others fingers .....[*UH OH WHAT AM I TRYING TO SAY*].....in each other's....... [very uncomfortable pause].........uh.........pies.'
Oh man, the audience were trying to be adult about it, but there were more than a few snickers and even some cackles. I died a little bit, and forevermore, I will be known as 'fingers in pies' girl. Seriously, I should not be allowed to speak publicly.
Ironic really that I am further publicising my stupidity on the World Wide Web.
Over and out amigos.
