Category Archives: Music

Sunday Morning

Liam has been sick for four or five days now, and he’s pretty fed up with it. He’s better, but cranky in general. Every once in a while he will just stop what he’s doing to just stand there and cry, and you can tell it’s the “I’m tired, and I’m tired of being sick, and I hate my teeth too just for good measure” kind of crying.

He was ricocheting around my office this morning, being magpie-like and bringing all sorts of things from different places to stack on my lap: a tablet of music manuscript paper, my Hedwig folder of random music, a small plate with an owl on it, my statue of Horus, two cassette tapes, his little Matchbox fire truck, a chopstick… anything that caught his eye. Then he started playing with the Velcro closing on the bow pocket of my cello case, so I put all my email stuff on hold and said, “Liam, I have a treat for you, but you have to go into the living room and be quiet for it.” He ran into the living room, very excited, and I pulled the viola out of my cupboard.

Now, this viola only has the top three strings, and it’s missing a soundpost, and the bow hair has pulled mostly out of the ferrule; in short, it needs work before it could ever seriously be played. But a two year old cares nothing for such things.

I set the case down on the floor of the living room and Liam crouched next to me, watching as I unlatched it and opened the lid. Right away he beamed and his hand darted out to strum the strings. I lifted it out and did a rough tuning to make sure the strings were at least in tune with each other for him (and for our benefit too). He bounced around, and we asked him to quiet down again before letting him explore it without endangering it. Then I told him to go get his little chair, but there were height issues so he sat on the ground instead, and I gave him his very own cello.

He was absolutely thrilled, and was very careful with it as he plucked with both hands while singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. The notes were nothing like the song, of course, but he knew what he was doing: he was playing music and singing along.

We let him play until he started getting too physical with it, and a little frustrated because he couldn’t make it sound the way he wanted to. Then we put it to bed in its case and said night-night to the baby cello.

I have such an awesome son.

Scratch Pad Apr 24

9:31:
Nothing like Brian Setzer rockabilly first thing in the morning. Thank you, t!.

9:43:
… and for the neoPagan filk that is developing out of it.

9:52:
Just sent off my declination of the electric cello. A little sad, but there we are. I asked her to keep it, and to take lessons when she ends up wherever she’s going. I think the cello is an important symbol to her; now she just needs to use that symbol and allow it to transform her life.

10:20:
The cello vendor responded with heartfelt thanks for an encouraging letter, and says I read her mind. I have done A Good Thing for someone today.

10:33:
Pandora radio! I Know I Could by Drugstore has lovely cello work in it, and interesting words. Wonder if the band could do this one. There’s a second guitar theme that the sax would sound excellent playing. (Hiatus, hiatus, hiatus…)

10:41:
“Cello rock” is an actual term. My head hurts.

10:42:
So is “cellobop”. Ouch.

10:43:
This cold (or bad bad allergies, now that spring has hit us like a ton of bricks) is making me miserable, and killing my concentration.

11:03:
Finally — I get to hear some Bonfire Madigan! I love Pandora. (And can I say that “Saddle The Bridge” is one of the best titles ever? For reasons that most non-string players won’t understand, beyond the obvious image that pops to mind?)

11:45:
I really miss Liam. I love what I’m doing, but one of the points of being freelance is to have time to spend both working and being with the boy at home. Neither HRH nor I are happy about having Liam with the caregiver every weekday. It’s only for another few weeks, though, until my contract is over, or until HRH drops down to the intended part-time work when the original push to catch up with the landscaping season is over (thanks so much again, winter, for your stubborn insistence on crowding spring back). Working full-time is not something I want to resume, the main reason being I’ve established a decent freelance editing/writing career and if I go full-time somewhere I’ve effectively ended the freelance thing and left clients in the cold.

15:51:
Focus gone, gone, gone. Sore throat, draining sinuses, glasses hurting the bridge of the nose. Am tired of all these words.

16:28:
Kind of neat to look around the room and realise that every single person here is working on a different aspect of the project, and to think that it will all come together at some point soon.

