46 posts tagged “music”
In honor of Canada Day, show us your favorite Canadian.
For crying out loud, spell it FAVOURITE if you are going to use the word to refer to Canadians.
Anyway...
My favourite Canadian would be very hard to choose, seeing as most of the people I love the most live in this beautiful country. My favourite famous Canadian would have to be, without a doubt, Margaret Atwood.
I was "assigned" her in History class, mainly because I believe Mo thought it would be funny to make me a feminist, and got hooked on her stories. I don't think Mo created anything in me that wasn't there already but he might have given me an outlet to unleash it. In those years since high school I've been an avid fan, even writing songs inspired by her writing. This one is the longest song (8 minutes, two time signatures and several movements) and is named after a phrase in "Alias Grace".
You already know that I'll have a lot to say about the whole experience, but for now (because I'm desperate for some sleep) I thought I'd share this photo from fourth row at last night's Police concert:
Yes, Stewart, that green blur you saw was me. Thank you for pointing at the flag, and especially for the big smiles and eye contact. Thank you for the opportunity to meet such incredible people. Thank you, Kellie, for letting me be a part of this crazy Kryptonite history.
Remember way back in December, when I was getting rather romantic (although still confused) about the appearance of ladybugs in the middle of winter? I got a ton of letters telling me that ladybugs are a symbol of "good luck", which made me happy, even without having any major incidences to prove those old wives right.
So I began to find ladybug items, like magnets and enameled pendants for necklaces. Queen of Fractal Beauty sent me a note that she wanted to send me a ladybugg'd quilted postcard, which thrilled me, and then she said she loved all the songs I'd posted (skim through here) and that is always a big heart-filler right there. When I mentioned this to one of my friends she told me it was like getting "your own green flag of sorts!" (double thrilling to even THINK of!) and I've gotta say that personal flag or not, I am quite happy to keep writing music if people like the songs enough send me quilts.
Anyway, last week I'd been walking around the house and singing "Bed's Too Big" and "Forever Live and Die" in a very melancholy voice. My husband had been in Vegas, so I was doing the single-parent thing, and I got a lot done but it was boring and a bit lonely not having my best bud in the house. Especially after seeing him beat the crap out of that drum kit the night before he left! He was awesome! So I decided to get out and tour around in the car, and I hit the post office on the way back.
QoFB's absolutely gorgeous quilted postcard was waiting for me.
Isn't it awesome? :) How cool is THIS! Note the wee ladybug on the front, and the adorable doodle of herself on the back! I LOVE this! And the forget-me-not flowers in the front fabric have a special place in my heart :) I wish I had photos to show you of the big grin I wore for the next three days! I can assure you there were no more melancholy songs since then.
Thank you so much, B. :) What an awesome artist you are. You did incredible work and I'm so glad you enjoyed the songs. I've put the wee quilt in the place of honour in my office (right beside my book!) so that I can see it every day. xo ~M.
There is something so interesting, so spooky, so absolutely chilling about this audio file that I keep returning to it day after day, again and again.
You might have read the story about audio historians who discovered a "phonautogram" of a woman singing, which predates the first known recorded human voice by almost 20 years and recorded sound by almost 30. The singing was recorded on a device created by Parisian inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville called a phonautograph, which created visual recordings of sound waves. Scott never intended for his recordings to be played back, though... he wanted to be able to study an image of what sound looked like.
Recorded using a moving needle, the phonoautograph etched sound waves on paper coated with soot from an oil lamp. It's these etchings that you hear re-created through the work of audio scientists and engineers. "When I first heard the recording as you hear it ... it was magical, so ethereal," said [audio historian David] Giovannoni. "The fact is it's recorded in smoke. The voice is coming out from behind this screen of aural smoke."
And maybe that's why I keep returning to it, playing it, listening to this ghostly voice sing to me in barely understandable French. It's the 'aural smoke' that's so fascinating, so incredibly haunting, that I almost feel like I can learn its secrets if I just listen to it one more time.
