Seanan McGuire: Stars Fall Home

So I received my contributor's copy of Seanan McGuire's new CD, Stars Fall Home, yay! I've been listening to the audio file that Seanan sent me but now I also get to admire the liner notes with Beckett Gladney's fabulous interior illustrations.

Recording flute for Dorothy

By Seanan.

As I've mentioned earlier, I played flute on Dorothy; you can hear a sample from the track by going to Seanan's CD page and clicking on "Listen" beside the fourth track in Stars Fall Home. Or just click here to listen to a sample; my flute isn't on this sample, but you can hear Kris Yenney's gorgeous cello.

Seanan's Dorothy song was inspired by a photo comic from Illusive Arts Entertainment, a dark re-interpretation of Baum's original Oz. You can find out more about the song on this page.

I recorded my flute part in my home recording studio with coaching from Jeff Bohnhoff and Kristoph Klover, then sent the file off to Kristoph via YouSendIt (it was a pretty big file).

Listening to Stars Fall Home

I've been listening to Stars Fall Home a LOT in the past few months. Not only are the songs well-crafted, but the vocal and instrumental arrangements are very strong. Every note, every line contributes to the song texture as a whole.

Michelle Dockrey (a.k.a. "Vixy") provided many of the backing vocals on the album; her voice and Seanan's sound FANTASTIC together. Michelle, by the way, is going to be one of the Guests of Honour at FilKONtario next April, along with the equally talented Tony Fabris.

With her arrangements adding interest to already good songs, Seanan has also added musical variety to her songs by inviting guest musicians and vocalists. I think it VERY cool that this album involved musicians from several different countries. This sort of collaboration would have been much more of a hassle in pre-broadband days.

What's also very cool: Seanan's bio page of all the featured artists who participated in the album, including caricatures of each person. Guest musicians on this CD: Paul Kwinn, Michelle Dockrey, Tony Fabris, Amy McNally, Kristoph Klover, Alisa Garcia, Luis Garcia, Margaret Davis, Deirdre McCarthy, Kris Yenney, Beckett Gladney, Arlene Hills, Mich Sampson, Debbie Ohi (woohoo!), Mike Whitaker, Steve Macdonald, Jeff Bohnhoff, Maya Bohnhoff, Erica Neely, and Merav Hoffman.

She also did a group picture (I'm the one playing flute) of the North American musicians:




Seanan has also done a fantastic job with using her Web site to supplement and promote her recording projects. You can read about the Stars Fall Home creation process in her Recording Diary, for instance, and she is also gradually updating a special Behind The Music section to give background details for each song on the album including the story behind it, arrangement notes, interesting trivia, and even artwork.

You can find out more about Seanan at her Web site.
You can hear soundclips and read lyrics of her CDs.
You can buy her Stars Fall Home CD for $17 online.

And THANK YOU, Seanan, for inviting me to be part of this project!



Me, playing Guitar Hero 2 at the gaming party.

Photo by Ray Vankleef.



Livejournal comments

Breakfast with Rai-An and Wolfram

Above: Rai-An and Wolfram. I had breakfast with them yesterday morning just before Wolfram went shopping for a bass; he's the bass player for Ookla The Mok, among other bands.



I've been friends with the members of Ookla for years now since meeting them at Astronomicon in 1994 (I think it was '94).

Urban Tapestry performed on their Less Than Art album. You can hear an excerpt from the track by listening to the "Still Can't Buy Me Love" on the CD Baby page for the remixed/remastered Less Than Art; Jodi and Allison do backing vocals, and I play the flute.

Listening to the song brings back some great memories since it was the first song that our two groups ever collaborated on, and it was way fun to perform in the open filk circle as well as in concert. We don't tend to run into each other as often these days, but every so often we'll find ourselves in the same room circle.

Last time this happened, Wolfram asked if we could all do that song. I'm so glad he did. The lyrics are fun and silly, and the song is pure joy.



Ookla has had several drummers and bass players. Wolfram Neff has been playing bass with the band for a couple of years now. I've run into Wolfram and his wife Rai-An a couple times at conventions but never really had a chance to chat until yesterday.

It's always interesting to get the reactions of people who are relatively new to filk. Not everyone takes to it, mainly because of the wide range of personalities and levels of musical talent. One of the aspects I love most about filking is the support of new performers and encouragement of those who are insecure in their musical abilities.

Wolfram, who has been performing since he was a teenager, clearly gets this: that the heart of filk is in the community, not in the performing.

Anyway, I very much enjoyed hanging out Rai-An (who refers to Wolfram as "Wolfie") and Wolfram; hopefully our paths will cross again soon.



The following song helps summarize my feelings about filk. For those of you wanting to know more about the filk community, please do check out my Filk FAQ.

HOME TO FILKONTARIO

by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
(c) March 1999

I used to feel the lyrics slide inside my head
The music filled me up, and I felt I would explode in a
burst of coloured static, and the people all around, their eyes
on the ground.

CHORUS:
Bring me home to FilKONtario
Stay, sing with me we'll
be all right, sing all night
with my friends at Filkontario.

One fateful weekend, my friend took me to a filk, "What's a
filk", I said, and she laughed and took my hand, led me
to a room of people with guitars and easy smiles, and I
stayed a while.

CHORUS

So now I'm hooked, I go to filk cons every year, never
get much sleep, why sleep? I could be filking...
The circle changes but the smiles are still the same, and the
song remains.

BRIDGE (a capella):
But each time I find it harder to say
good-bye at the end of day,
may our paths cross again,
my friend.

Our voices may not be all perfectly on key, but we
lift each other up, and share the melody as we
fill the room with music, and I know I'll be all right as we
sing into the night.

CHORUS

Music survey and acrylics

"Moonwatch"

Acrylics mini-painting on 4" x 4" canvas board.

Yay, my Stars Fall Home Seanan McGuire CD arrived this week! I'll be posting about this album soon. This past week, I've been listening to Seanan's CD and the Hairspray soundtrack over and over again in the evenings, while I'm painting. I find I can't listen to words with music while I'm writing because I get too distracted.

When I'm drawing (on the computer or non-digitally), I tend to turn up the volume full-blast. Fortunately my office is two floors away from Jeff's home office.

A MUSIC SURVEY: What was the last CD you listened to, from start to finish?


"Ghosty Unicorn"

Acrylics mini-painting on 4" x 4" canvas board.

Wow, I'm SO ENJOYING acrylics painting. It reminds of what finger painting felt like when I was a little kid except the pictures end up somewhat nicer-looking and I don't try eating the paint.

I know I should probably take a course, but I lack the time and money (I'd rather spend the money and go to more writers' conferences right now). Instead, I ordered two books from Amazon:

The Acrylics Book: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist by Barclay Sheaks
The New Acrylics by Rheni Tauchid

I also decided to be brave and try painting on a 6" x 6" stretched canvas rather than my usual (well...usual since I started last week) 4" x 4" canvas board:


"Nightmare Bunny"

Acrylics mini-painting on 6" x 6" stretched canvas.

Acrylics are amazing! If you add enough water, they almost look like watercolour. You acrylics painters out there are rolling your eyes, I'm sure, but hey -- this is all new to me. :-) For the background of this painting, I also experimented with adding texture by scrunching up some paper towel and dabbing it on the paint while it was still wet.

I did the unicorn painting as part of my Don't Ask Me To Draw A Horse effort. Ok, so a unicorn isn't exactly a horse. But hey...I wouldn't even have ATTEMPTED it a year ago, so at least I don't quite suck as much as I did last year:



All the paintings above are for sale in my shop as of this morning, by the way. Just click on any of the images for pricing and more info.

I've started exploring Etsy more thoroughly. GREAT place. I've already done some Christmas shopping on it. AND I found a fellow that sells mini-easels! I ordered a bunch and got a bulk discount.




Livejournal comments

Mimi's NaNoWriMo Pep Song and more paintings

"Ghosty Bunny": acrylics on 4" x 4" canvas board.

My NaNoWriMo Song is up on the NaNoWriMo site; it's near the end of WrimoRadio Episode 3 podcast. It's being sung by Jodi Krangle and Allison Durno, my music partners in Urban Tapestry, with musical accompaniment provided by Scott Snyder. Jodi (who sings lead on the song) has just started doing voice-over work, by the way. If you're looking for voice talent, do check out her voice over talent page.

