Slow News Day

Good things come

2008-11-19T11:18:00.000-08:00

... to those who wait. Sharon recently won this mandolin at a folk festival and I became a American - just in time to be proud to be one.

What Will They Think Of Next ?

2008-11-11T16:18:00.000-08:00

Thought this was pretty cool ... Google Flu Trends

You know, after I wrote that title I got all nostalgic for Joseph Campanella and Tiiu Leek.

Velda Cartier Stuart - Sep 12, 1915 to Oct 29, 2008

2008-11-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

Velda Cartier Stuart of San Marcos, beloved and cherished mother and grandmother, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008, at the age of 93. She was born Sept. 12, 1915, in Fentress, to John and Margarite (Jarnagin) Cartier.

Her husband, Kenneth Stuart and sisters, Ella Mae Clark, Adele Allen and Annie Laurie Meadows, preceded her in death. Velda is survived by three daughters, Lynda Stuart Basey of Lockhart and her son, John Causey and his wife, Alisa of Austin; Sharon Stuart and husband, John Hillerup of Austin and her children, Joshua Logan of Los Angeles, Calif. and Jesse Logan and his wife, Allison Payne of Fairbanks, Alaska; Susan Williamson and husband, Scott of San Marcos and their children, James, Jake and Amanda Williamson of San Marcos.

Velda fondly remembered her ideal childhood, much of it spent at the Fentress Resort by the San Marcos River, with lifelong friends. It was there she met her future husband, Kenneth Stuart. They started a family in Fentress then moved to San Marcos, where Velda lived for nearly 60 years as a member of the First Christian Church. They enjoyed traveling, garage sales, digging up old bottles and were members of the Good Sam Club.

Velda was an assistant Girl Scout leader and worked for the Brown Schools. For 35 years she was a Wimberley Market Day vendor, retiring at age 90; and until her death, she was a volunteer at the San Marcos Tourist Information Center.

Graveside services will be conducted at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 1 at the Fentress Cemetery. Celebration of Life services will follow at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, in the Pennington Memorial Chapel, with the Rev. David Green officiating.

Arrangements under the care and guidance of Pennington Funeral Home, 323 N. Comanche, San Marcos, 353-4311.

Velda Cartier Stuart

Stock Market Barometer

2008-10-10T15:36:00.001-07:00

Fearing a further decline in the market I have put in an order to sell my shares of Dow Jones and S&P Mid-Cap leveraged index funds, now that they have eroded to half their original value. Given my record of making poor decisions in the past, this may be a good indicator that the market will hit bottom at the closing bell on Monday.

Crime Scene

2008-10-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

A couple of photos Sharon took from our window. One of my brother Svend being interrogated as he attemps to cross the line, and another of the stolen car with its shot out driver side window. I think Sharon would be a good crime scene investigator herself, with the psychic abilities that alerted her in the middle of the parking ticket we were about to receive.

Shooting

2008-10-06T08:41:00.001-07:00

Late last night around 2:30am Sharon reminded me that I had left our car parked on the street where we could get a ticket. Little did I know then as I walked up the street that in a nearby car there was a guy sleeping who would be shot by the police about a half hour later (news story in The Star). After I got back we heard a cop screaming at someone "Put your hands in the air! Put your fucking hands in the air!!", followed by eight or ten gunshots. We went to the front window to watch the scene that followed, as the emergency vehicles arrived one by one, police officers ran up and down the street in a panic, crime tape was stretched around our front yards, and the big guy that was shot was rolled up to the ambulance on a stretcher. We didn't know if he'd been killed but turns out he was alive and is in the hospital now.

All this shooting reminds me - its about time we headed back to Texas.

Squeeze at the Kool Haus

2008-08-29T10:26:00.001-07:00

Picked up my heavily discounted ticket from a Craigslist poster at Yonge & Dundas. Then drove down to what used to be RPM/Warehouse and stood in line outside until the doors were opened just as the first drops of rain began to fall. Waited up front for the show to start, leaning against the fence barricading us like animals from the stage by four or five feet. My age was roughly the median for crowd and fortunately they had whiskey and beer for sale to make us at least a little frisky. Squeeze's performance was flawless and energetic and the setlist was packed with their best songs, nearly all from their first five albums. Quite similar to the set of songs they played at Canada's Wonderland on singer Glen Tilbrook's cake-in-the-face birthday concert in 1985 (Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti tour), or at Massey Hall in 1988 (Bablyon and On tour). A mere 20 years ago. Chris Difford's voice and presence certainly added to last night's performance, yet there was a lack of intimacy and spontaneity as compared to the Glen Tilbrook shows I'd seen more recently. The format of this concert was much more rigid; not even allowing for Aimee Mann (a huge fan and onetime collaborator) to join them for a song, much less to allow for Glen to come into the audience for a singalong.

