truffles, turtles & tunes

The Loop

2012-01-09T10:27:00.000-05:00

It's no wonder British author Nicholas Evans writes interesting books. He leads an interesting life. He studied law at Oxford University, worked as a journalist, produced documentary films, and has traveled extensively. He is best known for his debut novel, The Horse Whisperer. If you didn't read the book, maybe you saw the movie directed by and starring Robert Redford.

The Loop is a novel based on the re-introduction of wolves to the Rocky Mountains. The wolf colony that was brought to Yellowstone National Park has grown, and wolf packs have spread outside the park. In the town of Hope, Montana, ranchers strongly oppose the wolf's return; environmentalists support it. The local U.S. Fish & Wildlife agents find themselves squarely in the middle of the controversy. The book opens with a wolf attack on the property of Buck Calder, a very influential rancher. The "special agent" called in by the local Fish & Wildlife office to investigate wolf activity in the area is a biologist named Helen Ross who is running away from a love life gone bad as much as she is running towards a challenging new job. From there, the plot unfolds.

What makes The Loop particularly engaging is all the information that accompanies the plot's adventure, intrigue, and romance. The facts about wolves as well as the politics and the various opinions about the re-introduction of wolves are solid and clearly explained. The real "hook" that held my interest throughout the 544 pages was the detailed descriptions of what field biologists actually do. Their work with wolves runs the gamut from computer technology to wilderness tracking and physical contact with the wolves themselves -- examining them and attaching tracking devices. Very cool stuff!

I liked The Loop for a few personal reasons as well. It recalled for me some wonderful vacations in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier National Parks. I'm also very interested in wildlife and I knew very little about wolves before reading this book. Finally, I must admit that a love story thrown into the mix has its appeal as well. All in all, The Loop is a fascinating tale that weaves many elements together into a most enjoyable book.

Additional information on wolves:

Ralph Maughan's Wildlife Reports on Yellowstone and Idaho Wolves
The Wildlife News, blog by Ralph Maughan with many posts on wolves
The Wolves of Yellowstone, National Park Service website with map of wolf territories and charts of pack estimates
Gray Wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains, US Fish & Wildlife Service website
In the Valley of the Wolves, PBS special on wolves. The first episode is viewable in its entirety online.

Note: On October 4, 2011, the US Fish and Wildlife service announced its proposal to remove the gray wolf in Wyoming from the List of Endangered and Threatened Species, claiming that its numbers demonstrate it no longer needs protection. Hearings are in progress and information is being collected. Needless to say, the wolf controversy is far from over.

To see blog posts about other books I've read, click HERE.

© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

This Is Not The Story You Think It Is...

2011-12-28T23:30:00.000-05:00

This is Not the Story You Think It Is... A Season of Unlikely Happiness is often misunderstood or misrepresented. Many online reviews say it's about how one woman saved her marriage. Those reviews prove only that the reviewer really didn't "get it." No, this book by Laura Munson is really about how a woman married 20 years saved herself.

The premise for this book appeared first as a Modern Love column in the New York Times on July 31, 2009. The column was entitled Those Aren't Fighting Words, Dear. The enormous response generated by that column resulted in a book contract for Laura Munson. She was thrilled. After having 14 books rejected, finally she would have one published.

This tale of self-discovery and transformation begins with Munson pondering whether or not her husband will return after he said he didn't love her any more and walked out on her and their two children. In the first chapter Munson tells us her strategy: No matter what happens, she is going to commit herself to not suffering. Munson resolves not to play the role of victim. She will offer alternatives that will give her husband the space and time he needs to work through his issues. She will keep family disruption to a minimum. She will create beauty and harmony at home. She will continue to write. Above all, she will strive to keep a positive outlook. What follows the first chapter are the details of how Laura Munson survives the four months it takes her husband to realize he does love her and rejoin the family.

This is Not the Story You Think It Is... offers a close look at one woman's struggle to maintain her own perspective during a time of crisis and confusion. Munson allows us to share her panic and her fears as well as her hard-won insights and triumphs of spirit. It's difficult not to hold her account before you like a mirror. Let's face it: we married women can all use help and inspiration. Staying grounded as an individual while making the compromises marriage and family demand is difficult, even in the best of times.

As a memoir, This is Not the Story You Think It Is... will make you laugh and cry and experience suspense as you watch the events unfold. As a self-help book, you can use Munson as a role model for some techniques you want to incorporate in your own life. Either way, This is Not the Story You Think It Is... is an interesting, compelling, and rewarding book. So totally the opposite of Family Ties, which I reviewed yesterday.

Here's a few selected reviews of This is Not the Story You Think It Is... :

"Her Husband of 20 Years Said, 'I Want Out. I Don't Love You.' She Said, 'I Don't Buy It.' And Then..." Huffington Post, Jessie Kornbluth, March 26, 2010
Washington Post review, April 9, 2010
This Is Not The Story You Think It Is: A Review and A Resolution, Not Just Another Jen, (blog) , Janary 12, 2011

To see blog posts about other books I've read, click HERE.

© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Family Ties

2011-12-27T00:45:00.000-05:00

I read Family Ties because I found myself in an airport without a book to take onto the plane. Having never read anything by Danielle Steel, I hoped this book would be an absorbing page-turner that would make the flight pass quickly. WRONG! Family Ties was predictable and repetitive and contained no pithy truths about family relationships.

The premise of Family Ties is that we all need family relationships much more than we think we do. This should not come as news to most people. The novel revolves around Annie Ferguson, who raised her sister's three children after her sister died. The children are now young adults and embarking on their own lives. Annie finally has time to build a life of her own, despite struggling with a bad case of empty nest syndrome. The book follows Annie and her nieces and nephew as they explore the various options life offers them. In the end, they all realize they still need each other.

My main gripe was that Ms. Steel kept repeating so many of her points so often. She obviously thought I wouldn't "get it" if she didn't spell it out for me... over and over and over. The 348-page book could have been 100 pages shorter if all the repetition had been removed.

Danielle Steel has written about 85 novels as well as some non-fiction and children's books. She has sold more than 800 million copies of her books worldwide and holds the distinction of being the bestselling author alive today. (See the Wikipedia links for the source of those statistics.) Nevertheless, I'm afraid I'm not one of her fans. In fact, reading Family Ties has cured me of wanting to read any more of Danielle Steel's books.

Next time, if I don't have a book to take onto the plane, I'll watch the movie -- or sleep.

To see blog posts about other books I've read, click HERE.

© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

A Case of Need

2011-12-26T16:28:00.000-05:00

A Case of Need is a novel based on the facts and politics of abortion before Roe vs. Wade. The book was published in 1968 under the pseudonym of Jeffery Hudson and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1969. In 1993 A Case of Need was re-released under the author's real name, Michael Crichton.

In this book Crichton creates fictional characters that present us with compelling arguments in favor of abortion, both from the medical as well as the practical point of view. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Crichton was well acquainted with the fact that illegal abortions were "about 25 times more deadly than they had to be." Using the format of a novel, Crichton illustrated the ramifications of abortion in the lives of his well drawn characters. Click HERE to read a summary of the book's plot and of Crichton's opinions on abortion.

Reading A Case of Need forty-three years after it was written caused me to reflect on current attitudes about abortion. In certain respects we have come a long way towards realizing that abortion should be a woman's choice based on her overall circumstances. However, the opposition is still very vocal and has been successful in reclaiming some of the ground gained in the period that followed the writing of Crichton's book.

Although I read A Case of Need from cover to cover, I must admit it was often tough going. Abortion is, after all, not very entertaining. The fact that the main character is a pathologist and the plot contains many descriptions of autopsies lent a macabre element to certain parts of the book. Despite the intrigue created by the pathologist's quest to find out who was really guilty of botching the abortion on the disturbed daughter of a respected heart surgeon, I found myself repeatedly concluding that abortion is a very difficult subject for mass-market fiction. Perhaps the fact murder mysteries are much more common than abortion mysteries is evidence that abortion is still a highly charged and divisive issue. Kudos to Michael Crichton illuminating and de-mystifying the procedure itself and the complex social and personal implications that surround it.

A Case of Need is an interesting and worthwhile read, especially if you didn't live through the stormy times in which it was written.

To see blog posts about other books I've read, click HERE.

© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

An Irish Christmas, A Musical Solstice Celebration

2011-12-19T00:51:00.000-05:00

They say good things come in threes... and here is the third CD this year on which the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra appears. Amazing!

An Irish Christmas, A Musical Solstice Celebration was recorded last year during the Irish Christmas shows at the Irish Arts Center. The Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra has been part of these shows since their inception four years ago, so it was only natural that we should appear on the CD. Our track is a song called The Rebel Jesus written by Jackson Browne. Louise Sullivan is the lead vocalist.

Here is the complete track listing:

1. The Holly and the Ivy
2. Christmas Day
3. Jigs: Trip to Athlone / Castletown Connors | Reels: Father Kelly's / Man of the House
4. The Bushes of Jerusalem
5. Christmas in the Trenches
6. O D’wata Holi Kemudnung / Pangulawit
7. Slow Air: Port na bPúcaí (the Tune of the Fairies) | Reels: The Piper on Horseback / Lady on the Island / The Foxhunter’s
8. The Buskers

9. The Rebel Jesus

10. Celebration
11. Breaking Up Christmas
12. Miss Fogarty’s Christmas Cake
13. The Cherry Tree Carol
14. The Wren Song
15. Reels: The Girl Who Broke My Heart / My Love is in America / Christmas Eve

All the tracks are really good, not your usual saccharin Christmas fare. The performances as well as the production are top notch, just as you would expect from Mick Moloney and the Irish Arts Center. Yet again, I'm really proud to have had a part in this CD.

If you like seasonal music, you will definitely want this CD. You can order it from the Irish Arts Center by clicking HERE.

© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

In Partnership with the Poor

2011-12-06T08:44:00.000-05:00

Artwork by the children of the Mercy Centre

NEWS FLASH!!!

"Waltz Me Around Again, Willie" -- my song with the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra -- has been released on the CD entitled In Partnership with the Poor: Irish musicians for the Mercy Centre, pictured above.

To order, click HERE.

Your purchase will help fund a music program for the children of the Mercy Centre, a highly successful charitable organization in Bangkok, Thailand.

Maybe you're wondering how the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra (WSHSO) came to be involved with an organization on the other side of the world. Well, Mick Moloney who sponsors our group spends a portion of every year at the Mercy Centre. He has been most impressed with their work with children and communities in the desperately poor Bangkok slums. The children are often orphans, victims of AIDS and/or various types of abuse. The Mercy Centre provides schools, hospitals, homes and, above all, love. From time to time, Mick sends the WSHSO reports from the Mercy Centre. Some members of our group, like Donie Carroll, have visited there. After his visit, Donie felt compelled to do something to help the kids, and thus his CD project was born.

Many events have promoted the sale of the CD:

October 10 - golf outing at Forest Park Golf Course sponsored by the Grandstand Pub and Restaurant in Elmhurst (Queens), NY
November 14 - concert at Irish Repertory Theatre in Manhattan
November 19 - Murphy's Bar in Sunnyside (Queens), NY
November 24 - The Landmark Tavern in Manhattan
November 30 - Dunne's Pub in White Plains, NY
December 11 - Shanachie Irish Pub and Restaurant in Ambler, PA near Philadelphia

In Partnership with the Poor is a compilation of songs from many artists, all of whom contributed tracks free of charge. The 20 tracks constitute a really nice mix of Irish music in a variety of styles. Below are the songs and artists:

Rolling Hills of the Border - Emily McShane and Girsa
McNally's Row of Flats - Mick Moloney
The Night the Goat Broke Loose on Grand Parade - Donie Carroll
The Cat's Meow - Joanie Madden and Cherish the Ladies
Dancing at Whitsun - Marian Makins and Gabriel Donohue
Walts Me Around Again, Willie - Linda Mason Hood and the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra
Star of the County Down - Congressman Joe Crowley and Sean Crowley
The Fox and the Hare - Jimmy Crowley
Miltown Malbay - Victor Cuneen
In Memory of Coleman / Paddy Fahy's - Athena Tergis
The Jetty Queen / The Apple Tree Polka - Máirtín de Cógáin
The Ploughboy - Sean Hennessy and Blackwater
Days of Wonder - Mick Curry
Maudabawn Chapel / Never Was Piping So Gay / Fisherman's Island - Brian Conway and Brendan Dolan
Uncle Jim - Larry Kirwan and Black 47
Murphy Can Never Go Home - Donie Carroll
Johnny, Lovely Johnny - Kitty Kelly
Young Reilly, The Fisherman - Deirdre and Mattie Connolly
Danny Boy - Cathie Maguire
Surgo Hodie / I Rise Today - Marian Makins and Gabriel Donohue

Please give In Partnership with the Poor to lots of people this holiday season. Since all the music and labor was donated, 100% of the proceeds will go to the Mercy Centre in Bangkok. It's the gift that keeps giving!! Place your order today.

© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Tributes to Mike Rafferty

2011-11-28T22:45:00.000-05:00

Mike Rafferty died on September 13, 2011. If you're a regular or even an occasional reader of this blog, you know that Mike was very important to me. To officially mark his passing, I have noted below the many remembrances he received. I have compiled this list mainly for myself, but others may find such a reference meaningful or useful.

TRIBUTE FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY

PRESS TRIBUTES

On September 14, NorthJersey.com, the online version of the local paper in the area where Mike lived, reported the news of Mike's passing.
Mike Rafferty of Hasbrouck Heights, legend of Irish traditional music, dies at 84

On September 23, Paul Keating of IrishCentral.com wrote a lovely description of the funeral and tribute to Mike.
The heart of Irish traditional musician Mike Rafferty

On September 28, Earl Hitchner of The Irish Echo wrote a beautiful tribute which included comments about Mike from various well-known Irish musicians.
A Music-Filled Farewell to Mike Rafferty

TRIBUTES FROM BLOGS AND IRISH MUSIC WEBSITES

September 13, Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, Mid-Atlantic Region's newsletter
Farewell Mike Rafferty

September 14, World Music Central
Renowned Irish Musician and National Heritage Fellow Mike Rafferty Dies at 84

September 15, Gwen Orel of New York Irish Arts
Safe home, Mike Rafferty (1926-2011). Mick Moloney on "The Mighty Raff".

September 16, IrishPhiladelphia carried some reflections by Gabriel Donohue
In Memory of Mike Rafferty

September 18, Ramblinghouse
Death of Flute Player, Mike Rafferty

October 30, Truffles Turtles & Tunes
Rafferty, a piece written by Mike's protege, Brian Holleran. (Brian's tribute was originally posted on Facebook on September 14, 2011.)

November 18, Truffles Turtles & Tunes
Fatherly Connecgtions, my own tribute detailing the similarities and differences between Mike and my own father.

RADIO TRIBUTES

September 17, "A Thousand Welcomes" on WFUV Fordham University Radio, 90.7 FM - Kathleen Biggins host
September 17, "The Wind that Blows" on Shannonside.ie, Shannon, Ireland
September 18, "The Traditional Hour," Cork Community Radio, 100.5 FM Cork, Ireland - Jessie Cawley host
September 18, Manao Radio, 91.5 FM, Maui, Hawaii
October 11, "The West Wind" on Clare FM, - Claire Kelville host

If I have missed any significant memorials, please post a comment or email me.

__________________________

To see all my blog posts that mention Mike Rafferty, click HERE.

Fatherly Connections

2011-11-18T23:22:00.000-05:00

Ralph Mason (left) and Mike Rafferty (right)

Ralph Mason and Mike Rafferty were two very different men. Ralph was my father, Mike was my flute teacher. I began lessons with Mike in 2004, six years after my father died. Over time, I found myself making comparisons between them. A few similarities existed despite the fact that other things about them seemed to be reversed, just like their initials.

One hundred and two years ago today -- November 18, 1909 -- my father, Ralph William Mason, and his twin brother Roy were born. They were descendants of Robert L. Mason, who came from East London, England, in 1775 to fight in the Revolutionary War. Ralph lived his whole life in or near Indianapolis, Indiana. Golf was his major passion. He died on February 9, 1998, at the age of 88.

Mike Rafferty was born on September 27, 1926. While he had six siblings, he wasn't a twin. He was born and lived the East Galway region of Ireland until he emigrated to the United States in 1949. Music was his passion, and I never heard him mention golf. He died on September 13, 2011, at the age of 84.

Despite different heritages and circumstances, these two men bore a physical resemblance to each other. They were about the same height and had the same general body type. Both had a wide forehead, a square jaw, and rather large ears -- and they wore similar glasses. The resemblance was especially strong on the days when Mike wore his shirt with the vertical maroon stripes, so similar to the one my father is wearing in the collage above. (Click the collage to enlarge it.)

(Photo by Kitty Kelly, used with permission)

Like Mike, Ralph was musically talented. In addition to singing in the choir of every church he attended, my dad also sang solos and duets. He had a lovely baritone voice.

Like Mike, Ralph didn't read music. As a choir member, my dad would always place himself next to the strongest singer in the bass section and, listening carefully during rehearsal, he would learn the bass part by ear. He got so adept at learning by ear that nobody realized he was only reading the words, not the notes, when he held up the music and sang.

My dad always encouraged me in all my music activities, but never in a way that created expectations or pressure. He was happy if I was enjoying myself. I always felt the same could be said of Mike. The difference, however, was that Mike had a much deeper appreciation of how important music is to me.

My dad was a watchmaker, but before settling into that trade he did his fair share of manual labor and developed strong hands. I remember family friends often commenting about his large hands and thick fingers. "Ralph, how can you manage tiny watch parts with hands like those!" they would exclaim.

Mike had a strong frame from years of working in the warehouse for the Grand Union supermarket chain. He too had well developed, muscular hands. I loved watching Mike's hands. Watching his fingers helped me learn the tunes, of course, but every now and then I would think of my father's hands and for a fleeting moment the memory would warm my heart.

My father worked as a self-employed watchmaker until the last decade of his life. He also played golf all his life. As he took in fewer watches, he played more golf. Both activities were present throughout his life.

Mike, on the other hand, had little to no time for music when he was raising his five children. He sometimes worked as a bartender in addition to his "day job" at the Grand Union. His retirement from the Grand Union in 1989 brought a major change to his life. Suddenly he could devote himself to music. He taught at festivals here and in Ireland, he played regularly around the New York metropolitan area, and he made his first CD in 1995. His music really took off when he retired.

So many differences, and yet I feel a very strong fatherly connection to both men. Ralph taught me many things about life, and Mike helped me find a way to play the flute again.

Mike opened up a whole new musical world for me. He taught me not only tunes but, indeed, the essence of traditional Irish music and its central place in Irish culture. He showed me that one can strive to play really really well without the pressure and negativity I had experienced as a classical player.

Most importantly, though, Mike showed me by example that retirement can be a rich time of achievement and reward. There is hope...

Rest in peace, Mike.
Happy birthday, Daddy.
I miss you both.

__________________________

To see all my blog posts that mention Mike Rafferty, click HERE.

Rafferty

2011-10-30T14:21:00.000-04:00

There's been a bit of a lull since my last blog post. The event which threw me off track was the death of my flute teacher and mentor, Mike Rafferty, on September 13, 2011.

At the time of his passing, so many people posted touching tributes on Mike's Facebook page (which was and still is maintained by his family). The most moving of those remembrances, for me anyway, was the piece Brian Holleran wrote. Although my association with Mike was not as long or as intimate as Brian's, the essence of my relationship with Mike --- indeed, of Mike's relationship to all his students -- has much in common with what Brian describes below. Thanks, Brian, for giving words to what many have experienced and for allowing me to share it on my blog.

Rafferty
by Brian Holleran

Photo by Tom Madden, used with permission.

I began flute lessons with MikeRafferty when I was fourteen. My father would take me up to Rafferty's houseevery Friday after school. We’d come in the side door, down the stairs,into the basement to the music room. It was in this room that I learned,discovered, and explored an identity that I am still forging.

In the beginning I was a “tune hound.” My goal was to learn as much as possible,and Rafferty was more than generous with his music. Some weeks I’d comehome with close to ten new tunes. But I was young and immature. Ionly thought of him as a nice man who gave me loads of tunes and told me to“slow down.” I didn't understand who he really was and what he had tooffer me.

