Found musical gems and related musings...

Although I am a deeply cynical person - certainly when it comes to the fickle fads of our media driven world - I am sufficiently curious and engaged to not only experiment with my little blog but to sample the frequently real and inspired talent out there on the world-wide-web.

This morning I was reading/watching Mercedes Bunz's excellent Viral Video Chart post in the Guardian on-line edition and somewhere in my meanderings came across a link to the Playing for Change web site.

Playing for Change is a slick but heartwarming entity that was founded to support music education especially in politically and economically challenged areas of the world. The production values are so high that is often hard to know whether a given segment (see the video below) is of a stunning street artist or is of a celebrity musician who has volunteered their time for the project.

I just hope that the street musicians are benefitting from this as much as the PFC organization.

Some of my correspondents will know already that, some time ago,

I was blown away by the wonderful performance, posted on

You Tube of the Chooky Dancers from Elcho Island of the coast

of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia.

I see from the associated videos that they have been discovered and

have even appeared on Australia's Got Talent. This may well be

good news for these talented young men but for me it is

diabolically awful to see such amazing talent reduced to

a carnival side show.

Yikes, I've just realized, I'm one of the imbeciles in the

sideshow audience!!!!!

I have been walking past this plaque for ages and have not noticed it. The other day I did notice it and have since become a little bit obsessed by it.

It seems to me that while we are in a period of rebuilding our economy right now, the Great Depression of the 1930's will remain the mother of all depressions (I hope).

So many wonderful projects came out of the Works Progress Administration and in a small way the little bridge across the Megunticook River on Knowlton Street at its junction with Mechanic Street in Camden, Maine is worthy of consideration and appreciation just as we appreciate the many more dramatic projects of the era - I'm thinking of the development of accessibility for all to our great National Parks.

I just love what seems to me to be the enduring beauty of this little plaque. The typeface is just wonderful. I have sought help in learning more about this typeface design. Luckily for me my brother Rory's good friend Brett Jordan over in England is a typography boffin and he is in the process of enlightening me.

I am very grateful to Brett for this help, and would be grateful indeed to anyone reading this who could help me in further research regarding design in the period of the WPA!