Author: Kelly Sedinger

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The Fair 2016

Photos from the Erie County Fair, 2016

Ribbon fries #eriecountyfair

Wow. Stroh's. Blast from the past! #eriecountyfair #strohs

Quilt detail #eriecountyfair #quilt

Detail from vintage jewelry box. AM&A's was the department store chain in Buffalo and WNY back when every region had its own department store brand. #buffalo #eriecountyfair

Llama #eriecountyfair #llama

Bunny #eriecountyfair #rabbit

Wife and another horse #eriecountyfair #horse

Woodcarving guitar. #woodcarving #eriecountyfair


And in new acquisitions, among a few other things (including a new coffee mug which I haven’t photographed yet), a new scarf and a new keychain!

New scarf I bought at the County Fair! #scarf #overalls #vintage #Lee #HickoryStripe #tiedye

I got a new keychain! Huzzah!!! #eriecountyfair #millenniumfalcon #starwars


There was actually some new stuff to see at the Fair this year that felt fresh and nifty, which was nice; sometimes the Fair can seem a little “Same old, same old”. We do miss certain things about the Fair — particularly the daily parade, which was always fun to watch — but we did have a great time.

Now, of course, with the Fair being over (for us, anyway), I am mentally shifting gears already into Fall Mode. This is usually helped along by August in Buffalo generally being cooler and less humid than July, but that certainly hasn’t turned out to be the case this year; instead it’s been just as hot and humid in August as in July, and our region is actually in the midst of a pretty severe drought. We’ve actually had measurable rainfall over the last few days, but earlier we went something like 80 days without a drop, so things are pretty parched ’round here. Hopefully it’ll rebound.

Anyway, that’s the Fair for this year. The next big things? Buffalo Comic-con, then our annual trek to Ithaca for the Apple Harvest Festival, and then…who knows! The sky’s the limit, folks!

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Tone Poem Tuesday

Is there a more Me thing to do, blogging-wise, than announce a new series, post the first post in that new series, and then promptly forget about that series a week later? Oops! I completely forgot about Tone Poem Tuesday last week. Now, I did have a lot of different stuff going on, but Ye Gods, I gotta do better than that.

So this week we attend upon a work by Sir Arnold Bax (Great Britain, 1883-1953). In fact, this might be Bax’s most well-known work, although I personally have only heard it a handful of times. Bax’s music tends to be earthy and rustic, almost to the point of being rough-hewn. In addition, Bax’s music is atmospheric and clearly molded in the spirit of Romanticism, which is almost certainly why, to a large extent, his music fell into neglect after his death: his particular musical idiom was simply not in fashion anymore. Couple that with the fact that his scores tend to require large numbers of performers, and it all adds up to music that spent several decades languishing, except for occasional dustings-off of his tone poems, the most famous of which is apparently this one: Tintagel.

Bax was also heavily influenced by Celtic lore, and the castle of Tintagel in Cornwall is of major import in such lore, seeing as how it’s traditionally held as the birthplace of King Arthur. Bax’s tone poem is meant to convey some of the emotions of the location and give a sense of its character, through music. Bax eschewed any specific program for this work, intending it to be mainly suggestive of the ruined castle on the tiny spit of land that is constantly being pounded by the sea.

Here is Tintagel by Sir Arnold Bax.

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Symphony Saturday

OK, last week didn’t happen (we were out of town and I just didn’t get the post written), and this week’s supposed to be Tchaikovsky’s Fifth but I still didn’t get the post written (because it’s one of my favorite pieces ever and I want to do it right), so this week, a placeholder, and a particularly fascinating one. Years ago — we’re talking, when I was in high school — I checked this record out from the library. It’s a performance of Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 in C Major. Mozart wrote this piece in four days, when he was traveling with his wife. They arrived at a town called Linz, and the local Count learned that Mozart was in town and announced a concert, so suddenly Mozart found himself in need of a symphony. Out came this work.

What’s interesting about this recording is that it begins not with the symphony itself, but with a recording of the rehearsals! You get to hear conductor Bruno Walter addressing his musicians on the finer points of how he wants to get his musical vision across to the audience. This is always fascinating stuff to hear, when you realize how nuts-and-bolts it is. Walter doesn’t go in for long and lyrical digressions of what the music means and what it suggests to him in terms of imagery and whatnot; instead he obsesses over how long the introductory notes are and how the strings are accenting things that should be accented and so on. (Try to overlook the obvious lack of women in the group, when Maestro Walter says “All right, gentlemen, let’s rehearse!”)


Next week, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth. (I hope.)

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Something for Thursday

Ack! Sorry, folks. This week has been really screwed up, because of usual stuff: a big weekend trip with the family last weekend, lots of writing, and an overnight shift at work that has me wondering what day it is. Well, I suppose none of that’s usual other than lots of writing, but there it is. Anyway, here’s something that I feature for obvious reasons: Henry Mancini’s “Pie in the Face Polka”, from the movie The Great Race. Enjoy!


