songwriting poll

I did the above illustration using Corel Painter using several kinds of Pastel "brushes" at varying opacities, and also experimented a bit with paper textures. My habit these days is to write during the day, do some drawing in the evening or at the end of the work day.

Went out early this morning to take the bungee cords off our Green Bin and garbage can for 7:30 am collection. Jeff and I have made a deal in which he takes out the trash the night before, and I take the cords off in the morning. The cords are to keep the raccoons out of the trash during the night.

It was -8.3 degrees Celsius, according to our thermometer. Wrapped in my down-filled Tom Jeffers coat and handmade Beckett scarf, however, I felt pretty cozy...and I only needed one layer instead of my usual two. I guess I haven't yet become jaded about our new house -- I don't mind going out early in the morning at all. In fact, I still get a huge kick out of standing outside in the dark street and marvelling at how QUIET it is, compared to our old neighbourhood.

Beckett has Winnipeg trip pics up in her Flickr account, if you're interested. I especially like this one she took of me and Dave. You can also read her trip report on LJ.

And here's a picture that Tom took of Dave and me when we were working on a song together (our first songwriting collaboration!):



I'm holding my music Moleskine, a gift from Jeff a while back. The pages are all filled with standard 5-line staffs, and I now have a handful of songs scribbled down, some complete but quite a few fragments.

Songwriting with Dave is fun. Not surprisingly, he has a great ear, and had several chord substitution suggestions for the ones I had in my first draft of the song. We did some brainstorming in e-mail before the weekend, and then went through the song a bit at a time, dissecting and improving. We're hoping to have this ready to perform in open filk at GAfilk!

Songwriting with another person takes a great deal of trust, and you both have to be equally excited about the project as well as being willing to put in the time/effort. You have to be willing to relinquish some control...that's where the trust comes in. And you have to be willing to modify your own songwriting habits; I find it's well worth it because I always learn something from the other songwriter in the process. It's one reason I've been purposely seeking out different songwriters to collaborate with these days; I like the challenge, and I also find it can be wonderfully inspiring, creatively. The main limitation is time, which is why I generally work on one collab at a time.

A few examples: When I co-wrote Sex and Chocolate with Jodi, I wrote the words but asked Jodi to come up with the music; I was curious about what would happen. Believe it or not, I had a sort of waltz idea in my head when I first envisioned how the song would turn out. Jodi came up with an a capella jazzy/bluesy (and definitely NON-waltz) tune that I LOVED.

In Another Story, I wrote the words and music for the verses and counterpoint section. It originally started out as a children's song, but then (as often happens with me for some reason) started to get a bit too dark. I got stuck at the chorus, and asked Allison for help. She came up with words and music that fit PERFECTLY; I was so happy with how it turned out.

I've also co-written with Andrea Dale in her song, Saxophone in Spring...she brought the words to me, I added music and fiddled with the words a bit, then she did the final editing of words and music. I ended up adding harmonies to this song on Andrea's Zen Cappucino CD as well as playing flute --- my first time singing on any recording. We did the collaboration by e-mail and snailmail, sending lyrics and tapes back and forth.

Steve Macdonald and I have started collaborating on a song as well; he's written the music, and I'll be working on the words. On the other hand, Rand Bellavia and I tried songwriting at least half a dozen times but all our attempts fizzled out pretty quickly for one reason or another; I guess some musical partnerships are just not meant to be, no matter how much the would-be co-writers like each other's music. :-)

Hm...maybe I should turn this into an entry for the Filking.net FILK FAQ. To you songwriters out there who have collaborated with other people: Any advice to share from your own experiences? Do's and don'ts? What has worked for you and what hasn't? Please post in Livejournal if possible; I've enabled anonymous posting (those posts will be screened before appearing).

Dec/2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

Franklin chocolate!

(The photo above is courtesy Tom Jeffers, taken at the Bhigg House.)

As I was unpacking from my Winnipeg trip yesterday, the doorbell rang. It was Canada Post, with a big package from Germany (!). Inside the box was a card from Urban Tapestry's friend Franklin, who kept presenting us with chocolate when we were Guests of Honor at Filkcontinental.

