| Some notes on Yrichii ecology and culture |
[May. 8th, 2009|06:26 pm] |
First, go check out Walk in the Day: the Musical — I'll wait.
edit: They're "Yrichii" now. Unlike the old name, this one is (a loose transliteration of) a native word, probably a word for "people" in the language of one of the larger city-states in the south, where contact was established first.
I'll be throwing explanatory notes and background information on the setting of Walk in the Day in here until I get around to setting up my new personal wiki. Since I love world building (all that plot, character, and theme stuff — just an excuse!), this could get long, so to spare your friends pages, I'm adding a cut. ( Click for more information about the Yrichii, their culture, and their homeworld. ) |
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| Walk in the Day: the Musical |
[May. 8th, 2009|03:40 pm] |
Guess what I did this week? I wrote a one-act science fiction action/adventure musical about Quaker peacemakers and Space Marine engineers working together to save adorable fierce furry nocturnal aliens from extinction on a desert planet.
Yes, that musical. Yes, all of it. Last you heard, if you've been following this journal, there were four songs in this song-cycle. Now there are fourteen (the secret: a lot of repeated leitmotifs), linked together by about eight pages of prose dialogue. I know a lot more about the characters than I did before, and a lot more about the plot. Which is good, 'cause it's done.
After the cut, you'll find the complete script, and I recommend listening to the songs in context, but to ease your downloading, here's the complete list of songs (note that "Long, Bright Day" is three times longer and contains much more plot that the version posted last week):
[ edit: "Rules of War" has been expanded into "War vs. Peace/Open Your Eyes", which is a much deeper treatment of the just war vs. pacifism debate, please update your playlists accordingly. ]
mp3 — Called by the Shade
mp3 — Strange Rumors
mp3 — Speaking Lessons
mp3 — Long, Bright Day
mp3 — Science Lessons
mp3 — Shade
mp3 — Dark Moon Daughter
mp3 — Star-flecked Nights
mp3 — The Raid
mp3 — War vs. Peace/Open Your Eyes
mp3 — Peace vs. Peace
mp3 — The Escape
mp3 — Walk in the Day
mp3 — Meeting for Worship with Attention to Shade
This will be produced as an album, at some point — it's a single, self-contained album-sized work, so I have no worries about having future qualms about the exact selection of songs on it. I'd also love to stage it (like, really stage it), but that would require a Julie Taymor-like level of puppet design and an extremely creative lighting designer.
Meanwhile, if you would like to play any role (technical, vocal, or instrumental) in the production of an album, or if you would like to participate in an on-book cast (a recital, without blocking) at Swarthmore Alumni Weekend, Concertino, Pi-con, OVFF, GAFilk, Arisia, or Boskone, please let me know.
I'll also be posting some more expository notes in a separate entry to follow.
( Complete script (long!) after the cut ) |
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| And still more songs... |
[May. 3rd, 2009|04:56 pm] |
Lately I've recorded a number of my songs that have been "published" for a while, but for which I have not previously posted a recording. There are also several songs that have been finished for a while, but which I hadn't posted because I thought I would set up a new version of my website first — and I still think I wil soon, but I've realized we'll all have more fun if I continue to post songs here meanwhile. On top of that, there are some actually new songs (besides the ones just posted). Here goes:
MP3s have been posted of the following previously-published songs: "The Galaxy is Silent", "Clockwork", "The Highwayman", and "Stars on Our Heads".
I've written two additional songs in the "Walk in the Day" song-cycle: "Long, Bright Day" (mp3) and "Dark Moon Daughter" (mp3). I've also posted a new MP3 of "Walk in the Day" featuring the new and better revised lyrics.
The Storytellers' World is my catch-all setting for high-fantasy ideas. Once, it was only that, without any other unifying theme, which means it tended to indiscriminately accumulate retreads of familiar high-fantasy tropes.
Since deciding to unify it with the idea that it is a world created by storytelling, I've tried to account for as many of those tropes as possible in ways that tie them in to the nature of the world. This isn't strictly essential, since of course any high-fantasy trope can be incorporated into the world as part of the content of a story, but it's more elegant to explain a trope in terms of the structure of the story if I can.
