The latest episode of The Side B Anthology, the second story in the Sable’s Tales anthology, is now up. Scarlet is a liberal adaptation of the classic fairytale that goes by the name of Little Red Riding Hood or Little Red Cap, and some of the scenes and imagery were inspired by アリス九號.’s songs Scarlet and RUMWOLF.
The night that I recorded the audio, there happened to be a dog howling somewhere in my building, and you can actually hear the howling faintly in the background, which I thought was rather eerie (and fitting).
Such is the danger (fun?) of recording without being in a sound-proofed space.
It is kind of interesting to hear a bit of ambient noise in the background — as long as it’s not overpowering, it gives the recording an immersive feel. Rather than making you feel as though you’re in the story itself (with sound design), you feel as though the person telling you the story is right across from you (and the window is open, and there are people cooking in the apartment below — this strange moment of escapism is somehow happening inside a little bubble of day-to-day normalcy).
I hope it has that effect, anyway… ♡♪
I noticed that the Traces page was badly out of date so I’ve corrected and added new links to it, but I’ve no doubt forgotten a few pieces. On a similar note, there are several illustrations and logos I’ve done recently but my scanner will no longer connect to my computer reliably so I haven’t been able to scan and add them to the site yet. Soon, hopefully. Or else I’ll make do by tidying some photos up as best I can in Gimp. Which has been made so much easier by the fact that I finally got a new mouse after months of just using the track-pad… I know. I’m nuts. It just kept getting pushed further down my to-do list, and now that I finally have a new one (wireless! rechargeable!) I feel like I’ve just taken off weighted training clothes and can work five times faster. Like, an angelic chorus played when the mouse connected to the laptop. Why did I need a new mouse, you might be wondering? Because Scout chewed the wire of my old (trusty) mouse to the point that not even electric tape would fix it. That little mischief-maker… lol.
House of TARG is a very peculiar live music venue, featuring walls of classic arcade game machines, and a pierogi-centric menu. It was pure chance that I happened to look up live music events in the city a month earlier and happened upon the Eventbrite page for this one before tickets sold out: Ichi-Bons opening for 5.6.7.8’s. A Japanese band? In my city? I bought my ticket on the spot. Not only that, but 5.6.7.8’s are an incredibly well-renowned all-women garage rock band — while the Ichi-Bons were a very cool-sounding surf and rockabilly trio hailing from Toronto. A really cool combination that I was excited to hear in action.
I hurried home after work and got ready to go, intending to order myself some pierogis when I got there… but I was so flustered and anxious that I couldn’t bring myself to go up to the bar. Which was okay. It happens. The atmosphere was really warm and relaxed though, with the musicians walking through the bar before their set, getting drinks, chatting, and wandering over to the stage to make last-minute adjustments. As much as I love an impressive, big-stage production, there is a lot of charm to be found in small-venue performances like this one.
Ichi-bons were up first and they really electrified the room, getting everyone moving with their fast-paced, high energy bangers! I particularly enjoyed their zombie song, which was interspersed with screams — the title of a song before it was a literal scream too. Cheeky is the word that came to mind when I was thinking of how to describe their set; good old-school rock!
They packed up their instruments and left the stage, then the three members of 5.6.7.8’s replaced them, each of them bringing a tote bags onstage. They set themselves up, and then they got the whole joint dancing to their rock ‘n roll tones with catchy tunes, singalongs, screams, and shouts!
At one point, the drummer asked the crowd (in very good English) how to say cheers in French. Santé!, we cried out in reply. She thanked us, they echoed the phrase, and then added, 乾杯！Their sound and stage presence was just fantastic; each of them masterful in their playing. I had a blast and couldn’t stop grinning.
When the main set ended, the entire room crammed with people in front of the stage, we weren’t ready to leave, so we called them all back, insisting “one more song!” and lucky for us, they obliged and gave us several!
わざわざオタワに来て頂いてありがとう！
It was an incredibly fun, rock-filled night.
The day after, Moonfruits played an outdoor, evening concert at Lansdowne when the weather was still warm but not hot. I headed there right after work, early enough to go have a pizza before their set started. I’ve been rather obsessed with white sauce pizza lately…
Moonfruits played with a cellist as their guest and immediately drew the outdoor audience in with an enchanting duet and their easy conversation, telling us all a bit about what their latest Canadian tour had been like, prefacing songs with explanations about their origins centered in family history and recent experiences. The last time I saw them was at their Salt album release party, and so this time it was lovely to hear a setlist that included some of the gems from that album along with older pieces.
