I was quite amused to see this post by the agents at the Dystel & Goderich Literary Management site about compulsive book buying and reading. ‘Cause yeah, I do love me the books.
As y’all know I’m on a book buying hiatus this month, and you’d just know that this is timed with the drop of at least FOUR new books I’m interested in picking up: new ones by katatomic, rachelcaine, AND mizkit, not to mention the shiny new Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal, about which I’ve been seeing quite a bit of buzz.
So even though I’m not actually buying any new books this month, I’m still totally adding things to the To Read list. As of the last round of adds, I’ve now got 586 things on said list, most of which I own already and some of which are intended re-reads, like the Great Amelia Peabody Re-Read I’m in the middle of right now as we speak!
Which of course brings me to the question of how fast I’ll pass the 600 mark. I turn to you, Internets, for the answer!
‘s third Jig the Goblin book, Goblin War rounds out the trilogy quite nicely. In this final installment, we’ve got a strong callback to book one as Princess Genevieve, the sister of the princes who’d hunted the Rod of Creation, has been ordered by her father to recover that artifact herself. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Brilla the Bloody, an orc general, has organized the orcs and goblins of the realm to go up against the human armies–and she’s doing a damn fine job of it. Since Jig’s home lair is been invaded by the humans and he and several of his people are captured by Genevieve’s troops, he’s ready and raring to escape and join Brilla’s forces…
Until he learns from his god, Tymalous Shadowstar, that Brilla’s got a divine connection of her own. And that divine connection is none other than the winter goddess who used to be Shadowstar’s own wife.
And, yeah. There’s a great deal of fun with the backstory here on Shadowstar and how he became one of the Forgotten Gods, as well as more of the same wry humor that made the first two books of this trilogy so much fun. The bit with the horse was especially snickerworthy, and I’ll say no more because of spoilers. I will say though that I was especially charmed that this time around, we even got a hint of something like a romance as one of Jig’s devoted new followers, the goblin Relka, was partial to him to a degree poor Jig didn’t really get for the longest time. Even goblins need love!
All in all, a delightful conclusion to the trilogy and not to be missed. Four stars.
I would be quite remiss if I didn’t post about the fun , , , , and I have been having putting together the audio track for our contribution to the GBS contest in progress!
And by “audio track” I mean “actual audio track”, not just whatever audio Dara’s digital camera might pick up. Dara’s already got considerable experience recording and engineering herself for Crime and the Forces of Evil, and she is pulling out all the stops doing it for this. She’s also got considerable experience with her own singing work, and she’s been cramming that into my and Glenn’s brains, too!
Props must be given to , who supplied Dara with an awesome set of vocal exercises for singing. Thanks, Andra! Dara spent a good chunk of Friday and yesterday working with me and then Glenn on these–and we discovered that HOLY JUMPING GODS I HAVE A FOUR OCTAVE RANGE. To wit, WHAT?!
I’m also discovering my first real appreciation for how much hard work actual, proper singing is, when you’re able to slide seamlessly between your chest voice and your head voice. This is a huge challenge for me right now, because the song we’re doing, “Nothing But a Song”, has a vocal break for me right smack dab in the middle of the verse. And given that I’m singing lead, we cannot, cannot have me sounding weak on the verses. (Fortunately, I’ve just heard Dara do some pretty awesome remixing of my current recorded tracks, so we may not have to re-record me after all. Here’s hoping!)
Meanwhile, Dara got a hell of an impressive bass rumble out of Glenn for the harmony in the bridge. Let me put this in perspective for you, y’all. Those of you who’ve followed me on LJ for a long time may remember that when we attended the 2003 Vancouver show, the first time we saw Murray Foster with the band, he totally blew us away with the stunning low note he hit on the final note of “General Taylor”.
I am not kidding when I say that what Dara got out of Glenn for low rumbly notes made her AND me have a similar “WHOA” reaction. So big, big props to both Glenn and Dara on this!
Today, Mimi and Callie came over to contribute higher-level harmonies. I wanted Meems’ harmony support on the choruses of the song, and she laid down a kickass tight harmony on top of what I was singing. It is very telling that in fact when I think of this song right now, Mimi’s harmony is even overriding The Doyle’s vocals in my brain. Seriously, do you guys know how hard it is to dislodge Alan Doyle’s singing from my brain? That there is a mighty achievement. MIGHTY, I tell you!
Then Meems and Callie both threw in some very, very nice high harmonies for the harmony brick we’re assembling for the bridge–both singing by themselves and then joining Dara and me on a four-person track where we sang the dominant notes of the bridge, split up by octaves with Meems and Callie on the high octave and Dara and me on the lower. If I do say so myself, I think Dara’s done a stupendous job filling out the aural spectrum of the bridge. And I can’t wait for you all to hear it!
Now I need to start figuring out how to put together a video that’ll be worthy of this Awesomeness. If anybody out there has iMovie or QuickTime tips to share, now would be a very, very good time to drop a comment!
There’s a ridiculous amount of fangirly glee I can get out of something as simple as a well-used guitar pick!
I am not a professional guitarist by any stretch of the imagination; I’m barely at the level of competent amateur, really, and then only because I can play decent rhythm on a small set of songs, and slightly more complex stuff on exactly one song so far. But, that said? I know just enough to be able to make some fun guesses about the guitar pick snagged for me at the GBS show!
