urban tapestry, happy songs, private dancing

Had a good practice with Allison and Jodi last night. Geez, I love being in Urban Tapestry. I feel incredibly lucky: not only are we all friends, but we also work so well together. After ten years, we've all gotten to know each other's strengths and weaknesses and we've settled into a wonderful comfort level while still supporting and encouraging each other to grow, learn new things, whether it's in songwriting or performance or trying new types of food in restaurants or our personal lives.

Taught my new song, "I'm Gonna Make A Rocket Ship," to A&J last night and we added harmonies, counterpoint. Lots of fun, and I'm looking forward to performing this in our kids' concert (shared with Ookla) at OVFF. :-) Allison taught us some other new kids' songs and we also ran through some of our regular grown-up repertoire, taking out songs we haven't done in a while, shaking the dust off and oiling the creaky joints, etc.

OVFF's only a couple of weeks away, woohoo!

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Thanks for the bug info!

Yesterday I asked if anyone could identify the bug in the photo I took in Austria. Some replied in LJ and Blatherchat that it was a grasshopper or katydid, and I also got the following info from my biologist friend, Peter Kotanen:

"It looks like a Long-horned Grasshopper (Order Orthoptera; Family Tettigoniidae). It's rather a diverse family, and includes a variety of grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids. It's likely in the subfamily Decticinae (Shield-backed Grasshoppers). They lay eggs in plants or the ground with their rather menacing ovipositor, and eat a wide range of plants. Specifically, it might well be Pholidoptera griseoaptera (Dark Bush-cricket). See here or here for some images!"

and from Alexa Karina on LJ, who suggested the bug was a grasshopper in an earlier post:

"Now I know for certain: Pholidoptera aptera, female. Rather common, in higher region (600m above sea level), day active but sing also at night. The attachment at the back is a ovipositor to lay the eggs. Does not sting but can bite. Best wishes Alexa"

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Thanks also, everyone, for the lists in LJ and Blatherchat of depressing songs! I modified my own list a bit as a result. Lots of weeping to do, I can see.

One of my favourite excerpts was from my friend Andy:

"...Also, a special mention for ABBA. Whenever I hear any ABBA song, I always end up feeling that the human race must be destroyed, and the sooner the better.

So thanks for putting me in a miserable frame of mind. Here are some cheerful sad songs for you, you wet blanket, you.

Bessie Smith - Gimme a Pigfoot
The Clash - Brand New Cadillac
George Thorogood - One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
Joe Jackson - What's The Use of Getting Sober?
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
The Pogues - The Sickbed of Cuchulain
Rolling Stones - Midnight Rambler
Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime
They Might Be Giants - Particle Man
Tom Waits - Jockey Full of Bourbon
The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again

because sometimes when you're sad, the last thing you need is some hippie weeping over her acoustic guitar."

:-D

And to continue on the theme of CHEERFUL songs, I offer the following poll:

What are the best FEEL-GOOD songs you know? i.e. the kind of music you can't resist dancing to, or that almost always cheers you up, or makes you feel good about life and friends in general?

Also, do ever dance in private, when no one else can see you? I do, in my office (a challenge to do without knocking things over) or the living room. Sometimes just because I need a short break from working in front of my computer and sometimes because I can't sit still when listening to music, like my new Carbon Leaf CDs, which arrived from Amazon a couple days ago!

I am not a good dancer. I'm uncoordinated, have no slick moves, have never taken lessons, but it's wonderful to dance just for the sheer joy of it.

I've always avoided formal dance situations, though I do admit a curiosity about the whole contra-dancing thing. Mark Osier gave me a short lesson a while back, and it was fun (and man, can that guy LEAD). Also had fun dancing with Bill Sutton at GAfilk last year, though I think he was startled by my unorthodox style. :-D

Have a great weekend, everyone.

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poll: sad songs

A bizarre bug I saw in Austria. Anyone know what it is?