One of the tropes that got in there was the idea of elves, particularly the noble but inscrutable high elves, whom you can fall in among and then go home to realize later that time has done something wacky while you were away — a bit of a mix of the Tolkien sort and the Thomas the Rhymer sort. The song "Two Streams of Time" (mp3) explains what these beings are doing in the Storytellers' World, and what can happen to people who accept their hospitality unawares.
"Honeybird" is about sex the birds and the bees. Which, you know, is a really strange euphemism for what people need to know about sex, because pollination is very different from what people do. There are all kinds of biological implausibilities in this song, starting with the very premise of a sentient pollinatee who is discriminating in her choice of mate, but if there were such creatures, they would totally enjoy National Geographic articles about hummingbirds, and sing lusty ballads about the birds and the bees sex. Sorry, no MP3 yet, but the tune is another variation of the same one I've used for "Circle Story" and "Love Letter" — which fits, somehow.
Two more video game songs (to video game tunes):
For the adorable action/physics/puzzle game World of Goo (highly recommended), "Ode to the Bridge Builder" (mp3), based on the track of the same name (which is in turn a variation of "Amazing Grace") from the game's soundtrack, the music for the level of the same name, which is near the end of world 1 and thus included in the free demo. You can watch a (very skilled) play-through of this level here, which will illustrate a lot of the gameplay references in the song. Like "Many Pikmin", this is an anthem in praise of teamwork.
For the NES adventure game Blaster Master, "FROG!" tells the strange story of this strange but wonderful game — Jason's pet frog Fred has escaped, and... then he randomly gets thrown into a video game, basically. The tune (no MP3 yet) is from level 4 of the game, which does indeed involve "fighting through and endless maze of twisty little slimy tunnels searching for [your character's] giant, mutant frog".
Two songs about A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, (possibly the best gee-whiz epic space opera adventure thriller ever written):
"Transcendence", the Fire Upon the Deep filk of Dar Williams's "The Ocean" which I said I wasn't going to write, so you should just listen to "The Ocean" and pretend I had filked it, has been written (⇐ spoiler warning). It's still very similar to Dar's original (moreso than any of my filks besides "The Vorlon Connection", which is identical to the original), so I feel ambivalent enough about posting a recording that I'm at least not going to do so right now.
Speaking of A Fire Upon the Deep, I've also finally (er, back in September) written a song for my favorite character in that book, the alien pack entity known as Peregrine. Like "So High, So Low", which is my song for the alien protagonist of A Deepness in the Sky, "Wandering Pilgrim Soul" (mp3) is mainly a character study but tied to a particular moment in the story, in this case near the beginning.
Jewish songs:
Two new Jewish songs were just posted, but you saw those already.
Even before those, I've had enough Jewish songs to make up an album for some time. I've known what the title of the album was going to be for some time, because I had come up with a great title for a Jewish filk album. I didn't know if there was going to be a title track, though...
And then, back in September, it all came together, as it seems to with me, with the insight that two stories are the same: the evil empire, the call, the quest in service of that redeeming power which binds the universe together — and not only those things, but also, and foremost, the desert (and it is the same desert!) — and so, out of that insight, I'm pleased to present "Yehudi Mind Tricks" (mp3 — note the musical reference in the chorus). Enjoy, and may the Force be with you! |
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| May Day gift #2: The firefly lantern |
[May. 3rd, 2009|01:11 pm] |
(See my previous entry for some background context which I won't repeat here.)
Another major Bryn Mawr tradition is the lantern — each student has a lantern, which is bestowed upon her during her first year at Lantern Night, a solemn occasion which serves as the sisterhood's initiation. (The Bryn Mawr traditions essentially constitute a single large sorority consisting of the entire student body.)
There are several occasions when these lanterns are traditionally lit, including step-sings, the night-time gatherings of song which close each of the major festivals. Guests are welcome at most of these events, and it's nice to bring a lantern, but of course it won't be a Bryn Mawr lantern. The last time I was at May Day, I made an impromptu origami lantern. (Why doesn't it burn? You'll see!) This year, I'm finally posting the instructions.