Dylan rocked

2008-08-22T18:16:00.000-07:00

I wasn't expecting much at all, but was very pleasantly surprised to hear Bob in such fine form - as good as I've ever seen. I'm still playing Most Likely You'll Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) in my head five days after the concert. Here's the set list and reviews from some uber-fans which describe the day quite well. Levon Helm band was great, and Glen Hansard really was quite incredible. Wish I had captured a video of his million-mile-an-hour guitar playing for Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. Can't say that I've ever heard anyone do a cover of that song before.

Wonderful Weekend

2008-08-18T09:23:00.000-07:00

Aug 16th 2008

Old Photos

2008-08-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

My father was an avid photographer back in his day. Click these to view some photos from his collection. The ones in the 1940s albums I scanned from his 2"x4" negatives, all neatly stored in leather booklets. The others are digital photos taken tonight of his 35mm slides projected onto a screen in my mom's darkened apartment.

Manitoulin Weekend

2008-08-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

Manitoulin 8-08

PageOnce

2008-07-31T07:02:00.000-07:00

This is a nice site for tracking your online business in one place. Not the catchiest URL, but they have a better name for their mobile version: ionce.

Americanafest

2008-07-29T16:04:00.001-07:00

Just couldn't resist going to that concert in Saratoga Springs, NY in a few weeks ... Dylan, Levon Helm, etc, etc. Got the tickets today that were bought in a very pleasant transaction from a posting on Albany's Craigslist. Last week I soaked up every detail of the DVD for The Last Waltz, both commentary tracks, featurette, and the film itself. Guess I'm a buff. But it was very interesting - what a great show that was. After a Thanksgiving dinner and dancing to a live orchestra, The Band played with their guests that night from 9pm to well after 2am. Not that this show will be anything of the kind really, but I am really looking forward to seeing Levon Helm's set. His latest album "Dirt Farmer" is really fantastic - a timeless piece of work.

Sherman Swims!

2008-07-21T07:29:00.000-07:00

The lifejacket mod keeps his collie-head up so he doesn't gag on water anymore.

June Critters

2008-07-20T18:33:00.001-07:00

From the back catalog, here are some creatures that were hanging out around the house last month. This twig-like guy on the ceiling is six-inch walking stick.

June Critters

Austin, TX -

May 30, 2008
by John

View Album
Play slideshow

Alaska Wedding Week

2008-07-02T20:03:00.000-07:00

As of about ten days ago, Sharon no longer has unmarried children. Jesse wed Allison before family and friends on the summer solstice. Here are some pics from our day trip to Denali National Park, and an album from the wedding week at summercamp. Wait, that's not all ... here's a grizzly video taken from the park bus in Denali. And to get an idea of how light it is just after midnight at this time of year, watch as Jesse tests out the potato gun. Obviously we were all more loaded than the gun was that night. Their wedding dinner was truly a feast, cooked by masters in the camp kitchen and outside where many types of Alaskan beast were prepared over coals on the ten-foot grill. We had such a good time up there, it was very hard to leave.

Summer Music

2008-06-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

This is about what it would take to get me out to a big outdoor venue these days:

Saratoga Music Festival, featuring Bob Dylan and His Band, The Levon Helm Band, The Swell Season, Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band, Steve Earle, Gillian Welch, & David Rawlings and Raul Malo. Sunday, August 17, 2008 at 2:30 PM.

Also been thinking about going to Levon Helm's house to see him play on a Saturday night in his recording studio (Midnight Ramble). The day before the show in Saratoga Springs would be a good chance to see some fine drop-in guests. But I can't believe the price tag for this show: $150 each. Well, good for Levon.

Another show in the "wouldn't that be cool" category would be Les Paul on a Monday night at the Iridium in NYC. Learned about this from the "Chasing Sound" documentary about him that we watched last night. One of the earliest electric music pioneers - he just turned 93, but is still going strong and does this show every week.

