twang twang twang - MUNICH

"My advice to young composers and performers is work, every day if possible, directly with sound;  minimising time spent on organisation and being physically involved in the production of music.  This is in order to discover an entirely new world of accoustic vibrations and the impact that these sounds make on our spirit.  In the long run, these musicians will succeed because devotion to the production of sound will produce good results - that other people will listen.  So don't give up and don't listen too much to administrators who want to tell composers what they should write and musicans what they should play.  It's about fighting for one's independence in pursuit of sound as an art."
Karlheinz Stockhausen

you sell your soul, and then it doesn't even cover it

Be warned, readers.  Even with dodgy extra work, twang twang twang's bank account has stopped working! 

Tom helpfully offered to examine my phone bill (the final straw) and then lay on the sofa, tears of laughter pouring down his cheeks.  Apparently I made 47 phone calls on my mobile phone over four days when I was in Poland!

How will I ever face my accountant?

How can I concentrate on my art with the crushing sense of moral and fiscal failure?

And that's WITH playing outside gents lavatories.

I struggle to take myself seriously, sometimes. 

come clean

Harpists, as everyone knows, are beautiful.  Unfortunately, all those theatre lights in my dressing room at the minute show me looking RUFF, so when I was released from a rehearsal I zipped off to the salon. 

The bloody therapist told me to give up alcohol, coffee and sugar! Never!  I found a third way in Harrods with £150's worth of facial cleansing oil, foaming aromatherapy wash, calming lavender toner, decongesting neroli pre-moisturiser, hydrating light lotion and clarifying night balm.  That should do it.  Give up alcohol, my dark circles. 

Clearly Beauty Has A Price and so the following evening I agreed to a gig where I had to improvise outside a gents' lavatory (on the harp, funny guys - and yes, regular readers may remember this is not the first time I have done this gig, so I can't even plead ignorance). 

Playing next to the gents to fund face cream is perhaps my worst failure of artistic integrity to date.  So c'mon, you serious musicianly aesthete bloggers - how far will you go?