Chocolate, ice cream, sushi and cat faces

I forgot to mention that Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. If you missed the strip before this one, you should read it first else you'll be confused.



Above: one of the photos I took for my blogTO review of Greg's Ice Cream, which is now online. Jeff and I had one of our first official "dates" at Greg's, many years ago. :-)



I met Allison and Jodi in Richmond Hill for sushi and a practice. We've been going to Senbazaru for years and if the owner's there, he always greets us and knows what I usually order to start (hot sake and edamame :-).

After checking out Allison's new laptop, we fine-tuned our concert playlist and ran through a bunch of the songs for a house concert in Rochester on September 22. If you're interested in attending, please do contact John Hall to reserve a seat and for information (first-come, first-serve). It will be the last time that we'll be performing this year. Looks like FilKONtario will be the ONLY filk convention next year that all three of us will be attending. We'll likely be in open filk, but have no formal performance commitments.



Allison's and John's cat, Edward, willingly posed for me (I brought my new camera, of course) but I found it a challenge to take a good photo of a black cat -- the black really threw off the automatic exposure, so I had to do some manual tweaking.

I'm allergic to cats, but I still find them fascinating. What I find even more fascinating, however, are cat owners. At one point Edward was just lying on the floor, watching us. I asked Allison and John if they could tell his mood, and both of them (without hesitation) said that he wasn't totally relaxed, that he was somewhat wary.



So my question to you cat owners out there is this: can you honestly tell what your cats are feeling all the time? Or are you just making stuff up to freak out us non-cat people?!? :-D

Speaking of cats, I have to admit I missed Nova...Allison's other cat had to be put down recently; Nova was around for Urban Tapestry practices for many years. Beckett Gladney drew her on the cover of our Sushi and High Tea CD:


Art ©Beckett Gladney.



Livejournal comments

Pegasus Award Nomination

The 2007 ballot for the Pegasus Awards has been announced, and I'm both tickled and honoured to have been nominated for the Best Writer/Composer category.



Those nominated in this category are supposed to choose a representative song; I've chosen "Homecoming" (my song based on Ray Bradbury's short story, "The Rocket Man") because of all the songs I've written, it's my personal favourite. You can hear a sample from a live recording by Urban Tapestry (from a 2002 California concert, included on our Sushi and High Tea CD) by clicking on "Listen to it" beside my name on the final ballot page. Sadly, we can't perform this anymore because I haven't been able to fingerpick properly since my tendinitis episode. :-( You can find the lyrics and chords to "Homecoming" here.



I feel especially honoured because of the others nominated in the category:

Dr. Mary Crowell (from Alabama): I raved about her new album "Courting My Muse" in Blatherings recently. Those who have attended GAfilk in recent years have been lucky enough to hear Mary perform with "Play It With Moxie," GAfilk's fabulous band. Lord of the Rings fans should check out Mary's MySpace page, where you can hear "Legolas" in its entirety. Mary also performs with Three Weird Sisters with Gwen Knighton, Brenda Sutton and Teresa Powell.

Bob Kanefsky (California): His parodies are brilliant, and Urban Tapestry was delighted when he parodied Jodi's song, "The Lady." :-) Do check out his Songworm site, where he not only has an impeccably organized database of his parodies, but also interesting essays.

Ben Newman (Massachusetts) is a prolific writer who has written over 130 songs about a wide range of topics. One of the great things about the whole Pegasus Award process is that it helps people find out about songs and filkers. When I followed the link from Ben's Pegasus bio page to his Web site, I was floored by the number of songs he has listed, many with MP3 samples.

Talis Kimberley (UK): I'm a big Talis Kimberley fan and LOVE her songs and songwriting. X Libris (a sultry song about books) won a Pegasus for Best Torch Song last year. Her song "Any Kind Of Light" (aka "Lights") is one of the most romantic songs I've ever heard. My very favourite Talis song (one of my favourite songs ever, really) is "Death Danced At My Party", which almost always makes me cry. You can read the lyrics to both in her online songbook. You can hear some more samples on the CD Baby page for her Archetype Cafe CD.



If you're not familiar with filk, I encourage you to visit the 2007 Pegasus Final Ballot page to hear a sampling of filk music in all the different categories. If you're a filker, I especially encourage you to listen to the MP3s of filkers you're not familiar with; I always find that this is a great way to discover new music.

A final note: I know I have some loyal readers out there who may want to vote for me solely because they like Blatherings or Inkygirl or another of my current or past projects. PLEASE DON'T. I appreciate the support, but please only vote if you're a member of the filk community.

By the way, I was highly amused to see that both "Home" (by Rand & Adam) and "Go Home" (by Mich & Marilisa) were nominated for the "Best Song Of Home" category...this must be the first time that both a song AND its parody were nominated for the same category. :-D

Many thanks to the Pegasus Awards Committee for all their hard work in making the Awards possible.





Livejournal comments

Motorcycle Trips and Assassin Bugs

Above: Brian Parkinson's speedometer, after he drove his motorcycle across Canada.

You can see a map of Parki's trip and pics on his site -- just click on any point in the map, and you'll see some of the photos he took at that location; what a great way to present pics from a cross-country trip. Some really gorgeous scenery, too! I want to go to Labrador someday, for instance, and the Queen Charlotte Islands.



My favourite place name in his trip: "Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump." :-)

You can read Parki's trip report for the Labrador leg of the journey at Adventure Rider.

Speaking of amazing trips, my friend Craig has posted pics from his two weeks in Italy on Flickr, along with text commentary. It was fascinating for me to revisit (through Craig's photos) some of the places that Jeff and I visited during our trip last year plus pictures of places I have yet to see. And now I'm angsting to go back...