There were lots of parents with their children in the audience, and eventually some of the kids dragged their parents up to the front of the seating area to dance near the stage. It was adorable… until one of the kids decided to pull his pants down and, well, moon Moonfruits.
The kid’s mom was mortified, and couldn’t stop giggling nervously as she pulled his clothes back up and whisked him away.
(I laughed nearly to the point of tears)
It was the exact opposite of the soft, folk sound of Moonfruits, and that’s what made it so damn funny.
Gradually, the parents and their kids left as the night wore on (as adorable as the antics had been, I think we were all glad that the last third of the set had a calmer audience), and they played sing-along pieces like Seven Billion and some French folk classics (most notably à la clairefontaine, which is utterly beautiful every time I hear them play it) that we stomped and sang along with. It felt like an outdoor kitchen party… until they lulled us into quiet contemplation under a nearly-full moon with their beautiful song Moon Cradle.
A few days later, I took a trip to the outer edges of the city to see The Smashing Pumpkins. I’d been feeling emotional all afternoon and had developed a headache and some nausea and had initially decided not to go, but as the night wore on, and I finally managed to eat some supper, I decided to go — provided I could make the bus that would get me there just before their start time (I missed Interpol, unfortunately!).
I did make it. Cuddled into my Chiko & Saga hoodie, I settled into my seat and joined in on the enthusiastic cheers and applause as the band took to the stage. I was there, and I was elsewhere at the same time, wondering what Saga would think of the spaceship-style angular lighting above the stage, and which songs he’d be most stoked to hear. The set and the stage lighting felt a lot heavier somehow than the last time I’d seen them, and the setlist was a really great mix of new pieces from ATUM and older, much-adored pieces.
Like any great rock show, the music gradually took my mind off of feeling physically unwell and I just floated in their sound, transported out of my body and into an imagined space. The floodgates opened right off the bat when they began playing Perfect and I continued to cry through Disarm because it was just so unbelievably beautiful, like the sound of the song was blooming and wafting up toward the ceiling. I don’t know how to explain it — the song just had a life of its own in the performing of it.
And after I’d let those emotions out, I felt a little lighter, and just enjoyed the hell out of the rest of the concert for what it was: a really wicked rock show by one of my favourite bands.
They opened with The Everlasting Gaze and Doomsday Clock both of which I loved hearing, and later on played an unexpected favourite of mine: The Celestials. Like the last concert I went to, I was glad that WPC and James did a soothing acoustic version of Tonight, Tonight… and Jimmy’s drum solo later on in the evening was just awesome.
During Beguiled, WPC’s two kiddos rushed onto the stage and began dance wildly behind him as he went into his guitar solo, prompting delighted chuckles from the crowd (it was completely unexpected, and absolutely adorable). Rock show that it was, there was so much good humour threaded throughout it.
WPC and Katie sang a gorgeous duet; the choruses of Spellbinding and Purple Blood were so satisfying live; the classics of Ava Adore, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Zero, Cherub Rock, and 1979 were awesome — completely lit up the crowd, me included.
I’m so glad that I got myself to the venue in time to see them again; I was tired as I made my way home, but I felt energized, too.
I had my alarm set weeks in advance to wake up early and set up the living room to attend ALICE NINE.’s grand finale from afar. I set up a moon light on the windowsill near the loveseat and Scout hopped up to lie down beside it, as though he could sense the gravity and anticipation in the air.
There were audio and connection issues in the beginning and so I missed the first thirty seconds, but then–
アリス九號. never fails to surprise me, and it was in exactly that way that the Last Galaxy live began. I truly hadn’t expected the first song in the setlist to be GEMINI-0-eternal, but when they then leapt right into 閃光 after it I was both delighted and confused at the choice. Until I understood what they were actually doing!
The idea to weave the GEMINI suite evenly among the other songs in the main setlist was an incredible one, not least because it’s something they’d never decided to do before. But Saga is a storyteller when it comes to music.
It truly was a climax of a live the whole way through, with them playing their hearts out during each and every song; they were absolutely bursting with confidence and good humour (or intensity) as they played so many beloved big numbers and classics from their discography. The beauty of this live wasn’t simply the songs they played, but the energy and atmosphere they gave off while playing the flow of this setlist.
