Your Daily Dose of Christmas

On the penultimate night of the Christmas season, here is an entire album, which is one of my favorite listens this time of year. We're almost there! Christmas is almost here!

Your Daily Dose of Christmas

I'm not a terribly big fan of Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas music, but this setting of "Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella" is quite lovely.

Your Daily Dose of Christmas

It's been true since 1993, when I graduated college: I will never not be able to listen to this work without thinking of Dr. Janice Wade. Here is Tchaikovsky's ever-wonderful Nutcracker Suite.

Your Daily Dose of Christmas

"Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow...."

Your Daily Dose of Christmas

So yesterday was my "grab bag Little Drummer Boy" post, and then today YouTube helpfully offers this suggestion, so here you go.


Meanwhile, in Christmas music that involves neither little boys nor drumming, we have a classic by Bing! Off to Hawaii we go....

Your Daily Dose of Christmas

Here are some variations on "The Little Drummer Boy," culminating with my favorite.

(Although, as someone pointed out on Facebook earlier, if "the ox and lamb kept time," what's the drummer doing?!)

Your Daily Dose of Christmas

Neil!


When this song came out I thought it was a colossal misfire, but in the seasons since, it's worn me down and now I can't help loving this incredibly goofy tune. Have a cherry cherry Christmas, everyone!

Your Daily Dose of Christmas (Today edition)

Yo Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott play Bach and Gounod.

Your Daily Dose of Christmas (Sunday edition)

Check out this lineup: Sarah McLachlan, Loreena McKennitt, Andrea Corr, Hayley Westenra, Jana Mashonee, and Amy Petty. Wow.

Your Daily Dose of Christmas (Saturday edition)

You know what the lesson this year is? I need to get back to my previous years' practice of pre-selecting music and scheduling posts. Wow, I am not good at this in 2018.

That said, here is Ralph Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on Christmas Carols.

Your Daily Dose of Christmas

I always share this one, because it seems to me a perfect illustration of the kind of wistful emotions that are inevitably a part of this season.

Your Daily Dose of Christmas

Dean Martin!

Your Daily Dose of Christmas (from Wednesday)

John Rutter's "Candlelight Carol". This piece is achingly beautiful.

Your Daily Dose of Christmas AND Tone Poem Tuesday

Two birds, one stone! Here's a symphonic poem by British composer Arnold Bax, titled "Christmas Eve". Apparently it was originally titled "Christmas Eve in the Mountains", but Bax revised the work some years later and shortened the title. It's an atmospheric and dense work, typical of Bax's sound. There is no specific "Christmas" material here, but the work is redolent of Bax's usual meditations on nature and mood. Here he is after the feel of a cold, crystal-clear morning in the mountains, and what morning is colder or clearer than Christmas Eve?

Your Daily Dose of Christmas (yesterday edition)

OK, I messed up and forgot yesterday. So here's an entire album of medieval carols! This is very peaceful, meditative music. I love it!

Your Daily Dose of Christmas

At least once or twice I year I try to find something completely gonzo for this feature, and this certainly qualifies. It's the Christmas Timpani!

Your Daily Dose of Christmas (yesterday edition)

Willie!


(Yesterday was another busy day and I totally forgot to post. Sorry!)

Something for Thursday (Friday edition)

How about leavening the crystalline beauty of all the Christmas music in the air with an ominous operatic overture? Here's the overture from the first great opera of the Romantic era, Der Freischutz, composed by Carl Maria von Weber.

Your Daily Dose of Christmas (today edition)

Back on schedule! Here are two members of the United States Navy, with a nifty rendition of Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride".

Your Daily Dose of Christmas (yesterday edition)

Yesterday was something of a train wreck, folks. Not awful, but a few time-consuming inconveniences happened at the end of the day that occupied my attention for what was left of my day. But we're back in the saddle! Here's yesterday's selection, which is a rendition of "Carol of the Bells" that I just heard this morning. Time is weird, huh?

Anyway, this performance is by a group called "BarlowGirl". I'd never heard of them until this very tune popped up on a Christmas music channel at work. Apparently they were a Christian music group that disbanded some years ago. I'm not much for that genre so I doubt I'll be exploring much farther than their Christmas music, but as far as this song goes, they have some really nice vocal harmonies going on. I've never much liked "Carol of the Bells", but this is actually impressive.

