This journal is intended to record, discuss and archive a collection of personal projects that were done by myself. It will contain photographs and scans of paintings, books, documents, research work, and several others that were done by me. These can be found by links that go directly to the "DAPHA Projects" Facebook group. I hope that you find the content in the group enjoyable.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 07 August 2023)
CREATION OF PROGRAMME.
ST. GEORGE'S COLLEGE
[T3, W:12 – D:52, (Td:0)*].
This morning I came in the maxi alone to Valsayn. I met up with Mr Marlon on the way walking in while we spoke. I spoke with Mrs Santana and Mrs Rogers-Small when they came to sign in the office. I had breakfast in the kitchen. I took some time working in the ‘specialist room’ where I spent forty-five minutes reading from a Form 3 mathematics textbook.
Around the seventh and eighth periods that evening, Mrs Santana sat with me and we finished the programme. She suggested that I put the words to the songs on the programme if I needed things to take up blank parts of the paper. Some of the images that she got from students were sent to me. I also found some on Facebook that she got via WhatsApp from me.
The rest of it was finished on a ride to Curepe. We had a good laugh when Mrs Allen-Brown asked her question in the office. Very late in the night, the programme was finished. It was sent off to Mrs Santana by email for review.
Mrs Santana met me in the specialist room and she said that everything was getting ready for the function. She had the office staff print out a copy of the programme that I made last night for the first preview before running all the rest through the printer. I took a look at the copy with her and it was beautiful. She had the rest printed off and left to go see about something. I folded the programmes and headed off to the library.
My bookstand was taken from home to school for the event. I had it set up in the office before taking it over to the library. A tenor pan was taken from the music room. Thankfully it was opened for me to enter. No one was there anymore. I gave Mrs Santana the programs on her way to the library. ‘GG’ and I went to the art room to get the T-shirts. Miss Gittens was having her nails done. A small issue with the arrangement of the room was fixed quickly. The performers came and students participating came too and the function began exactly at 1:30 pm.
The function began with the National Anthem that I played. The student to do that couldn’t so I filled in for them. ‘Mel’ played “My Tribute” on his violin. Some of the other performances and items were quick. I was not nervous about the performance. I gave Miss Gittens the ‘clapping pen’ that we used in evening rehearsals to keep the pulse. Everyone began correctly and the audience enjoyed the dancing.
Sometime after the function, I got the function cake from the kitchen fridge and then shared it with the performers first. Miss Gittens got her piece first. Miss Harris took half of Mrs Santana’s slice and Donna got the second half. They ended up wanting more and that dish was finished. From the office dish, who was there got. The teachers who wanted more got more and the last was given to Joshua.
I washed up Mommy’s baking dishes in the kitchen when Mrs Santana came to eat her lunch. We had a good laugh talking about today and some things that happened.
This week’s challenge
presented the twelve remaining designers with an unsuspected team challenge
(six groups of two designers). The task for this challenge was to create a
royal gown. I knew that a challenge like this could present a lot of designs
that could become a costume or a nightmare quickly. It was good that Christian
himself could confirm this thought of mine at the same moment because it did
occur in the workroom.
The designers were given
small sandwiches on a tower-like tray from Christian. The other designer with
the matching sandwich would be their team partner. Each team was given thirty
minutes to converse and pan their ideas out on paper before a trip to Mood with
only one thousand dollars per team. It was a smart idea by Korto to use her fabric
from home. It was not easy for many of them with the choice of fabric versus
the cost.
During the working period,
somehow, I got a feeling of remembrance to Geoffrey and Sebastian when I saw
Rami and heard him speak. Not sure if he will be the winner of the season. He
is one that I hope win the competition alongside three others. It was very
impressive when Rami shared his work for actual royalty during the episode’s
interview. I liked the music that they played during presentations for his and
Rami’s garment.
Not sure if anyone else felt
the same but somehow the second day into the runway day felt a bit off. It was
as if they all walked out of the room with their things waited two seconds and
then came walking back right in. There was other special music towards the
second half of the show that I loved too. I will miss Victor from the show.
