mdlbear | Entries tagged with cordwainer smith

I have asked a couple of people for five Things that they associate with me, to ramble on about in my journal. I extend the same offer to anyone who comments here. These are from tibicina.

Dylan

Bob Dylan is one of my musical role models: I figure that if he can get up on stage and sing his own songs, so can I. And for the most part I prefer his version to any of the more popular covers, though that may just be a case of what I heard first, or possibly my preference for a more folk-like style over rock or pop.

My favorite song of his is Desolation Row, which I transcribed off an LP back in high school or college (which probably explains why I can still perform the entire thing off-book). It has a melody that's wonderfully well-suited to my usual picking pattern; I can sit and noodle on it for a very long time. Lilly, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts (which is Colleen's favorite) is another one like that. It wasn't until this year, when I wrote QV, that I wrote a song that exceeded DR in both length and pickability.

I think what attracts me to Dylan is the surreal quality of much of his poetry. Unlike me and Janis Ian, I don't think Dylan makes much of a distinction between writing songs and writing poems.

I note in passing that Bob is from Hibbing, Minnesota, which (as we used to say back in Northfield where I went to college) is a very good place to be from.

Beards

I started growing my beard when I went away to college and got away from the high school dress code. I did a lot of experimentation back then, going through several styles of gotee and a waxed handlebar mustache before finally settling on a full beard. The fact that my electric razor disappeared sometime in my first or second year of grad school has nothing to do with it.

I know of only one person in California (Dave Uggla, who knew me at Carleton) who's ever seen me without a beard, and it's not my wife. Colleen has warned me that if I ever shave it off she won't recognize me, and will probably slam the door in my face. Which doesn't look particularly good without it -- I inherited my father's weak chin.

Guitars

My first guitar, back in high school, was a cheap Harmony with cheese-slicer action that cut my fingertips to ribbons until I grew calluses, and sometimes even then. My parents got me a nylon-strung Carlos when I went off to college; it's currently lent out to (if I remember correctly) one of the Y.D's friends who needed a loaner to learn on.

The first guitar I acquired in California was my lovely Martin O-15, which Colleen promptly dubbed "Snuggles". We found her at an estate sale for $40; she'd obviously been well-loved (the previous owner had swapped the outside tuners around to make the strings straighter) and occasionally somewhat abused.

I acquired "Plink", my Vagabond travel guitar, sometime in the early 1990's. Plink is small enough that I can play her in a chair with arms, and she sounds wonderful plugged in and amplified; she's been my usual guitar for gigs for the last several years now.

The Epiphone 12-string was inherited from Fred Capp when he, in turn, inherited a Guild from our friend Stripes. She hasn't told me her name yet, and I don't play her much.

I bought my first Ovation, "Ruby" (named for the color of her soundboard) just before my Interfilk gig at GaFilk. It turned out that I didn't like her sound plugged-in, and it turned out that she was really awkward on plane trips. Last year I replaced her with "Flame Darling" -- that was a clear case of love at first sight; I was only able to buy her because the Y.D. had just expressed an interest in learning guitar, and a strong preference for Ruby.

The chaoswolf's black Little Martin is named "Cindy"; we have an unnamed Applause on loan from Colleen's friend M, and pocketnaomi's lovely tenor guitar, "Belle", is presently visiting, hanging around the house and looking sweetly seductive.

Colleen has threatened me with divorce or murder if I ever bring another guitar into the house. I think she's serious. It doesn't keep me from looking at banjos occasionally.

Hugs

I love hugging and being hugged. I'm told I give good ones; I guess bears are good for that. That leads me to...

Bears

I'm not sure how my association with bears first came about, though Mom tells me I was very attached to my teddy bear as a toddler. I don't remember.

I've always reminded Colleen of a bear, either Pooh or Paddington, though I've often felt and acted a lot more like Eyore. One of our favorite animals in the zoo is the spectacled bear, to which I bear (as it were) a remarkable resemblance).

My first persona in alt.callahans was "The Medium-Sized Teddybear", a deliberate reference to Cordwainer Smith's Middle-Sized Bear. I became the Mandelbear after describing myself as the positively imaginary half of the cubic Mandelbrot set, a fractal which now serves as my default icon on LJ. An infinitely fuzzy, fractal, alien teddybear suits me well.