When I got to college, I wasn’t going to Rafferty’s every Friday so I had tomake good use of my time. I would bring him cassette tapes of sessions I hadattended in New York City and would ask Rafferty if he could teach me some ofthese tunes. For the most part he would know immediately what tune it wasand show me. There were other times when he would hear a tune and say, “Idon’t play that tune, but they’re playing it wrong.” This blew mymind! I thought, “Who does this guy think he is? He doesn’t knowthe tune but says the people who do know it aren’t playing it the rightway?” But I never challenged him…except this one time. I asked him,“How are they playing it wrong?” He then went on to tell me that he rememberedPaddy Cronin playing the tune at a Fleadh in 1960-something. They were ata pub and the All-Ireland Football Finals were on and that he played it with“such and such” tune. And then he began to figure the tune out. Hemanaged to remember the first time he heard the tune, what was going on, andthen recall the actual tune. That day I learned not to question theman. But I also realized something amazing. His ear and mind wereso trained he could recount moments in his life that related to tunes. His father and uncle were musicians, so he was born listening to music anddeveloped that ability at a young age.

It was in my first year of college that I had my musical epiphany. I wasgoing to sessions every night of the week, learning tunes and meeting alldifferent types of players. Being exposed to all of this, I realizedsomething different about Rafferty’s style. His was steady, deliberate,and truthful (a perfect description of the man himself). His had aneffective delivery of emotion. Finally, I realized what he’d been tryingto tell me all these years.

After this, I paid much more attention to what he did and said. I learnedtune after tune with greater intensity because of my new-found idea of whatgood music was. A lot of time was spent learning good habits and unlearning badones. Music lessons went from the regular one-hour session to threehours, and they became much more enjoyable for both of us.

Whenever I would go to Rafferty’s and we were out of ideas for tunes to learn,I would ask him for a waltz. Waltzes were always fun because I rememberedhim playing them with Joe Madden at the monthly céilí and everyone would be updancing and having a good time. My parents don’t dance sets, so this isalso when I would see them “cutting a rug.” This one particular time,Rafferty gave me a tune he learnt from his uncle. It was called “Over theWaves.” He told me there were two flute players, Jimmy Dillon and GilbyJennings, who would go around to different houses and be the “band.” Heremembered them playing this waltz as well. He also remembered not beingallowed to play tunes like this because they were considered “buttons and bows”and inappropriate for GAA-sponsored dances! [GAA = Gaelic Athletic Association]

I loved this waltz and, like any other tune I would learn, went to the sessionsto see if anyone else played the tune. Don Meade, the great organizer andencyclopedia of Irish music in New York City, said to me, “that’s not an Irishtune, that’s an American tune. There are words to it, ‘GeorgeWash-ing-ton Bridge…' ” This bit of information was hard toswallow. How could a tune I learned from my old Irish music teacher --who got it from his old uncle before he even moved to this country -- not beIrish? So I did a little research, and it turns out this waltz was writtenin Mexico by a native named Juventino Rosas and published in New Orleans in1884. The tune became popular in the US with circuses and vaudevilleshows and made its way over to Europe. It also made its way into acountry house in rural Ireland to a man who has never read a single note ofmusic. I love the journey of this tune. From Mexico to New Orleansto New York to Europe to Ireland to Rafferty’s childhood home, then back to theUnited States to Rafferty’s basement and now to me. The tune has beenconsidered Mexican, American, German, Austrian and Irish -- and every one of those characterizations is correct.

Rafferty was a vessel for that tune, just like he was for every tune he taughtme and countless other people. These tunes and this music come from a placeand time that we can only imagine. They call to mind the images with whichwe think these tunes were associated, and they recall images and memories from our own lives. Knowing where I learned a tune and who I learneda tune from is very important to me. I like knowing the names oftunes. It gives us context. It shows us that these tunes did notappear out of thin air. They connect us with our culture and the peoplewho have gone before us. They show us that we are part of a big pictureand something great in this world.

I was twenty-three the first time I was in East Galway with Rafferty. Bythis time I had had nine years of tunes and stories relating to EastGalway. We went for a walk around his family’s land, and he showed me whereall the people he had talked about lived. I saw where the Maloneyfamily of the famed Ballinakill Ceili Band came from. Rafferty said they weretailors and made him his first suit. He also pointed out various othermusician's houses he used to visit when he was a young man. It was as ifI was discovering the ground from which the music flowed.

While I was taking lessons, I was not only figuring out who I was musically butalso socially. Growing up with a father from Ireland and a mother whoseparents were from Ireland, I considered myself to be Irish. I playedIrish music and associated with Irish people. But when I would go toIreland, it was a different story. I wasn’t Irish at all. I wasonly American, a Yankee. This troubled me for a while because Ididn’t know which side of the fence I was on, but Rafferty showed me what it meant tobe both Irish and American.

He would tell me stories about playing atdances before he came to America, how he got a ride to the boat that broughthim over and the people he socialized with when he got here. I also heardstories about his days as a mechanic and his yearly trips back toIreland. When I listened to these stories, I noticed how perfectly theyfit together. They weren't exclusively Irish or American. They werea part of one identity that Rafferty embodied, the Irish-American. Heshowed me that I’m a part of this identity and that I have my own stories totell.

I feel the goal in life is to identify who you are in relation to the worldaround you. Rafferty did just that for himself and taught me the same byhis example. Rafferty is important to us all, not just as a cultural figurebut as a human being. His music [traditional Irish music] is associated with people and places. It’s a real living, breathing thing. It reminds us of good times and badtimes. It is a part of our everyday lives. It transcends beingIrish and gets at the core of what it means to be alive. With the musiche played and the tunes he gave us, Rafferty linked the past with the future andshowed us how we are all connected from generation to generation.

Brian Holleran is a high school counselor in Cleveland, Ohio. As you might imagine, he is a fantastic Irish flute player. Brian can be heard on the CD entitled Live At Mona's. Brian also teaches flute in Cleveland and at various Irish music festivals, passing on the tunes and style he learned from his mentor and friend, Mike Rafferty.

__________________________

To see all my blog posts that mention Mike Rafferty, click HERE.

Hawksbill Turtles Adapt

2011-09-03T13:24:00.000-04:00

Turtle Tidbit #6 reports the amazing discovery that the critically endangered Hawksbill Sea Turtle, thought to be nearly extinct in the eastern tropical Pacific, may not be in fact not so close to extinction after all. Now that fact alone is newsworthy, but the reason behind that statement is what really excited me. Get this: Hawksbill Turtles moved to a new habitat! Researcher Alexander R. Gaos says, "This is a unique behavior that represents a new life history paradigm for this species..." And we are talking about a species that's been around for millions of years. Imagine that!!

On September 1, 2011 ,Conservation International put out press release entitled Solving the Mystery of the Missing Hawksbills. It described the amazing discovery that Hawksbill turtles have been found living in mangrove estuaries rather than their customary habitat of coral and rocky reefs. The press release marked the day the original study was published in Biology Letters.

Conservation International also carried a wonderful blog post by Alexander R Gaos, lead author of this new Hawksbill research, in which Gaos conveys his excitement at the surprising discovery.

Click the link below to read the blog post:

Finding Hidden Hawksbills in the Eastern Pacific

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative (ICAPO), devoted to the preservation of Hawksbill turtles in the Eastern Pacific, Alexander R. Gaos - executive director
Hawksbill Sea Turtle, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fact sheet
Hawksbill Sea Turtle, Conservation International's web site

Hawksbill Sea Turtle, Wikipedia

Hawksbill Sea Turtles Not Extinct In Eastern Pacific (PHOTOS), Huffington Post, September 1, 2011.

Turtle Tidbits is a Truffles, Turtles & Tunes series that calls attention to news about turtles and tortoises. Since the news items themselves are copyrighted, I will post just the link accompanied by a short introductory comment and some followup information. To view all posts in the Turtle Tidbits series, click on its Topic Label in the navigation column on the right side of the screen.

Galapagos Tortoises

2011-08-18T14:59:00.002-04:00

Turtle Tidbit #5 is an "eyewitness report" on the giant tortoises of the Galapagos Islands. A friend of mine recently vacationed in the Galapagos Islands. Her adventure is recorded on her blog, From the Garrett. In her post on August 17, 2011, Nancy writes about her reactions as well as about the tortoises. What she says is exactly what I imagine I would be thinking if I had been there. I totally recommend this post to you, and be sure to double-click on her high resolution photos. Each time you click, the picture get bigger!

Click this link for the story:

Galapagos, Part 5: Dinosaurs with shells

Nancy is right when she calls these giant tortoises "dinosaurs with shells." Their history dates back 6-12 million years. See the Evolutionary History section of the Wikipedia article below for details.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Galapagos tortoise, Wikipedia page (REALLY extensive information.)
The Galápagos Tortoise Conservation Program: the Plight and Future for the Pinzón Island Tortoise, by Fred Caparoso. Published on the California Turtle & Tortoise Club's website.
The Endangered Galapagos Giant Tortoise, on a travel website called Discover Galapagos, Darwin's Enchanted Island.

Andre Returns to the Sea

2011-08-07T00:40:00.002-04:00

Turtle Tidbit #4 is a report on Andre, a green sea turtle who was severely injured by motorboat propellers in June 2010. Advanced medical techniques such as VAC therapy and Strattice Reconstructive Tissue Matrix implants saved Andre's life. Green sea turtles are classified as endangered in Florida, where this incident took place. Coverage appeared on Reuters website on August 5, 2011.

Click this link for the story:

Injured sea turtle returned in sea off U.S. coast

Click this link for the video:

Turtle heads home after receiving pioneering medical treatment

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

'Miracle Turtle' released as crowd cheers in Fla., Associated Press coverage
Green Sea Turtle,Wikipedia page (extensive information)
Green Sea Turtle, Chelonia mydas, NOAA Fisheries, Office of Protected Resources
ML Video 59485, Chelonia mydas, Green Turtle, Macaulay Library, Cornell Lab of Ornithology (underwater video)

RELATED POSTS on Truffles, Turtles & Tunes:

Sea Turtle Rescue in Texas, January 20, 2007
Sea Turtle Rescue Update, January 24, 2007
Sea Turtle Rescue Update and Pictures, February 6, 2007
Sea Turtle Release, February 24, 2007

Turtle Tidbits is a Truffles, Turtles & Tunes series that calls attention to news about turtles and tortoises. Since the news items themselves are copyrighted, I will post just the link accompanied by a short introductory comment and some followup information. To view all posts in the Turtle Tidbits series, click on its Topic Label in the navigation column on the right side of the screen.

© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Padraig O'Keeffe's Slide

2011-07-26T11:07:00.000-04:00

On April 27-30, 2011, I attended Cruinniú na bhFliúit (The Flute Gathering) in the village of Ballyvourney in West Cork, Ireland. Modeled after pipers' gatherings, this workshop is completely focused on traditional Irish flute playing with lots of good discussion of flutes, flute technique, flute problems, flute tunes, and various flute playing styles. Organizers Hammy Hamilton and Conal O'Grada keep the attendance intentionally small to allow people to become acquainted personally as well as musically. The intimacy that's achieved promotes learning and sharing.

Instruction is a core element of the Cruinniú. The 40 or so flute players in attendance were divided into four groups. Each group received three hours of instruction from each of the four teachers: Hammy Hamilton, Conal O'Grada, John Wynne, and Aoife Granville. Additionally, each person enjoyed 20 minutes of one-on-one advice from Tara Bingham whose flute clinic ran concurrent with the classes.

In this post I want to focus on one of the tunes we learned from Aoife (pronounced EE-fah) Granville, a Padraig O'Keeffe slide(1). O'Keeffe, a noted performer, teacher, and composer, came from the Sliabh Luchra area of Ireland near the borders of Counties Cork, Kerry, and Limerick where slides and polkas(1) are very popular. This slide was the first tune I learned at the Cruinniú. I had never heard it before (or so I thought), and I really liked it. In fact, I was quite taken with Aoife's playing and enjoyed all the tunes she taught us.

Aoife Granville

After I got home, I played the slide for some friends here in New York. Don Meade, well known in Irish music circles for his knowledge of tunes and their background, chuckled at my excitement over this tune and informed me that my Padraig O'Keeffe slide was in fact the traditional children's song Comin' Through the Rye. I have to admit that his comment deflated my enthusiasm just a little bit!

A few days later I did some internet research that put the tune in better perspective. According to Wikipedia, Robert Burns wrote the words to Comin' Through the Rye in 1782 and set them to the Scottish minstrel tune Common' Frae The Town which is also a variant of the tune used for Auld Lang Syne.(2) I read on TheSession.org that the earliest version of Comin' Through the Rye was called The Duke of Buccleughs Tune published in 1690.(3) So this is a VERY old tune.

These dates made me realize that I didn't know when Padraig O'Keeffe lived. A quick Google search revealed Padraig O'Keeffe's lifespan as 1887-1963.(4) In relation to Comin' Through the Rye, he was born about 100 years after Burns put words to the tune, so it is possible that he sang it as a child.

I also played O'Keeffe's slide for Sliabh Luchra fiddler, Tes Slominski. Tes commented that the first half of the slide is clearly related to a jig(1) called Haste to the Wedding.(5) Tes speculated that since O'Keeffe was a great one for making tunes out of other tunes, the resemblance was probably intentional.

Suddenly I realized that O'Keeffe's slide is a fascinating example of how traditional musicians regenerate and recycle tunes. I'm hypothesizing now, but perhaps O'Keeffe recast Comin' Through the Rye (a strathspey(1) in 4/4 rhythm, complete with Scottish snap) in the 12/8 meter of a slide because he was also familiar with Haste to the Wedding (a jig in 6/8 time). The slide version of this melodic material, with its internal triplets and slower tempo, allows time for players to insert some lovely ornamental flourishes. One could argue that O'Keeffe intended it that way, otherwise he would have written it as a reel(1). Pretty cool stuff!

To illustrate the difference, have a listen:

Click HERE to hear Aoife Granville's charmingly ornamented version of the Padraig O'Keeffe slide. (Thanks, Aoife, for granting me permission for me to the recording I made in our class on April 28, 2011.)

Now, click HERE for a plain-and-simple midi version of the familiar Comin' Through the Rye. Hear the resemblance?

Finally, click HERE to hear Haste from the Wedding as presented on the website of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, the worldwide association for the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music. The A-part of the tune is very much like Comin' Through the Rye, whereas the B-part is completely different.

_______________________________
References:
1) Rhythm (Tune Types) Definitions, from Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
2) Comin' Through the Rye, Wikipedia
3) Discussion of Comin' through the Rye, The Session
4) Padraig O'Keeffe, Wikipedia
5) Haste to the Wedding on TheSession.org

Additional information:

Kerry Fiddles. Topic Records TSCD309 - Padraig O'Keefe, Denis Murphy, Julia Clifford (picture of P O'Keefe on cover)
Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann - website home page
Haste to the Wedding is the first of three tunes in the well known dance set called "The Three Tunes:" Haste to the Wedding (a jig), Leslie's Hornpipe (a hornpipe), The German Beau (a reel).

© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

JFK's Tweeting Turtles

2011-06-29T23:57:00.014-04:00

Wikipedia's public domain photo by Mary Hollinger, NODC biologist, NOAA

Turtle Tidbit #3 is a report on the diamondback terrapins on the runway today at JFK International Airport. Flights were delayed by about 30 minutes while airport officials picked up the turtles and relocated them to a safer nesting area. JFK Airport borders Jamaica Bay where the turtles live. They leave the water every year around this time to lay eggs, and their appearance at JFK is an annual event. Today there seemed to be an unusually large number of them -- the highest count I read was 150.

The press had a field day with this story. Please check all the links below for the variety of pictures they contain as well as the audio from the flight tower.

The headlines ranged from factual ...

March of Turtles Snags JFK (Wall Street Journal)
Turtles on Runway Cause Airport Slowdown (NBC New York)
Finally! We’ve got actual pictures of the Turtles on the runway at JFK International Airport earlier today. (NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams)

... to whimsical.

Delays at JFK? This time, blame turtles (New York Times City Room Blog)
JFK turtles bring some NYC air traffic to a crawl Wednesday (Christian Science Monitor)
Turtles on Runway Shell Out JFK Delays (The Atlantic Wire)

Prize for the most outrageous headline goes to The New York Daily News:

JFK flights delayed because of sex-starved turtles crossing runway to get to breeding grounds

Unlike previous years, this year's internet savvy turtles wasted no time in getting themselves a Twitter account. News of their tweeting was nearly as big their presence on the runway!

Turtles Stop Traffic at New York's JFK Airport, and Promptly Get Twitter Account (Time Newsfeed)
The 'JFK Turtles' Are Back, And This Time They're Tweeting (The Two-Way, NPR's News Blog)

And of course, you will want to visit the JFK Turtles' Twitter site: JFKTurtles

I surely have had fun following the various news organizations as they posted their articles throughout the day. Turtles RULED today!!! Hopefully the local raccoons don't eat ALL the diamondback terrapin eggs. It would be a shame if all this turtle news didn't yield a good crop of turtles!

Turtle Tidbits is a Truffles, Turtles & Tunes series that calls attention to news about turtles and tortoises. Since the news items themselves are copyrighted, I will post just the link accompanied by introductory comments and some followup information. To view all posts in the Turtle Tidbits series, click on its Topic Label in the navigation column on the right side of the screen.

© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Advice on Snapping Turtle Eggs

2011-06-25T21:28:00.000-04:00

Photo by Brian Cook, used with permission

My friend Brian was excited to discover that his resident snapping turtle (Common Snapping Turtle, Chelydra serpentina) laid eggs in the field near the pond on his property. Sadly, the eggs never hatched. Instead, they provided a gourmet breakfast for some local crows. Brian wondered if he should have done something to protect the vulnerable eggs. Good question!

Trying to provide him with some sound advice, I checked all my favorite turtle sites on the internet and did numerous Google searches. Interestingly, I didn't come up with very much information, so I took my many questions to Julie Maguire, a New York State Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator who runs Turtle Rescue of Long Island. Here are her answers:

Aren't turtle eggs usually buried?

Yes. Generally the female snapping turtle digs a hole, moving the dirt or sand with her back feet. She lays her eggs in the hole, then she covers the eggs with the loose material she removed to make the hole. Since these eggs were out in the open, the female may have gotten scared off or interrupted by something or other before she finished her nesting ritual.

Would crows or raccoons have eaten the eggs if they were properly buried?

Perhaps. A nest of turtle eggs might be discovered by a hungry critter with a good snout. Crows or ravens would be more likely to go after easy food, grabbing exposed eggs or hatchlings.

Should you protect snapping turtle eggs?

Well, snappers in New York State are not threatened or endangered, so you could just leave Mother Nature alone. However, if done properly, there's no harm in protecting the eggs.

What is a good way to protect a nest of snapping turtle eggs?

Use an upside-down milk crate (or similar) with a heavy brick on top. This will allow air flow to keep temperatures normal but not confine the hatchlings when they emerge. The little snappers will break out of their eggs in six to ten weeks, depending upon the temperature. They will instinctively head for the pond. If you happen to be there, you can give them a hand and move them to the pond.

Is it ok to move a nest of snapping turtle eggs?

Yes, but follow a few simple precautions. Handle the eggs very gently and don’t turn them at all. The eggs need to stay in the same position so as not to detach the embryo.

What if you weren't very happy about a snapping turtle roaming about or about having turtle eggs hatch in your yard?

Try to be tolerant of the presence of the turtle. Keep in mind that snapping turtles leave the water only to nest. Once the eggs are laid, the turtle will head back to the pond. She won't be sticking around to tend the eggs. In any case, please don't try to move the turtle. You could get hurt if you don't do it properly, plus moving the turtle increases the chance that while trying to get back to her pond she will wander across a road and get hit by a car. This is the sad fate of all too many turtles at this time of year.

If you want to move the nest to a more out-of-the way spot, first give some thought to where the hatchlings will emerge and make sure they won't have to cross a road to get to water. After that, just follow the instructions in the question above.

