 By baregrass, on May 14th, 2012
We have gotten some very good rain here in the last few days and it is raining right now. Thank God! We, at our place, have not seen any significant moisture since before Christmas. The last I looked we had gotten a little over an inch and most of it had come down slowly so most has gone straight into the ground.
We finished our 4th annual Bluegrass Festival. There were some very good bands but the attendance was quite spotty. It being Mother’s day weekend didn’t help things any and unfortunately the local people simply will not turn out for anything that costs money.
By baregrass, on April 6th, 2012
I thought I had better write something here just to fill the gap. It is April already. What have I done in the last few months? Good question. Well, there have been two accomplishments. I got a guitar for one of my grand daughters and maybe she will learn to play a little. And, I successfully cut and installed a sound post for a new fiddle. To be truthful it took 2 tries. The first one was a little too short. Very frustrating task let me tell you. There is a reason that most fiddlers and violinists take their instruments to an experienced luthier for sound post matters.
It is still very dry here. We have seen a bunch of systems go over us in the last few months and give us nothing. The last one was the low pressure system that caused the tornadoes in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area a few days ago. I’m glad we did not get tornadoes but a little rain would have been nice. Maybe next time.
By baregrass, on January 8th, 2012
Okay crew, it’s a new year and I better get something down here even if it’s brief, of no importance and no one will see it. On to it! Oh, I did get a better weather widget on the right sidebar from accuweather.com.
I had studiously avoided watching the Republican primary debates because there was no use to do so. They can run a yellow dog and I still won’t vote for Obama. That, my friends, is a turn around on the old Democrat saying. So, why worry about wasting my time watching something that I don’t care about. Well, last night and this morning too I took the plunge. Watched both debates. They were a pleasant surprise and the candidates came off better than I suspected.
Three comments though. Rick Perry and John Huntsman are not ready for prime time. Both need to drop out and narrow the field. Santorum was not nearly as much of a winer as I have seen him act before. And finally, the ABC bunch that moderated last night and NBC’s Gregory fellow that moderated this morning fulfilled their obligations as Democrat Party operatives. But what else would one expect from America’s modern day Pravda and Izvestia.
Okay, time to practice my fiddle.
By baregrass, on December 2nd, 2011
Since I have been recuperating from a surgery I have been watching a lot of movies, some good and some bad. (streaming is wonderful! ) So, in the spirit of keeping this blog a little fresher I’d like to add some more good movies I have seen.
The 3, what I call the “girl who” movies became addictive and I had to watch all 3. Do you know what I’m referring to? They are The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked Over The Hornet’s Nest. Great stuff and great acting. They are in Swedish with English subtitles. There is going to be a English language version of the first movie but how will it be with new characters. Can Rooney Mara replace Noomi Rapace as the character of Lisbeth Salander? I would think it might be hard to do. Noomi Rapace is a wonderful actress.
The next movie I very much recommend is Waiting Forever. I found out that I had to stick with this one. I almost cut it off part way through and am I glad I didn’t. The pay off was tremendous. If you want to see it, hang in there. You will be glad. Tom Sturridge gave a great portrayal of a difficult character. The only thing I will tell of the plot is that the ending is near perfect and quite heart warming.
Well, all for now. Gotta go play music.
By baregrass, on November 20th, 2011
Wow, what a long time it has been since I added anything here. I just lost interest in the darn thing (my blog) and ignored it for far too long.
I guess the first thing I would like to add in here is that one of the real heroes in the Native American community has passed away. I am talking about Eloise Cobell. She led a 16-year legal fight to get the federal government to pay an estimated 500,000 Native Americans for mismanaging their trust accounts. She suffered from cancer.
Also, and this is in the area of movies, I would like to make a recommendation for any readers that might happen by here. I watched a movie called Janie Jones and it was great. I recommend it without reservation.
More to come, I hope.
By baregrass, on July 13th, 2011
June was a beastly month with lots of days in the 100′s and no rain. So far July has been better but still hardly any rain. We did get a couple 100ths the other night but it was gone by morning. It has been clouding up in the afternoon the last few days and it has rained in a few places around the area so maybe it will break loose.
In the meantime there have been some big grass fires in the area. 25,000 acres burned in Quay and Curry Counties, over 10,000 acres burned in Harding County and an additional 11,000 acres burned in Harding – Quay – Union Counties.
I have seen it be very hot in June and then turn loose in the middle to end of July and get cooler and rain. Let’s hope because lots of the ranchers are having to consider selling off their herds because of nothing for the cattle to eat.
By baregrass, on April 4th, 2011
Well, the title of this post might be a little extreme as well but the weather has given us a big twist in the last 24 hours. It has gone from 90 degrees and very high winds to an inch and a half of snow on the ground and 29 degrees. Thank God for the snow! We won’t have to worry about fire danger for a few days at least. Yesterday was an awful day in the state of New Mexico. There were wild fires in Grant, Bernalillo, Lincoln, Socorro, Valencia, Santa Fe and Lea counties. The worst was near Lovington with over 30,000 acres burned. We had a fire in Quay County on Friday that ended up causing US 54 to be closed for about 6 hours but at least it was not a windy day.
Below is the proof of snow in April here in Quay County.
By baregrass, on March 30th, 2011
I have finished reading Steven F Havill’s newest Posadas County mystery “Double Prey” and it is up to his usual standards. In other words I loved the book. I hope he comes out with a new one soon. Bill Gastner and Estelle Guzman have become like old friends to me. And, yes! there is a new one coming out in November. It tells about when Estelle was first hired. I truly like Havill’s idea of writing novels about the previous lives of his characters. It really helps to flesh out their lives.
I know that one day Havill will get tired of writing about the characters but I hope that day is far off.
By baregrass, on March 6th, 2011
I finally got my copy of Vivaldi’s Women – Gloria. It took a while as it was mailed from the UK but was worth the wait. The music was great and the instrument players were quite accomplished. I very much enjoyed it and the production gave me a good impression of what the coro at the Pietà must have sounded like in Vivaldi’s day. I wish they would sell the DVD on Amazon or some American site as that would alleviate the shipping delays.
I recommend it and I just wish that I could get a copy of the BBC production that dealt with the making of the project.
By baregrass, on February 7th, 2011
Ok, this is going to be one of my musical posts, well kind of a musical post anyway. Now for the main idea here.
For some reason, and I can’t remember why, I got interested in Antonio Vivaldi’s music. I bought a recording of his most well known work, “The Four Seasons”. Then after rummaging around I came up with the names of two books that dealt with his work at the Ospedale della Pieta in Venice, the site of which is now the Hotel Metropole.
The first book I read is Vivaldi’s Virgins by Barbara Quick. (Yes! I know I should be promoting New Mexico writers here.) What an excellent book! I was quite taken by the whole history of the Ospedale della Pieta and Venice in general. Also I did quite a bit of research on both Vivaldi and Venice. I had a basic idea of where Venice is and knew a bit about it’s medieval and Renaissance history and the importance of the Venetian Republic in the Mediterranean world of that time but that was it. Well, I got an education and was glad of it.
Then I read The Four Seasons by Laurel Corona. Another excellent book dealing with the Pieta and Vivaldi!
Now, to learn more about Venice itself I got a copy of Venice – A City, A Republic, An Empire by Alvise Zorzi. This is a wonderful book about the history of Venice with a lot of extra material. I recommend it.
One would think that I would have been finished but there was one more project to go. The Schola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi has produced a special film detailing the work of Vivaldi and the girls of Pieta and I ordered it. I’ll review it when it gets here.
Good luck everyone in your Vivaldi searches if you are so inclined.
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May 14th, 2012 | Tags: 
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