Yay birthday yay
Time at last to write an entry about zaratyst's birthday party on Sunday! It went wonderfully.
Bit of back-story:
A few months ago, Zara made it known that she wanted something specific for her birthday: Live music! Singing, musical instruments, all that good stuff.
After thinking about what I could manage to do by my lonesome, I quickly decided it would be better if I could bring more people together. I can sing a bit, but more singers, and some people who could play instruments, would be better than just me and my voice. With the help of mholmesiv, I put out a call for music-makers. In this way did I snare solcita and duckdaring, who agreed to contribute their talents. senssuzy also joined our merry band.
This was back in May. What with one thing and another, we didn't get around to actually meeting until Saturday. Nonetheless, we pulled something together pretty quickly: a rendition of TMBG's song Older*, rather appropriate for a birthday. Duck and myself did vocals--me as Linnell, him as Flansburgh. Solcita, our Hendrix, plucked her violin like a guitar--she greatly impressed me with how quickly she was able to learn the music and reproduce it. Suzy, doubling as our Galway and our Ringo, played her tin whistle for the instrumental bridge, and banged on a box for the drum beats. For only 24 hours' worth of prep time, we did pretty darned well.
I then took the plunge and sang Green Week, backed up by a recording of One Week with the vocals electronically removed. I'm sure my voice quavered, but nobody seemed to notice my nervousness. A couple of people thought I'd gotten the lyrics from elsewhere, a Shrek soundtrack perhaps. I took that as a compliment. (I was puzzled when they referred to it as "filk", though. Is Weird Al Yankovic a filker? Or does that label not apply to people who own their own recording studio?)
We also played Monty Python's Sit On My Face, and invited everyone to sing along with us and the Python boys. Duck had been smart enough to print out lyrics sheets for everyone.
Having been absolutely silly three times, we surrendered the stage to those with more serious and haunting melodies. Solcita and julesong performed a beautiful duet. Amy-not-on-LJ sang "You Are My Sunshine", very sweetly. silenceleigh sang something delicate in Italian. We have some very talented people in our group.
It was damiana_swan's rendition of Outward Bound, though, which moved me. I'm one of those who gets emotional over the idea of space exploration. To my ears, "It won't be much longer now" sounded like a promise I'd like to believe: Soon we'll be living and working in space. Soon. It left me feeling wistful.
senssuzy sang a piece she composed to the music of "Sweet Molly Malone", about Zara! I insisted that she post the lyrics.
With the musical portion of the party over (or so it seemed), we resumed the normal fun party things: Good food, yummy desserts, games (I won a game of Fluxx, go me!), good conversation, and my personal favorite, snuggling with Zara. A little later, the highly charismatic meowse showed up, and treated us to even more music, singing and playing guitar. He also spoke long words, stumped us with brainteasers, and inhaled a vast quantity of helium.
And there was hot-tubbing, always a great goodness. And yet more snuggling, before I finally managed to tear myself away and wish her Happy Birthday and Goodnight.
I love you, hon!
* I'm sure the Johns won't mind me redistributing this MP3, as it was originally made available on the web as a freebie, to entice people to buy the rest of the "Long Tall Weekend" album. Historical note: This was the first album ever sold exclusively online. TMBG are just cool.
Bit of back-story:
A few months ago, Zara made it known that she wanted something specific for her birthday: Live music! Singing, musical instruments, all that good stuff.
After thinking about what I could manage to do by my lonesome, I quickly decided it would be better if I could bring more people together. I can sing a bit, but more singers, and some people who could play instruments, would be better than just me and my voice. With the help of mholmesiv, I put out a call for music-makers. In this way did I snare solcita and duckdaring, who agreed to contribute their talents. senssuzy also joined our merry band.
This was back in May. What with one thing and another, we didn't get around to actually meeting until Saturday. Nonetheless, we pulled something together pretty quickly: a rendition of TMBG's song Older*, rather appropriate for a birthday. Duck and myself did vocals--me as Linnell, him as Flansburgh. Solcita, our Hendrix, plucked her violin like a guitar--she greatly impressed me with how quickly she was able to learn the music and reproduce it. Suzy, doubling as our Galway and our Ringo, played her tin whistle for the instrumental bridge, and banged on a box for the drum beats. For only 24 hours' worth of prep time, we did pretty darned well.
I then took the plunge and sang Green Week, backed up by a recording of One Week with the vocals electronically removed. I'm sure my voice quavered, but nobody seemed to notice my nervousness. A couple of people thought I'd gotten the lyrics from elsewhere, a Shrek soundtrack perhaps. I took that as a compliment. (I was puzzled when they referred to it as "filk", though. Is Weird Al Yankovic a filker? Or does that label not apply to people who own their own recording studio?)
We also played Monty Python's Sit On My Face, and invited everyone to sing along with us and the Python boys. Duck had been smart enough to print out lyrics sheets for everyone.
Having been absolutely silly three times, we surrendered the stage to those with more serious and haunting melodies. Solcita and julesong performed a beautiful duet. Amy-not-on-LJ sang "You Are My Sunshine", very sweetly. silenceleigh sang something delicate in Italian. We have some very talented people in our group.
It was damiana_swan's rendition of Outward Bound, though, which moved me. I'm one of those who gets emotional over the idea of space exploration. To my ears, "It won't be much longer now" sounded like a promise I'd like to believe: Soon we'll be living and working in space. Soon. It left me feeling wistful.
senssuzy sang a piece she composed to the music of "Sweet Molly Malone", about Zara! I insisted that she post the lyrics.
With the musical portion of the party over (or so it seemed), we resumed the normal fun party things: Good food, yummy desserts, games (I won a game of Fluxx, go me!), good conversation, and my personal favorite, snuggling with Zara. A little later, the highly charismatic meowse showed up, and treated us to even more music, singing and playing guitar. He also spoke long words, stumped us with brainteasers, and inhaled a vast quantity of helium.
And there was hot-tubbing, always a great goodness. And yet more snuggling, before I finally managed to tear myself away and wish her Happy Birthday and Goodnight.
I love you, hon!
* I'm sure the Johns won't mind me redistributing this MP3, as it was originally made available on the web as a freebie, to entice people to buy the rest of the "Long Tall Weekend" album. Historical note: This was the first album ever sold exclusively online. TMBG are just cool.