Today has been .99 of perfect. We had planned a trip to Champaign with janetmiles and her husband Dale, who are visiting from out-of-state; and it turned out that my cousin and her boyfriend were also in town, so they got added in, along with several other friends, in varying combinations through the day. We had lunch at Manolo's.

Then we split up for a while, with me and janetmiles going to the fabric store. My habit of sewing while talking has netted me another "Could you make...?" request. We found three suitable patterns for her, and picked up fabric and notions for a blouse and a jacket. The only place the day lost a point was that there wasn't enough of the violet fabric I'd picked out for a project of mine. Ah well. We picked up Dale, whom we'd dropped off at Barnes & Noble, and discovered that he'd gotten me a book for my birthday, early. Squee!

Then we went to Priceless Books, a favorite used-book store in Champaign, where we met up with other folks. I came out with an armload of books. I love it when they put textbooks and stuff in boxes out front, cheap. This time I found a reader that had all the explanations in it about what to look for in each type of writing -- fiction, poetry, and so forth. That's going to come in handy for Grey School class development.

On the way out of the bookstore, we stopped at Heartland Gallery. They carry local art, jewelry, and other delights from local artists plus Celtic imports. Featured artists who had business cards on the take-one table included Joe Ethridge (photography), Brock Peoples Photography, Sharon Collins-Masel (watercolor), Jan Chandler (photography, paintings, calligraphy), William R. Roy (artist), and Sherry Corbin (stoneware & porcelain). This place is new to us; it's been there about a year; and we will be going back. We also discovered that there was a harp concert scheduled for the evening. Instant addition to our plans.

We had supper at Mandarin Wok, mostly dim sum. We got to order a lot of different items. The hazelnut cakes and the king shrimp dumplings especially stuck in my mind, but really it was all terrific.

The harp concert featured Claire Roche (harpist, harper, and singer) and John of Celtic Ways (storyteller). Claire played both folk harp (the large kind that sits on the floor, and is played by a harper) and orchestral harp (the gigantic carved and gilded kind that also sits on the floor, and is played by a harpist). In fact, the grand finale involved playing both at once! Her music was warm and mellow, with a magical ambiance that fills the available space. (Or what space was left between the people: we packed that little store wall-to-wall.) She sang in English and Gaelic. I love the delicate gliding vowels of Irish-flavored English and of Gaelic. Ordinary pronuciation guides don't really do them justice; you have to hear the real thing. So at the first break I scurried forth and bought two of her three CDs, and then later Doug bought the third one. Favorite songs from the performance included "The Rose of Tralee," "The Clergy's Lamentation," "Down by the Salley Gardens," a hymn to Bhride, and "Brian Boru's March." I was also impressed with the elegance of "The Robin's Jaunt," one of the original tunes. Claire even got a roomful of people to sing along with "Molly Malone" and a couple of others; I love the community resonance of group singing. John's performance of Irish myths put me in mind of times long past; his voice really carries the history. If you enjoy Celtic music, follow the links. Also, these folks lead tours of Ireland's mystical places. I haven't had the pleasure of that, but I suspect they do a rare fine job of that too.

Finally, we went out for dessert at Culver's, which is a favorite place for separate dessert. Doug and I had the Bananas Foster sundae, which was splendid. janetmiles had the flavor of the day, "Turtledove," which involved chocolate, marshmallow, and pecans. Culver's actually does a different flavor every day; they had a whole menu for the March flavors.

There are days you know that you'll remember forever. Days that will be there, pressed like rosepetals in memory's album, at the close of life. If you're lucky, you know those days before they're over. Today I was lucky.

Tags: crafts, food, music, personal
Current Mood: full

I think "Archetype Cafe" has started a whole subthread of filk. This version is about cats and felinoid aliens. And I suspect that someday, some enterprising fan is going to open a cafe with that name.

Tags: fantasy, music
Current Mood: busy

I saw this on cadhla's LJ and just had to share it. Hail Persephone, Daughter of Spring and Queen of the Dead.

My father was the Captain on the day we left the planet Earth --
A place that I have never seen, a legend and a lie.
I was born in Ship's Year Seventeen, the day we sailed past Pluto
And bid the world that gave us life an unremarked goodbye,

And they christened me Persephone
In honor of the final moon
That faded out behind us like a candle in the night,
And my father told me stories
Of the history we'd left behind...
But he would never tell me what had set us into flight.

Tags: life lessons, music, paganism, science fiction
Current Mood: tired

Today we gathered some friends to wassail our orchard, a traditional Twelfth Night activity. We had hot apple-raspberry cider with cinnamon. We cast circle in the orchard and sang the first verse of "Here We Come A-Wassailing." Then we went around sprinkling wassail on all the fruit trees and the raspberry patch. We have a crabapple tree, a pear, a couple of apple trees, a couple of cherries, and sundry others. Hopefully this year we'll get plenty of fruit.

Tags: holiday, magic, music, paganism
Current Mood: busy

Radio Paradise is an interesting online radio station that plays an eclectic blend of rock music. You can listen via broadband or dialup, and they also have some forums and other stuff on the site. There's an clever "Make a loan, change a life" box by the charity Kiva. It's also fun to check the RP Visitors World Map at the bottom of the RP page, where you can see the number and location of recent RP visitors -- which has quite a diverse spread around the world. Drop by and broaden your horizons.

Tags: music
Current Mood: tired

I was utterly charmed by this comedienne's routine, "Mom's Overture." It takes a great many things that mothers say and sets them to music. Watch it ... and listen for your relatives to say some of these things during the holidays. You could just about put these on Bingo cards...

Tags: humor, life lessons, music
Current Mood: busy

My third panel at Archon/NASFiC covered writing science-fiction lyrics. (Most of my ballad poetry, and some other forms, could be sung.) Here is the recommended resource list, which includes books and music and other goodies. Please feel free to pipe up with your own suggestions.

( Read the handout. )

Tags: event report, fantasy, music, science fiction, writing
Current Mood: busy

We often catch a filk concert while at a convention. This time we attended several, and bought some albums too.

The first was the "Bardic Concert, Part II" on Friday afternoon at 5 PM. It featured Blind Lemming Chiffon, Mary Crowell, and Tom Smith. Blind Lemming Chiffon has a filky, fannish, style that's strongest on nostalgic songs that rely on emotional impact; he plays guitar. Mary Crowell has an amazingly sultry voice, perfect for "bad girl" songs. I was particularly charmed by the one about growing up to be Jessica Rabbit. She plays keyboard with a blues/jazz flavor. It wasn't until we got home that Doug figured out that Mary belongs to the Pagan band Three Weird Sisters, whose music I've enjoyed in the past. We wound up buying her new CD Courting My Muse and you can find a copy of your own here. Tom Smith is a favorite performer, and the one we actually went to the concert for. He sings very wacky humor and satire, and plays guitar. We bought one of his new iTom albums, iTom 1.0: And So It Begins -- the one with "Hey, It's Can(n)on" (aka "Hermione Granger, the Pirate Queen") on it. He's also on LiveJournal as filkertom.

The second was "Wild Mercy" on Friday night at 9 PM. Wild Mercy consists of Barry (bass, guitars, Roland GR-33 guitar synth, vocals), Debbie (keyboards, percussion, vocals, occasional guitar), Jennifer (harp, vocals, bass guitar, psaltery), and Sally (drums). I was most enchanted by Jennifer, of course, being a big fan of harps and harpers, and she has a marvelous slinky voice. But I also enjoyed the complex counterpoint the band vocalists wove together in some of the songs. The music has kind of a Celtic/jazz flavor, very eclectic. Alas! My favorite songs from their performance were all unavailable, being either a) covers of somebody else's songs, or b) on the list for the CD that's currently in production. I am waiting not-very-patiently for that so I can hear "A Star for the County Down" again, one of their lightship songs. I like song cycles too, that relate to people and events in the same setting over time. But Doug was sufficiently charmed by the band to bring home one of their current albums, Summer Storm.

The third concert was "The Great Luke Ski" at 10 PM on Friday night. The Great Luke Ski is a hilarious visual comedian as well as a talented filk singer. He performed a few new pieces ("I Love You, TiVo" is among the most nakedly honest things I've ever heard a man sing) and some old favorites such as "It's a Fanboy Christmas" and "88 Lines About 44 Simpsons." He has a new album out, BACONspiracy, but our budget was already stretched so we'll have to get that one later.

Then we went to see the "Tom Smith" solo concert on Saturday at 1 PM. By that point, I was tired and my body was protesting the amount of time I'd spent sitting near-motionless in crummy hotel chairs. But Tom was still funny, and I was pleased to learn that he is now happily self-employed as a full-time filker. Feed the Bards, buy an album.

Finally, there was this extra bit of music: at one point I walked into the Dealer's Room to hear ... murmuring bagpipes? Yes, indeed. Maria Murda was playing a set of "parlor pipes" which are designed for indoor use. The sound is much mellower and more sonorous than ordinary bagpipes, sounding rather like a fistful of melancholy oboes. I like all kinds of pipes, including this one which is new to me.

Tags: event report, fantasy, music, science fiction
Current Mood: busy