For my birthday, I received the beautiful hardcover edition of The Arrival by Shaun Tan. The pictures are beautiful and the story is engaging and very interesting. What’s interesting about this book is that there are no words! However, with clever use of paneling and other inventive ideas, the pacing of the story moves wonderfully and you know what? It doesn’t need words. If you haven’t seen it before, I recommend checking it out. It’s a very fun book that you will come back to over and over. I’m sure I’ll notice details I missed the first time through.
So sorry we’ve been gone for awhile! No fun at all!
Anyways, the hard drive on my six year old iMac kicked the bucket a few weeks ago. But, thanks to a suction cup and some torx bits, I managed to install a new hard drive, save all my data off the old hard drive and now I’m up and running again! It just took a few weeks. So, now we can get back on track.
One thing we love over here at Pickle Soda is guitars. Sometime we’ll play some for you!
Here is a clip of the great Bill Frisell doing a take on the Beach Boys’ classis “Surfer Girl” for Fretboard Journal. I just love when people create beautiful things.
Enjoy!
Another picture in our ongoing poetry project. I drew the picture but my wife took the picture in the background.
Derek and the Gator
Sometimes it can be quite strange
when meeting an alligator on the beach
its hard to know exactly what to say
or what conclusion the meeting will reach
Will the gator attempt to be friends
or are his goals something far more suspect
is the gator putting his hand out to be kind
or is he just getting close so he can bite your neck
All I can say is Derek maybe you should have gone to the mountains instead
You may end up with a new friend or you may end up without your head
Troll!
The old stone bridge, it seems so fun!
to play on the stones in the evening sun,
but stay too late or play too long,
or stamp your feet while you sing your song,
and out he’ll sneak, won’t make a sound
he’ll creepy crawl right out of the ground,
smell your scent with his ugly nose.
You’ll only escape if you tippy on your toes
off of that bridge before the troll can bite!
Back to your house before the day turns to night.
The Grouchy Postman
It’s the mail you see, it never stops
everyday I go to work there’s more and more
it fills my mail truck to the top
delivering so much mail makes my back sore and sore
I wish just for once I’d get a break
you know aside from National Holidays
maybe a vacation is what I should take
then I wouldn’t work in such a grouchy way