Oh, oh, oh - “Elaina’s Symphony” but with her name spelled correctly. 
There’s already a spot that’s a little tribute to the music in BSG in my Chamber Symphony (the trick, for those of you who’ve heard this piece, is to figure out where that is. Shouldn’t be too hard, though. Think Basestar piano music).
Oh, oh, oh - “Elaina’s Symphony” but with her name spelled correctly.
Too specific. Although the piece is dedicated to her.
My computer locked up as I sent it before so let me try again.
How about the name “This is How I Want to Make a Living” or “This is Better than Teaching.”
Congratulations.
"Dawn breaks at ChuSeaunDra"
Symphony for a Small Cylon?
I’ve got nothing.
I’m organising a picnic on the banks of the Yarra River here in Melbourne for all my geeky friends. I wish you could all come, because the weather is gorgeous here, and it is opposite the botanic gardens. I also fancy myself a decent cook, so if anyone is tempted and wants to jump on a plane you’re all invited!
Oooo, I’ve got another one. I bought the sheet music to Missy Higgins’ two albums, so now I can play and sing them at home!
With the cold weather making itself felt recently here in Boston, that sounds amazing.
Just curious.
What’s on the menu at riverside picnics down under these days?
Well, I’ll probably make some dips, and buy some really good bread. Some olives, cheese, prosciutto, dolmades, arancini, other antipasti. Picnic food really just assembles itself.
Our weather is frakked up at the moment. One day it’s 34C, then next it’s 16. In a month we’ll be at 40-45C for ten days and then I’ll be wishing it was 16. That’s Melbourne.
Too specific. Although the piece is dedicated to her.
Work with me here, Armando. 
How about “Ode to Splatterson”
Can you offer a little description of the piece?
Having (absurdly optimistically) applied for my passport yesterday – I really want to get out and see some of the rest of the world, but am way too exhausted from work, etc. – I checked pricing. Best rate from DFW: $2600. I suppose they burn a little gas carrying my butt halfway around the world. And 25 hours in coach sounds pretty scary (though still worth it if I had the $$.)
I did see some $600 flights to Italy the other day, and a couple of $700 London tix. This, incidentally, is what sent me to get my passport.
See… and this is why I ask such things.
I’ve just learned the proper names for what I’ve only know as stuffed grape leaves and fried rice balls.
Have fun. Sounds much better than the bologna sandwiches my mom used to pack us on our picnics as kids.
Thanks.
…and now I’m hungry.
Incidentally, when I think “domaldes,” I generally think grape leaves stuffed with ground beef and rice served with a lemonish sauce Greek-style. When I think “dolmas,” I think grape leaves stuffed with rice and seasoning packed in oil Turkish-style. But I think they’re actually both different names for the same food. Maybe I just associate each culture’s name with the way I see it prepared.
I wanna eat with YOU guys!
All I know from Turkish food is taffy and delight, and that from books.
(of course, Thanksgiving dinner is a little Turkish… but that’s different)
The fact that a Texan can find Turkish food is messing with my all my groundless stereotypes of Texas.
…and TLT keeps getting hungrier.
Hey Chicka you should post some of your recipes up in the Cook book thread up there in the Geek Hobbies section. If we can’t have a real picnic together we could have a Meta Frak Party Picnic
Music for the Audra hair and/or junk report?
Cool thing I acquired:
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Thanks to Sean for this rockin’ avatar.
I consider myself very lucky. I am not very far from one of the largest middle eastern cmmunities in the world here in Michigan. We also have an excellent Greek Town & Mexican Town sections in Detroit. I have access to some amazing ethnic foods!
Well, it’s in four movements. The first, which I wrote in 2003 and never had a home for it till now (with some revisions) is a little neo-classical thing that’s rather playful and spry. The second is somewhat dark with lots of shifting instrumental colors (chords get played by one group, picked up by another while the other group fades out, then another group starts playing a new chord over the replacement repeating the entire process) and a nice, long melody that keeps evolving. The third, called “Rickroll,” begins in a style similar to the “scherzos” of Jean Sibelius, the Finnish composer: strings trembling, running woodwind lines build in tension until the brass come in with a jaunty, fanfarish tune that, after a long process of development, gets transformed into a techno-style parody of itself replete with “truck driver” modulations every phrase (so that each phrase is a whole step higher than the previous one, as in the end of tons of bad pop songs–and some good ones) until the whole thing collapses under its own weight. The finale, which follows without pause, starts as another slow movement and turns into a theme and variations in which each variations is proportionally faster than the previous one, until the final variation brings the tune back in its original form, only written out three times faster than its original statement (but not heard that way. Only the accompaniment is). It all ends loudly and brightly in D major. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.
I want the word “Symphony” in the title, but don’t want to call it Symphony no. 2 because, well, I wrote a Symphony no. 2 in 1997 (no. 1 was in 1994) but that, and its companion, are student pieces I don’t really count in my catalog anymore…except they’ve made it to some works lists online so people, when they ask about my music at all, sometimes ask me about them. Plus, I might want to keep those early pieces (I’m still on the fence about it), maybe even revise the first one, which has a part for a singer and is really a collection of songs (so the revisions would involve expanding the role of the orchestra a bit) and I’m not sure if I would want to keep calling them symphonies or change the titles. Since my Chamber Symphony, which I count in this whole process, is called “Chamber Symphony: Illusory Airs,” I want this piece to be called something along those lines (for example, “Symphony: Dreams of Baltar’s Threesome”). I just can’t think of a good subtitle.
Sorry for the long, esoteric answer, Chuck (and everyone else).
That avatar looks very cool! Sean made that for you? Wow, great job, it looks awesome.