Change of plans
mamishka
3:15P Thursday, 11 March 2010
Due to an overabundance of traveling recently (and a lack of anyone expressing interest in making plans this weekend) I am putting off heading to Boston until Saturday morning, rather than Friday. I am just WAY burned out on being in a car for long periods of time. Guh. That said, the trip down to visit with Sue and Chelsea (my brother's family) and see Chelsea in Cinderella was definitely worth the trip. I wish we could have stayed longer and visited with them more than just one night. I spent a lot of time searching through photos there for Sue . Made me realize that in many ways I missed out on a whole lot of important family time. When I think about the fact that I wasn't really doing anything of value out on the west coast, that's really kind of sad and unfortunate. :/ Ahhhh, well, nothing to be done for it now, right? I enjoyed looking at all the old photos. Interesting stuff.
Current Mood:  blah
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where i want to travel
lyonesse
9:57A Thursday, 11 March 2010
iceland new orleans seattle philadelphia (the mutter museum!) some white-beach tropical island with awesome snorkeling and no scary bugs north reading british columbia new york city montreal other ideas solicited
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Do you want to play an instrument, or do you just like the idea of playing an instrument?
solarbird
11:19P Wednesday, 10 March 2010
I had someone comment elsewhere about not being able to play any musical instrument and being sad about that. I offered a shorter version of this in response, and decided to expand it a touch and bring it up a level.
Do you want to play an instrument, or do you just like the idea of playing an instrument?Go to a musical instrument store with a lot of kinds of instruments. I don't mean "a lot of different guitars," I mean a lot of different kinds entirely. Things you've heard, things you've never even heard of before; the more options, the better. In fact, go to more than one shop. Go back to the same one if you want, go to others if you get bored. Poke around at different instruments until you find one you like playing with. Not "playing" in the sense of "making a song come out;" playing with. Maybe it'll be something with strings; maybe it won't be. Whatever you do, don't load yourself down with preconceptions and expectations about what you should like. For the first month or month and a half after Anna gave me her mandolin - Summer, the mandolin I perform with now - almost all that I did with it was poke at it at funny angles and strum it with all strings open. Then I'd try to play Great Big Sea's "Goin' Up," or the traditional song "Lukey" a few times, and generally I'd just go back to making it make noises. For five weeks or so, that was mostly just open strumming. No chords, no strings held down, just strum. You want to find the instrument where when you try something like that, it's fun, and doing it more also sounds fun. Forget your ideas about "proper" instruments and for the love of the gods don't let your preferences in musical genre dictate the choice. Maybe it'll be a ukulele! Maybe it'll be bells. Maybe it'll be a theremin. Maybe it'll be a flute, shakuhachi, or whistle. Maybe it'll be a string-plucked washtub bass. Maybe it'll be a beatpad, or a 10x10 sequencer grid. Maybe it'll be a balalaika. None of that matters. Forget everything else and just find the thing with the noise that makes your brain go " ....oh!" That's what my brain was doing with the open-strumming thing for five weeks. The sound was working its way into my brain, and it felt great. After you've played with something like this a few times, buy it, take it home and just keep playing with it. Not "play it" - play with it. Just play with it, without expectation, and let what happens, happen. If after a while you want to try to play a song, make one up. Find a sequence of noises that sound good and play with them until you think it's a song. Guess what: it is! (Maybe you stole half of it from somebody else: great! Just don't try to copyright it. ^_^) Or, if you'd rather, pick one song you like a lot, look up some videos on youtube that introduce you to the basic concepts of playing whatever you've got, and try to echo what you hear in the song you like. Don't start drilling on scales or whatever if you don't want to; that can wait until you're hooked good and proper and actually want to do that. It's not school. It's not work. You aren't being graded. You aren't being paid. You don't have to do it in someone else's order. There is no GPA at stake. There is no performance review. You'll make ugly noises. You'll screw up. That's fine. Throw all that away and just find the noise and the toy you want to play with, and play with it however comes to mind. And maybe you'll get bored, and maybe nothing will happen. Or, maybe something amazing will. Find out. This post originated at ソ-ラ-バ-ド-のおん: Solarbird Makes Noises, on Dreamwidth.
