NYFF: s00j!
Jul. 1st, 2015 01:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressA/N: I figure that it's worth putting half the con report in its own post, because, well, it was trivially easy to write over 2k words about one band. Anywho, all track titles and album names within this post *should* link. You're welcome.
The entire reason1 I went to faerie fest was SJ Tucker. She was there with her band Tricky Pixie, which is made of fucking incredible musicians. Having bought all2 of SJ's cds, I have been forced to spread out my "here take my money" urges and buy amazing fiddle and cello music from the rest of Tricky Pixie. OH NO. OH WOE. THIS IS TERRIBLE. *staples hand to forehead*
ANYways, pretty much the very first thing I did when I had a schedule put into my hands was figure out when and where Tricky Pixie was playing. They had three concerts, one for each day, and those became the linchpins for the entire rest of my schedule.
Now, here is a fact about SJ Tucker: I cry like a fucking waterfall when I experience her live. Not just the sad stuff. Not just the stuff I have a history with. Everything. I had weird tearing-up at the sound check. It is what it is. It is a thing to do with power and divinity and the intersection of music and prayer.
BUT
Sometime around 2005 or 6, my clone named me Sor, Demigoddess of Dance. It is a title that has only become more accurate with time. If I must confront a Goddess in her Glory, it's a hell of a lot easier to do it from the centre of my own power. So I can sit and listen to her sing and I can sob.
Or I can dance.
And just like any other time that's one of the options, it's not even really a choice. I listened to exactly one song from a sitting position (Mushroom Song) before my brain kicked in, no Sor, this is stupid, get on your fucking feet and move-cast-pray-DANCE.
(Are you cock of the walk when you're walking alone?)4
I danced in the sunshine and I danced in the rain and I danced in the ashes of a bonfire to avoid dancing in the mud. I did actually dance in the mud as well, and only slipped about three times. Caught myself every time too, which I find honestly shocking --I am not joking when I call this kind of dance "flail like a fool". My dance involves a lot of movement and a lot of flight and at least a little bit of Highland fling steps. None of those are exactly wise to do on a dancefloor coated with slippery river clay.
The sets were so good.
*I met a very nice Lost Boy who I dragged through a tango and a waltz back to back. Obviously Alligator in the House, less obviously Dryad's Promise", which I somehow did not realize was a waltz? I have not listened to Mythcreants nearly enough.
*They also finished the weekend with Alligator?, but there was no one I knew hanging around to dance with and also I was damp from humidity and sweat. So I tangoed that one myself, which was very nice. I did much "awwwwww"ing for liking Alligators over kitties.
*The only s00j song I didn't know was Storm Chaser, which is apparently going to be the title track on her next album. Positive things: It's completely fucking awesome, and there might be another SJ album as soon as the end of this year. Yessssssssss.
*There were a handful of Betsy Tinney and Alexander James Adams songs I did not know, all of which were awesome to dance to because unf, strings. They finished their Saturday set with an AJA song called He of the Sidhe, which is approximately The FaeQueen Went Down to Georgia and I very nearly died keeping up. I tried shedding approximately twice in the middle of the fiddle solos before my self-preservation instinct kicked in. And then of course there was the whole problem that there was a nice comfortable brief pause near the end of the song so everyone could clap...and then he launched into another solo.
It is possible I made rude gestures at my favourite band.
*So, the last time I danced to Wild River Child (or any of Stolen Season, actually) it was wrapped up in K's arms and teaching him how to blues. Which meant when they played it on Sunday, I suddenly found I was dancing with him again, eyes closed and mind filled. It was a really nice/painful piece of spellwork. Phantom partners may be easier to lead, but they suck at kissing.
*SO WONDERS! Wonders has been my favourite5 album from the first time I played it, in no small part because I have such a strong connection to The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland. For some reason, I was not expecting any songs from it, and then I got *four!*:
**The Great Velocipede Migration is not worse when you hear it live, oh no. I think I want to write a Highland dance to it, because I am an idiot who doesn't understand limits.
