Balticon report (part 4): Sassafrass and songwriting

Balticon 42 report continued...



Photo by Korak. From L to R: Lauren, Ada, Irina, and Zara.

One of my highlights was meeting and hearing a subgroup of a larger musical entity known as Sassafrass. This women's a capella group originated at Bryn Mawr college in 1999 and its membership has varied over the years.

At Balticon, we got to hear four of the group members: Lauren Schiller, Ada Palmer, Irina Greenman, and Zara Yost. You can find out more about them at their new Sassafrass Web site, where you can also hear sound samples like this group improvisation of Ada's song, "Tumbling Away." Yes, that's what I said, IMPROVISATION. Whoa. Their soundclip pages also include their regular songs as well. If you're on Livejournal, you can also join their new Sassafrass community.



Cover of their 2001 CD, Solitary Dancer.
I bought a copy last weekend and am enjoying it tremendously.

Ada and Lauren attended our Arrangement/Performance workshop, and I was fascinated by their comments about their material. Apparently part of the reason they got together was because they were frustrated with the lack of good group material -- most group pieces seem to focus one lead singer and possibly one backup singer, with the others singing repetitive parts.

Ada (the primary composer) said that her aim was to make each singer feel like her part was the coolest part ever, and that EVERY part is important throughout each song to the harmony, melody and lyrics.


Photo by Korak

I would LOVE to sit down with Ada someday and talk about songwriting and arrangement; there was no time at Balticon, sadly, but hopefully at some other convention. Sassafrass will be attending Contata (June 20-22 in New Jersey) and performing in open filk, but unfortunately I'm not going to be able to be there. :-(

Ada, by the way, has a huge amount of music experience. She took Peabody music theory courses in childhood, and has studied violin, piano, guitar, and various medieval instruments; her compositions are primarily vocal. She's a graduate student in European Intellectual History, is a columnist for Tokyopop.com and runs TezukaInEnglish.com, the primary English language web source on the founder of modern manga, Osamu Tezuka.

To find out more about the other members of Sassafrass, be sure to check the Sassafrass bio page on their Web site.

Talking with Ada and the other Sassafrass members has inspired me to work harder at my own songwriting. I usually write for Allison and Jodi first, and then throw in my own harmonies as an afterthought...which is why my parts tend to jump around a lot, and are often outside my comfortable vocal range (which is narrowest of the group).



One of the few times I've actually written all three parts simultaneously and throughout was for The Friendship Song (which you can hear at our MySpace page, sheet music is above). It took more work, but the results were well worth it. Plus if any of us forgets our part we can always refer to the sheet music in addition to our recordings.

Our group differs from Sassafrass in that we don't mind sometimes having songs with one lead singer -- it works out because when planning a playlist, we always make sure that the leads are fairly evenly split between Allison and Jodi. I've never had a strong desire to sing lead; I have more fun doing harmonies and accompanying on various instruments instead.

Also, Allison and Jodi are songwriters themselves and are great at coming up with their own harmonies. When trying to fit in a third harmony, however, I do find it a challenge unless I write all three parts at the same time ... else I get stuck with the leftover notes and a line that's hard to sing and harder to remember. I've been looking on it as a way to push myself, but I'm realizing that I could be pushing myself AND having a line that's fun to sing at the same time.

Meeting Sassafrass has inspired me to work harder and coming up with more interesting lines when doing songwriting, plus put more effort into my own parts. I've always been a big fan of pushing one's own personal envelope, and I think I've been getting lazy in my songwriting; I should be using EVERY song as a learning experience and a chance to improve my craft, even in a small way.

Many thanks to Sassafrass for the inspiration and (again) to Balticon for providing a venue in which this sort of creative exchange is possible.


With Greg Wright, Balticon 42 Chair.

Above: Despite having the whole convention to run, Greg found time to check in with us regularly through the weekend to see how we were doing, if needed anything, etc. Super-nice guy. :-)

More about Balticon soon....

Speaking of songwriting, I feel inspired by Balticon weekend and am going to sit down and do some songwriting today.



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Balticon report (part 3): webcomics, dancing and Neverwear

Photo by Allison. We ran into this fellow
in the lobby and chatted with him a bit. He ended up coming to
the open filk that night and performing (and he was good, too!).
He made the Vulcan lyre himself.


Balticon report continued...

One of the things I especially enjoyed about Balticon was checking out non-filk programming. I don't often get to general sf conventions anymore, and I was reminded of how much a con like Balticon has to offer.

