luciab | Entries tagged with music

Another too-long delay between posts. Sigh. How on earth to balance between doing something to write about and having time to write? It’s kind of like working overtime so you have extra money but then not having time to enjoy it.

I had a plan for the last week or two. See, now, that may have been the problem. Nia, for one, says that “plan” is a four-letter word and the mere existence of a plan means that it will fail. (Sounds like some of that really advanced Physics, about stuff not existing unless you look at it….) Anyway, I decided that I would try to have Gisele’s AoA scroll done by Crown, and to encourage that goal I planned to stay with her in DC and day trip Crown. This plan expanded, as plans are wont to do, to include an extra day or two in DC for me to see a museum or two. By the beginning of the week it was obvious that the scroll would not be done in time, but I was still trying to balance getting more done and having time in DC. I haven’t spent any time there seeing museums since I was in high school, and believe me, I wasn’t really looking at the exhibits then, so I figured I had plenty to see.

I wound up driving up on Thursday so I’d have all day Friday to amuse myself, and then Gisele and I could go to Crown on Saturday. Uh-huh. I amused myself, alright. I trekked from one end of the Mall to the other as fast as my short little legs would carry me, so as not to waste time that I could be spending in gape-jawed joy, looking at one thing or another. I am interested in so many things…. What to do, and which to do first? I considered Natural Sciences or Air and Space, but was rapidly dissuaded when confronted with all the rug rats that were waiting in lines to get in. I was feeling fine when I left Gigi’s Friday AM, but by the time I was halfway down the Mall I had a dull ache behind my eyes and was seeing double. A disconcerting feeling, that. That made the idea of sharing huge echoing spaces with screaming kids even less enticing.

The walk was long enough, and the migraine hit hard enough that I found myself musing on All in My Head by Paula Kamen, a book about living with chronic pain and disability. She makes the point that no one wants to see themselves as being disabled, and lord knows that’s true. Getting cross-eyed sick from just walking, and not even on a sunny day… well, hrm… maybe this isn’t so exaggerated after all. Crap.

Herein follows a description of the rest of weekend, including comments on Art and Architecture. (Please note the caps. Heh.) ( Read more... )

Monday saw me discover downloading music.( Read more... )

Something that I’ve really realized more strongly than I suspected is that I seem to be approaching that line between Extrovert and Introvert, if I haven’t already crossed it and left it in the dust. If I don’t get plenty of alone-time, I get pretty damn cranky. Lately I’ve been in a really good mood and have been very productive, but damn. I was feeling stressed on Monday when Tuneless Boy upstairs started “playing” and “singing.” Believe me, I use those terms advisedly. Historically, I’ve been indulgently amused (though catty) about his lack of skill, and even admired him for enjoying himself so much and trying so hard. Monday I had no such tolerance. I had to leave the studio, because he practices directly above that room. I had plenty of work to do in other rooms, but I kept sticking my head in the door, hoping he’d follow his usual pattern and only play for about 5 minutes. Nope, he picked Monday to have a longer attention span than usual. His current fave seems to be Bob Dylan. You might think that would give him an advantage, since Dylan can’t sing either and many of his songs tend to be rather tuneless. Nope, he just sounds downright drunk and wanders ever farther off whatever passes for a tune. “It ain’t pretty” doesn’t begin to cover this subject. Wow.

Well, that pretty much brings me up to date on what’s happened in the last few days. Now to go out and do more stuff to write about.

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: da blues, honey!

What a pleasant weekend! (This was supposed to be Monday’s entry, but I had a hardware lockup—peripherals, not the Mac—and lost several well-honed paragraphs. I was not amused.) Nothing really exciting happened, but then again, it wasn’t dramatic, and that in itself can be wonderful. Just ask Brigida, who is so drama-ed out that she wants to come over next weekend for a couple of drama-free hours. She wants to sit in a white room, (that would have to be the studio, which I find inherently less restful than other rooms, but it doesn’t have yellow walls,) and talk about stuff that isn’t stressful, although even she admits it’s not always possible to predict what will trip her switch. We could eat white, non-exciting food and drink only white stuff. We had some fun creating the menu for this meal. We came up with pork (the other white meat,) mashed potatoes (no chives) and cream gravy, and cauliflower with white cheese sauce. We’d drink white wine, of course. For desert, rice pudding (maybe with almonds and golden raisins) and then maybe White Russians. All this reminds me of the meal Alfred Hitchcock is reported to have served once; all the food, including the butter, was dyed blue. His guests were said to have a hard time eating. This wouldn’t be quite as bad, but it would be pretty weird.

