Songwriter?

My latest musical project involves having hooked up with a local musician. His name is Bill Martin. He's about my age and we have similar interests. We both enjoy acoustic guitars. He can actually sing whereas I sound like a cross between a frog and a cat whose tail has been stepped on.

The last time I had a collaboration was when my friend, Mark Lammi, got me to join his band, The 55's. We practice for about nine months and played once for a church picnic. Then, the band ended. Mark and I kept up our playing, one on one, and that eventually got me to start writing songs. I even did some in home studio recording because I wanted to remember what I had written without having to write a score.

I wrote about a dozen songs and put them on a CD I titled, "Really, I Can't Sing". I kept writing in fits and starts for the next couple years - lots of scribbles in my notebook. Then, I went through a long dry spell. Nothing came to mind. The magic was gone.

Well, along comes Bill and our weekly collaboration was enough to restart the musical creativity heart beat. I've since written a bunch of new material, the latest being a song I actually started and finished just this week. It's called "Outside Of Your Circle". That makes it my 32nd song since starting my writing in this century. (I wrote one song in high school with my friend, Rom, called "Say Girl". I remember one chord from it and one line. I think he may have the song somewhere and every time I ask for it, I don't get it. Oh, well. Maybe he lost it, too.)


So, what's the story with this late-in-life creativity? I don't know. My Mom had a similar spurt with her paintings. She was always creative in her life, but it really took hold it the last part of it. She painted about 150 oil paintings during that period, not to mention small, card stock doodles that you can still find for sale on the Internet.


Hmmm...maybe I should write a song about that. Late bloomers.

What a week...and I got Poison Ivy, too!

I went on two short trips in the past 10 or so days. The first was to New Jersey to visit my brother, Art. He had invited me to a folk festival at Appel Farm (spelling is correct) and I got to see some good acts. I was immediately drawn to Cheryl Wheeler's performance because I had seen her in Sturbridge years ago. I love the quality of her voice. She's funny and an terrific songwriter. Unfortunately, there were problems with the sound system and I think it affected her a bit. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed her music.

Later on in the afternoon, I got to hear Dawes and then the Tedeschi and Trucks Band. Both acts were top notch. I really like the songwriting of the Dawes band. One of their songs I have heard before, so I liked that because of familiarity. But all of the songs were good. Then, TTB started playing and all I can say is, WOW! The musicians were so good, and Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi sure could sing and play. I'm a fan for sure. FWIW, they won a Grammy for best blues album from 2010. Sweet.

Art drove me home a couple days after that so I could then lead a three day photo excursion up to Vermont. He and I and three other friends, Steve, Richie, and Bob, wanted to hang together for a while as photographers. So, we picked Vermont because they hadn't really explored it before. It was quite nice. For sure, Fall is the season to consider going there, but I felt this Springtime adventure could serve as recon. As it turns out, we got some really nice photos.

But, the big deal for me was that I must have gotten exposed to poison ivy - lots of it. The only place where I can think that this happened was at a covered bridge in Thetford, VT. I was the only one wearing shorts and I did lay on what I thought was just grass to get a closeup shot of something. I'm pretty sure my camera bag got some of the oils on it because I now have itchy areas on my neck, arms, leg. I think there was transfer going on because of how I carry the bag.

Live and learn.

I have posted my images along with a story about our trip on my Images by Casey website.

Facebook Photo App for iPhone

Had a chance to play with the Facebook photo app over the past week. It was easy to get multiple photos into a single Facebook update. Sweet. (Maybe I can do this with other apps, including the built-in one...but I've never tried so I don't know.)

The new version of iOS will have better Facebook integration, too. So, maybe Apple will have this covered soon, too. Can't wait.

Got a new app for my iPhone

Having some fun with Awesome Camera from Smugmug. It's free and very sweet for photos.

Learning More About Western MA

I Like Noho

I don't really know if the folks in Northampton like it to have their city/town referred to as "Noho". I say that because I was at a nightclub there last night (The Pearl Street Nightclub) to watch and listen to Dia Frampton. For those who don't know who she is, she was the runner up in the TV singing competition show, "The Voice". I remember watching that show in 2011 and I was torn between the two finalists. I wanted her to win, but I felt strongly that both contestants deserved it (as did many of the quarter finalists).

Anyway, here's what happened. In the previous morning, my daughter called to tell me that she had just won tickets to see "Dia Frampton" via a radio show promotion. (She's always winning these things.) In fact, she was so sure I'd want to go that she had already given them my name for the Will Call pickup (she couldn't go, herself).

She was right, I did want to go.

Unfortunately, when she called, I couldn't remember who Dia Frampton was, other than her name sounded familiar to me. Then, when she told me about The Voice, I started to remember. Later on, when I looked her up online, the memories came back vividly. Then I really wanted to go.

I didn't know what to expect at the venue. The website did say it was general admission and standing room only. I wanted Lee to come along, but as she is still healing from her broken ankle, I was concerned she might not be able to stand and see the entire show. Well, the good news is that a bartender there got us a chair and she was able to sit comfortably off to the side.

(Note: the photo here is from Wikipedia and it's not the nightclub site. Dia is on the left and Meg is on the right in the photo.)

The venue has two raised floors. One is for the band and the other is for folks getting to the bar and then being able to stand around and still see over the heads of the floor crowd. On the floor, you can get very close to the performers. (Really, Dia was only a couple feet away from the closest audience members.)