Your Daily Dose of Christmas!

I seem to be leaning toward the funnier end of the pool this year, at least at the outset of this month's Christmas offerings. Here is Allan Sherman, who I think of as one of Weird Al Yankovic's forebears....

Your Daily Dose of Christmas (and Tone Poem Tuesday!)

Leroy Anderson excelled at these brief pieces that set a cheerful tone, and his most famous one is one of the more enduring Christmas pieces. Here's "Sleigh Ride", conducted by none other than Maestro John Williams himself!

The COVER is revealed!!!

If you want to see the cover to my next book, The Chilling Killing Wind--and why wouldn't you?--just head on over to the official site! Wheeeee!

Your Daily Dose of Christmas

A non-musical selection this time! Here's a Saturday Night Live sketch in which Alec Baldwin parodies his role in the ruthless-businessmen drama movie Glengarry Glen Ross. This time he's sent to motivate Santa's elves!

Your Daily Dose of Christmas

As I've noted before, I really loved Donna Summer. So here she is.

Your Daily Dose of Christmas

It's December at last! Here we go!

Something for Thursday (Friday edition)

So this is weird. I didn't forget yesterday. I drew a blank.

Remember, I'm getting each week's selection via a music challenge that is the kind of thing you find on Twitter occasionally. So far so good for the first few weeks, but now we're up to Number Four, which is:

A Song that Reminds You
of Someone You'd Rather Forget.
See, I got nothin'. I can literally think of no one in my life (or who was ever in my life) that I'd like to simply forget. I thought about going political (that "Money Money Money" song they used as the theme for The Apprentice, before that show's host made a disastrous career change), but I wasn't in the mood for that. So, for lack of anything else, here's "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. Why? Well...this friggin' movie was the featured event in two different dates I went on when I was in college, and in both instances, those dates were followed the next day by the "It's not you, it's me" speech. So...yeah. (I did eventually watch the movie with The Girlfriend, but only after we'd been dating for a year and I could be reasonably confident that its jinx effect had worn off. Which it had...either that, or it's just taking decades to work, but I really hope not.)

So yeah. "Part of Your World". Whatevs, Ariel. Harumph!


(Oh, and obviously I feel no particular animus toward either of those young women from back in the day. One's even a friend on Facebook! I've no idea whatever became of the other one, other than that I think she's a school teacher in Iowa someplace.)

Bad Joke Friday

An ANNOUNCEMENT.

My next book, a supernatural thriller called The Chilling Killing Wind, is nearing release, and to that purpose you can read the Prologue over on my official site! Check it out!

Next week I'll reveal the cover!

Tone Poem Tuesday

Transcriptions of works from one medium to another can be especially fascinating, as this orchestral version of Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2 demonstrates. This was originally a work for piano, and to perform it well requires enormous skill from the pianist. The work's transcription to orchestra makes it into a showpiece as well.

The faces of accomplishment

Here's what people look like when they've just landed a spaceship on Mars.










This is a hell of a thing. Well done, NASA!

Bad Joke Friday

Something for Thursday

It's the third installment of our music challenge! This one is apropos, given that today is the coldest day in Buffalo Niagara since February. Our high today is to top out at 21 degrees, and when we roused ourselves from our warm bed (such rousing coming via two dee-oh-gees who had to pee) was a nicely balmy 7 degrees. Today's category, then, is "A Song that Makes Me Think of Summer". Well, the very first song that leaped to mind is this oh-so-Seventies tune by Mungo Jerry. Enjoy! Summer is only mumble-mumble months away!

Thankfulness in 2018

So we're nearing the last phase of 2018, and today is Thanksgiving. Today will be a day of food and drink and rest and, I canna lie, feeling wistful that we're not in New York City for the day. Here, as always, is my ongoing list of things for which I am thankful this time around.

