MP3 Saturday: We're Not to Talk About It

This song exhibits my rather meager banjo playing skills. It also features my wife, Traci, on clarinet to complete the Brechtian goodness.

The lyrics may get a major overhaul, because my wife is encouraging my to not use the same words in every song and I might just …

The Feast Day of St. Augustine of Hippo

Piero della Francesca. St. Augustine. c. 1465. (Panel of the Sant'Agostino Altarpiece.) Mixed techniques on wood panel.

Collect for the Feast Day of St. Augustine:

Lord God, the light of the minds that know you, the life of the souls that love you, and the strength of the …

Acknowledgments

Sometimes the comments are pretty quite 'round here on the blog, but I know somebody's reading, because my site meter tells me that visits are up. I don't know how many of you stop by for a one time visit, or have wandered over here and stayed.

This blog is pretty …

Identifying with Suffering

One day when I was fasting, a new Kindergarten student had a meltdown. I found out later in the day, that his family had been evicted, were living with relatives and ate about once a day. His stress about the uncertainty of his living situation and his hunger were …

The Feast Day of St. Bartholomew

Jusepe de Ribera, The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, 1634
Detail (those hands are awesome!)

Collect for the Feast Day of St. Bartholomew:

Almighty and everlasting God, who gave to your apostle Bartholomew grace truly to believe and to preach your Word: Grant that your …

Outsider Artist of the Week

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MP3 Saturday: Carnival of New Alexandria

I realized way too late, that my post last week got half eaten by blogger. I had a whole part about how I made the drum loop and got that Dick Dale guitar sound. Someday I'll try it again.

Not much to say about this week's song other than its taken me longer than I'd …

Back in the Saddle

Work started up yesterday, so I'm pretty busy this week. The kids come in tomorrow and its going to be a good year- I can feel it. (Well, anything will be better than last year!)

Blogging will most likely be a little spotty for a few weeks as I transition back into …

The Feast Day of Bernard of Clairvaux

I don't have an image of Bernard of Clairvaux, but I do have a hymn he wrote that I rewrote the tune for.

O Sacred Head Now Wounded (download)


Collect for the Feast Day of Bernard of Clairvaux:

"O God, by whose grace your servant Bernard of Clairvaux, kindled with the …

Outsider Artist of the Week

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Slow Down

Ferris Buller once said, "Life goes by pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." More often than not, I live faster than I should and its hard on my body, but worse for my soul.

Last week we talked about how fasting can be a way …

MP3 Saturday:The Star and Key of the Indian Ocean

As I've mentioned before, I'm reworking and remixing the old Walter Boyd Band material for a 5th Anniversary Edition. Since Mauritius was the first record project I ever did, there are a lot of things I did wrong and a few things I wanted to add in to the project in …

A New Business Model For the Music Industry?

Just the other day I was pondering what the ramifications of paying listeners to listen to my music instead of the old model of asking listeners to pay to listen to my music.

Then I found Amie Street. I think this is a revolutionary business model. Here's what they …

Soon I Will Be Invincible- Austin Grossman

I just finished Austin Grossman's "Soon I Will Be Invincible" in just a short two weeks. I read really slow, so that's really fast for me. You see, I just couldn't put it down. Usually, I don't go for the typical flying in tights kind of story. Sure the occasional …

Outsider Artist of the Week

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Humble Yourself

I've been thinking about blogging about fasting for a while. When I mentioned about a month ago that I was "coming out" as a do-gooder, I thought I just might begin the whole thing with some posts on fasting. But its incredibly difficult for me to rationalize putting …

No MP3 this Saturday

Sorry. . . no MP3 this week.

Feast of the Transfiguration

Transfiguration, Fra Angelico, 1440-41, fresco

Collect for the Feast of the Transfiguration:

"O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being …

Advice to first year art teachers

I'm going to have a student teacher this fall and I'm really wondering what I can tell her to help her avoid some of the pitfalls I fell into in my (short) teaching career.

I've decided that I need to tell her about stress management and about not taking on too much. …

Gearing Up to Go Back to School

I can tell its August, because I'm starting to have those dreams where I'm teaching without my lesson plan. I'm also procrastinating more as if by doing so I can turn a blind eye to the fact the calender keeps ticking by getting closer to the start of a new school …