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Quote of the Day
May. 18th, 2007 09:09 am"Okay, you're talking, but all I hear is, 'Smack the stupid out of me with your spoon, Bootsie.'"
- Bootsie to Arath, in Friendly Hostility.
May. 18th, 2007
Good Numbers
May. 18th, 2007 09:13 am183: Weight in pounds, pre-pregnancy.
173: Current weight in pounds.
116/68: Blood pressure reading yesterday.
They've put me on a blood pressure medicine, and it's working! I can do stuff again!
It should be temporary. After my six week postpartum checkup, they'll start to wean me off of it and we'll see what the BP does. Since this was all pregnancy-induced, it should be clearing up by then. Yay!
173: Current weight in pounds.
116/68: Blood pressure reading yesterday.
They've put me on a blood pressure medicine, and it's working! I can do stuff again!
It should be temporary. After my six week postpartum checkup, they'll start to wean me off of it and we'll see what the BP does. Since this was all pregnancy-induced, it should be clearing up by then. Yay!
Fun for a Friday
May. 18th, 2007 12:11 pmTituskhain has a YouTube page. I especially recommend scenes from 'Fellowship of the Ring' set to the 'A-Team' theme song and a Haldir 'I Will Survive' music video. Marching elves look waaay too much like backup singers.
An undemanding audience
May. 18th, 2007 04:09 pmI think I started messing around with improvised music about five years ago - whenever it was that I got my lyre. I spent a lot of time one Pennsic lying in the common tent in Storvik camp, brave enough to noodle around because there weren't many other people there and I thought they weren't listening.
I'm now pretty good with improv, to the point of being able to construct melodies with some degree of structure on the fly. The next place I wanted to go, performance-wise, was improvised text or text plus melody. I took a small step in that direction with "To War," a simple marching tune composed in five minutes on the battlefield at last year's Pennsic, the verses to which are all supposed to be improvised. It's simple - any seven syllables, or thereabouts, will do - there is no rhyme.
Yesterday, I spun out a ballad-y thing (I doubt the meter is actually ballad meter) for Spud, totally out of my head. It's still unrhymed, and I don't even try to advance the "plot" more than one line per stanza:
It isn't Great Art, but it's another step toward where I want to go - and I think I made it because 1) it's fun to sing to the Spud and 2) Spud has no expectations. It's risky to walk into a bardic circle and try to compose on the spot if you haven't had practice doing it; it's boring to practice it without an audience. Spud is an audience who is entertained just by the sound of my voice, so I can flub without fear. Pretty handy.
We'll have to see if the boy likes alliterative poetry.
I'm now pretty good with improv, to the point of being able to construct melodies with some degree of structure on the fly. The next place I wanted to go, performance-wise, was improvised text or text plus melody. I took a small step in that direction with "To War," a simple marching tune composed in five minutes on the battlefield at last year's Pennsic, the verses to which are all supposed to be improvised. It's simple - any seven syllables, or thereabouts, will do - there is no rhyme.
Yesterday, I spun out a ballad-y thing (I doubt the meter is actually ballad meter) for Spud, totally out of my head. It's still unrhymed, and I don't even try to advance the "plot" more than one line per stanza:
Little bitty baby lie down in the cribMore Appalachian than medieval, I think. :) The melody for the matching lines also matches, now that I think about it. I even remembered the tune (also simple) today; yesterday, Moe asked me what song it was and was certain that I didn't make it up, but I'm pretty sure that I did.
Baby-o, baby-o
Little bitty baby lie down in the crib
Baby, oh baby-o
It isn't Great Art, but it's another step toward where I want to go - and I think I made it because 1) it's fun to sing to the Spud and 2) Spud has no expectations. It's risky to walk into a bardic circle and try to compose on the spot if you haven't had practice doing it; it's boring to practice it without an audience. Spud is an audience who is entertained just by the sound of my voice, so I can flub without fear. Pretty handy.
We'll have to see if the boy likes alliterative poetry.