Monday miscellany - 26Mar2018

This past week, DH and I saw Alice Cooper in concert. He puts on a great show, and it was especially neat that it was his 42nd anniversary with his wife, who was one of the characters in the theatrics, and he made mention of that at the end.

What I've been reading... I'm on page 308 of 761 in Chesterton's Father Brown stories, and still quite enjoying them.

What I've been crafting... I didn't stitch very much this past week, so I'm still working on the tree in the shepherd boy panel, but I'm really hoping to finish this week.

Fumbling toward fitness... I made it by Curves all 5 weekdays for the second week in a row. It does seem that planning to go every day is working out for me. I also treadmilled for 8.14 miles, which was a bit short of my goal, but considering I didn't treadmill at all the day of the concert, I wasn't really a slacker there. Lumosity and Duolingo streaks are still maintained as well.

One Little Victory I reached my 700th workout at Curves! I'd set a goal of reaching that milestone before Easter, and got there a week early. Next goal is #800 by the end of the calendar year...

Another year older and hopefully wiser...

Another birthday has passed for me, and life has been both busy and productive since my last post at the beginning of the year...

I've completed two needlework projects. The first is Victoria Sampler's "Heirloom Christmas Sampler". I changed out the poem for Merry Christmas in several languages and am rather happy with the result:

(Click for larger picture)
This was also #36 off my 101List.

The other is a crochet afghan, which i just finished half an hour ago. The pattern is Leisure Arts "Autumn Leaves", but I chose my own colors:

(Click for larger picture)

In other news, I've seen two concerts in the meantime.
- Flogging Molly at the House of Blues in Orlando on 11 February, which was a birthday present from DsD. We had a blast!
- Great Big Sea at the newly-opened Ponte Vedra Concert Hall near Jacksonville on 13 February. I'd been wanting to see GBS live for quite a while (and indeed, it was #91 on my 101List!) so it was a treat. The concert was even better than I expected - they are wonderful to see live. The last piece they did for the evening was done completely unplugged - no mics, no instruments, no wires...just voices. And oh was it lovely! Not something you can pull off in a large venue.

Well that's all from Alternate Dementia today!

Cool link...

Stumbled upon this today, a gentleman playing a medley of 80's hits....ragtime.
Some people are rather talented!

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Just too cool not to link. Enjoy.

Lyrics potpourri

Since everyone seems to have such fun with these, here's another 10 random first lines off my iPod. Name the song and artist in the comments, and see your name in bold lights on my blog!

1. Yeah, I'm sittin' on this bar stool talkin' like a d**n fool -Styx, "Too Much Time On My Hands" (Jenn L)
   
2. I took off for a weekend last month just to try and recall the whole year - Jimmy Buffett, "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" (Jeri)
   
3. We got somethin' we both know it we don't talk too much about it - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "Refugee" (Kay)
   
4. It's 9:00 on a Saturday, the regular crowd shuffles in -Billy Joel, "Piano Man" (Jenn L, Rachel)
   
5. Ships may come and ships may go as long as the sea does roll - Great Big Sea, "Jolly Roving Tar" (Polimex)
   
6. Where would you rather be? Anywhere, anywhere but here
   
7. [song title] don't want to lock me up inside
   
8. Backstroke lover always hidin' 'neath the covers - Aerosmith, "Walk This Way" (Jenn L)
   
9. They see me mowin' my front lawn - Weird Al, "White & Nerdy" (Rachel)
   
10. Your cruel device, your blood like ice - Alice Cooper, "Poison" (Kate, Jenn L)
    

Revisiting the iPod shuffle

About a week ago, I posted lyrics meme, and my sharp-eyed (eared?) readers correctly guessed 80% of them.

That still leaves six, reprinted here:
9. I turn my back to the wind to catch my breath before I start off again
10. Ignore reality there's nothing you can do about it
18. Well come gather all around me, there is something you should know
23. You don't remember me but I remember you (Karen guessed "Tears on My Pillow" which *does* have this same first line but isn't the song. Guess I need to add the second line: "I lie awake and try so hard not to think of you")
26. Dark in the city, night is a wire, steam in the subway, earth is a fire - Duran Duran, "Hungry Like the Wolf" (Karen)
27. And she was lying in grass and she could hear the highway breathing - Talking Heads, "And She Was" (also Karen)

And just a couple more to keep it interesting..

