Posts Tagged by things that are awesome
A bit of musical squee!
| May 2, 2013 | Posted by annathepiper under Music |
And now, several moments of musical squee from last night!
In a move that should surprise absolutely NOBODY who pays attention to what I post for more than five minutes running, a little part of my brain demanded last night, “YOU NEED TO FIGURE OUT THE CHORDS TO VIVE L’AMOUR NOW.”
Because y’all knew this was coming, right? I mean, what with all the delighted slurping up I’ve done of chords for Great Big Sea songs, working on Le Vent songs was pretty much inevitable. I’d already futzed around a bit with “Lanlaire”, but “Vive l’amour” is pretty much the other major song of theirs that’s prone to grabbing my guitar-based attention. So it’s the easy and obvious candidate for me to play with.
So I did! And there I am last night with Ti-Jéan in my lap, and I’ve got my piccolo too to try to twiddle out the melody line and make sure the key is actually what I think it is–which, for general reference, is G. And the first moment of squee is when I’m hitting note on the piccolo and the guitar strings start echoing them back at me, in this strange, lovely resonance that sounds a lot like a wet fingertip running around a wineglass. Very, very cool.
Second moment of musical squee: realizing that the chords to the song are in fact dead simple. Dara and I like to make cracks about GBS’ “Goin’ Up” being subtitled “Four Chords No Brain”, and really, “Vive l’amour” is pretty much the exact same chords in a different order (G, C, Em, and D) with occasional bonus A minor thrown in in places. What I haven’t quite gotten down yet is the strum pattern, since I keep wanting to play GBS-style and that doesn’t work with the flow of the song. But I broke out the original studio recording, the one Bernard Simard sings lead on, and it’s easier to follow that one on guitar than it is the Symphonique version. I foresee several more spins through this as I get it down. And possibly transposing into D, or maybe capoing up a fret or two, so I can get it into a better range for me to sing. 
Third moment of musical squee: realizing that in the huge pile of sheet music transcriptions of various Quebec tunes I’ve slurped down from a couple of places, I do in fact have the reel that serves as the outro for this song! “Reel à Ti-Zoune”! WOO! Much fun to be had there as well!
And the final moment of musical squee for the evening was in fact unrelated to any of the above, but it’s also goddamned awesome so I’ve gotta squeal about it here too. Dara came downstairs with the mandolin last night and plucked out for me, I kid you not, a swing arrangement of “Road to Lisdoonvarna”. Y’know, the most basic of basic jigs in the Irish tune repertoire. She’s got a PROJECT in mind for this. And she’s jazzing this tune the hell up. She played it for me and I instantly had the swing band sound she’s envisioning pop into my head, complete with a full rocking horn section. I wanted to be able to play trumpet JUST so I could actually play that lovely thing myself. I cannot WAIT to see how her project progresses. Because this, ladies and gentlemen, is how Dara rolls.
Look what I got! :)
| April 29, 2013 | Posted by annathepiper under GBS, Photos |
Y’all remember my and Dara’s friends 
maellenklethsiestabear
SIGNED BY THE B’YS THEMSELVES.
Alert persons may note that this is actually the exact shirt I just bought at the Seattle show this past March. But that’s QUITE OKAY. Because seriously, if you’re handed a shirt signed by the members of Great Big Sea, I am here to tell you that the LAST thing you want to do is wash it. Because it would make the signatures sad. And we can’t have that, now can we? So my belovedest of Daras informs me that there are in fact frames for T-shirts. I will be acquiring this t-shirt one. And in the meantime, please behold the T-shirt signature goodness!
THANK YOU maellenklethsiestabear
I’d just like to take this opportunity to say SQUEE
| April 26, 2013 | Posted by annathepiper under Comics |
I squeed about this on the social networks yesterday, but for those of you who may have missed it, Richard and Wendy Pini released the news that Dark Horse is going to be picking up publishing Elfquest! They linked up to this story on Comics Beat that has pertinent details!
Dark Horse is going to re-publish older material as well as start putting out the new stuff as well–the prologue bit that was recently serialized on Boing Boing, AND the new actual main story, “The Final Quest”, once it starts in earnest! And there will be print and digital releases!
This news fills with me HAPPY. And soon my iPad will be filled with ELFQUEST.
Because yeah, I have all the previously released print material, but I’ll adore having it in digital form as well. I know it’s been available to read for free for ages on elfquest.com (which is AWESOME), but that depends upon having a live Internet connection. And I do love the idea of having omics to read right on my iPad!
Plus: DARK HORSE! Who’ve been the main place I’ve been buying comics from at all, what with their excellent Buffy season 8 and season 9 series, as well as the stories they’ve done for the Firefly universe. They should be an excellent home for Elfquest and I am looking very much forward to giving them more of my money. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: my own treatment of elf characters can trace the majority of its lineage right back to the Wolfriders and the Sun Folk, and I am over the moon that Elfquest is coming back to us again.
I… wait… WHAT?
| April 18, 2013 | Posted by annathepiper under Valor of the Healer |
Um, Internets? I just found a thing checking my Google Alerts. Somebody check me here. I’m not seeing things, right?
I’m not seeing MY BOOK mentioned in an article on usatoday.com?!
Because it sure as hell looks like I’m getting mentioned. Down at the bottom, in an article predominantly about shapeshifter paranormal romance, BUT STILL.
I… wha… um. I think I need to sit down.
*sits down*
ETA: Because seriously, people, this isn’t even COMPUTING in my head! I’m all “wait wait WHAT? People who AREN’T ME, and who DO NOT ALREADY KNOW ME, are aware that this book now exists? As an actual THING that can be bought and read? And they’re POSTING about it? On a site that people outside of fandom might actually browse?”
With a side helping of “wait wait wait I’m the ‘fantasy’ after-dinner mint in an article otherwise all about paranormal romance?!”
This is what just happened to my head, Internets:
GIR’s Head Explodes
A Great Big Pile of Great Big Sea!
| February 15, 2013 | Posted by annathepiper under GBS, Music |
Great Big Sea’s Facebook account announced this morning that the the CBC Radio 3 account on YouTube posted a whole MESS of videos from a concert this past November in Ontario.
Really. GOOD. Videos. Like this one of “River Driver”. Jesus Jumping CHRIST on a pogo stick, the bass on Murray in this. +50 to the sound engineers who worked this show, because I have never swooned so hard at the harmony mix on this song.
And there’s MORE OH MY GOD MORE. Enough that I must really hope that this is potential future DVD footage, because I would buy the HELL out of this.
- Ordinary Day
- Heart of Hearts
- When I’m Up
- Good People
- Sea of No Cares
- The Old Black Rum
- Consequence Free
- Run Run Away
- Excursion Around the Bay
It’s an entire MINI-CONCERT! Enjoy this, if you’re starting the three-day weekend here in the States!
And now, nerd humor!
| February 9, 2013 | Posted by annathepiper under The Internet |
If you have access to a command shell on your computer and you have the traceroute command available, type this, for lo, there are lols to be found. No other hints shall be given!
traceroute 216.81.59.173
(For those of you who don’t know what traceroute is, it’s a command that shows you all the hops necessary to go from your computer to the computer you’re trying to get the route to. It shows the names and IP addresses of intervening hosts.)
If you don’t have immediate access to a command line, click over to rmd
And now, how to make cake vodka milkshakes!
| January 31, 2013 | Posted by annathepiper under About Me |
I got asked about this on Facebook, but thought I would post it here for the edification and satisfaction of all! If you’ve heard me speak of the wonders of cake vodka milkshakes and you’d like to try them for yourself, this is what you need to do!
You will need:
- A bottle of Three Olives brand ‘cake’ vodka. Three Olives is a brand with several different flavors, and the ‘cake’ flavor is decorated with birthday-style balloons and streamers. (It tastes like somebody took cupcakes and made them into alcohol. It is delicious ALL BY ITSELF. But stick with me, my story gets better!)
- A good brand of vanilla ice cream. The Murkworks recommends Alden’s Organic vanilla, but if you have other vanilla ice creams of which you are fond, by all means, use those!
- Optional, if you want a chocolate milkshake instead of a vanilla one: your preferred brand of chocolate syrup. We’re using just plain ol’ Hershey’s chocolate syrup.
- Milk. We favor 1% at the Murkworks, but use whatever milk you prefer!
How much to use of each thing:
- 2-3 scoops of ice cream
- 2-3 tablespoons of the syrup, to taste
- 1-2 shots of the vodka
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup of milk, to taste
Toss it all in a blender and mix thoroughly. Experiment as needed to get desired consistency.
Drink and enjoy!
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