Blood and Chrome Podcast

Hello everyone!

I have so much to tell you, so assuming I get my act together you'll be finally hearing from me regularly again!

First, and the thing that has motivated me to blog again, is because it's time sensitive. Are you a fan (or rather were you) of Battlestar Galactica? There is a new series called Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome coming out sometime soon (I can't find an official air date anywhere!). My buddy Tony C. Smith, the host of the Hugo Award winning podcast StarShipSofa has created a new podcast to accompany the TV show. The first 4 promos and the first episode are out already - you can subscribe to the show at iTunes : Blood and Chrome Podcast The promos are original scripts and wonderfully read and acted by Larry Santoro.

And just a side note, the theme music for the podcast (and on all the promos) is a recording of me singing solo with my old church choir from Frankfurt. We're singing a spiritual - "I Wanna Die Easy" and Tony has always loved it. He used it (completely randomly) on an early StarShipSofa show with Ciaran. So, if you like it and want to hear the whole thing without Larry's (admittedly wonderful voice) over the top, then go to my MySpace space (I love writing that!).

If you are new here, having followed a link here from another website, then may I direct you to my buyable music? It's at CDbaby: "Silence" And while you're at it, you could consider writing a review or signing up to follow my blog or me at Twitter. Hmmm. Anything else? Well, yes, I promised more, but that will come in the form of subsequent blog posts! Lucky you! :-)

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Schlocky Christmas Song for the Sofa

So, yesterday I had fun geeking out recording a song for StarShipSofa's Christmas special. I thought I would just record one of the silly songs I'm doing with Anne tomorrow, but Tony, the old softie, actually requested Silent Night. Now this is actually a really hard song to sing well. I thought it might be kind of excruciating if I just sang it all by myself, because he asked me if I could get it to him sooner or later, so I looked in my collections of Christmas Carols and found an easy accompaniment, one that I could actually play without any mistakes. I chose the cheesy vibraphone sound on my electric Pai-anna and used the record function on it as well. Yah-ta! I did it! Then because I realized I didn't have the proper cables to attach the piano to my computer I just let the piano play the accompaniment and recorded it using Audacity. It gives it a nice "live music" feel, but makes for a pretty crappy recording. Oh well. Then I recorded myself singing the melody in English and then German. And then I worked out a harmony and proceeded to record myself singing the 2nd voice. Then Audacity crashed. And I lost everything I'd done because I was stupid enough not to save the whole time. But recording it all the 2nd time went quite quickly and Voila! I have an all-Diane version of Silent Night, which isn't half bad. It's amazing how well I sing with myself. I think I might upload it to My MySpace Space, if you'd like to hear it now. Otherwise, do Tony the favor and on Dec. 24th or after download his Christmas Special. I've also narrated a Christmas story for that show, so it'll be worth the wait!


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The Answer is Yes

So, the answer to the question I posed in my last post, "Do people in the music biz actually end up working together, meeting each other in real life, or is this [MySpace] purely virtual?" is YES! I now have my first official gig in the UK and all thanks to MySpace! As of yet there is no confirmed date, but it will likely be toward the end of March. I will be performing the premier of Paul Moxon's work entitled "Endurance". The piece is 5, 10 minute episodes for orchestra and soprano. The subject, which is programmatic in nature, since I'll have no text to sing, is Shackelton's ill-fated expedition in 1914 to Antartica.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition
The occasion is the exhibition of photography, by Frank Hurley, salvaged from that expedition which will be on display at the Lime Tree Gallery in Fort William, Scotland from February 16 - March 24, 2007. I'm really excited about this project!!! I'll keep you posted...

In the meantime, check out my MySpace:

www.myspace.com/divadianesoprano

MySpace

Ok, I know this is old news, but not so much for me! I heard about MySpace in mid-September on a train to Paris, where Magnus and I met to musicians (popular music). We had an interesting conversation and Angèle told me about MySpace. I signed up shortly after we got home. They were right, it's very addicting. You can spend a lot of time, especially browsing other people's Spaces. But that is the way to network. I've "met" several interesting people, mostly composers (because that's all I've had time to search), and there's a possibility of a collaboration with one of them early next year! If it works out, I will be very excited! At this point I'm not sure how virtual all of this is. Do people in the music biz actually end up working together, meeting each other in real life, or is this purely virtual? I guess I'll find out. I've only been active on it for about 2 months. We'll see