Links:
Experts find oldest voice recording - MSNBC
FirstSounds.org press release and information
About the sound recording
First live performance of the Portable Men (with members from the ska bands King Apparatus and Skaface) will be on April 12 at the Smiling Buddha in Toronto. This means Mitch finally gets to shave that beard!
Want an invite and more info? Message me :)
I'm still not over my botched plans to go see Stewart Copeland this week, especially after a sneak peak at the set list. My husband has been consoling me with jokes about having to sit through the movie again (we own the DVD) and by reminding me that the next tour starts in May... and I'm a flag co-bearer for the first night. But I still have the tickets, if anyone is interested... they're in the centre section, third row.
Yeah, I know. Great frickin' seats. Happy birthday to me.
Anyway, I'm still checking out Notion and now I'm giving Sibelius the once-over. Any feedback, comments, and opinions on either are still very much welcomed. I have read that Andy Summers uses Sibelius, as well as some other really nifty people, and I'm looking forward to giving it a shot. I'm checking over both of the websites right now but Smike has already gone ahead and gotten the Sibelius for me.
The problem is that I'm a lunkhead when it comes to changing software. I have so many versions of Photoshop that I've lost probably half of my drive space to the programs themselves. But I keep going back to my earlier version, the one with all of my filters loaded into it, and I can't give up the latest version because I need to be able to open client files.
The way I write a song is complicated and painstaking. I don't use a keyboard or other musical instrument; I write what's in my head and the first time I hear it is when it's played through my computer. I enter each note on a staff, make chords and add the fun notation stuff, and then work work work on it until everything is perfect (or sometimes good enough.). It takes days. I'm very stubborn. I could probably cut back that time by using a keyboard instead of 'trying out' notes -- if you ever watched Copeland's The Rythmatist movie you'd have seen the easier way in action. Dude carries around a mini-keyboard with him. Why didn't I think of that?
Stubborn plus lunkhead equals luddite. I am the kind of person who loves immediate gratification, so this painstaking bullshit really isn't up my alley but I do it anyway. Why am I like this? What is so wrong with change? I think it's the idea that staring at something new, having to take large chunks of time to learn it without knowing if it will be what I want to use, is so overwhelming. If I can't sit down and make music with it right away, I don't want to deal with it. The stuff I'm using now, I know HOW to use it. I can sit down and I know what I'm doing. I want things to be easy... frustration is not a virtue.
I guess my birthday wish is to change that luddite equation and see the software changes as more of a "getting out of a rut" thing. Considering I already have the software and will be using it probably by the end of the day, that would be a wise thing to do.
God, I hate getting older.
So I went to a psychic on Saturday.
That was the first time I'd ever gone to one. I remember when I was little, about the same age as my oldest is now, my mother went to a psychic. She taped the session because some of the things she was told were to come up later on in life, and for awhile she played the tape every year or so to see if something had been predicted. I didn't record mine, but I went home with a page of stuff she'd scribbled down for me. Most interestingly, the stuff that I learned the most from are things she said and don't appear on the page.
I'm not even sure I believe in psychics. She said from my numerology that I was one. She also said that I am a "master of intellect"... now, you don't go around telling people like me things like that, that's just playing with fire. I guess it was more an aura reading than a psychic reading, which I kind of liked, because it's interesting to see what other people find I'm sending their way. She had some good insight on many things... things that I don't think apply to everyone, but certainly did to me... and I have taken those things and ruminated on them. Totally worth the two hours it took to wait and go through the whole reading.
The stuff at the end, though. The stuff at the end. She told me things about my friend Shylagh that really startled me. She also told me to put the chair back into my younger daughter's room because my Grampy watches over my girls. How she knew that, I have no idea. I had to take a long walk afterwards, in the sunshine and ice cold fresh air, just to rid myself of the choking feeling in my throat. It wasn't like the other things she said would happen weren't amazing enough... that just to believe they could happen was powerful on its own... but to hear these names again, I was almost unable to control my emotions.
