Category Archives: Art, Theatre, & Film

fps Online Animation Auction

Every year fps: the magazine of animation holds an online auction of animation-related material in order to raise funds for charity. This auction’s proceeds will go to the Canadian Cancer Society for the second year in a row, as decided by the fps readership.

The auction goes live on Wednesday November 22 and runs for one week. You can see a preview list of some of the items available here, including original artwork, DVDs, books, CDs, and software. There’s also a direct donation button on that page that offers you the opportunity to donate to the Canadian Cancer Society via the fps parent company 5×5 Media, if you wish to contribute to funding support for those with cancer and their families without participating in the fps auction.

And a reminder: issue 9 of fps magazine is now available for download, which includes a review of the Pinky and the Brain Vol. 1 DVD set by yours truly.

Musical PSA

Since so many other things got subsequently scheduled on the 18th (a.k.a. the night of my first concert this season) and no one can make it, I encourage everyone who wants to be at the upcoming Messiah concert to circle the date on their calendars this time. That date, once again, is December 16.

Maybe I’ll start including a footnote reminder of concert date, time, and location each time I journal about practicing or rehearsal, to keep it active in people’s minds. I don’t know how else to remind people of my concert dates. I announce them when I get them, which is usually six to eight weeks in advance, then again a week beforehand, and they’re always posted on the Currently Enjoying page. I don’t expect anyone not interested in the concerts to keep track of it or leave that evening free, but there have been a surprising amount of orchestra groupies this time who eagerly said they were going and then realised last week that they had double-booked themselves with various non-concert regulars in the meantime.

Edited to add: Okay, let me clarify because I can feel a couple of people getting defensive out there, which was not the point of this post.

a. I hate promoting myself. It feels like I’m pushing myself at other people and yelling “Look at me!” There has to be an easier way to do this.

b. Everyone has busy lives.

c. I don’t expect anyone to come to my concerts, ever. When someone does, I am dazed and grateful. When multiple individuals attend, I am downright jubilant and effusive in my thanks.

d. People tell me they want to attend, which I have to take at face value. I’m trying to find a method by which this can be made easier, and it’s just a fact that concert dates always slip people’s minds.

e. If no one can make it, I don’t take it personally. Not for the reasons you might think, anyway. You see, we hold concerts to make money in order to fund the orchestra. No audience, no ticket sales, no bank account to pay for rental of rehearsal space and operational costs, and so forth. Not to mention the very basic fact of no audience, what’s the point of holding concerts anyway, and if we’re not holding concerts what’s the point in preparing a programme? You see the problem.

So yes, people attending is a good thing, both for them and for the orchestra in general. And I like to have people attend; I like sharing what I do with others and offering them an evening of enjoyment. I specifically enjoy sharing what I do with people I know, because I can talk to them about it afterwards as they have a very different perception of the evening in general and the performance in particular. And my regulars all seem very upset that they overscheduled themselves, the sentiment of which I appreciate. It’s just unfortunate that everything seems to have fallen apart this time, and I like to think that it can be avoided in the future, for all the above reasons.

Rainy Morning In November

Another 1,700 words in the story yesterday afternoon, bringing me up to 6,981. I now know more about obscure Baroque intruments than I ever thought I’d know.

As I expected, I’m feeling a bit of resistance to working on this novella. I’m experiencing the odd double sensation of wanting to be writing because I enjoy it (when it’s flowing, of course), and not wanting to be writing because it’s work and I’m understandably rather weary of setting words down. And because I began with a vague idea and started writing to discover what happens, I don’t have an outline to fall back on to see what I should address next when I exhaust my current scene. Or rather, I have a few jotted notes that describe various events and conflicts in the story, but I need to write a bridge from where I am now to get to the first one. I’m going to put the word [bridge] in square brackets and highlight it, and then just start writing that first event today. Writing that event will give me a better idea of what needs to happen in the [bridge] section.

Today I will also practice the Beethoven at least once, hopefully twice. Yes.

ESTC Update

Well, that’s enough for today. The word count stands at 51,537 after adding and subtracting scads of words in different places, and the page count stands at 211. I think work hours clock in at around twelve, which is about twice as many as I usually work.

I’m going to have to go back at look at what I did with Chapter 8 tomorrow morning, because I can’t wrap my brain about where it was versus where it is now. There’s more, which is a good thing. I have no concept of how complete it is, or if the quality is up to my desired standard at the moment. And yet, after writing a bunch of new pages on various necessary subjects, I don’t seem to have crossed more than two things off my list of things to do in that chapter, which is mildly odd.

Also, there is a new ritual in Chapter 9.

Overall, there seem to be approximately four things left to do in Chapter 8 tomorrow, one of which is minor, one of which is expanding on something, two of which are from-the-ground-up. There needs to be another ritual in Chapter 9, possibly, although it may be left out if space doesn’t allow for it, and little finicky transitional things in both chapters that always take more time than they claim they will. Then it’s back to Chapter 2 to talk about the nature of rites of passage, that technical bit that I had to leave undone the other day because my brain was shutting down.

I think I’ve worked too late again. When I work too late, I can’t fall asleep for ages and ages because my brain needs time to shut down properly, and that in turn messes up my sleep pattern and yields nowhere near enough hours of sleep (I need around ten per night, usually). So I’m now going to go curl up in bed, drink a cup of warm milk with a drop or two of vanilla extract, listen to some Enya, and read a Brother Cadfael mystery — things that don’t ask my mind to do gymnastics to enjoy them.