RELATED POSTS on Truffles, Turtles & Tunes:

Close Encounter with a Snapping Turtle

Our State Turtle

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

What to do if you find an injured or ill turtle
How to help a Snapping Turtle Cross the Road (video by the Toronto Zoo)

© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Turtles Pay Tribute to Victims of War

2011-06-06T22:41:00.000-04:00

Turtle Tidbit #2 is a report on the sculpture installation by French artist Rachid Khimoune. Now installed on Normandy's Omaha Beach, the exhibit consists of 1000 soldier's helmets fashioned as turtles. It protests global violence and commemorates the 67th anniversary of D-Day. Coverage by The Associated Press appeared in many newspapers today.

Click this link:

EXHIBIT MARKS 67th ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY LANDING

Additional information:

This same installation, called 1000 Tortues-Casques, was in Paris near the Eiffel Tower in May, 2011. Click HERE to see pictures taken in Paris. Page through pictures 65-71.
Rachid Khimoune has featured turtles in various other works and projects. On his website, click on Sculptures, then Turtles.
Rachid Khimoune, Wikipedia page

In Pursuit of the Elusive Gopher Tortoise

2011-06-05T11:55:00.001-04:00

(This post is a follow-up to my previous post dated May 18, 2011.)

Less than a week after learning gopher tortoises existed, I found myself in gopher tortoise territory. If there were enough gopher tortoises to warrant road signs, surely I could see one during our four-day visit to Sanibel Island to attend my cousin's wedding. I vowed to check out a few places where gopher tortoises might be seen in the free time between wedding events and family gatherings.

My husband and son accompanied me to the J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. We didn't see a gopher tortoise, although we saw one's shell in the museum. Raccoons were the big attraction of the day. We watched as they searched for food right outside the museum's front entrance, then at the sound of a siren all three scampered up a nearby tree. You wouldn't believe how fast they climb!

I contacted blogger Corky Boyd for advice after reading his post (with great pictures) about turtle and tortoise sightings in the area. Corky recommended Cabbage Key, a small island just north of Santibel-Captiva, as the best place to spot gopher tortoises. He also reported seeing a gopher tortoise on the south side of Dunlop Road near City Hall. He added that the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF) might have additional suggestions. An SCCF staffer confirmed that gopher tortoises live in their wildlife sanctuary and that gopher tortoises can even be seen in the late afternoon grazing along the Sanibel-Captiva Road bike path.

Getting back to my story, without checking where Dunlop Road was, I just assumed Corky was referring to the Fort Myers City Hall. Jaded New Yorker that I am, I just didn't expect a place as small as Sanibel Island to have it's own City Hall. Wrong! Any map would have revealed that the Sanibel City Hall's address is 800 Dunlop Road. It was very close to where I was staying and might have been a better choice. Anyway, I picked what I thought was the only choice given scheduling constraints: the SCCF preserve.

Entering the building that housed the SCCF office and exhibition space, my son Michael and I looked at some of the turtles in tanks. There were some pretty diamondback terrapins, some cute little slider and cooter hatchlings, a young softshell, and this wonderfully prehistoric-looking Florida snapper.

At the rear of the building was a boardwalk heading towards the wildlife sanctuary. We were told that it led to the gopher tortoise's burrow. We strolled to the end of the boardwalk, turned right onto the trail, and soon saw the opening to the burrow. Very impressive!

I was surprised to see that the burrow's entryway was so big, as gopher tortoises themselves are only 12-16 inches long. They must be excellent diggers because the average burrow is about 30 feet long and 3-20 feet deep. The burrows provide shelter from weather extremes and safety from predators. Gopher tortoises share their burrows with other species such as indigo snakes, gopher frogs, mice, foxes, skunks, opossums, rabbits, quail, armadillos, burrowing owls, snakes, lizards, frogs, toads and other invertebrates. All can coexist peacefully because gopher tortoises are strict vegetarians.

Seeing the burrow was very cool, but I still wanted to see its tortoise occupant. I decided to hike further on the nearby sandy trail into the thick growth of trees and scrubby plants. Michael tried to warn me about the mosquitoes, but I was determined to see a gopher tortoise if at all possible. Off we went. A swarm of mosquitoes immediately descended on us with full intention of stripping the flesh right off our bones. It took only about two minutes for me to realize that this hike was a VERY BAD IDEA. To Michael's great relief, I quickly conceded defeat and we fled the tropical "paradise" for civilization and shelter. A few days later I counted more than 80 bites on my arms, legs, face and neck.

Anyway, thanks to Wikipedia, here is what I was TRYING to see:

(public domain photo by Gary Foster)

If I get down to the Sanibel-Captiva area again, I'll make every effort to get to Cabbage Key... wearing protective clothing from head to toe and doused in insect repellent!

© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Gopher Tortoise and NASA Space Shuttle

2011-05-18T11:21:00.007-04:00

Turtle Tidbit #1 (the first post in my new series) is an AFP photo by Bruce Weaver published by Yahoo! News. The photo, seen by clicking the link below, was taken at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It depicts a gopher tortoise against the backdrop of a NASA space shuttle. This photo is truly a contrast between the old and the new because the gopher tortoise originated in North America 60 million years ago, making it one of the oldest living species.

Click this link:

GOPHER TURTLE CROSSES CRAWLERWAY

A few facts:

Gopher tortoises live in deep burrows which provide them with a constant, comfortable temperature.
Gopher tortoises are vegetarians and eat grasses, fruit, legumes, and even flowers.
Gopher tortoises are categorized as "Threatened" on Florida's Endangered Species list. The main reason their numbers are decreasing is loss of habitat.
In the past, many gopher tortoises were killed either for food or by people who were trying to kill the rattlesnakes that often share their burrows. Today, Florida law protects both the gopher tortoise and its burrow.

Please see my June 5 follow-up post, In Pursuit of the Elusive Gopher Tortoise, and the other links below for additional information:

Gopher Tortoise Facts, Gopher Tortoise Services Inc. website
Gopher Tortoises, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission website
Gopher Tortoise, Wikipedia page
The Gopher Tortoise, A Species of Special Concern on the website of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. Fascinating account of how gopher tortoises moved into a St. Augustine yard that had been left to revert to it's natural vegetative state.

Waltz Me Around Again, Willie

2011-04-14T19:02:00.000-04:00

Updated November 28, 2011

That's my song!

I sang it at Symphony Space on March 10th, backed by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra, and three harmony singers ...

I sang it again on March 18th at the Blarney Star concert at Glucksman Ireland House to launch the WSHSO's new CD ...

I recorded it with the WSHSO in May ...

I sang it at the launch of the Mercy Centre fundraiser CD, In Partnership With The Poor, on November 14 at the Irish Repertory Theatre ...

And it's now it's available for purchase!!

To order, click HERE.

Waltz Me Around Again, Willie was written by Will D. Cobb (lyrics) and Ren Shields (music) for a 1906 vaudeville production called “Miss Dolly Dollars.” The song immediately became a #1 hit and was popular for years afterward.

Harpo Marx was very fond of Waltz Me Around Again, Willie. He refers to it many times in his biography, "Harpo Speaks!" His one-fingered version was the first song he learned on the piano. Later in his career, when his piano playing utilized all ten fingers, Harpo introduced Waltz Me Around Again, Willie as a hilarious improvised climax to a Marx Brothers performance in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Here's Harpo's description: "we played a six-handed, three-keyed version ... Chico on the stool, me sitting on Chico's shoulders, and Groucho crouching behind us, reaching his arms around Chico like tentacles, with all of us singing. We collapsed like a house of cards... We had never had such fun or such an ovation before." (page 118, "Harpo Speaks!")

This popular parlour song found its way into the works of some well-known writers. In a scene from his 1932 comedy "Ah! Wilderness" Eugene O'Neill has one of the actors whistling Waltz Me Around Again, Willie. John Cheever mentions the song in "The Wapshot Chronicle," and James Joyce refers to it in "Finnegan's Wake." In "Look Homeward, Angel" Thomas Wolfe employs Waltz Me Around Again, Willie as a figure of speech meaning "here we go again!" This usage illustrates the fact that the song was so widely known that it had become an idiomatic exclamation, one which you might still hear today.

Waltz Me Around Again, Willie came to me from Thailand. Mick Moloney, who sponsors the WSHSO, heard the song at the Mercy Centre where he spends half of every year working with Father Joe Maier and others who care for abandoned, orphaned, and trafficked children in the slums of Bangkok. It seems that Waltz Me Around Again, Willie is Father Joe's favorite song! Mick thought it would be a good song for me to do with the group.

Upon receiving the mp3 file Mick sent me, I was immediately struck by the song's old-fashioned charm and a delightful humorous outlook. It refers to things that barely exist any more like dry goods stores and the magic of waltzing away your everyday cares.

In the picture above, I am singing Waltz Me Around Again, Willie at the WSHSO's big CD launch concert on March 18th. To quote a phrase from the song: "I feel like a ship on an ocean of joy..."

The WSHSO recorded my song in May. Production on the track was finished in the fall. Willie is our group's contribution to a fund raising CD for the Mercy Centre. I'm just ever so grateful to Mick for asking me to sing this song, and I'm equally pleased that it will be used to support such a great cause. Please buy a copy. To order, click HERE. Share my happiness and support the Mercy Centre!

In the meantime, if you're not familiar with Waltz Me Around Again, Willie, have a listen to Billy Murray's version recorded on an Edison cylinder in 1906.

Since Maggie Dooley Learned the Hooley Hooley

2011-03-18T11:30:00.004-04:00

The Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra's FIRST CD is finished and released and available NOW on CDBaby and iTunes. Entitled Since Maggie Dooley Learned the Hooley Hooley, it features a great selection of traditional tunes and songs, many from the Golden Age of Irish-American music-making in the 1920s and ’30s.

Paul Keating of the weekly Irish Voice newspaper gave our CD a very favorable review on Wednesday, March 9, 2011. The Irish Central website carried Paul's review on Friday, March 11. Please click HERE to check out the wonderful picture of our group as well as the lovely things Paul has to say about our music.

The WSHSO has been talking about the CD all week in our various St. Patrick's season performances. We've even sold a few copies! However, we will officially launch our CD tonight in the Blarney Star concert series at New York University's Glucksman Ireland House. There will be food beforehand, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if the post-concert partying spills over into a nearby pub.

Since receiving my copy of the CD about a week ago, I've listened to it numerous times. I am so very pleased with it. We all are! The songs offer a view of life as lived by everyday people of another era. The instrumental music is exuberant and glorious and will make you dance around the house. The last set of reels is pure joy. I know I'm anything but impartial, but I believe you definitely will want to own a copy of this CD!!

To illustrate why, here's a sample track: a song called Arrah, come in out of the rain, Barney McShane. "Arrah" is a Gaelic expression indicating mild surprise. Apparently it was part of the slang of the 1920's. The song is sung by Donie Carroll, accompanied by the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra. Kate Bowerman supplies a delightful piccolo accompaniment, another throwback to the 1920's when piccolos were common in the bands used in vaudeville shows and in Irish dance halls. So listen, enjoy... then hop on over to CDBaby and order your very own copy today!

© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

WSHSO on Facebook!

2011-03-14T01:33:00.000-04:00

Here's the link to the Facebook fan page for my Irish music group, the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra. If you're a "Facebook person," please click on the image below and LIKE us. Things are really popping these days, and we're posting frequent updates and lots of pictures!

St. Patrick's Day Performances, 2011

2011-03-05T11:33:00.140-05:00

(updated on March 20th with pictures and videos links!)

The season of St. Patrick actually began for me before I turned the calendar into March. The Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra started rehearsing quite some time ago for our upcoming concerts. Here's a list of all our gigs, including the March 18th launch of our new CD Since Maggie Dooley Learned the Hooley Hooley.

To see how this year's performances compare with years past, click on the new label I created for St. Patrick's Day posts. Look under Topic Labels, on the right side of the screen.

3/4/2011 -- The St. Pat’s For All Benefit Concert
The WSHSO played at the annual fundraiser in support of the inclusive St. Pat’s For All Parade taking place Sunday, March 6 in Sunnyside, Queens. St. Pat’s For All celebrates the diversity of the Irish and Irish American communities of New York. The fundraiser was held at the Irish Arts Center.

3/6/2011 - WSHSO appearance on Ceol na nGael, WFUV, 90.7 FM
We were on the air for about 25 minutes. Click HERE to hear our portion of the program.

Liz Hanley, me, Don Meade, Donie Carroll, Gail Neely holding Henry Neely

and Mick Moloney in WFUV's studio in December, 2010.

3/8/2010 - Reception at the home of the Irish Consul General
Consul General Noel Kilkenny hosted a party to congratulate us on our new CD. Attendance was by invitation only. How cool is that!

Noel Kilkenny (left) looks on as our group gets organized to play a selection from our new CD. I am the blurry one in the middle, leaning over to consult with Mick Moloney.

3/10/2011 - St. Patrick's Cathedral Irish Heritage Concert
Free concert featuring the St. Patrick's Choir, Mick Moloney and friends, and the WSHSO. Here we are, sitting in the sanctuary on the steps next to the crypt where the archbishops are buried, waiting our turn in the program.

Photo by Deborah Kapchan, used with permission.

The link below is to a website called Currents, a daily online Catholic News magazine, which features a 3-minute video story about the annual Irish Heritage concert. Mick Moloney is interviewed, and there's footage of us on stage in this year's concert. Have a look!

An Irish Concert at St. Patrick’s Cathedral – 3/17/11 : Currents

3/11/2011 - Tribute to the Famous McNultys
The WSHSO joined Mick Moloney and friends at Symphony Space to celebrate the McNulty family, the last of the great vaudevillians in America.

Photo by Scott Spencer, used with permission.

3/12/2011 - St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral
The WSHSO played for the reception following the Gaelic mass at noon. Here we are, wishing the sun would come back out. It was a chilly 50 degrees.

photo belonging to Lisa Farber (center flute player), used with permission

The link below will take you to another video from the Currents website. This one explains a bit about Old St. Pat's and the importance of the Gaelic mass. And once again, there is footage of us performing at the reception.

A Mass in Ireland’s Mother Tongue – 3/17/11 : Currents

3/18/2011 - Blarney Star Concert Series: WSHSO CD Launch Concert
This was the official launch of our new CD, Since Maggie Dooley Learned the Hooley Hooley, which features a great selection of traditional tunes and songs, many from the Golden Age of Irish-American music-making in the 1920s and ’30s. (for more info, see my March 18th post)

3/19/2011 - Edison Place restaurant in Glendale, Queens
I played Irish tunes with Liz Kennedy Bradley and Donie Carroll of the WSHSO, entertaining patrons in the bar/restaurant between 10 and midnight.9 and 11 pm. Part of our remuneration was a wonderful dinner. Donie was particularly happy with his dessert - vanilla ice cream with fresh berries, topped with a sprig of mint and an almond cookie, served in a milkglass dessert cup resembling a waffle cone!

Photo by Liz Kennedy Bradley, used with permission.

Finally, let me wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day. And hey, if you abbreviate name of this holiday, check out Paddy, not Patty to ensure you do it correctly!

© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Three Days in the Olympic Peninsula

2011-02-25T09:03:00.000-05:00

(Part I of a three-part series on my 2010 vacation in the Pacific Northwest)

I hate winter. One of my most effective coping devices involves either planning future vacations or reliving vacations I've taken in the past. In the spirit of getting through the winter, then, here's the first of a three-part series devoted to my excursion to the Pacific Northwest in September of 2010, when my husband and I toured through the Olympic Peninsula, Seattle, southern British Columbia, and the Mt. Baker wilderness.

Part I will confine itself to our three days in the Olympic Peninsula. Our route is depicted below. The various locations I describe will match the letters on the map.

View Larger Map

Sept-03-2010: Dan and I flew six hours from New York City to the Seattle-Tacoma Airport (A), then drove three hours west of Seattle to our first night's destination: Lake Quinault Lodge (B) in the Olympic National Park.

View of the main lodge from the dock

Lake Quinault Lodge, built in 1926, is one of the "great lodges" of National Parks. PBS has a series of videos called Great Lodges in which they explore these unique historic accommodations built in various scenic locations in the US and Canada.

Dan, taking in sunset over Lake Quinault from an Adirondack yard chair on the lawn

With the lodge behind us and the lake in front of us, we began to unwind from our long day of travel. We laughed as new mounds of dirt appeared on the lawn next to our chairs, the result of some industrious gophers. We also enjoyed watching the antics of the Steller's jays, a West coast bird we don't see very often. A peaceful, colorful sunset over Lake Quinault made us know that our vacation had truly begun.

Sept-04-2010: Still jet-lagged, we woke up before 6 AM and decided to go for an early morning hike. We rambled around a 3-mile loop through some really lush rain forest terrain.

After our hike we had breakfast in the lodge before checking out. The morning's drive took us north on Route 101, first through wooded areas then along the Pacific coastline. We stopped at Kalaloch Lodge (C) to stretch our legs and enjoy some incredible ocean views.

Morning mist over the Pacific Ocean

Driftwood at the mouth of the Kalaloch Creek

Our next destination was the town of Neah Bay where we visited the Makah Museum and Cultural Research Center (D). The exhibits in the museum are devoted to the many artifacts from the nearby village of Ozette, buried in a mudslide more than 500 years ago. A storm in 1970 exposed the artifacts, and archaeologists working with the Makah people were able to study the details of life long ago, previously known only through oral tradition. For more information, please browse the links below:

After several hours in the museum, we stopped at Washburn's General Store in Neah Bay to pick up our parking permit for Cape Flattery (E), the northwest-most point of the United States. Leaving the car in the parking lot (where there is no view whatsoever), we hiked on elevated walkways out to the point.

Some of the trees were quite amazing!

After a short walk, this view opened up.

This vantage point reminded me of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.

We wished for binoculars or a telephoto lens - or both - for a better look at the puffins and starfish on the rocks below us. Even without magnification we spotted a sea lion a few times as he broke the water's surface to breathe.

Waiting for sunset...

... which proved to be well worth the wait!

Returning to the car, we drove about 45 minutes on Route 112 to the town of Sekiu where we checked into The Bay Motel (F) and got a bite to eat at the diner next door. Around 10 pm we collapsed into bed after a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Sept-05-2010: At breakfast in the diner we had sweeping views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The friendly town of Sekiu attracts fishermen and their families, so the first thing people asked us in the diner was if we had caught anything. No one seemed to mind that we were there to hike.

Our third day's drive took us back into the woods, going east on Route 101 towards Lake Crescent (G), a beautifully clear and calm glacial lake. At our first glimpse of it, we found a place to get out of the car and admire it.

Southern shore of Lake Crescent, looking north

Lake Crescent is a real gem. Glaciers dug out a very deep valley which flooded about 7,000 years ago. Officially, the depth of the lake is said to be 624 feet (190 m), but unofficial measurements of 1000 feet (300 m) have been recorded. A lack of nitrogen in the water inhibits the growth algae, making the water crystal clear. When you combine the clarity of the water, the depth of the lake, and some reflection of the blue sky above, you get water that's intensely blue. I have never seen such a beautiful lake.

View from the dock outside the Lake Crescent Lodge

The Lake Crescent Lodge is another one of the great historic lodges in the Olympic National Park. This accommodation consists of a collection of guest houses and lakeside cottages in close proximity to the capstone Main Lodge, built in 1916, which contains a lounge, dining room, and gift shop.

After a stroll around the grounds and time spent on the dock taking in the sweeping views, we retired to the Main Lodge to relax in the sun room.

Contentment

We could easily have spent several days at Lake Crescent. In fact, we vowed to do that on our next trip west. For now, though, it was time to move on.

Hurricane Ridge (H) was our next stop. There, it's possible to drive to an elevation of 5,200 feet (1,585 m) for spectacular views of the Olympic Mountains.

Hurricane Ridge has notoriously unpredictable and rapidly changing weather. As we started up the mountain, we were greeted by some pretty dense fog. We weren't sure we would see anything at all at the top. Luckily, though, the strong winds opened up some nice mountain vistas.

The Olympic Mountains as seen from the Hurricane Ridge Visitor's Center

Despite the fact that we were running a little behind schedule, we decided to take one of the short and easy hikes.