Tournament of Chivalry was fun. I would have enjoyed it more if I’d packed the night before or else gotten up early enough to make sure I had everything I needed before I left the house. (Duh.) As it was, I had to come back home (good thing I’m only a half hour away from site) and lost a chunk of time out of the middle of the event. I did get what I needed done, though, so I don’t have that hanging over my head for another day. I got to spend a couple of hours with Alianor, too. I’m doing a scroll for her, and she’s doing some stained glass in exchange, so I got to do some window shopping. Heh. (Couldn’t resist.)

I also got to see Livia’s two latest scroll’s and was very impressed and excited at her progress. Sometimes people talk about “progress” when somebody’s work starts out really sucky, but in this case it started out good, with great promise and is getting better, so I really am excited. Did I mention impressed? And excited?

After the event I went to dinner with Ysolt. Lots of times it’s fun to do a huge dinner and circulate between tables gossiping, but Ysolt really wanted quiet decompression time, I think. She’s been spending a lot of time with Geva, who’s just gotten out of the hospital and gone into a really bad nursing home. What with one thing and another, she’s wound up taking care of a lot of Geva’s financial details, too. The whole situation has been rough on everyone. Geva’s mother may be able to help more now, though she needs several months of R&R herself.

My mother called yesterday to say that she got the birthday package I sent on Saturday. Damn good thing the USPS was having a fast delivery spell, is all I can say. She actually got the package on her birthday! I sent a silk scarf from (you guessed it) Ten Thousand Villages and a card made from the original painting I used to make the self-portrait icon I’m using on LJ. I think she was as pleased with the card as with the scarf. She loves the medieval cards I make, and sends them to all her friends, and brags on how I paint them. They write back and say how they love the cards. Now if I could only make a living selling cards to little old ladies who like medieval cards. Hell, I’m not proud. I’d even sell to people who aren’t little old ladies.

I’ve been painting on Keith’s AoA scroll, which is about three quarters done. I pulled my old stunt of doing the main body of the text and then going directly to the illumination—in this case, a trompe l’oeil border, because that’s the fun stuff. I didn’t do his name yet, because I’m going to do that in red, and I didn’t have the red mixed up, and I just didn’t get the Rex/Regina and Heraldic confirmation part done, because I just wanted to start the fun stuff. Now I have to go back and do the rest of the calligraphy, which just gives me hives. It’s a Batarde, which is not a hand I’m comfortable with, and now I have to make the last part match the part I’ve already done. Erk. Stupid of me. Plus, I haven’t drawn the heraldry yet, and I’m not really looking forward to that, either. He doesn’t have simple heraldry with stars or wavy or anything like that. Nope, he has entwined snakes, owls, and apples, all of which are deeply symbolic. (Of course. Nothing is simple for him; everything is deep.) The real kicker is, at this point I wonder if he will even want the damn thing. I’m pretty sure he isn’t playing and probably won’t ever play. I’m not sure he’ll want a reminder of me hanging on his wall. Well, if it were me hanging, maybe…. Oh, nevermind.

I got registered for Pennsic yesterday. Whee! I’m looking forward to going after missing a year. It is at least theoretically possible I won’t be able to go, but the stars would have to align in a fairly rigid way for that to happen. If I can’t go I should know far enough in advance to either sell my space to someone else or get a refund. It’s also theoretically possible I’ll be traveling most of the month of August--to Kentucky to see family for a week, then to Pennsylvania. Hrm. Wonder if those could/should be back-to-back? Make a big loop instead of going to Ky, coming back here, unpacking, repacking, then going to Pa? Wonder what the relative sanity factor is? Shit, there’s a pun in there, isn’t there? Haw, haw.

The kittens’ distinct personalities are really starting to come out lately. If one of them jumps into my lap and immediately starts purring very loudly, it’s Carmen. If one of them jumps into my lap and wants attention it’s Miranda. If one of them tries to leap to my shoulder from the floor, it’s almost certainly Miranda. The one who is most likely batting stuff onto the floor while looking innocent is Miranda. Really, it’s like it took two kittens to make up Niccolo’s personality. One of them has taken to sleeping under the covers, too, but I haven’t been awake enough to find out which of them it is.

I’ve got a good mix of CDs in my player, on random play. It’s kept me entertained for a couple of days so far. It includes Johnny Cash, Warren Zevon, Bonnie Raitt, the Putomayo American Blues compilation, the Allman Bros, Patsy Cline, and Toni Price. The only problem I’ve found with it is that it’s pretty hard to paint those fine details when I’m dancing. Heh. They might call it “blues,” but baby, if Taj Mahal singing Cakewalk Into Town doesn’t make you feel happy, maybe there’s something wrong. Or, to put it more bluntly, mebbe you jes cain’t feel.

