| Schedule update |
[09 Nov 2009|03:40pm] |
 It's been a good Fall season for us so far. Good times with good friends and loved ones. Staying employed, knock on wood, and staying generally healthy, knock on wood. Gorgeous fall colors around town, and the rain has officially settled in to Seattle for the season.
We've got gigs coming up, including a new one just announced on the day after Christmas:
Sunday, November 15th
Vixy and Tony, with violinist Sunnie, and cellist Betsy will be playing at House Cerulia this coming Sunday afternoon. We'll be welcoming special guest CD Woodbury, a guitarist with more chops than a butcher shop. We might even welcome yet another super special guest to play with us at some point during the evening, come find out how the heck we're going to have six people performing in that living room and still have room for an audience. Speaking of which, if you're planning on coming, please RSVP to House Cerulia as soon as possible so that they know how many people to plan for. Click here for more details.
Thursday, November 19th, Friday, November 20th, Tuesday, December 1st
Also coming up at Cerulia House, I'll be playing guitar for Marian Call on the Thursday following the Vixy & Tony concert. I'm also playing guitar for her at Cafe Allegro on the 20th, and in Tacoma on December 1st. She's awesome, of course, and there are some great new songs in her set list, so come see us play! Hit up her page for all the details.
Saturday, November 28th
Orycon is coming! Are you ready? Details here.
Saturday, December 19th
Vixy & Tony return to Wayward Coffeehouse, again with our own personal string section, but this time welcoming very special guests, our friends ASH Productions, making a special trip up to Seattle just to play with us. Don't miss this rare opportunity to see these sweet, wonderful sisters blend harmonies as smooth as silk. Details here.
Saturday, December 26th
Just announced! Vixy & Tony will be the backup band for Seanan McGuire, our good friend, author, and songwriter whose recently-published urban fantasy novel, Rosemary and Rue, is getting rave reviews. Wayward Coffeehouse will play host to a combined concert of Seanan's songs and readings from her books. Details here.
Whew! That's a lot of stuff, and that's not even mentioning the conventions coming up early next year that we're really excited about. I thought this fall/winter season was going to calm and relaxing. What happened?
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| Pegasus 2009 |
[24 Oct 2009|05:44pm] |
 Pegasus 2009 Awards are over. Thank you so much, everyone. We are floored. Every time we get nominated, I look at the field and I'm convinced that everyone else in the category is much more deserving of the award. We're so honored.
Among the highlights of the weekend so far was Rand & Adam from Ookla the Mok interrupting our acceptance speech Kanye West-style with, "I'm 'a let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time!" Pretty much the perfect gag.
Here is the full award list for 2009:
Best Filk Song
The Wreck of the Crash of the Easthill Mining Disaster by Brooke Lunderville
Best Classic Filk Song
Still Catch the Tide by Talis Kimberley
Best Performer
Heather Dale & Ben Deschamps
Best Writer/Composer
Vixy & Tony
A Little Bit Country (2009 floating category)
Stray Dog Man by Bill Sutton
A Little Bit Rock and Roll (2009 floating category)
Six-String Love by Vixy & Tony
Off to the Interfilk Auction with us, then the huge filk circle of doom. There's still two nights worth of filking left to do!
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| Achy Breaky Earworm |
[16 Oct 2009|11:47am] |
Today's Straight Dope is a very interesting one about earworms. Much was stuff we already knew (the "itch" concept, for example), but a couple of items amused me, including this one:
In the early 1980s Chicago parking garage bigwig Myron Warshauer used earworms as the basis of a patented "musical theme floor reminder system," in which a different well-known song plays in each floor's elevator lobby. When you come back hours later and can't remember what floor you parked on, all you have to do is pay attention to the tune that's (theoretically) still running through your head - the song titles are listed opposite the buttons in the elevators.
In other news, Brütal Legend is hilarious, we're going to see Alton Brown speak tonight, and OVFF is next weekend. Who's going?
