Get your original spice and seasoning blends for summer grilling at http://emburke.etsy.com

I have lots of used books and CDs in great condition for sale at: http://ping.fm/qiRRN

My wonderful wife is participating in the Emmaus, Inc. Cycle for Shelter, this Sunday, July 26th. Please help support her at: http://ping.fm/zrtBN

day of shooting photos in the community for newspaper articles

Arrangement of a piece I wrote October of 2008 - Flatfoot Gumshoe: http://ping.fm/1uTvp

is checkin' it out

is testing stuff

Spring Awakening

I thought I had already posted this but it seems to have mysteriously vanished…

I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus through the past several months, but that doesn’t mean everything has completely stopped. Winter is always a time of hunkering down and working on long overdue projects - right after all of that holiday travel and such has settled down. I’ll be reconfiguring my ubiquitous web site presence -updating information, changing layouts, etc., & bringing my private persona & life out into the public a bit more. I’d love to hear from you, find out what is happening in your world & what you have planned in the upcoming months.

* I’m almost through redesigning my web site, Ishah 'El theatre arts, which is up, and should be finished soon

* I hope to have some new music up soon. Which isn't really new. I’ve got a huge back log of material that needs to be edited, mixed and promoted through out the internet. I’ll also have it posted on my web site.

* Ditto with writing, which I will also feature on the web site.

* Fundraising. It just never stops. If the spirit moves you, please help out. We are a non-profit organization and we subsist entirely on the kindness of strangers - people just like you! (Now doesn’t that sound officially NPR - PBS-ish?) Donations are tax refundable. Please check out some of the links provided & consider helping out: FirstGiving, JustGive & Paypal.

* I have also been selling my own original spice blends for seasoning and cooking. You can find them at: emburke.etsy.com. I’m hoping to branch out & feature some other non-edible creations I’ve got brewing in the back of my mind. My wife, Cheryl, has some great home made crafted items that you should check out here: yarnbee.etsy.com.

* I’ve been checking out scores of sites where creative artists of all stripes mingle & scheme, and it has been really impressive to see the growth of an independent grass roots, DIY industry. I have to say, I for one am glad that I don’t have to go into town to a Tower or HMV record store to find you. Especially at 4:00 am. Now if I could only make it to more of your performances.

* I’m also working on a forum portal for collaborating & sharing, which will be on the web site.

* Collaborating: I’ve been checking out the new collaborating sites for musicians, artists, etc. It has fantastic potential and I’m really excited to try it out & get together (virtually) with some of you. Come look me up at ejamming.com, jamuse.com, indaba.com, jamnow.com, macjams.com & elsewhere.

* I’m curating a featured film & visual arts afternoon every third Sunday of the month (excepting this month, which will happen on the fifth Sunday, the 30th) at the Ark Five Collge Episcopal Center, 758 North Pleasant Street, in Amherst, MA. 2:00 to 5:00 pm. Details will be posted here as they come. Hope to see you there.

* This Saturday I’m joining up with a bunch of friends to try improvising some loosely scripted noise. It should be great fun! I’m hoping that we will record it but I suspect that may not happen.

* Speaking of improvisation & fun, Joe Edelman, an event and community artist who works with communication technology, public space, and fun, is planning on doing some large scale improvisation in the community here. It will be very fun, interesting, inspiring & probably create some well need creative enlightenment. I’ll post here when it happens. Maybe you can join us.


* Come on out & find me on some of the other sites I’m on:
FaceBook, MySpace, MusicForte, isound.com, ReverbNation, & elsewhere.

I can’t guarantee that you’ll discover anything new or different from one site to the other, but it would be great to have your friendship & support elsewhere!

Thanks for all of your support, your kind & generous words and most of all, your friendship. I really appreciate it!

Regards,
Elliott

a good yarn spun

or - pulling at invisible strings

She knitted mufflers endlessly

Cheryl, my incredible wife, has found a burgeoning world of opportunity, community, excitement and satisfaction through crafting, mainly knitting. She loves to knit and it has paid off well in a rather unexpected and serendipitous way. For over a year now she has been blogging about her projects and process; she joined a high profile online knitting group, Ravelry, which has had a long waiting list just to get on. Through these means her art has been recognized by others, especially a sweater that she designed and knitted. The owner of Webs, a local yarn store, recognized her sweater while she was shopping and they fast became good acquaintances. Soon she was approached by the store and asked if she would be interested in knitting store samples for credit, which she accepted with excitement. Cheryl had been hoping to someday merge into spinning her own yarn, and this gave her the perfect opportunity to not only acquire bushels of yarn but to obtain her own spinning wheel at little to no cost. Web's approached her again and asked her if she would be interested in teaching a knitting class, which she also accepted and is now on her third week in.

