Category Archives: Music

Currently Reading, Writing, Hearing, & Playing

What am I doing in offline life? Take a look at what I’ve been reading, writing, listening to, rehearsing, and mark down when I’ll next be performing with one of the groups with which I play!

Last Updated: January 21, 2008

    READING:

Reading Now:

Striding Folly by Dorothy L Sayers
Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers

Vivaldi’s Virgins by Barbara Quick (stalled)

Recently Read:

Virgin Earth by Philippa Gregory
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
Earthly Joys by Philippa Gregory
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
The Druidry Handbook by John Michael Greer
Dust by Elizabeth Bear
Daughter of Venice by Donna Jo Napoli
Beatrix Potter: A Life In Nature by Linda Lear
You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop by John Scalzi
The Cipher by Diana Pharaoh Francis

  • Past Reading List
      • WRITING:

    Contracted:
    untitled hearth magic book: delivery April 2008, projected release date April 2009
    Pagan Pregnancy: A Spiritual Journey from Maiden to Mother: release date July 2008

    Uncontracted:

    Wings & Ashes: novelette in first draft (begun August 2007)
    The Moments of Being Pandora: YA urban fantasy novel, first rewrite, final four chapters in draft (begun November 2004)
    Swan Sister: adult novel, first draft (35% complete) (begun January 2006)
    Il Maestro e le Figlie di Coro: YA historical novel, first draft (75% complete) (begun November 2006)
    Creating the Muse (also referred to as ‘The Poppy Book’, or tongue-in-cheek as The Great Canadian Novel or GCN): adult novel, in rewrites (and the last four chapters may as well be a first draft, as the end has to be so drastically changed) (begun July 2002)

    Many Names: complete YA novel, submitted without representation December 2007 (written November 2002 – late 2003)
    Balsamic Moon: adult novel, on hold; requires final two chapters (written November 2003)

      LISTENING:

    A Distant Bell Caroline LaVelle
    Pride & Prejudice film score – Dario Marinelli

      RECENTLY SEEN:

    Shrek the Third – dir. Chris Miller et al, 2007
    The Golden Compass – dir. Chris Weitz, 2007
    The Cat Returns – dir. Hiroyuki Morita, 2002

      REHEARSING:

    Lakeshore Chamber Orchestra:

    Symphony no. 1 – Gounod
    Overture to The Caliph of Baghdad – Francois Adrien Boieldieu
    Pavane РFaur̩
    Pavane pour une infante defunct – Ravel
    Aires de danse dans le style ancien from Le roi s’amuse – Delibes

    Random Colour:

    Current Set List: covers of Leonard Cohen, Metallica, The Tragically Hip, Loreena McKennitt and more!

      PERFORMING:

    Lakeshore Chamber Orchestra:

    early April 2008
    details TBA

    Random Colour:
    ~ currently on hiatus ~

    Sunday Music

    Last night’s concert was excellent — very tight. Fantastic work from everyone, particularly our section of Cello-Playing Mice. When things go well, the evening always flys by and the two hours are over before I know it. Although my legs falling asleep from the wooden chair being just a smidge too high were a definite indication of time passing. Halfway through the symphony in the second half, I rearranged my legs so that they were stretched to the left and crossed at the ankles instead of feet flat on the floor, one knee on either side of the cello. Unorthodox, but it helped for a bit. Thanks again to everyone who came out — it always means a lot to me.

    The Random Colour meeting was terrific as well, particularly since we ended up working out music not once but twice for one song, and acing the second (up until the part where we have to modulate at the bridge, that is; we decided to work on that at home since I had to flee to eat and change for the other concert). I’m impressed with how well we worked together, particularly for those who’d never played with others before (or played their instrument!). The girls have decided that bowing the cello sounds pretty darned cool in the second song we worked, so I’ll mess about with that in the other songs at home to see what happens.

    Good thing we’d casually looked at amps and pick-ups earlier, because as soon as Ceri started tuning her sax both the stringed instruments realised that we’d need to amp simply in order to be heard. My inexpensive cello pick-up is already on order; I doubt it will be here for the next rehearsal this weekend, but then, I won’t have an amp either, so that’s fine. I won’t be able to get the baby amp, either, until HRH’s EI snarl gets worked out, which, gods willing, will be this week. The girls are meeting every weekend from now till Invisible’s mid-June concert in order to really ace a couple of songs; we have less time than they did for their first gig, and we’ve chosen harder songs (enthusiastic overacheivers that we are).

    Today: errands; more edits; some green witch work.

