One of my favorites, amongst many, by Ellen Kushner. Her show, Sound & Spirit is one of the best things happening on public radio, in my humble opinion. This episode was about the music inspired by Lord of the Rings, and the wonderful worlds created by J.R.R. Tolkien. It wraps up with an amazing song by Brooks Williams, from his 1992 album, Back To Mercy, featuring the song, All That Is Gold. I hope to learn to sing this song.

I record and listen to Ellen's shows while in my workshop, spraying masks, drilling bubble wand handles, etc. The work is loud, hot, and repetitive, so it helps to have good words flowing into my brain. Take an hour sometime and listen to this, you Tolkien fans out there. Very nice.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

Terribly behind in my posting. However, I have been adding pictures on Facebook, so if we aren't yet "Friends" on there, please send me a request.
http://www.facebook.com/Shane.Odom

I haven't added a post for Potomac Celtic Fest back in June, or New York Faerie Festival. I promise, I will get to to it, but until then, here is a recent custom order we created to tide you over.

Our "Root & Twig" Tree Mask, as a Quaking Aspen



( More pictures and some of our inspiration behind the cut... )

Well, one more May festival to go. I am so far behind on catching up, I might be going backwards. However, I like to post a festival report for every event we do, and it has been a busy season. This one is the last of our Month of May festival, and we have actually just come home from another one, but that will come later.

Like the previous festival, the Maryland Faerie Festival was celebrating it's 5th year in 2009. The show had a set back last year, with a scheduling conflict for the site it using resulting in it being held in June. That weekend turned out to be one of the record breaking dangerously hot periods in MD last year and there were severe complications due to it. I wrote about it Here. The show survived and thrived, and as is often the case, will need a couple of years to reset and reboot. But they sure made a great start of it this year and excelled despite the rough weather, because, well, it has been a wet spring.



( Following the bouncing bubble.... )

I am usually the first one up in our household. Since we are self-employed and both kids are home schooled, we have the privilege and gift of not having to set an alarm clock. I am a natural early riser, often getting up by 6:30 AM no matter the bedtime. I enjoy the morning quiet and use it for writing and email. I wake the family up at 8 AM, with music and I take a cup of coffee up to Leah. I have a variety of morning mixes, songs about waking up and sunny days. Today, grey, overcast with a steady rain fall, I started with my rainy day blend.

Here are the songs in it.

"Looks Like Rain",The Grateful Dead-1976-08-02 - Colt Park
"Fire And Rain",James Taylor-One Man Band
"Rainy Day People", Gordon Lightfoot-Songbook [Box Set] (Disc 3)
"After It Rains", Laurie Berkner-Under A Shady Tree
"Rain" The Beatles
"Just Like Rain", Kathy Kallick with Laurie Lewis-O Sister! The Women's Bluegrass Collection
"Looking At The Rain", Gordon Lightfoot-Don Quixote
"A Day Without Rain", Enya A Day Without Rain
"Naked In The Rain" Crosby & Nash-Voyage: Essential, Vol. 1 [Disc 1]
"Let It Rain", Eric Clapton [Deluxe Edition] Disc 1 Eric Clapton
"Early Morning Rain" Gordon Lightfoot-Songbook [Box Set] (Disc 1)
"No Rain", Blind Melon

Any suggestions?.....

I am been VERY busy with writing an article about the life and influence of the good professor Tolkien for the annual Green Word Newsletter, the newsletter for the Blessed Order of the Greenman (B.O.G) It is leading me to a Tolkien revival and I am living, eating, and dreaming the stories of Middle Earth right now. So here is the best and most beautiful rendition of Namárië, or Galadriel's Parting Song. The singer, a French musician, gives the Mp3 away on her website, Here. A little bit of pure beauty for you today.



Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen,
Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind,
yéni únótimë ve rámar aldaron!
long years numberless as the wings of trees!
Yéni ve lintë yuldar avánier
The long years have passed like swift draughts
mi oromardi lissë-miruvóreva
of the sweet mead in lofty halls
Andúnë pella, Vardo tellumar
beyond the West, beneath the blue vaults of Varda
nu luini yassen tintilar i eleni
wherein the stars tremble
ómaryo airetári-lírinen.
in the song of her voice, holy and queenly.

Sí man i yulma nin enquantuva?
Who now shall refill the cup for me?

An sí Tintallë Varda Oiolossëo
For now the Kindler, Varda, the Queen of the stars,
ve fanyar máryat Elentári ortanë
from Mount Everwhite has uplifted her hands like clouds
ar ilyë tier undulávë lumbulë
and all paths are drowned deep in shadow;
ar sindanóriello caita mornië
and out of a grey country darkness lies
i falmalinnar imbë met,
on the foaming waves between us,
ar hísië untúpa Calaciryo míri oialë.
and mist covers the jewels of Calacirya for ever.
Sí vanwa ná, Rómello vanwa, Valimar!
Now lost, lost to those of the East is Valimar!