As if that isn't enough, she has also won awards for her knitting at the annual Eastern States Exposition for the past two years.

None of this was planned. much of it came about after she began to blog about her interests and share them with others. Honestly, she was skeptical about blogging for at least six months but was somehow won over to the idea and has been blessed by it. Sure, blogging takes more time than she would care to invest in and expend toward, but it has taken her places she never expected and given her friends she would never have found otherwise, and that is an invaluable achievement.

If you like crafting, knitting, yarn and other such related arts, pop on over into her sphere of cyber creation - a world of color, discovery, creativity and community. You can find her at:
Yarnbee
Ravelry
Etsy
Flickr
& at her website at:
busy bee printing press
(amazing graphic designer by day, incredible craft maker by night)

Drop by and tell her Elliott sent you. I think you will love Cheryl almost as much as I do!

Fat Thursday, or Organic Free-Range Thanksgiving Kangaroos!

For the past several years Cheryl and I have been re-inventing the Thanksgiving dinner tradition. By that I mean we've been trying alternatives to the tried and true traditional fare, something we have grown quite weary with. We both realized that neither of us really care all that much for turkey and, as a couple, we always end up with way more food through the next week than we really need. If you're not fond of turkey then why cook more than you want or need? Cheryl isn't big on potatoes in any variety, I've never cared much for the cranberry sauce and candied yams, especially when they are served from a can like they were when I was growing up. I've never figured out what ambrosia is, where it came from or why anyone would make it let alone eat it. I suspect that ambrosia evolved into the traditional holiday fruit cake - leave it alone in the back of the refrigerator to petrify, then slice it up, serve and see if anyone is brave enough to take it. Stuffing still makes the list. We both like pumpkin pie and, to me, the arrival of pumpkin pie and egg nog officially announces that the holiday season is here. So in the past we have sought out variations on the holiday menu, some of if swiped from past traditions that have been nudged out of the way by the turkeys. We live near a game farm that does an incredible business in turkeys this time of year but also offers a variety of substitutes: geese, duck (including smoked duck), chicken and Cornish game hens. They also carry ham as well as buffalo, alligator, ostrich and kangaroo meat, but we've yet to try them. Maybe someday the phrase "Thanksgiving Ostrich" or "Thanksgiving Kangaroo" will sound as common as organic free-range does. Imagine that being shouted from your holiday circular headlines - "Organic Free-Range Thanksgiving Kangaroos!"

I once worked at a great restaurant in Cambridge called "Daddy-O's Bohemian Cafe". The philosophy and approach of the owners, Paul Sussman and Ellis Seidman, was simple and refreshing: home style comfort food with an emphasis on the ethnic traditions that our familiar American foods had evolved from. Daddy-O's was warm and inviting, earthy and unpretentious, akin to going to a block party barbeque in your neighborhood. The environment was funky and eclectic, styled as an imaginary 1950's roadhouse diner where Ferlinghetti and Kerouc might have met up for some grub after a long day of yo-yoing. Food not too far removed from your sphere of familiarity, but better, served along with a plug of seltzer, lime rickey, coffee, wine, fresh baked pies and cool jazz playing in the background. Daddy-O's also developed their own contemporary philosophy about food - we all grew up eating bad food that either our parents or the local restaurants didn't know how to cook. Rubbery veal parmigiana or breaded chicken cutlets, watery and flavorless sauces, over cooked and dry steaks, mushy pasta, thick and lumpy mashed potatoes, gravies that tasted like unset plaster of Paris with artificial turkey flavoring, instant food from a box or a can. You remember. Of course you do. Daddy-O's set out to re-define and improve upon the great, favorite traditional meals of our youth and succeeded with style, creativity and flair. Sadly, Daddy-O's closed their doors about ten years ago and I have to make do with their expert influence and inspiration. I did with our Thanksgiving dinner what Daddy-O's might have done with the holiday meal.

This year we went with the game hens. They are smaller than a chicken, gamier and better tasting (ditto for turkey as well) and will leave you with only one or two small to moderate portions to deal with the day after. The game hens were lightly coated with garlic infused extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt and some ground pepper, then stuffed with a quarter wedge of onion, a few cloves of garlic, and some sprigs of fresh marjoram and sage. They also take far less time to cook - about an hour to an hour and a half. Since we had our friend Rachel over, there was one for each of us. Plus they were on sale at our store - two per package, buy one get one free. I placed the game hens breast up in our roasting pan and cooked them at 450 degrees for a half hour, then turned them over and reduced the heat to 350 for another 40 to 50 minutes. They came out perfect, with the skin nice and crisp and the meat tender and juicy.

Thanksgiving offers us a great opportunity to get a jump up on our fat layer for the winter. We accomplished this with plenty of butter and cream in the soup, sides and dessert. The week before I made a roasted squash, leek and apple soup. Using vegetable stock for the base I added the squash, leeks and apples (cooked with a light coating of EVOO, salt and pepper) and pureed it until smooth. Blend in ground ginger and coriander, a touch of honey, and lots of butter and cream while it's simmering and you have a hearty harvest soup that compliments any meal. I used the basic ingredients here except I baked the squash, leeks and apples with my Green Thai Spice Seasoning and used coconut milk instead of cream. It turned out quite nice.

For sides for the game hens I made stuffing using butter, chicken stock, fresh marjoram and sage, diced onion and sliced baby bella mushrooms. I used a package mix since I rarely ever have stale bread in bulk on hand, either for croutons or for feeding pigeons. We had mashed potatoes and mashed yams, both cooked with butter, cream and sour cream and topped with sliced green onions. For a garnish I toasted chopped pecans and hazelnuts, added butter, suger, quatre épices and a spicy pepper blend I made from a combination of dried chiles. Oh, and there was gravy, too, of course, which I made from the pan drippings.

For dessert I created a pumpkin crème brûlée galette, which was actually more of a mousse in texture. I incorporated a couple recipe outlines for pumpkin pie type deserts and modified it into a galette - a sort of open topped pie. I used canned pie filling (some day I'll have to try fresh baked pumpkins) that I folded into whipped egg whites, egg yolk emulsion and whipped cream, flavored it with sugar, vanilla, maple syrup and Grand Marnier - NO PUMPKIN PIE SPICES! All in all, the filling wasn't too sweet, more on the savory side. Rolling out a simple pie crust into about seven inch circles, I placed a scoop or two of the filling in the center and folded the edges up around it so that it sort of looked like an aperture, then baked at 380 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes and served it with a drizzle of burnt caramel sauce over it. To compliment our Thanksgiving meal we had a sparkling peach cider.

Should anyone have any interest in the recipes for these dishes - in approximates, not exact measurements, natch - you can write me back here. I'll be recreating them in writing in the next week and have them available for you.

winning women

I am a bit more introspective than usual during the fall season. Maybe it's just the all too sudden change over in nature and the weather or just a gasp of relief that comes after the bustle and rush of the end of summer back to school thrust, but other incidents have a strong bearing on it as well. My mom has her birthday on October 12th. She passed away early in 2004 and I have some difficulty in commemorating her birthday in silence and solitude. I received a phone call several weeks ago from a cousin who I haven't seen nor talked to since I was a very young teen. She had a couple of folders of family photos that she wanted me to have and after catching up on each other's lives, she sent them to me. It had several photos of my mom when she was a little girl and a young woman, photos that I'd never seen before and at an era of her life I'd never known, whether through stories or pictures. She never shared much of her life with us and, with her passing on, she remains in many ways a mystery to me. My mother was beautiful and was considered a real "looker" in her teens and kept her youthful beauty through her life. Honestly, my mom is about 14 years of age in this photo even though she appears to be a mature early twenties.



Cheryl and I officially got together on October 11th of 2004, the day before mom's birthday and about eight months after her death. It seems fitting to have met the woman who would become my wife on this anniversary. I'm often sad that they never got to meet. I know my mom would have approved of Cheryl and would have gotten along well with her. Cheryl is extremely talented and handy with crafts, especially knitting and sewing, and sometimes when she is busy about her latest project I recall similar memories from when I was a child. My mother and sisters would on occasion go to the fabric store and buy material, patterns and the such, and the home would be buzzing with craft activities that I had a minor fascination with but little other interest in. The other day, after Cheryl had gone shopping to buy buttons for her new sweater, she was showing them to me and asking my opinion of them. It reminded me of being a young boy, hanging out with mom and my sisters, sifting through the tin of buttons they had, looking at the variety of colors and shapes there were. It had an odd attraction to me and probably fostered an unusual love of collecting random things. I guess my mother is partly to blame if I came home with junk to showcase in odd, random nooks about my room.

