Wisteria vines and Dan Fogelberg ~ by Kristine Raymond

It's funny how one thought can lead to another.  I'd intended to write a post about Wisteria and my fascination with the flowering vine; instead, I'm writing about one of my favorite musical artists - Dan Fogelberg.

Now, the switch from one subject to the other came about honestly. I was searching YouTube for the link to Dan's song, Wysteria - it's a hauntingly beautiful tune, one of the earliest I remember listening to - and had it playing in the background while I gathered facts about
Wisteria frutescens.

As happens on YouTube, the song ended and immediately went into another, and I found myself transported back decades to a time when Dan Fogelberg music was the soundtrack of my life.  I have a clear memory of the first time I heard Nether Lands, sitting in a darkened stairwell after choir practice waiting for my ride; of the week spent camping alone in the woods of New Hampshire, rewinding my portable cassette player over and over again in order to listen to Souvenirs, There's a Place in the World for a Gambler, Old Tennessee, and Song from Half Mountain, praying the batteries would last the entire trip; of looking up at the moon on a partially-overcast night and 'hearing' the first line of In the Passage.


It was his song, Tucson, Arizona, quoted by Dan as being his all-time favorite track, that intensified my desire to move west.  Not so much the lyrics about drug use and murder, but the melody; and the emotions those notes invoked.  I could envision that wide open space; 'see' the expanse of cloudless blue sky, 'feel' the heat of the desert that was nothing like the day-to-day humidity in Rhode Island.        

In my late teens, I learned that Dan Fogelberg was touring nearby, and quickly snapped up a ticket, only to be disappointed when the concert was canceled.  I'd hoped to see him perform at a later date but never had the opportunity.  Instead, I bought every album he recorded (yes; vinyl) and wore them out listening to his powerful ballads and stirring anthems, falling in love with his more obscure stuff.  Interestingly enough, his top 40 songs are my least favorites. 

So, that's how my post navigated from Wisteria (this is what's growing in my yard.  Isn't it beautiful?) to Dan Fogelberg.  A single song that opened a floodgate of memories.  Don't you love when that happens?

Copyright 2019 - Kristine Raymond

  

Disgrace, War, and Biscuits, Part 2 of Prison Book Group ~ by Minnie Birch

This month we had chosen to read two books, this is never a good idea because it usually means half of us only get around to reading one of the books, then we haven’t all read the same book and it all goes out the window. But that is okay. Book group is mostly about getting together, drinking tea, eating biscuits and putting the world to rights.

Well, I say drinking tea, but we actually have really fancy coffee from a fancy coffee machine! I do not know how a fancy coffee percolator ended up in a prison library and I do not ask, but extremely fancy coffee is the order of the day. I myself just have boring tea, I once had the library coffee and didn’t sleep for a week! So, I only have that on rare occasions where I really don’t see myself staying awake through the session.

The two books we read this month were:

War of the Worlds by H.G Wells and Disgrace by J.M Coetzee.

I was pleased War of the Worlds was on the list. I have never read

it, and it is one of those books that people give you the and-you-call- yourself-a-librarian look if you admit to having not read it.

It is of its time (published back in 1898) and the language is hard to navigate (for me anyway.) I found myself rereading sections, losing the plot line, getting itchy for descriptions to end, and action to begin. In the end, with the book group looming, I chose to listen to the remainder of the book in audio format. This is something I rarely do but something I really enjoyed it. 

The “official report” style of War of the Worlds lent itself well to being read aloud and I found I was able to indulge in the descriptive passages rather than be frustrated by them. The only other book group member who read the book has English as his second language so he, too, found it hard to navigate (although he has a much better excuse than myself, as English is my first – and only – language!) In summary we both felt the same: worth the read, interesting look at humanity, mostly glad we read it, so now we can say we have. 

Disgrace is a Booker prize winning novel and it isn’t hard to see why. It is a short book that packs in a lifetime of stories. It manages to hold up a mirror to you, make you ask questions of yourself, mess with your preconceived notions of right and wrong, and leave you not too sure exactly what might become of characters you’ve gotten to know along the way. 

