Detour

So, I'm going to go on a detour, and not blog about my choir for this post.

Europe has been looking to ban the veil, niqab, that Muslim women wear for quite some time (well, not all of Europe, but rather some countries). Y'know, that in itself disgusts me. I'll confess that I don't know whether those countries have anything similar to Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but I'll go on a limb and say that they do. Their discussing its banning is akin to saying: Christians can't wear crosses. It's a religious garb that's been that way for centuries, and if they are privileged to have freedom of religion, they need to be allowed to wear this.

I see their counter argument that: people should be able to see others' faces, and that this is partly a "counter terrorism" measure. I'm not going to go into the whole religious debate, whether they are anti-Islam or not, but I want to know whether there are bans on people wearing balaclavas, thick and long scarves that cover their faces, a heavy make up. If they truly do, fine. Perhaps this is a law that has been around, and I'll admit to being ignorant. But somehow, I doubt such a rule currently exists... They also mention that it's "impolite" to not be able to see others' faces. If this has always been an issue, has there been laws on this in the past?

Tony Blair said that the garb is "a mark of separation, and that's why it makes other people from outside the community feel uncomfortable.” So... then don't all people who dress differently than "the norm" fit in this category? And is there even a "norm"? EVERYONE dresses differently; we are individuals. Heck. Even people who wear the same thing look different, because they ARE different. Perhaps if we just take Tony's quote literally and paraphrase it a bit, perhaps he really is just commenting that "when people are different, people feel uncomfortable." And perhaps if we read it that way, it's not so bad, since he *could* be relaying this to *everyone* who dresses different, and thus carry the "mark of separation". But somehow, I doubt that...

Anyway, that's the first bit of my rant. The more pertinent issue is that the above quote, Tony's quote, was posted as the Globe and Mail's poll to the public. The quote asks voters whether they agree with that statement or not. So far, 71% of Canadians think YES. WHAT? I've always been proud of Canada's tolerance, and our acceptance of other cultures and and religions, that we celebrate each other's differences. What happened? I am so ashamed of the results of that vote.

Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh. Perhaps I should blame the media and the US a bit more than blaming the Canadians. After all, the media does have a slant on all this stuff, and especially the US media. But we still should not be swayed as such.

I've actually noticed a trend for Globe and Mail's poll. I've been noticing more and more that the voters (and I'll say "Canadians", since G&M is a Canadian publication) have been less and less tolerant. Yes, there is still terrorism, and that Islamic Extremists brought it to the forefront, but just because there are some bad apples, should we really toss out the whole bushel? And all the OTHER acts of terrorisms: what religion have THEY been? Why is there such a double standard?!

And to answer myself, yes, people are afraid of the unknown, the unfamiliar. But we seriously need to work on getting over it.

If everyone can understand the meaning of love and compassion as following the sagacity of the Dalai Lama, the world would indeed be a better place...

Rebirth

So, I am going to sticking around here, since I haven't really dived into travel plans at all. I thought about travelling in late October till Christmas, but haven't gotten around to it. Maybe I can find someone to do a road trip with... That'll be pretty freakin' sweet.

Anway, I digress. As this is the MRSS A Cappella blog, I'm going to talk about singning. I've started up the choir again. I didn't do my "play cool songs in front of people" when I did my recruting bit, hoping to ride the success of last year, and that people would flock to the choir. No such luck. I had a total of 10 people sign up, and only 8 actually came and auditioned. Yeah. It's this low of turn out. No guys.

What to do...?

First off, do I even have enough people to do a choir? 8 is a stretch. As in, if everyone stays, I can barely pull off 4 parts. And if soloing, someone will have to be singing one on a part. Very, very scary, seeing that while the girls are good, but are they strong enough to go be that alone...? And if one or two people drop out, then we're really, really screwed...

Second, I have a bunch of really cool a cappella songs that I want to do, namely Accidentally In Love that I arranged (at least I got a chance to hear it performed a month back), and they are all SATB (girls + guys needed). I have NO music. I'll probably look around, since I'm in a bind, but just a tough call overall...

But, I'll have faith. I'll see where this takes me. Perhaps I'll be pleasantly surprised. I've started rearranging Imagine by John Lennon into girls only. It's sooo hard to do 4 parts, since when I do a counter melody, I effectively only have 2 parts left to provide background... Not cool.

I spent a few hours a couple of days ago trying this, and there were areas where I full split up certain voices in order to flesh the sound out. The more I do it, the harder it gets. And with the low turnout of girls, can I afford to do 5 parts?

I remember a lesson I recently learned, to just let go of control. If something is so hard for me to shape, why force it? So, I bit the bullet, and split it into 5 parts. Way easier to arrange, but much scarier in terms of end success due to low number of girls. But I'll try it. Let's hope this pans out. Guess I'll find out on Friday...