Over the past two weeks the Big E - the Eastern States Exposition - was in town. It's also an odd assortment of sideshows with unusual attractions, tchachkas, midway fare and all of the rich, deep fried food you can eat, centered around 4 H club exhibits, breeding competitions (no, not that kind - we're talking dogs, cows, horses, llamas, pigs, sheep, etc....), butter sculptures, gigantic squashes and entertaining acts. Cheryl entered several items in the Big E fiber competition and came home with three ribbons. She should have won more. She's that good. I think my mother would have beamed with admiration and pride for her daughter in law. I know she would have been impressed with her talents and abilities to create and knit so well. Maybe sewing would have been at least one area they had in common and could have talked much about.

birthday cards

Yesterday was my birthday & Cheryl, my wonderful creative wife, had several surprises in store for me. We had to live up to the tradition of grilling for Labor Day, so we had a celebration cook out on Sunday with several friends queing up for burgers, brats & beer. Yesterday attempted to go kayaking but upon arriving at the marina we discovered that they were no longer offering kayak rentals and the other local marina was closed on Tuesdays. We left our plans of kayaking for another day and opted for a drive in the country to a local farm stand where we bought fresh tomatoes, melons, spinach and arugula. Cheryl gave me several presents to hold me stable until the arrival of others, which included a beautifl hand made note book and these two cards:

my new granddaughter

Jolynn Shea Burke, born August 30th at 10:57 am (central), 7lbs 11ounces, 20 in long. She's beautiful! Welcome to the world, Jolynn!

Cena

Cena and I have been pals for about eleven years. Her name comes from La Cenerentola- Cinderella- because she was an orphan princess with cinder colors. Although she is really a very sweet cat, Cena doesn't like being held too much and she doesn't like having her picture taken. We have to force her to be social. Currently she's training for a sleeping marathon and puts in about 22 hours per day toward it. We think she's a winner anyway.

8 semi random facts

My wonderful wife, cheryl, was recently "memed" or tagged by our friend Tomoko to share 8 random & little known facts about herself; she in turn has tagged me. However, after reading Tomoko's "random 8" on her blog last week I already posted 8 facts just to see what I could come up with. You can find them here. Anyway, I'm going to try & post 8 more. Hey, why not? Here goes.

I was a ten month baby. I mean my mother carried me through pregnancy for ten months. It runs in the family, especially with the boys. My due date was August 7th & I was born on September 4th. Imagine my poor mom, living in the 100 degree + summer heat of the desert & having to carry a baby for another month...

On my mother's side of the family there are a slew of theatre technicians, all who worked in Las Vegas. My grandfather did sound at the Flamingo, my grandmother was a stage mother to the dancers & two uncles did lighting, one for Caesar's Palace. I'm guessing this is likely to be where my interest in theatre came from.

I have- or used to have- better than 20-20 vision. I'm the only one in my family who never had to wear glasses. My eyesight has always been sharp as an eagle's. It still is but it is now getting noticeably weaker. When I was a freshman in junior high the eye doctor told me my sight would certainly go very early because of this condition, while last year the eye doctor told me that it has probably lasted this long because of it. You just gotta appreciate the randomness of science.

When I was a child I used to have "premonition dreams". I used to see events of the future in my dreams and would recognize it when they occurred, usually by a strong familiarity with where I am & a comfortable sense of belonging. Usually these dreams mark a significant change in my life and on two occasions they involved the death of someone I had grown close to. It still happens occasionally but rarely. I've come to believe that these dreams occurred to prepare me for changes that were about to happen.

Many "well known personalities"- ie., celebrities, have eaten food that I've cooked, including Roy Rogers & Dale Evans, Cathy Rigby, Alan Hale, Jr., Larry Bird, Tracy Kidder, Jamaica Kincaid, John Deutch, Marc Ribot, G Love (& Special Sauce), Ben Affleck & Gwenyth Paltrow (on a date together), to name only a few that I know of. They seem to have not suffered any long lasting side effects because of it.

When I was very young- probably about three years old- I jumped off the high dive & into an inner tube that my father held in place for me. Probably due this I have a simultaneous fear of heights and an urge to jump off of roofs.