I've always wondered at the power music can have over us. How can a mere arrangement of sound vibrations make us so happy? Or so incredibly sad? For me, it's a combination of the lyrics and music and personal associaton. What's sad for me may not be sad for you.

A poll for all of you:

What are the saddest songs you know? Or that you've written?

Anyway here's my partial list; I may add to this during the day:

Somewhere Over The Rainbow: by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg. One of the happiest and saddest songs I know.

The Queen and the Soldier: by Suzanne Vega. Joey Shoji does a great version of this.

Cranes Over Hiroshima: by Fred Small. I first heard this song when Joey sang this at a convention many years ago, and I bawled my eyes out. When my Mom was dying of cancer and I was in the hospital waiting and feeling numb and helpless, I found myself unable to read or do anything more than simple crafts like origami. When Allison and her husband John heard, they folded origami and mailed their pieces to me in support; soon our living room was filled with colourful origami made by friends and family. Later, a friend in Japan and her mother folded strings of origami cranes for my mother's grave. Jeff learned how to do origami during this time, and still does it for our nieces and nephews.

Drowning - by Joe Jackson

Go On - by Rand Bellavia and Adam English (on their album Oh Ok LA)

Elektra's Song- by Chris Malme.

Monday - by Allison Durno (one of my favourite Urban Tapestry songs)

Forever Young by Alphaville. Was one of my brother's favourite songs. I include a reference to it in the song below.

Song For Jim (see bottom of entry): song I wrote a few months after my brother and his wife died in a car accident.

Your turn.

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writing

My friend Andy, back in college days.


A very happy birthday to my friend Andy today.

Writing more these days. My tendinitis is much improved, I'm happy to report. I don't use ViaVoice anymore. I can type for longer without having to take a break (about 30 minutes at a time...sometimes more, sometimes less), though I still am being careful. My left arm is pretty much healed, right arm still recovering.

I still think of my day in terms of "arm points" (how much I can use my arm before it starts getting too sore to be of much use without risk of a setback). I have more arm points each day, but I still prioritize how much typing I do, and how I use arm points.

I know that if I gave up my Blatherings, I could do more typing for other projects. But for me, Blatherings is part of my writing life. My chance to talk about whatever I'd like without having to worry about wordcount or specific content or deadlines; I post when I feel like it.

Speaking of writing, I'm writing music again. While Jeff was helping my Dad with computerstuff last night, I noodled on the piano and wrote a kid's song. It's short and simple, but fun. :-) I'm hoping to polish it up and teach it to Allison and Jodi so we can perform it in our kids' concert (shared with Ookla the Mok) at OVFF. SO great to be writing music again. I started a second song as well, but doubt this will be finished in time.

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post-Thanksgiving

Stuffed with capon and pumpkin pie, we woke at the cottage early this morning while it was still dark; frost lay thick on the wooden deck, slippery beneath our boots. Bundled up in sweaters, hats and mittens, we finished packing up and set off across the lake in the motorboat. Halfway across we were blind, the mist all around us like a heavy (and slightly damp) cotton blanket. If I had been navigating, we'd be going in circles until the sun came up.





By the time we reached the other side, the sun was just starting to peek over some of the trees. The mist began to burn off after we loaded our stuff into the car and headed home but continued to pop up from time to time for the first hour or so, like a friend reluctant to leave, hiding in dips in the road and springing up to surprise us.





The ride back through the park was glorious: the combination of clear blue sky and autumn leaves was a wonderful explosion of colour in the morning sunlight. No wonder so many prople make the trek, to see the colours in Algonquin Park around this time of year, some from as far as Japan and China.

Sometimes I wonder about psychology behind the whole breathtaking colours thing. If the maple trees were full of brilliant oranges and reds and yellows throughout the year, would I be craving neutral shades?

"AH!" I'd gasp, glimpsing a patch of brown or grey amidst the blinding hues, fumbling for my camera. "How beautiful! How marvellous!"





