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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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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GAfilk highlights (part 5)

My GAfilk report thus far: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and here's Part 5, featuring some random personal highlights of the convention as well as photos....



Eating at The Waffle House! We don't have Waffle Houses in Toronto, sadly.

Hearing Bill Sutton's song, "Monkey Connection." A parody of "Rainbow Connection," it starts "Why are there so many songs about monkeys?" :-D

Watching Judi Miller while Tom Smith performed "Zombie Blues."



Tricking Jeff Bohnhoff into drawing something for The Smallest Biography Of Jeff Bohnhoff In The World, a hand-written tome I submitted to the Interfilk auction. Jeff thought that his (adorable) little kitty drawing was going to be one of many drawings on the sheet of paper, but I cut it out and pasted into the Autobiography as a bonus feature ("ORIGINAL JEFF BOHNHOFF ARTWORK!"). The book was accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity (signed by me, Jodi, Brenda Sutton and Mark Bernstein) as well as a Certificate of Authenticity for the Certificate of Authenticity signed by Maya. AND a charming fridge magnet with this photo of baby Jeff. Heh. Many thanks to Rand for buying the book and supporting Interfilk. :-)

Hearing Erin Nappe sing in the open filk circle! You can read her report of the event here.



Margaret Middleton being able to save my quilt square, which I screwed up again by drawing too close to the edge. Here's a photo of the quilt in progress (my square is in the second row, second from the left):



Unfortunately I didn't win it. But next year....! Even if you can't sew (like me) and even if you don't attend GAfilk, you can still donate a square to the Interfilk quilt each year. Check this page for info. This annual filk community project is a fun way to support Interfilk, and you can start anytime.

Lunch with Dave Weingart. Plus he didn't freak out when I almost spit milk into his lap. We were eating at a nearby Subway and when I took my first mouthful of my milk, it tasted REALLY REALLY HORRIBLE (as in gone bad horrible). I had nowhere to spit it out, so spat the milk into my napkins. Unfortunately I had swallowed some and suffered for it shortly after, but I was impressed at Dave's (lack of) reaction. When I commented, he shrugged and said with a smile, "I have kids." :-D

Seeing rows of crafty-types embroidering, knitting, crocheting, beading, etc.



Trying out Dan K's Strumstick. WAY fun, and much easier (on my tendons) than a larger instrument like a guitar or dulcimer. I am SO tempted. It could be taken as carry-on, I suspect, or would easily fit into my suitcase. Not that expensive, either! I also enjoyed meeting Dan, even though he wouldn't let me steal his Strumstick. :-)

Myra helped me arrange a song I had written while playing around with the Strumstick. It went something like this:

Dan's gonna give Debbie his Strumstick
Dan's gonna give Debbie his Strumstick
Dan's gonna give Debbie his Strumstick
Cuz he's a nice guy
Cuz he's a nice guy

Unfortunately these exciting lyrics weren't enough to convince Dan.



Sitting beside Tanya Huff in the Interfilk auction when she was trying not to bid on something but mainly when she WAS bidding on something.

Another highlight: filk kids! There were some real cuties at the convention. I wasn't the only one charmed by those cherubic smiles:



I also fell hopelessly in love with Bill's and Gretchen's little daughter, K.

Every time K. saw me, she'd smile and offer me her blanket. One time her blanket wasn't handy and she looked a tad distressed until she got inspired and grabbed an empty Macdonald's bag from her mom and handed me that instead, beaming.

My heart melted every time, of course.




More highlights soon...



Above: Thanks to Mary Crowell for the t-shirt above! I -love- it!



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GAfilk part 4: Peter Beagle, Tom Smith, Brian Richardson

I created the above illustration for Illustration Friday. This week's topic: "Plain."

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

GAfilk doesn't have as many concerts as other filk conventions (contributing to its 'relaxacon' reputation). I spent more time socializing than I did in the concert room; I know I missed some good music as a result but one of the things I've learned about enjoying conventions is to accept the fact that I HAVE TO MISS STUFF. Here are photos from some of the concerts I did attend:



I had no idea that Peter Beagle (author of The Last Unicorn, among other works) was also a musician! Peter was the Super Secret Special Guest at GAfilk this year, filling in for Meg Davis, who had to cancel out because of medical reasons.



In addition to having a Super Secret Guest every year, GAfilk also has a tradition of a "Concom's Choice Concert," where the convention committee chooses someone in the community to do a concert. This year, they asked Tom Smith.

I don't mention Tom much in my Blatherings because I've been assuming that everyone already knows about him, but I realize this may not be the case. :-) Tom is one of the few in the filking community who has successfully made the transition to being a full-time musician in the Real World.

He's an extraordinary songwriter, and has gained the reputation for being the world's fastest filker...I've seen him write an entire parody of a song before the other person has finished performing it!

Tom has several blogs, including iTom: Free Music From Tom Smith (part of his Song-A-Week project) and his Livejournal. You can also find him on MySpace and The Funny Music Project, and his main site at Tom Smith Online.

My favourite Tom Smith songs include Superman Sex Life Boogie,
A Boy And His Frog, Fenton The Death Sheep From Hell, and Five Years (I haven't watched Babylon Five but I still love the wordplay here!).



The Toastmaster at GAfilk was Brian Richardson. I met Brian through Play It With Moxie (more on PIWM in an upcoming Blathering) but until this convention, I had no idea how entertaining and well-spoken he could be. He's the videography producer at Dragon*Con and (along with several other staff members) creates DragonConTV.

He showed us several of the videos during his Toastmaster spot, and they're pretty entertaining. You can download the videos to see for yourself.

Some Dragon*Con TV samples I found on YouTube:

Food Pyramid
Computers Make Things Easy
The Rainbow Connection (Lovecraft style)



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