The trail took us past gnarled and fallen trees

Fog hovered just behind patches of snow and mountain wildflowers

After some hot chocolate and a bite to eat in the Visitor's Center, we climbed back into the car and headed for Port Orchard (I) to visit the newest member of the Hood family, three-month old Conner, and his proud parents, Kyle and Lisa.

After relaxing in Kyle and Lisa's home, we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner where Conner attracted women like a magnet and enjoyed himself as much as we did.

It must have been close to 10:30 pm when we said our goodbyes and drove down to Seattle. We had hoped to ferry across Puget Sound, but the ferries weren't running very often at that late hour so we took the long route. We arrived at our motel (J) just before midnight.

Our three-day whirlwind tour of the Olympic Peninsula had ended. We got a taste of the terrain and hopefully someday we will go back for a longer stay and more extensive hiking. For now, though, we were ready to embark on the second segment of our trip - adventures in Seattle and a brief foray into British Columbia.

© 2011, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

In memory of Kitcat...

2011-01-01T00:15:00.003-05:00

As I admired our Christmas tree this year, I missed Kitcat. This was our second Christmas without him, without any cat at all. Although there are certain advantages -- no tinsel eaten and no ornaments broken -- I missed having a cat under the tree.

My husband didn't know he had a mild cat allergy when he gave me a kitten many years ago on our first anniversary. Although he loved and enjoyed all four of the cats that followed, he woke up sneezing every morning. Sometime after we took in Kitcat, we agreed that he would be the last.

We found Kitcat in our apartment complex, lost and scared. Our son Michael named him. With a typical middle-schooler's sense of humor (and love of candy), Michael thought this homophonic name was rather clever.

Kitcat lived with us for 13 years. He hated it when we went away and scolded us when we returned. He became part of our daily life and imposed himself on every activity.

On August 22, 2009, Kitcat died of kidney failure, formally known as Chronic Renal Failure (CRF). In his memory I'd like to share some of the things I learned.

1. Get annual checkups
Regular annual checkups are really important. Make sure your veterinarian includes blood tests for kidney function. While there is no cure for CRF, an early diagnosis may enable you slow the progress of the disease. The daily subcutaneous fluids we gave Kitcat didn't extend his life as much as we hoped. His variety of CRF seemed unusually virulent. However, the fluids kept him hydrated, helped flush some of the toxins out of his system, and seemed to eased his discomfort. We also administered injections of Pepcid (he wouldn't swallow the pills) which kept his nausea under control and increased his appetite until the last week or so.

Early detection can extend your cat's life. Working with your vet to manage his disease will definitely improve the quality of your cat's life.

2. Familiarize yourself with Chronic Renal Failure (CRF)
The single most informative website I can recommend is Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Renal Failure. The woman responsible for this site presents extremely readable information from the pet owner's point of view. She also moderates a Yahoo Group called Tanya's CRF Support Group. Join the group as soon as you even suspect your cat has kidney symptoms.

Here are some other websites that were particularly helpful:

Feline CRF Information Center offers comprehensive information.
Cat Owner's Guide to Kidney Disease found on The Cornell University Department of Veterinary Medicine website.
The cat portion of the Veterinary Partners website. Follow their directions and on "How to Use the CAT area" and you will find many useful articles on CRF.

3. Make a plan for the end
Having a plan for the end will avoid a crisis at a time when a vet isn't available to ease the cat's suffering. Again, Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Renal Failure was spot on. We decided to have an at-home euthanasia. I called several vets who provide this service and picked the one that seemed most able to come on short notice.

Unless you live alone with your cat, you will want to confer with other family members about CRF management and how to handle your cat's demise. If other family members view you as the pet expert, they may be hesitant to push for a different course of action or to question your judgment. If you view yourself as the primary caretaker, you may find it hard to really listen to what they have to say. Whatever the circumstance, try your best to talk it through and find common ground.

Enough advice. I want to close this post with thoughts of Kitcat himself -- his luxuriously thick fur, his lovely yellow eyes, and his contented purr. He was a very beautiful cat, very affectionate too. His neediness could be annoying, but it was nonetheless very gratifying. Since he was my last cat, I'm glad there was never any doubt that he loved me. Maybe it's my imagination, but I think he sensed my deep affection for him as well.

Goodbye Kitcat. RIP

_______________________________________

With special thanks to my son, Michael Hood,

for use of his wonderful pictures.

Governors Island 10K Race

2010-12-05T23:53:00.000-05:00

The Hood family was up early on Sunday, October 3. The occasion was our son Michael's first 10 kilometer race, held on Governors Island. We took the 7:10 AM ferry, but the race didn't start until 8:30 AM so we had plenty of time to enjoy the views. The sun hadn't been up long, as you can see from the hint of a sunrise in the pictures below. What you can't see are the strong gusts of wind reminding us that fall had arrived.

The Manhattan Financial District,
with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge on the right.

The Statue of Liberty - looking more awake than I felt at 8 AM!

A view up the Hudson River,
with Manhattan on the right and New Jersey on the left.

Governors Island is divided into two areas: the 22-acre National Monument area, and the remaining 150 acres. In 2001 the portion of Governors Island that contains two old forts and some magnificent old homes was declared a National Monument and is now maintained by the National Parks Service. The rest of the island was sold to the State of New York in 2002, and the Trust for Governors Island was formed to develop the land for public use. In the small portion of the island that we saw, we didn't notice many signs of "life." The former military buildings are in a state of disrepair. Weeds have overgrown lawns and playgrounds. However, a look at the Governors Island Blog informed me that, indeed, many activities and programs are available to the public. One thriving initiative is the New York Harbor School, offering "a college-preparatory education built upon New York City's maritime experience." Indeed, the New York Times recently reported that the New York Harbor School is involved in an exciting project to bring oysters back into the New York Harbor.

Standing around on Governors Island for nearly an hour and a half, I was sorry I hadn't read about its history in advance of our visit. Being able to know what we were seeing and chat about it would have helped to distract us from the brisk wind. But hey, it's never too late, right? So here are a few interesting facts I learned as I was preparing this blog post. (Sources are listed at the end of this post.)

The island was originally used by the Lenape Native American people for fishing and for gathering nuts. Since Michael studied the Lenape people in elementary school, I felt personally connected to bit of early Governors Island history.
In 1611 Dutch explorer Adriaen Block named the island Noten Eylant, which morphed later into the name Nutten Island.
The first person to actually live on the island was a man named Jan Rodrigues from the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. A Latin-American of African ancestry and a free man, Rodrigues was employed by the Dutch explorer Block to facilitate fur trading with the Hudson River Indians.
In 1784 (eight years after American independence from Britain) the island's name was officially changed to Governors Island, a name that recalls is use for the "benefit and accommodation of His Majesty's Governors" of New York.
Because of its key location in Upper New York Bay, the island was used by both British and American armed forces including the US Coast Guard.

I particularly liked these bits of Governors Island trivia:

Early in the 20th century Governors Island grew from 103 acres to 172 acres when Manhattan bedrock and dirt from the excavation of the Lexington Avenue subway were hauled over and used as landfill.
Tom (1937) and Dick Smothers (1939) --i.e., the Smothers Brothers -- were born on Governors Island when their father was stationed there.

Those are the things that would have been running through my head as we waited for the race to begin. Instead, my husband Dan and I took pictures and tried to distract ourselves from the biting wind with the breakfast offered by the race sponsors: bagels and coffee and fruit.

As the 8:30 AM start time grew near, the runners began to shed their warm-up clothes and make preparations for the run.

Michael and his friend Frances Weaver stretched
and handed off all their non-essential gear to Dan.

Above, Frances (center, with orange sleeves) and Michael (left of center, with black sleeves) leave the starting line. The route included three laps around the island.

By 08:43:10 AM they had finished the first lap. Looking good!

By 09:01:35 AM, they had finished the second lap together.
The pack of runners is starting to thin out.

At 09:25:08 AM Michael sprinted for the finish line.
(He's right behind that guy in the foreground)

At 09:25:51 AM Frances crossed the finish, looking up to check her time.

Some cool-down stretches ...

... preceded the victory picture!

Their first 10K race was definitely a success. Out of 603 runners, Michael was the 256th to finish, with a time of 55 minutes and 11 seconds. Frances was the 287th to finish, with a time of 55 minutes and 50 seconds.

We were very proud of them. Their excitement was tempered by the cold, but take my word for it - they were both very pleased and satisfied. As we headed for the warmth of the ferry, there was talk of more races to come. Perhaps a half marathon next? We shall see, we shall see...

___________________

Facts and historical information for this post were taken from these websites:

Fernando found my phone!

2010-10-30T09:49:00.007-04:00

On Sunday, October 3, I lost my cell phone. The last time I remembered having it was on the ferry returning to Manhattan from Governors Island. Hoping that it wasn't on the bottom of the New York Harbor, I called it several times but no one answered. Being an incurable optimist, though, I thought I'd wait a while before canceling the service. Well, sometimes optimism is rewarded. Later that evening someone named Fernando actually did call to say he had my phone!

Fernando and I planned to meet the next day in Battery Park. When I asked how to find him, he said, "just ask anyone for Fernando." He claimed he was well known to the park regulars since he works there every day as a Statue of Liberty impersonator. Tourists pay him to pose with them for pictures. If you're not familiar with this custom, check out the picture below.

Photo compliments of The Bowery Boys, used with permission,
from their 2008 blog post entitled Spawn of the Statue of Liberty

After talking to Fernando, I did remember passing several green Statue people near the Battery Park subway entrance on our trip home. I guess he was one of them. Who knew?

It was raining when I arrived in Battery Park to meet Fernando. I looked all around, but I didn't see even one green Statue person. Actually, the entire park was pretty deserted. Fernando had emphatically stated that he was there every day, so I decided to ask around for him as instructed. First I asked the guys selling tour bus tickets if they knew Fernando. No luck. Next I asked a vendor near Castle Clinton. Again, no luck. Finally I asked a few Haitian guys selling purses. One of them pointed to a particular area just ahead and said Fernando might be selling umbrellas over there. Indeed, I saw two men standing there, but they didn't appear to be selling anything. They were just talking to each other. By this time, however, I was getting used to asking strangers about this mysterious Fernando, so I marched on over and approached them. "Excuse me," I said, "but do you know someone named Fernando?" "I am Fernando!" exclaimed the older of the two men. I introduced myself, and Fernando introduced me to his son, explaining that they would be selling umbrellas to tourists when the next Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island ferry landed. Then I noticed the box of umbrellas at their feet. Success at last!

I asked Fernando how he came to find my phone. He said after he had gotten into costume, he happened to look at the ground in front of him and saw a phone lying there. He picked it up, intending to deal with it later. After work that evening he called at least 5 people before finding someone who could tell him whose phone he had found and how to contact me.

Fernando seemed very happy to be able to return my phone. He wouldn't take any money as a token of my gratitude. His explanation for everything -- returning the phone and not accepting a reward -- was "God is watching." I wanted to do something to acknowledge his thoughtfulness, so I took his picture with my Blackberry (my work phone) and told him I'd post it on my blog.

Little did I know that on January 2, 2007, the Tribeca Tribune had written a delightful and informative piece on Fernando and the other Liberty lookalikes. The Tribune article says that Fernando Riano, formerly a lawyer, is part of a community of Battery Park performance artists. The article quotes him as he describes the pleasure he derives from his playful interaction with tourists, illustrated in the last two pictures of the article where we see Fernando in action. Indeed, engaging tourists in a mutually enjoyable way is what makes his work financially as well as personally rewarding. Please take a moment to read the Tribeca Tribune's fascinating article.

So there you have it -- the story of how an honest, hardworking man took the trouble to find me and return my phone. Just because it was the right thing to do.

THANK YOU, FERNANDO!

The Thoreau You Don't Know

2010-09-21T00:13:00.012-04:00

I just finished reading The Thoreau You Don't Know: What the Prophet of Environmentalism Really Meant by Robert Sullivan, published in March 2009. From the outset let me say that Bob's daughter is a fellow musician in the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra. Therefore, I have had passing conversations with Bob on several occasions. So yes, this is a somewhat biased review. Please read it anyway!

Before reading this book, I knew virtually nothing about Thoreau and his writings. If I read Walden or Civil Disobedience, it was back in the Stone Age when I attended high school and I don't remember them at all.

I can remember being tempted to buy this book when as part of the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra I played at its launch in a Brooklyn bookstore. However, I didn't actually purchase my copy of The Thoreau You Don’t Know until about a year later. Publishers send uncorrected proof copies to news organizations, hoping for reviews. Every so often Thomson Reuters, my employer, clears out books, donating all the generated money to a few well chosen charities. At the annual clearing-out sale, I saw Thoreau and thought it would be interesting to read an uncorrected proof of a book written by someone I know, and so I bought it.

I enjoyed this book for many reasons. First and foremost, I liked its creative approach. It looks at Thoreau as a whole person as opposed to people’s preconceived notions of him as an environmentalist. I appreciated how thoroughly Bob Sullivan had immersed himself in the period and in all details related to Thoreau’s life. I have never read a nonfiction work that so lifted me out of my own time and transported me back to another era. Throughout, I was entertained by the writing style. Bob writes just like he talks. It’s almost like he’s narrating the book to you. Knowing him and his family, I enjoyed the references he occasionally made to them. Similarly, I enjoyed the way he related Thoreau's concerns to similar modern-day concerns.

I didn’t know that Thoreau played the flute. Living when he did, he would have played a wooden flute like the one I now play. That made me feel connected to this man from long ago. Moreover, Thoreau struggled with the necessity to make a living to support his "real" interests. It was comforting to know that people from other eras faced the same dilemma that many writers and musicians face today, a dilemma with which I'm altogether too familiar.

The book ends with Bob’s own pilgrimage to Walden. He uses music to tie it all together. I won't say another word, not wanting to spoil the ending for you. I will just add that this book was a most interesting read, and I highly recommend it. You can buy the book here, from Amazon.com

What's next, Bob?

Interesting reviews:
Book review by Green LA Girl
New York Times review of The Thoreau You Don't Know, April 16, 2009
Harper Collins (the publisher) page for The Thoreau You Don't Know
Robert Sullivan's blog for The Thoreau You Don't Know
Thoreau, Walden and civil disobedience in the age of climate change, review in Grist, the ezine of environmental news and commentary, August 27, 2009

To see blog posts about other books I've read, click HERE.

© 2010, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Close Encounter with a Snapping Turtle

2010-08-29T22:29:00.001-04:00

I had seen real, live snapping turtles before, in zoos or shelters, but not in the middle of a lonely country road. As snappers go, he wasn't even that big, but he was still an awesome sight. Here he is, just as I saw him from the car, happily basking in the late afternoon sun smack in the center of the road in Greene County, New York (which is in the Catskill Mountains).

Conventional wisdom says one should get the turtle to move off the road in the direction it is facing. Reckoning that this was my opportunity to help, I pulled over and got out of the car. When the turtle saw me, he retracted his head just a bit but otherwise showed no fear and, more significantly, no signs of moving at all in any direction. Obviously my presence alone was not going to motivate this turtle to get off the road.

I diverted the few cars that drove by and continued taking pictures. The turtle seemed to be in good shape. I couldn't tell if the crud on the back of his shell was related to an old injury or not.

I could have spent a long time there, admiring and communing with the snapper. I haven't come upon turtles in the wild too often, especially ones that don't mind my being so close. It was a pretty thrilling moment.

Needing to get down to the business at hand, I looked around for a long stick. Not that I have had any experience with this sort of thing, but I do know that a snapping turtle's powerful jaws should not come anywhere near one's hands or feet. I thought if I prodded him from behind with a stick, he might be frightened and run away from it. That would take him off the road since that was the direction he was facing. But no, he lurched around trying to grab the stick. Thankfully, turtles on land are not very agile creatures. His turn was far less than the 180 degrees he probably intended. He made a hissing sound like my red eared sliders make when they're frightened. If I hadn't been familiar with that noise, it would have been intimidating, for sure! A few more attempts convinced me that I couldn't scare him into anything except attacking the stick. I was going to have to come up with a different approach.

After some experimental maneuvers, I had an idea. Using the stick, I prodded the turtle on the right side of his shell, causing him to lurch right and also forward a little. When I prodded from the left, he lurched left and forward. My idea was to zigzag him off the road. Indeed, after four or five goadings with the stick, he was decidedly closer to the side of the road. Progress!!

Next, he had an idea. He started leaning into the stick as I was positioning it under the side of his shell, to push it away, I suppose. Wondering how strong he was, I applied an equal amount of constant pressure. To my utter amazement, he started walking! We had struck upon a compromise, and he walked all the way to the side of the road. Whooppee!! I let him rest, and then we had another go at the leaning/walking method he seemed to prefer. Once he got into the grass, he headed for a nearby ditch without additional prodding. See?

I was happy to leave him in the little ditch. It was far enough from the road that he wouldn't be in danger. It was sunny enough that he could bask there without being tempted to return to the road. I could see from his wary stance and suspicious eyes that he wasn't going to get comfortable until I was gone.

All that remained was to advise him to stay off the roads, away from people, and to wish him a long life. I returned to the car feeling gratified to have helped and jubilant at the communication that had occurred between us. So jubilant, in fact, that I drove more than five miles further before I realized that the only reason I saw this turtle in the first place was because I made a wrong turn at the start of my drive into town!

In closing, let me offer some links to additional information that might come in handy if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.

1) If You See a Turtle in the Road, by The Humane Society of the United States, is a brief article that gives sound, practical instructions. It strongly advises against the temptation to take a turtle home, always a bad idea for the turtle and frequently illegal for the human.

2) Turtle Information and Conservations Tips, by The Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, has good advice on moving turtles off the road (scroll down to items #5 and 6). There are also detailed instructions on moving snapping turtles that are larger and more uncooperative than the one I came upon (item #10). This excellent article also covers what to do if you have a turtle nesting in your yard (item #8) or if you find a hatchling (item #9).

3) What To Do If You Find An Injured or Ill Turtle, by Anita Peddicord of The Gulf Coast Turtle and Tortoise Association of Houston Texas, an invaluable article if you find a less than healthy turtle. This article says that a turtle with a hurt foot or damage to the outer area of his shell does not need assistance; minor injuries like these will heal without intervention. However, if the turtle has a large open wound, you need to do something. The article addresses questions about what to do for the turtle until you find a veterinarian or a wildlife rehabber who can care for it properly. Print this article; keep a copy in your car. Seriously. I know for a fact that in the hands of a licensed wildlife rehabilitation expert, turtles can recover completely from very bad injuries and be returned to the wild where they belong. Turtle Rescue of Long Island Turtle, an organization I can personally vouch for, has done amazing things for severely injured snappers and box turtles.

Turtles are amazing creatures whose habitat we are destroying in all sorts of ways. Please make sure you know the right thing to do if you encounter a turtle in need of assistance. I plan to take my own advice. Writing this blog post has certainly filled in some of the gaps in my knowledge. Looking back, I'm surely thankful my snapper friend was healthy, not very big, and cooperative.

RELATED POSTS on Truffles, Turtles & Tunes:

Advice on Snapping Turtle Eggs

Our State Turtle

Enameling with Catherine Crowe

2010-08-10T21:25:00.004-04:00

Since this was my sixth time attending Catskills Irish Arts Week (CIAW), I decided to try my hand at one of the Celtic art classes: enameling. The class was taught by Catherine Crowe, who made the enamel crown on my new flute. I took a pretty consistent set of pictures during the work on my first piece. These pictures offer a glimpse at the process, starting with the copper strips above which will become earrings.

The class met for 2-3 hours a day for 5 days in the kitchen of the Weldon House, one of the East Durham resorts. I know that seems odd but, lacking an art studio, where else do you find a sink and lots of work space? I was one of two students enrolled in the morning class. Catherine supplied everything: the small portable kiln, many little jars of various types of enamel, pre-cut copper shapes, and all the necessary tools.

After a brief introduction to the overall process, my fellow student and I prepared the shapes, chose designs to put on them, and decided which techniques to use. Catherine provided instruction, oversight, and made recommendations along the way. The class covered basic methods of applying both opaque and translucent colors using stencil, free-form drawing, and cloisonne techniques.