( instructions for making the firefly lantern after the cut )
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| May Day gift #1: Say to Wisdom, "You are my sister!" |
[May. 3rd, 2009|11:56 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | religion, song | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "Ashrei Adam Matza Chochmah" | ] |
As you may have noticed, my spiritual life is an eclectic patchwork — there's a solid core to it (although even that is a patchwork), but in general, when I see something I like, if I can find a way to make it fit, I will.
Through my relationship with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fiddledragon, one of the religions I have collected parts of is that of Bryn Mawr College, a Wisdom cult which I've mentioned before. One of the major festivals of this cult is May Day, which is observed on the Sunday closest to May 1st (i.e. today — happy May Day!).
May Day celebrates the completion of the school year and honors the graduating seniors. One of the traditions assocated with May Day is that of "May Day gifts", which are legacies which must remain at the college and are thus passed from a senior to the underclasswoman of her choice. While I'm not a Bryn Mawr alumna (obviously), my experience of those Bryn Mawr traditions which I have attended has been an inspiration to me, and I want to give something back. Or maybe I'm just feeling creative and enjoying my own cleverness. Anyway, here's the first of two "open source" May Day gifts:
The BMC school song is "Σοφιας" (Sophias), a hymn to Wisdom, and it had occurred to me that, hey, we have that idea in Judaism, too, and maybe I could translate "Σοφιας" into Hebrew. However, fiddledragon forbade me to do so, and since it is her tradition and not mine, I have abided by her decision.
On the other hand, we have that idea in Judaism, too... maybe I don't have to translate this one from Greek? Where have I seen... right, pretty much the whole Book of Proverbs! ( scans to "Greensleeves", after the cut ) |
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| In honor of Spring, a talking blues about a Jewish pagan's relationship to trees |
[May. 1st, 2009|01:49 am] |
I've been meaning to write something on this topic for a long time, and the universe, being wise, conspired to get it written today. I davened today in a clearing in the woods behind Avery Park in Newtonville, on my way to my Pilates class. Apple trees are blossoming all over, and Newton is full of them. And the dance between my Jewish and pagan identities and practices is in full swing. It must be spring! (Happy May Day!)
The Jewish practice of going out into nature to pray doesn't really need an apology from me — Reb. Nachman said it much better — but this is a topic that's dear to me, and it seemed like a good case for one of those perky essay-songs in which I explain my worldview in rhyming stanzas. Indeed, if that chord sequence hiding under the talking blues line sounds familiar, it's because you may have heard it before. Right, or you might not have, because I didn't put up an MP3 of that song until quite recently, so there you go.
And here you go:
"B'Tzibbur"
lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman
( Lots of lyrics and footnotes after the cut ) |
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| Another [pseudo]filk (about A Fire Upon the Deep) |
[May. 1st, 2009|01:19 am] |
My, it's been a long time. There have been a number of exciting things that happened that I meant to post something about, and then didn't. Someday, maybe, I will. I've been preoccupied, and I've been thinking that any day now I'll redo my website, and have been holding off updating my current website for that reason.
Setting all that aside, here's a post on the topic of pseudofilks, or cryptofilks, or whatever you want to call these things...
Often, when writing a song parody, I'll keep a line from the original song intact. Sometimes, that line motivated the parody in the first place. Other times, it comes as a surprise, even to me. Usually, the context of the filk changes the meaning of the line in a way that's particularly ironic, poignant, or otherwise powerful or punchliney. I mentioned a number of these at a song-parody-writing panel at Arisia.
And then there are the songs where, once I realize the twist that makes the parody work, the region of lyrics that can be kept, albeit with a changed meaning, grows and grows until it swallows the whole song. All the lyrics exactly the same. Then what? How do you perform such a filk — what establishes the context that changes the meaning, that makes the difference between the filk and the original song? These oddities are what I'm calling "pseudofilks".