My family on my mother's side is supposedly descended from Native American Indians, possibly Cherokee or Comanche. There is also a rumor that we are descended from Royalty in Britain as well as France. None of this can be verified and no one from either side has attempted to contact us.

In 1999 I somehow found myself on stage performing in an opera with several Nobel prize recipients who were dressed up as sheep. I was tenor clone #3. That was the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony and you can read the libretto transcript at http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig99-seedy-libretto.html

That's my eight. I now have to pick eight people to list eight things about themselves. Here they are:

Baird T. Soules
Susannah Black
Josh & Carrie Rubero
Dee Yeh
Steven Yeh
Araz Inguilizian
Mike & Katie Peterson
Ali Langsather

gyro'ing up for summertime goodness

I'll state up front that this is a thinly veiled advert for my spices. You may choose to read on or be successfully subliminally compelled to go directly to my site where you can buy an armful of spices. That would be mountain of spices at emburke.etsy.com. There now- wasn't that subtle, pleasant & agreeable?

Saturday night we made gyros. I used a greek seasoning blend with chicken breasts. A little extra virgin olive oil to lightly coat the breasts so that a small but goodly amount of spices will stay in place- about a table spoon sprinkled over the surface with some kosher salt, cracked black pepper & smoked paprika. I let it set for a couple hours at room temperature in a covered pyrex dish so that the chicken will absorb the spice seasoning & since I planned to grill the chicken I used a little extra of the seasoning to make sure that it wouldn't be burnt off by the fire.

While the chicken marinated I made some Tzatziki sauce to go with it. I modified an online recipe & came up with this variation:

1 cup plain yoghurt
1 large clove fresh garlic, minced (we get ours fresh from the fields at our farm share)
1 cucumber, peeled & diced
3 tb chopped scallions
1 tsp fresh oregano
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 tsp fresh dill
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil (approximately)
1 tsp white blasamic vinegar (approximately)
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
pinch of black pepper
dash of salt

Mix it up & let sit. No, I didn't actually measure any of the ingredients I used & I'm only guessing at approximates here, but it should keep you in the ballpark of tastiness. Tzatziki traditionally has mint in it but, since my seasoning mix already has some mint in it I opted for fresh oregano, thyme & dill. You can add mint as well. Go ahead. It will be OK.

I bought pre-made pizza dough for the gyro wrap from our local store. You can make it fresh, of course, but you would have to do that all way before everything else. I rolled it out into plate size rounds & coated them lightly with olive oil. After grilling the chicken, while the coals were cooler, I grilled the bread quickly on both sides to firm it up. Cooking pizza dough on a hot grill is tricky but it can be done. Just be careful of the hot spots & don't leave the bread over them for too long.

We sliced the grilled chicken breasts into bite size strips & placed them on the grilled bread with a generous amount of Tzatziki sauce, added sliced cucumbers, sliced kalamata olives, mixed greens (arugula compliments it wonderfully), crumbled gorgonzola cheese & sprinkled some Zatar over it. Unfortunately I forgot about Cheryl's pickled vegetables, which would have been great as a side, but Cheryl did make some wonderful lemonade to go with it. It was a great outdoor summertime meal that I hope to repeat again while the weather remains inviting. Give it a try & tell me how it was.

mondo spices

I've recently jumped into the grand venture of selling spices on a small level of semi-mass production. After much coaxing from friends who are great fans of my spice blends I've begun selling them on line & considering offering them locally at farm share stores. This all began almost two years ago when our church, the northampton vineyard, held a seasonal craft fair just before Christmas. Cheryl made several items from her broad scope of expertise - cards, bath salts, journals & cat nip mice (you'll find some of her wonderful wares available HERE) - while I provided spice blends that I made up myself. These days the house smells like a spice caravan in passing & there is much sneezing from the clouds of spiced dust wafting about the kitchen while I am grinding them. Cheryl complains of how teasing the whole process is: "The house smells incredible but there's nothing there to eat! It's unfair!"

But I do use the spice blends regularly to cook & season with, so it isn't all cruel torture for her. Come on over to the Etsy site HERE & check them out.


