Drawing on walls

Happy birthday to my friend Ray (on right in above photo).



Will Write For Chocolate has been updated, and I've added a doodle to my office tree:



I remember how hard it was when I first started painting that tree. I mean geez, it's just wrong to draw on the walls in one's house, isn't it? Once I started, though, I found it quite liberating. As Jeff pointed out, we can always paint over my tree when/if we ever decide to sell this house...until then, I'm going to have some fun with it.

Here's what my corner currently looks like:



Note the addition of the GAfilk surprise Legolas poster. :-)

I have a bunch of ornaments I'd like to add to my tree, but am trying to figure out an easier way than ceiling hooks. One idea: string wires or fish line across the corner so I can just hang things whenever I'd like (idea stolen from the Dave Clement's Bhigg House).

Any other suggestions welcome!

Speaking of ornaments: To those who participated in the Christmas craft ornament exchange this past year, please see this follow-up post, thanks.



Bill and Brenda, at opening ceremonies.
Photo by Walter.

The past week has been devoted to GAfilkstuff, but I wanted to add a final word. THANK YOU so much to those involved in planning and running GAfilk; it may be a laid-back convention for attendees, but it certain requires a ton of work behind-the-scenes. Thanks also to the concom for taking the guests out for dinner on Sunday evening!

If you've never been to GAfilk, I heartily encourage you to come next year, especially since Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff are the Guests of Honour. I'm going for sure. :-)

In case you missed them, you can find Allison's detailed convention report in her LJ: Thursday | Friday | Saturday (Part 1) | Saturday (Part 2) | Sunday I supplemented this report with a few notes of my own: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

Our concert playlist, for those interested:

Sing With Me: new song by me, with thanks to Dave Clement. Thanks to Amy McNally for playing fiddle!


Friendship Song: one of the songs on our Sushi and High Tea CD. Written and arranged by me.


The Lady: one of the songs on our Sushi and High Tea CD. By Jodi, won Best Pegasus Song a couple of years ago.


Another Story: one of the songs on our Sushi and High Tea CD. By Allison and me.


Come Down To GAfilk: new song by me, with help from many filkers on Livejournal. Thanks to Brenda Sutton for playing bodhran!


Star Sisters: by Technical Difficulties. One of the songs on our Sushi and High Tea CD, with Joey Shoji.


Paper Boats: by Eva Van Daele-Hunt. Eva gave us permission to premiere the song in our concert!


Hey J.K.!: new song. Lyrics by Urban Tapestry, music by me.


Wo Ist Der Bahnhof? (a.k.a. "Our German Song"): song I wrote for our performance at Filkcontinental. Thanks to Franklin for his wonderful props!


Still Beautiful: song by German filker Aryana. Thanks to Amy McNally for playing fiddle!


The Chocolate Song: song by me, specifically for Urban Tapestry to perform with the Interfilk guests in our concert. Many thanks to Eva, Crystal and Rafael!


Hockey Monkey Song: by James Kochalka. Since hearing Ookla The Mok first perform this in open filk years ago, this song has pretty much become our signature closing song in our concerts. :-) Many thanks to Franklin for singing the German portion, and thanks to Gary McGath (and the Germans who helped him) for the German translation!

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GAfilk (part 6): making friends, Georgia Aquarium, hanging out with the Suttons

*WARNING: Lots of photos in this Blathering!*

Above: Leafy Sea Dragon, at the Georgia Aquarium.

One of my favourite GAfilk highlights was at the hotel restaurant. There were nearly a dozen of us, laughing and chatting, when a man in a suit came up to our table. At first I thought he was going to complain about the noise but instead, he asked who we were and where we came from.



"Y'all seem to be so enthusiastic and having so much fun," he told us with a grin. "It's obvious you're here voluntarily."

So we told him about filk conventions and why we all got together. He was highly intrigued, asked lots of questions. We invited him to come have a listen, but he laughed and said he had to go, wished us well for the rest of the weekend.



Similar thing happened on the shuttle from the hotel to the airport, where we were going to catch the MARTA to the Georgia Aquarium. Two older women sitting near us on the shuttle were astounded that some of us were from Singapore (Terence), Germany (Eva, Rafael & Crystal) and Canada (Jodi and me), all here just to hang out for fun and make music. One of the women even had a short conversation with Eva in German. :-)



Another highlight was hanging out at the Suttons' place after the convention with Jodi, Eva, Crystal, Rafael and Terence (Allison had to fly back on Sunday afternoon because she needed to teach the next day). It was a chance to decompress as well as have conversations longer than a few minutes at a time. I actually came home feeling better rested than I had before the weekend!



