Dene Foye

:(

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:11:21 GMT

Today I was NOT happy to receive a phonecall from my younger sister. I did NOT want to hear the words she slowly spoke I knew what they would be before I opened my phone...seeing the place the call was coming from...and knowing that it wasn't her regular number, but a work phone in Atlanta...i knew it could only be one thing.
My father has had emphazima for several years...and has been on oxygen and in a wheelchair. His lung capacity had dropped to 20% of normal. This means that respiratory illnesses are quite serious....and Dad has been a chronic pnemonia contractor all of my life. He got pnemonia several weeks ago...was in the hospital and then released to rehab to get his strength back. unfortunately over the weekend he wound up back in the hospital (ICU) with a recurrence of the Pnemonia! by Monday he was on a respirator and was being fed thru a tube because he couldn't swallow. His one remaining kidney shut down. So did the rest of his body, today, at noon eastern time.

and now i have to find the words and a melody to write him HIS song....he's been proud of my singing and playing and played recordings I've given him over the years for his friends...telling them that it was his son singing and playing, and pointed out the songs that I had also written. I have no idea what i'll come up with, but I owe it to the old man. ..and myself. Ghost of a Rose performed at open mic night at the Mucky Duck on Monday...and I sang the songs we did for him (sent word to him thru the nurses at the hospital that i was singing for him). I will miss him...I can't imagine the world without my dad. ...but then I don't think any child can...no matter how old that child is.

open mic at the Mucky Duck

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:12:53 GMT

Well, last night was monday...open mic night at the Duck... Sundara and I decided to head down to it and sing another three songs. We decided to give the audience a bit of different songs than they're used to. We started out with The Leslac Version...with Sunny starting in the audience as a surprise. I played my new (antique) Lute-guitar for that one...sounded great. we had several comments about that song. :) then we did our special arrangement of Scarborough Fair...the orginal not Simon & Garfunkel's (we do all ten verses). I played that one on my classical guitar. We finished up with Virtue which i played on my 12-string. It was fun and we plan to go there again in a few weeks. (for me it's 100 mile round trip...and about 60 miles or so roundrip for Sundara from the other direction)...probabaly middle of march because of condfw this weekend and North Texas Irish Festival the following week...both of which I'm driving to and I think that is plenty of driving for me for those two weeks.

finally...I got one!!!

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:33:50 GMT

no, not some exotic disease...an instrument that has cried out to me since the first time I saw a Robin Hood Movie (or maybe it was the TV show) Alan-a-Dale had this cool instrument that he ran around with....not flat like a guitar, but rounded, like a melon, and it sounded soft and sweet...but when i was a youngster, Lutes just weren't that common...couldn't find them anywhere (or at least the music stores in my town)

When I was in college, I decided that it was time for some formal instruction on the instrument that I had taught myself to play when i was 13, and signed up for classical guitar lessons....got an inexpensive classical guitar, and showed up for lessons. My guitar teacher had a 6 course lute (5pairs and one single) that was tune just like a guitar and she let me play it one day in my lesson...(of course one of the pieces i was trying in class) and it reminded me totally of my 12 string, but easier to push down the strings! the only thing about it that I DIDN'T like was the way that the head angled straight back..that wasn't what Alan-a-Dale played...his was a longer neck, and the head was more like a violin's ...or at least that's how I remembered it. In looking online at a site that sells renaissance instruments,
I came across pictures of an inexpensive lute (still the wrong shape) and considered gettting one to play at SCA events and other things...in scrolling down the page...THE LUTE popped out at me...it's actually a Lute-guitar, a 19thC adaptation of the Guitar. It seems that the German revival of interest in folk music had made people there want a "classicly" shaped instrument, but by then no one could play Lutes..but everyone could play guitar, so the instrument makers put a melon body on a guitar type neck, and voila, a "lute" for the gay 90's. well that's what i wanted!!!!
    i was saving my pennies and then my daughter announced she was finally getting married...as father of the bride I felt obligated to contribute to her wedding (even though they've been together for over 6 years) and the money i was going to use became earmarked for her wedding (I had just paid off my car and was going to keep putting my "car payment" in savings...well it went into "wedding fund" instead. then after I finished with my share for that, my car decided to die, and I had to get a new one, and my entire stash went for the down payment. Then in talking with a friend at FenCon, he said he had one he'd be willing to sell....but christmas was coming up, so i had to hold off (and save save save what I could each month).
    WELL to make a long story even longer...Money became available this month!! so I started talking to my friend and Friday after work I sped over to his place (97 miles west of me) to look at, play and purchase a guitar lute that his father had gotten back in the 60's. So now, thanks to fithelere (Cedric of the Bedlam Bards), I am the proud owner of an antique "Luitar" .   there is a manufacturer's stamp on the sounding board at the end that says "jul. Heinrich Zimmerman, Leipzig"   In researching this company, I discovered that they made Lute-guitars in the 1890's thru the 1920's. So my baby is at least 75 years old...possibly as much as 110!!!
   One of the interesting features of this particular Luteguitar is that it has violin type tuning pegs...and I've never tried to tune anything with that type of pegs. there were a couple of the pegs that kept slipping when i tried to tune it, but i completely restrung it when i got home and cleaned the pegs before restringing ...that plust the humidity here in the Houston area is higher than over by Austin, so they are gripping much better after only two days. :) I spent all day Saturday accustoming myself to the narrower neck and different action it has...actually am not fumbling too badly anymore! LOL.
I also was perusing my music, checking out which songs would be possible to play on it...I want to keep it for period type music..but even some of that might not be right. So far I've been quite pleased.

                               front                                      side

                          in case   back

My thanks to Cedric again, for making my childhood dream a reality.

McGonigel's Mucky Duck

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:47:31 GMT

The Mucky Duck is a great Irish Pub with a great live music program...wednesday nights is an Irish music jam session...which I watched one time and it was incredible. Monday nights is open mic night. ....Sundara and I went down there Monday to check it out...and play . I got there at 6:30 so I could be one of the first to sign up for a time to play (and then had dinner from their menu) ..music started at 8pm. We were 3rd to play...got to play 3 songs...this time we played songs from our Celtic music selections. "Grania" went over really good, as it always does. after that we did a song by Andy Stewart and Silly Wizard called "the Fisherman's Song". the music flows in such a way that you do get a feeling of the sea rolling in and out..but to emphasize it, I had gotten an instrument called a wave drum. it's the size of a tambourine, it has two plastic drumheads about 1/4 inch apart...with bb sized balls inside....as you tip it they roll across the drumhead and it sounds like waves if you do it right. Sundara played it while she sang and did pretty good...we had a guy tell us that he could hear the waves! :). We had thought that we had 15 minutes to use, but apparently they limit it to 3 songs (we had planned to do 4) Our last song was "Catherine Howard's Fate" but if we had known that we could do just three we would have skipped it and played the song we planned to end with "Virtue" ... anyway...it went well, and we probably will do it again.,.I just wish I didn't live over an hour's drive from the Pub.

Gut Yule

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 03:13:18 GMT

Well, my eldest son and his wife were expecting their first child around Thanksgiving...didn't happen...finally two weeks ago they went to a specialist and he told them that she was low in amniotic fluid and needed to have the baby within 48 hours. so they went right to the hospital and she was induced. so on December 8th, my new granddaughter Sydney Mache Foye was born in Austin. only 6lbs though! I wanted to wait until they got home to go see her...but my son asked me to wait another week. I went to visit on Saturday ..got to hold the baby and visit for a while, took them to their favorite mexican restaurant for lunch and generally had a good time, then I left to go back home so they could have time to finish getting ready for the horde descending upon them christmas eve.

My younger son and my daughter, her husband and her daughter drove to my place saturday on their way to San Marcos (the eldest's home) and we had dinner and gift exchange and singing and general visiting . they then left to continue to my eldest's where they celebrated christmas along with my Ex. so i just had a quiet christmas alone today.

My tradition for the past 10 years or more has been to read Dicken's Christmas Carol, which took an hour or so..what i find a little strange is that when i read it, I see Mr. Magoo as Ebeneezer Scrooge...and the rest of the cast of Mr. Magoo's Chritmas Carol (think i've seen it far too often...at least 30 times in the last 45 years?) . didn't watch a lot of christmas shows...but then i've seen all of the movies in my collection so often that i don't need to see them more than every couple of years. I did watch all three Santa Clause movies just because! LOL

have a great New Year everyone.

SCA

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:57:16 GMT

Nearly 30 years ago I was active in the SCA, not only as a fighter, but also in some other groups...one of which was the Cooks Guild of our Local Barony (Stargate) we would get together once a month for a feast that consisted of entrees made from ancient recipes that we had to actually translate from the old english into modern english, and then determine the quantities of everything (how much is "some"?) One can come up with some very different results using the same basic recipe, as we discovered at one meeting at which a recipe for Flaune of Almayne was prepared by me and another member of our group. Mine was like a bread pudding, whereas hers was more like a custard and they were quite different. One of the things we would do was publish the recipe as we translated it in the barony newsletter to have published proof of our work (there were different levels in the guild once you'd published certain numbers of recipes...I published 3) after a while the recipes were gathered together and put out is a "Cooks' Guild Cookbook".
After a couple years We dropped out of the SCA....but a couple months back I started going to SCA events again.
.
.....flash foreward to last weekend. On saturday night I was at the Autumn Melees & Crown Tourney ,,,some friends of mine and I were visiting different people they knew, and we stopped at this one guy's tent and he was serving up some foods he'd been making...one of which he told us was a Flaune of Almayne, which brought back the memory of my cooks guild days. I told him the previously mentioned story and he looked at me with astonishment...and asked my SCA name (Fearghas MacRob) which I told him...he burst out "I used your recipe!!!" seems that he was given a copy of the cookbook by one of the other member of the cooks guild and enjoyed making the recipes in it. He was wrong about it being my recipe...it was the other persons (much better than mine) ...But talk about life being stranger than fiction!!!

Daughters...

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 05:18:05 GMT

Thank the gods that I only have one, Tonight I gave her away...and, as usual, nothing goes according to plan.

The wedding and reception was to be held in a really nice hall at 6pm. but of course my daughter decided that she and her bridesmaids would dress in the room of the hotel she and her groom would be staying at near the airport (they fly out frist thing in the morning for their honeymoon to Aspen). this hotel is not far from the hall..but traffic has a tendency to snarl...so they didn't get to the hall on time...and when they got there, it was discovered that the DJ that was part of the package had Not Brought the Lohengrin Wedding March (nor the Mendelsson either)
My daughter panicked..went bridezilla. started crying...started yelling at her groom thru the cellphone. Luckily I had given her a cd with a song on it that i thought would make a wonderful wedding march (which she rejected because she wanted the "traditional" songs) and it was in the groom's car. we got him to get it...i gave it to the DJ...told him which track, and then went back out with the daughter who was now almost managable. the DJ started the cd ...and the bridesmaids started walking down the ailse (the song is Blackmore's Night's "Waiting Just For You" in case you're wondering) when the music does this big swell and repeats, we started off and everything was going smooth again. did the giving her away and Joined the best Man at the front (my son-in-law asked that I join them ...and i was honored)
Later the DJ played some song 4 different times and my daughter got pissed again...we stepped in and got him straightened out. Later when I asked him to play her "father-daughter" dance selection, he started it right away! (but she was out of the room...so i stopped him temporarily and he played something else while i went and got her) then he played it and we completely changed the type of music that had been played....from the current type of music 20something's listen too, to Circling Pigeons Landler. I took her out on the floor and waltzed with her...about halfway thru I remembered some of the figures from that landler and we did those steps and finished it off (I admit to being out of breath at the end...it's been 10 years since i've done german folk dancing). it was an enjoyable evening, but i'm glad to be home and done with it.

AND I'M GLAD I ONLY HAVE ONE DAUGHTER!!!!!

New Filk

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:11:54 GMT

Yesterday Sundara and I were practicing for upcoming performances and after 3 or 4 hours of practicing were getting silly. she said something about some messup being my fault, and I said yeah, that's right..blame me...and something struck a chord inside my head and i started strumming Neil Diamonds Play Me and humming...but ending on the words "Blame Me!" we both laughted...but i knew that it wouldn't end there! What I'm posting here isn't exactly what I thought I was going to wind up with, but I don't think it's too shabby.

Blame Me

Words by Dene Foye

Ttto Play me by Neil Diamond

She was moaning…And I was not there

I one day walked up to find her

Standing beside a mess, I softly said,

What’s happening?

For she’d been waiting, in need of someone else

Who did this wrong somehow

I don’t know how

it could be me.

You are the words, I am the song

You’re always right, I’m always wrong,

Blame me.

Tales she told on me, grabbing hold of me

Oh, how bold to me, Mama scolding me

Warmed my end, she’s not my friend

Is she?

You are the words, I am the song

You’re always right, I’m always wrong,

Blame me.

And so it was that I came to avoid her

Stay away and be seen away

From her every day

The only way to save me

You are the words, I am the song

You’re always right, I’m always wrong,

Blame me.

Fencon IV

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 01:07:10 GMT

Boy, it has been a wild two months since Apollocon. Nearly everything I've wanted to post in here has had to be postponed because of the performance that was given at Fencon this past weekend.
Now that I have anyone reading this wondering if I'm crazy (well, more crazy than they thought) I will start at Apollocon....Saturday night filk circle.
I sang Arlen Andrews' "Requiem: The Day SF Died" to commemorate Robert Heinlein's 100th birthday. while I was singing it, the lady sitting to my left in the circle (who I had never seen before) was reading the words over my shoulder and singing along. She had a very pleasant voice and it seemed to me to blend well with mine. During the course of the evening, several of the songs I sang were ones she knew the tune for, and she sang along on also. When the circle finally wound down, I found myself walking to the elevators with her and some other people, talking about music and stuff...and to make a long story short, I asked her if she would be interested in singing together with me in performances at the cons. ....And she said yes! a week or so later we got together and started figuring out what we could sing together that we both already knew, and even made lists of stuff we would like to work up. My goal was a concert at fencon IV... but we actually have gone to an SCA bardic event and peformed a set at a coffeehouse in Clear Lake City. The reason for keeping it secret was the song "The Leslac Version" by Misty Lackey and Leslie Fish. Sundara had the idea to "act out" the song (which is a duet between a bard and the swordswoman he is singing about ...she's correcting his exagerations) She would start singing in the audience (like a heckler) and eventually work her way up to the stage. ...but in order to do this, no one should know that she and i were singing together!!! after practicing for the two months between cons, we were ready...and the group
"Ghost of a Rose" made its debut. I had actually talked with April Porter about playing flute with me on a couple songs back before i met Sundara, and we planned our music to include those songs...and i even sent April another song that would work well with the flute (but was much better on the penny whistle she used in the concert) We did have to cut on-the-fly a couple of numbers since we had more music than time, but I felt that it went really well...and enough people complimented us to make me sure of it. :)

Apollocon

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:05:44 GMT

Well, this was a great con once again!!! Graham and Becca Leathers (filk guests) remembered me from Gafilk. Becca's words were "wow, someone we know!!!" when i walked into the Kaffeeklatch. That was cool. they put on a good show friday night, then they came to the open filking...where everyone was singing and playing along with everyone else. Lots of fun. I did Urban Tapestry's "The Lady" and Becca told me she had several favorites of theirs, and mentioned "Starsoul"...which was one of the songs I had planned to sing in my concert Saturday morning. I went ahead and played it then and she sang along with me like she had on "the Lady"....and Graham played his bodhran...it sounded so cool. while the next couple of people in the circle were taking their turns, I sat with the idea bouncing around in my head...and then I asked Becca if she and Graham would like to perform "Starsoul" with me in my concert...they said yes, enthusiasticly :) moving along to Saturday morning: I was supposed to be sharing the hour with Kandy Jarvis...she came up to me about 30 minutes or so before the timeslot looking haggard and told me she was having a reaction to some new meds, and couldn't possibly perform, so I'd have to take over. I went to Lee Billings (who was in charge of filk concerts) and told her Kandy couldn't perform and what did she want to do..she told me to just fill the whole hour...so I went thru my songs and found a few more to add time ...and went to the Leathers and asked if they would like to do "The Lady" with me also...again they agreed...so i had a great time...expanded concert slot....and got to have a wonderful addition to two of my songs (I always prefer singing engroup, rather than solo...HARMONIES!!! sqeeeee) and a good audience too. the only down side was, once again, my recording equipment didn't fuction properly, and I got None of my concert (and only three songs from the Leather's performance, which followed mine)....but I have my memories...and the compliments from the audience.

general rheumatism complaints!!!! lol

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 02:20:48 GMT

well, I don't know about other people, but as I get older, I find that the changing weather causes long healed injuries ache! such as broken fingers and toes...pulled shoulder joints...and sliced tendons. :( I practiced for my upcoming concert at Apollocan last week for 5 hours with only minor discomfort on my finger callouses from playing so long. today I tried to play and after one song had to stop because my left index finger was in major pain and too stiff to move quickly enough. :( I sliced the knuckle about 15 years ago while finishing up the edge on a knife...went all the way to the bone (Dr. said it was a very clean cut...very sharp knife) At the time i was worried i wouldn't be able to play guitar anymore because it's my main guitar finger, but I followed the dr.'s instructions, and went thru rehab (and started non-pressure chord changes and runs as soon as he would let me....seems that helped my rehab) and i was in good shape weeks before the doc thought i would be. Well years down the road...the finger aches every time we have a major weather change. (along with the other mentioned areas. I hope the weather settles down in the next week or so...otherwise i'm going to be popping pain pills in order to play!!! Of course the weather also affects my sinuses....making it hard to sing too!!! LOL this, too, shall pass!

Houston Highland Games

Sun, 13 May 2007 00:42:18 GMT

Well, I went to the Hightland games today and got to hear juggernaut and Ed Miller again (heard them both at NTIF in march) spent a lot of time walking around and talking to people in the Clan booths and a few of the vedors. One vendor had boudhrans at very reasonable prices...and one small one had a very deep rich tone for something so shallow and only 14" across. I couldn't pass it up...got a beater stick with it, and had to pick out another that i liked and bought it too. Now I have to learn how to play it. i carried it around from about 10am until 2, then was going to put it in my car...but the car was like an oven...and just the rising heat in the festival area had already caused the head to tighten a lot....no way i was going to leave it in the car...so i hauled it around the rest of the festival. sitting here at the participants hotel waiting to see if the ceilidh here is going to happen :) broght my instruments and hope it happens :)

it happened. :) started out with me and another guy playing some songs together (he was playing tin whistle and concertina) then another guy from jiggernaut showed up with his guitar, banjo and mandlolin. an much later the female singer/guitarist from Jiggernaut came and played some. It wound up being done in bardic circle format (not at my request either) we played jigs and reels and ballads...rock songs, janis jopin songs, gospel songs, and other stuff... great fun

crappy monday

Mon, 07 May 2007 23:25:17 GMT

Apparently lots of people are having not so good Monday today. Mine started off bad when I got to work and discovered that the HD store's receiving guy had refused delivery on this week's order (apparently delivery was attempted on the wrong day without an appointment) ....and that meant that I did everything today that i would have been doing tomorrow!! (and since i have 3 days of unused vacation time that has to be used before my hire-anniversary date of May 9th....I'm taking tomorrow off). The I got back to Sealy and went up to my Optometrist's for my eye exam....and found out i have the beginning of a cataract in my only good eye. :(
Dr. said that it is inoperable as yet (not big enough) so i have about a year or so and then I'll be having that surgery. He'll have a better idea of when after my checkup in 6 months. AND THEN ...discovered that the copays that I thought I was going to be paying were only the beginning....apparently the insurance has copays on the "extras" too (like the polycarbonate lenses that the dr. wanted, or graduated lenses or stuff like that) and the dr. had to have photos of the inside of the eye...and the "Medical" exam was another 50 copay....plus the cost of the photos. so instead of the 30 dollars I expected...it was 120!!!!!

*sigh* I'm glad I decided to take tomorrow off...I may just stay in bed all day sleeping!!!

Abject appologies - Ocean Burial

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 23:36:12 GMT

Well, I made a big goof. instead of researching it, i took it for granted that the poem was written by my ggggrandmother because it had her name on it. in researching it, my cousin discovered that it was published 6 years before gg wrote it out....as a song written by Edwin H. Chapin and George N. Allen. :( so what i have done, essentially, is given Mr. Chapin's lyrics a new musical setting. (and personally...after listening to Mr. Allen's music...i much prefer mine.) Of course i do have the option to delete those words and write my own...retaining my original music...but they fit so well together....

new song

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 23:51:10 GMT

A cousin of mine, who is also interested in genealogy, and I send each other attachments of doc files that we make from family records and such. last week she sent me a file containing an essay and poem that our 3great grandmother wrote in college back in 1856. I really liked the poem and set it to music today...and i didn't have to change much of it for it to scan right as a song :)
I made a rough recording of it to remind me of the melody until i can get it written down...but here is the lead sheet for it:

Ok...as I noted in my next journal entry...the info above is incorrect... the Poem was written by a prominent Lecturer named Edwin H. Chapin in 1850. why my GGGGrandmother put her name on it and dated it 1856 i guess i'll never know. here is the corrected poem.

The Ocean Burial

by Edwin H. Chapin (1850)

THE OCEAN BURIAL

(Edwin H. Chapin & Berdene C. Foye)

Em C

“Oh bury me not in the deep deep sea!”

Em B7

These words came low and mournfully

Em C

From the pallid lips of a youth who lay

Em B7 Em

On his cabin couch at the close of the day

C Em

He had wasted and pined ‘til o’er his brow

C B7

The death shades had passed and now

Em Am

When the land of his much loved home was nigh

Em B7 Em

They had gathered around to see him die.

“Oh ! Bury me not in the deep deep sea

Where the billowy shrouds will roll over me

Where no light will break through the dark cold wave

And no sunbeams rest upon my grave

It matters not I’ve oft been told

Where the body shall lie when the heart is cold

But grant oh grant this boon to me

Oh Bury me not in the sea.

“For in fancy I’ve listened to the well known words

To the free wild winds and the songs of birds

I have thought of my home, of cot and bower
and of scenes that I loved in childhood's hour.

I had ever hoped to be laid when I died

In the churchyard there, on the green hillside

By the bones of my fathers my grave should be

Oh bury me not in the sea

“Let my death slumbers be where a mothers prayer

And a sister’s tear shall be mingled there

O ‘T’will be sweet e’er the heart throb is o’er

To know when its fountains will gush no more

That those it so fondly hath yearned for will come

To plant the first wild flowers o’er my tomb

Let me lie where those loved ones will weep over me

Oh bury me not in the sea

“And there is another whose tears would flow

For him who lies in the ocean so low

For hours that it pains me to think of now

She hath twined these locks, she hath kissed this brow

In the hair she hath twined shall the sea snake hiss?

And the brow she hath pressed shall the cold waves kiss?

For the sake of that bright one that waiteth for me

Oh bury me not in the sea.”

“She has been in my dreams,” -- his voice failed there

They gave no heed to his dying prayer

They lowered him slowly o’er the vessel side

And above him closed the cold dark tide

Where to dip their bright wings the sea fowls rest

And the blue waters dance o’er the ocean crest

Where the billows foamed and waves sport free

Em B7 Em

They buried him there in the deep deep sea.

Finale music file

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 02:43:32 GMT

I was going thru my documents directory and came across some old files i created years back with Finale. I opened one and discovered that it was the first 5 measures of a solo cantata by Beethoven that i did when i was in college. I hadn't done much...probably gave up because the original finale was NOT easy to put triplets into ...and Adelaide is triplets for 70 measures. one feature that finale had was that it will play the music exactly as you have entered it...so when putting new music that I've written down on paper, it helps to keep the rhythms right...a problem i've always had when transcribing songs i write to paper! but i got to thinking that it would also be great to be able to sing Adelaide again....the accompaniment is FAR beyond my capabilities as a piano plunker ( I barely passed my piano proficiency in college to get my degree ) so i haven't been able to sing it in 30 years or so. so i started working on getting just the piano part into Allegro (a much updated version of my original Finale) and after many hours of work...got the entire Larghetto section finished...played it back and sang with it (i may have to transpose it down because i don't sing as high as i used too. lol) it was great to do that again. The Allegro section will go in much faster because it isn't all triplets like the first half was. I may go back and pull a few other songs i did in college and do the same thing....maybe.

filk archive

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:22:56 GMT

I just discovered the filk archive site the other day and uploaded Only the Bagpipes, recorded at my concert at Fencon III...i can't believe that it's already been downloaded 8 times!

fountain

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:13:23 GMT

There is a pond/fountain in front of my apartment (it's actually in the middle between three of the units of the complex.) Last night when i got home, the water was still spraying up and freezing on the trees ...but today they had turned off the fountain, but the trees and bushes downwind are still iced over.

new song

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 14:50:44 GMT

i don't seem to remember my dreams...but occasionally i wake up with lyrics at least partially formed in my head....for example...this was buzzing thru my head this morning...and the strange thing is that the tune i have going with it is original...or at least i think it is.

FOWL!

by Dene Foye

Have you noticed the trend in cartoons of old:
The innocent tweety-bird, the mean puddy-tat bold
His hunger is gnawing a hole thru to his back,
All he wants is to have a fowl little snack.