One of the challenges, of course, is trying to decide what to attend. I'll have to come back someday as a regular attendee; there were so many panels I would have liked to see, but I had commitments as a guest that (of course) had to come first. I never was able to make it to any of the panels or presentations by Connie Willis, one of my favourite authors.



Thanks to the "Meet and Greet" gatherings, however, I was able to chat briefly with her. Urban Tapestry had guested with Connie some years ago at Ad Astra, though I doubt Connie would have remembered that. You can see a photo of me and Connie in my Ad Astra report.

I'm such a fangirl that my language skills totally fled me during the few words I exchanged with her. Instead of impressing her with my witty repartee and keen observations about her writing, I babbled about loving her work and being a fan and got completely tongue-tied. AUGH, how embarrassing!

I'll content myself in singing songs about her books instead. :-) Allison, Jodi and I performed In A Gown Too Blue in our main concert, a gorgeous and chilling song by Brenda Sutton of Three Weird Sisters. Thanks so much to Brenda for letting us cover her song.


Photo by Korak

I had a ton of fun at the Medieval Dance workshop, led by our patient instructor, Patches, and ably accompanied by a group of musicians including Gary Ehrlich and Maugorn. Many thanks to Walter and others for letting me tread on their toes.

Walter, by the way, hadn't warned us that he was coming to Balticon...his appearance during our Filk 101 panel on Friday night was a complete surprise!


Walter likes bacon.

I participated in the Writing For Webcomics I panel on Sunday afternoon with webcomic types like Rosscott, Bryan Prindiville, Marty Day, Barb Fischer, Darren Gendron, and James Hatton, among others -- I should have been writing down everyone's names and comic URLs, sorry.

I was a bit nervous since I suspected that everyone would already know each other and no one would know me, but the others made me feel welcome right away. Interesting panel, and I wish there had been more time to get to know some of the others better (especially Bryan Prindiville). Unfortunately I wasn't able to sign up for more webcomic programming because of conflicts; as it was, the one webcomic panel I participated on was scheduled at the same time as Connie Willis's Guest of Honor Presentation...figures. :-)



And to give you more of an idea of the depth and expanse of Balticon's programming, panels also scheduled in that same time slot included "Infectious Diseases", "Trek - Back to the Future", "End of a Podcasting Era", "Costuming from the Written Word", a reading by Emily Rudegair, "Sock Puppets" (children's programming, I think), "Space Western in Anime", "Linguistics for Artificial Languages", "Live! Lancelot Biggs Pod Play", as well as the Connie Willis GoH presentation. Plus the 24-hour movie room, gaming, and other on-going activities.

And that was only from the Sunday 4-5 pm time slot.




It was great fun participating in the children's programming with Gary, Dave, Sue and Tom. And there actually were CHILDREN there! We never know what kind of audience we're going to get at children's concerts. Some of our kids' concerts have had packed audiences of adults only. Sometimes we get teens, other times babies and toddlers.

This time, we had a great mix of all ages, and they even got up and danced.



Photo by Kathryn Cramer


Another thing I loved about Balticon: all the costumes. Some (like Rin Barton, pictured below in her Princess Koneko outfit at the Neverwear booth; her costume ended up winning Best-in-Class Journeyman) wore the costumes they planned to showcase in the Masquerade while others just wore them for the heck of it.



Speaking of Neverwear...Balticon sure does treat its guests well! Not only did we each get a daily stipend for expenses but we also each received a cool black messenger bag with a Baltimore Science Fiction Society logo, filled with goodies:



Photo by Allison


One of the goodies was a coupon for ANY item at the Neverwear booth! I chose a "Scary Trousers" t-shirt and also bought some NeverWear sparkly hairpins as well as a sparkly soft belt made by Kitty.

As for the dealers' room, WHOA. The photo below only shows part of the dealer's area, which spilled out into the main hallway as well:



I was SO tempted by a colourful and jangly bellydancer's belt-skirt but managed to resist. While browsing the Wrap Pants booth out in the hall, I was mesmerized by this woman's performance:



SO much to see and do at Balticon. So much more to talk about, too, but I have to get back to work. More in upcoming posts!

Babylon Five Virgin update

SPOILER WARNING: The blog below focuses on my reports while watching Babylon Five for the first time. An LJ feed is also available. If you haven't seen B5 yet and don't want spoilers, please DO NOT click below.

Season 4, Episode 69: The Summoning
Season 4, Episode 70: Falling Towards Apotheosis
Season 4, Episode 71: The Long Night





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Balticon report (part 2): Stone Dragons

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. But back to my Balticon con report. Do check Allison's Livejournal, by the way, for a more detailed con report from Urban Tapestry's perspective.

