Squirrelbuster triumphs!

Conversation on one weekend morning...

JEFF: Hey, Deb...come check out the squirrel on your Squirrelbuster feeder!

DEBBIE: What?! Oh. HA HA, it managed to get on the feeder but it can't get any food because its weight makes the cover pull down over the holes. HA HA HA!

JEFF: It must have taken him ages to get on the feeder. He must be really frustrated.

DEBBIE: I hope so. HA HA HA HA HA HA! TAKE THAT, SQUIRREL! HA HA!!

JEFF: Y'know, he looks kinda scrawny.

DEBBIE: HA HA...um. He does?

JEFF: Yeah, I guess he's having trouble finding food this winter.

DEBBIE: You think so?

(pause)

JEFF: What's wrong?

DEBBIE: Now I feel guilty. You think I should put out some food for it?

.
.
.

I am SUCH a loser.

:-)

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Dan Gibson

Just found out that Dan Gibson passed away this morning. :-(



Dan was a longtime friend of the family's and a close friend of Jeff's father. My interactions with Dan were always at the cottage; I found him to be an incredibly positive and cheerful individual, full of energy and good humour. He encouraged me to bring my flute over to his cottage so we could jam together.

I was aware Dan's recording and film work were fairly well-known in Canada, but his international influence only really hit me when Jeff and I were in Tokyo and saw a Solitudes display in the lobby shop, along with a bio and photo of Dan, all in Japanese.



Dan Gibson's career in nature sounds, film and TV started in 1946 when he started Dan Gibson Productions Ltd. His method of synchronizing nature sounds (that he recorded himself) with visual content was groundbreaking and earned him two Canadian Film Awards (now called Genies) for best movie soundtracks. Dan also invented a type of parabolic microphone that is still used today.

In 1981, Dan founded the Solitudes line, named after his favorite song by Duke Ellington, "In My Solitude". In April 1994, Dan was named to the Order of Canada by the Governor General of Canada. The distinguished civilian honor was presented to Dan for his work in "filming and recording nature and for his role in creating public awareness of conservation, wildlife and our natural heritage." At the 1997 Juno awards, Dan was awarded the Walt Grealis Lifetime Achievement Award.

My strongest memory of Dan was from early one morning at the cottage: seeing him in a boat drifting slowly across the lake through the mist, holding up a parabolic microphone to record a loon call.

Dan, you will be sorely missed.

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Urban Tapestry practice

The drawings above and below were done for Illustration Friday. This week's topic: "Feet." If I wanted to spend more time on the drawing above, I'd do something more interesting for the ground...maybe a wooden floor with interesting wood textures, or stone.

Thanks so much for all the recording equipment advice, everyone! Looks like I'm pretty close to having everything I need to record, and gradually upgrade my equipment over time. Hoping to put everything together in time to be able to contribute a flute part to Seanan McGuire's new CD project; the CD sounds like it's going to be amazing, and I'd love to be a part of it.

Had a good practice the other day with Allison and Jodi. Just before they arrived, I was overwhelmed with a desire to try making chicken soup from scratch. I figured I needed chicken for that, so threw some chicken legs into a pot of water. Added chopped up onions, garlic, carrots, celery, salt, pepper, oregano, thyme. Scooped off fat as the soup cooked, added creamed corn near the end as well as taking out the bones and leaving the chicken meat. Didn't turn out half-bad, and I still have lots of broth leftover to do more experimenting with.



We got a LOT of practising done that afternoon. Went over our concert set and did more work on Franklin's songs. I drew some props (yes, there are going to be props in our concert :-) while Allison and Jodi made Useful Suggestions and helped cut them out (the props, not the suggestions). We also learned two new songs (cover tunes) for performing in open filk if the opportunity arises. And possibly a third one that Allison says she'll only sing if it's very, very late at night. ;-)

Jodi brought highly addictive low-fat President's Choice rice and corn chips...my favourite was the Japanese Wasabi & Honey flavour. I must find some!

It's always a joy working with Allison and Jodi, I have to say. After working together for 13 years as Urban Tapestry, the three of us have a real chemistry based on a thorough knowledge of each other's strengths and weaknesses as well as the friendship we have with each other.

Little bickerings come up now and again just as they would in any family unit, but the love and respect we have for one another is the glue that holds everything together and fuels our music and performances. We don't work together to make/sell CDs or solely to perform...we're together because we enjoy hanging out AND making music together.

Anyway, after practising all afternoon, I made a scallop & shrimp stew from a Moosewood Cookbook, and we had key lime pie that Allison brought for dessert. Yum!

After dinner, I got a fire going in the fireplace and then we just sat in the living room and hung out for the rest of the evening. 'Twas a good get-together.

Less than two weeks until FilKONtario! Our concert with Franklin, by the way, is on Saturday from 4:15-5:15 pm.

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Need home recording advice!