It was very popular with the group. We are a diverse group both in age, background, and ethnicity; and so far whatever we have read, someone always seems to be able to say “Well this is/isn’t a fair representation – I would know, I lived it in my twenties” or some similar thing. 

We then stopped taking about the book and started talking about each other – which is exactly what a good book group should do, I think. Disgrace allowed me to delve further in to the worlds of some of these people and maybe shed a bit of light on the mystery of how anyone finds themselves facing a prison sentence.

If anybody would like to read along with us, maybe send me some of your thoughts to share with the group before our next meeting-- then we are reading Sinner Man by Lawrence Block and our next meeting is on Monday 20th May.

Minnie Birch is a singer/songwriter from the UK and a regular monthly contributor to Originality by Design. You can reach Minnie by email at minniebirch@hotmail.co.uk

FATEA Magazine's Roots ~ by Neil King, Editor in Chief

     

Thirty years after starting a project seems like a reasonable time to reflect. It was a simpler world when I started Fatea, it was born in the second fanzine boom of the later eighties. The first issue, printed on A5, proudly proclaimed itself as “All New Music, Mystic, Politic Fanzine” with article ratios roughly in that order and a bit of poetry and a quiz thrown in for good measure.
     The magazine was named after the mythical figure, Morgan Le Fey, or Morgana Fatea in the romanticised Italian version of the Arthurian legends, in which she was also a lute and/or harp player, take your pick, and therefore met all three aspects of the magazine. She was also my favourite figure that may or may not have really existed in history. Anyway, Fatea was serendipitously named after her.
     Music was my main area of focus. In those days of the post punk indie era, we tended to concentrate on the indie labels and the rump end of majors, and quickly established ourselves as a magazine that focused on what was new and coming through, without the build-them-up-to-knock-them-down attitude that was quite prevalent. We became a magazine that both readers and bands trusted and that got us in on the ground floor with bands like The Cranberries, All About Eve, and Ruby Blue, as well as more international acts including 10 000 Maniacs and Cowboy Junkies. You’ll notice from that list that we’ve always been merit hence the comparatively large number of female lead acts that we’ve supported over the years.
     I mentioned it was simpler back them. Fatea was a paper

magazine, initially A5, but migrating to A4 quite quickly. Record companies used to mail out vinyl records, with press sheets and Walker prints (like a photograph, but one that had been pre-screened so it could just be dropped into an article.) You played and reviewed them, indie bands did the same thing. Occasionally you would get a cassette and then gradually the vinyl started migrating to CD and this thing called the internet came along and it all started changing.
     Just before the internet came, the start of multi-media, almost exclusively on CD-ROM, and Fatea launched Music From A New Dimension, which turned out to be the UK’s only CD-ROM based music magazine in a format that allowed us to actually include the artists music in every issue, accidentally inventing the electronic press kit (EPK) along the way. We had carried artists music in Fatea proper, releasing a number of old style flexidiscs and a couple of cover mounted cassette albums thanks to Cooking Vinyl and Hannibal records.
     1996 was when it all changed. The internet really started arriving and whilst back then it was expensive to be a part of, Fatea had some good supporters and we were on the internet before most of the major magazines. The Fatea domain was registered and by luck it has remained a scarce name, which means that if you use it for a search you're pretty certain to find us.
     Back then bandwidth was really an issue, most people if they had home internet were on dial up so we had to keep images small, with music and video being right out of the question. So we stayed with our core of writing reviews and articles with releasing going on the back burner, it was all pretty basic. Family circumstances also meant that the paper magazine was no longer viable mainly as there wasn’t time to chase the advertising revenue.
     Fortunately, the crossover period was long enough for the online side to establish itself and for a brief while we got better access to bigger artists as the industry really didn’t know where the web was going. They knew enough to know they couldn’t ignore it, but really weren’t sure if they could work with the independents and sort of hedged their bets. This was the mid-nineties and back then the internet was seen in a lot more rose colour.
     Fatea had already begun a musical transition, gradually moving away from the indie/post punk bands, and gravitating towards the more acoustic genres, ironically because we started looking more at the artists that had influenced the likes of Joe Strummer, XTC etc. We had bumped into the likes of the Levellers, Rev Hammer and the Oysterband, discovered Sandy Denny, Fairport and others. But we also discovered the new acoustic artists that were really starting to make their mark at the time: Show Of Hands, Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr, as well as a host of singer-songwriters and narrative lead music.
     

