Urban Tapestry on MySpace and our NEW DRUMMER!

The new Urban Tapestry MySpace page is up. The graphics above and below were created for this UT page. I'm going to re-do the group collage when I have more time...I know the lighting's wonky.

Just making modifications to the stylesheet for this page and my own MySpace page has taught me more about CSS. Thanks to those who helped me test the UT page with different browsers!

Anyway, you can hear four full tracks on our MySpace page:

THE LADY is based on Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire and was written by one of my music partners, Jodi Krangle. Jodi runs The Muse's Muse, an excellent resource for songwriters. The Lady won a Pegasus Award for Best Song a couple years ago.

THE FRIENDSHIP SONG is by me and is about friendships, sort of. :-) Recorded in concert.

ANOTHER STORY started out as a children's song by me, but got a bit darker than I expected. I took the unfinished song to my music partner Allison Durno, and she finished it by coming up with a great chorus. Recorded in concert.

HOMECOMING is by me, and is based on Ray Bradbury's short story "The Rocket Man" from his collection, R Is For Rocket. It's about love and loss. Recorded in concert.



Allison, Jodi and I had a great practice last night. We did a lot of GAfilk planning and (*gasp) even played some music! Our get-togethers do tend to be more social than work...hey, the three of us are FRIENDS as well as music partners...but we get more serious when there's a gig coming up.

Well, as serious as Urban Tapestry gets. We do have fun when we get together.

I haven't told Allison and Jodi yet, but I think the group needs a drummer. Not just any drummer, mind you, but this particular drummer. Thanks to Jeff for the tip!

Today's Blathering is shorter so you have time to finish reading yesterday's mega-huge entry, by the way.

:-D

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Recording session

Hey, check out my first corporate illustration sale above (the thyme cartoon)! The media company found my cartoon in Flickr.



This night, Ken Lalonde drove from Whitby with some recording gear so I could add a flute part to one of Judith Hayman's upcoming CD tracks. He set up in our dining room. After running through the song once ("Maid of the Mist," a gorgeous song written by Judith), we recorded two versions of my flute part.

I'm happy to report that everything went smoothly, and Ken was able to pack up his gear for the drive back before it got too late. Thanks, Ken!





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David Francey at Hugh's Room

First off, congrats to our friends Andrew and Jenny, who are engaged to be married! This news made my day. And then we attended the David Francey concert, which capped off an already wonderful Monday...

Since Dave Clement introduced me to the music of David Francey several years ago, I've accumulated all his CDs and have gotten Jeff hooked as well. Last night, we attended a concert at Hugh's Room with Allison, Jodi, Walter, Sally, Sue and Tom; Sue organized the outing months ago.

For both Jeff and me, this concert ranked as one of our all-time favourites. The venue, for one thing, is wonderful. Allison and I had already attended a concert in Hugh's Room (Tom Paxton and Christine Lavin) a couple of years ago and had a similar experience. The sound system in Hugh's Room is excellent, the atmosphere intimate, the food delicious.

I found the audience, just like the one I attended before, was attentive and respectful of the performer as well as other members of the audience. No one chatted while David Francey was performing...we were all there to listen. Bravo! was there filming a documentary but was happily unobtrusive.


L to R: Walter, Jeff, Sue, Tom, Sally, Jodi and Allison.

Another reason we enjoyed the concert so much was the high level of performance. So many times, pro recording artists sound great on CD but noticeably sloppier in live performance where they can't rely on ProTools and other tech tools to tweak and cover up mistakes. David Francey, Shane Simpson and Geoff Somers, on the other hand, gave an impressively tight performance with just voices and acoustic instruments...no fancy effects or equipment.



One of the benefits of hearing David Francey live was being able to hear all the banter between songs, the background of each. David was a WONDERFUL storyteller with a wry sense of humour. His sincere and down-to-earth personality carries over into his songs.

Born in Scotland in 1954, David and his family immigrated to Toronto when he was twelve years old; they now live in Southern Ontario. He's won two Juno awards (he was still a construction worker when he won his first Juno) and has done workshops with artists like Garnet Rogers, the Ennis Sisters, Ray Bonneville, Kate Rusby, James Keelaghan, Sylvia Tyson, and Ashley MacIsaac. I have his four CDs (Torn Screen Door, Far End of Summer, Skating Rink, Waking Hour) and picked up his newest CD at the concert:



Just before dinner was served, we noticed that David Francey was standing near our table, chatting with someone. Jeff saw my expression and suggested that I go talk to him.

"But what would I say?" I asked, afraid I'd just go into drooling incoherent fangirl mode.

