Friends, MOO cards, PBA filk documentary

Jeff, Ray and I had a wonderful time at Doors Open yesterday; I'll post some pics soon. Meanwhile, here are some photos and links I've been wanting to post on Blatherings:



Above: Jeff took this photo of Parki and me at Weber's. We were coming back from the cottage, and he was setting out on the first leg of his cross-country motorcycle trip.



Below: a postcard from Austra, sent to Urban Tapestry from our friends Ju and Anke. Juliane Honisch, by the way, has a book contract with a German publisher!



Below: I've been having fun handing out my MOO cards, and will need to re-order a new batch soon. Here are two improvised MOO containers. On the left: A "Little i" mint container (Jeff removed the mirror inside to make room for the cards). On the right: An Umbra container I bought for a few bucks in a Black's photography store.



Below: Jeff, Ray and I had brunch at Le Petit Dejeuner in Toronto yesterday, and I found myself sitting beside this gorgeous lily.



Allison and Jodi are coming over for a recording session. We're hoping to record "Hey, J.K." plus some of our other newer songs.

Links O' The Day

PBA's documentary on filk music: A video filmed at GAfilk earlier this year in Atlanta. Apparently this video's been online for a while but I missed seeing it because I'm always so behind in my blog-reading. Thanks to Walter for the link!

5 Most Outrageous Inventions Ever: thanks to Jim Bowlin for this link.

How To Calculate Your Age By Chocolate: thanks to Andrea Dale for this link.

The most interesting and amazing houses from the world, from Amazing. Some of these are TRULY bizarre! :-)

Where to find recorded samples of filk online: Filk FAQ has been updated. Reminder to filkers: to make sure your reply can be easily accessed in the FAQ, please post on the FAQ page, not in LJ, thanks!




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Heather Dale book launch at the Renaissance Cafe, Toronto

Heather Dale is one of those performers who pours her soul into her live performances. You can see the joy in every movement, every note. Last night she gave a mesmerizing performance at the Renaissance Cafe.




As you can see from the above photo, I was the first to arrive! I sat at a table with Allison and Walter, and we were soon joined in that corner by Phil, Jane, Marsha, and Marsha's son. You can see Allison's report and some pictures here, including a photo of me and Walter. In the picture, I'm holding up my autographed copy of The Legends Of Arthur. By the time Heather took the stage, the place was packed to overflowing.

The Renaissance Cafe is a small coffee shop out on the Danforth (1938 Danforth Ave., Toronto, ON M4C 1J4 416-422-1441) that offers a lunch menu as well as a selection of beer and coffee. It's not air-conditioned, but who cares about the heat when you're listening to Heather Dale? :-)



The concert was part of a book launch for Heather Dale's The Legends of Arthur, the culmination of ten years of Heather's creative work with the King Arthur legends. It contains sheet music for twenty original songs (basic and advanced arrangements), along with twenty-eight engaging short stories, written in the style of a traditional storyteller. The Celtic designs in the book and original cover art are by Canadian illustrator Martin Springett.



Martin Springett opened for Heather. I had heard Martin speak at a recent CANSCAIP meeting, and had also attended one of his concerts years ago. At this event, Martin played mainly original instrumental compositions inspired by literary works like Lord of the Rings; I was impressed by his guitar skills! I wish he had sung more.

The cover charge was only $5, which surprised me. I'd have paid considerably more to hear Heather perform. Anyway, here's what she played:

1. Kingsword

2. Lady of the Lake



3. As I am

4. Mordred's Lullaby

5. May Queen

6. Holly, Ivy and Yew

7. Lily Maid

8. Exile

9. Hawthorn Tree

10. Crashing Down

11. War Between Brothers

12. Miles To Go

13. Tarnished Silver

14. Three Queens

Heather and Ben were called back for an encore, of course. :-)



Heather was accompanied by Ben Deschamps, who also co-edited her book. Both played a wide range of instruments, including keyboard, guitar, electric fiddle (I don't know the proper name for this, sorry), mountain dulcimer, regular and low whistles, the electric bass you see in the photo above, and a cool percussion thingy that Ben tied around his leg.