The internet became cheaper, with increasing bandwidth Fatea could start playing the music of it’s chosen artists again, even show the videos. Twelve years ago we started the Fatea Showcase Session downloads, which was a way of getting the artists that we liked to a wider audience. The downloads still come out once a quarter and are free to download. As well as going into individual households, a lot of radio stations, particularly internet ones, use them as references as to what’s coming up.
     Seven years ago Fatea was involved in the launch of an internet radio station, still pioneering then. Whilst the station, Acoustic Spectrum, was short lived, a number of the shows that were first broadcast on that platform are still with us, including my own, Along The Tracks.
     I mentioned at the start of this blog that things were simpler back at the start, Fatea was just a fanzine then. Now I’m told we’re a platform. The magazine has even been described as a blog. We review albums by artists that weren’t born when the internet first came about, and I get the feeling it’s a lot tougher for independent music now.
     Somethings have become easier, actually making and recording music is comparatively easier and cheaper than it was and, to an extent, so is the videoing, but there is so much more to do. Now you have to be able to design a website, interact with your fan base across a whole range of social media, work out which of the hundreds of media outlets out you need to interact with, understand which of your virtual fans are also your physical fans prepared to go that extra mile to come to a gig, buy a physical copy of your material, rather than listen to it for peanuts on a rip-off streaming service that pays next to nothing.
     I’d say thirty years has made things both easier and more difficult for musicians. The experiences have changed, but there’s no reason not to enjoy the journey as either a fan of music or a maker of music and hopefully there will still be magazines (platforms) like Fatea with a dedicated band of reviewers who will help with a welcome boost and an occasional workshop to smooth the way.

     Neil King is the editor in chief of Fatea, an online platform that

continues to publish as a magazine, produces the Along The Tracks radio show for Blues & Roots Radio, curates the Fatea Showcase Session downloads, delivers workshops, and gets involved in the odd live event. He resides in the UK. To view the website and download your copy of Fatea Showcase Sessions click HERE

All photos provided by Neil King.

Is it possible to forget? ~ Grace Augustine

     

photo: pexels.com

As a child, I played Red Rover, kickball, and 4 square. I participated in double Dutch jump rope, Chinese jump rope, hopscotch, tag, and various other games that involved running and jumping.
     

In high school gym class I shot archery, ran hurdles, played ping-pong, tennis, and even was introduced to gymnastics…I chose the balance beam 3 inches off the floor.
     

As a mother with two very active boys, I helped with t-ball

photo: pexels.com

practices, attended baseball and football games throughout high school, kept the schedules for music lessons, and all the other activities. I’m sure a lot of you can relate to this…
     

What’s my point? Well, today, 16 years after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I know the words RUN, JUMP, DANCE, SING, WRITE. I know the meanings to these words in my head, but my body laughs at me when my brain sends the signal to the parts involved in these actions.

photo: pexels.com

No longer can I jump. I couldn’t run, even if my life depended on it. I can no longer dance or sing. Is it that I’ve forgotten how to do these things? No. It’s that the nerve communication connections inside my head, my body can no longer understand. I wonder if this is how a dementia patient feels…trapped inside their own body and mind, knowing what they want to say, but are unable to say it.
    

 My latest fear is that I’ve forgotten how to write. In 2013, I put out 2 books, 2014 saw 2, 2015 was my best writing year at 7, and since then I’ve tried to do 2-3 a year and have succeeded. Yet, there is something that prevents me from putting words on paper, outlining, working on story and character creation.
     Plain and simple, I think it is writing burn-out. At least that is

photo: pexels.com

my hope and not that it is something else this disease has robbed from me. The stories are there…in my head, it is putting my thoughts down to bring the characters to life. Squirrel moments are more frequent, and my focus is definitely not what it once was.
     