I got to meet Lucy and Jack:



Sat in on a gaming session:



Went for walks around the neighbourhood, napped, had lots of tea and comfort food, many interesting conversations including learning about German wedding traditions, watched an old episode of Forever Knight with Terence (it was filmed in Toronto, eh?), and played some music.



On the recommendation of Steve Stirling, we decided to visit the Georgia Aquarium, which is the largest aquarium in the world; it has more than 100,000 animals from 500 species! We had a ton of fun, and were amazed by the huge aquariums all around us:



While the rest of us oohed and aahed over the gorgeous colours and sealife, Terence commented on the edibility of each. :-D

RAFAEL: "Wow, look at that fish!"

EVA: "Gorgeous!"

CRYSTAL: "What colours!"

JODI: "Beautiful!"

TERENCE: "I've had it before. Too chewy."

The place was divided up into different galleries. The Georgia Coast Gallery has "touch tanks" full of horseshoe crabs, sea stars, stingrays and shrimp that visitors could touch (gently, with two fingers) during certain time periods:



In another gallery, you could crawl up through a tunnel and look at penguins close-up through a plastic bubble:



And there were so many places where you could look UP through the water at all the creatures swimming above:



These garden eels were also pretty cool:



And the jellyfish tank was mesmerizing...



I could spent hours in each single room, just watching the wildlife. I envy you Atlanta area types!



Many thanks to Bill and Brenda Sutton for hosting us! You can see my other post-GAfilk photos in this Flickr set.

To finish off, here are the lyrics to "Hey J.K.!", one of the new songs we premiered in our concert. I asked Allison and Jodi for help brainstorming re: ideas and phrases for the song, then I put the lyrics together and added music. You can find the sheet music in the GAfilk songbook (courtesy Mary Crowell), but here are the lyrics:

HEY, J.K.!
Lyrics by Urban Tapestry
Music by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
Dec/2006



CHORUS:
Gm F
Hey, J.K.!
Bb
Who ya gonna kill
F
Who ya gonna kill, who ya gonna
Gm F
Hey, J.K.!
Bb F
Won't you let us have a look
Gm F
Hey, J.K.!
Bb
Who ya gonna kill
F
Who ya gonna kill, who ya gonna
Gm F
Hey, J.K.!
Bb F Gm
Who ya gonna kill in your next book?

Gm F
I think Snape's a goner <-- Jodi
Eb F
Always with a scowl and a frown
Gm F
I think Snape's a goner
Eb F G
with nowhere for him to go but down

Gm F
No, no, Snape can't die <-- Allison
Eb
He's a bad apple <-- Jodi & Debbie
D
That's not a fact!<-- Allison
Gm F
No, no, Snape won't die
Eb D
Allison, he wears only black! <-- Jodi & Debbie

CHORUS

Gm F Eb
Ok, it has to be a Weasley <-- Jodi
Gm
No, you're wrong <-- Allison
F Eb
There are so many of them, one of them has to go <-- Jodi & Debbie
Gm Eb
Ok, it has to be a Weasley <-- Allison
Gm
Then it's Ron! <-- Jodi & Debbie

Gm F
No, no, Ron can't die <-- Allison
Eb
But he's a sidekick <-- Jodi & Debbie
D
That can't be his end <-- Allison
Gm F
No, no, Ron won't die
Eb D
Allison, but he's Harry's friend! <-- Jodi & Debbie


CHORUS

Gm F
I think Hagrid's a goner <-- Jodi
Eb F
Always into trouble, breaking rules
Gm F
I think Hagrid's a goner
Bb F (G)
He'll be dead or maybe kicked out of school

Gm F
No, no, Hagrid can't die <-- Allison
Eb
He'll die for Harry <-- Jodi & Debbie
D
He'll never fall <-- Allison
Gm F
No, no, Hagrid won't die
Eb D
Allison, he's just way too tall! <-- Jodi & Debbie


BRIDGE:

Gm F Eb
Oh, J.K. Rowling, are the rumors true <-- Jodi
Dm
Who will we have to bury
Eb F
Weasley, Hagrid, Snape, or Peter Pettigrew?
Gm F
Oh J.K. Rowling, please just
Eb F
DON'T KILL HARRY <-- all three
G F Eb F
We promise not to come unglued. (Yet...)

CHORUS

Photo below: one of my favourite moments in the convention. I was walking down the hallway when I came across Teresa Powell and Dave Rood, both with guitars and singing one of Dave's songs (I think the title is "Only"?), with Teresa harmonizing. It was truly gorgeous, and I felt incredibly lucky to have been there at the right time; moments like this one are never listed in programming, and they tend to happen a lot at a convention like GAfilk.





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GAfilk (part 5), slow cookers, Interfilk, Scrivener

After I heard the sad news of Dave Alway's passing, I went through some old Blathercomments and found a poem that Dave had written for me, inspired by the photo above.

A Poem for a Wordgoddess Piper sitting on the lake,    sitting on the ice, pushing through the snow. Piper sitting on the lake,    sitting on the chair, sounding high and low. Piper sitting on the lake,    sitting in wan sun, sniffing chill wind blow. Piper sitting on the lake,    sitting by the glass, tasting joy's warmth flow. Piper sitting on the lake,    sitting under sky, watching stars 'round go. — Dave Alway, 21 March 2005, Being the 2nd Day of Spring

He had a way with words, that man.

While perusing GAfilk photos taken by other people, I found a room photo taken by Mary Bertke that included Peter and Dave. With Mary's permission, I've cropped the photo to post here (Peter is standing, Dave is seated with the laptop):



Before I get back to GAfilk highlights, I wanted to mention that my Uncle John's triple bypass operation turned into a quadruple bypass (!), but that the procedure went well and he was moved out of intensive care yesterday and is in general care. Thanks for all the healing wishes, everyone.


Rafael, just before we rehearsed "The Chocolate Song."

I still *love* the slow cooker that my Dad gave me for Christmas; I can't believe I haven't tried a slow cooker before this! Yesterday, I made Moroccan Chicken With Chickpeas and Cumin from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann. I highly recommend this cookbook; so far every recipe has turned out wonderfully. Jeff isn't a huge chickpea fan, yet he gave the dish rave reviews and even went back for seconds. The recipes in the cookbook are geared towards medium and large slow cookers; I have a 3.5 quart slow cooker, which the cookbook authors classify as "medium." For those with smaller slow cookers, you may want to check out Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two: For the Small Slow Cooker.



Many thanks to Jan di Masi for buying the CD we donated to Interfilk (US$605!), and to Mary Crowell's husband, Wesley, for buying the Kathleen Sloan cookbook.

When I was getting filkers to sign the cookbook at OVFF last October, Wesley told me, "That cookbook? Just want you to know: it will be mine!" When the cookbook was being auctioned at GAfilk, however, Wesley played it cool...slouched down in a chair near the back of the room, pretending to read. One of my con highlights was seeing Mary Crowell "wench" her own husband. Just before Steve Savitzsky's bid of $150 was accepted, Wesley suddenly raised his head and yelled, "$250!" then went back to his paperback. Wesley got the cookbook.

:-D

Thank you SO MUCH, Jan and Wesley, for your contributions to Interfilk! Proceeds from the CD will used to help fly n'Early Music Consort to FilKONtario this year.


Erin, Rand, Allison and Jodi on Friday morning.

Thanks to Jeff for telling me about Scrivener, a new outlining tool for writers. I'm using the Beta version and so far I love it! More geared toward writers than Mori, more streamlined than SuperNoteCard. I'll post a more detailed review in Inkygirl when I've had a chance to thoroughly test it.


Judith, Dave and me.




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GAfilk (part 4): conspiracies, revenge and The Chocolate Song

Today's Blathering is about some of the Conspiracies afoot at GAfilk. One, as I mentioned before, was the surprise appearance of Jeff and Walter. Both had registered under pseudonyms in case Allison, Jodi or I checked the membership list. Their names? John Carter and Jack Clayton:





(Above created by Walter!)

Walter also arranged for other unexpected visitors to surprise us during the weekend. When we opened our hotel room door on Saturday morning, for example, we were greeted by a full-size cardboard replica of Jean-Luc Picard:




Walter and Jeff wouldn't admit they were the culprits at first, though Walter did start to crumble beneath the "Resistance Is Futile" inquisition by Becca Leathers the next day. Yay for Becca! (See Walter's Becca The Inquisitor 1 and Becca The Inquisitor 2 entertaining photo sequence)



Around 2 a.m. on Sunday morning when we were going to back to our room after open filk, I went to put a note under Jeff's and Walter's door to let them know what our breakfast plans were going to be. To my surprise, the door was just closing. I knocked gently, and Walter opened it a crack. Behind him, I saw Jeff leaping out of view.

Jeff never leaps.

I immediately grew suspicious. "Can I come in?" I asked.

"Um," said Walter. "Not right now, sorry. Your husband isn't decent."

I stared at him. "He's WHAT? What are you guys doing?!?"

"Nothing."

"WALTER!!"

"Nothing!" After a brief look behind him, Walter opened the door. Jeff was lying casually on top of his bedcovers, pretending to read. I was too braindead to probe further, so gave up my inquisition for the moment, went to bed.

The next morning as Allison and I were getting ready to meet Jodi for breakfast, I told her what had happened. "Have you opened the door yet?" she asked.

We stared at each other for a moment, then opened the door. A rolled up poster immediately unfurled, making Allison scream (which Jodi heard next door, prompting her to come over) as we both jumped back in surprise. Here's what was on the poster:



The speech bubble reads: "Good morning, ladies! Like to see me wield my bow?!?" The text refers to a line in our song, The Question (which I wrote based on one of my Waiting For Frodo comics), which we happened to perform in open filk on Friday night.

Anyway, here's a photo of the set-up, which Walter installed the night before while we were sleeping:




He had rolled up the poster (which was weighted at the bottom so that it would unfurl properly) so that if we had peered suspiciously out the peephole first, we would just see an empty hallway. Ingenious, really. In an evil overlord sort of way, that is.

And now we come to Paul Kwinn's revenge song.

As I mentioned in this Blathering, Urban Tapestry sang a song called Paul Stanley Kwinn at OVFF in honour of Paul's Toastmasterhood. Apparently after hearing about the song, some of Paul's relatives presented him with boxer shorts with baby bunnies on them. Heh.



Anyway, turns out Paul did get his revenge after all. :-) Not only did he write our bio for the GAfilk songbook, but also wrote a song in response. You can read the lyrics in this LJ post by Paul and hear a version he uploaded to the FilkArchive. The title? "Deborah Marion Kazumi Yow-Hoo You-Betcha-Baby Ridpath Ohi."

By the end of the song, everyone in the room was singing along on the chorus, punctuating it with a very Canadian "EH?" :-D

Here's a photo that Erin took while Paul was performing it:



Hm...Allison and Jodi look like they're enjoying this a little TOO much, don't you think?

Speaking of UT-related songs by other people...

I also got a kick out of Matt Leger's Starsoul parody about Galaxy Quest as well as Randy Hoffman's Sex and Chocolate parody called Specs and Broccoli. And Ian Hanley recited my obituary...I had forgotten that I won this in an Interfilk auction at Second Concerto years ago! There was also another song I wanted to mention here, but my atrophying brain has forgotten it, argh.



When I mentioned The Chocolate Song in an earlier Blathering, I forgot to post the lyrics.

Chocolate Altoids from Maya!

I never did get around to putting down a final version since quite often people are singing at the same time with various bits were repeated, with counterpoint scattered throughout, and we've also switched some parts around since the early version below, but this gives you VERY rough idea of the words:

THE CHOCOLATE SONG
By Debbie Ridpath Ohi
Oct/2006

J=Jodi, A=Allison, D=Debbie, C=Crystal, E=Eva
In the concert, Crystal played a chalemeau (a kind of clarinet),
Eva was on glockenspiel, Rafael played classical guitar,
and Allison played her 12-string.

--------- PART # 1 BEGINS----------
J: I think about chocolate all the time
A: Even when you're sleeping?
J: Always when I'm sleeping! Dream sublime
J: I think about chocolate all the time
except (this is true) when I think about you

--------- PART #2 BEGINS-------------
E: What kind of chocolate are you talking about?
It's important, you know! C: I know! E&C: We know!
E: What kind of chocolate is she talking about?
E & C: It's important, we know! We know! We know...

(sing PART #1 and PART #2 at the same time
but add Debbie singing "I just want some chocolate NOW" twice)

------ BRIDGE #1 BEGINS ------
C: Can't believe you took my Chocolate Fountain (C&D) when you left me
A & E: Can't believe you think white chocolate is the best
J: Hey but it IS!
C & J: Can't believe you think that each dark chocolate's like the rest...
All: Babe, it's clear that we weren't meant to be!

Gary and Sheryl

J: I think about chocolate all the time
A: Even when you're singing?
E: All the time
J: Always when I'm singing! Song sublime
J: I think about chocolate all the time
E&C: All the time
except (this is true) when I think about you

C: When I think about you

------- PART #3 BEGINS ------
C: I dream (D: I dream of darkness)
C: I dream I wish (C&E: for chocolate.)
C&E: Dark is the best!

(go into next part without pause)
PARTs #1 and #2 and #3 at the same time....

J: I think about chocolate all the time
A: Even when you're sleeping?
J: Always when I'm sleeping! Dream sublime
J: I think about chocolate all the time
except (this is true) when I think about you
yooooooooooooooou (all singing various counterpoint bits)


With Bill Rintz.

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GAfilk (part 3): Come Down To GAfilk

Above: Urban Tapestry and Mary Crowell (photo by Walter). Many thanks to Mary for preparing the GAfilk songbook every year! I'm amazed at the amount of work that must go into this, and the fact that it's included in the membership fee. Thanks also to Karen Murphy, who did the layout. This year, the songbook includes the sheet music, lyrics and chords to three of our new songs: Hey J.K.!, Come Down To GAfilk and Sing With Me.



Above: Char during the Interfilk auction. I enjoyed getting to know this classy, good-humoured lady better during the weekend and was also delighted to hear more of her singing. Char kindly donated an hour-long belly dancing lesson to the auction, and you can see her giving a quickie demo above. I've attended one of her belly dancing workshops before; not only was it way fun, but a great abdominal workout!



Above: Dancing with Jeff at the banquet on Saturday night (photo by Walter). The Saturday night banquet is always one of my GAfilk highlights. I can't really dance (I tread on poor Franklin's toes several times, but he was a gentleman and didn't wince even once) but have SO much fun doing it at GAfilk. At so many other venues, dancing often becomes a peer pressure thing ("You're not having fun unless you're on the dance floor, come ON!") or a preening display where the more experienced make catty remarks about the supposedly inferior style and coordination of others.



At GAfilk, however, the Saturday night banquet/dance is conducted with the same easygoing spirit that pervades the rest of the weekend. There's no pressure to dance if you don't want to. Singles don't need to feel left out, either...just grab a few friends (or willing strangers) and get out on the dance floor. I also love the fact that at GAfilk, slow dances aren't the sole domain of male-female couples. I danced the last dance with the lovely Amy McNally, and got to ask her some Irish session questions I hadn't had the chance to before.

And oh my, it was fun to see people dress up in their finery.



One of the songs we premiered in our concert was "Come Down To GAfilk," a song I wrote with the help of several in the filk community. Many thanks to Brenda Sutton for playing bodhran for us in our concert!

I posted in Livejournal a while back, asking people to suggest words or phrases that they associated with Atlanta or more specifically, GAfilk. You can find the sheet music in this year's GAfilk songbook, thanks to Mary Crowell, but here are the lyrics:


COME DOWN TO GAFILK
Nov/2006
By Debbie Ridpath Ohi
With help from Matt Leger, David Weingart, Bill Roper,
Scott Snyder, April Leake, Larissa March, Melissa Glasser,
Margaret Middleton, Annie Walker, Bill Sutton, Rob Wynne,
Gary McGath, Ellen McMicking D.I., Gary Ehrlich, Alan Thiesen,
Emily Raftery, Phil Parker, Andrea Dale, Erica Neely,
Marilisa Valtazanou, Mary Bertke, Sherman Dorn,
Michelle Dockrey, Mary Crowell, Allison Durno and Jodi Krangle

VERSE:
A young man was walking 'long the road
when he came upon a Fairy maiden
He smiled and he tipped his hat, he said
"Miss, what are you doin' out here?"
(She said) Here is my answer true, I'm
Waiting here just for you.

CHORUS:
Why don't you come down to GAfilk
just for a day or two?
You will never find a place like
this where e'er you roam, don't worry
soon you will see
just like me
in a little while you'll feel right at home.

The young man said, "I don't understand"
The Fairy rolled her eyes
("This is gonna be harder than I thought")
"I'm lookin' for a place of joy, I'm lookin'
for a place with waffles" he said.
"Mister, as the sky is blue, I
have the perfect answer for you!"

(CHORUS)

The young man said, "You tempt me, I admit
but what about the music?" And the Fairy laughed
(and laughed and laughed and laughed)
"Three Weird Sisters entertain and Bill
Rintz is now one of us too"
"Strangers No More, quilt delight...the
House Band has us dancing all night!"

BRIDGE:
"There's chocolate fondue in the con suite,
Sutton has beer, would you like a dance, sir?
Happy New Year, dress up in your finery
MyFilk MyFilk, do you know the answer?"
("MyFilk MyFilk, I know the answer!")

(CHORUS)

The young man, he disappeared that day, as
did the Fairy maiden, though on
moonless nights if you close your eyes, you can
sometimes see him dancing in the glade.
You wait the evening through 'til he
whispers this to you...

(CHORUS)





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