July 9, 2006:

:: NEWS ::

Summer continues in all its hot, lazy glory... was leaning on the railing on the deck early one morning when a hummingbird came zooming in to within a few inches of my nose to say howdy before flitting off to harass a passle of visiting pigeons who came by to hoover up the grain from the bird feeders. These four arrived unnanounced (we don't see a lot of pigeons in these here parts...) and sat on the roof looking at me without saying a word, just checking everything out in that special way that curious birds have. Then they flapped down to the grass and started chowing down before disappearing again. We think they may have escaped from someone's coop.
They did look like pretty high-class pigeons.

I've been enjoying long meandering bike rides to get the groceries at the farmer's market and then indulging in a little people watching downtown. Lots going on down there with all the festivals and the ferries bringing people from Seattle and Port Angeles, the whale-watching zodiacs (I'm a bit ambivalent about those, though. I'm not so sure they're A Good Thing -- poor orcas don't get a moment's peace anymore...), kayakers, horse-drawn tally-hos packed with sightseers holding up traffic (Beacon Hill gridlock), inner-harbour ferries, floatplanes taking off and landing with heart-stopping precision, the mime guy who pretends to be a statue, those insane people who hang over the cliffs dangling from parasails, deliriously happy dogs endlessly romping in the doggie park with stunning snow-capped Olympic range for a backdrop, the kabuki cabs, and all the bars and restaurants stacked with people having fun in the sun. Who needs to leave town? We've got it all here :)

Great excitement when we had our village fireworks last weekend -- they had them set up on a small island and wound up setting the whole shebang on fire. They had to scramble the local fire crews in a zodiac to go and put it out. Talk about bang for your buck!



Getting excited about my trip to San Francisco next week. My sweetie and I haven't had an actual vacation together in quite awhile, and this is one of our favourite places to hang, so expect me to come back with a big smile on my face, some new song ideas, and about ten extra pounds from gorging on hunan and shrimp tacos from the Mission. I'm going to try and track down that corner store on Polk Street that used to sell very refreshing piccolos of Mumms...

I'll be making some changes here when I get back from Nashville in September. I should have a couple of new demos to put up after that trip, and I'm going to add Paypal and HyperWallet so that people can start buying downloads. Up till now I haven't been charging, but it would be nice to start getting some change in the old bank account.

Join my email alert list -- send an email with "sign me up" in the subject line to wholelottamusic@hotmail.com.
Let me know what you'd pay to download a song. I'm curious.

I'll send monthly alerts when I make updates to the blog, and if I do showcases anywhere, you'll be the first to know.

What I've been reading...

Villages : John Updike
I love the way he writes about the tiny details of daily life. A great summertime read.

A Short History of Rudeness : Mark Caldwell
Now this is entertaining. The things people will do online...

Younger next year for women : by Chris Crowley & Henry S. Lodge
Every now and then I need to read another book telling me that calorie deficits and weight training will pay off when I'm 90. Getting off the couch and out the door to the gym will be the next step. I promise.