MY DESIGN
I did not have a human
partner to work with but allowed the Holy Spirit to guide me to some ideas here
and there. I decided to do something short and has less cloth and still looked
appropriate. Red was not a colour that I wanted to dominate the entire design.
I took Victor’s opinion of purple and lavender to be one of the main colours
and some red below the overskirt.
Instead of too much red, I
mixed a teal in the straps above the belly and around the neck piece, as well
as the hand gloves. I thought that the crown would have caused it to look more
costumy but I was happy with this design. Not sure if another design might be
done to replace this first attempt.
No matter the turnout towards my results it was still a
beautiful runway presentation. I will miss Victor too. There was a short sneak
peek at next week’s challenge. I hope they would be able to tell us the cost of
the large roll of cloth.
SELECTIONS BY CATEGORIES
Designers
with HIGH scores tonight wereKara
Saun & Laurence, and Prajje & Korto. Kara Saun & Laurance’s
design was given a dislike. Prajje and Korto’s design was given a heart and
chosen as the Challenge Selection. The Personal Selection in the high category
was taken from the saved category. The winners were Hester and Fabio.
Designers
with SAVED scores were Hester & Fabio, and Rami
& Bishme. Both teams of two received
hearts. The Challenge Selection winners for me were Hester & Fabio. I gave
the Personal Selection to Rami & Bishmi.
Designers
placed in the LOW scoring category were Brittany & Anna, and Kayne & Victor. I gave my Challenge Selection to Kayne & Victor. The
Personal Selection in the high category was taken from the saved category. The
winners were Rami and Bishme.
Actual Date of
Online Entry: (Wednesday 09 August 2023)
** Toys
Reality **
THE
EPISODE
Tonight,
was the avant-garde challenge. I was completely surprised when I heard that
this challenge would be so early in the season. The designers were taken to a
store called F-A-O Schwarz where they were given the challenge and given
fourth-five minutes to shop for toys. Surprisingly, this was the Avant-Garde
challenge. I didn’t even expect to see this particular style of challenge so
early in the season.
As
soon as the designers were allowed to run crazily into the store for materials,
I saw that Laurance made a risky move that some people do, which was to gather
everything they could and then think of something afterwards based on what they
got. There were a lot of things that I also liked about what was shown on the
show. During the working period, there were some friendly working like the play
quarrel between Bishme and Brittany at the sewing area and the wonderful
apology from Victor given to Korto.
Another
favourite part of the episode for me was the wine bar segment before the runway
presentation the next morning. We got to see Anna’s husband and their baby son
from a video call she got outside. I was looking at Anna, Laurance and Mila’s
designs carefully this week as three designs that were in my insecurities for
me this week. They seemed like possible designs for elimination. Probably
‘Kayne’ too since Christian had to hurry him out of the sewing area.
The
presentations were amazing including Kayne’s reveal to crown it all. I suppose
the final hush was worth it all in the end? Lolz. The Guest Judge was Ms Stacy
Bendet. She was a new person to me again. I did not know her from anywhere
before. Mila’s piece at the end of the runway instantly reminded me of
Brittany’s Christmas Avant-Garde challenge from the eighteenth season of
Project Runway. This garment made me feel insecure for Mila because it was a
nightmare for Brittany when she added cherries that were falling apart.
MY
DESIGN
I
was wondering for a long while what could do for a good design. I took a sketch
board form to St. George’s (temporarily hosted at Valsayn) and got something.
Before sketching, I made a list of items for everything that the designers used
on my data information form. I had that list as multiple options that I was
only allowed to use for the sketch. This was my measure of security because I
didn’t have an opportunity to visit the store and was not which kind of toys
they sold, and also, I was not sure if they sold items other than toys.
My
design for this challenge would take on a costume view. I was thinking of
something appropriate at Carnival. I used kites in the back of the shoulders to
mimic the wings of an angel and the flags were wrapped around the girl’s arm.
The top was a kink fabric that was covered with hand fans. The skirt was a red
fabric and the upper layer took the pattern of a piano/keyboard.
