ForgottenStars.net

August 6, 2026

Something for Thursday

A couple weeks back we made our annual trek to the Sterling Renaissance Festival, where we did all our usual things, including me taking over 200 photos over the course of the day. These are still forthcoming, but let me say…I am incredibly happy with some of the shots I got!

The Faire always puts me in mind of this band, and this song, which I know I’ve featured here before but I’m pretty sure it’s been six years since the last time, so we’re good. Here is Blackmore’s Night with “Under a Violet Moon”.

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August 4, 2026

Tuesday Tones

Oops! Something has come up for tonight (a dog walk in the next town over), so I didn’t have time to get this week’s real post (which would have continued our exploration of Japanese composers) done. Here’s an operatic grand march instead, from Charles Gounod’s The Queen of Sheba.

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August 3, 2026

Wherever you are…

…Happy Birthday.

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August 2, 2026

Check the Gallery!

Your Humble Narrator, Knox Farm, East Aurora, NY

I’ve not exactly done the Bestest Job Evah in updating my Photo Gallery on this site, ’tis true…but this day, it is updated! Go look! I’m planning to update it quarterly, which is (I hope) a more manageable schedule than the monthly plan that I proceeded to just not do at all. Hmmmm….

(OK, one factor is that I tried a couple of photo-gallery plug-ins to make managing a gallery easier and better on the viewer end, but I didn’t care for their functionality, so out they went and I’m managing the current Gallery by hand like it’s 2003 again. Sheesh! The things we do for art!)

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August 2, 2026

“There’s a million things I haven’t done!” (Sunday Stealing)

This week’s Sunday Stealing is a list of things you either have done or have not done. I’ll bold the ones I have actually done, and I’ll provide occasional comment throughout because a list by itself is kinda boring, right? Here we go!

Have you ever …

1. Slept under the stars 

I mean, technically, we’re always sleeping under the stars! But really, I get the point here. Have I slept the entire night outside, with nothing between me and the sky? Well, no. But I’ve dozed off out there, and I’m counting it. Especially the times as a kid when we were camping and I was sitting by the campfire and the next thing I remembered, it was morning and I was in the camper.

By the way, I’m reminded of a great joke:

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine they lay down for the night, and went to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend.

“Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.”

Watson replied, “I see millions and millions of stars.”

“What does that tell you?”

Watson pondered for a minute. “Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I supect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Why, what does it tell you?”

Holmes was silent for a minute, then spoke. “Watson, you imbecile. Some bastard has stolen our tent.”

2. Played in a band 

Concert bands and jazz bands count. No, I have not played in a rock band, a country band, a jam band, or a swing band.

3. Visited Hawaii

And we’re hoping to go back next spring!

4. Visited Easter Island

(Does anyone just…visit Easter Island? It’s extremely remote and I’m not sure what there is to really do there other than see the Moai statues.)

5. Watched a meteor shower 

My mother loved the Perseids.

6. Seen the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace

Aside from Hawaii, I have never left North America.

7. Been to Disneyland or Disney World  

I was at Disneyland when I was very young, and Disney World when I was a little older (both before I was ten). I had an Epcot visit in college while on a music tour, and The Wife and I celebrated our first anniversary, in 1998, at Disney World. I used to really want to go back, but now? I’m not against it, by any means, but it’s not a priority.

8. Climbed a mountain  

Well, define “climb”. I’ve hiked quite a few. If by “climb” we mean the whole bit with pitons and ropes and the possibility of long plummets punctuated by unfortunate impact, then, no.

9. Held a praying mantis

As a kid. I’m not clamoring to do so again. They’re beautiful insects, but I don’t think they need to be handled by humans.

10. Been to the Louvre

I wouldn’t mind at all!

11. Had food poisoning 

Yeah, that was unpleasant. Luckily it passed pretty quickly.

12. Eaten vegetables you grew yourself

I’d do more, but I’m lazy.

13. Slept overnight on a train

I’d love to do this!

14. Built a snow fort

When we moved in 1981 to WNY and finally lived in a place with consistent snow, where we lived was too sparse to make a snow fort really worth the effort. And why make a snow fort when sledding on the hills is right there as an option?

