Scott Adams Songwriting Experiment - and a song survey

Shane McEwan pointed me to a recent songwriting experiment by Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame), who launched the project in his blog after pointing out that hit songs often have gibberish lyrics.

In a recent blog post, Scott invited his readers to help him write a song. Rules included: max 2 lines, grammatically correct, no klunky-sounding words, about life or love, and "It should sound like it might have deep meaning to someone else."

In his follow-up post, The Hit Song You Wrote, Scott posted the final lyrics as well a link to an MP3 of the song put together by German band Rivo Drei.

Heh, not bad. As Shane pointed out "it sounds a good as anything that gets produced in the American Idol cloning facilities."

And a brilliant marketing move by Rivo Drei, as well. I was amused by their About page (they have an English version). An excerpt: "We are a tremendously successful pop/rock band based in Berlin, Germany. Our three band members are amongst the best instrumentalists you can find in Europe. And we're very good-looking, too. Girls want to be with us. Guys want to be like us. If you haven't heard about us yet, shame on you. But be glad that you're here now."

But the experiment got me thinking more about why I like certain songs, and whether or not lyrics are important. For me, the music is key. The song can have the most beautiful lyrics in the world but if I don't like the music, then I usually don't like the song.

I tend to be drawn toward songs that have a catchy melodic or musical hook. If the lyrics are also memorable, that enhances the song for me. I like the Beatles' "I Love You Yeah Yeah Yeah" despite the lyrics.

Hm...though now that I think of it, the songs I tend to listen to over and over again tend to focus on lyrics, though, so I suppose I'm already contradicting myself.

Hm, must think more about this.

A Survey:

What about you? Do you tend to focus on the music or the lyrics? Which are more important to you?


Photo by Michelle Poirier.

I have a new blogTO post up, by the way: Some Words Spoken: An Interview With Monica S. Kuebler. Monica is the associate editor and webmistress of Rue Morgue Magazine and also runs Burning Effigy Press in Toronto.



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Canadian Blog Awards, Best Of Independent Toronto Awards

For those who didn't know (the majority, I suspect, since I hadn't heard of these awards up to now either, and I think most of you are in the U.S.), the Canadian Blog Awards are now into Round 2.

A blog I write for, blogTO, has been nominated Best Local Blog. If you're familiar with blogTO and think it deserves to win, please do vote by January 30th. You can only vote once per category, per round.

And speaking of awards, BlogTO is holding a Best Of Independent Toronto poll. If you're a Torontonian, I encourage you to participate!

Pic O' The Day

Devil Skwerl (thanks Margaret & Seanan!)




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Will Write For Chocolate

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated.



Above: Jodi and Peter at GAfilk. This year's convention was bittersweet for those at the convention who knew Peter's brother; Dave Alway passed away just after last year's GAfilk. I missed seeing Dave's smiling face, and (like many others at the convention, I'm sure) thought of him frequently. I put one of the buttons that Dave gave me on my Weta bag (also from Dave) and used the bag during the weekend.

Video of the Day:

I discovered the highly amusing video below from a post by Adam Schwabe. I thought it really WAS Celine Dion at first. :-D





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GAfilk part 7 (final): people pics

In my last Blathering, I raved about Play It With Moxie. For those interested, band member Dave Rood has posted an overview of what goes into a performance.

My GAfilk report thus far: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and here's the final installment...

As you might have guessed by now, I had a ton of fun at GAfilk and there's no way I could possibly go over all the highlights. Rob Wynne has a list of other people's GAfilk reports online.

But here are a few more of my favourite photos. This was the first filk convention where I brought my DSLR, and it was an enlightening experience. Though I'm happy with the pics, it was somewhat more of a hassle to lug around the camera than I expected, mainly because I was paranoid about leaving it unattended, plus it wasn't nearly as easy as my point-and-shoot to catch people by surprise :-). Next time, I will likely bring my point-and-shoot to carry around with me most of the time, and only take the heavier camera for concerts.



The Interfilk auction was fun...it's great entertainment and for a good cause. Thanks to those who bought the paintings I donated to the Interfilk auction, including Dave Weingart for buying "A Quiet Moment," Brenda Sutton for buying my Dirty/Clean dishwasher painting, and especially steviebomb for buying "Perchance To Dream." Thanks also to Rand for buying The Smallest Autobiography Of Jeff Bohnhoff In The World.



Another highlight: finally getting to meet Rob Balder (above right). Rand had mentioned him to me before, and then when I was being interviewed for Comixtalk, Xavier Xerxes asked me if I knew him, since both of us are webcomic people AND filkers. Rob is the creator of PartiallyClips, among other comics. His graphic novel, Erfworld, was listed in Time magazine as one of the Top 10 Graphic Novels (!). Rob is also part of The FUMP (The Funny Music Project).

And here are a few of my favourite people shots taken at GAfilk. They're not technically perfect, but I'm pretty happy with how each captures some of the essence of the subject, or at least how I see them. :-) I'll be posting more GAfilk people pics in upcoming Blatherings now and then.





















Many thanks to the GAfilk guests and concom for helping to make the weekend so successful! And if you've never been to GAfilk, do consider coming next year! Guests of Honor in 2009: Barry & Sally Childs-Helton, Toastmaster: Larry Kirby, Interfilk Guest: Harold Feld.