I
took the idea of puzzle pieces from someone’s garment in the show and
transformed it into a necklace. If this design was to be made in real, the
string would be doubled and its length would reach the level of the bellybutton.
I did not do it on the sketch board to avoid spoiling the drawing. I tried to
use at least two items that the designers may not have used, including the
umbrella and badminton puck as a hat. Playing cards would be a shoulder scarf.
SELECTIONS
BY CATEGORIES
Designers
earning HIGH scores for this challenge were Victor, Prajje, Brittany,
and Kayne. Hearts were awarded to Victor, Prajje, and Kayne. Tick was given
to Brittany. Challenge Selection was a tie between Prajje and Kayne. The
Personal Selection was awarded to Victor.
Designers
in the SAVED category were Fabio, Hester, Anna, Korto, Bishme, and
Kara. Kara’s design got a dislike. Ticks/likes were given to Fabio, Anna,
and Korto. Hearts were awarded to Hester and Bishme. Challenge Selection was
given to Bishme. There was a tie for the Personal Selection between Hester and
Bishme.
Designers
in the LOW scoring category were Laurence, Rami and Mila.
Dislikes were given to Laurence and Mila. Only Rami was given a heart. The
Challenge Selection and Personal Selection were both given to Rami.
Actual Date of
Online Entry: (Tuesday 08 August 2023)
** Mermaid
to Human **
THE
EPISODE
Tonight,
was the second episode for Season twenty of Project Runway. The true work for
the first challenge began tonight. The designers were asked to make the design
that got them eliminated to look better. For this challenge, I decided that I
would go through the scrapbook of my previous designs for seasons eighteen and
nineteen and select a design that I found needed more improvement.
During
the designer’s working period, we learned about the passing of Bishme’s sister
and his quest to design his garment in honour of her. I found it a beautiful
move and it was wonderful to see that his score was one of the highest for the
night. He had a funny cheer-up request from Christian about akiss I’m not sure if that would go on in
secret.
Later
in the working period, Christian told the designers about the ten thousand
dollar prize for the winner of this first challenge. He also mentioned that his
only Siriano save was still in play for the season. I wondered if he would keep
it for Brittany again. As the model fitting began before the runway
presentations began Victor was given a shock that his model couldn’t make it.
The
name of the Guest Judge is Alicia Silverstone. I remembered her from a Scooby
Doo movie. She was the new reporter on the show. I was amazed at Brittany’s
final presentation for her recreation and Victor’s design. Many of the
designers did well on their upgrades. I still loved Hester’s and Rami’s
previous designs more. Prajje’s design was much better, and I hope he has a
better chance of getting far in the show this time.
I
found that the working period went by very quickly including the entire
episode. In addition, the cost for many of the fabrics purchased by the
designers was more expensive. Some designers were able to find fabric that they
used in their season and gave a light reaction/comment on the difference.
MY
DESIGN
The
design that I selected was my avant-garde design from season eighteen. I
thought that it was something that I could try to make better. The inspiration
for the first design in season eighteen was Ariel the Little Mermaid but as
Queen under the ocean. This time around I chose the mermaid to be human. I
remembered in one of the movies Ariel had the power to change from being a
mermaid to a human and back whenever she wanted.
There
was an insecure feeling after the drawing. Something about the eyes made me
wonder if I had spoiled the drawing. There was a nice type of fabric that I
knew Kristina from season nineteen and some from Nancy in her finale
presentations that I would have liked to use as the skirt.
I kept the same hair
styling and pattern from the top but this time I continued it to the end of the
top and added an arm wrap on both sides. Not sure what the name of the arm wrap
would be called in the World of Fashion. While thinking of ‘Kayne’ I decided to
try the grey colour. I liked the shade a lot.
SELECTIONS
BY CATEGORIES
Designers
with HIGH scores tonight were ‘Kayne’, Fabio, and Bishme. TICKS
were given to Fabio and Bishme. A HEART was given to ‘Kayne’. His
design was chosen for both personal selection and challenge selection.
Designers
with SAVED scores were Anna, Prajje, Laurance, Rami, Korto, Mila,
Hester and Brittany. The only designer getting a DISLIKE was Anna.
