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Mar. 6th, 2009 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hathycolOh, what a strange few days I have had. Not long after posting yesterday, I recieved a sheepish phone call from Caroline from AltSoc. "We got the gig sorted! Can we have a lift? Er, with the drums?"
Allow me to explain. I have a somewhat complex relationship with AltSoc; I get on reasonably well with everyone, and very well with a few people, but I hve a deep and occasionally overwhelming fear that they all hate me. I'm not entirely sure if this is me being socially inept - a distinct possibility - or them being socially inept and a bit cliquey. Both are fairly strong arguments, to be honest, and I have a feeling that it's actually a combination of the two. Anyway, Differences Were Resolved at a drunken house party last week involving beer and hours and hours of old-skool Mario. All was well.
Things that weren't resolved, however, was the total cock-up over room booking. AltSoc basically exists to put on alternative nights to the Bop with, er, alternative music. This is a rather strange definition, but basically can be classed as 'stuff played never/rarely in the Bop or RockSoc'. Sometimes band nights are put on. Not so much this year, for Various Reasons, but this semester the live music fund at uni, Musfund, gave AltSoc money to put on a gig, and told us that Venue 2 had now been re-jigged so that you could actually play music in there.
Huzzah! we all cried. And for the night that Musfund gave us, we booked the ever-reliable DanDanDan (who consist of, er, people we know) and quite a popular band that's based in Dundee, Popolo. Apparently they have been on some form of NME tour. We don't know if that's true, but it's a good thing to put on posters. We were all sorted and prepped to go, and then suddenly we find out that the room hasn't been booked and as we've all suspected for some time Musfund are, in fact, incapable of organising a piss-up in a bar. Having cocked up quite a few things for us and indeed the university over the year, I'm not sure why this came as a surprise to everyone.
Panic ensued. Luckily, a local bar put us up for the night, having already had to cancel Popolo once. They are kind and didn't hold it against us. Musfund loaned us th equipment for free, but all this was organised on Wednesday night, i.e. the night before the gig. Hence the phonecall, and my unexpected and new role as a roadie.
This wasn't exactly how I saw my university life panning out, I'll be honest with you.
Anyway. After spending all day in work, I puttered out in my little, tiny, seats-don't-go-flat car. Amazingly, an entire drumkit fitted in there, and it was but one more journey to get the electrical stuff over. I was amazed, although those two short journeys were terrifying.
Set-up happened. I have to admit that I missed it, and went home instead. When I came back, chaos was quietly ensuing, but this is fairly common. The gig itself was, in fact, rather good in a musical level, and I had a good night. However, I think I - and indeed, everyone else - woud have felt better without the monumental level of fuck-ups. An awful lot of shouts during the night involved the phrase 'fuck you, Musfund!' We could say this, you see, because they fucked off before the start of the gig despite us having no idea how to use the various sound desks. Good-o.
I'm quite glad, now, that I'm going to be getting shot of all this Union bureaucracy and crap in a few months. I'll be shedding my guise as El Presidente of DocSoc in just over a month, and whilst it makes me immeasureably sad, at least I won't have to deal with idiots like this. I know that the entire thing is run by volunteers, and as such it will be of varying quality, but, erm, DocSoc Gets Shit Done. I don't mean that I Get Shit Done, I mean that we, as a group, pull together and get stuff done. So it puzzles me that the Union can never do this.
... so ends my rant about internal politics at the Union. If you're reading this from the Union, please don't take away DocSoc's grant. I love you guys. Honestly.
Today I have lots and lots to do. This is about the story of my life, right now.
Allow me to explain. I have a somewhat complex relationship with AltSoc; I get on reasonably well with everyone, and very well with a few people, but I hve a deep and occasionally overwhelming fear that they all hate me. I'm not entirely sure if this is me being socially inept - a distinct possibility - or them being socially inept and a bit cliquey. Both are fairly strong arguments, to be honest, and I have a feeling that it's actually a combination of the two. Anyway, Differences Were Resolved at a drunken house party last week involving beer and hours and hours of old-skool Mario. All was well.
Things that weren't resolved, however, was the total cock-up over room booking. AltSoc basically exists to put on alternative nights to the Bop with, er, alternative music. This is a rather strange definition, but basically can be classed as 'stuff played never/rarely in the Bop or RockSoc'. Sometimes band nights are put on. Not so much this year, for Various Reasons, but this semester the live music fund at uni, Musfund, gave AltSoc money to put on a gig, and told us that Venue 2 had now been re-jigged so that you could actually play music in there.
Huzzah! we all cried. And for the night that Musfund gave us, we booked the ever-reliable DanDanDan (who consist of, er, people we know) and quite a popular band that's based in Dundee, Popolo. Apparently they have been on some form of NME tour. We don't know if that's true, but it's a good thing to put on posters. We were all sorted and prepped to go, and then suddenly we find out that the room hasn't been booked and as we've all suspected for some time Musfund are, in fact, incapable of organising a piss-up in a bar. Having cocked up quite a few things for us and indeed the university over the year, I'm not sure why this came as a surprise to everyone.
Panic ensued. Luckily, a local bar put us up for the night, having already had to cancel Popolo once. They are kind and didn't hold it against us. Musfund loaned us th equipment for free, but all this was organised on Wednesday night, i.e. the night before the gig. Hence the phonecall, and my unexpected and new role as a roadie.
This wasn't exactly how I saw my university life panning out, I'll be honest with you.
Anyway. After spending all day in work, I puttered out in my little, tiny, seats-don't-go-flat car. Amazingly, an entire drumkit fitted in there, and it was but one more journey to get the electrical stuff over. I was amazed, although those two short journeys were terrifying.
Set-up happened. I have to admit that I missed it, and went home instead. When I came back, chaos was quietly ensuing, but this is fairly common. The gig itself was, in fact, rather good in a musical level, and I had a good night. However, I think I - and indeed, everyone else - woud have felt better without the monumental level of fuck-ups. An awful lot of shouts during the night involved the phrase 'fuck you, Musfund!' We could say this, you see, because they fucked off before the start of the gig despite us having no idea how to use the various sound desks. Good-o.
I'm quite glad, now, that I'm going to be getting shot of all this Union bureaucracy and crap in a few months. I'll be shedding my guise as El Presidente of DocSoc in just over a month, and whilst it makes me immeasureably sad, at least I won't have to deal with idiots like this. I know that the entire thing is run by volunteers, and as such it will be of varying quality, but, erm, DocSoc Gets Shit Done. I don't mean that I Get Shit Done, I mean that we, as a group, pull together and get stuff done. So it puzzles me that the Union can never do this.
... so ends my rant about internal politics at the Union. If you're reading this from the Union, please don't take away DocSoc's grant. I love you guys. Honestly.
Today I have lots and lots to do. This is about the story of my life, right now.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 01:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 04:00 pm (UTC)