And as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there's no way I could possibly list all the highlights. You'll just have to come and see for yourself. :-)

For more info, please see the GAfilk Web site.




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GAfilk part 6: Play It With Moxie (and my bookmark experiments)

My GAfilk report thus far: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and and here's Part 6:



One of the main highlights for me at GAfilk (and one of the reasons I feel compelled to go every year) is their house band, Play It With Moxie.

Its members (bios excerpted from the Play It With Moxie MySpace page):

	Dr. Mary Crowell (keyboard, vocals; band leader): Mary started as a solo act. When she returned for the second year at the annual GaFilk banquet, she added George and Brian on bass and drums, and it's snowballed into the group as it is today. She's a member of the band Three Weird Sisters, the duo Birds of a Feather and has recently released her first solo CD.
	Jodi Krangle (vocals, percussion): "Jodi hails from Toronto, Canada. She is the editor of The Muse's Muse, an online resource and community for songwriters. Jodi recently launched a new business, voiceoversandvocals.com. She performs with her band, Urban Tapestry."
George Powell (bass, tenor sax, flute, backup vocals): "George does session work and has performed with bands that include Three Weird Sisters. Although he has a music degree, he turned to the dark side in the mid 1980s and went to law school. George practices law by day and teaches at the Gwinnett School of Music in his free time. He and Teresa live in a house full of instruments. Watch for the kilt." Andrew Powell (alto sax, vocals): "Andrew joined in 2006, creating an enthusiastic horn section. Steeped in music since he was a small tot, Andrew is currently a music major at Georgia State University. He lends smooth and animated vocals to a number of songs in the PIWM set."
	Teresa Powell (vocals, bass, percussion): "Teresa is a member of the bands Three Weird Sisters and Birds of a Feather. She excels at arranging harmonies and is the only member of PIWM who looks good wearing a snake. It is a little-known fact that she is quite capable with brass instruments, but we keep her busy singing."
	David Rood (trumpet, backup vocals): "David plays with the jazz combo After Hours and has worked with Three Weird Sisters and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company. He helps out with transcription and arrangements, and his trumpet solos with curl your toes!"
	Brian Richardson (drums, band emcee): "Brian lives under the stars many miles from Metro Atlanta. Brian has done session recording for local artists and is responsible for the closed-circuit television programming at Dragoncon. Brian's special brand of genius wit makes him the perfect band emcee."
	Carly Gibson (guitar, vocals): "Joining the band in 2007, Carly is the newest member of PIWM. Already rocking a mean guitar at the tender age of 15, this petite musician also sports a big, lush voice. One of Carly's goals is to attend the Berkelee School of Music after she graduates from high school. We think she has what it takes!"

I had expected to have more time to take photos, but ended up spending most of my time on the dance floor. The band was FANTASTIC as usual. I especially enjoyed hearing Carly's solo debut! I'd love to take some better pics next year; maybe the band will let me sneak in ahead of time to get some photos during their warm-up.

The band works VERY hard at GAfilk and in prep for GAfilk. Not only do they perform over two hours without a break, but they spend time after their performance packing up their gear and taking it out to the cars. Hopefully they also finally find time to actually have dinner, which (though kept warm) has been sitting there for a couple of hours.

This year, I believe they also ended up missing much of the evening programming as a result, including the Guest Of Honor concert. :-(

You can read Dave Rood's overview here.

Anyway, it makes me even more grateful to Play It With Moxie for helping to make GAfilk such an enjoyable experience for the rest of us. And to anyone who has enjoyed their music -- the band is apparently putting together a CD, woohoo! Keep an eye on their MySpace page for updates.

I can't wait! I want to buy the CD not just because I love their music, but also because it's the least I can do to show my support for the band and gratitude for all the effort and time they've been devoting to GAfilk these past years. Another way to show our gratitude: support the individual band members in their own projects, musical and otherwise.



Above: Jeff and Maya, first on the dance floor.

Many thanks also to my dance partners that evening. I enjoyed myself tremendously (huge understatement). One of my favourite mini-conversations during a dance was with Judi Miller. I warned her that I didn't really know how to dance and might step on her feet, and she looked relieved. She confessed she didn't really know, either, and in fact had stepped on Franklin's toes at last year's GAfilk.

"Hey, I stepped on Franklin's toes, too!" I exclaimed. What a gentleman, that Franklin. :-)


But on to non-filky topics...



I worked most of the weekend, catching up on illustration and painting commitments. The North Wales couple (Blush Publishing) sent me proofs of the new letterpress card line with my illustrations, and they look great! I'm so excited! The artwork is going to be sent off today for block etchings.

I've written to the Etsy people to see if I can sell them in my Etsy store; according to the rules, you can only sell stuff you make yourself, but I've noticed that quite a few people seem to be selling prints of their artwork that they didn't necessarily print themselves. If Etsy says no, I might go with Big Cartel.

Speaking of my Etsy store, I've added some hand-painted bookmarks. After doing for-pay work on the weekend, I also did some painting for fun. Beckett Gladney gave me the idea of using artboard as well as drawing with pencil crayons on top of acrylics, so I played around with that, plus used textured metallic paint for highlights. I sent a bookmark to lisande and smoooom because I owe them memestuff, and put my other experiments on Etsy.

The following are currently for sale on Etsy:





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