songwriting notes

Continuing to do a major office purge. During the process, I came across the early notes (see above) for my Lord of the Rings song, The Question. I got the idea for the song after posting this Waiting For Frodo comic strip. Click on any page to see a bigger version. For those truly curious about how incoherent I can get during the songwriting process, you can then see an even BIGGER page if desired by clicking on "ALL SIZES."

After getting a rough version written out on manuscript paper, the next stage in the process for me is sing the whole song to Allison & Jodi, then teach them their parts. I had the general arrangement figured out, but after going through it with A & J, we did a bit of rearranging. Jodi wanted to sing the line about Faramir, for example :-). And as always, they picked the song up pretty quickly at the first session, including some of the harmonies and counterpoint!

I always feel lucky to have the music partners I do. :-)

Erin's article about Nanowrimo is online at the writers' resource Toasted Cheese, for those interested. I was one of the people she interviewed for the piece.

Session tunes update (tunes I've learned so far):
The Swallow Tail, The Donegal Reel, The Galway Rambler, Cooley's Reel, The Boyne Hunt, The Sligo Maid, Drowsy Maggie, Ms. McLeod's Reel, working on The Green Groves Of Erin.

November 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

what if...

Today's Blathering is a collaboration for Wordgoddess. Topic: "What if..."

What if...

What if that guy from Smashing Pumpkins lost his car keys?

What if is a versatile protein structure analysis program.

What if Netscape had won?

What if you built a blog and no one came?

What, if anything, is a Byzantine?

What if I shot my TV?

What if the Beatles had been computer freaks?

What if I'm pregnant?

What if we could do anything?

What if Dr. Seuss wrote technical documentation?

What if is an innovation company.

What if the gunpowder plot had succeeded?

What if is a GIS-based system.

What if The Lord of the Rings had been written by someone else?

And what if I had decided to write a serious "what if" Blatherings entry?

Of course there's the obvious stuff, like "what if Jim and Diane were still alive, what would things be like" etc., but for me, not only are those what-ifs useless, but also hurtful and counter-productive.

I also don't generally go for the whole regretful decision rehashing. Regret with a vow to learn from the whole experience is one thing, but I believe that people have to make mistakes along the way to figure out what they're doing.

Who I am today is the sum of all my experiences, good and bad decisions, the choices and life priorities I've set for myself. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't make all the same choices, it's true, but neither would I have a guarantee that I'd be happier than I am now, or a better person.

What if I could relive my life...would I do it? This is such a loaded question, sort of like the "if your husband and your mother were drowning and you could only save one of them, which would you save" impossible-to-answer context.

I've been through a lot to get to where I am now. Instead of wistfully daydreaming about what-ifs, I think I'd rather focus on the here and now.

It has so much more potential. :-)

November 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

lifestuff

I saw the Incredibles for the third time last night, with first-timers Jeff and Ray. I so adore this movie. Can't WAIT until the DVD comes out. I want an Edna t-shirt that says: "NO CAPES!"

Session tunes I've learned by heart (all reels so far):
The Swallow Tail, The Donegal Reel, The Galway Rambler, Cooley's Reel, The Boyne Hunt, The Sligo Maid, Drowsy Maggie. Working on Ms. McLeod's Reel. Last night, I discovered that the front hall of my sister's house has WONDERFUL acoustics for practising the whistle, much better than my home office.

I find myself obsessed. I carry a penny whistle around with me and practise whenever I can. Tunes run through my head all the time, itching to get out. Best of all, playing the whistle isn't nearly as tough on my tendons as playing the guitar or even my metal flute. Ju showed me how to play the whistle with flatter finger positions rather than feeling compelled to always cover the holes with the tips of my fingers; this also makes it easier. I used to keep a guitar in my office within reach for noodling and songwriting; now I keep a penny whistle.

Finished Jonathan Strange and Dr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke and The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud (anxiously awaiting the second book to come out in paperback!), just started The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde and Good Poems by Garrison Keillor. And of course my beloved German grammar books. :-)

Lifestuff (ultimately good but making things crazy and stressful right now) is happening that I can't really talk about yet, but it means I will likely be more incoherent and sporadic than usual. Thanks for your patience.

November 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

turkish cooking & Flickr

Front of a birthday card I made for Justin. Click for bigger image.


