Ernie, Interfilk, and Dave Clement

As I mentioned in an earlier Blathering, I have been babysitting a goldfish who swims upside-down and some violet plants for two families for the past week. Both families get back home today, and I'm pleased to report that Ernie and the Violets have survived my care intact. Thanks to those who offered advice! Even Luis, who suggested I juggle Ernie on a daily basis.

I hate to admit it, but I think I'm actually going to miss Ernie, especially the little spastic, lopsided convulsions he went into whenever I approached his bowl at feeding time.



Click the image above to see a bigger version. Will Write For Chocolate has been updated, this week's accompanying blog topic: Tax tips and resources for freelance writers.




Above: Urban Tapestry's donation to the Interfilk auction at FilKONtario. Basically the same package mentioned in my Blatherings PLUS a hand-decorated "Filk Fan" and a hand-decorated folder containing all the lyrics/chords for songs on our CD. Only four copies of the CD will be donated to Interfilk auctions. After FilKONtario, the remaining CD will be auctioned at Filkcontinental in Germany. For a description of the CD contents, please see this Blathering.



Beckett Gladney took the above photo of Dave Clement at a jam session at her place...it's one of my favourite photos of Dave, ever. I had pizza with Tom, Sue and Dave last night -- double Hawaiian! The exclamation mark is because I meet so few other people who like pineapple and ham on their pizza.

Gift from Dave.

Tom is still in search of a pizza delivery service in Toronto which has pizzas as good as the ones back in Winnipeg. Last night, we tried Mama's Pizza. Tom rated it ok, but was not impressed by the thin layer of toppings despite having ordered "double" on everything. If any Torontonians out there have suggestions, please do post them!

After Sue and Tom left to see Phantom of the Opera, Dave and I spent several wonderful hours just catching up. Conversations with Dave are like having a long drink of cool water after crossing a desert. One-on-one conversations are tough to come by at the busy conventions where our paths usually cross, so I'm grateful to Tom and Sue for this opportunity.

I feel incredibly lucky to have Dave as a friend. Here are 20 Things I Love About Dave Clement.


Another great Beckett photo.

Sibylle arrives today! My e-mail and online posts will likely be sporadic between now and next Monday.

Link O' The Day

Sam Baardman's Flickr Photos: I'm a longtime Sam Baardman fan, ever since Dave introduced me to his music. I also got to know Sam a bit better during a visit years ago. You can hear samples of Sam's music on this page (please PLEASE do listen to "Solar Flare", the first track on the first CD listed!); Jeff and I both love his CDs. Anyway, I only found out recently that Sam was a fantastic photographer as well.






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Musical collaboration

I'm about 3/4 way through my novel rewrite. I average about 1500 words a day (depending on my other tasks), though on good days I manage 3000-3500 words. Meanwhile, I have some other novel ideas screaming in my head, begging to be written, and I'm starting to outline those. So much to write, so little time.

I love the Internet. As I've mentioned before, Urban Tapestry has been invited to participate in performing with Playing Rapunzel on a song in their concert on Saturday at FilKONtario. I am VERY excited about this because I love Playing Rapunzel and also love the song, "Sholem" (which is also on Mich Sampson's fabulous CD, "Just Beyond.")

Mich arranged the song for our two groups, then e-mailed us a multitude of sound files including the song as a whole, our individual parts, and "karaoke versions" where we could practice our parts against the others, AND all the sheet music plus arrangement summary in text. This is one incredibly organized woman!

I found that the vocal part arranged for me was a bit too low for me to sing; I have a VERY narrow vocal range, which is why I write most of my songs for Jodi and Allison to sing lead -- three-note songs would be dull to write and sing after a while otherwise, I suspect. :-) Anyway, we ended up changing my vocal part to flute instead, after which Mich and I then had several satisfying exchanges (I LOVE this sort of musical collaboration), tweaking my flute part after I recorded my proposed flute part against the others and sent the result to her, plus also e-mailed her a photo of my altered sheet music.



