Life with Emerald Rose

I am giving away a song for Yule/ Solstice/ Xmas. If you follow this link , you will see that #7 "Pantheon," is a free download. Enjoy and stay warm.
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/arthurhinds

I honor the names of the dead who shine in my heart.
I honor the names of the dead who shine in the hearts of those I love.
I honor the names of the dead who shine in my mind.
I honor all the dead whose names are unknown to me.
I am here and who I am because of you and the steps you walked.
I honor you and raise my hands to you.

I'm writing from the shores of Lake Ontario where we are visiting the parents of my lovely wife. We drove 17 hours straight to get here - thats not to bad with two drivers. I hope the weather will hold and tomorrow we can make it to the Sterling Ren Fair. We try and visit her parents once a year, and always go to the fair when we are here. It is an excelent one, although it has suffered from budget cuts in the last few years. There are some regular music friends who are not there this year. We missed it last year and I am really looking forward to it.

I got a new IPod Touch for free with my new
computer. The little typing pad is a bother but I'm getting used to it

Oh Wow, I got home from PSG last night at 230 am. We drove almost 12 hours from Camp Zoe in the Ozarks of Missouri It all seems a blur. I met sooooo many incredible people this week. I played/sang/chanted and/or sat around and traded words with Damh the Bard, T Thorn Coyle, Shibaten, Coyote run, Jason Pitzl-Waters and Murphey's Midnight Rounders. The heat was pretty oppressive but Camp Zoe has a beautiful creek to dip and cool in. Shibaten is the most remarkable Dij player I have ever encountered. He makes sounds like no other, moves energy, and plays a variety of percussion at the same time. I have been a fan of Damh for many years and it was a joy to finally meet him. He is in so many ways like a twin of a different mother, and we both felt like we had known each other for along time. Thorn is a fascinating woman who seems to do 12 amazing things at once. Jason, of The Wild Hunt, is a humble insightful man who was a joy to talk to. I always enjoy hanging with Coyote Run and David and I always has fun banter- wonderful music. Murphey's Midnight rounders are a cool Pagan band. They had a few songs that really deserve to become pagan standards. You will hear from them. I talked with so many cool folks that my heat sodden brain could not retain many of their names.

My workshops went pretty well, but the dust got to me and I mostly lost my singing voice by Thursday. That lead me to sing less and tell more stories and concentrate more on the bardic and shamanic meanings of the tales. In the end, that felt like the better path, so a problem turned out to be a gift.

The rituals were strong as always, but I had to miss a few because sitting the the merch tent in the upper 90s and high humidity days just sapped the energy out of me. Traffic patterns were not optimal for vendors row and I hope Circle can come up with ways to help that. My Lovely wife and I did well sales-wise but we were able to go off and perform and give workshops to bring people in. The average camper was not very willing to brave the heat and walk all the way over to the vending area. We did have power, which was nice, but I would be willing to move to a different but better local, even if it meant giving up that power.

Arise, Arise, and take to the air,
All lads and lasses strong.
Adventure sings-Your country calls
Sign up and come along.
The airship fleet ensures the peace
from here to the farthest shore.
Duty awaits, so join the cause.
in Her Majesty's Airship Corps

I heard Rush Limbaugh on the radio today. He said that drilling our way to energy independence is the only logical and sensible thing to do. In fact, Mr. Limbaugh, it is both illogical and senseless for several reasons, which I will go into a wee bit later. Once again your sense of what is "reason" eludes me.

( The reasons )

My lovely wife and I had a wonderful time last weekend. Anachrocon was a blast, but it went by way too quickly. It was small enough so that there was time to just sit around and talk. I had conversations ranging from health care to the merits of Gorilla glue- from whether Verne was steampunk, to electric motors and gear ratios. We heard great music and danced with ," Play it with Moxie," ,"Denim Arcade," and ,"The Extraordinary Contraptions." "Moxie," is a blues/jazz/swing/jive band. It reminded the two of us just how much we love swing dance and that we really ought to do it more often."Demin," is an unembarrassed 80s cover band and they cover it well. "The Contraptions" are sort of a guitar rock band with a steampunk flavor.

The panels ranged from the serious sort about gender roles in Steampunk lit, to the subject of steampunk super heroes. I think one of my next projects is going to be a steampunk "Shoveler" from "Mystery Men."
I also have to work on my metal helmet; it kept ending up askew on my head when I got sweaty- which is often when you are wearing a leather vest and a "Theronal fluid ignition and ejection" pack on your back.