Even just watching from home, I was in awe and felt so proud of the amazing live they played — a culmination of their history, their hard work together, and also a celebration of the sheer fun they have onstage performing music for us 九組達.
A celebration of the world of sound they created, one that transports us to imagined realms.
They did two encores… and if you think I didn’t sit on my loveseat at home and clap, chanting アンコール in time with everyone at the venue until they came back on stage, you’re mistaken 🙂
アンコール！アンコール！★ミ
I love that they did the G3 line dance on stage, and from there it just got wilder and wilder! The sheer hotness of Saga headbanging his way through the song… the sheer hilarity of a drummer in a Nao-mask coming to replace Nao on drums so that he could run around in the crowd for a couple minutes… lol! Utter fun to see how this classic retained its roots and grew into something even bigger.
Ending the first encore on 春夏秋冬 was so feel-good and it’s kind of wonderful that the song has mostly stayed the same since the beginning. You might say the song is like a time capsule of their energy from 2005!
I chanted アンコール with great anticipation before they returned to play the second and final encore.
I teared up at the beginning of Waterfall, but by the end was smiling again at how beautifully they brought the song to life. Shou then thanked everyone individually in a quiet, heartfelt MC, during which Saga gave him a hug instead of replying in words. After that, it was time for the big, beautiful finale.
Grace and the beautiful name.
A breathtakingly beautiful flow of songs to purify the heart.
To me, the beautiful name has always been and will always be pure joy.
Next to beauty of Waterfall and Grace, it soared even higher.
言葉にあまりできないほどに、素晴らしかったです…♡
After the live, Saga made sure to point out the two suites besides GEMINI that had been nestled into the live. birth in the death and Living Dead, which were played during the setlist flow between GEMINI-I-the void and GEMINI-II-the luv, form a suite that links the GEMINI album to the GRACE album. Then, at the very end and for the first time, they played Grace and the beautiful name one after the other — the second suite, this one connecting GRACE to VANDALIZE. Thus, Saga explained afterwards, GEMINI GRACE VANDALIZE are not a circle of albums (as I had been thinking), but a line — with I. as the first song and Waterfall as the ending of the album trilogy.
I love Saga, the way he thinks and creates ♡♪
So without further ado, the piece I made inspired by some of the compositions Saga has made that I love most. The day before the live I woke up with an image in my mind and spent the rest of the morning trying to draw it on the page… even colouring the piece in and picking the perfect dried flowers out of my collection to add to the imagery.
The Phoenix of the jelly fish Galaxy
Within a universe of pure white darkness floats a galaxy like a jelly fish inside which the life force of a Phoenix will be burning bright for eternity 真っ白な闇という宇宙には 浮かんでる海月のような 銀河の中で Phoenixの命の炎が 永久に燃えてるよ
May our Last Galaxy be graced.
For this art piece, I borrowed from the concept of birth in the death and Phoenix again, as well as GRADATION and jelly fish — and I borrowed from the grandeur, love, and beauty of songs like Grace, the beautiful name, GEMINI, and Waterfall… another little homage 🙂
One flower is gently floating off into the void of pure white darkness (a favourite bit of lyric symbolism), and another flower has just bloomed on the jellyfish galaxy. Or is the galaxy a phoenix? Or is the phoenix a universe? Are those little golden raindrops stars or nascent galaxies, tiny-huge nebulas?
I wonder… ♪
Thank you so much アリス九號.… Thank you.
I enjoyed this live to the fullest and I think Saga did too… the setlist was gorgeous.
Until we meet again, let’s protect ALICE NINE.’s world and the songs that made it.
Saga with all the other members of ALICE NINE. — SHOU, HIROTO, TORA, and Nao — will take to the stage in a grand finale, thanks to the tireless efforts of their staff and the whole team behind the scenes helping to set everything up and make it as magical as possible.
I won’t be there in person, but I will be there in spirit, thanks to the live broadcast that they’re putting on for everyone who wasn’t able to make it out or wasn’t able to get their hands on a ticket (because they went so quickly!). During his pizza party the other night, Saga said with a laugh that their last rehearsal before the finale had “felt normal” and that’s kind of how I feel going into this live as a fan.
