The Saturday Morning Post: How Do You Get To Carnegie Hall

There is an old story about a young musician visiting New York City for the first time, he was excited to see the sights, but especially excited to see Carnegie Hall.  Only the best musicians play at Carnegie Hall and the young man's dream was to someday be one of them.  He saw an older man wearing a tuxedo carrying a violin case on the sidewalk and assumed correctly that the man was a professional musician.  He asked the man "how do you get to Carnegie Hall?" The old man replied, "practice, practice, practice." 

With any art, you get better, when you practice your art.  Some researchers say that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill. Looking back over time, tradesmen apprenticed or 5-10 years, 10,000 to 20,000 hours at 2,000 hours a year. 

To master your art, you have to work at it. This probably means producing years of work, that leaves you wanting to do better.  We learn and develop our skills not by being perfect, but by being imperfect and continuing to work at it.  All too many give up, when the work is not good enough. Every musician who plays the stage at Carnegie Hall, spent years playing music that would not get them on the stage at Carnegie Hall, and learning from it, and continuing to play and practice. 

Not that all of us will be great artists, but we can all be better artists, to get there we need to follow the old man's advice, practice, practice, practice.   

Freestyle Friday: YouTubers that I enjoy

There are hundreds of extremely talented content producers laboring away.  YouTube has provided a platform not only to share content, but also to monetize that content. The feeds with 1,000,000 or more subscribers, most likely are earning a full time living from it. It can't be easy. But many produce wonderful content. 

I watch less and less commercial television. With over 100 channels to choose from, there is often little that I am interested in. Why do they call it the travel channel, if it is mostly ghost hunting? Why did the Food Network become an endless stream of poorly conceived cooking competitions and game shows? 

Here are a few of favorites from independent producers: 

https://www.youtube.com/@ThePethericks

Billy is a British guy, partnered with a French woman and two delightful children, living in a small town in France. They own a Chateau, and are renovating a Convent. Most of the content is about the renovation process. He posts about five times a week. 

https://www.youtube.com/@escapetoruralfrance

Dan is another Brit, living in rural France. He is divorced (in the last couple of years) with a couple of kids. He started about two years ago, rescuing a burned out Chateau, when he started there were literally trees growing inside the shell that had suffered a devastating fire 40 years before. With just a handful of people working, the progress has been amazing. He posts four or five times a week, with a couple of breaks a year when he travels with his children. 

https://www.youtube.com/@Brianslifeinfrance

Brian is an Irish guy, living in rural France.  Brian's Life in France is a spin off from Escape to Rural France. When Brian first bought his little farm in France, he hired Dan to help rebuild fences on the farm. For the last year and a half, Brian has been working for Dan helping to rebuild the Chateau. When not working on the Chateau he fiddles around on his farm, and explores the wonders of France, hop in the car and let's go. He posts 2 to 5 times a week, depending on the work schedule at the Chateau. 

https://www.youtube.com/@GlenAndFriendsCooking

Glen and Friends Cooking is based near Toronto, Canada. Glen has a background in commercial video production and about ten years ago, he started making videos for YouTube.  He collects cookbooks, and does research. He build a kitchen studio behind his home. When he finishes each recipe, his charming wife appears and taste tests the results along with him. I love his style of working, his understanding that there is no one correct way. He cooks by technique not chemistry formula. He posts a couple of times a week, and also has an aviation channel and a cocktails channel.  I heard about him by reading a blog. 

https://www.youtube.com/@PrintmakingwithEugene

Printmaking with Eugene is based in Singapore. I am exploring linocut printing, something I have not done in 45 years. This is a relatively new and small channel. He posts about once a week, the videos are about 10 minutes long. His style and work is very peaceful. He is a little soft spoken, you may need to turn the volume up. 

https://www.youtube.com/@rewildingjude

Rewilding Jude is based in Rural Scotland. After his parents died, he decided to make bold choices and live his life his way, and that included buying a fixer upper in the Scottish Highlands, planting a big garden, keeping chickens, learning new ways to make things with his own hands. He posts nearly every weekend, one 20-30 minute video. Give him a watch. There is more to the story of the talented and brave young man. 

https://www.youtube.com/@ChateauPoseidon

Chateau Poseidon is two Canadian guys, starting work on a Chateau in rural France. This channel is new this year. The channel started with their move from Vancouver, and arrival at their new home in France. The first project has been rebuilding the gardener's house to live in while starting on the massive neglected Chateau. They are cute, and very talented. They post once a week, again in the 20-30 minute range. 

These are channels that I have found that have good story telling, editing, production, that move forward with intelligence. 

The Thursday Ramble: Be True To Thine Own Self.

Stay true to thine own self, a slight variation on Shakespeare. There have been a few points in my life when this needed to guide my way forward. The first home building company I worked had been a small family owned company, I was there seven years, in the last few months I was there the company was sold to an international conglomerate,  lots of change took place, I was miserable. I looked around, found another job, I remember going into the bosses office to resign, when she asked why, the words "I have lost the faith" tumbled out. I didn't believe in the way the company was starting to do business. To be true to myself, I needed to move on.

Certainly admitting to the world that I am gay, attracted to men, was a huge step in being true to thine own self.  I had hidden behind the closet door, making myself and sadly others miserable in the process.  I remember saying to my first spouse, "you are not happy, I am not happy, and we both deserve happiness." Change is miserable, but sometimes essential to be true to yourself, to find your happiness. 