The photo above was taken from Urban Tapestry's recording session in a Richmond Hill studio some years back, when we recorded vocal and flute parts to go on Chris Conway's Alien Abduction CD (you can hear my flute and Allison's and Jodi's vocals on the soundclip from Track 9: "Alien Jellyfish Song"). Chris Conway, by the way, will be the Guest of Honour at FilKONtario in just a couple of weeks!

The main focus of this Blathering is a plea for advice re: home recording. I've been asked to play flute on various recording projects over the years, sometimes with Urban Tapestry and sometimes on my own. I've done recordings in professional studios, home recording studios, hotel rooms during conventions, and friends' living rooms.

Most of these recording collab invites come from people in other countries. I'd really, really like to figure out a way I could do this sort of thing from my basement office with my laptop and high-speed connection. Far less hassle, money and time.

I've posted my details of my current set-up in my Livejournal, for those interested. If you have any experience with home recording, I'd very much appreciate your advice! Ideally, this set-up could eventually be used for recording future Urban Tapestry projects as well. Thanks in advance for any help.

Speaking of music, Allison and Jodi are coming over today in prep for our concert with Franklin at FilKONtario; Allison's on March Break, so Jodi and I are taking an afternoon off so we can get some solid time to practice. We all live far enough apart that when we meet on weeknights, we tend to spend more time commuting than we do in actual practice. I'm cooking Sicilian Seafood Stew tonight, a recipe from one of the Moosewood cookbooks.

Only 15 days until FilKONtario!

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Off Panel is seeking niche comic strips!

(Update: I asked Kevin and Tom to look over the info in today's Blathering to make sure I wasn't misquoting info, and they've provided some clarification. I've added their info below in bold. -- Debbie)

In yesterday's Blathering, I asked who dropped off our Mystery Package on the weekend. Found out the culprit...thanks to our pal Ray for the crackers!

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. This week's column topic: "Freelance writers and e-mail: keep it professional." If you have any of your own e-mail pet peeves, please do add them to the WWFC comments section for this week.

Off Panel Productions is seeking new comic artists for their site, by the way, and I get a finder's fee if they sign anyone up because of me. So heck, here's a basic overview for those interested:

Off Panel is looking for comic artists (or people who have comic artist friends :-)) who also have knowledge and appreciation of a specialized field. Mine, for example, is freelance writing. Other comics so far include HCI/UX/usability, paleobiology and managing tech.

They let you keep all rights to your work. You can publish elsewhere at the same time, if you'd like.

You keep 80% of any advertising income. There are no fees, and you're not locked into any time commitment...as long as you give four weeks' notice, you can opt out anytime. (From Off Panel: "The 80% is for any revenue generated through Off Panel. Currently, that means advertising and paid syndication (if someone wants to put the latest
WWFC on their site every week, we have tools for that). Anything made not through our system is 100% yours. E.g., if you made a commission deal.")



Off Panel will provide hosting space, software tools and other infrastructure to upload comics and a blog entry with comments section. Your commitment: one comic strip and blog entry related to your niche topic a week. (From Off Panel: "Weekly is the minimum schedule we'd like to see but people are free to do more frequent schedule, so long as it's predictable and regular! =)")

You can opt for a more frequent schedule if you prefer, but weekly is the minimum. (From Off Panel: "The blog entry can be more than one and we don't actually require the blog entry per week but strongly recommend it. It's the main reason our site managed to grow so fast.")

Warning: You need to do your own marketing/PR as well as find your own advertisers (except for Google AdSense, which they'll set up for you). If you do find advertisers, they'll handle your revenue stream re: payments, etc. (From Offpanel: "We have a self serve system for advertisers and the 'you need to market/pr/find advertisers' is true but the context is that you know and love your subject so you know which sites and vendors are related to your audience. We simply can't tell you that because you're the expert =)")

I'm not expecting to make a huge amount of money off Will Write For Chocolate anytime soon, though eventually I may publish a print collection. But as Jeff pointed out, why not try to make a little money off something I feel compelled to do anyway? :-)

Reasons I signed up with Off Panel:

- They let me keep all rights. This was a biggie.

- They handle the revenue stream. I'd rather focus on the creative part and not the technical/revenue infrastructure building/maintenance. The latter was a time vampire when I worked on Inkspot.

- They're constantly working on ways to improve the site to help their artists.

- I like the weekly deadline.

- I love the idea of gathering niche comic strips in one place. I think this project's going to be pretty successful, and I want to be a part of it.

- I like Kevin Cheng and Tom Chi, the two guys behind Off Panel...though I've never met them, they seem very easygoing and helpful through e-mail and live chat. They collaborate on their own comic OK/Cancel from different continents; Kevin lives in London, UK while Tom lives in Seattle, WA.

You can see a recent CNet article on one of their cartoonists here. There's also info about Off Panel on the second page.

You can see their current strips here. If you're accepted as an Off Panel artist, then you need to come up with six strips before launch. (From Off Panel: "Creators don't have to have samples before contacting us as sometimes, we can help them find the topic to work on before they've started drawing. Samples of previous work help of course but not necessarily samples of the strip they'll be doing.)

If you have other questions, please let me know or you can apply here.

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