| A MUST-READ |
[04 May 2012|11:03am] |
You'll never guess what I just got in the mail. NEVER.
Okay, you might guess. It was a copy of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) hsifyppah's new zine "La La La!!!"! I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend it! This is a zinic tour de force. I laughed, I giggled, I marvelled at the ethanol enzyme process, I said, "Wow, are those real math notes?" And then I laughed some more.
Run right out and get one! Or send Brooke a postcard, really. And if she's out of this month's, maybe that'll convince her to do another issue. Which she should.
I'm just sayin'. ♥
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| I'm easing back into posting... with a meme! |
[28 Mar 2012|12:53am] |
I've got questions from hsifyppah!
1. The most perfectest mccoaster designed to make Amys beam. Whatsit like? Ride POV fic!
( Musing about other coasters and history. )
However. The thing that both of those other coasters don't have that my favorite Arrow Dynamics coaster does have is a natural element. My favorite best-coaster-ever would be an out-and-back, non-inverting steel coaster with a noisy, slow, high first hill (275 feet would be about perfect) and it would be set somewhere pretty. Because what's the point of rushing around and being up so high if there's nothing to see while you're doing it? (Okay, it'd be awesome anyway, but it wouldn't be nearly so striking.) There would be trees. And a lake. The first hill would be 275, and it'd use the momentum to take you up another high hill and down, then up into a turned loop. And then, there would be a second lift hill. I love coasters with second lift hills. Noisy slow ones with trees. And that hill? Would be about as high as the second hill. It wouldn't look like it. It would look shorter. Because it would have the same drop but go further - go underground. I rode Hades for my 27th birthday, courtesy of dapatty, and it has the world's longest underground coaster tunnel, and it was fantastic. I want a steel coaster that does that, and I want it very badly.
2. That one person? Whose head needs to EXPLODE. You get to do it by fiddling them to death. It's just going to work. What song are you playing on your DOOMVIOLIN?
Oh, dear. That sounds messy. Let's see, a headexplodey song would have to go up to the E string, to the highest note I can play in first position. It would have to be something you could play violently and quickly. I don't think it could be in a major key. I'd play Maroon Bells, by Rick Wagner. It's like Tam Lin but with a different je ne sais quois, and also the string crossings are less annoying, so I can play it faster, which I think is important for head-exploding. This is actually something I think about a lot since reading Charles Stross. It's in D minor (the saddest of all keys), my favorite key. You can find music for it on here on the Kitchen Musician Site under M in the North American tunes section.
3. What is the best candy? Can I have some too?
Yes. In fact, you can have a flavor-by-flavor breakdown.
( Fruit Flavors. )
( Chocolate With Nuts. )
( Chocolate Truffles. )
4. There is now a church of Amy. There's a choir with perfect pitch, a shrine to the Magnum XL, the works. What do the evangelistic Amysh peeps say when they knock on the door to share the blue news?
"Do you enjoy music? Is your family crazy? Do you need a drink? Five dollars for a holy quest is a good deal. You're gonna love communion."
5. FANGBONER.
*snorfles*
6. Wait, that wasn't a question. Okay okay here we go. I know that children in Ohio throw apples at policemen on Hallowe'en. What do they do on the fourth of July?
They face North, looking over their shoulders to the south, and wiggle their hindquarters mockingly in the direction of Louisiana to celebrate our victory over being retroactively fit in as the 17th state to join the union, just before they did. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, much my butt, Louisiana!" Of course, in southeastern Ohio, where I grew up, they mostly ditch the ritual observances in favor of dropping those little step-on-'em cracklers everywhere so that you can't even walk inside the grocery store without having a heart attack.
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In accordance with meme law, if you request, I will give you five questions of your own! Although they may not be of such excellent quality. But you are also allowed to just comment on my fanaticism for coasters and candy.
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| November 19th is International Survivors of Suicide Day |
[18 Nov 2011|02:32pm] |
November 19th is International Survivors of Suicide Day.
Pretty terrible-sounding holiday, huh.
