#lesoco

[gabrielle-lilly-illustratio-blog]

Colourful inspirational illustrators on my desk way back June 2016

[harmonyandriley]

Clearwater Care Corruption

Clearwater Care update...

So the fools at Dumbreck House responsible for Dean’s care have stolen his freedom pass so staff can use it as they see fit. On top of abuse persecution and no records of Dean’s money received from DWP, one of the staff ( Adda ) appropriately named after a snake, stole the freedom pass of a vulnerable client whom Harmony & Riley have supported for over four years.

With beatings, being made homeless, food so hot and spicy that Dean threw up, and with Dean sent to college in winter in a T shirt... Adda and Justine prove they are unfit to look after the most vulnerable in society, and recently Dean turning up with a packed lunch that would indicate neglect not to mention the staff and security at LESOCO, Lewisham Southwark College witnessing first hand neglect toward Dean by Adda, there is at least some good news...

Carol, Dean’s new tutor and her predecessor Denise are true champions. Lewisham Southwark College Are Champions Of The Vulnerable Students They So Clearly Value.Their support of Dean and his devoted loving mother Teresa is nothing short of exemplary. I commend them, they are closely observing and recording the neglect Dean faces from arrogant Clearwater care staff.

During the summer months Dean’s Mother was unable to gain access to the toilet as staff were too primitive to understand that people need to use it on occasion, forcing her to travel to a local High St miles away in search of relief, the staff have also removed a large flatscreen TV from a tenant who is mute and unable to speak for himself, so the staff can watch it in the lounge area. Furthermore the decorating has not been done. 

Upgrades to Dean’s room promised at the start of the year has yet to be completed, the boiler always breaks down leaving tenants with no hot water, whilst these thieves who steal from the most vulnerable carry buckets of water heated on a cooker to fill a bath. These people are savages.

Adda is one step closer to a criminal record for theft, and a career change. I assure her the next fuck up will result in her arrest by our friends The Police. Sir Keir Starmer I am sure will look into these matters and deal with corruption in his Labour constituencies regarding bullies that target the most vulnerable in our society. Supported housing is not a playground for bullies to persecute our precious citizens.

Harmony & Riley

Potential Realised

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54638693

[mariadiassilvaposts-blog]

Fox and Firkin Performance: 26.05.2016

The gig went very well overall. There were some bits and bobs that could’ve been avoided but the team dealt with them very easily and quite quickly. I noticed that most of us worked well under pressure. The piece I directed was wonderful on stage. I gave the sound engineer the instructions for my track beforehand, which simplified my live performance. My song didn’t have a line up, so I was the only person on stage, performing vocally to the backing track I’ve produced. I found the experience very beneficial to me as a Singer-Songwriter, and truly rewarding as well, as I performed a finished song of mine live for the first time.

I was also a session player in David’s Afrobeat instrumental track. I performed on the keyboard with the group. I found it a bit difficult to follow the arrangement as it wasn’t very stable and definite. However, the band was able to improvise and the performance went fine, generally.

[caseyyear2-blog]

Hello!

Hello and thanks for following me! - Over the next 9 academic weeks this blog will be taking you throughout my creative process of structuring, shooting and composing my FINAL EXTENDED PROJECT. 

[rxfxs]

This school year has been so unbelievably cray cray. I've met some amazing people that I don't see leaving my life anytime soon and I genuinely could not be anymore grateful for and to them. Without them I would've had multiple break downs and would've ended up in a place that I wouldn't have wanted to be. What you see in this picture is something that I should've been working on since February this year but because of circumstances it wasn't until two weeks ago that I started. Everything you see on that table apart from my sketchbook and the mood board was CREATED in the past TWO WEEKS. Do you understand how stressful that must've been? 😂 I'm just so thankful my squad pushed me enough for me to pull it off. Thank you soooooo much @weswesfreshink @badnewswoodward and @mally_chinks_hop you guise LITERALLY got me through the year and I can't thank you enough #FMP #finalpiece #finalgarment #FinalProject #finaldisplay #staticshow #lesoco #hairdress #baddiewinkle #futuredesigner #upcomingdesigner #london #LDN

