Cabaret

Astronaut Love Triangle News!

2012-01-13T12:48:00.000-08:00

So I was pinching myself not too long ago when the band I'm in, Elizabeth Riley Band, got an email from Astronaut Love Triangle suggesting a collaboration! We gathered in December for a practice and it was another moment of surreality for me to actually PLAY Astronaut Love Triangle songs WITH Astronaut Love Triangle! wow.

This is Manny Blue from ALT - she is holding a genuine Salvation Army tambourine and case...

These are three of the four points on the triangle... Dave, Manny Blue and Jimmi Jetz.

We played: Large American Car, I don't deserve this and a new one about a roller derby girl...

Will keep y'all posted as the collaboration continues - they promised to help us 'space-punk' some of some of our numbers...! :)

2011-12-24T14:48:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Here's one of my favourite songs to sing at this time of year - very lo-fi recording conditions, but the spirit shines through... and by that I mean the materialism of the season (!)

Riot police on campus

2011-12-06T09:39:00.000-08:00

On November 10th, some students peacefully occupied an administration building at McGill, in a protest against potential tuition hikes.

By the end of the day, police in full riot gear had pepper-sprayed and forcibly dispersed students, faculty, and others outside the building. Some were there to protest peacefully. Some were on their way to class.

This has sent shock waves through my new academic community, McGill. I have heard people saying "I have to figure out how to continue to be a faculty member at this university." And "This is not my McGill or my values. I'm not proud to be here anymore."

Some others, who were not there, are actually questioning if it really happened, or if it was really as bad as people say. This is understandable - on a human level - because no-one wants to feel unsafe going about their daily life. However, those police were called in by administration, not for the security of students, but to remove students who were not doing anything wrong.

Teach-In

A few weeks ago, I attended a Teach-In regarding this event and its aftermath as people try to process what happened. Connections were made between this violent quelling of a demonstration at McGill in connection with other events on and off campus:

1) At McGill, a striking non-academic staff of 1700 people in its third month of trying to bargain with an administration that is putting more effort into spin-doctoring their communiques than engaging with the very real, meaningful and REASONABLE issues raised by these workers (the lowest paid university staff in Quebec);*

2) the use of riot police to remove peaceful protesters at TWO other university campuses in the same short time period ( Nov 9, UC Berkeley, with batons; Nov 18, UC Davis, with pepper spray). Please note that the Principal of McGill, Heather Monroe-Blum, is an advisor to the Chancellor of UC Davis;

3) the ongoing privatization, corporatization and commodification of Education nationally and globally, which has been quietly reshaping governance structures at university campuses across Canada and the U.S. for some time, making it more and more likely - structurally - that tenured professors, Chairs and Deans in universities will feel fearful that any criticism or perceived criticism of their university or administration will result in personal, departmental, and faculty level repercussions of some kind.

Seminar discussion

Following the teach-in, my seminar class met and we spent the rest of our class time talking about all of these events. One of the students had been sitting on the steps of the administration building as part of the human chain, and she described being pepper-sprayed by police. That description has lingered in my mind ever since, along with some related discussion about police actions in general - and some disagreement about how to see this kind of police action.

There were a range of positions, including the point of view that police officers are basically well-meaning, good people with a difficult job, and they don't get out of bed in the morning gleefully anticipating beating people up; and the view that in fact SOME police officers, on the contrary, do enjoy violence; and the view that the police as an organization are instruments of the state with a license to use violence on citizens; also the view that there is a difference between distrust of policing/police organizations and personal distrust of/antipathy to police officers; and the view that the members of our society who get funnelled into these difficult and dangerous jobs tend to be those who are less advantaged economically - by being working class, by belonging to a visible minority, for example.

The woman who had been peppersprayed expressed a certain feeling of solidarity with police officers as human beings, while expressing outrage about the actions that were taken on that day and being on the receiving end of those actions.

Questions...

In an email to the McGill staff and students on November 21, Heather Munroe-Blum said: "As Principal of McGill, I am responsible for what happens on our campuses. The events of November 10 have served as a wake-up call for me about problems we have with respect to how we communicate, plan and interact as a community, and I commit to work with the McGill community to explore and find solutions to these problems, and to implement them."

The cynic in me wonders - To what extent have solutions been pre-determined? How much listening is she actually prepared to do? How much change are she and her administration actually willing to embrace? How much of this statement is dictated by P.R. sensibility and a desire to safeguard a career path and how much is it a sincere statement of caring?

In practical terms, I question - Can the person responsible for ordering riot police to come in also be the person to inspire enough trust to broker a meaningful and healing resolution? She retains all her power - how safe will students and faculty feel to speak frankly? If they speak frankly, will their eloquence have any results?

*update about strike: the workers and McGill have reached an agreement (through conciliation) that has been ratified - today (Dec 6) is the first day back at work for MUNACA members.

Feeling Thankful

2011-11-27T08:23:00.001-08:00

Just a quick post this morning... because I really need to get back to reading an article by Rick Carpenter about disability as a metagenre. I was really excited to find this article because it brings together the two main areas of theory that I want to use for my dissertation project: writing studies (specifically Rhetorical Genre theory) and disability studies (critical perspective on disability as socially created/constructed). I'm slowly plowing my way through the article, making notes, looking up his sources and trying to decide what I agree with and don't agree with, and how he is using this idea and whether I can use this idea. My way of reading things when I read deeply is really slow and sometimes I feel impatient with myself. But I've accepted that this is my process for better or for worse. It works for me, ultimately. Thinking and writing come out of it.

I'm feeling thankful. I feel thankful to be doing my academic work. Thankful to be nestled in bed in a quiet house with my computer, reading and writing. Thankful that my kid's dad is such a good dad and I never have a moment's worry when my son is at his dad's place. Thankful that I got to go to the Santa Claus parade with my boy yesterday afternoon. Thankful that I went to my parents' church last night and heard my dad sing his original songs, and that I got to sing as well. Thankful for the gig we had, lo - only one weekend ago! at Raw Sugar - it was amazing to talk to the people who came out to hear us, to meet new people, to share a venue with Birdie Whyte and with Of Two Minds, to meet John Carroll, to play music with my dear good friends Patricia and Carmel. Thankful. Thankful.

At Raw Sugar Nov 19: Birdie Whyte, Elizabeth Riley Band, Of Two Minds

2011-11-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

Birdie is a banjo player and singer who loves the old timey stuff and has a unique style all her own. She's also sexy as hell. She plays regularly at the Branch in Kemptville, often with Frank Western ("The Frank and Birdie Show"). She is also at the Laff regularly hosting and gracing open mics there. Of Two Minds are a mysterious bunch... I don't know much about them except that they just changed their band name... trying to get away from the law? income tax? international art thieves...? probably! Speculation is rampant.

On Taking Risks part III

2011-10-30T21:41:00.000-07:00

This has been a year of taking risks, for me. I have not written about my decision to start dating again after a long break. I'm not going to blog in detail about dating... Much as I put myself out there in many ways, it feels too private. But I am writing this blog post about the RISK of dating. Because I've been thinking about it a lot lately. There is always risk involved when you decide you are willing, even in principle, to let someone into your life. There is risk of being hurt. But I think getting hurt is not the biggest tragedy that can happen. Failing to learn - that would be the tragedy.

Raw Sugar Nov 19 Save the Date

2011-10-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

Our band will be playing Raw Sugar November 19th; excited about this....! We are sharing the bill with another band, we met them at the Laff in the summer and I totally forgot to blog about it.

...omg, I just used a semicolon in a blog post, nerd alert... oh well, I'll leave it in, I am a bit of a nerd at times...

WHAT TO WEAR: Seriously debating - red dress? teal dress? do the little black dress thing? help, please.

And we may be hitting the Laff between now and then for a 20 minute set just for fun, will keep yez posted.

I am here to LEARN... goddamnit

2011-10-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

On risks, banjos - and fate

2011-10-04T19:01:00.000-07:00

This is my dad holding a banjo. The banjo was given to me by a complete stranger on Sunday.

Elizabeth Riley Band was on the bill for 'The Doo in the Derry', at a little church in Prospect, out in the Ottawa Valley. The rest of the band couldn't make it, so I went and performed on my own. Which is still something that feels risky to me. And just for fun and increased risk with this gig, I decided to play the banjo for one song. I don't really know how to play the banjo, but I had been fooling around on one a week or so before, and I got hooked.

I convinced my friend Mike to lend me his beautiful antique tenor banjo (no pic of that, unfortunately!) and headed to the church. I only played it for one song, and before I played the song I explained that I was new to the banjo, so indulge me, folks - and I showed them Mike's banjo and told them about how he got it from his father, and how they've traced the instrument sufficiently to figure out that it was made around the turn of the (20th) century.

Later on after I was done my set, a man who lives across the road from the church came in with a banjo (see above photo) and handed it to me. He had gone home to get it and give it to me! Isn't that amazing? It's not mine to keep forever, but it's on extended loan. He said I can keep it for a few years til I get my own. (I would publicly thank him here, but I haven't asked him if he is okay with that. If he says it's okay, I'll add it in later.)

The stand up bass player gave me the name of a guy in Ottawa who can show me how to do 'the roll' meaning what to do with my right hand. I just got off the phone with him, I'm going to go over next week and start learning! And I'm going to be dropping in on my benefactor out in Beckwith Township from time to time to show him what I learn.

Most of the time I think of myself as the active agent in my life - as in, I can make choices and I can take action and so on... I have some power, I can shape how things go. And then every once in a while, something like this happens, and it feels like, in addition, there is a fate at work. Fate handed me a banjo.

IMPORTANT ... Sarah is still the banjo gal in our band! But while she's off in Europe for the year, maybe I can keep that plink-plunk-plonkety sound in our music.

There are a few more pictures below from Sunday.... Sorry, none of me, since I forgot to give my camera to someone while I performed... (There may be photos on the web somewhere, there was a someone there from Freedom Photography, but I don't know the legalities of linking to his site).

Grad school update

2011-09-25T06:43:00.000-07:00

A while back I wrote about taking the risk of going back to school after ten years out - well, school has started, and it has been a bit of a bumpy ride so far, but I LOVE IT. It's such a good feeling to know that it's my 'job' right now to read, write and think about things that are interesting to me. And then I get to talk about them with other people who are also interested in the same obscure things! It's a lot of work, but it's fun.

The biggest task upon entry is writing a SSHRC application. IF my application is successful (it has to make it through several hoops for this to happen), I could get lots of money for several years! That would be awesome and buy me the time I need to really hunker down, focus and get it done in 5 years without worrying as much about money... So we'll see how it goes. But even if my application doesn't make it through all the hoops, writing the proposal has been an immense learning experience so far. Also exhausting. And... I have to go work on it now.

