New Year, plus Christmas

[beige_alert]

I hope everyone survived the New Year parties. Joyce and I went to the party at Lytheria in Milwaukee. The annual ritual of the funny TV commercials video, an hour or so of the best, or sometimes worst, of the art, was enjoyable as always. Lots of food, as always. Lots of people, many of whom I see pretty much only at these parties.

We had a nice little filk circle on the third floor, with Emory, tigertoy, Art, Sue, Jim, Barisha, Joyce, me, and various listeners dropping by from time to time. Phil and Art got into a Longcore dual, to see who would run out of Moonwulf songs first. I think it was pretty much a tie.

In an effort to do something completely different, I sang the Hockey Monkey Song. In German. Thanks to Urban Tapestry and aryana_filker for making that possible. I have, by the way, a handy tip for any of you considering singing a song in a language that you have been studying for about two weeks and which you, essentially, don’t speak: Pick a slower song! Still, it was tons of fun. Also fun, and well-received, was Aryana’s Lullaby for Larean, which I also (what the heck) sang the first verse to in German. I have an adorable little niece, just five weeks old, who, like me at that age, sleeps occasionally but mostly cries, so I’ve been looking for lullabies, on the theory that I’m going to end up needing them someday. A bilingual lullaby is great. My goal is to eventually teach little Heidi to sing songs in languages that her parents don’t speak. Crazy Uncle Mike, indeed.

Since Joyce was away in Louisiana over Christmas, we delayed the opening of gifts until today. I now have Das Keyboard, a computer keyboard with no markings whatsoever on the keys. It is an all-black keyboard (“Darth Vader approved”), the only markings being the labels for the three lights and the “Das Keyboard” in the corner. You can’t get much cooler than this. It’s a pretty nice feeling keyboard, too.

Joyce likes her fancy Lamy Pico tiny ball-point pen, her very bright LED flashlight, and her puzzle of an origami-style folding plastic drinking cup.

There is turkey in the oven now and a nice dinner planned.

Comments

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Hee hee. The first song I ever sang in German at a con was Schwarzpulver und Alcohol (as translated and taught to me by bardling, at a time when I spoke, essentially, no German at all.

It was...interesting.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Interesting, I'm sure. That would be another violation of the "pick a slow one" rule, wouldn't it. :) I'd like to try Geist someday, too. That's a nice song. The singable English version is helpful, obviously.

Somehow it didn't take me long to change my tune from thinking that maybe I'd look at the pronounciation scheme so I'm not so lost with names and whatnot, but no way am I going to try to actually learn another language, to singing in semi-public in a language I don't actually speak while, yes, trying to learn it. My German friends didn't actually try to talk me into it, but just knowing that I have native speakers to answer my questions and explain all my errors, and who are a receptive audience for all my feble attemts at their language, is too tempting to resist. It's obvious that my Spanish would be much better with such help.

[aryana-filker.livejournal.com]

And I am happy to have a native speaker who explains my English bugs to me! :-)
I'm happy they liked my lullaby!
But not only UT and me are to blame for the German Hockey Monkey, it was madfilkentist who made the translation! :-)

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

When I sang it I was careful to spread the blame around to everyone involved, including James Kochalka, madfilkentist, the un-named German filkers who helped with the translation, the Canadians who make me aware of it, and you. And I wouldn't have met you without UT. :)

[lisande.livejournal.com]

My goal is to eventually teach little Heidi to sing songs in languages that her parents don’t speak. Crazy Uncle Mike, indeed.


That's a great idea! *g* It's the advantage of being an uncle - you can spoil your niece and teach her silly things without being really responsible for her. And if she cries too much and you don't know what to do anymore you can just hand her over to your brother "Your child!" and be done with it... ;) *snickers*

When my cousins were little children (and my parents didn't have me yet) my parents used to give them annoying toys - such as waterguns and drums. Everything that was messy or loud. *g*
My aunt once tried to get some revenge and gave me a little saxophone - but my parents only grinned. And I wasn't very long interested in it - there was no fun, because my parents didn't mind my "playing"...

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Yes, my other role, the giver of noisy gifts!