Cry freedom!

[azurelunatic]

Please remember that the Founding Fathers of the US were not only well-spoken intellectuals, but also dangerous activists, terrorists and agitators, and didn't like the idea of Big Government. It's the sign of the strength of the nation that the political climate (crappy as it is) is still as good as it is today. Clearly we've a long way to go, but it's a strong system that's hard to suborn unless you've a collective ruling class of the wealthy and privileged fighting to maintain that wealth and privilege.

At any rate, gameboyguy13, hcolleen, myrrhianna, chailifesong, and I did the usual writers dinner two hours early, and had writing along with the food. Our waiter was pretty much by himself, with a manager and I think someone cooking. The restaurant was fairly deserted, though.

I had been telling myself "Look, you can't start editing Circle of Fire until you get some progress on the fic you wound up co-writing somehow." Today I chucked that out the window, and Circle of Fire now has a new introductory scene, and the second scene is getting shuffled around so it introduces our main characters and their assorted issues a lot more efficiently and effectively.

Traffic downtown was dire. Next time, we'll be arriving at least an hour beforehand, in order to evade traffic and road closures. myrrhianna was brilliant. We got a reasonable parking space and walked a ways until we had a decent viewpoint. I learned that the "cloudy" setting on the cellphone camera is good for fireworks; "night" is not. Live and learn.

There has been a heat advisory. We could all do with some bloody rain. It's been moist out, too. 113°F is not fun. At least I'm not out in it much.

At the end of the fireworks, some fellow had a battery problem. I had jumper cables in my Emergency Bag. Alas, that did not work out so well; the kind of help his truck needed was somewhere after the battery. myrrhianna directed, and eventually had to help me get the car out of the crazy parking spot I'd wedged it in, in the endeavor to get the two batteries close enough to make the cables reach.

Two sopranos and an alto singing Phantom of the Opera bits is very amusing. I tried taking the Phantom's part, since I had the deepest voice of those who know the piece. I had to shift octaves without warning at one point, causing the sopranos to giggle at me.

Last night was drunken karaoke from gameboyguy13 and me. At one point, I wound up getting up to demonstrate that I could in fact walk a straight line, and wound up doing some form of free-form dance, with lots of twirling, arm movement, and semi-fancy stepping. My calves were under the opinion that I am a large woman who is no longer in high school, and wanted to cramp up. I was of the opinion that I was drunk and could still dance. We eventually compromised, but not before unnerving both myrrhianna and gameboyguy13. Southern Comfort and coke, yo. I had poured two small cups: one for me (with perhaps a tablespoon of it in there) and one for Myrrh (with easily five times that much). The end result of this was that I snagged several slurps from the other cup to save the drinker from having much too much booze at once. Hundred-proof booze is not something to experiment with getting shitfaced on, because the line between happily drunk and far too drunk is so much smaller by volume. And it keeps absorbing after that threshold has passed. I was definitely drunk. "Endless Love" is a bastard of a song to beat if you're not used to singing the male part and isolating it from the female part, especially if you don't know the song that well.

July 4th and 5th are now a bit of a significant anniversary for me. One year ago on July 3rd, hcolleen mentioned in my electronic presence that she really needed to get a new roommate situation, as the current one was not good for anyone involved in it. I did some quick math and volume estimation in my head, and responded that perhaps she could take up my living room floor for some time. On July 4th, she came over, and we took a look at my studio apartment, and tried to figure out where we'd put what and how. We started around 1pm. By 5pm or so, it was apparent that we'd already decided that it was a go. I took her back home, we packed up some of her stuff, and I went off and watched fireworks. By 1pm on July 5th, she was setting up her computer desk here. We're sharing a studio apartment, people. Ordinarily, doing that without killing each other requires a romantic relationship. (For us, it just requires largely-opposite schedules and plenty of internet.)

Comments

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

Huh. I always take the Phantom when my sister and I do it. She may be the alto, but I go down at least an octave further.

I am told a soprano singing down that low sounds *really* strange.

[hcolleen.livejournal.com]

It does sound really strange...imagine a 5 year old trying to sound like an adult and you'll get the idea (sort of). I am a very high soprano, so even singing Meg's part is a bit of a stretch (not bad, just a little lower than the best part of my range). It's all fun, though.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

In good voice, I have 5 octaves of soprano, tho I only go up to around high E (so you can imagine how far down I can go). I should probably record myself sometime just so I know how it really sounds.

Meg's part is fun... harmony!

[hcolleen.livejournal.com]

My low bottoms out around the F below middle C. I top out about an octave above the treble cleft, usually the A but in practice and warmed up, I can voccalize to the C. But, I'm very lyric, very light, so I do sound very young and hammy parts just don't work in my voice. I can hit all the notes in the Queen of the Night Aria from the Magic Flute, but it just sounds silly.

[gameboyguy13.livejournal.com]

You got waaay drunker than I did. I think you drank half of it. :P Also, I do have a bit of experience with high-proof alcohol. There were several parties last summer, at least one of which I distinctly remember involving Bacardi 151. (Not so much during the school year, though.)

[myrrhianna.livejournal.com]

You were both pretty drunk.

Lightweights. ^_^

[azurelunatic]

I prefer "cheap date". :-P

[azurelunatic]

You drank more, actually, but booze hits me very hard.

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

Well, college roommates do it (share a studio apartment, not 'it'), but you two do seem to get along swimmingly :)

[azurelunatic]

We do need our alone-time. Doors will be involved in the new apartment, though in practice I'm sure they will be open a lot.