Where Anna the Piper geeks out
This just in: tickets go on sale on greatbigsea.com for the show at the Moore on March 12th of next year, TOMORROW at 10am!
The show will be on a delicious, delicious SATURDAY, so Seattle peeps, if you think you want in on the goodness and you aren’t already a member of the site–i.e., if you need me to get your tickets–let me know ASAP so that I know how many tickets to get!
The finalists for the Great Big Sea Karaoke Contest were announced this morning and I fear that our video was NOT included on the list! Sniff.
Many thanks to all of you who took a look and offered words of encouragement, they are much appreciated! I would like to endorse, in our stead, the “Hit the Ground and Run” video by the Singing Roberts–since they had an awesome acting out, complete with costumes and a mini-script, of that particular song. You can vote on the video of your choice here.
I shall now also accept kittens, cookies, and other forms of consolation, if any happen to be around. *^_^*;;
I’ve been whinging about this on Twitter and Facebook all day, and now that I’m home, it’s the blog and Livejournal and Dreamwidth’s turn!
My beloved B’ys have NOT yet announced the finalists for their karaoke video contest. And given that they’re playing in Toronto tonight, and that they ALSO have shows tomorrow and Sunday evening in different places, chances are high that we won’t hear a peep out of them until Monday.
OKP admin Aaron posted this morning with the news, which drove home for all of us waiting the following critical bits of information:
Y’all know what this means, of course.
It means Alan Doyle, Séan McCann, Bob Hallett, Kris MacFarlane, or Murray Foster, and possibly some or all of the above, have heard me sing.
And I do not yet know if they’ll be picking my group’s video for the finals! AUGH! AUGH! AUGH!
On behalf of my jamming group, I now present to you “Nothing But a Song”, as performed by Twelve Good Measures, featuring Crime and the Forces of Evil!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7X-4pxRSfU&w=560&h=315]
Now comes the waiting for the entry round to close–and after that, the selection of finalists! Keep your fingers crossed that our vid will make the cut, people! ‘Cause if it does, I will be shamelessly, and I DO MEAN SHAMELESSLY, campaigning for your support. I mentioned the part where the grand prize of this shindig is four spots on the band’s guest list at a show of the winner’s choice, right?
Remember, folks, a vote for Twelve Good Measures is a vote for my head exploding RIGHT OFF MY SHOULDERS with squee. Because proximity to Alan Doyle will do that. I have experienced it before and lived to tell the tale!
And oh yes, we’ve got more. Oh my yes. Here, have lulz to go with your contest video!
Continue reading “Ladies and gentlemen, our GBS contest entry is LIVE”
I’d call this a Special Edition Jam Report, except we didn’t actually Jam. Still, though, we had a good number of the Murkjammers present today for the conclusion of our video shooting for our submission to the Great Big Sea Karaoke Contest! In addition to and myself, we had , , and , with surprise bonus as Jareth the Goblin King!
Dara has been a GODDESS for this effort, people. I had a few initial ideas for the script, sure, but the visual and sound and general arrangement of shots, not to mention the technical work of actually shooting said shots with her digital camera? That’s ALL been on her. Really, my contribution to this whole shebang has pretty much ‘sing lead and yoink video snippets into iMovie’.
Many thanks must also be given to Meems for primary wardrobe contribution, in order to build a shot which will remain unidentified until the video goes live. But trust me, you’ll know the shot when you see it. ;> Ellen and Glenn also contributed a few wardrobe bits, as did . Separate kudos to Glenn for shooting assistance both yesterday and today, and Ellen and Meems and Glenn all together for prop and script wrangling!
has also come through marvelously, both with initially pointing me at iMovie as the tool to use to pull all this together, AND with building us credits in Flash that I can plug in at the tail end of the video.
And finally, thanks to Torrey for going to the trouble to costume up very nicely for what will be a pretty short shot, in the eventual shipping product.
Now comes the editing like mad in iMovie! We’ll get this done as fast as we can, y’all, and we look very much forward to showing you the final video!
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!
Oh, and just for posterity’s sake:
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!
Continue reading “Great Big Sea at the Woodland Park Zoo, 7/29/2010”
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!