Urban Tapestry DVD

Went up to Richmond Hill last night to work on the Urban Tapestry DVD with the help of Allison's videographer husband, John. The DVD won't be for sale, but will be donated to upcoming Interfilk auctions.

I also practised playing tunes from memory for Allison and Jodi, to help me overcome my session performance jitters. Here's a photo that Allison took. You can see other photos that Allison took last night by browsing her Flickr photostream.



What the Urban Tapestry DVD will include:

-- Video footage from some of our concerts and performances over the years, including the very first time that Allison, Jodi and I performed together (BEFORE we became Urban Tapestry!).

-- Our Jelly Belly video. Very silly and likely not to see the light of day except at Interfilk auctions, believe me. Includes an cringe-embarrassing scene of me parading around in a bathrobe with mud on my face. And worse.

-- New footage of us practising songs in Allison's living room, including stuff not on any of our albums.



Last night, we went through old video footage that Allison had found. WHOA, some of it is pretty old. I still have my seventies-style pop bottle glasses and short hair in some of the clips.

Interesting also to see the gradual change in our performance style. We were SOOOO nervous in the beginning, and did an early concert sitting on chairs. We still get pre-show jitters (we've found the adrenalin helps our performance, so figure this is a good thing) but stand for our concerts now because it enables us to move around more, gives us more energy to work from.



Also very cool to see various other filkers in our concerts. Mary Ellen Wessels and Dave Clement providing vocals and instrumental backup on an early performance of "Urban Lullaby", for example. Graham Leathers doing his Guy thing on "Cuz He's A Guy." And Paul Kwinn's memorable performance as our Technonerdboy, complete with taped-up glasses and nerd dance.



Watching all the footage got me all nostalgic; I can't wait to get a copy for myself. :-) On Monday, Allison's husband John will be making some videos of us practising some songs in their living room, and also recording some audio intros to each clip that will be included on the DVD.

Blatherphotos today are all stills taken from the Urban Tapestry video footage archive. Click on any image to see a bigger version.

Only three weeks until FilKONtario, woohoo!

March 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

a good day: friends, teachers and tranzac

From my photo archives. Me and my friend Ray. Ray took this photo by holding the camera out in front of us.

Yesterday was one of those extra-wonderful days, where every little thing falls into place just the way you want it to, when one good thing happens after another. I'm very glad, and I'm hoping it's only part of the payoff for all the negative karmastuff that's been going on before.

As I mentioned yesterday, SO good to be getting back into a normal writing schedule. Right now I'm working my way through my queries and submissions database, figuring out which queries can be sent out again, which articles can be submitted for reprint sales, etc.

Then I heard from David Smallwood, my teacher from Grade 8, my favourite teacher of all time. He was a teacher that had a huge influence on my life in so many big and little ways, especially encouraging my writing skills. He says still has a bunch of my old short stories, a fact which delights (that he kept them) and horrifies me (I've improved so much since then) at the same time. Not only was he a fantastic teacher, but he was also very much a kindred spirit. I am SO happy we're back in touch.

Also, Rand and Erin and I made plans for them to come visit this Saturday, which means I get to meet Erin before FKO! Allison's coming downtown to join us. Really looking forward to this weekend.

And we have a house! Ok, old news. But I still wake up every morning thinking happy housethoughts and counting down the days until we can move in.

Postcard from Lyanne, written with an Inkspot pen. "I'm continuing my trend (quest?) of finding the ugliest postcards in cities I visit and sending them to all my friends."

My already good day was capped off by a fantastic session at the Tranzac yesterday evening. I got to know several more people including:

Deirdre: amazingly talented flute player, seems to know all the tunes. I found out more session etiquette stuff from her, like the fact that while sheet music is okay at the Tranzac because it's a learning session, it's frowned upon at places like Dora Keogh. She let me try her flute a bit since I've been curious about the long black flutes I see at the sessions all the time. The holes are further apart than on my metal flute, and I fear that it would be a bit of strain for me right now because of tendinitis. 'Tis ok; I still have my whistle. :-)

Adam: first-timer! He's a conductor and vocalist in other music groups, but also plays a number of instruments including the concertina. He said that my Blatherings posts about being a newbie at the Tranzac helped give him the courage to give it a shot himself (yay!). We shared sheet music.