I think I should take advantage of this dancety feeling to get some dishes and cleaning done. Later, gators.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: random play roots mix; see text

Let me say that again. I am SO HAPPY TO BE HOME. For some reason I was more bummed than usual by the 'rents agedness and the unchangingness of being there. Seeing Amy (aka anonamys) was totally wonderful, though. I second everything she says about being at the house; no use repeating it. The biggest thing I noticed when I got home was how lively the place is. Aside from the obvious difference of having three cats running around, the place just looks livelier. Also messier, but I think that's part of it.

The drive itself seemed really short this time.... Amy says I must have been flying. (I was.) The funny thing was that there were police cars everywhere. On the drive up, there was an unmarked cop in the left lane going five miles over the speed limit and we were all in line behind him. A pickup truck started to pass him and he just turned his blue lights on. No other move at all. It drove the pickup nuts-- he kept hugging the center line, wanting to pass but he couldn't. It was just like a momma cat batting a kitten on the head; I swear I could see the giant paw come out of that cop car. On the way home, I must have seen a dozen police cars, half of them working speeders and the othe half lying in wait. I passed a couple of them, and was going well over the posted speed limit myself. The van in front of me saw them first and hit his brakes so hard I could almost see the nose of the vehicle point down like in the cartoons. We were all going about 15 miles over, and of course by the time we saw them it was too late to even pretend to be going the actual speed limit. Apparently, they were satisfied that we seemed to know that we were supposed to slow down because they didn't move. It works for me.

One of the things Amy and I talked about was geeky tech stuff, and she gave me some hints that have worked beautifully to get me some music. Woo hoo! There is a public radio station in western NC that I try to listen to when I can pick it up-- they have a great variety of stuff. Today I not only could find it, it stayed tuned in for nearly two hours, and I managed to remember the call letters when I got home, and looked it up and now I'm listening to it online. Happy, happy!

I am now going to retreat to my four-poster bed, with my pillow and my book and my cats, and luxuriate in being home.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: WNCW

Some of you might disagree since it's country music I"m trying to listen to, but hey, I'm still trying to listen to it. It's the "100 Best Country Songs" on the Country Music Channel (Yes, it's a really slow day on TV and I'm working on a new scroll) and most of what they're playing really IS good. Like Make the World Go Away. And something by Patsy Cline (who cares which one?) Anyway, it's one of the few times I begrudge the fellow upstairs his guitar and singing, SHUT UP! I've heard Tequila Sunrise so many times I can't bear it. I haven't heard Aaaaaam-eeeeeee, whatchu gonna dooooo? lately, thank all that is holy. I was about to stomp upstairs and ask him which Amy did he want to know about? and then answer his question.

Miranda has been pulling a cute trick today. I've been working on the calligraphy for a new scroll, and she's decided that when I'm at the drafting board she wants me to hold her. When I'm at the computer, she's happy to curl up with Carmen or go play. As soon as I start work, though, she's back. For some strange reason, just having a kitten near an open bottle of ink makes me nervous. Wonder why that would be? Erk. I think I'm going to go with the black scroll with the grisaille. You saw that coming, didn't you? Yeah, I'm predicatable that way. I sure hope the recipient likes it.

Well, Miranda has gone back to sleep.... I'm going to try to sneak back to the drafting board. Shhhh.

Current Mood: working

Daaaayum. Whenever I forget where I came from, or I get too depressed for words, somebody just remind me to listen to some bluegrass music. I was scanning the TV Guide Saturday night and found Doc Watson listed, and homed right in on that. Oh, yeah. That was mighty fine. That show ended and Three Pickers came on. That, of course, is the bluegrass version of the Three Tenors, and featured Doc, Earl Scruggs, and Ricky Skaggs. Oh, my, oh my. It turns out that it’s Earl Scruggs on banjo that really lights me up. I hadn’t ever paid particular attention to which instrument I liked, but this made it really clear. Ricky plays mandolin, which is nice and sort of a requisite part of the whole, but eh…. Doc plays guitar and sings perfectly authentic mountain music. Lots of it’s sad, like Tom Dooley. But banjo? Can’t play sad banjo music, as far as I can tell. At first I was annoyed that I have the scroll finished! Woo hoo!! and NOW there’s something good on TV, but then I realized I was tapping my foot so hard that I wouldn’t have been able to paint anyway. At the end of the song I just laughed out loud, it made me so happy. Earl Scruggs. Who woulda thought? When I was growing up, you’d never have caught me dead listening to hillbilly music like that. Pickin’ and grinnin’. Now if the hosts would just quit talkin’ and beggin’ for money and get back to the music….. Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Cripple Creek. John Henry. Oh, yeah, That’s better. Rollin’ in my Sweet Baby’s Arms. Heh.