Where Anna the Piper geeks out
It occurred to me that if I was going to go around calling my LJ “Ordinary Day”, I should damn well have a default icon that reflects that. So for the benefit of those of you looking at this on my various LJ-flavored sites, check out the Alan and Sean loverliness. That shot is of course from the video for the song. The icon is by 
turple_purtle
And if you’re looking at this on annathepiper.org, here!
So just because I can, I’ve been waking up old broken parts of this web site (annathepiper.org, for those of you reading this on LJ or DW), bits that were never properly integrated into WordPress. Since I’ve got a handy link-checking plugin installed, this has been a lot easier than I thought it would be; I’ve just had to go through and fix a lot of broken links, and in some cases, restore content that’s been absent for some time.
Right now, this primarily means reinstating my Great Big Sea page, and a couple of its child pages as well–most notably, the Pictures page, since I found a nifty plugin that lets WordPress easily talk to Flickr. And I do still have several lovely collections of pictures from various Great Big Sea shows which some kind folks had given me permission to post (mamishkafredpdx
I’ve also reinstated the Sitemap, the Credits page (with proper updated references to nifty plugins and things I’m using these days), and the Journal section (although this is primarily a pointer off to my LJ and a place to link to posts I wrote before I ever had a proper blog).
Here are a couple of quick pics I snapped today!
Last night, like I am wont to do, I was whipping through my “Anna’s Set” playlist on my iPhone, which is the various songs I can play to one degree or another on the guitar. And while there’s even stuff that isn’t Great Big Sea on that list, it was somewhere just after “Lukey” when I looked at my pick and realized it suddenly had extra points on the end. Oops!
Meanwhile, the cats have gotten very fond of parking on the windowsill in the kitchen and staring out to the walkway just behind the house. I still don’t know what they think they see back there. And by “they” I mean “Fred”, because George is clearly a slacker when it comes to being a watchcat.
solarbird
“Charlie Horse” is a fun ditty in no small part because it changes keys, which is unusual for a Great Big Sea song. So in order to accommodate the key change and the key they recorded it in, I had to figure out what would work best for chord transcription. This led me to do two sets of chords, a set with the capo on 3 and modulating from D to E in the chords, and a set with the capo on 5 to modulate from C to D. Persons way more comfortable with the key of F than I am could go completely capo-free, since the ultimate goal here is to get from F to G.
Anyway, here are some chords! Enjoy!
This past Saturday was my second Great Big Sea show of the year, and stands out for being the first time I’ve ever seen them in the Admiral Theater in Bremerton–which is very possibly the most aptly decorated theater for a GBS show it’s ever been my pleasure to visit. And since this was in Bremerton, mamishkatechnoshamanjennygriffee
Picoreview of the show itself: the crowd was fairly heavily laced with GBS regulars, but there was also a big presence of older folks who were clearly not part of the fanbase. The B’ys were in high spirits, though, and highlights of the show include Séan discovering Cosmos, two brand new songs, a rendition of “Gallows Pole” that knocked me nearly dead, and “Old Brown’s Daughter” coming back to finish me off.
Let’s do this thing then!
And now, ladies and gentlemen, the highlight of solarbirdravyngyngvar
Fangirly squealing behind the fold, and this time, y’all, thanks to my beloved Dara, I am bringing pictures. There are links off to suitable tasty videos as well, and mad props to OKPers sticckler and katy for those!
Continue reading “Great Big Sea at Malkin Bowl, Vancouver BC, 9/12/09”
For those of you who didn’t see me tweet these yesterday and this morning, I must share with you two delightful videos from a young lady I met on the way out of the Great Big Sea concert on Saturday night. She had attended both shows in Vancouver and had the great fortune of being up near the stage, with a camera! I therefore bring you the work of fellow OKP denizen sticckler:
Here’s her catching Sean McCann doing the Extended Remix Edition of the Mermaid Dance! Watch for where he completely forgets the next verse.
