I’ve been a fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology ever since I first learned about it from Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders site almost two years ago. Compellingly wonky and full of heady cult-like terminology (“open loops,” “next action,” “runway”), “GTD” was just what I needed to help me kick start my creativity and stay focused in the face of a fragmented and interruption-driven existence. Allen’s system not only helped me to recognize the pain of the breaking commitments to myself, but also gave me some tools to renegotiate those commitments.
Archive for the 'Obsessions' Category
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Starting this weekend, the fine folks over at LuxuriaMusic.com will be presenting “C’mon! Live A Little,” a new show hosted by Yours Truly. The program will run for an hour at 3PM (Pacific Time) on Saturdays, and feature the kind of edifying fun and music readers of the Bostworld adventures have come to expect.
Naturally, when they offered me this opportunity, I jumped for it. I’ve been a huge fan of the station since day one. Though I don’t have the time to immerse myself in their online community as much as I’d like to, I love their restless playlist of lounge music, obscure rock, jazz, novelties and pop music from around the world. My current podcast series “Your Favorite Little Podcast,” taken from a show I did several years ago, is directly influenced by them. In fact, when Luxuria returned to the air four years ago (after a two-year hiatus), I donated all the songs from that show to them. Many of them are still in rotation.
I only heard about RFD-TV Channel a couple months ago. My cable provider doesn’t carry “Rural America’s Most Important Network,” and I’m almost tempted to switch to a satellite service to get it. But it’s not the agricultural or equine content that intrigues me, it’s the musical programming. Apparently, back in the late seventies, television producer Normal Lear bought a Nashville station and wanted to get rid of the station’s huge library of regional programs from the 60s and 70s. This library included whole runs of classic shows by Porter Wagoner and the Wilburn Brothers. In stepped none other than Willie Nelson, who bought the whole lot of it. After languishing in safety for a few decades, the plums from this collection are finally creeping onto the air at RFD-TV.
Continue reading ‘Classic Country On YouTube – The SleepyCreek Collection’
I’ll admit it: my wife and I greatly preferred the Scottish west coast — with its gorgeous coastline, quaint towns and awesome highland scenery to the comparatively bleak east. If I hadn’t determined that Dunottar was vital to our sightseeing interests, we might have skipped the east coast altogether. But then we would have missed the thoroughly charming town of St. Andrews. Though it was surrounded by industrial and military blight (with the ghostly whine of jets howling overhead day and night), the town itself was a picturesque college town (it’s the home of the University of St Andrews, the oldest in the country). It’s also “the home of golf” and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.
Continue reading ‘Castles Of Scotland, Part Four: St Andrews, Dirleton’
Even the most casual castle observer will eventually rub up against the sticky issue of “territorial designation.” At one time it was something apparently worth fighting for, dying for, even marrying for. Fortunately, I found an article on the subject by one “Stuart Morris of Balgonie and Eddergoll, yr.” that attempts to throw some light on the subject. The article goes on for some length, but if you can bear with me, I’ve tried to tried to boil it down to the essentials. According to Stuart (or whatever you call him):
Continue reading ‘Castles Of Scotland, Part Three: Craigmillar, Edinburgh’
Stirling Castle came highly recommended by the locals we consulted, but it’s essentially a tourist destination. Heavily restored, full of museum installations, gift shops and a cafe, it lacked the kind of desolation we were looking for. Just the same, the castle is an architectural marvel, perched atop a massive volcanic crag high above the town. It was used by the ruling class throughout most of its life. Later, it was converted into a military headquarters before finally being reclaimed for monumental and ongoing restoration in the twentieth century. But my wife and I elected to save our energy and keep the tour short Our camera batteries threatened to give out at any minute (victim of the vagaries of intercontinental power conversion), as did the weather. So we kind of dashed through it. Anyway, the Undiscovered Scotland site offers a detailed interactive map for those wishing more information.
Continue reading ‘Castles Of Scotland, Part Two: Stirling, Dunottar, Linlithgow’
During our recent trip to Scotland, my wife and I charted the route of our trip according to two imperatives: the Glaswegian live music schedule and the availability of viewable castle ruins. We crunched a lot into the span of a week, and snapped as many pix as our weak batteries allowed. But it was hard sometimes to make heads or tails of what were seeing, constrained as we were by no other logic than the necessities of geography. Back home now, I’m sorting through all the various abstract images of moss and stone, matching pictures and memories to locations and history (much of which is as confusing to me as the rules of American football must seem to the average Scot).
Continue reading ‘Castles Of Scotland, Part One: Dunstaffnage, Doune, Aberdour’