( I know this is a difficult topic. )
( This is my story. )
( Resources. )
Thank you for reading. I know that this is a confusing and difficult subject, but I feel it’s one that people should be able to talk about. Today, I’ve decided that “people” starts with me. I’m sorry I didn’t feel comfortable saying all of this earlier. And finally, the scary parts: Feel free to link back to this. Feel free to talk to me about suicide. Feel free to comment anonymously on this post (trolling and hate speech will be deleted).
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| Windycon 2012! |
[17 Nov 2011|03:12am] |
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I am incredibly pleased to announce that I am the Music Guest of Honor for Windycon 2012!
( Windycon and Amy: A Meta-recap )
But this is all to say that every time I go to Windycon, I have a fantastic weekend. I come back with new stories to tell and new tunes in my head and new friends. And somehow, even though they've actually had a chance to get to know me, the people who organize this amazing experience I have every year want to honor me as their guest. I've been barely able to contain the news since they asked me, and I am so very, very pleased to announce and invite you to attend
Windycon 39!
November 9-12, 2012
The theme is Zombies!
The dual(-personality) author Guest of Honor is/are Seanan McGuire and Mira Grant!
...and I will be there. As a guest. The music guest. Of Honor. It's gonna be a party.
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[15 Nov 2011|12:07pm] |
I'm in this amazing jazz band. I get to play with them once or maybe twice a year, but our gigs are shining moments in my life. The band is called Play It With Moxie, and if you haven't heard of us, now is the time to familiarize yourself. This group has talent and taste and style in spades, and I am proud (and a little stunned sometimes) to be counted among their number.
It's taken years of live recording, but we have finally compiled and cleaned up enough live tracks for an amazing CD.
There's something on here for everyone - There's jazz, swing, blues, and songs from movies, musicals, and video games. There are sultry, tempting tracks (Bad Things, anyone?) and tracks bursting with jubilant geeky energy (Alien Jellyfish Song!!!) There's amazing instrumentation, laughter, and a certain something indefinable. GAFilk has this dance every year, and Play It With Moxie started as the house band for the dance. And somewhere between the music and the people and the food, something magical happens every year, this current of camaraderie and happiness runs, low and buzzy, through everything. I wasn't sure if that was something you could put on a CD. But I think we managed it, and a lot of that is thanks to Dave Rood, who managed and produced the project.
Do yourself a favor, and give some of the tracks a listen. If you like what you hear (and I'm betting you will), pre-order a copy or two. It's only $20 to pre-order, and that price includes the CD, shipment to your US address, a Moxie button, and a Moxie badge ribbon. It's a great band with a great album, and I can't tell you how happy I am to be a part of both.
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| I... I won a what? |
[22 Oct 2011|08:40pm] |
So I'm on Day Four of a nine-day stretch at work. And this afternoon, my boss looks at all the offsite sales we need to do this evening and says, "Amy, you're the only one who can sell for this offsite event, we need you for an extra hour or hour and a half, let's get all the stuff together and I'll tell you about the event."
In the kerfluffle, I left my phone at work.
I finally got back, with a dying battery and... seventeen text messages? (turns out 4 were unrelated to the topic of this post, but still) WHO DIED OR IS IN JAIL? Oh, NO.
Call from benet. I answered immediately with, "Oh, honey, I'm sorry, I'm not dead, I forgot to tell anybody that I had to work an offsite and I left my phone by mistake and I have like seventeen text messages and I'll be home sometime soon."
Benet: "Oh, good. Congratulations on your Pegasus, by the way!"
Me: "Agubrbawha? I WHAT? I WON? I FORGOT WHEN THE BANQUET STARTED. I WON? *noises only dogs can hear* I WON!"
So, um. You guys. I love you guys. This is the highest honor the filk community can give to a performer, and. . . I'm honored. I'm flabbergasted and happy beyond all measure. Congratulations to all the other winners and nominees!
And thank you to Seanan, vixy, and Brooke for accepting on my behalf!
Thank you.
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| 2011 Pegasus Ballot! |
[02 Sep 2011|11:16am] |
Oh my goodness the Pegasus Ballot is live and I'm on it and in such amazing company, y'all.