31. It ain't the way you move, it ain't the way that you move me, oh no
32. Well I remember every little thing as if it happened only yesterday - Meat Loaf, "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" (Karen)
33. Don't cry to me - if you loved me you would be here with me - Evanescence, "Call Me When You're Sober" (Karen)
34. I used to be such a sweet sweet thing til they got ahold of me - Alice Cooper, "No More Mr. Nice Guy" (The Duke)
35. Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me - Smashmouth, "All Star" (Lisa)
36. Must it take a life for hateful eyes to glisten once again? - Flogging Molly, "Drunken Lullabies" (Arsena)
37. I never really knew that she could dance like this - Shakira, "Hips Don't Lie" (DD)
38. Let me take you to the movie, can i take you to the show? - Led Zeppelin, "Houses of the Holy" (Karen)
39. Oh. My. God. Becky, just look at ... - Sir Mix-a-lot, "Baby Got Back" (The Duke)
40. Well I'm ever upper class high society - AC/DC, "Big Balls" (The Duke)

(And yes, these are all on my iPod. I did have to skip a few songs this go to avoid songs already guessed...the randomize feature isn't as random as I would like sometimes.)

Doin' the iPod shuffle!

Don't get too excited, it's just a meme. But I saw it on Valerie's blog and thought it looked cool, so here you have it.
Step 1: Put your iPod or whatever on random.
Step 2: Post the 1st line from the first 30 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song. And it doesn't have to be perfect if you can't understand the lyrics word for word.
Step 3: Let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Bold the songs when someone guesses correctly.
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!

1. Just like the white-winged dove sings a song, sounds like she's singing "ooh ooh ooh" - Stevie Nicks, "Edge of Seventeen" (DH)
   
2. She came down from Cincinnati, it took her three days on the train - Jimmy Buffett, "Fins" (Margaret)
   
3. He's got a roadmap of Jupiter, radar fix on the stars all along the highway - Rush, "Dreamline" (Gonna give DH credit since he could name the album)
   
4. When I was a lad in a fishin' town, me old man said to me "You can spend your life your jolly life just sailin' on the sea" - Great Big Sea, "The Mermaid" (DH)
   
5. You say yes, I say no. You say stop and I say go go go - Beatles, "Hello Goodbye" (Jacqui)
   
6. Someone told me long ago there's a calm before the storm - Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" (Darla)
   
7. Alright, I've got something to say. It's better to burn out than to fade away - Def Leppard, "Rock of Ages" (DH)
   
8. My sister got lucky, married a yuppie, took him for all he was worth. - Tom Petty, "Yer So Bad" (DH)
   
9. Turn my back to the wind to catch my breath before i start off again
   
10. Ignore reality there's nothing you can do about it
    
11. I walk along the avenue, I never thought I'd meet a girl like you - Flock of Seagulls, "I Ran" (Kay)
    
12. Well we all have a face that we hide away forever - Billy Joel, "The Stranger" (Margaret)
    
13. The sun is a mass of incandescent gas - They Might Be Giants, "Why Does the Sun Shine?" (DH)
    
14. Welcome to the grand illusion, come on in and see what's happ'nin - Styx, "Grand Illusion" (DH)
    
15. I get up in the evening, and I ain't got nothing to say - Bruce Springsteen, "Dancing in the Dark" (Kay)
    
16. You know I can be found sittin' all alone - Elvis, "Don't Be Cruel"
    
17. All day, staring at the ceiling making friends with shadows on my wall - Matchbox 20, "Unwell" (Chiasmata)
    
18. Well come gather all around me There is something you should know
    
19. She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean - AC/DC, "You Shook Me All Night Long" (Claire)
    
20. Well I've been waiting, waiting here so long - Genesis, "Invisible Touch" (one of DD's favorite songs)
    
21. I catch the paperboy, but things don't really change - David Bowie, "Modern Love" (DH)
    
22. Look at this photograph, every time I do it makes me laugh - Nickelback, "Photograph" (Margaret)
    
23. You don't remember me but I remember you
    
24. The queen of light took her bow and then she turned to go - Led Zeppelin, "Battle of Evermore" (Polimex)
    
25. There's something wrong with the world today, I don't know what it is - Aerosmith, "Living on the Edge" (Sara)
    
26. Dark in the city, night is a wire, steam in the subway, earth is a fire
    
27. And she was lying in grass and she could hear the highway breathing
    
28. Well I'm gonna raise a fuss, yes I'm gonna raise a holler - "Summertime Blues" (Darla) - Rush did the particular cover I have on my iPod.
    
29. He was born a sailor's son, Nothing came easy or free - Great Big Sea, "Lucky Me" (DH)
    
30. Midnight, gettin' uptight, where are you? You said you'd meet me now it's quarter to two. - Joan Jett, "I Hate Myself for Loving You" (Polimex)
    

This is only a subset of the iPod - I have a lot of classical and choral stuff on my iPod so I've restricted it to my car playlist (which is rather eclectic as it is). I also skipped over a few where the title was in the first line (for example "You ain't nothing but a hound dog").

Anyway, have fun.

Seasons change and so do I...

About two weeks ago, I got a rather unexpected request. Vikki Clayton of Hand-Dyed Fibers asked me if I would come up with a design using her overdyed silks. Basic constraint was 5-10 colors, using less than half a yard per color when stitched using one strand over two threads, so she could develop sample tag sets for them.