I've also seen Heather perform at several filk venues. She's one of those performers who is as nice in person as she seems on stage: friendly, easygoing, approachable. In filk circles, she'll often do more listening than playing, and has always been supportive of new performers.


Publicity photo from Heather's site.

Anyway, Heather will be performing again next Friday (June 1st); she'll be the featured entertainment at Mitzi's Sister (1554 Queen St W, Toronto ON 416 532 2570 from 7 pm to 1 a.m.). Tickets are FREE(!).



She'll also be performing in Hamilton at an outdoor craft fair on Saturday, June 2nd at the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre from noon to 5 pm. Cost $2 for the afternoon.

You can hear samples of Heather's music here.
Her Web site: http://www.heatherdale.com/.

You can find out about upcoming events at the Renaissance Cafe here.




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Harry Potter, Dave Huth and Heather Dale

I created the cartoon above for a Facebook group for grown-ups who read kids' books for enjoyment. :-) I go through a similar situation (though I'm somewhat more polite about it) fairly frequently when buying books. Some people have difficulty understanding why any grown-up would want to read a book written for children.

Speaking of kids' books...

I was torn about whether or not to line up for the new Harry Potter book at midnight on July 21st, or to order it online. Encouraged by the signs all over the bookstore, I actually did go to my local Chapters-Indigo to pre-order, but the clerk at the counter told me that it would cheaper for me to order online (!).

So I ordered from Amazon.ca (hey, he didn't say WHERE to pre-order). My copy of the book is guaranteed to arrive on Saturday, July 21st, or the cost of my book will be refunded. It would have fun to line up at midnight, but these days I tend to crash around 10 or 10:30 pm. What about the rest of you? Have you pre-ordered? Are you lining up? Do you simply not care?

Allison and Jodi are coming over this weekend so we can record "Hey, J.K." I figure the song has a limited shelf life, so we may as well get it out there while we can. :-) We'll be uploading it to the FilkArchive and other venues. You can see the lyrics here (I've changed the lyrics to remove a possible spoiler). If anyone has venues to suggest, feel free!



Above: I thought this was some kind of moth, and labeled it as such when I posted the photo in Flickr. It was sitting on the railing of our back deck yesterday evening. But my friend Dave Huth pointed out:

"Hey D.O.! Actually this is a butterfly, a Red Admiral. They are one of my favorite species, along with the Painted Lady, The Monarch, and the Mourning Cloak! I guess I never realized til now how my favorite butterflies have names that sound like some kind of weird Tarot deck! :-) This one looks like it's lived a long and adventurous life (this early in the year, that probably means it made it through the hibernation period)! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Admiral"

Speaking of Dave Huth, do check out his Flickr page, where he has been posting some fascinating and highly creative Photoshop creations recently. Like Care and Feeding Of The Chicken Cow.

And if you haven't been keeping up with Dave's video blog, check out What I've Been Doing Lately, a video explanation of why his vlog output has slowed down...parents of young children will especially appreciate this, I think. :-) Click on Watch the video.



I enjoyed reading through the responses to my plant memory survey.

One of my favourite's was Beckett's post:

"I don't think I really had any memory plants from when I was a kid, but interestingly, I seem to be developing some now with the boys. Riley loves smelling roses, and lavender, and we all love smelling the blossoms on my lemon tree and the big orange tree in the backyard. The lemon verbena tree in the back yard, mint everywhere. And summers smell like jasmine now, because of all the jasmine in the front and side yard. It's all rather crept up on me, and now I realize that all these scents are part of home now, and will always make the boys think of home when they smell these things. :)"

Speaking of Beckett, check out this great photo that Beckett took of our friend Taunya. And Obi-Wan the owl, from a presentation at Casey's class. Beckett's such an incredible photographer!