15. Held a lamb

16. Gone skinny dipping

Weirdly, I prefer swimming clothed!

17. Been on a cruise (day cruises and dinner cruises count)

Booze cruise FTW!!! Also whale watching off Cape Cod and dolphin watching off Cape May.

18. Seen Niagara Falls  

Well yeah, it’s just 30 miles that way. [points]

19. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

If by “ancestors” we mean my parents, then yes! I’ve been to Pittsburgh many times and was born there myself. If by “ancestors” we mean Germany and Ireland and wherever else might be in there, then no.

20. Sung karaoke

21. Sat for a portrait

22. Walked on a beach by moonlight 

23. Been transported in an ambulance

24. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling  

Snorkeling.

25. Kissed in the rain 

26. Played in the mud 

As a kid, yeah. But I’m not a fan of mud. I see photos of muddy people from Woodstock or other festivals and I’m like, “Ewwww.” And this from a person who finds getting hit with pies a fun experience….

27. Gone to a drive-in theater

Only as a kid. There’s a popular one not far from where we live, but somehow it never ends up on our summer agenda….

28. Changed your vehicle’s oil yourself

I did this a few times some years ago, mainly so I could get that in my memory bank and develop a few mechanical skills. But I don’t bother anymore; I just get it done twice a year, once at inspection time and once six months or so after that.

29. Taken a martial arts class

30. Visited the Vatican

I have very little interest in seeing the Vatican, actually. My parents went to the Vatican when they went to Rome twenty years or so ago. My mother, who by this time was not just a lapsed Catholic but an angry lapsed Catholic, really hated the experience. She only wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, which apparently comes at the very end of a long tour during which there are no places to sit to take a rest, and she also had things to say about how many “marble penises” there are in the Vatican.

31. Volunteered at a soup kitchen or food pantry

I donate a lot of product and money, but I’ve never donated labor. I should, I suppose.

32. Sold Girl Scout cookies

33. Bought a used car

I honestly don’t see any reason to buy new.

34. Sat on a jury

35. Ridden an elephant

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July 30, 2026

Something for Thursday (Glen Hansard edition)

In shocking and sad news, singer-songwriter Glen Hansard died in a motorcycle crash the other day. This one hurts. As he did for many people, Hansard came to my attention via the wonderful movie Once, which I watched many years ago (and, oddly, have not watched since…I need to rectify that).

Below is the text of the post I wrote about Once back in 2009, but first, here’s the song that really put Hansard on the map from that movie. This song won the Oscar for Best Song, and it remains one of my favorite songs from the last twenty years. Even longer, frankly.

Thank you for the music, Glen Hansard. You are gone too soon and will be missed.

My original post on Once:

“Take this sinking boat
and point it home.
We’ve still got time….”-“Falling Slowly”, song from Once

A vacuum-cleaner repairman in Dublin works on the side as a street musician, playing his guitar and singing his songs on the streetcorners for whatever change he can get from passers-by. Occasionally he does well, other times he does less well. He has to contend with the occasional thief who tries to run off with his guitar case and the money inside it, and he has to refrain from singing his own songs for night-time when foot traffic is lower, since most people are more rewarding of a musician playing songs they know, this even though his performances of his own songs are searingly emotional. There’s something eating away at this guy, though; we can see it, although we don’t know what. He looks young but weary, idealistic and cynical at the same time; his guitar is so old that it has a second hole worn through its face and the strings are not neatly trimmed but have lengths that dangle off the ends of the frets. He wears a black overcoat and a scarf tied around his neck, even oftentimes when he is inside.

Along comes a young Czech woman who also works the streets of Dublin, selling her own wares: magazines, individual flowers. She hears one of his songs at night, and compliments him; he is trying to end the conversation when he lets slip that he’s a vacuum cleaner repairman, and her face lights up because she has a broken vacuum cleaner! She vows to bring her broken cleaner to him tomorrow, and she does. They then begin a brief friendship that deepens quickly into love as they walk the streets together, him carrying his guitar and her pulling the vacuum behind her like a dog. She seems more open, more willing to smile, more idealistic than cynical, but it soon becomes clear that she is masking her own series of hurts as well; there’s a sadness in her eye that she hides except for when she thinks no one is looking, she has a two year old daughter with no father in sight, she buys her clothes at a cheap mens’ store, and she too spends much time wearing a heavy overcoat with a scarf round her neck.