Music update

2011-09-14T07:24:00.000-07:00

Two gigs coming up fast:

FRIDAY 16th September 166 Glebe Ave Ottawa - this will be guaranteed fun with some amazing local bands and performers... Sliding scale, proceeds to 3 Little Birds, the headliners, to finish recording their CD.

MONDAY 19TH September - 5:30 pm at Bronson Centre, there will be a Feast and Fundraiser to support Sisters in Spirit, and we will be playing, featuring Carmel's song, 'Sisters in Spirit'. Complete info: Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa

There is a Walk4Justice that morning, 9am to 10am from Minwaashin Lodge at 424 Catherine St to Parliament Hill.

To read about how Harper tried to silence Sisters in Spirit, click here.

Garden

2011-08-22T17:12:00.000-07:00

My son and I signed up to take care of the community garden at his school for one week this summer. Was it luck, or was it pure deviousness that I signed up for a week of tomato harvesting...?

Summer

2011-08-09T07:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted, and I have some plans to post more... but let me placate you with pictures...

Feminism is sexy

2011-07-04T16:34:00.001-07:00

I love this button I got a couple of years ago from a tin can on the counter of the Wild Oat. I put it on my bag en route to our lunchtime gig at Women's World's congress. It was a fantastic day for playing music outdoors (from a palatial stage!) And a fantastic audience for songs about women's lives and experience.
Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.

On Taking Risks part II

2011-06-16T04:07:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I took a risk that felt scary.
It was scary for me to apply to a PhD program for a few reasons.

I have a child to support and I am lucky enough to have a secure job. To start the PhD, I am cutting my income down by two thirds.

The logistics scared me because I am going to attend McGill, in Montreal, but I want my son's life to be as little disrupted as possible. I want him to stay in the same neighbourhood and school, close to his dad, who lives on the same street as me.

I also had to face an entrenched fear about the writing that is going to be required. When I was doing my Master's thesis, I got into a morass where I alternated between frantic unproductive writing and sitting at my computer writing nothing at all. For the first time in my life, I felt what it is to be sick to my stomach because of anxiety. I used to think about throwing myself down the stairs to hurt myself just enough but not too much. Finally I realized that I needed a metaphorical rather than a literal break. And when I came back, I finished my degree with coursework. But my failure to write the thesis haunted me.

It's the third fear that kept me from pursuing a PhD earlier. But ironically, I have spent the ten years since developing expertise in the field of Writing Studies precisely because of that failure to write. And my area of specialization as a PhD student is going to be Writing Studies!

I'm not sure why, but now I find I have the courage to do this.

Tree of Life

2011-06-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.

On Taking Risks part I

2011-05-31T19:21:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a while since I blogged. These things happen. I've decided that I'm going to blog regularly again, and the way I'm going to implement this intention is by posting on a weekly basis! About... music stuff still, and also about the rest of my life at times.

I wanted to blog today about taking risks. When I first started this blog, it felt like a risk. Putting my real name out there on the net and talking to a bunch of strangers (or nobody, if nobody reads posts) was a step I had to talk myself into. I did it because I felt it was important for me to feel accountable for some of the goals I set for myself during my sabbatical year, notably - playing music with Elizabeth Riley Band.

And listen, because of writing the blog, I actually made contact with Nat Myles at the Elmdale and that's how we got our first gig. Pretty damn cool.

Since then, we have played around town quite a bit, with some hiatuses here and there. We've played some really cool venues, like the atrium of the National Gallery, Raise the Roof Women's Festival in a field near Kingston somewhere, St Brigid's (acoustics wow), bars like the Elmdale and Irene's, and a memorable barn dance out in the Ottawa Valley! Basically, everything I do with music and performing just fosters a deeper love in me for doing it as much as possible. It's a good fit. It feels right. Being on stage is a really comfortable place for me to be, and feeling connection with other performers and the audience through sharing music KINDA feels like the whole point of living.

This post is getting long, so I'm going to ramble on about taking risks some more in next week's post. I'm taking some risks in my life these days that feel pretty scary at times, but I've thought about them a lot and they seem like good risks to take. That's it for now. Please comment!

Best of 2010 from TWAS

2011-01-25T12:06:00.000-08:00

He did post his 'best of' list, with some quirky poetic prose: here.

And Drum in the New

2011-01-02T19:24:00.000-08:00

Went for a walk and a coffee tonight and lo! there was a wonderful thing happening at Umi. Saturated with rhythm now. Happy New Year, y'all. Or as they say in the valley, youse.

The War Against Silence

2010-12-27T15:38:00.000-08:00

Love this guy.

He writes voluminously and densely, which can be exasperating; but I love this mode of 'writing about art' that I've seen in other, related genres such as art catalogues and art-house cinema flyers; writing about art is like trying to describe a smell over the phone, it can't be done really, so the form has to be fanciful, referential and offhandedly cerebral, with more than a sprinkle of adjectives - this can be intimidating, annoying or even off-putting, but if you let yourself absorb it, it becomes endearing.

And after all, letting yourself absorb something in order to understand it, in order to appreciate its qualities - well that is the experience of art, is it not?

I just spent more time than I am going to ever admit flipping through his blog entries all the way back to '95. That's an old blog. The most current post seems to be last January - let's see if he posts in January 2011. Hope so.

The War Against Silence (TWAS)

For your convenience the link goes straight to his 'belated introduction' from october 2000.

One more link - his entry about Lucinda Williams's Essence; here ...

Bad Girl's Guide* to Christmas and New Years

2010-12-23T19:43:00.000-08:00

1. Put money in your Christmas shopping budget so that you can buy presents for yourself as well as others.

2. Shop early and shop often.

3. Shop late and shop with desperation.

4. Don't forget the wrapping paper. But if you do, claim you are environmentally-motivated.

5. Eggnog is for suckas. Break out the tequila.

*The usual disclaimer.

Revision Tips for Research Papers

2010-12-14T19:25:00.000-08:00

So. One of my main preoccupations these days is marking papers. Students have handed in research papers about topics that they identified themselves through reading and researching Sociolinguistics. First thing in January, they will get the papers back from me with feedback and grades, and they have three weeks to revise their papers for higher grades if they wish.

I like it because reading and commenting on papers is rewarding for me when I know there is a high likelihood that students will actually get a chance for some hands-on learning as a result of my comments. I get a chance to provide advice that is targetted and timely. And my first-year students get a chance to learn more about writing academic papers for university.

As I work my way through this batch of papers, I've started to compile some Revision Tips that I plan to share with my students in January.

You know what's coming, dear readers... Yes, I'm going to try some of my tips out on YOU GUYS. Let me know what you think of them. Remember these tips apply to the paper assigned in my class - ie. first year university, Sociolinguistics, research paper. I'm going to parcel them out to you a bit at a time, here are the first few...

Revision Tips for Research Papers (FYSM in Sociolingustics)

Title Page:
• Have one

• Make sure your title is descriptive and captures your thesis (key idea in the paper)

• IF you have pictures, don’t count on them to carry the message – the words need to do the work

First page of paper

• No title needed

• No “Introduction” subtitle needed

Introductory section of paper

• Never start with “since the beginning of time” or generalizations about “humans” or “mankind”; these are red flags! Your paper is not about the beginning of time, it’s about a rather narrow specialized topic within Sociolinguistics. Revise those sentences out. Quite often, about half the first paragraph, or more, can go. You already have a perfectly good opening sentence buried in there, probably. And if you are having trouble coming up with one, just put your thesis statement first.

Academic Writing Style:

In general, avoid using adjectives, especially if they express emotion. If you have a strong desire to use an adjective, maybe it really is necessary. I’m not saying never do it, I’m saying that you should first determine that it is strictly necessary. (Bonus: identify the adjectives in the previous sentence! Bonus 2: are the adjectives I used necessary?)

Adverbs are even more verboten than adjectives.

Words like moreover, hereafter, therefore, furthermore, hence ... are waaaay overused in student writing. You don’t need these antiquated, hackneyed, tiresome and distracting words. It’s normal to use transitional words when you are writing your paper, because writing takes a long time, it’s hard work, and you are doing everything you can to keep the structure of your argument straight in your mind. But reading your paper takes less time, it is/should be less work than writing is, and the structure of your argument should be evident to your reader (i.e. me!) in other ways. Hence (ha ha) - revise these words out of your writing before you hand in your paper, and make sure that you have more elegant ways of guiding me through the flow of your thinking. What are these more elegant ways?

• Paragraph breaks

• Subtitles if necessary

• Organized and logical order in presenting the facts and ideas that make up your argument

• Judicial repetition of key concepts

• Topic sentences where you need them

Found

2010-11-29T19:51:00.001-08:00

What is the work of coaching?

2010-11-24T08:18:00.000-08:00

We talked today in our coaching meeting about how important it is for students to take ownership of their own learning. The student has to do the work. They are the ones getting the grades, so on that level, it's only right. Also, the goal is for them to learn, and people don't learn unless they 'do the work' - whatever the work is.

So if the work of coaching is not doing students' work for them, what is it?

When we have a student who is very self-directed and engaged, the work of coaching feels easy - we get lots of information from the student, they are very focused on the academic task that is at hand, and we can figure out what questions or suggestions are appropriate during our turns in the conversation.

When we have a student who has not done the reading required for a writing assignment, or did not bring the instructions, or does not appear to want to read or talk about the writing they brought in, the work of coaching becomes more difficult. And, in these situations, that's where the need for coaching skills becomes really apparent. We can't fall back on our tacit academic/student knowledge. We are forced to find a way to meet the student where they are and work with them there.

In the meeting today, I suggested two strategies coaches can use in those situations:

1. Acknowledge that the student is there - if someone is there, even if they are giving you no other cues, there is some kind of motivation at work - so acknowledge that they are there, find out why they are there, find out what motivates them. And be prepared to work with that, even if it is not what motivates you as a student.

2. Be explicit about handing the student ownership of their learning - "Okay, so in order for you to write this paper, you are going to need to go back to the readings. We have 40 minutes left - during this time, what would you like to get done that will take you a step closer to finishing this paper?”

I'm going to add a third strategy, which can be used if strategy number two appears not to be working.

3. If you are 100% sure that you have given the student space and time and the invitation to come up with a goal for the remaining part of the session, and they are really struggling with that task, provide some structure for them, in the form of options. - e.g. "I can think of a few things that might be useful for you. We could look at the reading together and identify which parts relate to your paper so that you know what you need to read. Or if you don't have the reading with you, we can look at the assignment in detail and see how much of an outline we can put together even without having done the reading yet."