For about $350 per person plus travel expenses, this would make a great music weekend wouldn't it ? I'm doing my best to resist this costly concept, but it is fun to think about.

Canadan Generic

2008-06-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

How widely known is the mighty J-Cloth ? Only in Canada? Apparently another company makes it for the English/European market. Needs to be added to this wiki.

Upcoming Plans: Go North, The Rush is On

2008-06-05T06:03:00.000-07:00

Two weeks from today the moon will be full for the 150th time while Sharon and I have been together, our sesquiluniversary. Two days after will be the summer solstice, when son Jesse will be wed to Allison. All of this will take place at a summer-camp outside of Fairbanks, Alaska, just south of the Arctic Circle, where the full moon won't appear in the sky, and it'll be pretty much light around the clock. Should have plenty of time for a trip or two to Denali Nat'l Park, a two hour drive to the south:

Yesterday the notice for my US citizenship interview finally arrived. Wouldn't you know it, the date is right in the middle of the week that we'll be in Alaska. So I've asked for that to be rescheduled, gambling that it will be five months or more for the new appointment, when we're back from our summer relocation to Toronto. I was kinda hoping I'd get this wrapped up in time for me to be able to vote in November. Oh well, hopefully the Dems don't lose Texas by one vote.

Devon Sproule

2008-05-28T18:22:00.000-07:00

One of the winners at this year's New Folk competition at Kerrville. This video is her performing the second of two songs that slayed us, Old Virginia Block, from another show...

Hear the music more clearly and Devon's conversation with David Dye on the World Cafe last summer. This also has the other terrific song she played at New Folk Stop By Anytime.

We'll be heading back out to camp at the festival for the weekend. Each of the New Folk winners will do a 20 minute set Sunday afternoon.

Free Timbit!

2008-05-09T06:50:00.001-07:00

The Tim Horton's brand strengthens its mighty grip on tiny Timbit. T-shirts should be hitting the streets real soon.

Dirty Car Art

2008-04-10T07:39:00.002-07:00

Scott Wade apparently lives down a dirt road near San Marcos, TX...

San Francisky ?

2008-03-20T14:09:00.000-07:00

"So how did you came...?" We flew, and so did the time. Some of our pics from the wonderful weekend that was (well from the one day we brought the camera along anyway)...

Open Source

2008-03-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the spring decided to spring forth, just in time for spring! Svend's rock-work is doing a beautiful job of retaining the banks and making this a pretty site that we look forward seeing come alive whenever we get enough rain. We're hoping to get some rain on a somewhat regular basis so it can keep flowing for a few months.

Click on these pictures to play short video clips.

Feeling Festive

2008-03-08T12:26:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Sharon and I spent three very memorable days in sunny San Francisco celebrating the anniversary of the birth of our lovely friend Anna. Great to spend time with so many cool folks. Too little time, to be sure. So that's got me thinking about what fun things we might get up to next. And since many of the celebrants this weekend we were in some way inclinded to visit this part of the country, I thought I'd share the idea...

This coming May, the 37th annual of the Kerrville Folk Festival will take place about 90 miles from Austin in the Texas Hill Country. Its been quite a few years since we've been. Actually I don't know that we've ever gone without also being volunteers, usually on the transportation crew. That was fun to do, and got us in for free with backstage privileges, but it took us away from the ranch too often and messed with our ability to goof-off all day long. Hopefully this year we'll be able to be part of land-rush the Sunday before in order to park our popup camper in a good spot, then go back to camp for the five days of Memorial Day weekend. The festival actually runs a full 18 days, for the truly Kerr-verted.

Since our wedding nine years ago there's a good many Canadians who haven't made it back here for a visit yet. So that's got me wondering if any of you who might be reading this would like to join us ? Tickets for 5 days including camping can be had for about $125. They have the biggest crowds that weekend, but still quite subdued compared to mega-festivals (a busy day has attendance of maybe 6,000 people). There's also the most going on that first weekend, including the always wonderful New Folk competition (something like American Idol, if it were held on a dusty ranch and the contestants actually wrote the songs they perform). Sure it can get hot there, but you move slow, live for the nighttime when the campgrounds come alive, and head to the river every day for a dip in some cool spring water.

If you Dudes can't come then, but are still interested in a visit here, consider that the 10th Anniversary of The Big Lebowski is coming up soon!