Fun 40th birthday party for Justin yesterday. Excellent victuals, too; Justin and Justin's mom had prepared all kinds of scrumptious but healthy dishes, most of them Turkish and from a cookbook called Sofra Cookbook: Modern Turkish and Middle-Eastern Cookery, by Huseyin Ozer. I've added this to my Amazon Wish List; I maintain this list more for myself than anyone else; I used to write down interesting-sounding books and movies on scraps of paper which I'd promptly lose.

And Justin hadn't seen the piano music I'd written for him after all! Now I need to dig up the other music I've written and give copies to my other musical inspirations, just in case I've been negligent in their cases as well. To John: Sadly, I have been unable to find my copy of Commandy Andy. I'll keep looking, though. I was highly impressed that John still remembered the tune!

Also chatted with Tom West and was delighted to discover that there is an 80-85% chance he'll be at FilKONtario when Michelle's the Author Guest! Yayyyy! Very happy about this since, after all, Tom's the one who introduced me to filk in the first place. Michelle was unable to be at the party because she's in Montreal this weekend for ConCept.

Thanks to Ruth & Kaarel for giving me a lift to the party, since Jeff wasn't able to attend.





I'm starting to link all my Blatherings photos to my Flickr photo album, by the way. I figure it's a way of saving some hard disk space as well as making back-ups of my favourite images. I'm pretty happy with Flickr so far, especially the bulk uploading tool available for Mac OS. Anyway, from now on, you'll usually be able to click on any photo to get a bigger image. I'm also pretty happy with how the Filking Group on Flickr is growing, with members in the filking community contributing photos.

Especially liked the comment from John (jjc in Blatherchat) in response to yesterday's Blathering about Salad Nicoise:

"I used to reflexively order café liègois, but that was because I was living in France. When I'm travelling in the States, I'll order chicken Caesar salads, because they're universally available, sufficiently digestible and nutritionally complete that I can live on them for long enough to run a Scrabble tournament, and hard to completely botch. If I'm eating out in a civilised part of the world, I cannot resist just about any preparation of duck, and am rarely disappointed.

Salmon and canned salmon are two different substances. I learned this the first time I made a salmon salad sandwich out of real salmon. I felt like I'd wasted a large portion of my culinary life opening cans. Canned salmon is for cats. Except the spoiled one that come to my back door, who gets barbecued salmon, microwaved back to body temperature if I've had to refrigerate it."

John, you canned salmon snob! I love canned salmon, and will often have it with toast, or dumped over some freshly cooked pasta for lunch. Yummm....

John, by the way, was the one to arrange the candles on Justin's birthday cake. Poor Justin spent a while trying to figure it out; it's a ritual between the two of them and there are times when the rest of us despair of ever getting a taste of the cake. This time the answer was relatively simple (for a technonerdboy, that is): the ascii character for 40.

:-)

November 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

justinmusic & salmon nicoise

Music for a friend. Click for bigger image.


Happy birthday to my friend Justin, who now lives in Montreal!

I've been cleaning out my office lately and came across a bunch of very old piano pieces I'd written, before I hooked up with Urban Tapestry. Piano was pretty much my only musical outlet back then...I didn't play guitar or harp or much flute or sing.

The piece above is one I wrote for my friend Justin 20 years ago. Y'know, I honestly can't remember if I ever ended up playing this song for him. I was extremely self-conscious about my music back then, wrote a bunch of stuff but rarely performed it for anyone. Except for the silly stuff, that is (yes, Andy, I still have That Song ... BWAHAHA!!).

Anyway, I'll have to remember to take a copy of the song at the top of the page to give to Justin when I see him later today.



Justin. Photo swiped from his Web site.

Had fun with Parki last night. Went to see The Incredibles again, and then had dinner at Frisco's (I think that was the name). My current kneejerk restaurant menu order is Salmon Nicoise. By "kneejerk restaurant menu order," I mean an item on a menu that will immediately supercede all other items for me, that I usually feel compelled to order. Does anyone else out there make menu choices like this, or am I the only obsessed diner?

I used to be obsessed with Creme Caramel and then Creme Brulee...now those are usually too sweet for me (yes, even me).

Hm, I should learn how to actually MAKE a Salmon Nicoise Salad myself. On quick glance, here are some recipes I've found:

- One with canned salmon, which would be quicker/cheaper to make, though doesn't look as appealing as some of the other recipes.

- This one uses salmon filets (which I prefer). And SPINACH, interesting. I'll probably try this one first.

- This recipe has nutrition info: 207 calories per serving, not bad

- One from the BBC but uses 'puy lentils,' whatever the heck those are

November 2004 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments