so i had my fifteen minutes of fame (see below) when i was photographed on sunday, playing fiddle at the alternative gift fair which to its credit is getting larger and is better attended. this could be to the credit of the unitarian church, which itself is a good venue with available parking. i like it there; i can walk there with my fiddle, and i've come to know many of the people.

fifteen minutes of fame doesn't last long, though. it's threatening to snow, and this puts everyone in a tizzy. it's the end of the semester, and there are students everywhere who need your time and want to get out of the semester alive. everyone is frazzled. i've had a major cold for over a week. most of our meals are eaten in restaurants. we've both been overloaded with grading and responsibilities for weeks. and, did i mention, it's real cold. so cold, it might not even bother to snow.

the fiddling in general, and progress in that area, have led me to develop the band weblog into more of a personal repository of music links and music-related pop art. it's time to work seriously on a couple of songs. it's also time to do some serious lyrics-collection. i could also seriously consider writing a few more songs.

the calendar is almost done but not in my sweaty hands yet. next project, the book. there are actually two i want to print- more copies of the wal-mart book, which is really a collection, and even has a theme; and, the new one, a more random collection of stuff i've written over three or four years called pile of leaves. lots of piles of leaves, all over town, if i should get it together with a camera and get out there.

speaking of camera, i'm surprised 1) how easy it is to take and store digital photos; 2) how siuc has no central picture repository or place for normal pictures of buildings; 3) how high demand has put even our trashy sites (called CESL back alley) to the top of searches in that area. i've quick got to make one of them presentable. beyond that, i have to make all storage better packaged.
a good documenter of the siuc campus could have fame, easy, without even twisting pictures into pop art with picnik. not that i need fame.

which leads me to my final question, what do i really want. a writer, a photographer, and a musician, not to mention pop art, i've got a little too much going on at once to do any one of them well. fathering, protecting a house from the weather, and managing wild dogs and cats is another field where i'm slipping; car maintenance, landscaping, and exercising, i'm seriously behind on, and have to apply triage to even have a semblance of participation.

the boys are in the room at the moment, trying to turn down the volume of a star wars movie. they are their usual; actually i'm not doing so badly with them, but worry considerably about the older pair. grandfather-hood stands like a golden light on the horizon, but i won't have time to buy little baby outfits until at least a couple of weeks. in the meantime, it's cool-it; why does all the good christmas music come along, at this moment, when everyone is seriously preoccupied with other concerns?