The enamel itself is actually ground glass, ground as fine as the sand on the loveliest beach you can imagine. Every piece is enameled on the back as well as the front to make it more durable and to give it a finished look. After preparing the copper strips above, I applied a pretty blue opaque enamel using the little red sifter. Next the earrings were fired in a kiln, and when they came out, they looked like this:

You are looking at the back side of the earrings. A second coat of blue covered the white smudges on the one on the right. The white is actually another color that stuck to my fingers and got on the blue surface because I forgot to hold the pieces by the edges. You're not supposed to touch the surface you're working on. Oops!

With another layer of blue applied, the earrings are place on trivets and back they go, into the red hot kiln which heats to 1500 degrees Fahrenheit. The trivets rest on a little shelf made of sturdy screen-type material.

Catherine (below on the left) mans the door of the kiln while my classmate Alice (on the right) places a spatula under the little screen shelf to remove her pieces from the kiln. It is important to get pieces in and out quickly to retain heat in the kiln -- and to prevent scorched fingers! Alice and I rather wished the handle on that spatula had been a bit longer!

Next I sifted two shades of light green onto the front of the earrings, overlapping the colors in the middle to produce a variegated effect. On the top earring, below, you can see the tiny grains of enamel - as fine as sugar or salt.

Firing makes all those fine grains melt and fuse together. Here is the outcome: smooth as... glass!

Next, I layered on a freely drawn abstract design and fired the earrings again. Below you see the result after firing.

I really should have stopped at this point. Instead, I succumbed to the temptation to experiment with gold paint. I liked how it looked on a sample piece, so I tried to put a thin gold line along the outside of the dark blue squigglies, applying the paint with a quill pen. After firing, however, it looked awful. My quill pen technique had been a bit heavy-handed, to say the least, because what I produced was a thick gold strip that looked totally out of place. With enameling, you don't ever really know what you've got until after it's fired.

I thought I had just ruined my earrings, but Catherine suggested covering the gold with blue. Since you can't see through opaque colors, you can cover up anything you don't like. Therefore, I piled on more blue, which thickened the squiggly lines and created a raised, more textured effect. Here is the final outcome. The blue lines look more like slugs than squigglies but, believe me, it's better than the gold!

I experimented with stencil technique in which you place a stencil onto a prepared surface and sift on enamel. My stencil piece didn't come out well, but Alice's did. The piece below is hers and will become a necklace. Alice has used translucent enamel instead of the opaque type.

My two cloisonne pieces were very successful, especially the butterfly. Cloisonne technique employs bent wires which are cut to the desired length and placed on the copper form, as you see below.

The wires are held in place by a coat of transparent enamel. Here is how my butterfly looked after firing.

Next, enamel is applied so that it clings to the wires and thins as the color moves away from the wires. I dropped on some glass beads to create the butterfly's spots. Later I strung much tinier glass beads onto copper wire and Catherine attached fasteners to the ends. Voila! Here is my finished butterfly necklace.

Catherine's work, of course, looks a whole lot better than this. It is far more intricate and quite stunning. Please browse a bit in her two online galleries.

Enameling is a delicate and painstaking process, but very rewarding when things come out nicely. Speaking for myself, I considered the class a great success. I got to know Catherine better. I also found out what kinds of work went into the making of my flute crown. But best of all, I enjoyed working on something tangible (unlike practicing or performing).

I'll close this post with kudos for Catherine Crowe -- for the beautiful and inspiring pieces she's created and for the joy she imparts while teaching basic skills. I highly recommend taking her class. Locations are listed on her website.

© 2010, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Catskills Bound

2010-07-06T20:08:00.006-04:00

The title of this post is a throwback to a similar one written last year as I prepared to go to Ireland. As a matter of fact, at this time last year I was already in Miltown Malbay, having the time of my life at Willie Clancy Week. I've been reliving many fond memories and wishing I had gone back this year. Life (and finances) dictated otherwise, so this year I'm returning to the humble hamlet of East Durham, NY, for the Catskills Irish Arts Week (CIAW) - which is, after all, the best the US has to offer when it comes to traditional Irish music festivals. I leave on July 11th and, truth be told, I'm getting pretty excited about it!

It should be a fabulous week. I will be taking a flute class with Conal O'Grada, the teacher I enjoyed so much last year at Willie Clancy Week. I will also be taking a class in enameling on copper taught by Catherine Crowe who made the crown on my new flute. I love the nightly performances in the open-air pavilion at the Michael J. Quill Festival Grounds, where the beer I'm sipping helps disguise how uncomfortable folding metal chairs can be. When my backside needs a break, I browse the crafts and music booths erected around the perimeter of the pavillion and spend more than budgeted on CDs, telling myself what a bargain it is not to have to pay shipping and handling. Although I don't dance, I do pop into the nightly céilí (pronounced KAY-lee) to hear the bands and watch the dancers. I'm also looking forward to hearing some fine singing at the singers' circle and playing in the late-night sessions all over town.

As a musical preparation for the Catskills, I resumed my flute lessons with Mike Rafferty. Even though he teaches at CIAW, I never take his classes there because I prefer my own private time with him at his home in New Jersey. Ever since he won the National Heritage Fellowship, I have been wanting to go see him as my lessons with him have been rather sporatic over the last two years. No matter how many classes I have with other teachers, I always come back to Mike because when all is said and done, that's how I want to sound. Mike's playing is just magical. I never ceased to be amazed at how beautiful he can make a tune sound. Getting back to the point, though, I was able to book time with Mike every Saturday in June. I learned 13 new tunes and, with the help of Transcribe! software, I was able to study a few key aspects of Mike's ornamentation. This motivational technique worked: I practiced nearly every day!

I am also trying to revive my singing. I haven't sung much this past year. One can't do everything, and I decided to give flute the priority. However, the singers' circle in the Catskills is wonderful, and I like to be able to participate. I'm brushing up on my standard songs and a couple of the newer ones that I think I can sing without embarrassing myself. The most recent is Free and Easy to Jog Along. I heard Roisin White sing it in 2007 (the year I took her CIAW singing class). Actually, it's the title song of her CDs, called The First of My Ranbles.

I have attended CIAW so many times that I know lots of people there, friends from New York City plus others whom I see only at CIAW. I'm looking forward to all the socializing as well as the gentle Catskills landscape. As always, my reflections will end up here, with a few pictures as well.

© 2010, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

A few rays of hope...

2010-06-18T06:49:00.009-04:00

We've all been sickened by all the continuing horrors of the BP oil spill and its perverse effects on the environment. Dead sea turtles floating in pools of oil or washed up limp and lifeless on the oily beaches. Gulls and pelicans doused with oil. The heartbreaking images seem unending.

Still, a few people are trying to do what they can. On June 4 the New York Times carried a story about the rehab work with the brown pelicans of Fort Jackson, Louisiana. Once very common in that area, the brown pelican was nearly wiped out in the 1960's by the effects of DDT pesticides. Since then it has made an amazing comeback, and last year the brown pelican was taken off the endangered species list. Now its existence is threatened again. Rescue workers are trying to prevent that. They have been capturing the birds, as many as possible, some so heavily coated with oil that they cannot stand. They are fed and hydrated and cleaned up, and as of June 4th all of the rescued birds had survived. Please click the link here and read the story for more details.

On June 16 CNN ran video report on the rescue of a nest of 105 Loggerhead turtle eggs laid on Orange Beach, Alabama. The hatchlings would be in danger from the oil as well as from the cleanup efforts. Again, a few people did what they could. They moved and protected the nest, and when the eggs hatch, they will be moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where the water is still clean. Please click here and watch the short video.

I know the efforts of these few good people are only a drop in the proverbial bucket. The number of birds that can be cleaned will be only a small percentage of those that will die. The turtle that laid the eggs has already returned to the oily sea, and one wonders about her fate. And hey, the reason turtles lay so many eggs is that the survival rate of hatching is low even in good times. (Very small turtles are quickly gobbled up by other sea creatures and probably brown pelicans too!) Still, we cling to these few rays of hope that endangered species will survive and that the environment will not be ruined forever.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Tour Suggestions

2010-06-12T10:15:00.024-04:00

photo by William Warby

(permission for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic licence)

The time it takes to see the Statue of Liberty can range from an hour to a whole day. I've divided up the options into various sightseeing scenarios. Times Square is the point of departure.

Scenario ONE - visit to Liberty Island and possibly Ellis Island as well: 4-7 hours total from Times Square and back.

From Times Square, take the Downtown #1 subway to the South Ferry stop. (takes about 30 min) This lets you off on the WEST side of Battery Park. Walk into the park and follow the signs to Castle Clinton National Monument.

Statue of Liberty ferries depart from Battery Park and go first to Liberty Island and then to Ellis Island before returning to Battery Park. Tickets can be purchased online, a good idea during peak tourist seasons. (See the link in the next paragraph.) The ticket you purchase entitles you to visit both Liberty Island and Ellis Island. There is no cost for the museums on those islands, but I think there is an additional fee to go to the top of the Statue of Liberty. Audio headsets for self-guided tours cost extra also.

Going out the the Statue, looking around, and returning is about a 3-hour venture. Here's the website with info about the Statue of Liberty National Monument, including online ticket purchase. Be sure to note the bit about climbing stairs. Also, please understand that I consider the time estimates on the Statue of Liberty National Monument website to be grossly underestimated. My estimates here are based on actual visits and on the assumption that you READ as you peruse the museums!

There is another little island out in the New York Harbor called Ellis Island. In the early days when people were coming to the United States in droves, they were sent first to Ellis Island where government officials "processed" them before letting them into the country. Often they were detained for quite a long time. Ellis Island was eventually closed down and lay dormant out there in the harbor for 30 years. In 1990 a museum was established, and the island came alive again with fascinating immigrant stories. Some Americans are able to see histories and items belonging to family members. The exhibit is really timeless, though, as people emigrate from one place to another today for all sorts of reasons, and many of their struggles are the same. The Ellis Island museum is both a particular history as well as an account of a more universal experience. If this sort of thing interests you, I highly recommend going on to Ellis Island as well.

photo by Ken Thomas

(public domain photo, no permission required)

Scenario TWO - view of the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry: 2 hours total, from Times Square and back.

If you're pressed for time and all you want is a really nice view of the Statue of Liberty, take the Staten Island Ferry from the tip of Manhattan over to Staten Island, then turn around and come back. The Staten Island Ferry is free and the views of the Statue as well as the Manhattan skyline are terrific!

From Times Square, take the Downtown N, R, or W subway to the Whitehall Street stop. (takes about 30 min.) Walk to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. You'll see it when you come up from the subway.

The Staten Island Ferry website has not only the ferry schedules but cool info about the boats and their history.

Scenario THREE - view of the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry, combined with other sightseeing in the nearby Financial District. All the places noted below are in walking distance of each other. Depending on how many stops you make, the time can vary from 2 hours to an entire day.

If you're starting at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, you see these things in this order. First the ferry ride to see the Statue as described in Scenario Two, then:

First stop is the Fraunces Tavern, located on Pearl Street very near the Staten Island Ferry. It is a small building with a museum containing many interesting Revolutionary War relics, also a comfortable pub and an upscale restaurant. George Washington said goodbye to his officers here at the end of the Revolutionary War.
Walk north on Water Street, turn right at Fulton Street and roam through the South Street Seaport. The Seaport contains a maritime museum as well as many shops and restaurants.
Walk south to Wall Street. Strolling west on Wall Street, you will see the famous view always shown on TV news programs.
At Wall and Broad Streets you will see Federal Hall where our first president, George Washington, took his oath of office.
At Wall and Broad Streets, facing west and looking to your left down Broad Street, you will see the New York Stock Exchange.
On the far west end of Wall Street is Trinity Church (at Wall Street and Broadway) - a beautiful historic church with a cemetery next door. Go inside, look around, have a seat, rest your feet and meditate.
Walking North on Broadway just a few blocks will bring you to St. Paul Chapel at Broadway and Fulton Street. St. Paul's is another historic church in an entirely different architectural style from Trinity. St. Paul's contains many memoirs of the World Trade Center disaster, as this was church was a base station all through the recovery efforts. (On the website, look for Ground Zero Ministry)
In back of St. Paul Chapel is the World Trade Center site. The memorial is still under construction, but most people want to make a visit. You will get an idea of the scope of the disaster and ensuing cleanup when you see the size of the memorial construction site.
Behind the World Trade Center site is The World Financial Center. Go inside and enjoy a cup of coffee in the huge atrium - maybe a concert too if you're lucky!
As you exit the Atrium towards the river, you'll see a beautiful yacht marina on the Hudson River.
Walk south through Battery Park City, a new apartment and business complex with lovely walkways and parks and a GREAT view of the Hudson River. Looking south, you can see the Statue of Liberty in the distance!

Walk all the way to the end of Battery Park City, and you will come to Battery Park where you can find the South Ferry subway stop on the #1 Train which will return you to Times Square.

If you spend the whole day on Scenario One at Liberty & Ellis Islands, but still want to see the places listed in Scenario Three, you can return the next day and do just the Financial District attractions.

These are some of my favorite sites in New York. Hope you enjoy them too!

Cemetery Dance

2010-05-31T09:08:00.003-04:00

Cemetery Dance, the New York Times bestseller by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, is an interesting and often absorbing murder mystery was set in Manhattan. It is always fun to read about various Manhattan landmarks since that's where I live. Zombies commit murders, and exotic West Indian voodoo references are plentiful. The book held my attention throughout most of its 566 pages, but in the end it let me down.

Cemetery Dance didn't need to be so long. After about 300 pages, I got impatient with rambling descriptions. The writing was clear and adequate, but utilitarian. The descriptions were not so poetic or so well crafted that you would read any of them a second time just for the sheer pleasure of it. Let's face it, Frank McCourt's Pulitzer Prize-winning Angela's Ashes (the book I just finished) is a hard act to follow!

Preston and Child established a tension between the down-to-earth police Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta (the realist) and the eccentric FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast (a believer the power of in vodou, being raised in New Orleans). As a reader, I found myself identifying with first D'Agosta, then Pendergast, as I tried to figure out if there was some plausible explanation for the murders or if the killer was really an undead zombi thing.

My assumption with mystery novels is that the author will make subtle suggestions or intimations which will add up to a revelation at the end. Along the way I may catch some of the hints but will miss others, which is exactly what the author intends. At the conclusion, though, I expect to be able to look back and realize the missed clues.

Preston and Child apparently don't share my assumptions. They allowed me, the reader, to share D'Agosta's suspicions at least part of the time, but on page 463 when Pendergast made the significant discovery that would solve the mystery, I was completely unable to intuit what Pendergast would do next or even why the discovery was so significant! In the 103 pages that followed, Preston and Child introduced an elaborate turn of events that the reader could never have anticipated, each twist of the plot more outrageous than the one before it. In the final 20 pages they resorted to having Pendergast explain the whys and wherefores to D'Agosta in order to ensure the reader had followed the plot.

I felt like the authors paid me, the reader, a disservice. They used the sensationalism of vodou and animal sacrifice to put me off other theories. By withholding so much information until the end, it was clear they never meant to engage me. They strung me along with cheap thrills, then after 546 pages they just dumped the explanation on me. That was that, end of story. I closed the book feeling frustrated, manipulated, and a bit insulted. Did they think I wouldn't be trying to solve the mystery myself?

Apparently Preston and Child have a loyal following, and the eccentric Pendergast appears in all their novels. I much prefer the understated Miss Marple and the hard-working Inspector Lewis.

I bought the book at the Kennedy airport to read on a flight to Florida. Next time I'll buy an Agatha Christie or a Colin Dexter novel in advance.

To see blog posts about other books I've read, click HERE.

© 2010, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Congratulating Mike Rafferty

2010-05-22T23:12:00.005-04:00

I want to add my congratulations to Mike Rafferty for being named a 2010 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship. This award is the highest honor the United States awards to traditional musicians. I'm very pleased to see Mike recognized in this way. He surely does deserve it - for the students he's taught, the recordings he's made, and for being such a presence in the Irish music scene in both North America and in Ireland.

Although the NEA doesn't announce winners until June, news of Mike's award became public this month.

On May 12 Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Mid-Atlantic Region was the first to break the news.
On May 19 Earl Hitchner added his congratulatory words in the Irish Echo.
On May 20 Paul Keating wrote a lovely article on IrishCentral.com entitled Mike Rafferty, A Mighty National Treasure says the NEA.
On May 28 Paul Keating published a followup piece entitled National Heritage Fellowship a long overdue recognition for Mike Rafferty

By the time the ceremony rolled around in September 2010, the NEA updated its website with biographical information, audio clips, and a podcast interview. Click HERE to see Mike's National Heritage Awards page.

Mick Moloney published an article about Mike in the Voices, The Journal of New York Folklore (Volume 36, Fall-Winter 2010). Mick's article was entitled The Mighty Raff: 2010 National Heritage Award Winner.

The 2010 NEA National Heritage Fellowships Concert was webcast from the Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland, on September 24, 2010. The entire concert -- 1 hour, 51 minutes -- was posted to YouTube the next day. Click HERE to view it. Mike is introduced at 34:05 and if you are short on time, just fast-forward to that point to see his performance that night.

I would like to think I had some little part in helping Mike get this award. I wrote a letter to the NEA in support of his nomination. Thinking most other people would stress other aspects of Mike's musicianship, my letter focused on his teaching. Much of what I wrote ended up in my September 30, 2008 blog post entitled Flute Lessons with Mike Rafferty.

As I continue to work at flute playing in the Irish tradition, I've been exposed to more and more great players. Still, I always return to Mike's playing as the model I want to emulate. He just has a magical way with tunes. In the video below Mike plays two reels with Willie Kelly (fiddle) and Felix Dolan (keyboard): The Trip to Parliament and The Torn Jacket. I am particularly fond of The Torn Jacket, a lovely flute tune if ever there was one!

To see all my posts about Mike, click on the Rafferty topic label below on the right.

© 2010, Linda Mason Hood (updated September 17, 2011)
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Mourning Pete's-A-Place

2010-05-16T17:30:00.008-04:00

Pizza box from Pete's

On May 12th a terrible fire occurred in our neighborhood, completely destroying the Stuyvesant Convenience Store and Pete's-A-Place. Local television station NY1 provided coverage (click here to view the short video). Accounts of the fire also appeared in the NY Daily News, the Gothamist, and the Village Voice. Neighborhood blogger Ed Grieve posted loads of pictures. The best details about the cause of the fire came from the NY Post: a welding accident at Pete's ignited some cooking grease during the installation of a fire safety device. Ironic, isn't it?

We shall miss the Stuyvesant Convenience Store. It was open 24 hours a day. If you were catching an early flight, you could get a cup of coffee at 4 AM to sip in the cab on the way to the airport. If you were coming home late, you could pick up milk, orange juice, and cat food to ensure a smooth start to the next day. The Stuyvesant Convenience Store was the only place I could reliably find the correct battery for my now-outdated digital camera (which I may now have to replace). Day or night, the guys at the cash registers would often joke with us. "Where you been? I didn't see you for a while..." when you were there just yesterday. Or, ringing up the bill, they might say something like "That will be $100" to erase a preoccupied look from your face. We will surely miss the Stuyvesant Convenience Store. There are similar stores in the neighborhood, it's true, but in addition to the fact that they're all a little farther away, they don't know us.

The bigger impact, though, will result from the loss of Pete's-A-Place. When my husband and I moved into Stuyvesant Town in 1976, Pete's was already well established. We ordered carry-out pizza pretty regularly, as did everyone else in this end of Stuy Town. After our son was born, Pete's took on a different meaning. You could take a group of kids in there for pizza, and the owners and staff never complained about noise or mess. The arrival of Italian ices at Pete's marked the true beginning of summer. How our children would beam with pride when they were finally old enough to approach the counter, dollar in hand, and order their own "icie." It was a neighborhood rite of passage! For adults, pizza from Pete's became a point of reference -- the crust was thinner than Pete's (read: too thin), the sauce was spicier than Pete's (too spicy), there wasn't as much cheese as Pete's, etc. You could order off-menu too. If they had the ingredients, they would make whatever you asked for and price it fairly. My husband's standard order was spaghetti with mushroom sauce and one meatball. Along with an assortment of Italian dishes and pizza, they also served Jamaican meat patties with coco-bread, a favorite with my son. And let's not forget the buffalo chicken wings! Even though I've been a vegetarian now for about 2 years, I would occasionally "cheat" by having just one of Pete's chicken wings when someone else in the family ordered them. Pete's delivered food to our apartment at least twice a week -- because there was sufficient variety on the menu, because we enjoyed the food, because it was convenient, and because the guys at Pete's were like old friends. We have no idea what we will eat next week!

Losing Pete's will change character of the neighborhood. More personally, it will change our lifestyle, and I venture to say we're not the only family in this predicament. I have no idea how to contact any of the owners or employees at Pete's. I can only hope that somehow they will find this blog, because I'd like to say thank you. From our family and on behalf of the whole neighborhood, thank you for helping define this neighborhood. Thank you for making life easier. To the delivery guys, thanks for trekking through snow and rain with our dinner. To those behind the counter, thanks for enduring hordes of young children and for providing teens a safe haven. Thanks for converting cups of change into paper dollars for the homeless people in our neighborhood. Thanks for your kindness and patience with handicapped patrons. Over the years I've consistently witnessed all these things. We're all glad no one was hurt in the fire, and we hope Pete's owners can rebuild and come back from this tragic event.

Breaking the Silence / Angela's Ashes

2010-04-19T22:00:00.006-04:00

Every now and then this blog goes silent because my schedule goes completely out of control. But now I'm back. I have loads of things I've been waiting to post. The "travels" topics range from some in-depth description of my adventures in East London last summer to recommendations about sightseeing in New York. Although vegetarian concerns are still a theme of this blog, I can't say I have any urgent "truffles" posts. However, I have an interesting "tunes" post coming up, as well as a new "technology" feat to report -- and you can be sure that "turtles" will creep in somehow!

I have just finished reading Angela's Ashes for the third time. I love that book. Every time I read it, I appreciate it for a different reason. This time I zoned in on how as young children we don't see how bad things really are. Regardless of what is wrong (poverty, bad parenting, poor relationships amongst family members), we accept our family life until we mature enough to start realizing that other families are different. Frank McCourt illustrates the lovely things as well as the unlovely things about both his parents, without bemoaning or extolling either aspect.

So come on back! Blogging season is in full bloom - just like spring!

To see blog posts about other books I've read, click HERE.

© 2010, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

The Snow of 2010

2010-02-15T12:30:00.008-05:00

New Yorkers got pounded with snow in January and February. Two of the bigger storms hit on January 2 and February 10. Generally I'm not a big fan of snow, but this year it was especially pretty because there was very little wind. The snow could cling to the branches of the trees, and my everyday world took on a bit of magic.

Here are the best of my winter snow pictures. Most are from Stuyvesant Town, the Manhattan apartment complex where I live. Others are from Times Square where I work.

The Stuyvesant Town Christmas tree looked quite elegant in the snow!

A completely different type of evergreen, I can't decide if this tree looks ballerina-like and comical, or menacing and ghoulish.

Back view of the playground outside the building where I live.
It's closed today, kids.

Front view of the same playground. Note the time on the clock over the center structure. It's 10:30 AM and I'm clearly late for work.

A cluster of snow-lined trees.

The red bark on this tree contrasts nicely with the snow.

The cab adds a splash of color.

Times Square, looking north on Seventh Avenue. Here, the snow melts quickly from the traffic and the heat of the subway under the street. My camera wasn't able to show how hard it was snowing, but that's why the cars and buses all have their headlights on at 11:20 AM when this picture was taken.

From the 15th floor of the office building where I work, we can see the snow gracing Madame Toussaud's hand atop her wax museum located on 42nd Street.

6:43 PM and it's still snowing in Times Square.
Yes, friends, I went to work in a blizzard. Sad...

My Flute Journey Continues

2010-02-11T23:00:00.016-05:00

Since the December 25th arrival of my Peter Noy flute, I've been happily adapting to it. Both my embouchure and my hands are undergoing many changes. As I practice every day, I see rapid progress. If nothing else, switching from flute to flute over the past few years has taught me how to quickly adjust to a new instrument, a skill I hope I will no longer need!

Playing a different flute involves work in several areas.

EMBOUCHURE: One must learn how best to direct air across the flute's blow hole so that a variety of timbres can be produced and proper pitch can be maintained. This area of work involves strengthening and retraining the muscles of the face and lips.
HANDS: One must train the fingers to cover the holes. The fourth finger (the ring finger) on each hand is usually the most problematic, as it is the weakest and hardest to control. The finger span of my hands is average, but even so, I need to develop more strength to consistently cover the holes when playing at top speeds.

To strengthen my embouchure and hands, I am doing two types of work:

TECHNICAL: Long tones develop embouchure strength and accurate pitch. Finger exercises allow me to work on various patterns that will develop my coordination while I gain strength in the wider hand stretch required of my right hand. I'm working on my left hand position, rolling the headjoint inwards to give more freedom to my left wrist and to better balance the flute against my index finger. I'm also paying attention to throat articulation and the position of my right thumb.
TUNES: To keep from being bored out of my mind, I declared January to be Polka Month. Polkas are easy to learn and fun to play in sessions. Conal O'Grada, my teacher at Willie Clancy Week last summer, taught us some polkas so I reviewed those. I'm also learning a few from Fliuit, a flute instructional tutor by June McCormack as well as from The Irish Flute Player's Handbook by flutemaker Hammy Hamilton. I've worked on 15 polkas in January and I'm having a pretty good time, so maybe I'll keep going for another few weeks.

Thinking about how I came to develop these transitioning skills, I started to recall my journey through Irish traditional music. Being an inveterate list maker, my recollections took the form of a timeline which begins before I started blogging. Once the blog was established, I had a place to reflect on my frustrations and record my progress. Note the links and corresponding labels used for grouping similar topics.

July 2003 Purchase of a Cillian Ó Briain Improved Feadog D whistle at the The Living Tradition shop (now closed) in Cork City, Ireland.
2003-2004 Whistle lessons with Bill Ochs
Spring 2004 Took Mick Moloney's History of Celtic Music at New York University
Spring 2004 Joined the NYU-based Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra (WSHSO)
2004-2005 Took whistle lessons with Mike Rafferty (Rafferty)
2004-2008 Attended Catskills Irish Arts Week (Catskills Irish Arts Week)
Fall 2005 Switch my primary instrument from tin whistle to flute
2005-2006 Weekly Flute Lessons with Mike Rafferty (Rafferty)
July 10, 2006 Inspired by Joanie (Flute Journey)
2006-2010 Occasional flute lessons with Mike Rafferty (Rafferty)
Jan 28, 2007 Starting to Play in Sessions (Flute Journey)
Feb 02, 2007 Silver Flute vs. Irish Flute (Flute Journey)
June 13, 2007 Alternate Fingering for C# (Flute Journey)
Oct 21, 2007 Playing in Sessions, an update (Flute Journey)
2007-2008 Played with Lorcan Otway in Sorcha Dorcha (Sorcha Dorcha)
March 29, 2008 Sandalwood Headjoint for my Silver Flute (Flute Journey)
April 20, 2008 Flute Dilemma Again (or rather, still) - re-evaluating the silver flute solution (Flute Journey)
May 09, 2008 Flute Dilemma Resolved - decision to get a Peter Noy keyless wooden flute (Flute Journey)
Aug 17, 2008 Finding an Interim Flute - purchase of the Casey Burns mopane Folk Flute (Flute Journey)
Dec 17, 2008 Flute Choice Refined - decision to add keys (Flute Journey)
April 30, 2009 Ireland Bound - switch to a borrowed Burns boxwood flute (Flute Journey)
July 2009 Attended Willie Clancy School of Traditional Music, Miltown Malbay, Ireland (Willie Week)
Jan 16, 2010 My New Flute - arrival of the Peter Noy flute (Flute Journey)

The collage below makes the point in a more concise way, showing the variety of instruments I've played since 2003.

Top left - borrowed Casey Burns keyless boxwood flute

Top middle - my Cillian Ó Briain tin whistle (2004 photo, lesson with Mary Bergin)

Top right - Peter Noy head joint, on loan, for my silver flute

Bottom left - borrowed Terry McGee keyless African blackwood flute

Bottom middle - my Casey Burns mopane folk flute

Bottom right - my Wm. S. Haynes handmade solid silver flute

Center - my Peter Noy 6-keyed boxwood flute

Yes, the years since that momentous visit to Ireland in 2003 have been full of growth and adventure. During that time I've become acculturated in the world of traditional Irish music and have learned many tunes. I've experimented with Irish piano accompaniment and have discovered I can sing a bit when I'm of a mind to do so. I've even tried set dancing. Flute is my primary interest though, and now that I have a good instrument I'm ready to do some serious work on my playing abilities. If only there were more hours in the day!

Music in the Mountains and on the Subway

2010-01-24T14:30:00.000-05:00

On January 16, 2010, the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra performed in Queens at the New York Irish Center. Our pianist, Brendan Dolan, was giving a lecture called Music in the Mountains. This fascinating talk focused on a region of the Catskills where Irish Americans have vacationed for generations. Brendan researched this topic for his master's degree in Irish and Irish-American Studies at New York University. The event was well attended and the food was great. Click here to see the New York Irish Center's report which includes a few pictures.

I traveled to our gig by subway. Nothing unusual about that. I was plugged into my iPod listening to a recent CD by Green Fields of America. The WSHSO plays many of the tunes on particular CD, so I was tappin' my foot and gettin' in the groove for the evening's performance when a young woman named Lisa interrupted me. Lisa explained that she was interviewing people for her blog called What Are They Listening To On The Subway. We chatted, she made careful note of my music and snapped my picture. In just a few minutes my routine subway ride was turned into a real New York adventure. Click here to see the post. Thanks, Lisa, and good luck with your project!

My New Flute!

2010-01-16T17:30:00.005-05:00

It arrived on Christmas day. A post office deliveryman rang my doorbell at 10:56 AM and handed me the package I've been waiting for since May 8, 2008. My new flute is finally here!

My Merry Christmas!
A new coat (with tags still dangling from the sleeve), a new watch, and a flute!

The flute Peter Noy made for me is a six-keyed boxwood flute. The head joint is unlined and unthinned, with a Cooper cut embouchure which includes a blow edge insert made of horn. The rings which reinforce all the joints are made of horn as well. Modeled after the Rudall & Rose 19th century flutes, it has rather large Nicholson-style finger holes. The middle joint is divided. With six keys, it is a fully chromatic instrument. The traditional Irish repertoire doesn't use the flute's third octave, but this flute does in fact have a viable and pleasant sounding third octave.

The flute, cleaning rod, and humidifier rest in modified art supply case.

The head crown of my flute was made by Catherine Crowe of Toronto, an enamel artist and traditional Irish singer I met in the Catskills. Unbeknownst to me, Peter and Catherine have been friends for years, which is how Peter came to have the enamel crown Catherine made. Reading my blog posts, Peter recently discovered that I knew Catherine as well and suggested I might like her crown on my flute.

Catherine's art uses patterns and objects that draw their significance from the folklore of ancient Celtic, Scythian and Etruscan cultures. The pattern she used for the flute's crown is the Celtic triple spiral. According to Catherine, The triple spiral is one of the oldest Celtic designs. It was in use from the 7th century BC right up to the present. This particular one is based on an enamelled escutcheon from around the 7th century AD. (Click here for more information)

Interestingly, Catherine's triple spiral is very similar to Peter's logo which incorporates a stylized representation of the three-pronged trillium, the emblem and official flower of Ontario. The trillium holds special significance for Peter because he grew up in Ontario and lived in Toronto for many years.

Like the flute makers of old, Peter engraves his logo on each section of the flute. The main stamp, to the right of the right-most ring in the picture below, has the letters NOY arranged in a semi-circle under the trillium shape. From this photo's prespective the stamp is on its side, with the N at the bottom. The main stamp is located on the flute's third joint. The stamp Peter uses on all the other joints is simply a very tiny trillium, as seen on either side of the left-most ring. You can see these a little better, especially the one on the lighter piece of boxwood. Double-click on the picture below to enlarge it.

At first I thought Catherine's design was a fancier form of Peter's logo. However, in email conversation with both Catherine and Peter, I realized that each design was distinct, with its own meaning and story. It's a rather an uncanny coincidence that the two are so similar!

In the end, I came to appreciate the synchronicity of my flute's two symbols. It reminds me of the ribbons in a Celtic knot, twisting through both personal and historical circumstances. All of the Canadian provinces, including Ontario, took in many immigrants from Ireland, particularly during 1800's as a result of the Great Famine. As a result, Ontario has a rich and lively Irish community, with an Irish Canadian population of approximately two million people according to the 2006 census. Living in Ontario and participating in the Irish community, both Catherine and Peter would have been exposed to many Celtic patterns over the years. Likewise, I'm sure they both would have seen the trillium represented in many forms for various reasons. In an email exchange with Peter about the relationship of his trillium logo to the triple spiral, he concluded it was what Joyce called " the ineluctable modality of the visible." (and if you need help with that statement, as I did, click here)

In closing, here are a few more pictures. Actually, taking good flute pictures is quite difficult. One needs a much better camera than mine and proper lighting to prevent the the flash or the sun from reflecting off the finish and distorting the rich hues of the wood. Nevertheless, I hope these photos will give you some idea of the marvelous workmanship that goes into a Peter Noy flute. I'm just thrilled with it. Bet you never would have guessed!!

Testing the Times Square Ball

2010-01-01T23:00:00.007-05:00

This year I had to work on December 30, 2009. I was happy about going to work on this particular day because being in the office meant I would be able to watch the test of the New Year's Eve ball drop. From the 30th floor of the Times Square office building where I work, I had a great view of an event which very few people get to see. Naturally I took a few pictures.

Here, the unlit ball is resting at the bottom of the pole behind the Toshiba sign.

Here's a closer view of the ball, showing one of it's many colored patterns.

The test of the ball went well, as you can see below. Using iMovie I was able to splice together several short video clips taken with my digital camera. The background music is Ramsey Lewis playing What Are You Doing New Year's Eve. Have a look!

(Tip: the video quality is better if you don't go to the full screen view. It's a rather old camera.)

Two years ago I wrote about the 100th Times Square Ball-Drop. Last year a new ball was installed. The Times Square Alliance website describes last year's ball as follows: "The new Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball is a 12 foot geodesic sphere, double the size of previous Balls, and weighs 11,875 pounds. Covered in 2,668 Waterford Crystals and powered by 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDS, the new Ball is capable of creating a palette of more than 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns producing a spectacular kaleidoscope effect atop One Times Square."

For the 2009 ball drop, the new 2008 ball was modified to include 288 new Waterford crystal panels. The clear glass panels have a swirling Celtic design with a colored icon in the center. The YouTube video below offers more details and shows closeups of the panels.

Twenty-Ten... 20-10... It has rather a nice ring, don't you think? It's a number that is fun to say aloud. (Remember how pleased you were when you realized you could count backwards?!) We can't turn back the clock. I'm not even sure we would want to. (Ok, I lied - maybe we could turn it back just a little bit!!) All kidding aside, though, hopefully 2010 will be an upbeat year in which we take more joy from the basic, simple pleasures of life and focus on what's really important.

Happy New Year!

Sing We All Noel

2009-12-22T08:26:00.048-05:00

This Christmas season has been full of Irish music activities. For me, the Christmas season began in early December when I attended a Cherish The Ladies concert, a rousing, energetic performance of many of the songs and tunes on their new Christmas CD, A Star in the East. As a member of the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra I was part of Mick Moloney's Irish Christmas concert series at the Irish Arts Center. The WSHSO also played in the Airneal na Nollag, an annual holiday celebration at New York University's Glucksman Ireland House. Additionally, we provided music for the Christmas party of the Irish American Bar Association of New York. I attended a session at the Landmark Tavern when Jimmy Crowley was in town. I've been to several sessions at Lillie's this month, and last night I went to the massive Christmas session at Dempsey's. All the bars are beautifully decorated for Christmas, making the sessions seem very festive.

Christmas music is everywhere. My husband has many CDs containing both secular and sacred Christmas music. We listen to them at home and in the car, and I have loaded my favorites onto my iPod. On the piano I practiced both Advent and Christmas hymns in preparation for accompanying two worship services this month at Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship. On the silver concert flute I'm working on Danse des Mirlitons from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Ballet, to be played at MMF on January 3, 2010. On the wooden Irish flute I re-learned the Christmas Eve reel, a standard of the season. During the Irish Arts Center gig I enjoyed the repeated performances of Mary's Boy Child as sung by Donie Carroll, Louise Sullivan's poignant rendition of Jackson Browne's The Rebel Jesus, and Mick Moloney's driving version of Down Among the Bushes of Jerusalem. Liz Hanley's singing of Christmas in the Trenches brought home the painful reminder that war (still) prevails instead of "Peace on Earth" about which the angels sang. Liz also sang The Cherry Tree carol which I sang at MMF last year. My own new Christmas song this year is an Appalachian song called In the Valley. I learned it from a Little Windows Christmas CD called Snowman's Waltz. Hopefully I'll get to sing it somewhere before the season is over.

Music is an integral part of the Christmas holiday season. It speaks to us, moves us, in a way that nothing else can. Christmas music washes over us everywhere we go. It permeates the air. It comforts us and helps us rejoice. I think perhaps it's one way that God comes to earth and makes His presence felt. That's my experience anyway. Perhaps it's yours as well. So...

May your Christmas be merry, and May there be music!
Sing We All Noel

Remembering Frank McCourt

2009-10-07T22:38:00.009-04:00

Left to right: Liz Kennedy, Jimmy Crowley, me, Mick Moloney, Daniel Neely,
Malachy McCourt, David Amram, Tony Horswill, Kate Bowerman.

Last night I participated in a very special event called Remembering Frank McCourt, a memorial gathering at Symphony Space for the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Angela's Ashes who died on July 19, 2009. Attending this event caused me to reflect on the many ways I was connected to Frank McCourt.

At the memorial, members of The Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra (WSHSO) led by Mick Moloney and Jimmy Crowley, offered songs and traditional tunes to conclude a lovely evening of remembrances by friends, colleagues, former students, and family. Backstage afterwards, photographer James Higgins took our picture with David Amram, who played an remarkably creative version of Amazing Grace on the low D whistle, and Malachy McCourt, who led the entire audience in singing Wild Mountain Thyme.

Through my Irish music connections, I have actually met several of the McCourt brothers. My friend Ashley Davis introduced me to Frank after her February 2009 concert at Joe's Pub. I was completely starstruck, but Frank's charm and wit immediately put me at ease. I met Frank's youngest brother Alphie in December 2008 after performing at a Christmas concert at the Irish Arts Center. I have heard Malachy speak at various WSHSO events, and after the Symphony Space memorial, we chatted a bit. Made me laugh, he did!

Looking back, I view reading Angela's Ashes as a turning point in my life. I read it the year before our family's trip to Ireland in 2003. During our visit we went to the city of Limerick and took the 2-hour Angela's Ashes tour, visiting many of the places mentioned in the book. Back in NYC, my quest to hear more Irish music led me to Mick Moloney's History of Celtic Music course at New York University. Mick invited me to join the WSHSO, and my journey in Irish music was off and running. Traditional music gave me a fresh approach to flute playing and allowed me to re-enter the world of music after a 20-year hiatus. And it all started with Frank McCourt's book.

What struck me most about the Symphony Space memorial was how many, many people Frank McCourt seemed to have influenced in one way or another. Perhaps the true measure of greatness is not your grandest achievement but rather your power to change the lives of others... just because they knew you or read your books.

________________
Recommended reading:

A Remembrance of Frank McCourt, by Elizabeth Kadetsky, The Rumpus, July 24, 2009. (beautifully written description of a student's relationship with her teacher)
Frank McCourt Remembered and Honored, by Michael Coffey, Publisher's Weekly, October 7, 2009. (a recap of the Symphony Space memorial)
Frank McCourt and the Memorable Memoir, New York Times Week in Review article, July 25, 2009
New York Times obituary, July 19, 2009
Time.com obituary, July 19, 2009

Recommended viewing:

Frank McCourt's 2002 Commencement Address at Fieldston High School, one of NYC's prestigious private high schools. (It's all one well crafted speech, so watch both video clips. It's quintessential Frank McCourt.)

