Drummer's Corner of the World

I've changed my reservation so I arrive Friday instead of Thursday for OVFF. I had the opportunity to pick up a volunteer shift at the zoo on Thursday evening, plus it will save me one night of points for the hotel.

I'm planning to leave Indy fairly early on Friday, as soon as the petsitter arrives so I can give her a key and introduce her to the crew, so I'll hopefully see y'all by early afternoon!

So... fast catching-up stuff... last weekend at StrowlerFest was absolutely fabulous. It was a joy to get to hear DreamTrybe again, as well as Sooj and Ginger and Bekah and Betsy and Alec in various combinations (GB Mojo, Tricky Pixie, Travelling Fates) and Heather and Ben. I really need to post something more coherent about this before I forget what all happened, but that will be a post for another day.

Today was full of entertaining music of another sort... our local Unitarian church hosted "HUUsier PalUUza"... basically, an all-day gathering and tent revival, UU style. During the afternoon, there was an open mic session hosted by Barry, and I (conveniently) had stuck my guitar in the truck at the last minute, so I did "Dumb Dumb Dorothy," "Archetype Cafe" and "Thirteen," all of which got good responses. Even had folks singing along on "Dumb Dumb Dorothy," which was fun. There was also a drum circle, which I didn't actually make it too, so my poor djembe spent the entire day in the bag and never got to come out and play.

After a break for dinner, we had the main event of the evening, anchored by the "OMG Gospel Choir," made up of members of all the local UU churches and a few folks from out of town and even out of state. I hadn't made it to any rehearsals, so I wasn't going to sing, but wound up drafted to play tambourine. Lots of fun... good music (including two sets by the visiting Meg Barnhouse and Kiya Heartwood, who were wonderful!), good energy and even a bit of brief but inspiring preaching. (I'll admit, having grown up Southern Baptist, that the whole tent revival thing isn't usually my scene, but this was fun. Kinda nice to have a tent revival with _no_ hellfire and brimstone. :-P)

Tomorrow, Meg and Kiya are doing the morning service at UUI... I've set my alarm clock... we'll see if I can drag myself out and back into town for the morning. Then I spend the rest of the day cleaning house and getting ready for guests... Sooj and K will be in town for a concert on Wednesday (Wednesday night, 8 pm at UUI! W00t!) and I've been forced to admit that the Housecleaning Fairy isn't going to put in an appearance between now and then, so I'm going to be forced to do it myself.

That's it for news from my world... I hope y'all are having a fabulous weekend!

Stream of consciouness random updates from my life...

Finally losing weight! Woohoo! No special diet... just good old-fashioned calorie-counting. I'm down 22 pounds as of today, and am officially retiring the jeans which are now too large to even keep on with a belt. Thankfully, the formerly too-small jeans fit again, so I can go down another size before I'm forced to go shopping. Ultimate goal? Getting to where my knees and ankles don't complain when I stand for a couple of hours at a Wild Mercy gig, and getting back off blood pressure meds.

Fiddler just ran off with the WiiMote. Silly cat.

Worked security for IndyFurCon w/ the Dorsai a couple of weekends ago, which was lots of fun. Have a compilation video that I'm putting together and will post eventually. There's a post building in my brain about that weekend, but I'm not coherent enough to string it all together right now.

Also... oh dear gods what was Apple thinking? iMovie used to be so easy to use and now it's an absolute nightmare, and I hate to put the entire Final Cut suite on my laptop just for this one little editing job. Grrrr... may have to finish editing that at work.

Wild Mercy is working on new stuff, which is always fun, in preparation for a joint concert with Il Troubadore. More about that once we have details worked out. Also, I'm working on new solo stuff, which means I'm playing way more guitar than usual, which mostly just makes me realize that I desperately need to find the time and money to take some guitar lessons.

Like I need more things to fill my copious "spare" time, I have a volunteer introduction meeting at the Indianapolis Zoo on Thursday night. I love our zoo... I've loved it ever since I moved here... and I'm looking forward to seeing what volunteer opportunities might work out. They want a fairly firm time commitment, which I can understand, but I'll have to see how that works into my Wild Mercy and con-going schedules!