Also inside the box: three large and fairly hefty gift bags, one for each of Jodi, Allison and me. I opened mine, and here's what it contained:



Woohoo, more Franklin chocolate! The accompanying note from Franklin said it was in celebration of St. Nicholas Day (thanks to Allison for the link). THANK YOU, FRANKLIN! Jeff thanks you, too.

:-D



The above photo is of Beckett on her harmonica, jamming with Dandelion Wine.

I forgot to mention yesterday, by the way, that if you'd like to find out more about Dandelion Wine you can check out their Web site, which was created by Beckett.

One of the many things I love about Dandelion Wine is that these two guys are just as nice off-stage as they are on-stage. So many musicians and groups seem super-friendly and approachable when they're performing, but are wrapped up in the whole rock/folk star ego-persona when they're not. Dave and Tom are just as good-hearted and sweet-natured as they seem on-stage. Both of them are on Livejournal; Tom tends to post more often, and you can find his LJ here.

Dave and Tom the Guests of Honour at GAfilk next month; if you're attending the convention and have never had the pleasure of hearing Dandelion Wine before, you're in for a treat!

Dec/2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

sick

Had fun at the Irish music session at the Tranzac last night...because of Germanystuff and movingstuff, I hadn't been able to attend sessions since they started up again this fall. Looks like I have some catching up to do, to learn tunes the group has been practising while I've been gone: Denis Murphy polka, O'Keefe's polka, Humours of Glendart, Saddle the Pony, The Cow That Ate The Blanket (don't you love the names of some of these tunes?). Last night, we learned Tobin's Favourite.

After nearly a year of attending these sessions, I'm at the stage where I recognize many of the tunes, though I may not be able to play along on my whistle on all of them yet. Makes listening all that more enjoyable, though. :-) Sometimes I purposely DON'T play along on a tune even if I know it, just to enjoy the music.

Started feeling not-too-great near the end of the session, and left earlier than I normally do. And when I woke up this morning, I was sick.

:-(

Going back to bed now.

Nov/2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

Chris Conway, squirrel aftermath

Congrats to Chris Conway, who is celebrating his 30th CD release and 16 years in show business on Dec.4th, which also happens to be the day before his birthday. See flyer above for details. I believe the cost is £3, or check The Musician's Web site.

Chris is a fulltime musician in the UK, and is an amazingly talented songwriter, vocalist and instrumentalist. Urban Tapestry was honoured to be invited to be on his Alien Salad Abduction CD...check out the "Alien Jellyfish Song" soundclip on his CDbaby page for this CD and you'll hear me on flute, Allison and Jodi as backup for Chris. This song is WAY fun to perform; we did it in our cover concert at Filkcontinental in Germany.

The rest of the photos on this page were shamelessly stolen from his Web site.



Chris enjoys promoting other musicians; visit Planet Christo Radio to hear him in DJ mode. And if you're not in the UK but want to hear him perform live, come to FilKONtario next Mar.31-Apr.2nd, where he's the Guest of Honour. The lovely Tanya Huff will be the Filk Waif, and Judi Miller is the Interfilk Guest. Or come to Consonance (March 3-5, 2006 in Milpitas, CA) where Chris is the International Guest, Guests of Honor: Bill & Gretchen Roper, Interfilk Guest: Marty Coady Fabish, Toastpersons: Puzzlebox.

Speaking of great filk conventions, only two months until GAfilk! I've decided to contribute a square to the GAfilk Quilt for the Interfilk Auction even though I have no quilting experience. This should be interesting. Fortunately, Margaret Middleton has promised to give me advice.

Thanks to those with squirrel advice in response to my Demon Squirrels post yesterday. And the mockery, of course.

:-D

A few of the comments...

----------------------

From Chris Conway:

"love/hate relationship with squirrels...

remember what the nice lady in the white coat said last time?

hate relationship with squirrels - acceptable

love relationship with squirrels - morally wrong -"

-----------------------



From Interchange42:

"Debbie! No crocuses? We can beat those little b*stards!