What is the work of coaching? There are a lot of skills and strategies involved in coaching, but underpinning them is the belief that the student is capable and does have knowledge that they can tap into. And if there is knowledge that they lack, that they are cabable of identifying what the gaps are and seeking out what they need. If you act on the basis of this belief - even if, in the moment, you may be having trouble believing it - you can find a coaching approach that is going to help the student take responsibility and take action.

TEDxHouston - Brené Brown

2010-11-21T17:55:00.000-08:00

shades of Avril Lavigne

2010-11-07T05:49:00.000-08:00

Rather than writing a song 'about' punctuation, I'd like to finish an unfinished song that's been hanging around my head for a while - for a few years, actually. I am not a fast songwriter. I'm not a fast artmaker in general. When I used to paint, it took me years to complete pieces because I needed to let them sit and I needed to look at them a lot and just ruminate.

Anyway... yesterday I sat down and strummed the chords and sang through the parts of the song that I have figured out so far. Then I let it play in my head overnight, and this morning as I made coffee I suddenly realized - yikes, shades of Avril Lavigne.

So, back to the drawing board.

oxford comma

2010-10-24T17:18:00.000-07:00

note to self - write a song that references obscure prescriptivist writing conventions. note to readers - for more about the oxford comma, read this language log post

Asking Questions in a Coaching Session

2010-09-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

Another segment in my work-in-progress. What do you think?

Paying attention to how we ask questions, as coaches, is important. I call this section 'asking questions' rather than 'questioning' because a coaching conversation is not an inquisition, it is an open inquiry. As a coach, you want the student to open up, explore ideas and connections and develop curiosity about their own learning and the university world they are operating in. So let your questions come from your genuine interest and curiosity as well. I am not talking about curiosity driven by your own agenda, however. You are not collecting data for a research study in your field. Stop making hypotheses and listen. The agenda is theirs, not yours.

There are many different taxonomies out there that categorize questions in different ways for different purposes. I'm going to talk about two distinctions that I find useful.

One useful distinction is between closed and open ended questions. It's easy to tell the difference. Closed questions are phrased in a way that invites a 'yes' or 'no' answer. Open ended questions are phrased in a way that invites or requires a more expansive answer.

Did you paint your kitchen on the weekend?
How did your painting plans go this weekend?

Of course, it is not necessarily the case that the answer to the closed question will come as a yes or no. Quite often, a question may be intended as a friendly expression of interest rather than a probe for essential information. The other may respond to the intention or function of the utterance, and answer more fully than yes or no.

The answer will more likely follow the yes/no format implied by your closed question if the person you are talking with is uncomfortable (for example, it's the first time they have met you; it's their first coaching session; they are new to university; they are new to the city - the list can go on). And even with an open ended question, they may reply as briefly as possible. How did the painting go? Okay. Was it hard to settle on a colour? I chose blue.

Another useful distinction when thinking about questions is structured versus unstructured. Basically, structured questions provide a framework for responding - they constrain the response in some way. Unstructured questions allow the other to structure their answer according to their interpretive framework, not yours.

Of course, closed questions are structured – the framework is yes or no. Here are some other questions that are structured:

Did you choose a boy colour or a girl colour?
How boring did you find that lecture?
What’s better, Psych or Sociology?

It may sound like I am implying that unstructured questions are better than structured questions in coaching sessions. And at many points in a coaching session, that is the case. Since it is important to connect with the current knowledge and state-of-mind of the student, encouraging them to talk is really beneficial. It helps you determine where they might have gaps in their knowledge that you can help them with, and how they feel about certain tasks, subjects or just school in general, which you can either explore with them, or take into account when working with them.

There are other points in coaching sessions when a closed question or a structured question is not only appropriate, it is necessary in some sense. I’m sure you can think of probable contexts for these questions:

Did you already do the reading?
When is the due date?
How much did you get done so far?
Do you understand what academic coaching is?

Overall, this is what I’m saying. Being aware of the sentence structure of your questions can be an important tool, but it's more important to pay attention to the contextual factors that affect how the student will interpret your questions, and to ask questions that will have an appropriate function in the conversation. As an utterance, a question can ‘mean’ all kinds of things. Also, a statement can be interpreted as a question.

Attention to context and the function of questions can be illustrated by thinking of the following situation. A student looks into the coaching room and says he/she has an appointment.

As a coach, start the open-ended inquiry right away, with the social chit chat. Think of this social chat as part of the coaching session, in which you are establishing or re-establishing rapport. The intention and the context are important. Even closed questions can get a conversation going. Open ended questions can signal that you genuinely want to hear what they have to say.

Did you have trouble finding the coaching room?
What courses are you taking

Which one is your favourite? Why?

You don't have to wait until you are both sitting down facing each other with computer on and books open. From the first glance, initiate a friendly dialogue with the student and steer it to academics to set a tone for the interaction. Listen attentively and ensure that the student is heard. Then you can signal the beginning of the coaching work and have a genuine dialogue as a result, one that will give you information about what this person needs, as a learner, in order to get their task done and build both skills and confidence while doing it.

Here are some questions (both open ended and unstructured!) that can help open a productive dialogue, once rapport is established:

What brought you to coaching?
What would you like to work on today?

The role of listening in a coaching relationship

2010-09-06T16:48:00.000-07:00

Guess what? I'm writing a coaching handbook. I'm going to use this blog to try out some of the material I come up with. Responses welcome! But first - listen:

In everyday situations, most of us are not good listeners. It is normal when you are having a conversation to spend your time while 'listening' actually planning your response. Before your interlocutor has finished his/her utterance, you have already anticipated - not only what the person will say, but how you will or would respond. In a setting such as a classroom where more than one person is 'listening' to someone talk, it is normal to spend your time as a listener engaged in self-talk of some kind, and/or only listening to one level of what the speaker is saying. This is unconscious and ordinary and we all do it.

Another way of naming listening is "ensuring the other is heard". As a coach, that is what you want to do with your students. How do you do it? It's actually really simple as a concept, though learning to practice it habitually can be hard work and it may feel unnatural at first. There are two steps: listening; checking.

Listening: You still the little chatterbox in your brain who is anticipating and planning. Instead, you focus on the other person and what they are expressing through face, gestures, body, voice and words. Your job as a coach is to notice. We all have different gifts when it comes to noticing. Notice fleeting facial expressions. Notice body language, and changes in body language. When you notice words, notice not only the referential aspect of the words (the information conveyed), but the affective (emotional, attitudinal) aspect as well - what metaphors are used, what terms are chosen? (Other things to notice - your automatic reactions - some of your reactions are useful sources of information about the other person, other reactions are not because they are really about you, not the other).

Checking: This is how you know whether you heard the other person - you check. That's where the famous active-listening and non-violent communication tips come in. There are any number of verbal formulas people use to check back on whether they heard the other person. Maybe the most cliched (but still effective) is "What I am hearing is...". You can also say things like "I am noticing..." "Let me try to see if I understood you..." "Would it be accurate to say..." or even "Let me check - ". When you complete this type of utterance, you are reflecting back what you heard from the other person.

If you are a really good and thorough listener, you have been listening at many levels, and can choose what level to reflect back - or you can really blow the mind of the other person and reflect everything back. (But academic coaching is not about blowing people's minds on how great YOU are at listening - it's about having a conversation that results in the student gaining skills and confidence and leaving with an action plan.)

What are the different levels you can reflect back? Start with the referential level of their words - what information were they giving you? Consider also reflecting back another level and checking if you heard them in that way too. You can reflect back the affective level of their words - maybe they kept using a certain expression, which is a vivid metaphor. You can say what you noticed - that their voice changed or their expression conveyed a different mood at a certain point in what they were saying.

When you check, you may find that you are wrong! You heard a particular bunch of things, but the other person says that's not what they meant. Or you are partly right. Or you are substantially right. This is very important: IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU ARE RIGHT OR NOT. So take a deep breath and check. If you non-judgmentally reflect back what you sincerely heard, it will be useful to the other person. Let them respond and let the conversation continue - listen and check again and again. You will be amazed at the power of a conversation in which the goal is for one person to be heard. That is the heart of a coaching conversation and a coaching relationship.

Because listening means you are not planning your response, when the other person pauses and the conversational turn comes your way, you will not have something all ready to say. That is okay. That's a good sign, actually. You can keep your turn open by saying something like - "I've been listening really closely to what you've been telling me, and I want to respond. Give me a second to get the right words together." Or you can simply indicate through a nod, a glance, a mm-hmm that you have been paying attention, and giving the turn back to your interlocutor.

(Just an aside - The complementary skill to listening is ensuring that you are heard, i.e. that the other person was listening to you. This also is a skill that many people are not good at. It's also an observation of mine that people who are good at listening can be poor at persisting and being heard, while people who are not very good at listening may be very good at persisting and being heard, or at least deferred to. In a collaborative and equal conversation, ideally all participants would exercise their skills in both areas. When this happens, the conversation gets VERY interesting, and not in ways that anyone could anticipate at the outset.)

2010-08-30T19:32:00.000-07:00

except for the fact that prince wasn't recording purple rain in 1999 - little proofreading glitch, probably a gen y - how cool is this -

http://www.mcgill.ca/reporter/39/02/rogers/

August 29 Elmdale Tavern ne miss it pas ...

2010-08-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

What's that, you say? How did E. Riley first start playing at the 'dale? Well, let me tell ya...http://jengilbert.blogspot.com/2008/10/december-11-elizabeth-riley-at-elmdale.html

Umi June 19th Elizabeth gets intimate

2010-06-13T07:28:00.000-07:00

love Zadie Smith

2010-06-10T07:39:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up early and speed-read the end of The Autograph Man because it's due back at the library today. I love Zadie Smith's books. She is one of the few authors I read who actually live up to the hype.

Save the date: June 19th + new trax on myspace + copyright question

2010-06-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all -

Elizabeth Riley Band is excited about a fun and intimate gig coming up on Saturday June 19th at Umi Cafe, my favourite Ottawa coffeehouse, corner of Somerset and Percy in Chinatown.

We've been experimenting as a band lately, and we want to bring out some new stuff at the show. So we have some new-to-us old timey favourites, but even more exciting, we're exploring a new genre of folk music (for us) brought by our newest member, Charline Dequincey, who has a European French background and plays both violin and accordion. AND we have some original songs to take for a walk, and we would really like to know what people think.

There are some new tracks up on myspace with some originals from our last show at the Elmdale. http://www.myspace.com/elizabethrileyband

Question: how do I find out whether a song is in the public domain, so that I can post my/our version on myspace? We have St. James Infirmary and Shady Grove from our last show, and we'd love to stick them out there, but don't want to get sued. Advice?

This is how I know I'm old

2010-05-27T01:06:00.000-07:00

I had two drinks after work while playing music on my porch with Charline. At 3 in the morning - boing! - I'm suddenly awake and full of night-anxieties. Tiny worries always seem like dire catastrophes in the middle of the night.

LOST CAT: B+W

2010-05-17T06:19:00.001-07:00

Her name is Dominoe and she has been missing since Sunday morning in the Somerset/Preston area of Chinatown. Shy but friendly and purry once you coax her out. Loud meow when she does meow. Kind of like a pissed off parrot.

Bad Girl's Guide to Life*

2010-04-22T09:43:00.001-07:00

1. Stay up til 3 in the morning.
2. Drink whiskey.
3. Hoot, holler, carry on in public.
4. Repeat.

*As usual, I have no idea who this bad girl is... or how she posts on my blog. JG

2010-04-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

This Thursday - April 15th, 2010 - 9pm - only 5 bucks - 1084 Wellington St W, Ottawa ON

Three more weeks til Elmdale gig

2010-04-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

If you work or study on a university campus, you know what I'm talking about when I say that March truly is mad. Maybe that's why we all feel like fools when April rolls around? Well, this fool is planning to let off some steam in 15 days... hope y'all can be there.

Hop, Skip and a Jump!

2010-03-15T15:17:00.001-07:00

Fun at Sally's salon - first Patricia gave a brief talk on Women of Rockabilly (first of a series?) - then a brief demonstration - thx CHARLINE for coming out :) ...

Would be remiss not to mention that the salon was crowned by the presence of (most of) ALT, who performed a modern dance that seemed to speak of the coordinated alienation of modern life (my interp, I'm open to correction by those who know better!). Their new song, "I do yoga and my life still sucks" brought the house down.

Save the date: April 15th

2010-03-06T03:38:00.000-08:00

Here we are in the corner of the lobby at the recent Ottawa V-Day production of the Vagina Monologues. That mysterious masked woman in the corner, the one with the fiddle, is Charline Dequincey. She will be playing with us at our next Elmdale show... save the date: APRIL 15th. It's a Thursday night, so be sick the next day, people.

Re-creation

2010-02-05T07:39:00.000-08:00

Recreation is an interesting word, isn't it? If something is enjoyable but it's part of your job, you may feel that it re-creates you, in a sense - but that's not considered recreation.

One day when I was talking with someone at work and I asked him when and how he did research, because his other responsibilities at work must take up most of his time, he referred to research as his hobby - that's his re-creation.

Another person I spoke with at work mentioned that she was anticipating a relaxing weekend of getting things organized in her house. To me, that would be an aversive task. For her, it's re-creation.

In general usage, recreation seems to mean things like:

playing with your kid
reading a novel
doing something physical like yoga or rock climbing

What makes something recreation? The fact that something is fun? The fact that you do it in your non-work time, i.e. not as your job? The fact that it involves effort, but the effort is pleasurable for you?

What about sleeping in? Could that be re-creation?

At what point does an enjoyable but challenging activity that you do without remuneration (writing sonnets... playing the guitar...) become 'work'? Can work be recreation?

What do you do to re-create yourself?

Imbolc

2010-01-31T05:26:00.000-08:00

New Year Miscellaneous Musings

2010-01-04T13:47:00.000-08:00

As I scrubbed melted bubble gum off the inside of my dryer the other night, I thought about the year that just passed and the year ahead.

Last January, I wrote that the older I get, the less interested I am in my own angst. Instead of immersing myself in the full 3D surround sound of my angst, I find that it's like a movie that plays in the background as I putter around the room. And when I do pay attention to it, I think: oh yeah, that stuff. That stuff about what I haven't got done and what I SHOULD be doing, and the traits that I secretly think make me defective because they aren't the same as other people, and my regrets and embarrassments over mis-steps, etc etc etc... I wish I could turn off the movie or just leave the room or something. Maybe I'll figure that out someday.

But some things of note happened in 2009: I got a couch! Not only a couch, a whole set of living room furniture THAT MATCHES. Yes. And it was second hand. Also, I played some gigs. Survived a time period of extreme clutter in my house and lived to tell the tale. Discovered that indeed we DON'T have bedbugs (but I DO still have a bug phobia). Played many games with my ever-growing, astonishingly brilliant and devastatingly handsome son. Attended some great shows (including TWO Astronaut Love Triangle events). And decluttered my mind through unplanning. Then played some more music.

And those are just the things I blogged about...

I am still mulling over my goals for 2010, so I will just make this observation for now - 2010, rhymes with Jen. Good omen?

Santa, baby

2009-12-22T06:29:00.000-08:00

We just finished a flurry of Christmas-themed gigs.

Most recently, I sang with Patricia and Carmel at the Well (on Elgin street) yesterday. What an amazing place. I loved walking in with my guitar to a sign that said "All women and their children are welcome". Continuing down the stairs and along a hallway to a large room full of the roar of chattering women and the smell of turkey dinner being prepared, I saw kids whizzing around, a mom with a new-born baby, a large Christmas tree with stuffed animals under it, women in the most whimsical plush Christmas hats I've ever seen. And table upon table of women, many of them 50 and over, patiently waiting for their dinner. They were dressed up for the occasion, with glittery shirts, Christmas tree pins, or red dresses and blouses.

We sang a few 'country christmas' numbers and other seasonal songs. Then the choir, the Well's Angels (!) got up and we accompanied them for several Christmas carols. And of course, "Here comes Sandra Claus" (that's right, folks, Santa can be a woman).

Last week, I played with Patricia and Carmel at a nursing home in Vanier. It was a wonderful, welcoming environment. We probably could have gone acoustic, but we set up with all our gear (speakers, PA, mics, amps...). I felt a bit sorry for the woman at the very back who kept her hands over her ears the whole time. But most of the audience seemed to enjoy the show, singing along and shaking the various percussion instruments we handed out. After we finished, we were swarmed in slow motion by enthusiastic fans.

A few days before that, the full band (Sarah had not yet left for Winterpeg) played at an appreciation lunch for the staff of all the programs at the Bronson Centre. That was a blast, where I debuted my sexy rendition of "Santa Baby" - and Santa was there, playing right along. It was catered by the Cordon Bleu cooking school. YUM. (I snagged some handmade chocolates and fancy cookies to take home with me for the delight of my offspring.)

Now things are about to get quieter. Except at my house, where Santa's visit is eagerly anticipated with almost complete belief and a healthy measure of skepticism.

Kid: Mom, does Santa really know if you've been bad or good?
Mom: Absolutely.
Kid: Cool...
[a few minutes of silence]
Kid: Does he have a big video screen or something?
Mom: Magic.
Kid: Oh. Okay.

Sentences

2009-11-14T04:15:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading _The Corrections_ by Jonathan Franzen. Here are some of my favourite sentences:

p7 "It's the fate of most Ping Pong tables in home basements eventually to serve the ends of other, more desperate games."

p98 "Rationally Chip knew that Doug would let him go soon and that eventually he might even escape the Nightmare of Consumption and find a restaurant bathroom where he could take the filet out and regain his full critical faculties - that there would come a moment when he was no longer standing amid pricey gelati with lukewarm fish in his pants, and that this future moment would be a moment of extraordinary relief - but for now he still inhabited an earlier, much less pleasant moment from the vantage point of which a new brain looked like just the ticket."

p425 "Not until she was at the pier and her mother kissed her and a quite different Denise, a Version 5.0, nearly put her tongue in the pretty old woman's mouth, nearly ran her hands down Enid's hips and thighs, nearly caved in and promised to come at Christmas for as long as Enid wanted, did the extent of the correction she was undergoing reveal itself."

p485 "If a perky, homely evangelical girl insisted on talking, he had a right to choose the topic."

p 541 "Denise's shampoo had the pleasing, subtle scents of late-model Western capitalism."

There you go, Coyote...

time, he flies

2009-10-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

so busy these days and in the last stages of recuperation from illness, but wanted to put up these photos from our Evil Elvis nite at the Elmdale - so much fun. The photos were take by Charline, who kindly gave me permission to rip them off of her facebook profile.

What to wear...

2009-10-09T04:49:00.000-07:00

This is the age-old question. We are playing at the Elmdale tonight. I'm stocking up on the black eyeliner. Thinking of the classic black and red for a colour scheme...

Horrorbilly, Hellbilly, and Elizabeth Riley-billy

2009-10-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

Sunday 27th afternoon art/music show

2009-09-19T16:37:00.001-07:00

This is a photo from Ray - he posted it to facebook - from our Carleton Place gig last weekend. It was incredibly fun, in the photo we are jamming with a group called the Celtic Jammers. The venue was an art/coffee shop called Brushstrokes on Bridge Street. It was a great acoustic evening in a cosy and welcoming place.

Next weekend we have another acoustic set coming up in a legendarily good acoustic space, St Brigid's Centre for Arts and Humanities in the Byward Market. The event is an art show called Rhapsody in Hues, put on by Artemisia to raise money for St Brigid's restoration fund. All the art work is on the theme of music, and there will be music playing throughout the weekend. We are on at 3pm Sunday for an hour of bluegrassy goodness!

Gigs, gigs

2009-09-05T11:58:00.000-07:00

First, I have to say that I was BLOWN AWAY last night by ALT. They were already my favourite band, but now... I think they're gods.

Second, I have gigs! One of my gigs of course is that I'm back in my regular job duties at Carleton, so I have classes that I'm going to teach and a program to run and various other stuff.

BUT on the music front, Elizabeth Riley has gigs:

In Carleton Place, this Saturday Sep 12th, between 6-9 pm at Brushstrokes (an artstore/coffeeshop), as part of a show featuring the Celtic Jammers and various poets. This is part of Sounds of Downtown, an annual CP extravaganza, and just one of many examples of the vibrancy of the arts in the Ottawa Valley.

At St Brigid's Centre for Arts and Humanities, Sunday Sep 27th, 3pm, providing music at an art show called "Rhapsody in Hues" which is raising money for the restoration and maintenance of this beautiful historic space.

Aug 29 Women's Stage: Elizabeth Riley Band

2009-08-24T08:02:00.000-07:00

We are very excited to be playing the Women's Stage this Saturday night as part of Capital Pride. It en plein air in front of City Hall, Marion Dewar Plaza. The show starts at 5pm and runs til 9 - we are the second band up, so I'm estimating maybe 5:30 or 5:45 we'll be embarking on our material - it's a shortish set, 25 minutes.

Stand up close to the stage to benefit from a limited time giveaway offer ;) - we recently made a demo CD and we're going to chuck a few into the crowd.

Also, of course, the topic of who will be wearing what is causing many pre-show conversations. I was going to wear my friend Wenna's cowboy hat, but when Carmel tried it on during a practice, we all agreed that it looks so excellent on her, SHE should wear the hat. However I am very much looking forward to finally wearing a funky pair of high heels that I bought two years ago at a now-defunct consignment store in Carleton Place (three sisters - it was soooo great). They are cowboy-ish in nature, that's all I'm gonna say.

What will we be playing - a mix of covers and originals:

Shame on You
Shady Grove
Redemption Day
Young Women to Old
Women's Stories

I heart Pete Medway

2009-08-16T06:25:00.000-07:00

I met Pete when I was in grad school. At that time, he was a professor who taught in the Writing Studies stream of my program. I was not officially concentrating in Writing Studies (it's my field now, though). However, I either took or audited every course he taught, and even talked him and the department into letting me be his TA for a third year writing course that was not officially large enough to warrant a TA assignment.

His sardonic humour and habitual frown of puzzlement, not to mention a willingness to critique dearly held orthodoxies (including his own), are not intended to endear, yet Pete is loved by many, something that seemed to baffle him at times.

To talk with Pete is to participate in an ongoing experiment, a testing process for half-a-dozen theories, all of which can melt, mingle, and appear to evaporate, only to condense later into an insight that could not have taken form without going through that shared, discursive process. His enthusiasm for a new idea does not preclude his later enthusiasm for jettisoning the idea if it seems warranted. If the idea is any good, it comes around again.

At a time in my life when I was struggling to make sense of who I was and how I appeared to straddle many different worlds, finding a home in none, I found refuge at Pete's soirees, held roughly every month or two months, prefigured by a group email with the subject line: "Soireereons, enfants!".

Everyone who came had to bring, perform or enact something that they had created. The evening always encompassed a vast range of creativity and appreciation: I remember balsa-wood architectural models, dragonflies fashioned out of pipe cleaners, found music made by dangling recording devices out of windows at busy streetcorners, poems in a variety of genres, subversive posters that had been plastered all over downtown Ottawa, paintings, interactive sculptures, songs. Everyone had equal floortime to present or perform, followed by a question and discussion period.

When Pete moved back to England to work at a university there, I was sad. Sad for me and the other people who were (officially or unofficially) his students here in Ottawa. But happy for him, since he moved closer to his family.

I still miss Pete, and I really enjoy his blog. It's very petesian. Or medwavian. Or something like that!

Impromptu concert

2009-08-09T04:15:00.001-07:00

Turns out that Irene's only runs the open mic every second week in the summer - I shoulda done my research. But on the other hand, if we hadn't gone on a non-open mic weekend, we wouldn't have ended up doing an impromptu concert. Ray, thanks for the picture.

Tomorrow Irene's, then ... the World!

2009-08-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

Hey, Elizabeth Riley is playing at Irene's open mic tomorrow afternoon (August 8th) - it starts around 2pm. We'll be running through a mini-set in preparation for our gig downtown on August 29th at the Women's Stage of Capital Pride. Whoo-hoo!

Hope to see some friendly and familiar faces tomorrow.

Cheerio!

Blissing out to ALT

2009-08-02T15:08:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to attend a rare performance by my favourite band, Astronaut Love Triangle. Here's a shot taken by Dave (the only one withOUT a pseudonym) of me and my son, playing with their discarded props in a transition between songs. I'm hoping to get their permission to do a cover of Large American Car. I can't say it's my favourite of their songs - because I can't pick a favourite - but it is the one that might be translatable in some way. Most things ALT does, you just can't imagine anyone else doing them, which is kinda part of the beauty and hilarity of it all.

Go here for Zoom's review, here for the ALT blog, with links to pics pics pics... but no video, sadly.

The Mysterious Smell

2009-07-24T07:07:00.001-07:00

There is a horrible smell in my front closet, it smells urine-like to me. I suspect it's cat-related. It is driving me CRAZY. It happened before and I cleaned and disinfected everything and it still smelled, but then I threw out the mat in front of the door and the smell went away. Now the smell is back. Sigh...

Bad Girl's Guide to Generating Blog Post Topics

2009-07-11T22:27:00.000-07:00

1. Steal someone else's idea.

2. Write a whole bunch of whiny excuses, angsting on and on about blogging/life. (O! the life of a blogger, o woe! It's so much harder for US than it is for YOU... etc.)

3. Make increasingly irrelevant and snarky comments on other people's blogs as a way of relieving your need to utter without having to click on that 'new post' button and come up with something for your blog.

4. Alienate the few readers you have by making personal remarks about them.

5. Create drama in your life and/or the lives of your family, friends and co-workers, solely in order to blog about it.*

*This is my favourite. It's also the baddest.

Sabbatical ending, and new beginnings, and continuing

2009-06-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

Well, my son's last day of school is tomorrow, which is also my last day of daycare for him until he goes for full days starting in July, when I hit the office again. (Alert: Jen is returning to campus.) Between tomorrow and my start date at work, we have a little vacation time - at one point earmarked for a trip, but that has been unplanned (see previous post). Instead, some of that 'stay-cation' time is filling up with local fun things, like a trip to Mont Cascades and a farm vacation with my mom; and some of it is gloriously open and free. I anticipate lazy mornings, visits to the splash pad, many many games of let's pretend, music and stories. And I MAY even do a titch more simplifying and organizing in my mouse's nest of a home. I'm letting go of a lot of things lately, including my car. Anyone want to buy a 98 Toyota Corolla?

More skull imagery

2009-06-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

Last week was busy... and fun... but busy!

Whoops, and I just realized that I overlooked my invitation to the Fringe Wine and Cheese where I could have got free tickets and blogged about the shows I saw - which would have been fun, so I feel some regret - but it would have made me more busy, and that's not what I need right now.

I like to say yes to everything - everything that I WANT to do - because I like doing things, I find it interesting to go places and see people. But I can't do everything I want to do.

A little while ago I ran into planning problems. I had a spell where all my attempts to plan just came to nothing, basically. So I thought, hey, universe, you trying to tell me something? I stopped planning, as much as possible. And things got a bit simpler. Not any less busy, but less stressful. It was like a de-cluttering of the mind.

For the first time I appreciated my brother's annoying habit of responding, "Let's play it fast and loose," to my attempts to make plans with him. He has a busy, planful job and he just doesn't want to plan in his 'free' time.

Then I got bold. My de-cluttered mind woke up and stretched and said: "You know what, not only can you refrain from planning, you can un-plan!" I cancelled two upcoming trips (they would have been super-fun, but busy... you get the idea) and heaved a big sigh of relief.

So that's my story - unplanning - what can you un-plan?

Experience Propeller Dance

2009-06-19T05:26:00.000-07:00

{Lift}

a celebration and evening of performance works by Propeller Dance artists

Performances Live Music Silent Auction

Regular $26
Special Supporter $56
Box office 613-236-5196
Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre Mainstage

Friday June 19, 2009 at 7:00 pm

Silent Auction items:

http://propellerdance.blogspot.com/

Sally review, and more to do

2009-06-18T04:34:00.000-07:00

ok, TONIGHT, people, check out the Elmdale - show starts at 8:30, it's Hoodlum with Red April. Hoodlum is Wakefield based and Eastern European rooted. Their music is fairly unique and wonderful. Red April, otherwise known as Michelle, is an incredibly talented roots musician and singer with performance chops coming out the wazoo. You. Must. See. Her.

and FRIDAY, for an out-of-and-back-into-your-body experience, you have a chance to see Propeller Dance perform at the new GCTC (aka Irving Greenberg, on Wellington). These performers are amazing, spirited dancers - another not-to-be-missed night.

What a week! ohhhhhhh man, I feel sorry for you if you missed Sally's show last night, that woman is demonically talented. Holy crap! You should see her play the piano. You can hear it, yes, but seeing her shake, shimmy, gyrate and even grimace while hearing her is like an out of body experience. The whole show was indescribably good. Her songs are witty and wonderful, just like the woman herself. And by being at the show, I got to hear songs that aren't on the cd - songs like Vacillating Boogie, and the one about Pete the sex doll. The place was packed and the atmosphere was intimate and warm. Memories.

Excitement - coming up...

2009-06-11T14:01:00.000-07:00

On WEDNESDAY, Sally Robinson (a solo debut, after YEARS in the music biz!). Sally is an amazing player of pianos, clarinet, accordion - really just about any instrument, from what I have seen - and a wonderful singer with a voice that can make you think she's really sweet (don't believe it! well, she has her moments). Her humorous songs are the ones people usually remember the most (my favourite: Recycle Your Man - oh, yeah and a boogie she sings about procrastination, which is hilarious). The CD is The S files, and the songs range from silly to serious, hitting sassy, smart, seductive and sentimental along the way.

7:30, NAC 4th stage, go here to get tix.

On THURSDAY, another friend, Michelle April, is hitting the Elmdale House Tavern stage along with a cool-sounding Wakefield band known as Hoodlum. Michelle played for years as part of RedWood Central, and has taken a break from performing for a while, so I'm really excited to see and hear her on stage again. Her voice will rip the heart right out of your chest and leave it hanging - so bring tissues and gauze and the whole damn first aid kit. And she has a really unique style on the guitar, too. My understanding is that she will be playing some of her songs as an opener, then playing with the band for a few numbers as well.

Elmdale House Tavern, 8:30 pm, Thursday June 18, 7 bucks

On FRIDAY,at 7pm, the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre Mainstage is hosting LIFT - an evening of performance by Propeller Dance artists, including dancers from the youth, adult and children's programs. Propeller Dance is an Ottawa organization that offers mixed-ability, integrated dance classes for all ages.

Don't miss it - buy tickets at the box office: 613-236-5196

Sally Robinson NAC 4th stage June 17

2009-06-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

Sally Robinson is releasing "The S Files" at the NAC 4th Stage on June 17th. It's gonna be a great show, with Sally vamping it up front and centre, doing her thing with keyboard and clarinet, and some excellent musicians backing her (Vince Halfhide,Kenny Kanwisher,Derek Loewen,Michael Ball,Ann Downey & Jody Benjamin) with guitar, cello, fiddle, double bass, drums.

$15.00 for adults, $10.00 for students... plus bring some money to buy her CD. Available through Box Office in advance, or by emailing robinsally@gmail.com.

The show's at 7:30. I'll be there, flogging CDs for Sally - ya gotta come!

Here she is: sexy Sally. What will the music be like? this is what Sally says: "Music ranges from jazz to blues, folk to country. They're all my original tunes - sad, silly, seductive, sincere, sentimental - it's the S Files!"

Sona si latine loqueris*

2009-06-01T16:59:00.000-07:00

Sane ego te vocavi. forsitan capedictum tuum desit - I did call. Maybe your answering machine is broken

Semper idem - Always the same thing.

Amicule, deliciae, num is sum qui mentiar tibi? - Baby, sweetheart, would I lie to you?

Tum podem extulit horridulum - You are talking shit

Tintinnuntius meus sonat! - There goes my beeper!

Absum! - I'm outta here!

Spero nos familiares mansuros - I hope we'll still be friends

Ascendo tuum - Up yours

Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure - I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear

Tu, rattus turpis! - You dirty rat!

Vacca foeda - Stupid cow Utinam barbari spatium proprium tuum invadant! - May barbarians invade your personal space!

Utinam coniurati te in foro interficiant! - May conspirators assassinate you in the mall!

*I don't speak Latin, but I can look it up on the internet. I'm good at that.

Game, Set, Match

2009-05-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

My son has figured out how to make his Spiderman Operation game buzz continuously by wedging the little pincher into one of the holes, snugged up to the metal edges. Then he grins at me and covers his ears. "Cover your ears, Mommy!" He usually does this when I'm trying to get some work done.

Lately we've been playing checkers, and he plays within the regular rules for approximately one game, give or take a few moves. After that, it's his rules. I never win, no matter which set of rules we are using.

Another game, one he just made up the other day, is called "Guess What?" It goes like this:

-Guess what?
-What?
-No, guess.
-Um, your feet are ticklish.
-No.
-Yes they are.
-No, that's not it, guess, Mommy!
-It's bedtime.
-No.
-Yes it is, though.
-You have to guess three times.
-It's getting dark.
-No!
-Okay that was three guesses.
-No, you have to guess four times.
- insert guess
-You have to guess five times.
-insert guess
-You have to guess previous number plus one times.
etc, ad infinitum ...

The Bad Girl's Guide to De-cluttering*

2009-05-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

1. move piles from one cluttered area of the house to another cluttered area
2. 'organize' other people's stuff - easier to pitch their sentimental crap than it is to release your own
3. put the stuff you are giving away in the trunk of your car and drive around with it until you decide you need it again
4. throw your unwanted stuff over the neighbour's fence** in the dead of night (when there's no moon***)
5. burn it! especially if burning it will release nasty fumes! yeah!

*I'm a bad, bad girl, but even I can't endorse these suggestions - who posted this!? - JG
** Pls note: make sure it doesn't include junk mail with your name and address on it - duh!
*** This is super bad - note the pagan content

Don't let them bite

2009-05-10T19:11:00.001-07:00

I spent Mother's Day in a way that is perhaps not typical.

My son was at his dad's place Saturday night, so I slept in (big time) and read Jane Eyre a bit and drank copious amounts of coffee and tried out my new bubble bath.

But then...

Gradually over the course of the morning, in emailing back and forth with my ex-husband about some little red itchy bumps I had noted on our son's skin a few days earlier, in watching lurid youtube videos and googling both sites and images for the keyword 'bedbugs' - I became paranoidally convinced that the house was infested.

This freaked me out and...

I spent the rest of the day in a frenzy of laundering every piece of fabric in the house, inspecting mattresses and boxsprings, vacuuming... and freaking out ever more.

I can't explain it - I didn't find any evidence of bedbugs, but the more I tore the place apart and laundered things, the more of a state I got into, and the more convinced I became that the little beasts were there and were somehow tricking me! I found one bug, which is not a bedbug, but I sealed it into a little plastic container to show to dad-of-son when he came for the drop-off, just because I felt that I needed someone else to say "Jen - this is not a bedbug".

Have I mentioned that I might have a bit of a phobic feeling when it comes to bugs? Not full-blown phobia, but several steps along that road. Bugs that suck your blood in the dead of night are kind of the ultimate horror. I started thinking about the vampire myths, I bet you anything that the concept of vampires is based on bed bugs, because, listen: leave you with tiny red puncture wounds (frequently in a line as they follow a vein), only come out at night and shun daylight, suck blood, invisible (practically) and difficult/impossible to eradicate...

Okay, denouement - dad-of-son brought pizza over and inspected all the mattresses, looked at the poor little bug in the container, said "Jen - this is not a bedbug. And I don't think you have them." My son took over the vacuuming and fastidiously vacuumed every crack, crevice and bit of fluff he could reach. I put the hot, freshly laundered sheets on the beds, and the three of us ate a huge pizza. Then we played some tunes and pretended we were flying in outer space.

I don't have bedbugs, my house is extraordinarily clean and smells of fresh laundry, my boy is soundly sleeping - and I'm happy. So I guess this was a happy mother's day!

Housecleaning

2009-05-08T03:36:00.000-07:00

I've been going through a bit of a low period, and I know there is a relationship between this moodiness and the housework issue. I always wonder if the house has slipped into chaos because of the emotional slide, or whether it's the chaos of the house (a gradual accumulation of mess, through attention going to things OTHER than regular housework) that causes the mood(s). I don't think it's a simple either/or. It's what I would term a dynamic relationship.

I just finished re-reading one of my favourite novels, Elisabeth Harvor's All Times Have Been Modern. It's a favourite because of Harvor's excellent writing. It was simply a bonus for me (in the take-comfort department) that the main character, Kay, is a 'slovenly' housekeeper. I was even a bit smug about the fact that, if my mother visits and opens my kitchen cupboards, she's likely to see pots and pans rather than, "A hairbrush and a mitten. And three library books. All overdue. Plus a teacup with petrified cornflakes dried on the inside of it." Kay overhears Idona reporting this on the phone to Henry, soon to become Idona's husband number three.

This is a roundabout approach to the following news: my house is substantially cleaner! All the public areas, plus my child's bedroom, are neat, organized and shiny. Not only that, but we are actively reminding ourselves (and each other) to PUT THINGS AWAY. What's that Buddhist thing-a-ma-jig: Clean up after yourself. (You know what I mean, there are six 'rules', like Be content. and Accept what is.) I'm particularly proud of the toy organization (and purging) that led to this wonderful state. Baskets from the dollar store played a key part.

It's true that clearing the decks and getting rid of unnecessary clutter frees one up on both physical and mental planes - which is why the next stage of project housework - my home office - will be a particularly satisfying accomplishment...

Night Thoughts

2009-05-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I keep swearing that I will get a good solid chunk of sleep every night.

However, that was before I discovered that people post entire tv shows to youtube. Hello, ANTM (Yes, guilty as charged).

And now... I have Qtv playing, an interview with Leonard Cohen. So far, he has talked about what he does when he comes home (change the lightbulbs), about starting a music career in his mid-thirties (inspiring!), about liking women's voices and finding his own voice disgusting, about writing songs, about death a few times... now they're talking about death some more.

I'm not thinking about death so much as housework. My house is a mess. I'm going through one of those periods of time when the task of cleaning my house seems to be beyond me. I have an oasis of orderliness in the kitchen and that's about it. In the rest of the house, I keep doing cleaning and the cleaning gets undone faster than I can reclean. Like I totally cleaned my bathroom and then a day later I looked in and saw a hockey helmet, three dinosaurs, telephone messages and other assorted effluvia that had washed up on my formerly pristine vanity.

hm - that's almost leonard cohenesque - 'I scrubbed at every surface/I thought my soul was clean/the mirror was a lecher/my vanity was pristine'

you know what? bedtime.

Kitchen Comfort

2009-04-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

I am taking what comfort I can these days, where I can. One of the things I am taking comfort in is Doris Lessing's incredibly messy kitchen table. This picture is from an interview with the Nobel people after she won the prize in 2008.

In the interview, she described feminism in "those days", ie. the early 70s, as "exaggerated hysterical rubbish". This comment related to her description of one particular incident in Sweden in the 1970s when a woman approached her and said "I only read the blue notebook".

I enjoy The Golden Notebook - savour might be a better word - but I connected much more with her Jane Somers novels. Also, I highly recommend Mara and Dann. Really interesting speculative fiction.

In case you are wondering, about my opinion on feminism - I do not think it is hysterical rubbish. In fact, the more I work with young women, the more strongly I feel we have never needed feminism more in this world than we do at this point in time. Feminist consciousness - including the whole spectrum, extreme positions and all - has been a powerful force that continues to provoke people to re-examine assumptions about identities - and not only female identities. For example, I like to see blogs like this one, which examines stereotypes of masculinity and their effects on men's experience and identity.

Whew!

I heart Lynn Miles

2009-04-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

Okay, every time we go to the Irene's open mic, we meet someone famous. This time it was LYNN MILES. She sang first - five beautiful songs, two of them new ones from her spiral-bound notebook. I couldn't believe my luck. Then I sat there reeling with shyness, unable to get up the courage to say a thing, while Lynn Miles packed up her stuff and the next singer took the stage.
However, thanks to Carmel's ability to chat with anyone, I did get to speak with Lynn Miles. In fact, she addressed me - to my amazement...

Lynn Miles: Excuse me, are you Jen Gilbert?
Jen G: guh
Lynn Miles: Is it true that you sing Black Flowers?
Jen G: I love your songs. I love you.

I don't really remember the rest, except that it took a while for my feet to touch the ground again. And she has beautiful dark, soulful eyes.

Lynn Miles, I heart you a whole lot.

I just think she's a genius at writing about heartbreak, about confusion, about seeking meaning, about seeking - and rejecting, and being rejected by - love, about loss, about resolve in the face of despair - about the emotional quilt of life, in short - about being human.

She has been an inspiration to me since I first heard her perform. Despite her long track record and the wealth of her musical oeuvre, I didn't hear her until almost ten years ago when Unravel came out. I was just starting to learn the guitar and sing with the Blooming Divas. I don't understand why she is not much much much more famous. She should be, like, Leonard-Cohen-level-famous. I've learned so much about the possibilities of songs and how they communicate from her songwriting. I love listening to and playing her songs (disclaimer - though it really goes without saying - think 'homage' rather than 'cover' - I ain't no Lynn Miles!).

AND THANK YOU to the Elizabeth Riley afficionados who came out to see us: It means so much that you come, especially when you know that we're just up for three songs and then down again. You guys rock. I also heart you guys, like, hardcore.

Tomorrow! Irene's open stage...

2009-04-17T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hey, come have a beer and hear some music, including Elizabeth Riley! We plan to get up sometime between 3:30 and 4:30. If you are into dancing, bring yer dancing shoes. Or you could just tap your toes. Songs will include two originals: Who Knows; Right Person, Wrong Place, Wrong Time. Now you know you do not want to miss that.

We have inspired dancing in the past, and here is proof... (scroll all the way down to the bottom for the cutest pictures, my personal favourites)

Skull imagery

2009-04-11T16:52:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, in my Monday night yoga class, as the teacher went around the room for a check-in with everyone, people that night said, for the most part, that they were jangled, or lacked focus. When it was my turn to speak, I thought back over my day, a routine one, with quiet pleasure. "I had a good day," I said.

I should have known the hammer of fate was hovering above my head, waiting to strike.

I felt two soft blows, one that night and one the next day. They turned out to be mere taps, reminders of the impermanence of life, not (I'm glad to say) harbingers of outright chaos.

Nothing is permanent, this is a truth that is hard to accept at times, because I want the security of my plans and I cherish the illusion of control. My home isn't permanent. My job isn't permanent. My relationships with people and things are not permanent. I'm not permanent.

The hammer has retreated back into the clouds. I am back to planning (of course... this is ME we are talking about!). I had to give up a plan that I cared about, but at the same time, I have been given a gift, because in letting go of what I thought I had, I became aware of new possibilities.

Pictures: a few faves

2009-04-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

Hurray for Elizabeth Riley

2009-03-31T07:04:00.000-07:00

It was sooooooo much fun. Thanks to all of you who came out last Thursday to the Elmdale, it was a blast! You guys are the best. I can't even pick my favourite moment.

And a big thank you to our mystery man - now revealed as AL WOOD, a great musician and a great guy. He laid down a bass line that kept us grounded and added just a touch of funk at times! Al is a blues man who is Ottawa based and Soo-originated, and he is a finalist in two categories in the 2009 Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards.

He has an AWESOME new CD out, "Mood Swingin' Blues"... check out his original music (and buy, buy, buy!) at alwoodmusic.com

And I'd also like to thank Jeannette for the Jager shooter. She stayed on at the end of her shift to hear our first set, which is a huge big deal. You rock, Jeannette!

Jon (also a great sound man!) thanks for the image, bro.

The Tennessee Set

2009-03-19T06:11:00.000-07:00

Last time we played at the Elmdale, a really cool and kind friend (thanks, Andrew!) video'd the whole thing, then took and made separate little videos of each song. It turned out really well.

This little grouping of songs, we call our Tennessee set; Patricia and I always dedicate it to Roberta and Philip Lee, down in New Brunswick. The Lees, who hail originally from the Tennessee part of the world, were our generous hosts at Lepreaufest back in 2007.

Signs of Spring

2009-03-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

1. The smell of dogshit
2. Noisy ice on Dow's Lake
3. Red-winged blackbirds
4. Hating all my clothes
5. ...

Am I the only one who starts hating all my clothes in the spring?

The Mystery Man

2009-03-13T04:43:00.000-07:00

Mike has to be away on the 26th, so we were lucky enough (right place, right time kinda thing) to get a certain mysterious musician-type - I can't say who - to play bass with us at the Elmdale. He's a debonair man-about-town, hold on to your hearts, ladies! He plays all over the place these days and just released an album to critical acclaim. He doesn't usually play the bass. But who is it? It's a mystery...

(photo from http://www.boltfromtheblueband.co.uk/art/bass.jpg)

March 26th - save the date

2009-02-27T12:28:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, we're starting to get excited about our next gig. We take long breaks between gigs, so it's always good to flex those performance muscles again.

March 26th at the Elmdale - save the date!

When it comes to couches...

2009-02-21T16:04:00.000-08:00

...I just can't commit.

I admire many couches. I even try them out and imagine how they would fit into my space. Sometimes I fantasize about the perfect couch.

But when it comes right down to it, I'm not ready for a couch in my living room. Soon I'll be getting the piano delivered. I've got plans for a luxurious red rug and floor pillows. That'll have to do for now. In fact, right now, that is what will make me happy.

tech notes

2009-02-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

I did two technological things of note recently -

I created a wiki for Elizabeth Riley - there's a link to it in my sidebar, there - where you can see photos, videos and god knows what else, sky's the limit.

I added a "Followers" Gadget to this blog - also right over there in sidebar, and became a follower of my favourite blogs so that I automatically get updates on them - awesome what saving one little click can do. Hello information universe!

These two achievement would not have been possible had I not recently taken another step away from Luddite land and into... the 21st century...

manifestation

2009-01-30T07:09:00.000-08:00

It's useful to have a male perspective at times. Recently, a male friend advised me that I should get a couch if I don't want to remain single all my life. Apparently, the rather bare state of my living room (or as my son refers to it "the play area") doesn't encourage suitors to make a romantic move. On the question of whether I want to be single for the rest of my life, I find I'm actually pretty okay with that thought at the moment. Though I certainly wouldn't rule out a relationship, either. Regardless of all that, I do want a couch.

Carmel needs a van. Hers died. This is pretty crucial, not only because Carmel and Patricia are inconvenienced by not having a vehicle, but because the van has been important in ferrying all our band equipment all over the place. So Elizabeth needs it too.

Ok universe, putting it out there.

2009-01-27T06:09:00.000-08:00

This one's an update. My life has been fairly eventful over the past few days. Most of the events involved me being in denial about having a cold, doing fun energetic things, then collapsing and whining like crazy, but hey - no regrets.

Still trying to schedule in the retail therapy with TWFKAH. We may just default straight to the wine/whine-fest part.

But thanks to Aggie, I now like port. And, you left the bottle at my house, dear. You are not getting it back...

I'm at Umi, and a firetruck just drove by. The firefighters all craned their necks to look in the windows. Maybe firefighters have a secret love of Umi. But they can't indulge it because they're all manly and tough and not into spoken word and peace rallies... um, I guess the cold medication is making me high, that makes no sense.

what am I trying to say? mainly, nothing. But I can't wait for this cold to be over. And I'm really bummed out that I had to cancel volunteering yesterday. The teacher gets me to sit in the hall and take turns reading individually with each kid. I love it. The kids are so amazing, these little tiny beings with their big huge personalities, their daily struggles and passions and rampant curiosity. I think volunteering in jk is probably my most favourite thing that I've done during my sabbatical.

My next most favourite thing has been the music. Still going to be doing some music stuff - a possible date at Umi, in discussions; March 26th at the Elmdale (a thursday - you know the drill - take friday off so you can stay late and come to my place afterwards for the post-party).

One final thing - my friend Carmel needs to buy a second hand van or small truck - any leads?

(photo credit: blavish.com)

still argh, and thanks for the chocolate

2009-01-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the offers of chocolate, wine and retail therapy. I will be taking you all up on all of those offers - in fact, my social calendar is looking quite ample, and I couldn't be happier about that.

Did you know today's Blue Monday? Well, probably you do, if you listen to CBC, which is the only reason I know. I guess I was ahead of trend Friday when I posted my little plaintive whine. Since then I have applied many cures - playing with my boy, yoga, attending a party, playing music, oh yes, chocolatines.

hmm. Still a bit depressed, I think more treats are called for...

New Year. Same old angst.

2009-01-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

I'm not really feeling whiny and sorry for myself. I had a bracing chat with a friend this morning, and that helped. Also my horoscope for today told me to take the day off. (Thank god I read it in time!) but yes, same old angst - all the usual old boring problems, trying tackle them in one fell swoop of self-improvement - not a good idea. The older I get, the less interested I am in my own angst.

Ok, feeling a bit whiny and sorry for myself - maybe chocolate would help?

the knitting kit

2009-01-13T06:51:00.000-08:00

I've never been a knitter. My grandmother showed me one stitch and I made about three or four unfinished scarves as a child. That's my experience as a knitter.

From somewhere or other, my 4 year old son learned about 'knitting kits'. One day he was playing with some twist ties and a (clean) kleenex, pretending to knit. He referred to it as his knitting kit. I thought nothing of it.

The next day, he asked me for his knitting kit. Fortunately I had not thrown it out. I pointed it out on one of his toy shelves. He looked at it and said, "No, not my pretend knitting kit, my real knitting kit, you're supposed to get me a knitting kit!"

I am a dutiful parent, so I took him to Wabi Sabi the next day after school. The woman working there guided us through the selection of suitable knitting needles and yarn.

At this point I discovered that I had not brought any means of payment, idiot that I sometimes am. She told us to take it and pay the next day! (This kind of thing has never happened to me in the big city before, though it used to be common in the small town where I went to school as a kid.) The cockles of my heart were warmed through and through by this generosity, which successfully staved off my son's tears.

We went home and embarked on our knitting project. Wild speculations about what we could knit were thoroughly discussed on the way home: sunglasses to keep the sun out of our eyes! sweaters for the cats! At home, I managed to get one row of knitting started through trial and error. As I did so, I was flooded with memories of my grandmother showing me how to knit. I vividly remembered watching her hands holding the knitting needles and moving with lightening speed as mittens, hats, and scarves seemed to be created out of thin air right in front of my eyes. I told my son about my grandmother and showed him what to do with the loops. We did a few rows together, then he took the needles and did a row himself (read: thoroughly fucked it up, but who cares?).

Now he has abandoned the project, except as an overseer. I am dutifully knitting away at it. I have to say, it is an unexpected pleasure.

Red Boots

2008-12-26T10:34:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Keane, some shots of my famous-in-my-own-mind red boots. Ah, love them!

Creativity is never a single act

2008-12-18T06:48:00.000-08:00

Our students quickly learned that creativity is never a single act. Creativity is always a lengthy process requiring huge amounts of preparation and persistence. As counter-example to the Mozart myth, they learned that Beethoven filled notebook after notebook with musical dead ends and futile variations in painstaking composition. They considered that the lack of documented trial-and-error for Mozart didn't necessarily mean that he didn't struggle, too, though in his case those struggles seem to have taken place in his head rather than on paper.

-Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein, Psychology Today blog "Teaching Creativity 2"

The gig, the gig

2008-12-12T09:15:00.000-08:00

Well, last night was our gig. In preparation, yesterday I went out and bought myself a patch cord and a guitar stand. Oddly, I still don’t own a tuner.

We had a practice the night before that turned into a bit of a ‘pre-party’. You know that’s the only reason we’re in a band. It’s an excuse to party... In my case, it’s my social life.

