weird gig (79/365e)

Weird gig

Ok, so here's the story. I got asked to do a gig of some kind about 2 weeks ago. I have nothing to do these days, so I said yes. I found out last week it's not a music gig, it's a photo/video gig, with klaus. he's none to pleased with it himself. until yesterday it was supposed to be in judendorf. this morning i heard i found out it was in kroisbach. still don't know what will be happening or what i shold be doing. irmtraud and klaus pick me up at home at 8:15, ewww. we get there slightly before 9 (which is start time) nobody is there. nobody at all. finally some people arrive, and ask who we are. the film people. oh, we're filming? they ask. oje.

so we go in start setting things up. normally i would ask "where will you be speaking" and "what do you want in the shot" but this time they were asking *me* "where should i stand?" and "should we move anything?" ummm, i don't know. i asked whether they would be speaking at the same time and they asked if i thought they should. by the end, i found out that one of them was actually the writer of the script and the organizer of the project which is really weird.

so the project is interesting, the passion story told in styrian poetry. "where are the musicians" they ask ... umm, i don't know. irmtraud says they'll be there later, one of the musicians is her brother. they seem surprised when i say we will just record the text first. how long is the whole piece supposed to be? "with music maybe 20 minutes" is the answer. ok. we are set.

we start recording. 20 minutes in, the first speaker hasn't finished their part yet. they are speaking perfectly, it's really great, but this work is not going to clock in under 40 minutes, for sure not under 20. we are running low on storage space, too.

The speakers finish, and they say they brought us some dinner - hard boiled eggs and a loaf of strietzl, but no knife. the church is freezing. i'm shivering.

musicians arrive. they seem very happy to see each other. "we haven't seen each other in 35 years!" "it's so cool to play together again!" "what are we playing" "where should we set up?" they ask the organizer. she looks at me... quizzically.

i set that up, klaus is running back and forth on cameras, and now lights, it's gotten super dark suddenly, when it was super bright before. turns out there is a raging snowstorm outside. we start recording. the musicians are sight reading. they are doing a fine job. at some point, the guitarist asks, "wait, what is d-minor again" and i laugh, and he says (i'm not joking) "hey, don't laugh, i'm actually a bass player"

we clean up super fast. the organizer gives us thank you gifts of homemade jam and a calendar. on my way out i grab my mask and drop the jelly. glass everywhere. i pick up the glass, and cut myself. she very kindly and thoughtfully gives me another glass of jelly, which i much more carefully take home with me. they were all such nice people, but what a WEIRD gig ... Outside the snow lay thick.

At home, our kobold/chore reward was Francis the talking mule which was MUCH weirder than I remember... A little much war and soldier talk. The kids liked it anyways. Oops