nothing to smile about

As you guys can see, I miss you dearly, Thailand is miserable, even if they have beautiful beaches and fish to explore while snorkeling. But I miss you guys, one and all!

YOU'RE SURE ABOUT THE SMILES REMKO?? ALL RIGHT THEN!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS !! JOYEUX NOEL !!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! BONNE ANNEE!!

HAPPY EASTER!! JOYEUSES PAQUES!!

Xmas break!

For those of you who weren't there last night, and actually also for those of you who were there last night, have a fantastic Xmas and a great new year! I look forward to seeing all of you again in the new year!! The main focus for the new year will be to improve our performance on stage, that includes the visual aspect: costumes, choreography, and smiling. Gail has volunteered to do a smiling workshop somewhere late January when she's back at school again.

I'll see you all in the new year. When? Well keep reading 'the blog'....

That little girl

Is it hot or Remko simply losing his pants ?!?!

Uncharted - once more

Just one more final message about the Uncharted performances to thank you all and congratulate you on a job well done! It was a rare occasion, these things don't happen that often and I think we really made a difference to the performance. I know most of us really enjoyed it, and that's great!

Special thanks to:

• Claire, Dale, Erin, Lynne, Miki, Patty (did I miss anyone?) for making the initial contact with Vulcana and for thinking "outside the box" about our involvement
• Erin for stepping up and learning to play repinique, as well as being able to lead such a wild and wonderful bunch of people
• Cedric for letting me play with his Frog one night
  
• All of you for committing so much of your time during rehearsals and the performances

At the end I accepted Vulcana's thank you card on behalf of all of us. I'll bring it in on Thursday and will also scan it in and post it on the Blog. I think it's appropriate that Erin will keep the original!

So, I hope to see you all on Thursday for this year's final rehearsal. I'll do my best to make it an extra special one to close off the year in style. Maybe we could also bring some nibblies for in the bar after the rehearsal?

Cheers
Remko

Picture links for Uncharted and Marcel & Dionnes Bash

link to

http://picasaweb.google.com/BlizWizz

for luscious pictures!

Do you know this chair?

This chair was left lonely and homeless after a wild and raucous party at Orleigh Park. Please let us know if you are the owner or know of a fitting home for this poor poor creature, before it will be deported on Tuesday!

PS: the chair's foster parents would like to thank everyone for a great farewell party!!!

PARTY PLAN B

Hi all,

Just a quick note to let you know that if indeed the impossible happens and it will rain Saturday after a 13 year drought,

PLAN B
Plan B is we'll move the party to our place at 1 Drake street, which is just up the road (Hoogley street, to be exact) from the West End Ferry stop.

There we will be playing the exciting party game Pack a Box with Dionne and Marcel
We're very much hoping we won't have to go for Plan B, though


PLAN C

Plan C is Cedric's party on Sunday.

(Mind you, Dionne and myself are unfortunately unlikely to be able to make it there, but that should not deter you from having a great time in our absence. See it as a dry run for your life from Tuesday onwards.)

Tomorrow's rehearsal in Logan

Mmm I didn't get an email from Celia so I called her and she said she sent it this morning to everyone...

So, in case you didn't get the email either, please be at the Logan Entertainment Centre for ther rehearsal tomorrow as close as possible to 6pm. Address is 170 Wembley Road, Logan.

If anyone has further info about this (or maybe a copy of the email itself), please post as a comment to this post.

Happy Birthday Marcel!!!

Jees, I can't believe you people!
I haven't even left the country yet, and already everybody seems to have forgotten about me.

And to think that today I'm actually celebrating my 21st birthday! (for the 19th time)

"Uncharted": Saturday Night

Uncharted Acts of Genius

Hi everyone! I just wanted to say that everyone has committed so much energy and effort into Uncharted, and it paid off with a fantastic show being offered to the community. Everyone performed extremely well, and I am so grateful that members were so supportive for me in my first time role of leading in performance, which was rather scary. Despite some mistakes from me, everyone held it together really well, and no one held any grudges, which is great.

Mel managed to record the show from the lighting box on Saturday night, so I am keen to see how that turned out. Maybe we could have a screening of it at my place after the last show at Logan??? Happy to provide local venue after this for drinks, food and debriefing (professional of course - keep yer undies on!).

All in all, well done, and let's look forward to a bright new year where we can expand our capacities further.

Cheers!

"Uncharted" : 20 mins before friday night performance

Last minute attempt to introduce the chicken dance by some sambista members.
Not interested.

URGENT - person needed for Saturday afternoon show

Hi all,

Celia has kindly offered to let the samba school bring someone in to film our performance on Saturday afternoon. As you know I have a video camera for just such a purpose.

The best way to do this would be to have someone seated in the front row. All they need to do is sit behind the camera, which will be set up on a tripod, and press record.

If you can bring someone for this very important task to the Saturday show, please respond to this blog as soon as possible.
We need to advise Celia of the person's name so that security will let them in, and let them use the camera.

By the way, CONGRATULATIONS ERIN!!!! You did a fantastic job last night. We are all very proud of you.

See y'all tonight and tomorrow.

Cheers,
Paul

Vulcasamba Circus

Samba Pyramid

"Uncharted"

Fare thee well, Australians

Fare thee well, Australians,
we must say goodbye to you now

As some of you may have heard, Dionne and Marcel are finally buggering off and leaving this country for good (well, for worse, actually) on Tuesday 18 December.

To make this even remotely bearable to us, please come and say goodbye on Saturday 15 December here in Orleigh Park from 4 pm. In the grand Australian tradition (amended to stingy Dutch values) this will be a BYOE party
(Bring Your Own Everything - drinks, eats, chairs, toys, furry pets, acceptable partners and/or offspring) as our own stuff should be all packed up, and besides, we are Dutch & cheap. There are even some electric barbecues, if we can fight off the resident Aussies.

There may also be a surprise raffle, as we are yet to find someone to buy our car. Participation will be mandatory and somewhat pricey. (Please contact us if you want to prevent this by buying the car before the 15^th)

We really hope you can make it Saturday the 15th!

Dionne & Marcel

Sashes of the world unite

Tomorrow (Wednesday), a very few very dedicated sambistas are doing a small but high profile gig at lunchtime for QLD Roar. They wanted a very small group (for a small room) so I didn't advertise this on the Blog.

We'd like to look our best, and likely need some more pink&green stuff and in particular sashes. Could I ask everyone who reads this message in time and has a sash at home to bring it to rehearsal tonight? You'll get it back tomorrow. Thanks!

HOUSE/CITIZENSHIP WARMING PARTY

Hi All,

Finally we are gonna have a house warming party (I guess we've had one every year for the past 7 years...) and we'll celebrate our Aussie citizenship as well.

So...

When: from 6pm on the 16th of December (remember it's because of Marcel and Remko)

Where: 7 Oakmont Grove, Karana Downs (see picture, still working on the renovation)

What to bring: a drink or some food you like (or one you want to get rid of, I guess)

The only thing guaranteed is some "Steak au Poivre" as part of Remko's exorcism (we need to get zeu French Freug out of his body although losing the "moustache" is a good sign already).

Hope to see you all there!

Cheers

Cedric and Stephanie and the kids and the cats and the possum and the parrots and the brown snakes.

Revisiting the Objectives

Here are some of the objectives from the planning day as explained below.

Organisational Functions

Structure of Primavera

• School
• Club
• Organisation
• Performance Group/s
• Mentor program
• Artisitc Direction

Bookings

• Maintaining contacts, finding new contacts, and finding venues
• Booking Diary for gigs and rehearsals

Business Structure

• Accounts
• Admin

Resource Management

• Instruments, loaning and buying
• People / human resources

Work Towards a Goal

Planning a special gig which was not a gig, but was an initiative to try new creative mixes of material (this was supposed to be planned for this Christmas - and that is exactly what happened through Uncharted! This one has been met initially.)