Two years ago I planted crocuses, tulips, and daffodils at my sister's for her birthday. Bloody varmint squirrels ate all but the daffs. Anyway I was determined that my sister and her family were going to have spring flowers so I read up before the next fall and found that squirrels hate the taste of blood meal - a nitrogen fertilizer. So I bought it and bone meal and a bunch more bulbs for my sister last year.

We mixed the bone meal into the planting earth, plunked a bulb into each hole, spread a little blood meal in with the earth we placed above the bulbs, then sprinkled more blood meal on top of the soil.

Everything came up this spring - the squirrels stayed totally away - and the place looked fab.

If you're up for it, go buy more bulbs, get the bone and the blood meal, and plant away!"

-----------------------

From Luisa:

"Squirrel problems? Try planting the the crocus bulbs again, only this time inject a little poison into them first. Heh. ;)"

------------------------

From Melissa:

"After your experience with them, you would think that Eichhörnchen would be more likely to be a swear word these days! :-)"

------------------------



From Peter Alway:

"The squirrels will win in the end. Don't even think of revenge. It will only end in tears."

------------------------

From Christine/Nella Darren:

"I LOVE this post! (And your drawings are so cute you just want to cuddle the little buggers until they beg for mercy... :o))
:o))
And see: Eichhörnchen CAN be a swear word."

-------------------------

From Rob:

"If you have never read this story, you should:

http://www.hftonline.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16501"

-------------------------

From Aryana:

"That's not nice of those squirrels! I feel with you - on one renaissance fair we had mice in our tent that definitely liked our oat flakes, noodles, bread and stuff. Since then we take tupper boxes with us, although they're not very medieval..."

------------------------

From Margaret:

"My neighbor at our former place used to dust her fresh bulb plantings with cayenne pepper. I don't know how often she had to renew it, though."

-------------------------



From Mary:

"Have you considered buying more crocus bulbs, planting them, and covering them with cement blocks until spring? That way they would get properly frozen, and the squirrels would at least have less time between when you take up the protective blocks in spring and the time that they actually start growing."

-------------------------

From Keris:

"I read it at first as Einhornchen, which would be a My Little Unicorn. Just as dangerous in a different way *g*...

I used to get mobbed by squirrels in a park in Bournemouth (Dorset, England) when I stopped off there to eat. They were disgusted at my reading material, though (squirrels, it seems, do not approve of SF). And my cousins in Sussex found that the squirrels just stole the entire bird feeder, preseumably to take it apart at their leisure.

Just be glad you don't have the badger mafia as well. They have built-in pin-striped suits and dark glasses, and they run protection rackets. "Nice flower-bed, shame if something 'happened' to it because we weren't fed..." When the humans went away for a month the badgers dug up the lawn in retaliation for not being paid the fruit..."

---------------------------------

Nov/2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

Skimper, Filk FAQ, choosing a guitar

Skimper experiment update: nothing so far. Not surprising, since it can take the Google robot/spider anywhere from several days to half a year to pick up a new site or page.

To those who were kind enough to post advice on how to choose a guitar (feel free to add) in response to the West Point cadet, he responds:

"Debbie - I just want to thank you for posting my question on your journal space. I got a lot of really good information that assisted me with my project. I hope you're having a good holiday, and if you can, please tell everyone that responded I said thanks so much."

I've added people's advice to the Dandelion Report Filk FAQ under the topic: Advice on choosing a new guitar.

I had suspended open comments posting on the Dandelion Report Filk FAQ because of Movable Type spammers, but I'm going to try experimenting with using Livejournal for comments instead as well as possibly only opening comments for a limited time.

To those not familiar with Filking.net (The Dandelion Report), I create the site with the help of the filk community as a resource for new filkers and those curious about filking. Thanks SO MUCH to those of you who have taken the time to help contribute to this non-profit endeavour.

To avoid driving my non-filk friends and readers crazy, I'm going to restrict most future Filk FAQ discussion to my Dandelion Report LJ. If you're on Livejournal and are willing to occasionally contribute opinions and content to the Filk FAQ to help out new filkers (or even if you're just interested in what's going on), please do add dandelionreport to your friends list!

Nov/2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments