RICK'S WORLD BLOG ARCHIVES  (oldest at bottom, newest on top)

AUDIOPHILE MOMENTS, NEW CD
   May 2010: There are times when all the pain of dragging around a lifelong collection of LPs, tapes (both cassette and reel-to-reel) and CDs, with all the machinery to play them, pays off. I've been going through my own collection, and have been amused and delighted to find quite a few diamonds-in-the-rough. For example, I acquired, for about 50 cents, an absolutely mint 3-LP boxed set of Madame Butterfly. I had worn out a cassette of highlights from the same Angel Recs. version, and the LP set not only was complete, but apparently had never been played. Not a scratch, pop or hiss, tremendous warmth and fullness of sound, and an enclosed libretto so I could follow all that "eye-talian." In the popular music department, there were a couple of absolutely flawless sets by the immortal Ella Fitzgerald, and likewise from Duke Ellington. It makes it worth all the back-strain of lifting those boxes again and again, and the trouble of scraping the bean-dip (and worse) off of countless Rolling Stones, etc., records, and re-preening them, in hopes of getting some recognizable sounds. Hoping when all this is more organized to post a list of pieces I'm willing to part with.
   Somehow in the past 6 weeks I've managed to find time to unearth the master tapes and the digital DAT transfer from my early-90's cassette of all-slide guitar selections, Mr Gen-U-Wine Plays Bottleneck Slide Guitar. It has now been transferred to CD, with 5 pieces dropped from the set, and one new tune, the Irish chestnut "Handsome Molly," in an Open D arrangement. Re-recording and remastering was by Mike Kapitan Studios, here in Arcata, and duplication is now in progress at Bongo Boy Studios in McKinleyville. The first CD pressing will be 200 copies only, with a nice on-disc photo by Marian Anderson, and I'm now holed up in secret, transcribing the tunes for a booklet, to complete the little trinity-package of slide, CD, and instruction book, a la the Klutz juggling package, for example. I'm excited! Ordering will be available soon on Recordings Page.  
   Hope you're enjoying the Spring!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN - posted from San Francisco, April 14, 2010
No, it's not that I've become a Willie Nelson buff in my dotage, but the song seems to fit in that once more I'm spending some time away from home. I struggled mightily to establish this com-link, so for once I'm not incommunicado while travelling, and have brought down a "disc-man" and cassette player, so I could have some tunes and continue to cull my collection. (I envy these kids with hundred-album collections that fit into their palms, whilst mine takes up half my trailer.) And I brought my paints, so that I could continue the three-year struggle to to finish my landscape of Fallen Leaf, and I am finding as always that the project grows in complexity as it nears completion. And of course my glass-cutting equipment, so that my Gen-U-Wine slide production would not slack off, as the orders continue to stack up. As Arcata Recycling lessens its presence, wine bottle-wise, I've been forced to wander farther and farther afield for bottle-stock... I still can acquire a few cobalt blues down here, but gone are the days of plenty. Finally, counting my blessings that so much of my productive life is portable, I've continued to whittle away at the poetry project (4th edition of my Sad Songs Contest collection), but I keep writing more so that the editing job languishes. I had big fun keeping company with a Great Blue heron in Golden Gate Park--less shy than most, this wild and magnificent creature tolerated my presence at very close quarters for a quarter of an hour. We walked together (if you walk like a heron, you undulate your neck and extend your legs way forward, like a "keep on truckin'" cartoon), speaking the same physical language, till in the end I felt that I was not Heron-Stalking, so much as that we were Herons Talking. Hence the poem, "Heron(s)Talking," (click to read). T.S. Eliot called April "the cruellest month," meaning that any surge of hope only leads to a greater fall (not merely because it's tax-time), but here in this beautiful if traffic-clogged city, April seems pulsing with life. Gotta go--it's feeding time, and the meter-maids can be observed eating their young.  Kindest regards, Rick
April 16, 2010 update: Back at the trailer court in Arcata. Not looking all that good here--incidents you may be aware of put us on the crime-log page of the Arcata Eye this week, and we are casting about for peaceful solutions.  - Rick