[hnd-posts]

HND Creating a Digital Story 

[mindfuluk]

Poet panels The College Cyphers @ LeSoCo x GRM Daily [Ep 3 - The Finalists] x #mindful 

[societyofalumni]

Checkout @MulaSoAce on @grmdaily "Episode One of GRM Daily x @lesocolondon College Cypher out in 30 mins!!! Exclusively on Grmdaily.com #LeSoCo #CollegeCyphers"

[natnatbro]

Did my enrolment today, woo I start college in less than a month! :D Studying Fashion ^_^

[nigelhalldesign]

"Carpe Diem" -Now featured in our 15 Floral Street window, is the creative direction of 5 talented students from LESOCO who stopped by the store this morning to give an update to our flagship store. Following the theme of Abbey Road Reinvented, they took elements that are iconic and relevant and mixed it amongst the Nigel Hall S/S '13 collection.

Stop by the store and see for yourself!

Click here for directions

[mariadiassilvaposts-blog]

Dress Rehearsal: 18.05.2016

The group performed in front of Dave Landers, so we could have some feedback at the end. It was mainly positive, as there were just some bits and bobs missing.

I believe the performance went through quite successfully. There were some bits that needed improvement but my overall feelings are positive. “Sparky Got Flushed” (Joe) was my favourite song of the whole set. I found the song’s vibe extremely electrifying and the whole arrangement very well put. “Cameron’s Raven” (Oska) had a curious meaning. However, I found it a bit too repetitive. “Ben’s Tune” (Ben) was a very enjoyable instrumental to listen. The guitar and drums could be a bit tighter in rhythm, but the bass was heavy, which is good since we’re talking about reggae. “Summer Daydream” (Marie K) was an enjoyable tune to listen. As a house track, I think it had quite captivating lyrics. “Afrobeat” (David) had an engaging rhythm, with the guitar, keyboard and bass solos. I was the keyboard player for this song. When I heard my own performance of “Music Box” (Mary Jane Holland) on the Google Drive’s recording video, I thought the song needed improvement in some particular areas, such as arrangement, song length, and lyrics as well. I’ve then written some notes and personal feedback on how I could improve my performance and heard Dave’s feedback as well. Apart from the constructive criticism, I believe the song has a very meaningful story behind its lyrics and arrangement. For “Let Go” (Crystal), I think it could have a bit more of energy from the vocals, but apart from that, the song’s quite interesting. “You Know Me” (Josh) is a captivating tune. I think the vocals were very good and that’s the best feature of the song. The song “The Ill, The End” (Logan) was quite thrilling. However, I think it needed a bit more of rehearsing. It had a nice rocky vibe, but I believe that it’d sound better if it wasn’t so unstable from start to finish. “Let Go” (Katrina) was a good song but as Dave said, I think it needed a bit of bass guitar in it, to have a fuller sounding. “Keep Telling Yourself” (Michael Gough) had a very interesting structure. The song was snappy and nice to listen to. I think the guitar riffs were a bit out of time though. Apart from that, great tune.

I was by myself on stage performing “Music Box”. For my song, I needed to have a special stage presence. Since the song has a dark vibe, I needed to act the same way. I used my eyes mostly, my face and my hands to express myself. The was standing still with a purpose. The song I’ll be performing at the gig is about a ballerina that dances in a cycle, on top of a music box. I am the ballerina, the music box is my comfort zone, and I go round and around on my thoughts, that haunt or purify me with emotions. Eye contact is crucial for my song, as I need to connect with the audience as much as I can, engaging them and drawing the public’s attention to the lyrics and meaning of it.

Update: I believe my song needed a small change in the arrangement and lyrics. I have been working towards changing it. Crystal’s song and Katrina’s have the same title, which can be a bit strange. There are some songs that need extra work, such as Ben’s, in terms of the arrangement. There was no structure. I couldn’t differentiate between the verse, chorus and bridge. Several songs, including mine, need extra practice. Technical issues when changing over songs need further attention as well.