To see blog posts about other books I've read, click HERE.

© 2009, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

Migration Assistant Misery

2009-09-05T22:00:00.027-04:00

Misery is surely a fitting description for my experience with Apple's Migration Assistant utility. Hoping to save someone else from a similar ordeal, I'm going to share my experience.

I recently replaced my son's 4-year-old Powerbook G4 1.5 with the new MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.26. In many respects this new MacBook was an exciting improvement over the poor Powerbook, with its missing tab key and dented case.

Powerbook on the left; Macbook Pro on the right.

The Migration Assistant utility seemed to be the best way to move my son's 54 gigabytes of data. This utility would transfer not only the user account but also all the data and settings associated with it. In the end, Migration Assistant did finally deliver as promised, but not without inflicting significant pain.

The FIRST attempt at migration failed because I selected Wireless Network as the migration method. It seemed the easiest, but after 30 minutes of "preparing to migrate..." Migration Assistant finally estimated that the migration would take about 15 hours. Who has that much patience, right? So I canceled that migration attempt.

The SECOND attempt started badly because it seemed to think data for the user had already been transferred from the previous aborted attempt. Therefore, I set up another user account, very similar to the first one. Having now located my ethernet cable, I selected Ethernet as the migration method. That reduced the estimated time to 3 hours. Much better!

Near the end of the process the screen display said "less than one minute remaining" -- for 20 minutes or so. With mounting concern, I turned to the internet for help and read that one should not assume Migration Assistant was in trouble unless it ran for more that 12 hours. By this time it was midnight, so I just went to bed and left it to run its course.

By 7 AM the screen displayed a message "...finished successfully." However, clicking on the Finish button produced a message that there were errors -- errors which would remain a mystery because there was no explanation or error log. Left completely to my own devices, I started poking around in the Finder to see what Migration Assistant had done, or not done, and I found indications that all was not well.

Clearly in need of help, I called Apple Support. After 15 minutes of troubleshooting I was transferred to a technical specialist named Sean. Patiently, he explained that establishing multiple user accounts with similar names had caused unnecessary copying of data. His bigger concern was that system security programs might encounter future hard-to-diagnose issues stemming from those user accounts with extremely similar names. (User accounts form the very basis for all system security.) He advised me to erase the hard drive -- Gulp! -- and restore the system to the way it was when I took it out of the box.

Entering a new realm of Mac maintenance, then, I erased the hard drive with one click, and reinstalled the operating system with those disks that come with every new computer. You know, the ones you hope you never have to use... But wow! What an improvement over Microsoft! There were no confusing questions to answer, and the whole operation took only 30 minutes.

Off and running now, I began my THIRD attempt at Migration Assistant. Again I selected Ethernet as the migration method. After an hour of "Searching for documents to migrate to the new computer..." I called Apple Support again. Sean was not available, but Jay explained why this third attempt would never complete (I'll spare you that convoluted story) and advised the FireWire migration method.

Since I needed to go out and buy a FireWire cable, Jay called back in an hour -- yes, a support person actually called me back!!! -- and thus began my FOURTH attempt at Migration Assistant. I was a little nervous about going into FireWire target disk mode, a process used by the FireWire method. However, working with FireWire target disk mode proved to be far less scary than booting up a Windows PC in SAFE mode. You just hold down the T key while you boot up, and release it when the FireWire symbol appears on the screen. At that point the whole computer is just an external hard drive. But returning to the saga, the estimated migration time using the FireWire method dropped to 1 hour 30 minutes! Jay said he'd call back a second time to make sure it finished successfully. At this point I actually began to believe I might complete this process in my lifetime!

Migration Assistant completed about 15 minutes early so I had a chance to verify the results. All the data was transferred and the user account was properly named. The machine name that was transferred included the word Powerbook, and so I replaced that with the words MacBook Pro. The dock contained some question marks representing applications I had chosen not to transfer, so I got rid of those empty dock items. I installed the iLife applications which were erased when I did the operating system re-install. I also installed the 2008 version of Microsoft Office for Mac. My son would need to download fresh copies of a few internet applications, but other than that, everything looked good. When Jay called, he concurred that this fourth attempt had succeeded.
Finally -- 21 hours after beginning the first migration attempt -- I able to hand over the Macbook Pro to my son.

Lessons Learned: If you're using Migration Assistant to transfer data from an older Mac to a new one,

1) GIVE A FICTITIOUS NAME WHEN YOU BOOT UP THE COMPUTER FOR THE FIRST TIME. (Actually, this tip comes word-for-word from Jay in the Apple Tech Support group.) Doing this will establish a user account on your new system that is completely different from your old system. Migration Assistant will then have no conflicts whatsoever and can copy your old user account and everything associated with it. When Migration Assistant has completed, just delete the fictitious user account.

2) USE A FIREWIRE CABLE. (This tip comes from my own experience.) Forget about doing it any other way. Anyone who can afford an Apple computer can afford a $20 FireWire cable. Caution: You will need to know the speed of the FireWire port on each machine. You can look that up online, or just call Apple Support. Based on the model number I gave him, Jay informed me that the Powerbook had a 400 Mbps (megabytes per second) FireWire port, whereas the Macbook Pro had an 800 Mbps port. He instructed me to by a "400 to 800" FireWire cable.

Alternatives: (if you have no"geeky" inclinations whatsoever)

a) Make an appointment at the Genius Bar in an Apple Store, and an Apple Genius (in-store tech support person) will do the whole migration for you. You will have to take your old Mac and your new Mac into the store and maybe leave them both there for a day or so. But hey, if your at-home migration goes as badly as mine, you wouldn't have had the use of your computer anyway! This service is free, so if you live near an Apple Store, why not leave data migration to the experts?

b) Call Apple Support before you turn on the new machine for the first time. If I were you, I'd ask the agent who picks up the call to transfer you to Technical Support for help transferring data from one computer to another. Go right to second level support, as these guys know a little more and explain things a little better. Even if you didn't buy the Apple Care extended warranty, this call is covered under your purchase warranty.

Do I wish I had moved the data manually from a backup? No. When it works properly, Migration Assistant is amazing. My son felt instantly "at home" on the new MacBook Pro. There were no preferences to adjust; everything looked and felt the same. I just don't think all the aggravation I went through was necessary. Apple usually does a pretty decent job of making applications user friendly, so I never expected to encounter such poor instructions. If Apple feels compelled to offer Wireless and Ethernet as migration options, they owe it to the user to explain the implications of each choice. That alone would have spared me 21 hours of anxiety and uncertainty. So yea, it was a real pain and I regret that. In the end, though, I learned a few things to share here with anyone -- even the folks at Apple -- who might stumble upon this post. Please feel free to leave a comment if you found this helpful.

Pianos, Jewels, and Inns of Court - Monday

2009-07-13T23:57:00.049-04:00

Maurene and I saw a handful of things on Monday that didn't easily fit into Breakfast Rambles or Sacred Spaces, the previous two posts devoted to our day of sightseeing on July 13, 2009. This post, then, completes the Monday trilogy.

Several times throughout the day we saw oddly painted pianos sitting on the sidewalk or in public atriums. This one, in Liverpool Street Station, was the only one we saw being played.

Later I learned that these pianos were part of an urban art project entitled Play Me, I'm Yours. This project by Luke Jerram placed 30 pianos in heavily populated public places. The intention was to create personal amusement or perhaps spontaneous street theater as people sat down to play the pianos. The exhibit lasted three weeks, then the pianos were given to schools and community groups.

After lunch at Ye Olde Mitre Tavern (see my Sacred Spaces post) Maurene and I did a bit of window shopping in the Hatten Garden jewelry district, an area bounded by Holborn, Gray's Inn Road, Clerkenwell Road, and Farringdon Road. Click here for a map. The jewelry was dazzling, shop after shop. Best to leave quickly and avoid temptation!

Next we looked at the half-timbered Tudor buildings on High Holborn. Very pretty buildings, and very old -- they date back to 1586.

The half-timbered buildings form the northern side of the Staple Inn. Behind them, lovely red brick buildings surround a peaceful landscaped interior garden.

Staple Inn is the last surviving Inn of Chancery. The Inns of Chancery, dating back to 1344, originally served as offices for clerks of chancery (a type of law). Later, the inns provided not only office space but also living quarters for the chancery lawyers who were called solicitors. Until 1642 the Inns of Chancery also provided initial training for barristers. It's interesting to note that solicitors practiced a different type of law than barristers, but today's lawyers in Britain are qualified to practice in both areas of law.

The Inns of Chancery were initially attached to the early Inns of Court. Inns of Court were voluntary associations originating in the Middle Ages. According to Encyclopedia Britannica they were formed to study English law as opposed to Roman law that was taught in the universities. There were four Inns of Court: Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Gray's Inn, and Lincoln's Inn.

I found the term "inn" puzzling. Of course, I hadn't yet read all the explanatory material above, so my frame of reference was that of temporary lodging for travelers. Maurene explained that the inns we had seen were law offices, and sometimes lawyers even maintained a small apartment there. Still, the architecture and grounds of these inns were as elaborate as cathedrals and seemed a bit much, even for a high profession like the law. A fuller explanation was to be found -- where else? -- in Wikipedia. Quoting from the article on the Inns of Court. "Each inn is a substantial complex with a great hall, chapel, libraries, sets of chambers for many hundreds of barristers, and gardens, and covers several acres. The layout is similar to that of an "Oxbridge" college. The "chambers" were originally used as residences as well as business premises by many of the barristers, but today, with a small number of exceptions, they serve as offices only."

This explanation was well illustrated by Lincoln's Inn, a much bigger property than the Staple Inn. Built in the mid-1800's, the buildings had a grander scale but the same austere air of seriousness. I was amused to learn that the building I thought was a chapel is actually the library. Makes sense, right? The law library is after all the most sacred of the buildings in a legal complex.

Law library is the chapel-like building extending out to the right.

The building with the tower, on the left, is the other side of the library.

The shot below illustrates a bit better than my photos just how much this building resembles a cathedral.

(This photo is not subject to any copyright restrictions.)

In between the Staple Inn and the Lincoln's Inn we visited The London Silver Vaults. Originally opened in 1876 as Chancery Lane Safe Deposit, these vaults were available for rental by wealthy Londoners who wanted to protect their valuables. Upon showing ID and checking our bags, Maurene and I went downstairs where we passed through a huge fortified safe door with a very imposing lock. Inside, we wandered the many hallways lined with rooms. Each room, a vault within a vault, was the shop of an antique silver dealer. The Silver Vaults contain silver from a variety of different cultures and historical periods -- cutlery & table service, tea sets (of course), jewelry & watches, lamps, and decorative pieces of all sorts including animals & birds, large and small. I thought I might buy a small turtle, and we did actually find one but it wasn't small enough to be affordable.

Back at Maurene's flat we needed tea and a nap to regain enough strength to go to dinner. We still can't believe how much ground we covered. It's a wonder we made it to dinner at all, really, but hunger drove us out the door. We ended up at a restaurant called Il Bordello, where very good Italian food was served in huge portions. And so, tired and stuffed with pasta, Maurene and I concluded what will probably be a "personal best" for both of us in the category of jam-packed London sightseeing days!

Sacred Spaces - Monday

2009-07-13T23:56:00.023-04:00

After breakfast at the Barbican (see Breakfast Rambles - Monday), Maurene and I set off on foot to see some sacred spaces.

Our first stop was St. Helen's, an Anglican church in the Bishopsgate area. Actually, St. Helen's wasn't on Maurene's itinerary. We stumbled upon it rather by accident, and I insisted we take a quick look. We were glad we did, for the building has an interesting construction which reflects its long history.

St. Helen's worship space was originally two separate chapels. Apparently there was a parish church that predated the chapel built in 1210 for an order of Benedictine nuns. The nuns' chapel was a little wider and longer than the parish church, giving the present sanctuary an odd shape.

St. Helen's has many claims to fame: It is the only surviving monastic building inside the city walls. It survived the Great Fire, the World War II Blitz, and two IRA bombings in the 1990s. It was the parish church of William Shakespeare in 1590. It may have the longest name of any single church. It's full and proper name, which includes the names of all 5 parishes consolidated from the 16th century to the present, is: "St Helen Bishopsgate with St Andrew Undershaft & St Ethelburga Bishopsgate & St Martin Outwich & St Mary Axe".

(For each slideshow in this post, you can make the pictures larger by double click the first one. Then, on the Picasa Web site, click on Slideshow.)

Additional info on St. Helen's:
1) St. Helen's Bishopsgate - historical timeline on the church's website
2) St. Helen's Bishopsgate, Tour UK website - more historical details
3) St. Helen's Bishopsgate, Wikipedia - most representative pictures and good references in the footnotes.

On our way to the next place of worship, Maurene and I walked through the Leadenhall Market. The narrow street leading into the covered market reminded me that I was in a very old part of the city. The market itself was established in the fourteenth century, but it stands on a site which dates back to AD 47 when the Roman city of Londinium was built.

More recently, the market was used to depict Diagon Alley in the movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Harry Potter fans, do you recognize this ornate ironwork?

Additional info on the Leadenhall Market:
1) Leadenhall Market - historical timeline
2) Leadenhall Market, Wikipedia - short synopsis, wonderful picture

After a few wrong turns which resulted in crisscrossing the Leadenhall Market, we finally arrived at the Bevis Marks Synagogue. Its website explained why we had trouble finding it: The synagogue was actually built in a back alley because in 1699 Jews weren't allowed to put their buildings on the main roadways. Bevis Marks, completed in 1701, is the oldest synagogue in continuous use in London. The website link above is really interesting and quite well done. I highly recommend it to you for all the background details that I'm about to skip. I will just touch upon the aspects of the synagogue that I particularly enjoyed.

Upon entering the building, I immediately noticed a similarity to Quaker (Nonconformist) meetinghouses: balconies that circle above the main meeting space on three sides, and large windows with many panes of clear glass to let in the light. Later I learned that the builder of the synagogue was a Quaker named. No wonder there was a similarity! This Quaker, Joseph Avis, built the synagogue at cost because he felt it unethical to make a profit from the construction of a house of worship.

Perhaps the lavish decoration of the synagogue reflects the tastes of the original congregation, which was comprised of Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal. I particularly liked the brass chandeliers which filled the room, seven of them representing the seven days of the week. The chandeliers still had candles in them, which looked well used. There were also large brass candlesticks by the pulpit and the cabinet containing the Ark of the Covenant. While there were some electric lights in the balcony and on the tops of the pillars supporting the balcony, it seemed like the main source of light in the evening would probably come from candles. It was a very elegant and beautifully maintained sanctuary.

Here are a few pictures - they aren't great, so be sure you look at the the ones on the main Bevis Marks website as well.

Additional info on Bevis Marks:
1) Bevis Marks, Jewish Communities & Records (JCR) UK website - congregation data, other information which includes detailed Congregation History, good bibliography.
2) Bevis Marks, Wikipedia, good description, nice links.
3) Bevis Marks, Sacred Destinations website, concise summary and a map showing exact location

Our next stop was St. Ethelreda's, a Roman Catholic church in Ely Place. St. Ethelreda's was built between 1250 and 1290. Over time, the chapel and the crypt below served different purposes. In the mid-1500, the crypt was used as a tavern. From 1620 to 1622 the chapel served as Spanish ambassador's private chapel (and thus it was considered on "Spanish soil"). In 1642 during the English Civil War it was used as a prison and hospital. It was closed for a while, then reopened as an Episcopalian church before it was put up for auction in 1873 and bought by a Catholic priest who restored both the chapel and the crypt to their 13th century design. The crypt was used as a tavern in the 16th century. All said, this building indeed has a long and interesting history.

Despite the fact that it was not very well lit, Maurene and I especially enjoyed the crypt. It was obviously very old and gave us the sense of stepping back in time.

In the upper church, Maurene and I strolled the side aisles looking at the statues of martyrs from various historical periods, people from the area who probably attended this church. We took a moment to rest in the pews and commune with the spirit of St. Ethelreda. And she was actually there. I don't know if we realized it at the time, but on the right of the altar is a jeweled box said to contain a piece of St. Ethelreda's hand.

Additional info on St. Ethelreda's Church
1) St. Ethelreda's Church, Wikipedia, good summary and nice pictures
2) St. Ethelreda's History, part of St. Ethelreda's website - most complete historical information.
3) St. Ethelreda's Gallery, part of St. Ethelreda's website - pictures of all stained glass windows in the church and the crypt.
4) The Hand of St. Ethelreda by Dwight Longenecker, Fr. Dwight Longenecker's website - essay which suggests the hand of St. Ethelreda is symbolic of the Catholic Church in England

The final sacred space of this post is Ye Olde Mitre Tavern. In 1546 when it was built, the Mitre was a pub for the palace servants of the Bishops of Ely - the same Bishops who worshiped at St. Ethelreda's Church. Like the church, the Mitre went through a restoration about 200 years ago. In addition to being named for a bishop's cap, I'm classifying Ye Olde Mitre as a sacred space because it has has always been a place where people could meet together to escape from their mundane lives for a little while and return revived and refreshed. Think of it as a non-denominational, non-theological church of the common man -- or woman, as the case may be.

By the time Maurene and I arrived at the Mitre, we were certainly ready to rest our weary feet and have lunch. We ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and a glass of hard cider. Then we took a look around. All the rooms are small, but there are two sitting rooms downstairs separated by the bar in between them. Both rooms are lined in dark paneling and with their low ceilings impart the feel of a much earlier time. Up a narrow, winding staircase is the Bishop's Room, now just another room for patrons to socialize, as well as the ladies room and the office.

Interestingly, the bit of land on which the Mitre stands is still under the governance of Cambridgeshire, not London. This dates back to the 13th century and its connection to the Ely Palace. For some reason, this bit of land was never incorporated into the City of London. According to TimeOut London, if robbers from the nearby jewelry district run down the alley that leads to the Mitre, the only thing London police can do is seal off the exits and call their counterparts from Cambridgeshire to come make the arrest!

Additional info:
Secret London: Ye Olde Mitre Tavern, Timeout London. Good historical details.

Breakfast Rambles - Monday

2009-07-13T23:55:00.029-04:00

Today was my first full day in London after a week in Ireland at the Willie Clancy Festival in Miltown Malbay. (All of those posts are accessible by clicking the Topic Label "Willie Week 2009" in the blue box on the left.) My friend Maurene had an ambitious sightseeing itinerary planned. Much of what we were to see on my 3-day visit fell under the category of "old." For example, yesterday we went to The Oriental Club and Rules, both dating back to the early 1800s. The first items on today's agenda, however, were more recent additions to the historic city of London.

After a cup of tea and a shower, Maurene and I were out and about by 9 AM. Our first stop was an office/apartment complex called Cutler Gardens at 3-11 Devonshire Square. Despite its picturesque name, the original buildings that comprised Cutler Gardens were warehouses belonging to the East India Company, later used by the St. Katherine's Dock Company and the Port of London Authority. From 1978-1982 the warehouses were remodeled for use by the Standard Life Assurance Company. In 1990, a sculpture by Denys Mitchell was installed in the courtyard. The Cnihtengild, a bronze and glass sculpture of a knight on horseback, has a modern style which nevertheless succeeds in invoking all the drama and force of the days of King Arthur. The plaque below the sculpture reads as follows:

“King Edgar (959–75) granted this derelict land to thirteen knights, on condition that they each perform three duels, one on land, one below ground, one on the water. These feats having been achieved, the King gave the knights, or Cnihtengild, certain rights over a piece of land ‘from Aldgate to the place where the bars are now, toward the east, on both sides of the lane, and extended it toward the gate now known as Bishopsgate in the north, to the house of William the Priest… and to the south to the Thames as far as a horseman riding into the river at low tide can throw a lance.’

“This sculpture by Denys Mitchell, commissioned by the Standard Life Assurance Company, commemorates the Cnihtengild and was unveiled by the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Sir Alexander Graham G.B.E. D.C.L. on 21st November 1990.”

And here's a fact about The Cnihtengild that so far has escaped mention on the internet: the statue MOVES. The position of the horse's head, the rider's head, and the rider's lance change on the hour.

(To make the pictures larger, double click the first one.
Then, on the Picasa Web site, click on Slideshow.)

