Today's view from my Door Into Summer
My workshop has two rooms. The larger holds the power tools - the big, noisy equipment which assist me in making things from wood. The smaller room was intended to be a place for hand tools, and in fact it has a couple of benches. One is from Lee Valley, a big solid Maple construction that they no longer sell. It now is merely a table for my two larger light sculptures. The rest of the room holds my piano, many violins, and a couple of very comfortable chairs.
It also is the place where I listen to and play music. The speakers are decades old, as is the turntable. The electronics are fairly new. I made the Philips speakers in 1974 from parts and plans. They are almost the oldest thing that I personally made which I still have. They are certainly the only item from my high school years which I still use on a daily basis. The laser is packed away and the shop hammer is on a shelf. Above the Philips speakers are a set of Larger Advents, purchased from a friend’s father while I was in the WCRI residence. They all still sound very good.
With the recent controversy about Spotify, I cancelled my membership. It wasn’t only their preferring to spend huge amounts of money on someone of questionable veracity, but mainly their pitiful renumeration of actual artists. I signed up for Tidal, who appear to have a more fair approach to artist renumeration, and Idagio, which represents the larger Classical labels. I’m spending more, but still a reasonable amount, and with a clearer conscience.
The Door Into Summer in the smaller room opens on a temporary deck, which hopefully this summer I will be able to replace with a permanent structure. Within a couple of months the scene above will be turning that lovely, almost painful shade of green which lasts only a few days. I plan to sit on the Kitchissippi chairs I made and watch as another Spring brings new life to the world. It is an encouraging reminder that our little lives are but a brief interlude between star dust and star dust.