Current Mood:  good
Current Music: Something About Us | Daft Punk
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Learning to play
solarbird
10:27P Wednesday, 10 March 2010
I’m learning to play electric bass. I’m playing a 1965 hollow-body Klira, the type known as a “McCartney Bass,” but a different maker; I’ve talked about it before. I’m doing it partly because I wanted to poke around at bass – and it is fun – but mostly I’m doing it right now because I need a bassline on several of these songs, and electronic octave-dropping an octave mandolin isn’t always the right answer.
But it’s another goddamn skill I get to level up before I can finish Dick Tracy Must Die. This is intensely frustrating. I’d built up real studio momentum, and now this new spanner’s been thrown in the works. Sure, I’m still recording other things – “Artefacts” is pretty much finished now, minus some technical clean-up; “Thought You Knew” is not quite there but close – but it’s like an ax got wedged in my brain. It’s divided attention, where the sum is greater than the parts, but you’re going at it the backwards way, from the sum to the parts, a loss rather than a gain.
For a couple of weeks there, I was entirely in make-the-recording mode and out of figure-out-recording mode, and I liked that. I was applying learned skills in a pretty serious way. It’s not that I wasn’t learning, still; I was. But it was different, in the trying-different-things way rather than the learning-basic-things way. That mode is what got Sketchy Characters out the door.
But now I’m back behind that threshold again, and it feels like swimming in molasses. It’s not that I’m not gaining skill at bass; I am. Yesterday, for the first time, I recorded a bassline for “Thought You Knew” that I listened to and thought, “okay, I could edit this into something passable.” It’s not passable as-is – not close – but there are enough proper bits in it that I could probably hack it into something that sounded okay. Today, I recorded a take that was meaningfully better than yesterday’s, tho’ still not in the actually-okay range.
It’s coming, but not quickly enough. Worse, I’m spending so much time on learning electric bass that I’ve been neglecting everything else.
And after Dick Tracy Must Die, I already have two more CDs worth of material. Next comes the instrumental CD Distractions – that one should at least be easy – and the follow-up which doesn’t have a title yet, but does have 10 or 11 songs waiting for it. I write a lot faster than I record, and getting what I hear in my head out so you lot can hear it too is so much work.
I know that eventually I’ll get past this – again – and it’ll still be work but I’ll know what I’m doing, and it’ll be ten times faster, and sound better, and be easier and and and. I look forward to that time a lot. But right now, that feels like it’s two centuries away.
Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil.
Current Mood:  sleepy
Current Music: Learning to Fly | David Gilmour
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good morning, i am still incarnate
lyonesse
7:36A Wednesday, 10 March 2010
right ankle responds to zhen gu shui, but tendon also falls back into its old bad habits pretty readily. i might wear the shoes just for working out (jeez, am i going to do cardio today?). left side doing all right, only usual situationalesque pain levels overall, you know, life and circus arts. (if you want into the chronic-pain filter let me know, i usually don't blog about it in its quotidian tedium in general, i'm just not sure where the 5fingers stuff in particular fits relative to the other body-logging things or who reads or cares about what anyway.)
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silks!
lyonesse
1:48A Wednesday, 10 March 2010
went to silks, despite freakoutitude of right ankle. it's really weird, it's like it's *trying* to fix itself (long story, malpractice in childhood, my arches are normal height but too wide and my achilles tendons screwed up) and it worked on my left foot but not my right foot. (i'm on my second run of the year, and also my second run in "barefoot shoes", at the recommendation of someone who thought they might help with the old problems more than my usual anti-pronation shoes. they're definitely doing something; what i can't say yet is if they're doing something constructive, or if it's just that i'm doing too much too soon -- usually every spring it takes me a full week (five runs) to get up to continuous jogging as i did today. anyway my ankle held up fine for silks, much to my surprise, but that makes me think it's a muscle and i worked it into warmth and then it was okay. umm, i forget lots of what we did -- climbs and layouts, then inversions i guess, then same-side climb (new to me!) then rebecca wrap (which i've apparently done before) straight into cross-back straddle. thanks for all the cross-back advice, folks; i seem to have that one donw now :) oh yeah, also flamenco hand hell again. after the ride home though though ankle was really peevish and my whole legs were cramping up. epsom salts, zhen gu shui, bedtime. tomorrow i guess weights and stretching, then back to running again. my mom's not doing the mother/daughter race this year, so i'm not actually training for anything, i just kind of like going jogging out of doors.
