Janet Croft

Today, Allison and I are having lunch with Janet Croft, the Head of Access Services Department, University Libraries at the University of Oklahoma. I first met Janet online when she became interested in the virtual community that formed when I read Lord of the Rings for the first time and posted Web reports about it. Her primary research area is the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, but she's also interested in aspects of popular culture like online communities. She and Jay Shorten (also from the University of Oklahoma) are presenting a paper at a conference at the Sheraton Centre today, the title of which is "Reading Lord of the Rings: The Final Attempt": An Analysis of a Web Community. (Janet says she'll be posting the paper online soon, so I'll link to it when she does)

Anyway, Janet has been kind enough to invite Allison and me to attend the presentation of her paper this afternoon. I'm looking forward to meeting her in person! Report tomorrow.

Allison, Jodi and I had a great Urban Tapestry practice last night. They liked my Mediterranean Stew, yay! For dessert, we had frozen yogurt, seedcake (homemade by Allison, inspired by a conversation on our Tolkien boards), and double chocolate cookies (I baked these using chocolate I got from Joey Shoji).

We got a ton of practising done in the evening. We're performing in a Canadiana round robin on Friday night at FilKONtario, so had fun working up a version of "Goin' Up" by Great Big Sea (I'm playing penny whistle on this), "After The Gold Rush" (Neil Young), "All The King's Men" (Tom Cochrane), probably will work on some Bruce Cockburn next week. I taught them a Secret New song I've been working on, and I'm SUPER tickled by the results so far. Allison and Jodi are incredible, I have to say...by the end of the practice, we had three part harmonies going!

I tend to get overly excited when this sort of thing happens; I'm sure Jodi and Allison are highly amused when I start jumping up and down and yelling, "OH MY GOD THIS SOUNDS SO COOL YOU GUYS ARE SO COOL" over and over again. But you have to understand how incredibly satisfying it is for me to write a song that I'm pretty happy with and then have it turn into so much MORE when all three of us start working on it.

Ok, I'll stop gushing now.

We also worked briefly on Dot Com Survivor. I wrote this last year...it's seems somewhat outdated now, but I figure it'll be fun to perform anyway. :-)

Today's Blatherpic:

Me reading Lord of the Rings at the cottage last summer.

gwyneth

Feeling better today, or at least I don't feel like falling over so much. Allison and Jodi are coming over tonight for Urban Tapestry practice. I'm going to make Mediterranean Stew (from the Moosewood Cookbook). We have a ton of stuff to practice for FilKONtario (April 5-7), plus some new songs to learn (including two new songs I've written that we haven't had a chance to debut yet). We're going to put a bunch of our newer stuff on a tape to donate to the Interfilk auction, along with all the lyrics/chords to these songs.

Really looking forward to the convention! Looking forward to seeing a lot of out-of-town friends we haven't seen in a while. Dave Clement will be visiting with me for a few days after the convention. Some of the non-locals I know will be at the convention include: Katy & Ju (from Germany!), Anke (Germany), Seanan (California), Dave & Tom (Dandelion Wine), Dave & Ellen Weingart, Joey Shoji (California), MEW & Ed, Rand & Adam (Ookla The Mok), Alan Thiesen (California), Andrea, Gray (from the Porch Climbers), Terence (Singapore). Mary Bertke? Steve Brinich? Joel? Merav? I might be wrong about some of these people, so don't quote me. :-)

I've been doing a lot of songwriting and harp practising in the evenings lately, while Jeff is working or gaming. I'm still very hyped about providing background harp music for my sister-in-law's wedding reception. Here's a list of the pieces I'm working on so far:

Maids of Mourne Shore (arr. Kim Robertson)
Blind Mary (arr. Kim Robertson)
I Love My Love In The Morning (arr. Kim Robertson)
Mist-Covered Mountains of Home (arr. Sue Richards)
The Dark Isle (arr. Sue Richards)
Coilsfield House (arr. Sue Richards)

I'm also hoping to have a few written for the wedding...one serious (that my other sister-in-law and I will perform during the ceremony) and one silly (for us to do during the reception).

Today's Blatherpic:

A cross-stitch that Allison made for me of my harp, Gwyneth Paltrow.

turning 40

My Life In A Nutshell updated

I've had several people ask me how I feel about turning 40 (my birthday's on March 29th). Sometimes they ask me out of friendly curiosity, but sometimes they'll ask me in tones usually reserved for someone who is very ill in the hospital, or as if speaking too energetically could cause me to keel over in shock.

I won't lie and say there's not a twinge when I think about having to write a "4" at the beginning of my age when filling out forms. I went through the same twinge when I turned 30. It will take a bit of adjustment to get used to being "a woman in her 40s", a phrase which definitely evokes a different image than "a woman in her 30s". And I can no longer evade the fact that I definitely fall into the "middle-aged" category now.

Weird thing is, I don't feel like I'm turning 40, or at least I don't accept all the social stigma baggage that usually comes with the age. I'm happier now than I was when I was 20 or 30. I have a healthier lifestyle and am more fit than when I was 30. I'm more confident about myself; I have a much clearer idea of what I want out of life, and how to get what I want.

