Weekly Riddle Contest and Other News

Happy Monday! Coming this week:

Today, the brand new Weekly Riddle Contest "rules" (they're more like guidelines) are laid out below, and the new riddle is, of course, down there too. I'll be pointing out an artist or two during the week along with some other yet-to-be-determined posting, and Friday will be dedicated to the art of crashing classes, learnt either through success or failure. (I sure hope it's success!) Finally, it's the weekend, and I'll post up a freewrite along the lines of the Notes I used to post up on Facebook nearly daily awhile back on Saturday, and then I'll take all your votes into consideration and write up the next installment of the "Write with Me" series.

Onto updates:

1. I've taken up ukulele and guitar. I'm rocking at uke already, but my fingers are way too weak for much guitar playing right now. Soon!
2. I'm selling art now! Email me at ethraen [at] gmail [dot] com for more info.
3. I start college today. Crazy.

Weekly Riddle Contest Rules

1. Each Monday, a new riddle will be posted. If not, you are free to send many angry emoticons my way.
2. Riddle answers are now to be submitted via email to ethraen [at] gmail [dot] com, in order to allow everyone a chance to solve the riddle. 
3. The winner is the first to submit the correct answer. 
4. Wrong answers will receive a "wrong answer" reply as my time allows.
5. Each week, the prizes will vary, and not everything will be equal each week.
6. Not all prizes will be virtual, silly, or otherwise the sort of prize a starving artist would give, nor will the "big" prizes necessarily be for the hardest riddles. Just check back each week and give each riddle a shot.
7. All participants will be entered for a monthly prize drawing. Consistent participants, both in the Weekly Riddle Contest and the "Write with Me" storyline, will have higher chances of winning. 
8. All rules subject to change without your consent. My blog, my contest, my rules.
9. Best of luck!

And now, without further ado, this week's riddle!:

Stronger than steel, yet brushed away in the flick of the wrist.
Though you throw me out, I still hold onto your clenched fist.
At the sight of me, some might squirm or twist,
But I'm harder to see than haze in mist.
Who am I?

This week's prize is an unreleased (even to my closest friends and family) free-verse poem called "Step," hand-written, decorated, and signed on plain 8.5" by 11" paper. Remember you have to EMAIL your answer to me (ethraen [at] gmail [dot] com) to win. Good luck!

Band Rehearsal

Hey! I'm in a band!
Really?
Really!
You're kidding.
Nope! Dead serious!

It fell out of the sky, like I mentioned in last Friday's post. (Shoot, tomorrow's Friday! I need to learn something!) Last night was my first ever band practice with the band, and it was QUITE exciting. I don't know how other bands function, but if every band is like this, what on earth have I been doing NOT being in bands?

Joe, the guitarist, had already written lyrics and a little guitar for one and a half songs, but it was just a sort of "rough sketch," so we started out with those two. Cutting to the chase, it was basically just a jam session. Our tireless drummer (He's a machine! Literally.) kept the beat going while Joe and Yves, the bassist, fiddled around on their guitars, and I worked out how the vocals should go. And played guitar in one song, actually. Simplest chords ever, but I couldn't have done anything more complicated; I was thinking about lyrics, inflection, notes, harmony, etc. just for my voice alone, and my fingers were not down to do any crazy fretting, having only touched guitars every once in awhile thus far in my life. (Funny thing about guitar, you kind of have to practice.)

I make it sound like singing is just sooo hard. It's really not, but I've come to realise how much actually goes into being a GOOD vocalist. Some people are just lucky enough to have incredible voices at birth (not me, heh), but I'm pretty sure they have a lot to consider when singing too. My background in theatre has already proven to be one of my greatest assets; the improvisation skills and willingness to step outside my comfort zone it's given me apply to just about everything, and singing is no exception. According to Joe, it's very rare a vocalist can "jam" with the band. If it's not scripted, they can't do it. Kind of blew my mind.

Anyway, Joe's songs started coming together as we jammed, and I came up with the missing verse for the half song while we improvised. Two rough songs down! On our way to enough for a show. So I pulled out my phone, grabbed lyrics I had written, and we started figuring it out too. Let me just say that it is SOOOOO different writing via jam session with others than just sitting on a piano bench trying to make something decent with my lack of ridiculously awesome piano abilities. And hearing YOUR song suddenly come to life with all these different sounds? It's incredible.

Three rough songs down! That's almost enough for a show! Hey maybe we'll play a show soon! Oh, wait, we probably need a live drummer for that though, don't we? Yeah, so if you know or are an incredible drummer, we're on the lookout for one; get in touch with me!

P.S. I finally bought a ukulele yesterday. I am in love.