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On Death with Dignity

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I just put my horse Willie down today.  Actually, calling him my horse is a bit of an exaggeration.  He was Rhine and April’s horse, and Amy’s horse, and Romey’s horse, and also my horse.  I rode him for about five years before he was retired from the saddle eight or so years ago.  He lived in the field with Donkey Hodie after that, just being a horse.  He had a great life.

I want to tell you about Willie’s death.

First, a story.  My mother died of Leukemia in 2003.  Her death was a typical upper middle class American death—in a hospital bed, surrounded by her children and her husband of many years (my dad).  Mom had only suffered through cancer treatment for a year or so.  Having been stricken during a Thanksgiving drive north, she then briefly beat the cancer into remission with a bone marrow transfusion.  But in the end, the leukemia came raging back and killed her in a couple of weeks.

The last week was bad.  Basically, mom was gone and was being kept alive by vigilant hospital care—hydrated, fed through an IV, medicated, and drugged out of her mind.  We had a DNR order in place.  We tried “administering her drugs all at once.”  Basically every euphemism for euthanasia was obtusely explored.   But she hung in there for two or three days as we all kept vigil.  Finally her kidneys were overwhelmed by the morphine, I guess, and she started to balloon up as she went septic.  We all knew she was going to die, and there was absolutely no point in pretending otherwise.

So finally we had an idea.  “Lets hook her up with a self-administering morphine drip,” I said.  This for a woman who had not moved or said a word in three days.  The staff made it happen.  So “she,” meaning I, pressed the button for several hours until my mother finally died.  It was all very absurd and not at all easy.  I remember the death rattle and the weird intakes of air every 2 minutes near the very end.

Fast forward to twenty years later.  Willie was 32.  He only had 2 teeth left on each side of his mouth, and he could no longer chew grass.  He could eat grain, but not with any efficiency.  It took him hours to eat a couple of scoops.  Basically, Willie was slowly starving to death.  In consultation with the horse dentist, I decided he would suffer too much during the winter.  It was his time.

So I called the vet who has known willie for years.  He and his partner came out this morning.  Willie was in the paddock with Hodie having a last meal of grain.  He spent a couple of hours before that in the sun in the field, grazing without actually getting any grass chewed.  We walked him down to the spot where he will be buried, fed him some more grain, sedated him, and injected him all in about ten minutes.  Willie was calm when he died.  He died fast.  And he died easy.  He did not suffer a pointless winter, half starved.  In fact, he did not suffer at all.

When it comes time for me to die, I would rather die like Willie, with some dignity, than like my mother.

Goodbye Willie.  Thanks for being a good horse.  Good boy he was.

The triangle shelf

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Way back in July 2021, Allen Kitselman sent the final design for the triangle shelf to me.  We looked into having them built and every bid was way too high.  Time went by fast and two years and three months later here they are.  (We found a reasonable builder.)

Golden ratio much?

Romey picked out the color (and all the dark blue was repainted to match it).

These shelves are meant to display art, and we started with a beautiful original print by Emily Shepardson called Atlas Series Europe from 2019.

Inspiration for the design came from the paint cube in the corner, the stairs, and some math…oh, and the cat.

 

 

 

“I like it when a good plan comes together.”

Where’s Aubrey, Hole now on Spotify

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Where’s Aubrey’s ninth record is also available on many streaming services including spotify, apple music, and youtube music.  Click the cover to launch spotify.  Each song also linked to spotify.

Ever Enough

Holes in My Pride

Drawing Back Your Blade

Restless Water

These Ain’t my Pearls

Forty Crows

Take it Away

Eli’s Song

Full Up

Far too Empty

It Ain’t that Far to Fall

One More Roadhouse

 

The record was released November 11, 2023 (double spinal tap day) during a show at the Barns of Rose Hill.

Where’s Aubrey at the Barns of Rose Hill 11/11

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Thanks to you, the Where’s Aubrey show Saturday 11/11 was a smashing success.  We played to an enthusiastic full house, missing a sell out of the venue by only four tickets.  JOBIE’s opening set was excellent.  An all around evening of great music performed for a good cause.