[mariadiassilvaposts-blog]

[mariadiassilvaposts-blog]

Publicity documentation

The group has created a Facebook page to promote the event. I also have my own social media accounts as a solo artist so I’ve posted an image of the group on Instagram with the following description: “I'll be performing original material @ Fox & Firkin (SE13, London) ~ come see great new acts on the 26th of May”. These are my social media links: - Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/maryjhofficial - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maryjhofficial 

I was also involved in the production of a press release, contributing for the publicity of the event. I contacted the marketing director at LeSoCo, informing her about the upcoming gig. I sent her the press release I’ve written, with a couple of photos attached to it, of the performing bands/solo artists. Because we didn’t have enough support from the marketing sector, we didn’t have the opportunity to promote the gig to a larger amount of people – the students and College staff. Apart from online promotion, me and some other students also took part in distributing flyers and posters in and outside College.

[mariadiassilvaposts-blog]

Being an MD for “Music Box”

My experience as being a Musical Director is quite different from the other group members, as I will be performing on stage by myself. I produced the song by myself and will be performing it with live vocals and a backing track. “Music Box” is a dark song about a ballerina doll stuck in a music box. The ballerina stands for me, as an artist, and the music box is a metaphor for my life. I’ve written and produced this song in November of 2015. It is based on my own life experience.

Update: I’ve written the complete story line for the song. This will be included in the Track requirements document I’ve written for my song:

The intro has sound effects of a telephone calling tone, an answering machine and the sounds of the call being rejected. This is a representation of how the doll feels.

She was stuck there for 19 years, but only around that age she truly started developing feelings of frustration and incapacity due to self-sabotage. She is too judgemental of herself. The “morning” stated in the second verse is a metaphor to every beginning of everything she does. She cries every time she starts something new. She feels like everything she does and herself as well, are never good enough. If at least she had done things better beforehand, it would be easier to deal with the “morning”. In the third verse, she fakes (“I’m OK”) but she feels (“I’m really not”). In the fourth verse, when mentioning “the demons”, I’m referring to the ballerina’s own demons, the ones that live on her mind – her thoughts. The whole context before the first chorus is a demonstration of how vulnerable the doll feels at all times.

The chorus shows a fight between her good and bad thoughts, being vocally expressed through both speaking and whispering. It ends with her saying “such mixed feelings going through my head”, which means she doesn’t know which voice to follow, or what thoughts to believe in.

In the fifth verse, the ballerina sings “and there is no way around”, meaning that she’s lost in her own little space. She hopes to find her heart again, as it was before this whole chaos started. She consents that her heart is no longer a place of peace, but a battleground, of herself versus herself. Sixth verse, she lost her intention during the battle, but she notices she’s deceiving herself, by thinking she’s not in control. She starts then, in the seventh verse, believing a bit more in herself, affirming that her demons are like gravity, pushing her down and placing her “where she belongs”, not letting her move forward. Therefore, the doll becomes aware of the fact that she has the master key to the music box she is stuck inside of, she has the power to control her demons and free herself.

After the second chorus, there is a verse variant, a kind of bridge to an unfinished ending. The ballerina is now in control of herself. She stands in command of the music box, fights and defeats her demons and feels unstoppable, declaring she won’t be their toy anymore. But because this part of the song is a bridge leading to an incomplete conclusion, we will never know if she truly dominated her demons, or if she’s only deceiving herself once again (“To be continued”).

[mariadiassilvaposts-blog]

MD: Track requirements

Today, the group has established the track requirements for each of our tracks, mentioning things such as personnel, equipment, rehearsal requirements, reference tracks/main influences, promotion matters/social media, arrangement, lyrics, performance instructions for session players, clothing/dress code, and concept of the song/storyline/meaning.

[mariadiassilvaposts-blog]

Visit to Fox and Firkin / Venues research

The group has made a Venues research to look for possible live music venues to gig in. I’ve considered suitability matters, style of music that the venues often have playing there, and additionally, how large the room was. The group made a visit to the Fox and Firkin, where we discussed things such as timetables, the event’s promotion, sound and venue’s acoustics, instruments and equipment, to be as much informed as possible about the place we will perform at.