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Sleep, Kitties, and WarI got a full night sleep last night. Aw, yeah! I know it's kinda pathetic, but I haven't been getting near enough sleep to recover from last weekend. Well I did at last last night, and it felt great!
The one thing that kept waking me up wasn't too bad. Two little kitties snuzzling close to me in the morning. Tiziano even climbed under the covers at one point, circled, and circled, then lay down next to me. The only problem was his sweet little whiskers tickling my skin. And of course Torre pouncing on Tiziano under the covers. Guess they're recovering fairly nicely from the neutering.
Also, a new kitty bed I ordered with a Petco gift certificate came in last night. Tiziano's taking an instant liking to it. Torre, however, took an instant liking to the orange catnip kitty stuffed animal. I got a great MPEG of him playing with it. I need to download all those photos and stuff from the weekend so I can start showing 'em. Mayhaps tonight.
Well now's the time to start saying prayers. War has begun. And the senseless loss of of life begins as well. My prayer is that our soldiers will come home quickly.
I know my conservative friends are all gungho about this war, but to paraphrase Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, "If history has taught us anything, most of the great tragedies in the world were caused by wars."
God bless them all!
Posted by Marc Gunn on Thursday, March 20, 2003 |
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Recovering from a Green St Patrick's Day BirthdayIt's really interesting seeing the difference between St Patrick's Day in Austin and St Patrick's Day in College Station. At Mother Egan's, there was "The Irish Come Down From the Mountain" theme with twelve hours of live Celtic and Bluesgrass music. Whereas at Carney's Pub, there was us, and then there was a LOT of green beer and and hair. Seemed to be much more American Irish fun as opposed to the more traditional Irish at Mother Egan's.
Admittedly, that's not entirely how it was since we only played Mother Egan's when it opened, and a day later, I'm kinda in a daze as to what happened at Mother Egan's. Exhausted! What a way to spend a birthday! But it was fun.
The biggest prob (aside from screwing up the time on our tour calendar) was that we had a great, but exhausting weekend at Excalibur Fantasy Faire. Consequently, I just was not in the mood to really play a third day in the row on our first real weekend back from a long holiday.
Fortunately, all went smoothly. And a special thanks to Andrew who drove while I slept on the way home. He deserves a much needed rest today...so no one call him! (and don't tell him I said anything nice about him ;) Excalibur Fantasy FaireWhat a fantastic weekend! The faire had record attendence this weekend and was a grand success for all! I was blown away by the size of our audiences and even CD sales were pretty amazing for this fifth-year Ren Faire.
I was able to capture a bunch of great pictures of some of the performers too that I hope to post soon on a new site I found. It's called RenSites.com. They offer 200MB free web hosting w/o pop-up ads, a photo gallery, and more for fans of Ren Faires. I'm excited about this. Think I might even be setting up something for the bards real soon too. Cats Lose Their ManhoodYes, as cruel as it is, today I took Tiziano and Torre to the Vet to be neutered. The stray cat and dog population grows way to fast because not enough cats and dogs have been spayed or neutered. This means over population at animal control and in many cases the murder of these wonderful gifts of God. If you've got some kitties or pups, make sure ye spay or neuter....
[This has been a message from the ....]
Couldn't resist. I sounded a bit too much like a Public Service Announcement for the pound. So is the start of more regular blogging?We can only hope. A long time ago, I mentioned that I work in spurts. This is just one of those days I made a wee bit o'time to drop a message. Got lots more to do. Ran out of time for sending out my Celtic MP3s Music Magazine, St Patrick's Day edition. Blast it! So drop me a line.
Oh and I want to thank you Everyone who was so sweet to send me a Happy Birthday message yesterday. I probably heard more Happy Birthday's yesterday than I have in the past ten years! Guess it does help to advertise your B-day afterall. :)
Thank you very much. Gonna try and filter and respond to those messages once I get a wee bit caught up. Slainte!
Posted by Marc Gunn on Tuesday, March 18, 2003 |
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Ah! The Sleepless Nights of Having Cats. How I missed it!Wait. No I didn't. But I gotta say I'm glad to have kits again. It certainly makes my sometimes sterile life of working in front of the computer a wee bit more bearable. Cats make great work breaks. Introducing...My CatsIt was about a month ago when I heard that my friend Bethany was in looking for homes for her kits. They were born in November during TRF, but Bethany couldn't afford to take care of them. So Thursday night I drove out to meet them.
I've been kinda in a hurry. I've wanted some pet cats for a couple months now, but the Tolkien CD has kinda pushed it outta my mind for a while. Unfortunately, if I'm gonna have any time to get to know some cats, I needed a weekend. And this was my last weekend for a while since our music year really starts next weekend with Excalibur Fantasy Faire. Time was running out!