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It's ART! MAAAAA-AAAAAAAN!
mamishka
9:33P Tuesday, 9 March 2010
There's a competition for Peeps art in the Westerly newspaper. It sez that the topic categories are pop culture, local news or location, and health care reform and you can submit as many entries as you like. I'm thinking a series of photos of Peeps crime scenes (death by microwave, fire, drowning) though I'm not sure what category that would fit under ... ORRRRRRRR a series of Peeps assisted suicides - preferably videos of microwaving, lighting on fire, and drowning Peeps, amongst other suicide options. That clearly goes under health care reform. As I explained to my mother my ideas I could not stop giggling. My mother tells me that I am sick. Very very sick. The prizes are for crap and I don't think there's a chance in HELL that I will win, but I think this is something that I really must do. Why ELSE would one buy Peeps, I ask you??!!
Current Mood:  naughty
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ok ok i can do this. yeah.
lyonesse
5:35P Tuesday, 9 March 2010
my pain's been super high all day. partly it's chronic pain, partly it's something weird in my right ankle, which was TOTES HOKAY with 1.2 miles in 16 minutes yesterday but CRZKNKAY BIOTRHCH about 1 mile in 15 minutes today. but other than lying around and stuff i did manage to *read* the other two commented-up papers i got, all of which have awesome things to say, and i will say them all and make my paper rock the world. but not right now because i have other stuff i gotta do first. but soon, i swear. hey, at least i installed the crazy .doc-reading software and read, right? thanks, dear my readers, you da best :)
Current Mood: attenti0nwh0re for sc13nce
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music review
lyonesse
2:11P Tuesday, 9 March 2010
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) solarbird, known in music-band form as "crime and the forces of evil", has an ep of songs-in-progress available at bandcamp. (the plurality is essentially syntactic and a grateful descendant of les paul; this is a solo act as far as i'm aware of the studio version, though i once personally provided backups in live performance :) the ep is called "sketchy characters", a fuller album called "dick tracy must die" is in the works. i checked 'em out -- here's what i thought. "artefacts" is the opener, a creepy mixed-message of a song -- there's a chord progression seriously designed to chase chills up your spine, and a flute solo that would tell you what was going on, if it only knew. it's not dara's best voice technically, as it goes right over her break back and forth and over and over, but that adds to the sense of dislocation overall. solid as is; it could be produced more, but i can't help but think it would lose something important along the way. "when you leave" is a classic stalker song. it's not sweet about it like say "every move you make", it's just threatening. be good one to sing when you're pissed off. "outbirds" has the loveliest bouzouki opening, and the piece would deserve your penny and your moment for that. the lyrics remind me of "games without frontiers", a very worthy hero imho. "cascadia" also begins with a great bouzouki flare, but does the best job of keeping this high level of musicianship up throughout the song, because it is a national anthem in music without words. it is the showpiece of the collection, because it does the least and does it the best. for those of you who only want to click once and get the biggest bang for your fingertap, here you go: the device of the dramatic pause is a bit overused, and most of the lyrics as presented are incomplete -- that wants fixin', dara :) in general i'd give this a solid b grade, with potential for a-levels when it's done -- but all the more worth your checking out at this point, whether you're a musician or not, to see what happens when music is being made. it's not the law and sausages; it's growing up and scraping your knee and finding your voice and figuring out what's really scary after all, and it's beautiful. friends, romans, cascadians, lend her your ears. http://crimeandtheforcesofevil.bandcamp.com
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run run run run run away
lyonesse
1:00P Tuesday, 9 March 2010
half my open tabs atm are places or ways to travel. *and* there's a $200 jetblue roundtrip between here and seattle for three days this weekend, for which i actually do have prior plans. i've incorporated the first reader's stuff into my paper, and have installed more software and just started to glance at readers two and three's. but maybe i really don't want to do this. edgy, edgy, edgy. ah well, at least it was a productive morning.