**I may have frantically rifled through my bag so that I could do Song of the Witches with a spoon in my hair. I also may have found a small child to grin at as I cooed "you've already learned there are marvelous deeds to be done". You know. The sorts of things that you do if you're weird.
**When she announced she had a song for the librarians, I got extremely excited, because I think Ravens in the Library is a great song. And then she started chanting "a-b-c-d-e-f-g / h-i-j-k-l" and I positively shrieked because ASK ME ANYTHING! YES!!
(I whispered "skip to the part where it says I am this many miles from a girl named September" at the end, because I am a tremendous dork.)
**I was chatting to the aforementioned Lost Boy near the end of their Friday set when stage banter goes "something something Glashtyn something". We both shut right the fuck up, exchanged a wide-eyed look, and gave the stage our full attention. It was indeed Glashtyn Shanty and it was _awesome_ live.
*I almost never take my hair down when dancing, because holy shit, pain in the ass. But somehow, the idea of doing Firebird's Child with it up just made no goddamn sense. It worked out really well, I think. The following day, I brought it down for Tam Lin, because, damnit, "I forbid ye maidens all who'd let fly your lovely hair" is like the fastest way to get me to contrary at you and put my hair down anyways. Ha!
...I did not go to Carterhaugh however. Tam Lin is at least not satyric, unlike...
*Creature of the Wood is a difficult song, especially when it's introduced by a smiling and pretty young man explaining how he and his goat-hoofed brethren should not be trusted by any of the young ladies in the woods.
I really don't like 6satyrs.
That being said, it's not like I didn't dance anyways, because jeeze, it was the first day and I was in a hell of a groove. and THEN! They followed dubious and seductive boy-fae songs with dubious and seductive girl-fae songs. Daughter of the Glade is suddenly one of my favourites. If nothing else, I am increasingly intrigued by the sorts of femininity that involve seducing+devouring your mates. You know, like mers and spiders.
Anyways, neither song is actually all that upsetting to me, and they make a fucking *spectacular* pairing. I had noticed the parallels before, but not really compared them lyrically and thought about the mythology attached, and it's so much better with.
*They played Little Bird! I don't have much to say beyond I double dare you to do your own thing and that getting to soar through the rain was wonderful.
*Personally, I blame the entirity of Saturday and Sunday's rain on the fact that they played Gentle Storm on Friday...especially after having just played it with an *actual* thunderstorm accompanying the week before. Wevs, it was awesome.
Whew. There were a few other songs in there, mostly Betsy and AJA's that I don't know as well. I danced to allllllll of them. I danced to the sound checks on Saturday and Sunday. I danced to "okay so the band is busy setting up and putting on their makeup" (although that was usually just a footing test)
And I did one thing every day that scared me7. Because damnit, I am a powerful creature in my own right (see aforementioned Demigoddess of Dance discussion above) and more importantly, I have *wiles* and if I can work 'em on Tailsteak so thoroughly he becomes one of my best friends, I can certainly work them in a very mild fashion on s00j such that I can talk to her without feeling like an idiot.
No, but really, it is not tenable to have people in my life who I cannot interact with. It's frustrating and annoying and that's before you get into that other part8. So, you know, there's striking a balance between being friendly and fangirlish/clingy, and I suspect I stayed on the correct side of it? We'll see.
I made a point of stopping by the table and having nice conversation each day. As mentioned, I got my disc of Sirens signed (yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyY!), as well as a couple of...other things *waggles eyebrows cryptically towards someone who almost certainly is not reading this*. I asked for a selfie last day of fest (and she said yes and ohmygosh and I should put that on Twitter) and wound up asking if she'd be willing to take a photo of me wearing awesome clothes on Saturday (I'll tell that story more in the proper con report.)
And she gave me a hug right away on Friday, after dancing, before I even was able to mention that I had a hug for her from K. She liked that I was dancing a lot, squee!
