harp insurance

I've been investigating the possibilities of insuring my harp and realize that I don't really have specific insurance for my guitar or flute, either. I'm going to check our homeowner's insurance policy to see what's up with that.

But I've also discovered that there is an insurance company which specifically covers musical instruments, accessories and equipment, Clarion Associates. If you're a member of the Chamber Music America (annual dues US$40), you are entitled to a special discount. According to the members of the harp mailing list I'm on, their rates are lower than most companies re: insuring musical instruments.

From the CMA website: "For CMA members, the rate for World Wide, All Risk, no-deductible insurance is only $0.35 per $100 of value, and the coverage is the broadest available anywhere. Coverage is issued under one contract regardless of the amount insured. The minimum annual premium is $115*. A rate higher than the $0.35 per $100 of value may be charged for recording equipment, instruments that are exclusively electronic and for instruments considered a higher risk by the underwriter. Acceptance of insurance is at the discretion of the underwriters at Clarion Associates."

Do any of you have insurance with Clarion? Do any of you have your musical instruments specifically insured? I'm curious.

Jeff and I worked in the office all day yesterday; dinner was frozen tv dinners (Doug's stash in our office fridge...I'd better replace them before he notices!). We went out to see Chicken Run with Scott M. and Helen on Friday night...lots of fun. :-) My favourite character is the knitting chicken (can't recall her name).

Today's blatherphoto is from Sara's kindergarten graduation. If you're interested in seeing my "harp arrived today!" photos, please see my How My Harp Was Made page and scroll to the bottom.

harp playing

I've been trying to tune and play my harp a little bit each day. Tuning is a major chore on the harp right now, partly because the harp is so new and the strings aren't "broken in" yet, and also because I'm such a newbie at it. I used to think that tuning a 12-string guitar was time-consuming! My harp has 34 strings.

I went to Steve's Music Store yesterday and bought a pick-up to plug into my tuner (I also bought a new tuner since my old one was starting to get a bit flakey, even with a new battery). The pick-up has a suction cup, so I can attach it right to my soundboard...I can see how useful it will be for my guitar, too, allowing me to tune even in the midst of a noisy filk.

If a string is off, then I have to use a tuning key to adjust the pitch. The key is actually a sort of wrench which attaches to the tuning pins. Anyway, it took me AGES to do a full tuning the first time. I'm starting to get the hang of it now, but it still takes a while and I have to do it several times a practice session. Each time, I find that the strings "warm up" a bit faster and stay in tune for longer.

The basic theory behind playing the harp is pretty straightforward, especially if you have any experience playing the piano (two-handed coordination required), but the technique is more tricky. There's something called "placing" that I'm still struggling with...it's awfully tempting just to pluck the strings, but I've been told by several pianists-turned-harpists that it's well worth learning proper placing technique from the beginning, or you eventually hit a "wall" in your progress and have to unlearn all your bad habits. Looking forward to my lesson with Sharlene Wallace next week!

I've learned a very simple arrangement of "All Through The Night", working my way through Sylvia Woods' Folk Harp instruction book. I'm also tackling an arrangement of "The Water Is Wide" whose difficulty level is probably more difficult that I should be attempting right now. I don't care...I'll just work my way gradually through the piece, one measure at a time. Hopefully I'll know it by next March, when Urban Tapestry goes to Consonance. :-) Wow, do I ever like that song. When I die, I want "The Water Is Wide" played at my funeral. I'm one of those morbid types, by the way, who has already planned out her own funeral. I suppose it's because I've known too many close family and friends who have died unexpectedly and have realized that you should never take time for granted.

Anyway, it's the melody of "Water Is Wide" that I like the most, and I only got curious about the lyrics today. Here's one version of the lyrics I found on the Web. I like this better than another version I found, which was rather depressing and talking about love not being able to last, etc. My favourite verse is:

"The water is wide
I cannot cross over
And neither have I wings to fly
Build me a boat that will carry two
And both shall row
My love and I"

So here's a question for similarly morbid types like me: If you could choose a few songs to be played at -your- funeral, what would they be? :-)

flying woes

Congratulations to Andrea and Jim on their new jobs!!

Many thanks for the congrats on the harp. :-) Unfortunately I haven't had much of a chance to play it lately because of being out of town on a business trip. Anyone who thinks that frequent business flying is glamorous is sadly mistaken.

I am preparing this Blathering while on an airport shuttle bus home from the airport. I haven't had much luck with the airlines lately. Headed out for my trip on Wednesday for a 6:40 pm flight on US Airways. After checking in, I watched the flight schedule display with growing dismay as I watched my flight's departure time being increasingly delayed every hour. We boarded at around 9 pm only to be told after about 1/2 hour that our flight had been delayed for another hour and a half. The pilot apologized but said it was the government's fault; he went on a mini-tirade, actually, which was pretty interesting. (Confusing, but interesting)

We weren't allowed to wander the airport since we had already been processed for check-in, so were confined to a very dull waiting area whose snack bar offered rather dry-looking sandwiches, hot dogs, and an assortment of drinks. I planted myself near an electrical outlet, plugged in my laptop, and did some work. I'm going to try to find a way to find a way to connect to the Internet by hooking up my computer to my cellphone somehow...technnonerdboy/girl suggestions out there welcome!

We boarded (again) at about 11:30 pm. After 20 minutes, we were told that there was a mechanical failure, and that they trying to find a replacement part. Unfortunately if they couldn't find a part, the flight would have to be cancelled. Much groaning from the passengers. The pilot was sounding pretty frustrated himself by this time.

