Five answers for Sasha

[gurdymonkey]

1. Given unlimited funding and time, what sort of

trouble

, er ... personal research would you get up to?
I would learn both modern and Classical Japanese and I would go to Japan and look at extant period garments up close. I'd probably try  apprentice myself to a traditional textile artist over there as well. Imagine learning how to do surihaku or shibori or katazome.

There's also a nice man in Germany I would talk to about building me a better hurdy gurdy than the one I have now. Assuming I ever get my mojo back, voice lessons would be on the slate.

2. Being known as an 'internet celebrity expert' (and you are - Uncle Eff thinks so) - more burden than pleasure? Or vice-versa?
Uncle Eff needs a boot in the backside. If he'd bother to update HIS website I wouldn't be in this fix.

Seriously, it's about a 50/50 proposition. Burdens include:

• having to be up on things well enough to at least remember which book I read it in when someone asks a question.
• being a weirdo magnet.
  
• being patient. This means answering the same question over and over again as each new person asks it. Or coping with someone who's just not seeing the detail or getting the concept. Or realizing they've just read so many resources at once their brains are full and they just can't absorb the concept Right This Minute.
• Makiwaramania. Having "fans" is a daunting prospect.
  

The fun parts:

• going back to that book to try to answer a question and noticing something I didn't see the last time around.
• getting to meet like-minded maniacs from all over the world, usually electronically, sometimes in person.
  
• more homework!

3. How did you satisfy your history-geek jollies befire SCA/LH?
I read. A LOT.

4. Your idea of The Perfect Meal?
I enjoy too many cuisines to come up with a menu, if that's what you're asking. Regardless, the Perfect Meal is one shared with excellent company.

5. Stealing a question from jillaw, is there a society wide belief that you think is a crock?
We're on the same page regarding the value of "I don't know."
"The Dream" (TM) makes me want to throw things. "The C stands for Creative" is another phrase that makes me want to shake people. Fine, we started as a costume party. That was 42 years ago. We've grown up some since then. We've got legal status as a non-profit educational organization. Let's act like it, at least part of the time. I associate these phrases with intellectual laziness, wooly thinking and a patent refusal to grow beyond the show-up-and-have-a-good-time phase.

Comments

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Having had lessons from a voice teacher, it occurs to me, that might be a way to go to get the mojo back--particularly if you let them know in advance your story and how it is you reached the point you are at with respect to song. If all teachers are like mine, a major portion of the lesson is simply making notes, working on all of the many details that go into making each individual sound as beautiful as possible, and moving from one note to another correctly. To my mind, this sort of exercise is so very, very different from the singing at events you've done, you should react to it with a different part of your brain, and not hit the same wall you've been hitting. Just a thought.

[xrian.livejournal.com]

being patient. This means answering the same question over and over again as each new person asks it.

This is one of the things I really like about having a blog. It doesn't have to be organized, I can write about whatever I happen to feel like at the moment, but since I've been doing it for awhile, the answers I have to the most common questions are Up There. So when the 19th person asks me the same question, I can just give them the link to that article.

A website serves something of the same purpose, of course, but it has to be *organized*, which as far as I'm concerned means it's harder to just add stuff.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

LJ is my "notebook" for certain projects and topics. Sometimes those "notes" end up on my website.

Don't go there.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

You haven't been paying attention to how I sing, then. Because for me, even with what rudimentary training I've had, it IS about the sound. It has always been about the sound.

I have already determined that I cannot force this to happen.

Re: Don't go there.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I haven't had a chance to hear you sing in ages, since you can't make it to events local to me (pout!), and I can't make it to events local to you (pout, pout!). As always when people offer suggestions, we offer them from our own perspective/experience. The exercises I did with a voice teacher had such a different *feeling* from singing songs at events, for me, that I thought I'd mention it, on the off chance that it would be different enough for you to. As always, I am aware that your mileage may vary, and there is no expectation on my part that any suggestion I make, to anyone, will be the one which will work for them. But, because I don't know which ones will work, it is worth mentioning them, because there is always a chance that the thought which came to me is the one which will make a difference to you. Yes, I am an encouragable optimist.