InMotion

There’s a literary magazine that I enjoy occasionally called The Believer. At the beginning of articles they have a short paragraph or a few lines displayed thusly: Discussed: and then key words or phrases are listed.   An example from Steve Silberman’s piece in the Aug./Sept. issue about Bill Evans and the song Nardis partly goes as follows: Discussed: “Reeves Sound Studios, A Musical Vacuum, The Mind That Thinks Jazz, Collective Sympathy,...” I’m going to try and follow that practice on the blog, so that readers can catch something of the content before plunging in.   So here goes: Discussed in this post: United Bicycle Institute, Cognitive Grooves, Morning Pages, A Son Has A Party Ashland, Oregon: I attended the week-long course Introduction to Bicycle Maintenance . It’s really interesting what happens when I am in a learning environment.   I get anxious and my cognition gets into a groove resonating with the idea of poor performance, or something l...

Why haven't I posted to the blog for so long? Here's the reason: I am tired.  Writing is work, and I am procrastinating.  Totally will not bore you with excuses, although I do have a bunch and some are quite nicely thought out, I think. Maintaining a life on the road comes with so many tasks (like today, I have to add to the to-do list "how to fix a leak in an RV sewer hose"). I can get distracted; it's easy to come to the conclusion that I "don't have the time".  Ha Ha.  But here I challenge myself: within a day or 2 after our September 23-26 visit to my son Tyler's in-laws (they attained that status on August 31), I will sit with the blank page.  Something will appear.  You will find it here.

I keep reflecting on my astonishment during the  Roanoke performance Sunday as the afternoon became evening this last July at the  Hiawatha Folk Festival  in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The issue is covers.  I have let it slip that I am often experiencing peak live music performance moments of bliss when great artists known for their creative work and possessed of excellent chops cover songs I have loved.  Often, these are songs I played on vinyl until the inevitable scratches led to skips (what we called "buffering" back in the day). One example is Sarah Jarosz' cover of Paul Simon's  Kathy's Song  on Austin city limits some years ago (the link is a different live performance, I think).  Wow.  I got to thinking about how our experience (Sarah's and mine) are the same and different.  I don't think artists cover songs they don't think are incredible, and so we both are enjoying the artistry of the song, me along with my fin...

22nd Annual Sisters Folk Festival (link below) starts today.  We are 4 miles up the road from the festival site, and we have our bikes and bright lights.  Right now, I am ensconced in the Lodge (our pet name for our 22 ft. Bambi Airstream travel trailer). I am clicking on music links to try and craft our festival experience.  We have friends to share the experience with, we are very happy.  Yet, as all the other experiences on the road/river rush by us (feels like bumping along on a stretch of rapids),  I notice that my blog post on the  Hiawatha Traditional Music Festival  was left on banks of the river a couple months ago.  Here, I'll go look for it.  Be back shortly.  I know, "shortly" could be longly.  I will try, try, try.  22nd Annual Sisters Folk Festival