Signs, Portents, Soothsaying, and Music Camp

Some of you know that I am a tea snob and bloody proud of it. I don’t drink coffee, not because of any particular reason except that I never learned to appreciate the taste. My life would be so much easier if I did drink coffee though…..how many business meetings have...

Silver strings among the gold

At Grass Valley this year someone had a deal on a CD purchase that included a set of the recently released Tony Rice Martin guitar strings. The box said “Monel” on it, which piqued my interest; reminded me of the “Gibson mona-steel” strings that used to be around....

Simple Gifts

There’s a funny Far Side cartoon that shows a forlorn dog, violin in hand (paw?), staring out the plate glass window of his house, at his friends who are out chasing cats. It’s a play on a common cultural theme, of kids being forced to take music lessons and grieving...

Simple Gifts

(From Nancy, 209){NOTE: I wrote this column the day before Bruce Campbell’s “Holiday Gift Ideas” welcome message appeared on the CBA web site yesterday. Hopefully, the content is different enough that readers won’t be bored with columns dealing with the...

Simple Gifts

{NOTE: I wrote this column the day before Bruce Campbell’s “Holiday Gift Ideas” welcome message appeared on the CBA web site yesterday. Hopefully, the content is different enough that readers won’t be bored with columns dealing with the subject of gifts...

Simple Pleasures

It hasn’t been that long ago that Facebook started dominating my residual time:  the dominatrix of spare moments which used to be assigned to simply looking up into the sky on a sunny day; or wondering, how many stories could be told by the Redwood Tree which...