Baby bunnies on his underwear

Don't forget to put your clocks back, everyone!

Above: Excerpt from a Garageband file I'm using to help me write a song for Urban Tapestry (Allison, Jodi and me) and Summer and Fall (Eva and Crystal from Germany) to perform at GAfilk in January.

This is the first time I've written a multi-part song this way, making up each vocal part by singing it onto a recording, writing the lyrics/chords as I go in a separate text file. I usually write the music out on manuscript paper and then record it to see if all the parts sound okay together. The advantage of the recording method is that it's more spontaneous...it's much easier to experiment with twiddling different vocal parts and then hearing how they sound against the others right away. This way, I can also send files to the singers with ONLY their vocal parts as well as the song as a whole, to make it easier for them to learn.


The disadvantage is that I don't have a written score; that's something I would have to do manually. This is only something I'd have to worry about, though, if the singers need the written score or when I start working on the next Urban Tapestry songbook.

Anyway, I completed about half of the song when I got very discouraged about how it was going. I very nearly decided to scrap the whole thing, but decided to send it to Allison and Jodi to see what they thought. Both of them were HUGELY encouraging and excited about learning the song, and suddenly I was re-motivated as well. Incidents like this make me especially grateful for my music partners.



While I was waiting for their feedback, however, I decided to give a shot at writing another song. I ended up writing the entire thing in a couple hours. It was one of those songs that kind of pours out of you all at once; I love when that happens. It's also a song I needed to write after some of the negativestuff that's been happening in the LJ filk community recently. Looks like we might put it in our GAfilk concert.

Speaking of GAfilk, I went around at last weekend's convention with the Kathleen Sloan cookbook I mentioned in a previous Blathering. Kathleen signed it and several filkers added illustrations and cartoons, including Beckett Gladney, Seanan McGuire, Adam English, Taunya Gren (?I think she added pics? though I might be wrong), Gary Ehrlich, and Michelle Dockrey. If you added a cartoon and I didn't list your name, please let me know! Yes, even a feeble cartoon. :-) I've also been adding cartoons, and will be adding more.


Filkers added horrible puns (esp. Mary Crowell! She has such a wonderfully twisted sense of humour), pseudo recipe reviews, "corrections," helpful pointers etc. Filkers who have signed so far include: Amy McNally, Alisa Garcia, Tom Smith, Paul Kwinn, Adam English, Rand Bellavia, Erin Nappe, Luis Garcia, Becca Leathers, Cat Faber, John Caspell, Graham Leathers, Jan di Masi, Jane Garthson, Sue Posteraro, Tom Jeffers, Gary Ehrlich, Sheryl Ehrlich, Deanna R., Brooke Lunderville, Michael Blair, Mary Crowell, Mary Bertke, Sue, and a number of other filkers whose signatures I couldn't decipher. :-) If you did sign the book and don't see your name above, please let me know!

I will bring the cookbook to GAfilk for more people to sign, and will donate it to the Interfilk auction at the convention. Meanwhile, I'll be posting choice excerpts from people's contributions from OVFF between now and GAfilk.



Just over two months until GAfilk, woohoo! VERY much looking forward to this convention. Speaking of Georgia ... Jeff and I went to a lovely dinner party last night, hosted by our friends Alison and Jeff, where Alison let us sample some Green Boiled Peanuts she had picked up at some peanut festival in Georgia recently. I seemed to be one of the only ones who liked them, though I admit I wasn't as crazy about them after they cooled down, plus the slimy exterior (from being boiled in brine, I think) is definitely a turn-off.

But back to OVFF. Especially Paul Kwinn.

Paul is the main reason that all three Urban Tapestry members finally made it to OVFF this year; he was Toastmaster at this year's convention. We've been close pals with Paul and Beckett for many years, and Allison & Paul are especially good friends. Paul is a member of Puzzlebox, and he was disappointed to find that his group members wouldn't be able to attend OVFF.

Or so he thought.

It turns out that things worked out so that they COULD attend, but they decided to surprise him. Check out the look on Paul's face when he walked into a restaurant on Friday afternoon for lunch near the convention hotel and saw Alisa, Luis, and Taunya waiting for him:



Heh.



A few days before the convention, a burst of inspiration hit me and I wrote a very silly song about Paul in about an hour. Feeling a wee bit guilty (I knew both Jodi & Allison were busy), I sent the lyrics/chords and soundfile to my music partners and grovelled. Especially to Allison, since she had to learn a new guitar part in addition to the melody. :-)

And yay! They both learned the song...we practiced it for the first time at the hotel before going up on stage at the one-shot and performing it. We sang it again at the Sunday Night filk because Beckett hadn't heard it yet, and this time a lot of people sang along on the chorus, and those sitting around Paul were waving baby bunny signs. I was very happy.

Anyway, here it is:

PAUL STANLEY KWINN
By Debbie Ridpath Ohi
Oct/2006

CHORUS (singalong):
Dm     C     Dm       C
Paul, Paul, Stanley Kwinn
Dm            C             Dm            C
He's a technonerdboy and we love his evil grin
Dm     C    Dm      C
Paul, Paul, Stanley Kwinn
A             Dm
He has a hairy chin! (HEY!)


Dm   C         Dm   C
When Paul was two
Dm         C     Dm
He had a dog named Schmoo
C
(Jodi & Debbie: He fed it Jelly Bellies)
Dm    C        Dm    C
When Paul was three
Dm          C   Dm
He had a sock named Squee
C
(Jodi & Debbie) It was kinda smelly

Allison:
G                   F
He knew that he was different but he
Dm            C Dm C
didn't care!
(Everyone, waving bunny signs:)
G            F               Dm        C Dm C
He had baby bunnies on his underwear!



CHORUS

When Paul was four
he chewed on his front door
(and he got half-way through)
When Paul was five
he was still alive
(not like his dog Schmoo)
He knew that he was different but he
didn't care!
He had baby bunnies on his underwear!

CHORUS

Now Paul's all grown
With wife and kids and home
(of which he is so proud)
In Puzzlebox
No longer names his socks
(at least not out loud)
He knows that he is different but he
doesn't care!
Still has baby bunnies on his underwear!

CHORUS x 2

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