Carla, the new dee-oh-gee
Cane, the not-as-new dee-oh-gee
Lester and Julio, the really-not-new cats
Rum
Bourbon
Scotch
Gin
Sparkling wine
Hard cider
Paula's Donuts
Ithaca, NY
Autumn Leaves Books
The Rochester Lilac Festival
Knowing where a bunch of gluten-free restaurants are between here and the Finger Lakes
The Finger Lakes
Letchworth State Park
Taughannock Falls
The Ontario County Antique Mall
Finger Lakes wineries
Fountain pens
Fountain pen ink
Making waffles
Popcorn with butter
Kettlecorn
Corn dogs
Chiavetta's chicken barbecue
The Erie County Fair
Hot dogs at Taffy's
Hot dogs at Ted's
Hot dogs at home, on the grill
Star Wars
Casablanca
Hayao Miyazaki and the rest of Studio Ghibli
The Scarlet Pimpernel
88 Cups of Tea (podcast)
Functional Nerds (podcast)
Sword and Laser (podcast)
Writing for The Geekiverse
Our backyard firepit
All my various methods of making coffee (pourover, French press, Moka pot)
Mississippi Roast
The Instant Pot (which I still don't even use as much as I should)
Art and craft shows where I can buy gifts right from the person that made them
Picking out jewelry for The Wife
The Great Lakes region
Pittsburgh, PA (honorary Great Lakes city in my heart)
New York City
The two friends of mine who are finding a lot of new purpose in their lives of late
Chestnut Ridge Park
Sprague Brook Park
Emery Park
Canalside and the Outer Harbor
Knox Farm State Park
The Mill Road Overlook in East Aurora
Roads: US 20A, NY 240, NY 39, Girdle Road, Two Rod Road
Fried chicken
Chicken and waffles
Hot sauce
John Oliver and Last Week Tonight
The Blue Wave
The Resistance
Hector Berlioz
Sergei Rachmaninov
Alexander Borodin
JS Bach
Ludwig von Beethoven
John Williams
Jerry Goldsmith
Max Steiner
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Howard Shore
James Horner
All the new authors on my shelf whose works I an thrilled to read
The ongoing emergence of so many authors of color and the opportunity to read them and learn from their experiences and perspectives
Goodreads
Twitter (the parts without Nazis)
Harry Potter
Star Wars
Star Trek
The Last Jedi
My Fair Lady
The Chilling Killing Wind
The Song of Forgotten Stars
Princesses Tariana and Margeth Osono
Lieutenant Penda Rasharri
The characters you haven't met yet
The characters I haven't met yet
The days when the writing is easy
The days when the writing is hard
Pies on the table
Pies in my face
Well-worn bib overalls
Stiff raw-denim bib overalls
Vintage bib overalls
The Daughter
The Wife
The world
Our universe

Tone Poem Tuesday

Some Berlioz this week, and one of his most frequently performed works: the Roman Carnival overture, which is a concert piece comprised of repurposed material from his opera Benvenuto Cellini. Berlioz is not generally considered one of classical music's finest melodists--his themes tend to be long and require a bit of unpacking to find their emotional center--but the melody of the slow section of this piece, first played by the English horn, is one of the most beautiful creations of Berlioz's life. The following carnival dance bursts with energy.


This particular performance features Charles Dutoit conducting the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. This particular combo once produced some of the finest performances of Berlioz ever.

Updates and stuff!

I have a new post up on the Official Site! It's not long, but it's an update on some stuff I've been working on of late. Check it out!

Bad Joke Friday

Seen on Twitter, via a user called "ThreeTimeDaddy".

Something for Thursday

It's Week Two of the challenge-thing I launched last week! This time we need a song with a number in the title, so here's one!

Something for Thursday

OK, I'm going to try something new! Here's a 30-Day Challenge of the type that often shows up on various social media thingies. The idea is quite simple: Each day you post according to that prompt.

Well, I'm going to use this not as a daily prompt, but a weekly one. Each Thursday for the next thirty Thursdays I'll use the next prompt to select that week's song or music choice. By my calculations, assuming I don't miss any Thursdays, this will wrap up on the last Thursday in May, bringing us more than halfway around the calendar. Cool, huh?

No?

Well, I'm doing it anyway.

Day 1:

A song with a color in the title.

(It specifies "a song I like," but I'll just take that as a given.)