Speaking of which, together we raised $3305 on Saturday evening with $1983 going to the Shenandoah Riverkeeper to protect our local river.

We also released our ninth record, Hole, which is now available on most streaming services including spotify.  If you would like to join the 18 people who bought a physical copy of the CD for old time’s sake, just get in touch.

Where’s Aubrey before the show: Rhine Singleton, Charles Arthur, Gary McGraw, and Nick Schrenk.

Here are some pictures and videos of the show in approximate chronological order arranged by set lists.  What a night!

The band on stage: Nick on Drums, McGraw on fiddle, Rhine on Guitar, and Charles on everything else.

BORH 11/11: Set One

Your Lies Are Gone

 

Ghosts on the Farm

 

The Miles Roll By

Snippet only

 

Dirty Blond Haired Girl

 

Brown Like Your Cinnamon

*** (stage lighting changed as we performed the entire new record)

All songs linked below to spotify tracks from the record.

 

Ever Enough

 

Holes in My Pride

 

Drawing Back Your Blade

 

Restless Water

 

These Ain’t my Pearls

 

Forty Crows

 

Snippet only

 

BORH 11/11: Set Two

Take it Away

Eli’s Song

Full Up

Far too Empty

It Ain’t that Far to Fall

 

Snippet only

Ham Bone (during a broken string changing exercise)

 

One More Roadhouse

*** (record over, we ended the concert with full band)

Irish Goodbye (JOBIE cover)

Full video

 

Full video (different angle)

 

Devlish Situation

 

Into a Cloud

Snippet only

 

Has it Ever Been this Good

 

JOBIE opening set

Special thanks to Jen Lee for photographs and show publicity.  April Claggett also provided photos and videos.  Romey Michael provided video of Irish Goodbye.  Some images above are Copyrighted.

The Barbican: Fenella Humphreys & Leah Broad

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The set of sonatas played by Fenella Humphreys & Leah Broad at the barbican was impressive and moving.  Excellent Sunday concert featuring a quartet of overlooked female composers.

The shoes!

 

A Quick Tate

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Heading to the Tate Modern after landing in London has become quite the tradition.  This was a quick hit through the regular collection.

A view from the terrace at the top: London caged.

Yayoi was unavailable (advance tickets required) so see this entry instead.

October beach: Sun Down, Moon Up

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Because this beach faces South, the sun can go down and the moon can come up on opposite sides of the beach.

Sun down

Moon up

And then the next morning, the sun can come up while the moon sets.

Sun up

Moon down

The Stick in October is ideal.  What people?  We’re not in Norway anymore, moonie.

 

 

Vigeland Park Oslo

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Two Bitter Liberals on Stage 11/11 in Berryville

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Nick Schrenk, the consumate Winchester-based jazz drummer, and Gary McGraw, lifetime fiddle player (or is that violin?), will be performing together on stage again during the Where’s Aubrey benefit concert for the Barns of Rose Hill. They will be joined by Richmond-based multi-instrumentalist and professional-musician, Charles Arthur, and Where’s Aubrey frontman, New-Hampshire-based Rhine Singleton.

Tickets are on sale now. We recommend getting your tickets in advance, soon. Use this link –> https://bit.ly/WA-BORH23 (or call the box office directly at (540) 955-2003).

See details on the poster below.

Nick Schrenk on the drums

The Munch Museum Iteration Three

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Romey and I went to the brand new Munch museum in Oslo.  This is the third iteration of the museum, which started at the Munch house itself, moved up the hill for a while, and is now located by the harbor next to the opera house.  The facility is beautiful, and the art is displayed professionally in a world-class way.

Plan to spend several hours following your nose.

One of our favorite pictures from Oslo comes from the upper floors.

The exhibition spaces are well designed, spacious, and properly-lit.

We made some etching/rubbings of our own.

But of course the main draw is the art on the fourth floor.

Of course we saw the scream (in two of three views)

The Madonna

Escalators abound.

The SOLO OSLO by Admir Batlak is stunning.  Fun with fabric.  Art with deep roots in design.

We learned a ton about Alice Neel, especially by watching the excellent documentary included as part of the exhibit.  Wow.

Alice was in many ways decades ahead of herself for her entire life.

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