It’s bittersweet to not have been able to manage going in person, but even knowing that it’s their last planned live for some time (as you can never know what the future holds, or what things each member will pursue after the freeze), it still feels strangely normal. Part of that feeling might stem from the fact that I already knew it was possible that the last live of theirs I’d get to attend would be last November — and so I enjoyed every moment then to the fullest. I wish I’d been able to go to the tour this summer… but even having wanted to do that, I don’t regret in any way going in November instead and having the experiences there that I did. It was the right time to go. And it healed something inside of me. And goddamn were those lives ever fun. Incredible. Being bathed in the visceral sound of Saga’s bass lines… 🙂
I know that Last Galaxy is not a normal live, and I know that I’ll feel that fully when I’m in the moment. Right now what I feel is gratitude — that I get to attend this moment from afar. There was no live broadcast for TOKYO GALAXY, and there was no broadcast for their 10th anniversary pre-hiatus live either. But I get to be there in spirit for this historical, emotional, sure-to-be-amazing live.
If Saga felt like the rehearsal was “normal” then maybe that means that he feels satisfied with the setlist he proposed, and that none of them felt rushed or unsatisfied with the flow of the live they are choosing to play together. Sounds like readiness, confidence, and peace to me.
The perfect emotional base upon which to heat up that venue and rock us all out, move us deeply.
I’m so excited to hear, see, and experience this live that as soon as I woke up I started drawing and writing something as a little homage to this momentous occasion. And now I’m off to add the finishing touches 🙂
…at last I thought I had found the right way out of the closing mall as I emerged into the open air, and instead surprised to find a wooden staircase leading down over a hill and into a forested area. Curious, I took the stairs and was astonished to find that they led right to the edge of a body of water.
The sea, in fact.
Though it was obscured, mostly, by low-hanging branches and leaves, crouching down I could see that the water came right up to the forest’s edge, that it bordered me on two sides. And what was more, the water looked velvety soft, almost like a gel — was filled with glittering particles and lit a pale gold in the light of the setting sun. It was utterly mysterious and beautiful. I tried to take a picture with my phone when the seawater brushed against my toes.
I had taken hardly a breath when the water engulfed my ankles.
The tide was coming in, and fast.
I scrambled to get back up the stairs, and could see a few people on the stairs coming toward me startle at the rush of water following at my heels. We abandoned the stairs entirely and dashed to the right — inland. There was a commotion over there, a battle, it seemed, and —
It’s been a very long time coming, but I finally got a copy of ALICE NINE.’s live bluray from last year, Funeral No.999 and I’m thinking I’ll save it to watch it on my birthday. I do (surprisingly) have one small thing planned for the afternoon that day, but an evening of watching a live (twice — the commentary will be round 2) sounds like a very good way to spend it.
I watched とつくにの少女 (The Girl from the Other Side) last night and it was so featherlight, sweet, and eerily beautiful. The ephemeral animation style was a perfect complement to the story (much like the art style in the manga, of course).
This morning, Scout and I are watching the anime classic 銀河鉄道の夜 (Night on the Galactic Railroad) for the first time, and it’s simply wonderful, though sad. Campanella… and the scorpion with a heart of flaming light… and sweet, diligent Giovanni… (;_;)
I decided to try making a rough sketch of the walker I had imagined for Sister from The Seven Ravens; of course, she would have carved and engraved the wood-frame walker with the star symbol herself.
X JAPAN’s new song ANGEL is so beautiful with its ethereal vocal melody and the fluttering piano notes.
My younger brother got engaged this week which was something I was hoping would happen for a long time now. I’m truly happy for him and my sister-in-law to-be. I listened to a tiny playlist of two favourite songs to mark the occasion, as I lay down to go to sleep that night…
Within about a day of ALICE NINE.’s tickets for their September 3rd live going on general sale, they completely sold out. That’s a great achievement for the band, but as Saga rightfully pointed out, it also means that a lot of people who wanted to go attend in person won’t be able to (even if a small number of people who bought tickets sell them afterwards). I’m in that boat myself, though for a different reason altogether. I have to admit, I find it odd that they only allowed sale of THANKS tickets directly to international attendees, and didn’t give them the option of buying regular tickets as well (though I’m very glad that they did create an international-friendly sales page). Especially considering THANKS tickets holders are furthest back and the last to enter for standing. International attendees would have been happy to pay for full-price tickets, just like everyone else…
But that’s neither here nor there. It’s all done now. SHOU did tweet months ago when the freeze was originally announced that there would be a broadcast of some kind, so I’m hoping that will be the case, and that I (and lots of others) will be able to attend virtually. It’s the next best thing! I will never say no to waking up extra early for an ALICE NINE. live…★
Given that I truly can’t attend the Last Galaxy final in person (and not just because tickets are now sold out), I’m going to attend the show that the Smashing Pumpkins are playing in Ottawa for their The World Is A Vampire tour.