Heather: accordion player (I think it's an accordion) I've seen at pretty much every session, obviously very experienced. She had posted a message at TheSession.org in response to my session cartoon and Blatherings entry about the Tranzac, but I didn't connect the name with the person until she introduced herself. I'm looking forward to chatting with her a bit more at future sessions.

Last night we learned "Red-Haired Lass" and "Lord Inchiquin." Then before the free-for-all, we went around the circle, each person picking a tune. I chose "Apples in Winter", using sheet music despite the fact that I can play it from memory at home. Though I can play several tunes without music when just one of a group, I'm still too nervous to lead without music yet. Gradually getting better at it, though. At least my hands don't shake anymore!

I played "Apples" somewhat more slowly than normal, and my whistle was soon outnumbered by other instruments. The resulting chaos of some people speeding up, some trying to slow down, ended up in the song stumbling to a halt. I apologized, but Denis (the friendly banjo player I mentioned in early Tranzac posts) encouraged me to try again, and asked the other players to stick with my speed. And this time it worked, yay!

I'm also purposely putting down my whistle and just LISTENING sometimes, even when I know the tunes, instead of feeling compelled to play every time. I love LOVE the music and atmosphere in that room: the comaraderie, the laughter and quips passed back and forth between tunes, the encouragement and good humour. How I wish I could bottle it up and take it with me everywhere.

Tonight, I'm heading up to Richmond Hill to get together with Allison and Jodi to work on our Urban Tapestry DVD project.

March 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

Writing, musicstuff, doodles

It's a relief to get back into the normal swing of things, not having to worry about househunting, being able to focus on my writing again. Sent out a completed article yesterday. Started my regular combing of writers' job boards again, queried a listing, updated my weblog for writers: Inkygirl. I also heard back from a print publication that had accepted one of my articles but then the editor left (hate when that happens, since the article often goes into limbo-land for a while); the new editor is going to run the article in the fall issue, yay! Also getting back to working on novel writing.

And we have a house!! Ok, I've already Blathered about that, but I can't resist mentioning it again. By the way, I won't be posting photos of the outside of the house on Blatherings or Flickr. For one thing, there's someone else living there now; we won't be moving in for a few months. Also, though the Internet usually makes it possible for anyone for find out a lot of information about information about anyone else, I'd rather not make it too easy. From my traffic logs, I know that there are a LOT more lurkers in my readership than those who post in the message boards. 'Nuff said on that topic. If you see me in person, feel free to ask to see some pics. :-)

re: Irish session musicstuff: Learned Apples in Winter and Dusty Windowsills this past week on my own, two tunes that seem to be played frequently at the Tranzac. You can find both at the Durham Music site.

Corel Painter doodle.

This means that in theory, I've learned the following tunes so far:

Apples in Winter, Austin Barrett's (Dusty Windowsills), Thrush in the Straw, Maurice Manley's (Ballydesmond=2), Ballydesmond #1, Egans (the two Ballydesmonds and the Egans are often played as a set at the Tranzac), Dusty Miller #2 (can't find this in any online tune compilation, so I suspect it has another common name), The Swallow Tail (reel), Donegal Reel, Galway Rambler (reel), Cooley's Reel, Boyne Hunt (reel), Sligo Maid (reel), Drowsy Maggie (reel), Ms McLeod's Reel, Dunmore Lassies (reel), Green Groves of Erin (reel), Bank of Ireland (reel).

The last few are a bit hazy and need to be practised more before I'd be confident launching into without sheet music in a session. I've heard rumours that Mary Bertke and Dave Clement are planning an informal session sometime during FKO weekend. If this is true (and Mary just confirmed in LJ), I plan to bring along my sheet music in hopes of being able to play along on a few. :-)

Illustration Friday collab. This week's topic: "Ancient."