Two designers were being awarded TICKS which were Prajje and Mila. The
remaining five designers being awarded HEARTS were Laurance, Rami,
Korto, Hester and Brittany. It was a difficult job to make selections for
this category.
Designers
with LOW scores were Nora, Victor, and Kora. DISLIKES were
given to Both Nora and Kara. A HEART was awarded to Victor alone. His
design was automatically chosen for the Personal Selection and the Challenge
Selection.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 4th February 2023)
Dear Diary,
The following section below is an account of my attempts to create a steelpan version of the St. Mary’s College Song.
ACQUAINTANCE TO MELODY.
** Saturday 4th February 2023 **
This morning I woke up and as I began to scroll through Facebook, I saw an image of a brown and ancient sheet of paper with music notation on it. It immediately caught my attention and I slowly realised that it was the music for a school’s song (St. Mary’s College).
It was nice to see that a school had musical notation to their school song. I began to sign sing the melody using ‘fixed Doh’. I thought that maybe God had sent it to me to find a sixth school to work on a steelpan arrangement for their song. (The previous School songs worked on were Hillview College, Vessigny Sec., St. George’s College, and Tunapuna Sec.)
Luckily, in the comments section of the Facebook post, someone left a link to the same song and students were singing it. That night, I began laying out the document and formatting it on the Musescore Programme for working the next day after steelband practice in the church.
After returning from church practice this morning, I began working on re-transcribing the melody found on Facebook. I had an image of the score saved to work on while staying at Home #1 for a while. A majority of the song was completed at home in Tunapuna. I had to do my personal research via the internet because I did not know the song personally as a student should.
The search for information consisted of sourcing the name of the composer of the lyrics, melody composer, and name of the song and finding a good image of the school’s logo.
The lyrics were composed by Father Tom Kennedy in 1933. An existing melody entitled “Le Reve Passe” by Charles H. Helmer and G. Krierwas recycled for the melody of this school’s song. I was able to find the school’s logo online. Some minor adjustments were done to it before inserting it into the Musescore file.
Sadly, when I looked at the notation I found, “The College Song” was written to the top; meaning that it could have been left as a name for the college song. When I saw 1933 as the year for the lyrics composition, I thought it might be impossible for the same person to find us a name for the song. I thought that maybe the person might have died by now.
On this day at 7:10 the night, I had an email sent out to different parts of the school. Was not sure from whom I could source more information on the college song. Having difficulty with determining the chords for the melody, I wondered if there was an existing piano version of the song like with Tunapuna that I could take and determine myself.
I was also wondering if the score contained the full song since there are indications of a ‘verse’ and a ‘chorus’. I was also wondering if there was a name for the song apart from “The College Song” or if in the student’s Handbook, they had “St. Mary’s College Song”. A name was needed from me and would be needed at the end of the arrangement’s work. I hope that someone would be able to answer the email at some time.
CHORDS FINALISED.
** Sunday 12th February 2023 **
For the entire week of having the melody written out, it was a very hard one to work with. There were not many chords to work within the key of G major.
I did not continue work on chords until the key was transposed to B Flat Major. I wanted to make sure that the tenor pan was able to ‘sing’ the melody comfortably and carried easily sticking for the steelpannist.
Somehow today as I shifted it to B Flat Major it became easier to listen to the melody and work with it better. For my re-transcription of this melody, I did not write it in the six-eight meter shown in the brown image (in the first section above).
I decided that it would be better for the notation to be done in a two-four meter. It was then changed to the four-four meter where I got more understanding of the chord placements done previously. Listening and inserting the final chords was even easier, thank God.
At this current time, I am not sure if I will continue with the four-four meter or re-set back to two-four meter. Even though I may be satisfied with what I had done, I feel the need for the opinions of more musicians before proceeding just in case.
On the mentioned date above was the completion of the St. Mary’s College Song steelpan arrangement. The dates for other progress were not recorded. Usually, on a steelpan arrangement, I would begin working from the introduction but listening to the song that the melody was taken, I realised that more time and hard creative work was needed to do that.
