charity clarity

Development issues. Communication. Just sketching.

listening to richard brautigan

On January 30, 2012, Richard Brautigan would be 77 years old, had he not died 28 years ago at the same age I am today. He was born in 1935, the same year as my father, and I've often marveled that two men of the exact same era could have such different experiences and lives. But the world is a giant ball so we're on the same side after all.

o canada

Here's a song and a video that I made for the world-traveling Little Red Ball on its trip to Canada…I hope you enjoy it!

and what’s wrong with that?

You think that people would have had enough of silly love songs. I've never particularly been a fan. I mean sure, they're very nice and everything, but after a while it all sounds the same, and besides, there are plenty of other topics to explore that might offer something new to think about, eh? Meh, I'm a heartless old fool…but it wasn't always this way.

elvis is everywhere

If Elvis is everywhere, it stands to reason that he could be the dancing guest making a mess in your kitchen, or the burglar who does a little jig for your cats as he sneaks around pilfering your house...or even an angel of death come hovering and doing the Twist above your bed while beckoning you into the great hereafter.

kites are fun

There's a nice little river beach near our house. I was down there not long ago, and the Free Design came shuffling on my iPod, perfectly syncing with the wind and the water and the whole feel of the place. Thank you, Jeffrey Booth, for making sure I knew about them.

needle in the hay

I was very excited when my friend Ellen Luckett Baker asked me to do the music for the trailer of her new book "1, 2, 3 Sew." She's amazingly talented and imaginative, and discusses really cool crafty things at her blog, The Long Thread. Plus, we like a lot of the same kinds of music, so I knew it would be a fun project.

always crashing in the same car

Well, here's another month that's really gotten away from me. I'm working on a few musical projects, but nothing that's really at the "let me show it to you" stage, so the song this month is one I did to accompany a video for The Little Red Ball.

jonathan livingstone, i presume

I've been playing with my computer lately, and I was having fun writing out little parts for piano and then assigning them to other instruments - a bagpipe, for instance - just to see what it would sound like. Well, this got me thinking it might be fun to try to piece together a song by writing and recording the parts on one instrument and then assigning the part to another, and then try to piece something somewhat coherent out of it all.

14 songs in 28 days

FAWM stands for February Album Writing month, and there's a free album I did for that inside this post.