Here are the Lemon Pipers, with "Green Tambourine".

Tone Poem Tuesday

In hopes that tonight begins a rekindling of the possibility of America.

I hate when that happens.

Damned oil painters!

Bad Joke Friday (Star Wars edition)

Tone Poem Tuesday

I'm not sure what's in the water over at WNED, the local classical music station, but they seem to be on a kick with this piece. I've heard it three times in the last two weeks whilst driving to various points around town. Luckily for them it's a really good piece! Johannes Brahms's music isn't often the most humorous music in the repertoire. Brahms engages a lot of emotions, but sheer humor generally isn't his thing. But here he is, presenting a collection of student drinking songs in his own wonderful style. It's the Academic Festival Overture, and this performance is conducted by Leonard Bernstein, who used to relate an anecdote from his own life pertaining to this piece. He was a student and he was auditioning for a conducting class taught by the great Fritz Reiner (one of the canonical "podium dictator" conductors). There was a piano with a score on it, and Reiner asked Bernstein if he knew the piece. Bernstein looked at the page and admitted that he didn't, but when he began to play he recognized a tune that he'd sung as a boy in school, a German Christmas song with the words:

What clatters on the roof
with a quick, impatient hoof?
I think it must be Santa Claus,
dear old Santa Claus.

Then he remembered recognizing that very tune when he'd heard this work on the radio, which the announcer then identified. Thus Bernstein was able to correctly say to Maestro Reiner, "Yes, I know this piece. It's the Academic Festival Overture by Brahms," and thus got into Reiner's class.

And here it is.

Bad Joke Friday

Overheard at work:

Why is the graveyard so noisy?

Because of all the coffin!

Something for Thursday

Gene Kelly singing Lerner and Loewe. I'm not certain it gets much better than this. It's from Brigadoon, sung by American hunter Tommy as he walks through the heather with the beautiful Fiona, early in the story when he and his friend have stumbled upon a village in the Scottish Highlands that is strangely not on any map. It will turn out that this is because the village of Brigadoon only appears for one day every hundred years, and that by the time night falls, Tommy will have a choice to make: stay in Brigadoon with Fiona, and leave his world behind, or go back to his world, and leave Fiona behind?

This song makes for an enchanting dance sequence for Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse, but the music itself--with Kelly's typically flawless singing--is magical in itself. It's awfully easy with musicals, I've found, to get wrapped up in the costumes and the choreography and the sets, and almost forget that there's a tremendous amount of amazing music going on too.

Here is Gene Kelly, singing "The Heather on the Hill".

Tone Poem Tuesday

I post this one every year around this time, because it's spooky and amazing: "The Isle of the Dead" by Sergei Rachmaninov.

DONE

So this happened over the weekend:


At last. At long, long, lllooonnnggg last! This book took very nearly an entire year to get done, after I started it for NaNoWriMo last year. Oy!

By way of stats, the first draft topped out just shy of 194,000 words, which is longer than Stardancer and The Wisdomfold Path, but not as long as Amongst the Stars. I really am trying, as this series progresses, to keep each book in the same ballpark, length-wise. I don't want to have a problem with massive ballooning once I get to the latter part of the series, a problem which vexed JK Rowling with the Harry Potter books and George RR Martin with the Song of Ice and Fire series.

By way of story, this book launches the middle third of the larger story. Things start to get darker this time around (but never fear, I have no plans to go "Full Grimdark" in these books), and the story starts to get, well, larger in scope. The action is no longer limited to just the planet Xonareth. And if you like the lindiath--the six-legged bear-cats who always seem to turn up when most needed--this book will be for you. Lots of lindiath in this one! And not all of them are nice.

What's next? The usual "fallow" period in which I don't even look at the manuscript for at least three months, and then first edits. First edits result in the draft that goes to beta readers, and then based on their input I generate the second edits. Then the final version goes off to those who proofread...and then, it's time to get the thing ready. The upshot is that I wouldn't expect this book to be out in the world until early 2020, at my most optimistic.

But still, it's done. Huzzah!