     Does it worry me? Yes—petrifies me, actually. Will I give up? Seriously…not in a million years. It may be just a speed bump, something as simple as needing to rest in the Zen room in my mind.
     I don’t want to be that author who takes a break then never returns to what she loves. I can’t put my bahookey in the chair and write, I’m not that author. In my world, it doesn’t happen like that. I need to plot, write out the characteristics of the locations, the people, the relationships before the story is woven together. 

     

photo: pexels.com

In the meantime, I edit other author’s manuscripts. In the meantime, I help others make their manuscripts perfection, one word at a time. Who knows, maybe a screenplay class will be taken this summer and I will approach writing from a totally different angle…stay tuned!

My Brush with Hayden ~ by Dennis Green

Legendary Iowa football coach Hayden Fry recently celebrated his ninetieth birthday. Former players and friends traveled from all over the world to honor him.

For those who don't follow college football, in addition to turning an Iowa team that had the losing-est record in the NCAA into a national power, Fry also ran something of a "coaching college." All eleven of his assistant coaches from the early 80's went on to become head coaches in their own right, including his successor Kirk Ferentz. At last count, Hayden's "Class of 1983" has garnered a staggering 722 victories, including 32 bowl wins and 15 conference titles.

But this story isn't about that. It's about a chance encounter the coach had early in his Iowa tenure with a wet-behind-the-ears broadcaster that has stayed with me for nearly four decades.

The year was 1980, Coach Fry’s second year as Iowa’s coach. I was a sophomore at the University of Iowa, working my first radio job, a part-time Dj and producer at KXIC radio in Iowa City. One of my duties was to help with the football broadcasts. This entailed producing a weeknight call-in show that featured Coach Fry answering questions posed by KXIC play-by-play guy Gene Clausen and the sports directors of the other stations in our small network, from tiny Iowa burgs like Burlington and Muscatine.

Gene and Hayden broadcast out of a room down the hall from me, wearing headphones so they could hear the questions posed by the other sports directors, whose voices were piped in so that all the participants could hear each other and interact.

One night, there was an equipment glitch in the conference room. None of the microphones worked. So Hayden and Gene had to come into the tiny production studio with me.

To fully understand the story, you need to know just a little about how radio studios are designed. In a audio production rooms, speakers are always automatically muted when the microphone is turned on, to eliminate feedback. This is why you always see DJs wearing headphones when they’re talking.

So here’s the scene. Hayden and Gene are squeezed into two chairs in front of the control board, sharing the studio’s only microphone. I am perched on the edge of the counter, because there isn't room for another chair. I have the only available set of headphones, so my job is to keep the mic off so Hayden can hear the question, then quickly flip the switch on so he can answer. And that was how it went for nearly the full hour of the show:

Mic off: Hayden listens.
Mic on: Hayden answers.
Mic off: Hayden listens.
Mic on: Hayden answers.
Mic off: Hayden listens.

But somehow, after about forty-five minutes of this on/off switching, I lost the rhythm.

I turned the mic ON while the away sports director was speaking, and clicked it off just in time for the three of us to hear: “..at do you think about that Hayden?”

Oh, crap. I have just screwed up Hayden’s call-in show. My career is over. 

Hayden, Gene, and I all stared at each other for a beat, then Hayden signaled for me to turn the mic back on, and in his unmistakable Texas twang, calmly drawled:

“Y’all mind repeating the question? I guess I wasn’t paying attention.”

The guy repeated his question, a little annoyed, but we managed to survive the show. Neither Gene nor Hayden mentioned my gaffe.

Hayden could have blamed technical problems, or the idiot kid who didn’t know how to do his job. But he took it on himself. It was a little thing, but it was taking care of the little things that made him a great coach and a good person. Also, it was the kind of quick thinking that I imagined served him very well in those down-to-the-wire games.

Hayden Fry would go on to become one of college football's most legendary figures, whose impact continues today, more than two decades after his retirement.

But I will always remember the coach who took the blame for an error made by a young producer whose name he didn’t even know.