It turns out that she is a piano player too, although she keeps that part of her life carefully secret, only playing an hour a day in the studio of a music shop while the owner closes for lunch. She offers to play for him there, and he goes to hear; after she plays him some Mendelssohn, she asks him to play, and he does, to her accompaniment, teaching her one of his songs. He seems slightly skeptical of this whole thing, until she begins to sing along with the lyrics he’s placed in front of her, harmonizing his own vocals. He smiles in pleasant surprise; he’s made a connection with this woman, a musical connection, the kind that comes when we discover entirely by accident that someone we’ve just met is, on at least one level, completely in tune with ourselves.

Is that when they fall in love? I’m not sure. But it starts there, with that smile of surprise and delight. It happens early in the movie Once, about twelve minutes in, and the rest of the film follows the guitarist and the pianist through the next few days as they get to know each other and to love each other and to make music together. (The scene is helped by the fact that the song, “Falling Slowly”, is a wonderful song that would eventually win an Oscar for Best Original Song.)

The feel of Once is very similar to Before Sunrise, another great romance film about two people in similar circumstances who find each other and get to know each other over a fairly short period of time. Here it’s a few days, but it’s still fairly brief. There is a girl in his past, and a husband in hers; both lean on the other in efforts to deal with their respective pain and find their ways to their respective next steps. Those steps make sense, in the end, and if I found myself hoping for a different outcome, the one the film depicts is still moving and satisfying and right.

A movie like this can’t possibly succeed unless its performances are good, and there’s not a false note of performance in the entire movie, from the leads (who are never named; the credits list them as “Guy” and “Girl”) all the way to the jaded soundbooth operator who first thinks he’s recording a bunch of yahoos but soon realizes different once he’s heard the songs. The leads are played by Glen Hansard and Markita Irglova, who have paired as a singer-songwriting duo, penning some of the songs used in the film. And the film’s songs, by the way, are really very good, with one, “Falling Slowly”, being a truly excellent song indeed, the best movie song I’ve heard in years. This song won the Oscar last year for original song, and this was richly deserved. (And I cited it as my song of 2008.)

Once is a beautiful, beautiful movie. This is what movies are for.

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July 28, 2026July 28, 2026

Tuesday Tones

Yasuji Koyose (1900-1981) was, among other things, a teacher of Toru Takemitsu, who could well be Japan’s greatest classical composer to date. His music incorporates Japanese tonalities and elements of Japanese folk song. This piece is not orchestral at all: here we take one of our infrequent detours into the world of the solo piano. Fairy Tale of the North is a moody work, solemn and meditative, that was apparently inspired by the composer’s impressions of the darkness of Japan’s north country, that he experienced in Morioka, a city in the north of Honshu. The piece has a familiar sound at first, but as it progresses it seems to get, well, stranger and stranger.

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July 26, 2026

[taps the mic]

“I knew I shoulda learned about those ‘settings’ things photographers are always talking about….”

Yup, another unplanned break from posting here, sorry! Usual reasons apply: several really busy days at work, including a carpentry project that I had to design from scratch and honestly I’m not the best at design; and then our annual trip to the Sterling Renaissance Festival. That was a big long day, lots of walking if not actual hiking, and tons of photos taken. (Oooooh, that editing session is going to be a looooooong one.)

Anyway, what’s new?

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July 21, 2026

Tuesday Tones

Atsutada Otaka (1944-2021) was a Japanese composer and teacher…and that is just about all of the biographical information I have been able to find about him. A longer (but not by much) biography can be found here.

The work in question today is a large-scale piece for organ and orchestra. I’m always surprised that organ-and-orchestra is not a combination encountered more often; the organ is, after all, the only single instrument that can stand toe-to-toe with the modern symphony orchestra in terms of the sheer sonic output it can generate. If your main impression of works for organ and orchestra is Saint-Saens’s Organ Symphony, then this piece, with its fiery dissonances, massive crashing chords, and slicing sonorities will come as something of a shock. It doesn’t get more purely modern than this.