The possibility of having a beloved song ruined for you forever minor, implicit spoilers for Babylon 5, and major spoilers for A Fire Upon the Deep follow ( after the cut ) |
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| Still more songs |
[Jun. 27th, 2008|04:13 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | song | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  silly | ] |
There are still a few songs to post from Contata. The next two songs, I wrote before Contata but held in reserve so that they would be a surprise:
The theme of the Contata song contest was לחיים (l'chayyim), which means "to life", so I wrote a Jewish song about genetic engineering. You may not know this, but Israel's thriving biotech sector goes way back. This song is about the very first Israeli biotech company — in fact, about the first Israeli biotech hostile takeover. It's a quirky tale of love, betrayal, genetic engineering, cattle rustling, and betrayal that's been handed down in my family for oh, about 3,500 years. I've taken the liberty of setting it to an appropriate-seeming tune, and here it is: "Sheep with Stripes" (mp3). And, by the way, Eyal reminds me that a ketunet passim really is just striped, and that "coat of many colors" is a 16th-century English innovation.
So, my concert at Contata followed the Tom Smith benefit concert, which finished up with Christine Lavin leading us all in a rousing rendition of Tom Paxton's "Peace Will Come", with both Toms listening in by cellphone. Yes, Tom Paxton was (virtually speaking) right there... fortunately or unfortunately, however, neither Tom was on the phone to hear the debut of "Stars on Our Heads", a filk of a similarly inspiring song that Tom Paxton co-wrote with Mark Elliott. I think both Toms would have been amused.
Now, it seems that every time there's a filk convention in New Jersey, someone has to sing "The Rolling Mills of New Jersey", which is a sort of ode to the mess that we've made of the place, as if that were New Jersey's fault. It's funny, sure, but some of my best friends are environmentalists who also happen to be proud to be from New Jersey, and they're kinda sick of it. So, in the wee hours of Sunday morning when I should have been asleep, I wrote an antidote: "The Living Earth of New Jersey". It's not all serious, though — the best antidote to a bad joke is a good one. See if you can catch the references. |
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| AI Psycho Guilt for Two |
[Jun. 27th, 2008|02:16 pm] |
Another pair of songs that could go with some narrative by way of explanation, although not original this time. Spoilers follow for 2001, Portal, and the general premise of Half-life and Half-life 2.
So, HAL and GLaDOS... have a lot in common. They're artificial intelligences assigned to scientific projects who ultimately demonstrate their commitment to scientific progress by killing (or trying to kill) the rest of the research team. They both have to be dismantled one personality module at a time by Our Plucky Protagonist. And they both sing catchy swan-songs that get stuck in your head (a point to which we'll return in a moment). It would seem natural to throw them together in some kind of crossover fanfic, and, indeed, it's been done.
That's a cute way to cross the characters, but it doesn't really do it for me — HAL and GLaDOS each come with a narrative context, a place, time, and science-fictional world. If we're going to write a crossover, let's really write a crossover. Luckily, this is almost trivial — while I've made some further adjustments, the basic idea is to just take the 2001 (probably excluding sequels) and Half-life (which includes Portal) continuities and concatenate them. This makes sense of the similarities between HAL and GLaDOS, ties together the topics of their respective research projects, and allows us to make an awful pun. Within this crossover context, I've filked both of their songs.
For those who just want to see the songs, here they are (lyrics only, for now): "Freaking Out" and "AI Psycho Guilt for Two". Further details of my crossover story ( follow the cut ) |
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| Walk in the Day |
[Jun. 24th, 2008|08:17 am] |
I seem to do a lot of my songwriting at and in the wake of conventions — I guess the creative juices get recharged, or something. Anyway, I have a lot of new songs to post, and in addition one song that was held in reserve so I could spring it out at Contata (which went over very nicely). Contrary to my earlier announcement, I will be posting them here, because proper handling of audio content on my new site requires a server upgrade that my hosts say will happen later this summer.
I'll be posting these in several batches because a number of them go together in groups that require some narrative framing. In this batch are two songs based on a short story, "Walk in the Day", which I'm hoping to get someone to write for me. You can listen to the songs, "Shade" (mp3) and "Walk in the Day" (mp3), first, or you can read the ( synopsis ) |
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| Lots of songs! |
[May. 13th, 2008|02:33 pm] |
Over the last week or so, I have had a musical flood — I've written a number of new songs, extensively revised a few old songs, and recorded yet more songs to which I posted lyrics long ago. I've also posted a number of songs that aren't new-to-me, but which hadn't been posted previously.
The complete list of updates is on my songs page, without commentary. Note that this will probably be the last major update to that page, and also the last batch of songs to be announced on this journal, because this summer I will be moving my web presence to a new site and a new format, about which I will post at length after it happens. I will continue to use this LJ account for the purposes of reading and commenting on other people's journals.
[η: links fixed]
"Love Letter" (mp3) has gotten a major revision, with the third verse and its chorus ripped out and replaced with two new verses and choruses. This song was always intended, not just as one of those quirky songs in which Ben explains his world-view, but as a love song to the Holy One, as something you could earnestly pray. The original version started in a devotional mood, but then made a very abrupt transition to critical-thinking-land. This revision makes the transition much smoother, and the point-of-view character less canny, which helps to carry that devotional energy into the second half of the song. Of all the changes, the key may be "Please don't say you expect me to take this or leave it / 'cause I love you too much to say no." I don't think it's a coincidence that "Love Letter" didn't get properly finished until between Pesach and Shavuot.
( click for even more songs ) |
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| Ars Magica Liberalis |
[Mar. 27th, 2008|01:39 pm] |
I have an idea for an RPG setting, which is clear enough in my mind and based on material which is well-enough known that I might actually think of producing a sourcebook for it, especially if I get some help.
The short version is this: what if academics was magic?
The roots of this idea go back a long way. As philosopher Ken Wilber and my friends in the Sisterhood of the Owl reminded me last spring, Western civilization once had a Wisdom tradition of its own, comparable to those of the East — a tradition of contemplative, mystical insight, passed from teacher to student.
The same ancients had a clear notion of a good education, and when the traditions of scholarship in the West were restored — in the form of a clerical (if firmly exoteric) order of which most of you are members! — so was that notion. And, as the aptly-named quadrivium points out, the ancients believed that such knowledge was power in a sense that we might well call magical. Similar connections obtain between my chosen field of study and that other ancient tradition (clerical, scholarly, and mystical) in which I have a portion.
Concretely, this is the same old geek trope about an RPG of college life, with character classes for majors, and so forth, only writ large and taken seriously. I have a handful of particular ideas. (A few of these are based loosely on unpublished proprietary content and will have to be vetted and redacted before they can be publicly discussed.) The basic concept could be embedded in any of a number of RPG systems, Ars Magica being the most obvious, if only because of the appropriateness of the name. Mage: The Awakening, which I've seen described as "Ars Magica modern", could also work, with some modifications.
So, first, has this been done? I don't count Ars Magica itself because, as far as I know, it's a setting in which the Western esoteric tradition is real magic, whereas I'm talking about a setting where exoteric knowledge is real magic. And, second, anyone want to help me brainstorm this? I'm particularly hoping to hear from quadrivium, mnemex, and gaudior and friends, but anyone who wants to is welcome to contribute. |
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| Goodbye friends page, hello friends! |
[Mar. 27th, 2008|11:15 am] |
In all likelihood I will never look at http://orawnzva.livejournal.com/friends again.
DON'T PANIC, it's not because I don't love you! It's because I've lately discovered that my RSS reader, Vienna, being browser-based, authenticates to livejournal.com using a magic cookie just like any other web-browser, and thus I can pull down all the LJ that's fit for me to read as RSS. This completely obsoletes my previous system for keeping track of which LJ posts I have and have not read.
As part of the migration process, I have made some minor adjustments to the set of journals I read and to my friends list (note that there is now no essential link between these two sets). I make very few locked entries, and the main consideration when adjusting which information pipes I'm subscribed to is my time and sanity, so, as far as I'm concerned, these adjustments are of relatively small social weight. However, if it is for whatever reason important to you whether or not (a) I keep track of what's going on with you or (b) you have access to my occasional more personal musings, I will gladly take that into consideration.
note: I've been using a DefaultView custom friends group to filter my friends page, and I will, at least for the time being, continue to keep it synchronized with the set of livejournals I am actually reading, so you can check whether or not I am reading your journal by looking for your own entries on my friends page. |
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| Userpic ideas |
[Mar. 13th, 2008|04:56 pm] |
Meanwhile, despite the latest stupidity, I'll definitely be keeping my LJ account around for reading and commenting purposes... and I've been thinking that I could use a few more userpics — three more, to be precise, since that's what I get.
I currently have three userpics, which I associate (roughly) with wonder, compassion/intimacy, and snark/outrage respectively. I'm looking for three more. I'm not sure how often I will be posting (I don't post that often now), so these will be mainly be used for commenting, suggesting that they should convey attitudes/emotions rather than topics. (The one topic I'm likely to continue to post on is music.) Basically, I'm hoping for comments from people who know me well enough to identify conversational moods of mine which are not well-covered by my current set of userpics.
At some point in the not-too-distant future I will be moving and completely redesigning my personal website, at which point even the stuff I have been posting to LJ (i.e. songs and commentary on songs) will be best-viewed over there. |
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| LJ drops Basic accounts, bother! |
[Mar. 13th, 2008|04:32 pm] |
Apparently, LJ will no longer allow the creation of Basic (free, ad-free) accounts. Existing accounts can (for now) still be switched to and from Basic status. The latest news posting (which might, theoretically, have prominently mentioned this) says nothing about this change.
As has been ranted about at greater length elsewhere, this is a violation of (legally non-binding, but quite explicit) promises LJ has made in the past regarding the character of its service and its relationship with users. Brad, original founder of LJ and now Not In Charge, but on an advisory board which is apparently going to be ignored by the new Powers That Be, agrees that this was a breach of trust and a bad move.
I'm not sure what I'm planning to do about this. My account will remain Basic unless and until there's another change in policy (I wouldn't trust an assertion that this won't happen if I were given one), but I can certainly no longer recommend in good conscience that anyone join LJ in order to keep up with me. On the other hand, I don't post here all that often. People can follow my journal, such as it is, using RSS, and comment anonymously or using an OpenID, and I have few locked posts.
At the same time, I will say this: Why have so many of us put ourselves in this position where the data that make up our personal and social lives is held by a company that we don't control and with whom we don't even have a real contract? For each other. I could drop LJ in a moment — log out and never log back in — if everyone on LJ whom I care about would follow me. They only have a hold on me because they have a hold on you, and so on, circularly. We are hostages. We came because it was a good deal, but we will stay even if it becomes a bad deal, at least for a while.
Where could we go? Another social networking site? There are others that have better reputations (InsaneJournal seems to be an especially popular destination for LJ refugees)... or, we could hope for some software and protocols that would allow us to achieve the same functions we get from LJ while hosting our content on whatever machines we choose. |
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| That meme that's going around |
[Mar. 13th, 2008|04:07 pm] |
Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don’t blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don’t blog about, but you’d like to hear about, and I’ll write a post about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on tv, favorite type of underwear, stories I'm working on, travel, etc. Repost in your own journal so that we can all learn more about each other.
Comments are screened. |
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| A new song about Love, G♥d, Relationships, and the Law of Contracts |
[Feb. 28th, 2008|06:42 pm] |
I've been filking my way through the Jewish calendar for a while now, and am pleased to announce that I am finally (according to some interpretations) done! There are two groups of Jewish holidays which could each be viewed as a single extended holiday, and I've now got one song for each group (and for the other major holidays) but not for each individual holiday within each group. (See below for the complete list.)
The song which completes the sequence is "Love Letter" (MP3), which picks up the biblical narrative at Pesach but is really about Shavuot. On Shavuot, we celebrate the revelation of the Torah at Sinai. The Jewish interpretive tradition likens G!d and Israel to lovers, the revelation at Sinai to a wedding, and the Torah to a marriage contract, and reads the Song of Songs as an allegory of this story (which it is, and...). It's touching, it's meaningful... but let's ( look at the particulars... )
Incidentally, yes, the tune is very similar to "Circle Story" (MP3), which is a coincidence but not an accident — compare the section of "Circle Story" covering the corresponding part of the calendar and you'll see why.