Finished and sent off a revision to my Writer's Digest article, a bio for our Aurora nomination, have finally gotten over my jetlag.

The holidays have been wonderful, but I'm SO looking forward to getting back to a regular work week. :-)

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Austria trip, Part 5: the last day

Sat on the bank of the Schloss moat for a while and
watched the clouds go by.


Erin and Rand have gotten me hooked on Carbon Leaf. I'm curious: has anyone else out there heard of this group?

(Trip report continued from Part 1, Part 2 Part 3, and Part 4. Also check out my gradually expanding Austria trip photo album.)

And so we come to my Last Day in Austria.

While the others went out to tour castles and small towns, I decided to stay back at the Schloss. I knew I'd be missing out on wonderful sights but I decided that I wanted my last day to be different, taken at a more leisurely pace.




Painting in a stairwell at the Schloss.


So I spent the day wandering the Schloss and its grounds, exploring nooks and crannies, snooping through the bookshelves, walking in the forest, absorbing as much of the place into my senses and soul as I could in these last hours.





After getting together with Allison and Jodi a few nights ago, I realize I should clarify something I said in an earlier trip report post, that if I had only one afternoon in Paris and a choice between spending it touring the Eiffel tower and sitting in a cafe people-watching and sampling local cuisine, I'd choose the latter.

I'm NOT saying that I'd prefer avoiding all tourist attractions, and that I want to spend all my trips sitting in cafes. :-) The cafe example was exactly that: an example, not an itinerary item.

What I meant was that everyone has a different approach to travelling, and mine tends to lean toward exploring a place on my own at my own pace or with like-minded friends rather than automatically going through a checklist of "must-see" tourist attractions and careening through as many as I can in what little time I have, just to be able to say I saw them.




A tree with personality. I must put it in a book someday.


It was with this underlying intention that I opted to hang out at the Schloss on the last day. First thing I did after everyone left was to have a last long soak in the tub; we were leaving very early the next morning so there would no time to wash up. I did a bit of packing. Then I went wandering.

Here are some of the photos I took:





Lot of fruit and nut trees around the Schloss. Especially chestnuts:





Found this odd arrangement of rocks in the forest behind the building:





Also kept finding tennis balls in the oddest places, like along a trail in the woods:





And on a window sill:





There's a moss-overgrown tennis court, but I'm still curious about the story behind these tennis balls. Hm, reminds me...I must look up the German word(s) for "tennis balls."

I also chatted with some of the staff in German, which was fun (and one of my trip highlights). They wanted to know more about my drawing: did I do it professionally, for instance? Perhaps illustrate children's books? No, I told them, it was just for fun. But I wrote down the URLs to my online comics as well as to my Blatherings, where I told them I'd be posting a report.

At one point I ended up sitting on one of the outdoor couches near our picnic spot from earlier in the week, beside the moat and the weeping willows. The couch was wonderfully soft and cushions so inviting that I lay down and watched the late afternoon sunlight filtering through the leaves above, the horses grazing in a nearby paddock. Dozed off for a while, a warm breeze caressing my cheek.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, really.





I finished off my day by having a sauna; I think I was the only one of our group to use this room during the trip. VERY nice, reminded me a lot of the one at the cottage except it was bigger. I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall for a while, soaking in the heat.

I was sorely tempted by the giant hot tub, but by then the others were returning to the Schloss and it was nearly time for dinner.

As had become the ritual that week, we all shared our day's experiences as well as writing them down in the "Schloss Nachrichten", a daily trip diary I had set up for the group. When we got back home, I would send everyone a copy as well as a CD of all the photos I had taken.

For me, the day was one of the highlights of my trip, and the perfect way to end the trip. The Schloss was a magical place, and the Countess and her staff were wonderful. I would go back in a heartbeat. And I love Austria; it's definitely one of my all-time favourite places to be in the world.

Thank you so much, Arline, for masterminding this trip!

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