I don’t know how fast The Doyle goes through his picks, or whether this one was new going into the show–but if it was, he played the hell out of it. The tip of it as well as a good bit of one edge are worn quite ragged, and part of the words beneath the logo are worn off. I get this kind of wear and tear on my own picks after I’ve played with them, but only after a while; I suspect this is a function of the fact that a) I don’t play that often, b) I play on a nylon-stringed instrument, and c) I don’t play with anything resembling the amount of power that Alan Doyle does! Metal strings would tear up picks a lot faster, of course. I have observed this directly with any pick I play with for a while on my zouk or my octave mandolin.
I’m amused though to note the thickness of the pick as well. It’s pretty thin as guitar picks go and comparable to several I’ve got. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this exact brand of guitar pick either at Trading Musician or at Dusty Strings, too. The logo on it is familiar!
I have had it suggested to me that I should frame this thing. My immediate plan for it is, I think, to use it for exactly one purpose: getting footage of me playing the guitar for our little contest video. And hope that maybe some of Alan’s guitar fu may wear off.
Then I’m going to put this thing safely away so I won’t lose it. :D
There’s only one thing really that could have kept me from writing this up in a timely fashion–and that’s the simple fact that I’ve been working all weekend with on our entry for the Great Big Karaoke Contest! But I assure you, I’m still in a warm and fuzzy afterglow from Thursday’s awesome show.
This time around we didn’t get quite as much long, protracted banter as we did the last time the B’ys played the zoo–but we did get quite a bit of delicious Murray-focused banter, as well as sly remarks about how the sun beating down on the stage clearly meant the lads were going to have to start taking off some clothes. Compare and contrast this to how Lillian and Moira, ages 4 and 3, loudly demanded for me to take them up front to the dancing area and got me going around in circles with them singing “Donkey Riding” at the top of our lungs. That’s a Great Big Sea show for you, folks. Vast, and containing multitudes!
I didn’t get too many pics during the show since I’m still learning the fine art of how to do a picture on the iPhone that doesn’t suck–and then how to actually save it in the best possible format. However, I’m pretty happy with this one of my B’ys! As you can see I wasn’t too far back from the stage, with only a small number of fans in front of us.
Just got back from the zoo, you guys! Picoreview: delightful as always, especially up in the dancing area surrounded by fellow OKPers and other people ready, willing, and able to bounce like crazy along with our B’ys.
Huge shoutouts to , , , , her spouse Clint whose LJ I still can’t remember, , , , and coordinating me with and and to get the disparate parts of our group together!
Also huge shoutouts to , , and especially , who I haven’t seen and jammed with in TOO DAMNED LONG I SAY.
Even saw and greeted several OKPers besides sticckler: shelleyroberts, shoegirl, and loulabelle! And there was a lady whose name I didn’t get who was kind enough to compliment my singing as I was belting out harmony during “Chemical Worker’s Song”! Thank you, kind lady!
But! EXTRA DOUBLE AWESOME SHOUTOUTS back to for getting me a guitar pick from the hand of The Doyle Himself. She saw it fall and scarfed it, and presented it to me after the show! In return, I bought her a copy of Up, GBS’ third album! THANK YOU SARAH! <3 I shall play only Awesome Songs of Awesomeness with this pick!
Lastly it must be said that Alan is not only still pretty, but and I are in strong agreement that in fact, he gets prettier the longer a show continues. By the time he gets to “Ordinary Day”, he is stunningly gorgeous. Trufax! Scientifically proven!
There is of course a longer full show review post coming, but that’ll be tomorrow, after I have my brain back. Watch this space for the fully detailed squee!
Awesome, turned out that the power came back online shortly after spazzkat, solarbird, and I set out to attend a nice little afternoon barbecue over at sksouth‘s place!
Paul and I are home from that now and I’ve brought the servers back online, so things should be returning to normal on the Murk. For the time being our net’s even behaving, though we’ll be keeping an eye out on that too. We now return you to your regularly scheduled geekery, already in progress.
T minus 7 days and counting until the B’ys are HERE for the Zoo show next week!
, , and I will be gathering Team Cascadia for a mighty gathering! and and and and and and and Clint (whose LJ I forget DOH) and are all joining us!
The Cascadian Vertical Movement team (which y’all may recall totally took the Gold medalthis past February) will also have the Junior Auxiliary of Lillian and Moira! I am looking forward to this with great, great glee. These are the children who beg me to play “Donkey Riding” on the Great Big DVD whenever they come over to my house, so I am VERY much anticipating the looks on their little faces when they realize holy crap Great Big Sea is real!
This is going to be huge, huge fun. And I’m taking that day off from work, too, so will be looking into a pre-show lunch and zoo thing of some sort! If you’re not directly involved with the herd I’m organizing but you are planning to be at the show, keep an eye out for me! Better yet, drop me a comment and let me know when and where you’ll be so I can keep an eye out for you, too!
*runs around in anticipatory circles* *practices her Vertical Movement* *puts SRS BZNZ consideration into what new swag to buy now that she’s dropped 25 pounds and TOTALLY needs a new, smaller GBS shirt*
katatomic