This weekend I got bored w/ my hair (it was in that "I need to color the roots or re-color the whole mess" stage) and changed colors. I still have stripes, but this time they're bright pink instead of blond. It should be fun to see people's reactions to the change. :-)

The combination of all the recent work on the yard/sidewalk plus my forgetting that the car insurance and home warranty policies were all due in July (oops) means that I'm very short on cash right now. As a result, my going anywhere is very limited except for a couple of things that I've already paid for. Upcoming events... StrowlerFest in St. Louis, OVFF and WindyCon. if anybody is planning on going to StrowlerFest or WindyCon and wants to split the cost of a room, I've got space if you don't mind rooming with Drummer. :-) Which reminds me... I haven't booked a room for OVFF yet. I should do that.

And on that note... I already asked this over on Facebook, but I'll ask again here... who's going to StrowlerFest? Hopefully I'll see some of y'all there!

And now I must sleep. Tomorrow, work.... and entertaining reactions to fuschia-striped hair. Whee!

From exapno, most recently...

Instructions:
* Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
* List five songs that start with that letter.
* Post them to your journal with these instructions.

She gave me "M" and now I'm tasked with narrowing down 317 songs starting w/ "M" in my iTunes to just one list of five (well, okay, two lists)...

Songs by People I Know...
Magnus Retail (Mary Crowell)
Mask (Ginger Doss)
Medusa (Heather Dale)
Modern Mystic (Seanan McGuire)
Monster in my Head (Michael Longcor)

Songs by People I Don't Know...
Mad World (Gary Jules version from Donnie Darko)
Make Believe Town (Peter, Paul & Mary)
Mandelbrot Set (Jonathan Coulton)
Miss You So Badly (Jimmy Buffett)
Mother, I Climbed (Tracy Grammer)

Since people keep asking and I keep forgetting to post... here's where I'll be for the next few months...

Duckon... I'll miss Friday and am hoping to arrive in time for the Lady Mondegreen concert (if lucky, even in time for the Dandelion Wine concert!) on Saturday. Not sure when I'm leaving. Probably before the Dead Dog on Sunday... possibly after open filk on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

InConJunction... Wild Mercy is (are?) the Filk GOH(s) for InCon over 4th of July weekend. There will be a concert, and a drum workshop, and lots of open filking.

WindyCon... I'll be at Windy this year to see Tricky Pixie, making this the first year I've managed to hit the three main Chicago cons all in the same year. Thank the powers-that-be for a new paid-time-off policy at work that effectively gives me more vacation days than in the past. :-) Membership is bought and room reservation made, so I'll be there all weekend.

Since the FilKONtario website has announced it, I can squee here now... Wild Mercy is thrilled to announce that we'll be the Guests of Honor at FilKONtario 21, April 1-3, 2011! We'll be joined by Interfilk guest Ghost of a Rose, from Houston, TX, and Filk Waif Karen Linsley.

I'm insanely excited about this! Not only do we get to go spend a weekend making music with friends in Toronto, but we'll be there for April Fool's Day. I wonder how much silliness that will cause?? :-)

Squeeeee!!

Are we there yet??

Wow... just realized I haven't posted here in ages. I'm not dead, or giving up on LJ... I've just been swamped with work and foster dog and cons and stuff and the time to make actual coherent posts here has fallen by the wayside. The quicker bite-sized updates on Facebook and Twitter have been about the best I could manage, though there's a post on fostering in general and my current foster dog in particular germinating in my brain. Maybe I'll actually even post it... eventually.

For now, I'm finishing paperwork that's due to my boss in the morning. Eek!

So... at some point during Capricon weekend, I have a set in the Capricon Cafe. (I'll probably be in the Cafe all weekend, doing my usually run-sound-and-record gig, so come hang out and hear some great music!)

My dilemma is what to put in my set. Right now, I have four songs planned... if you're planning to be there, feel free to suggest additions!

At the moment, I'm planning Archetype Cafe, two new songs of cadhla's, and Hallelujah. If sweetmusic_27 will join me, I'll probably add Deadly Dance and maybe Gentle Arms of Eden.

Any suggestions?

I keep contemplating my checking account and contemplating Windycon and I've been forced to the realization that it's just not gonna happen this year. *sigh*

I am currently planning to make all three Chicago cons in 2010, starting w/ Capricon in February, so I'll see a bunch of y'all there!

Home... fuzzy (critters happy to see me)... sleepy... kinda out of words.