Namárië! Nai hiruvalyë Valimar!
Farewell! Maybe thou shalt find Valimar!
Nai elyë hiruva! Namárië!
Maybe even thou shalt find it! Farewell!

I have never blogged much about my experiences in Second Life. Only one post back a year and half ago when I first started exploring the virtual reality environment and only a few mentions after that. Perhaps this mostly due to the difficulty in explain and getting across the Second Life experience. There have been multitudes of negative articles written, discoursing on the eminent demise of Second Life and the uselessness of the environment. However each foretelling of doom has not come true and ultimately, the experience of the growing metaverses is very similar to the early days of internet. That is, just like the internet, whatever the difficulties and negative experiences, the ultimate outcome of creating shared virtual reality environments accessible to vast numbers of users is a collaborative and interactive connection. None of us who were active in the earliest days of the the internet could have seen the outcome that we are all experiencing now, nor can anyone truly understand the ultimate effect that virtual realities will have on human culture. I think it will be somewhat bigger and simpler than we do imagine.

Perhaps the most interesting and telling thing about Second Life for myself is its artistic environment. Almost all of the content in SL is entirely user created. Each building, avatar, landscape, and action is an exploration into the world's 3D building tools and techniques. To fully understand this and the intense potential behind it is the exciting thing about SL to me. I like to explore and perceive the wonder and beauty for beauty's sake that is all over the world.

I think I will try to write more about Second Life and my experiences late, but for now, here is an experiment I did learning how to record and edit video content from Second Life. The fellow in the green tux and mossy dreadlocks in my "avatar", Brambleberry Woodget. All in green, imagine that;-) This was recorded at a build called "Inspire Space Park". It is, in the words of Virtual Life Media, the creators of the environment, a 100% cosmic chillspace merging sight and sound to foster appreciation for immersive relaxation and contemplation. Yes, my avatar is doing Tia Chi. A common tool in SL is the use of "poseballs". These are objects that when clicked on contain animations, sort of an autopilot for your avatar. They are remarkably useful, offering a way to leave your avatar dancing, sitting, or otherwise engaged, while interacting with others or exploring the surroundings with a camera controls. And incidentally, the ambient "space" music being played in the environment is from Blue Mars.

Please excuse the choppy video and low quality. This is my first time recording inworld and my computer was laggy a bit.

Not much of a post this week. It will have to wait until after the coming weekend to catch up. This week we are madly getting ready for the FaerieCon. So I will catch up later. For now, I will have to offer you a picture and two videos. The 9th Annual Marching of the Greenmen, by the Blessed Order of the Greenman (BOG), was this past Sunday. Here we are:



And here is our entrance at the festival. I am reading a new poem from Brother Dave Landis, called The Green Pledge.



And what I think is best of all, here is a video shot by someone at the festival. I haven't had the oppurtunity to thank them directly, but this moment was one of my favorites at the festival. Really special with Dave Landis, who is in the band Kiva, playing the penny whistle while we were at the Dragon Inn and Boggies keeping time with staves and bells. It was my most amazing time during the March and I loved it. I really do recommend clicking through to YouTube and watching it in high quality.



Harvest Blessings be with you all.

The Heat!...The Humidity!...

There was both. But we survived, and the humidity made for some good bubbling...



( Some more pictures, bubbles, and a little Dean Martin can be found by clicking here... )

Last night the Wildwose Clan had decided to settle in to watch August Rush, the 2007 movie with Robin Williams and Freddie Highmore.

In the midst of the movie, a huge storm front came crashing over our mountain, thundering and shaking the house, until I glanced out the window to see that particular kind of light that I knew would be just right for a rainbow...



( Click through for more pictures and some thoughts on music and art... )

I have been meaning to post about the Greenbelt Green Man Festival, which happened on May 10-11 for...well, a couple of weeks. So finally, I have gotten our garden in and it's time to post before the Maryland Faerie Festival, our next show, comes around.

The theme for the festival was, of course, the Green Man as a symbol for Environmentalism, and the color was, of course, Green, and it was...



( Follow the little green man and click to see more... )

This delightfully sweet song about Spoutwood Farm May Day Fairie Festival was written by Janet Spahr, an excellent musician and player of the Hang Drum. It seems to be essentially an evolved steel drum. It is lovely, and a new instrument that only a limited number play. The simple joy of this song really gets across the spirit of the festival. Little kids in bubble fields. Of course, I was tickled to see them use the B.O.G chant at the end. It was a good Green Man March this year. I will write more about it and the FF later. Now, simply....relax.