16:07:
Feeling remarkably cut off from everyone and everything at the moment. I wonder why. Beyond the being sick and weary from it, that is. Probably just that the tiredness is looking for support.

(A Cello-Intensive) Weekend Roundup

Saturday:

Band practice: awesome, awesome, awesome. Then assorted errands.

Sunday:

Spring/Earth Day/various godfamily birthdays etc. celebrated by visiting the Butterflies Go Free exhibit at the Jardins Botaniques. I teared up as soon as we stepped into the greenhouse; there were that many tiny fragile beautiful creatures flying around or feeding or just perching on leaves. It was incredibly magical. Liam loved it.

Yesterday afternoon I practiced for a while, then picked up t! and Jan and my amp (who does not have an online journal), and went to test that electric cello. After taking about a half-hour to tune it and set it up properly (long story — suffice it to say I was moderately appalled) I played it for a while, trying out various themes and riffs from band stuff. Then I picked up my own cello to hear its sound again. And you know, I love my cello so much; I just need to be reminded of why every once in a while. The electric is missing the depth and richness of the acoustic. I’d be spending a lot of time trying to mess with amp settings to get it to sound like a traditional cello, and why do that when I already have one?

It was a valuable experience. It was interesting to feel the differences in playing, how the body of it felt in my hands and against my knees, particularly while playing. I’m not used to an absence of vibration felt in my body as I play. It wasn’t a bad instrument, although certainly not one I’d recommend for a beginner… but it wsn’t technically a cello, either. If I played a lot more than I do, and travelled, I might seriously consider it. But I don’t, and I don’t particularly want it. What I have is better in every way for what I need, and meets my desire for sound.

Heartfelt thanks go out to Jan and t! for their company and feedback (and navigation through the traffic-clogged streets of the east Plateau, despite my surprising sanguinity about it). I didn’t need to be talked out of a bad decision (be that leaving it or taking it home!), but it was good to have support with me and to hear their confirmation of my opinions.

Countdown

May 19, 2007.

7:30 – 11:30 PM.

Invisible and Random Colour ride again.

Clyde’s (the old Pioneer, how’s that for a blast from the past?), Pointe-Claire Village. Private party, of course, which means exactly what it says: it’s not an open-public event. Music ends around 11:30, but the party doesn’t have to. Cash bar, as it’s a real live pub.

Last chance you have to experience Random Colour live before their hiatus.

More info? Not sure you qualify for the private party? Contact me. I’ll be sending out an invitation by e-mail; this is just a heads-up.

Thirty days…

Rockin’ Out With Accordions And Ouds

Quick notes on the Loreena McKennitt concert last night:

A huge thank you to ADZO and his lovely wife for gifting us with tickets to this concert as a gift for HRH’s birthday and Jen’s birthday, too. We had a wonderful time with them.

The best line I uttered during the concert: “LUTE SOLO!” And I meant it with great enthusiasm, too.

Ironic that the live version of Bonny Swans rocks hard (nothing like two electric guitar solos!) while the version Random Colour is doing is the quietest folksy-est song of our set. (ADZO — I remembered on the way home that I did try listening to the live recording on the Live From Paris & Toronto recording, and it was useless because it was in a different key. No wonder I’d blocked that particular irritation from my mind.)

I had the good fortune to not be disturbed any any of the audience members around me. That’s rare. Usually there’s at least one person who persists in ruing the experience for me, either by singing off-key or talking through it all or jiggling the seat. Everyone was well-behaved and made the experience that much more pleasant.

It was daring to open with what was essentially a harp solo of She Moved Through The Fair, before launching into the first song from her new album.

FOUR percussionists. I counted. They were all excellent.

Yes, there was a cello, there is always a cello, and she was set up at the front on stage left so I could see everything. But there were also electric guitars and bass and an oud and accordion aside from the piano and harp. It was a crowded stage, in a good way.

An excellent, excellent evening.

Scratch Pad, April 16

More stream of consciousness joy:

10:45 AM:

I am going to reward myself with the two-volume shorter Oxford dictionary after this contract, to help take the bad taste of poorly constructed reference books out of my mouth.