Surprisingly, I worked on the entire arrangement in a retrograde motion. I began working with the part label “Chorus” (Bar 22) from the melody’s score provided on the St. Mary’s College Facebook page. That portion was the easiest for me to complete. There was also a bridge completing the “Verse” mentioned in the same melody score.
This was another great challenge being able to fuse the “Verse” into the “Chorus” (Bars 17 to 22). I was glad that both ‘sections’ had comfortably fused over the multiple trials I did during working hours at St. George’s and evenings at home.
The next challenge was finding something for the section labelled ‘Verse” from the melody score (Bars 7 to 33). I tried to have the strumming pattern very similar so that students learning it would have less work to do. Bar 9 in the Tenor section was an attempt at decoration from the brass recording of “Le Reve Passe” found on YouTube.
Seeing that the feeling from the song was like men marching like scouts I tried to create the strumming pattern in that same manner. Thankfully, that helped me out a lot. However, getting closer to where the end of the “Verse” and “chorus” had fused well, I also had to fuse the beginning part going to the fashion already done so that they don’t clash.
This created a compromise for me and the only way I could have solved the issue was to use rhythmic patterns from the ‘fushion point’ at beats three and four in each measure/bar before so that the audience would have been accustomed to that particular feeling. And, when the ‘fusion point’ into the “Chorus” should take place, it would be smooth thereafter.
For the introduction, a very close study of the original composition was done. I decided that it would be best for extracts of a “Le Reve Passe” arrangement by George Pollen to be used. My concern was the repeat used but maybe if the school decides to use my arrangement, I thought that maybe the gentlemen might appreciate it in some way.
In addition, to the song, a title had to be given apart from "The College Song". As with the situation with Tunapuna Secondary and St. George's, I had to make the move on giving the song itself a name. After reviewing the lyrics of the song as I did with St. George's, I had chosen the words "Fearless & Strong" to be the title of their College Song.
Link(s):
“Le Reve Passe” – Brass.
“Le Reve Passe” – Arrangement by George Pollen.
CREATION OF SONG BOOKLETS.
** Wednesday 29 March 2023 **
**Books image
After a nice ride up to Curepe from Miss Santana, I met dad and we went to visit Isa. It was a very long two-hour stay to get everything printed. He said that a printer wasn’t working today and only the slow one was in use. I had some time to enter marks in my mark sheets for the end of the term. I took the time to individually place all the sheets together.
There were 6 books made for St. Mary’s College as I have done with the other schools. One copy will be one for me. Since the school is connected to a church I decided that the church should be gifted with one. The other copies would go to the Library, Music Room (if any), Office of the Principal, and the Office of the Vice Principal.
On Friday 31 March 2023, I found the number for St. Mary’s College and was able to speak with the Acting Principal. I hope that there would be a suitable time for a scheduled appointment to visit them.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 22nd January 2023)
St. George’s College (WEEK 15) – Day #64 [3/11]
Dear Diary,
This afternoon I was called by
Miss Chote in her office. She showed me a form that was used by another school for
teachers to give students permission to leave the classroom during teaching time.
Its image was a slip that I knew if I tried really hard, I could get four slips
to fit on a legal-sized page.
I got home a bit late in the
night. It did not take me long (about ten minutes) to create this type of form.
My only challenge was finding a font that was small enough to use less space on
the paper but also one that look neat and easy for the eyes to look at.
During our shout three-minute consultation
over WhatsApp, there were only two easy amendments to do before it was sent to Dr
Sookdeo for approval. It made the form become the third version. This form
was now made a DAPHA Project and also a 'Universal Challenge'.
Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 10th December 2022)
Dear Diary,
Today was the students’ final day for their class parties and report sheets. I personally found it was better for report books to avoid the printing and last-minute everything that usually occurs. It did happen that way too and the office was crowded with teachers waiting for reports to be printed on legal-sized sheets. I could recall there was one of the students that did not get a music grade and Miss Roberts had to go and insert it.
I had on my red shirt and long black pants on that day. I did not dress up like some of the other students and teachers. My entire morning was spent in a classroom working on the teachers’ attendance sheets, and subject registers, and creating a new temporary mark sheet for plenty of coursework. Those mark sheets were literally labelled “plenty coursework” on the top.
