Grab bag Feb/Mar 2026

My old bass bow is in pretty sad shape, so a friend is having me audition a carbon-fiber model from her luthier. I'm never going to be an arco superstar, but I have to admit that having a functioning bow is great. Playing low drones is physically very satisfying.

The other day when my boy stepped outside after the rain had stopped, he said, in the world's best, most sincere voice, "What a beautiful world!"

Last Saturday I went to get my windshield replaced (pro tip: don't choose the people your insurance company recommends) and since it would be a wait, I decided to walk from industrial Clackamas to see what "Riverside Park" was all about. I walked a half hour past endless Safeway distribution centers and found a peaceful spot on the river. I heard the plop of people casting their lines, plus, naturally, speedboats, while I read a book. 

Liz Gizzad!!!! Not to be confused with that King Quizzarth and the Glizzard Kuixarth, this was a band that put out a great 7" back in the day that was all about making a beat and a lot of over the top incomprehensible noise, sort of like a British version of certain bands I've been in. Music starts about 5 minutes in:

 

 

Fruit wine / wilder sounds

In honor of Catherine O'Hara and the immortal "fruit wine" gag on Schitt's Creek, we shared half a bottle of the 2024 Emergence blend from Art + Science NW. Muscat and quince, weird and wonderful. They are maniacs with a dream. If you are a cheapskate explorer like me, they are currently running a closeout case sale.

This week at work has involved a lot of squinting at fine-grained detail in numbers and punctuation, so to keep my brain alive I went on a musical rabbit hole journey. It started with this lovely makaaruyen number from Madrotter - hold on until the whistling starts:

I wanted to know more, so I hit the dark alleys of YouChoob and found this lengthy playlist, which brought me to this lovely number:

This sweet and pretty video set in an unfamiliar countryside reminded me of the similar homespun videos coming out of the huayno scene in Peru/Bolivia (also a rabbit hole I've gone down), which brought me to Esther Suarez's awesome La Bolognesina.

Then I was listening to my library on shuffle and went down the Azerbaijani Gitara rabbit hole. Volume 2 in particular.

 

Outquacked

The boy (9 years old now) and I were looking at his car collection in a Hot Wheels game we checked out from the library, and I was talking to him in the voice of his duck puppet. As one does.

One of the cars was a vintage Packard. I dropped the dad/duck joke: Oh, ducks drive a Quackard. I thought that was pretty good as dad/duck jokes go.

His response: Oh, I thought you would say it's a Pochard. 

I gave him a blank stare and then looked it up at m-w.com:
Pochard
: any of various rather heavy-bodied diving ducks (especially genus Aythya) with a large head and with feet and legs placed far back under the body 

This kid!