Lunar Eclipse

Toronto couldn't have asked for a better sky for the lunar eclipse last night. I sat outside for more than an hour, watching the Earth's shadow move slowly across the moon.

I took some photos with my Rebel XTI using a Canon 70-300 telephoto lens, but found that it was way too cold to do much fiddling with the settings - I had to keep putting my hands back in my mittens. In the end, I decided I'd far rather do more watching than photographing. Jeff brought out some hot chocolate for me partway through and joined me; and several of our neighbours came out as well. Jeff set up his telescope and we not only watched the moon's eclipse but also checked out some planets and nebulae.

I've been enjoying browsing through lunar eclipse photos on Flickr...not just to see how everyone's photos turned out but at the thought of so many people around the world were looking at the same thing in the sky, filled with the same wonder.

I mean, think about it. This is something that happens TOTALLY out of our control, it only happens every 3-5 years, and it's an event that's been going on long before any of us were around and will continue long after we're gone. I find it humbling and inspiring and comforting all at the same time.



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Lunar eclipse survey

Who else out there is going to be outside tonight, watching the lunar eclipse? Happily, the skies are supposed to relatively clear tonight, at least in the Greater Toronto Area.

For those in the GTA: the moon should appear high in the southern sky when the eclipse begins at 8:42 pm, as the Earth's shadow crosses the moon's surface from left to right. The total eclipse is supposed to last from 10 pm to 10:51 pm.

More info in this USA Today article and TheStar.com.






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Snowdreams and filk circles

Above: "Snowdream." I created this in Corel Painter X recently.

Only about a month and a half until FilKONtario! Allison, Jodi and I have found out more about our concert that weekend; we'll be performing from 9-9:45 pm on the Friday night. We'll also be performing a couple of songs in a children's concert during the weekend.

Speaking of FKO, I came across the following video while browsing the Conflikt LJ community and thought I'd include it in my Blatherpost today.

The performers: Michelle "Vixy" Dockrey and Tony Fabris, who are the Guests of Honour at FKO this year. In the video (posted in YouTube by DagainRevdatter), they're performing Dawson's Christian (a song written by Duane Elms) in a casual open filk music circle at Conflikt, a new convention that launched last month. You can hear Callie Hills accompanying on bass flute as well.



For those who have never attended a filk circle, this gives you a fairly good idea of the atmosphere of a typical circle: a bit of casual conversation here and there, but mostly music...some solo performance, some group, and some singalong.

Want more Tony and Vixy? Check out FilKONtario (Toronto, Apr. 4-6th), where they're GoHs. I got hooked on Jonathan Coulton because of Tony's performance of Skullcrusher Mountain (which remains one of my favourite songs ever).

In the next video, you can hear Michelle sing one of her Firefly songs, "Mal's Song," which cleverly integrates the main theme from the TV series:



In the video soundtrack above, Michelle is performing with Escape Key (not Tony).

To find out more about filk, please check out my Filk FAQ.

B5Virgin Updates:

I've updated Babylon Five Virgin with a couple more reports: Season 1, Episode 7: The War Prayer, and Season 1, Episode 8: And The Sky Full Of Stars,




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Happy Family Day!

Happy Family Day, everyone! Personally, I think it's kind of sad that it's taken for granted that most people don't spend enough time with their family that we need to have a provincial holiday to make sure it happens.

Thanks for all the Strumstick case advice, everyone. I'm going to investigate plastic tubing. The main challenge would be the 5" wide part of the Strumstick, which means the entire tube would need to be at least that wide, and at least 30" long. Not sure if I could fit that into some of the Air Canada overhead bins of smaller planes (the size AC flights from Toronto to Atlanta and Columbus seem to get tinier each time) but perhaps I could find tubing that could padded well enough inside to check it if necessary.

Speaking of checking, do check out the page about my line of cards on the Blush Publishing Web site. Click on any of the card images to see a close-up of each card. I'm also in their Announcements page. If you're interested in distributing these cards or have suggestions for Mark and Allison about how they could get wider distribution, please do let them know!









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My first Babylon Five cartoon! and Strumsticks

Jeff and I watched another B5 episode last night. I posted about 'Mind War' in my Babylon Five Virgin blog (please post any comments in that blog, thanks, and not in LJ). And I posted my first Babylon Five comic in the blog, woohoo!

I've been investigating Strumsticks lately. I've been curious about this instrument every since Dan K. (see below) let me try his at GAFilk:




As some of you already know, tendinitis issues have kept me from playing guitar with Urban Tapestry. The Strumstick, however, is much lighter to carry and easier to play than a regular guitar, plus I figured it would add some instrumental variety to our performances.

Browsing the catalog, it seems that there are different types of Strumsticks, with the standard being in G or D, but also chromatic Strumsticks available which would able to play in any key.

I was also excited by some of the sound samples I heard on the Strumstick site, especially Chromatic Strumstick samples like this one. And wow, check out this sample of a Double Strumstick! There are even electric Strumsticks.

One of my concerns, though, is being able to fly with it. The Strumsticks are VERY light, from 11 ounces and up. However, I have my doubts about whether I'd always be able to take it as carry-on. Air Canada, the airline I do almost all my flying on, tends to be much pickier about carry-on that other instruments.

From Air Canada's site: "Air Canada will try to accommodate small musical instruments as part of a passenger's carry-on baggage allowance if the instruments can be stowed in an approved area for cabin baggage (i.e. overhead bin, underneath passenger seat). Customers are reminded to arrive prepared to check the item, as it is never guaranteed that it can be accommodated due to passenger loads, aircraft limitations and/or storage space available."

Even if I opted for the regular Standard Strumstick instead of the longer Chromatic or Grand, that's 29.5 inches long, which is longer than their standard carry-on length max, and longer than any suitcase I usually take to conventions. I wrote to the Strumstick people to ask if they had hardshell cases available, and they suggested I look into a rifle case.

A rifle case. HAHAHA, yes, that would go over real well at airports, I'm sure.

And so my fantasies of being a Strumstick Queen crumble into pitiful dust...


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