IDES O' MARCH BLOG
  March 2010: Just back from a month on the road--thought I was done with that kind of life, but on Ground Hog Day I flew back to Ohio, visited family, and then drove Mom's car back 2900 miles to Arcata, and as if that weren't enough, sped back to SF in my own car and spent two weeks in the City. Now I have returned to Arcata, and am trying to pick up the pieces, resume what's left of my life, get back up to speed at the bottleneck biz...
  It was the worst possible time to be driving cross-country, dodging blizzards and sleet and hail, but the '97 Toyota Camry passed serenely through it all, and was washed, de-cluttered, and sold.
  The bottleneck biz was supposed to be lying dormant in the usual post-holiday fashion, but I arrived home to another kind of blizzard, one of orders, and have strapped my nose back to the grindstone, literally, so as to quiet the clamor and fulfill the dreams of a small army of would-be slide guitarists.
  While in SF, I made a little progress at painting, and have fleshed out the foreground of my landscape of Fallen Leaf (near Tahoe). And I rescued from certain destruction some artwork that had been preserved at the Haight Ashbury branch of the library, which is now closed for "renovation." A beautiful tapestry by Amie Hill was lost, but I saved Justin Green's original artwork for the Tower Pulse! "Musical Legends" 9-panel full-page cartoon, about me in a Christmas music program at the Oregon State pen, '73...and a box of ceramics, books and artwork by the late Helen Ludwig of SF. The cartoon is now in the hands of my niece in Cincinnati, where Justin now resides as well, and the Ludwig materials are on the way to her estate.
  On the road, I immersed myself in a life collection of Gary Snyder's poetry, and after several hundred pages, found myself echoing that voice. My brother kindly loaned me a guitar to accompany me back to the coast, and it was a comfort to have the blessings of poetry and music during the otherwise grinding and relentless assault of bad weather and Neanderthal-mannered traffic. Too many stories to tell; but clearly the worst stretch was Highway 99 from Bakersfield to Sactrement. Drive it at your peril!
  Onward to Spring!
  Kindest Regards, Rick

NEW DECADE BLOG
  January 2010: Okay, so the new year/decade is already a few weeks old, but it's been a helluva season--here's the latest: I'm one highly successful gig into 2010, a modest but highly nutritious appearance as featured musician to the Grange Breakfast here in Arcata. The tables were full of eaters, there were never less than half a dozen sub-5-year-olds charging the stage, and a tumultuous good time was had by all. It was organized, in one way or another, by the Same Old People, and we were thrilled to find a gold dollar piece in the tips jar. And to receive photo-and-story coverage in both the Arcata Eye and the Eureka Times-Standard.
  This was my first solstice season in decades without a Peacemas concert and a bunch of road-travel. The spirit lives, but the Peacemas concert concept is retired after a 25-year run through at least 3 wars. We played to thousands of people during that run, up to 250 at a time in the Sacramento era, and even a partial list of those who worked with us would be formidable. Char Berta, flute extraordinaire; Justin Green, graphics and guitar; Ron B. of the old Fifth String, who got me nominated for a 1995 Sammie award (Best Folk Musician); "social secretary" Cathy Rohm, who herded in the listeners; harmonists Donna Hyatt (now Scarlett) and Suzanne Fox, the "Sonettes," not to mention Debbie Hines; Marsha Cornwell, who assisted me in my short-lived juggling act; Hali Hammer, who hosted at least a dozen Bay Area Peacemases, and Nick Holbrook, Bob K. of Benicia, and Joan von Briesen of SF, who hosted the rest; Hali's bandmates Randy Berge (her partner) and Paul Herzog et al, classical guitarist Gordon Rowland...
  The bottleneck/glass-grinding slavery of late November resulted in a seasonal record number of Gen-U-Wine slide sales; I've been able to move that cottage industry through a dozen residences or more. Justin Green has provided a new logo for the insert page, changing "Eric" to "Rick." I would be turning my energies to finishing my trailer repairs, and then to my musical and art projects, but winter is now hitting us with its best shot, the trailer park is a lake, and storms are lined up for a couple weeks to come. So far the trailer is holding, though the winds are battering us almost as strongly as the earthquake. And it's worth mentioning that the unimaginable tragedy of Haiti puts our little shaker in perspective; or, rather, makes us grateful that we live in a region so much better prepared for it. (Or for anything.)
  My big worry, slide-wise, is the cutting off of funds for the ACRC recycling depot, source of the great bulk of my wine-bottles for slide processing. I'll find a way, but in the meantime I'm trying to stockpile...calling all winos! Save your bottles for me!
 And send me your own news!
   Warmly, Rick (Eric) Park

  November 2009: What a difference a month makes! There I was, writing poetry and knocking off a good book every couple of days, and finishing up my first oil painting--all because I had torn up my back and couldn't do much else. But now that I am able to lean once more over the bottleneck-grinding bench, I have been plunged full-time into Bottleneck Hell, trying to make up for lost time and furnish the music stores with Gen-U-Wine guitar slides, in time for the holidays. The dumpster-diving is the most time-consuming aspect, since I don't have enough serious wino friends to supply me with appropriate bottles. This will slow down dramatically through December, and then go dormant for awhile. Maybe I'll be able to take a few weeks and head for Holland, Paris or Greece, or all of the above--my fantasy for now. In the first two, I could practice painting, and in Greece maybe I could start hacking at rocks and learn sculpture.
  But for now, I'm trying to remind the world that Gen-U-Wine bottleneck guitar slides make great, inexpensive stocking-stuffers. Call it Peacemas, or Christmas, or Chanukah, it's the gift-giving season, so why not make the world of Slide Guitar available to some poor soul who doesn't have the tools for it yet?  Check the website, send in an order, and we'll mail postpaid to your gift list anywhere in the US.
  All this on the heels of a major carpentry project in Berkeley, building a staircase and installing a hand-crafted bannister for Hali Hammer, Peacemas hostess for a dozen years or so, and a major player these days in the SF Folk Music Club. I had a chance to participate in her November first Sunday jam, and it reminded me how l rarely I have been playing lately. Of course, it helps to be able to lift the guitar.  Next solo gig will be for the Bayside grange just outside Arcata, January 17, 2010.
  No art exhibit in Berkeley, sorry! Harold at Art House got too busy to deal with me while I had a chance to be down there, so we'll chalk it off to "paint locally, exhibit there too." When the glass-grinding fires subside, I'll see what I can pull together.
  Meanwhile the holiday word from Rick is "Party On!"

  October 2009: Hello, welcome to my Blog. I'll tend to it more or less monthly--one could say that "Woodlark Speaks," my old newsletter from the music-distribution days, lives again. I am resuming business activities after a two-month period of forced inactivity due to a double muscle tear in my back. Last week of Oct. I will be in Berkeley, doing finish carpentry for folk legend Hali Hammer's staircase project--hopefully it will be ready by the time she has her monthly "Jam" on November 1. And I'll be preparing my art work for exhibit at Harold Adler's "Art House" on Shattuck Avenue, to be displayed during November (later cancelled). Hoping to visit the "new" Freight and Salvage while I'm down there. This is actually the third Freight, as old-timers will recall, the first being a small room on San Pablo, more  or less opposite the Albatross.
  Bottleneck production has resumed, since I am able once more to bend over the workbench.
  No "Peacemas" this year. It was a quarter-century-long phenomenon, a mighty long run for a musical idea, beginning with the "Peacemas" cassette album of 1984, during the Sandinista revolution. Two wars later, it's still a concept with resonance...maybe someone else will pick up the ball and run with it.
  For those new to "Rick's World," I live in Arcata, CA now, and have been going by my childhood name, Rick, rather than Eric, since the beginning of this year. I'm so old now, I often forget the change myself, and my geriatric friends have had trouble coping...see 64th Birthday Villanelle, which contains some of my thoughts on aging. See you next month!