Balticon had so many highlights, but my personal highlight was attending the very first concert of Stone Dragon, a duo made up of the newly married Sue Posteraro and Tom Jeffers.



For me, the event and the people encapsulated so much of what I love about filk and the filk community. Kudos to Balticon for supporting filk by providing a filk track and a venue, and to Gary Ehrlich for scheduling this concert into the programming.

I met Tom Jeffers through Dave Clement. Originally seen mainly as Dave's music partner, Tom has gained his own following in the filk community with and without Dave. Tom and I have become closer friends over the years, and I was so happy for him when he found the love of his life: Sue, another filker. I can't wait for the new Dandelion Wine CD, and I'm also looking forward to Stone Dragon's first CD.

And that brings us back to Stone Dragon. Sue used to be SO quiet in filk circles, mainly a listener. I remember the first time she sang something in the open filk; I was surprised and delighted by the beauty of her voice. I've so enjoyed watching Sue blossom in the filk community, cheered when she and Tom got together and now she's doing PUBLIC CONCERTS!!!

I've seen this happen so many times in the filk community (heck, it happened to ME; I used to be terrified of performing in public). Part of what I love about this community is its encouragement and nurturing of shyer types.

But not only was Tom's and Sue's concert wonderful for that reason, but it was also GOOD. Very polished, with a great variety of material, and I love watching the two of them perform. As Allison pointed out during the weekend, Sue radiates joy when she sings. And I loved the interaction between these two as they performed. Walter gave them a Stonehenge compass watch in honour of their first concert together.

I sure hope they get invited to do more concerts at other conventions.

But I digress...

Balticon also provided a great opportunity for getting together with people I don't normally have a chance to chat with much at conventions, like Gary McGath:



I had to miss Maugorn's concert and most of Gary's concert because Jodi and I were at the Balticon Meet & Greet The Guests (as Allison pointed out in her LJ entry, having a trio was handy at the convention where we were supposed to attend more than one event scheduled at the same time :-), but Gary and I made some time to chat in the sunny courtyard during one break.



It was also great to see Maya again. Allison, Jodi and I had all been thinking of Maya a great deal since she lost her husband Greg earlier this year. Maya thanked us for the care packages we sent her, and gave us each lovely "tea cards" along with tea, beautiful earrings, and a small bottle of Godiva liqueur.

More about Balticon in my next entry.



The local squirrels have declared war! I've been gradually transplanting my seedlings outside, and the squirrels have gradually been DIGGING THEM UP! Cayenne pepper helps, but they seem to focus on low-cayenne spots.

Above: an exposed nasturtium seedling beside a newly dug squirrel hole. To add insult to injury, the squirrels don't seem to have a reason for digging the holes but have been throwing in EMPTY SUNFLOWER SEED SHELLS just to taunt me, I'm sure.

Grrr.



In my planters so far: chives, nasturtium, mint, sweet basil, thai basil, Morning Glory, baby carrots, lettuce, dill, forget-me-nots, summer savory, lemon thyme, regular thyme, sage, marjoram (though these seedlings may not survive because of SQUIRREL VANDALISM), kochia, lavender, others I can't remember at this moment and I'm too lazy to go upstairs and check.

Balticon report to continue in my next entry...



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Back from Balticon 42

Above: Allison, Jodi, Gary and Sheryl.

Back from Balticon 42. Dead tired but happy -- fantastic convention! The members of Urban Tapestry were the Music Guests this year; we don't often get invited to general sf conventions, and we were honoured to be headlined along with Author Guest Connie Willis, Artist Guest John Jude Palencar, and 2007 Compton Crook Award Winner Naomi Novik.

Thank you SO MUCH to the Balticon concom and volunteers for all their hard work, and for making us feel so welcome. More about some of the individuals within the concom and Balticon in upcoming posts after I've finished unpacking and catching up with work, but I thought I'd post a few photos and notes about our concert.



Above: Allison with her friend Connie. Connie sang for the FIRST TIME in open filk during the weekend.

Our concert went well, and the audience seemed to like us. It was a bit weird for us at first because we couldn't see most of the audience (we were in the spotlight while the rest of the room was darkened) but they clapped and laughed in the right places, so it must have gone all right.

One of the only faces I could see was our friend Howard's and he was smiling, so I focused mainly on him. :-)



Photo by Korak.

Here's a photo that Walter took of the audience arriving for our concert:


Photo by Korak.

The room was bigger than most venues we tend to perform in; the third section of chairs is not pictured above (it's off to the right).

I'll be posting more about Balticon in upcoming posts. For now, feel free to visit my Balticon Flickr photo set. I've noticed that Walter has uploaded his photos already as well, and Allison is in the process of uploading her con photos.

Here's one from Allison's set that I love:




The photo above (by Allison) was taken during the kids' concert. This little girl was entranced by the music and was dancing her heart out. At one point, however, we had to hold her back because she was trying to hug Dave Clement while he was playing. Heh.

Going back to unpacking...



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Comics, Beckett sketches, sewing, & Balticon

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. A survey: how many of you can identify with this week's comic?

I'm not just like this with books, but with everything. And I've found that INEVITABLY whenever I throw anything out, I need it within a week. But it's far worse with books.



As I mentioned a few posts ago, I'm working with Beckett Gladney on a graphic novel.



She's been sending me some character sketches and rough page layouts, and I'm getting more and more excited. So excited that I feel compelled to share a few of them in Blatherings.

It's SO amazing to see these characters come to life in Beckett's drawings. When I create them, I only had a vague mental image of what they might look like; I was purposely leaving the final appearance up to the artist.

And now, of course, it's hard to imagine them looking any other way. :-)

The story's geared toward young people and has elements of fantasy, mystery-adventure, and science fiction.

Right now I'm compiling a list of possible markets where we could send our proposal. If any of you have suggestions, I'd appreciate it if you would post them or please let me know.



Beckett's amazing, isn't she? She's also been giving me sewing encouragement and advice. Check out this cool Jedi costume that she made for one of her sons a while back. And this incredible pumpkin carving she did for Halloween. Ok, so she didn't SEW the carving, but it's just more evidence of how Beckett's creativity bubbles over into everything she does.



Speaking of sewing, by the way, I offered to sew Jeff's head yesterday. I didn't mean to, it just came out. He got his hair cut SUPER-short and it looks great; I was making a joke about offering to shave a picture into his head but instead of "shave" the word "sew" came out. You should have seen the look he gave me.

Eek. Goes to show you how obsessed I am these days.



Above: another bag experiment. Instead of following the pattern's instructions for the handles, I decided to serge the edges instead. Also serged the top edge of the bag and used double folded bias tape. My stitching is still crooked even after unpicking a bunch to try again, but I'm gradually getting better. The bag has small pockets on each side, and the lining is a starry sky fabric that I bought at FilKONtario.

On the fabric below the bag, you can see my first experiments with "free-motion stitching." By covering up the feed dogs and attaching a darning foot to my machine, I can "draw" with thread. This has a LOT of interesting potential, hm. I think I might try decorating the outside of my next bag experiment.



Above: Edna Mole critiques my first attempt at sewing with a knit fabric.

I went to the library and browsed the sewing section for books on fabric art. I found a book that had some gorgeous examples of someone who used free-motion stitching that looked paintings, except using fabric and thread instead of paint. Investigating further, I discovered that it was all considered quilting.

Quilting? Uh oh. So right now I'm trying VERY HARD to resist finding out more about quilting and how to quilt and cool things I can make through quilting and and and...

(pause to take deep breath)

So I leave for Balticon tomorrow! Hope to see some of you there. The Balticon programming schedule (PDF) is now online, for those interested. In addition to open filk, you can find us (or me) at:

Friday 7 pm, Salon E: Everything You Wanted To Know About Filk - We'll be joined by Gary Ehrlich.

Sat 2 pm, Valley Ballroom: Musical Guest of Honor concert - If you're attending Balticon, please do spread the word about our concert, thanks. The info was inadvertently left off the main schedule page.

Sun 4 pm, Belmont: Writing For Web Comics I: I'll be participating along with Rosscott, Phil Kahn, Barb Fischer, James Robertson, Darren Gendron, and James Hatton.

Sun 9 pm, Salon E,F: Theme Filk - Literary Songs

Sun 11 am, Chase: Children's Concert - We'll be joined by Gary Ehrlich, Tom Jeffers, Sue Posteraro, and Dave Clement.

Mon 12 pm, Salon E: Enhancing Your Musical Performance *** This may be rescheduled since it's currently listed at the same time as our Kaffeklatch in the McCormick Suite. Or the Kaffeklatch may be rescheduled or cancelled.

Scheduling may change, so please do verify the above programming times when you get to the convention.

Woohoo, can't wait! Have a great weekend, everyone, and I'll be back next week.



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