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Oct. 23rd, 2001
Viking name
Oct. 23rd, 2001 05:11 pmAccording to http://www.thequarter.org/Media/VikingName.php, my "viking name" is...
Niðbjörg Quickjaw
(Well, actually, that wouldn't really be your name -- since you're female, your name would be something like "Niðbjörg Björnsdottir". But this is the twenty-first century, and you want to be known for who you are, not for who your father was, right? Right.)
Your Viking Personality: The tougher Vikings might let you on the boat, but generally only when they need ballast. You have a thirst for battle -- unfortunately, you're not terribly good at it. You probably know which end of a sword to hold, but you're not a fearsome fighter by any stretch of the imagination.
You might grumble a bit at the lack of amenities on board a Viking longboat, but you can handle it. Other Vikings tolerate your presence, though they're not quite sure if they can trust you to fight dirty.
People who've known you for a while don't always trust your word. Due to your gregariousness, you don't strike fear into the hearts of your victims. Try to be a little more surly in the future.
Niðbjörg Quickjaw
(Well, actually, that wouldn't really be your name -- since you're female, your name would be something like "Niðbjörg Björnsdottir". But this is the twenty-first century, and you want to be known for who you are, not for who your father was, right? Right.)
Your Viking Personality: The tougher Vikings might let you on the boat, but generally only when they need ballast. You have a thirst for battle -- unfortunately, you're not terribly good at it. You probably know which end of a sword to hold, but you're not a fearsome fighter by any stretch of the imagination.
You might grumble a bit at the lack of amenities on board a Viking longboat, but you can handle it. Other Vikings tolerate your presence, though they're not quite sure if they can trust you to fight dirty.
People who've known you for a while don't always trust your word. Due to your gregariousness, you don't strike fear into the hearts of your victims. Try to be a little more surly in the future.
out of whack
Oct. 23rd, 2001 08:16 pmOur criminal-justice system is out of whack. I've known this for a while, but two recent news items reminded me of it.
Sunday's newspaper contained two articles on the same page. One was about some people who hijacked a bus and apparently threatened to roll it (or drive it off a cliff, or something like that). The article noted that, if convicted, they face up to 15 years in prison.
The other article was about OJ's "road rage" (sic) trial. He is accused of reaching through someone's open car window during an argument and grabbing the driver's glasses, scratching him in the process. (The article said "scratch", not "cut".) This has landed in criminal court. OJ, if convicted, could face up to 16 years in prison.
Never mind that the hijackers probably will and OJ certainly won't face that knid of prison time, if convicted. What kind of guidelines allow these possibilities? Sheesh.
Yeah yeah, I know: this is the same justice system that releases rapists after about 5 years and locks up drug users for 10-15. At least there you can see the agenda at work. But this? I don't get it.
Sunday's newspaper contained two articles on the same page. One was about some people who hijacked a bus and apparently threatened to roll it (or drive it off a cliff, or something like that). The article noted that, if convicted, they face up to 15 years in prison.
The other article was about OJ's "road rage" (sic) trial. He is accused of reaching through someone's open car window during an argument and grabbing the driver's glasses, scratching him in the process. (The article said "scratch", not "cut".) This has landed in criminal court. OJ, if convicted, could face up to 16 years in prison.
Never mind that the hijackers probably will and OJ certainly won't face that knid of prison time, if convicted. What kind of guidelines allow these possibilities? Sheesh.
Yeah yeah, I know: this is the same justice system that releases rapists after about 5 years and locks up drug users for 10-15. At least there you can see the agenda at work. But this? I don't get it.
SCA music stuff
Oct. 23rd, 2001 09:39 pmOur local SCA group has traditionally hosted an event dedicated to music and dance every couple of years, give or take. The day consists of several tracks of classes and, generally, two balls. (The first is modelled on what we know of real balls in the 16th century, which are more performance than social dancing. The second is the typical SCA social dance. Both are lots of fun; they are very different.)
It's been more than two years since we did the last one of these, so people are starting to drop not-so-subtle hints, like walking up to the usual suspects and asking what the date of the next one is. So Ts'vee'a is in the process of organizing something, and she hit me up to help organize the classes. This makes sense; I do have a laurel (the SCA's highest arts award) for music, after all. :-)
This got me thinking about a class I tried to teach a few years ago, at Pennsic, that I think was a failure. Pennsic is a multi-day event, so it's the perfect place to schedule something that's going to take 4 or 5 hours. (In a one-day event, you won't get takers.) I did a composition workshop, modelled on writers' workshops: you send in your piece in advance, along with whatever notes you have about the style you were trying to do and stuff like that, and everyone gets everyone else's submissions and we all get together to discuss. Sounds fun, but I only got two takers and they weren't very talkative. It turned into individual tutoring, sort of. I felt pretty unhappy about it. It takes me a while to psych myself up to do any sort of presentation (other than music performance) in front of groups of people who aren't already close friends, and when something like that happens I can just feel my self-esteem getting crushed that much more.
The topic came up last night, and someone suggested an alternative approach: do a shorter class (an hour?), bring a piece (or part of a piece) to arrange, and, as a group, develop it. e.g.: What shape of bass line does this melody imply? Now what would you do with the inner parts? Ok, that's a functional alto line, but what would you do to make it more interesting to sing? And so on.
I wonder how well this would work. I wonder if I can be clever enough to choose (or create) a piece, or snippet of a piece, that will trigger the most common problems in composition/arrangement.
Fortunately, I've got a while to figure out if I can do this; the event hasn't even been approved yet, and we're currently shooting for late April.
It's been more than two years since we did the last one of these, so people are starting to drop not-so-subtle hints, like walking up to the usual suspects and asking what the date of the next one is. So Ts'vee'a is in the process of organizing something, and she hit me up to help organize the classes. This makes sense; I do have a laurel (the SCA's highest arts award) for music, after all. :-)
This got me thinking about a class I tried to teach a few years ago, at Pennsic, that I think was a failure. Pennsic is a multi-day event, so it's the perfect place to schedule something that's going to take 4 or 5 hours. (In a one-day event, you won't get takers.) I did a composition workshop, modelled on writers' workshops: you send in your piece in advance, along with whatever notes you have about the style you were trying to do and stuff like that, and everyone gets everyone else's submissions and we all get together to discuss. Sounds fun, but I only got two takers and they weren't very talkative. It turned into individual tutoring, sort of. I felt pretty unhappy about it. It takes me a while to psych myself up to do any sort of presentation (other than music performance) in front of groups of people who aren't already close friends, and when something like that happens I can just feel my self-esteem getting crushed that much more.
The topic came up last night, and someone suggested an alternative approach: do a shorter class (an hour?), bring a piece (or part of a piece) to arrange, and, as a group, develop it. e.g.: What shape of bass line does this melody imply? Now what would you do with the inner parts? Ok, that's a functional alto line, but what would you do to make it more interesting to sing? And so on.
I wonder how well this would work. I wonder if I can be clever enough to choose (or create) a piece, or snippet of a piece, that will trigger the most common problems in composition/arrangement.
Fortunately, I've got a while to figure out if I can do this; the event hasn't even been approved yet, and we're currently shooting for late April.
