Cood in d' noes

Cood in d' noes

Tonight was to be an Owl's practice, but a few minutes ago I canceled out so I could stay home and rest. Sometime this morning I instituted the 'wash my hands each time I touch a kleenex' policy when I realized that the sneezing wasn't from dust. Everybody I know has been fighting colds so I guess it is inevitable that I'd land one. I think this is the second of the winter. Blech. I looked in a mirror this afternoon and wondered if I was turning into a raccoon thanks to the black circles under my eyes.

All of a sudden I have a bunch of music gigs coming up. The Schmaltzentrubers agreed to play a few tunes for a fund raiser for the Northridge Dollars For Scholars programs next Tuesday.

This Saturday night the MCCO is playing a concert with music by Mozart, Telemann and Villa-Lobos. The Mozart (Symphony #35) is pushing my chops, and I've been putting a lot of practice time in. I wish both my fingers and memory moved faster. But it is a beautiful piece of music. The Villa-Lobos is the sleeper on the program.

Finally, next Saturday night (the 28th) the Owls are playing for the Empty Soup Bowl benefit. You will have to donate to attend this one - $15 for a bowl and supper.

Come on out to any and all of these.

Speaking of music, last Sunday afternoon I got over to ND to hear the Turtle Island SQ. Great music.

Last but not least, it isn't to late to catch my friend Floyd's blog about his time in Guatamala. Great photos about his hike last weekend on an active volcano. Wish I was there.

Bartered and borrowed sounds...

Bartered and borrowed sounds...

Not too long ago I landed a really nice power amplifier in a barter arrangement. A really nice amplifier.

Then last week I won bids for a preamp and a tuner in two different auctions on ebay. They'll arrive sometime next week, so in anticipation of their arrival I bought the special cables I'll need to get everything connected. Since I don't have speakers that can handle all this power, and I haven't had time to make the speaker choice, I borrowed some PA Monitors from my brother. He dug into his kit bag and came up with a jury-rigged collection of cables and connectors so I could run those out of the amp until I can get what I want.

But that got me thinking: my little boom box has a headphone jack... could I use that as a preamp? This afternoon I borrowed a jury-rig Y-adaptor from Bruce, and tonight I put the borrowed speakers, the nice amp and the boom box all in line, turned it all on, and...


Of course the first selection was Elana James' Tschavola Swing.

It blew me away.

Then it was a little Paul Simon from the old Graceland LP.

Right now I'm listening to Palestrina. It sounds like I'm in a chapel.

And all this is with speakers that are designed for a PA system, and a boom box that is well, a boom box.

I forgot what a good system can sound like, and this one will just get better.

When I was 23 I would have thought I'd died and gone to heaven for a system like this. I confess that 30 years later I was initially a little ambivalent about it all. My boom box wasn't that bad, after all, and it seemed like a pain to put all the pieces together.

Until I heard it.

I'm not ambivalent any more.

Happy 26th...

Happy 26th...

To #1 son. I'm so proud of you and glad to have you in my life.

Home again...

Home again...

I'm back in my hometown after paying tolls in three states yesterday and today. I always turn my furnace down when I travel, so the house is cold! I'm nuking the rice bag to give me some localized warmth while the temp is coming back up. Drive was mostly uneventful and the snow wasn't too heavy. Listened to a couple of podcasts from TAL and the Moth. Great stories. Plus a four-hour explanation of the Enneagram by Richard Rohr. Fascinating.

Snow berries...

Snow berries...

Yesterday was so beautiful - sunny, cold. About 3pm I put on my ski boots and walked down to the park and spent nearly an hour and a half down along the river.

In one of Wendell Berry's essays he talks about the wonder of exploring a locale in detail, over the seasons and over the years. I'm finding that in the little park across the mill race. I had intended to get across Plymouth and head for the dam, but there was so much to see and do in this little space that I never made it.

Being able to walk to the park instead of driving to it is part of the experience. Arriving on foot gives me a wholly different sense of the place and my relationship to it. I've also been surprised that the park itself is big enough and varied enough I don't tire of it.

On the way back I captured this photo.


These plump, juicy berries frozen in the woods reminded me of L's story of the ice wine grapes that they grow at the winery on Pelee Island. She says that the grapes ferment on the vine during repeated freezings and thawings in late fall. The biggest hazard to the crop at that point are the birds that come, strip the vines of fruit and get completely inebriated in the process. The idea of crows debauching themselves in a vineyard is almost too much to handle.

The only birds I saw were ducks and geese on the river, and they didn't act drunk - at least to my eye.