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Ellis Paul is one of my favourite musicians: witty, sweet, moving. It's wonderful to listen to him sing and to interact with a crowd. His songs are poignant and funky, beautiful and comical, sad and uplifting. He's a New Englander, originally from Maine and schooled in the folk music scene in Boston (as well as the mean streets of Jamaica Plain, where he served as a social worker for a while).

Today, an article on him is the featured article on Wikipedia, only the second time that a folk musician has been featured on the front page (the first was Bob Dylan). If you have any interest in folk music, or music at all, go have a read, listen to some clips of his music, and if you like what you hear, see him in concert (he'll be in Sykesville, MD, this Thursday, then coming back to the area and playing a gig in Vienna in late June).

Congratulations to Ellis and to Karen Zundel, who wrote the Wikipedia article.

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My friend Nick emailed aroundthis link to UN news with the subject line "Why I may join the Idaho Anti-Black Helicopter Brigade".

My somewhat acerbic response follows. ( Read more... )

more sad news

My mother's sister died Sunday. As my mum said, "It wasn't very much of a surprise; she'd made her mind up that that's what was going to happen." They hadn't been in touch for a fair while, I think, after my aunt got a bit hermity and then went into a nursing home. But it's got to feel a bit lonely to be without your parents, your partner, and your only sibling. I called and talked to mum right away; she seems to be OK, and some of her friends had her over for dinner just last night. But I will feel better after soccer_fox and I have a chance to go spend a weekend with her and see how she's getting on.