whistles!

The very cool whistle holder that my friend Teddy
made for me. I store my rosewood flute in it as well as my recorder.


I've been really enjoying getting back into penny whistle playing again, and try to play a bit every day; I've been learning tunes from "120 Favorite Irish Session Tunes", published by Homespun Tapes, and I just bought "Deluxe Tinwhistle Songbook" for $10 on eBay. One of the wonderful things about penny whistles is that you can get them cheap (about $10-12). They're also extremely portable, so I've followed Chris Conway's lead and now carry one around in my bag most places.

I've already given away two: one to a student from Japan living with my father, and one to a niece...both were enjoying some tunes I was playing; we started talking about penny whistles, and that led to an impromptu lesson and the gift of the penny whistles. I remember getting a whistle in a similar fashion from Kylea Fulton, a Winnipeg filker who sometimes plays with Dandelion Wine and who also performed on our "Myths and Urban Legends" CD.



What the whistle holder looks like rolled up.


I've also started exploring online resources. There are some VERY cool penny whistle resources available, many with soundclips and sheet music. Here are just a few:

The Whistle Workshop

Whistletutor.com

Chiff & Fipple

Anyone know of others?

I've started lusting after a low whistle, but I've heard they're physically hard to play (holes wide apart, for instance). For those of you unfamiliar with low whistles, here's a description from the Chiff & Fipple site: "Low whistles are twice as long and play an octave lower. They're the big Freudian models. This is the kind of whistle seen by a zillion people in Riverdance. They're good to own because, in a pinch, you can use one to defend yourself in a pub."

The first two photos in today's Blathering are of the wonderful whistle holder that Teddy made for me. I already have more whistles than whistle slots, so I bundle them up in the middle whenever I travel with them. THANK YOU, TEDDY!!!



Teddy at FilKONtario in 2001


Going to a housefilk at Sally Headford's in Richmond Hill tonight, held in honour of Chris Malme, a filker from the UK who's in town. You can hear samples of Chris's music here. My favourite songs of his include "The Boy In The Room" (inspired by "Ender's Game") and "Elektra's Song" (inspired by the Elektra Saga by Frank Miller with Klaus Johnson).

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the myth of writer's block

My friend Ray.


Arms a bit sore today so haven't got much left for a Blathering. DID reach my daily writing quota, though, so that's a good thing. Total thus far: 9380 words.

Instead, read this wonderful page about writing by Philip Pullman (author of His Dark Materials trilogy), which I found through Liam O'Donnell's blog.

LOVE what Pullman says about "writer's block":

"I don't believe in it. All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don't get plumber's block, and doctors don't get doctor's block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?"

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urinetown, diarist.net awards

Allison and John yesterday afternoon.



Urinetown was one of the most entertaining musicals I've ever seen, and was nothing like I expected. I hadn't realized how much satire was involved, and how self-referential the writing would be; the opening number, for example, is called "Too Much Exposition", and admits that the name "Urinetown" is a terrible name for a show.

It pokes fun at Broadway musicals in general; the more experience you've had with musical theatre, the more you'll appreciate this show. It was fun trying to identify musical quotes and styles; I'm sure I missed quite a few. I definitely recognized Les Miserables in the first act finale (which is literally called "Act One Finale") and West Side Story in another number, for example.

Though Allison might disagree, I have to say that the show will likely not be as appealing to someone who hasn't seen many musicals; I would suspect those people who tend to see Urinetown as a rather silly and over-the-top production without being aware of the underlying irony. It might also be a disappointment to those who are looking more for "heart" than clever writing, though I'm usually one of those types and enjoyed Urinetown tremendously.



For those who aren't aware of it, the Diarist.net awards are a quarterly special series of awards given by web diarists to web diarists, "highlighting the best and brightest the genre has to offer." Anyone with an online journal can nominate sites, a jury picks finalists, and open voting determines the winners. In order to nominate and vote, you have to have a web journal, diary, or personal weblog. I've volunteered to serve on the Diarist Finalist Selection panel in the past because I was curious about the process, and was impressed by the amount of work and effort that goes into the selection process.

The current round of voting is now in progress. For those interested, here are the current site award nominations, and here are the current nominations of individual entries.

If you have an online journal of any kind, please consider casting a vote. Like the Pegasus Awards in filking, the more people that participate, the more representative the awards will be.



Came across this harpist on my run yesterday morning.


Interesting links:

Ultimate folding technique: I watched this a few times but I'm still not sure how she does it. This refers to shirt-folding, not origami, by the way. Thanks to my friend Ray for the link!

Some AMAZING examples of origami from Hojyo Takashi. Be sure to check out the "My Works" section. Thanks to Jeff for the link!