Now I’d better go get ready for the engagement party. If I have time, I’ll make blueberry scones to bring for dessert…
Saga and ALICE NINE. have completed their Act 4 Summer tour and now all that’s left is the big finale in September. It seems pretty definitive that I won’t be able to travel to Japan and attend in person… but I will be with Saga and the band in spirit. It is sad… logistically, I just can’t see a way to do it, barring a miracle. So I’m just going to support and cheer on from afar and look forward to (hopefully) going to attend something that Saga does after the freeze… ♡♪
I’m currently working on interview translations for the deep-dive for Funeral (so much glorious content) and then I’ll move on to the GEMINI suite. It is strange, I admit, but even though I consider the GEMINI suite (and album, of course) to have been such a huge influence in my art, I’ve kind of been skirting around the prospect of translating the lyrics of the suite in full. Oh, I’ve read them many times (listened even more) — it’s just that, I’ve been afraid of making them sound less epic than they are. But that’s silly. The original poetry will shine through no matter what. It helps that a fellow 9kumi asked me if I planned to do deep-dives on those songs, giving me an even more concrete reason to face that imposter syndrome and just do the thing!
So there you have it.
I’m doing it.
And the imagery of the lyrics is exactly as rich, as introspective, and as epic as the music sounds.
It was much later than I’d planned, but I finally recorded the Brothers Grimm fairytale that I rewrote to start the newest series that will be part of The Side B Anthology: Sable’s Tales, or ST for short. It was really fun to adapt The Seven Ravens in my own writing style and so I will slowly add more to the series. It was fun to record the narration too, of course; here’s an outtake of me making fun of one of my voices to Scout (who attended the recording by snoozing underneath the comforter of the bed behind me).
This weekend I intended to sit down at my laptop and write more for Casseltaur, but instead had a sudden flash of inspiration for the next fairytale re-write so I ended up typing away at that instead until I had a first draft. As a kid, one of my favourites was Little Red Riding Hood, but having read a few versions and retellings over the years, I had a very clear idea of how I wanted to shape it in my own words.
This is basically just a fix-it fic lol.
Casseltaur, meanwhile, gets weirder each time I sit down to do the worldbuilding for it.
Which, of course, is a good thing. :p
I’m now on week two at my new job and the amount of change it has brought about in my day-to-day life already is incredible. Scout and I get lots more time together, for one thing. Aside from that, my commute is actually pretty energizing now (what?!), and I have so much more time and energy during the week to clean, run errands, and even write and translate. The new team I’ve joined are great bunch of clever, funny people and I’ve barely scratched the surface so far of what I’m going to need to learn to do this new job correctly, but they’re all very supportive, and this kind of challenge is exactly what I wanted.
Also, this week I started watching episodes of Gundam The Witch From Mercury before work while eating breakfast. It really takes me back to my childhood, watching anime in the morning over a bowl of cereal… キャリバーンがやっとデター！Obviously I want to watch the latest Dragon Ball stuff (lol), but the next thing on my list is とつくにの少女 (The Girl From The Other Side), which I started reading the manga of a year or so ago, but stopped because I couldn’t get the next volume, I think. In any case, I hope watching it will be just as beautiful and mysterious.
In terms of live-action TV, what I recently finished watching was the arctic season (6) of the survival series “Alone” (set in Northwest Territories, Canada). I used to watch quite a number of similar wilderness survival series back in the day because seeing people living off the land and personally finding the pockets of abundance in a given landscape is both impressive and soothing, in a way. CONTEXT and Casseltaur both involve living in an arctic zone at some points in the plot, so my watching was sort of research-ish…? I did learn a number of really cool facts as I watched, anyway.
Also: one of the survival experts was basically an arctic Forrest Gump… if that isn’t a good enough endorsement, I don’t know what is. Haha.
One of the survival experts made an incredibly beautiful, durable shelter and was just so adept at creating handmade things from natural materials. Another was doing fine in terms of shelter and food but decided to leave early because he realized that time with his wife and kids was more valuable than the prize money (or bragging rights) he could win if he spent more time away from them… nothing but respect from me for that mindset.