I don't know if I believed in psychics before I went, or if I believe in them now. Wouldn't it be so easy to just believe that the people you love still remember and miss you, even after they've passed? Wouldn't it be incredible to put in the work towards making the foretold future happen... and it actually happens?
I can't believe I wrote a whole post about this. I had intended to mention it and then write about a bunch of other things that have been going on. So I must really be thinking about this a lot, more than I realize. And that makes me even more interested in what you think about this whole psychic thing: Do you believe? Have you been to a psychic? Have things they told you actually come true?
Anyone out there familiar with Notion? It's composing software that I'm looking into testing, and I'd appreciate any feedback at all if you have experience (or opinions) on it.
If there is more soundtrack work in my future... and I'm hoping there will be... this interesting program might make my life a whole lot easier.
Thanks in advance :)
What was the last concert you attended?
You'd have to be a first-time visitor to this blog to NOT know.
I saw the Police three times on this current tour; once in July and twice in November. The last one I saw was the closest I'd been yet and was the best show I'd seen -- tons of great photos, too. Always a good plan to end on a high note.
But then...
The other day Grace sent me an email: Hey, wanna go to the Ottawa show on this next go-around?
Grace is now my official Svengali. We talked that night because the tickets needed to be bought the next morning, and she was the only one with the coveted Fan Code to get them. Within a half hour, my arm had been twisted into going to the May show and paying an obscene amount of money to do so. In all honesty, though, Grace didn't have to do much more than just call me to ask. How could I say no?
So we have fourth row tickets. And we just found out we'll be flag-bearing that night. Any photos you see of Stewart pointing at the Ottawa show? At the other end of those mighty fingers will be me. Well, and Grace and the flag too. I'll be responsible for Stewart's last Canadian flag reflex.
I just need some sort of wardrobe advice, and a mind-melding system that will send signals of "work on symphonies with this girl" repeatables to Stewart. Other than setting myself on fire, I don't know how else I can get my point across, except maybe whipping fancy underpants-covered CDs of my songs at the King of Copelandia. Maybe that's not a bad idea, either ;)
Anyway, I've added a new banner in honour of this new excitement. Beats sitting around and waiting for some lab results.
Also beats having to clean out your office. Sheesh! How the hell do I get anything done in here!
Well, not that I don't already have a job... several, actually. Plus I do that whole "mom" thing on top of the work-at-home situation. So really, I guess instead of saying I got a job, maybe I should say I am getting a vacation away from the house.
This should be fun. The kids won't miss me at all, I'm sure of it. I'll be working with a lot of friends, and the hours are pretty flexible. The only dent I can see is that it will be interfering with my preparations for March, which I haven't told you guys about yet because it's a pretty big deal to me, but I think you all had something to do with it. Think ladybugs...
Anyway, I've been busy as hell getting caught up from the stuff I ignored during the Christmas holidays, barely able to turn on my email computer or visit any of my usual fun-sites. I miss my friends at the SC.nutter forum, and my fellow Voxaholics, and I miss... Hmmm. I don't think there's much else I miss. Oh, maybe the Pac-Man at Netvibes. I do miss that.
I have been back inworld at Second Life the past few weeks, though, as my wee biz is now situated in a new (and very busy) shoppe that has taken me on an entirely new adventure. So if you're thinking of visiting SL at all, let me know! :) Would be nice to catch up.
I have been doing a lot of songwriting lately. I hope to have a few of them ready to upload very soon, so you can send me your feedback on it. I don't know why I've been doing so much of it lately, other than perhaps it's because I haven't been writing at all, and it's all got to leak out somewhere.
So. This is my rather turgid post about virtually nothing, which will hopefully serve to show ya'll that I'm still alive, just busy, and not able to drop in as much as I'd like. Give me a poke with a long stick if you get the chance and let me know you're still out there too!
