So this year I have treated myself to a Birthday/Christmas present (some might even say an extravagant one) a hard to find set of recordings of The Play Of Daniel and The Play Of Herod that I’ve had my eyes on for several years. Now I know early music is not everyone’s cup of tea, but for me it has always held a special sense of wonder and fascination. Noah Greenberg and New York Pro Musica are credited with reawakening in America an interest in early music performance, and their recreations of these two Medieval musical dramas... Read More...

Ah, The Summer Of Projects rolls on, but now that we’re creeping up on the end of July things are finally beginning to shape up and come together. The end is in sight, and I like what I see.

This week I can now officially say that the front porch is done. All we have left to do is put covers on two of the power outlets, but that’s close enough to done in my book! Of course next summer...
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This is the Summer of Big Projects, and so far it’s going well. My neighbor Dave and his crew have made some great progress on the new front porch. That’s the biggest of the big projects. We’re at about the 50% mark now, and it is looking really nice. You can definitely see now how it’s going to change the whole look and feel of the house. The porch is wide and chunky and spacious, and I think it’s going to make for a very inviting front entry way, the kind of porch that makes people smile when they pull into the driveway and see it.... Read More...

Okay, so after writing about some new favorite music, I thought I’d add a little bit about some old favorite music, old in that I’ve been listening to it for some 26 years now, and old also because it’s period music, in this case madrigals. Most of my good friends know that my musical tastes are all over the map. When you drop by my house or hop in my truck you never know what you’re going to hear coming out of my stereo. Well, when I was in high school I spent a couple of years singing in the high school madrigal group. I liked it. And then my good friend Dave McCausland introduced me to the annual Madrigal DInner at Western Illinois University, and that was it...
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Last fall my friend V in the Netherlands introduced me to Paolo Nutini. She’d pent her summer out on the beach listening to his first CD “The Streets.” It was really good stuff, Maynard. Well, after a bit of a layoff, Paolo has now released his second recording “Sunny Side Up,” and all I can say is REALLY good stuff, Maynard! I love this CD already, and I’ve only just started listening to it. Paolo is a young Scottish bloke from Glasgow, but he sings far beyond his years and with a musical sense that puts him in a very special class of singers. Here are a few choice selections from his sophmore effort. Listen and enjoy, and then run out to your neighborhood music store and buy this one. It’s a keeper. Thanks, V!

Growing Up Beside You    Pencil Full Of Lead
No Other Way                   High Hopes
Chamber Music

Happy June 1st, Campers!

Wow, the year is spinning by fast these days.Things here have been going pretty good though so I can’t complain! Been a busy spring so far, but now I’m home and settled in for the summer I think. Nothing ahead for me except a LOT of yard work. Major yard projects going on, well, that and getting my new front porch built, but that’s one for the contractor. I’m doing all the landscaping myself though and it will be plenty to keep me busy, no worries there. My neighbor Lois asked me the other day if I would ever get it all done, and I told her to ask me again in October. LOL! Yep, looking forward to autumn already and having all of the big stuff behind me. So far this spring I’ve put in...

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My friend V up in The Netherlands has become a big Charles de Lint fan over the winter. He’s a very inventive writer from Ottawa, Ontario and a longtime favorite of mine. For the past few months V and I have been reading books together and talking about them, and it’s been a lot of fun. We’ve read some good stuff. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell I think was our first, a wonderful cross of sorts between a bit of Harry Potter magical humor and a Jane Austen book of manners and social intrigue. I loved it. And we’ve read Cloud Of Sparrows and The Shadow Of The Wind, both of which were excellent and a lot of fun. The Shadow of The Wind in particular I liked because it felt a bit like something Victor Borges or Umberto Ecco might have penned, but with a good dash of Jane Eyre added to it. Real Gothic Romance fun! We just finished de Lint’s Moonheart, and V also read two more of de Lint’s short story collections, Dreams Underfoot and The Ivory And Horn. But there was one Charles de Lint book V wanted to read that she couldn’t find over there anywhere, not even online, Moonlight & Vines....
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Hello, Hello! Yes, well, what can I say? It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a newsie LD update (as a few of you have reminded me) so I guess now with Spring finally here for real, it’s time for me to crawl out of my cave, shake off the dust, rub the sleep from my eyes, and get something to eat. Honestly, I have been keeping busy this winter, and I have been updating LD from time to time too, just not in the news section. Those of you who have been watching may have noticed a lot of activity in Crow Corner over the past few months, but I’ll leave that for a bit later. This morning I’m all about the coming seasons and all the work I have ahead of me to make this new house of mine my real and true Home. Read More...

Greetings, All, from the Great Frozen South!

In case you hadn't heard, we got hit with a pretty good snow and ice storm down here this week. Now I've lived a lot of places over the years, including a few well known for their challenging winters like Boston and Chicago, and I think I'm safe in saying that this particular ice storm ranks right up there with any I've seen anywhere in the country over the years. It was a proper Storm. More beautiful than I can describe with it's gleaming, glistening coat of clear bright ice, but also a major challenge to all the folk trying to live with it! Read More...

Hello, All, and a belated Happy New Year to you! January almost slipped by without a comment here, but it looks like I'm gonna sneak a post in just under the wire. LOL! We had a bit of unexpected excitement just after Christmas. My trusty old Apple Titanium Powerbook (that's 'TiBook' in Apple speak, but 'Pi (Pirate!) Book' to all who knew him) suddenly and most unexpectedly kicked the bucket. He was nearly 7 years old which in computer years is like, Ancient, and in truth he lived a very full and adventurous life, but I really, really hated to see him go.
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