Late spring Ryder Cuteness

Alright. I'm becoming the crazy dog person.

Looking out the front

I blame the kids.

On the trail of prowling squirrels

Seriously.

This is how we sit on sofas to watch TV, right?

Remember, I'm the one that said dog over my dead body.

Chillin'

But I'm still here, and the better for it.

Hall of Fame Night, 2018

Maybe Justin Hayward and the rest of the Moodies, and Dire Straits (or at least Mark Knopfler, who probably won't show up), or others don't think much of being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (class of 2018), but I do.

The Moody Blues are my favorite band from that era. My adolescent years. Great memories. Good times. A lifetime ahead and a world of possibilities...

Dire Straits might be second.

Good Stuff. And a connection to which will always keep me young. Young at heart anyway...

Moodies... The Story in Your Eyes, also at Red Rocks, 1992. Puffy pirate shirt and all... And more recently, at the Mann Music Center in 2107, at a show that Leo and I attended. If you listen carefully, you can hear me singing along in the background... Or Gypsy, when I was about 4 years old....

Dire Straits, Tunnel of Love, the Alchemy era...

Congrats and welcome to the Hall of Fame.

Don't Speak

Musically, I'm an old fart. Let's get that out of the way. Most good music (but not all, grudgingly...) was created before 1990. Or before 1975...

But on the evening of the day that the Moody Blues, Dire Straits, Bon Jovi, the Cars, Nina Simone and others get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there are reminders that some great music was created after 1990. Barely. :-)

Gwen Stefani and No Doubt, Don't Speak, 1996 at Red Rocks outside of Denver, Colorado...

There is something visceral that speaks to basic fundamental human emotion here.

Which is what transcendent music is all about...  (And as always, live music is the best music)

Sketching Fun - April

Nothing much to say here by way of explanation...

As noted previously, I like sketching random towns and settlements for our Dungeons and Dragons games (even stuff that I will likely never need or use). This also gives me the chance to try out different markers, pens, pencils and artists paper, and to try different styles and looks. The below town of perhaps 500 souls is in the style I find myself using currently.

A New Town

The other bit of doodling I like to do, on a grander scale, is world maps. Again, for D&D games that we will never play, and worlds I will never use. Often these are nothing more than evening spare-time killers. The map below is the first sketch of a new world on a 24 inch by 18 inch sketch pad, at 96 miles per inch. So this is a decent chunk of a continent, with islands in the middle and hints of other continents to the west and south.

A New World

I do have the intention of one day coming up with a D&D home-brew fantasy world that has a better overarching design thought process behind it (as opposed to the build as you go world we are playing in now). I like parts of the world we are playing in, and am frustrated by other parts of it.

Oh well.

Sketching and doodling and daydreaming is fun. Not the most productive thing in the world perhaps, but a fun way to spend some time after the kids have settled down and the house is quiet...