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.

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healing vibes needed

Leaving for Boston tomorrow! Hence the lack of Blatherings and the brevity of this post...too many things to do between now and tomorrow, too little time.

I've also been helping out at my sister's place; she has pneumonia. :-( And I'm learning a new appreciation for you work-at-home parents out there who juggle work, shopping, cleaning, dropping off and picking up the kids at school and helping them with their homework, cooking dinner, and I'm sure a zillion other daily essential tasks.

If any of you have a spare moment over the next while, I'd appreciate you thinking healing vibes at my sister. Thanks. :-)

Have a good weekend, everyone!

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12 years of Urban Tapestry, boskone

Urban Tapestry at The Gathering, Dec/2003

Allison, Jodi and I had a successful Urban Tapestry practice yesterday in Newmarket. My right arm had recovered enough from my fall on the ice that I was able to play flute, yay!

It took me two hours to get there. First, an hour of fitful starts and stops on the underground Toronto subway system, including my train inexplicably going out of service three stops away from my destination. Then an hour on the York Transit Newmarket "B" bus, listening to my German language lessons on my iPod (only eight months left until Filkcontinental, after all!). Jodi picked up Allison and me at the bus station in Newmarket.

It's always a bit of a challenge for the three of us to get together these days because of the distance between us. I live in downtown Toronto, Allison lives in Richmond Hill and Jodi lives in Newmarket. Because of the travel time involved, getting together for a practice during the work week is a major undertaking; 3.5-4 hours round-trip travel time for what basically amounts to 2 hours worth of actual practice not counting dinner, tuning instruments, warming up, etc. It quickly became clear that weekend practices made much more sense.

If we haven't got a gig coming up, we usually try to get together anyway at least once or twice a month, along the north end of the subway line. As I have mentioned in earlier Blatherings, the three of us are friends as well as music partners, and we enjoy each other's company even outside of our musical fellowship. We meet for dinners, see movies together, cry on each other's shoulders. We have the occasional spat, but our disagreements never last long.

Urban Tapestry beaded keychains designed and made by Michelle Bottorff. Click image for detail.

This July marks the 12th anniversary of Urban Tapestry. 12 years! During a practice at Allison's place last month, we went through some old videotapes of our early performances, including the very first time the three of us performed together. At that time, we had no idea how strong the bond between us would grow, both musically and in friendship.

With Allison's husband help, we plan to put together a DVD compilation of some of these Urban Tapestry archive clips and donate the DVD to some Interfilk auctions. I'm excited about having a copy of my own. :-) If you haven't already, please do check out the wonderful 10th anniversary scrapbook that Allison put together a couple of years ago.

We leave for Boston and Boskone this week! We will be performing an hour concert, a 40-minute children's concert, instrumentalists' panel, introduction to filk panel, and participating in a Firefly panel and a "Life, the Universe and Everything" concert. Should be fun, and we hope to see some of you there! You can find out more information about the convention at the Boskone Web site .

Concert at Digeri-Douze in UK, 2000. Photo by Godfrey Joseph.

OUR BOSKONE SCHEDULE:

FRIDAY

7:00 pm Can't Take Firefly From Me

"How long can 14 episodes hold a fandom, anyway? Sure, the world Joss Whedon created in his short-lived series Firefly is a richly embroidered tapestry. And now we've got the feature film Serenity to look forward to in the fall. But just what is it about Mal, Jayne, Zoe, and the rest of the motley gang that holds our intrigue? How little source material is the minimum needed to sustain a fandom over the long haul, anyway?"

Keith R. A. DeCandido, Allison Durno, MaryAnn Johanson (m), Jodi Krangle, Debbie Ridpath Ohi

8:00 pm - Filk 101: An Introduction to Filk
Allison Durno, Jodi Krangle, Lois H. Mangan, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, Erwin S. Strauss

SATURDAY

1:00 pm - Urban Tapestry Concert

SUNDAY

10:00 am - Urban Tapestry Concert for Children

12:00 noon - Concert: Life, the Universe, and Everything
"Themed concert by many performers, including Urban Tapestry."