It's a glorious honor, being nominated-- knowing my community of friends thinks I'm a top-notch performer and an example of Excellence in Filking. And this year's Best Performer Category is amazing; I'm the only solo performer on it this year (eep!), deliciously outflanked by the jaw-dropping crystalline harmonies of Mich and Marilisa from Playing Rapunzel, the gentle humor and joyous folk sound of Tom and Sue of Stone Dragons, the face-melting filk rock power of the rogues and ruffians Eric, gundo, Jason, Raven, and Mike from ToyBoat, and the uber-talented celtic rock mythpunk trio Tricky Pixie, which is Betsy Tinney, SJ Tucker, and Alexander James Adams. So. Wow. I'm up with alla THEM. And that's just the Best Performer category! I could go on and on.
Go check out the ballot and listen to the samples! I'm especially pleased with mine: I had been using a fiddle tune the last couple of years, but this year's representative recording is thanks to Seanan McGuire and her new album "Wicked Girls" (the title track of which is also nominated for Best Song) - the gorgeous piano on there is all Mary Crowell's doing (and she's up for Best Writer/Composer), with bass by Kristoph Klover and drums by Scott Irwin. I am so privileged to work with such extremely talented people, and everybody on that ballot is worth listening to.
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| Survived surgery! |
[02 Mar 2011|10:22pm] |
Today, I have read three pages of my book, and skimmed one page of my flist. Oh, yeah. And had my tonsils out, and napped a lot in a haze of painkillers.
Tonsillectomies: Here to make you feel proud and accomplished about eating a pudding cup.
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| A quick update |
[01 Mar 2011|10:04pm] |
I'm back from Anachrocon! Play It With Moxie had a lovely gig with some fantastic dancers, and the rest of the con was great.
Madison continues in its protests. This is my favorite video so far, even though it's ten days old now. There's been music, there's been laughter, there've been kindnesses big and small.
Tomorrow, I'm getting my tonsils out. This has been scheduled since November, but I've had other things going on and haven't focused on it much. Now, I'm a little nervous. I'll let y'all know how it goes.
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| I love my city. |
[18 Feb 2011|11:08am] |
I woke up comfortably late this morning and shuffled around, getting breakfast and such. And I realized there was a lot of honking going on. And sirens. And honking. And... is that... screaming?
Finally I located enough clothing and my keys to walk out the door and take a look around.
See, I live close to a high school in Madison. The noise was students standing outside their school with signs, cheering; the noise was cars driving by, honking in solidarity as they realized what the students (and teachers, and parents) were doing. Some of the sirens could well have been from the police and fire departments, who are supporting the protest even though they're exempt from the bill (for now).
I love it here. (Confused? Check out some articles in the Isthmus.)
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[10 Feb 2011|02:05pm] |
Tonight I venture on down to Capricon! If you'll be there, I'm in the Cafe Saturday afternoon, on my own and with friends, and playing a reduced Wild Mercy Concert - We've decided that when harperjen, tollers and I get together, we're Trouble. So come see Trouble Saturday night at 8:30!
This month I'm on a light work schedule, and doing a lot more fiddling than I might otherwise. Currently on my music list are things for Trouble, Moxie, and a crazy piano rag from 1915. Jug band stuff will be back on my list after Cap.
Speaking of my music list, I'd like to tell all y'all that Wicked Girls is out on CDBaby! They say they're currently out of stock, but they should be restocked very soon, and you can still order it right now. Which you should do. I'm prouder than a peacock about this album. It's all fantastic, it's all got Seanan's voice, soaring with her own incredible work and two fantastic covers, but for me the first track says the most. Counting Crows is one of my favorite songs to rock out on, it's one of my favorite songs of Seanan's, and Kristoph Klover knocked it out of the park in so many ways. But it doesn't end. Mama Said makes me cry (even before recent events), the solo on Tanglewood tree makes...it makes my teeth ache with how beautiful it is, and that sounds silly to say, because I'm playing half of it. But stealthcello is the other half, and she's awesome, and the whole is so much greater than the sum of those two parts. I'll never forget the first time we got together to rehearse Tanglewood Tree, knowing that we both play the solo, and not knowing how we'd play it together. So we each just played our version, and they interlocked perfectly. No changes, no rehearsal required. It just worked. And it just works in the track. Then right after it, The Ghost of Lilly Cane is a jaunty walk down heaven's rosy streets and hell's seedy alleys with quadrivium. While I'm praising the instrumentalists, I'd like to mention that there are a few songs on this album where I get to play on the same track as artbeco where, despite the fact that we only play together in person maybe once every three years, and we weren't even together in the studio -- but on a couple of these tracks, I'm not sure where the violin stops and the harmonica begins, we weave so well around each other. vixyish delights and adds to the entire album, and helps make Writing Again so poignant. The title track is a party, beauty and determination in equal measure, and then My Story Is Not Done caps it off and says it all. Keep going. Tell your own story. Be wicked, and lovely, and don't live in fear.