I'm really enjoying my lessons with Karen Light. I've settled into focussing on learning to play one tune with proper technique at a time. Karen told me that in theory, once I get in the habit, I'll apply this proper technique to tunes I learn on my own as well. So far I've studied Thrush in the Straw this way, am doing Austin Barrett's (Dusty Windowsills) next.

Looking forward to the session at the Tranzac tonight. The iTalk that Jeff bought for me a while back is wonderful; I've been recording session and lesson tunes, practising with the recordings back at home, listening to the tunes on my iPod while I'm out walking. I've also been gradually compiling an alphabetized master index of all the tunes for which I have sheet music.

Three more weeks until FilKONtario in Toronto!

Only seven more months until FilkContinental in Germany!

March 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

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!

:-)

February 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

boskone

Jodi, me, Allison. We're wearing garlic necklaces, gifts from the Boskone concom (part of the Saturday Night Dead theme). Photo by Paul Estin.

Back from Boskone in Boston! Allison, Jodi and I had a wonderful time.

Not sure when I'm going to be able to post a full con report since things are a bit nuts here re: catching up, work, househunting, doing more babysitting Wed, Thu and Fri, sorting through the 1300+ spam e-mails that made it into my inbox during the weekend and making it nearly impossible to pick out the real mail (grrr), so I'll post a link to my Boskone 2005 Flickr Photo set instead for now. You can also see photos from our children's concert in Kathryn Cramer's blog and Allison's Boskone photos.

Sheryl, Gary, Allison and Jodi.

Our regular concert on Saturday afternoon went well, and we got positive feedback from a number of people afterward who said they don't normally attend the filking track at Boskone but checked out our concert out of curiosity. Sadly, our CDs never made it to the convention but happily (and more importantly), everyone seemed to be having fun. :-)

In case any of you are curious, our concert playlist was as follows: Hockey Monkey, Another Story, My Jalapeno Man, Two Voices, The Question, Into The West (by Howard Shore and Fran Walsh), Silmarillion (by Tim and Annie Walker), Sex and Chocolate, Tin Soldier (by Julia Ecklar), The Lady, Starsoul, Battle On, Neurotic Love Song.

I enjoyed the concerts by Odd Numbers (Virginia Taylor, Patricia Rubin, Gary McGath), Robin Holly and Jonathan Turner, Paul Estin, Gary Ehrlich, and hearing the other performers in the "Life, the Universe and Everything" concert. Great to finally get to hang out with Julie Cochin, to sightsee a bit with her and Allison, hear her songs. Enjoyed getting to know Paul Estin, whom I met for the first time at GAfilk...and he's coming to FKO, yay! Loved hearing all his Canadian content songs. :-D

Also enjoyed chatting with Keith DeCandido, who did the novelisation of Serenity as well as many other books; unfortunately we were unable to get much scoop out of him about the new Firefly movie (darn NDAs). We've agreed that if we're ever performing at a con he's also attending, he'll play percussion for us. :-)

Jodi, Keith and Allison.

I saw Jane Yolen in person for the first time! Yep, I'm a fangirl :-) I interviewed Jane for Inklings a long while back, but had never met her in person. Other authors at the convention whose work I've read included Orson Scott Card (guest of honour), Frederich Pohl, George R.R. Martin.

Paul Estin.

Urban Tapestry got interviewed by Michael MacDonald and his film crew for "Vision From The Edge: The art of Science Fiction", a documentary airing on the Space Channel and Bravo next summer. They also filmed part of our concert. It will be interesting to see what clips (if any) end up in the show, which is due to wrap in June/July.

Many thanks to Priscilla Olson, Gary McGath and the rest of the Boskone concom for inviting us to Boston this year! Also thanks to Scott and Amanda Snyder for writing a highly entertaining bio for Urban Tapestry for the program book. :-) Steve Macdonald is the Featured Filker at next year's Boskone.

Be sure to check Allison's Livejournal, where she'll be posting more about our Boston experience.

February 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments