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Above: me, on a frozen lake in northern Ontario during a snowstorm this past weekend. Photo by my sister.
Ack, way busy. Jeff and I had a great time at the cottage with my sister and her family, but there's a ton to catch up on and I'm trying very hard to get control of my rapidly expanding To Do list.
Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. No, there's no such place as Squinky Books but I think there should be, don't you? "Squinky" is such a great-sounding word. I had no idea it was a real word (real as in being used, not necessarily being in the dictionary) until I found this Urban Dictionary entry after I did the comic above...I wanted to make sure I was accidentally saying anything really BAD (it's happened before, y'know).
1. Squinky
When one is feeling unstable or is acting of a peculiar manner
The state one reaches from days of sleep deprivation or drug use.
A Helpful Example: "Oh man, did you see Jodi at GAfilk on Sunday afternoon? She was totally squinky."
Above: From my illustration archives. Title: "Hope."
Many thanks to the members of Photo.net who responded to my plea for advice about how to turn a low-res photo (380 x 472 pixels) into higher-res version. Greg's brother Scott had contacted me about one of the photos of Greg that I had posted in my last Blathering, saying that his mother had asked about it and would love a printed copy, if I had a higher-res version available. I had found the photo online, however, and I suspect the originals must have been destroyed in the house fire. :-(
From Van Camper: "I worked on this a while trying to restore the highlights in the shirt, working on the hands (it was so yellow it was hard to put normal color back in), etc. The image is 80 megs (300 ppi for a 16x20 inch print). I can send it to you if you wish. The following is a much smaller file."
THANK YOU to the members above and Photo.net! For those that don't know, Photo.net is a fantastic online community for photographers to connect and discuss photography, explore galleries, share photographs, and learn more about the art of photography. I signed up for a paid membership after getting helpful advice and encouragement while shopping for my first DSLR last year.
Yes, the Internet has its share of woes (spam, flamewars, etc.) but I still find that in the end, the benefits far outweigh the problems...especially when friends and perfect strangers around the world can rally so quickly to the aid of someone in need.
I was deeply shocked and saddened when Dave Weingart told me about Greg McMullan's death in a house fire on Saturday night. Maya (Greg's wife) was at work, and Faeryn (his stepdaughter) was out, so neither was in the house at the time.
Greg's brother says that if you have specific memories of Greg to share, he would appreciate if you would consider posting them in his LJ. Since most of their photos were destroyed, Faeryn asks that if anyone has photos of Greg that could be used at a memorial service, to please send them to her (delete the "REMOVE" from the e-mail address).
My memories of Greg at GAfilk: he seemed to be enjoying himself, especially during the MyFilk panel (when I shot the photo taken above). During the weekend, we talked about his success in running, and he encouraged me in my own running.
He posted in my blog comments section, and liked my photography; he's been using a crop of one of my photos as his userpic for his LJ for several years. The full photo is below:
It first appeared in a Blathering I posted in 2005 about an incredible experience we shared at FilKONtario. Greg was delighted that he was in my photo of that memorable afternoon, and asked if it was ok if he used part of it as his LJ user icon. I said yes, of course.
Whenever I saw Greg at a convention, he was always smiling, friendly, and involved. He was a quiet, gentle man who never pushed himself into the limelight.
Other memories: at a convention we both attended last year, I ended up sitting beside Greg at a singalong, and we shared a songbook. I remember being once again impressed by his voice, and how beautifully he sang. I told him so afterward, and he seemed a bit embarrassed but pleased.
My strongest memory of Greg: his obvious love of singing and of the filk community. Whenever he sang, there was such joy on his face.
My heart goes out to Maya and Faeryn, and the rest of Greg's family.
I am perpetually behind in blog-reading. The main reason is time: these days there are SO many interesting and well-written blogs, and if I didn't have anything else to do, I could easily spend hours and hours just reading those. But blog-reading can be a real time-sink, and I'm not about to give up cable tv just to find something else to spend way too much time on.
But from time to time I do try to catch up on my LJ Friends List. I usually never get past the first few pages, however, because I end up following someone's link or photo or video and then end up digging deeper as I get sucked into the Web.
Intrigued, I checked The Ditty Bops Web site...and then, of course, I was doomed, especially when I discovered their photo and video room. Like this Extra video/interview, where they talk about their 2006 bike tour. Sadly, it doesn't look as if they're coming to Toronto anytime soon. :-(
The Ditty Bops Web site is fun to explore; it's much more interesting than the usual standard band site. They even have their own comic strip! Anyway, of course I bought one of their albums from iTunes, which I'm listening to as I write this Blathering; my favourite so far is "Ohh La La."
YouTube and other free video sources have been a major boon for musicians wanting to promote themselves. Not only can people hear someone's music, but they can also get a sense of their personality and (if the video is of the artist) what they look like, making it that much more personal.
One challenge, though, is that (like blogs) there are just SO MANY videos out there.
So I'm inviting you all to post a link to one or two videos (just a LINK to the video, please, not the imbedded video) to an artist or a song you think some people may not know about and SHOULD know about. If you're the artist, feel free to post a link to your own video.
Please avoid linking to a page requiring users to register or download specific software. This is where a place like YouTube is especially handy -- I know I can just click to be able to see the video.
I'll post a selection in an upcoming Blathering. Hopefully this will be of benefit to both the artists and those of us open to discovering new music but not always sure where to look.
Monday, February 4, 2008 at 6:13PM 
