One of my favourite events at nwcMUSIC is Cascadia’s Got Talent!, our talent-show parody with silly prizes. Scott Thomas, a found-objects artist I met in graduate school, makes the trophy for us each year; I think he’s outdone himself for 2014:

Also, the robots dance.

There is one thing I really need to say about this show that I don’t think I’ve said before. Specifically: yes, it’s tongue-in-cheek; yes, it’s for comedy; yes, the prizes are goofy. But if you come up and take it all seriously, the judges will treat you that way too.

I mean, sure, they’re funny people and will be entertaining about it. But a good two thirds of the entrants each year are serious – sometimes seriously funny, but, you know, intentionally. People have come away surprised and impressed. It happens.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is: if you’re thinking of entering, please do; if you take it seriously, we will; if you don’t, we won’t either, and everybody will have a good time. That is, after all, the whole point.

Signups will be at information during Norwescon, or you can register right before the show starts.

Oh, and if anybody specifically wants to get gonged offstage? Well, we do have a gong, and we do like to use it. Contact me. 😀

We’re going to try livestreaming the concerts at nwcMUSIC – the Norwescon geekmusic festival – this year! Not necessarily all the shows; some artists may opt out. But it’s a thing which will be happening, so we’re talking about it now. Go us!

If you can’t come to Norwescon, you can at least see some of what we’re doing at nwcMUSIC – for free! It’ll be an open livestream, no membership required.

K Wiley is running the webcast side; he’s done similar things at other events, and is donating his time and expertise to the convention. He’s also asking for help with defraying uplink costs, as this is an unfunded-by-Norwescon adventure and high-bandwidth mobile network uplinks are expensive.

I want to stress that the cost-coverage fundraiser is not a Norwescon project; it’s K trying to afford a better uplink, it’s all K, and all money goes to him. I’m chipping in myself, providing a backup network uplink, also out of my own pocket. But my uplink is slower, and less reliable, so he really hopes not to use it. If he can get some help, he won’t have to.

It has to fund really quickly though, because Norwescon is so close. Nobody really wanted to do it this way, but after some other ideas fell through, well, here we are, exploring options and engaging backup plans. So if you’ve wondered what nwcMUSIC shows are like – and we have quite the lineup this year, with people like The Doubleclicks and Molly Lewis and Seanan McGuire and 9K1 and Death*Star – but can’t attend Norwescon, give it a look.

And keep reading for updates; since this is a late addition, I’ll be posting updates as we have more pieces fall into place. And they will – if nothing else, we have my Verizon uplink. But it’s much less robust than a proper high-speed network uplink, so check out his page and see what you think.

We’d like to do this every year! Maybe someday we can. 😀

nwcMUSIC finally has a dedicated stage banner. It even says Norwescon! It doesn’t technically use the “Norwescon logo” (official) as to make it work we had to lose the spaceship, but it’s still recognisably Norwescon, I think.

Last year we were still using one of the wayfinding vinyls, and that was still big enough to show up decently in stage photos, which is, of course, the point. This will show up better. ^_^

Also, with all the nwcMUSIC workshops moving from the unfindable Salon to the more-easily-findable Evergreen, we’ve made new vinyl banners and are upping the ‘wayfinding’ game. I sure hope we get some boost to turnout – the new workshop rooms are a lot bigger. We were overflowing in Salon, but Salon was tiny. Evergreen… isn’t.

As this is posted, we are nine days and seven hours to curtain. Stay on target.

Before the show on Tuesday, we went hiking up in the hills around Cumberland, then came back into town and ate a late lunch, and played some because we good. Anna saw Simon getting ready for the show out the living room window – being next to the venue has advantages!

The show photos, I posted on Friday, but here, have some hiking:

Sketchy Sign is Sketchy. Also six years old.

Into the Woods

One of the effects of having been under and up against the ice shield is that the topsoil – like that of many rainforests – is thin topsoil, particularly in mountains. The rock you see here is actual bedrock. These mountains pushed back the glaciers, but everything else was pushed away:

How Thin Our Soils

There’s coal in these hills, along with other minerals;
this was not far from a mine operating into the 1960s.

Another stream; more bedrock

Lovely without exception

Further down the hill we walk past the site of the former Cumberland Chinatown – this used to be a much larger town, back in the mining days – and get down the slough. It’s a bit mosquito-heavy in the summer, I’m told – particularly for Cascadia! – but this time of year, no such problem:

The Slough

After hiking around all morning, we stopped at Tarbell’s for lunch – Anna didn’t quite buy the hot chocolate with sortilege (feeling it’s a bit early to be drinking at 2pm) but the pastries were all quite good, were the sandwiches. Anna had a breakfast biscuit with egg she quite liked, too.