The Weekend Roundup

After a tense day of work and an ill HRH at home on Friday, once I’d put Liam to bed I went out to the YUL NaNo launch party. I’m at the point where I can’t relax in my own home again, and while I wasn’t exactly in a social mood I knew that staying home would be worse than going out. So out I went, and found parking right around the corner from Kit‘s house, which I chose to interpret as a good omen. On the stairs I was warned by excited friends who care deeply about my emotional and mental well-being that “Wow, there’s over forty people up there, and you only know about half a dozen of them!”, which helped prepare me for the moment when I reached the top of the staircase and walked into a solid wall of voices and warmth. As Ceri said, you could physically feel the creative vibe from the enthusiasm of forty-odd writers of all ages crammed into Kit’s living room, dining room, and kitchen. Kit made me a blessed cup of jasmine tea, and I made a point of meeting some new participants as well as saying hello to some veterans. (As I am chronically shy, this meeting of new people was a big thing. Except it wasn’t, which is odd in and of itself, and probably indicates to how tired I am: I couldn’t muster the energy to be freaked out.) I stayed for an hour and a half and then went home feeling very glad I’d attended. Of course, I slept horribly, but that’s par for the course this week.

Saturday was band, sans vocalist, which was actually beneficial because we all got to focus on music and hear the fine points of what goes on with the other instruments, which we can’t do when our vocalist sings because we listen to her instead. Afterwards, I went out to the big local hardware emporium with t! for lightbulbs and wooden planks and screwdrivers and such (and I got the wrong lightbulbs, damn it all), which led to an adventure in trying to pack the car with an eight-foot wooden board and a cello too, all in horrible weather. I was still in a decent mood, all up until the last five minutes of my drive home when idiot drivers trying to get onto the bridge blocked the intersection around the corner from my house. Funny how it only takes one thing to break the camel’s back. The day went veering madly downhill from there for no particular reason. I shut down so firmly that I don’t remember eating or doing anything at all on Saturday night. Oh no, wait; I watched Topsy-Turvy then went to bed. (Note that I did not say that I went to sleep. I think I was awake for a good three hours before I dropped off for a bit.)

Liam woke up insanely early Sunday morning and since I’m still sleeping horribly I was very grumpy about it. Once up, though, and breakfast eaten, I worked on the book, and late Sunday afternoon we all went over to Matthieu’s second birthday party! It was Liam’s first attendance at a birthday party not his own, and he was terrific. He got to play with TAZ and Zoe, whom he knows, and he saw Matthieu again, and played with lots of Matthieu’s toys that he just loved. He said “plss” for bread and cheese, and loved his taste of cake, and I could hardly believe he was as grounded and well-behaved and perky as he was, seeing as his schedule had been wonky all day what with the waking early and the time change. HRH’s choice of gift for Matthieu — a Superman hockey jersey — was a great success (as all the other gifts were! ah, the joy of a two-year-old and his new gifts), and it was really a wonderful party. It seemed to be perfectly balanced in regards to number of people, temperament, gifts, and food. I left this party extremely glad that I’d attended as well.

I managed to sleep more than five hours last night, glory be, and not wake up more than once during the night. Today’s been an okay day so far, although that may have a lot to do with the sun that’s actually visible for the first time in days. Liam woke up at a more decent hour, though his internal clock says he’s waking at the regular time and the time change means it’s earlier than it used to be. After getting dressed and playing in his room for a bit he said “door plss” when he wanted out into the rest of the house, as he had accidentally shut the door. Then he asked for “kssp plss!’, banging on the pantry, so he had a heaping bowl of Rice Krispies for breakfast, followed by applesauce. It’s been a good morning.

I’m going to stop for lunch now.

ESTC Update

Things are rolling along nicely. Adequately. Well, not badly.

The total word count currently stands at 44,730, and there are 201 pages. Chapters 1 through 3 are pretty much complete, with only a couple of highlighted sentences to be rephrased when I have more of a brain. Chapter 4 is seventy-five percent finished as well, although that final 25% is going to be a pain in the neck to complete because it’s lists and correspondences and will likely take most of my day tomorrow.

Then it’s Chapter 5, where I have to write a set of instructions for basic meditation, expand a ritual, clarify and expand the breathing meditation, outline a basic circle-cast, and cover basic shields (can’t I just say “read this other book I wrote”? — only I won’t do that because I hate it when someone deliberately leaves something out so that I have to go buy another book in the middle of the book I’m reading). All these things seem huge in my brain, but they’re really only a paragraph or two each. And then in chapter 6 there’s only one thing I have to fix/tweak/expand.

Which brings me to Chapter 7, the chapter of grief and sorrow and the icky things one doesn’t want to have to think about, which only needs three rituals and some polishing. If I don’t finish it on Friday, then it, Chapter 8 (which needs some moderately substantial things added to it), and Chapter 9 (two rituals need to be created in entirety) will be handled Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday will be the final finicky bits and read-throughs and checking of appendices. Oh, and I have to fit looking for visual references for the art department in there somewhere too.

‘Cos next Wednesday’s it. By five o’clock it has to be in someone else’s inbox on someone else’s desk in another country. The End.

I’m looking forward to November. Odd to say that, but I am. It will be nice to have some time to myself.

Orchestra tonight, and yet another week has gone by where I’ve been working so much during the day and being so wiped at night that I haven’t rehearsed anything. This is yet another reason to be looking forward to November: I’ll actually be able to practice.