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more libraries

Driven by library lust, I went to the University of Toronto yesterday and got an Alumni card for $20. This gives me access to browsing access to 34 cool specialty libraries, including the Faculty of Music Library, Criminology Information Service & Library, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library, Astronomy & Astrophysics Library, Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies Library, and the Robarts Library stacks. I was shocked to realize that I still have my student number memorized (and I haven't used it for nearly 20 years). Got my photo taken, waited a few minutes for my card to get printed and laminated. Spankin' new alumni card in hand, I checked out Robarts to see how much has changed since I was there. The stacks are basically the same, but the basement has definitely changed since the days when we used to fill up Michelle Sagara's boots with pennies while she slept in one of the study carrels; the room is filled with computer terminals now. Worked on novel writing while I was there, on my laptop. Felt very strange to be in that environment again. I was also forced to admit that I need to buy a new laptop battery or resign myself to only working near active power outlets...my laptop battery lasts less than an hour now. :-( Only six weeks until Confluence! Urban Tapestry has a concert on Friday night at 10 pm. We'll also be participating in a children's concert during the weekend, and in Chris Conway's concert. Jodi and I (possibly Allison as well, we're keeping our fingers crossed) will be attending OVFF Oct.29-31, where our pals Rand Bellavia, Adam English and Scott Snyder are guests (Ookla the Mok: Guest of Honor, Scott: Toastmaster). Heather Dale is Interfilk guest; if you haven't heard this talented Toronto singer-songwriter yet and are going to be at OVFF, you're in for a real treat. Jodi and I will also be attending GAfilk in Atlanta next January. Allison and I are seeing Urinetown this afternoon! Looking forward to it despite the odd name. :-) Horses at my mom-in-law's place in the country. Photo taken last weekend June 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments Debbie Ohi | Post a Comment | Share Article | Permalink tagged Uncategorized Friday Jun112004 library lust Friday, June 11, 2004 at 4:51PM Jeff and me yesterday at dinner. Photo by Ginny. Every year, my mom-in-law Ginny takes Jeff and me to Shawfest at Niagara-on-the-Lake. We usually do something before the play, like cycling or shopping or sightseeing. This year we decided to check out Riverbrink, home of the Samuel E. Weir collection of art, sculpture and antiques before seeing "The Importance of Seeing Earnest." The play was wonderful. I've seen it before several times, but never fail to be impressed by the clever writing. Stone cat in the backyard of our B&B. The highlight of the visit for me, however, was the library in Riverbrink. As Ginny and Jeff chatted with the curator, I browsed through some of the books. One of my novels waiting for revision involves the writings of a young girl living in 19th century eastern Ontario, and I've been trying to find source documents which will help give me examples of how young people wrote back then and in that area, what they typically had for dinner, what school lessons were like, etc. I started out browsing in the Riverbrink library just because I like libraries in general, but then got more and more excited when I realized that several books contained EXACTLY THE KIND OF HISTORICAL INFO I NEED. I finally interrupted the conversation to ask the curator if I could borrow a piece of paper (the only piece of paper I had in my purse was a mini-post-it note, which I filled up pretty quickly despite trying to write in very tiny letters). When I explained why I was so excited, the curator got excited and started pulling out more books that were EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED. A few looked like they might be available in the Toronto public library, but most appeared to be limited editions or rare books. I'm hoping I can track the titles down in Toronto, and the curator suggested the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. Sadly, we only had about 30 minutes before the building closed. It was agony to have to leave all those wonderful books behind, augh. But I did write down all the titles, and now I'm all excited about having a valid excuse to hang out at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, which I had always been curious about when I was a student at the University of Toronto. I'm such a library geek. Jeff and Ginny. June 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments Debbie Ohi | Post a Comment | Share Article | Permalink tagged Uncategorized Page 1 ... 22 23 24 25 26 ... 42 Next 5 Entries » Copyright©2021 Debbie Ridpath Ohi. Base URL: DebbieOhi.com. Contact

library lust

Jeff and me yesterday at dinner. Photo by Ginny.

Every year, my mom-in-law Ginny takes Jeff and me to Shawfest at Niagara-on-the-Lake. We usually do something before the play, like cycling or shopping or sightseeing. This year we decided to check out Riverbrink, home of the Samuel E. Weir collection of art, sculpture and antiques before seeing "The Importance of Seeing Earnest."

The play was wonderful. I've seen it before several times, but never fail to be impressed by the clever writing.


Stone cat in the backyard of our B&B.

The highlight of the visit for me, however, was the library in Riverbrink. As Ginny and Jeff chatted with the curator, I browsed through some of the books. One of my novels waiting for revision involves the writings of a young girl living in 19th century eastern Ontario, and I've been trying to find source documents which will help give me examples of how young people wrote back then and in that area, what they typically had for dinner, what school lessons were like, etc.

I started out browsing in the Riverbrink library just because I like libraries in general, but then got more and more excited when I realized that several books contained EXACTLY THE KIND OF HISTORICAL INFO I NEED. I finally interrupted the conversation to ask the curator if I could borrow a piece of paper (the only piece of paper I had in my purse was a mini-post-it note, which I filled up pretty quickly despite trying to write in very tiny letters).

When I explained why I was so excited, the curator got excited and started pulling out more books that were EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED. A few looked like they might be available in the Toronto public library, but most appeared to be limited editions or rare books. I'm hoping I can track the titles down in Toronto, and the curator suggested the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.

Sadly, we only had about 30 minutes before the building closed. It was agony to have to leave all those wonderful books behind, augh.

But I did write down all the titles, and now I'm all excited about having a valid excuse to hang out at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, which I had always been curious about when I was a student at the University of Toronto.

I'm such a library geek.


Jeff and Ginny.

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