Words, Sounds & Images Posts

After a couple of years of encouragement, I produced a calendar to be sold in local bookstores and shops.   This year’s “Monadnock Up Close” calendar is available in Peterborough, NH at the Toadstool Book Shops in Depot Square and Steele’s Stationery on Main Street, in the Route 101 Local Goods shop on the Marlborough/Keene, NH line, and in the Toadstool Book Shops at 12 Emerald Street in Keene.   Thanks to those merchants for help a rookie out!

If you can’t find the calendar at one of the retailers above, I can still get one to you.   You can pay by credit card or PayPal  by clicking below.   And if that’s doesn’t work for you, drop me an email and we’ll get it done.  Thank you.

Last night, I attended the victory party for Casino Free New Hampshire, for whom I’ve advocated for the last year and a half in the State Legislature.   What a great group to work with:  Smart, savvy, dedicated, and determined.    And bipartisan!   Our coalition encompasses the most liberal to the most libertarian.

You hear a lot of things about lobbyists, money and influence.   I’m proud to say that at least in this case, hard work by passionate volunteers triumphed over hundreds of thousands dollars spent by the casino industry, keeping a predatory industry out of New Hampshire.    I helped to coordinate this effort, but we would not have been successful without our volunteers and their hundreds of phone calls, letters to the editor, Facebook shares, and emails.  From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

I’m often asked why I don’t want to see casinos in New Hampshire.  For me, I’ve had to travel to Las Vegas many times for business, often staying in casino hotels.  Walking through the casinos, you don’t see the well-dressed 20-somethings shown in the television ads.  You see women in their 70s trying to get an endorphin fix from slot machines.  In the block behind the strip are the pawn shops, payday loan offices and mission churches.  Casino gambling is not right  for New Hampshire.

That’s my reason, but if you need more, there are plenty.  Please visit the Casino Free NH website for our 31 Reasons No and dozens of research links and articles.   And join our Facebook page to keep up with the next battle.

brb

    When it comes to Christmas, I must peak too early.    My Christmas season starts the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, when we go to pick up wreaths to sell for Troop 2.  Almost every weekend is taken up with wreath sales, along with regular Scout meetings and the regular hustle and bustle of the Christmas season.  I enjoy helping other people, and even enjoy the shopping.   But by the time the week of Christmas arrives, when I should feel elation, I’m done with it.   Totally done with it.  My poor family has to put up with someone who hums “Blue Christmas” all the time.      Time to get back to church in the new year.  I’m thinking I’ve not been peaking for the right reasons.

For Christmas 2013, I recorded the original manuscript of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as a present for my wife Jeana, my kids, and my friends.   Please share in this labor of love during this holiday season.

Most browsers will play the MP3 when you click on the file.   You may need to download it by right clicking with your mouse, then click on the file once it’s on your hard drive.  Your PC or Mac should then play it with your default player.

Stave 1 – Marley’s Ghost

Stave 2 – The First of the Three Spirits

Stave 3 – The Second of the Three Spirits

Stave 4 – The Last of the Spirits

Stave 5 – The End of It

Thanks to WNHN FM 94.7 in Concord, NH for use of its facilities and equipment in recording.

I’ve been fortunate over the past three years to help build a radio station.  That’s not something somebody in communications gets to do every day.    Thanks to the WNHN board for allowing me the opportunity, and to the over 50 volunteers who have helped make it all happen.

But it’s time to move on.   I’ve learned a massive amount, and I’m pretty confident I could work in just about any audio environment and hold my own.

So now it’s off to a new challenge where I can use my skills in writing, photography, sound, graphics and marketing.  Where?   Don’t know yet.  Just have to find the right spot.

brb