Monday, September 15, 2003

In which we explore the marvels of technology

 
One of the best things about Edgar is the fact that he has a port into which I can plug my Ipod. And one of the best things about an Ipod is the fact that one can use it to make "playlists" of songs. Playlists are a way for the listener to break free of the hegemony of recorded music: it lets *me* decide how to organize what I listen to--I'm no longer forced to hear an entire CD exactly as it was recorded, unless of course I choose to do just that. Playlists are wonderful: they're like the mix tapes that we made when I was in college, but they can go on and on forever and they're much less cumbersome to create. After Fosterfields, I decided to create a playlist of music that I want to listen to when I'm driving home after a really lousy trial. I've titled this playlist "Wallowing"; it's a little eclectic, but that's part of the charm of a playlist. I have a sinking feeling, with Edgeworth looming, that I'm going to be hearing these songs a *lot* on the long, long ride back from Virginia:

"Send in the Clowns," from Sondheim's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
"Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)" by Don McLean
"Dust in the Wind" by Kansas
"Nightswimming" by R.E.M
"River" by Joni Mitchell
"Standing in the Way" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer's ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING
"Goodbye to You" by Michelle Branch
"Before I Gaze at You Again," from CAMELOT
"Nothing," from A CHORUS LINE
"Both Sides Now," by Joni Mitchell
"Piano Man," by Billy Joel
"And So It Goes," by Billy Joel
"Mr. Tanner," by Harry Chapin
"Have a Little Faith in Me," by John Hiatt
"Yesterday" by The Beatles
"Landslide" (the Fleetwood Mac one, not the one by the Dixie Chicks)
"Where Do You Start," by Michael Feinstein
"Pilate's Dream," from JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR
"Home," by Karla Bonoff
"The Circle Game," by Joni Mitchell
"Everybody Has the Blues," by James Taylor
"Dreaming My Dreams," by The Cranberries
"The Sound of Silence," by Simon and Garfunkel
"Five Generations of Rock County Wilsons," by Dan Seals
"Full of Grace," by Sarah McLachlan
"I Will Remember You," by Sarah McLachlan
"Eleanor Rigby," by The Beatles
"Stones in the Road," by Mary Chapin Carpenter
"It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go," by Nanci Griffith
"Fire and Rain," by James Taylor
"Walk Through the Fire," from Buffy the Vampire Slayer's ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING
"Leaving on a Jet Plane," by Peter, Paul, and Mary
"Blowin' in the Wind," by Peter, Paul, and Mary
"Everything that Glitters (Is Not Gold)," by Dan Seals
"Suzanne," by Leonard Cohen
"Beloved Wife," by Natalie Merchant
"A Whiter Shade of Pale," by Procul Harum
"Never Saw Blue Like That," by Shawn Colvin
"Greensleeves," by Loreena McKennitt
"Alone But Not Lonely," by Mary Chapin Carpenter
"Speed of the Sound of Loneliness," by Nanci Griffith
"Rainy Days and Mondays," by Karen Carpenter
"Asleep," by The Smiths

Any suggestions that any of you might have for additions to my Wallowing playlist will be thoughtfull considered!





posted by Heather Nadelman

Thursday, September 11, 2003

In which we fail to think of a clever title

 
I should have reported on how I did at the Fosterfields trial on Labor Day weekend, and I realize that I've neglected to do so. Fosterfields is the trial most local to me, and as a result I've tended to help out a lot there over the years. (The trial is officially managed by Gene Sheninger, but my good friend and sheep partner Sally Molloy has always taken a major role in the running of the trial, so I feel as if I can't be as lazy as I usually am when there's work to be done!) It's good to help at trials, especially when one doesn't have the facilities to put on a trial oneself. But the flip side of the warm-and-fuzzy-helping-our-community feeling is the fact that helping makes it very difficult to concentrate on the business of handling. This was my second Fosterfields as a participant (and I spectated at Fosterfields for probably six years before those two). Phyl and I didn't do well there last year (we were in Ranch), and we didn't do well this year (we double-entered in Ranch and Open). Here's a summary:

RUN #1: Open. Phyl looked to me as if she were slowing down on her outrun, so I blew her out several times. Good lift, and what looked like a perfect fetch up until one second before I was starting to turn the sheep around the post--at that point, one unexpectedly bolted (on the wrong side of the post, of course) to the exhaust. Rotten luck! When I got everyone collected, I decided just to start my drive without figuring out how to wind and unwind around the post (big point deduction, but more workmanlike, at least in my mind). We had one sheep who really lagged behind the rest of the group. Phyl handled her very well, and our drive was slow but accurate: we made both panels, and then put them into the pen pretty easily. Just as we started to take them to the shedding ring, time ran out. (And that's a first for us--Phyl is usually pretty speedy). The total was some unimpressive 60-something, but it was a run that looked much better in life than it appeared on paper.

RUN #2: Ranch. Phyl did a beautiful outrun (thank goodness). We had a genuinely running set of sheep that I couldn't do anything to settle, so the rest of the run was pretty wild and wooly--I don't think we made a single panel. Needless to say, we didn't place, but I was happy with the outrun.

RUN #3: Open. Another really nice outrun and lift (I think the judged scored it a 20-10). We missed our fetch panels because of my poor handling--I waited too long to correct the line, thinking that Phyl would do it on her own. She does sometimes, but she was a beat too late on this particular fetch. For the rest of the run, I felt as if I were handling a day late and a dollar short: we had a good driveaway and made the panels, but she was in a dead spot as we turned into the crossdrive and didn't hear my whistle until I gave it again--as a result, the crossdrive was very ragged and we ultimately pulled the sheep back through the panels after two of them had made it. (GRRR---there's nothing in the world quite so frustrating as a pull-back like that; it's way worse than not making the panels in the first place). The pen was clean, but I never got a good hole in the shedding ring. Shedding is really something that I'm going to have to start thinking about systematically; I need to master this if I'm ever going to be a real Open handler.

RUN #4: Ranch. This one was the most discouraging (and also the shortest). For some inexplicable reason, after doing two beautiful outruns in a row Phyl stopped on this one, and then stalked in at the sheep without going all the way around them. Two of the sheep took off (out of my sight) and apparently jumped back into the setout pen; the lamb of the set never made it. Phyl eventually reappeared with just the lamb. She did a lovely job working it as a single down the field, but I was in no mood to appreciate her artistry. We retired.

So that's it--nothing much good happened at this trial, save for the fact that Sally Molloy and Zac got their first USBCHA points after a lovely Open run on the second day. My next trial is Edgeworth, which only has a 600-yard outrun straight up a hill for Phyl to contend with. It's not going to be pretty!



posted by Heather Nadelman