Many thanks to Scott for the music. Because I was pressed for time (I KNOW I KNOW THIS IS NO EXCUSE) I had to do the recording in a hurry but realized too late that the voices were spiking (too loud) in a couple of places. Plus I forgot to turn off a clicking noisemaker-thingy that's supposed to (but failing) to keep the squirrels out of my walls. Anyway, I begged Scott to come up with some accompaniment that would downplay the problems -- THANK YOU, SCOTT!

Anyway, I've posted the lyrics to Mimi's NaNoWriMo Pep Song on Inkygirl, if you're interested.


"Smiley Fish": acrylics on 5" x 3" canvas board.

I did a few more mini-paintings last night, which I've posted on this page. The ones above are for sale in my Esty store as of this morning. If you click on either image, you'll be taken to the Etsy page of that particular image; I've added a description of how each was created.

The one below has already been sold; I call it "Moongazing." I like the moongazing idea, so may do a few more along that theme. I went to an art store last night and bought some 6" x 6" stretched canvases as well as more of the mini canvas boards. I *love* art stores...yes, even more than office supply stores! I also bought a small table easel so I don't have to hunch over at my craft table when I'm painting.



"Moongazing." Acrylics on 5" x 3" canvas board.

I've started a gallery page of acrylics paintings I've done so far. These pieces are WAY fun to do. To keep them fun, I've decided not to take commissions (at least for a while); a couple of you have inquired about that. Much of the joy for me is sitting down with a blank canvas and deciding what to paint on the spot.

The orange fish painting, for example, was because I wanted to try out a new orange paint I bought in the art store last night. I painted two orange blobs on the background blue, then decided to turn the blobs into fish.

Though I will continue to do most of my artwork digitally, I do admit that I get enormous satisfaction out of swirling REAL paint around on a canvas.

Any other artist-types out there? If so, what's your favourite medium or media? And do you prefer working digitally or with non-digital materials?

Livejournal comments

David Francey, Etsy, and Star Trek movie auditions

Above: David Francey demonstrates how he dances ("just plant your feet on the floor and make sure they don't move") during his concert with Craig Werth at Hugh's Room on Sunday night.

Jeff and I went to the David Francey concert at Hugh's Room with Tom, Sue, Walter and Trish. You can read my post about the concert on blogTO: David Francey: Story and Song at Hugh's Room. This is my first music-oriented post on blogTO; I was hired mainly for the Restaurants and Books/Lit section, but was told that it was ok if I occasionally posted in Music. BlogTO doesn't focus much on folk music, so we'll see how this goes over (fingers crossed).

Anyway, please do go over and take a look if you're interested; I know there are folk music fans out there. If this post gets enough traffic, then that'll help justify more folk music posts. :-)



I found out about David Francey from Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers. Dave and I perform "Torn Screen Door" in open filk sometimes, and Dave and Tom have been kind enough to invite me to do "Saints and Sinners" with them in concert from time to time.

David Francey, Sue and Tom:



The lighting in Hugh's Room was pretty dim; I never would have been able to get the following photo without flash if I didn't have a low-light lens like my Sigma 30/1.4:



Walter brought his Rebel, too, and you can see his photos in Flickr. Here's one I especially liked:




Thanks so much to Tom and Sue for organizing this outing!


Thanks, by the way, to the positive response to my new Etsy site. I put three items online and was floored when they all sold within 24 hours (!) of opening my little online shop. THANK YOU. I mailed them off yesterday and might work on a few more this weekend.

Links O' The Day:

JuicyFruits: Oh dear...another addictive webcomic. I love the whimsical style of this artwork! I only wish I could read Japanese so I could appreciate the blog entries. (thanks to aep for the link)

To you Californians out there: So how many of you tried out for the new Star Trek movie? (thanks to Nunscio.com for the link)

Rands In Repose: The Nerd Handbook: "A nerd needs a project because a nerd builds stuff. All the time. Those lulls in the conversation over dinner? That's the nerd working on his project in his head." (thanks to Jeff for the link)



Livejournal comments