There is a line in a Jimmy Buffet song, "he went to Paris, seeking answers to questions that bothered him so." Many of us, struggle to define the question. When you define what bothers you, change it. Do what is needed.  Sometimes regime change starts at home. 

It is a rough week. Take care of yourself. Don't let the world eat you alive. Be true to thine own self. Oh, and come November, VOTE like your life depended on it. 

My World of Wonders - January 7, 2026

Where have I been this week? Mostly around home, the pool, the treadmill.  A shopping run to Target and Aldi.  Giuseppe and Larry hosted First Friday, so we were up to the 6th floor, Anna and Susan invited everyone to the 8th floor to see their spectacular kitchen has just been finished after more than 2 months of work. It is the time of the year when my car only gets driven once or twice a week.  

What have I been up to in the Kitchen? I made roast pork, baked beans and roasted carrots and parsnips for New Year's day. For First Friday I made mini quiches, Saturday Sweet Bear was feeling off so I didn't cook, Sunday was meatloaf. Pork Schnitzel on Tuesday. 

What have I been read? Two books, My Queer, Unsettled Life a bio-history by Mitchell's hubby, and How Dry We Weren't a book about prohibition in Washington DC. Not bad, two books in the first week of the year. I have about four more books on the stack, and I should make a library run sometime soon. 

When am I planning to leave the house? I am having lunch with a former colleague on Friday, I haven't talked with her in two years. 

What artsy things am I up to? There is a portrait on the easel, Friday is change out for the Showcase, the Gallery show is being changed by another committee this month, the Show Opening I Saturday afternoon.  

What am I blogging about?  The creative Saturday Morning Posts are being created ahead of time, and I have started creating posts for the month we will on a great adventure in late spring. I will have a month of posts planned before we leave - work on that has already started. 

What about the annoying advertising?  Ads have been minimized, the payment threshold has been reached, as soon as the next payment transfer takes place, I will eliminate the last of the ads on this site. It was a noble experiment. 

What sadness hit the blogging family this week? Judy, the wife of Bruce at Oddball Observations died this week. Judy was 89, they had been together for decades and decades. The same day, Diane at House Dust and Wanderlust shared the sad news of two death's in her life, the daughter of a friend and the older brother of another friend.  

 

Travel Tuesday: Onward to France

 

Monday Mood: Why Are We Here?

What is the purpose of our being here? What is the value of our existence? Deep questions. At various times in my life I have had different answers.  

The first half of my adult working life, it was all about me. I had a series of jobs, that were really a competition, we were all out to prove that we were the best, that we could sell more, build more, build it faster, make more money than the other person. I was obsessed, the goal was to be something that we weren't. My purpose was to make money, for others, hoping that it would trickle down to me.  My value, and a great extent my self worth, was based on the stream of income I produced. I was really not happy, and spent a few years looking for a way out. 

Then I was very-very fortunate, to be able to take three years off from the real world, in my late 30's, and go back to school, to law school to earn a doctorate in my field.  I went expecting that I would come out and go back into the same rat race, but at a different level of rats. Then the summer between first and second year of law school, I decided to complete a mandatory-volunteer-service requirement (is it really voluntary if it is required?) I needed 30 hours of volunteer time, I ended up with about 120 over about 8 weeks, time spent helping improve the lives of others. I learned about purpose and meaning that summer.  A purpose of helping others to live a better life. 

That led to a career in public interest law, that filled, often to overflowing because I can be obsessive and over committed for 25 years. Work that had great purpose, and filled my life with meaning. I am very glad I did it.  I made a real difference in the lives of others, and doing so made it difference in my life. 

Two years ago this week, I retired. It has taken some time and some work to adjust, and I still look in the mirror sometimes and wonder how I can be old enough to not be working everyday. But I am. And the longer I am the more fulfilled I am with being so. What is my purpose in retirement, to be good to myself, to accept and love myself, to be kind to others, to encourage others to find peace and happiness, to create and share. To think and understand the wisdom that develops from the struggles over 50 years of labor. I am here, to be comfortable and happy. And that is enough. 

I don't regret 25 years helping others, I did my share. That was my purpose for a quarter of a century, it is no longer. I am glad I did it, and glad I have moved on to finding the happiness I thought that first 20 years of work would bring me, and didn't.  

The Sunday Five: Kelly's Inspiration New Year W

Why these photos? Kelly is a master gardener, and a talented artist. This display at the Hirshorn combines her to passions in life.  

Our dear friend Kelly posted these on FB on New Years Eve, she is married to Bob, who used to post as Woodchuck, he was one of the first bloggers we met in person.   

1:What would you like to have accomplished in one year from now?

2:What new ideas do you plan to pursue in the next year?

3:What was the most difficult thing you traversed this year?

4:What is the most important lesson that you have learned this past year?

5:What was unknown to you a year ago?

My Answers:

1:What would you like to have accomplished in one year from now? I hope to be a better painter, I am working on faces at the moment. 

2:What new ideas do you plan to pursue in the next year? Exploring the familiar and finding new details in the everyday. 

3:What was the most difficult thing you traversed this year? Remaining positive when others are terrified of the world. 

4:What is the most important lesson that you have learned this past year? To relax and enjoy the freedom of not working. 

5:What was unknown to you a year ago? The beauty of St. Andrews in Scotland. 

Please share your answers in the comments.