Projects

WEBSITE:

• new design and layout, which reflects our vision, is database driven, downloadable photos which can be regularly updated - Acheived! However the photo dump idea is now under discussion for a link on the brisamba website and may be implemented soon.
• maintenance/updating the website - Remko did a great job with the new website, and now the challenge is keeping it up to date. There are some nice recent pics which could be added maybe for example. We should get some from rehearsals at Uncharted and add to the ad on brisamba site.
• booking diary - Achieved, there is one on the new brisamba website.
• online feedback survey/response form on website - This was put in place only insofar as delivering the blog surveys among our members about various unimportant issues.

INDUCTION PROCESS

• Membership drives - recurring activities which are aimed at recruiting targeted areas or demographics as members, e.g. African group from Logan, Uni students, West Enders, New Farm Park'ers, Orleigh Park'ers, etc.
• User name, IDs, blog membership, etc. - Members to be offered these quickly when they show interest
• Intro to our group - how we work, members are given a choice of instruments, etc.
• Conceptual intro to Brazilian music - cultural details and history
• Instrument based tutorials - proper introduction to instruments and some basic skills by Remko or section member
• Incorporate awareness of which sections need reinforcement - recruit for specific sections
• Mentoring - members will mentor new people and welcome into their section, encouraging them to jump in and showing patterns slowly, etc.

COSTUMES

• personalised? everyone's different by same colour swatch to work from could work to coordinate
• design
• finance
• regular reviews
• maintenance
• must look impressive, or spectacular
• good to have a couple of versions for formal, and casual.
• T-shirt plus fancy uniform (members could buy their own T-shirt)

BANNER/FLAG

• Need a person to carry the flag or banner too. Could be handing out business cards as well..

MARKETING

• New flyers
• Discussion about updating business cards
• Dispersing flyers around targeted communities, or wide as possible, including the Powerhouse, as half the band was recruited through there!
• Registering with the Councils
• Create an info pack/DVD for marketing to potential employers, etc.
• Festival watch - all to be involved in engaging gigs where possible

RECRUITMENT DRIVES

• Recruit dancers
• Play in New Farm Park, Orleigh, etc. to recruit and play for fun, generate interest, etc. Have someone on hand to pass out flyers and cards
• Regular recruitment drives, based on numbers and growth possibilities (if we don't have enough of certain instruments, we may have to recruit for specific sections)

SHOWMANSHIP

• Smile, Have Fun! Remember when you are rehearsing and when you are performing
• Coordinated choreography, within whole band, within sections and individual choreography as well maybe
• Fusion of styles for fun
• Use of other instrumentalists, eg bass player, flautist, singers
• Spare earplugs for audience and members
• Need dancers!
• Playfulness in performance, act out your part

MANUAL / CD / DVD

• Procedures: good for visual people to learn from
• Incorporate group's artistic direction
• Set lists for use in performance, practising the order in rehearsals
• Visual musical notation for each instrument
• Name all songs we play for easy reference in conversation or on blog/members only website

HOST AN 'END OF YEAR' SHOW

• Gives people something to work towards
• The spark of new material
• Networking, meet other artists
• Fundraising - costumes, instruments, etc.
• Look at getting a regular gig about quarterly or so, and work with other artists and groups to put together similar show to Uncharted, but more like a list of various segments, with lots of guest artists.