Looking forward to seeing Heather Dale perform tonight at the Renaissance Cafe (1938 Danforth Ave, Toronto ON 416 422 1441) with Allison and Walter. I found out about this event from Allison's Livejournal.

DATE: FRI May25, 2007 TIME: 8:00 pm LOCATION: Renaissance Cafe 1938 Danforth Ave, Toronto ON 416 422 1441 TICKETS: $5 at the door This will be a special show to celebrate the launch of Heather's "The Legends of Arthur" songbook/storybook. Come prepared for a musical journey through the King Arthur legends, featuring original songs from Heather's "May Queen" and "The Trial of Lancelot" albums. Heather and Ben will be joined by special guest Martin Springett, whose beautiful illustrations adorn the book. Martin will start off the concert with his own literature-inspired guitar compositions. Not to be missed!

You can hear MP3 clips here, and you can find out more about Heather on her site.




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Chocolate, friends and memories

Went for a run this morning to avoid the heat later in the day, and was struck again by how FAST spring seems to have jumped on us this year: trees seeming to bud overnight, flowers blooming in a heartbeat. Or maybe I'm just more aware of the seasons now that we live in a residential area. Looking out our condo window in downtown Toronto a couple years ago, it sometimes seemed as if the only way you could tell the season was by the arrival of the Unknown Guitarist.


Will Write For Chocolate has been updated, as you can see above. I've been having fun reading the answers to my Inkygirl Survey: did you ever use a manual typewriter? As I mentioned in that entry, my first typewriter was a manual Underwood, and I used horrible powdery correction paper to fix mistakes. Then I won an electric typewriter in a writing contest, and I thought THAT was pretty high tech.

But speaking of chocolate: as I mentioned in a Blathering a while back, I've had to cut down on my chocolate intake to lower my blood sugar level. My friend Sibylle in Germany kindly sent me some sugar-free chocolate to help me cope with my frustrated chocolaholicism (sp? :-):



Yummmm....

And today, a surprise package arrived for Jeff and me today from Erin and Rand: a travel size mango mandarin for me (I love Bath & Bodyworks, but it's only in the U.S.) and some chocolate for Jeff (Fast Break is his favourite chocolate bar):



Wow, I feel spoiled.

:-)

My delivery from Richter's Herbs arrived today, making it an extra bonus mail day. My herb collection now consists of: sweet basil (both store-bought and grown from seed), bush basil, regular sage, purple sage, English lavender, Anouk lavender, lemon basil, lemon thyme, regular thyme, chocolate mint, peppermint, rosemary, parsley grown from seed, French tarragon, Greek oregano, and chives. I have enough basil that I might actually attempt to make some pesto this summer. Last year I only had one basil plant, and that didn't last me very long.



Hey, and my Morning Glory is sprouting! Jeff does a good job at feigning excitement whenever I tell him garden news like this. To some, Morning Glory may seem like a weed. To me, it's always reminded me of my mom, who used to love growing it every year:



Plants can evoke such strong memories, can't they? I planted lavender because it reminds me of the wonderful bank of lavender at Fonte De' Medici, a place we stayed during our Italy trip:



I run my fingers through the green stalks, and the fragrance brings me back to that place.

My favorite plant in our garden is the purple lilac, solely because of the fragrance. It reminds me of when we lived out in the country because of the lilac trees on the property.

What are your memory plants?



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Looking for Norm Brown

In eighth grade, a boy named Norm Brown gave me my first kiss.

It was Valentine's Day, and even though Norm gave every other girl a peck on the cheek as well, I know that MY kiss was extra-special! I've mentioned my secret childhood crush before, and often wondered whatever happened to that charming young lad.

I mentioned Norm to my British friends, Mich, Marilisa and Simon, and the diagram above is Marilisa's helpful suggestion about where Norm Brown is today.

The discussion got me thinking, though...surely I'll be able to track down Norm Brown online! A Google search for his name, however, was disheartening: 1,330,000 results. BUT WAIT! I looked more closely at the first page of results, and found the following:

Twitter, for those not familiar with the site, is a free service where users can post updates about where they are and what they're doing. I eagerly checked out this Norm Brown's Twitter page, of course. Here are some excerpts:

Calculating the trajectory of Comet Brown (2007 B10) which appears to be about to destroy the earth in May 2007.