( the list of Jewish holiday songs ) |
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| You make my day |
[Feb. 25th, 2008|05:26 pm] |
from thnidu:
Pick 10 people and give them the "you make my day" award.
If you're picked, you are charged with picking 10 of your own.
Perhaps you've been picked because I actually look forward to reading your journal entries.
Maybe I know you in real life and I have deep affection for you.
You could have cheered me up when I was sad or it could be something as simple as giving me a hug whenever you see me.
Or it could be that you have trusted me with a deep dark secret.
The following people on my friends list have my award for one of the above stated reasons:
Now, if you feel so inclined, pass it on! |
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| Lots of Jewish songs |
[Nov. 20th, 2007|05:00 pm] |
Four Jewish songs — one is new, one was written back August but was kept under wraps until now for seasonal reasons, one was posted before but now has an MP3 up, and one has been in the MP3 directory on my website for some time and I simply neglected to mention it.
"My People's Story" (MP3) was inspired in large part by this post, and by a top-secret plan I'm working on which will be revealed in due time. It's about the journey of the Jewish people through history and layers (upon layers upon layers) of sacred text, up to and including these very songs, and beyond.
"Dedication" (MP3) is the Chanukah song I've been meaning to write — I actually wrote it at the NHC summer institute, but I've been saving it until this season. I've been writing my way around the Jewish year with songs that approach the story of each holiday in a certain way, but certain holidays had been eluding me, and, at about midnight on the last night of the institute, I ( finally figured out why. )
I've finally posted an MP3 of "Cracked", which was posted and discussed here. (Also, "The Ballad of Surf and Turf", also posted there, is finally linked from my main songs page.)
"Modim" is a musical setting of the thanksgiving prayer from the daily liturgy. This blessing has an awful lot of big words with many syllables. In order to make it all fit, I had to rearrange it a little, but this is basically the whole thing. |
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| Very unkosher deep-fried Chanukah party 12/8 |
[Nov. 18th, 2007|02:25 pm] |
Dear friends,
The month of Kislev is upon us, and that means that Chanukah is coming, and with it, in commemoration of the miracle of the oil, my annual excursion into the art of deep-frying. Last year, there was far too much food for two people to eat, and there easily could have been even more, so this year, you are invited to my first-ever...
Very Unkosher Deep-Fried Chanukah Party
When: Saturday December 8th, after Shabbat (including havdalah) (i.e. around 5:30)
Where: My apartment in Waltham, very near Brandeis
What: Festivities will begin with havdalah, the simple ritual marking the end of the Jewish Sabbath. Then, the wok will be heated up. Songs of the season will be sung, and games will be played, but, really, it's all about
the...
Food: Some selection of the following items will be immersed in 375-degree organic soybean oil for your eating pleasure:
* pappadums
* potato, winter squash, carrot, and beet chips, fries, and/or tempura
* tofu
* vegetarian wontons of various flavors
* fish tempura
* local, seasonally available, sustainably harvested cold-water shrimp
In the main round of deep-frying, the vegetarian items will be prepared first, and the shrimp last, for those who will eat food prepared in a non-kosher kitchen, but not food that has been fried in the very same oil as shrimp (which seems like a reasonable position to me). Almost all items will be wholly or partially local, organic, and/or fair trade, but (as with kashrut) no guarantee of overall purity with respect to any of these standards can be made for any particular item.
Some non-deep-fried items, in particular salad and gazpacho, will also be available.
For those concerned about the healthiness of deep-fried food, you should be aware that properly deep-fried food (which I hope mine is) absorbs very little oil while it is cooking, and is in fact much less oily than pan-fried food (like latkes).
If you would like to come, RSVP. If you are interested in bringing a
potluck item, including items-to-be-deep-fried, feel free to do so and
please let me know what you are thinking of bringing.
[ edit: Further updates will be sent out by email, so please include an email address if you RSVP here. Comments are now screened. ] |
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