Musically I occasionally describe myself as "a bear of very little range".

I have asked a couple of people for five Things that they associate with me, to ramble on about in my journal. I extend the same offer to anyone who comments here.

Here are the five things I got from pocketnaomi:

Songwriting

I believe I started making up songs when I was eight or ten years old, but didn't actually write any down until I was in college and found myself rooming with two other guitar players. They would have been classifiable as filksongs if I'd ever heard of such things at the time. I only remember bits of one of them, but was told at the last reunion I went to, a decade ago, that one of those former roommates still sings that and another one, which I had entirely forgotten. I keep them in my computer files now.

It was my involvement with fandom and filk that finally "gave me permission" to write songs, a few of which were worth singing in public. As time goes by I seem to have gotten better at it.

I wrote five songs last year, my most prolific year so far, and more than the previous five years put together. Last year also included my two or three best songs so far.

I have a tendency to write lyrics first; if I start with music it may take years for the tune to attach itself to a suitable lyric.

I've helped teach songwriting at a couple of weekend workshops run by Kathy Mar; I don't claim to be much good at that, but you're welcome to read my notes for the 2007 workshop and draw your own conclusions.

Programming

Programming is, in essence, the art of giving orders to an incredibly fast, incredibly accurate, and moronicly literal-minded demon. As such, it represents a very useful skill for game-players and parents. You will note that I do consider it an art, and in particular a branch of literature. (My degree is in Computer Science, but I feel strongly that any field with the word "science" in its name isn't one.)

Another way of looking at it is to say that the inside of a computer is an alternate universe where magic works: programs are spells, and obey most of the usual laws of magic. They also share with traditional magic the fact that a misspoken spell can wreak untold havoc.

Programming, like reading, is one of those activities I do in a light trance state. When I'm on my game (increasingly rare these days) I occasionally look up from my keyboard after what seems like a short time and wonder why it's suddenly gotten dark outside.

House Parties

Our household has four Saturday parties every year: one in late December or early January celebrating the new year and our anniversary, one in March (the "It's Green!" party, now by long-established tradition the Saturday after Consonance) to celebrate Spring, St. Patrick's Day, and our birthdays, one in June (originally to celebrate the anniversary of Colleen's flower business, but now just for the tradition of it), and one in late October to celebrate Halloween.

We also have an Open House every Wednesday -- these were originally devised by Colleen to make sure that she would have adults to talk to even after our older daughter was born.

The house is also more-or-less open during the entire Winter holiday season; we don't exactly expect guests, but are never surprised if they show up, and occasionally invite them.

Our 25th Anniversary party was remarkable in being the only one for which we hired entertainment -- the members of Golden Bough had been to a few of our previous parties, and we booked them a year in advance to make sure they'd show up. It was also the only one we had to rent chairs for.

Cordwainer Smith

... is/was one of my favorite science fiction authors. The name "Mandelbear" comes in part from a post I made in alt.callahans, and in part from one of my favorite characters, the Middle-Sized Bear, in his story "Mark Elf"; my latest and arguably most autobiographical song is called "A Talk With the Middle-Sized Bear". My first filk song, "The Shores of the Night", was loosely inspired by another of his stories, "The Lady Who SailedThe Soul".

My favorite story of his is probably "The Dead Lady of Clown Town", though it's hard to pick just one. I especially admire him for his imagery and his narrative style; many of his stories are written as if they were popular history, written years -- centuries, in some cases -- after the events they recount. "Drunkboat" is also worthy of mention; its description of the first journey through hyperspace is simply a translation of Arthur Rimbaud's "Le Bateau ivre".

Janis Ian

... is one of my favorite singer-songwriters, and probably the celebrity I would most like to spend a night with -- swapping songs, of course. She's also a long-time science fiction fan, and more recently author. I see from her tour schedule that she's toastmistress at the Nebula Awards banquet this year. I have yet to run into her at a Worldcon; she never goes to the filking.

I have been known to perform one of her songs, "The Last Train", in filk circles and even at a concert or two.

Her website includes lots of good articles on being a songwriter and performer, backed by 40-odd years of experience. Highly recommended.

The Mandelbear's Musings

Entries tagged with cordwainer smith

Profile

Page Summary

Active Entries

Expand Cut Tags

Five things from Tibicina

Five Things from PocketNaomi

Links

Syndicate

Style Credit