tranzac

It's been almost three months since I packed up my home office to put in storage and set up at temporary office space first in Jeff's office, then here at my mom-in-law's. More and more I find myself missing easy access to files, office supplies, and my books. I'm also watching the calendar and now wishing I hadn't packed up all my spring and summer clothes, foolishly assuming we'd have found a place by then. I miss having two monitors; the fold-out cubbyhole I'm using now would only fit my laptop, so we put my bigger monitor in storage.

Fingers crossed that we'll find a house soon.

Anyway, I went to another Tranzac session last week. I think this makes it my 4th or 5th session. I'm still spending most of my time listening, and am now recording as many tunes as I can on my iPod using iTalk as well as taking notes about what tunes are being played. Though actually finding out the names of tunes is proving a challenge, as you can see in my cartoon today. I can tell that session-types identify, since I only posted it two days ago and it's already my most-viewed image on Flickr. :-D

I'm gradually starting to recognize tunes, even though I can't play them yet, so I figure that's a good thing.

As I mentioned in my last Blathering, I also met a few more people at the Tranzac. Patricia and Bob Jones, for example; Bob maintains the Irish Traditional Music of Durham page, which I was ecstatic to discover includes a page of frequently played tunes at the Tranzac. I also met a very nice whistle player named Tim.

A few of my non-session friends have expressed some bewilderment at my interest in Irish music. I have no Irish in my background, for example, though one of my old Inkspot advertisers did mistake me for being Irish over the phone (perhaps he thought my last name was O'hi instead of Ohi). My reasons for getting into the whole Irish session thing are somewhat vague, but here's an attempt to summarize some of the reasons behind my newfound interest:

- I enjoyed the session organized by Mary Bertke at OVFF so much. Dave Alway pointed out in a LJ comment that Rob Wynne had taken this great photo of the session. You can see me near the middle of the picture with a silly grin plastered over my face. :-)

- Urban Tapestry isn't able to get together weekly anymore because of geography and we don't play music together as often as we used to. I miss my regular musicfix, especially playing music just for the fun of it rather than because of an upcoming gig.

- Attending sessions are cheaper and more convenient than attending filk conventions, which occur mostly outside of my home turf.

- They're on weeknights rather than weekends. The latter are much more busy for Jeff and me (and the reasons I'm unable to attend many local housefilks :-( ).

- I love the fact that it's basically one big singalong, with the focus being on everyone playing the same thing. I enjoy individual performance and the spotlight as much as the next musician, but there's also something really appealing to me about the whole "sit around the campfire and all make music" atmosphere. Immensely relaxing.

- It doesn't matter if I have to miss the occasional session, though of course I try to attend all of them.

- I get to use my penny whistle. I'm so used to only playing flute and guitar and percussionstuff that it's a nice change. I may eventually start doing flutestuff at sessions, but I'm having too much fun with the whistle right now. I'm also quite enjoying my lessons with Karen Light.

- I'm not sure if this is common at all sessions, but the atmosphere at the Tranzac sessions is enormously supportive, fun, and laid-back. Every single person I've chatted with at the Tranzac has been friendly and welcoming. I don't feel like an outsider, even though I don't know most of the tunes and spend most of my time just listening.

- I love the fact that many of these tunes have been passed down from generation to generation over hundreds of years, that they have names like Drunken Landlady and Gander in the Pratie Hole.

- What I learn through the Tranzac can be carried through to other sessions I encounter outside of Toronto.

- It's a way of stretching myself musically and socially, not letting myself get in a rut, learning something new, pushing myself.

Without cable, I'm finding I spend a lot more time reading, drawing and making music in my non-work time. I miss tv far less than I expected, and didn't even feel a twinge of regret at missing the Oscars last night.

Hm...ok, well maybe a twinge. My friend Andy told me that Edna Mode was on the Oscars!

:-)

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