So when I met these two adorable cats that reminded me a bit of Jasper, I had to get 'em. We packed them in a box, and I drove to PetCo to get some supplies. Ran quickl in the store and came back with a nice cat thingies, like food and litter box.
I brought them home and put them in the bathroom to get acclimated. Whoo, were they skittish! Wait, were? They still are, but they're getting used to me...
I sat on the bathroom floor torturing them with nibbles and neck massages that evening before getting some work done. My plan was to leave them in the bathroom for a few days to get used to things like the scratching post, me and the house in general.
I quickly found out how glad I was that we had kitty-proofed the house with Jasper. Because, these kitties were much worse than Jasper at being curious little kitties. I woke up the next morning fairly, pleased that they hadn't torn up the whole bathroom, but after breakfast, I came back and the bathroom drawers were all pulled out and no kits were to be found!
Someone they climbed through a small hole that was under the drawers into a little cubby back behind the drawers. This pushed the drawers out. Jeez!
Well, I didn't have much time to deal with this since I had to get to work, so I pulled 'em out and set my heavy autoharp case in front of the bottom drawer to try and keep them out. But I kind figured it wouldn't work. Came back that evening and the drawers were once again pushed open, autoharp case shoved outta the way. I pulled a drawer out, and they're were two beautiful kitty faces looking innocently at me.
I pulled 'em out and figured I'd just leave the drawer out for now. Later that evening I thought of a clever way to block the hole. And next morning I found it was successful! Sorta...
Seems they pulled open the middle drawer and climbed through there! I pulled that drawer out and there the little one straddling the bottom drawer, looking innocent. Naming the CatsOkay, that was a tough one. Never thought much about it. So Saturday morning while spending time with them, I was puzzling what to call them.
The smaller cats has some nice Tabby stripes and light brownish coat. He wore a homemade collar with a Celtic knot on it and was very affectionate. If I sit still long enough, he'll come over and lie down on me. He's also Very playful. He was also Very talkative too. Chat, chat, chat, chat, chat.
I did have a couple names I'd thought of. Just didn't know if they'd be appropriate. I'm kinda in the habit of naming my pets with Italian names. I thought of naming like my Peke in Italy, a nice flower name--Azalea, or Leah for short. But for little robust male kitties, that just didn't seem to work for them. So I had picked out two names I liked: Fabrizio, named after Fabrizio de Andre, Italian folk singer; and, Tiziano, named after my mom's second husband.
Well, for the little one, I saw him as a playful kitty. I remember long ago going to the mountains with my mom and her Tiziano. Tiziano had no sense of boundaries. So he guided us on this fence-jumping session out into a tall field of grass. I can still see him running through the grass. Tiziano is a very affectionate man. So the little one, I decided fairly quickly to call Tiziano.
The other one was more of a challenge. He actually looked a bit more likely Jasper minus the green eyes. He has some beautiful Tabby stripes and grey-ish coat too. But he was much more stand-offish. He wouldn't even approach me. I had to do it all. But I saw something strong in him. I kinda figured he was the leader of the pack, and was later proven right.
Saturday afternoon, I decided to go ahead an let them into the bedroom which was fairly kitty safe. They quickly made their new hiding place under the bed, outta arms reach.
It was interesting to see them react to the new room. Tiziano wouldn't have anything to do with it. He hid in the bathroom the whole time. The other kitty, very slowly and patiently crept into the room with one eye on me the whole time. So he'd mastered the room and became more comfortable. Meanwhile, Tiziano was still hiding in the bathroom.
I then decided to get out one of the toys I'd bought the kitties. This was when I saw the larger cat's true nature. He's a hunter!
The toy had some feathers on the end of a sorta fishing rod. I swung it around, and this cat chased it like a mad kitty! I've never seen seen a cat outta breath before. Ten minutes later, he was panting like a dog almost! But he wasn't done either. He kept chasing it.
Tiziano looked in with interest. And finally came into the room. When the feathers came to him, he swatted it sweetly with one little paw. But when the feather accidentally hit him, he fled.
Any case, I did a bit more brainstorming and before heading over to Andrew's to finish mixing, I decided the larger kitty was a hunter. Therefore I'd call him Cacciatore meaning "hunter" in Italian, or Torre for short (and also meaning "tower").
Last night, I let Torre and Tiziano sleep in the bedroom. And when they finally did lay down to rest, Tiziano curled up beside me. But Torre was playing so Tiziano didn't stay long. Course they kept me up for a wee bit rough housing, but they finally calmed down a bit and found Jasper's window perch this morning.
Well back to the kitties while I finish listening to the CD mix.
