Tag Archives: Grand Marais

You Can’t Lie to your iPod

Posted on by
2

Cochlea by Edward Allington

I mis-dialed my iPod the other day and saw my Top 25 Most Played list for the first time:

  1. Someday Soon Sweet Samba — Abdullah Ibrahim
  2. Damara Blue — Abdullah Ibrahim
  3. Cape Town To Congo Square 1: African Street Parade — Abdullah Ibrahim
  4. Cape Town To Congo Square 2: District Six Carnival — Abdullah Ibrahim
  5. Cape Town To Congo Square 3: Too-Kah — Abdullah Ibrahim
  6. Song For Sathima — Abdullah Ibrahim
  7. Loudspeakers Low Frequency Response (10Hz-200Hz) — audiocheck.net
  8. Little Blue — The Beautiful South
  9. Tintinyana — Abdullah Ibrahim
  10. Tuang Guru — Abdullah Ibrahim
  11. Tired of Being Alone — Al Green
  12. Call Me (Come Back Home) — Al Green
  13. Eleventh Hour — Abdullah Ibrahim
  14. Here I Am (Come and Take Me) — Al Green
  15. Don’t Marry Her — The Beautiful South
  16. Mirror — The Beautiful South
  17. Water From An Ancient Well — Abdullah Ibrahim
  18. I’m Still in Love With You — Al Green
  19. /=/ — Andrew Bird
  20. Love and Happiness — Al Green
  21. The Sound Of North America — The Beautiful South
  22. Cannibal Resource — Dirty Projectors
  23. The Mountain Of The Night — Abdullah Ibrahim
  24. The Light (Part II) — Mason Jennings
  25. Empire Builder — Mason Jennings

Huh. I would have guessed Guy Clark, Desmond Dekker and Squeeze. Ah well, you can’t lie to your iPod. I feel strangely hungry for some Abdullah Ibrahim!

Image CC-BY-NC by Brett Patterson

Month One Success!

Posted on by
3

I compounded my third-act despair from earlier this week by spending Thursday and Friday baking instead of writing: My friend and baking idol David Bauer (of the Farm and Sparrow bakery in Marshall, NC) was teaching his “Rustic Breads for the Brick Oven” class at North House, and I was delighted to be able to attend the class and learn (or begin to learn, or begin to begin to learn) some of his techniques.

However:

Despite my best efforts at self-sabotage, I set myself up at the Java Moose for a couple of hours this morning and managed to scribble out the last few scenes. Wonderfully, the characters decided to stage a completely different conclusion than the one I had outlined for them. I like theirs better.

So:

Month One Success! Hurrah!!!

Midsummer Migration

Posted on by
1

We’ve now driven three hundred miles north to Grand Marais Minnesota, to get the girls here in time to help prepare for the annual Solstice Pageant at North House.

I did yesterday’s writing in a wooden gazebo overlooking Lake Superior. Mostly this had the effect of underlining how immune I am to my surroundings when I’m working. For all I knew or cared, I could just as well have been writing in the basement of a chemical factory, or within sight of a recently-burned-over parking lot. Of course, emerging into an absurdly beautiful setting works as a nice surprise and reward when I’m done.