Looking forward – the planning conundrum
Photo courtesy of Yale Richmond; Creative Commons Spontaneous demonstrations A feature of some of the totalitarian societies which sprang up in the 20th century was the spontaneous demonstration in support of the leader, the party or the government. We were asked to believe that large numbers of people suddenly took into their heads to meet […]
Pianos, without which no house is complete?
Image courtesy of Iwan Gabrovitch and Flickr; Creative Commons Pianos and me I’ve been thinking about pianos. I’d hate to be without one, though admittedly the same applies to guitars and saxophones. The difference, I think, is that the piano sits in the main living room, or one of them, available for anyone to sit […]
Music, talent, and friendship
Music, friends, beer, barn… I spent an evening last week with friends at a private gig by Assembly Lane, an acoustic quartet positioned roughly where British folk music meets bluegrass. So we had renditions of Sir Patrick Spens and the Fair Flower of Northumberland among Appalachian fiddle tunes and more, all delivered with consummate musicianship […]
Learning and networking
It’s not just about writing It seems obvious now but one of the things I wasn’t expecting when I took to writing as my main focus was the need to learn about social media. When I started I was an innocent in this area, my only touch point being a little used Linked In account. […]
Joy amid pain – the ‘Arts’ in a troubled world
Music – aspirin for the soul? They say people of a certain age should take an aspirin a day to keep illness at bay. Not advice I follow. My own remedy is a bit of singing or playing the sax, preferably both. In the world at large, joy seems in short supply at present. The […]