Something for (Friday)

It's been a somewhat crazy busy week between work and my relentless focus of late on finishing the first draft of FORGOTTEN STARS IV (which I may well complete this weekend) and breaking in a new computer after my trusty old machine finally malfunctioned, hence the lack of posting of late. I"m still going to be focusing on finishing this draft, but meantime, here's a march by John Williams, because you can't go wrong with John Williams.

Holding pattern....

I got my trusty laptop in 2012. I bought it then even though my previous machine was still working because Windows 8 was about to come out, and I didn't really want any part of Windows 8, so I grabbed a Windows 7 machine before they were no longer the default.

That machine has seen me through nearly 6 years, if not exactly that much. I was planning to acquire its successor later this year, but yesterday the Tech Gods forced my hand. I went to turn on my computer and instead of the boot sequence, I heard four loud beeps, followed by the same four beeps, several times. This was a diagnostic code for a bad memory module.

I could have fixed this with new memory, but I was frankly loath to spend money to repair a six-year-old machine, so...now I'm doing initial set-up on my third laptop. After good experiences with Dell Inspiron machines the first two times, I stuck with them, getting a third yesterday. Now I am doing all kinds of updates and new installations and the like.

The only bummer part of this is that until the sudden computer failure I was on fire with my writing. FORGOTTEN STARS IV has taken nearly a year to write and at times it's been a struggle, but now I'm in the homestretch and I had been cranking out the words as I barrel toward the finale. Alas, now I'm stuck in a holding pattern until I complete setting up this new computer.

We'll see how I like Windows 10...I do dig the backlit keyboard, though! And I am upset that this new computer uses a different charger cord than all the other computers in the house. I'll have to get another cord or two at some point.

Anyway, that's where we are. Where are you?

Tone Poem Tuesday

Giacchino Rossini's overture to his opera William Tell is an interesting piece. First, the opera itself is almost never heard anymore, due to its very long performance time and its awkward libretto (from what I've read--I've never actually heard or seen the entire thing myself). The overture is pretty much all that is ever performed of that opera, but even more interesting is that the overture's four main sections are each distinct and as one listens to the work, the thing gets more and more familiar. The final section is one of the most famous passages of classical music ever written (owing, partly, to its use in the 20th century as the theme to various iterations of the adventures of the Lone Ranger). Before that is a pastoral segment that is almost as familiar as the finale. Before that is a stormy passage that many listeners may find passingly familiar--and starting off the overture is a slow passage for strings that I'll wager almost no one who doesn't regularly listen to classical music knows at all.

Here's the William Tell overture, in a performance with the score, so if you wish you can follow along!

Scenes from an autumn weekend

This weekend was our annual getaway to Ithaca for the Apple Harvest Festival, which we then supplemented yesterday with a trip to Letchworth State Park. Photographic goodness abounds!











(New thrifted shirt--flannel with banded collar! Hooray!)





(We couldn't really get to the lower overlook at Taughannock Falls, but I can't begrudge the wedding party their almost-certainly beautiful photos.)

Something for Thursday

Well, that was quite the day that America just had, wasn't it.

In times like this I retreat to the stuff that endures. Like Astaire and Rogers.


Oh, and for the record? I believe her.

Tone Poem Tuesday

Mr. Gershwin:

Bad Joke Friday

Something for Thursday

Another song that was used in Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2, this tune by Cat Stevens explores the hopeful frustration inherent in the father-son relationship. On the one hand, the fear that we're not steering them correctly; on the other, the fear that we're not living up. Not easy stuff.

Here is Cat Stevens with "Father and Son".

Tone Poem Tuesday

Oh wow, you have to listen to this. I'd never heard of it, or its composer, until it popped up on a YouTube sidebar a bit ago. It's a suite from a ballet called Estancia, by a composer named Alberto Ginastera.

Ginastera, with whom I am completely unfamiliar, was a 20th century Argentinian composer who is apparently viewed as one of the most important composers from the Americas during that age. His music apparently (I'm getting this from Wikipedia) calls on Argentinian folk music, and a common them is that of the gaucho, the itinerant horseman of the South American plains. Listening to this work, I can certainly hear the vibrancy of Argentina, its exotic flavor, and the flamboyance of its dances.

Here is the Suite from Estancia.