Currently I have six blends to choose from: Green Thai Curry (my favorite), Moroccan Tajine, Ethiopian Berbère, Tandoori, Cajun Seasoning & Greek Seasoning. Off the site are a few others I've made up which I could probably be persuaded to make available: African Malayan Curry, Carribean Curry & Persian spice blend. More where those came from. Oh, so many, many more!
If you love spices you'll love these. You do love spices, don't you?

love's labors

Those of you who know me well know that I love research. I'm probably more fully in my element when I'm exploring something, letting the process of discovery take me wherever it goes, weaving in and out of seeming discontinuity and revealing connections and relationships that I'd never imagined or suspected. Sometimes I had suspected there was a connection and found out I was right. And then some. It's a fun game - one of my favorites - and I've spent a lot of time trying to convince others that it's my job, my avocation, my calling. My work space should prove that easily enough. I think this goes back to at least grade school when, having become a lover of reading and exploring, I discovered the set of Encyclopedia Britannica we had in our house and began to browse through them regularly. I loved to browse, I loved the idea of browsing and wanted to become a browser when I grew up. In my own solitude and isolation I discovered worlds within worlds out there that I just didn't find available in school or at home, in my backyard or on random day trips. The encyclopedias became my buddies and the library was our Odd fellows lodge.

Thank God and nerd engineers for web browsers, the common day equivalent of my boyhood aspirations. I can find stuff and stuff linked to other stuff easier, and in most cases have access to or own a copy of an item with simplest of ease. For some time now I've been interested in, among other things, stories from around the world. Several months ago I stumbled upon a great book, World Tales, by Idries Shah (printed by Octagon Press). It's a great book filled with wonderful stories from the diversity of our world culture, but it also has great introductions which trace the roots and development of a tale from it's origins and tracks it's sphere of influence within other cultures. Just the sort of book or slew of books I would have loved stumbling upon as a kid. In similar fashion, I discovered this great site last night, also called World Tales; it's a beautifully, wonderfully designed flash site of stories which are animated well and they give some background to the stories and the characters common to the folklore board of advisers. You can also read the tale if you prefer. I hope you find as much enjoyment in these as I have been, and keep the connection going - tell a friend.

Call for suggestions!

We're putting together a series of plays for live performance, radio play & podcast and we'd love to hear your suggestions, especially on plays or adaptations of traditional stories, folktales or poetry from other countries & cultures. Send us a message with your own favorite plays or stories from your country & culture.

Some pieces currently in development or being considered are:

Shehzadi Nautanki
Choon Hyang
Karagöz & Hacivat
Gita Govinda By Jayadeva
Layla & Majnun by Nizami
The Birds by Aristophanes
Hassan of Baghdad by James Elroy Flecker
Tobit
Victory over the Sun by Vladimir Mayakovsky
Jataka tales
Maori Myths & Tales
The Conference of the Birds by Attar
Commedia dell 'Arte scenes
The Case of the Missing Bodies by Tom S. Long
Plays by Rabindranath Tagore
Arabic short play series
Short plays by David Ives
World Tales by Idries Shah
The Guide by R. K. Narayan
The Saddle Bag by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani
Plays by Carlo Gozzi
The long journey of Poppie Nongena
The Ring and The Book by Robert Browning

And more! So many more!

Add your favorites to the list!

of monks & kings

It's spring in more ways than finally being warm and sunny. The annual breaking of the winter's long hold over activity seems to thrust us forward with a flurry of creativity, almost as if to say "I'm still here and I'm still alert", and to assert ourselves over the cold lingering slumber. Just like nature. For Easter this year we've offered up a couple of projects to share with the community: the third edition of our zine, "The Gregarious Monk", which is a humble showcase of talent from our funky, eclectic church, the northampton vineyard, proffering a variety of articles on topics from candy to fitness, featuring crafting and book reviews and so much more. Recipes, photographs, random thoughts, poetry, short stories and personal reflections all laid out with spiffy graphics. Our community is rather savvy, diverse and prolific bunch with a wide range of interests collectively and individually. There will be more in the months to come, including an online version of it sometime soon.

Also for Easter several of us did a short excerpt of a radio play by Dorothy L. Sayers on the life of Jesus. We were allotted ten minutes tops, so we extracted a crucial section from the resurrection from the tomb, enacted it, recorded it (with sound effects) and added some pictures to accompany it. It had a few glitches but over all came off well, and we had a lot of fun doing it. You can listen to it here: Easter radio play audio or view it here: Easter radio play video.

This will be the first of several radio plays I'm planning to put together. I've been figuring out how to do podcasting and it seems like a fun direction to go toward creatively & experimentally.