Bombay Duck

Hi everybody! I haven’t been posting on WP in a couple of years, although I’ve been following your blogs. I keep in touch with most of you through Facebook, Twitter and G+. But there are a few peeps (Cranky, Aubrey and Hangaku come to mind) that I’ve lost touch because I haven’t been on this platform much.

UNTIL NOW! Actually, what I’ve done is launch a blog to house all my writing about classical music and dance: reviews, interviews, etc. The reason? The daily newspaper where I’ve been the classical and dance critic for the past several years has decided, in the name of shareholder value, to cut almost all its local arts coverage. Why pay staff and freelancers when you can get all the Kardashian stories you could ever want off the wire for free?

Anyway, it sucks for me and my colleagues, and it sucks for arts coverage in this city, which actually has a lot going for it. Imagine if the Washington Post stopped covering DC area arts, like the Kennedy Center, all the museums, etc. It’s complete bollocks.

Now, because I have the luxury of having a stable, well-paid, full-time “day job” to pay the bills, I’m in a better position than some of my colleagues, who live off their paltry freelance wages. So I decided, “screw this, I’m going to start my own thing.”

That “thing” is called Tales from the Red Chair. The plan is eventually to raise some funding through Patreon so I can pay myself and maybe a few other freelancers as well. But I wanted to get it off the ground as soon as possible (I filed my last official review for the paper on Saturday). The arts organizations here are being very supportive of this project, which is great.

If you guys want to follow me over at the new blogulus prime,  and maybe even leave a comment or two, that would be dandy! It will also allow me to reconnect with some of you!

Other than that, let’s see: I think most of you know I got remarried, and that’s going great. I semi-retired Beau last year by selling him to a swanky riding school in Marin County, where he’s enjoying a life of luxury and no winter! I know the owner and trainer so I get regular updates, and can even go visit (which I did last summer). I’m still riding, and jumping, just not owning my own horse at the moment.

I had to put Miss Shanti down in June.  She was 17 and her thyroid condition was becoming unmanageable. She wasn’t yet in a horrible state of suffering, but I didn’t want to wait until that point. It felt right to say goodbye before it got extremely bad. We now have two awesome kitties: Sputnik, our big black cat that we got at the Humane Society two years ago (he’s 6 now), and Dinah Washington, a sassy little grey marbled tabby that we got in July (she’s about one and a half). They get along great, which is nice.

Get back in touch at Tales from the Red Chair y’all!

North.

No, further north than that.

North of the Arctic Circle.

Inuvik!

I’m scheduled to go there for work in January. January–when it’s Arctic night almost 24 hours a day. Lord knows I hate the cold, and I’m not much of an outdoorswoman, unless horses are involved.  So I’m excited, but also a bit horrified. Plus I have to travel two days there and back for a half day meeting. I’ll be overnighting both directions in the relative teeming metropolis of Yellowknife. It’s kind of insaneballs when you think about it.

So what’s in Inuvik? Well, it’s not pretty, exactly. The most famous landmark is something called the Igloo Church. There’s also a satellite facility, which we’ll be touring if it isn’t -50 degrees.  It will certainly be an adventure. Hopefully one that doesn’t involve frostbite or ceremonial seal blubber consumption.

As some of you know, Beau has been sidelined all summer with a sore hock. He sprained it slipping in some mud at our very first horse show of the season back at the beginning of June. You know when you twist your ankle and even though it’s not broken or even especially swollen, you’re limping for weeks and weeks afterward? It’s like that.

The problem with horses when they hurt themselves is that you can’t let them out in their paddocks. They have no sense and will run around like nuts even when they are hurting, which can turn a minor injury into a major one. So for nine weeks, I went to the barn almost every evening after work to hand walk my horse indoors for 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of cold hosing his hock. It was tedious and frustrating. While everyone else was enjoying the summer weather, heading to shows and winning ribbons, Beau and I were stuck inside, walking around and around a hot, dusty arena.

At least I got to ride some other nice horses, even if I couldn’t show them. The other riders at the barn have been super awesome and supportive–letting me borrow their horses so I could at least keep having my weekly lesson, and helping me out with Beau’s care if I couldn’t make it because of work or being out of town (my mom had gallbladder surgery this summer–that was a whole other shitfest).

By mid-August the vet felt we could try him on some limited turnout–he’s a pretty quiet boy and was being a very good patient. We partitioned off a section of a bigger paddock with electric fencing. He can get some fresh air and roll in the dirt and move around and hang out with his buddies, but he doesn’t have enough room to build up too much speed or gallop around like an idiot.

Improvement has been slow but steady since then. Since the weather has been fine and dry I’ve finally been able to ride him out in the back field, still just at the walk. I march him up and down the hill for at least 20 minutes, which will help build back his fitness. And this past week, I got the green light to start working in some trot again, just a few minutes at a time.

It’s going to be a long winter of rehab but hopefully by next spring he’ll be back in competition shape and as good as new.

I’m finding this latest WP interface terribly frustrating. The “Reader” only shows me a small fraction of the people I follow and I find I am missing a lot of your new posts. You used to be able to see all the blogs you follow in one spot, but that seems to have disappeared. I can “edit” the list (which is itself hard to find) but I can’t just access it if, say, I’m wondering what Laurie or AmyH have posted recently. Any suggestions?

No, not the mournful bugle call…although it might be appropriate.

Between the fabulous new Google+ (it’s awesome, close to what we had in the old Vox hood, and in some ways better–all the old Vox peeps have signed up, you should too!)  FB (which now seem lame and evil and which I plan on using less) and Twitter (which I use a lot as a public affairs/media type), I simply don’t have the time and energy to maintain the WP blog on a basis that would make it worthwhile.  I was never really happy or comfortable with many of the WP features, and have been less and less inclined to post anyway. Especially with so many of the peeps I adore using the other social media sites, which allow for more agile and responsive communication.

I’ll still lurk around WP and comment on your posts, particularly if you’re not on Twitter or Google+ and this is the only place I can interact with you. But don’t expect to see anything new on this blog.

See ya around!

What’s the only good thing about a late, cold spring?

It’s almost June and we still have lilacs:

The tulips and magnolia trees are still blooming too (the later varieties anyways)! The lily of the valley is just starting to bloom.  Peonies are a couple of weeks away, unless it gets really hot.