Selfies - if ya hate 'em, skip this post

Okay, so I have embarked on this: http://www.viviennemcmasterphotography.com/beloved-beginnings/

I will probably take longer than ten days, but hey, I don't mind, I am going to have FUN with this.

Today I went to the park after dinner and played around with taking pictures in the late afternoon light. So here are the best and the funniest.

This one was a complete fluke, because I didn't realise that I hadn't zoomed back out after the previous shot - I am simply extending my arm and pointing it at my profile, and I'm focusing on keeping my eyes open into the sun. I couldn't have composed it better had I actually tried.

And, it's a little bit embarrassing (but very funny) - that orange dot on my cheek is not weird pigment, it's a tiny piece of chopped carrot from my dinner.



This one is completely out of focus, but I really really adore the light in it, and the composition. If only it didn't look so much like I'd photoshopped myself in, but then again, who would do that with a completely blurry image?



This one was taken by setting the camera on top of a handball goal - there are a couple of them scattered around the wider grassier areas of the park behind my house. I zoomed in a little bit, set it to take a picture after 10 seconds, and ran for it. The first time I stopped running too soon, and looked back at the camera just as it took the picture. Composition-wise it's not bad.....that's about it. Note to self: next time you do this, try and count to ten Mississippis before you turn.



In this one, same MO, I was going for the Luthien-dancing-in-the-grass vibe (and NOT, emphatically NOT Maria-on-the-hilltop-in-Sound-of-Music). Not sure I hit it, but I'm also pretty sure I could have been a lot further from it than this.



In this one I look positively eeeeevil - those staring eyes (I'm facing into the sun), and that insane little smile lurking at one corner of my mouth and that nasty raised eyebrow. Appearances deceive, I swear!



This last one is the best of the lot - there is nothing I don't love about this picture, even the slightly crooked horizon that I only noticed while I was adding the picture to this post.

Buried Treasures....

For some years now, I've been collecting books I read and loved when I was a teen, and in their original English. It all started with me coming upon Meredith Ann Pierce's 'Darkangel' in Chapters in Dublin a couple years ago. Since then, I've managed to find Steve Senn's 'A Circle In The Sea', Judith Tarr's 'The Hound & The Falcon' trilogy and most recently John Tully's 'The White Cat'. It's a rediscovery of treasures :) (and thank you Abebooks)

I'm sure there are others that will turn up in my mind in time to come - I only found 'The White Cat' because I remembered parts of the story and in particular the style of the illustrator, Victor Ambrus, and as he was also one of the illustrators on my Danish version of David Day's 'A Tolkien Bestiary', it didn't take me long (thank you Google and Wikipedia) to find the book - I'd had this scene from it stuck in my head for months, and it was driving me bonkers not being able to remember title or author. I'm reading it now and loving every minute of it.

On my list, and never forgotten, are Laura Ingalls' series of books - I only have one in my possession, but have fond memories of the books, and of course also the TV-series, which deviates from the books quite substantially, but not in a bad way. I only want copies with Garth Williams' illustrations - much like Pauline Baynes and Narnia - to me getting any other versions would take away some of the magic. Oh and a note for the geeks among you, and I didn't know this until recently - it was actually Tolkien who introduced Pauline Baynes to C.S. Lewis. Go figure!

Concert Report: Tori Amos, Koncerthuset, 24 May 2014

There was a real sense in this show of picking up a gauntlet, and not being afraid ahead of the fight to come, without it being too harsh or confrontational. Hard to put my finger on, but a great show, and a lot of love in it too.

Also, after the two Scarlet's Walk songs, I realised there is something more to be said about that album and Neil Gaiman's American Gods than I had previously been aware of.

I don't have the new album yet, and only two things were performed from it, but I will definitely be acquiring it at some future point. 'Selkie' was a lovely and very warm story.

Setlist courtesy of Tori's Tumblr account, with added album info

Parasol (The Beekeeper, 2005)
Pancake (Scarlet's Walk, 2002)
Eyes improv
Crucify (Little Earthquakes, 1992)
Apollo's Frock (Scarlet's Hidden Treasures, Welcome To Sunny Florida, 2004)
Silent All These Years (Little Earthquakes, 1992)
The Power Of Orange Knickers (The Beekeeper, 2005)
Selkie (Unrepentant Geraldines, 2014)

Lizard Lounge:
A Case Of You (Joni Mitchell cover)
Suzanne (Leonard Cohen cover)

China (Little Earthquakes, 1992)
Oysters (Unrepentant Geraldines, 2014)
Siren (Great Expectations soundtrack, 1998)
Take To The Sky (Winter single, 1992, with parts of Datura thrown in, from To Venus And Back, 1999)
Scarlet's Walk (Scarlet's Walk, 2002)
Precious Things (Little Earthquakes, 1992)

Mr. Zebra (Boys For Pele, 1996)
Cornflake Girl (Under The Pink, 1994)
General Joy (The Beekeeper, 2005)
Pretty Good Year (Under The Pink, 1994)
Tear In Your Hand (Little Earthquakes, 1992)

Concert Report: Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra, Pumpehuset, 31 October 2013

I didn't quite know what to expect, except maybe to expect the unexpected. And boy, was I in for a treat. This was unlike anything I'd ever seen in a concert setting - a very close relationship between stage and performer. Amanda and her band were even seen in the wings during the support acts' sets, enjoying themselves immensely. And there was stagediving, with Amanda wearing a cutaway coat with an impossibly long, wide and thin train that we the audience got to spread out in its entirety. That must've looked amazing from the stage.

There were three support acts: Jherek Bischoff, who played bass (and some ukulele), a band which I think was called Simple Pleasures, the lead singer reminded me a bit of what Bono must've been like in the Dandelion Market days, and then Danish singer Lydmor, who blew me away. She seemed so fragile at first, but she delivered an amazing set, and later came back to duet with Amanda.

On to the main act - everyone in the band came onstage wearing awesome skull makeup in honour of Halloween, except Amanda, who turned up at the other end of the hall, with her ukulele, and started off with 'Creep'. Okay then!

As the evening progressed I heard a lot of songs that I didn't know, seeing as I only really know the Radiohead stuff and 'Theatre Is Evil', but I'll be sure to check out her back catalogue now. 

Pictures below are courtesy of the lovely Ida Salomäki that I met outside the venue when it started raining, and she extended her umbrella to me, and we ended up hanging out together all evening in the front row :)

After the show Amanda signed autographs, and Ida and I tried to calm down a bit from an absolutely mindblowing evening. This was NOT my last Amanda Palmer show for sure :)

Set list below is courtesy of http://www.setlist.fm/:

Acoustic from upstairs: Creep (Radiohead cover) (ukulele)
Grand Theft Orchestra Intermission
Do It With a Rockstar
The Killing Type
Missed Me (Dresden Dolls cover)
Want It Back
Walk On The Wild Side (Lou Reed cover)
Half Jack (Dresden Dolls cover) (very long instrumental intro)
Lost
Solo piano set (crowd requests)
Ampersand (Amanda Palmer cover)
The Bed Song
Delilah (Dresden Dolls cover) (duet with Lydmor)
Bottomfeeder (incl. Walk On The Wild Side)
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana cover)
Oasis (Amanda Palmer cover) (incl. Shake It Up, Baby)
"Vi skåler med vore venner" (Danish drinking song, all stars)
Leeds United (Amanda Palmer cover) (all stars)
Encore: Girl Anachronism (Dresden Dolls cover)
Encore 2: Ukulele Anthem

Elfia

Yvonne and I had been talking about this Fantasy Fair for a few years, and this year we managed to get to go to the one in Haarzuilen, near Utrecht. It was fantastic! So many people dressed up and totally got into the spirit of the thing - very inspiring!

There were lots of Elves (and here I mean Tolkien's kind), steampunks, zombies, maidens fair (but I don't remember seeing any bears), warriors, pirates, vampires, orcs, various types of outfit involving hooped skirts, a good few Meridas and Jack Sparrows, a couple of Mr. Tumnus's, Snow Whites, Pikachu's and Storm Troopers, an awesome Witch King of Angmar, and some fantastic cat warriors, whom we only saw in the line for tickets, and not again, unfortunately. And of course there were loads of fairies, of all types.The surroundings were breathtaking and the whole thing was a lot bigger than I thought it would be, which was only a good thing!

Here's me in front of the castle - Yvonne had done a brilliant job painting my face :) I am of course wearing my blue Elf dress, with the In Dreams shawl.

This is the spiderwoman-fairy. There were many professional photographers taking pictures, presumably of the people who'd signed up for the contests. Many of them clearly had characters to go along with their costume and had spent considerable time and effort on it.

We walked around looking at the many stalls offering an abundance of cool stuff - corsets, swords, dresses, teeth, ears, tiaras, you name it.  There was music, LARP workshops, and an area dedicated to The Hobbit, with various small sets and people dressed up as characters from the story, obviously taking their cue from the movie.

This woman was probably my favourite of all - we stood in line behind her at the loo at one point, so got a good look at her outfit. Really really lovely.