I’m working on a collection of short stories, poems and photos that I’m hope to publish in the next couple of months.  Here’s a sample of a photo that will be included:

Paris, Eiffel Tower at night

For a couple of years after I completed my PhD in 2002, I shopped my dissertation around to likely publishers.  I tried to make it as unacademic as possible, but it was pretty dry and long.  Earlier this year, I got inspired to give it another go and re-wrote major parts of the non-literature review/research methods sections to make it somewhat more “user-friendly.”  And rather than go to all the bother of sending it off to regional, subject-matter and potential publishers of “this sort of thing,” I decided to take advantage of one of the new self-publishing outlets and sent it off the CreateSpace, a part of the Amazon.com empire.

The process was amazingly easy and late last week, my book appeared on the Amazon site and should be showing up on Barnes and Noble and other booksellers shortly.

Here’s a link, in case you are interested in reading about the adventures of people who have purchased old houses in some historic Missouri communities.

If you ask someone what their favorite song is, they will probably think a minute and say, “Oh, it’s….  I just love that song.  It brings back memories of…”

We all have songs that evoke times and places that are important, happy, and care-free, or that are associated with not-so-happy times that are stuck in our memories.  Why we like certain songs may not have any association with times or places at all, though.  There are certain parts of songs, for example, that I really enjoy simply for the sound alone.  There’s a terrific snare-drum roll on “She’d Rather Be With Me” by The Turtles that always makes me smile; there’s a dirge-like organ part on “I Get Along Without You Very Well” by Carly Simon that makes me understand exactly what she’s going through (there’s also a three-note piano interval that is just heart-breaking); the organ part in “How I Spent My Summer” by Cat Mother and the All-Night News Boys, on the other hand, sounds like a carnival organ, a happy, bouncy sound that plays off the serious political lyrics; the bass line in “Theme from St. Elsewhere” absolutely moves the song along in a merrily rousing  way (even though the opening sounds a bit like “Tubular Bells”, that incredibly spooky song from “The Exorcist”); who can resist the banjo on “Some of Shelley’s Blues” by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band” or the pedal steel guitar on Ray Steven’s obscure, but wonderful version of “Misty”?

For the most part, I tend to identify my favorite songs for the music and not so much for the lyrics.  There are certain artists, however, who are at the top of the list because of the words they write or sing; often, it’s not a whole song that catches my attention, rather it might be just a phrase or two that makes me stop and listen.  For example, when Marc Jordan sings “I wish this pain would just go away; I wish that dogs had wings” you know that he’s in a terrible place and can’t see how to make it end; when Todd Rundgren says “We all know what comes of that, livin’ in your pockets and talking through your hat”, we begin to understand that there must be more than just the surface of life; I’m sure that we all find hope when The Kinks sing “Here’s wishing you the bluest skies”; and I’ll bet we’ve all thought Herman’s Hermits were right about “Something tells me I’m into something good”.

Music has always been an important part of my life.  I inherited my uncle’s trombone and started playing in the elementary school band.  I’ve played marches, Dixieland and good old rock and roll. I’ve liked almost every kind of music, though I’ll confess that country/western and rap are styles that elude my appreciation.  I developed my interest in classical music when I found a recording of the 1812 Overture in a bin at the local Piggly Wiggly for 50 cents.  I’ve been through vinyl, eight-tracks, cassettes, CDs, and now digital.  My computer and iPod hold a good deal of my music these days and when I want to hear my favorite song, I don’t have to thumb through the hundreds of 33⅓ rpm records or stacks of CDs; I just pull it up on my Mac, stream it to my amplifier via my Apple Airport Express and listen blissfully.  And iTunes even tells me what my favorite song is:  I just consult the “Top 25 Most Played” playlist.  Well, frankly, I didn’t know that Chad and Jeremy had the honor, but iTunes is never wrong, right?

In case you are wondering (though I can’t imagine that you could be), here are the 25 (mostly pop) songs that iTunes says I have played the most over the last couple of years.  And I will admit that I love them all.

1. A Summer Song by Chad and Jeremy
2. Satin Dolls by Marc Jordan
3. I Love L.A. by Randy Newman
4. All Those Years Ago by George Harrison
5. What Do You Hear In These Sounds by Dar Williams
6. Are You Out There by Dar Williams
7. My Back Pages by The Byrds
8. We Gotta Get Out of This Place by The Animals
9. Thinking of You by Loggins and Messina
10. Run Home Girl by Sad Cafe
11. Venus by Frankie Avalon
12. See You In September by The Happenings
13. Tell Me Why by Karla Bonoff
14. She’d Rather Be With Me by The Turtles
15. Better Things by Dar Williams
16. Bette Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes
17. Wild Wild Life by Talking Heads
18. All The Children Sing by Todd Rundgren
19. Forever, Forever by Keiko Matsui
20. Lost in the Hurrah by Marc Jordan
21. I’m Telling You Now by Freddie and The Dreamers
22. I’m Into Something Good by Herman’s Hermits
23. A Must to Avoid by Herman’s Hermits
24. A Groovy Kind of Love by The Mindbenders
25. Veronica by Elvis Costello

Here’s wishing you the bluest skies and the sweetest songs.  May they all be your favorites.

