today was GREAT! the canners today were absolutely amazing - the BMDP committee member who came to pick up the cans was astonished at their weight. we had cans stuffed so full that people couldn't slip any more money into them. amazing stuff, all you auntie-killers and sweet young things with large eyes!

*applauds wildly*

now for the weekend.

it is also amazing what people who are 'donating' to charity will do. one was a lady who put a 20 cent coin in and then turned and remarked loudly to her friend, "I can't find a 10 cent coin lah." and another lady who put a 10 cent coin in and said, "NAH! 10 cents!" oh, and one of the many guys who waved us aside was wearing a shirt that said 'charity is a virtue'.

strange, strange. at any rate, there were also the lovely people - the lady who gave us a pack of m&ms, the people who stopped and talked to us about the BMDP and how they could sign up at donors. and the ice-cream. :D

might I also take this chance to remind you all about our closing night?

A Vacant Affair, Auburn's Epiphany, Broken Orange Fence, West Grand Boulevard and ZHEN will be bringing Somethingood 2006 to a resounding close at Plaza Singapura on 25 June at 4pm. They're part of more than two hundred performers busking in aid of the Bone Marrow Donor Programme during the course of the two week festival this June.

The Bone Marrow Donor Programme is dedicated to maintaining a register of potential bone marrow donors and finding a match for patients with leukaemia and other blood-related diseases. Potential bone marrow donors have their finger pricked for a small blood sample, which is then sent for a tissue typing test which both complex and expensive - testing each new donor costs $150. Given that the odds of matching unrelated patients and donors are 1 in 20,000, the Bone Marrow Donor Programme needs your help to fund the testing of potential donors to build its register.

So come down to Plaza Singapura on the 25th of June at 4pm; watch our closing, enjoy great music and do Somethingood!

okay, break days are in reality (for me at least) not break days. well, actually, today would have been okay had tomorrow's performers not pulled out on me. spent most of it replanning the day and sorting it out with everyone involved tomorrow. quite tiring, yes. frustrating, that too.

somethingood's been going pretty well so far in terms of operations - we haven't had any major problems with running the stations, thanks in large part to the good weather and a little trolley we loaned from shaw. with a trolley, you can move anything. including our 1.8m by 1.2m signboard that looks like one of those things that squash cartoon characters flat.

sometimes people stand and watch for 10 minutes and when you shuffle hopefully up to them with a bright smile and "would you like..." on your lips, they disappear. BAMPF. with a donation can, my people eradication powers are to be FEARED!

argh, I was going to make a nice post talking about how the days have been so far, but this afternoon has been full of frustrating madness because a group supposed to perform tomorrow have just PULLED OUT. with less than 24 hours notice!!

so I give you photos.

OKAY.

TOMORROW BETTER BE GOOD.

AND IT BETTER NOT RAIN.

and I take my finger off the shift key.

just uploaded the schedules - they're subject to change until 5 June, after no more changes should be made without good reason.

*tired*

thought I'd drop in to describe the logistics for somethingood so that people can be clear on what we can/cannot provide.

basically the set-up for each station will consist of:

• chairs (up to 10)
• a table with donation boxes and material related to the BMDP
• stands with a poster and a chalkboard that the buskers can use to say who they are, when they're performing next
• a PA system

I think we made it sufficiently clear to most groups that we can only provide a PA system! (although strangely enough, people ask whether or not we're providing a drumset after this) we're very sorry about this, but the reason why we can't provide more is because it will cost us a lot of money bringing down guitar amps and drumsets on a daily basis and could even double the budget - and I don't think that's fair to the donating public at all.

that said, we have some fantastic bands (I mentioned them in a previous post) who want to do their bit, whom we would like to see play as well. so that's why we're doing the closing night, where we will get a decent set-up for a full band down.

regarding the PA system: each system will cost us approximately $100/day to rent. now, that's not so bad because it works out to about $12.50/hour. but this is only on the condition that the station is being used for the whole day!

the fact of the matter is that in certain cases where groups are only busking for one hour, the station only remains open for an hour. so that hour works out to a $100 hour! so if you've only signed up for one hour please consider extending your busking by one or two more hours. this makes things a lot more viable for us and it means you can help bring in more donations too. so please give it some thought and talk to your liaison officer about it. :)

also, a note regarding signing up for slots: please, please do not sign up for slots you cannot commit to! this is because you're going to be taking up the time that someone else is keen on and if you pull out (as some groups have done, unfortunately) our manpower department have to scramble to recontact other groups to see if they're still interested.

