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You are viewing the most recent 10 entries January 29th, 201409:09 pm: Pete Seeger, an Appreciation
I woke up yesterday morning, flipped on WBUR (one of the local NPR news stations) as I normally do, and the first story was that Pete Seeger had died. His music has been with me for as long as I can remember. This evening I got lost on YouTube for a while roaming through clips of his performances. I don't throw around terms like 'role model' and 'hero' lightly, but Pete falls into both of those categories. I see his influence in a lot of what I do. Fight for what you think is right, even when the chances of succeeding look small. Keep music in your life. Music is for making, not just for listening. I grew up in a home where there was almost always music playing. The sound track to my childhood was classical music, the folk revival, and Broadway show tunes. The first time I saw Pete Seeger perform in person I was about 7. He gave a concert in the community center of the housing complex we lived in. My memories that far back are pretty spotty. I don't remember much about the music, but I remember the space and I remember being completely amazed. Around the same time Seeger was doing a show on the local public television station, WNET, where he, along with some other performers, taught how to read music and how to play the recorder, banjo, guitar, and autoharp. I couldn't convince my parents to buy me an autoharp, but I did convince them to get me the music book that went with the show and learn the recorder. Learning the recorder had been in the cards anyway, my Dad plays the recorder, but up to that point my parents had been saying wait until you are a little older. A few years ago, Seeger talked about the show during an interview and mentioned that he had paid most of the production costs himself. Skip forward many years, in 1992 I was doing pre-registration for the first Conterpoint filk convention and my home address was the mailing address for the convention. The day after the deadline for the songbook, I come home and find, in the day's mail, a large flat envelope addressed to Conterpoint with Pete Seeger on the return address label. I looked at it again to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing, then I opened it. In the envelope was a submission for the songbook, a political song, "The Ross Perot Guide to Answering Embarrassing Questions" with words by Calvin Trillin and music by Pete Seeger. The reaction when I called the songbook editor to ask him if he could make room for a late submission from Pete Seeger was priceless. I knew Pete was aware of filk, because there were places where he mentioned it, but I never expected him to send us a song. Over the years, I saw Pete perform in person a number of times, both alone and with others (he always seem to be at his best when making music with others), and spent a lot of time listening to his recordings. I'm particularly fond of Pete Seeger at Carnegie Hall, Carry in On (Songs of America's Working People (with Si Kahn and Jane Sapp), and Precious Friend (with Arlo Guthrie). They are still what I often turn to when I'm looking for something to help me relax when life is getting stressful. His voice will be missed, but it will also carry on. Tags: music, pete seeger
December 17th, 201201:49 pm: My I-Pod has a sense of humor
Both the original cast album for Fiddler on the Roof and A Shoggoth on the Roof are on my I-Pod. In shuffle mode, it is regularly giving me back-to-back pairings of one track from each soundtrack. Current Mood:  amused Current Music: Should be obvious December 13th, 201208:26 pm: Really, did they think I'd fall for this ...
Last night I got a phone call: Voice: Do you have a [wireless carrier] phone? Me: Yes.[I figure that's safe to answer, it's public record who services a number and since they called, they should be able to figure out what number theycalled. I you know my number, you can look it up too.] Voice: The [wireless-carrier] store calls up your number phone when I give them my social security number. They have the wrong number for you. Me: Say that again. Voice: [Repeats her story] Me: I'll call [wireless-carrier] and have them fix it if something is wrong Voice: I'm upset, you're using my social security number Me: I'll call [wireless-carrier] and have them fix it if something is wrong Voice: The [wireless-carrier] has your phone on my social. Me: I'll call [wireless-carrier] and have them fix it if something is wrong Voice: Who are you? Me: I'll call customer service and fix the problem if there is one. Voice: I'm in Missouri, where are you? [At least, the location actually matches the area code on the caller ID. I've seen cases where they can't even get that right -- though it this day and age or portable phone numbers there is less mapping between area code and location.] Me: I'll call customer service and fix the problem if there is one. Voice (sounding more desperate): Where are you? Me: I don't know you and I'm not going to tell you that? Voice: I don't know you either. Me: I'll call customer service and fix the problem if there is one. Voice: this needs to get fixed Me: I'll call customer service and get this fixed. Voice: where are you? Me: I'll call customer service and get this fixed. Voice: Well okay. Me: I'll have [wireless carrier] fix the problem. Voice: Well okay. You better do that. [She hangs up] Can you say identiy theft, as in an attempt to commit it. This call came in at 2:02am. Really, who calls a stranger at 2 am hoping to get a real resolution to a problem. I suspect part of the play here is to wake people up and catch them when they aren't thinking straight so they are more likely to cough up their SSN and contact information. Tags: phishing, scammers
July 15th, 201209:10 pm: Conquering the garden
Or at least pretending to.
Most years it is the baby maple trees that are the bane of my existence. This year it is baby oak trees. It clearly wasn't cold enough this winter and the squirrels left too many acorns to sprout. Baby oak trees are everywhere in the yard -- and they are harder to pull out than the maples.
Also today I:
Separated the rhododendron from a vine.
Separated my shed from a tree.
Separated a wild rose bush from my shed.
Separated a wild rose bush from my shed. (Yes, again. Why was there five foot long tendril flowering *inside* the shed?)
Separated a wild rose bush from a fancy rose bush.
Separated a wild rose bush from the air conditioner
Separated a wild rose bush from the house
Separated a wild rose bush from the irises.
Leaving the next big task: Separating the rhododendron from the holly and a wild rose bush from both the holly and the rhododendron.
I seem to be falling into a rut here.
Current Mood:  productive Current Music: Little Shop of Horrors Soundtrack July 2nd, 201204:47 pm: Home from ConCertino
I've been home from ConCertino for a couple of hours. The cats have settled down and stopped bothering me about being away. The car is mostly unpacked. (We won't say anything about large piles of stuff in the kitchen, maybe my housemates won't notice.) I had a great time! Thank you to every for coming. Thank you to everyone on the concomm and everyone else who gave of their time to make this happen. It was a blast. We should do this again sometime. Current Mood:  exhausted , filk
May 10th, 201205:45 pm: Hunger Games
I just finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy. I am not sure I can really use "like" for the way I feel about these books. The subject matter is really too horrifying for liking. I feel the same way about the movie Gattaca. tI am definitely glad that I read the books. Though the books are not without their flaws, I would definitely recommend them. I don't think I'm going to go see the movie though. Nothing Hollywood can bring to the screen can come anything close to the pictures in my head. Current Mood:  contemplative March 9th, 201111:53 pm: Census Meme
Oh, what the hell, I haven't posted in a while March 2011 - Living in Arlington, Massachusetts in the house I own (well, with the bank) with 3 cats and my long-time housemates: Mary Anne, Steve, and their daughter. March 2001 - Living in Arlington, Massachusetts in the house I own (well, with the bank) with 3 cats, and my long-time housemates: Mary Anne, Steve, and their daughter. (Hmm, this seems familiar) March 1991 - Living in a rental apartment in Boston with 3 cats (but different cats than the ones I'm living with now) and my long-time housemates: Mary Anne and Steve (no daughter in the picture yet) March 1981 - Living in the dorm at MIT. March 1971 - Living with my parents. March 1961 - Hanging out in my mother's uterus. Tags: meme
April 16th, 201011:35 pm: FilkONtario Con Report
As usual, I had a great time at FKO. This is my favorite con of the year. As usual, I had to spend part of the weekend dealing with stuff for work. One of these years I won't have work work or homework to do during FKO, but this year wasn't the year. At least I got to listen to great music while I worked, since I dealt with the work project while hiding in the back of the room during the late-night circles. Speaking of late night circles, my one disappointment was that the Saturday night filk died about about 3:45 am. Whatever happened to filking all night? Favorite line of the weekend: "I have three degrees, not one of them in common sense" (Erica Neely) A few other high points of the weekend: -- The Bohnhoff's concert. As always, they put on an excellent show. I've seen them perform Knights in White Satin a number of times, yet it never gets stale and think this was my favorite performance yet. And when their daughter Kris joined them for some of the songs, well "wow". The harmonies and the vocal fit were great. It was also fun to watch Kris's face when she wasn't performing because she seemed to be so thoroughly enjoying the show her parents were putting on. I've been listening to their new CD at work all week. -- The From Earth to the Moon presentation. I saw this when it was presented at Anticipation, but it was just as much of a "wow" the second time around. -- Hearing Mark Simmons for the first time -- Being vamped by Marty Gear during the Interfilk auction (anybody have pictures of that) -- Getting to see all my friends from the Toronto area, including my college friend and his family who have now come to FKO for the 3rd year in a row. -- Getting to know some people who I've seen at FKO for years, but never really had a chance to talk to before. Now I'll have even more people to look forward to seeing next year. -- The Dead Penguin filk. This "post con" party has grown from a small group of people staying over Sunday night to one of the largest events of the weekend. Tags: cons, filk, filkontario, fko
March 5th, 201001:36 am: Opera Review: Madame White Snake - Long
Sunday afternoon I went to see the Opera Madame White Snake. This performance was part of the world premiere run of the opera, which was commissioned jointly by Opera Boston and Beijing Music Festival Arts Foundation in China. In addition to the performance itself, there also was a pre-performance academic lecture that went into both the history of the material the opera's plot was based on and the history of the the production itself, as well as a preview of some of the musical elements. After the performance, there was a Q & A session with members of the production team and cast. These sessions were excellent. ( Read the reviewCollapse )Tags: opera
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