__________________________________________________

TASK LIST

1. set list and rehearsal (Not Achieved, but have implemented a set list through Uncharted - new way for us to work)
2. money collection at rehearsal (Achieved! Patty has kindly stepped up to the plate much of the time, and this can rotate if necessary)
3. website and photo updates (Not Achieved - some photos on blog, discussion about more links over Xmas period...
4. answering emails (Achieved - I think this was Remko going mad at us for not responding to his emails about gigs, etc. - I think we are communicating more regularly through the blog, by email and by phone)
5. flyer drops - regular (Not Achieved!)
6. choreography (Also Not Achieved! or not explored properly yet anyway)

:) Please respond with your thoughts about either the agreed aims and objectives from last year, or about the ideas for new things which I posted before this one.

IDEAS AND REVISITING OBJECTIVES

Hi all! I decided I would draft a little "brain dump" of ideas for our samba school/performance group. These are a combination of my own ideas and those of several others in the band. If I have forgotten any suggested, I apologise. I will also revisit some of the results of the strategic planning we undertook last year. Some of the objectives discussed have been met and others not, so I would suggest now is a good time to focus on the ideas still floating. Cheers!

IDEAS:
Instrument Variations

• Playing the triangle for one or two songs (eg. Magalena)
• Use of singing (eg. Magalena)
• Vocal percussion
• Vocal cuica at various poignant moments
• Tri-tone Samba whistles
• Creative attachment ideas for Tamborims, Agogo and Pandeiro, so that players can wear a second instrument hooked onto the belt tab of our overalls, for example. Use one of those G-clasps and hook onto a short tied lace looped through a metal ring on the taborim or pandeiro..?
• Erin and Remko to do a Duet de Repinique: e.g. take turns doing a paradinha (calls) each, Remko first, and then Erin leading the band into one of the calls from the Junior Bloco link I posted a while ago. This could continue on into the swing samba groove we have been playing more of lately, with the overlapping triplets played by Erin and Remko
• Have extra surdos on hand for some members to jump onto surdo for a powerful effect and maybe explore the melody of the surdos more. We can always have beaters in pockets or whatever
• Snare section does a solo break where Tamborim players turn around, caixas step forward, and play syncopated patterns on the tamborims, and maybe on their drums here and there too. Tamborim players might turn, bend to one knee and hold up tamborim above head
• Attach cowbells and jamblocks to snare drums for caixa section, to have more timbale flavour every now and then. Use for drumline sounds too

Song Variations

• Jungle: the surdo part could be followed by: left arm up, then right arm up to click the wood of right beater onto wood of the left, and repeat.
• Timbalada (Jungle version #2?): could feature sections led by Tam Tam (Paul has one doesn't he?)

Other Ideas

• Improve showmanship: smiling, looking like you are enjoying, hamming it up for an audience, playing a character, having fun and being mischievious. Exude energy and movement, confidence and participation.
• Put together some coordinated dance moves and section formations for certain songs. Work on getting quality of sound and movements in time.
• Invite dancers and students who are into samba to come along and dance with us at rehearsals whenever they like, so we can network, learn the style of playing to get the best out of samba dancers, work on joint initiatives in future
• Recruit some of the African group into the band!! They'd be into it I think. This might really help with the singing part too!

Fusion Sounds

• African 6/8 patterns (as song or as intro)
• 6/8 timing blending back into 4/4 or 2/4
• African dance segment in response to the change of genre
• Drumline styled energetic performance pieces with lots of formalised grandeur and erect postures, movement and dynamics with syncopated rhythms, impressive sticking and a few mischievious tricks (I'm looking at you, Denis..)
• Experiment with non-batucada instruments mixed with samba, eg. keyboard, flute, bass guitar, saxophone, viola/violin, congas, etc.
• Experiment with fusion of different genres e.g. Brazilian and Flamenco? Andean flutes...
• Mix in some more Afrocuban sounds, through tamborims playing son and rumba clave (2/3 or 3/2), and repinique playing similar timbale style, with bells if possible. Could make use of rim knocking here for effect (e.g. like the 'boom boom' in the soccer match for Unchartered but with beater wood hitting onto the rims of the surdos, and snares. Tamborim to do syncopated solo patterns over the top of it, with effective use of pause-