Lecturing after Lunch at Tarbell’s

After that, of course, the show at the Cumberland Public House. Then next morning we headed back to Vancouver for bagels and cider and then home. Lots of fun all around.

This photo came from that trip back, but still on the island, the last time we stopped before hitting Victoria on the way to the ferry:

The Coastal Stream

I didn’t really have anywhere else to put it so it’s here. So how’ve you been? ^_^

More photos from the Vancouver Island trip! I have a few more photobombs to lob at you before I’m done, and this is one.

I’d never sailed BC Ferries before – even going to Vancouver Island has been a Seattle ferry or Kenmore Air trip. So this was a new experience. BC’s ferries are a lot bigger than Washington’s. And a bit more expensive, but also… don’t get me wrong, I love our ferries? BC’s are nicer. The trips are longer so that makes sense, of course. But still. Seven decks, quite tall, multiple restaurants, business cubbies so you can work, it goes on a while.

It was typical Cascadian sunshine on the way out. This is from the forward restaurant, run by White Spot – nothing crazy, but a nice buffet:

I went up top to take some outside photos. It wasn’t too windy when we left, and only light rain. The light rain part mostly stayed, but the wind – hoo boy. Seriously, I came ’round a corner on the top deck out of shelter I didn’t realise was shelter and literally almost got knocked over. The rain hurt. I’ve been in typhoons before, and this wasn’t quite that bad, but damn.

I swear to you this photo is in colour.

Lonely Island

The trip back five days later was very strange. Somebody had angered Ra, apparently, and he was looking down with fury. Still, makes for interesting high-contrast photography, I suppose.

Big Tower

That wall on the left? That’s the wall I walked around and into the SURPRISE WINDS that almost knocked me over. Again, it provides shelter; Anna and I hid under that tower for a while to escape Ra’s gaze:

Not Entirely Successfully. Fortunately, we are not vampires.

Less wind than before, too. I’ve said it before, but I love taking panorama shots. It’s genuinely 75% of why I wanted a newer phone than I already had. Widescreen is awesome.

Yep. Them’s Islands.

Some foolishly risk Ra’s wrath

I tweeted this next one – BC Ferries picked it up, replied, and retweeted it – and I should probably say something about our doppelgangers heading into the time loop vortex around Vancouver Island and how we’re on the other boat or other-dimensional versions of us are because they have to replace us or we can’t leave or something but eh, I don’t have time, the Sleestak get cranky if you bring it up, and I have taxes to do and music to make. I just like the picture. 😀

Hi Opposite Boat!

Anyway, back to work. Bigger versions of these photos on my photostream, like before.

So last time, in the giant post about rocks, I mentioned getting back on stage since the first time since eye surgery. So, well, how’d it go?

At the Vancouver Folk Music Society
(photo courtesy Anna Korra’ti)

I’m gonna toot my own horn a little and say that it went really, really well. I was pretty scared going in, honestly – I was only doing three songs, part of the “open stage” set of VFMS, which really isn’t that different to an open mic as far as I can tell – but still, it had been months.

Now, I knew from their website that their crowds like to sing along, so I did Song for a Blockade Runner, Ten Finger Johnny, and The S-100 Bus, all of which have easy repeating bits. As it turned out, like I said in Twitter, they are the singingest audience I ever know! I had the room with me the whole way. They even gave me a little extra time, and after, took a break before the next performer and did some announcements.

So thanks again, VFMS, for letting me play! It was loads of fun, and I’d like to do it again. ^_^

Then a couple of days later, up in Cumberland, Anna and I found the venue where Le Vent du Nord would be playing on Tuesday. It was pretty empty, being a Monday night:

…tho’ more people were there than can be seen in this picture. Anyway, a couple of the patrons noticed I had the zouk with me, and asked if I’d play. The innkeep overheard, and hoped I would too – she turned off the house music – so Anna and I did a set and a half between us. Very relaxed and informal, and I note again for anyone who might be considering this from a legal angle that it was unpaid, unscheduled, and unofficial, so not work in any legal sense. But it was still a lot of fun and all the people there listening thought so too.

So, yeah! A couple of baby steps back in, really, but quite successful ones, if I might say so. I’m not quite ready to start booking out gigs again, but… soon.

First: I got the CD orders shipped this afternoon! So if you’re waiting for those, you should have email with dates. ^_^

Okay, now, to the rocks. I’m not a geologist, and being all Fire Nation Asshole, not much of an earth-bender sort, but the south coast of Vancouver Island will turn anybody into a geologist.

We actually discovered this kind of by accident. Trans-Canada Highway 1, one of the longer highways on the planet, starts in Victoria. It heads north up the island, then ferries over to the mainland, then goes back to BC and makes its way east eventually via bridge and ferries and such alllll the way out to St. John’s, Newfoundland. And I knew there was a marker monument at the road’s start, so we went to see that.

