Life with Emerald Rose

I am eating thai noodles and thinking about the show tonight at the Crimson Moon. The kitchen is full of the scent of saddle soap as my lovely wife works on the shoes she is going to wear as part of her costume . She was concerned that she might be the only one is costume. I assured her that our fans need only the smallest of exuses to put on the odd bit of clothing.
Mr mittens by the way still has partial paralysis and we are still in a holding pattern with him.

Our tuxedo cat, Mr Mittens, has a sciatic thrombus and spent the night at the vet. He is partial paralized from the hips back. It doesn't look good. Today may not be a good day.

THE IBUPROFEN 800
The grass was towered and tassel proud beneath the near clear sky
For weeks the rain had stroked it grown but now it was nearly dry
Alas the mower was painful bound from girding his system immune
And distant thunder promised to all a grass re-soaking tune

But arise, arise, Ibuprofen 800, Arise from the shelf strength found.
Arise to the aide of the poor mowing servant -the mower who's painful bound
So into his muscles , Ibuprofen 800.The mower with courage he burned.
He slew the foe verdant and beat back the tassels, before the torrent's returned.

We are busy at the castle cleaning and getting ready for the usual suspects to arrive, and celebrate the equinox with us. The gang of four arrives momentarily to help with final preparations. I know we are a few day early but the weekend is the weekend. We will be working indoors as even if the rain stopped, the path and circle are like giant sponges and slippery. To all others celebrating today I wish you you and illumination. To other faiths, shana tova and a blessed Ramamdan.

I want to say thanks to whomever you are who sent me this anonymously. There was a note with it that read," This should help complete your steam punk costume. Thank you for making, "Poetry of Wonder." Please keep making music." and it was signed," One of your online friends." It was exactly the pick me up I needed. Thank YOU so much. I really needed that.

WASH YOUR HANDS!!! Yet another person we care about is in ICU with what looks like h1n1. Don't be afraid, but wash your hands often and get a little bottle of hand sanitizer that you keep with you. Unless you do a very good hand scrub, the alcohol based stuff does a better job of killing germs . Keep you hands away from you face and sanitize them. PLease, and get the flu shot when it comes available. We love you. That is all.

When I lived in New York, I loved going down to Canal Street. It was full of surplus stores. You never never knew what you might find but I almost always ended buying stuff. I still have some raw materials that I use from there( mostly copper stock) and I moved in 91. I have just spent an hour on a site that is like the web version of Canal Street. ....Lots of steam punk possibilities.
American Science and Surplus

Here is the completed costume before and during dragoncon

DraaaaaagonCoooooooon Hoooooooooooooooo!

Verily, did I refill the sacred font with the fluid of power to the level of necessity. Truly, did I depress the runic symbol to the order of five and pull back the switch of the dead. Purposefully did I transfer my energy towards the engine of rotation and await for the song of gracious success. Faithfully did I stride, without fear or hesitation, the winding verdant path, mindful of the sacrifice of blade and leaf. Knowingly, I gazed upon the Whole of completion and intoned that it was good. So is the ritual of the pre Dragoncon mowing complete.

Those of you who are going to Dragoncon should go by the art show. You should find the photos on display by my friend and photographer Fox Gradin. You should marvel at the incredible artsy cool pictures of Faeries in flight that she has taken. And lastly, you should get a ballot and vote for her. That is all!

I have been working on a sort of Steam punk/ Ghost bustery backpack costume thing for DragonCon. Here it is.

Ok as it stands now, this is our final schedule for the con
Thursday, 7 - 10 pm Marriott Ballroom Pandora Celtica, Three Quarter Ale and Emerald Rose
Friday, 12:30 pm Concourse
8:30 pm Hyatt - Centennial I & II Evening at Bree

Saturday 11 am Concourse
10 pm Sheraton Grand Ballroom Serenity Shindig!

Sunday 8:30 Hyatt, Vinings room Weyrfest

Monday 2 pm Concourse

I am a podcast junkie. I listen to around a hundred different ones a month. As it so happens. my music is being played on at least two this month.
The Infinite and The Beyondand The Dark Side of Fey .Enjoy!

It seems like human beings are hard wired with the pentatonic scale. It uses 5 notes to create a scale instead of the seven we use in most western music. It shows up all over the world. When you find the oldest chants/songs from any given area , they tend to be in the pentatonic scale. I have recordings of some japanese harvest songs that sound very much like some stuff from Africa. I have a recording of old women actually waulking made in the highlands of Scotland in the 1930s. They are have a wonderful "real" quality to them and when I play them for people who don't know what they are, almost everyone thinks that they are native american. The old Folk songs of Hungary and Finland are pentatonic. Bagpipes sound at home with traditional chinese instruments because they are pentatonic. Here is a clip of Bobby McFerrin playing his audience wit the pentatonic scale.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

They're here! They're here! They're here!

I am pissed but not surprised. I got a call from Nathan Deal's office to put me on a live call in town hall meeting. I waited my turn for an hour and told an operator what my question was in a polite rational way. I was never called on despite the fact that he returned to a few other folks for second questions. There was only one other opinion given that was in favor of Obama's plan. How many other folks were silenced as well? He just does not want to even hear reasonable discussion.

My son started college today and things seem to have gone pretty well

The Incredible String Band was at Woodstock, but did not make the film. Why? It looks to me like waaaaaay too much acid
The second one is better with Robin taking the lead, but is a nine minute commitment. I think you can really see the Robin Williamson of the future in this song. Dig those groovy pants!

I have finally decided to start doing a podcast. I'm going to call it, "The Pagan Beat." It will be a weekly, I hope, show about pagan music and musicians. I'll play some tunes. give out performance info for pagan artists in the coming week, and do interviews as often as they can be arranged. Since I am a huge fan of pagan music , my collection will last a while but now I need to start getting permission to play music. It will take a while to get all my ducks in a row so it might be a couple of months before the first show. I don't want to start it until everything is ready. I will also be seeking advice from other podcasters for the best path.