CT Folk Cycle Tour 2009

Last Gig: Sept 12, 2009: Hindinger Farms on the Tour des Farms, which offered two bicycle touring loops of scenic local farms with a different Ct folk musician entertaining at each stop. The tours were part of the Ct Folk Festival.


Well Sept. 12, 2009 was the day - I played at Hindinger Farm for the Tour Des Farms - a cycling tour that was part of the Connecticut Folk Festival. It was a stop on the longer 35 mile loop. The weather was cool but there was not a drop of rain.

After briefly overshooting the turn, I arrived around 9:15. I had plenty of time acclimate myself and set up before cyclists started appearing around 10AM. I played straight through to 11 when the last of them pedaled off up the hill. I had little trouble as my fingers got a bit cold. It was about 60 degrees when I started, and a tad early for my voice to function -- these days I usually practice at night. Mostly things went very well. I started out playing things in a little lower key because it was so early in the morning, around 10:45 I put the capo on and really could let some high notes peal out. I did repeat two songs, but I thought the folks that had heard them had gone.

"We're loving this," one couple told me. Another lady, a customer of the farm rather than a cyclist, asked me if I had a CD she could buy. Darn. I hope to remedy that this coming year... Another customer told me that having music at the farm, made her feel like she was in Vermont rather than a mile off a main road. I hope to get out and play more. I had the sense, at least part of the time, that I was really in the flow - and that's a really good feeling. Ms. H and all of the people at the farm were wonderful. They gave me a cup of coffee, and before I left I bought some veggies, fruit, and a big jar of jam. In order to have the full tourist experience I paid 50 cents for the special goat crackers. They sell goats milk and cheese as well.

Bent Pin: Howie Good and T.G. Mazur, over the edge of something...

Post about my dead ezine: 

Went with some hardwood flooring and a few fall leaves for the front of Bent Pin. There 's a new page up too, "over the edge, one way or the other"  one poem incorporates dying words from famous folk (by Howie Good) and the second (by T.G. Mazur), features the faith of the hang-glider & hang-gliding instructor as they leap from a cliff.....


UPDATE: Bent Pin closed in November of 2009. The Bent Pin Archive and Index are moving, albeit slowly.... to:

http://bentpinquarterly.blogspot.com   Note: the author index now at http://bentpinquarterly.blogspot.com/p/author-index.html is part of the archive

Heathcare reform, like some flowers, needs tending to bloom

I'm waiting for the mums outside to break open. They seem plush and plentiful this year, all without care on my part. I have done nothing to encourage them.  The holly harbors a flock of  red berries, and again - I have not lifted a finger for them. Might be all the rain we have had this season.

The summer geraniums remain red in their cement pots, but these I have pinched and prodded, snapping off the dead leaves,  spent blooms, and whatever parts rotted in the excessive rains this year. There are new buds on both plants.  The air is cool - it was in the 40's last night. I am beginning to believe its really September.

I also wrote to both Connecticut Senators and to my district representative to urge them to support health care reform.  Changes in law and policy are more like this year's geraniums than the mums.  They need a little encouragement to bloom unexpectedly....

Finally, a good night of sleep

Focus has always been a problem for me. As a jack of all trades, a casual experimenter with various art materials, technology and software - I find I am always spread too thin to really get into the groove of doing.

I currently have too much raw video
I have been staying up late, fiddling with the Wedpoetry.net website which was moved this week from blogger to wordpress.   I have been staying up late, and rising early for several weeks.

Last night, around 10:30 I laid down, just for a moment and woke up this morning feeling really good. I slept in my clothes, forgot the dog, (who i have to wake up to take out anyway..)   It seems we were both better off after a full night's sleep. Dog investigated the yard this morning, casually, without being in a hurry, and took care of business.  I think maybe I am going to try to get to bed earlier.

DEAR JOE LIEBERMAN -what's good for the goose....

"If we create a public option, the public is going to end up paying for it." - Senator Joe Lieberman

Ah how Joe Lieberman loves to send money and support to Israel.  Our government has given Israel $114 Billion dollars since its establishment (See Reference material)  And that doesn't count the dollars sent out of the US by all sorts of individuals and organizations.

But let's look at what kind of healthcare system Israel has...   Wiki says: "Health care in Israel is both universal and compulsory, and is administered by a small number of organizations with funding from the government. All Israeli citizens are entitled to the same Uniform Benefits Package, regardless of which organization they are a member of, and treatment under this package is funded for all citizens regardless of their financial means. "

Dear Joe - lets give Americans the same healthcare arrangements the citizens of Israel enjoy. According to the World Health Organizations rankings Israel has the 28th best health care system in the world, while Amercians have a healthcare system that ranks 37th.  Take a look at the list  - even Costa Rica has a better health care system.  Of course having a system of whatever rank can't help anyone who can't get access to it  - and having access is small comfort to someone who loses their home and everything they have to a collection agency hired by a local hospital......

So Joe Lieberman  - let's hear your reasons it's okay to subsidize Israel but Americans are too expenisve to insure.... Go ahead Joe tell us...

Irrational hysterics scream about a speech they've never heard

“As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama’s socialist ideology.” said Jim Greer, Florida Republican Party Chair.

He's fanning the flames - blocking what might be an inspiring speech for children by THE PRESEIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES BASED ON WHAT HE THINKS THE MAN IS GOING TO SAY.

At least so far you can't use that in a court of law. Yes sir Judge - lock this man away because I think he is going to do something I don't approve of...

A) They have never heard the speech.
B) It was George W Bush who "bought" the banks!

I have never been more disgusted with Republicans. Nothing that they fear is in the speech - except perhaps that kids will find nothing fearful in Barack Obama - that the children of scary fanatics will find it is their parents who are crazy

Listen to the speech on CNN OR READ THE SPEECH

Coming out heathen

In case you missed it, I am an atheist. That is not what I believe - merely what I lack a belief in...

Being an atheist  means I do not have a belief in a god or gods. By inference it means that I regard religion as a vestigial organ of human culture best understood as psychological metaphor. I think that human beings invented gods and god-appeasement rituals, partly in an attempt get protection and control over a dangerous natural world beyond their understanding. And partly in an attempt to get control over their own impulses for the good of the tribe. And often to get and keep control over each other....

As a possible hanger on of the brights movement ** with a naturalistic world view - I am interested in living in this world, this universe, and in this present life. I believe that everything that is, both within us and without us, arises from the natural physical world. That what most folks refer to as the soul is merely the amazingly intricate human brain. (I suggest a book called "The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks which shows how our very core changes when the brain is injured...)

I think when we die, that we are gone forever - so cherish this one life you have. Never throw it away as few folks I know have done. Cherish it. You only get this one, so live it well.

For those of you who think an Atheist is an immoral angry monster - well, you are suffering from a stereotype - a prejudice - a form of bigotry. I am just a human being, with a catalog of merit and defect, just as all you religious folks are. Nothing more, but nothing less. A human being. As a secular humanist, I believe that each human being should endeavor to live a good and moral life using his or her individual talents for the good of society, life in general, and for the life of the planet. Living toward this ideal does not requires the assistance, inspiration, commandment or hellfire threats of various gods and religions.

** the brights movement is a loose internet-based alliance of people with a naturalistic view of the world, who see life in terms of the testable, beautiful physical world and who do not find it necessary to cobble imagined gods or goblins, spirits, ghosts, supernatural powers, fairies, what have you, onto a reality that is already complex and amazing.