Refusing to return Sting's frantic phone messages begging me to accompany The Police on reunion tour.

Finding the cure to cancer.

Polishing off my 9th symphony during breaks from writing my thesis on the finer bits of the Relativity Theory that Einstein got wrong.

Trying to point out three critical design flaws in ITER, but they just won't listen.

Raised Einstein from the dead to tell him of the flaws, but forgot his brain's in a jar elsewhere. Still, good photo op & puppetry practice.

Feeding the world.

Got another fat royalty cheque from the mathematicians for the use of my invention, the "norm".

Ceremonial first pitch at Yankee stadium. Manager so impressed I pitched the rest of the game too. I didn't know no-hitters were so easy.

Building an antigravity ray in order to deflect Comet Brown (2007 B10). Where to find a large enough diamond crystal?

Stringing this ethernet cable to the top of Everest was inconvenient, but satellite just doesn't meet my bandwidth needs.

Dalai Lama called me with a spiritual crisis (again). Was able to sort him out, and he went away at one with everything.

Taught myself how to play theremin last night.

Oh shoot! Lost that cancer cure. Kicking myself for wasting a good 20 minutes this morning!

Had phone conference with Greg Beeman about my upcoming guest spot in Heroes. Looking forward to seeing my old chum, Masi Oka!

FInished going through list of composers' unfinished symphonies and completed them over breakfast. Schubert's 8th = esp good.

Knitting myself a cardigan.

Put off answering phone call from Jamie Oliver saying he wants to use my lasagne recipe. I wish he'd do his own work.

At performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet, I went on stage and revived cast using my CPR training so a happy ending was enjoyed by all.

Had spare time at end of woodworking class, so made a cello. Felt a bit silly but luckily have sold it to Yo-Yo Ma.

Theremin concert went well last night. Called up Yo-Yo Ma as a special surprise guest for the encore. Cello sounded awesome.

Maggie Gyllenhaal called to thank me for the cardigan. Says she loved my script and is totally on board for my emu documentary. Score!

Was contacted by JJ Abrams about playing Captain Kirk in the upcoming Star Trek reboot. I told him I was flattered, but no...

Brushing up on my Icelandic - my preaspirated voiceless stops are getting way rusty.

Must remember *not* to interfere with historical events, no matter how tempted; nor to take advantage of them, either.

Set Stallman straight on a few points. There are only dozens now, but eventually the GPL will save billions of uploaded lives.

Transposing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor (K. 491) into F# minor.

In thanks for a homemade cardigan, Yo-Yo Ma gave me a free cello lesson last night. Ran thru a Minsky cello duet by end of lesson. Fun!

Glad Laura took my suggestion and went white tie for Liz; wish I'd had time to pop in on the do myself and keep an eye on George for her.

Just got back from conferring with the US Congress about changing the electoral college system, glad they went with my suggestions this time.

Just got first preliminary royalty check back from when I ghost-wrote Harry Potter 7 - that sure was a day well spent!

I'm advising Al Gore about living green. I myself live off the grid 100% and grow my own food.

Antigravity solved - comet deflected - humanity saved - and that clogged eavestrough is cleaned out now too!

Finshed quantum holographic memory USB key prototype. Only 52 petabytes though. Was hoping for closer to 2 exabytes. Maybe next week.

The England cricket team now begging me to play for them. Still not sure I can help them *and* be Canadian captain in the Rugby World Cup.

Tired of this physical body. Downloaded my consciousness to the net. (That should also help my "correct all of Wikipedia" schedule)



Without a doubt, this must be THE Norm Brown I've been looking for! He's as much of an inspiration now as he was back then, and I'm enjoying reading about his current exploits. If you're curious, you can read about him, too:

http://twitter.com/normbrown

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