Jollility

It was sometime around '94, soon after I took up with the artist and social critic Michelle D. Cook, that I began studying the accordion (the two were NOT coincidental). Perhaps it stems from her love of cats, but  Michelle's sardonic perspective imagined me, a morose German, hopping & skipping in lederhosen while squeezing something. 

She's always been the idea person in our relationship and being well-trained I immediately began my studies. To help me along she purchased a Hero Midget 

and presented it to me on the Solstice. 





As a busy art dealer, I made time to practice while waiting at red lights.  As incentive, Michelle composed a new national anthem. I spent several months learning it. (As you're aware, literary folks are drawn to magazines and journals with the word REVIEW in their title; Bloomsbury Review, The New York Review of Books and The Yale Law & Policy Review are popular. Cats, being the olfactory creatures that they are, get their news via the Cat Odor Review -- which comes via pee-mail.)

NEW NATIONAL ANTHEM

I never progressed beyond C. O. R., but our enthusiasm led us, in 2008,  to attend the Cotati Accordion Festival in Cotati, California. The festival was curated by Renee de la Prade and included the great Duckmandu. 

THE GREAT DUCKMANDU

While surfing the web the other day I stumbled upon Renee's 2015 calendar

 that comes with a music CD. I ordered, paid and went on my way.

Now, a month later, while perusing emails I noticed a paypal receipt. One thing led to another and the following email soon arrived.

I'm sorry for the delay Michael!

I'm very disorganized this year because I moved to Europe and my regular mail-order-filler was on extended vacation, so it's a bit of a scramble. When I publish future editions, (the next will be 2017,) I plan to sign up with either CD Baby or Amazon or both, so that it's easy to fill orders in a timely manner, even when I'm travelling.

Thanks for your patience, thanks for contacting me. I'm sending you a special present along with your original order; you should get a shipping confirmation email with a tracking number within the next few days.

Best wishes,

Renee de la Prade

Renee is in Hamburg, Germany, where she resides with her new (as of August) husband, Ingo. That's Ingo on drums in the first video.


So that brings us to today. I'm in Albuquerque, the armpit of the SW, where Michelle's mother is dying of olde age. And although the sun is shining, it's cold and I felt the need of a bit of jollility. 

I hope you too got a chuckle.










UPDATE:

Susie slid into the otherworld at 11:43 p.m. on Nov 12, mere minutes before what is known as ALL SMIRKETS DAY (Friday the 13th). Smirket, for those unfamiliar, is the proper term for a black cat.

North From Oroville, CA to the Feather River Country

After several days of camping near Bodega Bay while attending the Cotati Accordion Fest I'd had enough of the beach and headed north looking for cooler climes. It's not the "usual" way, but highway 70 between Oroville and Chilcoot, California follows the North Fork of the Feather River much of the way. 

The steep mountains are covered with pines and oaks. I found a respectable pile of bear poop outside my door when I parked to camp near Rush Creek. A welcome change from the more common cow shit.

There is water everywhere. Each canyon has a stream and there are springs coming out of every cleft. Upstream a little way from this trestle are beautiful pools.

Most of the terrain is vertical. What few roads there are go up the sides of the mountains. There aren't any "tops" so once they reach elevation they follow the side of the hill. It's a little cooler higher up, but level spots to camp are rare.

If you camp along the highway you might look for a place where the train isn't braking. It follows the river, just like the road, but since it's often going up or down the brakes are usually squealing. (Train enthusiasts line the roadway with cameras & tape recorders.).