New A Cappella, or the Michael Humphrey Manifesto

Those that knew me in the UK know that one of the things I loved was a cappella singing. After mucking around in college with a barbershop group (the comically camp Fitz Barbershop) I missed it enough when I moved to London to join another. After a chance meeting with a couple of ex-"Out of the Blue" and "In the Pink" chaps, we set up "In the Smoke" as a help group for graduated and recovering aca-holics.

Three years on, I'm now unfortunately no longer in London, and no longer a member. However, album three has just dropped into my inbox ("No Smoke without Fire", probably available by emailing these nice people: inthesmoke@gmail.com) and I'm driven by nostalgia and jealousy to try and define why I'm so excited!

One of the greatest things about ITS is that it is driven by both a huge passion for close harmony singing and a desire to push the boundaries. Not change or newness for the sake of it, but not conforming to traditional expectations for the sake of it either - doing things that make the music better. To this end, they (we) have to thank the talents of all the various arrangers in the group - people who take a song they enjoyed, find something new in it, bring it out in an arrangement for six/seven/eight parts, and make the music come alive again.

Undeniably (and I hope the rest of the arrangers will forgive me for this) the hero is Michael Humphrey. He couples outstanding musicianship with occasional slapstick, scholarly understanding of what he is doing with off the wall experimentation, and deep thought with childish wonder. I've lifted the quote below from an email of his about a particular arrangement (Don't Stop Believing by Journey, and recently popularised by the TV show Glee) but it gets across what he believes in.

"Yes, it's nothing more than a derivative but catchy piano riff with a sing-a-long chorus at the end, made by a 70s stadium rock but mostly studio-based band (modern equivalent is Coldplay without the endearing home-county-ness and popular politics).  The kind of thing fat white Americans crushed half-empty beercans to and clapped their hands on the beat to, repackaged and sold to their kids a generation later.  Obviously the kind of thing any self-respecting US college a cappella group must have in their repertoire.

Just search on youtube, and you'll find so many pedestrian versions that seem to please the crowd.  Most of them insist on having some walking nothing come to the front and attempt to vocalise the guitar solo.  [...]

As of tomorrow night, we make this an In The Smoke song, not a Glee song (it's long since ceased to be a Journey song).  And I think we should nail our colours to the foreheads of the front row by building in some heavily sarcastic choreo, all the while bossing the singing.  Come with ideas and opinions.  (and a glucking pencil)

A small part of me really cares about this.  A different small part of me that wants to be this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIoSTbPt_PI&feature=related

What bollocks :)
Michael

PS - I do think it'll be good though"

It's not just about style, although the reaction against over polished, over produced, cliche ridden (mainly American) collegiate a cappella is real. It's about making a studio album represent the live performance, communicating the same passion/emotion that the front (and back) row experiences at a gig through vocal painting as well as facial expression. It's about realising that the most critical audience member is yourself, and you're singing - if you don't believe in and love what you are doing, what is the point?


P.S. If any Smokies actually read this - I apologise!

RN7: How to ignore your own advice

The sailing season has finally started, and with a bang! Autumn Regatta this weekend, and after being depressed for most of the week about the forcast 0 to 2 knot westerly, I was pleasantly surprised by a variable 0 to 8 knot breeze on Saturday, which increased to around 10-15knots for a two race blast on Sunday.

Westerly winds are pretty rare in the harbour, and most of the accepted ideas about what to do go out of the window. Coupled with this, we were racing on the plateau of an odd diurnal tide pattern that meant the tide was fairly slack for most of the day - so it often became about finding a band of pressure and staying in it.

TIde Patterns, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong Harbour - www.hko.gov.hk

We didn't have a spectacular event, but there were a few moments of note. Firstly, most of the mark roundings were to starboard, meaning that you could barrel in shouting for your rights, but it was more often an exercise in risk management. Especially in the light winds of Saturday, starboard didn't mean much if the guys on port couldn't get out of the way! I had to make this call at one point - starboard to four Etchells who had just rounded and were going nowhere, or carry on? I carried on and had to turn back downind to the upwind mark - I should have seen the problem earlier and not put myself in that position.

Sunday's heavier winds were fantastic fun. Especially the second race, where we were planing consistently downwind - a fairly unusual occurance in Hong Kong, and something I haven't had a great deal of experience with. Fleet management was much more an issue when planing, as you had to think much further ahead than usual and at greater speeds to prevent yourself being stuffed to windward and broaching and/or forced to leeward and falling off the plane by the boats in front. Both were slow!

Annika looking casual downwind. I'm at the back, screaming. (c) Guy Nowell/RHKYC

Still, we had excellent speed downwind, but there is still work to be done upwind. We weren't helped by being at least 80kg underweight, but I was the main culprit - completely ignoring what I wrote about last week (RN6) and also experienced at the similarly heavy wind 2010 Spring Regatta. Also known as - take the inside of the bend! I went right up the beat and forgot about the wind bend you get around North Point. As I was constantly being lifted, it felt great, but everbody inside me sailed a much shorter course and disappeared. All our downwind theatrics were a little wasted...

A great weekend though, and a couple of good photos, including a brief appearance on the front page of the SCMP. Yes, that's my mast on the extreme left.

Front page of the SCMP 20th September 2010.

Tack Tracker link is here - we're the one without a name (pink I think). Not all the Sportsboats fleet seem to have handed in their tracker.

Results (don't look...)

RN6: Harbour Rustiness

My first post for almost a month - mainly due to a holiday in New Zealand, but also a general lack of sailing! However, the Hong Kong "season" has now started in earnest, with class racing back in the calendar and hopefully the stronger and more consistent monsoon winds to come in the autumn.

As there was no Magic racing, I was coerced aboard an Etchells for racing in the Harbour. Now, I haven't raced in the harbour for six months, and even then I never really knew how to read its confused tidal/wind patterns. Hence, a race at the front of an Etchell was always going to be a challenge.

Wind direction and guesses about tidal flow

The prevailing wind in the habour comes from the east, and is channelled through the Lei Yu Mun Gap and onto the regular racecourse alongside the old Kai Tak airport.This means that W/L races are generally a beat against or with the tidal flow, with all the classic decisions this creates! Left or right on the beat? Tidal flow over wind strength? Are the eddies in the bay worth chasing? Are there permenant lifts/headers around the headlands?

This weekend was an incoming tide, and a nice 5 to 8 knots of breeze with the tide. The regular understanding is that the left (the Kai Tak side) doesn't pay against the tide as you usually you also get the wrong side of beneficial wind shifts and stay in the tide for longer. However, we took a choice to go left as it looked like there was more windstrength, and we managed to get off the pin end of the line in good shape! This worked very well for the first beat, rounding third, and gaining a place down the run.

The second beat unfortunately was very different - we went left again, and most of the fleet went with us. And we all got stuck in a hole at the top, while the back markers (who'd gone right) sailed past us. From second to sixth in one easy step!

We gained a few downwind again, but lost them again as we miss-read the course, set off to the right side for a no-existent third beat, and then hurried back accross the tide again to the finish line. Sixth overall - one way to brush off the rustiness.

Sunday was spent back on Strewth, but it was nothing to write home about - a race officer set a 25nm in a dying breeze, so we got most of the way round and then abandonned after about an hour sitting desperately trying to get a kite to fill.  Next weekend is back on my Magic - hoping for a good fleet and a breeze.