December 16, 2010

Sestina fail!

Just when I was all ready (with my excel spreadsheet) to start writing my sestina for the afore-mentioned competition, I find out that the website for the 2011 event is still advertising last year's competition, and that no sestina will be necessary at all.  Well...eff!  I suppose it's for the best.  This was gearing up to be a dangerous sestina.

The problem is, the details for the real competition haven't been made public yet.  The only other competition I might have anything to do with in the coming weeks is on the theme of, "Perform something!  Anything you want!"  I kinda have that covered.

This is a problem because here's what I've discovered about myself as a writer - I have lots of ideas and inspiration, but I won't get anything done unless I have a deadline.  Melodies, music - that'll all happen as a matter of course, but poetry will not (reliably) be written unless I'm on a deadline.  And it's no good giving me arbitrary deadlines (as my don will tell you).  I have to have some kind of competition riding on completion by the deadline in order to get things done.

Bleh.  Does anyone want to have a friendly poetry-writing race or something?  Loser bakes cookies for the winner?  I mean I could, in theory, just buckle down and write one of the songs I've had bouncing around in my head.  But that keeps not working.  :-\

December 14, 2010

Things are proceeding all happy-like!

Already talked about last week's very enjoyable bardic night.  I have, since then, gone to an event and met up with yet another great group of musicians.  We jammed, we talked, we had a great time and I hope to see more of them.

I've also identified some competitions and displays coming up that I'd like to be a part of, if I can wangle rides to the events.  This would involve writing a sestina.  This is ambitious.  I am jazzed!

I've finished 2 out of 61 arrangements of the Folger Dowland MS, which I'll post here pretty soon.  I'd like to get some rough recordings of at least part of one first, so you can hear what they're supposed to sound like as well.  And I've pretty much decided not to arrange the fragments in the MS, so my current ratio is a little better than 2:61.  Jazzed about all this too.

And if I ever work myself up to braving the cold after dark, I'll head out to Storvik's dance practice (to play, not to dance).  One of the guys from bardic night heads that up, and it sounds like a fun group!

So.  Meeting people in a new place, playing music - all is right with the world.  :-)

December 10, 2010

As promised - bardic night...

...was a whole lot of fun!  There were a lot more instruments than I thought there would be - 2 guitars, a bouzouki, a flute and a recorder in addition to Gertrude.  It was different from other bardic gatherings I'd been to in that there wasn't a lot of going around the circle performing for each other.  It was more of a jam session - someone would start playing something, be it a song or just a lick over some chords, and we'd all just start playing right along until it came to a close.  I think this had more to do with the people there than Atlantian bardic culture, but dude - I am not complaining!  I haven't done a whole lot of jamming on the harp, and it was crazy fun!

December 08, 2010

OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW.....

Got Gertrude back.  Am very happy about this.  Have been playing nonstop after a month of no harping.  Anyone know what that means?  That means blisters.  Yow.

I'll be going to a local bardic night that's getting started here in the barony of Storvik tomorrow night, so I'm doing this sort of awkward tight-rope dance.  Want to practice, so I remember things tomorrow.  Want to not practice to much so the blister can heal a bit and not be distracting tomorrow.  As a result, I'm practicing veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwy quiiiiiiiiiiet!

This blog seems to have become all about pain lately!  Seems in recent posts I've got 2 references to blisters, 1 reference to phantom wrist-pain and 1 reference to mooshing my thumb down on a hot stove.  I swear I'm not constantly injuring myself on my harp, really!  It's just....pain is interesting!  Ask any fighter, they'll back me up.

Anyway, here's a promise:  tomorrow I will post about bardic night, and not about pain.  Less pain, more poetry, how's that sound?