From one of her recent e-mails: "Your bars 37-38 - rather than F - D - D, could we please replace that with one long D (D - D - D), to keep the ending of the vocal line clean?" Am I crazy that I love this sort of in-depth attention to musical detail? I feel the same way when I listen to Joey Shoji talk about wine. *SWOON*

Anyway, there is NO WAY we could have done this by traditional snailmail within the space of a couple of weeks.

For those in the Toronto area, it's not too late to decide to attend FilKONtario this weekend! You can find out more at the Web site. Jodi, Allison and I will be participating in a song in Playing Rapunzel's concert on Saturday afternoon as well as participating in the children's roundtable concert on Sunday (tentatively scheduled for noon).

FilKONtario attendees are starting to arrive this week from around the world! Looking forward to hanging out with Dave Clement (from Winnipeg) tonight. And Sibylle Machat arrives from Germany for a visit tomorrow, woohoo!

Link O' The Day

Breakout: Remember that old game, Breakout? This is a highly unusual and entertaining take, from Japan. :-) (Thanks to Jeff, who found the link through Daring Fireball)


Parki and me. Photo by Jeff.



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Consonance

We had a WONDERFUL time at Consonance. Many thanks to guests Kathy Mar, Gwen Knighton, Dave Rood, and the Bohnhoffs (who were all wonderful) as well as concom for making this convention just as enjoyable as I remember from my previous two visits years ago.

I'm not sure when/if I'll be able to post a full convention report, but you can see my photos in my Flickr account; I'll be gradually adding post-Consonance pics, and you can also see my Consonance photo set. Unfortunately most of my concert shots during the weekend didn't turn out well enough to post, but there were many others taking photos, so I'm sure some of these will turn up online if they haven't already.

Here are just a few of my photos from this past weekend:




Above: I was very happy to be able to hang out with my friend Beckett for several hours at a coffee shop; we rarely get to see each other anymore.



The Guests of Honour! The Bohnhoffs were the main reason for our trip; when I told Jeff (my Jeff) that Jeff & Maya were GoHs at Consonance, he suggested we attend...he had already met Jeff B. years ago when Jeff visited us in Toronto.

Anyway, their concert not only featured Alex, Maya and Jeff Bohnhoff, but also their eldest daughter! What an incredibly talented family.



I very much enjoyed hearing Margaret Davis and Kristoph Klover for the first time. I had e-mailed briefly with Kristoph to arrange recording for Seanan's CD and had gotten the impression from his e-mail that he was a fairly quiet and serious person.

(long pause)

I was VERY wrong. :-D



Another personal convention highlight for me was getting to spend more time with Joey Shoji. I've known Joey for years, but we rarely get time to hang out for more than a few minutes at a time. In addition to a couple of meals, we got to sample some of Joey's wines and single malt scotches. Well...JEFF sampled the scotch; scotch still tastes like jet fuel to me.

I am SO enjoying the lack of snow and ice here. I like the change of seasons and have no problem with the arrival of winter in Toronto, but it's always around this time of year that I start craving spring. We went for a walk with Jeff B. and his youngest daughter yesterday, and there were flowers blooming everywhere. Grass. And even squirrels...climbing up the palm trees (!).



Hope you're all having a wonderful week...



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Home To FilKONtario!

FilKONtario is less than a month away! For those who aren't aware, this year's Toronto filk convention is special in that the Guests of Honour are the sixteen (16!!!) members of n'Early Music Consort (a.k.a. "n'MC"), an a capella filk choir based in Great Britain.

FilKONtario, Interfilk and n'MC have been raising funds for this event for the past three years. Here are the sketches I did for a fund-raising t-shirt:








Buttons were also made from these sketches, courtesy Blind Lemming Chiffon:



This may very well be the ONLY TIME that all of n'MC performs in North America, so make sure you buy your FKO membership soon!