There were two acts that warmed us up: Eric Stepanian and Andrew Allen. Both were excellent and folks reading this should check them out.

I don't remember which of the two asked the question, "How do you pronounce, Northampton?"

Folks in the crown offered suggestions and someone shouted out, "Noho". That was followed by some "yeas" and "nays". So, I'm guessing that, maybe, Noho isn't correct for all? ...so, I'll play it safe and call it Northampton...with my "h" slightly and imperceptibly stretched as if I'm saying north and hampton together almost. I dunno. Is that right?

Then, we got to hearing "Dia and Meg". That was the name of Dia and Meg's band before Dia became famous from The Voice. Now, the name of their band is Dia Frampton. Why not build off of success. Oh, and Dia and Meg are sisters and they (and the band) were awesome.

So, I like Noho...err...Northampton.

But wait! ...there's more!


This morning, I was checking out the Iron Horse Entertainment Group's schedule. Iron Horse is the company that runs several of the music venues in Norhampton. Dia's band was performing at Pearl Street, a small night club, but there's a bigger theater in town that I was curious about. It's their Music Hall. What I learned was that Lucy Kaplansky was going to be performing.

Lucy Kaplansky?

Yes! ...she, being of folk music fame and I have an affinity for folk music and have listened to her on my favorite folk music radio station, yes!

For a mere $20, I get to go to her concert on the 26th. Sweet. I already bought the ticket. Now, I'm going to look for my Lucy Kaplansky CD's and load up my iPhone just so I can listen to her while I walk the two miles it takes to get to the fitness center for my workout later today.

I wouldn't have known about Lucy Kaplansky had it not been for Jen's good fortune winning the Dia Frampton tickets. (Thank you, Jen.)

This, in a very small way, takes the sting out of the Patriot's Super Bowl loss. I'm sure I'll be completely through my greif by the time Lucy hits the stage.

The Script

No, this isn't about The Script, which is a very good band. No, this is about a movie script. It seems the Danek family has embarked on such an exercise. That is, we are writing one.

Here's what happened.

We were driving from Western Mass to Eastern Mass for a family visit. Art (my brother) was driving and we were chatting about all kinds of things just to kill the time. (It's about an hour-long drive.) The subject of movies came up. Both he and I dabble in shooting videos and he even teaches a class at his school about making movies. So, he said that he always wanted to make a movie about the old neighborhoods. We grew up in a three decker environment, which is somewhat unique in the Northeast. (At least, that's what I've read.) He wanted to tell that story.

We got to talking about the whats, hows, whys, and wherefores of such a project and began arguing about how to get started. He just wanted to kick around ideas for artistic theme shots and I wanted to know what the whole damn thing would be about. (I argued that this is usually what you'd need to describe when pitching a movie idea to the money people in the movie business.)

Before you know it, he turns the tables on me and tells me he has the concept worked out but he won't tell me what it is. I have to guess. I had to do a 20 Questions kind of thing.

So, I played along. I started asking questions and then realized he was just BS-ing. He had no ideas at all. He just wanted to come up with something based on whatever answer popped into his head as soon as I asked...sort of writing a script by flipping a coin.

That's when it hit us. We could write a script about just what we were doing.

And so it began.

Who knows, maybe you'll see the movie in a couple years. (Who should play me? Clooney?)

Starting Off Nicely With 2012

Had a lot of fun the past few weeks with family events in celebration of the holidays and the new year. These were all weekend visits by one or more families coming in to Western Massachusetts. Thank's to all of you who drove. At least, we arranged for there to be nice driving weather. (Actually, it's a warming trend that seriously makes one think about Global Warming in a more, personal way...I'm glad I'm no longer a skier.)

There were plenty of opportunities for photos and photo sharing, and the darned new smartphones make video so easy to do, it's going to be a fantastic year image-wise.

Speaking of fantastic years, I've had a look at some new cameras that are coming into the marketplace. I think it's going to be pretty fantastic! One, in particular, is based on the styling of the original Leica 35mm camera which, in my youth and adult life, was always out of reach for me. (It still is, actually.) I keep hoping that my favorite camera company, Nikon, creates something similar. I no longer think they will, though. Fortunately, Fuji is on the cusp of releasing one and, quite frankly, I am so close to switching system for no other reason that it looks so much like a Leica of my dreams.

Anyway, back to reality. Here are some links to photos:

• McColley family visit with photos on Facebook
• Danek family side on Google+
• Daneks from New Jersey

Had a chance to rethink my web strategy for pages. In the past, I put everything on one server. It used to be an actual PC in my house, but later we move to an ISP-based server somewhere on the Internet. (This turned out to be cheaper and better and gee, I wish I had done it from the onset.) Now, the really nice thing is that with Blogger and Facebook and Wordpress and Twitter and Google+ and so on and so on...well, you get the idea, there are so many chances to have stuff on the Internet, you don't really need your own server. (If fact, we really don't need the ISP-based one. We just want to have it because having it does provide some nice flexibility...but that's just the techie side talking.)

On the other hand, having so many choices about how to establish a presence on the web makes it confusing and difficult. Where do you tell someone to go to look at your stuff? How do you keep everything up to date? I even have a MySpace page, but I rarely use it. I just checked and I'm not even sure how to set stuff up. (I may play with it, though...I'm such a glutton for punishment.)