Bardic circle tonight was a small but rousing success! We had six performers, including two new-to-the-SCA francophones who both brought (French) songs with lyrics. So now I know new French songs! (Whether I remember them tomorrow is a different issue entirely.) The circle went around about a half-dozen times, give or take, with lots of chatting in ( Read more... )

For those of my friends not in the East Kingdom of the SCA, this weekend was an event to select who will be King's and Queen's bard for the next year. Two of my good friends were serving this past year, but I don't know either of the two people who were selected for the year to come. The event was in Maine, a 6-hour drive away, and I didn't go ( Read more... )

Hi everyone. I realize in looking back through my recent entries that although I've been posting quite a bit, I haven't actually written anything about how my life's been going in a while. I figured I owed you. (And if you figure differently, you can always click away from this post. The internet is nice that way.)

1. Job hunting: After a very, ( Read more... )

Question for bardic/musician friends: does anyone have any resources for how to write melodies?

I've gotten pretty decent at writing poems, and that's mostly because I've learned the building blocks of how it's done. I know, for example, that ballad meter usually works better for me for sillier or lighter pieces (like The Rubber Duckies of Dione ( Read more... )

The people down here in Concordia of the Snows (aka Albany) have been trying to get me down to Winter Nights for years. This year, the stars finally aligned and I was able to come.

The short version: I didn't win, but I had lots of fun. Also, my allergies were affected by something at the site and now I'm all congested and asthmatic.

( The long version, in tedious detail )

This weekend, I'll be down in Albany (aka Concordia of the Snows) for their annual "Winter Nights" bardic competition. They've been trying to get me down there for at least two or three year, and the stars finally aligned this year to allow me to go ( Read more... )

For those not in the know, Heather Dale will be playing the Yellow Door Cafe next Friday, October 15. And -- shh! -- there may be a special on-stage cameo by everyone's favourite Pocket Bard!

Hope to see you all there!

As an experiment, I recorded myself singing some of my original songs and posted them up on YouTube. You can see them all on my YouTube channel, or you can check out individual songs:

- The Wild Eastman Spam
- No Longer Seventeen
- The Not at Pennsic Blues
- I Charged the Calontiri ArmyIf I get ambitious, I'll post some of my poems in the next few ( Read more... )

For the last few years, I've been a very active bard abroad (Pennsic, Concordia of the Snows, etc.) but particularly inactive on the home front. Since Pennsic -- particularly since being taken on as Mistress Marian of Heatherdale's student -- I've wanted to launch back into the local scene, and I decided tonight was as good a night as any to start ( Read more... )

Those of you who have read my Pennsic diary might remember that one of my bardic books got severely water damaged in a storm late in the second week. I've had it drying since then, but most of the pages are still damp. Today, to my surprise, I discovered mold growing on some of the still-damp pages ( Read more... )