We had a great time last night playing music and I just want to thank the EIGHTY people who came - omg - we now have some money to put towards a good cause, as in, making our band even awesomer. We fantasize about cordless mics... cordless guitars... headsets! There's this one song where I really want to writhe around on the floor, but it's hard when you're tied down with cords.

In a little bit, I should have some photos and possibly videos from the show to either post here or point you to... What a party. Like I said, when your 'work' is making music, you can justify all kinds of things...

buying clothes that others might consider to be cheesy, cheap, and/or slutty (viz. My red high-heeled fake snakeskin boots, $7.99 at St Vincent de Paul)
going out to shows and catching great acts around town (research)
drinking on a weeknight (that's week-night)

Hey, I know some of my readers are in bands too – can you add to the list?

Yes! Waiting for the upside...

2008-12-01T07:07:00.000-08:00

"A penchant for postponement takes its toll. Procrastination carries a financial penalty, endangers health, harms relationships and ends careers. “Procrastination undermines well-being on a wide scale,” notes psychologist Timothy A. Pychyl, director of the Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University in Ottawa. Nevertheless, recent work hints at potential upsides to this otherwise bad habit: perpetual foot-draggers seem to benefit emotionally from their trademark tactics, which support the human inclination to avoid the disagreeable." [emphasis added - jg]

from a scientific american article I linked to via the learned and helpful David Scrimshaw

I fought the law and...

2008-11-28T10:36:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't exactly fight the law, unless you consider forgetting to renew that sticker that goes on your license plate an act of aggression. Passive aggressive, maybe...

Last week was a bad week. I had an encounter with the Law that left me a trifle shaken - but thank god/dess, no poorer. The cop said he was in a good mood. A few days later, still wracking my brains because I could have sworn I did go in and get that sticker thingy, in fact, I had a distinct memory of going in to the office in Carleton Place in July (before my birthday, please note) to do so, I suddenly remembered the rest of the distinct memory, which was that because I had outstanding parking tickets in the City of Ottawa, which I could not pay from the Town of Carleton Place office, I did not end up renewing the registration that day.

So the moral of the story is - renew your registration, get your sticker, and if you don't have the right sticker on your license plate, don't drive around in front of cop cars, especially not if you are wearing a black skull cap. With a skull on it. And especially not if you have a large man in the passenger seat beside you who looks like a gangsta' in certain lights. (He's not a gangsta', he's the sweetest possible guy.) What can I say? I like to accessorize.

Gearing up for the gig

2008-11-22T06:49:00.000-08:00

I hope you are all planning on going to our gig - less than three weeks now - THURSDAY DECEMBER 11 at the increasingly revered and renowned ELMDALE HOUSE TAVERN.

Okay - got that out of the way.

Fall is a busy time for people who work in academic type workplaces. And people like Sarah who don't, but have to take trips to - oh - Luxembourg, for instance, for important conferences. And people like Carmel, who have been mixing with artistic types at important art shows. So we haven't been playing out much. However, we have been adhering to a rigid, cage-like practice schedule, and we've added some exciting new songs - oldies and newies - to our repertoire. We've got our harmonies all tuned up and our eccentric rhythms down pat.

You know, Thursday December 11 strikes me as a perfect day to plan an outing with your chums. You could go to any number of fun and yummy restaurants in the Hintonburg area, then catch our show at 9pm at Elmdale House. Only 5 dollars. Whether you like to shake it on the dance floor, or watch others do so, should be fun. Christmas is a-comin'. Friday December 12 would be a good day to wake up late, call in sick, buy a few stocking stuffers. I'm just sayin'.

Avocado and Kimchi

2008-11-19T10:13:00.000-08:00

...in a sandwich. Yummmmm.

Hmmm... reflections on teaching

2008-11-11T08:07:00.000-08:00

I've just started volunteering in my son's classroom, did my first stint yesterday, and let me tell you, it has given rise to a lot of reflection about teaching. I thought I would see many differences between teaching junior kindergarten and my own work at the university, but I observed that, for the teacher, keeping 20 four-year-olds involved and engaged is not that different from teaching a seminar of first year university students.

Of course there was the planning that had to occur before the day even started. And the weeks of establishing a classroom routine. I recognized the careful pacing of activities - some with the whole group sitting and supposedly listening, some with smaller groups doing different activities - and the orchestration involved in making all that happen. There is the engagement with individual students while they play/work, giving little boosts to the thought process, doling out genuine and non-fatuous praise. And then there is just enjoying the kids - their energy, their intelligence and talents, their interactions with each other.

It was the day the French teacher comes in to teach the group of kids. We were all sitting on the large mat when she arrived. She pulled out the flip-chart from the wall as she greeted the children, and selected the child whose turn it was to use the pointer while the group chanted the poem they are learning. "Je suis rouge, rouge. Je suis un coquelicot. Je suis rouge, rouge." etc... (something like that).

During this time period, one of my son's friends, who has trouble sitting still, was up and down 20 times (no exaggeration), looking for books on the shelves, starting conversations with other kids, and so on. One of the girls said to him - "If you don't stay in your seat, I won't give you the present that I brought for you." This gave rise to all kinds of speculation among the kids in the vicinity (the back of the mat, of course, farthest from the teacher) about what the present may be and whether she brought presents for anybody else. She jumped up from her seat and fetched a little bag full of hair scrunchies and business cards with scribbles and drawing on them, and started handing them out (selectively) to the kids, creating a subdued roar.

At the same time, my son, who had insisted that I sit beside him, scooched closer and closer to me, grabbed my hand, tried to lean against me, and finally put his head down and appeared to be trying to sleep. I resisted all of this, which made him upset. While the teacher continued to deal with the gift-giving disruptiveness, I tried to sneak off to the back of the classroom, feeling that my presence was not helping. At that, my son started to cry. Long story short, the gift bag was confiscated, the tears were soothed, the French lesson was concluded.

Much to my surprise, later that day my son told me, a propos of nothing, "coquelicot is the French word for poppy". Wow. Something actually sank in? Encouraging.

December 11: Elizabeth Riley at the Elmdale

2008-10-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

An amazing thing happened this fall. I've been pinching myself for a while now, and I have lots of bruises, and the thing still appears to be true.

The owner of my favourite bar/watering hole/music venue stumbled across this post, where I was whining and complaining about not being able to go see Ball and Chain. She liked what I said about her bar, and watched our videos. Then she sent me the following miraculous message: "I love your band. You should play here."

Just a second while I pinch myself again. Ow. No, I'm not dreaming.

So, our first full gig is going to be at my favourite place to hang out, drink, listen to music in all of Ottawa, the Elmdale House Tavern in Hintonburg.

Ow. Yes, it's true!

So save this date - December 11th, it's a Thursday night, you can call in sick the next day.

If you don't like drinking beer by the quart, you can have Beau's Organic. Or if, like me, you're not really a beer person, I recommend a rye and ginger.

7 random and/or weird facts (yes, it's a meme)

2008-10-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

I was tagged for this by Raino. I'm going along with it because of my basic good nature. And I've been meaning to post anyway...

These are the RULES:
1.Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2.Share 7 random and / or weird facts about yourself.
3.Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include the links to their blogs. 4.Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Do it ! It’s fun.

These are the FACTS:
1. I like being up late late late at night. Alone, with others, whatever, wherever. It might be pathological. It might be an addiction. An addiction to insomnia.
2. As a teenager, I was horse-crazy. But the last time I was on a horse was ... oh, ten years ago, maybe? And when I got off the horse, EVERY MUSCLE IN MY BODY ACHED. Each muscle ached with a little separate ache, so I learned about muscles that I didn't even know I had!
3. My phone is pink.
4. I like rainy days. I also like November.
5. Right now, as I type this, I am supposed to be doing something else. Shocking.
6. um, I'm having trouble thinking of something else...
7. I have no favourite colour.

Here's one more fact: One of these days, Elizabeth Riley will have a website and a myspace set up - it's in the works, thanks to the wonderful Carmel and the fabulous Mike.

Umi and Irene's

2008-10-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from our visit to Umi last Friday. It was a rip-roarious night. I just love that place - the energy is amazing.

Umi's energy is: open, accepting, questioning, young, idealistic, lost, found.

I think the high point, for me, was hearing Sergio bring it all together in a rousing freestyle performance as the penultimate item in an incredibly diverse open mic.

Sadly, I don't have a picture of Sergio. But I have a picture of Brianne, who poured her heart out and got us all singing along.

And a few pictures of Elizabeth Riley: one ensemble (featuring the elusive Mike, in the distance!) and a couple of Sarah. We were joined by Doc Woods, on sax. You gotta love a guy who can tap dance and play the sax at the same time. It even got a mention on Umi's blog.

Thanks Devon! And thanks, Keane, for the photos.

I heard a rumour Elizabeth R. will be appearing at Irene's this Saturday afternoon. That Elizabeth, she loves to perform.

Looking back and looking ahead

2008-09-23T07:09:00.001-07:00

Elizabeth Riley is planning to play at Umi's open mic this Friday, the 26th - really hope some of you can make it, it should be lots of fun.

They do an open mic to start the evening (7, 7:30 ish), then there is a featured act, and also I believe their house band, Instant Release (they are great!) will be playing.

We played at Irene's open mic last Saturday (sorry I didn't publicize it through the blog, just thru facebook). What a great experience! Thanks, all of you who came - I think we filled quite a bit of the bar!

The pictures from Irene's are courtesy of Keane Shore (thanks, Keane!) They feature Sarah (on banjo), Patricia (on the beautiful Gibson semi-acoustic), Carmel (drum, guitar), and moi (guitar). Eliora and Hasana, two of the Blooming Divas, joined us on vocals for "Young Women to Old". The "EVL" drummer is Doug, who played along with us. Thanks also to Ken and Richard who played along on cello and bass. Missing in action: Mike, who had the day off from being in the band because he's trying to find a house.

Umi

2008-09-15T17:47:00.001-07:00

Well, it's Monday night, a great night for hitting the town. I'm chilling out in one of my favourite Ottawa places, Umi, across from Tang Coin Laundry. I just saw a large tabby cat trot across the street with a mouse dangling from its mouth.

I loved this place on sight, back in the summer when I discovered it. It's got a great vibe. It's real. The sign outside the door tonight promises good conversation, and I believe that is true - I've been in here almost daily over the past little while, and each time I have either been part of, or caught snatches of, good conversation. Everything from music to prostitution to what counts as art. I've listened to poems here. I've heard great freestyling here (this always leaves me awe-struck). I've brought my kid here. He likes the spicy cookies.

Umi.