In addition to concerts by n'MC and individual members within the choir, there will also be concerts by:

	Gwen Knighton: Gwen is a London-based master of the wirestrung harp and is a member of Three Weird Sisters. Gwen competed at Celtic festivals and Highland Games, and was named the Scottish Harp Society of America's National Journeyman Champion for the year 2000, which earned her a trip to Scotland's Edinburgh Harp Festival (!!).
	I first heard Playing Rapunzel perform Sholem in Germany, and was absolutely blown away. I could listen to Mich Sampson and Marilisa Valtazanou sing forever, I swear. You can hear samples of songs they perform here, including Sholem (*swoon*). Mich and Marilisa are also members of n'MC.
	Tom Smith made the switch to being a full-time musician in the past couple of years and has a HUGE fan following. With at least 12 albums under his belt, Tom has also gained a reputation as an incredibly fast songwriter...he has been known to write a parody of someone's song before the person has even finished performing it. :-)
	And yay for Toronto's own Phil Mills getting his own concert! I remember when Allison came back from a housefilk with praises for Phil's Universal Follower song. You can read the lyrics to some of Phil's other great songs on his music page. I've also gradually learned what a terrible/wonderful punster Phil is. :-)

There's a songwriting contest (theme: "Harmony") and lots of other fun programming planned. Please note that the info under Concerts hasn't yet been updated as of 1:26 pm today; Urban Tapestry does NOT have a concert this year...some of you were asking me in e-mail.

My own feelings about FilKONtario weekend can be summarized in a song I wrote years ago. I've posted the lyrics below along with some photos taken at previous FKO weekends. Urban Tapestry has been honoured to be asked to perform the song at the end of the convention each year, and it's wonderful to hear everyone sing along on the chorus:

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

(plus counterpoint #1)
Bring me home to FilKONtario
Bring me home to FilKONtario
I want to go to FilKONtario



(plus counterpoint #2)
Filk FilkOntario...Filk FilkONtario
I want to go to FilkONtario

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 (twice):

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

(plus counterpoint #1)
Bring me home to FilKONtario
Bring me home to FilKONtario
I want to go to FilKONtario

(plus counterpoint #2)
Filk FilkOntario...Filk FilkONtario
I want to go to FilkONtario

FilKONtario 17 March 23-25, 2007 Delta Toronto Airport West Mississauga, Ontario Membership: $60 Filk Hall Of Fame Banquet: $36 Web site: FilKONtario.ca

Link O' The Day

Stabbing at Leia's 22nd Birthday Party: When my friend Ray sent me this link, I was totally turned off by the title ("why would I want to watch a stabbing?!?") and postponed watching it until Jeff encouraged me. Be warned that there IS strong language (i.e. not appropriate for kids) but if you're a Star Wars fan, this is pretty funny. :-D



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Dave Clement on CBC

Hey, my friend Dave was on CBC's "LivingWinnipeg" show! I'm not sure how long the clip will be up, but you can find the segment on Dave Clement's house concerts at the Living Winnipeg site right now. Dave's segment is first, after the intro.

I've ordered my MOO MiniCards; I can't wait until they arrive! Supposedly in about 10 days, according to the site. My friends Allison and Ray showed me samples they had, and I was impressed by the quality. I'm going to use mine as mini-bookmarks which double as business cards. I decided on 20 designs, 5 cards each. Here are a few of the images I used:













On the reverse side of each card, I have my Flickr user icon (from a photo by Beckett Gladney), my name, e-mail, P.O. Box address, and my Inkygirl site and URL.

Links O' The Day

What I Did Over Christmas Vacation: a scale replica of the battle of Helms Deep...in candy! (Thanks to Dave Clement for the link)

FlipClips: turn your digital video into a flip book.

The Scribbler: VERY cool. Draw a simple line drawing, hit "DONE DRAWING," and watch the magic. Sadly, you can't save your creations.





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