And, from the show I attended, The Mighty Doyle nailing “River Driver”. To wit, YUM. <3 Also, Doyle fans, note the presence of the beard! My own Extended Remix post for the concert is on the way, y'all. ;)
This just in off the GBS newsletter, folks: tickets are going on pre-sale TOMORROW for four November shows in WA! However, these ones are in some locales that the B’ys haven’t much hit before, as opposed to Seattle proper. To wit:
Nov 18 – Washington Center for the Performing Arts – Olympia, WA – Presale,
August 5, 9am PDT
Nov 20 – Edmonds Center for the Arts – Edmonds, WA – Presale, August 5, 9am
EDT
Nov 21 – The Admiral Theatre – Bremerton, WA – Presale, August 5, 9am EDT
Nov 22 – Mount Baker Theatre – Bellingham, WA – On Sale Now
I’m eying that November 21 date for Bremerton, as that’s a Saturday and is therefore the one that will not require me to do anything to my work schedule. Who’s with me? :)
What with solarbird
Friday night we had all the Bothell crowd as well as jennygriffee
Lily and Moira love going up our stairs and peeking in my bedroom because I have a big bed they can bounce on, and also, we have a cache of stuffed animals in there. But they also love making me (as well as any other convenient grownups) chase them in circles around the main floor of the house. Lily in particular commanded me to “be a dinosaur!”, so I apparently need to get right to work on my T-rex impersonation. ;) Meanwhile, Moira wanted to further investigate our DVD collection, and when she spotted the pink boxes that contain our Cardcaptor Sakura anime episodes, I went ahead and let her watch that figuring that it wouldn’t be too scary for her or Lily. kathrynt
This led to one of the cutest things I’ve heard coming out of a two-year-old mouth lately: “scary toilet paper lady” to describe the antagonist character in the movie I showed them. Hee.
And, Moira insisted that I “protect” her while she was watching the movie, and sat in my lap. Aw. <3 It should also be noted that Lily furthermore kept asking me for "Donkey Riding", and when she spotted the background pic of Great Big Sea on my computer, pointed at it and said "that's a picture of Donkey Riding!" She's still a little shaky on which name goes with the band and which name goes with the song, but she clearly now knows the faces of Great Big Sea when she sees them. Mostly. She also thought Eddie Izzard on my T-shirt was Sean, I think. I put her straight! Yesterday morning Q then IMed me to tell me that Lily told her "we put on shoes and go over to my Anna's house!" I am apparently now Lillian's Anna! Who knew? Unrelatedly, last night while working on checkbook balancing, I re-watched TOS's "Doomsday Machine" episode (some awesome mileage of The Kirk), Master and Commander (which I think is now well and solidly my favorite Russell Crowe movie Ever), and another 4th season episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (which is still bringing the wacky).
* Why the hell can’t I buy just a replacement lens for that taillight, anyway? The light itself is intact, it’s just the outer lower bit of the lens that’s broken. But according to the guys at Schuck’s the assembly is all they have, and they wanted $130 for it. I bought a $5 roll of reflective red headlight repair tape instead and used that. Which should do me for now and hopefully satisfy the next cop that tries to pull me over for having a broken taillight.
So Friday night kathryntemmacrewllachglin
Sure, I said, since I like Q and Erik and I like their kid too. Q obligingly came over to pick me up for my chiro appointment yesterday morning and then bought me tasty food at Caffe Ladro, and then I hung out with Lily for a couple of hours and engaged in various methods of Entertaining a Two-Year-Old. Mostly this involved running around after her in circles in the backyard, giving her a ride on my shoulders, and joining her in throwing balls of various sizes in random directions. We did also have a cogent discussion (well, cogent for a two-year-old) about why the airplane she spotted making a line across the sky would not in fact be able to “come here!”
That was all fun. Then last night several friends came over for pleasant tabletop gaming: jessicacgargoydwrogjennygriffee
However, I didn’t get in as much of the cardplaying as the other grownups did–because the children decided that I was the best possible play participant. Apparently I won quite a few points by putting on the Great Big DVD and playing “Donkey Riding”, which Lily and Moira both adore. (And I’m telling ya, folks, there are few things cuter than a pair of two-year-olds trying to beat on a big drum and singing “Donkey Riding” as best they can in their not-yet-developed voices, right along with my B’ys.) I got more points by playing the Lift Them Off the Edge of the Couch Game, in which my part was to hoist them up over the edge of the couch every time they went “I CAN’T REACH!” Related to this, there was also the Who Could Possibly Be Behind Me? Game, in which my job was apparently to sit in my usual spot on the couch while small persons got behind me and giggled while I said “I wonder who this is behind me?” and they’d say “ME!”
Moira asked me at one point if I was a mommy, and I told them no, I was their mommy’s friend and that my name was Anna. This apparently stuck. Q IM’d me this afternoon to inform me that her little girl was saying, “I want my Anna. I want to go see my Anna. I want my Anna back. I DO need my Anna!”
I win at making friends and influencing two-year-olds. <3