Dream Job

Today's (sic) topic is actually quite close to my heart, a very relevant issue.  With accepting the Lay-Vicarship here I will have to find some work, almost any work at the moment, in order to claw my way out of my overdraft and have any hope of affording rent.  I think it's a marvelous joke that society has orchestrated in making an education system that costs so much money that leads people to believe that they must subscribe to it in order to find a job so they can pay off the costs.  Just brilliant. 

But this is a theatre of dreams, after all.  I should not allow my writing to be tempered by the dull tinge of reality, with it's ponderous trappings and quashing of fantasies.  If I could have any job I wanted.  Absolutely anything.  A real sandbox.  You may not be surprised to know that what will follow won't be that fantastical, if somewhat impractical in this economic day and age.  Of course, I would love to get paid to write...but I currently have no idea how to go about that.  I need to get up on writing, perhaps even consider the local college for classes in creative writing, maybe a focus on journalistic technique?  I don't know.  Obviously I'd prefer to write an op-ed style column, championed by heroes of mine such as Giles Coren and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.  Mr. Coren in particular gains my particular respect, the eternally out-spoken restaurant critic, whose writing has often found me in gales of laughter.

Obviously I need to think about upscaling my writing if I'm ever going to get paid for it.  It's far from impossible as well, but it's an unfamiliar world to me really - writing a blog isn't exactly a rare sport these days by any means at all.  There are many very successful blogs, and just like webcomic-ing, there are those who make and sell merchandise for fans and subscribers the world over... I doubt that The Songman's Rest will be doing so anytime soon, except for perhaps a silk-screen printed tote bag (actually I might be on to something here...).  I am a skilled academic writer, if somewhat out of practice, so I could alos think about getting into the world of musical research - perhaps I will review my options this coming Christmas for the year after, or after that.  Who knows!  I might even reapply for higher education, and try to improve my own terrible view of my current degree, and hopefully acquire a more attractive hood while I'm at it.  

But what else?  Well, one of the very oldest dream jobs is being a professional singer.  A very long time ago, I had ambitions for the stage, to be an operatic Counter-Tenor, but alas, I have said goodbye to that dream.  I am far too aware of my failings in that quarter, and feel too inadequate to overcome them.  Not having years and years of vocal training, no experience in stage performance (or much way of getting it) or perhaps even the attitude or ego to push myself forward, I am ill-fated for such a calling.  However, I still aim for a high-paid position in a Cathedral Choir - York or Winchester maybe, definitely somewhere that provides accommodation in addition to the Stipend, something that sadly Truro does not do.  Putting a foot on the ladder down here though is no shame at all - Truro Cathedral has one of the highest regarded Cathedral Choirs in the country (and rightfully so), in fact, my lecturers' reactions at Graduation were incredible; one went as far to say that Truro was the best choir to sing in outside of London (having no experience of London choirs I couldn't possibly comment).

Even though I have become considerably... disenfranchised towards Cathedral music over the past year, I still cling to that dream.  I find myself in a quandry at the moment, knowing that there's no way I can fund myself on the Lay-Vicar salary alone, I'll have to branch out, and maybe through branching out I'll find something that (heaven forbid) I might enjoy more than singing!  I have been talking about a move outside of Cathedral circles for a while now, but mostly as a reaction to feeling rather inadequate and undervalued.  This isn't the first time I've felt this way either - I remember that lows that assaulted me while I was a Choral Scholar at Mancroft: I'm not saying that there is any agent within these institutions that are at fault, more that these times where I have felt particularly low and lonely have coincided with appointments as a Choral Scholar.  I haven't given up with either though, I'd rather die than quit (what would the Big Man say after all?).

For a final spin on the wheel of dreams, I call to remembrance a conversation I had with a taximeter cabriolet driver in the jewel of Norfolk... Or in English, a cab driver in Norwich.  He was a talkative chap, pleasantly loquacious as he ferried me from the Station to the Church of the Parish of St. Peter Mancroft in Norwich to meet The Chief for drinking and curry (as usual).  It was in the October midterm, when I had been offered the Lay-Vicarship (although I had been asked to keep quiet about it to anybody in Truro - I thought it would be rather difficult to trace a cabbie in Norwich so I felt no obligation to the secrecy I had been sworn to while in Cornish lands).  He wondered what I was going to do with myself to make up the rent and such, just like I was doing.  What he said was very interesting.  

"What doesn't Truro have?", he said.
'Pardon?'
"You've just said that compared to Norwich, Truro isn't very big..."
'No, that's true.'
"So what doesn't it have that might be missing?"
'...'
"What about record shops?"

 Something to that effect, anyway.  He was quite interested.  His advice was to open an Independent Record store in Truro. And you know what?  It's something I'd love to do.  I don't often buy records because well... Money!  I don't go into record shops to avoid the temptation of spending money that I don't really have, but to be a proprietor?  An entrepreneur?  Amazing.  Once again, I have no real idea how in the hell I'd go about it, which is well, usually the product of a lot of my basic uncertainties in life.  There'd have to be a lot of money in starting up a business, far more capital than I have or have any way of conceivably raising at this point... Also, where the hell is the market for independent records in Truro?  Or even in Cornwall itself/  Perhaps there's some great hipster market that I'm missing out on?  Something worth a look into if I have any intention of staying here for any length of time...

But like I said earlier, I'm kind of just looking for... any job.  If it can keep my bank balance up and the rent paid, it'll be worth it for now, I suppose.  Sorry to wake up with such a jolt.  It's always going to be a balance between what I choose and I want and what's possible, after all.

That's all.  For now.