I will probably put the (tentative) schedules up sometime today/tomorrow - because of logistical issues we're doing some juggling so there may be some surprises.

I can't leave the last post sitting right at the top of our blog, especially given what happened today.

I'm dead tired and I seem to have lost the ability I acquired in JC to think past midnight, but in quick summary: I called Shaw House yesterday and sent them an email to follow up, this morning I woke up to them responding with 'no objections' and putting me in touch with someone about storage and utilities.

the person I spoke to was incredibly helpful too - was concerned about how much we'd have to move everyday and wanted to situate us best - it was fantastic!

so shaw house is good to go. I can't say how many problems are resolved by their provision of storage space. am so relieved.

I don't know whether or not I'm allowed to be annoyed, or if I should apply for a license to feel that way. you know, notify the appropriate authorities that I feel that something's gone wrong and people have been unpleasant.

after sending an email detailing what we're doing and the kind of help we need, I got this reply from a certain building's management:

Hi Claudia
Thanks for your interest in our building. Unfortunately we have bookings for a number of weekends in June.

well... perhaps I should have made things a little clearer. so I sent an email in response clarifying
that we wanted to use the area outside of the building as well as nearby utilities. they replied saying that this was LTA's concern - that's true, but they didn't give me an answer about utilities or storage. I sent this in response:

Hello!

As I mentioned in my first email, what about the powerpoints [description of location]? We would really appreciate it if we could use them as our buskers need the power for amplification.

Also, we have some items like chairs and stands which we would need to store in an area nearby - could [name of building] sponsor some amount of storage space for these items?

We would be very grateful for these as we are a charity project and are seeking to keep costs as low as possible - your help would be as good as a donation to the BMDP. Thank you for your consideration!

Regards,
Claudia

and perhaps I had asked for too much, because they told me:

Claudia,

We regret we are unable to assist you in this event.

oh. well. have a nice day, too.

I leave you to draw your own conclusion about how kind people are in certain parts of Orchard. fortunately, this is a small part of Orchard - everyone else has been really helpful so far, even going as far to discuss placement and so on with me.

yeah, I'm wondering if I should ask them for an explanation, or if that will annoy them enough to drive us away altogether.

and again a flurry of days have passed since I last updated. so where are we now?

well, the BMDP have just come off several huge recruitment drives and I've been sending official emails as 'Claudia Chang, Chairperson, Somethingood 2006' all over the place - unfortunately, I've come to the conclusion that a title least impresses where it most needs to impress. so really in the face of the world I am just toddling around asking for money. not the most charming of images. grins.

over the past couple of weeks, however, what's really begun to come together are our opening and closing events (the latter more than the former). and I'm really excited to tell you all that we will be closing the festival with 4 great bands - A Vacant Affair, Auburn's Epiphany, West Grand Boulevard and ZHEN. I'll post more details and a poster you can stick on your locker when we've confirmed the venue.

for the opening event, we're probably going to do a simple ceremony - Jane Prior, the chairperson of the BMDP will say a few words, so will our Guest of Honour, after that we'll have a group open the busking for us. we've not yet confirmed who this mysterious Group will be, but I assure you, Good Things are happening.

right! we're also approaching people who could probably help us out by donating funds to print t-shirts and rent PA systems, so I'm hoping that every cent our buskers raise on that hot, sweltering day itself goes to the BMDP. where it should go.

hmm... we've also got some publicity material on the way (shiny posters and things like that) but we've got to confirm sponsorship first, so we can thank them in a grand manner. ;) when that's happened, I'll be posting them here as well so you can stick them on your friend's locker.

regarding licensing: we've filed for the police licenses (the house-to-house and the public entertainment) but we have yet to file for the MDA license because we're still waiting on people to send their details in! so if you want to register, do it soon, ya? and how soon do I mean? HOW SOON IS NOW! grins. but yeah. do send it in as soooon as posssssssible.

I should add a note about logistics - basically the golden, silver and bronze rule is that if you need logistics outside of what we can provide (chairs, PA system) then you would have to justify that. it's going to cost us money to bring this stuff in so we can't take money out of the public's pocket without putting it back. yup. so I hope those concerned about what we can and can't provide will bear this in mind. for the opening and closing events, we're working with a musical equipment company (heh, I think you can guess which one) for sponsorship.

the image of a busker I have in my mind is really closely tied to the regular buskers I see everywhere, in jurong point, junction 8, the orchard underpasses, where have you. it isn't so much about getting heard than it is about just being heard, if you know what I mean. yeah, if you listen to the libertines (whom I have just turned on for the first time since last year) you should be playing france, not what became of the likely lads.