Of course there’s the obnoxious roadrunner, He
Pursued by the genius, Wyle E. Coyote
Won’t pause for a moment in his desert track,
But all Wylie wants is a fowl little snack

And then there’s the little hawk, Henry by name
Who catapulted Foghorn Leghorn to fame
Trying his damnedest to avoid Leghorn’s flack
As he pursues his desire for a fowl little snack.

But, Fudd, he’s the worst, not fair in his case
Sneaks up on Daffy, sticks a gun in his face
When he pulls the trigger, the duck’s beak’s on his back
Because Elmer wants to have a fowl little snack!

From all these examples I now must conclude
That the cartoonists at Warner, are not being rude
They’re merely inspired by what’s in the sack
As they gnaw away daily at their fowl little snack.

“It’s finger lickin’ good!!!”

Gafilk

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 10:03:09 GMT

Had a blast at GaFilk. but I hardly got the camera out...so only a few pics to post ...here on my flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kilted_singer/sets/72157594474307701/

GaFilk postings

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:08:45 GMT

I just got done perusing the posts/reports of GaFilk that others made...and found out that the dead dog party lasted until 3am!!! I kinda wish i'd stayed at the hotel another night instead of heading up to Winder to visit my sister. ...i could have slept in (had to get up at 6 to get to the airport by 10!!

I had a great time listening to all the different people, and meeting those who had only been names i'd read (or seen on music).

talk like a pirate day

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 23:38:53 GMT

I was talking with Bill Shiel (my buddy and co-writer of several songs) last week about Tom Smith's "Talk Like a Pirate Day"...and the conversation turned to Pirates in general...and he made a rather interesting comment (which has probably been made by many others... I just hadn't heard it before). They missed the mark with Pirates of the Carribean (either one of them) ...they should have made them a little more graphic or something...so they would have gotten an "AAAARRRRR" rating!!!

New filk song

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 05:08:54 GMT

I was going to sit back and rest from writing new filk for a while. was browsing through Rob Wynne's online songbook and the title of one (Where's the Filkcircle) popped out at me. I thought it was going to be something to the tune of "Where's the Playground, Susie" by Jimmy Webb, but it was to the tune of a song I'm not familiar with. But...that got me thinking about filksongs and Where's the playground, susie...and so:

Where's the Filksong, Susie?
(Jimmy Webb/Dene Foye)

Our turn has come and found us here
With our music scattered all around us here
The filksong that we never found the right words for
Still asks us, darlin', just what all the practice was for
And here we sing,
In a bardic ring

Where's the filksong, Susie?
You're the one who's supposed to know which words to sing
Where's the filksong, Susie
If I can’t find the words?
If I can’t find the words?

The need to sing has brought us here
Around the circle it went until it came to us here
And still you're not content with something about the song
But what other lyrics can you sing that aren’t too long
To sing tonight?
They’ll sound all right!!

Where's the filksong, Susie
If I decide to pass and let you play alone?
Where's the filksong, Susie
If I don't play this round?
If I don't play this round?

Where’s the filksong, Susie….
Where’s the filksong, Susie…

once again the weekend

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 22:14:53 GMT

home again for the weekend. yeah!! just checked out posts on LJ and saw a new filk by Rob Wynne...great filksong, but i have to pass on it unfortunately. I've never been able to play carpenters songs and make them sound decent...nor songs written by bacharach & david, so i just have to let others sing this one too. when i went thru Rob's songbook i saw about 3 that i liked but passed up because of the afore mentioned problem. *sigh* oh well, i guess i'll just practice the other songs of his that i have decided that i can play. (Sauron went over pretty well on my fencon concert)

idiots!!!

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 00:40:10 GMT

God!! I can't believe the management of the company I work for. first they add 4 new product areas that we have to service...which already takes more time in the day than they allow for...but now they're giving us ANOTHER one in December...in still another department (plumbing) we're still having major problems with getting in the new products in garage storage, rope, and audio/visual...and they want to add more? *sigh* the corporate mentality! i wish that they would learn to "just say no" to Home Depot....but that can't happen...hell, they're even changing the name from Crown Bolt to H.D.Supply Distributing!! so much for "they bought the company because they liked the job we were doing for them...so they won't change anything". They really should stand back and realize that the reason we did such a good job is that we only had nuts & bolts to concentrate on!! ...and who catches hell when the product isn't on the shelf? not to mention the hours of overtime that it's going to cost them.