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

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Struggling Writer

For the students of PCIS, here are the images we worked with today when we spoke about writing and revision (if you click on the pictures, you will see a few comments).

 

Teach Your Children Well

My elder daughter has been playing the Glee version of Van Halen’s “Jump” over and over lately. So, for better or worse, I sat her down and made her watch this:

Montaigne for Forgetful Amateurs

Still writing that essay about Montaigne. A portion from my rough draft:

If I may say so, Montaigne’s single dominant theme is our propensity for perpetual self-contradiction, and for a guy who can’t make up his mind about anything more complicated than a toggle switch on a bench grinder, I guess you could say Montaigne’s are my kind of affirmations. I admit the angle of my appreciation lacks academic rigor. But you read Montaigne, you feel like you have a friend. And that you may be a reliable idiot, but you are not the original reliable idiot.

Then again:

He also started speaking Latin at the age of four, went to college at the age of six, enrolled in law school when he was fourteen, served as a soldier and was appointed to several high-level government positions and hung out (just once, but still…) with the Pope.

A Stream Full of Tent Show Radio

Well, this is good news. I’ve just received word from Tom up there at the Big Top Chautauqua tent that Tent Show Radio can now be streamed pretty much any old time you like. Shows will be uploaded the first Friday after the original air date, and will be available online for one year (So far all shows are available…occasionally the artist may decline permission for streaming).

Several shows are online already and can be heard here. It continues to be my privilege to introduce that acts on air and to contribute a monologue over each intermission (included in the stream). Over the last several monologues I’ve been talking about my neighbor Tom and our attempt to weld up a brush hog.

Of course if you wanna listen in real time, you’re always welcome to dial in one of these stations.

 

50/50

I like that if I stop in for coffee here on any given day odds are 50/50 that I will see at least 50% of this band. Guy in the tie reads Bukowski, draws a fine Americano, and (just to beef up his cred) knows what a “onesie” is.

Tent Show Radio Tonight – Laurel Canyon

If you’re within range of one of these stations tonight (Saturday, January 28th) 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 by the Blue Canvas Orchestra
Laurel Canyon 1970: Woodstock, Twisted, Dream A Little Dream of Me, Chains Of Love, Natural Woman, Feel The Earth Move
Michael Perry: Monologue
Laurel Canyon 1970: Dreams, Rhiannon, Mercedes Benz, Son Of A Preacher Man
Blue Canvas Orchestra: Hobo Blues theme

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.