Last night it was a documentary about the concept of infinity that I watched (A Trip to Infinity) and it was a delightfully strange thought exercise for my mind — it gave me goosebumps in the best possible way. I think it’s safe to consider this research-ish as well. As much time as I’ve spent thinking about the concept of infinity and of how our universe is configured, there were several things I hadn’t considered before — facts that tilted, stretched, and reframed my imagination and thinking on the subject.
The office surprised me with a pizza lunch the day before my last, and I really do mean surprised. I was working the last thirty minutes til my actual lunchtime, enjoying my music and the stillness of the room as everyone else went to work in another, when my fellow team lead came up to my desk with a serious question and asked if we could go talk. I felt kind of concerned and followed her. She led me to the closed board room door saying we should talk in there and motioned for me to open the door. When I saw that the room was completely full of coworkers apparently having a meeting, I automatically made to close the door, but before it was shut, everyone was saying “surprise!”
Feeling somewhere between sheepish and embarrassed, I went inside and thanked them (my fellow team lead had not allowed me to shut the door and make the tactical retreat I had intended to).
My embarrassment wore off as they started cutting the pizzas, and I thanked them all again (also mock-complained, “you guys really got me!”). Those two huge slices were definitely a tasty alternative to the sandwich that I had brought with me that morning.
Then, finally, it was my last day at the office I’d been working at for years, that I was going in to every day for most of the pandemic. I’d had quite a bit of notice and time to prepare beforehand so all of my responsibilities and jobs had been neatly handed over to others before I left (with plenty of time to train each person and make sure they were comfortable with the hand-over), the result being that I had no regrets upon stepping out the door for the last time yesterday afternoon.
I felt light, ready for the next chapter of my life to begin.
So I decided to kick it off by leaving early and going to Bluesfest for the first time since 2019.
Going back to this music festival after so many years was fun, even comforting — but I am also so much more centered now than I was back then. It didn’t feel like a new beginning, it felt like taking the next step in my life by leaving my old job, and then setting foot in this familiar place, days away from starting a new one.
The weather was warm but the breeze was cool making of the evening a perfect one for going to see some bands play outdoors.
I was a little late arriving to the River Stage for the first act, Pony Girl, so I encountered them mid-song, having never heard them play before. They were having such a blast on stage, it was impossible not to get into their music. When they suddenly played a clarinet solo outta left field, I knew I was in the right place, their songs delightfully unusual — art pop being a music genre I hadn’t been familiar with until their performance. Thumbs up for these talented, energetic, local musicians!
The frontman told the crowd they were having an amazing time playing for us that evening, which was especially important considering the night before had been the exact opposite: their rehearsal space had started flooding… with sewage. Yikes, man. He gave us extremely clear (read: comically roundabout) directions to the merch tent to buy their new album, and then got emotional thanking us for coming out to see them — because there’s nothing quite as special as “playing music with your best friends.”
And it showed. They just kept grinning at one another, sharing said jam session among friends with us, the crowd.
We cheered as they ended their set and began clearing away their instruments and equipment for the next band as the sun began to set.
As the sun continued to set, casting warm golden light onto the stage, Allison Russell came out with her band, beaming at us in her glittering blazer. Though she lives and works in the US, Allison Russell explained (en français) that she grew up in Montréal and that performing at Ottawa Bluesfest had been a longtime dream of hers. A dream so big that she’d missed her daughter’s first performance in a play to fulfil it… and we, the crowd, were grateful for her and her band’s presence that night.
I’d never heard any of Allison Russell’s music before and was touched by her lyrical storytelling through her radiant singing voice and radiant, radical message of love, peace, and acceptance. She spoke of growing up with an abusive adoptive father, of running away from the abuse, finding her chosen family, and of slowly unlearning the shame that her adoptive father had forced on her through his white supremacist ideals. It made the overpowering sense of love, compassion, empathy, and acceptance in her songs that much more beautiful. She introduced each member of the band as part of her circle, her chosen family, and all four of them radiated with purpose as they played, whether the song was sad and heartfelt or whether it was uplifting and euphoric.
They took their final bow to our enthusiastic applause.
The crowd packed in elbow-to-elbow as they cleared away equipment and rearranged the stage between bands; the sun had set entirely when Fleet Foxes came onstage as a cheer went up from the crowd. Their opening vocal harmonies were so soft, so clear, and finally seeing them live I understood that up to four band members would sing together at once for those beautiful, layered melodies, that it wasn’t several tracks layered together as I had figured. It was a wonder to see and to hear. I was also fascinated by all the different instruments they played throughout the performance.
