Also exciting is the new project, Professor Maurice Mollusk’s amazing unicycling wombat, the team has just been compiled and we await our first meeting as a gang. And working with a new singing teacher in Chepstow, Karl Daymond, who has lots of quirky projects on the go.

And the home made extensions that I tried on this morning and acually look a bit like my hair.

It’s Splendid!

Many of these comments this evening mentioned the respect between people that there is in a society like Germany. Not the forelock-tugging deference of the kind seen in period drama, or the terror demanded at knife/gun point by thugs, but actual, proper respect for other people and their livelihoods.

I haven’t been to Germany for a long time, and I wouldn’t have noticed anyway, but I spent the evening talking to one of Gary’s friends who happens to be German, and the whole concept of the British class system seemed incredibly alien to her. She was from a working class background, but there had never been any suggestion in her life that her oppotunities would be curtailed by this, or that she shouldn’t be able to expect good things to happen to her if she put the work in. In Germany, it is perfectly ok for a middle-class young person to take up a manual profession, whereas here I get the feeling that it would be very much looked down upon by that young person’s parents and peers.

In Britain, there often seems to be a culture of anti-hard work and it seems to be that cutting corners or playing the system is valued so much more. It seems to be perfectly ok to some people to turn up and do a bad day’s work, or gain by exploiting a system, whether that be someone fiddling the benefits system, making millions by exploiting a financial system, or by paying armies of accountants and lawyers to fiddle the tax system.

I have met people who think that the seemingly easy route to fame and fortune as a musician through competing in the X-factor is far superior to actually putting the graft in and earning a sustainable living as a musician and that if I don’t go on it, I clearly am not serious about my profession. At this point I usually remind them that the contestant is not being paid while the backing singer is earning money for that evening’s work

I have always wondered why people do this, and I think, amongst other factors, there is a fundamental lack of respect between people in this country. I think back to when I was working as a receptionist for a small business just after graduating. I loved the work, at least initially, even though I was being paid below the miniumum wage at the time while the owner drove a jag. I tried to come up with ideas that would help the business and spent time devising a website and designing leaflets. Not once did I receive a single word of thanks or appreciation for my efforts. In fact, I was moaned at for being somewhat distracted three weeks after having buried my only surviving parent at the age of 23, and told I wasn’t giving it 100%. Well, I certainly didn’t give it my all after that. I became the dictionary definition of a jobs worth and didn’t do a single thing that went beyond my job description. I left for a better job with more autonomy soon after and have been self-employed since leaving that one.

I couldn’t understand at the time why my boss seemed hell-bent on demotivating me in that way, but maybe my experience was not atypical. Maybe we have employers and managers whose aim is not to get the best out of employees, develop them and make them an asset to the business, but to subjugate, exploit and humiliate them. Maybe there are too many job environments where to innovate and come up with ideas and solutions is just not worth the grief as there is no encouragement or recognition for doing so. With an environment like that, nobody wins, except maybe the ego of the manager is somewhat more inflated.

In Germany, trade union reps have boardroom seats, and I’ll bet my bottom dollar that they have fewer industrial disputes and greater income equality. That’s what happens when you respect your workforce and give them a stake in the business, rather than the practice that we have here of excessive boardroom pay for failure, rampant income inequality and a constant driving down of pay and conditions for those at the lower end of the scale.

Consider the way in which people doing creative work are often treated. Many people do not understand how labour-intensive it is to create something. It requires years and years of constant practice to develop the skills needed. Not only that, but before you create, you must spend time on preparation. For the visual artist, this involves prep sketches and gathering materials, for the musician, rehearsal of the work to be performed. (This is why creatives are often poor, the sheer amount of man-hours involved goes unrecognised by those who have never worked in the field)

Having done all that, created your product, and then attempting to sell it, you are met with “we haven’t budgeted that much” or “can’t you work for free? I could get a student or intern to do it for free”. Or even “I could do that” (go on then, I dare ya, got stage fright all of a sudden, have you?)

It’s like the comment I read from a plumber who gets complaints about his call-out fee, usually from someone who would defend to the death their own right to earn £50 an hour and has never tried to run a business in their lives.

Then I start thinking about simple respect for one another and how little of it there seems to be. Wouldn’t society be so much better if we thought about the bigger picture a little more and fostered a society based on mutual respect, rather than on pissing on each other from a great height and playing the various systems we find ourselves in? It’s not as if it actually costs us anything to change our mindset. If we have a society that admires and rewards the exploiters, it puts at a disadvantage all those who seek to do the right thing by other people. And that does not a good society make.