I, uh, didn't mean to talk about half the album there. But when you hear it, I hope you'll understand.
Also! The Anonymity Games are still going on. I haven't gotten too many responses over the past ten days, so I'm giving it another five. Go to that entry and comment anonymously (or not anonymously; comments are screened) if you'd like to leave a question, answer, valentine, or other note. I'll answer the first round of questions on the 15th.
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| The Anonymity Games |
[01 Feb 2011|10:05pm] |
There are a lot of interesting anonymous memes going around. The anonymous ask-me-a-question meme, the valentine boxes, the comment-anonymously-on-a-weird/personal-question memes, et cetera.
So!
Comment anonymously here. Or not anonymously! Whatever. Comments are screened for your privacy, anonymous comments are enabled. If you ask a question or would otherwise like a reply, number it (with your favorite or a random number) and I will answer questions/reply by number in an upcoming post.
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| Catchup |
[31 Jan 2011|07:35pm] |
Well, hello there!
I'm back from Conflikt. Did I forget to mention I was going? Well, it was sort of a surprise to me, too.
( Songs! Videos! Laughter! )
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[25 Dec 2010|09:14pm] |
Today was a pretty good day.
We awoke late, had cocktails, opened presents, telephoned family, opened presents, and ate.
I made a standing rib roast, crusted with a roasted garlic and rosemary rub, crowned with onions. There were roasted-garlic potatoes, mashed with gobs of organic cream. I made little Yorkshire pudding popovers, and we ate six each OMG they were fantastic. And to go with everything else, a kind of stuffed mushroom gravy-glaze, heavy on the sherry and portabellas.
We began to eat, then turned on the Doctor Who Christmas Special around time for seconds.
Then there was a nap.
Yeah. It was a pretty good day.
Hope y'all's was fantastic as well.
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| This is why... |
[16 Dec 2010|04:13am] |
...we can't have nice things.
(I'm back from Play It With Moxie rehearsal. Oh, man, if you're coming to GAFilk, you've got one helluva treat to look forward to. If you're not coming to GAFilk, you should really consider it. Because a fantastically talented nine-piece jazz band, singing happily about mad science and aliens and the devil? Is just not going to show up that often.)
So I get back from rehearsal, but my luggage doesn't. I have to fill out the form, they say my bag will show up that night, it doesn't. I call, after waiting the requisite four hours after the next plane lands. They say my bag's still in Chicago. I finally go to bed. I get a call just before work- "Is there anywhere we could leave this?" They wind up delivering it to the store. Fine. Honestly, this is no problem. An airline hasn't misplaced a bag of mine for, like, ten years. I was overdue.
But then yesterday night I spilled a beverage on our beloved PC's keyboard.
Then, this morning, I left my cellular phone on a city bus. I'm not even going to describe those shenanigans, but I have my phone back. Thank you, anonymous Qdoba guy. You're one of the nicest people I'll probably never meet.
Tonight, Benet's snagged another keyboard while we're waiting for this one to dry out.
And there are many good things in the world. But the last 48 hours are just making me wonder what item I'm going to lose or break next. And it's not just me! It's been happening at work (vacuum, printer), and to my friends (Patty's trip, Ryan's servers), and... cadhla says Mercury's in retrograde.
Stupid Mercury.
At any rate. My band is awesome, the holiday season is otherwise treating me fairly well, and I hope things in your life are present and undamaged.
