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Home of Michael Perry – Author, Humorist, Singer/Songwriter, Amateur Pig Farmer

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Montaigne the Same

Working on a magazine piece about Montaigne. Never cease to be amazed how he speaks to us as a contemporary, some 430 years removed. Here he is on how the youngsters are dressing:

…the negligent garb, which is yet observable amongst the young men of our time, to wear my cloak on one shoulder, my cap on one side, a stocking in disorder, which seems to express a kind of haughty disdain of these exotic ornaments…

And he was actually speaking in approval of their dress as compared to the adults.

And for those of you who think I use too many big words, you have found a friend:

The way of speaking that I love, is natural and plain, the same in writing as in speaking, and a sinewy and muscular way of expressing a man’s self, short and pithy, not so elegant and artifical as prompt and vehement.

In my defense, if the man was standing here, I’d tell him I shoot for a 50/50 blend.

I read a lot of Montaigne in my deer stand last fall. Everything he ever wrote is on my cellphone. That is ridiculous and lovely.

Advice From Teacher

We are on a family trip, about which more later. The trip is  long enough that we have taken schoolwork. Today the four-year-old was working on an assignment involving cutting and pasting (the old-fashioned, not “virtual,” kind) and when the glue bottle came out I was informed that Ms. Canfield says: Dot, dot, not a lot!

The things you learn as a late-start Dad…

P.S. Dot, dot, not a lot is great in theory, although having just finished sponging glue off the table, the floor, the kid, everything but the ceiling fan, I can tell you that it all comes down to the definition of a dot.

Tent Show Radio Tonight – Songwriter Yazmin and Nanci Griffith

If you’re within range of one of these stations tonight (Saturday, January 21st) we hope you’ll join Mike as he hosts another edition of Tent Show Radio from Big Top Chautauqua. Information on streaming the show here.

In this episode’s monologue – delivered from the backstage dressing room with the one lonely little lightbulb burnin’ – Mike tells you what to expect if you ever ask his neighbor to do some welding but fail to drop cash on the barrelhead.

You can join the Tent Show Radio Facebook page here.

SET LIST:

Blue Canvas Orchestra: Ballyhoo theme song

Yazmin: Little Wounds, Working In The Shadows, Paper Thin, Friends, The Sweetest Pain.

Nanci Griffith: Love Conquers All

Michael Perry: Monologue ‘Back Home On The Farm’

Nanci Griffith: From A Distance, Love At The Five And Dime, Across The Great Divide. Loving Kind

 Blue Canvas Orchestra: Hobo Blues

Low Posting Rate

After a year in which I overbooked and over-deadlined myself a tad, I’m hunkered down with family for a stretch. Still writing, still working on new books and magazine pieces, still preparing material for the year ahead, but blog posts, Tweets, Facebook and such will be a tad light until late February. I am deeply grateful for all that I have been given thanks to readers, listeners, concertgoers, and encouragers of all sorts. Doin’ fine, just keeping close to ground for a stretch.

Go Kathleen…

Today we were driving down the highway and a song snippet came on the radio and our four-year-old hollered, “KATHLEEEN!” Count her among many fans happy with the new Kathleen Edwards album. The four-year-old was hip to the tune because she’s been “pre-listening” the album up in my office for a week now.

Here she is (in a blurry cellphone photo) the other morning, singing “I don’t NEEEED a punchline!” at the top of her lungs while the new album played on my ancient CD player:

We get to see Kathleen now and then when she’s recording in this neck of the woods, and we wish her safe travels as her tour commences. Tomorrow night (or tonight, depending when you see this) (Tuesday, January 17) she’ll be on Late Night with David Letterman.

Chicken, Limited

Dang. When I worked for the “Silver Star” (see Population 485) ambulance service, we used to stop here all the time.

 

More than once we picked up an order and got paged out before we could dig in, and I remember working some pretty heavy-duty calls with the smell of broasted chicken hanging in the air. I took it as a good sign that once the patient or body was dropped off and the rig cleaned up and put back together I was still hungry and able to eat on the drive back to headquarters.

Poetry From a Friend

To the best of my recollection (less and less reliable daily) I believe C. Dale Young and I have only met in person twice over the years, and one of those times was in a hallway in passing, but I like to think of him as a friend. Yesterday his poem “The Vista” was featured at the Academy of American Poets website.

Favorite line:

This is what someone with wings/does when he knows he cannot fly: he measures/distance.

Clodhopper Monologues

A few months after it came out, it’s time to say thank you to everyone who has ordered or downloaded The Clodhopper Monologues. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the response. That was a project a long time in the making. A special thank you to the official Sneezing Cow “expediter” Alissa, as she was instrumental in getting me past talking/planning/theorizing to actually seeing the thing through to the finish.

My New Intelligence Test…

…is not perfected yet, but it will be based on a sliding scale in which your intelligence quotient is inversely proportional to the number of times you push the button on the coffee grinder before you realize it isn’t plugged in. Also, in stage two of development, the coffee grinder will be fitted with a pressure sensor to record how much harder you jab the button with each subsequent attempt.