11:12:

I am convinced that this dictionary was written by people who thought they knew the definitions and didn’t actually look them up, because the ones that aren’t dead-on are kind of but not really right. Or they’re defined as the general populace understands them, which is not the textbook definition. I am appalled that this thing got published.

11:17:

I am also tired of correcting figurative use when the literal definition should be there first.

11:28:

No, I’ve got it: it reads as if it was assembled by schoolchildren who inferred the meaning of a word by its use in a piece of text. Therefore, someone reading the phrase “sunnier climes” might infer that “climes” means different or variable weather, as this dictionary says. Except it actually means climate.

11:33:

Does one “believe in a religion”? Doesn’t one believe in the doctrines, and follow the religion?

12:47 PM:

Looking up “pacemaker” to see if the definition requires finessing, I discover that “An external pacemaker was designed and built by the Canadian electrical engineer John Hopps in 1950 based upon observations by cardio-thoracic surgeon Wilfred Bigelow at Toronto General Hospital. A substantial external device using vacuum tube technology to provide transcutaneous pacing, it was somewhat crude and painful to the patient in use and, being powered from an AC wall socket, carried a potential hazard of electrocution of the patient by inducing ventricular fibrillation.” I’ll bet. (Thanks, Wiki.)

13:17:

Continuing the thought of 11:28 and 11:17, above — “Tether”: “having no strength or patience left”. Obviously inferred from “at the end of one’s tether”. Argh!

13:41:

From HRH, on the subject of me being too shy and lame to ask someone I don’t know to escort me in and out of the office while my keycard is non-functional: “You’re not lame, remember you’re a hot lady in an office of guys. Ask and they will comply, Ph34r t3h cut3, resistance is futile and all that.” Me: “Who are you, and what have you done with my husband?”

15:05:

Mellanmouse takes good, good care of me. I have hot chocolate and a reactivated keycard. I am no longer a prisoner. Now I can listen to Evanescence instead of the soothing Loreena McKennitt I was relying upon to keep me balanced earlier. I love her with much love.

15:24:

Looking up “exponent”, I found this example: “Jaqueline du Pré was a leading exponent of cello-playing”. I like it when my world and the world of this imaginary dictionary intersect.

15:28:

The serial comma is your friend. Do not fear the serial comma!

15:53:

Every once in a while we hear howlers from some part of the room as the team members test code to see if it functions. Some of the definitions that are pulled up are insanely incorrect. Some of them I’ve found so far; others are yet to come.

14:22:

I think what frustates me most is how *close* some of these definitions are, and yet how they still miss the mark. For example, to admonish is kind of like “to advise someone to do something”, but it lacks the implication of warning. If someone learned this word in the context for which I’m refining these definitions, they’d use it incorrectly. And I refuse to let that happen.

16:24:

I AM FINDING WORDS THAT DO NOT EXIST!

New word(s) today: pelmet.

Also? Yay me for remembering my grandmother’s birthday.

Scattershot

Thought I’d kicked the cold; then the really bad dry throat thing kicked in yesterday afternoon, triggering really bad coughing fits complete with tears streaming from the eyes. HRH had to import the humidifer from Liam’s room into our bedroom so that I could sleep last night. Also no fun were the sharp, incredibly painful foot cramps that attacked after I stepped onto the cold bathroom tiles on my way to bed. So, I’m still sick. Also, it is winter again, and I would like these two things to be over and done with, thank you.

Still enjoying work in an intellectual/practical challenge sort of way. More with the tearing of the hair and exasperated gestures and sighs, though, as I encounter words that I expect to be nouns and that are defined as verbs, such as ‘paint’. That’s all right; I fit right in with the gesticulation and random oaths uttered by programmers and coders around me.

Thanks to public transport this week, I have read Conspiracy by Grace, Lady Cavendish; Melusine by Sarah Monette; and The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason in their entirety.

t! has been sharing excellent music with me lately. I’m currently enjoying some Lee Rocker and Brian Setzer Orchestra live recordings. Rockabilly and swing revival are seeing me through.

All right; time to pack the Thermos of tea and finish getting ready to go.