Moving on, our next stop was the entrance to the Liverpool Street Station of the London Underground to see another sculpture, the Kindertransport Memorial, by Frank Meisler, completed in 2006. The sculpture depicts Jewish refugee children rescued from the Nazis. The UK admitted about 10,000 children between December 1938 and August 1939. Sent unaccompanied and placed in foster homes, most of these children never saw their families again. The Liverpool Street Station was chosen as the site for the sculpture because it is where the children disembarked from the Harwich boat train.

A quote at the base of the statue says:
"Whosoever rescues a single soul is credited as though they had saved the whole world." (Talmud, Baba Batra 11a.)

Our breakfast destination was The Barbican Estate where Maurene's friend Val lives. Before the Barbican was built, hardly anyone lived in that part of the city because it had been destroyed by heavy bombing in World War II. The Barbican, which opened in 1969, brought 4000 residents and many other people who come to attend events in the Barbican Centre, the largest performing arts center in Europe.

The Barbican complex is architecturally significant. Built by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, one of the most important modernist architectural firms in Britain, The Barbican is an example of the Brutalist style. The entire complex is elevated from street level, and the landscaped grounds are quiet and beautiful. Once inside, you lose the bustle of London and enter a quieter world of nature and art. There are three large towers and 13 terraced 7-story buildings. Val's living room offers a lovely view of the large reflecting pool called "the lake" in which grow water lilies and other types of vegetation.

(To make the pictures larger, double click the first one.
Then, on the Picasa Web site, click on Slideshow.)

Val served us a breakfast of freshly baked croissants and berries with coffee, tea, and juice. She was a gracious hostess, and it would have been easy to linger for hours chatting and taking pictures. However, our sightseeing agenda beckoned, so before too long Maurene and I bid a fond farewell to the Val and the Barbican.

Maurene and Val

From Miltown Malbay to London - Sunday

2009-07-12T23:55:00.027-04:00

Like clockwork, my cab arrived at 6 AM to take me to Ennis where I would catch the 7:05 bus to the Shannon Airport. I was very thankful to be able to split the 45 Euro cab ride with a young Hungarian woman also needing to arrive early at the bus station. We arrived in Ennis with time to spare. The bus station was closed, so we chatted on the porch to keep out of the cold wind and rain. At 7:05 AM there was no bus in sight. Around 7:08, a bus pulled into one of the empty loading lanes. I squinted to read the destination, having difficulty because of the rain. Before I could make out the words, I saw the bus back up and pull out of the loading lane and drive away! The bus stopped only long enough for that driver to shift into reverse gear. I was furious, but no amount of indignation was going to bring the bus back.

By this time a few cabs had arrived. Since there were no more airport buses until afternoon, I had no choice but to hire a second cab. I managed to get the fare down to about 30 Euros, I think. It turned out to be a really expensive morning, despite sharing the first cab. All together I spent about 55 Euros getting to the Shannon Airport. (For US readers, 1 Euro = about 1.40 US Dollars)

At the Shannon Airport I had my first Ryanair experience. Ryanair is an airline that makes short hops all over Europe, popular for business and weekend travel. They keep the fares low by charging extra fees for a long list of things. Their weight limit for checked baggage is 15 kilograms; 10 kilograms for the one carry-on bag you are allowed (your purse must be stuffed inside your one carry-on). Well, if you recall, I had purchased a heavy hardback flute reference book. I was also packing a jar of orange marmalade, a gift for my husband. My checked bag was about 6 kilograms overweight. At 15 Euros per kilogram, the overweight luggage fee would be the equivalent of another expensive cab ride. Not good! I stepped to the side and repacked, shoving as much in my carry-on as possible. During the frantic repacking, I got the bright idea to store things in the many pockets of my rain jacket. Brilliant, as nobody was going to weigh my coat. I was able to keep my carry-on bag under the limit (just barely) and reduce the weight of my checked bag to 16 kilograms. I paid the much reduced overweight fee, and with a self-satisfied chuckle I was on my way. It wasn't until I went through security that I realized that the marmalade was one of the items in my rain jacket. Airport security wouldn't let me keep it, so with regret I watched them pitch my Irish Whiskey Orange Marmalade into the trash bin.

My friend Maurene met me at Stansted Airport in London with her friend Tom and his cab. Tom drove us back to Maurene's apartment where we took a little nap before dinner.

Maurene and Tom

Refreshed, we were off to meet another of Maurene's many friends, Alec, at the club where he stays when he comes into London for a visit. The Oriental Club is in fact a very old and historic institution. Quoting the website, it is "... a Private Gentlemen's Club founded in 1824 by and for the benefit of members of or retired from the East India Company." Though its present quarters have been modernized, the aura is definitely stately and aristocratic with majestic decor, lovely antiques, and a variety of relics that recall the bygone days of Britain's Indian empire. Alec gave us a tour before we moved on to dinner.

Next stop: Rules, the oldest restaurant in London -- 200 years in operation. Rules specializes in traditional English food such as "classic game cookery, oysters, pies, and puddings." The dishes which feature game are said to be especially good, since the animals come from an estate owned by the family who owns the restaurant. Rules had rich mahogany interiors and lots of stained glass, but what impressed me most (aside from the food) was the waitstaff. In the cocktail lounge as well as in the dining room, they were pleasant and welcoming, knowledgeable about the food, and they knew how to appear only when we actually needed something rather than constantly interrupting us to ask if everything was ok. The food and drinks were delicious. Our conversation was interesting and entertaining. All in all, it was a delightful evening. Dinner at Rules provided a marvelous beginning for my London adventure.

Alec, Maurene and I with our Pimm's

Willie Week - Saturday

2009-07-11T23:55:00.016-04:00

Today is the last day of Willie Week. Gail and Dan, who had come from Dublin for just one night (see Friday's post), left immediately after breakfast. I headed off in the opposite direction to attend the final flute class. It has been a good week. I have 30 new tunes to work on and some new techniques to incorporate into my playing. In the final class, Conal and Tara played through most of the tunes we learned for the benefit of someone whose recorder broke, but it was a good way to review all the tunes. There was ample time for Q&A about all sorts of things -- how to practice more efficiently, how to get a stronger sound, the most important elements of traditional Irish flute playing, etc. Overall, this class is probably the single most helpful set of lessons I've ever had in Irish traditional flute playing. Here is a picture to commemorate a terrific flute class.

Conal O'Grada, me, Tara Bingham Diamond

After purchasing a few gifts for my family at a local antique store, I went to the ad hoc Willie Week store which had been set up in the Community Center. All the teachers brought CDs to sell; there was also a good collection of CDs and books as well as Willie Week T-shirts and book bags. I bought 4 CDs and 2 books. One of the books deserves special mention: The Irish Flute Player's Handbook, a Comprehensive Guide to the Traditional Flute in Ireland by S.C. "Hammy" Hamilton. This book is THE definitive reference book for the Irish flute. At the time I bought this heavy hard cover edition, I considered it a "must have" despite its weight. Writing this blog post, I discovered the book is currently out of print, as it was part of a limited edition. And mine is a signed copy too! Apparently another printing is planned, so if you're interested, contact Hammy Hamilton using the instructions on his website. (see the link above)

After dropping off my purchases at the B&B, I set out to find Willie Clancy's grave. Last Sunday the festival opened with a memorial at the grave site. Since I wasn't able to attend, I wanted to make my own pilgrimage to visit the man whose playing inspired this festival. The Ballard graveyard was about one mile out of town, on the same road as the library. It was a nice uphill walk with views of the countryside sloping down to the Atlantic Ocean that just got better and better as I got farther out of town.

Just before reaching the cemetery, I met an elderly man carrying a small plastic bag. He was very old - in his 80's perhaps - and very poor. His back was hunched under his threadbare coat spotted with dust. He was wearing a tweed cap. I asked him if I was going the right direction. I could barely understand his answer -- he had a very thick accent and no teeth. Yes, he said, I would see the graveyard soon, just at the top of the hill and to the right. With pride beaming from watery old eyes that peered out from under the peculiar clumps of wiry gray eyebrow hair, he asked -- word for word -- the same question that all the townspeople had been asking me all week: "Are ye enjoyin' the festival?" Everyone took such pride in the fact that people came from far and wide to Miltown Malbay to celebrate the musical tradition that produced Willie Clancy. Coming from this fellow, however, the earnestness of his question made it more poignant. Aware of the difference in our accents as well as our economic status, I graciously assured him that indeed I was enjoying the festival and that I had had a marvelous week. Proud and satisfied, he repeated the directions to the cemetery. I thanked him again. As we parted ways, he turned down a footpath and headed across a field, presumably to his home although there were no buildings were anywhere to be seen. Despite his pronounced poverty, here was a man who knew how rich was the region's musical heritage. Though our conversation had been brief, we had made a strong connection based on mutual appreciation of the music.

The cemetery was a mixture of old graves and new, with the majority of markers erected in the twentieth century. The tombs from the nineteenth century were especially fascinating. Willie Clancy was buried in a family plot, but there was a special memorial plaque adjacent to the family plot. I took lots of pictures of the panoramic views as well as the graves.

(To make the pictures larger, double click the first one.
Then, on the Picasa Web site, click on Slideshow.)

My evening's activity was the 3-hour recital in the Community Center. The hall was packed, and there were many wonderful performances by instructors and others from the region. The audience seemed to consist of townspeople as well as festival visitors. The final musical offering was led by the local choirmaster; the singers were adults as well as children from the town - another illustration of the fact that music is an integral part of the life of the town.

After the recital I picked up fish and curry chips one last time from the chipper (see Thursday's post), and headed back to the B&B to pack. Tomorrow starts a new adventure!

Willie Week - Friday

2009-07-10T23:55:00.009-04:00

This morning it was raining pretty hard, so Lauren drove the car down to the flute class. As you recall, today we were all to play separately and receive individual comments from Conal and Tara, our teachers. Everyone was nervous; some were more prepared than others. Sometimes the comments focused on breathing; we were advised to leave out rolls (an ornament similar to a turn in classical nomenclature) or even melody notes to create enough time to take a breath. Other comments emphasized rhythm or pace. We were cautioned never to play faster than we are able. Speed will come. Playing slower will allow us to get the half-beat in the right place, essential for crisp rhythm. I was advised to keep a firmer hold on the flute and press it more solidly into my lip, also to blow at a deeper angle down into the flute's embouchure hole.

Among today's tunes were a Highland Fling and a Barndance. To give the tunes context, Tara had invited two dancers to demonstrate the Scottish Highland dance for us. I recorded a short video with my camera - forgive the quality, it's not a video camera. Using iMovie for the first time, I managed to add the recording I made of Tara playing the dance tune. The sound and the picture are not in sync though. I'm afraid that's beyond my iMovie capabilities at the moment!

After showing us the steps, the girls invited some of us to learn the dances. I let myself be persuaded, and I did pretty well if I do say so myself! Unfortunately I didn't appoint anyone to take a picture of me dancing, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

After the flute class I attended the lunchtime piping recital. The piping tradition is very strong in Miltown Malbay, as you would expect from the place that produced Willie Clancy. The Summer School offers a variety of courses for uilleann (pronounced IL-ee-an) pipers. Besides learning tunes and techniques, pipers learn how to make parts and do repairs. They also had listening classes and gave daily recitals. I have never heard so many excellent pipers in my life. The uilleann pipes are cranky, difficult instruments, but when played well they can be amazingly expressive and moving, probably as close to the human voice as an instrument can get.

Back at the library, I managed to accomplish my online Ryanair check-in and print the boarding pass. That was a relief.

Next I went to a beautiful song recital entitled Traditional Singing in Irish and English. Each singer was better than the one that came before. Very enjoyable, and very intimidating on a personal level. During Willie Week I came to the full realization that if I am ever to play the Irish flute really well, I had better focus just on flute. There are only so many hours in the day...

My roommates Lauren and Danika left in the afternoon to go back to Dublin, but Gail and Dan Neely, friends from the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra, took their place. Gail and Dan were in Ireland for 6 weeks while Gail participated in a summer session abroad. They spent 3 weeks in Belfast and had just begun a 3-week stay in Dublin. We met around 8 pm, and after they brought their things into the B&B, we went out to find some music. We sampled the music and atmosphere in various pubs up and down the main street in town. We even walked down to the dance pavilion in the drizzling rain to check out the scene there and look for Lisa, another WSHSO friend who is here this week. She was nowhere to be seen. We found out later she was dancing in Spanish Point, a town nearby that also hosted dancing every night. We didn't play in any of the sessions - it was just too crowded and wet to lug the instruments around. (Dan's banjo is a lot bigger than the flutes Gail and I play.) We had a great time, and I was really glad they could make the 4-hour drive from Dublin to hang out with me for one night and get the flavor of Willie Week.

Dan wrote a blog post about their trip to Miltown Malbay. His post contains 39 pictures and a couple of recordings made during sessions we visited. Since my pictures from that night are not very good, I raise my glass to him and invite you to check out his account of their trip to Miltown Malbay and our romp in the rain that night.

Willie Week - Thursday

2009-07-09T23:55:00.011-04:00

Another tune-packed day in the flute class. With 6 more tunes learned today, our total is now up to 18. Along with learning tunes, we are also learning some principles of technique. Today Conal and Tara talked about breathing -- where to take breaths and how often. Both our teachers advise against letting one's air reserve get more than half depleted. Their advice was to breathe quickly and often so as to never need a long time to take a breath. Tomorrow we will go around the class, each of us playing either The Rookery or Peach Blossom (tunes we learned yesterday), and Conal and Tara will offer individual advice on breathing and other aspects of our playing.

After class I made my daily dash to the library for my 30-minutes of internet. As I mentioned on Monday, there is precious little internet access in Miltown Malbay. The ONLY way to get online is by using one of the four library computers. You sign up when you arrive, wait your turn, and when your name is called you get exactly 30 minutes. If that's not enough, you're welcome to come back the next day. (Just make sure you know the hours the library is open, because they are different every day.) Since uploading pictures was both forbidden and blocked, I gave up my real-time blogging effort early on - thus these back-dated posts. Today's challenge was to do the online check-in for my Ryanair flight to London on Sunday morning. I hadn't realized I needed my passport in order to complete the check-in, so I will have to try again tomorrow.

After my trip to the library, I met Lauren who had found a nice session in the yard behind Cleary's pub. I joined her for a few tunes before a meal of fish and chips at "the chipper," a take-away place in the middle of town where you can get burgers as well as fish, and of course chips (or french fries as we Americans would call them). The chips could be ordered plain or with several toppings -- salt & vinegar, curry sauce, or garlic sauce. The curry sauce had only a hint of curry, but I liked the flavor and the curry chips quickly became my favorite. Everything was served in brown paper bags with a plastic dish in the bottom to catch the sauce. ( Again, no picture. What was I thinking!) We ate our food from the chipper outside the B&B so our room wouldn't smell like grease. The outdoors B&B cat, who had been rather stand-offish until now, suddenly got very friendly after we fed him bits of fish.

After dinner, Lauren drove me to see the Cliffs of Moher. We saw the Cliffs at dusk which was around 9 pm. The sun sets very late at this time of year in Ireland, between 10:30 and 11 pm. The views were breath-taking. Since we can see the Cliffs from our B&B, it was especially thrilling to experience them close up. I was really thankful Lauren felt like taking this little side trip.

(To make the pictures larger, double click the first one.
Then, on the Picasa Web site, click on Slideshow.)

After our drive to the Cliffs, Lauren joined Danika at the ceili and I went off to find myself a session. I ended up in the back room of the Central Hotel. Nearly all the people in the circle of players had white hair. The exceptions were Dennis Cahill on guitar and Brid O'Donaghue on flute. Many of those playing were teachers, others had obviously been playing all their lives, so the level of playing was very high. Even so, the tempos were relaxed and players savored the tunes. There were many songs mixed in with the tunes. Len Graham was in the room, but he didn't sing. Eventually a chair opened up and I joined in the playing. Between tunes I chatted with the man next to me who comes over from from the Achill Islands (pronounced AY-kull) every year for the festival. He had a flute from 1830 with very interesting keywork. I was pleased that the group played a few tunes that my teacher Mike Rafferty taught me a few weeks ago, as well as a waltz I learned just recently for the WSHSO - Dermot Grogan's Favorite. This night was very special, the highlight of my session playing experiences in Ireland. All by myself, I found really good playing and was able to participate.

When the session broke up around 1 AM, I decided to go home. Any session which would follow this one would surely be a disappointment. I was really happy and satisfied as I walked back to the B&B, alone under the stars on a country road in Ireland, with beautiful traditional music played much like it was hundreds of years ago still ringing in my ears.

Willie Week - Wednesday

2009-07-08T23:55:00.008-04:00

We learned five more tunes in Day 3 of the flute class, bringing the total number of tunes taught to 12. In addition, there were two more tunes which were given out. Let me explain what I mean by tunes taught and tunes given out.

Tunes TAUGHT: As you may already know, tunes are taught aurally. The instructor plays the tune through a few times to introduce it to us, and we all record it on our tape or digital recorders. (Some type of recorder is an absolute necessity.) Then he or she breaks the tune into phrases, playing each phrase slowly then pausing while the class plays back that phrase. The same phrase is repeated and played back in call-and-response fashion until the class is able to play the tune more or less in unison. The harder tunes might take 15 or 20 minutes to learn, whereas simpler tunes can be learned much more quickly. Conal O’Grada, one of our teachers, said he once taught a particularly easy tune in 3.5 minutes and challenged us to beat that record. I’m happy to report that our class set a new record – 3 minutes and 8 seconds.

If the tune is really unusual and people are having trouble, sometimes our teachers would write the notes on the blackboard. However, Irish musicians use ABC notation since many – maybe most – players do not read music at all. In ABC notation, you simply write the note name as opposed to drawing a note on a musical staff. There are various abbreviations to denote octaves, and some even use certain squiggles to denote ornamentation.

Tunes GIVEN OUT: This phrase means that the teacher played the tune for us to record and learn later on our own.

One of the tunes given out today was a slow aire. Conal challenged us to try to learn a slow aire by listening to a singer’s performance of it, since any instrumental slow aire would be modeled after singing technique. Vocal ornamentation is extremely subtle and very nuanced, so I would imagine learning an instrumental aire from the singing of that aire could be a really interesting approach.

Afternoon pub session

After class I went to Friel’s pub. Tara Diamond, one of our flute teachers, was playing there with some of the other teachers. (Tara is the blond whose back is to the camera in the picture above. And if you look closely, you can see me in the mirror, taking the picture!) The music was lovely, so I turned on my new recorder. I propped it inside the front pocket of my bag, hanging by the mike on the edge of the pocket. I guess the weight of the recorder caused the microphone to detach and fall off. When I discovered what had happened, I searched the floor and asked other patrons if they had seen the little T-microphone. The bartender said he had actually seen it lying on the bar, but of course it was gone by then, never to be seen again. I was in a really foul mood until I realized it could be replaced for about $19.95. After that, I decided to put the whole incident behind me and use my backup recorder. Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to bring along my old one.

In the afternoon I attended a presentation by Len Graham on the Ulster song tradition. Afterwards Lauren, Danika and I had dinner at the Bakehouse Restaurant, probably the best food in Miltown Malbay.

After dinner we went back to the dance tent to hear the Kilfenora Ceila Band. Tim Collins, who was part of the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra when he was the Fulbright scholar at NYU in 2007-08, is one of the leaders of the Kilfenora. Their sound in contrast with the Tulla was very interesting. The Kilfenora had a string bass as part of the ensemble, as well more accordion/concertina sound. The Kilfenora's tempos were much faster, but the music seemed overall much smoother. They were selling their new CD, made to commemorate their 100th year as a band, so of course I bought one.

At the end of the night, they played some music for sean nos dancing (pronounced SHAWN-nohz) -- solo dancing where the feet stay close to the floor (as opposed to the high kicks of step dancing) and dancers improvise the sequence of steps. One at a time, dancers came to the center and danced. The band played until the succession of dancers seemed concluded.

Sean nos dancer enjoys Kilfenora's music

After another action packed day, Lauren, Danika and I returned to the B&B to catch a few winks. It seems like our standard Willie Week bedtime is about 1:30 AM.