While we waited, the flight attendants served drinks in an attempt to calm the restless mob. One of the attendants, by the way, was gosh-darned cute in a craggy, "Das Boot" sort of way. He was also remarkably good-natured despite the initially disgruntled atmosphere, and this had a visible effect on the mood of the passengers (mine, anyway :-)). Anyway, we finally did take off (to the cheer of passengers), and I got to my hotel at around 3 am. Only got three hours sleep, however, and was pretty spacey the next day.

When I arrived at the airport yesterday for my flight home, I could barely keep my eyes open. I tried to take a nap on the chairs in the waiting lounge, but I was too paranoid about (1) missing my flight and (2) having someone walk off with all my stuff while I was in dreamland. Even in my half-conscious state, however, I heard an announcement over the PA system. I sat up groggily and turned to a woman sitting nearby.

"Did that announcement just say what I thought it said?" I asked.

She nodded grimly. "Looks like the flight's not leaving until 12:15 am."

Augh. There was no way I was going to last that long; I could feel my brains leaking out my ears from all the hours of waiting in airport lobbies, the delays, the lack of sleep, the rubber chicken sandwich I had had for dinner (don't ask!). Plus a very bad headache had developed behind one of my eyes (don't you hate those?) and was getting worse. I got my ticket changed to a morning flight the next day, went and crashed in a nearby Marriott.

And so here I am, in a shuttle bus going home from the airport via the most convoluted route imaginable. The regular Airport Express shuttle had gone out of service for an unexplained reason (of course), so they waylaid the driver of another shuttle to do combined routes. "No one tells me anything!" he rages, "I don't know what's going on!" I don't recognize the area we're in right now, but I'm sure we'll make it back home eventually.

During one of my waits in the airport, Jeff called me on my cellphone.

"Thought this would cheer you up. Hold on a sec..." He pauses, I hear some movement, and then I hear my harp being strummed!! My mood immediately improved; I didn't feel like strangling the Extremely Loud Woman a few seats away from me anymore. I felt like hugging Jeff to pieces, but that would have to wait.

Oops, bus driver just announced my stop's next, woohoo! Gotta go.

(6:17 pm, at home) Hey, I think William Shatner is in front of my building. He's being inducted into the Canada's Walk Of Fame at Roy Thompson Hall along with a bunch of others, including Martin Short and Maureen Forrester. I'm using my binocs to check in on the proceedings. Quite the media crowd...

harp arrived!

My harp arrived this morning!!!! (Today's Blatherphoto: a copy of the studio photo Larry Fisher had taken of my harp for his Web site. If you'd like to see a larger (53k) version, click here.

Jeff took some digital photos and I'll upload them soon. I got all teary-eyed as soon as I opened up the crate (I am such a sap), the harp is *absolutely gorgeous*. It's so cool to realize that this harp was just a block of wood only months ago. I've collected the pics that Larry Fisher (the harpmaker) has been sending to me, if anyone's interested. They're at: http://www.inkspot.com/blatherings/harp/debbieharp.html. I'll add a final picture of the harp in my apartment soon.

I tuned all the strings (as soon as I could figure out how to tune them) and played it for a while. My fingers felt all awkward and stumbly, but even my mistakes sounded not too bad...one of the advantages learning to play a harp has over learning to play the violin. :-)

I have a lesson with Sharlene Wallace next week. I want to make sure I have the right technique before playing too much...way too hard to "unlearn" bad habits later on.

I am very happy today.

sara graduation

First of all, belated Happy Birthday wishes to Phil Allcock, Taunya Shiffer, and Scott Snyder!

Congratulations to Lloyd Llanda and Karen Linsley for being named one of the five finalists in the Mars Society's Rouget de Lisle awards. They will be performing their song, "The Pioneers of Mars", on August 12th in Toronto at the Mars Society's annual conference (the song will be on the Society's Ares CD-ROM). Not only that, but Lloyd and Karen have also been nominated for an Aurora Award for outstanding achievement (category: other, fan) in Canadian Science Fiction. The winners will be announced July 16 at Toronto Trek. People can vote without being members of "Canvention" but to do so costs $5 and you have to go to the following site: www.sentex.net/~dmullin/aurora/. That five bucks enables you to vote in all categories. The deadline is June 30th. I notice that other filkers are also on the ballot...Joel Polowin (under the Fan Achievement category), for example. Lloyd and Yvonne Penney have also been nominated for several categories...though they're not strictly filkers, they ran a great con suite at FilKONtario for years. :-)

Graham Leather's CD is available for just CAN$15...just send him an e-mail for more info.

Graduation

My 5-year-old niece Sara graduated from senior kindergarten last week! Jeff and I took the morning off work to attend the event; we've been attending for three years now, since Sara started at the school. There were about 5-6 classes of children, and Sara was the very last one to graduate (classes were presented youngest to oldest, and in alphabetical order within each class). Each child was asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. There were lots of teachers, doctors, firefighters, and paleontologists (obviously there was a school trip to see the dinosaur exhibit at the museum :)). Sara said she wanted to be a ballet teacher when she grew up.

As I watched her walk up to the podium for her certificate, I couldn't help but remember how uncertain and small she was when she was led to the same podium three years ago, and how much more confident she was now. Next year she starts at another school, for first grade.

Afterwards, Sara came running up to us, bursting with excitment. Ruth told her how proud she was of her, and that seeing Sara graduate had made her teary-eyed.

"I made you CRY?" asked Sara in wonder. A huge, delighted grin spread across her face. "You CRIED, Mommy?"

"Yes, Sara, you made me cry." Ruth was smiling.

And yes, I was all weepy, too. :-)

Today's blatherpic is a photo of Sara and Annie from several years ago. The blanket that Annie is lying upon is the one I laboriously crocheted when I heard that Ruth was pregnant was Sara. It was my first and last successful needlework project.