I was honored, to say the least. This opportunity would give Tor Rhuann Designs more exposure, which was both exciting and a bit scary! But a flash of inspiration and a LOT of deliberation over color choices later, I'm proud to present Four Seasons:

Colorway 1

Colorway 2

It was very hard to settle on colors, because there are so many lovely ones to choose from, but I managed to limit (ha!) myself to only stitching it twice. Vikki will have tag sets available for these two colorways at Hand-Dyed Fibers.
As for my models, I see a biscornu in my near future!

Also in my near future are two new ventures for me!

I'm starting to take voice lessons (my first one is tomorrow!). I've been singing in my church choir for about a year now, but I could use a bit of help with technique and just overall comfort with my voice. Hopefully lessons will help.

I'll also be trying my hand at DungeonMastering for the first time. I've been a tabletop RPGer for about 20 years, but have never been a gamemaster. I'm the only adult in my group who's never done so. DH got a DragonLance book from DD for Christmas and started thinking about a DragonLance campaign, since there's a popular sequence of modules based on the original Dragonlance series. He's already running a Birthright campaign at present, so I decided that maybe it was time I gave DMing a go. I probably won't be ready to actually start for a few weeks yet, but I'm excited about this.

Wish me luck!

Podcastaway

Or, Why I spent days ripping CDs onto my iPod but never listen to them

I really love my new iPod, and I've loaded quite a number of my CDs onto it. Yet while I use my iPod for hours a day, it's been almost a week since I've listened to any of my CDs. Why is this, you ask? Because I have discovered an insidious and yet so tempting diversion...

The Podcast.

It started because I heard that one of my favorite bands, Newfoundland's Great Big Sea, has a podcast. So I subscribed to their podcast, and have enjoyed all four episodes they have so far.
While searching for related podcasts, I discovered the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast, which is another good one. Its host, Marc Gunn, has several others, two of which I've ended up subscribing to:

Pub Songs Podcast I enjoy pub songs, and this has given me a chance to hear some of the traditional ones that I hadn't yet experienced.

Renaissance Festival Music Podcast There are no RenFests near me, but I've enjoyed them in the past and the music was always neat. This podcast is quickly becoming my favorite - a mix of styles and songs, from the traditional to the bawdy.
Just between the above three, I've got over 100 podcasts to listen to. My CDs may have to wait!

What about you, dear readers? If you listen to podcasts, what are some of your favorites?

Late-night torture...

DD came into my room around 2 a.m. this morning asking for a glass of water, and as I lay there trying to go back to sleep, my brain was tortured by the most insidious headsticker of all time...."Copacabana"

I wonder into which circle of Hell Dante would have placed marketing folks who gleefully insert such evil into popular variety party CDs. What is "Copacabana" doing on a Luau CD anyway??

I did manage to escape my torture this morning with "Margaritaville". God bless Jimmy Buffett.

Guilty holiday pleasures...

I've always enjoyed parodies and comedic songs, starting with Weird Al Yankovic in junior high (I about lost it the first time I heard "Eat It"), and in college I was exposed to Dr. Demento - great stuff! So one year while I was out Christmas shopping and saw his Christmas CD, I just *had* to get it.

From classic pieces like Stan Freberg's "Green Chri$tma$" and Spike Jones "All I Want For Christmas is my Two Front Teeth", to newer ones like "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" and Weird Al's "Christmas At Ground Zero", the album was hilarious, and a great stress reliever to boot. Sometime after that I heard about Bob Rivers Twisted Christmas album. For several years, those two albums would get a decent amount of play every holiday season...sometimes you just have to laugh at the absurdity of the commercialism and hassle of the season.

A couple years ago, I discovered that Bob Rivers had multiple Christmas albums out, so I picked them up. It's amazing what a mind can do under holiday stress. There are, as with any album, some songs I don't care all that much for, but there are others that are absolute screams. "Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire", off the album of that name, is practically a must hear for anyone who is heartily sick of repeated bombardment of the Chipmunk Christmas Song, and "Who Put the Stump?", while a bit rude, is a great sendup of the joke of how the angel got on top of the tree.

The album I'm currently listening to is I Am Santa Claus. The title song is set to Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" - it opens with a voice growing "I...am....Santa Claus!". Another one I like is "O Little Town of Bethlehem", which has the original hymn lyrics, but sung to "The House of the Rising Sun". On amazon, you can listen to clips from any of the above albums, if you're interested.

That's not to say I listen to nothing but comedy albums at Christmas - far from it. Our Christmas repertoire includes an extensive collection of classical pieces, including Handel's Messiah, traditional hymns (both sung and instrumental), medieval/renaissance, as well as more modern Christmas songs such as David Bowie's "Little Drummer Boy". Lots of beautiful music to choose from.

But sometimes you just have to laugh and not take things so seriously. Especially in the frenetic holiday preparation season...