1:00 pm - The Instrument Panel
"Filk isn't just voice and guitar; many other instruments can be and have been used. Panelists talk about the instruments they use, how they fit into a filk performance, what it takes to learn them, and show off their use." With Allison Durno, Joseph Kesselman, Jodi Krangle, Gary D. McGath, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, Hillary Sherwood

Confluence/2004 concert. Photo by John Hall.

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viavoice

Jodi and Allison at an Urban Tapestry practice.

I went by our old place last week to pick up mail. It felt very strange, standing in the lobby as a visitor, not a resident. The concierge told me that the new owner had already started major renovations, ripping down walls.

Hard not to feel a pang, and I silently reminded myself that the place belonged to someone else now. I was filled with curiosity as well, wondering what the new place would look like. Would they open up the living room even more? Take out the wall between Jeff's and my offices? Perhaps put in another bathroom?

I found myself wishing that I had left behind some secret mark, perhaps some scribbled initials in a shadowy corner of a closet that no one would notice, fading over time. Jeff and I would eventually move back into the building years from now, disillusioned by the whole house thing (Jeff will hate shovelling snow, and I will have developed an unreasonable fear of gardening) and craving condo living again. By lucky chance, our old unit would be up for sale.

"Look!" I'd cry happily to Jeff as we drifted from room to room, re-acquainting ourselves with our old home. "My initials are still here! We never left after all, really."

----

Impending UT concert DVD? Click image for details.

So I'm writing this with Viavoice. Last week after my uncle's funeral, I slipped on some ice and (of course) fell on my bad arm. Didn't sprain any elbows this time, but my arm still isn't happy. Trying very hard not to let this get me down. I'm hoping it recovers quickly so that I'm able to play flute during our gig in Boston later this week. Allison, Jodi and I are getting together in Newmarket today for an Urban Tapestry practice in prep for Boskone.

Many thanks to those who posted suggestions about where I could find online recipe information. Here are just a few:

Epicurious.com. This site claims to have the world's greatest recipe collection. I love the recipe search interface, which lets you look for recipes with certain ingredients, special considerations like a low-fat or kid friendly focus, specific types of courses, cuisines, occasions, preparation methods and sources. Readers can also post their reviews and ratings. I've already made one recipe which turned out very well ("fantastic," Jeff reports :-)).

Egullet.com. Information is posted in a message board format, where users can ask questions and offer advice under particular categories. The recipe section is only one small part of the site, which covers culinary topics in general.

Canadian Living. This is the Web site of the print magazine, whose tagline is "Smart solutions for everyday living." The publication also hosts a cooking show on Canada's FoodTV network. The site contains archives of recipes in the television show as well as from the magazine. The recipe section is searchable by general category, food group, and keyword.

Like Canadian Living, Cook's Illustrated is and online version of its print counterpart, with considerable editorial content not having to do with specific recipes. The recipe search interface allows you to look for recipes by course, ingredient and category. The site also links up with America's Test Kitchen, which appears to be a television show backed by the magazine. LOVE the explanation of science behind various cooking techniques as well as the lack of advertising. You have to pay a fee to access most of the content. I've signed up for a year.

Recipezaar: Browsable by category from the main page, Or you can use the advanced recipe search interface Which includes key words, course, cuisine, main ingredient, preparation method, special diet, time prep, and nutritional factors. One thing I like about this site that the others seem not to have is the nutritional information provided along with every recipe.

VegWeb: Vegetarian recipes. Limited search interface, but you can browse recipes by category or alphabetically.

And of course I can't forget about my friend Andy's culinary resource suggestion. :-)

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poll: online recipe resources?

I made Sicilian Seafood Stew last night, from one of my Moosewood Cookbooks, with scallops and shrimp and loads of fresh vegetables. Turned out pretty well, and I have leftovers for other meals. I'm a huge fan of leftovers. If you're interested, I've found a slightly modified version of the recipe online.

Most of my cookbooks are packed in the storage locker, to save space while we're staying at Ginny's. I figured I could always look up recipes online, but I'm discovering that there is WAY too many options to choose from. Wonderful to have the choice, of course, but I'm feeling overwhelmed.

So a survey for all you cyber-savvy cooks out there: what are your favourite online recipe resources? Suggestions appreciated! I'm especially interested in resources which include a nutritional analysis.

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