Posted by Marc Gunn on Sunday, March 09, 2003 |
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War with IraqI started college in 1990 and came with a three-year Army ROTC scholarship. Yup. Once upon a time, I was planning to join the military to live the easy life... I mean, to defend our country.
Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for the military despite many beaurocratic flaws that my mother can go on for hours about. But when the Gulf War hit, I dropped my scholarship and decided that I'm a pacifist. I don't like war. Now I was big supporter of the Gulf War. I came to believe all the atrocities of Saddam, but I have a confession. I've been doubting recently...
It's not that I doubt that Saddam is a sick person, mind you, I'm sure many of the accusations of the President are true, but President Bush's urging for war makes ye wonder. What's behind his motivation? I don't think it's all for the good of the People! That's for damned sure.
Is he trying to boost the economy with a good, ol' fashion war? Is he trying to defend his Big Business constituents? Is his dad telling him to clean his room? Who knows. But I'm as suspicious of Bush's motivations as the next country. And I don't care for the result!
Yes, something needs to be done. It pisses me off that Saddam is not complying with U.N. regulations, but a blood-thirsty tyrannical war is not the way to deal with the situation. What is? Patience and working with the United Nations. Let them condemn the man, not some vigilante country trying to live up to the ideals of Batman and the latest comicbook hero.
Yes, President Bush, Sr., left the room a slight mess, but it's not Shrub's duty to clean up after his father. So if ye have a something to say, tell your Congressional Representatives, "NO!" to war!
Addendum
Oh, one more thing. My big hope and prayer is that this all a big bluff to push Saddam into compilance, but honestly, I'm not all that hopeful. That gives too much credit to the Bush Administration.
Posted by Marc Gunn on Thursday, March 06, 2003 |
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LOST: Colorful Ballady Voice of a BardWell, it's finally starting to return. Saturday evening, I sang one too many songs wrong. Combined with another sinus infection, my voice disappeared Sunday and has been pretty much gone all week.
Let me tell ye, that was scary! It opens up a world of thoughts and fears. What if I couldn't sing? What would I do? I guess I'd get really good at playing the autoharp and some other instruments, but I hope it never comes to that.
I suppose this is a good warning for me to take better care of myself and of course my voice. For ye never know how long ye could have it!
Posted by Marc Gunn on Thursday, March 06, 2003 |
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Celtic Music RamblingsThe world is a funny place. Celtic music scene even funnier.
I love playing Celtic Folk music, and I do my best to emphasize "Celtic folk". The reason is that there are a lot of people out there who are traditionalists. They think when you say "celtic music", you mean reels and jigs. Enya is not Celtic music. Okay, I can live with that.
But what bugs me the most is the perception of the Brobdingnagian Bards. This weekend, we went up to North Texas Irish Festival and had a booth. NTIF is supposed to be one of the biggest Irish Festivals in the U.S. and certainly in this region.
Now I realize the Brobdingnagian Bards are not one of the most traditional bands out there. Most of the feedback I hear is about our original music as opposed to our vast repetoire of traditional Irish and Scottish songs. And that's fine by me. I got started playing music as a songwriter. It wasn't until later that I realized how much Celtic music fit with my personality and lifestyle. Consequently, a lot of local Celtic groups don't care for our music, but they really don't matter much. The people that matter are the fans. You, who listen and enjoy. And I thank you!
So I found it very amusing this weekend when Steve Holloway came to our booth at NTIF. Steve plays the bodhran for Cathie Ryan, former singer for Cherish the Ladies, one of the big names in the Celtic music scene. Steve sought us out because he'd "heard of us everywhere online".
That made me feel good. I guess I was feeling a wee bit bitter because NTIF didn't hire us, but some of the music groups that were there were wayyyy below my standards for Celtic music. Yet, they didn't hire us. End of March, we'll have had over three million downloads of our music. About 750,000 of those downloads are of "Tolkien (The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings". It has established us as one of the foremost popular Celtic music groups online. And now, the big wigs in Celtic music are seeking us out at festivals. Yet, the locals try to ignore us.
I was happy at least to hear that there'll be some good people on the Austin Celtic Festival music panel this year. Last year, it was made up mostly of Celtic musicians...and traditionalists. I love traditional music, but there comes a time, when you have to accept the facts. Some people will be heard. And I'm doing my best to make us one of those people.
So if you do enjoy the music I create, traditional or not, bard or solo, go do a search on google for "celtic music". Drop by some of those top websites and tell them about the Brobdingnagian Bards and/or Marc Gunn. Hit some discussion groups and tell some people about us. I want to make an impact that will reverberate the world over! I want these traditionalists to say, "Wow! There's something special and unique about this band. Let's find out why?!" Help spread the word and share our music.
And thank you very much for all your love and support. It means the world to me!
Posted by Marc Gunn on Monday, March 03, 2003 |
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Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers
