erasure

Reid & Luisa before the Erasure concert



There's nothing like seeing a guy in a red leather corset to perk up one's day.

The Erasure concert on Wednesday night was way fun. I sat between Luisa and Craig. Others in our row included Reid, Andy, Christine, and Derek. We were all up dancing in our seats for much of the concert despite the narrow seating space available in Massey Hall.

For a more detailed report and playlist, see Reid's Livejournal entry. All the photos in my entry today are from Reid, who has a link in his Livejournal to a photo archive from that night, if you're interested. epi-lj also has a Livejournal report.



Andy Bell during the concert. He eventually
took off the skirt skeleton thingy.


Some of my favourite moments from the concert:

- When the spotlight first came on at the beginning of the concert, highlighting the flamboyant Andy Bell. He was dressed in a black Victorian-type gown and was bending over, cranking up an old Victrola at one side of the stage. The crowd went nuts, of course.

- Craig and Reid arguing about whether the laptop that Vince Clarke used on stage was an Apple TiBook or not.

- When Andy gradually stripped down to a red corset.

- The performance of one song (augh, forget which one) where they used no electronics, just Vince on acoustic guitar and Andy singing.

- The mass singalongs, especially "A Little Respect" and "Oh L'Amour".


Many thanks to Craig for arranging this outing!



My friend Craig


To all those attending Consonance this weekend, have fun! I admit I'm envious. I had originally hoped to attend at least one of Confusion, GAfilk and Consonance this year but ended up not being able to attend any. :-(

On a more positive note, my tendinitis is improving enough that I should be able to start doing a bit of writing next week. Still very slow, but better than before.

Today's Blatherpics:

Photos courtesy Reid Ellis.

Mar/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

cinderella

(click on image for bigger version)



Last night, Jeff and I went to see Sara play the lead role in her school production of Cinderella.

At first, I was terribly nervous for her. After a few minutes, however, it became clear that she was enjoying herself. When she stepped out onto the stage as the transformed Cinderella, radiant in her ballgown, the audience around us audibly gasped.

And of course I was bursting with pride, fumbling for my tissues as I thought: She's growing up so fast, this niece of mine.

Other news:

Tendinitis gradually getting better, yay.

Erasure concert was wonderful, report this weekend.



(click on image for bigger version)

Feb/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

adjusting

Blatherings will be sporadic for the next bit. Good writing practice for me, really, saying more in less words. :-)

Saw the doctor, no surprises. The more rest I give my arms, the faster I'll heal...not just keyboard, but in general. If things don't get much better in a couple weeks, I might try other treatments (physio, ultrasound). I've set up an obnoxious desktop reminder so I remember to take a break every 15 minutes.

Overall, things are getting gradually better. I'm just way too impatient. Looks like I may not be doing much flute and guitar at Ad Astra and FKO, we'll see; we're revising our concert playlist somewhat, and I'm not sure how much I'll be doing in open filk.

THANK YOU so much for your movie suggestions! I'm going to check out Suspect Video (thanks Andy) and another specialty video place on Queen since I'm disappointed with Blockbuster's Video offerings (they don't even have a section for musicals!). Also going to check out voice recognition software suggestions people have posted in e-mail and Blatherchat and LJ, and have dug up my old handheld tape recorder.

Not doing much novel-writing but hey, it's a good challenge to find alternate ways to work on my writing without actually writing. I'm following up on submissions, have sold a reprint, am doing historical research for a novel, researching markets for future articles. Also spending more time with family and friends, listening to music (current obsessions: The Zombies "Odyssey & Oracle" and Erasure's "Other People's Songs"), walking outdoors and seeing more of Toronto, renting movies.

Went out for Greek food with Luisa last night. I'll be seeing her again tonight at the Erasure concert! Watched 24 with Parki & Jeff; 24 is probably the only show we watch on a regular basis these days...is anyone else out there watching this?

Mar/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

update

Happy Birthday, Bryan!

Thanks so much for the letters of support and advice re: my sore arm, which I'm still figuring is tendinitis. I apologize for not being able to reply to each right now; typing e-mail still tires me out. I'm posting this Blathering in hopes that some of you who wrote will come across this update. I'm typing bits at a time, with lots of breaks.

I did switch my mouse to my left arm. Unfortunately now my left arm is worse than my right, obviously rebelling against all the extra work I'm trying to make it do; for a couple days I did everything with my left hand, including day-to-day chore stuff. It's frustrating not even being able to hold up a paperback book to read without my arms getting tired after only a few minutes. Jeff found a lap board to set my book on (the kind with a small ledge at the bottom - he made it himself a while back), and that works fine.

It's not so much the pain now that keeps me from working as it is the lack of strength in my arms. Kinda weird; it's like the muscles in my forearms have turned to rice pudding (I almost typed "jelly" but rice pudding is so much more interesting, especially with cinnamon sprinkled on top). I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday.

At least until I see my doctor, I'm trying to do as little as possible with my arms. And WOW is this hard. The first day I took off from using my computer, I did some office purging, but then realized that moving books was doing as much of a number on my arms as typing did. So does playing guitar, harp, flute, piano, holding a phone receiver for longer than a few minutes, even writing anything by hand.

I have to do some computer work every day because of my daily publishing column, but I'm not doing work on my novel or actively seeking out new freelance assignments. And of course that highlights another downside to the whole freelance life...it comes with a lot of freedom, but the fact is that if you can't write, you don't earn money. :-(

I'm trying to grasp at the silver lining and turning this into an opportunity to do more walking outdoors, visiting museums and art galleries, spending more time with my dad and my nieces. Spent an afternoon last week wandering around The Grange House, the first brick house built in Toronto and the original location of the Art Gallery of Ontario. One of my novels (waiting to be revised) has a section that takes place in 19th century Toronto, so it was ideal opportunity to look at the rooms, furniture, chat with the volunteers about what day-to-day life was like in the early 19th century.

I've also been renting a lot of movies. I discovered that I can rent six movies for a week at Blockbuster Video for less than the price of a regular movie ticket, as long as the movies aren't brand-new. As a result, I saw "Best in Show" and "Doctor Zhivago" for the first time. LOVED both.

Movies I currently have lined up to check out (I've never seen any of them):

The Godfather
Cast Away
A Chorus Line
Tortilla Soup - someone had once suggested this in Blatherchat

I would VERY much appreciate suggestions of other movies I should see. I'm not interested in movies with depressing endings unless they're very very good, am especially interested in "classic" movies that I somehow missed when I was younger. I only recently saw "Fiddler on the Roof", for example (thanks, Luisa!).

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Today's Blatherpics:

A keychain I received with a wonderful letter from Ee Lynn Wong in Malaysia. Thanks, Ee Lynn! :-)

Mar/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

hiatus

Hey all. The tendonitis in my right arm has gotten a bit worse, so I'm going to try minimizing its use the rest of the week to give my arm a break. What this means: probably no Blatherings until next week, cut down on personal e-mail and non-essential keyboard use, no guitar or flute or piano (augh), no harp (double argh). My goal is to make sure this is as short-term as possible.

If any of you have had any experience with RSI (repetitive stress injuries), please feel free to share advice in the comments board. :-) I've already found this great online resource. Anyone who spends a lot of time on the computer should definitely check it out, especially the animated gifs of preventative exercises. (and yeah, I wish I had checked it out more closely beforehand)

My niece Annie turns six today! I'm doing some work this morning, but spending the rest of the day hanging out with her.

Feb/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