Allison suggested I ask him for a photo...brilliant idea! I was a bit nervous about approaching him, but he was SO nice about it. Didn't flinch at my enthusiasm, had an easygoing smile and acted as if he had all the time in the world. Thanks to Walter for taking the photo.

Huge thanks to Sue Posteraro for organizing this concert outing...both Jeff and I enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Great music, great food, and great company: it was a wonderful way to spend a Monday evening.

:-)



Above: Tom gave furry flowers to each member of Urban Tapestry. It was so great to see him again! He and Sue were pretty darned cute together, I have to say. And it looks as if Tom's going to be MOVING TO TORONTO BY THE END OF THE YEAR (!!!!!!!). He and Sue are going to be living downtown and within easy access of the subway, yay!

You can see more photos from the evening here.

If you ever have the chance, do go hear David Francey live. Here is his upcoming concert schedule, which includes appearances in New Hampshire, Newfoundland, British Columbia, Quebec, New York, Alberta and Ontario.

And I heartily recommend Hugh's Room as a concert venue. You can see their full concert schedule here, including concerts by Jane Siberry, Arrogant Worms, Christine Lavin, Tanglefoot and James Keelaghan.



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Garageband and my magnetic wall

When we moved, Jeff and I had to give away our baby grand piano because there wasn't room for it in our new house. Someday we may buy an upright piano, but for now I've been doodling on my Roland JV-80 whenever I get the urge to tickle some ivories. It's not quite the same, but better than having no keyboard at all.

While playing around with Garageband last night, however, I discovered that there are two ways to play a virtual keyboard. One is via clicking with a mouse (not great for my tendons :-( )) but the other is by typing on the keyboard:



Although I may not be able to play complex pieces, this entry method will be handy for entering melodic lines on different tracks.

So far, I'm finding Garageband remarkably intuitive in terms of user interface. I've already typed in part of my new multi-voice chocolate song. In the old Urban Tapestry days, I'd have to record myself performing scratch tracks on Jeff's old four-track recorder in order to properly test whether multi-part compositions truly worked. I've found that something that may follow all the proper harmony/counterpoint rules still may not sound all that great in real life, nor may it suit everyone's voices.

Composing via Garageband should be much easier, I think. It also looks like it SHOULD be fairly straightforward to record, with the proper recording equipment. I am still missing some cords to hook everything up to my laptop and eventually need another microphone. Seanan's going to mail me the track from her recording project for which she'd like flute added, so I can start experimenting.

More comments re: composing and recording with Garageband in a future Blathering.

Today we're getting a new air conditioner. It looks like they may have to put several holes in my basement office wall to install it, including (possibly) the wall with the magnetic wall beside the door. You can see an early picture of the wall in right-hand side of the photo below, MUCH emptier than it is now:




If they do have to put a hole in the wall, I'll paint another one, of course, but I'm still hoping I won't have to.

Anyway, I'm fleeing my office while they're here and taking my laptop and Wacom artpad elsewhere, so may be offline much of the day. I love the fact that I can take my office with me, working on my writing and illustrating pretty normally. Heck, I could even compose a mini-symphony with just my laptop, if I felt like it, complete with different instruments and multi-tracking, while sitting in a coffeeshop! I'd better take headphones.

I love technology.

I'm not yet familiar with what local restaurants and coffeeshops have reliable power outlets yet (and ideally, Internet access)...I guess now's a good a time to find out as any.

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Franklin Gunkelman & Urban Tapestry DVDs

Many, many thanks to my friends Walter and Vartan for putting together a "personal memory" DVD set based on footage Walter and Jeff took of our concert with Franklin Gunkelman at FilKONtario earlier this year. I gave Allison and Jodi their copies last night when we met for dinner. Franklin will be receiving his copy soon!

Dear lord. So much work went into the creation of the DVDs, which were customised slightly for each one of us. I laughed hysterically during the first five minutes of mine. Got all teary-eyed during the last five minutes.

I would rather not say more, for fear of spoilers...I'll wait until Allison, Jodi and Franklin have seen their copies.

:-)

"

Here's a photo of Walter with Allison, Jodi and me at FilKONtario:



You can see my report from FKO starting here.

Here's a picture of Vartan (on the left) fixing drinks at a party:



THANK YOU, VARTAN AND WALTER!!!!!

I've switched from GraphicConverter to iPhoto for all my digital photo stuff. I was a tad nervous since the last time I tried switching photo organization systems (Cumulus), I wrecked my tendons. I'm pretty happy with iPhoto so far, though, especially the Flickr upload plugin.

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