Something for Thursday

From Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble -- producers of some of the most fascinating music out there -- comes this spellbinding musical telling of a legend of a bird who flew to the sun, lost its body, but gained pure spiritual existence, "Ascending Bird".

Tone Poem Tuesday

For September 11, Elegy by Mark Camphouse, played by the United States Marine Band.

Something for Thursday (Friday Edition--farewell, Burt Reynolds)

Burt Reynolds is gone. I always thought he was quite an underrated actor.

Like many from my generation, this movie is where I first saw him (I think--it might have actually been Hooper). Here's Jerry Reed and "Eastbound and Down", from Smokey and the Bandit.

Tone Poem Tuesday (Friday edition)

I'm in crunch-time on drafting Forgotten Stars IV, which means that I've been focusing almost all of my energy there of late. But I don't mean to leave this space completely fallow as I did this week!

So, here's a Suppe overture. Because when in doubt, one can always listen to a Suppe overture. This one is Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna, conducted by a very young and spry Zubin Mehta (who is now 82--where does the time go!).

Bad Joke Friday

Something for Thursday

I've really been grooving to the soundtrack to Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 of late, and of the wonderfully-chosen songs from that film, this one for me is a standout. I suspect that many people, like me, had never heard this song before the movie--or even heard of the song, as it was apparently just a regional hit in the 1970s, being about a road in Chicago. But it's got this nifty energy to it that reminds me of some of the best country-rock out there.


I especially like the poetry in the lyrics, such as "And the blue lights shine with a heavenly grace to help you right on by." Great song!

Tone Poem Tuesday

I still owe him a much longer post, but meantime, this past Saturday marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein, one of the greatest musicians this country has ever produced. Here he is conducting the music of another of America's greatest musicians, Aaron Copland, in his Appalachian Spring ballet. This is still the finest performance of this work I know.

Something for Thursday

A bit of film music adapted for chamber performance, by the great Joe Hisaishi. From My Neighbor Totoro, here is "Kaze no Torimichi (The Path of Wind)".

Behold...THE GEEKIVERSE!!!

Check this out, folks: I have joined local geek commentary website The Geekiverse as a staff writer! Huzzah!!

In addition to other things, I'll be mainly writing a regular column I'm calling Curios from the Outer Rim, in which I look at geeky stuff that's at least fifteen years old, so as to balance the ever-present focus on what's coming out today/this weekend/this month/this year. My first installment is live now, so go take a look!

Tone Poem Tuesday

Remember how in the movie Amadeus Antonion Salieri is presented as a basically competent composer whose music might have been nice at the time but deserved its fade from memory? Well...no, Salieri was no Mozart. But he wasn't a boob, either. He was prolific and talented...like many a composer, really. And the movie, though great, took significant liberties with musical history. Salieri did not hound poor Mozart to his death, even if their relationship was frosty.

Here is the overture to his opera Les Horaces. This is not the work of "a mediocrity"!

Recent walks

Snapshots of recent walks....

Something for Thursday

Farewell, Aretha Franklin. Such an amazing voice.

Tone Poem Tuesday

We did a piece by Vasily Kalinnikov last week, so this week...let's do another one!

Just as last week I was unable to dig up much actual information about the Bylina Overture, so too am I unable to find a lot out about The Cedar and the Palm, which is a "symphonic picture" written in 1898 (which happens to be the year my maternal grandmother was born). Here it is:

Bad Joke Friday

Stolen from Tumblr,,,,

Announcing THE CHILLING KILLING WIND

Crossposting from ForgottenStars.net: it's the back cover blurb for my next novel, and my first released book not in the Forgotten Stars sequence! It's a supernatural thriller titled The Chilling Killing Wind, and I can't wait for it to be out there in the world. I will have a date nailed down soon, but for now, I'm planning for mid to late September.

So what's the story about? Well:

Tonight, former detective John Lazarus will finally put his old life behind him. He has a new job as a teacher, a new home, and a new love. All he has to do is get through tonight’s execution of Roy Edgar Chalmers, the last of the three men who killed John’s wife in a botched robbery. Once Chalmers is dead, John Lazarus will be done with his old life at last.

