I’d made plans for this past weekend back in February. Luka Bloom, an Irish folk singer I’ve wanted to see perform for a long time, was going to be performing in London. You are probably unfamiliar with his name, but you may know of his brother, Christy Moore, who is a big name in Irish music. Anyway, I discussed this with the gentleman with ( Read more... )

2018 was fairly stressful, largely due to a work situation that appears to be resolving itself. And, of course, the state of the world didn't help.

Books: I read 40 books, which is probably the fewest since I learned how to read. Also, surprisingly, only 6 were non-fiction. This is a little misleading in that I don’t count guidebooks, which ( Read more... )

2017 was a year of frustration and mild depression and not feeling very accomplished, even though I was actually reasonably successful in any normal sense. I think that much of the problem was spending time feeling stressed out about the state of the world. I am a news junkie at the best of times and that makes it hard to focus on anything when ( Read more... )

2015 was a complex year. I had underestimated the impact of grieving for my mother and of trying to deal with her stuff. Changing jobs also had an impact. It will be positive in the long run but is inherently stressful. All of this definitely affected my energy level. Despite that, I did accomplish a few things. I managed two travel related ( Read more... )

I'd been planning to get down to Norfolk and Virginia Beach to do some volksmarch events. My friend, Lynn, was hosting a storytelling house concert in Norfolk the weekend before last, so that provided a perfect excuse ( Read more... )

Lots of catching up to do, not all of it in this one entry. But let us get started.

Celebrity Death Watch: Hal Hackady was a lyricist. In addition to Snoopy!!! The Musical, he wrote the lyrics to "Let’s Go, Mets." Of course, that’s the theme song from 1986 on and is not nearly as good as "Meet the Mets," but such are the times we live in ( Read more... )

Celebrity Death Watch: Judy Carne was the "Sock It to Me" girl on Laugh-In, and apparently had a rather traumatic life of addiction after the show. Jean Darling was an actress, starting as a child star in the Our Gang series in the silent movie era, with her career peaking when she played Carrie in the original Broadway cast of Carousel. She also ( Read more... )

Celebrity Death Watch: Kyle Jean-Baptiste was a theatre actor. Wayne Dyer wrote self-help books. Marvin Mandel was a former governor of Maryland, whose tenure in office was marred by his conviction (later overturned) for mail fraud and racketeering. Personally, I think the more interesting scandal is the one in which his wife refused to move ( Read more... )

Aside from the bad hotel experience, I did enjoy the trip to Vegas. I did the North Strip volksmarch event again, and, while there is still a lot of construction leading to bleak emptiness, there is some new stuff of interest ( Read more... )

I went to Greenville, South Carolina for part of the weekend, primarily to do two Volksmarch events. I've actually been to Greenville twice before, including once for a Volksmarch. (The other time was because it is a convenient place to stop between Atlanta and North Carolina ( Read more... )