After spending maybe a little too much time last night and this morning
struggling with "Waltz", and reluctantly deciding that some of my favorite
turns of phrase simply didn't fit the flow, I ended up spending my entire
lunchtime walk re-casting
Hackers'
Heaven so that it could be done as a Tres Gique concert. It
all fell out from my realization a day or two ago that I could easily
rationalize Lady Melody (the AI guitar) having two voices, an alto and a
soprano. It means rewriting huge chunks of the backstory, but that needed
to be done anyway. And the song intros all turn into blog entries.
(Aside: Don't worry if you're not following this: I'm trying to
write it down before I get back to work and forget it.)
Year launch+10, May 20:
Lexy sent me this for Mother's Day -- she's getting to be a pretty decent
songwriter. Locked post, for obvious reasons. Came with a note that
said,
Hi, Mom! Could you tell me whether this is any good at all? And do me a
favor: please don't sing it when I'm around? I'd start crying again. I
love you.
(Song: "
Silk and
Steel" -- Callie and Joyce.)
Year launch+10, May 25:
OK, Fred, you old buzzard. I've cobbled together a couple of old blog
entries and archive recordings for your history project. Bother Lexy
again about it and you'll find out exactly what an an angry AI can do with a personal
waste processor and a couple of thousand lines of code.
April 16, 2030
(Callie)Geoff thinks it will help if I keep a blog. As if just singing
and sounding sentient wasn't hard enough! And he wants me to sound like
both women in this 20-something-year-old filk recording he dug
up! (Joyce) What do I know? I'm just a guitar... (Both) Well, here
goes! (Callie) Let's try this one more time.
(Song: "
The
Merryman and his Maid" (Joyce and Steve on lead)
... and so on. I'll take suggestions on whether "Silk and Steel" belongs
at the beginning or the end.
I probably ought to get some work done, oughtn't I?
7:36 ... and realizing today that I could have "Silk and Steel" written by
Lexy (the daughter) as a Mother's Day present, and sung by Melody, thus avoiding
the need for an additional male voice.