So on Sunday after the symphony show, we went to High Tea:

Anna at High Tea

And before going to play at Norway House – which I did later that evening – we went to see Mile 0. On the way there, we found this:

Comfy Cement Mattress Bench is Not Actually Comfy

Now, Mile 0 is obviously pre-metric, which is kind of hilarious, since everything else is metric. But more hilariously, TC-1 gets really tiny on the way to the end. In town, it’s a large city street – like Aurora, only not as big and far better controlled – and at the end, it’s basically a park access road.

That’s from the sidewalk. The only car you see is parked.

And after wandering through the very nice Beacon Hill Park, we got to Mile 0 and Terry Fox’s statue.

Mile Zero

Terry Fox

And while taking pictures, we saw someone run somebody else off the seashore road. We were already going to explore that a bit anyway, since it’s the meeting really of the Salish Sea and the Pacific Ocean, but the near-accident pointed us to a stairwell down the cliff, where we found this insanity.

Really?

What.

I mean seriously, what.

See how all those pretty much unlike rocks are crammed up against and into each other and shit? That is madness. Welcome to the subduction zone. According to Fishy, Vancouver Island was actually – many millions of years ago – torn off from Alaska as the Alaskan plate moved north. So it’s violent and different and merged and mixed up in all sorts of crazy ways. To wit:

Go Home Rocks, You Are Drunk

And some places it just looks like a volcano went off. Which… arguably it has. Fairly recently. But that’s not what made these rocks. All these rocks are dozens of millions of years old.

Not a Lahar, Not Lava Either

I’m telling you, the Doctor Who episodes you could film here would be epic.

We hiked around for – I don’t know, really, I’m bad at time. A couple of hours, climbing up and down things. As everywhere in Cascadia, they have beach logs, one of which apparently belongs to a giant robot.

VOLTRON

(Larger versions of all these are on my Flickr photostream.)

After that we hiked on back to the hotel, from which we headed north to the show. And I’ll post about those bits tomorrow, while the water heater is being replaced. My first stage experience in four and a half months! How did it go? Find out tomorrow. ^_^

Back, but playing catch-up liek woah. I have some orders to fill (yay! And that comes first!) so if you’re ordered CDs and are reading, they’ll be going out Thursday or Friday, probably Thursday, which for most of you, means today.

As I get caught up, I’ll be posting some pictures over what’s left of the week. Or you can see them out all at once on my Flickr stream if you can’t wait. ^_^

Anna on Lookout Duty

Right then. Great trip, but I’m writing this the night before, like I occasionally do, and it’s bedtime. Good morning! 😀

We’ve about wrapped up our Victoria adventures for this trip and will be heading up island later today; the town had been great as always, and south island will make anyone into a geologist.

I mean look at this insanity.

what.

The Le Vent du Nord symphany show was pretty good, but way too respectable for me. The crowd pre-show particularly seemed a bit dismayed. It’s a fairly conservative programme here, with a… somewhat elderly audience, and I kept hearing things beforehand like, “well, it’ll be different,” with a bit of a “what exactly have I signed up for here?” air. That the boys managed to win that crowd over was a bit of an achievement.

Then last night I went up to Norway Hall and got my first stage time since GeekGirlCon and round one of emergency eye surgery; they’re big into singalong at the Victoria Folk Music Society, so I loaded up heavy with singalong-able choruses. They are the most sing-alongy audience i’ve ever seen, which is saying something.

(photo courtesy Anna ^_^)

Nice hall, too. Loads of fun. Thanks, VFMS!

Next: further north!

Back from Maillardville and Festival du Bois! Here, have a bunch of festival pictures. I saw things exploded and posted about it, but it was over in six hours, making it possibly the shortest-duration F&SF explosifluffle I’ve ever seen.

And how was your weekend?

Vishten. I forgot my real camera so all these are cell phone. You can see what kind of lighting I was up against.

The Puppetmasters do crowd control. Or something like that.

“Do not EVEN post that to Facebook!”

De Temps Antan, with Eric, not to be confused with Le Vent du Nord, with Simon. My Beaudifferentation skills are poor, but Eric is the chatty one.

Famillé Leger

FROGMITTENS
I was doing Frog Mitten Boxing all weekend.

Serene Anna is Serene

It’s’a Shadowbox a’Mario!

ZZZZZZZT
(The forecast was for snow. It turned to rain.)

All PUPPETS, CLOWNS, and COWS to STAGE FRONT, PLEASE!

The Gang at the Rogue

My stupid phone camera wants to turn all spotlit stage performers into columns of light, particularly if there’s a dark background. I could defeat it, but only at the cost of Holga emulation.

Thanks again to Geri and Robert for putting us up, and putting up with us. Next week, Victoria and up the island points north!