alien jellyfish

Had a good practice with Allison and Jodi last night. We did some more prep for our concerts at Ad Astra and Consonance, as well as going over "I Am Stardust". What a gorgeous song! Lloyd was an incredibly talented songwriter. I'm going to nominate this song for a Pegasus Award. We also practised "The Alien Jellyfish Song", a song by Chris Conway...we're going to have SO much fun performing this. :-) Right now we're thinking of adding in some bluesy flute and 2- and 3-part harmonies.

How do you all learn new pieces for performance? Our standard process is to get a basic version of the song on tape, with just the melody and guitar accompaniment. Then we all take copies of the recording home and play around with it to see what we can add. At the next practice, we figure out what works and what doesn't, then we put another version on tape with the extra stuff, take it home so we can listen to it carefully to see what we like and don't like. The next week is generally a "polish up and finalize" practice.

Jeff and I are going up to the cottage this weekend with our friends Alison and Jeff. I'm bringing lots of long underwear and fleece. :-) I'm going to leave my computer on home, so no Blatherings until next week, sorry.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Today's Blatherpic: my niece Annie.

ten dollars

Yay, my Philly real estate agency has found a new tenant for my Philadelphia apartment; he takes over the lease next Tuesday.

Had dinner with Jeff, my dad-in-law, and some friends at Golden Thai last night. Gord Gibson gave us a Solitudes cap and some CDs. The CDs all look like great "de-stressing" music; I'll be showcasing some of them over the next few weeks. Gord and his wife Lorraine just had a baby girl on the weekend.

Today's Blatherpics are of the new ten-dollar bill in Canada (front and back). Scott Murray had one at the party on the weekend. I forgot to mention that one of the things that I won't miss about living in the States is the money...it all looks the same! Makes it way confusing, fumbling through my wallet, trying to find the right denomination. How do you Americans do it? On the other hand, your money's worth a lot more than ours. :-)

h.r. pufnstuf

Happy Chinese New Year! No, I'm not Chinese, but I noticed the reminder on my calendar. It's the Year of the Snake.

How many of you used to watch PufnStuf? What a bizarre show. Surely the writers must have been a little too much into their material, if you get my drift. I mean, take a good hard look at the photo above...is that creature nightmare-inducing or what? It reminds me of the whole clown thing. Clowns are supposedly funny, benevolent characters whose purpose is mainly to entertain children, but they're incredibly scary-looking. Another childhood icon which frightened me as a kid was the dinosaur-like thing in Kukla, Fran and Ollie. And the Snow Monster in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (with the glowing red eyes). And Lambchop (I think it was something about Shari Lewis's voice).

But I digress.

I only dimly remember the gist of H.R. Pufnstuf (whereas I'm sure Allison still remembers all the lyrics from the opening theme song :-)). I remember psychedelic colours, Freddy the Flute, Witchiepoo, and having a childhood crush on Jack Wild.

So what childhood media creatures/people gave -you- the willies, if any?

welcome back party

My friends Michelle and Tom had a party at their place yesterday to welcome me back to Toronto. 'Twas lots of fun, with a big "Welcome Home" banner, cake, yummy food, chatting with friends. Michelle's mom made a type of Japanese rice I love (my mom used to make it) with shiitake mushrooms; I pigged out on it. The kids all latched onto Michelle's brother, Gary, who played Chase and Hide and Seek with them for most of the party (after the party, Annie said she wished Gary would come live with them). David Barker gave me a very cool Star Wars Episode I Destroyer Droid Watch.

I had a wonderful time, and was truly touched by all of it. I've known some of the people at the party for over twenty years; we were very close during university days (which gives you an idea of how ancient I am). I used to publish a newsletter for our group called "The Electric Penguin" back then (hence my new personal domain name!). Jeff and I brought some old issues to the Real Millennium Party. I'm toying with the idea of resurrecting the publication as an online 'zine.

But most of all, I am very glad to be back home. :-)

claustrophobia

I have no idea how I'm going to fit everything into my home office.

I've been gradually whittling away at it, but it's pretty much time for a full purge so I can finish unpacking. The problem is that I used to be in a much larger office, in the Toronto Carpet Factory. Plus I accumulated stuff while I was in Philadelphia. Basically, I have less room for more things.

The main problem is where to put all my books. When Jeff and I moved from our house in the Hockley Valley to Toronto, I had to put most of my books into storage at my mom-in-law's place. Now that my mom-in-law has moved to a smaller place, these books are now in our basement locker, which is crammed full. There is no more room!

I confess I'm somewhat of a packrat; I hate throwing anything out. And when I DO work up the nerve to throw something out, inevitably I will need that particular object a day or two later.

Hey, some good news! Apparently my book's selling well enough that the publisher is likely going to do a second printing.

Today's Blatherpic:
Scott Murray demonstrating his snooker technique to Brian Parkinson at the Real Millennium Party. Brian is appropriately impressed, as you can see.