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| Jobs! |
[05 Oct 2009|10:15am] |
 My company is hiring for a Director of Information Technology. I'm also told we're looking for a temporary Web Developer position that may go permanent (it's Windows ASP/SQL/Dotnet type stuff). They pay well, the atmosphere is relaxed and positive, and I like the people I work with. I get a decent referral bonus, so ping me if you want me to submit your resumé for you.
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| Successful evening |
[27 Sep 2009|06:55pm] |
Last night's Shindig at Wayward was a huge amount of fun and was well-attended. Thanks everyone for coming, and making it awesome! We got to talk to a lot of new people, which made us very happy.
Edit: Pictures here.
Vixy and I don't have any local public appearances scheduled for October, but it doesn't mean we're not busy. We're playing a private party for a friend and also heading to OVFF near the end of the month. We're really looking forward to it!
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| Monkey Brains! |
[14 Sep 2009|11:51pm] |
 ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) omnisti calls to my attention the existence of the Monkey Brains line of Oatmeal products*.
And Jeff, God of Biscuits has posted a weekend recap of the events of the weekend of events of things happening.
I have a Monkey Brains t-shirt on the way, and life is good. :-)
* I'm not endorsing or trying to advertise the product, I'm just amused because that's the name of my recording studio.
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| Digital is so much easier. |
[12 Sep 2009|06:36pm] |
 So we're in Jeff Bohnhoff's legendary Mystic Fig studios this weekend, with cadhla, harmonyheifer and it_aint_easy, recording tracks for the Bohnhoff's next parody album. Jeff and Maya, you see, alternate between doing serious albums and parody albums, and we're on the parody side of the clock this year. Jeff's already going to Hell for parodying Stairway and Smoke on the Water, so now he's just digging himself deeper with a Bohemian Rhapsody parody.
It's funny how things always come full circle. The original recording contained 180 separate overdubs for its operatic bridge, causing technical problems because of the excessive number of bounce-downs required. A bounce is when you take several finished tracks from a recording and permanently combine them into a single track, so that you free up more tracks on the tape machine for recording more parts. This is a perfectly valid way to work, but it means you can never go back and edit just one of the bounced parts; you've got to be absolutely sure those tracks are perfect before you start the bounce. Queen worked on a very-modern-for-its-time 24-track system, and the most modern tape-based recording systems can do 48, 96, or more tracks before you need to start bouncing.
You'd think that computer recording technology would solve this, and it does... kinda. Modern recording software allows virtually unlimited tracks, but it introduces problems of its own. We're only about half done with the tracking on this thing, and Jeff's top-of-the-line computer is already breaking under the stress, occasionally running out of memory and crashing when we add another track. I've never actually seen a computer-based recording project so large that it actually needed bounce-downs, but I'm wondering if Jeff's actually going to need to resort to that ancient technique just to keep the project file running.
Other than that, the session is going well, the song is hilarious, we're all having a huge amount of fun, and it's an absolute kick to hear the results played back; it sounds amazing.
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| Job! |
[09 Sep 2009|02:10pm] |
My company is hiring for a tech support engineer position. They pay well, the atmosphere is relaxed and positive, and I like the people I work with. I get a decent referral bonus, so ping me if you want me to submit your resumé for you.
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| Fictional Manifesting |
[06 Sep 2009|03:38pm] |
There should be a name for this practice: the act of creating an entire retail company with the same name as a fictional company portrayed in a movie. This is something distictly different from simple Merchandising, where you create obvious tie-in products.
The prime example of this practice is Viacom's calculated and deliberate creation of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, which didn't exist until after the movie. I can think of one other off the top of my head: Willy Wonka chocolates. But I'm having trouble coming up with others, even though I know they exist. Anyone have examples?
As much as Lucas is a genius at merchandising, we still haven't seen the Incom space fighter company appear yet, although I wouldn't put it past him to have something like that on a back burner somewhere. Perhaps he's just waiting for Branson to get the tech perfected.
Discussing this here in the car, omnisti and I have decided this practice should be called Fictional Manifesting. If no one knows of a better term, or a term that's already in use, I propose this be adopted as the standard term.
Then we can use the term for cross-lnking in Wikipedia.
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| Pterippi |
[30 Aug 2009|10:06am] |
Pegasus 2009 Ballot is up. Some names on there you might recognize, and some really tough choices in all the categories.
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| Food for the soul! |
[29 Aug 2009|11:41pm] |
 Thanks so much for coming to Soulfood on Friday night! It was fantastic. There was so much energy in the air, and when Clint got on stage to drum with us, the energy just went through the roof. So many awesome people were there... we met and talked to a lot of great folks we hadn't met before, and saw lots of good friends too. When a night like that can be so amazing with only a couple of days notice... wow, imagine what we could do with only one days' notice!
We love getting the chance to play with Sooj and Betsy so much. I can't remember what it was like without them around.
Bonus: soulfood was doing streaming video, here's last night's stream...
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Our next scheduled show (unless something sudden comes up again) is the Sereniversary at Wayward on September 26th. That will be a great opportunity to see Vixy & Tony playing with Sunnie, the wonderful fiddler who you can hear on two of the songs on Thirteen.
Speaking of schedules, has anyone been using the Vixy & Tony .ICS calendar file we posted on the Schedule page a while back? It's been malfunctioning on and off recently, and in an attempt to fix it, we've changed the URL and the script that generates it. The new one seems to work for the moment, so give that one a try. See the Schedule page for details.
See you all in September!
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| Post-Faerieworlds |
[03 Aug 2009|11:02pm] |
 The last day of Faerieworlds was fantastic. At the end of the day, we all gathered at the campground with our Ash, Erosong, Coppermoon, Cerulia, and Sidhehaven friends. Singing songs around the campfire gains a slightly surreal air when you have a string section instead of just a guitar. As the sparks from the campfire floated into the sky and the nighttime chill closed in around us, drawing us closer to the fire, I was reminded that sometimes the best and most magical moments from a festival are the ones that aren't part of the event itself, rather they're the result of the gathering of people. That's really what these sorts of things are always about: simply getting everyone together so that awesome things can happen.
As promised, here's a picture of Torrey and Vixy as a perfect Jareth and Sarah, posing with Toby Froud.
My fondest thanks to Emilio and Kelly for having us in your Realm this year. It was magical.
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| Faerieworlds! |
[02 Aug 2009|01:24pm] |
Faerieworlds last day today! We're prepping to head back out to the site now.
We've had a fantastic time so far, and met many wonderful new people and saw amazing sights. Highlights so far: Toby Froud walking around operating a 40-foot-tall articulated puppet, seeing Faun and Delhi 2 Dublin, and seeing Vixy and Torrey dressed as the most perfect Sarah and Jareth pair you could imagine. Anyone with good pictures of the latter, please comment on this thread and I'll put links here.
There were so many wonderful costumes I can't begin to describe them all. Many of them (including Torrey's Jareth) seemed to be in defiance to the incredible, oppressive heat. There was a gentleman in a fantastic black and white death/spectre outfit with full robes and face prosthetics who remained in full character the entire time. He must have lost ten pounds over the course of the weekend. At the same time, many of the costumes were perfectly appropriate for the weather, with more beautiful bare and/or painted skin than you can imagine.
Tricky Pixie played two fantastic sets with Vixy joining them, and we loved hanging out with our loved ones for so much of the festival. Gaia Consort was awesome, too, and we're hoping to catch their second set today. It's been wonderful spending the weekend with Sooj, K, Alec, Sunnie, Betsy, and Dave, and it was particularly wonderful playing with Betsy, Sooj, and Sunnie in our set on Saturday.
To those who came to the Vixy & Tony set, and/or bought CDs, thanks so much for coming! We loved playing for all you new folks, and we hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as we did, and that you enjoy the CD. Please say "hi" in comments, we'd love to hear from you!
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| Wow! |
[26 Jul 2009|01:22pm] |
 Last night's Kitten Sundae show at A Gathering Grove was incredibly fun! The energy was amazing, you were all so awesome. Thank you so much, everyone, for coming and making the evening special. The people at the piano bar next door didn't know what they were missing.
Coming up we've got... <looks at calendar> OMG we've got Faerieworlds this weekend! That's crazy. Vixy & Tony are scheduled to play a short set at 3:15 on Saturday at the Village Stage, joined by Sooj, Betsy, and Sunnie. I'm told that the word "schedule" in this context means more of a loose approximation of a vague idea, and that if you're coming to Faerieworlds you'll need to keep an open mind with regards to such things. In other words, be prepared for schedule changes and check at the venue for updated information. There's also Tricky Pixie followed by Gaia Consort at Friday 4:15 on the Main Stage, and Tricky Pixie at 1pm on Saturday at the Main Stage. Don't miss it!
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| Wayward! And the Grove! |
[20 Jul 2009|01:22pm] |
Thank you so much, everyone, for making last Friday's CSTS pre-screening shindig at Wayward so awesome. We had a fantastic time and we can't wait to come back and do it all over again in September.
Reminder: Vixy & Tony and Skinny White Chick are joining forces to become the unstoppable force that is Kitten Sundae, at A Gathering Grove in Everett, this coming Saturday evening. Come help us celebrate The Grove's one-year anniversary!
Which reminds us all that it's been about one year since we've started performing shows with Sooj. I can't believe what an amazing year this has been. So much has happened that I can't begin to describe it all. Thank you, Sooj, for making this all possible.
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| Summer! Of Love! |
[12 Jul 2009|12:36pm] |
Last night, Vixy & Tony played our first wedding as a duo, the wedding of elocinnuala and jormundgun, held at the amazing home of saladofdoom and stealthcello. It was huge fun. Any wedding that ends with a firespinning show by shivana and hammerdancer is made of win. The bride wanted unclechristo's Lifespell as the processional, and it came out perfectly, especially since we had stealthcello and solcita as our string section. It was so beautiful. The evening ended with a gorgeous golden cloud-encrusted moonrise in the East, echoed by distant lightning storms to the West.
Coming up, we've got our gypsy loved ones s00j and omnisti returning to the Pacific Northwest for a big part of the summer, during which they will release the new Tricky Pixie Studio Album Mythcreants on July 23rd in Kenmore. We've heard signficant portions of this album already (seeing as how Vixy sings on some of the songs), and I assure you it will blow you away. You won't believe what they've done with Tam Lin.
Finally, we've got upcoming Vixy & Tony shows!
Friday, July 17 - 7:00 pm
Can't Stop the Serenity Pre-Screening Shindig
Wayward Coffeehouse
8570 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle, Washington 98103
Cost: donation jar
Saturday the 18th is the annual Can't Stop The Serenity screening, with a portion of the proceeds going to Equality Now. Wayward Coffehouse is hosting a shinding the night before, which will be a double bill show of Vixy & Tony and Skinny White Chick. There will, of course, be a lot of crossover between band members, as is our tradition in such situations.
Saturday, July 25 - 7:00 pm
Kitten Sundae at A Gathering Grove
2820 Oakes Ave Suite C, Everett, Washington 98201
Cost: donation jar
Help us celebrate the anniversary of the opening of A Gathering Grove with a concert by Kitten Sundae. Here, we succumb to our urges and fully merge the Vixy & Tony band with the Skinny White Chick band, forming an unstoppable supergroup made of kittens and ice cream.
Saturday, August 1 - 3:15 pm
Faerieworlds 2009 - Village Stage
(NEW LOCATION!) Mt. Pisgah Arboretum, Eugene, Oregon 97405
Cost: Faerieworlds Membership
We'll be at Faerieworlds all weekend as attendees, but will be performing Saturday on the Village stage. We're hoping to be joined by Sunnie Larsen, Betsy Tinney & SJ Tucker, schedules permitting! The date and time (and stage) are subject to change if necessary, so please check the schedule when you get there.
How'd our summer get so busy all of a sudden?
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