a new year and so on

It's often the case that I'll rise somewhat early and listen to the sounds of our quiet house. I'm not sure why I think doing that for the first time in a given year is special or would be any different, but hey.

Given the ridiculous rate of non-update in this blog, you'd think nothing happened. Pas du tout. It was an amazing year.

I managed to get a nice early start on that annual list of the things that appeared that I valued/returned to for (solace/instruction/edification), and it was a nice rambunctious list that gave me all kinds of trouble. I should have made it a list of "what I listened to while shovelling the 4000 feet of walk," but that would be whiny. Nonetheless, the list is here.

It was an amazing year in terms of my life as a performer and (to a lesser extent) recording musician. I got to play a couple of gigs with my pal Tom that were widely enough separated that the tools and instruments were different, and realized that there was this kind of conversational quality that has run through what we've done from the beginning. One gig reunited us with visualist Mark Hendrikson, which always makes me happy. PGT was actually a busy unit considering that we all have "real" jobs, and our trip and performance in Evora, Portugal was an experience I will not soon forget. Although that specific confluence of idea and material that would have been "the new solo recording" didn't happen, I continue to work patiently. Onward.