SJ Tucker is a genuinely kind and wonderful and magical and awesome artist. Support her music, so she can keep making it.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Okay, so, strictly speaking, 85% was s00j, 10% was general "I wanna go to a faerie fest", and a pretty person was the remaining 5%. But said pretty did not wind up going, so their percentage can be directed back towards SJ. Is all good.
2: okay, again strictly speaking, this is not entirely accurate. I haven't gotten around to buying most of her singles yet, nor the audio-book-Cat-Valente stuff, nor the soundtrack she did for Ember Days. THAT BEING SAID, I own seven of her albums legitimately (two of which I have bought twice3) and one illegitimately (Brenton bought Mythcreants back when we were dating, and we swapped digital copies like the dirty pirates we are. I will for-reals buy Mythcreants sometime soon (money willing), 'specially for all the weird Mushroom Song did to me at NYFF.
So yes, I certainly have more s00j CDs than any other artist. I mean, part of that is Vienna Teng's only put out 5 albums so far, so it's not a totally fair race, but yeah.
Also, I am still technically waiting for my copies of Wonders and Blessings to arrive in the mail, but you know the awesome thing about Bandcamp? I can download the mp3s immediately, and then the mail can take as long as it needs to get to me.
Oh, and I guess I never actually bought Sirens, it was a gift. But that's okay, I have a physical copy and now it is signnnnned!
3: She released Stolen Season in unmastered form a couple months before it actually came out. Uh, yes please! As for Mischief, she was out of physical copies at the Balticon I first heard Cheshire Kitten, so I basically gave her money and had Bethany send me a complete set of the tracks. I couldn't stand not actually having it though, so I bought a copy of the CD for myself this weekend.
4: *begins cackling* So this is a thing now. I'll have to make a tag for it or something so I can find all the other pieces.
5: Mischief is also my favourite. As is Sirens. This is acceptable to me.
6: (k). Hands up if you get the reference.
7: I mean, I'm not always sure this is great advice, but it certainly makes my life more interesting.
8: I've left enough clues, *you* figure out why it might be relevant to my life to get along well with s00j.
?: Did you notice?
The entire reason1 I went to faerie fest was SJ Tucker. She was there with her band Tricky Pixie, which is made of fucking incredible musicians. Having bought all2 of SJ's cds, I have been forced to spread out my "here take my money" urges and buy amazing fiddle and cello music from the rest of Tricky Pixie. OH NO. OH WOE. THIS IS TERRIBLE. *staples hand to forehead*
ANYways, pretty much the very first thing I did when I had a schedule put into my hands was figure out when and where Tricky Pixie was playing. They had three concerts, one for each day, and those became the linchpins for the entire rest of my schedule.
Now, here is a fact about SJ Tucker: I cry like a fucking waterfall when I experience her live. Not just the sad stuff. Not just the stuff I have a history with. Everything. I had weird tearing-up at the sound check. It is what it is. It is a thing to do with power and divinity and the intersection of music and prayer.
BUT
Sometime around 2005 or 6, my clone named me Sor, Demigoddess of Dance. It is a title that has only become more accurate with time. If I must confront a Goddess in her Glory, it's a hell of a lot easier to do it from the centre of my own power. So I can sit and listen to her sing and I can sob.
Or I can dance.
And just like any other time that's one of the options, it's not even really a choice. I listened to exactly one song from a sitting position (Mushroom Song) before my brain kicked in, no Sor, this is stupid, get on your fucking feet and move-cast-pray-DANCE.
(Are you cock of the walk when you're walking alone?)4
I danced in the sunshine and I danced in the rain and I danced in the ashes of a bonfire to avoid dancing in the mud. I did actually dance in the mud as well, and only slipped about three times. Caught myself every time too, which I find honestly shocking --I am not joking when I call this kind of dance "flail like a fool". My dance involves a lot of movement and a lot of flight and at least a little bit of Highland fling steps. None of those are exactly wise to do on a dancefloor coated with slippery river clay.
The sets were so good.