The crowd was utterly thrilled by the performance (me included), singing along to songs, whooping, cheering, calling out to the band — and the band seemed pleasantly surprised by this enthusiasm, with the frontman continually exclaiming “thank you so much!” with a grin after almost every song.
Hey man, that’s our line! 🙂
It was particularly meaningful to me to hear Your Protector, Blue Ridge Mountains, and Blue Spotted Tail live, three of my favourite songs by them. Your Protector gave me chills… Blue Spotted Tail was so quiet and beautiful, the lyrics deeply touching. Something about Blue Ridge Mountain’s lyrics just puts the coziest sort of image in my mind.
I heard about their self-titled album through one of Saga’s entries on his old ameblo. It wasn’t nearly as easy to sample albums back in those days, so I just decided to trust Saga’s taste and buy it on a whim — it became one of the most-listened to albums in my library (especially when I was writing), and is the album that clued me in to the fact that folk rock is one of my favourite genres. Thanks, Saga! ♪
They played right up until the minute it turned 11, and then they stopped and left the stage… an Ottawa bylaw prohibits loud noises past that time, so even though the whole crowd was ready to call out “one more song!” (and I’m sure the band would have wanted to play one) they wouldn’t have been allowed to do an encore.
It was a gorgeous concert.
I made my way home, tired but glad that I’d gotten to hear such great sets, and went to bed as Saga and アリス九號., on the other side of the world, were setting up to play what would turn out to be a seriously wild and passionate live at 新潟NEXS… ♡♪
It was truly a momentous occasion at ホームBASS last night, as Scout discovered that mixed in with cans of food and a bag of litter were some new toys! But not just any toys. Bath toys. That float.
He hasn’t had another bath yet, but he was absolutely delighted to just be able to admire his new ocean friends before bed.
This morning I drifted back and forth between the offline writing laptop and the web-dev laptop, preparing a new page for Alice9Lives while Scout cooled off, belly-up, on the hardwood floor. He’s a perfectly strange character, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! Just after breakfast, he was having fun untying the bow of the ribbon I use to keep some kitchen cupboards shut. He untied it and then carried the ribbon over to me, utterly pleased with himself. I had to figure out another way to tie it to keep my little tactician out of trouble lol
I spent the afternoon chatting with other writers at the monthly pub meet-up and aside from just relaxing and catching eachother up on our writing lives (during which time I heard yet more interesting bits of advice), we also discussed how to keep the monthly meet-ups going because the current Ottawa Writers’ Circle is set to close at the end of the month. We sat around the pub tables and discussed rudimentary plans to keep parts of the group going under a new name. At the very least, we wanted to make sure we’d all know where and when to meet up again the following month.
I volunteered a subdomain for this purpose (until or unless we decide to buy a domain as a group), and others volunteered to take on organizational responsibilities so we could carry over some elements of the original group (it has a huge online user base and had many events, so we just chose to focus on maintaining the core elements for now).
Much like last month, a contingent of introverts stayed behind at the end for a bit of extra conversation (myself included) and then, once more running into another meet-up group that needed our space, we said a quick goodbye and headed our separate ways. My feet carried me to a newer shop downtown: Midori Gifts.
Correction: I intended to go to right to Midori Gifts to peruse the cute stationery imported from East Asia, and was on the right street, but I walked almost four blocks in the wrong direction. Yep. I completely passed the store front. When I finally checked the map and realized my mistake, I felt incredibly embarrassed (also amused) and made a u-turn. The store’s selection was exactly as cute as I’d expected. I may or may not have bought a new eraser and sketching pen to add to my regular lineup…
Oh, I got one other thing out of the afternoon: a mild sunburn. This, despite having slathered on sunscreen beforehand! Ah, well… nothing a bit of deep moisturizing tonight and tomorrow won’t soothe. I was craving a salad of all things on the way home (fun fact: the tastiest salad I’ve had in the city so far is from my fav pizza bar) so I picked up some greens and Scout and I have been settled in at home ever since. In fact, we’re enjoying having the windows open for some fresh air tonight, since there’s no smoke and the temperature has cooled…
Over in Japan, Saga is preparing to go onstage with the other members of アリス九號. in Sapporo… ♡♪
