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About a month ago, I got a phone message from a New York Times writer doing research for a piece on webcam music lessons. Seems my websites for guitar, harmonica, and ukulele turned up when she Googled “Skype lessons.” A few days later I chatted for about forty minutes with the writer, Catharine Saint Louis, and tried not to sound too starstruck. She didn’t end up quoting me in the final article, but it was still a cool experience. You can read the article here.

And I do have openings for new webcam students, if you or someone you know lives far away from Keene, New Hampshire and would like some help with guitar, harmonica, or ukulele. Cheers!

“Hey, it’s a sunny day, think I’ll go for a walk. Oh wait, it’s 24 degrees. Better put on gloves and a scarf.” New England has taken some getting used to, climate-wise, though everybody here likes to remind me that it’s been unseasonably warm.

We haven’t even had real snow yet, and as a lady at the grocery store pointed out a few days ago, the sun’s staying out until almost 5pm now, which means we’re already on the upswing back to summertime, in the grand scheme of things. That’s probably the kind of detail that’s important to keep in mind through a New England winter.

Contra dances are native to this region, and I don’t know much about their nationwide popularity, but it seems like a lucky break that I got to attend a good handful of them in North Carolina before moving up. I don’t remember hearing about contra dancing when I lived in Texas.

I’ve got a hotspot on the ball of my left foot from the Monday night dance in Nelson, NH, and while I’m basically a tenderfoot when it comes to contra dancing (and playing traditional music), it’s kinda cool to feel a concrete connection to everyone else who’s danced in a Nelson contra over these last 200 years and gotten their own blisters. Good free cookies this week, too.

Best wishes to you in the New Year. May your feet stay warm and get tougher from use :)