*I met a very nice Lost Boy who I dragged through a tango and a waltz back to back. Obviously Alligator in the House, less obviously Dryad's Promise", which I somehow did not realize was a waltz? I have not listened to Mythcreants nearly enough.
*They also finished the weekend with Alligator?, but there was no one I knew hanging around to dance with and also I was damp from humidity and sweat. So I tangoed that one myself, which was very nice. I did much "awwwwww"ing for liking Alligators over kitties.
*The only s00j song I didn't know was Storm Chaser, which is apparently going to be the title track on her next album. Positive things: It's completely fucking awesome, and there might be another SJ album as soon as the end of this year. Yessssssssss.
*There were a handful of Betsy Tinney and Alexander James Adams songs I did not know, all of which were awesome to dance to because unf, strings. They finished their Saturday set with an AJA song called He of the Sidhe, which is approximately The FaeQueen Went Down to Georgia and I very nearly died keeping up. I tried shedding approximately twice in the middle of the fiddle solos before my self-preservation instinct kicked in. And then of course there was the whole problem that there was a nice comfortable brief pause near the end of the song so everyone could clap...and then he launched into another solo.
It is possible I made rude gestures at my favourite band.
*So, the last time I danced to Wild River Child (or any of Stolen Season, actually) it was wrapped up in K's arms and teaching him how to blues. Which meant when they played it on Sunday, I suddenly found I was dancing with him again, eyes closed and mind filled. It was a really nice/painful piece of spellwork. Phantom partners may be easier to lead, but they suck at kissing.
*SO WONDERS! Wonders has been my favourite5 album from the first time I played it, in no small part because I have such a strong connection to The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland. For some reason, I was not expecting any songs from it, and then I got *four!*:
**The Great Velocipede Migration is not worse when you hear it live, oh no. I think I want to write a Highland dance to it, because I am an idiot who doesn't understand limits.
**I may have frantically rifled through my bag so that I could do Song of the Witches with a spoon in my hair. I also may have found a small child to grin at as I cooed "you've already learned there are marvelous deeds to be done". You know. The sorts of things that you do if you're weird.
**When she announced she had a song for the librarians, I got extremely excited, because I think Ravens in the Library is a great song. And then she started chanting "a-b-c-d-e-f-g / h-i-j-k-l" and I positively shrieked because ASK ME ANYTHING! YES!!
(I whispered "skip to the part where it says I am this many miles from a girl named September" at the end, because I am a tremendous dork.)
**I was chatting to the aforementioned Lost Boy near the end of their Friday set when stage banter goes "something something Glashtyn something". We both shut right the fuck up, exchanged a wide-eyed look, and gave the stage our full attention. It was indeed Glashtyn Shanty and it was _awesome_ live.
*I almost never take my hair down when dancing, because holy shit, pain in the ass. But somehow, the idea of doing Firebird's Child with it up just made no goddamn sense. It worked out really well, I think. The following day, I brought it down for Tam Lin, because, damnit, "I forbid ye maidens all who'd let fly your lovely hair" is like the fastest way to get me to contrary at you and put my hair down anyways. Ha!
...I did not go to Carterhaugh however. Tam Lin is at least not satyric, unlike...
*Creature of the Wood is a difficult song, especially when it's introduced by a smiling and pretty young man explaining how he and his goat-hoofed brethren should not be trusted by any of the young ladies in the woods.
I really don't like 6satyrs.
That being said, it's not like I didn't dance anyways, because jeeze, it was the first day and I was in a hell of a groove. and THEN! They followed dubious and seductive boy-fae songs with dubious and seductive girl-fae songs. Daughter of the Glade is suddenly one of my favourites. If nothing else, I am increasingly intrigued by the sorts of femininity that involve seducing+devouring your mates. You know, like mers and spiders.
Anyways, neither song is actually all that upsetting to me, and they make a fucking *spectacular* pairing. I had noticed the parallels before, but not really compared them lyrically and thought about the mythology attached, and it's so much better with.