The Teachers’ Attendance Sheet would enable the Vice Principal to take attendance for an entire month as opposed to a single week. The subject register was a complete remake of the outdated sheet they had. I heard some of the teachers comment on their dissatisfaction with the sheet. The plenty coursework mark sheet was made to accommodate marks for fifteen assignments. I had plans to make an excel version but it is still difficult to lay out the entire document on legal-sized paper.
From lunchtime to the end of school, I was in Form 1 Leacock with Miss Gittens’ form class. She had invited me to lunch with the class. I had to carry a chair from one of the classrooms to theirs. Lunch was lovely. They had a gift exchange and I remembered getting the Christmas card the students signed and gave to me. I stayed back, helped Mr Bains pack up his Christmas tree to carry home, and sent the remainder of the cake to security by the road.
I packed up my bag and went to wait for the bus shuttle. The pictures of the subject registers from Miss Gittens were too small to read and enter in my excel forms.
During the weekend of the date above, a temporary mark sheet was created to record marks in coursework done by the Form 1 students. I had the feeling that I would not be allowed to use a mark book so this was my substitute.
Actual Date of Online
Entry: (Saturday
10th December 2022)
FIRST DAY OF WORKING.
[St. George’s College
(WEEK 11) – Day #47]
** Thursday 1st December 2022.**
At
my entrance to the gate, it was nice to see one of the security that greeted me
but their supervisor wanted me to be rough. I just let her yell to finish it
out. I could now understand how the parent earlier this week felt when he
complained about the security yelling at him and it had to be her. The only
issue in her comments was that some of us were taking the bus and not
reporting. I felt THAT she decided to pick on me because I was the only OJT
that did not sign out that day on the bus.
It
was Day 5 in school today. I spent the whole morning and lunchtime in the art
room. I saw that Miss Gittens had gotten a piece of red fabric and she drew the
outline of a shield to her church’s logo on it. A lot of o time was spent on
making the white in the shield thick and full. Someone else and Miss worked on
the white and yellow for the flame.
Not
many of the students wanted to help. Before lunchtime ended, I took a white
colour pencil and draw out the words and was only able to colour the word
“army” in white paint. I saw that the students drawing below did not look at
the mathematical aspect. We had to leave out a gold line in the shield. The
vile with oil I saw also needed doing over because of the shape and the
mathematical positioning.
In
the evening, I had the in-class written exam with Form 1L. They were quiet during
the exam. I could not believe the children when they said they were not ready
after all of the preparation.
Today
I was in the art room working hard on the banner for Miss Gittens’ walk
tomorrow. I showed her the words that I did and as I got to the table to work
on it, I saw that someone had thickened up the word “army” that I did and
someone else tried the first layer of white on the word “the”. By the time
lunchtime was completed, all the words were covered in white. We had some
students working on their neatness of them.
They
had a talent show during lunchtime and it took some of the students a while to
get back to class. I stayed with them for some time to do the exam. I also took
up the papers twenty minutes earlier before school started. I could tell that
they did not study their work. I went back to the art room to work as much as I
could to get the oil to vie drawn over and base it in white. There were two
intersecting swords to the top right that were not even one. I felt like I might
have spoiled them.
DAY OF UNITY WALK.
** Friday 2nd December 2022.**
The
Saturday came and it was only me going down to Barataria to meet Miss Gittens.
Everyone else had cancelled last minute. Daddy got a car to carry me to meet
her. It took a very long time for the car to also get us. I had the opportunity
to read a sermon that she wrote and another essay. I knew that by the time I
worked on it the driver would come and so it occurred.
The
walk had already finished by the time we got to Independence Square. We spent
seven hours on our feet. The rain came down on us three times but did not stop
anything. I was given a reading and something else that a lady predicted. My
one out of many was a bit special. She opened up the entire gathering like God
had opened up the ocean for the Israelites to cross the sea and she said, “Come…
Slowly!” It was very scary for me. I met Daddy and Andrew in Curepe that night.
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