The Quilt, Part 5

After massive amounts of swearing, kicking things and generally causing catastrophe among my very limited pool of fabric, I've finally completed the cutting. There were quite a number of design modifications that took place throughout the process, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks now. I had to make a couple decisions that were tough. My Riyadh square changed a bit tonight, and I opted for a light green on the top instead of the blue, mainly because it balanced the colors on the whole, even though I liked the way the square looked on its own before.

And because I just couldn't wait to get this thing pieced together, I got two seams sewed tonight. Two because, well, the sewing machine started acting up and it was late. So I took pictures and went to bed. But I did get a couple things put together, including this snazzy little section of quilt featuring a musician we all know and love (and by we, I pretty much mean me and Megan, and by love, I do mean idolize in an unhealthy way that will inevitably lead to a restraining order handed to us at one of his concerts.)

Speak of the devil, we'll be seeing the lad himself Wednesday night playing alongside Josh Ritter at the Zoo Tunes series at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.

A completely unrelated aside, if you haven't peeped out Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog you should. He has a PhD in horribleness.

Here be shutterbugs...

Megan and I went camping with her family over the weekend, and it was a great opportunity to break in our BRAND NEW DIGITAL CAMERA!

I'm sure everyone else there other than Megan and me LOVED stopping every couple of yards to go "Ooo! Let's try to take a photo of THAT!"

But our experimentation paid off. We figured out a lot about working with our camera, including how to get the time-lapse shot above. Unfortunately without a tripod, most of my attempts at those cheesy water-flow time-lapse shots didn't work, because I was trying to put the camera against a rock or something near by to stabilize it. I had to throw out a lot of shots that just didn't come out okay.

I'm especially happy to have a camera with such a nice visual range. The wide angles are fun, and I've never really played with wider angles on a decent camera, so I tried some stuff like that tree.

I feel like I've got some work/practice to do before I get some of those snazzy shots Cat always seems to find, but if the zillion photos I took this weekend are any indication, I'll have some time to practice.

One of my favorite features is the image stabilizer, which I'm told is supposed to help a shaky camera in low light or zoomed in really far. We were playing cards the first night I was out there (Megan and kin headed out Thursday, so us working blokes had to catch up later), and trying out the camera between turns. I really like how this one of Megan turned out, even though her hands are flaying about a bit. I just like the motion in the background with her still face. Not a shot I'd be able to do with my old manual SLR methinks.

I narrowed down the collection of photos from the trip to a digestible 16 photos, which can be found at my Picasa page.

Listening to update

It's been so long that I updated my "Listening To" section that I've had to wipe out everything that was there before. And what's this? No Andrew Bird? Well, he's between albums so well let it slide this time.

I am sad to see Basia Bulat leave the list, because I still listen to her quite a bit. But out with the old, in with the new!

Here's what I've been listening to in more detail, and each of them has a YouTube video of one of the songs from the album, although not all the videos are "official" or sanctioned by the artists:

R.E.M. - Accelerate
I was going to blog about this album, but instead submitted my thoughts to Nada Mucho who kindly posted them here. As you'll see in the review, I love the album to death and it's got me pretty damned nostalgic.
This here is a video of "Supernatural Superserious."

Sibylle Baier - Colour Green
A german actress who recorded her songs on a reel-to-reel when in the 1970s but had no interest in a musical career. I'm not even sure if you could have found her at a local open mic if you tried.
Her son however digitized the recordings and passed them on to friends and relations, and they eventually found their way to a record label, and these are the results.
She writes beautifully heartfelt songs that seem much more grounded in dealing with the crap in front of her than becoming drowned in maudlin emotions. The love songs seem unusually healthy, singing odes to her husband (?) for listening to her talk about a hard day at work.
These nice folks posted a video on youtube with my favorite Baier song as the soundtrack.

Terry Callier - The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier
Callier is a perfect fit alongside Baier. His "New Folk" sound is about as mellow as her home-recorded sound, and his voice is smooth and deep. He's had a bit of a resurgence in popularity thanks to Beth Orton, who's recorded with him a number if times. I really like listening to this one while driving through the ag side of Skagit Valley.
This is a posting of the opening track on Youtube. The site isn't acting up. It's just the music set to a still photo. If you like that song, check out this dudes spastic version. I don't know who he is, he was just recommended on the sidebar of the Callier video.

Duffy - Rockferry
A coworker at the The Port Orchard Independent thought I might like Duffy, and she couldn't have been more right, which only proves that I really am Starbucks' target demographic. Those jerks, trying to sell me music I like. How I hate 'em!
But Duffy is one of the so-called "New Amy's" but I actually find myself more comfortable with these songs than Amy Winehouse's petulant and alcohol-infused croonings.
Here's a video of the opening track. It reminds me of The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony."

Bo Diddley - The Definitive Collection
I didn't have anything by Bo Diddley, which was inexcusable. But like I said before I don't really have anything to say about Mr. Diddley that hasn't been said already.

Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue
I love Nina Simone, and have a couple CDs, but couldn't resist buying this one after hearing it with some people I kinda know in Köln, Deutschland.
The title track is a simple piano rendition of "Good King Wenceslas" with non-yuletide melody and lyrics laid on top. It's not a Christmas song, but if it was it would be the saddest Christmas song ever.
Here be a video montage of Nina Simone pictures with the song in question in the background. If this song doesn't bring tears to your eyes, see a doctor about that shriveled heart.

Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple
The new album is at least as good as the last one. I love these guys because they cram more pop brilliance into just a few minutes. The songs are only as long as they ever need to be.
This video from the album is brilliant if only for the hilarious appearance by Justin Timberlake, which looks like it came straight out of that episode of The Cosby Show when Theo wanted to get onto a music dance show.

In The Heights - Broadway Cast Recording
It's pretty rare for me to get into the soundtrack of a musical without seeing the show, but the opening track of this now Tony-winning show had me pretty transfixed. Megan and I have already made a pact to shell out for whatever tickets cost if this show tours to Seattle. It's really an amazing montage of different latin and hip-hop styles, and the protagonist is incredibly endearing, not just because his name is Usnavy. (you've probably never heard is name, reports of his fame are highly exaggerated... ahem...)
Seriously though, I can't recommend this enough. Here's a video of the recording sessions for the song "96,000."

"Help" The Police

I'm pretty sure this is how Ice Cube meant the song to be. Also, this is possibly the best thing ever.


http://view.break.com/510247 - Watch more free videos

Almost forgot. This video came from a tip from Discord/Harmony's Cologne, Germany correspondent.