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wowftvoe
lyonesse
12:04P Tuesday, 9 March 2010
oh yeah, ya gotta stretch after running, too. i think my calves are fine now. a bit uncertain about the right ankle, but time will tell, and i should keep it moving.
Current Mood:  dorky
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naked girls reading
lyonesse
9:26A Tuesday, 9 March 2010
apparently there's going to be another naked girls reading, this one on an "alice in wonderland" theme. i would have LOVED to do that (am eternal alice fan; translated jabberwocky into quenya, fell in love with elf my elf when he first recited his translation into latin :) but am apparently not invited :( hoping to enjoy from the audience, i expect.
Current Mood:  sad
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sewing clue?
lyonesse
8:03A Tuesday, 9 March 2010
i want to make a skirt. it's a dog simple, patternless project. still i want somebody else who sews around while i'm making it, it seems. any of my crafty friends, might you be up for this sometime soonish? i will make honey tea....
Current Mood:  artistic
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Book Log #15: Unperfect Souls, by Mark Del Franco
annathepiper
9:06P Monday, 8 March 2010
With Unperfect Souls, the latest in the Connor Grey series, we’re well and thoroughly into the action at this point. If you’re new to the Connor Greys, this is not the book to start with.
Thanks to the events at the tail end of the last book (Unfallen Dead), the Dead of the fey no longer have access to Tir Na Nog–and now they’re roaming free in the mortal world, and on the streets of the Weird in Boston. Having the Dead on the loose is nine kinds of trouble in a district already fraught with tensions, as Connor discovers when he’s called to investigate the decapitation of one of the Dead, the only way they can be permanently destroyed. We get a side helping as well of Connor learning quite a bit more about the darkness in his head–and what he can do with it.
And what it can do to him.
This is definitely the darkest of the Connor Greys so far, and I’m not sure yet what I think about the new plot twist of Connor’s darkness seeming poised to turn him into the druid version of a leanansidhe. One does hope that he’ll eventually be pulled back from this, but it’ll be interesting indeed to see how many more books this plotline will carry through. Meanwhile, Connor’s relationship with Meryl is deepening, of which I approve; I’m coming more to appreciate a series that can focus on a single relationship and develop it across books rather than having the protagonist swap out partners every three or four books or so. Well done, Mark Del Franco! Four stars.
Mirrored from annathepiper.org.
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Should I risk it? Nah, no way I should risk it. Oh, go ahead.
solarbird
8:31P Monday, 8 March 2010
Time for a political post? We're 2,500 miles away from Chicago, I've got a full browser's worth of open tabs, my arms are slowly getting better, it's dark, and I'm wearing hand braces. Yeah, it's hit it. I am Dan Brown, destroyer of words. Why do people read this man? Honestly. How much does the Catholic Church hate queers? Oh, lots. Like the DC diocese Catholic Charities ending all spousal benefits for employees just to say "fuck you, faggots." Mind you, to the Church, opposite-sex divorce and remarriage is no more valid than same-sex marriage, but they didn't care about that. And that shows where priorities lie. Or maybe this does it even better: " Heart of Jesus Catholic School, in Boulder, has refused to readmit a preschooler because the child has two moms. Her parents are lesbians." I guess when they're talking about all the rejection children of same-sex parents will face, they mean by them. Vile. Oh, Virginia's Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli II (R), is trying to get colleges in Virginia to drop protections for GBLT employees. More specifically, he's saying protections are illegal. Also, enjoy reading about this fundamentalist "prayer warrior" group in Amarillo, Texas. They're spending most of their time recently going against a group of straight "swingers," but have also targeted a play about the Nazi extermination of gay and lesbian people, nature preserves (as pagan), various non-Christian religious groups, and they have a lot more on their target list. The local police appear to be letting them just go at it, sending off state police who tried to intervene. Anyway, please enjoy the idiocy of GOP Nevada candidate Sue Lowden, running in the primary to face Harry Reid. Yes, that's right; she's floating the "keep the government out of Medicare!" line. Pathetic. To clear your palette, please enjoy this awesomely deranged clock that jwz found. I love it to bits. Back yet? The Obama administration is interfering with the Justice department, politically, to end more trials of terrorism suspects. It may and may not be a done deal, but it's pretty close. The three-tiered "justice" system designed to ensure targets are held forever no matter what isn't apparently good enough, so they want to reduce it to military tribunals (where they can use torture evidence) and no-trials-at-all. Marc Ambinder outlines the last scenario that leads to actual, Constitutional trials; it doesn't look likely. Liz Cheney is spearheading the neoconservative push to make defence of terrorism suspects impossible, by destroying the careers of anyone who provides a legal defence for such suspects. National Review is a big player here, as well. The Washington Post is doing their best to support the effort. Here's a look inside how this is all being managed in the political media. To end on a slightly upbeat note: anybody here remember Warren Throckmorton? He's a social conservative, and used to be a regular on Concerned Women for America, and big into the gaybashing, particularly the "reparative therapy," line but not just that, and all that bullshit. He's stepped back a bit - arguably, a pretty good bit. No, I mean, really. He's still big on the sexual-attraction-is-malleable thing, but he's come a long way back towards something like reality, and normally, people in his camp don't. So, well, good on him.