Almost every Wednesday morning, I have breakfast with a group of mostly-retired guys from our church.  There are a couple who are still working but have flexible hours and enjoy getting together with the rest of us.  Ages range from early forties (one of the still-working guys) to middle nineties.  If there is one word that is used more than any other in the group, it would be “Huh?”  You see, several of the regulars have hearing aids that are never turned up enough to allow them to hear what’s going on in the multiple conversations that seem to be swirling around simultaneously.  It’s a congenial group, composed of several ex-ministers and a number of free-thinkers.  Most everyone is to the left of Bernie Sanders politically, but the primary topic is, depending on the season, the success of our respective alma maters’ football or basketball teams.  During the summer, we pretty much avoid the topic of baseball, since Kansas City doesn’t have a professional team anymore.

Our group tries to have breakfast at the same place every Wednesday so as not to confuse ourselves, but it has been hard to be consistent.  Since I’ve been attending, two years now, we’ve managed to close down three restaurants.  I don’t think it really has anything to do with us; food service is a tough business to be in.  It’s hard these days to find a decent restaurant that will reserve a place for ten to twelve guys every Wednesday, that serves good breakfast food and gives a senior discount.  The discount is important.  As are servers who will put up with old guys acting like teenagers.

I got to thinking that I’ve developed most of my close friendships because of food.  Suzanne and I get together with a group of people once a month for “happy hour.”  We meet at one of the couples’ houses on Saturday afternoon, everybody brings a snack and wine and we sit around and talk about nothing and everything.  She and I used to get together with a group called the “Lunch Bunch.”  Those were people who we first got to know professionally and then became friends with exploring out-of-the-way restaurants around town.  We don’t get together with the Lunch Bunch much anymore since a couple of the group moved out of town, but every now and then when the out-of-towners are in town, we’ll meet for pizza at Kelly’s.  Distance and infrequency have not diminished the friendships, just the calories.

When we first moved to the Kansas City area, we were invited to join what was called the Dinner Club.  Once a month, we’d get together with a group of four or five other couples and have a dinner at one of the homes.  The dinners had food themes and each couple was responsible for bringing a specific part of the meal.  One memorable dinner had a Greek theme and in addition to dessert, we were in charge of the wine.  Now, Kansas City doesn’t have a big Greek population so most of the liquor stores don’t stock much Greek wine.  No, that’s not exactly true:  they don’t stock any Greek wine.  Strangely enough, at a local Price Chopper, I found a bottle of what purported to be Greek wine, on the bottom shelf and quite dusty.  Obviously not a big seller, even though the $2.99 price seemed quite reasonable.  I suppose that should have given me a clue about the wine, but I was desperate so I bought it.  While Greece is one of the oldest wine-making regions in the world, it’s industry supposedly dating back to 6500 B.C., I don’t think much of it makes it to the heartland of the U.S.  I may, however, have stumbled on one of those 8500 year-old bottles.

As was the custom with the Dinner Club, we started off the evening uncorking the bottle of wine and filling everyone’s glass.  A toast was followed by a taste, which was followed by unanimous looks of shock.  It had to be the worst wine any of us had ever tasted.  Dick, who is known to drink just about anything said, “This tastes like… dirt!”  Indeed it did.  After we poured out the residue of my unfortunate purchase, we all had a good laugh and a wonderful dinner.  That was the last time I was in charge of buying the wine.

The Dinner Club broke up shortly after that, not because of the wine, but because couples moved or became involved with… life.  We are still good friends with one couple who, as it turns out, lives several hundred miles away and when we get together maybe twice a year, guess what?  It’s always over dinner.  Or lunch.  Or breakfast.  Business lunches are fine, I’ve had my share, but nothing beats having a meal with friends.  And I promise not to bring the wine.

I’ve had a difficult time finding the “look” I want for this blog.  I’ve gone through a half dozen themes, but I think I’ve settled on the one I’ll use for a bit.  I’ve added a page for my paintings and I’ll be updating that as I have time.  You can also see my paintings and photography at http://transphotoart.com.

Well, not the whole town…  just the blog.

If you are accustomed to going to stclairc.wordpress.com/Let the Waters Come to find out what’s going on in Walnut Shade, just wanted to let you know that you’ll find all the latest news here, at walnutshadenews.wordpress.com.  Be sure to subscribe.

Cheers

Your faithful correspondent