The title of this is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson.
I wanted to share my Earth Day video with you.
This is some of my flower photography
set to the music of John Denver,
singing "Celebrate Earth Day, Every Day".

Enjoy. Remember. Celebrate.

Pseudacris Crucifer, or "Spring Peepers" frogs in the marshes behind Allegany College of Maryland. Spring comes late in the mountains, and we are anxious for it to really get going. We are most of the way there, but the daffodils aren't blooming just yet, and things are just getting warmed up. We could still get snow at any time, and even lots of it! But don't tell the peepers...

Make sure your volume is up.



(Edited to include: Oh, and to quote the Wikipedia entry, "On Martha's Vineyard, peepers are commonly called "pinkletinks"; in New Brunswick, they are called "tinkletoes."....that's just great.)

That is the statistic worldwide.
And each one has meaning to someone. I had two deaths today. One personal, my great aunt Thelma, whom I never met, but she was the last of the Cockrill kids, my paternal grandmother's brothers and sisters, died in Denton, Texas, today. Funny how a relative whom I had no personal connection with, when put in context of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, can cause you to pause and reflect.

And...

Sir Arthur C. Clarke has passed away at age 90. Not a bad age to live to, and what a life.



"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible."

One of my favorite quotes, and second of Clarke's Three Laws. The other two being...

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

( Click here and Come follow A Life Lived For The Future... )

Thanks be with firepixie from whom I ganked this. A proud Irish raspberry be with ya all! Green Blessings!

Some of my friends out there may not know this about me....

Hello, My Name is Bramble Shane and I am A Christmas Addict.

Seriously, I gots it bad. So there is lots to this little problem of mine which I will go into in another post, but not the least of which is my love of GOOD Carols.

So my wife and I favorite is Carol the Bells and here it is by the Celtic Women Concert. Very Nice...

I have recently been reintroduced, by gwyn_hwyfar whom I owe a huge thank you, to the wonders of the English Folk Rock scene. And through that, to The Pentangle. I had heard them, heard of them, like Jon Renborn, one of their founding members, but never really listened. So the following will be a series of YouTube vids taking you on a little tour of this wonderful music. I think I have a new favorite and term for my style I like best. Some of you may be familiar with all this and be grinning at the kid just finding it all. Some of you may, like myself, never quite made the connections. And then some of you, I may be exposing to a whole new thing. I hope I change your life, in the way that only music, the freeing, transparent, breath shortening way, that only music can...

( So with out further adieu... )

Oh my, oh my.
What is art.
What if.
The Best Classical Violinist in the world.
With one of the best violins in the world.
Stopped one rush hour morning, at a commuter train station,
and played.
Case open.
Busking...for tips.

It happened the other day at a Washington D.C. Metro Station.

"Pearls before Breakfast"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html?hpid=topnews

The answer says alot about who we are. Where we are going. And what we are doing.

If you are interested in Art, Public Performance, Street Theater, Music, Beauty,
Read This Article.

It is very long...make time...it is very detailed...make time...it is very well written.

If you can, when you first visit the article open the -Listen to Joshua Bell's Complete Metro Station Performance- to the audio link at the top. I read the article all the way through once and then again while listening. Much better to listen.

Really amazingly effected by this. I think I shall listen all the more closely tomorrow, but maybe not the day after that. Art without a Frame, Is Still Art.....but so is it all.

I like to think that I would stop and listen. I don't think it is a fair comparison though. I don't commute. I do art. I listen. I get to do these things because all these people do. That is, I can support myself as an artist, along with my family and sometimes others, because our society values art enough that people will spend their hard commuted money for. It is an exchange. A transference of energy betwixt the two. Patron and Artist. Hopefully our Patrons, may everyone be blessed, know that. I hope that each person comes away transformed in a way. They get it. And perhaps....one day...they stop...and listen.

I like to think that I would stop and listen. But then I have so many times before. I clearly remember the first time I heard Owain Phyffe singing at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Busy Boardwalk. Packed actually. Leah and I, out together, for once, visiting. We stopped. Turned. Could see only crowd. But out the noise there floated this voice. Those who have heard Owain know what we mean. The best I can do is that he sounds as if he is amplified, modified, reverberated, naturally. Outdoors in the open. Owain's voice is beautiful. We wove through the crowd, found a seat close and listen for the rest. Bought a CD and make time to hear him whenever we can.

I like to thing I would stop. Music is so different among the arts. Your ears can listen when the rest is doing so much. Typing for instance. And with the ears and music, part of us can be off and doing something. Wandering...away. The other arts affect us when we are engaged. So perhaps sometimes we are touched and don't even know it.

Wow.
Art.