Current Mood:  busy
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Review an album, win my book!
annathepiper
7:49P Monday, 8 March 2010
Here’s another shot for y’all to win Faerie Blood if you’re up for it–but this time, the contest is being held by my beloved  solarbird, who has finished a work EP for her forthcoming very first CD, to be titled Dick Tracy Must Die! Dara is recording every track on this thing singlehandedly, including vocals, bodhran, bouzouki, mandolin, flute, bass, and other instrumenty goodness. I am, frankly, in awe that she’s made herself sound like an entire band.
But she has! And she is Crime and the Forces of Evil! And her contest, wherein she’ll put folks into a drawing to win either a copy of her EP, a copy of my book, or a picture of our cats is over here. Check it out, and fear not, you can tell the Forces of Evil I sent you.
Mirrored from angelakorrati.com.
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Let’s have a contest!
solarbird
9:46P Sunday, 7 March 2010
I need MOAR LINKS to my Bandcamp site, so people can find my musics! I have studied this with SCIENCE! and know it in my heart to be true. So! Let’s have a contest! My partner Anna does this with her books all the time and it seems to work, so I’ll totally rip that action off! There’ll be a drawing for either a copy of the CD (the actual physical CD, mailed to you, along with a download link for immediate gratification) or Anna’s current novel, Faerie Blood.
Enter this way:
- Listen to the Crime and the Forces of Evil EP Sketchy Characters! You can stream the entire thing on the Bandcamp site for free (clicky!).
- Post a public review somewhere. It can be on your blog, on Dreamwidth, on Facebook, Twitter even, whereever. Short, long, good, bad, the chick with the gun, it doesn’t matter, just be honest.
- Link to the Crime and the Forces of Evil Bandcamp site ( url: http://crimeandtheforcesofevil.bandcamp.com ) in your review. For bonus points in my heart, but not extra credit in the drawing, embed one or more of the songs! (You can! Click on “Share” and follow the directions.)
- Come over to Crime and the Blog of Evil and comment on this entry with a link to your review and some way to identify you later. (I’ll check the Dreamwidth or Livejournal echos too, but the original is best.)
- Reviews and links must be posted by midnight the evening of Sunday, 21 March 2010 Cascadian/Pacific Time.
Everybody who does this gets put into a drawing for either:
- A physical copy of Sketchy Characters mailed to you, anywhere on Earth. Or, if you hated it (or already have it), you’ll get:
- A copy of Anna’s current novel, Faerie Blood, published by Drollerie Press. You can read an excerpt from Faerie Blood here. It’s a multi-format ebook, so Kindle, Nook, Stanza, Sony Reader et al all work.
If you don’t like either of those, well, I’ll mail you a photo of our cats. Our cats are cute, and they like you.
The review doesn’t have to be long. Just say what you think, good or bad. But the link must be there or it doesn’t count! And don’t forget to link to your review in comments on the Blog of Evil. Thanks!
Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil.
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amused
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