But now for a less pleasant photo:



Jeff picked this bug up from the upstairs hallway, thinking it was lint, and it stung him; Jeff said it felt like a bee sting. As I prepared to call 911 if Jeff suddenly keeled over and/or turned purple, I took a macro shot (with my point and shoot) and e-mailed it to my biologist friend Peter, who identified it as a Masked Bed Bug Hunter (Reduvius personatus) Family -- Assassin Bugs (Reduviidae).

The term "bed bug" freaked me out, of course, but Peter reassures me that it isn't a bed bug; the name is a misnomer and doesn't imply that we have bed bugs. Anyway, it eats insects, not people, and will inflict a painful bite if accidentally handled. According to info I found online, it's usually found outdoors; Jeff theorizes it got in when he was cleaning the window screens on the weekend. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the Assassin Bug was sent in by the local squirrels in their ongoing world domination efforts.

Once I got past the freak-out part, I was fascinated to hear from Peter that the bug purposely accumulates fluff etc. on its body as camouflage. Jeff and I have been looking all over but haven't seen any others. However, I'm still looking suspiciously at every piece of lint...

Link O' The Day

Crumpler: bags of all sorts. I came across this entertaining site while looking for a shell for my camera that would allow me to put it in a regular backpack (for when I'm also carrying a laptop). There is also a Crumpler Canada and Crumper Australia, each of which is slightly different (esp. soundtrack/effects).



Livejournal comments

Levitating fire trucks

Above: one of Toronto's famous levitating fire trucks, on Simcoe St.

:-)

Thanks so much for all the anniversary wishes, everyone! Here's one from Lyanne, who created the following card using only a mouse and Appleworks Paint:



Jeff and I had wonderfully laid-back anniversary day, which included book-browsing, seeing The Bourne Ultimatum (good, but the hand-held camera shots made me queasy with motion sickness), and dropping by Buskerfest to check out the live performances as well as get some more practice on my new camera.

You can find Ryan Couldrey's report on the Toronto Buskerfest at blogTO.



Like Ryan, I was a bit annoyed by some of the photographers who had no qualms about walking into the performer's space to take a ton of photos a foot away from his or her face. Very distracting for both the performer and audience, especially for small children trying to see. And then they didn't even donate any money to the performer afterward!



I had decided on the Canon 17-85 lens for the day because my Sigma 30/1.4 wouldn't be good for distant shots and the Canon 70-300 wouldn't be good for closer subjects, and I didn't want the added weight of the extra lenses. The 17-85 gives me a bit of zoom as well as the wide angle option. I found my Lowepro SlingShot 200 AW bag hugely useful:



My friends Ray and Iain inspired me to buy this bag, and I love it. It holds my camera and accessories as well as few personal items; when I want to take a photo, I can easily rotate the bag to the front and quickly get out my camera without having to put the bag down. This enables me to enjoy an event like Buskerfest without having to have my camera out all the time. I also don't have to worry about the risk of having my bag stolen or rifled through while it's on the ground and I'm distracted.

Speaking of photos, here's a photo I've added to my Candid Photos collection:



My first photo shoot with a baby as the main subject! I like this photo, and was kindly given permission to post it. The background is distracting, but the photo was taken outside on a woodsy beach in a very short timeframe so I was paying more attention to the baby than what was behind him. I'm going to experiment with blurring the background some more.

Anyway, I had fun and also learned a new appreciation for baby photographers. It also made me all nostalgic about when my nieces and nephews were that age; I'd almost forgotten how completely disarming a baby's smile can be.



Livejournal comments

Hairspray and Anniversaries

I knew I was going to like Hairspray as soon as the heroine gives a cheery wave to a friendly local flasher in the midst of the schmaltzy opening number, "Good Morning, Baltimore." That brief moment (which is also a quick cameo of John Waters, who wrote, directed, and co-produced the original 1988 film) made it clear that this version of the musical wasn't going to take itself too seriously.


I went to see the live musical version of Hairspray when it came to Toronto and didn't care much for it; it seemed flat and too saccharine for me (yes, even for me) so wasn't motivated to see the movie until I heard others rave about it.

Jodi and I decided to upset Urban Tapestry tradition and eat at Agra instead of the usual Frog & Firkin; Agra is an Indian restaurant in North York where Jodi has dined before. We shared the special for two, and it was excellent. I'll have to go back sometime and take some pics so I can do a proper review.

But back to Hairspray...

I enjoyed the movie version of Hairspray MUCH more than the live version. A lot of the music seems to have changed, either completely rewritten or bits of lyrics revamped.

My favourite character: Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad. She was FANTASTIC, and I was surprised to hear later that this was her first professional acting job. She was wholesome without being saccharine, able to delivery ironic lines with clear-eyed sincerity. She made the movie for me.

My least favourite character: John Travolta as Edna Turnblad. Yes, I know that it was tradition to have a man in drag portray the character, but I found his character kept pulling me out of the movie; he was so obviously JOHN TRAVOLTA, at least to me. Seems like most others didn't mind him so much.



Hairspray was charming, exuberant and hugely entertaining. I am hoping to see this at least one more time in the theatre and am already lusting after the soundtrack and DVD. [Update: I caved and bought the soundtrack from iTunes.]

After posting about my Movie Theater Pet Peeves and also reading your comments, I am relieved to report that Jodi and I had a great audience experience. Part of that was due to the fact that that we had no one sitting near us for at least half a dozen rows in all directions.

Today is Jeff's and my 16th wedding anniversary. We've known each other for far longer, though neither of us can remember exactly when we met...at least 25 years ago. Our first contact was on a BBS hosted on a TRS-80 at my family's house; we didn't actually meet in person until a couple years later. How nerdy is THAT? :-D





Livejournal comments