Profile

(Yes, that's a new name. At some point I'll pick a new login as well. It's still me. And my middle name is pronounced eff-ti-HEE-ah, unless you can make the Modern Greek chi sound at the start of the third syllable. I'll get around to updating the rest of this bio lat^H^H^Heventually.)

I'm a musician, photographer, programmer, science fiction fan (and occasional filker), medievalist, Christian mystic, and sometimes essayist, who also happens to be transgender and suffer from fibromyalgia. Folks don't often realize how shy I can be, because they see how conspicuous I am and mistake that for fearlessness.

I play in The Homespun Ceilidh Band (if one of those words is unfamiliar to you, it's pronounced 'kay-lee'), a pan-Celtic fiddle band with a Scottish emphasis, playing mostly dance tunes, in which I mostly play rhythm guitar and banjo. We have released three CDs -- two of Celtic tunes, Spinning Reels (out of print as of the most recent edit of this profile) and Home with the Homespun Ceilidh Band (which you can order from CD Baby or from the band's web site), plus one of American Civil War music, Battle Cry of Freedom.

I'm also a former member of the band for Thrir Venstri Foetr, an English Country Dance group, where I played guitar, recorder and double bass, and I really do intend to re-join that group any month now. (Some of you may recall that I was once music director; I stepped down and ceded that job to maugorn some time ago.) If you're within commuting distance of College Park, MD, come learn English Country Dance, or maybe join the band.

And I occasionally play with the Beltway Early Music Band, a mixed consort in the Washington DC area; and the Society for Early Music in Baltimore, a recorder ensemble/club. Both groups emphasize early music (i.e. Bach and earlier) but have been known to mix in a little modern music, or later folk tunes.

In the past, I played drums, bass, mandolin, and guitar in the East coast band, Wild Oats (not to be confused with a West coast band of the same name), which released one CD, A Few Brief, Shining Moments, after breaking up; and I have played bass guitar for a few DC-area community-theatre groups (not recently, but I do hope to find time to get back into that again).


I'm still working on've gotten sidetracked from setting up an online portfolio for my photography -- I do plan to get back to that -- but some of my work can be seen here, here, and here, and more can be found in back issues of The Pentax Users Gallery (scroll back a little to see the whole list) -- all under my deadname alas, so far. While my focus is on "art photography" ("I've got a pretty picture; wouldn't you like to buy a copy for your living room?"), I'm also available to shoot portraits, pets ("petraits"), weddings, concerts and festivals, clothing and other merchandise, etc. I prefer shooting candids rather than posed, given a choice.

I'm shy, but generally friendly. If you're passing through central Maryland, pry me out of my cave so I can meet the folks who read what I write. Really. I have lots of friends, but I'm terribly about getting out to see anyone, so my social life consists almost entirely of people I rehearse and perform with. (My 2013 New Year resolution is to change that.)

New entries here are mirrored at IJ, and DJ.