A Very Merry Wiedenbrueck Christmas To All

No, I'm not in Weidenbrueck, Germany (near Bielefeld), but my friend (and fellow high school band pal) John Hicks has lived there for many years with his family. They're all talented musicians who teach and perform with various groups.

The picture shows John and his son Jesse before playing a Big Band concert at the Christmas Market in Wiedenbrueck. Unfortunately the photos show them in their everyday work clothes. I wish they'd sent pictures of themselves dressed up for the concert. From what I understand, they wear very festive costumes.

My fingers emit sparks of fire

A recent painting, 30 x 40 inches.

My fingers emit sparks of fire with expectation of my future labors.
William Blake

The Violin

A friend plucks the strings of a used violin at the Sunday Artists Market that meets in the Farmers Market building.

Countdown to England

As the countdown to England continues, I'm working on a book project for an amazing artist and designer, Barbara McDougal. Barbara has designed and produced hundreds (at least) of needlepoint works of art for churches, cathedrals, museums, and private collections. The book will be a personal memoir and an archive of her body of work that is on display (and being used on a daily basis) in both liturgical and non-liturgical venues such as small chapels and Cathedrals, homes and institutions, from the U.S. to Jerusalem.

Barbara in her studio

An alter rail kneeler

Matador

Still testing certain aspects of the Blogger.com  blogging interface.

A friend in San Miguel de Allende sent me a photo he shot of a bullfight. I made this quick sketch from his photo.

Another iPhone blog test

Testing the behavior of images uploaded to blogspot.com from the iPhone.

Blogging via email

In the event that I'm having way too much fun in England, some of my
blog postings will probably be sent via email from my iPhone.

This blog entry is actually a test to make sure I'm using the correct
address and all that.

Some of those posting might have horrendous typos for two reasons:
(1) I make a lot of mistakes when typing on a handheld device.
(2) I'll sometimes use an iPhone app called Dragon Dictation which
records your voice, then converts it to text that you can email. (Above: The Dragon Dictation app on the iPhone. It's free. For now.)

So if you see a blog entry that says something strange like "the pork
spinster is beautiful," you can know that I probably was using the
Dictation app and what I really meant was probably something like "the
York Minster is beautiful." A Minster, by the way, is a church of
importance in northern England.

Of course, the Dictation app lets you correct mistakes, but if I'm in
a hurry, like trying to keep up with the tour leader taking us to the
York Minster crypt, or getting off the bus that has a WiFi connection,
I might just email the blog "as is" without correcting it.

I'll post an uncorrected blog made with the Dictation app soon, so
you'll know what to expect. And so I'll know what to expect.

Other than that, only the unexpected should be expected. Starting
December 15th.

Now imagine the movie guy voice: "jtChatter. Coming soon to a browser
near you. The Thrills of cider and pub food! The Excitement of riding
buses and trains! The Mystery of DaVinci Code - like cathedrals! The
Magic of funny accents and cars driving on the wrong side of the road!"