]]> http://abigailseabrook.com/?feed=rss2&p=393 0 http://abigailseabrook.com/?p=389 http://abigailseabrook.com/?p=389#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:28:52 +0000 Abi http://abigailseabrook.com/?p=389 Continue reading →]]> I was inspired by the Professor Elemental CD that Gary gave me for Christmas and thought that I’d have a go at writing my very own tribute to chap hop. (For those of you not familiar with Elemental’s work head over to youtube and find “cup of brown joy” one of my favourite tracks of all time)

I had great fun coming up with the lyrics on the way to Gary’s parents’ house near Abergavenny during the Christmas break, and Gary very kindly produced the track for me.

So here it is, my first attempt at rapping since my teens!

tribute to chap hop

As I lay in the bath this boxing day morning, I started thinking about a costume, and it tied in nicely with something that has been on my to-do list for some time now, make a costume based on Janet Arnold’s patterns of fashion. I’m gonna go for the polonaise pattern in a fabby, crispy blue taffeta that I found in the fancy silk store

I admit, I am a costume wuss, and the thought of scaling up filled me with dread (which might explain why the fabric is still sitting there) but between dinner and the Borrowers on TV, I gritted my teeth and drew a 1″ grid and then scaled up the pattern. I ‘m somewhat mollified that it is only the bodice that has to fit properly. I cut the toile peices out of some awful curtain fabric, and to my utter delight, it seems to be fitting well.

I’ve finally cracked the reason why my 18th century stays do a funny flippy-up thing at the bottom. Wooden busks, or rather, the lack of. Some searching on the internet for a supplier has not come up trumps, so I will be looking for a hardwood ruler that I can cut and sand into the right shape.

I need new pocket hoops too. One of the motivations for making this dress is the humungous size of my present pair(!) While I love them, and they look super on stage, I could do with something a bit more practical.

So…the plan is…pocket hoops, sort wooden busk out, make shiny new dress, mmmmm!

And a hat, a big one, I’d like a big hat…

But for now, I have added a track, la Vie en Rose from a gig I did for Chartreuse with Gary and Rich, hope you like it! More to come in due course, I’ve decided that it’s high time i did a bit more recording.

My 6 year old self would be so proud!

my latest Victorian creation

in Bristol on Friday, getting home late then up in the morning for the Asylum, a steampunk festival in lovely Lincoln. I managed to miss most of the Saturday, as I got on the wrong train (similar looking trains going from the same platform at similar times, grr) and ended up seeing a vast amount of the UK countryside from various train windows. It might have helped, connections wise, if trains went more frequently than once an hour from any given station. However, I did get to see a whole bunch of super stuff, the market in the Victorian womens’ prison was great, I could have spent so much money…

I created a new outfit for the occasion, and compared notes with another lady who had used the same pattern, we agreed that beading was a challenge and a half.

In the castle grounds there were a load of photographers from the North East taking photos of all the amazing costumes (and there were some amazing ones)  I had a few taken myself, it must be what it’s like to be a celebrity!

The evening event featured Sunday Driver and Professor Elemental with his unique brand of “chap hop”

The next day saw me having lunch with Abi Moore and John Walton to discuss our (hopefully) forthcoming old-school cabaret project.

And now… to work on the ongoing website revamp, Gary’s new waistcoat and my MU EC campaign!

Thoughts now turn to my next sewing project. For ages I have been gazing at this amazing Charles Worth 1880′s evening dress. But the only picture I could find was of the back. Having spent far too long zooming on on the photo and squinting to catch a detail of the front,  I found this other site which shows a front and back view, hurrah!The back looks like a butterfly train, another excuse to go shopping on the Truly Victorian pattern site, yay!

However, this lovely government that nobody voted into power seems hell-bent on destroying these opportunities. Perhaps they believe that the arts should only be for people that can pay. When some of the young people realised that the funding had run out for their project and was unlikely to be renewed they were incensed. A group of them got together the idea of writing to their headteacher, and the governement for good measure.

I’ve been feeling pretty powerless and cynical lately, but the young people’s positive attitude inspired me. Maybe I am powerless, but that’s not a reason not to do anything.

We all seem to have bought the coalition’s claim that the deficit needs reducing, and needs reducing their way. But I’m starting to question that. They seems to be missing a lot of information out. For example, who are we paying all this interest to exactly? How big is the deficit compared to similar countries? How big is the deficit compared with previous deficits? If these cuts are not ideological, are they going to reinstate the funding when the economy recovers?

I don’t buy it. I’ve had enough. And I’m going to do what I can to fight back. It won’t be much, but I’m going to do what I can. And I’m going to start with the TUC march on March 26th.

I didn’t become a musician  only to perform to and teach the wealthy.