*They played Little Bird! I don't have much to say beyond I double dare you to do your own thing and that getting to soar through the rain was wonderful.
*Personally, I blame the entirity of Saturday and Sunday's rain on the fact that they played Gentle Storm on Friday...especially after having just played it with an *actual* thunderstorm accompanying the week before. Wevs, it was awesome.
Whew. There were a few other songs in there, mostly Betsy and AJA's that I don't know as well. I danced to allllllll of them. I danced to the sound checks on Saturday and Sunday. I danced to "okay so the band is busy setting up and putting on their makeup" (although that was usually just a footing test)
And I did one thing every day that scared me7. Because damnit, I am a powerful creature in my own right (see aforementioned Demigoddess of Dance discussion above) and more importantly, I have *wiles* and if I can work 'em on Tailsteak so thoroughly he becomes one of my best friends, I can certainly work them in a very mild fashion on s00j such that I can talk to her without feeling like an idiot.
No, but really, it is not tenable to have people in my life who I cannot interact with. It's frustrating and annoying and that's before you get into that other part8. So, you know, there's striking a balance between being friendly and fangirlish/clingy, and I suspect I stayed on the correct side of it? We'll see.
I made a point of stopping by the table and having nice conversation each day. As mentioned, I got my disc of Sirens signed (yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyY!), as well as a couple of...other things *waggles eyebrows cryptically towards someone who almost certainly is not reading this*. I asked for a selfie last day of fest (and she said yes and ohmygosh and I should put that on Twitter) and wound up asking if she'd be willing to take a photo of me wearing awesome clothes on Saturday (I'll tell that story more in the proper con report.)
And she gave me a hug right away on Friday, after dancing, before I even was able to mention that I had a hug for her from K. She liked that I was dancing a lot, squee!
SJ Tucker is a genuinely kind and wonderful and magical and awesome artist. Support her music, so she can keep making it.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Okay, so, strictly speaking, 85% was s00j, 10% was general "I wanna go to a faerie fest", and a pretty person was the remaining 5%. But said pretty did not wind up going, so their percentage can be directed back towards SJ. Is all good.
2: okay, again strictly speaking, this is not entirely accurate. I haven't gotten around to buying most of her singles yet, nor the audio-book-Cat-Valente stuff, nor the soundtrack she did for Ember Days. THAT BEING SAID, I own seven of her albums legitimately (two of which I have bought twice3) and one illegitimately (Brenton bought Mythcreants back when we were dating, and we swapped digital copies like the dirty pirates we are. I will for-reals buy Mythcreants sometime soon (money willing), 'specially for all the weird Mushroom Song did to me at NYFF.
So yes, I certainly have more s00j CDs than any other artist. I mean, part of that is Vienna Teng's only put out 5 albums so far, so it's not a totally fair race, but yeah.
Also, I am still technically waiting for my copies of Wonders and Blessings to arrive in the mail, but you know the awesome thing about Bandcamp? I can download the mp3s immediately, and then the mail can take as long as it needs to get to me.
Oh, and I guess I never actually bought Sirens, it was a gift. But that's okay, I have a physical copy and now it is signnnnned!
3: She released Stolen Season in unmastered form a couple months before it actually came out. Uh, yes please! As for Mischief, she was out of physical copies at the Balticon I first heard Cheshire Kitten, so I basically gave her money and had Bethany send me a complete set of the tracks. I couldn't stand not actually having it though, so I bought a copy of the CD for myself this weekend.
4: *begins cackling* So this is a thing now. I'll have to make a tag for it or something so I can find all the other pieces.
5: Mischief is also my favourite. As is Sirens. This is acceptable to me.
6: (k). Hands up if you get the reference.
7: I mean, I'm not always sure this is great advice, but it certainly makes my life more interesting.
8: I've left enough clues, *you* figure out why it might be relevant to my life to get along well with s00j.
?: Did you notice?
no subject
on 2015-07-01 05:05 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2015-07-03 12:43 am (UTC)no subject
on 2015-07-03 02:10 am (UTC)