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| Windycon! |
[14 Nov 2010|10:33pm] |
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I'm back home. The bus trip was quick and easy with benet by my side. I am dead tired, in the best way. This was such a wonderful convention for so many reasons, and I might not have time to list them all, but here are a few.
Wonderful things I got to play in sorta chronological order:
-Dervish with TomBoat
-Mary Crowell's concert
-My concert
-Lunatic Moon with Bill Roper
-Swing The Cat with Phil Parker
-One Last Short Poem with Adam Selzer
-That Thing (which totally has a name) with Eric Coleman
-Walk On the Ocean with Daniel Gunderson
-Aldivalloch and Dippy Waltz with Betsy Tinney, though it's Aldivalloch that made me weep with joy.
-Ridin' the Storm Out with Teresa Gunderson
-Nifty Renaissancy-Sounding Tune(...) with Peter Alway
Wonderful things I got to see/do in no order:
-Be told by a listener and mom whom I've never met before that she loved my concert and was eagerly awaiting my CD, in part because her seven-year-old was transfixed and sat still for forty-five minutes straight. There are just so many awesome things about that. New people came to my concert. And liked it! Liked it enough to make a point of coming to find me later to say thanks and double-check for website info! My music appeals to children and moms alike. I made more than one person's day palpably better just by playing the fiddle. Just... <3!
-get presents (photos coming, promise)
-A quiet Saturday dinner. OMG I needed that.
-Rockin' Rocket Ride
-Barfleet. <3
-Sedna Roamed the Deep - I mean, all I saw of Heather's concert was fantastic, but this particular peformance of this particular song, which I already liked, was just stellar.
-Existential Blues with whatever that guy's name is who did it (anyone? Bueller?)
-Tricky Pixie in concert
-Dave Perry's concert, particularly "And If Venice Is Sinking" and the Shaving Cream song
-have a quiet morning babysitting, which sounds a little weird, but there's a lot of joy to be had in a morning spent eating donuts and talking with a six-year-old about how awesome robots are.
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| Post con, ergo propter con? |
[25 Oct 2010|11:50am] |
There are so, so, so many very completely amazing people in the world.
And I got to hang out with a LOT of them this weekend. (and meet some new ones - Cedric needs to be at more conventions in the midwest. It's a new rule. More awesome fiddlers everywhere, please.)
This is me, basking in privilege.
*bask*
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| In the same vein, but with more parentheses |
[23 Oct 2010|03:09am] |
I survived the Pegasus concert!
(I survived it in a terribly jaunty little top hat. There'll be photographic evidence of this, je te promis.)
Everything sounded terrific! And I don't just mean the stuff I helped out on - it was a really, really fantastic, well-rounded concert, full of amazing songs and brilliantly talented people. cadhla, we took good care of your baby.
In line at the Mad Hatter's party, I realized I was behind someone I don't know. Which, at OVFF, is getting very rare indeed. And we were chatting, this gentleman and I, and abruptly he stopped and said, "Wait, are you Amy-who-fiddles?" (I hadn't yet got a name badge) "yyYes..." Confused fiddler looks again at name badge: Cedric. "Wait! You're the Bedlam Bard who's the fiddler, aren't you? High five!"
Sooo, I guess if there's somebody I don't know, they're going to know me. I wonder if that's how OVFF is going to be from now on. It's really sort of disconcerting to be introduced to people, say, "I'm Amy," and have them go "I know!" But cool.
I survived my first convention workshop EVAR, with much love to my fantastic co-workshop-leaders Debbie and Mary.
The new hotel is pretty great so far, if extra-dry.
I have been given cake and honeyed bourbon to send me off to bed, though I'm still just a little keyed up from all the music and shiny people and it's three in the morning. I imagine my energy won't last much longer... Zzzzzzz...
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[22 Oct 2010|11:43am] |
I survived my first trip on Frontier Airlines. (There was a big systems crash; it was a clusterfuck.)
I'm at OVFF.
I have my fiddle.
I've run the requisite local errands with my mom.
My hair is fantastically blue and I have a tiny top hat.
I'm ready.
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