But tomorrow the murders will start: strange, violent crimes whose only connection is the pair of voices exhorting the perpetrators to kill. As an occasional police consultant, John Lazarus will increasingly suspect that something abnormal is at the heart of these killings. And when Roy Edgar Chalmers, not nearly so dead as he should be, approaches him for help, John Lazarus will realize that maybe his old life isn’t quite done with him….

Stay tuned for more!

Something for Thursday

James Horner, scoring Field of Dreams: "The Place Where Dreams Come True" and "End Credits". One of the most magical endings to a movie I have ever seen, and Horner's music is a major part of that.

International Cat Day

Lester and Julio say hello.

An EVENT of MOMENTOUS IMPORTANCE.

This Saturday, at Off the Beaten Path Books in Lakewood, NY, a certain author will be doing his first-ever book signing.

If you're in the neck of the woods and you want a signed copy of Stardancer, The Wisdomfold Path, or Amongst the Stars--or all three!--drop on in!

Tone Poem Tuesday

I've long loved the two symphonies that Vasily Kalinnikov wrote, but I've been largely unfamiliar with the remainder of his output. Kalinnikov was a talented composer who produced a lot of rich, emotional, and songlike work before his untimely death from tuberculosis in 1901, when he was just 35 years old. Had he been able to live to his seventies, I wonder what rank he might hold in musical history.

I haven't been able to find much information about this particular work beyond its title: Bylina, an overture. You probably don't need to know more than that, though. This music is its own reward.

Forest murmurs: Hunters Creek Park

Walking at Hunters Creek Park yesterday.


This park is "undeveloped", meaning it's a parcel of land in the wilderness and farm country southeast of Buffalo, with no amenities other than a fairly extensive series of trails, some of which are more heavily traveled than others. The access to the park consists of two gravel parking lots, and that's it. The park follows Hunters Creek (hence the name) as it cuts through an impressive ravine on its way to Buffalo Creek, which in turn becomes the Buffalo River, which empties into Lake Erie just upstream of where it empties itself into the Niagara River. All this water, therefore, is destined to plummet eventually over the great Niagara Falls themselves.

But anyway, Hunters Creek is a fascinating pleasure. The only people you encounter here are fellow hikers and mountain bikers, and occasionally a person camping overnight (I'm not sure this is permitted but I know it happens).

A few photos from yesterday's bit of hiking, which involved a side trip to the Creek itself because I'm always drawn to water.

Bad Joke Friday

Sometimes they're so bad....

Something for Thursday

It's still Thursday for another four minutes! Here's Glenn Miller!

Dispatches from Warwickshire

It was Faire Time this weekend! Specifically, our more-annual-than-not trip to the Sterling Renaissance Festival. A good time was had by all, but for the "Pics or it didn't happen" lot, here are pics.

It starts with turkey legs.



There's always a parade, featuring Her Majesty the Queen.







People-watching is always a prime pleasure:













I bought a couple new mugs (no idea where to put them in our kitchen, but that's a problem for another time), an oil lamp (for use in my library), a hand-carved jewelry box for The Wife, an ocarina for The Daughter, and another knick-knack or two. I managed to not buy a quill pen with inkwell, but I don't think I'll dodge that bullet next year. And I passed up this amazing lamp-post with dragon:



This is a vendor whose wares are sadly still well beyond my price range, but...someday. Oh yes.

Special mention should be made of this fine vendor, who went to special efforts to get a signal on his wireless doodad of mercantile magic.



And then there's the jousting!







Order is maintained during the Tourney by the Impressive Scotsman...





...who must sometimes resort to forceful measures to maintain honor and peace on the Tourney Field.



But lurking behind it all is the watchful eye of Milady In Blue, whom I have decided is secretly scheming to revolt against Her Majesty the Queen and take the throne for herself. Maybe she has one of the knights bent to her will? Who knows!









What schemes might lie within Milady's heart? Who knows! But I can tell you this: as fun as the Faire is, it's even moreso when you're a writer and you can fill a bit of downtime in the day's activities by making stories about those around you...such as this fellow, who dared utter the most bitter calumny against the great Bard himself, Mr. Shakespeare.



But maybe I'll form more of a tale about him next year.

Exeunt!