I've been through many life-altering experiences, both good and bad. To name just a few: I've seen my mother dying, my niece Annie being born, lived through the nightmare after my brother's and his wife's sudden deaths. Had boyfriends, found Jeff, have been married for ten years. Had my first book published, sold a company I started from scratch, experienced the wild rollercoaster ride of the dot-com mania.

I used to think that I could never truly be a writer until I lived enough of life to have something to write about. I have enough material now :-\, but that doesn't mean I'm going to settle down and stick with what I have so far. There's still far too much to see and do. Whenever I hear people whine about being bored in life, I feel like shaking them until their teeth rattle...what are they thinking?

I want to be like the Auntie Moira in the song I co-wrote with Jodi (you can hear the MP3 here, under "Sex and Chocolate"). I fully plan to live until I'm the ripe old age of 105, fiercely embracing every moment of life along the way. I know it means there's likely a whole lot more heartache eventually heading my way, but the good will outweigh the bad in the end, and I'd rather have the whole package than sit in a quiet little corner somewhere, clinging to the safe and familiar.

And I've told Jeff to shoot me if I ever start wearing pink polyester.

Today's Blatherpic:

Celebrating my birthday with Ruth and Jim - get a load of my chic paisley shirt. As a child, I never had birthday parties (the kind where you invite friends from school, have loot bags, etc.), but I also don't remember ever feeling ripped off. Maybe I just sensed that my Mom wasn't comfortable planning that sort of thing when I was little; she probably never had them as a child in Japan. My first non-family birthday celebration happened in my first year of university, when my friends threw a surprise party for me at the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown Toronto.

sick

Feeling sicker today, ugh.

I was supposed to meet my tax guy to hand over stuff today, but had to cancel.

Must sleep. More later, maybe.

sound of music singalong

I have to wonder whether any of the original actors in the Sound of Music have ever attended a Sound of Music Singalong. Would they be horrified? Amused? I attended my first last night, and found it highly entertaining.

My friend Craig had enjoyed the show so much last year that he decided to organize another outing this year. Some of us (Craig, Luisa, Doug, Doug's parents) had dinner at a restaurant beside the Eglinton theatre beforehand.

I hadn't been inspired enough to come up with a costume, but at the last minute remembered the dried flower headpiece that Paul Kwinn had given me ages ago (he gave one to Allison, Jodi and me). It has ribbons down the back, and I figured I could try passing it off as a sort of Austrian headdress, medieval-style. :-) Also put my hair in pigtails. Lame, I know.

Luisa's outfit was great...a very Sound of Music-ish flowered dress with sensible shoes and a handkerchief tying back her hair.





We were disappointed by the lack of costumes in the theatre audience. Craig says there were a lot more last year, but perhaps the Sound of Music enthusiasm is waning somewhat now. My favourite costume was a guy who had stuffed what looked like kleenex or cotton balls under his glasses to represent the "snowflakes that fall on my nose and my lashes" line in My Favorite Things. :-)

Before the performance, we all got our prop bags (see photo below) and got coaching from a perky woman in a nun's costume on stage on what to say and what to do. Whenever we saw or heard the word "hill", for example, we were encouraged to all hold up our hands like Julie Andrews when she ecstatically sang the opening song. We hissed at the baronness, booed the Nazi's, "awwwed" at Gretl. I don't want to go into too much detail about the props to avoid ruining the experience for others who go to see this show.

And of course we all sang along with all the songs; there were even subtitles provided for those who didn't know all the words. It was a bizarre but wonderful experience, sitting in the middle of an audience all waving their sprigs of plastic flowers and singing "Edelweiss" along with Captain von Trapp.

In order to fully enjoy the experience, you really have to throw yourself into the silliness. We certainly did. :-)





I was curious about what happened to all the Von Trapp kids (the actors, I mean), so did a bit of snooping through IMDB when I got home. Here's what I found out:

Charmian Farnon (Liesl) didn't seem to do much in Hollywood or tv after the Sound of Music. Charmian now runs her own interior design business in Encino, California, with a client list that includes Michael Jackson (who apprently hired her in part because he liked Liesl).

Heather Menzies (Louisa) did work in a number of not-that-memorable movie and tv pieces, including the short-lived television series, "Logan's Run". She gave up acting to become a fulltime mother. Her husband is Robert Urich.

Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich) has been Spiderman (tv series), soap operas, "Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles", quite a few others. He's now a stage actor in Australia.

Duane Chase (Kurt) didn't seem to do much in Hollywood or tv after the Sound of Music. These days he lives in Washing State, testing computer software for oil and mining companies

Angela Cartwright (Brigitta) joined the tv cast of "Lost In Space" and continued to act in films. She started a gift shop called Rubber Boots with her husband which she still runs in Toluca Lake, CA.

Debbie Turner (Marta) was a rental agent in "The Firm", a party guest in "North Dallas Forty", but not much else. She now lives in Minnesota with her husband and four children.

Kym Karath (Gretl) did a few non-memorable movies, but also appeared in tv series like "Archie Bunker", "The Waltons", "The Brady Bunch", "Lost in Space", "Lassie", "My Three Sons", and "Family Affair". She had a regular spot in "All My Children" for a while.

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Today's Blatherpic:

	Me and Craig in a restaurant beside the Eglinton theatre.
	From left to right: Luisa, Doug, Doug's dad, Doug's mom, Craig.
	Sound of Music Singalong props.
	Me and Luisa in the lobby of the Eglinton theatre.