PS: Oh, what the heck? Here’s the very scene for which this bit of film music was written!

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Linkage and Stuff (with pies)

Some stuff!

:: Oh my, I forgot about my new feature, Tone Poem Tuesday. Ugh! I’ll really try to remember next week. In fact, I think I’ll write some in advance. Meantime, here’s an oft-featured favorite of mine, the gorgeous choral setting of Shenandoah.


:: Roger visited the Corning Museum of Glass. Oddly, I have never been there. How weird is that! A major upstate NY attraction, and I’ve never once been there.

:: Kevin Drum thinks we should stop complaining about the Olympics being tape-delayed for prime time viewing. I agree. In fact, as I write this I was just listening to the local sportstalk guy complaining about this.

:: SamuraiFrog begins telling the story of his own life. I look forward to this.

:: Sheila O’Malley on the Baz Luhrmann film of The Great Gatsby. I haven’t seen the film, and I haven’t read the book in many years (despite the fact that I loved it), but I’ll generally read Sheila O’Malley write about nearly anything.

:: One of my favorite vloggers with a poem for women with a broken heart:


:: Sarah Gailey writes in defense of villainesses.

:: Bill Clinton really loves balloons.

::  A cat takes to the rugby field. The Internet provides the hilarity.

:: Finally, I recently did a favor for a friend who has enjoyed some of the “fantasy”-looking locales of parks in this region. She is a cosplayer, and she wanted some photos taken in costume in the fantasy-like setting of Chestnut Ridge Park, so I cheerfully obliged. The payment? A couple of pies in my face! Huzzah!


That’s about all for now. Excelsior!

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Making Mojitos!

My favorite cocktail is undoubtedly the Dark And Stormy, but the wonderful Mojito runs a very close second. Here’s how I make them!

We start with some mint. Here I have eight smallish leaves, lightly crushed between my fingers and thrown into the mixing cup.

Mojito I: It starts with mint. 8 leaves, lightly crushed and put in the shaker. #mojito #yum #rum

Next comes lime juice. For each drink I squeeze one lime, using this nifty squeezing hoodickey:

Mojito II: Lime juice. I squeeze one small lime into each drink. #mojito #yum #rum

No, you don’t need a fancy citrus-squeezer. You can stab the lime with a fork and squeeze it by hand.

Next, a tea spoon of fine sugar! The finer the better, really. I use a fine-grind turbinado sugar. Some recipes call for simple syrup instead, but I find that the granular sugar helps with the muddling.

Mojito III: a tea spoon of fine sugar. I don't like to use simple syrup for this. #mojito #yum #rum

Then, we use the muddler! Yes, I have a muddler:

Mojito IV: Bring on the muddler! #mojito #yum #rum

But you don’t have to use an actual muddler. You can use a wooden spoon. The idea is to get down in there and crush the mint leaves, releasing their oils.

Mojito V: MUDDLE IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT! #mojito #yum #rum

After that, you add rum! This is to taste. I sometimes use spiced rum; other times I use light rum, or gold rum, or even black rum. You can also use flavored rums if you like. Here I use spiced rum. Two ounces: both sides of a shot measure get filled and dumped into the mixing cup.

Mojito VI: Rum! 2oz, please. I used spiced rum tonight. #mojito #yum #rum

After this, you add ice:

Mojito VII: Ice! I use cubes. #mojito #yum #rum

I use cubes because I’m generally too lazy to crush the ice. Either is fine, really. Most bars where I’ve ordered mojitos used crushed. Once the ice is added, put the top on your mixing cup and shake vigorously. You don’t need a whole lot of shaking; just ten to fifteen shakes will do. Pour the whole kit-and-kaboodle into your waiting glass, and now add the final ingredient: club soda.

Mojito VIII: Shake, pour into glasses, and top with club soda. I like to pour some club soda into the shaker first to "deglaze" it. #mojito #yum #rum

I usually make two mojitos at a time, so I evenly split the can of club soda between the two, and I like to first pour a bit of the soda into the mixing cup to “deglaze” it, rinsing out any sugar that didn’t dissolve and getting some remaining lime juice and mint oils. Top off, add mint garnish if desired, and serve it up!

Mojito IX: Drink! Additional mint garnisb optional. You can vary the drink by adding fruit at the muddling stage...berries of all kinds are wonderful! #mojito #yum #rum

That’s the basic mojito recipe. You can change it up by adding different fruit before muddling — blueberries or strawberries work very nicely — and you can change up the rums. I’ve considered making a mojito with a lemon instead of a lime, but I’m pretty sure that would be sufficiently different conceptually from the classic drink that I couldn’t call it a “mojito” anymore. But there it is — the mojito! Such a refreshing, wonderful drink for the latter half of summer, when the night starts to fall sooner but the heat lingers!

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