The Solipsist

Plaza de Toros Oriente

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 16:09:00 +0000

San Miguel de Allende, 31 December 2009.

A vintage photograph of San Miguel de Allende taken long before it became a "destination" and was still a tiny backwater colonial town. The circular structure in the right foreground is Plaza de Toros Oriente.

Doors I

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 01:15:00 +0000

The first of the infamous, boring "Doors" series.

San Miguel de Allende

Mid-morning Coffee

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 19:21:00 +0000

Hotel San Francisco, San Miguel de Allende.

The Balloon Guy

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 17:34:00 +0000

Sunday morning, Plaza Cívica, San Miguel de Allende, 2012.

Lost Photos V

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 19:13:00 +0000

Early morning in plaza Cívica, San Miguel de Allende, México.

Lost Photos IV

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 19:07:00 +0000

Condé de la Canal, San Miguel de Allende, 2012.

I Endorse This Message

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Sat, 17 Feb 2018 18:31:00 +0000

Lost Photos III

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Sat, 17 Feb 2018 18:15:00 +0000

Street musician in Guanajuato, Mexico.

Lost Photos II

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Sat, 17 Feb 2018 17:36:00 +0000

Gallery around the plaza, el Jardin, in the wee hours of the morning.

July 2012

Lost Photos

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Sat, 17 Feb 2018 17:18:00 +0000

When Google changed its photo service some time ago, photos taken in Mexico and posted in older blog entries here no longer loaded. Unfortunate, but nothing I can do about it. I shall repost a few selections over the next several days.

San Miguel de Allende: Up calle Aldama toward the Jardin from the edge of parque Benito Juárez.

There came a time . . .

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 20:21:00 +0000

There came a time when I had to grow up and come back to the U.S.A. to take my rightful place among the local landed gentry.

Dennis McMurrin

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Sun, 08 Jan 2017 20:40:00 +0000

Here is how it all came about. I was chatting with Doug Blumer of Gamut Productions. We are both long time fans of Dennis McMurrin, and we both bemoaned the fact that there are no acceptable videos available of him performing. Half of the fun of Dennis McMurrin is watching him do what he does. We decided to do what we could to remedy this.

Over time I cobbled together a sound system in the old Chicken House with used equipment. My pal Rick found an antique Peavy sound board in his son's garage and hauled it out. Weighs in at only a little over a ton. I had some other stuff from here and there, a couple of worn Crate speakers out of a church for example. Kind Jon Werner allowed me to retrieve some equipment that I had left in his basement before departing for Mexico eight years ago. After a good deal of experimentation, I managed to make it all work, hauled in some halogen shop lights that I found in the machine shed, and booked the musicians for Sunday Brunch in the Chicken House on 4 December 2016.

As it happened we had a snow storm on that date. Nevertheless, the musicians made it here along with a few other hardy souls with four-wheel drive vehicles. Doug hauled up his video equipment consisting in part of no less than five cameras, which we mounted around the place. Then we all did the best we could with what we had. Dennis claims to love the acoustics and the Hot Rod DeVille amp in the Chicken House, but we all know that, actually, he likes it in here because he can smoke.

This is a tune that I have heard him do for years. Hell, he and Dan Johson played at my 50th birthday party twenty years ago. This one will put tears in your beer for sure.

Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues from Stephen Brassawe on Vimeo.

Take Me to the River

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 17:50:00 +0000

Time for a musical interlude recorded live here in The Chicken House on 4 December.

Take Me To The River from Stephen Brassawe on Vimeo.

The Inimitable Tony Brown: Guitar and Lead Vocal;
Dan Johnson: Bass and Background Vocal;
Dennis McMurrin: Guitar and Background Vocal;

Recording Engineer: Doug Bloomer of Gamut Productions, Hiawatha, Iowa.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

By way of explanation, The Chicken House is just that, although there have not been any chickens residing here for decades. Upon my return I commenced cleaning it up for use as a social venue. Little by little that whole project has evolved such that now the whole "social venue" thing is completely out of control.

Wall

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Sat, 10 Dec 2016 18:32:00 +0000

All walls are constructed for the specific purpose of being breached.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall . . . .

--Robert Frost

What is that word?

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Sat, 10 Dec 2016 17:46:00 +0000

What is that word?

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The first heavy snow has commenced here.

Continuing with that thought . . .

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 18:30:00 +0000

Continuing with that thought . . .

Outside the town of Mineral de Pozos . . .

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 23:40:00 +0000

Outside the town of Mineral de Pozos . . .

Out of the Fog

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 22:32:00 +0000


Fog on the Farm in October

I am commencing an all out effort to revive this old blog. Miss the friends hereabouts. More to come.

In the meantime because the blog comments have been overrun with spam, comments will be moderated in the future. I will moderate the posted comments regularly now, however, Feel free.

A Two-L Llama

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 19:46:00 +0000


The Resident Artist and her Friend

The one-l lama,

He's a priest.

The two-l llama,

He's a beast.

And I will bet

A silk pajama

There isn't any Three-l lllama.

--Ogden Nash

Ya think?

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 19:29:00 +0000

GOALS This dude, me when im older 👏🏼👏🏼🎶 #GianlucaVacchi #iconic pic.twitter.com/DuJrAE8PYJ
— Kex. (@say_eselo) August 2, 2016

My Beloved Woodburner

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 22:31:00 +0000

How did I ever winter over without it? How did they?

Video of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 20:39:00 +0000

I remain here in the United States of America. I cannot return to México yet. My poor, aged mother lives on.

This old farm is located out in the middle of nowhere. I am isolated. Alone. Un poco loco. I must amuse myself.

Fine Artist, Ana Livingston: Exterior Mural Creation: An Article on Endurance

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 22:24:00 +0000

A rare reblog here:

Fine Artist, Ana Livingston: Exterior Mural Creation: An Article on Endurance: It has been interesting, over the years, to hear individuals’ thoughts on the difficulty of doing exterior murals . I would say on a whol...

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Sun, 12 Apr 2015 17:07:00 +0000

Medium: Leftover Acrylic Paint with Leftover Sealer on Leftover Masonite

Dimensions: 4 feet by 5½ feet

I wanted a real Jackson Pollock, but after pricing a couple, I gave up on that idea. It had also occurred to me that a painting on canvas might not hold up well when hung on the end of a barn what with the weather and all. This does not look like a Jackson Pollock now because of those two red figures in the middle. Toward the end I was overcome with my own inspiration.

The whole thing came about when I was mulling over a genre of midwestern kitsch known as "barn quilts." They are thick around here. On the one hand I liked the idea. On the other hand I was dissatisfied with the common execution of that idea. So it was that I decided to construct my own outré barn quilt.

As luck would have it, I did not have to construct a barn on which to hang my barn quilt. There is a barn already here, albeit a bit down at the heels.

Here I have placed a large dog in front of the piece to give you a better idea of the scale of the thing. Now I need something to put next to the dog to give you some idea of his scale.

To this point I have no money invested in the project. That is about to change. With the advent of clement weather, I must hire a crew with a bucket truck to mount the new barn quilt on the end of the barn. This will require that I turn in some empties.

It has been said that "idle hands are the devil's workshop." Some sort of ooga-booga Biblical provenance behind that, as I understand it. I prefer Albert Camus' view of the matter. "Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre."

Roadhouse Interior

noreply@blogger.com (brassawe) — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 16:15:00 +0000

20 January 2015

Interior photo of the last of the great roadhouses taken with the GoPro camera.