    Witches Weekly Questions

    Witches Weekly Questions, August 13, 2004: Sound

    1. Do you enjoy having any type of music or sound during a ritual? If so, what?

    Always. My life has a soundtrack, and ritual is no different. The score to the film Fairy Tale was nominated as the Official Ritual Score a few years ago. Nowadays I often use the score to Myst as well. It depends on the tone of the ritual. Worship: Fairy Tale. Working: Myst. And because I’m so tuned to music (no pun intended) I can time my words and energy to the music’s crescendos. It enhances everything so beautifully.

    Drummingis marvellous, especially when you have a strong and talented drummer. TO drum, however, you have to accept that you’re not in the heart of the ritual, but managing the energy levels on the side. I can’t do rit and drum simultaneously, so I have to look forward to high ritual when others do it. And it has to be done correctly; so many let the beat falter or meander around. I’ve only met a handful of people who can correctly use drums as ritual tools.

    2. Do you have a favorite chant?

    Good question. I’ve always love The Earth is our Mother; I can chant Holy Well Sacred Flame for hours in ecstatic meditation; and Air I Am was on the list until near the end of this weekend when the Clan’s chants mistress (a woman whom I love fiercely) taught my dedicants to sing “Sam I am, Sam I am, I won’t eat green eggs and ham” to the tune, thereby endearing her to the Seuss fanatics (everyone) and ruining the chant forever for me. Earth My Body has taken its place in my top three chants after this weekend.

    3. What sound tends to move you spiritually the most?

    A slow well-built orchestral crescendo; rain; water of any kind; the cello (go figure).

    The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Authors

    I finished my new ritual dress last night, and, naturally, I’m unhappy with it. The lack of sleeve/bodice stretch is a bit inhibiting, and the errors hidden inside it are driving me mad. If I stand, I look good, but if I have to move around or lift my arms, I’m sunk. And the fabric I chose is nice and light, yes, but it’s so light that it doesn’t hang correctly. So, as the original fabric only cost me fifty cents a meter (I love sales!), and the construction only took about ten hours, I decided I’d head up to the fabric district on St Hubert street today, and get some black linen to do it over again with all the pitfalls firmly in mind and plans in place to pass them without disaster. And maybe I would stop by L’Esplumoir‘s new location (conveniently located in the fabric district!) and poke around. (You can dye natural-colour linen black, you know. Yes indeed. Actually, you can dye any pale colour to black. And dark colors too, but there will be a slight tint of the original colour to the final black, which is kind of neat. And if you factor in the cost of fabric, notions, and time spent on the project, well, personal energy invested in the ritual vestment aside, the cost is often equivalent.) Besides, there’s a package I have to go pick up at the little postal outlet in Monkland village that I could get on the way home.

    I went on-line to check the new address of the shop before I left, and I thought I’d check my e-mail too. And thus, the best-laid plans…

    The first half of my manuscript was sent back to me this morning for edits and rewrites, with a return deadline of noon on Friday.

    It’s not the end of the world; so far there’s a lot of good encouraging stuff in feedback, and the edits are easy and far fewer than the other manuscripts I’ve edited. I have just over forty-eight hours to do two hundred pages. I should be fine — more than fine, actually. If I get enough done, I might go out to the fabric district tomorrow morning. And it’s a good thing I checked, otherwise I’d be in a bad position for editing it on time.

    So I’ve put the first Moulin Rouge CD on, made myself a strongish cup of Cherry Vanilla tea, and to work I go. I think Mission: Impossible 2 is next. And likely The Hours will make an appearance later on.

    New Day

    I took yesterday off — I didn’t crack open the laptop or a reference book all day. I severely needed the time away from the manuscript; I think I broke myself on Tuesday. I couldn’t string enough words together to make a coherent sentence yesterday, and it was a bit of an Eeyore day as well.

    So I read all of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix instead, and yet again, for the third time, I read it too fast and didn’t allow the story to breathe properly.

    Orchestra was okay, not spectacular but okay, and I slept well (although I dreamed of washing one of my Wicca books in Debra’s washing machine, because the pages had begun to go a bit yellow with age). I awoke to HRH sitting on the edge of the bed to say goodbye (yes, he’s putting in a half-day today). We talked politics for about fifteen minutes, then he got up to go to work. “Oh, sure,” I said, “talk sweet politics to me and then just leave.” “Wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?” he smirked, and off he went.

    I so love the fact that my husband can now make literary jokes.

    In other news, I sat down to finally reserve my plane ticket to Hamilton, and found to my utter disgust that with taxes and fees etc., the cost of the ticket has doubled. So I’m in the process of checking out the cost of train tickets; I can switch to the GO train in Toronto and meet my parents in Oakville, and it will probably be cheaper. (Update: Yup. Cheaper. Plus I’d get there earlier in the day, and it’s a ten-minute round trip to pick me up instead of an hour.)

    I’m bright-eyed and busy-tailed, and I’m determined to write at least two thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven words today.